“Get those towing cables in position. We don’t have long before the next planned shipment comes through this corridor, and we need to be long gone.” Monique said, directing a group of workers from the comfort of the bridge on the new transport ship. Even though the captain of this transport vessel had agreed to join them, Jean’s standard practice was to give people time before trusting them with anything important.
Too often, people—be they human or Scaladorian—only agreed with a position as long as they got something out of it. When the pair of Eco-terrorists still lived on Earth, people turned their back on the mission of planetary restoration more often than not. They would talk, offering praise to the organization and the sheer amount of good they’d done for the planet, but when it came time for commitment, they would turn tail and betray them to the authorities. That would almost always result in their arrest, costing sizeable sums of money and great personal risk to correct an issue that shouldn’t have existed.
It was the core reason she was so loyal to him. It didn’t matter that she didn’t always agree with the steps he took, nor did it matter that people died in pursuit of those goals. In the end, all that mattered was that they persisted. Like a stone in a storm, they refused to break, always pushing the envelope in an endless effort to heal the damage to their planet. It wasn’t legal, but true visionary advancement rarely was.
“Ma’am, we’re connecting the last cable now. We’ll be through the airlock in fifteen, then we are clear for departure.” A pirate said over the short-wave radio. The process of re-keying the communication network on the transport was one of the first items completed after they’d surrendered to Jean and his men. It wouldn’t stop the aliens from having second thoughts, but it would slow down their betrayal.
“Good,” she said tersely as she began pre-flight systems checks. The old captain of this ship had mentioned issues with the ships' engines and life support, citing an inability to pay for those repairs without the company going under.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
It was the same story every Scaladorian who joined them told: There was no middle class in their society any longer. Instead, aggressive capitalism had forced small businesses to close or assimilate with their competition, creating an ever-deepening spiral of monopolism that ate away at their spirit with every turn. Those who joined the large companies became barons, their profits soaring while the people who’d built their empire in the first place suffered poor wages and horrible conditions. Those who refused became the poor, driven to desperation while struggling with the choice of living with their morals, or living another day.
This shipping company was the latter. A small business that only owned a single ship, moving goods from one planet to the next in an eternal dance. Working every day and night to make ends meet while knowing that a single major repair would drive them all to financial ruin.
When looked at from this angle, it was easy to see why they’d chosen to throw in with Jean on the off chance that he could make things better. Unlike the pirates of the past, Monique knew he wasn’t in this for money, power, or fame, but a burning desire to cure society of its cancer one business at a time. It wouldn’t be a perfect system, and inevitably, some would suffer despite every attempt to make it free and fair, but it was a start.
“Ma’am, we are good to go,” a pirate said behind her. The voice was distinctive enough that—even without looking—she could tell that it was the same man who’d spoken to her a few moments before. The hearing aids attached to a pair of magnets hidden under her skin were fantastic, but they weren’t perfect. If this man hadn’t sounded like a child screaming at an insanely high pitch, she wouldn’t have ever known the difference.
“Jean, transport five is good. We are connected, ready for tow,” she said, keying the radio channel that would speak directly with Jean.
“Very good. Stand by for travel to Narax.”
Then, the world stretched, and they were gone from that portion of space.
