The Captain swept onto the bridge and everyone's attention from up and down the table shifted to him. He was tall and long limbed, dressed head to toe in leathers and fabrics that were all a deep red. A long pistol was slung across his chest, and a wide blade hung at his hip. His eyes were covered by a glowing yellow visor; giving no indication where he was looking. He did not speak immediately, as he surveyed us, his breath a laboured wheeze through the grate that covered his mouth

  "Beala," when he did speak his tone was low and heavy, falling upon us with the force like a diving wyvern. "Is the route clear to Sliprock?"

  Beala nodded,"As clear as it's going to get. I'd say we have a 55 to 67 percent chance of running into Dragonkin."

  "Pirates?"

  "Likely non-existent, at least on-route- there isn't much from planets like Verak that is easily resold.

  The Captain nodded, as if he had expected everything Beala had said. He placed his gloved hands on the table- the leather creaking- his head tilted down enough to give the illusion of being lost in thought. I saw Drax and Dray slump in their chairs and shoot each other a look.

  I didn't understand their relaxation. I had grown up with Beala and the Captain, and still the Captain was to me like a smooth shard of fireglass, hinting at uncoloured depths, yet truly revealing nothing but his surface.

  "Kon, you have reported that our food reserve is running low?." Captain asked.

  Kon nodded, and clicked his beak hard, "Give it a week and I'll be serving bootstraps. I didn't budget for the detour on Amarexa.

  "Not all things can be planned for. When we make land, take two golems and your apprentice with you, and fill our reserves.

  Kon nodded again, his face pinched like raw dough "Yes Captain." He looked so serious I wanted to pull a face. Kon respected the Captain, but that usually translated into him switching from his usual friendly, if sleazy demeanour into a bad imitation of Noboro. Though, Kon did look almost upset beneath the gruffness. I wondered if he was mad at letting our food supply run low, or if he was mad that the Captain had forced the ultimately futile detour.

  "Jax." Then his gaze fell fully on me.

  "On Sliprock, you will deliver. Take Noboro and the twins, and ensure everything arrives on time."

  I would stick my tongue out at Noboro, but I wasn't ten anymore; instead I smiled and gave him a thumbs up, "Yessir."

  "Hessier will have an additional package to bring back with you."

  That was weird. "Really? Hessier isn't in the business of letting things leave his little Haven."

  "Jax, do not question me." His voice had gone quiet, and I sensed that I may be toeing the line.

  "Got it, pick up from Hessier. Get it home get it safe, fast as can be. It'll be safe in the hold before you even know it."

  "No."

  I couldn't help my eyebrows folding together. What was going on today.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  "Once you have the package, you will get the records from Hessier's watchmen."

  Of course. He was still convinced the Truewyrm had come through this random quadrant on the edge of the reaches. That, I knew, had been at the heart of the Amerexa detour, just as it was at the heart of everything I knew of the captain. His obsession with the beast he had been hunting all my life.

  I couldn't argue. The Captain had made up his mind, so I just nodded.

  "Look for any disturbances, The beast can hide itself well."

  "I'll go over it with a needle-toothed comb Captain." I was still smiling, but it felt forced. The Captain was easy to speak to, but when it came to his quarry, he had a raw anger to him that worried me.

  The Captain's voice was normal again when he leaned back from the table. "Jax, I will give a stipend to convince Hessier. Learn what you can."

  "You've got it." I said.

  That was enough for him apparently. His head tilted up, his visor pointing out into Innerspace. "Sneezer, you have run a battery of tests on the engines, Report.

  Sneezer, a thick shape covered in glossy black fur and coveralls started started speaking in a high, reedy voice.

