Project Darkstar (Closed)

[Elehina]

Laress paused in her running, the two armed men escorting her pushed her back into a sheltered alcove of the ferrocrete wall behind them. She panted, trying to catch her breath, and pushed the cloak from her head. The leather combat jumpsuit she wore was nearly the same color as her dark skin, and in low light, she could have passed for nude, save for the cloak. At five feet tall, she was shorter than either of her escorts, though that was to be expected since they were - or rather had been - imported slaves. Now they were rebels, fighting to reach the spaceport on the far side of the city.

She ran a narrow boned hand through her damp hair, the silver strands pushed back behind pointed ears. Her yellow eyes surveyed the scene around them with distaste - dead bodies littered the square, not a few of them innocent civilians. She could hear the fighting from the quarter they had just left, and an explosion split the night as one of the rebellion planted traps went off. She just hoped all of this was worth it.

"Princess," one of the men began, but she cut him off with a wave of her hand. "I know. I'm ready." They ran onwards, cutting across side streets, through alleys, and, in one case, through an empty building that heavy weapons fire had already torn a hole through. They paused again a half a kilometer from the space port, and after a brief rest were nearly ready to move on when one of the guards suddenly grabbed her and slung her to one side. An instant later, a mechanical combat droid, shaped like an ancient spider from mythology, tackled the man, sinking poisoned metal fangs the size of daggers into his chest. He screamed and began to thrash, while the other escort helped her to her feet, shoved her in the direction of the spaceport and yelled "Run!" before turning back to open fire on the droid with the machine gun her was carrying. The heavy stuttering of the gun followed her as she pelted down the alley, losing herself in darkness.

She reached the space port, out of breath, sweating, and weeping for the destruction around her, but alive. Slipping through the maintenance grate a sympathizer had left unsecured, she made her way to the docking pads, and found pad eighty three. She rapped on the door in prearranged signal; tap-tap-tap pause tap-tap-tap pause tap-tap-tap, and hoped to the Goddess they would open before some curious security guard came to investigate the noise.

 

[Kusheline]

Re: Project Darkstar

Draylyn sighed as she checked the load on her blaster once more as she frowned, finding it full, the weapon was slapped back into a holster on the feline woman's shapely hip. Waiting had left her restless, and the sound of gunfire not far off increasing her caged feeling. She stepped away from the wall to begin pacing. A long slender tail, white striped in black swaying behind her.

Most of her race, the Felarn, still lived on worlds that the UAW still deemed to low tech to be of use. And as such, they lived lives in their insular lives oblivious to the happenings in the galaxy at large. The Drow didn't have such compunctions, and low tech worlds were perfect pickings for slave stock. 20 years ago, she and her family had been such slaves.

The delivery was late, and she was beginning to wonder if a Slaver unit was gathering to assault her ship. There wasn't much of a crew, just the three of them... but being wanted in several systems increased their value. This deal with the Drow rebellion, the so called Daughters of Elistrae, was sketchy at best.

"Cap'n..." The voice came over the comm clipped to her upturned ear, startling the caged tigress. "I think we may have a problem. The interplanetary propaganda... err... news, just released that the rebellion has kidnapped the First Daughter. Fifty credits says I know what
'precious cargo' translates into in Drow."

"What did you see Cera?" Already a white furred hand began to move toward her blaster once more. The two women has served together in the fleet before embarking on a much more profitable smuggling career, and Dray knew her navigator's insight was more than intuition. The implants had given the elven woman visions.

"We're in for a bumpy ride..." was all she said as Dray's ears perked toward the door of the landing bay. A familliar tap-tap-tap pause tap-tap-tap pause tap-tap-tap coming to her ears over the voice in the comm link. With one hand on her blaster as she approached the door to tap the opening code into the security panel.

The door slid open quickly, and Dray tensed, ready to leap away should her fears prove true. Finding only a single figure surprised her however. Easily a foot taller than the Elven woman, her hand tensed further on the grip of her blaster. Draylyn had little love for the dark Elven race, in fact her feelings could easily be described as hatred.

Her empty hand thrust outward, palm open, still hoping that Cera was wrong, though seeing the woman standing there in the flesh she almost knew that hope was futile. "You have something for me?" Her voice was low, barely more than a growl as she tried to check her rage.

