It Doesn't Pay To Have An Inspector Aboard

“It's not like my job is a secret,” I defended myself.
“No, it's not. But how you do it is,” Inspector Radin replied, stylus raised above his small screen. He didn't look like an inspector at all. His muscled arms bulged under his tight-fitting jacket reminding me my head barely reached his nose. He couldn't have been more than a day older than I was, with his smooth, beardless face. I always associated Inspectors with thin, ugly, short and middle-aged. Then again, maybe I received a special qualification because of recent events.
I strode up my short gangway, silent as death. When I reached the deck airlock I stopped to let the Inspector go first. He advanced across my foredeck.
“After all the public shock about...your last captive, I'm sure you expected a full inspection,” he said, gazing over the numerous piles of coiled wirerope.
“I expected fame and glory, actually. Not suspicion from my employers, who pay us only enough to keep us honest,” I shot back. I snapped my fingers. The Inspector gave me a funny look, but I ignored him.
“I'll need to see the entire ship. And when is your next voyage?” he pried.
I stiffened.
“We were just readying, actually. We'll be shipping out as soon as the inspection is over,” I replied begrudgingly. I didn't like the look of the instrument he was pulling out of his belt pocket. It was a scanner, I knew that right off. I don't like scanners on my ship. Besides all the obvious annoyances, they messed with my gages and things.
“You could threaten him with quitting,” Yori's voice suggested in my ear. I half smiled to myself. I had turned on our link when I snapped my fingers. Yori could hear everything we said and talked to me through the ear piece I had surgically inserted in my ear two years ago.
“Good. I am all ready to ship out as well. Where can I store my equipment?” Inspector Radin asked.
I nearly choked on my own spit. I could hear Yori reacting about the same way.
“Inspector, you don't really think you're going to voyage with us, do you?” I coughed. Instinctively my hand grasped at my blazer, the gun heating at my slight touch.
The Inspector turned to face me. He flipped his shaggy black hair out of his face.
“Hunter,” he began. “I do intend to travel with you. I am required to do so until you catch another Pirate.”
“You might want to reconsider my idea,” Yori said a bit angrily.
I glared at the Inspector. I can't threaten quitting because he might call my bluff, I thought furiously. I can't go back to Bounty Hunting. I tried that for a whole two months after I was trained. I hated it. Who knew if those people really deserved to be caught? Or if what I did actually helped anyone? I choose Pirate Hunting, thank you.
“This job takes months and sometimes years, Inspector,” I coldly reminded him. He stuck his stylus back on his screen and pushed the screen into his jacket pocket.
“I realize that,” he calmly answered. “You do have an extra berth, right?”
“I don't usually entertain Inspectors,” I grumbled.
“Or anyone else,” Yori added.
I stalked across the deck to my own cabin door and threw it open carelessly. On my ship, this was the only cabin. All the hold space was being used. Except the corner Yori slept in.
“Ah, traditional wood. That's something I've not seen for years, especially not on a Voyager,” the Inspector commented, brushing the door frame lightly with his fingertips. A wistful look came into his eyes. I was too angry to think much of it.
“You've been to the museums then?” Yori suddenly chirped from behind him.
The Inspector jumped and turned around. Yori's chair doubly threw him off guard, but he was polite enough not to comment.
“Yes, I practically lived at the Olden Ships museum when I was a boy,” he replied. His eyes took in Yori's shrunken legs strapped to his metal foot rests. The heavily cushioned seat balanced on its light frame rolled slightly on the over-sized wheels that propelled it around the ship. Yori's entirely blue outfit and goggles completed the insane picture. I almost felt sorry for the Inspector, as he was too shocked to continue, like everyone else who saw Yori for the first time.
“Fell off a Tree Cruiser on my home planet. My legs never recovered,” Yori explained tersely. “I'm Yori.”
I leaned around the Inspector.
“Yori is my weapons expert, navigator and business partner. Yori, this is our new crewmember, Inspector Radin,” I introduced them. Yori grinned.
“You may both call me Radin. I know this may be a long trip and I'd like to drop the formality,” the Inspector reacted.
“You haven't a first name?” Yori asked in his typically blunt way. His spongy red curls emphasized the blue highlights common to his family. The goggles squeezing his head looked a bit like a girl's head band and gave him an extra kick in weirdness. No one in civilized society rolled around in a wheel chair. I could just imagine what sort of note Radin would be sending to his superiors later. “Her partner is a half-crazed cripple, sir.”
“I've gone by Radin for many years. I don't even think of my first name anymore,” he dodged. I noticed that habit for the first time then. I grew to listen for his dodge moments as the trip progressed.
