Spaceflights of Fancy Ch. 01

Chapter One: Surviving Armstrong

"Where the hell did he run off to now?" Mimi growled in frustration, only five minutes after leaving the spaceport and somehow she'd gotten separated from her boyfriend!

The white tigress came to another cross street and came to a sudden stop. She spun around in a slow circle, scanning the street for her missing boyfriend. She was more annoyed by the inconvenience than concerned for his well being, truth be told. It might sound cold but Damien disappeared far too often to get worked up about it anymore, they might say curiosity killed the cat, but curiosity was going to get the canine killed by the cat if he kept this up!

"First time in the city, county bitch? Get the fuck out of the way!" Mini's sudden halt caused much chagrin to the stampede of pedestrians moving down the sidewalk. One man pushed angrily past while he cursed her, practically knocking her down. White hot anger filled Mimi, she enjoyed a brief daydream about punching the man right up his smug face, but she swallowed her rage. Getting locked up by Armstrong police would be more than an inconvenience, it could be life threatening. Instead, she trudged forward, trying to focus on the problem at hand. The white tigress walked down the sidewalk, straining her senses trying to find Damien until.

"Mimi!"

Again she froze, pretty sure she'd heard her name, but it was impossible to know who had shouted it, where it had come from, or even if they had been trying to get her attention. The sound of traffic was thunderous, and she was trapped in a sea of human voices; not to mention the various bangs, clangs, and booms of the big city. Then she heard it again, closer. She turned around and saw two gigantic figures effortlessly cutting through the crowd. Dozens of people pushed to the side at a time like she had been moments ago. One woman even narrowly avoided getting hit by a taxi as she was flung into the street. Mimi wondered why the two tall bulls were charging through the street when she saw who they were chasing. "Fuck me..." she cursed.

Damien was in a full on spirit with a look of terror in his eyes. He glanced back and saw the two men gaining on him and doubled his speed. When he reached his girlfriend he grabbed her by the arm and she joined him in their mad dash down the street.

"Damien! What the fuck did you do this time?" Mimi demanded angrily.

"We've got to make it to the ship!" He replied without answering her question.

Mimi checked over her shoulder. No shit! Her anger would need to keep, the two men were still charging at them as hard as they could. Mimi wasn't sure if they were gangsters or law men, which would have been handy information. Blowing away two mob enforcers would be far from ideal, but she would rather shoot herself than get in a shootout on a busy street with two Armstrong police officers! Mimi shook her head, frustrated by her lack of intel... for right now they had to get away from the men and deal with the fallout later.

"No, this way!" She shouted, pulling him right as her boyfriend tried to go straight. Even though Damien had lived in Armstrong, and one would think he would have known the streets better than she did, he'd lived uptown, and uptown was an entirely different world. Damien said nothing, trusting Mimi he followed his girlfriend down the street following her as closely as he could.

Mimi had picked this road because it was a shorter route to the spaceport and the safety of their ship. Mimi didn't know who the men were, but she did know unless they were IGIA agents they wouldn't have the authority to even get past spaceport security, let alone breach the hull of their ship. As a bonus, the street was even more crowded than the street they had just left, and she hoped that a thicker crowd would slow down their pursuers. However, as she checked her shoulder, she knew that wasn't going to work. The pursuers would catch up with them at any moment, and she knew the only way out of this was to fight back. She darted down the next alley, tugging her boyfriend by the arm, and pulled out her laser pistol, which buzzed into life as she flipped the safety to OFF and aimed it at the mouth of the alley.

Mimi was hoping she wouldn't have to shoot the two men. She was hoping they were two bit thugs that would buzz off the moment their victim showed any ability to fight back. If they were cops she hoped that there would be the chance to talk things out before the shooting happened. If they were hardened criminals who couldn't be scared off... well her ten-inch plasma would put them down efficiency and silently. She glanced at her boyfriend, hoping he was on the same page. He wore a worried look and Mimi could tell that Damien wasn't totally on board with the plan but was smart enough to know it was too late to object. He quickly unholstered his sidearm, an 'old word' so called Desert Eagle that was better for show than fighting, lacking the power or shot capacity of her modern firearm. Although its size and mythic reputation did do a good job scaring people off, people that didn't know anything about guns at any rate.

