Futuristic Transsolar

[Luminescent]

Rea smiled. "I'd be happy to! Our chemist is an N'thagn, correct?"





Without waiting for an answer, she beckoned the other cultural scientist and made her way to room 104. She knocked twice and then entered. There were butterflies in her stomach. She observed the N'thagn. He looked just like the pictures. She loved seeing new species for the first time. It was like seeing a celebrity. "Hello. My name is Rea Attune. What is your name?" she asked. She was careful to use correct and proper grammar, as well as introduce with something polite and casual, as the N'thagn would be doing its best to copy her in the near future. She sat down at the seat across from him, and made eye contact, careful not to stare. She noticed the handcuffs around his arm, and smiled. "I like your arm band." Compliments. If she taught him to give them, he would make a better impression on those who might be afraid or unknowing of him.


@Anaxial

 

[Dragongal]

Adira looked at Rea as she walked away, then looked at Saami and shrugged. She reached up and rubbed her sore jaw, saying, "That settles that, at least. We'd better get on the paperwork. Go figure his kind would send the files, he'd even have a file from the Science Division, yet nobody gave him the papers. We can use one of the meeting rooms nearby...." She rubbed her jaw, then muttered "Fuckin steel knuckles..."

 

[InsanEleven]

Saami nodded, and noticed her mumble something about steel knuckles. If she had been hit in the face with something made of steel she'd had to get that fixed first. "Ma'am, forgive my intrusion, if you are in pain you should seek out medical help first. I can start on the paper work if you desire so." He wouldn't mind doing the paperwork for her, he had assumed that'd be his role anyway as somewhat of an assistant/advisor. It was fairly important they'd get the documentation for their alien friend right too, and if she was distracted by her jaw it would be easier to make mistakes. He'd rather not have to redo some of the paperwork because one number was off on the code of the mother of the brother of the child of the aunt of his pet turtle.

 

[Anaxial]

As Rae entered the room, she found Anu with his bedsheets tied around his neck and wrapped around his torso as if trying to mimic a shirt. The blanket for his bed was wrapped around his long legs to serve as pants, and the pillowcase worn on his head like a hat. The pillow itself torn open and the cotton strewn about the room. Various other objects in the room had been tossed around and all the light bulbs unscrewed, several smashed and the bits and pieces lay neatly in squares on the bed that he seemed to be using as a work bench. The only light coming from the open doorway, he turned as she knocked and took a few long steps to meet her as she entered. Just as with Adira he came uncomfortably close but paused before he did anything, grabbing her arm he extended it and stepped away the exact distance of her arm.


Personal space.


"Ohh my you are pretty one!" He said, though perhaps more to her hair than to her. From her arms distance away, Anu began to rudely poke and pinch at her skin and hair, taking it upon himself to tug on her clothes and examine the seams, adjusting his own bed sheet shirt to mimic the seam. As before the process of poking and pinching only lasted about twenty seconds and despite the slimy appearance of his skin, it was quite dry while retaining a gelatin texture. After he had his fill of poking he grabbed a chair and set it up at the end of a table, another across from the first.


"Sit down there." He instructed, his voice mocking a stern, authority figure, though his eyes and wry smile showed he was merely playing along, likely imitating how they ushered him into the prison cell. When Rae had taken her seat, Anu sat across from her and while she may have been kind enough not to stare Anu did not share the same mannerism, his wide black eyes locked on her since she entered the room.


"It is very nice to meet you, 217-800009-0105, Rae Attune." He said, his normal bouncy and excited tone returning now that they had been acquainted. He didn't have an accent per se, but instead had a gargle to his voice, it was only slightly higher pitch than a human male, but always sounded add though he were taking into a glass of water -if but a bit clearer.


"I am N'thagn Anu, cell-" he paused, his smile fading for but a second before growing wider than ever. "N'thagn Anu." He repeated with a slight nod. "I must say, I like your hair very much. It is soft and springy, you must be very proud. "He referred to it as though it were a living thing, of course he knew it wasn't but he couldn't get over the human's hair. As always he spoke so quickly if you lost concentration you'd lose everything he said, and as always he returned to playing with Rae's hair after he'd said his piece.

 

[Dragongal]

Adira glanced at Saami, rubbed her jaw again, then sighed. "Alright. I'll come back to help you when I can, I don't want to pile it all on you.... I guess it's time to meet our new doctor, then." She didn't want to have to go to a military hospital, or a civilian hospital, or any hospital at all. If she'd read the file right, the doctor seemed one who could understand privacy and wouldn't be annoying. She sent a message to Miss Jones - "Would like to meet you. Also, could use some medical assistance if possible. Are you available?"

