Before The Storm (Ch. 06)

"Hey old man," the first of the two said to Sketch. "Why don't you buzz off and let us show these ladies a bit of local hospitality?"

"We promise to return'em eventually," the second said, laughing at the first one's joke.

"Yeah, somehow I don't think so, fellas," Sketch replied dismissively.

Send them running with The Fear, Storm Walker. They need to learn to respect a Storm.

'There's no Storm here,' Sketch thought at Rose's voice inside of his head. 'There's only a simple long hauler out enjoying his time off.'

"It wasn't a question you're allowed to say no to, offworlder," the first one snarled.

"This town belongs to the Mayer Brothers," the second one added.

Then you could just use your skills you acquired before you joined the Order. They should not be allowed to disrespect you.

'I've got this handled, Rose. Calm yourself.'

"Oh yeah?" Sketch asked. "Who says?"

"Says us," the second said.

"You couldn't handle these ladies on your best days," Sketch chuckled. "But I'll leave the decision up to them. They don't owe me anything."

"You hear that, doll?" the first one said to Aliara. "I've heard you P'Nox know how to get freaky after a few drinks."

"Mmmm," Aliara said, sliding out of the booth as she stood up, her body larger than even their giant frames. "You'll never get to know, though. I have seen some truly appalling approaches, but you two take the pie."

"Cake," Serena said, sliding out on the other side of the booth. "The expression is take the cake."

"Cake, pie, I don't care what they take as long as it includes themselves away from here," Aliara replied. "They're ugly to look at, and I don't doubt I wouldn't enjoy either of them half as much as I enjoy our captain."

"Then maybe we should encourage them to leave," Serena said.

"Hey now, we ain't goin'-" the first one started to say before Serena snapped a kick, planting her boot straight in the man's stomach, as he suddenly bowled over in pleasure.

The second was about to try and defend his brother, lifting his right hand up to swing as a punch, but Aliara's hand closed around the man's fist, picked him up by it and tossed him across the room until his back slammed against the wooden bar, making it shake.

Sketch was pretty sure he was about to be thrown out of a bar.

Instead, a cheer erupted from the room as a number of people surged around the two giant men, neither of whom could do much to defend themselves, and began to take turns punching and kicking them, all while slowly moving them over to the door of the bar, finally throwing them out as a collective whole.

The server came back with three glasses and a giant bowl of pretzels, a broad smile on his face. "Don't worry about paying," he said to them. "I think just about everybody in the bar agreed to pick up your tab for putting those two lugnuts out on their asses."

Serena and Aliara moved back to slide into the curved booth, one lady on either side of him, each of them moving to nestle up along against his sides. Serena spoke first. "Still feel like you've got control over your ability to project emotions now that you've got your doohickey?"

"I hadn't realized quite how much I'd missed being around people, but yeah, now I've got control over it, we've got loads of places to get to see, places to go, problems to stir up."

"Is that our mission?" Serena asked with a playful grin on her face. "Go places, cause trouble?"

"Might as well be," he chuckled. "But no. It's going to be the same it was before you two stumbled into my life. Keep moving. Stay low. Don't attract attention. Keep busy. Bring things from one place to another for people who need stuff and have money."

"But what's our next stop, Captain?" Aliara said. "I imagine after we've whetted our whistles here, you've got to have some idea of where we go next."

"The next stop is going to be over to the Nobal system," he said with a wry grin. "I've got an appointment that's very long overdue to meet someone who's had a whole lot to say about where I go and what I do, and I think we need to impress upon her some of the new specifics in how we take jobs. For example, I don't have to do everything entirely without meeting clients on either end, and that's going to open us up to all sorts of new contracts. But I'll have to prove that by meeting our fixer."

"You've never met?"

"We've spoken to one another over vidcoms, but never sat down and had a real conversation," Sketch said with a wry smile, picking up one of the pretzels. "And I'm thinking we should go pay her a surprise visit."

"Does she know why you couldn't have meetings?"

"She does," he said with a nod. "She's the only person who did, because I had to trust someone, and I made it a point to tell her that if she ever betrayed my trust, my knife through her heart would be the last thing she'd ever feel."

"Harsh," Aliara said before taking a draw off her drink.

"I just wanted her to know that however she was to me, I would repay in kind," Sketch said, a touch of the old him coming back to the forefront. "If she did right by me, I would keep money rolling in, and would complete the jobs nobody else wanted to touch. If she didn't, well, I was never one to leave my enemies standing when dropping their bodies into a ditch would do just as well."

"When do we head out?" Serena asked.

"We can take a day or two, let you both get a chance to know me and the ship more, and then we can be on our way."

"Oh, did your little doodad turn out to be cursed?" Aliara asked. "Or was that simply paranoia?"

"Let's just say a bit of column A and a bit of column B. But I'll figure out a way to make it work."

Cursed?

She's talking about the rumor of you hearing voices, daughter.

But he is hearing voices. The difference is that they aren't figments of his imagination.

'Either you two quiet down, or I'm going to just to cannibalize your Ashaka to construct a new one, and then where you will be?'

Fine, fine.