“Docking commencing in 3... 2... 1...” There was a subtle drop on the Darkstorm as the ship stopped floating using its own engines and was instead dropped into the docking arm. After weeks of travelling through empty space, it would have been nice to finally see some form of civilization.
Unfortunately, the refill station they were docking at was cobbled up together from old satellites and even older ships and from the instant look of the place, it did not follow the Cadoon protocols of maintaining appearances. It did not even have a drop spot for any military ship, especially not for the advanced Darkstorm. The poor hull would need oil scrubbers after this and the spot they were given was tight enough to even scratch the hull in some places. There was not a single automaton in sight.
“Locking cables... ugh... Charyd...” Tony’s voice trailed off with a grunt and his hologram rolled his eyes so hard that one of them flickered. “Single locking cable in place. You should really look into getting the other one fixed while you’re here, Captain Charyd,” Tony said, the disdain so clear in his voice that Charyd visibly flinched and raised his shoulders.
Ilise didn't even want to try to hold back her fangs from flashing as she grinned. A glare from Alice revealed that her grin was too obvious, but Ilise ignored it. What were they going to do? Send her back to her room?
At least she was allowed on the deck with the rest of the crew while the docking procedures were happening, even if they weren’t going to let her get off the ship. Not that she wanted to. No. She wanted as many of them off the Darkstorm.
“Boss, we’ve got an incoming,” Polo called out from one of the stations on the deck.
Ilise turned to him out of habit but Charyd was already standing behind Polo’s station and hunching down to look at the man’s screens. His entire face screwed up to the point where Ilise suspected he was trying and failing to morph something.
“Alice, can you take a look at this?” Charyd called out.
Ilise was curious. She didn’t move from her spot but did stretch out her neck a little to try and get a glimpse of Polo’s screens. From this angle, all she saw was a flashing red banner across a document. It could have been Tony, for all she knew. The recent video of Polo hosing him down with the kitchen faucet because Charyd was stealing bites of dinner before it was ready made her laugh.
“Can’t stay too long,” Alice said quietly, but Ilise heard it perfectly. “Refuel, resupply, and we’re gone.”
“Sounds good,” Charyd agreed with a nod. “Who do you want?”
“I’d like to stay on the ship, please,” Squilla said, not once looking up from the scrolling code in front of her. She didn’t stop her coding even when the ship officially docked.
“I’ll take Polo and Mishupeshu,” Alice informed.
Polo, although he was more concentrated on creating a delicious meal for his family, was very often considered the muscle of their team simply due to his size. Ilise had made that mistake too, focusing on his shining bald head rather than Alice’s speed. Mishupeshu, however, was still a mystery to the Cadoon Captain, especially with that phony medical licence they scratched into the wall to get her to shut up about not having one. If they were going to fake one, at least pick the top two prestigious schools, not a run-down local one.
“Okay. Just them three, the rest of us stay on.”
Scooball was obviously unhappy with Charyd’s command and Ilise waited with baited breath for her to voice it. Unfortunately, she didn’t do anything other than to play with her earring.
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“Why?” Ilise finally asked and pulled her head back before a crick could form in her neck.
“Nothing to worry about. We don’t need to stay long,” Charyd dismissed her with a wave of his hand.
Nothing, her ass.
“Come with me for a moment?” Charyd asked and it actually sounded like a question, not an order.
Ilise tapped out a pattern on her armrest for Tony then got up and followed him off the dock—deck—and back towards the individual rooms.
“What is it?” she asked into the silence. She wasn’t used to Charyd not being happy and preppy. Something was clearly wrong.
“I want to talk to you about something,” Charyd explained and stopped before her room. The door swished open and he held an arm out in invitation to her own room. Ever the gentleman.
“Is this how you normally get to someone’s bed? Inviting them into their own room?” If it had been the gym, she would have asked if he’d like to join her for a nice sweaty regime. With her empty and tiny bed in her field of view now, the comment would hit a little too close to home and even someone as dense as the pirate captain would get her meaning.
When Charyd didn’t reply other than to motion again, Ilise stepped into the room. As soon as she was inside, the door swooshed closed behind her.
She turned around quickly only to see Charyd’s pained smile through the small window in the door.
“Sorry, it’ll be just until we leave.” He said nothing more and left her.
Ilise immediately reached for the controls but they beeped her out.
“Tony! Let me out.”
“I can’t,” Tony’s voice sounded so annoyed that Ilise felt her own irritation mounting. “Squilla is doing something to my code, as we speak. I have no control over the rooms.”
Ilise grunted, kicked the door, then grunted again – this time in pain. “What’s got him like that?”
“Check your docupad,” Tony informed and the tablet pinged from her bed.
Before jumping on her bed, Ilise slammed the little privacy screen on the door’s window closed – at least he wouldn’t be peeking at her like the asshole pervert he was! Then she was on her tablet where the that same flashing red banner from the dock appeared. Right under it were six photos. Charyd’s photo looked the same as how he had morphed his features when he left the prison, but this time there was a name.
“50 litres!?” Ilise almost shouted when the price registered. “A bounty of 50 litres for just him? Who put this bounty out?”
“Alice is at 45,” Tony manipulated the docupad so Alice’s image grew. And then under it came up a long, scrolling list of information that moved too fast for Ilise to read. She was able to catch only a few words here and there before realizing it was a list of all her crimes. The crimes Alice was accused of, something Ilise read before, and multiple of which dealt with stealing supplies. A regular Robin Hood. Soft-hearted and easy to manipulate when it came to her pod.
Alice’s image minimized back beside the others and Charyd’s enlarged. “They have more info on him this time,” Tony informed her and scrolled the list quickly for a few moments before slowing down so Ilise could read.
“And new charges, I see,” Ilise read through the latest developments on stealing the ship, breaking into the prison, injuring the guards, destroying government property—there was so much more. While she was reading through that, Tony took up a corner of her screen where code appeared as he hacked his way into the bounty ad using a local connection from the refuelling station.
“Payment will be made out via a private individual that doesn’t exist,” Tony started explaining. “Looks like one of those mod-CEOs. But it’s for a shell corporation.”
“And?”
Tony remained quiet as the code continued to blur in the corner of her screen.
“Cadoon,” Tony finally informed her and a single line of the now frozen code started flashing. Ilise focused on it and read a familiar name that had her eyes narrowing. Captain Sisyphus.
“When did he get promoted?”
“Forget that. Look at this,” Tony cleared the screen and then covered it in a long list filled with many photos. Ilise recognized it as the military database of ‘people of interest’. Her own photo exploded large on the screen. The scrolling text under it revealed her to be a traitor to the military. Under that though was a message meant only for her.
“Crimes of alpha-hydro-2-oxy-0N-sozoa.”
“Tony, do you recognize that?” The single line of text started flashing, each symbol scrolling in a casino slot until it fell to the correct one.
“Already on the decryption. It’s name pinged something in my database. This will show up only for a moment so pay attention. Annnd.” Animated confetti flew about on her screen as the message was translated to: Deliver to DB-7384 on X.238139-33:12.