Keeper Hunter

I exited the lobby and into the street my eyes rapidly adjusting going from the dimness of the lobby into the bright sunshine. Parked against the sidewalk was a yellow cab indistinguishable of the yellow cabs in the city. A man leaned against the side of the cab looking straight at me. He was dressed in a blue business suit. With his bald head and beard I recognised him as Lady Camelia’s driver. Eel I think she called him.

“What are you doing here?” I asked him suspiciously.

“Making sure you reach your destination in one piece.”

I gritted my teeth his flippant answer had my back up. “And what if I’d decided to stay?”

“Lady Camelia was certain you wouldn’t.” I saw him glance at my holdall. “Was she wrong?”

“No,” I replied resigned. I’d go, I knew I’d go. There was too much left undone. I didn’t want to spend my life unable to put my ghosts to rest.

Eel smiled and opened the rear door of the cab for me. I got in settling my holdall on the seat next to me. Eel closed the door and slipped into the driver’s seat.

“Why me,” I had to ask the question. I didn’t really expect an answer.

“Because Lady Camelia believes in you and your serendipity.”

“Serendipity?” I vaguely remembered Joyce saying something about that.

“You’re lucky or unlucky to stumble into conspiracies and disrupt them totally. Your efforts on Alfheimir, Saros and Davenport are examples of this.”

“But surely Lady Camelia has better people that are more able to resolve this quicker. It will take me months to reach the Confederacy and then months more to even start an investigation?”

“We do but none of them have the connections you do?”

“Connections?” I worried that the Empire knew about the Keepers, too many knew about them as it is. I was concerned they’d use my connection to them as leverage. I like any mother worth her salt would fight to protect them from all comers. I’d finally accepted I was their mother in some weirdly obscure way.

“Joyce Neilson, did you not stumble into ancient ruins and come out with an intact data rod?”

I kept my expression neutral. The Valkyrie had sent me with the rod to Joyce because she was an expert. It was supposed to be a conciliatory gesture by the Keepers to the Guardians but they had used the incident to make me into a weapon to destroy them.

I nearly went insane luckily Digger had stopped that. I wondered what had been done with the device. I shivered at the thought. Joyce was the one that introduced me to Lady Camelia. I doubled she was an Imperial spy. I did suspect she had a connection to Lady Camelia the why wasn’t something I wanted to investigate. “Yes,” I admitted unsure and a little concerned as to where this conversation was heading.

“Lady Camelia asked Joyce Neilson about you. Joyce was very impressed by your actions she recommended you. Of anyone Lady Camelia listens to Joyce on matters of import. Joyce considers you reliable and wouldn’t say so if she had doubts.”

I hadn’t thought I’d made that sort on impression. I was just trying to do the job the Keepers had given me. I regarded Eel sceptically there was so much he wasn’t telling me.

“Ok lets go then,” I said finally. I had to get on that ship.

“That’s all that Lady Broaden asks of us,” Eel said seemly to class me as an Imperial.

I wasn’t sure what I was anymore it hurt me to the core to leave my parents like that but I had to get my ghosts put to rest I owed to Solstrid and Mother Sophronia. I sat back in the cab a watched the city pass me by. An alien city I might have been born here but it felt strange as any city I visited in the Confederacy. Suddenly I sat up alert. The cab was going in the wrong direction.

“Hey this isn’t the way to the airport!” I demanded.

“It isn’t we’re going to a private shuttle port. There’s a shuttle waiting it will take you to the Ariadne in orbit.”

I vaguely remembered that Ariadne was the capital of the Imperial colony New Burgundy. “I thought I was going on a commercial liner?”

“Did you not read the briefing Lady Broaden gave you?”

“I did read it but it lacked a lot of detail.”

“Captain Clements has been fully briefed he’ll give you the details of your assignment.”

I didn’t like the implications of that so I spent the rest of the journey just looking out the window. The cab slowed to a stop outside an Imperial compound. I should have guessed that. We waited for the gates to open. We drove past a concrete high rise that housed the local garrison. There was a shuttle port out the back of the building. The port was deserted except for a lone shuttle and the pilot in a pale green jumpsuit.

The cab stopped at the edge of the launch pad.

“This is where we part company. If anyone asks I was never here.”

I thought that a waste of time. “A telepath could pick that out of my mind,” I reminded Eel.

“It would have to be a really powerful one as I have stated no one can read yours.”

That implied he was a telepath of some sort. I was a little shocked by that I was sure I wasn’t. The Keepers must have done something to block my mind to telepaths. Then I remembered that when Xenai visited me of Alfheimir that she could no longer read my mind. With that thought I boarded the shuttle.

