Wild Cards part 5

After sitting and watching Scott and Jessie eat I ordered another two bowls of stew, bread, another soda , glass of milk, and as I did this my stomach growled and I decided to add a third bowl of stew for myself. I blushed as Jessie giggled at me. Scott tried to object to me trying to feed them more but fell silent when I raised a hand to silence him. "I can afford to make sure my crew is taken care of." I told him. I liked these two, a lot. There were many out there that wouldn't even blink an eye at living off of another person or taking advantage of their generosity. These two just wanted a fair shot at a good life, and I was happy that I could give them a shot at it.

We sat and chatted about ourselves as we waited. I learned that Scott and Jessie had met a little under six months ago on one of the space stations out on the boarder. Jessie had explained, as she hugged Scotts arm and smiled up at him, how he had come into the bar that she had been forced to take a job at as a dancer working an off hour shift. She explained how she could barely make enough after paying her split to the bar, to pay for something to eat, drink,and an eco-tube to sleep in. And when bad days came along she had to choose between eating and staying awake or going to sleep hungry.

I felt sorry for her, yes it wasn't the worst existance anyone could have but it was bad. Life on a station was tough if you didn't have a regular job. You were stuck there. You couldn't just walk out of town as you can on planet. You either saved up enough to buy passage on a ship, hired on as crew, stowed away, or paid for your passage another way.

Till then you had to survive. Food and water were a must. But everyone had to sleep sometime and again unlike on planet you couldn't just lay down somewhere. Any place that was out of sight to sleep in was a place you didnt want to be caught in alone, as a male and deffinately not as a female. So when you were poor and living day to day your only real option, if your boss didn't let you crash in a back room, was an eco-tube.

Picture dozens of coffin size tubes built into it a wall like hunney combs. Each with a thin matress, small light in the roof, maybe a cortex viewer that might work, and a spot at the far end to push a bag and use it like a pillow. The best part was they had a door that could be swung closed and latched from the inside. This is what made them worth the credits you paid for an eight hour period of use. The safety you got while inside them.

Jessie went on to explained how this handsome young man came in one night and bought her a drink. How he had teased her about how she had asked for a glass of water instead of alcohol and how he had played a guessing game with her for a chance to take her out to dinner.

Scott blushed the entire time andJessie was just eating it up. She told how he guessed things about her, how he had figured out she was really a mechanic and then told her that she might be able to make a few extra credits fixing the engines on 'his' ship.

Scott defended himself by saying that it was 'his' ship. He had been the pilot of it and he was crewing it, so that made it 'his' ship. But he said all this turning redder and redder.

Scott had introduced Jessie to the captain of his ship and convinced him to give her a chance at fixing their engines,that the current mechanic had said would take a week to fix, which threatened to keep them docked and cost them the job they had lined up.

Scott cut in and explained how Jessie had bounced around the engine room for an hour with every male staring at her in her little shorts till the captain kicked them out except for him, since Jessie swore up and down that she needed his help. But that she really only wanted to flirt with him and stare into his eyes every chance she got.

Jessie slapped his shoulder and denied it all saying she had just not wanted to be left alone with the captain or any of the other crew she didn't know.

I pointed out that she hadn't really known Scott at that time either and she just smiled at me and said "I knew he wasn't going to try to take advantage of me cause if he had planned that he would have tried to take me back to his bunk not his engine room. Plus look at these blue eyes-" she said staring into his eyes as she touched his face. "You can so see the man he is in them."

Scott turned even redder as Jessie kissed him.

"I wouldn't know, I haven't stared into his eyes." I joked and this sent Jessie into a giggling fit.

About then the waitress came over and set our order down and as she stepped away an elderly man stepped up to the table and placed a hand on the back of one of the chairs "Names Edward Diaz, but everyone calls me Paps. Mind if I sit and talk to you about work?" He asked leaning on the back of the chair as he lifted one leg and tapped out an old fashion wood tobacco pipe on the heel of his boot.

I motioned for him to sit and offered him a glass of beer. "Sure, I will take one." He said setting his pipe on the table and fishing in his pocket for something. "So your hiring?" He asked looking to me "Where abouts you heading?" He asked pulling out a small tobacco pouch and dipping the pipe into it.

"Out to the rim. Hit a couple of of the moons then a run out to one of the farming colonies.". That was all the information that I was going to give out. It was always wise to never give out exact information about you route or job. Kept pirates and those hard up on work from getting any ideas about catching you enroute.

I poured him a beer and set it out, "So what you got to offer?" I asked.

Edward looked up as he packed the bowl of his pipe full of tobacco from a small pouch that he had pulled from his pocket, "Not much of a pilot, and really can't fix anything. But I am deadly with a hogleg and I aint affraid of a fight. Plus I can cook." He stated out right as he tucked the tip of pipe stim in his mouth and flicked a lighter open and lit the tobacco with short quick puffs.

Now most would have sent the old man packing with a free beer but anyone that had ever pulled a run or two from the core all the way out to the rim enough times could tell you there were three things that could drive a person crazy out in the black, bordom, lonelyness, and protein rations day in and day out. A crew could fix the lonelyness. A deck of cards could keep of the bordom. But only someone that could cook could fix the last one. "So how good of a cook are you?" I asked interested.

He smiled and used the stem of his pipe to point at the nearly empty bowls of soup infront of us, "I cooked the stew your eatin'."

"If you have work why you looking to leave it?" Scott asked looking from his spoon to Paps.

"Tired of the locals. Can't stand the color purple. Worken eighteen out of twenty four hours a day for three squares and a cot in the store room isn't how I want to spend my twilight years.". He took a drag on the pipe and let the smoke roll out of his mouth slowly then looked right at me with a distant gazem. He might have been looking at me but he was thinking of somewhere else. "Those are all truths enough for you. All though not the main reason." His attention fell on me with a blink. "My grandsons and their families live out on one of the rim worlds."

"And your wanting to go live with your family? That's sweet." Jessie inquired then awed as she looked at Paps with those eyes.

Paps shook his head 'NO' pursing his lips at the thought, "There is no way I would go and nake myself a burdon on my kin. No I just want to go and see them again before I find myself to old to do that." He said takingseveral quick puffs on his pipe.

Jessie and Scotts looks must have shown their confusion to him also cause he wet his throut with a swig of beer them continued, "I am getting on in years and I know I don't have what it takes to work a farm out on the rim. At one time when I was your ages, hell even when I was yours TD's I could have. But years have crept up on me and I know not any more. I would just be another mouth to feed that would only give back less and less each year. No I just want to go see them. Drop of a few things I always swore I would then be on my way.". His eyes fell on me for understanding and hope.

Charity had always been a flaw of mine that I had never been able to get past. I looked him in the eyes and nodded as I told myself it wasn't charity. He served a place in the crew. Even if it was only as cook.

Paps didn't say thank you. To do so would have been him saying he didn't deserve the job or that he had gotten on so far on in years that he could only survive on charity. Which would probably be the death of a man like him. He simply nodded back and went back to smoking his pipe.

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.”