• If you were supposed to get an email from the forum but didn't (e.g. to verify your account for registration), email Wes at [email protected] or talk to me on Discord for help. Sometimes the server hits our limit of emails we can send per hour.
  • Get in our Discord chat! Discord.gg/stararmy
  • 📅 February and March 2024 are YE 46.2 in the RP.

RP: The Fringe [Chapter 2.2] - Prospects

Status
Not open for further replies.

Floodwaters

Inactive Member
Concordia Veil - Sienna's Cabin - Later that night

Slowly in the shadows a metal form slipped into the Captain's cabin from a air outtake vent. As it matierlized out of the lightless bowels of the ship, Crash was scanning the sleeping form. It was a bit concerned with waking the being, but then again, the Captain might sleep a bit better after the news.

As Crash crept on to the bed It brought up a bit of glowing on the exterior of It's body via a volumetric projection. Carefully a metal arm reached out and poked Sienna in the cheek. "Miss. Sleepy Pants? I need to speak to you..." A few more light nudges ito her cheek before It stepped back a hair.

Sienna's eyelids fluttered slightly at the touch, and with a soft groan, she rolled over and faced away from Crash's holographic projection, hugging the rough sheets around her shoulders. After a couple of seconds, she seemed to realize that she wasn't alone, and looked back over her shoulder, her eyes barely-open slits, and a puzzled, groggy frown creasing her face. When she spotted the spider bot, her eyes shot wide open and she gasped sharply, whirling around and sitting up, dropping her sheet to reveal her tight white undershirt. Another second passed before her shock melted into exasperated irritation. "God dammit Crash," she grumbled as her shoulder slumped with a sigh. "Ain't you ever heard of knocking?"

"Have you ever heard of night lights?" Crash spoke as the fluorescent green glow brightened a hair, lightening the environment. "I figured you would like to know I have secured a cargo that will be a simple orbital insertion delivery. A full cargo bay of Moondust, and Moon cave spider silk. I believe one of the crates will even be woven sick undies..." It chittered as it figured that crate would arrive a hair light.

"They will be bringing the load to the ship by 0600, they will be on transport pallets for loading. All we have to do is sign for it and then once the insertion of low orbit is made and confirmed by the ground radar station at Khorsovarolor, an account I have set up in the ship's name will be funded the profit from an escrow hold account. You though need to pay for the cargo. They wouldn't let me convince them other wise. I did try."

The captain's frown deepened, and for a second it appeared she was going to protest. However, her jaw only slid to one side for a moment as she considered what the spiderbot was saying, and ran a hand through her hair, blinking the sleep from her eyes. "How much are we talking about?" she asked. "And how do you know we're gonna be able to sell it for a profit on... where the hell did you say it was going?"

"Khorsovarolor... We will barter with the colony, they need the materials far more then anything else. they were destroyed or something and need to rebuild... Lots of that going around," Crash grumbled before continuing, "I have a Contact name to deal with once we arrive. You put on a pretty smile, if you are able to.. If not let Amelia talk, and maybe wear a low cut... Anyways barter with them and haggle like the dickens..." Crash Brought up a little Volumetric screen with an table showing the account and the potential profit. Sienna looked a touch displeased at the implication that she couldn't be pleasant, but said nothing.

"As for how much it will cost to get started, I'm willing to help out with one to two fifths of it, I found the job and I am willing to take the risk to prove it worth it. But the total right would be 5662.5 ks."

Crash paused for a moment before continuing, "I have located a bit of my personal money, it was roughly 3000 ks, it was hiding in an old MMO game... I can put down as much as two thousand to help here."

Sienna pursed her lips slightly, just before stifling a yawn and scratching the back of her head again. An odd look crossed her face, and she quickly hid her hands beneath the sheet again, disguising the motion by turning her body so that she sat cross-legged against the wall next to the bed, her sheets and blanket bunched up over her lap. "So who did you talk to about buying this stuff? And what do they want in return?"

"I talked to a man named Miyamoto Musashi of the Five Rings Corperation. he demainded 50% of the profets... But then a show him an image of you in the shower and got him down to 30%..." A look of indignant rage flashed across Sienna's face before Crash chittered and told her the truth. "No I got him down by offering to pay the cost of the good stright up. So that if something happened he would at least have that." Crash sent a copy of the communications to Sienna's data files so that she could view them on her time.

"I think it will be a good first job for the ship. Simple, cheap, and with a chance of a larg profit. Not thta I think we'll all retire to a princess beach planet, but we'll be able to keep going and have the cash to risk a bit more."

The captain let her head gently drop back against the wall as she closed her eyes. "All right," she responded quietly, pausing for a moment before she opened her eyes and eyed the spider bot dangerously. "But this is the last time you negotiate on my behalf with my money," she said sternly. Her eyebrows raised a little as if to accent her point. "We clear?"

"Yes, Master Lady." Crash sighed and turned. "You have access to the ship's account, i'll have the two grand in it before it's time to pay up." As it climbed back up the wall Crash let the glow start fading. It feared another long raging in It's hole... Maybe a night powered down in it's panty nest would do It good.

"Wait a minute," Sienna called after the bot, leaning forward a little and swinging her bare legs down to the floor. It was apparent she had on no pants, but she kept her thighs and waist encircled with the blankets. "There's something else I gotta talk to you about."

