“So what happened next?” asks Sam
eagerly.
“The three of us escaped to Domino,”
says Mia, “We managed to... acquire the Dust
Corsair from some unmissed scum. I have been captain since then with Darrac
as my first mate and Borin as my engineer.”
“So how come you haven’t gone home?”
asks Sam.
Mia is silent for several seconds before
sighing.
“I have become adapted to galactic
society,” answers Mia, “I’ve done things that are normal out here, but I have
no idea how they would fit in back on Earth. And I’m not the person that my
family once knew. I would be too embarrassed and ashamed of myself if I
returned home to my family.”
“I would say I understand, but I don’t,”
says Sam, “I do understand the concept and theory, but I’ve never been unlucky
enough to have experienced what is necessary to understand.”
“Good for you,” snorts Mia, “So are we
going to New Valletta or what?”
“If we use a warp drive, it should only
take a few hours in warp space and several hours using sub-lights,” I say.
“How do you know if we got a warp
drive?” demands Mia.
“You don’t have a jump drive and there
isn’t a gate in this system,” I reply.
“But what about a hyper drive?” insists
Mia.
“I need to keep some secrets,” I say in
a patronising voice.
“Let’s get going,” says Mia before
cutting the connection.
I turn to face Sam. He looks at me
expectantly.
“We got really good scanners,” I tell
him in a quiet voice.
***
“This is the haul,” says Mia proudly as
we and Lantern stand in the cargo bay of the Dust Corsair.
The cargo hauler is easily worn out and
the mix match repairs even more telling once you’re inside. The contrast in the
quality of the ship and the quality of its cargo is almost shocking.
The crates of Sektain equipment are a
mixture of curved cuboids and cubes of a smooth and shiny greenish-purplish-grey
metal allow. There are twenty total. Even if the crates were empty, they would
still be worth a lot thanks to how well made they are.
Mia is just over our age, roughly a year
older than me. She has a distinct pirate feel to her. Her brown hair is tied
back while her eye colour is hard to tell thanks to fact she has had them
augmented or enhanced. Mia has an athletic body with even more enhancements or
augmentations to it.
I’m also fairly certain that she is some type of cyborg.
Her clothes are made from a black
material that’s very similar to cos-mat while her vambraces and boots are made
from made from Sektain metal. Which means they almost definitely have hidden
abilities to them. Mia has a red belt of flowing silk and a steely grey armour
that covers her shoulders, upper chest and back. On her head is leather hat
like that one from Pirates of the Caribbean.
“So how much would you take for all
this?” I ask her.
“How much how is it worth?” she replies.
I have my HUD bring it all up. It takes
a minute, but I get a figure.
“Roughly seventy thousand pounds,” I
tell her, “Give or take a few thousand.”
“So how much are you willing to pay?”
Mia asks.
I think about it for a moment. I could
name a sum about the same value, but Mia seems to be looking for a profit. And
she’s been nice enough to deserve it from me.
“Eighty thousand,” I answer.
Mia pauses for a few minutes before
speaking.
“I guess that’s a good deal,” admits
Mia, “And you did save our lives and haven’t asked for any reward.”
“So you’ll take it?”
“Sure.”
“I’ve transferred the amount into her
bank account,” says Janelle over my armour’s comms.
“The money should be in your account,” I
say to Mia.
Mia opens up a holographic display from
her left arm. After a moment of looking through it, she looks pleased.
“This all yours,” grins Mia as she waves
a hand at the crates.
“So what are you planning to do now?” I
ask her as Sam moves to pick up some of the crates with both his hands and his
telekinesis.
“I got a bunch of tech and money to
upgrade the Dust Corsair with from
your money and the salvage rights from the battle,” muses Mia, “But that’ll
take time.”
“Thinking of going home during that
time?” I inquire.
“Probably,” says Mia, “Darrac and Borin
can be trusted to look after the ship. Plus I’ll keep in contact with them.”
She pauses and looks at the doorway.
“Say,” says Mia, “Have you meet Darrac
yet?”
I follow her graze and freezes.
I guess I should have realised it, but
it still came as a shocked to find out that Darrac is one of the Sektain’s
modified humans.
Darrac is tall and slim, but has a look
of lethality to him. His black hair is slick and pointed upwards and back. Two
black leather wings stick out of his back while long spikes come out of his forearms.
His eyes look like those of a cat and I can see fangs sticking out of this
mouth. The somewhat bulging muscles don’t help him look nonthreatening either.
He’s wearing the same black clothes that
Mia is wearing with the grey metal armour on top. The only bare spots are his
head and arms.
He cocks his head at me.
“You’re pretty impressive.”
Mia laughs.
“So,” says Mia with a silly grin on her
face, “Mind if we tag along on the trip home?”
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