The tight space felt rather uncomfortably. They made it. Marie was glad about their survival, but so emberassed knowing the fact that somewhere in Omega-3 floats a picture of her chest. Then yet another thought visited her mind. Will they be noticed? What if they stay stuck here, packed like sardines until the eventual death? All the past unfortunate happenings made Marie want to throw up. There was nothing to make the situation worse. Then it started to rain. Of course not, but the cargo pod's condition turned out to be horrible. Of all the pods present in the freighter, they choose this one. Just one collision with an asteroid would be sufficient to crush it in half. Staring at Andrej's feet wasn't an amusing thing to do, so Marie decided to speak.
"Andrej."
She mumbled.
"Yes?"
His voice carried excitement. It was probably thanks to the escaping and surviving at the same time
"I'm sorry for that... You know. That stupid thing I did. But I thought it might work on a person like that."
Andrej responded with a sigh and looked on the side of the pod. From this Marie judged that he's not so happy about it. If only the Corsairs didn't come! If only the freighter reached the destination! Now there's a risk of suffocating too, considering how small the pod is and how quickly the amounts of oxygen disappear in the two circulatory systems. Imagine how darn awkward would it be to die in this pose. Yes, dying sucks, but dying with the other's feet almost in your mouth? What if getting torn apart by the worm hole was a better option after all?
...
"Yes, food."
Tractor beam was engaged and all the lost cargo appeared in a hold of a junker Recycler. Both Andrej and Marie were snoozing. After all the bad fortune they have been through, a dose of luck shed upon them. They were woken up by another "yes". It wasn't a regular "yes". The sound of it would make a cat puke. Very long, monotone voice combined with a fatigue made the "yes" very, very unpleasant.
"You mean, yes , yes in what?" Andrej tried to approach the man , who was flying manually the vessel in the small cockpit. They were both pretty surprised by the situation . Marie was silent , looking at the man. All they could reach to see was the back of the fat man sitting in front of them , but looking in front. She studied the looks while she was mostly disgusted by the sight: Long black hair falling from somewhere in any direction and barely reaching the ground , a strange smell mixed with long used socks and damp courtine coming straight from him and in a long range circumference, long grey nails, some uncut beard and a ground full of milkshake empty cup, food, plastics and plenty of other undistinguished stuff. The internal weather was rather hot, and the vessel wasn't too big either. "Yes, o'ye ladeeman. keep yer' buse' ther. Don't talk to even a bit o'. Im' busey dodgein' tha' rocks out 'ere, don't YES see?" He doesn't seem comunicative, or maybe he's just really lacking of the innate skill of doing two things at the same time.
They had no other choice than retreating and waiting for them to arrive...somewhere. They weren't sure of where they're landing or what's going to happen, but the situation wasn't looking good at all. Call it a day, they said. Loosing their cargo and barely all the credits they had was their learst worry. They could only wait now , or either knock out the Junker and steal his ship, without any sense though since the man seemed big and dangerous.
[...]
Hours have passed. Being a passenger of the hauling ship was rather sickening, but the time for a conversation has arrived. They had an image of the big round man from the front now, he was staying still scanning Marie's chest, not even surprising anymore, though. They remained silent, waiting for the man to start. Andrej was surprised on how could they presenciate such a disgusting landscape.
That was everything the man wanted to say after staring at Marie's chest. Why is it that nobody looks into her eyes instead? She felt highly annoyed, but that was mostly because her ship got blown up. Now all of the cargo she lost became a property of this hideous junker. Then Marie whispered to Andrej.
"I swear, if he says 'yes' one more time, I'm jettisoning him."
The fatso grabbed a package of food and consumed the inside very quickly. His loud smacking was almost as annoying as the 'yes'. Imagine a puddle of lard, that eats and grows on size. He kinda looked like that.
"Where are you taking us to?"
Andrej asked nervously. What if the guy considers him a meal? If that was the case, the two would probably be eaten by now.
"Kusahey."
