“Gorram landings.” Ednali grumbled as she stumbled out of the ship. Behind her, walking in even confident strides, Cory (Cor) Robins whistled while spinning his hand gun. On his shoulders was a cylinder case that was about a meter long. Reaching out with one of his long arms, he steadied his captain before letting her go. His thanks consisted of more grumbling and a wave of a hand. “Nali, you’ve been flying for nearly a year now. Think that sickness should be bearable.” Cor said with a smile. “I’ll get use to it as soon as you quit feeling guilty about running with me.” She snapped. His smile was wiped off and he looked to the horizon. “We’re going to need another hand in this job.” He stated, changing the subject. Nali must have been really stressed out to bring up that topic. It was something that neither one of them liked to talk about. Her with her righteousness and him with his guilt made them a nasty pair. “Gorrammit. We’re going to need a middle man again. I hate that gou sai. You sure? I mean, we could always get Deliah to come. She’s badass to pull it off.” Cor only gave his captain a roll of his eyes at her suggestion. Deliah was badass, but she was needed to restock the groceries and to get Nothing Man’s list of parts. Personally, it would be better if they could just get a permanent gunman, but the problem lies with the fact with little Ally. A regular hire hand would be too crude for the little girl to live with. Plus they might loose Paulie and no one would want that for sure. “So Hayes?” His captain gave him an ugly look. “Who else? He’s the only asshole who knows about us.” He raised his hands to pacify his friend. His captain was a prickly sort of girl. Cor watched her check her weapons, two little pea shooters hidden with a latch underneath her jacket sleeves and the nice large revolver that she used mostly for show. His own stash of arms was more impressive then hers and he could handle the bigger guns with ease. Not that Nali was a bad shot – in reality she was just as good as him, problem is she can’t handle the big stuff too well. The recoil on the weaponry was always her weakness. And she sucked at loading. “Hey! Captain!” They both turned to see Deliah looking at them with her hand on her hips. Sally was also with her looking cute with her blond curls and wearing something nice that consists of a white blouse and a blue vest and jeans. “I swear that hag has it out for me.” Nali muttered as she turned to scowl at the elderly female. “What?! I swear I gave you most of the money from the breadbox!” “I ain’t yelling you for that! I need you to buy some caraway in that little town you’re heading to. This town has it over priced here.” “Gorrammit hag! Why the living heavens should I?” Ednali roared. The little temper tantrum did nothing to phase the elderly woman. In fact she just rolled her eyes before getting into one of the two mules. “I was planning to make some curry, but if the captain is too – “ “It better be the best curry if I’m to get your stupid spice.” The captain interrupted quickly. Cor hid his smile as he saw the triumphant look on Deliah’s face. No matter what was said, Nali was always led by her gluttony of food. “Stay safe you two! Don’t forget about them jumpers!” Sally called out with concern. “You mean they better be aware of us. Cor here is enough to take them out.” Nali bragged. “Too bad we can’t say the same about a certain midget captain.” Deliah retorted. The captain pretended to be deaf. “What?! Cor you hear that? Sounds like we need to get moving.” With that, Ednali jumped into the other mule and began to power up the engines. With a nod to both women and a wink to Sally, Cor jumped to the back and they took off, riding off to the east. _______________________________________________________________________ Deliah Jones sighed as she carefully examined the produce in front of her. Sally was currently looking at a batch of apples with longing. The elderly woman just smile before giving a nod. It would do some good to have a peck of apples before they leave. “You know, I just don’t understand why the Captain is always insisting on hiring outsiders. It’ll be good to have someone permanent to work for us.” Sally said with a frown. “Child, you know that people like them are dangerous for us. They think nothing but money and only money. No loyalty those gun folks got.” She answered absently. “But still! Captain can’t count on Cor all the time. Cor is only one man and Captain is counting on him to be an army for her.” The nurse protested. Deliah chuckled at that. Everyone in the ship knew the pretty nurse was head over heels for Cor except for Cor himself. The midget captain loved the drama and teased both of them. One would think that with all her teasing, they would have gotten together. “Our midget captain maybe useless in most things, but she’s a good judge of character. Do you really think that there’s someone in this ‘verse that can accept a job on the Murosaki? Also, you think there’s such a person with good gun hand and is willing to behave themselves in front of a child like Ally? Child, you are naïve and sweet.” Sally gave a heavy sigh at that. “Still would be nice if we could. The last job, Cor got shot protecting the Captain. We had to spend three weeks without jobs so he could heal.” Deliah turned and placed a firm hand on the younger female’s shoulder. Giving her a comforting squeeze, Deliah let go to pick the potatoes. “When we find someone good enough, Captain will hire them.” ___________________________________________________________________________ “So, you got someone for us?” Ednali kept the small smile on her face while her mind was raging on several different ways to torture the fat pig of a man. Franklin Hayes was the one middleman willing to hire spare gunmen for her. That was because he was the only middleman around. Being in the Black was hard to make connections in her work and it was easier to get hired gunmen and kinda of cheaper. Although it would be nice to have someone more permanent. She was not a fool when it came to her crew. There was a silent pressure from the others to hire someone as part of the crew with as much combat experience as Cor. Her good friend just got shot nearly a month ago and it sucked. Especially when it was to protect her. Stupid man and his honor thing. Right now she would give anything to have a crew member with a good gun hand. With Hayes with his stupid smile that screamed out ‘I’m going to cheat you’, Ednali felt that it was time to find some help on her own. “Got someone good. He’s a bit new, but trustworthy to the bone. Give me an hour to get him ready to go.” “That’s mighty kind of you. We’ll be at the King’s Crown.” She said and politely shook his hand. Cor was silent throughout the whole transaction and he did not say anything until they were a good two blocks away. “I stuck that transmitter for you.” “Good. Nothing Man will give us the 411. Can’t be too careful now.” She said lowly. He nodded at her. “I’m feeling a bit down right now, Nali.” “Stomach ache?” “More like a bit of a bug.” “You should go back and get yourself a nice big shot.” Ednail said with a raised eyebrow. “I believe you’re right. No point in contaminating the merchandise.” Cor gave a nod at that before he walked towards the mule. He’ll get it back to her in no time. ____________________________________________________________________ TBC