Broken Episode One (9 page)

“Umm ... aren’t you a salvager?” Mimi asked in a
falsely light tone.

“That’s right. I am. And I know how bad my kind can
be.”

“That’s comforting.” Though she wasn’t aware of it,
Mimi unconsciously shifted closer to Josh.

He didn’t tell her to get back.

Because he was doing it again. There was danger, and
he was going into protection mode, dropping his usual attitude in
favor of helping her out.

“How long will you be?” Josh asked as he nodded
towards the broken ship down the side of the sand dune.

“An hour, max. Sit back and enjoy the show,
humans.”

With that, the alien saluted, squeezed himself back
into his vehicle, somehow managed to close the door, and gunned the
engine. With a sound like a million swarming insects, the drill
revved up, spinning so fast it became white hot. Then Josh pulled
her back as the vehicle tipped, slid down the sand, and plunged
back into it.

She watched in astonishment as the broken transport
suddenly lurched to the side, the sound of screeching metal filling
the air.

Out of the sand, she saw more drill vehicles as they
rammed into the transport’s hull, eating into it as sparks escaped,
dancing over the sand and leaving tiny swathes of singe marks.

Once the drills heated up to a blistering red-white,
they started to melt the metal of the hull. As they did, great big
pumps on either side of the drill head would suck in the molten
metal, turn it into cubes, and spit it out onto the sand.

Mimi had never seen a ship being salvaged, and it
was an incredible sight to watch.

“They’ll
melt down everything
– from
seats to the engine core – and create matter blocks,” Josh suddenly
explained as he shifted beside her and angled his head down to
watch the show.

She was no longer holding onto his arm, even though
she still rather wanted to.

“The pumps on either side of the drill head have
sophisticated matter filters, and can separate the different
elements coming in. They then fuse them together into easily
transportable blocks and spit them out.”

“How do you know so much about salvaging?”

Josh stiffened. He didn’t answer.

Realizing she’d crossed a line, she didn’t push.
Instead she turned back to the show.

She watched as the various drills burst out of the
sand, attacking the downed ship in a coordinated fashion. It was
mesmerizing, and she was almost sorry when the show stopped.

No,
scratch that
– she was sorry
when the show stopped, because now she had to squeeze inside a tiny
drill vessel with Josh and a massive alien.

Soon enough the alien parked his drill back on top
of the dune and pushed open the hatch at the front. “All done,
humans. Get in.”

Mimi made a face. Josh hissed at her not to be rude,
then waved her forward.

Somehow Josh managed to leap up the distance between
the top of the sand dune and the hatch, pulling himself into the
small vehicle and arranging himself until he somehow looked
comfortable.

Mimi really didn’t want to get in there.

“Hurry up,” Josh snapped at her.

“But what about Klutzo, I don’t think he can fit
in?”

“Program him to fly behind us. Now hurry up!”

With a squeak, she moved. In an uncoordinated
manner, she somehow managed to pull her body into the tiny, cramped
cockpit, practically rolling over the alien until she reached one
of the walls. She was lodged there, sandwiched between the metal,
the alien's back, and Josh’s side.

She could only just breathe; her face was so
smooshed into the wall, her nose was crumpled.

“Comfortable?” The alien asked.

“Ah, what am I sitting on?” Mimi tried to shift, but
there was nowhere to move to.

“My arm,” Josh announced as he tried to push her
off. Eventually he managed to slide his arm out from underneath
her, and stuck it behind the back of her neck instead. There was
literally nowhere else to put it apart from back under her
butt.

She took a breath and tried to pretend this wasn’t
as uncomfortable as it very much was. She also tried to ignore the
reassuring feel of Josh so close.

Without another word, the alien turned his salvage
vessel back on, and a series of terrible tremors passed through the
cockpit. With her face squeezed up against the wall, she felt each
shake rattle through her jaw.

Then the drill shifted direction and slammed back
into the sand.

Mimi would have been thrown forward, but there was
literally nowhere to go.

“So, what brings you two out to this neck of the
woods? Honeymoon?” The alien asked conversationally.

