Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"The human should be dead," I growled at Huxtun, my co-pilot as I watched Gerik led the female to my ship as I had ordered. The stupid human female who apparently had more guts than brains. Or no common sense. Maybe the electric shock had damaged her brain.
The stunner had been set for a larger alien species, like a Kvasirian or Arnuvian because no one had expected to find a tiny, human female piloting a junker ship.
Haxtun nodded in agreement with me, "Do you think the suit made out of cerillia?" he asked. Cerillia was special carbon fiber that was woven with the metallic thread the IEC flight suits that absorbed the shock of electric, laser, plasma and even some blunt force objects. It helped the IEC enforcers mitigate lethal injuries and wasn't available to anyone not in a government sector.
I frowned deeper as I looked around the remains of the ship. It was obvious that even before the damage it was a piece of shit and well past the standard for decommissioning. The walls were rusted, bolts missing from the hull, the grated metal floors were worn and rewelded in many places. Grime had built up on the floors in the corners where it met the walls. It was obvious it had not undergone a proper cleaning in rotations. "It has to be a counterfeit," I explained but there was no other reason why the voltage didn't melt her brain in her skull.
"A good counterfeit," he agreed as he kicked a lump a charred metal and looked around the interior of the ship. Huxtun was a good second-in-command. He was analytical and had a very black and white view of the universe and the laws we fought to uphold. "Are we going to return to Pharsouk, Commander?"
I thought a moment before saying, "I want to talk to the human first. We need to know where the suit came from, what her cargo was and who has it." I didn't say anything else as we crossed the loading tunnel and headed to the flight deck.
I rolled my shoulders, trying to release some of the tension. I was keyed up far more than normal. Typically, arresting pirates and boarding ships was just something that happened. Just another motion to be completed. I hadn't expected the captain to be a female.
Not a lot of shit took me by surprise.
That human had and it had been explosive. I would never have thought a human female had it in them to face down the muzzle of a blaster. Pharsiian females were different. Most of the universe mistook the gentile behavior of Pharsiian females as subjugation and oppression but any Pharsiian knew better. The women were allowed to do as they pleased. They chose the act the way they did because they were happy to do so. I had only ever met a handful of human females and all of them had been blank eyed prostitutes in backwater hovels that the crew and I tracked criminals to. They'd been contained and transported for trial for being unregistered.
"AI, disengage the dock," I ordered.
A disembodied robotic voice replied immediately, "Disengaging dock." There was no noise as the tunnel telescoped back into place and returned to its hidden compartment under the loading door, "Dock disengaged."
