Maharombi Spaceport - Undisclosed Hangar Bay - Night
The front of the Iron Ferret was iluminated by a pair of standing spotlights, while the rest of the hangar was cast in a dim light from the weak, fluorescent tubes that hung overhead. Despite the maintenance, the former pirate ship still looked beaten down on the outside, with several burns and pockmarks from its former life of infamy.
Next to it, several wooden and metal crates were still piled next to the ship's loading ramp, but the ammo/weapon crates that had been taken from the bandit's warehouse were significantly smaller after that they had been used in the last job, which had turned an abandoned industrial complex effectively into a small warzone. To the back end of the hangar, dust from the desert was partially carried inside by the night breeze, showing up the other hangars for small craft that lined that sector of the spaceport.
Desmond loittered next to one of the spotlights, exhaling a puff of smoke as he leaned against the metal wall of the hangar. The bounty hunter was half-clad in his Muur armor, only wearing a white T-shirt from the waist up, and the full gear complement from the waist down. The shirt's collar sported a few bloodstains, and the cut, bruises and split nose on his face had been recently bandaged, prompting him to pick at them from time to time.
Amanozako stepped into the hangar. She was clad in her usual black jumpsuit armor vest and great coat. She was not obviously armed, but anyone who knew better knew she was packing heat. She had a peculiar look on her face, something one might confuse with happyness, or evil intent, either way, it was not an expression one would want to see for long.
Desmond took another drag of his deathstick, watching as the tip of the cigarette glowed cherry red and then at the neko who had stepped in. He stopped picking at the dressing of the small cuts on his face to stare at her, still leaning against the wall of the structure.
The neko spotted Desmond and eyed him as she walked up towards the ship. "I see you are back," she commented.
"I see you've been busy," The bounty hunter replied to Amanozako. "Despite not being on the job," he added.
"I had other more important things to attend to," replied Amanozako, stuffing her hands into her pockets.
"Cool," Desmond replied, finishing his cigarette and stomping the stub underneath his boot. He tried to not show any annoyance, but the job would've been much easier with a neko there.
She shrugged as she walked past him. She could see his annoyance, but did not care much. She did have a good reason for not taking part in the mission.
The bounty hunter remained impassive after that, reaching for another cigarette in his pockets and lighting it on afterwards.
Amanozako paused and leaned against a crate, eyeing the bounty hunter as he fished for another cigarette. "Not even interested why I passed up the chance to shoot people to bits, hmm?"
"Maybe," the bounty hunter replied, cupping a hand in front of his mouth as he struggled with the lighter, but eventually managed to lit the death-stick.
"Heh" she replied with a twitch of her fuzzy black ears. "Well, if you're not interested, I'll find another engineer" she said and pushed away from the crates she was leaning on, turning to walk back into the ship.
"You might as well just cut the bullshit and tell me," Desmond suggested.
"Well, gee, if you're gonna have such a negative attitude, I'm not going to tell" Amanozako replied and started up into the cargo hold, sticking her tongue out at Desmond.
"Fine, I don't care," Desmond said, watching the neko go. That time, he hadn't managed to keep his composure.
"Wow, someone is grumpy" she paused, turning back towards him. "You made it through, you got all your arms and legs and other appendages, got paid, what else do you want?"
"Don't turn this around on me, cat. I told you, either tell me what you want to tell or stop playing hard to get," the bounty hunter replied.
Her ears twitched as she walked back over to Desmond, taking her hands out of her pockets. "Oh stop being so grumpy" she said as she came to a stop two inches from him, grabbed him by the collar and planted one on his lips, giving him a long, deep kiss, before letting him go. "Better now?"
"I dropped my cigarette," Desmond said. He had been expecting the neko to actually punch him, given her temper, but the action had in a way resulted in the same outcome. "What were you doing?"He asked after some deliberation.
She leaned close, her lips nearly brushing his left ear, "Getting a ship" she said, then stepped back, giving him some space.
The bounty hunter stared at the neko for a few moments. He had realized, much to his displeasure, that he didn't know how to react to the sudden closeness, maybe that was Amanozako's way of attempting to manipulate him. "I see," he started to say, "And what do you need an engineer for if you already have a ship?"
"It needs some work" she replied, "I can fly it, but I need someone to get it back online"
"I see," Desmond said. "And you want me to do the repairs," he added, still looking at the neko.
"That was the idea" she replied and crossed her arms over her chest. "I would pay you, of course"
"Right," Desmond said, standing up straight and no longer leaning on the wall. "This ship is obviously not here, so where is it?" he asked, dusking off his hands on the cracked thigh plates of his Muur.
"Adrift in space. I have the coordinates, not far from here" she replied. "We just need to fly out, probably rent a shuttlecraft for that, get her running and fly back" Amanozako said and a hint of a smile touched her lips.
"We got our own shuttle," Desmond said as he started to move towards the Iron Ferret's open landing ramp. The starship engineer in him longed to work on another spacecraft, despite that the Iron Ferret's systems proving their fair share of challenges as he tried to juryrig as many parts as he could.
"That would work" she replied. "So, up for it?"
"Yep, give me a few," The bounty hunter replied, and disappeared inside the ship.
=== Some time later ===
It took a few minutes for Desmond to grab the tools he would need to do the preliminary diagnostics of the ship, but more than he would like to maneuver the shuttle out of the Iron Ferret's modified cargo bay and taxi it outside of the building.
The small Ge-T1-1A sat on the vast concrete landscape of the starship's surface, its engines idling and its external lights on as Desmond waited for its second occupant.
Amanozako arrived moments later, fully kitted out, armed and bearing one of the space suit's from the Iron Ferret's airtlock. She boarded the shuttle and stowed her gear in the small cargo space, ditching her great coat and armor vest as well before moving forward and sliding into the seat next to Desmond.
"All set" she stated and strapped in.
"Punch in the coordinates of the ship while I get us in orbit," the bounty hunter said, drawing on the controls and making the small shuttle slowly take of the ground. He didn't need to be a proficient pilot to operate a starship that small.
The neko hunched over the control panel befor her and went to work, accessing the navicomputer and inputting the coordinates for the ship. The computer automatically generated a course to the coordinates and prepared for autopilot control once the shuttle was in deep space.
"All set:" she reported after a few minutes work with the computer. By then, Desmond had weaved the small vehicle through the incoming and outgoing traffic of the spaceport. Despite the late time, Maharombi was still alive as ever
The duo soon punched out of the upper atmosphere, being able to see the stars of the far away systems with much more clarity.
Amanozako smiled as they broke free of the atmosphere. She relaxed into her chair and glanced at Desmond. "Everythings prgrammed in, should take a couple hours to get there" she said.
"Hours," the bounty hunter repeated, unclasping the seat's restraints. "I thought you said this wasn't far," he idly commented.
"It's not" she replied, ustrapping her own restraits. "Better than days" she added and got up and smiled. "You in a hurry?" she asked and stretched. "Also, you never said what you wanted as payment for hiring you to fix the ship"
"I will tell you when I see what needs to get fixed," Desmond said. "You also didn't tell me what kind of ship it was that you got," he added, cranning his head around to stare at the neko.
She stepped behind his chair, close, draping her arms about his shoulders. "Sure you don't want it to be a suprise?" she asked with a grin.
"Maybe I don't like surprises," he suggested, looking over her shoulder at her.
"Suprises can be fun" she replied softly, her fingers toying with the material of his shirt.
Desmond watched the neko toy with his shirt for a second. That was too much, and the bounty hunter inched away from the chair and out of her grasp. "If you would rather I did the repairs for free, you only have to ask. I would do them for free because that's what I like doing, but I'm not going to sit here while you keep trying to manipulate me into doing it," he stated, staring at her.
Amanozako frowned and sat back in her chair. "I was not trying to manipulate you into doing anything" she replied and crossed her arms. "And I will pay you what we agree on as a fair fee for your services, so you won't feel taken advantage of," she said, then turned to face the forward viewport and was silent.
"Then why are you so touchy and feeling now?" He asked. "You didn't bat an eyelid about killing a building full of people a few days go," he added.
She glanced sideways at him, "Maybe for once I have something to be happy about" she replied, then looked back forward. "Thought you might like being around me in the rare case I actually want to be social. Guess I was wrong"
"Sorry," Desmond said once he realized that the argument was lost. Instead of pressing it further, the bounty hunter simply decided to make himself busy and go over the shuttle's systems.
Amanozako closed her eyes, sighing and opting to relax and catch a little sleep while the shuttle traversed space.
The bounty hunter cast a sideway glance at the neko. It surprised even himself that he felt bad at blowing that situation up like that. "I'm just not used to this," he confessed once he realized there would be no answer
She was not asleep yet, though her eyes remained closed and she didn't move. She pondered weather or not she should respond. She was not a social creature never had been, though it was not her fault, her creators had focused all of their energies in turning her into the most deadly weapon possible, not her ability to interact with others not of her kind.
"I'm not either" she admitted finally, opening an eye, just enough to glance at him through the slit. She really was not. She wasd not used to much of anything like this.
"So, you never told me how you managed to get your hands on another ship," he commented.
She opened her eye a little more. "Won it" she reeplied. And that was the truth. Won it by entering in a stupid holiday constest put on by those she had been created to destroy. What a turn of fate that had been. She could not help but try and stifle a laugh.
"And what's so funny about it?" Desmond asked, noticing her attempt at trying not to laugh.
She sat up, "I've never won anything, let alone from those I was creeated to destroy" she replied.
"Created, huh?" The bounty hunter said. That was the first time that he could remember the neko talking about her past, despite only being blunty shot down the last time that he asked about it. The change in demeanor was disconcerting to him.
"Yes" she said. "All of us are created" she shrugged and settled back into her chair.
"I have won a couple of things," Desmond started to say. "But what's the point in that? Easy comes, easy goes. The things that I had to fight the hardest for is what I like the most," he added with an unusual conviction.
She frowned a little. "This is the closest chance I have had for total freedom from my past"
Amanozako said quietly.Though deep down in her mind there was another idea forming, something a lot more sinister.
"So you're bailing out on us?" Desmond asked once he heard her latest comment.
"No" she replied. "Just making plans for the future. This group wont last forever" she shrugged. "I've never made plans for the future before, so this is new for me"
"Right," the bounty hunter replied. He hadn't made any plans for the future either.
Amanozako turned onto her side, facing Desmond, "Guess it's something people in our line of work don't get to do often" she suggested
"No," he agreed, not even noticing that he was picking at the small bandages on his face again.
She knotted her eyebrows, "It'll never heal if you pick at it" she commented, eliciting another glance from him, although he did stop messing with the dressing.
"That must be strange, healing so slowly?" she asked and raised an eyebrow. "I wonder if hemosynth would work on you" she mused.
"Stranger than growing a new arm once one's been cut off?" He retorted. "It is you who heals too fast."
"Hey, that's pretty handy, I've had to do that before" she retorted. "It suck not to have it grow back"
"I could still have a new one back," Desmond said. Although he didn't have the ability to grow another limb, he could have a new one cloned and implanted if that were to happen, but for a hefty price.
"Not the same, I grow one back in a few hours, you gotta go get it put back on" Amanozako shrugged and stretched, lacing her fingers behind her head. "Still, it's something" she said, her red eyes scrutenizing his arms.
He caught her scrutinizing stare, but decided not to do anything about it. Instead, Desmond just stared forward through the window as the ship traveled at Faster Than Light speed.
Amanozako slipped out of her chair, moving to the rear compartment. She grabbed a couple water bottles, then came back, offering one to Desmond, which he accepted, before settling back into her chair and taking a long drink from her bottle. She really could think of little else to talk about at the moment.
The bounty hunter continued to check the ship's systems in silence, taking ocasional swigs of his bottle as the shuttle knifed through towards their destination
=============
The shuttle had reverted to normal space and now cruised at one half light speed toward the coordinates Amanozako had provided. Ahead of them lay a small cloud, it might have been confused for a tiny nebula if not for the chunkgs of wreckage and leeftovers of a long past battle, which told otherwise. There were several ruined hulks drifting, surrounded by their own innerds, scattered all about when the ships had been destroyed. Drifting slightly away from the mass wreckage was the ship. Dark, unpowered and dead in space. She had visible signs of battle damage herself, but, at least externally, seemed to be intact.
She was a warship. Not some civilian transport, freighter or passenger ship, but a warship. An abandoned NMX escort destroyer.
"There it is" Amanozako said, stainding up in her seat and pointing to the vessel.
"I see it," Desmond said, staring impassively at the vessel. He could see that its vital parts seemed mostly intact, and couldn't wait nor thing of a reason not to get his hands to work on a NMX warship. Except, perhaps, that it was an NMX warship, even if just a small escort. "And you want to fly it," he added as he maneuvered the small shuttle through the debri field, bobbing and weaving around the largest of them with the assistance of the craft's autopilot.
"Yes I do" she replied, her eyes taking in every detail of the ship. She had seen them before, served aboard several of this class of ship even during her time in the NMX military and knew what they were capable of.
"The problem is," Desmond started to say, flying the small spacecraft underneath the escort's large main thrusters and then bringing the shuttle up on its back near what looked like to be a hangar for several small craft. "As soon as someone sees you flying that they will want to kill you," he concluded.
"That would be assuming the ship were to continue to fly NMX colors and ID transponders" she replied. "That's going to be changed. There are plenty of former military ships operating under civilian command" Amanozako said
"Shit," the bounty hunter said as soon as there was a loud, scraping noise of metal against meal while he maneuvered the ship inside the small hangar on the rear of the former NMX escort. Looking to the side, an inactive NMX battlepod floated freely in the vacuum, while several others lay inactive and still perched along the deck of the bay.
The shuttle slowly decelerated before Desmond maneuvered it down on a clear spot of metal.
Amanozako was already in the aft space, pulling on the space suit she had brought, while Desmond made sure that the ship's engine were idling and that the craft was securely clamped against the deck. He then moved to the aft space of the shuttle, looking for his own suit.
In just a couple minutes, Amanozako was suited up, had her helmet on and the suit's life support running. She strapped her pair of HHG's onto her belt and shouldered her impaler rifle.