 

[Elehina]

Re: Project Darkstar

Laress paused at the growling feline. She hadn't been told whom to expect, only that a ship was waiting to take her off world, and into UAW space. Regarding the woman towering over her with obvious curiosity, she considered the question, and then slipped through the doorway after checking that the hallway was once more clear. The door slid closed automatically behind her, having sensed her passage, and she looked quizzically at the woman who was obviously the leader of the group.

"My escorts will be unable to join us. I suggest we depart in rather a hurry. The fighting is spreading faster than I had anticipated, I expect it won't be long before they close the space port completely. We should be in orbit before that happens. In fact, it would be better if we left right now."

As if to echo her sentiments, the room shook slightly as they heard the distant crump of an exploding artillery shell. Laress turned, her cloak lifting slightly behind her, and began to make her way towards the waiting ship. "I'm sure they're already spreading the news of my 'abduction' and everyone in the city will soon be looking for me."

 

[Kusheline]

Re: Project Darkstar

On first glance she'd thought the woman was naked, the poor lighting in the Drow facility only helping to heighten that illusion to those races that still needed light on the darkened worlds. Draylyn's hand tightened on the grip of her pistol once more as the woman stepped into the room, closer...

It was hard to fight back the snarl that rose to her lips, even moreso at the imperious tone in her voice as she swept past. Even in her hatred of the woman, even with the growing dread realization, it was hard not to admire the woman's form beneath that painted on leather bodysuit.

The engine of the ship was already beginning to warm up at their approach, a ship that appeared to be a Jlerellian merchant ship. Of Drow design, and their easiest disguise to make it here into the heart of the empire.

"The announcement went out just before you arrived, and as much as I've fantasized about kidnapping you for a good portion of my life..." It was all she got out before something slammed into the door of the docking port. Dray's blaster was in her hand as she spun back toward the door, blasting the control pannel for the door. The door froze only a few inches open as several legs of a spider drone tried clawing their way in.

"Vith!" After all these years it was still the first language she swore in. "Cera, let's get out of here!" Dray spun on her heel, roughly grabbing the princess' arm as she sprinted for the open cargo bay of the ship. A ship that had begun lifting off from the docking pad as the door began to close. Behind them, the sounds of hundreds of legs chipping their way up the ferrocrete walls could be heard.

 

[Elehina]

Re: Project Darkstar

Laress knew what had happened the second the docking bay door had clanged. As Dray charged at her, she turned, a grenade pistol in her hand, already firing at the door as She was practically yanked off her feet. The first shot was on target, and the magnesium grenade slagged the door, frame, and one of the drones legs into an unrecognizable puddle of molten metal. The rest of the shots went wild, one of them fragging the door controls, the rest punching fist sized craters into the ferrocrete, which caught on fire under the intense heat from the grenades.

As they ran up the ramp into the ship, she unclipped a communicator from her belt, spoke into it in drow for a half a second, and tossed it back out the ramp just before it closed. "We have about ten seconds before this docking port is reduced to rubble. I suggest we put them to good use."

As the ship angled sharply upwards, and the engines thrummed to full life, Laress found herself grabbing hold of the tiger, quite literally, by the tail to keep her feet. As they leveled off, she let go with an embarrassed smile, "Sorry. Now, what were you saying about kidnapping me?"

Below them, the artillery strike she had called in reached its target, and the docking port collapsed under the hail of fire and explosive shells.

 

[Kusheline]

Re: Project Darkstar

Cera heard the Princess' warning and the ship was already moving as the loading bay door hissed shut. Instinctively her hand reached for the cargo net to keep her balance, a startled screech ripping from her throat as the woman pulled on her tail.

As the ship leveled off upon entering orbit, she spun on the Drow woman with a snarl. Snatching her tail away. "I meant exactly what I said First Daughter..." The title spat from her lips. "If it wasnt for my deal with the UAW..."

"Cap'n" Cera's voice interjected, this time through the ships comms. "We're being hailed... They intend on boarding."

"Stall them love." Swearng once more as she turned toward the only corridor exiting the cargo bay. Hips encased in skin tight leather pants swaying as she headed down the hall, her tail flicking irratably behind her. She ignored the princess until they reached midship where the corridor broke off.

