36. A Maid and a Cat

“Bored, nyaa…” Meica said out loudly. She was within the bridge at her station fiddling with her tail as she stared at the giant monitor in the bridge.

On the screen was an image of an asteroid and a small black and blue fighter corvette near it. On the asteroid were a few clumps of dark-blueish clouds consuming the space rock. Meica let out a yawn as she saw the cloud slowly expand over the surface of the asteroid.

There weren't many things to do in the bridge while Abyssal was out mining the asteroid. It might be fun for Abyssal who was actively controlling the nanomachines, but for Meica, it was like watching paint dry. Usually, she would go and talk to Abyssal or read the numerous books within the captain quarters to quell her boredom. Too bad it’s not happening with Abyssal gone and Kuon watching over Meica like some sort of watch dog.

‘Speaking of dog, nyaa,’ Meica turned her head around to spy on a certain maid. After a brief scan of the bridge, she saw Kuon, the stupid maid drone, at the corner of the room, sweeping the floor with a broom. The maid herself seemed to be happy and was humming a lullaby as she sweeped the floor. The bridge was sparkling clean, so Meica didn't know exactly what she was sweeping away. It didn't concern her anyway so she just let Kuom be.

Meica continued to observe Kuon from the comfort of her seat. From the very first moment they met, Kuon had always looked at Meica like she was some sort of pest that needed to be disposed of. She had always been mean to her and Meica didn’t know why. Meica hated her back, of course. Kuon would often get in her way when doing things and often gave Meica an earful of scolding whenever she had the chance— oftentimes calling Meica that despicable word: ‘cat’.

Meica hated that word. It’s a word used by other races to demean the Nekomis. It’s a word that explains their foul origins; a filthy cat from the streets, a cat that is up to no good, a deceiving and cunning cat that would do anything to survive.

Thieves, scavengers, and deceivers

Meica hated being compared to the likes of those kinds of people. She was raised in a well-respected litter, a noble and honourable nekomi and wished to stay that way. Being called a cat was akin to calling her a bad guy and it ruffled her fur like no other.

‘Deceiver…’ Meica thought to herself before curling up into a small ball, a frown on her face.

“What’s wrong with you? Having a stomach ache?” A rude and yet polite voice came from Meica’s side as she was curled up. It was Kuon, floating right next to her.

Meica immediately perked up, surprised by her sudden appearance. “No-nothing! What do stupid maid drone want, nyaa?” Said Meica as she glared at Kuon.

“I see… I’m done cleaning the bridge. Get out of your seat, I need to clean this spot as well.”

“Ngehh. Don’t wanna. Maid Drone go clean elsewhere. Actually, Maid drone can stop cleaning my territory, Meica can clean on her own,” Meica gave Kuon a small pout.

“I like to be systematic when cleaning. Also, please. You have not a single clue on how to clean up for yourself, you think I'm cleaning up your spots because I want to? If I leave you be, you will just tarnish the clean state that my master is in,” Kuon said to Meica in an insulting tone.

Meica got up from her seat and gripped both her hands into fists. “What did you say, Nyaa?!”

“I just said that you are a very sloppy and messy person who doesn’t know a single thing about cleanliness. Anything you touched becomes deformed, losing its commodity value by about sixty percent every hour. Any room you enter turns into a chaotic soup of furniture and objects, maybe mixed with a dash of scratch marks. Plus, you leave your fur everywhere, I have to clean twice as often ever since I met you,” Kuon voiced her dissatisfaction.

“Ngah…” Meica flinched backwards as she listened to Kuon. She was speaking super fast and with an eloquent language that Meica had a hard time catching up.

“I’ve worked as a maid my entire life and I’ve seen many different types of people. I thought Master was a sloppy and messy person, but you are clearly a different breed. It’s like comparing a rough diamond and a piece of coal.”

“I- I’m not that bad!” Meica yelled out.

“Really? Well, I’ll be gobsmacked then, ‘cause the way you act is as though you have lived some sort of sheltered life and had all your necessities handled by someone else. No way you’ve ever done chores by yourself before.”

Meica didn’t answer back. Instead she let out a shocked look with her eyes wide open. It was only after a while that she gritted her teeth.

Seeing her non-response, Kuon let out a small sigh. She was about to say something mean to Meica when something else came to her mind. “Actually… When was the last time you took a bath, by the way? I’ve never seen you do it. Wait, do you even… take baths?” Kuon asked.

