RP: The Fringe [Chapter 1.0] - New Hires

Black Moon- Vel's Pad

Six Four didn't react to Oreza initially, the freespacer stood silent starring at the data pad flicking though the various pages. After about a minute or so however the Doctor put the datapad back down onto the table before very rapidly turning around to face the big nepleslian.

"Understood, This one will follow. Interjection: Depending on where we are going this one may need to procure some..." The freespacer paused for a moment, removing the reptile from its shoulder and placing it back into its pocket, before scratching the edge of its helmet in a thinking fashion. "... Some supplies. That is if you will let Six Four do so, the terms of this employment were under a verbal contract. No specifics given."

"Two hours." Vel repeated as he imput the code into his neral communicator extend implant then tested it to make everything was working properly then went back to finish his packing which took him about forty five minutes. He hefted his bag onto his back carrying it out to the tunnel and started to ask those that looked like they had been on the moon for a while, about if there was a close place that sold engineering equipment.

Black Moon - Outside Vel's Abode

Oreza nodded at Six Four as they left, taking a moment to examine the reptilian creature on the Freespacer's shoulder as it was placed back in its pocket curiously. "Fine," he agreed. "Get what you need and meet us at the landing shaft as soon as you're done."

Concordia Veil - Main Corridor

The hatch to the engineering section closed with a bang behind Sienna, and she stretched her arms and cracked her neck with a sigh. The hijackers' tampering with the engines had been minimal and crude at best, and it was easy enough for her to reverse what they had done. It was more than obvious that they didn't know what they were doing, or they would have rather quickly recognized the part she had pilfered from it to prevent the engines from powering up. The thing that confused her, however, was what had caused the ship's lighting to shut down. It had been easy enough to restore, so she hadn't had to work in complete darkness, but it still bothered her.

She patted the new stun baton she'd recovered from near Datsan's dead body, now hanging off of her belt. At least there was something good that came of this little mishap. Her PHC chimed almost on cue, and she checked it to see a message from Oreza, telling her he had returned and was waiting outside. Stepping over Datsan's body without a second thought, she headed for the airlock.


Concordia Veil - Central Airlock Chamber

Sienna cycled the airlock and began to shed her Dusk Suit as she waited for the hatch to open and allow her first mate inside. She was pulling her legs out of it when Oreza's feet clomped to the floor. "Well?" she asked him. "What's his story?"

Oreza stepped away from the ladder, dusting his massive gloved hands off as he let go of it and turned to face her. He reached up and twisted his own helmet off, wiping his forehead and running the hand down over his nose, mouth, and tugging his beard. "I don't trust him," he replied gruffly. "He's too haughty. Doesn't even seem to think he didn't anything wrong back at the bar, even though he's the entire reason everything went to hell. And this offer of his?" he continued, walking over to the locker next to her and hung up his helmet before beginning to remove his own suit. "It doesn't add up. I can't believe he'd be the only one that knows about this ship, if it even exists."

Sienna sighed again as she pulled her last foot free of the suit and hung it up, once again left in her earthtone tank top, cargo pants, and boots. She interlaced her fingers and rested them atop her head. "I know," she agreed, closing her eyes in thought. "Part of me kinda wishes that ID-SOL woulda snapped his neck when he had the chance. But he's the only job we got right now."

"There will be other jobs," Oreza replied calmly, rolling his broad shoulders out of the spacesuit one at a time. "We can sit tight for a while, see what else comes along. Anything would be better than what he's offering."

"No, we can't afford to do that," Sienna argued. "I got some money still left over, but it won't last forever. We already flew empty out to this hellhole to find a crew, and the roster's filling up already. They ain't gonna work for free, and this ship won't be cheap to operate either, even if it's just sittin' here." She ran her fingers through her hair and looked up at her companion. "Besides, what if he's right? Even if it's just a little prospecting skiff, if it's abandoned like he says it is, that's a gold mine in almost every sense of the word. We get even a decent haul of salvage out of it, then we can afford to be pickier."

"And if he's lying?" the big bearded bear replied. "Or mistaken? At best, we waste our time and our fuel, and at worst, he leads us right into a trap."

A sly smirk tugged at one side of the captain's lips. "Yeah, I actually have some thoughts on that," she replied, and beckoned him to follow her with one finger. Turning around, she twisted the airlock lever again, closing the dorsal hatch to cycle it once more. Their ears popped slightly as the pressure adjusted, and the inner hatch groaned open, revealing the mostly empty corridor, its lights flickering slightly. Ahead towards the cockpit, Paul was visible where he lay face-down, hands tied around the base of the row of seats along the bulkhead, his pants still pulled around his ankles.

Oreza hung his suit up and turned to see, a frown creasing his grizzled face. "What-- who is that?" he asked bluntly.

Sienna shrugged. "Dunno," she said, "but he was posing as some kind of port inspector to get Amelia to let him in."

"Where is Amelia now?" Oreza replied, the concern more than apparent on his face.

"She's a bit banged up, but she's okay," Sienna reassured him, and nodded in the direction of the living area. "I got her into her quarters to rest."

"Did she do that to him?" Oreza continued.

Sienna's grin widened a little, and her eyes widened briefly. "Seems so," she said, almost sounding a little proud. "And that ain't even the best part. He had a buddy with him too." Beckoning him once more, she stepped out of the airlock and headed around the corner, circling the corridor a few steps portward before pointing aft.

Oreza followed her, looking where she was pointing, and saw Datsan's mangled corpse lying in a twisted heap. He grunted and frowned, before looking at Sienna as if for confirmation that he wasn't seeing things. When she nodded in response, still smirking, he grunted again and looked back at the cadaver. "Whoa," he answered. "Is the other one...?"

"No, he's alive," Sienna replied, shaking her head.

Oreza's shoulders fell a little, as if strangely a little relieved. "Seems our astrogator was up to the task," he said simply.

"And how," Sienna said, nodding. "Maybe she ain't such a screw up after all."

Oreza gave her a disapproving look before continuing. "So what does this have to do with the Iromakuanhe?"

"Only part of it," Sienna replied. "Is that Freespacer on the way here too?"

The big man nodded. "He had some supplies to gather first, then he should be contacting me when he gets to the spaceport. As should our impetuous job prospect."

"Oh, you got him pointed our way, too, then," Sienna said.

"Yes, but I still don't advise this, Sienna," Oreza replied, his voice taking on the character of a concerned parent. "I think you're making a mistake."

Sienna's smirk faded. "And I'm done talking about this, Oreza," she replied stoically. "I don't trust him either. But we need to get on our feet here, or none of us are gonna have food on the table."

Oreza worked his jaw a bit, scratching at his beard to divert some of his minor frustration at the young woman. With a resigned sigh, he folded his arms and held his gaze on his "niece." "Sienna," he said calmly, "this is your ship, and you're our captain. But there's more to leadership than expecting everyone to follow your orders."

"Noted," Sienna said dismissively, turning to walk towards where Paul lay. "But we ain't got time for military school right now. Come help me get these two into the port cargo bay."

"Are you going to space them?" Oreza asked.

Although her back was turned to him by that point, Sienna's cold smirk returned. "Eventually."

Spaceport

It didn't take long for Six Four to go back to its current residence, it essentially lived in the clinic and its now former residence was just across the street. With that being said not all the things the freespacer had, including the operating table it used as a cart, belonged to it. Maneuvering the table around a corner it pushed the makeshift cart laden with several large books, an aquarium, several packages of medical supplies labeled 'Property of Black Moon Clinic', Six Four made the final push into the shaft that Oreza had told it to.

Concordia Veil - Port Cargo Bay

The captain and first mate had dragged Paul into the cargo bay, without his pants, and tied his wrists above his head, securing them to one of the metal rungs welded to the forward bulkhead, near the loading door. His arms were stretched above him just enough to prevent him from being able to bend his elbows, and the rung was too high to allow him to sit down, and too low to stand up fully. As such, he was left there hanging in a semi-squatting position; it would be more than a little uncomfortable when he finally woke up from his unconcsious stupor. Oreza was checking the durability of the makeshift bindings they had fashioned out of cabling and metal wire when his communicator beeped. Checking it, he saw the message from the Freespacer. "Medic's here," he told Sienna without looking up.

