JaydeRussell
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Fugitive - Chapter 7
🕑 Added 2022-07-22 06:01:01 +0000 UTCChapter 7 - Hoping for the Best
Samira
“This is a stupid plan,” I muttered, for perhaps the 80th time. This sort of subterfuge was exactly the sort of thing Sora was good at, not me. I’ve always been terrible at lying, and it didn't matter how many hours they spent cleaning me up. There was no way anybody was going to believe that I was a navigator for a corporate executive.
“Sami, stop fidgeting, you’ll do fine,” Sora’s disembodied voice came from behind me. They were somewhere in the cargo bay with me and the captain, but we couldn’t see them.
“That’s easy for you to say. You love this shit,” I complained. “Next thing I know, you’ll have me stabbing people or seducing strangers or passing around venereal diseases.”
“Hey! That was only one time, and the medication took care of it in less than a week,” Sora whined.
I was about to remind them of the time with the half-troll couple when the captain interjected.
“Sora, how much longer until we land?” She asked.
“We’re entering their port side hangar now, captain,” Sora’s disembodied voice said. “Looks like your friend pulled out all the stops for our welcome. There’s at least 3 people out there.”
The captain sighed. “Just lower the ramp once we land.”
“Aye, aye captain,” Sora replied. “You can’t see me, but I’m saluting.”
“Sora, please take this seriously,” the captain said. “I’m going to have a hard time explaining this if you get caught.”
“Captain, we could always leave them when they get caught,” I suggested. “I’m sure the two of us could find Thea easily enough without them.”
“Love you too, Sami,” Sora muttered as the ramp lowered. They were just trying to guilt me, and I refused to let it work. I was still pissed about the stupid stunt they pulled with the pod instructions, and they had just gotten worse since Thea disappeared..
But then I started thinking about how risky this mission was, and I didn’t want my last words to be how we were going to leave them behind. Sora’s stupid guilt tactic was working.
“Fine, I love you too,” I mumbled as I followed the captain off the ship. I could feel Sora’s smug aura even through their invisibility.
The Skull Candy, which was a pretty typical name for a Legion capital ship, was a class 7 dreadnaught. It was an older model with a top speed of only around .15C in the Aether.
But what it lacked in speed, it more than made up for in size and armament. They designed ships like these to be mobile occupation forces. It would take forever to get anywhere, but once it showed up, the battle was as good as won. Or lost if you were on the receiving end.
The hangar we stepped into was massive. It was the kind designed to store hundreds of smaller fighters and deploy them all in minutes. That sort of thing took a lot of space, but the old class 7s had plenty of space to spare.
The three people Sora mentioned were standing between us and a pair of blast doors that were about a hundred meters away. The one standing in the middle of the trio was obviously a dwarf, although his skin was much paler than any dwarf I’d ever seen.
To his right was a human man, also pale but not quite the ghostly level of the dwarf. He had sandy blond hair and was dressed in a black and red shipboard jumpsuit.
The last of the trio was an orcish woman. Her skin was a healthy dark green color and her long black hair was tied up in an elaborate set of braids, she didn’t look like the necromancer type.
“Bryce! It’s wonderful to see you again,” the dwarf greeted the captain. I had to assume that this was Varlin.
“Varlin, you’re looking good,” the captain reached down to shake his hand. “The new command suits you. This is Samira, she’s my navigator and the best damn mechanic I’ve ever met.”
That seemed to interest blondie. He smiled at me and I waved, maybe a bit awkwardly. But in my defense, I wasn’t used to being introduced like that. At least not to an admiral of all people.
“Oh, where are my manners?” Varlin gasped. “This is Captain Krisc. She ensures everything functions like clockwork.”
Captain Krisc shook the captain’s hand while maintaining a steeled expression. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, executive,” she said. “Please, make yourself comfortable while here aboard the Skull Candy.”
“Thank you, captain,” our captain said. “I look forward to your hospitality.”
“And last, but certainly not least, is Jayne,” Varlin gestured towards the blond human. “He’s our navigator and lead mechanic.”
“It’s a pleasure executive.” Jayne shook the captain’s hand and greeted her before turning to look towards me. “I’m not sure if I can hold a candle to the best damn mechanic, but I wouldn’t mind talking shop if you have the time later, Samira.”
“I’m uh, well, the captain exaggerates. I’m not really all that special.” I must have said something weird, because it earned me a few strange looks. And then I realized my mistake. “I mean the executive! She exaggerates…”
There was the barest moment of awkward silence, before Varlin broke it with a laugh. “Jayne, how about you take Samira down to the mess and grab something to eat?”
Jayne smiled. “Sure, I don’t mind. It’s been awhile since I’ve been around another mechanic, at least one that breathes. How’s that sound, Samira?”
