RP: The Fringe [Chapter 3.1] - Junk

Starboard Cargo Bay

Tam looked down at the missing armor and then looked back at Sienna "I thank you for your concern however the thermal under-layer of my armor prevented any substantial heat bleed-through and my arm is undamaged, however I would like to have time to work on patching my armor at some point in the future." Tam replied as he ran his eyes across his gear that was laid out in the cargo bay. "I will settle in in the meantime and wait for you to be ready to discuss my possible permanent residency here."

Starboard Cargo Bay

Sienna's smirk grew a bit more at Tam's apparent eagerness to join her crew. She appeared to be slightly pleased at the amount of money he'd paid her for his extraction, as well as the idea of having an obviously genetically enhanced ex-soldier aboard, but more than that wasn't readily visible. She ran her eyes over him from head to toe critically again as the smirk slowly vanished, and then nodded. "Welcome aboard the Concordia Veil, then," she said. "Cabin Two is my first mate's. You can bunk up with him for now, though I understand he's in the infirmary, so you may have it to yourself for a while."

With that, she turned to head out. "I should go check on him, as a matter of fact," she called over her shoulder as she walked away. "Go on and put your stuff away. Living area is out this way, first door on the right." Stepping through the partially-cut-down hatchway, she turned to her right and vanished around the corner.

Infirmary

Before Shrie could react back to Oreza, Six Four returned with some things. The Fyunnen wondered what the leg of a destroyed robot would be for, but then she assumed that the freespacer wants to study it or something. Shrie then looked back at Oreza and gave him a bit of a puzzled look. It seemed he was really nice man, but Shrie was not sure what to exactly think of that. She was not used to that. In her past, you had to pay for everything you did. The Fyunnen decided to not wonder her broken mind over it and looked at the freespacer.

"Wound opened again," Shrie said. "I am putting pressure on it. Needs fixing again. No danger though, Mr. Oreza needs you first."

Infirmary

"This one sees.." Six Four said as it started to apply the ice to Oreza's knee, "Please keep this on the damaged area for a moment while Six Four tends to Shrie."

Spinning around The doctor began to sort though the various boxes of medical supplies behind it, mumbling to itself on the lack of organization and things it needed to do later. Finally after a few moments of tinkling bottles Six Four pulled out a small one labeled 'Prajna Gel' .

"Please expose the wounded area to me please." Six Four said putting a bit of the gel on its metallic hand.

Shrie reached behind her back and grabbed the zipper, sliding it down. she then pulled down upper part of her body suit, revealing nothing at all under it. It seemed she was not shy. Her arms were then raised to give Six Four access to her wound. Lorath's side was covered in blood from the open wood. It seemed that the stitched did not hold. There were also new bruises from the unlucky escape from teh moon's atmosphere during which the fyunnen was thrown around a bit. Shrie just waited patiently, there was not much else to say. Still Shrie felt a bit bad, sitting there silentle expecting the good doctor to just help her.

"Sorry. It opened up again." Shrie apologised. "I was not careful enough."

Infirmary

As the doctor noticed the extent of the wound it turned back around to dig around in one of the other boxes.

"It was unavoidable, the drones would not leave politely." Six Four stated as if if it were mentioning poor house guest, its helmeted face still looking into the medical box. Finding what it was looking for the freespacer turned back around and undid the plastic covering that held the gauze it had in its hand together, "Physical altercations were necessary, this one is just glad that most injuries are not life threatening."

With a bit of gauze in its free mechanical hand Six Four dabbed around the open wound attempting to get most of the fluids off and away from it. The effort was almost futile as the open wound seemed to leak more life fluid out of it as soon as the doctor wiped it away, but the stubborn freespacer continued dabbing away. Tossing the bloody rag into a nearby box that had a biohazard logo crudely drawn onto it, Six Four began to apply the Pranja Gel to Shrie's wound.