“Who would honeymoon on Omacka?” Josh questioned
with a chuckle.

“Ah, we are not married,” Mimi jumped in.

She swore Josh shifted his head around to look at
her.

She couldn’t look up to check, but she could feel
his arm move behind her.

“What, really? So when’s the happy date?” The alien
continued. “Because, you know, we have some real cheap celebrants
in town. There’s even an ex cargo captain who’ll marry you for a
bottle of space whiskey.”

“We are not getting married,” Mimi squeaked.

“Oh. Fair enough. It’s not for everyone. De facto
relationships are just as rewarding,” the alien chuckled.

“What?
No, we aren’t
—” Mimi
began.

“What my girlfriend here is trying to say is that
we’re very anti marriage. We view it as nothing more than property
exchange,” Josh cut in.

“I hear you, I hear you,” the salvager agreed.

Mimi found the space to turn and stare at Josh.
“What are you doing?” She mouthed.

Despite the cramped quarters, he somehow still
managed to look aloof. “Trust me,” he mouthed back.

She did not want to trust him, but when she opened
her mouth to clarify the situation, Josh deliberately banged her on
the head with his arm. “So, what’s your name?” He asked the
alien.

“Hogartiynu’tkauquo Fok’yaayayaya,” the alien
said.

“I’m going to call you Hogart for short, then,” Josh
said. “What are our chances of booking a transport off this
planet?”

“There’ll be a trader or two willing to take you in
their cargo ships,” Hogart said jovially.

“Cargo ships ...” Josh swallowed through a laugh.
“Not exactly the most comfortable transports.”

“Anything’s got to be better than that damn Class Y
tug,” Mimi interrupted.

Josh looked at her and slowly raised an eyebrow.
“What about a Class Omega transport?”

“That’s not a thing ... is it?”

He nodded knowingly.

She pressed her lips into a line and groaned.

“So, what are your names?” Hogart asked.

“Josh and Claire,” Josh answered quickly.

Claire? Did she look like a Claire?

“You know, Claire, you look kind of familiar,”
Hogart pointed out.

“She gets that a lot. She just has one of those
faces, I guess,” Josh said with a chuckle.

“Nah,
it’s more than that,” Hogart continued. “You look like ... it’s on
the tip of my tongue ... ah yeah, Mimi Chester. Which is kind of a
coincidence, considering she was on the passenger manifest for that
transport
– but you said your
name is Claire, right?”

Josh acted.

Without another word from the alien, Josh flung
himself forward and wrapped his arms around the guy’s massive green
throat.

Mimi screamed. “What are you doing?”

“He’s trying to kidnap you, idiot. Salvagers don’t
just go after downed ships,” Josh stuttered through breaths.

Hogart was thrashing around, trying to get to the
stun gun at his side. But Josh was somehow stronger. Despite the
fact he wasn’t in armor, and the alien was easily three times
bigger than him and a heck of a lot fleshier, Josh kept his grip
around the guy’s neck.

Hogart tried to ram Josh against the wall, but Josh
took the blows.

Through it all, Mimi was pressed up against the back
of the cockpit, her hands over her head.

Then there was a clatter.

The gun.

She forced her eyes open, and flung herself forward,
grabbing the gun just before the alien could reach for it with one
of his massive hands.

Though she got the gun, the alien grabbed her arm.
His grip was crippling, his fingers digging into her flesh like
vises.

Just as Hogart squeezed hard enough to break her
arm, she managed to squeeze off a shot.

She expected a standard pulse beam to slice out of
the gun and into the alien.

That is not what happened.

Instead, a bullet bounced out of the chamber. One
that proceeded to bounce around the cockpit like a pinball attached
to a rocket.

“No,” Josh screamed as he barreled into her, knocked
the gun from her hand, and slammed her against the only patch of
floor. He protected her with the bulk of his form, wrapping his
arms around her head.

There
was an unholy noise as the bullet kept ricocheting off the walls. A
couple of times, it hit her in the leg and arm. It didn’t kill her
though, nor did it stun her
–
it simply rammed into her with all the, well, force of a speeding
ball of metal.

