Chapter Forty - Giving it a Twirl

Twenty-Six leaned onto the console and spoke up. "Give her a twirl, captain. Nice and slow."

There was a static click from the computer she was standing next to, and that was all the reply the captain of the Held Together gave.

The Sappho's sensor-suite and onboard cameras were aimed at the Held Together. The two ships had finally matched velocities and headings an hour ago, and then they'd discovered the ugly truth. There was no way to get from one ship to the other. Not safely, and not through any conventional means.

Twenty-Six's eyes were glued on the main screen in the bridge as it displayed her home ship. Two bursts of steam exited out of the Held Together on opposite ends of the ship and going in opposite directions. It was enough to get the ship rotating on its axis, though only slowly.

"Oh, that's not ideal," Twenty-Six said.

The Held Together's quick departure from the pirate station hadn't come without a few new dings and scrapes. Some of the spalling from their attack on the station to destroy the clamps had peppered the side of the ship with a multitude of new cuts. The rearward airlock, the same one they'd used to board the station, was a mangled mess.

There was more damage. The large antenna array under the cockpit had bent itself out of shape, and one of the three main thrusters was simply not attached anymore.

"Look at those burn marks," Twenty-Six said as she pointed to a part of the hull over the extinguished engine. "Those are arc burns. I'll bet my favourite auto-wrench that the engine's capacitors blew and the discharge arced back down."

"Is there a risk if we touch the hull?" Ivil asked.

By 'we' she meant the average human, of course.

"There might be," Twenty-Six said. "I think the capacitors will have discharged... but there's always a chance that there's some left. I wouldn't touch the entire engine assembly without a proper ground and some non-conducting gloves. We could still make it to the Held Together though. It'll just be, uh, dangerous."

"A space walk, without any safety nets. And I don't recall any equipment for the purpose onboard either ship," Ivil said.

"We have some EVA gear on the Held Together," Twenty-Six said. "It's, ah, not fitted for anyone left on the ship, though. I think everyone has sealable suits though. We just don't have equipment for moving in space. Or surviving hard radiation."

Ivil nodded along. She could do a few things to help, but this was a surprisingly delicate task and one which might not actually require the assistance. Ivil tapped the communication panel on the captain's seat. "Miss Pendergast?" she asked.

There was the slightest bit of fuzz over the line, but Sonic Spectre answered nonetheless. "Yes, ma'am?"

"How are things onboard the ship?" Ivil asked.

"A little smokey. The air filtration system went offline for an hour or so. I've repaired it to the best of my ability," the Tech Maid said.

Twenty-Six leaned over. "You just got to pull the filter halfway out, then shove it back in. That'll reset the whole thing. Also make sure to switch the heater settings right after so that it auto-shuts after three hours. When you switch the filter out, it resets the timers, and if you leave them on they'll melt some of the housings and that's a mess. You'll know you did it wrong if it smells like burnt plastic. If it smells like an electrical fire for the first twenty minutes, then it's working right. You usually only need to do that, like, once every couple of days."

"... Noted," Sonic replied. "In any case, the ship is... functional, though it has taken a great deal of damage. I think it's in dire need of repairs, retrofits, or retirement."

"I'll stay on the line with you," Twenty-Six said. "Let me know if anything else breaks. Actually, you might want to go to the engineering room, take a few pictures of the panels there and send them back. I'll be able to tell you what's seriously broken with that."

"Understood," Sonic replied. "How are things onboard the Sappho?"

"Things are well enough," Ivil said. "This ship isn't the most luxurious, but it's relatively modern, and well-maintained. We didn't take any real damage on leaving the station. Our ammo is half depleted, however."

"Noted," Sonic said. "What's our destination?"

Ivil nodded along. She could appreciate the Tech Maid's sense of duty, at least. "We're still heading to Callisto. There should be some stations around the moon that'll be able to accommodate the Held Together."

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

"Miss Ville, I'm aware that you did most of the work, but would you be willing to share some of your earnings in order to restore the Held Together?" Sonic asked.

Ivil blinked. "What earnings?"

"For the bounties."

Ivil paused, then it clicked. She hadn't been thinking about it, because financial issues were for people that cared about things like money, but yes, the pirates that she'd very recently murdered likely had bounties. They, in fact, had some very high-definition scans and images of several pirate ships being obliterated, as well as their station going up in literal flames.

"Miss Ville?" Twenty-Six asked.

"We'll split it evenly," Ivil decided. "Five ways. One portion for the Held Together, then a portion for each member of the crew that infiltrated the station. Do you think we'll be able to compile the information for the bounties?"

"I can work on it," Sonic said. "I might need access to some of the data stored on the Sappho, to use as proof, but otherwise, it shouldn't be overly difficult to make the case."

"Don't you need to be affiliated with a bounty guild in order to receive a bounty at all?" Ivil asked.

"I'm certain we can work around that," Sonic said. "We could make the application, then hand in one bounty as proof of capability. Then the remaining bounties should be enough to catapult the person we chose as applicant past the journeyman stage. Though, it would be significantly cheaper and easier to suborn someone who already has the bounty hunter classification."

Ivil hummed. "We'll see once we reach Callisto."

"I might know someone."

Ivil turned towards the entrance of the bridge. Missy was on the last step into the room, and as Ivil looked, she climbed up and in. She was wearing something different, a loose jumpsuit, the upper half bunched around her hips, the arms tied together as a loose belt. Her upper body was covered in nothing but a too-tight tanktop.

Ivil was very temporarily mesmerised by the application of motion on semi-fixed objects in a zero-g environment.

"Missy," she said as she snapped out of it. "You know someone?"

"Yeah. A bounty hunter that mostly works around Jupiter. She's... a little strange, but she's not a bad sort. She has her bounty-hunting licence, and owes me a drink. Once we get within coms range of the moon I'll send a ping out."

"Would she be willing to take credit for our work?" Ivil asked.

"Eh, she might not, but she'll cash it in for us, assuming we cut her in a little." Missy frowned. "I didn't think about it until now, but the amount of pirates we took out, the ships... that'll be one hell of a bounty. We're talking several five-figure bounties all being cashed in at once. Even split, that's a fair chunk of cash."

"Enough to fix the Held Together?" Twenty-Six asked hopefully.

Missy chuckled. "I don't know if there's enough money in the system for that. But it'll be enough to get her moving and looked at by some professionals."

"I don't know if I'd trust the repair fields around Jupiter," Twenty-Six said. "Saturn's are way better."

"That's just your pride talking," Missy said. "They're good enough."

Ivil shrugged. She didn't care overly much. "As soon as we're in range, get a call out to that contact of yours."

"Will do," Missy replied. "So, I came to ask you something."

"Yes?" Ivil asked, perking up a little.

"What do you wanna do about that corpse in the airlock? Because it's gonna start to stink the place up soon. This ship has good-enough scrubbers, but I don't wanna put them to the test that much."

"Corpse?" Twenty-Six asked. "Oh! That pirate lady! Wait, didn't she have a heap of cores?"

"She did," Ivil said. "I suppose now's a good time as any. Twenty-Six, would you mind staying in contact with Miss Pendergast? I'm sure she'd love to have you talk her through everything that needs to be done to keep the Held Together in shape."

"Will do!" Twenty-Six said.

"Keep an eye on the radar too," Missy said with a vague gesture towards the ship's scanner suite. Ivil wasn't sure if it actually had radar, but the terminology had stuck for a few centuries and she wasn't about to correct it. "Now, let's find some gloves and masks before we do this. I literally just showered, and I don't know if this ship has that much clothing in it that fits me."

***