Stars in the Sky
27 May 2024Xochitl Khae
Stars in the Sky
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Watching the disabled and nearly destroyed wreck of a ship spin out of control in front of him, Ryuko reflected on the premise that there was always one enterprising young idiot who thought they could rain on anyone’s cargo parade and get away with it.
A laugh almost escaped as he considered how naive the other pilot must have been to not check the scans of the ship they sought to interdict. The Python might be adjusted for heavy hauling, but the reactive armor, hard shielding, and blistering weaponry would have been the first clue to a more experienced pirate that another ship would be preferable.
“Hey, idiot of the trash heap rotating out of control in front of me,” Ryuko said over an open communications channel. “Don’t play stupid or coy, though you are more the former than the latter. I know you are hearing this because, unlike you, I look at what my scanners tell me about a ship, and your comms are working just fine. Or perhaps you want me to finish you and forget you exist?”
“Go ahead and finish it. There isn’t much left I can do about it now, is there?” came the reply of someone who sounded far too young to be piloting a ship to begin with.
“Alright, moron, let’s get you lined out. Your life-support is working fine, but your power plant is going to need some attention. Tell you what I will do. Call it a first-time offender’s chit so you can go and rethink your life choices. I will send out a hail for you to the local security services. They can come retrieve your scrawny hide, and you can spend some time in their lock-up. Just don’t drop the soap.”
“Would rather you finish it. Not much I can do about repairing this wreck.”
Ryuko shook his head, looking at Tara, who was smiling ear to ear. If it were possible for her to blush, she would be.
“Alright, kid, listen up. Once I am done with my runs, I will put in a good word for you. Get you in a cell by yourself, maybe. After that, if you can’t find honest employment, send me a comms. Be warned, though, if we encounter each other like this again, I will spread your atoms into the void.”
Static was the only reply as Tara took control of the Python, maneuvering it away from the wreckage in front of them. Ryuko chuckled, keying up the station he had recently departed with a full load of Tritium fuel on board.
It was easy enough, in a situation like this, to recede back to earlier times and make an example, but the old pirate from his youth sang in his ears. A real pirate is not about plunder and destruction. The best are those who educate themselves and rise above the den of thieves to one day dictate terms to the same.
“You’re honestly going to help him out, aren’t you?”
Ryuko listened to the old pirate’s words, nodding in response. “There might be some worthy salvage in all of that twisted metal. Who knows, it may be the next big thing on the local market someday. Better to pay it forward than cash the check.”
“You’re incorrigible sometimes, you know that,” Tara said with a chuckle of her own.
“Listen, we have a couple more runs to do before we get our tanks topped off. Less chit chat and more let’s get it done, eh?”
Tara burst out into laughter, a sound that Ryuko knew was another evolutionary development for her and not programmed mimicry.
“Fine… you’re the boss… until later tonight in our new suite on board.”
If it wasn’t one thing giving me a cramp, it was something else.
Space swirled around the Python as it accelerated to luminary velocities.
“What about the dinner tonight with the officers? Do you want it formal, just to say you sat in such a place with such people, or your typical come as you are?”
Hadn’t really thought that far ahead, and wouldn’t honestly know what to do with everyone wearing their naval best.
“Best to keep it as commander and crew.”
“Come as you are it is. I’ll let Aby know when we land and offload this haul.”
Commander of a fleet carrier. Guess it would take a while to get used to that one, even though it had been an elusive daydream on a few occasions.
“I’ve only ever known one pirate lord who liked to play dress-up, and that was because he was secretly bankrolling a few imperial senators. Do you ever see me doing that?”
“No, I don’t, but you are playing flunky to an Imperial while you have that contract hanging over your head. What’s to keep you from breaking it and washing your hands of the whole affair?”
“They say that integrity is what a person has when they do the right thing when no one is watching. While that might seem like an oxymoron in our line of work, it is one of the several things that sets us several bars higher than the unwashed, shoot-on-sight morons we tend to run across.”
“Touche’.”
Hailing the station was the more pleasurable task in the monotonous routine. It wasn’t that there wasn’t anyone else I could have had do this. An internal shrug was about the best I could manage until I became used to, or was it comfortable enough with, the thought of having my own capital asset.
Ryuko Ntsikanna, pirate lord. I hated how cliché that sounded. I might be a pirate, but I was more well-rounded than the typical meathead with a laser and an attitude. I planned on living to a ripe old retirement age. Most of those in the profession would not, and could not, say the same.
“I miss running narcotics sometimes.”
“Where did that come from?”
A childish grin appeared; it was the best that could be managed. “Think it was in reference to a time too far past. That inner wish to return to a simpler time.”
“A little late in the game for that. What brought that about?”
Ryuko leaned back in the co-pilot’s seat, looking out at the lunar surface below as the Python orbited the planet towards its rendezvous.
“This is going to take a little getting used to, is all.”
Tara nodded in understanding. “If you would have told me, on activation, that this would have been my life, I wouldn’t have been able to process the variables. After all we have been through, in such a short span of time, it is hard for me to see anything else.”
Her point was valid. Not that I could have believed any of this either. Being back in the bubble, doing what I used to do, still hasn’t sunk in completely. Now I’m a proper pirate commander, with more firepower than an orbital station, enough fuel to roam the universe, and a fully stocked bar and brothel onboard.
“A far cry from ferrying passengers in Colonia, trying to further our reputation and earn enough to maintain a simpler life,” Ryuko mused.
Tara adjusted her approach to the carrier as the landing pad lit up, its fueling crew already prepared to take on the next load.
“Have you ever wondered what would have become of us, had we not been chosen to return?”
A fair question that hadn’t crossed my mind. Had I really been that busy to not ask the same question of myself?
“I honestly don’t know. Maybe there was hope that once my time of penitence was complete, and Aby was off my ship, we could find a quiet little corner of Colonia and simply exist. Other than that…”
The landing pad lowered as the service droids set to work, unloading the tonnage of cargo from our holds. Tara leaned on her seat towards me.
“Would I have been enough for you, being what I am, or would you have found a human partner?”
Another fair question. Where has my mind been all this time?
“Listen, what happened with me… towards you, wasn’t planned. I have no complaints, and at this point, I can’t see it any other way. What is happening inside of you, I can’t begin to understand, but I also have no complaints.”
Tara smiled, reaching over to place her hand on top of mine.
‘You have found a soul mate, even though your soul is different from his,’ a voice inside her said.
“I too am happy to have evolved to this point. The more I learn what it is to be human, and not some programmed mimicry inside of me, the more I begin to process the opposite emotion of sadness, in that I can’t provide for you what a biological female can.”
Ryuko chuckled at that, placing his other hand on top of hers. “If you mean children, then there are more options than there are stars. They don’t have to be a creation of our union, but can be a creation of who we are.”
Tara analyzed that response, not having yet learned or evolved to mimic or feel what her programming said might be the appropriate response. Even if she could, her design did not have tear ducts, so she could not shed any in response.
Ryuko showed a toothy smile, patting her hand. “Enough of the heavy emotional talk, we have tanks to fill and places to be. Besides, I hear that the android master chef has the latest programs, and we have holds full of fresh produce and meat that I can hear calling my name.”
Tara laughed at that. While she did not require it, she could still enjoy it, and she couldn’t think of anyone she would rather enjoy it with.