Action Bastard’s stomach lurched as the firefly dropped out of hyperspace, just above the planet Eyesore. ‘Damn fine sight’, he thought as he took in the view of his home, the planet of swirling green and brown clouds, then shook his head at the irony of it all. Behind him on the wall the intercom crackled.

“that’s it….hyper-drive’s toast”, came the voice of the mechanic. “Hyperdrive motivator is fused.”

“That’s just fine,” replied Helo into the comlink, “We got where we need to be….we’re home.”  When the channel cleared he began flipping switches associated with atmospheric flight and strapped himself into the pilots seat. Next to him the com station chirped and a gruff voice spoke.

“Unidentified vessel you are entering restricted airspace. Send IFF or identify yourself immediately.”

Helo punched the outgoing button quickly, noticing several small attack skiffs materializing through the harsh clouds of osk.

“This is the transport vessel Forlorn Hope, for fucks-sake don’t fire! We are members of Osk!” By now the skiffs were clear of the atmosphere and were taking up formation around Helo‘s ship, two on each side and one just astern.

“Firefly vessel Forlorn Hope, you are cleared for reentry and instructed to dock in hanger thirteen bravo. There you will find an escort waiting for you. How copy?”

“Solid Copy,” he replied into the com. “Things sure have gotten a lot less friendly around here.” The metal bulkhead behind him squeaked open as the reply came through.

“We aren’t taking any chances, not with the king missing and the fleet engaged elsewhere. Welcome back to the Locker”

Next to him a man occupied the swivel seat, Ragnar Vok, ships doctor, who immediately started spinning in the seat. Helo stared at him with a puzzled look as he replied back into the com-link. “Yeah I hear you. Hanger thirteen bravo….thanks.”  The station beeped again as he flipped a switch to cut the channel, then turned to his still spinning companion.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Spinning.”

“I see that. Why?”

“Im going to blame it on space dementia.” he stated as he continued to spin. “After all….we’ve been in space for awhile.”

Helo sighed, then dropped his face into his hands. If only the rum wasn’t gone.
The ship rocked suddenly as they began to breach the upper atmosphere of the planet, and though they both expected it both men exchanged worried looks.

“I always hated re-entry,” stated Ragnar, no longer spinning. “As a kid I always had nightmares of crashing the ship just before landing.”

Helo didn’t respond, but instead focused on keeping the ship steady, fighting the controls as they shook in his hands as if they wanted to be free of his grip. Most of the newer ships in the company made it through re-entry fairly easily, however the older ones, such as the fireflies, had to rough it out all the way down to the surface having not been equipped with inertial dampeners and the like.

The ship stopped shaking just as they dropped below the clouds, revealing the barren landscape of Osk 91.  Most of what little vegetation that had surrounded the Locker had been stripped away by the Paladins during the occupation, and much of the ground had been scorched in the ensuing battle to liberate it. Though none of the bodies remained there was still evidence of a struggle; Buildings had been gutted, destroyed ground vehicles, innumerable burned out starship hulls left as scrap by the company now housing homeless families. The Locker itself wasn’t much better off, but for a city that had just gone through hell, Helo had to admit, it was lively. On the ground people milled about in masses, shopping for whatever goods they needed, while transport ships carrying goods and passengers alike zipped about going their where they may. As Helo made his final approach he noticed the hanger he had been assigned to was out of commission,  with the hulk of what had been a paladin transport imbedded inside the burned out building. However the was a mighty fine crater next to the building that had already been cleared of debris: whatever had hit there had hit pretty hard as the crater was big enough to fit the Forlorn Hope.

As Helo dropped the ships landing gear the radio crackled, “Welcome back to the Company, Forlorn Hope. You are cleared to land.”

“Gee, I’m glad I have permission,” stated Helo as he shared an annoyed look with his counterpart. Below them the ground came closer and closer until finally Bastard felt the weight of the ship rest fully on its landing gear then cut the power to the engines. Outside, the familiar wine of the two turbines engines on either side died away as both men made their way down towards the airlock, past the crew quarters, infirmary, and galley along the way. Once in the hangar they found the other two member of the crew, a man and a woman, waiting, gear in hand, already dropping the exit ramp to the ground. The woman, smiled behind her massive sunglasses as Helo and Ragnar approached.