Pausing half way up the wall Crash turned and looked at her. "Yes, Master Lady?" It knew It was pushing buttons, but there was still those negative emotions rolling through since thier last conversation. Though the fact she slept in nothing but her panties and undershrit gave Crash great ideas as ways to get back at her.

"Quit calling me that," the captain protested, rolling her eyes. "Before dinner I happened on a message from some soldier stranded in a system in Abwehran space. He's already paid a cash advance, and promised a shit ton of money if we go get him," she continued, keeping her hands beneath the sheets. She, for no discernible reason, drew a sharp breath in through her nose and closed her eyes for a moment, as if trying to clear her head, or ward off some sudden, unpleasant feeling. Then she resumed talking as if nothing had happened a moment later. "I need you and Amelia to find out what you can about the Neue Jaspis star system, and get to work on plotting the best course there, after we take care of this delivery."

"If those are your orders." Crash started working out a message for Amelia's Datajockey, it was on a delayed delivery so that it wouldn't wake the Astrogator. "I'll see what she thinks, though If we bound a few blackholes, i'm sure it won't take long." Crash started

Sienna nodded. "Let me know as soon as you get something worked out," she said. "Now if your delivery's getting here in the morning, I need me some more sleep."

"Yes Master Ma'am, i'll be in the Computer Compartment if you need anything more." Crash dipped it's frount as if It bowed before truneign about and heading back into the vent.

Her upper lip furled upwards as she snorted derisively, shaking her head, too late to reprimand the Freespacer for his continued attempts to irritate her further. "Prick," she muttered as she swung her legs back up into her bunk and laid her head back down onto her pillow.

As the bot got deeper in, a faint "Smeghead" could be heard grumbled through the vents.

Under the covers in her bed, Sienna tightened her grip on the sheets, desperately trying to get her hands to stop shaking.
 
Concordia Veil - Cabin 3 - Some time later

The dim glow from the Datajockey's screen was the only source of light worth notice in the room, faintly iluminating a very indiscrete lump on the bottom bunk. For some reason, she couldn't bring herself to sleep for any considerable amount of time when she tried, after waking up from a very vivid dream where the ship's cockpit was breached, exposing herself to the vacuum of space, all she could do was roll around in the bed as she tried to get more rest. For someone who could sleep with relative ease, it worried her more than the nightmare itself.

The astrogator pushed the covers aside as she sat up, reading the message that the spiderbot had sent to her, closing off the many different windows that she was browsing. Quickly, she typed a response:

Code:
 > Ok, I have nothing better to do anyway
> the Master Lady, wants it done before the loading is complete so that we can head off.

The Spiderbot was still fuming over the fact It did everything in I's power to help out Sienna and all she did was bitch at Crash. It was planning on just going to its hidden nest and powering to low power mode until 0600 before Amelia responded. She was still awake, and Crash got curious on why, so It turned in a vent and headed to meet up with the Space Crocodile.

Meanwhile, Amelia slowly and quietly left her bunk. She wasn't wearing her usual, and seemingly only, attire, but instead was donning a simple white and blue T-shirt, which the sleeves were of the latter color while the rest was of the former, and knee length shorts. Since it was relatively late in the ship's daily cycles, the astrogator didn't bother putting anything more formal on, and instead simply grabbed her PHC and Datajockey before sneaking out of the room, not really bothered by the cold metal floor against her bare feet.

Crash had crept and silently got above Amelia, pausing for a second It let go of the ceiling and dropped, flipping mid air, to land on the her shoulder. "How is my Space Croc?" Crash latched on and settled onto her shoulder. The astrogator jerked at the sudden weight, then visibly tensed once she realized what it was.

"You need to stop doing that!" Amelia hushed, slowly relaxing as she closed the door and stood alone in the Lounge.

"Doing what?" Crash chittered lightly on her shoulder and locked Its limbs so that it didn't shift or affect Amelia's ability to move or balance. "Why are you awake? Isn't this a time for low power cycles?"

The astrogathor sighed and rolled her eyes as she started to walk out of the Lounge and into the halway. "I didn't feel like sleeping," she said.

"Why not, isn't it that you've burned all of your energy reserves for the day, and need to reset your processes?" Crash was a bit worn out too, but that was not so much from a need to sleep, but a habit from when It was still a fleshy being.

"Something like that," Amelia replied, not adding anything else as she entered the cockpit. She could see the same boring and unremarkable stone walls of the docking shaft, intersected every now an then by thick metal pillars to prevent it from caving in and providing the access catwalks for the maintenance crews that she had used to get back aboard the ship. Making her way to her seat, the astrogator slowly slid down towards it, activating the volumetric displays. "Where did she want to go again?" She asked, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"well," Crash brought up a projection of the local space, "We are here at Halna," a blue pulsing chibi of the Veil appeared on the projection dancing around the Halna star, "We need to drop off the cargo here..." A red cargo container started orbiting Khorsovarolor, "then we have to pick up a bloke in the Neue Jaspis system," A stick figure stood on the final star. The stars w ould have formed a perfict triangle in space if viewed from the top or bottom of the galaxy.

"I hope he isn't that cute..." Crash muttered as It stared at the projection. "If we Jump stright to ASE-006 then we can use the Two Jaspis Spaceway for a bit before jumping to Khorsovarolor, then back to the Spaceway to finish the trip out," Crash chittered and highlight his proposed route, though it was just that, a proposed route, It never updated it galatic relay systems. So Crash sucked at the Astro-navagation.

