Search for the Phoenix: Phoenix Series Book 2 (31 page)

Carl shook his head. “I don’t want to go back to Caldon. I’ll never forgive SACOM for what they did,” Carl said.

“I don’t mean Caldon. I mean my home. Megan and I live on Pax,” Nolan said.

“Pax… wow, it’s been a long time. We used to visit a scrap dealer there. Do you remember her?”

Nolan smiled. “Boo. As a matter of fact, Megan and I run her business for her.”

Carl nodded. “Good business to be in. Good location.”

“It’s always warm there. Megan and I will take care of you, whatever you need.”

Carl looked thoughtful for a moment. Finally, he said, “I have thought about retiring for the past few years. The problem is that I don’t want to sit in my apartment looking out the window, all alone.”

“On Pax, you can go outside year round. We have plenty of room for you. You’d have your own room. You can do whatever you want,” Nolan said.

“For the first few years after I crashed here, I hoped someone would come and rescue me. Rescued—that’s how I thought about it. But this is home, now. This is my life,” Carl said.

“Yes, but you had another life before you came here. Carl, I didn’t come here to drag you back. I’m thrilled to know that you’re alive, and well, and living a good life. If you don’t want to go back, my efforts to find you won’t have been wasted. Megan and I will go about our lives, knowing that you’re okay. If you want to go back, you have a home with us for as long as you need it.”

“This is a huge decision to make. Can I think on it overnight? You can stay here, on my boat tonight.”

“Of course you can. I’m not leaving tonight. Sleep on it, and we can talk in the morning,” Nolan said.

“Nolan… no matter what I decide, I can’t tell you how moved I am that you’ve looked for me all these years.”

“You’re family, Carl. I’d have kept looking for another twenty-five.”

Carl laughed. “This place would have killed me before then.”

After serving a late dinner, Carl showed Nolan to a cabin he could use for the night, and then excused himself to go to his own to think about his options.

Carl entered his cabin and closed the door. He stood for a moment, looking around. This was his life. This was home. On the other hand, he had planned to retire, sooner or later. Planned… that was an exaggeration. Truth was, he’d been avoiding retirement because he didn’t want to be alone. Oh, Leon would come to his apartment to visit, no doubt. Or he’d go to visit Leon and Denise. But what would they do? Sit around for an hour or two and talk about their ailments and pains, like a couple of old men? What would he do with the other hours of the day? He’d look out his window at the ocean and wish he were on it, on the Phoenix.

* * * *

Nolan found Carl in the galley cooking breakfast the following morning. “I thought the smell of food might wake you,” Carl said.

“It smells good,” Nolan said.

“Did you sleep well?” Carl asked.

“It was the best night’s sleep I’ve had in a long time. How about you?”

“I was up most of the night, thinking,” Carl said.

“What have you decided?”

Carl brought a bowl of eggs and sausage to the table, where plates and utensils were already set. “I’ve decided to go with you. The winters here are too cold and the summers are too hot for an old man.”

“Do you need to make any arrangements before we go?” Nolan asked.

“I need to transfer ownership of the boat to my first mate, and I need to say goodbye to Leon and Denise.”

“That reminds me, Leon told me that you were his best friend, but if I knew your relationship twenty-five years ago, I wouldn’t believe it. What did he mean?”

“You don’t know? I assumed you tracked him here, and you knew who he was. Does the name Artemis Lansing ring a bell?”

“He’s Lansing? Ah… now it makes sense! I did track him here, but only because I thought he was you. Lansing vanished around the same time you did.”

“Can you imagine the odds of us both ending up in this place? I crash-landed. He was sent here after killing some drunk in an alley on Ternose. When we crossed paths, he only figured out who I was when he heard the name of my boat—Veronica Phoenix,” Carl said.

“The Phoenix! SACOM was looking for her. What ever happened to her?”

“She’s at the bottom of this ocean,” Carl said. “She crashed and sank.”

“And what about the plutonium?” Nolan asked.

“I dumped it into a star. It’s gone forever.”

“I know someone who will be glad to finally know what happened to it,” Nolan said.

“You can’t tell anyone,” Carl said. “I’m sure I’m still wanted for stealing it.”

Nolan shook his head. “Don’t worry. That has all been cleared up. My friend assured me that you are no longer wanted for your part in the conspiracy.”

“And which friend of yours can make such a claim?” Carl asked.

“SACOM First Admiral Niles Jiorgenson,” Nolan said.

“The first admiral of SACOM is a friend of yours?”

“Yep. And he owes me, big time,” Nolan said.

“Let’s finish breakfast. Afterward, I’ll get you some heated gear to wear, and we’ll go into town to see my first mate. I want to leave today, if we can.”

“Of course. If you said you needed a month to prepare, I’d go home and come back for you next month.”

Carl smiled. “I just need a few hours. If I take a month, I might change my mind. No, I take that back. With the weather we’d be having a month from now, I’d be long past ready to go.”

* * * *

Nolan looked around as he followed Carl through the town. Wearing a heated jumpsuit, he wasn’t spending all his time thinking about how cold he was or how much his muscles hurt from shivering constantly. The architecture was more varied than most of Dawson’s, but that wasn’t hard to achieve. The material looked like old-fashioned concrete, not plasticrete.

Carl had a large duffel bag slung over one shoulder, which Nolan had offered to carry. Carl just laughed, telling him to watch his footing and try to keep up. That was right before Nolan slipped and fell—the first time. After his second fall, he stopped studying the architecture and paid more attention to where he put his feet. He also stopped offering to carry the duffel.

