Kismet by Watts Martin

Author:Watts Martin [Martin, Watts]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Science Fiction, Furry
Publisher: Argyll Productions
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Gail picked Kingsolver Repair for Kismet because they did the initial inspection for her when she bought the ship, and also because she doesn’t know any other repair shop here by name. New Coyoacán and Panorica are two of only three ports on the River with privately-owned repair bays by the docking facility. Anywhere else, you either pay to have a crew come to you or drag into one of a few dozen free-floating stations, mostly ones that double as salvage yards. She knows all of them by reputation and most of them through direct business.

Her regular mechanic’s damn good, but his place always looks like the aftermath of a comet strike. By comparison, Kingsolver’s bay looks supernaturally neat. Every tool has its assigned place, all of them are in good shape, and judging by the display she’s looking at—an overlay that stays perfectly matched to Kismet while she’s looking through a physical window at the real craft—they’re state of the art. None of this bodes well for her bank account.

“So we’ve melded in new inner hull sections here and here,” a mechanic’s telling her. The mechanic is a coyote totemic, lithe and beautifully androgynous. Tan and warm gray fur pairs with an iridescent red undercoat that shifts and shimmers mesmerizingly as they move. They move an awful lot. Is the red natural, or a dye? Probably not appropriate to ask, and definitely not appropriate to keep staring.

The coyote points at the appropriate areas of the overlay as they speak, each section lighting up when their claw tip touches the virtual space. “The new plates for the outer hull have been printed, but they’re not out of verification yet.” Their voice is a melodious alto. Walking to the rear side of the display/ship, the mechanic touches near the exhaust port. “And, we found fractures in the exit cones of nozzles two and three. We’ve taken care of those already.” Despite being in overalls laced with the scent of machine oil, there’s faint undertones of lavender and some other herb, like they’ve used a nicely perfumed cleaning powder.

“What caused them?”

“Might be just a mix of normal wear and tear and the banging up that you took on your way here. You know, I’ve never worked on a ship that was attacked by pirates before.”

“I’ve never piloted a ship attacked by pirates before.”

“Did they know who you were?”

What? They knew her ship had the databox on it, but—right, that’s not what the coyote means. “I don’t know, but it wouldn’t have mattered. They weren’t after me, they were after my cargo.” And from the way things are looking, if they did know, that would just have been more of a reason to attack, not less.

“Still. That’s…that’s so…” The coyote shakes their head. “I shouldn’t expect pirates to have much of a conscience, huh?”

“No, they’re with whatever gets them the biggest payout.” She shrugs. “And, look, I’m just the daughter of somebody who’s famous here. And famous on Solera for the opposite reason. Go anywhere else on the River, though, and they won’t have heard of my mom, much less me.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.