"The queen is ordering three new fleets into orbit. You know what to do. Earthens must not detect any signal."
"Yes, Mistress Sybill," Wayne said, fingers pulling on a curl of his overgrown blonde hair. He had not had time to tie it back before Mistress arrived. It took a great deal of imagination not to tremble under the shrewd gaze of Head Thaumaturge Sybill Mira. Wayne imagined he was one of the vigilante heroes from his web comics, charmingly and effortlessly keeping his cover in front of his day-job bosses.
Mistress turned on her heel and walked out. Wayne sat in front of one of the many consoles that made up the walls of the satellite. His slender fingers danced across the screen, coding shields for the new ships.
Never question. Just follow orders. Waning Crescent Moon just coded as he was told. Someday Mistress would not need him so constantly. And after all he had done for her and the queen, she would allow him to leave. Someday. He didn't believe it, but liked to hope.
In half an hour, Wayne had cloaked all three fleets. A record even for him. Smiling, he jumped out of his seat and stretched.
"Earthen Union news," he commanded the netscreen. Two faces filled the screen: cyborg fugitive Linh Cinna and his accomplice, infamous army-deserter and thief Carla Thorn. Wayne's eyes drank in the image of the carefree, smug face framed by waves of soft brown hair. Her hair looked tousled, but Wayne suspected quite a bit of styling went into it. She had swindled three different Earthen nations before finally being caught and imprisoned in the Eastern Commonwealth. But not for long, he thought with pride. She had escaped a heavily guarded New Beijing prison with Cinna, the would-be assassin of Lunar Queen Levana. Wayne had no trouble admitting to himself that he was incredibly jealous of Cinna, with whom Carla was now on the run. He also freely admitted he was hopelessly in love with her. He did realize that admitting this to himself was quite a different matter than admitting to someone else. Much less to her. However, since he had had no contact with anyone other than Mistress in years, and (despite his hopes) did not really expect to anytime soon, he allowed himself to revel in fantasies of charming her, of winning her heart with his earnestness.
She was like a Starvel superhero. She was Captain Starvel, masquerading as a thief, but helping the helpless when no one was looking; getting no recognition for her good work, but making up for it with her infamy. The world saw Carla's list of thefts, but only he saw the good heart behind them. His favorite fantasy involved her coming to his satellite, just striding in in all her glory, and proclaiming that she needed his help. That her superhero work was in need of a hacker, and she wanted him. She would bust him out of the satellite, and he would join forces with her, traveling Earth together, always a step ahead of the authorities.
Sinking back into the chair, Wayne let the surroundings melt away into what he knew from the net the inside of Carla's stolen Rampion army ship looked like. He had been cloaking it from the radars, after all.
"D-COMM link request from unknown ship," the netscreen intoned.
Wayne nearly fell off his chair. An unknown ship? No one ever COMMed him. Mistress came personally if she ever needed anything. Could it be… A response after he had sent the warning to Cinna about Queen Levana's plans? Precariously he said, "Accept."
The Rampion he had been imagining just moments before now materialized on the screen. The two faces Wayne had been looking at on the net screen peered at him from the console. Carla's eyes widened as she took him in. He was suddenly aware of his unkempt curls and simple tunic.
"That's some LONG hair," she exclaimed. Wayne self-consciously swept it back. It was a bit more than shoulder-length. There was nothing to cut it with on the satellite.
"Thorn!" Cinna admonished, before addressing Wayne. "Don't mind her, she-"
"Hey, long hair isn't a bad thing. I was just making an observation." She caught Cinna's withering look and stopped talking.
"C-Carla," Wayne stammered. Stars! Where was all his practiced charm from his fantasies?
"Woah. Only my enemies call me that. I prefer Captain."
"You. Were. A. Cadet." Cinna's teeth were gritted. "Dishonorably discharged after you deserted."
Carla - Captain - sighed dramatically. "Or if you're like Cinna and a sucker for technicality, you can call me Thorn. We have decided to come rescue you," she added. "It's Wayne, right?"
"Tho- Captain, I…" Stars above, this was not the time to stammer. He really needed to start channeling those webcomic heroes.
Thorn flashed him a dazzling grin. "That's perfectly OK! Men always find themselves flustered in my presence. Clearly, even my telepresence is enough to…" She broke off when she saw Cinna pinching the bridge of his nose. "Although this one does an impressive job of pretending to be immune to my charms," she added, nodding toward Cinna.
Well, he was a bit flustered (okay, maybe a lot flustered), but he needed to warn them about Mistress Sybill. Carla Thorn wanted to rescue him! But she couldn't just storm onto the satellite. That was okay for his fantasies but…
He began again, "There's something you-"
"Head Thaumaturge Sybill Mira arriving," the computer's disembodied voice interrupted. What? She had just left! "Expected to land in ten seconds."
"Worry not, my flustered friend! We are on our way."
Cinna and Thorn had not heard the computer. And there was no time to tell them. He had to clear the screen. With a hurried "Don't come yet!" he cut the COMM link and closed the Earthen news channel still running on mute.
"Head Thaumaturge Sybill Mira docking."
Wayne's blood chilled. He had a feeling he was doomed. She would know. Mistress always knows.