Day Three- Funeral Lily

Day 3 -

I didn't get to write yesterday, or record, but shit all happened so I'll start with today. Marty informed me he could use the drone bay to deal with some functions of the ship, but we were in the shit as far as crew went. One Engineer plus a skilled and heavily trained captain does not a cruiser crew make. I figure since we're at Lozious, I'll use the standard engines to carry our ponderous metal ass to the Lozious Entertainment Space Station. LESS is a big place, where a lot of stuff happens and you can find everything from whores of all genders and species to people looking for work to entertainment.

Two things are of interest there.

Whores and people looking for work.

I'll record more when I'm done at the station. It's… four AM Universal Standard Time. Slept for… three hours. That's more than normal…

Step by step. This is telling a story, right? So I should go step by step.

Marty decided to stick around the ship, so I got dressed up in my most captain-y attire - so, black pants, a decent bra, a tanktop, a short leather jacket and a pair of suspenders. Of course, I also put a thick leather band around the base of my tail as always, trailing two pieces of purple cloth.

Girl's gotta be stylish, right?

Maybe I was just desperate for some contact other than the usually near silent Marty. Maybe I was hoping for someone to fuck to take my mind off of… my cargo. I don't know what I was hoping for, but I made sure I looked good.

Right before I left my room, I… I stared at Dad's cologne for a while. Dad was a pirate. He banged my mom, fertilized her egg, and then just… fucked off. She could have just broken the shell after laying it and not had a kid, but mom wasn't like that. She was too good for him, by a long shot. I don't know if I'm more like her or more like him, but I know I always kind of wished I knew him even though he broke mom's heart.

I spritzed cologne on my wrists and rubbed it on my neck, then gave a few sprits to my shirt. It smells really god damned nice when it's not overpoweringly strong.

Marty handled the docking while I got ready. He's not asked a ton of questions about me being sort of rich. He knew about dad, but I didn't tell him about my inheritance. He's always been good about just… not pushing things.

Stepping off into the primary docking area was boring as shit, instead of exciting as I expected. It was just a short hallway leading from the platform and clamping system to the hub. It was smokey as shit in the hub, so I took my time to light my own cig. Salk cigs are bigger than a lot of species, cause we're kind of huge.

It should be noted that I was smart enough to remember my laser pistol, a decent communicator, and a med-kit because I'm one paranoid bitch sometimes.

Down the hallway from the hub, I reached the place that wasn't crap. There were species of every kind present, except for the Nausso because those guys are kind of pricks and people don't usually allow them in places. Shops too, and bars and restaurants. The way the station is designed is pretty simple. Artificial gravity processors work on a pretty controlled scale, so there is a giant zero-g open area in the center and then about two dozen circular floors with holes in the center and enormous uh… well, a lot of room.

My communicator beeped so I dragged it out and popped the hologram up to see what Marty wanted. It was a very, very long supply list. I kind of forgot we also needed to stock the ship, see. Foodstuffs, replicator pellets, fuel cells, water, stored oxygen, filter components, laser rods, plasma charge shells and so on. It also occurred to me I had forgotten my uh…

Well, I had to visit a toy store.

Space can get lonely and Marty only has so much stamina. I got my egg in me right now, all ready to be fertilized and all, so I can't have sex with a Salk anyway.

It took me three hours using the directory to find my way to every store I needed to go to and have group delivery set up - and then they told me they were backlogged and it would be two hours before they could do the delivery thing.

What's a space captain of a ship that used to belong to a pilot supposed to do with two hours to blow?

Drink, of course!

There were a lot of expensive bars and being that I grew up poor as shit working since I was fourteen on the space docks, I'd never really been to one. I could have gone to one before leaving, I had my money for a few months at least… but I didn't have time. Was too busy doing the working thing.

So I found a place that seemed nice and mentioned there were both men and women who would be either scantily clad or naked, so I did what I figured was proper and went there.

The place was nice. Had a bar that was cold black metal, which is always comfy. Stools with actual leather on top lined the bar, and there were tons of tables and chairs and things. There was a band, too, actual live musicians.

As soon as I reached the door, a big Nalisk tried to stop me. Nalisk are like… well. There's a running joke about humans, who don't exist anymore. Once upon a time, five Nalisk crash landed on the Earth, in the ocean. Four made it to shore. Spawned a whole bunch of stuff about demons in the human culture.

