Wildcards part 4

Opine and I had talked about what I had in mind and what I needed to do this evening then made plans on how to do it. I had showered and changed cloths as Opine had ran back to her ship to do the same. Then when ready, armed this time, and minus all of the cash except for about two grand, I had headed for the place that I had been told was where everyone went to look for work. Blue Sky-jumpers bar, first place in the verse to look for work. So the sign read. They were not boosting either. It was. Only bar on the busiest space port on the closest planet to the sun. Made it what they claimed to be.

I had arrived about thirty minutes or so ago, got two pitchers of Guinness, seven glasses, a table, and tossed out my hat over the first pitcher after poring myself a glass and setting four others ride side up.

This told those in the bar a couple of things. Hat on table said I was hiring. Pitchers of beer said I was offering cash pay and could pay it up front if needed. And the four glasses up two more down meant I wanted four crew minimum, max six. And it all said drinks were on me if you got hired. And it also weeded out those that didn't know how to read the signs. I normally didn't have problems taking on a 'Green horn' but this job I wanted to... No needed to go smooth.

I relaxed back and reviewed the list of things to do tonight.

One, was get through it alive and able to get off planet in the morning.

Two, was get rid of this damn tracker with out alerting anyone that I had found it and there was only one way to do that. And it would be easier with O's help. Didn't like involving her but I knew she wasn't going to let it go down any other way without a fight. And in my condition she would probably win. So she was in.

Three, was hire a crew before morning to help me haul the agro-supplies I had being delivered in the morning to where they were going.

And it was this last one that had just become harder with the discovery of the tracker. Now I was aware that someone was following me and had to watch out for who I trusted. Hard enough when you're trying to hire a crew to make a rim-run from the core but almost impossible when you know any of that crew could be those tracking you.

But I had an ace up my sleeve this time and she would be walking in the door of the port bar in a little while.

I hadn't finished half my beer when a dirty blonde haired young man in worn faded black cargo pants and a equally aged looking black combat vest walked up holding the hand of a little brunette haired lady who's beauty didn't match the grease and dirt smudged into every visible part of her body. And that was a lot. She wore a leather jacket that looked like it had been altered from a much longer one but now only came down just below her ribs. The top underneath, what was left of it seemed to cover even less and her jeans were worn and just covered her bottom. The boots on her feet looked as if she had modified them from an on hard cap space suit, space suits designed with a durable plastic and metal exoskeleton to protect from floating debris when working on construction sites in space. These though were a size or two to big for her and covered in pins, clips, bangles and apparently anything else she had collected along the way. She carried a small backpack that had several tool heads sticking out of it including a five pound sledge hammer. The guy carried what looked to be an old frontiers duffle bag, the kind popular when I was a kid and people were in the dig push out to the rim and the promised- 'better life'. It was probably given to him by his parents or all that he could afford. And by the looks of these two what I was looking at was all they probably had.

The couple stopped a couple of steps from the table and the lady looked up at the guy and gave him a nudge in the side to go ahead and speak then she softly said as she turned to watch with hungry eyes as the waitress went by with a plate of food, "Hat says he is hiren'."

The guy looked down at her and squeezed her hand, not in a placating way but one that told me he was really hoping she was right.

I was surprised that she knew about the hat. Not a lot her age, which I placed in her early twenties, would.

Excuse me sir, your hiring?!” It wasn't really a question as he said it. More of a 'I have been told...' Statement, and for some reason I liked that. "Yes, I am. Looking for four to---"

The young lady reached out and pulled two glasses towards her "two to four now, if you are paying cash like your saying you are." She stated and I could see her hand and legs shaking either out of nervousness or hunger. One I understood, the other I remembered oh to well. I thought of my daughter Opine and how thin she was when I first met her.

Tonight was their lucky night. Even if they didn't get a job they would get a meal that could tide them over for a couple of days. "Is that so?" I asked motioning for them both to sit down. "Care for some beer?" I asked and they both immediately shook their heads NO even though I could see the dust on their lips. They knew better then to drink alcohol as hungry as they were. I raised a hand to the waitress as she was coming by "Waitress two of your specials and a large basket of bread please." I looked over at the two, "Hope stew is okay?"

