Zone Of The Enders Fan Fiction ❯ Zone of the Enders: Triad 2177 ❯ Friendship Test ( Chapter 4 )

Jim snorted and shuffled in his seat. He opened his eyes and lifted his baseball cap up from over his eyes. He glanced around the bridge in a haze of half subconsciousness. The room was dead silent, only the soft roar of the engines could be heard along with the quiet beeps and blips of the computers and consoles.

"Hey, what happened?" he said, his voice cutting the silence for a moment.

"You nodded off," Miryhn said from the top of the control platform.

"Oh yeah? Where's Vera?" Jim said, standing up and walking around to wake up.

"She went back to the hold. Said she wanted to do a 'training sim' with that Frame while we were waiting to get to Ganymede," Nash said, filing his nails.

Jim glared at Nash. "Why are you doing that?"

"Doing what?" Nash replied, looking up.

"Your nails!" Jim said.

"Oh, yeah, this. While I'm working, I prefer to have my fingers and nails to be as clean and neat as possible so I can work with the utmost precision," Nash said, smiling.

Miryhn snickered loudly.

"Not like someone who can't even keep his mass of hair clean," Nash said, looking up at Miryhn.

"Don't mess with the hair, alright? Just 'cuz you don't have it doesn't mean you can be hatin'," Miryhn replied, jerking his thumbs in the direction of the back of his head.

"Great, I got a crew of little girls. Always do'in their hair, filing their nails, I mean geez!" Jim said as he left the bridge.

"Alright, ADA, next let's do... Lock-On, and then Combo Smash," Vera said, running her finger down the vid-window list of training topics. Vera adjusted her body in the seat of the cockpit to make herself more comfortable.

"Affirmative," ADA replied.

A knock on the canopy interrupted ADA's loading of the simulation. Vera grumbled and opened the canopy.

"Working hard or hardly working in there?" Jim asked with a smile.

Vera rolled her eyes. "As a matter of fact, I'm working hard. Is there something you need, captain?" she asked smugly.

"Nah, just mak'in sure this tin can isn't warping your brain or nothing," Jim said, patting the side of the cockpit. "Just don't get too attached. Remember, we're getting rid of it on Ganymede. Holding onto it is too risky," he added before walking off.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, captain, I know," Vera said, humoring him.

"Just remember that we'll be there in a little under an hour and a half," Jim said, climbing down the ladder.

"Alright, I hear 'ya," Vera said before closing the canopy.

"Wonder why she's suddenly so in love with that tin can," Jim wondered to himself as he glanced up at Freya. He shrugged it off and left the container.

Miryhn had begun snoozing and his head nodded backwards over the headrest of the pilot's seat. Just then, the loud beep of a comlink coming in startled him awake and he shot up in his seat.

"Damn, what in the hell?" he grumbled. He looked over at the clock and saw that there was only about ten minutes until the spaceport was scheduled to be cleared. He shook his head a few times and hit the button to open a vid-window for the comlink.

"This is Harperstown Spaceport. I have your ship here on my list of those awaiting docking," a man in a repairman's coveralls said.

"Yeah, yeah, we wanna dock," Miryhn said listlessly as he stretched random limbs of his body.

"Well, we're all cleared, so just land in our water-strip and you can park in dock twenty-seven, ok?" the man said with a grin.

"Yeah, ok, gotcha," Miryhn said, still droning. The vid-window cut off and disappeared. Miryhn finished stretching and flopped back in his chair. He yawned a long yawn and look back over the bridge. Jim was napping again in his chair and Nash was asleep too, resting his head on his folded arms on the console in front of him. "Damn, figures I'm the only one to wake up," Miryhn said with a sigh. He reached over to the bag, popped a pretzel in his mouth, and stared off into space through the canopy of the ship as he chewed it. As he stared, he started to remember the past...

"Joker, you're nuts. If this doesn't work, we're all dead and so are you!" King yelled at the other man. The other man rubbed the side of his muscular arm with the name 'Joker' tattooed on the bicep and looked down.