"All set when you are" she said to Desmond, who was working on the seal of his suit's helmet.
He was wearing a somewhat bulky suit, which looked ancient for the current standarts, but was what they had available when the Iron Ferret was taken by them. The suit was mostly white and made of a soft, but sturdy tissue. The only exception of that were the four connecting ports on its front and the sturdy plates that covered the shoulders, knees and elbows. He twisted the helmet on his head with a click, followed by a hissing noise as the suit was sealed.
"I'm good to go," the bounty hunter said, securing his toolbelt to his waist and then picking up the holster for his pistol.
The neko nodded as she worked the airlock controles, depressurizing the shuttle and opening the hatch. She then clicked on her suit's headlamps and unshouldered her rifle, holding it ready as she stepped out onto the deck. A slight shivver ran up her spine. This was the first time she had been back aboard an NMX ship in some years.
"Hangar deck is compleatly depressurized and open to space. Main lock is this way" she gestured towards the bulkhead at the opposite end of the bay from the opening and started walking that way.
There was no sign of power in the vessel at all and she had to activate her suit's magnetic boots to keep from floating away as she moved. It looked as if all the shuttlecraft and most the battlepods were gone and the escape pods, in this section at least, had been used.
"Copy. Engine deck must be close," Desmond said, jumping from the shuttle's open door towards the deck. He stretched out his arms as if he wanted to grab something, but used his hands instead to arrest his movement and bring his feet forward on the last moment, securing himself to the deck with the magnetic clamps of his boots. The headlamp from his suit flashed left and right as he looked around the bay.
"It is" Amanozako replied as she approached the airlock. The control panel was dead and she shouldered her rifle and opened a small panel beside it, exposing the manual door controles. "Not sure if there is pressure beyond, dont stand in front of the hatch" she advized as she positioned herself to the side and started priming the hydralic lever.
The hatch slid open, there was some small amount of air that vented out through the opening, along with some bits of junk and the corps of a Mishhu, that slowly tumbled out of the passageway beyond.
"Pretty," Desmond commented upon seeing the hideous form of the NMX tumble out into the void. It took a few seconds for the revulsion to leave his systems after the turned back towards the open airlock and stared at the open halway inside. "And you know your way inside here?" He asked.
Amanozako nodded as she stepped into the passage. "Yes, I served aboard these ships" she replied. The passage was a gruesom mix of technology and biological materiel, something out of a nightmare for most.
Even though he was wearing a full-pressurized suit, his stomach still twisted at the sight inside, and that came from someone who killed people and sold their corpses for a living. He no longer felt like getting his hands on such a ship was a good idea. "I'm not cleaning that," Desmond said, his lips curling into a grimmace as he examined the insides. It probably used to be a lot worse than that, and time had obviously decomposed most of the organic matter, but it was no less hideous.
"Wasnt going to make you" Amanozako replied as she lead the way into the warship. She had almost forgotten when it was like to be inside one of these ships and while Desmond may have found it sickening, this sort of envyronment had been home to her for much of her life and while she did not necesarilly like it all that much herself, she was used to it. "There will have to be some pretty major work to clean this stuff out" she explained. "Some of it is needed, some isnt"
The bounty hunter nodded and followed her inside.
They arrived at another hatch, which she worked the manual controles again opening it and having to break away the dead biological layer of the hatch, peeling back the dead skin and muscles. "Okay, this is the main engineering space" she said and stepped through.
Desmond continued following the neko inside yet another darkened room, grunting whenever he had to pull his feet off the deck with an extra measure of strength because it got stuck on the decomposing organic matter that still coated it. "I see," he said, moving inside the compartment.
Despite that, he could still recognize the room ahead as the engineering section. It seemed almost ironical that, despite major differences, most species tended to design their ship-compartments the same way for the maximum efficiency.
Amanozako swept her lamps around the compartment. Everything seemed intact. "The ships arether core should sill be opertational" she said as she walked up to the unit that sat in the center of the space.
"Give me a moment to assess that," Desmond said, grabbing a smaller flashlight from his toolbelt as he moved closer to the units. Although he was most familiar with fusion and antimatter systems, he had to learn the basics of an aether generator and engine during his training course.
"So why did you leave? No retirement program?" The bounty hunter asked as he moved around the room and inspected the dormant systems.
The neko was slow to respond. "The Mishhuvurthyar dont treat their soldiers the same as other militaries do.. not all of them" she said. "I could not be a tool to be used and cast aside anymore"
"Why do you tell me this now?" came his query from her suit's radio after he went out of sight. For someone who was not gregarious, talk seemed to put his mind off the fact that everything was covered in disgusting goo.
She shrugged. "Not sure" she replied as she kept looking around the compartment. "Is it bothering you?" she asked
"No. But you were pretty adamant in not telling me the last time I asked," Desmond replied.
She shrugged again, not really having an answer for that. Instead she started examining one of the control panels, the main operating panel for the engineering bay.
There were a few minutes of silence before the radio cackled again and Desmond spoke. "It will take me one hour to restore power and life support, but I don't know how much it will take to restore mobility of the ship," he said, still somewhere between the engine components.
"All right" Amanozako replied. "I am going to explore the rest of the ship. Should take me about the same amount of time" she said, turning back for the hatch.
"Have fun, or something," Desmond replied, going about his work.
"You too" She responded and exited the engineering space, starting off towards the bridge.
"Oh yeah, having a boatload of fun here. There's this gunk all the way up to my knees," he complained, his voice going more distorted with static as the neko walked away from the engineering section. Despite that, he didn't say anything else.
Amanozako continued her way through the ship, opening every compartment, checking every space. There were other dead crew aboard, though not many. She encountered a few dead NMX and even a fellow neko, dead, all killed in the ships final axtion. She was tempted to vent the entire ship out to space to clear out the bodies and other useless junk.
She did not come across anything else of interest in her exploration though, well nothing that was of interest for this quick inspeection she was making at least. She ended her exploration on the bridge, luckly devoid of corpses.
She stood in the center of the command center and checked her chronometer, it had been a little over an hour. That was when the weak overhead lights flicked on, and the ship seemingly started to throb into life as the air scrubbers activated, venting the stale air out and replacing with a new one.
"Power restored," Came Desmond's voice on the comms, distorted to the point where it almost wasn't understandable.
"Aweesome" Amanozako replied and settled behind a control panel, tapping at the display. "I'm accessing the main computer and beegining a system status request" she replied, via communicator.
"Understood," the bounty hunter replied. "I will check the thrusters," he added, before cutting the link.
She finished inputting her commands and began the diagnostic program, then got up, looking about the bridge again for anything else she might need to pay attention to.
=============
Desmond stood around the open space of the engineering deck once more, shaking some of the gunk from a gloved hand. Despite the life support being back, he didn't feel like removing his suit's helmet and breathing in some ''fresh'' air from the ship. Added to that, the decomposing organic matter was annoying, to say the least, it had the same consistency of an egg's white, but stickier.
"Disgusting," he muttered, before giving up on the task and putting his tools back in his belt. He wouldn't need to use them for a while, having reactivated the systems and jury-rigged the main thrusters back into working. The ship was really lucky in that the damage to its most important systems was only incidental, and despite not being used to working on aether engines, he managed some basic understanding of them to get it back to a minimal performance.
Despite that, he wouldn't say that the ship was combat ready, specially not with all the slime coating every single surface. How the nekos enthralled by the NMX worked like that, he didn't know. Maybe he should have asked Amanozako that.
And she stepped back into the engine room then, glancing around. "Looks a lot more like when I was aboard these, save for the Mishhu" she commented. "Think we are ready to test the engines?"
The bounty hunter turned around, regarding the neko behind the orange-tinted visor of his suit. "Basic mobility is restored, but I would wait to push the engines to the maximum until you have access to the proper parts," he said, rubbing his hands together.
She nodded. "Just need her to make it back to a planetary base or station with repair facilities"
"Which station were you planning on going?" he asked.
"Nassau" Amanozako replied. "Should be a safe enough place to put in for major overhaul"
"Sounds good, just don't push the engines too much," Desmond said, moving towards the exit of the room.
She nodded. "Lets get moving then" Amanozako said and started back to the bridge, with the bounty hunter following in tow.
"So how did you deal with all this gunk?" He asked as his suit's boots splattered against the decomposing organic matter.
"Just did" she replied as they walked along the passage. "Though, now that I have been away from it so long, it is pretty disgusting" she commented.
"It is," He agreed as a matter of fact.
She settled in behind the helm consol and studied the displays, input commands, plotting the course into the navicomputer while Desmond moved around the bridge, examining the individual stations one by one.
"Interesting," he said, spotting something of interest, and then moving on to the next station.
"Okay, plotted in, bring up the manouvering thrusters"
Desmond stopped examining the stations and moved closer to where the neko had been. "E.T.A.?" He asked.
"Should be a couple hours" Amanozako said, eliciting a groan from the bounty hunter, as she started piloting the warship away from the battle site, getting her clear of the wreckage.
"Then I am going back to the shuttle. I can't stand this place," he said after watching the ship maneuver for a bit. He didn't even want to think about having to clean his suit.
"Alright, I'll join you once the autopilot's set" she said and went to work while he left.
Groaning like someone who had just gone through the misfortune of stepping onto something nasty, Desmond started to make his way back to the shuttle.
Once clear of the wreckage, Amanozako eengaged the FTL drive, pushing the warship past the light barrier for the first time in who knew how many years. The ship vibrated a little as it acceellerated, but then smoothed out. She switched on the autopilot and set the computer to inform her once they were getting close to the exit point. That all done, she departed for the shuttle herself.
=====================
Desmond loittered around the landed shuttle, waiting for Amanozako to reappear. He couldn't get out of the suit yet because the shuttle didn't have an airlock, and thus it needed both of them to be there at the same time unless one of the two wanted to hang around the NMX starship a little more.
He idly kicked at the rusted metal decking, looking at the abandoned battlepods nearby as he waited.
She arrived a few minutes later, "Okay, we are good for a couple hours" she said, "I have the ship set to let me know about fifteen minutes before we arrive" she went on as she kicked some remaining goop off her boots before climbing into the shuttle
"Cool," Desmond said, climbing up the shuttle's landing ramp after the neko. Once he was in, he quickly punched the repressurization key on the console, watching as the clamshell ramp on the back slowly closed, followed by the hissing as the atmosphere slowly returned to the inside of the small spacecraft.
As soon as the air was back in, Amanozako unlocked her helmet and pulled it off, taking a deep breath. "Well, just a little more and we'll be done" she said and started taking off her space suit to get more comfortable
"Yes," Desmond agreed, placing the helmed on the floor as he stepped out of the suit, releasing the locks on the sides so that he could open the back and easily remove it. The somewhat bulky spacesuit dropped to the floor without any grace, its oxygen tank clattering against the hard metal decking. The bounty hunter had to grab at it from the inside and haul the thing inside the nearest locker, throwing the door closed.
Amanozako wiggled out of her suit, gathered it up and stowed it in another locker, then kicked off her boots and removed anything else that might be uncomfortable before stretching her limbs and padding barefood back to the forward section and slipping into a seat.
Desmond stayed around the crew compartment of the shuttle, taking his time as he lit another one of his cigarettes. He had been half-expecing the stench of the suits to be unbearable as it looked, but so far there had been no such thing as he stayed in the back of the shuttle, enjoying the break.
Amanozako put her feet up, reclining her chair back. She laced her fingers behind her head and relaxed, eyes half closed. "So, not too bad, save for the slime" she commented to Desmond in the aft section.
"No, not bad at all," he agreed. It was still hard to believe that someone would just happen to stumble upon a NMX warship like that.
She nodded. "So, you never told me what you wanted in payment for your work?" she said, eyes closed now as she relaxed.
"Nothing," he replied in a matter-of-factly manner. Desmond dropped the cigarette and stamped it with his boot before continuing, looking at the seat where the neko was. "It didn't cost me anything," he added.
"Your time has to be worth something" she replied, "You could have been back on the ship relaxing rather than spending a day working on an alien wreck"
"Despite everything inside this ship being shit, I still like working on spaceships," Desmond explained,
Amanozako smiled. "Must be nice to have something to do that you like that's not destructive" she commented.
"There isn't," he lied.
She sat back up and walked into the aft space. She stopped in front of Desmond and poked his chest. "You know I am right. I don't have anything constructive to do beside killing and blowing things up" she said.
"So? Find a hobby," he said, staring at the neko.
She shrugged. "Maybe sometime" she replied
"Well, you don't live forever," Desmond said, shifting a step back from the neko.
"Not since I dont have access to backups" Amanozako agreed, taking a stop towards Desmond to keep the spacing.
"What a shame," Desmond replied, standing his ground that time.
With Desmond holding his ground, Amanozako's step forward carried her right into him, impacting softly against the Nepleslian. That last bit of contact did it for him, spurring him on like a dam breaking open. The bounty hunter wrapped his arms around the neko's midriff, pulling her even closer to him.
Arms were about her, holding her close, she finished the forward momentum, pushing up onto her toes and planting her lips on Desmonds, kissing him needingly, her arms curling around his head as she held onto him as tightly as he held her.
==================
Something beeped inside the shuttle like an alarm clock. "Five minutes to translation in the Nassau System," said an artificial, droning robotic voice from the shuttle's cockpit, alerting both of the occupants about their imminent arrival on the Independent System. Hopefully, being unaligned with any of the factions, they would decide not to turn the ship into a flaming wreck as soon as they appeared there.
Amanozako was quickly pulling her jumpsuit back on, not bothering to zip it up as she went for the spacesuit next and started on that. She was pretty sure they would be left alone, she had disabled the NMX IFF beacon while Desmond had been fixing the engines and had programmed in a rudimentery civilian ID and had set them to come out of FTL well out of the planetary traffic control sensor range.
She glanced back at Desmond, her cheeks were pink and a slight grin touched her lips as her mind dwelled on their recent activities. The bounty hunter returned the expression in kind as he put his boots back on. His hair was messier than usual after he wore the white T-shirt back once he managed to put the pair of heavy work boots on. He followed her suit, fishing the EVA suit back from its locker and carefully putting it on, trying to avoid getting any of the gunk that was still on it on him.
