The Lucky Penny

[Zapp]

Sydney got infuriated as crewman after crewman proved incompetent, rude, bossy, or (in the worst case), downright perverted. Waking up to a hand up her shirt had landed that sleazeball the fastest ticket off the ship yet -- out the airlock. She may be small, but she was a fighter and had a lot of stamina, as well as force of will.

Of course, Mourning didn't hesitate to help her overpower the man who pushed his luck a bit too far. He had yelled something about getting out of his mind, but she paid no mind to him.

Round and round they went, trading goods and taking odd jobs. They ended up floating in Honshu, clinging to the underbelly of a Naval Battleship. It was real easy to fool the sensors with all systems powered down except the mag-grips. Trick was the approach, and doing it in one of Kusari's many sensor-scrambling nebulae really helped.

The thing was that Sydney was supposed to board the ship and steal something. A convenient cascading system failure would occur at exactly 0400, and that was when she would have to spacewalk to the airlock, pick the seal, and get in and out.

She sighed as she looked out the viewscreen of the cramped cockpit and wondered if she'd ever see the beauty of home again.

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