Waking up with a beautiful brunette between my arms every morning was dangerous – the sheer amount of hot air being pumped into my ego threatened to upset the carefully tuned atmospheric balance within the Pariah's pressurised walls. I kept yelling at myself not to get too doped up on my own success, this was only happening because Rhea thought giving me a harem was an appropriate payment for rescuing her.
Seeing Sumeragi's nipples poking through the thin tank-tops she liked to wear was reward enough.
Aside from my romantic exploits with the Commander, I also spent some time getting to know Ruri, helping her acclimatize to the new ship and the world at large. She was still withering about Sumeragi and I being together even though we tried to keep it to private spaces and away from the bridge. It must have been the idea that upset her.
Rhea finished off the process of attaching our new pieces and pressuring the cabin, allowing us to drop down the ladder and finally see it for ourselves. It was a spartan space for the time being, with a simple metal floor and walls, along with some pipes and lighting to make it practical for use. It was a very large and open compartment, since there were no walls dividing it into smaller pieces as it was upstairs.
I wanted to turn it into a recreational space for the crew (all three of us,) to kick back and relax without relying on the bridge. A change of scenery during these isolated periods in space would do wonders for our mental wellbeing. We could fit much bigger and more comfortable furniture into the space we had. A few couches, an armchair or two – and whatever else we could find down on Ecclestone would have it looking great in no time at all.
But with the completion of our project came the need to return to the surface and get back on with what we were doing. We blazed a trail back through the atmosphere and landed back in the city. Ruri got to work helping Rhea respond to emails about jobs we could manage, and Sumeragi and I decided to get a head start on the new lounge by perusing the local stores and settling on an overall aesthetic to build it around.
When we returned a few hours later with a delivery receipt for some of the items we purchased, Rhea and Ruri already had a full itinerary planned and ready to go. Rhea even went to the effort of listening in through my headphones to make sure they didn't clash with the delivery dates.
It turned out that our previous exploits were getting around via word-of-mouth. There were some familiar faces and places who wanted a hand again, and several new businesses clamouring for someone to save them from the scourge of high market prices. This was the problem with outsourcing everything to a bigger company – they could easily turn the screws on you if they dominated the industry.
Sure, we weren't exactly acting under the colour of the law here, but was it any worse than abusing that same legal system to entangle small business owners into expensive and exploitative contracts? I concurred with Rhea; what good was a law when it only served to varnish the interests of a select few?
Not that we were in this to make a point or establish ourselves as some kind of working-class heroes. They were offering a big amount of cash to us for the work. They didn't know that the Pariah could run without maintenance essentially forever. Our overhead costs were non-existent. The fusion engine was carefully maintained by Rhea and her nanomachinery. We didn't have to calculate repair costs or staff wages, or hire a legal department.
As a result – we could viciously undercut the big transport companies, stealing their business and letting the small players reduce their costs. Everyone was happy! Everyone who mattered anyway. The corps could sit on a traffic cone and swivel for all I cared.
One of the advantages of our new ship layout was that our tanks were now separated from one another. Previously there was no valve to stop mixed fluids from backflowing into each chamber, as it was assumed that they'd only carry solid fuel for testing purposes. Now that they were split apart and attached to both sides we could bring two different payloads, increasing our versatility.
We spent the next three days alternating between dragging and assembling furniture in the new lounge area, and zipping from point to point to complete more delivery jobs. We weren't paid in any favours this time, which was normally a good thing – but I was silently hoping to go and snag another ship compartment from the boneyard. Even though those pieces of scrap didn't sell they were still more expensive than we could afford normally.
Ruri's more personable touch also left us with a lot more satisfied customers. She was very good at towing that line between professional and responsive. By the time the third day was over with, we had almost one-hundred-thousand dollars to our name, all in cash. It was a good thing that the Pariah had lockers and safes to keep it in.
We could make a bank account if we wanted, but those pesky transmission problems would make access to the money intermittent if we travelled to another planet or system. That was why physical cash died out with the proliferation of contactless cards only to come roaring back as humanity spread across the stars.
I did try to give off an impassive air about seeing so much money in one place but it was a futile effort. Ruri saw right through me.
"That twinkle in your eyes is very revealing," she commented as I slammed the safe shut and engaged the finger lock.
"Is it?"
"Uh-huh. Uribatake used to make the same face when he was making his garage figures of the female crewmembers."
I frowned, "I think those are two very different feelings, to be honest."
I did not, in fact, want to fuck the giant pile of money.
