(Note #1: All comments and constructive criticisms are welcome and appreciated.

Note #2: Steve Rayner drew the first and last pictures in this chapter. The other two were created by the Imagineart AI Art Generator.

Note #3: This chapter features descriptions of objects in outer space making noise. I am quite aware there is no sound in space but feel my story is more exciting this way. The “Star Wars” films are a big influence on my story in general and this chapter in particular.

Note #4: I’d like to thank my friends Pam and Marike for their help with the later part of this chapter.

Note #5: And finally, thanks to volunteer Literotica editor TheNyxianLily for her help with editing.)

The captain’s prediction that Calley would have to kill again came true sooner than either one expected. The ship was on a run to the Farno system with its cargo holds filled with valuable ketorime crystals. It was the tail end of a complicated series of deals the captain had negotiated with various parties. After two sub-cycles of transporting different materials to different planets, all they had to do was get to Farno to sell the cargo for a tidy sum. But it seemed someone else had other ideas.

Calley was helping Alezanna repair Gork, the maintenance android, in the ship’s reactor room. The android, named after the sound it made when activated, had a malfunctioning joint in its vacuuming arm. The Bellixan didn’t seem to need much assistance but Calley was eager to learn new skills. The raven-haired spacer had the appendage partially disassembled when the ship’s proximity alarm rang out. A moment later, the two women and Gork all fell forward as the ship’s Hi-Vel engines cut out so suddenly, the artificial gravity failed to compensate for the loss of momentum. Calley knew that whatever had just happened wasn’t an engine malfunction and feared the worst.

She and Alezanna both picked themselves up and left the android on the floor as they ran to the cockpit. Before the two could reach it, the ship lurched as it absorbed what they knew had to be a blaster shot. They were under attack.

They reached the cockpit as Calley saw a flash of light indicating the ship’s energy shield had taken another hit. The two women took their stations and Calley urgently asked, “What’s happening?”

“Pirates!” the captain said as he frantically maneuvered the ship. “Gravity mine shut down the Hi-Vel engines. Not sure where it is but there’s a corvette off our port side. Trying to stay away from her. Got some fighters on us, though.”

Calley looked over the targeting displays for the ship’s two bottom turrets when she caught a quick glimpse of a small ship flying by. It was painted blood red with two small wings attached to a narrow central cockpit, and a blaster cannon was attached to its underside. She estimated the ship was no more then ten meters long. She tried to track it with her guns but it was a quick, nimble target.

“They’re fast!” she declared as the enemy ship danced around her blaster fire.

“Shrike fighters,” Sal told her as he kept the ship swerving. “All engines and guns. No shields. We’ve tangled with ‘em before.”

“Don’t fire when they’re out of range,” Alezanna advised from her station. “Keep an eye on the proximity sensors.“

Calley took her advice and saw that two pirate ships were approaching and firing at the Ravenfang as two more were peeling away. One fighter was above the ship, but the other swerved underneath, bringing it within firing range of her turrets. She tried to line it up but it kept dropping under her shots. It fired a few shots of its own and Calley saw the flash of the energy shield absorbing yet another hit. The pirate turned away and Calley saw another fighter ship approaching. This time she was better prepared for its speed and her fire was closer to the mark. She didn’t manage to hit her target but the constant barrage kept her enemy from lining up a decent shot of its own.

She heard an explosion come from somewhere outside the ship and saw one of the blips on the sensors vanish. “Got one!” Alezanna announced.

Calley felt a surge of optimism before her eye caught sight of the energy shield display. The enemy fire had already sapped away over a quarter of it’s output. “Still three more out there,” she said.

“That’s just the picket ships,” Captain Sal advised. “The corvette’s launching more. We need to clear some space here, fast!”

Calley returned her attention to the targeting displays. Another one of the attackers was flying in to strafe the Ravenfang. Calley adjusted her aim to its side to make it bank to starboard. When it did, it entered the firing arc of her second set of cannons. Calley fired one salvo from them that caught the fighter head-on and vaporized it. She let out a quick shout of triumph and got back to the job at hand.