Amelia was silent for a few moments, studying the map before weighing in with her own opinion. "What are we transporting?" She asked, biting her thumb.

"Servants... But the cargo hold would be full of Moon dust, and Moon cave spider silk, and one small crate of moon cave spider silk panties." Crash chittered at the last bit of its comment.

"Who wants to buy a whole crate of..." Amelia started to say, but trailed off, rubbing her forehead. "Nevermind. Anyway, we should stick to the main spacelanes since we're not transporting anything illegal, that means," she started to say, drawing a trail with her finger against the volumetric display, "we jump to the nearest system, which is Gashmere, then Essia. This should put us right next to the Abwehran spacelane. After that we stop at Khorso- Korsovalo- whatever the name is, then return to the abwehr lane and make the rest of the trip to Jaspis," she said drawing a crude route on the map. Plotting the course was the easiest part, making sure that the nav-computer did all the calculations right was not.

"Ok... I can do that.. just make sure the numbers are synced and ready. You sure there aren't and colapsing stars we can loop past to gain and time boost?" Crash asked as it pictured the ship riding a star nova's blast wave.

"Not in the next few hundred thousand years," Amelia replied, bringing up another volumetric display which she used to do the astrometric calculations that she would need to do before even giving it out to the navigational computer, which was still supposed to do all the hardcore number-crunching nescessary to not warp the ship inside a star or against a planet. Her brow creased as she got progressively more concentrated on her task, despite the creeping tiredness that had been wearing her down.

"so now that that is done and you're working on the easy stuffs, you wanna tell me why you're not sleeping?" Crash asked as it crawled off of her and onto the second seat.

"Why is that important?" Amelia asked, not taking her eyes away from the dull blue glow of the display.

"Because your lack of sleep can decress your ablity to be good at all the things you do, and if that happens, who will give me all to short cuts to fly?" Crash started bringing a data projection that was showing a cartoon, playing at 4x speed. "that and i'm worried about you."

"I've stayed awake for way longer periods, alright? I can take care of myself," She replied, still working on the numbers.

Crash paused for a moment and looked up at her. "You sure? Seems I have to save you a lot..." Crash chittered again before speaking up, "do you need head scratches to sleep? I used to need that."

"No, because I'm not a dog," Amelia answered brusquely, turning her head to regard the bot momentarily. "I'm trying to work here," she added, turning her attention back to the display.

"Are you now?" There was a pause as Crash realized something. "HEY! I wasn't a dog... Sometimes good head scratches are just what you need. It relaxes you." Crash went back to watching something about an idiot in a coat and huge side burns.

-------------------------------------------------

Concordia Veil - Cockpit - Some more time later

Amelia rubbed her eyes with the ball of her hands, looking over for what probably was the third time at the numbers in front of her. Once she was satifiest with them, the astrogator pressed a button on the holographic screen, "Course is plotted," she said, leaning back against the seat. All in all, it hadn't been one of her hardest works; there was no creativity required to save time, or to avoid the most populated space lanes, so in the end the whole process was like following a simple cake recipe.

Crash had sat there and watched an entire season of the cartoon as she worked her computer magic. It wasn't the best but at least it was full of action. But when The 'bot knoticed the yawn from Amelia, It climbed into her lap and curled up.

"What time is it?" Amelia asked, shifting on her seat once the spiderbot climbed on her lap.

"Late," Crash muttered as it started thinking. If it shorted out a relay, if it would be enough to knock the girl out, "You don't have long to get sleep before you'll have to be up and get things."

"I'll be alright. Just let me know thirty minutes beforehand," the astrogator said. She didn't want the whole crew seeing her dressed like that. Pulling the volumetric displays aside while the computer continued crunching the numbers together, she pulled her Datajockey and resumed reading the new novel that she had bought during her visit to the station.
 
Concordia Veil - Shower sometime around ship 2:35 AM.

The sound of running water from the shower could be heard from outside the ships bathroom shortly before there was the sound of someone getting into the shower. Six Four had decided that, sense it needed a mental break from organizing its office, calculating medical stock, restocking its internal systems with the various chemicals and bits it needed, doing stock again and finally ignoring a call from its sister who was most likely into some sort of trouble (though the doctor planned on contacting her back after the shower just to make sure) it would take a shower seeing as personal hygiene was also something it needed to take care of. After neatly stacking its gear in the locker it had started the shower before preping for a wash. To any primarily organic individual, Six Four's naked form was somewhat of an oddity, the pallid torso and head framed by short bright pink and white hair was the only fleshy thing attached to its mechanical ligaments.

Stepping into the shower the de-helmeted doctor wetted its hair before scrubbing in some shampoo. Stepping back from the downfall of water the Freespacer produced a bar of soap from its toiletry kit, which it wetted before it began to scrub over the fleshy parts of its body. Successfully sudsing up its front half the doctor stopped and stairred at the off white, somewhat yellow actually, bar of soap in its hand. For a solid twenty seconds the doctor was transfixed on the bar of soap, finally after what seemed like eons the doctor straightened its arm with the bar of soap before reaching over with its other one to detach it from the rest of its body. Holding its arm in its hand it flexed it over its body and began to scrub its back with it.

