Episode 6

"Hand me that tool on the left," the Frentin said, reaching his hand out. "And don't even think about doing anything else with it."

I frowned as I picked it up but placed it in his hand without complaint or hesitation. How had he known I'd been considering hitting him with it?

Within a few more seconds he had the gralap matrix out and my ship was no longer functional. Before I could get up to head to his ship again, he started disconnecting another part.

"What are you doing?" I demanded.

"If I'm going to take one of the parts from your ship I may as well take a few more spare parts. They'll knock a good few k credits off the price I'll get for this with the matrix gone and these extra parts I'm now taking won't make any difference once I haggle.

I opened my mouth to berate him for stealing my ship and cannibalizing it for parts yet again, but closed it a moment later. There was no point. He didn't care about my ship or me. But somehow I was going to have to make him.

"So how did you get your ship?" I asked, wondering if it had taken him as long to save for his as it had me for mine.

"I inherited it."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"Don't be," he replied, not even sounding slightly put out but still focusing on pulling out parts from my ship.

I handed him the next tool he needed before he could ask for it and tried to think of another question.

"This was my brother's. He was almost ten years older and he went to join the Frentin army before I could really remember him. Rose in the ranks, made my parents proud and then got himself killed. No will. My parents gave me this hoping I'd do something with my life."

"I guess they didn't have illicit slave trader in mind."

"Doesn't matter if they did. They got blown up on a peace talk that went sideways when I was twelve. I left home then and I've been flying ever since."

I felt my mouth fall open and for a moment I left it there. Was he kidding?

"I've been on my ship since I was fourteen I said. Parents were killed too. They were in a cave in on another planet. They'd gone there to try and trade."

He stopped what he was doing for the first time and stared at me for a moment.

"Not many got what it takes to survive out on the edge of the galaxy alone," he said. "How come you were taking such a crappy job and didn't see it was too good to be true?"

"I suspected it was going to go wrong somewhere. But I thought I might not get paid properly. Or they'd tell me my scanned maps were corrupted. I'd even made three copies just in case."

"But you took the job anyway."

"Needed the credits. I was out of food packs, almost out of the filter on the water tank and my last trade run turned out to be a difficult one, and I got deducted for being late after taking more damage than normal. That kind of crap happens sometimes."

"Doesn't it just."

"Something similar put you at the end of the pecking order?" I asked, trying to get him to talk about himself again and open up. That we were having a conversation at all was a start, but I needed to find a way to get him to let his guard down.

"You win some battles and you lose some. I thought I had something to prove. Took a big risk and now I'm paying for it. It happens and it was my fault. Best I can do is make some money and earn my way back to where I was. It'll take time but I'll get there."

I sighed. It was an admission of sorts but it was clear he didn't want to talk about it, and he was finally finished pulling parts out of my ship.

"Here," he said, holding out a bunch of them. "Carry these back to the ship and I'll get you something to eat that isn't out of a space ration pack."

I blinked. I'd not eaten anything fresh in months. Did he mean to say he not only had some fresh food aboard but he was willing to share it with someone he considered a slave just for doing a good job?

Either way, I wasn't going to argue. It was progress and it wasn't a hard task.

It did mean I wasn't thinking of escaping, but I couldn't easily now. My ship wouldn't fly. Not without me reinstalling several of the parts he'd taken. My situation was going from bad to worse and it seemed that I was powerless to stop it.

I tried not to think about it or I'd end up either crying or wailing in despair. There might be plenty I couldn't control right now, but I wasn't giving up on finding something I could. There were still ways I could escape before I was sold into slavery.

Back on his ship, I gave him back the parts and he stowed all of them except the matrix he needed in a cargo box. He then headed to the section of his ship where the matrix installed and had me assist him there.

As soon as he opened the panel smoke billowed out and he reached in and unhooked a burnt out matrix. When he did I spotted some dodgy wiring.

"No wonder that burned out," I said as I pointed at the worst offenders. "This is wired up all wrong. It bypasses a bunch of safety systems."

"I had to use the wrong part once. Similar, but not quite the same. I could only get it to start right if I bypassed some stuff and I've not had the credits to get my usual mechanic to rewire it all in right."

I sighed as I shook my head.

"Move over." I pushed him slightly, feeling sparks and a crazy desire to make out with him as I got close.

He looked like he might resist at first, but then he scooted over and let me sit in front of it all. Immediately I got to work, pulling out all the wires and unscrewing a bunch of components. As I did, I laid them all out next to me, putting them back how I remembered it ought to look.

It wasn't an area of the ship I was completely sure of, but I was sure enough. I couldn't do a worse job than he'd already had in place, that was for sure.

For the next hour I gave him instruction after instruction as I put everything back the way I thought it ought to be, slotting in my matrix with only a small pang of regret. I was helping my captor, but the truth was I needed to.

He'd taken out so many parts from my own ship and mangled what was left. It would have taken me hours and hours of going over the manuals I had to figure out how to fix it. This was far quicker. And in space, that time could be the difference between getting to a safe harbor or getting attacked.

"There," I finally said as the last wire was connected up. "I'm pretty sure that's right, but I'd run diagnostics just in case."

"That looks a lot better than it did, that's for sure," the guy replied before he got up and hurried through to the cockpit. I hesitated, not sure how long he'd be gone for. I had nowhere to go, but could I buy some time.

Picking up the wrench I considered how much weight I'd need to put behind it to knock out someone like him. Could I hit him hard enough, with enough surprise he didn't just dodge.

I swung the wrench back and forth a couple of times testing the weight and how easy it was to swing.

Yeah, I can do this.