DoD - Ch.104b - Reunited (Patreon)

=::= Rebecca's PoV =::=

"Alright we're alone now," my host stated. "So watcha wanna talk about?"

We were seated across from each other at the table in her office, the tea service forgotten. And for the moment I pushed aside my concerns for my ship and crew, and the impending threat of attack by raiders. My focus was back on the woman I thought was dead, the woman I spent the last twenty-nine years mourning.

My heart was racing as I looked at her. The intervening years hadn't been kind to her, though it was clear the worst of it happened when she died. Or when I thought she died. 

Memories of that night were still fresh in my mind, even after all this time. I could picture her in the doorway of the shuttle as the shoulder-launched missile streaked up at her. It hit the nose of the shuttle, and her left side would have taken the brunt of that. That's probably when she lost the eye and leg. The scars on her hand were caused by burns, probably from the secondary explosion after the shuttle crashed.

"Well?" she asked impatiently. 

She'd already gotten over the shock of the Demeter coming back here for a visit, and the surprise of meeting Gabriel Piper's alleged daughter. Despite her age and her old injuries she was still the tough no-nonsense woman I loved all those years ago. 

I'd recognize her anywhere. Looking past the weathered battered exterior, her face, her voice, the sharp look in her remaining eye, there was no doubt in my mind it was her. The only question was how. I saw her die, Gabe confirmed she died. So how was she here, alive after all these years? And why hadn't she ever tried to contact us?

"If you ain't gonna say nothing then I will," she stated after another few seconds. "What did'ya mean about seeing me die? Did those assholes that double-crossed us record it or something? And why's this the first I'm hearing about it?"

I sighed and shook my head, "I didn't see a recording El. I'm sorry, this is... I don't know how to tell you this. It's going to sound crazy, you're not going to believe me. And likewise I'm wondering how you're here, how you survived? I saw you die, Gabe confirmed it."

She frowned as she leaned forward in her chair and grabbed her false leg, then lifted it up and rested it on the chair next to her. Finally she leaned back and sighed. "Ok kid, I'll tell you my story. Then you're gonna tell me yours. Deal?"

"Deal," I nodded.

Ellery took a deep breath, while she got a distant look in her eye. "I reckon your old man's already told you some of this already, on account of you knowing who I am and all. But y'all can indulge an old lady and lemme tell my story. So this was about thirty years back. I was crew on your daddy's ship, along with my best friend and soulmate. He was as tough as they came. Both of us were ex-marines mind you, but I ain't never met nobody tough as him..."

I endured the next ten or twelve minutes in silence, listening as Ellery described her idealized version of the man I used to be. Some of it was almost entertaining as she made me out to be some kind of legendary special-ops super-soldier. I couldn't help wondering if she was intentionally embellishing the truth or if her memories had coloured over the decades so she really believed the tall tales she was spinning.

One thing I wasn't prepared for was how much it bothered me to hear my old name. I'd learned enough about trans issues to know that folks like Amanda usually didn't appreciate hearing their deadnames. I honestly didn't realize how much that applied to me until I listened to Ellery say it for the tenth time in a row.

Eventually she got to the part I was actually interested in, and I focused on what she had to say.

"So there he was, all shot to hell, bleeding out on the ell-zed. I knew those assholes were amateurs so I took the chance and set the shuttle to hover over the site while I started picking them off with my rifle. Only thing is, I didn't bank on them having a gods-damned missile launcher down there."

She scowled, "So I got caught out like a sitting duck, total rookie mistake. The missile blew the hell out of the shuttle controls, that's when I lost my eye. Fucked up my leg too. Then the shuttle spun in. I was hanging out the door getting tossed around like a rag doll, lost my grip and got thrown clear as the thing blew itself to pieces. Apparently I landed head-first or some such, knocked me out cold. From what I'm told, I was buried under some of debris from the shuttle. Nearly roasted to death too they say, what with the wreckage being on fire and all. Seems I was lucky though, I ended up wedged between some rocks and they kept the burning shuttle far enough off me I was only lightly charred."

"Anyhow," she shrugged, "I didn't wake up till about two weeks later, in a bed here in Ganvis. By that time some of the locals round here had found me. They were picking over the site, looking for valuables, looting bodies I suppose. Local doc here in Ganvis patched me up best he could. Took me the better part of a year before I was healed up, and another year after that to get used to the damn false leg."

She gestured towards the door, "I met Preston during that time, found out later he's the one who was paying the doc to cover my bills and such. He wasn't looking for anything in return, he was already happily married. He's a good man, helped out an ex-marine who'd lost everything."