Once it was all nice and lathered up Six Four reattached its arm, locking it back into place with a click before stepping back into the water. As the cleansing stream washed over the Free Spacer it scrubbed the rest of the shampoo out of its pink hair. Trails of white suds ran down down the curves and gaps in the mechanical hardware that it was comprised of creating small streams over its body. After a few minutes of rinsing the Doctor reached out its mechanical appendage and shut off the water, The shower knobs protesting with a small squeak from the years of water in its environment.

Six Four reached for its towel that was hung up outside of the shower, fumbling around a minute as it kept its eyes closed to avoid any stray suds that may try to get into its eyes. Successfully locating the towel, its metal digits closed around the fuzzy purple fabric and brought it to its face. The freespacer rubbed the towel over its head, the cottony fabric absorbing the moisture in its hair and on its face until it was dry. After successfully drying off its head the doctor began to methodically dry the rest of its body. Six Four started on its left shoulder, wiping the towel back and forth up down and around getting any and all remnants of water off the aera before progressing down its arm. Once completed it transferred the towel to its other hand and began to repeat the process on its other arm.

The drying ritual progressed at its normal pace, taking a total of about 3 minutes and 40 seconds to complete. Satisfied with its work the doctor folded the towel into thirds and placed it back on the towel bar, shifting it so that it was exactly occupying the right forth of it. Striding over towards the locker it had so neatly placed its gear in, Six Four opened it retrieving the items in side. The doctor looked around for a chair to place the clothing items on but alas it did not find one so instead placed the articles of clothing on the toilet seat lid.

Starting with its undergarments, the doctor began the process of getting dressed. Stepping into a pair of black boyshorts, first the right leg then the left, Six Four pulled them up and let the elastic waistband snap onto its frame. Picking up a matching brazier, very plain and simple lacking anything 'fancy' or 'frilly' in design, the doctor took a moment to study it. It cocked its head to the side as it wondered who thought of this article of clothing, more so the fact how they got people to try it as well as what it would look like as a hat. Shrugging to itself it put the item on itself, placing it backwards on itself to attach the clasps in front of itself before spinning it around so it was on the proper way. Six Four then slipped its arms into the straps first the left then the right to change things on a bit.

Next on its list was socks. Six Four actually kind of liked socks, the tubes that covered its feet and calves, though mechanical and not needing socks really, were a fun fashion accessory that it could hide and be as flashy as it wanted to. The pair that it had currently were actually its favorite pair, a long knee high set that was black with pink stripes matching its tie. Sitting down on the edge of the toilet seat the Freespacer slipped its left foot into the scrunched up cottony tube. Once seated, Six Four pulled the rest of its fabric up its leg, rocking it left and right so that it wouldn't get caught on anything or have a chance to get a snag. Once on the doctor tapped its foot on the ground before holding its leg out and pointing its toes to admire its handy work. Satisfied with that the doctor picked up the other matching sock and began to put it on. Six Four decided to go with matching socks today, on occasion the doctor liked to mix and mach various colors and styles, though never mixing the length because that would be illogical and silly.

With the undergarments put on doctor picked up and unfolded its customized space suit. Six Four gave it a once over to check for any damage that may have occurred to it. The suit checked out to Six Four, there wasn't any major damage, well more importantly, any damage that would structurally rend the use unsuitable. Placing the suit at its knees, Six four placed its right leg into the suits leg hole, followed shortly by its left. once inside the Doctor pulled it up to about mid chest before placing its right arm into the matching sleeve, pulling the other end up to repeat the process again with the left side. Once placed firmly on the Freespacers body, Six Four grasped the zipper that had been pulled down to slightly below the freespacers bellybutton and began to pull up. As the zipper went up the suit the wedge pushed the teeth together so that the black hooks connected and formed a seal. When the Zipper reached the top of Six Four's neck the doctor stopped zipping as it came to the end of its course and began to button down the zipper covering, starting from the top and worked its way down.

Satisfied with its work it once again Sat down on the makeshift chair it was using and picked up a worn pair of space boots. Placing them on its feet, right them left, the doctor sealed them to the suit by mean of a zipper fastener combo. Standing up again Six Four picked up the last bit of clothing it needed to put on, its medical jacket. Six Four swung the jacket around itself after placing its right arm into its sleeve. Once on the other side of its body the doctor placed its left arm in the other sleeve, rolling its shoulders forward to get the jacket to sit properly on its body. The Freespacer, once comfortable in the coat, began the arduous task of buttoning the jacket up, starting with the lower button and working its way up following the '7' pattern of the buttons. After the last button was buttoned Six Four picked up its tie and put it on, the colorful fabric interlaced into a fancy knot by the deft doctor hands around its neck.

Now fully clothed, the doctor pulled a set of medical gloves, more of black medical gauntlets with their size, out of its jacket pocket and placed them on its hands before grabbing its helmet and placing it on its head. The helmets systems automatically connected to the freespacer once the top of the helmet touched the top of Six Four's mess of pink and white hair. The metal needles near the base of the helmet plugged into the freespacers neck ports causing the freespacer to shudder as a tingle ran though its organic parts.

Grabbing the towel and toiletries from the shower the doctor left the bathroom to return to its office to return the items to their respective places. The task was a quick one seeing as the bathroom wasn't that far from where it spent most of its time and with its primary task of taking a shower completed, Six Four thought it might get a cup of coffee before messaging its sister Jack back.
 
Concordia Veil - Port cargo bay sometime around ship 3:00 AM.

