Chapter 28 - Paycheck For A Goddess.

Bee and I returned to the bridge. I checked the station manifest, and Velete was the wrong place to try and sell our cargo. We needed a rich, high tech. planet... We looked at the charts, and there were a couple of possibilities, but it was Bee who pointed out Tianve. Three jumps away, rich, and tech level 14! "Aria, set a course for Tianve."

Before we left, Spitfire and I had a talk.

"New rules," I said, as I leaned over our armrests, to look her in the eye. "Rule number one. From now on, ANY time we come out of witchspace, we assume we are going to be jumped."

"Agreed, Captain!" she said with big eyes.

"Rule number two. Passengers are NOT our friends, they are passengers. This means me, as well as you. I was just as fooled by her as you were. Now, I'm not saying we can't be friendly and sociable, but from now on, no passengers are allowed on the bridge. And, we NEVER forget about Miss Titete."

Bee thought about that for minute. She smiled, kissed me on the nose, and said, "I understand, Captain."

I kissed her on the forehead. "Okay then. Three jumps to Tianve. Let's go."

We popped out of witchspace, and I was already holding the thrust button down. "Three Galcop Vipers on scanner, Captain." reported Aria. Well, that was nice to hear, anyways. We made our way to the station.

Bee and I sold our cargoes. Of her original 10 credits my father had given her, Bee had spent 4.8 credits on her two cargo pods of food. She and Aria were able to sell them for 15.2 credits. She had more than doubled her money. The resulting squeal was enough to cross my eyes. Then I checked my ears for signs of bleeding. She pulled me out of my seat, and proceeded to drag me around the bridge as she "danced" for joy. I couldn't help but laugh at her excitement. However, it made me think of something. I sat back in my chair. "Bee, come here for a sec." She took that literally, and I "OOOF"ed when she landed her jump in my lap. She kissed both my cheeks, my forehead, and my nose before I got her to settle down a bit. "Bee, since you became Aria's mechanic, we ain't really talked about your umm... well, about me payin' you."

Bee suddenly became quiet and still. "But, I... I thought... we were family now, Morgan?"

"Oh we are Bee honey, we are! I'm not saying anything about that..."

"But you don't PAY family Morgan!" Bee said, looking a little hurt.

"But Bee, you do a lot of work 'round here, keeping Aria fixed up and all. Don't you wanna be paid for that?"

She shook her head. "You do just as much work as me, Morgan. Do you pay yourself?"

"Umm... Well, not exactly, it all just sorta belongs to all of us..?" I suddenly understood what she meant. I really needed to be careful with her, and think things out, before I started flapping my jaw. "Okay, okay, you're right!" I thought about it for a minute. Bee watched my face the whole time. "Okay, what about this. Business as usual when it comes to cargo or contracts. All money we make from those, goes toward keeping Aria in the air, ship rations, maintenance, fuel, weapons and so on. Oh, and sending some back to Pa every now and then too. Share and share alike, so to speak." I paused to get her reaction. Her eyes were big, but she nodded. "Now, anything we scoop, be it cargo, rescue pods, whatever, we split 50-50, just you and I, and that will be our pocket money." She nodded again. so far, so good. "And last, anytime we got free cargo space, you can buy cargo of your own to sell." It only took a second for her eyes to begin to glow and a grin to light up her face.

"Oh Morgan, that would be perfect!" She kissed me again, this time, full on the lips.

Twice.

She resumed her twirling, mad, dance around the bridge, until I said, "So, you wanna go shopping?" Note to self, buy some ear plugs. And some zero-G football pads.

