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We Make Our Own Fate (Alvis&Rania)

Verity moved through the corridors, her hand still numb from the pain killers as the medic kept her arms about the scientist's shoulders, almost shielding her from her surroundings as they made their way through the ship. They stopped after a few moments at a white door. With a touch to a lock at the side of the white door, the barrier hissed and opened quickly allowing the three to enter into a medical lab. It was simple, not much equipment but enough to administer first aid. There was a chair and a bed in the centre of the room with cabinets of equipment and medicine along the walls. Verity was led to the chair in the centre of the room and was guided down into the seat. Still holding her hand out from her body, the bloody appendage looked worse than it felt to Verity, largely due to the effectiveness of the painkillers coursing through her veins.

Verity watched in amazement as the medic worked efficiently, first gathering her tools. Then moving to her hand, she watched in awe as she worked to quickly drain and clean all the remaining burn blisters. Then a tool with a blue light. Verity's eyes widened in shock as the wounds began to close themselves on her hand. Having never been seriously injured before, the scientist was quite naive to the inner workings of the medical field. Though a genius in her own work, Verity was still very innocent of the world, most of her adult life having been spent on a prison ship. She nodded when the doctor gave her instructions to be careful as the hand would be tender, restricting her work for a few days until it healed completely.

"Thank you," Verity whispered quietly, staring in awe at her nearly completely healed hand. Bending her fingers and turning it from back to palm as she examined the work. It was amazing!

Then another voice emerged from the open door. It was the technician with her information! Verity jumped up from the chair, noticeably excited about the prospect of having her research intact and back in her possession. Walking quickly over to Control, she took the new pad from him. It was noticeably heavier than her old one. Older and more sturdy; this one was metal and not glass. Not as sleek as her old one but as long as it worked, Verity didn't care. Touching a few places on the screen, Verity pulled up her research. Going through her calculations, Verity did some mental math to figure out exactly what was missing and to assess how hard it would be to recreate it. And that was only the research she had done for the government. It would take time to decrypt her failsafe so there was no way to assess that; not yet at least.

Pulling the pad close to her chest once again, she looked up at Control with a genuine smile. "Thank you!" she exclaimed excitedly, her body bouncing slightly with happiness before turning back to the Captain, "A lot of it is intact. The missing files can be recreated with a bit of time. Thank you so much!" And it was then Verity moved without thinking, her happiness bubbling over as she crossed the floor, standing on her toes and wrapping her free arm around the Captain's neck as she pressed herself against him in a short hug. As she felt his armour against her, Verity immediately realized what she had done. Retreating quickly from the captain, she lowered her gaze, her cheeks reddening in embarrassment at her actions.

"I'm sorry," she apologized quickly, "I-I wasn't thinking."
 
Roan did start a little as she hugged him, taking a moment to gatrher his thoughts. It had been a long time since someone had done that to him. Mary adn Control both had a smirk on their face, trying to avoid laughing at the situation. Roan gave them an unamused glare.
"Well, if that's the worst taht happens while we've got you on board, I'll call it a win. Don't worry about it Verity." Roan assured her with a smile. "Now, if you want, i can show you to the room we've got set aside for you. Probably a sight more comfortable than what you've been getting over the years. Come on." He gave her a wave, and head out of the med bay.

"You're not a prisoner here." Roan explained as he led her along. "That being said, you've got my top crew, and well, everyone else. Top crew can be trusted, and will do right by you. Everyone else, well, I can't vouch for 'em one hundred percent. So if you need to go anywhere, just raise one of us on the com, someone will come by to make sure you don't run afoul any of trouble makers. Just until you get your bearing on board here, okay? Don't want to save ya from the government just to have things fall apart for you here." Their path was pretty easy to follow, and Roan hit a switch on the wall. Stateroom two opened up.

It was actually quarters that had been used for ranking officers back when the ship had been in normal military service, but Roan had refused it for himself, and his inner crew, simply because it was too far out of the way of essential duty stations. Teh room was rather wide open, room to move around comfortably without running into anything.
"You've got en suite washroom, com system is over there on the wall. I've got the crew digging aroud int he ship to see if we've got anything that might closely resemble a lab for you to use, but otherwise, we can get you a somewhat better grade of computer unit in here to work with until we turn something up. Um...so, anything else you can think of?" He asked her, a smile on his face. Verity seemed a good sort, the kind of person he could enjoy the company of.
 
Verity nodded at his reassurance that her actions were not taken to be negative. Lifting her gaze, her cheeks remained a deep red as she struggled to truly accept his acceptance, especially when it was witnessed by two other strangers. Turning on her heels, she followed him meekly out of the med bay as he led her towards her room. Walking quickly to keep up with the Captain, she watched the walls about it, recognizing little subtleties in them as well as memorizing the route from the med bay to her room, trying to get familiar with the ship.

The scientist nodded at his assertion that she was not a prisoner anymore. It was a hard concept for her to grasp as she had been stuck on that ship for so long. Though no where near a prison as she had been on The Melbourne, she still couldn't believe she had free reign...well, to a point. She was still supposed to call for someone to escort her anywhere she wanted to go, but that was only temporary and really for her own protection. Taken a bit aback by the Captain's revelation about not fully trusting his whole crew was surprising and it showed on Verity's face. Why would he hire people he didn't trust? But that was not a question she thought she was supposed to ask so she kept her mouth shut.

After a few turns down the corridors of the ship, they arrived at another unmarked white door. With the push of a button, the door slid open revealing a very spacious room. On the freighter, her quarters consisted of a bunk bed with a three foot wide space next to it. She was never permitted to have any research in her room and it was used only for sleeping. At all other times, she was escorted and watched to ensure she wasn't doing anything that wasn't within her prison sentence. Walking into the room, Verity turned around slowly, examining every inch of the large space. She reached out with her free hand to touch nearly every piece of furniture within it. Then he mentioned an attached washroom. Verity turned immediately and walked to the far corner of the room to examine the en suite. Even when she was a child, she had never seen an en suite. A washroom that was only for her!

