STORY: She puts a hand on her hip, examining you, Tueller. “You look familiar.”
TUELLER: “Oh finally someone recognizes me!”
TUELLER: “Yes, Tueller, excommunicado of the Ya’Makasi, and fledgling businessman on the Ark, at your service.”
TUELLER: A more energetic bow.
STORY: She raises her chin a little. “Ya’Makasi is the name on the deed here, if I’m not mistaken.”
TUELLER: “Yeah, my former family has their noses in all sorts of shit like this.”
TUELLER: “Through CJH. You may also know Sergio N’drangheta, also formerly of the CJH.”
STORY: She scratches under her chin. “Well, I hope you’re as excommunicated as you say, because if you help me get out of here the first thing I’m going to do is make sure that company is dissolved and every member of your family is bankrupt.”
STORY: She regards you coolly, looking like she’s ready to be attacked.
TUELLER: “Excellent!”
TUELLER: “I hope to see Esinam’s face on the feeds when it happens!”
Chapter 51
STORY: The voice on the comms sighs. “You know what, fine. They don’t pay me enough for this. Don’t cause trouble and don’t get in trouble. You’ve got a 24 hour visa.”
STORY: An onscreen access code pops up, ringed in green. You’re cleared to dock.
ALEJO: Alejo’s eyes widen. “Ahh, yeah. Great! Thank you. That’s . . . great.” He turns off the coms. Then spins in his chair, big smile.
ALEJO: “Huh.”
ALEJO: He’s still smiling a big, dopey smile.
ALEJO: “I think they might mean to kill us all.”
Chapter 50
TUELLER: “Lah, can you arrange a ship for us?”
FIGGAN: Figgan pours him a refill of the whiskey and coffee while he’s talking to Akilah.
STORY: “A ship?”
STORY: “Kinda figured we could just have you do a crime and I’ll ask the judge to send you there.”
STORY: She points at her chest. “Lawyer? Remember?”
TUELLER: “No, that…that….fuck, yeah, I guess that’s the job.”
FIGGAN: “Aww, this is gonna be hella fun.”
TUELLER: “Get me a new identity.”
STORY: Akilah nods.
STORY: “Jenny, Kahn, you think you can both get hired on as guards?”
STORY: Kahn tilts his head. “Sure, boss.”
STORY: Then you all remember, as I just did, that Kahn also worked for Akilah for years.
JENNY: Jenny nods, smiles. “Aye.”
TUELLER: “Ejo’s going to be so disappointed he missed this.”
Chapter 49
TUELLER: “Sure this is a good idea, Doc?”
STORY: Alejo, two of the ships have started moving towards you. They’re maybe ten minutes from intercept at slow burn, faster if they hustle.
MILLICENT: “Of course, now I’ll just send these off and they’ll be goose chasing for”
TUELLER: Tueller checks on the status of the guns.
MILLICENT: “You know, it’s possible I left the subspace metadata in the message.”
TUELLER: “That’s good, right?”
MILLICENT: “Not in this case, no.”
STORY: “That’s bad.” Loll stands behind the three of you, in the doorway to the bridge.
ALEJO: “Someone’s taken an interest in us,” Alejo says, angling away from the two ships and increasing speed, flying casual, but in a hurry.
MILLICENT: “In this case I think it may have been a bit like jumping into the room screaming our name.”
Chapter 48
MILLICENT: “Noma, will you ever tell us why you brought us here?”
ALEJO: Alejo sits down at the controls, straps in, and takes the helm.
STORY: “I have told you as much as I can, Millie.”
TUELLER: Tueller straps down everything as best he can, and tries to prepare people who haven’t done this before for a radical reorientation of gravity.
MILLICENT: “I miss Noma, Noma.”
MILLICENT: Millie straps herself in
STORY: “I do too, Millie.”
Chapter 47
ALEJO: Alejo leans in towards the fire, warming his hands. “Anyone else feeling like us just patching up and leaving doesn’t sit right?”
MILLICENT: Millie exhales loudly and leans forward. “Oh thank goodness.”
TUELLER: Tueller shrugs wordlessly.
MILLICENT: “We’re the madcap damn the consequences crew and here we were, _minding the consequences_.”
MILLICENT: “I say we get back to damning them.”
TUELLER: “People die.”
TUELLER: “Sometimes people we care about, even.”
ALEJO: Alejo looks at Tueller for a long moment. Then nods once in solidarity.
ALEJO: “We should make the loss mean something, no?”
Chapter 46
TUELLER: “I think calling another craft here is a bad idea.”
MILLICENT: “Yeah, that would only give us two dead gods.”
MILLICENT: “Oh hey, two dead gods.”
MILLICENT: Millie’s eyes gleam.
MILLICENT: “I bet nobody’s done TWO in a day.”
TUELLER: “Not since the Egyptians.”
ALEJO: Alejo smiles weakly. “That’d be a record for sure.”
TUELLER: “Maybe Ragnarok.”
TUELLER: “Fenris managed it, I think.”
Chapter 45
STORY: “On the morn, then?”
TUELLER: “Until then, my princess.”
STORY: She nods and turns to leave.
MILLICENT: “So nice to have a plan.
TUELLER: “Of sorts.”
ALEJO: “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” Alejo says, watching the Princess leave.
TUELLER: “What could go wrong? I’m getting married so we can flee the country to eventually try to kill a dragon that’s a space craft run by a race that might be monitoring us right now.”
TUELLER: “Seems foolproof to me.”
ALEJO: “Seems like our kind of plan, I’ll give you that.” He says wistfully.
Chapter 44
MILLICENT: “When did you develop this sudden allergy to hitting people?”
TUELLER: “Because we were looking for someone talk to!”
MILLICENT: “You hit a guy back there so hard people are screaming when they found him.”
TUELLER: “I did, but you’re not supposed to know that.”
MILLICENT: “Now it’s, “No, I couldn’t possibly silence the gardener.”
MILLICENT: “You’re all over the place tonight.”
TUELLER: “I wanted you to talk to the fucking gardener! About gardening!”
STORY: Three guards arrive as the two of you argue, spears in hand.
TUELLER: “Or blacksmithing!”
MILLICENT: “Well, fetch him back and we’ll talk about compost.”
Chapter 43
TUELLER: “You put money on me?”
ALEJO: He nods. “’Course.” Smiles.
TUELLER: “What’re you using for money?”
ALEJO: “I did a little pickpocketing of my own and a few shell game, Titan-street-rat tricks to put together a few funds. If you lose, though, I’m gonna be leveraged in some real bad ways. So . . . please don’t lose.”
TUELLER: “I’ll need to ransom my armor if we lose, too.”
TUELLER: “So I’ll try not to.”