In unison the couple readied for battle, pointing their guns towards the end of the lobby... but nothing ever came until finally the two bulls rounded the corner with their hands up in the air. Brawn and brains... Mimi thought to herself while observing the two men. She had expected the two bovines to charge the alleyway, but instead they had anticipated her ambush. "What do you want?" She growled as menacingly as she could.

"I assume this is your boyfriend?" The older bull said while his partner stared at them through angry, narrowed eyes. Mimi guessed had it been up to the younger thug the four of them would be in a firefight by now. "I figured a pretty girl with a set like yours could do better than a half-breed. Then again, there's nothing money can't buy if you know where to look. Hey rich boy?"

Mimi felt her cheeks grow hot under her fur as the bull referenced her chest. That morning on their ship she had taken advantage of her special abilities and puffed her chest up a few cup sizes and put on her lowest cut shirt. She hated playing the role of a ditzy bimbo with more tits than brains, but she had long since learned that negotiating was much more effective when a shop keep was thinking with his dick more than his brain. A dumb woman caused them to lower their guard, and a pretty woman put them in a much more generous mood. If temporally augmenting her chest and playing the role of the stupid pretty girl saved them a single credit at the market she considered it worthwhile. Lately, as always really, money for them was tight.

"Unfortunately," Mimi said, giving Damien an angry side eye, causing his shoulders to droop and his ears to flatten against his head. "What's he done this time?"

"Not the first time your girl here has had to fish you out of hot water there, pup?" The bull cracked a dismissive chuckle. "You're lucky she's good with a gun." Sensing that Mimi was the one running the show, he returned his attention back towards Mimi. The tigress found herself forming a begrudging respect for the bull. She could tell he was smart, and not least because he seemed to understand her much better than most men. He had spotted the tiger in zebra's clothing.

"Your squeeze here owes me a lot of money." He said with a sneer. "I would have figured that a Jahar would have the cash to pay a bookie. I guess not."

Mimi sighed deeply and hosteled her pistol, confident they were in no immediate danger. Dead men didn't pay debts. The bull smiled while slowly lowering his hands. "Smart girl."

"What's your side of the story, and don't you fucking lie to me." She snarled, addressing her boyfriend while ignoring the quip.

Damien opened his mouth, faltered, and then finally began to speak. He shrugged his shoulders and said. "Back when I was in college I borrowed ten thousand credits thinking I could pay it off when dad sent me my tuition money for the semester."

Damien fell silent when Mimi nodded her head once, she turned her attention back to the bull who also nodded his head. "So ten thousand credits and we're square?"

The bull laughed. "Hardly! He agreed to pay me back fifteen. Plus four years interest? You're talking a hundred thousand credits, sweetheart."

She turned Damien, who helplessly shrugged his shoulders.

"Thirty thousand credits." Mimi said. "Fifteen as per agreed upon, five for interest, and ten just because I like you." The bull opened his mouth as if to laugh and say no, but before he could Mimi threw in one last pitch. "We're a starship crew. By this time tomorrow, we'll be out in the black with no way for you to recover your debts. Sure, it would suck not to be able to return to Armstrong... but there are many nicer places in the galaxy."

A flash of anger appeared on the bull's face as he seemed to take a moment to mull things over. Perhaps he was considering her offer, or maybe he was trying to think of a way out of the corner she'd boxed him in. "Forty."

"Thirty-five, take it or leave it."

"Fine."

"One more thing... we're a little cash poor at the moment. We'll need two weeks to get it together."

"Is this a joke?" The bull was starting to get angry now, and Mimi couldn't entirely blame him.

"No."

There was a tense moment of silence in the air and from the look in the bull's eyes Mimi was starting to doubt whether they were actually safe or not. But finally the loan shark laughed. "You've got balls girl, since I like you, I'll give you your two weeks. Don't think you're safe in that pretty little spaceship of yours though. We've got people everywhere!" And with that he and his younger muscle left the alley.

