The money hit the account like a weight coming off their backs.
Not relief—relief was too clean for merc work. It was more like the moment you realized you could buy replacement actuators instead of praying yours held through the next contract.
Rook's Fall still stank of smoke and scorched wiring. The spaceport still crawled with armed men who smiled too wide and watched too closely. Salvage crews cut and dragged and argued. Officers took credit. Merchants raised prices because they smelled fresh C-bills.
But the Leopard's bay was theirs.
The Dire Wolf stood in its cradle with its armor patched and ugly. Jinx's Highlander was stripped open at the jump jets, techs elbow-deep in wiring looms. Taila's Centurion looked like it had survived a bad week and decided it was going to survive the next one too.
And the new claim—Taila's future—hung in the far bay on a gantry: a battered Griffin chassis, half-stripped, tagged, waiting for a gyro scan and a full refit.
Morrigan Kestrel stood in front of it like a storm cloud in lace, arms crossed, gothic skirt brushing the hangar deck like she didn't care that it was stained with oil and ash. She glared at the Griffin like it had personally offended her.
Jinx walked past and bumped Taila with her hip. "You're getting a Griffin."
Taila tried not to smile. Failed. "It's not mine yet."
"It's already yours," Jinx said, too confident. "You're just catching up."
Lyra moved through the bay with her tablet, checking inventories, signing for parts, and tracking every salvage component like she could keep the universe honest by sheer competence. She looked composed—until she stopped beside Dack and their shoulders nearly brushed.
A small thing.
But it changed the air.
Taila noticed.
Jinx noticed immediately and looked pleased like she'd won something.
Morrigan noticed and looked like she wanted to vomit.
Dack didn't acknowledge any of it. He checked the Griffin's tags and said, "We start refit today."
Taila nodded fast. "I'll help."
"You'll watch," Lyra corrected without looking up. "Helping without training is how people lose fingers."
Taila's cheeks warmed. "Fine. I'll watch."
Jinx leaned in and murmured against Taila's ear, "I'll watch you watch."
Taila elbowed her. "Jinx."
Jinx laughed and kissed Taila's cheek anyway, shameless. Taila tried to glare and ended up blushing.
Lyra's eyes flicked up for half a second, then back down to her tablet, like she'd caught herself watching the wrong thing.
Dack said, "Before we work, we eat."
Jinx blinked. "Did you just—"
He looked at her.
Jinx held up both hands. "Yes, yes. Food. Responsible mercenary family."
Morrigan scoffed. "Disgusting."
Jinx shot her a grin. "You're invited too, lace gremlin."
Morrigan's glare sharpened. "Stop calling me that."
"Then stop glaring like you're trying to curse me."
Morrigan's mouth tightened. "I am trying."
Taila's lips twitched. Lyra didn't smile, but her eyes softened for a heartbeat.
Dack pointed at Morrigan. "You eat. You stay visible."
Morrigan bristled. "I'm not your—"
"You are," he said, flat. "Move."
For a second she looked like she might spit again.
Then she moved—stiff, furious, very alive.
---
They ate in the Leopard's cramped galley because it was the only place that felt like theirs.
The table was barely big enough for three. With four women and Dack, it became elbows, knees, and accidental touches that stopped being accidental.
Jinx made it worse on purpose.
She sat close enough to Taila that Taila's thigh pressed to hers, then kept "accidentally" sliding her foot along Taila's calf under the table. Taila's face stayed pink the entire time, but she didn't pull away.
Lyra sat opposite Dack with her tablet turned off for once, hands wrapped around a mug. Morrigan took the corner seat like it was a throne, arms crossed even while eating, as if chewing was beneath her dignity.
Jinx talked first because Jinx always talked first.
"So," she said, eyes bright. "Now that we're paid and not actively on fire, we do what healthy crews do."
Taila narrowed her eyes. "If you say 'group shower'—"
Jinx grinned. "I was going to say 'share trauma.' But yes, also group shower."
Lyra choked on her drink.
Dack didn't react.
Morrigan looked appalled. "You're animals."
Jinx beamed. "Correct."
Taila muttered, "Can we just… talk?"
Dack nodded. "Talk."
Jinx leaned back, boots hooked on a chair rung like she owned the ship. "Okay. Talking. Dack first."
Taila's eyes widened. "Why him?"