"It's a risk, but either way we're all dead," Joker replied.

"What's that suppose to mean?" King cried out.

"I can't tell you. It's nothing for you to be worried about," Joker said, his expression firm.

"Are you trying to tell me you'd risk me, Jack, Queen, Ace, and yourself just because of some bullshit you won't tell anyone about? How are we supposed to trust you?" King said, crossing his arms.

"I've been your leader for months now. I've saved each and every one of your asses at some point and you don't trust me now?" Joker said, anger growing in his tone.

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. This is a higher risk than if we were in those situations. Don't you understand that?" King pleaded.

"I don't care if you trust me or not," Joker said, grabbing King by the throat. "Good Runners are rare these days, we have to look out for each other," Joker added with a smirk.

King struggled and wiggled around as much as he could, but Joker's grip was firm. He watched as Joker swung back and threw his fist at him. The punch connected, knocking him out instantly.

King woke up with a sharp headache. He sat up and shook the clutter of unconsciousness from the rafters of his head. His eyes adjusted back into focus and he looked at his surroundings. He was in the foothills of a terraformed section of Mars. The air was perfectly breathable, but there was a smell of smoke.

King shot up to his feet and stammered to the edge of the cliff. From there, he spotted the Tempest Headquarters building. It was riddled with exploded areas and fires, signs of a fierce siege laid upon it.

"What the hell?" he said under his breath. He froze when he saw a U.N.S.F. LEV walk around the building. He fumbled back and shuttered. "Is this what he meant? That the U.N.S.F. had found Tempest and were coming to weed them out too?" King pondered. "He was a spy?"

King sighed again and stood up. The reality sunk in and it made him very confused. He didn't know whether to feel relieved that Joker was benevolently aligned or to feel mad because he allowed so many people to die. The U.N.S.F. had been excessively violent in "weeding out" all the remaining resistant factions on Mars after the disintegration of BAHRAM and many lives were lost that shouldn't have been, at least in King's opinion.

King started to walk away, his left leg asleep from being bent the wrong way while he was unconscious. As he rounded the wall of the cliff above him, he saw a truck parked in plain sight. He grinned and picked up his pace towards it. He inspected the inside and found the keys still in it. He cheered to himself and climbed in.

As he started the truck, he saw a note taped to the inside of the windshield. Curious, he ripped it off and opened the note.

The note read: "Yo King, it's true, I was a U.N.S.F. spy. As I said, good Runners are hard to find these days, especially us of the Shuffle Squad. Remember that for as long as you live. I know someday you'll go back to the battlefield, that is where you are meant to be, that is where you want to be. I know I will, battle is my life now. Anyways, go and live your life how you want to. You always told me you wanted to be a simple pilot before Tempest got a hold of us. I just hope someday we can meet again. Your war buddy, Joker."

King smiled smugly and put the truck into drive. He folded the note up and put it into the pocket of his flight jacket.

"Roger, Joker, copy that," he said with a smile. He then realized how stupid that comment was in his own mind and started laughing as he drove off.

"You were a good man, King. But I'm glad that you've moved on. You're gone forever, to a better place," Miryhn said, grabbing the bag of pretzels. "This one's for you," he said, taking out a pretzel, raising it up, and tossing it in his mouth.

"The hell are you talking about up there? Get ready to land!" Jim commanded.

Miryhn shook his head and yawned. "Sorry, I was dozing. Preparing for landing on Ganymede," he said, grabbing the controls.

"What a weirdo," Nash said, leaning his head on his elbow on the console.

Miryhn ignored Nash's comment and robotically set each of the controls for the landing procedure. The ship entered the terraformed atmosphere of Ganymede and started to head up on the bottom. After entering the atmosphere, the cooling units in the ship started and counteracted the heating along the bottom hull. Miryhn switched to manual control and guided the ship, bottom down, towards the sea of Ganymede. He reached over and flicked a few switches along the left-side console.

