"If You Sing These Words, We’ll Never Die" by rivlee for uniformly 2/2

[ficforvictory]

The streets of the Carentan district looked like a war zone. That wasn’t too far from the truth, with the broken glass and half bombed out buildings. Everything was covered in ash, smoke, and blood.

“It’s a damn good thing this is a mostly abandoned district minus the merch runners. We’d have a fucking galaxy-wide incident on our hands otherwise,” Liebgott bitched. He had one of Doc Roe’s healing patches attached to his skin and was trying to wash the dried blood off his face.

Perco wasn’t too happy that his formerly clean clothes were now covered with blood, brain matter, and mechanical fluid.

“What the fuck happened?” he asked.

Lieb shrugged. “I don’t fucking know, Perco. One minute Tipper was checking the store room and the next thing half the block fucking blew. Then these raiders came pouring in, one of ‘em threw that flash bomb practically in Alley’s face, and suddenly I’m here trying to keep our product secure and our asses alive. If Penk’s boys have any fucking clue what happened I’d like to know, because this bullshit stinks of an inside job. No one that’s not us comes to this district. No one.”

There was a loud commotion as Tab and Luz helped Roe and Spina with the portable healing pods. Both Alley and Tipper were already loaded up, in a medically-induced healing sleep. Perco thought most of the healing stuff was just as much magic as science; he never could get a straight answer about how those pods worked.

“Remind me never to use them as pall bearers,” Lieb said.

Perco punched him in the arm. “Not the time, Joe.”

“Look, I get that it could’ve been a lot worse, but this shit just doesn’t sit right.”

“Malarkey agrees with you. I haven’t seen him that pissed off in about three years.”

Lieb’s lips twisted and he turned his head. It was a classic tell.

“What aren’t you saying?”

“Look,” Lieb said, “if it wasn’t an inside job we’ve got to start looking at the people who know enough about us. It’s clearly not Roe or Spina, if they wanted to kills us, they’d do it in a much cleaner way. There are other people, on the fringes, outsiders who came in. We got to look at them.”

Perco knew what Lieb wasn’t saying, the name he wouldn’t speak. Hell, Malarkey probably already thought it. He just couldn’t see Buck doing this; it was too messy and gritty. It was an amateurish job done by people who knew enough to set explosives and shoot to wound, but it was still sloppy. You didn’t leave witnesses alive on a set-up like this one; you didn’t give them the chance of tracking you down or id’ing you. Buck knew that. And as much as Compton hated Nixon and his company, he couldn’t see him taking potshots at the Tripartite’s assets.

“Hold your hands out boys,” John Julian said as he strolled up with a scanner.

“What the fuck is that for?” Lieb asked.

“Trying to trace the chemicals used to make the bombs. You’re covered in it Lieb, and Perco’s surely got some transfer. So, hands.”

“When’d you get upgraded to explosives expert?” Perco asked. Last he saw Julian, he was training with Malarkey’s boys.

Julian made a confused noise as he scrolled through the data he’d already collected.

“Skip stole him,” Lieb explained. “There was an incident that left him out of commission for a bit.”

“Took a phaser blast to the throat,” Julian said. He tilted his head back, showing the hint of a truly horrific scar. “Babe got me to Roe just in time. We both got our asses handed to us by Malarkey, but I like working with Skip, so it’s fine. You’d know that if you came home more, Perco.”

Perco scoffed. “My home’s on Serafina. You could stop by for a visit. Or did Daddy Muck take away your driving privileges?”

Julian glared at him, which accompanied by Lieb’s loud laugh told the truth.

“Scrapped up one of the ships, did ya?” he asked.

“It’s Guarnere’s fault. If he hadn’t been distracting me, I would’ve passed.”

“Wild Bill is your piloting test, Julian,” Lieb said.

“Whatthefuckever, I don’t care. At least this way I don’t have to worry about piloting through space debris.” He tapped a few more buttons on his scanner and cursed.

“You got a problem there, Julian?”

“Yeah, the traces aren’t in the database. Which means we’re either getting some terraformed fertilizer explosions or a whole new test product. It’s organic, not synthetic, but fuck, man. I really don’t want to tell Skip about this. He’ll make me tell Winters and then I’ll get that look of disappointment and it ain’t my fault.”