She had her suit sealed up and pulled the helmet on next. Again she strapped on her pistols and grabbed her rifle. She was ready to go as soon as he was set.
"I'm good," Desmond said after sealing the helmet of his suit. He grabbed the pistol holster from the floor, but didn't put it on, instead moving first towards the control pannel on the aft of the shuttle and punching the depressurization command, attaching the holster to his right thigh as the air hissed out of the compartment.
As soon as the shuttle was vented, Amanozako opened the hatch and sprang out, jogging the entire way to the bridge, where she settled into the helm chair just as the ship dropped back to sub light speed. The autopilot disengaged then and she took over the flight controls and began checking for incoming communication signals.
Several signals were picked by the ship's sensors as it translated back into STL, although -apart from the inital pinging of the ship- most of them didn't seem to mind the small (former) NMX escort. Most of the contacts were situated near the only habitable planet of the system, Morant, in a variety of orbital installation, but only two of those stood out in size, which told Amanozako that they could have the infrastructure to perform the repairs.
Amanozako plotted in a course for the planet and it's orbital infrastructure. As she did, she locked in on the channel for the local traffic control, "Bastia space control" she announced over the channel, "This is civilian vessel Defiance, requesting permission to dock" She was not sure if that was the name this ship would keep, but it was the first one that came to mind.
The channel was awash with static at first, until a sharp noise rang out before a tired, female voice sounded through the comms. "This is Bastia control, we read you, Defiance. Docking permission granted, stand by for docking vector, over," said the female controller in a thick accented Trade.
Right after she had finished her message, Desmond stumbled into the bridge of the ship, breathing heavy. "Do you know how easy it is to get lost here?" He asked.
"Thank you, control" she replied, then killed her mic, glancing back at Desmond, "And I thought you were still trying to catch your breath" she replied to him with a sly grin.
"Well," the bounty hunter started to say, bracing one hand against the slimy wall for support. He tried to think of an equally snark remark to rebuke to her, but couldn't, at the end.
The neko grinned and plotted in the vector she was getting from traffic control, piloting the ship in to the designated landing spot. The process took a few minutes, allowing both of them to see on the sensor's screen the lone red blip that they were approaching near one of the fourth planet's moon.
Bastia Station slowly rose into view, as a single white speck at first, and then increasing in size until both of them could see how ingenuitively the colonists of Nassau had built a city by its own rights inside the asteroid. Weapon batterires dotted the rocky surface along with sensor spikes and dishes, while long metallic arms extended from two different cavities in the asteroid, allowing anything short of a cruiser to dock along its massive length.
Desmond whistled at the sight. He had only briefly been in the system once and had seen Bastia, but the view was still a breathtaking one.
Amanozako was too focused on landing the ship to take a moment to admire the view. She killed the main engines as they closed in, switching to control thrusters to delicately position the ship for one of the docking arms to grab.
The bounty hunter watched as the metallic arms magnetically latched onto the Escort's outer hull, guiding it in so that one of its airlocks on the sides connected with the station's own, allowing the crew to come and go as they please.
The comms buzzed again, but this time, a more gravelly, male voice sounded. "ISS Defiance, this is Bastia's customs, we are inloading the station's daily invoice to your systems, as well as the starport's laws," said the custom's officer, before cutting the link. True to his word, a few second's later a text message had been sent, detailing the daily fee that they would have to pay, which was relatively cheap, as well as the somewhat lax laws of the station.
Amanozako filed that information and put the ship into it's auto shut down sequence. "And we're here" she said.
"So, what now?" Desmond asked, turning around to regard the neko.
"Well" she said, paused, "Have to contract a service to clean up and refit the ship" she said, "Though that doesnt have to be done right away.." she trailed off
"Why not?" the bounty hunter asked, not understanding why she wouldn't want to fix the ship right away.
She eyed him and smirked. "In case you wanted to do something else first" she said and started for the passage.
"I see," he said, watching her as she made for the exit, and then following in tow. He was still somewhat taken aback by the suddeness of the neko, although, undeniably, it was a pleasant surprise.
Amanozako went back to the shuttle. Walking around a station with her assault rifle would not do well.She stowed that, but kept the HHG's. She glanced out the hatch to see if Desmond was following her in, and found out that he indeed was. Since he had only brought his sidearm as a weapon, the bounty hunter didn't have to stash anything inside the shuttle.
"Take the shuttle over so we dont have to stow space suits?" she asked, tapping the button to seal the hatch behind him and start pressurizing th shuttle cabin again.
"Sure," he replied, closing the hatch. Once again, the inside of the shuttle hissed as atmospheric pressure returned, allowing Desmond to pop his helmet free and get out of the bulky EVA suit. He then made his way to his seat, locking in the restraints and resting his hands on the controls.
Amanozako was out of her suit in moments, her jumpsuit hanging loosely from her shoulders as she walked up behind Desmond and draped her arms about his shoulders, leaning against his back. "In such a hurry, hmm?"
This time, he didn't flinch back from the touch. "I had the impression you wanted to take the fast route," he joked.
"I just didnt want to have to stow my space suit over there" she replied, leaning close.
The bounty hunter released his arms from the shuttle's controls, reaching for the neko and drawing her in again for another kiss.
===================
Some time later, Amanozako rested her head on Desmond's shoulder, her breaths finally calming down. "If this is going to become a habit, it's going to be hard to keep my icy cold shell towards thee universe" she muttered softly.
"Well, you keep pushing my buttons like that," he said wrapping his arm around the neko in that moment of shared warmth. For the first time in a long time, he had finally let his guard down and relaxed for a few moments.
She smiled, pressing her lips to his and pressing herself against Desmond, comfortable in his arms. "Well, we'll see" she said and closed her eyes, "Seems pretty enjoyable to keep pressing them" she added.
The bounty hunter chucked at that, forgetting about the ship that needed repairs, forgetting about the bunch of work he had in sorting what remained of the previous job. He just wanted to enjoy that moment. "What does this make the two of us?" He asked after a while, musing at that.
"I don't know" she replied, her black furry ears twitching. "I've never been in this situation before" she shrugged and rubbed her head against the side of his head.
"Me neither, but I don't want this to end," he admitted. He would have liked to speak more, words that would comfort her. He would like to tell her about the sudden admiration he had found, and how her being there helped making living the daily war that was his life better. He would have liked to speak with the ease someone like Kendra would have done and thank her for being with him.
But he said nothing. Before he could say anything else the radio on the shuttle was broken by the same, weary voice from the customs officer. "ISS Defiance, this is Bastia's customs, is everything alright? We haven't seen anyone board the station," the man said, with a hint of wearyness.
Amanozako sighed. She did not want it to end either, but, as with all things, it had to. She tapped the comm button and replied, "Yes, we were just sorting some things out and will be coming aboard the station shortly"
"Understood. Bastia out."
Desmond grunted. "Those guys must really think we're gonna try to blow up their station on the first chance," he said.
"Seem so" she replied and brushed her lips against his before crawling off Desmond's lap. She was dissapointed this nice time had ended, though figured they still had plenty of time together before they would be back on the ship with the others. She stretched and went about gethering up her clothing, which was mostly scattered about the shuttle interior.
The bounty hunter followed suit, cursing as he got up, also fishing for the clothes scattered along the room. He was starting to get proficient at dressing up in a minute's notice ever since he boarded the shuttle on Delsauria.
Amanozako could not help but keep an eye on Desmond as he dressed. She casually went about dressing herself and was eventually presentable to public, again looking the hard as nails mercenary for hire.
"Shall we pilot the shuttle out to a lock outside rather than walking through the sludge?" she asked as she finished strapping on her gunbelt.
"That was the plan," Desmond said, once again sitting on the pilot's chair. The bounty hunter strapped himself with the restraints, waiting for the neko to get ready.
She dropped into the co pilots seat and buckled in. "Alright, let's go then" she said.
The bounty hunter pulled on the shuttle's control, releasing the magnetic clamps and lifting off from the old battlepod bay. That close, and inside such a small craft, they couldn't help but to notice how big the station seemed by comparison.
Desmond flew over and along the length of the formerly NMX escort, going paralell to the docking arm, drawing closer to the asteroid. He maneuvered the small shuttle between other ships, although most of them seemed to be small and medium freighters ferrying goods to and from the station, until he eventually reached one of the several small docks intended for small spacecraft like their shuttle.
A thin sheath of shielding kept the atmosphere from inside the bay from escaping, while also allowing spacecraft to enter and leave, denying them the arduous process of docking, clamping, dressing up in bulky EVA suits and then actually boarding the station.
The bounty hunter flew along the path provided by the station's traffic control, coming down against the metal decking of the shuttle bay.
As soon as they were down, Amanozako unbuckled and slipped out of her seat, grabbing her great coat and putting it on, then her whide brimmed black fedora atop her head.
"Well, let's see how much this is going to cost" she said as she went to the hatch, checked the readings from outside, then opened it as Desmond walked to stand to her side, one hand casually resting on his leg holster.
The clamshell door opened to a sea of activity, people moved to and fro as they disembarked or boarded their shuttle, walking closely next to forklifts that carried whatever sensitive good couldn't be loaded by bulk. Further down, several crates and containers were stacked as they awaited transport, illuminated by weak light projectors that hung from metal rafts against the rocky ceiling of the station.
Standing out from the crowd was a trio of nepleslians. Most important of notice, was the man at the middle of them, who had been dressed more formally, while the other two's faces were concealed by the visors of their guns. They both clutched automatic rifles close across their chests. standing somewhat at ease.
The dock officer stepped in front, with his hands clasped behind his back. He wore a simple dress uniform, grey of color and a cap on top of his head of the same tint. There were no symbols in his clothing, but it was clear that he was the authority there.
"Greetings from Bastia. My overseer tells me you fellas landed here with an NMX ship," he commented, eyeing Desmond and then Amanozako. His gaze constantly shifted between the two bounty hunters, trying to assess who was the leader there. "You don't plan on causing any trouble, do you?" He asked.
Amanozako stepped up to the official and nodded, "Yes, we did bring it here and no we do not intend to cause any trouble" she said. "Infact, I intend to bring your repair yard some business overhaulling and refitting the ship" she said.
"Good!" The dock officer exclaimed, clasping both hands together and rubbing then. "In this case, Bastia welcomes you. Our docks offer the necessary maintenance services for the ships- as long as it isn't anything fancy like those Yamataians have," He said, opening his arms wide and gesturing at the station behind him. "For a fee, of course," he added.
"Of course" she replied. "And where would we go to employ the services of your facilities?" she asked.
"Why, please follow me and we will get the contract settled out," the officer said, beckoning the duo to follow him. Next to the neko, Desmond gave her a brief look.
She glanced back at Desmond, then followed the official, though gave him a few steps lead on her.
They followed the trio along the main throughoutfare, mixing with the large crowd for a couple of minutes. After a few turns, they arrived at a small metal building that justted out of the rock. Above it, they could see the reflection of people inside inspecting the crowds. The officer waved them through another duo of armed men who were standing guard in front of the building, allowing them to enter the small building.
It was clear from the first impression that they were in some sort of meeting room, a row of small tables could be seen along its length, with two metal chairs opposite to each other there. The man made his way towards the nearest table, taking a seat facing the duo, and motioned Amanozako over.
She followed and settled into the offered chair, taking her hat off and setting it on her lap. Her red eyes studying the room the people there.
"Oh, I didn't know you were a cat," the man commented.
"Does it have any bearing to our business?" she asked. She did not think it should matter, especially in independent space.
"No, just don't see many of your kind here. They're usually running away from something," the officer commented as if on an afterthought. Seeming like he had just remembered something important, the man fished something from underneath the table, drawing a yellow folder from a small drawer. "Right then, you will want what kind of repairs done to your ship?" He asked.
"It will need to be a full overhaul" she replied. "The ship is functional, engines, power core, computers and the like, but, if any of you have ever been aboard a mishhuvurthyar ship before, you will understand their interior is less than habitable for anyone but them and their creations" she explained.
"Yes, yes," The man started to say, writing down on the paper. "An overhaul on a ship of that size will take a while, with a regular sized crew. I could wager it would take our people one or two months to scrape all the gunk inside the ship, and the fees you would have to pay, added with the docking fee, would be weekly," he added.
Amanozako nodded. "And what would those fee's be?" she asked, alreading putting her digital brain to work calculating numbers.
"Well, to pay the whole crew of ten people, as well as the resources they will have to spend, we'll start with one thousand DA a week, plus any other unforeseen expenditures that we might have to employ," the officer suggested.
"I see" she replied, "And the costs for overhauling the ship?"
"Like I said, we will send these based on what we have to expend repairing it," The officer said. Next to Amanozako and leaning behind a wall, Desmond stared at the conversation.
Time passed and negotiations went on and on, but, eventually concluded. Amanozako could afford most of the work needed to be done to her new ship, but not all of it. She had a good deal of money, but she would need to earn more to be able to compete the refit. A payment plan was agreed upon that would allow the ship to remain in dock here and work to be undertaken and allow her time to pay off over the next several months.
Desmond stood with his hands on his pockets, watching the crowd move in front of the small building that they had just left. He turned to regard the neko for a while. "I guess I should congratulate you, captain," he said to Amanozako.
Amanozako grinned, "Thanks, though not a captain yet, I'm gonna be pretty broke for a while" she said, "Guess that means I'm sticking around with you for a while longer for sure" she added. "Grab a bite, then get some rest? I don't know about you, but negotiating money things by means other than firepower really made me hungry and tired"
"Well, I don't think sticking around is a bad thing. We can use you around, and I more than would like having you around too," Desmond said, looking around the station. "Sure, I haven't had a chance to rest ever since I came back from that job," he added,
"Oh, you would like having me around?" she asked with a sly grin as they started down the street.
"Why wouldn't I?" Desmond asked, grinning as he wrapped one arm around the neko's shoulders.
