As I fled the planet, rather irritated but unconcerned, my new companion decided to ignore my orders. After we'd been in flight for less than five minutes they got up from the seat I had graciously left them in and wandered into the cockpit. I didn't even notice the kid was there at first. The only reason I spotted Achernar was because of their reflection in the chrome finishing of my control panel.

Immediately I turned to face them, "what do you think you're doing?"

"Why bother flying at all? You have an AI for that." Achernar said rather than answering me.

"Actually, I don't. My ship only has the capability to fly to a few select locations without me at the helm."

"Is it broken?"

I was getting a little pissed at this point, "no. I just built it that way, I like flying and I don't trust all these new AI that people use."

Something seemed to click for Achernar when I said that. They looked again at the interior of my ship before turning back to me. "I see why it's so tacky if you made it yourself. And your viewpoint on AI explains why you use such an old-fashioned gun."

"Hey, don't talk badly about my ship again or I'll throw you out of the airlock," I was 100% serious. "And my gun has nothing to do with my dislike for certain modern technologies. It was an outdated design long before my time but it gets the job done and I like it."

Achernar seemed unconvinced about both my ship and weapon but decided to change the topic, "where are we going?"

"I am going to meet up with some friends of mine while you wait on the ship. After that I'll drop you off at another planet and we never have to see each other again."

"Why not just leave me at the planet we're going to?"

"So many goddamn questions. First, it isn't a planet and second, it's even more infested with crime than where you decided to stow away on my ship. If you don't want things to go awry stay here."

"Why bother wasting fuel taking me to another planet?"

"Another question! Kiddo, can't you give it a rest? Killing you wouldn't gain me anything so it would be a waste of a bullet. Besides that, you aren't exactly a threat and anyone stupid enough to jump on my ship without permission is kind of amusing."

Achernar left the cockpit after that and I really thought things were starting to go smoothly. I was left in peace and able to navigate to my destination with ease. The destination was one of the most infamous places in the galaxy. Commonly known as the pirate colony. It was actually a massive space station orbiting an uninhabitable gas giant.

Originally it was a human colony ship, meant to house as many people as a planet. For any non-human readers, we, as a species, terraformed and inhabited many planets in the past but always ended up wrecking them one way or another. So, any large settlements of humans nowadays tend to be on space stations because they're easier to maintain.

The pirate colony was abandoned by its original inhabitants because it broke apart after an asteroid hit it. Pirates used the wreck as a meeting place and eventually it was fixed and modified to become the perfect place for criminals to relax. Everyone knows about the colony but it's so large that no one dares attack it, even when some of the universe's worst scumbags are evading capture by hiding there.

Of course, fights still break out on the station but it's considered a violation of unspoken laws if you kill anyone on board. Just about everyone will come after you if they think you're threatening the unsteady peace that's being maintained. So it's best not to carry weapons at all when wandering around unless you want to get weird looks.

Anyway, when we reached the colony I took my ship into the bay I always use. It's one of the few bays safe from theft even if you're not part of a crew. The guy in charge of it is a freak who remembers every person who goes in or out. He's got twelve eyes though so he may have an advantage in that department. He does demand payment if you park in his area but I've found it's worth the price. The landing was smooth and so was the transaction with my twelve eyed friend. However, just as I was leaving the bay Achernar apparently decided it would be a good idea to follow me instead of waiting like I told them to.

At the time I didn't notice right away but they made themself known soon enough. I headed away from the bay in such a good mood too. I was meeting up with some old friends, ex-crewmates actually, who were also good-for-nothing thieves. They took on bigger prey than me, higher risk and higher reward, though they still weren't ever chivalrous thieves or anything of the like. I left because of the risks but we kept in contact.

Usually we'd meet once every 168 hours, give or take a few. We had a spot too. The best bar on the colony and don't let anyone tell you differently. Old Trafford's was just the right amount of dishonest without being full of thugs too big for their britches. The service was mediocre to decent and my old crew always sat in a nice booth in the corner. It smelled like home; a mix of alcohol and grease.

