One in Twelve Thousandth Percent

Chapter 26:

As soon as we get back, my feet are taking me to the bridge. "Hey, wait up." Misaki says as she and the others follow. Once on the bridge, Meira takes us up to her office. "What the hell happened here?" I said as soon as the doors opened to the office. "You ran into... me?" Belle puts a finger in the air. "Correction. 'Crazy Kay' in this timeline." Misaki punches her shoulder. "Not helping." Meira takes a deep breath and looks at me.

"Kay, she was scary. And most people don't scare me, Zintoris included. Here, let me replay the conversation for you. Pause it when you need to." She presses a button and turns the screen around. All we can see is what looks like Kaylin on the screen.

["Kaylin?" Meira says. "No, it's 'Crazy Kay' now."]

I pause it there. "Wait, THAT'S what I look like as a Space Pirate?" I point to the screen. Misaki looks down. "Whoa, hon. You were already hot, but damn. Maybe you should cut your hair like that. It looks really hot on you." This time, Belle punches Misaki in the shoulder. "Now who's not helping?" I look back down. "Well, I mean, it does look really nice on me. And it's something different. But do I really want to look like the Space Pirate? It's bad enough that we share the same face." I look at Misaki who has puppy dog eyes, which makes me smile. "Okay, I'll think about it." "Yay!" I unpause the video.

["What? Oh, shit. You're the Space Pirate." "But, how are you all still alive? This doesn't make sense. Did... shit. It did, didn't it. You had a FTL time misjump, didn't you?" "Yeah, how could you tell?" "Well, first off, in this timeline, the Angel was destroyed during a mission. You all died." "How? That doesn't seem likely."

"On this particular mission, we came across some loot and an abandoned ship. I'm not sure when, but at some point, I started getting greedy with the loot from our missions. I wanted to maximize the loot we were getting. I wasn't sure about the ship, but I wanted to get all of the loose small loot. But in order to teleport, you had to keep the shields down. Well, a ship came out and started firing on Angel. I got greedy and tried to get all of the loot before getting all of us out. Kazumi got hurt, so Misaki took her back early, before the ship showed up. Belle and I were left down there, but we were separated. I kept trying to get more and more loot, but you kept yelling at me. Next thing I know, my comm line is cut. I look out a window and can see an explosion that looked far enough away to be in space. I knew it had to be Angel. I never saw any sign of the other ship, so I figured they left."]

I pause it again and just stare. Misaki frowns. "That explains why the boxes couldn't get pulled. The shields were up at that point." Greedy? Kaylin, have you been getting greedy with loot lately? No, I just want to find what we need to get us home to our own timeline. I just keep staring as I unpause the video.

['Crazy Kay' looks to the side, then smiles briefly and looks back, the smile fading.

"When Belle finally found me, she tried to shoot me for being greedy, so I ran. It was back and forth cat and mouse for a few days. I was back and forth in the abandoned ship, repairing it. Finally, I got it repaired and flyable. Belle had somehow gotten a beacon out and a research ship picked her up on its way back to Venus. Well, you can imagine that after losing everyone in my life because of greed, I chose to lean on that greed to fill the hole. I eventually got the nickname 'Crazy Kay' the Space Pirate. The ship I repaired is this one. Eventually I pillaged and looted enough money and parts to fix it up. It's not very big, but I've taken down a couple Frigate type ships already as well as disabled a couple Space Stations, this one included. I'm nowhere near as good of a pilot as Kazumi was."]

Belle pauses it this time, upset. "Did she attack Janus?!" Meira shakes her head and reaches to unpause it again. "She explains it."

["Was it you that attacked Janus?" 'Crazy Kay' also gets upset. "My home? Are you serious? My mom and brother lived there as well as Misaki, Belle and Kaz's families. I may be a Space Pirate, but I'm not totally heartless. I did stop and visit and let them know that Kaz and Misaki were lost on a mission. That was a fun trip."]