"I'm honestly surprised this didn't co up earlier," Rebecca comnted as she sipped her coffee. "Between Gwen and the rest of the Persephone crew, not one of them thought to ask about it."
Sarah pointed out, "Gwen seed pretty gung-ho about the whole thing. I can see her glossing over that part, or forgetting it entirely when she told the others about you."
I glanced over my shoulder from where I was preparing breakfast and asked, "Considering you never wanted it in the first place, maybe this is your way out? Just tell Gwen no, and that's the end of it."
The captain sighed as a thoughtful frown settled on her face. "I'd have taken that option imdiately if it ca up when we first t Gwen, but now..."
Jenny finished the sentence when Rebecca's voice trailed off, "Now you've accepted their loyalty and committed to working with them. That ans you feel responsible for them. And giving up on the plan ans leaving the five of them in exile out here, while a criminal continues to benefit from his acts of treason."
"Yeah pretty much that," the boss sighed. She had another sip of coffee then continued, "The problem is I don't know if we can co up with proof? I don't know if any proof exists. Like I said way back when, the whole thing started as a convenient lie or cover-story. It got repeated enough that folks just sort of accepted it, nobody questioned it. Gabe even started to act like it was the truth? But I have no idea if he did anything to make it official."
A mont later she added with a shrug, "Anyways I sent a brief FTL back to Gwen, to let her know I'd received her ssage and I'd get back to her later with more information."
The food was ready at that point so I served it up for the four of us. Cam kept quiet through most of the conversation, but they'd been listening attentively rather than looking bored. Even if they didn't know all the details or any of the other folks involved, they seed quite interested to learn all they could. Apparently the fact that Rebecca might be royalty made a big impression on the cat-kin for so reason.
And the problem we were discussing was a question Gwen's family posed. According to the ssage we received the night before, the noblewoman had already exchanged two rounds of correspondence with her parents. The first set was to establish communications, get assurances of secrecy on both sides, and confirm that her family would be willing to help.
After that, Gwen shared the full details of the situation. So her parents knew of the regent's treachery, they knew their daughter was essentially betrayed and stranded in the frontier, and they knew Rebecca was the adopted grand-daughter of their last reigning monarch. And that was where the problem arose.
Lady Magniveen's ssage to our captain explained that while her family weren't terribly powerful or influential on their own, they did have many connections and tended to be very politically astute. They were willing to help, and they knew other noble families who'd be eager to help.
The problem was, before anybody was ready to officially accept that Rebecca Piper was the true heir to the throne, there had to be proof of her adoption. Without that proof, she was just a stranger who claid to be Gabe's daughter.
"I'm reluctant to ntion this," Jenny comnted as the rest of us started to eat, "But there is sothing I could check into."
"What's that?" Rebecca asked, between bites of bacon and pancakes.
The AI replied in a slightly softer tone, "Gabriel left a personal log file in the Deter's database. It's encrypted, but I could decrypt it and scan it for any ntion of adoption or official records. Only with your permission though."
That left a thoughtful look on the boss's face, and for the next few minutes we all just ate quietly while Jenny waited for the captain's answer.
It took a good five minutes but Rebecca finally nodded, "Ok Jenny. Thank you for the offer, and you have my permission. Let know if you find anything."
"Of course captain," the AI responded.
We were all quiet again for a few monts, till Cam asked a question they'd probably been wanting to ask since dinner the night before.
"So your granny was queen of a whole planet? But not the agri world you grew up on?"
Rebecca sighed, "It's a long complicated story, sorry Cam. I've never been to the Vysalis system, I didn't know Gabe was from there or that he was royalty. He told people I was his daughter and I suppose he sort of adopted in principle. Now so people from that planet want to go there and be their queen, while I'd rather stay here and pretend the whole thing never happened. anwhile other people on that world would probably like to be dead since my existence threatens their life of luxury."
That left the cat-kin with a little frown on their face, but if they had further questions they kept it to themself.
