Kori and Steve were sitting on the lip of the open cargo hold, watching the city. Each had a beer in hand. Naomi had returned a few hours prior in a rental buggy like the one she and Jax had taken into town.
Jax arrived on foot. When he spotted his friends up above, he said, “The rental buggies shut off at night, apparently.” He moved out of sight to the boarding ramp and stomped his feet to get rid of the mud that had accumulated, finally giving up and slipping his boots off.
When Jax arrived barefoot in the cargo hold, Kori winked, her brown eyes twinkling in the harsh overhead lighting of the hold. “Naomi said to not expect you until morning.” Steve nudged her in the shoulder.
Jax smiled and winked. “Not everyone hits the sheets on the first date.” Steve coughed. Jax added, “Every time.” He gestured around to the world beyond the cargo hold. “Even if it’d be the most fun thing on this damp rock.”
“You get what we needed?” Steve asked, his composure coming back. Jax nodded. “That’s good.” He turned to point to some recent modifications to the hold. “Check out what we’ve been up to.” He pointed to the two powerful extending arms in the ceiling. “Kori and Baxter helped me reinforce each arm.” He gestured to thick beams that had been welded to the arm assemblies and the deck in two places on each side: port and starboard. “We also ordered some reinforced cable, but it won’t get delivered until tomorrow morning. Should be a quick install, though. Baxter can braid it for extra tensile strength.”
Kori laughed, “That should fun to watch.”
Jax nodded. “Great.” He looked around. “Naomi sleeping?” Kori nodded. “Okay. We should all hit the sack, get a good night’s sleep. We’ll plan over breakfast.” Steve and Kori both nodded.
Baxter stepped forward. “I’ll go patrol.” He turned his scatter light toward the open starboard cargo bay door.
Jax smiled. “Careful, it’s muddy out there.”
The droid grunted. “I was made for combat. A little mud won’t bother me.” He turned Kori, “After I braid the cable I can tackle your hair.” Before she could reply, he continued to the lip and took a step dropping to the muddy landing area below. Both doors began to slide closed.
Kori looked at Jax, “No he did not just…”
Jax shrugged and gestured to the staircase. He followed Kori and Steve up to the common area. The two headed to their bunks: Kori to the quarters she now shared with Naomi and Steve to the room previously occupied by Mr. Ichiko, next to Jax’s Captain’s quarters. Jax stopped at the kitchen for a glass of water.
Rudy rolled over. “Skip tells me that everything went well.” Jax nodded as he drank.
The rust-colored navigation droid rolled over to the small charging station in the bulkhead next to the large entertainment screen. His head spun to look at Jax. “You okay?”
Jax smiled. “Yeah, all good. Just nerves before the job, I guess.”
“Uh, huh,” the droid said, noncommittally, “I’m sure that’s it.”
Jax stared at him a moment. “Shut up and charge.” He headed for the hallway that led to the crew berths. As he passed the door to Steve’s quarters, he knocked twice, then pressed the control on his own door. When he entered his berth, he left his door open.
* * *
The following morning Naomi and Kori walked into the kitchenette area. The dark-skinned woman focused on setting the coffee maker to work.
A few minutes later, as both women chatted over their cups of coffee, Steve walked into the common area. “Morning, all.” He rubbed his dark brown hair, then ran his hand down his face. He looked at the two women, their eyes boring holes in him. A blush crept up his neck to his cheeks, forcing him to turn toward the cupboard. He busied himself with fixing a cup of coffee.
Kori, tired of waiting for Steve to turn back around, said, “Good morning to you, too.” Something in the way she said those five words caused Steve’s cheeks to burn brighter. He reached up into the cupboard to grab another coffee cup.
Jax walked in. “Morn—” Steve shoved a cup of coffee at him.
Both women turned their stares from Steve to a new target. Jax sipped the coffee, then looked at the two women. “What?”
Steve sidled towards the lounge area the long way around. Kori waggled her eyebrows but said nothing.
Jax turned and looked at Rudy, still in his charging port. “Rudy.”
Rudy made a mechanical sound. “If the hormone parade is over.” He disengaged from his charger and rolled to stand in front of the wall-mounted entertainment screen. “My understanding is that we need to get things planned.” He turned to Steve. “They should deliver your order of cabling in thirty minutes. I’ll have Baxter accept it.” Steve nodded dumbly, looking from Jax to the droid and the two women, then the entertainment screen.
Once everyone had settled in, Jax said, “Okay, here’s the deal. The train comes in tonight around five. It takes two hours to load it up. Thanks to my new friend Tommy Adamic, I know that for sure the lot numbers Ichiko gave me will be on this shipment. They’ve got loads from dozens of coops and larger operations going out on this train.” He looked around. “Bad news, we’ve got no idea where the lots will be. Tommy said it’s semi random based on load balancing the cars. The train engineer and load master provide a final layout when the loading is done and send that along to the yard managers in Salma.”
Naomi held up her hand.
“Yes?” Jax nodded to her.
“You sure got the right lot numbers?”
Jax shrugged, producing his gPhone. “Data file Ichiko gave me. We’ll have to check each car. The lot numbers are only visible from the walkways inside the cars.” He took a breath. “The train is expected to be almost two klicks long, so we’ll have to move fast.”
“Not awesome,” Steve said. “We’re gonna have to move real fast. It shouldn’t be hard to hack the locking mechanisms on those cars, but moving the modules off, then coming back for more, gonna take time.”
Jax nodded. “Easier than you think. We’ll head out after Stevie and Kori get the new cabling installed. I want to be at the staging area well before the train leaves the city.” He turned to Rudy. “Speaking of, got someplace in mind?”
The small droid changed the density of his roller ball, allowing his body to bob up and down twice as he nodded with one fist. The main entertainment display showed an overhead map of the town of Abda and surrounding terrain. The GappleSoft logo was on the bottom right. He rolled to the display. “Here.” A section of the map lit up with a red dot. “The train line,” it lit up in blue, “runs right here, only a few kilometers away. When the train leaves Abda, we can be airborne and ready for intercept in minutes.”
Naomi clapped her hands loudly. “Let’s go rob somebody!”