“Wilson! Hey! What the hell do you
think you’re doing?” the captain bellowed at his drunk mechanic.
“These particalizers are in
piss-poor shape. They need to be replaced. And that was just a heinous job
somebody did on your alignment tubes. What evil genius swindled you out of your
money for those shitty excuses for repair work?” Wilson stumbled and nearly
fell over as he reached for his bottle of booze and missed.
“I did all that,” Markov growled.
“Ha!” Wilson let out a loud bark of
laughter. “Oh Jesus, you’re serious? I’m surprised the Mako is still flying with you mucking about back here!” He
successfully grabbed his bottle of bourbon and took a long swig.
“The Mako is one of the best ships ever built and I know how to take
care of her, goddammit,” the captain said.
“Then why is the Yarkov Coil out of
balance?” Wilson bellowed.
“What?” Markov stared at the area
of the engine Wilson was gesturing wildly towards.
Wilson rolled his eyes
exaggeratedly. “This!” He attacked the coil with a wrench. “See?”
The intercom clicked on and
Qadira’s voice came through. “What the hell did you just do back there? The Mako is purring like a kitten all of the
sudden, it’s fantastic!”
“I fixed the Yarkov Coil!” Wilson
shouted back smugly as he handed the wrench to Andrew and took another swig
from his bottle.
“Alright, good work. Keep it up,
just don’t let it go to your head.” Markov turned to leave.
“Too late!” Wilson shouted after
him. “I’m a God-damned genius!”
*
Ursula sat on top of the bar with
her combat boots resting on the stool in front of her. She took a sip of her
drink, which was a locally brewed liquor that could also function as jet fuel
if one found oneself in a bind. No one said shit to her for sitting on the bar
and ever since she rescued the owner’s daughter from that serial killer she
drank for free here. It was one of the main reasons she came to look for work
on Vertraxin so often.
“I love your tats,” a drunken local
leered at Ursula’s tits. In his defense, there were tattoos there, but it wasn’t a good enough excuse for her.
Ursula smiled. This was going to be
fun. “Smell this.” She held her glass under the young man’s nose.
He took a whiff and whistled.
“Honey, you’ve got horrible taste in booze! Let me buy you something nice.” He
put his beefy hand on her knee and waved to the bartender.
Ursula threw her drink in this
face.
“What the hell, bitch!” he shouted.
Sparks zipped back and forth
between the fingers of Ursula’s right hand while her left held the man’s collar
so he couldn’t escape. “What did you call me?” Ursula asked quietly.
“I…I…” Words proved too much for
him. His eyes grew wider and wider as he stared at Ursula’s electricity filled
hand.
“Do you know what will happen to
your face if just one of these sparks touches it?” Ursula asked just as calmly
as before.
He shook his head fearfully.
Ursula’s grin widened
substantially. “You’ll burn.”
“Enough of that shit,” Markov’s
rough voice cut in as he grabbed the soda dispenser and doused the lad’s face.
“You could have taken it off of the
cola setting, bro!” The local wiped his eyes and blinked rapidly. Ursula let
him go.
“Yeah, but you probably deserved
some of that. Beat it.” Markov jerked his thumb over his shoulder. The kid
didn’t have to be told twice.
“I been waiting for you.” Ursula
grinned at the captain and swung her knees back and forth idly.
“That should probably worry me, but
come here and give me a hug any way.” Markov wrapped his long arms around
Ursula for a quick hug. “How’ve you been? Killed anyone?”
“Yes, but they were all bad!”
Ursula laughed. “Now come on, let’s blow this popsicle stand, I’m bored!” She
grabbed the sleeve of Markov’s jacket and towed him out of the bar.
*
“Uncle, are you sure this is a good
idea?” Andrew asked nervously as he peered over his Uncle Wilson’s shoulder.
“How could it not be? I’m utilizing
the engine extracts from the Mako,
that will make her run more efficiently, and I get an unlimited supply of free
booze! Win-win!” Wilson chortled.