As she headed one way, toward an open turret, she pointed down the opposite hall toward another. "I sure hope you can shoot princess..."

 

[Elehina]

Re: Project Darkstar

Laress had followed the tigress up the corridor, and took a moment to admire the sway of her hips in the tight leather. The question drew her back to their immediate situation, and she nodded once to affirm that she could, in fact, shoot. She'd been trained, it was expected of all nobility to serve at least two years in the navy. She trotted down the corridor and scanned the turret controls. Fairly standard, she mused, and slid into the leather couch, pulling the straps tight over her shoulders and flicking the switches to bring the console to life. Speaking into the general ship comms system, she said, "If your pilot can hear me, fly at heading one-four-eight mark three-nine. We captured a battery in that area earlier this morning; it should help cover our escape."

In the meantime, she flipped the safeties off the firing studs, spun the turret around, and start pumping giga-joules of raw energy into the nearest boarding craft. The shots caught it right in front of the engine nacelle, and the entire ship went up like a firework, flames and debris falling back towards the planet's surface. She had told the designers that was a weak spot, but would they listen? No, of course not.

She felt the ship banking, though if it was in the direction she had indicated she had no idea. A shot hit them with a spang of ringing metal and she ducked her head instinctively, before returning fire at the ground emplacement where it originated. "They are really, really pissed," she muttered to no one in particular.

 

[Kusheline]

Re: Project Darkstar

"Oh, I can hear and see you just fine... at all times..." Cera's distinctly elven voice came back over the comms, the threat in her tone was undisguised.

"Cera, just give her an open line to let them know we're comming in hot!" Dray barked the order as she flipped safety off her own turret and spun into position after watching the princess strap herself in down the corridor. Her own heavy blaster scoring a line down the center of another craft. The changing pressure on the hull as it arced up out of the atmosphere causing the ship to crumple before exploding in another dazzling display.

And suddenly they were diving back toward the surface. Draylyn saw them even as her screen lit up like a holiday festival. Fighter drones streaming out of the ruins of the docking port. She spun her turret to begin blasting away, clearing a debris filled hole straight through to the captured gun battery.

"When you bottom out, map the city... target the palace, and prepare for warp on my mark."

"Cap'n!" Was the only reply she recieved as the elven woman began feeding the information into the ships computer. It was obvious what the Felarn woman intended, and there was a good chance the capital would be wiped away if they went into warp while still in the atmosphere.

 

[Elehina]

Re: Project Darkstar

Laress was firing for all she was worth, and the captured battery opened up as they screamed over it. But when she heard the captain's orders, she jerked, as if slapped, and smacked the release on her restraints, diving back for the hallway, and pelting through the unfamiliar ship towards the control room.

"You can't do that! Those people are down there fighting so we can escape - you'll kill them all."

She got turned around, and ended up in the ship's common area, but she found her bearings quickly enough. She reached the control room just as the ship bottomed out of it's dive, and pulled her grenade pistol out again, ready to blast the door open. "I mean it. Don't do this."

She lost her footing when the ship lurched to one side, and went tumbling back down the hall, the pistol shooting out of her hand as she scrambled to recover it, and her balance.

 

[Kusheline]

Re: Project Darkstar

By the time they passed the battery most of the drones had been destroyed, the others locked onto the new threat that was wreaking the greater toll on the craft. The other turret had silenced, and Dray spun around in time to see the dark elven beauty stalking off down the hall.

She could hear the nearly horrified tone in the woman's voice, and as much as she wanted to laugh, she couldn't. Even she knew the death toll that would cause if this were any other ship.

In the control room, she could see the city sweeping by at an alarming pace, the palace dead ahead. A beautiful young elven woman sat in the captain's chair, wires running from the consoles normally run by three different people all connected to the left side of her head which was shaved clean of her bobbed red hair. Tattoos traced around the electronics that connected to her flesh, dominated by a large pulsating psi crystal.

Big blue eyes turned toward the Drow woman in shock as a mental shout went out to the captain, warning her. The ship banked sharply, throwing the princess off balance. Righting on course once more to spill her down the hall.

Dray had already begun to follow the First Daughter, but when she heard Cera's distress she bolted down the corridor. She lived on the ship, usually in conditions just as this, and as the ship banked... her steps adjusted to keep from faltering.

