Loose Ends
Part 1: Il Triello
The air in the bar was stale, and the lights were just as dim and lukewarm as could be expected from a dive out in the middle of absolutely nowhere important.
But those things didn't bother the young woman as she scanned the tables, chairs, stools and the people sitting at them with her keen green eyes. It didn't take her long to find the person she was looking for, sitting in a corner with a distracted look in his eyes that was just convincing enough to be totally forced. His dark hair was pulled back into a short ponytail, matching his appearance on the holograms exactly.
She walked over to the small table and sat down in front of the young man, not even bothering to ask if the other seat was taken; they both knew it wasn't. She could feel the eyes of everyone else in the room looking at her back for a moment, waiting to see who would shoot first. When neither of them made a move, the other patrons promptly lost interest and went back to drinking and raucous yelling.
"What can I do for you, Miss?" the young man said after he took the final swig of his drink, motioning over his visitor's shoulder to a nearby droid for a refill.
"You're a hard man to find, Jerak Koram."
The name made the young man react visibly, sitting up straight and very clearly considering reaching for a gun he no doubt had hidden somewhere on him.
"I wouldn't do that," the young woman cautioned him, and Jerak felt a sharp, pointed pressure against his femoral artery under the table. "I'm not here to bring you in. I need your help."
Jerak said nothing, his blue-green eyes narrowing as he carefully took the measure of his visitor.
"No one's called me that name for a long, long time," he spoke up at last, sounding calm, curious and more than a little amused. "You obviously did your homework, kid. But my question is," he shot back, taking his next drink off of a floating tray and pausing for a sip, "why would you bother?"
"I need a good tracker," the young woman answered. "They say you're the best there is."
"They say a lot of things," Jerak said wryly, smiling in a way the young woman found oddly melancholy. "Most of them are lies. And besides, I have more warrants and bounties out for me than most Sontaran renegades. You travel with me, and you'll probably get executed with me."
The young woman smiled.
"What makes you think I'm afraid of dying?" she asked, her eyes twinkling with mischief. "I need a tracker, but I also need someone who can get their hands dirty. You fit that bill perfectly, handsome."
Jerak chuckled, taking another sip of his drink as he eyed his visitor over the rim of the mug. He focused, closing out the noise around him and letting the young woman across from him stand out. There was something off about her, and he hated being left out of a good mystery.
And then he heard it, and he smiled into his drink.
"I don't do hits anymore," Jerak said after he'd put down his mug, wanting to test his theory before going any further. The young woman shook her head.
"This isn't a hit," she assured him. "It's a rescue mission."
"Oh?" Jerak said, doing his best to sound curious and hoping he succeeded. "That's new. Where would we be going, exactly?"
The young woman took a breath, but the knife stayed where it was under the table. Jerak had a feeling he wasn't going to like the answer, and the weapon was a safeguard. Smart girl.
And then she said it.
"Demon's Run."
Jerak felt his heart drop into his stomach, and his mouth went completely dry.
"I was expecting something less insane," he said at last, "like Skaro. I thought that's where he was being held."
Now it was the young woman's turn to be surprised, but fortunately she took away the knife before it could twitch too hard against Jerak's leg.
"How did you know who I was looking for?"
Jerak shrugged.
"You have your secrets," he said, "and I have mine. Most of which, you seem to have dug up already. Do you think I want revenge against Kovarian more than I want to stay alive?"
"I do," the young woman answered, conviction in her voice. "She ruined your life."
"No," Jerak qualified, finishing off his drink in record time. "She gave me life, allowed me to cherish it, and then she tore it to pieces. Why should I go back into that hell for your sake?"
"Because I know someone who can help you with your…" she paused, gesturing to her head. "Specific kind of problem."
Jerak laughed, but the sound was full of scorn.
"Assuming Kovarian doesn't make me shoot you in the face as soon as she realizes who I am, of course. And that's a pretty big assumption."
"I have a friend who can fix that, like I said," the young woman insisted, "and keep us both safe from The Silence. Your job is to keep us safe from the bullets in exchange."
"Of which there will be several," Jerak commented dryly. "I don't know where you got such a high opinion of me from, but I'm flattered."
He paused, closing his eyes and letting out a long, controlled sigh. When he opened them again, the eerie swirl of blue and green around his pupils seemed far more intense. It was a soldier's determination: a look the young woman knew very well indeed.
