G
Gunhand4171
The Pumpkin Eater
Aashi had started staying on her own ship and was making herself at home in the galley, wearing nothing but her lacey blue underwear and the black fatigue shirt Ulysses had let him borrow. She sung an impromptu song as she cooked for herself, revelling in the power of solitude. She had asked Ulysses to come by the ship that day, but felt at ease enough with the man to know he wouldn't cause her any discomfort. The ship had no passengers aboard save for herself and her famiiar, who was again in a sink, happily soaking.
She stroked her familiar's spine when she heard a familar voice, saying in her mind to the creature, "Your friend is here."
Werner walked up the ramp of the ship and stopped at the hatch. "Permission to come aboard?" He spoke at threshold, in his formal fassion. He was dressed in his fatigues, jacket, and beret.
"You can always come aboard my ships," Aashi said with a happy tone. "How are you today? Ready for a mission?"
Werner smiled and removed his beret and entered the ship. "I'm fine. There was an emergency on the..." As he rounded the corner and saw Aashi, his face went beat red.
"Oh, an emergency, hmmm?" Aashi said, sliding an egg inside of a piece of toast on a plate and then pulled up another plate and did the same to the second one. "Hungry?"
He nodded. "Uhh... yes please." He said taking the plate with a nod. "Thank you Aashi." He said recomposing himself. "Yes, a crew member was hurt moving equipment. I had to go a open an internal investigation of the incident. Wait..." He said looking over at Aashi again. "Did you say ready for a mission?"
"We're going shopping, this time. Shopping, only," she said with a wink, an unusual behavior coming from her. "Shopping for something to help out your friends. I only assume Cyrusl is your friend and as he was on one of the same missions as you, and is now on the same planet. His friend is in need of some things. Would you say 'friend' when referring to him or am I mistaken?"
Werner shrugged. "I have actually never met the man, but I will escort you on your trip." He said smiling back at her warmly. As he did he heard splashing and looked to the sink. "Hi A." He said softly dipping his hand in the water, setting the plate of food aside. "How my little buddy doing?" He said stroking the manta like body.
The familiar flipped around in the water, brushing against his hand several times before mellowing out. Aashi laughed, she rarely saw the creature with others and it was nice to see it enjoying her own friend's presence.
"Bring that to the bridge, this way," she said after she had made it apparent that she was looking at the food, then to the door. He followed suit without much question and they made their way there. On a chair there was her violet dress and she took off the black shirt to put it on, instead, not looking to see if Ulysses was aware of her near-nudity or not, though he had been turned away at the time. She sat down at the chair to the left and said, "Take the captain's chair, I always pilot this thing, anyway."
Werner grabbed his plate and took a bite. "That is so good Aashi!" He said savoring the taste. He held out a hand for A to follow. He padded through the ship to the bridge and sat in the Captain's chair. "Letting me captain your ship?" He asked finishing his sandwich.
"There's not mcuh to mess up and, besides, I don't doubt your capabilities." She turned systems on and watched as lights appeared on the holotable in front of her and the controld were ready to be manned. As they were taking off, she hit the thust buttons and overrode thrust at maximum to het them out quickly, wasting hydrogen but doing a fair job of getting them off planet. She brought the thrusters down once momentum was gained and turned off inertial dampers, thrusting gently to get them out of atmosphere. When she could, she set coordinates.
When done, Aashi said, "We're at FTL speeds now, going to the Iruotl System."
Werner nodded adopting the captain role. "Helmsman, is autopilot engaged?" He asked in his commanding voice.
"Autopilot is engaged," Aashi said with a more professional tone than the cool casual one she often had.
"Helmsman you are relieved." He said looking down to her and smiling. He looked back down the hall and called. "A! Are you coming or what?"
Aashi stood and saluted, standing. "Would you like to watch the first half of a movie while we get there?"
"Sure. I'd love to." He said standing.
"Professor Yuko and The Secret of The Tomb is pretty good," she replied, getting a few pillows from a cabinet in the hallway and came back through the double doors with a smile on her face. The two sat on the pillows after she had gotten the movie going and during the opening credits, Ulysses' hand found hers. They both sat comfofrtably for a good length of the movie, commenting on the movie and spectating together. Aashi looked to Werner with delight in her eyes as they watched and talked and only when the autpilot was ready to be disengaged did she realize just how much fun she had been having with him.
