Moonlake's Fiction Space

“I never took Scorsby for the blackmailing type, how often does he strong arm you into doing his dirty work?” Aurora asked with a sympathetic nod.

“Not often, really. Occasionally I almost forget he’s there, and then I’ll get some call in the middle of the night.”

“Scorsby might actually feel it’s penence, some kind of justice to do whatever good he tells her to in order to make up for not saving whoever he thinks could of been saved.” Estella pointed out. “From his point of view he might be making her do some kind of community service to pay for a crime the courts let her get away with, even if the reality is different.”

Jessica’s eyes got big. “I… I swear, I didn’t mean to kill him…” She started sobbing and dropped her face into her hands. “I save lives…”

Estella shrugged. “Still, we need to know what kind of data he has in order to steal it back, hard to take something when we don’t even know what we’re looking for.” She puts an arm around Jessica’s shoulders in understanding. “Hey, it’s okay, we believe you, Scorsby just.. He’s a bit of a hard head.”

“He never actually told me what it was. Just… heavily implied he had some footage that wasn’t good.” She enacted a double quotation mark around the words ‘wasn’t good’.

“Footage, sounds like a video file,” Aurora looked thoughtful. “You were in his office recently Sam, did you see a safe anywhere? Stands to reason he’d keep it locked up.”

“There was one against the wall but the old boy is crafty. That might be for looks.”

“We could always just confront him about this, ask him straight up about the data, and what he wants for it?” Estella suggested. “If he’s all about her doing some kind of penance for her alleged crime, he may just give it over if he thinks she’s working for us and we’ll keep making sure she does good?” She gave Jessica a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, I promise once we get the data we’ll let you destroy it yourself.”

Just in time. Jessica had stark terror on her face for a split second before it was replaced by relief.

Aurora nodded in agreement with Estella. “We’re not interested in having leverage over anyone part of us, equality of membership is what makes our ship run so smoothly.”

“I… I would be so grateful. I have no words. Umm…, I’m so sorry to keep going on about myself. This BBQ is delicious. Who is the masterful chef?”

Estella gestured with her chopsticks towards Sam. “She’s the mastermind behind the feast.”

“Thank you Sam. I don’t usually have time to eat properly. I can’t remember the last time I had something so delicious.”

I waved her off. “You should take care of yourself more, girl. Then again you are the doc.”

She chuckled to herself. “Don’t you know? We’re so busy saving everyone else, we forget about ourselves sometimes, you know?”

“You should have more free time being part of us, things are usually kind of laid back on board, when we’re not being overrun by hostile plant life anyway.” Aurora said with a chuckle.

“Hostile plant life?”

“Part of our recent adventure, you are about to see it for yourself. Well, perhaps not. They might have become friends now.” I told her.

“It’s a long story. Before we got Vines here part of us we had some other plant people trying to set up shop.” Estella gave a quick summary of our recent adventures.

Jessica listened intently, eyes wide. “You mean they were, err, are intelligent?”

“Vines certainly is, he’s become Hue’s new assistant, and a good one at that.” Aurora gave H squared an approving nod. “We’re not sure just how smart they are, but they seem smart enough to follow instructions, make tools, and learn from mistakes, so high level animal intelligence at least.”

“A symbiotic relationship if ever there was one.” Estella grinned and I followed her sight towards H squared and Vines tangled together, the man sketching some kind of circuitry perhaps and the plant alternating between stuffing food and beer into his mouth. I was getting used to that by now.

“Careful you don’t pig out too much, otherwise you won’t feel up for playing in the red goo later.” Estella reminded Guppy. Guppy was about to stuff a large piece of pie into her mouth and froze for a moment. Smiling shyly, she took just the barest nib from the corner.

“What do you think, Sam? Should we break into Scorsby’s office and search for a hidden safe and steal the data, or do you think talking to him will get us results?”

“Well, if we are stealing it, who does the job?”

“All of us?” Estella shrugged. “Except for Hue and Vines I mean, two of us to ransack his office, two on lookout to deal with anyone who might interfere and to run interference if Scorsby turns up before the loot team is done.”

“That leaves one extra.” Aurora pointed out.

“True, we can put the third person over watch on a roof with a rifle, they can shoot through windows and give covering fire if things really go nasty and keep an eye out for any ships or large groups incoming.”

“We are actually looting the old boy’s office? I was thinking more along the lines of hacking but figure we don’t really have any hackers amongst us.” I raised an eyebrow.