“Wh-What?! Of course I take baths!” Meica blushed slightly. She then brought her nose to her shoulders in an attempt to smell herself. “Yep, I don’t smell, okay!”

“I didn’t say anything about your smell,” Kuon let out a sigh. “I can’t even smell,” she whispered. “Hmm… Well, I don’t really clean the bathroom as often, so I’ll take your word on this. Now scurry away, cat,” Kuon used her broom to push Meica away.

“Nekomi! Not cat!” Meica grabbed the broom and the two started a small power struggle.

“Yeah! I can see the difference! Cats are known for being very clean creatures. You are more akin to a gremlin than a cat.”

“Nyargghhh,” Meica responded by pulling on the broom stronger.

The two spent quite a while fighting against each other. The fight only broke up when Kuon brought in the other drones that were in the ship to help her.

….…...

“...Why is Maid Drone always cleaning up ship, nyaa?” Meica asked as she sat at the sides, watching Kuon clean up her station. She wagged her tail as she observed the maid organizing her belongings. Every little thing was meticulously re-arranged by the maid and even the tiniest piece of trash was taken and put within the trash bag. Meica didn’t think that her station was that unorganised but the maid was relentless in her pursuit for absolute cleanliness.

“Why…?” Kuon said back before taking a short pause. “It is my duty as a maid, I guess?” Kuon replied, her drone never stopped moving.

“Duty? I think Maid Drone take cleaning too seriously, nyaa. That’s all you ever do. Maid drone no hobbies?”

“Hobbies, huh… then cle—"

"Cleaning is not a hobby, nyaa."

Kuon clicked her imaginary tongue. "I don’t expect you to understand. My duties as a maid requires that I fulfil my task to absolute perfection. I have no time for hobbies."

“But nobody is perfect, nyaa. Maid Drone definitely not perfect and definitely do not do jobs perfectly.”

“It frustrates me to admit that you are correct, but nevertheless, I strive to be perfect in everything I do.”

“Hmmm. Then, if Maid Drone not a maid, would you still clean up ship?”

“...” Kuon stayed quiet at the question, seemingly finding it hard to answer that question.

Meica brought her right hand to her chin to mimic some sort of thinking motion. “How did Maid Drone become a maid, anyway? Alien nanomachines have king and queen?

“It’s a long story…”

“Ohhh.... tell me, tell me! Meica curious, nyaa!” Meica said with sparkling eyes.

Kuon turned around to look at the nekomi. “Alright. But only if you tell me your story first. You aren’t exactly a mechanic, aren’t you? And this isn’t your first time in space either, right? Don’t play dumb with me. I’m sure you know what we really are.”

Meica immediately went silent after Kuon’s sudden statement.

Kuon let out another sigh. “Not even going to defend yourself or make up a story? Whatever, I’m done. You can go back to whatever it was you were doing.”

However, before Kuon could leave the place for real, Meica said out softly: “Why should I tell Maid Drone. Maid drone hate Nekomis, no reason to tell.”

“Huh?”

“Maid drone hate Nekomis! If I tell Maid Drone, makes no difference. Will still try to throw me out of ship, regardless,” Meica yelled to Kuon.

“...”

“...”

“You misunderstand,” Kuon said to Meica.

“Nyaa?”

“I don’t hate the Nekomis. Yes, I admit I do have some… unkind outlook about the race, but I do not hate them. What I do hate is honourless scums and deceivers,” Kuon stopped her sentences before giving a disappointing look towards Meica.

“...Meica not a deceiver,” Meica muttered as she stared at Kuon.

“Then spill it out. What is it—” Kuon said to Meica when she suddenly got interrupted. The main display in the bridge changed its image to show a girl with long black hair with a cheerful smile— Abyssal’s avatar. Along with her appearance came a very energetic voice.

“I’m coming back guys! The asteroid mining trip is a huge success!” Abyssal said to Meica and Kuon.

“Master… is that you?” Kuon asked, flabbergasted at her sudden appearance in this manner.

“Yep! I thought of trying to display my avatar through the monitor,” she said as she struck a pose. “Did I surprise you, Kuon?  What do you think? How do I look”

“Um… uh… it looks good on you, I guess,” Kuon said to Abyssal, hiding the knowledge that she already knew how her avatar looked like. It’s not really a secret; just like how Abyssal saw Kuon’s avatar when they met in the virtual realm, Kuon had also seen hers before.