“Yo, ladies, you done with your coffee klatch,” Babe Heffron yelled as he walked up with McClung.

“Clean-up crew’s here,” Lieb said. “Thank fucking god, I can get some sleep now.”

Babe pointed to Lieb’s shoulder. “We’ll drop you off at Roe’s so he can take another look at that.”

“He said it’d be fine to heal on its own.”

“Let’s not take any chances,” Babe said.

“Christ, Lieb, just give him the excuse he needs to go stalk Roe,” McClung said.

“Spina and Roe already carted off the dead and injured; there’s nothing here for you to cover up,” Perco said.

“We’re finishing the job. Razing it to the ground. Malarkey wants all traces of us gone in the quarter. We're keeping Tab, so you better run your little ass over to Dominguez and beg a ride off of him.”

“Dominquez will drop me off at some penal colony for laughs. I’ll help you guys. Someone’s going to need to get into the crawl spaces to set the detonators and it sure as hell won’t be Babe.”

“Why not?” Babe asked.

“Because you get stuck,” Julian said.

“All the fucking time,” Lieb agreed.

“You all can fuck off,” Babe said. He gestured with the explosives kit in his hand. “Come on, Perco, let’s go.”

They worked silently to move out the product, this time contraband foodstuffs and plastics used to fake credits, with everyone’s help. Lieb bled over a box or two and Julian dropped a case on his foot, but all and all, it went off without a hitch. It was a decent end to a job gone completely sideways. Something still wasn’t right though. It was too quiet, even for this district, and it was causing an itch under Perco’s skin.

“You feel that,” he quietly asked McClung as they set the detonators.

“Yeah,” he said. “At least our watchdogs are going to get a light show.”

“Should we even be talking at this point?”

“Babe put on the scramblers before we even landed. To them we sound like Roe’s Cajun ancestors. They’re probably running five different algorithms to figure it out.”

He tried not to flinch, thinking about the fact there could very well be a whole armada lying in wait above Marina’s atmosphere.

It didn’t take them long to finish. McClung was mostly silent, and even Babe and Julian were quiet as they left Carentan. He waited until he was safely ensconced in Babe and McClung’s ship before he echoed Lieb’s concerns.

“Do you think Lieb’s right, that Compton’s behind this?”

No one answered as McClung set off the signal. They watched from the spherespace as it blew. There was no way the Corporation could ignore this move, but it was a gamble. Normally they were quieter, subtle, but the initial attack had already raised enough flags. Dragging the authorities out here might lead them to info on who set the attack. If the Corporation sent out their sentinel crews, that meant one of their lesser-known contracted companies wasn’t behind it.

“I don’t know,” Babe finally said. He set a course for the closest medical outreach colony. “There have been rumors of a third power player cropping up. Penkala and Skinny are all over it, but so far no one’s really talking.”

The cabin grew quiet while Babe flew and McClung napped. Lieb and Julian were below deck sleeping the job off too. Perco sat back and watched the stars, all the while trying not to think about how much shit was going to rain down.

*************************

Perco woke up in one of the empty hospital beds of the medical colony, the smell of antiseptic and cheap laundry detergent surrounding him.

“Hey, Sleeping Ugly, nice to see you’ve joined the land of the living again.”

Ralph Spina threw a dentapack at him.

“I know how much you like a blindingly white smile.”

Perco shook his head and tried to clear it. It took a while to adjust to the different atmosphere, going from terraformed to ship to artificial and back. The medical colonies were stuck on artificial satellites all over the ‘verse. They were a sort of neutral ground; anyone who sought out medical care could get it with the understanding that no arrests, bounty pick-ups, or assassinations would occur on site.

“How long have I been asleep?”

“A couple hours. Tab said he had to drag your ass out of bed yesterday.”

“Yesterday? Shit. Already.”

Spina nodded. “Malarkey’s right then, you’re getting all distracted. If you can’t remember a simple time change calculation.”

“No one asked you, Ralph.”

Spina leaned back on the opposite bed, his boots clacking together as he swung his feet. Perco tried not to flinch as he was studied. All the healers were shot up with some coding shit that made it easy for them to discern a patient’s condition. Couple that with the natural empathy in most healers and it made them damn near psychic.