“Good angle,” Aurora nodded thoughtfully. “You’re right, I don’t think any of us have the skills for that though.”

“I also doubt he’d keep the data somewhere someone could just remotely hack in and delete, a smart man like him would keep a back up copy in a safe or something.” Estella added.

“I figured with hacking, we can get rid of the original first and then get at the copies. But it’s tough finding someone to do that job. The old boy is well connected. Words in the wrong ears, it would go back to him.”

“Yeah, which is why I thought maybe we should just talk to him about it, we ransack his office and he finds out it’s us, we’ll burn him as a friend and contact for life, along with anyone who likes him more than they like us.” Estella pointed out.

“We talk to him and he says no, then what? The data goes missing and he’ll know we’re behind it, and he may just make a back up and hide that to be safe.” Aurora pointed out.

“This is too confusing. We don’t even know what the old boy means by doing something like this. We need a way to loosen up that old boy’s tongue without putting him on alert.” I blurted out. I hate back and forth like this, they always do my head in.

“Hmm..” Aurora smiled suddenly. “Maybe one of us could invite him out drinking for a night? Pump him for information while someone else cases his office to see how hard it would be to break in?”

Estella nodded. “It has potential.”

“I can get him drunk but not sure about the pumping him for information part.” I volunteered.

“One of us could go with you then, help steer the convo?” Estella offered.

“Yes, that would be better.”

“I’ve been in his office numerous times. I might be of use there.” Jessica offered.

“Sounds like two teams then and sounds like we have volunteers for each one already,” Aurora looked over at Guppy, “Want to join me and Jessica to case Scorsby’s office?” She almost nodded her head off.

“Sounds like we got a plan, though I’m thinking we should probably land in a different city and buy a small truck or something for us to use to travel overland, and then land a few hours drive from where Scorsby lives, that way we can hopefully avoid another welcoming committee convoy.” Aurora suggested.

Estella nodded. “Probably a good idea, whoever is gunning for us is probably going to be on the lookout for our ship, so if we land after dark and park it a little ways off near a treeline we should be able to spend some time in the city before they catch on we’re back.”

Jessica was looking between all of us. “You seem like a pretty soild team. I’ve been working solo so long, I didn’t even know what I was missing. But now I definitely want in.” She smiled.

“Welcome to the team.” I told her.

“Thank you all.” She held a bottle up in a toast.

“Welcome aboard, yet again.” Aurora raised her glass with a smile.

“Cheers.” I raised up my own glass.

“Cheers!” Estella echoed my action. “My talent for sensing emotions should help us get to the bottom of Scorsby’s feelings about Jessica, especially after Sam gets him to start knocking back shots.”

“I’d love to get to work, but since nobody has any holes in them that needs sewing, is there something else I can do to pull my weight while we’re traveling? I’m pretty well rested.”

“We have some spare rooms on the ship, maybe you could try to set one up as a sickbay?” Aurora suggested. “Be nice to have a place to bring injured crew for treatment rather than clearing off the dining table and hoping for the best.”

“Yes, that sounds like a wonderful idea.” Jessica frowned at the table. “You fix people up on this thing? That’s… well, brave”

“We make do.” I shrugged.

“Make an inventory of supplies you need too, and we’ll pick them up when we buy the truck,” Estella added, “We have some first aid kits around here you can use to get started with. “We get by, now we can get by even better.”

“Working the way I have, with very little in the way of funds. Well, I get the making do”

“Guppy and me will get started on the torpedo upgrades and casings for the spore mines, hopefully these things will overrun their ship and leave us alone now you’ve bleeded on them.”

“Ooh, torpedoes! Yes! Can I shoot one, Aurora?”

“I think the guess that they’re some kind of alien security system and I added us to the approved list is the right idea, we’ll find out when we harvest the plants, you all may need to bleed on them a bit if they’re still hostile to the rest of you.”

Aurora grinned. “You betcha! You’ll be down with me in engineering and the torpedo bay, Sam here usually mans the gunnery station for the plasma cannons, she’s a pretty crack shot.” Guppy threw me a thumbs up at that.

“I will show you a few of my special tricks one of these days.” I winked at the kiddo. She nearly fell over with excitement, like literally.

“I’ll be on the bridge if anyone needs me, I want to make sure our tail doesn’t lose us completely, and give us enough time to harvest and prep our bio weapons before they can catch up.”

