Far From Home: The Complete Second Series (Far From Home 13-15) (44 page)

59.

"You know, it's weird. I came on this mission to get some kind of vengeance," Meryl said as they walked along the corridor together. "And yet it's not so black and white as I thought it'd be."

"No, you're right. But don't think we won't make Cessqa pay for what she did to Del, Chief. She will, one day. But for now, we have to deal with the corruption that let all of this happen. In fact, the corruption that manipulated it into happening," she said. "Kerrick and the Vice President hold as much of the blame for Del's death as Cessqa does."

"I know," Meryl said bitterly.

They reached Jessica's quarters. "I'm going to grab some things. I suggest you do the same. Unfortunately I've had to leave a lot on the station. Anyway, meet you in the hangar bay in, say, fifteen minutes or so?"

"Sure," the Chief gave her arm a gentle pat, then left her to get her things. Jessica walked into her quarters and packed as many civilian clothes as she could into a carryall.

She pushed her uniform tunics to one side, her eyes alighting on the one with Del's bloody handprint across it.

I shouldn't take this,
she thought.
It needs to be left.

She scooped up the few pictures she had in frames, data tablets, several bottles of booze that had been gifts. One of them from Del. She stopped, held the bottle in her hand, looked down fondly at it. She remembered when he'd given it to her. It made her chest ache.

"Memories," she whispered, surveying the quarters that she had called home for a long time. "Dust on the wind."

She packed the bottle, checked around for anything she might have missed. There was nothing overly sentimental she thought she should take along with her. Jessica made to leave, then stopped at the threshold. She turned back, dropped her bag on the floor, walked to the bed. She got down on her hands and knees and felt around beneath the frame. Her hands found the book she'd stowed there and she pulled it out, regarding the cover.

She remembered the day Singh had given it to her as a birthday present.

"What's this?" she asked.

"A present. Isn't it your birthday?" Singh asked.

She took the gift from him, started to open the wrapping. "You shouldn't have."

"Well, I have, so just open it," he said with a smile.

She pulled it out. A book. "
Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens," she said, looking it over. "You know, I don't believe I've read it."

"It's a classic. Hard to find these days, actually."

"What's it about?"

Singh smiled. "It's about many things, Jessica. You'll find out just what when you read it. But overall
, the book is about how life lives up to your expectations of it. Not everything works out the way you thought it would. That's life."

She laughed. "It all sounds pretty deep."

"Well," he said with a shrug. "It's not really. I have to confess that I bought it more as a reminder than a book."

"A reminder?" she asked. "A reminder of what?"

"That although things sometimes don't pan out the way you wanted them to, always appreciate what you have. Make the most of it. Life . . . it goes so fast. The worst you could do is be unappreciative of having your orbit of this life. Whatever comes, know that it was always out of your hands. Fate had other plans. You simply went along for the ride and did your best, regardless of your expectations.
"

Jessica stroked the front of the book cover with her thumb. Several tears splashed down its front, and she wiped them away. She looked up, tried to fight it all back. It was time to leave. Time to move on. Earlier that day she'd seen a change in the weather. Something about to happen. Something beyond her control.

"Time to go along for the ride," she whispered on her way out the door.

*

They filed into the Captain's yacht one by one, bidding farewell to those staying behind as they went. Jessica entered the craft last. She hugged each one of them in turn, coming to Commander Chang last.

"Well this is goodbye," she said and drew her in for a strong embrace.

"Good luck Captain, it's been an honour," Chang said. "How long shall I leave it until I call you in?"

"Give me an hour. Then tell Kerrick what happened here."

The Chief appeared back in the doorway again. "Sorry, I almost forgot. Chang, do me a favour will you?"

"Anything," Chang said.

"Tell Belcher and the others that I'm sorry. And that I'll miss them, even if they're the dirtiest, smelliest bunch of engineers I've ever had the misfortune of working with," she said with a grin.

"I will, Chief," Chang said.

Clayton came up the line. "Jess, about before . . ."

"Old history," Jessica said. "Forget it, Doctor. I have. Thanks for everything. I always appreciated it."

"Find a way of staying in touch," he told her. "I mean it."

She saluted him. "Yes sir."

With one final glance back at Commander Chang, Ensign Rayne, Kyle Banks, Dr Gentry, Dr Clayton, and Eisenhower, Jessica went inside and hit the door controls. The ramp receded into the ship, the door slid down and she stood there staring at nothing. "Goodbye," she whispered.

60.

Kingston waded out into the storm, wrapped in heavy clothing, her face covered by a fine mesh that protected her from the dust and silicate swirling about on the wind.

Jessica stood within the open hatch of the yacht, her eyes narrowed against what was attempting to blow inside. Kingston carried two bags, and she moved hurriedly up the ramp. The moment she was inside, Jessica closed the hatch again.

Her mother removed the mesh around her face.

"Told you the storms were bad."

"I believe you now," Jessica said. "Did you leave the message I gave you?"

Upon arriving back there, Jessica had gone back inside the facility along with Hawk. There she'd explained to Kingston everything that had happened. And she'd left a data tablet containing a lengthy message, should the right person come looking for her.

"Yes. It's with Caise," she said.

"Him? Is he the right choice?"

"Believe me, he may be soft, but he's the most trustworthy person I've ever known. I'm confident he'll do the right thing," Kingston assured her.

"Good. I'll trust your judgement."

"Mother knows best, Jessica," Kingston said. She picked up her bags and brushed past, a half smile on her lips.

"Sure," Jessica said.

61.

They watched the captain's yacht rise through the darkening atmosphere of Zac'u, headed back into space.

