EVENTUALLY...
The valuable items and the precious AI Core were extracted from the ship. Rae and Veronica were assisted somewhat to bring the Artificial Intelligence core in by some engineering personnel. Once the extract was made, it was bought to the engineering deck for further examination later. The pirate captain was thrown into the brig, and the interrogation would come soon. Sooner the better, Keib mused.
Pratima's other bodies were recovered and taken aboard, left in the 4th Level medical bay for basic wound treatment. Vithr, the ship's resident doctor had hooked Shrie'keng up to long term care in the bigger medical bay, effectively putting the soldier out of action while his face recovered from being shot at.
During the meanwhilst, the bodies of the pirates and their armours were scavenged for materials, weapons and ammunition. For the any other ship in the Matriarchy, or indeed the rest of the sector it would've been slim pickings. For the Akahar it was a rich day. The materials from the pirate ship's hold were also taken and stripped down to patch the Akahar after their engagement. Explosive charges were planted on the pirate ship once everything of value, and the two defector's belongings were safely on the Akahar.
Keib had organised a meeting in the pilot ready room to make tails and ends of what just happened in the last hour, starting with "Hakahn," he started, cutting to the heart of the question immediately. "has abandoned us without proper leave, so I must announce that effective immediately, I will be acting as Commanding Officer in his place."
His face was solemn as he stood at the podium, flanked only by his helashio assistant and the woman with cerise eyes and a burnt arm. Keib reached for a cup of strong alcohol on the podium and took a sip before continuing. "Whether he will be eligible for that position if he returns is highly unlikely, as he appears to have betrayed us." Betraying a ship in its direst moments was considered on par with treason.
In years of old, if a commander did that they were letting themselves open not only to death and a nameless grave, but they were letting their troops and their equipment open to the enemy - and with enemies like the Occhestians who were capable of reverse-engineering sensitive technology easily, no risks could be taken.
Though, now that the Occhestians were but a thing of the past for the Lorath, their main concern was piracy and the black market. Perhaps it was a common thread amongst all militaries of the sector. The black market was a beast of its own since it had no face and it could strike from within just as easily as it could from without.
"I'll send a report of what happened here to headquarters as soon as I can, patch our wounds and request aid to get to operational capacity again and continue our mission: Find the LCS Mok'Ro." A holographic screen appeared of the Tange system with a large sphere of where the ship could be. "I will make note of your individual actions and see if I can wrestle a promotion or commendation or two from HQ for you."
Keib then reached for the detonator resting on the podium and looked over to the bridge crew. They nodded silently. The charges were set and ready on the pirate ship. He then turned around to look at Aiesu, down at his side.
She nodded back but said nothing. Keib would notice she'd been strangely muted for quite a while now.
He flipped the safety switch off of the detonator, squeezed it, and pressed the button. Outside in space, the pirate's ship went up in orange blasts, scattering its hull and superstructure to the void of space. It was like a wasp's exoskeleton was torn open and scattered to the wind once all the flesh had been sucked out of it by a bird of prey. Normally, after destroying a ship, he'd be jubilant, positively elated; cracking jokes about it to lighten the crew's spirits.
"I...I can't make light of this situation." He stated solemnly, putting the detonator back down and facing the audience again. "Not today. We risked losing so much. I risked losing you." He looked down at the podium and his train of thought missed a connection. He took another sip of alcohol before continuing. Aiesu counted this as his fifth sip, the rest of the ship thought it was his second on the podium but he'd taken a drink before organising the meeting.
He wobbled the podium and put his weight on it, coughing before looking up again. He began mumbling . A murmur went through the crowd. Greg moved by his side and reached up to give him a pat on the back and support him physically. He looked to the crowd and frowned.
Aiesu grit her teeth. She'd been tugging at Keib's sleeve for almost a whole minute now, trying to get his attention. Only then did he notice her.
"You shouldn't be doing this," she hissed through her teeth barely above a whisper. Her throat was coarse. "Get off the stage, Keib."
He stumbled backwards and found himself on the back wall of the stage before gaining his feet again. "Dis...Dismissed." He told the general assembly. Nobody moved.
Immediately, Aiesu pulled Keib aside, off the stage and dragged him behind a door. A few confused murmurs rode the crowd as she pushed his back up against the wall again.
"This. You cann' do. This. Do'you even know the meanin of the word morale or do you expect to find that at the bottom of your bottle too? You fucken idiot?"
Her accent, normally so clean and crisp had broken into something a bit less formal. Perhaps even hick. She hadn't noticed.
"These kids already think thiss'is voyage of the damn'd or somthan. You're not helpan your cause here."
He was oblivious to Aiesu's accent and responded with a similarly coarse tongue. "For fuck's sake, I'm here abandoned by the Goddess herself. Nothin' can grant me absolution, nothin'. Not even the fucking QUEEN can for what I've done!"
