The flight back to the headquarters is a long one, as there's still a bit of tension in the air from them not finding a way to fix Antonio's situation. Even after waking up from the dart shot, Guster's still in his altered state for the entire rest of the trip there, which makes a couple of the racers a little nervous. Dr. Clash constantly checks the camera, hoping that James is correct about his ship being secure, but always being vigilante to be sure. Gazelle finds himself having a hard time getting to sleep, as he keeps hearing Guster rummaging through his bedroom, looking for ways to escape. It's a hard three days, but they make it to the Galactic Space Federation HQ before too long.
As they land at the gigantic space station within the Earth's solar system, a group of doctors and medical personnel are waiting for them in the docking bay, along with Commander Atchwa. Jody tranquilizes Guster again, and she and James are getting ready to carry him off the ship, when Dr. Clash approaches with the gurney they used to bring Dr. Stewart on board.
"Good thinking, Doc. That's why they pay you the big bucks", James says with a chuckle as they lay Guster on the gurney and raise it up.
"Please let me know when that starts happening, because I've never been paid 'the big bucks'", he says back, not quite seeing the humor in that statement.
"You are now!", James says excitedly. "I think we agreed on each one of us getting an eighth of the money, besides me, who gets a quarter, because it's my contract and all that. We got 250 million from the Stewart job, and another 100 from this one. You're good at math, what's an eighth of 350 million?"
Clash hasn't quite considered the money he'll be pulling in from this, but a quick bit of math in his head leaves him stunned. "43,750,000 space credits?... ("I'm not checking your work on that.) My goodness… the funding…"
"Yep, these are the kinds of jobs that make it so someone like me can retire before they turn 35", James pridefully says. "My wife and child live pretty good lives right now. Aside from Daddy not being home much, but… that's probably gonna change soon."
"Oh lord, that means Zoda's getting that kind of money too…", Jody says, almost giving herself a migraine at the thought of that.
"Oh. Yikes. And he's gonna want that money whenever that happens. Welp, my team might end up getting the contract for when Zoda tries to take over the universe with the money he's getting here. Self-sustaining economy, baby", he says with a nervous chuckle.
"Ooooooor, give him the money, and track him, see what he does, and immediately arrest him once it becomes obvious what he's doing, before he can hurt anyone", she says back while pointing at her temple.
"That feels just barely illegal, but I would laugh my goggles off if that happened", James says as they disembark from the ship and walk up to the medical crew, waiting with their own gurney. "He'll still be sedated for a few more hours, but he'll be hostile when he wakes up. So, just be ready." The doctors nod, transfer Antonio to their gurney, and head off into the headquarters's infirmary.
As they leave, a tall gray-haired man with a black suit littered with military accommodations walks up to them. As he approaches, Jody snaps to attention, and Clash mimics her salute to him, figuring that's how people are supposed to react to this man. James sees this and can't help but roll his eyes, as he stays in a casual pose with his hands in his pockets. "Morning Commander. Been a little while."
"At ease, everyone", Atchwa says to lighten the mood of the room. "Glad you guys were able to get out of Mute City. Was worried Shadow got everyone until Captain Summer here reported you all made it out", he says as he walks past all three of them. "I don't think we've met before, but you must be Dr. Clash, right?
"Oh yes sir. Glad to meet you. Are you the one in charge here?", he asks rather nervously.
"That I am. Nice to finally meet you, most of the people here root for Jody or Tanaka on race day, but if you go down to the R&D department, that entire crew is usually decked out in yellow #29 outfits."
"Really?", he asks excitedly. "Can I meet them? I love getting to meet fans!"
"I don't see why not? I'll go get someone to escort you down to their department", Atchwa says as he reaches for his comm device.
"Oh, allow me, Commander. I was just going to head past there anyway to go visit with a few people before we shot back off", Jody says, eager to make her superior happy.
"Sounds perfect, Captain. I need to have a little talk with Mr. McCloud here anyway", Atchwa replies with the tone of his voice getting a little more stern, like he has bad news to deliver.
"Don't get fired, James", Jody says as she and Clash head inside, leaving him all alone with the Commander. He thought everything would be fine, but now, things feel a little heavier. Atchwa tilts his head towards the base and starts heading inside as well, leaving James alone with his thoughts as they all walk inside.
As Jody and Clash head towards the elevators, Jody seems more relaxed than he'd ever seen before, including on the track. Now that they aren't in a competitive or life-and-death situation, Jody can finally chill a little and enjoy the peace and quiet of the base. Clash is a little more relaxed as well, feeling like no one will get them in the space police headquarters, but he's still feeling a little tense. Jody notices the tenseness, and can't stand the awkward silence. She hopes he doesn't need or want anything, but feels it'd be ruder not to say anything. "You um…, you OK, Doc?"
"I miss my garage", Clash says, seemingly out of the blue.
"Your… garage? Like… with cars and stuff?", Jody asks, a bit confused by that being the first thing he's missing.
"Oh, I turned my garage into my home lab. Just a place where I can tinker on little projects and keep myself busy. It's my little safe space to just… make stuff, whatever I want. I've got all the tools I need in there to last me a hundred lifetimes, and more stuff to do than I'll probably ever get to", he says while thinking back to all the projects he has waiting for him at home.