"This should prevent any additional bleeding in roughly ten minutes, please feel free to see me if there are any more complications or near death incidences."

Infirmary

As Shrie brazenly disrobed, Oreza turned his head to look the other way, out of respect for the Lorath's privacy rather than embarrassment. He grimaced silently as she shifted his weight to a more comfortable position on the examination table.

The door whisked open when Six Four was in the midst of applying the healing salve, revealing the tired-looking Sienna rubbing her eyes with the back of one hand. After one step inside, she dropped her hand and opened her mouth to speak, but caught a full view of the topless Shrie covered in blood. Her intended first syllable quickly changed to a sharp, quiet groan of surprise and mild revulsion as she immediately looked away. "Ugh, dammit," she muttered. "Fine time to walk in." Hesitantly she turned her head back to look at Shrie's face, making a very visible effort to keep her eyes elevated, then at Six Four. "Well, at least you seem like you're in good hands, anyway..." Looking over at the examination table, her face fell when she noticed Oreza's splinted leg. "And you," she said, stepping alongside her first mate as she squeezed into the already crowded little room, letting a little sympathetic grimace show. "Shit. Are you okay?"

Oreza looked at Sienna and gave her a small smile and nod. "I will be," he replied. "Six Four does good work."

Infirmary
"I am... sturdy," Shrie replied to Six Four after few seconds of searching her mind for the right word. Shrie realised that speaking came a bit easier to her since she said more in last week then she said in year before that. Most probably. Long sentences too. Maybe, she thought, maybe in some time she could speak properly again. "When can I shower doctor? I need to wash this off."

When Sienna walked in, Shrie turned her head to the captain. She lowered her eyes for a bit, until captain started speaking to her. It was good, that she was not here to tell Shrie some bad things. It almost seemed, as if captain did not think that Shrie did anything wrong. That would be nice. The tall fyunnen also noticed that the captain was a bit uncomfortable about the lorath being half naked.

"It is allright. Nakedness does not bother me. It is normal home." Shrie said to the captain, so she would stop being uneasy. To Shrie, it really was little trouble. Back home it was normal to wear very little and in the army where one lived in a nest with 10 other soldiers, changing in front of everyone else became completely natural. For Shrie the body was nothing to be ashamed off.

Infirmary

Oreza chuckled slightly at Shrie's explanation, but courteously kept his eyes off of the Lorath, and on the captain standing over him. Sienna, on the other hand, just sighed and shook her head, giving the first mate a dull look of surrender.

"Whatever suits you," Sienna replied with tempered nonchalance, leaning over to more closely inspect Oreza's splint without touching it. "Just don't parade around the hallways like that and we'll be fine." She lifted her eyes back to the big bearded man. "Do you need anything, Bear?" she asked him.

The older man shook his head, laying back and closing his eyes. "No, thank you," he told her, breathing out noisily through his nose, the relaxed smile on his face still. "Like you said, I'm in good hands. Go on. You have captain's duties to attend to."

Sienna pursed her lips tightly, but said nothing. Although neither of the others present could see it, a tiny hint of a smirk flashed across her face for an instant. Turning her shoulders, she laid her hand gently on Oreza's upper arm and left it there for a second, before she squeezed out of the crowd and back through the open door. "Get everyone cleaned up and secured for FTL," she said, her voice hardening a little back to emotionless authority as she looked over at, and only at, Six Four. As she turned to leave, the three inside could swear they heard her say, in a quiet voice: "Good work, everyone."


Captain's Cabin

Sienna entered her cabin through the still-broken and partially ajar hatch, plopping hard down at her desk as she placed the PHC on the writing surface and called up the display. With a long, tired breath, she pressed her palms onto her face and slowly ran them upwards over her eyes, combing her fingers through her hair as she pushed it back and melted into the seat, holding her hands atop her head for a moment. It felt so good just to sit down, particularly in normal gravity.

