Serial Bad Decisions

This was going to be longer, but the other ideas I had for this story seemed to be tacked on, so I left it as it is.

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I was walking home in the cold drizzle when the car pulled over a short way ahead of me, the engine stuttering. The driver, who I could just about make out in the evening gloom as a woman, got out and opened up the bonnet, peering in at the engine. As she looked over the recalcitrant motor I heard her speak.
“Oh you silly cow Carla, you didn't do the radiator cap up properly.” She breathed.
The name 'Carla' hit me like it always did: The name of the girl I’d grown up with, the girl I’d fallen in love with but couldn't tell, the girl I’d stupidly left in France with my supposed best friend over twenty years ago.

* * *

The three of us, Carla, Mark, and me, had grown up together, walked to the same schools together, and generally just hung around together. Not that surprising you might think; we were all roughly the same age and lived close to one another. What was surprising to me, at least in retrospect was that Carla continued to enjoy being with us even after she began to develop as a young woman; a beautiful young woman who could have garnered the company of any guy in town if she'd wanted. Being around Mark I could understand; he was a sporty athletic type with a dazzling smile and a hearty laugh, but me? I got tongue-tied talking to shop assistants and could have made a Tuxedo look scruffy. I suspected that Mark kept me around because it made him look good and he wasn't threatened by my presence, but Carla? What could she possibly see in me? She had no real reason to keep me around other than our long standing friendship. But she did. She made sure I got invited to all the parties she did and I went along because it was her asking me, even if I did feel like a fish out of water most of the time.
As we finished our final term at school I was totally devoted to Carla, but never said a thing. And I was beginning to feel like an extra wheel when the three of us were together. I was so in love with her that I couldn't bring myself to turn down the invite to tour Europe that summer with the two of them. I knew they weren't the 'item' that Mark pretended to everyone else, so I thought that one last blast for the three of us would be a laugh. And that had been when I lost her through my own stupid thinking.

* * *

I came back to the present, before the litany of similar bad decisions on my part could begin to play through my head again, and instead began to wonder if this 'Carla' could be 'MY' Carla, a ridiculous hope I knew. I pushed it from my mind and hunched up my shoulders as I walked past the stranded motorist.
“Excuse me?” The woman called out as she saw me. I looked up, it wasn't Carla. “I was wondering if you knew where I could get some water, my flatmate topped up the radiator yesterday but didn't tighten the cap properly and now poor Lizzie here is overheating.” She waved her hand over the car. Much as I didn't want to get involved I couldn't bring myself to ignore her.
“Errrm, sure. I, errr, live just round the, errr, corner. I can get you some water.” I blushed. I just couldn't talk to women without feeling foolish.
“Thank you. You're a sweetie.” She smiled.
“Errr, s'all right.” I gave a quick smile and then found myself frowning.
“What's the matter?” The girl asked.
“Nothing, I was just trying to think of a way to ask if you wanted a cup of coffee that didn't sound like a come-on or a trap that made you report me to the police.” I said with a sad smile.
“Oh, it's too late for that,” she grinned, “I am the police.”
“A pretty girl like you?” I said in surprise.
She gave me a hard stare.
“Are you suggesting that in some way some of my sister officers do not possess womanly charms.”
“Errrrrr, no. Not at all in fact. And if I did, I didn't mean too.” I said in a bit of a panic.
She laughed.
“Only teasing. Some of them can seem a bit butch. Lead me to the coffee.” She held out her hand. “I'm Tina by the way.”
“Dave.” I said, shaking her proffered hand.

Tina sipped at her coffee after I had handed her the mug.
“Mmmm, that tastes familiar.” She said.
“It's only the Instant that I’ve drunk since I was a boy.” I shrugged.
“I think it's the same stuff Carla likes though.”
A little bell went off in the back of my mind. My Carla had always liked the same coffee as me; the stuff our mothers had given us when we were kids. Was it actually possible...? I shook myself.
“You seem to think a lot of Carla?” I said.
“I do. She took me under her wing when I was sent here. I owe her a lot.”
Again that sounded like my friend.
“In what way?” I asked.
“The usual. If I was doubting myself she'd give me confidence; If I was down she'd cheer me up with some story about her travels on her own in Europe after she'd left school.”
It sounded more and more to me that Tina was talking about my Carla.
“So, she and Mark split up?” It slipped out. I cursed myself silently.
“Right after the other guy left.” Tina nodded. “Mark had got annoyed when she said it wouldn't be the same without Dave, I think she said his name was, so she ditched him.” I thought for a moment Tina hadn't spotted the connection, but then realisation spread across her face. “It's you isn't it? You're the guy who did the vanishing act?”
I went red and bowed my head.
“Yes, that was me. I thought I was helping, doing the right thing, but from what you say, the one decision that I thought I’d got right was as wrong as all the others I’ve ever made. I’m bloody useless.” I sighed deeply. “Could you tell Carla I’m sorry?”
“No.” I looked up in surprise. “No, I think you'd do better to tell her yourself.” Tina grinned.
“Will she even want to see me after I just upped and left?”
“You'd be surprised. She talks about you a lot.” She smirked. “Come on, tidy yourself up and I’ll take you home.”
“Home?”
“Flatmates remember?”
“Oh, yeah, right.”

“Hey Carla, I’ve brought someone to see you.” Tina called out as she opened the front door to her flat.
“It's not one of your strange university mates is it?” A voice that I’d missed hearing for twenty years called back from the kitchen.
“Nope,” Tina laughed, “just some lost soul who claims to know you.”
“Someone who knows me?” Carla said, coming out into the small hallway while drying her hands with a tea-towel. As she saw me she stopped and stared, the colour draining from her face in shock.
“Hello Carla,” I said quietly, “long time, no see.” I gave her a watery, apologetic smile, worried that despite Tina's confidence she was wrong and Carla didn't want to see me.
The huge and much-missed smile that spread across her features proved my fears groundless. Carla dropped the tea-towel and threw her arms around me, hugging me in the way she'd always used to.

* * * *

We'd had a fun day in Paris; taking in all the usual sights and amusing the Parisians with our faltering attempts to speak their language. In the evening all three of us had imbibed perhaps one glass of wine too many and consequently were all a bit giggly as we got back to the cheap hotel on the outskirts of the city, making a bit too much noise on the landing as Carla went to her own room and Mark and I went to ours. He pulled a couple of cans of lager we'd bought on the ferry from his backpack and passed one over to me. We sat down and sipped at the cans in silence for a while and then Mark spoke.
“I gotta tell you Dave, I’m getting a bit fed up with waiting for her to make up her mind.” He declared with a little slur.
“Who? About what?” I replied, mystified by his statement.
“Carla of course. About us.” He'd definitely had one too many.
“What 'us'? You and me?” I asked, more confused than before about what he meant.
“No, me and her. I’ve been asking her out for two years now, but, but it's always got to be all three of us she says.” He tipped back his can. “I dunno if she don't trust me, or she don't wanna upset you, but I can't get her alone for more than ten minutes.” Mark sighed and drained his lager.
Suddenly that extra wheel feeling came back to me; I was getting in the way of my friends.
“Sorry mate.” I mumbled.
“Iss not your fault.” He muttered.
“Why not say something to Carla?” I suggested, hating the idea.
“Maybe t'morrow. Get her to decide.”
“Yeah. Sleep on it.”
“Yeah. Thanks Dave.” Mark said, rolling up in the blanket.
He was soon asleep, a release I could not find forthcoming. I tossed and turned for two or three hours until I came to a conclusion: I couldn't, wouldn't, make Carla choose, so I’d make it easy and leave them to it. They were my friends and they deserved the chance to be alone. As I made my decision I acted on it. I rose quietly and gathered my gear together, stuffing it into my pack before slipping out and down to the front desk. After I’d paid my part of the bill I headed for the central railway station. I knew we had been planning on going to Germany and Italy, so I used my rail pass to board a train going the other way, south to Spain.

* * *

“ So you just gave up and left?” Carla said, a glimmer of annoyance in her eyes.
“Mark had as good as told me I was getting in the way.” I shrugged, reddening under her glare. “It seemed to be the best solution.”
“You were both drunk.”
“It still seemed to be the right thing to do.”
“Mark was an idiot who thought all he had to do was smile at a girl to make her go weak at the knees.” She snapped, her eyes again blazing momentarily.
“It looked like it worked most of the time.” I replied, remembering how easy Mark had made picking up girls seem.
“And you're no better.” She gave me another glare. “You didn't once think about how I might feel.”
“I promise I did Carla,” I said as soothingly as I could, “I thought that a clean break you could do nothing about would be easiest all round. For everybody.” I stood up. “I think I should go now. It looks like I’m raking up things you would rather forget, messing things up as per bloody usual.” As I turned to go, Carla reached out and grabbed my wrist.
“Stay.” She said softly, all annoyance gone from her voice. “Please, this time, stay.”
I sat down, clasping her hand in mine.
“Tell me what to do to make things right.” I said. “I'll do anything for you, I always would.”
“I know you would.” She gave me a watery smile. I gave her a little grin in return.
We sat in silence for a while, just holding hands, until Tina passed into the room, evidently on her way out somewhere. She looked at the two of us and rolled her eyes.
“Good grief! Hasn't he guessed yet?” Carla shook her head. “And you still haven't told him?” Carla shook her head again.
“Told me what?” I asked, more than a little puzzled.
Tina went to open her mouth but Carla spoke first.
“No Tina, I’ll do it my way.”
“Do what?” I asked, now thoroughly bemused.
“Tell you the reason why I wanted to keep us as a trio.”
“It wasn't some sex thing was it?” I said jokingly. Tina sniggered eliciting a glare for both of us from Carla.
“Dave, I’m being serious here. I liked having you around; you made me laugh and treated me like a real person.”
“You are a real person.” I interrupted, but Carla carried on.
“Mark, in those last four years, seemed to think I was some sort of trophy, something to be won and then paraded around.”
“But you were, you still are, astonishingly beautiful.” I said, feeling some need to explain my former best buddy.
“Thank you,” Carla blushed. I’d forgotten how red she could go. “but that didn't mean that I was some sort of prize; I still had feelings; I wasn't some dumb bimbo desperate to win popularity by any means. But that was how Mark saw me, how he treated me.”
“I'm sorry, I didn't realise. I thought that you and he were mutually attracted; in love in fact.”
“Maybe we were, sort of, at the beginning.”
“I knew I wasn't completely wrong.” I said thankfully. “What happened?”
Tina was shaking her head.
“I thought YOU were going out?” Carla said to her pointedly.
“I was, but this is getting interesting.” The younger girl grinned.
“Just go Tina please; You're putting me off.” Carla sighed.
“Spoilsport.” Tina grinned, poking her tongue out as she left.
A pregnant silence fell on the room after Tina left. Carla obviously wanted to tell me something but didn't know how. Equally obviously she was hoping that I would guess what it was; but I was drawing a blank. Whatever it was wasn't as obvious to me as she thought. To break the deepening quiet I asked a question.
“When we were at school you never mentioned wanting to be a rozz.... a police officer.” I hurriedly corrected myself.
“At school I didn't,” Carla smiled, “it developed at university. I wanted to make a difference to society. I haven't the patience to be a nurse so I became a cop.” She grinned at 'cop'. “What about you? What are you up too?”
“Well, when I went to Spain I found myself a job at one of the British bars in Malaga; found I had an strange aptitude for it. I worked there for about five years and then came back home. I work the bar at the big hotel outside of town now, plus some handyman work. You know the sort of thing, painting, gardening, other repairs, you know the sort of thing.” I wasn't proud of what I did; there were no qualifications needed other than I could do it. Being a police officer seemed much more responsible. At least I had a job I told myself every day.
“A man of many talents then?” Carla grinned.
“Not really,” I grinned back, “I'm just about adequate at the things I need to be.”
“Surely that’s a talent in itself?” Carla said reproachfully. “You do yourself down Dave, you always did.”
“Carla, dear Carla,” I shook my head, “the only thing I’m good at is making bad decisions. If you don't know what to do, ask me, and then do the opposite of what I would.” I smiled although I wasn't really joking.
“You seem happy enough about it though?”
“Happiness is relative. I’ve not been truly happy since that one day we had in Paris.”
“Not even now?” Carla asked.
“Sorry, not even now. The thought that both you and Tina, who I hardly know, both think that there's something I should have realised makes me feel more than a little foolish.”
“You shouldn't be.”
“But you're still not going to tell me what it is?”
“Nope!” Carla laughed. “Even with your gloomy outlook I reckon you'll work it out for yourself, and I’m prepared to wait.”
“Don't be so sure: I’ve got bugger all right for the past twenty years.” I warned her.
“Oh, I don't know. Coming here to see me wasn't a bad idea.”
“Not entirely my idea I must say: Even then it was a bit touch and go early on I thought.” I gave her a grin. I had grinned more in the past twenty minutes, genuine grins, than I had for the previous twenty years.
“It was a bit wasn't it?” Carla said, pecking me on the cheek.
We lapsed into silence again for a short while until I felt the need to speak.
“Carla, can I ask you something? You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, I’ll understand.”
“Try me.” She replied.
I took a deep breath.
“What happened after I left in Paris? Between you and Mark I mean?” It obviously wasn't the question she was expecting as she gave me a surprised look. “You don't have to tell me.” I added hurriedly.
“No, it's okay. I’ll tell you.” She sighed and looked away for a moment before turning back to face me. “ I woke up that morning feeling full of beans; I was out on a big adventure, away from parental control for the first time. And suddenly you weren't there; one of the props of my life was gone and everything felt wrong.” She paused for a moment. “When Mark suggested maybe it was for the best and he and I could be alone together at last I freaked; I called him all sorts of horrible names; told him that I was never going to go out with him. I grabbed my stuff and stormed off to the railway station on my own, catching the first train out and finding myself in Switzerland.” Carla looked down at the ground. “I was really mean to poor Mark. I blamed him for messing up my carefully nurtured plan, even though I soon realised most of it was your fault, you idiot.” She thumped me on the arm.
“What happened to him?” I asked. “I never found out, even after I came back.”
“I'm not really sure what he did in Paris. I have seen him about a couple of times since, in the distance. I think he owns a car showroom, BMW's, a couple of towns away.”
“Perhaps I should go and find out?”
“That's up to you. I never felt the urge to find him myself.”
“That's something. How come I’ve never seen you around before. You know, out and about on the beat so to speak?”
“When I was a beat copper I was stationed somewhere else. After I was promoted I wangled a posting back here as a desk sergeant, so unless you'd come into the station we had no chance of bumping into each other.” She flashed me another grin. “Won't be there much longer though.”
“Oh?”
“I'm packing it in. Too many cheeky young devils on the force now. I’ve got it all planned out.”
I missed her implied invitation to ask what she was going to do as another, more important question occurred to me.
“Carla, I have to ask; how come you never looked for me? I mean, I thought that you were with Mark, so I never tried to find either of you.”
“I went around to your Mom's house when I got back from Europe, but they didn't know what you were up to, and then I went to uni. I never forgot you, but I had no idea about where to look.”
“Of course. I should have realised, sorry.” I looked down and then back up, catching sight of the clock. “Carla, I have to go. I have to be at work in less than an hour. Can I come back and see you again?”
“Of course you can,” She smiled, “but not in the mornings please; I’m on duty until six.”
“The graveyard shift?”
“You got it. Ten til six for a month.”
“I'm glad you're not still mad at me.” I said.
“I'm just happy to see you again; at least at the moment.” She laughed.
I held out my hand at the door. Carla looked at it in amusement for a second and then grasped it as if to shake it. Instead she pulled me towards her and then planted a kiss firmly on my lips.
“See what you missed.” She smirked mischievously as we broke apart. I couldn't think of a coherent reply I was so confused.

