Starsong

Part III - Aehra

"Here," Tam says, dumping a sack of... something that jingles and clinks on the kitchen table with a rattling thump. Beside him, Chia does the same, causing another tremor. "Got them for cheap."

Kaya peers at the two sacks. "What... are those?"

"Spare parts – most of them for planes," Tam explains. "It's sort of a business we run – fixing planes and the like for cheap. It's not like it's really popular or anything, but well –" he shrugs, "– it pays the rent and keeps us fed, so who's to complain?"

"Plus, we use them to work on our own planes as well," Allioni says. "We've got two of them – both secondhand and quite old, and in terms of getting them to fly it's... a work in progress, but we're getting there."

"Actually, we're almost there," Tam corrects. "You would know – if you were the ones doing most of the work," he glares accusingly.

"You have... planes?" Kaya asks.

"Yep," Allioni grins. "It's been our dream since forever – to get out of this town, see the world and stuff. I'm the pilot, Chia's our navigator, and Tam's our mechanic."

"You mean I'm the person singlehandedly carrying the team," Tam remarks dryly.

"Yes, and we thank you for working your butt off to pay our rent," Allioni says. "But anyway, those are the areas we specialize in – not that we've really gotten much of a chance to do any of it much except for Tam," he admits. "All I've done is give the planes we've fixed a few test flights, so..."

"But you should see him," Chia interrupts. "Al is a natural, trust me."

"I mean, I'm not really..." he protests weakly, already turning pink. "Anyway," he continues a little bit too loudly, standing up abruptly, "we should probably get to work."

"He doesn't take praise very well," Chia stage-whispers to Kaya as they follow Tam and Allioni out the door and towards the barn in the distance. Allioni pretends he doesn't hear them.

"I forgot to mention," Tam says as they walk, "We might have another job on hand soon."

"From who?" Allioni asks.

"Out-of-towners, I think. I've certainly never seen them before. Ran into them while I was looking for parts – said they have a plane they wanted us to fix."

"Huh," Allioni says. "And they approached you on their own?"

"Yeah," Tam confirms. "Maybe they asked around beforehand?" he suggests, though he sounds uncertain.

"Maybe. But hey, if it gets us more business, I'm not complaining," Allioni says, before pausing in front of two large double doors. "Anyway, here we are," he says, unlocking the bolt before pushing the doors open, revealing what looks like the interior of a hangar, tools hanging on the walls and worktables pushed to the side, several planes positioned in the center and covered by tarps.

"It's... whoa," Kaya breathes.

"Yep. Welcome," Allioni says, gesturing around him, "to the Volatus."

A pause.

Tam snorts, quickly burying it in his sleeve. Allioni glares at him. "What?"

"You're just saying that to sound cool."

"Am not!" he says, indignant.

"He is," Chia informs Kaya. "He spent almost an hour in the library flipping through dictionaries for the 'perfect name' back when we were first planning on converting this barn into a hangar."

"Chia!" Allioni splutters.

"Ooh, a betrayal," Tam says, a hint of amusement in his voice. "But seriously, we better get to work. We need to get this done by Tuesday, remember?"