"Well, most people think I am cold and evil" she commented, moving a little closer to Desmond as they walked. "And, I am, mind you" she added with a glance, "Though this is nice" she sighed, feeling strangely relaxed, though confused a little at why she was letting herself get close to this Nepleslian that she really did not know much about. Sure they had been on several missions together, but other than that they had never gotten along all that well. What had changed? Surely winning a ship couldnt shift her that much? She knew she would have to figure all this out, at some point, but not right now.
"What do you want to eat?" she asked. "There's rations on the shuttle" she suggested.
"You really want to eat that?" He rebuted. He didn't feel like eating the cardboard-like processed block that called itself food when there were better things fairly close. "There's a city sized station right over here," he explained.
"It was a suggestion" Amanozako replied. "If you have something else in mind, lets go eat that then" she said, not mentioning that the rations were better than what she had usually eaten when in the NMX military.
"We are probably not far from the living areas, there's bound to be some decent place around that," Desmond said, still walking walking along the main throughoutfare once they had cleared out of the shuttle docks. "I used to like visiting places like these when I was a kid," he explained.
"Oh?" she raised an eyebrow. "What was that like?" she asked. She had never been a kid herself, having been grown in a tube nearly four years earlier.
"Well, we'd dock on a station every few months, and we'd have a few hours to go around while they unloaded the cargo and loaded the new one," he started to say. "So that's when one of my parents would take us to check the place out," he continued. There was a small stab of pain to his voice when he said 'us.'
"Must have been nice" Amanozako replied. "Having a family and all, time to do something other than what you were created for" she cought the hint of pain in his voice and while curious, felt best not to push on it.
"Yeah, I guess," he said. They had just walked into a wide open area, stretching far towards the top. Several buildings had been build along the hollow, rocky shaft, and a group of metal catwalks and bridges allowed the residents to move around them. The houses seemed to be more towards the top, gradativelly looking more elaborate as the shaft rose, while the stores and foodplaces were located at the ground level or the first few meters.
"Oh, look at that," Desmond commented
She glanced where he was indicating, deciding to take the obvious bate meant to destract her, rather than press a personal issue. "Looks promising" she said and slipped her arm around his middle, "Shall we invade?" she asked, giving him a squeeze.
"Yeah, let's," The bounty hunter said, holding her closer as he walked towards the food joint. It was a simple, nameless noodle place. There were a trio of tables with two chairs each stacked outside, surrounded by a simple metal fence. Further deep was the balcony, where a waitress idly talked with the older Geshrin who was presumably the owner of the place, seemingly oblivious to the thin coating of steam that wafted on the floor.
Desmond walked on, drawing one chair for the neko, and another for himself before sitting down.
Amanozako settled into the chair, removed her hat and slipped out of her jacket. She then picked up the simple menu printed on stiff paper, something one did not see often in the age of volumetrics and holograms.
"Hmm, no rations...no food pills, no meals in a tube" she glanced up at Desmond, "I have no idea what most of this stuff is" she admitted.
"Well, it's mostly dried noodles with whatever they can put in it. Probably rat meat, if you're lucky," He joked. That was when the waitress decided to clear her throat.
"What will you two be ordering?" Asked a very young woman, probably still in her early teens. She wasn't wearing a uniform, but simply a faded T-shirt over some loose jeans and work boots. Her sandy-blonde hair was ratty and unkept, and she stared at the two of them with her green eyes. The semblance between her and the man behind the counter was appalling.
"I'll have this one...number seven" Amanozako replied, pointing to the item on the menu that looked most appitizing by the picture, "And a beer" she added, then glanced at Desmond.
"Number nine, and a beer too," the bounty hunter said, setting the menu down.
"A number seven and a nine for the couple, daaaaaad!" the waitress said, turning around and walking back towards the counter.
Amanozako set her menu down as well, then pulled off her fingerless gloves, stuffing them into one of her coat pockets. "Well, this should be interesting" she said, her eyes roaming around the small establishment, she turned her attention back to Desmond and looked him right in the eyes, "So, not how you expected today to go, I'm sure?"
"No, not at all," the bounty hunter admitted, returning the stare. He had expected to simply lay down in bed and fall into a coma for a few days. Despite that, he had simply chose not to, and had throughoutly enjoyed what came out of that.
"Me too" she said and sank back into her chair. "I'm not sure what to make of all this..." she paused "Not used to being close to anyone... letting my gard down... It's...different, strange. I have never done anything past just some physical contact when needed, but nothing like actually talking to someone" she explained as best she could, "No one usually wants to stick around with me more than they have to and usually I'm just fine with that. I wasnt created to be friends with anyone" It was obvious this was not easy for her to get out, "But it's nice"
"Well, what do you want to make of it?" Desmond asked. "Everyone needs to stop worrying every now and then, I guess," he said.
Amanozako nodded. "Eventually, I guess you're right" she agreed. "As for what I want to make of this?" she asked, "I'm not sure yet, but I think I want to enjoy it for what it is, while I can" she answered her own question. "I know I'm not a good person" she went on, speaking quieter, "But maybe I can be, for a little..." she trailed off.
"I feel the same way," Desmond confessed, looking at the neko in front of him. How quickly things turned that way, he mused. There were several things he felt like expressing, but couldn't find the words for it. "Thanks," he added sincerely after a while.
Amanozako nodded and sank into her chair, "Though, don't let the others in on this, I don't want them to think I'm getting soft" she said, "And I wont tell them about you either" she smiled a little
Desmond couldn't help but smirk at that. "Sounds like a plan," he said, right before the teenager came and deposited the two bowls on their tables, followed by the glass bottles containing the beers. His bowl was a steaming mix of liquid, noodles and some cunks of meat from an unknown creature.
Amanozako leaned close, examining her bowl of soup noodles, something with meat, fish and stuff. It smelled good, better than combat rations, that was for sure. She picked up her beer and took a long drink from it.
Desmond didn't wait around for small talk. He started going through his meal, one spoonful at a time. It turned out that the taste wasn't as bad as it looked, and the meal was actually quite pleasant. He still wouldn't ask the real ingredients used on it, though.
The neko went at her meal too, eating quietly with interruptions for drinks from her beer. The both of them eat in silence, not talking one bit till their meals were done. bowls cleared away and a second round of beers delivered.
Amanozako relaxed, comfortable and full. She sipped her beer and watched the area around them, and Desmond, as she looked fairly relaxed.
The bounty hunter watched his surroundings. Despite being considered a backwater independent station, Bastia was a fairly safe place to be, not to mention pacific. People went to and fro on the catwalks above them, some going to a new shift, or others returning to their habitations after a long one. Not a bad place to cool down at all.
His gaze shifted back to the table, most particularly at the neko. "So, what now?" He asked, finishing his second beer.
"Donno" she replied. "We still got plenty of time to kill" Amanozako said and sipped her drink. "We could head back, or spend a little more time on this station" she shrugged
"Head back where?" He asked. He really hoped she didn't mean Delsauria. It would take a few days for everyone to wind down and recover from the last mission. Not to mention wait the heat cool down.
"Where all the others are" she said, "Though, I'd rather spend a little more time away" she admitted.
"Don't worry about that. It'll take a couple days before everyone even considers getting out of bed," he said, voicing his previous thoughts. A hint of mischief crossed his face, that meant more time for them.
"Oh, well" Amanozako cought the message. "Well, I could do for some time in bed" she replied
"Word," the bounty hunter agreed. He fished for something in his pockets, this time surprisingly not another cigarette, and slid a 20 DA bill on the table. It was enough to afford for both of them.
"Thanks" she said, noting he paid for both of them and stood up, grabbing her coat and slipping it on. "So, where shall we invade next?" she asked.
"I dunno. You don't feel like sleeping in the cold shuttle floor, do you?" He asked, sliding his chair back under the table once he got up.
"Well, I could if I had to, slept in worse plases" she replied, "But I'd rather not"
"Yeah, you don't say," Desmond said, briefly remembering the insides of the NMX escort. He started to make his way out of the restaurant, motioning for Amanozako to follow him and then stuffing his hands inside the side pockets of his jacket. "There probably is a joint somewhere here that has decent beds."
The waitress piped up at that, raising her head and looking at them while she picked up their used dishes. "Oh! There is a nice place just two floors up from here!" she started to say, too happy for the bounty hunter's comfort. "You just take the catwalks and you'll see it. My uncle runs it!"
Amanozako glanced at Desmond. "It's close" she suggested
Desmond looked at the teenager, and then at the neko. "Good for me," he said.
The neko nodded, then started for the stairwell up. "Well, let's check in, then we can decide what were doing for the rest of the day" she said with a impish grin at Desmond
"Right," The bounty hunter said, and made his towards the catwalk, and then up. The makeshift platforms were just large enough for two people to squeeze through, and Desmond had to take an extra effort not to look down after they had gone up to the second floor.
There, like promised, was the 'joint' that the teenger waitress had indicated them. A simple habitation building with a neon sign on top saying 'we have beds!.' "It actually doesn't look half bad," Desmond admitted, with one hand on his jacket's pocket and the other grabbing at the rail, his knuckles white.
"Nope" she "Not bad at all" she said and noted his white knuckles. "Don't like heights?" she asked
"Hm?" Desmond asked, and then noticed his hands. He slowly released the handrails, taking steps towards the hotel. "Something like that, he added, before turning the door handle and walking inside the establishment.
He got his first look inside the place, and wasn't disappointed at it. The room was made of metal sheets, and comfortably lit by a few flurescent tubes located on the corners of the ceiling. Right in front of them was an rugged balcony, with a middle aged Nepleslian sitting behind it going through a very, very old paper magazine.
Amanozako stepped up to the man, "We would like to get a room" she said to him.
The nepleslian lowered his magazine, staring at the two of them from over his small round glasses with a somewhat judging expression. "You kids these day," he said, sighing with the disapproval that only a senior member of society could muster. "The daily fee is 30 DA," he said.
She did not reply to the comment "Two days" she said and handed over sixty DA, prompting the keeper to scoop the bills from the table. The old man reached with an agonizing slowness, but eventually produced a small electromagnetic card from under the balcony. "Here you go, you too," he mentioned, looking at Desmond, who seemed to have just decided to keep quiet for the time being.
Amanozako nodded, accepting the key and checking the room number. She then glanced at Desmond and nodded for him to follow as she started towards the rooms. The bounty hunter heeded the call and followed after the neko, moving to the side of the balcony and through a narrow, square metal corridor. It had several metallic doors along its right side, more than likely deep into the asteroid rock.
Arriving at the door that matched the number on the key, Amanozako used it, opened the door and stepped inside, switching on the lights as she entered. "Quaint" she muttered, red eyes sweeping the room. The room was somewhat bare, but comfortable, it had been dug into the hard rock and then smoothed out with artificial ways, making the surface pleasant to the touch. A small ventilation duct was in one corner near the ceiling, over a small metal table and a chair.
There were two fluorescent lights in the place, one on the ceiling and the other in front of a small door, which most likely lead to the room's bathroom. A duo of single beds were placed next to the wall, with a small drawer between the two of them. To the opposite side was a simple vidscreen, and besides it on the opposite side of the door was a cabinet for storing personal belongings.
"Quaint," Desmond admitted, standing behind the neko and starting at the semi-dark room.
"Two beds" she commented, eying them. "Very quaint" she said.
"I guess he was being passive agressive."
"I guess so" she replied and took her jacket off, hanging it on the coat rack bolted to the wall next to the door they had entered in. "Well, this ok with you, or want to go ask for a different room?" she asked, glancing back at him
"It's alright," The bounty hunter said, stepping into the room and flicking the light-switch open. He examined the place as the door slid closed behind him, sealing them in. he noticed how there was a medium-sized mirror on one of the walls, and stared back at his own reflection through it. It surprised him at first that he actually wasn't wearing his usual frown as an expression, making his reverse-self stare somewhat perplexed at him as it mirrowed his current facial features and expression.
With the rocky walls, the only sound inside was the droning hum of the ventilation ducts as some fan spun deep inside of it with the sound that only a very old mechanism could produce. It was, though, by no means annoying.
"Or are you afraid of the boogeyman or something?" he asked, smirking.
"Boogeyman?" she asked. "I used to live on ships full Mishhu, the boogeyman is nothing" she said and took her gunbelt off, setting it on the table, the two HHG's making a loud clank. "What about you?" she asked
"What about me what?" Desmond asked, releasing the leg holster for his pistol as he looked at Amanozako.
"The boogeyman, scare you?" she asked and flopped onto one of the beds, stretching out
"I thought," he started to say, removing his jacket and setting it on the metal chair next to the table. "That I was spending a wonderful day with the boogeyman," he continued.
Amanozako sat up on her elbows, grinning. "Sounds about right" she replied and kicked her boots off. "Beds pretty comfortable, I must say" she added and lay back down.
"Is it now?" Desmond asked, walking towards the bed front end of her bed, next feet. "Maybe it's more comfortable than the other one," he suggested, propping his hands against the mattress and leaning forward.
"Mm, it could be" she said, the grin on her lips getting bigger, "Havn't tried the other one yet" she said and shifted her leg, letting her toes trace up Desmond's calf. The bounty hunter took that cue in, leaning closer to her and slowly crawing up the bed.
"This one feels good enough," he said, looking at her.
"It does indeed" she replied, arching her back a little, brushing against him as he crawled over her. "I think it feels very nice." Once again, the bounty hunter sprung forward, drawing the neko in for another kiss, no longer being able to contain the burning passion that had welled up within him.
Amanozako curled her arms around Desmond, drawing him down on top of her and returned his kiss, deeply, needingly. In the comfortable seclusion of their hotel room, she no longer cared about anything else, fully letting herself go to desire and needs she had, more so than in the shuttle, more so than she ever had.
==============
Some time later, Desmond could no longer stay awake, and lay sleeping soundly on the shared bed, one arm drapped around the neko's midriff as he slept. Not even the droning humm of a ship's engine that had become a sleeping narcotic for him along his life had made him rest with such relaxation.
Amanozako lay contently snuggled up against him, eyes half open, listening to his breathing as he slept. She felt strangely at peace and content. Sure she had slept in the company of others before, but this was not the same. She closed her eyes and pressed her head against his his and let herself drift off too.