The lady nodded with this innocent dirty face kid look that made me smile back.

The young man reached over and placed his hand on hers, "we can't pay for that meal and she isn't payment." He said straight forward and without blinking as he looked me dead in the eyes.

This couples chances of getting hired just jumped drastically in their favor. They just didn't know it yet.

I leaned back in my seat, "You know that takes a lot of guts and honesty to not only say your broke before the food arrives but to put your ladies virtue and your love for her before your own hunger and safety.". I smiled and leaned forward and picked up my glass. "Cause a lot of men would shoot you for what you just implied. And not much you could have done to-" I fell silent as I felt the flat of a steal blade tap the inside of my leg.

The young man held back a smile well, "everyone thinks that if your hands are one the table they have the edge."

I felt the blade fall away and heard a soft 'snick' sound. I liked this guy! "Well dinner is on me. Call it an interview meal. So how about we start with your names and what job you feel already have." I said more to the young lady who sat rolling her empty glass back and forth on the table as she leaned over and laid her head on the young mans upper arm only lifting it to see if the waitress was coming or not. She smiled and pulled her glass to her as if as long as she had it, she had a job.

The young man looked me over then put his arm around the lady, who snuggled in against him. "My name is Scott Felder and this is my girlfriend Jessie Stochus. She is the best mechanic you will find in the verse." He bragged kissing the top of her head.

Jessie smiled and her eyes sparkled. I smiled back then realized she wasn't looking at me as the waitress stepped up to the table and waited to see which of the three of us the bowls of stew were going to.

I motioned to them and she set the bowls down and a basket with an uncut loaf of bread in it.

The two looked back and forth from the food to me as I dropped some bills into the waitresses hand "and some soda for them," I caught myself, "unless you two have changed your minds on the beer?"

Scott shook his head no as well as Jessie "Soda is fine." He said.

Jessie looked up from were she had been staring at her bowl and trying not to lick her lips "Milk?" She asked with that innocent dirty faced look.

"One soda and one tall glass of milk." I told the waitress with a slight laugh. The waitress went to tell me how much a glass of milk would cost but stopped as I dropped more bills in her hand. She smiled and headed off.

Jessie smiled and looked at Scott, who gave her a small hug then looked back at me, “Thank you… I don’t even know your name.” he said holding out his hand to me.

“Everyone calls me TD.” I responded and took his hand and shook it. “Now eat you two, It won’t get any better as it gets colder.” I smiled and picked up my Guinness and took a long drink as I watched them tear into the stew.

They both ate as if they hadn’t eaten in a week and that is quit possible. These two are just the kind of people that the Alliance security that the space port gate doesn’t let off the port. They were not residents of the planet. They had no jobs and they had no reason to be here. So they had no reason to let them off the port. No if they didn’t get work on a ship leaving, they were not going to make it. The only work that was here for either of them was work that didn’t lead to a better life. Not for Scott and definitely not for Jessie.

“So I know that Jessie here is the best mechanic in the ‘verse,” I didn’t believe it but I wasn’t going to argue it. I had seen weirder things in my life and a young gifted mechanic was far from it. “But what do you offer me as a possible crew member?”

Scott paused in his eating, “I am pretty good at maintenance, know my way around a wielder, both arc and torch. But I am a pretty good pilot. I grew up on a cargo ship most of my life and learned to fly sitting on my mother and fathers lap when I was big enough to see over the council.”

Jessie grabbed the loaf of bread and broke off a piece and offered it to me. I waved it off so she handed it to Scott then broke off a piece for her self, “He is being modest. Last ship we worked on he shaved three days off a run from the border to here with his navigation and course adjustments. And did it with less fuel too.” She bragged for him.

“Lot good it did us.” Scott said looking across the bar at nothing.

“Get stiffed on a job?” I asked, setting down my beer as the waitress came back and set their drinks down.