“Good girl!” the captain congratulated her as he examined his own displays. “Lemme know the next time one gets within a thousand clicks.”

Calley checked the sensors and saw multiple blips at a distance and two up close. She tried to line up another fighter but the pilot wasn’t falling for the same trick she’d just used. The other close ship wasn’t in her guns’ firing arcs so she wasn’t keeping track of it. A loud screeching sound filled her ears, and she realized it was coming from a nearby fighter’s engines.

“Now!” Alezanna’s voice reverberated around the cockpit.

Captain Sal suddenly reduced the Ravenfang’s speed which caused the pirate fighter to appear in front of the ship. The captain fired the front cannons and reduced the smaller ship to ash.

“Gotcha sucker!” he said. “Thanks for the set-up, Alez.”

“Sure, that was my plan,” the tall woman replied, her voice full of sarcasm. “I never should have let him get that close.”

Calley saw the fourth picket fighter drop back. “The last one’s breaking off to join the others,” she told her crewmates.

“He’ll be back,” Sal grimly predicted, bringing the ship back to its top speed. “We’re near the edge of the mine’s gravity well. It’ll slow us down too much if we try to break out of it. Keep ‘em off our backs and get ready to face front when I say so.”

“Comms are jammed,” Alezanna announced. “They’re not coordinating their attacks, but I count thirteen fighters coming up on us.”

“Prophet’s breath, it’s crowded out here!” the captain exclaimed. “They wanna take down our shields then blow out the reactor so they can tractor us in. Take the cargo and probably you two as well. Get ready, they’ll be coming in on us in a sec.”

Calley kept her eyes on the sensors as she saw the attacking ships were out of range at that moment. As the freighter started to slow down and shake, the wave of fighters surged forward into cannon range. The Ravenfang’s shaking intensified as it struggled to break free of the gravity mine’s pull. This made it harder for Calley to aim her cannons. However, the abundance of targets advancing at the same time meant they had little room to maneuver and she was able to destroy another one. She also heard another one blow up due to Alezanna’s cannons.

A second later, Collondo cut the main Lo-Vel engines completely while shouting, “Front!”. Alezanna and Calley spun their guns around as the ship flipped over to face its attackers. Sal re-engaged the engines as the ship flew forward, its speed enhanced by the pull of the gravity mine out there somewhere. Calley’s targeting display was once again filled with ships. The captain’s maneuver had caught the enemy pilots off-guard and they were flying fairly straight. Calley fired the cannons and destroyed two of them. The attacking fighters fired a few shots but the Ravenfang was in their midst in an instant. The wave of attack ships scattered and Calley heard the sound of metal scraping metal followed by an explosion. She feared her ship had been damaged but realized she hadn’t felt the Ravenfang absorb any impact. It had to have been the pirates colliding with each other.

With her ship now through the attacking wave, she turned her cannons back and saw the enemy fighters turning around as well. She managed to line another one up and vaporized it before the others were back on the Ravenfang’s tail.

“Seven left,” Alezanna announced. “Half our shields gone.”

“Six,” Calley simply said after she moved the guns into position and blasted another fighter. She looked at the proximity sensors to confirm the number and see where the remaining pirates were in relation to her guns. She saw the six blips but also a large one from in front of the Ravenfang. She looked out the front canopy and saw the pirate corvette in the distance. It was a large ship with a flight deck at it’s centre. She quickly thanked the Gods that the corvette didn’t seem to be launching any more fighters. She then turned her attention back to her targeting displays.

She tried to get a bead on another fighter but they were staying at extreme range. She saw blips advancing on the sensors but couldn’t spot the ships. She heard Alezanna firing her guns and realized the pirate ships were approaching from above the Ravenfang instead of below it. She heard the sound of the energy shields absorbing hits and saw its strength going down. It was now down to a fifth of its normal power.

The Bellixan suddenly called out, “Barrel roll Captain!” and the ship rolled over. The pirate fighters staying away from Calley’s blaster cannons were now in her sights again. She only had an instant to aim and fire her guns but she took full advantage of it. Two more of the small ships were destroyed by her cannons before Captain Sal stopped flipping the ship over. Calley’s targeting screens were clear again so she looked over at the sensors. The blips representing the fighters had altered course and were moving away from the Ravenfang.