"Because he never volunteers," Jinx said, like it was obvious. "So we make him."
Dack stared at her.
Jinx smiled sweetly. "Please?"
He exhaled once, slow, then set his mug down.
"My father wasn't a good man," he said.
The words landed hard in the small room.
Taila went still. Lyra's eyes fixed on him. Morrigan's glare flickered—curiosity slipping through anger for a heartbeat.
Dack continued, voice steady. "He was good at surviving. Good at killing. He left me a Dire Wolf and a lot of enemies."
Jinx's grin faded into something quieter. "You loved him anyway."
Dack's eyes stayed level. "I respected what kept me alive. That's not the same thing."
Taila swallowed. "Did he… teach you."
"Yeah," Dack said. "He taught me what people do when money is involved."
Lyra's voice was soft. "And what do they do."
Dack didn't hesitate. "They lie. They take. They smile while they do it."
Jinx snorted. "Accurate."
Silence sat for a second, heavy but not awkward.
Taila broke it, voice small but determined. "My turn."
Jinx perked up instantly. "Yes."
Taila's fingers tightened around her mug. "I wasn't… born into anything important. I was property by the time I was sixteen. Debt. A contract. I didn't even know how it happened until it was already done."
Morrigan's mouth tightened, but she didn't interrupt.
Taila kept going, cheeks hot. "They called it 'bondsman' like it made it honorable. It wasn't. It was… people taking turns deciding I didn't get to say no."
Jinx's posture changed—less playful, more focused.
Lyra's knuckles whitened on her mug.
Dack's gaze didn't soften, but something in it steadied—like a promise without words.
Taila stared at the table. "That's why I hated myself. That's why I never dated. Never… let anyone want me. I thought wanting meant being owned."
Her voice shook, then steadied again. "Then you happened."
Dack didn't speak.
Taila looked up anyway. "You never looked at me like a thing. Even when you wanted me."
Jinx leaned in and kissed Taila's temple, gentle for once.
Taila's eyes stung. She blinked it away. "I'm still scared. But… I'm not ashamed of it anymore."
Lyra's voice came quiet. "You shouldn't be."
Taila gave her a small, grateful nod.
Jinx tapped the table. "Okay. My turn."
Taila blinked. "You're actually going to be serious?"
Jinx grinned. "For eight seconds. Enjoy it."
She took a breath, and when she spoke, her voice was lighter than the subject. "I was always better than the boys. Always. And they hated it."
Morrigan scoffed. "Sounds like a personal problem."
Jinx turned to her with a sharp smile. "It was. Because I wanted to be wanted, and every time I got close, some fragile idiot decided his pride mattered more than me."
Lyra watched her carefully.
Jinx's grin faltered. "I stopped trying. I leaned into being the joke. The pervert. The klutz. Because it was safer than being the girl who wins."
Taila's mouth parted slightly, surprised.
Jinx shrugged like she didn't care. "Then I met Dack and he didn't care that I was better. He cared that I didn't break."
She looked at Taila. "And you? You're not better yet. But you're stubborn. That's hotter."
Taila groaned. "Jinx—"
Jinx laughed. "Sorry. Serious time is over."
Lyra's cheeks were faintly pink again, but she didn't look away.
Morrigan slammed her mug down. "This is pathetic."
Jinx's eyes gleamed. "Your turn."
Morrigan's glare sharpened. "No."
Dack looked at her. "Yes."
Morrigan's jaw clenched. "You don't get to—"
"You're in here," Dack said. "You eat. You talk. That's part of staying alive."
Morrigan stared at him like she wanted to stab him with a spoon.
Then she spoke through her teeth. "My father collected people like trophies."
Silence.
Morrigan's voice stayed sharp. "Pilots. Mechanics. Prostitutes. Anyone he could control. And when I was little, he told me it was love. That if he kept them close, they couldn't leave."
Her fingers tightened around the mug. "Then I got older and realized it was fear."
Lyra's eyes softened.
Morrigan's lips curled. "So I wore black lace and funeral dresses because it pissed him off. Because it reminded him I was never going to be the pretty little obedient pirate princess he wanted."
Jinx smiled, delighted despite herself. "Okay. That's actually kind of metal."
Morrigan glared. "Shut up."
Jinx held up a hand. "Respectfully? No."