Mimi let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding while mistrustfully watching the two men leave the alley. The tigress' heart was still pounding in her chest, racing from the frantic pursuit and from a new sense of fear that had fallen over her. Why on earth had her boyfriend borrowed ten thousand credits from a loan shark? Mimi could only stew over this, not wanting to start a relationship ending fight within earshot of the enemy. So, she continued her defensive vigil of the alley for several long moments until she was confident the two men would not be returning until at least she could angrily turn and confront Damien to demand answers!

"What. In. The. Hell! Was that about?" Mimi whispered through clenched teeth.

"I told you!" Damien said, unable to look Mimi in the eye. She wondered if this was because he was embarrassed or had done something worth hiding. The tigress moved her head, but every time she managed to make eye contact with her boyfriend his gaze moved off from hers. The folf almost looked more scared of his girlfriend than the two murderous goons who'd been chasing him. "I borrowed money from them in college and could never pay it back because my dad cut me off!"

"Yes. I understood all that!" Mimi said impatiently, hands clenched into furious fists, and she stomped her foot against the ground for emphasis. "But why did you borrow ten thousand credits from a loan shark? Was this when we were together?"

"Oh..." Damien looked sheepishly down at his feet, looking like a small child getting chastised by his mother. A fitting look... Mimi thought bitterly to herself, moments like these made her feel more like a mother than a girlfriend! "You needed money for books and tuition." He finally continued after a long pause. "I covered most of it out of my pocket, but I didn't quite have enough."

Mimi felt a rush of emotions all at once. At first she felt relieved, she had been horrified that Damien was some sort of compulsive gambler and had been managing to hide that from her this entire time... or worse. Then she felt bad for yelling at Damien. His heart had been in the right place, even if his brain hadn't. Yet, she was no less frustrated with him, for wholesome reasons or not it was monumentally stupid of him to even considered borrowing money from a loan shark! She took a deep calming breath, deciding there was no use crying over spilled milk. They could discuss this later, with the privacy of their ship.

"Come on," Mimi said, grabbing her boyfriend by the shoulder and leading him out of the alley. "Let's get the hell out of here before anyone can jump us in this alley."

Damien perked up, making eye contact with her for the first time. "You aren't mad?"

"I'm not sure if I would say that," Mimi grossed. "But I'll forgive you for it eventually." The answer seemed to placate Damien, and the couple left the alley still a team, more or less. But as they rejoined the never ending mass of humanity that streamed down the streets of Armstrong, she did give a whispered warning. "Stick to my side." She growled in a low voice. "Or I'll get your leash and collar out."

"Is that supposed to be a threat or a reward?" Damien shamelessly teased, his tail even wagging at the thought of wearing a leash in public, mostly because he knew it was an empty threat. Mimi hated public displays of affection or drawing attention to herself in any way. The folf sheepishly looked again and looked away as Mini glared at him. "Yes Mistress."

Mimi just shook her head for a moment. Despite all appearances at times Damien was not stupid. He was one of the best space pilots Mimi had ever seen, and in his areas of speciality such a combat or zoology and horticulture he was probably one of the smartest people she knew! Damien had encyclopedic knowledge of every plant and animal in the galaxy, it felt like and could grow anything on the ship the crew asked him to. However, he'd grown up as the son of a rich man on an expansive farm up north, heavily sheltered from many of life's problems and hard lessons. There were times when he seemed to have all the sense of a kid, especially on issues pertaining to finance. Mimi had been in charge of the ship's accounting since their very first space flight together. Damien had no idea that ten thousand credits was about twice the annual salary of an Armstrong citizen, and his upbringing had made him ill prepared for a life cut off from daddy's money. Still, that made him all the more admirable in Mimi's eyes. It would have been easy to bend a knee to his father and accept a seven-figure job in management at "Black Wing Security Solutions" the military for hire Sarnak Jahar III ran. Instead, he had chosen to follow his passion and become a space explorer, part of the reason this relationship with his father was so strained.

"Good boy." She said with a smile, quickly patting Damien on the head before leading him down the sidewalk with the never ending throng of humanity. It felt strange to do something so intimate in public, but this was Armstrong. None had the time nor inclination to be shocked by something like that.

