Pan Am 1088 Black Boxes Found on Wake Island!

Pan Am technicians, operating in concert with a FASA disaster team, uncovered the two flight data recorders from Pan Am Flight 1088 which crashed in May. Preliminary data indicates that the craft suffered a catastrophic loss of the fuel pump in its starboard engine, primary and auxiliary hydraulics and the Master Avionics Computer at more or less the same time.

Officials from Pan Am and the manufacturer of the aircraft had no further comment, simply saying that they were investigating how such an unlikely series of failures could occur.

Chapter 13

What none of them realized was that the Heyerdahl had become known as the funeral ship. In Mary Yotori’s native Japan, it was rare to find a music venue that was not playing some sort of tribute to their most prominent citizen for the entire official month of mourning after her ornate and incredibly well attended state funeral. Video showed literally millions of mourners lining the streets of Osaka as her casket was borne away to her final rest.

Many performances were given to honor her, but featured most prominently around the solar system were simply some recordings of violin solos from a ship known only as “The Funeral Ship”. No ID had ever been broadcast with the impromptu performances on the bridge, so all the world knew was the beautiful yet incredibly sad music that was floating in the ether to be intercepted by a lucky few at irregular intervals. Luckily, that music had been recorded and shared, at first by a few. Given the way of things, those few shared with others and the music soon grew to enormous popularity in Japan.

As the official month of mourning proceeded, the haunting melodies wrought from that single unaccompanied violin began to become the unofficial music for the solemn occasion.

Sean knew none of this, nor did the crew of the Heyerdahl. On some very real level, even though she was totally alert and functional, Sean had become emotionally buried in a very deep depression. It was something she held so privately within herself that not even Charlie was able to tell for sure. She had her suspicions, because she remembered that Sean had radiated that sort of feverish intensity that she was displaying now before, and she remembered all too clearly the horrible events that had surrounded those times.

The only thing that anyone else could detect was a feeling of desperation in her lovemaking, and with Leif, an almost animalistic hunger. It was enough to jar the dynamic that had evolved aboard ship, just a little. Just enough.

Sean stiffened as she read the headline:

Pan Am 1088 Black Boxes Found on Wake Island!

Pan Am technicians, operating in concert with a FASA disaster team, uncovered the two flight data recorders from Pan Am Flight 1088 which crashed in May. Preliminary data indicates that the craft suffered a catastrophic loss of the fuel pump in its starboard engine, primary and auxiliary hydraulics and the Master Avionics Computer at more or less the same time.

Officials from Pan Am and the manufacturer of the aircraft had no further comment, simply saying that they were investigating how such an unlikely series of failures could occur.

Her thoughts raced. This was the next best thing to confirmation that she could get! She had been right all along, someone had killed Mama Yotori. The frustrating thing for her at that point was that she had no concept who would want to do such a thing. There was no question in her mind of corporate rivalry, she had seen the head of the only real competition, XX flight at the funeral and she was clearly unable to contain her emotions. No matter how good an actor may be, there are still minute flashes of expression which give away the true feelings of the person if you know how to read them, and there was not even the faintest doubt in her mind that Janet Majors had been genuinely grieving the loss of Mary Yotori. Therefore she dismissed what would have been any investigators top choice of culprit out of hand.

It had to be someone else, someone who wanted to eliminate both of them from the scene if possible. The question before her was one that gave her strange dreams and not a few nightmares in the ensuing week as the crew prepared for the long burn to enter Earth orbit. She spent a great deal of her off duty time searching for answers, a task that was made much easier by the fact that there was only a small time delay built into her transmission times. The Heyerdahl was close enough to Earth that the delay only amounted to just over a second, not too bad if you had grown up in the days of slow, low bandwidth connections as she had.

