Outside of the clanky and well-worn pirate ship, there was space. For the longest time, they had been traveling through the blank and the dark with only scattered stars to offset the void, but now as they arrived at their destination this was drastically different. Floating in space like clouds flying in the skies of Earth were bright and splendid colors flowing and twirling in on themselves. Purples slashed across the scene followed by blows of blues and oranges, a vivid fight in the milky depths of space with no apparent winner or loser. The group had no way of knowing what it was that they were seeing, however, Jenny McClain simply knew it as ‘The Landerbelt Nebula.’
But the captain knew that the view wasn’t the thing she was coming here for, no pleasure today only business. She took hold of the helm and adjusted the trajectory of her ship to fly a little lower than they were going before. In front of the Nebula, silhouetted by its bright colors, was the Ring. It was like nothing the group had ever seen before, which is to be expected at this point.
Hanging in space as if by some unseen thread was a street, but of course, it wasn’t any average piece of road. Even from far away, you could tell it was massive, with towering buildings and houses littering the face of it without ever getting too close to the edges. But there was one very peculiar thing, besides there being a giant street in space that is. Instead of going straight on, it looped around itself like a hungry Ouroboros snake giving it the impression of a, well, ring.
“How is that possible?” Neil questioned out loud, his mind breaking a little.
“Heh, you lot ain’t the most experienced are ya?” Jenny replied with a coy smile. She decided to humor her guests with a little explanation. “You see that there?” She called, pointing her finger towards the center of the ring where it seemed there was nothing but space. “If ya look closely you’ll see a little wave in the air, like heat does in a dessert. That’ll be the Gravity-Core, keeps us on our feet so to speak!”
They looked closer and sure enough, it was like she said, the nebula behind it was slightly disrupted by the waving skew. Timothy was amazed, if he was able to stand without fear of repercussions he would’ve run over to the window and just stared at it. “It’s so beautiful!” He declared with a big smile. He turned to his friends, “isn’t that just so cool?”
While it certainly was a sight to be seen, Sophia and Alex had other things on their mind. “So, now what?” The girl asked, ignoring her friend. “Where are we going?”
Bleg chuckled to himself in the corner, “you’ll see soon enough.”
Jenny McClain piloted the ship over to the Ring, passing over buildings and shops until she saw where she needed to go. The vessel stalled in the air over a large square hut, waiting for some unheard cue. Suddenly something hissed and jittered in the ship before a loud voice spat out over a clearly busted speaker. “Oy! What the fuck do you want?” It belched.
“It’s Jenny McClain.” Said the captain. “And you know what the fuck I want.”
“Jenny? What the hell have you been doing for so damn long?” The speaker fired back. “Haven’t seen your hide in ages, what’ve you been doing? Mining in the Telecetar Caverns?”
“I’ve been on a job, and since when does your service care where a customer’s been?”
“We don’t care, we’s just curious!” It clarified. “Do you got the creds for the landin’?”
Jenny rolled her eyes, “of course I do, ya scraper! Now open up before I send my men down there to kick out even more of your teeth from your ugly gob!”
Below the ship, the roof of the hut opened up and allowed the vessel to slowly float inside. It hit the ground with a large thud, sending everyone on board rocking back and forth- the landing pads had been lost a long time ago in a situation with a poorly placed landmine and now they were just making do without them.
“Alright, boys.” Jenny declared, raising the high brim of her hat to face them all. “Get the cargo and the loot, I’ll deal with this lot.”
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“Usual meeting spot, boss?” Asked Qleg.
“Where else would we go?”
Alex bit his lip, he had to try something. “Look, can’t we just talk this out? We don’t have anything for you and we’re not a threat to you, why not let us go?”
“Don’t even try!” Sophia barked. “We’re being kidnapped by pirates, and you think you can just talk them out of it?”
“Well at least I’m trying something!” Alex returned. “Not just sitting here and letting it happen, like you’re one to do!”
“Guys, now really isn’t the time.” Neil muttered, wishing he was tied up somewhere away from his hot-headed friends.
“And when will the right time be, huh?” Alex spat, his hands shaking. “When we’re back on the Lavender? Well, guess what, we aren’t going to get back to the Lavender unless we convince someone to take us there!”
