Pixie Hazard Archibald Bradford (sneezy the snowman read aloud txt) 📖

“We’ll have a few days in normal space to sort all that shit out.”

“No jump window?” The pilot asked.

“You gunna pay for it? I’d have to max out my line of credit to reserve one. Besides we can use the time to rest up and get the ships squared away, rather do that floating through millions of kilos of nothing than do it all tense and puckered up while docked at Mung.”

“Nothing worse than a tense pucker.”

“Um. Ew?”

Davie grinned.

“What’s the matter Major, can’t handle a little anal word-play?” She teased.

“Huh, I never noticed that before.”

“What.”

“How stupid you are when you’re tired.”

“Ow. That stings. Please stop.” The redhead protested in a monotone before her face split in a yawn; “Blech. I am way overdue for a shoulder rub and a cup of coffee.”

The captain snorted and handed the weary pilot her mostly full mug.

“Why does everyone think this is a spa? Hope you like lots of cream and lots of sugar.”

Davie gratefully accepted the mug and took a sip, though her nose wrinkled at the saccharine sweetness.

“Real women drink it black Skip, but I’ll take it. Oh, and Maria is starting to royally piss me off. How hard is it to fly a spacesh-”

She was interrupted by the blonde in question as her voice came over the coms from the transport ship.

“Davie, I need to adjust the heading, I’m drifting away from you again.”

Donnie covered her smile while the redhead cursed.

“Just leave it alone! The autopilot will make course corrections for you if you quit fucking with it.”

“Hey! Don’t yell at me you ginger midget! This shit is stressful! I keep waiting to shoot out into space by myself or for- oh, wait... never mind, it’s fixing itself.”

Donnie had put her on the transport to keep her focused on a job while she came down from the combat-high. But it was only really busy-work so long as she didn’t actually do anything, such as piss of Davie.

The two women in the cockpit shared a look at the reported non-issue, then the captain activated the intership coms, once again crowding the waifish pilot.

“Maria, once we’re ready for slipspace I’ll send Davie over to properly set up remote navigation and you can come back aboard the Pixie. Until then, don’t bug her unless something is on fire.”

“Yes ma’am.” The towering woman replied sullenly.

Satisfied that everything topside was running as smoothly as could be expected, Donnie bid her pilot farewell and slid down the ladder, abruptly finding herself face to face with Billy as she stepped out of the infirmary.

“How’s our guest? He got a name yet?”

“Not ready for an interrogation. And his name is Bryan.” The dark-haired woman answered immediately while sliding the door closed behind her.

Donnie held up her hands defensively.

“And I’m not keen on interrogating him. But we need to know who he is and where he’s from if we’re to get him back to wherever.”

Billy crossed her arms over her chest and directed the captain towards the common room with one raised eyebrow.

A sweating Eniella gave them a scowling nod as she pushed past them on her way to the cockpit, having just suited up for the external repairs only to have to strip down again.

Donnie poured herself another cup of coffee in the galley before settling across from the medic at the dinner table.

“Okay Billy, spill.”

“Physically, he’ll recover. He’s got a ton of bruises and cuts, not to mention a fractured wrist from the latest beating the Junkers gave him, but even a ten cc injection of nanites will sort that out. The worst of it he got from the decompression. He’s lucky though, it wasn’t long enough to do anything permanent. Just some frostbite and minor soft tissue damage.”

“And mentally?”

Billy made a tsking noise between her teeth.

“Not so great. From what I could gather, they kept him onboard for a few weeks. Routinely kicking the crap out of him while asking him questions that he swears he didn’t know the answers to.”

“Shitty. What kind of questions?”

“Mostly about his mentor, one Professor Timothy Calvin. They raided the research facility where he was doing his apprenticeship. It looks like they took him and some others when they couldn’t find the prof. The others are most likely dead or wishing they were by now.”

“That kid was in an apprenticeship program? He looked like a baby!”

Billy chuckled as she cracked her knuckles over her head and worked her neck side to side.

“He is a baby. Eighteen. Guess he’s a smarty pants.”

They shared a long look as Donnie took a draw from her mug.

“Bridget... We need to know what the Iowa Clan wanted him for. If they were just after slaves he would’ve been sold off with the others. You know that.”

“He doesn’t know anything Captain. And even if he did, he’s in no condition to talk about it. We’re not in a warzone anymore. He’s just a boy. And more importantly, he’s my patient. Nobody talks to him unless he wants them to.”

The doctor’s expression was steely.

Donnie sighed as she set her coffee on the table and slowly turned the mug in place.

Finally she stood, Billy rising with her.

“Fine. I’ll put away the thumbscrews, but at least try to find out what you can. We’re too close to our biggest score in three years for everything to go tits up just because Maria forced us to play hero to some kid that knows something we don’t.”

“You’re such a softy.” Billy said evenly.

“I am what I need to be to keep this boat flying. Shit, feel like I’m saying that a lot these days.”

Abruptly she let loose with an ear popping yawn as her eyes welled with tears.

Seeing the obvious sign