Former Ducal seat, Nha Tranh...
"Um, ma'am?" Elizabeth looked up from the architectural map she was studying.
"Yes?" she asked.
"Someone here to see you, mum."
strawberry blonde hair, traditional LCAF uniform, 'mechwarrior braid... "Daphne." Liz's voice gained an icy edge. "You graduated. Been to see Penny yet?"
the older girl looked momentarily confused. "Lizzie-"
"Save it." Elizabeth's tone dripped venom, "why are you here?"
"I'm h-here bbecause...because my commanding officer is having a problem." Daphne managed to get out. "Central supply claims our ammunition consignment, one of the Groves contracts, was delivered, only it wasn't."
"Which unit? and which depot?" Elizabeth asked. she felt so much anger she could hardly look at her former friend, because every glance reminded her of Penny, which brought up memories of three months spent watching Penny die in the hospital. but this was business, and Elizabeth had learned to power through the headaches, and the sleeplessness, and the anxieties, even the guilt over killing two men with her own hand.
well, maybe not entirely the last one. She still saw Stonecipher's eyes at night, still woke up feeling the blood on her face, smelling the gunpowder. but she dealt with it. none of those were as hard to fight as the urge scream, and lash out like a feral animal at Daphne Rowe. "And why did they send you?"
"It's unofficial." Daphne confessed, "I told the CO that I know someone who could maybe clear this up... I was on a shuttle to the next jumpship out for kowloon."
"where's your station?" Liz asked.
"We're on the front, it's classified." Daphne told her, "The Falcons haven't hit us yet, but we're in their projected path-"
"Tell me your unit, commander, and the depot nearest." Elizabeth instructed in a shaky voice, "Jack, please record this."
The comm on her lapel said, "Recording Ma'am."
"How much ammunition are we talking about? it's alright if you don't know, I can ask your C.O." Liz ordered in the same tone of command she had learned to use from Maggie Doons.
"Twenty Third Arcturan Guards...and we're stationed on A Place, the General who sent me was General-"
"General Nadine Killson." Elizabeth said offhandedly. "That means you're drawing from the Arc Royal command..." Elizabeth pulled out a portable, and began typing instructions. "How many tons are we talking about?"
"Two hundred for the RCT, class ten LBX cannister and solid shot."
"Anything else not showing up?" Liz asked.
"We've been running low on LRM ammunition, the short range stuff we've got plenty of-"
"right...okay. Thats the one-twenty-five milimeter cannister shot?"
"Yes." Liz found it convenient to not look at her while placing the shipping order. "Spare datachit on you, Leutnant?" she held out her hand.
she felt the slick plastic on her palm and closed ehr fingers on it, stuck it neatly into the machine's write-port, formatted it, and then loaded the authorization for the order. "go to Groves Industries on 24th and Cham drive, it's a big set of warehouses, there's an office entrance, go in uniform, use this chit, tell them exactly what you need. I assume you're needed on the front, so your passage on the shipment is pre-paid and you can ride along and make certain it gets there."
"Liz, about Penny-"
'You weren't there." Elizabeth finally looked up, her mascara running, "for three months, I watched her dying and you weren't there. She was awake at first, sometimes, for a few minutes..and I thought she asked for you, did you know that? but you weren't there...and when she fell all the way down the well, when she was hollow, when the poisons finished eating her mind? you weren't there. Now go, collect your supplies, get them to your unit while you still have one, but get out of my sight before I do something we will both regret!!"
Daphne backed away three steps, turned, and fled.
after she was gone, elizabeth let loose, shaking in rage and grief, bawling like an angry toddler.
eventually, it slowed down. "Jack?"
"Yes mum?"
"Get nicky, um, you guys are coming with me. We're going to straighten out a supply chain issue. Someone has been stealing from my customers."
"Yes mum."
She wiped the mascara clean from her face. "god, i look a mess."
she teased at her bangs, and gave up.
