RavensDagger

  Chapter he Held Together

  The Held Together was a relic. It belonged in a museum. The average grandpa would look at it and think 'damn, that's one old ship.'

  In esse wasn't a pluew thing, and every sign suggested that it moved with all of the grace of a one-legged geriatric.

  The ship had six cargo taio a side. Nid simple. Twelve standard tainers was a good load. Someone could make a living hauling kniacks from Luna to Mars with that kind of space.

  Two of the pods had clearly been modified however, and Ivil wasn't sure if the rest were even funal.

  The Held Together's cockpit was a wide, ft thing at the front. Real windows. Space for three. Below that, a bristle of man thrusters and the ship's reverse thruster, jutting out of the bottom like a cleft .

  The ship's spine was a thin, narrow space that ran all the way down to it's fat ass.

  Ba the day, engines weren't so good. At some point, someone had sold off the Held Together's massive set inal thrusters. They were repced by something newer. Newer beiive. Ivil would bet on the curre being pre-third intersystem war. Still, newer meant smaller, and now the Held Together had three engines sitting inside cowli for much rger thrusters.

  It didn't give her the impression that the Held Together could move any faster than the average tug.

  The ship was covered in a sthering of yellow paint. Ivil reized it. It was the cheapest paint avaible ih orbit. The kind of almost fluorest stuff they sprayed onto tugs and barges and deep space mining rigs. It caught the eye; in a bad way.

  A few panels along the ship's side weren't the same colour, others had had their paint scoured off by thruster burns or mieteorite impacts.

  Ivil could survive iy space without a ship. She could probably swim her way back to the outpost or p, if need be. It was the only thing that kept her walking towards the Held Together, the reassurahat evehe rusty old thing failed, she at least, wouldn't die.

  The Held Together was docked from the rear by a rge cargo-airlock, the sort big enough for someoo drive a forklift right through it. That meant that the hold en to anyone. Ivil paused not too far from it and scooped out one of the tablets from her bags. She sed through it. There was enough information there, at a gnce, for her to build a ving cover story. She memorised it with a sweep, then o herself before walking around the final er and towards the ship.

  Surprisingly, the crew hadn't abahe ship while they could. Or at least, one of them didn't.

  There was a young woman sitting on a high stool o a workbench. A small device was taken apart in front of her. She had tools, all ected by small wires to the workbench, spyed out around her.

  She jumped when Ivil took a step onto the airlock between the ship and hold.

  Turning, the girl bli Ivil, then looked past her then back. She raised a grease-covered hand. "Hi?"

  "Hello," Ivil said. "Is this the Held Together?" A small part of her wished that it wasn't.

  The girl smiled. No, not a girl. She was maybe ten years Ivil's junior. Her dimpled cheeks and tiny stature made her seem younger, but she was an adult by anyone's standards. "This is, and she is!"

  "Pardon?"

  "Uh... I mean... this is the Held Together. And she is. As in... as in she's held together, you know? Because she's not... broken? Mostly?"

  Ivil nodded slowly. "I heard you were going to Calisto." That's what their flightpn said, in any case. "Are you taking on passengers?"

  "Oh!" The girl jumped off her seat, almost boung too high so that her head was nearly bashed against some loose cargo held by a in the ceiling. "We love passengers. I mean, I love passengers. Did ye things with the captai?"

  "I haven't," Ivil said. "I just need passage to Calisto, for cheap."

  That would have to do for a cover story. Someoravelling cheaply. Ah any amount of money and a lick of sense would take any other ship to get to Jupiter.

  "Cheap we do!" the girl said. "Is that all of your stuff?"

  "I packed light," Ivil said.

  "Nice! Alright! e with me! I give you a bit of a tour while we're at it... oh, wait, no, I 't." the girl froze up as realisation dawned.

  "You 't?" Ivil asked.