"I'll go back to the controls," she said when she had paused Professor Yuko and The Secret of The Tomb.
Werner sighed. "I'll go back to the Captain's chair..." He said standing and following behind her. Aashi didn't have to enter atmospher and could simply put inertial dampers on fully, ease the thrusters down, and glide into the organoid substructure built around an asteroid of the separatist Iroma's. She set out landing gear after she had requested clearance for landing on the massive living biosphere.
She got up from the chair and looked to Ulysses, asking, "Ready?"
Werner nodded. "Lead the way." He said standing.They walked down The Pumpkin Eater's hall together and Aashi's familiar was out the hatch as fast it could go once she had opened it.
"Ulysses," Aashi said, "this is one of my people's homes. It is very special to me to be here. I hope you love it as much as I think you will. Now, let's go find the storage selling house."
Werner looked to Aashi. "If it is special to you then I will treat it with the utmost respect." He said straightening his beret. Werner smiled down at her. "Lead the way."
They made their way through the effervescent, vividly growing streets and alleyways until she had made it to the back of one that had only a sign on a door that read, "Parcels." She knocked over and over again, not stopping until the door swung open and a tall-standing, red horned Iromakuanhe man opened it.
"AASHI!" he exclaimed.
"What kind of backwater asteroid are you inhabiting, now?" Aashi asked as they hugged.
"You know it's not that bad here," he said.
"I know, I'm just jealous you get to live where they live," she said, referring to the organoid substrructure of the asteroid.
"Come in, come in!"
They walked into the expansive warehouse and walked past the smell of fresh crates being pakced onto and older ones being received. There were several Iroma at each station, workingin similar ways to one another, all laboring to get the shipments out of and into the building.
"How're the operation going?" Aashi asked the red-horned Iroma.
"Which ones?" he asked slyly, under his breath so that Werner couldn't hear, but the former Nepleslian soldier had hearing better than the Iroma expected.
"All of them," Aashi said with a dubious smile.
"Up here," he said before he could answer. They all walked up a metal staircase that led to a windowed room that oversaw operations of all below it. They were ushered in and before looking at the Iromakuanhe man that owed her so much money in goods and services that she had lost count, she sat down and beckonned Ulysses to sit next to her.
The sailor did as he was told and sat down next to Aashi.
"Ulysses," she said, looking at her friend, the Nepleslian. "This is-" Aashi was saying before being cut off.
"Just Neela, if you won't mind. While I'm happy to meet any friend of Aashi's, i'm in the kind of business where it's best not to give too many personal details." His chair swivled around to reveal a well dressed Iroma wearing the standard suit you think would be more appropriate for a captain of buisness or a lawyer, rather then a man on the other side of the law. "And what a pleasure it is to see the fabled Lord of Smiles waltzing into my office at the moment. To what do I owe this honor, Aashi?"
Aashi fanned a hand out in the air and closed her eyes, a show of faux bashfulnees she knew Neela would know was more of a joke than embarrassment, and said after he was done, "We're in the business of looking around for something we might need. A few of the same thing, actually. We're looking for someone on this sphere that has molecular furnaces, Neela. Any will do, though we'd like them large. The largest grade you have got."
The bald, bespectacled Iroma lifted a single eyebrow after she made the request, hands steepled together. "That's quite a request Aashi. I mean, to be fair they are commercially available to civiliains, though I do understand why you might have quite the difficulty getting this sort of equipment through offical channels. Obviously the largest ones require licensing from the government which creates too much of a paper trail for my taste in these dealing, but I might have a line on someone willing to let go of a large Solan Starworks module at market price. Nice family I loaned a bit of a money too, bit off a little more then they can chew and are starting to sell off assets. I could part with it for....I'd say around 750,000 KD, give or take. And of course, i'm sure you'd have no problem jailbreaking from only producing Solani designs."
"Though I must say Aashi..." He leaned back into his chair, appraising both of his guests. "I do find it a tad odd that someone in your...occupation would be looking for one of these. The last ime you came to me for this kind of industrial hardware was...what was it, over a decade ago? The Third OSC? It does cause me a degree of...let's call it professional curiosity."