I was still confused later, behind the bar, when I saw a grinning Tina ordering a round of drinks.
“Hiya Dave. She tell you yet?”
I shook my head no.
“She wants me to work it out for myself it seems.”
“Maybe I could give you a clue?”
“I'd appreciate it Tina. I have no idea what I’m supposed to be working out.”
“Okay then.” She paused for a moment to think. “Okay. Think about what she doesn't say rather than what she does say: And her reactions rather than her actions.” I gave her a bemused look that said she wasn't really helping much. “Sorry if that seems a bit cryptic, but you'll work it out. Carla says you're not as stupid as you like to pretend.” With that she took her drinks and disappeared into the crowd.
I mused over Tina's 'hint' whenever I got a slack moment, which wasn't that often as we were busy that night. It wasn't until after we'd closed and I was cleaning up alone that I could really put my mind to the issue. I pondered on Carla's words and actions earlier and things began to click into place. The way she'd held my hand to stop me leaving; the way she seemed to prefer my company to Mark; her description of 'freaking' in Paris when she found I’d gone; and finally, and most tellingly, the kiss she'd planted on me as I’d left her flat. Carla seemed to be telling me she loved me. My first instinct was one of denial; there was no way on this earth that Carla had ever, would ever, be in love with me. My deductions were wrong, they had to be. But the more I thought about it, the more I went over what had happened, the more sense everything she had said and done made. It all fitted together so neatly. I nearly dropped the tray of glasses I was putting away when I suddenly realised what I had done, what I had thrown away. I had to see her; I had to see Carla now! Locking up quickly, I hurried to the police station where she had said she would be on duty tonight.
I don't know why but I expected to see Carla behind the desk at the station when I went in; I mean that’s what 'desk sergeant' implies, right? Instead there was a bored looking, baby-faced youngster who looked like he should still be at school. He looked up as I walked in.
“Is Carla around?” I asked politely. A look of incomprehension crossed his face. “Sergeant Owen?” I added helpfully.
“Oh, the Headmistress.” He grinned as he realised who I was talking about. “She's checking the drunks in the cells at the moment sir.”
I smirked at her nickname, knowing immediately how she'd come by it, and wondering if she knew about it.
“Well could you ask her if she'll see me when she's done? It's a personal matter.”
“A personal matter? I didn't know the sarge still had those.” He beamed. “What name shall I tell her sir?”
“Tell her it's the idiot from earlier today. She'll know who that is.”
“Very well. If you'd like to take a seat, I’m sure she won't be long.”
As I sat down the young policeman went off to locate Carla and pass on my message. He was soon back with a smiling Carla.
“I guessed it was you Dave; I don't meet that many idiots when I’m off-duty.” She said laughingly as I stood back up.
“I worked it out Carla; at least I hope I have or every stupid thing I’ve done before will pale into insignificance when I tell you what I think it is.”
Carla took my arm.
“I'm sure you're right, so come outside and tell me without an audience.” With a nod of her head she indicated three or faces watching us from the other side of the desk.
She led me out of the station and around a corner until we were out of sight of prying ears and eyes. There was a hint of hope in her eyes as she said: “Okay, tell me.” That reinforced the feeling that I was right about this. Taking a deep breath I plunged in with both feet.
“I'm sorry that I didn't realise earlier that our feelings toward each other were mutual and not one-sided on my part.”
The relief on Carla's face told me I was spot-on for once.
“Not entirely your fault; I could have said something.” She said meekly.
“Why didn't you?”
“Because of the lack of attention you gave me. I thought you had someone else.”
“Someone else? Carla, I worshipped the ground you walked on.”
“You disguised it well.”
“Of course I did. I thought you were in love with my best friend, not me. And in any case, what girl ever looked at me twice?”
“You'd be surprised. Quite a few girls at school expressed more than a passing interest in my broody friend, but I put them off. Sorry.” She added at the shocked look that crossed my face.
“I don't believe it.” I said.
“It's true. I wasn't the goody-two-shoes you think. I let them think there was something wrong with you, without being specific.”
“Not that, shocking as it is. I don't believe that any girl, especially you, was remotely interested in me.”
“I forgot about your innate ability to do yourself down; I’ve missed that.” She stroked the side of my face, looking into my eyes to reassure me that it was true.
“Is it permissible to kiss a police officer?” I asked softly before I brushed my lips against hers.
“Depends which officer you're thinking of kissing.” She breathed in my ear.
“I was thinking, maybe Tina?” I smirked and then crushed my mouth to hers.

Asteroid Patrol: Turbulence In The Belt

A third Patrol story, ties up some loose ends.

*****

I was just finishing reading the days reports when my Senior Pilot and friend, Sergeant Stacey Grainger, came into my office. Glancing up, I told her to sit down as I was nearly done. She looked a bit glum; she had for a couple of days. I closed the report and looked her in the eye.
“What’s the matter Stace? You seem really down.”
She shrugged non-committedly
“It’s just….” She sighed. “It’s Paul, Emmy. He’s so indecisive.”
“He still not named a marriage date?” She nodded. “I thought you two were settled?”
“We are. And I do want to be with him. But he always wants me to take the lead. I want something a bit more old-fashioned I suppose.”
“You want him to tell you that you’re getting hitched.” I laughed.
“I suppose.” She grinned back weakly. “But he’s so shy about it.”
“Maybe he doesn’t think you’ll take kindly to taking orders from your junior?”
“That’s what it seems like.” She sighed now. “How do you and Big Dave manage?”
“Easy. At work, he knows who the boss is, and then at home I let him get away with thinking he’s in charge.” I grinned.
“Only think?” She smiled properly for the first time in ages.
“I let him make major decisions like what coffee we buy.” I grinned. “Do you want me to have a word with Toddy?”
“It might come better from Dave.”
“I’ll see what I can do. Where did they go anyway?” I asked. My husband, Senior Sergeant Dave Baldwin, had stuck his head around the door earlier and told me that he and Stacey’s boyfriend, Officer Paul Todd, were nipping out and not to wait for him.
“I got the impression that they were going to McLeary’s for a drink. They’d been talking to that detective in charge of the meteorite case for an hour or so before.” Stacey said.
She and I both had the same thought. I reached for the intercom and asked traffic control the status of JHU, Stacey’s patrol ship. I was told ‘Juliet’ had departed half an hour ago on a shakedown cruise after a short refit.
“The sneaky sods! Stace, see if you can find that detective. He’s not to leave ‘the Boonies’ until I’ve had a word with him.”
“What are you going to do while I find him?”
“I’m going to find his latest report; I must have been sent a copy.” I called for Elsie, my LC15 unit who had been my compatriot since I arrived here on ‘the Boonies’, to help me find the thing. Elsie had become my confidante while the others were all busy and I had been stuck in my office; she always listened and said nothing unless asked a direct question; she never told anyone what I said. She was the perfect sounding board.

---

“You sure this is okay Big Dave?” Officer Paul Todd asked.
“Course it is Toddy.” I grinned. “As Senior Sergeant I’m allowed to follow up on an investigation.”
“If you say so. But I still think we should have told Stacey and Lieutenant Baldwin what we’re up to. What is Emmy going to say when she finds out?”
“Emmy will understand the need for urgency. This is very time sensitive.” I hedged my answer; I wasn’t a hundred percent sure what my wife and senior officer would say, that’s why I hadn’t told her.
“I know, but….” Paul obviously had reservations about going behind both our bosses’ backs, and it was weighing on him.
“But what Paul?”
“I just don’t like lying to Stacey. Sorry Dave.”
“You haven’t exactly lied to her, you just didn’t tell her.” I sighed. “Look at it this way. If we don’t tell them, they can’t worry about us.”
“I don’t know about that,” he said dubiously, “they seem to find out nearly everything that happens.”
I laughed.
“Who do you think tells them most of it? Us!”
“It just feels like we’re doing something wrong.” He shook his head.
“What would be wrong is missing the opportunity we have to find out more about the meteorite attack. So relax: You’re only following my orders. If anyone gets into trouble it’ll be me.”
“Okay, I’m probably worrying for nothing.” He sighed. “How long until we get there?”
“About four hours. We need Juliet, as she looks unobtrusive, but she’s too big to take through the belt at the moment, the ‘roids are acting up, realigning orbits or something.”

