“Hold on, you’re saying she went onto a Glitcher ship of that size with just a wrench?”
He’d told this story a hundred times before - I’d heard almost every retelling - so he knows exactly what he’s doing. He smiles and pausesfor the perfect amount of time.
“No - she had two wrenches.”
He drinks in the laughter. The story of Musca Sitwala never fails, as long as folks have had a few drinks. He looks around the room before continuing.
“Two wrenches. That’s all she ever took. She had a pile of guns back at the base, and she always brought back more, but she always left with just two wrenches, like she was going to the hardest plumbing job of her career!”
More laughter. I’ve heard all the punchlines before and I’m not drunk, so I don’t laugh.
I knew Musca as well as anyone did. Something about going unprepared, with tools unsuitable for the job ahead, it seemed to make her feel okay about her actions. Some bastard had murdered her brother, who was also a maintenance tech on the base, and she was out for revenge. But it seemed like death was an equally acceptable outcome to her.
I think that rolling the dice with her own life was a substitute for ethics in her mind. As long as she risked it all, then launching a few people into the vacuum of space was justifiable.
Someone asks for another drink and I come back to the present. The crowd isless boisterous now that he’s at the dramatic part of the story, the capture.
“…was the first time she’d been hurt, and that bullet wound barely missed her heart. She was lucky to be alive!”
Actually, it was two bullet wounds, neither of which was even close to fatal, but getting shot in the leg and the hip is less romantic I suppose.
“After she healed up - I stayed by her side as much as I could - she was determined to do it again. I tried to convince her revenge wasn’t worth dying over! But she wouldn’t have it.”
I bite my tongue. He wasn’t even at the station that week! He was off god-knows-where, rustling up some intel and trying to sleep with every person who even looked twice at him. But he’s right - she was dead-set on it even if it killed her.
“And so she was gone and back in almost no time - still with two wrenches. But this time…she had him. Bound and gagged and a little worse for wear, was the man who murdered her brother. Apparently she blew up part of the ship and launched them both into the vacuum!”
That part was true, at least according to Musca. She confided in me later that she almost murdered Albrecht, the man who murdered her brother. Instead, she diverted her aim at the very last second to hit the fuel tank instead of his skull. And yes, she had a gun this time - that part of the story always seems to get forgotten.
“Well, I don’t know where she is now, but I sure as hell know where Eniko Albrecht is - rotting in jail for murder! Probably wishing he’d never seen a wrench in his life.”
Much funnier when he told the story, but I’ll always remember the look on Musca’s face after she came back. Something like regret, something like sadness, something like relief.
I hope she’s okay.