They're big, with black or red skin and wings and metallic golden eyes, and kind of hoof like feet with digigrade lower legs. I'd never talked to one before, but I mean, I ain't racist or anything. People's just people.

But this guy was a big dumb piece of shit.

"Hey, your type ain't allowed in here."

I laughed and held out my hand.

"Print me, man. DnA check if you want. I have more cash in my bank account than you'd believe."

He just kind of stared at me for a long moment before tugging a communicator from his pants pocket and tapped on it for a few seconds. I guess I wasn't dressed spiffy enough to look rich. I made a note of that while he navigated to  a program and then held out the phone.

I was smart enough to put ninety percent of my cash into a Universal Banking Union account, so my funds could be easily verified with prints. He went ahead and printed me, and then his eyes widened when he read the number on the screen.

"My apologies ma'am, I didn't realize."

"It's all good, man. Books and covers and not judging and all. There uh… women in there?"

He nodded.

"Women aplenty. Costly, though. Have a nice day, ma'am."

I could get used to having cash, I figure. People are awful nice when you got yourself a mess of cash.

So I headed on in, and settled on a stool by the bar. To be entirely honest, I didn't expect to get myself any strange while I was there. I wasn't even sure I could have sex without breaking down into tears again.

The bartender was a handsome guy who seemed allergic to shirts, on account of the fact that he wasn't wearing one. Cute though. If I had more time, I might have pursued him. He was another Nalisk with these adorable little horns curling around the sides of his head. He got me my whiskey after giving me a 'you're kind of hot' look.

It was good whiskey, damned good. The real kind, too, not any of the space shit. Someone made this in an actual cask on an actual planet. Smoked a cig down, drank enough to start feeling a buzz. I shouldn't god damn drink in public though because I get dumb fast when I get tipsy.

I'm talking giggly idiot level dumb, here.

Before my tenth drink was in my hand the bartender was telling me and some other patrons jokes and I was giggling nonstop. Me. Big, muscular, tusked, bitchy me was giggling like a teenaged girl or something. A few minutes into my tenth drink, I wound up at a table staring soulfully into my liquor and dealing with a cigarette that seemed to be willfully  more complex than a cigarette ought to be.

A woman sat down across from me. Hallucination? Nope.

She was a Nalisk, a gorgeous Nalisk. Tiny little thing compared to me - only about five foot three, if that. Her skin was the most gorgeous, pure midnight black and the smoothness… shit, it looked like silk. To make things worse, her lips were done up the same red as her incredibly revealing, tight dress that left so little to the imagination I'm pretty sure we were intimate before I was consciously aware of her presence.

The second she looked at me I was smooth as fuck.

"My friend died and I'm laughing because he raised me and I'm actually terribly depressed," I told her.

See?

Smooth.

She looked like she didn't know what to say, so I apologized and held out my hand.

"Captain Maddie Winter of the Winter Saber. Pleasure t'meet'cha."

"Andrea Onis, employee of the bar who just got off work. You're the first Salk I've seen come in here in a long time," she replied, shaking my much larger hand.

We talked. I won't go into detail. It wasn't much interesting. I cried to this woman I just met about my dead friend/father figure. She told me about the bar, a bit. Mostly she just listened, comforted. She was just nice. And pretty. Big golden eyes and those lips, my god. She smoked too, and I love that in a lady and…

"Listen, I'm drunk, but… do you want to go have sex?" I asked. "Like, is there a private room? Are you that kind of employee? I can pay."

"You… don't have to pay. But yeah, follow me. I'm in the mood."

I should have been suspicious. No one puts up with that shit for that long then just agrees to sex for free. But I was lonely and desperate and depressed and tired of vibrators. We wove our way through the bar to the back hall, and then moved down that hallway to the back room. She shut the door behind me, and locked it, and that worried me.

"You need to listen to me when we're done," she whispers as soon as the door is shut. "We'll have time then."

"Sure, whatever you want," I slurred. "I'm gonna pick you up now, cause you're tiny… then I'm going to kiss you."

I thought maybe she had a pained expression on her face, but she said I could, so I did. I pinned her to the wall and kissed her like it was the end of the world.