“I suggest you do some deep thinking while you’re here, Perco. That clean up you did alerted all of the Corporate’s watchdog and mercenary ships. You’re ordered to lay low for the next month. Everyone’s been called back here, even Dominguez, who was halfway to friggin’ New Roosevelt.”

“He finally got that hyperdrive then,” Perco said. Dominguez had been trading various goods on side jobs for years to get that damn engine. At least somebody was accomplishing their goals out here.

Spina hopped off the bed and held out a hand. “Come on, Frank. The sooner we get more brains on this case, the quicker you’ll get home. As much as I appreciate all the extra hands to change the bedpans, I don’t want you fuckers here for half-a-cycle. I don’t think we’ve got enough supplies to handle all the brawls Lieb and Babe will start in the commissary.”

Perco laughed even as he took Spina’s hand. Even though Lieb and Babe were trained fighters, they never turned down a chance to scrap. They said it kept their skills up just in case they got dropped in a jail cell again.

Often times it was just as dangerous to work for Nixon as it was for the Corporation.

“You think Buck did this?” he asked.

Spina was silent until they got behind the protective glass of the deck lift. “I think,” he said, pulling on his hat, “that Buck may have put out an order and it got fucked up. I can’t see him purposefully setting out to hurt any of our crew. Teach us a lesson, sure? But fuck, Tipper’s already lost an eye and he’ll be lucky to even walk again. Buck’s smarter and knows better, that hurting the low-levels will do nil to someone like Nixon. Winters won’t like anyone getting wounded, but Nixon, for all his faults, is a hell of a business man. He knows he’ll always have a pool of new employees.”

He dropped his head and took a deep breath.

“Buck’s not that stupid. He wants victory, but not in blood or on the backs of young men he respects.”

“You sure know a lot, Spina.”

His smile was small, but it was there. “Who do you think helped Roe when we had to sew up those four new holes in Buck’s ass? You get to know a man, what he really values, when you’ve got a scalpel that close to his balls.”

Everyone on the main deck turned to stare them down as Perco’s loud laugh filled the room.

************************

The medical colony had a communication and intel room that rivaled the Tripartite’s. Renee LeMarie had the keys and the control to the room and the only person she trusted with all access was Anna. It was Renee’s medical colony after all; Spina and Roe used it as their main outpost, but Renee’s name was on the deed, Anna’s as well, and trying to get either one of them to willingly hand over access to the room was damn near impossible.

The situation called for drastic measures. Luckily, Babe was always willing to throw himself into a wall if it meant he’d get some focused attention from Roe.

“You’re two steps away from boiling a bunny,” Luz said. He was supporting Babe who had a dislocated shoulder and jaw.

Babe couldn’t say much, he just rolled his eyes. At least he got the reference though, they all did after Luz’s last mandatory attendance film fest.

“Why can’t you just ask for access like a normal person,” Luz asked Perco.

Perco held up Babe’s other side, trying his damnedest to keep pace. “I did ask, but Renee keeps blowing me off claiming other priorities and shit.”

“And you can’t use the ship comms because Julian’s taking them all apart looking for bugs and plants,” Luz said.

“Right,” he agreed. “So, now we’re going to bother Roe, after Babe’s so kindly volunteered to break his pretty face, and we’re going to sit back and watch the Doc’s temper get done what polite inquires won’t.”

Luz grimaced. “You know, you’re going to be pissing off Roe and Renee big time, especially once they find out it’s a scam.”

“It’s not a scam,” Babe mumbled. “I’m kind of in a lot of fucking pain right now.”

“It’s not like it’s unheard of for Babe to get his face smashed in,” Perco said. “It’s a weekly occurrence at this point.”

“You’re that fucking desperate for contact with your pet project that you’re willing to throw your old friends under the bus, nice, Perco.”

“Luz, I swear to god,” Perco cursed.

“What the hell did you dumb fools do,” Doc Roe demanded. He’d clearly just come out of his bunk, wearing yesterday’s clothes and a whole body posture of exhausted.

Babe tried to smile but it was an act of complete and utter failure and pain.