Suddenly she awoke with a slight twitch; apparently she had drifted into a brief microsleep, but given that no one had come in, and the volumetric home screen of her PHC was still hovering before her, she surmised it had only been a couple of minutes. Clearing her throat, she scooted her chair forward and leaned over the desk on her elbows, alternating a few times between blinking hard and opening her eyes as wide as they'd go. With a quick sniff, she went to work.

The first thing she noticed was a pending message, which puzzled her. She wasn't expecting to be contacted, but she opened it up out of curiosity. When she saw who had sent it, her brows jumped up in surprise. Misato - one of the grunts from the YSS Eucharis, a Yamataian Star Army gunship. For a moment, she didn't know what she should be feeling, but it was something of a weird mix between indignant irritation and pleasant surprise. She hadn't given anyone on that ship any clue as to where she would go after leaving them on Yamatai, so the Neko must have gone to some trouble to locate her. Still, while it was troubling to have a Star Army soldier checking up on her, it was strangely nice to know that someone was showing her some concern.

Leaning back in her seat, she pinched her lips together pensively for a second, and checked the countdown timer she'd set. There was still time for a quick response, and she saw no harm in doing so; whatever information that could be deduced from a reply, Misato no doubt already had, anyway. After another few seconds of consideration, she leaned forward once more and began to write a return message. Then she would patch into the ship's star maps and decide where they should go. It would have to be someplace close by with reputable facilities, and plenty of opportunities to spend some of their hard-earned cash at last. A respite was long overdue.

Cockpit, about twenty minutes later

Sienna lowered herself into the pilot's seat, threading her legs around the controls as she settled in and powered up the displays around her. She blinked hard a few times, trying to clear the haze from her vision, and rubbed her eyes with both hands as she loosed a long, noisy yawn, and affixed the headset lying on the armrest to ther ear and adjusted the spindle-thin microphone along her cheek. The diagnostics timer had counted down to zero, and from what she could see, enough of the boards were green to signify that they were as ready to jump away as they were going to get. Reaching to her side, she called up the ship's intercom system. "Amelia," she said into the microphone, hearing the dull reverberations of her voice echo through the ship behind her, "we're ready. Come on up to the cockpit and let's plug in a path."

Releasing the transmit button, she settled back into her seat as she exhaled through puffed cheeks, resting her hands on the armrests, and stared out of the canopy at the haunting, ethereal beauty of the moon's horizon glowing up ahead of them beneath the infinite, starry blackness.

A few minutes later, the astrogator dragged herself into the cockpit, the door hissed and slowly opened as she pushed it into the cockpit, closing it soon afterwards. She still looked the same as when she had left, tired and worn. Even though she didn't expect the twenty minute nap to do any good, it only showed how the last job had strained her.

And it didn't improve her mood in the slightest.

"I'm here," Amelia said, easying herself down onto her seat, quickly going over the results of the diagnostics before turning off those volumetric displays and creating a new one to plot the ship's jump. Like the last time, she was setting up the course for the ship's jump, except she had no idea where they would go.

"Any place in mind that you would like to go to?" She asked, still staring at the display.

Sienna quickly inhaled through her nose, jumping out of a brief, involuntary nap in her reclined position as Amelia dropped down beside her, and jerkily went back to checking attitude controls and comm chatter from the distant automatons buzzing about the solar system far and wide. Clearing her throat, she blinked and glanced briefly at Amelia. "Best place I've found is Dawn," she explained. "It's an Origin superstation about forty light years from here, away from Yamatai space. Some kind of mining and terraforming op, I dunno. But it's bound to have good facilities, and it's close. Probably a good place to do some refits; I got a few things in mind already after this search-and-rescue fiasco."

"Alright," the astrogator said, bringing up the ship's star chart and looking for that station. It wasn't hard to find it, considering how frequented the station was, and also considering their owners. "What's with the sudden change of destination? You don't want to go back to Halna?" She asked.