“He he he, I’m glad you like it. Anyways, I’m done with the first batch of resources. I’m bringing over the Fierca to the Maxwell to dump them. Help me create some cargo crates—” Abyssal paused when she saw that Meica and Kuon were next to each other. She noticed that the two seemed to be in the middle of some serious discussion. “Hmmm? Am I disturbing you two or something?”

“No, nothing. Just the cat and mine’s usual arguments. Cargo crates was it? I’ll get to work immediately,” Kuon gave a bow before throwing a small glance to Meica.

Meica understood the message before giving a smile to Abyssal. The big conversation between her and Kuon would have to wait for another time.

“Oh, alright. I’ll see you two in a bit! Abyssal out!” Abyssal said energetically before cutting off communications.

Putting the broom in her robotic arms to the sides, Kuon quickly made her way to the cargo bay. However before she could go far, she turned to look at Meica. “What?” She asked in an annoyed tone. Meica was sitting on the floor with a big grin on her face.

“I hate honourless scums and deceivers,” Meica said, trying to mimic Kuon’s voice and manner of speaking. “Maid drone not that honorable either, kuh kuh kuh.”

“Tsk. Shut up. Come on, I may need your help at the cargo bay,” Kuon said as she left the place hurriedly.

“Yes, Ma’am,” Meica replied with a clumsy salute.

* * * * *

A good ten minutes passed ever since Abyssal sent that message to Kuon and Meica. The two crewmembers were now within the cargo bay. Kuon was busy making several empty cargo crates as per instructed while Meica was waiting in standby within a construction drone.

It didn’t take long for the other part of the S.A.S. Abyssal to appear. The artificial gravity plates depowered and the floor opened up to show a small corvette fighter coming into the landing bay. Once arrived, a large grabber arm took hold of the Fierca class and the floor closed. The artificial gravity turned on again once everything was settled.

The large cargo hold entrance to the Fierca class opened and what came out from it was Abyssal’s personal drone. Behind Abyssal was an assortment of metals and resources all organized neatly within small self made boxes.

“Tadaa!” Abyssal raised her hands as if praising the sun. “Keep this up and we’ll get some serious money on our hands. Turns out that mining with self replicating nanomachines is super efficient!” she let out a cheerful laugh.

Kuon and Meica came towards Abyssal before looking inside of the Fierca class’s hold. They observed stacks of boxes all piled up on top of each other, inside of which looked to be a bunch of preprocess ores of many types. However, that was just one half of the cargo hold, the other half were the same set of resources scattered on the floor like dirty laundry. It was if Abyssal gave up organising the thing halfway through and decided to just dump the rest of the resources gathered into one spot.

“Master…” Kuon mumbled in dissatisfaction.

Meica, on the other hand, responded with a more ecstatic tone. “Wow, so many shiny ores!”

“Yep! All we have to do is either to find a way to process them or maybe just sell them outright.”

“Nyaa? Abyssal can’t process them? I thought Abyssal super advanced nanomachines?”

“I could… I think? I'll experiment with it later. Anyways, let’s finish mining the whole thing first. Kuon, Meica, think you can help transfer these to the cargo crates while I bring the maxwell around closer to the asteroid? Think I’m just going to beam up the rest of the asteroid into the ship.”

“Understood,” Kuon responded before promptly getting to work. Meica nodded as well and went over to help transport out the crates.

Both of them were working together, though their level of teamwork could use some work.

“Move over, stupid maid drone, you are blocking the way.”

“I didn’t hear the word, 'please'.”

....

‘Ah well, time to move this ship around. Abby, would you do the honours?’

*Boom!

However, before Abby could respond, a loud explosion was heard and the whole ship shook violently.

“Emergency Alert! Emergency Alert! Explosion occurred on left thrusters, cause of explosion: unknown missile impact. Unable to detect attacker. Initiating defensive measures,” Abby sent out a message to the top of Abyssal’s consciousness.

“Nyaa?!! Nyani was that?” Meica yelled out in shock as she fell to the floor due to the sudden vibration.

“An explosion? What is happening, Master?” Kuon asked.

Abyssal replied to them in the best way she could.

“OOOUUUUCCCHHH!!!”