Prologue 0-2: Fam

An apprentice crewmember of the space pirates called the Seageists was cleaning the decks of their ship. This girl—Fam—was doing it the old-fashioned way, plunging a mop into a bucket filled with soapy water and swabbing the floor manually. These days, even pirates could get their hands on the cleaning robots that were everywhere in the Galactic Federation. Robots could clean the ceilings and walls just as easily as they could the floors, and they could keep the ship cleaner than any human could. It was actually inefficient to have Fam do it. This was simply her punishment for doing something stupid.

“Damn it!”

Fam panted heavily for a moment as she leaned on her mop. She’d only been tasked with cleaning the living quarters, but even after an hour’s work, she felt like she was no closer to being done.

“Why! Do! I! Have! To...!”

With each over-emphasized word, she jerked the mop back and forth as rage and resentment flared in her eyes.

The hell’s gotten into the boss, anyway?

Fam was thinking of the face of the captain of the Seageists, Squallow Low. She didn’t know exactly what his face looked like, however, because he always covered it with a huge mask. After a grievous injury a long time ago, he’d become a full-body cyborg. The process had given him the ability to fight for dozens of hours at a time, but it also meant he couldn’t go about his daily life without the help of machines. He needed the mask to help him see and hear, which was why Fam had never seen his real face.

But despite his gruff, scary looks, Fam could always sense the strength and kindness in his eyes. Maybe that was how she’d been able to tell that something wasn’t quite right with Squallow lately.

She silently contemplated the matter.

Fam was once a homeless girl on a planet in an isolated corner of the universe. Theft, violence, starvation, discrimination... Those awful things were her daily life. There was never a hero to save her, until one day, she was indeed saved. It just wasn’t a hero. In fact, it was the opposite. A pirate.

He told her his name was Captain Squallow, and then he said to her, “From now on, you’re family.” For the first time, there was light in her life.

I’d do anything for the boss. But why attack a planet like that? And why for some silly “treasure”?

Several hours ago, Squallow had gathered his crew together like he always did and told them all about their next attack. They were going to raid a certain planet and steal a treasure that slept there—something normal space pirates did all the time. Pirates took lives and treasures for their own pleasure. That was the life of a pirate. Lawless roguery.

But the Seageists were different. At least, that’s what Fam had thought. This new plan wasn’t how they used to do things. That’s why she’d made it clear she was against it.

And the result of her dissent was that she was now stuck swabbing the decks. Given that the captain had absolute power aboard the ship, as far as punishments went, she’d gotten off easy. But she was still upset on a very deep level.

Barely any of the other leaders tried to stop the boss.

Fam recalled the almost unnatural silence after the captain had given his orders. Something was wrong with the Seageists. And Fam was scared of it.

“Fam.”

“Wah!”

A sudden voice snapped her out of her moody thoughts, startling her enough that she accidentally kicked her bucket over in surprise. The dirty water sloshed over the floor. Now she’d have to clean it all over again.

“Who the hell...? Uh-oh.”

She turned around angrily, only to be met with a woman in a suit. The sight seemed very out of place on a pirate ship. This was the “secretary” that Squallow had hired about a year ago... or something like that. It was odd for a pirate to hire a secretary, but Squallow was more than just a pirate. He also provided an education for the orphans he picked up, distributed the Seageists’ booty, took care of the complaints and arguments that were always coming up from the crew’s families, and plenty of other things. He had a full plate. That’s why he’d found this woman—or more precisely, female android—to help him out. But for some reason, Fam didn’t like her.

“...Do you need something?” Fam asked.

“I have a message from the captain: Enough cleaning. Get ready for the job.”

The job, of course, was piracy. And by “get ready,” he meant getting the weapons cleaned and prepped, among other things.

“Understood.”

“That’s all I have for you,” the secretary said. She then left as quickly as she’d come.

Fam watched her go with a glare, then started to pick up her cleaning tools once she was sure the secretary was gone.

Even looking in those damn eyes of hers, I can never figure out what she’s thinking.

Since she was an android, there was no probably no helping that part, but Fam knew there had to be some reason she felt this way.

I don’t like her!

Fam frustratedly kicked the empty bucket as hard as she could. Droplets of dirty water flew everywhere, but since the bucket was mostly empty now, it didn’t make things much worse than they already were.