“Coffee, Patty. Real coffee. With cream. Lattes. Cappuccinos. Ice machiatos,” Rathal purred.
“I think I’m going to faint.”
I pushed at Rathal’s shoulder. “Quit charming my friend and get on the ship before you give her a heart attack.”
I pressed Patty down into one of the seats behind the cockpit and strapped her in tight and gave Rathal the stink eye until he raised his hands in surrender and took his own seat. I ignored him when he started securing his restraints in an exaggerated fashion. Aga and Rema eyeballed the last seat before Rema chuckled and gestured for Aga to sit.
“I can’t sit in these chairs comfortably anyways, old friend. I will be fine,” Rema said, grabbing a metal pipe near the roof for support.
“We aren’t going far anyways, Rema. Everyone is waiting for us on board theVengeance,” I told him as I slid into the cockpit seat and started flipping switches.
“What ship is theVengeance?” Patty asked, her hands busy unbraiding and re-braiding her tangled dust covered hair. Her armor was covered in blood droplets and white dust like she’d been near a building collapse. I wanted to ask her whathappened but I figured it could wait until we met up with Jack so she only had to explain it one time.
“You’ll see,” I told her cryptically and then punched the throttle to dodge her next question. It threw everyone into their seats and Rema braced one hand on the back of Patty’s to keep himself upright. I kept my angle less severe so he could keep his feet under him where they belonged.
The pink clouds were thick as we passed through them, the rougher aircurrents rocking the ship hard enough to get a few nervous laughs out of my passengers before we broke through into the upper atmosphere. The primary star was behind us casting a soft blue glow over theVengeanceas she loomed on the outer edges of the planet's orbit. Her white hull grew larger and larger as we approached and I could practically feel Patty’s need to ask questions vibrating the airwaves.
A portion of the hull split apart at our arrival and I glided inside, my gaze roaming over the space. The hangar wasn’t white, which was a relief. White walls, floors and ceilings with white shuttles and Fangs would have gotten hard to look at, that’s for sure. Instead it was a soothing, familiar, industrial gray much like every other Earth standard military vessel in existence.
“Park her in number two, Callie. Cut the engines as soon as your nose clears the yellow indicators on your HUD. The umbilical will pull you the rest of the way in,”a friendly midwestern male voice said over the external speakers inside the cockpit.
Number two was a tuning fork shaped docking platform some two hundred feet in the hair with a bright red number two shining over it on my HUD. I maneuvered higher with my belly jets and nosed into the yellow flashing line on my display and then cut the engines like the LSO had said. Long silver tendrils about as thick as my thigh snaked out from the front of thedocking platform and sucked onto my ship, pulling us until we were fully docked.
“Ship secured. You can exit out of your ramp, there is a platform there that will take you to one of the lifts. We’ll maintenance your ship and clean it up for you if you want, or do you want us to replace it with a Fang?”
I was kind of partial to the her now. “Can I keep her and still get a Fang?”
“Yes ma'am. We can do that.”
“Alright. Let’s do that. Do you know where we are supposed to go from here?”
“Yeah, Jack’s waiting for you in front of the lift. She’ll take you where you need to go.”
I unstrapped, dropped the ramp, and stood. “Alright. Thanks.”
“No problem!”
I turned to the other’s, catching Patty’s eye. “Jack’s waiting for us.”
Patty’s whole face lit up. “I fucking knew it! This is a Mother ship isn't it? How cool is that? Oh. My. God. Is Hella on board?!”
I nodded my head. “Yeah. You weren’t kidding, dude. She’s crazy scary.”
“I told you! God, I love that big woman. She better have food. She’s a great cook. Like full on Betty Crocker, suburban mom kind of cook. Pancakes and sugar cookies.”
When I gave her a skeptical look she raised her hands.
“I swear to god!”
“I’ll take your word for it. Come on, let's go see what the next step is.”
Rema helped Patty to her feet, and followed Aga out of the ship with Rathal and I bringing up the rear.
“Was Hella a good cook while you were growing up?” I asked him as we walked down the ramp to the extended platform that would take us to a catwalk that edged the ship.
“My love, we had chefs. Hella didn’t cook. I suspect that was something she picked up on Earth.”
“You’re a spoiled rich bastard, aren’t you?”
