RP: The Fringe [Chapter 1.0] - New Hires

[Riko]

Black Moon Vel's Pad

"Informative: If Six Four my interject, Judging from the survival rates of the returning crew this may be extremely hazardous to exploring parties health." Six Four said before picking up one of the nearby dataslates and started to thumb though it, "Sarcastic: But what does this one know, its only a doctor."

A few seconds past before the Freespacer spoke up again. " This one also believes it to be hazardous to an individuals health to try and take over subject 324's ship. Then again Six Four is basing this on relatively recent observations and interactions with said subject."

 

[NightWolfe]

Black Moon - Vel's Abode

The one Six-Four picked up had several files with different designations that Six-Four wouldnt reconize and a file called Symbiosis. "I would prefer you not going through my stuff. As I said this man was the only one to stay here, I am sure any other survivors left the system in search for other employment." He said oddly cheerfully before he looked at the large man "before we leave, if you accept that is, I must get a FMS-2 plasma torch as I do not have an augment that would simulate the use of one."

 

[Floodwaters]

Concordia Veil - Main Corridor

Every step Amelia took was a painfully slow, arduous process, trying as hard as she could to stay silent, which proved difficult in the cold, dark metal corridor. Each time her boot touched the metal grating, no matter how gingerly she did it, she felt like even the softest footfall had the potential to echo through the silence, worrying her that she might miss any telltale sounds that Datsan might make. The bright spot of light illuminated but a tiny circular area of the bulkheads at any time, occasionally illuminating one of the larger bundles of conduits running along the walls, punctuated at regular intervals by the rungs used for zero-gravity maneuvering. Even though she knew that just outside the ship was a docking facility that was likely abuzz with activity, the vacuum prevented any telltale sounds from reaching the hull, and without the thrum of the engines or the hum of electrical systems, all was silent. Except for the unnerving sensation of Crash's spindly spider legs gripping her shoulder, her heartbeat pounding in her chest, throat, and temples was her only companion.

Cautiously and nervously she approached the closed door to the lavatory, her light sweeping along the corridor with every step as she drew closer. Finally she was within arm's reach of the door, and standing with her ear close to it, she listened. No sound came from within, at least none that she could hear.

Seconds after her pause, a loud, mechanical clunk echoed through the corridor, like that of a huge circuit breaker being thrown, and the corridor was flooded with red light. The sound and sudden illumination caused Amelia to wince, startled, and whirl around to check her surroundings. Both she and Crash noticed the quick, hurried shuffling sound from towards the aft maintenance area, as well as movement. It was Datsan, and by appearances he had just leaped out from the open engineering hatch, and in just longer than an instant Amelia realized that he had thrown something at her.

The heavy wrench connected squarely with her forehead with an excruciatingly sickening crack, knocking her head back and sending her to the floor.

 

[Foxtrot 813]

Concordia Veil - Main Corridor

Amelia landed on the floor with dry thud, gasping. The blow itself had not only hurt, and hurt a lot, but it also added insult to injury when it came to the headache she was already fighting since she had woken up in the locker. Her whole world at that moment was reduced to the pain, and she couldn't tell whether or not her vision had actually gone red because of it or if it was just the emergency lights anymore, and nor did she care, she just wanted to curl up into a ball and take the pain that was throbbing in her head after something like that.

She didn't, though, more because the fear of what would come next if she had was much more persuasive than the pain itself. The Astrogator tried to prop herself up to a sitting position with her left hand, but failed and ended up just having to use her elbows for support. Although she was still disoriented from the blow, that didn't stop her, in the desperate rush that she was then, from raising her other hand and firing the pistol, not caring if she was even aiming or not.

 

[Yoshi]

Crash fell to the ground when Amelia was hit. Its pet was damaged... It was pissed. Skittering forward under the spray of Amelia, Crash went directly for the Man. Skittering up his leg and chest it proceeded to start stabbing for the intruder's eyes, as the mandibles started attempting to slice open the man's face. All in all It would give Amelia time to recover and come forth to kill him as he was distracted.

 

[Riko]

Vel's Place

Six Four payed no attention to Vel as it continued to read though the data pad, curious as to how he got a hold of indepth military technology.