"I mean, we aren't holding you hostage. You can totally leave at any time, and no one would judge you for it. You've already helped a lot, so you don't have to feel like you owe us or anything like that", she says, trying to be helpful in her trademark matter-of-fact sort of way.
However, Clash just shakes his head. "No, it's like what Young Jack said when this all started. If I go back home, that'll be the first place Shadow will be looking for me. I've gotta keep going with this until the bitter end."
"Well, we aren't just gonna leave you at your house unattended. We've got protection agents just for that sort of thing. They'll keep tabs on you at all times, and make sure nothing bad happens to ya!", she says back as they board the elevator.
"That's no way for me to live", he says somberly. "Constantly worried that my home would be ground zero for a fight between Shadow and the GSF? Or worse, what if your men miss something, and I get bubbled without them even knowing? No… no, it's just safer if I keep going with you guys", he says, sorrowfully, like he knows he's screwed either way. "At least this way, I might actually go out a hero."
Jody has no rebuttal for that. She feels awful for being the one who begged for him to join in the first place, even though she also knows that it was what everyone in the group wanted, including Clash. They get off on the third basement level, and with a quick retinal scan, the door to the R&D room opens.
The lab is full of men and women in thick work uniforms welding machines and drawing up blueprints. This is Clash's personal version of heaven, and it only gets better when the engineers start recognizing that their favorite driver is here. It starts slowly with one or two people turning to notice Jody and then Clash behind her. Pretty quickly, people stop what they're doing to ask for an autograph or a picture. Before long, they have to stop walking because half the room has encircled them, and not only are they geeking out over Clash, but they start talking about engineering stuff that all sounds like Greek to Jody, who lets out a happy sigh, finally seeing the Doctor in his element.
Meanwhile, James makes it to Atchwa's office and he sits down across from him. The mood's been somber the whole way there, but as Atchwa gets cozy in his big office chair, he pulls out a big cigar and hands it to James. "Had ya worried there, didn't I?", he says with a hearty laugh, letting James finally exhale for the first time since they were all at the docking bay.
"Dammit, Atchwa. Why ya gotta play with my head like that?", he says as he happily takes the cigar and lights it up with the captain.
"Hehe, gotta make this job interesting somehow", he says as he pulls out another cigar and smokes it himself. "So, we did have to do an investigation on what you did at the Zorok space station, I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't", he says in an annoyed tone, like this was all just a corporate formality. "It's fine though, you did what you had to do to avoid a huge chase that you'd be totally outnumbered for. It was pretty much the only right move in that scenario, and I don't think you did anything wrong."
"Alright, good. I was a little worried that Jody would be big enough to make this a big deal", he says as he takes a big puff from his cigar.
"Yea, well…", Atchwa says, thinking carefully about how to talk about his favorite Captain. "Jody's a terrific, young officer. All the potential in the world, total prodigy, but she's got a very black and white view of the world. The concept of 'doing the least bad thing' hasn't sunk in for her yet, but she's still young. It'll come with time."
"Yea, I'm sure she'll figure it out", he says as he starts thinking about exactly how he'll rub this win in Jody's face when they get back to the ship. "So, did you find anything else out in that investigation? Like did you go on the planet and find what they were mining or…"
Atchwa gets a little excited and opens up a drawer in his desk. He pulls out a glass cylinder, sealed up with a strange black liquid in it. James leans forward, wondering what in the world he's looking at. "I have no idea how Shadow found this stuff. The underground pipes there stretched down for dozens of miles, so it must've taken years for them to find it. We're still learning about it, but the boys in the lab call it Shadow Serum", he says as he sets it down on his messy desk.
"Tell your boys that their naming is cringe", James rebuts, unable to look away from the black fluid as it seems to crawl along the inside of the sealed jar. "Is it alive?"
"We think so, it understands our language and even seems to be able to take commands. Watch this", he says as he points at the fluid, which seems to be looking back at his finger, despite no obvious eyes or brain or anything. He lifts his finger up, and the fluid instantly jumps to the top of the cylinder, making James jump back a little. Then, he points his finger down, and it drops back to the bottom of the glass. While James is a little concerned, Atchwa is enjoying the sight of this strange substance, like he's playing with a pet. He spins his finger in a circle and it does a full barrel roll in the tube, making him laugh a little.
"That seems… really dangerous…", James says, thinking about how easy it would be for someone like Shadow to use this stuff for this exact reason, and worse, how much of it he's already mined. "You guys put a stop to all that, right?"
"Huh, oh yea. After we found this goo, we shut that operation down real fast. Took some evidence, arrested all the people in charge, all that good stuff. Then we pretty much took the place over and we're camped out there to make sure no one tries to come back and take it back. And now we've got our lab guys experimenting with this stuff. We should know more about it really soon, hopefully."
James relaxes a bit in his chair, glad to know nobody's mining for this stuff anymore. Now that Shadow can't get anymore of it, it's a finite resource, so hopefully he won't be able to turn many more people. Hopefully…