Wild cards part 3

The cab pulled slowly through the crowds of people that were moving in and out of the spaceport. It was slow going and honestly walking would have been faster except that with the amount of money I was carrying I didn't want to risk getting jumped, mugged , or just pick pocketed.

The driver wasn't complaining at all. He was actually whistling in the front seat, occasionally stopping to yell at someone to "MOVE YOUR GORAN PIECE OF GOSA ASS" at slow walking pedestrians and rickshaw's that sadly seemed to be making better time then we were. Over all though he was in a good mood.

But it was to be understood why. When I had returned to the cab I had slipped him another tip, for waiting, that had immediately endeared me to his heart and earned me a joking comment of "Feel free to bleed on my seats if you want.". I had laughed so hard at that my sides hurt. So right now he didn't care if this took all night.

We finally were able to turn into the vehicular entrance and passed by the alliance symbol of equality and efficiency in government. Meaning they were only stopping those coming out of the spaceport who looked like they didn't belong on planet. They gave nods to those that were finely dressed or flashed a planetary I'd. And they didn't even give a glance at those that were going into the port. Guess they didn't care who was leaving planet.

Going was a little better as people tended to travel on the sides of the roads in ports because of the number of cargo mules going through that were to often overloaded and made. Breaking quickly dangerous for not just the driver and persons in front of it but also for all around if the load shifted and it all came tumbling down.

I gave the driver my berth number and section and relaxed back as he headed off down one of the major lanes that would take us into the section I was docked at.

I found myself starting to dose off and wondered if I had lost more blood then I realized. I glanced down do see if I was bleeding any more but couldn't tell with all the blood that had seeped into my shirt.

As slow as we had been going I hadn't even realized that we had pulled to a stop in front of my ship. I looked up and out and smiled when I looked on my old girl. I handed the driver several bills with out even asking the fare and after glancing at the bills he didn't object. "Need me to wait or come back later?" He inquired with hope in his voice.

"Yah, wait till I get inside," I handed him another bill, "then forget as much as you can." I handed him two more. He looked at them and nodded with out a flinch. This was obviously not his first 'forget you ever saw me' run.

I grabbed the brief case I had been given by Mr Kennedy's assistant and stepped out of the cab. It was only a moment and I pressed the log key on the door pad and saw that there had been no illegal attempts to open the hatch to my ship then I punched in the code and listened to the hatch unlock, hiss as the seals opened and slide open then stepped in and pressed the close switch as I watched over my shoulder outside to see if anyone was coming up behind me.

I turned around and gave a double take at the pair of blue stilettos laying just inside the door. My hand dropped to my side instinctively for my hand gun and I grimaced as I remembered I was unarmed and my guns were locked in a safe in my bedroom.

I lifted my gaze towards the Japanese divider that sectioned off my sleeping area from the rest of the ship a spotted a trail of cloths. A slinky blue dress laid tossed across the back of the sectional just on this side of the divider. A silky black garter, bra and panties continued the trail into my room. I couldn't see whom they belonged to, but it was apparent that who ever had broken into my ship without leaving a trace at the door had quickly stripped. Hopefully she had disarmed herself to.

I stepped around the corner of the divider and froze.

A head of long blond curly hair spun up off the bed and a face came into view at the same time as a hand holding a modern replica of the earth-that-was cult 45 leveled on my head. I knew, recognizing her face, that the safety was already off and I yelled out "O' IT'S ME!"

Opine's hand holding the pistol flopped back to the bed at the same time her head flopped face first in the pillow, "Oh my goddess dad, I almost shot you. What the hell you doing sneaking up on me like that?" She complained with a muffled pillowed voice.

"Sneaking up on you?" I asked with a laugh, "last I knew this was my ship."

Opine turned her head enough to look at me with one eye, "Your ship?" Then she spun up out of bed with a grace and speed that years of dancing at firefly' bar on Blackburne could only of taught her. She covered the distance between us in one long leap. "Dad your bleeding!" She grabbed at my shirt and pulled it up before I could stop her.

"Was bleeding and O you're naked, put something on!" I complained trying to turn my eye's as I tried to step back at the same time.

"Ooo fuckn ah father," she exclaimed grabbing my arm and good side. She pulling me as she spun using my mass against me and sending me flying onto the bed, flat on my back. "You always act like it's the first time." She complained at my statement of her being naked.

