The Privateer

Captain Mims stormed into the reactor room, face like a thundercloud. He took in the scene at a glance, and his anger visibly increased. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Yvian froze for a moment, then finished attaching the connector she'd been working on. "Installing a Nav console," she answered, trying for calm innocence.

"Not you," growled the human. He reconsidered. "Wait, no. Also you." He thrust his arm out, pointing at Lissa. "You. What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Lissa met his glower with a glare of her own. It had been nine days since they'd put Yasme in the pod. The enslaved pixen's body had been restored, but they'd decided to keep her sedated until it was time to hand her off to the Oluken. Lissa had refused to talk about the incident. She'd been moody and distant, and snapped at Yvian whenever she tried to bring it up. The Captain had tried as well, and fared little better. The human had been supportive at first, but his patience was wearing thin, and he'd become more irritable as time progressed. The look on his face told Yvian that patience had run out.

Lissa held the glare for a few seconds before she said, "Engineering. I'm an engineer."

"What you are," Mims raised his voice, not quite shouting. "Is an idiot. I told you you could take a break from training. I told you you could tinker with some of the ships we captured. I did not tell you," his voice boomed, "that you could fuck around with the station reactor! For fuck's sake," he gestured. "You didn't even shut it down first."

"I didn't need to," Lissa defended. "The safety measures-"

"Are nonexistent," he cut her off. "This is a pirate station, and the kit they used to build it came from Glizco." He folded his arms. "Glizco stations were so shitty the company got sued out of existence. Half of their reactors exploded for no reason, and the other half explode the second the reactor is stressed."

Lissa eyed the conduit she was holding apprehensively. "I didn't know that."

"You don't know a god damned thing!" shouted Mims. Yvian had never seen him like this. She'd seen the human's fury many times, but it had always been a cold thing. A lethal thing. This time it was hot, and it felt... safer? More like the anger of a shopkeeper than a professional killer. "You know why?"

Lissa flinched, then got angry. "Stop yelling at me!"

"Because you didn't fucking ask!" Mims shouted over her. "And you!" he pointed at Yvian. "You find out your sister's fucking with the power grid, and you don't tell me?"

"I..." Yvian swallowed. "I thought you knew." Which was true. It hadn't occurred to Yvian that Lissa would modify the station without clearing it with Mims. Yvian hadn't bothered to ask any questions, though. She now realized she probably should have. Lissa had asked for assistance and Yvian had just agreed without really thinking about it. "It sounded like a good idea..."

"Fuck," Mims swore. Yelling angry Mims was less scary than cold, murderous angry Mims, but Yvian decided he was scary enough. He turned back to Lissa. "Is anything bad going to happen if you leave the reactor right now?"

"No!" Lissa snapped back. "I'm not doing anything dangerous!"

"Then get the fuck out of here," the human growled. "Both of you. Right fucking now."

Lissa set down her conduit connector. She looked like she wanted to argue, but settled for glaring as she walked past the Captain. Yvian was a little leery about passing close to the man. Logically she knew it was safe. Furious as he was, he didn't give off an aura of violence. He'd never hurt the pixens, or even threatened them. He'd never been this mad at them before, either. Yvian forced herself to shuffle past him, muttering "sorry" with lowered eyes.

The Captain watched them go. Yvian didn't turn to look, but she heard him shut the door to the reactor room. She supposed he was trying to make sense of what Lissa had been doing. Or maybe just make sure the station wasn't about to explode.

Yvian decided to pay Skygem a visit. After the Captain had excused them from training, Yvian had spent most of her time with the crystal ship. It gave her someone to talk to. Lissa had been prickly, and the human was frustrated. Yvian didn't have anyone else. One sister and one friend was still one more friend than she'd had for most of her life, but thinking that just made her feel more alone and desperate for someone to talk to. Skygem couldn't talk like a person, but the ship did understand, and her pulses of emotion told Yvian she cared. Maybe even loved her. Yvian found her presence comforting. Even if she did flood herself with poisonous gas whenever Yvian came aboard.

After a one sided but still cathartic retelling of the reactor room incident, and a rehash of her mixed up feelings about Yasme and all that had happened, Yvian settled in to watch some Space Captain and take her mind off things for a while. She'd missed out on the show a lot over the past year, and she had a significant backlog of episodes to enjoy. Sadly, she only got to watch two of them before the Captain summoned her and Lissa to meet him in the Random Encounter's kitchen.

She'd half expected to find lunch ready, but instead there were just three beers on the table. Lissa had sat down. Mims leaned against the cold storage unit, arms folded across his chest. He waited for Yvian to sit and open her beer before he sat down himself.