The front of the Iron Ferret was iluminated by a pair of standing spotlights, while the rest of the hangar was cast in a dim light from the weak, fluorescent tubes that hung overhead. Despite the maintenance, the former pirate ship still looked beaten down on the outside, with several burns and pockmarks from its former life of infamy.
Next to it, several wooden and metal crates were still piled next to the ship's loading ramp, but the ammo/weapon crates that had been taken from the bandit's warehouse were significantly smaller after that they had been used in the last job, which had turned an abandoned industrial complex effectively into a small warzone. To the back end of the hangar, dust from the desert was partially carried inside by the night breeze, showing up the other hangars for small craft that lined that sector of the spaceport.
Desmond loittered next to one of the spotlights, exhaling a puff of smoke as he leaned against the metal wall of the hangar. The bounty hunter was half-clad in his Muur armor, only wearing a white T-shirt from the waist up, and the full gear complement from the waist down. The shirt's collar sported a few bloodstains, and the cut, bruises and split nose on his face had been recently bandaged, prompting him to pick at them from time to time.
Amanozako stepped into the hangar. She was clad in her usual black jumpsuit armor vest and great coat. She was not obviously armed, but anyone who knew better knew she was packing heat. She had a peculiar look on her face, something one might confuse with happyness, or evil intent, either way, it was not an expression one would want to see for long.
Desmond took another drag of his deathstick, watching as the tip of the cigarette glowed cherry red and then at the neko who had stepped in. He stopped picking at the dressing of the small cuts on his face to stare at her, still leaning against the wall of the structure.
The neko spotted Desmond and eyed him as she walked up towards the ship. "I see you are back," she commented.
"I see you've been busy," The bounty hunter replied to Amanozako. "Despite not being on the job," he added.
"I had other more important things to attend to," replied Amanozako, stuffing her hands into her pockets.
"Cool," Desmond replied, finishing his cigarette and stomping the stub underneath his boot. He tried to not show any annoyance, but the job would've been much easier with a neko there.
She shrugged as she walked past him. She could see his annoyance, but did not care much. She did have a good reason for not taking part in the mission.
The bounty hunter remained impassive after that, reaching for another cigarette in his pockets and lighting it on afterwards.
Amanozako paused and leaned against a crate, eyeing the bounty hunter as he fished for another cigarette. "Not even interested why I passed up the chance to shoot people to bits, hmm?"
"Maybe," the bounty hunter replied, cupping a hand in front of his mouth as he struggled with the lighter, but eventually managed to lit the death-stick.
"Heh" she replied with a twitch of her fuzzy black ears. "Well, if you're not interested, I'll find another engineer" she said and pushed away from the crates she was leaning on, turning to walk back into the ship.
"You might as well just cut the bullshit and tell me," Desmond suggested.
"Well, gee, if you're gonna have such a negative attitude, I'm not going to tell" Amanozako replied and started up into the cargo hold, sticking her tongue out at Desmond.
"Fine, I don't care," Desmond said, watching the neko go. That time, he hadn't managed to keep his composure.
"Wow, someone is grumpy" she paused, turning back towards him. "You made it through, you got all your arms and legs and other appendages, got paid, what else do you want?"
"Don't turn this around on me, cat. I told you, either tell me what you want to tell or stop playing hard to get," the bounty hunter replied.
Her ears twitched as she walked back over to Desmond, taking her hands out of her pockets. "Oh stop being so grumpy" she said as she came to a stop two inches from him, grabbed him by the collar and planted one on his lips, giving him a long, deep kiss, before letting him go. "Better now?"
"I dropped my cigarette," Desmond said. He had been expecting the neko to actually punch him, given her temper, but the action had in a way resulted in the same outcome. "What were you doing?"He asked after some deliberation.
She leaned close, her lips nearly brushing his left ear, "Getting a ship" she said, then stepped back, giving him some space.
The bounty hunter stared at the neko for a few moments. He had realized, much to his displeasure, that he didn't know how to react to the sudden closeness, maybe that was Amanozako's way of attempting to manipulate him. "I see," he started to say, "And what do you need an engineer for if you already have a ship?"
"It needs some work" she replied, "I can fly it, but I need someone to get it back online"
"I see," Desmond said. "And you want me to do the repairs," he added, still looking at the neko.
"That was the idea" she replied and crossed her arms over her chest. "I would pay you, of course"
"Right," Desmond said, standing up straight and no longer leaning on the wall. "This ship is obviously not here, so where is it?" he asked, dusking off his hands on the cracked thigh plates of his Muur.
"Adrift in space. I have the coordinates, not far from here" she replied. "We just need to fly out, probably rent a shuttlecraft for that, get her running and fly back" Amanozako said and a hint of a smile touched her lips.
"We got our own shuttle," Desmond said as he started to move towards the Iron Ferret's open landing ramp. The starship engineer in him longed to work on another spacecraft, despite that the Iron Ferret's systems proving their fair share of challenges as he tried to juryrig as many parts as he could.
"That would work" she replied. "So, up for it?"
"Yep, give me a few," The bounty hunter replied, and disappeared inside the ship.
=== Some time later ===
It took a few minutes for Desmond to grab the tools he would need to do the preliminary diagnostics of the ship, but more than he would like to maneuver the shuttle out of the Iron Ferret's modified cargo bay and taxi it outside of the building.
The small Ge-T1-1A sat on the vast concrete landscape of the starship's surface, its engines idling and its external lights on as Desmond waited for its second occupant.
Amanozako arrived moments later, fully kitted out, armed and bearing one of the space suit's from the Iron Ferret's airtlock. She boarded the shuttle and stowed her gear in the small cargo space, ditching her great coat and armor vest as well before moving forward and sliding into the seat next to Desmond.
"All set" she stated and strapped in.
"Punch in the coordinates of the ship while I get us in orbit," the bounty hunter said, drawing on the controls and making the small shuttle slowly take of the ground. He didn't need to be a proficient pilot to operate a starship that small.
The neko hunched over the control panel befor her and went to work, accessing the navicomputer and inputting the coordinates for the ship. The computer automatically generated a course to the coordinates and prepared for autopilot control once the shuttle was in deep space.
"All set:" she reported after a few minutes work with the computer. By then, Desmond had weaved the small vehicle through the incoming and outgoing traffic of the spaceport. Despite the late time, Maharombi was still alive as ever
The duo soon punched out of the upper atmosphere, being able to see the stars of the far away systems with much more clarity.
Amanozako smiled as they broke free of the atmosphere. She relaxed into her chair and glanced at Desmond. "Everythings prgrammed in, should take a couple hours to get there" she said.
"Hours," the bounty hunter repeated, unclasping the seat's restraints. "I thought you said this wasn't far," he idly commented.
"It's not" she replied, ustrapping her own restraits. "Better than days" she added and got up and smiled. "You in a hurry?" she asked and stretched. "Also, you never said what you wanted as payment for hiring you to fix the ship"
"I will tell you when I see what needs to get fixed," Desmond said. "You also didn't tell me what kind of ship it was that you got," he added, cranning his head around to stare at the neko.
She stepped behind his chair, close, draping her arms about his shoulders. "Sure you don't want it to be a suprise?" she asked with a grin.
"Maybe I don't like surprises," he suggested, looking over her shoulder at her.
"Suprises can be fun" she replied softly, her fingers toying with the material of his shirt.
Desmond watched the neko toy with his shirt for a second. That was too much, and the bounty hunter inched away from the chair and out of her grasp. "If you would rather I did the repairs for free, you only have to ask. I would do them for free because that's what I like doing, but I'm not going to sit here while you keep trying to manipulate me into doing it," he stated, staring at her.
Amanozako frowned and sat back in her chair. "I was not trying to manipulate you into doing anything" she replied and crossed her arms. "And I will pay you what we agree on as a fair fee for your services, so you won't feel taken advantage of," she said, then turned to face the forward viewport and was silent.
"Then why are you so touchy and feeling now?" He asked. "You didn't bat an eyelid about killing a building full of people a few days go," he added.
She glanced sideways at him, "Maybe for once I have something to be happy about" she replied, then looked back forward. "Thought you might like being around me in the rare case I actually want to be social. Guess I was wrong"
"Sorry," Desmond said once he realized that the argument was lost. Instead of pressing it further, the bounty hunter simply decided to make himself busy and go over the shuttle's systems.
Amanozako closed her eyes, sighing and opting to relax and catch a little sleep while the shuttle traversed space.
The bounty hunter cast a sideway glance at the neko. It surprised even himself that he felt bad at blowing that situation up like that. "I'm just not used to this," he confessed once he realized there would be no answer
She was not asleep yet, though her eyes remained closed and she didn't move. She pondered weather or not she should respond. She was not a social creature never had been, though it was not her fault, her creators had focused all of their energies in turning her into the most deadly weapon possible, not her ability to interact with others not of her kind.
"I'm not either" she admitted finally, opening an eye, just enough to glance at him through the slit. She really was not. She wasd not used to much of anything like this.
"So, you never told me how you managed to get your hands on another ship," he commented.
She opened her eye a little more. "Won it" she reeplied. And that was the truth. Won it by entering in a stupid holiday constest put on by those she had been created to destroy. What a turn of fate that had been. She could not help but try and stifle a laugh.
"And what's so funny about it?" Desmond asked, noticing her attempt at trying not to laugh.
She sat up, "I've never won anything, let alone from those I was creeated to destroy" she replied.
"Created, huh?" The bounty hunter said. That was the first time that he could remember the neko talking about her past, despite only being blunty shot down the last time that he asked about it. The change in demeanor was disconcerting to him.
"Yes" she said. "All of us are created" she shrugged and settled back into her chair.
"I have won a couple of things," Desmond started to say. "But what's the point in that? Easy comes, easy goes. The things that I had to fight the hardest for is what I like the most," he added with an unusual conviction.
She frowned a little. "This is the closest chance I have had for total freedom from my past"
Amanozako said quietly.Though deep down in her mind there was another idea forming, something a lot more sinister.
"So you're bailing out on us?" Desmond asked once he heard her latest comment.
"No" she replied. "Just making plans for the future. This group wont last forever" she shrugged. "I've never made plans for the future before, so this is new for me"
"Right," the bounty hunter replied. He hadn't made any plans for the future either.
Amanozako turned onto her side, facing Desmond, "Guess it's something people in our line of work don't get to do often" she suggested
"No," he agreed, not even noticing that he was picking at the small bandages on his face again.
She knotted her eyebrows, "It'll never heal if you pick at it" she commented, eliciting another glance from him, although he did stop messing with the dressing.
"That must be strange, healing so slowly?" she asked and raised an eyebrow. "I wonder if hemosynth would work on you" she mused.
"Stranger than growing a new arm once one's been cut off?" He retorted. "It is you who heals too fast."
"Hey, that's pretty handy, I've had to do that before" she retorted. "It suck not to have it grow back"
"I could still have a new one back," Desmond said. Although he didn't have the ability to grow another limb, he could have a new one cloned and implanted if that were to happen, but for a hefty price.
"Not the same, I grow one back in a few hours, you gotta go get it put back on" Amanozako shrugged and stretched, lacing her fingers behind her head. "Still, it's something" she said, her red eyes scrutenizing his arms.
He caught her scrutinizing stare, but decided not to do anything about it. Instead, Desmond just stared forward through the window as the ship traveled at Faster Than Light speed.
Amanozako slipped out of her chair, moving to the rear compartment. She grabbed a couple water bottles, then came back, offering one to Desmond, which he accepted, before settling back into her chair and taking a long drink from her bottle. She really could think of little else to talk about at the moment.
The bounty hunter continued to check the ship's systems in silence, taking ocasional swigs of his bottle as the shuttle knifed through towards their destination
=============
The shuttle had reverted to normal space and now cruised at one half light speed toward the coordinates Amanozako had provided. Ahead of them lay a small cloud, it might have been confused for a tiny nebula if not for the chunkgs of wreckage and leeftovers of a long past battle, which told otherwise. There were several ruined hulks drifting, surrounded by their own innerds, scattered all about when the ships had been destroyed. Drifting slightly away from the mass wreckage was the ship. Dark, unpowered and dead in space. She had visible signs of battle damage herself, but, at least externally, seemed to be intact.
She was a warship. Not some civilian transport, freighter or passenger ship, but a warship. An abandoned NMX escort destroyer.
"There it is" Amanozako said, stainding up in her seat and pointing to the vessel.
"I see it," Desmond said, staring impassively at the vessel. He could see that its vital parts seemed mostly intact, and couldn't wait nor thing of a reason not to get his hands to work on a NMX warship. Except, perhaps, that it was an NMX warship, even if just a small escort. "And you want to fly it," he added as he maneuvered the small shuttle through the debri field, bobbing and weaving around the largest of them with the assistance of the craft's autopilot.
"Yes I do" she replied, her eyes taking in every detail of the ship. She had seen them before, served aboard several of this class of ship even during her time in the NMX military and knew what they were capable of.
"The problem is," Desmond started to say, flying the small spacecraft underneath the escort's large main thrusters and then bringing the shuttle up on its back near what looked like to be a hangar for several small craft. "As soon as someone sees you flying that they will want to kill you," he concluded.
"That would be assuming the ship were to continue to fly NMX colors and ID transponders" she replied. "That's going to be changed. There are plenty of former military ships operating under civilian command" Amanozako said
"Shit," the bounty hunter said as soon as there was a loud, scraping noise of metal against meal while he maneuvered the ship inside the small hangar on the rear of the former NMX escort. Looking to the side, an inactive NMX battlepod floated freely in the vacuum, while several others lay inactive and still perched along the deck of the bay.
The shuttle slowly decelerated before Desmond maneuvered it down on a clear spot of metal.
Amanozako was already in the aft space, pulling on the space suit she had brought, while Desmond made sure that the ship's engine were idling and that the craft was securely clamped against the deck. He then moved to the aft space of the shuttle, looking for his own suit.
In just a couple minutes, Amanozako was suited up, had her helmet on and the suit's life support running. She strapped her pair of HHG's onto her belt and shouldered her impaler rifle.
