(https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/003/414/427/large/miguel-iglesias-ilm-theridesafefyle.jpg?1473428251)<br/><br/>The open road, his old mentor had always called it.  The calculated vector linking one point in space time and another, danger free and dead space, where the autopilot could do more or less all the work.  And it was making the day so much better that this run seemed to be open road the whole way.<br/><br/>Jonah adjusted a few sliders with one hand, lowering the power of the vessel’s own thrusters and stabilising it.  His other hand rested on the top ridge of the console, fingers and thumb all striking the fiberglass surface in perfect time with the rhythm of the industrial metal music throbbing from the rear of the bridge.<br/><br/>“Looks OK to me,” he said to Tabitha, the younger woman sat in a lower seat to his left, “let’s see if can bring ourselves down a little, straighten out the tether and get it into tug-mode.  Once we’ve done that the navicom can pretty much take it from there.”<br/><br/>The music broke into a searing guitar solo, and Jonah grinned broadly.  His head bobbed and rolled lightly, his cheek twitching in a hint of an impassioned grimace.  Another twenty minutes and the hardest part about the entire job would be over and done with; it was just a straight five day route to the destination.<br/><br/>“Just waiting for Hakim to finish with the fuels.” Tabitha replied, “A few other diagnostics are still running...did you get crystal fiber installed in the dorsal after all?  Seems to be reporting just as slow as ever.”<br/><br/>“Yeah it got installed.” Jonah said with a casual shrug, “It’s probably not configured properly.  That can wait until we’re cruising”<br/><br/>Tabitha sighed and stabbed a few buttons on the control panel with her slender fingers. “Fine. Then I guess you should go and help Vahl decide what to do with our new guest.”<br/><br/>Jonah rose slowly from his seat, slipping his hands into the back of his bootleg jeans, green pocketed jacket worn open over a white button shirt.<br/><br/>“You know in other outfits,” he said with a faux-severity in his voice, “it’s the Captain who tells the rest of the crew what to do.  Isn’t that crazy?”<br/><br/>“Ain’t no way to work.” Tabitha muttered.<br/><br/>Jonah leaned across and furrowed his brow. “You’re not jealous now that you’re not the only gal on board are you, Tabby?”<br/><br/>“Jealous?” Tabitha said without looking up. “Far from it. Have as much fun with her as you like, perhaps it’ll mean one of you and Vahl will be free to help me on the bridge instead of disappearing to fuck<em>each other</em>.”<br/><br/>“Well that’s terribly presumptuous of you,” Jonah said, teasingly. “Hunky male specimen’s like us...maybe she’ll want both of us at the same time?”<br/><br/>Tabitha rolled her eyes almost out of her head. “Just remember that we have to hand her over at the end of this trip, or we don’t get paid. And I don’t know how much longer our last payday is going to stretch.”<br/><br/>Jonah hopped down the steps onto the main gangway to the rear of the bridge, and stepped into the elevator, punching the button for the lower mess module.<br/><br/>There he found Vhal, watching over their new captive. She wasn’t bound. It seemed like overkill. Apprehending her hadn’t been hard. Her protestations of innocence, and her insistence that she had no idea why she had a bounty on her head, had seemed troublingly believable. It didn’t help that Jonah had no idea what she was<em>supposed</em>to have done. Just that it was a decent chunk of money, which they needed.<br/><br/>“We don’t hunt bad guys,” Jonah replied to the Primorian’s suggestion. “We hunt guys with a price on them. Gal’s too, you might have noticed. It’s not for us to judge who’s bad or good. And that, right there, is the problem. You can try to convince us you’re a good person, but that don’t matter. One thing you<em>can’t</em>persuade us to believe is that you’re not worth a fucktonne of cash if we deliver you.”<br/><br/>His eyes went down their captive, and back up. She was as pleasing a female form as any he’d ever seen. Tabitha was attractive, no question about that, but he’d learned long ago there was nothing to be had there. About the same time he’d heard the term ‘asexual’ for the first time. Who knew there was such a thing.<br/><br/>“Go on Vahl,” he sighed, turning to his reptilian colleague. “Be the voice of reason here. Are we getting fucked over? Is there<em>any</em>chance at all we got the wrong person?”