Her searches yielded some tantalizing clues, but nothing that could be called a real lead. When the task of delivering the cargo to the orbital refinery was finished, there were two weeks worth of lag time before the next load would be ready. Crew rotations were worked out so that anyone who wanted shore leave got a week of free time. Sean and Charlie decided that they would put themselves on the second rotation, given that those crewmembers who found themselves stuck aboard ship for the first week would be just a little stressed by sitting aboard ship while knowing that their friends and crewmates were out having a good time. That actually worked out pretty well, because they both found themselves frustrated at having to remain aboard, whatever the reason, when all they had to do was go to the bridge and look out of the windows to see Earth floating like some glorious blue pearl below.

Charlie was more than a little frustrated by this because Gunnar was on the first rotation. He wanted to be back on ship for the second week to oversee final preparations for the journey and make certain everything was shipshape. She expressed her frustration in a variety of ways that were well received by the crew aboard ship, but the only one they would talk about among each other was her cooking. Some of it was haute cuisine but mostly it was down home cooking made possible by the deliveries of food that could only come from earth and were only worth eating when fresh.

Most of the crew were considerably less frustrated than Charlie was, seeing their week of time before liberty as just a continuation of the routine that shipboard life naturally fell into after a while. Her frustration turned into anger when Gunnar arrived back aboard ship a day early, almost visibly sad. He had spent the week trying to see his sons, even appealing through the courts, but to no avail.

That night, Leif slept alone. He didn’t mind, he knew where Sean was and he approved. He was deep asleep when he felt her wriggle into his bunk and simply wrapped his arm around her and went back to sleep. Sean, for her part, spent some while awake, pondering what all of this meant. She had left Gunnar’s cabin to give Charlie and he some time alone, sensing this was what both of them needed. She was a little torn in terms of what this meant.

The two had shared many late night pillow sessions talking about their own feelings and just what it meant for their relationship that they were both falling in love with someone else even though they did not love each other any less. They had decided together that they still loved each other most, no matter what, and that they would just have to deal with whatever came. That didn’t give much comfort, as they both felt torn to some degree. What neither of them knew was that Gunnar and his brother had talked about the same thing from the other side of the issue.

Because of the way the watch schedules ran, they had only had the opportunity for all of them to be together a few times, but they knew that pretty much any combination other than the brothers having sex with each other was not just acceptable to them but downright fun. They each knew where their own hearts drew them, but aside from the emotional aspect, sexually they were quite open.

The truth was that as much as they were two couples, they were also a foursome. The love Charlie felt for Leif was just as intense as her love for Sean and Gunnar, and the same was true for Sean in reverse. There was no real way for any of them to separate out the emotions they felt and it wasn’t necessary because the last thing any of them were worried about was jealousy. The concerns they had were simpler and yet simultaneously more complex than that. Perhaps the greatest problem was that none of them had really thought it out to that degree so there were worries in their minds.

Sean was worried about how Charlie felt when she slept with Gunnar. Gunnar was worried about the same thing. The same dynamic replayed itself throughout the confusion that was their relationship. The thing none of them quite realized was that there was no need for any of them to claim territory apart from the others. There was tension in the relationship, but it was the tension of people trying their best to make sure they were not hurting the other three by their actions, not the tension of jealousy.

Gunnar’s failed relationship with his ex wife was one of those points of tension. Gunnar unjustly blamed himself for the problems between them and felt very guilty about not having seen his sons for such a long time even though he knew full well it was not his fault. Unknown to him was the fact that the other three had been working on his behalf to at least win him visitation rights with his children, though their true aim was to win custody of the boys for him. Gunnar was unaware of their actions and would remain so until some sort of conclusion was reached in the courts. They had found a judge that was sympathetic to spacers and was prepared to allow the children to be released to the custody of their father due to the lack of responsibility their mother had evinced. That point of conflict was on the verge of being resolved, but there was still a shadow hanging over the four, something that only one of them could resolve, something that only one of them even knew in an explicit manner, even though Charlie knew deep within her soul what had come over Sean and what the eventual result would be.

