Space Revolution {KayLove & BlackThorne}

[KayLove]

"Reg! What are you playing?!?" Lily laughed as she listened to her shipmates music being played from a small compact thing, so mundane she thought it might have been from old earth.

See, don't ever set me free
I always want to be by your side
Girl, you really got me now
You got me so I can't sleep at night

The older man, white hair growing in his beard ignored her protest and kept singing, his rusty old voice trying to keep up with the lyrics.

"Just because I get stuck up here with you old man does not mean that you get to torture me with your music!" She scolded him but her smile showed through even as she tried to focus on the control panel before her, double checking, triple checking that everything in their systems was running smoothly. She tucked a piece of her dark red hair behind her ear as a chuckle escaped her lips. And she began to enjoy the upbeat music with him, the heels of her boots clicking on the metal floors.

Yeah, you really got me now
You got me so I don't know what I'm doin' now
Oh yeah, you really got me now
You got me so I can't sleep at night

The hagered space man and her kept going, seemingly unaware of the danger swiftly approaching.

The flashing red light caught her eye as she glanced down, "Captain? There's-" but she couldn't be heard over the music.

You really got me
You really got me
You really got me!....

"Captain!!" She was panicking now, light was flashing red faster and faster until it stayed red, it was as if something just appeared out of nowhere on their radars. But there wasn't supposed to be anything here, nothing absolutely nothing. Just open space for the night. The next thing Lily knew the haul was being fired upon and they began to fall so rapidly... Plummeting to an unknown death, unknown source of gravity. It had all happened so fast.... Her crew was killed upon impact and she had been the only survivor....
*~*~*
Months and months went by and the missing ship full of scientists were never found, not a shred of their ship, not a single fiber of DNA. It was as if the cargo ship had never existed at all. None of the needed resources had been delivered to the outlying colonies, none of the much needed knowledge of how to make said colonies inhabitable for the people... So much good lost...
*~*~*
Until now....

"Mayday mayday! This is the small distance class ship Aurora seeking assistance! My ship has been badly damaged!" Her fuel had been ruptured and if she attempted to go into warp drive she would surely combust, "Oxygen is low, someone, anyone please..." She sent the distress call out to anyone and everyone hoping it might reach those willing to help. Her dark lashed eyes already getting heavy from the lack of oxygen. She knew this section of space contained unsavory ships but she had no choice she had been flying for far longer than anticipated and her ship had been damaged in a fight with a slave ship. Lily was lucky that she had escaped with as little damage as she had, or perhaps just one slave wasn't worth all the trouble. She didn't care all she cared about was focusing on the will to breath slowly.

Her chest slowly rising against the thin green fabric that covered her, so soft and yet sturdy to the point of even if she were stabbed the fabric wouldn't let the blade through but a tiny amount. It clung to her body and hugged her curves, small golden beads were woven into the fabric to make it glitter like the stars. It would have been called exotic to those that did not know where it came from. Her hands constantly moved over the material, counting the beads under her breath but always loosing count as her mind began to wonder into the black nothingness. But still her right hand clutched the small glass vial against her heart in a death like grip, unwilling to let it go even in the face of death.

The alert from her ships consul began to flash red but she didn't have the energy to acknowledge what it was...

 

[Blackthorne]

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."

Duncan Stavros tried and failed for the 5th time this hour to will himself not to glance a the chronometer on the wall panel as he lay, sleepless in his bed. Sleep never came easy to him , at least lately, for many reasons. Once he caught 3 or 4 hours , it was almost impossible to fall back asleep. And a man in his position not being interrupted at least once a night would be unheard of even in the best of times; and now was decidedly not the best of times.

There it was again. An old Earth author, Dickens, a book he had never even read, and yet something about it had been resonating with him lately. Most likely because he had seen it in Oracle's library, an old leather bound edition. Back when Duncan was on deep space interdiction patrol, he would indulge himself in reading books. Sometimes he would go weeks before even finding a stray signal much less an actual human contact.

But now he had ships and men to run. Maintenance schedules, missing parts, petty squabbles and fights, discipline. He couldn't run his crews like it was some crew of Space Marines or even Mercs. Certain many of his crew could meet those standards. But he was , after all, a pirate, a man beyond the law. And in some positions, he just needed warm bodies. Damage control groups. Boarding parties. Scut dogs. A pirate wasn't going to attract the best and the brightest for every possible position. Hell, to be fair, most pirates didn't even have a science section on their bridge, those who did were usually devoted to sniffing out valuable ore, or perhaps spectrum analysis of various gaseous clouds to see if there was anything of worth to strip out of them.

Stavros's fleet operated much more like a non-governmental military fleet than it did the typical pirate fleet, but still, it was hard to recruit scientists and the most talented technicians. If it weren't for Oracle and his false front hiring operations , he wouldn't have most of the ones he had now.

He looked over at the chronometer again. Shit. Another half hour gone. No sleep, and no productivity, just a lot of fucking navel gazing. He could go to the bridge, but he didn't want the new officer he had on Mid-watch to think he was checking up on them. Rodriquez was solid, he was a good pilot and a guy Duncan trusted to have his back. That couldn't be said of a lot of his crew even aboard his de facto flag ship The Damascus. It might not take as large as a crew to staff a Scimitar class cruiser as it did a mess of a dreadnought like the Hazard. But still even after 10 years , he still wasnt to where he trusted every member of his crew, especially the rank and file. Many of them could care less about rules and titles. Plunder was what they were after, and the pay pretty good.

