The Place They Call
By 1st Lt. O'Muirdagh

Begin Part I
	Kristin O'Connor, a second lieutenant in the Exo-Fleet, was in her
room doing a little reading to appease the captain when her doorbell rang. It
was something of a requirement aboard the EFS Normandy that everyone try to
better themselves while aboard the ship Captain Henry ran. At the moment she
was trying to comprehend all the ins and out of Sun Pin's commentary on his
predecessor, Sun Tzu's Art of War. She had previously read several different
translations of the Art of War including the works of James Clavell and
Samuel B. Griffin.
	She got and walked to the door, and without even bothering to ask who
was there opened the door wide. It was hard to tell who was more surprised.
Was it Kristin for finding the XO of her E-frame squad, First Lieutenant
Ratislav O'Muirdagh outside her door, or Ratislav for how disoriented Kristin
was when she arrived at the door.
	For almost a full minute the two stared at each other as if having a
battle of wills, the loser being who ever gave in first and spoke. Kristin
realized she was in no condition to battle with some one of Ratislav's
experience and gave in.
	"Can I help you, sir?"
	"I'm going home. The ship rules say no person acquainted with
possibly consequential knowledge may travel alone in case of unforeseen
events. It's bullshit, but I haven't been home in a long time and I finally
have the rank to grab a little leave. Everybody else seems to be pretty busy
around here except for you and me, so I thought I'd ask you along."
	Kristin rocked back on her feet, thinking to herself that this was
the longest she had ever heard O'Muirdagh give at one time. He didn't even
speak this much during mission briefings. She controlled her need to yawn and
stared carefully at the ground before saying anything.
	"I'm going to need a little time to think about this, sir." It seemed
for a moment like Kristin saw the beginnings of a smile cross, his face.
	"That would be fine, lieutenant." Ratislav nodded and the turned to
walk off down the hall.
	Kristin stood there in the doorway and watched him go. It was
probably the strangest thing she had ever seen. She was so tired she forgot
the conversation as soon as she hit her bunk.

	The next day Ratislav packed a small bag with close, put on a
civilian outfit, and put his duster on over it before locking up his quarters
and heading to Kristin's quarters. At the door he paused for a moment before
he knocked on the door. She showed up at the door much better prepared to
deal with him this time, dressed to travel and with a bag slung over her
shoulder.
	"So where is it you're heading, lieutenant? Anywhere in particular,
or are we just going to wander the Earth for a few days?" Kristin smiled and
turned to close her door.
	"Call me Angel or Rat," he said turning to go towards the mag-lev.
"We are on vacation so lighten up. I'm going home, and I decided it would be
nice if you came along."
	The two got onto the elevator and rode it down to the hangar bays
where a shuttle was waiting for them before lift off.

	The shuttle, the EFS David J. Calandra, was named after a little
known admiral who had done nothing to distinguish himself, and so had gotten
a small interplanetary shuttle. The only thing that Calandra had ever been
known for was designing a sniper rifle solely for the purpose that it could
be carried aboard an e-frame. As luck would have it this was also the rifle
that Ratislav just happened to own. Ratislav had discovered the rifle in a
small box on the top shelf in the deepest darkest hold aboard the ship. He
decided to take the gun with him because he had last left home under
inauspicious circumstances.
	Kristin and Ratislav spent the ride to Earth with Ratislav listening
to music from his collection and Kristin still working on Sun Pin's
commentary. Upon arrival at a base in Texas, the pair caught a high speed
train from Texas to southern Florida. Kristin fell asleep on the train and
woke slowly when Ratislav nudged her and said it was time to get off of the
train.
	"Where are we?"
	"Not far from the Gulf of Mexico, say maybe ten or fifteen miles from
the south coast. We'll drop into a hotel for the night and then leave early
tomorrow."
	"You paying?" Ratislav smiled.
	"Yep, this little trip is my idea so the accommodations are on me."

