I laughed at their shocked expressions and their racing thoughts.
“A-a-a-all of us?!?” Deborah managed to asked, her surprise complete and total.
“This last week of work went faster than it ever did, didn't it?” I asked and they all nodded. “Not because there was a lot, it was because we enjoyed it. I want to keep that dynamic going.”
“But... but you said...”
“Right off the bat I said it was a test of your skills and that it wasn't a competition.” I reminded them and they stared at me. “I just wanted to see if you could all work and live together without problems.” I glanced at Gleas and then at Kalina. “Since Kalina's only temporary, her conflict with Gleas isn't a high priority, and we can rotate them to keep any possible grudges to a minimum.”
They all kept staring at me and didn't know what to say.
“I guess we need to discuss how often you want to get paid.” I said. “Is weekly okay, or...”
“Weekly!” Kalina exclaimed and the other women looked at her for a moment, then they laughed.
“Weekly's fine.” Perginia said and everyone nodded.
“I'm glad I don't have to redo these.” I said and handed each of them a credit chip. Each of them blinked their eyes at the numbers on the chips.
“Th-this can't be right.” Beatrice whispered, stunned. “We only... it was just... three days and then... then... only half a shift actually flying the ship each day.”
“It's only a week's pay of standard wages.” I said and they looked back at me with disbelief on their faces. “I can't give you the one percent danger bonus until we sell the first batch of cargo... which we can't sell until we load up... which we can't do until we get back to work.”
“I'll get changed right away!” Perginia said and stood.
I chuckled and stopped her from leaving the room. “I'm taking the day off, so relax.”
“But...”
“We're all resting, since it's the last day of the week, remember?”
“Oh.” Perginia said. “Right. Our day off.”
I laughed. “Don't sound so disappointed.” I said. “Believe me, it's going to pass by quickly, especially if you decide to head to the planet for anything.”
“Hold on.” Deborah said and squinted her eyes at me. “You're letting us leave the ship?”
“I'm not running a prison for pilots.” I grinned. “It's your day off. You can do whatever you want with your own time.”
“This is...” Kalina tucked her credit chip away. “I'd like a flight to Chofaris.”
“I'll go, too.” Beatrice and Deborah said at the same time.
“Then get whatever you want to take with you and the shuttle leaves in fifteen minutes.” I said.
“I'm staying, if that's okay.” Perginia said.
“Are you sure you don't want to fly the shuttle?” I asked and smiled at her.
“You... you'd let me take the shuttle?”
“As long as you drop the others off and pick everyone up to come back by tomorrow morning.”
Perginia gave me an appraising look for a few moments, then she nodded and left to get her things.
“You know she could steal it and sell it for a lot of credits.” Gleas said.
“She could... or she could run errands and take extra jobs on the side using it.”
Gleas raised her eyebrows at me. “You expect her to abuse the privilege like that?”
“She wants to keep busy and it's her day off. Wasting a whole day sitting around when she has access to a shuttle would have her chewing through the bulkheads by this afternoon.”
Gleas chuckled. “Okay, yes. I have to agree with that.”
“You have free use of the communication console, so don't be shy about using it.” I said and touched her shoulder for a moment, then left the compartment. I went to my temporary room and sat down at the console to look over the items we had salvaged so far and smiled. We had filled only a quarter of the cargo hold so far, which meant we should have it filled in a couple of weeks, then we had all of the collapsible metal racks on the hull to fill. I checked Rhubin's report on how well Luxea and Simone were doing and nodded at their progress. They would have the Udelis loaded up by the end of next week and would need to make the first cargo run back to the Dizahl System to offload it into the shipping containers we had there.
Luxea had already done some preliminary checks on where we could sell the odd technology and with only some slight modifications on our part to adapt it for standard use, there shouldn't be a problem clearing it out when we had enough of it in stock. I was satisfied that we could turn it all over as quickly as we could salvage and adapt it, so I closed the console and walked over to the bed. I sat in the lotus position and used several mental techniques to enter a meditative state and checked myself over again.