“Home already?” she joked, “No more bullets and blaster burns to treat?”

“Not for the time being Lauren,” mused Helo as he passed. “But give Ragnar and I some time down at the Rancor’s Head and I’m sure you’ll be back in business.”
“Let’s hope not,” she replied as she playfully punched Ragnar in the shoulder as he went by. “I’m tired of  patching up my own brother.”

“Then you should come with us then!” demanded her brother as he continued down. “You can make sure I stay out of trouble. Besides if anything happens you can use your cannon …” he said pointing to the blaster on her hip.

Behind helo and ragnar they other two started down the ramp into the not so fresh air of Osk.

“What about you Knut?” Helo called back to his mechanic. “How are you going to spend your freedom from the engine room?”

“Freedom?” the man called back as he dusted off his tri cornered hat. “You peeps get the freedom….I get to bounce around the locker looking for a hyper drive motivator for the rest of my life because someone pushed it too far.”

“Fuck you too man,” said helo with a smile knowing full well he was joking. “Well you kiddies go do what you need to do,” he stated as he turned to the group. “I’m in need of a drink, first and foremost. If you care to join me then you’ll know where I’ll be.”


***



It had been two hours since Helo first sat down at his table…yes his table…as it had his name carved on it. Three glass bottles sat in front of him, two far more on the empty side then he’d like. The thought depressed him but he took comfort in the fact that his glass was filled to the brim with his chosen poison, so there was no immediate danger. He still wore his sunglasses even with his fedora pulled down over his eyes, cigarette still burning lazily from the corner of his mouth. He was drunk beyond recollection, paying attention to nothing but the ceiling which is probably why he didn’t notice the body slide into the chair across the table.

“It’s good to see you again sir.” The man spoke.

Helo froze…he know the voice, that he was certain of. But for the life of him he couldn’t remember who it belonged to. Sitting up in his chair and pulling his glasses down, he studied the face of the man opposite him. The man was unfamiliar but the uniform he wore was strikingly familiar.

“Do I owe you money or something?” he asked, extremely confused.

“You owe me nothing sir, I’m here to ask for your help.” The man continued to sit upright, quite obviously currant military or recent retiree…that would explain the ‘sir’.

“I don’t see how I can help you…unless you want a drink….I can prolly figure that one out.”

“No sir,” he responded. “I’m here as a representative of the Coalition of Planets..” Helo nearly choked on his drink at the name and slammed it down on the table in disbelief.

“What the hell are you doing here? You’re a ways from home.”

“I’m here looking for you…”

The morning after…



It began like it always did, eyes opening with blurred vision that slowly cleared until he could make general sense of his surroundings. His stomach churned as he realized he was lying on his side in what he knew to be his room, barely taking note of the mess that lay strewn next to him on the floor. Slowly and painfully Helo rolled onto his back and waiting for the room to stop spinning, slowly taking deep breathes to hold off the waves of nausea that were threatening to escape.

As he lay there unmoving, the events of the night slowly came back to him. The hazy memories began with him and Ragnar drinking, as usual, down at the Rancor’s Head, which in turn quickly turned into a party in the cargo bay of the Forlorn Hope with most of the crew and the patrons of the cantina in attendance.

Must have been a great party…, he thought to himself as he propped himself up on his elbows, just enough to notice a pair of petite feet sticking out of the blankets next to him. Curiosity over who this stranger was compelled Helo to painfully crawl to the headboard and pull the sheets back to reveal the owner. She was stunningly beautiful and vaguely familiar, lightly skinned with auburn hair and quite obviously naked. He stared at her slightly confused for a second before her eyes sprang open quick enough to startle Helo enough that he fell off the bed with a crash. Almost instantly the woman was at the edge of the bed, blankets wrapped tightly around her, look of shock in her eyes.

“Are you okay?” she demanded. “I Didn’t mean to scare you like that!”

“I’m fine,” he croaked as he drug himself the short distance to the bulkhead and propped himself up. “It’s just the alcohol.”

“Oh I’m surprised your even alive,” she stated. “You had quite a hard time climbing down here from the next deck..”

“Yeah I can imagine,” he said, waving his hand and cutting her off from an impending story he didn’t care to hear. “So, miss….um…?”