Sienna was standing on the other side of their captive, her hands on her hips, nodding to herself in satisfaction at their handiwork. Her eyes went to Oreza when he spoke. "Where, here?" she asked.

"At the spaceport hub near this shaft," he answered her.

She nibbled on her lip for a moment. "I thought you said he had to get some supplies first?" she asked. They hadn't yet had the chance to move the dead body inside.

Oreza shrugged. "I think it's a she," he replied, pocketing his communicator. "Or something. And that's what she said; must not have been very many."

"All right," said Sienna with a shrug of her own. "I'll go meet up with him... her... whatever. You mind checking on Amelia?"

"Sure," Oreza said with a nod, tugging on Paul's bindings one more time before rubbing his hands together and looking at her. "What about the other guy?"

"Go ahead and drag him in here too," the young captain answered, and started for the door to the corridor. She didn't make it more than a few steps before she stopped abruptly and held up a hand. "No, wait," she suddenly said, and paused for a moment in thought. Narrowing one eye, she turned her face towards Oreza, hesitating another second or two before continuing. "On second thought... leave him there. We can have our new ship doctor handle the cleanup afterwards."

"After what?" Oreza questioned.

Sienna turned on her heels and picked up her march to the center of the ship again. "After Mister Hero shows up," she replied, not looking back at him.


Black Moon - Spaceport

Sienna emerged from the crowd where Six Four was waiting with its cartload of medical supplies, once again fully clad in her Dusk Suit, her helmet tucked under her arm. Eyeing the supplies piled up on what appeared to be some sort of gurney, she raised an eyebrow when she noticed the "Property of Black Moon Clinic" stamp on several of the packages.

"Someone gonna miss those?" she inquired, pointing at the marked packages.

Spaceport

"One should not have emotional attachment to inanimate objects..." Six Four said from its position on top of the cart, its attention focused on a data slate that had the title 'The Trader of Kennewes' on it. "However Six Four did do a deal of service for the previous owners and therefore said products should be equal compensation. This one doesnot plan on selling them for personal gain either, primary function of said products will not be violated."

Flipping up another page on the dataslate, Six Four turned it off before setting it down and slid off the operating table. "Matter of Factly: This one does not mean to be pushy but there will be plenty of time for idle banter once this is on your space fairing vessel. Six Four will be more than happy to answer any and all questions once this one is set up in its new residence."

Black Moon - Spaceport

Sienna's eyebrow stayed raised throughout Six Four's explanation; she had little experience with Freespacers, but she felt like she was getting a crash course in their culture's very alien concept of ownership and collective being. What was stranger to her was that what it said made an odd kind of sense, even if at face value it did sound like quick-witted justification for its theft. Either way, she had to respect the cyborg's reasoning.

"All right, whatever," she said dismissively. "Long as you don't bring anyone down on us trying to get this stuff back."

She couldn't help but grin slightly at Six Four's eagerness to get aboard, either. Straight to business, no bullshit, she thought. Maybe she'd judged the thing too harshly at first. "This way, then," she said, and turned to push through the crowds towards the airlocks, without offering to help with the supplies. The Freespacer seemed to have it well in hand anyhow. "So, Six Four is what you're called, then?" she asked, not actually showing any real interest in the Freespacer as an individual so much as seeking to facilitate communication. "Just call me Captain for now."


Concordia Veil - Loading Ramp

There was a jolt as the inclined platform on which Sienna and Six Four stood lurched upwards, slowly raising them into the underside of the ship. They had gone around to the exterior lock and appraoched the ship from the outside, since bringing the cartload of medical supplies aboard would have been impractical through the dorsal hatch. Sienna idly checked the HUD projected on the faceplate of her helmet as they waited for the ramp to seal and the airlock to cycle; even though she knew she hadn't spent very much time in the suit while it was self-contained and powered, she was still impressed that nearly every readout on the display read 100%. She hadn't even so much as made a readable dent in the suit's life support capacity. Even though it wasn't something terribly impressive yet, it was still somewhat reassuring to her that the good money she'd paid for them hadn't gone to waste.

A dull hiss could be heard inside the long chamber as the airlock's inner door cycled, opening to reveal Oreza's waiting bulk inside. Datsan's bloodied carcass was still lying on the floor against the wall just a few feet behind him. Sienna released her helmet and twisted it off, holding it by the rim as she turned to look at Six Four again. "Put your stuff up there just outside the cockpit for now," she said, waving towards the open area around the corner to their left, toward the bow of the ship. "Oreza here is my first mate, y'all've already met. He'll take you to our astrogator in her cabin. She's laid up with a nasty knock to the head, on account of a couple of these guys," she continued, motioning idly towards the torn-up cadaver on the floor. "I'll need you to help drag him to the cargo bay, after my astrogator is taken care of."

Spaceport Shaft-Eta T-minus 15 minutes

Vel sighed, now a good six hundred credits lighter but with a green FMS-2 plasma torch with targeting module instead of a engineer arm that he found which was rather uncomfortable fit over his ports on his arm. He called Oreza "I am in Shaft Eta which ship is yours?." He kept his tone even as he spoke mostly to try to keep the frustration from the nearly hour long argument he had with the man that sold him the plasma torch about pricing and now not even knowing what ship he is supposed to go to.

Concordia Veil - Loading Ramp

After gingerly navigating the operating cart around the body of Datsan, leaving it where the capitan had indicated. Taking a few seconds the Freespacer tried to position it to where it wasn't blocking most of the corridor but with such a large device it was near impossible not to do so. With a frustrated digitzed grunt Six Four gave up and turned to Oreza,

"This one would like to see the knocked up one who took a dirty lay to the head."

Juding from his look the doctor realized what it had just said.

"Frantic: Correction, the laid up one who took a dirty knock to the head."

Cabin 3

The door to Amelia's cabin hissed open, Oreza's hand showing the Six Four the way inside. With a polite curt nod, it entered quickly glancing around for a chair or something else to sit on for the visit. Finally locating one it dragged it accross the floor causing a loud griding noise as it scrached across the ships floors.

"Friendly: Greetings. You must be Astrogator Amelia, this one is called Six Four. This one is a doctor and will be seeing to your well being. Query: Preliminary question, how are you feeling?"

If the grating sound hadn't been enough to rouse Amelia from he sleep, the unfamiliar voice certainly had. The astrogator groaned at the noise at first, but then slowly opened her eyes, finally jolting awake and staring wide eyed at the unkown arrival.

"What?" She managed to stammer, each syllable interrupted by the periodic yellow-blinking light coming from the disabled spiderbot, which was still in one of the corners of the bed.

"Note, paitent appears to concious and at least partaily aware of, juding from apperance, her surroundings," Six Four began as it started to take off its medical gloves and set them down on the edge of the bed. "Six Four sees that you are awake, were you enjoying yourself in the so called la la land?"

"What!?" Amelia repeated her question again as her eyes slowly adjusted to the penumbra that was the cabin at that time. When she could see the other occupant sitting on the chair more clearly did she actually think to articulate her -then- very limited vocabulary, "Who are you?" she asked.

"Paitent shows signs of potential concussion noted by fogginess in brain." Six Four said before reaching down into a medical bag at its side to pull out a thermometer. "As previously stated, this one is called Six Four, it is a Doctor.Surgeon to be precise." As it spoke the Freespacer reached out with its hand to open Amelia's mouth. "Say 'ahhh,' please."

"You don't look like a doctor," Amelia said as she slowly sat up on the side of the bunk bed, "Did the captain hire you?" she asked the Freespacer after a while, examining the doctor closely and clearly not as distressed as when she had woken up.

"Yes, the captain of this vessel hired me," Six Four said as she squeesed the sides of Amelia's jaw with its hand before placing the thermometer in her mouth. "Please keep that under your tongue for an accurate reading, This one would like to not have to do it the other way." Reaching down once again into its medical bag, Six Four pulled out a data slate. "Aside from, what this one can only speculate to be the pain in your head, are you feeling any other pains or discomfort? Or anything else out of the ordinary?"

The astrogator grunted."Othor woy?" she asked, trying to make the words sound normal even with the thermometer under her tongue. She quickly shrugged the thought aside, realizing what the doctor meant. "My hod horts," the woman said after some pondering.

