And add a pinch of intrigue? This is one of my short chapters that makes little sense at the time but will much later on . or if your smart you'll catch on. Just checking in on Keira back at the city HQ we'll get back to the action packed adventures of Jak next chappie. Read if you want, review if you do!
---Get Your Freak On---Ch 28---
Keira looked up as the electric sliding door to her makeshift room opened with a hiss.
"Ashelin?" she called blinking the the spots her welder torch had left in her vision.
"I am going to strangle Veeger," the red headed governess said throwing herself into a chair next to the small table. Keira lifted up her welding mask and looked at the woman with a slight frown.
Keria's room was a maze of tables with the remains of her mechanical possessions strewn across them. It wasn't a lot, most of everything she owned had been destroyed when the palace had taken out the stadium. What she had left had been in storage in another facility. One corner was filled with a small bed, the only proof that the room was indeed a bedroom and not a work shop.
"You say that after every meeting," Keria reminded her. Ashelin groaned and leaned her elbows onto the table in a casual manner. After Jak was exiled the unspoken tension between the two women had slowly disappeared. Being that they were the only two female occupants of the official city headquarters, they were bound to strike up some sort of friendship with the other.
"He's such an idiot..." the red head said pointedly, Keria nodded her head as she began to list and explain numerous tactical maneuvers that should have been taken but had been voted down do to Veeger's death grip on the council. It was just about the same rant she spewed after each meeting.
Keira Looked at the piece of machinery she was working on and inspected her welds. It wasn't that she didn't care, havingAshelin drop by now and then was one of the only things that broke up her days. There wasn't much for a mechanic to do during war times, her father wouldn't let her get involved enough to help anyway. Besides, she had something important on her mind.
"Jak's in the city..." Keria said suddenly interrupting the governess's stressed rant.
Ashelin blinked, "What?"
"I saw him outs side the north barrier when I went on that walk with daddy" she said, she mental winced. She had to get out of the habit of calling her father daddy when talking to others about him.
"Really!" Asheline pounded the table with her hand, a spark of excitement and hope suddenly pouring into her.
Keria nodded, "Had some little red head girl with him too." she added.
Ashelin didn't seem to care and dismissed the comment with a shrug, "how did that bastard get into the city any way?" she asked leaning forward towards Keira.
"I've been trying to figure that out too! I don't have any idea, I didn't think he'd come back after you know..." Keira looked down at her metal work again, referring to their meeting out in the desert.
"I know, he's such a stubborn bastard..." She said shaking her head, "Well with the one man army boy wonder back, I bet torn will be in a better mood."
"How is Torn?" Keira asked dancing on the edge of the tension that could tare apart the newly formed alliance between the two.
"Alive I suppose," She spat bitterly. Keira frowned a little, but hid it before her companion could notice.
Ashelin leaned back in her chair and raised her tattooed face to stare at the kind and compassionate ceiling, she sighed. "Things should start looking up soon right?" she sounded kind of desperate when she said it.
Keira shook her head and fiddled with her bit of work again. It always settled with her the wrong way when people thrust all their problems on Jak, even if he was the one man army wonder boy. It was only cute when Daxter did it.
"Hey!" Keira said suddenly, remembering the pet project she had started earlier out of boredom, "Check this out." she spun around on her swivel chair. She brought up her pet project mostly to change the subject and mostly because it was interesting. Like most of her pet projests it was interesting but mostly insignificant. She picked up a folder and slapped it down in front of Ashelin.
Ashelin eyed it, the tattoos on her face contorting as she lifted a brow in question, "What is it?"
Keira rolled her eyes, leaned over and flipped open the folder for her, " You remember that distress call that came in from the desert earlier today?"
Ashelin nodded picking up the folder, seeming to find it important enough to expand her time on. She had spent about an hour fighting with Veeger trying to get him to authorize a response at the very least.
She slapped the folder back on the table and tapped it with a long nailed finger, "This is ancient. Long before my father's rule at least."
