Chapter Fourteen

Mego’s head swam, and her heart sank.

"Sure." She said wearily. "Sure, let's go."

They tracked through corridors in a strained silence. Shin wanted to ease the tension with small talk, to explain why he led a double life and why almost everything she knew about him was a lie, but there was no light in her eyes; the moment had passed.

Toward the main assembly room, Mego looked up at the station logo of a Wolf's head in front of two crossed axes.

"Officially, we are Wolf Station Alpha." Shin said, "Commonly referred to as: The Galveston. There are many other stations dotted around forming a network, the main ones being Eagle and Tiger"

Mego stalked off in the direction of the nearest exit. They stopped to let a group of cadets in grey flight suits march past in lockstep, all the while a sergeant sounded off a call and response. Shin contained his tour guide speech.

"Assuming you'll stick around, that's what you will be doing as a Cadet: basic grunt work.” He tapped a code into a nearby console, which lit up a wire-frame hologram of the outpost.

The exterior was bigger than Mego imagined. It resembled a city centre complex with tall skyscraper-like structures mounted on a triangular base. Shin input another set of numbers before scrolling down a list of names. "Won't take a second, I have to ..."

"Run a diagnostic?" Mego said. Her sudden interruption caught Shin off guard. "Reverse the polarity?"

"No." He said, with a tight smile. "Checking to see if there are any ships available."

"Just shove me in an airlock," Mego said. "At least the suffering will be quicker." All sense of wonder was replaced with a lingering numbness and betrayal. "Was it all a lie?"

"White lies, for your good."

"What about that whole chase on the motorbike?" Mego said, giving him a hard look. "We nearly died, y'know?"

"That was genuine fear," Shin said. "I honestly had no idea who those guys were. I still don't." He stiffened up a little. "But it did earn me a promotion, so every cloud and all that." The expression dropped to a frown. "Not important right now."

Mego glared at Shin but said nothing, saying nothing about Ami’s plan, figuring it was better for him to suffer instead.

"How long have you been here?" She asked.

"A few months," Shin said. "Total service time, three years."

"We've been dating for eighteen months." Mego said. "Or was that part of your mission, too?"

Shin stopped and stared blankly through the hologram.

"That's the only thing I didn't have to lie about."

"Playing dumb part, make a fool..." She shut down the rest of the sentence and closed her eyes. "I have already done this with Mum, now I have to...with my own..." She was on the verge of tears. "I thought well, at least Shin will be there for me. Ha!" The laugh felt dry, like a welt in her throat. She wiped her eyes with a sleeve. "Let's just go."

"Mego..."

"Don't..." She said. "No apologies, no regrets. You did your duty like a good soldier, now onto the next."

A tense, prickly silence surrounded their walk to the hangar.

Mego kept her eyes down as they passed the large view screens overlooking the slow rotation of the Earth. She was quietly impressed by the outpost's overall architecture, with Cathedral-like walls ending in hidden vaulted ceilings.

A large display cube hung from the centre, with each screen displaying the same rolling news.

Mego could hear the rhythmic 'clomp-clomp-clomp' of marching boots and the pneumatic whirr of some machine and watched open-mouthed as a soldier clad in a heavy, robotic exoskeleton trudged noisily out of a hallway, to the hissing chorus of pistons and pneumatic limbs.

"We call them Iron-backs," Shin said, activating the elevator. "G-thirty-seven armoured infantry battle-suits. They replaced the outdated Tombstones. I am hoping to get on the program, but there is a strength requirement, which means more time in the gym busting my guns." He allowed himself a little laugh. "Y'know? How like in an RPG where you can't use special armour until you are at a certain power level? So it's stuck in your inventory for half the game?" Mego said nothing. Icy silence resumed as an awkward tension settled between them. Clearing his throat, he pushed a button for the floor. "Yeah well, you must have missed that game."

The elevator doors opened out onto the vast concourse. Upon entering, Mego's body tingled with a thousand pin-pricks.