The stress my body had gone through, from both the explosion and the rapid magical healing, was no longer a concern. I was back in top form and my body circulated Presence constantly to maintain itself. I could even feel the wrecks that weren't too far away. Each time we took a break from salvaging, I always had whoever was piloting the ship to leave the debris field and put us into a parking orbit near it to reduce the danger. It also gave them great experience for both navigating and reflexes.
Now that their trial period was over and they had proven they could handle the situation and the ship, the speed and efficiency of our work should increase by a factor of two. At least, I hope it would. I was pretty sure that they understood I wasn't trying to abuse their skills for my own gains, so they should work that much harder. By the time the Udelis comes back from the first cargo run and loads up again, we should have this ship fully loaded as well, and it should only take us three full runs and the Udelis six full runs to finish the job.
I finished meditating and left my room to meet the women that were leaving and walked them down to the shuttle bay. I told them to have fun and to not do what I did, and that made them laugh. The shuttle left and I went back up into the main part of the ship and used the communications console. I sent a quick message to Rhubin to tell him that I had hired four of the women permanently and one for only the three month contract. With that task done, I leaned back in the pilot's chair and stretched, then stood up to go back to my room.
“Oh! Hi!” Gleas said when she saw me. “I was just...”
“...exercising perfect timing.” I said with a smile. “I just finished sending a message to Rhubin about hiring you all.”
“Was he as surprised as we were?” Gleas asked, then she shook her head. “Never mind.”
I chuckled. “I can almost guarantee it.”
“What about...”
“I'm sure I'll get an earful the next time I'm talking to them, especially after...” I smiled. “Never mind.”
Gleas chuckled, too. “I think we're both going to get an earful from people we care about.”
“I'd say to tell them you're working for me; but, that might not be the best thing to lead off with.”
Gleas laughed. “I'll emphasize 'The Wave' as the boss and not you specifically.”
I nodded and left the cockpit, so she could make her personal calls. There were small consoles in the rooms; but, only the one in the cockpit made direct calls that didn't have to go through the ship's routing and priority system. It was much easier to walk to the cockpit to make a call than to wait in your room.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
It made sense to have a system like that for passengers, that way the crew would have priority for their messages to other ships and the various control towers and they wouldn't have to wait for the passengers to finish calling their friends and family. I might get Luxea to change those settings later; but for now, it was fine the way it was.
I went to the large living room and turned on the large vidscreen and checked the channels to see if there was anything good on. Not that I knew what was good, since it was the first time I had tried to sit down and watch something on the local broadcasts. I knew they had something going all the time, considering all of the ships they had patrolling the system and those ships needed entertainment for their crews when they weren't working.
I had searched through quite a few shows when I saw Gleas leave the cockpit. I saw her face and she looked like she was both sad and happy, and I noticed that she wore a nice pair of shorts and a t-shirt. When she hesitated by her room and didn't go in, I walked over to lean out into the hallway.
“Gleas? Are you there?” I asked.
Gleas waited for a moment, then responded. “Yes.”
“Could I get your help for a second?” I asked and watched her hesitate as she look down the hallway towards my voice, back at her room, then she turned and walked towards me. When she was close enough to see me in the curve of hallway, I put a smile on my face.
“What is it?” Gleas asked when she came into view.
“I can't find anything good to watch.” I said and motioned to the room behind me. “I actually don't even know what to look for.”
Gleas opened her mouth to say that she was busy, so I gave her my best 'I need your help' look. She hesitated for a few moments, sighed a little bit, then kept walking towards me.
“Thanks a lot.” I said and stepped back, motioned to the couch, and we sat down together.
“What are you in the mood for?” Gleas asked.
“Something mind-numbing would be great.” I said. “I don't want to have to think about anything for a while and I need the distraction.”
Gleas gave me an odd look for a second, then she nodded and helped me search for something. When she stopped and highlighted a movie, I raised my eyebrows at her.
“Tide of the Vermin?” I asked, curious.
Gleas couldn't help but chuckle as she started it. “You said mind-numbing, right?” She asked and sat back. “These cheap monster movies have been all the rage lately.”
