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1. High Hopes
"Shutia, we need to move! According to my source, there are high-purity gold fragments mixed into the debris field at these coordinates!"
Ledea's voice had an unfamiliar brightness to it. All 140 centimeters of her seemed to be hovering slightly above the pilot's seat.
"I mean... sis, that source was a pretty sketchy bar, wasn't it?" Shutia looked up from her anchor inspection, tilting her head. "Are we sure this is reliable?"
"Shutia, freshness is everything with information like this! Check first, doubt later — that's the first rule of the trade!"
Ledea's cheeks were faintly pink as she made her case. Watching her, Shutia felt her own skepticism dissolve almost immediately.
*She's so cute. I want to nuzzle her.*
"You're right, sis. If you say there's gold out there, then there's definitely gold out there." She was already moving toward her station. "Let's go find it!"
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2. The Debris Maze
The ship pushed into a debris field dense enough that larger vessels gave it a wide berth.
"Ahead — fractured armor plating. Adjusting course, right."
"Copy. I'll burn the annoying ones out of the way."
Ledea's precision at the helm, Shutia's mining laser sweeping the path clear — they moved through the drifting wreckage like a choreographed pair, fluid and unhurried.
Hours passed. The sensors found nothing.
"...I suppose it was too much to hope for."
Ledea's shoulders dropped. She let out a long breath.
Shutia was on her feet the moment she saw it — crossing the cabin with purpose.
"Hey, it's okay. Gold or no gold, I've got something that shines way brighter right here — come on, let me cheer you up, I'll hold you and—"
A signal cut through the cockpit without asking permission.
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3. A Rival (?) Appears
*"— Hey, you in the rust bucket! What do you think you're doing, drifting around with that blank look on your face?"*
A woman's voice. Haughty, theatrical. The ship on their monitor was marginally newer than theirs and covered in gold-painted decorations that suggested more money than taste.
*"Everything in this sector belongs to me — the galaxy's greatest treasure hunter, Lady Katrine! Run along!"*
"Ms. Katrine. I'm afraid this debris field isn't anyone's property. We arrived here first."
Ledea kept her voice even. The woman on the other end kept hers loud.
*"I decide what belongs to who! Survival of the fittest, darling — first come, first served!"*
"...Shutia, this isn't going anywhere." Ledea turned. "What do you think we should—"
Shutia was already doing something with her controls.
A beat later, an anchor shot out — caught a piece of nearby debris mid-drift — and flung it directly across the nose of Katrine's ship.
*"What are you DOING?! That nearly hit me!"*
"She was being loud," Shutia said.
"And she was getting in your way."
Her voice was perfectly calm. Genuinely, simply annoyed, the way someone might be about background noise.
Katrine's eye twitched.
*"Oh, you've got nerve. Fine — don't say I didn't warn you!"*
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4. The Debris War
An anchor launched from Katrine's ship. She'd grabbed a broken solar panel — big, flat, spinning as it came.
*"Take that! The treasure is MINE!"*
"Shutia — incoming, port side!"
Ledea fired the thrusters and spun them clear. The panel tumbled past.
"Come around to the right, sis. There's some good scrap over there."
"Understood!"
The ship slid into position. Shutia's anchor moved like an extension of her hand — one smooth motion — and came back with the remains of an engine block.
"Your turn," she said. "Auntie."
*"WHO ARE YOU CALLING AUNTIE—"*
Shutia tilted her head slightly.
"You're talking a lot for someone who shouldn't be talking to my sister at all."
The debris field became a battlefield of the most undignified kind. No missiles. No lasers. Just space garbage, moving very fast in very deliberate directions.
Shutia caught, threw, and intercepted with the relaxed focus of someone playing a game she'd already won. She knocked Katrine's incoming shots out of the air with outgoing ones. She led her throws like she was accounting for spin.
"Shutia — that large structure to starboard! We can use it as cover!"
"On it. Push us in, sis."
Their timing was seamless. Ledea drove the ship into position; Shutia fired around the edge with a curveball that Katrine clearly hadn't modeled for.
*"That's — you can't just — that's completely unfair!"*
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5. Aftermath, and the Usual
The debris never ran out. But Katrine's ship had taken enough near-misses that the gold paint was peeling off in sheets, and whatever dignity the decorations had lent her was long gone.
*"FINE! I didn't want your stupid trash heap anyway! You haven't heard the last of me!"*
She was gone at full burn before the sentence finished.
Ledea slumped.
"...Well. No gold. Just a very strange afternoon."
"I don't know, I thought it was great." Shutia was already smiling, moving across the cabin. "Your flying today was incredible, sis. Honestly, that alone was worth the trip."
She wrapped her arms around Ledea from behind — properly this time, settled and warm.
"...Shutia, it's hot. And we have prep work to do."
"Just for a second. — Oh, hey. That rock I grabbed during the fight? Does it look a little shiny to you?"
"What?! Where?! Which one?!"
Ledea twisted to look, straining toward the viewport.
Shutia pressed her face into the curve of Ledea's neck and went still.
Gold was fine, she supposed. Gold was useful.
But she'd take this over any of it — this exact warmth, this exact scent — every single time, without thinking twice.