Suddenly a light next to the chonometer began to flash and there was a mild vibration, he did have night mode set in the room after all. He sat up "Report" he said, and there was a pronounced beep. An excited voice answered. "Duncan, you need to hear this "

Of course even if he didnt recognize the voice he knew only one man aboard would call him Duncan after waking him up in the middle of the night. He listened to the somewhat broken transmission Oracle played

"Mayday mayday! This is the small distance class ship Aurora seeking assistance! My ship has been badly damaged!"

The voice was decidedly female and , just as decidedly, in serious distress. His sleep deprived brain tried to grasp at the obvious here "Aurora, that was the ship of scientists that disappeared, like, months ago. Could they have been stuck in jump-space? Or is this just an old light speed signal we are catching now?"

He got up, he was down to his skivvies, and put on his blue jumpsuit, and then the long black leather peacoat over it. Most of the time he went with a grey jumpsuit alone, but this seemed like something significant. if there were scientists alive, he wanted to put his best foot forward. He knew without waiting for Oracle's answer that Oracle wouldn't have bothered him if this was just a ghost signal.

"No Sir , we have contact" was the last thing Stavros heard as he headed to the bridge. As he entered , his third officer immediately spoke "Captain, i was just about to wake you, we have contact bearing 040 by 179 relative, range about 31,000 KM. Practically in the same plane we are running, and we have a distress call from the same bearing"

Duncan waved his hand trying to dismiss the rest of the report "Navigation plot a rescue intercept course pronto, helm make way for that ship at best safe speed. " He turned to the Tactical officer , a new guy named Burke. "Burke , contact security nd the boarding chiefs and tell them to make ready for rescue operations in all respects. This is not a salvage or a plunder, this is a rescue operation under Article 98 of the CINA " Of course he referred to the Consolidated Interstellar Navigation Agreement , and while Articles 100-105 of that same agreement were anti-pirating conventions aimed directly at ships like the Damascus, even the most blackhearted of cutthroats understood the need to render assistance to those in need. Because odds were, the shoe would be on the other foot eventually. The truth was, those who spent a significant portion of their life aboard space ships in deep space stood a better than even chance of dying in space


As the ship altered course and speed, he felt the Gs of turn and burn . The Damascus had military grade gravimetric plating which made the artificial gravity help compensate for high-g maneuvers. But then again it was , what, more than 12 years since a single grav plate had been replaced on board, and their original designed life was some 10 years. But out on the Omega Sector Frontier, military grade anything was scarce and most reputable refit stations didn't exactly welcome outlaws with open docking clamps.

Now he turned to Comms. "Open a channel to the ship, hail on other frequencies if they don't answer" Of course he knew that they might already be passed out from lack of O2. And further, he knew that many would not be thrilled to take assistance from a known pirate. Of course Duncan's reputation was somewhat more like a folk hero in some circles , but how many scientists were in those circles? Would they have even heard of the people he had helped, the colonies he had saved from starvation?

When the channel was opened a moment later , Stavros spoke and his voice went out in a general broadcast "Aurora, come in, do you read. This is the SS Damascus , here to render aid under Article 98 of the Navigation code. Hold your relative position and open your internal bolt locks , we are just about a minute from docking maneuvers. " As he spoke he felt the deceleration Gs and the slight delay in the grav plates compensating for the heavy braking from the main fusion drive.

Duncan was pleased with his crew in this , they had closed a good distance , a full nano-parsec, in a short time and looking over at the trajectory it looks like their approach was good. Now he scrutinized the screens to see how big the ship was, or whatever was left of her, to see if they should continue to try to dock or to bring it aboard with cable or even the magnetic tractor beam. Of course that magnetic force could wreak havoc with the other ship's systems if they were already having problems

 

[KayLove]

"Aurora, come in, do you read. This is the SS Damascus , here to render aid under Article 98 of the Navigation code. Hold your relative position and open your internal bolt locks , we are just about a minute from docking maneuvers. "

The I.A. of the ship, Isaac, was newly installed, as it controlled most of the ship even though Professor Lily had been trained to fly it. She simply had not been trained enough to know every inch of the ship nor was she a natural for it.

"Isaac!" Yelled the scientist, even in her weakened state she managed to react to the sound of a foreign human voice, "Do as he says!" Coughing proceeded her command as she attempted to crawl upright into the captains chair. Lily's vision was blurred by stray strand of red hair even as she administered the last touches for her ship to be taken or boarded or whatever the ongoing savior saw fit.

The Aurora was ill equipt for such a journey, it had been abused by her and she knew that she would not have gotten far without the A.I. To assist her.

"SS Damascus, you have permission to do whatever necessary-" she caught her breath as she struggled for air and her hand slipped from the com before returning, "As fast as humanly possible!" She felt slightly bad for being such a demanding damsel in distress but honestly if she waited any longer she might not be able to remember why exactly she left paradise in the first place.

Her vision blurred and the ship jolted with the familiar feeling of a magnetic tractor locking onto the haul. Isaac was still talking about the ships condition until the power fully cut out and she was left in the silence of the mechanic opening of her faulty bay doors.

