Chapter 3
Daisy
With a groan, she tried to sit up only to have a firm hand planted against the center of her chest. She opened her eyes as an older, feminine Taurian beamed down at her.
Her horns were shorter, cuter than the guy who caught her.
The woman wore a brown dress under one of those idyllic, white, frilly aprons, with chestnut fluff all around her bull-ish face, minus one white, kidney-bean shaped spot around her left eye.
There was a small, golden nose ring delicately hung from her nose to match the golden balls dangling from her floppy ears.
All three of her eyes were a honey brown that were glittering from some soft light behind Daisy’s head.
“Pump those breaks, little one, your ribs took a beating and the healer says you’re lucky you didn’t puncture something. ”
“Where am I?” Daisy licked her cracked lips.
“Bitterroot Fields, farmstead down here on Arcon. Were you headed to the freight base?” The gentle voice of the woman sat at the edge of her bed was a balm to her burning embarrassment.
Daisy thanked her with a smile as the stranger handed her a plastic glass with a straw sticking out of it.
She sucked down a huge gulp and savored the fresh taste of water.
Actual clean water, and not the kind that pumped through all the machinery of Sturdy Bird.
“Yeah,” she cleared her throat. “Sorry, I don’t know what happened?”
“Mechanics said your fuel pump burst. Lots of little explosions around the belly of yer bird. Said you sure are lucky the whole thing broke apart before it hit the ground or else you’d have been a crispy critter.”
Daisy knew realistically she was lucky. But she didn’t feel it.
Taking another gulp of water down, she tried to sit up.
Apparently, she wouldn’t be swayed to stay down.
The nice lady sighed in a ‘of course’ kind of way before helping ease her up.
With her back against a firm, wooden headboard, she felt more coherent.
“Thanks. Wait, you said the mechanics? That means someone’s looked at the ship. ”
“Yessir.”
“How…how long was I out?”
“About three days,” a second voice, deep and gruff, echoed around the room that she finally got a chance to check out.
Rustic, wooden floors with a thick, knit carpet draped over all the chestnut planks.
Walls made of a soft cream with wooden accents and exposed beams that ran up to the exposed rafters.
The only art in the room was that of a canvas landscape of a sprawling field of hay during sunset.
And beside that large canvas was a massive Taurian.
The two-legged, two-armed, bull-like man with large, jutting horns, inky fur, and three glowing green eyes stared her down from the opposite wall.
He was in a cotton shirt, the kind with leather drawstrings on the front, tucked into hefty trousers covered in stains.
She remembered the concern in his voice, the salt and pepper hair around the top of his head, starting right on top of a white spot on his forehead, kidney-bean shaped. Family resemblance?
“Oh,” was all she managed as the man stomped a foot forward.
“Ryzer, come on,” the nice lady sighed, speaking over her shoulder while her honeyed gaze stayed on Daisy. “She needs rest.”
“Well, tell that to the Aviation board that’s breathin’ down mah neck to get some answers.
” He huffed. He snatched the wooden chair from the corner of the room and dropped it down next to the bed.
Ryzer sank into it with a snap of his power legs, sitting backward in it.
He pointed an accusatory finger in her face.
“You got a lotta nerve flyin’ a bucket of bolts that’s not cleared for take-off. ”
“What!” Daisy barked.
“Yeah, I had the boys look over what’s left of yer ship. Then, color me shocked when I pulled the captain’s log and found 7’s mechanic report. Even those boys, who will put any bird in the stars for the right price, said that yer ship wasn’t fit to fly.”
“You had no right to snoop in my log!” Daisy roared, shifting to push herself out of bed but the pain that shot through her torso at the mere mention of movement stopped her.
She winced, hands to her side with a groan.
Ow, ow, ow, ow. Broken or not, that fucking hurt, and she wasn’t getting into fist fights with the biggest bull she’d ever run into, regardless how pissed she was.
She rattled a weak fist at him from the sheets. “Those are none of your business!”
“Well, you made it my business when you fuckin’ sank yer ship into my field!” He snapped back.
“Enough!” the nice lady’s voice cut through the air and made both of them snap their attention to her. “Enough. Ryzer, she still needs to rest up or else she won’t be answering to anyone. Daisy, right?”
“Yeah,” she pouted with a grimace. Sitting back against the headboard, she thought about chucking the water cup at Ryzer’s thick head, but she needed the water.
Plus, he’s right. Fuck. She hated how right he was.
Loathed it entirely. Taking a long sip, she took a moment to collect herself.
Then she put the newly emptied cup down the nice lady’s open palm.
“Look, I’m very sorry and I’ll talk to the Aviation Council right now if you want. ”
“What I want is you to get that wreckage out of my back field.” Ryzer crossed his arms over the back of his chair.
Daisy’s lip trembled to keep her from snarling at him. “I’d love to.”
“Good, I’ll have the boys work up a quote—”
“Whoa! Whoa, wait, I can’t pay you yet. I haven’t taken a new job yet.
I was on my way to getting paid.” She flung her hands about frantically.
Oh fuck. She did not have the funds to clean up a major wreck.
The last time a ship crashed, she heard it cost the company it belonged to hundreds of thousands of credits.
She could take every pallet in the warehouse on the Arcon Resource Base and not make enough to pay to just simply drag the pieces off the man’s field.
Let alone what environmental damage her system caused the farm.
Double fuck. Not to mention getting a new ship in order to do those jobs to pay off the ship… her father’s ship.
“Pfft, figures,” Ryzer harrumphed, turning away as tears welled up in her eyes.
“Ryzer,” the other woman warned sharply.
“No, Dee-Dee, she doesn’t get a pass just cause she got banged up—”
“Ryzer!” Dee-Dee barked and the whole room froze. The clearly family members both stared at Daisy as she let out a broken, pitiful sob. Tears spilled down her face fast and hot, finding every little nick and cut along the way.
“That was my Pa’s ship,” she whimpered as her whole body trembled.
Ryzer’s body instantly softened as he turned back toward her, his heavy frown still evident but those green eyes were no longer burning on her.
Daisy didn’t want his pity, but she couldn’t help as all the things she’d kept bottled up for the last few months exploded out of her like her father’s ship.
“I can’t afford to clean up the wreck. I can’t afford to get a new ship, let alone clean up the broken thing he bought second hand to make credits to send back home.
I can’t even afford to hire another pilot to drive it with me because everything I had went back home.
Whatever didn’t cover fuel, food, and enough heat coils to keep me from freezing to death, went back home.
And…now I can’t even afford to crawl back home and tell my Ma that I lost the ship.
And I never should have flown off Arcon 7 but even if I traded her in for parts it wouldn’t have been enough to get a new ship.
That stupid rust bucket was all I had left of him, and now it’s in pieces in a crater I drove into your field and I’m real sorry about that.
But I don’t have a single credit I can give you for saving me from breaking my face falling out of that ship, let alone to fix the damage. I’m sorry.”
Daisy couldn’t even look at either of them as she folded her hands in her lap.
She prepared for them to kick her out or call her a million names or something other than be quiet.
Then the soft clomp, clomp, clomp of Ryzer’s hooves told her he’d left and she lifted her teary gaze.
Dee-dee smiled at her softly. “We’re gonna figure it out, little one.
But you know what’ll fix that look on yer face?
Chili. Lemme fix ya a bowl and see if that don’t put the meat back on yer pink bones, yeah? ”
Daisy didn’t have the heart or energy to correct her that Aquaterranian bones were green. Plus, chili sounds amazing right now.