As the Acadia started to draw down from the recent combat, things were starting to quiet down. People were no longer rushing to and fro, save for the injured as they moved to the nearest medical bays or engineers rushing to report in for maintenance. Luckily, Rico Sanroma was neither… instead, the marine was being forced to play the part of a caring father by dragging his illegitimate child with him to the mess hall. The Nepleslian was a little thankful for the general neglect the recent scenario had put on Carina’s presence; the less he had to convince others that Carina was merely a younger cousin, the better and less-stressed Rico would be. As he approached the bulkhead to the mess hall, Rico glanced back to see if Carina was still following.
As Rico glanced back, he'd notice the little girl trotting to keep up with his longer stride. All thoughts about what had happened just a few short minutes ago seemed to have long since been forgotten. Carina wore a characteristic little eager smile on her face at the prospect of food... even if it was the crap served in the messhall. Even better she'd be eating with her father.
"So, uh..." Rico scratched the back of his neck idly as he did his best to recall just what Carina enjoyed eating. In all honesty, the sergeant could not recollect just what the young girl liked. Or what he had fed her at all, for that matter. "What's sweetcheeks been feedin' ya?"
Carina wrinkled her little nose at remembering
some of the things Suku had had her eat.
Suku came into the Medbay with a tray of food from the Mess Hall. It had some of the better foods on it, but mostly nutritional stuff. Like the times before, this one had a cup of chocolate pudding on it. With a quaint nod to Carina, she set the tray down on the table next to the girl.
"Eat your fish, then you can have your pudding, unless you did something juicy, then you can eat your pudding first."
"I ate what she brought me from the mess hall. Was good sometimes...I'd get a tummy ache tho' from'it too... She always brought me sweets with it." Carina piped up. In truth she'd never really cared for the fish they'd served in the mess it just wasn't like it was on Fortuna. "An...an...I steal the desserts off that
really skinny stick guy with tha' black hair's tray too. The one who scared me that day when you went and fought on tha' metal station thingy."
Rico didn't have many good memories about the mess hall cuisine. Even their hamburgers were left with something to be desired, and when it came to burgers, Rico was not a particularly picky eater. One look in the mess revealed a particular Nepleslian military delicacy of Bean Soup. Rico wrinkled
his little nose at the pallet, placing a hand atop Carina's head as he led her towards the line.
The first attendant behind the counter was the one male kitchen attendent on the Acadia, whom Rico immediately passed for the second attendant, a pretty little thing that he favored far more. The Nepleslian leaned in a little bit over the smoking trays behind the counter, flashing the young woman a debonair smile. "Any chance I can get two servin's for me an' my lil' cousin here? I know she's a civilian pick-up, but she's family, yannow sweetheart?"
The Second attendant bit her bottom lip with a smile back at the Sergeant. A little red flushed her face as she shuffled her feet. Clearly, the charm of the Sanroma had worked its way under this girl’s skin.
"Aw... Rico, I'd do
anythin' f'you." said the attendant with a rather heavy Funky City accent, as she got just what the man wanted. She also prepared a smaller serving for Carina flashing a sweet smile to the little girl, "Aren't you juss' a cute thing!"
Carina had opened her mouth to say something about Rico's calling her 'his lil' cousin' when the attendant looked down at her, smiling with a ready compliment. Her mouth closed as her dark cheeks flushed slightly, looking down at her feet as she twisted about from side to side.
Rico gladly took the two trays, giving the girl a single wink as he turned out towards the tables. Navigating his way through the sparsely-populated mess hall tables, the sergeant placed the two trays on top of the table between two ID-SOLs...but didn't take the seat. Instead, Rico simply grabbed the two gelatin desserts and waved for Carina to follow him. "Common squirt, this swill ain't fit for eatin'. Let's take it to the bunks."
Carina took a somewhat longing look at the now seemingly discarded food trays but did as she was told. Her eyes fixated on the jiggly desserts as she trailed after him.
