Free Gunship by J. J. Snow

leather chair in the corner, lost in thought.
    Duv had his mug and was downing coffee again. “So what’s the plan? We still don’t know who killed Welch, who is trying to kill us, or why. And we’re still sitting on a ton of specialized technology that we don’t know what half of it does. It had started out to be such a nice day, too!”
    “Like weather, one’s fortunes may change throughout the day,” Chang said stoically.
    Reilly looked up. “The priority here is survival, which means offloading some of this merchandise. We need to lose the items that may get us killed, while getting some credits in the bank.”
    “And what do we need?” Chang asked.
    “A solid ship and a full crew, for starters. I made Duv a promise that we’d start looking once this job was done, and except for some selling, we’re finished with Arias and that whole solar system for a while. And we need to have some maintenance done at a minimum.”
    Duv cleared his throat. “You’re going to need more than that. We took some hits from the trackers leaving out of there. I’m pretty sure we’re missing some hull, too, because I’m registering mild decomp and oxygen loss. Nothing serious enough for an emergency mooring, but it’s going to cost us.”
    Reilly leaned forward and closed her eyes. Hull replacement could take a few weeks to a month depending on how extensive the damage was. She also wanted to get those new turrets mounted and upgrade the power core, some of the life support, and some of the combat systems. They were going to need to make some serious credits quick from a buyer with good connections, someone who could move the merchandise for them and pay them the same day or within hours. This meant an added challenge of getting in and out of an illicit market hub without being caught by the law or poached by other scavengers, or killed by a buyer. There was only one buyer Reilly could think of who would work for this level of goods. She had done business with him before and all went well, but that didn’t mean the pattern would hold. He was very eccentric, ruthless, paranoid, and unpredictable—and that was on his best days. Right now, though, her options were limited. At least with this guy, she knew all trading was private, a point he took very seriously because it reflected on him as a businessman. Without confidentiality, he couldn’t get the hard-to-find items that some of his more lucrative bidders wanted, and they couldn’t own them without the privacy he guaranteed. So on this point he would not equivocate—it was part of his belief system, carved in stone and sometimes the blood of those who decided to talk outside of the hub about sales they had made or seen. They needed that privacy to get clear, find out who was after them and why, and get the ship fixed up. They had no other choice.
    Duv took another swallow. “So, who is our buyer? Brander, Chow, Timmuz? They can probably move the firearms and some of the smaller stuff without too much issue, especially if we spread it out between them…”
    “No…I want to offload as much as possible in one place, someplace where we can drop it, sell it fast, and our credits flow in fast too,” Reilly said.
    “Only a couple of places like that will touch what we have, only a couple that have the buyers with that kind of money and connections.” Duv gave her a scrutinizing look, as if he already knew she was going to say something he wouldn’t like.
    “Set a course for Crazy Ray’s. I got a plan and a cover story that should work to get us in and out in one piece, including the credits. Ty stays here and hidden so he doesn’t get killed. I’m pretty certain if Crazy Ray knew he was with us we’d all be dead, after Ty’s last visit to the hub. Duv, you and Chang can come with and help me out during negotiations. Seth can man the bridge in case we need to move out quick…” Reilly paused, looking around. “Where is Seth?”
    The room got quieter. Duv spoke