	The next morning Ratislav and Kristin went down to the docks and
walked until the came to a building on the water's edge. On the side of the
building was a sign for Murray Shipping and Receiving. Pulling a card out of
his pocket he slid it into the slot and the door popped open. Inside the
warehouse it was cold and dusty as if no one had used the place in years.
	"How long has it been since anybody has been in here? It looks like
years." Kristin was wandering around the aisles looking at all the outdated
parts and signs that seem to lay everywhere. There were doors and stairs
going nearly anywhere, and what seemed like endless rows of boxes labeled
only with random number combinations.
	"Nobody has been in here since I stopped here on my way into the
country, so figure about six years. Try not to touch any of the boxes, my
knowledge of the system may be a little rusty but some of this shit could be
dangerous as hell."
	"What do you have in here explosives?"
	"No, don't think so."
	"Then it can't be that bad."
	"Mostly guns and artillery, might be a tank or two in the back
somewhere, I don't rightly recall."
	Kristin spun around to look at Ratislav peeling open one of the boxes
and leaning over to reach inside. He came back up with two small boxes and
then moved on down the aisle.
	"What are those? Grenades? Please don't tell me you're on vacation to
kill somebody."
	Ratislav stopped and looked back at Kristin, he gave her a sort of
lop sided grin and kept on walking.
	"That's pretty funny, Kristin. Unfortunately no, I'm just here to see
my family." Holding up the two boxes, "these are just infrared goggles. If
you see a box with a green x on it let me know, that one we're going to
need."
	 Wandering the aisles looking for the box, Kristin got to thinking
there was something definitely odd about the way Ratislav was going home.
Here they were in a warehouse full of guns looking for who knows what, and he
had already found infrared goggles. This little vacation was starting to
sound like a black ops hit.
	Kristin heard Ratislav holler, and when she found him, he was loading
food packages onto a handcart and tossing any that were damaged.
	"Don't you think someone will mind you just ransacking their
warehouse." Kristin stood over Ratislav as he tossed package after package
onto the truck. "I mean we are breaking and entering, with intent to do
something I hope is only say moderately illegal."
	Ratislav stopped in mid-toss and looked at the pile of packages on
the floor, and in the cart and in the box, and finally at Kristin. "Alright,
let me try to be honest. We did not break into the factory, that card is an
original, my grandfather gave it to me. This is his warehouse, he collected
this stuff because he had a black market side job selling guns to small
countries in need of them. That and he used to help people get out of
whatever country there were in for a fair price. He gave that up when the
authorities almost caught him shipping a load of guns into a small African
country which shall remain unnamed but was in desperate need of assistance.
Anyway, after that he retired in style to the town where I was born, and when
I had to leave in a hurry he gave me the keys to the boat and that card."
	"Boat? What boat? You're not making a lot of sense. I understand
about your grandfather but why did you have to leave your hometown in such a
hurry?"
	"Long story. Why don't you help me get this cart to the dock. It's
right at the end of the aisle."
	And true to his word, when they got to the end of the aisle, they
went through a dock and he opened a door, which led right into a room with a
boat. The boat was set on a stand and looked to be in good condition except
for the layer of dust that had settled on it. Ratislav walked to the wall,
kicked a lever down and stood back from the edge.
	"You might want to move back," he said as he moved behind a small
glass partition.
	Kristin barely heard him over the sudden roar, and started to move
but it was to late. The roar was caused by the sudden in rush of water into
the dock, she turned just in time to see the water hit the wall and break
over soaking her completely. The rush died in an instant, and Kristin turned
slowly to glare at Ratislav, who came out from behind the partition grinning
like a Cheshire cat.
	"Don't worry, there are towels onboard and you can change down below
while I get us going." Ratislav rolled the cart onto the boat, which was now
rocking slightly, and Kristin grabbed her bags and joined him. Now that
Kristin had time to look more closely she realized that this was a very
expensive boat. She saw what looked like four outboard motors that were
enormous and the boat itself must have been thirty to forty feet long. She
just caught the name of the boat before she jumped onboard, it was the
Mariner's Way.

