Thea

The bar that Sora worked at was called ‘The Garden’ and it wasn’t just a bar, it was also a strip club.

By the time that Sora showed up for their shift, Bryce and I had been at the corner booth for nearly three hours.

I had a pleasant buzz going from a mixture of strong alcohol, beautiful people, and more than a few mystery drugs when an attractive kitsune slid into the booth beside a sleeping Bryce.

They had their black hair up in an elaborate style that emphasized the fluffy white fox ears on their head nearly as much as it did their delicate neck line. They were wearing a white silk robe that exposed a flat and very toned chest.

I had always considered myself a boobs gal, but damn, I was seeing the appeal.

“Sheila said you were looking for me.” The kitsune leaned in over the table and revealed a fanged conspiratorial smile. “She also told me, you’ve been tipping the dancers with gold.”

I leaned forward and propped my chin up on a fist, staring starry-eyed at the beautiful kitsune.

“You have pretty ears. Are they soft?” I asked.

I don’t think that they expected the question, because they just kind of blinked at me before giggling and leaning back into the booth. “You are very drunk.”

I nodded with my chin still resting on my fist and indicated to the half-empty bag of drugs.

“I’m a little high, too.”

“Is that bag full of Slush?” They seemed curious, but not judgemental, and very amused. I liked this fox person.

“Half-full, actually, because,” I was about to be clever, so I gave them a huge toothy grin. “I’m an optimist. Would you like some?”

“Where did you get a bag that size? It’s got to be worth a thousand credits.” They crossed their arms but kept a slight smile.

“I didn’t have to pay nearly that much, got a good deal from… um…” I pushed off the table to look up towards the ceiling, hoping to find the missing name in the rafters. “Twitchy guy, walked with a limp, kind of greasy?”

“Faelin?” The kitsune lost their smile and looked concerned. “You didn’t hurt him, did you?”

“What? Hurt Faelin?” I shot them an incredulous look. “Nah, he seemed like good people. I told you that he sold me drugs, right? I think I remember threatening him a little, though.”

“You threatened him? So that he would sell you Slush?”

That didn’t seem right, but it wasn’t entirely out of character for me, though, so I just shrugged. “Maybe? We were looking for a bar, or was it a dwarf?” I sunk down in the booth until only my head was above the table, but shot back up once I remembered something. “It was a dragon! We were looking for a dragon and Faelin helped us meet one.”

Bryce stirred at my sudden shouting and I held my breath until she settled back into the crook of her arm. I looked at the kitsune across from me. They seemed just as worried as I was, so I held a finger to my lips and shushed.

“You threatened Faelin, met with Teolix, and then came looking for me?” Their eyes were kind of wide and they were speaking in a strange shout-whisper that sounded loud, but wasn’t. “Who the hells are you and what do you want with me?”

What did I want from them? The only thing I wanted was for them to be quiet and not wake Bryce.

Actually, their ears looked really soft. Oh shit, I forgot to introduce myself. I was being very rude to the pretty kitsune. There was no way that they would let me touch their ears now.

“My name is Salinthea, but everybody just calls me Thea. I think that it’s because it’s shorter, but I’ve never actually thought about it. Aris used to call me Sally, but he was the only one.” I thought about it for a moment, only to realize that my finger was near my mouth. “Oh damn, that’s right! We have to be quiet. Bryce has had a hard day, so we can’t wake her up.”

Their eyes were wide, and the hair on the tip of their ears was standing on end. They seemed on edge, but I didn’t know why, because Bryce was still asleep and I could protect them against anything scary.

“Bryce? As in Bryce Virra? Executive Bryce Virra? The Executive Bryce Virra who was killed when her research station blew up this morning?”

I hadn’t realized there were that many Bryces on New Eden. It was a pretty big colony, so it sort of made sense that there would be more than one person with the same name.

I looked to the startled kitsune across from me for some sort of hint because I didn’t know which one was the right Bryce. I was focusing really hard on the question, too.

“Can I touch your ears? They look really soft.”

I think that the question must have offended the pretty fox person, because they just got up from the table without saying a word. I watched them leave, hypnotized by their two tails trailing from underneath their silk robe.

I was startled awake a few moments later by somebody sitting down in the booth next to me. They were holding a savory smelling glass of amber liquid.

“Thea, be a dear and drink this for me, please.”

I squinted really hard to recognize the person, but they kept moving around and duplicating in a very irresponsible way, so I reached up to hold them still, but they were moving much too quickly.

