Part 45

Alright. He says he's legit. Just this once, I'm gonna let myself be naive.
Mm. Speaking of old habits...
Shut up. As long as I don't know this is going towards his baby killing fund or whatever, my conscience is clear.
Although...
Hey buddy. If you ever get back into piracy, you should go after Hoff Miester. Guy's loaded. Big-ass squid ship, perfect for plundering.
Arr! He'll taste me cutlass afore the day is done!
NO
NO HE WON'T
Mister Tark'la! I do not engage in those activities anymore! I'll thank you not to raise the issue again!
Come on. You know you want to. Straight and narrow's all well and good, but where's the fun?
Tark'la. He's still here. If he has a relapse, who's going to be his first target?
...I see your point.





YES
YES
YEEEEEEEES
god damn guys get a room
FUUUCK YOOOOOOOOUUUUUU
Okay. Okay. Uh...how many shares did we have in that?
180.
So that made us...
About 125,000 kubars.






Slev? This is the closest I've ever been to kissing you.
Which, on reflection, isn't really saying much.
get a room





Bad news, folks.
Shit. No. Shit. I can't deal with bad news right now. Tell me when he stops talking.
It's Puffer's mom. She...she got in an accident. A serious one.
Oh, is that all?
Tark'la!
How serious? Will she be okay?
Eh, we don't know. She's balancing on a thread right now.
Is Puffer alright?
Not really. Poor guy's falling apart. That's why he needed me to tell you.
And...not to pressure you guys, but the medical bills are gonna be hell on both of them. If he can't scrape some cash together, I don't know if she'll pull through.
You have to make this happen. Soon. For their sakes.
Hi.
uh



What's going on?
He was just saying about your mother. I'm so sorry.
...what are you on about? My mum's fine.
No, dude. She's laid up. Critical condition. Sorry you had to find out like this.
She called me last night.
Yeah. From hospital.
What, and she just forgot to mention she's dying?
She didn't want to worry you.
...
...
Heh. Well, y'know. Little extra incentive couldn't hurt, right? Thought it was worth a shot.






i'm, uh
i'm gonna go





We can do this. We can do this. We can do this.
Do you think we can do this?
Hell if I know. We can do this.



Right. We can probably last another five or six weeks without fuel. Hold off on buying any unless we absolutely need it.
In fact, all non-essential spending ends as of right now. That means no upgrades. No facilities. Nothing that doesn't turn a profit right away.
Agreed.
Uh...so no insurance either, then?
Correct.
Wow. Did I mention I'm proud of you yet?
Who buys insurance?
I know! You wouldn't believe the shit I get over this!
What kinda pansy are you, son? You don't need no safety net! You should be facin' the galaxy head on, dangers an' all!
The last time we did that, we got blown up, almost died, and lost literally everything we had.
...
Well in that case, I gotta side with lizard boy here.
Thanks.
You're pretty much an idiot, fella.



Damn it! Where are those passengers when we actually need them?
We can't expect a full house every week.
Why not?
WE HAVE A GOLF COURSE YOU FUCKERS
Tark'la-
A GOLF COURSE
They can hear you.
GOOD
Fucking pump everything we've got into ads and we get this. What the hell else can we pay for? There's gotta be some media we haven't covered yet.



...
Whole reason I picked this goddamn ship was for the passenger capacity. Might as well have gone with the fucking Kegger.
We...
We win.
...what?
We're at 848,400 right now. Once we sell these gems...
Oh man. Oh man. Are you sure? Uh, 290 times 425, plus profit...



Yes! YES! We got it! We did it!
Er...



Not quite.
FUCK
EVERY
TAX






Okay.
Okay, you know what? It doesn't matter. We've still got this. Twenty grand to go? We could make that with our eyes closed.
Tark'la.
Hell, the Loro exchange will go up again next week. That plus our bank interest. We won't even have to lift a finger.
Tark'la.
You wanna break out the champagne now, or-
Tark'la.
...what? What's wrong?
Look.