Offer
© 2020 by Walter Reimer


Thumbnail art by  technicolorpie and  marmelmm


Meredith stepped out of the shower the next day, scrubbing a towel through her mane and tail to wring the last of the water out of them. After breakfast, Fuji had headed back to the ship to help with loading the cargo.

She’d barely been able to look him in the eye after her parents finished showing him images of Meredith as a foal and as a filly. He hardly soothed her by insisting that she’d been “adorable” as a child. They’d shared her bed that night, and likely disappointed her parents by not having sex.

Fur, mane and tail brushed, and wearing a clean company jumpsuit, Meredith started toward the bedroom door and paused as her padd played the first few notes of the theme to Monsoon Poultry Hospital. It was an incoming call, but not from her friends, family or crew.

Huffing irritably, the golden palomino picked up the padd and unfolded it once. Folded as it was, the screen was only five centimeters on a side, and the mare tapped the small square ACCEPT button on the screen. “Oh, hello,” she said as the screen blinked and showed her the vulpine face of Transcosm’s local representative.

“Fair day, d’Estcourt-jih,” the fox said.

“Fair day, Chun-jih,” Meredith replied, glancing at the clock on the display. “Is there something wrong? We should be loading on time - ”

“I’ve had the loadmaster’s reports,” the fox assured her, “but that’s not the reason I called. Are you available to come to the office before you head for Magus Station?” He glanced to one side. “Someone wishes to speak to you.”

“Who?”

He shook his head. “This is not a secure channel,” and the screen went blank.

Meredith growled, folded up the padd and stuffed in her jumpsuit. A moment’s thought, and she pulled it from the front pocket and moved it to one of the rear pockets.

She took the time to kiss her parents and brothers goodbye, and walked the whole way to the Transcosm office. Fuji had told her she needed some exercise, and the walk would enable her to think things through, with the added benefit of annoying the person that Chun wanted her to speak with.

Nearly an hour later, the mare entered the inner office. “Sorry I’m late,” she said with an airy flip of her tail as the fox glared at her. “Now, who’s this – oh, hello.”

A pangolin femme had been seated in a corner of the room, reading something on her padd. She wore the Colonial Navy’s gray uniform with the four stripes of a captain on her shoulders. She smiled and set the padd aside as she got to her feet. “Hello, Captain d’Estcourt, I’m Bury Danyell of Hammer. We haven’t met in person.”

The mare nodded. “Sure, our escort commander.” Her ears suddenly swiveled and she glared accusingly at Chun.

The fox raised a paw in a placating gesture. “Commodore Bury asked to see you.”

“The Colonial Admiralty got access to your service record, Captain,” and Meredith scowled as the pangolin said, “The Navy would like to – “

“No.”

Bury’s long tongue flicked out, once. “’No?’”

“No.” The golden palomino mare’s scowl deepened. “I had a commission in the Colonial Navy when I was assigned to a Confed ship. A Coreworld ship. After that, I was awarded a scholarship to the Confed Academy on Ares; the Colonies signed off on it.”

“Well, yes,” the pangolin said, “not many Colonials – “

“Right. But when I got hounded into resigning that commission and got called ‘politically unreliable,’ did the Colonies do anything about it then?”

Bury seemed to crouch. Chun looked as if he was glad that the mare wasn’t angry at him. “Don’t blame me for this, Captain. I’m just relaying the offer. You resigned before the Admiralty could do anything – “

“First, I don’t blame you, Captain Bury.” The mare huffed a breath through her nostrils. “And second, the Colonies had days to contact me and make me an offer before I hired on with Transcosm. That ship’s flown now.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” the fox muttered.

“You should be,” Meredith said. She suddenly smiled. “Anything else, Captain?”

The pangolin shrugged before picking up her padd, depolarizing it and folding it up. “This isn’t going to be over for a while, Captain d’Estcourt. I hope you know that. We’re going to need experienced officers, and you’ve shown your skills. I’m disappointed that you’re uninterested, but,” and Bury smiled and extended a paw, “I’m pleased to meet you, and my group will be escorting your ship and others to Devil’s Gate Station on time.”

The mare took the pangolin’s paw and shook it firmly. “It’s nice to meet you as well.” Bury left the office, and Meredith and Chun discussed the latest company bulletins as well as going over the Kiss Me in the Dark’s bills of lading one more time.

Aboard her shuttle back to Hammer, Bury Danyell ran a paw over the scales on her left forearm. The Intel report on d’Estcourt had been illuminating, to say the least. The mare’s desire to stay out of the military after her experience was justifiable.

Whether she could remain out of the fighting was another matter.


***


After the Confed attack that obliterated the Colonial Legislature on New Horizon, the Terran colonial worlds had decided upon a safer venue for the interim government. The Deity-class battleship TCS Satan was an older ship, to be sure, but its weapons were first-rate and it had an escort group of nearly fifty ships.

In a small office near the battleship’s flag operations center, the Colonies’ provisional Chief Minister sat and pored over a report from the interim Defense Minister. That worthy sat on the opposite side of the desk, one of her spymasters standing just behind her chair.

The ox lowered the report to the desk. “Is this information reliable?”

The Minister, a perpetually starved-looking canine, glanced back at the mink behind her. The mink nodded once and replied, “The sources are reliable, Sir, and we’ve corroborated it from several additional sources.”

“I see. Marya,” and the Defense Minister’s ears perked, “ask our Imperial liaison to come to the office, please.”