Turning back as he mentioned finding a lab for her to work in and sourcing out a computer for her to use in the meantime. Nodding slowly, Verity laid her new industrial pad down on the small desk across from the bed. She had not experienced freedom in five years and while a prisoner she had to watch everything she said, forced to think on every situation before speaking.

"French fries?" Verity blurted out, before her eyes widened and she immediately covered her mouth as she once again did something without thinking. While she was on the freighter, she was forced to eat only military rations; tasteless, colourless packets of food that were intended only for sustenance and not for enjoyment.

"I'm sorry," she said from behind her hand, "I'm just not used to being asked if I wanted anything."
 
Roan fought a grin. Verity seemed to have that effect on him. Some might call her naive, but he'd call her refreshingly honest and enthusiastic. It was something he liked seeing on someone. Granted, he'd wish forever and a day that she hadn't come by those traits by being a prisoner like she had. Roan understood captivity, sometimes it was needed, and had a justice to it. He'd just never agree with holding someone for no reason than you wanted to exploit something about them.

"Tell ya what, let me go get this plate off..." He knocked on the armoured chest plate. "...and I'll come back here and take you down to the mess hall, introduce you to the cook, and he'll set you up with some food. Real honest to Gods food, none of the synthetic crap they usually pass off. So. Give me ten, twelve minutes, and I'll be back." He smiled at her, adn stepped back from the door, letting it close.

The armoury was a quick trip when you took the lift system. They called it a lift, but really it took you near anywhere on the ship. He disengaged the locking system on his armour, and set it on the rack in his storage locker. It was more of a walk in closet, but instead of clothes it was stacked high with weapons and equipment. There was a tool for every situation, and Roan was a well trained expert with all of them. He ran a hand along the side of another armoured suit. He normally wore assault armour, good honest plating that did very wel in it's tasks, but he had managed to snag his older battle armour that he'd been issued a long time ago. M uch heavier in protection and weight, it was something that had to be fastened onto him with the aid of either an armature, or a few technicians. it wasn't worth the effort usually, assault armour did just fine. But he liked having the option of breaking out something more extreme when he absoultely positively needed to kill something right now. He shook his head, rolled his shoulders, feelign light, almost naked out of the armour, but that wasn't unusual. He left his locker, makign sure it sealed behind him.

He rode the lift quickly back to Verity's room. He normally didn't use the lift all that often, preferring to know the way through the ship manually, making sure that he knew every inch of floor and bulkhead in it, but he was in a hurry. He pressed a buttong on the side fo the door, sending a chime into the room, announcing someone was there. He pressed the small button that let him speak to her through the door.
"Verity? You ready to go?" He asked her. Polite it might be to not barge in on her, but it was important to Roan on another level. It was letting her know that she could choose to see someone. Or not. But it was her choice to make.
 
Verity lowered her hand from her mouth as the captain offered to take her down to the mess hall for some food. Nodding enthusiastically, a smile crept onto the scientist's face.

"That would be wonderful," she exclaimed about the prospect of 'real' food. She had lived for so long on rations that tasting the real stuff would be amazing! Then he left her alone to go remove his armour, letting the sliding door hiss shut in front of him. Verity began to move again around the stateroom. Smiling, she stretched her arms out in the centre as she spun on her toes, a grin spreading across her face. It was the first time she had been free to do as she pleased in so long, she couldn't help but smile. She felt safe, a feeling she had missed for over five years. Once she was finished giddily spinning in the room, she pulled her arms out of the sleeves of the lab coat. Hanging it up on a hook above the bed, Verity took a step back away from it. Wearing only the military green jumpsuit, she reached over with one of her hands to roll up the sleeve of her opposite arm above her elbow. Then she repeated the same with the other sleeve.

Once that was finished, she walked into the bathroom and looked at herself in the large mirror located above the sink. She looked a dishevelled mess! Her hair was half out of the tight bun she had begun the day with. Immediately, Verity reached back to pull the elastic from her wavy locks, letting them fall over her back in a cascade of brunette locks that gently curled down her back. Flipping her hair forward, she ran her fingers through the locks, pulling out any tangles that had occurred with the escape. Flipping her hair back up, she let it fall back down her hair, shorter pieces framing her features about her face.

Immediately, the scientist felt more put together. Despite the boring military jumpsuit and standard issued black combat boots, her face and hair looked more distinctly feminine. Once she was pleased with the way she looked, she moved back over to the bed and took a seat down on the soft mattress. Smiling, she bounced a couple times on it. Finally, a comfortable place to sleep!

All of a sudden, she heard a light chiming pass through the room and then a short crackle before the captain's voice followed. Standing up, Verity moved over to the com near the door. It was a concept completely new to her! She had never been allowed to close or open doors by herself on the prison ship. The guards always did that. So the com was a completely new concept to her. Taking her time to examine the pad, she pushed one of the buttons and the lights turned off! Verity scrambled to turn them back on again as she tried another one...the door hissed open next to her and the scientist breathed a sigh of relief. Turning back to the com she memorized the button she had pressed before walking out into the hallway.

"I am, thank you Captain," she replied, mimicking his crew's title for him that she had heard throughout the escape.
 