	When Kristin came up from below, Ratislav had just finished pulling
the boat out of the warehouse and was sitting in front of a keyboard typing
up instructions he was beaming to the computer inside. He went on for several
minutes before he noticed her standing over him. He turned and looked up at
her.
	"Oh, hello. I just had to give some last words to the security system
before we left. Now that that's done, we can be under way." Ratislav got up
and went to the pilot's seat, steering them out of the harbor, he wandered
through traffic until he was in the clear and then he set a course due south.
	"Why are we going south? There's nothing down there but...Cuba. Cuba,
that's where we're going, isn't it. Why would you want to go there?"
	"For one very simple reason. It's home." Kristin dropped into a seat,
this was something of a revelation for her.
	"Cuba, but I though you were from the states. Don't you have to be a
citizen to join the fleet? I doubt people can just drop on in and join for
kicks these days."
	"Oh, I am a citizen of the states. You seem my grandfather was a
pretty smart guy, he got me dual citizenship with Cuba and Ireland. So I used
my Irish passport to become a citizen of the states. And I hope they don't
let people just join the fleet for kicks either, if it makes you feel any
better."
	"Well them why do you always tell people that you are from states?
You could just say you came from Cuba and be a little honest."
	"I could do that, but then if people look into my history they might
find a few things that I am not to crazy about. So why don't you enjoy the
ride because we won't be landing until tonight." Ratislav turned from Kristin
towards a display and punched a series of buttons. "Here, this will help you
relax, it's a man named John Lee Hooker, good stuff."
	After that Ratislav just leaned back in his seat and fell asleep.
Kristin tried to talk to him but gave up when she realized that he wasn't
faking it. The music wasn't all that bad and within minutes she too, was fast
asleep, helped by the gently rocking of the boat.