"I'll do it," Jerak said. "But on two conditions. One, Kovarian is mine, and her method of execution is to be left entirely at my discretion. Meaning our to-be-rescued prisoner isn't allowed to try and stop me. Clear?"
The young woman nodded.
"Clear. And the second condition?"
"You start being completely honest with me," Jerak continued, his eyes narrowing, "Time Lady."
The young woman's eyes shot open wide, plainly shocked.
"How did you—?"
"What kind of killing machine would I be," Jerak cut her off, "without heinously acute senses? I can hear your hearts beating, kid. Both of them."
The young woman got over her surprise and sighed, shaking her head.
"Figures, that that would give me away," she mused, before smiling. "I've gotten used to it, and used to having no one around to hear them. And my name is Jenny, by the way," she added, glaring at Jerak. "I don't like being talked down to."
"Whatever you say, kid," Jerak replied, smirking as his tone returned to teasingly amused. "Let's go bail out your old man."
The pair of them rose, walking out of the bar and over towards a perfectly plain-looking spacecraft.
"That's big enough for three people," Jerak observed at once, glancing over at Jenny. "Is this 'friend' you mentioned tagging along with us for the whole ride?"
Jenny nodded, but held up a hand to stop her new companion even as he opened his mouth to protest.
"Don't worry, she won't get in the way. I brought her along because I needed a hacker, and computer skills weren't part of your profile."
"A hacker?" Jerak repeated skeptically, wary of having to protect a non-combatant from the insane militants they would be fighting against. "Wonderful. Just tell her I'm not into babysitting people who can't pull their own weight."
Jenny smiled, walking into the ship as the door opened and waving for Jerak to follow.
"You can tell her yourself," she said, "although I don't think she'll take too kindly to it."
Jerak entered the ship, and it didn't take long before he found himself looking at a short, dark-haired young woman wearing an absurdly bright red dress and looking at him with sharp, inquisitive eyes.
"Not bad," she quipped, her eyes dropping down and back up again in a moment, appraising him. "You taken?"
It was the last question Jerak had been expecting, and he arched a confused eyebrow.
"Pardon?"
"Nevermind," she said dismissively, "we can get to that later. Ooh, nice eyes," she continued excitedly, not missing a beat. "Kaleran implants, right? That's why they're all spiral-y."
"I… yeah," Jerak said, completely taken aback by both this girl's keen insight, and her abnormally energetic personality. "How did you know that?"
"Maybe because I'm not blind, and I'm also a genius?" she shot back, before looking over at Jenny. "You sure he doesn't have a few screws loose up there? I can only patch up so much."
"More than a few," Jerak said, trying not to sound offended, "but not where it counts. And who the hell are you supposed to be, exactly?"
The young woman in the red dress smiled widely.
"Oswin Oswald, youngest graduate ever of the Alpha Centauri academy's Advanced Sciences program. I'm pretty sure that qualifies me to tamper with the cybernetics in your head, but I guess we'll find that out together." She stuck out her hand. "Pleased to meet you!"
Jerak took her hand and shook it, feeling suddenly ill at ease about the whole enterprise.
"Nice to meet you, too," he said shakily. "Have you ever done something like this before?"
Oswin shook her head.
"First time for everything, Spirals. Don't worry; I'll be gentle."
Jerak glanced over at Jenny, looking bemused.
"I'd threaten to kill you if I wake up thinking I'm a chicken," he groused, "but that wouldn't mean much to you, would it?"
The smile Jenny gave in return was infuriatingly cheery.
"Nope!"
Jerak sighed, hoping that there would be a sizeable amount of cash waiting for him in a briefcase once this was all over.
"Wonderful," he said dryly, before a shot of sedative entered his arm and sent him careening into unconsciousness.
He hoped, at the very least, that his sleep would be free of nightmares. They would face enough of those in the flesh at Demon's Run.
...
...
A/N: Yes, this was mostly a way for me to bring back two of my favorite one-time characters. Also Kovarian, because I love a good really, it's because I love both Oswin and Jenny to pieces.
Hope you enjoyed it! I'll try to see this thread through to its conclusion, but that'll depend both on how much time I have to spare and whether or not you all actively want to see it continued. It'll probably only be about two more parts all told, since these kinds of plots tend to move rather quickly.
P.S.— The title is Italian for "The Trio", taken from a song title in Ennio Morricone's brilliant score to "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly". Love that music.