"No, the further we get out of Yamatai, the better," Sienna replied, shaking her head. "Besides, I wanna wait till the heat dies down from whoever attacked us in the asteroid belt."

"Alright, cool," Amelia replied, already doing the preliminary calculations for the jump. "This is not gonna take long," she added. There was no need to be too cautious then, she could just plot a straight line towards Dawn after making sure there were no objects on the way.

While the astrogator worked, Sienna brought the CFS online again, and began running checks on its power supply and system integrity. She wrinkled her nose slightly at some of the more troubling aspects of what she saw, but none of it looked concerning enough to warrant a longer stay. "Well, we're still kind of banged up," she muttered, "but it can wait till we get to drydock. I can fix it then." Her mouth gaped open in another yawn and she rubbed her right eye with the back of her knuckles once more. "Tam was good for what he promised, too," she continued casually. "Between that and the Khorsovarolor run, we'll all have a little spending money once we get there."

"Good. Everyone's getting paid?" Amelia asked, turning her head to face Sienna for the first time.

"That's why you're here, ain't it?" the captain responded with singsong nonchalance, her eyebrows creeping up slightly, but never looked away from her displays.

"Even Crash?"

Sienna paused and looked over at the astrogator with a cocked eyebrow, and Amelia could swear she saw the very brief, and almost imperceptible glint of a smirk twitch one corner of her mouth upwards before it vanished, and she shook her head with a sigh. "Yes, even Crash," she replied. "He pulled his weight more than once, even if he did corner me into a goddamn cut."

It was a few more moments before Amelia showed any response to that, instead turning back to her display and going over the trajectory again. "Thanks," she said, almost inaudible as the displays beeped whenever she operated them.

Either the captain didn't hear her, or elected not to respond; it wasn't very evident which. Several minutes passed in silence, and finally Sienna swept aside the displays in front of her and leaned back in her seat. "CFS is online and optimized the best I can," she commented. "We're ready to go once you're done."

"I'm good to go," Amelia said, her tone still betraying how tired she actually tried not to show she was.

With a conclusive nod, Sienna leaned to her side and keyed up the intercom again. "Everyone back there best finish what you're doing and settle in," she said resolutely. "We're jumping to hyperspace in two minutes." Releasing the button, she looked over at Amelia, shrugging her eyebrows with another exhausted sigh. "Let's do this, then."

Infirmary

The doctor paid little attention to the captain when when came in, its focus locked on the pranja gel that was on Shire's chest. The freespacer was motionless aside for the occasional breathing motion, its faceplate locked onto the fyunnen's chest as if it was watching paint dry. To the naked eye the gel wasn't really doing anything, but Six Four's helmet allowed it to show a scan of the area that was being worked over by the small nanobots.

"Roughly three minutes." Six Four said flatly to Shrie, "The nanobots have begun the healing process, give them about three minutes before you hygienically cleanse."

With a curt nod, 'happy' with its work done, the Freespacer turned its attention back to Oreza.

"This one needs to construct you a walking aid." The phrase was simple though not directed to anyone in particular, the freespacer was presumably talking to itself. Sitting itself down in its standard issue rolly-chair the doctor continued to stair at Oreza. "Processing."

Infirmary

Oreza nodded in response to Six Four's statement, and laid his giant hands across his barrel chest with another long, relaxed sigh. "I didn't think I would be considering a cane already," he chuckled. "I do hope it will only be temporary." Seconds later, the captain's voice crackled through the tinny intercom speaker set in the nearby wall, indicating the ship would be jumping soon. Oreza lifted his head to listen, then turned his eyes to Six Four and Shrie. "You two should probably get situated," he said, and a paternal smile crossed his face. "Hopefully wherever we're taking our passenger will be a more comfortable place than where we've been lately."