"Cutting engines, closing engine doors, exhausts closing, switching to filter systems," Miryhn said. Metal doors swung into place over the exterior ports of the engines and the front intakes. "Switching to propeller propulsion," Miryhn added, flicking another switch. The ship skimmed on top of the water and three sets of propellers came out of the bottom of the ship. As the ship entered the water it decelerated rapidly. The propellers started to spin and the ship started to cruise slowly through the water. Miryhn steered the ship towards dock twenty-seven and threw the throttle back. The propellers slowed the ship to a crawl and the clamps in the dock snapped down into place for a full and complete stop. The clamps lifted up from the ship and retracted.

"Finally, I'm glad to be back in civilization!" Nash said, standing up to stretch.

"Another ten-point, perfect landing by Miryhn Troxel!" Miryhn said, standing up, raising his hands triumphantly, and applauding for himself. "Everyone, please, please, you're too much, thank you!"

"What an idiot," Jim said, shaking his head. "Alright, everyone to the hold A.S.A.P. We've all got some business to take care of in town," Jim commanded, then left the bridge.

"Come on, Hesperia Gales, gotta go do some errands," Nash said sarcastically as he left.

"Damn, never giving me any credit. Next time I'll just crash this shit right in the water," Miryhn said with a scowl. He hopped off the platform and landed on the floor of the bridge. He cringed in pain, forgetting just how high the platform is. "Gotta use the stairs next time," he said to himself.

"Alright ladies, listen up," Jim commanded, walking in front of Miryhn, Vera, and Nash in juxtaposition. Miryhn's legs were a bit wobbly, though.

"Excuse me, captain, 'ladies'?" Nash asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, you heard me earlier. I got one lady who does her nails," Jim said, pointing to Nash. "One that does her long hair all pretty," Jim said, pointing to Miryhn. "And one that has an actual rack," he finished, pointing to Vera. Vera cringed at hearing Jim talk about her body.

"Alright, so what do we have to do already?" Miryhn asked after yawning.

"Ok, I'm giving everyone an errand to run. Vera, you're going with me to drop off the Meta we grabbed at Jose's. Nash, head to Buxley's and get any and all replacement parts. Fix whatever the hell you can find that's even slightly broken. And Miryhn, you have the most important task of all!" Jim said, facing each person he addressed.

"And what would that be, captain?" Miryhn said, showing mild interest.

Jim reached in his pocket and fished out a long, folded-over piece of paper. "Groceries," he said with a grin.

Miryhn rolled his eyes. "You've gotta be kidding me."

Vera and Nash snickered.

"Nope. Seeing as how you eat the most out of all of us, you're gonna go buy the food. That bag of pretzels is all we had to live on snack food-wise, so go buy some good stuff this time, ok?" Jim said, shoving the list in his face.

"Alright, alright, I'll do it," Miryhn said, pocketing the list.

"Now, on to the next order of business-" Jim started.

"I call the convertible," Miryhn interrupted.

"Damn, you know my routine too well, don't 'ya?" Jim said, shaking his head.

"Come on, captain, I never get to drive it," Nash whined.

"You'll get it dirty like you always do when you fix stuff," Miryhn replied.

"Not like it's not already covered in all sorts of other mystery stains!" Nash snapped.

"Alright, quit it, you two," Jim said firmly. "We'll settle this the old fashioned way. Miryhn, take the damn car," he said with a smirk.

Nash's jaw dropped hearing this.

"What 'old fashioned way' are you talking about?" Vera said smugly.

"Simple. I'm the boss and because I say so," Jim said with a laugh. "Now, Vera, me, and Nash will take the truck. We'll drop Nash off at Buxley's and keep go'in to Jose's. Nash, when you're done, 'yer gonna have to walk back," Jim said, nodding at each of them.

Nash moaned loudly at hearing he had to walk back.

"A-okay, captain," Vera said with a smile and nod.

"Yeah, yeah, cool with me," Nash said, frowning.