"All set when you are" she said to Desmond, who was working on the seal of his suit's helmet.
He was wearing a somewhat bulky suit, which looked ancient for the current standarts, but was what they had available when the Iron Ferret was taken by them. The suit was mostly white and made of a soft, but sturdy tissue. The only exception of that were the four connecting ports on its front and the sturdy plates that covered the shoulders, knees and elbows. He twisted the helmet on his head with a click, followed by a hissing noise as the suit was sealed.
"I'm good to go," the bounty hunter said, securing his toolbelt to his waist and then picking up the holster for his pistol.
The neko nodded as she worked the airlock controles, depressurizing the shuttle and opening the hatch. She then clicked on her suit's headlamps and unshouldered her rifle, holding it ready as she stepped out onto the deck. A slight shivver ran up her spine. This was the first time she had been back aboard an NMX ship in some years.
"Hangar deck is compleatly depressurized and open to space. Main lock is this way" she gestured towards the bulkhead at the opposite end of the bay from the opening and started walking that way.
There was no sign of power in the vessel at all and she had to activate her suit's magnetic boots to keep from floating away as she moved. It looked as if all the shuttlecraft and most the battlepods were gone and the escape pods, in this section at least, had been used.
"Copy. Engine deck must be close," Desmond said, jumping from the shuttle's open door towards the deck. He stretched out his arms as if he wanted to grab something, but used his hands instead to arrest his movement and bring his feet forward on the last moment, securing himself to the deck with the magnetic clamps of his boots. The headlamp from his suit flashed left and right as he looked around the bay.
"It is" Amanozako replied as she approached the airlock. The control panel was dead and she shouldered her rifle and opened a small panel beside it, exposing the manual door controles. "Not sure if there is pressure beyond, dont stand in front of the hatch" she advized as she positioned herself to the side and started priming the hydralic lever.
The hatch slid open, there was some small amount of air that vented out through the opening, along with some bits of junk and the corps of a Mishhu, that slowly tumbled out of the passageway beyond.
"Pretty," Desmond commented upon seeing the hideous form of the NMX tumble out into the void. It took a few seconds for the revulsion to leave his systems after the turned back towards the open airlock and stared at the open halway inside. "And you know your way inside here?" He asked.
Amanozako nodded as she stepped into the passage. "Yes, I served aboard these ships" she replied. The passage was a gruesom mix of technology and biological materiel, something out of a nightmare for most.
Even though he was wearing a full-pressurized suit, his stomach still twisted at the sight inside, and that came from someone who killed people and sold their corpses for a living. He no longer felt like getting his hands on such a ship was a good idea. "I'm not cleaning that," Desmond said, his lips curling into a grimmace as he examined the insides. It probably used to be a lot worse than that, and time had obviously decomposed most of the organic matter, but it was no less hideous.
"Wasnt going to make you" Amanozako replied as she lead the way into the warship. She had almost forgotten when it was like to be inside one of these ships and while Desmond may have found it sickening, this sort of envyronment had been home to her for much of her life and while she did not necesarilly like it all that much herself, she was used to it. "There will have to be some pretty major work to clean this stuff out" she explained. "Some of it is needed, some isnt"
The bounty hunter nodded and followed her inside.
They arrived at another hatch, which she worked the manual controles again opening it and having to break away the dead biological layer of the hatch, peeling back the dead skin and muscles. "Okay, this is the main engineering space" she said and stepped through.
Desmond continued following the neko inside yet another darkened room, grunting whenever he had to pull his feet off the deck with an extra measure of strength because it got stuck on the decomposing organic matter that still coated it. "I see," he said, moving inside the compartment.
Despite that, he could still recognize the room ahead as the engineering section. It seemed almost ironical that, despite major differences, most species tended to design their ship-compartments the same way for the maximum efficiency.
Amanozako swept her lamps around the compartment. Everything seemed intact. "The ships arether core should sill be opertational" she said as she walked up to the unit that sat in the center of the space.
"Give me a moment to assess that," Desmond said, grabbing a smaller flashlight from his toolbelt as he moved closer to the units. Although he was most familiar with fusion and antimatter systems, he had to learn the basics of an aether generator and engine during his training course.
"So why did you leave? No retirement program?" The bounty hunter asked as he moved around the room and inspected the dormant systems.
The neko was slow to respond. "The Mishhuvurthyar dont treat their soldiers the same as other militaries do.. not all of them" she said. "I could not be a tool to be used and cast aside anymore"
"Why do you tell me this now?" came his query from her suit's radio after he went out of sight. For someone who was not gregarious, talk seemed to put his mind off the fact that everything was covered in disgusting goo.
She shrugged. "Not sure" she replied as she kept looking around the compartment. "Is it bothering you?" she asked
"No. But you were pretty adamant in not telling me the last time I asked," Desmond replied.
She shrugged again, not really having an answer for that. Instead she started examining one of the control panels, the main operating panel for the engineering bay.
There were a few minutes of silence before the radio cackled again and Desmond spoke. "It will take me one hour to restore power and life support, but I don't know how much it will take to restore mobility of the ship," he said, still somewhere between the engine components.
"All right" Amanozako replied. "I am going to explore the rest of the ship. Should take me about the same amount of time" she said, turning back for the hatch.
"Have fun, or something," Desmond replied, going about his work.
"You too" She responded and exited the engineering space, starting off towards the bridge.
"Oh yeah, having a boatload of fun here. There's this gunk all the way up to my knees," he complained, his voice going more distorted with static as the neko walked away from the engineering section. Despite that, he didn't say anything else.
Amanozako continued her way through the ship, opening every compartment, checking every space. There were other dead crew aboard, though not many. She encountered a few dead NMX and even a fellow neko, dead, all killed in the ships final axtion. She was tempted to vent the entire ship out to space to clear out the bodies and other useless junk.
She did not come across anything else of interest in her exploration though, well nothing that was of interest for this quick inspeection she was making at least. She ended her exploration on the bridge, luckly devoid of corpses.
She stood in the center of the command center and checked her chronometer, it had been a little over an hour. That was when the weak overhead lights flicked on, and the ship seemingly started to throb into life as the air scrubbers activated, venting the stale air out and replacing with a new one.
"Power restored," Came Desmond's voice on the comms, distorted to the point where it almost wasn't understandable.
"Aweesome" Amanozako replied and settled behind a control panel, tapping at the display. "I'm accessing the main computer and beegining a system status request" she replied, via communicator.
"Understood," the bounty hunter replied. "I will check the thrusters," he added, before cutting the link.
She finished inputting her commands and began the diagnostic program, then got up, looking about the bridge again for anything else she might need to pay attention to.
=============
Desmond stood around the open space of the engineering deck once more, shaking some of the gunk from a gloved hand. Despite the life support being back, he didn't feel like removing his suit's helmet and breathing in some ''fresh'' air from the ship. Added to that, the decomposing organic matter was annoying, to say the least, it had the same consistency of an egg's white, but stickier.
"Disgusting," he muttered, before giving up on the task and putting his tools back in his belt. He wouldn't need to use them for a while, having reactivated the systems and jury-rigged the main thrusters back into working. The ship was really lucky in that the damage to its most important systems was only incidental, and despite not being used to working on aether engines, he managed some basic understanding of them to get it back to a minimal performance.
Despite that, he wouldn't say that the ship was combat ready, specially not with all the slime coating every single surface. How the nekos enthralled by the NMX worked like that, he didn't know. Maybe he should have asked Amanozako that.
And she stepped back into the engine room then, glancing around. "Looks a lot more like when I was aboard these, save for the Mishhu" she commented. "Think we are ready to test the engines?"
The bounty hunter turned around, regarding the neko behind the orange-tinted visor of his suit. "Basic mobility is restored, but I would wait to push the engines to the maximum until you have access to the proper parts," he said, rubbing his hands together.
She nodded. "Just need her to make it back to a planetary base or station with repair facilities"
"Which station were you planning on going?" he asked.
"Nassau" Amanozako replied. "Should be a safe enough place to put in for major overhaul"
"Sounds good, just don't push the engines too much," Desmond said, moving towards the exit of the room.
She nodded. "Lets get moving then" Amanozako said and started back to the bridge, with the bounty hunter following in tow.
"So how did you deal with all this gunk?" He asked as his suit's boots splattered against the decomposing organic matter.
"Just did" she replied as they walked along the passage. "Though, now that I have been away from it so long, it is pretty disgusting" she commented.
"It is," He agreed as a matter of fact.
She settled in behind the helm consol and studied the displays, input commands, plotting the course into the navicomputer while Desmond moved around the bridge, examining the individual stations one by one.
"Interesting," he said, spotting something of interest, and then moving on to the next station.
"Okay, plotted in, bring up the manouvering thrusters"
Desmond stopped examining the stations and moved closer to where the neko had been. "E.T.A.?" He asked.
"Should be a couple hours" Amanozako said, eliciting a groan from the bounty hunter, as she started piloting the warship away from the battle site, getting her clear of the wreckage.
"Then I am going back to the shuttle. I can't stand this place," he said after watching the ship maneuver for a bit. He didn't even want to think about having to clean his suit.
"Alright, I'll join you once the autopilot's set" she said and went to work while he left.
Groaning like someone who had just gone through the misfortune of stepping onto something nasty, Desmond started to make his way back to the shuttle.
Once clear of the wreckage, Amanozako eengaged the FTL drive, pushing the warship past the light barrier for the first time in who knew how many years. The ship vibrated a little as it acceellerated, but then smoothed out. She switched on the autopilot and set the computer to inform her once they were getting close to the exit point. That all done, she departed for the shuttle herself.
=====================
Desmond loittered around the landed shuttle, waiting for Amanozako to reappear. He couldn't get out of the suit yet because the shuttle didn't have an airlock, and thus it needed both of them to be there at the same time unless one of the two wanted to hang around the NMX starship a little more.
He idly kicked at the rusted metal decking, looking at the abandoned battlepods nearby as he waited.
She arrived a few minutes later, "Okay, we are good for a couple hours" she said, "I have the ship set to let me know about fifteen minutes before we arrive" she went on as she kicked some remaining goop off her boots before climbing into the shuttle
"Cool," Desmond said, climbing up the shuttle's landing ramp after the neko. Once he was in, he quickly punched the repressurization key on the console, watching as the clamshell ramp on the back slowly closed, followed by the hissing as the atmosphere slowly returned to the inside of the small spacecraft.
As soon as the air was back in, Amanozako unlocked her helmet and pulled it off, taking a deep breath. "Well, just a little more and we'll be done" she said and started taking off her space suit to get more comfortable
"Yes," Desmond agreed, placing the helmed on the floor as he stepped out of the suit, releasing the locks on the sides so that he could open the back and easily remove it. The somewhat bulky spacesuit dropped to the floor without any grace, its oxygen tank clattering against the hard metal decking. The bounty hunter had to grab at it from the inside and haul the thing inside the nearest locker, throwing the door closed.
Amanozako wiggled out of her suit, gathered it up and stowed it in another locker, then kicked off her boots and removed anything else that might be uncomfortable before stretching her limbs and padding barefood back to the forward section and slipping into a seat.
Desmond stayed around the crew compartment of the shuttle, taking his time as he lit another one of his cigarettes. He had been half-expecing the stench of the suits to be unbearable as it looked, but so far there had been no such thing as he stayed in the back of the shuttle, enjoying the break.
Amanozako put her feet up, reclining her chair back. She laced her fingers behind her head and relaxed, eyes half closed. "So, not too bad, save for the slime" she commented to Desmond in the aft section.
"No, not bad at all," he agreed. It was still hard to believe that someone would just happen to stumble upon a NMX warship like that.
She nodded. "So, you never told me what you wanted in payment for your work?" she said, eyes closed now as she relaxed.
"Nothing," he replied in a matter-of-factly manner. Desmond dropped the cigarette and stamped it with his boot before continuing, looking at the seat where the neko was. "It didn't cost me anything," he added.
"Your time has to be worth something" she replied, "You could have been back on the ship relaxing rather than spending a day working on an alien wreck"
"Despite everything inside this ship being shit, I still like working on spaceships," Desmond explained,
Amanozako smiled. "Must be nice to have something to do that you like that's not destructive" she commented.
"There isn't," he lied.
She sat back up and walked into the aft space. She stopped in front of Desmond and poked his chest. "You know I am right. I don't have anything constructive to do beside killing and blowing things up" she said.
"So? Find a hobby," he said, staring at the neko.
She shrugged. "Maybe sometime" she replied
"Well, you don't live forever," Desmond said, shifting a step back from the neko.
"Not since I dont have access to backups" Amanozako agreed, taking a stop towards Desmond to keep the spacing.
"What a shame," Desmond replied, standing his ground that time.
With Desmond holding his ground, Amanozako's step forward carried her right into him, impacting softly against the Nepleslian. That last bit of contact did it for him, spurring him on like a dam breaking open. The bounty hunter wrapped his arms around the neko's midriff, pulling her even closer to him.
Arms were about her, holding her close, she finished the forward momentum, pushing up onto her toes and planting her lips on Desmonds, kissing him needingly, her arms curling around his head as she held onto him as tightly as he held her.
==================
Something beeped inside the shuttle like an alarm clock. "Five minutes to translation in the Nassau System," said an artificial, droning robotic voice from the shuttle's cockpit, alerting both of the occupants about their imminent arrival on the Independent System. Hopefully, being unaligned with any of the factions, they would decide not to turn the ship into a flaming wreck as soon as they appeared there.
Amanozako was quickly pulling her jumpsuit back on, not bothering to zip it up as she went for the spacesuit next and started on that. She was pretty sure they would be left alone, she had disabled the NMX IFF beacon while Desmond had been fixing the engines and had programmed in a rudimentery civilian ID and had set them to come out of FTL well out of the planetary traffic control sensor range.
She glanced back at Desmond, her cheeks were pink and a slight grin touched her lips as her mind dwelled on their recent activities. The bounty hunter returned the expression in kind as he put his boots back on. His hair was messier than usual after he wore the white T-shirt back once he managed to put the pair of heavy work boots on. He followed her suit, fishing the EVA suit back from its locker and carefully putting it on, trying to avoid getting any of the gunk that was still on it on him.