When she'd finished I sat there in silence, staring at her for another minute or so while my thoughts raced. 

I'd seen her shuttle get hit, I saw it go down, saw the explosion. If I'd thought there was any chance she survived I'd have been scouring this whole damn world the minute I got out of the Re/Gen pod. Except Gabe confirmed she was dead. The only thing I could think of was he screwed up. Maybe he didn't look that close, maybe another body was near the shuttle and he just assumed. 

That left one other question though. I braced myself then asked, "Why didn't you ever contact the Demeter? Why didn't you let us know you were alive?"

Ellery scowled, "First off I wasn't fit to get out of bed for a year, missy. Second off it was another year after that before I was in any condition to travel into the capital where I could send an FTL. And what the hell was I going to say? Hey turns out I'm alive after all, come get me even though I'm no damn use to you and can't do my damn job anymore? Anyways there was only one man I'd have moved moons to get in touch with, and he died the same night I nearly did."

I frowned and shook my head, "What about Gabe? He was your friend. He saved you after the Cumberland wreck. You shipped with him for a decade. Don't you think he'd have wanted to know you were ok?"

"I wasn't ok!" she half-yelled. "Look at me girl! This is me after three decades of slow painful recovery, with shit home-brew meds and a second-hand false leg! Gabe was better off without me. I know he was, obviously he settled down and had a family right? He got you anyways."

A moment later the anger left her and she sighed. Her voice was softer again as she continued, "Anyways we were broke, maybe your daddy didn't mention that. The only reason we took that shit job was we were desperate. Even if I could contact Gabe, even if he could have come and picked me up, he couldn't have done any more for me than Doc Rogers did here. So I stayed put. Apart from two months I spent in the capital I've been here in Ganvis ever since."

Her voice took on a sad tone as she added, "Jace's mom died when he was born. I took to helping Preston out, he didn't know what to do with the baby and all. Neither of us expected anything to happen, neither of us were looking for it, but we kind of grew attached to each other. I ended up moving in with Preston and Jace, became part of the family. Jace knows I didn't give birth to him, but he doesn't care. I raised him like he was my own. Only thing I did wrong was telling him too many stories of life out there with the stars."

I took a deep breath then sighed, "Ok El. I get it. I still wish you'd sent word. And I don't understand why Gabe said you were dead."

She shrugged, "You can't just ask him?"

"He passed on six years back," I replied. "Sorry."

Ellery sighed, "Damn. I'm sorry kid. So that just leaves me huh? Last one standing. I mean, from back then."

"Not quite," I replied. My heart was racing again as I prepared to tell her my own story. I took a few deep breaths then looked her in the eye. 

"I didn't die that night El, though for a long time I almost wished I did. Gabe brought the Demeter to the LZ, he hauled my half-dead ass up into the hold and tried to plug all the holes with a first-aid kit. It was no use though, I was dying and he knew it. There was only one thing left to try. You remember that auto-doc we got hired to salvage off that ancient wreck? We stuck it in a corner of the secondary hold, wired it into the Demeter's power bus then forgot about it? Well he stuffed me in there and turned it on. Only thing is, it wasn't an auto-doc after all."

I hesitated, but Ellery didn't say anything. She was just staring at me with a cold wary look in her eye. I could tell she didn't believe me. More than that, she looked angry. Like I was disrespecting the memory of the man she was idolizing earlier.

"The only thing that old guy who hired us to salvage it got right was the pod could fix or heal damn near anything. I'll save you the sales pitch and get to the point. The way it works is it basically builds you a new body from scratch. Gets rid of the old broken one, builds a new healthy one, and away you go. Except the one we found isn't a high-end model. It's basically the budget unit and it only has a limited selection of new bodies to choose from. They're all in perfect health. They're all young strong and fit. And they're all female."

El's eye widened but that was the only indication she was surprised. Otherwise she still looked low-level angry.

"Gabe stuffed me into that thing an old broken bleeding dying man, and I came out a perfectly healthy eighteen year old girl. It took me a long time to get over that El. Losing you, then losing myself too? I couldn't tell you how many times I thought about ending it. Only thing that stopped me was I knew you'd kick my ass if that's how I followed you into whatever comes next. So I stayed alive, I kept going. At first I called myself Rebecca Clark, but then Gabe started telling folks I was his daughter so I became Rebecca Piper."

I grimaced as I added, "We kept doing the same dangerous work, and I kept getting myself shot up every so often. So I kept climbing in that pod and kept coming out looking like a teenage girl again. Last time I went through it was just a few days ago. I'm eighty-two years old El. Ex-marine, ex-special-ops. I served with you in the Imperium Marine Corps, survived the Cumberland wreck with you, and the two of us flew with Gabe for a decade. I used to be CWO Clark, now I'm Rebecca Piper. And in the last twenty-nine years hardly a day's gone by that I haven't thought about you."