Shrie could not sleep. Maybe it was the hard metal floor, maybe because she took a before she cooked dinner. Either way, after she cleander the dished and kitchen, she did not feel sleepy. So she worked some more. The fyunnen took the leftovers and set them up in the refrigerator, putting what Amelia did not finished in extra box on the side, with her name writenn on the box by a marker. Shrie knew that sooner or later, each crewmember would end up with box like that. Especially since Shrie knew that she tended to give large meals to people. She just hoped that Amelia was just full and not that the meal was not to her liking.

With that done, Shrie found cleaning tools and went about cleaning up the Lounge and cleaning everything that could be cleaned in Kitchen. It seemed now one did that duty regulary, so Shrie decided she will do it from now on. After all she could not fix machines or fly or anything useful like that. But she knew how to cook and clean, so she can just be caretaker. It was okay with her. Besides she had to keep busy somehow, without alcohol Shrie needed to do something. Being with just her thoughts was never good. Seeing as she did not have anything to draw with and on and she already read or the novels and smut, that was on the tablet, she found in the shuttle, there was only work and training.

So just a bit after the dinner, when she was done with cleaning she went to her corner in the Port cargo bay, the place that she planned to change into her nest over time. Maybe if Sienna would start actually paying her, she might buy something to sleep on and goods she needed for her art. Booze too. It was over a week since she had a drink and she was starting to miss it. The Fyunnen did not sleep well without some alcohol. The bad dreams were there, scary ones, weird ones and especially the ones that reminded her of what kind of monster she is. Someone told her in past that what is dead is dead, but yamataians aside, it was not the case. The dead people kept coming back in nights, asking why they had to go. It was not good.

Another thing she could to get rid of that was to get really really tired. Since she took a nap in the afternoon, she was not tired enough. That means it was time for Shrie to exercise. That was something she was used to, but a thing that was a bit hard now. Her body still worked, but it was hurting in several spots. Her past life took its toll and she never went about getting healed properly. There was the broken servo-motor in her knee that cause slight limp, one of her eyes kept tearing up because of the damaged cybernetics in it, though Shrie was glad she could see well enough with it. There was often a pain in back of her skull where her neural interface was turned off rather unprofessionally. The interface was still there, just not connected with her brain anymore. There were also all the scars covering her body at various spots, that often were numb. Not to mention the phantom pain of her missing wing. She was a mess.

Shrie slowly slid out of the bodysuit, it was middle of the night so her nakedness should not bother anyone. She did not want to exercise for hours in her freshly washed bodysuit. The sweat and leather did not go well all that well. She started with stretching, her hurting muscles needed that a lot. The fyunnen's body actually needed quite a bit of 'maintenance' daily and Shrie skipped it for quite a while. She did not train at all while in the shuttle to save up on energy and air. It made her stiff, so not she had to undone the damage. So stretching was needed, then she came to basic exercises. Push-ups, squats, sit-ups all the jazz. She then did a hand-stand by the wall and lowered herself on her arms, then pushing herself up again.

It was bad that there was nothing proper to lift, so this was all she could to. Shrie then found a nice part of ship sticking form the ceiling a solid pipe, she grabbed onto it and continued with pull-ups. For a Fyunnen that was generally able to lift hundreds of kilograms, this kind of training was just to keep fit, it would not help progress too much. One had to do a lot of it to strain their muscles and hence helping them grow.

Late in the night, when she was done with this all, clad only in part of boyshorts, hiding what needed to be hidden the most, Shrie went and started running . The cargo bay took almost half of the ship at its longest wall, but it was not square. Since the ship had over thirty meter in lenght, Shrie figured that around the cargo bay it would be somewhere between 40 to 60 meters. That was not much. It means about twenty-five run-arounds for a kilometer. That meant she needed to run about two hundreds and fifty. That would be boring. So Shrie went and started to play some rock music that was in the tablet she had. With that one she started running deciding to just run until she could not run anymore.
 
Concordia Veil - Lounge - Few minutes before the start of the shift

The doors to the lounge hissed open, allowing the, then fully clothed, astrogator to step in, white towel resting comfortably around the back of her neck, while a simple black bag was held by her gloved left hand. She rotated her head around, trying to relieve the tension to her neck and got a few rewarding cracks as an outcome before stepping further in the darkened lounge.

As the astrogator cleared the doorway, she noticed that Sienna's cabin door was very slightly ajar, and rhythmic, heavy breathing could be heard from within. Occasionally a bit of a dull thumping could be heard, but the soft grunts were definitely the captain's, and the strange event seemed to catch her attention.

To anyone looking, the scene was almost comical, as Amelia involutarily started making way for her cabin, but her head was still transfixed at the door to the captain's cabin. She kept staring at the door, finally stopping and turning the side of her head towards it to see if she could make anything else out of the noise. Standing near the door, the heavy breathing was much clearer to her, as were the moans and grunts. By the tense, strained sound of them, Sienna was making quite the effort to stay as quiet as possible, but not quite with perfect success.

The astrogator said a silent 'what the hell', as she crept closer to the semi-open door. She realized that it was a very serious intrusion on her good captain's privacy, but the mischievous side of her appealed to the idea of pranking her. Besides, it was not like it was her fault anyway for finding the door open. "Hey captain, how's it going?" Amelia asked in a normal tone with a cocky smile on her face, leaning to her side so that only her slightly inclinated head could be viewed from inside.