"Curious: Your contact did you say? Was he a weapons dealer may haps? This one is curious seeing as there is military grade schematics on here. Very Expensive on the black market."

The Freespacer didn't look up from the data pad as it kept reading and scrolling though the various documents.

"This one is wondering if you are looking for scapegoats, this whole mission may have be a clever distraction for a much larger operation. Humorously: Then again Six Four is merely a doctor, no time for shady underhanded dealings."

Six Four continued reading, flipping though the digital pages of military documents with no intention to stop looking away, it had found something to read so it would be preoccupied for a few moments. As it did so, Specimen 1 the micro space aligator, poked its head out of the doctors jacket hip pocket. Making a small gurgling squeak the small six legged aligator geko hybrid begain to crawl up Six Fours coat until it rested on its shoulder, where it begain to gnaw on the side of the helmet.

Either the doctor didn't realize there was a reptile trying to eats its helmet or it simply didn't care.

 

[Floodwaters]

Concordia Veil - Main Corridor

Datsan obviously hadn't expected Amelia to be armed. When the wild hailstorm of bullets began ricocheting off of the bulkheads, the older man's hands shot up to cover his head on defensive reflex, and he hunched over to run. The sound in the relatively small, metal-constructed hallway was deafening, the gunshots knocking out everyone's hearing almost immediately and replacing it with a high-pitched, tinny whine that drowned out all other sounds.

Crash skittered across the floor and sprang at the invader, legs outstretched like some sort of hostile alien parasite, and latched onto the fleeing man's calf, its spindly legs digging into his suit as it climbed. Datsan was even further startled by the sudden attack, and even though no one could hear it, his gaping mouth and bulging neck tendons made it obvious he had screamed in a panic. He continued to run from Amelia's assault, but once he was safely far enough around the circular corridor to be shielded from the spray of bullets, he furiously began to bang his leg against the inner wall, trying to dislodge the mechanical spider, but Crash held fast, continuing to scale the flailing human.

The spider bot's ascent wasn't unpunished, however, as it was battered and beaten repeatedly while it climbed, particularly once it swung around to the intruder's chest. Occasionally Datsan managed to bat away part of its grip on the front of his suit, but one or two legs always managed to maintain a grip, and it continued to inch closer to Datsan's screaming face. Two steps closer, one step back, then two more steps closer it climbed. Finally it reached the "inspector's" chin level, and rearing its front two legs back, drove them straight towards Datsan's eyes.

Only one of them found its mark, but it was effective enough. A spurt of ocular fluid burst out of Datsan's right eye socket as the sharp metal leg impaled his eyeball, followed immediately by dribble of blood coursing down his cheek. Datsan continued in his frenzied efforts to bat the spider bot away, but now that he only had one good eye, he became less effective, and his blows missed more often. However, in a brief moment of clarity, the inspector withdrew his stun baton, and started to beat on the spider-bot, hitting himself in the collarbone and jaw almost as often as he struck metal. Crash continued to swipe at the man's face repeatedly, clinging as hard as it could to the front of the man's suit, and finally Datsan fell to his backside, kicking on the floor and sliding backwards as he kept trying to dislodge the terrifying new assailant. In seconds it looked like his face had been worked over repeatedly with a fistful of knives, with gashes and cuts crisscrossing his skin every which way.

Finally, Datsan managed to switch his baton on, and the next blow that landed on the spider-bot send courses of disabling currents through its systems. The automaton's legs convulsed and jerked wildly with the prolonged zapping, and eventually went limp as the bot dropped to the floor.

 

[Foxtrot 813]

Concordia Veil - Main Corridor

Amelia could only stand there and watch the surreal events that unfolded in front of her, her eyes squinting to see it through the pain. She no longer could hear because of all the noise, but she didn't need that clue to know that her pistol had ran out of bullets, even with all the pain fogging her vision she could still see the weapon's slide proudly locked open after the last shot was fired. The woman clumsily reached for her thigh, next to the empty holster, and fumbled trying to get a new magazine out. She further fumbled with the fresh magazine again, watching as the empty one clattered against the ship's deck next to the empty brass casings so intently that she could imagine the noise. The astrogator inserted the magazine in, releasing the slide with a fresh bullet in the chamber.