Despite the fact she was hit, Josh was hit more; she
could feel the ball impacting his back.

Neither of them suffered as bad as Hogart. With his
sheer size, there was no getting away from the bullet.

Eventually she could feel him slump forward, and
about a half minute later, the ball stopped. Clanging into the wall
with one final thrust before falling to the floor, its momentum was
spent.

Josh pulled himself up.

She had no idea what had just happened.

Without a groan, Josh thrust forward, checked Hogart
was down, and leaned past his massive form to access the navigation
panel. With a few typed commands, the drill reversed direction and
soon burst out of the sand. Before the drill died down, Josh kicked
open the hatch door, and proceeded to shove Hogart out.

Mimi was still speechless.

“A hand would be nice,” Josh groaned as he pushed
his shoulder into Hogart and hefted the guy towards the hatch.

Mimi didn’t move.

With one last groan, Josh shoved the alien out of
the hatch. The massive guy fell onto the sand, where his body
proceeded to sink about 30 centimeters before stopping with a soft
scattering sound.

“What ... what ...” she tried to speak.

“What happened?” Josh jumped down from the hatch to
check on Hogart. “You fired a bruiser in a confined space. You
could have killed us both.”

“Bruiser?” She stuttered as she staggered out of the
digger, falling to her knees and sinking into the sand.

“That bullet. It sends a ball of metal hurtling
around a room until the thing runs out of momentum. It’s called a
bruiser, because that’s what it leaves. It’s a great way of
clearing a room full of enemies. It is, however, the last thing you
should fire in closed confines.”

He looked at her very sternly, but she was still too
shocked to care.

With a pathetic sound, she brought her hand up and
checked her arm and leg. They felt bruised alright.

“Don’t whimper, it can’t be that bad,” Josh
admonished her, “I took most of the blows. Well, the ones our
friend here didn’t take.” Josh motioned to Hogart with the tip of
his boot.

“... Thanks,” she forced herself to say.

“Yeah, I should imagine you’re thankful. Without me,
you would have been kidnapped.”

Mimi felt cold. She shivered, despite the heat. “But
... Hogart seemed so nice to begin with. And you trusted him enough
to let us ride with him.”

Josh’s left eyebrow kinked up. He was clearly
amused. “Trusted him? I never trusted him. I kind of figured this
would happen,” Josh admitted.

“What?”

“It was always a possibility.”

“So why did you let us get on board?”

Josh shrugged. “I figured I could take him if
anything happened, then we could take his vessel.”

“But,
but
—”

“Taking our chances with him was preferable to
trundling through the desert, trust me on that. Now get back in.”
He motioned to the digger with a flick of his head. “We want to
make it to the city before dark.”

Mimi was flabbergasted.

“Mimi, please just get back in here.”

Though she wanted to turn on her heel and walk away,
she found herself boarding the sand driller instead. She did shoot
him a very peeved look as she sat down and crossed her arms.

“You know, that look really suits you; it brings out
the purple tones of your spray-on skin,” Josh quipped.

“You know, I don’t get you, Special Commander.”

“What’s not to get?” He didn’t bother turning to her
as he sat in the command seat and manipulated the driller’s
controls.

“One minute you go from the galaxy’s greatest prick
to being almost kind and sweet.”

Josh spluttered. “Kind and sweet? Trust me, I have
never been kind and sweet to you, and I never will. Now sit down
and shut up; I want to make it to the city as quickly as we
can.”

“What do we do when we’re there?”

“Stick together, watch each other’s backs, and pray
Hogart doesn’t have a brother.”

Stick together? Did Josh actually mean that? Or was
he going to do it again? Get them both out of trouble, then return
to being a world-class meany?

...

It took about 20 minutes to make it to the city.
Mimi was quiet throughout the trip. Though a part of him wanted to
check on any bruises she’d sustained, that part was quickly
quashed.

She was starting to irritate him again, which was
surprising considering she wasn’t doing anything.

It was her mere presence, her very existence. She
stood for everything he loathed, all wrapped up into one mouthy
little package. The sooner they got off this planet the better.