Jinxy and Amir and Beth
Cargo Bay -> Engine Room
As Jinxy went through the on-ship computer, she frowned heavily and ran her hand through her hair. What a ship to pick. Possible deadly cargo. Jinxy had not been born ship-side, so having a cargo of space sickness was the last thing she wanted anywhere near her. Things here were getting dangerous. On the plus side, more of the secondary systems still worked! There was that. She could focus on the damned engine, and patch up a few things, but they would have air.
Her thoughts were interrupted by Amir and the intercom. She jolted up and ran to the cargo bay, and almost right into the aforementioned captain.
“Am… I mean Captain. There’s something I gotta tell you, about this damned ship the cargo,” she said, not even bothering to ask him how his trip had gone. Right now, there was a bit more of a pressing matter.
The captain’s ever-present smile slipped a bit in surprise. Amir rolled up his sleeves and, with his face set in a serious, stoic expression, asked,
“What’s up with it?” A few seconds later, almost as an afterthought, he turned around – looking for Angel.
“Watch the shipment. Thieves aplenty on Logan,” he said, returning his full attention to Jinxy.
Jinxy fished the journal out of her pocket and handed it to Amir.
“The last crew got space sickness, all except two. The previous captain is pretty sure that it was the cargo. We’re carrying canisters of the gorram shit.” She frowned.
“Previous captain told us to destroy the canisters.”“Amen to that idea,” Amir said. His right, human hand was fisted in the pocket of his trousers, leaving the journal to his infallible mechanical one to hold. Even so, the tremor that ran up his spine and the pale cast that had overtaken his cheeks were plain to see.
“Hate the idea of it, star-sick, space-sick, whatever they call it... Show me the canisters?” He sounded almost reluctant.
“What’s wrong?” The pilot’s voice sounded from the edge of the cargo ramp.
“Space sickness in our cargo hold,” Amir answered promptly without even turning around.
“Ie. We’re fucked and have a terrible choice in ships.”“Most likely space-sickness. Was about to show Amir where the canisters are. You wanna join, oh nameless one?” Jinxy turned to look at the pilot and raised her eyebrow at the pilot.
“And it was her idea to pick this one. I wanted a different one but oooh no, higher security was a risk, or something like that.”“Well first the name is Beth. Second Space-sickness, that bad.” Beth frowned. They finally had a name for her, and man… was Beth common.
“Right show away, I guess.”“Well luckily it is right here in the gorram cargo hold, so just follow me or something like that.” Jinxy shrugged and sighed, turning around and leading them to the now relocked box.
“That’s odd. Maybe Trish figured it was best to reseal it. But there should be nineteen canisters of the gorram stuff in this crate.”Amir quirked his head, curiously, crouching down to try and unlock the box through conventional means. He pulled a bobby pin out of his hair from where it sat, tucked behind his ear.
“Nineteen?”“When they picked it up one was damaged. I figure that is how the original crew got into contact with it. They didn’t know what was it in when they picked it up. However, I didn’t get a count before. I wanted to know what it was before we started going through it. Captain’s log said they had nineteen, so I’m hoping that is how many is in there.” Jinxy watched Amir with interest. She’d have to remember that trick for later. She noticed his left arm was moving a bit sluggish.
“Do you want me to take a look at your arm later?”Amir paused, looking down at his gloved hand contemplatively.
“If you promise not to break it,” he said, with a slightly weaker grin. After one hard shove, the container clicked open, and the captain tucked the pin back behind his ear in dusty curls.
“I’d probably leave it in better shape than when you got it,” she retorted and grinned, which quickly disappeared when the container clicked open.
“Okay… quick count, quick count…” The moment when Amir realised that there were only eighteen canisters in the chest was obvious. His fingertips nearly brushed them as he recounted more slowly, carefully.
“Anyone else seeing this?”“Shit. I didn’t get a count before, maybe one was missing before?” Jinxy frowned. She didn’t want to think about it, but Trish had seemed mighty curious in the canisters early. Would she really? No. No, of course not! She had given her word right? But… only not to open them. Jinxy felt her heart drop a bit.
“Really,” Amir intoned dryly, running an exhausted hand along the back of his neck.
“Another one was missing, and nobody thought to write it in the logs.”“Well how long was it docked?” Beth didn’t seem too disturbed by the whole thing.
“Ship’s logs says it’s been at least six months since it docked and was abandoned.” Jinxy frowned.
“But… why only steal one? Fuck. Fuckity fuck fuck fuck. She… augh! I told her not to!”“Yes, because she seems like the type to follow orders.” If it were any less serious, Amir looked like he would have rolled his eyes there.
“I do not want to catch star-sickness, please, because one of the down-and-outs I picked up on Godwin is a nutcase.”Jinxy was feeling sick to her stomach at this point. She was starting to trust Trish, and then this? What the hell was the bomber thinking? Of course, it was a bit obvious Trish didn’t really seem to have regard for anyone but herself.
“I don’t think she kept it here. She mentioned she was going off ship. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but now?”“Wonderful, fucking wonderful.” Amir let the container fall closed and relocked it.
“You two – are you in favour of jettisoning these canisters?”“All for it. I know I’m sure as hell not immune, and the last thing I want is to lose who I am.” Jinxy frowned, biting her lip a bit.
“Well wouldn’t it be better to do more than just jettison the canisters? I mean open them in space so the sickness just goes out into space and isn’t collectable by some other crazy fool?”Amir looked at Beth like she’d grown a second head, or maybe like she
actually had star-sickness.