In the instant before Sienna's surprised yelp rang out from within the cabin, Amelia caught a glimpse of the good captain hanging upside down, her legs hooked around the edge of the top bunk across the room, apparently in the middle of a rather intense regimen of inverted sit-ups. She wasn't dressed in her typical utilitarian attire, but rather sported nothing more than a very snug-fitting white tee shirt and exceptionally short, white cotton hip shorts, exposing her legs, and gravity managing to lift her shirttail a few inches up her midriff. With a startled jump her eyes went wide as she seemed to try to whirl her feet back to the ground from her suspended position, and had she been just a bit more precise with her movements, not to mention unimpeded by the mattress from which she was hanging, it may very well have been a rather impressive display of physical prowess and dexterity. However, what resulted instead was an awkward, near-panicked flailing that lasted less than a half a second before she lost her grip on her perch and slipped, crashing down to the floor on the back of her shoulders and falling to the side in a graceless heap.

"What the frack, Amelia!?" Sienna snapped around a mild groan of pain as she rolled over onto her side and sat up, gingerly rubbing the back of her head. Beads of sweat dotted her forehead, with the occasional stream dribbling down her cheeks and neck.. "What are you, jimmying my door now!?"

The astrogator raised, or rather extended, her hands apologetically. "The door was half open, and you were sounding like you were having a seizure here so I came to check, really," she said.
Sienna ran the back of a balled fist across her chin, shaking her head in disdain at the crack in the door with a scoff. With a muted grunt, she climbed to her feet and strode across the floor to the door and slapped the control pad to close it the rest of the way. When she started to turn around, she realized that the door didn't respond to the control, so she glared at it for a second, then slapped it again, tracing the door frame with her eyes, then tried it a third time. "You gotta be kidding me," she grumbled. She hit the open button, and naturally, the door slid fully open, leaving her face to face with Amelia in full view.

It was strange to see Sienna dressed so immodestly, to say the least. Of course, since the astrogator had come aboard, Sienna hadn't usually favored clothing that was quite so demure as Amelia, but her garments were always very functional, never designed to make her stand out or show off any part of her body. Not that her meager coverings were clearly meant to be provocative, but they left much less to the imagination. Their white coloring only added to the contrast.

"That's a... weird time to be exercising," Amelia commented, staring at Sienna. The astrogator's eyes periodically changed position from either staring at the captain in the eye or curiously inspecting her unusual attire. Eventually, she decided that pretty much anyone had their own weird things they did in private.

Sienna squatted down to the floor, running a hand along the doorframe where the door had retracted, inspecting it as she traced it all the way to the ceiling, by appearances not paying a lot of attention to Amelia, at least until she responded. "Not sure why you'd say that," she replied, the annoyance still evident in her voice. "I do it when I can, always have." She put her hands on her hips and sighed sharply in frustration, still looking up at the doorframe's upper corners. "God dammit, now I'm gonna have to take this whole frackin' thing apart," she muttered, more to herself than Amelia. "I bet I don't have any actuator pistons anywhere..."

"Does that mean we'll get to listen to you doing squats when we're around the lounge?" The astrogator asked, still evidently amused at the whole situation, if the smile on her face was of any clue.

The captain turned her eyes to Amelia with a dour look, not bothering to respond to the sarcastic reply with anything other than her expression. With a scoff at the door, she turned to her left and opened the metal doors to her wardrobe, withdrawing a threadbare towel and began to dab the sweat from her face. "What're you doing up anyway?" she asked, muffled by the towel.

"Crash told me you wanted the course plotted, so I have it all plotted now," Amelia replied, still intently watching the captain. She stepped closer to the open door, leaning against it with an elbow.

Sienna's hands froze for a second, the towel still pressed to her nose as she peered over the top of it at Amelia blankly. "You stayed up all night to get it done?" she asked with a touch of disbelief.

"Something like that," Amelia said, taking her eyes off the captain and curiously studying the insides of her cabin. It took a while for her to realize the tone of her captain, but she quickly turned her head back to face the captain when she noticed it. "It's no big deal," she added.

Noticing where Amelia was looking, the captain slid herself to the side, surreptitiously blocking her view, keeping her eyes locked on the dark-haired, shorter girl. She pulled the towel away from her face and draped it around her shoulders. "And it's the optimal course?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips. "We ain't got time or money to be taking a sightseeing trip."

'Of course it's the optimal course,' Amelia thought annoyedly as she noticed Sienna blocking her view, and slightly backed away from the open door. For some reason, she suspected that regardless of her answer Sienna would still check it. "Yes, it is," she said.

A dubious look crossed Sienna's face for a fleeting moment, but then it strangely disappeared, or rather, appeared somehow suppressed. She swallowed once, then simply nodded. "Well then," she said tightly. "Good." She stood there in awkward silence for a few seconds, still blocking Amelia's view and entry into her cabin, reaching up and gripping in each hand a corner of her towel, pulling it taut across the back of her neck, and her eyes wandered out into the dimly lit lounge. It appeared that the captain had something to say, but for whatever reason, was either electing not to say it, or was unable to figure out how.

