Paige had been in the process of pulling herself out of a duct connected to a large piece of technology. When she heard Jim's voice Paige’s ears pricked up and her head swiveled. A look of frustration turned into an excited smile, “H- hi Jim!”

“So, I heard there was some trouble with the ship’s rockets. Something about them achieving a less than desirable output. How’s it going?”

“Oh it’s been hell!” Paige wiped sweat from her brow but the smile never left her face “We had liquid nitrogen pouring out of the external tank. Those asteroids that kept plowing into the side of our ship yesterday usually wouldn’t do much damage, especially to the Orta Hone Hone, so it was somewhat surprising. Still, it was irresponsible for Commander Aisha to pilot us through that asteroid belt. What was she thinking?” Paige huffed.

Jim grinned embarrassed; Aisha had probably done it just for an adrenaline rush or to show off to him. Neither answer would satisfy Paige so he just kept his mouth shut and shrugged his shoulders, “………. So, uh, was that what’s effecting the rocket’s efficiency?”

“No.” Paige moped, “That’s a different matter entirely (sigh). I’m checking the circuitry for the D-9 section rocket boosters. So far no luck.” Paige looked pretty down.

“Hey, cheer up!” Jim put a comforting hand on her shoulder, “With the two of us here together I’m sure we’ll get to the root of it.” Once more Paige lit up like a light and nodded her head enthusiastically, it took all of her restraint to keep from purring and rubbing her cheek against the back of Jim’s hand, “Yeah, okay, lets get to work!”

The two were small and agile enough to crawl into the tight compartment together. Paige didn’t mind. Paige DEFINITELY didn’t mind.

“So is someone out welding the external tank?”

“Yes, they’re repairing the damages as we speak.” Paige confirmed.

“I read that back on Earth, in the old days, we used to jettison it. It also used to be the same size, almost, as our shuttles.”

“Really?”

“Yup, we also had two twin solid rocket boosters we had to jettison after taking off.”

“Wow…… That sounds like it would be expensive and problematic. How did you return from neighboring planets? Help from other species?”

“No, at the time I read the other planets were uninhabited. Earth’s solar system was fairly empty at the time.”

There voices echoed out of the duct. Trisha shook her head in amazement, the two should be flirting yet they were rattling on and on about the history ancient terran space craft tech. Surprisingly though both sounded like they were having a great time, “…….. Crazy kids.” Trisha muttered.

There wasn’t much for her to do; her shift didn’t start up for another half hour, so she decided to just watch over the two skilled kids. They weren’t inside long they found the problem fairly fast. Several Malukian rats had infiltrated the ship and chewed through some wiring. It only allowed the rockets to achieve a 70% output while reporting back a 100% output.

Jim quickly scrambled out and Paige came out seconds later holding the two rats by their tails, a look of distaste on her face. Sure she ate live meat like everyone else on the ship, but Paige had her standards and, truth be told, a bit of a sensitive stomach.

“What, you don’t want them? Give em here! It’s been a while since I had Malukian rat salad!” Trisha cackled taking the two squeaking rodents by their tails, “I’ll just have to store em in my room till lunch.”

“Why when you could have terran for lunch?” The slightly pudgy Ctarl Ctarl Allison asked.

“Pirates have been disagreeing with me lately.”

“How about young tender refugee?”

Trisha paused for a moment looking at her crewmate suspiciously, “What are you talking about?”

“Those two ships we stopped. They’ve got refugees, mostly children. Overflowing with em from what I’ve heard. Looks like we’ll all need to invest in some new space suits.” Allison laughed, patting her ample gut.

Paige stiffened. They had?! She knew the ship had boarded several space crafts for inspection but she had no idea they were filled to the brim with terran refugees. Normally that would’ve been a good thing. Pirate’s were much too tough for Paige’s sensitive stomach and she greatly preferred smaller prey……. But she also knew what happened to slaves when a new shipment of nonviolent humans were loaded on to the ship. They disappeared down the gullets of their respective owners! This was when disobedient slaves were weeded out, or just slaves whose masters and mistresses who had grown bored with them or afraid of becoming to fond of them. Commander Aisha ClanClan, from what Paige had heard, had quite the turnover rate.

She needed to approach the commander today because by tomorrow the only communication she might have with Jim was when she talked into the commander’s abdomen.

Paige wasn’t sure if she had enough money before, but with a new shipment of young food (and possible replacements) coming in her chances of acquiring Jim had sky rocketed. She was a valued member of the crew wasn’t she? Maybe not the strongest, or the bravest, but she provided the crew with her undeniably useful skills. She deserved Jim! And if her money and rank wasn’t enough…… she could possibly talk Trisha into loaning her some cash.

“Well, thanks a ton Jim. I need to go get washed up.” She wanted to hug him, tell him not to worry, but she was too nervous. She quickly turned around and walked off leaving a stunned Jim and Trisha.

“Huh, wonder what that’s about?” Jim scratched the back of his head.

“Beats me.” Trisha slurped down the two squirming rodents, she’d need room for when lunch rolled around.