“Who the hell would volunteer for that? Hint: not me. I’m not stupid, and I didn’t make it this long in the ‘Verse to die here.”“Are you volunteering Beth, because I think only you’d be up to doing it.” Jinxy sighed. She had no intentions of dying. There was still plenty to do and honestly, last thing she wanted was to pretty much go insane.
“Well I was born ship side.” Beth paled a bit, maybe at the idea of opening the canisters.
“Unless anyone else on the ship was it’d have to be me. The hard part would be cleaning my space suit before getting back on the ship so I don’t bring any of the sickness back with me. I don’t know how well just being out in space would kill it.”“If only we had a doctor on board, some kind of biologist. Four criminals, and none of them’s a Black Market organ dealer?” Amir shook his head.
“Maybe Trish’ll be willing to rig it to explode for us.”“Given the fact she just stole one of them? She’s the last person I’d friggen trust with explosives right now,” Jinxy spat out venomously. She leaned against the wall and frowned.
“Augh, I need to fix something, get my mind off of all this.” She looked at Amir.
“Willing to let me look at your arm now?”“Of course. We’ll have wait ‘til Trish’s back on the ship anyway,” Amir said, taking a seat on one of the other cargo containers – thankfully not the one with probable death inside.
“Shirt on or off?” He was already peeling off his gloves.
“Well on that note, I’m going to go to the cockpit. Have fun.” Beth walked off. Amir waved.
“Well, let’s take this back to my place. Got all my tools and goodies there. As for the shirt, up to you. As long as it won’t get in the way, you can keep it on.” Jinxy was personally wishing a little for him to have to take it off, but she wouldn’t hold her breath.
Amir shrugged, and started up towards the engine room, unbuttoning his shirt halfway down and sticking his mechanical arm and metal shoulder joint out of it. So, there was a god. From his time out on the desert world, a steady stream of sand trickled down it, finally freed.
“It’s a bit of a mess, word of warning. Sand gets everywhere.”“Yeah, I figured. It’s probably gummed up the inside of your arm.” Jinxy sat down and pulled out her toolkit and opened it. All the tools were in exquisite shape for someone who was on the run from the law. She paused for a moment, and in that moment Amir could make out a faint etching of a name on the outside of the toolkit, Melissa. However, Jinxy clipped it closed and put it away.
“Hold out your arm for me please?”Amir did as asked, remarkably good at following orders. Some more fine sand slipped out as the wires and bolts crunched in new directions, leaving new spaces.
Jinxy pulled on a set of goggles and leaned in, and started gently taking apart the outer casing and looked inside.
“Yeesh, sand really does get everywhere. You’re going to need a shower after I’m done with you.” She let out a giggle and got up and started digging around in her bag. Out came a small brush as well as some new bolts.
“If I do anything you’re uncomfortable with, just let me know,” she said, and went to work.
Amir shrugged nonchalantly with only one shoulder.
“I grew up in a brothel. I guarantee uncomfortable’s nothing new.”“Really? No wonder you said it took more than minor flirting to make you blush. Guess I gotta up my game.” Jinxy smirked a bit as she continued to work on cleaning his arm.
“How did getting the parts go?”“I have about half of the stuff on the list – eh, left-hand side’s pocket. Scored out what we’ve got and the rest will come in the next few days.”“Are you encouraging me to go through your pants? I’ll just look it over later, and get started with what you did get later. Right now gotta focus on this.” She looked at the bolts and frowned.
“When was the last time someone looked at your arm? Like this I mean. I don’t wanna hear about any sexual encounters with your arm.”Amir closed his mouth, which had already been half-forming some sexual reference.
“Fifteen years? I had a tune-up when I was twenty, but I presume that doesn’t count because it was just a guy on the ship.”“Are you saying you haven't let anyone look at it since you had it installed? No wonder it looks so sad.”“No one offered,” Amir said uncomfortably. So much for being immune to that. Then, a little defensively:
“I did some installing of the upgrades myself.”“Well, I will say this. You’re a shit mechanic. Best leave it to someone who knows what they’re doing.” She set a handful of worn bolts off to the side, and went about replacing them. Amir half-sagged when the arm lost some of its supporting structure.
“It’s not that bad, just, wear and tear y’know. Luckily, nothing needs replacing too badly, besides the bolts.” She looked up at him and paused.
“Sorry. That comment was a little out of line.”“I am a shit mechanic, it’s true,” he said easily, visibly relaxing a little. Relaxing enough to admit,
“The barcode’s superglued on because I couldn’t get it to fit properly.”“I see. Well not much I can do about that now. However, in the future, I hope you’ll count on me to keep your arm up to date, and not resort to glue. Got it?” She fastened back on the outer case and looked at him.
“Got it. Take it that means you’re sticking around?” He had a victorious grin plastered across his face.
That grin was going to be her death. She knew it. He could smile at her and she’d probably follow him to hell. Ugh. What was wrong with her!? She never got this moony over guys. She looked away from him, trying to hid her blush.
“I got nothing better to do than to keep your arm in shape and fix this ship… so yeah, I guess so.”“Grand,” he said. There was a pause, where he looked like he was about to say something else – maybe something profound and cheesy – but instead, he ended up with,
“When we all inevitably catch space-sickness from Trish’s dastardly plan, you’re my favourite, so I’ll make sure to infect you first.”Jinxy felt her face flush red and paused.
“Well as long as you do it in a rather fun way, I’ll forgive you for getting me sick.” She turned to look at him, still a bit red.
If it were even possible, Amir grinned wider.
“Naturally.” Yup, that grin was going to be her death. Just put it on her tombstone: ‘Killed by smarmy ass grin.’
“Good.”
Garth
Gone
Zeus23
VileSnake
datadogie
JesseJ
Necroes
rebornfan320
Morose
