Chapter 38: I Love Being The Problem
"Where are we off to now?" I asked as I got myself comfortable in the captain’s chair with my pillow and blanket that I remembered to bring from home. Jun Li was sitting at one of the consoles towards the front of the bridge, imputing information into the computer.
"I thought that we could go to T Galaxy, Sector C030987x," replied Jun Li as he spun around in his chair to look at me. "The old captain had a few contacts there when it came to selling any additional weapons that we no longer used."
"Wait, your old captain dealt with weapons on the side? Did he not make enough money by being a captain of a battleship like this?" I asked confused. Mind you, it would make my life so much easier if Jun Li came with built-in contacts. Because let’s face it, it’s not like I knew how to become a weapons dealer. I couldn’t exactly look it up on Earth without raising a few eyebrows, especially if I searched: ’How to become an alien arms dealer.’ Or maybe if anyone was actually looking through my search history, they would just assume that I was crazy.
"He made more money than he need," replied Jun Li. "After all, he didn’t have any family members that he needed to support, so his salary was more than enough to make him a wealthy male. The problem was that he always wanted more."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, he wasn’t happy being a captain of a top-of-the-line battleship that was, on paper, nothing more than a science vessel."
"What did he want to do?"
"He was in the process of raising funds to be able to take on one of the head generals of the Sisalik Empire. He wanted the status of being a general, but he didn’t want to put in the effort to work his way up to the top. According to the Sisalik policies, if he could raise an army and defeat the general in a battle, then he could take command."
I chuckled when I heard that. I didn’t even want to think what Earth would be like if all it took was a fight to determine who led what. The world had enough conflict to add that into the mix. "Too bad we couldn’t use him to continue making money."
"There might be a way," mused Jun Li as he swung around to face the console again. "The only problem is going to be you."
"Ouch," I joked and stuck my tongue out at him. "I love being the problem. But seriously, what is the issue with me?"
"You are a short, unknown race. As soon as anyone sees you, they are going to remember you," said Jun Li with a shrug. "Which means that if anyone comes asking questions, you can’t just disappear into the night."
"Would I want to disappear into the night? I need to make a name for myself for this to work well. Maybe standing out would be a good way to do that."
"Not if we don’t want the Alliance to know that the one selling the weapons to their enemies is a human. They do have a record of all of you Earthlings currently in the universe."
"But if I just put on my armor, I won’t look human anymore. That should work, right?" I asked, thinking about the issue. He was right. I would stick out like a sore thumb, and I didn’t want to put myself on the Alliance’s radar until I had no other choice.
"We can’t use the armor," answered Jun Li with a shake of his head. "It screams Saalistaja, and no one would ever believe that one of them would be willing to sell weapons of any kind to an outsider."
"Fine, leave it with me. We have the bulletproof fabric, maybe I can come up with an outfit that would be able to disguise me as a person and prevent people from knowing what type of species I am." I was already brainstorming some ideas. I had a picture in my head, but whether or not it could be created was an entirely different story.
"How long will it take us to get to T Galaxy?" I asked, not sure how the whole thing worked.
"According to Earth time, it should take us about two months of travel. It will take less time if we do three hyperjumps, but I don’t recommend that many for a newbie," smirked Jun Li looking at me from over his shoulder.
"I believe in being thrown into the deep end and left to sink or swim," I replied with a smile on my face. I needed to learn as much about my new world as possible, and maybe a hyperjump or two wouldn’t be that bad... especially if it meant shaving off some time in the process.
----
Note to self: the hyperjump really was that bad. In fact, I was pretty sure that I left my stomach somewhere in the last galaxy.
Unable to stop myself from puking, I curled up on the floor of my ensuite bathroom and glared at Jun Li who was leaning against the wall right beside my head. "You can’t say that I didn’t warn you," he said with a smile before I could even open my mouth.
"You are right, thank you so much for warning me that the hyperjump was going to make me feel like my skin was being flayed from my flesh and that my internal organs might not be in their last know location."
"It couldn’t have been that bad," shrugged Jun Li. "I didn’t feel a thing."
I would not lunge and kill my partner, I would not lunge and kill my partner, I. Would. Not. Lunge. And. Kill. My. Partner.
Maybe if I repeated it a few times in my head I would not get off this floor and kill Jun Li.
I mean, he did have a backup body.
