As the 'Jean-Paul' and the three other ships started their last jump towards Heaven Five. Their plans set and ready for a hopefully peaceful bluff.
The outer rim...
Far away from any Holy Company planet was the partially terraformed orb called Kellos. It took months for messages to reach the far flung Reacher planet and even longer to get there by ship. Not even the fastest FTL drive could get a ship from the relatively close Janus System in less than twelve weeks.
The Reacher people had chosen it for that exact reason. They had little wish to interact with the Holy Company.
The little contact they had with the Company was via it's stationary space station, 'Heaven Five'.
***
Three giant rings rotated slowly around a central spire, the whole construction in a stationary position above an unnamed planetoid. It's gravity strong enough to anchor the massive station that the holy company had constructed to watch over the 'Reacher' people on Kellos.
The Holy Company had called the far-flung station 'Heaven Five'. To the people on it, it was a long way short of heaven.
Originally designed by two bishops that wanted a station that could observe the 'Reacher' people as they terraformed the harsh planet of Kellos. It had been populated by some of the Companies best and brightest.
However, over a Hundred years had passed by.
Rotations had been fairly frequent at first, keeping the crew sharp and alert. Now though, it had been years since any new personnel had been assigned and much of the crew had become jaded and lazy. A few had even gone insane.
Very few onboard held out any hope of leaving and returning to the civilized worlds and for many, this was now considered home. Born on the station they had no real hope of leaving unless they chose to join the Reachers, an option hardly anyone would entertain.
With only the barest of communication back to the HC, Heaven Five was mainly free from Holy Company interference but still held to its ridged standards of social behaviour. It's commander being a slightly Jaded but loyal Company man with a strong security force and total backing from the more elite members of the crew.
***
Commander Lawson looked out through a large window as he ate his breakfast. The view was depressingly the same as always, the dark expanse of space dotted with stars, only the Reacher planet stood out with it two rings, both a light yellow in colour. A generous person might describe them as golden. He wasn't feeling generous and saw them as they were. Yellow.
"This milk is off." He grumbled as he still swallowed another mouthful of cereal.
"It can't be off daddy." Replied his daughter. She was used to the way he was always grumpy in the mornings.
"Tastes off." He mumbled.
Jenifer Lawson rolled her eyes at her father while managing to smile at the same time. They both knew it was impossible for the milk to be bad. It wasn't real milk for a start.
"A Reacher ship docked this morning... I was hoping you might let me go see it?... they might have some things to trade or sell... fresh milk for instance." She said to partially change the subject while secretly praying he would give her permission to get off the upper level and see parts of the station she had never seen.
To her surprise he nodded in agreement and said she could go, also telling her he would assign two of the security team to go with her.
Jenifer kissed his cheek as she hugged him gleefully. Her eyes twinkled with excitement the way they had as a child.
"Thank you daddy... I didn't think you would let me go." She told him honestly.
Station commander Lawson kissed her forehead and smiled, looking deep into her pretty blue eyes. Eyes that were still so full of innocence he almost changed his mind.
Yet he wanted her to see the lower levels, she was eighteen now and would need an understanding of the whole station.
"You can go, just stay with the security team and if anything happens... do what they say." He told her.
"Yes daddy... I promise... I'll stay with your goons." She laughed out as she stood up and headed for the door, her long nightdress swishing as she padded barefooted to get ready.
"I mean it." He shouted after her.
She turned and smiled.
"I know... I'll stay very close to them." She promised again, her face turning serious this time as she knew some of the dangers. It was impossible to grow up on 'Heaven Five' without hearing some of what happened on the lower levels.
********
A few hours earlier...
The cramped corridors were packed with people as two Reachers made their way through the crowds.
Guardian Gregory Jones walked beside Citizen Helena Shaw. He watched everywhere but had only been off world twice before, both times to 'Heaven Five' but something felt different this time.
The Reacher people were usually only tolerated because they brought fresh food and planet side things to trade. Yet today many people moved out of their way respectfully and gave him and Helena friendly nods or smiles.
"Somethings not right." He hissed out in a whisper as they headed towards the dock masters office and more people acted in an openly friendly manner.
"Yeah... it's freaky." Whispered back Helena. The way people were acting was making her nervous. She was used to thinly veiled hostility not this. Out of the two, she knew and understood the lower levels of Heaven Five. She even had more than a passing familiarity with the upper levels.