By the time I was done there were tears in my eyes. I could have kept going, I could have told her about the pictures that still decorated the walls of my cabin. I'd long since got rid of any photos or evidence of my old self, but I kept all the images of her, and her with Gabe. And they were all over my cabin walls, along with pictures of Gabe and the new me. 

That was the real reason neither of my new girlfriends had ever been in my cabin. Everywhere you looked it was memories of Ellery Talwyn and Gabe Piper, memories of the friend and the lover I'd lost.

El continued staring at me, but some of the anger had faded. She looked confused again, and the disbelief was still there too. 

After another half minute or so she shook her head, "It's impossible. I don't believe it. I can't believe it. I... I found the man that killed... that killed you. He told me... He said after he shot down my shuttle he put a couple more bullets into you, to be sure. Then he -"

"He stole my special-ops patch and my lucky gun," I stated. "It took us about three years I guess, but me and Gabe came back. Not out here, we were at the capital. I went looking for that bastard and his henchmen. I wanted to avenge you and get my gun back, but I never found any of them. We figured someone else got to them first."

Some of the colour drained from El's face as I spoke. Her expression had shifted again, she looked uneasy, confused, maybe even a bit scared. She half-whispered, "It was me. My one trip to the capital. I hunted down every last one of those fuckers and killed them myself. Then I came back here, and I've been here ever since."

"I should have guessed that," I replied just as softly. I was smiling though, like of course my dead girlfriend would rise from the ashes to avenge me. It was the obvious answer. "Stupid question but I don't suppose you got my gun back?"

There was a smile tickling the edges of Ellery's lips as she nodded, "Course I did. And your special-ops patch too. Wasn't gonna leave them to rot with the bastard what took 'em from ya."

A moment later the almost-smile faded and El frowned. Her eye traced up and down over my body again, then she shook her head. "I still can't believe it. You...him... It can't be. You're a woman. A girl. You can't be him."

"I know," I grimaced. "Like I said, it took me a long time to get used to this, and it wasn't an easy ride. That was almost thirty years ago. I've been Rebecca Piper for nearly three decades. This is me now El. I'm a girl. CWO Clark... I let that life go. I guess in a way he died that night, same as you did."

She was quiet again for a while as she stared at me. Then she asked, "Your lucky gun, what's the make and model? And why's it lucky?"

I couldn't help smiling. Honestly I was surprised it took so long for her to try and test me. 

I replied, "It's a non-regulation side-arm but I got permission to make it part of my standard kit. It's a T'kona Arms Model five-one-oh-heavy, with the extended compensated barrel, improved action, and hardened frame. And it's lucky because of how I got it, on a moon in the Eridani system. Some smugglers got the drop on us, their leader shoved it in my face and pulled the trigger three times but it refused to fire. Damn fool was so eager to kill me he forgot the safety was on."

"As I recall, you were pretty upset about that," I added with a smirk. "My memory's a bit fuzzy but seems to me you might have screamed when you thought I was a dead man."

By the time I was finished I could tell she believed me. The look on her face said it all.

"It's really you," she half-whispered. 

"It is," I nodded. Then after a brief hesitation I added, "You know El, we still have that healing pod in the Demeter's secondary hold. It can fix you up better than new. Your eye, your leg, your health, even your youth."

Her eye widened in surprise and she looked uncertain. "I... I don't know. I'd probably have to leave here, wouldn't I? They wouldn't know me anymore, they wouldn't believe it was me. This is my home, the community needs me. Preston needs me, and Jace... I can't just walk away from all this."

"I understand El," I replied quietly. "I feel the same about the Demeter and my crew. They're family, I couldn't leave them. And I won't pressure you on this, but I guess just think about it? The offer's open."

Ellery's eye traced traced up and down over me again, then she commented "Ironic ain't it? You kept bugging me to retire from that life, to settle down somewhere quiet, while I was the one who wanted to keep flying with Gabe. Only I'm the one who ended up settling down, while you kept flying and fighting."

She looked me over once more then added, "Still having a hard time believing it's really you though. The man I knew would never be happy looking like that."

"We all change El," I sighed. 

Both of us were quiet after that, lost in our own thoughts. Being reunited after almost three decades apart, each of us believing the other was dead, it was a lot to take in. Especially the realization that neither of us was the same person the other remembered. 

After a few quiet moments I opened my mouth to say something, but I was interrupted by an alert tone from the commlink on my belt.