“For fuck’s sake,” Roe muttered. He shoved Perco out of the way and took up Babe’s other side. “Heffron, what the hell am I supposed to do with you.”

Luz turned his head back to Perco and wiggled his eyebrows. Babe just whimpered in answer.

“I swear to god, Heffron,” Roe said, dumping him on one of the empty beds. “It’s like you enjoy getting your ass whooped. I’m already beyond budget for pain killers and numbing agents this cycle.”

“Sorry, Doc,” Babe said. He couldn’t have looked more pathetic if he honestly tried.

“Shit,” Roe said, taking in Babe’s bowed head and painfully slumped shoulders. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m sorry, Edward. It’s just been a rough month. Don’t look to be letting up anytime soon.”

Edward, Perco mouthed at Luz.

Luz shrugged his shoulders and looked as baffled as he felt. No one used Babe’s given name, not even his own siblings.

Babe didn’t bitch when Roe started poking and prodding a bit tougher than necessary. Doc didn’t look happy though, especially when he pressed against the right side of Babe’s ribcage.

“You cracked your ribs, you dumb fuck,” Luz said before Doc could diagnose.

“I did not,” Babe said through a clenched jaw.

“Probably just bruised,” Roe said. He ran over to one of the scanners and brought up a series of commands. The string of curses that followed probably wasn’t proper operating procedure.

“Problems?” Luz asked.

“I think Julian fucked up our source code somehow. I need to see if any lab slots are open so I can get a proper scan of Heffron’s chest.”

“I can go ask Anna to secure a space,” Perco offered. It’d get him in the comm room without pissing Doc off too bad.

“Yeah, that’d work,” Roe agreed. “Thanks, Perco. We might have Heffron bandaged up just in time for his dinner time brawl.”

“It’s not like I do it on a schedule,” Babe said.

“No, it just happens that way,” Roe said.

Luz shook his head at the two of them. There was a running betting pool throughout the ‘verse when they’d both finally wake the fuck-up. After half a month locked up in the medical colony, everyone was waiting for Babe and Roe to just finally get it over with. Perco included.

It took him nearly twenty minutes to find Anna and Renee. They were both knee deep in inventory and cursing in some pretty creative ways about all of them.

“It’s as if you are all incapable of going a single day without losing blood,” Renee said.

“Yeah, Renee, about that,” he said.

She narrowed her eyes. “Who?”

“Heffron. Doc said he’s need a decent scan of his chest, but Julian’s fucked with the interface logs.”

Renee closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She was obviously trying not to scream. Perco couldn’t blame her; it was one thing to provide shelter for a night, or a week, but looking at a month or more had to make her question the absence of any merciful god.

“I will handle it,” Anna said. She pressed a soft kiss to Renee’s hairline. “Why don’t you rest. I am sure Perco will gladly assist me with any other tasks.” She turned to study him. “Don’t think for a moment I can’t see this is your scheming act to get ahold of the comm room. All you had to do was ask. Still, I respect the bonds of brotherhood that sees one of you get his ass handed to him for the other.”

Renee buried her head in Anna’s hair to cover up her laughter.

“I did ask,” he argued.

“But not politely,” Renee said.

“Or with a bribe,” Anna said. She shook her head. “Honestly, Perco, it’s almost as if you’ve forgotten how the world works.”

He knew better than to argue the point with those two.

*******************

After a week of bribing Anna for time in the comm room and Skip’s vague answers about O’Keefe’s whereabouts, Perco was a little pissed off.

Okay, a whole hell of a lot.

“You don’t know where he is? What the fuck does that mean, Skinny?” he yelled at the screen.

“I think that means he can’t locate our dear friend Patrick,” Luz said.

Perco glared at him. “No shit.”

Skinny looked bored and blinked at him very slowly. “Just like I explained yesterday, Skip sent him out on a job. A simple trash run. If the kid can’t survive a courier job, then it’s best for all of us to find out now.”

“We’re on lockdown at a medical colony at the ass-end of nowhere, but you’re sending rookies out there unsupervised,” Perco said.

“He’s not unsupervised,” Skinny said. “Toye and Guarnere are with him.”

