Snippet #2524109

The gentle twang of an ancient stringed instrument floated gently over the shipboard intercom system. Josibel lay sprawled in her command chair, strumming away on the guitar and staring into the deep purple void of wormspace in a trance. They'd been hopping systems for a week now, and if not for the increased governmental presence in the sector, they'd have been at her headquarters by now. She wanted no chance of a tail, however. Her base was too valuable to even take a hint of risk like that. Finally, she couldn't take just sitting around any longer. They had a few hours before the computer was scheduled to drop them back into reality, so she wanted to get in a bit of exercise.

"Hey, Kai! Where ye hidin'? Ye wanna do somethin' ta pass th' time?" hollered the bandit as she strolled down the main pathway. She'd found an old ball hidden in one of the smugglers pockets, and had rigged up a hoop in the cargo bay. She'd played a few games of hoopball with Wickerbasket and Kaija on the voyage, and even though the alien woman hadn't known how to play before, she was a natural. Her height and natural muscular build put her on an even playing field with Josibel's enhanced strength and agility, something which surprised the bandit. She'd never had a real challenge before.
The chill of black space was welcome to Kaija, as was the general darkness except for the ship's indoor lights, which she was happy to discover could be turned off when she slept. She usually found the coolest corner of the ship, flicked off all the lights in that area and would sleep somewhere hidden, or at least behind a stack of cargo. For someone who knew her, it would be difficult to see her unless they were purposefully looking, as she was good at camoflauging herself and when she slept, her glowing stripes went completely dark; the lines on her skin looked like ropy scars when not lit. During the day, when Kaija wasn't lurking quietly off by herself, she would join Josibel in the control room and gaze out the window at the speckled nothingness in front of them.

Kaija heard Josibel's voice and was in the control room in only a moment; she hadn't been far, but her approach was silent. She had a habit of doing that. "Thought you'd never ask," she said with a grin, her stripes flashing green. She picked up the game quickly. As soon as she understood the rules and the strategy of the game, she gave Josibel a run for her money with her height. Kaija enjoyed their sessions, as it was a good way to keep her restlessness in check. Even so, she was anxious to get there.

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"Josibel," she called one day, sauntering into the control room. "How long till we get there? Seen any more Govvies?"

Josibel started when Kaija's voice intruded into her thoughts. Instead of answering, however, she simply jerked her head towards a nearby screen. On the display, their onboard navigational computer depicted a 3D reprisentation of their current flight path and projected exit point. According to the instruments, Josibel expected a relatively rough entry due to a wandering cluster of meteorites entering the small quadrant where she'd rigged up her warp gate in the beginning.

"Hold on to yer ass, it ain't gonna be a smooth ride," she finally managed to reply. The change happened suddenly, though if the two women hadn't been watching the viewport, they wouldn't have noticed it as the ship itself didn't shake or rattle to give any indications. Dropping out of wormspace always left Josibel slightly sick in the stomach; her mind had to race to catch up with the sudden influx of visual stimulus. As predicted, there swarmed the small meteorite cloud and they were headed straight into the heart of it. Josibel slapped the warning klaxxon and toggled on the A.I. driven autocannons, which popped out of their hidey holes and started blasting away at any meteorite that made it within a hundred feet of the ship in a full 360 degree bubble. They of course couldn't catch everything, so she had to hook directly into the ship's navigational computer to get the amount of control she wanted from her new baby. She plugged a three pronged jack into the base of her neck, connecting it to her wetware hub and went limp in the chair. Seemingly of its own accord, the ship began to make wild maneuvers to avoid meteorites. The ship audibly strained against the forces acting upon its weathered hull, but it was a good, solid smuggler ship, so it of course held together perfectly.

After three tense minutes of wild ace flying, they cleared the danger zone and made it into the asteroid field proper. Most of the rocks that floated serenely dwarfed any ship in known space, though one in particular stood out as it was basically a small moon. Josibel sat up in her chair and unplugged herself from the ship, sitting back in her seat and sighing with pleasure. A brief squawk of the wideband radio broke the silence, which Josibel answered.