“I’ll get started on the med bay.” Jessica jumped up.

“If you need a handy with anything just give a shout, we’re all here if you need us.” Aurora reminded her.

“Yeah, and don’t just do the med bay, you might as well prepare your own room at the same time.” I added.

“Will do. Sounds like we have a little time before we arrive.”

“About a day or so, depends on the speed I need to keep because of our tail.” Estella said, “Several hours at any rate so no need to rush about.”

“Sounds like plenty of time.”

Guppy pulled Aurora’s sleeve. “Lets go make mines…”

Aurora grinned, “Sure thing, I’ll show you how to make a mine casing that has a magnetic sensor, these ones will detect the enemy ship when it gets close and home in on them stick to their hull with a hollow spike and then spew spores inside the enemy ship.”

Guppy couldn’t grin bigger herself. The two of them were starting to get the same expressions, that was some bonding.

“The torpedoes will have the actual vine creatures in the warheads, so when they penetrate the hull they blast the vines everywhere, together they should overrun the ships defenses in a real hurry, letting Estella swing behind them and Sam to blast their engines out with the cannons, then they’ll be sitting ducks and we can board them at our leisure.” Then she added in an afterthought. “We should also set up a space in the cargo bay to put any prisoners.”

I volunteered for the job and got it.

“Don’t worry Jessica, we’ll treat any prisoners humanely, though they’ll certainly be made to think differently about what will happen if they don’t cooperate.” Estella told Jessica with a wink.

But the girl wasn’t one for humour much, or at least not our kind. She turned a little pale. “I… I’m not sure that I can be in there. I take my oath very seriously”

“Nothing wrong with threatening some bullies with a short walk out the airlock if it loosens their tongue.” Aurora agreed.

“Like Aurora said, threats, if they think we’ll do horrible things if they don’t talk they’ll start talking, truth though the worst we’ll do is stick them in the hold with bread and water until we can dump them off on some colonized planet with the clothes on their backs and a few promises of what will happen if they come after us a second time.” Estella explained.

“Ok, I still don’t think I can be there for that. I don’t have a very good poker face.”

Aurora nodded. “We’re not in the business of killing those who we don’t need to. And Sam is pretty intimidating, she’ll probably want to take the lead on asking questions, she can be scary when she’s angry.”

Jessica looks over at me. “I can believe it.”

“Or we just have her throw another barbecue, and tell the prisoners they get talking and they get a plate of her cooking, that’ll loosen anyone’s tongue.”

“I guess it worked on me.” she blushed. “I don’t tell that story easily.”

Aurora chuckled, “Good food and good company has that effect on people.” She nodded to Guppy. “Let’s go mind our own business and make some mines.” Guppy giggled.

“Baaad pun,” Estella laughed and headed to the bridge. We all went our separate ways.

I was almost done with the marinades when Jessica wandered in, rubbing sleep from her eyes. “I am soo sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to crash so hard. That happens sometimes, when I have to use my power to keep someone from dying during surgery. I hope I didn’t miss anything important.”

“Someone put a tracker on Aurora and we had to hightail it to space. Other than that, you didn’t miss much. And hmm… I didn’t mean to disturb your sleep but I didn’t want you to panic and think we had kidnapped you.”

“Oh… Oh. I guess I did miss a few things” she chuckled a little. “If you woke me up, I don’t remember.” She paused to think for a moment. “Um, are we going somewhere? Or just in space? And, um, is that a normal thing here, trackers?”

“We are heading to an asteroid that we’ve been before. You don’t know about trackers even though you mend people up hush hush?” I raised an eyebrow at her.

“Good point,” she said and laughed again. “Just trying to understand what sort of crew I’ve been kidnapped by. I see all types in my work, but mostly I work with people too poor to get help otherwise so not as many criminals as you’d expect. Not that I’m calling you criminals…” She hastened to add and then trailed off.

“We do odd jobs but we are on the law abiding side. We are more adventurers if anything.”

She looked relieved at that. “So… um, is there a plan? I’m just wondering if we’re going back any time soon. And, oh, that marinade smells delicious. Does that mean the BBQ is still on?”

“Want to try the special marinade I made? I made two types, a normal one and this other one I concocted on the spot. That is not always to everyone’s taste.”

“Yes, please.”

I cut up a cooked sausage, dipped one slice in the special sauce with a fork and handed it to Jessica.

“Oh, that’s good.”