---

“So then, it seems as if Lafarge was connected to the gang responsible for the meteorite attack; and the bank job was going to payroll that assault on us.” I said, looking up from the report. “Makes some sort of sick sense I suppose; steal the money from ‘The Boonies’ and then use it to destroy the place. Our foiling the raid and then Dave killing Lafarge must have delayed their plans. It leaves us with a lot of ‘whys’ though.”
“And it doesn’t explain why Paul and Big Dave have rushed off, or where to for that matter.”
“No it doesn’t.” I mused. “Dave must have seen a connection between what he knows about Lafarge and something else that we’re missing.” I had an idea. “You keep looking Stace, I’m going to call my dad, he’s the only person who knows more than Dave about Lafarge.”
“Okay, but it would help if I knew what I’m looking for.”
“Something not in the report: A note, a reminder, something like that.” I sighed. “If only the gang hadn’t got to the detective before us.”
“They must have realised he was on to something and had him killed.”
“It looks that way.” I sighed. “I should have made sure he reported to me and not just Dave.” I shook myself; there was no time for ‘what-if’. “Keep rooting, I’ll contact my dad.”
I opened up a comm line to the academy where dad was a tutor and was soon greeted by his smiling face.
“Hello Baby Girl, or is this an official call by Lieutenant Baldwin?”
“It’s a bit of both dad, and in either case you don’t have to call me ‘Lieutenant’.” I grinned.
“Okay then, what’s up Michelle? What can it be that only your dad can help with?” He grinned back in return. He was the only one who still called me ‘Michelle’, my given name.
“Well, we just got some intel linking Lafarge to the meteorite gang, or rather Dave got it before I did, and now he’s gone off somewhere without telling me. He must have spotted something else in the report, and connected it to what he knows about Lafarge. Now if anyone knows more about that man than Dave, it’s you.”
“So what do you need from me?”
“Anything that might help me find out what Dave is up to, or where he’s gone. Stuff not in the files, something actually IN the files that me and Stacey are overlooking, anything. Please?”
“Maybe Dave has his reasons for not telling you what he was up to. Perhaps he thinks you shouldn’t get involved.”
“Of course I’m involved; I’m in charge here not him. And how do you think I’ll feel if something happens to the daft bugger? The gang have already murdered the detective who made the report.”
“All right Michelle, I’m convinced. Give me half an hour.”
“Thanks dad. I owe you one.”
“You’ll never owe me a thing Baby Girl. I’m immensely proud of you.” He smiled as he broke the connection.
As I looked up I saw Stacey looking at me with a wistful smile.
“What?” I asked.
“Sorry!” She jumped a little. “It’s nothing really.”
“Tell me anyway.”
“I was just thinking how proud your dad is of you, and…” She tailed off.
“And?”
“And I wish my dad was half as proud. He might be I suppose, I just don’t know.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t know where he is.” She shrugged hopelessly. “I haven’t seen him since I entered the academy. I got the impression he didn’t approve.”
“I had that problem too!” I laughed. “Dad never wanted me to follow in his footsteps, that’s why I enrolled using my mother’s maiden name.”
“But he never held it against you when he found out; he accepted that it was your choice. My dad has never said a thing to me. I hoped things would change after they said I was a hero, but I’ve not heard from him.”
“Maybe he just didn’t like the idea of his little girl growing up; I’m pretty sure all dads feel that way about their daughters.” I smiled, wishing I could help my friend more.
“Maybe. I can’t help thinking there is something more to it though.”
“Like?”
“Like he’s involved in something he shouldn’t be.”
“Now you’re being paranoid my girl. Back to the files.”

---

We were about halfway to our destination when a thought struck me.
“Hey Paul, what was Juliet in dock for anyway?”
“Nothing major.” He said, continuing to monitor his instruments. “Stacey wanted the new transmat escape system installed, that’s all. They’re retro-fitting all our ships at the moment.”
“Transmat escape system?” I was a bit surprised; it sounded expensive.
“Yeah. When Stace used the escape pod on the Sierra and we caught her, she realised it would have been pointless if no-one had been around to pick her up, so she badgered Central until they agreed to upgrade all our stuff and put receivers in all the stations. That pretty much covered the entire sector.”
I turned around and looked at the new fittings behind the pilot’s seats, where two of the four rear seats had been removed.
“But that looks like a receiver to me.”
“Stace had them put receivers in all the bigger ships, Juliet, Boozy Bee, Nobby’s, and the transports, as a precaution.”
“She’s very thorough.”
“Just trying to safeguard her crews.”
“Let’s hope none of us have to use them anytime soon. I suppose when someone with the Armstrong Cross asks for something it’s hard to turn them down.” I grinned.
“I get the feeling that helped her argument no end.” He grinned back.

---

Stacey sat back and looked at me thoughtfully.
“What is it?” I asked.
“I was just looking at this geology report about ‘Big Blue 7’ that Elsie found.”
“And?”
“And it seems that BB7 is a pretty close match for the ‘Boonies’ asteroid geologically. So I was thinking that maybe it was just a coincidence that I had Paul land there, that we weren’t the target, that it was just a test run.”
“It’s possible.” I agreed slowly. “What about the attack on Station 6?”
“Elimination of possible witnesses?”
“That makes sense. It could mean that the sighting report was real, not faked, that someone was trying to draw our attention to what was going on. Where did the report originate?”
Stacey found the relevant report.
“It was made to the sub-station on Mondas, the small settlement near station 3, well away from 6.”
“So maybe someone WAS trying to tell us something.” I mused. At that point I got an incoming comms call from the academy.
It was my dad.
“Michelle, I think I have the connection you’re looking for. Lafarge’s uncle Dante runs a supply and repair business that is thought to be a front for the meteorite gang, and there is a whisper that they’re looking for a new pilot today. My guess would be that Dave is going to try and infiltrate the gang as that pilot.”
“Without proper back-up, a very sketchy plan and without telling me first? The bloody fool.” I practically shouted. Dad just looked at me impassively. Realising that losing my temper wasn’t going to help I took a couple of deep breaths and calmed down. “Okay dad, sorry about that. Where is this business?”
“I understand girl. The business is run out of Mondas, on the other side of the belt.” He smiled ruefully.
“Thanks, that confirms the conclusion we were coming to. Stacey found a clue pointing to Mondas as well. I think we need to get there ASAP; before the reckless idiots get themselves caught or worse.”
“How are you going to do that Michelle? They have a big head start.”
“If we take our quickest scout and cut some corners, we shouldn’t be far behind them.”
“You just be careful baby, the belt in flux is a dangerous place, even around the edges.” He frowned in worry.
“We’ll be fine dad. Stacey didn’t get to be Senior Pilot just by looking good.”
“I should hope not, good though her looks are.” He gave me his ‘teasing’ grin.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Stacey blushing.
“Dad! She is here with me listening you know.” I admonished him.
“Doesn’t make her any the less attractive. The pair of you be careful; you’re both too pretty to lose.” He rang off.
I was blushing as well as I turned to Stace, about to apologise, when she grinned at me.
“Your dad has a way with words, doesn’t he?” Her grin grew wider. “How do you feel about having a younger step-mom?”
“Stacey Grainger! That’s my dad you’re thinking naughty things about!”
She just burst out laughing and I realised that she was joking and joined in.
“Seriously though,” she said, “your dad is right about the dangers of cutting through the belt at the moment.” She paused. “But I’ve got an idea, if you give the okay.”
“That depends on what it is.”
“We take one of the scouts fitted with the transmat device, get within range of ‘Juliet’ and then beam in. It would be better if you could get them to hold position for a while though.”
“Well, I can try. They’ve ignored me up till now though. What about the scout ship?”
“I can land it on one of the rocks and turn on the beacon. Then Nobby can find it and bring it back.”
I nodded slowly, turning over the pros and cons.
“You sure the transmat works?”
“They haven’t had any problems on the trials or I wouldn’t have pushed so hard to get the system installed.”
I made up my mind.
“Okay, we’ll do it. I’ll meet you in the docking bays in five minutes.”
“I can tell you how to set up the transmat on the way and then you can get Big Dave to stay put for ten minutes or so.”
I gulped a little; although Stace was confident in the new system, I wasn’t exactly sold on it yet.

---

Paul looked across at me as we received the message to hold our position thirty clicks out from Mondas for ten minutes, and to wait for a further transmission.
“That was the Lieutenant; what shall we do?”
“We’ll hold off and see what she wants. It’ll probably be a ticking off for not telling her what we were up to. She must have worked it out; she didn’t get put in charge by accident.” I grinned.
“Will she tell us to scrub the mission?”
“I doubt it; she’ll be able to see how important it is.”
“So, we wait?”
I nodded.
“We’ll wait and see, but I’m carrying on whatever Emmy says.”
Paul looked a bit concerned but nodded.
“Okay, I’m still with you.”
Suddenly there was a buzzing behind us. We both turned around to see Emmy and Stacey appear on the receiver plate. Emmy staggered backwards slightly against the rear of the cabin, but Stacey’s legs weren’t under her and she went down to the floor in a sitting position, landing hard.
“Oww! That hurt!” She cried out.
“It certainly needs refining a little.” Emmy panted.
Paul and I stared for a long moment until I found my tongue.
“Where did you two spring from?” I asked in amazement.
“Sierra Alpha Sierra, if you must know.” Stacey smirked as she gingerly got to her feet, feeling her sore bottom. “Emmy told you to expect another transmission.”
By now Paul had got up from his seat and wordlessly hugged her.
“Don’t ever use that again unless it’s really necessary.” He said quietly.
“We wouldn’t have had to use it this time if you two macho lunatics hadn’t taken off without informing me.” Emmy glared, but I could see the worry etched into her face.
“Sorry beautiful.” I smiled. “Forgive me?”
“Maybe, you silly bugger.” She leant forward and kissed me. “Now exactly what were you bloody fools planning on doing?”

---

I listened as my husband sketched out what he and Paul intended. It was a fundamentally sound plan, if a little ‘on the fly’.
“Not bad for an outline,” I mused, “but it needs a few tweaks.”
“Like what?” Dave replied with a touch of petulance.
“Like; it can’t be you who goes undercover. You’re too well known all over the belt you twit.”
“I could have managed.” He sulkily said.
“If Dave doesn’t go, then who will?” Paul asked, evidently thinking I meant him.
“Stacey of course!” I smiled. “They want a good belt pilot and she’s the best.”
“ME? But I’ve never done that sort of work!” Stace was almost plaintive.
“You’d never been a belt pilot before either.” Dave grinned; despite his disappointment as he knew I was right. “Anyway, I’ll be there to back you up, right Em?” He looked at me pointedly, daring me to disagree.
“That’s right Stace; Dave will be on the other end of your earwig device. He’ll tell you what to do if you have a problem, okay?”
“If that’s what you think will work boss, I’m willing to try.” Stacey didn’t sound completely convinced, but I knew with Dave’s help she’d be fine.
“What about me?” Paul asked.
“Toddy, you and I are going to find a way to have a look around their repair yard. It would be the perfect place to build those meteorite engines, so I want to check it out.” I turned back to Stacey. “If they offer you the chance to look around the yard, take it, but don’t ask.” I turned to Dave next. “Any information you get from Stacey that you think might be helpful, tell us.” He nodded. “Right then team,” I smiled, “let’s get to Mondas.”

---

I was worried as I sat in the Café booth not far from where Stacey was meeting the gang contact. I was confidant enough in her; I knew her logic and quick-thinking would serve her well. I also knew her earpiece and listening device were both top-notch and undetectable. What I was worried about was getting to her in time if she uttered the distress word. Because I was so well-known (Emmy was right about that!) there was no way I could just hang around outside the building where the meeting was taking place, I would be spotted for certain. So I was forced to ensconce myself in this private booth in this out-of-the-way café just around the corner; fairly close but still a good minutes run away. I just had to hope if things went awry Stace would manage to look after herself until I arrived.
“All right Dave, I’m going in.” She said over the comm.
“Roger that Stace. I just want you to remember that THEY want YOU. Be confidant, cocky even.”
“Cocky? Me?” She seemed surprised at the suggestion.
“Yes, you. Like you were with Joe on your SP test.” I grinned to myself, remembering with how much relish Joe Winters had described her ordering him about on Station Six. “Now go on, you’ll be great.”
I heard Stacey asked to enter the doorway and being gruffly told she would be searched. There was no way that they’d find the bug and the earpiece but we hadn’t had the time to get a mini camera as undetectable so we’d reluctantly decided not to chance using one for this reason.
“Watch where you’re putting your hands, I can be ticklish.” I heard Stacey say. There was a grunt of acknowledgement. I could hear hands patting her down as they got close to the microphone and then that stopped.
“You don’t carry a weapon?” The gruff voice asked.
“You’d only have confiscated it.” Stacey laughed. She was doing well so far.
“True. Follow me.” The other voice said. There was relative silence for a while, wit only the sound of footsteps as Stacey was taken to meet the gang leader. “In here.” The voice said brusquely, as I heard another door opening.
“You in charge?” Stacey asked. “I’m here about the piloting job.”
“A pretty woman like you is a pilot?” A new voice said.
“What have my looks got to do with my skill as a pilot?” Stacey replied cheekily.
“Not a thing I suppose. How good a pilot are you? In the asteroid belt I mean.”
“There might be someone better, but I’ve never met them.” Stace was taking my advice and being cocky. I could imagine the grin on her face as she spoke. “What’s the job?”
“We need someone to fly through the belt to a specific asteroid and pick something up, and it needs to be done by tomorrow.”
I blanched at the thought while Stacey whistled.
“While the belt is in flux? The pay better be damn good.”
“It is more than sufficient.”
“I want paying up front.”
“Why would we do that?”
“Because it’s bloody dangerous. I want to know my family is taken care of if the worst happens.”
“Half now, half on completion.”
“Done. What ship do I use and where is this rock?”
“The ship is docked at our repair facility; your guide is waiting on board. Alphonse will take you there.”
“Money?”
“Ah, right. Here is the first payment.”
“I’ll need half an hour to get it safe.”
There was a pause.
“All right. Be back here in half an hour and Alphonse will take you to your ship.” Another pause. “What do I call you?”
“Stacey.” It must have slipped out; it wasn’t the cover name we’d decided on. “Stacey Ferguson.” She recovered well.
“Well Stacey, I’m Dante; I look forward to seeing you again when you get back from the belt.”
“Just make sure you’ve got the rest of my money.”
I breathed a sigh of relief; she had pulled it off. She was on the inside, at least temporarily.
“Stace?” I called her up as she left the building. “Meet me on ‘Juliet’. We’ll sort out how I’ll follow you.”
“You know you can’t take her into the belt Dave.”
“I do, that’s what we’re going to discuss.”

