I glanced back down at the ground and cursed. It was a really long drop and her landing seemed precise and trained. I was unsure if I should be attempting this without any training of my own.

  “Oh, come on, Kenna, you are a golden core. You won't break any bones by jumping. Think of it like stepping off three bricks onto the ground.”

  “What are you talking about! This is at least a dozen foot drop! It’s going to hurt, assuming it doesn’t break any bones. Which I’m sure it will!” I snapped back at her, feeling slightly irritated.

  I swear, from this distance, I saw her roll her eyes. My irritation ratcheted up a few more notches and started to feel like anger. I was getting ready to snap at her again.

  ”Kenna, you are a golden core, the Qi you infused into your bones has reinforced them, making them stronger. Then you infused Qi into your skin, making it stronger and more resilient to damage. Basically this drop won't hurt, I only rolled because it was a force of habit.” She explained to me like I was a five-year-old child refusing to do something. “And you're ugly.” She added a few moments later when I still hadn’t jumped.

  My eyes narrowed, the next second I was flying through the air, I hadn’t even realised I had leapt off the shuttle, which immediately started pulling away and flying upwards as I fell towards Itshu Biyu with my hand raised to slap her across the face.

  “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry” she screamed as she turned and started running away. I could hear the soft giggle hidden in her voice as she ran.

  I hit the deck feet first with one knee on the deck before using my momentum to slide into a roll before I was on my feet and running after her in one fluid motion.

  ”I’m going to slap you so hard when I catch you” I screamed after her.

  ”You'll never catch me!” She screamed back as she dashed through a door. This time the laughter in her voice was evident.

  I lost track of her briefly as I ran to the doorway and rushed through it into a hallway, I turned left to follow her only to find a group of people walking down the corridor away from me and Itshu Biyu wasn’t in sight. I frowned slightly and began to follow them as I wondered who they were and what was going on. The fact Itshu Biyu had called me ugly just to make me jump didn’t escape me, and I was pleased that landing hadn’t hurt at all. My anger slowly simmered down and by the time the group turned into a mess hall, I was mostly over it.

  As they turned into the room, Itshu Biyu became obvious at the lead of the group, as she was the only one that hadn’t turned into the mess hall. My eyes narrowed at the sight of her face as it glanced over her shoulder to look at me, and a slight smile tugged at my lips before I decided it was my turn to have a little fun.

  ”found you, now I can slap you harder for making me run.” I declared triumphantly.

  She instantly bolted, running down the hallway and around a corner as I chased after her. I noticed her ponytail was swishing back and forth as she ran and just before she turned the corner her head turned to check my progress before she vanished. We continued to run and dodge each other until she suddenly stopped outside a door and her facial features became serious and as I approached she spoke in a way that told me the game was over.

  ”Lady Kenna, the Bridge Officers for this ship are waiting inside the meeting room for your arrival.” She gave a half bow to me before moving her hand to indicate the door next to her.

  ”All fun and games must come to an end when work decides it's time to be serious.” I said mournfully before approaching the door so it would open and let me walk in.

  Itshu Biyu followed me in and remained behind me as I took in the seven people sitting around a table looking at me. Three of them were women, and all had black hair at various lengths, a couple had green eyes and the rest were brown. All of them looked of Asian descent and were wearing luxurious robes.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  ”Welcome Commander, I am First Officer James Chen. Across from me is your Chief engineer, next to her is the navigator, next to him is our ship's pilot, next to me is the weapons master and next to her is the communications officer. Lastly, on the end, is the ship's Junior officer. I am sure they will introduce themselves to you in due time. At this time, we have more pressing matters than introductions. The ship has enough fuel to reach our destination, but we will need to top up the tanks while we are there, if we intend to follow the Navigation course to the next fuelling station. We are concerned that the credits needed for this are not available.”

  I blinked slowly as I processed what he had said, then narrowed my eyes as I started to suspect he had implied I was beneath him in some way, and didn’t have the status to own this ship, let alone run it. I raised my chin slightly as I turned away from him and observed the other members of the bridge crew.

  ”Are you all worried about this, or is it something the first officer is concerned about, perhaps you are here because you have other worries?” I asked, I noticed out of the corner of my eye Itshu Biyu was glaring at the first officer.

  ”Rebecca Ye, chief Engineer, this is a concern I share, I want to be sure that I will be able to keep the fuel, oxygen, Qi and water tanks full at each stop as well as have material cartridges for the fabricators stocked.”