Morrigan's voice dropped. "I came to die because if he was gone, I didn't know what I was without him."
The room went very quiet.
Then Lyra spoke, carefully. "And now."
Morrigan's eyes flickered—anger covering fear. "Now I'm stuck with you freaks."
Jinx grinned. "Correct."
Taila watched Morrigan with a new kind of understanding she didn't want to admit.
Dack said nothing—he just stood up, collected empty containers, and started cleaning because that was how he handled heaviness: by doing something real.
Lyra rose too, and when she passed him in the narrow galley, her fingers brushed his wrist—brief, soft, deliberate.
Dack didn't look at her.
But he didn't move away.
Jinx watched and smiled like a predator watching a door unlock.
Taila pretended not to notice. Failed.
Morrigan noticed and glared harder, cheeks faintly pink like she was offended by the concept of affection.
---
Later, with the refit work paused and the bay lights dimmed into "night," Jinx made the ship feel smaller on purpose.
She cornered Taila near the cockpit ladder and pinned her with a hand on the bulkhead.
Taila's breath hitched. "Jinx—"
Jinx kissed her—slow and hot—until Taila's knees went soft, then pulled back just far enough to murmur, "You've been tense all day."
Taila swallowed. "You've been… impossible."
Jinx grinned. "Yes."
Taila shoved her lightly. "Lyra's here."
Jinx glanced down the corridor where Lyra's footsteps echoed, then back at Taila, eyes gleaming. "And?"
Taila's cheeks went red. "And… I don't know how to… do this with her."
Jinx kissed Taila again, then dragged her teeth lightly along Taila's throat, making Taila gasp.
"Like that," Jinx said. "You do it like that."
Taila whispered, "That's not advice."
Jinx's hand slid down, fingers hooking under Taila's waistband and tugging her closer. "It is if you learn."
Taila's hands grabbed Jinx's jacket, clutching like she was trying to keep herself upright.
Dack stepped into the corridor—quiet, shirt collar open, looking like he'd just finished checking something and found something else.
Taila froze, mortified.
Jinx didn't. She smiled like she'd set this up.
Dack's eyes flicked to Taila. "You okay."
Taila's voice came out small. "Yes."
Jinx leaned her head back on the bulkhead, smug. "She's just shy."
Taila hissed, "Jinx."
Lyra appeared behind Dack a moment later—hair slightly damp like she'd just washed up, black bodysuit half-zipped, cheeks faintly pink when she saw the scene.
She stopped like she'd walked into a minefield.
Jinx smiled at her. "Hi."
Lyra's voice was careful. "Hi."
Taila looked like she wanted to melt into the deck.
Dack didn't say anything. He just stepped closer, placed a hand on Taila's waist—steady, grounding—and looked at Lyra.
Lyra's breath caught.
Taila's blush deepened.
Jinx looked delighted.
Then Dack did the simplest thing possible: he kissed Taila—brief, warm—then kissed Lyra—brief, warm—like he was stitching a seam.
Lyra's eyes fluttered closed.
Taila made a quiet sound that was half embarrassment, half relief.
Jinx sighed dramatically. "God, that's hot."
Morrigan's voice came from the doorway behind them like an accusation. "You're all disgusting."
Jinx turned her head. "Go away."
Morrigan crossed her arms harder. "No."
Jinx narrowed her eyes. "You're watching."
Morrigan's face went crimson. "I am not!"
Taila covered her face with one hand. "Please stop."
Lyra's cheeks were bright red, but her eyes were warm now—less frightened of what she wanted.
Dack looked at Morrigan and said, flat, "Bed."
Morrigan's glare burned. "I'm not a child."
"Then stop acting like one," Dack replied.
Morrigan's mouth opened. Closed. She stormed away, lace skirt snapping behind her like a cape.
Jinx laughed. "She's going to hate us forever."
Taila muttered, "Good."
Lyra blinked at Taila. Taila realized what she'd said and went even redder.
Jinx leaned close to Lyra and murmured, "You want him. But you also want her."
Lyra's throat bobbed. "Yes."
Jinx grinned. "Good."
Then she slid her hand around Lyra's waist and kissed her—quick, bold—like ripping off a bandage.
Lyra made a small, startled sound, then kissed back, shy but honest.
Taila stared like her brain short-circuited.
Dack watched, steady.