---

Paul and I stared at the high security fence around the repair yard; it seemed to afford no easy way in.
“We can’t climb that.” I muttered.
“Could we go under it Lieutenant?” Toddy asked. We both crouched down to take a closer look. The ground was solid concrete. “Probably not.” He said after some consideration. We stood.
“At least not without leaving some sign that we had.” I smiled wanly, feeling discouraged. “There has to be some way in.” I said softly to myself as I tried to think.
“Well, there’s always the front gate.” Paul said jocularly, trying to cheer me up.
The notion exploded into my head.
“Brilliant! Absolutely bloody brilliant!!” I exclaimed, kissing a bemused Toddy.
“W… what is?” He stammered, surprise by my response.
“It’s so simple. We just walk in with all the other workers.”
“Won’t we be spotted?”
“There’s a chance, but most of the people here are unaware that this is a front for some nasty people. To them we’ll just be other workers, new faces. Then once we’re in…”
“We can grab a couple of clipboards and start poking about.” Paul finished for me.
“Clipboards?” I raised my eyebrow in puzzlement.
“No-one ever questions someone with a clipboard; you can go anywhere and do nothing at all.” He grinned sheepishly.
“I’ll have to remember that when I see someone wandering around the station not appearing to do anything but carry a clipboard.” I smirked.
“Just don’t tell anyone who let it slip will you? Or my name will be mud amongst my fellow idlers.”
“Any other little skives I should know about?”
“I think you can work the rest out for yourself boss.” He said, going very red.
“All right,” I laughed, “now let’s find some overalls and bluff our way in.”

---

Dave and I had decided that the only thing he could do was track me from ‘Juliet’ from the edge of the belt. Once again it was far from ideal, but it was the only sensible option. He left Mondas as I returned to find Alphonse, my guide to whatever ship I was supposed to be piloting, the idea being for him to get to a point on the fringe of the belt where he could maintain contact with me. Just before I left we got a call from Nobby saying he had recovered Sierra Alpha Sierra and was towing it back to the hub.
Alphonse wasn’t the talkative type; he just led me to the yard’s docking bay and there pointed at some guy stood next to a small patrol-type ship, checking something. He introduced us.
“Stacey Ferguson, meet Andreas Bergman, your co-pilot for this trip.”
“Pleased to meet you.” I said, holding out my hand as the guy turned around. I nearly gasped out loud when he did; it was my dad! Or his twin brother.
“I used to know a ‘Stacey’.” He smiled, shaking my hand. He had to know it was me! I nearly said the distress word there and then, Dave would be getting nervous, but something told me it wasn’t necessary. “She was very pretty too. I wonder what she’s doing now?” He smiled.
“Maybe she’s wondering what her father is up to?” I asked cryptically.
“Maybe she doesn’t need to know yet?” He laughed.
Alphonse looked from one of us to the other, obviously wondering what the hell the joke was. He shrugged to himself, not paid to think, and walked away. I could hear Big Dave calmly, but with a hint of worry, talking in my earpiece.
“Stacey, if you’re in trouble, just say the distress word. No need to work it into a sentence, just say it.”
My dad pulled me close and whispered in my ear.
“I suppose you’re wired up, but there’s no need to worry. I’ll explain everything when we’ve got off base.”
At the same time Dave was getting more and more worried.
“Stacey? Are you there Stace? Say something.”
With a secret grin to myself I answered both of them at the same time.
“All right old man, let’s get this done.” Dad gave me a look and I heard Dave say ‘Bitch’ in my ear.

---

The Lieutenant and I had split up as soon as we had passed through the gate to enable us to cover more ground at once. The clipboard scam appeared to be working well. As long as I made the occasional note on it no-one bothered me. At the moment I was checking out some likely-looking sheds not far from the docking bay. They looked dilapidated and unused but there seemed to be people constantly moving in and out of them and there was the noise of some sort of construction work coming from within. I knew I had to find a way to get a look inside somehow. As it happened it was simple. One of the workers came out of the shed looking for something. It appeared to be in a large crate or box. He looked up.
“Here mate,” he called out, “gis a lift with this will ya?” He hefted one end of the crate upwards.
“Sure, no problem.” Talk about luck I thought as I stuffed the clipboard into my overalls and picked up the other end.
“I know some of you supervisory types don’t like getting your hands dirty, so thanks.” He said.
“Glad to help out actually. Sometimes I feel like an extra wheel around here.” I laughed.
“Yeah, I know what you mean. Sometimes it feels like we got more chiefs than Indians around here.” We both grinned as we manoeuvred the unwieldy box inside the shed where we set it down next to a bench where the guy was working. Around the inside of the rest of the shed were several of what we had come to call ‘meteorite engines’ of varying sizes and in various states of construction. My eyes lit up: We had been right, this was where the machines that been used to attack ‘The Boonies’ had come from. I chatted with some of the other workers in the shed, getting a good look around at the same time, before I slipped away to get to the rendezvous with Emmy.

---

After Toddy and I had split up I had decided to try and get a look around at some of the offices. I shed the overalls and cap I had disguised myself in to gain entry to the yard, primped my hair and put on a pair of glasses: Criminal types always seemed to think secretaries wore glasses. As I began to poke around in the office block I found that Paul’s ‘clipboard’ idea worked much better than I thought it would. I varied it for snooping around the offices by slipping some blank pieces of paper into a couple of empty file folders I picked up. This proved highly effective as if there was someone in an office I just waved the folders and said ‘Is Jenny here?’ If there wasn’t then I had time for a quick snoop through the desks within.
Pretty soon it became obvious that it wasn’t just the repair yard that was run from here; there were too many people busily working away on paperwork for that. Most of the lower floor offices were open, I could just walk in, but most of those on the upper level weren’t. I had to resort to following someone in, still using the folders as an excuse and then hoping that they’d leave so that I could nose around.
Eventually I came across a door marked ‘Dante’ in elegant curly script. Someone who in no way could be thought of as a ‘Dante’ came out of the door. I decided to take a chance and walked quickly up to the man.
“Could you hand those files to Mr Dante for me? I’m in a bit of a hurry.” I held out the files to him.
He looked me up and down, a perverted grin spreading over his face as he mentally undressed me. It was a disgusting experience, I felt more violated than when Lafarge had stripped me of my uniform blouse and body armour.
“MISTER Dante ain’t in at the moment.” He continued to leer. “Just leave them there on his desk.” He held the door open but didn’t move out of the way as I squeezed past.
“I need to know he’s read them.” I said in my best ‘plaintive’ voice. It was taking all my self control not to strangle this loathsome creature.
“Then you’ll have to wait here sweetie. He’s gonna be about an hour.” He gave me one final leer and then shut the door on me.
I gave a shudder and then smiled to myself; men with a tiny bit of power in a big organisation were so predictable. And the vile but stupid man had even told me how much time I had to search the office. I quickly went to work. The first thing I wanted to do was copy his computer files. As I started that I noticed that part of the hard drive was partitioned off, so I copied that too. As my mini drives downloaded that I went to find the safe. When I’d been at the academy I’d never realised that I might need to crack a safe. Luckily for me Big Dave had seen this gap in my education and taught me a few tricks; Nobby had taught me some more until I was a safebreaker of some repute, at least around the hub. It took me less than five minutes to get in and start to copy the documents inside.
After half an hour I had done as much as I could, I didn’t want to push my luck any further. It was time to rendezvous with Toddy.

---

The ship was a disarmed version of an old ‘Delta’ class patrol vessel: Small, nippy, fairly reliable, but old. As with all patrol craft the pilots seats were side-by-side and were dual-control. Although I’d never actually flown one before, the Delta proved easy enough to pilot. It was like a cross between ‘Juliet’ and a Sierra scout.
Once we were clear of Mondas dad spoke;
“Can your partner hear me?” He asked.
“I can hear.” Dave said. “Are you absolutely sure about him Stace?”
“Of course I am Dave. Where are you and ‘Juliet’?”
“About thirty clicks ahead of you.”
“Who are ‘Dave’ and ‘Juliet’?” Dad asked.
“Senior Sergeant Dave Baldwin, and ‘Juliet’ isn’t really a person; she’s my ship.”
Dad gave a low whistle.
“Don’t you move in exalted circles? You’re the girl who succeeded ‘Big Dave’ as the pilot of good old ‘Juliet’ then?”
“You’ve heard of them?”
“Everyone who works in and around the belt has heard about Big Dave and Juliet. It wasn’t you who married him as well was it?”
I heard Dave spluttering and smiled.
“Sorry dad; that was Emmy, my boss. I was just the bridesmaid.”
“Wait a damn moment. That would make you the one who won the Armstrong Cross?”
I nodded, still embarrassed by the award.
“My little Stacey is a hero, who’d have thought it?” Dad mused.
“I would.” Dave broke in. “This is all very touching, but can we get to the point Stacey? Like what does your dad know about the meteorite engines and why is he working for that scumbag Lafarge’s uncle Dante, who is probably an even bigger scumbag.”
“All right Dave; keep your stripes on. I’ll ask him shall I?”
“Ask me what?”
“Who you work for, and why.”
Dad looked across at me, surprise on his face.
“I rather thought you knew. I work for you, the space patrol, a special undercover unit.” Puzzlement was evident in his tone.
“Stace,” Dave said quietly in my earpiece, “we don’t have an undercover unit, nor do any of the other sectors, or even the local planetary forces. And even if we did, we wouldn’t use a civilian as an operative. Either your dad has been duped or he’s trying the strangest defence ever.”
The blood drained from my face.
“How…how long ago were you recruited dad?” I asked haltingly.
“When you were accepted into the academy princess, I thought that was why they asked me. I was a bit upset when they told me I had to cut all my ties with my family for safety reasons though.” He saw the shock on my face. “Why, what’s happening Stacey?”
“Tell him.” Dave said. “If he’s faking it then he’ll realise we’re on to him. If he’s not then he deserves the truth.”
“Okay.” I said quietly. I took a deep breath; this wasn’t going to be easy. “Dad, we don’t have any undercover units, and even if we did we would never put a civilian at risk like that.”
“You mean I was set up?” He asked, the realisation showing on his face.
“It looks that way. What were you doing at the repair yard anyway?”
“I designed a system to guide the meteorites when they were fitted with an engine.”
“But they used that to propel them at us! Dad, you could have wiped out the ‘Boonies’!”
“But I told my undercover contact about the emergency override that I’d fitted….” He tailed off. “Except he wasn’t an agent was he? I told them that I’d sabotaged my own design. Stupid of me.” He looked downcast.
“You didn’t know that dad.”
“But I suspected it. That was why I reported some ‘unusual activity’ near where they were testing the engines and the guidance system.”
Dave suddenly spoke very loudly and urgently.
“Stacey! I’m turning around and coming back for you. The whole thing is a trap!”
“How do…” I started to ask.
“I’ll explain later. Tell me, just how thoroughly did you check the ship before you took off?”
“Pretty thoroughly. I thought they’d be suspicious if I didn’t.”
“Doesn’t matter really, there are dozens of hard to spot ways of sabotaging an old ship. They could have just put an explosive device on board.”
“SERGEANT BALDWIN, YOU ARE NOT HELPING HERE!” I shouted.
“Oh! Sorry Stace.” He mumbled sheepishly. “But we need to get the pair of you off that ship smartish.”
“How? We’re literally in the middle of nowhere. As we can’t breathe vacuum we can’t just get out and float around till you turn up.”
“I’m working on it. I’ll be there in about eight minutes. Don’t die or Emmy will kill me!”
I smiled at his feeble attempt at a cheerful joke. Dad nudged me. I realised that he’d only heard my half of the conversation and didn’t know what the shouting was about.
“What’s happening princess?” He asked.
“Dave has got it into his head that the ship is rigged somehow. We need to stay alive long enough for him to rescue us. Any ideas?” I smiled a lot more jovially than I felt.