---
Rico sat down on the empty bunk and lightly tossed the yellow dessert towards Carina before taking a small slurp of his own red dessert, neglecting the included plastic spoon entirely. "So, shortcakes," the Sergeant said as he idly swished the gelatinous dessert in his mouth. "what's ol' Ironsides been havin' ya do while she's workin'?"
Carina had already been digging into the dessert by the time Rico had asked his question. Looking over to him, spoon still in her mouth she pulled it out and swallowed before speaking. "Uhm...She was teachin' me how ta use that pointy gun she has... I kept shooting this one guy's picture in his
reaaaallly big nose.. Miss Suku was sayin' I was good with it. But...when people started comin' in she made me hide in a cabinet and gave me
this," she waved the datajockey in her free hand. "Ta' play with."
'Really big nose...must mean Chief Rui,' Rico pondered as he tipped another bit of gelatin into his mouth.
'That goddamn needle thing too...better keep an eye on that 'fore it gets outta hand.' He didn't want to get accidentally injected, after all...there was enough danger of that from simply approaching the new doctor on assignment. When Carina produced a datapad, however, Rico's interest was further piqued. The Sergeant playfully snatched the device out of Carina's hand, giving it a quick once-over with one hand. "So she gave ya this ta' play with," Rico repeated as he thumbed off of the screensaver on the Datajockey.
Carina nodded as she went back to consuming her gelatin. "Yeah...I didn' get'ta give it back to her since she was bein' scary..."
Suku's Datajockey opened to reveal a background that consisted of a picture of the original Medical Crew of the
Alliance, there stood Suku in green with Kokuten Chiaki and Adrian Decane flanking her. All three saluting to the camera, smiling, Adrian with a particularly dope smile. Several Icons littered the corners of her screen. One folder was labeled games, one was labeled documents, a link to her e-mail account, and several other small shortcuts that lead to some individual pictures and documents. One of the short-cutted documents was titled, 'For those who aren't Suku'.
Rico received several mixed feelings from the initial background. Kokuten Chiaki...Rico hadn't seen that one for a while. Last he heard, the poor bastard was jumping trains in some crazy woman's broken station. Adrian Decane...Rico wasn't too broken up about not seeing THAT guy for a while, although it did stir up some particularly funny moments. Particularly his last great promotion. And then, there was Suku Matsobuki, giving the camera one of her rare smiles. The sergeant wasn't too sure how to feel about that one.
"'For those who aren't Suku...?'" Rico repeated as his eyes fell upon the documents. For a moment, he figured it to be some sort of joke; who actually has files prepared for people who've stolen their datapads? Or it could be a trap; Suku did seem to be the type. "...did you play wit' this thing any, squirt?"
Carina looked over to her father again slightly confused. Of course she'd played with it! It
did have some fun games on there. Even some halfway decent music. She even found some pictures, and some of Suku's journal entries. The dessert finished she sucked at the spoon a moment before pulling it out of her mouth again while nodding. "Yeah...but Papi...what's
purple lingerie? And why'd Miss Suku mention it and you in that? An... why were you guys in'a dressing room together?" she asked pointing to the datajockey in his hand then looking back up to him her expression innocent.
Rico's eyes flashed in menacing delight at Carina's explanation. So much so that Carina's normally embarrassing questions seemed trivial and casual in comparison. "Purple lingerie is pretty underwear," Rico explained with a smile as he lightly pressed the "For those who aren't Suku" file. "An' we were in a dressin' room together 'cause I was helpin' her put it on."
The file popped open the NoteViewer application, revealing an already typed message.
Hello! Clearly you're the stupid shit who stole my DataJockey. Stupid, because you were dumb enough to open and read this. Shitfuck, because I'm going to have you shitting needles when I fuck you over with them. Return my DataJockey, NOW, or I'm going to make good on that promise you thick-headed cock sucker.