  "We have another passenger ing. I'm supposed to help her." The girl shook her head. "The captain will be real cross with me if I don't stay here. Wait, wait, I'll call Missy over. She give you the big tour. But you'll have to ask me to give you ooo, she doesn't appreciate this old gal the way I do."

  "That seems fine," Ivil said. "By the way, what's your name?"

  "Oh? I'm Twenty-Six."

  "I was asking for your name, not ye."

  The girl blihen ughed with a snort. "No! No no, my name's Twenty-Six. I'm a Rihat's not my age. Well, not yet. Gimme a year!"

  "Oh, I see," Ivil said.

  "What's your name, miss?" Twenty-Six asked as she bounced her way to the back of the hold towards an interouo the wall. "I fot to ask, sorry. Are you from Hels?"

  "I'm a professor from there, yes," Ivil said. "My name is Evelyn Ville."

  "Cool! I'll go a Missy, she'll help."

  "Missy?"

  "The first mate," Twenty-Six expined. She thumbed the inter and there was a crackle as it came on. "Missy, you e to the hangar please? We have a new passehank you!"

  The inter squealed a moment ter, and someone spoke through it with a plete ck of passion. "On my way."

  "Thank you," Ivil said to Twenty-Six.

  The young woman gave Ivil a thumb's up. "No problem! It'll be nice having more people onboard. The Held Together be a little quiet sometimes. Just, uh, the captain means well. Set boundaries and she'll be fine. Oh, and... if there's a problem with your room, let me know. I'm the ship's meic. It's a full time job, but I try to do what I to help."

  "That's kind of you," Ivil said.

  Twenty-Six nodded along. "Sure thing. So, Hels Uy? That's so cool. I wish I went to a school like that."

  "Where do you go to school for your education as a meic?" Ivil asked.

  "Huh? Uh, I just picked things up here and there," Twenty-Six said.

  "Are you certified?"

  The girl froze up, eyes going wide for a moment and her smile turning pstic. "W-what? Yeah, of course I am! Hah!"

  She was not.

  "Of course," Ivil agreed. She wondered if it would be possible to have a team of Martian meieakily look over the ship before they left the dock. Just in case.

  She'd take a look at things herself. She wasn't a meic, but she could tell when something was on its st legs.

  The door at the back of the hangar groaned open and a woman walked into the room. She was of a height with Ivil herself, dark hair and an all-bck spacesuit. Ivil stood a little taller as she took the woman in.

  This was a core-holder. No more than a D-Csser, but her cores felt well and properly ied. More iing still, the woman immediately reminded Ivil of a Lunatic War. She didn't have the faceless mask, or the red nose. In fact, she cked any colour. Her skin was an almost sickly pale only atuated by dark eyeliner and lipstiot a , then. A Warmime?

  That was an unon sight.

  The woman locked eyes with Ivil, then sighed. "You're the passenger?" she asked.

  "Missy! Be wenty-Six said. "Miss, ah, Ville, this is Missy, the first mate."

  "Hello," Ivil said. "A pleasure."

  "Mhm," Missy said. "You got cash?"

  Ivil chuckled. "I have enough," she said. "Assuming you accept transfers from the First Bank of Mars?"

  Missy seemed to sider that for a moment before she nodded. "Yeah. We do that. They charge fees out the ass."

  "Missy," Twenty-Six hissed.

  "It's fiwo-Six," Missy said. "So, you need a ride to Jupiter?"

  "Calisto," Ivil said. "I think you're headed that way?"

  "That's where we're chartered to go," Missy said. "But there ain't much that way. What's a fancy sort like you want with Calisto?"

  "I'm an astro archeologist," Ivil said. "I'm going there for some schorly pursuits."

  "Huh," Missy said. She didn't seem to trust that entirely, but she shrugged a shoulder nguidly and turned bato the ship. "Follow me, fancy, let me show you to your bunk."

  "Don't give her one of the leaky rooms!" Twenty-Six called back as Ivil followed Missy.

  This was an auspicious start, Ivil thought.

  ***

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