Season Content notes: (explicit) sex

Planetfall. The actual landing went smoothly — more so than usual, Ezra’s repairs must have been what they needed. Zdenko met the local customs inspector at the docking bay while Skullfire started the routine of digging up new cargo. Only half this shipment was getting dropped off at Golika, so if they couldn’t dig up anything new here, they’d be all right for the next leg. But Zdenko believed in a full cargo hold.

The inspector wore their enviro suit like a second skin and brought an acrid whiff of Golika’s unbreathable atmosphere in with them. They were rude enough to even keep the helmet on through the inspection, but what could you expect from folks who narc’d for a living? They were, admittedly, good at their job, going through the full cargo hold and checking manifests and invoices. Finally, they gave a stamp of approval to the stuff getting offloaded and got the hell out of Zdenko’s hair.

Customs inspections were part and parcel of life as a free trader, but that didn’t mean Zdenko had to like it. At least this time, he had no contraband to worry about being turned up. With the charter from Moira and her fancy-pants school, he was well into the black for this quarter already. No need to risk it.

He still wasn’t used to how much easier it was to go through these routine annoyances without the parasite riling him up. It hadn’t even occurred to him to snap at the inspector. With that irritation out of the way, he went to find the students. At least one of them knew how to use an enviro suit. The priority now was to find out if any of the other students did, or if they needed a lesson.

It took some serious instruction for Mackenzie to be ready for her venture planetside, and it would be clear to any veteran she’d never used an enviro suit before. Grover, while no seasoned veteran, had the basics down quite well. He wasn’t used to the armored suits of the Meadowsweet, though. Zdenko figured it would be best to tag along for a few minutes to ensure no malfunctions. It was Efe’s watch anyway.

After about twenty minutes of Grover’s grousing that they’d be fine on their own, Zdenko let them loose. Rather than going back to the ship, Zdenko went to check out the wares in the dock markets. Ezra would be restocking on ration packs, but every once in a while, it was possible to find sealed delicacies that the engineer enjoyed cooking up. Maybe the captain could also find something for Moira. He owed her a better apology than just the sex.

Zdenko had just found a pair of earrings he thought Moira would like when a commotion started closer to the city proper. That chant brought back memories of nearly choking to death on this air. Natschen. Let the locals have their fun. He didn’t want any part of it. That was, until his com beeped on the open channel and Mackenzie’s frantic voice interrupted his haggling.

“Grover’s in trouble! I don’t know what happened! He just, one minute he was there, then he wasn’t, and now he’s, he’s—”

Moira took charge of her student. “Take a breath, Makenzie, and tell us what happened.”

“Is he in that combat gearing up?” Zdenko kept his voice calm. It would do no good to panic her further.

“Yeah, I think so, I mean, they seem to be talking about a foreigner.”

“I’ll check it out. Where are you?”

“The library off the main thoroughfare.”

“Stay there and don’t get into any trouble,” Moira said. “I’ll ask Skullfire or Ezra to come get you. Zdenko?”

“I’ll find him.” The captain switched his com to Grover’s link and sighed when he got no answer. The rest of the crew and Moira knew where he was headed. Hopefully, he got there before the kid got a lungful of sulfurous gas. The chanting drew him closer, and he shoved his way through the crowd.

Once at the edge of the makeshift ring, he scanned the combatants. Yeah, that was a Meadowsweet enviro suit. “He’s here,” the captain said over the com. Shit. Grover’s back was to him as the kid stood off against one of the bipedal reptilian locals.

Female judging by the piercings. He hoped the female would go for one of the suit’s armored areas. It was a /ritual/ combat, only until one of the participants was knocked down or out of the ring. If the reptilian wasn’t too pissed, she’d settle for putting Grover on his ass and be done with it.

She lunged, hissing, clawed hands outstretched. Grover tried to dodge and stumbled back against one of the locals next to Zdenko. They shoved him back towards the female. This time, his stumbling brought him into contact with her right hook. The kid landed on his ass.

The female raised her claws and roared in victory. The crowd cheered with her as the captain rushed forward to check Grover over for suit breaches. Fortunately, no alarms were going off. He opened the com line between them again. “You okay kid?”

Grover mumbled something unintelligible and got up slowly.

“Come on, let’s get you back to the ship.” Zdenko gave him a hand up and shifted to walk where he could see Grover and still lead back to the ship. “You got lucky she wasn’t out for air. How the fuck did studying put you in a combat circle?”

“Out for air?” The kid’s voice barely carried over the com. “What do you mean?”

“Remember when Ezra said I’d been in one of those? She tore the enviro suit. I got a lungful of local air and Ezra had to drag my ass back to the ship before I blacked out.”

“Was it deliberate?”

“No idea, but she was deliberately not being gentle.”

“Oh.”

They were out of the market and into the spaceport. Zdenko had them moving quickly, not giving the kid time to see anything. Yeah, the kids were here to see strange planets, but as far as he was concerned, Grover had lost his chance to see this one. He wasn’t at all surprised to see Moira waiting at the Meadowsweet’s airlock, toe tapping in an all too familiar way. The captain grinned. If Grover hadn’t learned anything yet, he was damn well about to.

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