Vigilante Series 2: Nebula Vigilante (14 page)

The green outlined slidedoor of Rebecca, Rafael and their four children was closed. Sarah touched the Announce patch and spoke calmly.

“Rebecca? It’s Sarah. With Matt, Eliana and Gatekeeper. May we come inside to see how you and the kids are doing?”

The slidedoor swished open and Sarah sucked in her breath at the image of fear and anger on her friend’s face. “Hi Sarah.” The red-headed woman glanced at her crowd, fixing on Matt. “And you, Mr. Vigilante. You said this was not
our
fight. But our children nearly died from
your
fight! Why! And how soon can we escape your captivity?”

The tall,
reddish-skinned man whose confidence never seemed to waver, stepped back a pace, clearly bothered by Rebecca’s anger. Then Matt’s fists clenched and his neutral look replaced the normal human-worry look he’d had when outside her slidedoor. Before Eliana could speak, he did.

“Mistress Rebecca, I am very sorry for the danger to your children. I was watching in my mind as the beam wiggled through a gap in our defense shields. When the ship’s internal locator showed it had struck your cabin, my first thought was ‘the children’!” Matt
, the man who never showed doubt, shook his head slowly. “The danger to your family was . . . unexpected, although Eliana spoke of the chance of a sneak beam impact just before the battles began. And Mata Hari—” at the mention of the AI her shape took form in a lifesize holo, standing to Matt’s right while Eliana stood silent at his left—“rotated the ship in order to reduce the chance of such a lucky shot. Thanks to her efforts the beam was cut off before it could penetrate further. You have these women to thank for preventing greater danger to you and your fellow refugees.”

“So you’re not perfect,”
Rebecca said, her anger shifting to the matter of fact look Sarah knew from her friend’s days as an IT manager faced with balky software. “Join the club. When do we get off this ship?”

“In a few days,” Eliana said more quickly than Matt could. “
We will enter Translation shortly, then it’s a three day trip to cross the 1,600 light years to the Kappa Crucis cluster where Morrigan is. We, Matt, I and your own Gatekeeper, will help everyone move down to the planet and we will do our best to make up for possessions you have lost.”

“It’s lives that matter to me,”
Rebecca said abruptly, then moved to mother mode as dark-haired Rafael came up from behind and touched her shoulder.

“Dearest, they battle the Anarchate, not us. Let them in. The kids will love to play with Gatekeeper’s three dee animations,” Rafael said, letting Sarah off the hook of pushing the matter
that had drawn all of them to the Dominguez household.

Rebecca trailed fingers through her long red
curls, still in her Mom mode. A persona that Sarah loved to see and which had always made her wonder about whether being a mother would be a good choice for her. But that required the right lifepartner, and she had not yet been blessed that way. Yet. Maybe at Morrigan . . . .

“Rafael, my dearest, you are always the perfect host,” Rebecca said, her eyes
shifting to include two humans and two AIs. “Yes, please come in. The children will be . . . reassured to see you folks are unharmed and to hear that fighting is done with. For now.”

“Thank you, mother of four beautiful children,” Matt said as he followed Eliana, Mata Hari and Gatekeeper into the family room of the roomsuite.

Walking beside her girlfriend, Sarah noticed the half-smile the Vigilante’s comment brought to Rebecca’s face. But her friend was not about to depart from her tough woman persona. She led the way up to two boys and two girls ranging in age from four to twelve.

“Eliana and
Senor
Dragoneaux,” Rebecca said as she moved sideways to hold hands with Rafael, “these youngsters are Crystal, Jesus, Joaquin and Anabelle, our oldest. Children, the ship’s Vigilante protector was worried about you and came to see if you four were alright. Are you?”

Sarah moved over to the couch with Gatekeeper floating next to her. Its status lights twinkled like an archaic Christmas tree. From the time when Earth had trees to spare for annual celebrations. She watched as the nearly solid image of Mata Hari acted as ‘real’ as a normal organic person. Strange how the AI had been growing and acting more ‘solid’ in the two weeks they had been onboard this gigantic starship.