  The others nodded their heads in acknowledgement. The junior officer at least looked a little ashamed of being a part of this. I let out a sigh as I had long ago gotten tired of this sort of treatment and spun on my heel before dismissing them with a wave of my hand and decided I would leave this problem to Itshu Biyu by saying.

  ”I have no money, talk to Captain Itshu Biyu about your problems, I suggest you start printing stuff that you can sell at the market to purchase what you need while the captain and I are selecting the new disciples.”

  A few moments later I was out the door and hurrying down the corridor in a random direction, I didn’t stop until I found myself in an empty mess hall. I let out a groan, I knew I hadn’t handled that the correct way and would probably come to regret it later, but at this moment I didn’t have enough left to care.

  ”uh, I just want to fly, everything was simpler when I was just a pilot.” I bemoaned.

  I glanced up at the food dispensers and nearly lost my mind when I noticed it had coffee. I ran across the room and hit the screen to dispense the first cup of coffee I saw. I selected sugar and cream and waited impatiently for it to print. I let out a loud moan of appreciation the moment the first sip of coffee ran down my throat, I had missed coffee so much.

  Itshu Biyu found me just as I was polishing off my fourth cup of coffee and gave me an exasperated look, to which I just rolled my shoulders and indicated the food dispenser machines with a shift of my head.

  ”found glorious coffee.” I told her like I expected her to rush to the machine and claim her own cup, she didn’t.

  “Lady Kenna, it took me forever to calm them back down” she whined as she dropped onto the bench opposite me at the table I was sitting at.

  “But you did get them calmed, yes?” I asked slowly as I glanced at the machine, considering another cup.

  “The second you left, half of them immediately tried to hand me requests for transfer. I couldn’t talk the first officer out of it, so we have lost him. Your chief engineer has agreed to stay on but wants permission to, in my opinion, waste material cartridges on printing whatever she needs to fund the purchases needed to keep the tanks full, and have first dibs over any scrap or salvage we pick up. The little shit, wants to turn herself into a merchant using your equipment to create things to sell.”

  After a few moments of consideration, I rolled my shoulders. “That’s fine, but I get a cut of what she sells, say it's for using my equipment to create the items or something. Was that the only problem?”

  ”no, your pilot said he didn’t want any part of this experimental bullshit and has also left the ship, we don’t have a pilot. Your weapon's master said as long as the food dispensers keep dispensing coffee, she will sit back and enjoy the ride.”

  I raised my empty cup in acknowledgement of a girl after my own heart before letting out a soft giggle. Then, feeling slightly foolish, I motioned for Itshu Biyu to continue.

  ”Riiight, well the navigator has also left, stating the course is set, and he isn’t needed to get you to the next fuelling station as long as you follow the path. I personally wouldn’t fly this ship without a navigation officer, so we will need to request a new one as soon as possible. Your communications officer was on the fence, but we managed to talk her into staying, after your chief engineer offered to cut her into her merchant business as the communications expert in the sales department.” She rolled her eyes before sighing softly.

  ”So three out of the 7 are actually gone, and you were not able to talk them out of those transfer requests. What about the junior officer?”

  I saw her wince slightly before nodding her head. She turned to look at the food dispenser before getting up slowly and heading over to it. After she had dispensed some weird blue looking drink, she came back and sat down, sipping from the straw that came with it.

  ”Junior Officer Johnathan Lee, remained silent through the entire thing and followed me out of the room where he apologised profusely and told me he had no idea they were going to ambush you like that, but he did decide to remain silent because he was concerned that he would not receive his allotted resources and pay. Then there was something about his family back home needing the money for something before he bowed and ran away all red-faced and embarrassed.” She said as she rolled her shoulders. “The kid is young, if his file is accurate, which after meeting him I’m sure it is, then, he is a prodigy in the cultivation area and has been thrust into this position because he annoyed someone in his last ship.”

  ”Is that common?” I asked curiously.

  “Unfortunately it is, someone will get offended that they didn’t rise in their cultivation as fast and punish the junior that did by sending them to somewhere that they believe will slow them down if not kill them. But that doesn’t matter, we lost our first officer, something we can deal with, as his job was financial and crew discipline, which I can do. However, without a pilot and navigations officer we are kinda screwed, I’m not even sure we can get this ship to land at the disciple entrance ceremony, let alone get there safely.”

  The Lost Tavern Discord

  Patreon, where you can read ten chapters ahead for only $5 or 20 chapters, plus other stories, and a bit of rambling that I am working on for only $10