“Thea, sweetie, if you drink this, I’ll let you touch my ears.”

“Softie, is that you?” I smiled as the kitsune came into focus. They sighed at me with a gentle smile.

“Please, Thea? I need to speak with you, and this will make that easier.”

I nodded, which made me realize my face was lying on the table, so I sat up a little too quickly and caused the room to spin.

I held my head in my hand and took the glass from Softie, or I tried to take the glass, but I think I chose the wrong one because most of my hands just passed through most of the glasses I could see.

I felt a gentle grip clasp my wrist and place the glass in my hand before helping me guide it to my lips.

The liquid was warm and viscous; it had a strong herbal taste mixed with something that was just a little sweet. The flavors lingered long after I finished drinking, and my vision corrected itself as I went from blackout drunk to a pleasant buzz.

I looked around the table with semi-sober eyes. Bryce was lightly snoring, surrounded by mostly empty plates of food and several glasses that at one point contained different styles of imported beer.

“Thea, how are you feeling?” I turned away from the heartwarming scene and towards the kitsune that was sharing a booth with me.

“Soft-,” I stopped myself, making the connection mid sentence. “No, you must be Sora.”

Sora nodded in response. They seemed to be relieved but still unsure, so I reached up with both hands and started rubbing their ears, which caused them to let out a startled squeak and go stiff.

“Um, Thea,” they spoke with a small and shaky voice. “Could you please stop for a moment? This is really distracting, and I still need to know why you and Bryce wanted to meet with me.”

I might have pouted. Their ears really were incredibly soft, but I would respect Sora’s personal space since they asked; I just wasn't going to be happy about it.

“We need a navigator, and Teolix sent us to get you.”

A flash of fear entered Sora’s eyes as they backed as far away from me as they could without getting up from the booth. I frowned at that, reexamining what I said to figure out which part could have scared them.

I was still a little too buzzed for that kind of self-reflection, so I gave up pretty quickly.

“I told Teolix that I didn’t feel safe with his thugs aboard the same ship as my sister,” Sora spoke quietly but firmly. “So unless he intends to force the issue, I refuse.”

“We won’t force you to do anything that you don’t want to do, but we don’t work for Teolix and I think the only people who are going to be on the ship are me and Bryce. I guess that could change, but it probably won’t. And with how Bryce worded the offer, I think the ship would technically belong to all of us after the delivery. Including you and your sister. That means you two would have as much of a say as us in who we allowed on board.”

That seemed to surprise Sora, and they looked up at me with hope in their eyes.

“We would get our own ship?”

I scratched the back of my head, not wanting to lie to them, but also not entirely sure of the details.

“I think? I mean, Bryce is going to be the captain, at least on paper, and she’s pretty smart, so I was planning on letting her make most of the decisions, but I guess we would all own equal parts of the ship.”

I wasn’t actually sure that Bryce wanted to be captain, I just assumed that spaceships needed captains and her doing it just felt kind of natural.

Sora seemed to think about that for a moment. They were still incredibly reluctant, and I wasn’t sure we had another option, which meant I had to come up with a way to convince them.

“Bryce said that New Eden was going to be dangerous for the next few days. If you’re worried about your sister, then I think she’s going to be safer off-world.” I explained, while moving closer to them.

“New Eden is always dangerous. We can handle ourselves.” They tried to back away from me, but they were already as far as they could get without falling out of the booth.

“Teolix bought Bryce’s override codes, and she seems to think that the next few days are going to be bad.”

“Why would he buy her override codes?” Sora asked.

“He said it was to take control of the planetary defense. He’s planning a coup, and Bryce thinks the corporate police are going to be called in to stop him.”

I didn’t know who the corporate police were, but Bryce made it seem like they were bad news, and Sora’s expression confirmed it.

“Okay, we’ll do it. Are we leaving soon?”

I had no fucking clue.

“Probably? Bryce wanted to get off world tonight, but she really needs to sleep and you probably need to get ready. How about you meet us at the ship in the morning, around sunup?”

They nodded. “It’s Teolix’s personal ship, right? Gods know he’s been trying to get me to navigate it for long enough.”

“I think that’s right, we haven’t actually seen it yet. Bryce knows where it’s at, and if you’re thinking of a different one, then we could probably track you down.”

Sora stood from the booth, and I followed them, offering my hand to seal the deal.

“Thank you, Thea. This could mean a lot for us.”