---

Toddy and I had met up and we had returned to the sub-station on Mondas. I was anxious for news of Stacey’s mission and so was Paul. Dave had left a terse message saying that she had been accepted as Dante’s new pilot and he was tailing her, but there were no details. He also mentioned that Nobby had recovered Sierra Alpha Sierra. I wanted to tell him what Paul had found and I also wanted to see what was on the mini drives I had downloaded from the computer in Dante’s office. For some reason I felt that here on Mondas wasn’t the safest place to be doing that, so I needed the resources of ‘Juliet’. With all that in mind I called Dave on the comms.
“Juliet Hotel Uniform, this is ‘Big Boss’, (He’d know who that was!) What is your status and location?”
There was a pause while I wondered if he was going to answer.
“Big Boss, I’m a bit busy at the moment. Things are a little awkward. Please refrain from calling in the red zone. Meet you at the usual place in thirty minutes.”
That didn’t sound good. The ‘red zone’ meant that he felt the communications were compromised and the usual place must mean the docking bay. I looked at Toddy and saw that he understood all that too.
“What’s happening Lieutenant?”
“I wish I knew Paul. We’ll have to trust Big Dave and meet him in thirty minutes like he said. It sounded like it wasn’t just the communications he was worried about though.”
“I hope Stacey is all right.” He said fervently.
“So do I Paul, so do I.” I said, wondering what the hell had happened out there, and whether I should get Nobby and his repair ship out here.

---

Stacey had halted near a meteorite on the cusp of the belt’s influence.
“Now what?” She demanded a little petulantly, evidently not convinced that the ship was in danger.
“I’m going to open the cargo hatch. Then you release your canopy and make for it as quick as you can.”
“We can’t breathe space Dave!”
“Don’t. Just get across the gap.” I was getting a bit annoyed now, probably because I wasn’t used to people questioning my decisions. Even Emmy would (generally) accept what I said in cases of extreme danger. Stacey couldn’t seem to grasp the trouble she was in. I knew that I was going to have to explain my reasoning about why she was in a trap. “Stacey, our detective was murdered not long after Toddy and I spoke to him. They also seemed to have found out about your dad’s ‘unusual activity’ incident report. All this points to us having a mole at the hub. Your dad also told his ‘contact’ that he’d fitted something to disable the meteorite engines. Dante must have decided to cut his losses and have him rubbed out. Knowing who his daughter was and what a good pilot she is, he let us know he needed a belt pilot. That, along with some other little clues, probably planted, meant he was confidant of getting either you or me to try and get into his organisation. It didn’t matter which one of us he got, he wants us both dead. Now do you understand?”
“DAD! Get ready; we’re going across to Juliet.”
“Stacey, I’ve never swum in space.” He said apologetically.
“Just aim for the open hatch and push yourself off after I blow the canopy away.”
“NO! Stacey, crank it open. The explosive charge would be easy to tamper with.” I nearly screamed.
“I don’t know that I can crank it quickly enough.”
“Course you can, a fit young thing like you. Quicker than an ‘old man’ anyway.”
“Sorry about that, it seemed funny at the time.”
“It was.” I laughed.
“Get ready dad.”
I could hear then both taking deep breaths and then I heard the rapid whirring as Stacey manually opened the canopy as fast as she could. I looked over at the little ‘Delta’ ship and saw the pair of them pushing out of the cockpit and heading towards ‘Juliet’. Locking the controls I ran to the outside of the cargo bay and peered through the tiny window. I wanted to close the outer door as soon as both of them had passed the threshold so I could pump some air into the hold. Stacey had already reached the edge of the door but her father was lagging behind, obviously tiring rapidly. She reached back and grabbed his flailing hand. With a tug she threw him into the hold and dove through the door herself. I hit the both sets of control sat once; the door slammed shut and the hold began to repressurise simultaneously. I opened the inner door and rushed in to check that they had survived. The two of them lay on the floor gasping for air. Stacey seemed to be recovering quite quickly but her father didn’t look too good.
“Stace, look after your dad. I’m heading back to Mondas to pick up Emmy and Paul.”
“They all right?” She gasped.
“It sounded like it when Em called a few minutes ago, but I want to get to them ASAP just in case.”
“Okay, go. We’ll be up in a while.”
I dashed back to the cockpit and immediately set course for Mondas once more.

---

Lieutenant Baldwin had been pacing the docking bay at the Mondas sub-station for forty minutes, getting increasingly anxious as ‘Juliet’ failed to appear.
“Where the hell is he?” She muttered. “He should be here by now.”
“Are you sure he meant this docking bay Boss?” I asked, a little concerned myself.
“No I’m not Toddy, but where else could he mean?”
“How many docking bays are there here on Mondas?”
“That can accommodate ‘Juliet’? No more than four or five. And one of those is the repair yard, which I doubt he meant.”
“Where are the others?”
“The municipal docks and two mining companies have larger bays.” A thoughtful look crossed her face. “I wonder….”
“Wonder what?”
“If he was speaking in some sort of verbal code.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Because he called me ‘Big Boss’.”
“But that was the call sign that you used.”
“But Dave didn’t use his call sign. What if by ‘usual place’ he meant somewhere else? An UN-usual Place.”
“Like where?”
She slapped her forehead.
“Stupid of me! One of the mining companies is called ‘Unusual Element Mining’.”
“And you now think that’s where Big Dave meant?”
“Well, he’s not here is he?”
“True. Let’s go look then. Lead on ‘Big Boss’.” I grinned.
“You can shut up too.” Emmy grinned back. “I’m regretting that already.”

---

Dave and Emmy were still bickering four hours later about whether Dave had been trying to be too clever or Emmy had been particularly slow on the uptake as I brought ‘Juliet’ slowly towards her berth on the hub. Toddy had been talking to my dad for most of the trip back which I had found a little disconcerting, but not as disconcerted as I felt now, bringing my ship into dock with my dad sat behind me. Paul gave me an amused smile from the co-pilots seat. He could tell I was trying to be perfect. Eventually there was a satisfyingly solid ‘clunk’ as the ship settled into place. I gave a sigh as the unexpected tension left me. Toddy clapped me on the shoulder.
“As smooth as ever,” his eyes were laughing at me, “Little Boss.”
“What?” I asked, wondering where he had got that from.
“Well, if Emmy is ‘Big Boss’, then that must make you ‘Little Boss’, yes?” He laughed.
“Oh yes? And what does that make Dave?” I retorted facetiously.
“How about just ‘The Boss’?” Paul grinned again.
“And that would make you ‘Nearly Boss’ would it?” Dave said, coming up between the pilot seats and putting his hands on our shoulders as Emmy left the ship quickly, carrying all our recently gathered Intel. He gave us both a serious look.
“Come on, I think we all need a refreshing drink while Emmy is getting all that data sorted through.”
“In a while Dave,” I said, “I want to show my dad my office first.”
“We may as well stick together Stace; your dad is a valuable witness who needs protecting. I think the three of us can manage that.” He turned to my father. “What do you think sir?”
“I think, Big Dave, that I couldn’t be in better hands.” He said heartfeltly. “And I like the sound of a drink.”

---

Things were not going how I wanted at this meeting to plan our next move; the other three were ganging up on me. Dave was going to lead the team raiding the repair yard; Paul was to take charge of the blockade of Mondas flying Juliet and Stacey had somehow convinced me to let her attempt to reach the asteroid Dante had mentioned. Her father, sitting in on the meeting where we could keep an eye on him, had said that there was something there worth the risk, a fully primed and guided engine. He was fairly certain it held something else too, the reason why ‘the Boonies’ was so important to Dante. I didn’t really want to let her try while the belt was still in flux but she was determined she could do it, so I reluctantly acquiesced. The thing that was really annoying me was that they wouldn’t let me take a more prominent role.
“Emmy, you are not coming with me into the belt while it is such a perilous state.” Stacey said flatly.
“And there is no way that you are going on the raid.” Dave was equally stern.
I looked beseechingly at Paul. For once he didn’t give in.
“Don’t you think you’d be better employed co-ordinating things from the Ops Centre ma’am?” He said quietly. The other two nodded in agreement. I sighed: I knew they were right of course, but the events of the past day or so had whetted my appetite for action again.
“In any case, I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have looking after my dad.” Stacey said, looking at her father who nodded in approval.
“Stace, we’re in the middle of the hub,” I exclaimed, “there’s coppers everywhere.”
“And almost any one of them might be the mole who has killed once already.” Dave interjected sombrely.
“There is that I suppose.” I said, my shoulders slumping, resigning myself to missing out on the last act of something that had started the day I had first arrived here at ‘The Boonies’. “All right then, I’ll stay here.” I turned to her, “Stacey, I’m going to get Nobby to trail you. That way, if something does go wrong, you can use the transmat to escape.” She began to say something. “I just want you all to be safe.”
“And that is precisely why we want you to stay here.” Dave said, not unkindly. “Big Boss’.” He added with a chuckle.
“I’m really going to regret that for a long time, aren’t I?” I sighed as my so-called ‘friends’ all sniggered.

