Chapter 186: Chapter 186

Fortunately the sixty-two hours we spent in jump were pleasantly quiet and uneventful. Nyssa didn't even complain too much, probably because we were heading as fast as we could to a world she wanted to visit.

Then when we got there our 'quiet in-transit' boredom was replaced with the 'mildly stressful planetary approach' boredom that was Rolandan-2 traffic control.

After being kept in a high-orbit holding pattern for a solid hour we eventually got clearance to descend into a lower orbit, and from there I was able to contact the Freeborn Shipyard. I spoke with their new dispatcher, and he got us our final vector and permission to land.

Our descent was a lot bumpier than usual, which meant the ship wasn't as streamlined as she'd been before our latest adventure. She got us down ok though, after fifteen minutes of shaking and bouncing we landed safely in the assigned bay.

By the time I finished the landing checklist Nyssa was already on the lower deck. She had the cargo airlock open and the ramp fully extended when I joined her a few minutes later.

"Looks like a nice evening," I commented as I followed her down the ramp and out into the landing bay. The sun was low on the horizon, and the air was warm and almost pleasant. If you ignored the ever-present shipyard smells of ozone and grease that is.

"Yeah," my sister agreed. Then she admitted, "I'm still glad I came all the way out here to find you sis. But as much as I'm enjoying space travel, I also like having fresh air to breathe, solid ground under my feet, and open sky over my head."

I smiled, "Then let's hope the Demeter can find a routine gig that lets you get your regular dose of sky air and dirt."

Nyssa rolled her eyes and teased, "I'm glad to see my crazy foxgirl sister remembered to put on some pants before leaving the ship this time."

"That's because Rolandan-2 is perfectly safe," I replied with a straight face. "No need for any badassery on this world. In fact you'd have to be some sort of total hick farmgirl noob to get yourself into any kind trouble here."

Her cheeks went red as she protested, "Getting kidnapped was not my fault!"

"Of course it wasn't," I grinned as I made my way towards the aft end of the Artemis.

I wanted to get a look at the damage with my own eyes, and unfortunately there was plenty of it. Although I knew it couldn't be as bad as it looked, considering the ship got us down on the ground just fine.

"Well that doesn't look great," a familiar voice announced loudly behind me.

I spun around and smiled, "Hello Tamsin! And hello Helen, it's good to see you two again."

The young mechanic and the middle-aged CEO had just entered the landing bay. Tamsin headed right over and greeted me with a hug, then she did the same for my sister. Meanwhile Helen was a lot more professional as usual.

The older woman said, "Hello again Captain Voss. I understand you need some repairs to your ship's drive system?"

"Please just call me Amanda," I blushed. "I'm no captain. And yeah, the jump drive needs some help, same with the main drive. And a few of the thrusters, plus as you can see we've got some buckled hull plates around the aft end of our ship."

"Do I want to know how it happened?" Tamsin asked from where she'd moved to get a better look at the aft end of the ship.

I shook my head, "No you don't."

"My sister's crazy. That's what happened," Nyssa volunteered.

Helen smiled politely as she told me, "Tamsin will give the Artemis a proper inspection, then when she's finished I'll contact you with an estimate for the repairs, if that's alright?"

"Of course," I nodded. "Thanks Helen."

The shipyard CEO gave me another professional smile then she turned and headed away, while the young mechanic gestured at the ship's ramp and asked, "Permission to go aboard? I need to have a look at the drives, and check the diagnostics in engineering."

Before I had a chance to respond a familiar grav-sled swooped down into the landing bay and settled just a couple meters away from the Artemis' bow. My eyes widened in surprise and my tail started wagging up a storm behind me as I rushed to greet my girlfriends.

"Rebecca! Sarah!" I exclaimed as they both climbed out of the sled. "I didn't expect to see you here!"

The cute engineer grinned as she teased, "You know me, as soon as I heard the Artemis was damaged I had to come running. And I guess we were a little worried about you as well."

The three of us ended up in a group hug that probably lasted two or three whole minutes. And as soon as we let go of each other Tamsin was there with her arms around the boss, then Sarah. After that my girlfriends greeted Nyssa as well, before we were finally ready to get down to business.

Nyssa and I were both eager to discuss what happened with that asteroid base, albeit for different reasons. I wanted to update my shipmates on everything we'd encountered and what I learned, while my sister was probably hoping to get me in trouble with my girlfriends.

Except Rebecca asked us both to hold off on that topic until we were back at the Demeter, since that was a conversation that Jenny absolutely needed to be present for. So Rebecca and Nyssa and I spent the next ten or fifteen minutes waiting by the grav-sled, while Sarah and Tamsin headed into the Artemis together to check the drives and the diagnostics.

At first I was content to just stay close to my tall redheaded girlfriend. I had an arm around her waist while my tail wrapped around her thighs, and her arm slipped around my shoulders.

"How are you doing Rebecca?" I asked quietly as we stood there almost cuddling next to the sled. "I imagine the last few days haven't been great for your stress levels. I'm really sorry you had to cut your vacation short so you could rush over here to meet Nyssa and I."

She responded with a little half-shrug, "I'm fine. Things have been busy as hell lately, but that's not your fault."

"Honestly I should probably thank you," she added with a wry smile. "You gave me the perfect excuse to delay that coronation bullshit."

The smile faded as she continued with a sigh, "On the other hand you gave us all quite the scare when Jenny received your emergency locater ping."

My ears drooped while I held her a little tighter and apologized, "I'm sorry Rebecca."

