I growled and ordered a chicken salad instead, then sat down at a table in the canteen. I looked up as Ember came over to the table to see what she had ordered. It was a warm gooey slice of chocolate cake. I stared at her in disbelief. I was nearly brought to tears when Elyek came over with the same chocolate cake. In the end, I had to laugh.
“Are you in on this, too?” I asked Elyek.
“In on what, Shaun?”
“Chocolate cake,” I said, sulking.
“I don’t even know what it is. I just smelt Ember’s option and it was amazing, so I copied her,” Elyek said, raising a full fork to their mouth.
“Oh my god. That’s the most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted. Shaun, why did you get leaves when you could have this?”
“Once upon a time, this strapping hunk had far too much food like this. Now, he avoids the three C’s altogether,” Ember added helpfully.
“What are these three C’s?” Elyek asked with a confused expression.
“Cake,” Ember pointed to her plate, “cookies, and crisps, all delicious, all moreish. I’ll introduce you to them all. However, you can only eat them in moderation. An important lesson that Shaun never learned.”
“There were extenuating circumstances, but I’ve bloody well learnt it now,” I said, sulking. I finished my chicken salad quickly, not wanting to sit with the two pieces of cake any longer.
“I’m going to take something for Calegg. I’ll see you both back on the bridge in a bit.”
“Aye, aye, Captain,” Ember saluted and chuckled.
“How’s it going, Calegg? I’ve brought you a chicken salad, the same as I had. It actually tastes really good. Is that okay?
“Yeah, sure. That’s fine, I’m not really hungry. I’m just so excited.” He took the plate and sat in the chair at the pilot’s station. “This baby really flies like a dream.”
“That’s good, huh?”
“Well, I don’t have huge amounts of experience. Nevertheless, from what I know, this is amazing. We really need to give her a name.”
“Yeah, sure. Anything in mind?”
“Not at all. You’re the captain. You should choose.”
“Well, do you have any ideas? I’m pretty shit at naming things. It was over three weeks before I was named Havok.”
“We should ask these two, anyway.” He indicated to Ember and Elyek with his fork as they walked back on to the bridge.
“Hey!” I said. “Calegg made a valid point. We need a name for the ship.”
“Yes. It’s bad luck to not name a ship,” Elyek said.
“So, what have we got so far?” Ember asked.
“Nothing at all,” I smiled. “What about Revenge? We can get revenge on all these assholes who keep trying to step on the little guy.”
“I don’t really want to fly around on a ship called ‘Revenge’. It’s a bit...well, dickish,” Ember said.
“How about Uprising?” Elyek said with a smile.
Ember snapped her fingers, “I fucking love it. It keeps the sentiment of what Shaun said, but in a more positive light.”
“I like it,” I said, and clapped Elyek on the back.
“The Uprising! It’s beautiful!” Calegg damn near shouted.
“While we’re all here, I want to go through the plan for Juntos Bank. I mean, we're going in blind. Does anyone know anything? How do we even prepare?”
“Well, we really just have to play it by ear,” Elyek said. “One thing I can tell you is that the people of Necrus are the Mazltor. They, like the Hixcus, are among the top-five most powerful races in the empire. The Mazltor have markedly different castes within their race too: They have a warrior-caste named the Tri-bor, who will probably be guards in the bank. They are huge, seven-foot muscle-mountains, naturally violent, super resistant to damage, and completely resistant to fire. Their working class are the Im-bor, who are small, quite weak, and generally unthreatening. Their leader-caste, the Ang-bor are between seven and eight feet tall and physically imposing. Only, the main danger comes from their cunning minds. They’re a clever, manipulative race and we should try to tread carefully around them. They are not good enemies to make.”
“The Torax has sour relations with the Mazltor, too. They are quite often involved in anything money or commerce-related and they’ve been responsible for a lot of the harsher financial restrictions of my planet. So much so, it would be best if I remain on the ship this time. I’ll not receive a warm welcome on Necrus.”
“Okay, Calegg. That’s fine. Hopefully we’ll not need to spend much time down there. We can take the landing craft. I’m sure Elyek can pilot that, okay?”
“Yes. That won’t be a problem. Although, I’ll need to remain cloaked still when we’re outside the ship.”
“Well, at least we have a picture of sorts. Now, we’d all best get some sleep before we get there and to leave enough time for Calegg to rest.”
“I’ll take over in six hours if that is okay, Calegg. I don’t require much sleep,” Elyek said.
“Sure, that’s great, Elyek. I’ll see you then. Night, guys,” Calegg said, as he almost shooed us off the bridge.
Ember and I went to the captain’s quarters. We had seen them on our tour of the ship. Nevertheless, it was different when you had the chance to finally move in. Yeah, we had no stuff yet, apart from our weapons, but I was looking forward to rolling about in the bed and taking a shit on a really nice toilet. You know that kind of stuff. We could really make it our own.
Ember threw herself on to the bed, but I wanted to try the shower out first. I hadn’t had a proper shower in god-knows-how-long: The Thoth had powder showers, and the last ship had the equivalent of a leaky tap. But this beauty had both a powder shower and a real highly pressured shower. I turned it on and marveled at the power of the water coming out.
By the time I climbed into our bed, Ember was fast asleep. Hugging into her, I soon followed.
C17
A deal with the Devil
It was