Miryhn pulled the mesh off the car that kept it firmly on the floor of the hold. He whipped out the key, opened the door, and hopped in to the worst smell he'd ever smelt. Jim's convertible was a relic of internal combustion in an age of Metatron-powered everything. He had owned it since he was in his twenties and before that his father had carried it over from the previous century. Repairs on it were near impossible due to the rarity of automobile parts for cars that old, but Miryhn failed to see why he never got the upholstery fixed (or at least de-toxed). The seats were cracked and seat stuffing came out along with a spring or two in a few spots. Not only would the passenger be uncomfortable, but they might get tetanus from the rusty springs in their ass.

Miryhn started it up and immediately rolled the top down. With a shift and a press of the gas, the car flew out of the hold and into the docking area. He pulled to a stop at an intersection, turned left, and headed for the exit road to the main city street.

Miryhn pulled out the list and glanced it over at the intersection connecting the dock road and the main road. "Milk, eggs, bread... All the usual shit," he said, rolling his eyes. When he had a hole in traffic, he stomped the gas and shot into the road. The car fishtailed a little bit. "Glad to see this thing still has its get-up-and-go. Nash does do something right once in a while," he said to himself with a grin.

"What do you mean the market price dropped? In only three days it's lost fifteen percent?" Jim yelled in a rage.

"Look, I'm not giving you special treatment or anything. Buying that Meta at normal price would put me out of business. I'm no fool, senor," Jose said in between tossing cheese curls in his mouth.

"You lazy, Spanish son of a bitch! I bet you gave Diaz top dollar, didn't 'ya?" Jim continued in anger.

"Hey, hey, quit that essay. I run a respectable business here, but you're pushing it talk'in 'bout my heritage, senor," Jose said, shaking his finger at Jim.

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry about that. I've just had a rough week, I'm stress'in out," Jim said, lighting up and ignoring the sign in Jose's junk-heap for an office that said 'No Smoking'. "I'll sell for whatever you got."

"Well, then senor, we have a deal!" Jose said with a grin, extending his cheese-powder stained hand to Jim.

Jim grimaced and shook it. As he let off, Jose stuck the fingers of his shook hand in his mouth and licked the cheese off.

"Sorry, senor, forgot to clean my hand off," Jose said with a laugh.

"That's... That's alright," Jim said, a look of complete disgust on his face.

"Alright, gimme your card. I'll put the cash in it," Jose said, tapping the desk in front of him.

Jim reached out and laid his card on the desk. Jose reached out and stuck it in a card feeder and typed a few keys on the computer. Jose grinned, took the card out, and handed it back to Jim. Jim carefully picked it up and wiped it on his pants leg before pocketing it.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I'll get my lovely assistant to drop off the Meta. Have a good day, Jose," Jim said with a small bow before leaving the office.

"What a dumb ass," Jose said, tossing three more cheese curls in his mouth.

"Did she want the damn fat-free kind or the sodium-free kind? Or did she want the normal kind, but with less preservatives?" Miryhn grumbled to himself, holding up various versions of a bag of chips. "Aw, what the hell, no matter what you take out of your food you'll die someday anyways," he said with a shrug and tossed the normal kind in the basket.

He grabbed the handle of the basket and continued down the isle of the grocery store. He let out a sigh and grabbed two more cans and two more bags, completely oblivious to any of Vera and Nash's numerous notes of preference on the list. As he reached for a loaf of bread, something pressed into his neck. He froze in mid-reach.

"Whoa there, cowboy," a female voice said.

"That'd better be a real gun, I won't let a magic marker fool me again," Miryhn said with a grin. He heard the sound of a hammer being clicked back as he realized the object was cold metal.

"You bet it is," the voice said.

"Ester, you gotta quit doing that. I'm not wanted and I know you wouldn't be stupid enough to blow someone's head off in a grocery store," Miryhn said, ignoring the gun and standing up with the bread in hand. He walked over to the basket, watching the dark red-haired woman behind him.

Ester shook her head and smiled. "Miryhn Troxel, how the hell are you doing?" Ester said, slipping her gun back into the holster hidden under her black leather skirt.