"Right now what I think you should be more concerned about is what your ex-partner and son took from me. You remember that, don't you, Neela Hetho, don't you? That was over 2 million in VANDR models and equipment, not to mention three ships that I had loaned them that never got returned to me." She stood, turning her head one way, then another, black and blue hair swiftly moving with her. "Do I see them here? Will I find them if I lift up enough tarps and break open enough boxes?" she asked, looking back at him, both hands on her hips. "I will, you know."
The man couldn't help but let out a sigh at the reaction, leaning back into his chair. "Now now, Aashi, there's no need to be so difficult. I understand that my son has caused youa certain degree of....loss, and though Dipak method of making deals means he is sadly no longer with us, I have no plans on reneging on his debts. While I am afraid that certain events have left yours goods beyond my reach at the moment, perhaps we can work out a trade? Their's no reason to let bad blood ruin such a long, profitable relationship like the one we've had."
"There is no reason at all, that is why I am making you an offer. You lend us, say, ten of the furnaces. Nay, ten," she said as she saw the horror splash across his face. "Find five for me and bring them to my ship and I'll be able to make a trade. What you want isn't easy to ascertain, I'm afraid, and can only guess that what you will be looking for things that you can not procure from these official channels you speak of. You know how connected I am to the speratists and what my ship is known for," Aashi said, expertly glossing over the fact that her ship was lost to her, and continued, "and-" and was then cut off.
"Excuse me..." Ulysses said finally opening his mouth.
"Yes, my friend?" Aashi said, keeping his name out of the conversation.
He looked to Neela. "I will leave my former profession and how I know the connection out of the conversations, but that being said..." He steepled his fingers and leaned back in his chair. "I have contacts throughout the criminal underworld. People who know how to procure things, people who know how to kill people, who know how to steal things..." He said rolling his hand as if to say etc. "I can get you the connections to some of the smugglers and suppliers I know in exchange for what we need, and what ever we need in the future." He said crossing his arms and sitting back in his chair. "It is a win win. Aashi get what she needs and you get new suppliers, smugglers, what have you." He added.
"Does that sound like something you can accomodate?" Aashi asked Neela, face stoic.
"Hmmmm." The older Cuordatl scrutinized the two before him with eyes that looked like they were ready to b. ore into the Nepleslian's skull. "I will admit that my organisation has had a bit of trouble penetrating into foriegn markets, and that there is a great degree of profit in a better relationship with my peers in the other stellar nations. Both in imports AND exports. I'll tell you this." The man stood up and turned around, hands behind his back, looking out his window into the manufactories below. "Attaining five molecular furnaces of the degree of precision and ability to process that Aashi desires on such short notice, doing the neccesarry work to make sure this little bit of buisness isn't traced by authorities like the VIA, getting these sorts of installations onto transports we can trust...it is all a considerable imposition on my time and resources. That being said..."
Neela drew a cigar and a lighter out of his coat pocket, lighting it up. "I do own the lord of smiles a great debt, so if you were able to put me in contact with these people and I can ascertain that it would be as much a net benefit on my end as I believe that something could be arranged."
"Something can," she said, putting extra emphasis on the next word, "always be arranged. Such as timing. We'd like to leave as soon as possible, but if you're going to spend the time getting in contact with your new people, we may be here awhile, won't we? We'll put you in contact with the right people and places and come back to you tomorrow. Do you have something for Ulysses to input the information you desire?"
Neela nodded to Aashi, then to the red-horned Iromakuanhe that was outside of the door, standing at attention and called out, "Bring the Nepleslian one of the encytped IroCom's, the one hooked up to the WildNet. Make it sure doesn't have anything useful on it and that it isn't one of the one's we've let the ISA bug, then bring it to me. Meanwhile, I trust that ou guests will be properly accomdated while I spend the next few days acquiring their goods and making the appropraite deals."
Werner took the device and nodded, immediately getting to work. "Your will have there information soon." He said as he continued to tap away.
"Thank you," Aashi replied, standing. "You've done more for me than I could have ever imagined. I can only give you my sincerest thanks." She pushed her hand forward to shake Neela's and looked to Ulysses with a smile before she was out the door.
"Always a pleasure, Aashi. I'm sure this venture will be as profitable for the both of us as all our past one's have been."
Werner bowed slightly and followed Aashi as he continued to type away.
