“Oh? Do you have another date with a sys-net prostitute?”
“No.” He glared at her.
“If you help me find a good ship, I’ll talk about your many fine attributes to the first cute girl we see out there.”
“What makes you think cute girls would be interested in hearing from you?”
For that matter, what kinds of cute girls did she expect to find on Dustor? This was the smelly gym sock part of the laundry basket that was the Tri-Sun System. If they did find an attractive woman, she would likely be part of a scheme designed to mug them and leave them to die behind a sand dune.
“Because I’m fun.” Jelena flipped her ponytail over her shoulder and saluted him, her eyes still twinkling as she walked out of engineering.
“What exactly do you think my fine attributes are?” Erick asked, skeptical that he should let her represent him to a cute girl. Or anyone.
He set down the cat, grabbed his Starseer staff from where it leaned near the hatchway, and followed her out so he would hear the answer. Not that he was sure he wanted to hear it.
“You’re good with tools, you’re funny, and you’re willing to frolic naked through the ship for medial purposes.”
Erick almost tripped over his staff. He was going to have to make sure Jelena didn’t find any cute girls to talk to. Further, he made a note not to put her down as a reference for that engineering job.
2
“These are not promising offerings, Jelena,” Erick said as they walked through a dusty lot at one end of the space docks in Bloody Dunes, one of Dustor’s less dubious capital cities.
The entire planet was run by the mafia and corporations, so less dubious only meant that law enforcement existed. Of a sort. The last time the Star Nomad had delivered cargo here, Erick had seen a man murder another man in front of one of the uniformed police officers, then slide a few tindark coins to the law enforcer and walk free.
“We haven’t looked closely at any of them yet,” Jelena said, smiling as she waved at the five ships, all with varying degrees of rust adorning the hulls. “How can you know?”
It was a wonder some of them could fly at all. Maybe they couldn’t. Maybe this was simply the spot where they’d fallen out of the sky.
Erick noticed some men in dark trench coats skulking around the ships, a few pairings looking like they were involved in drug deals, and some singles possibly on the hunt for people to mug. It was broad daylight now, with two of the systems three suns in the sky, shedding harsh red light onto the desert planet, but that didn’t mean crime wouldn’t take place.
He walked a little closer to Jelena, trying to look fierce and intimidating even though he’d chosen regular gray trousers and a white shirt instead of his black Starseer robe. Just because he still thought of her as his kid sister didn’t mean that unscrupulous types wouldn’t see a pretty young woman to target. Fortunately, she’d had almost as much Starseer training as he had, and Leonidas had taught her unarmed combat and shooting skills. Unfortunately, she was the type who would fling herself into a flower bed to avoid stepping on a beetle. She didn’t like hurting any living thing, even unscrupulous people interested in hurting her.
“I doubt a closer look will improve my opinions of them,” Erick said.
“You never know.” Jelena frowned at him. “What are you doing? Your upper lip is all wrinkled up.”
“That’s my fierce expression. I’m sneering in an intimidating manner so those hoodlums won’t bother us.”
“You look like something flew up your nose. And one of your nostrils is bigger than the other one.”
“I am definitely not letting you talk up my attributes to cute girls.”
“Your loss. What do you think of that one?” Jelena pointed to the farthest ship in the lot as they walked down creaking steps that led off the docking promenade and onto the parched dirt. Grease, oil, and blood stains marked the earth underneath shards of glass and smashed FizzBurst cans. Jelena only had eyes for the ships.
“The structural integrity is sketchy at best,” Erick said. “Look at those seams. The hull plating looks like it would be ripped off in a stiff wind.”
“I’ve often heard you say you can fix anything. Couldn’t you fix that?”
“With a few million tindarks and six months in a high-tech shipyard, maybe.”
Erick eyed two of the drug dealers who were eyeing him back. Another couple, a man and a woman, both with their pants sagging around their hips, stood in the shadows of the hull of a ship as they rubbed against each other. They both paused to consider Jelena with speculation. They wore contact chips that turned their eyes silver as they experienced who knew what virtual reality simulation that took them away from this hole and somewhere more exotic. Erick quickened his pace to block Jelena’s view of them—and theirs of her.
“What’s the budget your parents gave you to work with?” Erick asked.
Jelena, who also carried her Starseer staff, the runes reflecting silver in the harsh desert sunlight, slipped her free hand into her purse and withdrew her netdisc. She tapped the holodisplay to life and showed him a number.
“Are you sure that’s for buying a ship and not a used thrust bike?” he asked. They would be lucky to purchase a craft with any hull plating for that.
“They’ve already got the loan approved, so the cash is in the business account. That ought to entice a seller, right?”
Erick’s stomach did a nervous flip at the idea of Alisa and Leonidas taking out a loan to pay for a ship that he would be responsible for signing off on. He vowed to do a thorough inspection and make sure they got something that could reliably haul freight