Red-haired Crystal was a highly daring four year-old. “Hello Mr. Dragoneaux the Vigilante. How strong are you without that wolfish combat suit of yours?”

Matt grinned. A natural real human-looking grin. It was the first time that Sarah had seen the obsessed man act other than driven. “Strong enough to lift you
up to touch the room ceiling!”

“Will you? Oh, please will you lift me high!” Crystal said, her eyes darting to Rebecca in a pleading look.

“Not now, dear daring daughter,” Rebecca said, smothering a chuckle. Maybe when we leave here for the new colony planet.”

“I’m just fine!” crowed Jesus, who at six years old was stout as his father and had the curly black hair of both Rafael and Matthew.

Eliana grinned now. “Fine enough to beat your sister at a game of LifePlay?” she asked. “Thought I saw your sister beating you at that game two days ago, in the commissary.”

Jesus frowned. “But . . . but she was helped by that robot, Gatekeeper,” he said indignantly.

Rafael waved a strong brown hand at his youngest son. “Enough from you. Let Joaquin speak now.”

“I miss school,” the nine year-old said as he stood at attention, his hands held behind him as if he were being inspected by an Anarchate Guardian. “Will there be living teachers at our new hom
e? More than just . . . nice bots like Gatekeeper?”

Sarah smiled at the grown-up diplomacy manner of Joaquin, who she knew took after his mother’s ability to charm a crowd.

Rebecca gestured to her oldest child, brown-haired Anabelle, who stood tall, slim and serious in her summer frock that was decorated with spring flowers. Sarah recalled the hours Rebecca had spent sewing the flowers into the frock, following an ancient pattern that dated from before Earth’s contact with the Anarchate. It was a talent she’d enjoyed learning from Rebecca and Suzanne, another student of thread and needle.

“My Anabelle is sometimes too solemn. But she was reassuring her three siblings even before Rafael and I entered their room,” Rebecca said, a tone of
satisfaction in her soprano voice. “Anabelle, please meet
Senor
Dragoneaux and
Senorita
Eliana.”

Eliana took a step forward and shook hands with Anabelle. Matt, however, held back. Sarah looked closely at him. Were those te
ars in his eyes?

“Matt?”
Eliana said softly as Anabelle awaited his response to her mother’s introduction.

Sarah
saw the Vigilante’s eyes brighten and the diamond sparkle of what had seemed to be tears disappeared. But she could have sworn—

“Anabelle, I am pleased to meet you. You . . . you remind me of my
oldest sister. Charlotte. She looked much like you. And like you, she was very serious about stuff in what she called the ‘real world’,” Matt said, his voice sounding slightly hoarse. “Do you play the Greek board game Tavli?”

“Of course,” said Anabelle, her expression brightening. “All of us kids know the game. Auntie Sarah taught it to us years ago, and now I can beat her every other game. Soon, I will be the Omega champion!”

For the second time since meeting this mysterious Vigilante, Sarah saw a real, honest smile fill his high-cheeked face. “Very good! Perhaps my Eliana will give you a serious challenge. She has taught me the game since we . . . got together, but I am not good at it.”

Eliana, dressed in a green jumpsuit that sported a single yellow rose embroidered on her left shoulder, nodded. “Sure, Anabelle. Give me a call over the intercom or just message me through your room’s comlink. I’d love to play Tavli with someone new.” The Vigilante’s lifepartner looked at Sarah. “And the invitation extends to you, Leader Sarah. Perhaps you know some moves from our game’s backgammon successor that will be fun to use?”

Sarah looked aside at the increased twinkling of the status lights on Gatekeeper. The AI could speak quite well and naturally, but it had remained silent even though she had noticed the Mata Hari holo image looking her way a few times. She appreciated the quietness of the two AIs as this involved human emotions like fear, anger and worry for one’s children. And no matter how self-aware these two AIs were, they could not
know
what it felt like to worry for one’s children. Sarah barely understood from her years with manager friends who shared the lives of their children with her. As Rafael and Rebecca had done ever since arriving at Omega. She smiled, moving to her confidence mode.