Roan noted that she'd spent her time well in some ways. Her hair falling down freely now looked good on her, had a more relaxed look to it. In some ways he imagined it was a way of letting down her guard a little. And that was a good sign, if ever there was one.
"Well, come on then. Show you the way." He told her with a smile. He led her through a few of the corridors, until they reached a huge open space. The mess hall was a massive thing, ranging up a few decks in height. Rows and rows of tables were set out, and a few tiers of balcony were set up as well. The place wasn't too filled up right then, maybe a few dozen people spread out around the tables. Roan walked without hesitation towards the main section, a hole int he wall from which you could see a large man bustling about in the kitchen.

"Sir! What brings you by today?" The man asked, a wide grin on his face. "And who is this? Wasn't aware we'd picked up any new crew!"
"Yeah, well, it's been an interesting day. THis here is Verity. Verity, this is Darren. He keeps us well fed. SO just let him know what you might want, adn he'll make it happen." Roan explained. Darren nodded to Verity.
"I will indeed! I'm in here more often than I'm not, so feel free to give me a call on the com if there's somethign you want while you're in quarters." He offered. Roan was glad he'd brought Verity here. Darren was a good man, Roan trusted him more than a little, because Darren had been the kind of person to not ever give him cause to question that.
 
Verity nodded as the captain began to lead the way to the mess hall. As they walked, Verity memorized the route, looking for any landmarks to guide her. Spinning around a couple of times as they made their way through a few corridors before reaching the mess hall. They walked into a massive room with multiple levels to it. Verity's jaw dropped as she looked up at the huge, open space. She had never seen something this large! Turning around slowly, she took in all the levels, the tables, the chairs, the people.

The scientist's back was turned, her eyes wide in awe as the Captain walked away from her. Turning around and realizing she was being left behind, Verity took off into a jog and caught up to the Captain just as he stopped at a large opening in the far wall, speaking to a rather large, jovial looking man who was bustling around a well equipped kitchen. Verity leaned her head into the hole, looking around the huge space behind it, her eyes wide and her curiosity bursting through her expression.

Verity smiled and nodded back to Darren, "Nice to meet you." she replied, while her eyes went back to examining the equipment and shelving in the kitchen.

"Do you have french fries?" she asked as she leaned back out of the window, returning to standing back on one side of the counter. Her mouth curled up into an excited smile as she bounced slightly in excitement over eating some REAL food! Her enthusiasm was palpable as she rested her hands on the metal counter.
 
Darren cocked his head at her question. He could not have looked more confused than if she had grown a third arm out the middle of her forehead.
"Well, yeah I do miss. Pretty standard there." He point out. Roan shook his head.
"Darren, make her up a box. Make it a poutine, she could probably use the extra calories after being on board that hole for awhile." Roan admonished. Darren nodded, and set to work. There was a hiss as he dropped a rack of fries, real ones, cut potatoes instead of the synthetically made one. Matter reassembly meant taht there was not a risk of running out of food on a long voyage, but no matter what, there was never a proper substitute for real honest to goodness foods. THe oil was superheated, so it only took a momnt for them to be fried to a good crisp standard. He got them into a container, adn then rumaged about. A fistful of cheese lumps of some kind, adn then he dipped a ladle in a small vat of steaming gravy. He poured the works ontot he fries and cheese, the hot gravy melting the cheese. A proper poutine.
"There ya go girl. Should help fill an empty spot I think!" He annoucned with a grin, sticking a fork in the container.

"Come on, we'll grab a seat." Roan absently pat her shoulder as he was about to walk from the ordering window.
"Nothin' for you Colonel?" Darren asked.
"Send my usual out to me." Roan led Verity to a table, and sat down, giving her a wave, letting her silently know that she could sit anywhere she liked. Granted, the options were essentially across from him, or beside him at that point.
 
Verity watched as the cook looked at her like she had ten heads for asking for french fries. She turned to look at the Captain, her own gaze one of confusion and worry that she had asked for something dangerous. Turning back to the cook as he mentioned that it was a simple thing that was readily available. Verity lowered her head, her cheeks flushing pink in embarrassment at asking for something so menial. But the captain stepped in immediately to place more of the order for her, requesting a poutine. What was a poutine? Verity raised her gaze as the cook left them at the window to begin making the poutine for her. Verity's curiosity was piqued as she heard the hiss of the fries as they were dropped into the oil, cooking them in seconds. Then came a handful of white blobs, then gravy! Verity's eyes widened as the box of fries smothered in gravy with what she now recognized as chunks of cheese was placed in front of her on the counter.

Verity opened her mouth to say something when she closed it again. Tilting her head slightly as the messy meal within the box with the fork sticking straight out it, it seemed like a chaotic environment of strange ingredients all mixed together. After a moment of almost scientific analysis, Verity looked back up to the cook and genuinely smiled.

"Thank you very much," she exclaimed truthfully before picking up the steaming box of cheese, fries and gravy before turning towards where the captain had patted her shoulder. Following him, she took a cautious seat across from him, setting her box down on the table. Reaching to take hold of the fork, she pulled out a single fry, wrapped in the stringy melted cheese and covered in gravy. Taking a deep breath, she took her first bite of real food in over five years.

The flavours exploded in her mouth. Her eyes widened in amazement as the gravy enhanced the saltiness of the fries and the cheese made it all the more delicious with its gooey stringiness. Looking up at the captain, she finished chewing before setting the fork back into the box to take more of the delicious mixture.

"This is amazing!" she exclaimed as she took a forkful more of the mixture. Despite this being her first real food for so long and her genuinely probably enjoying anything placed before her, the poutine was the most delicious thing she had ever tasted in that moment.
 