 

[InsanEleven]

Saami

​

Quietly he sat and mentally filled out paperwork, which appeared on the tablet in front of him in real time as he hadn't stored all documents in his head. Even for him having 150 documents in his head was a bit too much, so instead he stored them on the tablet and filled them out through a wireless link. Getting an alien to be allowed to official stay in the colony wasn't that easy. First you had to register him with the governments, EarthGov first and then the local government, then you had to apply for a workvisa, only to have to enlist with an existing company, and about seven other steps, all in manual threefold of course. The documents weren't small either, averaging about seven pages of details to fill in. This would be a very fun evening.

Doc

​

"You know cap, you could've just met me without having to break something. I don't know where you have put your jaw, but the scanner says it's a microfracture." She held Adira's jaw in her hands, moving it to the side with a surprising gentle touch considering her apparent disregard for ranks and the customs that went along with those. In her other hand was a small X-ray scanner with a little screen that showed the bones of the person it was aimed at, and a close look would tell that there were indeed some hair fractures in the jawbone. "It's going to heal fine with time, but my advice is that you don't bark orders at the crew just yet. Anything else you needed me for?" She sat upright in her chair again, placing the X-ray scanner away on the tray beside her, and the look in her eyes was slightly more personal than it had been when she was examining Adira.

 

[Luminescent]

Rea noticed the pillow and cotton strewn everywhere along with the bedsheets wrapped around the N'thagn. She sent a message to the Captain:


Could we please get the N'thagn some human clothes? He seems to have a fascination with them, and has been quite reckless in order to craft some of his own.





The lightbulbs had been unscrewed and broken apart and laid on the bed. Because of this, it was very dark in the room. "Are there any of those glass spheres still intact? Those are called lightbulbs. Humans use them for light. Unlike you, without light, we can't see! Can we screw one back in to the ceiling so I can see you?"





She laughed as Anu held her arm up and stood at the tip of her fingers. From there, he began poking her and playing with her hair. He made several comments about her hair, and Rea was quite amused. She was used to the odd mannerisms of foreign species, so she didn't mind much. She sat down where Anu had told her. "Nice to meet you too, Anu! Can I call you Anu? You can call me Rea. Humans don't like being called their numbers. When we use each other's names, it gives us a sense of individualism. We like that. I see you've learned about personal space! Very good! However, humans don't like to be touched until they have known you for a long time. But, If you are curious about human anatomy, I am sure a doctor would be happy to teach you with a volunteer! Thank you, Anu, I am very proud of my hair. You talk very fast! Humans like it when you talk slow, so we make sure to understand and comprehend what you are saying. Can you try to speak at the same speed which I am?"





She was very used to this, and in fact, if was her favorite part of meeting a new species. It was like caring for a toddler. A large, translucent, blue toddler.


@Anaxial

 

[Dragongal]

Adira replied, "Ah, but Miss Jones, how else would you remember me?" More seriously, she said, "If we're honest, I really didn't expect for this... if the knuckles had been bones I'd have been fine. I didn't expect steel. I won in the end, though." Adira sat up straighter in her chair and took a few key cards out of her pocket. "Actually, I have some key cards for you. With my allowance, you can put whole sections of the ship under quarantine with those cards. Then there's the medicine storage and other requirements. Everyone's medical records should have been sent to your tablet. Also, as I'm sure you know, as head doctor,you're the only one who can overrule my orders, if you can determine me unfit for duty on paper."

 

[Anaxial]

A meeting between Peoples

As always, Anu sat quietly as she spoke. His lips twisted into that alien smile of his while his bulging black eyes only grew wider as she talked, absorbing all her information with an uncanny gaze. He never interrupted, he kept his back straight as best he could in these strange human chairs, his hands placed on the table with his palms skyward. He waited until she was obviously done speaking, and then said;


"I am talking slowly. Your primate brains would not perceive me otherwise." smile remaining present. "I understand every one of your words, Rea. I read a dictionary before coming down. The words are not lost to me, merely their meaning, to you." He explained reached over and grabbing one of the intact lightbulbs. With arms as long as his, he hardly needed to move at all to screw it back into place and light gave purchase to decrepit state of the Alien's room. It took only a few minutes by himself and he practically destroyed everything that could be destroyed, most of it laid neatly in square piles as if he planned on reassembling them later.


"But you must forgive me! I have only met two other humans in my life, you are my third and the second I talked to." he continued once the light flooded the room and was absorbed by his transparent skin, making his bones and organs all the more visable. He addressed everything she said and always spoke in an excited and uplifted voice.


"It is not your anatomy I am curious about. I was given plenty of material on your biology, that is all I was given. I have read and studied extensively on everything the human body has to offer I only wanted to see and feel it for myself." He explained, cocking his head proudly. "But now we know each other. You are Rea Attune, I am N'thagn Anu. So it is ok to touch now." He said and continued poking at her. "But I do not understand your aversion to a number. Many humans may have the name Rea, but only one has the number 0105. To me, 0105 is much more precious, much more meaningful than something that another human may possess. 0104 expressed this same distaste in being assigned a number, though hers seemed deeper rooted, she seemed quite bothered by it. Perhaps she should seek mental help?"