Gritting her teeth, Amelia got up, only to have the pain in her head come back with enough intensity that her vision blurred out and darkened around the edges, making her lose her balance and support herself with her extra hand against the inner wall of the hallway. She felt light-headed and like her limbs were made of wet noodles, which was funny to her, since her heart was pounding like a jack-hammer in her chest. The helplessness of feeling her own body start to not respond to her scared her, further spurring her into action, so she started moving again.

The very injured and pissed woman inched forward, left hand against the wall to keep her upright while her other pointed the gun down the hallway.

 

[Gunsight1]

Vel's place


Oreza eyed Vel, "And what makes you think we are a trustworthy crew to work with" he asked, "Also, what proof do you have to give me that this is not a scam to get us out to a trap to take our ship?" He added.

 

[NightWolfe]

Black Moon - Vel's Abode

"If you must know I don't find you trustworthy at all, you in particular, I wouldn't trust you to not blow me up on that ship if all you had to do to stop it was press a button that was under your hand. Your captain however, I believe I can trust her as long as there is a payout for her." Vel said then shook his head at the ridiculous conspiracy theory, "If I was after your ship I would have had any group I was with wait for me to bring people back here then attack in the alley not far from here and make it look like I was innocent by being "injured" in case the attack failed so I could still potentially get you to accept the job. Plus where out there would I manage to place a trap that isn't visible several light seconds away? On the ship I told you about? Why wouldn't I just salvage it myself and be on my merry way?"

 

[Yoshi]

Ship Like Place....

Error...
Error...
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Bootmgr missing...
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Bootmgr missing...
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Boot.
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Crash OS loading
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System diagnostic running....
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Sensors Damaged
External feeds Damaged
Connection to Wifi disabled.
Legs Damaged
Chasse Damaged
Grilled cheese production mine closed
fried EGG PLAnt Drives is corrupted.
.
.
.
.

 

[Floodwaters]

Concordia Veil - Main Corridor

Slowly inching along the inner wall of the main hallway, her head pounding like a jackhammer, her vision blurry, and temporarily deaf, Amelia finally spotted a kicking pair of boots jutting out just around the corner ahead in the red light. As she approached, bit by bit the rest of Datsan's prone form was revealed, lying on his side. Both of his hands her covering his face, his fingers hooked into rigid clawlike shapes, and he was curled up in the fetal position, his knees drawn to his chest as he twitched and thrashed. Closer examination revealed that from the looks of his neck, jaw, and mouth, he was screaming in agony, but she couldn't hear a thing over the tinny drone in her ears. There was blood pooling around his head and down the front of his suit, and the floor was streaked with it in her direction; he must have tried to crawl away but didn't make it far before collapsing. The ominous red glow and the conspicuous absence of sound made the sight so much more ghastly that it otherwise would have been.

She couldn't see the wound where the blood was coming from, but it must have been on the older man's head or face, from the way he was simultaneously covering it and cowering from it at the same time with his hands. A few feet away, she noticed Crash upside down on the floor, one of his spindly legs twitching erratically, but otherwise perfectly still.

 

[Foxtrot 813]

Concordia Veil - Main Corridor

Amelia's gaze went from the downed man to the spiderbot, and then back at him again. Being dizzy from the blow made her slow, and while the pain had been enough incentive, seeing Crash lying there, ironically, like an actual dead spider was all the incentive she needed. For all the astrogator knew, he had killed it, and on the haze of pain that she was such aggression begets retribution, which prompted her to slowly raise her right arm, pointing the pistol at the downed man.

Much to her surprise, Amelia found herself hesitating. She had killed someone before, but she wasn't or at least didn't consider herself to be a killer. That train of thought only lasted for a fraction of a second, though, and it only took that other side of her to remind that she had led them there -baring her throat- and they had attacked her. Not only that but they had also, again, most likely killed the bot. Curling her lips in a scowl, the small woman fired her pistol at him from where she was, feeling the recoil of the gun rather than hearing the noise again. Whether he was down and helpless or just recovering before striking again didn't matter to her, she was way past caring about that after what had just transpired.

'Crash." Amelia thought, letting her hand go from the inner wall of the hallway, supporting herself on unsteady feet, and made her way towards the spiderbot. She crouched down next to it, realizing that she hadn't thought the bot's name, but was rather saying it, and only noticed it once the ringing in her ears slowly started to subside. "Crash, wake up!" She said, nudging one of the bot's legs and hearing her own voice as if she had been speaking from another room.