Roan looked at her she dug into the poutine. There was a kind of wonder in watching her discover, maybe rediscover, the simple things in life. Good food. A sense of privacy. Choices to make on your own. As she made her declaration to the taste of what she'd been given, he ahd a thought wander into his hewad, realizing what she'd likely been living on as long as she'd been a prisoner. He made a face.
"Ugh, they probably had you on those damned sludge packs, didn't they? Rations my eye. WOuldn't feed them to a dog I didn't like let alone a person." He shook his head as he spoke, memories of long campaigns when those were all that they could keep on hand for himself and hsi people, adn how utterly unpleasant the meals ahd been. Sure, they lasted for decades, and were nourishing as could be, but there had to be some kind of standard in place to make them more palatable. No one had managed to find a way to do so, which led Roan to simply discarding them in favour of actual food on his ship. Another reason people tended to sign up to work with him.

"Once you've had some food, we'll let you rest. In the morning, I'm going to have a little war council with my team, and you of course if you're willing, and go over what we need to do so we can shut down this project." Roan explained to her. Information was a big way of helping someone understand what might be expected of them. Truthfully, if she didn't help him on this, he wasn't sure how much he was going to be able to do, aside from show up to places and open fire. But he had some confidence that she wouldn't' let him down on that front.
 
Verity continued to eat the poutine, closing her eyes with each bite as she savoured the melody of flavours and textures that came with each morsel. It was almost as if it was all new to her, that she had been living on the porridge like rations for her entire life. She nodded at the captain's assessment of the food she had been given on the prison ship, agreeing whole-heartedly with him as he complained of the taste and texture of the nutrition rich packets of mud.

Verity stopped eating as he explained the plan for the rest of the night as well as into the next day. She nodded her head at his beckoning her to a meeting, her thoughts spinning in her mind about what she could say to them. The government had a weapon that could destroy worlds at their fingertips and ironically, the one who invented the weapon was the only one who could also destroy it. But a war? There was a war brewing? Verity's brow furrowed as she listened, not realizing she was walking into a war zone. But what kind of war was it? She couldn't tell from the Captain's words.

But Verity quickly pushed those worries out of her mind. The Captain could have killed her if he had wanted but he seemed to be genuinely interested in what her knowledge could contribute to their efforts. She wanted the weapon destroyed and it seemed he shared that sentiment. Taking another bite of rich food, she nodded.

"Yes, sir," she said with a smile, almost poking fun at his title. She would never have gotten away with it on the prison ship but here, the Captain seemed more inclined to humour, and that was refreshing.
 
Roan gave her an amused smirk at calling him sir. She had a bit of cheek to her, and that was a good sign, far as he was concerned. After so long under the heel of being a prisoner, it would have been easy for her to be a bitter, angry creature that lashed out at everyone around her as a defense mechanism. But if anything she seemed to be more easy going than most would be. That was appreciated really. A man swept by the table, dropping a plate in front of Roan with a nod. He nodded back in thanks, and lifted the wrap from the plate. He bit into it quickly, discovering that he'd been hungrier than he'd thought. Fighting and killing always made him want to eat something. Probably the calorie burn that came from the adrenaline surge.

It only took a few moments to finish up the wrap. He looked over to see Verity going through her food steadily. Once she was done, he waved someone over who took the empty dishes away.
"Come on, I'll get you situated." he told her with a wave, and stood up. He had a moment of hesitation. She was a scientist, one that clearly knew her stuff, but seemed like she was always denied the chance to really see the more spectacular things that one could get a look at. He checked his wrist piece, passing over the time, and checking the relative position of the ship. He smiled. After the sudden FTL jump, they were still recharging hte drive, and they had found a decent spot to hide to do it. He reached one of the lifts, and opened it up. "Minor detour. Got something to show you." He told her, letting her into the lift and keying the location. It was not a long trip, though it took them to the top of the ship.

When the lift opened, the room they were in was dark, though the very faint lighting revealed the room to be a large one.
"System, opened outer hatches." He called. There wes a grinding sound, and then huge armoured panels slid away from the edges of the walls, sliding down to reveal the space outside the ship. Light began to flood in, brightly lighting up the room, and revealing what was beyond. The ship was passing close to a binary star, the two objects close enough to interact with one another, one bright red, and the other a light blue, they made for a stunning contrast. The windowed pieces filtered enough of the light out that a person could look at them without damaging their eyes, and it made for quite the spectacle. "What do you think there Verity? Worth a detour?"
 
Verity smiled wider back to the Captain as he appeared amused at her poking at his status among this ship. She had stopped being angry about two years into her prison sentence. She had found herself laying awake all night, complaining about her circumstances and she had found it a useless way to spend her time. Right after she had decided to stop being angry, she began her work on the failsafe, making the most of her time alone. Verity looked up as a man dropped off a plate with a wrap in front of the Captain and he joined her in the meal.

Verity finished her poutine a few moments after the Captain finished. He had eaten his meal very quickly, or Verity was just slow. Shrugging it off, Verity smiled as a man returned to take away the empty plates. Once they were gone, the Captain stood up and beckoned her to follow him so she could get comfortable for the night. However, immediately after they left the mess hall, he checked his watch for a moment. Verity waited patiently, going through the route from her room backwards to memorize the return trip as well. But the Captain then threw a wrench into her thought process as he turned the opposite way, walking away from her room to a lift around another corner. Verity opened her mouth as she pointed to the right direction, but just as quickly closed it again and followed him. Maybe it was an alternate route.

Once she reached the lift and the door hissed open, the Captain explained their detour. Verity nodded, again memorizing the route they were taking to store away in her mind as she got used to navigating the ship. The scientist followed him into the lift and turned to face the door as he pushed a series of buttons and the doors hissed closed. The lift then began moving upwards before stopping again a moment later and the door once again hissed open into a darkened space that seemed almost as big as the mess hall.