Carl and his first mate had an emotional goodbye. She had been excited to learn she now owned the Veronica Phoenix, but she broke down and cried when Carl said he was leaving. Carl also gave her the codes for his bank account, telling her to keep it in reserve, since a bad fishing trip could be expensive. In the end, she had smiled and hugged Carl, promising to take good care of the boat and the crew.

The walk to Leon’s apartment building was a bit harder, being uphill the entire way, and Nolan struggled to keep up. Once they were inside, Nolan decided to wait in the lobby, not wanting to watch the parting of best friends. It had been hard enough watching the first mate’s pain.

Carl spent nearly an hour with Leon and Denise while Nolan sat and watched people walk by in their heated suits. People came and went, and it was clear that the cold and snow were as normal to them as sun and sand were to him.

Carl was smiling when he returned to the lobby, but his eyes gave away his sadness. They crossed the street and went half a block north, Nolan leading the way this time. Turning into a building, they went to the basement and took the underground tunnel that would take them back to the Griffin.

* * * *

Carl was excited to see his old ship again. He spent hours that first day walking around, reacquainting himself with the layout.

“You’ve taken good care of her,” Carl said as he walked onto the bridge and sat next to Nolan. “It’s been a long time since I was last aboard, but I still know my way around. I recognize every piece of equipment, except for one. There’s a large, green box in the engine room that I don’t remember.”

Nolan smiled, but he didn’t say anything.

“What, exactly, is an Ion Beam Aiming Module?” Carl asked.

“Oh, it’s just a bit of surplus equipment I picked up a long time ago,” Nolan said.

The following morning, Nolan found Carl standing in the doorway of the cabin where Becca, John, Earl, and Vince had died.

“After all this time, it still hurts,” Carl said.

“I know. I still have nightmares about that trip,” Nolan said. He patted Carl on the back. “Come on, let’s have breakfast.”

Carl nodded. Turning slowly, he walked to the galley.

During breakfast, Nolan steered the conversation away from the deaths of their friends. Instead, he talked about the wonderful times they all had shared. By the time the pair walked back to the bridge, Carl seemed a lot happier.

“I’m sorry, Nolan,” he said.

“What for?”

“I’ve had twenty-five years to deal with the loss of our friends. I thought I was in control of my emotions. But being here, aboard the ship, seeing that room, it all came rushing back.”

“It’s understandable. Don’t worry about it. Believe me, more than once I’ve stopped in that doorway and thought about them,” Nolan said. “I want to get home. I’m going to make a jump.”

“We’re only a day out from Bellansi. You can’t do that,” Carl said.

Nolan smiled. “Watch me.”

“You’ve picked up some bad habits,” Carl said. “You might lose your captain’s papers.”

“Well, Jonas Grumby might lose his papers, but I’ll still have mine,” Nolan said.

“Who is Jonas Grumby?” Carl asked.

Nolan chuckled, and then started singing the theme from an old Earth television show.

* * * *

The Griffin slid through the open door of the hangar and settled to the ground. Nolan had messaged Megan when he came into range of the first hyperspace relay, telling her that he had found Carl and was bringing him home. She pulled the hangar doors closed before running to the ship. After all this time, she couldn’t wait to see Carl again. Entering the code to open the ramp, she bounced impatiently as it slowly lowered. She was on the ramp and running into the ship before it had reached the floor. She was crying and laughing when she found Carl and threw her arms around him. “We found you! I can’t believe we really found you!”

Megan clung to Carl’s arm as they all walked to the house. She and Nolan showed him to his room, and then gave him a chance to unpack while they waited downstairs.

When he came down, he found them in the living room. He sat in a soft, high-backed chair and smiled. “This is nice,” he said. “I’m used to sitting on the bench in my galley.”

Megan smiled. “We want you to feel at home. If there’s anything you want, let us know.”

“Thank you,” Carl said. “I’m sure I’ll settle in quickly.”

“We were thinking we might go into Centralis later this week. Boo and her husband, Devin, have a bar there.”

“It’s more like a pub, now,” Megan said. “Boo’s a good cook, and Devin brews his own beer.”

“Boo does the cooking?” Carl asked. “Nolan, do you remember that time we came here and Boo made grilled shrimp for us?”

Nolan groaned. “Oh, that was bad. We were both sick for days!”

“Never trust a guy who sells fresh seafood in the middle of the desert,” Carl said.

“Okay, we’ll skip the shrimp if she has it on the menu,” Megan said with a laugh.

A silence followed, and Nolan could tell Carl had something on his mind. Finally, Carl said, “I don’t want to be a financial burden on you two.”

“Don’t worry about that, Carl,” Megan said.

Carl smiled as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small notebook. “I’m not worried.”

“What’s that?” Nolan asked.

“It’s a going-away present from Leon. This is a list of numbered bank accounts in half a dozen systems. He had them all memorized, but he wrote them in this book when he was in jail on Ternose.”

“That was a long time ago. The accounts have probably been closed,” Nolan said.

Carl shook his head. “Leon said they’re long-term accounts, so the credits should still be available.” He thumbed through the pages. “It’s a small fortune. When you have time to travel, I think we should visit these banks and collect the credits.”

“I think I’ll ask Boo to come out here and take care of the place. The three of us can take a trip and have some fun,” Nolan said.

“I’d like that,” Carl said.

“Me too,” Megan said.

* * * *

Megan rolled over and reached to put her arm around Nolan, but she found his side of the bed empty. After a quick glance at the dark windows, she stretched, and then climbed out of bed. From the top of the steps, she could see a dim light flickering in the living room. She smiled when she reached the bottom landing. Walking into the living room, she said, “Hey, Skipper, move over.”