Co-travellers
Mira wakes up to the light of the sun. The curtain slowly slides, letting the light of the sun inside.
Eve emerges from the bathroom wrapped in a towel. Her guns and gear are decorated on a table.
"Get up, missy. This ain't no papa's house," Eve drops the towel and starts changing.
Mira slides on the bed, looking outside at the cyberpunk city bathed in the morning aura. Neon lights dimmed, rush on the streets, cars and bikes on the road and in the air. Rash traffic. Weak government but not complete lawlessness.
Mira shifts on the bed, staring at the city's morning haze. Two years with Eve, and she's still nowhere close to convincing her to visit Saiyara. Home keeps calling, but Mira's diplomatic past feels like another life. Kara-Vaen rewrote her soul.
Eve's life was always on the move. Unpredictable. Motels. Clubs. Sunset beaches. Spending her money traveling to dream paradises. Luxury hotels. There was nothing else to spend money on when she received good money from a hard bounty.
On other days—just slums, orbital stations.
Sometimes she would just land Natasha, her scout vessel, on a mountain or canyon from where there was a clear view and wide vista all around. They camped there, lived there for days. Lounged on a chair, watching the sunsets, bonfire. Just Eve and her thoughts.
Mira tagged along. Watched her put on the show on the battlefield killing giants, and in the clubs dancing naked. It was almost like she was going into battle hoping never to come out alive, and every time she did, she celebrated like there was no tomorrow.
Mira tries to reach her. "There's more to life, Eve." "You're meant for something greater." "The universe gave you these gifts for a purpose."
Eve's replies are sharp: "Pack your shit and go." Or, "Not today, princess." Sometimes, just a cold, "Shut it."
One day, Eve was pole dancing, stripping away her clothes one by one, drunk and careless. As usual, her audience… cheering and growing… didn't matter which Andromedan planet or space pub it was.
Mira didn't know came to her mind. She downed a bottle… got up and joined her. As Mira started to strip, Eve noticed her with a careless gaze. But when Mira's bra came off, Eve slowed down and stopped.
Now the crowd was cheering for Mira. Eve was just looking at her, arms crossed, mouth open, dumbfounded. Bitch, what the fuck, Eve thought.
Then Mira shredded the last piece, both her legs in the sky, spread apart. Now Eve intervened. "All right, showgirl, that's enough. We are leaving. Right now." Eve tried to cover her with her jacket.
Mira shrugged her off, "Let me have fun, I'm just enjoying myself. You're in a hurry? Go home."
Eve hovers, fuming, as Mira's dance grows wilder. She wasn't stopping, and now her dance moves really became ludicrous. She was really putting the woman out there.
Eve grabbed her hand, "Let's go, missy."
Mira pushed her and turned away, "go away. I'm not coming with you."
Suddenly, Eve felt a heavy grip grabbing her shoulder, "why don't you let the good woman have some fun and leave?" It was the bouncer.
Eve's eyes blaze. Right behind his shoulder, she could see the club manager covering his face. Eve pinched her lips.
The bouncer landed right on top of the manager.
People stopped for a second. The music stopped. Everyone looked at Eve. Then at Mira. Mira looked at Eve, but then started dancing again. Music started again.
"Suit yourself," Eve said. Jumped into her black leather jeans, swung the short jacket around her arms, and picked up the crop top. She walked towards the door, eyeing the club manager furiously, who was just getting up.
Barely had Eve reached the door when she heard a scream. Eve didn't turn around. Her gun slides out, plasma bolts tearing through the ceiling dimmed the sound of dubstep.
The men surrounding and grabbing Mira froze and backed off, clearing the path for her. She grabbed her skirt and ran towards the door. No one at the club had the guts to take on Eve. They knew exactly what she did for a living.
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The next day, a bucket full of water splashed awake Mira. She got up in a soaked bed and bikini. Eve smashed her bag in her face. "Get out."
Mira dresses silently, hair a mess, and steps off Natasha's ramp. She's barely a few steps away when Eve lands in front of her with a thud. "So that's it? You're just leaving?"