Jinx pulled back, eyes gleaming. "See? Not hard."
Taila whispered, "It's hard."
Jinx smacked Taila's ass lightly. "Not that kind of hard. Yet."
Taila choked. "Jinx!"
Lyra covered her mouth to hide a laugh. It didn't work.
Dack just said, "Inside."
They went inside.
The Leopard's bulkheads stayed thin.
The night got warmer.
And somewhere later—between kisses and hands and breath—Lyra stopped shaking, Taila stopped apologizing for wanting, and Jinx stopped being a joke for long enough to be gentle.
The ship creaked.
The universe didn't care.
But the crew did.
---
Morning came with grease and heat sinks.
They went back to work like professionals, because merc work didn't stop for romance.
The Griffin refit started with the gyro scan.
Lyra ran the diagnostics, projecting the internal readout onto the bay wall. "Gyro housing has stress fractures. Not catastrophic. But we need reinforcement plates."
Jinx whistled. "Can we afford it?"
Lyra's fingers flicked across the tablet. "With the payment and the King Crab component sale? Yes."
Taila stared at the Griffin like it was a promise. "What about weapons."
Dack looked at the chassis and said simply, "We keep it simple. You learn it. Then we customize."
Taila nodded fast. "Okay."
Jinx leaned in. "Simple is boring."
Lyra didn't look up. "Boring is survivable."
Jinx made a face. "You're learning to crush my spirit."
Lyra's mouth twitched. "Good."
They stripped old pirate wiring out. Replaced actuators. Re-seated armor plates. Rebalanced heat sinks. A tech team welded reinforcement along the gyro cradle while Lyra supervised like a surgeon.
Taila stayed close, watching everything, asking questions that weren't stupid anymore.
Morrigan hovered at the edge of the bay pretending she didn't care. Every time Taila looked at her, Morrigan glared back, arms crossed.
Jinx walked past her and murmured, "Help us and we'll stop calling you lace gremlin."
Morrigan snapped, "No."
Lyra glanced at Morrigan. "You recognize pirate registry markings."
Morrigan's eyes narrowed. "So."
Lyra's voice stayed calm. "So you help me identify which salvage lots are booby-trapped or flagged. Or you can go sit in a room and glare at a wall."
Morrigan's jaw clenched. She looked like she wanted to refuse on principle.
Then she muttered, "Fine."
Taila blinked. "You're helping?"
Morrigan snapped, "Not because I want to."
Jinx grinned. "Classic."
Morrigan stepped closer, pointed at a tag on a crate. "That marking is Kestrel crew code. It means there's a hidden transmitter inside. My father used it to track stolen goods."
Lyra's eyes sharpened. "Good. That saves us a problem."
Morrigan looked almost… pleased for half a second.
Then she remembered herself and glared again.
---
By midday, the Griffin's cockpit was open.
Taila climbed the ladder and froze at the threshold like she was staring into a life she hadn't allowed herself to want.
Dack stood behind her. "Get in."
Taila swallowed. "Okay."
She slid into the seat.
Her hands hovered over the controls, trembling slightly, then steadied when she forced them to.
Lyra's voice came over the bay comms from the diagnostic station. "Neurohelmet interface active. Keep your breathing steady."
Jinx called from below, "If you pass out, I'm drawing a mustache on you."
Taila's voice came tight. "Don't."
Jinx laughed. "Do."
Dack watched Taila settle in and said, "You're not alone."
Taila's throat bobbed. "I know."
The cockpit sealed.
The Griffin powered up.
Not a battlefield—just a bay. But Taila's expression looked like she'd stepped onto a ledge anyway.
"Sim link only," Lyra said. "No live movement until calibration. I'm feeding you a walk cycle."
Taila nodded, eyes focused.
The Griffin's limbs twitched, then moved—smooth, controlled, responding to Taila's intent through the neurohelmet like the machine had been waiting for her.
Taila's breath caught. "I… I can feel it."
Jinx's voice softened, rare. "Yeah. That's the point."
Dack watched Taila's face through the cockpit glass and felt something settle into place that he didn't name.
Lyra stood beside him at the diagnostic station without thinking, shoulder nearly touching his again. Her hand brushed his forearm once—quick, steady.
Dack didn't look down.
But he didn't move away.
Jinx noticed and smirked.
