Profit & Peril

by Charissa Dufour

  “Hello?” called a faint voice.

  Bit turned her head, straining to figure who would be calling for her.

  “Anyone there?” came the same soft voice.

  Bit felt her breath catch in her chest. It was Blaine. He was finally awake after his treatment on the surface. Bit felt the panic rising. She couldn’t go into the infirmary, despite the cut on her head. She wasn’t ready to face Blaine. She focused on the spinning fabric inside the laundry machine. She knew what to expect from the laundry. Blaine, on the other hand, was unpredictable.

  Ever since she met him, he had been unpredictable. The poison used on him only amplified that. That’s why they chose to target him.

  “Can someone hear me?” Blaine called.

  Bit heard movement and before she knew what was happening, her feet were carrying her out of the laundry room. She reached the door and stopped, her feet no longer strong enough to carry her into the infirmary against her will.

  “Bit.”

  She stared at Blaine for a second before eyeing Calen. The pilot was blissfully asleep. Bit considered dropping something or yelling—anything to wake Calen up, but she didn’t. She knew better.

  “Bit?” Blaine asked when her eyes didn’t travel back to him. “Are you okay? You’re head?”

  Bit blinked, dragging her gaze back onto Blaine. Again, her feet took off without her. She crossed the room and stopped at Blaine’s monitor, doing a quick check to make sure all the leads were still attached to his chest. Next, she examined the monitor just as Jack had taught her. From what little she knew, everything looked normal.

  She gave Blaine a nod, her jaw clenched despite her best efforts to stay relaxed, and turned toward the little exam table where she knew she could find bandages. She grabbed a small one and stuck it to her forehead, not even certain it was covering the cut.

  “Bit, please. Please talk to me.”

  She kept her eyes on the shiny exam table. “I don’t have anything to say.”

  “But I do. I’m so sorry, for everything. That wasn’t me. You know that.”

  “No, Blaine. That wasn’t you,” Bit said to the exam table, “but it was awfully close.”

  “What do you mean? That wasn’t me.”

  “Blaine, soon you will be free to get up and stuff, and I want you to leave me alone.”

  With that she turned and walked out of the infirmary. Her laundry would take another hour to finish. She didn’t need to be down on the lower levels, near Blaine. She charged up the stairs and raced towards the next set leading up to living level.

  “Bit?” called a voice from the mess hall. “Where are you off to in such a hurry?”

  Bit forced herself to turn and look at Oden. “I, uh… just back to my room.”

  Oden glanced between her and the lower staircase. “Blaine woke up?”

  She nodded, her gaze on the floor.

  “Did you talk to him?”

  She nodded again. “Briefly.”

  “Your bandage missed your cut,” Oden said, pointing to her forehead.

  “I-I was in a hurry.”

  “Go to your room. I’ll get some supplies and meet you there.”

  Bit frowned, looking up at Oden for the first time. “Thank you.”

  “Go on.”

  Chapter Five

  Oden trudged down the stairs, too tired to deal with Blaine, but determined to help Bit. Now that Blaine was awake, they were in for a long journey to the Nye Space Station. If he knew Blaine at all, he would chase after Bit as long as it took to gain her forgiveness, and Bit would likely drive her petite foot up his ass within a week. Oden grimaced at the battle brewing aboard the ship.

  He reached the infirmary and marched in, ignoring the dread building inside him.

  “Oden. Oden, can you get Bit to come back?” Blaine asked from his bed.

  “No,” Oden replied as he moved to the cabinet by the exam table.

  “But…”

  Oden turned to look at Blaine. “I realize that you’re going to do whatever you want, no matter what I say, but listen to me anyway. Bit wants nothing to do with you, and considering what she’s been through, she has that right. If you insist on pursuing her when she has expressly told you to leave her alone, I will hold you down while she pummels you with her tiny little fists of fury.”