“I am going to do half-half just in case. Now why don’t you go relax in the lounge? I will wrap up here. Feel free to grab stuff from the bar. Snacks should be refilled now.”

“Sounds good. Just let me know if I can help.”

“There might be such a time later.” I smiled but waved her off. She headed off into the lounge. I kept going with the BBQ preparations. After a while, Aurora’s voice came on the intercom asking Estella to come down to the kitchen to discuss a job Jessica had for us. That was interesting.

“Hey, glad to see you’re up and about, Jessica, we were beginning to wonder if you were going to sleep through the entire feast.” Estella said when we were all gathered around.

Jessica did a half-smile. “I didn’t mean to do that, I am sorry.”

“It’s no big deal. Sam invited you to our little celebration, I figured she told you how exciting life usually is on board so you decided to rest up first.” Estella smiled happily as she looked around. “Oh this is going to be a feast of legend, it smells fantastic!”

“Yes, it certainly does.” Jessica replied, still acting all polite-like.

“I’m getting hungry, Aurora. When is it time to eat? Should I go get Hue and Vines? I’m sure Vines would love a BBQ.” Guppy giggled.

“Sure, go let them know it’s almost ready,” Aurora nodded towards Jessica. “Hue is our mechanic, and Vines is our ship mascot, kind of an intelligent plant creature we rescued from inside an alien starport built inside a moon.”

“A place we’re going back to someday.” Estella added. Guppy had shot out the door.

“Oh, that sounds like something I would love to see. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that before.”

“You’ll get your chance if you stick around,” Estella told her, “Aurora said something about a job?”

Jessica takes a deep breath. “Yes. I…” she hesitated, mulling it over. “I owe Scorsby a debt I can never repay. He kept me from going to prison for… well, for the thing that got my license taken away. But he has something. Evidence that could get me locked up.” Then a torrent rushed out of her. “I didn’t do anything wrong, except stick to my principles and cross someone very powerful. And so he has me do things for him, like patching up Old Terry. Of course, Terry is a sweetheart, and I would have helped him anyway. He’s got a sad story of his own, but it’s not my place to tell it.”

“Scorsby has blackmail dirt on you?” Estella said in surprise.

“Yes.”

“I never chalked down that old boy for being so devious either.” I said.

“That’s low, extorting you like that,” Aurora growled.

“And I don’t want him to have it anymore. I don’t want him dead, please. His death would not be worth it. I just don’t want him to have this leash on me.”

“I’d like to hear a bit more about the incident, and your principles that pissed off someone powerful.” Estella said.

Aurora nodded. “Scorsby is a… Associate of ours, so we’d prefer not to see him killed either, but I have no qualms about taking away his leverage over you.”

Jessica took another deep breath. “Years ago, there was a woman who lived on the edge of town. She was overlooked, I don’t think most people ever gave her a second look.” H squared sauntered in at this point, with Vines. He sniffed at the smell of the cooking food and smiled. A vine reached out from behind his back, snagged a beer, and put it in his hand.

Jessica did not quite notice the pair and went on. “She was… attacked by some kids. Not very old, but I guess old enough to know how to use bats and rocks.”

Aurora nodded and glanced towards the hatch she saw Guppy exit. “We saved Guppy from a gang like that recently, they’re on a bad path.”

“Oh, yes, I see.”

“Guppy’s one of us now though, you can trust her.” Estella added.

Guppy’s eyes suddenly got big. “You’re the Angel! I never met you, but I heard the stories.”

Jessica blushed. “Yes, it’s what some of the locals call me, because I help them out when I can. Even… even those kids sometimes. Well, that poor old lady came to my table in the ER, and if it hadn’t been for my powers, there is no way she would have survived. The problem is… I got a visit. The son of… well, someone powerful, well, he was in on the attack too. His father came to me, told me that it’d be for the best if I let the old woman ‘succumb to her wounds’ is how he said it. And of course, I would never allow such a thing.”

“If you were the type to let someone die you could of saved, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation honestly.” Estella told her. “Those kinds of people are the sorts we tend to drag in shackles to the local authorities for prosecution.”

“Well, as you can imagine, he didn’t like my answer. Tried to have someone silence me on my way home from work. I… I don’t like to think about this. I can still feel it like it’s happening now… He came at me, and I… I reacted… Somehow I got the knife from him and stabbed him. I don’t think I meant to, but it’s all jumbled up in my head. Under normal circumstances, I could have saved him, but I was weakened from saving the woman.”

