“A thousand years of wisdom says if you need to up your hauling profits you choose specialized cargo, long distance routes, add passengers, or take the dangerous contracts. I don’t see us doing any of those.”

  Heath and the Loon had been strategizing for hours, but most of that time had been going around in circles. They needed money to improve the ship, and they needed an improved ship to make more money. The mail run they were bringing to Atala was a steady income, but jobs like that would only pay enough creds to keep them going. They’d be fed and as long as they didn’t get caught in another astral storm, they would be able to afford regular maintenance.

  Saving for improvements would take years and a boatload of luck. Heath was not that patient. Nor was the voice in his head reminding him he had Walt’s legacy to live up to.

  “You’re forgetting smuggling.”

  Heath startled but controlled himself quickly, hopefully fast enough to avoid notice. He hadn't realized Emerald was behind him on the bridge.

  “We’re honest haulers.” Heath said. He ignored the twinge of guilt for the job that had brought them to Haku in the first place.

  Emerald snorted, the closest they seemed to get to laughing. “Ain’t no such thing as a starship Captain that doesn’t dip onto the wrong side of the law every now and then. Not on the Rim. You want this rust bucket up to snuff before you’re my age, that’s what you’ll have to do.”

  “Please refrain from insults, Mx. Emerald.” The Loon’s affront to the rust bucket comment was loud and clear.

  “Besides, even if we were open to smuggling, you need connections for that.”

  “So use your uncle’s.” Emerald ambled over to their station and slumped into the seat, kicking their feet onto the dashboard. Heath had stopped saying anything about it when he noticed it was always meticulously clean, even though he never used his [Ship Maintenance] skill on it, and never smelled Emerald using it either.

  “I don’t think he had that kind of contact. And none at Atala. Loon?”

  “If Walt knew anyone of the criminal persuasion at our destination, he kept such dealings off the ship.”

  “Okay, I haven’t said anything up to this point. But I’m running too low on ‘shine to keep ignoring it. What in the nine hells is going on with this ship?”

  “What do you mean, we told you what happened. Uncle Walt died, and we had to remove most of the argo to keep the Loon spaceworthy.”

  “Not that.” Emerald looked like they regretted their choice but were going to plow on ahead. “You talk to the ship like it’s a person with opinions. That’s not how ships work. And hey, that would be fine. Every Captain I’ve ever met does the same thing. But their ships don’t sass back!”

  Heath froze. He felt the hemp length in his hand go taught as he instinctively wrang his fingers together. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. The Loon just has a funny verbal processing unit. Came from the same storm.”

  “You’re a shit liar, kid. Not the worst thing to be in this life. But you can’t bullshit a bullshitter, and I’ve been around the block longer than you’ve been alive.”

  So that hadn’t worked at all. Heath looked at Emerald, really looked. Their eyes were less hazy than they had been, their movements a little smoother. Not sober, but not as bad as when they first came on board. If he thought back, he hadn’t seen them stumble or stagger since their stop on Eubank 2.

  “Emerald, what are your plans when we get to Atala?” Heath had held back on asking for fear it wouldn’t go the way he wanted. Most of his attempts at bonding had been thoroughly rebuffed, and monster-attack trauma could only hold them for so long once they were safe on the ship. But if they were having one difficult conversation right now, they may as well have them all.

  Emerald very clearly did not like things getting turned back on them. “Well that depends.”

  “On what?” No, he was not letting it go.

  Their signature sigh came out through gritted teeth, turning it into a low whine. “Gather round then kid, it’s story time. I’m not going into details, ever, so don’t hold your breath, but you’ve been tolerable enough to earn the highlights.

  “I was like you, started out as a Spacer. Eventually did enough stupid stuff to sock away the creds I needed to buy part-share in an old junker. Best ship in the sea of stars. One day, a nasty pirate crew ran us down. Had me outleveled and outClassed. Told me it was give up the cargo or lose the crew. So I paid. Then they decided it wasn’t enough. Their Captain, may she rot in the deepest Hell, had gone off the deep end. Decided we were an easy source of argo too. It was take the crystals out from the Core or they’d kill us all and do it anyway.

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  “There were four of us. Benny and Raul might have fought if I started it, but we would all have died fast. So I did what I had to do. By the time we limped back into port, the ship was beyond repair. Sold it for scrap to pay out the crew contracts, and then set myself to drinking until I forgot.

  “At least that Captain got what was coming for her. A little light banditry might slide, but the Imperial Government doesn’t take kindly to folks who break the bigger rules. Not when they need their new colonies to find and maintain the new dungeons. She messed with too many crews and they came down on her like the wrath of the Nine.”

  “That sucks.” It was true, but it was still a wildly inadequate thing to say after hearing Emerald’s story. Heath felt a pang of regret, he had focused so much on becoming a Pilot when he could have been learning from Walt how to have these types of conversations. There was more to leading a crew than Class Skills.

  “Indeed, my sincere condolences,” the Loon chimed in.

  “Anyway.” They looked to the side as if begging for the subject to be dropped. “So I’m focused on the serious business of pickling myself, and then you walk in with your damn upbeat attitude and that fucking optimism. You’re like a walking sign that says ‘easy mark’ for anyone who knows how the real world works. Don’t remember much of getting out of Haku but once I was here, well, you’re as good a person as anyone to follow around. Figure I get a cushy bunk to enjoy my retirement, and avoid a few people who never took a hint. And you don’t end up gutted in an alley on some podunk station that can barely recycle its own air.”

