Chapter 130: Interference
“How regrettably rare that things go according to plan.”
—General Mois Wanari after the Conquest of Meega
Zaina approached the two parked ships, with Reida’s freshly acquired cruiser easily dwarfing the Order of Riiva’s no-frills lightweight transport. The pirate was busy at work inspecting her new ship, having pulled off the bottom engine panel. She had a pair of goggles on which were too large for her head, making her look a little silly.
“Hey there,” Reida said. “You done with Kazlo already?”
Zaina sighed. “You know I’m not going to let you have him, right?”
“Yeah,” Reida replied, reaching into the engine with a multi-wrench to tighten something. “You’re going to make me work for it, aren’t you?”
At that moment Zaina wanted nothing more than to tackle Reida to the ground and place her under arrest. It was better to hold back for now, but even the thought was immensely satisfying. Instead she leaned into her performance. “Actually, I came to thank you.”
Reida’s eyes narrowed. “Thank me?”
“Yes. For saving us back there. I don’t think we would’ve gotten out of that hangar if it hadn’t been for you.”
Reida shrugged and went back to working on the engine. “No need to thank me. I’ve been looking for a ship. It so happens I saw this one in the hangar. A decent sized cruiser, big enough for a small accommodation of light craft, and a pretty sizeable crew—plus a good variety of weapons, armor, and shields. It’s not my dream ship by any measure, but it’s nowhere near the worst first ship for a captain.”
Zaina stood beside her, trying to act natural. “That’s what you’re after?”
“Being a captain?”
“Yeah.”
Reida smiled. “Well, yeah. Who doesn’t want their own ship? The freedom to go where they want when they want? Plus a crew loyal to you—people who will stick by your side and listen to your every word?”
“Well, when you put it like that,” Zaina said.
In her head she finished, When you put it like that it’s easy to overlook all the theft and murder.
“Maybe you wouldn’t get it,” Reida said. “After all, you’re part of the Order of Riiva now. A proper little worker drone like you wanted to be.”
Zaina rolled her eyes. “Like you don’t have a boss, too.”
Reida paused for a moment. “It’s different. She’s closer to family. I bet the Order barely tolerates you being there.”
The words cut deeper than Zaina wanted to admit. “I was welcomed in, you know. There’s nothing wrong with wanting community.”
“So long as the community has your back,” Reida retorted. Then she pulled her hands from the engine block, put them on her hips, and gave a deep, heaving sigh. “You want some lunch? I’m gonna take a little break.”
Zaina was a little taken aback, but didn’t care what Reida did. “Sure.”
Reida went over to a crumpled bag and pulled out two nutri-bars with blank wrappers. She handed Zaina one. “Made them myself.”
“What the hell are they?”
“Berries, seeds, and dry-aged pharnos meat in saspar blocks. It’s pretty good—and it’ll fill you right up.” After scarfing down her first bite, Reida looked at Zaina and said, “It’s spacefarer food.”
Zaina scoffed. “That’s a charitable way of describing your job.”
Reida shrugged. “It’s technically true.”
“Well,” Zaina replied, struggling to keep the conversation going with someone she so intensely disliked, “where do you think you’ll space-fare off to next?”
After another bite Reida’s head tilted to the side. “Well, now I have a ship. Next I have to get my crew. They’re back with Captain Danjai right now. Then I’ll have to recruit some more.”
Zaina pondered another question to ask. Before she could, Reida said, “By the by, there was something I wanted to let you know.”
Her eyes narrowed. This is never good.
“What is it?”
“Well, your ship was damaged during the escape. Specifically, the Restrictor surged and damaged some of the internal systems.”
Zaina shook her head. “So, what now? You’re gonna strand us here?”
Reida’s head bobbed from side to side, as if she were weighing her options. “No. Well, maybe not. I guess it depends on how cooperative you are.”
“I see.” Zaina stood up.
“You see what?” Reida asked, stifling a laugh. “I want to help you, Zaina. I really do. And if you work with me a little bit, I think you’ll get whatever it is you want. And then I get what I want. Everybody wins.”
“Kazlo doesn’t win in that scenario.”