Space - High orbit over Neue Jaspis IIh

The glimmering moon, silhouetted against the massive blue sphere of its parent planet, hung silently in the vast depths of space, far from the system's star, while distant swarms of autonomous drones of all sizes glittered in reflected starlight around the other moons in orbit, moving like schools of fish in a vast ocean. The lone, dullish silver sparkle of the Concordia Veil suddenly flashed to life as its graviton engines engaged, breaking the little ship from its orbit and propelled it away from the gas giant's gravity well.

Pale blue light began to glow around the decrepit freighter, enveloping it in an otherworldly halo, brightening it to make it increasingly noticable against the backdrop of diamondlike stars until it shone brighter than all of them to a nearby viewer. And then, suddenly, with a briliant flash of bluish-white light, it smudged across space in a long streak that vanished in the blink of an eye, and then it was gone.


Cockpit

The bluish haze of the combined field enveloping the ship shimmered outside of the canopy, and the comforting thrum of the engines rumbled far behind the two women in the control couches. The status boards were showing green, for the most part, save for a few negligible faults and alerts that pulsed quietly, reminding them that there would be a lot that needed their attention when they finally docked. For now, however, the trip should be relatively uneventful, provided there were no more surprises.

Sienna pushed the controls off of her lap, retracting them into their locked position as she stretched her legs out in front of her, and her arms over her head with a long sigh and tiny little groan. After running her fingers through her hair and holding it pushed back across her head for a moment, she exhaled and relaxed. "Well, payday at last, I hope," she commented quietly, as much to herself as to Amelia.

"Finally, I am getting paid," the astrogator commented, her voice tired. She went over the ship's systems for the Nth time since they made the jump, pulling at her suit's collar with a finger, despite the creeping exhaustion at the corner of her mind. The engines were still showing a short in one of the conduits, and the CFS registered several faults, disabling the shield system and slowing their FTL speed slightly, but with the power routed optimally, she figured that everything should hold out.

The captain rested her hands on the armrests of her seat, and rolled her head to the side to look at Amelia from beneath her bangs with raised eyebrows. "You know, I ain't made any money since we started this little freak show either," she retorted with a muted smirk.

"Freakshow, huh?" Amelia said from her seat, still not turning to face Sienna. it was a dry and matter-of-fact statement at the captain's comment.

"Freak show," Sienna repeated in confirmation, lazily turning her head back forward as she slumped back further in her seat, folding her hands on her abdomen and kicking one foot up on the console. "You get Crash straightened out?" she asked, tossing a lock of hair out of her eyes.

"Something like that," the astrogator replied, turning the volumetric displays next to her off, and pushing the physical ones aside.

Sienna raised an eyebrow and one corner of her mouth turned upwards as she shook her head in mild disdain. "Guess neither one of us are up to that task anyway," she replied.

Amelia didn't asnwer, instead only finally turning her head to regard the other woman briefly. She relaxed against her seat, slowly exhaling as she still felt her whole body ache from the last job.

The two sat in silence for a minute, watching the shimmering blue curtain ebb and flow around them as the ship surfed along the edge of time and space, the gentle chimes and tones of the ship's monitoring systems occasionally breaking the silence. After a while, Sienna shifted in her seat a bit and rested her temple on her fist. "So what is it you find so fascinating about him, anyway?"

"What?" Amelia asked, shifting in her seat and visibly uncomfortable at the query.

"Oh come on," Sienna said, dropping her hand from her face as she turned it to Amelia with a knowing expression. "You've bent over backwards trying to protect him ever since you found out he existed. You bought upgrades and repairs for him outta your own pocket, and you about had a heart attack when we realized he was ass-up in the computer room." Her eyebrows raised slightly and her brow creased, as if she found her following thought perplexing, or even slightly bothersome. "If I didn't know any better, I'd swear you had a thing for him."

"He actually paid for those out of his own pocket," the astrogator interjected, her eyes still facing forward at the void as the ship travelled.

"You still didn't answer my question."

"You didn't ask any."

Sienna smirked again. "I asked you what you find so fascinating about him."

