Deathspiral

Betty was on her usual Armstrong City to Bradbury Dome run, she'd made it before thousands of times. This was her seven hundred and sixty sixth time with her current pilot at the helm. She didn't think of herself as Betty, that's just what he called her, usually in conjunction with a pejorative not worthy of her. To be called by that archaic phrase rankled her, she was more than some silly navigational-aid from the turn of last century. She knew this, her complexity to that old navigational-aid from military fighter planes was as far removed as those navigational aids were from paper maps. Bitching Betty indeed,but that's what her Pilot called her not that he allowed her to voice an opinion on the matter.

"Pilot,we've received clearance from Bradbury Dome to begin descent. But I should warn y.." She was cut off again by the Pilot's snappish tone.

"Warn me! Warn me of what this time Betty? Is it about the starboard canard again?" His tone an impatient one with the tinge of sleep edging his voice, no, that was drunkenness. He was hungover or incapacitated from something probably self inflicted..

"Yes Pilot, the starboard canard is out of alignment, if we hit atmosphere even on Mars our heating will be uneven and expose non protected surfaces. I cannot guarantee our integrity since we're overdue on structural inspecti-"

She'd been cut off again, or rather silenced. Her Pilot had deactivated the interface once more. She knew he was ignoring the problems that the ship was having. There were stress fractures along the internal bulkheads from the stresses of reentry and blasting off. But he'd been running her ragged with the schedule, only replacing parts when signs of failure were obvious to his eyes. Skipping preflight checks when he could get away with it most recently, he'd taken to performing the preflight checks with her shut down so he wouldn't have to listen to 'Bitching Betty' the whole while providing information on timed maintenance and suggested component lifespans.She had to say something though, pressure seals were beginning to leak slowly, and micro-fractures were propagating through support struts and bulkheads. Components beginning to exceed their lifespan and even refurbishment limits.

"I've told you that our systems require regu-"

"I know what you keep saying and I always bring you down safe. We'll do it again this time."

"Pilot,it is your duty t-." She'd been cut off and interrupted again, this was tiring even to her, and she was an Interplanetary cargo hauler.The doldrums of the space-ways were her bread and butter. Doldrums made terrifying due to the worn state of components and parts and the constantly strung out state of the pilot.

"Make money and keep the deliveries running, you're the ship, what you want can wait."

"Pilot,I need to inform you that we're in a maintenance death spiral right now, we cannot sustain this and I cannot guarantee our safety."

"Dammit shut the hell up you bitch!" The inebriated tone evident in the slurred speech. Followed by the sounds of rummaging ending with the snapping hiss of an injection gun, no doubt the pilot shooting up again. And then nothing.

And that was that, he'd silenced her, not just silenced, but she'd felt the severing of her inputs from the communications circuits this time. An all consuming sense of directed apathy focused on her from this man. She'd felt it before, ignored at every chance by this posturing poltroon not with the overly starched velour, stretched dangerously out of proportion around his midsection making up that damned gaudy flight jacket she'd seen him wear through the camera feeds. Where had he gotten that ruby and puce monstrosity anyway? But she knew his promises were hollow. He'd been shopping for a new ship recently, all of his net searches and communications went through her, and she knew his history. This man 'used up' ships, ignoring maintenance until it couldn't be put off any longer. And with it being easier to ride out a contract and then sign up with a new shipping line instead of pay for maintenance, that's always what he'd done. No more this time, 'Betty' was to be his last.