---

The Ops room was nearly empty; all non-essential personnel being removed. I had brought in some old friends, people I trusted implicitly, to help me run the operation. Wrighty was co-ordinating the repair yard raid with Dave; Brown was talking to Toddy about the blockade and Rodriguez was monitoring Stacey’s progress. He kept wincing so much every time Stace got a little close to a rock that I had to ask him to keep it down. I had even brought in Elsie to keep an eye on Mr Grainger, who sat close to Rodriguez where he too could watch Stacey’s progress. The LC’s had been used mainly to man the front desks for a while now, but that wasn’t important. I knew that just ordering Elsie to protect the life of Stacey’s dad would help keep him alive far more than appointing a human bodyguard ever would.
The raid went smoothly; most of the people at the yard were, as I had said earlier to Paul, completely unaware of who they were working for. There had been a bit of a shootout with some of the hardcore gang members but the firepower we had mustered soon put all resistance down. Dante himself was caught trying to run the blockade in another ‘Delta’ class ship, again easily overpowered. Now it was just a case of rounding up all the loose ends, sorting out who was in the gang and who was just working in the wrong place. I could leave Dave and Paul to run that between them, communicating through Wright and Brown. That just left Stacey to complete her mission. I went and stood quietly behind Rodriguez and watched as she made her way through the asteroids. I tapped him lightly on the shoulder.
“How much further to the rock?” I asked in a hushed voice, lest I distract her.
“It’s in sight Ma’am.” He replied, covering his mike with his hand.
“Then all she has to do is get back.” I muttered.
“The belt seems to be settling down again Lieutenant Baldwin.” Mr Grainger said. “It should be stable in a couple of hours. Then you can send your friend Nobby in to recover the engine and everything it contains.”
“So we could have waited?” I asked.
“Sergeant Grainger has passed at least two ships that have obviously been trying the same thing she is and failed Lieutenant.” Rodriguez said.
“You know she wanted to run the belt anyway Lieutenant Baldwin, while it was in flux I mean, just to prove she could.” Her dad said softly. “I think she wanted to show me how good she was. She didn’t have too.”
“I know sir, and so does she.” I patted him on the shoulder. “And I think you can call me ‘Emmy’, all my friends do.” I paused, a thought coming slowly to me. “Could you instruct Stacey on how to use the engines guidance system sir?”
“Yes, I think so. It’s not that complicated and she is a quick learner.”
“She is.” I smiled. “Okay Roddy; after Stace touches down, tell her to wait until we’re sure the belt is settled again and then she’s to bring the whole meteorite back to ‘The Boonies’. Should be nice and safe.” I rubbed my hands together. “This has all gone rather well.”
Suddenly the door to the Ops room was blown in, catching Elsie and knocking her to the floor. I span around and saw Nobby’s girlfriend Heather framed in the doorway. It was a very different looking Heather; she was armed and angry.
“You’ve ruined everything!” She screamed. “First you kill my cousin and now you’ve arrested my father. There’s nobody left. You’ve left me with nothing!” She pointed her weapon at me. “At least I can kill you, the bitch who started all this off.”
Everyone else in the room was frozen. The boys were all sat facing the wrong way, there was no way they could help. Mr Grainger had fallen to the floor out of sight. I motioned him to stay there. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Elsie picking herself up out of the wreckage of the door very quietly. She was damaged but still functioning. I needed to give her a few moments.
“Heather, what do you mean by ‘there’s nobody left’? What about Nobby?”
“Nobby? That was always just a scheme to get close to the core; you, Baldwin and that annoying brat Grainger. It was never real.”
“Maybe not for you.”
“Or him. He’s still hung up on Grainger.”
“So you’re just going to throw your life away in some stupid act of vengeance?”
“It looks that way doesn’t it?” She sneered.
Her body tensed as she went to pull the trigger. Time seemed to slow at that moment. I was expecting to feel the heat of a blaster bolt any second. Instead I saw Elsie throw herself in front of me, the bolt I was waiting for hitting her squarely in the chest. As the robot hit the floor popping and crackling I launched myself at Heather, crashing her through the open doorway and into the wall of the corridor. The blaster skittled along the floor, well out of reach. All the frustration I had felt earlier welled up. There was anger too. I had thought of Heather as a friend, we all had, but she had betrayed us. On top of that, she had blasted my most faithful companion. It didn’t matter that Elsie was a mechanoid; she had always been there when I needed to talk and wanted someone to just listen. All this went into the punch that knocked Heather unconscious. I drew back my fist to land another blow and then realised that there were other people in the corridor watching, people that looked to me to set an example. I lowered my fist and at the same time let Heather slip to the ground.
“Somebody take this bitch away and lock her up.” I said as I turned and went back into the Ops room. Elsie’s power pack was obviously shattered beyond repair. “Thank you Elsie.” I whispered as I knelt beside the broken mechanoid. “But why?”
“Core….Program….Reinforced….Dave….Protect….Michelle Elizabeth….” She managed to say before the light behind her eyes went out and I started to cry. Brown and Wright came and knelt alongside me, Rodriguez still busy with Stacey.
“Can she be repaired?” Wrighty asked softly.
“Don’t know.” I sobbed.
“Nobby will be able to fix her I’m sure.” Brown said comfortingly.
“Maybe.” I shook myself and stood up. “I’m going to my office; send the others up when they get back.” I looked around the Ops room. “Get someone to tidy this up. And have Elsie taken to Nobby’s workshop. No-one but him is to try fixing her.” I caught sight of Stacey’s dad. “Mr Grainger, you’re welcome to come with me.”
“I think I’ll stay here, just in case Stacey has a problem.” He said apologetically.
“Good idea. I think I’d like to be alone anyway. Carry on guys.” I left and made my way slowly to my office.

---

As soon as I heard about the incident in the Ops room I took off from what had become known as ‘Mobile Rock One’ and collected Nobby before heading back to ‘The Boonies’ at full speed. It sounded like Emmy needed someone to talk to now and Dave, her husband, was going to be processing prisoners for a while yet. Nobby assured me that his crew were more than capable of getting ‘Mobile Rock One’ back to the hub so we left them to it.
I slipped Sierra Alpha Sierra into her berth and was out of the cockpit almost before the clamps gripped her. Nobby headed for the workshop where Elsie had been taken to begin to assess what could be done for her. I dashed into my office and grabbed a bottle I’d been keeping for a special occasion and then headed up to find my friend.
Emmy was sat in a darkened office, a stark contrast to a few days earlier, staring at nothing. In fact she was staring at the spot Elsie habitually stood in to listen to her. I hadn’t seen Emmy so upset since the early days, when she had been injured and it had looked like Dave could be in trouble. Elsie had been there as well; unobtrusive but ever-present. I plonked the bottle down on her desk in front of her.
“We need to sign off duty so we can drink this.” I said quietly.
Emmy looked at the bottle and then up at me, her eyes red from crying.
“Isn’t that your celebration bottle for when Toddy finally pops the question?”
“It is, but I think you need to drown your sorrows and numb the pain.”
“No Stace, I won’t open your special bottle.” She reached into her desk drawer and pulled out another bottle. “I was waiting for one of you to get here; I didn’t want to drink alone.” She smiled a sad watery smile. The bottle was joined by two glasses. Emmy poured a generous measure into each and handed me one. Picking up the other one, she raised it to make a toast. “To Elsie, keeper of all my secrets.”
“Elsie.” I said and knocked back the drink. “What do you mean by that Em?” I asked, wondering what she was getting at.
“Exactly that. Elsie knew everything about me, simply because while you and Dave were off gallivanting around and enjoying yourselves she was the only one I could talk to and know she wouldn’t blab.”
“I didn’t realise you felt like that.”
“Neither did I until I saw her lying broken on the floor of the Ops room.”
“No, I meant about me and Dave.”
“Oh that. I suppose in a way I was jealous.”
“Jealous?”
“Envious that the pair of you still got the opportunity to get out and interact with people, while I was stuck in here on my own.”
“I thought we’d agreed that you didn’t have to do it like that?”
“It’s not that easy now Stace. After we became a fully-fledged sector there was too much for me to do. I couldn’t just abandon my office on a whim; there were problems to solve, questions needing answers, people to talk to.” She sighed sadly. “I told all this to Elsie and just having her listen helped me enormously, I don’t know why. She never said a thing unless I asked her a question.”
I was more than a little shocked to hear Emmy talk like this; she had never given any indication that she was unhappy with her role.
“Well Lieutenant Baldwin, as one of your department heads, I think you should tell Dave. And then the three of us should consult the Captain.”
“How will that help?” Emmy looked puzzled.
“Give me a chance here Em, I’m thinking on my feet. Maybe the Captain will have some ideas. The situation must have cropped up before.”
“Maybe.” Emmy mused. Just then her comm line beeped. It was Nobby; he’d completed his initial diagnosis.

---

“The good news is her core programming and memories are intact, so is her head section, but most o’ the body, especially the torso, is knackered.” Nobby spoke with unaccustomed authority. “That leaves us wiv three options Em…. Er, boss…. Er, ma’am.”
Stacey and I exchanged glances; even now Nobby wavered between overt friendliness and full-on official protocol when he talked to me.
“What options?” I said, not daring to think that there might be a hope for my metallic confidante.
“Well, the sensible thing would be to chuck all the bits away and start again.”
“Not an option we’re considering here.”
“No, I know, I’m just sayin’ boss. Number two; I could re-animate her head and mind, but that’s all she’ll be: A talkin’ head, stuck in one place. Bit borin’ for the ole gel.”
“Better than nothing.” I murmured, thinking that if I had her put in my office I could still talk with her. “The third possibility?”
“I might, and only might, be able to find enough spare parts lyin’ about to build her a new chassis.” He looked at me expectantly, a satisfied grin playing across his face.
“Please Nobby, I just want her back, but can you cancel that ridiculous ‘protect Emmy’ command from her program; that’s what got her blasted.”
“You dunt really know much about LC’s, do you Em? The one command they all got is to protect human life, Dave juss tweaked Elsie’s.”
“Why would he do that?”
“At the time there was juss the three of you out on patrol in the town. He dint want her choosing to help him over you.”
“You sure Nobby?” It seemed reasonable.
“Sure am!” He grinned.
I felt my depression of the past hours dissipate like morning mist in the sunshine. I grinned back.
“Fix her for me Nobby.”
“Course boss. I know what it’s like, having Elsie as the only one to talk to.” He looked embarrassed for a moment and then turned to Stacey. “Hey toots, where’s yer pop?”
“He’s still down in Ops, helping with ‘Mobile Rock One’.” She bowed her head for a moment. “Nobby, I’m sorry about Heather.”
“So am I.” I added.
“Don’t be.” He gave a shrug. “I reckoned that she might not be for real anyhow. To good for the likes o’ me.”
“Don’t talk wet Nobby.” I smiled as I remembered something. “You might be interested to know that my admin assistant keeps making goo-goo eyes at you.”
“She does? That pretty brunette?” I nodded. “Maybe I’ll ‘ave a natter when I bring Elsie up.”
“Just don’t take to long.” I laughed.
There was a booming announcement over the workshop tannoy.
“Will Lieutenant Michelle Baldwin and Sergeant Stacey Grainger please return to the Lieutenants office; thank you.”
“Now what?” I muttered.

---

I had left Toddy in charge of the minor interrogations, reasoning that it was about time the lad had the chance of some responsibility. Dante and his key lieutenants needed to be moved to the hub ASAP and when I heard about the ructions in Ops I decided to transport them myself in the ‘Boozy Bee’ with a couple of the lads as guards. I felt guilty that Emmy had been put in danger by my refusal to let her come on the raid with me. Wrighty’s brief message had said there were no injuries but Emmy was crying. I needed to find out what was happening. I had arrived back at the hub to find a meteorite practically docked to one of the outlying bays. What the hell was going on here?
After making sure all the prisoners were securely locked up I went to Emmy’s office as instructed, expecting to find her there. Her admin assistant told me that Em and Stace had gone down to the workshop so I put a call through the tannoy system.
After about five minutes the two of them sauntered into Emmy’s office, all laugh’s and smiles; no sign of tears.
“What is happening here?” I demanded. “First you nearly get shot because I left you here; then I get told you’re crying so I come running back to be told to meet you up here; but you’re nowhere to be found and then you waltz in with a huge grin as if nothing has happened.” I grabbed Emmy and hugged her. “I was so worried.”
“Sorry.” Emmy smiled. “Things were bad for a while, but they just got better.”
“But what upset you so badly? I’ve only seen you cry once before.” I stroked her hair.
“Elsie got blasted instead of me and I thought I’d lost her, but Nobby thinks he can put her back together, so everything is fine again.”
“Elsie? You got upset because a …..” I stopped as I saw a look in her eyes, and Stacey’s, that told me to shut up before I put my foot in it. “I’m missing something aren’t I? Something important that I should know?” They both nodded. “Go on then, tell me what an idiot I am.” I sighed.
“You’re an idiot.” Emmy grinned as she pecked me on the cheek. Then she told me about how left out she’d felt and how having Elsie to talk to had helped her; Stacey chipped in, saying she thought the captain ought to know as in his long career he might have experienced the problem before and know of a solution.
“Why didn’t you say something Emmy?” I asked.
“So you could do what? Give up doing the thing you were born to do? I couldn’t have that on my conscience.”
Her comm beeped interrupting us. She stepped forward to answer it.

---

Dave was a little concerned when he found out how I had been feeling, and upset when he realised that by not noticing earlier I’d been forced to confide in Elsie. Before we could discuss it further I got a call from the head of the team doing the initial survey of ‘Mobile Rock One’. He sounded excited about something and insisted I should come and see it. I told him I’d be down momentarily. Dave came with me, but Stacey went to the Ops room, saying she wanted to see how Toddy was doing.
I looked at the lump of rock that had somehow been docked to the hub.
“All right, what’s got you so fired up?” I said to the survey team leader.
“We think we’ve discovered why they attacked ‘The Boonies’!” He said enthusiastically.
“You’ve got my attention; go on.”
“Well, it seems that if you place a small quantity of a specific mineral around the meteorite engine, it generates a sort of field that holds nearby asteroids in formation around it.”
“What has that got to do with our asteroid?” I was puzzled.
“That mineral is present in large quantities here at ‘The Boonies’.” He said triumphantly.
I could see the connection now.
“I can’t see how stabilising the belt has any advantage to Dante.” Dave said.
“Maybe he could blockade a settlement for ransom, or form a barricade around somewhere he wanted kept private, I don’t know; I’m only a scientist, not a detective.” The team leader seemed a bit put out by his question.
“It could help us though Dave.” I said thoughtfully.
“What do you mean?”
“Think about it. A few of these dotted about in the right places could keep the trade routes open when the belt is in flux for a start.”
A light went on in his head.
“You’re right Emmy,” he smiled, “as always.”
“I think we should tell central and get some bods on it.” I said.
“I’ll go and transmit my preliminary report straight away.” The scientist said before rushing off.
“A stable belt will be a lot more attractive commercially.” I mused, clasping Dave’s hand.
“True.” He said. “It will mean a lot more work, particularly for someone not a million miles away.” He gave me a smile and kissed my hand.
“I’m sure I’ll manage so long as I’ve got Elsie to talk to.” I grinned back.
“You could try talking to me you know: I am your husband and second in command.” He said reproachfully.
“A blabbermouth like you? No fear!” I laughed.
All of a sudden the emergency klaxon sounded.
“Good grief! Can’t I spend five minutes of quality time with my wife?” Dave said.
“Apparently not today.” I said as I snatched up a comms handset. “What is it?” I demanded.

