My Crew, the Damned (An FTL story)

Chapter One

The first and smartest thing Naomi did on the ship (to date, smartest that is, not first, obviously) was switch the circuits in the weapons room so the Artemis missile launcher goes second in the reload feed. Saved us a bucket o' scraps on that one, by not needin' to afford missiles every time we stop somewhere for gas, and I loved her for it right then and there. I told Borman that Naomi is a gunner's name.

Borman is my first mate, my financial partner, my oldest friend. The reason that he and I were talking about names belonging to girls is that his wife is in cryo-stasis back home awaiting his return before she gives birth to their bouncing baby girl. They both went into the deal knowing all the risks and with their eyes wide open about the whole thing. They even had a "We'll never see any of you ever again!" party for all their friends and family. Honestly I'm envious of the closeness that allowed them to agree to it.

What most people who join us on this voyage don't immediately realise is… we're planning on going home after we see the mission through. This is not a one way voyage for us. We're in it all the way and even if it takes us a dozen lifetimes each we're staking our lives, our very destinies on our ability to make just one extra special promise and keep it when it counts.

Anyway...

Back to our amazing crewmate of the present Naomi. I told Borman Naomi is a name fit for a gunner because I've seen what girls like her can do. He wouldn't listen to me of course, but then again he never does, so I wasn't surprised.. He insisted on a demonstration and she gave him a hell of a show.

The girl is a natural. You ain't never seen anyone input firing sequences, arrange complicated targeting algorithms and even allocate for spacial drift the way she do and boy-howdy if she don't also do it the quickest I've seen in a while too.

Sorry about the crazy hillbilly speech, that's just me getting overly excited. I love my crew and my crew love my ship.