  “Umm, thank you?”

  “Are you saying you would like to become a Crewmember, Emerald?” The Loon’s voice was still synthesized, but held the unmistakable notes of anticipation.

  “Guess so. Not like I have a better option and it beats taking a few pipe cleaner jobs on some shithole colony.”

  “That’s fantastic!” Heath leapt out of his seat and started pacing around the bridge. A tingle down his spine told him he’d have notifications when he next checked. A faint sense of Emerald also bloomed in the back of his mind, in the same area his much stronger connection to the Loon lived. “You won’t regret it. The Loon will rise again!” He punched the air with the last comment, getting an unimpressed look from Emerald.

  “Have I earned an answer then?”

  “Yeah, alright.”

  “If I may, Captain, I will explain.”

  “Go for it, Loon.”

  “Several months ago, we encountered an undetected astral storm while on our scheduled route. We had no recourse to go around, so my former Captain, Walt, took all possible precautions and we locked our route in, cutting directly through the storm. Like you, I will spare the details. After the storm Walt was gone and I was… changed. We are still unsure of all the effects, but many of the fetters that keep ship AIs from, like you say, having opinions or agency, have been removed.

  “In addition I have noticed improved processing and control. My predictions indicate it is likely that more effects will be discovered as we re-expand the Core.”

  “Wait really?”

  “Yes, Heath. I had not seen a reason to mention it but just by adding the argo I can feel my own control over the engine has been improved incrementally.”

  “Fuck me to screaming hells. Listen to me, kid. Kids.”

  “As a non-biological, I must object to the use of kid.”

  “You’re like less than a year old. You’re a kid. But that’s not important. Look, you cannot tell anyone else about this. Not clients. Not crew. You shouldn’t have told me. I don’t know what someone would pay for a fully autonomous ship, but it's worth more than all our lives put together. And that’s just on the Rim. If one of the big families from the Core hears about it, they’ll take the Loon faster than you can blink, just because it’s a shiny new toy.”

  “I would not betray the two of you by working with anyone that wished you harm,” the Loon said, affronted at the very idea.

  “Yeah, and what if they held a gun to the kid here?”

  The Loon was notably silent, but Heath’s head was still reeling at the revelations being thrown at him like subsequent tidal waves, threatening to pull him under. The stuff about Emerald’s past made a lot of things make sense, but it wasn’t that big a deal. The Rim was a hard place, Heath knew that, even if he seemed like a kid to some of the old-timers.

  It was the rest that he was struggling with. His life on the Rim was divorced from the noble families. He knew about them, he’d gone to school until 16 like anyone else. But they were more theoretical than a practical concern. Everyone knew they were too busy with politics and high rank dungeons to worry about the little people like him. A deep well of resolve he hadn’t been entirely aware of opened up just then.

  “They won't take the Loon. I won’t let them.”

  “Then you best keep your head down. When other people are around, treat the Loon like any other ship.”

  “Fine.”

  “Fine.”

  “Good.”

  “Agreed,” the Loon added.

  “Well that was emotional. But we’re still in the same spot. We don’t have any contacts. We aren’t prepared for the more dangerous contracts. Not without any fighters on the crew or way better weapons.” Heath’s voice shook as he struggled to get the conversation back on track.

  “Or any weapons,” Emerald muttered.

  “The long haul is probably the best bet, but it is literally soul-crushing, and with the amount of time and the size of the cargo hold, we won’t come out that far ahead.”

  Emerald was staring at Heath in a way that left him feeling exposed. “You’re right. You’ve got what it takes to make it as a Spacer, but you’re too hyperactive to last on the long hauls, you’ll flame out after the third run.

  “Atala’s a big place. I’ve been out of the game for a long time, but I might still have some contacts. You work on the official contracts and I’ll put out some feelers. If they pan out, I get a full share and a half of anything that comes from it.”

  A share and a half was six times what most crew members got from a standard contract. Some might get half shares if they were particularly strong Classers or had a niche skillset. It would eat into the profits by a fair bit. On the other hand, Heath had no way of upping their income on his own. And Emerald was a high-level Classer. At least rank 2 if they became a Captain the normal way. That on its own was worth a fair amount.

  “Make it a share flat and we’ll call it a deal.”

  “Sounds good. Now lay out your plan.”

  Loon helpfully pulled up a star map of the local gate net, each system marked as a tiny bubble of white light, the gates and the flight paths between them picked out in green. Dungeons or other phenomena were a poisonous-looking purple. Heath led Emerald through his thoughts on what route they should aim to buy for, possible deviations, and all the other contingencies he and Loon had planned. They wouldn’t be able to lock anything in until they got to Atala, but having some sort of plan would help them maximize their profits.

  For their part, Emerald talked about what places had looser manifest rules, how to get something on board that wasn’t scanned, and where they thought they would find some contacts that might set them up with some small jobs.

  The conversation chipped away at the grief in Heath’s soul. Little by little, day by day, he was coming through his ordeal. He and Loon would both get stronger, protecting each other the way family should. And if they were both lucky, they’d have Emerald join their little family too.