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


A Broken Man

After he had left the meeting for the contract he'd accepted, the people he would work with immediately left his mind. Instead he thought about why he accepted such a contract, especially with a record as extensive as his own. Perhaps it was his own misguided attempt to redeem himself for the evil he'd done in his life. Perhaps a small bit of him hoped it was a trap and he would be gunned down by the Empire and finally set free from this torture he called a life. Not a day went by that he didn't think about it, the ghosts that haunt him waiting to pull him into hell the day he died -he'd make them fight for it.


The Captain, Adira Rik he'd recognized her but she hadn't recognized him, perhaps she wasn't as good with faces or perhaps she didn't have memories of slaughter and death ingrained in her brain like etchings in a stone wall. She was there, those years ago. That failed pirate raid on an Empire ship, she was the one who broke their attack pattern, saved their ship, killed off most of the pirates and captured the rest. Including Marshall himself. He wasn't held long however, he never was before he found a way to escape either by sneaking or fighting his way out.


The SIAD Operative was his next concern, Garrett remembered the raids on Outlier settlements, he remembered the charred bodies strewn in the ruined streets, the looted homes and the rotting carcasses of promising settlements left behind. He remembered the mass killings, the fear in the eyes of the civilians as they were lined up and shot by the heartless thugs of his employers, he remembered the indifferent look he gave them before the guns blared. He remembered never being able to bring himself to pull the trigger.


Rea seemed innocent and harmless enough, naive, trusting, probably really would make him breakfast if he asked. She would become a target for Garrett and he hated himself for it. He knew his flaws, he tried every day to fix them but could never jump the hurdles put in front of him. So he drowned himself in alcohol and smoked Earth Cigars and tried to bury the jeering ghosts in his head. Despite everything, when he finally felt he was ready to enact his revenge, that fateful night changed him forever and solidified who he was as a man;


A Murderer, killing for money while refusing to kill unarmed civilians, as if it made a difference who he killed when.


A Scumbag, trafficking slaves and stolen materials through space, what would Jacklyn say is she saw him now?


A Womanizer, trying to replace the hole left in him when Jacklyn was so violently taken from him.


A Liar, lying about his name, his business, his motives, he'd tell anyone anything to get them off his back.


----------------------


"I-I... I honestly have no idea..." James sobbed out, staring at the ground as blood pooled beneath him, Whitney and Penelope cried quietly in the center of the office, Penelope keeping her eyes trained on the irate Garrett who paced in front of James impatiently.


"Look at it." Garrett ordered him and forced his face towards the photo on his desk. Garrett's voice was a growl, more animal than man. James kept his eyes shut, he knew what it was and he knew why this was happening to him. How far would he let this go before Garrett lost his already thin patience and killed them all?


He opened his eyes.


The photo showed a man that he used to know, a pretty girl around his arm and a girl no older than 4 standing between them. James began to cry uncontrollably. This was his punishment, so long after he had committed the crime. Garrett snatched up the picture and showed Penelope who covered Whitney's eyes as if to expect some horrid thing to be on the picture. She said nothing, but glared at Garrett with a hate that could not be described. Crouched in front of the two he called over his shoulder;


"Who are these two people, James?"


"It... Jacklyn and Ellie Marshall..." James managed to choke out between the slobbering cries. Garrett's eyes never left Penelope's, he saw the doubt form in her mind, her eye shifted a bit as if wanting to look at James, but fearful to look away from Garrett.


"My wife. MY CHILD." Garrett growled out again, waving the pistol around, causing Penelope to flinch once again. "WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM, JAMES? WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY WIFE. MY CHILD?!" Garrett screamed, he sounded like a rabid animal as he stood up and stormed James, grabbing him by the collar and pulling their faces close. James couldn't control his cries any longer, he couldn't speak, he merely shook his head 'no'.


"James..." Penelope said sheepishly, only to have Garrett rush her again and crouch down in front of her once again.


"He had them killed!" Garrett announced, holding the picture for Penelope to see again. A defeated smile on Garrett's face. "That's not all he had done to them though, IS IT JAMES?" rising up once again, Garrett pulled a folder from his jacket and slapped it down in front of Penelope.


"Pene...lope ... Don't I'm sorry... I'm so sorry.." James sobbed out, the anger in his wife's eyes turning to horror as she read the file, read the autopsy, read what terrible things happened that night.


"You take a man's child..." Garrett said checking the magazine of the pistol. "You've truly taken everything from him."


"James... What... This isn't..." Penelope was in disbelief, her look of disgust apparent as young Whitney cried in her mother's lap.


