“Hey, Cap. Take a look at this.” The radio buzzed.
Ty was tinkering yet again with the Presley's somewhat passable computer. I still had no idea what she was doing to the ship, but I worked out it had something to do with the invisible shield. I tried to tell her to leave it alone as it was pretty much the only device that I had made without help, but there wasn't any chance she'd ever listen to me. So I eventually gave up on her and just left her to her fiddling.
I never honestly had much of a knack for tinkering. It was either doing a full upgrade a part of my ship; with a full scale plan of action and a set of tools or nothing. I didn’t like messing around with stuff I really didn’t know anything about and playing with ideas which might or might not have worked. On such a small ship it could’ve turned into a full-scale disaster if something went wrong.
Dad had created everything from scratch and I trust that he knew what he was doing back then. Of course he had no idea I'd turn smuggler and negate half the law-abiding computers that he set up with his bare hands. Still, I liked it old school, but that meant that some of the designs in a few places were a bit outdated. It was a nice style, one that stood out from the crowd.
I knew Ty was only trying to help and get it more up to speed, but I liked it how it was. I just didn't have the guts to tell it to her straight. So after climbing through the lower intestines of the Presley and sifting through the checks that had quickly become routine; going up the ladder; double checking the gravity component and then swinging through to the bridge, I came face to face with my co-pilot.
"Yeah? What’s up?" I was panting, it wasn’t a short trip.
She was handling through the appearance settings when my voice made her turn her head. "What colour d'you like better?"
"I'm sorry?" And there I was thinking there was an emergency.
"Red?" She flipped her hand on the holographic screen. The layout changed instantly to a bright ruby red. "Blue?" A darker sapphire. "Yellow?" Deep gold. "Maybe purple-?" A royal amethyst.
"I don't care, Ty."
"Oh, come on, Cap."
"How old are you again?" Last time I checked she was old enough to stop with colour co-ordination crap.
"Just tell me. Indulge me, whatever."
I groaned. We had another hour or so of this while the ship got us to Kyspaia and I doubted I could keep my sanity. "Red."
"Red?" She scoffed. "Really?"
"And what's wrong with red?"
"Oh, nothing. Just thought you were more a purple person."
“Wow, how did you ever guess?”
“Well I am the super genius around here, Cap. Or didn’t you notice?”
“Debatable.” I muttered under my breath.
“What?”
“I said detectable – as in we’re getting scanned.”
Her eyebrow rose, a slight smile on her face. She didn’t buy it for a second. “Right…”
It wasn’t as if I was lying. We were getting scanned by the planet below, basic procedure and all that. From orbital distance, it was a pretty dull place to look at. Grey atmosphere and constant thunderstorms with lightning making a special appearance now and then. The weather forecast might seem dull to some, but in the planet’s case it was a matter of life and death.
My eyebrows furrowed as I realised what had happened.
“Ty…”
“Yeah, Cap?”
YOU ARE READING
Nebula
Science Fiction--This is a collection of short stories about and by the Captain of the Presley Jackson-- A NOTE TO READERS: To avoid 'confusion' to some - each story is separated into PARTS meaning that they shouldn't be treated individually but instead as one. So...
