“That was quick,” an amused, male voice said. Alred, his ship’s AI. His tiny, yellow projection was a very simple body – a head, two arms, two legs, all attached to a male torso. Not much detail in it at all. It didn’t even have a face, yet it somehow still managed to look sassy as he continued. “Did he change his mind?”
“No. We have to go get the thing. He’s sending coordinates. Once you get the message, have Sway start charting the course. I’ll be back up soon.”
“Sway is on standby, waiting for coordinates. How was he? Royal?”
“Pretentious.”
Alred laughed. “As bad as the one who paid us that outrageous price just to bring him some warm food from home?”
“You mean the one who wanted his mother’s cooking? No. Much worse. I got this whole lecture on power and beauty or something or other. It was all very self-aggrandizing and ridiculous.”
Alred threw back his virtual head, laughing loudly. Tanin got his takeoff permission from ground control and was instructed on where to go to wait until it was his turn to fly out. He piloted the ship up and over towards the takeoff pad.
“We’re heading to an area that’s apparently notorious for pirates. He’s got us going after this chest or something that his people jettisoned when the pirates got them.”
“The pirates probably picked it up already.”
“Unless it was so small that they didn’t notice. He says it’s still out there anyway, and that’s enough to check for the first half of the payment.”
“Are we going after it if pirates did grab it?”
“I’m a delivery guy, not a mercenary guy. He can hire someone to get it back if he wants to go chasing down pirates. That’s not my business.”
“I’m sure Trove will be disappointed.”
“He’ll get over it. How much time does our generator need until we can swing again?”
“Another couple of days.”
Tanin hummed. They really needed to replace their subspace generator. The time it needed to rest and recharge between subspace swings was getting longer, and it was already stupid to begin with. He’d bought it used and cheap when he started this business, and they’d tried their best to repair it since then. But the crystals inside that powered it were simply no longer outputting what they needed fast enough for the frequency of jumps they had to make.
However, replacing the machine was proving difficult. Subspace generators were not cheap. The only reason he got the deal he did on this one was because it was already at the end of its life and no one else was willing to buy it. He still considered himself lucky.
To replace it with something that would work – in a perfect world, one that was new – would require a great deal of credz. Their business was doing well, but not so well that they could just make that purchase without needing to save up. But every time they did, something more important broke first, and they had to start all over again. Tanin could only hope that he would be able to save what he needed before the thing stopped working entirely.
Takeoff permission came through. Tanin lifted his shuttle off the ground and shot towards the sky, racing for escape velocity as he planned out their next delivery. If he charged King Gissrn a pretentious fool tax, he might be able to get a decent subspace generator secondhand.
Seemed like a fair deal for being forced to listen to his nonsense.
Unless, of course, his chest was picked up by pirates already.
Though, if it had, maybe hecouldgo chasing them down. For an extra fee. A very large extra fee since they still weren’t mercenaries.
At least, not all of them.
Not anymore.
***
“My question is: What was a king’s servant doing all the way out here? We’re nowhere near Holivair. We’re nowhere near anything, really. Why here? Where was he coming from?”
Tanin lifted his eyes, looking over at Alred.
Back on his ship, the Humility, Alred was able to project his full form. He was the same featureless, nude, male presenting being from the landing shuttle, but he was full sized now, walking around the deck like he had a real body. It was, of course, just a projection. Alred was the ship, not the light person standing beside Tanin, but it gave the rest of the crew someone to look at and speak to when he was talking.
The two of them were on the captain’s deck. It was a control center above the bridge that Tanin had claimed as his workspace. From up here, he was able to coordinate with everyone on the ship, no matter where they were. Which was necessary, since they were very rarely in the same place together. They were crewmates, they were allies, but it wouldn’t really be accurate to call each other friends. At least, not in the way that the rest of the universe would define it. For them though, as much trust as they had between each other, they were practically family. From up here, Tanin was able to communicate and keep track of all of them wherever they might roam.
The consoles here gave a specialized readout of the entire ship as well as Tanin and his six crewmates – not counting Alred. It included their vital signs in the event that there was some kind of trouble and, with the right command, even showed the hidden stowage compartments used for cargo they didn’t necessarily want anyone finding.