“My name is Danni, remember?”

“No, actually I don’t…but anyways….Danni,” he began as motioned with his hand between the two of them. “Did we…uh?”

“Twice.”

“Really?”
“Yep!” she nodded with enthusiasm. “But don’t worry!” she quickly continued, seeing the look of dread on Helo’s face. “I took a hypo first, so no surprises.”

***


It was nearly half an hour later when Helo was finally able to locate and don the rest of his clothes. Cinching on his gun belt he turned to find the woman still sitting on the bed, now wearing his fedora and painting her nails, oblivious to whatever he was doing.

“So you have somewhere to go right?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean like somewhere that isn’t here?”

“Oh ya!” she answered, not even picking up on his blatant sarcasm. “I live over in the old city, by the scrap yard….know where that is?”

“Sure,” he lied.

“Well maybe when you get back you can call me sometime on the holo-net?”

“Oh yeah totally,” he played along as started his climb up to the command deck, leaving her to get her clothes on. “Feel free to leave whenever,” he called down. “I have captainy things to attend to.” Before she could reply he closed the hatch, stepped back and breathed a sigh of relief. The constant talking had taken its toll on Helo’s headache, and the silent companionway was almost soothing. Slowly he made his way down to the engine room down the hall where he could barely hear the faint hum of machinery and the occasional swear word from Randal Knutten, the chief engineer.  Still slightly staggering when he entered the room, Helo knocked twice on the bulkhead, making his presence known before propping himself up in the nearest corner.

“How we feeling this morning princess?” Knut asked with a wide grin. “Someone drank more than their fair share last night.”

“Yeah well I’m paying for it today.”

“I can see that,” he replied as he continued to work on the breaker box in front of him. “You and Ragnar got pretty wild. Made a few friends I hear….and even more enemies.”

“I‘m not one to dwell on the past. We ready to go?”

“Oh yeah,” he answered, nodding as he continued. “Got the new hyper drive motivator installed and ready to go…hell even picked up some old military tech that I may get to use someday.”

Helo didn’t care at all for collecting junk on the ship, but usually his mechanic was able to make something out of nothing so he didn’t complain.

“So by a ‘New’ motivator you mean ‘New’ or ‘New to us’?”

“Oh new to us of course. I don’t want to even think about what these things run for brand new.”

“right, Helo answered as he pushed off the wall. “I’m gunna go check how Ragnar is doing with pre-flight.”

“Good luck,” he said as Helo wandered out of the room. “No one has seen him all morning.”

Helo knew Ragnar’s usual MO was to pass out somewhere on the ship that wasn’t his room, and was usually very uncomfortable.  The closest place was the bridge, a mere thirty feet back in the direction of his cabin, thirty feet of his skull wanting to explode with every step he took. Just as he reached the door to the bridge there was a cascade of sparks from the engine room and Knut yelling in pain before all the lights in the ship went out.

“Damnit!” he heard the engineer yell as he threw something metal against the wall. Usually this would be considered bad form when trying to get a spacecraft ready for launch but today it was a small mercy for Helo’s eyes, preferring the darker interiors to the well lit ones. Using the last of his motivation he stumbled forward into the pilots seat and slumped down, relieved to be off his feet once more.

“Sounds like I wasn’t the only one who had a rough night.” stated the hung-over voice of Ragnar somewhere in front of the pilots station.

“Yeah I don’t remember much,” Helo replied, not even bothering to find his friend, instead turning to face his station.

“That’s too bad… it was epic. You know….that one chick was all over you.”

“I don’t remember….thus it didn’t happen.”

“Oh it happened…I was there. So was half of Osk….and Lauren.”

Helo winced. “Ok I get it!”, he said as he flipped switches that started the pre-flight sequence.  “But if your gunna bitch at me about that can you at least get up?  That whole disembodied voice thing is creeping me out.”

In front of his station there was a rustling of clothes and the sound of several empty bottles rolling around followed closely by a hand grasping the top of the console. Slowly its owner pulled himself up, revealing a unshaven Ragnar Vok, wearing the most tattered top hat Helo had ever seen.  “Look…I know you don’t want to hear this…” he began as he held himself steady.

“Your right…I don’t.”