Aashi had started staying on her own ship and was making herself at home in the galley, wearing nothing but her lacey blue underwear and the black fatigue shirt Ulysses had let him borrow. She sung an impromptu song as she cooked for herself, revelling in the power of solitude. She had asked Ulysses to come by the ship that day, but felt at ease enough with the man to know he wouldn't cause her any discomfort. The ship had no passengers aboard save for herself and her famiiar, who was again in a sink, happily soaking.
She stroked her familiar's spine when she heard a familar voice, saying in her mind to the creature, "Your friend is here."
Werner walked up the ramp of the ship and stopped at the hatch. "Permission to come aboard?" He spoke at threshold, in his formal fassion. He was dressed in his fatigues, jacket, and beret.
"You can always come aboard my ships," Aashi said with a happy tone. "How are you today? Ready for a mission?"
Werner smiled and removed his beret and entered the ship. "I'm fine. There was an emergency on the..." As he rounded the corner and saw Aashi, his face went beat red.
"Oh, an emergency, hmmm?" Aashi said, sliding an egg inside of a piece of toast on a plate and then pulled up another plate and did the same to the second one. "Hungry?"
He nodded. "Uhh... yes please." He said taking the plate with a nod. "Thank you Aashi." He said recomposing himself. "Yes, a crew member was hurt moving equipment. I had to go a open an internal investigation of the incident. Wait..." He said looking over at Aashi again. "Did you say ready for a mission?"
"We're going shopping, this time. Shopping, only," she said with a wink, an unusual behavior coming from her. "Shopping for something to help out your friends. I only assume Cyrusl is your friend and as he was on one of the same missions as you, and is now on the same planet. His friend is in need of some things. Would you say 'friend' when referring to him or am I mistaken?"
Werner shrugged. "I have actually never met the man, but I will escort you on your trip." He said smiling back at her warmly. As he did he heard splashing and looked to the sink. "Hi A." He said softly dipping his hand in the water, setting the plate of food aside. "How my little buddy doing?" He said stroking the manta like body.
The familiar flipped around in the water, brushing against his hand several times before mellowing out. Aashi laughed, she rarely saw the creature with others and it was nice to see it enjoying her own friend's presence.
"Bring that to the bridge, this way," she said after she had made it apparent that she was looking at the food, then to the door. He followed suit without much question and they made their way there. On a chair there was her violet dress and she took off the black shirt to put it on, instead, not looking to see if Ulysses was aware of her near-nudity or not, though he had been turned away at the time. She sat down at the chair to the left and said, "Take the captain's chair, I always pilot this thing, anyway."
Werner grabbed his plate and took a bite. "That is so good Aashi!" He said savoring the taste. He held out a hand for A to follow. He padded through the ship to the bridge and sat in the Captain's chair. "Letting me captain your ship?" He asked finishing his sandwich.
"There's not mcuh to mess up and, besides, I don't doubt your capabilities." She turned systems on and watched as lights appeared on the holotable in front of her and the controld were ready to be manned. As they were taking off, she hit the thust buttons and overrode thrust at maximum to het them out quickly, wasting hydrogen but doing a fair job of getting them off planet. She brought the thrusters down once momentum was gained and turned off inertial dampers, thrusting gently to get them out of atmosphere. When she could, she set coordinates.
When done, Aashi said, "We're at FTL speeds now, going to the Iruotl System."
Werner nodded adopting the captain role. "Helmsman, is autopilot engaged?" He asked in his commanding voice.
"Autopilot is engaged," Aashi said with a more professional tone than the cool casual one she often had.
"Helmsman you are relieved." He said looking down to her and smiling. He looked back down the hall and called. "A! Are you coming or what?"
Aashi stood and saluted, standing. "Would you like to watch the first half of a movie while we get there?"
"Sure. I'd love to." He said standing.
"Professor Yuko and The Secret of The Tomb is pretty good," she replied, getting a few pillows from a cabinet in the hallway and came back through the double doors with a smile on her face. The two sat on the pillows after she had gotten the movie going and during the opening credits, Ulysses' hand found hers. They both sat comfofrtably for a good length of the movie, commenting on the movie and spectating together. Aashi looked to Werner with delight in her eyes as they watched and talked and only when the autpilot was ready to be disengaged did she realize just how much fun she had been having with him.
