Hardwired

chapter two.

The first shot that hit The Culprit rocked it; the alarms that were blaring before paused when the ship's electricity flickered. The whole interior bathed in red light as the emergency systems kicked on.

I returned fire, the blaster system of my ship taking several moments to draw power from less essential components before landing a direct hit onto Rickenn's ship. I whooped in short celebration as I fired up the engines, the two of them whirring to life as I immediately slammed forward on the throttle.

The ship jerked dramatically before shooting forward, shaking loose the catwalk that Rickenn had already deployed.

I maneuvered my ship expertly around the damaged one I had just salvaged. It wasn't the first time I had to lose someone. It wasn't even the first time it had been Rickenn I had to outrun. Early on I learned that I had to fly craftily if I didn't want to die.

My comm buzzed and Rickenn's expletives flooded my ears, "You piece of gak human mutt! I sssswear I'm going to blow you apart."

I couldn't help but laugh out loud at his words. "I must have really fucked something up on your ship to get you all hot and bothered." I taunted, watching the horizon as I continued to round Pilarea Si II.

It was times like this I wished The Culprit's warp drives actually worked, the system had died before my father had been taken to the work camp and the parts were hard to come by and equally as expensive.

It wasn't worth the time it would take to source the part or the credits to actually buy it.

Rickenn cursed at me over the comm in Kvasirian, his native tongue, just as I felt the laser blast from behind. I checked the defense system and saw that it was in the last stages of malfunction and knew I couldn't take another blow.

If I did, The Culprit would likely lose an engine.

I armed the blasters again; the lights of the ship dimmed before they completely turned off as I routed all power to the weapons. The distinctive vibration of the blasters rattled the whole cabin before they fired; I heard the blast hit over the comm and Rickenn's defensive alarms beeping incessantly on the other end.

"Have fun piecing your ship together now, you fucking asshole!" I yelled at him as I broke from the dark side of Pilarea Si II and Pharsouk came into view in the distance. Taking off the helmet, I disabled my comm and tossed it back onto the dash with a sigh before disengaging the weapon systems. Unstrapping from the Captain's chair I did a quick check of all the gauges, several of them in the red, more than one system stressed beyond operation.

I couldn't afford stressed systems. It would cut into my profit and mean less time without worry.

It meant that my ship wouldn't make it to Veron without first landing somewhere for fuel and maintenance. "Fucking Rickenn," I cursed as I pushed a hand through my curly hair. From the looks of the system readings and without actually taking apart anything it would be weeks before I was able to get to Veron to sell off the salvaged parts.

Weeks I couldn't afford.

Walking back towards the cargo hold, I decided to assess the damage to the hull of the ship and check on the cargo. If it was too bad. I wouldn't be able to land in Euryale, the small ship repair stations couldn't do more than basic repairs. I would have to dock on the Ulan Station on the opposite side of Pharsouk.

And landing there was already going to be a shitshow and I would probably have to pay double to keep whatever mechanic planetside quiet. It was whatever. As long as I had enough credits for my ID and transport paperwork I didn't care. If I had to work my fingers to the bone once I ended up planetside that was fine.