 

[Floodwaters]

Concordia Veil - Main Corridor

Datsan convulsed violently for a few seconds after the bullets ripped through him one after the other, and after a second crimson puddle expanded around him, he went limp and lolled onto his back. It was then that Amelia caught the full view of the older man's mangled face. She wasn't sure how, but evidently Crash had managed to climb up and shred him from chin to forehead. There was barely enough flesh left to recognize; had Amelia not seen him just moments before, she might have doubted whether the mangled, bloodied flaps of skin hanging off of sinew and bone was actually Datsan. Particularly since one of his eyes was pierced and deflated like a shrivelled grape. The misshapen skull staring accusingly back at her was grisly enough to chill her to her core.

Crash remained still and devoid of any sign of movement, save for the dwindling, erratic twitch of its one spindly leg, showing no sign of response to Amelia's prodding. By all appearances, the robot was completely shut down, but there wasn't any sign of external damage. Datsan's stun baton lay nearby, inactive. She could only hope that perhaps the hijacker had managed to shock the spider-bot to the point of overload, and that the long-term damage was minor.

The ringing in her ears was still deafening, but gradually she couldn't help but wonder if it was undulating slightly. Looking around, she noticed a small blinking light on the PHC attached to her wrist, and when she brought it closer to her ear, she could barely make out the faint sound of a notification chime over the droning tinnitus. Waving her hand over the device, she brought up its volumetric display and punched the flashing icon. Several messages flashed in front of her.

Message from:  Sienna Shelton
 
Someone sent me a message saying some kind of inspectors boarded the ship.  Was that you?

Message from:  Sienna Shelton
 
I'm almost to the berth.  Are you there?

Message from:  Sienna Shelton
 
God damn it, Amelia, if you're there, answer me.  I'm at the dorsal hatch.

Message from:  Sienna Shelton
 
What the hell is going on in there???  Who's shooting???

Message from:  Sienna Shelton
 
WHERE THE FRACK ARE YOU

 

[Foxtrot 813]

Concordia Veil - Main Corridor

Amelia sat down, the interface of the PHC shutting off as she leaned against the wall, feeling the backplate of her vest press up against her. She looked up, staring at the ceiling for a while before closing her eyes, her captain could wait. Staying like that for a moment, she waited for the pain in her head to get down to a more manageable scale. The astrogator started to relax, her eyelids felt heavy and she found herself slowly slipping away, like after a very tiring day of work where her limbs just felt like they were made of lead and her eyes fought to stay closed. She wanted nothing more than rest.

She snapped out of it in a jolt, like someone had just tagged her with the stun baton again, but instead of going down, she went up, propping on knee on the floor and her foot forward to get up, not even bothering to pick up her pistol again. She reached for the spiderbot, picking it up and cradling it under her arm like a very heavy bag before she started to make her way back to the airlock chamber, again using her other hand to support herself against the inner wall.

Concordia Veil - Central Airlock Chamber

Amelia entered the small chamber very slowly, grunting after she set one leg inside the room and again once she set the other one. She quickly went for the same panel as before, activating the interface to cycle the room she was in with the docking tube outside. She felt the small pressure on her ears as the atmospheric pressure in the room changed and the airlock hissed and clicked, ready to be opened by whoever was outside.

Soon after that, she started to lose her balance again, and quickly reached for the wall to support herself, still holding the spiderbot with her other arm. She didn't even want to begin thinking about how she would explain that.

 

[Yoshi]

Restart instigated....

The square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the other two squares <cont>
But why does the Mouse rotate on point...

I have never understood that....

jam and jellies bounce across the world...

Drives spinning at max spinieness....

Bzzzzzt.....

You spin me right round baby right round....

Internal Systems Online...

Good Morning Crash Welcome To Spider-bot 3000...

All external  systems down....

Please see your service provider....

It was being carried, not that Crash knew it. Thoughts and memories races through his processors and ram chunks. It was trying to figure out what had happened, he remembered the man and Amelia shooting recklessly. The the black out came about.

One single yellow light was flashing on the 'bot's undercarriage.

