Chapter 136: Chapter 48: Connections

“Easy now, we almost got him,” Dash said over the comm.

He stood outside the main docking airlock, peering through the viewport of the inner hatch. He watched a slowly spinning Wesley approach the ship. The medtech’s arms and legs were splayed out, awkward in his zero-g flight.

“Relax. Let the suit guide you in,” Dash said.

“Easier said than done, Captain,” Wesley replied. His heightened breaths could be heard on the comm.

“Hold it there, Gaius,” Dash relayed. The slight perceptible rotation of the star field ceased as the pilot worked the ship’s thrusters.

Wesley’s suited form drifted closer. He stretched his arms out, fingers latching onto the edge of the hatch. He managed to hold on as he gained control of his lazy spin.

“You made it. Come on in,” Dash said.

“Thank the Lords,” Wesley said. His body cleared the open hatch when a portion of the stars disappeared behind him. Dash’s heart jumped as he registered a helmeted figure bearing down on the kid. The figure crashed into Wesley from behind, wrapping their arms around the medtech, who squirmed in fright.

“We’ve got a hostile boarding!” Dash said, and slapped the airlock panel. The outer door shut before the intruder could yank Wesley out. The medtech wrestled against his assailant, futilely slapping at them.

“On the way!” Gaius answered.

Dash watched as the intruder skillfully broke through Wesley’s desperate defense and positioned themself behind the medtech, using his body as a shield. The intruder drew a pistol and held it to Wesley’s head as the airlock cycled. The intruder’s mask became transparent, revealing a bearded man’s face—the newcomer captain from the auction. The man who came back from the dead. Dash wasn’t sure how the man performed a spacewalk until he noticed the collar and registered the expensive skin suit. This man was no joke. His eyes held a calm competence beneath the sweat and grime staining his skin—the demeanor of a skilled practitioner of violence. Someone experienced in chaos. That meant Dash’s chances of outgunning the intruder were slim to none.

The inner hatch opened. Dash aimed Betsy at the figure, pulse pounding in his ears.

“Let’s be reasonable,” Dash said. He held out his off hand, palms up, in a calming motion. “I’m Captain Dash Anderton. You want off the station? I can help with that.”

“I’ve got that covered,” the man said. “I’m here for the kid.”

“Mr. Cutter is a recovery agent,” Wesley said. He grimaced, as if admitting a lie to a parent. “And I’m the target.”

“Recovery agent?” Dash said. He heard footsteps in the cargo bay as Gaius ran to them. “Why is a recovery agent after you?”

Wesley’s strained face held a hint of guilt. Before he could speak, Gaius arrived outside the airlock, pistol in hand. “I’m here!” He ground to a halt and leaned over, one hand on his knee while he gasped.

“He’s worth a lot of creds, Captain,” Cutter said. “I’d be happy to share some with you if you’d step aside.”

“I don’t care,” Dash said. He paused, and looked to Wesley. “Unless you did something really bad?”

“I assure you, I did not!” Wesley said. “Why do people even presume that’s an option?”

“Look, I have to check. Doesn't mean I believed it,” Dash said. “But my answer is the same. Kid stays.”

“Wait, how many creds are we talking about here?” Gaius said. He caught Dash’s sideways glare. “Never mind, it doesn’t matter. I told you he had a dark past!”

“Dark? Why would you say that?” Wesley asked.

“Why else is your bounty worth so much?”

“Enough,” Cutter said, and adjusted his hold on Wesley. “I am taking him, Captain Anderton. Besides the reward, he has information I need. Don’t make me force the issue.”

Wesley pleaded, “Please, Agent Cutter. The client tried to kill you! You cannot go back to them.”

“I told you, I can handle it,” Cutter snapped.

“Hold on,” Dash said. “How’d the client try to kill you?” Wesley explained the confrontation with Parr in the maintenance tunnel. How Cutter and Wesley were connected somehow to the client. Remembering the dead agent in the plaza, Dash peered at Cutter. “What are you two wrapped up in?”

“Not sure, exactly,” Cutter said. “Wesley is going to help me find out.”

Dash looked at Wesley. “Look, kid, you better start talking here. What did you do?”