	That night, Ratislav waited until it was as dark it was going to get
and sailed right up to one of the cliffs that were the edge of the island.
When the moon was just barely lighting the water he turned the boat and
sailed straight towards one section of the cliff.
	"Are you really sure you know what you're doing?" Kristin was used to
people doing some stupid things, but she could usually see a point to them.
	"Well, theoretically, a door should open any second now." Ratislav
was squinting at the cliff and looking for any signs of change. "This is one
of the special places my grandfather set up when he was in business, only he
and I know about it. Now that the boat is within one mile of it, he will get
some sort of alarm telling him that it and myself are back. That is if the
doors on this old place still work."
	For what seemed like an eternity nothing happened, and then without
warning a hole opened. Just big enough to hold the boat, a boulder which just
minutes earlier had seemed impervious to anything cracked in half to reveal a
dock within the cliff face.
	Kristin wasn't very surprised when she found out that inside of this
hidden dock was in the same sorry shape as the warehouse. There was dust
everywhere, crates were in piles stacked to the ceiling the only difference
was that here, the plainly illegal merchandise was plainly labeled.
	Ratislav had just stepped off of the boat when he froze. He looked
left, then looked right, then dove and rolled so he came up behind a box.
Then he jumped onto the crate with his gun out and pointed deeper into the
cave. Kristin thought Ratislav was crazy until a voice came out of the
shadows.
	"Not bad, not bad at all. You have gotten better since last time." A
wizened old man stepped out, leaning heavily on cane, he hobbled over to near
where Ratislav was. The old man studied Kristin and then turned back to
Ratislav. "Your choice in traveling companions has also improved, I hope your
time in the service has served you well."
	"Very funny, grandfather. This is Kristin, she is in my squad aboard
the Normandy. If you must know she did join me of her own free will. It's
funny, I thought you might have gotten older by now."
	The old man laughed and turned to walk back into the cave. "At least
the service has improved your sense of humor. Come you can visit your mother
and father, they might actually be happy to see you. I'm glad you carry a gun
now, you're going to need it, the shape this town is in now."
	Ratislav grabbed his bag and pushed the cart onto the dock nodding
for Kristin to follow with her bag, she did but hung back because she just
had this creepy feeling. The old man paused and looked over his shoulder when
he heard the humming of the cart.
	"What did you bring all that bloody food for, you planning to kill
anybody who attacks you with rations?"
	"Grandfather, when I left, you said that when I come back I should
bring something that would keep. Well this is it." The old man raised one
eyebrow, and smiled.
	"Not bad, I was wondering how you were going to solve that one. Knew
you were to bloody cheap to buy anything for your favorite grandfather."
Ratislav laughed.
	"You're my only grandfather."
	"What's wrong with that?"
	"Why is he your only grandfather?" Kristin asked Ratislav, which made
him smile
	"He killed my other grandfather in a bar fight. The only reason he
ever gave was that the damned fool had it coming, and I tend to agree with
him."
	"How can you say that," Kristin was shocked, "he killed family."
Ratislav stopped to think for a minute, he realized this was not how he had
planned to spend his vacation.
	"Damn fool couldn't hold his drink, he told grandfather off, and
tried to take a swing at him. When he missed, he went for his gun and
grandfather killed him in self-defense. Just let that one go, okay."
	Kristin sighed and hurried to keep up with Ratislav and the old man.
They walked part way down the cave until they came to a small golf cart with
a loading bed. Kristin and Ratislav loaded their luggage into the cart, and
Ratislav slid into the driver's seat. The old man helped himself to the
passenger seat, which left Kristin to ride in the back with the bags.
	Ratislav leaned back and yelled over the starting of the engine,
"Better hold on this could get interesting, I haven't done this in years."
	"What," was all she could yell before he gunned the engine and she
nearly fell off. Tires squealing the cart took off down the aisle, so fast
even the old man looked shocked for a moment. Swinging from side to side, he
took the cart on two wheels if he had to, always keeping the accelerator
floored. Kristin figured they had done nearly a mile flat out, when Ratislav
slammed on the brakes as he got to a set of doors set in a wall.
	"And now, ladies and gentlemen, if you would care to exit to the left
of the vehicle we can continue on with the next part of our tour." Ratislav
hopped out of the cart and walked around to grab his back and help Kristin
out of the flat bed. "Right this way, people always like the part the best."
	He pushed a button to open the elevator doors. Inside there were
racks and seats spread around the walls of the carriage. Dropping his bag in
a rack he sat down and started putting on the straps that come out from the
back of the seat. The old man sat down and Kristin followed suit. Within
seconds the carriage was shooting upwards at some ridiculous to its
destination.
	The carriage came to a screaming stop, nearly throwing Kristin's
stomach hard enough to give it thoughts about changing titles to bottom half
of her brain. And showing the same suddenness it began it dropped her back
into her seat.
	"Top floor, housing, food, and personnel, everybody out." The old
man said as he took of his straps and walked out of the carriage.
	Ratislav and Kristin followed the old man out of a small building and
into a walled in yard, nearby was a large house and the only others in the
yard were a small girl and an older woman. The little girl turned to Ratislav
and screamed in delight, charging towards him arms outstretched.
	"Daddy!!" The girl screamed with joy and Ratislav picked her up and
spun her around.
	"Hi, honey. Have you been a good little girl, Leya?"
	"Yes, daddy, do you have a present for me?" Ratislav smiled at
Kristin and nodded.
	"Yes, it's up in grandfather's room, let grandmother take you up
there now."
	Kristin was stunned, all this seemed to be happening a little to fast
and she wasn't even involved. Ratislav was father, his family bent the law
even more than he did, and it appeared his past wasn't quite what he made it
out to be. All in all, Kristin felt this was turning into something out of a
horrible movie plot. And to think she went along with this trip willingly.

End Part I