I sat back and our shoulders touched. I could hear her thoughts about easing slightly away, then she decided there wasn't any harm and leaned slightly towards me. I took a breath and let it out and she turned her head to look at my face.
“Are you okay?” Gleas asked.
“Physically, I'm fine.” I said and I felt her concern. “I'm just worried about my plans and how quickly I can implement them.”
“Which is why you want the distraction.” Gleas said and I nodded. “Well, let's see how shoddy this production is.” She said and looked at the screen. “Twenty credits says it has a painted screen behind the giant vermin.”
“That's not a fair bet.” I said and gave her a crooked smile. “Unless there's nothing else in the scene.”
“Oh? Do you a have experience in things like this?”
“Kind of.” I said. “I'm going to bet that they use forced perspective and maybe a model town or city... with a painted background.”
Gleas chuckled. “Now who isn't making a fair bet?”
“Me.” I said and we both laughed. We sat there, our shoulders touching, and we watched a really bad monster movie. I brought in some snacks and we laughed the whole time at the cheesy effects and the horrible acting.
*
“He hired them all?” Luxea asked as she stared at the datapad with the message Hunter had sent.
“I'm just as surprised as you are.” Rhubin said and had to adjust his sitting position to ease some of the pressure his erection was causing him, then ate some of his meal.
“Why would he need so many pilots?” Simone asked and took a bite of food.
“He's using the shuttle as a relay most times and bringing things to that, then dropping them off in the cargo ship.” Rhubin said. “It's a lot safer to fly a shuttle around some of those wrecks than it is to fly the large ship.”
“Which we don't have to do, because the Udelis is small enough to fit by itself.” Luxea said.
“That's why he put us on this ship and didn't make us go to the new one.” Simone said in understanding. “He knew it would be so much easier working from this one, especially with Rhubin flying it.” She said. “He's the only one with actual experience flying in stuff like this.”
“He gave himself the harder job and he is also doing the low priority wrecks, so we can concentrate on the big ones and get the better salvage.” Rhubin said. “He's going to be moving through the debris field a lot more than we are.”
Luxea reluctantly nodded. “He would need more than one pilot to work for the whole day, but...”
“Having four pilots and one shuttle pilot, assuming he's not rotating them into the shuttle to take turns, is a little overkill.” Rhubin said. “I thought he would pick two of them, at most.”
“Well, whatever he's doing over there is on hold.” Simone said and pointed to the message. “He sent that right after the shuttle left, so we know he's not on it.”
I wonder why he didn't request a docking procedure with us. Rhubin asked himself and had no idea that both Luxea and Simone were asking themselves the same question and they felt slighted that he hadn't even mentioned it. The three of them finished their breakfast and went back to work. They needed to fill the cargo hold and the wrecks weren't going to salvage themselves.
It never occurred to them that their days off didn't coincide and Hunter knew they still needed to work.
*
Perginia dropped the other three women off where they wanted to go and then flew the shuttle halfway across the continent and came in for a landing at a rundown building. She dropped the boarding ramp and six men with duffle bags ran out of the building and boarded in under ten seconds. She closed it up and took off, then flew almost a thousand miles away and landed again.
“How the hell did you convince them to let you borrow a shuttle so soon?” One of the men asked Perginia as six more men with duffle bags boarded.
Perginia laughed. “I didn't have to say anything! He told me to take it as long as I was back in the morning with the others onboard!”
The men laughed, too. She took off and flew nearly all the way back across the continent and landed again. The man who spoke leaned forward and gave her a kiss on the cheek as the boarding ramp lowered. She used a hand to grip his face and turned to give him a proper kiss, to his surprise, and the men in the shuttle hooted and hollered.
Perginia broke the kiss and her eyes blazed. “Go get them.” She said in a deadly voice.
“I will.” The man said and then the shuttle emptied.
Perginia sat there and watched the men load up into several vehicles, then they drove off in different directions. She hoped this went of without a hitch and she would stay there as long as she could. She was sure that it was going to work, even rushed as they were, and she would have to thank Hunter if it did. They had been planning this for a year and never had the means to do what they just did in only twenty minutes. Her hands clenched into fists. Her men would make them pay for what they did.
