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

sniffle; “I’m sorry that I said you were small before, I was just trying to help Maria. I would totally canoodle with your doodle any day!”

The ridiculous statement was made all the more so by the earnestness of her tone when she made it.

“If you opt for passage on a smaller vessel, make sure that you don’t pay for anything upfront.” Billy advised over Bunny’s shoulder; “They’ll charge you less but not every ship is as honest as ours. Send us a message once you’ve found a ride so we know you’re okay.”

The doctor and Maria had offered to split the cost of his flight home, but he had politely refused. He had already decided that they had done enough for him and intended to use his own accounts.

It would be the first withdrawal he’d made in over two months.

“I will. Thank you.” Bryan said with a blush as Bunny finally released him.

He blinked a couple times and winced when Eniella pinched his cheek with her robotic fingers like he was a toddler.

“Adios kid. It’s been a trip.”

“Bye.” Davie said simply as she pulled her girlfriend away.

She was as comfortable with goodbyes as her sister.

With that, the crew left him and Maria alone on the landing pad.

They stood in awkward silence for a few seconds; he had been practically hiding from her for the last couple days after she had been hurt.

“I’m so sorry.” He finally said in a thick voice.

“Why?” She sniffed; “It wasn’t your fault. None of it was. Just rotten luck.”

Seeing that he didn’t really know what to say next, she smiled at him, if somewhat weakly, then took both of his hands in hers.

“Eniella was right baby, it was a trip. Promise me that you’ll take care of yourself?”

He nodded as tears trailer down his cheeks.

“I promise. I… I’ll never forget you, Mary.”

Cupping his head in her hands, she stooped down and kissed him on the cheek, her lips getting wet from his tears.

“You better not. Now get going before I stuff you in a sack and tell Donnie that you’re my carry-on.”

He laughed and wiped at his face, opening his mouth to say something else, but then simply turning and walked into the security building to greet its waiting customs agents.

A large part of Maria Gustav wanted to chase after him and keep him safe from the universe. But the Pixie Hazard was her home, so instead she watched him go with a wistful expression on her face.

Meanwhile, standing at the top of the ladder leading to the ship’s primary airlock, the captain was staring at her back with a frown on hers.

__________

Both unable and unwilling to pay for accommodations on the surface, Donnie and the others were soon back in orbit alongside the transport, a subdued atmosphere having descended on the lot of them.

Unaccountably frustrated and annoyed with her crew, the skipper sequestered herself in her quarters, her eyes glued to the screen of her console as she scoured the planet’s datanet in search of a buyer for the transport.

Two hours later her frustration had turned to ire at the lack of immediate prospects and she abandoned her search with a posting of the transport’s specs on a classifieds site.

And soon after that she was snapping rapid punches at Eva’s gloved hands while the combat specialist barked an equal measure of instructions and insults at her.

They had been so busy the last few weeks that Donnie hadn’t done any real training and it felt good to stretch out her muscles while not being shot at.

Things got a little tense though when Maria came out of her quarters and started working with her weight bench.

Billy had told her to take it easy, so the blonde was working with less weight than usual, but she was still bench-pressing on the high end of what the others would.

Eva, ever the sensitive one, caught on to the awkward atmosphere immediately.

“You two need to put some gloves on and punch it out?” She offered.

Donnie glared at her, throwing three punches into her gloves in rapid succession.

“We’re fine.”

“Of course we are.” Maria grunted sarcastically as she pushed her weights in the air; “What the fuck else are we allowed to be?”

The skipper’s nostrils flared at the biting tone, then wheeled on the muscular woman.

“You got something to say to me, say it. Passive aggression is for pussies.”

There was a resounding clatter as Maria heaved the barbell back onto the waiting rack and rolled off of her back, her cheeks red.

Before they could get into it though, Eniella’s voice came over the ship’s intercom.

“Skipper, you better get up here, we have a serious problem.”

Donnie and Maria glared at each other for a good five seconds.

Finally breaking eye contact with the frustrated blonde, the captain reached one of the wall consoles and activated the coms.

“I’m on my way.”

She looked one last time at Maria as she headed for the ladder to the upper deck.

“To be continued.”

“Looking forward to it.” Maria replied bitterly.

Still wearing the boxing mitts, Eva watched on in silence, a frown on her face.

Chapter 37:Designation, Stardust

“Talk to me Eniella, what’s so damned urgent?”

Annoyed with Maria, Donnie barely cleared the ladder to the cockpit before she was barking at her FCO.

Eniella gestured at the screen of her fire control console, indicating two dots on the display with nothing to make clear what they meant beyond a series of letters and numbers over top of them.

“These are the same pair of gunboats that were masquerading as the GRC at Kentis.”

Now Donnie was interested.

“Are you sure?”

“Positive, I tagged them after you scared them off. Signature is identical.”

Donnie leaned in over Eniella’s shoulder to get a closer