Hotaru no Haka

[Eppy]

"Hotaru! Turn that infernal music down! We can hear you in the back of the ship, for Shogun's sake!"

Hotaru Mishima, fifteen, looked up from her book. She the sole person on the bridge of Kisaragi's Fortune, a two-year-old Advanced Train and the flagship of Kyosuke Mishima's freighter fleet. Well, she would have been the sole person on the bridge, had her father not come barging onto the bridge, once again complaining about Pink Floyd. She sighed, took her legs off of the dash, hit the mute button and stood up.

"There. It's down."

"Good. What's our ETA to Leipzig?"

"Thirteen minutes." She sat back down. "Are we hauling diamonds back again for that idiot on Kyushu? That last time with the "I Don't Have That Kind of Money" line was a complete fiasco."

"He'll pay full price this time." Mishima strolled over to the refrigerator and pulled out a large bottle of the Rhine's finest asteroid icemelt. "He knows I'll terminate the contract if he causes another loss of revenue like that, and he will never get shipping as expedient as ours again."

"Good." She tabbed out of something on the console. "Looks like we're up three percent, too."

"Oh?" He walked over and peered over her shoulder. "Well, what do you know! I don't know how I missed that last time I did taxes!"

"They tried to charge you for 600 tons of H-fuel that never got ordered." She ran a hand through her shoulder-length hair, fiddling with her bangs until they stayed behind her ears. "I got the returns; it was right on top, so I sent an error invoice back in time for them to correct the numbers."

"Good girl!" He ruffled her hair as she beamed with pride. Praise was not often forthcoming from her father; while she was on the Kisaragi's bridge she was just the helmswoman. Saving 4.5 million credits probably constituted something, though, and she wasn't complaining. She was just glad he was there. She remembered back at the orphanage, gone since she was three-and-a-half. Not a fun time; she would have been sent into some cheap textile factory-or, if her luck was particularly unfortunate, a brothel-by now. But Yui Mishima had wanted a daughter, and she got one. Unfortunately, she had died six months after...

Kyosuke had raised her from there on himself. Seeing as he had a freighter to run, she very quickly became educated in the technical field, and learned how to take care of herself. He was always there for her, though; a rarity, she knew, among Kusari parents, and for that she was thankful.

"Thank you, daddy!" She giggled, fixing her hair again. Kyosuke was a relatively short, stocky man, even for a Kusariite; she was almost an inch taller than him. He still managed to be imposing, though, when he wanted. He engaged in this sort of seething frown that seemed to imply that, even though he was small, he'd retaliate in double, no matter what you did to him. He was a shrewd businessman, and a good one; snagging the Kruger contract had been a real bit of genius. "So, how's the planning going?"

"Just fine. The engines are running smooth as can be, the cargo locks are all completely operational, and the decks are shining." He sighed happily, throwing back some of the Rhine's Finest. "When we make Leipzig we'll collect, load up on Diamonds for the Idiot and drop in the bar and have some real food for once."

"Oooh, yay! I want to talk to Yoko again, we haven't actually seen each other in a month. The drinking age down here is fourteen, too, isn't it?"

"NO! You are NOT having anything that strong, you'll fall over dead after half a point of that brew they keep in-oh, you stupid girl!" he threw his hands skyward and stalked off of the bridge as she doubled over in silent laughter. "Gaah, I don't know why I even bother sometimes..."

Hotaru didn't have a good many friends; she was homeschooled and living on a trade ship, after all. The only company were the children of the other spacers, over the comms and when they put into port. She was fine with that, though. The adults suited her more, anyways. Much more intelligent conversation.

Sighing, she hit the unmute button once again and cranked it down. Just in time for the start of Echoes. She picked up her book once more and resumed her foot-to-the-dash position. Leipzig would come soon enough.


//Critique me! Critique me!\\

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Quick comment - we thought that Panzer was the Leader, Swift. -Agmen

Which Dreadnought was that?

One of your nine.