(15) It's All About Timing

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You're off to great places. Today is your day. Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way -Dr. Seuss

A Hail Mary pass is an Old Earth expression, referencing a plan that, if it works is genius but if far more likely to fail so spectacularly that even the Holy Spirit can't save you. I am the Queen of Hail Mary passes and yet even I am hoping someone on this boat has a better plan than just showing up and knocking on the door. And yet, even as my crew had schemed and plotted while we waited the requisite three days (the Merc ship Dreadnaught is actually showing too, what are the odds of that?!), not a single plan came up that is any better than my knock and pray option. Even worse, we had three full days to just kill time. No one shooting at me, stabbing me, hell no one even got any good zingers in insult wise. I was so bored I even catalogued all the foam toy weapons in my child's playpen/ armory. When you're trapped in a child's body and your lover looks like he is just hitting puberty, having three days alone together is just a cooch tease.

So I am grateful when Wanda causes feedback over the ships internal communication to singsong at us that Zaches and her crew have come through for me. Yeah, it feels a little surreal to realize that something that came out of my past HASN'T bitten me in the ass. Yet. Why did I have to think optimistically, now we're doomed.

“So does this mean we'll get to meet the other big, dark secret from your past or are you planning on keeping business separated from pleasure?” Van points from the Dreadnaught seen through Destiny's observation window to Rorick's depressingly young frame. Three days in and I'm settling into the changes this Shuffle has but it's not fun and its certainly not easy, but it's also not the worse I've ever endured.

“The whole point in us flying silent right now is so I can be sure she's picked up the package and is oblivious to where we are. Kinda defeats the point of all this hide and seek if I invite Zache and her crew over for cookies and milk.” By now I've figured out how to load my young voice with as much disparity as possible. I've always had a flair for oration. And three days with Destiny as powered down as possible so that she disappeared from radar and life scan tracers, (add to that my phenomenal hiding spot, and we are effectively invisible) meant that we are all bored to madness and irritability.

“I'm bored.” Van's whine as a child is somehow less terrible than it is in her adult form. That or after three solid days of it, and with my broken wrist limiting me from shutting her up, I've finally gone numb to it.

“I can always head butt you unconscious if you want a nap nap.” I offer helpfully. Since we have next to no tools, along with absolutely no weapons, keeping this ship in good condition is critical, but I'm certain I can put Van out for a while and not seriously damage her. Much.

“I always pictured that space life was slightly more glamourous than this.” Wanda gripes from the bank of seats where she's playing cards with Dandy and Rorick. See, even I can grow up; I'm fine with my Rorick, Wanda and Dandy being social. We're all sexless cabbage patch dolls right now anyways. It's the first time I've ever seen Van chaste. It's taken me half a day to realize I'd been making sexual innuendos and hadn't realized it. It's really weird to have an adult consciousness in a body that lacks all adult motivations. I don't want sex, I have no urge to fight and as long as I have a full belly and a clean ass, I'm happy. Just really bored. If we were MOVING through space, these last three days would have been a breeze; I'm moving therefor the trip will ends and I have things to do. But we're hidden in a heap of junk metals while Zaches' Dreadnaught investigates and eventually ingests the pirate sloop with ship's beacon, into the cargo hold. The junker was also an underhand bonus for the Merc Captain as it would either provide spare parts (a few already relocated to Destiny) or it would sell to a scrapper for a fair coin. The job was paid for by the diamond and the challenge; the sloop was my way of adding a little extra to it for the timely aid when I was a kid.

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