He owed Hal for saving his life several times after that, but that first time… that had been rough on both of them. Upon waking, he’d heard stories about how Hal had stayed by his side; he had sat in the same chair by the medbed for over thirty-six hours, until he saw that Ty was going to make it. Hal hadn’t even gotten his own wounds treated; he’d refused to move until the doctors noticed the pooling blood and made him accept medical treatment, though only upon threat of expulsion from the medbay.
Hal interrupted Ty’s thoughts. “I dreamed they came and told me you died,” he said, looking down at his hands.
“I’ve had the same type of dreams,” Tyce admitted.
“It fucking sucks,” Hal murmured.
“It does, Hal,” Ty said, getting up to rummage through a cabinet. He came back with two mugs and a bottle of Celian whiskey.
“I thought it was real when I woke up. I- I stood at your door a minute, trying to decide if you were really in there or not.”
Ty shook his head slowly. “You can always come get me, Hal.” He poured them both a couple of generous measures.
Hal drank it down like water. “I know, but I didn’t want to wake you up for something stupid.”
“It’s not. It’s not stupid. As I said, I have the same type of dreams.” Ty shrugged. He was unwilling to describe them, but losing his best friend was his greatest fear as well. He supposed it went back to losing his brother, Caleb. His younger brother had been a lot like Hal; an irrepressible thrill-seeker who’d died at the age of fifteen.
Once vats left the service, they rarely lived long, and Hal liked to get into trouble more than was good for him. The Edge was a dangerous place for him, but where else did vats have to go? They weren’t ever welcomed on the Inside; they were seen as unnatural and therefore less than human. Ty thought the natural-borns just didn’t want to be reminded of the second-class citizens they’d created to fight their wars for them.
They sat for a while, in a companionable silence, one built over long hours together in the ACAS and the years after. Ty couldn’t have pinpointed the moment that Hal went from subordinate officer to the type of family that was stronger than blood, but it had happened. He would take a bolt for his friend and knew Hal would do the same for him.
Hal started scrubbing his face as he yawned, and Tyce could tell he was winding back down. “Think you can sleep now?”
Hal nodded. “Probably.” He got up to leave. “Ty. Thanks. I know I’m a pain in the ass.”
“Yeah, but you’re our pain in the ass. Beryl and I couldn’t get on without you. Hit the rack, OK?” He grabbed up their cups and the half-full bottle and turned to stow it all away.
“You got it, Cap.” Hal said, and padded away to his room.
Tyce, this is your 0630 wake up call.
Tyce groaned in reply.
Does that mean that you would like me to set an alarm for ten minutes? Runa asked.
“Mmm, yeah.”
Tyce rolled over, burying his face in the pillow as his mind began to wake up and his thoughts turned to Hal. He was adjusting well to having Vivi on board and things had been relatively quiet so far. Hal had even gone with her each time she’d left the ship to go out on the station… obviously watching over her until she found her feet.
The salvage permits were the pressing matter for today. He’d have to get moving only to hurry up and wait around at LanTech’s offices, probably all day. They hadn’t gotten the exact details out of Fortenot yet, but at the very least he could start getting the paperwork moving and save a bit of time. In this game, that small advantage could make the difference between being first at a salvage site and arriving to see hated rivals getting the glory.
A five-minute chime sounded. Runa was dependable, but she was little more than a fancy computer program that did what Ty told her to. The government had put in extra safeguards over a hundred years ago to prevent computers from ever becoming self-aware, after contact with the Mudar had led to deadly skirmishes in the zone beyond the Border. Anything considered artificial intelligence had been out-and-out banned. Computers doing independent thinking scared the shit out of everyone, government and citizens alike.
Tyce didn’t know how he felt about it. Vivi seemed to think that the danger was overrated. They made their living from salvaged AI tech, but it was difficult not to feel uneasy about taking things from the species that almost made the human race obsolete.
Vivi had done a good job so far. She was the youngest of his crew, but he would choose skill over age most days. Although she’d been with them nearly a month, she had begun to prove her worth to the crew almost immediately.
He’d watched her reassemble a complex piece of technology in half the time it would have taken Lucas. She’d already rewired the Loshad and improved Runa’s response time by eighty percent. He didn’t even want to ask what safety protocols and self-awareness inhibitors she’d had to disengage to cause that to happen; he just knew he’d be thankful for the edge it gave him when the ship needed it.
He heard the ten-minute chime sound from Runa and knew he’d been lying there too long. He got up, hit the shower, then pulled on a black tee, tactical cargos, and boots, much like the fatigue uniform of the ACAS. Like Beryl always said, you can take the man out of the military…
By 0700, he had reached the galley. He was making coffee when Hal came in, scrubbing at his face as he sat at the table.
“Morning,” Tyce said.
“Mmm,” grunted Hal. “Mornings can kiss my ass.”
Tyce smirked at Hal’s usual grumblings. The first cup of coffee went to Hal, then he poured his own. As always, Hal added lots of sugar – his vat metabolism would burn it off quickly – but Ty drank his black.
“What’s your plan for today?” Tyce asked. “You can come with me to LanTech, if you want?”
“Yeah, because I’m great at waiting around for something to happen,” Hal deadpanned, before glancing down at his handheld, then tossing it impatiently to the side.
“I get it,” Tyce nodded. “Too bad, though – you’d probably make it a hell of a lot more interesting. Let me know if we hear from Astin.”
“Will do, Cap. Working on the water purifiers today. Backup system’s got a glitch and the filters need cleaning. Might see if Veevs is up for some sparring practice later too,” Hal said.
Hal had been training her to fight, supposedly just in case they were in a situation that required it. Ty had a sneaking suspicion that Hal’s worries about Vivi went deeper than just casual crew training, however. He obviously wanted her to be able to defend herself because of the shape she’d been in when they’d brought her on and also because the Edge could be a dangerous place. He’d certainly never taken the time to train any of their other teckers in self-defense, though. It seemed more and more likely that Vivi was going to work out as a member of the crew.
“OK, I’ll leave you to it, then. Just remember that Beryl said to watch the cut on your lip.” It was typically this way; Halvor was the muscle that kept the ship running, and Tyce handled the business side with LanTech and some of their more illicit contacts. Ty didn’t mind it; he had a lighter touch with most of their informants. “Take it easy on Vivi in training and keep an eye on her. She pushes herself too hard and she’s gonna get hurt that way.”