adventures in vents

Darcy followed Miles down to the engine room and leaned against her workbench, staring at him expectantly. He sighed and looked awkward.

“We do legit deliveries,” he said. “I mean, with the snacks and stuff. But we also smuggle cryopane. Daniel’s bright idea. Most of the places we stop to for pick ups and deliveries, we’re also picking up and delivering cryopane.”

Darcy snorted a laugh. “Yeah, that tracks. If I was ever gonna be able to get off Onius, it would have to be on a smuggler’s ship.”

Miles grimaced faintly. “Sorry. Daniel pretty much handles all the business stuff, so I didn’t really want to tell you about it. You don’t have to handle drugs or anything. You could probably jump ship if it bothers you too much.”

Darcy shook her head. “I’m in no position to get picky. I certainly can’t go back to Onius. Even if I could get my job back, Jesse would somehow make my life an even bigger hell than he did before. If we ever get busted I’m sure everyone will gladly turn on Daniel to save their own skins anyway.”

Miles laughed slightly. “Yeah, that’s probably true. I’m still sorry though. You just wanted to get off your planet, you didn’t ask to get mixed up in stuff like this.”

“I’ll survive. If you’re smuggling anything else though, you better tell me now. There’s no illegal sex robots on this ship, are there?”

“No,” Miles chuckled. “I promise you know everything now. Don’t mention the sex robots around Daniel and give him any ideas though.”

Darcy started cleaning up her workspace a bit, organizing her tools. “I still think it’s crazy for you to work for Daniel,” she remarked.

“Like I said, not a lot of options.”

Darcy shot him a look, then rolled her eyes. “Right. Because genius engineers aren’t in high demand or anything.”

His eyebrows rose. “Genius?”

Darcy felt her ears get warm. “Don’t go getting a big head about it. This ship can barely contain Daniel’s ego as it is.”

Miles chuckled again. “That’s true. Takes a genius to know one, though, you know.”

The redness spread from her ears to her whole face and Darcy lightly slugged his arm.

“Don’t tease,” she said. “I was being serious.”

“So was I.”

“All I do is tighten bolts and replace parts,” Darcy mumbled.

“You do a lot more than that and you know it.”

Darcy felt flustered and tried to focus on her tool clean up to hide it. No one had ever really appreciated what she did before. She was so distracted she dropped some of her extra bolts and they rolled across the floor. She sighed and went to collect them. She turned around to find Miles holding the last one out to her with an amused smile on his face. Darcy accidentally brushed her fingers against his as she took the bolt and she felt a flutter in her stomach and smiled back before reminding herself not to read into anything. Cryopane addict or not, Miles’s ex was way prettier than Darcy; it would be stupid to get all flustered and smiley around him. He was just nice, and they got along as the two crew outcasts. It didn’t mean he like liked her.

Darcy hurried to put the loose bolts away so they didn’t escape again, hoping he didn’t notice the way she kept blushing.

“So, this Jesse. Was he the guy that was talking to you just before we left?” Miles asked. “The one that seemed to have a permanent scowl?”

“Yeah, that’s Jesse,” Darcy said. “He’s not what you’d call friendly. But there weren’t a lot of job options when the orphanage kicked me out, and being a mechanic is really my only skill set, so that’s where I got work.”

“Orphanage?”

“I would have grown up on Onius-2, where I was born. But my parents kinda decided being parents wasn’t their thing,” Darcy explained. “They dropped me off for school on my first day, and just…never came back. I was still sitting on the front steps the next morning when the teacher came back. So they sent me to the orphanage on Onius-1 and I lived there till I was too old and they sent me off to find a job and my own place.”

“I’m sorry. That sounds…rough.”

Darcy shrugged one shoulder, like it didn’t bother her at all that even her own parents hadn’t wanted her.

“What do you think Daniel is going to do with that Pelara Core?” she asked, changing the subject.

“Something really stupid, most likely,” Miles sighed. “I don’t know how we ended up with one onboard, but it can only lead to trouble with Daniel running things.”

Darcy didn’t get a chance to reply as the ship suddenly jolted violently, knocking them both off balance. Darcy practically flew back into the workbench and the utility knife she’d been about to put away sliced across her palm. She winced, dropping the knife as pain lanced through her hand.

