Space Port Blues

The Spaceport terminal was bustling with passengers of all kinds, shapes, sizes and origins.  This was Harlech City, the capital of the mercenary trade in the known universe and it was a destination for millions annually.  Some of them were here to make their fortunes as soldiers for hire.  Some had come to find a way to support their families back home.  Most were looking for a chance at a brighter future than the one staring at them.  The oddest part of the entire travel process was the waiting. 

Hayden looked out into the faces milling about the star port but something odd caught her eye.  There was a small detachment of Wolf’s Dragoons infantry standing at attention.  What were they doing here?  The young man sitting next to her followed her eyeline and tilted his head. 

“What do you suppose that’s about?”  He asked her quietly.

“Security detail, maybe?”  She answered him. 

“For who?”

“I don’t know.”  He smiled softly at her, “My name is Mason, by the way, Mason Kadir.” He extended his hand. 

“Hayden Lin Shields,”  She returned the gesture and shook his hand. 

“I’m going to be a big deal mercenary someday.”  He said with a cool shrug of his shoulders.

“I am here hoping to get a job in the mercenary trade, too.” 

They stared at the security detail for a few more minutes, trying to figure out what was going on.  The calm of their moment was shattered ever so briefly by the intrusion of another man entering their immediate proximity.  He was an older man, older than both of them anyway.  He patted the younger man who had been sitting next to him for the time they had been here on the shoulder and shook his head.

“That’s amazing, son, you make your own candles?  Fascinating.  Oh I am sure your mother is going to be looking for you soon.  You better check the HPG station and see if she has a message waiting for you.”  The younger man nodded in agreement and took off at a run in the direction of the HPG station.  The man took a look at both of them and shook his head again.  “Jesus…Terrans.”  They stared up at him in wide eyed wonder for a minute.  “What, something in my teeth?”

“No…I don’t think so.”  Mason said quickly. 

“You two checking out the Dragoon security detail over my right shoulder?”  He asked the two of them.

“How’d you know?”  Hayden asked him.

“Because you’ve been staring at them for the better part of the last five minutes.” 

“So?”  Hayden answered him

“You two must be new around here.”

“What makes you say that?” Mason tried to play it off.

“Because the only people that stare that intently are either newcomers like yourselves, or spies, like the Asian gentleman sitting down the aisle with the yakuza tattoos on his arms and the immaculately dressed woman in the three piece suit on the upper concourse.”

They looked at each other, then looked at him again.  “Who are you mister?”  Hayden finally managed to exhale.

“Oh where are my manners.  Major Henry Jones.”  He nodded at the two of them. 

“You with a House?”  Mason asked him.

“No, just a dog chasing loose coins.”  They stared at him blankly.  

“Mercenary.” He clarified.

“What unit you with?”

“Tombstones.” 

“Never heard of you.”  Mason leaned back in his chair.

“The amount of fucks I give about your knowledge of me is so small you would need an electron microscope and a highly trained team of physicists to detect it.”  Hayden busted up laughing at the line and Mason puffed up his chest.  “See that shorter gentleman in the Wolf’s Dragoons uniform standing in the center of that security detail?”

“Yeah, so?”  Mason replied, still more than a little indignant at the burn he’d just suffered.

“That’s Colonel Jamie Wolf, he runs this entire planet.”

“That’s Colonel Wolf?  He’s so short.”  Hayden said quietly.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t point that out to him if you get a chance to talk to him.”

“So what is the leader of Wolf’s Dragoons doing in a space port?  Doesn’t he have more important things to do?”  Mason was getting his cool back. 

“My guess is that he is here to meet the same person I am, for different reasons.” 

“Who could you know that he would want to meet with?”  Hayden asked incredulously. 

“An old buddy of mine.  That would be him and his party right there.”  The older mercenary pointed at an absolute monstrosity of a human being coming down a debarkation ramp into the central thoroughfare.  He was accompanied by nearly a dozen children, ranging in ages from six or seven all the way up to their late teens. 

“What is he?”  Hayden said slowly. 

“I keep asking, but he won’t tell me.”  Henry said with a smile.  

Two of the teens were screwing around and playing a game that anyone who had a sibling had experienced a dozen times a week.  The young woman was standing as close as she could to a young man who was about her age and bringing her fingers as close as she could without actually making contact.  The other kids were staying fairly close together but these two had drifted away from the pack. 

Eventually their drift bought the two of them closer to Hayden, Henry, and Mason.  It also escalated their flurry of interactions until the young man with an exasperated sigh grabbed presumably his sister in a headlock.  Like a bell ringing in some ancient ring, that set the two of them off, and the scrap was going.