  “I know you’re mad, Oden, but I just want…”

  “See what I mean. You won’t listen to whatever anyone tells you,” Oden grumbled as he turned back to the cabinet and pulled out the supplies he needed, a bandage and antibiotic ointment.

  With the supplies, he left, ignoring Blaine’s calls.

  On the mess hall level, he bumped into Randal.

  “What’s this for?” Randal asked, motioning toward the medical supplies.

  “Bit hit her head during the rough exit.”

  “And she couldn’t go down to the infirmary herself?”

  “Uh…”

  “Blaine’s awake.” It was a statement not a question.

  “Sir, I know I’m technically not under your authority, but I need to ask your permission to speak freely.”

  Randal stared down at Oden, his large frame blocking the stairs. “Of course.”

  “You need to keep Blaine away from Bit. He’s already talked to her once, and I believe she told him off, but he asked me to bring her back down. If she doesn’t want to see…”

  Randal held up his hand to forestall Oden from continuing. “Oden, I appreciate your concern for Bit, but trust me if there is anyone on this ship who can put Blaine in his place, it’s Bit!” Randal continued when Oden tried to interrupt him. “I will watch Blaine, but you also need back off for Bit’s sake. I know… I know you also have feelings for the girl—like every other virile man on this ship—but what Bit needs most right now is for everyone to back off. Including you.”

  Oden chewed on his bottom lip, fiddling with his lip ring for a moment before nodding. “Yes, sir.”

  “Now go take care of our girl,” Randal added tapping on the small bottle of ointment.

  Oden ducked around the head of the security team and jogged up the steps. He tapped on her door and entered at her invitation.

  “Got the goods,” he said as he dragged her desk chair up to her hammock. “Man we have got to get your room spruced up.”

  “It’s fine,” grumbled Bit.

  “It looks like a prison cell.” Oden reached for her misplaced bandage and gently pulled it off.

  “Maybe I like prison cells.”

  “Uh-uh, I’m sure that’s it.”

  Bit shrugged as he dabbed ointment on the small cut.

  “You sure it’s not because you have nothing to decorate with?” Oden asked, carefully covering her cut with a small bandage.

  “Like I said, it’s fine.”

  “I’ll see what I can find for you.”

  “Don’t.” Bit glanced down at her intertwined hands. “I’ll find stuff… over time. I don’t want stuff just ‘cause it looks nice. I want stuff I find.”

  “Fair enough. Now, are you okay?”

  Bit let out an exasperated sigh. “I’m fiii-iiine.”

  “And I’m not just anyone in this crew. You don’t have to give me the cookie-cutter reply. Blaine is awake, and likely to be a pain in the ass, and you were left on the surface. Now, are you okay?”

  “I am tired, stressed, and pissed off, but mostly I’m annoyed. I’m annoyed at every single person who has asked me if ‘I’m okay,’ but if you must know, I’m wondering what my role is on this ship. Got it?”

  Oden grinned. “Got it. Well, I have been awake for over thirty-six hours, so I’m going to bed.”

  “What are you going to do without Calen?”

  “Jack’s covering the bridge so I can get some rest. Not really sure what we’re doing in the long run.” Oden stared at her for a moment. “Then again, there is you…”

  Bit’s eyes widened. “Me? How in the world can I help?”

  “Go upstairs
and see the captain. Tell him I sent you. Now,” he patted her on the knee, “I am off to bed… unless you want to join me?”

  Bit reached out and jabbed him in the shoulder.

  “Right. Didn’t think so. See ya later.”

  Bit hesitated outside the door to the bridge. Oden had sent her up to the captain without explaining why.

  How in the world can I help up here? she wondered as she leaned against the wall beside the door. I scrub floors, I don’t mess with controls. Especially not the controls piloting the whole bloody ship.

  “Bit, is that you out there?” Jack called from within.

  Bit cringed as she revealed herself. “Hey, Cap. Oden sent me up here.”

  “Oden sent you?”

  She shrugged.

  Jack glanced between her, the displays, and back before his lips pulled up into a grin. The grin quickly morphed into a chuckle, and Jack shook his head back and forth.

