Before The Storm (Ch. 09)

"It isn't," Jez cut him off quickly. "You going to demand to know our secrets?"

"I need to know what I'm protecting you from."

"Who says you'd be protecting us from anything?"

"According to your mom, I'm probably protecting you from yourselves."

"Your mom's not wrong," Lara said as Jez rolled her eyes. "Jez has PTSD, so she's been using carabel to manage that, but you know how careful you have to be with that for it to not slip into addiction, I imagine."

"I've met some carabel addicts in my time," Sketch said.

"Yeah?" Jez sneered. "Well, I ain't one. I'm using it for its given purpose and never more than I need as determined by a licensed physician."

"I thought doctors weren't supposed to self-medicate," Sketch said.

"Well, I thought all the Storms were supposed to be dead, so here we are," Jez grumbled. "I've had a couple of episodes where I overdid it, but mostly I've got it in check, and when I don't, Lara knows how to call me on it and dial it back."

They made their way up to the bridge, Sketch still not finding either of his two crew members there, to his annoyance. "And you, Lara? What have I got to worry about in your background?"

"Nothing you don't already have to worry about, sir," Lara said. "If you're trying to keep your background from getting noticed, doing the same thing for me should be easy enough. I don't want the Starless Dominion looking at me too intently either. I'm certain they wouldn't recognize me on sight, but if they needed to do a bit of digging, they'd probably stumble across a past where they'd much rather I was dead than alive."

"Any reason in particular?" Serena said as she and Aliara walked onto the bridge.

"Your majesty!" Lara said, dropping to one knee, lowering her eyes. "I had no idea you were still alive! Larana Cherinum Pizzicato, at your service. I was one of the transport ship pilots for the House of Sanada, but we were, of course, familiar with all the royal houses."

Serena looked at Lara with caution in her eyes, something he was pleased to see. "And who was your shift captain?"

"Captain Andreesan, ma'am."

Serena looked up at Sketch and nodded. "I say we give'em a shot."

"Very well," Sketch said. "You're now 'auditioning crew members.' That means you technically work for me, so you best treat me as the captain first and foremost all the damn time. I hesitate to describe our next mission as a milk run, because that means we'd be guaranteed all sorts of complications, but as it stands, it's supposed to be light in difficulty. We've got to go pick up a pregnant woman on one planet, smuggle her offworld and over a few planets to she can have the baby, then return her, sans baby, to where we got her. Should be a decent test of both your abilities. Let's get skyward, then."

There was a moment where everyone just stood still, except Sketch, who sat down in the captain's chair. Then it dawned on them, and Lara scooted over to the pilot's console. A few minutes later, they were bathed in stars again and on their way.