I bought some new t-shirts... Then wandered through the shipyard and ogled the three D.T.T. War Lance's they had for sale. I also ogled the people. Terra had been right. Now that I actually looked, I came to the conclusion, that some of Bee's outfits were downright conservative! Not all of them, mind you, not even most, but a few. Spitfire had asked to go shopping by herself. I didn't like that idea at all, until she said she would wear her relay chip to Aria. And if I wore mine, then we could talk together anywhere on the station, and Aria could track her as well. A few hours later, she returned to the ship, carrying a pile of bags and boxes, with a loaded carry-all bot close behind. When I asked her what she had bought, she said it was, "Just a couple more outfits and stuff." She also bought new boots, more tools, electronic gizmos, as well as a new model. A D.T.T. Kraken. She had already assembled, and meticulously painted the ones that I had bought her. They were currently hanging from the ceiling in the crews quarters. Once she had stowed away all her new purchases, we both met with one of the station's engineers. We talked about a few modifications that I wanted made to Aria. Everything was going smooth, until I mentioned that Spitfire would be overseeing the mods. That led to an argument which required me to confiscate her hammer and monkey wrench. Once they started talking specifics, I saw the chief engineers eyes slowly take on a hint of respect. Things calmed down, and before you knew it, they had their heads together over a set of blueprints. Chattering like a pair of red jays.

Three days later, the mods were done.

Spitfire and I had both been scared by that last assassination attempt. It had been a close call, way too close. So, we had purchased an escape pod. To be more accurate, we had turned Arias entire bridge into a self-contained unit. This way, if the ship were destroyed, there was now a very good chance that Spitfire, I, and Aria, would all survive. Bee and I felt a little better. But all those mods had drained the ships credit account. It was time to get back to work.

I bought a load of electronics, which filled our cargo bay. Bee understood, ships business came first, but I could tell she was a mite disappointed. Then we all looked at the star-charts for a place to sell them. The answer was obvious, Teanrebi. It was close by, and a poor agri. planet. Perfect! We decided to leave in the "morning" after a good nights sleep. Bee was exhausted after all the work she had done on Aria. She had been on the ship the whole time, working side by side with the stations mechanics and engineers. But she had earned their respect. In fact, the chief engineer tried to hire her away from me! "No! Umm... thank you, but I can't leave my family!" I was button popping proud of her!

Next morning, I got up, and was "walking the ship" as I called it. Just a visual inspection that made me feel better, as well as more in touch with the ship. I was heading back to the bridge when I passed a not-yet-quite-awake Bee in the hallway, making her way to the common room. "Mornin'!" I said, as I tousled her bed-head hair as we passed.

"Morning." she muttered back, as she shuffled down the hall. It wasn't till I was in my seat, and doing the systems check, that I realized Bee had been completely naked when I passed her. And I hadn't even blinked. I laughed to myself.

Bee bounced onto the bridge, wide awake and rarin' to go, a few minutes later. One of her new outfits. A black, diaphanous, tutu like skirt, which barely fell below her waist, and a matching top. She had matched those with calf high combat boots, and her ever present tool-belt. Whatever... We strapped in, got our launch window, and headed out.

We popped into Teanrebi space, and found ourselves in a cloud of yellow lollipops! I slammed the throttle to it's limit and hit the injectors. But all the blips stayed yellow, they were ignoring us.

"Whew!" Both Bee and I said, at the exact same time.

Then, in the distance, I saw laser fire. Whatever it was, it was out of scanner range, but it was between us and the station.

"Somebody might be in trouble." Bee said. Her eyes big, but she had a small smile as well.

"You could be right darlin', let's check it out, carefully." I hit the injectors again, until we started getting idents from Aria. Sure enough, a group of seven spacers were being hit by six pirates. "Aria, target the closest ship with offender status." It was a Mamba. I hit the mil., and made it disappear. That got their attention! The other spacers were also opening up on the pirates by this time, I saw 2 more pirates disappear in balls of flame. Then, one of the spacers. "Aria, target that ship, the one that just killed that spacer.

"Target acquired, Captain." It was another Mamba. I red-lined the front mil., and then skunked him with the rear. Poof. By that time, the other pirates had all been dispatched by the rest of the spacers and traders.

Forty Eight. We continued on to the station without further incident.

We got a good price for our electronics, and I bought a load of furs. I knew we wouldn't make too much on them, so I left room for 5 more pods. Bee jumped at the chance, and bought 4 containers of food. Again, at 2.4 credits each, spending almost her entire profit from her first sale. That left us with one empty slot, and I left that open, in case we had to scoop something. There still weren't any contracts for us, and I wanted to make sure Bee got a good price for her cargo, so I decided to go to Anle. A rich tech 11 planet right next to Tianve. This wasn't a bad little route. Once we refuelled, we were off again.

