After eating my M.R.E. lasagnia, I dragged Sparky throughout the ship, insisting on showing her all the rooms. Sparky complained the whole time about already knowing the layout, schematics, and being called Sparky. She insisted on being called Alexandra for some reason. I ignored those requests and continued to show her around, eventually bringing her to the bridge.

“Is this worthless tour over yet?” Sparky complained.

“It was not worthless! And yes, it’s over. Had to occupy our time while Haru cleaned herself,” I said, wrapping an arm around Sparky. She tried to avoid being touched by me but got in a headlock instead.

“Agh, let go of me!” Sparky exclaimed, trying to pull her head out of my arm.

“No, you’re too cuddly! How old are you anyway?”

“If I tell you, will you release me?”

“Maybe.”

“I’m fifteen.”

I gasped sarcastically, “Fifteen, less than a year from manhood,” I said, wiping an imaginary tear from the corners of her eyes.

“I. Am. Not. A. MAN!” Sparky yelled and successfully pulled herself free from my grasp. After fixing her hair and ensuring her cybernetic implants weren’t damaged, she said, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must go and collect my belongings.”

“Oh, are you going back to the station? I shall accompany you!”

“No, you won’t!” Sparky protested.

Then the airlock door opened, and Haru came in wearing her harem yoga pants and crop top, “Hey, where are you two going?” Haru asked.

“Gotta collect Sparky’s things and talk to Okiri about a little more business,” I answered.

“Oh, great. I get to see him again,” Haru said sarcastically.

“Yep! Isn’t it fantastic!”

“Stop calling me Sparky! It’s not my name!” Sparky yelled, leaving the bridge in a huff.

Haru watched and asked, “What’s got Sparky in such a bad mood?”

“I don’t know. I’m sure she’ll tell us eventually,” I said, shrugging and following Sparky out of the bridge. As we walked the halls of the massive dreadnaught, it felt ominous and empty to me. As though the ship needed to have people within to work and die. While contemplating this, I turned to Haru and said, “We’re going to need a crew for this ship.”

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“True. Maybe Okiri can provide them?”

“No, we need specialists for the mission. So, we need a specific crew of expendables.”

“We can’t call them expendables,” Haru corrected.

“Redshirts?”

“No.”

“Peasants?”

“No. They will be just crew. Nothing else. Besides, this ship has enough room for several thousand people. How and who the hell do we talk to about getting crew?”

I held my chin as I contemplated this, “We need a few thousand expendable peeons, and all of them need to know how to fly a fighter craft. On top of that, they need to not be pissed off at us. That’s a small list of people. I’m pretty sure they’re all dead.”

“Also, true. We’ll find somebody. Who else would we need?”

“We’ll need a couple of tankers, a medic or two, and someone who can bail us out of trouble if things get rough.”

“Well, we can recruit Jin. That’ll handle one of the medics. And Oni can be one of the tanks.”

“Oh, I forgot about Oni. She can also double as the person to bail us out.”

“Let’s face it. You’re already that person.”

I thought for a moment, then shrugged, “True,” I admitted as they reached the umbilical, where a few guards stood in our way but let Sparky through. “Excuse me, we need to speak to Okiri,” I said. The guards looked at each other with confused faces, then Haru stepped forward and repeated what I said in Japanese.

The guards nodded in recognition, and one spoke on his communicator and waited for a response. Once it came, he said, “Okiri is on his way and will be here shortly.”

“Good,” I said, “We’ll just wait here.”

***

As Okiri approached, he heard excited yelling coming from the end of the umbilical. He picked up his pace and quickly reached the end of the line. “ONE, TWO, THREE, SHOOT!” Haru and I yelled as we and the four guards played rock, paper, scissors. Haru won the round.

“God damn it, Haru! You were supposed to let me win!” I protested.

“I never agreed to that.”

Okiri pinched the bridge of his nose and spoke, “Why did you call me down here?”

“Oh, hey, Okiri! Just need to discuss a little business,” I said, noticing Okiri and Haru translating for me.

“What do you need to discuss?”

“We must stash the ship away while we track down the crew to man the ship. We’ll, of course, pay you with proper credits.”

Okiri nodded and said, “Of course, that’ll be fine. Anything else?”

“You want to join us for a high-stakes rock, paper, scissors game? The pot’s at five-thousand credits, double or nothing.”

“No,” Okiri said flatly. Then Sparky walked by with a couple of duffle bags, now wearing a tank top and baggy cargo pants. Okiri looked startled when he saw her and blurted out, “Wait! Where are you going?”

Sparky turned around, “I’m joining Violet in her mission. It’ll give me proper recognition and safety.”

“Yeah! Sparky’s with us!” I exclaimed unhelpfully.

“My name isn’t Sparky! It’s Alexandra!”

“What was that, Sparky? I couldn’t hear you over Violet’s yelling,” Haru said.

“I said- ERR! Never mind!” Sparky yelled, then stormed off to the Reaver.

Okiri sighed and said, “Well, be sure to take good care of her. She is precious to my family and me.”

“Will do!” I said happily, then returned my attention to rock, paper, scissors, “You’re all about to get wiped out! ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS, SHOOT!!”