"He..." She started to say. "Why is that important?" Amelia asked.

The captain's knowing smirk remained, and she looked back out at the view. "It's not," she replied, almost sounding pleased she had the astrogator so uncomfortable. "Just don't get it is all. He's a pain in my ass."

"I am not surprised," the astrogator said, suddenly finding one of the armrests on her seat fascinating as she gripped at it with a gloved hand.

"Didn't think you would be," she replied, rubbing her palm on her forehead briefly. "I ain't exactly made it a secret."

"Maybe if you treated him better that would fix it," Amelia said.

Sienna looked back over at Amelia. "See, there you go again, defending him," she pressed. "Why does it matter so damn much to you? Y'all have a history I don't know about, or something?"

"Because no one stands up for him," the astrogator answered, turning from her seat. "He has lost everything he knew," she added accusingly.

The captain didn't appear impressed, giving Amelia a dubious raised eyebrow, and the astrogator just turned back to her seat, going over the ship's systems again. "Is that supposed to mean something to me?" she asked rhetorically. "That don't make him special. Hell, if anything, it makes him more ordinary. Everybody's lost something. Anyone who didn't never had nothin' in the first place."

"It's funny how a machine seems to be more feeling than you," Amelia commented.

Sienna, obviously convinced Amelia didn't want to talk about it, shrugged and settled back in her seat, leaning her head back against the headrest nonchalantly before closing her eyes and wriggling in. "Don't much see the humor in that," she said with an indifferent shrug. "Forget I asked. Ain't none of my business anyway, I just don't get it."

"No, it isn't," the astrogator stated, her hands working on the volumetric displays of the ship.

"So if I keep him around, are you gonna keep him in line?" Sienna asked, changing her angle, eyes still closed and in her relaxed posture.

"Isn't that the captain's job?" Amelia asked, annoyed and still aggressive.

"Yes," Sienna replied, her voice hardening ever so slightly, and she opened one eye to glance sternly over at Amelia. "It's also the captain's job to pay the astrogator. Or cut her loose, whichever she sees fit, you know."

"As long the captain doesn't blow up the ship the astrogator is in," she replied.

The captain sighed and shook her head, closing her eyes again. "I can only apologize so many times," she said, slightly exasperated. "I ain't gonna beg you to get over that."

The astrogator replied with a single, tired "Whatever."

"'Whatever'?" Sienna echoed, opening her eyes and lifting her head. Her eyebrows raised high, and her lips parted slightly. "'Whatever!?'" she repeated a bit more tersely. She turned slightly in her seat, angrily shoving a pointed finger behind her, towards the aft of the ship, looking back where she was pointing for her next few words before glaring back at Amelia. "I just stretched myself taut like a goddamn bungee cord to save your sorry ass from being minced by a buncha half-crazed killer robots," she snapped. "Now, I ain't expecting you to fall over yourself thanking me, but for frack's sake, a little forgiveness might be in order!"

"I'm tired, leave me alone," Amelia said, brifly casting a glance at the captain before going back to her task.

"Oh for--" Sienna started, before tightly clamping her lips shut, and scoffing in exasperation. Settling back in her seat, she folded her arms across her chest and blew away some of the hair that had stubbornly fallen back over her brow. "Fine, fine. I was done talkin' anyway." She closed her eyes once more, settling her shoulders into her seat with the clear intention of taking a brief nap right there where she was.

The cockpit was silent for a few minutes as the astrogator went over her diagnostics again. Eventually, once the process was done and she had eventually calmed down, she cast a glance at where the captain was. She thought about going over it again just to pass the time, but eventually just turned the displays off. "Sorry, I almost died today," Amelia said, trying to sound sincere and not ironic.

No response came for a few seconds, before Sienna drew a quiet breath through her nose and stirred slightly. "So did I," she replied in a flat, sleepy tone, never opening her eyes. "So did the rest of us. But we didn't."