"Plunder Haven, this' Chief Maurader. I'm inbound at approach vector 703-2216. Be good an' open cargo door five, if ye please. Oh, an' I want a cup a hot brew when I get in. Out." Swivelling slightly in her chair, the shorter woman gestured grandly to her base with a huge grin.

"Well, Kai, whatcha think? Pretty grand, neh? Built th' whole damn thing m'self. Well, me, Wick, an' my crew, anyways. Took us eight solid years ta get 'er nice 'n cozy, but we did it. Welcome ta th' Grand Central."

'Rough' was not really what Kaija wanted to hear. She did fine and dandy in space or in the air when the gong was smooth, but she wasn't much a fan of excessive turbulence, as it made her nervous and often made her stomach churn. At the warning, she hunkered down and grabbed hold of whatever solid objects were next to her, then waited. Really, she wasn't even interested in watching the process, she just wanted to be flying smoothly again or even better, landing. The one part of the whole ordeal she did find intriguing was the plug that could be inserted into Josibel's neck. Kaija had heard of such technology, but she'd never seen it firsthand. Something to ask her about later when she wasn't so worried about colliding with a wayward asteroid, she thought.

The ship steadied finally. Kaija had been sort of squatting down the entire time, her stripes a vibrant and toxic looking purple; only once the noises and creaking and lurching stopped did she straighen, though her stripes never did return fully to their usual cobalt. Instead, the color wavered somewhere close to lavender. Though her colors were sometmes hard to decipher, the meaning of that shade of purple was very clear; she was very, very uncomfortable.

An asteroid...Kaija hadn't ever thought that a spacerock could be big enough to house a civilization of any form, which was probably why Josibel chose it. Who would look for them there? "It's...genius," she said with a watery smirk. "Is there...an atmosphere? Air?"
***
Chuckling knowingly, Josibel steered the ship with one arm, the other dangling limply over the side of her command chair. "O'course there's air. Whatcha think we are, a buncha wackos? That was th' first thing we installed. Got us three atmo plants deep in th' core, along with th' generator and heatin' units. All th' creature comforts o' home, I reckon." As the ship ducked down towards the underside of the asteroid, they could see an enormous pocket had been carved out, big enough to fit a starliner and an entire fleet of repairships. For now, though, the space was inhabited by a scant few fighters and salvage ships, the entierity of Josibel's fleet. She engaged the ships auto-docking function and pulled herself out of her chair to stretch a bit.

"Whew. Pilotin' a bird direct like that really takes it outta ye. C'mon, lets check on Wick an' get ready ta meet th' family." She sauntered down the main corridor to the cargo bay, where Wickerbasket lay under a pile of upturned crates. He appeared to be sleeping, something which never ceased to amaze Josibel. That damn animal could sleep through a nuke if the mood took him. Slapping him about the face and neck, Josibel prodded her friend until he finally roused.

"Wick, we're home. C'mon lazybones. We got work ta get taken care of." At the mention of home, Wickerbasket jumped up and tossed several boxes around excitedly, bounding around the cargo bay like an eager puppy. Once they'd docked, Josibel hit the cargo door release switch and stepped out on the metal catwalk. Several of her crew milled around outside, but once they'd spotted their leader, they caused quite an uproar. She hugged several of her 'family', though she was quickly muscled away by Wickerbasket who moved into the crowd, whining in excitement. Josibel turned back to her ship and waved Kaija forward, raising a hand for quiet.

"Everyone, I gots a new member o' th' family for ye ta meet. This' Kai. I picked her up on a dusty ball in th' middle o' nowheres. Make her feel at home, yeah? I got business ta attend to." A few people approached Kaija, smiling and friendly. The lead of the group stepped forward and pulled the woman into a tight embrace.

"Hiya, Kai! Its so good to have a new face around here! Come with us, we'll get you set up right away. You hungry?"
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