Past the Redline

Throttle Six

“ChaOS, translate,” Diana said as she walked up behind the three aliens hemming her potential-future-employer in. The mouse-like alien—though it was really the big eyes and bigger ears that earned her that title in Diana’s head; none of the rodents she’d ever seen were blue—was cowering back towards the open doors of a space dock, one in which Diana caught a glimpse of a big boxy vessel.

“Gladly, Mistress,” ChaOS said as it walked alongside her.

“Hey, what’s going on here?” Diana asked.

The aliens turned, and Diana found herself the centre of attention. She grinned.

One of them, the one she presumed was the leader of the little bunch, grunted something at her while its forelimbs rattled in place.

“The alien, whom I suspect is an osel male-equivalent, said, quote: ‘Who are you to interfere in Krison’s business.’ End quote. I must admit that the translation may be wrong, given that some of the terms he used are colloquialisms.”

“Right, let’s ignore him,” Diana said. She faced the little mousey alien. “You’re Ahvie? You posted a notice on the job board for a pilot, right?”

ChaOS said something to the small mouse alien, who replied. Its voice was quick and squeaky, and it kept glancing away from ChaOS and towards the other aliens. “Ahvie here admits to being the one to set out the contract. They also said that this might not be the best time to address them about it.”

The osel in charge grumbled something back and forth.

“The osel is questioning Ahvie’s capabilities if they would hire someone as brutish and impolite as yourself, Mistress. An impolite, though not entirely improper assessment.”

“Rude,” Diana said. “Tell Ahvie that we’re ready to take the job whenever. Regardless of what this fine osel, ah, gentleman has to say. Is it wrong to call him a gentleman?”

“I don’t suspect it is, Mistress, though knowing little of the osel culture, I cannot say for certain. I will relay what you have asked me to.”

It was obvious that the translation game was annoying the osel, or at least, that’s how Diana chose to interpret the alien’s shifting and clacking of his bony legs. It listened to ChaOS as the droid related what Diana said to Ahvie, then it started to speak louder and wave its forearms around more violently.

Ahvie stepped up, little hands raised to calm the angered osel down. She squeaked at him, voice increasingly urgent.

Then the osel slapped Ahvie across the face, and the alien went stumbling back.

Before Diana could think better of it, her gun was out of its sheath and pressed up under the osel’s chin.

The osel froze, but his buddies weren’t so slow to act. The other osel pulled out a small round thing with a handle built into its bottom and with spikes sticking out of the sides of it, and the tiger-like alien unfolded a rifle from its lower back and started to raise it towards Diana.

A malevolent hum filled the corridor, and the two aliens both glanced over to ChaOS. The droid had a handgun in each of its four hands; more guns had slid out from over its shoulder and were humming a single, constant note that spoke of danger and very gory deaths.

ChaOS spoke a few words, calmly and precisely.

The alien Diana had at gunpoint raised his free hand and said something, just a few clipped words.

His buddies lowered their guns, and ChaOS did the same. “Mistress, it should be safe to stand down.”

Diana lowered her handgun and stepped back. “Tell them that I’m apologising about my sudden and violent actions,” she said.

“Are you actually apologetic?” ChaOS asked.

“No, but I can be polite,” Diana said. “I don’t like bullying, you know that. Maybe I’m missing something here. Maybe Ahvie here just ran over this fellow’s space dog and that’s why he’s pissed, but from what I can tell, with what little context I’ve got, I think this looks like a clear-cut case of some bigger fellow picking on someone smaller than he is. So, yeah, I don’t appreciate it.”

ChaOS nodded, then turned to the aliens while his arms folded back under his cape. The osel didn’t have much of a facial expression, not with a face entirely made of uncovered bone, but Diana still had the impression that he was glaring at her as he and his buddies took off.

He spat one last thing before disappearing behind an airlock door.

“What was that?”

“He said that he would one day eat your bones, though I’m not entirely sure if he was speaking of yours, Ahvie’s, or everyone here’s. I suspect he would be disappointed to learn that this body has no bones to consume.”

“I bet,” Diana said. She walked over to the small mouse-like alien, then carefully, as if approaching an unfamiliar animal, she helped Ahvie around so that the alien was sitting on her rear. She had a long, furless tail that curled up at the end. “Hey there, you okay?”

The little alien rubbed at their face, then blinked up at Diana before chirping something.

“She thanks you for the assistance, and warns you that Krison will not be content to let this pass,” ChaOS translated. “She also suggests that we leave now, before more trouble can befall us on her behalf.”

“Ahvie’s a she?” Diana asked, ignoring the threat from the other alien.

“According to the way she greeted you and some customs from her species available in their lexicon, yes. Her species has two sexes, not dissimilar to most terrestrial beings, and her gender is the one that more closely approximates a female, at least, a female in terrestrial terms.”

“Neat,” Diana said. “Tell her that we’re here for the job. If she’s looking for a pilot, then I’m the best damned pilot in, ah, well, not this solar system, but at least one other.”

“Ah yes, of the several trillion solar systems in the galaxy, you are the greatest in one of them,” ChaOS said.

Diana shot a glare at the droid. “C’mon, you’ll make us sound stupid in front of a potential… Wait, is she a client or a boss?”

Ahvie spoke to ChaOS some more in quick exchanges that ended with the little alien bobbing her head and gesturing behind her. “She wishes for you to see what she needs help with before she agrees to hiring you,” ChaOS said. “I suspect that she has formed an interesting mental image of you and your capabilities.”

“No concerns about not recognizing our species?” Diana asked.

“None as of yet.”

Ahvie spun around and walked back into the room behind her, and Diana followed. It led into a dock, not too dissimilar to where the Star Skimmer was waiting, though significantly larger. The ship sitting within was a large, rectangular machine, with four hydraulic landing legs clamped to the dock floor, and a body that hovered only a metre off the ground.

It was a dark blue, with a few lighter blue parts. Some had obviously been switched out for newer parts, and something about the ship told Diana that it wasn’t exactly a newer vessel.

Ahvie gestured to the ship above them. It was large enough that Diana imagined that the Star Skimmer could easily fit within the hold at the front, a hold whose side-door was currently opened, ramp touching the dock ground so that they’d have easy access to the interior.

“This is the Slow and Steady. Ahvie owns this vessel and uses it to transport goods across the galaxy.”

“A ship like that is FTL capable?” Diana asked.

“Possibly. She hasn’t specified the mechanics of their method of travel. The engines seem fuel-based, at a glance,” ChaOS said.

Diana nodded and gestured for ChaOS to continue translating.

“Ahvie is in something of a bind. She needs some parts to repair her ship. She claims to be a capable and certified mechanic, but the cost of the parts is beyond her. The Overflow Cup is her solution to that unique issue.”

“How’s that?”

“One of the prizes, along with generous monetary compensation, is the ability to requisition a number of spare and lightly used parts from the ship-graveyard on the planet. She intends to win in order to obtain what she needs to leave the station.”

“She have any experience racing?” Diana asked. It seemed like a fair way to get what she wanted, in her eyes.

ChaOS relayed the question, and received a negative squeak in return. “She does not, but she claims that the vessel she rigged together for this race is quite capable, and very fast. Mistress, I have doubts.”

Diana grinned as they all climbed up the ramp and into the hold.

The racer was there, sitting on a set of metallic gantries in an otherwise nearly-empty hold, like a heap of scrap turned into a modern art exhibit about the hubris of industrialization.

“That thing looks like it’ll blow up if someone sneezes near it,” Diana said. “And she wants to pilot it with no experience?”

“That seems to be the case, Mistress.”

“Oh yeah, I definitely want in.”