My friends were already waiting in our spot when I got there. There were four of them, strangely enough all human. The first was Pollux, a skinny guy, so tall his legs always seemed to get inexplicably tangled in things. He had hideous fashion too, the only shirts he ever wore were made for Andrulians. Andrulians have four arms so Pollux always cut off the extra sleeves, leaving odd holes on his sides that expanded the longer he'd owned the shirt. He said he wore Andrulian shirts because he liked the material and patterns but it was more likely because after buying and wearing one for the first time we all complained that it looked stupid. He just loved to annoy the rest of the crew.

Next, K. That isn't her real name but she's told me too many conflicting stories about what K is short for to know the truth. She's another freak who doesn't know how to dress normally. First of all, this woman insists upon wearing heels everywhere despite how impractical they are just because she wants to be closer to the height of everyone else. Second, she always wore these massive dresses that are apparently inspired by the fashion of Victorian England. I'm not sure how accurate that can be when she has the front part of the skirt cut above her knees while the back very nearly trails on the ground. Added onto all that, she wore the most complicated hairstyles and I never worked out how she managed to do them so fast.

I wish I could say my next friend was normal but this man was probably just as bad, if not worse, than K. Jasper dressed one of two ways and he's almost unrecognisable switching between them. First is what he wore on that day, one of his many identical, bright red, three piece suits. In this style he also tends to slick back his brown hair neatly. His alternate attire on the other hand tended to be entirely consisting of denim: shorts, shirt, jacket, bracelets, etc. And to make matters worse he'd let his hair go wild, sticking up in every direction and fringe hanging in his eyes.

And finally, we come to the captain and most normal of the crew, Diana. I would count myself as another normal person but Diana herself has told me I look like a wannabe cowboy and I imagine she'd somehow find a way of making my afterlife hell if I compared our fashion sense. Diana was a plump woman who always wore a comfortable suit capable of withstanding the vacuum of space with a built-in retractable helmet. She feels that she should be prepared for the worst case scenario in any situation; in other words she's uptight. 

I dropped into the booth, beside Pollux, and immediately K slid a drink over to me. It was pretty good for a while. We traded stories, theirs much more interesting than mine, and flirted playfully but not seriously. We'd all worked out one way or another that we weren't romantically compatible, though fooling around was almost always still on the tablr. And then it was all ruined by our dear friend Achernar. I was busy leaning over the table to argue with K over who was better at lying when Jasper interrupted.

"Tress, who is this child?"

I looked up to find Achernar standing there, staring at me with a blank look on their face. "I told you to wait on the ship."

"Woah!" K exclaimed. "This one's actually with you!"

"Has it been longer since we've seen you than I thought?" Diana frowned. "When did you have a child?"

"Yeah, who knocked you up?" K nearly shrieked.

"I didn't give birth to anyone. They just stowed away on my ship and I'm dumping them at my next destination."

"Sounds incredibly suspicious to me," Jasper said.

"Whatever you're imagining this is, stop. They're a stow away and I don't want to waste a bullet killing some harmless urchin so I'm just going to dump them on the next planet I visit."

"Well, I guess your kid can sit with us." Pollux said.

"First, not my kid. Second, our company isn't exactly kid friendly."

"Come on, we'll play nice." K turned to Achernar, "and what's your name? I'm K."

"Achernar."

That was probably the first time I heard their name. At least it's the first I can remember. And oh boy was I mad about it. I had intended to learn as little about this child as possible. The first step to getting attached is learning names and I had no intention of forming any bond with them. Still, Achernar sat down beside me and the conversation restarted. My dear, annoying, friends decided to direct much of their interest towards Achernar and involved them even more than me. Still, I decided to sit quietly through this ordeal because I'd be leaving soon and the next time we saw each other Achernar would be all but forgotten. Or, that's how it was scheduled to go.

"Are you Tress?" Someone said.

I looked up to find myself staring at a headless body and had to direct my eyes back down to the Farliis's stomach-face. "Who wants to know?"

"I am going to ask you to come with me."