“What are they doing?” Calley wondered aloud.

“Turning tail,” Sal observed. “They’ve had enough of this fight. The corvette’s signaling for us to leave her ships alone and they’ll cease hostilities.”

Alezanna turned from her consoles to reach out and put her hand on Calley’s arm. “Are you all right?” she asked.

Calley wondered why her friend was asking her that question when she realized that, in the heat of the battle, she hadn’t thought of the pilots of those pirate ships. She’d just killed quite a few of them. Her conversation with the captain came back to her. What he’d said about killing being easier when you were behind a ship’s guns, and as you had to do it more. She realized he’d been right on both counts.

“I’m okay, thanks,” she said as she squeezed her friend’s hand with one of her own. She looked at Alezanna’s station and saw no evidence of communications. “Signaling how?” she asked the captain. “I thought the comms were jammed.”

“They are,” Alezanna confirmed as she turned back to her instruments. “The pirate ship is flickering its lights in a code. I can’t read it but our good captain can.”

“Indeed I can,” Captain Collondo said. “They’re saying they can’t shut off the mine remotely because of the signal jammer. They’re gonna tractor it in and turn it off by hand.”

“I dunno if I believe that,” Calley observed.

“No, it sounds about right.” The captain maneuvered the Ravenfang away and behind the corvette. “Putting a signal jammer on your mine is pretty standard tactics. The jammer activates as soon as the mine’s sensors detect an incoming ship. Keeps the target from getting out a distress call. Meanwhile, the mothership loses its comms and knows a ship is about to be caught in the mine’s gravity well so it reacts accordingly.”

“So we’re not gonna blow up the mine?” Calley asked. She was still amped up from the fight and hadn’t fully relaxed yet.

“I’m tempted,” Sal admitted. “But with our shields in the state they’re in, we better not risk starting up another fight. Especially since it’d bring us in range of the corvette’s guns. They’re not generally built to fire at a small ship like ours. Especially that bastard of a mega-cannon they’ve got slung next to its control centre. But I don’t wanna risk their gunners getting off a lucky shot. We’ll keep an eye on ‘em and let ‘em have their equipment. They’ve already lost a squadron of fighters. No need to add insult to injury. That reminds me…”

He moved his right hand over to a switch and flicked it on and off at different intervals. Calley saw the corvette flicker its lights in response as it veered to its starboard, away from the Ravenfang as three of the remaining fighters docked. The fourth seemed to be damaged as it limped towards the larger pirate ship.

“What did you tell them?” she asked the captain.

“Asked them to transmit the names of the pilots they lost. We might be entitled to some bounties once we get to Farno. It’s not my favourite way to make starcred, but I’d say we earned it today.”

The corvette fired off its tractor beam at some object above its new heading. “So that’s where it was,” Captain Sal said as the three spacers watched the yellow beam maneuver the gravity mine into its docking bay. As it did so, Calley noticed the corvette had turned further away from the last fighter ship.

“Why aren’t they helping that pilot first?” she asked her crewmates.

“Guess they figure the mine’s worth more. Charming fellows, these pirates,” the captain said sardonically.

The tractor beam vanished and a dozen seconds later, the Ravenfang shuddered. Calley realized the gravity mine had been deactivated. To confirm her assumption, Alezanna’s communications console let out a chirp. The Bellixan turned her attention to it and announced, “Pirate names transmitted. Checking bounty listings.”

“Good,” Calley said. “Now the corvette can grab its last ship and get the Hells out of here.”

“He’s not gonna make it,” Sal announced. The words were barely out of his mouth before Calley saw the fighter explode. “Damn. If they’d gone after him first, they probably could’ve saved him.”

The communications console chirped again. “One more name transmitted,” Alezanna declared.

“Flag that one, Alez,” the captain told her. “That’s one of the ones we’ll keep on record and not turn in. I don’t wanna invite the Gods to give me that poor bastard’s shitty luck.”

“Understood,” his beautiful lover agreed as she kept inputting the pirate names in the bounty directory. “We’ll recoup seven thousand, eight hundred and sixty star credit units from the others.”

