Chewing Rocks (20 page)

Sno
looked down at herself, “Damn.” she thought.

“Damn
,” she said out loud.

“I still agree
.” Prints laughed so hard he had to wipe the tears from his eyes with the back of his hand.

“Damn.
It is bad enough you keep me standing here naked, but now your laughing at me.”

Prints laughed, “Oh, yes I am. You are more fun than I have had in ever so long. I wasn’t sure I could stand being the captain of a mining vessel after spending time exploring deep space, but you know
, I think I am going to love it here.”

“Glad I can be amusing.”

“Oh, Princess, you are far more than amusing, trust me.” Prints gave himself a shake. “I do apologize for leaving you here in this condition.”

“Oh, quite alright. I am getting used to standing nude in a room full of strange men.”

“Well, we might have to break you of that habit. None-the-less, you there, Baldy, what’s your name?”

“Franklin
, Ches-“

Prints interrupted, “Franklin is enough
. I don’t need to know any more and frankly, Franklin, I don’t want to know anymore. Get your useless self over here and drag this piece of filth out of the lady’s way. Tell you what, since you like putting people in the rock chamber just go ahead and drag him there.”

Franklin grabbed McNally under the arms and began dragging the crying man down the corridor. “But, Captain, he is really hurt. Mac needs a medbox
or at least something for the pain.”

“Maybe he will, m
aybe he won’t,” Prints said with a smile. This time it was a cold smile crossing his face. “Drag faster. The Mistress Iron Bar is getting restless.” He hefted the pry bar menacingly.

Chapter 18.0

Sno stepped through the hatch unto the bridge of the
Queene Mining ship. She had pulled on what clothes she had available. Lacking a brush, she had run her fingers through her hair and tried to get it into some semblance of order. She had quickly run a damp cloth over her face and arms. Prints was alone on the bridge.

“Oh, my
,” he said, staring openly at Sno. All she was wearing was a half length t-shirt and a pair of panties.

“Sorry. This was all I had in my EVA suit
pocket when they brought me on board. I tried to find something more to wear, but nothing these cretins own is worth putting on.”

“Well, Princess. I am not sure which is more distracting
, seeing you this way or seeing you naked.”

“Thanks a lot
,” Sno said sarcastically.

“No. That is a good thing
,” Prints smiled.

“Okay
, I have two questions.”

“Shoot
,” Prints laughed. “And that is not something I often say to half naked women carrying shotguns.”

“Yeah sure. I bet things like this happen in deep space all of the time.”

Prints chuckled. “If they did, then I wouldn’t have let them lay me off from the Space Force when the new government started cutting the budgets. I would have worked for free. As it is, I am going to have to refund part of my paycheck to GD. Princess, this is just too much fun to be getting paid for it.”

“Question: why the hell do you keep calling me Princess
? My real name is Chastity Whyte.”

Prints looked surprised. “Really? I am sure that everyone on the docks
in Arizona City was calling you Princess.”

“Sarcasm, I guess. It was just something Dad
said the day I left. Most people call me Sno.”

“Sno? That is a weather condition. Not a name.”

“Ha,” she said dryly. “That’s the first time I ever heard that.”

Prints laughed, “I can imagine. Not to worry, I love snow.”

“You what?” Sno snapped.

“Snow. I love snow, you know the weather condition? Boarding, skiing, sledding? That kind of stuff?” Prints said. “
Why, what did you think I meant?”

“Nothing
, I’ve just never seen the weather condition, that’s all,” Sno said. “Question two: how did you get on this ship…whatever her name is?”

“It was almost too easy. I am sure you remember how they were bragging about sneaking on
to your ships because you were too busy to see them coming. Well, what is good for the goose is good for the gander. I did the same thing to them that they did to you.”

“Except you didn’t tie them naked to the kitchen table.”

“Not yet at any rate. But you must admit that I did give that one with the shotgun…?” He raised an eyebrow.

“McNally
,” Sno supplied.

“Quite so
, McNally. I did give him a pretty good whack with my trusty, rusty iron pry bar. Whacked him good, I think.”

“So, what are you going to do with them?” Sno asked.

Prints looked surprised. “Me? Why should I do anything with them?” He waived a hand around the bridge. “This isn’t my ship. They didn’t send one of my ships streaking off into the never-return. I wasn’t the one tied naked to a kitchen table, bound for what? Rape and eventual murder?”

“Can you take them back to Ceres?”

Prints shook his head. “Seriously, Princess, I can’t. As much as I have enjoyed this diversion, and believe me, I have enjoyed meeting you more than you know; I do have responsibilities of my own.” Before she could interrupt he continued. “I am on the clock with General Division Mining. I owe them for my employment. I have two crewmen over on the Rebecca. They are not good for this type of action, but they are good hard working miners. They have creditors to support and I am sure all kinds of vices that need to be kept up. I do have to turn a profit for GD and my crew.”

Sno nodded. “I guess I understand. Look, the least I can do is to
give you a good rock.”

Prints looked confused. “You want to give me a rock?”

“Yeah, mister all-new-at-mining. You should have seen Sedona parked around an asteroid on your backtrack.” At his nod she continued. “It is a good rock. Should yield enough profit for the Rebecca for the year, and a good bonus for each of her crew. Believe me, it is a good rock.”

“Princess, I can’t poach your asteroid. You have it tagged.”

“Poach? You can’t steal what is being given. Take it. Besides, that way you can take me back with you and I can pick up Sedona and head home. You did bring the new application and core software from Whyte Mining for me, didn’t you?”