“You did what you had to, no one here will fault you for that.” Aurora gave her a sympathetic nod.

“Power being what it was, I was tried for his death, and they used my knowledge of anatomy to say I’d misused my knowledge as a surgeon to take his life.”

“Where does Old Scorby come in then?” I asked.

“Scorsby stepped in. I don’t know what he did, but he got the charges dropped mid trial. However, he has… data somehow showing that I could have used my powers to save my attacker. But I swear I couldn’t have. I was too drained by then. You’ve seen how I get.”

“Data?” Estella blinked. “Has he ever showed you his proof? He could be just conning you into being his puppet and not have anything concrete at all.”

“Scorsby never says anything he can’t back up.” Jessica looked down at the floor with her shoulders slumped.

I rushed back to Old Scorby for help, knowing that Aurora’s medical skills while a little superior to mine would still be insufficient. Of course, I secured the door as best as I was able while at it. Which was to say lean it in a way that made it look like closed. If someone did not look too closely at the hinges.

The old boy blinked at me. “Weren’t you just here?”

“Old Terry is terribly injured. Is there by any chance another doc around who will keep things hush hush? No idea what that attack was about so better not chance anything.”

His eyes almost popped out of their sockets and then he seemed to ponder for a while before saying that he could make a call with someone who owed him a favor.

“Right, you do that and I will go back to Old Terry’s place to wait for him. And let’s make a little code word between us to be safe.”

He looked shaken by my caution. “Yeah, that’s wise. Wh- what happened? I take it by the look on your face that it wasn’t an accident?”

“Someone busted the door off its hinges. When I came in, one guy was dead on the floor blocking the door. Old Terry was slumped against the wall, barely slurring out Help Me.”

He stood up. “I’ll make the call, but if you don’t mind, I’d like to go with you. Terry and I go way back.”

“Okay, then. Let’s go, old boy.” We rushed back to Terry’s place and it was not long at all before a woman in an overworn but diligently scrubbed overcoat came in. She brought a med-kit with her and asked for the patient with a worried expression.

I looked across Old Scorby to confirm that this is who he called in.

He nodded. “This is Jessica. She’s trustworthy.”

I led the way to the back. Jessica rushed over and checked on Terry. “You patch him up like this?”

“Best I could. I’m not a doc.”

“Well, I think you saved his life. Give me a hand here?”

“Right.” I said as I stepped forward. She put to work straight away, asking me to move Terry to a better position, hold things for her etc. She’s a fast, focused worker. I tried to keep up to her pace.

Then the woman cussed at him, saying something about how he has to live so he can make good his old debt to her. I didn’t see that coming, to be honest. But it wasn’t a good time to ask about anything so I just focused on what’s at hand. At some time, I realised the old boy had left.

The woman leaned back and took a deep breath. Old Terry looked much better even though he was still out. “You did good,” Jessica told me. “You ever think about becoming a surgeon?”

“I’m an action girl. Being surgeon is too tame a life for me.”

She laughed and gave me a pointed look. “If you think being a surgeon is tame, I’d hate to see what you consider wild. Ok, I’d say he needs a place to recuperate. It’s going to take awhile for that wound to fully heal.”

“Can he be moved? I don’t think this place is quite safe.”

Jessica stood up and walked over to the dead guy. “You know where this guy came from? Looks like someone really didn’t like him.”

“Nope, already dead by the time I got here and was blocking the door.”

“You see these holes? Some kind of nasty blade did that. And there are a lot of holes.”

I looked at the holes thoughtfully, wondering if I had seen them before. I decided that I wasn’t sure.

Scorsby comes wandering back in then. “Oh, you’re done.”

“Yep, where did you disappear off to? Ever seen blades that can make these?” I asked him.

“I was calling in a few guys to come help me take Terry to my place.”

“Right. What about those blade marks, make you remember anything?”

“No, not exactly.” He said after taking a look.

I shrugged. “Thought that might be a pretty unique lead but…”

“I can ask around.”

“Do that. When should I check back in with Old Terry?” I switched my gaze from Scorby to Jessica.

“He’s going to be awhile.” “Anything Jessica might be able answer?”

“Great minds think alike.” I winked at the old boy before asking Jessica.”What do you think about coming to a girls’ only BBQ with my household specials?”

Her eyes brightened. “That’d be nice after today”

“Then come with me, let’s walk together back to the Xing.” I said as I waved goodbye to the old boy.