Reida scoffed. “That scammer piece of shit? So what? Fine—you and I both win, is that better?”
Zaina put her hands on her hips. She was struggling to listen to Reida’s overt attempts at manipulation without losing her mind. “It doesn’t matter. How could you know what I want?”
“It’s not hard to read you, you know,” Reida said. “You’d only search for someone like our friend Kazlo if you needed something very important fixed. Given that you’re the sentimental type, I’m guessing it could be an emotional value that makes it important to you. If that’s the case, whatever you’re fixing probably has very little monetary value, and therefore is of little interest to me.”
Zaina chuckled. “You still don’t know what I want.”
“I don’t need to. So long as it doesn’t concern me, I don’t care.” Reida shoved the last of her nutria-bar into her mouth and stood. “Time to get back to it—this engine hasn’t been properly tuned in years. The sooner I get this done the better. By the way, did Kazlo give you a timeframe?”
“He said it could be up to a day for the diagnostic,” Zaina replied. “There’s no need for you to rush.”
Reida sighed and closed her eyes. “Okay. Well, let’s hope there aren’t any delays; Captain Danjai’s going to ask questions sooner rather than later, and she knows how long it takes to tune an engine on a new find.”
Zaina winced, cursing her luck. If Reida was on a time crunch it added another vector to this whole clusterfuck—it meant she’d likely make her move before long.
For the better part of three hours Zaina awkwardly asked questions about the ship and the engine, with Reida throwing paragraphs of technical jargon her way that went straight over her head. In that time Reida cleaned both of the ship’s interior engines, refueled all her ship’s fluids from canisters within the ship’s cargo hold, and pulled the Order of Riiva’s craft into her ship’s cramped landing bay. Zaina thought back to the cube-shaped fighters that attacked her in Otmonzas’s orbit—this hangar was probably only able to fit four at most.
They exited the ship. “Well, at that’s left is to give her a name,” Reida said, staring up at the behemoth. “Say, looks like your friend’s coming.”
Zaina turned—Baeus was hovering over. “Good news,” he said in a jovial voice. “Kazlo has just informed me that the diagnostic finished quite early. He would like to speak with you, Zaina.”
She nodded. “That is good news. All right, I’ll head over there.”
Baeus gave her an inquisitive look. “You don’t happen to know where our ship has gone off to, do you?”
Reida slapped the side of her ship. “Safe and sound inside.”
“Why is it—is it flyworthy?”
Reida shook her head. “The restrictor did a number on it. Needs a little bit of work to get going.”
Baeus sighed. “Would you terribly mind helping us with that? While I appreciate your hospitality, I don’t think our current partnership would work out as a permanent arrangement—a sentiment with which I doubt you’d disagree.”
In a teasing voice, Reida said, “You want me to work for free? You know, I could charge the Order for my services.”
“Why—” Baeus, red-faced, started his reply.
Reida raised her hands. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Trust me, I don’t want you guys on my ship when my crew shows up. I doubt that would go well for you considering your lancer’s bum leg. Hopefully when this is all over we can go our separate ways, both satisfied, and all alive.”
“Yes,” Baeus said. “Yes, that’s my hope, too.”
Zaina turned to the scholar and said, “You gonna be all right here?”
“Oh, yes, very much so,” he replied. “In fact, I was hoping I could speak to Miss Reida here alone for a while. I have many questions to ask relating to your profession, if you don’t mind.”
Reida glanced at Zaina, then back to Baeus. “Uh—I mean, yeah, I guess.”
“Splendid! First, I was wondering how much of the history of piracy you might be familiar with—there are quite a few gaps in the Order of Riiva’s knowledge! Would you happen to know anything about the Dread Captain Rotzak during the Era of Chaos?”
Reida sighed. “I mean, he’s an old legend. I know a couple stories.”
Zaina took that as her cue to walk away. Baeus certainly had a way with words—though Reida seemed aware they were keeping an eye on her. The pirate was much colder toward him than Zaina. She hoped Baeus’s distraction worked.
Moreso she was hopeful for what she’d hear when she talked to Kazlo—for the first time in a while she actually had some hope.