"You took EVERYTHING from me, James. " Garrett leaned in close, whispered so only the putrid excuse of a human, James Caulfield could here him. "Now, I'm going to take everything from you. I sat in that chair you're in now, I thought for a while... I would crawl a thousand miles just to bring you pain. So now with your wife thinking your a monster, KNOWING you're a monster. That's how she'll die." He said and James eyes went wide as he struggled to stand only to fall to on his face as Garrett backed away.


The gunshot rang through the office, but it wasn't what pierced Garrett. It was the screams that followed, the cries of disbelief. Garrett felt his stomach drop, he knew what he did was terrible, it was the worst possible thing a human could do... He couldn't stop now.


The second gunshot rang through the office, but it wasn't what pierced Garrett. It was the screams that followed, the screams of a broken man. It struck Garrett to the core and he felt sick.


Fire would conceal the sins he'd committed that night, Garrett burned the office down and fled from the scene long before authorities arrived. He fled further and further into space and no matter how far he fled from that terrible night, the jeer of ghosts never stopped.

 

[InsanEleven]

Saami

​

Quietly he watched his internal clock tick away the seconds as he was busy filling in the documents at the same time. While he had gotten a decent amount filled in and send already, it still felt as if he was barely scratching the surface. Ah well, then he at least had something to do while waiting for the captain to return. His calculations were mostly halted as he at this point had to have them checked by the remainder of the navigators; except only one had arrived and the others weren't even close to being in communication range. There wasn't much more for him to do now was there, he couldn't go flying everyday as that would raise suspicions, and he didn't dare training his physical abilities too much in case he'd accidentally break something just before launch. Best he could do was research physics and mathematics, but those were about equally dull as doing paperwork anyway.

Doc

​

Chrice took the keys from the captain with a smile, looking through them quickly to see what she actually had in her hands, then pocketing them. "I'd say you should stop putting your jaw in places it doesn't belong then to begin with, or any other important body parts. You're unforgettable as it is cap, no need to get that pretty face all mangled up." The last somehow came out a whole lot less sympathetic than it seemed on paper, clearly a warning hidden under banter more than a compliment. "As for quarantines, I sincerely hope we don't have to use those; the ship doesn't have much room to quarantine as it stands." Of course it sounded like a joke now, but diseases had definitely gotten the better of a decent amount of exploration ships. Hostile entities you could warp away from, but diseases were stickier than toffee to your jaws and more persistent about getting into places they shouldn't be than beach sand.

 

[Dragongal]

Adira shrugged and smiled. "To my understanding, every room, hall, and crew quarter can be quarantined. Oh, also, Doc, i want to make sure you got all the other numbers of the other crewmen - chances hold you'll have to work with Miss Attune, Mr. Woods, and Mr. Marshall. You should check your tablet to make sure you have all the files - we've had some technical difficulties with paperwork today, specifically with a N'thagn."Adira gently rubbed her jaw. Maybe Doc was right... then again, she already knew she shouldn't fight, but that had never stopped her... even under orders from a superior officer.

 

[InsanEleven]

DOC

​

She looked through her tablet at the files, reading them over before commenting on them. "Alright, let's see Miss Attune is in a fine condition, Mr. Marshall seems like he would mistake me for a pretty nurse, and your INANES appears to be in a perfect state counting its bodily malfunctions, but is it normal for the files of Mr. Woods and you to be locked up so heavily? It's like Alcatraz for documents. I wouldn't be able to see if you put your jaw somewhere else it didn't belong before, and I wouldn't even know if Mr. Woods has a jaw or not to begin with." That was closer to the truth than she liked, if mental or physical preconditions existed it could mean life or death to know about the in this environment. It wasn't exactly nice to cut someone open for surgery only to find earlier pieces of shrapnel lodged in, or an allergy to certain anaesthetics.

 

[Dragongal]

Adira thought for a few moments, then said, "Well you must not have been put in the system correctly yet, you should have gotten Woods' medical file without locks. It's normal for it to be like that, yes, but you should have gotten the file without locks. Might want to look into he N'thagn when you get a chance, Doc."Adira took out her tablet and sent Doc Woods' medical file.

 

[InsanEleven]

Doc

​

"Ah yes, now I can enter the files, so he does in fact have a jaw. What a peculiar species of alien, I might have to do a few tissue tests first to see how his body reacts to medicine. Looks like he already has a reserve heart in case I screw up." She looked at the files on the alien a bit more intensely than she had at those of the rest of the crew. Rarely encountered species were always nice to obtain biosamples from, so they could add the specifics to the medical database. That would save a future doctor a lot of work and stress; it was curious what could come in on a normal Monday evening in a centralised colony.

​

Saami
​

He walked back through the hallways after going to get something to drink, in his head already planning out what to type in on the document he was working on. As he was walking minding his own business he heard a few footsteps and voices behind him, but didn't pay much attention to it as he was busy with other things. It wasn't until a soldier stepped in front of him that he really realised something was going on, and even with his technical implants he couldn't do two different tasks at the same time. Now the soldier and his friends sure had his attention though, and he stared at the man in front of him for a little bit.