*
Kalina's boyfriend was ecstatic over the news about her being hired. He knew that such a lucrative contract would flood them with credits after the three month expiry date, because even one percent of the salvage total was going to be a ridiculous amount of money.
“I can't wait until your first pay!” He said, excitedly. “Once we establish that you've got a steady income like me, we can get that extended line of credit at the bank I've always wanted.” He gave her a hug and walked across the apartment and picked up a magazine. “I've had my eye on that new...”
He was so happy about the news that Kalina didn't get the chance to tell him she had already been paid for a week of work. As she sat there and listened to him go on and on about all of the things he wanted to buy with 'their' money, she slipped the high credit chip back into her pocket and didn't say anything.
*
“I'm sure he would let you stay with me.” Deborah said to the man that stood across the room.
“For how long?” The man asked. “If the contract is up after three months, then what?”
“I told you already that it's a permanent job.” Deborah said. “The ship is...”
“Yeah, it's great, I know.” He said and rubbed his face. “You could have at least called me...”
“For what?” Deborah asked. “For you to tell me to wait and talk to you in person? We're doing that now, aren't we?”
“You already accepted the job.” He sighed. “Nothing I say now matters.”
“Oh, come on! Are you really that dense?” Deborah asked. “Of course it matters!”
He frowned at her. “I'm not dense.”
“You're acting like I've just killed your pet! Of course you're being dense!” Deborah said loudly. “I thought you would be happy I got a job that pays so much!”
“I am! I just don't want you to pull up roots and leave!”
Deborah laughed sadly. “They didn't say they were leaving here forever.”
“They didn't say they would ever come back, either.” He countered. “Look, you know when they leave this time, there's no reason for them to come back here.”
“No reason?” Deborah shook her head. “Except for their new crew members who are from here.”
“If you really think a shipping company that makes deliveries all over the place will shut down for a month, just to bring you home to visit on your days off, then spend another month travelling back to the main routes, you're delusional.”
Deborah sighed. “Why are you saying this now?” She asked. “Couldn't you have waited until the salvage contract is up?”
“I'm just trying to...”
“I know what you're doing.” Deborah said. “You're trying to make me feel bad about making my own decision and laying the groundwork for you to leave me.”
“What? That's not...”
“You didn't realize that saying what you just said would force me to make a decision?” Deborah asked and he closed his mouth. “Yes, right. You want me to decide, so I am.” She said and walked towards the bedroom. He followed her and saw her grab a large suitcase.
“What are you doing?” He asked, a little shocked.
“What does it look like I'm doing?” Deborah asked as she pilled all of her clothing into the suitcase. She took two of the drawers and dumped them without packing anything nicely.
“Come on, now. Don't overreact.” He said and stepped into the room.
“You do this every time something comes up!” Deborah said and tossed the drawers aside with a clatter. “Every time I have an opportunity, you act this way and I always let you talk me out of it.” She said and went into the bathroom, gathered up her personal things and went out to the bedroom and tossed them into one of the side compartments on the large case. “Well, I'm done listening to you.”
“Deborah, please.” He said and tried to take her hand.
“No.” Deborah said and grabbed the pictures she had scattered around the room and thought about taking some towels, then remembered the thick and plush luxury towels on the ship and left them. “I'm going to do what I want to do this time.” She said and closed the large suitcase.
“You can't leave.” The man said. “Your ride won't be here until morning.”
“For your information, I'm going to stay in a hotel for the night.”
“I can't afford for you to...”
“I can.” Deborah said and picked up her suitcase and hit the button to let it hover an inch from the floor. “If you had taken your head out of your ass for a few minutes, you would have listened to what I was actually telling you and not what you thought I was saying!”
“What were you trying to say?” He asked, thoroughly confused by the turn of events.
“I was going to quit in three months after getting the salvage shares for a full crew member, you idiot!” Deborah said and walked out of the room. “Now? I'm going to stay for as long as they'll have me!” She nearly yelled and slammed the front door.