Jax stared intently at the bottles littered across the bar. None of them said Apricot Liqueur or lime juice. Fuck! She thought. That was the only drink she really knew how to make. I guess she’ll be drinking straight rum again. Her days of experimenting stopped a few years ago.

Rona and Kes walked into the galley while she was trying to open the rum bottle.

“There’s something you need to see,” Rona said.

“Yeah just a minute. Making a drink” She replied

“No, it’s important. There are two ships that just showed up on the screen.”

Jax looked up from the bottles. “Fine.” She said and then looked at Kes “Kes, can you make me something from these” she asked waving at the assorted liquor bottles.

Kes walked to the bar and sliding in behind her looked at the bar. “Sure thing….Captain. Anything you want” If her tone didn’t make it clear her hand on Jax’s ass did. She meant anything.

Jax gave Kes’s thigh a quick squeeze as if to say message received. Then she turned to Rona “Show me what’s going on.”

Rona turned and walked back towards the command deck with Jax following behind her. She could feel Kes watching her ass.

As they came up to the screen Rona started to point at the two dots showing on the monitor.

“First, this big one showed up” she said “Then out of nowhere this little one popped up and shot after the big one. They’ve changed course a few times but the little one is gaining on them.”

“Pirates” Jax said, as much to herself as Rona.

“Yeah, that’s what we figured. They came out of a small cluster of asteroids there.”

“So they were hiding in the rocks like we are doing then.”

“It would seem so”

“It looks like they are sort of heading our direction doesn’t it.”

That’s what I thought and that’s why I went to get you. It looks like the big one is headed towards the rocks here.”

“That will take them pretty close to us…” Jax studied the layout on the screen a bit “firing range I think” she muttered. “Celeste, can you show me the projected path of the two ships with an overlay of our effective firing range?”

Jax was getting used to asking the ship AI for things now. Ever since she reprogrammed the access codes and voice authorizations the ship has been very helpful. It’s still a pretty dumb ship compared to others but it’s still easy to use.

A dotted line shot out from the nose of the larger ship to show a path just as a red arc appeared across the monitor. The dots pass inside of the arc that indicated their firing range and stayed there even after the rocks.

While she was studying the path and making plans Kes slid up beside her. She always seemed to be pressing against her. “Here’s your drink Captain.” She said as she pushed the glass into Jax’s hand.

Jax lifted the drink to taste. “Mmm.. That’s fucking good!” She said looking at Kes.

Kes beamed at the compliment.

Looking at the rest of the crew she said “ok, I don’t really want to raid a ship I don’t know anything about but.. Those assholes” She said, indicating the smaller pirate ship. ”Those fuckers I do know about and you do too. So who’s down to take a little back from ’em?”

The looks they gave back ran from confused to excited. Mostly confused though.

“First things first.” She said “Kes, make more of these”

“Aye Aye Captain” she said enthusiastically and gave a little salute to add to it.

“Char, since you’re sitting at weapons you get to shoot first” She said

Char suddenly looked terrified. “I don’t know how to’” she said. The fear obvious in her voice “Maybe you should do it.”

“Fuck that. You’re doing. It’s super easy”

Jax walked over to where Char was seated. She was in a swivel chair bolted to the floor with a large computer screen in front of it. There were a few controls on it as well.

“Ok, so Brick didn’t want the ship firing unless there was someone he could beat for fucking up doing it. So he set the system up so that it can only fire when someone sitting here pushes that button.” She pointed at the red button on the right side of the screen. “The ships AI will do all the targeting and shit. All you have to do is press the button when the little red circles show up.”

‘that’s all” Char asked seeming unconvinced.

“that’s it” Jax replied. Then said “Celeste, target the engines of the second ship and indicate when they are accessible to fire.” She had heard Brick use the exact command. I guess that asshole was worth something after all she thought.

Minutes passed as the crew, all now sipping from the drinks Kes had passed around, watched the dots enter range and slowly moved across the screen. Then when they were about halfway between the edge of the arc and the rocks two red circles appeared on the second ship.

“Fuck yeah.” Jax exclaimed. “Fire! Now!”

Char jerked and then just started mashing the button over and over. They didn’t really hear anything or see anything but suddenly one and then the other red circle vanished. They watched a bit longer as the big ship changed course but the smaller one kept moving in a straight line.

“Celeste, target any weapons on the disabled ship” four red circles appeared. Jax looking at Char and waved her hand at the screen.

“Oh, yeah” Char said and started mashing the button again. Within several seconds the red circles had disappeared.

“Ok. Celeste, intercept and achieve boarding distance with the disabled ship.”

For the first time the ship responded “Intercepting target” it said in a monotonal female voice.

They could feel the ship accelerating. Eventually the dot stopped moving away from them and started getting closer. Then as they got closer she could feel the ship start to slow down. On the main screen of the command deck a small grey dot appeared and started to get larger and larger. It eventually resolved itself into a ship.

“Celeste, hail the disabled ship”

Suddenly there was a voice yelling through the speakers. “Who the fuck do you think you are! I’m going to fucking cut your goddamn nuts off.”

“Good luck with that.” Jax replied

“Who the fuck are you? Why’d you attack me?!”

“We’re pirates bitch. That’s what we do.” She replied.

“Now you have some shit we want. Give it over and we’ll leave you to make repairs and get back on your way.”

“Fuck you.” Spat the Captain on the disabled ship.

“Celeste, fire grappling cables to secure the disabled ship”

They could feel the rocket propelled cables shoot from the ship. On the screen they could see the rockets fly over and then duck around the ship. Wrapping the long metallic ribbon trailing them around the dead ship.

“Ok, captain. I can start pulsing the EMP’s embedded in those cables and fry everything on your ship or you can start disarming and prepare to be boarded. If that doesn’t persuade you well then we’ll have to pull out the big guns.” She said “Celeste, prepare harpoon for firing.”

Inside the ship was the slight noise of gears and hydraulics.

“So captain, as you can see we also have a solid fuel rocket harpoon now poised to spear your ship like the little fish it is.”

“You fucking cunt!” The Captain yelled. “You fucking whore cunt!”

“Not any more.” Jax said as she turned her drink up to drain the glass.