Jessie grabbed up the glass of milk and took a long drink. She giggled, as I motioned at my own top lip to tell her she had milk on it, and then she licked it off and took another sip.

“You can say that. We signed on to a cargo runner out on the border. Jessie over hauled the captains engines as we made the ‘Short loop’”

Kid new the jargon of a pilot. ‘Short loop’ was a term for going around the border planets in the opposite direction they orbited. It shaved off travel time and saved on fuel since the planets were literally moving towards you in orbit as you traveled to them. Trick was making it profitable by having jobs at each planet as you came up to it.

“Then after one profitable run we took on a cargo of crates and the captain came and told me to set a course to here. Said he had a job that would make all the other runs look like petty change.” Scott was eating again but slowly.

“I have had promises of jobs like that.” I added in hoping to make him feel better.

“Sad thing was it was real. We dropped the cargo off here. Captain got paid and life looked good. He had promised ten percent of the profits to Jess and I both. Twenty percent of that run would have given us enough to live on for a year easy if work was slow. Or it could have started us off on our dream to own our own ship someday. But it turned out that the Captain had debts with people on this planet. And they got to him before he got to pay us. They took it all. Captain then tossed us off the ship and left. Said he couldn’t pay us and he wasn’t going to have crew on board that he knew he owed.”

Jessie looked at her spoon and the half empty bowl then set it down and leaned her head against Scott’s chest as she remembered what had happened.

Scott put his arm around her and held her for a moment. “The goram piece of shit barely gave us time to grab our bags here. We wouldn’t even have these if Jessie here didn’t insist on us keeping emergency bags together. We grabbed these as he ordered us off the ship and locked the doors behind us.”

I looked at both of them and then away, I had come across people like the captain they spoke of so to often in my life. Seemed the closer you go to the core worse people became. “Well, if you and your little lady here…”

“Jessie, names Jessie not little lady.” She said sitting up tall and confident.

I smiled and nodded an apology “Jessie. If you and Jessie are half as good as each other says then I could use you on my crew. But I want to know. Have you ever handled a ‘Whale’?” I looked to Scott using the nick name for the class of ship I had just purchased earlier that day.

“T6-hg by Kuniv? Or the 923-dh7’s by Orieonis?” Scott asked looking at me with intrigued eyes.

“Try the Asher Red 52 Rim-runner.” I answered.

“You’re kidding?” he asked dropping his spoon into his nearly empty bowl. “There are still Rim-runners out there?”

I bust out laughing. “You are not inspiring confidence in my new ship there son.”

“No don’t get me wrong, they are great ships but…. Well they had problems.” He tried to recover.

“Like their engines tended to over heat, burn through their shielding and ‘rad’ the whole crew. That is if they didn’t just stop working all together for no reason at all. Or if the port and stern engines didn’t fall off as you were making or braking atom and drop you like a ‘whale’ on land.” Jessie said wiggling her spoon at me as she talked with a mouth full of bread.

“She has been refitted with a new engine.” I answered Jessie.

“What kind?” She asked taking a sip of milk.

“Kenzer 750” I sipped at my Guinness.

“A, B, C or H?” Jessie asked tearing off another piece of bread and dropping it in Scotts bowl.

“C- I think.” I tried to recall what I had been told.

“Okay if it’s a C then you want to cycle the compression hydraulic fluid and make sure it isn’t burnt before you take it up. And grab a few extra Hydrogen Thermal injectors. The C’s like to burn through those or just kick them off like a zip popping when they start to go bad.” She informed me.

“You mean these are all things you will want to do as my mechanic.” I corrected her. I had made my mind up. They were going with me. She seamed to know what she was doing and yes, a part of me couldn’t leave them here. The core wasn’t any place for young honest innocent people like this couple.

Jessie blinked then looked at Scott her face beaming “We got the job!” she said hugging him.

“No you got the job. He hasn’t said anything about me yet.” He said looking from Jessie to me with a look of ‘Don’t make me make that choice’.

