Chapter 27 - Beware Of Black Cats.

An hour later, we was standin' on the porch, duffel bags at our feet. Terra pulled my head down, wrapped her arms around my neck, and gave me a kiss to remember! Pa and I both shuffled our feet a bit after that, but then he grabbed me and cracked my back again (and maybe a rib or two!), while Terra and Bee hugged, and said their goodbyes. Then Pa looked at Bee, and Bee looked at Pa. Tears began leakin' out of both of 'em, and next thing you know, they was clinging to each other and bawling. Which of course, made Terra and I join in.

"Now you listen here, little lady. I ain't gonna sugar coat this none. You and I both know, it's dangerous out there in space. If anything should ever happen to Morgan, I want you to know that this here, is your home too. You get a hold of me or Terra, and we will move planets and space stations to bring you back here. You understand me?" The three of them were now locked in a group hug, but I could see Bee's head nodding yes. "Alright then, that bein' said, please try to keep him from doing anything bone headed enough to make that necessary." Bee managed to sob, laugh, and nod, all at the same time. The three of them loosened their huddle a bit, and Pa pulled something out of his pocket. He took Bee's hand, and placed the object in it's centre, then folded her fingers over it. With his other hand, he held up one finger and said, "Now, don't you make no fuss about that. You earned that and more, pure and simple. You spend some of it however you want, but you keep some of it for emergencies too. Now promise me."

Bee looked into his eyes solemnly, and managed to whisper, "I promise."

"Okay then." Pa stepped away, and quickly wiped his cheeks. "Now, you two take care of each other. Stay safe, and come back as soon as you can now, hear?"

"Yes sir." Bee and I said in unison. With one last, quick round of hugs and kisses, we climbed into the port shuttle-drone, and we were on our way back to the space port. From there, we grabbed a shuttle for the station, and then we were home.

It felt good to settle into my seat on the command couch once again!

Aria was warming up and she and Bee were doing a systems check in the cargo bay. I checked the computer to see if any contracts had opened up, but there was nothing that we could accept. Prices here on Lave were lousy as well.

"How about, we head to Reorte, it's a poor agri. planet, might be able to get a good deal on furs or liquor and maybe a passenger, if we are lucky." I said, as Bee came onto the bridge.

"Sounds good to me, Captain!" was her reply, as she flopped into her spot, next to me, on the couch.

I smiled. Once back aboard Aria, she had indeed bounced back to her usual self.

I got clearance to leave, and back to the black we went. At Reorte, we arrived in-system with no other ships on the scanner. I hit the go-go juice and aimed Aria's nose toward the station. A couple mass-locks later...

"D.T.T. Snake Charmer: Aria to the Stars. You know the drill folks. Drop your cargo, and beat it, or else!" Five red lollipops at the edge of our scanner. Why don't they ever learn? Aria locked on to the Fer-De-Lance: Vlads Blade. I looked at Spitfire, her big eyes were bright with excitement. I winked.

Spitfire mashed her comm button. "Fer-De-Lance: Vlads Blade, this is Aria to the Stars. At this time, we would like to kindly decline your offer, and instead, we request that you... KISS OUR ASS! You pirate dirtbags!" she said.

I drained the front mil., the Fer-De-Lance disappeared.

One or two feeble beams flashed past our windows. "Skunk 'em, Morgan!" Spitfire shouted, bouncing up and down and leaning forward in her seat against the restraining belt.

"What happened to "Captain"?" I asked in mock seriousness.

"Sorry, Captain!" said Spitfire, with an equally mock salute. "Now skunk those bastards!" I was going to have to talk to her about her language. Fortunately, she only did it during situations like this. Or when she smacked her thumb with her hammer... Or when she hit her head on the top of an access tunnel... Or when she... Okay, I would talk to her.

I pulled Aria's nose around on a heading directly away from the pirates, and hit the turbos. A Firefly evidently had fuel injectors as well, and began closing the distance behind us.

"Lock him, Aria!" I said.

"Target, Firefly: S.S. Rebel locked, Captain." At least Aria still showed me some respect. I made the Firefly disappear.

"Incoming missile detected, Captain." Must have been a goodbye present from the Firefly.

"Get a lock on the missile Aria!" I didn't want to use the ECM unless I had to, it drained our power too quickly. It was another thing I needed to talk to Spitfire about.

"Missile locked, Captain." Poof!

The last three red dots were far behind me. I turned around. Another Firefly managed to score a few hits on my forward shield. They must have been having a sale on Fireflies somewhere.

"Firefly locked, Captain." Pretty sparks, then a ball of flame.

"Incoming missile detected, Captain" Why wasn't I surprised? I spun Aria around, and tapped the turbos, until she could get a lock on the missile, and I could vaporized it. Two red dots left. I still had a lot of laser left before I red-lined the rear mil., so I told Aria to target the next ship. A Cobra MKI. I'll give him credit, he was still chasing me... but not for long.

The last ship, was a D.T.T. Tomahawk. Sigh! I hated to destroy a work of art! I spun Aria around again, like two lovers on the dance floor. "Don't shoot! I give up!" came the comms message. The Tomahawk had turned around, and was making a run for it.

"Is that what you're going to say to your next victim?" I asked out loud. More for Spitfire's sake than anything. I wanted her to understand why I did this. He had made a choice, and it was the wrong one. I lit the mil., and then there was one less D.T.T. ship in the 'verse. On the back of the holopic, on the arm of my seat, I made five more tiny marks. There were a total of 35 little marks there now.

By the time we reached the station, I had added 3 more.

We bought thirty five tons of liquor and wines. Then Bee pulled out the cred-chip my father had given her. I scanned it, and it showed ten credits! Why that old softy... "Can I buy some cargo?" she asked.

