Space Bunnies!

Chapter 2: For Hire

It took two hours for the creature to leave them alone. The scratching on the door and the constant sniffing on the outside of the ship eventually dissipated, but not until about mid-afternoon. While it did this, Kai insisted that Bodi clean up the ship as punishment for nearly dying.

"I hate cleaning!" Bodi whined as Kai handed him a duster.

"I don't want to hear it, Bode—weight means everything on a solar sailor when breaking orbit; we must ensure that we put in some extra effort in the way of organization. I shouldn't have to explain this to you every time," Kai pressed. 

 Bodi was in charge of dusting—if there was one thing Bodi hated more than anything in the entire universe, it was dusting. Bodi carried on down the corridor. Stomping his feet, he muttered under his breath, mocking Kai in a high-pitched, exaggerated voice. "Neeh neeh neeh ... 'Weight means everything, Bodi! We have to be organized, Bodi!' Like I care about orbit-breaking physics." He grumbled, waving the duster around haphazardly. "Neeh neeh neeh ... 'Extra effort in the way of organization.' Blah...Blah...Blah." He mocked, rolling his eyes dramatically. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure Kai wasn't watching, then added, "Maybe you should organize yourself a sense of humor while you're at it." He disappeared down toward the heart of the ship.

"Hey—I heard that! And we can't lift off until that thing leaves us alone anyway, so you really have no choice, so I suggest you suck it up," Kai called out through cupped hands after him before the internal door sealed itself behind him. A few minutes passed—about ten, maybe fifteen. And his brother kept claiming he was 'finished.' But after a quick inspection, Kai determined that he was not. His brother had a very small attention span and was prone to being distracted easily, which is probably why that beast found him such an easy snack. He was probably looking at a flower or a bug and neglected to monitor his surroundings. Kai was sure that Bodi was eager to get back to doing what he was doing before—but the cleaning came first.

As Bodi trotted down the corridors with his dusting wand, it didn't take him long to return to la-la land—over-observing the alien moths fluttering inside the ship. When he stopped moving, one of them fluttered down to land on his nose. Bodi nearly went cross-eyed trying to fully observe it; he put his finger up, and the thing took off. "Hey—wait," Bodi called out to it; he tried to catch it. Fiercely swiping his dusting tool across the air as he ran down the corridor.

Kai was on the holo-computer searching for lucrative contracts; they had to fund their explorations somehow. He skipped right past the more dangerous activities because he was quite adamant about keeping the violence his little brother experienced to a minimum...unfortunately, that didn't leave too many 'break-even' worthy contracts on the list to take advantage of. Their ship was a little too small to do cargo runs...perhaps they could transport some VIPs privately..? Of course...they'd have to be alright with the smaller accommodations...Kai hummed to himself and rubbed his chin; he heard Bodi making noise just outside the room. "Boe, you better not be running around the ship again...! You remember when you hit your head and got that nasty gash?" Kai called back; that had happened a few weeks ago; he shuttered in disgust as the image of that memory entered his mind without a filter.

Bodi's butterfly hunt led him into the shared bedroom. He stuck his tongue out of the corner of his mouth and gooified his legs; from there, he used the metal flooring of the ship to propel himself forward, like a slimy spring, he rocketed over to the butterfly's position, and without warning, he smashed himself against the wall with a splat, absorbing the insect. 

Kai rolled his eyes and watched Bodi's goo flow down the wall without resistance. "You're going to hurt yourself," Kai said without looking up from the monitor. 

 Bodi then reformed solid with the butterfly in his palms, unharmed. It rested and flapped its wings idly—it looked like even it had been startled by its brief envelopment within Bodi's goop. He walked over to Kai, who watched the screen and rubbed his chin. Only slightly surprised. "Look! It looks like we were wrong. This planet is inhabited! Can I keep it?" Bodi asked, holding the creature up into Kai's line of sight.

"You know the answer to that."

"Come on! It's not even that big! I'll feed it and water it every day! After you said I couldn't keep that cat on Perscion Five, you said I could have the next one!" Bodi pleaded. 

Even if it were about the size of a mouse and fluffy like one, it would do nothing but add weight and strain on resources. Its large black eyes watched, waiting for Kai to make a decision. 'No' would've been the default, but Bodi still hadn't lost his ability to use 'extrusion eyes.' He clearly wanted the thing, "I didn't let you keep it because it was ten times your size. It would've eaten you!" After a brief pause and a sigh, he continued, "But a promise is a promise, so you can keep it. For now."

Bodi jumped with excitement. He moved toward the computer with his new pet on his shoulder and examined Kai's work. "Wait! You weren't thinking of leaving? We haven't even been to the waterfalls on the north side!"

"I know! You don't think I want to scale the mountain on that side? But if we don't have UC, then we can't buy fuel; we need fuel to break orbit. We might as well go while we have a window. Otherwise, we'll be trapped here for who knows how long—"

"Well, yeah, but we'll still get to explore."

"Sureee...sure!" Kai nodded with an exaggerated smile, "Then you can explore for as long as you like, all for the low price of being trapped here for weeks." 

Bodi pouted. 

"Look, wherever we go will have just as many waterfalls, I promise!" Kai answered, collected.

Bodi frowned and nodded. It was unfortunate that their departure would be so soon.

Perhaps a quick morale boost was needed, "Do you want to pick?" 

 "No way! Yes! I never get to pick the mission!" Bodi exclaimed. He bounced up and down excitedly, and his tail emphasized his emotion of happiness as the opportunity fell upon him. His pet was spooked by his sudden movements. Its wings fluttered again.

"Well, you're getting older, so I figured you were ready, and you should have more say in what we do." Kai smiled, patting his brother on the back, "Now...it's a big decision, so I wouldn't be surprised if it takes you a while to—"

Bodi cut Kai off, "I picked already!" Bodi shouted.

"What." Kai felt a chill run down his spine as his brother made an instantaneous selection. It usually took him three or four hours just to make the right choice. 

But as Bodi moved his pointer finger and tapped on one of the little squares, out of all perspective missions on the entire board. He picked the one marked as 'high priority: a bounty.' "85,000 universal credits! With that much, we can stay out here for as long as we want!" 

Kai examined the selected target and attempted to mask his terror. He was an adventurer primarily, not a bounty hunter, and with the target being marked high priority—they would no doubt be some person who was incredibly difficult to capture. This mission was reserved for professionals, not amateurs. Kai scrolled down to the lower priority targets, ones in the 1,500 UC range—people who committed petty crimes—forgot to pay their bar tabs, etc., "Why don't you pick from these?" Kai attempted to sway his brother with an anxiety-riddled smile.

"But you said I could pick..." Bodi pointed to his mission again.

Kai stared. He was obviously uncomfortable with capturing someone like a fish and turning them over to the highest bidder. "I...don't really foresee this going too well." 

"Well...do you possibly foresee me changing your mind..?"

Well, that backfired tremendously. "Okay. Fine. Whatever you want, Bode." Reluctantly—Kai accepted the highest bounty on the list. It looks like their days of exploration were paused—and the freelance began. "But how are we even gonna capture him?" 

"Easy, we'll use our powers silly! You saw how I totally went all goopy and caught this critter, we can do the same thing for the target, and we'll uh...lock him in the airlock!" Bodi quickly suggested. 

Kai sighed as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Kai." Bodi began to reassure him, "It's going to work out fine."