Nick and Jack met her outside the doors of what she'd decided was no longer a ducal residence, but instead, would be refitted into a university, she nodded to workers as she met the two Centurions.
"Jack, Nick...we'll need to take one of the Cylon transport shuttles, we're going to Spider Moon, and from there, to Arc Royal by the fastest route Li can arrange or plot."
The Cylons had a few captured Raptors from their old home, and this is what Liz and 'her boys' took to Spider Moon.
Spider Moon CNAS, Third moon, Boojum orbit, 20 minutes later...
"...we'll have to arrange intermediate legs, the Cylon drive charges fast, but that's a LOT of Tyllium to make that many jumps." Gina said, "Our supplies-"
"I know." Elizabeth stated, "Li? some input from my Coast Guard?"
"I have shipping routes, we can arrange partial relays on corporate ships, get you within distance easily enough given the recharging routes..."
"That's good, arrange it." Liz popped 500 miligrams of Pseuodine in her mouth, and swallowed it dry, the thumping in her head was painful and distracting.
"Passage for?"
"Myself, My staffers Nicholas Chopper and Jack Slaesh, plus two others...I don't know, pick reliable people who won't make a mess of things from the staff."
"centurions? to Arc Royal?" Li scoffed, "Are you seriously changing the plan?"
"yes. call it an experimental field test, or call it intimidation and extortion, someone's skimming our shipments to the military, it's somewhere between Arc Royal and the end users. I'm going to put a damn stop to it...also, in the future, if Daphne Rowe comes calling, let me know so I can be away when she shows up."
"Yes...ma'am..."
"Did you get the rush authorization on that munitions shipment to the 23rd Arcturans?" Elizabeth asked.
"We're expediting traffic now."
"Excellent. can I borrow your long-coat?"
"um...sure." Li said, "it's kind of big on you..."
"yeah, but I like it and I think I'll need it, and I didn't bother to pack. I want to leave as immediately as possible. There is a Colonel or General in the Logistics chain I need to jump down the throat of, and I'm feeling spectacularly vindictive right now. I want that buzz to keep going."
"Madame Duchess, there's a Six and an Eight stationed on Arc Royal in the Distribution department." Gina said.
"Cool, so another Gina and a Sharon, sweet, that saves space for more fuel." Elizabeth noted, "Tell Evelynn she's in charge here while I'm gone please, and ask Leo if he wants any goodies from there."
It took long enough Elizabeth got to tell Leoben and Evelynn herself. during that time, Nick and Jack apparently visited a bodywork painter over in the service hangars. The came back sporting Coast Guard and Ngo Industries markings and nameplates, along with a fresh polish job to look extra impressive.
The trip out to the Nadir point was done using the Tyllium driven Raptor, which had gotten a Coast Guard paintjob with the number "1" stenciled on the side.
There, they docked to the MS Linda Blaire, a Merchant class vessel owned by one of the Belt families, under contract to deliver tooling to Arc Royal itself, a trip that would take several weeks.
Discontinuity
Penny was laying there, empty eyes staring at nothing, her EEG was at that 'not quite gone' level of low.
"Liz." Penny was also standing next to her. "Lizzie, it's not her fault."
"She wasn't here. she left me to carry this by myself."
"It's not just yours-"
they were back in normal space. the hurt and the loss and the anger were sharpened again.
"Alright... undock in three, two...one..." Nick recited for the ship's bay officer. the outer doors opened, and the Raptor-shuttle slipped out gracefully. "Spinning up the experimental drive unit in five, four, three, two..."
in a flash, they were on the 'outspace' side of the MS Ophelia, owned by the Sithers coop, hauling finished armor plate from the Longanecker facility at Arluna, to Arc Royal.
"Coast Guard One, this is MS Ophelia actual, starboard shuttle dock is open, we'll be ready to jump the next leg when you're secured, over."
"Roger that, MS Ophelia, I am entering the docking pattern, Over." Nick's voice sounded not only human, but he'd picked up a Golden Lake accent to both his English, and Vietnamese speech.