Verity cautiously took a step out into the darkness, the only light a faint glow around the floor. She took a few steps further into the room as he called out something to the system. Then a loud grinding echoed throughout the large space. Instinctively, Verity hunched over, her hands moving to cover her head as the grinding continued for a moment before she realized that they weren't being attacked and she wasn't in any danger, just as the bright light flooded in from the ceiling.

Looking up slowly, Verity's mouth slowly dropped open. Her eyes widened as big as saucers as she tilted her head back. Turning around, she marvelled at the beauty of the binary star, her eyes reflecting the colours as her breath caught for a moment in her throat. She couldn't speak as she stared at the wonder of the stars. She had done so much research, had so much data but she had never before experienced a binary star in reality, only in numbers.

She turned around again, desperate to take in everything that was glowing brightly above her, not just the binary star, but every star behind it, the galaxy glowing brightly before her. The silence extended for more time as she took in all the wonder and beauty of a galaxy she hadn't been able to see in years.

"It's...." she shook her head as she struggled to find the words, her eyes never leaving the stars, "Yes." It was the only word she could think of as for but a moment, all the data in her head disappeared, leaving her able to appreciate what she was looking at, the art of the universe!
 
Roan nodded, and sat on one of hte long cushioned benches near the viewport.
"This is the upper observation lounge. Couple folks talked about converting it into a gunship hanger, but I figured we needed a place to be able to relax and see the stars still. Serving on a ship like this, it's easy to forget what we're flying through. Aint all just bloodshed and horror. There's still good things worth seeing out here in the black." He said in a faintly conversational tone, looking out the viewport right along with Verity. "We'll get you set up with one of our wrist units. Might even be able to find you a science tool version, make your work a bit easier. If they never gave ya one of those, I can get it, way too easy to weaponize those things if ya got half a brain. All kinds fo fun shit to do with one of them." Roan was more musing aloud by now than anything.

He realized he was stalling, just playing for some time, and he also knew he was okay with that. It had been a long time since he'd seen someone just honestly in a state of wonder looking at the stars. It did more to settle him than anything else he could remember recently. Watching Verity like this, it made him feel younger just by seeing it, remembering when he'd first made it into space so very many years ago. It was soothing, humbling, and a feeling he knew he was going to have a hard time finding again. Or would he? He'd been around long enough not to make too many assumptions. Still, he didn't make any suggestion that they leave, wanting to let Verity have as long as she wanted to admire the view.
 
Verity's eyes were focussed on the stars as the ship floated beneath them and the Captain began to speak of the reason for the space. Nodding, Verity turned again, her eyes never leaving the stars above her as he spoke of providing her with more equipment. It was strange for Verity to be given so much in so little time. She had to fight to receive a padscreen to go with the com stand so she could move around the lab for her work while imprisoned.

Reaching up, Verity ran her fingers through the front of her hair, pushing it off her face and pulling it over her shoulders as she lamented ever leaving this space. She wanted to just lie down on the floor and sleep under the stars. Suddenly, the prison ship, though it was one of the biggest ships in the galaxy, felt so small and cramped compared to the vastness of space. Sure, she had done the math and could figure out how big each galaxy was, but seeing it in reality made her seem all the more small.

However, after a few more minutes, the reality of her situation came back to her mind. She had to explain her research to a war team the next day. She had to decrypt her failsafe, explain it to them so they could start an attack on the government. Without her information, she had no idea how long the stars would last.

Lowering her head slowly, she turned to the Captain. Reaching back, she pulled her hair back over the front of one of her shoulders as she nodded.

"I'm finished," she said quietly, her voice not at all convincing, but she had work to do.
 
Roan smiled at her as she spoke. He could understand things from her. She wasn't hard to read. She wanted to stay, but figured there was work to be done, adn that was a good thing as far as he was concerned. It wasn't as common a trait in people that hadn't served in the military. You did what had to be done, then you did what you wanted to do.
"Dunno when we'll come by a binary star next, but the next time we're close by something that you might find interesting, I'll make sure we get you back up here for it. It's not hard ot get up here, so don't worry. You can come on up here any time you need to clear your head." He told her, leading her back to the lift. He extended the armoured panels, sealing the observation deck again.

The lift ride was not terribly long, but Roan made sure it took them back to where they'd gotten onto it, letting Verity get a feel for the space between her room and the mess hall. It was the most likely common destination for her. He keyed her door open, standing to one side to let her in.
"Get some rest Verity. We'll be by for you tomorrow, adn we'll see what we can do to set this whole thing right. Sleep well." He told her with a smile.
 
Verity nodded at the invitation to return whenever she wanted to so she could find an escape from her work.

"Ok," she said with an authentic smile. She had loved it up there and knew that she would be returning whenever she got the chance, not only to clear her head, but also just to marvel at the wonders of the universe. It was only when one was free of distractions, did one appreciate the environment surrounding them.

She walked quickly behind the captain back into the lift, taking up a place in the back corner, observing what buttons he pushed on the controls to take them back down to the mess hall. She tucked those buttons into the back of her mind, storing them for whenever she needed them.

Stepping back out of the lift as they returned to where they had boarded it before the welcomed detour, Verity went over the directions in her head, stopping at each corner to ensure she had her directional sense leading her correctly. It wasn't long before the two of them had arrived at the door to her room.

Stepping inside after the captain opened the door, she turned around. "Thank you," she replied smiling gently, "Good night."

Verity moved to the controls at the side of the door and pushed one of the buttons and the door hissed closed between her and Captain leaving her alone in her room. Turning around, she leaned back against the door, the smile she had been sporting the entire return trip still pasted onto her face as she recalled the beauty of the space at the top of the ship. She took a moment to process that what she had seen was something not many people saw, or noticed.