"I'll go back to the controls," she said when she had paused Professor Yuko and The Secret of The Tomb.
Werner sighed. "I'll go back to the Captain's chair..." He said standing and following behind her. Aashi didn't have to enter atmospher and could simply put inertial dampers on fully, ease the thrusters down, and glide into the organoid substructure built around an asteroid of the separatist Iroma's. She set out landing gear after she had requested clearance for landing on the massive living biosphere.
She got up from the chair and looked to Ulysses, asking, "Ready?"
Werner nodded. "Lead the way." He said standing.They walked down The Pumpkin Eater's hall together and Aashi's familiar was out the hatch as fast it could go once she had opened it.
"Ulysses," Aashi said, "this is one of my people's homes. It is very special to me to be here. I hope you love it as much as I think you will. Now, let's go find the storage selling house."
Werner looked to Aashi. "If it is special to you then I will treat it with the utmost respect." He said straightening his beret. Werner smiled down at her. "Lead the way."
They made their way through the effervescent, vividly growing streets and alleyways until she had made it to the back of one that had only a sign on a door that read, "Parcels." She knocked over and over again, not stopping until the door swung open and a tall-standing, red horned Iromakuanhe man opened it.
"AASHI!" he exclaimed.
"What kind of backwater asteroid are you inhabiting, now?" Aashi asked as they hugged.
"You know it's not that bad here," he said.
"I know, I'm just jealous you get to live where they live," she said, referring to the organoid substrructure of the asteroid.
"Come in, come in!"
They walked into the expansive warehouse and walked past the smell of fresh crates being pakced onto and older ones being received. There were several Iroma at each station, workingin similar ways to one another, all laboring to get the shipments out of and into the building.
"How're the operation going?" Aashi asked the red-horned Iroma.
"Which ones?" he asked slyly, under his breath so that Werner couldn't hear, but the former Nepleslian soldier had hearing better than the Iroma expected.
"All of them," Aashi said with a dubious smile.
"Up here," he said before he could answer. They all walked up a metal staircase that led to a windowed room that oversaw operations of all below it. They were ushered in and before looking at the Iromakuanhe man that owed her so much money in goods and services that she had lost count, she sat down and beckonned Ulysses to sit next to her.
The sailor did as he was told and sat down next to Aashi.
"Ulysses," she said, looking at her friend, the Nepleslian. "This is-" Aashi was saying before being cut off.
"Just Neela, if you won't mind. While I'm happy to meet any friend of Aashi's, i'm in the kind of business where it's best not to give too many personal details." His chair swivled around to reveal a well dressed Iroma wearing the standard suit you think would be more appropriate for a captain of buisness or a lawyer, rather then a man on the other side of the law. "And what a pleasure it is to see the fabled Lord of Smiles waltzing into my office at the moment. To what do I owe this honor, Aashi?"
Aashi fanned a hand out in the air and closed her eyes, a show of faux bashfulnees she knew Neela would know was more of a joke than embarrassment, and said after he was done, "We're in the business of looking around for something we might need. A few of the same thing, actually. We're looking for someone on this sphere that has molecular furnaces, Neela. Any will do, though we'd like them large. The largest grade you have got."
The bald, bespectacled Iroma lifted a single eyebrow after she made the request, hands steepled together. "That's quite a request Aashi. I mean, to be fair they are commercially available to civiliains, though I do understand why you might have quite the difficulty getting this sort of equipment through offical channels. Obviously the largest ones require licensing from the government which creates too much of a paper trail for my taste in these dealing, but I might have a line on someone willing to let go of a large Solan Starworks module at market price. Nice family I loaned a bit of a money too, bit off a little more then they can chew and are starting to sell off assets. I could part with it for....I'd say around 750,000 KD, give or take. And of course, i'm sure you'd have no problem jailbreaking from only producing Solani designs."
"Though I must say Aashi..." He leaned back into his chair, appraising both of his guests. "I do find it a tad odd that someone in your...occupation would be looking for one of these. The last ime you came to me for this kind of industrial hardware was...what was it, over a decade ago? The Third OSC? It does cause me a degree of...let's call it professional curiosity."