The rest of us remained quiet as well, and before long we were all finished breakfast. Sarah got up to help with the dishes and the tidying up, while the others remained seated around the table.
"I have found two relevant entries in Gabriel's personal log," our AI announced. "One is a video entry that I believe he ant for you to see at so point captain? The other is a written entry that suggests there may be an official record of your relationship to him as his child."
That news left the boss looking thoughtful again, and it took her almost a full minute to respond.
"Thank you Jenny," she said quietly as she got to her feet. "Can you please copy those two entries to the terminal in my cabin? I'd like to review them in private."
The android nodded, "Of course captain. They're waiting for you there now."
Rebecca excused herself and walked slowly to her cabin. It was easy to see she was apprehensive, maybe even a bit nervous about what she'd find.
After her cabin door closed behind the boss our guest spoke up again, "You all sure seem to have complicated lives. I figured being crew of a freighter would be fairly quiet and boring, with nothing to do but haul goods from place to place."
I grimaced, "No offence to Jenny, but I'm pretty sure our 'complicated lives' are thanks to her."
The AI arched an eyebrow and asked, "How so, Amanda?"
"Because without your help we'd be dead," I replied quietly. "Or if not dead then suffering long recoveries in hospital, before retiring for dical reasons. I'm not saying you're responsible for the complications that happen, but without you none of us would be around for all this stuff to find us."
Sarah nodded slowly in agreent, "Amanda's right. For most folks, the first 'complicated' thing that cos along tends to end their story. Thanks to you Jenny our stories all keep going past that first thing, so we can hit a second 'complicated' thing. Then a third, and so on."
"Huh," Cam said with a look of wonder on their face. "That's a really good way of putting it. And looking at it like that, my story probably would'a ended with that raider attack, if not for you good people. And I can't say things haven't gotten interesting since then, what with figuring out I wasn't a man and becoming a cat-kin and leaving Ganvis Station and all that."
Our cute engineer gave the cat-kin a smile and gently teased, "Welco to the family Cam. You've been blessed - or cursed - with 'complications', sa as the rest of us."
and Sarah were finished cleaning the galley by that point, so all four of us moved to the lounge where the chairs were more comfortable.
As we all got settled I asked our AI friend, "I hope I didn't upset you with that analogy Jenny?"
"Not at all Amanda," she shook her head. "Now that I understand the reasoning behind it, I have to say I agree with the premise. And if I may, I hope to continue keeping my friends alive and available for further complications for as long as you all wish it."
I smiled, "Thanks Jenny."
"So if y'all don't mind talking about it, what sort of other complications are you folks involved in?" Cam asked.
That kicked off a little conversation about Auguste Lebeau and how our employnt with him ca to an abrupt end, although by unspoken agreent none of us ntioned the secret cargo or the additional complications that were probably in store for us thanks to Lebeau's employers.
That conversation lasted a good half hour, until Rebecca finally erged from her cabin. She had a thoughtful, almost lancholy expression on her face as she joined the rest of us in the lounge. She didn't take a seat though, she remained standing just inside the doorway.
"Jenny?" she asked, "I assu you're already familiar with the contents of those two entries you found for ?"
"Yes captain," the AI confird.
The boss nodded, then looked to and Sarah. "Would you two accompany to my cabin? I'd like to share this with you both as well."
"Sorry Cam," she added to our guest. "I don't an to exclude you but this is personal."
I almost didn't hear that, or the cat-kin's reply. I was still dealing with the surprise of being invited into Rebecca's cabin. In all our ti on the Deter, after everything we'd been through, and even since becoming girlfriends and sleeping with the tall amazonian redhead countless tis, I'd never once seen the inside of her cabin.
It felt like an auspicious occasion to be invited there now, and as much as I wanted to treat the invitation solemnly my big floofy tail was wagging up a storm instead. I was forced to grab hold of it and hug it tightly against my chest just to keep it still, while both my girlfriends were obviously struggling not to giggle.
"Sorry," I blushed. "I really didn't an to spoil the mont."