The captain nodded and said, “All right. One more bit of business then…”

He swiveled his seat to face Calley, reached inside his robe and pulled out his datapad. He looked something up on the device and asked her, “How in the seven Hells do you rank a level 1 certification in spaceship gunnery? Level 1 indicates basic competency and what you did today was well beyond that.”

“I’ll say,” Alezanna said with admiration. “I have a level 2 rank and you put me to shame”.

Calley blushed at the compliments. She explained, “Well, when I went for my certification, I thought the guns I’d been assigned had sights that were out of alignment. I pointed it out to the testing officer but he told me to stop being a whiney Gynapsi.”

“Oh for the love of the Gods!” her beautiful shipmate moaned aloud as the captain rolled his eyes.

“Well, that creates a problem,” Sal said in a more serious tone. “We’ve been paying you the standard guild rate based on your skillsheet. You get that updated and your rate‘ll go up. Think we can afford that Alez?”

“That’ll cut into our profits,” the Bellixan admitted.

“And that’s no good. No, I don’t think we can afford to keep you on as an employee. We’ll just have to fire you and take you on as a partner instead.”

Calley was struck speechless by what the captain had said. Her heart had dropped for an instant when he’d said he’d fire her but when he said “partner”, she couldn’t believe her ears.

The captain went on. “Alez and I were talking about it and we were gonna surprise you for your birthday. But after what you just did, I figured why wait? Now, keep in mind not every run is gonna work out so good as this—”

He was interrupted by Calley jumping into his lap to give him a hug.

“Thank you thank you thank you!!!” she babbled out in her excitement. “This is the best day of my life!”

“Whoa there!” the bemused spacer said. “I was trying to tell you about the risks. If we take a loss, that means you do too. Sometimes a deal goes bad. We lose a buyer, or our cargo loses its value mid-run. It happens. And sometimes the merchants you deal with sell your travel plans to pirates.”

“You think the ketorime traders sold us out?” Alezanna asked him.

“Our most valuable cargo in cycles,” he pointed out. “A dozen planets we could sell it at. And somehow these raiders happen to catch us midway to Farno? No Alez, the universe is too big for a coincidence like that to happen. I’m guessing those traders are gonna get a visit from some angry pirates who weren’t warned about our guns.” He turned back to the Gynapsi on his lap. “But this just proves my point. We could’ve lost our cargo today. If we had, the run would’ve been a disaster for us. As a partner, this could affect you if we get jumped in the future.”

Calley was too excited to heed his warning. “I don’t care! I know the ship will keep us safe. I trust you to keep the starcred coming in.” She jumped off his lap and hugged Alezanna, who saw her coming and was more prepared for her embrace. “And besides, we’ve got the best mechanic in the galaxy. How can we ever not be profitable?”

Alezanna laughed aloud. “How indeed?” she agreed.

Collondo threw up his hands and gave up trying to dampen the young woman’s spirits. “Well, if you wanna throw caution to the winds, that’s your prerogative. All I can do is give you a third of the profits after expenses.”

“That much?” Calley said in genuine surprise.

“After expenses,” he repeated. “Keeping this old ship running can be pretty expensive sometimes. Speaking of which., why don’t you ladies check out what kind of damage this little scuffle gave us? I can keep an eye on our playmates while the nav computer calculates our way outta here.”

“Yes captain,” the Bellixan agreed. She took Calley’s hand and led her excited young companion out of the cockpit.

The two spent the next hour assessing the ship’s condition. Aside from a few burnt out power cables, it seemed to have emerged from the fight relatively unscathed. The only other damage was to Gork. It had been flung around the reactor room when the Ravenfang had shuddered taking blaster fire. The pieces of it’s disassembled arm were now all over the floor.

“I think this is a lost cause,” Alezanna mused aloud. “We’ll never find all of the smaller pieces.”

“Yeah, this is a mess,” Calley agreed. “You don’t think you have the extra parts we need?”

“No. I don’t stock a lot of android parts. We’ll just have to buy Gork a new arm on Farno if that’s all right with you.”