The grenade pistol was kicked further down the corridor as she came to stop in front of the Drow woman, scrambling to regain her balance. One powerful hand lashed out to push her back against the corridor wall, right against her her chest. Though the light fur of her fingers, and the claws they held could easily be felt against the flesh of her throat.

 

[Elehina]

Re: Project Darkstar

Mika came out of her cabin just in time to see the captain run by, and grabbed hold of the wall as she felt the ship pitch sharply. Strong fingers dug into the foam padding on the edge of the door and she looked out in time to see the captain pinning a drow woman to the wall.

"What the bleedin' 'ell is going on out 'ere? I thought we was jus' 'ere to pick up a package Cap'n? 'ow'd that lil blighter get on board?"

Mika came out into the hallway, her dark blue eyes fixed blearily on the struggling drow who was now screaming something about death tolls and catastropic. Mika was large, even for a half orc, and she pretty much filled the hallway, but an engineer needed some bulk to deal with reluctant components; she was pretty good in a brawl too. Dressed in a jumpsuit, she looked like she had just woken up; her black hair was still tangled - not that brushing it made it look any better, and her feet were bare.

"You wan' me to jus pitch this un out the lock, Cap'n?"


Laress didn't notice the half orc right away, she was too busy trying to convince the captain not to destroy the entire city below. "Captain, please. Those men and women down there are fighting for you, and for this ship. You can't just...you can't just destroy them. Isn't that why you people hate us drow so much?"

She hated begging, but those men and women were fighting, and dying because she had asked them to. They had started a battle they had never had a chance in Hell of winning because she had convinced them how much was at stake. She turned her bright yellow eyes from the half-orc coming up the hall back to the tigress that had her pinned, swallowed, and said, "Don't do this."

 

[Kusheline]

Re: Project Darkstar

As the smaller woman struggled, Dray just pushed. Pinning her back in place once more as her fingers flexed, those claws teasing at the tender flesh of the Drow woman's throat. One ear flicked back toward the sound of Mika'a approach, a smile rising to her lips at the suggestion... In a way, it was already a part of the plan.

"Glad to see you're finally awake... The princess here, is the package..." Her free hand reached over to tap a console as the door behind the Drow woman slid open on a spacious, and rather well appointed room. Something about the dimensions of the interior of this ship didn't match with the outside.

With another push, she thrust the smaller woman into her room as she looked back at the Orcish woman. "Make sure the party favors are ready... and please strap yourself in this time. It's gonna be a vertical drop right before we warp."

Her head snapped back to the woman ranting about saving the few rebels that might survive the day as that snarl returned to her lips. "I'm going to have a little talk with our guest about protocol..." Pushing one final time as she stepped into the room herself, the door hissing shut behind her.

 

[Elehina]

Re: Project Darkstar

Laress finally stopped struggling when she realized it was doing her no good, but the look she gave the captain was pure venom. Anger seethed through her, but she lost her balance when the captain shoved her through the door into another and stumbled before righting herself and backing away, stripping off her cloak and tossing it aside. She had a black-bladed quortek-vel strapped to her left hip; one of the fabled soul knives of the drow.

She hadn't drawn it yet, but she stood in the middle of the room her hip cocked out to one side, hands crossed just under her small breasts, her face hard and angry.

As the door hissed shut, Mika could hear the little drow spitting "And what is it you'd like to teach me, Captain?"

Mike just laughed, and shook her head. The little oddling would learn pretty quickly how things ran on this ship. When Dray said jump, you didn't bother asking how high, you just jumped, and hoped it was high enough. She picked up a comset, and plugged the ear piece into her ear, thumbing the mic. "Cera, 'ow you treatin' ma baby? You better not break 'er, I only jus' patched 'at nummer two up last week."

Mika's grasp of galactic common wasn't the best, but she could usually make herself understood. And, to be honest, her grasp of every other language was worse, so the captain and Cera just made the best of it. She checked the packages the Captain was interested in, all the readouts were in the green, and then she made her way back to engineering, and started running checks through the rest of the ship. The weapon systems were running hot again, and the shield generators were straining to keep up with the incoming fire, but Mika had over engineered the critical systems, so they had a comfortable margin still.

"Cera, m'sweet, we're as ready as we're a-gonna be." Heeding the Captain's advice, she strapped herself into a chair at the console, and thumbed open the microphone in the captain's com panel. There were some advantages to being the ship's engineer, after all.

 

[Kusheline]

Re: Project Darkstar

Drays hand lashed out once more, backhanding the arrogant Drow woman across the face . She'd seen the blade and was ready for it, it's why her claws were drawn in the first place. "If you ever draw another weapon on my ship, it will be your last..."

"Your baby is just fine you big softy" Cera's voice chirped in the engineer's ear even as the reserve engines began winding up. Once the package dropped they were gonna need all the speed they could to escape the blast from this height. "Hold on tight!"

Outside the window of her quarters, Dray watched the palace race by behind the dark elven woman, when suddenly the world turned on it's end. Ready for it, she dropped to the new floor as the ship turned vertical and launched for orbit.

Behind them, from the cargo bay came a shower home made impact charges. Raining down upon the palace. As the first one hit home upon one of the crystaline domes, it exploded, igniting a chain reaction that brought a raging firestorm down upon the royal palace.

The tigress caught the Drow woman as she too tumbled in the wake of the sudden change of the ships orientation, calling out "Now!" as the First daughter fell into her arms. The scenery outside shifting to the familiar scintilating colors of a wormhole.

Expecting to fall once more, she was nearly pleasantly surprised that the artificial gravity hadn't kicked in. She and the Drow woman began floating across her quarters.

 

[Elehina]

Re: Project Darkstar

The backhard from the larger woman sent Laress reeling across the floor, a floor which quite suddenly became a wall and sent the still dizzy drow plummeting downward to land on the larger woman with a thump. Her head hit the wall/floor and she blacked out for a minute. When she came to, she was floating across the room, wrapped up against the Captain, with her head lolling about against her shoulder.

Mika gave a yell of excitement as the ship pitched nose up and shot into the artificial wormhole, riding out the sudden changes in pitch strapped to her chair, but she immediately knew something was wrong when a pen went floating past her left ear and bumped gently against the console. Cursing a blue streak, she launched herself from her chair and wrenched open a panel. Reaching inside, she gave one of the delicate looking components a rap with her knuckles. Something clicked, and she dropped lightly to her feet.

Laress and the captain, it transpired, were not quite as lucky. When the gravity kicked back in, they went plummeting floorward in a tangle of arms and legs, one of Laress' thighs landing squarely against Dray's mound, ground there by the gravity which briefly shot up to twice normal, and then dropped off altogether.

In the engineering area, Mika gave another curse as she smelled burnt wiring. It seemed the artificial gravity control system had finally given her it's final "Fuck you." and packed in completely.

 

[Kusheline]

Re: Project Darkstar

With a grunt as she landed on the floor amidst a tangle of arms and legs. A spray of the sweetest smelling silver hair splayed out across her face. With another grunt as the thankfully light elven woman landed atop her.

Gritting her teeth to try and hold back a slight groan as the woman's thigh ground against her mound. Dray tried to sit up, the hyper gravitational pull making it difficult to get out from under her nearly unconscious package.

That was of course until the system failed entirely, the force of her push launching them both out into the open air of the spacious room once more. Dray pulled the princess close with one hand before she slammed into another wall, using her free hand to break their 'fall' This time however it was the captain that came to rest 'atop' the Drow woman in her arms, as they pressed against the wall briefly before floating away once more.

Something in her features had softened, though by only a fraction. "You don't even remember me... do you?" She didn't expect a positive answer, Drow rarely remembered their slaves the moment they were out of sight... and it had been nearly thirty years.

 

[Elehina]

Re: Project Darkstar

Laress grunted as the tigress broke their fall, but they still hit the wall hard enough to feel the weight of the other woman pressed firmly against her. She smelled a soft, earthy scent - probably some kind of soap, and felt the woman's strong arm wrapped around her to keep her from splatting head first into the wall as they gravity bounced them around like a child's ball. Oddly, she felt safe there, even though the other woman had just used her head for a punching bag.

When they finally came to 'rest' floating delicately in midair, Laress lifted her head from where it had been squeezed against Dray's right breast, and asked, "Why the hell would I remember you?" She was obviously still upset about the smack; understandably so, since she was bleeding from the left side of her mouth.

She saw the captain about to say something else and then squeaked as they both fell out of the air again with a thud, coming to a halt with Dray propped over her like a lover, staring up into the tigress' wide blue eyes. In the distance they could both hear Mika shouting, "That's got it sorted!"

 

[Kusheline]

Re: Project Darkstar

Once... all those years ago her entire life had been the First Daughter. As a young kitten she'd been a gift to the royal family from one of the colonial governors. Her breed, normally orange with black stripes, occasionally produced a superb specimin that was white. She had been that prize. And for a few years the princess had been delighted with her pet.

The raid had come while the princess was away serving time with the Drow fleet, while she had been sent off to toil away in a labor camp forgotten. Once, she had been devoted to every little whim of the woman in her arms...

Dray braced herself against the fall, oddly not wanting to actually land on the Princess as those loving memories surfaced. Dray railed against them, pushing herself up from the floor in an attempt to untangle herself from the dark elven woman.

"I thought as much..." The captain stood, streaching as she towered over the woman on the floor. She reached up to tap the comms link clipped to her ear. "Good job you two... in 3 days time our records will be cleared..." She didnt even wait for their responses as she pulled the clip off and tossed the link down onto the table beside her bed.

 

[Elehina]

Re: Project Darkstar

Laress looked up at the woman as she towered over her, stretching. She shook her head and clambered to her feet, "What the hell was that supposed to mean? Have we met before?"

She had once owned a slave of Dray's breed, but that had been years ago, and she had died in a slave revolt. She'd been furious with her mother for sending the woman away while she had been in the navy. But by the time she had returned, the damage was done and Erthe, as she had called her pet, was gone. She had grieved for a time, but that had been before she had joined the rebels. Her life, since then, had been a battle; one they were losing.

She unhooked her belt - she wasn't going to use the knife, and it was obvious they both had no illusions about that - and tossed it onto the same table as Dray's communicator, before she crossed her arms again, the same defiant posture that she had held before her previous smack in the mouth. "What do you mean?" she repeated. "Did you know my Erthe?"

 

[Kusheline]

Re: Project Darkstar

Even as the question left her lips, that name ringing in her ears which perked toward the woman as if she'd been called from across the room. Dray's hand shot out once more to tangle in the Princess silvery locks as she stepped closer. One claw hovering inches from the smaller woman's nose as she pointed a finger in her face.

"Dont you dare use that name!" She nearly screamed at the woman in fluent Drow. Her slave name, even she didnt remember the one she'd been born with. Dray had spent so many years trying to just forget, and now the UAW had to go and drop the First Daughter right in her lap.

 

[Elehina]

Re: Project Darkstar

Laress snarled, and her temper rising, she reached up and slapped the pointed, clawed finger out of her face with an angry swat of her hand. "I will use it at any time I choose, Captain. She was my only friend growing up - the only person I could trust. Do not presume to forbid me - don't you dare. Contract or no contract, I'll strangle you to death with your own intestines."

She wrenched her head away, ignoring the pain in her scalp as some of her hair pulled loose and stormed across the room to the window. Staring out as the eerily beautiful kaleidoscope that was the wormhole, she did her best to temporarily forget the woman standing behind her and calm down. After a moment, she said, "It would be best, I think, for both of us, not to mention the structural integrity of your vessel, if you simply showed me where I will be sleeping during the journey. I will do my best to remain out of the way of you and your crew."

 

[Kusheline]

Re: Project Darkstar

"That is how you people treat your slaves after all... Humiliation, torture, and death..." She glared after the woman as she pulled away, watching as she stared out the window and tried to calm.

"Feel priveleged Princess... you get to use the captains quarters. Unless of course you'd rather I prepare the holding cell? I'll be in the cockpit..." She didnt remember, it wasnt worth the fight... or all the memories it would evoke.

Turning, the door hissed open at her approach. Glancing back over her shoulder once more she muttered. "Most of the slaves not only survived that raid, but enlisted in the UAW navy the following day..." The door hissed shut on the tail end of her statement, Dray punched a button on the console beside it, locking it tight.