"Six Four understands, juding from the...." The Freespacer paused for a second thinking of the right word."...remains...in the hallway this could see that they did a number on you. Hold still please." At its request a blue beam simaler to the one it had used earlier on Sienna appeard out of the side of the Doctors helmet, slowly scanning its way down Amelia's head. As the skeletal imagestarted to display itself inside Six Four's HUD, the doctor spoke up again. "Curious: What can you tell this one about the event's leading up to your injury?"

"They tried to steal the ship," Amelia said much more clearly, having moved the thermometer to the side, pressing it against the inside of her cheek instead of under her tongue."So, I... Uh..." she continued, looking down at the floor, but not bothering to finish that train of thought.

"'Uh' does not result in bodies normally, unless they are associated as a kill phrase in a robot," Six Four said joting a few thigns down onto the data pad. "Apologetic: Sorry, this one gets the sarcasm and smart ass remarks from its sister. She is an ass."

Amelia snorted at that, suppressing a laugh, even though her head was pouding, and even though the dilemma of whether killing the last hijacker was called for or not still gnawed at her. "Can I take this out now?" she asked, pointing at the thermometer still in her mouth.

Six Four reached over and pulled the thermometer out of the girls mouth, taking a moment to look at it before shaking it out. "A litte high but no sign of fever or increased body tempereture,good sign." Putting the thermometer back in the bag Six Four jotted some more notes down in the data pad before lifting its visored head to look back at its paitent. "Do you rember anything about the incident?"

"Yes," the astrogator answered, but just left it at that. "Can't you give me something for this headache? I need to be up to do something," she added quickly.

"This one will as soon as we make sure you do not have anything else wrong with you." Six Four said looking at the scan. "From Six Fours scans you do not have any physical signs of a concussion, though there are a few more things this one needs to figure out before a proper digonoisis can be concluded."

"What things?" Amelia asked, hesitantly. That last bit didn't sound good in the least to her.

"Reassuring: this one assures you that it's nothing bad. One of the key indicators of a concussion is memory loss, this one is just making sure." Six Four took a moment to look at the blinking light on the robot at the foot of Amelia's bed. "Curious: Project of yours?"

The astrogator looked at the bot, then back at the Freespacer. "Yes," she lied, not bothering to add anything else.

Six Four reached over and picked up the robot in question, examing it as one would look at a box in the mail. "This One is curious, what does the light mean?"

"Please don't touch him," Amelia said, her voice tone firm as she got up from the bed. She still felt a little wozzy, but it was getting considerably better than before.

Six Four looked at Amelia like a deer stuck in headlights. "This one understands... have you grown emotionally attached to this robot? It is perfectly natural if you have. Socially acceptable."

Amelia looked away and scratched her head, while internally she was cursing at herself for the slip. "I meant to say put it down." she said."Don't get the wrong idea."

"This one will try not to. From what this one understands space can get rather lonely and certain.....needs.. must be met," Six Four said setting the robot down. "From what this one has, you do not have a concussion. This one did not run a physical so I cannot tell about any brusing but it should clear up in a day or so." Reaching down into its bag Six Four pulled out a small bottle of pills. "Please follow the instuctions and see Six Four if anything else comes up."

"Okay that's totally not what I meant!" Amelia exclaimed at the doctor's first remark. She hastily snatched the pill bottle from the freespacer's hand regardless, though, and sat backdown on the side of the bunk bed.

"This one apologizes if it has offended you," Six Four said, getting up, "This one, however, is a Freespacer and can help you with several techological problems in robotics. If you need help feel free to ask this one."

"Alright, but this is, like you said, a personal project," Amelia replied. She felt like she owed it to Crash, and didn't want to drag the doctor in her own problems; the medicine was already enough help.

"This one has noted your request," the doctor said, sliding the chair back, scratching the floor again. "Though Six Four will say that, like the lack of fever the blinking light is a good sign. It is not dead yet."

The astrogator nodded. She had already figured out as much, but hadn't had the chance to look into it further. Uncorking the pill bottle and retrieving a single one from inside, Amelia quickly put it in her mouth and swallowed, tilting her head back as she did so. She then scratched her head, further messing her hair as she looked around the room in a awkward silence.

Six Four rocked back and fourth on its heels, matching the awkward silence. "Do yourequire any more assistance?" The freespacer finally said.

"Don't think so. Thanks for the, uh, check-up, doc," Amelia said. The Freespacer wasn't uptight like the captain had been whenever she was close to the other woman, so that was good to her in her book.

"This one shall take it's leave then," Six Four said, activating the door switch. "If any problems arise feel free to request this ones services. This one should be avaliable somewhere on this ship."

"Okay. Thanks again," Amelia said, turning her gaze back to somewhere else in the cabin as she idly twiddled her thumbs.

Concordia Veil - Cargo Hold

After delivering the doc to Amelia's cabin Oreza returned to the cargo hold, checking on the prisoner once more. Thst was when he got the message from Vel. He grumbled as he input his response,

"I will be awaiting you on the platform" he sent aling with the dock number.

"He's here" Oreza said to Sienna as he returned to the airlock, pulling his space suit back on once more before exiting and waiting for Vel outside, arms crossed.

Black Moon Shaft-Eta

He made his way down towards the dock number he was sent while he kept watch for the large man or any other Iroma in the area. 'The past never fades' Vel thought to himself.

Concordia Veil

After closing the door to Amelia's room, Six Four made its way back to its stuff it had brought aboard. Looking around for the Captain Six Four wondered if Sienna wanted it to set up shop in the hallway, something the Freespacer found to be a ridiculous idea.

"Questioning: Captain?" Six Four said after walking around the Concordia for a minute in search of Sienna. "Should this one move the medical supplies to a different location? Or should the ships medical station be situated in the middle of a main travel location?"

Concordia Veil - Main Corridor

Six Four ran into Sienna as she was walking towards the bow of the ship, near the carcass from the other "inspector," just across the hall from the ship's lavatory. Sienna's head turned to the Freespacer when it addressed her, raising her eyebrows to wordlessly communicate that it had her attention. After is asked its question, she slid her jaw to the side slightly in thought, tilting her head slightly; by the looks of it, she hadn't thought of that.

"Hm," she mused, gnawing on her tongue for a moment, and her eyes drifted to the side and unfocused as she mentally probed through the list of possible locations on the ship where a sort of makeshift medbay could be set up, occasionally shaking her head slightly as she rejected each idea. Suddenly her gaze refocused on Six Four, although the rest of her expression didn't show much of a change. "The ship's escape pod bay is empty," she said nonchalantly,"and it's probably big enough for a small little workspace for ya. Outer door's welded shut, so there ain't any reason to worry about that. Let me finish with this, and get some tools, then I'll come open it up for you." Her eyebrows raised a tiny bit once more, and she nodded thrice, evidently not asking Six Four whether it was acceptable to it or not, but to make it clear that was her decision.

Black Moon - Spaceport, Eta Shaft

Oreza watched the Iromakuanhe approach him, arms still folded firmly across his chest, and his brow levelled in what appeared to be something of a disapproving scowl. Through the bustling crowds of people shoving past one another, he looked like a thick, cemented pillar in the middle of a busy aquatic canal. Though some of the buzzing banter being exchanged between the wide variety of people milling through the spaceport, some of them could be heard propagating half-informed stories of the recent firefight in a nearby bar. Apparently news of the incident in Ye Olde Den had travelled fast, and the accounts had already swelled to outlandish proportions. Among the rumors Vel could overhear, he heard that it had been caused by a cell of Freespacer insurgents still bitterly clinging to recent memories of oppression, a drunken, rampaging Gartagen killing everything in front of him, a card game gone wrong, and a bomb planted in the vent ducts.

He looked the horned man over from head to toe, moving nothing but his eyes. "Do you have everything you need?" he asked him.

Vel couldn't help but shake his head at the absurdity of some of the rumors, though he was thankful they drew attention away from himself. He still felt that he hadn't done anything that strayed from his training in dealing with hostile civilian situations. He took his time to answer the tree like man. "Yes all of my belongings and tools are with me. If you do not mind I would prefer continuing the interview... Interrogation... whatever you wish to call it on board the ship." His anxiousness of the crowd only showed in his desire to get on the ship quickly. He drew his pistol, baton sized retractable plasma staff, and laiz sword handing them to Oreza as he remembered the captains desires for him to hand over his weapons, though the large man seemed to have forgotten that particular order.