“Hi, Henry.”  The young man said while dragging his sister around by her head.  His sister was in the process of trying to free herself and was punching into his ribs. 

“Who?” she managed to say between shots to her brother’s rib cage. 

“Henry Jones.”  Her brother answered her question. 

“Oh, hi Henry.”  She looked up from the headlock and waved a little before grabbing her brother around the waist.  She had taken the opportunity to slip her head out from between her brother’s arm and body and spun.  While she was spinning, she lifted her brother off the ground and tossed him through the air.  He landed in the middle of a food kiosk and knocked over a wall.  Small bags of dozens of different kinds of snack foods sailed through air.  The entire space port seemed to stop moving and both of the teens were laying on the ground laughing.

“Mackenzie and Jaxun Sokolov!”  The voice cracked the air like thunder and the two of them quickly stopped laughing.  The giant of a human being had deviated from his path and was walking over towards the two of them.  The Dragoon security detail was in motion as well.  They all seemed to be converging on this one place. 

Hayden notice at that point the man had the left sleeve of his coat pinned up to his shoulder and it looked like he was at least part of his arm.  He closed the distance faster than she thought possible.  He bent over and picked up the young woman by the back of her belt and dead lifted her off the ground.  She flailed for a minute, trying to grab a hold of anything that was attached to the ground.  He set her down slowly on her feet, and stared at her for the briefest of moments. 

“He started it.”  She said quickly, trying to bring her brother into the immediate blast crater of this anger.

“She started it!” Her brother answered, trying to pull himself up from the wreckage of the Kiosk they’d flattened.  Two dragoon infantry were helping him to his feet.  He’d landed on a display of cheese flavored corn puffs and the bags had just exploded on impact, covering him in a thin layer of cheese dust.  His sister saw him and couldn’t help but laugh at his appearance. 

The giant shook his head once, and tossed a ring of keys at the sister  “Mackenzie, go get the transport.’    She nodded her head quickly and escaped the situation.  “Jaxun, go get the luggage.”

“All of it?”  he answered.  The look the man gave him would shattered glass.  He nodded quickly and took off towards the luggage area to pick up the bags for everyone who had been in their party.  He looked over at Henry, Mason, and Hayden and waved before disappearing into a different location in the space port. 

“Yeah, those are definitely Nikolai’s kids.” The voice came from behind the giant.  He turned slowly, shaking his head.  Colonel Wolf and his security detail had arrived on scene and the two of them that had helped Jaxun up were trying to help the shopkeeper put his Kiosk back together. 

“Jamie Wolf, I am tremendously sorry…” the larger man started. 

“It is nothing, old friend.  The joys of having siblings and being young.  I will take care of the damages.”  The smaller man smiled up at him. 

“Thank you for the kindness.” 

“You have been gone for too long.  I have missed you and your insights.” 

“I had a promise to keep.”  The small group of children huddled closer to him.

“You know you can make them the old fashioned way, Ivan Kirov.”  Colonel Wolf smirked up at him.

“Yes, I am aware of how children are made.” 

“How are you, you old pirate?”  Henry’s voice joined their conversation.

“I am neither a barbarian nor am I a pirate, ordinary or otherwise, Henry.”

“You between jobs, Henry?”  Colonel Wolf asked him with a smile. 

“Eh, Ivan was bringing something important, so I told the Fed-Com boys it would be a few months before we would start heading to our contract site.”

Henry walked over to one of the younger teens that had come with them and smiled.  He reached out and wrapped his arms around her.  She returned the gesture and held on for dear life.  “Hi, Gremlin.” 

“Hi, Daddy.” 

“And you two are?”  Colonel Wolf turned his attention to Hayden and Mason. 

“Uh…Hayden Lin Shields, Sir.”  She said with butterflies doing cartwheels in her stomach carrying fifteen kilogram weights.

“Mason Kadir, Sir.”  Mason answered the question with a little bit more cool.

“And what brings you two to Outreach?”

“The mercenary academy, Sir.”  Hayden answered him.  Mason nodded as well.

“You two hoping to find work as mercenaries some day?” 

“Yes, Sir.”  Mason answered.  Hayden nodded her agreement.

“Well, we’ll see.  You two enjoy your stay here on Outreach, but I would hurry up, the last tram to the academy leaves in ten minutes, and it’s on the other side of the Space Port.” 

They quickly grabbed their bags and exchanged quick salutes before dashing towards the directions they had been given by Colonel Wolf.  He turned his attention back to Ivan and let out a content sigh.  “Were we ever that young?”

“You might have been, I never had quite that level of freedom.” 

“It is good to have you home, old friend.”

“We shall see.”