We wrapped up securing our makeshift vault and headed back out into the corridor. Now that the gravity was back we needed to use the ladder to get down into the other compartment. Sumeragi was already on her way back up. Her head peered over the edge of the porthole.
"It's looking good. A few more things and it should be a very comfortable place to relax between missions."
Our deliberations were disrupted by an unwelcome warning from Rhea.
"Captain, it appears that a small group of men are hailing us from the exterior of the ship. I would suggest arming yourself."
"What? Show me."
Rhea brought up the gaggle of goons on the nearest display screen. They were all clumped together, wearing raincoats that covered their heads and faces from view. The man at the front was tall and heavyset. Not in the athletic sense, he looked like the sort of bloke who downed several pints a day and couldn't stop snacking.
The warnings from the boneyard manager echoed in my ears.
"I've identified two of the men in their party. Both have criminal records for extortion and assault. They are presently employed by a local consultation firm, which is contracted to a major haulage company named Dinkirm Fuel."
"They've sent the bloody goons 'round to try and scare us straight," I groaned.
Sumeragi was already one step ahead of me, retrieving her firearm from the bridge and squaring up for a fight. It was unlikely that the issue would escalate that rapidly. They were in a public place, and this was our first encounter. Dinkirm sent them to deliver a message. A fight here in the port would be seen by all of the security cameras. Just to be safe I took my own sidearm and hid it beneath my jacket.
"Stay here, Ruri. We'll sort it."
The young girl was visibly nervous about being left alone. Sumeragi and I descended down into the storage bay and exited through the ramp. They were already waiting in formation for us when we arrived to confront them. True to my initial impression the man leading the charge was fat, bald, and had a very broad accent. He was like an American-brand football hooligan. There were six of them in total, and perhaps a handful of intelligent thoughts between them.
"You look like you've got a big old bee in your bonnet and I haven't said nothing yet!" he chortled.
"No, he always looks like that…" Sumeragi stated for the record.
I tried to soften my sharp features in a reflexive display of self-awareness.
"To what do we owe the displeasure?" I asked. Being confronted like this was already putting me into a bad mood. It would have been smarter to let Sumeragi handle all of the talking. I had a bad habit of turning simple spats into violent quandaries. I hated acting like a spineless gobshite and I wasn't going to start being pushed around now.
"I've been hearing some interesting stories from the local businesspeople about some good Samaritans offering cheap shipping services. And what do you know? Here's a brand-new ship that's never been down to Ecclestone before, making a lot of return trips to this here port! You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"
I shook my head, "I would not."
His gaze narrowed, "That so? Because it's pretty darn rare to have someone with an accent like yours kicking up dust. You're not from around here."
"Evidently not. That's the great thing about owning a ship, we can go wherever we want."
His eyes turned to Sumeragi, who stood silently by my side. She was opening a gap in her coat that was just large enough to reveal the leather holster she was wearing. It was a calculated threat. We meant business, and we weren't going to respond kindly to threats of violence from this slovenly bunch.
"Well, consider this a friendly warning. I don't like handing out ultimatums or threatening folks for making their livelihoods – but there's a certain order to the way things work out here. If you're doing that dirty work without the right permits then you 'ain't gonna' be doing it for much longer."
"I see they're going with the nice and welcoming approach."
"Buddy, this is the nice option. They're giving you a chance to clear out and avoid any trouble, and let me say – those suits are scarier than the likes of us. They'll choke you to death in paperwork and legal motions, and you'll end up penniless, broke, and with that ship of yours impounded or repossessed. We don't have to touch a hair on your head, they don't want us to."
One of the others was less subtle about it; "And maybe that fine piece of ass you've got with you'll decide to come and work with us instead."
Sumeragi was not kind in response, "A word of advice – perhaps your lifelong failure with women is a result of you describing them in loaded terms during your first meeting."
That did more damage to the guy than shooting him with the gun she was cradling. The man in charge laughed boisterously at him. It seemed that interpersonal mockery was a regular feature of their work as hired goons. The leader held up his hands and tried to have the last word, "Reminds me of my ex-wife. That's all we came here to do, so we'll be off now."
"Yeah. Piss off," I scowled with a flick of my head.
The group trundled away into the fog, leaving me with a serious headache and a lot of adrenaline running through my system. Even if they were correct in assuming it was us, it still got my knickers in a twist to have them point the finger and send thugs to threaten us. Once we were happy that they were gone, we returned to the interior and headed to the bridge.
"Rhea, I want full surveillance on the exterior. If someone so much as checks their bloody reflection in the hull, I want to know about it."
