Knew Hayden came back for me early, half of the cargo he was supposed to be selling was still in the cargo bay when I went down to check. They'd cut their trip by more'n a day to come fetch me, and truth to tell was probably a good thing since I was about ruttin' crazy by the time I docked with the boat. The autodoc in the small infirmary scanned me, and I winced as three long needles stabbed into my arm, leg and rump delivering radiation meds. I was sick as a dog, kept throwing up anything they tried to get me to eat, and I was waiting for my hair to start falling out. As I stared at the dark circles under my eyes and the outline of my ribs through my clothes, a wave of nausea hit along with a bit of vertigo making me hate the Alliance just that much more.
"You look a fright Malcolm," Milly said with her Dyton Colony accent drawing my attention away from my own reflection. She was dressed in coveralls with a smear of engine grease runnin' down one of her ruddy cheeks. She was a round woman, had to wonder how she got beneath the engine sometimes, but she was one hell of a mechanic.
"Not sure what's worse Ma'am," I said with a shrug as I leaned against the bulkhead while I tried to pretend I felt better than I looked. "The radiation sickness or the meds can't seem to keep nothin' down for long."
"Caught a bad dose once me self," she said reaching out to drag me towards the galley. "Only thing I could keep down was good tea and biscuits. I made some just last night, the biscuits that is, while you were asleep. Thought we could have a spot of tea and some."
"I should get back to work Ma'am."
"Don't be an ass, Reynolds," I heard Hayden bellow towards us from halfway down the gangplank towards the bridge. "When my darlin' wife offers to share her good tea and biscuits with you, you go. Don't need you pukin' all over the place anyway. Have plenty for you to do when we get to Persephone."
"Yes sir," I mumbled letting Milly drag me along like an only slightly reluctant puppy. "He yelled at me." I'd never heard Hayden Phillips ever raise his voice before.
"That's because 'e likes you Malcolm." She set a plate with a pair of fluffy layered biscuits in front of me, they were nothing like the spoon dropped kind my mother used to make. These were like fine pastry by comparison. Next to the plate she set down a tub of what might have been real butter and a pot of fresh hot tea that smelled of oranges and spice. "We both like you dear. Need to take better care o' yourself though."
"I know," I watched as she poured creamer into her tea while I held my hand over mine to keep it black. "Just need to find a reason is all. I'm kind of lost Milly. I got nothin' left."
"Course you do Malcolm," she picked up one of my biscuits and spread butter between the layers and shoved it into my hand. Was a bit surprised she didn't shove it into my mouth. "Someday you'll find peace and your reason will come clear. You won't be lost forever luv. You're too strong a person to fall into the dark for long."
"I hope so." I took a bite of the biscuit. It was flaky, light and tasted of home.
"You're welcome to stay with us, long as you like you know?"
"I know," I swallowed the biscuit, washing it down with the tea that was strong, but tasted damned good. Quite an improvement over the protein bars and whiskey I'd been living on down on Shadow. "Just not sure this is the place. I think I need my own home. I was supposed to have a ranch and a family when the war was over."
"All you got to do luv is pull that pretty head out o' your ass and keep those blue eyes open 'til you find your place Malcolm." She chuckled at the surprised look on my face. "So two firsts for you today, got to hear Hayden bellow and me swear. See things are lookin' up for you."
The biscuits seemed to settle my stomach a bit, and the tea had enough caffeine to get my brain working again. Even my ass felt a might better now that I'd pulled my head out of it. Milly had insisted that I take the rest of the day off, but I just couldn't sit in my bunk. I tried reading, but The Corsair just wasn't holding my interest. What did that Byron guy know 'bout pirates anyway? I shoved the book back in my footlocker, and went over to the box of vids that my cabin mate had.
Don't know what I was thinking really, there wasn't anything but porn in there. If I wasn't interested in classic Old Earth literature, I sure as hell weren't interested in porn. There must have been over a dozen vids in that box. Why would you need more than a couple? Wasn't as if there were different plotlines. Man sees girl with big breasts. Man does girl with big breasts. Man does girl with big breasts with his friends. Man does girl with big breasts with his friends and her friends…
I was shoving the box back beneath Jamie's bunk when the whole ship took a jolt that knocked me off my feet. I landed back against my own bunk with a stripe of pain running across my lower back that was going to be a crowing touch to all the rest that was wrong with me. I grabbed my gun, and climbed up the ladder to the deck as fast as I could as the ship took another hit.
Thick oily steam was spraying into the passage that ran between the crew quarters from a cracked pipe making the whole section of the ship hot and cutting the visibility to nil. I tried the coms, but got nothing but static. The lights flickered after we took another hit, and I ran towards the bridge fast as I could.
"What the gorram hell's goin' on!" I shouted when I ran into Jamie who was trying to repair a broken wire bundle that ran along the wall. The whites of his eyes were huge round his brown eyes. I could almost taste the fear coming off of him in waves. "Who's shootin' at us?"
"Reavers Mal!" Jamie cussed at he took a little shock from one of the wires. "There's a pair of Reaver ships out there, and they aim to eat us."
"But we ain't near Reaver space," I checked to make sure that I had enough ammo to make sure anyone tried to eat me didn't have no face left to do it.
"Hayden took a short cut, since he needs to get us to Persephone. We're late with our cargo, and he had to make up the time." Jamie didn't add that we were late because of me, but I filled in that part all on my own just fine.
I rushed towards the bridge. Should've probably headed for the docking port to make sure they hadn't latched on to us, but I had to see what was going on with my own two eyes. I was kind of habitual about that sort of thing, always had to see it for myself. I almost jumped up the steps to the bridge. Hayden was flying like a mad man; the ship was spiraling and darting about like a hummingbird to get away from the Reavers.
"Where's Walter?" I asked as I slipped into the co-pilot seat where Walter should have been.
"Do you see him Malcolm?" Hayden let out a string of Chinese curses that might even have made Jamie blush. "The bastard quit on Greenleaf when I said I was headin' back to pick you up 'fore we went on to Persephone."
"So I'm the closest thing you got to a co-pilot?" I strapped in as the ship took another blast. As the belt clicked into place I looked down at the controls, saw that what shields we still had weren't going to last too much longer. "Which ain't sayin' much Hayden. I can barely fly a shuttle."
"Then I guess it's time for you to learn Malcolm. Get on the cortex, send out a distress call. They're jamin' us, and I can't break through that and fly at the same time. See if there's an Alliance ship close enough to save our fine asses from the fire."