  “Why didn’t I think of it?” Jack asked, still laughing to himself.

  Bit’s stomach twisted into knots.

  “C’mon Bit, you need to learn the basic sensors and displays.”

  “You’re going to teach me to fly the ship?” she asked, her knotted gut convulsing at the thought of her being left in control of the powerful ship.

  “No. I’m going to teach you to read the various screens so that you can monitor the ship. Half the time the ship doesn’t need any tweaking, it just needs someone to monitor the levels and be there in case something goes wrong.”

  “And the other half of the time?”

  Jack laughed again. “Get over here, you little scaredy cat.”

  Bit obeyed, her hands twisted together. “Captain, this seems like a really bad idea.”

  “Are you talking back?”

  She hesitated a moment, suddenly aware of what she had done, but the longer she stood there the bigger Jack’s grin grew.

  “Well it’s not like you can fire me,” she countered.

  “Ha! Too true. Now come over here.”

  Bit settled beside Jack and scanned the various displays that wrapped around the pilot’s seat. “Oden explained the control to me on our flight to Mars, but I didn’t really master it.”

  “Oh did he?”

  “He was supposed to talk to you about it, but… you know… pirates.”

  Jack chuckled again. “Damn pirates. They’ll getcha every time. Okay, let’s review.”

  An hour later, Bit felt just as lost as she had with Oden a few weeks ago. The controls for the ship seemed monstrous in size and overly complicated. Can’t they just make this simple?

  “We’ll review everything again, but this time let’s mark the various controls,” Jack said as he climbed out of the seat and went to the lockers lining the back wall.

  Inside one, he retrieved tape and a marker.

  “Now, you sit and label the displays and controls,” Jack ordered.

  It took Bit another half an hour to get all the hand-made labels in the right spots. Bit stared at them, still feeling overwhelmed by what they expected of her. Having missed most of a standard education, she could barely read her sloppy, misspelled scrawl. While Bit knew she was creative and resourceful, she had never considered herself smart. Her life hadn’t required her to memorize facts, and she doubted she had the brain to do it.

  “Great. You keep studying this. I’ll come check on you periodically.”

  “Wait. You’re leaving me?” Bit asked, her throat constricting with panic.

  Jack smiled at her and retraced his steps back to the pilot’s seat. “Bit, the ship basically flies itself. If something on the displays change, then you call down to me. You know how to use the comm., right?”

  Bit nodded. That was the one thing from the lesson she felt confident about.

  “Good. All you have to do is sit here and be prepared for the worst.”

  “I don’t even feel prepared for the best.”

  Jack laughed at her joke as she stared wide-eyed at him. “You’ll be fine, Bit.”

  With a pat on the shoulder, Jack turned and left the bridge in her shaking hands.

  Bit stared at the controls, forming inside herself a new determination to master the names and placements of the various screens and buttons. She stared at them, covered the labels, and stared some more, but no matter what she did, she could only remember about half of the controls.

  “This is hopeless,” she muttered to herself as she leaned back in the pilot’s seat.

  Chapter Six

  Bit woke with a start. She glanced around, wondering why she had fallen asleep in the pilot’s chair and, more importantly, what she was doing in it in the first place.

  Slowly, the memories of the afternoon came back to her. “Shit.”

  Bit scanned the controls and the labels she had made for them, her eyes drawn to a display that had been mostly blank during her lesson with Jack. The screen was black, with the faint lines of a gridwork pattern stretched across it. In the center was a green blinking dot, and shifting towards the green dot blinked a red one. The label below the screen declared it to be the proximity display.

  The red dot blinked another space closer to them.

  “Shit, shit, shit,” Bit chanted as she reached for the comm. device and flipped to the ship-wide channel. “Captain to the bridge.”

  As Bit waited, she scanned the displays, trying to remember how to change the large forward display to scan the nearby space.

  “What’s up?” Jack asked as he sauntered in.