Rebecca shook her head, "It's fine Amanda, I needed the laugh. Now c'mon you two."
Sarah and I followed quietly as the boss led us down the corridor then through her door into the cabin she'd called ho since long before I was born. My first impression once I was inside was that the place was surprisingly clean, with a lot fewer personal items and knickknacks around than I'd have expected.
"I've uh, spent the past few days cleaning," our tall redheaded girlfriend admitted with a faint blush. "There were a lot more pictures around before, and a fair bit of dust I guess too..."
It was pretty easy to guess what pictures she was talking about, and why she'd suddenly decide to tidy up after we left Ganvis Station. There were still a fair number of photos around the cabin, but with obvious gaps where others had probably been removed.
The images that remained were old, depicting Ellery Talwyn when she was younger. So in her military uniform, others in civilian wear. There were also photos of a fit attractive middle-aged man, even a couple photos of that man standing next to El.
For a brief mont I wondered if they were pictures of Rebecca's past self, but I quickly realized the man in the images had to be Gabe. There were other pictures of him as an older man, and Rebecca was in a few of them, standing next to him.
Other than that, the cabin was an identical mirror-image of the one Sarah and I shared. It was just as well-worn, the walls had the sa dark patina, Rebecca's bed was unmade, and she had a worn-out carpet on the floor.
She led us to stand by her desk, where the terminal was still displaying two files on the screen.
"This is the text entry," the boss explained as she opened the first record on her terminal. "He wrote this about twenty-two years ago. He was in his fifties, and I'd been Rebecca for six or seven years by then."
Sarah and I both turned our attention to the screen and quietly read what Gabe Piper wrote back then.
"Date-stamp: Fifth cycle, year four-sixty-seven, day two-sixty-six. After that ss with Dirksen I figured the best way to make sure it doesn't happen again is to go ahead and get proper registration docunts from one of the local worlds. Only one easy way to do that, considering I don't have legal paperwork for the ship, not to ntion myself or Rebecca. One nice thing about Ecclestone's World, if you don't have proper docunts there's always soone who takes cash. I don't think I'll bother Rebecca with this. She's been a lot better with things over the past few years, but it might re-open old wounds? Either way I'll handle it on my own."
When we were finished reading Rebecca elaborated, "Dirksen was a custor, we did a delivery for him at another world you two probably don't know yet, in the Gamitae system. I think that was the Deter's first visit there, and unlike most of the worlds around here they have actual customs and import laws there."
She continued with a grimace, "Of course we didn't have any official paperwork, and ended up losing money on the job because we had to pay a bunch of fines. From the sound of it, that prompted Gabe to bribe soone to get us officially registered out of Port Ecclestone. I don't know if he lost the records or if he hid it sowhere, but we should be able to get copies. For a fee of course, but it'll be official. And there's a good chance Gabe registered us as father and daughter, since I'd been going by Rebecca Piper and using that cover story for five or six years by that point."
Sarah smiled, "So that might be proof enough right there? Plus it might give you official citizenship in this sector after all."
Rebecca shrugged, "I've never been worried about that, but yes. And having so sort of legal claim to the Deter would be nice too, though to be honest nobody's ever questioned that. Just like I never questioned how it ca to be in Gabe's possession, but that entry suggests he didn't have legal docunts for the ship either."
"Do you think he stole it?" our cute blonde girlfriend asked. Her tone didn't carry any hint of judgent or disdain, she just sounded curious.
"No idea," Rebecca replied with another shrug. "He never talked about his past, but knowing what I do now... Maybe? Or even if he didn't, whatever arrangents he made to get it obviously didn't go through official channels."
After that we were all quiet for a few monts, before I gestured towards the terminal again. "What about the video entry? Incase Gabe didn't get things registered after all, or there's so other problem with that docuntation."
"Yeah," Rebecca sighed. She looked at the terminal and hesitated, "This was a little harder to take than the text entry. I ah, might need a minute first."
I slipped an arm around her and gave her a reassuring hug, "Take all the ti you need."
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