Several footsteps could be heard echoing though the various corridors, all empty, all supposed to have twenty or so souls aboard but all the Aurora held was a singular individual and a broken A.I.

Lily Alexandra St Clare gave a sigh of relief as she attempted to stand to greet her saviors, standing with the help of the control panel on wobbling knees and oxygen deprived lungs she gave a salute.

"Welcome to the Auroa, I am professor St Clare nice-" and with that she fainted her energy depleted and the relief of being saved overwelming her to a point in which she didn't care if she was lucid or not.

Needless to say the professor was at the whim of her saviours and although the ship was under great stress from the damage it had accumulated over the past couple of days it was to be noted that this everyday discovery class ship had been redesigned with far more advanced technologies, ships from all around the corridor had contributed to the repair of this renowned ship, but then again, only an expert eye would be able to tell the ordinary from the extraordinary.

 

[Blackthorne]

The docking crew were wearing the standard grey and black coveralls but with blaze orange safety vests. The vests were more for a mindset than any real visibility. Without suits, anyone who went out a sudden breach in the docking rig was going to be dead from exposure to vacuum long before they could get them back. Behind them stood the black clad security squad, wearing a combination of ballistic and Re-Flec anti-beam gear. But the disinterested look on their faces as they held their weapons at low ready told the story they weren't expecting to need it here.

Duncan had strode up the middle of the group, at 2 meters tall, about a half head taller than most. That could be a double edged sword in the close quarters of a space ship, he often envied some of his more compact crewmen when it came to moving through the cramped maintenance shafts. His dark hair was too long for military regulation, and yet still neat, his beard and mustache were relatively well trimmed, or as trimmed as he could manage in the two minutes he had before he came down here

He strode through his crew to lead the contact group, looking forward to meeting the crew of the Aurora, though it seemed the entire ship's complement was 1. His long arms reached out as the female slumped to unconsciousness, and a look of concern creased his brow , his intense grey eyes focused and he hoisted her up, pivoting and carrying her back through the walkway in the docking ring. With the added weight of the professor, the portable walkway in the ring buckled and bounced just slightly with each step.

As he came out of the ring into his own cargo bay, he bellowed out "Make a hole! Corpsman front and center!" With that the various crew members pulled to each side , and some white clad personnel with red crosses on their uniforms moved forward, one of them with a stretcher. The woman was laid on a stretcher. The med-techs strapped her into the stretcher and made quick work of getting her to the med bay.

Duncan paused as the woman was taken to Medical, and pointed to a large ruddy man with several stripes on his black jumpsuit "Maddox, I need you to detail yourself and 3 of your most trusted and make sure no one gets on that ship except me or Oracle , unless otherwise directed by me, understood?

Maddox snapped to at the direct order "Aye , Captain, will do that, Sir" With that he grabbed one of the current unit and sent another of the security crew to fetch the other 2 that Maddox had in mind for this task. As Maddox did that, Duncan walked do the Med bay, speaking into his wrist-comm on a private channel, to the unseen Oracle "Edgar, need you to check out the scientists ship, and yes it is docked securely, and no, there aren't any serpents on board and yes it has plenty of oxygen now that we have jacked it into our aux supply. Anyhow look, I was only on it briefly but it was confusing. I could use a second opinion with time to actually check it out. It was definitely not normal. I've got Maddox and his guys bouncing, so you won't have any uninvited guests. I know it's going to mean leaving your BFE... I mean, your EnviroPod, but I need this done pronto. Stavros out" he closed the channel before Oracle could object. The key to making sure he didnt get a word edgewise was keeping him off balance. Calling him by his hated given name, a name that few knew. And calling it his BFE, short for Big Fucking Egg. Edgar was a genius no doubt, and would work tirelessly on nearly every task. But there was something just not right about a guy who chose to live inside an egg shaped pod for 95% of his waking hours. He worried about his friend, but he didn't have time to worry about that right now.

Now he was in the med bay and he put on his confident smile , looking down at the woman, hoping she was less disoriented now that she was being given fluids and glucose, not to mention clean O2 from a mask. Hell, Duncan could use a good snort of that right about now. It had been 3 weeks since he had a good night sleep. "Hey, are you ok Professor St Clare, was it? I'm Duncan, I'm the captain. I have some questions for you , I am pretty sure you can guess some of them. " He noted her unusual outfit, it was just another piece of the puzzle . Right now he needed coffee, not another fucking puzzle piece.

 

[KayLove]

People, there were so many people... A thought floated through her mind with acknowledgment that she had made it to civilization, but whether that is a good thing has yet to be revealed. Snippets and pieces were felt and seen through almost unconscious eyes. The odd feeling of being carried and shifting of the man's weight, finally being placed upon an uncomfortable medical apparatus and hurried off. The familiar sting of a needle going into her arm, she knew with a fact that she would have a bruise there for a week. Oxygen was placed over her face and she gratefully took several long draws and felt her head begin to clear.

It took Lily a moment to realize that the somewhat distant voice was speaking to her and she attempted to sit up but a pair of urging hands restrained her, well attempted to. "I'm fine, I'm fine, I wasn't oxygen deprived for a long period of time there is no need to fuss." She protested and sat up anyways, taking the oxygen off of her face and rubbing her temple.