"Yes." Mira sidesteps her.
Eve blocks her path. "Just like that?"
"Just like that." Mira dodges again.
"Then why did you come into my life, bitch!!?"
Mira didn't answer. And just like that, their two-year-long co-traveling came to an end. Mira heard Natasha lift off behind her—but she never turned back.
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Eve had just returned from a bounty hunt. She wasn't in the mood for partying tonight. Instead, she landed Natasha far from town—on the sand dunes. In the middle of the desert, the town looked like a carnival, full of neon lights.
Eve looked at the moon, sitting on top of her ship reclined to it's hull by the viewport, sipping her beer. She looked through the viewport at the second seat where Mira used to accompany her. It was empty. She looked at Natasha—it didn't feel like her ship.
She had many beers and drifted to sleep. The morning sun woke her up. She jumped back into the cockpit cabin and flew to Sal Parlos. There she met Noora.
"You seem upset today."
Noora, her personal gear upgrade and arms supplier, asked Eve as Eve aimlessly wandered in her shop. "You can tell me, honey."
Noora was Eve's first-ever BFF. She's how Eve met Mario, the deal broker who managed bounties for her and gave her fresh assignments. He always saved the best for her.
Eve hung her head and slumped herself in Noora's office chair. Then she told Noora everything.
"So you mean your friend—the one you were so protective of that you wouldn't let her anywhere near the Sal Parlos black market?"
"Yes."
"The friend I never got to see because you always left her behind in your traveling RV?"
"Yes. Because she was a diplomat or something before… not cut out for this kind of life." Eve flipped an Exosuit helmet upside down, looking at its tech and features without interest.
Noora came to her chair and took the helm from her. "Oh dear… are you even sure she made it back to her home planet?"
The question hits like a gut punch. Eve bolts up, grabs her jacket, and storms out. "Contact Mario!" she yells, leaving the door swinging.
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After five days, Noora woke up. Knocking at the door stirred her. She got up, rubbing her eyes, and opened it.
Eve held in her arms a beautiful woman with brown eyes, dark brown hair, and thick lips—thicker due to injuries. She quickly pointed to the bed. Eve placed her on it. Scratches and marks all over her body. Rashly beaten. Raped.
She was unconscious.
Just then, a man in a suit entered the room and took off his hat, placing it on the hanger, "you know, Eve, I left everything and came here. It wasn't a night off—not in a business like mine. Somebody better be dying… oh." He just looked at the bed.
Eve lays her on the bed, eyes wet with regret and rage.
"Eve." Mario was walking toward her when she suddenly stood up and passed him.
"Just watch out for her until I come back. Fix her up, Mario. She's my friend." Eve left the room. Outside, a dozen of Mario's men stepped aside as she walked—heavy, angry. Her gun was out.
Eve landed Natasha, got off the ship, entered the bar drinking beer in one hand, holding a gun in the other. The gun clacked. Safety off.
That night, that bandit colony—inhabited completely by criminal men or whores—faced the wrath of a hell-born demon. The roadhouse and surrounding container-homes were blazing in fire. Some 200 men died that night. Women fled for their lives.
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Sunrise.
Back at Noora's abode at Sal Parlos. Eve sat by the bed, looking outside at Mario's luxury hover car parked in Noora's driveway by the garage.
"There is no other way. The doctors tried their best. It's a shrub that's only found on Saiyara. It's in their food, clothing, drinks—everywhere."
Mario was talking business in his car when he saw Eve getting out of the second-story room, stepping down carrying Mira in her arms. He gestured to his men. They quickly hurried to assist Eve.
"Step aside!" She wasn't letting anyone touch her. She climbed into the car. "Drive."
Mario cued the man sitting next to him to bugger off. He was too late to receive the gesture. Mario kicked him out and shut the door.
"I need a ship. A fast one."
"Take mine."
"Watch out for Natasha while I'm gone."
"How long will you be gone?"
Eve said didn't reply and just looked outside the window. Black market. Cityscape. Rooftops passing by.