I never thought that I could love

Strangers at night were good enough.

But love's not a thing you get to choose

Try to resist, you'll always lose.

I made a deal to sell my soul,

But lately, I have dared to hope..

~Beth Crowley "Battle Cry"

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The Paladin Who Shall Not Be Named

Hi Hunk!

How was the symposium in Cairo? Did you and Shay make it to Giza?

I have news. Maybe not news, if Keith blabbed. Did he blab? I asked him to let me tell you first.

You know how you're always telling me, 'Pidge, you can't live on peanut butter cookies and spaghetti'? I finally tried some of the recipes from your module in Athena's food preparator.

I tried them and loved them. Delicious! Gotta love the genius engineers who designed a compact, super-efficient way to produce something other than space goo!

Confession. It's The Paladin Who Shall Not Be Named who used your recipes.

Lance. Look, I'm just going to use his name now. Why? Because we're traveling to Titan together in Athena. Yrta was called away on a family emergency and Lance was in the right place at the right time, and offered to come with. Even I know traveling alone for a week in the black is stupid, so I took him up on his offer. He's been helpful. I don't think I've eaten this well in years.

And his piloting skills have come in handy. First, when we came across pirates who were attacking a hopper carrying a small family. Then when we were attacked by a Shrike. That's right. A fucking Shrike against Athena! And we're fine. Thanks to my augmented countermeasures and Lance's flying.

Looking back, I realize that the Lions were relatively easy to fly. They were semi-sentient. Didn't want to crash and burn. But Lance has spent the last decade flying ships that are comparatively dumb machines. He's developed serious skills.

It was fun. Like old times.

I've forgiven him. Losing Mom has made me soft, I guess. It's hard to stay mad when he's right here, in person, being Lance. This sounds soooo cheesy, but he's taking good care of me.

I don't want to make excuses for him. I won't tell you to forgive him. But he's truly sorry and it sounds like he's been to Hel and back.

Please don't be mad at me for rolling over so easy. You and I, we both took it hard when he ghosted us. Shiro doesn't know yet, but knowing Shiro, he'll tell Lance "Welcome back' and that will be it. He's got too much on his plate to sweat the past. (Hah! 'Plate'? Was that sort of pun-like?)

Keith's going to meet us on Titan. He seems okay with Lance's return. Either that, or he's going to feed Lance to Kosmo. It's hard to tell with Keith.

Miss you and Shay,

Love, Pidge

Matt,

Are you sitting down? I have all kinds of news.

Seriously, sit down. And don't freak out. I'm fine.

First. Regarding those coordinates I sent. For the disabled pirate[?] ship. We were attacked by that Shrike. Good news! Remember those countermeasure mods I was playing with? They worked! Athena didn't suffer much more than some minor discharge overloads to shielding. Pretty bad-ass, right? Besting a Shrike in a small hopper?

I had to make some on-the-fly changes to my original design, but Lance(I'll explain later) bought us plenty of time with his flying. It burns my pride a little, but he can fly circles around me.

I didn't mention this to Lance, but I suspect that was a Xiphoid ship. The engine specs are consistent with this year's model of Shrike. This ship had dual-inertial impellers. Previous Cortilon engines have relied on that asymmetric impeller design that anybody with half a brain knows is unreliable. They finally wised up and put together a design that could properly manage an inverted reversal without stalling.

Oops, technical digression. LOL.

My point is, your standard pirates and mercs can't afford a hot-off-the-assembly-line Shrike. But Xiphoid, with its rumored, big corporate shit-stirrers, as you say, can. You have intel suggesting that Xiphoid plans to hijack passenger lines and cruisers all along the Belt, right? Possibly for ransom? Our encounter looks like confirmation they've started.

The odds of you finding that ship are slim, but it would be a win.

I'm filing a formal report with Earth Gov Space Sec, but thought you should know first.

Second. Lance McClain is with me traveling to Titan. You probably know this through the galactic grapevine (V&L's Mom=Veronica=The Rest of the Known Universe).

Yes, I've forgiven him. He's back to being Lance instead of The Paladin Who Shall Not Be Named. I deleted the code snip that automatically replaced his name with TPWSNBN. That damned McClain charm! Don't look at me like that. You're not exactly immune.

I'll sent you a vid wave once we get to Titan and the signal amplifiers.

And maybe you shouldn't tell Dad about the Shrike yet. He'll worry.

Maybe don't mention Lance, either. Last time his name came up, Dad muttered something about "idiot" and "wasted potential." Probably for my benefit. But I don't need him jumping to conclusions and going into lecture mode. Not that there's any reason for a lecture. We're friends, that's all. And I'm an adult. But…Dad.

And, *you* don't need to worry. The Shrike was just a random attack. Will reach Rinconada soon.

Love,

Pidge

Thanks for reading!