Oreza took the weapons handed to him quickly without a word, watching the Iromakuanhe like he expected him to pull some kind of sneak attack at any moment; in fact, he almost looked like he was daring him to. Stepping to the side, the big Nepleslian man motioned for Vel to walk ahead of him, pointing towards one of a row of narrow openings along the wall on their level. Above and below them, through the rusting, grated floors, one could see almost endless tiers of similar levels extending in either direction.

Oreza stayed just outside of arm's reach, but always a few steps right behind Vel, herding him silently towards the doorway, barely wide enough for each of them to pass through one at a time. It led them down a short, depressingly colored metallic tunnel to a nondescript hatch at its end, black and monolithic.

The big man pushed past Vel, only taking his eyes off of him long enough to pull a lever set in the wall next to the hatch, and with a loud series of metallic clanks and the groans of unseen machinery, it opened to reveal a circular airlock, likely some kind of rotary chamber that connected a cantilevered, hollow boom. Oreza put his Dusk Suit's helmet on without a word, and pulled another similar lever on the opposite wall next to another hatch. Vel felt some slight pressure in his ears as the airlock cycled, and the other door opened, revealing the rest of the sealed tunnel that led out into the vacuum of the landing shaft. The interior of the boom, which was canted at an angle off to the right from the entryway, was similarly ancient looking, surrounded by hoses and frayed electrical wiring. The entire tube was dimly lit by failing incandescent light fixtures, several of which flickered or didn't work at all. When they reached the end, the walkway suddenly stopped, dropping straight down into a flexible tube with handholds on one side. Although Vel knew that the mooring tube was most likely constructed of some sort of polymer weave, its ragged and dirty appearance made it look like nothing more than cheap cloth.

Oreza motioned for Vel to descend first, and he followed soon after. At the bottom, more than twenty feet below, another circular airlock hatch was visible, very differently colored from the rest of the scenery. Vel could only assume that it was likely the exterior of the ship.

When they reached the bottom, Oreza punched some commands into his communicator, pocketed it, and turned his gaze back to Vel, folding his arms once more. Nothing happened after that.

Being stuck in a tube with this man was the opposite of Vel's idea of a preferable situation but he knew his options were not only limited, but worse than this one, though at this point not by much. "What kind of condition is the ship in?" he asked, he hoped to get an idea of what conditions would be like on board and what repairs he might need to make to feel comfortable with the ships long distance space faring ability. "If you have any in ship repairs I am sure I could be of use."

Vel never turned away from the ships hatch, while he spoke he was gently touching the hatch which seemed to visibly relax him despite his current situation, it's was almost like someone coming home for the first time in years, "Any small repairs that don't take many resources I will do for free." He said drawing his hand back away from the hatch.

When Oreza didn't respond right away, or as it became apparent after several seconds of silence, at all, Vel realized that the big man couldn't hear him through his suit's helmet, nor did he appear to make any effort to try. He merely stood there stoically, warily watching the Iromakuanhe and occasionally glancing back up the tube as if expecting someone else to follow behind them. To say it was rather awkward would have been an understatement.

The sound of machinery in the ship below them broke the monotony, and a few seconds later the hatch in the hull beneath their feet unsealed with a loud hiss and slid open.


Concordia Veil - Central Airlock Chamber

Sienna was standing on the deck, looking upwards to watch Oreza and Vel descend the ladder through the dorsal hatch and into the ship. She no longer had on the Dusk Suit she had been wearing when Vel last saw her, but instead was dressed in a snug-fitting greenish-brown tank top that was tucked beneath a thick black belt encircling sturdy-looking work pants. A pair of heavy black boots that covered a fair portion of her calves were on her feet, into which her pant legs were tucked as well. While significantly smaller than the gorilla-like Oreza, and of an athletic, attractive shape by Nepleslian standards, the defined muscle tone in her arms, her flat stomach, and the confident poise she seemed to possess, coupled with her wardrobe, gave her a somewhat paramilitary appearance.

Oreza still said nothing to Vel as he clomped to one of the lockers along the wall and removed his helmet, beginning the process of shedding his suit. Sienna sized up the Iromakuanhe with a critical eye and a raised eyebrow, turning to the wall behind her and yanking on a rotary handle set in the wall to cycle the airlock closed.

Turning back to him, she put her hands on her hips. "So," she said, sounding almost as if she were asking him out of obligation rather than any actual curiosity, "let's start with the basics. You got a name?"

Vel watched Oreza out of the corner of his eye while he answered but his attention was soon drawn to the rest of the ship, "Of course, my name is Vel Vect'Orian and due to your second in command's apparent inability to hear me when I was speaking, I request a list of repairs that are needed around the ship and I will do most small jobs for free, so long as they do not require many resources." he said smiling at the woman but she could tell he was slightly frustrated, if it was from having to repeat himself or from having to bother her personally with the request she couldn't tell.

Having gotten that out of the way gestured to his bag "Is there anywhere I can place these?" he asked though the way he looked. at the ship made it clear he wanted to explore the ship as well.

Sienna pursed her lips at his request for a list of repairs, shaking her head. "Don't you worry about my ship," she responded curtly. "I've got her well in hand. If this little trip of yours turns out like you say it will, we'll talk. But 'till then, you ain't touching a thing unless I say so. You can leave your stuff right there in one of those lockers," she continued, making a circle in the air with her index finger, vaguely indicating the six lockers on either side of her along the walls of the circular chamber. She then turned and twisted the handle in the wall the rest of the way, and the hatch to the interior of the ship slid open with a quiet grinding noise.

Looking back at him, she waited for him to drop his things while she finished speaking. "I'm Sienna Shelton, but you can just call me Captain. My big friend over here is Oreza," she said, pointing briefly at Oreza, who was nearly free of his Dusk Suit and turned to level another scowl at Vel. "He's of the opinion that you're full of shit, and I'm not sure I completely disagree with him yet. So until I see otherwise, you ain't going anywhere I don't specifically say you can." She returned Vel's smile, but it was tight-lipped, terse, and devoid of any warmth whatsoever. "Got that?"

Vel was more than a little confused with this situation. "I understand what you are saying though it begs the question, why did you not just offer to pay for the location if while on your ship I am going to be of the same amount of use as if I stayed here on Black Moon?" he asked the captain in the same way someone would ask "Why would you shoot a skeleton in the head 27 times" as it seemed to him that she was simply wasting a lot of money and was perfectly fine with it. "Perhaps that is standard to do for your people but it makes zero sense to me."

One eyebrow raised on Sienna's forehead. "Would you rather I just shoot you and take the coordinates from your body?" she asked him with an otherwise deadpan expression, patting the pistol strapped to her thigh.

Vel's smile died instantly and his demeanor turned from relaxed to ready for action his training had instilled in him "That wouldn't work out for either of us. You see, unlike your opinion of me, I am not stupid. Should you go for that gun the data will be destroyed and you will be left with nothing," he said with his right hand on his new plasma torch. "So instead of acting like uncivilized sub-intelligent beings that just figured out how to kill with a gun, why dont you use the intellect I can tell you have, and do the smart thing by getting some use out of my being on your ship."

Sienna's face remained a stone mask for a moment, her hand still resting on the stock of her pistol as she stared the Iromakuanhe down. A tense few moments of silent standoff ensued, and Oreza, standing behind Vel, began to bristle as he took one step towards Vel, obviously intent on showing the new arrival a thing or two about whose turf they were on. Sienna's eyes moved to the big bearded man, and she gave him a single, slight shake of her head. Reluctantly, Oreza stepped back, but his fists clenched into tight, white-knuckled balls.

"So maybe you ain't stupid," Sienna conceded, but her voice was still cool and even. She took her hand off of her pistol and hooked her thumbs through the belt loops in the front of her pants, eyeing the datapad in Vel's hand, then the plasma torch, then back up at his eyes. "All right, fine," she said., and stepped backwards through the open hatch into the ship. "I got some use for you then. Follow me."