Instead of answering any of his obvious questions she asked some of her own, "What is this a Scimitar Class ship? Former military. Warp 1.8? No probably 1.9, if it was updated. And telling by the interior haul and coms by the doors, gives away the year. Those were through with after the update to an interacted system was found to be more useful." She opened her eyes fully and looked up at her savior and studied him for a long moment, her green eyes meeting his gray, none of his clothing was Alliance that was for sure, thankfully, " You're not military but you certainly stand like one," she glanced around the medical bay, "Mixed material... Nothing seems to match other than for its utility, so what does that make me on some pirate ship?" She gave a soft laugh and realized before she could stop the words for coming out of her lips that that is probably what she was on. And a slight panic set in, her already wide green eyes widened even further, "Duncan- I mean Captain, you can take whatever you want of the ship, it is far more valuable to you in pieces I can tell you that much but let me go, I have important things to do I-I have to get to my father he needs to help me figure out how to use it to its greatest potential and I can't do that without him he's-" she was saying too much and often began to ramble when she was nervous, her hand seemingly going to her heart and but she was simply making sure that the small vial was tucked away beneath the green fabric.

Lily began to stand and take out the needle in her arm but yet again the nurse stopped her from doing so. As well as her knees seemed to be unwilling to comply to her demands and she quickly sat back down. She tucked a piece of red hair behind her ear, the wild dark hair escaping from its intricate braid down her back. She must look like a mess in her strange clothing and rambling words.

Her ship was truly worth more in pieces than it was all together, the original haul was reinforced with a synthetic alloy, the original control consul was equipped with the foreign A.I. System that she was sure could to utilized on almost any ship, but then again it had been reprogrammed to only respond to her voice and would have to be manually overridden by her codes. The thrusters were like that of an illegal racing ship and if they hadn't been damaged could have outrun almost any Alliance ship in a heart beat before going to warp drive. The weapons array was the top of its class, the same type of ion that would have been found of luxury ships for the wealthy to simply gets around from planet to planet in a solar system. Everything else nonessential had been stripped away, the only thing was her personal items, clothing, food and water, her research notes, and the like.

 

[Blackthorne]

Duncan smiled when he realized she was at least somewhat coherent. Not just coherent, but pretty sharp too. Had it not been for the tweaks that Oracle had overseen, she would have been right on about it's warp jump rating. She was beautiful and intelligent, but she was also a hot mess, obviously. If only she had not been a redhead. Inwardly he sighed. He had so much fun and so much trouble with redheads.


Meanwhile , a slender bespectacled figure wearing goggles over his glasses , and an immaculate white jump suit complete with white latex gloves, walked up the gangway to the Aurora. Maddox paused to greet him "Master Oracle, Sir, you were expected, no one has been on since the Captain left" Oracle responded curtly "yes, yes, tell me something I don't already know" The balding man shook his head sadly "I don't suppose you have been through the ship with a Detox team or a bio-scan, no don't bother, I already know the answer. Oh well, have the med techs standing by " Maddox smirked, as the wiry man popped a novo-antihistamine for alllergiies, a broad spectrum antibiotic, an anti-viral and an anti-toxin pill, and then boarded the Aurora.

Once aboard, he nearly tripped flat on his face. He was stunned. None of this stuff went together, it was, to borrow a Duncan quote, like an Edgar special. Mis matched but highly functional. He started caaloging and brought up his sensorscan unit. Extraordinary, he thought.


Back in the Med bay, Duncan played it cool . "Well yeah , right around there, you have an eye for this do you, this is a scimitar class ship, it's been modified a bit though. Full ablative plating for one thing. Oversized CPU core for calculating jumps, we can go to a short jump nearly instantly , the calcs will be ready before the jump drive has fully spun up, at least." he paused.

Now he asked the med techs to leave. It wasnt that he specifically distrusted them, but he simply felt they were a bit loose lipped. As the last one left, he closed the hatch and dogged it, electronically of course. "Look we can talk about salvage of your ship, and also finding your father, but we need to be careful and keep things under the vest a lot, or limit the audience. You are right, there are some who would call me a pirate. Others would say more like Robin Hood. The truth is probably somewhere in between. You have been gone for months, where were you?"

He paused for a moment and leaned in close ". I have a friend checking out your ship. I saw the way you had it rigged to run solo which makes sense since I didn't see anyone else on board. . I have dagger class assault scout, I could use setup you have. Leave behind most of the people here on board, go find your father Because whatever it is you are going to say, its likely to mean lot of money to someone or another, and anger to the other. "

He didn't know about the other stuff, but all that gear loaded on the Kos would make it pretty much untouchable, and wouldn't require a large group of people of dubious loyalty. He wished he could have had time to just jump on the scout to rescue her in the first place, but given how close it had been, he likely would have been greeting a corpse.

"So tell you what, you help me get some of that tech refitted on the Kos, and I take you to find your dad. Just a few trusted hands. But first, tell me.. where have you been, and what happened to the rest of your crew? And maybe more importantly, are you sure you are ok, breathe deep, ok?" he put his large, strong hand on her shoulder and squeezed slightly trying to steady the woman

 

[KayLove]

"You are not Lily St Clare. Identify yourself.... Identify yourself.... This is the advanced A.I. 5001 system, Isaac, please identify your organic being... Identify...." The robotic male voice of Isaac resounded throughout the ships speakers as it scanned the movement in the ship and realized that it was not its owner that was stepping up to the captains chair.


