Chapter 14 - Mr. Toads Wild Ride.

"Four ships off the starboard bow, Captain. Idents report clean."

"Yup, I see 'em Aria. Keep an eye on 'em." We had learned. A ship that was "clean" was just someone who hadn't committed a crime... Yet.

"Locate the station yet, Aria?"

"Yes, Captain. I have updated the compass."

"Okay then, let's hit the turbos and get there." I hit the injectors and watched the 4 yellow blips slowly slide off the rear of the scanner.

Things had changed since that first encounter. I had spent many hours looking at that holophoto the old man had given me, and I had thought long and hard about what he had said. Aria and I still didn't go looking for fights, but we didn't run unless we had to. I had now collected fifteen confirmed bounties, and Aria had a new military grade laser mounted up front.

We had just docked at Biarge to refuel. "Captain, there is a passenger contract available here, that we may be able to take." announced Aria. And so, I met with one Oneldo A'zaabcedi, to talk over the details. If humans descended from primates, then Mr. A'zaabcedi ancestors must have been toads. He was large and red. He also seemed a bit nervous and jumpy... No pun intended.

"I goes to Quarave. You departs immediately, yes?" he asked in a low, gravelly, garbly, deep voice.

"Just as soon as we are refuelled, we can leave."

"You cabins has a water showers, yes?"

"Wat..? Oh um, yes, all cabins have their own bathrooms and showers."

"I gives you 1050 credits now. 3025 credits when arrives safely, yes?"

Ah... Time to haggle! Let's see, that's 1050 credits, plus 3025 credits. That equals 4075 credits... 4075 CREDITS! Combined with what I already had, I would be able to get Aria a second military laser!

"Umm... Ya, that's fine." Okay, so I need some practice with the whole haggling bit... Mr. A'zaabcedi handed me the initial payment, and I shoved it in my pocket. I held out my hand to shake on the deal, but he was already halfway up the loading ramp, his bag in hand. I jogged to catch up, and led him the rest of the way to his room. "At the end of the hall is the common area, where you can..." He closed the door in my face.

"Hunh... Ya, okay... Umm, Aria, are we refuelled yet?"

Once back on deck, I had Aria plot the fastest course to Quarave, while I manoeuvred the ship out of the station. Once were were clear, I hit the ship-wide button. "Attention all passengers, um, we are about to enter witchspace so um, please secure yourselves and your bags, and stuff. Once we are under-way, you can walk around and... stuff." Okay, I would work on that later.

After we had entered the witchspace portal, I wandered back to the passengers common area, and waited to see if our guest would emerge. He didn't. Not once during the entire trip... Aria and I made a bee-line for Quarave, and used the fuel stations whenever we could, to avoid having to travel all the way in to the station. Finally, we arrived.

"Attention all passengers, we are about to exit witchspace and arrive at Quarave. Please return to your rooms, and secure yourselves, and your personal items, until we have successfully docked at the station. Thank you for flying Aria to the Stars!" Not bad hunh? I'd had plenty of time to practice, what with Mr. Toad being all antisocial. Gee, hope he didn't croak in there, pun intended. We exited witchspace.

"Three ships off the port bow, Captain. Idents report clean."

"Roger that Aria, keep an e..."

"We have been waiting for you, Aria to the Stars!" said a voice over the comms channel. The three yellow blips turned red.

Ah crap.

They were still near the outer edge of my scanner as I swung the ship toward them. See, here's the thing. If you're gonna try to sucker punch someone, don't advertise the fact before you are even in range. Especially if their arms are longer than yours. I centred the cross-hairs on the first twinkling dot I saw, and opened up that forward military laser. My laser temp gauge began to climb, and when it reached about the halfway point... boom.

One down, two to go.

By this time, I was starting to see a few streaks of light flashing past me. Lousy shots. Next target was a Wraith. I had heard talk of these guys, and they can be bad news. I ran the mil. into the red.

Bang! Bang! Bang! rang the outer hull. The Wraith was now in range, and was beating me like a gong. I swung Aria around and showed him her pretty behind, then I pulled a "skunk" and opened up with the rear beam laser. I almost red-lined that one when I saw the explosion.

Two down, one to go. Ship number three was an old Cobra Mark One. He managed to slap Aria on the butt once or twice as I swung her around again. The front military laser had cooled off a bit by now, so I lit it up again.

The Cobra lit up as well... Eighteen.

"Incoming missile detected, Captain." said Aria, as calmly as ever. I hit the turbos, and swung Aria's nose around to point at the station. We left the missile behind.

"We have been waiting for you, Aria to the Stars!" "We..." Who? And how could they have known we were coming here? I had some questions for Mr. Toad!

"You good pilot. Here 4000 credits." said Mr. A'zaabcedi as Aria lowered the bay door. Waiting at the bottom, were four more creatures, all dressed in identical black business suits. Before I could articulate any of my deep and probing questions, the four suits had surrounded Mr. A'zaabcedi, and all of them hurried off without a single backward glance. Leaving me to stand there, with my jaw swinging in the breeze.

Humph, they must have been his "toadies". Okay, I'll stop now.

"Captain, there is a passenger contract available here, that we may be able to take." announced Aria.

Sigh.