Rows upon rows of spacecraft docked into hissing, steaming launch racks. Rockets towering like industrial chimneys, the tops half-concealed by a cloud bank of drifting white gas.

Tightly-packed cabling curled around the high scaffolding, twisted like the coiled tentacles of an eldritch leviathan.

Despite its size, the hangar felt cramped due to the number of civilian transports on standby. The ships were mainly cumbersome and wrapped in copper piping around a bulky fuselage.

It was a forest of metal and mist, with the lingering smell of burning plastic.

Shin picked a path under a spider's web of cables, raising his voice above the clamour of activity.

"Where are we?" Mego asked.

"This is one of twenty hangars which are open twenty-four-seven. They are all accessible, apart from hangars two and eleven, which have been stricken from the record, never to be talked about."

"Why's that?"

"I just said it's never to be talked about," Shin said and gestured to the knot of spacecraft, still in the building phase and suspended on chains. " 'Turtles'. We haven't yet discovered how to build a faster drive. Not a lot we can do in seven years."

By the time they reached the staging area, they could talk normally.

"Hey." Mego said. "If another ship appears out of nowhere, there's not a lot anyone can do."

"True," Shin said. "But according to your Mother, we have a backup for every scenario, which is above my pay grade, as they say. I say pay; it's not like the Pizza money."

Mego stopped and glared at him.

"Wait a minute." She said. "You made me feel guilty for getting you the sack, but now it turns out it didn't matter. Wow."

"Oh, that," Shin said, frowning. "Yeah, that was pretty low. In my defence, the mission was to keep an eye on you, though I did not expect us to have a relationship. Your Mum even warned me against it. 'Do not cross any lines, or I will scatter you to the four bloody winds.' She was very insistent on that."

"So what changed?"

"I was careful not to get too close. This shift in mood apparently made you somewhat depressed. That's when your Mom allowed me to step outside the mission parameters."

"Mission parameters," Mego said bitterly. "Sounds like I dated a frickin' Cyborg. So what? It was just an act?"

"No," Shin said, looking Mego full in the eye. "I had to be cold and distant because I was under orders. That's when your Mum permitted me to date you." He shrugged. "Kinda old-fashioned, if you think about it."

"Hmm..." Mego said and thought for a while. "She said: 'Bloody'?"

"I was keeping it PG-13.”

"And I just want my life back." 

"I hope that includes me at some point."

"It depends; would you've told me the truth?"

"Well, this whole mission was classified," Shin said. "So probably not."

"There's your answer."

Shin nodded sadly, and they continued to walk in silence. Coming upon a nearby transport ship, he tapped a code into a four-by-four keypad. The thick door hissed open, revealing the tan leather interior.

"You're good to go." He said.

"One more thing," Mego said. "Why you?"

"No one else wanted to deliver Pizzas for a year. I understand why you're upset."

"I am not upset," Mego said, boarding the craft. "I am disappointed with murderous rage." Shin felt like he wanted to say something until the screaming blare of base alarms shook him out of his melancholy.

"Incoming." He murmured as combat mode snapped in. Suddenly, the world became bathed in a sea of red lighting. "Code critical."

"What does that mean?"

"Anything from proximity alarms to imminent attack. You have to go.”

"Really?" Mego said.

“Yeah, not good.”

"Perfect timing, I'd say."

"What are you talking about?" Shin said, walking to the nearest control panel, "You need to get going before the base shuts down."

"You don't think it's a bit of a coincidence?" Mego said, in an attempt to keep up with the pace. "I happened to be leaving, and now there's a reason to keep me here?"

"No one is keeping you here, Mego."

"I'm going home, Shin. Tell Mum: 'Nice try'."

"Good," Shin said. Scrolling through updates, his voice dropped to a whisper. "Can't be."

Genuine panic began to creep into Mego's cynicism.

"What is it?" She said. No answer. "Tell me!"

Shin gave her a grave look.

"Go home."

He charged off toward the elevators, leaving Mego alone in the glow of scarlet.