Bryce

“I mean, we got everything,” Sora said. “Hells, we still have access to their systems, but it looks like Legion really doesn’t know what the relic does. That or it’s above the admiral’s pay grade.”

Sora was sitting on the couch while I paced back and forth in the living area aboard the ship. Sami was still on the Skull Candy, she had apparently found a project to work on with their navigator. We were planning on picking her up before we went forward with our negotiations aboard the Theocran ship.

There was a chance the talks could go sideways, and I didn’t want to risk her being stranded if we had to leave the system in a hurry. Especially since I felt like I was missing something major.

“Okay, we don’t know shit about the relic,” I said. “What do we know about the Theocran ship?”

“Bryce, going over all of this again isn’t going to change anything,” Sora complained. “We don’t know anything more than what the admiral already explained to you.”

I stopped pacing to glare at them. “Humor me.”

Sora rolled their eyes, but launched into a recap when I didn’t stop glaring. “The Flaming Talon is a C-113 heavy gunship, with 11 missile ports, three dozen relativistic ballistic cannons, and a single R-13 constant-stream mass accelerator that could probably bore a hole through an unprotected planet in under a minute. It’s not an occupation force like the Skull Candy, and it’d probably still lose in a straight up fight, but it’d do enough damage that it’d be a Pyrrhic victory for Legion and they’d have to retreat from the system.”

I blinked at them a few times. “That was very…” and then I realized what had happened. “You just asked Samira, didn’t you?”

Sora smiled and shrugged. “It’s a big fucking gun that somebody strapped a pile of slightly smaller guns to, before filling it with a bunch of trigger-happy zealots. We’ve been over this a few times Bryce, and it’s not exactly rocket science.”

“It’s a starship,” I argued. “Everything about it is literal rocket science.”

“Sure, but the situation isn’t complicated,” Sora explained. “The Theocracy wanted a show of force, so they sent in their big gun. Once they realized Legion’s dick was bigger, they pulled their pants back up and switched to a less direct method.”

“I think you’re mixing metaphors there.” Dick jokes aside, I figured Sora was mostly right. The Theocracy wanted to make defending Zephili more expensive than just taking a loss on the deal. Since nobody knew what the relic did, it wouldn’t be hard to justify losing it.

If it were a different planet at stake, or even a more senior admiral, then it might have even worked. But as it stood, Zephili was too valuable and Varlin had too much to prove.

“Seriously, Bryce, you can’t take one look at that ship and then tell me the captain isn’t trying to compensate for something,” Sora laughed. “Especially with a name like the Flaming Talon, I’d bet every last credit that the designer got bullied in spaceship summer camp.”

“Spaceship summer camp?” I asked. Including Sora in my planning may have been a mistake, but Thea obviously wasn’t available and Samira was… busy. “Sora, 13 billion people are going to die. Please try to take this seriously.”

“Bryce, your plan is fine.” Sora sat up with a sigh. “You’ve accounted for every variable. Hells your last plan worked perfectly, and we already have the location of Dr. Phaylex’s hidden lab along with enough stolen information that we could probably use it to buy a decently sized moon.”

I started to argue, but Sora interrupted me. “Please Bryce, we’ve been here for hours. There’s nothing left to discuss. Your plan will work and we’ll save those people, but only if you can get out of your own gods damned head in the next 17 minutes.”

I exhaled slowly and let my shoulders relax. “I’m sorry Sora, it’s just with Thea gone, and the whole damn mess with… wait, why 17 minutes?”

Sora looked at their wrist and clicked their tongue before slowly inhaling. I wasn’t sure what they were looking at, because they definitely weren’t wearing a watch.

“Well, with the speed of the shuttle, and Sami still being on the Legion ship,” Sora spoke lazily, as if they were trying to drag out their explanation for as long as possible. “I mean, you’re definitely going to need time to get ready. At least to do something with your hair, and you know… the rest.” Sora just gestured in my general direction.

“So, what are you saying?” I pulled up the clock in my feed and saw that we still had over three hours until the meeting. “We have plenty of time.”

“Oh, no, yeah, you’re right.” Sora reclined on the couch before crossing one leg over the other. “It’s just that I noticed the implants we picked up on Drassun don’t automatically switch to local time unless you set them to, and I was worried maybe you hadn’t done that yet. You know, with this being the first time we’ve been in a civilized system for any real amount of time since we got them.”

I froze as I pulled up the settings in my feed. The damn thing was hidden under six submenus. I sprinted to the captain’s quarters.