Again, I'm not going into details. I… we had sex. What I remember of it,  it was good sex. She has talented hands, I guess. Maybe when I'm sober some time I'll see if she's up for a romp again, who knows?

I know I sort of got lost, mentally. I checked out. I needed to. I hadn't really taken a step back since I got the news Elliot died and I just… I let her do what she wanted to me and make me do what she wanted to her. It was peaceful, slow, and relaxing.

When I came to, she was pacing beside the bed with a cig in her mouth and I was still wearing my shirt and bra, but they were pushed up under my chin and out of the way. I stared confusedly at my dark green nips for a second then tugged my bra and tanktop down and got up to look for my pants.

"Listen, you need to leave. I sent a message to a friend who will make a distraction, but you have to go," she told me then. I stared at her, buck naked and badly in need of a shower mostly for my lower half.

"Uh… I'm still kinda boozed up, lady. I'm not even sure I know your name. Wanna start there?"

She glared at me.

"Listen! I was supposed to drug you, and then leave the room when I was done. They'll come check soon. If you leave within the next few minutes, you should make it out alive."

Now, I was confused. One, because I didn't remember her being a redhead, and two because of the massive amounts of 'huh?' going on in my headspace.

"… so… you guys… drug people and steal their organs? I got two hearts, you know."

She stomped up to me, buck ass naked and cute as can be.

"I'm a slave. They rob people, usually killing them. I'm talking a full DnA, printing, and neural sweep for your bank codes. But you… aren't like a lot of the rich folk who come in here. We had you marked the second you parked that massive cruiser at the docks but you're nice. You're real nice. I don't want you to die, okay?"

So that was a big 'well, shit' moment.

I had to do some thinking, so I found my pants and panties and got those on, then lit a cigarette quick. My laser pistol was sitting on the table by the door, waiting for me.

I needed crew though, and she just… looked sad. I remembered that odd look then, right before we banged. That weird sad look. A slave. She didn't want to do that. I mean, no one screws like that without wanting too, but I still felt guilt.

"I need crew, lady. I'll take your ass out of here if you want. Give you cash to get on your feet if you want, too. Freedom and all that."

"Maddie, my only real skills are fucking, cleaning, and bartending."

That gave me pause.

But I ain't a fan of a lack of freedom.

"Ship's got a bar. You can tend that. Clean stuff. Look, I apparently ain't got much time so uh… how about a decision?"

She told me she couldn’t. They had her implanted with a proximity poison delivery implant.

But I'd done a supply inventory with Marty while we waited for the Compression Beacon to do its charging thing. I knew what my dad's pirate ship had on it.

"I got a class five med bay on my ship with a pretty damned nice auto-doc, and antidotes for nearly every poison that exists. My dad was… was a pirate. Look, come with me, please."

She thought about this a second and then grabbed for her underwear and worked them on. Cute little lady doesn't even need a bra, really, but she wears one.

When I headed out the door and peeked down the hall through into the bar, I was pretty damned sure I saw a full blown lasers and broken bottles barfight and was kind of sad I was missing it but my new friend grabbed my hand and tugged me down the hall to a stock room, quickly. Once inside, she hurried across to another door and we emerged into an access tunnel. As much as I'd have loved to let her be slow, I holstered my las pistol and scooped her up then started running with her direction.

That's about the time I began to feel a teensy bit nervous.

I'd shot precisely two people in my life and I didn't kill either of them. There was a cold, quiet dread in my gut that told me however that I was gonna be shooting someone dead pretty damned soon.

We emerged onto the insanely crowded area and out of a communicator jamming field I had no idea was present. Immediately, it was ringing. I set the woman down, grabbed her hand, and started walking. Then I answered the call.

"Uh… Captain, we got ourselves a bunch of shifty looking dudes gathering in the hub outside our ship. You want me to uh… get them out of the way?" he asked.

"Yeah, I pissed some guys off by not being easy to kill and stealing a slave. I guess they already know. Do what you gotta," I answered, tucking the phone in my pocket. They knew I had her already, see. Distraction lasted just long enough for us to get into a crowded place.

I was going to have to play the game like the poor little space dock rat I was as a kid on account of paying for shit taking time. There were so many vendors it wasn't hard. We passed a souvenir shop and I grabbed a hat for me and a head scarf for her. While she worked the scarf on, I tugged my jacket off and folded it, placing it under an arm. Passing through a clothing ship, I snagged a coat and quickly and near silently lased the theft detection tag off without anyone seeing, and tugged it on.