Concordia Veil - Main Corridor

Sienna led Vel into the central hallway, with Oreza folowing closely behind, just waiting for the slightest excuse to break the visitor in half. The hallway was spartan and lacking any sort of decorations, adorned only with the oppressive, industrialized decor of metal and conduits. "You ever been on a Jinsoku before?" Sienna asked over her shoulder as she turned to the left, following the metal decking around the central pillar that housed the airlock they had just exited. Off to the right Vel saw where the hallway opened towards the bow of the ship into an oddly trapezoidal shaped corridor that terminated with three somewhat irregularly-placed hatches, likely one of which was the cockpit.

The faint metallic smell of blood became immediately noticable when Vel stepped out of the airlock.

Vel shook his head at Sienna's question. "Negative patrol craft, cruisers, colony ships, and a civilian transport vessel are what I am familiar with," he said as he followed the Captain, though the smell of blood caused him to pause while he considered the different situations that might cause such a strong scent of blood to be on a ship. "Was there some kind of accident on board?" he asked while he watched Sienna closely as they moved further into the ship.

"Kinda," Sienna replied, not looking back. She led him around the corridor towards the stern, and only a few steps after she responded the source of the smell came into view. Laying in a crumpled heap, shoved over to the left side of the floor in the corner, was a limp body. He was of an average build, but that was more or less all that could be gleaned from his appearance. A darkening pool of blood and unidentifiable fluids was collected in a puddle on the floor next to him, and streaked beneath the body where he had obviously been carelessly shoved aside. His face was... unrecognizable. It looked as if most of the flesh had been lacerated and shredded away, leaving only tiny fragments of gore clinging to the underlying skull. His fingers were twisted in grotesque angles and held fast by rigor mortis, as if he had been frozen in time the instant he had seen something so visceral and horrifying it had warped his mind. His eyelids were wrenched open, one eye rolled unnaturally far back in his head. The other, however, was little more than a gooey, empty socket; all that remained of his eye was a deflated lump of tissue, hanging precariously down his cheek, suspended by the stretched ocular nerve.

Sienna walked around the body and turned to face Vel, one eyebrow raised slightly as she put her hands on her hips once more. She looked at him silently for a moment, then slowly pointed her chin at the body before looking back up.

Vel looked over the body carefully then back to Sienna "It appears as tho this man died a while before I arrived was there a particular reason for leaving him there or do you not mind the smell?" he asked as he put the datapad in his right pocket next to the plasma torch. He then moved a few steps to the side so that Oreza wasn't behind him anymore.

"Hadn't gotten to it yet," Sienna said casually with a shrug. "He's one of two guys that thought they'd help themselves to my ship." She waited a moment to let her words sink in, watching Vel with a pointed look. Even though she was making no overt effort to appear threatening, the look in her eyes still carried a deadly seriousness to it, wordlessly communicating what would happen to anyone else who tried a similar stunt. After the pause, she shifted her balance and continued. "I need you to drag him in the port cargo bay with his buddy, and get to work on cleaning up this blood, for starters. I don't care for the smell any more than you think I do." She looked towards Oreza. "Give him a hand, too. And keep him in your sight. I've got some more adjustments to make to the engine before I get those coordinates from you."

Oreza nodded to Sienna, then turned his attention back to Vel, watching to see his reaction to his first task aboard the ship.

Vel shrugged and put his torch away "You might want to remember that there is a difference between cleanup and repair," he said with a sigh as he got ready to move the body.

"Then you may want to phrase your definition of 'useful' differently next time," Sienna replied indifferently, tousling her hair with one hand as she turned to head for the engineering section. "Let me know if you have any problems," she said over her shoulder, and walked off.

"Alright, you heard the lady. Get to work," Oreza said in a commanding voice, pointing at the mutilated body.

Vel raised an eyebrow at the gorilla of a man "First of all, she made it clear that this is a joint operation, secondly, your belief that you will order me around is unfounded and incorrect, and finally," he paused for a few moments "which end do you want?" he asked preferring to get this over with.

"You are very much mistaken in your concept of how things work here," the first mate said. "I will give you orders and you will carry them out just as quickly as you will carry out orders from the Captain." Oreza informed Vel. "And yes this is a joint operation. Your job is to clean up this mess, mine is to make sure you can follow orders and get the job done. Now get to work." The finality of his tone indicated there would be no more discussion on the matter.

Vel raised an eyebrow at the man. "I see you are one of those that lead by orders rather than example," he said shaking his head in disgust and moved over to the body thinking how he was going to lift the body with his own thin body. After several moments he pulled out his plasma torch preparing to do the same as Four-Six at the Den.

"You will not be burning bodies aboard this ship," Oreza said, obsurving what the alien was about to do. "You were also to turn over all weapons before boarding this ship," he added, indicating the plasma torch.

Vel smiled and shook his head. "This is not a weapon and never in the original deal was it stated that I must hand over my tools," he said while keeping a firm grip on the torch. "How do you expect me to lift someone with at least 60 pounds on me without cutting him in half or incinerating the body? Unlike you, my strength is with my intelligence rather than my muscles."

"It's an incindiery device and we are in an enclosed envyronment with an oxygen heavy atmosphere. You light that and the ship burns," the retired navy captain responded. "Hand it over"

"That isn't going to happen cappin, but if you would get off your arse we won't have to see how right you are," Vel said keeping the tool in his hand with his finger on the trigger.

"Listen here, bub. On this ship there is a chain of command. There's me, the Captain and God. When the Captain isn't here I am God. You have problem with taking orders and following rules that are in place to protect this ship and ensure it's safe operation than we are going to have issues. You will shape up now. If you cannot do what you are told, then you better drag your sorry ass off this ship before I remove you."

Eyeing the man closely Vel slid the torch into his pocket again determined to not be left unarmed in case it turned out they were lying and planned to do something similar to him once they got out into space "Which hatch did she say to take it to?" he asked the oaf.

Oreza pointed at the hatch to the port cargo hold, then crossed his arms once more, watching the punk.

Vel kept his distance from Oreza to ensure he kept his torch far enough away that it wouldn't be easily grabbed as he dragged the body through the hatch knowing whatever fluids that leaked out would be his to clean up.

The tall Nepleslian watched Vel work. He was going to have a talk with Sienna about his attitude and his refusal to hand over an incindiary device. Oreza was not actually a very violent man, but this punk was testing his restraint.

As he reached the first threshold Vel bent over and started wrenching at the body's left arm and leg into a modified fireman carry position and strained to lift it off the ground but he managed to get back to a standing position himself. He kept his left side pointed at Oreza along with the body's feet as he sidestepped his way down the Hall towards the hatch.

Despite the weight Vel made good time through the circular hall to the port cargo bay though he kept away from the door as he waited for Oreza to open it so he could go through with the body.

Oreza tapped the control to unseal the hatch to the port cargo hold, allowing Vel inside where he could set the body next to the other guy, then hopefully finish his tasked work and clean up all the blood and gore that had been left over.

Vel moved past Oreza as soon as the hatch was open looking for the second man that he was supposed to deposit the first next to.

The hatch opened up to a massive cargo bay, far more open than the rest of the ship felt. It was quite apparent that most of this vessel's volume was dedicated to freight, not luxuries and amenities. However, with the exception of a few bits of various debris on the floors around the perimeter of the bay, it was entirely empty. That is, except for the other blond-haired Nepleslian man hung by his wrists from a rung in the wall, on the far side of the bay, near what appeared to be an external airlock on the port side. He looked younger and healthier than the dead one; that is, if one ignored the obvious case of the dead one's mangled head. Unlike the one Vel carried, however, the one hanging from the wall appeared to be very much alive, although unconscious. His chest was rising and falling very slowly, and his head was slumped forward. From the looks of it, he was hung at an elevation that neither allowed him to stand or sit, so judging from the extremely uncomfortable position the man was suspended in, he was out cold.

Then Vel noticed that the man was not wearing any pants. At all.

The sight of the half naked man caused Vel to hesitate for a moment. "Is there a particular reason this man has no pants?" he asked before tossing the dead man on the floor in front of the pantsless man then shifted the body out of view of the man so that it wouldn't be the first thing he seen once he woke up.

"Questions aren't part of the job you were given," Oreza growled, and pointed back out of the cargo bay. "Get to it."

