Mindee Arnett - Avalon

Walking over to the sink, Jeth said, “What’re you all smiling about?”

Flynn snickered. “Heard you had an encounter with a vicious man-eating kitten out in the hallway.”

Jeth looked at him, widening his eyes. “Have you seen that thing? It’s all hairy and it’s got claws and stuff.” He held up his hand as evidence. Like Lizzie, the crew didn’t seem impressed.

Shady, half choking on a bit of food, pounded his chest and said, “Damn straight. That thing’s ferocious. Are you okay, Boss? Need the doc to take a look at those battle wounds?”

Milton blinked, then lowered his cup. “Yes,” he said, his gravelly voice deadpan. “We could head to sick bay right now for an examination.”

Relieved to find Milton in a good enough mood to joke, Jeth grunted. “I doubt I can afford your rates.”

Milton gave a noncommittal shrug.

Once he finished rinsing the scratches, Jeth crossed to the counter and scooped helpings of imitation bacon and eggs onto a plate, trying not to think about the beggar from yesterday. Flynn must be in a good mood, to have cooked for everybody. Jeth’s mind began to buzz. Everything seemed to be falling into place.

He carried the plate back to the table and sat next to Lizzie, who’d come in behind him and had resumed eating.

“So, did everyone have a good night?” Jeth asked.

A clang echoed around the room as Shady dropped his fork onto his plate. “Uh-oh.”

Jeth glanced at him. “What?”

Shady’s eyes narrowed. “You’re going to drop something heavy on us, aren’t you, Boss?”

“Oh, yeah he is,” Celeste said from the other side of the table. The short ponytail she wore this morning swished back and forth as she bobbed her head.

Jeth frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“Come on, Jethro,” Lizzie said. “Everybody knows the only time you ask questions like that is when you’re setting us up for bad news.”

“Yep,” said Shady, “Like the time you told us we had to get vaccinated for the Feria job. My ass still hurts from those shots.”

“Please spare us references to your ass,” said Celeste.

“That wasn’t my fault,” said Jeth, trying to look indignant. “That was Hammer.”

“Or,” said Flynn, “like the time you said we had to climb down the sewage duct to snatch that giant ruby on Grakkus.”

“Now hang on a minute. That wasn’t everybody,” said Jeth.

“You’re right,” said Flynn. “It was just me .”

“It’s not my fault you’re so agile.” Jeth eyed him askance. Flynn had an unnatural ability for getting into hard-to-reach places like the inside of a ship’s engine. It came in handy more often than you’d think.

Flynn scoffed. “So is Lizzie, but you’d never have made her climb down that funky-smelling thing.”

“That’s because I’m a girl, and he likes me better,” said Lizzie.

“Jury’s still out on that,” Jeth said, motioning to his scratched hand.

At the far end of the table, Milton cleared his throat. That was all it took for the crew to fall silent. “What’s the job?” Milton asked, before taking a sip of his coffee.

Jeth considered sugarcoating his answer, but there really wasn’t a way to do it. “We’re going into the Belgrave.”

“What?” said Flynn, his indignant tone becoming serious. “But ships that go in there never come out again.”

“Not every ship,” said Lizzie.

“Yeah, but those that do talk about malfunctioning equipment and strange stuff happening to the people on board,” said Celeste. The amount of fear in her voice increased Jeth’s own worries. Celeste was usually the most fearless person he knew.

“She’s right,” said Flynn. “That place is a dead zone: unreliable comms, poor nav. And there’s supposedly antimatter pits too. They even say parts of it are haunted.”

Lizzie laughed. “Now you’re being retarded. That stuff don’t exist.”

“ Doesn’t exist,” Jeth said.

“Whatever.”

Jeth clenched his jaw. Lizzie hadn’t seen the inside of a classroom since Hammer recruited her for the gang, and it bothered him when she spoke improperly. Someone so smart shouldn’t sound so ignorant.

“Please tell me you’re not serious about going into the Belgrave,” Celeste said in an unnaturally quiet voice.

Jeth forced his gaze to her, feeling the first threads of panic tugging at him. They were reacting worse than he’d anticipated. “Yes, I am. The take is killer on this one, and all we have to do is find some ship, the Donerail , and haul it back. We’re even required not to board it. Simple, really.” Besides, he silently added, it’s not like we even have a choice about it . He didn’t think the others had as firm a grasp as he did on how thoroughly under Hammer’s control they were. The crew was more removed from the reality of it. Jeth preferred it that way. It was better for morale.

“How much?” asked Shady.

Jeth let out a breath. “You all get ten-k a piece,” he said. “Half of it upfront this time.”

Shady whistled. “That means your cut is forty, right? Not bad for a salvage job.”

Jeth glanced down, unable to look him in the eye. Their cut could’ve been a lot higher. He shouldn’t have bargained it away without asking them first, even if he had been surprised by Hammer’s response.

“No, the job’s not bad,” Jeth said. “But I’m not exactly getting any money on this one.”

“Then what are you getting?” asked Celeste.

“Once we bring back the Donerail , Hammer’s agreed to give me Avalon .”

Nobody said anything for several moments, mulling over the news. Lizzie looked the most contemplative of all. She knew better than the others what it meant for Jeth to have Avalon back. She too thought of Avalon as a part of the family. True, they never lived on her until after their parents died, but Avalon still represented an important part of who they were.

Shady broke the silence first with a loud belch. “So what does that mean for the rest of us? Are you gonna kick us out?”

Three worried gazes locked on Jeth’s face, all but Milton and Lizzie who already knew they had a permanent home on Avalon , no matter what.

“Of course not,” Jeth said. “You can stay or go as you want, same as always.”

“Will we keep working for Hammer?” said Lizzie. “I suppose we’ll get more money for each job if you’re no longer paying off Avalon .”

“I’m not sure what’ll happen,” said Jeth. He’d never dared telling any of them his plan to settle on Enoch, afraid of jinxing it. “We’ve got to finish the job first.”

“Aren’t we forgetting something here?” Flynn said, sounding on the verge of hysteria. “How the heck are we supposed to find something in the middle of the Belgrave? Horror stories aside, it is a dead zone, which means we might get lost with no way of calling for help. We might die. We might even run out of food .”

“Equipment malfunction won’t be an issue,” said Jeth.

“How do you know?”

“Because we’re taking Avalon for this job. That’s one of the reasons Hammer wants us for it. Her nav systems were specifically modded to handle the energy fluctuations in the Belgrave. She’ll guarantee we find the ship and our way out again.”

“How can you be so sure?” said Celeste in a voice not much more than a whisper.

“Because my parents used her for all of their expeditions.” Celeste exhaled. “What about that ITA guy, Marcus Renford? How does he fit into this?”

“Who?” asked Flynn.