Departures

This time, I wasn't gonna get myself frakked. I showed up armed to the teeth, and I do believe my dear old Pa mighta shat hisself when he woke to find Fear and Pain 'cross his throat and his eldest child standing over him at the offended ends of 'em.

"Look," I said, and he just stared at me. Ma'd gotten up outta bed and was backed up, watchin'. Wonder if she knew I wasn't out for his blood. Didn't have time to go gallavantin' 'bout in her head to find out, though. "Given the last time we met up, it didn't end so well for me, I brought my katanas. Just know that I ain't got no intent to kill you, or even hurt you, but so help me God, if'n you so much as think 'bou tryin' to cause me trouble while I'm here, you will know Fear, and you will know Pain, and then, you will die. Just so we're perfectly clear."

I gave him a minute to process that 'fore goin' on. "Now, it occurred to me that the Feds might show up here with a sorta interest in Petra, maybe even Mama, cuz of me. And I'll be hanged 'fore I see either of 'em hurt when I can do somethin' to prevent it. So, I'm gettin' y'all outta here. It can either be all of you, or it can be just Mama and Petra, or it can be Jacob, Robert and Thomas, too, but it's happenin', so don't even bother arguin' with me."

And that was how my family ended up on a transport ship off of Persephone. I'd made a call 'fore shippin' out from Hale's, asked Cap'n Card to swing by and pick 'em up and take 'em somewhere safe. Didn't get into details with him. Reckoned he'd have a better notion of where was safe than me, cuz the only places I knew well enough to trust were Blackburne and Hale's Moon, and had it just been my Ma, my brothers and Petra, one or the other woulda suited. But my Pa was with 'em, and I couldn't trust him further'n I could throw a piano.

I advised 'em to change their names and lose their past. Start fresh. Reckon Pa had no misgivin's 'bout that. From what I could tell, he was in debt up to his eyeballs and sure'n there'd be more'n a few debtors out for his hide soon as they realized he'd jumped planet. Man actually thanked me for helpin' them as he stood on the ramp of Lone Reverie. Didn't apologize for shit, but I figure that I got a "thank you" outta him's 'bout as miraculous as ya get.

Mama had a message for me, though. Weren't so much a message as it was just... lettin' me know somethin't prol'ly wasn't ever intended for me to know. She told me 'bout the man who came 'round the day after I'd escaped Federal custody, and how he'd paid Pa off to stay the hell away from me. She described him. Tall. Muscular. Brown coat. Brown hair. Blue eyes. Moustache. Duncan. So he'd figured it out. How the devil he managed that one was beyond me, but I honestly wasn't too surprised. It gave me a pang. Hell, pang. More like a deep, profound sense of loss. No point in openin' that door again, though. He was gone, and that was it.

Petra just looked at me. Wasn't like how my brothers looked at me, with so much fear and awe in their eyes, starin' at a big sister who had enough weapons strappd to her to wage a small war. No, she looked at me, and she wanted me to take her with me. But I couldn't. So I told her, in her head, where she could find me when she was grown, or if she needed help.

And that was it. They were gone. I'd promised Card that we'd get together sometime to shoot the shit, and I'd told my Pa in no uncertain terms that if he did to Petra what he'd tried to do to me, he'd live to regret it. A lot. I reckon that man walked away with a whole new perspective on life. Or, maybe not. He wasn't famous for bein' wise. More for bein' a fool.

I wondered if I'd ever see any of 'em again. Hell, weren't like I even knew any of 'em. They weren't part of my life now. But there'd always be a part of me that'd wonder how they were gettin' on. And when I was done thinkin' my nostalgic thoughts, I went and got Merkabah so I could go home.

And when I got there, I found that everything had changed.