Lounge
As the last of the crew filtered out of the room, Sienna closed the entrance door and looked towards Amelia, and with a sideways tilt of her head motioned for her to follow her into her cabin. The door was still open, and still incapable of closing, not to mention the fact that the walls in the cabins were far from soundproof, but the relative seclusion would serve as enough of an indication that their impending conversation wasn't meant for anyone else to hear. Sienna stepped through the open door and moved to the back of the cabin, turning around and lightly leaning her hind end on the back of the desk chair in the corner, her hands resting on it as well, one on either side of her hips, while the astrogator leaned against the wall beside the cabin door.
"Close the door," she said to Amelia, pointing her chin towards the entrance. "The most it will close, anyway."
Amelia reached for the panel besides the door, pressing the button to close the door. It was curious how the captain still hadn't managed to fix that door. Her gaze shifted back towards Sienna once she heard the telltale hiss of the door's mechanisms working. At first, it operated normally, albeit very slowly, actuating its cycle a full four seconds longer than it should have. Finally, the portal lurched, trying to close, and once it reached a spot a few inches shy of fully sealing off the entrance, it slammed into an unseen obstacle, the top corner slightly outrunning the bottom corner as it ground to a halt, and the servos within the door frame went silent again.
As if she hadn't seen it happen dozens of times already, Sienna softly groaned and shook her head, massaging the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger for a second. "Gonna be a busy week," she murmured to herself under her breath. After a second, she looked up, blinking a few times and settling her high-browed gaze on the astrogator again. "So," she started, loudly enough for Amelia to easily hear her, but in a hushed tone that would be difficult to make out to anyone outside the room. "About Crash's pay. I didn't wanna say anything out there because I figure he still thinks he's duping everyone by hiding in the cubby-holes around here." She shifted her weight slightly to her other leg, still leaning against the back of the chair. "I already agreed to cut him in, and he did save the ship. But I'm assuming he's gonna go talk to you first, since y'all... got... whatever happening between you," she continued with a slight shudder and a squicked face, recalling what she had previously walked in on. "So if for some reason he asks you before I find him, he'll get his pay when he replaces what he stole." She tilted her forehead towards the bare mattresses on the other wall.
The astrogator had seemed intent on watching the wall to her side the entire time, not gazing at the captain anymore once she started talking. When no immediate response came, Sienna narrowed one eye slightly, turning her face a nudge to the side. "Are you listening to me?"
"Well, I think you're out of luck," she said, not even embarassed anymore when Sienna had recalled that moment a few days ago. The message that the bot sent to her Datajockey was still too fresh on her head.
Sienna's brow dropped a touch in confusion. "What're you talking about?" In response, Amelia took the datapad from her pocket once more and extended it towards her.
Arching an eyebrow curiously, Sienna pushed away from the chair and stepped across the cabin, taking the Datajockey in her right hand, but her eyes remained on Amelia for a second before she looked down at the message. The other eyebrow slowly inched up to match the first as she read it, and though it was difficult to accurately read her expression from that angle, it almost looked like one of mildly pleasant surprise. "Huh," she grunted, looking up at her. "What's he chapped about this time?"
Amelia's expression remained passive, and she simply shrugged at the captain's question.
Sienna pursed her lips, saying nothing for a few seconds, with a calculating stare. Offering the datapad back to Amelia, she sighed with a shake of her head. "Well, that makes some things easier for me," she said, obviously intending to be nonchalant, but the mild annoyance in her voice was noticeable. "But now we got a useless mainframe and we're down a good pilot. Two more things to add to my growing list of shit to do..." It was clear that the captain was much more bothered by the logistical repercussions of Crash's sudden departure than the Freespacer itself.
The astrogator briefly glared at the captain after retrieving her Datajockey, pursing her lips together. "Anything else you want?" she asked after some deliberation.