“Me?”

“You’re our partner in this enterprise now. You have a say in how we maintain the ship and Gork’s part of that.”

“Right. This partner thing is gonna take some getting used to. Have I thanked you for that lately?” Calley asked as she knelt down to start picking up some parts of Gork’s arm.

“Only about a dozen times in the last hour,” Alezanna answered as she stowed the android in a corner of the reactor room.

“I just didn’t see this coming,” the Gynapsi admitted as she took an armful of parts to what she thought was the correct cabinet.

Her friend had her back to Calley as she said, “Isn’t that the point of a good birthday present? To be a nice surprise?”

The medtech had opened a few of the wrong drawers looking for the one with android parts in it. Most were filled with tools or various items for the ship’s maintenance. But one had surprised her by containing what looked like a folded up red dress. She left that drawer open and finally found the one she’d been looking for. She placed the parts inside and then moved back to the dress.

“Is this the dress from Palcon?” she asked Alezanna. “I’d forgotten all about it.”

“What?” the mechanic said in alarm as she quickly turned around. She saw the garment Calley was looking at and exclaimed in frustration, “Oh Hells! Two birthday surprises ruined in one day!“

“It’s for me?” the young spacer asked in surprise. She reached out to take the dress but stopped herself at the last moment. She didn’t want to touch it with her dirty hands.                                                                                                                                                                                                   

The older spacer grabbed a clean rag, moved towards her friend and led her to a wall-mounted dispenser of sanitizer. As Calley used some on her hands, Alezanna shook her head and complained, “The one place I hid it so you wouldn’t see it. And, of course, that’s the first place you head to as soon as my back is turned. Calley Vanmussen, you have the Devil’s own luck, you do.”

Calley’s excitement, which had lessened somewhat after the last hour’s time doing maintenance work, now returned in full. Once she’d finished using the sanitizer, she wiped her hands with the rag the Bellixan handed her and then moved back to the cabinet with the dress in it. This time, she pulled it out and took a good look at it.

The first thing she noticed was that the dress was no longer entirely red. Turquoise-coloured fabric had been interwoven into it. The embroidered bodice was still there, but the wearer’s cleavage would no longer be so prominently displayed. Turquoise fabric had been stitched into the top of the bodice, leading to a collar to be fastened over the wearer’s neck. The dress had originally been sleeveless, but Alezanna had created sleeves out of a dozen strips of red and turquoise fabric. The strips weren’t stitched together, but simply affixed to the added fabric of the bodice and some cuffs at the wearer’s wrists. Each strip of fabric was a little longer than her arm, which would cause the sleeves to hang a little loosely. And each had two rhinestones evenly inserted down its length. Calley couldn’t help but wonder how long it had taken her friend to put all this together.

Looking over the back of the dress, Calley realized Alezanna had cut away all fabric over the wearer’s waist, so it was now backless save for the fastener on the back of the wearer’s neck. The red skirt had been extensively modified as well. It had originally flowed out from the wearer’s waist to such a wide circumference that small children could be hidden under it. Now, the skirt had been narrowed considerably. Also, Alezanna had sewn in turquoise pleats that would allow the wearer freedom of movement while still keeping the skirt far tighter than it had originally been.

“It’s beautiful!” she told Alezanna.

The taller woman’s consternation seemed to have lessened. “It should be, I worked hard enough on it. Try it on. I’d like to see how well it turned out.”

Calley found herself hesitating. “I don’t know where to start.”

 “You put the skirt on first. The buttons are on the sides to keep it tight on your hips. Once that’s done, you put your arms in the sleeves, adjust the top and close up the collar. Go ahead. Don’t worry about the captain seeing you change. He’s still in the cockpit.”

Calley shrugged off her jumpsuit, though she had to remove her boots to get the garment completely off her. She picked up the dress and carefully put it on as Alezanna instructed. She was afraid of tearing it somehow but needn’t had worried. She was soon able to slip her arms into the open sleeves and put the neck fastener in place to keep the top of the dress where it should be. She was nervous having it on but found it more comfortable to wear than she was expecting. She took a few steps to and fro to figure out how to move in the dress before turning to face her friend.