But the bliss only lasted for a moment before her work at hand invaded her thoughts. She pushed herself off the cold acrylic of the door and moved to the small desk with her pad on it. Sitting down, she pressed the screen and the pad flashed into life. Pressing a few more locations on the screen, she moved into the encrypted failsafe and began working on the decryption; a rather tedious task that was going to take her hours...
 
Verity was in good shape now, Roan thought to himself. She was more settled than he had expected, but she seemed like an adaptable sort. And she was going to need that if she was going to help them put an end to this Dark Matter program. Still, Roan had some of his own work to do, and set off for the lift to get to the briefing room. There was still one detail from teh raid on the freighter to attend to.

"How many losses?" Roan asked. Mark was going over a pad calmly.
"Fourteen, all from the lower crew." She answered.
"How long do we have operational supplies for?"
"Another month at least. Longer if we go to rationing."
"Skip that. How far are we from Port Royal?"
"One good jump, but we'll be docked for awhile to ground off the FTL charge."
"All right, keep it in mind. What did we get from the raid?"
"Less and more than we'd hoped. Techs managed to salvage a small horde of top level data cores. THey wiped themselves of course, but the hardware is valuable. Control wants to commandeer three of them to upgrade our systems, and we can pawn the rest to Technoscream for cash."
"Do it, that's fine."
"We also got to their armoury before it was really accessed, so we emptied it. There's a squad worth of assault armour, spare parts for days, and a brace of pulse rifles." Roan smiled.
"Genecoded?"
"Control overrode it. We have access. Ammo is tight though, only one reload per gun, so we'll have to be sparing with them."
"The mags are self-perpetuating. Empty one, and stow it, by the time you've emptied the second, the first should be charged again. Unlimited battlefield endurance."
"Nice. So...our next move is...?"
"Complicated. I think we might be going back to war Mary. Small one maybe, but we're going to be going in hard soon. ANd it's going to get ugly."
"I'll tell the rest. Until morning then?"
"Dismissed." Mary took her leave, adn Roan did the same, heading for his room.

Sleep found him, and Roan kept himself down for the night. Morning had come, and it was time ot get to work. He stepped into his washroom. There was a proper shower, hot water and everything, but he didn't feel the need. He stepped into the stall anyway, and keyed it on. A flat plane of light moved over him, a faint tingle coming from his skin as the decontamination wave moved over hi, scouring away any sweat, dirt or impurities from hsi skin. It only took two passes to be done, which only took two minutes at most. He got dressed, the simple grey jumpsuit that had the officer bars of a Colonel on one shoulder, and the same image of a skull that made up his helmet on the other. He head out, making his way towards Verity's state room. He'd fetch her for the meeting, then see about breakfast.

He pressed the chime on the door, pinging her that someone was there to see her, but skipped the com this time. He did want to make sure she was actually awake after all.
 
Verity awoke with a start to the chime that echoed throughout her room. She had spent much of the night attempting to decrypt her failsafe however her efforts were only able to accomplish ten percent of what she had hoped. It was going to take much longer than she had anticipated to recover that data. But she had soldiered on as long as she could. However, the exhaustion of the panic from the boarding, the escape, the wound on her hand and all the events of the day had taken its toll. Eventually, Verity found herself leaning on her hands on her desk as she struggled to keep her eyes open. Then she lay her head down for a moment to clear her mind before she started work again and had fallen into a deep sleep, hunched over her desk.

Then the chime rang up, making her nearly jump out of her skin as her head popped up quickly from the desk. Looking around for a moment, she brushed her hair away from her face. It was morning already! She had to go to the briefing! Quickly brushing her hands down over her jumpsuit, she then moving up to brush the sleep from her eyes as she stood up to go to the door. Pressing the button on the control pad, the door hissed as it slid open to reveal the captain, suited up and ready for the day.

"I am so sorry, Captain. I was working and I must have fallen asleep," Verity explained moving back into the room, "I just need to quickly clean up. You can come in and wait if you like."

Verity didn't want to waste the Captain's time but she did not know her way to the briefing and perhaps it would be better if he waited, then he wouldn't have to come back. Motioning towards the bed, she took another step back, opening the door if he wanted to enter and wait for her to get ready.
 
Roan had a smile on his face. Looked like she'd not slept in the bed. Might be an indicator of not being able to get comfortable on a new bed, but the lack of disturbance on it made him think she might have just passed out while working on whatever was so important on that pad. He took a long step inside.
"No big hurry, there's time yet." He assured her. As she mentioned cleaning up he had a thought. "If you're thinking of using hte decomtamination unit in the shower stall, just be careful. It'll burn the clothes right off your back, and that's not a comfortable thing to have happen." He warned her.

There were a few people starting to file their way inot the briefing room. Mary, Control, and several others that had been there when Roan had found Verity. Control had a few itemmms ont he desk, tinkering with them.
"Something fun?" Mary asked.
"Old style science tool unit. Colonel asked to get one ready for the doc." Control answered.
"Old style?"
"Yeah, the good ones. Too easy to weaponize and shit, so the newer ones pull most of the best parts of the tool out, just left in basic stuff. This one though...well..." Control put a band around his wrist, extended a bar along his arm, and another band above his elbow. He hit a switch, and an array of glowing golden light appeared on his arm. He raised his hand, and a holodisplay came up in the air. he used his other hand to press at the hologram, and it shifted, as though it was a console. He closed down the holoprojector, adn clenched his fist, his thumb sliding along his knuckles. A blade the length of his forarm swung free, rotating along his fist and then locking into place in front of his hand. It held there, hissing faintly, until he opened his hand and the blade retracted, flickering out of existence.

