The Ice Weaver's Problem

Jile the space pirate stared at her new teammate, Aselt the ice-weaver, with a confused and questioning expression before finally gathering enough courage to ask him.

"So… why did you decide to join this crew?" she asked Aselt.

"Why do you think? For the riches of course!" Aselt replied to her in a confident voice.

He was a young man, no older than his early-twenties, one of the few born with the gift of being able turn water into ice and shape it as they wanted to, as opposed to Jile, a middle aged women in her late-forties who had served The Shooting Star fleet for the last twenty years.

"And not to mention, I am the first ice-weaver to ever serve one of the most feared pirate fleets in this star system! Which I believe will be more than just 'a little addition' for this crew." His voice was still as confident as it could get.

"I mean yes, you are a nice addition for our crew, but don't you think you joined the crew at, well, let's just say… not the best time?" Jile said.

Aselt's confident expression faded from his face and was replaced with a confused, slightly worried expression.

"What do you mean by that?" he asked.

"Well, firstly, you need water in order to be able to weave ice, right?" Jile asked

"Yes, at some situations, excessive amounts of." Aselt replied. "And for the second?"

"How experienced are you with weapons?" she asked.

"I've never wielded any kind of weapon in my life, but why would I need some pistol when I could just throw a giant block of ice at my target?" He replied, still confused as to why she was even asking him either of these questions in the first place.

"Sweetie, our next destination is Mars," she said.

Aselt's face turned blank. "Oh." He said in a regretful voice.

Alper Ghuchlu (he/him) is an SF/F/H fan who spends too much time daydreaming about being an alien, a robot, or both. He sometimes puts his daydreams into writing, which include, but are not limited to: alien outlaws, monstrous plants, universe eating creatures, friendly werewolves and emotional ghosts.

Find more by Alper Ghuchlu in the Author Index.