"See, he doesn't even know." Not this again, nothing good ever came from sentences like that.


"I still don't think it's a good idea, what if he tells?" For a short while he switched his vision to the second man, who visibly tensed up and got a scared glint in his eyes. The first man was talking again though, so he shifted his vision.


"He's a robot, nobody cares anyway, and it's fun to mess with them. Watch this."


The soldier took the cardboard cup of water from his hand, which was fairly easily as he couldn't really fight it. To add insult to stealing his drink, he waved it in front of his eyes, and as it was nothing hostile or threatening he couldn't look at it, instead staring past the taunting directly at the man.


"Oh wow, he really doesn't know." The second soldier now got a more curious look on his face, the fear slowly dissipating into a hesitating smile.


"I told you right, he can't do anything to us. Wanna see?" The first soldier didn't wait for an answer, immediately lifting the cup and then poured the water over Saami's head, and there wasn't anything he could do against it. Once it was empty he dropped it, and with a little hollow bump the cup bounced off of his head, rolling over the floor. Meanwhile he still stared at the soldier, water dripping from his face, but nothing in his expression showed he even noticed.


"That's just freaky." The second soldier seemed nearly taken aback, but of a different kind of fear, not that of hurting another being, instead he was scared of seeing a thing react oddly and not how it was expected to.


"That's why we call them freaks, come on, the rest is waiting." The soldier laughed and turned his friend around, another mind rotten by cruelty. As they walked away Saami finally seemed to notice the cup, rolled off to the side. He bend over and picked it up, then looked around and put it in the first bin he saw.


Quietly he changed clothes in his room, folding each piece that was wet neatly before putting it in the wall mounted slot for dirty clothes. There was not a single thing in his room that wasn't tidy and cleaned, and there wasn't a single thing in his room that was altered from the way he got it. Nothing that would indicate someone actually lived there, no pictures, no hobbies, not even a favourite brand of pencils. If someone else stepped in this room and declared it his, there was nothing in it to prove otherwise. It wasn't like he particularly cared though, or that he could, his room had always been like that, and the few rooms he just declared different because it was another being, not because his was empty. He had other things on his head anyway, like the documents and getting his clothes in order.


With a new drink, fresh clothes and still damp hair he returned to the meeting room, continuing tapping out the documents as if nothing had ever happened.

 

[Dragongal]

Adira looked at Doc for a few seconds, then said, "You seem like the kind who can keep your gab shut. I trust you enough. I'll send you my file when I get back to the base." Well, she'd send parts. She just had to decide which parts. That would require some thought.


Not too long later, Adira was walking out of Doc's temporary residency, thinking about what to send Doc of her file. This required much thought because she couldn't feel like she fully trusted Doc, but she'd need to know some things.... She intended to swing by her hotel room (the hotel for Adira had been different from her other crewmember's; something Admiral Ford mumbled about fraternization and embarrassing herself by fighting in front of the crewmen? However the hotel where the rest of the officers stayed, near the base, had filled before Doc had arrived, so she was sent to a different hotel) then return to help Saami with the paperwork. Her hotel was off base, as were most of the places they'd sent the Lullaby crew. As she walked outside of her hotel, she didn't notice two shadows moving behind her, the larger one grabbing her from behind. Immediately thrown into fighting mode, she struggled, only to get thrown against the dirty old brick wall of her hotel. Before she could recover, she was picked up by her neck and pinned against the wall. One of the two men, a smaller, thinner one, said, "Captain Rik! I'm sure you don't remember so lowly as ourselves." Adira did know them both, and well. One was a crewman she'd kicked off and gotten court-martialed for immorality, harassment, theft, a whole list of things. The other one she'd kept in the Stargazer brigs for a month - a black market trader, specializing in illegally mined minerals.


"Fuck off, and I won't hurt you," Adira said, her voice strained. The larger one chuckled darkly. "We have the cards now, Cappy." They were holding her neck too hard, she wasn't getting enough oxygen, and her vision was starting to dim. In a split second, Adira drew her photon blade. Interlocking, razor-thin, flat superstrong crystals with intense heat running through the crystals from a light-generating mechanism in the hilt - essentially, a very, very hot knife that could be put at any temperature with the sliding of a switch on the hilt. The blade was as long as her forearm, and the hilt fit perfectly in her hand. She sliced deeply into the hand that was pinning her to the wall, going up his forearm as she kicked into his gut, forcing him to let her go as she dropped to the ground as his blood splattered on her jacket. She kicked out his legs and stood up as quickly as possible, sheathing her blade and attaching it to her belt again. Hand-to-hand, that was what was fair.


