Cavalier's Gambit 2 -ch 7-

Chapter 7

“—and there we are,” Wayne said with a chuckle, handing over Cara’s new bank card, room key, identification, and even her Dashi citizenship identification card as well. “I didn’t realize the administration office could handle it all without Michael getting involved. That was rather nice.”

“It’s because it was you,” Cara said, looking at all the different pieces of plastic and pictures of her. The picture on her Dashi ID was older. She looked barely eighteen in it. “I think if it had been anyone else, they wouldn’t have done much. They were shocked as it was that I am Dashi.”

“To be fair, Cara, Mirkil and Dashi are going to be problematic and at each others throats for a long while I think,” Wayne said with a laugh. “I personally don’t care. I wouldn’t have found your wild and crazy self otherwise, nor would I have been given as much honor as I have.

“Though I imagine the Dashi don’t like me much. At all, really.”

“That’s wrong. They respect you. A great deal. Many of the prisoners I took are here on this station. They serve my ends and my needs in service to your Warrior house,” Cara said, then gave him a wide smile. “I had them classified as prisoners of war and have been using them in the garage. They live in the bunkhouse that normally would be used by mechanics.”

“Really? I’ve never even seen them,” Wayne admitted, looking surprised. “They do a lot of work hunting for specific parts for the Armorer. Moving through the junkyards to find anything they can from a list of parts.

“The junk yard dealers don’t fight them combing over everything and anything. The sight of ten or so Dashi women scrambling over things and digging out electronic parts is pretty common now.”

“Are all Dashi women as pretty as you are, Cara? The few I saw had darker hair then you and you’re rather… unique. Bright,” he said, looking at her red hair.

“I-no. I am-no. Red hair is not that common,” she said, her mouth turning into a flat line as she began shuffling her identifications about.

“You clearly need a purse or something. A wallet. Something,” he said, watching her.

“Yes. I will ask Miriam,” Cara said with a nod of her head, then stuck all of it into a pocket, pushing her fingers into it several times as if to make sure they were all the way down. “Thank you, Wayne. I didn’t realize you were… paying me.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” he asked with a laugh, then reached out and patted her shoulder. “You’re my squad-mate. My Warrior. It’s my responsibility to make sure you got all your shares and awards. I did the same thing for everyone else. It’s a shame I can’t technically award Tink, since she’s not going on the missions, but I just… buy her anything she wants anyways.

“And all she ever wants are my salvage shares to strip parts out of things that she wants. That’s more or less how it goes with her.”

“Yes, the Armorer is perfect,” Cara murmured, cleraed her throat, and stood up straight. “I want to take you to my home planet and show you off to my family. I want-I… I want to teach you my language so you may speak it cleanly when we go.”

“Oh? Neat. They won’t be mad at me? Are you sure? I killed a lot of Dashi,” he said, eying Cara questioningly. “A lot of Dashi. It’s somewhat ghoulish to admit just how many, but I did.”

“Those who you killed would be resentful, of course. And perhaps very close family members, but in the same breath… the overwhelming majority of the Dashi Blood will find your victories and the way you handled them… exciting.”

The last word had been said with a growl in her tone that caused Wayne to look at her face immediately. There was an energy in her that he had only heard from her when they were on the field.

Only in the middle of a fight or planning for one.

Cara’s gaze was locked on him and her eyes held a cold edge to him that he now truly understood exactly what Miriam had meant. That she was indeed, hunting him.

“Well, now you have your money, Warrior Cara,” he said, attempting to shift the conversation a bit to the side. “What was it you wanted to buy? Anything in particular?”

“Communication to Dashi,” Cara said, still staring at him in the same way. Her words had thickened as if she weren’t properly forming them as her mind was elsewhere. “I’m going to put in a request to travel there with you and the rest of our squad. You will be the first to visit Dashi as a Confed in a very long time.

“Recently the Calesat honored a Privateer so it shouldn’t be too much of a stretch to be able to make this happen. I think the Dashi TrueBlood will accept it and be eager to meet you. My… family will be eager as well.”

“Oh, alright. Do we take the rest of the Dashi we captured with us? Technically they’re not really prisoners of war, neither are you,” Wayne said with a laugh. “If they’re helping Tink with the build-out and the Walkers, then they’re just as integral as Tink is. I assume she’ll be coming if she wants?”

“She does not want,” Cara got out in a clipped tone. Then she blinked, gave herself a small shake and cleared her throat. “She does not want to go. She says she hates planets.”

“I… yeah, she does,” Wayne agreed with another laugh. “Alright. And the Dashi?”

“Wish to remain with their leader, Tink,” explained Cara with a wide grin. “They like her. They see the changes that their parts bring. They are part of a whole that serves the Warrior Wayne. It’s a noble place to be in a group.”

“Alright, well… you go request that visit then. I’m going to stop in and chat with Wendy real quick,” he murmurs, not really wanting to linger around Cara right now. He’d just gotten a ‘peak behind the veil’ so to speak and it’d left him rather concerned for his own safety.

He very much expected her to kick down his door and ‘fuck to the death’ with him.

