S.T.R Gazer

11

"I didn't even get a chance to say bye to the Suburban" Alashie says sitting in the passenger seat of Xavier's hover transport.

"Really?  That's what you thinking about?"  Xavier asks "Put your seatbelt on.  Taking no chances."

The pair pull up at the garage and hurriedly pull through the bay doors.  Jelun walks away as Xavier gets out holding an ice pack on his jaw.  It had taken Alashie hitting Xavier with a quick touch of a taser glove to get him off of Jelun two nights ago.

"Where's Aries? "  Alashie asks Jelun. As if on cue Aries and Xalissa come through the far door laughing.  "Well, I'm glad you two are getting on soooo great but  if you hadn't noticed..." she says motioning to the mess of salvaged Federation parts scattered on the floor.

"Lash nobody is taking this lightly," Aries says losing the smile.  "I just put my father on a transport to Luna."

"Ya well you should've shipped this loonie off to the moon too," Xavier says eyeing Jelun

"Wanna go for round 2 travayèz" Jelun yelps

"Yeah cuz round one went so great for ya" Xavier laughs

In an instant, Areis was standing an inch from Xavier.  "Listen.  We've all gotten fucked from what happened.  But goddess help me if you call my brother or I the L word again we are going to have a serious problem." he said in a grimly serious tone.

"Aries what are we gonna do?  You shipped off ya dad.  We have to go too right?"  Alashie asked almost desperately.

"Mama told me mierda was all over the news waves.   We fucking Zhùmíng!" Xalissa interjects

"That's exactly the problem Xa. We're famous. We supposed to be invisible." Aries returns.

"The Fed see now someone has the balls to hit them. Y'all relax. They don't know who we are. The masks. The IDs. Lái ba I even covered our traces in their system. Left an autonomous probe too. Sailor Jupiter matter of fact. They can't track us. I feel sorry for whoever looks like those renderings I used." everyone stares at Xalissa. " Fóllate a todos," she says giving them all the finger.

" Better safe than sorry in this case.   If anyone wants to take a little vacation now would be the time.  Go or stay; all of the operations are cut off for now.  No new customers.  We're gonna have to postpone the jobs that are in the works too."  Aries answers.

"We have to finish these jobs at the least,"  Xavier argues.

"I'm not doing shit," Alashie says matter of factly.

"Xa  lets go hit Singaporre.  We could off some of these parts if Lashie can hook up a transport for off-grid travel."  Xalissa suggests.

"That's not a bad idea.  It's not like you two go to school anyway."  Alashie adds

"After I wrap up a few things we'll be joining dad on Luna"  Aries comments

"You're leaving?!  I....uh...Jelun can take care of your dad."  Alashie says studdering

"It's just until things cool down.  You can take care of the place if you're staying.  It's more your workshop than anything."  Aries says slipping an arm around Alashie's shoulder.

Alashie slips from under Areis' arm and goes over to a her pet project.  She whips off the cover to an old "Barracuda" frame that she'd been working on over the past two year.  "This should work to get ya'll outta Dodge"  Alashie chuckles

"Was that a joke?  I don't get it"  Jelun says

As Alashie tunes the transport Areis and Jelun pack up their belongings from the warehouse's loft.  Xaveir looks up hotels in Singaporre while Xalissa plays her game.

"So I can lead the Fed on a false trail."  Xalissa says.  Alashie and Xavier look up from their tasks.  "I told you I left that probe right?  Well  the reactive AI let me level my main hero up to map their system.  I can get in plant false leads right into the system.  Once I get to level 49 I can even put false alerts in the soldries HUD's."

"You're getting pretty good with that thing Xa,"  Alashie says wiping her hands.

"You made it.  I just made it look cool"  Xalissa returns.

"I didn't think the AI would do anything you didn't tell it to do though.  I mean it came out of a floor sweeper."

"It dosen't do it mija.  But it sure is nifty at telling me what it CAN do and even better what it can learn.  That game interface made all the difference."

Areis and Jelun come down the stairs with full hikers backpacks.  "You guys should go home.  Xa your moms  won't be happy your taking a spur of the moment vacation to  Asia."  Aries says

"She'll be alright"  Xalissa and Xavier say in unison.

"Lissa you having a bad hair day?"  Alashie says still chuckling.  She smooths the hair that is sticking straight up on Xalissa's head.  They both gets a static shock as they touch.

"What's that smell?"  Xalissa says wrinkling her nose.  "Smells like....space camp tal vez?

Alashie looks at Areis with a knowing wide eyed look. "No. Smells like ozone" he says . Alashie saw an emotion that she never thought she'd see in Areis face. Fear.