"How did it...?" Mary asked, staring at the unit.
"On board particle rearrangement unit, along with a mini-fabrication unit. Stores a certain amount of molocules that can be aligned and made into things. That blade was only a few molecules thick, but heated to about four thousand degrees. Slides right through most body armour, no real muscle required, snaps off in the wound. Force fields keep it in place and the heat off of you. Don't see much get up from being hit with that. But this thing can make new ammo, refine samples for experiments, it does it all. Governemtn didn't like it being so easy for people to take on their troops, so they sent out a kill signal, cooked most of them. But they still issue theem to high level scientists of their own, and few were hardened against hte signal. So this should help the doc in her work, adn keep her safe if she's in the field." Control explained.
"You find more of those, put me on the short list for one. Be hell of a good thing to have for medical needs." Control nodded.
"I'll bump you to the top of the list."
 
Verity shut the door behind the Captain as he entered her room. Moving over to the bathroom, she turned around as he warned about the decontamination unit. Verity shook her head slightly.

"No problem, I was planning on having a traditional shower anyways," she hunched her shoulders as she shuddered lightly over the concept of having her clothes burned off her body. Ugh, that did not sound pleasant.

Walking into the bathroom, Verity touched the door control on the bathroom and the smaller white acrylic door hissed shut. Well, almost shut. Somehow the door jammed with a two inch gap between the door and the frame. Verity didn't notice as she turned from the door and began to unzip the jumpsuit she had worn for a full 24 hours. Pulling the green fabric off her shoulders, she allowed the near shapeless one piece suit fall down over her body pooling on the floor. Despite being a prisoner for so long, Verity had managed to keep herself quite strong. Her arms, though muscular were still quite feminine, leading up to soft shoulders. Her back had a slight s-shape to it, moving in at the base as her hips extended out leading down into a firm behind. Her legs also appeared strong but lithe at the same time. Once the jumpsuit was off, she reached behind her to undo the white bra that held her pert breasts in place on her chest. Pulling the straps down, she then pushed her underwear off her hips and moved to the shower console.

Choosing the water temperature, she opened the clear acrylic door and stepped inside. Starting with her hair, she washed the kinks and tangles out of the chocolate locks, pushing them down her back to let the soapy suds drip over the curve of her behind before circling and swirling down the drain. She then washed her body, making sure to scrub all the dirt and grime from the rescue and escape. Once she was sure she was clean, she pushed the console once again to turn the water off. Stepping out of the small shower stall, Verity grabbed one of the towels folded neatly on a small shelf next to it. Drying her body quickly, she wrapped the towel around her hair before looking down at her clothes. She didn't have any clean undergarments. Biting her lip slightly, Verity looked around the bathroom for anything she could wear. There was nothing. In a panic and not wanting to make a bad first impression by being late to the meeting, Verity made a snap decision and picked up the jumpsuit. Slipping it over her naked body, she pulled the zipper up, making a mental note to request some extra clothes when she had the chance.

Once she was dressed, she pulled the towel off her damp hair. Pulling it back, she braided the thick strands and tied them off with her tie from the day before, the shorter tendrils of her wavy brown locks falling over her cheeks. When she finished, she pressed the button on the console to open the door, still not noticing the gap in the sliding door as she emerged. Smiling and feeling refreshed for the day, Verity began walking over to her pad. Picking it up, she turned back to the Captain.

"Ok, I'm ready."
 
Roan nodded as she spoke. The normal shower wasn't a bad idea, he'd always found it a lot more relaxing really. When her door hissed shut, he almost spoke up, but instead just moved off to the side, getting the opening out of his line of sight. Old fashioned, he'd called himself, and he found he'd hold to that. Not really going to go peek a look at a lady while she cleaned herself up. Still, he made a note to have maintenance to swing by here later and fix that.

Roan sat in a small chair, once again not pleased with the seating they had in most of these staterooms, but there wasn't much they could do, short of swing by one of the stations that offered space-bound furnishings, and spend a lot of capital on upgrading. it was always a few steps behind keeping hte ship primary systems cutting edge. Top of the line shields and weapons did more to keep him comfortable. Steam started to pour out of the crack in the door. Roan had a momentary urge to walk over adn have a look, after all, there was not much chance of his getting noticed, adn tehre was a young, stark naked woman right there-

Roan cut off that line of reasoning.

Not helpful.

He let out a breath, calming himself down, and waited. She didn't take long, and Roan managed to keep his mind off of the thought of the woman int he shower not ten feet away from him, hidden behind nothing but a partly opened door that he could pull open easily enough and-

He was only partly successful as he found. As she emerged, cleaned up and in good spirits it seemed, Roan nodded to her.
"All right then. Let's go." He led her out of hte room, and down the corridor. There was a little activity in the halls this early, several of the rougher element of the ship casting a gaze at Verity as she passed. They weren't often in the jumpsuits that Roan and his direct crew wore, these seemed to be wearing whatever they could find. Ragged slacks, coats and shirts, many of htem bearing tattoos and piercings in abundance, and several of them had wildly erractic looking hair cuts. They looked more like city gangs than the cirsp, military bearing that Roan and the others exhibited. Still, none of them said a word to Verity, not after getting a glance from Roan.

The briefing room opened for Roan, and he led Verity in.
"Pick a seat." He told her. Mary and Control both waved to Verity, Control gesturing for her to come closer.
"I've got something for you. Might as well get you set up with it before the last ferw people get here." The man offered.
 
Verity followed the captain as they left her room to walk down the hallways. There was much more movement on the ship this morning. A lot more people. A lot more...unsavoury people. Verity's mouth dropped open in shock as her eyes widened at the state of most of the people wandering the corridors as the Captain led her through them. They looked like the prisoners who had shared her cell block when she was awaiting her trial. These people were here though....free. None of them wore the jumpsuit of her rescuers, at least the ones who had saved her. They all looked like they were part of some space gang, pillaging and destroying everything they came across, not members of the crew of a ship. But then again, the Captain when he saved her, offered her a spot as a 'pirate'. It was at that point that she realized she was on a pirate ship! Verity made shocked eye contact with a few of the rough and tumbles but not one of them attempted to say anything, not even a horny whistle. Clamping her fingers down around her pad as she walked, Verity moved quickly lowering her head to her chest, her gaze returning to the floor, staying as close as she could to the Captain without touching him.

