Fragment - Paul G Swanson (best android ereader .TXT) 📗

out a card."
"Really?" Moumoru grabbed a coin from his pocket and flipped the coin into the air. Its unstained silver surface caught the light as it tumble up into the air. Just as it reached the apex of its arch he snapped his arm up to grab it. He repeated the motion twice more before stopping.
"Yeah, go tell that engineer to turn the engines back on. You how long they take to prep for take off." Psylix sighed. "And stop flipping that stupid coin! Why do you always do that?" He asked.
"Oh god, don't remind me. On my way." Moumoru opened the door and disappeared to the other side.
Like himself and Somie, Moumoru didn't have a home to go back to either. It was depressing, the three of them bought this ship together to help people and get paid without having to do any real work. It just didn't work out according to the plan.
Since the day he signed for the Farsight he had picked up a few other individuals well known for their individual talents. The first person other than the original three to climb aboard was Seth. He was the wandering Combat specialist. Scarcely a day went by when he didn't see him covered in dark clothing. Come to think of it, he couldn't recall a day when the man's hair didn't covered the right side of his face like a shroud. It was as if he was trying to hide something. Psylix personally knew exactly what it was. The right side of his face was covered to hide the scars he received during his years of service to a mercenary organization.
Then there was the engineer, which he only trusted as far as he could throw him. The found him literally on their doorstop selling him their services for free, all he wanted was house and board. It was suspicious but they let him work on the engines since none of them understood how to repair a complicated hydrogen engine. He recalled the first time
Haschel examine the engines. The man looked at the engine and chuckled, cracked his fingers and got to work immediately. Every time he twisted a bolt tighter his hands and arms bones would pop painfully loudly.

* * *

Moumoru plodded down the three flights and steps at a rapid pace. More than once he almost tripped and fell on his face. He entered the engine room, which was cramped with inconvenient pipes and tubes and called out for Haschel.
As he had done on many occasions Haschel voice called out from nowhere.
"I'm back here! What do you need Moumoru?"
"Boss said, turn them back on. We'll be heading out of here soon, he thinks." Moumoru looked around trying to see Haschel unusually large nose. He gave and turned around to head out the door and almost fell backward with surprise. The man was literally between him and the door. "How do you do that?" Haschel was always appearing out of nowhere scaring them unintentionally.
"Ok, but the engines won't keep themselves running you know, then need regular maintenance. Tell him we need to rest these again whenever we get there. Where are we going anyway?"
"Beats me. The client hasn't even shown up yet." Moumoru told Haschel as he climbed up toward the ceiling for a final inspection of the engines. He watched his Cyrano-De-Begerac-esche nose vanish. "Well enjoy.I'm out of here."

