Mackenzie sat the heavy case down on her bed. Since her promotion, she had been given spacious quarters of her own. The case was full of answers to questions, but they led to even more questions. She felt a sense of peace in these quarters for the first time since they’d been captured. The case opened with a click and the amber light filled the room again.
Being on our side of the line makes it so much easier for your family to contact you… Gregor had said. Her family...She wiped the tears from her eyes as she unpacked the case again. All of her worldly possessions could fit in that case, and she wasn’t sure how she felt about that.
It was full of letters, and papers, and pictures of her mother and father, and her little brother. She missed him terribly. Also included were pictures of two younger girls, along with names and birthdates. She had more siblings. She heard the knock at her door, and closed the case. Farraday was at her door, and she saw something she hadn’t seen in the larger woman...concern.
“What troubles you, Mackenzie?”
“It’s a family thing, Farraday.”
“I do not understand, could you explain it to me?” The larger woman stepped into her quarters, and Mackenzie slowly nodded.
“My Father, is evidently a bloodnamed warrior of Clan Wolf. He took my mother and my younger brother to the homeworlds when the clans issued their recall order. That’s how i ended up living with my aunt and uncle for most of my teens.”
“Aunt? Uncle?” Farraday studied her face, trying to figure out what was going on.
“Ivan was like a brother to my father, a normal inner sphere family calls those uncles when referring to them from a child’s perspective.”
“And your uncle and aunt were hard on you?”
“Not at all, Ivan was the strangest parent on Outreach. So long as we followed the four or five rules he did have, he gave us a pretty wide discretion to do whatever we wanted. My brother spent most of his time in the library, i spent mine having fun.”
“So he was a good parent?”
“I think he tried his best, I know he and my father had a very loud argument the night before they left.”
Mackenzie opened up the dossier that Ivan had sent, with the details of her family lineage on her father’s side, and the picture fell out. Farraday picked it up, and studied the people in it. “He is quite attractive.” she said with a smile.
“That would be my uncle.”
“And you are the little girl?”
“Aff, i remember this, i had been playing with my brother Jaxun, and i had broken his stupid crusader mech toy and he took off screaming for our mother and i ended up running for the HQ tent where i knew Ivan and my father were working. One of their mechwarriors was taking a picture for posterity, and in comes a little girl running and hiding behind the Elemental in the room.”
“Were you disciplined for breaking your brother’s toy?”
“No, Ivan took us up to his office and we sat on his knees and helped him put it back together again. For a man with one arm, he is remarkably talented at building and fixing small things.”
“This seems like a happy memory, why are you crying?”
“I guess...i just don’t understand why mother and father decided to leave me and Jaxun here, in the Inner Sphere when they went back to the Homeworlds.”
“How old were you?”
“13 or 14 i think.”
“Too old to fit into a Sibko. You would not have fit well into our society.”
“What?”
“At that age, you should have nearly completed your schooling and been ready to start your professional training for whatever caste you would end up in.”
“Who knows what they want to be when they are 14?”
“I did, but i had a very different upbringing than you did. I was ready to start the combat training as soon as they would let me.”
“I wish they would have told me.”
“Would you have understood what was going on at the time? “
“Would 14 year old you have understood the choices your family made for your benefit?”
“Probably not, but i am not exactly the smart one.”
“Compared to who, Mason?”
“Compared to either of my brothers.”
“Smart is overrated.”
“What?”
“Smart is such a nebulous word. I am very competent at the skills my job requires, but they are not the same skills that a mechwarrior practices. I know that the technicians who repair our mechs and suits have amazing depths to their areas of expertise that i could probably never match if i wanted to. The scientists are the very definition of smart, i think.”
“What’s the point?”
“We survive as a clan because we all have different things that we excel at, and in our areas, we are the most competent people available. Finding the right spot can be hard for a trueborn, i have no idea how it would work for a freeborn.”
“I haven’t ever really felt like i belong anywhere.”
“You are a Star Commander for Clan Jade Falcon.”
“That is true.”
“In that regard, we are equals, comrades, and friends. Our two service branches work hand in hand to win the war on the ground, and i will trust you to handle the battlemech aspect of that, and i hope you will trust me to handle the armored infantry side of the battle, quiaff?”
“Aff, you are my friend, and my equal.”
“And we share Mason.”
“Sort of.”
“We share him as part of our lives, not necessarily the same parts.”
“Want to see what else i was sent?” Mackenzie chuckled for just a moment.
“This is a family sort of thing?”
“Aff.”
“I do not wish to intrude.”
“The Clan is our family, aff?”
“Aff.”
“Then you are a part of my family now.”
“Aff.”
“This is from...Natasha Kerensky.” She pulled the large bottle of liquor out of the case and set it on the table. It was the source of the Amber luminescence that filled the case.
“How do you know Natasha Kerensky?”
“She and my father used to work together. It’s even got a note.”
If you’re going to dress like me, you better get some red hair, kid. Congratulations on passing your Trial of Position. If you want to join a real clan, let me know.
“She sounds just as insane as reported by our superiors…”
“This is a gift from someone named Ulric Kerensky.” She pulled the metal shard out of the case, turning it over in her hands several times.
“What is it?” Farraday tilted her head.
“According to the note, it’s a piece of Ferro Fibrous Armor from the cockpit of an Atlas II belonging to someone named Nicholas Kerensky.” Farraday’s eyes widened and the color drained from her face. “The note says ‘Don’t get cocky, kid, anything can happen on the battlefield.”
Farraday sat down next to her, and watched her open the case and go through all of the notes and messages from her family. Mackenzie had to wonder if Jaxun had been sent a similar box after his trial of Position...
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