She had her suit sealed up and pulled the helmet on next. Again she strapped on her pistols and grabbed her rifle. She was ready to go as soon as he was set.
"I'm good," Desmond said after sealing the helmet of his suit. He grabbed the pistol holster from the floor, but didn't put it on, instead moving first towards the control pannel on the aft of the shuttle and punching the depressurization command, attaching the holster to his right thigh as the air hissed out of the compartment.
As soon as the shuttle was vented, Amanozako opened the hatch and sprang out, jogging the entire way to the bridge, where she settled into the helm chair just as the ship dropped back to sub light speed. The autopilot disengaged then and she took over the flight controls and began checking for incoming communication signals.
Several signals were picked by the ship's sensors as it translated back into STL, although -apart from the inital pinging of the ship- most of them didn't seem to mind the small (former) NMX escort. Most of the contacts were situated near the only habitable planet of the system, Morant, in a variety of orbital installation, but only two of those stood out in size, which told Amanozako that they could have the infrastructure to perform the repairs.
Amanozako plotted in a course for the planet and it's orbital infrastructure. As she did, she locked in on the channel for the local traffic control, "Bastia space control" she announced over the channel, "This is civilian vessel Defiance, requesting permission to dock" She was not sure if that was the name this ship would keep, but it was the first one that came to mind.
The channel was awash with static at first, until a sharp noise rang out before a tired, female voice sounded through the comms. "This is Bastia control, we read you, Defiance. Docking permission granted, stand by for docking vector, over," said the female controller in a thick accented Trade.
Right after she had finished her message, Desmond stumbled into the bridge of the ship, breathing heavy. "Do you know how easy it is to get lost here?" He asked.
"Thank you, control" she replied, then killed her mic, glancing back at Desmond, "And I thought you were still trying to catch your breath" she replied to him with a sly grin.
"Well," the bounty hunter started to say, bracing one hand against the slimy wall for support. He tried to think of an equally snark remark to rebuke to her, but couldn't, at the end.
The neko grinned and plotted in the vector she was getting from traffic control, piloting the ship in to the designated landing spot. The process took a few minutes, allowing both of them to see on the sensor's screen the lone red blip that they were approaching near one of the fourth planet's moon.
Bastia Station slowly rose into view, as a single white speck at first, and then increasing in size until both of them could see how ingenuitively the colonists of Nassau had built a city by its own rights inside the asteroid. Weapon batterires dotted the rocky surface along with sensor spikes and dishes, while long metallic arms extended from two different cavities in the asteroid, allowing anything short of a cruiser to dock along its massive length.
Desmond whistled at the sight. He had only briefly been in the system once and had seen Bastia, but the view was still a breathtaking one.
Amanozako was too focused on landing the ship to take a moment to admire the view. She killed the main engines as they closed in, switching to control thrusters to delicately position the ship for one of the docking arms to grab.
The bounty hunter watched as the metallic arms magnetically latched onto the Escort's outer hull, guiding it in so that one of its airlocks on the sides connected with the station's own, allowing the crew to come and go as they please.
The comms buzzed again, but this time, a more gravelly, male voice sounded. "ISS Defiance, this is Bastia's customs, we are inloading the station's daily invoice to your systems, as well as the starport's laws," said the custom's officer, before cutting the link. True to his word, a few second's later a text message had been sent, detailing the daily fee that they would have to pay, which was relatively cheap, as well as the somewhat lax laws of the station.
Amanozako filed that information and put the ship into it's auto shut down sequence. "And we're here" she said.
"So, what now?" Desmond asked, turning around to regard the neko.
"Well" she said, paused, "Have to contract a service to clean up and refit the ship" she said, "Though that doesnt have to be done right away.." she trailed off
"Why not?" the bounty hunter asked, not understanding why she wouldn't want to fix the ship right away.
She eyed him and smirked. "In case you wanted to do something else first" she said and started for the passage.
"I see," he said, watching her as she made for the exit, and then following in tow. He was still somewhat taken aback by the suddeness of the neko, although, undeniably, it was a pleasant surprise.
Amanozako went back to the shuttle. Walking around a station with her assault rifle would not do well.She stowed that, but kept the HHG's. She glanced out the hatch to see if Desmond was following her in, and found out that he indeed was. Since he had only brought his sidearm as a weapon, the bounty hunter didn't have to stash anything inside the shuttle.
"Take the shuttle over so we dont have to stow space suits?" she asked, tapping the button to seal the hatch behind him and start pressurizing th shuttle cabin again.
"Sure," he replied, closing the hatch. Once again, the inside of the shuttle hissed as atmospheric pressure returned, allowing Desmond to pop his helmet free and get out of the bulky EVA suit. He then made his way to his seat, locking in the restraints and resting his hands on the controls.
Amanozako was out of her suit in moments, her jumpsuit hanging loosely from her shoulders as she walked up behind Desmond and draped her arms about his shoulders, leaning against his back. "In such a hurry, hmm?"
This time, he didn't flinch back from the touch. "I had the impression you wanted to take the fast route," he joked.
"I just didnt want to have to stow my space suit over there" she replied, leaning close.
The bounty hunter released his arms from the shuttle's controls, reaching for the neko and drawing her in again for another kiss.
===================
Some time later, Amanozako rested her head on Desmond's shoulder, her breaths finally calming down. "If this is going to become a habit, it's going to be hard to keep my icy cold shell towards thee universe" she muttered softly.
"Well, you keep pushing my buttons like that," he said wrapping his arm around the neko in that moment of shared warmth. For the first time in a long time, he had finally let his guard down and relaxed for a few moments.
She smiled, pressing her lips to his and pressing herself against Desmond, comfortable in his arms. "Well, we'll see" she said and closed her eyes, "Seems pretty enjoyable to keep pressing them" she added.
The bounty hunter chucked at that, forgetting about the ship that needed repairs, forgetting about the bunch of work he had in sorting what remained of the previous job. He just wanted to enjoy that moment. "What does this make the two of us?" He asked after a while, musing at that.
"I don't know" she replied, her black furry ears twitching. "I've never been in this situation before" she shrugged and rubbed her head against the side of his head.
"Me neither, but I don't want this to end," he admitted. He would have liked to speak more, words that would comfort her. He would like to tell her about the sudden admiration he had found, and how her being there helped making living the daily war that was his life better. He would have liked to speak with the ease someone like Kendra would have done and thank her for being with him.
But he said nothing. Before he could say anything else the radio on the shuttle was broken by the same, weary voice from the customs officer. "ISS Defiance, this is Bastia's customs, is everything alright? We haven't seen anyone board the station," the man said, with a hint of wearyness.
Amanozako sighed. She did not want it to end either, but, as with all things, it had to. She tapped the comm button and replied, "Yes, we were just sorting some things out and will be coming aboard the station shortly"
"Understood. Bastia out."
Desmond grunted. "Those guys must really think we're gonna try to blow up their station on the first chance," he said.
"Seem so" she replied and brushed her lips against his before crawling off Desmond's lap. She was dissapointed this nice time had ended, though figured they still had plenty of time together before they would be back on the ship with the others. She stretched and went about gethering up her clothing, which was mostly scattered about the shuttle interior.
The bounty hunter followed suit, cursing as he got up, also fishing for the clothes scattered along the room. He was starting to get proficient at dressing up in a minute's notice ever since he boarded the shuttle on Delsauria.
Amanozako could not help but keep an eye on Desmond as he dressed. She casually went about dressing herself and was eventually presentable to public, again looking the hard as nails mercenary for hire.
"Shall we pilot the shuttle out to a lock outside rather than walking through the sludge?" she asked as she finished strapping on her gunbelt.
"That was the plan," Desmond said, once again sitting on the pilot's chair. The bounty hunter strapped himself with the restraints, waiting for the neko to get ready.
She dropped into the co pilots seat and buckled in. "Alright, let's go then" she said.
The bounty hunter pulled on the shuttle's control, releasing the magnetic clamps and lifting off from the old battlepod bay. That close, and inside such a small craft, they couldn't help but to notice how big the station seemed by comparison.
Desmond flew over and along the length of the formerly NMX escort, going paralell to the docking arm, drawing closer to the asteroid. He maneuvered the small shuttle between other ships, although most of them seemed to be small and medium freighters ferrying goods to and from the station, until he eventually reached one of the several small docks intended for small spacecraft like their shuttle.
A thin sheath of shielding kept the atmosphere from inside the bay from escaping, while also allowing spacecraft to enter and leave, denying them the arduous process of docking, clamping, dressing up in bulky EVA suits and then actually boarding the station.
The bounty hunter flew along the path provided by the station's traffic control, coming down against the metal decking of the shuttle bay.
As soon as they were down, Amanozako unbuckled and slipped out of her seat, grabbing her great coat and putting it on, then her whide brimmed black fedora atop her head.
"Well, let's see how much this is going to cost" she said as she went to the hatch, checked the readings from outside, then opened it as Desmond walked to stand to her side, one hand casually resting on his leg holster.
The clamshell door opened to a sea of activity, people moved to and fro as they disembarked or boarded their shuttle, walking closely next to forklifts that carried whatever sensitive good couldn't be loaded by bulk. Further down, several crates and containers were stacked as they awaited transport, illuminated by weak light projectors that hung from metal rafts against the rocky ceiling of the station.
Standing out from the crowd was a trio of nepleslians. Most important of notice, was the man at the middle of them, who had been dressed more formally, while the other two's faces were concealed by the visors of their guns. They both clutched automatic rifles close across their chests. standing somewhat at ease.
The dock officer stepped in front, with his hands clasped behind his back. He wore a simple dress uniform, grey of color and a cap on top of his head of the same tint. There were no symbols in his clothing, but it was clear that he was the authority there.
"Greetings from Bastia. My overseer tells me you fellas landed here with an NMX ship," he commented, eyeing Desmond and then Amanozako. His gaze constantly shifted between the two bounty hunters, trying to assess who was the leader there. "You don't plan on causing any trouble, do you?" He asked.
Amanozako stepped up to the official and nodded, "Yes, we did bring it here and no we do not intend to cause any trouble" she said. "Infact, I intend to bring your repair yard some business overhaulling and refitting the ship" she said.
"Good!" The dock officer exclaimed, clasping both hands together and rubbing then. "In this case, Bastia welcomes you. Our docks offer the necessary maintenance services for the ships- as long as it isn't anything fancy like those Yamataians have," He said, opening his arms wide and gesturing at the station behind him. "For a fee, of course," he added.
"Of course" she replied. "And where would we go to employ the services of your facilities?" she asked.
"Why, please follow me and we will get the contract settled out," the officer said, beckoning the duo to follow him. Next to the neko, Desmond gave her a brief look.
She glanced back at Desmond, then followed the official, though gave him a few steps lead on her.
They followed the trio along the main throughoutfare, mixing with the large crowd for a couple of minutes. After a few turns, they arrived at a small metal building that justted out of the rock. Above it, they could see the reflection of people inside inspecting the crowds. The officer waved them through another duo of armed men who were standing guard in front of the building, allowing them to enter the small building.
It was clear from the first impression that they were in some sort of meeting room, a row of small tables could be seen along its length, with two metal chairs opposite to each other there. The man made his way towards the nearest table, taking a seat facing the duo, and motioned Amanozako over.
She followed and settled into the offered chair, taking her hat off and setting it on her lap. Her red eyes studying the room the people there.
"Oh, I didn't know you were a cat," the man commented.
"Does it have any bearing to our business?" she asked. She did not think it should matter, especially in independent space.
"No, just don't see many of your kind here. They're usually running away from something," the officer commented as if on an afterthought. Seeming like he had just remembered something important, the man fished something from underneath the table, drawing a yellow folder from a small drawer. "Right then, you will want what kind of repairs done to your ship?" He asked.
"It will need to be a full overhaul" she replied. "The ship is functional, engines, power core, computers and the like, but, if any of you have ever been aboard a mishhuvurthyar ship before, you will understand their interior is less than habitable for anyone but them and their creations" she explained.
"Yes, yes," The man started to say, writing down on the paper. "An overhaul on a ship of that size will take a while, with a regular sized crew. I could wager it would take our people one or two months to scrape all the gunk inside the ship, and the fees you would have to pay, added with the docking fee, would be weekly," he added.
Amanozako nodded. "And what would those fee's be?" she asked, alreading putting her digital brain to work calculating numbers.
"Well, to pay the whole crew of ten people, as well as the resources they will have to spend, we'll start with one thousand DA a week, plus any other unforeseen expenditures that we might have to employ," the officer suggested.
"I see" she replied, "And the costs for overhauling the ship?"
"Like I said, we will send these based on what we have to expend repairing it," The officer said. Next to Amanozako and leaning behind a wall, Desmond stared at the conversation.
Time passed and negotiations went on and on, but, eventually concluded. Amanozako could afford most of the work needed to be done to her new ship, but not all of it. She had a good deal of money, but she would need to earn more to be able to compete the refit. A payment plan was agreed upon that would allow the ship to remain in dock here and work to be undertaken and allow her time to pay off over the next several months.
Desmond stood with his hands on his pockets, watching the crowd move in front of the small building that they had just left. He turned to regard the neko for a while. "I guess I should congratulate you, captain," he said to Amanozako.
Amanozako grinned, "Thanks, though not a captain yet, I'm gonna be pretty broke for a while" she said, "Guess that means I'm sticking around with you for a while longer for sure" she added. "Grab a bite, then get some rest? I don't know about you, but negotiating money things by means other than firepower really made me hungry and tired"
"Well, I don't think sticking around is a bad thing. We can use you around, and I more than would like having you around too," Desmond said, looking around the station. "Sure, I haven't had a chance to rest ever since I came back from that job," he added,
"Oh, you would like having me around?" she asked with a sly grin as they started down the street.
"Why wouldn't I?" Desmond asked, grinning as he wrapped one arm around the neko's shoulders.