 

[Floodwaters]

Concordia Veil - Central Airlock Chamber

The dorsal hatch had barely cracked open before Sienna's legs dropped through, and the suit-encased ship's captain descended the rungs three at a time. She barely made it more than halfway down before she let go and jumped the rest of the way, cushioning her landing by bending her knees and squatting nearly all the way to the ground before she sprang back up and twisted her helmet off with a hiss. Yanking the airlock cycle lever without looking, the hatch above them clanged shut, and Sienna's face, twisted with anger, revealed itself, scanning the immediate area with heightened alertness and concern. The Nepleslian appeared to be screaming furiously at the top of her lungs, the tendons in her neck bulging and her face turning beet red, but all Amelia could hear was an unintelligible murmuring. Sienna advanced on Amelia, turning her burning hot gaze on the astrogator, but just as she reached towards her, possibly to grab a fistful of her suit or punch her straight in the jaw, she suddenly stopped yelling and her face turned stony and unreadable when she saw the impact bruise and broken skin on Amelia's forehead, as well as the exhausted, drained look on her face.

Sienna tossed her helmet aside and looked toward the closed hatch leading into the ship, then back at Amelia. After a pause, her lips formed the words: "What the hell happened?"

 

[Foxtrot 813]

Amelia simply shook her head in response to Sienna. 'Taken care of', she thought, or rather said but could barely hear the words, leaning closer to the wall and using her shoulder to support herself. It was just then that she reached for her head with her free hand, trying to inspect the damage through her gloves, but she jut gasped and flinched, withdrawing her hand from where the blow had struck when the pain flared back just from her brushing the very sensitive area. Allowing herself to finally stand down after all that since the captain was back in the ship, she was beginning to feel the tiredness return, and slowly started to slide down, sitting with her back against the wall.

 

[Floodwaters]

Concordia Veil - Central Airlock Chamber

Sienna watched Amelia lower herself to the floor, her brow furrowing slowly, and her eyes flicked to the inactive spider bot tucked under her arm. The captain, now clearly bewildered and somewhat suspicious, looked back at Amelia's face. Her lips moved again, but the black-haired woman could barely make out her words. She managed to discern the phrase "what happened to you" when Sienna tapped her own forehead with a gloved hand, and then with the same hand pointed at the spider bot, "what is that thing?"

Amelia then noticed that Sienna's right hand was resting on her holstered pistol, and the look on her face made it clear she wanted answers, and wasn't prepared to wait for them.

Noticing the captain's hand hover next to her gun also wounded Amelia. Her eyes narrowed as she looked to the other woman after looking to the weapon. She had chosen just to suck it up before, but the injustice she felt was even bigger at that point; it wasn't about some miscalculations that weren't her fault, but she had almost literally bled trying to defend the ship. "What are you gonna do. Shoot me?" she asked Sienna, lips pursing defiantly.

Sienna's face looked even more nonplussed at Amelia's reply, and without missing a beat, her lips started to move again, and still Amelia had difficulty hearing her exact words. "If I...gonna...oot you, I wo...already," she replied coolly. "I heard gunsh...I was waiting...open the damn door. ...you obvi...a knock to the head. Who else...here?"

Amelia, in turn, squinted, trying to read the other woman's lips rather than try to hear what she was saying over the constant ringing in her ears. "It's taken care of," she said again, looking at the closed airlock leading into the hallway before continuing. "There were two hijackers, so I took care of them," she continued.

The captain's eyebrows shot up in a mixture of astonishment and irate anger, and she followed Amelia's gaze to the inner airlock hatch. With another glance back at Amelia, she walked over to the door and paused for a moment, as if unsure of whether or not they were actually standing just on the other side. Unfastening the latch on her pistol holder, she leaned her shoulder lightly against the wall just next to the release hatch, and held her eyes on Amelia. "What...hell do...ean, hijackers?" she hissed, her hand still on her weapon. "Didn't I....not to...in? Are they gone?"

"They said they were port authorities, alright? Was I supposed to risk it and ignore them?" Amelia said, her eyes following the other woman. She inhaled deeply after the last question, being reminded somehow of what she had done, she could say that both of them had it coming, but she still felt guilty about it, "No, one's still there but he's out," she said after a while. "I took his weapon and tied him down."