We got to the Xing after the girls who had gone shopping. Aurora gave me a wave in greeting, “We got everything on the list, and Guppy some new clothes.”

“Sounds like the shopping went well. This is Jessica. Aurora here, Estella with the green hair and little Guppy.”

“A pleasure, welcome to the Chen Xing.” Estella beamed at Jessica. Which somehow made her feel intimidated, it seemed. “I’m sorry, I’m a little tired. Tough surgery.” She said.

“Surgery?” Aurora looked over at me in mild concern.

“Go relax at the lounge or if you want a shower and rest, feel free to use my room.” I told Jessica.

“Well… if you don’t mind, maybe a shower and a little rest.”

“Yeah, make yourself at home. We’ll help you get your stuff loaded later this evening, if you have more than a bag or two.” Then Estella started showering Jessica with a list of services rivalling a hotel as she led her away. I was taken aback.

“She seems nice,” Aurora told me with an approving smile. “So, she’s a surgeon?”

I quickly summarised the entire sequence at Old Terry’s, chuckling at how Jessica tried to talk me into being a surgeon.

“Nice job getting her to sign on, we could really use a medic given the scrapes we sometimes wind up in, my skill at patching people up is nothing to write home about. Yet.” Aurora said with an approving nod. “Maybe she can show me a thing or two in the coming weeks, did you tell her about the moon yet and our plans for a return trip?”

I thought about signing Jessica on, that surely was not my intention. “I just brought her here because the BBQ seemed a good chance to get her talking. I didn’t really think of signing her up onboard but.. well, she seems nice enough. Old Scorby thinks she’s trustworthy.”

“Oh, we saw you arrive with her and invite her to share your quarters and I naturally assumed she was someone you asked to join the group.” Aurora shrugged, “Talking about what? Is she the one that treated the guy you shot back in the tunnels?”

“Didn’t get a chance to ask her anything, she was busy patching up Old Terry.”

“Who’s Old Terry?” She asked with a raised eyebrow.

“That other doc that Old Scorby pointed me to first, that I found nearly dead. Apparently, him and Old Scorby go way back.”

“Ah, and she saved him?” She nodded in understanding, “Least we can do is roll out the red carpet for her for a bit, it would be great if you could convince her to sign on though, we could really use a medic out there in the black, especially now we have Guppy on board.”

“You have a point there. She laughed when I told her that I’m an action girl and I think being a surgeon is too tame. So she could fit in.”

“She nodded when I offered to help bring her things on board tomorrow,” Estella told us when she came back.

“Looks like we have a chance to draft her onboard at least.” I said.

“Oh, I thought she was related to you or an old girlfriend with how casual you two seemed and the way you offered your quarters.” Estella shrugged. “We’ll make a sales pitch after the BBQ tomorrow, we got all kinds of tasty stuff.” She quickly rattled off the shopping list of spices and meats. “And a bunch of extra spices for trade once we put this place behind us.”

“The offer was because space was limited on board and I didn’t feel like clearing out extra space for her quick shower and nap. Your mind works funny, gal.”

Estella grinned sheepishly. “Hey I’m not one to judge, but when someone comes homes with a cute girl and immediately invites them to spend the night in their room, one does tend to draw certain conclusions.” She looked slightly embarrassed at the too hastily drawn conclusion.

Aurora chuckled and shook her head. “Either way, she’s the one that saved the doc that worked on the guy Sam shot, so she’s earned some bbq at the very least.”

“So the guy tried to kill the doc after he patched him up eh?” Estella sighed “Awfully short sighted of him trying to chill the only saw bones willing to patch up him and his criminal pals.”

“If they were smart they probably wouldn’t be working for Jake.” Aurora replied.

“Well, no, that guy was dead with multiple blade holes in him. So perhaps the doc was just victim in the crossfire? Dunno. Old Scorby’s on the hunt for those special blade marks.”

“Funny thing, those blade marks, I thought I’ve known it somewhere but couldn’t remember.” I added after a pause.

“Blade marks? What did they look like? Can you describe them?” Estella leaned forward curiously.

“Cake after you eat your steak and potatoes, not before.” Aurora told Guppy with a laugh, “You can balance the cake when you get it, not before.”

“Humph” “Opens a lot of wicked holes.Something about them I cannot quite pin down though.” Guppy and I replied at the same time.

