"Sounds like a plan," Sayeeda responded, wondering if the pilot really expected her to refer to him as firestorm.

The hydraulics hissed as Junebug pressed the activation stud to the internal hatch. The bulkhead separated a little more ponderous than she had expected as the internal jacks withdraw the heavy door panel. You couldn’t be a mercenary and not have some experience of starships and Sayeeda, whose exact sidereal age was confused by weeks at near ftl in assault ships had endured more than most. There was a difference, however, a difference between a passenger, no matter how frequent and a pilot. To her the inside of a starship, especially the operational areas remained a strange and unfamiliar place.

The interior of the ship smelled faintly of hot electronics and of hydrocarbons in various stages of decombustion. Most starships functioned by using a fusion bottle to hydrolyze water molecules and then pump the resulting hydrogen into the fusion thrusters. Water was also used as a working fluid for most other processes, not because it was the most effective substance for the job but because its residues were less toxic than the alternatives. Everything on a starship inevitably became part of the atmosphere and long haul crews cheerfully traded the lower performance of water in order to avoid the various poisonous or carcinogenic alternatives.

The interior of the ship was lit by overhead glow stripping that bathed everything in a pale white blue light. Several of the panels were missing and the corresponding dappled lighting effect made Junebug slightly uneasy. Intellectually she knew there was no danger lurking in the shadows but veterans didn’t live to become old veterans by taking a relaxed attitude. She made a mental note to get the shoddy lighting fixed as soon as it was practical.

A large hallway - companionway? What was the spacefaring term?- branched off in each direction, one leading to the cockpit and another back into the heart of the vessel. Electronics, some familiar, others novel to her eye, was packed onto every inch of the walls and wire conduits ran overhead. Even the floor was raised panels beneath which the electronic veins of the ship pulsed. Junebug ran her fingers along a snaking tangle of fiber optic cables which hung along the right side wall.

Without discussion they turned right and headed for the cockpit. The hatch whirred open to reveal a medium sized room the shape of a flattened hexagon. Junebug would have guessed it was around the size of a large bedroom in a moderately prosperous home. Several console which looked a few generations behinds the top of the line models Andor’s Armored had used for LOG section and TechInt hummed in powered down modes. The smell here was much more clearly that of hot circuits than burning propellants. The forward viewport took up the entirety of the front wall of the cockpit and the bright sun streamed through the transparent aluminum and warmed the bay despite the efforts of an archaic air conditioner to keep it at ambient.

It was one of the sexier things Sayeeda Cyckali had ever seen.

[b]“I’m a little wet right now,” [/b]she murmured so softly as to be unintelligible to anyone standing near her. Or so she thought.

[b]“Would you like me to alter the ambient air characteristics Captain?” [/b]A metallic emotionless voice asked and the shock of it nearly sent Junebug grabbing for a nonexistent side arm.

[b]“Identify yourself,”[/b] she snapped, surprise transmuting to fear as adrenaline coursed through her veins making her dark skin prickle.

[b]“AVLN-22-Kelo, Artifical Intelligence, Highlander.”[/b] The voice responded in mechanical preset. AI’s were a feature of most human ships. In some ways they were old tech, simple AI’s were relatively easy to create but failry limited. Ships on the other hand had both complex systems and incredible computing power. The kind of computers that could chart courses through ripspace were the most advanced in the human galaxy and the kind of computing power needed to create an AI was afterthought when the astronavigation was off.

[b]“Damn.”[/b]

[@POOHEAD189]