“Oh, that should make him feel loads better. Thanks, Skinny,” Luz said.

Skinny laughed. “I try. Look, you know we’ve got to assume that the Corporation jackholes have profiles on everyone who set foot in the Carentan district. You’ve got another week at most until Webster finished his current hack job. He’d doing some copy/replace out of Dickens’ novels or some shit. Just sit tight a little longer.” He cut off the comm line before they could reply.

“He’s turned into more of a bastard over the years,” Luz said.

Perco huffed in agreement. “You can practically see the bullshit rolling off him on the screen.”

Luz dragged him to the commissary for a decent meal. They’d just restocked the other night, so there were actual fresh vegetables, meat, and eggs. It was a luxury no one was willing to pass up and the tables were packed. They squeezed in between Lieb and Dominguez on one side, and Babe and Tab on the other.

“So, any word?” Babe asked.

Babe grimaced as he shifted. His shoulder was still in a sling. Perco thought it was a bit of overkill, but Roe was probably desperate to do anything that would keep him from throwing a punch. Though, as McClung so helpfully pointed out, Babe still had two well-working legs.

“Skinny said he’d sent the kid out on his first trash run,” Luz said. “I’m guessing a courier job, but who the hell knows. Skip gets those ideas in his head and makes Penky go along with them. For all we know, new boy’s already gone and got himself infiltrated in the Corporation.”

Perco’s jaw clenched even thinking about it. It wasn’t outside the realm of possibility, especially with recent developments.

“Shifty was pushing for that,” Babe explained to the others. “He’s convinced the kid’s a perfect suit-and-tie mole.”

“I’d say he’s pretty damn perfect if he’s one of those pampered fucks from Ivy City,” Lieb agreed.

“He can’t help where he was born,” Perco argued. “His family’s fallen, Lieb. They’ve lost everything they know. And the kid’s with us, sticking his neck out and risking his life. You got to respect that.”

“I don’t have to respect shit,” Lieb said. “I don’t give respect de facto, you know that Perco. Besides, it’s going to take more than one sob story to make me feel for the privileged fuck-ups who helped destroy half of the damn galaxy.”

Perco couldn’t really argue with that, so he dropped his head and dug into his salad.

Conversation changed to the newest ship prototypes and the newest phaser gun models. The food wasn’t the only luxury here; it’d been too damn long since they all shared a meal without the sky burning overhead.

********************

“Perco, get your ass up,” Tab hissed in his ear.

“Fuck, again.”

Tab laughed. “We’re free, you asshole. Malarkey just recalled us. Well, you and Luz are going back to Serafina, but we finally get to leave.”

“No shit,” Luz said, from the bunk above.

“No shit,” Tab agreed.

“Well, what are we waiting for, boys,” Luz said. He jumped down from his bunk. He had his bags out of the hold before Perco was even out of bed.

“Got somewhere to be?” Tab asked.

Luz shrugged. “I don’t trust Jay to water my plants.”

Tab laughed. He pulled them both into quick hugs. “I’ll miss you two.”

“Don’t be a stranger, Tab,” Luz said.

Perco nodded. “We could always use you around Serafina.”

There was a whole long ass round of hugs, goodbyes, and paying off of gambling debts before they boarded their ships. Babe, Tipper, and Alley were staying behind until they were fully healed. Dominguez and McClung had already been handed their next job. Tab and Julian were off to track down a lead on the new explosive. Only Lieb was flying back with them.

Days had passed and it was dark by the time they landed at the Tripartite’s docking bay. Kitty was there to meet them. She had a mission packet for Lieb.

“Welcome home,” Lieb muttered before grabbing it.

Kitty smirked. “You had a month off. Suck it up, Joe.”

She turned to him and Luz. “You two can go home.”

“What about O’Keefe?” he asked.

“He’s on a job,” she said. “No need for you guys to waste time here. You need to go back to Serafina. Jay’s been working his ass off to cover all the jobs. There’s no reason to stay here when there’s work there.”

“No reason,” he said.

“Christ, Perco, O’Keefe’s not here. He passed his gauntlet training and his first two courier jobs. He’s intel gathering now. We’ll send him back to Serafina when he’s done. Go home.”

“That’s not a request, I take it,” Luz said, backing him up.

