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Silver and Gold; Friends New and Old.
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"Hey Gang," Will called over his comms unit. I've sold off the rad batteries and found us dinner for tonight. What have you been up to?"
"Ah, well, we've had quite a bit of excitement this morning. Meet us at the cafe at booth 23C and we'll tell you all about it," June replied, underselling the morning's activities.
"Sounds good, I should be there in twenty minutes," Will said, ending the conversation.
June, Interface, and Ben returned to the little cafe where they had been drinking coffee while they waited for Will. They found that while everyone watched events unfold in the street just outside, no one had cleared their table of beverages. So the trio reclaimed their seats and watched the security detail wrestle four large body bags into an ambulance, no doubt heading to the station's morgue.
The hostess came out from the kitchen and up to their table with a look of awe and admiration. "Everything is on the house today," she said shyly. "I saw what you did for those people. You were so brave," She glanced around at each of them, but her eyes lingered on Interface slightly longer.
"You deserve a reward. Order anything you like on the menu, and I'll have the kitchen whip it up quick," Then she paused, seemed to muster up some courage, and reached into the pocket of her black apron, retrieving a small slip of paper.
"I get off work at Five, maybe if you're not busy, we could go get a drink..." the hostess said, giving Interface her number, blushing and smiling sheepishly.
Glancing at the paper in her hand, "I have plans this evening," the hostess's heart sank. Interface looked to June, who was wearing a wide smile, subtly nodded her head, and then she said, "But I'm free tomorrow. Would that be okay, Diana?" Interface said, reading her nametag. The smile returned to Diana's face, slightly brighter than it had been.
"Yeah, tomorrow would be great," She said. "Meet me here at seven?" Diana said with hope in her voice.
"Seven sounds perfect," Interface said, face beaming with excitement.
With a wide smile, Diana topped off Ben's coffee and asked June, "Would you like another espresso?"
"That would be lovely, thank you," June replied. As soon as Diana disappeared back into the kitchen, June looked at Interface and Ben and said, "I told you, didn't I?" she said with a big smile.
As they chatted and laughed, Will found them seated out front. He pulled another chair up from the empty table beside them and squeezed between June and Ben.
"So what was all this excitement you were talking about?" Will asked as he broke off a corner of the lemon scone June had been nibbling and popped it in his mouth.
Their faces at the table darkened, so Will leaned forward, growing concerned.
"June spotted a bunch of slavers hiding people in crates, shipping them off to God knows where. But we stopped them," Interface said with a hard tone of satisfaction.
"Feels like there's more to this story," Will responded.
After a pause, June picked up where Interface left off. "The really strange part was that all of the kidnapped people were painted with a silver design like our markings, only more crude. It feels like it was supposed to signify something, but who knows."
"Did the security folks have anything to add?" Will asked.
"They seemed as stumped as we were," June said, shrugging her shoulders. "We do know that security didn't get a chance to get any information out of them; the bastards were killed before they could talk."
"Sounds like someone was close by watching it go sideways, and pulled the plug. I bet they're pouring over the security cams as we speak."
Then Ben scratched his chin for a moment and spoke. "If they were close enough to know when to execute their fall guys, it stands to reason that they could have been close enough to see one of us. If the paint on those people do have significance to them, it would make us stand out in their eyes." The group looked around at each other with uncomfortable looks on their faces.
"There is something else that was super weird about that whole thing," Ben gestured broadly at the now cleaned-up and back-to-normal scene just outside of the cafe, "We took out four muscle-bound, gorillas. Three weeks ago if I had gone toe to toe with a dude that big, he would have flattened me. Now Interface I understand, she's one mean mama jama," he said with a smile to Interface, "but there should have been no way June and I could have taken those guys out, even if we tag teamed one of them. You should have seen it, June shattered a guy's jaw!" He raised his hands over his head in bafflement.
