Chameleon in Chrome Ch. 06

Once I was grown up, I decided that I didn't want to live where I'm the brightest thing going, since it makes for a really boring life and I'm the kind of girl who likes to have a guy to talk with after the sticky part. Not a lot like that where I'm from. They just want to jab you and then leave – and by then, that's about all I want from them too.

There isn't really a human name for what I am, since no human biologist ever came there to give us a Latin species name. That vampire shit is something that Maria the dirty cop cooked up to instill fear of us. I don't even fit in with the others a little like me, besides being another female for the males to chase after, so I don't have much to do with them. They don't trust me much anyway, since I'm half human.

I've never fit in anywhere.

Anyway, there was a probe ship that came, and it actually landed almost in front of where I lived, so I ran out in the freaking sunshine with my eyes almost closed and I stood there jumping up and down and waving my arms for a while until the pilot noticed me.

She took me with her, since I begged her to and she was on her way back anyway. She helped me a lot along the way by teaching me so that I could speak better.

A few months later, I was on one of those big moving bases that they've got and I joined up after they matched some of my DNA to what was on record from my father. Nobody took me very seriously, though.

I opted for a strike pilot slot, but they routed me for offensive weapon suite operator on a bigger bird after flight training – even though I've got faster reflexes than any human walking – their equipment just showed error messages, since I'm faster that they're designed to handle. All that got me was a slot on a craft with a crew who wouldn't speak to me much.

I hated every minute of it.

One day, there was a murder on the base and I blundered in through the door just as the creep was arranging things to look like a one of us had done it. There were two others; one in the kitchens and one in the laundry as non-mil service staff. Since the victim was the only person on that whole thing who'd been at least a little friendly to me, it pissed me off, but she pulled out her phone and her gun and dialed the meat-heads.

Before I could blink, I was in cuffs and as it turned out, the murdering bitch had done it for a little fun and recreation. She was also one of the lead criminal investigators, so you know who got to work the case against me.

When they began their hearings, I yelled and screamed that I was innocent, but you know how far that got me. The next hearing, I sang a different song, wanting to speak to the ombudsman – that they didn't have – so I asked about forensic evidence – and there was nothing that pointed to me definitively, no matter what that bitch Maria said.

But she hung enough ribbons and decorations so that they couldn't say that I was innocent either, since there was evidence that I had been there and knew the dead guy enough to have been intimate with him. Just another couple of nails in my coffin, from their point of view.

Well, he'd been the closest that I ever got to having a real boyfriend, not that there was all that much of a relationship. He was better than the males where I come from, though.

Anyway, they finally tried to pin me with 'Conduct unbecoming an Officer', though I was still just a cadet, officially, since I'd joined off-world and my time wasn't up yet. They couldn't make that stick over a technicality, and they still hadn't proven that I was guilty of murder.

But Maria saw her chance and she got them to hand me a dishonorable discharge and then she convinced them to dump me here, since by then, they were tired of the whole thing.

I'd never even heard of the place and I sure didn't want to come here.

But she wasn't done with me yet by a long shot. The reason that she had them toss me out here is because she'd decided to leave the service and this dump is where she was born and grew up.

To cut down on travel, since we were in the area anyway, they accelerated her release request.

So guess who got dropped off here with me?

She got a job in Security as a cop and was promoted real quick to be an investigator based on her military record – which is probably as phoney as her calling us vampires, but every so often, she cooks up some 'evidence' belonging to a crime.

Like if another vampire kills somebody, she makes sure that nothing is done, but she's holding the cards which point to me having done it."

Mischka chuckled bitterly, "I bet I've killed twenty people and more that I've never even seen, let alone hurt in any way. Those killings never even get much more than a really fast crime scene checkover – by Maria herself, of course. All that she does is use me for her bedtime toy and kick me around. One of these days, I'm gonna kill her myself and then they can do whatever they want to me."

She turned to head for the shower, "Sorry about the bedtime story. Now you know most of my useless life, I guess."