"Of course, Captain. I will enter an elevated state of alert."
I sat down on the chair in a huff and tried to cool my head. I was stupid to think that they wouldn't notice what we were up to, but I wasn't anticipating such a sudden escalation from that to this. We were under genuine threat of rubbing the local authorities the wrong way, even if what Dinkirm Fuel did was technically illegal. This was some real he-said she-said bullshit.
Sumeragi was the most level-headed between the three of us.
"We should consider putting together a ground security team sooner rather than later. These sorts of individualised threats will become a pressing issue if we let them fester."
"Ground security, you mean someone to scare off the likes of that lot?"
Sumeragi nodded, "We didn't have the manpower to do that in Celestia Being, but my previous post did. There were military policemen on every base to make sure that nobody conducted espionage or stole sensitive materials. A single ship of this size could be covered by one or two people."
"So, not someone who we'd need to pilot a mobile suit, but also hard enough to scare off people who might try to attack from the ground."
I leant back in my chair and took a deep breath. I already had a list of ideas in my computer, but most of them were for commanding officers, pilots, and other ship-based posts that weren't connected to direct combat. If I was going to use one of our precious sleeping quarters to house a ground guard – I wanted them to be a damn good one. A one-woman army who could cover the responsibilities of several.
With the infinite vastness of the multiverse at out fingertips it was a mere question of picking one, and I had a pretty firm grasp on who would fit the bill.
"Rhea, have you been sequencing these suggestions this entire time?"
"Yes Captain. Though it appears that none of them would suit this purpose. Do you have a directive?"
"See if you can find me Aisha Clan-Clan. She's an alien, strong as hell, and capable of surviving a bath in molten lava. She'll set 'em straight."
"Give me a moment."
It took Rhea a minute to come back to me with an answer.
"I have combined your directive with the information written into the database and have several candidate universes selected. I can begin the process of connecting to them on your word."
I thought that asking for a supernaturally powerful alien was a bridge too far for the displacement technology. There was no organic being I could think of that would survive bathing in lava like Aisha did.
"Bored with me already," Ruri mumbled with a cute pout.
I laughed, "Don't worry. It'll still take a couple weeks for us to get her and sort everything out. We'll have to lay low and take on safer jobs until it's done." And by 'sort everything out,' I meant throwing her into the tube for the company mandated brainwashing session…
"You certainly made her sound tough, but is she any good at following orders?" Sumeragi inquired.
No, she really wasn't.
"I'm sure it'll be fine. Rhea – start tracking her for us."
"Very well Captain. I will redirect my processing capacity appropriately."
"Ugh, what a day."
Sumeragi Lee Noriega was a self-assured woman. She believed that she knew everything about herself. Every aspect of her personality was firmly entrenched into place. That period of her life where she wasn't herself – where she drowned her true nature in the bottle, now offered her a sense of outside perspective that she could appreciate.
All of this was why she found her own excitement so bewildering.
For what reason was she excited about another woman coming on board the ship? She couldn't say. She never assumed the worst from Captain McAllister, so she couldn't accuse him of trying to find another woman to serve as a companion. If anything, his neurotic and possessive personality meant that he'd remain fiercely dedicated to her no matter what.
Squeezing some additional information out of him was helpful to diagnosing the issue. Lewis described her as a muscular, hot-headed woman with animalistic ears and dark skin. She was formerly the owner of her own warship before being dismissed for bring shame to her militaristic homeland. He said she wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed – but she could provide all the muscle they'd need without taking up huge amounts of interior space. It was a rational and well-considered argument. The Captain was good at putting his theories into convincing terms.
What she couldn't understand was why the thought of that same woman becoming one of Lewis' lovers didn't upset her. It was a stray, almost intrusive thought that occurred to her once she heard his suggestion. It was so matter-of-fact that it made her head spin.
'Of course Lewis deserves multiple lovers, he's the Captain – after all.'
She tried to shake the odd conclusion free but it hung around like a bad smell. The more she tried to ignore it, the more the fantasy ran rampant without her input. Herself, Aisha – and even Ruri, all serving as dedicated partners and lovers to the Captain. Following his every whim, happily engaging in sexual activities without a word of complaint, and transforming the Pariah from a traveling warship into their own personal love den.
Wouldn't that be nice?
She pinched herself. What on Earth was she thinking? There was no reason to suspect that Lewis intended to do anything of the sort! She needed to focus on what was right in front of her. It was going to do the ship no good if she went off on flights of fancy like that.
But maybe a cold shower would help.