they've done something terrible to Jade. Worry that one of Shaalyn's crew is “entertaining” himself with my human female. Worry that some keffing idiot's opened up Crulden the Ruiner's stasis pod—
A door down the hall opens up with a rush of compressed air, and I hastily shove the panel I'm working on back onto the wall. There are two others laying on my cot, so I carefully sit on top of them and lean back, crossing my arms and hoping I look casual enough that no one notices.
The slot in the door opens and a bowl is shoved through.
Noodles.
"You got anything better than that?" I ask, not getting up. I'll take it, of course. A liquid is useful, because I might be able to short-circuit something with it. I just can't seem too eager. I think of Jade, again. Poor love—if they serve her noodles, she's really going to lose her shit. They've not sat well in her stomach for the last few days. She pretends like she's fine, but I notice.
I notice everything about her.
"You really complaining?" asks a slightly gruff, feminine voice. I can see nothing but a pair of blue-skinned hands through the meal slot, and the pirate drums impatient fingers on the surface. "Really? You should be thanking Shaalyn for feeding you."
I'm a little surprised that Shaalyn's got a female crew member. I thought she liked them young, muscled, and male. Guess she's branching out. "Speaking of your captain, where is she? I didn't expect her to let me sit down here, unmolested. I thought for sure she'd show up to start her torture games."
The pirate leans down, and I get a glimpse of shaggy hair in front of her face and a big eye patch. And a smell. Kef me, that smell's almost worse than the one two cells down. I discreetly put a hand to my nose and make a mental note not to eat the noodles the pirate's currently hovering over as she stares at me through the meal slot. "Shaalyn's been delayed."
"Great. Go away, then." If Shaalyn's delayed, I have a chance to do more rooting around.
The female snorts. "You really are dense, aren't you, Adiron?"
I frown, getting to my feet. The way the female says my name sounds familiar. I pace over to the meal slot and peer through, meeting the one-eyed gaze of the other. Kinda ugly and dirty looking, with a mop of nasty hair…but vaguely, vaguely familiar? "Who are you?"
The female flips the patch up and gives me an utterly exasperated look. "And here I thought this disguise wouldn't be enough. Turns out males really are dumb creatures." The voice modulates, growing more feminine, less ragged. "You really do only see what you want to."
I stare in surprise—and delight—at the female. "Bethiah! What are you doing here?"
Bethiah glares at me through the slot and flips the eye patch back down over her perfectly good eye. "Trying to rob this female of her ship, of course. You just had to show up and kef everything up, didn't you, you big fool."
I bite back a laugh of delight.
The universe has just given me the advantage I needed.
66
ADIRON
"Don't call me Bethiah," the female pirate hisses through the meal slot. "I'm Vathi on this ship."
I lean against the door. "What the kef are you doing here, Vathi?"
She snorts. "Didn't I just tell you?"
Yeah, but… "I'm gonna need a bit more context."
"Okay, well, I had an incident with my own ship—"
"Incident?"
She shrugs. "The original owner might have stolen it back. Whatever. Then, I'm on Haal Ui Station, drowning my sorrows in a vat of ooli brew, when this female just saunters in with a ship full of idiots." Bethiah-slash-Vathi shoves her face down into the food slot, next to my noodles. "I mean, if you staff with just greenhorns, you're just asking to be robbed, aren't you? So it's not really a bad thing. It's me teaching them a well-deserved lesson. Do you know how easy it was to get a job on this ship? It's pathetic, really."
I can guess. Shaalyn has a few weak spots, and most of them involve money. "Let me guess, you offered to work for cheap?"
"For free! An internship! I said I wanted the experience! And they bought it!" She shakes her head, incredulous. "They turned me down at first, but unfortunately for them, one of their crew had SUCH an unfortunate accident while on station. Really, such terrible timing." A wicked smile curves her lips. "They're so