"And you act like this is the first time you have seen my blood."

She ripped my shirt open.

"What the hell? My shirt!" I objected to late.

She stuck a finger in my face as her brow cast shadows over her narrowed eye's. Her lips pressed closed tightly and her expression went blank.

I fell silent. I knew better, she may be my adopted daughter, but she was still MY daughter. I may have only raised her for the last few years of her life but we had taken to being family immediately which was perfect since she was really... "Gooah!" I yelled as she grabbed both of the cinch strips and yanked them off.

"Ooo quiet you. These things are so expired. You were suppose to throw them out." She scalded me about the pain killer cinch strips.

"They are still good and they are not really that old." I argued back as she pushed and prodded at the bite mark on my side.

"How you survived the war I have no idea." She grumbled as she dug a nail into a deep part of the wound.

"Sure wasn't throwing out expired supplies." I winced as she hit something in the wound, "If I had thrown out everything that was expired I would have never had anything to eat. Plus expiration dates are set to sell more items."

She pressed her nail deep in the wound causing me to flinch in pain as she hit something again and I felt it pushed farther into my body. "You listen to Nack's propaganda way to much. And he only says that so that he can keep selling the six month expired canned goods at the general store." Hold still there is something in there and I need to get something to get it out." She said climbing off the bed where she had been kneeling.

"Put some cloths on." I yelled at her as I watched her naked form disappear around the screen. She had grown into an amazingly beautiful young lady. She looked so much like her mother.

"Where is your medical supplies?" She called from the other side of the divider and farther forward of the ship.

"Storage compartment under the main sectional couch." I yelled back lifting one of the torn sides of my shirt and looking at it. "And you have eaten some of those expired goods to and never had a problem."

She came back around the corner of the screen holding a t-shirt of mine and my med kit. Opine crouched in stride and grabbed her panties up, "Give it a break Dad, you have been bringing in fresh can goods and food for years now, ever since you adopted me." She tossed the kit on the bed then slid into her panties with the same grace that most dancers remove them. My t-shirt went down over her head just as easily. "Hope you don't mind, I didn't bring a change of cloths to my date with my client last night."

"Not a problem." I answered as I remembered what she had first looked like when she had stared living at my place on Blackburne and would borrow my shirts to sleep in or when she was washing what few things she had. She had been so small, thin, and that blue Mohawk. She had explained how she had dyed it that color to try and detract attention from males that lived in the waste. Unfortunately, it had resulted in attracting a tougher wilder group of waste male. But she had explained that she had managed to get by without being forced into anything she didn't want to do."Good date?"

"Great date." She responded climbing up to kneel on the bed between me and the case.

"Treat you right?" I asked honestly concerned.

"Like the companion I am." She gave me a smile then reached for the case.

"Lady, like the lady you are." I corrected her.

"Companion. He was with Companion Kesten not Lady Kesten she giggled and turned back and kissed my cheek. "Lady Kesten is to good for him." She flipped the lid of the case open and blinked. "What is this?" She asked pulling out a bottle of Guinness and a bottle of 50 year old single malt scotch.

"Just what it says on it." I responded reaching for the Guinness.

She pulled them out of reach and read the label's that I had put on each starting with the Guinness "In case of possible death". She rolled the bottle of scotch "In case of certain death.". She rolled her eyes at me as shook her head.

I reached for the Guinness again.

"You're not dieing." She said putting booth out of reach. Then pulled out some spray on antiseptic and a pair of forceps. She gave me a dirty look as she read the expiration date then tossed it aside and grabbed the scotch.

"You wouldn't da...." I went to object but went silent as she pointed the forceps in my face.

"Let this be a lesson to you to keep your medical supplies up to date." She stated twisting the cap off with her teeth and breaking the seal on the scotch.

I almost cried as she poured it on the wound. "At least give me the Guinness."

"Your not dieing." She spoke through clinched teeth as she twisted the cap back on with her mouth.

"After what you just did to that scotch I just might be" I groaned and let my head flop back onto the bed.

Opine gave me a sideways look that said 'Not working' then pushed the forceps into the wound.

I sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly relaxing as best as I could as she dug around. I had learned after my third or fourth gunshot wound that tensing up only made it worse and hurt more.