He put his left hand into Aiesu's face. He wasn't wearing a glove over it this time.
Her eyes followed his hand, then returned to his eye. She felt something rough over his palm. A scar?
"If they're the ones doing the work then what are you for? You don't have anything you didn't before!" she snapped.
Except one thing...
Carefully, she reached up, snatching the flask from Keib's jacket, ripping a leather strap in the process. She held the thing up and tipped her head back, emptying the whole thing, gulp by gulp before tossing it aside.
She doubled over, head buried against his gut, coughing her guts up - struggling for air.
"Whoa. Whoa. I sip it fer a reason." He said, slapping her on the back.
She inhaled sharply, glaring up at him. "If its in me, it can't be in you."
"I almost lost everything I could take pride in today. Unlike you and your construct body, none of us have a second chance if we fuck up."
"Your chances of survival drop by something like 91% if you don't stay lucid and calm. Look." she rapsed, coughing again. Some amount of clear fluid met the wall before she wiped her face, covering it, visibly wretching. "Earlier, you were amazin'. Caaalm, resooolved. Military. Amazin'. What happened to that guy?"
"He died when I fucking killed her!"
Who? Killed Who!? she stared back, redness in her eyes burning, the shadows about them accentuated into deep pits. Her breathing had become irregular.
He took a few deep breaths.
"Say it," she grumbled.
"Me'lan. ME'LAN. Me'lan 'Eclastia' Occhestian."
"Occhestian...? What was she to you?" The name rung a bell but Aiesu couldn't quite work out where she'd heard it. Thankfully, a construct had the benefit of admissible memory.
"At first, a target, and later, a kindred spirit. Like you, she refused to be bound to her caste's expectations. Staving off the Occhestian ... colonial streak, just as you seem to shun the religious expectations of your caste. I was drawn to it and my cover got too deep for the Matriarchy to handle as I assisted them more and more to gain their trust. They gave me an ultimatum to bring it all to an end at Lake Ae'rys and finish it."
She remained quiet. Now, he was a faucet. Maybe a fountain. She just let him speak.
He looked at Aiesu and sighed, letting out something between a chuckle and whimper. "You even look like her. I've tried so hard to forget the memories and to atone for what I did, but the brain. No, the brain never truly forgets-" He tapped the side of his head. "-the brain is a resilient thing."
"I know. If it wants something, it doesn't let go" she said, leaning on him as much for her own support now as his own. Oh, her mind was lucid (for the most part) but her involuntary responses and what little of her brain was biological wasn't having a great time; Her blood pressure was rising. Her lips had turned a soft shade of blue -- her body moving strangely, as if it had fallen asleep but her skeleton hadn't - her eyes becoming glassy.
"If... If it keeps this ship afloat, I can be that person for you..."
Keib darted in and grabbed her, he looked outside for an emergency medkit on one of the walls. Finding one and procuring the box from it, he had to ensure that three things were in order for her to keep this body living. Clear airway, steady breathing, and circulation.
She watched flatly, arching a brow sluggishly.
"What are you doing?"
"You're suffering from alcohol poisoning. You took an entire flask of 120 proof alcohol. It's gone right to your head, and you're not breathing properly."
"My brain is artificial. I'll be fine," she said, suppressing bile as she cleared her throat. "This isn't about me, stop trying to change the subject. What happened with you and this... Me'lan?"
"Love. Might be a foreign concept to you and the world in its original sense. To most its just another word for emotional leverage," he said as he put a mask over her face and started to supply a stream of oxygen regulated by a bladder that he was squeezing on.
Immediately, her arms shot up, flailing at him to try and break the seal. "H-Hey!"
"Breathe, stay calm. I'll explain more," He said as he kept his grip firm on his implements. "Back then I was trained to use love as a smokescreen, as an exploitation to build trust. I'm sure you're familiar with the idea."
"Infiltrator? You were a spy? Oh, how glamorous~" she tried to purr beneath the mask, just sounding sickly with how little air was in her lungs.
"There's nothing glamorous about espionage." He said as he checked her blood pressure.
"I'm the one who'd be experiencing brain death round about now if I was made like you are and I still run mental rings around you... Is cynicism that unfamiliar a concept to you?"
"Even in death you're a smartass." He grumbled as he took the mask off to see how she was breathing without assistance now that her lungs had been aired out. He reached for a bottle of distilled water in the medical kit and passed it to her. "And to boot you're a lightweight. Whoever configured your body originally has never touched the bottle, have they?"
"Once, quite recently actually. After I was made. It was a successful enterprise, though the morning after was painful if I remember."
"Once does not entitle you to drink another person's flask, missy."
She could feel herself wretching again.
"If its to keep you sober enough to function, I'll drink every drop on this ship."