Sienna's relaxed expression turned stony again for a moment when she saw the look in Amelia's eyes. At first, it looked as if the captain might have responded with some coolly-worded retort, but she didn't say anything. Finally she drew a long, controlled breath. "Look," she said with forced empathy. "I know you two are real buddy-buddy and all. But he's a loose cannon, and you know it. What am I supposed to do here, go off begging him to come back? Yeah, he has his uses, but you have any idea how big a pain in my ass he is?"
After that comment, the frustration and anger that Amelia had feeling was easy to turn around towards the captain. "I don't need your pity. You go and find someone to be your new slave and follow your every order to fly this ship then, if you can't handle people," she remarked, turning around to press the door's panel again.
Any semblance of sympathy that was in Sienna's eyes at that moment quickly evaporated, and her face hardened once again. Clenching her fists at her sides, she advanced a step on the comparatively smaller astrogator. "What the frak do you know about people, Amelia?" she snapped tersely. The door, as Amelia activated it, started to groan and hiss, but when it finally went to cycle open, the door simply shook a few times, pathetically trying to dislodge itself from whatever held it fast in place. The gap that remained was still far too small for her to fit through. Sienna didn't relent, however, seizing on the opportunity that being trapped in the room with Amelia presented. "I never see you hangin' 'round nobody but that goddamn robot!" she continued coldly. "Now, whatever sick thing you got for him is your business. I don't frackin' care, no matter how weird it is to me. But you ain't got a clue what you're talkin' about. Don't YOU get all goddamn high an' mighty tellin' me how to handle people!"
"I know better than you, because I don't go and try to blow people up for not doing my every whim!" Amelia said, her voice barely below yelling, forgetting about the door that wouldn't open. She had been trying to hold all that back, but the pent-up frustration just broke loose after that last straw.
"God damn it, would you get over that already!?" Sienna nearly shouted, continuing to glower down at the astrogator. "How many times are we gonna rehash the same frackin' problem!? We handled it, I thought!" Seething, she clenched her jaw, obiviously trying to force some measure of control on herself. "You know, I'm gettin' right sick of y'all telling me how to run my own goddamn ship," she hissed.
"That's because you are the worst there is at it! You had the best opportunity to learn from someone who has had much more experience in this and you chose to ignore it," she retorted, staring at the other woman. "Because everyone is wrong, and only you are right all the time," she added, not hiding the venom from her words.
"You're goddamn right I am!" Sienna roared, no longer containing the volume of her voice, pointing her finger sharply at the astrogator. Whether she actually believed her words, or if it was only her temper talking, Amelia couldn't tell. Sienna's entire body seemed wound up like a spring, her eyes hot with anger held back by a weakening dam, inches away from bursting free in violence. "I swear to God, you and Crash don't ever give me a frackin' break! He breaks into my cabin, shreds my shit, and you think I'm supposed to just grin and bear it. But heaven help me if I ever get even a little crabby when one of y'all goes and fraks everything up!"
"Oh, sooooorry then, I guess he should have just bent over and apologized after you used the ship to shock him!" Amelia said.
The tendons in Sienna's neck went taut, and just as it seemed that the captain was going to snap and throttle Amelia right where she stood, there was a loud grinding and clanking noise from the doorway, causing her attention to whip instantaneously towards it. The door suddenly flew open, revealing Oreza's hulking form standing there, his mass filling the portal. He was hobbling on one leg, his braced one hovering a few inches from the ground, and he wore a slight grimace from the effort of forcing the door open with his bare hands, but the stern look on his face was unmistakable. "Is there a problem in here?" he said in a deep, resonating, and commanding tone.
"Is there ever not a problem somewhere on this frackin' ship!?" Sienna snapped loudly, turning her ire heedlessly on the first mate, while Amelia just turned around to regard him. Oreza's glare fixated on Sienna as he considered his words carefully, while Sienna simply bristled, like a powder keg whose fuse was rapidly nearing its end. "Have you finished your business with the astrogator, Captain?" he asked evenly.
Sienna's eyes flared again and she went taut again, looking like a bomb about to go off any second. Then, with a clenched jaw, she turned her icy stare towards Amelia. "Yeah," she said with a poisonous sneer, looking down her nose at the dark-haired young woman. "We're done."