Suited figures ran the rigging lines as soon as the Raptor's skids touched the deck.
she watched the hangar door close as the jump-navigator's voice carried on a countdown.
Discontinuity
"keep up! we're going to miss it!!" Penny urged.
"I can't see anything!" elizabeth argued-her eleven year old self, at least, argued. Daphne's hands came up under her arms, and she was lifted up and saddled on the older girl's shoulders.
On the park stage, Bhenj Daughmiter was just walking up to the microphone.
Penny looked up at her, "How could you forget this, Liz?"
it burned and it hurt.
Reality reasserted itself, and Elizabeth leaned forward. Jack's armored, razor-tipped fingers gently held the airsickness bag as she puked, while his other hand held her hair back and out of the way.
doing the same drill as before, the shuttle was unsecured, and flew out into open space before initiating the 'flight test only' tyllium drive.
Flash!
They arrived next to the MS Arachne, a ship owned directly by Ngo Industries, a hauler with a load of munitions bound for Arc Royal and only one thirty light year jump from Arc Royal.
"Initiating docking manuever..."
same as before. Liz calculated it-they'd crossed four weeks of space in less than an hour using relays Li had to have had pre-planned months ago.
Discontinuity
he pushed her to the ground, "eat dirt you zipperhead whore." His name had been George something-or-other, a son of some Davion officer who'd been transferred to the Lyran Commonwealth side as an advisor, and his french-tinged accent just underscored his origins somewhere near New Syrtis.
Elizabeth snarled, and leapt, clawing her way up his back, kicking and biting while his arms flailed uselessly, she rode him down, legs locked around his fat midsection, her fists pummeling and pounding when her fingers weren't pulling his hair and she bit, and bit, not quite drawing blood. In instinct, he tried to run right as her fingers found his eyes from behind and she whacked the back of his head smartly with her own forehead. he went down.
"EAT IT, EAT IT, EAT THE DAMN DIRT YOU FILTHYPIG!!ROOT THE DIRT! ROOT YOUR STUPID PIG NOSE IN IT!!!" she screamed at him over and over again, beating on him.
under her, the bigger boy began to cry fat, satisfying tears. "eat the dirt yourself!!" she scooped some and shoved it in his mouth, then slammed his forehead into the playground filth. he was crying, there was blood under his face, blood from his mouth, from broken teeth.
she felt a stab of shame as she rolled off of him, watching the big, older boy crying and hurt.
"Lizzie this isn't who you are!!" she looked up, and Penny was there, taller than the other kids because she was older. "You're not cruel."
she looked up at her friend from the future and past, "Sometimes I'm worse." she confessed. the shame burned bright...
Reality again. they were in Arc Royal's traffic control zone. Whatever was left, plus the water she'd drunk after the last one, came back up, and again, one of her Cylons held her hair back, and supported the airsickness bag as she heaved until dry, and then heaved some more.
"Is that every time you fly?" Jack asked.
"ever since I could remember. It's why I hate to travel." Elizabeth answered when she finally could. "A tiny bit more severe today."
the machine man nodded understanding, or sympathy.
"Don't pity me. I can't stand pity." she instructed, "Please."
instead, he offered her a cleaning rag to wipe her mouth, and a flask of Ijero wine to kill the awfulness of the taste in her mouth.
They flew sublight into the approach pattern, then onto a pre-filed flight plan to the Ngo Industries distribution and service complex outside old Connaught.
Elizabeth made a point of carrying her own airsickness bags off the bird after landing, and disposing of them in the provided trash can.
the Gina, and the Sharon were waiting for her. "Which one of you two drives?" Liz asked.
"I do." the Sharon answered.
"good, you've got the half-ton like I asked?"
"Yes...are you sure you want to do this?"
"it has to happen sooner or later. sooner is probably better." Liz stated, "If they find out on their own without being told, there's going to be hell to pay. This way, we can set the terms of engagement."