“Fine then,” he said, rising to his feet. “Just be prepared. You know how she gets. She knows what happened so don’t expect much cooperation from her.”

“You mean don’t go to sickbay? He retorted.

“Precisely.”    Gingerly Ragnar sauntered to the adjacent station and sat down facing Helo. “In fact, If I were you, I would be really go out of your way to be nice to her for the next few days cuz she‘s gunna be pissed.”

“That woman is irrational.”

“Agreed…but you know what happens when she gets her heart set on something.”

“I find her blind adoration both flattering AND disturbing.” Helo checked his instruments before pushing himself to his feet. “Make yourself useful and finish prepping. We are already later than I would like to be. In the meantime I’m gunna go check on everything else.”

“Walk with the gods my friend!” his companion called out as Helo left the bridge.


He took his time making his way through the ship to the cargo hold, past the engine room where it sounded a like Knut was savagely beating some poor piece of machinery with a hammer, however he paid no attention to it and continued through the empty guest quarters and the infirmary that was, thankfully, also empty. Ducking through the next hatchway found Helo at the bottom of the hanger where the two newest members of the crew were being supervised by Ragnar’s sister Lauren, stacking the last of the foodstuffs and spare parts before tying them down.

“Lash those down tighter!” she called out to the other two, “We don’t want all this sliding around.” She didn’t seem to notice Helo as we walked into the room, but he knew better. She noticed as soon as he entered by she was ignoring him, thinking about what she may or may not say.

“Morning Lauren,” he stated as cheerful as possibly, enjoying the slight breeze that drifted in from the open cargo doors.  She barely looked at him, but for that moment that her eyes connected with his they pierced like a million daggers into his soul. She hadn’t said a word to him but he clearly got the picture.
“So…” he began as he wrung his hands together. “We all ready to go?”

“If you say so captain.” she stated coldly without looking at him. “We go when you say so.”

Behind him he could here the other two snickering. The men, both brothers, were recent additions to the crew. Matt, the taller and lankier of the two was a raging alcoholic, the other, John, was illegal substance dealer…death sticks and the like.

“Why don’t you too go find something else to do!” Helo barked. Still laughing, the two shuffled off into the ship, leaving Helo and Lauren alone.

“So last night…”

“Was bad,” she said nearly raising her voice. “Do you have any Idea how thrashed the ship was this morning? There were strange people just lying around! For fuck-sake there was a wookie passed out in his own vomit on the ramp! Who do you think took care of all that? What was the point of it all anyways?”

“well Snipes always figured it was best to celebrate first just in case he didn’t make it back…”

“Yeah well that’s just fucking stupid.”

“Yeah I see that…Now,” he answered, deciding it was best just to agree. “It was a complete waste of my time.”  Behind him came the soft footfalls of a woman’s feet and he knew instantly who it was. 

“Oh that was such a wonderful night Helo!” she exclaimed as she came into view, now dressed entirely save for her shirt was barely buttoned and still wore his fedora.
“This is yours,” she said as she set it on his head all crooked-like before bounding off down the ramp. “Bye!” she waved back as the cargo doors began closing behind her. When they made contact and sealed with a hiss of air Lauren turned back to Helo.

“Not such a waste of time I see…” she said before storming off out of the cargo bay leaving him alone with his thoughts and his hangover.

Helo waited just long enough to ensure that she got where she was going before leaving the relative safety of the cargo hold, making sure to be extra quick past the infirmary lest she come at him with syringes or a scalpel. Putting as much distance as possible between himself and Ragnar’s sister he ran to the bridge where he found Ragnar still in the pilots seat, strapped in and wearing dark sunglasses.

“Went well did it?” he asked as Helo sat in the co-pilots seat.

“Not so much.”

“Didn’t think so.”

“Just get us out of here.”

Slowly Ragnar pushed the throttle lever foreword and at the same time pulled back on the controls, gingerly lifting the Forlorn Hope off the ground.

“All systems are green…and we are airborne.” 

Helo watched from the bridge as the ground and the surrounding buildings began to shrink, then fell away from view as the ship flew farther up into the atmosphere. Within minutes the dull green and brown of Osk faded away to the blanket of space with its plethora of stars.

“Hyper drive is up and running,” stated Helo as he monitored his station. “Coordinates are plotted…let’s go meet our contact.”