I nodded a bit too stiffly, but that seemed to be good enough. Jayne motioned for me to follow him while Varlin and Captain Krisc started back into conversation with the captain. I was more than happy to leave the political talk behind as I followed him out of the hangar.
“What did you mean when you said you haven't been around another mechanic who breathes in awhile?” I asked.
Jayne laughed. “I didn’t mean too much by it. The Skull Candy runs with a skeleton crew, and I mean that literally for the most part. I’m the only living mechanic.”
We walked through the blast doors and into a long corridor. There were a few skeletons that were scurrying about doing odd jobs. One even randomly stopped for no apparent reason as it ran by, they didn’t seem all that smart.
“How does that work?” I asked. “Do you just order them around, or do they think for themselves?”
“Depends on the job,” Jayne explained. “The skeletons can handle the simple maintenance stuff without orders, but anything more complicated than two or three steps usually requires a necromancer or higher level undead to at least issue orders.”
I cringed, and Jayne must have caught my expression, because he laughed at me. “I take it you don’t like skeletons?”
I shook my head. “It’s not that,” I explained. “These skeletons aren’t all that bad, they don’t even smell or anything.”
“Oh! Then you’re one of those mechanics that doesn’t let anybody else touch her ship?” Jayne asked. “Not even controlled minions.”
Jayne stopped us in front of a doorway and tapped on a screen. This was probably some sort of elevator.
“It sounds like a bad thing when you say it like that,” I commented. “It’s just that I prefer to know how everything works, and I can’t do that if some random… person messes around with my ship.”
I was trying to watch my language. The captain was negotiating with these people, and I’d probably only make things harder if I offended Jayne. Navigators tended to have a fair bit of pull, even on big ships like this.
“I take it you’ve had that happen before?” Jayne asked as he led me onto the elevator.
“I used to work with a mechanic who was,” I paused to think of the political way to say this. “Well, all the other girls told me he was cute. So, I guess he had that going for him.”
The elevator moved quickly between the floors, and I was surprised to feel a slight shift in gravitational strength as we passed the midway point in the ship. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to be noticeable, which usually meant some sort of problem with the grav-drive. Mentioning it would have been rude, unless I was willing to fix it and we didn’t have the time. So, I just ignored it.
“You don’t think very highly of him?” Jayne asked.
I shrugged. “He’s a fine mechanic, just not great at improvising. Which can be a problem when you can’t get all of the parts you need.”
We stepped off the elevator into a new corridor. This one was significantly shorter, and I could see what looked like our destination. There were two open doorways a little way down from where we stood. They seemed to lead to some sort of cafeteria, but it was surprisingly quiet.
“Is that a common problem?” Jayne asked. He seemed confused, which confused me, but only until I realized what I had said and that I was supposed to be working for a corporate executive. Teolix’s operation was mostly planet-side, so he had been a bit stingy when it came to ordering new parts for ships.
To make matters worse, he had somehow gotten the idea that he didn’t need to buy replacement parts anytime I was working on a project. Which was bullshit and made my job infinitely harder.
An executive would just bill their corporation for the little things, you know, like parts that cost tens of thousands of credits. Which meant that the personal navigator and mechanic for that executive would never be hurting for those same parts.
I was seriously considering a career change. I bet Sami the executive’s mechanic would never have to lie her way through these kinds of social situations.
“Oh, uh, not usually a common problem, but it doesn’t have to be,” I explained, maybe a little too frantically. “The wrong part breaks down in transit, and you don’t have a replacement, then you’re stuck millions of kilometers from any help. In those situations, improvisation is important.”
“That’s fair,” Jayne answered. “I hadn’t really considered that, since I’m used to larger ships that have access to a fabricator.”
“That sounds pretty nice.” The Fury also had a fabricator, but I wasn’t about to out myself by telling Jayne. Besides, I didn’t want to start comparing sizes. His was probably bigger.
“It can be, but it doesn’t solve everything. So I can see why you’d value being able to improvise.” Jayne led us into the open cafeteria space, which was entirely empty.
And not only was the cafeteria empty of people, but half of the tables were draped over with a cloth to stop dust from accumulating. The few that weren’t had their chairs upended and resting on top of them.
“I may have miscalculated,” Jayne said as we looked around the room. “I’m still getting used to Zephili time, and I might have accidentally brought us to the cafeteria in the middle of downtime.”
“So, no food?” I tried to hide the disappointment in my voice, but I had just spent a week eating Sora’s cooking so it wasn’t easy.
“Now, that’s not what I said.” Jayne smiled as he led me to the back room. “I’ll just have to cook us up something.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever met a mechanic who could cook,” I said. Admittedly, the other mechanics that I spent most of my time around on New Eden weren’t exactly the homemaking type. Al had once tried to cook for me, and his efforts made Sora’s meals look appetizing.
