Randolph Lalonde - Frontline

“In this case, the truth really will set you free. Just let the story of your origin leak out and people will either get used to you more quickly or they'll have even more respect for you. In command that'll be very important. Other than that, just be yourself, in the end that's all you can do.”

“You're right. I'm still not going to be able to walk past that without nearly bursting into tears.”

“Maybe next time you can come with Jacob. He hasn't been down to see it since he gave his permission to have it built.”

Ayan stared at the granite stone for a long moment before nodding to herself. “I know Jake is so much like Jonas, but he's not, so I don't know how things will go with us, not really, but I have to be there when he wakes up.”

“We're all just at the beginning of our journeys, Ayan. No one can say how things will be, we can only do our best to make sure we're moving down the right path.”

Ayan looked to Liam and smiled. “Thank you Liam, I've got to be in the infirmary.”

“There's a lift at the end of that path, do you know the way from there?”

“I'll grab a security officer along the way and have him walk me.”

“I'm sure he'll be honoured, now go,” Liam grinned.

It was a sound Jake hadn't heard for a very long time. Irritating, loud, like a constant slow sawing. “Minh, stop snoring, willya?” he muttered, half asleep. His last memory returned to him then, collapsing in the hallway after rescuing Alice from the bridge. He sat up.

It was a hospital room, the decking and bulkheads looked like the Triton medical center, but he hadn't seen the room before. The offending noise was coming from his right, where Minh-Chu Buu had turned two chairs so they faced each other so he could stretch his legs out and nap. His head had fallen back so he was snoring open mouthed straight up into the heavens.

Jake couldn't help but laugh, groggy or not it was the most hilarious thing he'd seen in years. Add to that how amazing it was to see his long time friend alive and well, once he started laughing he couldn't stop. When Minh woke with a start and looked at Jake, smacking his lips due to dry mouth all he said was; “I was snoring?” The laughter was contagious and soon they were both in stitches.

Minh stood and offered his hand.

Jake took it, their grips were strong, both their hands were more calloused and hardened than they were years before when they had last spoken on the First Light. The hand shake turned into a brief embrace before Minh stood back and shook his head. “You scared us for a while there. Iloona says you have some kind of recharge mode, where you regenerate cell damage and well, I missed the rest,” Minh said with a shrug. “Alice is in recovery, you managed to get to her in time. They repaired some older brain damage when they were treating her and it'll take her a while longer to wake up, could be a few days, but she'll be fine.”

“Best news since I heard you and Ayan were alive.”

“That had to be one hell of a bomb. Wish I had seen your face.”

“It changed a few things,” Jake replied. “I still can't believe you're here. If I had known you were out there somewhere-”

Minh waved the sentiment away with a hand; “Regret is a wall made of sorrow mortar and history bricks, a house built in such a way is destined to collapse. I thought I was as good as gone until I lucked my way out of that mess. I'm just glad to be here. If you want to make it up to me, you could put me back in a cockpit.”

“Even after everything?”

“Especially after everything,” he burst with a chuckle. “I mean, I spent years doing nothing but growing food, working out, playing guitar and playing sims. I'm so ready for the real thing again.”

Jake smiled at him. “I'll get you in front of our virtual inventory so we can build something for you. I need someone to lead my people off the deck. Just qualify first, otherwise there'll be a mutiny.”

“Yeah, have you tried that? It's harder than the academy final,” Minh said, wide eyed.

“I failed my first time out.” Jake nodded.

“Oh, well, I passed,” Minh smirked, “Just saying it wasn't easy.”

Jake laughed, shaking his head. “How's my ship?”

“Well, Chief Vega put Oz in the command chair and he's learning as quick as he can, so's Jason, but it's not good. They have to rebuild one main engine completely and replace the power provision systems on the other. Lucky there are four main engines and a bunch of supplemental thrust systems.” He was quoting someone else's status reports, Jake could tell Minh was just getting ship news out of the way as quickly as he could so he could get to something else. “We're in a wormhole though, I hear we'll be hiding out in some big asteroid field while we rebuild. I got a peek at the maintenance list when an assistant was looking it over in the Pilot's Lounge. I couldn't help it, it looked like he was about to cry, then I saw the list and I felt like crying.”

“Should I put you in the maintenance rotation until you get a rig?”

Minh's hands shot up in front of him, warding the idea off. “Oh no, I didn't get back into space so I could pick up a screwdriver.”

“All right, just get practice in the sims on a couple of our fighters and pick something. If you're going to lead a squadron I need you to be better than everyone else out there.”

“You're going to have to join me for a few scenes, and speaking of scenarios, I noticed all the leisure programs are locked. Any way you can, you know, get me a code so I can try a few? I have a few hundred on my personal comm that I could add too.”

“I'll get you in touch with the Cruise Director,” Jake said as he slowly got out of bed. He had never been so stiff in his life.

“There's a Cruise Director?” Minh turned to face the door while Jake pulled his flimsy gown off and stepped into the small pulse shower stall. It activated with a hum as soon as he closed the stiff semitransparent curtain.

Jake chuckled and shook his head. “Just kidding. I had them restricted while most of the crew were still trying to qualify for their positions but I suppose I could set things up so the higher ups can use them as rewards and get to know each other.”

The door opened to admit Ayan, whose eyes darted to the empty bed then to Minh, who grinned, nodded and mouthed; “He's in the shower,” before casually continuing his conversation with Jake. “So I'll have access once I take a command position?”

Ayan took a shuddering breath in and let it out slowly, trying to calm down. In the short time since he'd shown up at her apartment in Freedom Tower Minh had never seen her so nervous. She was completely distracted as she just tried to calm down.

Jake went on unaware that Ayan had entered. “I can't see why security couldn't give you codes right now, since someone has to try them out. Just don't get all wrapped up, I don't want you to get sucked in like when you discovered Sword of Rikaam,” he deactivated the pulse shower and stepped out into the room, clean and nude.

Minh watched as Ayan's eyes went wide, she blushed so furiously that her neck, chest and ears turned red before she came to her senses and spun towards the door.

“Oh, and Ayan's here,” Minh chuckled.

“I'll get you for that,” she whispered.

“Worth it,” Minh muttered back. “I'll leave you two kids alone. Get on comms with me later Jake, if there's anything I can do to help out, I'm up for it.” He kissed Ayan on the cheek on his way out.

“You can turn around,” Jake said, half in a fresh vacsuit. It was a near exact duplicate to the one he had worn on his way to Pandem. The greater weight of it was immediately noticeable, something he'd look into later.