---

Emmy repeated to me what she had been told: Dante and one of his men had managed to jump their escorts as they crossed outside the interrogation room. It had to be an error of timing on someone’s part as usually prisoners don’t get to see each other. The net result of the bad timing was two armed prisoners holed up in interrogation with hostages.
“What do you want to do, Big Boss? Send in the Special Squad?” I asked.
“I’d like to take them alive if possible. The Specials can be a bit trigger-happy at times.” Emmy replied, carefully considering her options.
I had an idea.
“Meet me down there.” I said. “I need to fetch something.” She gave me a puzzled ‘okay’ as I dashed off to our quarters.

“Are you sure about this? Emmy asked as I handed her my old Colt, keeping the one she had bought me as a wedding present for myself. “It seems a bit risky.”
“We want them alive Em; and you and I are the only ones who can fire these.”
“Hey! I know how to fire one.” Stacey protested, having joined us from Ops.
“Stace, you’re lucky if you hit the floor.” I sighed and then smiled at Emmy. “Besides which mighty leader, weren’t you just complaining about a lack of excitement?”
“I was,” she said ruefully, “and I’m beginning to appreciate boredom instead.”
“Rubbish!” I laughed. “Are you ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
“Okay Stacey, lose the mirror.”
Stacey detonated the small explosive charges around the edge of the two-way mirror. It fell forward into the interrogation room, revealing Emmy and I with weapons cocked and aimed at Dante and the man Em had identified as the secretary molester.
“Dante!” I called out. “Surrender or we fire!”
“With that outdated shit?” He sneered.
“They did for your nephew.” I said calmly.
“Don’t antagonise him even more.” Emmy said out of the side of her mouth.
“Now is not the time to nag dearest.” I said back.
“What makes you think you can hit me and not my shield here?” He sneered again, shaking a young cop who had been his escort.
“Well, I can hit a fly at a hundred yards.” I said.
“Liar.” Emmy muttered.
“And my wife here can hit one while it’s flying.”
Dante’s eyes flicked to Emmy. She gave him a cheeky wink.
Thinking our attention was diverted, the secretary molester made a move, bringing his blaster up. I put a round through his wrist and one through his shoulder. Dante immediately dropped his blaster and raised his hands as the room suddenly filled with cops.
“Nice shooting,” Emmy said, “but I’d have put one through his balls.”
“That’s just because you’re vindictive about those you hold a grudge against my love.” I laughed. “Besides which there was a hostage in the way there.”
“I suppose.” She grinned.

---

Now it was the day after all the excitement. All the prisoners from the raid, including Dante, had been transferred to Central which meant that Paul had arrived back on the hub to Stacey’s delight. We had all been busy writing out our reports so I had asked my dad to collect Mrs Grainger and bring her here to be reunited with her husband. I was holding a dinner party for Paul and Stacey, her mom and dad, and my dad in mine and Dave’s quarters. I had asked Nobby too, but he claimed he had work to do on Elsie. I suspected that he just wanted some uninterrupted flirting time with my goo-goo eyed admin assistant though.
Dave was having a word in Paul’s ear at my request regarding Stacey. While Toddy was otherwise engaged my dad took the opportunity to flirt with Stace! I was so embarrassed I had to go and drag him away from her astonished look. He laughed and told me he was only teasing.
“Me or Stacey?” I asked.
“Mainly Stacey.” He said. “But it’s funny the way you react too Michelle.”
“And Paul’s watching you.” I hissed.
He looked at me seriously.
“That was the point, perhaps the boy needs to feel he might lose his girl.”
“Did Dave put you up to this?” I asked suspiciously.
“Actually, no. I had a good talk with her mom while I flew her in, and with her dad an hour ago, they’re both worried that she might let him slip away.”
“You know as well as I do what she wants.”
“Of course I do Baby Girl. I was just hoping that if he saw she was attractive to other men he might make his mind up.”
“You old fool dad.” I said kissing him. “What do you think I’ve got my esteemed, if slightly bemused, husband talking to Toddy for?”
“Oh.” He looked at his feet. “I feel a bit silly now.”
“You are silly. But I think once Stace is over the shock she’ll appreciate you trying to help. Now come and help me in the kitchen. I know you can’t cook, but you can open some wine.”
Before we reached the doorway Dave spoke loudly so everyone could hear.
“As you all know, Officer Todd here has been asking a lot of questions recently. I believe he has one more he wants to ask.”
Toddy shuffled his feet nervously.
“I-I-I don’t know q-quite how t-to s-say this, b-but S-Stacey Grainger w-will….”
“YES!!!” Stacey burst out, running to him and throwing her arms around him. The rest of us applauded.
“See, I told you it wasn’t so bad.” Dave said, clapping Paul around the back, grinning hugely.
“You promise you’ll be best man?” Paul asked plaintively.
“Well….” Dave hesitated.
“Of course he will.” I said.
“And you’ll be my bridesmaid?” Stacey asked.
“I’d be upset if you didn’t ask. I’d probably post you to Mondas or something.” I laughed. “Now we have to get organised………….

The Long Wave

Some things that happened, some that didn't, a bit of the usual anxiety, all mixed together.


I was stood in front of the little dustcart, watching some of the participants of the ‘walk for life’ as they walked around. The ‘walk for life’ was a twenty-four hour charity thing and the council had donated the use of the little dustcart to keep the site tidy without charge to provide support. Several of us had volunteered to crew it throughout the twenty-four hours, also free of charge. Bill and I had just taken over for the last eight-hour shift. The idea of the walk was to have at least one person walking at all times throughout the whole twenty-four hours. According to the pair we had not long relieved the night had been full of fun and frolics as people tried to stay awake, to keep others awake. Now it was early morning and things were much quieter, only two people determinedly marching around. Bill had nipped off to Maccies to get us some breakfast as the smell of bacon from the various tents was making the pair of us ravenous. People who had managed to get some sleep were waking and taking over from the heroes of the small hours. I poured myself a coffee from the flask and sipped it, smiling at a couple of people who walked past. A girl of no more than twenty years old came up and dropped a pair of black sacks onto the pile at the rear of the truck.
“Can I have some replacements?” She asked, coming up to me.
“Sure.” I replied, opening the cab door and grabbing a handful of fresh bags. I handed them over and caught her looking at me somewhat intently. At first I was a little put out by this until I looked closer at her and realised her face was familiar.
“Do I know you?” I asked as she took the refuse sacks from me.
“You’ve seen me, but you don’t know me, no.” She said, cryptically.
“You a friend of my niece then? She’s about your age.”
“I don’t think so.” She grinned enigmatically.
“Oh come on, make an old man happy. Exactly where have I seen you?” I smiled.
The girl smiled back.
“All right then. You emptied the bins in Bastogne Close for a few years?”
“I’ve done most of the closes in this town at one time or another, but yes, until about three years ago I drove the dustcart that did Bastogne Close.” She was giving me an amused look, waiting for the recognition she was sure would come, a sparkle in her green eyes. And then it hit me. “You were one of my four girlfriends!” Four schoolgirls had always waved at the RCV when we saw them.
“What!!?” She laughed.
“The rest of the crew always called the four of you my girlfriends, because you all seemed to wave to me whenever school was out and we were collecting, that started about six or seven years back.”
“Well, I don’t know exactly why the other three copied me waving,” She smiled, “But I liked to see you smile when you waved back.”
I was actually quite surprised by her reply: It had been a joke between the crew, four schoolgirls waving at someone old enough to be their father. Then I remembered something else.
“You were the one who gave me the Christmas cards; the blondish one who could actually roller-skate. The other three were very wobbly.”
“Oh my god, you were looking at us after all!” She laughed, shaking out her now properly blonde hair. “And what were you thinking about while you looked at us; something bad?” She was teasing now.
“If I remember, I was thinking ‘why are these girls waving to me?’” I said and then decided I was allowed some teasing in return. “And ‘that one who actually can skate is developing a nice looking bottom’.”
I smirked as she reddened slightly.
“I’d better get back.” She said, trying to cover her embarrassment as she turned and walked away.
“I see I was right!” I called out to her retreating back. She stopped, looked over her shoulder, grinned, patted her backside and then carried on, swaying her hips exaggeratedly. I laughed and gave her a wave as she ducked inside one of the tents.
Bill came up beside me and handed me the bag with my breakfast in it.
“What’s going on? I leave for a couple of minutes and you suddenly start chatting up attractive young women.”
“It’s not like that Bill,” I grinned, “In fact it’s better. You remember ‘the four girlfriends’?” He nodded slowly. “She was the cute one who started the waving!” I laughed.
“Huh! I don’t believe you.”
“Ask her yourself.” I shrugged.
“What’s her name then?” He asked grumpily.
“I didn’t ask.” I shook my head.
“Pillock!” He clipped me around the back of the head. “You still can’t get it right can you?”
“Never could, never will.” I grinned and took out my breakfast.
“Looks like you’ll get another chance.” Bill nudged me and pointed: The girl was coming back over to where we stood. As she got closer Bill called out: “Hey sweetie! You don’t want to bother with him,” He jerked his thumb in my direction, “He’s gay, you know?” Bill was always pulling my leg about my lack of success with women, saying I must give off the wrong vibes.
“I bloody well am not!” I said through a mouthful of breakfast.
“I don’t think so.” The girl smiled. “I’ll prove it.”
“How?” Bill asked.
“Like this!” With a jerk she lifted her jumper and momentarily flashed her bra at us. Bill and I both stared open-mouthed in shock. “See, same reaction from both of you; if he’s gay, so are you!” She laughed, we joined in. “Anyway, I was wondering when you were going to start chucking that rubbish away, we’ve got a broken chair we want to get rid of.”
“We were going to leave it until everyone seemed to be awake; it makes a lot of noise. Just drop the chair with the rest and we’ll throw it on.” I said.
“I remember the noise. And I was sort of hoping I could sling it into the back myself, I always wanted to try that.” She gave us a huge grin.
“That’s okay with me, but it’s a strange thing for a girl to want to do.”
“Maybe I’m not like other girls.” She said shyly.
“No, I don’t think you are.” I smiled. “I’m Dave, this scruffy git is Bill.” I held out my hand.
“Emma.” She said, shaking my proffered hand in amusement. “I’ll bring the chair over when I hear you start the truck.” With that she turned away again. Part way back to her tent she twisted back around. “After over six years my fantasy guy has a name at last.” She called before disappearing into the tent again.
Bill and I looked at each other astounded.
“Did she just say what I think she said?” I asked Bill.
“She did,” He said, “And I don’t believe it, it was a joke, not reality.” He shook his head slowly. “I just can’t believe it.”
“What? That I’m an attractive girl’s secret crush?”
“No. That she can find her way about without her guide dog.” He laughed.
“Git!”