The thinner one got in a punch that she blocked and returned with considerable force, but she didn't count on the big one getting back up so quickly. He hit her in the back, and she thought she heard a crack as he did so, before the force threw her to the ground. She was getting up when the smaller one managed to bring a knee up, smashing into her mouth. Adira stumbled back against the wall, wiping off her split lip as she got ready to finish the fight. No more playing, she had places to be. However, she hadn't expected to get hit by a low-grade stun-gun. The weapon was old and overused to be certain, but it was enough to make her drop to the ground for a few seconds, which the men quickly took as a chance to get a few kicks in before she pulled her phaser out. They scattered, but she set it on mild and fired, hitting the small one in the calf. Now that felt good. She slowly dragged herself up, leaning on the wall. That stun-gun was old, but it had clearly been intended to keep her down for a while. Every few seconds her vision would darken and it felt like she would collapse.


She wiped off some of the blood running from her split lip just as the hotel's owner came out to yell at her. es, it wasn't her fault, but that was the fourth fight she'd gotten into since she had arrived. That was bad for business. Adira conceded; she had been warned before, it was true. At the moment, she had to find somewhere to go before she collapsed on the street; that stun-gun had done a number to be most certain; but she didn't have a place to stay anymore. She'd have to pick up her things later, when she wasn't covered in blood, according to the irate and embarrassed owner - who was about to call the MP, no less. Adira conceded again and did her best to walk away with her head up high, but that was very hard when she was pretty sure she had at least one rib broken. If I go on base, I get in trouble, if I go back, I get in trouble, Doc's is too far.... An insane idea occurred to her, so she cut down a side street, though she once had to pause to cough up some blood and twice fell to her knees as the stun-gun's effects tried to take hold. She couldn't do this much longer. Finally she got to a smaller hotel close to the base, and managed to get to the correct room she'd luckily remembered before leaning against the frame and knocking loudly on Woods' door, blood splattered down her jacket and running profusely from her mouth and a cut on her head.





@BookWyrm

 

[Anaxial]

Restless Nights...

This night was no different, specters swarmed his mind every time he closed his eyes, he could hardly sleep unless he collapsed from exhaustion. So Marshall patrolled the streets of Arid Harbor outside of his power armor, hard to sneak up on someone when you had servos whirring and the weight of a tank in each step. He wore a pair of ragged blue jeans, some black shoes that seemed a few years past their prime, and a simple olive green button-up shirt that was stained and marked with black spots of oil and dried blood, sleeves rolled up.


Unlike the others, he didn't need to stay on base. It was probably better that he didn't, he'd just cause trouble and then he'd lose his contract, he couldn't afford that... Never could afford that. So he wandered the desolate roads of Arid Harbor with a Keltor 11mm Pistol and an old knife he'd taken from a soldier he'd killed along his dark path. The Keltor was a bit bulkier than most lower grade or laser pistols, but it seemed to match his infamous weathered look.


As he walked the streets, with his hands in his pockets and the pistol strapped to his thigh, he heard a peculiar sound. It was the thud of flesh hitting flesh, bones clacking together, the sounds of a fight. The Mercenary hesitated, he'd made mistakes like this before- getting involved in things he had no business with, but that raised a question in his head; Why do you patrol the streets then, Marshall? All questions left his mind as he heard the sound of a gun fire, that was all he needed to take action, nearly a decade of atrocities had prepared him to react to gunfire and so the Mercenary drew his pistol and crouched down moving as fast as he could silently only to almost be ran over to two men who were fleeing the scene.


Marshall levelled his pistol on one of them, his heart raced, his muscle memory had him put his finger on the trigger and flip the safety off on the pistol. An overwhelming feeling of power rushed over him as he realized he held their lives in his hand and then lower the gun. He didn't fire, he stopped himself when he realized what he was thinking... It was who he was... not who he wanted to be. Marshall held his pistol in both hands and ran into the alley the two men had come fleeing out of, only to spot a few toppled trashcans and a splash of blood on the floor.


It was nothing he hadn't seen before, it hardly merited a response from him aside from an inquisitive eyebrow raising as he wondered who's blood was who's, and just what those two were fleeing from. The blood trailed off and Marshall followed after it, eventually finding it's source. It was the dear Captain, seemed she'd gotten in a scrap and been banged up pretty good. Watching her stumble through the streets, Marshall kept to the shadows and watched her with a curious eye, moving quietly as he followed her.


"Where are you going..." He thought to himself "She could call anyone of us... " He found her stumbling to a hotel and banging loudly on one of the doors. He'd wait until he saw who was waiting on the other side before he made himself known.


@Dragongal

 

[InsanEleven]

Saami kept typing after he got his drink, determined to get the documents finished that same night, but he couldn't help occasionally wonder why the captain hadn't come back. Every once in a while he checked his communicator, wondering if perhaps the mental link didn't show it correctly, but there were no messages at all. She hadn't looked the type to simply ditch him with all the paperwork, but he didn't know her (or her hatred for paperwork) well enough to make any assumptions. Her disappearance was nagging him, but he had no means of knowing where she was, and it was more likely that he was worrying for no good reason. It wasn't likely that she ran into trouble that quick. She probably just really didn't like paperwork.