“Yes, I will. Thank you, my perfect Lord,” she said, the same energy returning for a moment as she stared at him. Then she spun away and moved off, to what he was sure was the communications facilities of the station.

Wayne watched her for several seconds and started to turn. Only to find her looking over her shoulder at him. It reminded him of wildlife watching him from the greenery surrounding his home.

Watching even as they left.

She looked ahead once again, took the turn, and vanished from sight.

Shaking his head, Wayne turned, and moved down to the Confed office. Where captain Wendy Chilton resided as the resident ‘Wayne envoy’.

Given that he had accepted a permanent contract with the Mirkil Defense Force that allowed him to take Confed contracts, she hadn’t been removed or replaced. Nor had she been demoted.

Walking up to the office door, he knocked twice, paused, then knocked twice more.

“Enter,” called captain Chilton from inside.

Turning the door knob Wayne entered the office, looked around, found it empty save Wendy, and closed the door behind himself. Then turned the lock.

Wendy was an attractive woman. She had a light-tan color to her skin that made her bright green eyes almost too bright. Her dark brown hair had a shimmer to it that gave it a light and dark contrast depending on the light.

She was slim, athletic, and trim. The picture of a woman who would easily jog, fight, or shoot, without a problem. A woman of many talents.

“Wayne!” she said with a wide smile for him. “I had hoped you’d drop by. I want to discuss that mission with you. It didn’t… go to plan, obviously.”

Chuckling, Wayne went and sat himself down in front of her, slouching low and nodding his head.

“That’s definitely one way to put it, Wendy,” he said, looking at the woman. “Thanks for not saluting. That would’ve just been awkward. I prefer the Witty and Attractive Captain to ‘all you can eat wendy’ with a salute.”

Wendy groaned at that, looking back to her teminal, then her keyboard, then huffed, and leaned back in her seat. Shaking her head she stared at him.

“I should’ve just throw myself privates first,” she blurted out, looking frustrated. “It’s not like I’m not attracted to you. Or that I’m in a relationship. I just got too wound up over the fact that I didn’t get a choice in the orders. I think that was the biggest difference between Miriam and I.”

“Privates first, you say,” he said, grinning at her.

“Yeah. Privates first,” she confirmed, then sighed again. “It is what it is. Thankfully I now understand you and you’re intentions are about as clean as they come. It got me promoted.”

She said the last while tapping at her color.

Now that she’d pointed it out, he noted her insignia had changed though just the color.

“Well, congratulations are in order. A major now?” he asked, grinning at her. “Though, weren’t they going to promote you of the station? I thought that was the whole goal?”

“They tried, I declined,” she said with a ferocious grin. “I just told you I finally understand you Wayne. Why would I give you up now that I get it. Oh, speaking of, got you a mission present. It’s just something stupid, but I saw it and thought of you.”

She pulled open a drawer, pulled something out, and stuck it down in front of him.

It was a hand carved model of patchwork. It looked to be mid motion.

“Thanks, Wendy, I really appreciate that,” he said it and meant it. Gently picking up the item. “Where did you get this?”

“Mirkil. I went there to work out some details with some officers. I’m the lead liaison for Wayne Hesh Confed recruitment,” she admitted with a laugh, shrugged, and held up her hands as if in surrender. “What can I say? I’m a fan. Oh, I also got you this while I was there. I was betting you didn’t have time.”

She reached back into her drawer and put down three Sov-Raisin bars. It was a strange chocolate bar that had seemingly only been on Mirkil.

“Oh my fuck Wendy I love you,” he said and gently put the patchwork model down, picked one of them up and immediately tore open the wrapped and took a bite out of it. He chewed it and felt like he was standing at the end of a loading bay waiting for a new shift. “You’re the best.”

“Like I said. I figured you out. You’re just… Wayne. A normal, every day, kind of guy, who says what he means, even if it’s stupid,” she said with a warm smile, watching him. “I just have to be honest, in your business like an over-attached girl friend, not girlfriend, but girl friend, and do dumb shit with you, and… that’s it.”

Wayne nodded his head as he took another bite of his favorite candy bar. She hadn’t been wrong in her estimation. In his time back on his home-planet, he didn’t get a chance to get his candy bar of choice.

“Pretty much,” he said with a nod of his head and a grin after swallowing. “If you had thrown yourself privates first at me and gave me candy bars I think I would’ve had a lot harder time signing with Miri and Josie. Though to be fair… I did mostly sign because… Josie.”

“I saw that notification. Congratulations,” she murmured, grinning at him. “Fiance to the future queen. What’ll they think when I drop my memoirs later that you hit on me so hard I thought about calling you after I debriefed you just to ask you out?”

“That whoever you date next won’t really like that book,” Wayne said after polishing off the first candy bar. He looked around, found the trashcan, and flicked it in.

“Oh, I don’t know. I figure I might just… hang out around long enough to talk my way past Miri, Josie, and Tink. I have a breakfast date with Cara and Barbie tomorrow, then lunch with Tink. Post-dinner coffee with Miriam and I set up a virtual-date with Josephine. I hacked into the Mirkil systems and… found all sorts of photos of you from your life before the war.”