As soon as they heard the sound of the water running, Taela began to make a case for Michska to stay with Shorty adding his two cents when he could find an opening.

Ryan held up his hands, "Whoa, slow down. She can stay for a couple of days while whatever this is dies down. I think I'll need to talk to her anyway. If she can handle a weapons suite, there's a chair for her right over there. But I'm not going to just say that she's in right off the bat, since we don't really know her yet.

I'm thankful that she helped you, and," he smiled, "she even sounds like she'd fit here, so I'm leaning that way anyway. I just want a little time, ok?"

He smiled at them a little playfully, "So you were exotic dancers for a little while, huh?"

It was the wrong thing to say.

They told him that it had been very unpleasant.

Well, not the dancing specifically.

"But there were all these males yelling things at us. I was grabbed a few times pretty hard on the way out, Ryan," Taela said with a disgusted expression as she inspected one breast, looking for any bruising.

"Are all human males like that? There were only a few females that I could see and they were worse – especially to Shorty. I don't think I like it here very much."

Ryan was about to remind her that it had been her idea to go out to see the place and that without him there – since he couldn't be at the time, in the middle of working out a lot of other things which required his attention – she'd managed to wander into the very sort of place that he'd have preferred that she didn't go to. But he bit it back, not wanting to annoy her, seeing that she was still a little upset, mildly scuffed up and drunk.

"No, all of us aren't like that, but this is a crap dive out on the edges, and that tends to attract the rougher types when they get here and want to unwind. How did you get the drinks?"

"They were offered to me," she said with a little defiance as she slapped down the card that he'd given her, "I didn't have to use any of this."

"By uh, men who were doing their best to appear friendly, I'll bet," he suggested quietly and she nodded, not getting it at all.

"You're lucky you aren't lying in an alley, dying of poisoning from a dose of sedative," he said, "Some men like to have really quick relationships."

Mischka walked out of the shower then, toweling herself off, "What's up? Why are you angry, Taela?"

Ryan sighed, "I'd like you to do me a huge favor, Mischka. Could you please explain to Taela that it's not a great idea to accept free drinks from men in a place like where you were?"

Mischka's eyes widened, "You didn't, did you? Is that how you got so blasted? I could hardly hold you up on the way here.

Taela, you never do that, not unless you can see the bartender make the drink and you take it from his hand directly.

Honey, some of those people, ... I get free drinks handed to me all the time, since a lot of them won't take 'no' for an answer and keep insisting. I just set them down and forget about them.

I never touch one of those drinks – ever.

I get the feeling that you don't know enough about a garbage heap like this to even be walking around loose."

She turned to Ryan, "Why weren't you there with them? It's like they're too innocent to be out in a place like that."

"Fuck, I dunno," he groaned, "Why don't you ask Taela or Shorty? She insisted that she was old enough and she wanted to see what humans are like. I told her that this was not the place for that, since she'd only be seeing the worst. I told her that I'd take her after I sorted out the business side of things here.

She left anyway and after I got our cargo sold, I went to the offices here to register the ship because by then I had to. They won't let you come in here with no registration and stay for long. And they sure won't let you do very much business without it. The only reason that they allowed it was due to the value of the cargo and the urgent need to get it into lockup.

While I was out doing that and making sure that the funds got transferred – as well as my back pay, Shorty decided to go look for Taela."

He sighed, looking down and running his fingers through his hair, "I've been here chewing my nails ever since."

Taela looked at Ryan a little accusingly, "You could have warned me."

"I did," he said, turning away, "You weren't listening."

---------------------------------

Ryan brought Mischka the blankets and she wore one around her hips and the other was just draped around her neck, where Taela tried to tuck it in a little where she could.

Mischka used the opportunity to get Taela calmed down a little and she recommended that both of the adventurers drink a lot of water and then try to get some sleep, since it was bound to happen anyway that they'd crash.

Ryan was sitting in his seat, looking at the state of the craft's systems when he felt a hand on his shoulder and he turned his head.

"I'm sorry," Taela said, "As Mischka said it to me, I was being stupid."

