Children of Sol

VI. Unexpected Guests

"I thought the Drolla system was human-controlled space." Shay leaned against the wall and watched her friend work. She'd been on board for two weeks now and was finally feeling like she was going to settle in. The whole crew had adopted her thoroughly, from Alyssa's good nature to Bug's cooking. Even Kgosi seemed to accept her, albeit in his gruff and sometimes even crotchety way.

"It's technically part of the Trade Federation, and every human in system is in hoc to the gavari up to their eyeballs, but there's a lot of us and we're mean. The gavari mostly leave us to our own devices unless we start to make too much money. Then the tariffs and taxes jump through the roof. Goddamn skinflints." Alyssa was lying under the panels up in the bridge, fiddling with a bit of the wiring. They were currently in orbit around a gas giant, fueling up for the next jump to one of the more inhabited systems on the way to the Drolla. "The way they see it, though, they've been all generous-like with the humans by grantin' 'em a whole system and it's only fair that our folks pay 'em for the privilege. Never mind that the planets are shitholes if ever there were some. The only nice part is Nirvana, and calling it 'nice' is a stretch. I feel like whoever named it was really into wishful thinkin'."

There was a flash from where Alyssa was lying, followed by some curse words foul enough to make Shay go red. One of the panels started to beep in alarm, a light flashing like a strobe.

Kgosi scowled as he looked up from his tablet. "Are you breaking my ship?" He was still seated at the helm, but he had his feet up on the inactive panels. It probably wasn't great for them, but they were already cracked and chipped enough that he wasn't terribly worried about scratching the surfaces.

Alyssa hit the underside of the panels with her elbow. It made a loud banging sound and the beeping stopped. "Seems okay to me, Cap. Oh, and I'm fine by the way. Just a little scorched. Thanks for askin'."

"Sounds like a personal problem, gremlin." He sounded irritable, but then again, he always did. "Ships are expensive. It'd take me five minutes and fifty credits to replace you."

"Yeah, but wouldn't you miss my winnin' personality, Cap?"

Kgosi grumbled something inaudible before he retorted. "Like I'd miss being poked in the eye by a sharp stick."

Shay smiled. The dynamic between the engineer and their captain was amusing. She could feel the friendship beneath the unkind words, deep and abiding. The longer she was around the group, the more attuned to them she became.

There was a brief quiet before Alyssa piped up again. "So, theoretically speakin', if I were to tell you that the nav systems might be just a tiny bit damaged from shock, how angry would you be? Just, y'know, asking for a friend."

Shay could almost see the veins pop out on his neck. "Alyssa, come out from under there."

Their patchwork woman didn't move out from her little workspace underneath the panels. "I feel like that'd be a poor life choice."

Kgosi growled. "I'm not going to hurt you. Just hug you around the neck...tighter and tighter."

"Eh, it'll just take a little bit of recalibration. Nothing major. Shay, hand me that screwdriver. I need to take another panel off."

Shay went to pass the tool and was knocked off her feet by a violent lurch that rattled through the whole ship. Kgosi fell out of his seat and Alyssa swore a blue streak.

The captain was the first one up. "What the hell did you do?"

"That was an impact, Cap." Alyssa had to raise her voice to be heard over the blaring of alarms.

"There is a ship on intercept course and another firing on us, Captain." ADDie's voice coming from the ship's computer was slightly disconcerting to Shay. She was still getting used to him having both a remote body and the mainframe.