Vel, now more than a little angered by the lack of respect and general intelligence of the crew so far, started thinking of alternative means of employment and started planning on how to work things to his advantage once they reached the derelict ship. Perhaps an "accident" would serve as a suitable distraction, he mused in his thoughts as he left the cargo bay.

Concordia Veil - Cabin 3 - Some time later

Amelia was standing next to the table in her cabin, it had been just some time, two painkillers and 500 DA later after her medical 'check-up' and she was already up and about the place. On top and to one side of the table was the spiderbot, turned upside down, while on the other was a very spindly, albeit also very humanoid-looking, robot. The newer robot was sitting on the surface of the table much like a person, with its legs hanging out from the edge, although it was clearly deactivated. Further into the cabin, also revealed now that the interior lights were on, was the empty cardboard box, with its open end toppled to the side and several small bits of foam strewn about the room. She sighed, hoping that she had somehow not being seen leaving nor coming back, which would just make it harder to explain.

The astrogator reached for her datajockey, setting the datapad on the table and extending a cord from it, to which she plugged on the bot.


Amelia sighed, reaching for the datajockey once she read what was on the screen. She idly scratched her head in mild frustration as she tapped her response.


If Crash could he would have scratched It's head at the situation. It was getting frustrated at the fact it was forced back in to hibernation for the most part. Hell, Crash was using less the 1% of Its processor time on even theis conversation.


With that, Amelia procured another cable from a drawer under the table. She placed it on top before taking out her tools and opening the other robot's chestplate, then taking a few moments to locate what she was looking for, the robot's memory and storage units, plugging the cable in it through a socket, then puggling it back in another port of her Datajockey.


Crash wasn't sure about the transfer, sure the robot's databanks could handle all the information, but the processors were a limiting factor. Though Crash was starting to trust Amelia, it was still an issue dumbing down to survive.

Amelia reached out for her Datajockey once she asw that the transfer was starting, reading the message on the screen again and tapping her response,


She stood back and folded her arms, waiting to see what would happen next.

After a few moments of deliberation her Datajockey started showing a Download and Installation progress bar.


It took a few minutes to fully download, install, and then remove data again from the spiderbot. It would not do to have Multiple Crashes. Multiple personalities like that could cause major problems in the long run, hard to stop the wave of murderating Crashs.

Amelia, in the meanwhile, shifted her weight uncomfortably from one foot to the other, until the wait was simply too much for her. "Can you hear me? Are you operating the other bot now?" she asked, reaching with one hand towards the Jimmy bot and poking the V-shaped faceplate tentatively.

In a loud screeching digital voice the Jimmy bot spoke, "YES CRASH 3.11 INSTALLED, RUNNING FULL POWER... OVERCLOCK NEEDED IN PROCESSOR SYSTEMS... ACCESSING LIMB DRIVERS." Crash couldn't adjust the volume of the style of voice with the simple voice synthesizer installed.

it took a moment before the arms shot up and startes moving about. They were rotating though a test pattern for a few seconds before reaching out and pokeing Amelia in the chest. "I AM BIGGER THAN YOU NOW!"

Amelia winced as the bot spoke, watching it intently before she grabbed the bot's wrist with one hand, leaning closer as she put a finger against her mouth, making a 'shush' expression. "Damn it, keep it quiet! Everyone will hear you like that!" she hushed, looking back at the door.

Murderbot Crash held on of its hands to its face. "SHHHH..." followed by a exaperated digital sigh, could have been mistaken for old school modem sounds.

Her Datajockey beeped, prompting her to pick it up and look at the screen.


MC sat there stairing at Amelia scanning her with Its sensors, before gently and carefully touching a briuse on her face, making her flinch from the sudden pain. The painkillers could deal with the headache and the constant pain from the bruise, but the area was still very sensitive to the touch.


"I'm alright," Amelia said, reaching for the combat bot's open chestplate again. "Don't move," she added, running a gloved hand inside eventually finding the dial that Crash was referencing and noticing that it was, indeed, cranked up to the full volume. "There, you should be good now. We can even install a software that let's you emulate other people voices for when you're feeling like annoying me," she said, smiling faintly and stepping back from near the table.

"Is better?" the voice of MC was still grating and very digitalized, but now it was a the same level she was speaking at. "Knob. Pink, Black X On Top. Increase Data Flow." Crash would have frowned at her reaction to Its touch, if the 'bot could frown that is, she was hurt and she was trying to hide the most of it.

The woman stepped forward again, reaching for the other dial around the bot's components on its chest. She cranked up the dial, then raised her head to look at it. "Better?" she asked.

"It is better, I am running at 95% processor power of the spider chassis. It will do until we can repair the spider." It turned it's head and looked around the cabin. "It is strange being this size again. though," MC leaned forward "eyeing" Amelia. "You look like crap... What happen after the EMP went off. is the Ship still sound? Are we evacuating?"

"Everything is fine, don't worry." Amelia said, resting her hands on her hips as she stared at the bot. "The captain is taking care of everything, but she doesn't know about you yet, so that's why we gotta keep quiet about this," she added. She idly looked to her side as she mulled over what to say next. "We also have a doctor in the ship now, and I've already been cleared out," the astrogator added after a while.

"I see. Will I have to hide in the closet or will you be dressing me up and trying to pass me off as your long lost cousin?" A hacking bitty sound came out; the 'bot's laugh really could use a bit of work.

Amelia looked back at the bot, frowning. "No, just act like you're deactivated, or something. I think I managed to convince her when she saw you before, but I won't be so lucky if she sees you moving around and talking to people and asking them for their... Underwear," she said, frowning further at the last bit.

"Fine... But the ship? Was it not effected by the EMP? Those two must have help, to be able to utilze such a weapon. We must move to find them before they attack again. No... you must rest, I will hunt and I should be able to find them, remove their ability to do any more trouble, then be back and 'deactivate' before the captain returns to the ship."

The astrogator raised both hands in front of her apologetically. "There was no EMP, calm down. One of them hit you with an electrical stun baton, and that's probably fried something in your spiderbot," she said, looking somewhat aggravated.

"Was that all? Then why not just change the fuse out?" The Bot turned its head around to look at the broken and battered bot. "More then that will be needed, the chassis is broken..." The voice almost sounded sad or depressed. "Replacement legs here, here, here, and a new mandable for the left, the right could be bent back into shape..." MC reached out and gently picked up the Spiderbot, and turned it around in its hands.

"This was my lifeboat..."

Amelia stepped closer to the bot, putting one hand on its shoulder before she leaned closer. "Don't worry, we can fix it. I'm sure we can find the spare parts in the station," she said, also staring at the deactivated spiderbot.

"That is good, It is a better hider, and better data processor then this one." MC looked up at her cycling its sesors as Crash studied Amelia, "You are being nicer to me than before... Why? Before you were trying to kill me, now, you are trying to ensure my survival?"

"Well, you helped me," Amelia said, tapping her chest with two fingers for emphasis, "and I already told you that I didn't know about you before," she added.

"Then thank you," It reached up and gently pulled the data cable from the new chassis. Once the cable was lying on the table, it slid carefully forward and down to the new feet. The sound from the movement was a loud screah of metal on metal. "Please excuse me... I did not mean to make that sound."

Amelia winced again, closing one eye as she brought her shoulders up. "That's okay," she said, returning back to normal and raising a hand. "What will you do now?"

"What do you mean? I have to stay around to hide, Yamatai will kill me on sight. I owe you for the new body... My home on Lighthouse was destroyed." MC shook its head and shrugged as it started over to the corner and folding up faceing her. "I'm glad I owe you... Or it would not have anywhere to go, or do, until they find and destroy me."

"It's nothing," Amelia said, shrugging as she thought about what she had seen in the news about the Lighthouse. "The new body, I mean," she quickly, added. The woman looked around the room once more before sitting on the side of her bunk bed. "I guess I should just wait then, the captain said she had something she would want me to do later," she said.

"I understand. She would not like me here, would she? I'm going to be spaced if she found me right?" The lights faded in its sensor "eyes" as it spoke. "You can hide me elsewhere, so that you do not get in trouble if I am found, no connections."

"Don't worry about it, you can stay here, these are my quarters after all," Amelia said. "I even get these two bunks for myself," she added, reaching up and poking the bed on top of her.