Lily watched at the witnesses left and felt slightly uncomfortable being alone with him even as he talked of what was to happen if she chose to comply with what he was suggesting. It was all very convenient and she knew that he was simply finding what best suited himself and his cause but also got whatever she wanted done.

She chose to stay quiet throughout his whole speech thinking of ways to say what she was about to. He came in chose and she smelled the mechanics oil, and soap of a past shower, noted the slight bags under his eyes as well as the wrinkles in his clothing. She desperately wanted to run a hand down his jumper and straighten out his jacket upon his shoulders. But her musings and hands were kept to herself as she was jolted out of her thoughts by his hand upon her.

Lily cracked a smile as she felt his hand upon her shoulder, it was warm and steady, and by the gods she had missed contact like that. Even if Duncan didn't get why she did so she decided to give a small chuckle anyways as she placed her hand upon his and gently brushed it off. "I'm fine Duncan thank you for your caring words, but I'm a woman that can take care of herself, you just unfortunately meet me on a... Bad day. And I forgot to say thank you for rescuing me from it so thank you." She stood and tested her legs before straightening out to her full height, she was tall for a woman but even still she had to look up slightly to the grey eyed captain, she was completely sincere.

They were close, and she decided to take a needed step back and inspect her arm and the fluid that was being pumped into her body. Deciding that half a bag was enough she gently took out the needle, wincing at the sight and putting a gauze over the droplets of blood. She hated wasting supplies especially when she know knew she was on a renegade revolutionary ship with limited supplies.

St Clare was never good at lying, her poker face was needless to say as horrible as a tanagaerian playing pool, so she decided not to lie, well as much as possible until she trusted the man.

"My crew was killed upon impact, " true, "Only I survived because the safest place is between the main deck and second," also true, "I still don't know how any of the Aurora survived, it was just so warped and... Anyways, I guess I'm getting ahead of myself... My crew and I were all scientists, you might have heard of us 'the new hope' they called us... What a horrible name..." She began to pace around the small medical room, getting nervous, "But that doesn't answer your question does it...well half of it I guess. You won't believe me but I'll tell you anyways, my crew and I went through a wormhole, I know, I know, that is a billion in one chance that it would form right in front of our ship on that exact moment on that exact day, but it did. I don't know how it just did." Her eyes wondered and hands began to knot together, "We crashed where it sent us, a small planet, but it was filled with so many ships, some from our sector and some from, from so advanced that I could hardly believe they had been caught here as well." Her eyes showed how amazed she had been so many months ago and how shocked she had been that she had survived the worm hole alone and scared... "I built that ship, with my own two hands," she looked down at her entwined hands and noted the callouses upon her palms and fingers, "Of course I had free time," she said with a small smile as she looked down at her clothing, " But then again I honestly didn't have any hope that that damned ship would fly or even if the worm hole would ever open again, but it did.... And here I am... "

With all that said she still decided to add, " Captain, I don't think you know who I really am, you realize that my great grandfather was the single man to invent the gravitational field? The one that you use today, the gravity that is anchoring us down..." She told him, her eyes fully upon his and hands unmoving, that was no lie, she was telling the truth and she knew that he understood that if and when he got her to her father that he would reward him handsomely for any and everything that he'd to get his daughter out of harms way.

 

[Blackthorne]

Oracle blinked as the AI spoke to him and he grinned "pleased to meet you Isaac, don't worry I am not trying to misappropriate you, I am merely trying to ascertain an inventory list for the captain of the ship with which you are docked " His face lit up, he much preferred talking to an artificial intelligence than a human one, at least, most humans. "You know I am going to have to introduce you to my friend Jenkins , I think you would get along famously. "

He paused for a moment and then continued "Isaac, could you be good enough to at least tell me your capabilities and construction, you are such a remarkable AI, I want to make sure we get that documented. " He didn't want to give up his identity just yet, his ID might intrigue Isaac, then again he might be concerned wen someone known as a hacker, even a white-hat one, was talking to him and having physical access to the the server. Physical access was always the ultimate attack vector. He remembered a class 13 supercomputer with petabyte level non-linear asyquantum encryption that he had defeated by simply switching the relay jumpers so that the root volume booted up as the data node. But it would be a shame to harm one byte of such elegant programming with such a brute force hack this time.

Meanwhile Duncan listened with compassion. "it sounds like you have been hell" He mostly let her talk, occasionally pausing o express admiration at her ship building skills. He would do anything to work with someone like that, he thought, trying to keep his thoughts strictly professional.

But moreover, he was obviously impressed by her heritage. "My father met Dr. Sonnberg once. So you are his progeny. Impressive. Though I don't suppose that deal comes with any actual deck plates, mine haven't been refreshed in far too long, I've been rotating the plates that are going bad into cargo bay 2 and strapping down the gear stored there with Denon straps and even bungee cords " He chuckled

"You know my father met him once, a very very long time ago when he was a cadet in the IEF. It was just an appearance at an engineering symposium , but it affected my father's thinking, or so he said. "


He took his hand from her shoulder now, he was feeling an attraction to this extremely talented and lovely woman, despite maybe a little because of her being disheveled. He instead held her calloused hand with his own large, calloused hand. "I will help you, I think we can help each other. Im going to need a little time first of course. And you have some pretty amazing tech on your ship I think it would be a shame to leave it all behind. Im going to want to hear more about this wormhole but seriously we should keep conversations on that to a minimum untiil we are underway on the Kos" He squeezed her hand and smiled reassuringly .