So he put it out of his head and just continued filling and sending documents. The only thing he could be fully certain of was his duty to the ship and her crew, which meant getting the papers of the N'thagn in order, with or without the captain.

 

[BookWyrm]

Woods flipped the safety off of his G58 and shouldered the modified rifle before moving to his door. He opened the view port only to see the Captain, looking worse for wear, on the other side. Woods opened the door with his left hand, the rifle aimed up and out past her encase of someone tailing her as he eyes swept over the alleys and streets. "Get in." Woods held up the security position until Adira had gotten inside his room before he shut and locked his door and turning to the captain. "On the bed, now!"


His old first responder training was kicking back in. He had his entire medical pack out and beside Adira before he started to look her over. He quickly got her out coat off as he ran the diagnostic check. Definitely a broken rib, a nasty busted mouth as well. "I've got this." He pulled out a syringe and emptied the contents into her thigh to help keep her body stable and to numb some of the pain. "This is going to hurt some, but you'll be spared the worst of it. I apologize in advance for having to remove your shirt, but I need to get at that rib." The trained hands remembered the years of training and life saving that he did on the battlefield, Woods took off his shirt and began addressing the wounds, starting with her rib. As he went to remove her undershirt Adira mumbled in protest. Woods raised a questioning eyebrow, but left her shirt where it was and worked around it. He wasn't going to pesture her for details right now.


After setting the rib and wrapping her torso he cleaned and dressed the other injuries, all the while keeping up with his door. Finally, after getting Adira stable, Woods eased her back against a few pillows to rest. "The shot I gave you should have warded off the affects of the stun gun by now, so you shouldn't have to worry about nausea. But, I am going to insist you stay here tonight. You are in no shape to move around, and I can finish everything once your in better shape."


@Dragongal

 

[Dragongal]

"I just need a couch... to crash on... a spot... to clean off the blood... then I'll, I'll be good...." Adira had muttered as she walked in, thoigh she quickly decided to just do as she was told. Adira looked at a small needle hed taken out of her side out of her side, the toothed edges of the needle covered in blood while it still gave off small electric charges. She glanced at the needle, realizing it was hollow - was this one of the old MP editions, filled with a sedative? God thing Woods had given her that shot, then. Newer models didn't even have a bolt, they were just charges, but they could keep someone down for a long time.


Adira's black undershirt was practically a second skin, a short sleeve shirt made our of very thin and fine microfiber, working well since she had insisted - quite ardently - that her shirt not be removed. At his suggestion of her staying there, she smiled a bit, then said, "Actually I'm not going to fight that... my hotel owner kicked me out. She'd warned me, this was my fourth fight, I deserve it. I actually have a hairline fracture on my jaw from an earlier fight I got in today. I already had Doc check it." Adira chuckled quietly. "Of course, I'll take the couch - this is your hotel room, not mine. Tomorrow I'll call at the base and ask for a new place... if I go covered in blood, I'm screwed." She was tired, that much was for sure, and it only got worse the longer she was up, but she wasn't out yet.

 

[Anaxial]

When the door finally opened, Marshall crouched down a bit, holstering his pistol and watched as Adira was quickly dragged into the room. The person who answered seemed to have military training but Marshall couldn't make out a face at this distance. He put his back to a wall, his heart raced and his legs ached to run as he remained hidden in the darkness. When Adira and the man disappeared into the room, Marshall jumped out of the shadows and took in a few heavy breaths.


Calm down... There's nothing there... He though to himself as he approached the hotel, the blood was easy enough to follow to the correct room. Don't knock 'till you calm down... He didn't try to hide his approach, it was afterall, a hotel. Someone walking in the hallway would be normal enough, it only became suspicious if you souned like you were TRYING to be quiet. When he reached the door, marked with a bloody fist from where Adira had knocked, he leaned against the wall opposite side of the hinges should the door fly open.


Reaching into his pant pockets he pulled out a worn out old wooden case about the size of a wallet. He opened the case revealing a red velvet interior, perfectly preserved and filled with the aroma of genuine cigars. Two remained in a case that held six, one half smoked as it was. He removed the half-smoked cigar and returned the wooden case to his pocket. The strike of a match and a heavy inhale, Marshall lit up the cigar and watched the streets outside of the room. He'd make himself known to the two, but only after.

 

[BookWyrm]

Woods had walked into the bathroom, leaving the door open, to wash off his arms. "I don't think I'll ask what the first fight was about. But, I have to ask why you let them get a good enough hit in to fracture your jaw?" Woods couldn't recall the last time he broke a bone. With his enhanced skeletal structure it was difficult to injure him. As he wiped off his right arm though he looked down and sighed. That doesn't count. "You are staying on the bed.", he replied as he walked back into the room. He slid back into his shirt before sitting in the chair next to the bed. "I refuse to have my captain sleeping on my couch. It is just one of my rules, though it extends to any lady in my hospitality."


