RavensDagger

  Chapter Forty - Giving it a Twirl

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

  There was a static click from the puter she was standio, 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 ho, 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 ventional means.

  Twenty-Six's eyes were glued on the main s in the bridge as it dispyed her home ship. Two bursts of steam exited out of the Held Together on opposite ends of the ship and going in opposite dires. 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 e without a few new dings and scrapes. Some of the spalling from their atta the station to destroy the cmps had peppered the side of the ship with a multitude of new cuts. The rearward airlock, the same ohey'd used to board the station, was a mangled mess.

  There was more damage. The rge antenna array uhe 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 poio a part of the hull over the extinguished ehose 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 ce that there's some left. I wouldn't touch the entire engine assembly without a prround and some non-dug gloves. We could still make it to the Held Together though. It'll just be, uh, dangerous."

  "A space walk, without any safety s. 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 anyo on the ship, though. I think everyone has seable 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 unication panel on the captain's seat. "Miss Pendergast?" she asked.

  There was the slightest bit of fuzz over the line, but Sonic Spectre answered heless. "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 ba. 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 pstic. If it smells like arical fire for the first twenty mihen it's w right. You usually only o do that, like, once every couple of days."

  "... Noted," Sonic replied. "In any case, the ship is... funal, 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 lih 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 pahere ahem back. I'll be able to tell you what's seriously broken with that."

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

  "Things are well enough," Ivil said. "This ship isn't the most luxurious, but it's retively 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 aodate the Held Together."

  "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 retly murdered likely had bouhey, in fact, had some very high-definition ss and images of several pirate ships being obliterated, as well as their station going up in literal fmes.

  "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 pile the information for the bounties?"

  "I 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 o be affiliated with a bounty guild in order to receive a bounty at all?" Ivil asked.

  "I'm certain we 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 applit past the journeyman stage. Though, it would be signifitly cheaper and easier to suborn someone who already has the bounty hunter cssification."

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

  "I might know someone."

  Ivil turowards the entrance of the bridge. Missy was o 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 enviro.

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

  "Yeah. A bounty huhat mostly works around Jupiter. She's... a little strange, but she's not a bad sort. She has her bounty-hunting lice, and owes me a drink. Once we get within s 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, assumi 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 k 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 tact 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 pce up soon. This ship has good-enough scrubbers, but I don't ut them to the test that much."

  "Corpse?" Twenty-Six asked. "Oh! That pirate dy! 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 tact with Miss Pendergast? I'm sure she'd love to have you talk her through everything that o be doo 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 ser suite. Ivil wasn't sure if it actually had radar, but the terminology had stuck for a few turies 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."

  ***

  RavensDagger

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