“Go,” Kitty said, shooing them with one perfectly manicured hand.

“Can we at least get a ride to the main dock?” he asked.

Kitty tilted her head and smiled at them. “You know better than that.”

“Offuckingcourse,” Luz muttered. “What about the shit we left here.”

“Already sent back home.”

“I’m not feeling the love here, Kitty,” Luz said.

“Seriously, did we piss someone off?” he asked.

Kitty snorted. “Between the daily demands for updates and taking part in the devastation of the Carentan district, I’d say yeah.”

“Hey, those were orders,” he said.

She rolled her eyes. “And how well did that turn out for any of us?”

Luz shifted himself between the two of them. “Perco, let’s just go before Kitty decides to turn us into newts.”

“I’m sure you would get better,” she said.

Perco looked between the two of them, not getting the joke.

Luz slung an arm around his shoulder and patted him on the back. “No culture with this one, I tell ya.”

“Keep your eyes open,” Kitty yelled after them. She never said goodbye. It was always too final for Kitty, and something too often repeated in her life. A warning though, she’d always give that.

They both waved at her before taking the exit road. It was a hell of a lot easier to exit the Tripartite than enter, and there were on the city streets before midnight.

“Kitty seem a little paranoid to you?” he asked.

Luz kicked a loose rock. “I think everyone is right now, Perco. Shit’s changing and no one, not us, not the Corporation, are going to be the same.”

****************

Jay greeted them with a string of curses and a fight.

Perco watched in fascinated horror as Jay took a punch to the gut and stumbled into the corner. There was a giant pulling out their comm units in the office.

“Can we help you?” Luz asked.

Perco tried hard not to laugh at Luz’s perfectly polite tone.

“Brad Colbert with Nixon Networks. I’m here to review your recent ship manifests.”

“The hell you are,” Perco said. “Hand over your authorization codes.”

Colbert looked at them as if they were insects. “I already handed them to your colleague there, but he refused to check them.”

“Maybe because you fucking invited yourself inside,” Jay said, holding his ribs. “Do you fucking know where we are? You don’t pick locks around here and expect people to just stand for it.”

“I told you who I was,” Colbert said.

“And if you work for Nixon you’d know that words are worth shit these days,” Luz said. He walked over to one of the hidden comm units and punched in the line for Nixon.

Perco slipped under Colbert’s arms and put himself in front of the comm unit. He gestured to the half-broken chair behind them. “Please, sit down, take a break.”

“Back the fuck away from the comm unit,” Colbert said. “I get it.”

“I figured you would.”

Colbert was definitely a former military man. He acted like Shifty, a hair trigger away from fatal action. The obvious limp in his left leg and the scars over his hands clearly pointed to the reason he was no longer serving the Corporation’s army. Hell, he might have been on the rebel side, but he looked like an Ivy City boy.

“How’d you get involved with Nixon?”

“I followed my pilot,” Colbert said. He didn’t give any other information. He looked bored at it all.

“Do you even care that Jay could’ve killed you when he found you here?”

That got Colbert’s attention. Or rather, his pride. “He should’ve taken the shot when he had the chance.”

“I’m not in the manner of killing stupid little shits.”

“I was an obvious intruder. I wasn’t even subtle about it. At the very least, you could’ve made a wounding shot. Instead, I’m sitting here, sweating my IQ points away while you’re over there holding your ribs together. I think I can live with those results.”

Luz walked back into the main room. “Winters vouched for him, he’s legit. Though I’m asked to remind you to call before you drop by again.”

Colbert pointed to the office door. “Your sign says you’re open at 8, it was already past 10 when I finally lost my patience. Bad business practices shouldn’t be rewarded.”

“You’re a jackass,” Luz said, “but I kind of like you.” He pulled out a stack of blank drives. “You may copy the manifests and the mission plans, but our comm units are staying in the wall. Where they are supposed to live nice and happy without getting ripped out by the Big Unfriendly Giant.”

Colbert grabbed one of the drives and made a face. “I forgot that I’m at the bumfuck ass-end of nowhere and this is what you crossbred dwellers consider modern technology.”

“I can get you a pen and a pad of paper instead,” Perco said.