 

[Elehina]

Re: Project Darkstar

Laress looked back as the Captain's final words registered. No, no she shook her head, it was impossible. Erthe was gone, dead in that raid. Killed by the very people she was now trying to save. Her mother had told her. Not believing, she had gone and surveyed the wreckage herself. She had seen the bodies, smelled the decay; her heart had died that day - or perhaps it had been born. In any case, her eyes had been opened.

But still...there was something about this Captain Draylyn. Something familiar. She looked around the cabin, and found what she was looking for - a computer console. She expected the security to be tight, but what she wanted wouldn't be under lock and key - it would be public records after all, all she needed was an open channel, and a bit of time.

Laress' speciality in the navy had been counter intelligence; specifically intrusion detection and prevention. One of the first lessons her instructors had taught her was to catch a hacker, you had to first be a hacker. It took her perhaps five minutes to route the necessary commands through an unsecured portion of the ships computer - the section reserved for the management of the ships waste reclamation system. Laress grinned as she began hunting through birth and death records. She had, after all, graduated at the top of her class.

An hour later, she had found what she had been looking for. Like any entity that depended on taxation, both the Drow Empire and the UAW kept meticulous birth and death records. The Empire even recorded them for slaves since it taxed their sale and ownership like any other property. Erthe had died in that raid, but only to be reborn, it seemed - at least if the tentative time line she'd managed to piece together was right.

She tripped open the general comms, which would broadcast out of every speaker on the ship. That was almost easier than breathing. Steeling herself, she recited the litany that she had taught her slave all those years ago.

"And will you love me? For always. And will you keep me? Forever. And will you protect me? From everything."

She clicked the channel closed, and stood up to face the door. This was going to be, in her assessment, very ugly.

 

[Kusheline]

Re: Project Darkstar

Draylyn stalked her way to the command center, the door hissing open at her approach. She frowned, it meant that Cera was watching now that they were safe. Touching the console in front of the elven woman to close down the cameras throughout the ship. She then keyed up the comms for the engine room.

"I love you Mike... but if there is any way you can get us to Arvandyr a day faster... I will do anything your big heart desires" Her wide blue eyes turned toward the woman that ran most of the ship, reaching up as she began to unplug the cords on her head.

"You my love, are going to bed..." Placing a finger against her lips to silence the protest that was comming.

"Cap-"

Pulling the second cord out as she leaned down to kiss the lovely young elven woman on the forehead. "You sat here for two days while we waited for..." A snarl curling her lips as her eyes darted toward the door.

"Cap'n she's hacked through... Well, she's trying to hack UAW central records... As well as Imperial" Reaching up to plug that second cable back in once more, a slight shiver running up her spine as it slid into place. "Should I cut-"

"No, she needs to know..." Tapping the console brought up a screen in the air in front of her chair. Turning back to look at the elven woman she'd always considered tiny... before Laress walked back into her life.

Know what? The question died on Cera's lips as Dray pulled the plug once more, quickly followed by the third and final. She smacked the girl on the rear, pushing her toward the door as she sank into her command chair.

She had begun to doze off, alone in the quiet amidst the scintilating kalidescope of colors outside the windows. Idly watching the Princess progress at tracking down the answers she needed. As those words echoed throughout the ship her eyes snapped open instantly.

A growl ripped from her throat as she sprinted from the room, mashing the button on the console to open her cabin door. The enraged Felarn Stormed into the room, her hand already drawn back for another backhand.

"You push me to far..."

 

[Elehina]

Re: Project Darkstar

Mika grunted at the captain's request. She could push the engines, that much was true, and they'd spend the day they saved on the trip sitting in a dock rebuilding them. In the end, she tweaked some of the power outputs, and rerouted a few things, and estiamted they would shave six hours off the journey. It would have to do.

She met Cera coming down the hallway and recognized the same bemused look on her face that Mika knew she herself was wearing. "Cera? Whatddya reckon?" She nodded significantly in the direction of the control center where Dray was now seated in solitude. Moments later, they both heard the drow woman's voice on the open channel, and looked at each other, eyes wide. There was a sudden feeling of impending doom.

Laress didn't flinch back from the upraised hand this time. She stood her ground, come what may. She said, simply, "I looked for you. I went to that planet, and I crawled through the dead, looking for you. I just thought you should know that."