“13 minutes!” Sora shouted from the couches.

~~~~

“I hate you.” I collapsed into the co-pilot’s seat aboard the shuttle. My heart was still racing, and I was breathing heavily.

Sora chuckled as we detached and started towards the Flaming Talon. “No, you don’t, besides we should be only a few minutes late.”

Sora was remotely flying the Fury towards the Skull Candy in order to pick up Samira, while they manually flew the shuttle at the same time. Which was both incredibly impressive, and would save us nearly half an hour. It would also mean the Fury wouldn’t be available for at least twice that time if something went wrong.

Sora was also going to have to dock with the Flaming Talon remotely while Samira pretended to fly it. All of that meant more moving parts in an already overly complicated plan.

“Yes, we should have been only a few minutes late,” I sighed. “But because we didn’t leave earlier, we’re going to be over an hour late.”

“Just consider it a power move,” Sora said.

“Showing up an hour late is a dick move, not a power move,” I complained.

A melodic ringing sound started coming from the console in front of me. “Well, you better think of an excuse, because that’s them calling now,” Sora said.

“That'll be easy, I'll just blame my shitty navigator,” I mumbled, as Sora stood from the pilot’s chair and I took over before answering.

“Executive, I didn’t think you were still coming,” Captain Ashaiya greeted. She had pale skin and long blonde hair with eyes that glowed with a faint golden light behind a pair of wireframe glasses. She was very clearly related to Thea, if a little older looking. Although, the glasses surprised me.

“I apologize. My navigator was having temporal issues.” I felt an invisible foot kick my shin, but maintained my practiced smile. “As it is, they’re flying my personal ship back to the Skull Candy to pick up an important piece of cargo.”

“Yes, well, you may wish to find yourself a new navigator if they’re incapable of maintaining a schedule,” the captain fixed her glasses as she scolded me. It was adorable. “Tardiness is unbecoming of somebody in your station.”

“Under other circumstances I would agree, and I would have arrived in a corporate vessel with a corporate navigator,” I explained. “However, I was traveling with my personal yacht when Admiral Varlin requested my assistance, and my navigator has certain skills that would make them difficult to replace.”

“Certain skills?” Captain Ashaiya seemed confused until her eyes went wide and she blushed. “Oh! I, uh, I understand and in that case, you’re forgiven. I will open the starboard hangar upon your arrival.”

Captain Ashaiya ended the call before I could respond, and Sora reappeared behind me with their arms crossed. “You know she thinks we’re fucking, right?”

“No, she doesn’t,” I sighed. “We listed Samira as my navigator, and the only other crew member.”

“Oh gods, that’s even better,” Sora laughed. “So what? Is it just you and her ‘special skills’ all the way out here on your personal luxury yacht? Is that the official story? Sami is going to love this.”

Yeah, I didn’t think she would.

“What’s going on between you two?” I asked. “You’ve been at each other’s throats ever since Thea disappeared.”

Sora scoffed before taking a seat in the co-pilot’s chair. “It’s not been that bad.”

“She tried to kill you with a wrench,” I deadpanned. “Twice.”

“Okay, that one was new,” they admitted. “Although, in her defense, I probably deserved it the 2nd time.”

“You definitely deserved it both times,” I argued. “What’s going on with you?”

Sora sighed. “It’s complicated.”

I didn't think it was all that complicated. “You’re bored.”

They seemed to consider that for a surprisingly long time before responding. “Okay, maybe it’s not complicated.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “You’re the only person I’ve ever met who could get bored on the run from a network spanning crime syndicate run by a family of evil djinn.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t know if you’ve noticed Bryce, but there’s not a lot for me to do on the ship,” Sora explained. “I basically just point us at the right beacon, then the ship handles the rest. And with Thea gone, there’s not even any good conversation anymore.”

That almost offended me, but then I stopped to consider what they had said. Samira spent all day, every day, in the ship’s engineering and she was more than happy. I spent that same time researching or studying magic.

When Thea was here, she and Sora would spend most of the day hanging out together. They were both so much more social than me and Samira, that it was ridiculous.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “I miss her, too.”

“We’ll get her back,” they said. “Otherwise Sami is definitely going to revolt. If you think I’m getting on her nerves now, just wait to see what happens after a few more weeks of my cooking. She might actually make good on her threats to blow up the ship.”

I cringed. “What are the chances that Varlin has a few cooking programs we could borrow?”

“He doesn’t have any, it was the first thing I looked for,” Sora said. “Oddly, necromancers don’t seem to keep those sorts of programs on their military servers. Maybe you could include some in your negotiations?”

“Absolutely not,” I refused. “I’ve had Theocran food. It wouldn’t be worth it. I don’t know where Thea learned to cook, but it wasn’t as a celestial of Inim. The only thing his followers eat is a flavorless gray mush.”

Sora laughed. “Do you think that’s why she learned to cook? Like as a form of rebellion?”

“I’ve heard of worse outlets for daddy issues,” I smiled.

“Oh, I bet you have.” Sora leaned forward with a sultry look. “Professor Virra, is there anything that I could do to pass your class? I don’t want to disappoint daddy dearest.”

“Sora, you watch too much porn.” I pushed them away, and they burst into laughter. “I didn’t date my students. Obvious ethical problems aside, most of them were idiots, and I don’t date idiots.”

That caused Sora to raise an eyebrow. “You’re dating Thea.”

“She’s not an idiot.” I crossed my arms. “She’s just careless sometimes, and doesn’t think about the consequences of her actions.”

“You mean… like an idiot.”

I ignored them. “We’re almost to the Theocran ship, you should go get ready.”

“Okay, ignore me, it won’t change the fact that I’m right about your girlfriend.” Sora got up from their seat. “And don’t think I didn’t notice you checking out Captain Ashaiya. It’s like you said, Inim had a lot of celestials. It might take awhile if you’re trying to collect them all, and besides, I’m not sure how Thea would like it if you tried to sleep with all her sisters.”

“I said go get ready!” I shouted as I felt my face burning up.