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Malia impatiently waits for the door to the cargo hold to slide open, then jumps the steps leading down, her boots hitting the bare metal floor with a dull thud. She walks to where Tracy and Allison have the stowaway cornered with their swords. Some crews still make fun of her “no guns used on board” rule, but after watching so many of the old space movies with Stiles when she’d still been part of his and Scott’s crew on the Red Leader, she’s had a lot of nightmares about accidentally blowing a hole in the hull of her ship and getting pulled into oblivion.
Without taking their eyes off the stowaway hiding in the shadows, Tracy and Allison step aside to let Malia through.
‘I’m Captain Tate,’ Malia says in Galaxish, hoping the stowaway will understand. Nearly everyone learns it as a second language, but some species have trouble with the consonants. She hopes she won’t have to get Lydia to translate. ‘And I want to know what the hell you’re doing on my ship.’
‘Getting away,’ the stowaway says. Their voice is soft, but defiant, and there is a hint of an accent that Malia thinks might be from the outer edge of the Helios System.
‘From what?’
‘People.’
‘What did you do to them?’
The stowaway stays quiet, and steps even further back into the shadows. Chances of getting them to the brig peacefully are looking slim. The only option seems to stun them. Malia reaches down for the phaser hidden in her boot. The move must have distracted Allison and Tracy, because the stowaway finds an opening and jumps Tracy, grabbing the sword out of her hand.
Allison is the first to react, but the stowaway easily evades the attack and kicks Allison in the stomach. Allison flies back, and Malia can’t help but think that this person would make an excellent addition to her crew if they would just stop trying to hurt them.
Malia pulls out her own sword. The titanium blade glints in the low, blue lights. ‘You should just surrender. Make it easier for all of us’
‘You should’ve just left me alone. I would’ve gotten off the next time you docked. You never would’ve known I was here.’ The stowaway’s tone has gone from defiant to frustrated, almost pleading.
‘And miss a thrilling fight?’
The stowaway is good. In fact, they’re better than Malia. She might hold them off for a while, but there is no way she’ll win. She’s going to have to cheat. Oh well.
The next time the stowaway slashes their sword at her, Malia ducks and rolls, sliding her hand in her boot and grabbing the phaser. The stun hits the stowaway in their chest, and they drop like a sack.
When Malia looks over her shoulder to check if Allison is okay, both Allison and Tracy are pointedly looking at the gun in her hand.
‘Like you don’t have at least one,’ Malia snorts. The sheepish looks on their faces is all she needs to know. The “no guns” rule is a good rule, but she’s not stupid.
The three of them quickly search the unconscious stowaway, but don’t find much. No ID, no communications device of any kind; just some money and a very expensive looking necklace. Most of the necklace is quite simple, small white gold flowers with diamonds set in their hearts. It’s the blue diamond in the middle of the chain that is the eye catcher. It’s huge and probably worth a fortune. ‘Lock them up,’ Malia orders, pocketing the necklace. ‘I have some calls to make.’
~
‘So you’re a thief,’ Malia says in lieu of a greeting. She dangles the necklace from her fingers, letting the blue diamond catch the light. It hadn’t been hard to find out where it was from. The necklace belongs to the current president of Mars-01 and had been stolen two nights ago. A large portion of the galaxy’s law enforcement, and quite a few bounty hunters, are looking for it and the one who stole it.
The prisoner jumps up and faces Malia defiantly. There is barely a hair separating them from the force field that’s keeping them in the cell.
This is the first time Malia can really see them. Their clothes were high quality when new, but look worn and even threadbare in places, now. Their figure appears humanoid, slim and powerful. Their skin is pale, and, as far as Malia can tell, without any markings. Their hair is short, just past shoulder length, and mostly black. There are several bright red locks of hair, too vibrant to be artificial, that match the furious desperation in the prisoner’s eyes. The coloured hair reflecting their emotions and the orange glow their eyes have from certain angles, makes Malia think the prisoner is at least partly Kitsu—they don’t call themselves that, but their planet is forbidden to outsiders and those who leave keep their secrets, which includes the name of their species, and traditions close.
‘I need that,’ the prisoner says, eyes locked on the necklace.
‘What for?’
There is no answer. They simply keep staring at the necklace. Malia shrugs and presses a button on the control panel. A chair folds out from the wall and she drops down into it, making a show of stretching her legs and folding her arms behind her head. The necklace is still in her hand and she shakes it temptingly, making the little diamonds rattle against each other, and grins. ‘I’ve got time.’
‘I don’t.’
‘Then tell me why you need it.’
‘Like it matters. You’re a pirate. You don’t care.’
‘Maybe I will, maybe I won’t. No way to know for sure unless you tell me.’
The prisoner turns their face away, hiding their emotions behind the hair that betrays them by turning a frustrated dark purple. They slide down to the floor and lean against the same wall Malia’s chair is on. Malia feels a stab of pity, and for a moment she considers giving in. They’re clearly in trouble, but she can’t just let them go because then she and her crew might get in trouble. Well, they’re almost always in trouble, but it’s usually of their own making.
‘What’s your name?’ Malia asks after a couple minutes of silence.
‘Kira,’ is the hesitant answer. ‘Ey pronoun.’
‘Well, Kira, welcome aboard the Coyote. I’m Captain Malia Tate, she pronoun. I hope you have a nice stay.’