“But your…um…still, as it were,
doesn’t seem structurally sound,” Andrew noted cautiously.
“Nonsense, boy! I once built an
entire space shuttle out of scraps I found in the trash.” Wilson banged his
newest addition to the engine room with the heavy wrench in his hand and the
whole thing crumbled and began spewing chemicals all over the floor. Wilson
frowned at the flailing hoses. “Clean that up,” he told Andrew dismissively
before reaching for his whiskey.
Andrew rolled his eyes and did as
he was told. He closed all the valves Wilson had connected to the still first
so that it was stop spraying him, but he was still covered from head to toe in
a variety of substances that one should never be covered in.
And then he saw her.
Andrew had never seen a girl like
her. Not when he lived on Blue Cardiff with Uncle Wilson and certainly not when
he lived with the Galactic Missionaries of the Light where all the women
dressed in long, bulky dresses. She was tall to begin with, but the heavy
combat boots she wore made her stand nearly at eye level with him. The fact
that she shaved her head bald should have been disgusting, but instead it made
her seem exotic and alien in a way that Andrew never suspected he would be
attracted to. She had bright blue eyes and a plethora of tattoos. Andrew felt
himself immediately become ensorcelled.
“H-h-h-hi!” Andrew stammered and
then finally got the word out at an excessively loud volume.
The girl stopped and turned on her
heel. She looked Andrew up and down, wordlessly crossed the engine room,
snatched Wilson’s bottle of whiskey out of his hand, and then walked out taking
a long pull straight from the bottle.
“Who was that?” Andrew asked his
uncle. He was so enamored that he almost forgot to be flabbergasted that
someone had taken alcohol from Wilson without him putting up a fight.
“Ursula.” Wilson said it like a
curse. “I need a drink.” He disappeared into his liquor cabinet.
Shrugging, Andrew decided to follow
Ursula. The Mako Rising was the
largest ship Andrew had ever been on, but that wasn’t saying all that much and
it still felt cramped compared to the sprawling compound of the Galactic
Missionaries of the Light. Ursula was busy picking the lock of one of the
sleeping quarters and didn’t seem to notice Andrew’s approach.
“Uh, I think that one’s locked,”
Andrew told her. “I’ve never seen anyone use that one.”
“’Course not, it’s my room,” Ursula
told him matter-of-factly as she continued picking the lock. It looked like a
complicated process with lots of wires and little hooked pins. “Nobody goes in
my room.”
“I…see?” Andrew tried to nod like
he knew what she was talking about.
“No you don’t, you probably don’t
even use the piece of shit lock they have on your quarters. You look like the
trusting sort, you’ll probably die soon so don’t bother telling me your name.”
Ursula finished whatever she had been doing and her door slid open. She
grinned, it was an enthusiastic, nearly feral looking grin.
“Oh, how rude of me! I’m Andrew,
Wilson’s nephew.” He held out his hand.
“Don’t let her touch you and don’t
do anything she says,” Doctor Liam warned as he passed them in the corridor. He
continued on his way without stopping.
Andrew glanced down at his
outstretched hand, but could not think of a graceful way to retract it. He
decided the doctor was just having some fun with him, Liam seemed to have an
odd sense of humor. He smiled at Ursula, but she didn’t shake his hand.
“You don’t have red hair, so I
suppose you’re fair game,” Ursula said cryptically. Andrew had no time to ask
what she meant, she threw herself at him and kissed him violently on the mouth.
Before he knew it, he was being dragged into Ursula’s room and slammed up
against the wall as she continued kissing him, biting his lip, and digging her
fingernails into his neck.
She kept on kissing and biting him,
down to his chin, and along his jaw until she reached his ear. Then an
unexpected shock zapped Andrew right on the ear where Ursula had been kissing
him. “Ow!” he screamed. “What was that?”
Ursula only grinned and kissed his
forehead. Another shock bit into his neck. Andrew wondered if his second scream
was a bit more of squeal than a scream, but hoped it hadn’t been.