"That is adequate..." Crash recognised the bunk that she poked, it was the one that It had tampered with. It was conflicted, one thought was that Amelia was being nice and shouldn't be messed with, but then there was the need to pull pratical jokes and to be a pest.

"Yeah," Amelia replied, laying down on the bed with her legs still hanging from the side. "I think if we just tell the captain and show her that you're alright she won't fret about it," she said idly, staring at the bunk above her.

"Maybe... I did send a message to her when we were first attacked. Anonymously, that is... Maybe that will help." Crash wasn't so sure... Lots of people hated Freespacers and if the war, more like genocide, was still going on, Crash was in lots of danger.

It took a while for Amelia to answer, as her eyelids got heavy again, which could also be attributed to the painkillers. She was tired, exhausted even after all that had transpired, and even though it had been recommended she didn't take any actual rest, being so intent on seeing through the situation first. "Maybe..." she muttered in a very low tone, closing her eyes for a moment in what she knew was the beginning of a losing fight against sleep.

Standing, Murderbot Crash stepped by her and gently pushed her over and pulled a blanket on top of her. Grabbing her pistol Crash returned to his corner and folded to a sitted position. The sensors were left onto passive as Crash started going back over Its memory banks, slowly studying the past few hours.

Concordia Veil - Port Cargo Bay

The sudden shock of icy water splashing in his face made Paul awake with a start. His diaphragm involuntarily wrenched his lungs wide open, causing him to violently gasp as if he had just surfaced from a hundred feet underwater and nearly drowned.

He couldn't make sense of his surroundings for a moment; everything was a gray and white blur, his head was spinning, and his entire body ached badly. His eyes didn't register anything recognizable, his ears only sent information little more intelligible than static, and his skin felt like it was on fire.

Slowly he became aware that he was struggling to move, but something was holding him in place. Frantically he turned his head from side to side, alternating blinking hard and opening his eyes as wide as they could go, trying to make sense of the distorted blurs and vague shapes around him. His balance felt awkward and off somehow, and soon enough he realized he was in a weird squatting position, but his arms were raised straight above his head. Something held his wrists in place, rendering him unable to sit down, and his legs were barely strong enough to support his weight, resulting in him being stretched out and making it difficult for him to breathe. When he tried to stand up, a barrier behind him prevented him from backing up, and the binds on his wrists were fixed to a point so that raising his shoulders pulled his arms back to the point that they felt they would twist out of their sockets if he continued to raise himself up. That is, if his legs didn't give out immediately and drop him painfully back into the squatting position.

He could faintly make out the echoes of a voice calling to him, a woman's voice, maybe? The voice spoke to him in fragmented sentences, gradually coalescing into an intelligible sentence. "Rise and shine, cutie," the voice said to him. He turned his head, blinking away stinging tears, but still unable to see much more than blurry shapes and blobs. "C'mon now, wakey wakey."

With a few more blinks one of the dark blobs started to take shape, that of a massive bear of a man towering over him. He couldn't make out any facial features, but he could see him standing there in a sort of military rest posture. A long metal pipe, or perhaps some sort of bat was in the man's hand, resting on his shoulder casually. Beyond that, Paul could see nothing clearly. His memory of how he'd gotten here was hazy, but he knew for a fact that the enormous figure standing menacingly before him was definitely not the same petite little girl he remembered trying to subdue.

"Who... where am I?" he croaked, his voice weak and distant, sounding practically nothing like his own.

"Aboard the same ship we found you," the giant figure spoke in a deep, rumbling voice. "The ship you tried to steal."

That much, Paul definitely remembered, and it wasn't hard to put two and two together. "Are... you the... captain?" he managed to grunt weakly.

"No," the booming voice replied. "She is."

Paul blinked again, trying to look around. His vision improved a bit more after a couple more blinks, and he spotted a second figure standing on his other side, much smaller and much more feminine. He still didn't recognize her as the one from before, however. "You...?"

"What, not what you expected?" the feminine voice from before asked him. "Guess y'all didn't think it'd be tough to fight a girl the first time, either, huh?"

A pang of fear washed through Paul's body before he pushed it back down and blinked again. Whether the sudden clarity was brought on by the passage of time or from the sudden realization of the trouble he was in, he could now make out the facial features of the two people looking down at him. The big man sported a thick, dark beard and was built like a truck, and even though he looked to be in his fifties, still appeared more than a little menacing the way he was glaring fiercely down at him. The woman, however, dressed in utilitarian clothing and with short shag-styled hair, had a much less menacing expression, almost blank and businesslike, although there was a coldness in her face that was still equally unsettling. "Wh...where... where is Datsan...?"

"Who?" the woman asked, tilting her head. "Oh, your buddy, that's his name, huh?" Glancing up at her giant companion, a smirk crossed her face before she stepped aside and nodded to a spot on the floor.

The spot where Datsan's dead body was sprawled out.

Paul choked on his tongue briefly and bit his lip, turning his eyes away as he gnashed his jaw nearly hard enough to bite clean through it.

"Two man smash'n'grab, was that the plan?" the woman asked, stepping between them again, still smirking. She turned her eyes upwards in mock thought, tightening the corners of her mouth with a slight shrug as she advanced towards him a few inches and continued. "Play the 'everyday inspector' card, scope the ship out, and nab it if you can?"

Paul didn't respond. He couldn't; he was too distraught over his partner's grisly death, and unable to hide it.

"Well, y'all apparently didn't think my astrogator was much of a threat," she observed, leaning in closer to him, and shrugged indifferently again. "Not that I completely blame you. Even I was surprised when I found what she'd done to y'all, I didn't think she had it in her." A macabre smile pulled her lips upward again. "Surprises all around, huh?"

"Fff...fffuck you," Paul spat, turning his face towards the woman with a sneer.

The woman feigned a frown, pretending to be hurt. "Can't say you ain't my type, cutie," she mocked, and reached forward to pat his cheek, although she used a bit more force than would otherwise be construed as pity or sympathy. "But you just ain't that lucky today." She rose back up to her full height and took a step back, folding her arms beneath her breasts. "Now I'm curious. Were the two of y'all just freelance clowns, or is there some bigger racket around here?"

His cheek stinging from the mild slap, Paul glared up at the woman icily, staying stubbornly tight-lipped. The woman waited for a few seconds, patiently looking at him with her arms still folded, but the only reply he gave her was his labored breathing. All he could think of was the pain he was in, and the disturbing mental image of his partner's lifeless body.

When he gave her no answer, the woman sighed and looked expectantly over at the big man. Before Paul even realized the massive Nepleslian had moved, he felt himself slammed back against the wall, doubled over in excruciating pain from where the metal pipe smashed into his gut. He felt like he was suffocating for a moment, his diaphragm rendered helpless by the blow. He almost passed out from the pain and the lack of oxygen before he finally managed to squeak in a tiny breath, feeling like he was breathing through a straw after having sprinted for a full mile.

"What was that?" the woman asked again, leaning in and turning one ear towards him. "Didn't catch it."

Paul wheezed frantically, unable to form words even though his mouth was wide open. He desperately tried to respond, but before he was able to even get to the point of being able to draw a full breath, another savage blow crushed his stomach again. Doubling over, the contents of his stomach emptied themselves on the floor between his legs and tears began to stream down his cheeks. His vision began to blur again from asphyxia.

"...stop..." he managed to squeak finally.

"Mmkay," he heard the woman replied casually. An agonizing few minutes passed in which he wasn't sure if he was even conscious.

...

"Are you awake?" he heard the woman ask again, and he managed to turn his eyes up just enough to look at her. He noticed that the big man wasn't there anymore, at least not where he could see him through his tears and blurry sight.

"...yes..." he croaked.

"Oh, good," she responded. "For a second there I thought he killed you already."

"...out... long?" he asked.

"About five minutes or so," the woman said. "Good to see you back."

Paul swallowed hard. It hurt to breathe. "You... won't get... nothin' outta me... if you keep knockin' the wind..."

"Nope, you're right," the woman said. "I thought about having Oreza break your legs, but that'd be over too quick. Besides, I wanna make sure you know you can still walk outta here if you cooperate."

"Why... why the hell should I believe you?" he stammered.

