Still Another Life

by Mr. David R. Dorrycott

Elizabeth Mege, late of the 'Corps, sat quietly in an ancient star stations small bar. She gently nursed her last drink, while carefully inspecting one of the two men she'd selected to approach. Two weeks of wandering the stations busy corridors, reading billeting postings, open berth announcements, and dodging active duty 'Corps agents had lead her to this. A small singleship of unknown origin, an unknown human owner, and maybe not even an open berth at that. Fingering the papers in her jacket pocket she sighed to herself. It was either this or face Has’en when she arrived tomorrow afternoon. Somehow she knew the humiliation of accepting a berth as 'Ships Moral Officer' would be a hundred times better than facing an angry Has’en.

Certainly she hadn't been asked to leave the Corps, not after single pawedly recovering Betallious's stolen hovertank. But her dreams had haunted her more and more. Somehow she had failed. In some way she had dishonored herself. Some ghost from her previous life demanded her taking this leave of absence from the 'Corps. She had talked with Marie about it, finally deciding she couldn't stay any longer. Not if she wanted to get any sleep. She had to find herself, somehow, before she could be any use to the Major.

Find herself. Elizabeth almost laughed. She’d had half her brain blown out by someone. Only the ‘Corps had saved her, that almost by accident. They had discovered her anomaly, a mouse woman dressed as a Princess found dead in a world war one trench, an unusual weapon in her belt. An impossibility that had to be dealt with. It had shocked them to find her still clinging to life when she was returned, it had taken weeks to regenerate her brain. But her memories were gone, leaving only shadows behind. Shadows that still haunted her even after this much time. Setting her empty cup aside she stood, and quietly approached the man sitting alone.

Matthew Link Miller sat reviewing the three best 'job offers' he'd dredged up, while idling picking at the food in front of him. The fem mouses initial movements didn't register to his conscious mind, not until her second step directly towards him. Gently slipping one hand under the table he loosened his weapon. A lifetime in his universe had taught him several lessons. How to stay alive was the most important. He watched carefully as she stepped towards him. 'Not a fighter' he decided after watching her walk, where she kept her paws. Still something about her bearing tugged at his memory. The recently missing patches on her jumpsuit told him some. An almost black oxygen badge spoke of a falling. A single silver ring on a finger of her left paw, hardly worth twenty minutes of station oxygen. This woman had experienced a hard falling.

Elizabeth stopped a few feet from the table. Taking a breath she held up her left paw, a small packet of papers in it. The man nodded, carefully noting the ring was some kind of house, or clan device. A silver falcon’s head on a blood red background, a black comet behind the falcon..

"What do you want." Matthew asked.

"My name is Mege" she answered, "Elizabeth Mege. Recently departed from duty. I'm a mechanic-engineer looking for employment. I am hoping you have an opening."

Matthew almost smiled. Almost no waking hour had passed since his arrival without someone approaching him for employment, a handout or something. "I'm a one man operation" he answered. "I don't require further crew, don't want any."

Elizabeth nodded, she'd heard this several times. Those times she'd been offered jobs. . . Well, she'd rather not remember some of the offers. "Thank you for your time" she answered, quickly sliding the papers back into her blouse's inner pocket.

Elizabeth was backing away to leave when Matthew pulled a few bills from a pocket. "Here" he offered. "Its not much, but it might help."

She looked at the bills, perhaps three hundred credits. More than enough to pay her station bill for another week. Maybe two if she was frugal. "Thank you mylord” she answered automatically. “I cannot accept." Where those words had come from she didn’t know, just another randomly fired ghost memory she decided as she walked away. There was still that robotic cargo hauler, the one with a high accident rate for crews.

A memory suddenly hit Matthew as Elizabeth left. That walk, style of conversation, bearing. Mainly the unconscious stubborn Honor. There had been another woman, one of the few survivors of her planet after a disastrous war. One they hadn’t even been part of, had simply been in the way of two battling fleets. She had held herself the same way. He chewed at his lower lip, weighing the possibilities. Did he really want to run around alone? Was there something about the mouse-woman that could help him?

His ships AI Tag was his only real friend. Was it time to make another? Or was it a better idea to let this possible problem woman slide past. A hard decision, yet one he made by simply slipping the bills back in his blouse while his visitor walked away. After all, she was a survivor. She'd make do.

Somehow.

He went back to picking at his meal. Only once glancing towards the woman as she spoke quietly to someone else. Someone less honorable he thought. And wondered why that hurt him. Picking up his comm unit he surprised himself. “Tag. Query the station. I want a full report on one Elizabeth Mege. Claims to be a recently released mechanic-engineer looking for employment.”

“Your hiring finally” his AI asked.

“Not yet. There’s something about her, and check for anyone hunting her. Any queries.”

“I’m on it boss. Tag out.”

Matthew sat his unit aside, still watching as the woman Elizabeth accepted some papers, then left by a side door. Company man, he knew that kind. Whatever job she’d just accepted, it was a bad one. Had to be, when no company employee would take it. Still mulling over his actions he went back to his dinner.