A tall slim man stepped out to bar their way just as they turned down another hallway.
"Brace wants to see you." He said with a grin. It was full of confidence and rightly so.
Helena nodded in acceptance. She and everyone else knew who Brace was. Leader of the people, self-proclaimed ruler of 'Heaven Five's' underworld. He was a man she tried to avoid when returning to 'Heaven' but rarely could. A long time ago she had lived on this station and Brace had seemed an ideal distraction from her once boring life.
Two years of passionate sex with him had been fun when in her youth but as she got older and wiser she had seen him for what he was and fled both him and the station.
Brace had lived his whole life on the Station, watched his father cripple himself trying to make ends meet and then watched his mother sell her body for meds to keep the old man alive. He was a bitter yet charismatic man that had quickly risen to power with rhetoric the common people liked and understood.
With a strong base support among the lower levels, he had soon organised strike actions and managed to get some extra things from the Holy Company. Things that he claimed were for the people.
In a way they had been. The concessions given, had helped the lower levels. They also catapulted Brace into the role of unofficial leader.
Moving quickly, he had pressed that advantage and used it to gather a core group of hard men and women to him.
People that saw Brace like a saviour and would do almost anything for him.
One of those men now escorted Helena and Gregory off the main area and through a series of small corridors. Eventually bringing them to a halt outside a cargo bay.
On the outside it looked like any other cargo bay. The large double doors shut and bearing no indication that this was where Brace now made his home.
The large doors opened to a view of boxed supplies. Obviously someone had seen Helena and her escort arrive.
Helena nodded to their guide as she passed him and entered. Crates were piled high but a small gap remained for them to pass through.
Once past the crates the place changed dramatically. People buzzed around in well worn work wear. They all looked like commoners with dirty hands and faces, grease stains on their patched up clothing.
Clearly they were not well off. Most of them had gaunt faces with hard eyes.
The room was filled with tech. scanners and display screens that flickered from low power, a general hum came from the old outdated equipment but the room seemed to be filled with drive and purpose.
"Citizens... welcome." Brace said with a sardonic smile as he stood in the centre of the repurposed area like a king in beggar's clothing. Using the Reacher form of address seemed like sarcasm from him.
Helena walked towards him with Gregory only a pace behind.
"What's going on Brace? You know I can't help you." She said. Forthright as ever with the man who had once been her lover.
"Helena... so good to see you again... who's the new boy?" he replied, deliberately ignoring her question.
She sighed. Brace had always been the jealous type, even after all these years apart and having himself a new woman.
"Guardian Jones... my protection." She said with a shrug, making it clear that Gregory wasn't getting between her legs. Thinking it best to steer clear of Brace's well known mercurial temper.
Brace grinned and indicated towards a side room. He rated the Guardian less than a stain on his boot, the Reachers had no proper military and their security training was woeful at best.
"Leave the puppy.. lets talk." He commanded as he strode to the rooms door and held it open.
Helena nodded to Gregory and followed, leaving her Guard to nervously look around at the room full of bedraggled but dangerous looking people.
Brace closed the door behind them, then walked casually over to a messy desk that held a bottle of whiskey.
"Drink?" he asked as he pored two tumblers full of the golden liquid without waiting for an answer. Proffering one towards her with a smile.
She took it and they both looked at each other as they took a sip, one warily, the other still with a gleam in his eye.
The strong flavour hit her as she swallowed. It tasted good.
"Expensive." She commented in surprise.
"E3... good stuff." He said with a grin.
She nodded pensively. He was being nice.. too nice.
"Brace?... what DO you want?" she asked softly.
He moved close, uncomfortably close and she was reminded of just how strong he was, how tall and handsome in his rugged way. She held her breath as he cupped her chin gently and tilted her head up. Even after all the years, she felt a small jolt of her former attraction to him.
The kiss to her lips wasn't a big surprise but it was a surprise to her how much she liked it. Helena melted into it and kissed him back. More followed and their mouths worked together briefly in a passionate and hard kiss.
It was Helena that pushed away.
Breathlessly she stepped back. Looking up at him with a slightly heated face. Her mind full of a confusing mix of emotions and half thought out questions.
"Don't." she gasped out.
"Why not?.. we both know you want to." He said. Still with an arm around her waist.
Both of her hands were on his chest, holding him back as she shook her head.