"Authorities," she heard Sienna say flatly, almost mocking. "Port authorities...lace like this. You're a frackin' idiot." The captain gritted her teeth in a slight sneer as she yanked the cycle lever again, opening the inner hatch. Her mood didn't improve when she saw that the ship's interior was lit by nothing more than emergency lighting, and Amelia heard her say something though with her back turned it was impossible to understand what.

Sienna was gone for a few minutes, leaving Amelia alone in the airlock, slumped against the wall, with Crash's inert body smooshed against her hip. Time ticked by slowly as she waited, taking the opportunity to contemplate what had just happened. She found out that, unsurprisingly, liking the ship's captain became harder the more things happened. Her gaze went down to the spiderbot again, and she realized that the thing that was initially trying to undermine her had in the end being more helpful and friendly to the person she had chosen to work to, making her chuckle a little. There was a twisted poetry to that.

Amelia lowered her head again, closing her eyes for a while until she felt like getting up again.

Approaching footsteps on the metal deck caused Amelia to open her eyes again just in time to see Sienna step back in front of the open hatch, although she was surprised to see that her facial expression had changed. She didn't appear quite so irritated anymore; in fact... was she smirking?

"So," the captain stated, and Amelia noticed that the ringing in her ears was starting to slowly fade, although the sounds around her still sounded muffled, as if she was listening from underwater. "You did take care of it, it looks like," Sienna continued, and reached out on either side of her, grasping both sides of the open portal and hanging her arms casually from them. She was smirking, and it was getting a little broader after her assessment. Tilting her head slightly, she looked down at the battered astrogator with an almost conspiratorial expression. "But I'm curious," she added, lowering her voice, "why... uh... why did you pull one of 'em's pants to his ankles?"

"I... What?" Amelia said, raising an eyebrow. She retraced every step of her little 'journey' ever since the hijackers came aboard and then it hit her. The astrogator's face felt like it was burning, and to anyone who looked would see that it was flushed red too, "I had to tie him down with something so I, uh, used his belt," she said, if Sienna hadn't said it she wouldn't have even notice herself that the man's pants had come down all the way to his ankles once she had finished dragging him around.

"So that one's alive and humiliated," Sienna replied, her smirk growing even more at Amelia's obvious discomfort. "And that other one?" she asked with a leading tone. "Why'd you shred him to pieces instead of just un-pantsing him too?"

The astrogator's gaze went down again, looking at the deck of the ship. She didn't answer the last question, not because she didn't want to but because she didn't know the reason herself, nor if it was actually completely justified. They hadn't killed her when they tried to take over the ship, but that didn't mean it was a good thing either, and she wasn't just about to wait in the locker to find out. Thinking that out, Amelia simple shrugged back at Sienna.

"Hm," was all that Sienna answered with, and her smirk slowly subsided to a muted pensive expression. The two sat in silence for a moment before Sienna finally took one of her gloved hands off of the door frame and lightly rubbed the tip of her index finger in the middle of her forehead. "And this?" she asked. "Looks like one of 'em got a blow in. You okay?"

"I'm alright," Amelia replied, not daring to actually touch the sensitive skin again, "just need to catch my breath. I get dizzy when I stand up," she added. Her gaze went back to the other woman, looking for a moment as if she was going to say something, but she simple returned to looking down at the floor again.

Sienna continued to watch Amelia with slight curiosity, and by the looks of it, oddly newfound respect. She said nothing further for a moment more, and idly reached down to re-fasten the clasp on her pistol holster, the threat obviously long since gone. "So, what's that thing, then?" she finally said, motioning towards the motionless spider-bot at her side with a flick of her hand.

Staring again at the other woman, Amelia hesitated answering her as she weighed down whether she should tell her captain or not. She wasn't sure what the other woman would do, but she had every reason to believe that it wouldn't be something good. "Something of mine, nothing important," she said after a while, not knowing what her captain would do, especially if she found out that it had been the bot who had been messing with the computers, she chose to lie instead.

The captain's face remained deadpan except for the singular upward twitch of one eyebrow; from the looks of it, she didn't believe it. "Don't remember you having anything like that when you came aboard," she replied. "What's it for?"