"Right now what I think you should be more concerned about is what your ex-partner and son took from me. You remember that, don't you, Neela Hetho, don't you? That was over 2 million in VANDR models and equipment, not to mention three ships that I had loaned them that never got returned to me." She stood, turning her head one way, then another, black and blue hair swiftly moving with her. "Do I see them here? Will I find them if I lift up enough tarps and break open enough boxes?" she asked, looking back at him, both hands on her hips. "I will, you know."
The man couldn't help but let out a sigh at the reaction, leaning back into his chair. "Now now, Aashi, there's no need to be so difficult. I understand that my son has caused youa certain degree of....loss, and though Dipak method of making deals means he is sadly no longer with us, I have no plans on reneging on his debts. While I am afraid that certain events have left yours goods beyond my reach at the moment, perhaps we can work out a trade? Their's no reason to let bad blood ruin such a long, profitable relationship like the one we've had."
"There is no reason at all, that is why I am making you an offer. You lend us, say, ten of the furnaces. Nay, ten," she said as she saw the horror splash across his face. "Find five for me and bring them to my ship and I'll be able to make a trade. What you want isn't easy to ascertain, I'm afraid, and can only guess that what you will be looking for things that you can not procure from these official channels you speak of. You know how connected I am to the speratists and what my ship is known for," Aashi said, expertly glossing over the fact that her ship was lost to her, and continued, "and-" and was then cut off.
"Excuse me..." Ulysses said finally opening his mouth.
"Yes, my friend?" Aashi said, keeping his name out of the conversation.
He looked to Neela. "I will leave my former profession and how I know the connection out of the conversations, but that being said..." He steepled his fingers and leaned back in his chair. "I have contacts throughout the criminal underworld. People who know how to procure things, people who know how to kill people, who know how to steal things..." He said rolling his hand as if to say etc. "I can get you the connections to some of the smugglers and suppliers I know in exchange for what we need, and what ever we need in the future." He said crossing his arms and sitting back in his chair. "It is a win win. Aashi get what she needs and you get new suppliers, smugglers, what have you." He added.
"Does that sound like something you can accomodate?" Aashi asked Neela, face stoic.
"Hmmmm." The older Cuordatl scrutinized the two before him with eyes that looked like they were ready to b. ore into the Nepleslian's skull. "I will admit that my organisation has had a bit of trouble penetrating into foriegn markets, and that there is a great degree of profit in a better relationship with my peers in the other stellar nations. Both in imports AND exports. I'll tell you this." The man stood up and turned around, hands behind his back, looking out his window into the manufactories below. "Attaining five molecular furnaces of the degree of precision and ability to process that Aashi desires on such short notice, doing the neccesarry work to make sure this little bit of buisness isn't traced by authorities like the VIA, getting these sorts of installations onto transports we can trust...it is all a considerable imposition on my time and resources. That being said..."
Neela drew a cigar and a lighter out of his coat pocket, lighting it up. "I do own the lord of smiles a great debt, so if you were able to put me in contact with these people and I can ascertain that it would be as much a net benefit on my end as I believe that something could be arranged."
"Something can," she said, putting extra emphasis on the next word, "always be arranged. Such as timing. We'd like to leave as soon as possible, but if you're going to spend the time getting in contact with your new people, we may be here awhile, won't we? We'll put you in contact with the right people and places and come back to you tomorrow. Do you have something for Ulysses to input the information you desire?"
Neela nodded to Aashi, then to the red-horned Iromakuanhe that was outside of the door, standing at attention and called out, "Bring the Nepleslian one of the encytped IroCom's, the one hooked up to the WildNet. Make it sure doesn't have anything useful on it and that it isn't one of the one's we've let the ISA bug, then bring it to me. Meanwhile, I trust that ou guests will be properly accomdated while I spend the next few days acquiring their goods and making the appropraite deals."
Werner took the device and nodded, immediately getting to work. "Your will have there information soon." He said as he continued to tap away.
"Thank you," Aashi replied, standing. "You've done more for me than I could have ever imagined. I can only give you my sincerest thanks." She pushed her hand forward to shake Neela's and looked to Ulysses with a smile before she was out the door.
"Always a pleasure, Aashi. I'm sure this venture will be as profitable for the both of us as all our past one's have been."
Werner bowed slightly and followed Aashi as he continued to type away.