As they walked, Mimi took a deep breath of city air, never thinking that the constant stretch of industry, humanity, and waste could be so refreshing. But after the piss drenched alley she hadn't been sure she'd walk out of alive, anything would smell good she supposed. Armstrong, named after Neil Armstrong, was the very first human settlement outside the Milky Way. Considered by many to be the 'Big Apple' of Galileo, an earth-like planet known as the 'breadbasket' of space. Like New York back on earth, Armstrong was a center of culture, commerce, and industry. It was where rich socialites rubbed shoulders with the working class. Armstrong was also where every space going ship stopped for refuge and supplies. Many space crews' families lived there, sheltering on the relative safety of an earth-like planet and the closest thing they could call home. Mimi wasn't nearly as comfortable on Galileo, bad memories of childhood were all that lived here. She was much more comfortable with the peace and solicitude of the black, even if she knew that the tranquility was really an illusion. Anything could happen at any time out there.

For the next couple of hours nothing of particular interest happened, the couple went about their business without incident. There was a lot to do, as their extended time out in the black and brief stay 'on planet' meant most of their errands happened in bulk all at the same time. Once their ship left the gravitational pull of Galileo they would be on their own out there. They needed all the food, ammo, spare parts, and even the basic things one took for granted while on terra firma, such as water and oxygen, to make it to the next spaceport.

They started out at the post office to collect their packages and any messages that had arrived for them. It might seem antiquated, like something that belonged to the 'paper mail' era of the past. But even in the future the internet didn't reach very far off planet. Instead, data was loaded onto massive hard drives and flown between the human settlements floating out in the black. To receive your mail, one placed their media device into a gigantic wall of ports, punched in their D number, and received everything that had been addressed to them. After collecting their email, they next visited the doctor's office, quickly getting their annual checkups as required to maintain a space pilot license. The adventures of space... Mimi grumbled to herself as they sat in the waiting room. Bureaucracy and waiting!

"Miss Svetlana? The doctor will see you now."

Mimi got up and shuffled slowly like a woman walking to her execution. Of all the things that didn't scare her in the galaxy that should've, such as standoffs in alleyways, she wasn't sure why men in white lab coats made the list. Luckily, there were no surprises during the visit, including the question she always dreaded. "Is this right? You survived an elasticizer?"

"Yes." Mimi said tensely, hoping the doctor would pick up the tone in her voice and drop it. It was an embarrassing, painful memory and she didn't like to relive it by herself, let alone with strangers.

Many years ago, when she and Damien had first met, they had gone 'urban exploring' together in an abandoned science lab on the university grounds. Inside they had discovered many interesting machines in various states of disrepair. When Mimi was curiously toying with one such machine she inadvertently activated it and had turned her, to borrow another doctor's insensitive parlance, turned her into a 'Elasta-kitty.'

Thankfully, her doctor got the hint and had more tact than her previous doctor. He quietly nodded before signing off her paperwork and sending the feline on her way with no further questions. Better still, he had given her a clean bill of health. Soon she was rejoined in the waiting room by Damien with his own 'statement of fitness' and the two could proceed to the SFPA to renew their licenses and the ship's registration. Before they could arrive, however, something caught Damien's eye. "Ooh!" He exclaimed, pointing to a brick building painted black with BLIGEPUMP PAWN written in tall red letters.

Oh no... Mimi thought to herself, eyes slowly closing in exasperation.

Admittedly, Damien had been on his best behavior since leaving the alley, although Mimi wasn't sure how much that counter for when his bad behavior previously had nearly gotten them into a gun fight. After spending years together, Mimi had grown used to Damien pointing out some distraction after distraction while they tried to go about their business. Admittedly, this trait had brought them on a few good adventures and, as usual, the pawn shop did look very intriguing. Its tall windows showcased a large variety of goods. Shiny things ranging from jewels and ornate musical instruments, interesting things such as vintage looking tech, and even a few practical things such as a brand-new computer monitor that would make a fine addition to the ship's bridge. Mimi wouldn't have minded going inside herself but knew she had to be the responsible one... as always.