“You’re a pair, I can’t and won’t break up a set. Plus I need a pilot and you must be able to fly because I know you wouldn’t risk your lady… Jessie’s life on a lie. So yes, you got the job as a pilot.” I raised my glass to them both.

Scott winced as Jessie Squealed in his ear and hugged him hard “We got the jobs!!!” she squealed again.

Scott hugged her back and looked over her head at me and mouthed the words “Thank you.”

I nodded and looked away to give them as much privacy in their excitement as I could sitting at the same table. When they had calmed down from hugging and kissing and exchanging words of “See I told you we just had to stick together” and “This is going to be a new start. I promise” I turned back.

“So here is the deal. Your own quarters, meals, and..” I looked them over “And a small clothing allowance. Can’t have you two wearing the same cloths day in and day out on my ship, especially you.” I looked at Jessie and she blushed. “Plus 250 credits in cash, each, when we leave port….”

I had to pause as Jessie squealed loud enough to draw the attention of most of the people around us in the bar and hug attacked Scott again. “Plus you get another 250 each when we land at our final destination.”

The look on Scotts face made me think he was going to cry. I understood why. A thousand credits on the border or on the rim could go a long way to starting a new life. And offers like this didn’t come often in life.

Jessie jumped up and ran around the table and started hugging me before I realized what she was doing. I kept my hands out after giving her one simple pat on the back and told her it was “Okay” and that she was going to have to live up the Scotts praises of being the best mechanic in the ‘verse.

She blushed and went back to her seat and snuggled into Scott.

“TD, I don’t know how we can ever thank you. But trust me, we will work hard and earn every credit your paying.” Scott stated as Jessie nodded in agreement with her head pressed against his chest.

“Just … just finish eating you two. I can’t have my pilot and mechanic passing out from hunger first day out.” I said covering up my own loss for words at their gratitude.

Both looked at their bowls and suddenly remembered how hungry they still were and went back to eating, much to my pleasure. I liked helping people and doing what was right. But I couldn’t stand people looking at me like they expected big white wings to unfold from my back any moment. There wasn’t a Shepard in the verse that wouldn’t fall over laughing at people thinking of me as a servant of the all mighty if they knew just a quarter of what I had done in my life.

“Do you two have a place to stay tonight?” I asked after a little bit.

Jessie’s look at Scott told me the answer so I didn’t wait for him to speak “Berth 12 in section 23 is my ship.” I pulled out a piece of paper and a pencil and scribbled down a number on it “That’s the code to the door. Or it should be. Haven’t actually tried it yet myself but if it don’t work then my other ship can be found here” I wrote down the berth and section for the ship I had been in earlier today. “Why don’t you two go, pick out some quarters, any except for the captains, Get settled in, and maybe take a look at the engine room and what not. And most of all get a good night sleep where you don’t have to worry about watching each others back all night.” I pushed the paper over to them.

Scott just stared at it a moment then took it and nodded. He didn’t know what to say.

I reached into my jacket pocket and pulled out some credits and counted out some and held it out to Scott. “Here, this should take care of the clothing and anything else you might need for the trip. And you” I looked at Jessie “Maybe grab some jumpsuits for working in the engine room.” I had just thought of something and flipped out some more credits “And get any tools you might need that you don’t have. If something breaks down I want you to have the right tool. Can’t have you trying to fix my ship with a five pound sledge hammer when you might be needing a screwdriver or wrench.” I told Jessie.

She eeped and turned bright red and hid her face in Scotts chest.

“Oh and before I forget, if I don’t get there in time in the morning, I have some cargo being delivered. If it gets there before me, make sure they don’t just leave it outside” I laughed.

Scott laughed because he understood. It would happen where delivery teams would drop cargo outside of a ship if no one was there to receive it or to make sure they actually put it in the hold. Then the crews would have to figure out how to get it in, what was left of it after others got a hold of it. “Not a problem. I will make sure they stack it and balance it in the holds.

“and leave holds 5 and 6 empty. I will need one for my ship and possibly 6 for docking another ship in.”

Scott nodded and pushed the paper into a vest pocket.

“Now eat you two.” I stated “Captains orders.”

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."