“We can go ourselves; we’ll make our own way.” Sophia added, almost murmuring.
“Oh, so I’m the crazy one here? Well, be my guest, Goddess! Go and learn how to fly an entire spaceship!”
ZAP!
Sophia and Alex jolted back as a new hole appeared in the hull of the ship between them. “Now listen here, your scrapers!” The pirate captain shouted her arm lofting with smoke after discharging her weapon. “I don’t give a damn what your problems with each other are, but none of you is goin’ anywhere unless I say so- ya got that?” Everyone nodded. “Good, now get the hell up and follow me.”
Jenny McClain pushed the group in front of her, making sure she had a perfect view in case they tried any funny business. They now found themselves in a very dimly lit bunker of sorts, barely enough room to fit the raggedy ship. The little green men had followed their orders and were now struggling to carry a giant metal box. They had arranged themselves so that there were two at the back and one at the front, clearly, the weight distribution wasn’t working but still they carried on.
“Oh, what’s that?” Timothy asked, cheerily pointing to the box- well he thought he was pointing, but his arm still wasn’t working, and he didn’t notice.
“None of your damn business, that’s what it is!” Jenny slapped the boy across the back of the head, and with a metal arm it wasn’t a very soft blow.
Sophia didn’t like that, she stepped back in front of Timothy and got in the pirate’s face, “don’t you…”
Everyone recoiled as Jenny raised her hand and slapped Sophia hard across the jaw. The girl fell to the floor, the world spinning with the blow. “Yapping little dog.” The pirate spoke, uncharacteristically softly.
“What did you call her?” Neil spoke up but immediately regretted his decision.
“I called her ‘little dog.’” She repeated.
“Fuck you.” Sophia spat, a little blood coming out of her mouth.
Timothy went to help his friend up; my Jenny pushed him away. Bending down the pirate reached out her metal hand, no longer in its gun form, to the girl on the ground. There was a pause, then anxiously Sophia excepted the gesture and was pulled to her feet. “You should be thankin’ me.” Jenny spoke.
“I don’t know about where you live but calling someone a dog and slapping them ain’t something you thank a person for where I’m from.”
The woman huffed. “I’m teachin’ you a lesson, little dog, one that I wish someone would’ve taught me when I was first startin’ out! If you really want to ‘make your own way’ out here in the corners of space, you’re going to have to learn how not to be a little dog. Cuz’ ya see, little dogs they yap, and they yap- cuz’ they want to be imposing, they wanna be seen as threat- they wanna be like the big dogs. But what happens to little dogs when they yap at the wrong person? They get bit.” She looked over to her prisoners, then back at Sophia and shook her head. “You’re lucky I ain’t the wrong big dog around here, there’s a thousand of them out there just waitin’ to take your heads off. Now shut up and follow me, or else you’ll get much more than a slap.”
Everyone nodded and listened, figuring that would be their best move at the moment. Jenny led them over to where a dim light hug just barely illuminated a small desk. Behind the desk sat an alien, which on any other day would’ve been surprising but at the moment it didn’t even seem to dawn on anybody that this was weird. He was a light pink color with a pudgy face, also he had 6 additional arms attached to his shoulders, but no one was counting. “Jenny McClain!” The main shouted, his mouth notably missing a few teeth. “Got the creds?”
The woman slapped down something that looked like a glass panel on the desk and crossed her arms. “You heard me the first time.”
While the transaction was happening, Neil couldn’t help but notice that the man behind the desk didn’t even turn an eye at them. “Uh, sir.” He spoke cautiously. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’re being kidnapped at the moment.”
The man looked up, disinterested. “Yeah, I can see that.”
Neil titled his head. “And you’re fine with that?”
The alien shrugged. “Happens all the time.”
“Ah, yes, I see.”
“Well, Jenny, you’re all set!” The alien said, turning back to his customer. “You give Vander hell for me, will ya?”
Jenny chuckled, “always will, Simlon.”
With the simplest gesture of her gun, the pirate captain led her prisoners to the door. The group turned to each other, worried expressions on all of their faces. Anything could lay outside this door, and none of them were prepared for it.