As an adult, Kizzy had found ways to better manage the blueprints in her brain. She kept her scrib right by her bed so that she could fill it with sketches and notes without leaving the warmth of her blankets. But even so, unfinished projects often kept her up late. It always started with one last circuit, which turned into I bet I could fix this, and just a few more tweaks, and then bam, breakfast time.
But in the tendays since the whole Akarak thing, Kizzy had stayed awake for a different reason. Her brain still buzzed with ideas, but she went out of her way to keep herself busy even after they’d all been used up. Tonight, for instance, she was up dusting interface junctions on a spare power conduit. It wasn’t a vital job. It wasn’t even a necessary one. But it was something to do.
Dr. Chef had given her some drops to help her sleep, but she didn’t like them. They left her feeling fuzzy in the morning, and besides, she didn’t want to be the sort of person who needed drops at all. No, despite the tired, punched-face ache that nibbled at her all around the edges, she was going to do this without drops. Somehow, she’d figure out how to lie in bed without her mind drifting back to the cargo bay, guns in her face, Ashby bleeding in her lap. There hadn’t been a night since when she hadn’t laid there wondering if another ship would sneak up on them while she slept. She imagined Akaraks storming up to her room with their guns and shrieking voices. She imagined waking up to a pulse rifle pointed at her, or maybe not waking up at all. She remembered the way the bay doors had screeched as they were forced open. She remembered the thin jet of red that had spurted from Ashby’s mouth when the Akarak clocked him with the gun. One of these nights, she’d find a way to stop remembering. But for now, there were a lot of junctions to dust.
“Hey, Kizzy,” said Lovey through the vox. “Sorry to bug you, but you’re the only one awake.”
“What’s up, sweetcheeks?”
“There’s a ship approaching, about an hour out.”
The cleaning rag fumbled. Oh, stars. The Akaraks had come back. They’d circled back. Well, not this time, motherfuckers. She’d hide away in a wall panel, seal herself in from the inside so no one would know. She’d scurry through the walls like a mouse, pulling off flashbang sabotage until every last one of the scrawny bastards was dead. If it took tendays, fine. She’d just duck into the kitchen now and then to steal supplies. She could live in the walls. This was her ship, and—and who the fuck was she kidding? There was no way she could pull it off. They were dead, totally dead. Why hadn’t Ashby just bought a few guns back on Cricket? Dusthead Exodan, even just one gun would—
Lovey continued. “They’re signaling us. It’s a GC distress signal.”
Kizzy exhaled. She felt a smidge of guilt for being relieved that someone else was in trouble, but… ah well. She propped up her scrib against a spool of wire. “Patch ’em through to my vid link.”
The scrib switched on. A female Aeluon stared back at her. And like all members of her species, she was gorgeous. Silver skin, graceful neck, soft eyes, the whole shebang. Kizzy was suddenly very aware of the dirty worksuit she was wearing, the messy table, the—dammit, crumbs, she had cake crumbs on her shirt, and there was a pixel pen stuck in her hair, and—well, whatever. Surely the Aeluon had seen a Human tech before. She couldn’t blame Kizzy for belonging to a grubby profession, or an ugly species.
“Hi there,” Kizzy said, brushing herself off. “I’m Kizzy Shao. What’s your trouble?” It was then that she noticed what the Aeluon was wearing. At first glance, the lady was just a snappy dresser, but Kizzy had played enough action sims to know an armored vest when she saw one—not clunky Human-style, but one designed to blend in with the rest of her outfit. The Aeluon was seated, but Kizzy could see the end of an energy pistol peeking up over her belt. And there, cuffed around her arm—wasn’t that a personal shield generator? Looked new, too. This lady meant business. Like, serious business. That wasn’t just protective gear. It was getting shit done because I am the boss gear. Kizzy wished that Jenks was awake.
The Aeluon smiled (or, at least, something face-related that was close enough). “Hello, Kizzy. I’m Captain Gapei Tem Seri. I was hoping to speak to your captain. Is he available?”
“He’s asleep, but I can wake him up if you—”
“No, no,” the Aeluon said. “Don’t disturb him. Are you authorized to permit unscheduled dockings?”
Authorized to permit unscheduled dockings. Stars, this lady wasn’t messing around. “Um, sure, I guess,” Kizzy said. She wasn’t sure unscheduled dockings were something that had ever been specifically discussed aboard the Wayfarer. If a ship’s friendly and needs help, you help. Simple as that.
The Aeluon nodded. The gesture looked practiced. She obviously knew how to talk with Humans. “We’ve suffered damage to our life support systems. It seems our most recent shipment included a delayed disruptor mine. It didn’t go off until we were out in the open.”
“Whoa. Shit. Are you okay?”
“We have temporary repairs in place, and we’ve been holding fairly steady for three days now. But we’re on our way to Aeluon space, and I’m not sure our stop-gap measures will last that long. What we really need is to shut down the core entirely and let our fixbots do their job.”
“And you need a place to hang out in the meantime. No worries, we’ve got plenty of air to go around. Wait, do you not have a tech?”
The Aeluon’s cheeks darkened into a greenish-grey. “We ran into some trouble at our last stop. Our tech…” She exhaled. “Our tech didn’t make it. I… I haven’t had a chance to hire a new one yet.”
“Stars. I’m so sorry.” Okay, what the hell did this lady do that involved disruptor mines and the kind of “trouble” that ended in dead techs?
The Aeluon didn’t say anything further about it. “Anyway, if we could come aboard, just while our bots do their job—”
“Why not let us do it? I’m the mech tech here, and our comp tech knows his way around a life support system. We’re better than bots, and depending on the damage, you might not have to take your systems offline.”
The Aeluon considered this. “Are you familiar with Aeluon tech?”
“Well, uh, not like, practically. But tech is tech. We can take a look, at least. Promise I won’t touch anything if I don’t know what it does.”
“As long as it’s no trouble, then yes, I’d appreciate anything you could do.”
“Cool. Yeah, definitely.”
“Our ship is less than an hour out from yours, but we could half it if you meet us in the middle.”
“Absolutely. No problem.”
The Aeluon’s face brightened. “Wonderful.” The lights hanging above her reflected off her scales, like sunlight on a wave. Why was everything that the Aeluons did so pretty? “I’ve got a crew of six—er, five, plus two soldiers.” Holy shit, Aeluon commandos. Jenks is going to wet himself. “We’ll do our best to keep out of your way.”
“Oh, no worries, that’s totally fine,” Kizzy said. “I’m sure Dr. Chef would love to feed you guys. He’s our cook.” Wow, that sounded stupid. For once, why couldn’t she just sound cool?
“Yes, I know. Your captain and I are acquaintances, actually. But yes, thank you, Kizzy. I don’t know what we would’ve done if we hadn’t found you.”