Incursion: Merkiaari Wars Book 5 by Mark E. Cooper

Author:Mark E. Cooper [Cooper, Mark E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Publisher: Impulse Books UK
Published: 2016-12-12T07:00:00+00:00

24 ~ Eternal Friends

Bountiful Luck, approaching (427) Hoskin, Argo System

Captain Burton thumped the droid on the bucket of bolts she called a head. “Get your noggin out of the net, Hannah, and help me here!”

The droid glared, but then, she always did. She didn’t have a face and eyelids. Her eye assemblies had failed years back, and he’d made do with some cheap replacements. They were too big for her head. The ship always came first on shopping trips, and parts for Hannah’s model were hard to find.

“You awake now?” he said, as he headed for the vac-suit locker.

Hannah swivelled the pilot’s couch to follow his movement. “This unit is incapable of sleep. If you’re referring to my current status, I can report that my power cell is at 83% of capacity.”

“It always is,” Burton muttered. She was on charge all the time; she needed a new power converter. “I wasn’t asking.”

“How may I serve you today, Captain?”

That form of request was a holdover from her days as a bank clerk. She didn’t use it often anymore. He’d put a lot of time into upgrading her software, and one of those was an addition to her vocabulary module. She could do a hell of a lot more than give good backtalk these days. She could pilot the ship, make basic meals, and even join him on EVA. Hannah and he were a team. All of her mods let them work together in the black for longer. She was the perfect partner. She didn’t eat, sleep, or breathe, and that meant they didn’t need to resupply as often as other independents.

Amalgamated Mining, the only deal in town willing to buy from the smaller outfits, turned a blind eye toward him flying solo. Hannah didn’t count as crew, except to him. They cared about the quality of the ore he brought back, not the safety regs he pretty much ignored. The other independents thought him crazy for cutting so many corners. Out alone in the black too long, they said. Maybe so, but he owned his ship, while they were still in hock to various banks. And how did he manage that? By running solo, that’s how.

“Overheads, Hannah,” he said over his shoulder, and dragged the suit out of the locker. “Keep ’em low. Remember that.”

“Keep ’em low, aye,” Hannah replied. “Like your balls, Captain.”

Burton snickered. He still got off on her doing that. He’d programmed her to be his helmswoman, and act just like Zelda’s pilot on her show. Shortcut, Zelda’s pilot, had a mouth on her, but she was great. She always had Zelda’s back when things got sticky, and that’s what he needed from his Hannah.

Dependability.

He had the definitive collection of Zelda and the Spaceways in his apartment. Every show, and every sensim; all of them glorious full-sensory simulations. He had his own rig, and spent a lot of time with Zelda on her ship. He liked Shortcut’s character, because she loved Zelda as much as he did. Hannah was his version of her.

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