"Why the sudden interest?" Amelia asked back as she started to think of an answer.

"Because I don't know what it is, what it does, or why it's on my ship," Sienna replied plainly.

"It's mine, are you telling me I'm not supposed to have personal effects now?" Amelia asked back.

Sienna appeared slightly surprised at how resolutely defensive Amelia had suddenly become, but the dubious look stayed on her face. After a beat, she sighed and shook her head. "Fine, don't tell me, then," she resigned. "But it stays in your cabin until I know what it is." She released her grips on the edges of the doorway, and reached down to offer Amelia a hand in standing up. "C'mon," she said. "If you can walk, let's get you someplace more comfortable than the floor in here."

Reaching with her gloved hand in return, Amelia grabbed the other woman's and hoisted herself up, not feeling like she was about to lose her balance again, much to her surprise. "Did you find what you were looking for out there?" she asked once she was up and moving out of the airlock chamber.

Sienna draped Amelia's arm around her shoulder to provide balance and support, and led her out into the corridor towards the living area. "Not really," she answered. "Long story, kinda boring. We may have another prospect, though, and if it comes through, I need your ass rested."

"Alright," Amelia answered, allowing herself to be lead around the ship, "does that mean I won't have to clean up the mess?" she asked as both of them walked.

Much to Amelia's surprise, Sienna actually laughed slightly. "Yeah, don't worry about it," the captain replied. "I'll handle it; I gotta figure out what they did to my ship anyway, and since you left one of them alive, I bet I can get some answers outta him."

The astrogator sighed in relief, she couldn't even begin to imagine having to do that herself. What did make her wonder, though, was why the other woman was being helpful all of a sudden.

Amelia was led into the common area, then through cabin two and finally into her own room. Sienna eased her down to the edge of her bed and pulled her arm off of her, then took a step back. Putting her hands on her hips, she gnawed on her lower lip for a second, clearly thinking that there was something she should say or do, but she by all appearances had no idea what. The result was her simply standing there in awkward silence for a few seconds.

"Well," Sienna said finally, "I might've hired a doctor that can take a look at your head, if and when he gets here." She shifted her balance, pausing in a mildly uncomfortable silence again, then finally just gave her a conclusive nod before turning to go.

"Alright." Amelia said once again, setting the inactive spiderbot on the bed as she reached for the plastic clasps on the sides of her vest. She released them all on one side, and then simply grabbed the shoulder harness from that side and pulled it up, sliding it over her head and watching as the vest came down against the metallic floor with a thud. Not bothering to take any other attire off, she simply collapsed on the bed, her legs hanging out on the edge from her knees.

Turning from the doorway, Sienna looked back over her shoulder at Amelia, and her lips parted as if to say something. But when she saw the astrogator already on the verge of passing out, she closed her mouth again, changing her mind. There wasn't anything else to say anyhow. Hitting the door panel with the edge of her palm, she closed the door to the cabin and headed back into the main corridor. There was a lot of work to be done.

 

[Floodwaters]

Black Moon - Vel's Abode

Oreza sneered slightly, fighting back the urge to lay the snarky Iromakuanhe flat on his back with a punch. His enormous arms still folded sternly across his barrel chest, he glared back across as Vel; even though he was at eye level, his significantly greater mass gave him the far more intimidating presence. "You may think you're quite clever," he growled, "but I'm not gullible enough to think such a ruse is impossible, or even as impractical as you try to make it sound. Were it up to me, I would tell you to stuff that datapad of yours and find another ship foolhardy enough to take on a loose cannon like yourself." He paused just long enough to draw a slow, steady breath through his nose. "But the Captain may think otherwise. So here's the deal. You have two hours to get what you need from this hovel, and then you'll go to the spaceport. Shaft Eta. Contact me on this channel," he told Vel as he took out his personal communicator and transmitted the messaging address to his datapad. "I need to discuss this with her."

He then turned his head towards the Freespacer doctor. "As for you," he continued, "it seems you're already hired. So come with me." With that Oreza turned back for the door, brusquely shoving one of the pieces of mechanical debris aside with his foot. As he walked out, he looked back over his shoulder at Vel, holding up his bearlike index and middle finger for Vel to see. "Two hours," he repeated, and headed back the way they'd come.