Kira snorts and turns eir head to raise eir eyebrows at her, like ey is thinking: Are you fucking kidding me?
~
Malia visits Kira every day, and every day she learns a little more about em. She was right about Kira’s species—her mother is Kitsu and her father human. Kira is an only child, was taught the art of unlawful acquisitions by eir mother, and taught to fight by eir father. Eir favourite colour is green and eir favourite food is from a small traveling diner that journeys between the stars of Orion’s Belt. Kira loves to travel, watching the planets pass by, watching stars collapse and being reborn from a distance.
‘If you tell me what you need this necklace for, I might let you out and we can watch the stars together,’ Malia tries with a wink.
Kira blushes, even smiles a little, but ey still doesn’t explain why ey was hiding on Malia’s ship.
As Malia’s knowledge about Kira grows, so does her frustration. She’s really starting to like em, but a week has passed since they caught em, and if ey would just tell her what’s going on, then maybe she could help. And after, she’d ask Kira to join her crew. She’d do it now if she didn’t think that Kira was hiding something big, or would run off to go take care of eir business on eir own the moment ey is free.
Malia’s mind is so full of Kira that the next time they board a ship without permission, her mind is only half focused on the task at hand—which is finding out where the captain hid the best wares. She gets jumped by one of the merchant ship’s guards. In the struggle, she nearly gets hit in the chest by the guard’s laser gun. She turns away at the last moment, but it still grazes her arm, leaving a painful burn.
Back on her own ship, speeding away from the now much poorer merchants, Malia immediately goes to see Kira. She knows she should get herself checked out, her arm, head, and ribs hurt like hell, but she grabs a salve for the burn, and escapes the med-bay before Alicia, the Coyote’s doctor, can get their hands on her.
Kira greets her with a smile, but that smile becomes a frown of confusion, then wide-eyed worry when ey sees the burn and the ripped clothes. Ey makes to move towards her, but remembers the force field barring eir way just in time.
‘Malia, what happened?’
‘Got distracted.’
‘Don’t you have someone to look at that for you?’
‘I’ll be fine.’ Malia waves away Kira’s concern. She slides down to the floor right next to the force field, leaning against the wall with a sigh. Maybe she’s little more hurt than she’d like to admit.
‘Did you break your ribs?’ Kira asks, a hint of panic in eir voice.
‘They’re just bruised. Relax.’ Malia says, trying to sound casual about it. But the concern in Kira’s voice makes her chest feel too small for her heart, and it comes out somewhere between fond and pained. After finding a more or less comfortable position, she starts rubbing the salve on the burn on her arm.
‘My mom always taught me only to steal from people who have too much. Stealing from people who have almost nothing is cruel,’ Kira says after a minute. Ey sits down and leans against the wall, eir legs pulled up against eir chest.
‘Not to mention a waste of time,’ Malia adds. She doesn’t need to see it to know that Kira is rolling eir eyes.
‘Not everyone believes that, though, so my mother started stealing things back.’ Kira’s voice is so soft it’s almost inaudible over the hum of the ship’s engines, and Malia holds her breath, not wanting to miss a single word. This is it. Finally.
‘She couldn’t watch people starve or get thrown out of their houses because of a bunch of assholes. Unfortunately, these assholes turned out the be The Void.’
Malia stiffens. Everybody knows about The Void. They don’t care who they hit. If you have possessions, whether it’s a house filled with gems or a house filled with only the bare necessities, they want it.
‘They took them, my mom and dad, then they contacted me. They wanted me to steal the Hope Diamond for them and deliver it within two weeks. If I don’t, they’ll throw my parents into a black hole.’
No wonder Kira was so desperate when they caught em. Malia isn’t very close to her family, but there are people who she’d go to almost any length to, to protect.
She pushes herself up with a groan and punches in the code to disable the force field. It flickers blue and white before disappearing with an electric crackle. Kira stares at her with wide, unbelieving eyes.
‘What—‘ ey starts, but doesn’t seem to know how to finish.
‘How long do you have left?’
‘Three days.’
It’s not much, but they can make it work.
‘You’re going to give me back the necklace?’
‘No,’ Malia says, shaking her head.
Kira’s expression shifts from hurt, to anger, to disappointment, her hair flitting through all the colours of the spectrum.
‘I figured with your burglary skills and my tendency to always get what I want, we could come up with a plan,’ Malia explains.
‘What kind of plan?’
‘One where we steal back your parents and return that giant rock to where you got it. The whole galaxy is looking for it and it’s making piracy a little harder than it should be.’
Kira, who hadn’t moved out of the cell yet, rushes forward. Ey pulls Malia close and presses their lips together. Malia makes a surprised noise, then a pained one when Kira wraps an arm around Malia’s waist to pull her even closer.
‘Sorry,’ Kira says, and jumps back, cheeks and hair pinking.
‘Don’t be,’ Malia smiles. ‘Just be careful of the ribs.’
‘Let’s get you to medical.’
Malia lets Kira wrap an arm around her waist to support her to the med-bay.
‘And then we’re going to get your parents,’ she adds.
This could end badly, for herself, for Kira, for her crew, for her ship. But when she glances at Kira and sees the soft, hopeful expression on eir face, Malia knows she’ll do anything to make sure that hope isn’t false.