Mims looked calm. Relaxed. Yvian knew he wasn't. The human was putting up a front, maintaining tight control over his posture and body language. It wasn't a good sign, but it was better than the angry reception she'd expected. Lissa looked surly and defiant. Yvian had the feeling this would be a serious talk, and not a pleasant one. She wondered how much trouble she'd be in if she simply chugged her beer and bolted from the room.

"Ladies," Mims began. "I think it's time we had a talk."

"Can you do it without yelling, this time?" Lissa quipped.

The human eyed her, cold and lethal as the void. "If anyone but you had done what you did," he spoke softly, "they would be dead right now."

"I was just-" she started to protest.

"Endangering our lives," he cut her off. "And fucking with my property." His tone shifted back to casual. "You don't seem to understand this, so I'll explain it once. This ship," he gestured around, "is my ship. This station is my station. You are guests here."

"What about the agreement?" Lissa argued. "Equal shares and equal say? Was that gribshit?"

"The agreement is about jobs," said Mims. "Not property. You get a say in what jobs we take, and we split the profits equally. You do not," he pointed at her with his bottle, "get any right to my ships, my savings, or my stations. You will not touch, take, or tamper with anything without my express permission. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Captain," said Yvian. Lissa was silent. She looked troubled.

"Is that understood?" Mims repeated the question. He eyed the pixen.

Lissa let out a breath. "Understood."

Mims continued to eye the pixen. "Lissa, I know it's been a rough couple weeks. I've cut you a lot of slack because of it, and I do genuinely love you. But here's the thing." He took a swig. "Your personal problems don't give you the right to be an asshole." He set down his bottle. "I have bent over backwards to help the two of you. I've risked my life, betrayed two empires, and put up more money than most people ever see. I've protected you, trained you, and done everything I can to treat you with kindness and respect."

Lissa had been glaring at him, but as he talked she began to look less angry and more sad. She looked down at the table. "I know."

"I deserve some respect in return," Mims continued. He paused. "No." Shook his head. "I expect your respect. I know damned well you're not usually like this. I know you're all fucked up with mommy issues. I don't care. Pull your head out of your ass, and start acting like a professional. And if you can't do that, then you stay in your quarters, you get me?"

Lissa nodded. "I'm sorry."

"Good." Mims picked his beer back up and took a drink. "And just so we're clear now, there will be no messing with my stuff without me knowing about it. Right?"

"Yeah," said Lissa.

"Okay," said Yvian.

"Right." He took another drink. He seemed to relax a little. "What the hell were you doing in there, anyway?"

Lissa shrugged. "I was installing a Jumpdrive."

Mims raised his eyebrows. "On the station?"

"Yeah."

"What for?" The Captain frowned. "It's a shipyard. It doesn't have engines."

"It doesn't need them," said Lissa. "Do you know how a Jumpdrive works?"

Mims shook his head. "Some kind of resonance field and quantum entanglement. Mondi had some of our techs give me a rundown, but I couldn't follow most of it."

"You followed enough." Lissa thought for a moment. "Basically, the drive covers the ship in a resonance field, and sends part of the field to touch a Jumpgate. The Gate energy follows the field back, floods through the field, and pulls the ship into the Gate." Before she could continue, an alarm sounded.

No. Not an alarm. It was a timer. The Captain got up and pulled a pizza out of the oven. Yvian wondered why she hadn't smelled it cooking, then realized she was still wearing her helmet. She removed it while the human got out some plates and cut the pizza. Lissa fetched more beers.

"So how's that work?" Mims asked. He sat down and grabbed a slice of lunch. "Jumpdrives are built so you can switch them between ships, but they hook up to the engines. The station doesn't have engines."

"It doesn't need them," Lissa repeated. "It just needs a big enough power source to create the resonance field." She took a bite, then continued around a mouthful of pepperoni. "The station didn't have any connectors for the drive, so I had to rig something up." She swallowed the bite. "And get Yvian to hook up a Nav console so we can use the thing."

The Captain grunted, washing down pizza with a swig of beer. "Ok. Assuming you get it to work, what good does it do? It doesn't do a lot of good to make a jump if we can't maneuver afterwards."

Lissa shrugged. "We can get a Mover or something to reposition it. Mostly I just wanted an easy escape route in case the pirates find this place. Jumping the station will let us take most of our ships with us, too."

Mims considered it. He shrugged. "Fair enough. You can finish rigging it after lunch." He grabbed another slice of pizza. "Just power down the reactor first, this time."

Lissa stared at him. "Just like that?"

"Just like that." said the Captain.

"Then why'd you get so upset?"

"Because you didn't ask, first."