“This’ll do,” Colbert said.

It was quiet in the office while he went to work. They watched his every move.

“You know,” Colbert said, “I met one of your boys at HQ. O’Keefe? He implied that you three were entertaining and decent company. I’m going to have to call him a liar the next time we cross paths.”

“What was he doing at HQ?” Perco asked.

“Meeting with Winters. That’s Penkala’s career-track for him, right? For the Ivy City boy to work at Winters’ side. O’Keefe’s daddy could provide plenty of insider trade information.”

“Well that was fast,” Luz said. “The least Skip could’ve done was buy him dinner first.”

Jay rolled his eyes. “Skip had me working my first job a week into training. They fucking dropped me on Gloucester and made me figure out my own way home. I guarantee you that’s what he did to O’Keefe.”

“He didn’t pull that shit with me,” Perco said.

“Yeah, well, you’re not an outsider, Perco,” Jay said. “O’Keefe’s still got to prove himself. They need to know he won’t be a liability. All the talk about brotherhood and a thieves’ code means fuck all when it comes down to our livelihood.” Jay ruffled his hair. “Look, Perco, you knew when you brought him to the Tripartite that they weren’t going to risk all just because you now have something to lose.”

Colbert leaned back in his chair. “O’Keefe wasn’t a total liar, then. You ladies are far more entertaining than I imagined.”

“Kiss my ass, Colbert,” Jay said.

Colbert waved him off. “I’d rather not throw my back out by trying to bend down that far.”

*******************

It was a blistering hot day on Serafina when O’Keefe came home. He looked good, tanned and smiling, filled out and slightly dirty.

Luz was the first to welcome him home. He took him in a bear hug and lifted him off the ground.

“Where the hell were ya?”

O’Keefe laughed. “They dropped me off at the Garden and told me to find my way home.”

Perco felt his breath catch in his throat. The Garden was a desert planet. It was once full of vegetation and life, the first of the successful terraforming projects. Then the war happened, it was over-used as a resource planet, and was now nothing but an arid landscape and a few ore mines on the still viable corners.

“How the hell did you pull that one off?” Jay asked.

O’Keefe ducked his head. “There was a major desert race going on. No one said I couldn’t get help getting home. I agreed to help the team with repairs to their tracker and they covered my first round of fares to Gloucester. I ran into the crew of The Vera there.”

“And they didn’t try to kill you?” Luz asked.

“Not when I promised to find a home for their dog. My sister took it in. She’s been wanting a pet.”

Perco shook his head and finally broke out of his stupor. He pulled Perco from Luz’s clutches. “You are one lucky Irish bastard,” he murmured into the soft curls at the nape of O’Keefe’s neck.

“Thanks, Frank,” he said.

He let go of him, watched Jay take his bag and help him back in the house. He felt Luz study him for a moment. They exchanged a nod before Luz joined the group inside. Perco stayed outside and took a moment to center himself. Everything was slotting back into place. It felt different, not wrong. There was more to risk now, he got that. He’d spent the past three months pulling his hair out and calling in every contact and favor he could to get a line on O’Keefe. Maybe it helped, maybe it didn’t, but all that mattered was O’Keefe being home. He wasn’t just whole, he looked thriving, as if he finally felt right in his own skin.

Perco couldn’t be too mad at the Tripartite or Shifty. He, especially, knew the measure of a man and how to make a boy grow up. The only person any of them could truly rely on was themselves, but if sure as hell felt good to have an equally-tested ally.

There was no guarantee any of them would see it to the end of the next annual cycle. It felt like war was coming, not just the hint of it, but an actual blaring siren. Perco was scared, and for the first time it was more than for himself, his family, or his best friends. He couldn’t help but be protective of O’Keefe, especially now, not when he could see the potential of him. Of them.

Perco laughed to himself. Malarkey, the fucker, was right of course. He’d never admit it to his boss, but he was right. He ran a hand over his face and marched back inside. There were jobs to do, things to acquire, and communications to translate. All in a day’s work and with one extra set of hands now.

He couldn’t help but be protective of O’Keefe but now that the boy had seen what was out there between the stars, he couldn’t very well hold him back. He’d just have to watch out for everyone else.