The Space Spinster (on HOLD)

Log 5. Girl's Talk

Time Stamp: 11th of the 3rd month, year 2696 CE, moving on with my day

Location Stamp: Space cruiseliner Solar Wind, home port Mars, owned by the Stellar Cruises Inc., destination: Jupiter, Solar System, Milky Way Galaxy

***

Lola's plea petered out before it reached me, but Shameel stood right next to her and he remained unmoved. "Mikado and you are to notify me if there is any sign the brig is damaged. If there is any other sign that it's a rogue raider, notify me."

Shameel's icy stare shifted between us. "This rubber dinghy didn't respond to our repeated hails. So, I want eyes on her. Adjust the shifts."

Adding red-dot-watching to my list of duties? Yippee-diddle-dee! I rubbed my cheek, where Zan'Zar nicked it this morning with the staff. "If it's a raider, Sir, could it possibly have enough firepower to blow us out of the sky? It looks light."

My boss pinned me with his glacial stare. His voice turned into a growl of a charging plasma cannon. "We're in neutral space, Gorelko. I can't shoot her out of the sky, that's what bothers me."

"Sir...?. Even if it attacks us in violation of the terms of the Asteroid Belt Peace Treaty?" Lola dry swallowed when all eyes turned to her.

Shameel didn't answer.

Neither did I, though it hung on the tip of my tongue. For six standard years, our generals kept promising we only needed to kill three more key warlords, eradicate six more raiders' nests—and we'd liberate the Asteroid Belt. Then, there will be a parade and lasting peace.

As it turned out, our generals had no clue how to count or liberate. Their 'reasonable projections' choked up on blood. We had more funerals than parades and the humiliating Treaty of 2689.

If a raider gave us a reason... hah! Let her come at us, we'd vaporize her and nobody would ever find the fumes. I could sense the same resolve in my teammates, in the smell of their sweat and their stiffening shoulders. We didn't forget that we lost a war.

Lola's rabbit-like nose twitched and her fingers trembled. Perhaps, the room was too primal for an enlightened mym. "Adding... adding shifts."

Shameel nodded, but didn't dismiss Lola. She clasped together her forelegs, as if it helped her to squeeze out each word through the tiny opening of her mouth. "I... Dr. Mikado and I will keep hailing the unidentified ship at random intervals. We'll keep them on their toes, Sir."

"Good," he said. "Everyone! Keep alert and calm. Don't alarm the passengers, let alone tip off the HQ. I don't fancy hoofing back to Mars in emergency stasis if some corporate shithead calls the evac."

Neither did I, but I figured shots would have to be fired before the HQ warmed up to giving out refunds. This concern, however, was above my paygrade. I was paid to protect Solar Wind against pirates, raiders, or monsters from outer space. If shots were fired, it would give my life meaning, if only for a bit.

***

I stumbled out of the PS-126X, only wanting to mull things over alone, but when Lola sprinted by on her plentiful legs, I called out. "Will you be okay working under Mikado?"

She glanced around to ensure we were alone, then stretched her upper, caterpillar-like segments to reach my ear. "Sometimes I suspect all humans hate me simply because I'm a mym."

"I don't." I leaned away from Lola so her green bristles stop tickling my neck. "Shameel was an ass for insisting that Mikado should supervise you."

At the mention of Mikado's name, most of Lola's eyes welled with blue tears. I suppressed an inward groan. "Just how bad is our man from Venus?"

"Dr. Mikado isn't bad. He's just... arrogant."

Lola was the only sahib who staunchly refused to lord over humans. If she was complaining about a human—not even a human, a clone, so a guy on the bottom rung of the species' ladder—being too arrogant, instead of screwing his life... as far as I was concerned, she was a credit to her master-race.

I patted the closest of her forearms. "Cheer up, Ll." There was no way I could say her mym name right, but her human name, Lola, just didn't cut it under the circumstances.

She smiled through tears. "Hey, that was pretty close! L...'l. Like that."

It was a hopeless task, because myms' superior hearing on top of their love for efficiency produced a language of gazillion indistinguishable monosyllables. I gave it another shot, anyway. "lL. Better?"

"You'll get there one day," Lola promised. Her eyes stopped glistening. My imagination even added a twinkle to their blue depth. "Alright, I should put the Third Jovian Science Expedition on the case."

"A.k.a. Dr. Mikado?"

"Yup!" Lola opened up the four forelegs wide to the sides, to better show her surrender in the face of facts: despite its grand name, the Third Jovian was a one-man show. She got the gesture right, disturbingly human-like. I gave my head a shake. Thou shalt not anthropomorphize an alien, was the first commandment they taught every spacer, and I was breaking it big time whenever I talked to Lola.

Lola's lower limbs shifted to carry her toward an access hatch to the service tubes the staff used to move around the ship and the resemblance faded... thank the stars.

Then she stopped, turned her bunny head toward me... and I couldn't help it. Alien or not, I understood what Lola's hesitation meant. She wasn't looking forward to getting Mikado on board. Technically, he wasn't even Shameel's subordinate, but like all crew we could second him to ensure the safety of the ship.

"Why don't you just buzz Mikado after the work is done?" I suggested. "I'm sure he'll be glad to nod along and take the credit."

Lola pulled her head into her fuzzy shoulders. "You wish! He'd insist on redoing everything to indulge his bored genius, while complaining he needs his time and wits to secure funding for the wormhole network access, not for this 'so-called expedition'"

The wormhole network access... no shit. I whistled. "He doesn't want much, eh?"

"That's the lifetime wormhole network access. Something that's never been granted to a private citizen of the Ven-Mar space!"

It would also cost enough money to buy a private moon. Or a decent size property on the Moon. "Daaamn! Nothing but the best for our brilliant Dr. Mikado!"

Lola rolled her eyes, all of them, except the rudimentary thirteenth. "Well, the sooner we start, the sooner it'll be over. Ta-ta!" she said and squeezed her body into the tube segment by segment.