#starborn!min

“I’d forgotten what this was like,” Sam whispered, his head swiveling around attempting to take in the surroundings all at once through the limited field of view of the helmet. Min turned and saw his eyes wide and sparkling with wonder and excitement. They looked more like the warm blue eyes she remembered from her Sam. She grinned unreservedly at him, feeling the same wonder and excitement. He pointed to the towering peaks ahead, “Those have to be, what, at least ten kilometers high, right?”

“At least,” she responded, then pointed behind and to the right of him, “but look behind you.”

He turned to where she was pointing and saw a red rover with large knobby tires. It looked like an old Earth dune buggy. Vasco stood next to it with one of his metal hands laid atop the roll cage. He whipped his head back to Min, laughing, “Where the hell did you get that?!” he exclaimed, walking towards it.

“Just another one of my additions. Sometimes, boosting to places is a slow pain. Figure we can cover a lot more ground with this baby.”

Sam ran his hands along the frame, chuckling to himself. “Man, I haven’t driven one of these things in…oh god, last time I think I did was when I was about twenty.” He made a slow circle around the vehicle, “A buddy of mine had one. We used to take it out to the dunes southwest of Akila City.” He turned back to her with an embarrassed grin, “Man, the shenanigans we got up to. Thank god the rover was faster than the ashta. We were so stupid.”

“You’ll find this is definitely faster than any ashta. Vasco and I made some…modifications,” she said cryptically. “Vasco, wanna hop in?” The robot made no verbal response, but jumped into the back compartment and folded his legs under his body with his arms free to hold on to the cage. With his right hand, he tapped the roll cage as if signalling he was ready to go. Sam thought Vasco looked like a roosting chicken. “This way, he can help with watching our six, and carry more stuff back,” she announced proudly as she sat down in the driver’s seat.

Sam sat down in the passenger seat, but looked in askance at her, “I guess you’re driving, huh?”

“My rover, I drive,” she answered, powering it up, not looking at him.

“You do know how to drive it, don’t you?” he asked warily.

Min paused, her hands on the controls, staring straight ahead.

“Wait, have you ever driven anything other than a spaceship?”

“Shut up, I’m trying to decide where to go.” Her grip tightened on the controls as she looked about.

“Oh god, you haven’t, have you?” he asked, facepalming.

She stopped digging through her supplies. “There were a lot of negatives in that single sentence,” she said. “And, also, why do you care?”

“I don’t care, it’s just odd. You’re not unattractive, but you never dress in anything else but ugly clothes that make you look like a sixty-five year old space trucker with a bad aurora habit.”

She stared at him, mildly agog over the description. Something about his tone pissed her off more than usual. In a fit of pique, she whipped off the tank top. “There, is that better?” she demanded.

He gulped, not expecting her response, and hid his surprise with snark, “Now you look like a sixty-five year old space trucker with nice tits,” he shot back.

The only thing in that description that registered with her brain was the “nice tits” portion. She’d had enough of his snark and constant criticisms. She thought of a fun way to make him pay for being such a pain in her ass. “Nice tits, huh?” she said, smiling seductively. She began to walk slowly towards him, as he started backing away. She undid her belt and unzipped her pants, letting them drop. “How about the ass? Is that also a sixty-five year old space trucker’s ass?” she asked throatily, and turned around in a circle. She had caught him staring at her butt more than a few times since boarding her ship.

“Uhhh…”