Short stories

Crash Landing

Mia coughed as she waved away the smoke coming from the front of her ship. Damn it.

"Jake! Get out here!" She shouted.

There was a shuffle from the inside of the Shadowshot before the sound of a sliding panel indicated that her mechanic had followed her orders. Jake stumbled through the door, bottle in hand. Mia glanced up at his forehead and grunted, returning her gaze to the hull of her beloved spaceship.

"I thought I told you to ditch the goggles."

"And I told you that I like them." He shot back, taking a sip of whatever was in his bottle. "And besides, steampunk goggles have been hard to come by since we left Vava Shi."

"Whatever. You and your Victorian fetish."

"It's not a fetish!" He burst out, his face turning as red as his outfit.

"Sure. Whatever you say." She smirked.

"So, what's the problem?" He asked, looking over her shoulder.

It's more like he's looking over my head. Mia thought resentfully. Just another reminder of how short I am.

"If I knew, I wouldn't have called you out here." She said through gritted teeth. "So pop the hood and check it. I don't pay you for nothing."

Jake laughed and Mia could smell the alcohol in his breath. She moved out of the way so that he could access the parts of the ship.

Slipping his goggles over his eyes, Jake set the bottle on the ground and flipped the switch. The latch opened with a hiss and slid to the side. The teenage mechanic began to work to locate the problem. While he worked, Mia picked up the bottle he had put aside and sniffed at the top. The liquid smelled... yeasty and... fruity and... familiar?

"Jake, is this whiskey?" She asked, hesitant to take a sip. Last time she had eaten a strange food... well. Let's just say that she hadn't always her fluffy cat ears and tail. Jake lifted his goggles and turned his head to see what she was referring to. When he saw the bottle in her hand, he nodded.

"Yeah. My stash's running low though. So, next time we find a planet that has a decent distillery, I need to run to the town."

Mia nodded, taking a sip and watching as Jake returned to his work.

"Cap'n!" Came a cry from the door of the ship. A head poked out of the door. A slimy head. A green slimy head. No matter what color or texture it was, Mia thought it was a beautiful head to go with a beautiful person.

"What is it Scarlett?" Mia asked the slime girl, rubbing her eyes.

"Oh. I'm sorry. Was I interrupting something?" Scarlett asked.

"Nothing, love. I was just trying to get Jake to actually DO HIS JOB AND STOP SPENDING HIS TIME DRESSING UP AS SOMETHING FROM THE 1900S." She said, looking at Jake angrily.

Jake shrugged and responded, "Haters gonna hate... hater."

Scarlett smiled softly and giggled. "I just wanted to tell you, I figured out where we... landed."

Mia looked at the giant crater they had made. Landed was really stretching it. She then shifted her gaze to the expansive forest surrounding them. She had never thought to check where they had landed. She had just assumed they were in an uninhabited land.

"So where are we?"

"Come on in and I'll show you." Scarlett said before walking away.

Mia glanced at Jake and found him staring back up at her.