The astrogator's gaze quickly looked at the lounge, following Sienna's. "I guess I'll be going then," she said, taking that as a cue, and started to take a few steps back towards the lounge, still holding onto the simple toiletry bag.
"Wait a second," Sienna replied quickly, though by the way the end of her statement was clipped, it sounded like she may have regretted stopping her a little. With a preparatory sigh, she spoke again. "I think you and I gotta talk."
'Oh shit,' Amelia thought as she froze, it was her turn to be surprised. "What is it?" The astrogator asked cautiously, examining the captain. Although her eyes had that droopy look from someonewho hadn't slept, her mind was already raced as she overthought the problem in every possible way.

Sienna stood there hesitating for another couple of seconds, gripping the corners of her towel tightly. So tightly, it seemed, that her hands were shaking slightly from the effort. "You, uh," she began with uncertainty. "Look, sit down for a minute," she continued, motioning over to the mess table, and the astrogator did so, as awkwardly as the way the captain conducted the situation.

Slowly, Amelia drew a chair from the table, setting her toiletry bag next to it and taking a sit. "Something wrong?" She asked.

The captain followed close behind, her bare feet making no sound at all on the metal floor as she took a seat on two chairs down from the astrogator, and leaned forward on folded arms. "No. Well, kind of," she replied. The blundering look on her face was more than apparent, like person fumbling about in the dark. "No, not really. I just... I just wanted to say we got off on the wrong foot, I think." The captain was doing everything in her power to avoid eye contact: examining her knuckles, drumming her fingertips on the table, pretending to scrutinize a rust-colored spot high on the wall in the corner. "Wanted to say I've... well..." she continued, but trailed off. She turned her face in her direction without really looking at her. "You done good work so far," she added to the string of disjointed, non-sequitur statements. "Know what I mean?"

In contrast to the captain, Amelia didn't exactly look away. From the short time that she had stayed aboard the ship she had noticed how proud the other woman was, and realized how hard it should be for her to apologize like that. It would be pretty damn hard for her to do the same too, but that still didn't make the whole situation any less strange for her. "Yeah, uh... You... too?" The astrogator said, biting the corner of her lower lip.

Sienna's irritated face surfaced again for a microsecond before she pushed it down. "No," she replied, her voice sllightly tense and rigid. "No, I ain't. I ain't never been a leader before. I can turn a wrench, I can splice a wire. There ain't much I've seen that I can't fix. But I ain't never been responsible for nobody before, you know?" It was very obvious that the young captain wasn't sure if she was saying what she meant to say. "I been treating you like crap, and now I'm not sure there was good reason to. I see that now."

"Man, this is pretty awkward," Amelia said, scratching the back of her head as she looked around, still off-put by the situation.

"That's all you got to say?" Sienna replied, unable to hide the slight scowl.

"Thanks," The astrogator replied, tightening her grip on the fabric of her pants. It had been so easy to dislike that other person a few days ago, but right then that had suddenly changed. "Does that mean you won't breath down my neck when I'm working?" she asked expectantly.

"It means I'll try not to," Sienna replied, leaning back in her seat, looking like she even deflated just a little. She folded her arms across her stomach, making a point to hide her hands beneath her arms. "Some things you'll probably just have to put up with."

"Okay, alright," Amelia said, looking around the room and then at her PHC afterwards, checking the time. "When were you planning to take off from this place?" She asked, changing the subject.

"Soon as we're loaded up," Sienna answered, seeming to relax a little now that the focus of the conversation no longer seemed to be on her own shortcomings as captain. "Should be sometime this afternoon."

"Alright," the astrogator stated, drawing her chair back and getting up. "I'll try to get some rest until then," she added ass he picked her back off the floor and pushed the chair under the table again.

Sienna nodded, but her eyes stayed off of her, looking a little unfocused, as if she were distracted by something. "Probably a good idea," she stated in a smaller voice, and pulled the towel off of her shoulders as she stood up. "I'll get you up when we're ready for launch prep."

Amelia went to open the door to the cabin two, but stopped in the middle of the gesture and looked back at Sienna instead. "Thanks for not kicking Crash out, too, I really appreciate it," she said.

"Mm," the captain groaned softly in acknowledgement, still looking away, arms across her stomach again. The door to the cabin hissed open, and then closed again, leaving the captain alone in the lounge.

The moment the cabin door slid closed, Sienna looked over at it, and swallowed again with a slight gag that she barely managed to silence. With wobbly legs, she turned to the lounge's exit door and pounded the switch, hardly giving it time to open before she squeezed around it and moved somewhere between a brisk walk and slight jog for the lavatory. As quietly as she could manage, she ducked in, closed the door behind her, and knelt in front of the toilet before the contents of her stomach emptied.
 
Concordia Veil - Lavatory - Few minutes before the start of the shift.

As the captain was busy wrenching her stomach into the porcelain depository, the door slid open with a hiss.

"Query: Does the captain have a morning sickness?" The blank faced doctor asked, cocking its head to the side as it watched Sienna. After a moment it straighten its head back up before holding up a mechanical finger. "Retraction, this one meant to say a sickness this morning. Six Four does not suspect that the captain would have morning sickness."

After its brief correction Six Four took its extended finger and put it into its steaming mug of coffee, which read in faded letters 'Galaxy's 2nd best Doctor', stirring it a bit before the proboscis like induction port extended from its helmet into the mug and began to drain the liquid.
 
Concordia Veil - Lavatory

Kneeling before the toilet and hunched forward, gripping the seat as she finished yet another wretch, Sienna gasped slightly, her eyes squeezed closed. Her white shirt's tail was bunched up slightly, revealing a few inches of her lower back above her cotton shorts as she fought to push back the nausea.