It was a thirty one hour trip, and both Bee and I was feelin' a mite tired, so I told Aria to hold down the fort while we got some shut eye. Didn't seem like I had barely shut my eyes, before I was woken up again. It was Bee standin' beside my bed. "What's up Bee?"

"I'm sorry Morgan, can I sleep with you?"

I could hear the catch in her voice. She'd been crying again. "Sorry? What the hell you sorry about? Crawl on in here! Fact is, I'm glad you showed up."

"Really?" she asked. I flung my arm out, and she snuggled right into my side. Her head on my shoulder, and her little hand on my chest.

"Yes really! You done seen my room and bed at home. Look at this big ol' room (it really was a huge room)! Some nights, even knowing that you are just across the hall, I get to feelin' downright lonely in this big ol' empty bed.

"I will keep you company then." She draped her leg over mine, and gave me a squeeze. I lay there in the dark, wishing I could do more to help her. After a while, just when I figured she must have gone to sleep. I heard her whisper real soft, "You big fibber." She cuddled closer, and finally drifted off. She didn't have any more nightmares for the rest of that cycle.

We made Anle the following cycle. I took us over to a fuel station as we were a bit low, and that always makes me nervous. It cost more to re-fuel at these stations, so I only filled her to about three quarters full, then we headed for the station. Wasn't long, before we saw lasers in the distance. I approached cautiously. Looked like a pack of yellow blips were chasing one lone orange blip, an offender.

"Get him, Morgan!" I didn't give her a hard time about the Captain thing. Hell, we were family. "No, Spitfire. There's a whole group of clean ships after him, and they don't look to be in any trouble. Besides, what's our rule?"

"We don't attack them, unless they target us first." she recited. "But what about that group we helped before? They didn't target us first."

"No, but that situation was pretty clear cut. A group of pirates attacking a group of traders. I will do my best to help another spacer if they are being attacked. But that ain't the situation here. No, Spitfire. We don't know what's goin' on here for sure, and in cases like this, I think we're better off minding our own business."

"Ya, I guess your right." she said, somewhat reluctantly. We continued on to Anle station.

Bee sold her four cargo pods of food for 8 credits each. Her eyes were big, and her jaw near hit the floor! She now had almost 43 credits that were all her own! "I'm rich Morgan! I'm RICH!" And that led to another round of hootin' and hollerin' and dancin' 'round the bridge. I couldn't help but get up and join her this time.

"Now Bee," I said. "How 'bout we take the original 10 credits that Pa gave you, and put that away in case you need it someday? That will still leave you with almost 33 credits to play with."

I thought I might be in for a fight, but she never even blinked an eye. "Okay Morgan, Will you lock it in the safe for me?

Too proud for words, I transferred 10 credits onto a cred-chip, and we put it in the bridge's "secret" safe. Then she asked if we could celebrate and do something special, and that she wanted to treat me to dinner! I told her I would love to go to dinner with her, and so she chased me off to my room to "get cleaned up and dress nice." I thought that was all a bit much, just to grab a couple of hamburgers, but I figured I would humor her. After taking a shower, I put on my "Sunday best". A button up black shirt made out of a satiny material, and a new pair of fancy black jeans with a black leather belt. I polished up my pair of good boots,and looked at myself in the mirror. Not too bad, if I may say so m'self! The shirt was just a little tight in the shoulders, but other than that, I thought I was lookin' pretty sharp. I went back to the bridge, and Aria informed me that Spitfire was still in her quarters, getting ready. I arranged for Aria to be refuelled, and puttered around till finally, I heard Bee enter the bridge behind me. I hopped off the couch and turned to say, "I'm ready t..." The words died in my throat.

I forget, that my little Spitfire is almost 17 years old. But I got slapped-upside-the-head reminded of it at that moment. I had seen her in most every kind of outfit imaginable, including buck-ass-naked. But I had never seen her like this before.

I was speechless. I was more than speechless, I was in shock.

