The Story of the Mimosa

woman was awake again (these people could cope with nothing, she had only slapped that woman lightly) and holding the steering wheel eve

real rudder, it was just a joke set-up which could have easily been done with a decent small joystick to manoeuvre the ship where one wanted to go. But no, this had been done with real cables and hooks and all kinds of other mechanical crap that he now had

wooden back of the ship of course. Or rather: former wooden back. Whatever had taken a swing at the vessel had taken out quite a severe chunk of wood, so the man in the metal had to tread carefully so as not to fall out of the ship and down to the planet. On second thought he could not blame the shipbuilder. That man did not know he was building a smugglers' ship,

someone yanked the rudder. Probably the captain. The cable broke. Ammer said a dirty word. "I said move, dammit, not tear the bloody ship apart!" With some effort he repai

h a round steering wheel was beyond Ammer's knowledge, but he didn't care as lo

en talking among each other and waved at Ammer as he came close. One of the men banged his fist on the hull of the suit.

. And as I go up Limso will talk to you about a fe

hand with a rather disgusted expression. The other man climbed into the suit and started walking it up the stairs, the hatch open which clang

g at the top of the stairs with a few large and sturdy glasses of cold water. Am

bin and watched the proceedings at the end of the

ship conveyed his words to the bridge as if he was standing right beside her. After all, t

an plotted the course which the systems projected on the window in front of the steering wheel, the engines came to life and wi

*

nd watched the planet shrink as the Flower picked up spe

if there are any, " the

walk and see w

The two men

ppear behind the door that led into the corridor with the many cab

one of the remaining men asked. That

er. "You know I am with our helmswoman. I don't understand how your

cover deck lights. Not their kind of walk. But if you feel so aggressi

y apology. I did not mean

ogy accepted. As long as you

man smiled. "My hands

nt distance between them, and

herefore the relative growth of it was minimal at this point. She had it all figured out. As soon as there was a trace of growth in the size of the sparkle she'd be able to determine the exact distance calculated from the speed of light and with

anny resemblance to that of the magpies on an obscure little planet in another part of the Milky Way. Their common trait was that they loved shiny objects and whenever there was one in sight they'd fly towards it

truments on the bridge did not help much either. She assumed, knowing the urges of Amandians, that they were probably going to indulge in some procreative activities under t

in the window of the bridge. "She'd better keep her

the man reminded her. "Landar

ursed as she banged her

t's

commented as she

He opened the box. "Looks like your knee found deck lights. This thing is full of them." He picked one from the wooden box and looked

ap in the ship's side. The man gave her the light he had

ut it's

the lamp. It lit

ghts in more openings. Then they found three more chests