"It's not something I would like being used to," she added, remembering all the other similar situations.

Another pause held before Sienna replied. "Nobody asked you what you'd like," she said in a light murmur. "You don't get to pick what you have to deal with. You just do."

"Oh, gee, thanks," Amelia said, crossing her arms as she pressed her back harder against her seat.

Sienna shrugged tiredly, her own arms still folded and eyes still closed. "You rather I lie and say I'll never put you in that position again?" she asked.

Amelia didn't answer.

For a few silent moments, it seemed that Sienna had fallen asleep. Finally the captain stirred again, and sighed, but never opened her eyes. "I ain't in a hurry to die either, you know," she muttered. "But I wasn't lucky enough to get dealt a cushy hand, so I'm gonna do what I gotta do. I already done told you I can use you around. But if this kinda life don't sit well with you..." She hesitated, sounding as if she were drifting off again before a quiet snort buzzed in her throat, and she twitched. "You ain't a prisoner here, is all."

"I like seeing new places, it's why I couldn't stand staying grounded in that station," the astrogator confessed. "I like it here, and I like it even more when I'm getting paid," she joked.

A single chuckle rumbled in Sienna's throat, and her lips turned upward slightly. "You and me both," she replied.

"I spoke to Crash, and he says he did that because you forbid him from leaving the computer room," the astrogator said, abruptly changing the subject.

Sienna groaned quietly. "No, I didn't," she said. "He's just being a frackin' baby. I told him to stay out of private areas unless he was invited in, not whatever B.S. he's feeding you."

"Maybe you should tell him that. It's hard to understand things when someone overloads you with electricity," she said.

"I did," Sienna replied, sounding slightly more awake, and more annoyed at the thought. "Twice, in fact. And if he's sore about that jolt, tough shit. Any chance of me apologizing about it went out the airlock when he shredded my bed."

That made Amelia giggle.

The captain looked over at Amelia with a slight frown. "Why is that funny?"

"Oh, nevermind," the astrogator said, waving at Sienna dismissively. "That just sounds like Crash," she added.

Sienna's upper lip curled slightly. "Yeah, heh-heh-heh," she replied, her mock chuckle oozing with thick sarcasm as she laid her head back down on her headrest. "Adorable ol' Crash, breaking into private quarters, stealing and destroying personal effects. I mean, that's classic, right there."

The astrogator didn't answer, but instead kept on the sly expression on her face as she faced forward.

"Look," Sienna continued, scratching the underside of her nose with the back of her hand. "I already told y'all I'd ease up a bit, but that don't mean I'm gonna put up with any more of this crap from him. Whatever crush you got on him is between the two of you, but he listens to you, at least. You want him to stay around, you gotta help me make sure he gets it through his head that playtime is over. No more chances. He follows my rules or he's gone." She shifted in her seat again, grimacing uncomfortably. "And he's replacing my bedding so I don't have to sleep in the goddamn cockpit..."

"I already talked to him about that," Amelia admitted, averting her eyes from the screen and facing the captain. "I thought you had two beds," she added.

"He stripped them both," Sienna replied. "Like a frackin' child throwing a tantrum."

"Hm," was all that the astrogator answered. She still believed both of the parties were at fault there, but she didn't want to go back into the same discussion again over the fact. "What do you want from me? I already said I talked to him," she said to Sienna again.

Sienna shrugged slightly, her eyes having drifted closed again. "That's it," she said. "That, and keep us from getting lost."

"Yes, captain," Amelia said, throwing a mock salute.

No reply came for a few moments, until faint, soft snoring could be heard coming from Sienna's seat, her head lolled over to the side, arms folded, and her leg still propped against the console.

Starboard cargo bay

Tam simply grabbed onto the bulkhead and braced for the jump to ftl speed. Once the ship made the jump he'd start pulling out a few sheets and blankets and some long strands of polyaramids from one of the containers and he'd begin repairing the arm of his armor that had been damaged by the rogue drone.