“Yori, open the link line and call up the Ins—Radin's equipment, please,” I commanded in a question. My partner cracked a lopsided smile and rolled quickly away, muscled arms pumping.
I turned to Radin.
“You can lodge in here,” I said, motioning around the room. “I'll just move a few things first.”
Radin raised an eyebrow.
“Isn't this your cabin?” he annoyingly quipped.
I gritted my teeth.
“Your things are being loaded on deck,” I effectively ended the conversation.
He nodded and walked out, leaving me to my thoughts and my packing. I inspected the tiny pocket of a room. My mesh, body-molding hammock swung as the ship's engines revved. My three books lay in a heap on my foot-long desk, along with my extra blazer cartridges and my Captain's log screen. My satchel with spare clothes also functioned as the chair for the desk. That was it. On a Voyager we couldn't risk any unnecessary weight. Every ounce counted. I wasn't happy about Radin's equipment, but we could lose some other excess junk Yori kept around for amusement. I emptied my desk into my hammock and hefted it and my satchel onto my back. A few steps across the deck and to the right up the stairs and I was in the command room. I would be sharing it with Breyben, which wasn't bad considering he was the only one who slept up there. I offered him my cabin once, seeing as I was always in the command room steering, but he refused it. It was very like him to say that the Captain, the Hunter, should have the cabin.
Yori slept down in the hold with all the random mish-mash. He liked to keep his stuff company. When he ran out of things to do, he fell into tiresome grumpiness. I avoided him at those times. Let me just say that avoiding someone on board a Voyager on a voyage is a bit difficult. I think I should get some sort of award.
I suspended my hammock. The other stuff was laid to rest on my Captain's chair until I could clear a space in one of the cubbies.
“We need to lighten the hold,” I muttered.
“I'm already on it, Sapphire,” Yori replied in my ear.
He was the only one who called me that. I went by Hunter and nobody, not even Breyben called me Captain. I was a hunter, and am Hunter. Yori didn't really like to be like everyone else. Especially if they happen to be the Selective Press or the Government Galactic news. I think one reporter asked my real name. All the others just went with Hunter, seeing as it was the name my employers put on my check. Most people figure that if I had a name, my employers—who know everything—would use it to pay me. I guess they forget that I am not the only hunter under employment. But I'm not a real expert on reporters, because this recent captive was my first high-profile capture.
Not even Yori knew my real name. Sapphire was a pet name of course. I'm not sure where he got it. Maybe my blue eyes. Maybe he's being poetic, it's hard to tell sometimes with him.
I tramped back down to the deck. Radin's boxes stacked in two heaps around him. He was making yet another note on his screen. I rolled my eyes at the sight of its green glow. This is going to be a long trip.
“You'll be setting up as the ship gets under way,” I pointed out, just in case he expected us to wait for him to get settled. We couldn't be on his timetable. Our hold held the exact amount of fuel we would need, with only a little extra to get us to the next refuel station. We packed light in the food area as well, seeing as the ship needed to float and we could do without if something should happen along the route. Our next stop expected us within a certain time frame to insure the best service he could give.
“Just pretend I'm not here, Captain Hunter,” he said over his shoulder.
I spun on my heel. I will ignore you then. The ladder for the hold met me soon enough. I slid down into the brightly lit depths. Yori grinned up at me when I reached the bottom.
“What are you so happy about?” I grumped. He rolled behind me as we walked the length of the ship to the engines. The passage beside all the supplies was too tight to fit us side by side.
“He called you Cap. I like that. He's got some class,” my eccentric friend happily replied.
“Great. The only good thing about this Inspector—”
“There's a good thing?”
“—is that you'll have someone else to annoy,” I finished.
“Whatever Your Majesty. You know you're hopelessly in love with me.”
Snort.
“As much as I'm in love with my headaches.”
We arrived at the door to the engine room. If it could be called a door. Mesh. The plastic fibers stretched from ceiling to floor to cushion any parts that might come flying loose. Half-way up the mesh was a small latch. If pulled free, this latch opened a small space through which to crawl. For this reason, Yori stayed clear of the engine room.
“Your Majesty, eh?” a deep voice rumbled from the other side of the mesh. Breyben.
“Yori is showing his jealousy because the Galactic called me the 'Queen of hunters, with her faithful guards helping her along the way,' ” I clarified, letting free a small laugh.
“Jealous? Ha! You just wait for the day when they find out who's the real brains behind this operation,” Yori defended.
Breyben stuck his head out from his nook inside the engine.
“I'm nearly done, Hunter. Voyage ahead,” he said.
I saluted him.
“Let's be off then, Yor.”