Chapter 64: You Were Right
In comparison to how my day started, it ended pretty quietly. Jun Li got me back to the X94 fighter quickly and without his newfound sarcasm. I was sure that he was pouting, but I could only take so many snarky comments before I brought in the big guns.
The ramp to the fighter was lowering just as I approached, and I knew that it was either Jun Li or Sha Shou’s doing. They had decided that it was unwise of them to leave me on my own, so the tracking device that was installed purely for emergencies was now going to be constantly active. As soon as I veered off my path, they would swoop in and rescue me.
I didn’t know exactly how I felt about that, but I wouldn’t deny that it was a good idea. Especially since the meeting point with the client was only ten minutes away from my ship, and it took me almost five hours to get back. I was just not going to tell them that they were right. They didn’t need an even more inflated ego than they already had.
I walked through the ship to the command bridge and sat down in the only chair. "Welcome back, Mei Ling," said a somewhat robotic voice. I furrowed my eyebrows, not knowing what was going on. "Where is Sha Shou?" I asked, concerned.
"She is currently working on the upgrades for your Nanos and is unable to fly you back. You can call me Sha Shou 2.0. I will be the one piloting the shuttle. Please make sure to buckle your seatbelt, and I will be taking off shortly."
I buckled up the five-point harness and sat back, taking the flight back to think about what went right and what went wrong with our first sale. Honestly, there wasn’t much that went wrong until I got involved in the little green man. And even then, I was happy to have been able to test out my weapons in an actual situation and not just a simulation.
"It’s like she can’t do multiple things at once," scoffed Jun Li, his voice coming through the bridge just as the launch bay doors opened. The ship rose off the deck and turned around slowly so it was facing the doors. "And I would hurry up a bit. I had to override the command codes for this launch bay. For some reason, they didn’t want to let you out."
"Huh," I said as my ship shot forward as the doors started to slowly close again. "Looks like your override didn’t work quite like you wanted it to," I smirked as my fighter turned on its side to squeak through the small space before picking up speed as it went through a long, dark tunnel. I could only assume that this was the only way to the surface and into space. "Any way they can block me at the end of the tunnel?" I asked, not overly concerned.
"Maybe?" he said. "There is an 84.297% chance that they have ships waiting to fire on you as soon as you come out, but the tunnels don’t have doors if that is what you are asking."
It was what I was asking, but an 84% chance of getting shot out of the air upon my exit was a bit more than a ’maybe’ in my books. "Better change that to 100% chance. The Thuzirusians have sent out five ships to make sure that you don’t get into the atmosphere," said Jun Li.
"You seem to be very calm about all of this," I said, not impressed with his lack of concern for my safety.
"Why wouldn’t I be?" he asked, in seemingly genuine confusion.
"Because of my potential death by being blown out of the sky?" I responded incredulously.
"Sweetheart, I don’t think you actually know what it is that you are sitting in," chuckled Jun Li. "That ship might look like Sisalik technology, but it is pure Saalistaja."
"That means fuck all to me if I am going to get killed," I sneered, not at all impressed. I thought we had a good partnership going. And there is no way he can blame me for Sha Shou because I would be willing to put money on the fact that he was the one that actually created her.
"It means that that is the most technically advanced ship in almost all of the known universe, second only to other Saalistaja ships. And I can promise you, the Thuzirusians don’t have their hand on one of those."
"We aren’t supposed to have our hands on one of those," I reminded him. A red clock in my head was counting down imaginary numbers. as I continued to shoot through the tunnel that would take me off the planet and to my death.
"Yeah, but I am special," said Jun Li, and I could picture him puffing out his chest.
"There is always going to be someone better," I warned him, not wanting him to make the mistake of thinking that he was infallible.
"Maybe for a human, but there is a reason why my kind was hunted down to extinction. We are the scary ones in any room," he answered, proving that he was still listening in on my conversation with the wolfman.
"Fine, we can debate that later, but my tunnel is going to run out soon, and I need a bit of reassurance that I am not going to die. Please and thank you."
"Five hostiles detected, launching countermeasures," came the mechanical voice of Sha Shou 2.0. If I lived through this, I was going to have to come up with a name for it. Calling it a 2.0 seemed... not right.
There was a blinding flash of light as we punched through the dark tunnel into the topside light.
Before I could blink out the stars in my eyes, five missiles shot out of the ship, and there were five answering explosions as we continued upwards and out of the atmosphere. I wasn’t overly relaxed, but I knew that it would take them some time to launch new fighters.
"I don’t think we are going to be welcomed back there any time soon," I said out loud as I leaned back in my chair.
"Ah, but at least you are alive," said Jun Li with a definite smirk to his tone.
"Yeah, yeah. You are right," I grumbled my reply as I closed my eyes.