He answered with a full mouth. Kusari was quite a distance from Omega-3. And it takes even longer when you're being carried in a super messy fighter. But what if the naval forces notice them? Junkers are hated out there, so what was the reason for this one to make his way to Kusari? Did he not care about his safety at all? This wasn't the only problem. Their way could get obstructed by Gallics in the Leeds system. It all brought Marie to a conclusion that the junker is mentally ill. But now, he didn't just put himself into the danger. Andrej and Marie were pretty threatened too. Should they take the risk and stay, or should they rather make the junker jettison them before it's too late?
"Yees."
This single word helped them decide. They had a third option...
"A gooed scrap Am' berining' to mae' Kusahey gals..." *loud laughture noises he managed to make* Them' kusahey gals well make me ritch in love once I show' them' these fellow Communistzhs coming from nowawhere! Junker said, speaking to himself once Marie and Andrej awaited back close to the cabin.
However Marie was as intelligent as she seemed, she was also characterized by her good sense of perception. Her light eyes could notice now where are really headed. And wasn't good. Wasn't good at all. A tattoo on the Junker's wrist revealed a kind of insign she had certainly seen before, mainly in fat-ass people like him, but also in bald swited businessman with a the typical briefcase, which, of course, might be the big fish of the sect. A prostitution sect. A prostitution sect settled around the houses, but mostly in ...
"Kusahey, ther!" The Junker screamed seeing the next gate, entering in Kusarian borderwolds.
It all made sense. You don't need such a complete brained man to handle the job. You just need to find a fat, ugly Junker with a huge wish for some pair of credits that can fly a spacecraft. He brings the prays to the Lord without making many questions, and Lord pays for the contribution. God knows what Lord's up to do with them.
The escape, now, seemed crucial and easier, much easier than before.
[...]
"He's dead. Marie you killed him!" Andrej yelled, looking for the Junker's pulse. Perhaps hitting the back of his head with an empty Sake bottle wasn't the best option, now there was a fountain of blood in the cabin.
"Not that they'll miss him anyways. Crap though, look at this mess... He didn't look like bleeding too much, at least we found a physical brain on this bloke" Marie added.
"We should clean this up, and get the hell out of Gallic space before we're detected" Said Andrej, right stealing the cigarrette's pack from the dead body's pocket.
Until all the remains were gone, Marie had put her effort in cleaning. Everything solid was podded along with clothes, used for soaking all the blood. She hid the ship in depths of a smog cloud and ejected the pod, smelling with struggle and death. The recycler was equipped with heavy weaponary too. One torpedo did the dirty work.
"It shouldn't have ended like this though."
Said Marie, her words hiding a little guilt and terror. Will the death be noticed? If yes, will somebody mind? The last thing they needed was being prosecuted. The fear of the fact that they are killers made them rush towards the nearest jump hole. Magellan was struck by the war too. The warzone expanded very quickly from Leeds to independent worlds, due to a big progress of Gallic forces, and chose its victims, one of them being the fallen Freeport 4. How long until the same happens in California?
Using jump holes was the most optimal solution, just because of the remaining blood stains and traces of the junker's presence. Nebulae and jump holes provided low profile, which they desperately needed to stay away from the local authorities.
"What the frick is that about?"
Marie shouted while pointing at a pack of decomposing fries, lying nearby the seat Andrej sat in, covered in odd looking liquid substance and fungus. Perhaps this was the source of all the smell. There was nothing to help them dispose it and using hands without a propper source of water to wash them afterwards didn't come in mind. They had to let it be for now. Killing the junker turned out not to be a terrible sin, because he would either die a quick death with the two's help, or survive, get poisoned by the mold and slowly decay.
"Oh man, I don't even wanna look."
Said Andrej as he continued manuevering between the asteroids in Magellan system. Marie got tired for real. If only the stupid freighter didn't blow up, she could continue sleeping. Her head felt so heavy and empty. There was nowhere to lie down, the whole floor was under layers of dirt. Very hard times.
Andrej felt slightly tired too, but his strong will allowed him to continue piloting. He noticed Marie's lack of surface to lie on and encouraged her to come and sit on his lap. It was significantly more comfortable than standing. Through all the smell, Marie found an ideal place. Andrej embraced her gently and covered her with his jacket. Marie placed her head on his shoulder and fell asleep...