"No." I turned back to my friends.

"I'm afraid you can't refuse."

"Look, I-" I was suddenly staring down the barrel of a very high-tech, very deadly gun. "Whoa buddy, you sure you want to do that here?"

"There's no one here to stop me."

Looking around, he was telling the truth. All other patrons had cleared out while I wasn't paying attention. The only others present was a mixture of angry looking aliens in similar black and silver uniforms. That was unusual and made me ever so slightly worried about my safety. Still, we had rules on the colony and I sure as hell trusted them. "Kill anyone on this station and you're going to have an army gunning for your ship."

"We aren't pirates and we don't care about your laws. We were granted the permission to enter and apprehend you after a small payment to this station's owners."

Now, this caught my attention. The station was considered somewhat public property among criminals but there was a group of filthy rich bastards who paid to keep it well defended and serviced. It was no small feat to bribe them. And to bribe them enough to break one of the most sacred laws on the colony was absolutely unbelievable.

"That's not true," K said, "can't be."

"You think we're lying? You aren't worth dying for."

"Who the hell sent you here if you have the resources to do something like this?" Diana asked, rising from her chair to tower over the Farliis.

"Ask your friend."

Diana turned to me and I was at a complete loss for words. I didn't know what I'd done, nothing I remembered would have lead to a squad of bounty hunters with a very wealthy patron coming after me. 

"I'm not important," was all I could think to say.

"Lies! You murdered Prince Rytaz Jiq Morduu in cold blood, his elder sister demands vengeance."

"What in the world are you talking about? Look, first of all, I have no idea who this prince is and, second of all, I'm a small time criminal, I only attack people who won't be missed!"

"We know you killed him, your denial is meaningless. Now, come quietly."

"Hey, Tress!" K yelled, "duck!"

I looked behind me to see a massive gun of perched on K's shoulder, I did as she said immediately, "holy-"

K fired her weapon and it sent out a blast that knocked all the bounty hunters off their feet, the nearest bleeding from their ears and noses. All of us ran out of the bar, leaping and stumbling over twitching and groaning bodies. Achernar was at my heels, somehow keeping up despite their comparatively small stature.

"K, where were you hiding that!?" I gasped.

K, somehow running faster than anyone else while still lugging her massive weapon, grinned, "I hid it in Old Trafford's one night after breaking in. Just in case I ever needed it."

"You're absolutely terrifying," Pollux said matter-of-factly.

"Where are we headed?" Jasper broke in.

"My ship's in the usual bay. I'm heading there, you guys may want to get away on your own ship." I answered.

"Yours is on the way, we'll stick with you for now," Diana said.

We continued to sprint for our lives through the twisting halls of the station. There was a lot of shouting and shoving as we crashed past anyone who happened to get in our way. Someone punched me as I pushed them into a wall and I would have stopped to give them as good as I got had Diana not grabbed my arm and continued to drag me forward.

Eventually, the docking bay was in sight and I very nearly whooped with joy. I could see my ship and the relief made me unconsciously begin to slow down, sure that I was home free. That slowing down may have saved my life. In seconds everything went to hell and I watched as a missile sailed in from outside the bay amd collided with my ship, breaking it apart spectacularly, sending shrapnel dangerously close to cutting me open and eviserating half the other ships in the bay in the explosion.

"Shit!" I scrambled away as the large, sleek ship that had fired the missile glided into the bay.

"Our ship it is! Come on!" Diana was already leading the charge away from the mangled remains of my precious home.

Luckily, my friends' ship wasn't far. Within minutes we reached it and were climbing aboard. I'm loathe to admit this but it's always been a nicer ship than mine, Diana makes sure of that. The common areas are kept clean and uncluttered, any personal belongings relegated to each crewmember's own room. The furniture was also more comfortable, modern and clean. The whole ship was decked out with just about all the newest tech and it was always being updated. There wasn't time to appreciate the interior design though, despite the fact Achernar made a snarky comment about it. Diana and Pollux went to the cockpit, K to the gun turret and the rest of us strapped in for a bumpy ride.