The Girl in the Tank: Galactic Consortium, Season 1

Episode Eight: Escape to Shin ch. 7

Barry recognized the man sitting the green room instantly. James Suffolks was sober, pale and anxious looking. He was wearing a blazer and a button down shirt over a clean pair of blue jeans. It was a good working class, middle America sort of image. The last photo Barry had seen had been his mugshot, drunk and belligerent.

He paused and leaned on the doorjamb. He gave James a nod. "You the guy I'm supposed to debate?" James asked.

"Naw," Barry said. "I'm with the state department, but I don't have to go out there. They're interviewing my partner Jack."

"The noodle guy?"

Barry snorted. Jack would never lived down the incident with the noodles, would he? Barry agreed that it would be the noodle guy. They talked for awhile about nothing. "I'm glad I don't have to go out there," Barry commented. "Be millions watching tonight, I bet."

James' face paled at the thought.

"But if I did have to go out, I'd be glad it was on Hard Line."

"Why?"

"I like these old conservative stations. The liberal media shows, all they have in the green room is healthy crap, bottled water and crap like that. These guys usually have something decent in the mini-fridge. A couple shots really takes the edge off, you know. Makes it a lot easier to face those million viewers."

There was a noise down the hall. "I gotta go. See you later, man."

That was a dirty trick, his conscience said as he headed back to give Jack a last minute pep talk. Guys like that always show their true colors, sooner or later, he told his conscience. Just making sure it's sooner, before he fucks up Cheyenne's life again.

######

"You two have fun at the show," Cheyenne said to the kids. "And you," she added to Janda. "Are you sure I can't give you some credits."

"No," Janda said. "It's my treat. We'll be fine."

Marveeta, a young woman with a child of her own, was with Janda and the kids. James was bouncing with excitement, impatient to head to the theater and see the latest animated story they were playing. Mackenzie was watching Cheyenne suspiciously. She seemed to know that they were being sent away for the evening and she wanted to know why. She looked a couple times at Lana, as though she thought Lana was the reason.

Cheyenne sighed in relief when they were gone.

"Mackenzie thinks we are having a tryst," Lana commented.

Cheyenne rolled her eyes. "I wish that were the case." She had been trying to limit the affection she showed Lana in her daughter's presence. Mackenzie knew they were more than healer and patient, but they had to decide just how much more or how to explain it to the kids.

Tonight was not about them. Cheyenne had barely been able to eat all day, her stomach churning at the thought of tonight. "I don't want to see this," she said, going for the view screen.

"Zeta says," Lana began. "That no matter what public opinion back on your home world, it does not change our laws. You can ask for the jurisdiction to be changed and it can be tried by a court here. It's unlikely they would find that the children are better off being sent away."

"I know, but, can I? Can I let this be turned into a huge political scandal? I don't want to be the thing that drives a wedge between our people."

"It was your actions that brought us together," Lana said. "This will not drive our people apart."

Cheyenne found a seat as the Hard Line program started. "I'm not looking forward to seeing him," she grumbled.

Lana found a seat next to her and took her hand. "I am," Lana said. Cheyenne shot her a look. "I've heard so much about him," Lana protested. "To see him, to put his face to it all, that's all I am saying."

Before the interview, they had to sit through Hard Line's version of Cheyenne's actions onboard the Cambridge and her flight from Shoshone Station. "That is not how it happened at all," Lana grumbled, gesturing at the screen.

It was apparent to Cheyenne for the first instant she saw him on the screen, James Suffolks was drunk. Despite this, he held it together far too well for her taste the first half of the interview. Only someone familiar with him could have heard the faint slurring of his words, or caught the signs on his face.

Jack was there, too, and he acquitted himself well. He insisted that Cheyenne had sole legal custody and there were no legal grounds for them to dispute her taking the kids to Shin.

"Are you saying you were unaware that Mr. Sufolks intended to file for custody?" the newscaster challenged.

"He filed less than three weeks ago, after Cheyenne had already left our jurisdiction," Jack replied.

"But he intended to file before that. Almost two weeks before the christening of the station. And you were aware, correct?"

"Why didn't you?" Jack aimed this across the table at James, ignoring the newscaster.

"I couldn't. I was in treatment," James snarled.

"Drug treatment? You were in drug treatment when you decided you were a better parent than Cheyenne Walker?" Jack asked, his voice innocent. The silence was deafening.

And then...

"Why did it make that noise?" Lana asked.

"They were covering his words up," Cheyenne said.

"Why?"

"Because they were bad words."

From there the interview went from bad to worse. The newscaster was clearly regretting doing this interview live. Even on a six second delay, the sound man was having trouble keeping up with James' profanities as the interview went on.

The newscaster tried to bring the subject back to Cheyenne's behavior.

"She's always been like that, the- bleep"

"Oh my god!" Cheyenne shrieked, leaping to her feet. "I can't believe he just called me that. On national TV."

"If I could ask you a question," Jack said to the newscaster. The man leaned in, relieved to take the attention away from James. "Don't you think it's interesting that Marti Abernathy, one of the busiest lawyers in town, decided to take James's case pro bono on the very same day that his sister Cheryl, your executive producer, signed an exclusive deal for this interview?" The newscaster's face fell.

"Are you saying we set this up?" James raged.

"I said no such thing," Jack responded. "Why? Did you?"

James's reply had more words bleeped out then broadcasted.

The show went to commercial and when it came back it was, with no explanation, a recap of other news stories.

######

As Jack climbed into the passenger side of Barry's black Lincoln town car, his work phone rang. It was Blumenthal, delivering the first unequivocal praise Jack had heard come from his mouth. "Saw the live interview. Brilliant performance on both sides. Good job."

Judging from Barry's smile, he'd heard it to. "Awesome," he said. "Want to celebrate?"

"Yeah," Jack said, "but let's get back to Washington first."

"No shit, ain't much around here anyway," Barry agreed and they took off into the night.

Jack scanned through his phone while Barry drove. He checked Twitter and a couple of news apps for reactions to the interview and fed the choicer bits to Barry for their mutual pleasure. "One has a medal of valor, the other a drinking problem. Who is the better parent?" he read. "Hashtag, go Walker."

"Nice," Barry said.