Space Dreams

Chapter 9: Win some and lose some

Zach's POV

My nose and cheekbone hurt like hell. She had got me good. This woman had a serious aggression issue. This was the second time she got me bleeding.

I was dripping on the console and making a mess. Dammit. How am I supposed to fly with all this blood everywhere? 

"Please get something to wipe the console clean..." I said through gritted teeth.

She glared at me.

"Now!" I shouted

"No need to get upset. I just don't know what to give you." she responded while looking down at her sweater. In a quick movement, she took it off and handed it over.

"Here..."

I cleaned the display and threw the sweater back in her face.

"Watch it buddy. Don't push me" she hissed and she threatened me with the pliers again.

How the hell had she passed the screening process?!  From day one, she had been a menace. Sexy. Smart. But an utter nutcase. And a huge pain in the butt with all these escape attempts.

I knew rocket propulsion engineers were a dying breed given all the cutbacks in science the past few decennia, but surely they could get somebody more stable to do the job. It's not like we are heading on some random mission into space just for the fun of it. Human kind would be the dying breed if this mission failed.

"Come on. Snap out of it! We don't have all day." she yelled, rudely interrupting my thoughts.

God this woman was annoying.

I jumped up in surprise when I heard security banging on the door.

"Switch on the engines. Get this saucer moving!" she shouted, getting nervous because of the shouting going on outside the pod.

I needed some quick thinking.

The mission would be endangered by her. Despite her skills. She was too unstable. Too unreliable. Too dangerous. She could sabotage the ship within minutes. She had shown that before.

I needed to get rid of her.

Just opening the pod's doors wouldn't solve the problem. I would have to request her to be relieved of duty. The stupid bureaucratic process would at least take a day. Delaying our departure. And given the previous decision to let her board, the outcome would be very unpredictable. For some reason, they wanted her on this ship.

Sh*t.

I looked at her.

So she wanted to pick up her family.

What better way to get rid of her than to just leave her with her grandparents? Surely, somebody with her skills and attitude would survive in the mess that was going on down there. 

Let her deal with her. Not us. 

She caught me looking at her and pulled up an eyebrow.

"GO YOU IDIOT. NOW!" she yelled while hitting my back with the pliers.

I made my decision and started the engines. I opened the pod's communication channel and ordered open the hangar doors.

The ship's computer was baffled and didn't understand my actions.

"Why are you leaving? Just open the doors and let security in. They will deal with her." the computer told me.

When I didn't respond, she made the right decision of opening the hangar doors. It wouldn't risk a captain's life. Like rocket engineers, we were a dying race. Plus very expensive to breed.