Starship Mafia

Chapter 3

Special thanks to: Y'know what if you haven't gotten it by now you never will.

Cw philadelphia accent and violence

I smudge away remaining tears and lean on the table, looking up at the holo-projector. I skim the first couple of articles, nothing out of the ordinary. New Luna's government reinforces the prohibition of liquor and narcotics, Azizos III sends shipments of shock rifles to Gaia to support them in the Lilii war, best hot dogs in the galaxy. I scoff and cough, choking on a laugh. It didn't feel right to get distracted, to feel like moving on so quickly. I shoved the thoughts out of my mind and forced myself to listen to Antoni read the fucking news. I look away again.

"Bianca, pay attention, look." Antoni snaps in my face a couple of times and I shove his arm back and glare at him as he continues reading.

"WE ARE NOT ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE:

We have found sapient alien life on planets in the Anat, Balaar, Vaire, and Qetesh systems. Called stunnas, these aliens have 4.6 meter (15 ft) tall reddish-orange cone shaped bodies with tentacles at the base of their bodies and one large eye at the top of their cones. The human governments are currently allied with their governments. Interestingly enough the stunnas also haven't invented their own FTL engines; instead like us they gained the ability for FTL travel by finding abandoned ruined spaceships similar in style to the ones found by humans. The stunnas call this ancient species of aliens the smitors."

I stare at Antoni, unsure what to do with the information.

"Yea Antoni, cool shit and stuff, but what are we going to do now? We lost..." I shake my head hard.

"We escaped the government once but we can't-" Antoni blocks me off from my pacing and I look up at him and try to glare, but it felt more like holding back fear and hurt.

"We can't do anything Bia. Not yet, not now. We need repairs."

"It just feels so useless, restless. I need to do something." I turn for the hall. Before I stalk off I look back to Phoebe and Antoni. I sigh.

"Ok. I'll tell Yukimura to look for a shipyard in Alkonost."

We radio in the shipyard dock at a space station on the outer ring of Alkonost. When we land, Antoni, Jinny, and I step off the ship and onto the metal ground. A pair of skinny men with small eyes stand in the shipyard, waiting for us. Jinny rushes forward to greet the workers and Antoni and I follow.

"We'd like our ship repaired. There seems to be damage in the hull and a couple of pipe breaks."

One of the workers looks over at the other side of the hull to review the damage. He comes back nervous.

"Damn, that's a big hole. You fine folks get hit by a meteor or something?"

"We got shot by a coilgun." Antoni interjects coldly. He stands tall with his hands in his pockets and glares at the workers. What was his problem?

"Must've been a damn big coilgun. You sure it wasn't a mass driver?" The same nervous worker asks, scratching his head.

"It might've been. I never got a good look." Antoni says without making a hint of eye contact. What the fuck was his problem?

Another worker pushes his way to the front and the nervous worker away.

"Why would someone shoot your ship? We don't deal with criminals." He glares back at Antoni.