”How do I look?” she asked the taller spacer.

“Like you need a pair of shoes. But the dress suits you. You could wear this at any social event and outshine the women there.”

“Gods! You really think so?”

“Come see.” Alezanna picked up Calley’s discarded jumpsuit and boots. The two made their way to the room the Bellixan shared with the captain. She opened one of the horizontal storage unit’s doors wide so that Calley could use the large mirror attached inside to examine herself. The sight took her breath away.

She barely recognized herself as the elegant young woman in the reflection. She straightened up her posture and found the dress showed off her chest to good effect. Unlike the original cut of the top, her bosom was less exposed but rather, tastefully emphasized. She turned to see that the skirt flowed out from her midriff, but far less than the blue one she’d seen the prostitute wear on Palcon.

She was so busy looking herself over that she hadn’t noticed Alezanna had left the room to return Calley’s previous attire to the medtech’s stateroom. When the Bellixan returned, she asked Calley, “So what do you think? Good enough to wear outside?”

“Absolutely! Thank you so much! I never would have thought you could make this out of a prostitute’s dress.”

“With what I took off the lower half, I almost had enough material to make you two dresses.”.

“Or one for yourself.”

“With my complexion? I don’t think so. Only cool colours look good on me. But it was nice to work with a different colour palette after all this time. And I must say, I think it turned out beautifully. You look absolutely ravishing.”

“I love it so much!” Calley gushed, turning her attention back to her reflection. “It’s so nice. I look like one of the holo-vid stars. Sophisticated. But why’d you make it backless? Almost everything else that was showing you covered up.“

“You have an amazing figure. I wanted everyone to know it was all-natural. A backless dress indicates you wear no bra. So a woman will see your chest and be jealous. A man, entranced.”

Calley let out a giggle but then realized Alezanna was being serious. “I guess I’ll have to be careful not to wear it anywhere breezy. Between the back and the open sleeves, I might catch a cold.”

“Those are a duelist’s sleeves. You can slip your arms out of them if you need to fight someone. Bellixan fashion never impedes the wearer’s ability to move or fight. It’s the same reason I shortened the skirt. Other women might not mind holding their dress up to walk around, but a long skirt you can trip on will get you killed on Bellixa.”

“Well I love the shorter skirt, even though I wasn’t planning on fighting duels.”

“Maybe not a Bellixan one, no. But I can certainly see you catching the eye of some local dandy with a jealous girlfriend nearby. You might be dragged into a fight whether you want one or not. Maybe I should teach you the art of fighting with daggers, just to be on the safe side.” she added facetiously.

“Sure,” Calley agreed. “And in exchange I can teach you how to shoot.”

She had said it mostly in jest to play along with Alezanna’s flippant offer. But she saw the look on the  reflection of her friend’s face turn to one of shock and discomfort at Calley’s offer. The young medtech didn’t know what was wrong with what she’d said, but knew it had upset her companion. She immediately turned to the older woman and said, “Alezanna I’m sorry. I…”

She’d stepped forward to approach her friend, but stopped when the taller woman outstretched her right arm while she put her left hand over her eyes and nose. She took a deep breath to compose herself and moved her hand away from her face.

“It’s alright, Calley. You just caught me by surprise, that’s all. But I can’t shoot a gun. Not a pistol, not a rifle, not your carbine. The ship’s cannons don’t bother me. They’re just manipulating a display and firing at a ship. But firing at a person, no, I can’t. Not anymore. I don’t think I could even touch a gun, let alone pull its trigger.”

“Okay. I’ll never mention it again. I didn’t mean to upset you. I just didn’t know how you felt about guns.”

Alezanna waved the apologetic young woman forward into an embrace. “Of course you didn’t. I never told you, so how could you know? But I guess I should tell you why I feel that way. If you’re going to be our partner, you should know who you’re partnering with.”

She disengaged from Calley and led her over to the foot of the bed. She sat down on it and patted the mattress next to where she’d sat. Calley sat down next to her. Alezanna took a moment to put her thoughts in order before she began telling her story.

NEXT CHAPTER: Alezanna’s story.