The woman shrugged. "You shouldn't, if you're smart," she said simply. "But you're still gonna tell me what I wanna know."

Paul sneered at her. "Ff...fffuck off an' die..." he rasped. "You can get... that gorilla... to break whatever. You're not going to get me to beg."

The cold grin returned on the woman's face, and she leaned down towards him, resting her hands on her knees. "Heh, well, you say that," she replied, almost like she was joking with him. "Besides, he felt kinda... weird... about what I had in mind for you now." She held up her right hand, waggling something between her thumb and index finger. A thin cord of some kind.

Following the cord with his gaze, his eyes widened with every inch along the way when he realized what the other end was tied to. And that he was naked from the waist down.

The woman's eyes flitted down to his crotch, and then back up at his face. One of her eyebrows raises slightly, and her sinister grin widened. "Must be cold in here," she said.

Paul's horrible scream could be heard almost everywhere in the ship.

Concordia Veil - Hallway

Six Four was layed up on the operation table it had brought in, the items that were previously on it stacked neatly on the opposite wall. The Doctor was in the middle of reading one of its books, relaxing with its legs crossed on one of the stirrups that was attached to the operating table. Flipping the page Six Four kind of wished it had something to drink and made a mental note to check the galley later to see what edible foodstuffs were on this boat. However its thought process was interrupted by a the horrible scream that came from the cargo hold.

Hearing the scream, Six Four's head peered over the side of the book towards the cargo bay door, as if someone was knocking at its apartment door.

"This one should go see what that was about...." It said to itself before looking down at the aquarium where specimen one was busy doing micro space alligator things. "Do you think its urgent? There was only one scream so the individual who made it is either ok or dead so This one should not worry to much right?" Six Four's question was somewhat directed towards the reptilian creature but, seeing as it did not speak trade... or any sentient language for that matter... it continued to do what it was doing. Six Four took that as a confirming response and went back to its book. "This one will check after this chapter."

Concorida Veil - Port Cargo Bay after the end of Six Four's book's chapter.

The door to the cargo bay slid open revealing the helmeted doctor on the other side.

"This one heard a scream, is there a medical...oh" Six Four said seeing Sienna and the other would be theif. "Apologetic: This one applogizes has this one interrupted your.... alternative adult activities?"

Concordia Veil - Port Cargo Bay

Six Four, upon entering, saw Sienna just after she had cut Paul down from where he hung, and had stepped back to allow him to clumsily and shakily put his pants back on. She had a fairly uninterested expression on her face, arms folded across her chest, and a stun baton hanging from her belt on her hip, opposite from her pistol. When she heard the door open, she glanced towards the Freespacer doctor, and her eyebrows raised.

"Adult... activites?" she asked, her brow furrowing in perplexion for a moment before her eyes widened slightly, and the medic could swear she saw her cheeks flush slightly. "What!? No," she protested, then cleared her throat. "Don't be a dumbass. I needed to find out what he knew."

Paul looked like absolute hell. He was sweating profusely and couldn't bear to stand up at his full height. The basic task of putting one leg after the other back into his trousers seemed agonizing to him, and it took him several attempts to get each leg high enough off of the ground to do it. The would-be hijacker looked over at the Freespacer with a pleading, desperate look, against all odds that he might find help from the newcomer. The medic, however, noted that there were no traces of blood or external injury on him, even though he did look like he'd been hit by a small truck. When he paused for a second too long in re-clothing himself, the deactivated stun baton came off of Sienna's belt and connected with the back of his head, causing him to trip over the pants that were now around his ankles, driving him face-first onto the ground.

Sienna cleared her throat again, clearly frustrated and embarrassed by Six Four's misconception. "Hurry up already," she snapped at the now-prone hijacker. Paul groaned pathetically, and wiggled over to his back, resuming his efforts to pull his beltline back up to his waist. He had nearly finished when the pain he was clearly in got the better of him, and he paused once more to catch his breath, appearing almost on the verge of tears. Sienna unsympathetically drove her foot into his ribs, causing him to cry out and force himself to finish dressing himself.

The captain looked over at Six Four once more. "Carry him back out to the spaceport and leave him there," she said, more authoritatively than was necessary. She then moved right next to Paul and glared down at him, pointing the inactive baton at his nose. "This is the Concordia Veil," she said icily. "Make sure you remember that, and tell your buddies that this is what happens if somebody fraks with my ship."

Turning her cold glare up at the Freespacer, she scoffed and held her chin up, striding out of the cargo bay.

Concordia Veil - Living Area - Later That Evening

It hadn't taken very long for Sienna to help Six Four move the medical supplies into the empty escape pod bay, but the specific arrangement she left up to the doctor. Vel had done a decent job of cleaning up the blood in the corridor, and Datsan's dead body was in the port cargo airlock ready to be spaced once they departed. There were still a few things that needed attention aboard the ship, and thanks to the ramshakle nature of the moon's port facilities, the fuel and supplies they requested wouldn't arrive until the next day. With nothing left to do but wait, she had called everyone into the living area for a briefing.

She stood by the door, hands on her hips, her pistol and her stun baton in their respective holsters near each hand, and surveyed the motley crew that was assembled. "Okay," she mused in a businesslike manner. "Let's lay out some ground rules here, first.

"First, unless I specifically tell anyone here otherwise, the only places y'all are permitted to go is here, the cargo bays, the lavatory, and your cabin. Amelia and Oreza, y'all already know where you're sleeping." She turned her eyes to the newcomers Vel and Six Four. "Vel, you're in Cabin Two with Oreza. Six Four, you're in Three with Amelia. You can get to both through that door there," she continued, pointing to the door in the middle of the back wall. "Two is the one just inside, and Three is behind it. The other door is my cabin. The only two acceptable reasons you have for going in there is that the ship is on fire, or there isn't another ounce of breathable air anywhere else.

"Amelia and Oreza are the only two besides me I should ever catch in the cockpit, or in either of the maintenance areas, unless I myself tell you to go there. Galley's right through there," she said with a wave of her hand toward the hatch to her left, on the forward wall. "Y'all are free to get whatever you want from there, but food stays in this room. Not in the corridor, not in your cabin, not anywhere outside this room.

"We only got one bathroom on this ship, so for God's sake, have some decency when you use it. There's plenty of towels and whatnot in there, but bring 'em back when you're done. Laundry will have to be done the old fashioned way, by hand. We can work out a duty lottery, or everyone can handle their own, don't matter to me. There's soap in there, but any other toiletries y'all want are on you. So if you're missing anything, now's the time to go get it while we're in port.

"So everyone's on the same page, this here is Six Four," she indicated towards the Freespacer, and hesitated for a second, trying to figure out the proper gender with which to refer to it. "She... he... she will be the ship's doctor. A medbay will be set up in the old escape pod bay. Unless you're sick or wounded, that's her territory, and hers alone." She then turned her eyes to Vel. "And this is Vel," she said flatly, and held her eyes firmly on him the entire time. "He's the one who holds our payday. He's also not to have any weapon of any sort on his person while aboard my ship. So if any of y'all catch him with one, you let me know."

She held her stare for another second longer before looking to the rest of the group once more. "Last thing," she said conclusively. "This is my ship. And my ship is my baby. Don't piss Mama Bear off." She folded her arms and relaxed her stance slightly. "Are there any questions?"

Concordia Veil - Living Area - Later That Evening

Amelia sat on one of the chairs next to the table in the Lounge, supporting her head lazily with one hand as she stared at the captain and heard her speech. She was no longer wearing the heavy, durandium plated vest and Dusk Suit under the clothing as before, nor the grey jacket and sweater, but instead just a simple white tank-top and cargo pants, while the pants themselves weren't even tucked into the boot, which just betrayed that she had left her cabin in a hurry, or simply didn't bother dressing fully. The Astrogator still looked a bit drowsy after having been roused from her sleep a second time, her eyes were narrowed and she had a deadpan expression on her face as she watched the captain.

She shook her head when Sienna asked if she had more questions, and casually looked at the two new-arrivals. One she had already had the pleasure and awkwardness of meeting, while the Iroma was just a complete unknown. What did bother her, though, was the even-grumpier tone that the captain had when she addressed him, which was enough to set some red flags with Amelia. She reached for her Datajockey, casually looking around before she typed up her message to Crash: