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Dilav Region - Three Sisters Constellation
The Azon System - Deadspace
Queen Anne's Revenge- 00:47 Unity Standard Time (UST)
An alarm was blaring from the bridge and Captain Andy Kaplin rubbed the sleep from her eyes and rolled out of her bunk. She stumbled the few steps from her attached quarters to the captains chair and fell into it, hitting buttons with her eyes closed as she slid the seat into a locking position.
She jammed the heals of her hands into her eyes and finally opened them to look at the monitors of the ship. She closed one eye as the glaring light as the navigation screen flicked to life and illuminated the darkness and she turned off the alert.
She sighed at the notification. They were a few days worth of travel from inner colony space now. She knew coming back into the ABC planet's to trade was a terrible idea, but it couldn't be helped. Their client wanted something picked up, and was willing to pay. Verse knew The Anne could use some of the parts they could buy with the credits they were getting.
Andy sighed and reclined back into the chair, a stupid children's song dancing through her head with the names of the core planets- Absalome, Besselian, ChaAmphelion, DeIrada, Elenmont, Falinia, Gallieen, Hi'yalafan, Issa, Jasec'Helion, Kinallava, and Leaimatia.
She was glad they were only going as far in as Falinia, and even that was too far in for her comfort. It wasn't that she was afraid of the inner core -she'd grown up there- and since leaving she'd kept herself, her ship, and her small crew mostly off the radar. But coming in and being around so many 'like minded' folk set her teeth on edge.
It couldn't be helped though. They'd actually picked up a descent job, and she couldn't afford not to take it. She turned to the navigation controls and pulled up the star map. She scanned the possible routes and started plotting alert points.
She didn't trust the auto pilot to keep them on course, it was one of the many things that they hadn't been able to fix for who knew how long. Not that her mechanic wasn't capable. Not that the ship didn't respond to him better than her, something she still wouldn't admit outright and never brought up. She had her suspicions as to why, but she let him keep his secrets like she kept hers. She knew what she was buying when she'd bought it, even if the merchant selling it hadn't. It had meant she'd had to be choosy in who she let into the inner workings- she'd left more than a few mechanics planet side before now. This ship meant lots of modifications to get human tech to work, but it was worth it. The Anne was fast, among other things.
She paused in her navigation to run a hand along the hull to her right and smiled. The Anne was a class 9 cruiser- just small enough to not be a carrier class and have to be on a registry on Coalition records, but
Andy knew it was also a gen-zero dormant life ship as well. A Marked ship. She'd gone to some expense to modify the outer blast plates and hull to hide the more telling areas of the ship, from knowing or curious eyes.
Gen-zero ships weren't exactly illegal, but the Coalition also didn't like to have them around either. Andy knew enough of the history. Before Earth could no longer sustain it population, explorations had been sent out and the inner core planets were found and either terraformed in their entirety or terra domed on the livable parts of the inner core. The problem was, there were other races on some of the planets. Andy was evidence of that. She was a mix breed, though she kept the telling signs mostly hidden. She thanked the verse she wasn't one of the Marked, a practically extinct race the Coalition had been malicious in hunting down- even mixed race children.
Andy didn't know as much as she'd like behind the motives of their annihilation, but she'd known enough to fight for the Resistance as a teenager. The resistance lost the battle for the Marked, as well as the fight to dissolve the current Coalition and start over. Now no Marked person was really safe, or those that harbored them. Not that Andy really cared. She was so rarely in direct contact with the formal Coalition these days.
After the war she took to sticking to the outer rim as much as possible. She crewed ships, until she saved up enough for her own and then started her own ventures- pirating, smuggling, legitimate and illegitimate transport of goods and people.
She shook her head, pulling herself from the past and turned back to the navigation panel and checked her plot points and then pushed back from her spot. She stretched and looked out into the vastey expanse of nothingness they were speeding through and put her hand against the cold glass.
She was contemplating trying to go back to sleep when she heard the ship groan and there was a shudder and the distant sound of a bang from the direction of the engine room. The lights and systems flickered for a moment and then seemed to right themselves. Her hand slammed over the com, connecting her to the engine room, "QUILL! What in the goram VERSE are you doing down there to my SHIP?!"
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The sound of the torque wrench against the gently deafening hum of the engine seemed like a sweet serenade. Most beings wouldn't hear it, but Quill knew that all engines sang when they were working optimally. It's the same as all beings, really – when you're happy, you most likely sing. And although this song was beautiful serenity, the tune was falling a little flat. The song was telling Quill that something wasn't quite right. The general readout on the mechanics terminal told him all was working normal, but normal wasn't what the ship wanted. The Queen wanted optimal, and Verse be damned, Quill was going to give the Queen what she wanted.
Optimization for the Queen was exactly why Quill didn't argue too much with Andy about this job. It was dangerous, but the ship desperately needed replacement parts. He might be one of the best mechanics for these ships you can find, but a broken part is a broken part. Life isn't like a science fiction movie – you can't just re-work some scrap from the ship into a new drive system that works optimally. It would be like taking the power cell from an ion welder to try and power a personal workstation with some other junk adhered to it. The power cell has its limitations. No matter how much you scream enhance and pound at control keys will make a blurry image clearer. Half of these parts are not meant for this ship – Andy knew that, Quill made sure. He gave the torque wrench another firm pull before sliding into his tool belt.
Ducking well under a coolant tube, he ran his hand along one of the fuel lines. The gentle vibrations told him that his latest patch job made things better, but not what they should be. He sighed in acknowledgement, “I know, dear. We'll make you better soon.” His eyes wandered from the fuel line to the markings on his arm. Sometimes he forgot they were even there, even though Falinian tattoos were a story of your life. Swirling abstract lines of colour and shade, he knew what every inch of these were. His family lineage, traceable for one hundred generations, intertwined with family expertise – mechanic, council work, civil service, agriculture – all there plain as day to anyone who could understand. Down near his wrist, though, were markings that almost everyone involved in the war recognized. Luckily, his suit and gloves covered them easily when he rolled down his sleeves. Down here, however, he didn't need to worry.
Suddenly, he felt the entire engine room rumble as if the ship were to tear itself apart. He turned quickly to the heat sinks, as one quickly began to change colour as its temperature spiked. He didn't even have a chance to react before the sink ruptured, and the super heated coolant line behind it began screaming vapour into the engine room. Quill darted to the shutoff valve nearby and started spinning it closed, while opening a diversion valve to recirculate the liquid through the pump. Just as the screaming died down, he heard Andy's voice boom through the engine room on comms.
“QUILL! What the goram Verse are you doing down there to my SHIP?!”
Quill finished closing off the valve and diverting coolant flow before striding over to the mechanic terminal. He leaned on the screen for a second, wiping sweat from his brow and staring with a concerned look at the broken heat sink. He pressed the comms button gently.
“Believe it or not, it wasn't my fault this time,” He spoke loudly over the hum of the engine, “Heat sink ruptured and burst a coolant line. I've diverted for now, but I'm not sure I can patch this one up here, Cap. We need to get to port sooner than later.”
He lifted his thumb from the button and shook his head. “Fluktok..” He muttered under his breath. The Queen isn't meant for human parts, even though they were mostly still installed. They needed to get to port and get new parts before this thing went supernova on them in deadspace.
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"Quill don't you dare take the mains offline! " She knew he'd clicked off already, she knew he probably couldn't hear her, or would ignore her if he felt it needed doing even as her fist slammed down on the panel, "Gorammit!" She continued to swear in what sounded like muttering English, but was more likely the guttural Chima tongue blended with German she generally refrained from using in front of anyone.
But when she heard movement behind her from the main cabin door, she pause and glanced over. It was only Raleigh, her pilot and friend of over a decade looking a bit bedraggled as he shuffled in. So she let the sounds resume to string off her tongue. Her crew wasn't large, she had too much difficulty trusting people, and Raleigh and Quill filled out two of the 6-8 members she kept on board and had lasted the longest. They'd left the only other female, a "cook" of little skill back in a backwater dome after Andy had had one too many headaches over male crew members literally fighting for her attention. One grunt had followed her off ship that had only been around for a few months and so there six others left besides herself. Good riddance in Andy's mind. The shorter they were on crew, the less snooping or risk she was putting them at, even if she needed them.
Raleigh had been with her longest, nearly five years, since they'd reconnected. He knew more about her than most, having served with her in the resistance force until he'd lost most of an arm to the cause and was pulled off the line. He had a nice mid-level tissue and robotic replacement now he was always fiddling with for better response and stimulation. He smirked as he moved over to 'his seat'. "When was the last time someone reminded your fancy mechanic how unbearable you are if you have to spend any length of time in anti-grav? I mean, I know he's got almost as much of a love obsession with Anne as you do, but we'd all appreciate if he didn't throw her into 'rapturous' fits out here in the vasty nothing-to-breath of the black."
Andy shifted as he settled into his seat, still braced for the gravity to cut loose at any second. She glared at Raleigh for a moment then turned back to a navigation panel on the co-pilots station. "I'm sure someone will remind him," she ground out as she went to work tossing a hasty braid into her loose blond locks, with a handful of stray red strands snaking in for any with a watchful eye. She tucked it down the back of her shirt over her neck and scales. It would have to do in place of her usual scarf. She couldn't be sure more of the crew wouldn't show up and she wasn't exactly dressed to command, and none of them knew she wasn't fully human.
She had been planning on going right back to bed, so the t-shirt and cut off shorts had seemed appropriate with how hot the atmo had been running the last few cycles, even for blood that ran cooler than everyone else in ship like she had. She hooked her second foot under the control panel just in case Quill did the wretched unthinkable and the artificial gravity, among other things, kicked off if he had to shut the mains offline.
"Couldn't wait till we landed to refuel. Couldn't wait till we hit a station. Had to be now you start blowing things you spiteful wench" she muttered as she felt as much as heard Anne groan again. "I hate anti-grav," she muttered once more hearing Raleigh chuckle in her direction, then cough to stop himself as she pulled herself into the co-pilots seat fully and hooked her feet in to keep herself in place so she could create a more direct and alternate set of plot points in case they needed to stop sooner and they needed a station or a planet nearby. The whole time table could be screwed if they had to stop for Quill to tinker and patch.
In the end, they were able to make better time after whatever it was Quill pulled out of his ass to keep them flying. She didn't thank Quill for it though. It was his job, and it saved his skin as much as anyone elses. Besides she still resented the fact that at one point she'd had to not only fall asleep in anti-grav, but wake up in it after a vivid dream filled with memories, that left her covered in a cold sweat and her stomach threatening to hurl.
It had been nearly a week ago and she was still finding it hard to be civil, to anyone, let alone Quill.
She'd been awake and piloting since they had come into visual range of Falinia and were making their final approach to the planet. She'd spent a good solitary hour scrolling through the newest alerts, notices, and warrants that had updated over the cortex since they had crossed into inner core space. A bad habit she hadn't been able to break since the end of the war- always searching for faces, for old friends.
She shut it off just before Raleigh came in. She'd made sure that he was woken up to pilot as Falinia came into range and she'd gone and gotten herself ready. She hadn't met the man they were dealing with for Rochester's job this time, but in the inner core, there was an expected degree, a standard, of cleanliness.
She stepped back out of her quarters and onto the bridge and was able to crack a partial smile at seeing the sun starting to rise at the edge of Falinia as they got in close to the planet for reentry alignment. There was nothing like watching a sunrise from orbit.
She tugged the top of the brown leather knee high boots before sitting down in the co-pilots seat. She'd managed a cold shower- something else she needed to add to the list of things Quill- or herself- would need to fix, and had pulled her hair up in a curling mass at the back of her head. She had changed into a dark violet stiff high collar v-neck shirt, with a emerald green scarf tied neatly around her neck, brown leather vest, tight cream colored pants, and a brown leather coat that fell to her knees. She also wore her shoulder holster and gun belt at her hips. She finished tying the leather thigh strap as she sat.
When she finished she clicked on the ship wide com and spoke as Raleigh pulled into a deep synchronous orbit that would make breaking through the atmosphere easier, "This is your Captain, It is now 07:10 UST at our destination port for all you lazy gits who aren't up yet. We are about to land on the fancy rock known as Falinia. This is a quick stop people, we're doin our business and getting out of inner core space as quick as possible. You'll have just under six hours to do your jobs, resupply, stretch your legs and be back on ship or this is your port of harbor. If you get yourself into some sort of trouble, do not expect me to bail you out. I will leave your sorry behinds here." She clicked the com off and turned over to Raleigh, "That means you too."
Then they were breaking atmo and the Anne made a groan. Andy gripped the co-pilot controls against the shaking, though she didn't do anything but hold them, another habit. A few minutes later they were through the worst of it. She radioed down for a dock number and within fifteen minutes they were touching down.
She clicked on a personal com link, "Quill, meet me at the port cargo bay." Click off.
She stood up and tugged down the vest and gave Raleigh a look, "I need you to make sure the second Mule is at Persephone's in three hours to bring back whatever it is we're picking up for Rochester and taking back out to the rim. I was told it wouldn't be too heavy for it and should be an easy transport back to the ship. I'm taking the first Mule to go parts shopping with Quill. Don't get in too much trouble."
She gave him a wink and a shake of her head as she walked away and he was finishing the power down. Telling Raleigh not to get in trouble was like telling a fish not to swim in Andy's opinion. Still, it needed to be said, and he knew how serious to take it when in the inner core.
She moved through the tight corridors down to the loading docks to meet Quill. She let herself forget how irritated she was at the anti-grav situation and actually gave him what would pass for a smile from her. "We've got an two and a half hours and nine-thousand credits to get what we need for Anne, not a minute or a credit more. Anything you need to do to get us off the ground needs doing before I get back with our package for Rochester, everything else will have to wait until we can stop at a space port or we can get back out to another planet."
She'd never come outright and asked, but she was fairly certain Quill was from Falinia- or at least had spent a fair amount of time on the planet. It was pure speculation he'd know where to go for what they needed for Anne's particular needs, and where to avoid so as not to have unnecessary contact with the Coalition. Even if he really didn't, a good mechanic usually knew where the best parts supplies were on any planet and she didn't want to be on Felinia with not only a Gen-Zero ship, but a rouge Falinian to boot for any longer than she needed to be.
She climbed into the Mule and started the rumbling land speeder, not even giving him a glimmer of hope to get to drive, "Where to?"
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Quill stirred himself from the mechanics terminal as Andy's voice rumbled through the engine room. He had known that they were headed back to Falinia once they got the new orders, but, he didn't expect the flood of emotions that washed over him. Even though it happened every time, he always found that he needed to steel his nerves. Coming back to Falinia was always both extreme ends of bittersweet. He had many fond memories, yes, but many more dark ones. It had been a long time since it felt okay for him to think of this place as home, and it might never be that way again. Its hard to see your childhood home as comforting when you also see it covered in the blood and gore of your species. But, it was one of the very few places that Quill could easily get parts for the Queen.
It seemed like moments had passed before Andy's voice floated once again through the engine bay through the personal comm link. “Quill, meet me at the port cargo bay.” He sighed heavily and rose from his chair, pulling the top of his mechanic's suit over his arms and grabbing his rifle. He checked to make sure his sleeves still covered his tattoos, his mind wandering to the annoyance he could hear in Andy's voice. She still hadn't forgiven him for the zero g incident, and he always felt a pit in his chest when he thought about it. He admired her, and was grateful for her allowing him on her ship. Though she might not completely understand the risk she was taking – he had been careful not to show his markings around her – it wasn't lost on him. He shook his head slightly, double checked his rifle was loaded, and headed towards the port cargo bay.
Despite what he was feeling about Andy earlier in the bay, she seemed to be in better spirits than he had expected once they met in the bay. “We've got two and a half hours and nine-thousand credits to get what we need for Anne, not a minute or a credit more. Anything you need to do to get us off the ground needs doing before I get back with our package for Rochester, everything else will have to wait until we can stop at a space port or we can get back out to another planet.
She jumped into the Mule's driver side, and Quill gave a slight nod, pulling his rifle from his shoulder and dropping it in his lap as he got in the passenger's seat. He leaned forward and clicked some coordinates into the Mule's nav system, and a dotted map appeared showing their destination.
“The best place for parts and a bargain is here,” He said, turning to Andy, “I have some contacts there. However, it's pretty close to a Coalition outpost, but if we cut around the far side of the market, we should be able to move by easily.”
He sat back and sighed, he knew Andy wouldn't like being so close to Coalition forces. He bit his lower lip and turned back to her, “There are other places, but the parts that we need tend to raise suspicion – and prices – to most anyone else who even has them. I promise this is our best bet.”
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"A fair amount of the Anne's first parts came from the Dover parts district." She started the ignition and the engine of the Mule rumbled to life. She actually knew the place he wanted to go, but in this situation it only made it worse. She had never imagined a scenario in which she would be back on this planet, let alone back on this part of the planet. She just had to hold it together for a few hours. "Just a few hours," she muttered into the rumble as she adjusted the navigation plan slightly. There was a shorter route that would still allow them the widest berth she could give the Coalition outpost than the computed route they'd been given.
She pulled the door down on her side of the transport and gripped the controls sliding out of the bay of the Anne and into the bustle of inner core port traffic. The earlier smile slipped from Andy's face as she wove dangerously fast and close between the other ground vehicles with ease. She glanced over at Quill and the way he was holding his gun, she looked straight ahead, speaking in a perfect Falinian accent, "A comrade is someone who has the same enemies as you." Speaking in his native tongue was the closest she'd ever come to admitting the truth since he'd joined her crew roughly a year ago. She knew what he was, where he came from. It was why she'd even let him on the ship, and into the depths of Anne's workings. Andy wasn't much of one for the bearing of truths, she kept too many of her own wounds and secrets close to her chest.
Being in the inner core, and Falina in particular was doing things to her however. She slipped back into the common tongue, her hands tight on the controls as she weaved perilously through the other ships and transports along their path, she glanced over at him, "I can be comrade, friend, as well as Captain Quill." She let her glance linger for a moment then turned her face forward again, swerving quickly to avoid rear-ending the cargo vehicle in front of them. She didn't doubt that Quill could defend himself. She didn't doubt that he had Anne's best interest at heart either, or he wouldn't have selected the parts district he had. If he was only in for self preservation he was doing a poor job of that at the moment. No, Andy knew that he wanted Anne in better working order, he'd wheedled more than a few extra credits out of her when he decided to actually press an issue in the past for something for the ship. Not that Andy denied the Anne much, she loved that ship, and quite a large quantity of her personal coin, as well as her own sweat and blood had gone into getting her from a grounded wreck, back to flying.
It had been nearly a decade since she'd been on these streets. She didn't know how long it had been for Quill, of if he'd ever been to this particular location on the planet, or just knew of it, but she felt like every corner they passed was heavy with memories. Flashes of the past tugging at her periphery with both bittersweet and horrid memories tangled together. She'd walked these streets as a idealistic teenager on the cusp of adulthood, and had fought bloody battles on them as a young woman torn from her youth by the ugliness of war and the side she'd chosen. The line she'd drawn for herself and where she'd planted her feet. It didn't really matter that she was still walking and talking, once you had enough dead looking over your shoulder, their ghosts weighed you down left you wary of nearly everyone.
She went quiet after the admission, and the offer. The port sliding behind them and blending into a crowded business district, before sliding first into rough housing, then bustling streets filled with the blend of species that had been on the conquering side in larger apartments and small homes before she swung sharply to take make the arc that would hook them back around toward their destination.
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Quill pulled the door down on the Mule and moved his rifle to better conceal it from passing eyes. Not that it mattered much with how fast Andy usually drove – and it was even worse here on Falinia. Quill knew it was just so that they could get to their objective and back as fast as possible – there were some repairs that would need to be done before they left and Quill needed time for that. His light blue eyes scanned the sides of the roads for any signs of Coalition forces. It had been a long time since he checked whether or not he was still on their radar, though it had been quite some time since he had stepped foot back on Falinia after the prisoner transport he was on was raided. Coalition tended to keep their eyes on the most current and relevant threats to their dominance of the inner core, but they also had a long memory.
"A comrade is someone who has the same enemies as you."
Quill gave a side glance towards Andy, who was staring straight ahead. Quill knew she had experience on Falinia during the wars – it was regular gossip among the ship's crew what exactly she got up to here. Most people avoided Falinia out of caution – Andy avoided Falinia at all costs. But the fact that she knew the language surprised him. That she had decided to speak it to him here – and in private – meant much more. He had kept to himself in the engine bay, emerging only for meals and showers. He had made sure his mark and his tattoos were covered. He should have known that being a good mechanic for a gen zero ship wasn't exactly common place, and while most people would brush it off Andy wasn't stupid. He bit his low lip and shook his head, giving a sigh and turning his gaze downwards. It was a risk coming onto the Anne, and he knew it was an even bigger risk for the crew because of his race. Coalition forces followed “guilty by association”, regardless if anyone actually knew what he was. If they were caught and he was found out – they'd all die. He glanced back up towards the street, trying to find something to say to Andy. She spoke again before he could,
"I can be comrade, friend, as well as Captain, Quill." He looked over and caught Andy's iridescent blue-hazel gaze for a moment, before she turned back and jerked the Mule around a large cargo transport. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He knew that Andy's alliances meant she wouldn't hand him over to Coalition. But another person knowing what he is was a risk. But he couldn't play it off like she was mistaken – it was a week before she had said anything after the anti-grav incident. If he tried to treat her like she was stupid about this, she'd probably just shoot him out of the airlock once the Anne was fixed.
Quill stayed with his thoughts for the rest of the journey. Between finding out Andy knew he was Falinian, and the fact that he was back on Falinia itself – he needed a moment to collect his thoughts. Decide his next move, and how he would respond to Andy. Obviously he didn't like her knowing the risk she was taking, but at the same time this might mean they could be on more of an even field. As they pulled up to their destination, Quill lifted the door to the Mule before leaning over towards Andy and putting his hand on her forearm as the engine died.
“Anyone can find a comrade in these times,” He spoke in hushed Falinian, “Friends are much harder to come by.” He gave a knowing nod that he appreciated her offer and would do his best to make sure she didn't regret it before swinging himself out onto the street and slinging his rifle across his chest.
They walked up to a dilapidated old storefront, a large metal garage door hung crooked and rusted, threatening to fall at any moment. The sounds of wrenches, saws and welders echoed from within. Quill stepped over the threshold, banging his hand semi-rythmically on the metal door. The man closest to him turned off his welder and lifted his goggles. It took but a second before a look of surprise and joy came over his face as he jogged over and embraced Quill with a smile and a laugh before holding him at arms lengh.
“Quill, what the hell are you doing here?” He asked, before his eyes darted towards Andy who was standing nearby. The smile faded from his face quickly. “And who is she?”
The man took a few cautious steps back before Quill raised his hand to halt him.
“Lech, this is Andy, she's the captain of the ship I've been on for the last year or so.” The news made Lech only slightly more comfortable. “Look, I need parts. Parts that only I know how to install.”
Lech's uncomfortable gaze moved from Andy to Quill. He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose before crossing his arms.
“Quill, you know what would happen if we were caught dealing-”
“And that's why we won't be caught.” Quill smiled as he stepped forward and placed his hand on the Lech's shoulder. “You know I won't let that happen.”
Lech looked at him before rolling his eyes and brushed Quill's hand off his shoulder and walking towards the back. “Tell that to my sister, she lost an eye getting you and your little crew back from Coalition.”
Quill glanced at Andy and nodded for her to follow as he walked behind Lech towards to the back. They weaved around workbenches and other mechanics before passing under a large tarp towards their supply room. Lech walked up to a wall covered in parts and tools, twisting a hanging wrench, and a hidden door popped open with a rusty moan. Lech opened the door and stepped into the hidden room which was filled wih parts and pieces. He gestured to the parts before turning to Quill and Andy.
“What do you need?” He said, crossing his arms again.
“Heat sink, mains backup, coolant tubing, drive system,” Quill thought for a second, before glancing at Andy with a smirk on his face, “Water heating unit and anything else for spares that you have.”
Lech's eyes opened and he made a face like he'd been punched in the stomach. He laughed and shook his head, “That's a lot of gear to try to get out of here undetected.”
Quill pursed his lips and nodded, “Yep, but that's what we need. We've got six thousand.”
“SIX?!” Lech dropped his arms in disbelief, “You're easily looking at ten for all this.”
“Alright, fine, we can do seven-five, but that's putting us out here, Lech.” Quill rubbed the back of his neck, “We're in a major bind, here.”
“fluktok, you're killing me, Quill.” Lech sighed and was silent for a moment. “Alright, fine, seven-five and next time you come by here, you're bringing a case of Gallieen wine.”
Quill chuckled and nodded as him and Lech grasped each other by the forearm. Quill glanced back at Andy and gave a wink before beginning to gather the parts.
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Andy hung back, watched the reunion and the speculation from Quill's friend. She could tell, even as she followed them in that Lech was not comfortable with her here. If she was honest, neither was she. She'd been prepared to have to prove she wasn't some kind of Coalition spy if she'd had to, but Lech seemed to trust Quill's word, and she was happy not to show off the tattoo that would prove she was genuine.
Looking around the shop it was hard to see how the planet had changed. It used to be the parts they were asking for would have been less than half the price they were paying for them. They were abundant and scrap to most shops... until the Coalition started snapping them up, along with every Falinian left alive at the end of the war. Gen Zero ships were a 'threat to coalition peace' is what the signs said calling for people to turn them, and their parts, in for pitiful reward amounts.
Still, she watched Quill start sifting through things after she smirked and almost rolled her eyes at his wink. He was too charming for his own good. It was a good thing Andy wasn't a weak kneed young thing that would melt at that crooked smile and flashing wink. Her eyes wandered around the space and back into the main shop as Quill set to work getting everything and anything he could get his hands on.
After a minute her eyes dropped from a 5X Helion coil to eyes that were narrowed and watching her from the mechanics bay. She raised a brow and the grease smeared face went from shrewd to shocked. Andy's brow arched higher and she turned back to Lech as he stepped over, not sure what had caused the change in the dirty mechanic as he'd been looking at her. Lech held out his credit reader as Quill seemed to still be like a kid in a candy store told to find all the things he wanted. Andy's hands twisted slightly and a credit chit was in her fingers. "It won't come back to him, even if someone goes hunting in your records," she commented as she slid the chit into the reader.
She saw Lech's brows raise before she felt a tingle of danger skitter down her neck before she felt fingers tug at the scarf she always wore. She spun around quick as a flash and caught the wrist of her assailant, the filthy mechanic, and had pulled a gun with her other hand. It was her turn to feel shocked, a few strands of gray slipping through her hair before she was able to compose herself and let the wrist go, as she saw the face more closely. "Can I do something for you?" She holstered her gun at the look on Lech's face, could feel Quill's eyes on her, as well as others as things went silent by her actions.
She kept her hand on the back of her gun once again at her hip. "You're Adam's Eve." That caused another stutter to her racing heart beats. She made her face look incredulous. "I beg your pardon." The mechanic grinned with white teeth behind the grime and shook his head crossing his arms, "It's me, Ivers. I used to work for Aben over at that ships parts yard. I was a rat of kid back then, I'm sure that's why you don't recognize me." Andy still kept the quizzical look on her face, but she felt a big of panic rising and her hand twitched on her gun.
She shook her head looking regretful, "I'm sorry, I think you have me confused with someone else. My name isn't Eve." Ivers brow furrowed and Andy was able to look away as the credit reader started beeping. She turned back to Lech and punched in a code, adding an extra two-hundred credits for his trouble to show her good faith. She pulled her chit out and it seemed to disappear back up her sleeve. She could hear Ivers muttering about how it wasn't likely there were many half bloods that would have been running around Falina fifteen years ago, and how he was sure it was her because of what he'd just seen under the scarf, but she ignored him. That was something only Rochester knew about her on her crew, and she'd wanted to keep it that way, though that would depend on how inquisitive Quill got at the situation and what he'd overheard of the conversation and would question later.
She turned back to Quill, trying to look a little befuddled at what had just happened and looked around at the work he had to do, but she felt antsy to stay here now. "I'm meeting our contact not far from here, you keep the Mule and get back to the ship and I'll snag a transport over to the establishment unless you need me here for something?"
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It was all Quill could do to keep from dropping the parts he had cradled in his arms as he watched Andy seemingly fling Ivers around the shop. Quill supposed he had it coming. Sneaking up on someone who clearly wasn't local in the back end of a shop near a Coalition outpost was a bad idea, but this could easily bring attention down on them that they didn't need. He looked around quickly and found a dusty old duffel bag and he poured the parts in as Andy settled the bill with Lech.
“You're Adam's Eve.”
That statement caused Quill to pause for a second, his hand resting on the water heating unit that Andy so desperately needed. Those names were a distant memory that only brought a flicker of recognition. He was sure he'd heard something like that long ago, before he left Falinia and started bouncing around on ships to keep out of Coalition space. Quill shook his head, turning again back to the last few parts that he needed to grab, tossing them into the bag with the others. It was probably nothing – and even if it were something, now was certainly not the time to ask.
The credit reader beeped loudly as Quill tossed the last of the parts into the bag, cinching it shut and tying a knot in the rope before throwing it over this shoulder. His eyes darted around at the other mechanics who had either stopped to stare, or were blatantly eavesdropping by pretending to keep working. Something this Ivers guy had said clearly spooked them, even Lech looked more nervous than before. Quill hadn't spend much time in this area of Falinia, so whatever was just a distant memory to him was clearly front and centre for them. Quill turned to apologize to Lech, who just waved the credit reader at him. Andy must've tossed in some extra. Quill placed his hand on the grip of his rifle.
"I'm meeting our contact not far from here, you keep the Mule and get back to the ship and I'll snag a transport over to the establishment unless you need me here for something?"
Quill was about to protest, being alone on Falinia was never a good idea. But looking at Ivers still muttering to himself, and the suspicious looks they were still getting from the rest of Lech's staff, Quill sighed deeply. He needed to get those repairs done before they could leave, and if any of these people decided to rat them out to the Coalition, they didn't have any time to spare. Not anymore. Quill turned to Andy and gave her a concerned look while he nodded.
“Alright, I'll get back as fast as I can. I'll send out comms to the rest of the crew that their trips are being cut short.” He began walking towards the front of the store, hand still firmly on his rifle. He stepped close to Andy and spoke softly, “Be careful, I don't think Raleigh is quite captain material.”
Before Andy could reply, Quill was swiftly weaving back through the shop to the Mule. He threw the bag in the back and jumped in, starting the engines and leaving as fast as he could. It would be best if they both weren't there any longer.
As he whipped through the city streets – not quite as fast as Andy, but still with a sense of purpose – Quill's mind kept coming back to the fact that Ivers called Andy “Adam's Eve”. He was sure he had heard that somewhere before, but he couldn't quite place it. A lot of strange nicknames went around during the time when war was in full swing on Falinia. Quill and his friends had earned quite a few themselves, in fact. He couldn't shake the feeling that he had heard that somewhere before. Then, the Anne came back into view.
Quill pulled the Mule into the cargo bay, nearly crashing into a pile of crates that had materialized since they left. Obviously the other crew members were getting their supplies. Normally, Quill enjoyed rifling through them and stealing a few things here and there. This time, Quill jumped out of the Mule, grabbed the parts, and almost ran through the winding halls back to the engine bay. He dumped the parts on the ground and pressed into the comm relay on the mechanics terminal.
“Attention crew, our trip is being cut short. You all need to be back here as soon as possible. Prepare for company.”
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Andy's face remained oddly undisturbedly calm as Quill agreed quickly to her plan and headed straight for the Mule. She kept watch of his back, her wary eyes on the eight men in the shop that included Lech and Ivers. Her hand never strayed from the butt of her gun, though she didn't act in any way aggressive. Protective of Quill was the feeling rolling off of her. When the sound of the Mule rumbled into the other sounds of city, traffic, and the rest of the shop Andy calmly made her way to the front of the shop.
She wasn't surprised in the slightest when Lech stepped up beside her, wise enough to approach her directly from behind after what had happened to Ivers. Her eyes slid to the side as her fingers typed in a hail code for a transport pick up. He rocked on his heels, his hands stuffed in his grimy pockets. "You are the Chima mutt that used to hang around Aben's place, aren't you." It wasn't a question. Andy looked away from him, she'd been called worse thing. Prejudices went lots of directions. "I hear she died in the war."
She heard Lech let out a scoffing laugh before she smelled a match strike light, followed quickly by the smell of a Alti cig. Her nose wrinkled ever so slightly. "Ivers isn't an idiot. I hope you never gave him reason not to like you, anyone that was known to harbor Falinians have a nice bit of coin on their heads." Andy turned her head slightly seeing the lime green transport sliding out of the flow of traffic down the street toward her. "War's long over, so are the Falinians. Who would be dumb enough to be caught with one of them?" Lech's brow rose slightly, huffing on the cig hanging from his mouth. "Who indeed," He said quietly. He knew what Quill was, but that didn't anyone in his shop did. Ivers wasn't a blood Falinian even if his family had gotten stuck on the planet when their rust bucket of a colony ship had landed here on the way out to the rim and had never gotten off the ground again. She remember him, probably better than he remembered her apparently. Even still, Andy had stood in the doorway on purpose during their purchase, blocking the view of the parts they were buying as well as Quill himself. This wasn't her first time getting legit parts for Anne, it wouldn't be the last, she knew the less eyes saw the parts connected to herself, the better.
The droid driven transport pulled up and the door swung up and open. "Careful. Rumor is Cocidius Cain is planet side." That name froze Andy as she started to hoist herself into the transport. "He has enough of our scalps, try not to add anymore to his collection."
Andy managed to rouse herself from her frozen state and forced herself inside, pulling the door down. She saw Lech follow her with his eyes until she hit the street and he turned to go back into his shop. When she looked down her fingertips were blue/green and her hands were shaking, terribly.
By the time the transport pulled up to the meet location Andy had managed to pull herself together. Her eyes adjusted quickly as she stepped inside what was probably one of this areas nicest restaurants before the war, but was a less than polished establishment now. She took a quick glance around, noticing Raleigh at the bar. She shook her head, noticing the girl sitting next to him. She pulled out her com and sent him a quick message, 'Get back and prep the ship asap. Leaving as soon as the cargo is loaded.' She sent it, then smirked and sent another, 'Besides, she looks like jail bait' as a burly looking man came up to her.
She raised a brow and he gestured to a booth in the corner down the wall from the door. She took a breath and followed the man over, sliding into the indicated seat.
A greasy looking mix raced man was smiling across the table at her and she tried not to grind her teeth. He let his eyes roam over her for a minute and then started speaking in Chima, "Rochester always sends the most delicious company for our exchanges. I'm Damen. Care for a drink?"
Andy raised a brow, her face unamused, and debated on if she was going to reply, "Scotch, neat."
He smiled and slipped into the common tongue, "So nice to have someone who understands a civilized language. My scales tingled the moment you walked up. I don't often see any of our kind outside Chima." He ordered drinks and a moment later they were set in front of them by a tired looking human woman who snapped her gum until Damen paid her and she walked away.
"Can we get down to business, I need to get your cargo loaded, and the dock workers will only stay paid off for so long."
He took a drink, "Ahh a women who likes things quick, that is a terrible shame." He started to reach into his coat and Andy tensed. "No need for worries." He pulled out a data chip and slid it across the table. "This is what is important. My men have already taken the liberty of approaching your ship and probably are almost finished loading the more... bulky and legitimate cargo on your ship. Fruit trees. We've left the proper documentation with them should you find you have to go through a customs check." He took another drink as he looked around and his eyes slid back to her as he said, "I suggest you don't find the need to go through a customs check though."
Andy looked down at the data chip and then knocked her drink back and picked it up, slipping it into the chest pocket of her vest. "Seems we're all squared away then. I'll leave you to your leisure."
The man rolled his eyes and took another swig from his drink, "My, my, aren't we hasty. Know that if this job goes well, expect contact in the future. I'll have one of my men see you out."
Andy nodded and stood to leave. She walked away and took a look around the bar again to make sure Raleigh had left like ordered, who her eyes slid over caused her to stumble. Her hands were on her weapons before she could think to stop herself, as she caught her self before stumbling too badly. A feeling of pain and panic sliced through her chest she hadn't felt in years. "Everything alright?" the burly man from before. Andy couldn't speak, all she could do was nod her head. He looked at her oddly and then shrugged as she kept walking to the door.
She should have just kept walking. She shouldn't have paused at the door and glanced back.
When she did, the hooded eyes of the monster that still haunted her dreams and the corners of her waking nightmares were looking right at her, one side of his mouth pulling up in a disgustingly pleased way. Her head whipped back around again and it took all her self control to walk calmly out the door and down several buildings before she broke into a sprint.
She didn't stop until she was nearly eight blocks in a haphazard direction away and finally slowed her pace as she cut into a noisy and crowded market. She clutched her side, trying to catch her breath and slow her breathing. She needed to give Quill as much time as she was able before the blasted off again. She needed to make sure he hadn't followed her. She sent a hasty code to Raleigh's personal com as she ducked behind the flap of an awning for a flower stand. She nodded a greeting to the old woman manning the booth. No one else was here. Andy made a show of looking at some of the flowers, while all her senses strained to catch any whiff of danger coming her way, her eyes cutting across all the shifting faces of the market.
Raleigh looked down at his com as it chimed as he was walking past several dock workers as they finished loading Trees on his boat. Anne may belong to Andy, but he still considered it his boat. He rolled the half spent, but not currently lit, cigar to the other side of his mouth as he opened the message. His teeth clenched on it as he saw the old war code from Andy and a string of swear words split the fairly quiet atmosphere of the cargo hold. A few of the crew's heads popped up and gave him a look as he picked up his pace and headed for a weapons locker on the lower level of the hold.
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Sweat dripped off of Quill's grease and carbon covered face as he threw his weight into he torque wrench, grunting loudly as it finally gave a click letting him know that the drive system's mounts were finally tight enough. He threw the wrench to the side – forgoing his usual meticulous care for his tools and order of the engine bay. He usually made sure everything had a place and was put back – but time was of the essence. He wasn't positive that anyone would come and attack the Queen, but he didn't want to gamble on that. A Falinian on a gen zero ship captained by someone apparently well known on the planet during a black market deal was just enough bait to put the fire in his veins to install what was required as fast as possible.
Quill rummaged around the duffel holding the glut of parts he pilfered from Lech. There was definitely more than ten thousand credits in here, especially when you count the parts he stole. He pulled out the replacement heat sink and coolant line, draping the line around his neck and grabbing his power socket from his tool belt as he leapt and started to climb the various fuel, exhaust and fluid lines up to the blown out unit.
As the socket whirred away, pulling bolts out he kept muttering to the ship, “I know, I know, we'll get these installed soon and you'll feel right as rain.” He sighed and thought to himself, As long as no one comes and blows us out of the fucking sky.
Tightening down the splicing clamp onto the coolant line, Quill tossed the cut out portion that was blown when the heat sink failed and it clattered loudly as it hit the metal grated floor. He jumped down, landing hard and collapsing to the floor. He swore loudly as he picked himself up and directed the coolant flow back through the patched section. He hit the comm link to Raleigh, “Is Skip back?”
“Nah, not yet,” Raleigh's voice had a hint of worry in it, even through the crackle of the comms, “We're gearing up out here if you'd care to join us?”
“I'll be out as soon as I can, just need to make sure the ship won't explode when we try to take off at full speed.”
“Is that a shot at my flying skills, Quill?”
Quill clicked off the comms and grabbed the mains backup coil from his bag. Ducking under an exhaust vent, he made his way to the power control module that housed the switches for the various ship processes. He flung open the panel and practically ripped out the old coil unit. He winced and reassured the ship that everything was going to be just fine. The part was basically friction fit, and it took a few hard knocks to get it put in place. Now was the time to cycle the power to ensure that it would work. Quill turned off the mains, and listened as the familiar hums and hisses of the engine bay slowly subsided and he found himself in the dark. He took a few deep breaths, counting to fifteen in his head. He flipped the mains back on.
Nothing happened.
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Raleigh let loose a longer string of swear words as the lights in the cargo hold went out, and stayed out. He was a war vet though, and so he reached over and snapped an emergency light with the flick of one of his robotic fingers. The yellow/green light flooding the weapons locker he was standing at debating what to take. "Gorram woman, she's probably going to cost me my other arm," he muttered. There wasn't venom in his words, just gruff appraisal of the current situation and the code she'd sent.
'1209' was their squads code for 'Eminent Peril. Trying to move to neutral ground' or there abouts. He finished jamming a final cartridge into a fourth gun and slung the strap over his shoulder and chest. He glanced at his com and the three crew members standing near him. Two were nearly too young to be legal to be hired out in his opinion, barely twenty if they were a day, and the other was a terrible shot. He scrubbed a hand down his face, "Defend the ship, I'll be back with the Captain shortly."
He trudged off, pushing his com to connect to Quill, "Don't know what you did to piss her off, but I suggest you talk reeeeaal sweet to Anne and get her all hot 'n bothered like you do real quick. I'm after Andy, and from the little I know, we're going to need to get good and lost in that vasty black good and fast." He clicked it off and jumped back in the second Mule, which at some point he'd dubbed his and had started calling '2nd Class Jackass' Jack for short and had painted it on the door, much to Andy's irritation, and tore out of it's dock on the ship like a bat out of hell. He liked to make jokes about Jack's small size pleasing Anne after one of their former crew members named Jack- a runt of a kid- kept trying to hook a woman- any woman- at ever port they stopped at.
Twenty minutes later Andy sent a scrambled set of coordinates and he shifted his trajectory, slowing down as he rounded a corner and idling while he tried to make sure he was in the right place. A thump on the back hatch window and then a half blood smeared print had him jumping out of the Mule before Andy was yanking the passenger door open and roaring at him to get back in and "DRIVE!!"
She was bent in half, slumping in the seat when he glanced at her, but she was breathing. He couldn't tell where the blood was coming from, or if it was all hers. "Evasive actions?" Her head nodded at first and then shook. "No. Get back to the ship. Now." He swung sharply and it tossed her back a bit so her back was resting more against the door instead of the seat and he glanced at her again before looking back at the road and swerving. The jostle made her wince and he opened his mouth to ask if she was alright, but he should have known better as she ground out, "Concentrate on the road. I'm fine. Questions later."
He snorted, but charged back to the docks. She shifted with a slight grunt and commed the ship. "Whoever is on board, spool up the engines and secure all cargo immediately, we are leaving hot. We need to take off as soon as the Mule docks with the ship."
She hoped all of her crew were on board, that Quill had done what needed doing to get back in the air, they couldn't afford to wait for anyone to come back, no matter who it was. Andy knew what Cain was capable of. Her hand went to a phantom pain in her left ribs, among the actual pains, her hands uncharacteristically shaking.
She glanced at Raleigh, who was nervously rolling and chewing his half smoked cigar- one of his tells, as they were pulling into the shipyard. "About that flying thing..." "Spit it out."
"Well, what's your back up plan?" As they got within sight of the Anne, she saw the engines weren't even turning and she let out a blistering string of swear words. "What the hell??" Raleigh slowed enough to not run anyone over, "Well, your fancy Mechanic seems to have upset your ship somehow and she's cold and black as those Verish caves on that outer rim rock we were stationed on." Andy growled again, "I need you in the cockpit. Drop whatever navsat trajectory decoys we've got, and any dummy pulse beacons as soon as Anne's engines star spooling up and we break atmo. Anything that will cover our trail. We can't afford to be followed by this guy. And tell Fin or Tac to meet me in the med bay and give me a head count as soon as we loose, there is a strong chance we're leaving someone behind."
Raleigh glanced at her as he started to yank the Mule into position for it's dock, "And just what are you going to do?" Andy was practically out of the moving door at his words, but she tossed back, "I'm going to kick Anne's ass into space," she tossed over her shoulder as she left a one bloody footprint trail in her wake as she raced for the engineering portion of Anne's inner workings.
She was swearing the entire way, she only passed one of her crew racing the other way in the dim emergency lights in the halls, and whatever was written all over her face as well as the words coming out of her mouth left them double timing it. "You know, you're a right wench these days," she commented as she walked over to a smooth panel in the wall and pressed her hand against it. She felt a tell tale humm under her palm as she kept talking and and her fingers tapped out a pattern on the battered metal wall above a dead and battered black screened computing panel. She felt the metal heat up at her touch and a line of light slice across the metal above her fingers that ran out and down, forming a small door that slid up as she took her hand away. A pristine and complex panel sat in the larger dingy wall. "I know you can hear me. I know this is a fit. You've got some nice new parts that fit just right and you want to show me who's in control and that you're going to want more and to say exactly what they are."
She hesitated for a moment and then pushed a button and a smaller panel opened up that looked out of place- pieced together and rough. Something she and another had built together so she could interface with Anne. Her hand shook as she pulled on a set of wires with electrodes on the end and then set one of them down. She put one of the electrodes behind her ear over a small scar and tattoo she had and hooked the speaker portion over and into her ear. Her hands skimmed over a keyboard that was still illuminated, despite the ship still being dark and she pushed in the protocols to give Anne a small piece of her voice.
Anne was special. She'd been quiet from the beginning. Able to be awake, but dormant at the same time. Most Gen Zero ships were either 'alive' or 'dormant' depending on their configurations and their operators. It had never gotten around to being fully explained to Andy by her Falinian partner that had helped her fix Anne. Their time was cut short when they'd been working, but after the war when Andy had come back to Anne alone and finished repairs, she had forced the ship into complete silence, for the most part, out of grief and pain.
"I know you can hear me Anne. I... I know it's been awhile, but I don't have time for this tantrum, and neither does Quill." She waited.
She could hear static in her ear before text scrolled across a the powered and illuminated advanced tech screen. Andy rolled her eyes at the message, so she wasn't going to actually speak- 'A month would have been awhile, even a few months. But eleven months, seventeen days, forty-three minutes and twenty seconds qualifies as more than awhile Andrea. And even then you didn't let me speak, just pulled memories into your head that didn't belong to you so you could punish yourself and make sure I could only give the barest hints of myself to help Quill.'
Andy looked at the other electrode. "You know I couldn't come have chats with Quill always around the place, he already knows more than I'm comfortable with about you. About what you really are. You know that." There was a deep humming and Andy slammed her hand against the grimy wall next to the pristine screen. "We can argue about this later, I'm under no illusion that you're going to let me keep you quiet for much longer, but we do.not. have time for this. Not if you don't want to loose another like we lost him."
She felt Anne go still, and there was a groaning as her systems started to reboot. Andy refrained from sighing with relief as she reached to pull the ear piece away. Before it left her ear she heard Anne's clear voice, "You'll bring him here once were safe." It wasn't a request, and Andy knew it.
She pulled the device from her ear and set it back in it's slot and closed the panel, though she didn't shut things down like she usually would. She felt more relief wash over her as she felt the engines catch and then the pressure of Raleigh moving them away from the planet and back out to space as she headed for the door. She put a hand against it and meant to rest for only a moment before heading to the med bay. She had a nasty cut across the back of her left calf that was bleeding enough she'd realized her boot was squelching and there was a bump somewhere on the back of her skull, both competing for her attention over the other pains in her body.
As silence popped Andy's ears at breaking atmo, she didn't realize she'd slumped to the floor. Anne however let out a high pitched squeal in several places about the ship, all she could do to alert someone for now without Andy breaking more of the chains she'd locked her up in.
Raleigh looked over the control screens and furrowed his brow at the sound and the glitching off and on of a few screens and he kicked on com, "Oye- Quill. I'd appreciate you stop muddling about with things for a mite, at least until I can get us orbiting a moon or something. Or better yet, out to a station. Whatever you did to get us going was plenty, no more fiddling for a bit, eh?"
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Quill was leaning against the wall of the engine room, resting his forehead on the control box which he had closed gently after attempting to reinstall the mains backup coils for the third time. He could feel his hands shaking as he silently begged the Anne to let him know what was going wrong. This had never happened before – he had always been able to figure this out. Always. He'd either get some clarity on the situation, or the Anne would let him know. Usually after replacing more parts, she'd be fine and working better than before. This time, however, she was shut down and silent. Quill had no idea what to do.
Then, he felt a rumbling as the engine bay began to lurch to life. He opened his eyes and glanced around curiously as the systems came back online. He looked forward and the mains switch was flipped – but he hadn't done that. Or did he? He stumbled slightly as Raleigh threw them up towards the vast black of space, and he started to laugh gently to himself. He dashed back to the mechanics terminal and started to run diagnostics on the electrical systems. Everything came up normal – other than the few things that he hadn't had time to replace. He slumped onto the small tool and leaned on the terminal, breathing a deep sigh of relief.
“Oye, Quill,” Raleigh's voice crackled through the comm, “I'd appreciate you stop muddling about with things for a mite, at least until I can get us orbiting a moon or something. Or better yet, out to a station. Whatever you did to get us going was plenty, no more fiddling for a bit, eh?"
Quill raised his head ever so slightly. He hadn't touched anything for a good bit, but he knew how the systems further from the engine room took an extra few moments to settle into normal working order, so it was likely just that. He clicked on the comms and relayed that information to Raleigh, only to receive silence back. He raised himself off of the terminal and stretched his neck before his mind alerted him that there had been no confirmation Andy was back on board. He clicked the comm back to Raleigh, “Hey, is the Skip around?”
“Nah, she should be in med.” Quill snapped his hand to change the comm channel to get to med, but there was no answer on the other end. He tried again only to hear the blistering silence as his heart started to race slightly. He took a deep breath and placed his hand on a nearby fluid line, almost begging Anne to talk to him.
As he raced down the ships narrow corridors, he finally turned a corner to see Andy slumped on the ground against the wall. Quill could see the blood all over her clothes, and he stepped forward, slinging one of her arms around his shoulder and lifting her to her feet.
“Yell at me all you want,” He grunted as he started making his way back to medical, “But maybe save it for a second, yeah?”
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Andy roused slightly when she felt her left arm jerked over his shoulder. She forced her eyes open but her vision was swimming. Her brow furrowed as she tried to concentrate and words that sounded far away and muffled by water. Her head lolled for a minute and she wondered if she was being drug to the afterlife by a ghost.
After a few stumbling steps, pain brought her back around to being more alert and she hissed a painful breath in through her nose and grit her teeth as she finally came around enough to realize it was Quill helping her. It wasn't a ghost. Just a few turns from the med bay they ran into Fin, a twenty-something crew member with slightly more medical knowledge than any of them really did for patching each other up. His eyes popped and she stumbled backward for a second before turning around and racing back to slide open the Medbay doors for Quill to bring Andy in.
He must have linked to the cockpit because Raleigh's worried face was on a small screen above the sink. "Gorramit ANDY!!" He shouted at her as he still wrestled with the shaking controls as they pulled away from the gravitational pull of Felina. "You said most of it wasn't yours!!" There was no pretense of treating her like his Captain right now. "Most of it on my shirt isn't," she said through her clenched jaw. She winced as she was forced to sink onto the exam table and then laid back on the reclined back, her eyes drooping again. She started to heavily shake, or shiver, it was hard to tell and Raleigh shook his head in the screen, and then shouted at Fin, "Turn the heat up in that room, now!! NO adrenaline shots, no matter what, and if her heart rate slows DO NOT shock her."
Fin started running around like a chicken with his head cut off for a second before he pulled it together and started loading up a tray and slapping monitors on his captain. "She needs an insulin shot," Raleigh continued. Fin looked confused, "That's not normal for blood loss." Andy didn't say anything to confirm or deny the treatment Raleigh was suggesting, fully aware that Fin had no idea she was a 'mutt' though Quill probably had his suspicions after the incident getting parts earlier. Raleigh growled, "Just do as I say boy!" Fin did, though he started to panic when Andy's heart rate dropped and all sorts of monitors started going crazy.
Raleigh told him not to pay attention to them and find the source of the problem. "My left leg," Andy said with closed eyes, either too tired or to resigned to be stubborn anymore. When Fin moved to the one she had left dangling off the side of the table she grabbed his wrist in a snatch that belied her injured state, and a grip painful enough it might leave a mark, one eye pealing open to stare hard at him. "If you cut my boot you'll be finding another boat, understand?" She heard Raleigh swear and Quill make some kind of sound, but she ignored them until Fin nodded and then she let him go. His hands were just about to go to the boot as her eye slid shut again when she said, "Oh, and my right shoulder is probably dislocated."
More swearing from Raleigh, but it was swimming under a pool of water, and she couldn't be bothered to listen, the rushing sound in her ears was too comforting, despite the panic also caused in her brain. Fin swallowed as the monitors went even more crazy but he lifted her leg by the knee carefully and moved to get her leg in a better position so he could get the boot off, mindful of his Captain's threat. "She said you couldn't cut the boot, she didn't say anything about the laces! Get to it!" Raleigh barked, swearing up and down again at needing to stay at the controls with the unreliable auto pilot and not being able to come and do it himself.
Fin's hand shook, but he pulled a knife out and steadied it quickly, slipping it under the laces and slicing cleanly up them. When the pressure released from the boot a flood of maroon/red blood, almost blue or purple, started to seep and pool out now. Fin looked at Quill, his face pale and he swallowed, "It... it shouldn't look like that, right? Was she poisoned?" He kept wrestling with the boot, even while he could feel Andy shivering, and he could now see the deep gash cutting into the back of her calf and through her soft sued pants. "I... I don't know how to treat poison... I can put stitches in this.. but.. but..."
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Quill growled as we left his captain's side and cranked the thermostat in the med bay. Fin was clearly out of his element here – though part of the reason Andy brought him on was that he was a better medic than they currently had. Though, Quill had to argue now that being able to throw a decent stitch doesn't a qualified doctor make. Quill darted across the bay and started rifling through the supplies cabinets looking for the insulin syringes. In the back of his mind, he started to realise what Andy might be. Insulin shots for loss of blood and a heightened temperature in the room for stabilization really weren't normal. Fin was clearly right on that. Same with the blood looking like potential poison – which would be correct. Unless Quill was right.
“Fin,” He yelled as he pulled the insulin vial from the cabinet and a hypodermic needle from the drawer, “You need to get lost, kid.”
Quill looked over to see Fin's eyes still wide – he was clearly going through light shock, overwhelmed with the situation. Quill tossed the vial and needle on the bed beside Andy, reaching over her body and giving Fin a firm smack on the head. Quill pointed towards the door with his thumb.
“I said beat it!” Fin unfortunately hesitated too long for Quill's patience. Quill grabbed him by the arm and practically dragged him out of the med bay. Quill hit another button by the door, which closed and locked the door and faded the viewing glass to an opaque black. He turned back to Andy, whose blood was now starting to drip from the table onto the med bay floor. Quill took a few quick strides and prepared the insulin shot, before he turned to Raleigh.
“You've known Skip longest,” Quill said, administering the shot and tossing the needle to the side and lowering his voice while he switched the com channel to private, “If I'm right, she ain't exactly human, yeah?”
Raleigh looked between wrestling the controls to the screen, eventually swearing with frustration and nodding his head. Quill strode over and gently picked up Andy's right arm, holding it gingerly and he moved it adjacent to her body. He slid his right hand along her arm to her bicep, and gripped her wrist and upper arm firmly.
“Sorry about this,” He whispered before giving a lift and firm tug. The sound of her shoulder snapping into place pierced through the beeping of the monitors, and it seemed to snap her out of her daze slightly – just enough to scream for a second.
Raleigh's voice boomed into the bay, “If you kill her Quill, I will eject you into space and then hit your body at light speed.”
“Maybe you ought to only give me relevant information instead of threats, Raleigh.” Quill answered with an odd sense of calm in his voice as he walked around to the other side of the table to inspect Andy's leg. He lifted it up, and tore open her pant leg slightly more, padding at the wound with gauze. That's when the gauze caught on something on her leg. Quill paused for a second, grabbing more gauze and padding around the area. He looked closer, and eventually was able to see what the gauze was getting caught on. There was a line of scales on the back of her leg. Quill looked up at the monitor, which was Raleigh staring intently. They must be out of the influence of Falinia already.
“She's part Chamia, isn't she?”
Raleigh closed his eyes and sighed deeply, running his head over his head before silently answering, "Yeah.”
Quill nodded, reaching for a local anesthetic and injecting it around the wound, while he kept pressure above the wound with his other hand. He flushed out the wound with saline, and then again with sterile. It was a deep, long wound, but the bleeding should stop on its own once it was closed up.
Quill wiped his forehead with his sleeve, sweat was starting to drip almost constantly from his face. He could feel his clothes clinging to his body as he grabbed a suture kit and began to close the wound. Andy hadn't been verbally responsive, but her face paced breathing and occasional face twitch told Quill she wasn't dead. He finished up the last suture and tied off, dropping the hook into the dish. He adjusted the monitors to reflect vitals of a human/chamia hybrid race and everything began to flash normal. He hung his head and breathed a sigh of relief before turning to Raleigh.
“She'll be alright, just needs some rest. Get us on the road to our next objective, otherwise Skip'll have our heads.” Raleigh showed relief on his face, but he simply nodded before tapping off of coms. Quill walked over and unplugged the screen. He unzipped the top of his mechanics suit and let it fall down around his waist. He tied the arms in place and moved to the sink to begin washing his hands as best he could before moving to the corner and grabbing the lounge chair and sliding it up beside Andy as she slept. He grabbed her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze before slumping into the chair. He watched her and her monitors for a while before drifting off himself.
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Sometime later...
Andy's eyes fluttered open, rolling back into place and slid sluggishly around the room as her eyes tried to droop closed again and again. Finally she was able to keep them open long enough to determine 'med bay' in the dim light. After a few more minutes of consciousness with her eyes closed, assessing her situation- shoulder set, someone had wrapped it snugly to her side, aches in her ribs, a throbbing in her calf and the feel of pressure from a bandage, blankets, and hot air blasting and ruffling her disheveled hair. Alive.
She took a deeper breath, slowly, decided her ribs were only bruised, not broken like she'd thought when she'd received the heavy blow. She took another breath and attempted to open her eyes again and get a better look around. She didn't attempt to move, yet, but her eyes traveled through the dim haze coming from a lowered UV overhead light that provided several benefits to ship life, and the lights from the monitors. She'd expected one of her crew to be here. What she hadn't been expecting was for it to be Quill. He was snoring slightly and she risked attempting to quietly slide herself into a more seated position, realizing her free hand was under his as she started to move.
She carefully pulled it backward so she could brace herself to push up against the back of the med bay bed and winced slightly, but didn't make much more noise than that. Sitting up made her head swim and she put her left hand up to it for a moment to steady herself. Being more upright also afforded her a better view of him. He'd been careful, extremely so, around everyone including Andy. She'd caught a glance at his forearms once in all the time he'd been on the ship when he was finishing washing his hands before a meal, but this was... everything. Her eyes traveled quietly over his arms at the tattoos,to the Falinian marks. She understood a little and she swallowed, forcing herself to look away. He was covered in a sheen of sweat, enduring the heat in the room for her, and she wasn't quite sure why. What he was revealing was private though, and he probably would have covered it up again if he'd known she'd be waking up.
She bit the inside of her cheek and mentally growled at herself before she let the temptation to sit and study the heritage she could decipher on his body could take hold and before her eyes could take another look. She took a breath and swung her legs over the opposite side of the table from where Quill was seated. She saw a neatly stacked pile of fresh clothes on the counter a few feet away. She looked over her shoulder at Quill, keeping her eyes firmly on his face, and back again, deciding it had to have been Raleigh that had brought them at some point.
She looked down at herself. Her leather vest didn't seem too worse for the wear, though it needed cleaning, but she couldn't say the same for one of her favorites shirts. The violet was stained darker in places and torn on the right sleeve. She mentally sighed and set to work slipping her arm gingerly from the sling so she could changed. She managed to get the vest and button up shirt off, clumsily undoing the buttons slowly with her left hand, but abandoned the idea of a clean shirt once she was down to her tank top. Her right shoulder was screaming and her arm throbbing, as she slipped her forearm back in the sling. She looked down at her pants, the blood stain on the left pant leg having seeped up around her knee, and at the slice that had gone up the outer leg seem to get to her wound. She wondered briefly if she dyed them and sewed them back up if they'd still be wearable.
She glanced over her shoulder once more at Quill, just to make sure his eyes were still closed, she'd told herself and then slipped down to the floor on her right foot, keeping the weight off the left as she bit her lip to keep quiet. She managed to shrug and shimmy out of the suede pants and slip back into the loose legged ones that she sometimes slept in when the ship was cold and that Raleigh had brought. Quickly covering the thin trail of scales that went down the back and middle of her thighs and calves. She was debating on trying to get the thick sweater left on the counter over her head, her back to Quill, before she felt the world tilting below her feet. She slipped and had to catch herself with her left hand on the counter, her head spinning. She leaned heavily against the counter, trying to get the cooler panels of the floor to stop feeling like she was standing on sinking sand.
Her head snapped clear when she heard a heavy intake of breath behind her and she went shock still in her disoriented stance. She didn't dare glance this time. She wasn't sure she wanted to know if his eyes were open, or if he was merely stirring. Her hand moved to grab the sweater again to cover the trail of purple and green and deep blue scales that ran from under her pulled up hair at the base of her skull and trailed down her spine under her tank top, the edges of a ragged and ugly scar just below the black line of cloth below her left shoulder. She also had a very intricate tattoo of wings spread wide over each shoulder blade that would almost look like she was marked because of the UV lights that could expose cracks in the walls and machinery of the ship and also exposed the ink that was used to make it. They were nearly invisible any other time, very slight white lines in her skin if you were very close. She had other regular tattoos, like the Blue and gold 51st Pilot symbol on her upper left arm above her bicep, the black and blue Toida special forces unit tattoo on the inside of the same arm just below the bend of her elbow, among several others still covered and never seen most of the time too.
Despite the heat trapped in the room, she shivered. Her hand went still on the sweater. She'd seen his truth, would it be terrible if he saw hers too? She swallowed. It could be.
He was Falinian, knew what it was to be hated- to be hunted. Yet, she'd met those of his kind that hadn't liked her mixed race. She wasn't sure what was more off putting about her- her warrior Chima Heritage or the Human blood that tricked people into thinking she was like them- but she'd had plenty of people and species look at her different, hate her, once they knew what she was. She knew some of it had come from who her mother was, but you couldn't read that on her skin like other parts of her history. There was a growing number of Chima/Humans in the galaxy but everywhere she went, no matter the race, she'd found those that had thought of her as 'mutt' once they knew.
Her hand gripped the sweater again as she sensed movement behind her.
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Quill's eyes opened slowly, his head pounding as if his brain was two sizes too big for his skull. As he looked around, his vision was blurred as if he were underwater, and everything was spinning. He lifted his right hand to rub his eyes, and felt his left hand follow. He shook his head gently and blinked hard a few times. A shadowy face came into view, and he felt a hand on his shoulder and another on his face. He blinked again, and the blurred lines finally came into focus. Erika's face came into view, a look of determination and concern could be read across her blood and dirt speckled face. Quill imagined his didn't look much better, as his memories from moments ago came flooding back.
They were supposed to blow the bridge, cutting off Coalition ground supply transport to a few of their outposts. After that, other units would attack the outposts – small and quiet. Hopefully nothing would alert the Coalition before they were able to disable comms. Then, they could go loud and level the outposts. It would help liberate the south-western quad, and Falinian forces could gain a steady foothold for the first time since the invasion. Quill had been wiring up explosives when Coalition forces seemed to emerge from the rocky hillside. Smoke and gas grenades popped off around him and the rest of his unit – Erika, Quen, Tark, and Lilya. Quill barely had time to drop the satchel and grab his rifle before his world went black from a Coalition operative clubbing him in the temple.
Quill looked down at his hands, noticing his wrists were in cuffs. He swore quietly as he looked back up at Erika.
“How did they know we were there?” He asked quietly, his Falinian language just barely overcoming the rumble of the prisoner transport. Erika just shook her head.
“Doesn't matter, what matters is I always had a plan in case this happened,” She said, sitting back. “That bridge will come down tonight.”
Quill scoffed and leaned on his knees with his arms, rubbing his hands together gently before looking back up at Erika.
“Whether or not we're on it, yeah?” Quill said, his eyes narrowed. Erika didn't answer, and just looked away out a slot in the side of the transport. He knew this was an important objective worth giving their lives, but he never thought that would actually come about. Falinian forces were losing too many numbers every day – they couldn't exactly afford to lose their best black-ops demo squad because of their zealous leader's personal vendettas.
Quill swore under his breath. Then, he felt the truck begin to shake.
Quill awoke with a slight start, immediately recognizing the med bay on the Anne. He took a quiet deep breath, and rubbed his eyes before he glanced at the bed beside him. He noticed that Andy was no longer there, and he looked up. He could see her standing shakily, leaning on the counter by the sink. His eyes wandered along her skin for a brief moment. He saw her scales and scar, as well as the tattoos she hid extremely well. Not once had he ever noticed anything like this about her. Maybe she hadn't heard him wake. He looked down at his own arms for a moment. He might have had an inkling that she knew he was Falinian but she sure as hell knew now. Maybe he wanted her to know.
Quill rose from his chair and walked over to Andy, moving around in front of her, positioning himself so that she could use his shoulder for support to move back towards the bed. Her hand had been grasping at a sweater – she was probably about the cover up, and Quill swore at himself in his head. He might have been ready to share what he was with her, but if she wasn't ready...
Quill gently walked Andy back over to the bed so she could sit. He grabbed a nearby stool and sat close. He rubbed his hands gently together – something he does when he's nervous – before speaking.
“I, uh, I sent Fin away before he saw anything.” Quill started, his voice soft and calm, “I didn't really know until Raleigh told me.”
Before Andy could protest, Quill reached out and placed his hand on her knee and looked in her eyes.
“He had to. Fin had no idea who you actually are. It was only because I'd seen this before that I had an idea.” Quill removed his hand from her knee, leaning forward on his arms again.
“I was stationed in the south-western quad during the initial invasion. My team was tasked to move in and take out high-value targets, typically demolitions. One of those missions went wrong, but my squad leader had a contingency to make sure it succeeded and we were caught up in the blast. Backup forces were able to get to us, but no one had known how to treat one of my squadmates – a young guy named Tark, pretty sure that wasn't his actual name, but he was just as dedicated to the cause as the rest of us.
His body temp was low enough that they thought he was going hypothermic, which likely helped. But the insulin for blood loss wasn't even a thought and when he started to go arrhythmic, they tried to shock him back. It wasn't good.” Quill sighed as he sat back up straight, placing his hands on his knees, but still not making direct eye contact with Andy.
“Wasn't until we got back to base with his body that our doc told us what had gone wrong. Said that no matter what we had tried we didn't have the tools to triage him in the field. Because off his part Chamia blood, and the wound he had sustained, he was pretty much gone. It wasn't long after that most of our small, black units were trained on how to triage Human/Chamia hybrids in case they were in our units. Though, with how your kind are treated even by Falinians, no one ever admitted their heritage.” Quill sniffed hard and wiped his brow with his arm before standing and offering his arm once again to Andy.
“Like I said, anyone can find a comrade in these times.” He smirked at her, “Friends are much harder to come by.”
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Despite herself, Andy's eyes welled and she turned her face away to blink it away. She couldn't keep some streaks of deep blue slip through her messy hair however. He was being too gentle with her. She had never known how to handle it since the war and she slightly clenched the fist of her bound up arm to keep from lashing out in her new normal way. She cleared her head, "Brumation," she stated quietly, staring at the unplugged com screen. "It's a preservation instinct all... cold blood creatures have." She rolled her tongue in her mouth. His friend probably would have survived a lot longer than they expected on the brink of death if they'd known. She felt an ache on her left ribs that had nothing to do with her fresh injuries but brought her back to herself as he offered his hand with that crooked smile.
She turned her face back, and even for a few minutes, decided honesty deserved honesty. "You might rethink your offer after I tell you what... who...and Anne" She swallowed again, not sure where or what to start with now, watching his offered fingers twitch slightly at their emptiness and her words. A large part of her desperately wanted to fill his hand with her uninjured one, no matter how awkward. A larger part of her said he was better off if he didn't know or get closer to her in any way than he already was.
She licked her lips and then bit the bottom one for a minute. He let her linger in silence and finally she took a deep breath and looked him in the face, a little bit of her hardness forced back. "There's a strong chance you're going to want off my boat... that everyone will, once I tell you what I'm about to." She decided explaining Anne would be easier if she showed him later, if he decided he wanted to stay. She watched his fingers curl slightly away. Good. Maybe he had better self preservation skills than... Adam.
"Back on Falinia, your friend warned me about someone- a Coalition bounty hunter that... specializes in hunting down Falinians." She watched his face for a moment before looking away, not sure she wanted to see what was scrolling across it. "I... I don't know how your friend knew, but I have past experience with him." Again the ache in her left ribs. "It's not a distinction I'm proud of, but I've never heard anyone survive Cocidius Cain." There had been years where she had wished she hadn't. Wished that he'd finished the job he started. That resistance forces hadn't come for them, only to find her the only one left and brought her back from the brink.
Not everyone had heard of Cain, not even every Falinian. It was possible Quill hadn't. Even if he had, she needed him to know the horrors associated with the name were true. She needed to make Quill see how terrible of a friend she really was.
To get away from her before it was too late.
She continued, still not able to look at him or his reactions, choosing her words very carefully. "He was hunting a Falinian in my unit." She knew he'd seen her Toida Unit tattoo now. They were a specialized infiltration unit, black ops and filled with highly skilled non-Falinian warriors from Coalition planets that were against them and their planetary cleansing, no matter what they were parroting it was. "My squad had been tasked with a secret information gathering mission that was supposed to 'turn the tide', or so we thought," Her eyes glossed over in the memory as she stared at the wall. "I was piloting and Ad..The Falinian was my co-pilot. We had fourteen others with us when we got shot down about 15 miles short of our rendezvous point."
She blinked and her eyes raised to the ceiling for a moment, "Adam," she managed to ground out, "had gone below to try and get the data stream back online so we could at least deliver the information and hopefully send a distress call." Her eyes rolled back to the wall, "I had gone to help the rest of the squad protect them from the troops that were sure to come swarming."
In her memories that frequently came back to her in nightmares, she watched as highly trained soldiers were cut down by the calm face of Cain. They had heard rumors about Falinian bounty hunters, and only Cain fit the behemoth killing her friends in front of her eyes, so Andy knew he was there for Adam. In her nightmares though, he had black pits for eyes and was often dripping in blood.
She cleared her throat, "By the time I got to the hole that had been blasted in the side of the ship...we were pinned down and in a few short minutes every single member of my unit was dead. I can't say for certain it was Cain that did them all in, the blast that brought us down was bad. He was the only one that came through the hole though. I do know that." No man Cain's size should have been able to move so fast or graceful. She always thought he had to have had some sort of shield, or genetic upgrades, or both because none of the well placed bullets she fired at him had taken him down in real life. When she dreamed about him, he simply batted them away like flies as clip after clip was emptied at him. He had picked them off one by one, getting in close for each kill, but always his face was calm no matter the gore.
Then it was only her. "When it was only me I dropped my gun. I didn't have rounds, and there had to be some shield he was using, though I've never seen anything like it. Still...some shields have a weakness for low velocity weapons." Her jaw clenched for a minute, "I was wrong." At the time she'd decided she was either going to be the victor or she was going to join her friends. Either way she hopped she'd given Adam enough time.
Cain had actually smiled, all the way up to his black soulless eyes as he came for her. She felt the painful vibration of everyone of his blows as she blocked them, trying to find a weakness she could exploit. Speed and training under her mother's critical eye since childhood kept her fighting longer than any of her friends, but she was battered by his pure brute strength and size. First one blade was knocked away and then another and before she could stop it, there was a hand wrapped around her neck and her body was slammed into a wall, stars popping in her eyes.
She twisted to break his hold, but only managed to turn into a blade that she hadn't seen him pull, and it plunged deep into her chest, her cry strangled by his hand. Pain had blossomed through her body and her hands fought limply against him. His face had come in close. He'd run his nose up her neck, taking in a deep sniff before he brought his mouth close to her ear, there was a glint in the black orbs, "It was inevitable mutt. A mouse could never hope to kill a lion." He twisted as he yanked the blade free and his fingers uncurled from her throat and her legs slid out from under her as she crumpled to the floor, leaving a maroon-red streak down the wall.
Her eyes darted around for something, anything she could use to stop him as he headed for the bridge. But already she could feel her body shutting down, not in death, but in shock and hibernation, trying to preserve itself. She'd managed to get her fingertips back on the hilt of one of her daggers before the painful burning in her lungs and the cold numbness swallowed up her limbs.
She knew what her memories would show her next, a battered and broken but still breathing Adam, being yanked along by Cain, her body paralyzed as she tried to breath, to move. To save him. The last thing she saw was his terrified face as he screamed her name, thinking she was dead.
In the here and now she swiped once at a tear that had escaped. "The data transferred failed, even though Adam had gotten it sent. Everyone was killed, but me." She took a breath and pulled up the front of her black tank top, revealing the angry red scar along the scales and ribs just below her chest, the tattooed words above the raised line 'A mouse could never hope to kill a lion" and below it, 'Death aims only once, but never misses'. It lined up with the smaller scar like it on her back below her shoulder blade. "He missed my heart- because of what I am." The heart was more central in a Chima's chest. "Burmation can be a real bitch." She lowered the shirt.
Finally, finally she looked at his face again, her face warring between worry and cold Captain. "He was there, on Falinia today. He... recognized me. I don't have a bounty on my head, but he knows my history, and he didn't like that I survived him. I could see it, feel it as he tried again to take me down today. He'll come again. And again. Until one of us is dead." She shook her head, "You're not safe around me Quill." She looked down at his offered hand again. Raleigh had been the only one she hadn't been able to scare off. He would have been part of that fight, had he not lost his arm before that and been stuck in a bed in medical. He'd told her he'd drawn his lines and tied his binds a long time ago and nothing she'd done or would do would send him scurrying off her ship once he was one it. He'd known her much longer than Quill though, and her existence wasn't a direct threat to his life most days. Not like she now was for Quill.
She wanted to take his hand, for him to still take hers, but she knew it was better for him if he did't. Her eyes rolled back up from his hand, lifting her own empty one, her brow arching as she looked him in the eyes, "Still think I'm your friend?"
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Quill stood silently as Andy told her story. He remembered where he'd heard the name Adam before. It was one of those ghost stories told around the camps. The name he should have remembered was Cain's. That was a name well known in his circles, but as far as Quill was concerned he was just another murderous bigot with a thing for Falinian blood. At least, that's how he felt before Andy told her story. That wasn't just another asshole out for credits. And he was evil enough to bring Andy to tears.
Quill had been with the Anne around a year now. With the semi-revolving door of crew members, Quill had taken to try to get closer with Raleigh and Andy. Though, with his Falinian heritage, he made sure to keep his distance. His past was a secret, other than telling Raleigh once that he fought on Falinia. Seemed both Raleigh and Andy were keeping their cards close to their chests as well. Raleigh probably more for protecting Andy, but Andy was almost a closed book. Quill had always admired her ability to captain a rotating crew and keep the Anne moving and everyone fed. She'd even come down and play cards or have a few drinks with the crew – but when old stories came around she'd slink back off to her quarters. This behaviour made a lot more sense now.
Andy's body held more secrets than the tattoos and scales he'd seen earlier. Cain had left more than one permanent mark on her skin. He sighed quietly to himself as his eyes scanned her body. He hadn't expected this kind of reaction from her – this much confession. She had been extremely secretive about her past with everyone except Raleigh. Rightfully so, it turns out. Hybrids were perhaps the only ones treated worse than Falinians. Andy looked back up at him, her eyes clearly showing her worry. She was being trailed by the system's most dangerous Falinian hunter, and she'd led him right to Quill. At least, that's how she probably felt. Quill smirked and grabbed her hand, lifting her to her feet.
“Of course,” He said, grabbing the sweater from the table and lifting it over Andy's head. “Besides, who else am I gonna trust on here, Raleigh?”
Quill stepped beside her and gently swung her left arm over his shoulders again, wrapping his right arm around her waist to gently help her to the door. He grabbed for a crutch for her and pulled his mechanic's suit back up over his arms, though keeping the front still mostly undone due to the heat in the med bay. He smiled at her and brushed a lock of her hair over one of her ears.
“Can't have the rest of these scoundrels see you hanging off of the dirty mechanic, yeah?” He chuckled before turning to the door control.
“I know we have a lot more to talk about, but that can wait for now.” He pressed the button and the door slid open, “Besides, I still have a hot water coil I need to install. And the rest of the crew is gonna want to celebrate their fearless leader.”
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Fool. Loyal. Gentle.
Andy stuck her arm out across the open port door, leaving the crutch under her arm. It was awkward to have an arm on one side and a leg on another have to be treated to avoid pain, but she'd endured worse. She turned her head from the rush of cool air, and kept him from stepping out. "You aren't just a 'dirty mechanic' and they can wait," She turned and looked at him again. "You're risking your life, and you probably haven't even heard the thing that's going to make you the most upset at me, yet."
She could feel the hummm of Anne's engine's wind up for a minute and stick at the higher keen, seeing if she was going to confess what she'd done. Confess why Quill had such a hard time keeping her fixed when for his race, she should be easy. "If... if you're going to stay... I need to show you something." She could see the question written all over his face. Hearing that a vicious killer on your heels and that your very life threatened was enough, what more could she say? It seemed to say. But Andy knew. Gen Zero ships were sirens for Falinians, they called to the very core of them. They were connected in ways that non-Falinian's couldn't really understand, though Adam had tried to help her. If Quill was staying it was for Anne. Andy couldn't imagine he was staying for her, not really.
She slid her hand back to the brace on the crutch and tilted her head, indicating he should follow her as she stumped her way back toward the Engineering Bay he'd found her near. She saw that someone had hastily mopped up the blood she'd left behind, probably the trail from the Muel as well. She waited for him to follow her in, and then she shut the door, turning a manual lock after the electronic one.
She stumped past him as she started to talk, "Anne is... old. I helped get her from grounded state, but she... she didn't initially belong to me." She glanced at him as she made her way down to the far wall again, there was still blood here she noticed, "Let's not start lying now and say that you don't know she's a Gen Zero." She said with a slight tremor to her fingers as she raised her hand, then hesitated. Anne let out a wretched squeal into the room and Andy flinched. "I'm doing it you wench!" She growled and she put her hand against the disguised security scan panel from before. This time she left her hand in place for longer and instead of a small panel with a single screen slipping open the entire wall pushed back and started to silently slide away.
"Anne is older, different somehow, is what I was told by her previous Falinian, her last link... Adam." She hadn't said his name out loud so many times in a single day in years. It made her throat hurt. She took a breath as what could very well be considered Anne's brain, her self was exposed. Turned and looked at his face as he was looking beyond her. "I know I told you that the AI processor for this ship was damaged beyond repair or replacement... but since we both know that Gen Zero ships are more... alive than that, and that it's not possible to revive one if their core like this is damaged to badly..." There was another explanation for his troubles communicating with her. For her not reaching out to him the way as would have and should have been possible for him, for what they both were. Especially without pristine and humming the machine work was behind her.
Andy braced herself, looking at a spot of her own blood on the floor. "I bound her, using a mental link created for me to communicate with her more like a Falinian. I...limited her, on purpose." More keening and rumbling."Undoing it would have consequences. I couldn't keep a crew member I couldn't implicitly trust if she could all of the sudden start talking to anyone she wanted to for starters." She looked up at him, "She wants me to loose her, but we both know if I do that, she's more likely to follow any commands you give her than me." She felt the ship lurch slightly and could imagine Raleigh cussing the auto screwy auto pilot if he wasn't at the controls. She realized she didn't even know what time it was, where they were. Her eyes were slightly harder than they had been, "I can't lose my ship Quill." Another round of noises but Andy didn't take her eyes from him.
She could sense the small screen Anne had used before streaming with text again and she nearly rolled her eyes. Anyone Falinian in this room could hear her voice if she chose to use it right now after what Andy had done to get her off the ground. Maybe she was filling Quill's head with her voice already. Andy didn't know, she hadn't even reached for the device to be able to communicate in that way, to undo any more of what she'd done almost a decade ago. He didn't have the look on his face like he was communicating with Anne, but Andy didn't know him as well as Adam, or his tells. Playing cards with him had proved that more than once.
She took a breath, and waited instead.
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Quill stood silently, once again listening to Andy open up to him. He never could have imagined so much information being kept from everyone, including Raleigh. His heart panged a bit as he watched Andy struggle not only to move, but to keep spilling her secrets to him. Just a week ago, she barely talked to him after shutting the mains off and causing everyone to sleep in zero grav. He honestly didn't even think she'd ever warm back up to him – let alone all of this in an entire day. Clearly the run in with Cain had gotten to her. Maybe all of this was a her ditch effort at being able to survive him. Though she could very well just as easily hand Quill over to Cain as a bargaining chip for her life. Then again, their history might make even that impossible.
Quill had known all along that the Anne was a gen zero. The core being damaged made a lot of sense as to why the ship was so fussy – and why it would only just give him a sense of what was wrong. But then, Andy told him that she was limiting the Anne. He was angry at first. If Andy had suspected that he was Falinian, why not let him in? But Quill kept that expressly from her. His being on the ship was putting everyone – especially Andy as the captain – in danger. He was more surprised that she didn't leave him on the nearest planet the day she had even a thought of what he was. Now, they both knew each other's secrets – what they were, and now what this ship really is. That bubbling anger seeped away almost immediately as the wall in front of them slid open to reveal Anne's core. The hum and glow of it was familiar, but different. She certainly wasn't like the Gen Zero ships Quill had grown up working on. This seemed older, but more advanced. He felt more power coming from her core than he had ever felt, even on the frigate class ships that were built during the invasion.
“I can't lose my ship, Quill.” Andy stated as quite matter-of-fact. Quill didn't even turn to meet her eyes. His mind was reeling with the possibilities of what Anne was capable of. This kind of core could have immense power, but that limit was lost on Quill. Suddenly, Quill let out almost a gasp while a broad smile came over his face. He stepped forward, his eyes darting around the core as it hummed lightly along. He felt the ship give a sense of relief. Quill turned to meet Andy's steely gaze – she was worried about losing Anne. Quill had no intentions of taking her, he just wanted to finally get to know her. The things that he could potentially unlock for this ship could make her something truly special.
“This – this,” He said, raising his hand to gesture at Anne's core, “Is absolutely....amazing.”
Quill's mouth opened wide and excitement covered his face before he covered his mouth with both hands.
“Oh, my sweet Anne. It is so good to finally meet you.” He spoke silently.
“It is good to finally get to talk to you properly, Quillian. You'll have to excuse Andrea, while I protested that she should let you know, she was just trying to protect me.”
Quill looked over at Andy and chuckled slightly, “Andrea?”
“You and I will have a lot to speak about, Quillian.” Anne's voice seemed to ooze silkily through his ears, and he swore he felt it tingle down his spine.
“You're gorram RIGHT we do!” Quill let out an excited yell, before quickly composing himself. He took a deep breath and turned back to Andy.
“Look, I know that showing a Falinian that you have a gen zero ship proper is scary as it is, let alone a working one.” He stepped forward and placed a hand gently on Andy's good shoulder, “But don't think for a second I have any intentions of taking her from you. You may not be Falinian, but you've taken better care of this old girl than any of my kind could. As far as I am concerned, the Anne will always be your ship.”
Before even Quill knew what he was doing, he had stepped forward and wrapped Andy in a gentle embrace. He whispered, “Thank you.” Before letting her go.
Quill glanced back towards Anne's core – and his excitement began to mix with concern. They needed to protect Anne at all costs. She was a very special ship, but if they weren't careful, they could easily make it recognizably Falinian. He took a deep breath, nodding his head, and turning back to Andy.
“I'm not going to pretend like you don't know what this changes, and we have plenty of time to talk about that later.” He put an arm gently around her shoulders, “But for now – you have a crew to meet, some whisky to drink, and some credits to lose.”
With that, he smiled at Andy and gave her a playful wink.
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