Rally looked over the quarters she and the girls had acquired and looked down at the rent quotes and took a deep breath. It was a very good thing that she had some hefty savings from her bounty hunting days. And the occasional bounty she took up in the course of work now.
Their larger pieces of luggage were in the center of the room, as security had told her. Not much of it, unfortunately, which came from having to move frequently on a budget. As of yet, she had the benefit that Psi-Corps didn't seem to know about the girls, so they weren't actively looking. Which meant that she could move whenever Psi-Corps started getting more frequent in a colony and not attract interest.
"Well," she said. "Home sweet home. Girls, first thing first."
Vivian rolled her eyes as Rally moved to one trunk and opened it. As a licensed gun dealer, Rally was allowed to carry a substantial number of weapons, as long as they were civilian legal. Beyond that, she had a fair amount of experience in moving weapons undetected through casual scans. Not to mention that most security didn't bother to look for weapons hidden in a shipment of weapons.
Passing the weapons about, Vivian, Shanti and Rally quickly found places to secret a number of back up weapons. Most of the the weapons were set off to the side, charge packs seperate from the guns, and, again, as a legal gun dealer, there wasn't much suspicious about her have a trunk full of weaponry. If a few were missing from the original count, she may have sold a few.
Then the slugthrowers went up on the walls in their display frames while ammunition was hidden in bed frames or cuts in the underside of mattresses. Pieces of three PPG rifles were scattered about similarly hidden everywhere they could find them.
"I guess you want to know what that scene earlier was about," Rally said grimmly as their new home was armed and secured.
"Was it about the war?" Shanti asked, curiosity brimming again.
"Yes," Rally said. "Someone...close to me died on a trip, caught in the crossfire when the war started. So I joined up. I had a bit of a reputation by that point due to bounty hunting, so EarthForce gave me...special jobs."
"What kind of jobs?" Vivian asked.
"Nothing we need to talk about," Rally said. "Just enough that there's a lot of minbari out there that probably don't like me. Thankfully, they don't put people like me on the news."
She wouldn't be universally known and despised like Sheridan, but then the people that would hate and despise her would be veterans, their families and their political leaders. Namely, the people that would come to a diplomatic station like this.
She rolled her eyes and shook her head, questioning her decision to come here yet again.
"Is that where you learned to speak Minbari?" Shanti asked.
"Sort of," Rally said, more willing to speak of this. "I had a bit of bad luck near the end of the war and ended up in a pirate ship run by rogue Drazi. There was also a minbari there. We got free, but damaged the ship in the process and ended up adrift in space for a while. Fortunately there was lots of food on the ship. When we finally got picked up, the war was over."
"Is that why we move so much?" Vivian asked. "Are you afraid someone will come after us for revenge? I know it's not business. I thought it was Psi-Corps, but we hadn't started...doing things when you moved us the first two times."
Rally took a deep breath and sat down on one of the desks.
"That's something I'll have to talk to you about soon," Rally said. "But not yet, you're still young, you don't have know that yet."
Rally could tell by the looks on the girls' faces that she'd satisfied neither of them with her answers. Shanti at least looked merely disappointed.
*****
Sheridan walked over to his new desk as he rehearsed his speech, inserting small changes here and there to fit the situation he was moving into.
"It was old Earth President who said..." he paused as he read the report he'd just requested.
Rally Vincent, EarthForce Marines, specialist. Assigned to behind-the-lines discouragement.
Sheridan frowned as he read the last bit. Hunter-killers did not have the best of reputations among either side of the war. The few he'd met or heard of since the war ended were currently in prison for murders they'd committed after the war.
"Discharged for 'aberrant social interactions', meaning she's either homicidal or homosexual," he noted, shaking his head.
He lay bets on the latter after having met her, EarthForce had gotten very reactionary in the days after the end of the war, throwing away two centuries worth of developed tolerance.
"Licensed gun dealer, licensed provider of military and law enforcement grade weaponry, private investigator's license," his eyes widened briefly at the growing list of credentials. "Bounty hunter's license, master gunsmith, highest marksmanship results on record. MCMAP instructor qualified. Licensed to carry concealed weapons. Awards for valor from the Chicago Police Office. Next of kin, Shanti Vincent and Vivian Vincent, officially adopted as of seven years ago."
He shook his head, there was a bit more to this, he was sure of it. But Hunter-Killer records weren't easy to come by.
Ivanova came in through the room, straightening her uniform.
"They're ready for you, sir," she said.
"Hmm?" Sheridan noted looking up. "Oh, thank you. Lieutenant Commander, come take a look at this."
Ivanova walked over and looked down at the screen, quickly coming to the same conclusions as Sheridan.
"A hunter-killer," she noted. Her eyes widened as they moved further down. "A hunter-killer with legal access to military hardware. Why are we looking at this?"
"She's on the station with her foster daughters," Sheridan noted. "See if you can learn a bit more about her. She struck me as a bit jumpy."
"All of those people are from what I here," Ivanova said. "But I'll put a request in. How deep do you want me to get in?"
"If she's just a veteran here with family, I'd rather not bother her," Sheridan cautioned. "Just...keep it casual. She asked if there was a civilian firing range."
"All right, shouldn't be too hard," Ivanova said. "Pretty soon, security is probably going to be taking their weapons to her for customization or maintenance. Shouldn't be hard to keep a casual watch on her."
"Okay, let's get this speech finished," he said.
As Sheridan walked into the command room, he turned to face the crew and opened his mouth to begin his speech with a story about visiting the Dalai Lama.
"Sorry, we have a priority request," a deck officer said, who immediately noted the flustered appearance of his new commanding officer.
"What's it relating to?" Sheridan asked.
"He won't say, sir," the deck officer said. "He's a minbari and he insists there is danger to the station. He wants to speak to you face to face, sir."
"All right," Sheridan said, deflating as his opportunity to give a speech was taken away. "I'll be right there."
See other episodes by Thrythlind
(Posted Wed, 21 Apr 2010 03:14)
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