"You tell me, Doc," the captain groaned weakly, not bothering to look back or make any unnecessary movement at all.
 
Concordia Veil - Lavatory

"Well we appear to have a few options for diagnosis." Six Four said after retracting its drinking apparatus, "Though based on several observations on past experiences, Six Four will go with the one that Captain would find more pleasant."

Setting the Mug down on the top of the toilet, Six Four squated down next to Sienna while pulling out its data pad.

"Question One," It began looking at the pad then Sienna "Do you feel feverish this morning?"
 
Concordia Veil - Lavatory

Sienna didn't reply immediately, other than with a soft, nauseous groan. "No," she said shakily after a beat, and drew a long breath through her nose, forcing herself to lift her chin and puff out her chest slightly. She hesitantly pushed herself back from the toilet, gingerly trying to raise herself back to her feet, but she hadn't raised more than a few inches before another wave of nausea overtook her, and she quickly squatted back down. While she didn't wretch again, it certainly appeared for several moments like she was about to. "Just... sick," she continued weakly. "And shaky."
 
Concordia Veil - Lavatory

"Hmm, this one sees..." Six Four said making a few notes on its data pad, " Well with that bit of information, there are three options that seem to fit your diagnosis. Option One, A slight acute stress reaction, Option Two, a generalized anxiety disorder, or Option Three, Moon dust abuse."

Squatting down so that it was level with Sienna, Six Four gave her a glare, "This one wonders, have you had any recent nose bleeds? Or have you had nervousness and an encroaching sense of doom?"
 
Concordia Veil - Lavatory

"No," Sienna replied unevenly, still hugging the sides of the toilet. "But I did get a pretty sharp jab in the neck not too long ago," she added, the implication more than evident in her voice despite her nausea. "If you recall."

"This one recalls" Six Four replied back in its own even tone. "So that is a no to both or just the enchroching sense of doom?"

The immediate reply was another violent wretch of the captain's stomach, coupled with the unpleasant sounds of gagging and heaving in the metallic bowl, although nothing splashed. When they subsided, Sienna gasped for air for a few seconds, involuntarily letting out a low, weary moan. "That's a no to both," she groaned.

The doctor nodded before making some more notes on its data pad, pausing for a second to take a 'quick' sip of its coffee. "That is good, This one can rule out moon dust abuse then. Saves the crew the arduous task of recounting the shipment. Six Four is curious however, have you had any high stress situations in the last several hours?" The Freespacer paused for a second cocking its head to the side before emiting a digitized chuckle, "Well situations that this one wouldn't know about."

This time, despite her obvious state, Sienna's shoulders actually started to shake a little with pained laughter, mixed with winces of pain as her exhausted and sore abdomen flexed again and again. "That has got to be the stupidest frackin' question I've ever heard," she replied weakly.

"Six Four could ask if you have any functional ways of dealing with stress." Six Four quipped back. Though its speach was monotone the statement was dripping with sass. "That would be a stupid question. This one is following protoco with your diagnosis and doing its job."

"What did you inject me with?" Sienna replied, shifting the topic. Although she didn't seem able to even look up, let alone stand up to face the medic, her tone was intent.

"This one injected you with Qualen, an analgesic made from ground up Leidplitz spores." It said matter-of-factly. "The captain isn't alegric to leidplitz spore is she? No, no she's not. Symptoms would have shown at time of the injection.....hopefully."

Sienna heaved slightly again before she forced it back, and swallowed hard. "Pretty sure that ain't it," she said, her voice puny. "Next time you're feelin' jab-happy, though, you talk to me first."

"You were behaving irrationally,reasoning would of been impossible." Six Four said flipping though its notes.

The captain sighed a long, labored sigh. "Yeah," she moaned softly, nodding into the toilet. "I know."

"Good,at least now it appears you are--" The doctor paused for a moment thinking of the right phrase, "Getting your sea legs.. or feet below you? This one apologizes, a better analogy should have been used."

"Heh," Sienna replied weakly. "I'll be fine. Do me a favor and leave that Qualen stuff out in your lab. I need to see what it is for myself in case this don't get better."
 
Concordia Veil - Lavatory


"This one cannot do that, As sole medical personnel on this ship this one must make sure that all supplies are accounted for, in particular the highly addictive ones." Six Four said flatly, "As for your prognosis, this one reasons that it is most likely due to stress. Make sure to rehydrate yourself afterwords and look into a hobby or something to relive yourself.... of stress that is. This one has several options that you may enjoy based on this ones observations."

Six Four got up from its position and dusted itself off, picking up its coffee mug as it turned to leave.

"This one will be in its office if you need it."
 
Concordia Veil - Lavatory

"Yeah, sure," Sienna responded shakily as another wave of nausea overtook her, and waved the medic on her way without looking up. She knew exactly why she was feeling so horrible, even if the medic didn't appear to, and she had every intention of following the good doctor's advice. It would be risky, but she couldn't do her job in her current state, and she wasn't sure how much longer it would last. Besides, she was smart enough to know how to keep her solution under control.

As she dry heaved into the toilet once again, she began trying to force her thoughts onto tasks for Six Four to perform so she would stay busy enough to earn her keep, and not on the fact that she now felt like she had just been kicked hard in the stomach.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
RPG-D RPGfix
Back
Top