We were concealed - ish. I wasn't real comfy but we made it past the floor to the stairs. As we were heading downward, we got seen. Even the losers who were chasing us knew not to fire into a crowded area. So they just shouted and started running.

"Shit. Sorry for this, lady," I muttered, grabbing her and throwing her over my shoulder. She struggled, no doubt uncomfortable, but I had no time. I ran like hell, glad that I used the exercise area on the cargo ship every damn day before we left on the Saber. My legs are long and I'm tall, so I go fast. The problem is that I'm wide too, so I tend to bump into people when I run in a crowd.

Long and short of it is, I made it to the docking hub. The second I entered, I realized everyone was backed out of the way or just plain gone and there was a group of goons waiting. Most of them were Nalisk, but there was a Zeztin and a Sholin as well. Immediately, without thought, I started firing. My las pistol was built from the ground up by Marty. It's fast, accurate, and damn does it do damage.

It's also ever so slightly illegal considering the overcharge system and the fact that if I pin the trigger down it fires one of the six laser rods at a time, cycling and raising cooling fins off the sides and bottom so I could keep firing.

I know I killed three men near immediately before diving behind a couch and fumbling in my coat pocket for a rapid cooling canister. The high pressure cooling gas forced through the weapon when I slotted the canister in and then vented out the side, giving me lots of time to deal with more opposition.

Like the assholes chasing us.

A tap on the side brought up the hologram sight. With careful aim I squeezed off shots at everyone who rounded the corner. If Marty didn't find a way to help me, I was going to do that dying thing and I knew it and it couldn't end there. The adrenaline was intense, unbelievable.

I didn't. As a few more men and women and androgynes fell dead, I heard the enormous crackling sound of a Neural Stun system. There was a bright flash behind the chairs we used as cover.

I popped up immediately, and a laser struck a glancing blow on my arm. I couldn't even feel the pain. I was so high on adrenaline and endorphins and…

The bug was still standing. His carapace was a different color than Elliot's, but I still hesitated until he shot me through the damned chest. I dropped to a knee and emptied the laser at it, gasping for breath. Fucker missed my heart, but breathing was hard.

I grabbed the chick, then, cause everyone else was unconscious , and I ran. She stumbled along, half dragged. I couldn't lift my arm to fire behind us so I slowed long enough for her to take the pistol and start shooting behind us. The drone was already following us at speed, so she had to kind of shoot around it. To her credit, she took her time and did her best and didn't hit it. Don't think she hit anyone else either, but it slowed them down.

When we were on the ship, the drone behind us, Marty sealed the doors and blast doors from the bridge and then kicked up the maneuvering jets. We were scraping out of the clamps before they even unlocked. Thank fuck Marty paid our docking and refueling fee and all.

We kicked up our standard engines and fucked right off. I doubt if any of us will even report us. Criminals calling in the cops tends to be bad for the criminals. Slavery is universally illegal and so is robbery and all that. We probably shouldn't ever come back though, that's for sure.

Marty set it to auto-pilot, aiming the ship away from the station and carrying us at a crawl to the next compression beacon.

… I'm fine. The wound on my arm wasn't too bad, and the auto-doc was able to patch my lung up easy because they had used a focus laser. All I could see while lying numb on the operating table next to the slave was… was the bug I shot.

She's unconscious. Will be for a few days. It was… uh…

Well, it was major surgery.

I shouldn't be moving either, but I can't lie still. Every time I close my eyes I see that bug, and the other men I killed. 

Sure, they were gonna kill me. I'm a realist. I ain't exactly trying to find guilt in what I did.

But guilt is present nonetheless.

I'm sitting here recording this in the chilled hold, staring at Elliot's face while on a hover chair.

I'm going to get you home, buddy. I know your people believe to truly be put to rest you must be cremated on your planet. I'll get you your rest, my old friend. I'm…

I'm frightened.

Elliot, I'm not sure what to do without you to consult.

Not sure what I'll become.

Morals have never been my strong suit.

… I'm sorry if I disappoint you with my actions.

That's… that's all for now, Journal. I'll record more when… I don't fuckin' know, when interesting shit happens.

Her name is Lily… by the way…