Pixie Hazard by Archibald Bradford (top young adult novels .txt) 📕

“Yup!” She replied brightly as she handed him the empty box to set with the others.

“But that won’t last you much more than a week!” He protested.

Bunny made a face of displeasure.

“Yeah, I know. And once they’re gone I need to start getting into the canned stuff, or worse, those awful nutra-cube things. Blech. But what can I do? Fresh produce like this is expensive on the Outer Arm.”

He scratched at his head, then pursed his lips in thought.

“You know, if you had a garden aboard the ship you could grow that much and more, which would save you money and spare you from having to cook with the other stuff.”

She froze in the midst of opening the next container, this one containing dried goods.

“Wait, really?” She said with eyes wide and expression hopeful.

“Yeah, it wouldn’t be hard to set up. Though it would be a fair amount of work to maintain it.”

“But how would you grow things without sunlight? Is that a botany thing?”

He laughed and shook his head.

“No, I mean, yeah, anything to do with plants is botany. As for the sunlight, that’s easy: UV emitting diodes strung above the plots. As far as I know it isn’t uncommon for ships to have their own gardens like that.”

“On bigger vessels, sure.” Eniella said as she sidled past them to fetch a drink from the refrigeration unit; “But the Pixie doesn’t have that much space to spare. Except in the cargo-hold I guess, next to the skipper’s bike.”

Bryan was drumming his fingers on the counter, making mental calculations as to how to maximize output while minimizing the area needed.

Finally he looked to Eniella who was absently stroking Bunny’s tail as she sipped at her beverage.

“How much space do you have to work with?” He finally asked.

__________

Following a chaperoned visit to the Pixie’s cargo-hold with a curious Eniella and an eager Bunny, Bryan had everything he needed.

He had made a decision: he would let his family know that he was alright, but he wasn’t ready for the adventure to be over. He didn’t know what was going to happen in the long run, but at least this was something he might be able to control.

Constant sex had a way of making teenagers stupid like that.

After dinner that night, Bryan was showing the captain what he believed he could do for her.

He had drawn a chalk diagram on the floor to outline the minimal amount of space that he would need for a simple yet efficient grow-op in one corner of the cargo-hold.

“By maximizing space stacking the planters within this area, and by using the right kind of infused fertilizer, I would be able to grow enough vegetables to sustainably supplement the crew’s diet. Possibly even enough to trade in small amounts, Bunny told me how much spacers value fresh produce.”

She nodded; he was doing well so far, and the space he was asking for was negligible in the big picture, the Pixie’s cargo-hold never having been filled to capacity since she had bought her.

Emboldened, he continued his pitch.

“I’ve already priced everything I’d need from the Dungeness site, and factoring your veteran’s discount the whole setup would only cost seven hundred and sixty deks, plus the time to put everything together. After that it would just be maintenance expenses and fertilizer, which should be less than a hundred deks a month.”

There was a long silence as she scratched at her chin, doing the math in her head as to just how much money she could potentially save.

Finally she sighed.

She’d listened to his idea, and was actually pretty impressed by how well he articulated it, but in the end she shook her head at him.

There was simply no getting past his age.

If Kyle or Bunny landed in trouble somehow with horny locals they at least had the sense to get out of the way and let the marines deal with the fallout.

Donnie and her crew got into way too many firefights to have a completely green civilian like this kid tagging along.

His face fell as he read everything in her expression.

“Sorry Bryan, it is a good idea, and if you were even five years older I might have said yes, but I don’t want your death on my conscious because you don’t know when to duck.”

“I-I could learn.” He said disconsolately, knowing the words wouldn’t sway here.

“You could. But not on this ship. We’ll be dropping you on Lewanna like we talked about. I’m sorry kid.”

He turned his face away and wiped at sudden hot tears, but though she felt bad seeing him break down the fact that he got so emotional from this kind of bad news only made her more certain of her decision.

Her main worry now was Maria; Donnie wasn’t blind, or deaf for that matter.

She had known that the kid was besotted; it was inevitable given Maria’s personality, but she had also noticed just how bright the blonde’s smile had been the last few days.

Donnie suspected that she had gotten a lot more attached than she originally thought.

Shaking off the troubling notion, she activated her coms.

“Alright people, it’s about time we buttoned up for the night. We’ll stay for one more day to see about offloading the transport, after that we’re gone.”

Chapter 25:Over Bao

With the supplies delivered the previous day and no word yet from her contacts, Donnie had a moment to call her own, so the captain stopped at a favorite noodle bar on the station for lunch, sitting on a high stool with her face over her bowl as she slurped up the homey meal.

She savoured the peace and quiet almost as much as the noodles, since mealtimes aboard the Pixie were always a hectic affair.

Sadly her peace