He shook his head, "Not stupid, just impatient, that's all. What you did was really dangerous, but you didn't know any better and with all of the pretty lights and the music, I can see how it could have been a lot worse. I'm just happy that you came back alive."

Taela kissed him for a moment and then she wobbled off to her seat for some sleep.

Mischka saw Shorty as he stepped up to her. One look at his face showed her that he was having much the same thoughts that she'd had in her head since she'd seen him on the stage.

They looked rather similar to each other in a lot of ways, though they were from different worlds.

He looked a little uncomfortable.

"He's often a little frustrated over his speech," Ryan said, "Sometimes he has to rely on what to him are slightly childish gestures to get his point across. I know him pretty well, and I'd say that right now, he's wishing for an eloquent way to thank you for your help, and he hasn't got one – at least one which won't take him longer to struggle to get out for fear that you'd lose interest or fall asleep."

Shorty nodded as he looked at Mischka with an embarrassed and sad expression.

She understood and reached to hug him.

"It's alright, Shorty," she said, "I used to be the same way at first."

She drew back and looked at him for a moment, "What helped me was knowing that when I got the chance to apply for military service, I knew that I had to be able to speak clearly. I drove the pilot who picked me up crazy while she helped me to learn."

He nodded, and then he hugged her again.

"I have always been this way," she heard him say in her mind as her eyes opened wide in shock. "I think we are the same, or at least, we are a little like each other. Thank you for helping us and, ... I think that you are more beautiful than any of the females where I come from. I hope that you can understand me."

Mischka pulled her head back and she stared into his eyes for a moment. What he'd done was very rare for her kind, communicating via thought.

She couldn't do it – at least she didn't think that she had the ability for it, so she did her best, trying in another way.

The sounds from her throat then were a quiet mix of growls and inquiring squawks and hisses.

Ryan looked at her and wondered what the fu ...

Shorty began to make similar sounds and then the two of them were chattering to each other and hugging again. When Shorty leaned in and kissed Mischka for just a moment, she hugged him tightly and nodded. He turned and walked to his seat with a confused smile.

"What was that?" Ryan asked, "You two can talk to each other?"

Mischka nodded, obviously happy herself, "Yes. It's not the same dialect, I guess, but there are a lot of the same sounds to it and we can feel the things that can't be said in words. He's really tired now, but I can't wait to talk to him in the morning."

She was silent for a moment until she looked at Ryan, "He has a name and it's not Shorty."

"What is it then?" Ryan asked, but she shook her head.

"I don't know it yet. We're the same in that way too. A name is only given to others like ourselves once we know each other really well.

I'm a little different, I guess. 'Mischka' is the nearest thing to my real name that I could find among human names. My real name sounds very similar, but it's more what we can say and humans can't say it right.

Our names are very secret to us," she said, "I just didn't think that it was important back then. I never thought that I'd ever see anyone like me and I was pretty overwhelmed as it was trying to figure out everything to fit into a culture where knowledge and tools, " she indicated everything around them with a sweep of her hand, "are everything. I come from a place where we get by with our wings and our teeth.

I guess it must be the same for him."

A few minutes later, Ryan asked Mischka to sit in the co-pilot's chair so they could talk with less chance of disturbing the others. They hadn't really gotten started talking about what Ryan saw as an opportunity for her when there was a notification of an incoming call from the security group. Mischka had enough sense to get out of the chair and stand out of the view of the camera which was pointed at Ryan for this sort of thing.

It was a canned message that there had been a murder in the commerce section and that the suspect was at large and that members of the public were advised, etc., etc.

"She's already hanging this thing on me," Mischka said when Ryan motioned that the call was over, "I'll bet she heard a lot of accurate accounts of what happened, but for damn sure she didn't write any of that down. When Maria gets her mind made up, there's no reason to think of looking at facts.

"Was that this Maria character?" he asked and she nodded.

"Oh, that's her aright. My personal walking, talking curse."

Ryan glowered, "I've only had one conversation with her, but I already know that she's got no business being in that job."