It was a standard shuttle used by both the Empire and the Confederacy. Its interior was standard and there was nothing I could see that would have made it stand of from any other shuttle I’d flown. The pilot a man a bit shorter than I with a buzz hair cut and a tanned face brush past me and entered the cockpit. The door closed behind me, as did the door to the cockpit.

“Hello?” I called out trying to be friendly. I got no answer. I figure it was going to be a long flight without anyone speaking. I sat in a seat placing my holdall beside me and buckled in myself in. Just in time. I heard the engines start and felt the hum of vibration through hull. Moments later I felt the inertia of the launch as the shuttle lifted into the sky. There was no going back I deeply regretted not spending more time with my parents but I had to go back too much was unresolved. I had to get resolution which was I kept telling myself all the way to our destination.

Two hours later I heard the engines powering down. I must have drifted off for a while. We were here I supposed it was the ship. I waited unbuckling my restraints and picking up my holdall. There was a red light above the door out I sat watching it waiting for it to turn green. I breathed a sigh of relief when it finally turned green. It meant it was safe to leave. I stood but the door slid open and a dark skinned man in a dress uniform with dark blue collar and cuffs peered in seemly to take in my clothes I had to admit I hadn’t bothered to change it had been all too quick. I noted he had lieutenant’s bars on the high collar of his uniform.

“Glenda Hampton?” he asked.

It appeared that my new alias was as bad as the one the Valkyrie made up for me.

“Yes,” I answered.

“Come with me please,”

I took that there weren’t any options. So I followed him out.

The shuttle bay was huge which was what I expected from a capital ship. You could have parked a dozen shuttles in here and still have room. Again the pilot brushed past me without a word and opened the shuttles cargo hatch pulling out two red leatherette cases with a large ‘G, H’ monogrammed on the sides.

“These are yours,” the pilot said gruffly.

“Thanks?” I replied trying to play in nonchalant. I wondered about the contents as he placed them on the floor beside the shuttle. Neither man offered to carry my cases then I would have got the same treatment from the Valkyrie. I slung my holdall on my back and picked up the cases, both of which seemed to be on the heavy side.

“This way,” the lieutenant said with a curt gesture.

This was definitely going to be a long trip if I was going to encounter this sort of attitude all the way. I followed the lieutenant into the depths of the ship.

I realised the direction of travel and soon my suspicions were confirmed when we stopped outside a door in a corridor. The corridor itself was a pale blue and beside the door was a green nameplate with the number A-14. Exactly the same number as my quarters aboard the Valorous Star. I knew what to expect when the lieutenant spoke.

“This is your quarters keep them clean, we don’t run a maid service of this ship!” He sounded rather curt as if he didn’t want me here.

“Yeah I know the drill I spent time aboard the Valorous Star,” I replied keeping my annoyance in check. I really didn’t want to go through this the whole trip.

“A TCA ship,” the lieutenant said.

“I worked for Captain Xenai as a consultant.” I wasn’t about to elaborate on what I actually did or failed to do that was my own fault.

“Well yes you do know the drill. So I won’t have to repeat the rules to you. Just keep tidy.”

“When do I get to see the captain,” I said changing subjects.

“When he is ready,” the lieutenant replied curtly. “He’s busy prepping the ship to jump.” With that he left leaving me standing outside my quarters my cases in hand.

I had hoped for a more pleasant return to the Confederacy and wondered if the lieutenant’s attitude was personal or more indicative of what I would expect from the rest of the ship’s crew. I hoped for the former but lately I’ve become more pessimistic. I think much of that was being unable to contact the Keepers. As much as I hadn’t wanted to become involved with them. I’d actually become more attached to them. I wasn’t sure if it that was due to nanobots in my blood or what the First Ones had told me. I shook myself I to keep myself in the present. I put down the cases and pressed the button to open the door. The door slid open to reveal a rectangular room. Not quite the same as my quarters on the Valorous Star. A partition separated the bed from the living room. I placed my cases on the floor and explored. Not that there was much to explore. The furniture was pretty standard. The bedroom had a double bed and a closet with more storage under the bed. The washroom was the same as any other bathroom I’d used with a shower, sink and head as it was called in navy parlance. The living room had a couch, an armchair and a desk/terminal combo. I checked the terminal it was in active. Yes it was going to be a long journey. I took my cases into the bedroom and placed then on the bed I’d unpack when I was ready. I was aboard I was returning and no one would stop me. The lights flickered above me we’d just jumped to hyperspace there was no going back.