  “This display. It’s got a red blinking light.”

  Jack picked up his speed and looked at the controls over her shoulder. “How did it get that close?”

  “I-uh… I fell asleep.”

  “Dammit, Bit,” snapped Jack as he nudged her out of the pilot’s seat and took it for himself.

  “What’s up, Captain?” asked Oden as he walked in, adjusting his t-shirt as though he had just put it on.

  “We have an object in the vicinity.” Jack punched a few buttons and brought up the display of the space alongside the ship.

  They all went silent as they stared at the image of another ship.

  “How the hell did we get this close to it?” asked Oden as he, like his captain before him, nudged Jack out of the pilot’s seat.

  Jack willingly vacated the seat and gave the controls over to his pilot. “Bit fell asleep.”

  Bit hung her head in shame and backed up against the distant wall.

  “It’s a Renault R-class cargo freighter,” Oden announced. “Want to contact them?”

  “Are their engines even powered up?”

  Oden punched a few buttons on one of his smaller displays. “Doesn’t look like it, but I don’t remember the last time we used our scanners. Honestly, I’m not even sure our scanners still work.”

  Jack nodded before reaching over to the comm. unit and grabbing the handheld device. He fiddled with the channels, and the comm. made a strange noise as it scanned, looking for whatever channel the other ship might be using.

  “Hello, this is Captain Jack Macleef of the Lenore,” Jack began into the comm. device. “Are you in need of assistance?”

  There was no reply.

  “Oden, run a diagnostics on the scanner. I want to know if that ship really is powered down.”

  “Aye, sir.” Oden went to work on his controls, focusing on the little, seldom-used monitor.

  “Captain Macleef of the Lenore. Can anyone hear this?” Jack repeated.

  “Cap, I wait much longer to stop and we’re going to fly right by them.”

  “Go ahead and reduce speed. This is Captain Macleef of the Lenore. Is anyone there?” Jack continued into the comm. device.

  Oden took control of the ship and within seconds, Bit found herself adjusting her footing as the ship reduced speed. When the ship slowed to a crawl, Oden went back to working on the scanner.

  “Running the scanner again,” Oden announced just as Randal appeared in the doorway.
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  “What’s up, Captain?”

  “We ran across another ship.”

  “Scanners confirm their engines are powered down. Based on the heat signatures, life support appears to be working in only portions of the ship.”

  “Lenore 2517 calling Renault R-class cargo freighter. Come in cargo freighter. Can you hear me?”

  The comm. crackled for a second before a faint voice replied. “This is the Hawkeye. We sure are glad to hear from you, Captain.”

  “What seems to be the problem?”

  “Our engines failed us.”

  “Don’t you have an engineer on board?”

  There was a brief pause. “We did, but he died two weeks into our journey of a heart attack.”

  Jack lowered the comm. device. “Oden, can you access the Merchant Commissioner databank and check out their story?”

  Once again, Oden poked around at the controls before shaking his head. “We’re in a blackout zone.”

  Jack frowned. “That could be a coincidence.”

  Oden and Randal each gave Jack a dirty look.

  “Can you tell how many lives are on board?”

  Oden gave him another look. “With this piece of antiquated tech? Not a chance.”

  “You’re thoughts, Randal?” Jack asked.

  “Technically, all the red flags could be coincidence.”

  “But you don’t believe in coincidence?”

  “No, I don’t,” replied Randal. “All the same, if there is any chance that they really are freighters like us, and we leave them to die…”

  Jack nodded, not needing Randal to finish his sentence. “Any ideas on how we can test their story?”

  The comm. crackled again and voice spoke. “We can pay for any services or supplies.”

  “Of course, the one time we don’t need the money,” Jack said more to himself than those on the bridge. “All right, Randal get a team together and get Forrest to join you.”

  “Not Dirk?”

  Jack pursed his lips and shook his head. “Get Forrest. Hawkeye, we’re preparing a crew and beginning our approach. Is your entrance pressurized?”