Charlie had seen it twice before, the revenge-lust. No one in her current life knew what Sean was capable of, but Charlie knew, and she was afraid. The days of bone chilling fear that her love would be caught or not come back to her were foremost in her mind as she talked to Gunnar that night. “You know she will take revenge?”

Gunnar shifted his bulk, holding her even tighter in his arms. “What made you think I didn’t know? I mean, we’ve never talked about it, but I do know what she did to those bastards. I would have done the same in her position and I have nothing but praise for how she handled it. I personally would have been considerably more brutal, but then, I would most likely have been caught. She did what she needed to do and I’m proud of her for it.”

Charlie snuggled back into his warm embrace, considering what she wanted to say for a moment while enjoying the bulk of him wrapped around her. “So will you help me help her this time? The times before, she did what she did on her own. I couldn’t have helped her, hell I was still busy rejecting the idea of her being a female. I was so selfish then, about that. I didn’t even understand what she was going through, not really.” She twisted around to face him in their embrace. “I didn’t realize that those monsters had taken her entire sexuality away, that part of it that I hadn’t killed by denying her the ability to even pretend to be herself. Hell, I used to bitch when she’d dress up in women’s clothes, so bad she stopped doing it. She was left with nothing but emotions and even those were so twisted by her need for vengeance that there was only a little room left for anything else. I loved her as best I could, but I know it wasn’t enough, hell I was still so busy rejecting the idea of her being a woman that I couldn’t see what was really eating her up. I really hate myself for being so cruel to her for so many years, but I had no idea what I was doing to her.” She wiped tears from her eyes and softly murmured into Gunnar’s chest “I hope she can forgive me someday for that.”

Gunnar had no idea what to say to that, so he pretended to be asleep.

“Hiya little sis!” Sean’s sister welcomed her onto the spacious front verandah of their Florida home. The two hugged tightly for a moment before she turned her attention to the four who had accompanied her little sister. “I’m guessing you’re Leif? My little sister always did have a weakness for the Hulk types, you know. Charlie, I’m so glad to see you again, and this quiet pair here must be Simon and Vasily. Don’t just stand there in the sun like fools, come on in and have a drink in the shade!” She led the way into the cool shadowed recesses of the immaculate home, the others trailing in her wake. “I’m sure you lot want to have a nice swim and you know we are completely private here, so yawl just strip off and hit the pool whenever you feel like it, no suits required. I’ll give you time to get dressed if the kids show up.”

The five needed no encouragement and were soon noisily splashing and playing in the water. They climbed out and dragged themselves onto lounge chairs at the enticement of drinks and snacks. Sean could tell her sister was trying her best to be open minded about their casual attitude towards nudity and failing somewhere along the way. She had also noticed her sister’s stealthy glances toward Leif when she thought no one was looking.

“So sis, you think he measures up?” Sean had cornered her sister on the other side of the pool from where the rest were basking in the sun.

“Measures up? Are you kidding? He’s bigger than that dwarf guy in high school! You know I still have trouble believing you had him before I did.” They laughed together quietly for a moment before the conversation turned to more serious matters. “So how are things for you really? You’ve told me all about Leif and Gunnar, but how is that affecting you and Charlie?”

Sean sat heavily on one of the lounges. “Sis, I think its okay, I really do. We still love each other just as much, but there is more than that. I love Leif and Gunnar both and I’m sure Charlie feels the same way. I think they are going to propose to us soon and if they do, I’m going to insist on holding the ceremony with you as our maid of honor. Will you do it? It would mean so much to me.” She began to cry softly.

Sarah held her little sister, uncertain how to respond. “Of course I will, you know that already. All you have to do is tell me when and where, and I’ll be there. I know you though, and I’m sure those tears aren’t for that. What’s bothering you, little sis? You know you can tell me.”

Sean twisted out of the embrace, standing abruptly. “No sis, I can’t tell you!” She angrily dashed tears from her eyes. “It wouldn’t be fair to you.” She ran a few steps and dove into the water cleanly, coming to the surface to gulp air and swim further away under the water. Sarah looked after her, confused and worried.