"I'm shopping. Did you forget I'm a working man now? I got kids and everything," Miryhn said, smiling stupidly as he put the bread in the basket.

"Bullshit, you're still working for Hauser, aren't you?" Ester said, straightening her royal blue bustier and shoving her hands into the pockets of her light blue trench coat.

"It's just someplace I can't seem to get out of. Never a dull moment," Miryhn said, leaning on the handle of the basket and walking slowly down the isle again.

"You're probably better off than I am. The bounties aren't exactly as obvious as they use to be," Ester said, glancing down at her high-heeled, black leather boots.

"You still doing that shit?" Miryhn said with a laugh. "You see why I picked a job with more security, both personal and financial?"

"Shuttup, at least I work for myself and not some middle-aged half-wit," Ester said, rolling her eyes.

"No argument there, but it comes with the territory," Miryhn said, grabbing the last of the groceries. "Hey, since I'm done, wanna go get some lunch?"

"Sure, I'd love to have some Smithy's burgers and fries," Ester said with a smile.

"You know me too well," Miryhn said as he stepped in line for the checkout.

Miryhn shoved the burger in his mouth and took a large bite out of it. He set the burger down and leaned back to chew. Ester stared at him from across their table on the patio of Smithy's.

"Still eating like a horse, I see," Ester said, slowly eating her fries.

"Naw, Smithy's just does that to me. This is the best damn burger place in all the satellites of Jupiter," Miryhn said after swallowing, waving a hand at the building behind them.

"What about the Smithy's on Mars?" Ester said, taking a sip of her soda.

"I don't care much for Mars. Nothing is right on the planet and it never has been," Miryhn said, his smile lowering a bit.

"Thought so," Ester said, nodding slowly. "Well, I see your life has been relatively boring since the last time I saw you here on Ganymede. Myself, I caught only three heads in the past month," Ester said, taking nibbles from her burger.

"Only three? Girl, you're slipping," Miryhn said, dipping fries in his cup of ketchup.

"The small fries don't pay the bills. I gotta find the frauds, cheaters, ex-cons, parole violators, homicidal freaks, and etcetera if I wanna get by. Things just aren't like they use to be around this solar system," Ester lamented, sipping at her soda again.

"You can say that again," Miryhn commented, shoving some fries in his mouth.

"So, you ever thought about going back to 'the life'?" Ester asked innocently.

"Seriously doubt it. I'm not like that anymore. I prefer just being a small-time pilot," Miryhn said, leaning back to settle his food.

"You do? I considered going back," Ester said, looking to the side.

"Go right ahead and get yourself killed. I'd rather keep things how they are," Miryhn said, nodding slowly.

"You care far too much, my friend," Ester said sarcastically.

"Hey, it's not my call. I'd miss 'ya, but there's nothing I can do to stop you," Miryhn said, resuming eating.

"Yeah, thanks," Ester said softly. Her face suddenly picked up as she fished through the pockets of her coat. "Hey, I have a present for you."

"What now, another gun to the head?" Miryhn said with a chuckle, his cheeks stuffed with food.

"Here," Ester said with a grin, pushing a leather pouch to him.

Miryhn raised an eyebrow and opened the end. He pulled out of it a pair of dark blue sunglasses: circular, thin framed, and slightly scratched.

"You left them behind the day you left. When I heard you were gone, I picked them up out of your room. They were the only things you kept with you most of the time," Ester said, smiling.

A small smile formed on Miryhn's face. He placed the sunglasses on his head and shrugged. "How do I look?" he said.

"Come on, put them on your face, silly!" Ester said with a grin.

Miryhn reached up and put them on correctly. He shrugged again and fed two more fries to himself. "Now?" he said, his speech muffled from chewing.

"Much better," Ester said, giving him a thumbs up.

"Well, thanks for the present. However, I have to get going soon or my co-workers will pitch a fit about not having anything to eat," Miryhn said before shoving the rest of his burger in his mouth.