* * *

Sarah walked into the back of the store when her shift was over and Mathenius flipped his 'open' sign to 'close'. She sighed drawing out the card in her pocket and stared at it briefly. Mathenius simply walked past her and sat at the far end of the table. His baldhead caught some of the light from the ceiling as he sat down.
"What's wrong Sarah?" He asked in a somber tone. Instead of answering immediately she just hung her head and shook it side to side.
"It's just that damn kid." She pulled a chair out from under the tables opposite end and watched Mathenius flick a metal attachment attached to his left cheekbone. A hexagonal targeting reticule rapidly materialized out of the top of the attachment.
"You mean Tio?" He grabbed a small device off the floor from next to his feet and dropped it onto the table with a heavy clunk and grabbed the nearby soldering iron in one swift motion. He immediately set about disassembling it.
"Whom else could I be talking about?" She banged her head lightly on the table in front of her. "Liste-" She started but was interrupted by Mathenius.
"Ah, damn it! I missed one again." He cried out in frustration as he accidentally melted a capacitor to the circuit board. He cursed under his breath, and slapped his head. "Sorry, you were saying?"
She thought about this the shop for a second grinning. After serving him for nearly six years he trusted her almost entirely. The shop had done well; partly do to her deep insight into the needs of the public, but mostly due to his near genius ability to make scrap into something useable for almost no cost. They turned these talents into a huge profit, and Mathenius now owned three branches between three colonies separated by eons of space.
Sarah was his only employee at the start, now she handled the marketing, and he the machines. She chuckled, she had even unexpectedly learned a bit about beginners engineering. She had been watching him for barely a second before she saw the problem.
"Changed the spectrum you're using. You're in red light right now. You know you need the blue hexagon grid when modifying three-dimensional boards." She scolded, and watched as he flicked his enhancement embarrassed.
"Sorry, didn't realize." He paused and let the device reset itself before attempting to clean up the mess melted onto the circuitry. "Please continue," He paused and added as an after thought, "Can you grab that stack and put it over there.I need to sort it later." He laughed timidly after realizing he interrupted her again. "Sorry, really I am."
She sighed and continued.
"I need some time off." She glanced up at him to see the expression on his face and frowned. He didn't even look like he was listening. She stood up and grabbed the box he had requested and set it on the table directly in front of him with a loud thump making the entire table shake. Mathenius jolted surprised.
"Sarah! I am listening, you know." He snapped. "You need time off right? This about that guy from earlier, am I right?" He asked.
"Well," She started, "That's only part of it." She went back to her seat and sat down again looking straight at him staring right back. "I'm going to do something cruel to him you know."
"Taking him back to Earth is it?" He asked slowly.
"Yeah. I need to show him once and for all that he needs to stop hoping. We all saw what the planet looked like except him and a few others." She didn't want to say it, but it was still hard for her to believe what had happened. "He needs to see the damage that phenomenon caused with his own eyes. I just can't.I just can't explain it clearly with words." The thought of all the people that had died that day made her choke on her words.
Mathenius averted his eyes. He didn't like to see her upset. He would do anything that could cheer her up. He loved her, and he knew that she knew it as well. She didn't feel the same way, he was aware of this. Despite it being a one-sided relationship he still felt a great desire to comfort her. He looked at his device he had attempted to perform surgery on.
Frustrated he slammed his fist into it causing it to break into various pieces. He stood up hard enough to knock his chair to the floor and walked over to her quickly and embraced her with a hug. He didn't want to see her cry, but hugging her had the exact opposite effect. Sobbed quietly at first and then louder as the time past. A few minutes later she stopped and he let go.
"Thank you." She told him and stood up. "Even with you odd habits and quirky personality you're ok." She smiled at him and walked over the hug him briefly in return. "I'm going too have to see it sooner of later, whether I like it or not. I might as well just do it."
"I'll be here when you return." He walked out of the room laughing. "Speaking of quirky habits." She heard him jostling out of sight and returned with a small rifle in hand. "You know what I like to do to these things after all." He pointed to the corner and grinned a toothy smile.
In the direction he was pointing she saw three small roaches moving slowly in a pack. She laughed at the fact that he loved to shoot them with bullets. She never asked why, she just got out of the way.
"With this I bid you adieu good sir." She called to him as the door chimed with her exit.
The insects were hard to see in the dark corner so he flicked attachment again and queued the thermal sensor to activate. He propped his gun back up, balanced it, and aimed giving the sensor time to activate. He was just about to pull back on the trigger when he noticed something odd. There were three tiny cold spots on the targets carapace.
Unable to see it very clearly, he adjusted his position and zoomed in with the rifles scope. With this new point of view, he could see that the three spots were actually small oval shaped orbs that were very subtly changing temperatures at the edges. He stared at it for a moment and jumped in surprise when the entire thing turned blue.
"Huh." He put the gun down at his side, "Guess it was already on its way out." His voice clearly reflected the disappointment he felt. Shooting roaches was one of his favorite hobbies and he jumped at every opportunity. But he didn't want to shoot something dead. That was just no fun.
A sound caught his attention on the other side of the room; somehow a box had fallen over. His skin magazines spilt out. His favorite was lying partially open with the centerfold poking out.
Being paranoid all the time he picked the gun back up and spun around screaming, "Who the hell is it?" He couldn't imagine why anyone would break in. He sold things at such a good price to begin with and everyone knew that all they had to do was ask him and he would trim the price for them.
This time