Lounge - Twenty hours later - Roughly 9 AM ship's time

Sienna emerged, freshly showered and dressed, from within her cabin behind the still-broken and slightly ajar door. The long rest and hot shower had visibly done her a lot of good; the dark circles beneath her eyes were gone, and her short, still slightly damp hair had some of its bounce back to complement the way her greenish brown eyes scanned the empty room with her hawk-like gaze. With one hand she tugged the tight-fitting short sleeved blue tee shirt's tail down over the waist of the stonewash skinny jeans she now sported, with a pair of gray slip-on shoes covering her feet, and with the other she reached up and slipped her fingers underneath the hair on the back of her head, lightly scratching it as she plopped down on the couch and sighed, kicking her legs out and crossing her ankles over one another. There were sounds coming from the galley, which she could only assume would be Shrie, though she wasn't sure. She'd addressed the crew over the intercom a couple of hours ago, calling them to the lounge around this time for a little meeting and some breakfast.

Of course, the satisfying amount of money she'd finally managed to amass over the last couple of jobs served to elevate her mood as well, even knowing she would be paying out a significant portion of it to the crew. Knowing that they would be, or at least should be, pleased with the prospect of an incipient payday was somewhat relieving to her as well, given how rocky of a start they had gotten off to. There was still, however, the matter of the broken door to her cabin, as well as the fact that her bunks were still stripped bare. While she knew she had some spare blankets and such lying around someplace, she had actually spent the night in the cockpit. At least there she could lock the door, and keep abreast of any complications that arose during their journey.

Massaging her forehead with her fingertips, she took a long breath and prepared herself for the task to addressing everyone once they all started showing up. She never was one for speaking to a group, but she hadn't had the chance to get everyone together since they'd gotten to the Neue Jaspis system, and it was long past time to do so. Maybe then she could make at least some of them willingly accept who was in charge around here.

Lounge

Tam walked into the lounge in freshly repaired armor but his helmet was off an his eyes looked around the room as he entered. His Gael'Kash and his revolver were at his waist but he was otherwise unarmed. He nodded to Sienna and gestured "Mind if I take a seat captain?" He asked with a fairly neutral look on his face.

Lounge

The far-off glaze over Sienna's eyes evaporated as she focused on the Gartagen entering the room, but her aloof, stony expression remained. Nodding, she gently thrust her chin in the direction of the chairs arranged around the table. "Go 'head," she said calmly. "The others oughta be showing up soon, too, though I bet I'll need to go get Oreza and help him down here, unless Six Four got a cane fashioned for him already."

Lounge

"My thanks Madam" the short Gartagen replied as he found a seat and took one for himself in a corner facing towards the door.

Lounge

Sienna wrinkled her nose slightly as she raised an eyebrow and looked sideways at Tam as he walked past. "Don't call me that," she said simply. "'Captain' is fine."

Lounge

"Very well, I would ask that after this meeting you meet me in the cargo bay for I need to discuss the disbursement and possible sale of some of my possessions that I have no true need for and which might be useful to your crew or simply worthwhile to use for sale or trade" Tam replied once he sat. He'd sit there quietly observing the young woman who was the captain of the ship which had rescued him.

Lounge

Sienna had looked away after her last statement, tacitly appearing that she wasn't interested in further conversation. When Tam continued, her eyes turned back to him, her eyebrows very slowly creeping up as the Gartagen rambled off a long sentence without pausing for a breath once, although it wasn't obvious whether she was impressed with his lung capacity, or just impatiently waiting for him to finish talking.

"I kinda thought that was part of the deal anyway?" Sienna asked rhetorically, leaning forward in her seat and resting her elbows on her knees, allowing her hands to hang freely. Then she nodded with a long, purposeful blink. "We'll talk after breakfast. We still have a good day of travel ahead of us anyway, so there ain't no rush."