"Well, the simple answer is that you're not entirely human anymore," Interface said. Will, June, and Ben's mouths dropped open, surprised at the statement. "Well, you're still mostly human, but your bodies are changing as your connection to me grows stronger. You've already experienced some of the changes, your increased libido, for one."
"I'll say," June concurred with an ear-to-ear grin.
Interface smiled back. "Other things you'll notice is that your strength, agility, and reflexes will improve. I keep close tabs on your health, and so long as you get regular doses of precursor fluid into your system, you won't get sick anymore. I'll be able to maintain your bodies at peak physical condition for a very long time."
"When you say a 'very long time', what do you mean exactly?" June asked, tilting her head to one side, trying to parse Interface's meaning.
Interface was surprised at the question, having not given it much thought. "Well, when my crew and I were exploring the galaxy, we roamed all over space for hundreds of years," Interface said.
"Wait a minute," Will said, shaking his head in disbelief. "Are you saying we won't age?"
They all paused, contemplating what Interface's revelation meant. "You mean to say, we're immortal now?" Ben asked in astonishment.
"Well, I don't know about immortal, accident and dismemberment are always a possibility, but I knew several flesh and blood people who were over a thousand years old," Interface said.
They all thought about that momentarily, and then Will broke the silence. "Well, I don't even know what to say about that. Crashing on that planet and meeting you was like falling into shit and coming out smelling like roses!" He leaned over and gave Interface a peck on the cheek. "This is something I'll probably need time to wrap my head around."
Will's face grew serious, his thoughts returning to recent events. "But this business with the slavers," he said, changing the subject, "we simply don't have enough information to act on, so for now we will need to be vigilant and careful. We don't know who they are, what they want, or why they painted those people to look like us. If Ben is right, their attention is something we don't want to draw," Will said, looking around at his family with loving concern.
They all nodded in agreement. "They better hope that WE don't find THEM," Interface said, her voice like cold iron. Their expressions of determined agreement told her they shared the sentiment.
"Now, changing topics," Will began, turning the conversation to the more immediately practical, "We made six grand from those batteries, which will be plenty to get us to Centrailia Spaceport. Three months on the ferry, and from there, it'll take us, what, two weeks at our current speed to get to Peirault Headquarters on Durinheim?" Will looked at June, seeking confirmation that his travel estimate was correct, and she nodded in agreement.
"That will give us close to four months to plot our next steps. And we'll need to find a way to make some cash to finance our expeditions looking for leads into Interface's past. We promised to find your people and we will," Interface's face beamed with appreciation.
Diana appeared at their table with a cup and carafe and offered some coffee to Will, spotting a moment ago that he was the only person without a beverage. He accepted gratefully, then she left to attend to another customer.
"You mentioned you figured out what we're going to do for dinner," June prompted.
"Indeed I did," Will said, sipping his cup. "You'll never guess who runs the maintenance shop here on Penrose," He said to June with a big smile.
"Who?" She asked.
"Jeremy Walters," Will revealed.
"No kidding! Wow, it's been ages!" June exclaimed.
"Yeah, he settled down, with a wife and a kid, the whole nine. Seems pretty happy. We've all been invited to dinner," Will said.
"An old friend of yours?" Interface asked, excited to possibly meet someone new.
"Yeah, met him first year in the academy; we went through a lot together," He smiled, thinking about the shenanigans they had gotten up to in the past.
"So I thought we'd purchase our passage on the ferry, then head right over to their apartment, stopping to grab a bottle of wine on the way. He said dinner was at six, so we should think about getting a move on," Will said.
They all stood up from the table and headed outside to the busy street. Interface caught Diana's eye on her way out as she was wiping down an empty table and waved goodbye. Diana smiled and waved back, watching the group leave.
As they exited onto the street, they looked around and were surprised at how efficiently the station personnel had cleared away the morning's crime scene and returned everything to normal; the vehicle lanes were choked with slow-moving traffic, and pedestrian walkways full of busy people heading off to appointments.
