The Streamer's Edge

Chapter 30 - The Truth

Finn and Kyra walked along the Presidium hand in hand, the Assembly Tower looming ahead of them.

"Finn," she said, her grip tightening. "You don't have to do this."

He stopped and ran his hand down her cheek, saying, "Believe me, I wish there was another option."

"But ..." she said, flustered. "I'm sorry if I stormed off earlier. I was just feeling-"

"I know," he told her gently. "We all were."

He kissed her and hugged her close. "It'll work out. Somehow. It always does."

She still looked unhappy. Seeing her sad made Finn's heart ache, but there was no more time for doubting. It was time to throw in his last chip and hope his hand was a winning one.

Bowing his head, he said, "You don't have to go with me."

"Yeah, I kinda do," she told him, squeezing him a little more tightly with both sets of arms. "We're in this together, right?"

As they neared the lift that would bring them to the top of the tower, one of the two guards stationed held up his hand to stop them.

"Can I help you?" The sikassan asked as his fellow guard looked on impassively from his helmet.

Finn nodded. "Someone sent a complaint about the elevator acting a bit wonky, so my boss sent us to check it out."

"The skrievers usually fix this sort of thing," the guard said, his eyes narrowing.

"I know, right?" Finn said, trying to sound harried. "Let the bugs fix it up, that's what I told him."

"And what did your boss say?"

"He said we either fix the damn thing or me and the missus end up cooking ramen in the Eldes Ward."

The guard let out a sharp laugh. "Sounds like ol' Gus. All right then; go ahead."

"Thanks, man." Finn pulled out a spanner for show and stepped into the lift, Kyra following behind him.

Finn made what he hoped was a believable pretense of checking the elevator systems for signs of an error that probably didn't exist. After a few minutes, he leaned back and said, "Damn."

"What's wrong?" The guard asked.

"Well, it looks like there's a miscalibration in the runtime circuitry. Nothing I can't fix, but it means I'll be going up and down in the elevator for about an hour to make sure it's right."

"Sure thing. Oh, I do need to see your work order, though; regulations and all that."

Finn grimaced and shook his head. "Damn. I was sure that would work. Eri?"

"Huh?"

The guard didn't even have time to turn around before the other guard gave him a nasty shock with his stun baton. Eri deftly caught the guard before he fell.

"For the record, I woulda bought it," Eri told him. Shrugging, he started dragging the soldier away, muttering loudly about guards drinking on duty whenever curious eyes turned his way.

Darsan, wearing a truly revolting pink trench coat that somehow matched and didn't match his hat, approached the lift with Xyn following close behind. [Excited] "So far so good, right?"

"Er, right," said Finn. He knew he needed Darsan to stand out, but not quite that much.

Everyone was silent as they rode the lift. The plan was wild, it was crazy ... and that was how they all knew it would work. Assembly meetings were broadcast across the cosmos, so all they had to do was get to the Assembly while it was still in session.