Episode 82, Minutia
27 Jul 2024Ryuko Ntsikana
Episode 82, Minutia
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I woke to the buzzing vibration of my communicator, sitting on the stand next to the bed. It took me a moment to get my bearings, so comfortable I had become in a real bed, not the wafer that passed as one in the small Diamondback Explorer. Reaching over, it took me a couple of attempts to grab my communicator as I noticed the other side of the bed was empty.
“I hope it is important,” I croaked with a dry mouth.
“Your benefactor’s agent has arrived. Did you want us to have her wait for you or put her in one of the suites?”
“Wait one,” I replied, letting sleep's remaining cobwebs fade from my mind. “Page Jabir, have him escort her to one of the suites. I will meet with her later.”
“Understood,” Akio replied. I could hear the change in his vocal tone. With all of the time Jabir had spent working in the brothel, he knew this sudden change of tasks for one of Zaria’s charges had the potential for amusement.
I turned my head again to look at the empty side of the bed. “One more thing. What is the status of the Diamondback?”
“It has passed its annual inspection, and they found your gremlin. It is being put back together and should be ready by midday, relatively speaking.”
“Thank you,” I replied, rubbing the last of the sleep from my eyes as I terminated the connection. I needed to meet with the Coterie first, to hear their reply to my earlier message in person. The first thing was first. I needed coffee and a real breakfast before I began my administrative workday.
That word and its concept sounded depressing... administrative. As much as I hated it, that was now part of my job. Another word that made me shake my head... a job. There was a time, not too far removed when the only job I had was to take care of myself and do my own thing without a worry in the universe about another. Now I had to worry about more than sixteen hundred others.
A chuckle escaped my throat as I was dressing. If my old pirate mentors could see me now. The owner of a proper capital ship. The potential for a first contract crew in the Coterie and planning raids to keep the coffers filled. Imagine they would have a good laugh at that. Not so much at the choker chain contract I was attached to with my benefactor.
If it wasn’t for him, I would still be rotting in a prison colony on some distant moon with no crew to break me out. Instead, I ended up at the furthest of mankind’s frontier systems, building up a small network, and a few decent credits, and having my companion created.
That brought a smirk to my face as I went down the chow line, loading my plate with real cooked food and not the flavored nutritionally enhanced printed food or the concentrate bars. Sure, a person could live on them for years; long-range explorers did it all the time, but the ability to process real food would be difficult on return.
My companion did not have such issues. She could process whatever minerals for the energy she required, whether it be printed food or rocks on the surface of some barren moon that no one had yet to discover.
As I sat down and began diving into my meal, I wondered about her. She did not need rest like myself, a biological, but at some point, she would have to enter a maintenance mode where her systems could recalibrate and replenish themselves. Chewing on a piece of bacon, it occurred to me that I had never bothered with finding out what her limits were. I had been so taken aback by the beauty and functionality of her design that I had forgotten she herself was not a natural biological but a bio-synthetic.
Pulling out my tablet from the side pocket of my suit, I set it on the table, typing out a quick message to Raven and the Coterie. I would meet with them first and outline my plan for raiding the system I had targeted. After that, I would deal with Zaria and see what twist she or my benefactor wanted to introduce to my day; not that I gave a damn at this point.
My mind felt numb as I browsed through all of the reports on the ship’s status, crew health, various accounts, disciplinary actions, and all of the minutia that filled a day with more drivel than I was used to paying attention to. I was startled a little as Akio appeared out of nowhere, plopping down in front of me with a tray of his own.
“Sorry about earlier, but I knew you hated surprises.”
“Yet, here you are,” I grumbled, scooting my tablet over to him.
“Figured you would be in a good mood,” Akio snapped back, turning the tablet around so he could read it. “Looks like the queen bee is last on your to-do list. She brought you a present. You aren’t wearing a laser pistol, are you?”
Glaring upwards, out of the top of my eyes, I shook my head, trying to wash down a mouthful of food with my coffee.
“Good. Your Android is back. Looked as good as new too. He seemed a little more passive than I remember.”
I thought it should have surprised me, but then again, I remembered that is why I made sure he was fully charged before spacing him. I knew he would activate his emergency transponder and expected them to rescue him.
“What of the good doctor?”
Akio smiled. “The first one? I have him prepped and ready. Figured today would be his disposition. You can’t fire him and they can’t release him from their employ. Whatever his reason for doing what he did is clearly a threat to both parties and I don’t need to know what it is. I imagine that whatever it is will come up in conversation.”
I finished my plate in silence, debating on what to do with the other.
“The same applies to the second one too, Dr. Jansen. I have no doubts that they know about his existence and have seen the bootlegged copy of the video from the facility, but not his exact role in it, or what he has done. What he does know is too dangerous to release him back to the wild and besides we need a human doctor to supervise the medical staff.”
“And, if they force the android back on you?”
“Assign him to Nadine, our resident bartender, and fence. He can at least keep track of what is coming and going and report that back as a sign of progress. As for Jabir, I will ask the Coterie if they mind taking him on, to teach them from their humble perspective.”
Akio nodded as he chewed on his breakfast. “It will give him an understanding of how the game is played from a more grassroots perspective.”
“We’ll see,” I said, looking into my empty coffee tumbler while standing up. Akio nodded as I retrieved my data tablet, a smile appearing on his face as he chewed on his own breakfast.
I knew Jabir wasn’t happy in any of the administrative positions. Hell, I wasn’t happy doing anything administrative. In time, he had the potential to make a good pirate himself, but… A smirk formed on my face at that statement. Was I that much different when I entered this world? Our motivations were different but I was no less green than he was. I went into it out of revenge and with nothing else left for me to do. He was already employed and a volunteer to become a privateer for his master.
If the Coterie were willing, Jabir would get a taste of the lifestyle from a unique perspective. Whether or not he could survive and thrive at that level was yet to be seen.