"Hey, Miryhn, can I go with you? I'm taking a break for the the day and I wanna catch up with you some more. Is that ok?" Ester pleaded, standing up along with him.

"Well, I guess so. Jim's got some business in town I'm sure he'll take a while to clear up, so it shouldn't be a problem," Miryhn said, picking up his soda.

"Good! Let's get going then, ok?" Ester said happily, grabbing Miryhn's arm and tugging him to his car.

"So you can't tell me anything, eh? Well how the hell are we suppose to help you find your Runner if you're being so anal about it?" Nash said, folding his arms as he looked at his laptop next to him.

"I do not recognize the term 'anal'. Please clarify," ADA said out of Nash's laptop.

"Well, it's kind of like when you act difficult and stubborn," Nash clarified before picking up a screwdriver and leaning in the hole in the wall of the hold.

"I do not believe I am exhibiting such behavior. I am merely following the orders outlined to me in my core directive," ADA said.

"Well, I'll tell 'ya right now that we can't find your Runner unless you tell us who it is. So why not make it a hell of a lot easier on us and just tell us who it is, alright? Doesn't that make more sense?" Nash said, pointing the screwdriver at the laptop.

"If you cannot aid me, then I request you put me in the care of someone else. It is ludicrous to continue asking for help from your crew if you cannot comply," ADA replied.

"And I say again, if you tell us, we can find them. I can guarantee it," Nash said before reaching back in the hole.

"If you can guarantee it, then I believe I can risk giving that information. I do not reason that you are in a position to threaten my activities," ADA said.

"Good, now who is it?" Nash said, reaching for his wrench.

"Tarver Urenbach," ADA said.

Nash's jaw dropped as well as his wrench.

"You're after Tarver Urenbach? You're either stupid or insane," Miryhn said, pulling to a stoplight.

"He's a small-time eco-terrorist. He'll be a piece of cake," Ester said, stretching out in the passenger seat.

"Small-time, yes, but a terrorist, yes as well. That guy'll make sure no one gets in his way of restoring the habitat of whatever the fuck he thinks lives in the seas of Ganymede," Miryhn said, glancing over at Ester before driving through the green light.

"I'll have some back-up. I just trust I can depend on that back up when I ask for it. They're usually pretty dependable and my plan is low-risk. We could have Urenbach in and out in no time at all," Ester said, looking upwards.

"Who the hell would be stupid enough to help you catch Tarver Urenbach?" Miryhn said with a chuckle.

"Well, I was hoping you would," Ester said, turning to him.

Miryhn swerved the car, nearly hitting two others. He straightened out and resumed the normal speed. "Me? Now I know you're insane! I'm not doing it!" Miryhn yelled, gripping the steering wheel again.

"Oh, come on! It'll be easy, low-risk and fun! I know the perfect time to bag 'em when he's all alone and sitting on his hands," Ester said, smiling.

"Now you know I trust you, Ester, but I'm not about to go and be a hero or nothing. There's no wings on my back and I'm far too apathetic for the stuff of heroes," Miryhn said, pulling to another stoplight.

"There's no 'hero work' here. It's just a bounty! Come on, I'll split it fifty-fifty," Ester said, looking into Miryhn's face.

Miryhn adjusted his sunglasses and looked down. "I just don't know about this. I'd rather chill on the ship while Jim licks some boots around town," he said, looking at Ester.

Ester scowled. "You dickless bastard! You owe me this, you know!" she cried out.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Miryhn yelled back, puzzled.

"Back when we went after Conrad, you said if I helped you out in finding him, you'd owe me one day. Well, now I'm asking for that favor back!" Ester yelled, crossing her arms.

"You realize that that was just part of our job, not a real favor," Miryhn pointed out.

Ester sneered in response.

Miryhn sighed and hung his head. "Alright, alright, I'll do it. Just stop pestering me about it, ok?" he said, looking back at the road.

"Good, I knew you'd see it my way!" Ester said happily with a nod.

"Damn, what'd I get myself into this time?" Miryhn mumbled to himself as he shook his head.