Out of the Blue... Into the Black

[Nick Ryder]

"I'd bet on it." Nick chuckled as he nodded his head and gave the boys a thumb's up. "Y'know... no matter what I may have said in the past about being President and other idle yak... best thing I ever did. This..." he pointed to the Irish. "This is why I did it. I didn't do it for a title or even a legacy, I did it so our people would have purpose and something worth building. I may complain and wish for retirement but think about it, we've been doing this longer than we haven't. We're bringing every last one of these boys back home, I don't care what it takes, but they're getting back home once we complete this mission."

[Rebecca Talon]

"You're getting soft in your old age Mr. Ryder. But, you love this. Don't try to deny it." Rebecca teased, and took a seat across from him. "It's good to be home that's for sure."

[Nick Ryder]

"Oh I don't deny it, honestly it's what it keeps me going." Nick said with a smile as he looked at her. "And look, back five minutes and we're already off doing some crazy rescue mission. Still... that's why people follow us. We're in the thick of it just like them. Not sitting in some office on Terra Alpha or some Starbase and watching it on a monitor and haven't seen real action in decades." he chuckled. "You weren't there when the Admirality were informed that they'd have to actually be out there once in a while. Some of them haven't seen the bridge of a starship other than inspections since we were BARELY Commanders. Good tacticians, good administrators, but... you lose something when you're not out in the black for a while. You forget how quickly it can all go wrong and no policy or barking of orders will fix it."

He picked up his fork and stabbed one of the sausages with it. "Besides... everyone here is here by choice, not ordered from Command or whatever. Which means, when we need to do something... we know who we can call in. Alice and I had some plans of visiting the colonies outside of Terra Alpha, see what we could do to make sure they're getting the support they need. Election trail kind of opened a lot of eyes to how much work is still needed outside our little dot on the map."

[Rebecca Talon]

"Yeah, well. You don't need to shoulder that burden," she said as she slathered the corn with butter and took a careful bite. She chewed and set it down before speaking. "Hold the Senators accountable. That's their job to represent their colonies, and regions."

[Nick Ryder]

"Well, Alice and I have made it a tradition, every year we pick a struggling colony or area or whatever and spend a few weeks helping out incognito. Granted that HAS gotten a little harder, but if I let the scruff grow out and she keeps the makeup to a minimum and looks more 'basic blonde chick', we blend in, of course it depends on how Anglo-Terran it is, but we've been pretty good at keeping a low profile for at least a week or two before someone figures it out. First time around it was just the two of us, a car with a load of supplies in the trunk and 'We'll make a few calls' and magically stuff arrived. City not far from Trin and Ethan's ranch was one of our first ones. Sewage system was not set up right, so it was bad... two of us spent days in the muck trying to get the waste cyclers working right. Was kind of when I knew she was 'the one', up to her knees in shit and not complaining, just getting the job done. Even though she entirely burned what she was wearing as soon as we were somewhere private. Which was the alley behind the treatment facility, next to our car. Just stripped behind the door, lit everything on fire, spritzed herself with this antibacterial, antimicrobial cleaning body spray she developed and got dressed and we headed off to a school and got their computers set up."

Nick chuckled as he took a few more bites and swallowed. "We missed last year's outreach because were captive by Jackson. And this year at least, we can bring Gale with us, he's old enough to hold a flashlight and hand me tools."

[Rebecca Talon]

"You're such a Boy Scout," Rebecca teased. "Let me know what I can do to help. I'll fly the catering shuttle myself. I've been meaning to ask. I invested in some property in the mountains near New Aspen before I... Well, you know died. What ever happened to it?"

[Nick Ryder]

"Oh yeah it's still there." Nick nodded his head and took a sip of his spiked Irish Coffee. "I sort of put it on the 'black site' register, thought about keeping it as a safe house. Angel and Bella sold off two of the old ones, which was fine, they were in areas that were starting to get too developed, hard to hide someone when there's a few hundred people directly across the street." he glanced at her. "Thinking of moving there?"

[Rebecca Talon]

"Well it's fifty acres. Don't think I'll need that much." Sighing she sipped her wine before continuing, "Milo and I aren't getting along. I'm keeping... well, I don't exactly know what I'm keeping." She sighed, and decided to start at the beginning. "When I died we weren't exactly in the best place. I think that is just standard couple stuff. But, part of it was Ethan being as he isn't his in a biological sense. He knew that going in, so I think he felt bad about that." She shrugged, "Well, me being gone sealed both our fates. Ethan is his no doubt about it now, but instead of us working through the problems I disappear. I don't think there is much hope for us. He told me if I went on this mission to not come home."

[Nick Ryder]

"Well that sucks." Nick muttered and shook his head. "If there's anything I can do to help, tell me." he put his fork down and sighed. "Ethan is still your kid. Can't entirely take him away." he mused for a moment as he tapped his finger on his thigh. "Could probably get you set up there, decent enough house, place for the kid, find you a housekeeper. Natalia's basically waiting on you to sign the documents to make you a formal member of her engineering research team, so you'll have a job, at least technically. Nothing anyone can do to restrict you from having your boy with you, even if you share custody."

[Rebecca Talon]

"It does, but it happens. To even the best of us, some more that once," she teased. "No, I don't think Milo will fight me. I'll give him the ranch, that's more than half. I will still have about four million sitting in the bank. I was thinking it was time we started our own Jase'dasis enclave here on Terra Alpha. It could be a valuable pipeline to the Order, and worst case scenario we aren't putting all our eggs on one basket so to speak."