Oreza looked at Amelia. "Is there something else you wanted to discuss with the captain?"
"I'm done," the astrogator replied.
"Then let's go," Oreza replied, stepping to the side to allow Amelia to pass. "I will meet you at the ramp." He looked at Sienna once more. "Did you have any business with me, Captain?"
Sienna, still standing there in the middle of the room in barely-contained fury, gruffly shoved her hand in her pocket, withdrawing the credit chit she'd loaded for him, and with a whip of her hand chucked it at his face. The first mate snatched it from the air, steadying himself against the door frame, then gave her a simple nod. "Thank you, ma'am. I'll take my leave now."
Dawn Station Sector Six Spaceport - Landing Pad - Outside the Ship
The din and bustle of the space station met Oreza's ears as he hobbled down the ramp, having lowered it just moments before, leaning on the makeshift cane that Six Four had fashioned for him out of the broken spider drone's leg and one of Sienna's welding torches. A shuttle craft buzzed low overhead, the quiet rumbling of its engines vibrating his stomach. With a brief grimace, he hopped down on his good leg the last step to the pristinely polished metal surface of the landing pad, holding onto the big cylinder at the end of the ramp with one hand as he turned to look at Amelia, the other leaning heavily on the awkwardly shaped crutch. "Are you all right?" he asked calmly.
Amelia looked at the Concordia Veil's first mate, her hands inside the pockets of her pants as she walked down the landing ramp behind him. She wasn't all right, far from it. "You're the one with the broken leg," she said, sounding more aggressive than she had meant to.
A small smile showed beneath Oreza's beard, and the big man didn't show any offense at the misdirected hostility in Amelia's voice. "It's just a bone," he replied. "Those heal easily in a short time. Other things don't heal so quickly." His face softened, likening him almost to something of a concerned father.
A Spider Bot MK. XXVI skittered near by the Concordia's ramp. It paused for a moment, looking around the area, trying to get its bearings. As it scanned the crowd and passageways the bot's manibles slowly worked back and forth, in a depressingly slow and jagged motion.
"Right," Amelia acknowledged, looking back up the ramp in the awkward silence that followed her answer.
Oreza watched her for a moment, thinking. "Amelia," he said gently. "I don't pretend to understand Sienna all the time. I'm not sure any of us do, or ever will." Some distance away, a light transport truck ferried a full bed of scrap material to another berth. One bit of jagged slag fell off of the bed, and a pair of jumpsuited workers pounced from seemingly nowhere to grab it, fighting for a moment over who would be the one to retrieve it.
"What does that have to do with anything?" the astrogator asked, looking back at the large Nepleslian. Again, her tone had the same aggression as before, and she willed herself to calm down harder.
"She's been giving you a hard time ever since you came aboard," Oreza replied. "Many times unfairly, I know. And as trite as it sounds, she does mean well. She simply isn't used to working with people."
"Then she has no business being a captain," Amelia remarked, with some finality as she watched the transport truck drive away. "She thinks she can just force people into compliance," she added.
Oreza closed his mouth, deliberating silently for a few seconds. The look on his face suggested that, perhaps on some level, he agreed with her, but he didn't say it aloud. Reaching into his pocket with unfocused eyes, almost unconsciously, he fished around and pulled out a simple straight pipe and placed it between his teeth. "Perhaps she does, perhaps she doesn't," he mused ambiguously around the pipe, then focused his eyes again on the astrogator. "But what about a slave?"
"What?" the astrogator asked, suddenly turning her gaze to the first mate.
The first mate's shoulders rose and fell slowly. "I knew Sienna as a child. She was still every bit as stubborn and headstrong back then, of course," he remarked quietly, chuckling the kind of chuckle only born of nostalgic fondness, but he held his gaze on Amelia pointedly. "But she was different back then. A sweet girl, very social, very fond of company. And very much desperate for a father's attention that she never got. You wouldn't have recognized her." He leaned back against the cylinder, keeping his weight on his good leg as he shifted the pipe to the other side of his mouth. "I missed all of her young adult life, but I know that she was sold into slavery when she was a teenager." He paused a second to let that sink in. "I don't know what she endured in that time, but I can see the effect it had on her. Do you know what that could do to you at such a tender age?" He held his eyes on her, still with the gentle, paternal tone and air about him, waiting for her to reply.