I was taken completely by surprise! "It's your money Bee, and I guess Pa was right, you earned it. We have room for three more containers. What do you want to buy?

She and Aria went over the station manifest, and she finally decided on two tons of food supplies at 2.4 credits each. "That's almost half your chip Bee. I think it's a good idea, investing it like that, so to speak. But are you sure that's what you want to do?"

She didn't look at all sure, but she nodded, and Aria made the order. She ran to the cargo bay to "supervise the loading". Gee, where was she when I bought the other thirty five containers! But I didn't say anything 'cause I knew this was a big deal for her.

"Captain, there is a passenger contract available." said Aria. I looked at the details. A Miss Seis Titete was going to Velete (say that three times fast!), and needed to be there in less than twenty days and eight hours. It was a pretty long trip, but we would make over four thousand credits by the end of it! We invited her on-board to talk details. She was a cat-person. As in, she was covered in short, silky black fur, with pointy ears, and a tail. She seemed pleasant enough, if a little skittish, but then again, ain't all cats? I went over the rules, and a deal was struck. Bee showed her to her quarters, and helped her with her luggage.

Aria had plotted a course, that should get us there in a little over fifteen days. That's not a whole lot of wiggle room, but I figured we could do it. And so, for the next fifteen days, we carried our passenger across the stars. We ate with her in the common room, and invited her up to the bridge when she wished, so she could see the stars first hand. I even found Bee teaching her how to play poker on a few occasions. We had a couple of scrapes during refuelling stops, but nothing major.  I was up to forty marks now.

Bee seemed to have nightmares every now and then. She would tiptoe into my room, and curl up next to me to sleep. I didn't mind, my bed was huge, and half the time, I felt lost in it all by myself anyways. Besides, sometimes it's just nice to have someone close by. Then, one night, I woke up for no apparent reason. I couldn't go back to sleep, so I found myself walking the ship, from cargo bay to bridge. I stopped by the crew quarters to check on Bee, and found her curled up in a tight little ball. She was actually shaking and crying in her sleep, with her thumb in her mouth. I suddenly wondered just how often she has these nightmares? How many nights has she suffered like this, and NOT come to me? I sat on the edge of her bunk and began rubbing her back and stroking her hair. Talking to her soft and low. Less than a minute later, she began to relax, and fell into a normal sleep. Poor little Spitfire.

We dropped out of witchspace at Velete, with four days and eight hours to spare. Of course, we hadn't made it to the space station yet. And evidently, once again, someone wanted to make sure that we never did. Laser beams lit up the black.

"Evasive maneuvers!" I yelled! Oh ya...that's my job!

I began flinging Aria around in a panic. While at the same time, fumbling to find the key to the turbos. Our rear shield was dropping like a feather...on a 4G planet. "Target lock, Aria, on ANYTHING!" I switched the vidscreen over to the rear camera.

"Target locked, Captain. Mamba: Full Refund." I mashed the button for the rear mil. Mamba gone. Refund denied! I managed to put some distance between the pirates/assassins/whatever-they-were's, and the pounding on Aria's posterior all but stopped. The fact that I could no longer see any yellow indicator for rear shields, says I was just in time. I swung Aria around.

"Lock on to that Gecko, Aria." Ident. said the name of his ship was Stranger. Strange name for a cloud of dust! I noticed that Bee was being unusually quiet. When I had a chance to glance over at her, I saw that her eyes were big, and she was holding onto the arms of her seat. Tight. She was scared. And that was okay, because so was I.

Our last messenger from the welcome wagon, was a Cobra MKIII, named Beast of Power. "Incoming missile, Captain. Incoming Missile, Captain."

Crap, two of them. I still had juice for the front mil, but I turned tail and hit the turbo. "Target the closest missile Aria!"

"Target acquired, Captain." One missile down.

"Now the second one, Aria." That made two. I swung her around again.

I was evidently out of his laser range, as he wasn't firing. Either that, or he was overheated. "Lock onto him, Aria."

"Target locked, Captain." We were heading toward each other at full throttle. I waited. Suddenly, a beam of light hit our front shield. I lit the mil.

I made three more marks on the back of the holopic. I turned the ship towards the station, and hit the go-go juice. Just as the torus drive kicked in, we got mass-locked. Three Galcop Vipers heading our way, wouldn't you know... I hit the turbos until they were clear, and punched it for the station.

Aria's landing pads, had barely touched plascrete, before I was out of my seat, and headed for the passenger quarters. I hit the door over-ride, and found our passenger, Miss Titete, standing just on the other side. And she held a blaster, levelled at my belly button. "What the hell is going on here!" I yelled.

"I am sorry, Captain Black. If there had been another way..."

"It's one thing to endanger my life, but you put Bee's life in danger as well!"

"I said I was sorry. I had no choice in this matter. There is a cred-chip on the table back there with your payment, plus bonus. Now, if you will move out of the doorway, please." She motioned me back with the barrel of the blaster.

I backed into the hall, keeping my hands in plain sight, and back pedalled toward the cargo bay. Miss Titete followed me out. Her eyes carefully watching my every move. However, she should have been watching Spitfire, who happened to be in the hall behind her. With her hammer out.

THUNK!

I picked up the blaster, and then Miss Titete. I tucked the blaster into the back of my jeans, and carried Miss Titete back to the cargo ramp. There, I dumped her outside on the ground. Fact: Cat's don't always land on their feet. Especially when they are unconscious. Spitfire gave our former passenger's luggage the same treatment. I looked at Spitfire, and she looked at me. We both grinned. Then we went back into the ship and closed the cargo bay door. I guess I could have called station security, or the Galcops on her. But I doubted that would have actually accomplished anything. I did however, want to let her know, that I did not like being used! Not when it endangered people I care about. Hope she had a real bad headache!