"It's fine Amanda," she responded by giving me a gentle squeeze as well. "I'm just glad you and your sister are safe, that you two got out of there in one piece."

"Yeah," I nodded slowly.

We were both quiet for a bit after that, so I eventually changed the subject with another question. "What's going on with that Vysalis cruiser? I'm honestly a little surprised they let you and the Demeter fly off on your own."

"Or did they accompany you here?" I added with a frown. "I don't recall seeing any big military ships in orbit while we were waiting for clearance."

My girlfriend sighed, but before she could respond both Sarah and Tamsin emerged from the Artemis' cargo airlock. The pair were deep in conversation about drive systems and damage as they came down the ramp, and I couldn't help cringing a bit as they headed towards the rest of us. I was positive our cute engineer was about to give me an earful about how my reckless flying messed up our new scout ship.

"So what's the verdict?" Rebecca asked as the other two joined us by the grav-sled.

Tamsin shook her head, "Helen will get back to you with the actual estimate, but I can say it doesn't look too bad. The jump drive's not damaged, it's just misaligned. It takes a specially trained and experienced technician to do the realignment, but the actual process shouldn't take too long."

"The rest of the damage is all pretty straightforward too," she continued. "That's just parts and labour to replace a couple blown conduits and some burned-out thrusters. And we'll need to straighten out those buckled hull plates. Anyways I'd better go file my report, sooner I do that the sooner you'll have your official estimate. Are you going to stick around and wait to hear back from Helen in person?" ᴛhis chapter is ᴜpdated by novᴇlfire.net

Rebecca shook her head, "I'm taking Amanda and Nyssa back to the Demeter. We're in the local spaceport, so Helen can reach us by comm when she's ready."

"Alright princess," the ravenette mechanic smirked. Then she made sure to give all of us another hug before she left the landing bay.

The tall redhead grimaced but didn't comment on the nickname. After Tamsin was gone she looked to me and Nyssa and asked, "Do you two want to grab your gear before we head back to the ship?"

"Actually I was hoping I could get some shore leave now?" Nyssa responded with a hopeful look on her face. "Just forty-eight hours, then I'll meet you at the Demeter. Or I can come back here, if you want me to stick with the Artemis. Either way I just really need some leave. Please?"

Rebecca sighed and gestured towards the Artemis' ramp, "Get your stuff. We'll talk on the way back to the Demeter."

My sister's shoulders slumped and she pouted, but she didn't try and argue. We'd both already packed up our things prior to landing since I'd anticipated at least a couple days of down-time, so it only took a minute or two for us to grab our gear. When we came back out of the scout ship I had my duffel over my shoulder while Nyssa was carrying her leather travel bag.

Both bags ended up in the grav-sled's cargo area, then Nyssa got into the back seat next to Sarah while I sat up front beside Rebecca. And as soon as all four of us were ready the boss set course for the nearby city and its spaceport.

"How's your sister's flying?" Rebecca asked once we were en route. "Can she handle the Artemis ok by herself?"

I nodded, "She can fly just fine. She needs more experience, but that'll come in time. Her main problem's more about bad judgement."

"Pfft! You're one to talk Amanda," Nyssa scoffed loudly.

The boss ignored that comment. Instead she asked me, "What about jumps? Are you comfortable letting Nyssa handle that too?"

"She's fine with level zero jumps," I replied. "If you're thinking about anything higher then no. I wouldn't trust her to plot an unsupervised level one jump. I'd want someone experienced to verify all her Jump-1 plots until she had at least a dozen perfect jumps under her belt."

Then I narrowed my eyes and asked, "Why all the interest in my sister's nav and helm skills?"

"She's going to let me fly the Artemis solo!" Nyssa exclaimed from the back seat. "That's why she's asking about my piloting skills, because I'm getting my own ship!"

"No you're not!" I stated as I looked over my shoulder at her with my ears folded back. "You are absolutely not ready for that sis! It's not even about your flying skills, you're not mature enough to handle the responsibility of running a ship!"

Then I turned towards Rebecca and added, "Please tell me that's not what this is about. You can't send my little sister off on a mission all by herself."

Rebecca took a deep breath then let it out as a long sigh before replying, "We'll finish this conversation on the Demeter."

That really wasn't want I wanted to hear, and it left me feeling even more agitated. I forced myself not to argue though. I hadn't forgotten our captain was supposed to be on R&R, the last thing she needed right now was to have her first officer girlfriend openly questioning her decisions.

So instead I just nodded quietly while my ears drooped down to either side.

On the other hand I couldn't help noticing that despite my concerns, Rebecca actually looked and sounded a lot better than she did when I last saw her more than twenty days earlier. She definitely had a lot on her mind, and odds were some of of those topics were still pretty stressful, but it almost seemed like she was happy to have something important to focus on.

It only took me a second or two to realize that wasn't quite right. It wasn't about giving her something to focus on. The key was giving her something she could act on, something to keep her busy. Like Jenny said once, our captain was very mission-oriented. Which left me wondering if rushing here to Rolandan-2 was just about making sure Nyssa and I were alright, or if maybe there was something else going on.

That was all the time I had for speculation though, as we'd reached the city and its spaceport.

The boss angled our sled downwards, and I couldn't help smiling as the Demeter came into view ahead of us. The hatch and ramp were already opening as we neared, and I had no doubt Jenny had been monitoring our approach. Sure enough the AI and her android sister were waiting for us in the hold, along with their catgirl girlfriend.