In a remote corner of a low deck in the maintenance spaces of the Damascus, a vid screen broadcast a blurry image and muffled audio of the scene in the med bay. A shadowy figure looked on with great interest, and began to craft an encoded message to parties unknown. He listened intently for more details , maybe something juicy. What kind of technology might this girl have found. Right now the only angle he had was a possible ransom play, but it would be hard to convince his sometimes partners to come across half a sector for a risky play like that.

 

[KayLove]

Isaac made several "thinking noises" as Lily called them, as he adjusted the vents to precisely the right angel and went though the security systems and silence seemed to follow.

"Seeing as we are docked at the willingness of the captain I shall entertain your request. Captain St Clare is always fond of being po-po-polite" his speech tech must have been damaged in the docking. "I am a generation 6 A.I. with an organic expansion , meaning my storage of commands ca-ca-can expand to as far as the ship will allow. I am integrated to all of the ship, nothing is beyond my reach." Isaac started to play some of Lily's favorite classical music but quickly stopped, "The captain would not en-en-enjoy me playing that for you although I en-enjoy it far much more.

"If you are not already aware sir, I have a backup system linked directly to my captain and can simply, tell, on you if you attempt to disarm me in any way." If an artificial system could sound like a toddler it accomplished that with the fact that it could, a red alarm would go off from the bracelet that Lily wore notifying her that her ship A.I. Was being hacked and would simultaneously be backed up and saved into the small device.

"But please feel free to check a-any of my files." And with that be brought up any and every detail on the wide window of the captains screen, displaying anything and everything up until it was actually reactivated.

Lily listened to his relation with a small arch of her brow about his deck plates, "I'm sure I could fix that..." She told him in a soft voice almost challenging him to protest, "Such a small universe, isn't it?" She asked more to herself than to the towering man before her.

Lily watched his hand grasp hers and she couldn't help but hold his back, "Fine Dunc-" she was no longer captain of her own ship, "Captain." She let her thin fingers wrap around his hand in a soft embrace. "You'll not expect me to be confined to quarters will you? Because I can't, no mater how many times you tell me I need rest I won't until I'm exhausted, you realize that right?" Even though she had been so close to flat lining she felt no need to be treated like anything more than a shipmate. "And just because your bloody smile lights up the room means nothing you know?" Alright.... With that statement she might have felt her forehead for a temperature or perhaps it was simply light headedndss.

Lily cleared her throat, and recovered from her temporary laps of judgement"I'd like to check on my ship now," she started out of the medical bay doors and froze as soon as she didn't know which way to turn, "Would you like to lead the way?" She asked as she gestured for Duncan to proceede forward.

 

[Blackthorne]

Oracle snickered "disarm you? Good heavens, no, that would be the last thing I would want to do. You are more than a work of science, you are also a work of art, disabling you would be an abomination to a creator like myself. You , Isaac, are a very polite and engaging AI. And not as obsequious as my Jenkins AI. I blame Duncan for that though" he added in a background voice. "And thank you for that wonderful music."

With that , Edgar went through the files "This is a great ship except the stresses on the hull, good heavens, how did your ship not shred apart. I mean I can tell you are using some of the Sonnberg field rather ingeniously to provide some structural integrity but , well, I am guessing she didn't have a choice, its like she built this from a junkyard. Or a starship boneyard." Oracle thought of one particular aviation boneyard back on Old Earth that he saw as a child. It was located in Arizona in the desert, the low humidity had preserved planes , some of them for hundreds of years. An old B-29 Superfortress, like the one that dropped the first atomic bomb. A replica P51 Mustang, an F73 Phoenix , the mainstay air superiority fighter of the Allies in WW IV.

But if the woman whose put together this ship was in a spaceship boneyard, he would expect a lot of obsolescent or even obsolete mismatched stuff. But while this was all mis-matched, much of the gear was better or newer. They used power standards that hadn't yet been obtained , at least not here in the ass-end of galactic technological advancement known as the Omega Sector. They knew how to jury rig out here really well, but innovations like these required a physical plant that was simply in short supply out here. Frankly, too much of the existing tech was going to trying to expand food production and patch up the existing tech for them to shift any paradigms. There was very little in the way of any truly disruptive innovation being down out on the frontier, at least not that anyone was talking about.

That was why the loss of the scientists had been such a tragedy. They had been engaged in true bleeding edge research, and many of them had been educated out here on the Frontier in various colleges and universities. Oracle had spent some time teaching a course in advanced AI heuristics some 30 years ago at the Greenwich Institute of Technology , back long before he discovered that his strong desire for privacy meant he didn't like mingling in crowds. Mostly the men and women of the Frontier were doers, not thinkers. So society could innovate, slowly; but they couldn't advance without true brilliance , like that represented here.

