Chapter 4 – Dark Reflections


The room was dark when Vacy stepped through the doorway, so she went over to the control panel by her bed and nudged the dial for the lights upward as Corso came in behind her. She pressed her palm to the screen, and the door hissed shut again.

Turning to face him, Vacy paused, weighing her options. She knew what the smart thing to do would be. Wasn't often that it was the right thing as well. That should've made it easier to just sit down and tell Corso about Bryson.

The problem was that what she wanted to do was rotten and dumb and she knew she'd regret it within minutes. Probably sooner, though it depended on how long it took. She didn't figure she'd regret kissing him while she was actually in the middle of things. No, regrets would come later. But as she prided herself on not having regrets, she smiled wryly as she walked over to him. "You sure we can't just have sex instead?"

Corso shook his head with a grin, his dark eyes crinkling at the corners. "Captain, we both know it wouldn't be wise." His smile softened as he continued to look at her, and he reached for her hands, his fingers interlacing with hers. "Though, don't be mistaken." He tilted his head down, his cheek brushing hers as he whispered in her ear. "I want you."

And this time it was Vacy who skittered away, backing up and walking across the room, folding her arms and staring at the wall because she couldn't stand to face him. "Corso, you just don't seem to understand. I've flat-out told you that I'm not the kind of person you seem determined to believe I am." She took a shaky breath, scrubbing her face with her palms. "Up 'til now I've tried to get away just with that, because I didn't want you to know about the rest of it. Syreena was just the first one you saw."

She heard a gentle creak behind her and didn't need to turn around to figure out that he'd sat down on the edge of her bed. She stood there, her back to him, trying to decide how to begin. "I haven't been the captain of the Wonder for all that long," she finally said. "That was Bryson for years."

Vacy took a slow breath, trying to steady herself. "He was my brother." She turned, pacing at the end of the room, arms folded tightly over her chest. "We fleeced this courier – took everything in a bait-and-switch. Figured him for an Imp, way he was dressed." She stopped by the locker she never used, but she wasn't looking at it. Wasn't looking at anything, really. "Turned out I'd read him wrong. He was a personal runner for Nem'ro, why he was dressed so fancy."

She was silent for awhile, then let out a long sigh. "I picked out the marks. You always gotta be ready for things to go sour, but… that one was bad." Vacy shook her head. "Wasn't even a day before they were on to us. Picked up Bryson from a cantina… he probably didn't even know he'd been marked.

"Bit of slicing gave me all I needed to know. I hadn't had a bit in that particular scam beyond picking the mark, and there wasn't a bounty on me. Just Bryson and our partner, Asty." She closed her eyes. "I remember the SIS agent who came up to us. Smug bastard, worse than Skavak. Wanted to know what we knew about Nem'ro. That was how Asty and I figured it out. SIS never gets anything first; if one of their agents was on to us, so was Nem'ro.

"They'd taken Bryson to Hutta. Asty and I split up – found out later he got killed when someone tried to collect on him – and I took the Wonder after Bryson. He was there, in a cell. Told me to leave him, that they'd just come after him again. Don't know how he'd found out I was still clean – well, mostly. Said that was the smart thing to do."

Vacy turned around and looked at Corso again, her eyes flat and calm. "I knew he was right, too. So that's what I did. I looked my brother in the eyes, and then I turned around and I left him there to rot."

She walked over and sat down beside him on the bed. "You seem to see me as this high-minded hero, but I ain't. Not sure I even know how to be. Given a choice between doing the smart thing and doing the right thing, I'll pick the smart thing." Vacy lifted her shoulders. "Would've been easier if you'd left because you thought I was a tramp, but… I guess you have a right to the truth," she concluded with a quiet smile.

Corso just sat there beside her for some time, looking down at his knees, until he finally nodded in reply. "But you've kept that to yourself all this time. Takes quite a bit of guts to walk out like that. Ain't you proud of it?"

Her lip curled in disgust. "Proud of it? Proud of abandoning my brother to some sradliva verocht?"She just stared at him, shaking in fury.

Watching her, he smiled a little. "Captain, you think all I see in you is rainbows and bubbles, that I've got you up on some impossible pedestal, but that ain't true. Maybe I didn't know the details, but I've already seen your darkness." She started to interject, but Corso shook his head. "And I ain't gonna say it ain't worried me at all, but… I've also seen you fightin' against it." He took a breath, slow and uncertain. "That's what I … well … why I think of you … like I do. You're more like sunlight than rainbows."

Vacy thought about that one for a minute, then wrinkled her nose. "All right. You've got me stumped, so you're gonna have to explain that one to me."

"Y'see, rainbows ain't really there. And if you move, or it quits rainin', they disappear." His cheeks were flushed, but he couldn't seem to look away. "Sunlight, though… sometimes you can't see it. Maybe there's a storm, or it's just real overcast. But it's always there, even behind the thickest clouds."

She blinked. And then she chuckled. And it wasn't entirely bitter. "Guess I didn't give you enough credit, Riggs." She leaned against him and heard him breathe in sharply. A few moments later, she felt his arm wrap around her shoulders. They sat quietly a little longer before she asked, "What happens when I do something really awful?"

His arm tightened around her, and he sighed quietly. "We've got enough to worry 'bout right now without addin' to it, Captain. It's late; why don't we both tuck in? Been an eventful evening."

She nodded, and when she stood, so did he. "Thanks," she said, and she struggled to find a way to say what she meant, because it was more than that, but somehow the words just weren't there.

But Corso smiled, as though somehow, he already knew. "You get some rest. Things'll look better in the morning." She palmed the door open, and he stepped out into the hall. "They always do." He held her gaze a moment more, then headed down the hall to his quarters.

Sleep came a lot easier than she'd expected it would, and when she woke up, she realized that Corso had been right. She even whistled a little as she got dressed and headed to the bridge. And of course, sitting in the captain's chair eased her tension further – though – she lifted her right hand with a frown.

On the arm of the chair, just under where her hand would rest, was a small, round sticker, no larger than the pad of her thumb.

Her expression softened, and she smiled.


[What did the sticker look like? Check my profile! :) I'll leave it up for a week or so - after that you'll have to PM me to find out XD

By the by, the story title comes from a killer line from this killer scene – youtube video g_FcSm1wUu0

Also – so much for adjusting the dialogue-to-action ratio. :P Still, this time I feel like I have an excuse!]