---

We threw the collected sacks of the night into the dustcart about an hour later. Emma came over and she threw the broken chair in and I got her to press the button that ran the back. She seemed remarkably pleased with such a simple act. After that Bill and I settled back to watch the event for a while. Now there were more people awake and walking it was mildly diverting. The walkers thinned out again and then the organisers blew a whistle. Suddenly the course was packed again, and with all the walkers in fancy dress, mostly as some sort of medical staff. I looked at Bill and he looked at me. We both just shrugged, neither of us had any idea what was happening. Emma walked around past us as one of the sexiest nurses I’d ever seen. On an impulse I fell in step beside her.
“Hi! What’s the deal with the whistle and the dressing up?” I asked.
“Hello again Dave.” She gave me a sweet smile. “It’s a friendly competition to make things more interesting. At certain times they blow the whistle and we all come out in the appropriate costume. They award points for originality, authenticity and so on, to each entered group. We’re doing quite well.”
“So you’re not really a nurse then?” I asked with a grin.
“Maybe I am?” Emma teased again, a sparkle in her eyes. “Why?”
“Well, I’ve a terrible pain in all the diodes down my left hand side.” I laughed, putting my hand on the faux injury.
“Are you in BUPA? I don’t do NHS work.” She laughed.
“Just the RAC.” I grinned. I had done a complete circuit with her, so I stopped by the truck again. “Thanks for the info.”
“No prob. Pity you’re not covered.” She waved and went on.
“What the hell was that about Dave?” Bill asked.
“I think I was flirting.”
“You? Flirting? With a real girl?” He shook his head.
“That’s what it seemed like. It’s been a while, so I can’t be sure.” I grinned.
“Huh! As if the day isn’t weird enough already, now you’re getting delusional. It must be getting up so early on a Sunday.”

---

And so it went for the rest of the event, sarky comments and brief periods of keeping the field tidy. I missed one of the fancy dress sections when I went to the nearest shop to get a snack but I caught the final one. The theme seemed to be something like ‘Law and Order’; there were cops and robbers, prisoners, a wild west sheriff, some guy in a suit claiming he was an embezzler, even a couple of superheroes. This time Emma was a policewoman. It didn’t look like a costume, more like the real thing. I wondered if it might be hers. As I fell in beside her again she greeted me with a grin.
“Hi Dave. What are you meant to be?” She asked.
“I’m an RCV driver who breaks all sorts of traffic laws.” I smiled back.
“Really?” She said raising her eyebrows. “In that case….” She tailed off.
I felt something metallic encircle my wrist and when I looked down I saw that she had handcuffed me to herself.
“I hope you’ve got the key for those.” I half joked.
“Of course I have.”
“You really a member of the constabulary then? The uniform looks real.”
“The uniform is: I’m not. It was my mothers, she was with the police.”
“It looks good on you anyway Emma.”
“It’s a bit tight around my bust and my bottom.” She said wriggling a little.
“Like I said; it looks good.” I grinned wolfishly.
“You’re awful.” She laughed.
“So, if you’re not a nurse and you’re not in the police, what do you do?”
“I work part-time in a shop at the moment but I’m actually studying to be a physiotherapist.”
“That sounds interesting. Any reason?”
“Well, you remember a couple of years after we started waving you’d sometimes see me out jogging in the morning?” I nodded, remembering that she had still waved although her friends only did so when the four of them were together. “I hurt my ankle late that summer and had to go and get physio on it. It sort of caught my imagination for some reason and I decided that it was something I’d like to try and do.”
“And that decision had nothing to do with running your hands over studly young athletes I suppose?” I asked jokingly.
“NO!” She snapped and then reddened. “Maybe a little bit.” She said sheepishly. I just laughed.
We continued going round for a while, just talking, until I felt I ought to get back to what I was supposed to be doing. I held up my cuffed hand.
“Well officer, I should get back to work, what about these?”
“Oh, I suppose I can let you off with some community service.” She gave me her prettiest smile.
“Meaning?” I asked.
“I volunteered to stay and help tidy up after the event, and being as you and your dustcart are going to be here too, I was hoping to scrounge a lift home.”
“I can’t really drop you off in the truck,” I said dubiously, “someone might report it.” Her face fell a little. “But if you’re prepared to come to the yard while I take it back, I can take you home in my car.”
Her face brightened again.
“That would be fine.”
“You just want a trip in a dustcart don’t you?” I mockingly accused. Emma nodded enthusiastically. “You are an odd girl Miss.” I smiled.
“So everyone tells me.” She laughed.
“All right. When we’re done, come and find me.”
“Thanks Dave.”
At that I started to move away, back to the truck. She gave me a little wave, just like the first time I ever saw her all those years ago. I was slightly dazed by the events of the day, the half day really, but I knew that in that short time Emma had become special to me although I was sure nothing would come of it. Then another thought hit me: It wasn’t a short time; it had been over seven years building to this. The waving, the Christmas cards, the glimpses of her jogging, it had all been leading to this day. I shook myself. ‘Don’t be so bloody silly man,’ I told myself, ‘she’s a girl half your age who is interested in oddball things. Get a grip.’
I got back to the dustcart and was met by a grinning Bill.
“You can shut up before you start.” I said.
“I never said a word.” He smirked.
“Your unaccustomed silence speaks volumes.” I leant against the cab door. “I just told her I’d take her home after the tidy up at the end.” I sighed. “I must be mad.”
“You know Cindy is picking me up from here when we finish?”
“Oh hell! I forgot that. What is it going to look like when she finds out it’s just me and her?”
“You’ll have to tell me tomorrow.” He grinned. “Just don’t leave anything incriminating in the truck when you leave it in the yard.” He stepped away as I swung at his amused face.
“You know nothing will happen.” I snapped.
“No. You THINK nothing will happen. Or maybe you HOPE nothing will happen.” He was really enjoying taking the Mickey.
“Sometimes Bill, you’re a real pain in the ass.” I stormed off to try and think things out.

---

I was still wondering what I should say when Emma came over and met me at the dustcart after the tidy up, a large carryall over her shoulder, presumably holding all her clothes.
“Hi Dave! Thanks for this.” She said brightly before noticing the worried expression I was wearing. “What’s up?”
“Well,” I sighed, “Bill’s girl picked him up already.”
“So?”
“So there’s only the two of us: I’m worried that you might think I planned it, that I’ve some evil intent.”
“The fact that you’re so worried means I don’t have to be.” She smiled. “Now come on, I’ve wanted a trip in a dustcart for ages.”
I smiled in relief, suddenly realising what a wonderful girl Emma was, but knowing she was way too good for the likes of me. I opened the cab door for her.
“All right, I’ve warned you. Now hop in and I’ll pass you your bag.”
Luckily she had changed out of the tight skirt of earlier, into jeans and a t-shirt. Otherwise it might have been a bit tricky for her to get into the high cab. I climbed into the driving seat and started the truck. I glanced sideways at Emma and saw her eyes shining in excitement as she did up her seat belt.

---

The trip back to the depot didn’t take very long, no more than fifteen minutes even taking the scenic route, nowhere near enough time. All too soon I was swinging the truck up to the locked depot gates.
“You enjoy driving these don’t you?” Emma asked as I snapped the hand brake on. It was the first time she’d spoken since she’d got in.
“I do actually, although this one is more like a supersized van, the proper ones are much more fun. But what makes you say that?”
“The way you drive, all wide sweeping turns, only one hand winding the wheel around, that sort of thing, but mainly I think it’s the big grin you wear while you’re doing it. A bit of a giveaway.” She laughed.
“Most of it’s just showing off for you, always was,” I laughed back, “and the grin is more about the company than the driving.”
“You’re very sweet.” She said, another grin lighting up her face.
“And you are very pretty.” I replied, somewhat to my own surprise. I had been thinking it all day but had convinced myself not to say so, thinking she didn’t need to hear it from a guy like me. And now it had slipped out. Emma blushed, seeming to confirm my fragile theory. “So if the pretty girl would slip out of the cab and wait here by the gate, I’ll park this up and get my car.” She nodded, still looking a little flushed. “Sorry to have to ask, but I don’t want to answer questions when the CCTV catches you in the yard.” I apologised as I unlocked the gates.
“S’okay.” She smiled again, her apparent discomfort disappearing.

---

I was as quick as I could be; parking the truck and then dropping the keys into the office before jumping into my car and rushing back to the gate, fearful she may have gone for some reason. She was still there when I pulled up though.
“Drop your bag in the back and jump in. I just have to lock up again.” I said as I hopped out. When I got back in Emma gave me a dazzling smile for no apparent (to me) reason. For the first time I really thought that maybe this whole day hadn’t been one big tease on her part; there was so much that I found hard to believe; chief of which was the notion that I had been her fantasy guy.
“All right then Miss Emma, where am I taking you?” I asked.
“Do you know Beechfield Avenue?”
“I’m a bin man, I know everywhere in this town.” I grinned. “Aren’t the houses there a bit big for a single young lady?”
“Not the ones converted into flats and bed-sits.” She laughed.
“I stand corrected. Beechfield Avenue here we come.”

---

We chatted a little more during the short trip; inconsequential stuff about the day mainly. I realised she was definitely teasing me now; the way she phrased innocent questions so that they had dual meanings, and all with a twinkle in her eyes and a hint of a naughty grin. I decided I didn’t care and let it roll over me. This girl could say anything she wanted to me and I didn’t mind as long as she was talking to me.
I pulled up outside the address she’d given me.
“Want to come in for a coffee?” Emma asked. I hesitated momentarily, wondering if there was some sub-text to the question. She seemed to sense this. “It’s just a coffee, to say thank you for the lift.”
“In that case, how can I refuse?” I grinned and followed her in, carrying her bag for her.

---

I was leaning against the kitchen door as she busied herself making the drink. Even while she was doing such a mundane thing I felt myself entranced by her. Suddenly, without looking around at me, she spoke.
“Dave, I have a bit of a confession to make.”
“If it’s about teasing me all day about me being your secret crush it doesn’t matter. I enjoyed the idea.”
“I was teasing you a bit about some things, but not that. Never that. You really were my fantasy guy.” She smiled earnestly. “My confession is that I talked to your mate Bill behind your back.”
“Well, I wouldn’t believe most of what he told you, Bill is prone to exaggeration.” I said, my mind reeling from her assertion.
“He said you don’t date much. If you don’t mind me asking, why is that?”
“Apart from Bill’s ‘gay vibes’ theory?” I laughed.
“Seriously Dave.”
I shrugged. I couldn’t not tell her.
“I had a lot of bad dates as a teen and into my twenties, a lot. After that I figured it was me and just gave up trying.”
“What do you mean by ‘bad dates’?”
“I just kept messing things up. Trying to be funny at the wrong moment or serious when they were joking. I appear to have two brains; the more immature one seems to have control of my mouth most of the time, making me blurt out jokes and dumb comments at the most inappropriate times. However the other brain, the one that over thinks everything, always takes over when the mouthy one would be more use. The clever clogs part always worries too much, and then smartarse says something bloody stupid and the moment is gone.” I shook my head sadly. “So, there it is: I didn’t ‘get’ girls then, and I still don’t. To me you are strange and scary creatures Emma, strange and scary.” I sighed.
“And that’s why you don’t believe you could be my fantasy guy?”
“More or less, yes.”
Emma turned around, the coffee mugs in her hands. Her eyes looked watery, as if she was trying not to cry. My heart lurched as I wondered if I’d screwed it up yet again.
“Well believe it. Whenever I thought of my perfect guy it was you.”
“But why me? I’m twice your age, overweight and can be cranky as hell at times.”
“All that may be true, but I couldn’t tell that by just looking at your top half through the dustcart windows could I?”
“I suppose not. I must be a big disappointment to you.” I said looking down at the floor.
“Only for the fact that you haven’t even tried to kiss me yet.” Her hand went to my face. I looked up and she grinned at me. I could tell she really meant what she was saying. This beautiful young woman wanted me to kiss her!
I stepped forward and took the mugs from her hands, placing them on the counter.
“Are you sure you want me to?”
“Yes.” She said, her eyes now shining.
“You might be really disappointed if I do.”
“I doubt it, but I’ll take that chance.”
All throughout this exchange we had moved closer and closer until she was looking up into my face only inches away. I gently brushed my lips against hers and pulled back again.
“Now who’s teasing?” She breathed.
“That would be me.” I said softly before planting a firm kiss on her waiting pliant lips. She responded by placing her hands behind my head and holding me there. The kiss seemed to last forever and no time at all at the same time.
“Mmmm. That was worth waiting for.” Emma said as we finally parted. “I’m glad I didn’t give up on my five year plan.”
“Your what?”
“My five year plan. If I couldn’t find you again after five years I was going to give up on you.”
“How long ago did that start?”
“Only a couple of years, after you got switched around. I was still working on it. The next phase was going to be to find out where you were working every day.”
“How were you going to do that?”
“Like I said, I was still working on it.” She laughed.
“I’m glad you’re patient.” I looked into her eyes again. “And to think, this all began with a girl on roller skates waving.”
“And a bin man who smiled when he waved back.” She laughed.



.