Amelia swallowed after the Nepleslian finished speaking, still, she wouldn't simply relent after that. "So? When I was fifteen when my parents decided they didn't want to deal with their kids anymore and decided to retire and threw me on some boarding school so I could make my own life. I have a brother who decided to stop caring when I was sixteen and now is god-knows-where," she said, her voice almost wavering, making her pause so that she regained her posture. "Everyone has had it rough. She told me that herself," she added.
"You are absolutely correct," Oreza replied with a nod, cupping his pipe in his left hand as he idly toothed it. "She is not unique in that regard, and I am truly sorry to hear that your parents were as negligent as hers." While his expression retained the same measure of compassion, it also firmed up resolutely. "But while you were left to her own devices, Sienna was robbed of her very freedom. And who knows what other horrors she suffered through; she refuses to speak of them. I believe she acts the way she does because she isn't willing to risk such a thing happening to her again." He crossed his free arm across his barrel chest, tucking the hand beneath his armpit with another sigh as he idly tapped his fingers atop the cane. "Understand that I am not trying to justify her actions. The way she treated you at first was unacceptable. She's still a child in many ways, Amelia, and I cannot blame you for doubting her capability. I've had the same doubts myself. But though I know it has been difficult for her, she has been at least making the effort to improve." He paused a moment. "Do you agree, or no?"
'Her effort is not enough,' she thought, but bit back the urge she had to say it. Amelia took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled before answering the question. "Yes," she admitted.
The way Oreza's left eye narrowed a bit made it seem he doubted the sincerity of her response, but he didn't press. "I heard what she said in the lounge," he said softly. "Do you think the Veil is a ship you still wish to serve on?"
"I don't know," Amelia answered, this time, the sincerity in her tone couldn't be mistaken.
Oreza nodded in understanding. "No one can blame you," he said, gently laying his bearlike free hand on her shoulder. He considered his following words for a few seconds before continuing. "I've seen you in the cockpit," he said. "You seem very much at home there. Space travel is what you know, perhaps even a part of what you are. I know you and I are not intimately familiar with one another, but I've been around long enough to recognize a true spacefarer when I see one." A gentle smile curled his mouth upwards around the pipe. "You have to do what is best for you, of course. Someone with your skill would have no difficulty finding work on another ship, I have no doubt about it. But you and Sienna are more alike than you probably realize," he continued. "If the two of you can learn to work together, there would be little to stop you." He shifted the pipe again, sighing. "There is no need to decide right now, of course. Perhaps now would be the best time to take some time away from her, allow her to cool down, and consider your next move, yes?"
The astrogator stared at the ship's First Mate as he spoke, not saying anything in return. She noticed how he had been one of the few people to commend her on her work ever since she had gotten aboard the ship, and while she felt every need to thank him or saying those things, she couldn't bring herself to do so. There were simply too many things going on in her head at that time. "Yeah, I guess so," the astrogator finally said, smiling faintly at the bear-like Nepleslian.
Oreza gave her shoulder a light squeeze and a reassuring pat. "I won't keep you any longer," he said. "I should get off of my leg anyhow. Perhaps once I've sought some proper treatment and you have had some time to collect yourself, I can buy you dinner and a drink."
"Thanks," Amelia said, suppressing a chuckle and stuffing her hands back in her pockets. "I guess I'll just take a look around the place," she added.
The first mate smiled a bit more broadly. "Enjoy yourself, then," he said. "But be careful, of course."
"Yeah, sure," the astrogator responded before she started to walk towards the exit of the ship's hangar.
Oreza watched her go, his fatherly smile slowly fading into gray malaise. With a heavy sigh, he turned himself around, the cane wobbling a bit beneath him as he started to limp back up the ramp, holding his pipe between his teeth in his free hand. If there ever was a time for a smoke, it was now.