“Could of been something else,” Aurora said thoughtfully. “Could the guy have had some kind of nasty parasite in him that tore out making the holes?”

Estella shuddered at the notion and then went back to her previous train of thought, “I was thinking if its holes it could of been gun shots?”

“Aurora? What’s that? On your skirt?” Guppy pointed at the hem of Aurora’s skirt.

“Jesscia thinks it’s a blade.” I finished my reply before looking over at Aurora’s skirt and there was a pale dot near the hem on one side.

“We can ask her tomorrow over breakfast.” Estella said before following my gaze.

“Hmm,” Aurora prised the thing off and looked it over.

“That’s nothing, something you will know when you are a bit older, kiddo.” I tried to smooth over the incident while Aurora examined the device, in case it’s a listening bug.

“Estella, get us airborne on the double.” Aurora ordered, “This is a tracker.” Then she hurried outside and yelled for Roland.

“On it!” Estella turned and ran to the bridge. She nodded to me as she ran past, complimenting me on my quick thinking.

I decided I had better check in with Jessica.

Estella’s voice boomed from the intercom, “We got company in bound, take a gander out the view ports and see you recognize any of them?”

I had arrived at my quarters. There was no outside view in the corridor so I continued with what I came to do. Not wanting to startle Jessica, I knocked on the door. But there was just silence. So I assumed she was too sound asleep and rejoined the others.

“Did our new guest recognize the trucks?” Aurora asked me.

“She’s sound asleep, I think. Knocked on the door, silence. And what trucks?”

“Make sure please,” Aurora nudged me, “And wake her up to let her know we’ve lifted off, she wakes up and finds herself in deep space she might think we’ve kidnapped her and react badly, we don’t want her freaking out and trying to take poor Hue hostage, he’s been through enough with the plants.”

Speak of the devil. H squared wandered onto the bridge and looked questioningly at Estella. Vines was trailing behind him.

“Load of trucks down there.” She gestured to the window. “They were riding for us when we took off, guess they folllowed the tracker, apparently we’ve got some powerful enemies to muster than kind of assault force.”

“Right.” I walked back to my quarters where upon hearing silence again, I opened the door and entered. Sure enough, Jessica was deep asleep. I tapped her on the shoulder. She didn’t move. But as in something-wrong-not-moving, just fast asleep. I took her right hand and shook it. “Wake up, Jessica.” Her eyelids fluttered a bit but she seemed stuck to sleep. I bent closer to her ears and said I needed to talk to her. That earned a bit more eye movement and she

Jessica’s eyes fluttered a little more and she moved just a tiny fraction.

This was really a beauty sleep. I rolled my eyes. “Fire!”

She stumbled up, took a step, and fell down on the bed again. Her eyes looked like they were trying to open but then snapped close again. Did my bed have a sleeping enchantment on it? Aurora said something to Estella on the intercom about our tail. I didn’t pay too much attention, figuring that was a problem for later. I put my hand around Jessica’s waist, picked her up and plomped her down on a chair.

“Need rest… power too draining…” She mumbled.

“I just need to tell you that someone put a tracker on Aurora and now we are being chased so we hightailed to space. We didn’t want you to think we had kidnapped you.”

She looked confused but nodded.

“Do you need help getting back to bed?” She was all slumped down with jelly-like limbs.

She nodded so I picked her up, carried her back to the bed and pulled the blanket back over her.

“Looks like we’ll make a clean get away for now,” Estealla briefed us over the intercom, “Come join me when you all get a chance so we can sort out what to do next.”

“On the way.”

---

“That girl sleeps like the dead.” I complained when I arrived on the bridge. “I barely managed to keep her awake enough to hear me.”

“Could she have been drugged?” Estella asked me with mild concern. .

“She says too drained. I assumed that was the surgery. Aurora, you want to check her over?”

“Let her sleep for now, if she says she’s drained then sleep will help, if she’s been drugged sleeping it off will help, either way, rest seems good, my current theory is a rival company of Roland’s boss’s hired the mercs to run us off, they don’t want Rolands group muscling in on whatever business they have going on the surface.”

Guppy piped up “I could watch her, maybe draw some extra eyebrows…”

Aurora giggled, “Sure, go keep an eye on her, but don’t use her as a canvas, it’s rude.”

I wagged a finger at her. “No, Guppy, no drawing extra eyebrows on potential recruits. Well, not until they become official crew.”