Chapter 18.1

After weeks of slow transit back to Ceres, Sno finally did something she had been daydreaming about for the whole trip. She pointed the shotgun into Sheriff Bob’s face just inches from his nose. She watched the blood drain from his face and his look of confidence mutated into one of having a bad case of trapped gas.

Bob started to raise his hands, but Sno gave a very slight shake of her head. The man froze. Sno could see dozens of people clustered around the docks, including a large number of people wearing
deputy sheriff’s t-shirts, including Bob’s two nephews Randy and Jim. The deputies were scattered around, each trying to contain various clusters of people.”

Sno saw her
father start to step towards her, but she waived him back, “Not now, Dad.”

She eyed Sheriff Bob, “Okay, Bob. I am sure you know I am loaded and ready
. I am willing to bet I can get three shots off before your body hits the deck. Wanna bet?”

A few weeks earlier
Sno had pushed the Sedona away from the GD ship Rebecca and what used to be her asteroid. She steered straight north away from the solar system’s ecliptic, driving the engines as hard as they could go. She burned through fuel at a rate much faster than she normally would, but she had crammed all four engine hoppers full, and she wasn’t heading anywhere except Ceres.

She
hadn’t felt like she was going home, because she was already home. Even with someone else on board it had felt right to be on the Sedona. It had felt like home.

She
remembered stretching and looking around the bridge with a smile. The Sedona operated at near perfect form. There were no glitches, hiccups, or viruses Sno could find. The new apps ‘n core Prints had helped her download was working perfectly.

The Winkin,
the Blinkin and Queene Mining ship number 10123 had departed a few days before she was able to get the Sedona operational. Oritz and Steadman had protested they were not sure they could handle a ship as large as the Queene Mining ship. It was much bigger than the lost Nod. It was actually large enough a good pilot could have parked the Nod in its rock chamber. So Doc Savage and Lee piloted the Queene Mining ship and departed for Ceres in the company of the other two ships.

It
was a close vote as to whether the miners went back to mining or back to Ceres. They finally decided they had lost enough consumables and supplies that going back and starting over was the prudent course of action. It was easy to calculate that with the loss of the Nod, they were not going to make a profit this time out or anytime in the near future. The loss of a third of their fleet would be a devastating financial loss.

Sno had insisted they park all three vessels at the docks owned by Whyte Mining. She told them to ignore anyone else, no matter who else was yelling at them to park elsewhere.
She also told them not to leave the pirate’s ship unattended. She explained the least favorable outcome was that if it had been reported that the four pirates stole the ship from Queene Mines, then the miners were due a finders reward for bringing the ship back to its rightful owners.

She was sure
salvage rules wouldn’t apply since it hadn’t been abandoned. She and Prints had forced McNally and Franklin off the ship at gunpoint and onto the Sedona. She was also sure the pirates hadn’t stolen their ship from Queene Mines. She talked to Hunter after they transferred him and Cooper off the Winkin. She knew Queene had given the four men the ship. She knew Queene, if not herself then at least her assistant Wallace had given the four men her location, otherwise they would never have found her.

She stressed even before the
miners docked they needed to file a claim against Queene Mines for any losses they could think of, including lost possible mining profits, loss of the Nod, loss of food, loss of air, loss of toilet paper the pirates might have used and even loss of sleep if they could quantify it.

She
had commed her father and filled him in on what had happened and explained that the contract miners were bringing in a Queene Mining ship. Dad had told Doc Martin to send the documents to him and Vittie for filing claims against Queene.

They
had a second, even closer vote concerning what to do with the four pirates. Well, three pirates and Hunter. Everyone was in agreement Hunter had only been peripherally involved and at the first opportunity he had turned on Cooper. A large minority wanted to toss the three men into an airlock and let space have them.

Sno and Prints surprised each other in their violent opposition to such action. They were also surprised to find out they both had very differing reasons. Sno had grown up in space, she had seen what happens when living creatures meet nature’s unyielding vacuum. She had no desire to be a part of deliberately inflicting such a punishment on
humans no matter what kind of humans they were.

Prints had objected because he believed
spacing bodies was a complete waste of usable material. Even the pirates had looked at him with horror when he suggested and putting them in his matter converter. One of his crew turned green when Prints pointed out that Cooper was a fat man. They could get quite a bit of usable oxygen and water from his tubby body. He said it would be just a waste to toss it away.

It had come down to Sno taking all four of the pirates on
the Sedona. She put McNally, Franklin and Cooper in the rock chamber. It had minimal life support. They would not freeze to death, but they would not be comfortable. She had given them two buckets; one was full of water for drinking. The other was empty. She had tried to slam the hatch on them and forget them, but she relented and tossed in three spare blankets. They were not good blankets, just extras she had not taken the time to feed into the matter converter.

She gave
Hunter the full run of the galley and the dorm room, but nowhere else. She escorted him twice a day to the rock chamber, shotgun in hand. She watched him toss in a meal for each of the men. He emptied one bucket and filled the other. Sno laughed hearing the pirates complain. It turned out they did not like mandarin orange flavored squid as much as she did.

In the beginning of the flight to Ceres
, McNally glared at her each time they opened the rock chamber door. His knees were badly broken. She had put him in a med-box before the Sedona parted company with the Rebecca, but it was too time consuming to watch him sitting there. She had left McNally in the med-box just long enough to ensure he would not lose his legs to damaged blood circulation or some infection, but not long enough to do more than cut the pain by a small fraction, certainly not long enough for the medical nanos to begin repairing the damage. She did not trust McNally enough to leave him alone. She barely trusted Hunter and never went anywhere without her shotgun.