“Well, I see that matters have calmed down here,” she said, looking to Rebecca and Rafael. “My friends, it is a delight to see your four youngsters and to see that your home is in . . . safe shape. Perhaps we should now visit the commissary and let everyone else know about the upcoming arrival at
Morrigan?”

Eliana and Matt nodded, while Mata Hari and Gatekeeper simultaneously said “An excellent idea.”

With a wave to her friends, Sarah followed the four of them out, lagging a bit behind the silver globe form of Gatekeeper. Now how had those two AIs managed to say the same thing simultaneously? She shrugged. One of the mysteries of the universe. At least the fighting was done and their colony home would soon fill the wallscreens. It seemed a peaceful resolution to the incredible violence of the last few weeks would await them. Mentally she crossed her fingers against unwelcome surprises.

Matt walked along hand in hand with Eliana, his mind filled with the image of Anabelle, and his last memory of Charlotte, before she
, his other sisters and his parents had been kidnapped by genome harvesters. Though a part of his mind was in tachlink with Mata Hari, the Bridge and the automated systems that were the starship he tried to wear like a suit of clothes, he walked as if no different from Eliana. After seven years he could pretend to be a simple two meter tall human male while also being a two kilometer-long starship surfing through the harsh cold of interstellar space. He could pretend to human simplicity even as his inner mind’s eye beheld the beauty of the red and orange streaked fourth planet that lay just beyond the asteroid belt. While he was most completely a cyborg when linked in via optical fiber cable in the Pit, the ship’s lightbeams always touched his bare skin here and there, while the tachlink nodule behind his left ear fed him rivers of data from ship sensors. He sighed. It was all part of the partnership with Mata Hari that he had agreed to upon her rescue of him. And this time he knew the answer to his first question of “Why did you rescue me?”

At the Spine midway point a slidedoor opened and out stepped George the black-bearded casino repairs manager. Just behind him came Suzanne, the casino’s IT manager according to Sarah. They both wore fresh clothes, George a pair of blue pants with an orange pull-over, while Suzanne wore a spring-like peasant dress that was embroidered similarly to
Annabelle’s outfit. They held hands, he noticed, as they waited for the arrival of himself, Eliana, Mata Hari, Gatekeeper and Leader Sarah, whose boots echoed softly even as she walked confidently behind them. Matt nodded.

“George . . . O’Malley, I think it is, and Suzanne
Magnusdottor, it is good to see you folks,” he said, letting them take the lead in pressing him or Eliana on some matter.

“Vigilante . . . uh Matt,” George rumbled as Suzanne moved closer to him so she stood shoulder to shoulder with the stocky, heavily muscled man. “And everyone else, a good day to you. The combat is finished?”

“For now,” Matt said, feeling Eliana squeeze his hand reassuringly, as if she knew more about this couple than he had kept track of. “We’re on our way to the commissary to share with folks the news about our upcoming arrival at Morrigan, and that we will soon enter Translation.”

George’s grey eyes brightened and his tense stance eased as Suzanne smiled at her companion, a smile that made her
freckled face radiant as a star. “We . . . uh, I and Suzanne, we were wondering about this crusade of yours against the Anarchate. We think it a good thing that someone campaigns against . . . bondServant slavery. No thinking person of any species should be owned by someone else. Or something else, like a conglomerate.”

Matt wondered at the point of George’s statement, though he knew the man was observant and thought ahead, based on his questions during his first commissary appearance. “Thank you. And?”

George glanced at Eliana, then met Matt eye-to-eye. “Suzanne and I want to help you. Somehow. After we arrive at Morrigan. We don’t have a starship, but maybe there is some kind of promotion we can do on the galactic tachnet. With a slogan like ‘Freedom Yes, Slavery No!’” the man said hesitantly.

Eliana squeezed Matt’s hand to let him know she wished to enter this pleasant chat. “That’s wonderful! George, Suzanne, we can use any kind of pro-freedom message that you folks can get out there. Perhaps starting first with the humans on
Morrigan?”

Suzanne nodded, her golden curls wrapping around her slim neck. “We thought the same. Anarchate policy is to stay out of a planet’s internal affairs. So long as we pay planetary taxes to the Central Nexus, of course.”