On The Hunt (On Hold)

Chapter 9 - Sluan

"It's all good, the healing pod fixed me up. You?"

"I had some burns from the taser, some bruises, some cuts, overall better than you.

"How'd you get burns?"

"The guy was using a modified cattle prod so it had a lot more power and holding it onto the skin for extended period of time caused burn blisters and such."

"Fuck, I'm sorry" I told her sadly, "it's all my fault."

"What?" She exclaimed. "How the fuck is any of the your fault."

"He's my brother."

"So?"

"He's my blood, I am responsible for him."

"That's not how it works, no offence, but your brother is a massive dick. What ever happened to him to make him this way is not your fault."

"Yea it is, I could have been there for him, but instead I was is the 21st Century doing fuck all to help him."

"But that doesn't mean it's to late to help him now."

"You think so?" I asked her in a small voice. A voice I haven't used since I was little.

"I know so. Now trust me" she smiled and it stole my breath away.

"Okay, let's do this."

"So while you were out I did some digging into you and your brother" I immediately tensed up thinking about our childhood, "and I found out somethings about you, and I wanted you to know that so that there are no secrets between us."

I just looked at her.

"I was hoping you could explain it to me" she continued, "from your perspective. If not we can just skip it and move on" she told me with a small smile.

"No, it's okay, it might help with the case later. Jaro and me, were twins and a few days after we were born our mother, or father, left us to die in an abandoned house. It was 2 fucking days before someone found us and dropped us of at the local orphanage." I told her with a cold emotionless voice, "we spent the next 18 years in Red Vulva, the orphanage, some were good, most were bad. We never got adopted and we had no place to go. So we did the next best thing, work for the government. I joined up at TSA and Jaro went to the Federation to become an engineer. That day was the last time we saw each other, or even spoke to each other."

"Okay, so from that we can assume that what happened to Jaro must of happened in the time he joined and left the Federation. That gives us a 16 year time period to work with."

"Yea that's a big window."

Just as she was about to reply there was a beep from the monitor. "Oh, good the files came in. I ordered the files on Jaro and his career in the Federation and his general file to see if we can piece it together."

"Good thinking, I can see why Luuken hired you." Fuck I just had to put my foot in my mouth.

"Yea... I guess." she said looking away. "But according to the files Jaro is AWOL from the Federation and has been for about 6 years."

"Does it state why?"

"No, but according to his general file he was married and his wife, who was one a Star-Ship was killed, along with 353 other personnel, 5 years ago. It was the Star-Ship Lokihaj."

"I remember that, it was an attack from Xaxto, but there was never any reason for the attack. And TSA never did anything because they were dealing with the planetary wars" I remembered from the news.

"I looked into the wife's files and her body was never found, people assume it was either blown up in the attack or somewhere in space."

"That's probably what caused him to be like this, he lost the love of his life, and TSA had the power to help but didn't. Christ, and to make it worse, I wasn't there and I also work for TSA." 

"Fuck, that sucks balls" Lily commented causing me to snort and laugh. It wasn't a good laugh, it was a laugh bordering on hysteria and a mental breakdown. Even Lily could tell I was loosing it as she looked at me.

"Hey, Sluan buddy, you okay?"

"Does it look like I'm okay?" I spat back.

"No you don't, and I think you should take a nap and get some sleep because you can't help me like this. Not in your state."

"I'm fine" I argued back.

"You know fine stands for freaked-out insecure neurotic and emotional right?" 

"Whatever, I'll take an hour nap and the get back to work. Deal?"

"Sure."

"Make sure to wake me after an hour" I told her before lying down on her bed and drifting off. 

I woke up some time later feeling much better, kind of like that one hour nap was a reset on/off button. I looked around the room and found that Lily was still sitting behind the monitor working on something.

"Hey" I said with a gruff voice full of sleep.

"Oh good, your awake."

"Yea, how long was I out for? Just the hour right?"

"No," she looked at her watch, "about 4ish hours, you needed it."

"I told you to wake me after one!" 

"Too bad you needed it. Now lets get to work. So I did some digging and found some attacks towards TSA bases, ships, people and things generally related to TSA that can be linked back to a few of the main members of the Sons of Time."

"Okay..." How did she manage to find this in just 4 hours? I wondered to myself.

"So we know that Luuken was the head honcho-"

"The what?" I interrupt confused. 

"The boss man, the guy in charge, on top.., you know the leader-" She looks at me like I'm stupid.

"I get it, just- continue."

"So he was the boss, but he had other people under his command. Such as Jaro, turns out he's run point on some of the attacks towards TSA, and people regard him highly because um, well he... you know, likes to um-"

"Hurt people?" I finish of, "he's their enforcer" I state.

"Yea" she scratches her neck nervously, "moving on, the guy from the base, General Sydow is also in on it. He's been getting regular payments and has been filmed with Luuken in the past. Which makes me suspect other corrupt agents in TSA, but that would take a lot more digging. Also, the name Owl keeps popping up."

"You sure it's O.W.L?"

"Yea who is he?"

"O.W.L stands for Outlaws With Liberty; they're a radical group that opposes almost all types governments in the galaxy and are known to be the equivalent of moral mercenaries. They have a specific set of morals and codes, but if you hire them they don't care, as long as they get payed If they're involved in this, we need to amass an army in order to stop them." 

"Well that sounds terrible."

"Fuck, how did we not notice this!" I yelled pulling my hair out of my head. 

"Hey calm down." Lily whispered to me while grabbing me in a hug. I was so broken that I didn't even push her away, I just held on like my life depended on it, all the while she was whispering sweet nothings in my ear. 

After a while I managed to calm myself and pulled out of her embrace, but neither one of us moved away from each other. We were standing so close that I could smell the exoticness of her perfume, and the warmth of her body pressed against mine. Her eyes up close were an even more breath taking blue and her lips looked so soft. They were parted and I finally noticed how she was breathing heavily as if turned on, and how her eyes were trained on my lips. The thought of her wanting me was too much and all my will power snapped.

So I kissed her.