“He has to be the worst pilot ever,” Miles muttered, glaring toward the engine room door as he regained his footing.

“I guess he was really in a hurry to get out of here,” Darcy said, cupping her injured hand to try and keep it from dripping blood all over the place. She tried not to grimace but Miles noticed her holding her hand.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, taking a step toward her. Darcy reflexively shrunk back, trying to hide her hand.

“It’s fine,” she said quickly. He gave her a look of mild exasperation and gently grabbed her arm to inspect the damage.

“God, Darcy. That’s pretty bad. Go wash it, and I’ll get some stuff to patch it up.”

“You don’t need to—“

But Miles gave her a stern look and was out the door before she could stop him. Darcy sighed and shuffled into the small washroom across the hall, carefully applying some soap and scrubbing away the blood as best she could. Miles returned and took her hand, gently putting some antibacterial spray on it and she tried not to flinch at the sting. The stinging faded pretty fast, then he dabbed on a cream that seemed to seal the cut closed slightly.

“What is that?” Darcy asked, amazed when the pain in her hand began to numb slightly.

“It works like stitches,” Miles explained. “Only it helps speed up the healing process and doesn’t require all the poking.”

“That can’t be cheap,” Darcy remarked. “Won’t Daniel be mad if he finds out you wasted some of it on me?”

“It’s not wasting it. You’re our mechanic, so frankly your hands are probably one of the most valuable assets on this ship.”

Darcy blushed as he started carefully wrapping some gauze around her hand.

“There. Should be good as new in a day,” he said. “It’s a miracle any of us are still alive with the way that moron flies.”

Darcy laughed lightly before glancing at her hand again. She tried flexing it and then grimaced.

“I said it’d be good as new in a day,” Miles said, amused.

“How am I supposed to get any work done?” Darcy asked sulkily.

“There’s not much work to do right now,” Miles pointed out.

“Till Daniel breaks the ship again,” she muttered and he laughed.

“Just sit tight and let your hand heal.”

“Fine,” Darcy sighed, flopping down on the makeshift pillow couch. “But don’t get into a habit of bossing me around,” she added teasingly. She sat on the pillows with her arms around her knees, watching Miles try to organize the maintenance manuals. He was squinting so much it was making her head hurt. Darcy stood up and walked over to him, plucking his glasses from his pocket and shoving them onto his face.

“Just wear them, you dummy,” she said, playfully flicking his nose with her good hand. “It’s just me in here, and anyway they don’t look dorky. I don’t care what Daniel says.”

Miles adjusted the glasses, seeming like he wanted to take them off again. Darcy threatened to tape them to his face and he finally relented. Darcy retreated back to the pillow-couch.

“Where are we stopping next?” she asked, shifting around to get comfortable.

“Uh, Vox, I think. We have a delivery to make there. Daniel may try to find out more about finding a buyer for the Core while we’re there, too.”

Darcy sat quietly for a while, trying to remember if she knew anything about Vox. Then something out the window caught her eye and she gasped so loud that Miles asked what was wrong.

“Are those the Painted Nebulae?” Darcy asked excitedly, eyes glued to the window. It was called that because of the intense colors of the dust and gases; it was like a glittering rainbow full of jewel toned colors. Darcy admired the light that shimmered off the particles of the nebula as Miles came over to sit next to her. It made the whole room look rainbow tinted.

“It’s beautiful,” Darcy gushed, unable to keep the smile off her face.

“Yeah,” Miles agreed. The cluster of nebulas were huge, so they were flying past them for a while and Darcy was riveted the entire time. She didn’t remember falling asleep, but woke up at some point to realize vaguely that she had dozed off with her head on Miles’s shoulder. He seemed to be trying to maneuver her down onto the pillows. Still mostly asleep, she made a groggy noise of protest when he started to move away from her.

“Don’t just leave me in here,” she said, pulling slightly on his arm to keep him from getting up.

“I thought you’d be more comfortable if you had the pillows to yourself.”

“It’s cold,” Darcy complained, eyes only half open but still glaring. “Stay here.”

“But I—“

“Cold,” she repeated and she heard him sigh and lean back down against the pillows before she fell back to sleep.