"This will be our last farewell," Jessica said over the comm.

"I wish it weren't Captain," Chang said.

"There is no other way," Jessica said. "And I'm not the Captain anymore, Lisa. You are."

Lisa shook her head, though Jessica could not see it. "You'll always be my Captain."

Silence for a moment, then, "I have left a message at the facility. Should anyone friendly come asking. It's in the hands of Doctor Caise there. Please remember that."

"That codfish." Gentry remarked at the rear of the room.

Chang ignored him. "I will. Good luck."

"Thanks," Jessica said. "We'll need it."

62.

Hawk turned around in the pilot's seat. "So, uh . . . where we goin' exactly?"

"Off the grid," Jessica said.

"So . . ."

She swallowed. "There's a planet called Steria. You'll find it in the nav system records. It was never settled properly, though there was a brief attempt at a colony for a time before the place was abandoned."

"Abandoned? Why?" Selena Walker asked.

"It was too extreme. Steria is quite unique, in that while it has a breathable atmosphere, one side of the planet is forever covered in shadow, the other baked by the sun. It is literally a world of night and day. The colony was somewhere in the middle. 'Twilight Town' or something. That's what they called it. But it never worked out," Jessica explained.

"So I guess there's huts, and the like, all just sittin' there," Hawk said.

She nodded. "Exactly. No-one will think to look for us there."

"Sounds good to me," he said, returning to the helm console to input their destination.

They passed by the
Defiant
. Jessica watched from a nearby viewport as she slid past. "Will we ever see her again?" she asked quietly.

No-one offered an answer – for there was none to give. Suddenly everything seemed so uncertain, so up in the air. Jessica felt a single tear break free, roll down her cheek. She wiped it away quickly, before anyone could notice.

Goodbye
, she thought. Then their little ship went to Jump and the
Defiant
was gone.

Jessica felt a hand on her shoulder. It was Dr. Kingston. She turned to look at her. Her Mother offered her a smile. Jess reached up and patted Kingston's hand. Then she went back to looking out the viewport, at the colours of infinity as they flashed past.

Would any of it be as it once was, when all was said and done? When the dust settled . . . what would be left for them all?

*

The yacht went to Jump.

Gone.

Commander Chang turned to Rayne. "Contact Admiral Kerrick."

"This sure does feel strange," Olivia said as she keyed it into her console. "Reporting them in like this. It's like we're betraying them."

"I know, but it has to be done. These are the Captain's orders and I'll follow them to the letter," Chang said.

Her whole mouth was dry.

"Making contact now," Rayne said. She held the earpiece in, looked up and locked eyes with her partner. "No going back."

Chang shook her head slowly. "No going back," she whispered in return.

As Rayne spoke, she turned to look at the viewscreen, at the empty spot of space where the captain's yacht had been previously. She felt a presence by her side and looked to see Dr. Clayton standing there, hands clasped behind his back.

"She'll do all right," he said.

"You seem certain of that," Chang said.

"No, not certain," he said. "Just hopeful that she'll get the job done. Set everything right."

The stars outside now seemed immeasurably distant. As if no-one could possibly reach such far off points of light.

"Whatever happens, wherever she ends up . . . I'll be waiting for her call," Chang said.

"We all will," Clayton said. "And it'll come, Commander. If know her at all, it's that she'll see this through to the end. Whatever it takes . . ."

At the end of the original serial, I decided there were still stories I wanted to tell in the Far From Home universe, involving Jessica and her crew. So I set Enigma 12 months later, following a year of exploration, to see where they'd come. Straight away I had no wish to write the continuing adventures of the Defiant as an episodic serial. I wanted to make them novel length adventures, so that's what I did with Enigma and the two subsequent sequels, Nemesis and Vengeance.

So Far From Home: The Complete Second Series consists of three novels. They tell one big story, and setup the events of Series Three, which will consist of the novella Spectre, and three final novels, Exile, Conflict and Legacy.

At the time of this writing, Far From Home: The Complete First Series has had just under 200 reviews on amazon.com. Some of them good, some of them not so good. Regardless, the series continues to find new readers all over the world. It goes from strength to strength. Through interacting with me in emails, posts on my Facebook page, tweeting me on twitter and writing on my site, readers have not stopped telling me how much they enjoy reading the Far From Home books.

Well, here's to Series Three. If you've followed the story thus far, you're in for a shocker. Spectre will tell the story of Captain Rick Shaw and their investigation of Project Prometheus. Then the main story continues. But not in the way you think it will, trust me. As I write this, I wonder if I take a risk doing what I'm going to do in Series Three. But I've tried my very best to keep things fresh all the way. To try new things, shake the characters up, keep everything moving.

Well now we will see. In my notepad I have the outlines for Exile, Conflict and Legacy. And glancing over them, I think they're going to be the best Far From Home books yet.

As always, dear readers, I'll see you on the other side of the black hole.

TH – May 2014

THE ADVENTURE

CONTINUES

WITH

Spectre: A Far From Home Novel

About Tony Healey

Tony Healey is a best-selling independent author. Born in 1985, he has lived his entire life in the city of Brighton, UK.

In 2011, he found his fiction published alongside Harlan Ellison and Alan Dean Foster. A year later, his sci-fi serial FAR FROM HOME became a best-selling sensation, followed by similarly successful sequels. Since then he has collaborated with authors Bernard Schaffer, Matthew Cox and William Vitka on various projects. He has also had work published by Curiosity Quills Press. He is married and has three daughters.

For the latest on Tony's various projects, visit his site
www.tonyhealey.com