He switched off the camera and began to place audio-only calls then, "She's got absolutely nothing that does anything for me, Mischka, but now that I know a little about her, you just can't imagine the incredible need that I feel right now to fuck her."

He turned and leered a little at Mischka, "In a figurative sense, of course."

She nodded, "I already figured that it was um, figurative. What am I going to do now? She's pretty well closing the place down on me, if she's even making these calls to the ships in the bays like that."

"You're going to stay right here, "Ryan said, "I wasn't officially paying attention to the call, so I don't know that I'm harboring a fugitive, do I?"

"You can get yourself in a lot of shit like this, you know," she said.

Ryan grinned, "As of five hours ago, I'm the single richest person on this blob. I sold over five tons of something worth eighteen and a half thousand credits per pound. I think that I can afford a good lawyer if it comes to that.

Speaking of which," he smiled as he began to make notes to himself on a paper pad, "You said that you could run a weapons suite? What's here is really old and it's Morgarod stuff, but most of it answers that it useable when I query the weapons network. I don't have anybody for that chair. You want a job?

I hate to put it this way, but if you say yes, then you work for me and then I can legally invoke the old bullshit about the sanctity of a vessel.

She might be making those calls because she hasn't been able to locate you and she plans to visit every ship to search it. But as owner and commander of this tub, I can refuse to allow it in order to protect my crew and the worst that they can do is kick us out of here – at which point I'll leave without settling the bill, and the port authority here knows that, so they'll probably tell Maria to take a pill.

Murder is one thing, but money is money. Without the prospect of making money, there wouldn't be a soul on this ice cube.

The only way that I'd submit to a search would be if I was ordered to allow it by a military vessel in free space, or a port authority one with a bigger dick than I've got – so to speak.

I've seen the cutter this place uses. I'm not worried – and hey, you'd be the weapons lady then, so you might get to blow her ass to Hell, who knows?"

He watched the slow smile spread across Mischka's face for a moment and it showed him her wicked set of teeth – which he liked about her instantly since they were a little like Taela's like that only a little deadlier-looking, "I already like you. Yeah, I can run it if I can figure it out."

There was a short silence between them until Ryan cleared his throat, "I uh, ... I need to hear you say –"

"Yes," Mischka grinned, feeling a little overwhelmed at this turn.

"Alright," Ryan grinned, "Welcome aboard. On paper, I can't call you a weapons operator, so you'll be our navigator and bodyguard. Do you know your way around the neighborhood, like where the other rocks are and how many there are in this system? Can you help keep my friends out of trouble like they got themselves in? Then you're hired, I'd say."

"What kind of money does it pay?" Mischka asked.

"Well that's the next order of business," he said, "I want to find some way to get Maria off your back permanently," he winked, "so that I can pay you less.

Just kidding," he laughed, "While we're here, I'll cover your costs personally as a thank-you for what you did and for saying yes. Also, you need clothes and things and we need to load up with food no matter what. I've registered us as a light trader, so at some point in the not too distant future, we'll need to try to find something to haul."

Mischka shook her head, "You could make a ton more if you start up as a bondsman and bounty hunter. Out here, there are lots of folks hiding out for one reason or another uh, five. Besides, that gives you all the justification that you need to run armed and even HAVE a weapons suite for me to operate."

It was Ryan's turn to smile, "I like you already, "he said as he mimicked her earlier remark.

"I do have a suggestion – if you're really thinking of going that route, "she said, "I guess it depends on how secure you are in your uh, .. little male world."

"How do you mean?" he asked, looking over.

"Look, Ryan," she said a little earnestly, "I don't care where you sit me during regular travel, but I'd strongly suggest that any time that the shit begins to impact upon the fan blades at an alarming rate – and even before that point, that you give me control of the vessel.

Since you're in the command chair and I assume that you flew here, you know how to pilot something like this, but have you ever had combat flight training?"

He shook his head, "No. I'm just an adventurous and misplaced shuttle pilot. Have you?"