She wore what appeared to be a gold collar. Cut out in filigree, and inset with tiny, ruby-like gems. It had a white satin hood attached at the back, which was pulled up over her head. The hood shadowed the top half of her face, and her huge, light grey eyes, glowed in that darkness. In stark contrast, it left the lower half of her face exposed to the light. The red glitter on her lips sparkled, like powdered rubies! The golden collar narrowed to a point on her chest. From that point, two narrow strips of white satin flowed down over each breast, leaving the front and sides of the dress completely open. Inches below her navel, the two front strips were joined together by a golden pin, with a sparkling red ruby-like gem in its' centre. From there, they fell to brush the tops of her tiny toes. High around her waist, a tiny, delicate, golden chain supported a narrow strip of cloth in the back. About twelve inches wide, it almost-but-not-quite covered her bottom, as it fell to trail on the floor behind her. Instead of shoes, she had delicate gold rings on each of her middle toes. From those rings, tiny gold chains trailed across the tops of her feet, and attached to gold anklets that matched her collar. On each wrist, she also wore matching gold bracelets, all were inset with tiny ruby colored stones.

She looked like some mythical, virgin, goddess.

"Well, what do you think?" she asked, barely above a whisper.

"I... I... Umm... I..." I trailed off. And right then, it hit me like a cargo pod full of lead. I suddenly understood what Terra had been talking about, in the kitchen that day.

"You don't like it, do you. Oh! I knew I looked silly!" I could see tears beginning to well up in her eyes, and a deep red blush spread from her face, all the way down her neck to her chest. She was embarrassed! She had done all this for me, and she thought I didn't like it. "I'll go put on something else." She turned away so I wouldn't see her cry.

"NO!" I shouted, making her jump. "No..." I repeated again and ran across the room to stand in front of her. I started to reach out. To grab her shoulders. But I stopped. She was just so, ethereal. I didn't dare try to touch her. "I... It's just that you... You're just so..." I continued to stammer. She looked up at me, her grey eyes, glowing in the dark, with tears on the very edge of spilling over.

"What? Silly? Stupid? What?" Her little chin gave a quiver.

"You're just, so... so beautiful." I finally managed to say.

Her chin stopped quivering, and her eyes narrowed. "What?"

"I said, that you're beautiful, Bee. You look just like a... Well, you look like a goddess!"

Her eyes grew wide in the shadows. "Morgan, please don't tease me right now."

"Oh darlin' I ain't teasin' you!" I did take her shoulders in my hands this time, and I looked her dead in the eye. "I mean it with all my heart, Spitfire. I have never seen anything so beautiful in all my born days!"

"You really... You really think I'm... I'm beautiful?"

"Bee, I'm as serious as a heart attack! Which you almost gave me, when I turned around. And honestly, if I could think of a word, better than beautiful, I sure would use it right now, and still fall short!

A single tear found it's way over her long lashes, and rolled slowly down her cheek. I reached for the handkerchief in my back pocket, and attempted to wipe it away. She grabbed it from my hand before I reached it, however. "Morgan Black! You mess up my makeup, and I will kick your ass SO hard...!" She carefully dabbed at her cheeks and eyes.

She was wearing MAKEUP?!? I lifted the front of her hood a mite, so I could really see her face. Not only were her lips covered in ruby red glitter, she also had a dark eyeliner, and what looked to be pure gold dust on her eyelids. I let the fabric fall back into place.

I moved back a step, so I could take in the whole picture once again. "I just can't get over it, Spitfire! I can't believe that's really you in front of me!" I stood there shaking my head in wonder.

She blushed again, and this time it reached all the way down past her breasts. Her eyes met mine, and she began to smile. She turned in a circle so I could see the whole outfit at once. "So you really do like it?" She was still scared I might be teasing her.

I looked her straight in the eyes. "No Bee, I don't just like it. I can't even say I love it. Just like saying you're beautiful, them words, just ain't powerful enough to tell you what I think. But I'm just a poor country boy, Bee, and I just ain't got any other ones strong enough I can use."

Her smile was complete, and her eyes sparkled from the shadows of her hood. "We better go, or we're going to miss our reservations."

Reservations?!

You know, I don't think we are going out for hamburgers after all...