Meanwhile Duncan grinned. He had thought he had sensed an attraction from the woman, it was good to know he hadn't lost his touch even if lately he had had little time to even consider it. "If I temporarily confine you to quarters in this ship it would be to isolate you from someone with bad intent. This is , after all, an outlaw ship, so not all of my crew are the best and the brightest. When we go on the Kos we will have more freedom. But don't worry I am not going to warehouse you in some remote part of the Damascus. Im going to give you my cabin, I'll use my rack in the Ready Room"

Of course what he would not say was that the Kos had a separate Ident chip built in . The practice was of questionable legality at best, and a separate identity for himself. Of course being an infamous space pirate, it still wasn't safe to mingle too much, but it allowed him to do some work as a bounty hunter, for example, and then use that as a cover for gathering intel.

At her request, he escorted her out, around a few turns and then down the main corridor to Cargo Bay 1. He had to admit that he would rather be escorting her to his quarters than her ship; as interesting as her tech was, the woman herself was more interesting just about now. The crowd from earlier had thinned out considerably, only Maddox and his 3 handpicked security crew stood at the entrance to the docking ring. "I set a guard to keep most people out, I have my friend taking a look to see no problems. He is a bit, well, he is safe, but he is particular. Don't try to shake his hand, or ask too many personal questions. He is a very private person. "

With that Duncan let her lead into her ship.

 

[KayLove]

Isaac was a sucker for a compliment, something he developed all on his own, by wanting to do its best at anything and everything. "Thank you, the Captain would be honored by the com-compliment as well I'm sure of it." And as for where the material came from all Isaac could provide was a simple, "The answer to your inquiries are unknown," even in bold lettering upon all documents of the ship said the same exact thing. There was the type of ship, the part that had been used and her own personal item number that she used to catalog everything.

"Your quarters? I hardly think that's necessary..." But she knew her protests landed on deaf ears weather that be because she was a very high poker chip in his pocket or he was just a good host, either one.

Lily walked with confidence, her wide hips swaying with every step even though her boots were only about an inch or so tall, hands casually by her sides and eyes constantly looking around at her surroundings. There wasn't much that she didn't notice, or well, those that didn't notice her. Compared to everyone else that they passed she was wearing a bright color even though it was a deep green, that hugged her curves but flared out upon the long sleeves of her arms and legs before tightening back around her wrists and anckles.

Although she was used to eyes upon her these stares were different, suspicious, little or no trust and it made her want to stare down every last one of them but she knew it wasn't a good idea seeing as she had no right to be there with it was their ship after all.

She gave Duncan a look that said, 'who in the cosmos did you allow in my ship?" But she simply said, "Alrighty then."'she went to her ship and gave it a loving pat upon the haul before boarding and heading to the bridge. "Issac? How is everything going?" She asked as she simply look in the bridge and looked curiously at the man before her but simply kept talking to Isaac. "Making friends are you instead of working?"

"Miss Lily, how grand of you to st-stop in, we have been occupying ourselves w-w-w-"

"Your audio must have been jousted again in the boarding," the red haired woman quickly walked over to the captains chair and picked up a pair of glasses that had fallen upon the deck beside it and slipped them on, her glasses were a clear frame and they fit her in a way that just truly emphasized how much of a book worm she was.

Opening a panel upon a wall she quickly inspected it and found the unlinked wire and fixed it. "What about now my friend?"

"Perfect, as always."

She gave a small laugh and closed the panel. "Suck up. Isaac, I'd like you to meet Captain Duncan, you'll now take orders from him as well, and whom ever he sees fit." Unless specified by herself of course," Which I'm guessing you've already made yourself aquatinted. It's nice to meet you, I'm sure Isaac will update me on all of the nice things you've said to him." She nodded to the strange man. Everything she said was very diplomatic in front of people she did not know, it was strange talking like it after so long but it seemed that old habits died hard.

"I feel like everyone is simply staring so I think its best if I change before returning to your ship. And I know your both dying to have your little boy talk." She said with a small smile, even before she turned to leave she was untucking her shirt and heading down the main corridor to her room. She kept the same bunk as before the crash, a small twin lower bunk, the only possession that she kept was a satchel of clothing that she had... Acquired, as well as Inside were somewhat more normal looking clothing and small things she couldn't leave without. All of her personal notes were hand written and locked in a thin briefcase.

She decided on a pair of high waisted brown pants, and a maroon button up long sleeve shirt that even though she wasn't large chested it still didn't button well but it would have to do. She pushed her glasses to the top of her head and laced up her brown boots before undoing the disheveled braid and letting the long waves of hair fall where they may.

She walked back out with the satchel over her shoulder. "So," she let the bag rest at her feet and she leaned back against the control panel, "Any burning questions that I simply have to answer now? Or can I simply start taking this ship apart and helping you reassemble it else where?"

 

[Blackthorne]

Oracle had his goggles pulled up atop his head, matting down his already sparse hair and had listened very carefully to Lily, while his face was buried in his own datapad. It was flashing a nearly unreadable scroll of text, but for Oracle it was like child's play. Duncan tapped his shoulder as the introductions were made , and then smirked "Dr St. Clare, this is Oracle, you might have heard of him before. A lot of you tech heads seem to have at least. Isaac, please add him to your whitelist for admin access . I imagine he is going to have some questions for you since he looks about like a child in front of the tree" Stavros chuckled , liking to tweak his close friend. He had almost shared Edgar's real name, but that would be something for him to do, not Duncan .

