Half a Doubt

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

05/24/97:

Three weeks, it had been three bloody weeks and I still
didn't have even the vaguest clue as to what the hell Burke
meant during our little conversation a month ago.

To be perfectly honest with myself, I had basically giving
up on trying to figure out what he meant by his little
riddle he posed to me. I suspected it would come to me in
it's own time, so I was just going to let it.

There for, I had started some of the work on _The Falcon_. I
was crouched down on the lower part of the space frame,
welding on some plating. I was getting better at it, anyway
it was seventy-five percent for show. It was on the inside
of the space frame, there would be a hull between it and
space as well as another hull between it and the rest of the
ship. It's main propose was to give the frame some support
to walk on so I could put together everything else.

It was in depth work, I couldn't take my eyes away from it
for a second. So I was a bit surprised, when I finished the
current plate, to look up and find someone standing about
ten feet away.

I jumped a bit, thinking it might have been Burke. Throwing
off the welders helmet I grabbed my glasses and pulled them
on. I found that it wasn't Burke in the hanger with me, but
Milgrove. It was more of a shock to me then if it had been
Burke. The only time I had talked to Milgrove was back at
the Hospital when Oriana has come in, never sense then.

Standing, I brushed off my pants, coughing a bit. "Um...
hello there."

She smiled. "Hello yourself."

I pulled myself out of the space frame and walked over to
her. "I ah... take it you're looking for me."

She nodded. "Yes, why else would I be here?"

"I don't know, maybe you got lost?"

She laughed a bit, and gave me a soft smiled. She then
reached out and ran one paw down the side of my face, over
my beard. "You're just like Page described you."

I smiled. "Thanks... I guess."

She smiled wider, then let out a breath. "I do want to talk
to you though."

Shrugging, I asked. "What about?"

"About this Burke fellow you've been dealing with."

I frowned. "Him... yes... if you could shed any light on
it..."

"I think I can. Page has told me a lot about your past... I
suppose adventures would be an accurate word. It accord to
me that your Mr. Burke's statement could have been to point
you towards a flaw in your logic."

I chuckled. "It's been suggested already."

She smiled. "I guess it would have. What I'm saying though
is that I think I might be able to pen it down. I think he
may be trying to get you to see something you should have,
but where to busy to notice."

I shrugged. "That's kind of been the idea of late. I just
can't think of what it could be."

"Well, if it's physical, something you actually didn't see,
that someone else did though."

I scoffed. "I would have to be drunk to miss something like
that. I just don't drink."

She raised her eyebrows. "Drunk? Why not something else? Was
there ever a time where you in about the same situation but
not by drinking."

I shook my head. "The only other time I've been slarmied
like that was when... my... fold..." I slowly trailed off,
feeling half a dozen switches in my mind click on. Suddenly,
everything clicked into place.

"Son of a bitch!" I yell, slamming my first into my hip. "I
should have seen that!"

Milgrove smiled. "I think that was the point."

I looked at her, and started to laughed. "Yes... I think
so... Milgrove, I could kiss you." In fact, I did. I grabbed
her shoulders and kissed her right on the nose-pad. Then ran
out, grabbing my jacket on the way.

Cutting though a couple folds, I moved from my hanger into
the Marble Hall. Cutting around a few sharp corners I
literally burst though the Brother's office door.

As I slammed it shut, both of the brothers turned to look at
me. "Something wrong?" Jock asked.

"Yes, very wrong... Brian's base on my moon. You said that
it was cloaked, as well has having large amounts of radio
and hyperspace waves originating from it. Even though they
where set up not to get anywhere near Earth I'm sure they
didn't exactly lead to one point on the moon."

They looked at each other for a few seconds, then they both
sighed. "You're right Fox," Rhan said, "we didn't even find
the radio and such until we found the base."

"So how did you find it then?" I demanded. "Tycho is twenty
miles away from where you were set up. Well over the
horizon. You had to be with in a half a dozen miles of it,
filming in the right direction and knowing what you where
looking at. That didn't happen by chance. The Flitter, even
when it was right on top of it, didn't know there was
anything there until I was though that cloak! So would you
care to tell me how to quote someone, you where able to find
what I couldn't see at a distance?"

They shook there heads. "We got a letter." Jock said.

I frowned. "A letter?"

The nodded in sink, then Rhan spoke. "Yes, it was in the
ships computer. We found it half way to your verse. It said
where to look, what to look for, and where to be to get
proof. It also said not to tell you about it."

I rubbed my forehead. "Who was it signed by?"

"The only signature on it was 'Burke'."

I sighed, I had expected that. "Thanks... if you get any
more letters from him please _TELL_ me!"

The nodded again.

I then turned around and walked out of there office
wondering what else I had overlooked while I lost my world.

-----

This story is (c) 1997 by Fox Cutter, hardcopy reprints
limited to one a person, all other rights reserved. This
story may not be distributed for a fee except by permission
of the author, and this copyright notice may not be removed.
'Milgrove' is (C) 1997 by J. 'Packrat' McCoy, and is used
with permision.