Conflagration

God Has a Soft Spot for Fuckups.

They finished the meal mostly in silence. Erin could see that Lyssa was angry and more than a little hurt. Her friend had been excited to share a drink with her at the end of a long and fraught day. Erin wasn't sure if it would help or hurt the situation if she told Lyssa that she didn't even drink, so she held her tongue.

After the meal, Sister Judith remained inside sterilizing and preparing medical supplies necessary to her trade while Erin and Lyssa took the dishes outside to be cleaned in a bucket of water. It was fully dark now, so the work had to be done by the light of a lantern and two of the planet's four moons which were out tonight.

Lyssa complained, "Ugh! Why do these people want to live like this? It's so primitive! Back on Gonaways, we'd just drop the dishes into a recycler by the light of an electric bulb and then go to the bar to get fucked all the way up."

"They believe one day the Reengineered Christ is gonna come back to lead them all back to Earth. He wants them to live simple lives in His kingdom on Earth. They live these simple⁠—what you call 'primitive'⁠—lives in preparation for His return."

Lyssa scoffed. "Sounds pretty bananas-ass stupid to me. They condemn us for using advanced technology, but they won't hesitate to pay mercenaries to use high-tech weapons to kill people with. They'll pay a terraforming company to terraform worlds for them to build their stupid, luddite utopias on. They'll ride across the stars on spaceplanes and simultaneously condemn the people who sit up in the cockpit. Meanwhile, I just want a beer at the end of a hard day and I'm some kind of sinner. The whole thing stinks of hypocrisy to me."

Erin looked around, worried that Lyssa's streak of blasphemy might have been overheard, but there didn't seem to be anybody else nearby. Her eyes were starting to adjust and she could see pretty well in the low light. Still, she cautioned Lyssa: "Shh! Keep your voice down. If somebody hears you talking like that, it could be bad for both of us."

"Hmph!" was Lyssa's simple reply. For several minutes, she said nothing as they scrubbed the dishes. When she finally spoke again, Lyssa asked a question that had been brewing in the back of her mind all day. "So how come you know so goddamn much about the Fourthers, anyway?"

Erin dodged the question by repeating the story she'd told earlier about having grown up with Fourther neighbors. Lyssa didn't say anything in response. Erin had a feeling Lyssa wasn't buying it, so she changed the subject. "So did you get a chance to assess the plane's condition yet?"

The question of Erin's past had raised a tension between them. This new subject gave them a definite common ground; they both cared about the condition of their plane. "Well," Lyssa answered, "she's a little banged up, but she ain't totally manked yet. She'll fly again. Them cock-torquin' pirates got me leading their mechanics on the repairs 'cause I know more about hardpointers than they do. Bunch o' amateur cunts. The lot of 'em only know how to patch planes together with speed tape and plastigoo. I could get her flyin' in about two or three days if I was running the repair crew efficiently. But I reckon it'll take a week or more." Lyssa threw Erin a wink.

Erin smiled. "Just be careful not to run the crew too inefficiently. Don't want them to catch on and get suspicious."

"Shit, I figure they're expecting me to do some fuckery to delay the repairs. They'll let me get away with some, as long as the repairs continue. I'll delay it as much as I can. By the way: you ain't gonna believe this, but the belly tank was leaking fuel right next to one of them blown thrusters."

"Whoa. How are we still alive?"

" 'Cause God's got a real soft spot for fuckups like me. You're lucky you was with me."

"Yeah, I guess I was lucky you were there." Erin couldn't deny it was true. If she hadn't had such a good mechanic to get the systems back online, the plane would have bounced off the upper atmosphere. She would be dead right now or in the hands of the other group of pirates.