"Spacing the alcohol not glamorous enough for you?"
"Spacing?"
He pointed out into space.
"I wouldn't put it past you findin' a way to r'cover it.."
"Not without having to bring the whole fucking ship with me."
"My mouth feels kind of numb... Anyway, You're the captain, aren'tchya?" she grinned now, lopsided as it was.
He didn't have a comeback for that as he laid her down began CPR. He had to assist her artifical skeleton with breathing, as her involuntary mind seemed to forget how to keep breathing. It was a messy affair.
"H-Hey.. Hey!" she began protesting, anticipating something of a completely different nature as he laid her down. "Hyggugh... Yo-You're hgh.. Not--supposed--to---do--thissss...Hygh... when s-someone's... Aagkhugh.. Aw--Awake!" she screeched, fingers tight about his wrists. Y-You're...Hagh... Just b-bitter you ...Hugh.. Don't have a Jhugh... Jack shit!"
"Bitch, bitch, bitch." He retorted, grinning.
"Dddggjhk.... Th-...hngh... This is you being bitter over... Fwahgh... The booze?"
"Hardly. You now have some serious leverage on me, but I'm not going to make it fun for you." His words seemed to unslur and regain some clarity now that he was off the turps. "Now stay still and let me make sure your body - not your mind - doesn't die from oxygen starvation."
"...So dull..." she watched, a bratty frown pasted across her pale blue lips. "No kiss of life for your dear Me'lan?" she sighed, lifting her leg to kick him in his side. "This is for probably breaking my ribs."
He was struck not by a normal skeleton, but by a metal one. The alcohol in his sytem dulled some of the pain, but he'd definitely be walking lopsided for the rest of the day. "Walk it off."
"Walk it off?"
Slowly, Aiesu sat up, leaning against the wall in preparation to stand. Only then did she slip over, feeling her body evacuate the contents of her stomach.
It smelled like hell.
"Now that this escapade is over, can I get back to looking like I can find my own arse with both hands?"
"Gggkh... So unromantic... You wouldn't have enough hands to hold the map with the way you do things!; Flask in one... And in the other --"
"Yes, yes, a joystick. I know."
She stared. There was an awkward silence between them, slowly broken by the way her face changed. It clear the image had bloomed quite fruitfully in her mind's eye. "Huhhuhu..."
"Good to have you back too." Keib smiled. "You probably didn't mean a single word of what you said, right?"
"About what?" she grumbled, feeling the bruising in her chest as she watched him walk away.
Exactly.
Keib turned back to the pilot ready room and opened the door. "Where was I ... Oh, right." He went back on stage and stood up straight at the podium. "As I said. I can't stand the thought of losing any of you because you're valuable soldiers." This time, he said it with a firmer voice and pride in his subjects. "You all performed admirably under pressure, and I will ensure that you are commended as you each deserve both now and when the mission is concluded."
He then looked to a different part of the podium and had rank insignia. "Effective immediately, Rae'lynn 'Razor' Fyuunen is reinstated as a Soldier with all the priveliges her rank entitles." He stepped off of the stage and walked up to the Fyuunen. He had to reach up on his tiptoes to reach her shoulders and put the rank tags on. Gough smirked.
"In addition, the most immediate thing I can give you all is a pay bonus in the next cycle. Further commendations are up to HQ to decide, but I'm sure I can write some glowing reviews based on what I've heard and seen."
He then looked over to Veronica. "And I'm sure I can get you a pardon for your actions in assisting us. You'll avoid jail time at the least. Till then, go nuts." He chuckled.
He then walked back to the stage and resumed his position ad the podium. "I do apologise for my previous indiscretions. I'll be a better CO than Hakahn, and together, we WILL finish the mission."
That was a better message than what Keib had planned while he was in such a foul, stressed state. He looked back to Aiesu and whispered. "Better?"
From the sidelines, she gave a faint nod with a warm smile. He he'd never seen her making before, cheeks pushing up against the corners of her eyes.
Only to have it broken with wretching as she leant back through the door-way, concealing herself from the audience.
He could just make out what sounded like a splash.
Keib put his index finger and thumb to his head and clicked his tongue. "I'll... I'll clean that." He then looked back to the audience. "As for the rest of you, dismissed!" He stood straight and gave a salute to those assembled. They returned the salute quickly and dispersed in the opposite direction to Aiesu.
-
Some time later, Keib was there with a mop and bucket, cleaning up the vomit and puke. He was a man of his word after all. "Why you do dis." He asked flatly, missing his pronouns on purpose.
"The vomit or...?" she coughed. Either way, she felt like she'd won - her grin making it obvious.
He dipped his mop into the bucket and started swirling it on the floor again, trying to replace the acidic smells with disinfectant.
"Yeah. That."
"Your fault."
MAYBE NEXT TIME...