Any sensible man who knew Suku Matsobuki would likely be very, very afraid at that moment. The hot-heated nurse was not one to make such threats and not act upon them. It was this very fact that made the warning all-too enticing to Rico. The sergeant smiled widely as he finished reading the warning; of course he was a little intimidated, but the treasure trove of information before him was just too much to pass up, and the danger surrounding the matter only served to fuel his drive. As Rico glanced down at Carina, he also realized that he might actually be one of the few who could
actually get away with it.
"Alright Carina, we're gonna have some fun," Rico said as he waved the datapad back and forth, completely forgetting about the gelatin dessert in his hand. "We're gonna read some stories together. Sound good, short stuff?"
Carina's eyes lit up at him actually using her name for once. She bounced on the bed in anticipation at him wanting to read stories with her, and spend time with her. The little girl was all smiles now as she nodded eagerly.
Sitting back on the bunk, Rico's thumbed his way excitedly towards the Documents folder on Suku's datapad, anticipating more juicy information if Carina's past experiences were any indication. As it opened, however, he glanced up to Carina, sitting there expecting him to read a story to her. Without her help, Rico would not have obtained this brilliant blackmail opportunity...it only seemed natural the share the spoils, and he
was pretty grateful. Putting on his best grin, Rico patted his lap and waved the datapad in a welcoming motion. "Common squirt, you deserve a front-row seat too."
Within seconds Rico's child had planted herself within his lap with a little 'plop'. She rested her head against his chest, looking down at the datajockey then all smiles still as she waited.
When Rico's finger tacked onto the Documents icon, there were a few icons in the window that popped up. The first was pictures, which apparently had a few files in them. The second, was labeled 'Journal', which had
several files in it. The third was a DION Secure File containing the medical records of all the crew on the ship, labeled simply as 'Medical Records'. The fourth was, 'Videos'. There were several other miscellaneous files in the window, but none that seemed too important.
So many delicious choices. Suku's medical files did not interest Rico in the slightest, leaving several other options for his own personal viewing pleasure. For the moment, Rico decided to play along with his own joke and look for some embarrassing journal entries to sate his desire for Suku-related knowledge. One or two other marines passing through the bunks gave the two odd looks, but Rico was hard-pressed to notice, despite the appearance he had been trying to keep up. As Rico selected the journal folder, he chuckled under his breath. Perhaps after waving a few important secrets in front of her face, Suku would think twice before giving him a kidney shot during medical examinations.
Rico's fingers would open up a small selection of era's and times that would lead to the depths of Suku's recorded life and thoughts. Mainly, they were marked as 'Alliance', 'Post-Alliance', and 'Acadia'.
Rico pondered for a moment before choosing the Alliance file. He had many fond memories of that old ship, perhaps Suku's journal would stir up a couple of them.
The Alliance file opened up the NoteViewer, which gave Rico a look into the entry, since Suku had likely never looked back on it since the event at Kennewes, the file opened up at the last entry.
My god, this week has been fucking horrible, I'm not even sure I want to be a god damn nurse anymore. That bastard Kokuten scares the fuck out of me sometimes, digging in Adrian's head for a brainspider. He didn't even looked phased, and I couldn't even take looking in his direction. Seeing Adrian like that, made me sick, he's one of the few guys on this ship who doesn't want to either fuck me or punch me, and that means something, to me at least. Even worse was seeing Kokuten just walking around with blood all over himself, I mean, he's a doctor, but god dammit it's just freaky, especially when he woke Adrian up.
But, that's not the main thing, that little shit Rico never came by to see me. After he fucking promises, he scats out like a little fucking schoolgirl. I swear to god if I had a dick I'd skullfuck his womanizing brains out. I just wanted to settle a few things, not tie his ass down. But no, he leaves a girl hanging. I swear, I don't need all this shit, as soon as I get some shore leave, I'm giving Dizzy a call.