Guppy rolled her eyes. “Aww, yer no fun.” She said and wandered off.

“Once they’re crew you can do it, but don’t be surprised if they get you back by short sheeting your bed or something.” Estella called out to her.

“Let her try…” Guppy sang and giggled as she walked away.

“You don’t think they’re after us because someone thinks we kidnapped Guppy, do you?” Estella asked quietly about a minute later.

“Doubtful?” Aurora shrugged, “Anyone watching would see us buying her loads of clothes and letting her carry that wicked knife of hers, pretty obvious she’s not here against her will being treated like that.”

“From what Guppy said before, I can’t see they miss her that much.” I said.

“Good point,” Estella kept an eye on the ether-scope to track the other ships’ movements as she spoke. “Unless our new guest is wanted for something, but with Scorsby vouching for her I doubt it?”

“They wouldn’t know she was invited back to our ship,” Aurora pointed out, “We didn’t even know she was coming until Sam showed up with her.”

“So what happened during the shopping trip? Where did you acquire that tracker thing?” I asked.

Aurora filled me in on the trip and the mousey man with a spice packet. “Guessing he stuck it on my skirt when he was holding out the spice packet with his other hand.”

“I was behind him so didn’t have a good angle to see,” Estella added. “They seem determined to be rid of us, and apparently don’t think we’d just sell out if they offered us more money to work for them instead.”

“That was a deft move, the sneaky bastard.”

“Only other thought I have is Jake, he got pinched by someone, and made up some crazy story about us sitting on a treasure map or a hold full of diamonds or something to save his skin, and now they’re after us for the payout?” Aurora our resident theorist veered off on another train of thought.

“We could turn and fight the mercs, cripple their ship, question survivors on who hired them?” Estella offered with her eye on the scope. “We got enough of a lead to set an ambush.”

“Go for it.”

After thinking a while, Aurora told us her knowledge of the merc ship. “They’re ex military types, so I wouldn’t like the odds on a boarding action, we’d be out numbered several to one, but we might be able to cripple them in a surprise ambush, but there’s a fair chance we could wind up crashing and be back where we started last time, just on the alien plant moon instead of a scrapyard.”

“Okay scratch that idea,” Estella started to nod but then paused with a devious smile. “Unless.. you still got some of that plant from before in the converter? We can rig up a few spore mines of plants, let them blow and overrun the enemy ship, then board it and mop up the survivors.”

“You’re devious,” Aurora showed her an approving grin, “Let me go check if there’s enough left to make some kind of bio-mines.”

“They might have a score of mercs, but if we can get a score of plant soldiers, we’ll have the edge.” Estella added.

“The converter turned it all into fuel, but the moon is near by, easiest option is just to land there, pick up some more of the red ones since we have a lead on the ship and make mines out of them?” Aurora came in after a few minutes.

Estella looked at me. Right, let’s have everyone’s input. I kept forgetting that. “Yeah, and the plants would probably do most of our work for us.” I said, which was like not saying anything.

Estella skipped right over what I said. “Sure it sounds like a plan, assuming we want to stick around anyway? Aside from the moon and its secrets, is there any reason we want to mess around with whoever is hiring the mercs?” She asked. “I mean yeah there’s Jake and the bounty on his head, but other than that?”

“I’d like to know if they’re after us because of our working for Roland’s boss, or because of some other reason, we leave now and it’s something else, they’ll be still hunting us, and could show up later when we’re not in a position to handle them as readily.”

“Ditto.” I said.

“Good point,” Estella nodded, “I’ll put us on a looping course through the rocks and set us down on the surface where we were last time, once we land we should have a couple hours to harvest plants and take off before the ship closes the distance.”

“Perfect, I’ll rig up some mines from a few spare barrels in the mean time, and see about rigging up a couple torpedoes with spore warheads. It was a 2 day journey to get there last time, wasn’t it?” Aurora asked.

“About a day with the new fuel,” Estella said, “Enough time for our new guest to rest up and be ready to help out at least.”

“So much for the BBQ, ah well, after we deal with this merc ship.” I lamented.

“We got a day, plenty of time for the BBQ.” Aurora said.

“It would be a day if I set a straight course, playing asteroid hide’n seek like we are now, closer to a day and a half honestly, so yeah, we can still have a feast with time to spare.”

“Right. I will go do the marinades.”

“Sounds good to me,” Aurora said, “The meat’s fresh so we might as well have the barbecue as planned.”