“As I told Agent Cutter, I cannot speak of it. Not only for my safety, but for yours as well.”

“We’re not asking you to talk. We’re telling you,” Cutter said, and locked eyes with Dash.

There was something in the man’s heavy gaze that spoke to Dash. A hint of connection that he couldn’t make sense of. “He’s right,” Dash said. “You need to tell us what happened.”

Wesley nodded, and relaxed in Cutter’s grip. “The truth is, I maintained patient confidentiality.”

“How so?”

“It happened during a rotation at Solar Solace—”

“You worked at that super-exclusive resort habitat?” Gaius asked. “How’d you end up out here, stuck with us—”

“Quiet,” Dash commanded.

“Yes, that same one. I was off duty, with a very close friend, when we overheard a discrete conversation, and inadvertently discovered their family may be engaged in nefarious activities. Before we could learn the extent, or decide what to do about it, another family member realized we were purview to the confidential information. I was detained and questioned by their security, but my friend helped me escape before anything else happened.”

“These nefarious activities, what were they?” Cutter demanded.

Wesley’s neck tightened as he swallowed. “We overheard an intense conversation about House affairs.”

“House?” Gaius said. “You mean a merchant house?”

“Yes.”

A sinking feeling filled Dash’s torso. He knew the conversation was about to enter a place of no return. A place of heavy consequence.

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“Which House?” Cutter demanded.

“I shouldn’t say—”

“Which House?”

Wesley sighed. “The Nemotaurians.”

“Are you kidding me?” Gaius said. “You were involved with one of the most famous Houses with four of the most popular pop culture icons in the entire Human Coalition?”

“I think you mean most popular idiots in the Human Coalition,” Dash interjected.

“They’re all media moguls. They dominate the news feeds. The youngest son is the fifty-ninth ranked player in Galaxy Battles! I’m the only player out of the top one thousand who survived an encounter with him in over a year. I swear he cheated too!”

“Yes, those same Nemotaurians,” Wesley confirmed. “Our paths happened to cross at Solar Solace.”

Cutter pulled Wesley close. “What was said in the conversation?”

“Something about a threat to their House and their partners,” Wesley said. “Some sort of potential publicity issue. They spoke in nebulous terms. But, the only thing I distinctly remember is they had concerns about something called ‘Stargazer.’”

“Stargazer?” Cutter said, a flash of unease in his expression. “As in the Stargazer Initiative?”

“I don’t know. What is that?”

“It’s an underground movement that believes there is a conspiracy behind the Auturia Incident, and that not all the Ferrulians aboard the colony ship were killed,” Dash said.

Cutter’s suspicious eyes raked over Dash. “How do you know about that?”

“Let’s just say Auturia and I have a complicated history.”

“He’s the ‘Slayer of Outpost Ceta!’” Gaius said with an air of menace.

“You’re the one who dropped the Light’s cargo on Ceta?” Cutter asked. Dash nodded. The agent’s hardened face twitched. “But the Marines at the outpost were wiped out.”

“All the combat forces were, officially. A whole company’s worth. Two hundred dead,” Dash clarified. “I was logistics. I was there to support offloading the cargo from the colony ship. My platoon was the closest support element to the planet when Command decided to violate the Commonwealth’s ceasefire negotiations and drop a colony there. Wrong place, wrong time. Somehow I didn’t die, though the Gyherea tried their best to make it happen.” He paused, the painful memories unpacking in his mind. “HuCo Command disbanded the company after the incident, and buried as much as they could about the details of what happened. I was forced to sign NDA’s. It was heavily implied that I could be blamed for it if I talked about it. I’m not sure how many others survived. If any.”

Cutter stared back coldly. Something dark and painful simmered in his expression. “I don’t believe you.”

“You were there too, weren’t you?” Dash said. “But you’re much too young to have served.”

“That’s correct,” Wesley said. “But, there’s another explanation.” He let out a breath like he couldn’t believe what he was about to say. “Agent Cutter is Ferrulian.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Cutter said. But his hardened exterior began to crack.