Wayne’s eyebrows rocketed to the top of his head as if launched to orbit.

“What?” Wendy said with a wolfish smile, watching him. “I admit I lost the fight with Miri. You signed on with the MDF in a way where if I push in the right way, if I tempt you along with the ‘best girl friend’ shtick, I’ll get you to come closer. And closer. Then… I can just, slide in. It’ll be perfect.

“I’m wondering if you’ll even notice it. I bet you won’t.

“Now… here’s the formal article that I want you to look at before we start talking. Because there are things I can’t say, even though I want to.”

Wendy sat up in her chair, pulled out her phone, tapped at it for several seconds, then looked to him.

Wayne blinked, then pulled out his phone and looked to it.

An avatar he hadn’t expected at all was there next to the message line. A very nearly nude Wendy Chilton save for a bikini that did almost nothing to cover her. She looked to be at some type of pool.

Holy hell it’s like two eyepatches on floss.

“Last year, I broke up with my fiance and bought some clothes I really shouldn’t have ever worn,” she said with a laugh, as if reading his thoughts. “Anyways, look at the article.”

Stupidly, Wayne nodded his head and tapped at the article.

It blew up and the headline was almost so prominent that it told a story all by itself.

“Proxy war through House Feda and House Ginil brewing. House Zane pushes for House Ginil rebels to lay down their arms. House Bertson accused of supplying guerrilla warfare training,” Wayne read aloud. “Well that’s fucked. This is why the Confed wanted me to go in. Because this is going to… spark a wider war, isn’t it?

“Except that they tried to blow up the new Confed/MDF Cavalier and kill the other envoys and got caught so red handed, in 8k no less by drone, that it’s not just a black eye.

“It’s a truck that just blew through the front of the house and is now hanging out in the living room to watch some stream and chill.”

“You’re not too far off,” Wendy admitted and shook her head minutely. “I can’t officially comment on that. What I can comment on is the Confed is now pushing very hard on House Feda and House Zane to maybe make a formal apology to you for what happened.”

“Oh,” Wayne said after a pause. “All the explosives were from house Zane weren’t they. Well shit. Me being there didn’t help the situation, it cracked it so wide open that there’s no way to put it back together at all.

“The Mirkil royal family is boiling mad, the whole thing is on drone footage for the fight, and if I don’t miss my guess, my cockpit view for the explosive bullshit, and all of it is in the wild.

“Knowing you… or Miriam… it’s probably already been psy-op-ed that the explosives are from House Zane even if there isn’t any proof of it. Because the more they deny something like that, despite their open political stance, will just make it harder and harder for them.”

“Astute observation,” Wendy said with a warm and rich laugh. “If I did do such a thing, I certainly wouldn’t have also cross-dropped shipping manifests available through public information channels that show a lot of shipments from House Zane to House Feda that failed customs because they had undeclared explosive ordinance in them on a random, actually random mind you, inspection, and had been turned back. Along with a nasty fine.  Only for this to happen a month later with the same ordinance that might just hypothetically have the same shipping manifests and serial numbers attached to them. Hypothetically.”

“Why’s the Confed want this to go that way?” Wayne asked curiously. He didn’t quite understand Galaxy Politics and it had never been a subject he was good at. Sometimes he could piece it together and make it work, other times he couldn’t and it might as well have been in binary for all it mattered to him.

“House Zane has been pushing for more lenient controls from the Confed. House Bertson less so,” Wendy said in a drawl, as if she weren’t quite sure of it herself but was sharing with him her personal thoughts. “My read on it is Confed just wants House Zane to suffer. To give them a nice big political back-step and knock them around a bit. Make it harder for them to keep pushing for what they want, when it looks more like they’re pushing for those things to suit their own political interests.

“Like shipping ordinance to House Feda and wanting looser controls on Confed control so that it could happen without issue. That kind of thing.

“I could be wrong, but that’s what I’m thinking it is. Just the Confed looking for a quick way to knock an enemy back a bit.

“Then, in a few months, they’ll probably be looking for a way to do I tto House Bertson because then they’ll be doing something the Confed doesn’t like.”

“Gotta love politics,” Wayne said, watching Wendy. It was like looking at a strange clone of the woman he had known. That it wasn’t her at all. “It’s weird having you not be a prim and proper Confed officer.”

“Oh, right? Thanks. I’ll take that as a compliment. I had to really work on the mentality to get to this point,” she admitted and then snorted. “I even had my top two buttons undone just to make sure I’d have some skin out for you and it’s been itching at my brain. But I’m getting there.”

“You have nice skin,” Wayne offered in a false soothing voice. “I’m sure it wants to be seen.”

Wendy just stared at him, then grinned suddenly.

“You’re my lunch date now. Come on. And no, you don’t get to say no. If you say no, I’ll go get Tink to go with me and just keep working on her instead,” She said and stood up.

Wayne stared at her, sighed, then stood up.

It appeared it was time for lunch.