  I stopped listening once the words started flying over my head. Among the classes I would choose from I doubted engineer would pop up.

  ~~~~~~~~~

  The meeting had concluded shortly after.Captain ordered Maysille to coax the engines into cruising speeds, and the crew quickly dissipated into the ship. Beala stayed at the table, conversing quietly with Maysille's disembodied voice. Captain walked to the viewport and stood still, the tattered cape spilling from his shoulders long enough that it merged his silhouette to the floor.

  I announced my leave to Maysille, and to Beala, who gave me a look that practically screamed 'You should know better by now'.

  Standing now, I rolled my shoulders, my body ready to move. I crossed to the front of the room and grabbed a Heavypoint rifle from the wall. Flashpan worked like a charm against Pirates and thieves and assorted low lives, but lacked the power to do more than piss off anything with scales.

  I popped the hatch and stepped out onto the narrow stairs that curved down to the deck on either side of the bridge. I held the rifle loosely; Captain wouldn't have allowed the Sister to slow down so much without assurances of a low risk of attacks.

  The long strip of deck was devoid of any crew. I stepped down onto it, and drew the rifle to my cheek. I swung the gun back and forth in an exaggerated motion. "Come out, Come out, any lizards that want a taste!"

  My words echoed down the length of the Sister, coming back to me distorted by the cage buried in the prow. A sound of wings came to me and I started, but it was just a small pod of dragonflies. They crossed about above my head, far out of arms reach. there were five in total, each as long as my arm. This close, the harsh buzz of their movement made the hair on my arms stand on end. They were beautiful in a way- a greedy carnivorous way- but I still liked to watch them.

  I felt a thrum through the deck of the Sister, and Innerspace blurred around me, the colours spinning into dizzying swirls that mixed with the slight purple that leaked from the Dragonflies. The Sister continued to pick up speed. The dragonflies let out cries of surprise, dropping lower, wings blurring as they tried to keep up. the Sister bobbed slightly, skipping along the currents. a cool wind blew down from the prow, rushing against my face.

  I laughed then, my audience letting out angry buzzing calls. I walked to the left leaning against the railing while I rooted around in my pockets. I found a mushy ration bar that I had stashed in my pants who knew how many cycles ago. I ripped a chunk off of it and tossed it overboard. The nearest Dragonfly let out a piercing call and lunged forward, body straining. It caught the morsel in gnashing mandibles, but the movement had destabilized it. it lost control spinning into the Sister's wake, which launched it back, far out of sight.

  I whistled. "he went fast." The rest of the pod, buzzed about angrily, but the Sister wasn't slowing, and soon they were following their fellow backwards. I watched them go. I didn't understand exactly how the bubble worked- the few explanations I had been given had flown higher over my head than a dragonfly could have, but however it worked, it let the force of the Sister's movement blow away any pursuer's, while all I felt was a refreshing breeze.

  I laughed again and put the remnants of the bar back in my pocket- I would remember to eat it at some point… probably. I took my time, walking up to the cage at the end of the deck, thick bars gnarled into a metal web.

  The door was closed, but unlocked. The cage was empty- had been for years, besides the occasional pirates- But when I was younger, I remembered that the Captain had hatched a grand idea that since dragonflies could sense when a wyvern was near, logic followed that a wyvern could sense a Dragon. So he had set the crew the task of wrangling a live wyvern into the cage. I had watched from the bridge; It had been a whole day affair, fighting off the rest of the pack while Noboro and Sneezer and a hired merc that had died halfway through wrestled a Wyvern the colour of Captains visor to the ground.

  The beast had proved too unruly to do much with and Captain had killed it personally when it nearly took off his left hand. After though, the Captain had been convinced his plan could still work, just not with an adult.

  It had taken a half year before we got a perfect target chance, when we were attacked by a small pod with a juvenile in tow.

  I placed my hands gently against the bars, careful to avoid the barbs pointing inwards and out. The young Wyvern had been a solemn thing, its scales the glossy red of a rich wine. a richer red than the stains that still marked the crevices of the cage floor.

  I still don't know why Captain had killed the juvenile. I had loved watching it, even stuck in the cage, it had a vibrance that I had never seen in the hordes of Dragonflies. The skin around my scars prickled and I leaned away from the cage to scratch at them.

  I was getting lost in memories. I slumped to the floor beside the cage and laid back. relaxed and staring up at Innerspace. I lay there in peace for a while, distracted from what had happened and what I would have to do; focused solely on the sky rushing above me.

  The next morning I was returning my breakfast dishes when my PIC chimed a message.