“I’m afraid I do, Agent Cutter. I studied Ferrulian history in university. The Auturia Incident was an unthinkable tragedy. Your people’s story always stuck with me. You gave it away when I asked about your wound. The way you touched your chest. It’s a subtle thing, but your gesture was the Founder’s salute. Hard to break muscle memory. I didn’t realize it in the moment, but it’s clear as day now.”

“You’re Ferrulian?” Dash said. “That’s the only explanation. You were on the Guiding Light when it was destroyed over Auturia.”

Cutter opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out.

Dash stepped closer, lowering Betsy a hair. He could see the pain behind the man’s eyes. “If you were there, you’d never forget the mud. The feel of it, sucking at your boots. The repugnant smell. I had to run through it to reach friendly forces after I destroyed the outpost.” He held Cutter’s intense stare. The agent blinked. “I saw what the Gyhera did, to the survivors, and the dead.”

Cutter’s nostrils flared with each heavy breath. His jaw shifted back and forth. He appeared to realize that for whatever reason he might not want to admit the truth, it was already known. “I was there,” he said. His brow lowered, and a deep-rooted anger saturated his words. “The attack came out of nowhere as the ship vectored in for a landing. The hidden Gyhera forces fired those embargoed artillery guns they weren’t supposed to have. They shredded us. I made it to an escape pod. Managed to survive until those containers came down on Ceta, and wiped out most of the Gyhera. Then the HuCo fleet arrived shortly thereafter.”

“HuCo Command reported no survivors from the Light.”

“They lied on purpose,” Cutter said. His mouth shifted, his tongue running over his gums. “I don’t believe I was the only one, but I have no proof. They kept me isolated, told me it was for my own protection. To keep my heritage a secret.”

“I see a pattern here,” Gaius said.

Dash could see in the man’s haunted eyes the same horror that he carried. “He’s telling the truth.”

“If you say so,” Gaius said. “But what does all of this have to do with Wesley and this backstabbing client?”

“Wesley stumbled upon the fact that the Nemotaurians have a reason to fear the Stargazer Initiative,” Dash said. “Which means, somehow or another, the House is linked to events on Auturia. They suspected, and then confirmed, Agent Cutter was a Stargazer and planned to have him eliminated once he captured Wesley.”

“But the Auturia incident was two decades ago,” Wesley said. “Why the sudden urgency?”

“There were documents declassified after Auturia’s destruction,” Dash said. “They contain mundane data: geological surveys, weather reports. But there could be something in them that the Nemotaurians are worried about. Something that makes the elimination of Stargazers an imperative.” He paused as a sickening thought entered his mind. “There’s also the possibility that the Nemotaurians had something to do with the planet’s destruction too.”

“You're telling me House Nemotaurian may be linked to the tragedies of Auturia?” Gaius asked. He ran a hand through his thick hair. “House Nemotaurian conspiracies? HuCo Command coverups? This is unbelievable. Like the grandest conspiracy of the entire galaxy!”

“I’ve never felt right about what happened on Auturia,” Dash said. “HuCo Command blamed the company commander, along with systems and intelligence failures. Poor guy died in the mud, and never had a chance to defend himself. Then, two decades later, the planet is destroyed? Seems like too much of a coincidence to me.” He peered at Cutter. “It appears Agent Cutter felt the same way.”

“Did you ever go back?” Cutter asked.

Dash shook his head. “I couldn’t do it.” He sucked in a heavy breath. “Couldn't face my failure again.”

“It’s not yours,” Cutter said. He blinked as some emotion rippled across his face. Guilt or resentment, Dash wasn’t sure.

The failed rescuer and the haunted survivor faced each other across the airlock. The unspoken connection tugged at Dash like they were long-lost siblings. Betsy remained aimed at the intruder, but Dash knew in his heart he could never shoot a Ferrulian. Not after he failed the man and his people all those years ago. “I can’t let you take him,” Dash said, and returned Betsy to her holster. “But I’m not going to shoot you. What happens now?”

Cutter regarded him, hints of moisture on his lower eyelids. Something flashed across his face, like a surge of emotion he struggled to clamp down on. “It’s not every day you meet the man responsible for saving your life.” He stepped back, within reach of the airlock panel. “Now, this hunt ends.”

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