Morrigan noticed and glared.
Taila, inside the Griffin, took her first clean sim steps and didn't freeze.
---
The dropship came later that afternoon—because Cantorrell IV was full of people trying to sell you a dream with rust under the paint.
Lyra led them through a fenced yard outside the spaceport where grounded hulls sat like dead whales. Some were stripped to bone. Some had fresh patch plates and fresh lies.
A broker in a clean jacket talked too fast. "You're looking for capacity, flexibility, high thrust—"
Lyra cut him off. "I'm looking for a frame with an intact keel, functional avionics, and a maintenance history that isn't fiction."
The broker blinked. "Uh—"
Lyra didn't blink back. "Show me what you're hiding."
Jinx whispered to Taila, "I'm so turned on right now."
Taila whispered back, "Stop."
Jinx smacked Taila's ass lightly. Taila hissed and tried not to smile.
Dack walked behind them, eyes scanning hull lines and landing struts, ignoring the broker's words and watching the metal.
They passed a half-gutted Leopard with its bay doors hanging wrong. A scorched Mule with cargo holds that smelled like death. A sleek but cracked Gazelle that looked fast and fragile.
Then Lyra stopped.
In the far corner, under a tarp half pulled back, sat a Union-class DropShip.
It was scarred. Patch plates stitched its hull like old scars. One of its engine housings had been replaced with a mismatched assembly. But the keel line was straight.
It was a ship built to carry a real unit.
A home, not a taxi.
Lyra's breath caught.
The broker cleared his throat nervously. "That one's… complicated."
Lyra stepped closer, hand lifting like she wanted to touch the hull. She didn't yet. "Whose."
The broker hesitated. "Former pirate asset. Confiscated. The employer wants it off-book."
Dack looked at him. "Price."
The broker swallowed. "It's… not cheap."
Lyra's voice was quiet, dangerous. "It's cheaper than a new Union. And you don't want to explain why you're sitting on a confiscated DropShip you can't legally sell."
The broker's smile faltered.
Jinx grinned. "She's going to eat him."
Taila whispered, "Good."
Morrigan stood behind Lyra, arms crossed, gothic dress fluttering in the wind, glaring at the Union like she recognized it.
Lyra noticed. "You know it."
Morrigan's jaw clenched. "It was my father's fallback."
Silence.
Dack's eyes narrowed. "Meaning."
Morrigan glared harder. "Meaning it's real. It's not a fake registry. It's not a trap." She hesitated, then spat, "He kept it for when everything went wrong."
Lyra looked at the Union again, something soft in her eyes that she didn't allow herself often.
"A ship like this," she said quietly, "changes everything."
Jinx bumped Taila. "Told you we're building a real unit."
Taila stared at the hull, heart thudding. "We'd have space."
Lyra's voice went even softer. "We'd have privacy."
Jinx's grin went wicked. "We'd have hallways."
Lyra flushed bright red.
Dack looked at the broker. "We buy it."
The broker opened his mouth—probably to negotiate.
Lyra cut in. "We buy it at scrap-plus-repair cost. You keep your mouth shut. We take the liability."
The broker blinked. "That's—"
Dack stepped closer. "That's the offer."
The broker looked at the Dire Wolf pilot's eyes and decided he didn't want to argue with whatever lived behind them.
He swallowed. "Fine."
Lyra exhaled like she'd been holding her breath for years.
Then, without thinking, she turned and hugged Dack—quick, fierce, embarrassed the second it happened.
She stepped back fast, cheeks flaming. "Sorry."
Dack didn't look surprised. "Don't."
Lyra swallowed hard, eyes shining. "Thank you."
Jinx leaned into Taila, whispering, "She's in love."
Taila whispered back, "We all are."
Jinx smacked Taila's ass again. Taila yelped. Lyra's head snapped up, scandalized.
Jinx smiled innocently. "Unit cohesion."
Morrigan stared at them like she wanted to crawl out of her skin.
Then she muttered, "You're all insane."
Dack looked at the Union's hull. "Good."
Because insane or not, they were no longer just three machines and a Leopard.
They had money.
They had salvage.
They had a Griffin waking up under Taila's hands.
And now—if Lyra had her way—they were about to have a DropShip big enough to carry a future.
A real lance.
Maybe a star.
And the universe was going to notice.