"Well, most people think I am cold and evil" she commented, moving a little closer to Desmond as they walked. "And, I am, mind you" she added with a glance, "Though this is nice" she sighed, feeling strangely relaxed, though confused a little at why she was letting herself get close to this Nepleslian that she really did not know much about. Sure they had been on several missions together, but other than that they had never gotten along all that well. What had changed? Surely winning a ship couldnt shift her that much? She knew she would have to figure all this out, at some point, but not right now.
"What do you want to eat?" she asked. "There's rations on the shuttle" she suggested.
"You really want to eat that?" He rebuted. He didn't feel like eating the cardboard-like processed block that called itself food when there were better things fairly close. "There's a city sized station right over here," he explained.
"It was a suggestion" Amanozako replied. "If you have something else in mind, lets go eat that then" she said, not mentioning that the rations were better than what she had usually eaten when in the NMX military.
"We are probably not far from the living areas, there's bound to be some decent place around that," Desmond said, still walking walking along the main throughoutfare once they had cleared out of the shuttle docks. "I used to like visiting places like these when I was a kid," he explained.
"Oh?" she raised an eyebrow. "What was that like?" she asked. She had never been a kid herself, having been grown in a tube nearly four years earlier.
"Well, we'd dock on a station every few months, and we'd have a few hours to go around while they unloaded the cargo and loaded the new one," he started to say. "So that's when one of my parents would take us to check the place out," he continued. There was a small stab of pain to his voice when he said 'us.'
"Must have been nice" Amanozako replied. "Having a family and all, time to do something other than what you were created for" she cought the hint of pain in his voice and while curious, felt best not to push on it.
"Yeah, I guess," he said. They had just walked into a wide open area, stretching far towards the top. Several buildings had been build along the hollow, rocky shaft, and a group of metal catwalks and bridges allowed the residents to move around them. The houses seemed to be more towards the top, gradativelly looking more elaborate as the shaft rose, while the stores and foodplaces were located at the ground level or the first few meters.
"Oh, look at that," Desmond commented
She glanced where he was indicating, deciding to take the obvious bate meant to destract her, rather than press a personal issue. "Looks promising" she said and slipped her arm around his middle, "Shall we invade?" she asked, giving him a squeeze.
"Yeah, let's," The bounty hunter said, holding her closer as he walked towards the food joint. It was a simple, nameless noodle place. There were a trio of tables with two chairs each stacked outside, surrounded by a simple metal fence. Further deep was the balcony, where a waitress idly talked with the older Geshrin who was presumably the owner of the place, seemingly oblivious to the thin coating of steam that wafted on the floor.
Desmond walked on, drawing one chair for the neko, and another for himself before sitting down.
Amanozako settled into the chair, removed her hat and slipped out of her jacket. She then picked up the simple menu printed on stiff paper, something one did not see often in the age of volumetrics and holograms.
"Hmm, no rations...no food pills, no meals in a tube" she glanced up at Desmond, "I have no idea what most of this stuff is" she admitted.
"Well, it's mostly dried noodles with whatever they can put in it. Probably rat meat, if you're lucky," He joked. That was when the waitress decided to clear her throat.
"What will you two be ordering?" Asked a very young woman, probably still in her early teens. She wasn't wearing a uniform, but simply a faded T-shirt over some loose jeans and work boots. Her sandy-blonde hair was ratty and unkept, and she stared at the two of them with her green eyes. The semblance between her and the man behind the counter was appalling.
"I'll have this one...number seven" Amanozako replied, pointing to the item on the menu that looked most appitizing by the picture, "And a beer" she added, then glanced at Desmond.
"Number nine, and a beer too," the bounty hunter said, setting the menu down.
"A number seven and a nine for the couple, daaaaaad!" the waitress said, turning around and walking back towards the counter.
Amanozako set her menu down as well, then pulled off her fingerless gloves, stuffing them into one of her coat pockets. "Well, this should be interesting" she said, her eyes roaming around the small establishment, she turned her attention back to Desmond and looked him right in the eyes, "So, not how you expected today to go, I'm sure?"
"No, not at all," the bounty hunter admitted, returning the stare. He had expected to simply lay down in bed and fall into a coma for a few days. Despite that, he had simply chose not to, and had throughoutly enjoyed what came out of that.
"Me too" she said and sank back into her chair. "I'm not sure what to make of all this..." she paused "Not used to being close to anyone... letting my gard down... It's...different, strange. I have never done anything past just some physical contact when needed, but nothing like actually talking to someone" she explained as best she could, "No one usually wants to stick around with me more than they have to and usually I'm just fine with that. I wasnt created to be friends with anyone" It was obvious this was not easy for her to get out, "But it's nice"
"Well, what do you want to make of it?" Desmond asked. "Everyone needs to stop worrying every now and then, I guess," he said.
Amanozako nodded. "Eventually, I guess you're right" she agreed. "As for what I want to make of this?" she asked, "I'm not sure yet, but I think I want to enjoy it for what it is, while I can" she answered her own question. "I know I'm not a good person" she went on, speaking quieter, "But maybe I can be, for a little..." she trailed off.
"I feel the same way," Desmond confessed, looking at the neko in front of him. How quickly things turned that way, he mused. There were several things he felt like expressing, but couldn't find the words for it. "Thanks," he added sincerely after a while.
Amanozako nodded and sank into her chair, "Though, don't let the others in on this, I don't want them to think I'm getting soft" she said, "And I wont tell them about you either" she smiled a little
Desmond couldn't help but smirk at that. "Sounds like a plan," he said, right before the teenager came and deposited the two bowls on their tables, followed by the glass bottles containing the beers. His bowl was a steaming mix of liquid, noodles and some cunks of meat from an unknown creature.
Amanozako leaned close, examining her bowl of soup noodles, something with meat, fish and stuff. It smelled good, better than combat rations, that was for sure. She picked up her beer and took a long drink from it.
Desmond didn't wait around for small talk. He started going through his meal, one spoonful at a time. It turned out that the taste wasn't as bad as it looked, and the meal was actually quite pleasant. He still wouldn't ask the real ingredients used on it, though.
The neko went at her meal too, eating quietly with interruptions for drinks from her beer. The both of them eat in silence, not talking one bit till their meals were done. bowls cleared away and a second round of beers delivered.
Amanozako relaxed, comfortable and full. She sipped her beer and watched the area around them, and Desmond, as she looked fairly relaxed.
The bounty hunter watched his surroundings. Despite being considered a backwater independent station, Bastia was a fairly safe place to be, not to mention pacific. People went to and fro on the catwalks above them, some going to a new shift, or others returning to their habitations after a long one. Not a bad place to cool down at all.
His gaze shifted back to the table, most particularly at the neko. "So, what now?" He asked, finishing his second beer.
"Donno" she replied. "We still got plenty of time to kill" Amanozako said and sipped her drink. "We could head back, or spend a little more time on this station" she shrugged
"Head back where?" He asked. He really hoped she didn't mean Delsauria. It would take a few days for everyone to wind down and recover from the last mission. Not to mention wait the heat cool down.
"Where all the others are" she said, "Though, I'd rather spend a little more time away" she admitted.
"Don't worry about that. It'll take a couple days before everyone even considers getting out of bed," he said, voicing his previous thoughts. A hint of mischief crossed his face, that meant more time for them.
"Oh, well" Amanozako cought the message. "Well, I could do for some time in bed" she replied
"Word," the bounty hunter agreed. He fished for something in his pockets, this time surprisingly not another cigarette, and slid a 20 DA bill on the table. It was enough to afford for both of them.
"Thanks" she said, noting he paid for both of them and stood up, grabbing her coat and slipping it on. "So, where shall we invade next?" she asked.
"I dunno. You don't feel like sleeping in the cold shuttle floor, do you?" He asked, sliding his chair back under the table once he got up.
"Well, I could if I had to, slept in worse plases" she replied, "But I'd rather not"
"Yeah, you don't say," Desmond said, briefly remembering the insides of the NMX escort. He started to make his way out of the restaurant, motioning for Amanozako to follow him and then stuffing his hands inside the side pockets of his jacket. "There probably is a joint somewhere here that has decent beds."
The waitress piped up at that, raising her head and looking at them while she picked up their used dishes. "Oh! There is a nice place just two floors up from here!" she started to say, too happy for the bounty hunter's comfort. "You just take the catwalks and you'll see it. My uncle runs it!"
Amanozako glanced at Desmond. "It's close" she suggested
Desmond looked at the teenager, and then at the neko. "Good for me," he said.
The neko nodded, then started for the stairwell up. "Well, let's check in, then we can decide what were doing for the rest of the day" she said with a impish grin at Desmond
"Right," The bounty hunter said, and made his towards the catwalk, and then up. The makeshift platforms were just large enough for two people to squeeze through, and Desmond had to take an extra effort not to look down after they had gone up to the second floor.
There, like promised, was the 'joint' that the teenger waitress had indicated them. A simple habitation building with a neon sign on top saying 'we have beds!.' "It actually doesn't look half bad," Desmond admitted, with one hand on his jacket's pocket and the other grabbing at the rail, his knuckles white.
"Nope" she "Not bad at all" she said and noted his white knuckles. "Don't like heights?" she asked
"Hm?" Desmond asked, and then noticed his hands. He slowly released the handrails, taking steps towards the hotel. "Something like that, he added, before turning the door handle and walking inside the establishment.
He got his first look inside the place, and wasn't disappointed at it. The room was made of metal sheets, and comfortably lit by a few flurescent tubes located on the corners of the ceiling. Right in front of them was an rugged balcony, with a middle aged Nepleslian sitting behind it going through a very, very old paper magazine.
Amanozako stepped up to the man, "We would like to get a room" she said to him.
The nepleslian lowered his magazine, staring at the two of them from over his small round glasses with a somewhat judging expression. "You kids these day," he said, sighing with the disapproval that only a senior member of society could muster. "The daily fee is 30 DA," he said.
She did not reply to the comment "Two days" she said and handed over sixty DA, prompting the keeper to scoop the bills from the table. The old man reached with an agonizing slowness, but eventually produced a small electromagnetic card from under the balcony. "Here you go, you too," he mentioned, looking at Desmond, who seemed to have just decided to keep quiet for the time being.
Amanozako nodded, accepting the key and checking the room number. She then glanced at Desmond and nodded for him to follow as she started towards the rooms. The bounty hunter heeded the call and followed after the neko, moving to the side of the balcony and through a narrow, square metal corridor. It had several metallic doors along its right side, more than likely deep into the asteroid rock.
Arriving at the door that matched the number on the key, Amanozako used it, opened the door and stepped inside, switching on the lights as she entered. "Quaint" she muttered, red eyes sweeping the room. The room was somewhat bare, but comfortable, it had been dug into the hard rock and then smoothed out with artificial ways, making the surface pleasant to the touch. A small ventilation duct was in one corner near the ceiling, over a small metal table and a chair.
There were two fluorescent lights in the place, one on the ceiling and the other in front of a small door, which most likely lead to the room's bathroom. A duo of single beds were placed next to the wall, with a small drawer between the two of them. To the opposite side was a simple vidscreen, and besides it on the opposite side of the door was a cabinet for storing personal belongings.
"Quaint," Desmond admitted, standing behind the neko and starting at the semi-dark room.
"Two beds" she commented, eying them. "Very quaint" she said.
"I guess he was being passive agressive."
"I guess so" she replied and took her jacket off, hanging it on the coat rack bolted to the wall next to the door they had entered in. "Well, this ok with you, or want to go ask for a different room?" she asked, glancing back at him
"It's alright," The bounty hunter said, stepping into the room and flicking the light-switch open. He examined the place as the door slid closed behind him, sealing them in. he noticed how there was a medium-sized mirror on one of the walls, and stared back at his own reflection through it. It surprised him at first that he actually wasn't wearing his usual frown as an expression, making his reverse-self stare somewhat perplexed at him as it mirrowed his current facial features and expression.
With the rocky walls, the only sound inside was the droning hum of the ventilation ducts as some fan spun deep inside of it with the sound that only a very old mechanism could produce. It was, though, by no means annoying.
"Or are you afraid of the boogeyman or something?" he asked, smirking.
"Boogeyman?" she asked. "I used to live on ships full Mishhu, the boogeyman is nothing" she said and took her gunbelt off, setting it on the table, the two HHG's making a loud clank. "What about you?" she asked
"What about me what?" Desmond asked, releasing the leg holster for his pistol as he looked at Amanozako.
"The boogeyman, scare you?" she asked and flopped onto one of the beds, stretching out
"I thought," he started to say, removing his jacket and setting it on the metal chair next to the table. "That I was spending a wonderful day with the boogeyman," he continued.
Amanozako sat up on her elbows, grinning. "Sounds about right" she replied and kicked her boots off. "Beds pretty comfortable, I must say" she added and lay back down.
"Is it now?" Desmond asked, walking towards the bed front end of her bed, next feet. "Maybe it's more comfortable than the other one," he suggested, propping his hands against the mattress and leaning forward.
"Mm, it could be" she said, the grin on her lips getting bigger, "Havn't tried the other one yet" she said and shifted her leg, letting her toes trace up Desmond's calf. The bounty hunter took that cue in, leaning closer to her and slowly crawing up the bed.
"This one feels good enough," he said, looking at her.
"It does indeed" she replied, arching her back a little, brushing against him as he crawled over her. "I think it feels very nice." Once again, the bounty hunter sprung forward, drawing the neko in for another kiss, no longer being able to contain the burning passion that had welled up within him.
Amanozako curled her arms around Desmond, drawing him down on top of her and returned his kiss, deeply, needingly. In the comfortable seclusion of their hotel room, she no longer cared about anything else, fully letting herself go to desire and needs she had, more so than in the shuttle, more so than she ever had.
==============
Some time later, Desmond could no longer stay awake, and lay sleeping soundly on the shared bed, one arm drapped around the neko's midriff as he slept. Not even the droning humm of a ship's engine that had become a sleeping narcotic for him along his life had made him rest with such relaxation.
Amanozako lay contently snuggled up against him, eyes half open, listening to his breathing as he slept. She felt strangely at peace and content. Sure she had slept in the company of others before, but this was not the same. She closed her eyes and pressed her head against his his and let herself drift off too.