Keira nodded, "Keep reading." she watched the ex-guard's eye flick across the pages as she read.
"wait?" Ashelin said under her breath, Keira smirked, "this can't be right."
"Some one must have messed up the dates, thats the only explanation." Keria said anticipating her question.
"If he was twenty three when he joined up, how can this Id..." She trailed off flipping through the other pages, "You have way to much time on your hands..."
Keira sighed it was true, she ignored it though and continued her explanation, "the Id was supposedly taken a week before he deserted. which doesn't make any sense, seeing how he had been in service for fifteen years by that time and he still looks about twenty three"
"Your sure it lists his age as twenty three on his registry papers? It could be they printed what age he was after he went missing.." Ashelin was spreading the papers out on the table now.
Keira giggled, no one was more OCD than Ashelin, she liked everything to make sense, everything to be planed and she liked having all the answers.
"this is going to bother me..." she mumbled reading something in the file about the soldier who had owned the old distress beacon, "Some odd little mystery is the last thing i need Keira. Why do you do this to me?" she said unaccusingly shifting through the pappers.
"cause you would work yourself to death other wise," keira's quick retort as she pulled out a paper, "see here's the registry papers... there's no birth date just age twenty three."
"that makes no sense," Ashelin said exasperatedly pulling out the original Bio page. She tapped the soldier's glaring picture thoughtfully.
"Well," The mechanic went on mater of fatly, "I think someone is using this B.B. Fellow as an alias." she pulled out three more pages out of the mess Ashelin had made of the pages by spreading them out on the table. "I ran the name through the old KG database and got three separate hits all from different time periods. I f this guy was real he'd be an old geezer with a very long wrap sheet who never got caught"
Ashelin leaned over to look at the separate wrap sheets, on one most of the crimes listed were petty, concerned mostly with drugs and theft. The other one which was dated during the guard's time of service involved several court marshals for disobedience.
"wait? This one is less than thirty years ago?" she waved the third wrap sheet in frustration, the document listed acts of terrorism, anarchy, treason and assassination, All of which had gone unpunished. She was about ready to burst with the absurdity of it all, it wasn't important yet she found her self rapped up in the mystery of it.
Keira nodded again, "thats what got me thinking it was more than one person using the name as an alias."
"Well that makes sense, still don't see why they would have deserted though." she added looking at the picture on the Bio again, "Why would you volunteer and serve through the entire first metal head was and then just walk away?"
Keira shrugged, "I just want to know who was using it in the first place? When I get the chance I'm gonna ask Jak if he tried to use it to get a ride back to the city..." she trailed off realizing she had just defeated the purpose of changing the subject.
Ashelin shrugged, "Maybe."
the com on the governess's hip beeped and the voice of whinny freedom fighter hailed her to the command center, "Its commander Torn Ma'am." Ashelin groaned and responded.
"Well I got to go, duty calls." she said standing up.
"see ya later then..." She replied automatically scoping up the papers.
Ashelin headed for the door, but stopped before leaving, "thanks for the distraction."
Keira gave her an honest smile, "No prob. Can't have our gallant leader over working herself! Now can we," She put her hands on her hips as she sat in her swivel chair and gave the tall red head an encouraging look, "Now go talk to Torn before he has an anxiety attack waiting for you!"
"Yes Ma'am." Ashelin said sarcastically with dry laugh. With that the governess was gone and the mechanic was alone with her thoughts.
She found herself staring blankly at the picture of the dark haired guard with the crew cut. He was glaring back at her with a pair of tired blue eyes, he looked more than a little beat up and grimy. A cigarette hung out of his mouth above dark rectangular goatee that started just below his lip. A sad excuse for a blue Kg tattoo graced the side of his cheek in the form of a lone rectangle.
She sighed, he was kinda cute. She shoved papers back into the folder and donned her welding cap.
"If I were to make up an alias for my self, I think I'd go with something a little less obvious than B.B. Clue," She mumbled to herself before slamming the visor of her welding cap down and turning on her torch.