"There it is! She announced as she pulled out the object.

We both froze looking at it. It was a small tube of clear plastic not much larger then a 22 long rifle cartridge with obvious circuits, microchips, and a single green flashing light. It was obviously a tracker of some sort and it had been in my body.

"Dad, where did you get this bite and who treated you?" She asked dropping it onto a four by four gauze pad.

"Blackburne, during the last reaver attack and who do you think." I answered not saying a name. Not needing to.

"You don't think..." She was already pulling one of the disposable skin staplers and ripping the package open to re close the wound.

I grabbed another four by four and pressed it into the wound with two fingers and held it there for a few seconds. "Not possible, I was awake the whole time and there were half a dozen others in the bar at the time."

"What in the goddesses name are you doing?" She called out grabbing my hand and pulling at it forcing me to remove the gauze.

It was soaked in blood and I quickly rolled the tracker onto it and wrapped the gauze around it just enough to still let me see the green light. I wasn't sure but it seemed to flash a little faster and brighter. "Some of these things come with a sensor that if removed from the body to long will set off an alarm to who ever is..."

Just then we heard a wrap on the hatch of my ship. Opine grabbed her 45 and the other matching one that had still been under a pillow and was half way to the door before I could roll over and open the compartment door on the side of the bed that held one of my gun safes. "O' WAIT!" I called out working the code pad as fast as I could. I heard her smack the hatch lock release switch then the button to open it. An odd thought ran through my head at that moment. 'If she had been on a companion date the night before and in that blue dress,where the hell had she been caring those pistols. No time though as I grabbed up my pistols and rolled up from the bed. Pain shot through my chest from my injured ribs and the floor tried to get personal but I pushed it off with the side of a pistol and the back of my hand and forced myself to exhale. If there was trouble at the door I wasn't going to let my daughter face it alone. Specially since it was my trouble.

Before I could reach the edge of the divider I heard a female scream and something hit the floor hard.

My heart sank and fear screamed in my head. I wanted to call out but if Opine was down already and without a shot being fired my only chance was surprise and the first shot. The drums were pounding in my ears and I was ready to listen to them for once if someone had harmed my...

I leveled my pistols as I turned the corner of the divider and felt them slapped back up. Opine stepped between me and the hatch where Mrs Chen, a nice elderly Chinese decent lady stood with her arms over her head and two wicker baskets laying tipped over at her feet. My cloths spilling out of them.

"It's your laundry lady!" Opine yelled at me making sure I had noticed, then she turned back to Mrs Chen and gave a little bow, holding her pistols behind her back and spoke in Cantonese what must have been an explanation and an apology of some sort. For almost immediately Mrs Chen lowered her arms, let out a string of Cantonese words, half I recognized as cuss words and obscenities then spit on the ground outside as she spoke the word "Alliance" as if it was a cuss word to. She then smiled at us and started gathering up the spilled cloths.

I flipped on the safeties on my pistols and pushed them into my pants top. I quickly stepped forward and pulled out some credits, "how much do I owe you?" I asked as she stood up after gathering up my spilled cloths.

She looked at the credits in disgust "guess twenty credits". Then she looked me in the eye's "don't you have gold?"

I laughed heartily, "a lady after my own heart." I said and moved over to room and came back out a moment later with a stack of gold coins. "There and a tip to say sorry for the confusion there a moment ago."

She smiled at the gold coins and politely laid out my cloths on the sectional couch the took the coins and headed out the hatch with her empty wicker baskets.

Opine closed the hatch behind her and locked it. "Why can't you just get your laundry done at a laundromat like everyone else?" She asked tossing her guns on a table and flopping down on the clear end of the sectional couch.

"Cause they loose your cloths, take a day to clean them. Plus how would families like Mrs Chen's there make extra cash. Why should I go off port for anything I can get here?" I answered grabbing a new shirt to put on.

Opine stood back up and grabbed the shirt out of my hands, "Not till we bandage that wound."

"I need to get rid of that tracker fast to.". I reminded her as we headed back into the bedroom.

"Any ideas how you are going to do that?" She asked hoping on the bed like a little kid and digging through the med kit.

"Yep, and I may need your help to." I answered grinning from ear to ear.

Opine giggled at my expression and started bandaging the wound. "Something tells me I am going to love this idea."