They took a couple more turns before they reached the briefing room. The room was rather large, with numerous chairs situated around. Verity only recognized two people in the room though; Mary, the medic who had treated her burn and Control, her life saver who had recovered her data. Everyone else turned to stare at the strange woman the captain arrived with, some of them with their eyes narrowed. What was this strange woman doing here? Sure, she arrived with the captain but there was certainly no way she could be involved in the briefing. Verity felt the awkwardness as a silence came over the room as everyone just stared at her. Verity didn't know what to do with herself so she lowered her head and scurried into the room, moving over to Mary and Control as they waved her over. Sitting down next to Control, she lay the pad onto her lap as he mentioned something about giving her something.

"You have something for me?" she asked, one of her eyebrows raised as her curiosity was piqued, her emotions all over her face. Verity sat forward slightly, her eyes glistening in the fluorescent lights of the room, excited to see what he had for her. Her awkwardness transferring from that of being stared at like some animal in a zoo to being quite overtly excited about getting something from Control.
 
Control nodded with a smile.
"Yes I do! Hopefully it should help you get things done." He said while reaching out, directing her arm to extend. he put the first band in place, and then extended the connector so he could get the other one in place. Once done, he nodded to her. "It's the science tool the Captain asked me to get ready for you. I wiped most of the est commands in it, so you won't turn anything on accidently, but left all the features in it. So you can turn things on however you like. You cna also link it to your pad there, share the data flow with it so anything you might load onto it, you can access here." As he spoke, the tool activated, enclosing her forearm and hand with the glowing golden light that had been on his own limb earlier.

"This will do all kinds of fun stuff for you. When you get a chance, you can go over the manual on how to enable the features on it, giving you better control of it. But the captain is giving me that 'shut up and let the lady get seated so we can get started' look, so I'll just do that." Control nodded, and looked back at Roan. A few new faces were in the room now, and people were seated. Roan broke the silence.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we've got a problem." He started. "By now you all know that we've gained an addition tot he crew, miss Verity Linyl, or as we've been calling her at times, the Doc. Our dear friends in the Core Worlds Alliance Government have been holding her without grounds for a few years to amke her weaponize her research for them." There was a low growl of dissaproval from the others. "I know, I know, but she's here now. The problem comes from the fact her work was basically done with only a few teweaks left before it was ready for testing."
"What was she working on?" A large man at the table asked, leaning over the surface, his weight on one elbow.
"She's Dark Matter research Cole." Roan answered. Silence reigned. "Weaponized singularities. So. No one else knows they're doing this. And no one else would be able to act without kicking off a full scale war, which would just give the CWA reason to actually put this tech to use. So it's down to us. I'm not asking anyone to go into this without a plan. And now, I'm going to turn things over to Verity here. Verity, do we have anything that we can use to shut this down? Anything you can tell us that would help?" All eyes turned to the young woman.
 
Verity couldn't wait to see what it was Control had for her. Eagerly extending her arm, her eyes widened at the sight of the tool as it encompassed her entire forearm. The tool was huge and dwarfed the scientist's arm as Control connected it together, snapping it into place at two band points to ensure it was secure and wouldn't fall off. Twisting her arm slightly as he worked, Verity stared in awe at the technology. The guards on the prison ship certainly had wrist communicators but this was way more than the simple black cuffs that they had worn.

Then it began to glow and Verity yelped in surprise leaning back quickly away from her arm, terrified something bad was happening. A surprised look spread across her face as the tool hummed to life, glowing gold exactly like the material of the tool. It took her a moment to compose herself as she felt the eyes of everyone in the room turn to look at her. Some of them looked with smirks on their faces, others looked like they were angry she was there, wasting their time.

It took a moment for Verity to regain her composure as she listened to Control's instructions. She would definitely need to read the manual. The tool looked like it could very easily kill someone, especially Verity! The scientist would have to research! Sitting back down in her seat, Verity turned towards the front of the room where the Captain stood at the head of the table. Verity paid attention closely to the discussion occurring surrounding her presence and her research. Then he threw a curveball out, asking Verity to speak. Swallowing hard, Verity remained still, stunned into silence as he opened the door for a presentation she had not prepared. Taking a deep breath, Verity stood up, coughing awkwardly to clear her throat and to calm her own nerves as she pressed a few buttons on her pad.

A hologram of a plan of a missile popped up from the screen as she began to speak, her voice low and shaking with nerves.

"The government commissioned the construction of five planet destroying missiles with large nuclear cores that they had planned to test beginning today, until....well...," Verity's voice trailed off for a moment as she contemplated her next sentences, "Anyway, the research into the weaponization is nearly complete and with successful tests, the project will be made active and would give the government ultimate power to destroy anyone who opposed them. However," she pressed another button on the screen and a set of numbers and equations appeared, "I have been developing a fail safe. A self destruct button that would render the missiles useless if one were in proximity to them. It would essentially shut the power off in the core, separating the components back into their inert stasis. Unfortunately, much of my research into the fail safe was lost with the loss of the ship and much more is still encrypted but I have managed to retrieve some and I can hopefully rebuild the lost data..."

Verity trailed off again, her voice cracking as she had descended into scientific talk. She shut her mouth and sat back down, turning the pad off as she returned to her shy silence, terrified of the reaction of everyone at the table. Did they think she was crazy? Perhaps a traitor? A spy?
 
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