“What’s happening?” Andrew
demanded. “Is there a damaged circuit in here?”
That made Ursula chuckle for some
reason. “Something like that.” She put her hand on his thigh and that was when
Andrew saw the bolt of lightning come zipping out of her palm and burn a hole
in his pants.
Andrew screamed.
*
Qadira glanced down at her
stopwatch. “Pay up.”
Liam grumbled to himself. “What
kind of idiot lets himself get drawn in by Ursula that quickly?” He transferred
twenty credits to Qadira’s account.
“Double or nothing that he runs
screaming out of her room with his clothes on fire?” Qadira offered.
“No bet,” Liam answered.
Ursula’s door slammed open and
Andrew bolted from the room trailing smoke from at least half a dozen spots on
his clothing.
“Smart man.” Qadira chuckled.
“Qadira!” Ursula stuck her head out
into the corridor. As always, Qadira broke out in a minor sweat when Ursula
hugged her and kissed her on the cheek, but just like every time before nothing
bad happened. Ursula liked Qadira for some unfathomable reason. “And Liam.”
Ursula favored Liam with a sloppy salute.
“Good to see you, Ursula.” Liam
returned the salute, but much more cleanly executed. “How have you been?”
“Out of my mind, as always. Want a
drink?” She held up a bottle of what looked like Wilson’s favorite whiskey.
“Of course,” Liam answered.
“I’ll abstain, but I would love to
keep the two of you company.” Qadira followed Liam into Ursula’s sparsely
decorated quarters.
Her rock-hard bed took up one wall
and a small table with four stools were the only furniture she had. Qadira was
fairly certain Ursula had secret compartments all around her room, but it was
best not to pry into the things Ursula decided to keep secret.
“I thought you might say that.”
From a blank looking spot on the wall Ursula produced two glasses, an
exquisitely carved pipe that looked like a dragon, and a bag of hashish. She
set everything down on the table and poured generous helpings for herself and
Liam.
Qadira filled the pipe and held it
out for Ursula to light with her special gift. “Thank you, my dear. So, did the
captain tell you what kind of suicidal venture we’re on this time?”
“Killer shrubs or something.”
Ursula shrugged. “Irene is involved so I’m sure it will be exciting.”
“Have you seen Irene lately?” Liam
asked.
“No. And it hurts my feeling that
you would ask me that.” She pouted at him.
Qadira grinned and laughed right
alongside Ursula at the frightened look on Liam’s face. “She gets you every
time!”
“Well she usually kills the people
who offend her!” Liam grumbled. “I always wonder if today’s my day.” He
shivered and took an extra-long drink.
“Oh Liam.” Ursula refilled the
doctor’s glass before topping off her own. “You’re so delightfully dreary.
That’s why I almost like you!”
Qadira snorted back a laugh. “So
close.” She held her index finger a hair’s width from her thumb.
“And yet you treat our little pilot
here like your long lost sister, why is that?” Liam asked.
Ursula leaned back on her stool.
“You’re a doctor so I can’t be a hundred percent sure you haven’t been doing
experiments on me the whole time I’ve known you. That means I might have to
kill you one day and I really, really hate killing the people I like. Plus,
Qadira is so much more fun that you! She buys me boots and looks so damn hot in
a little black dress!”
“Well, how can I compete with that?”
Liam clinked his glass against Ursula’s and the two of them drank.
“What the hell are you three doing?”
Markov growled from the doorway. He was waving his hand in front of his face to
clear away the smoke from Qadira’s pipe.
“It’s my welcome home, come join
us!” Ursula announced happily.
“Absolutely not. Liam, are you
letting our pilot get high?” the captain asked disapprovingly.
Liam gave Qadira a considering
look. “Letting is a strong word when it comes to Qadira. I’ll admit to being
present while it happened. Is happening, if you will.”
“I expect this kind of behavior
from the two of them, but I’m disappointed in you,” Markov told Liam as he
left.
“No you’re not! You’ve known me too
long for that to be true!” Liam shouted after him.
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