Vincent looked down at his arm as he turned it around. It had gotten rather stiff, but then again he had been needing to get it checked up since he'd arrived in the Harbour. He picked up his tablet and hooked a wire to it before rolling up his sleeve. "Since you already know I don't feel shy about doing this." The "skin" on his arm rippled before fading away slightly, revealing the in intricate detail the work that went into his synthetic arm. He inserted the needle into a spot before the diagnostic on his tablet began. He sat back in his chair, the process would take a few minutes to finish. As he waited he looked over at the door, content to see that he had locked it completely.

 

[Dragongal]

Adira shrugged; she wasn't going to argue. She let herself lay back completely as she said, "You, shy? Now that I wouldn't expect. Anyway, I didn't know he had steel knuckles, I assumed it was just bone. To be honest, I was a bit preoccupied dealing with the other two. n the end I won. But this most recent fight, I... I didn't even hear them coming, I was thinking pretty hard on some things." Adira closed her eyes, letting her body relax but not falling asleep. "By the way... Thanks."

 

[BookWyrm]

Woods looked over at Adira for a second before quietly saying, "Your welcome." His tablet beeped at him, prompting him to patch some bugs that had occurred. "Damned sedatives. Every time I've been put under it always causes bugs in my arm." Once the bugs were patched he unplugged his arm and put everything back in place. "I don't see why they never left me awake. Sedatives don't work on me any more. Chryo doesn't even put me out completely. I stay awake enough to be conscious of everything around me. I stay aware of everything. It's like I haven't even fallen asleep to begin with."

 

[Dragongal]

Still with her eyes closed, Adira commented, "Sounds like Hell. Stasis must be terrible. As a return for this favor, I can let you out early, the moment it's safe. I've already worked out myself getting out early. I'm too much of a control freak to be left unconscious for too long." Adira chuckled quietly. She wanted to sleep, but the idea of sleeping with someone around prompted her to fight off her weariness for a while longer. "By the way, I gave your medical file to the Doc. Nothing else, just medical. There's been absolute Hell when it comes to paperwork... that N'thagn and all the people who... bailed, seems to have... messed it all up...." Adira fell asleep immediately after finishing her sentence, not even realizing she'd allowed herself to relax that much in her exhaustion.


Adira could feel the cold metal of the syringe pierce into her arm as she tried to fight her restraints. It was only seconds before she started to feel odd. Not good, not bad, but just… odd. She continued fighting, though soon she didn’t even know what she was fighting. She felt something hit her head - a boot or a fist, perhaps? She couldn’t tell. She continued fighting, then it happened again, the pain getting worse each time....


Adira sat up with a cry, panting and covered in cold sweat, not realizing where she was for a few moments. The pain from her broken rib quickly convinced her to lay back down, which was when she realized her whole torso was bandaged. She closed her eyes and bit her cheek, waiting for the pain in her head to go away, thinking it was from the dream and not from the hits she'd taken earlier.

 

[InsanEleven]

04:34:23-24-25 and counting, Saami wasn't tired, or hungry, but the monotony of the work was starting to get to him. By now he only had a few more documents to fill in, and then the work would be done and he could focus on other tasks. At dawn he'd start the procedures for the last test of the lullaby before they left, most importantly checking if the warp engines worked. They had only been used once before, over a short distance, and in case they were broken it was best to know early so the engineers had enough time to fix it correctly. It wasn't necessary to move the ship, or to warp anywhere for that matter, he'd just have to fire them up to see if they worked. Only the head pilot and the captain could do it, and as he had no clue as to where Miss Rik was he'd just take it upon him to do the testing.


About an hour later he was finally done writing the documents, and he decided to send the captain a message just so she would know what had been done and what hadn't. Otherwise they'd perhaps be running the same errands parallel to eachother.


Task of filling in documents has been completed ma'am, N'thagn should be cleared within one to two weeks. Continuing to task of testing the SSE Lullaby warp systems, report expected in approximately seven hours.


After that he also send a message to the facility where the lullaby was kept, as it was quite a while out in the desert and the terrain was heavily guarded. He'd have to drive a hoveride to get there, and as he walked out to request one he realised something peculiar; he could pilot anything from a fighter jet to a car to a spaceship yet... he couldn't ride a bicycle.


Once he had checked out a single person hoveride he fired it up and left the base. As the sun rose he made his way across the desert, a lonely plume of dust cutting through the sands lighted by a deep red glow from one side and covered in a dark blue haze on the other. Like riding on the edge of a mirror. It was completely silent aside from the sounds of stirring sands and the wind, as an anti-gravity engine made no sounds whatsoever. The quiet fit with the vastness of the desert though, as if even the machine didn't dare waking such a beast in the early morning.