“I can’t promise that it’ll live up to what you’re used to on the executive’s yacht.” Jayne gave out a self-deprecating laugh. “But I’ll see what I can do.”
I followed Jayne into the kitchen. It was a pretty decent size and set up exactly how I imagined an industrial kitchen might be. There were large chrome countertops and wide metal grills, along with a set of double doors that likely led to a freezer.
“You might be surprised,” I said. “Our chef has been off-ship for the last week, so we’ve had to fend for ourselves.”
Jayne pulled a few pots and pans from the shelves before stepping into the freezer in the back of the kitchen.
“A personal chef? That’s exactly the sort of luxury I’d expect on an executive’s yacht,” Jayne shouted from inside the freezer. He returned after a few minutes with a couple of eggs and some vacuum sealed meat. It looked like chicken, but it was probably just synthetic. Real chicken didn’t seem all that likely on a Legion military ship.
“I wouldn’t exactly call her a personal chef.” I didn't see any chairs around, so I lifted myself up onto one of the counters to sit.
“What would you call her then?” Jayne asked. He was chopping something green and leafy that smelled delicious. Normally, I didn't like leafy green things, but I was expecting this to be an exception.
“I don’t know, annoying?” I was a little fixated on what Jayne was doing. His left hand was moving a bit strangely, but I couldn’t quite place what was wrong with it. “Usually I just call her Thea.”
“But she still cooks for you and the executive, right?” Jayne asked.
“Yeah, but she does other things too,” I answered. “Hey, what’s wrong with your hand?”
Jayne paused for a moment before lifting it to show me. “It’s a prosthetic, but I’m surprised you noticed. Most people can’t even tell.”
I took the hand and started rotating it while articulating the fingers. It really was an amazing prosthetic. If there wasn’t something wrong with the micro-servo in the middle finger’s 3rd joint, I never would have noticed.
“Have you looked into getting it fixed?” I asked.
Jayne shrugged. “I got it caught on one of the cooling pumps late last year and went to the infirmary. It was a bit beyond standard medical care, but the doctor did what she could.”
“You haven’t tried repairing it yourself?” I asked. “I don’t mean to insult the doctor. She did her best, but fixing this sort of advanced prosthetic is definitely a job for an engineer.”
“It’s a bit beyond me, I’m afraid,” Jayne said. “Besides, doing the repair one handed kind of complicates things.”
“What about the person who made it? Have you tried reaching out?” I sure as the hells wouldn’t mind meeting whoever made this thing.
Jayne took his hand back with a chuckle and continued cooking. “A couple years back, I got rescued by a group of mercenaries after our ship got shot down on a rescue mission.”
“And what? You traded your hand for a ride?” I laughed, but Jayne just raised an eyebrow at me. “Wait, seriously? How did that work?”
“One of the mercenaries was part of the Anarchist Union, and wanted to collect the bounty on Legion necromancers,” Jayne explained. “Thankfully, another one of their crew had a bit of their soul left, and didn’t want to hand me over to be tortured by an angry goddess.”
Iefyr was the founder of the Anarchist Union, and also just happened to be the goddess of fire and vengeance. Nobody knew exactly why, but she had a major grudge against Legion and necromancers in general.
If they had handed Jayne over to her alive, then she would have tortured him to death. I didn’t even want to imagine the sort of things an angry goddess could do to somebody if they really wanted to hurt them. Which made me think about Thea. I pulled myself away from that unpleasant thought and back into the conversation.
“So, they took your hand as proof of death?” I asked. “But who made the prosthetic?”
“That would be their ship’s doctor,” Jayne explained. “He was a wyrdlord by the name of Doctor Vorläufer.”
“In that case, I guess I was wrong about fixing your hand not being a job for a doctor,” I smirked. “But I’ve never heard of a wyrdlord. Are they common in the Union?”
Jayne shook his head. “They have four arms, usually a bit over 2 meters tall and easily over 200kgs,” he explained. “They’re not really common anywhere and tend to be secretive. I’m not sure anybody knows too much about them as a species.”
“So, calling up Dr. Vorläufer to fix your hand isn’t exactly an option then?” I was only mostly joking. But, if it was an option, then I’d love to meet them.
“Not really,” Jayne laughed.
“In that case, I might be able to do something. Want me to take a look?” I was a bit reluctant to ask because it looked complicated and was still mostly working, but I really wanted to play with it.
“How about we eat first?" Jayne was smiling and didn't seem offended, which I took as a good sign. "And then I’ll let you take a look at my hand.”
I was really starting to like this human.