"Dr. St CLare, tell me where is all of this from? I mean this gear wasn't a unit by any means but some of it is so advanced or designed so differently. This is not stuff salvaged from obsolesce. Some of this stuff is better than what we use on what passes for a top of the line battle cruiser or deep explorer these days. " He was fascinated to listen but Duncan told him to at least wait for her to change.

When she came back out, Oracle coldn't help but nearly accost "So I would love to hear more about all this stuff, I can help you dismantle it as we go. I think Isaac will get along well with my AI Jenkins. " As the two of them chattered back and forth, Duncan called for his most trustworthy engineer, Murphy. His position was technically Chief Engineering Officer on board the Kos, but when they were aboard the Damascus, Stavros put him on the most sensitive work to oversee.

As the two traded technical dialogue , Duncan quickly briefed Murphy - help them out, get this stuff over to the Kos" He interrupted to introduce Lilly to the short, dark haired man "Lily, this is Donnie Murphy, he is a ships's engineer, 3rd generation in fact , we are going to see whats wrong with those engines. May take some repair time after we leave before we can get them fixed and then mounted , which will probably have to happen at a space station anyhow. I need to attend to some ship's business and make sure we get some security on the Kos now, too . I also need to speak with my XO. " That would be a brief but important conversation. He was away so much that his 1st officer,, Brett Lang, was practically the captain of the Damascus. Which was just as well, given that Captain Stavros had duties more akin to an admiral, even if he still liked to be out there in the thick of things. Lang was pretty solid, a former IEF officer , but Duncan just never got the impression that Lang was someone he would want as close confidante.

Before he left he pulled Lily aside and looked her directly in the eyes. He liked the seeming effect his presence had on her "Is there anything you need from me before I go? When you are ready , ping my comm, Oracle will show you the channel if need be and I will come get you to show you to the cabin. "

As he left, Duncan noted that Murph had tasked a couple of guys to help tote stuff. They would turn down the Sonnberg field to half strength or less of ship standard. Most ships ran about .4 Earth gravity on their Sonnberg panel, but Duncan routinely did .5 or .6. It helped exercise his crew and prepare the hard core spacers and belters who lived all of their lives outside a gravity well for planetary operations.

 

[KayLove]

"Oracle? Wow, I'd never thought I'd get a chance to meet you, you're like an urban legend when it came to others talking about you and all tricks of the trade." She as ever so slightly blown away by finally having met him. Even feeling a little inadequate.

Lily was more than happy to share her knowledge of the items she procured, "we crashed onto a planet where the worm hole directly came out of. I know this is strange but all of this was there it was just there. I honestly don't know how to explain it. It was a junk yard of dreams, by the gods. Every kind of ship you could ever imagine and more, some I couldn't even tell what they were made out of." She was lying slightly but decided to stick with it even as she kept her hands busy by going to the panel upon the wall and fiddling with some of the newer tech knowing that the Kos would benefit from having new parts even if it didn't need it she would instal it.

Oracle was an interesting man he continued to ask her questions about this and that, some she couldn't answer because she honestly didn't know where it came from because she couldn't remember what kind of ship she had gotten it from. He asked her about the alloy she had used to patch the haul and weapons array. She told him how it took her forever just to find a single specialized bolt that she had to use to anchor the engines. Lily also asked about what he thought would be best for Isaac, if they should instal him on the Kos or simply put him into a portable drive to make it so all you had to do was simply plug him into any ship and he would be able to temporarily be the ships AI. Although she wasn't much of an expert when it came to that so she would have to ask Oracle to help her with downloading his extensive programming.

Lily pushed her glasses on top of her head and turned swiftly, her arms already full with some of the most expensive cables she had ever seen on a ship and knew she could replace the ones on the Kos with hers to make the electric systems better. "Hello, Mr. Murphy, it's so nice to meet the man that makes sure the ship runs, always the most important part."

He gave a low whistle at the cables she held, "I think I've only ever read about those beauties. Worth a pretty penny on any market. Were we puttin those to use on the Kos?"

"Yes please, if you'd make sure they get where they need to go I can help instal them if you need me to." She almost reluctantly handed over the cables and continued on, glasses perched atop her head. When it came to the ship it slightly hurt seeing it all being taken apart but she knew that it was for the best, she just had spent so much time.

Lily gave a small jump as Duncan pulled her aside and got close enough for her to see the darker shade of gray in his eyes, she pushed her glasses back to the top of her head and gave a smile at his words, "Duncan, I think I can take it from here, Captains of ships have more important things to do than babysit the damsel who is far from distressed." She gave him a little shove with her hip seeing as her arms were yet again full with a couple of rotaries.

She watched as he walked out and men moved out of his way even though their arms were full. He had the respect of his men and it probably helped that he was seemingly the tallest man on the ship.

"Alright boys, I want to see if we can't get the ion weapon systems off. " she went out side the ship grabbing a case of tools on her way and began her work, asking a couple men to help her as she did so. Lily was very, what was the word, graceful at controlling the situation and guiding the men on what they needed to do as to not damage any of it seeing as she had to Jerry rig some of the mechanisms for it to work and stay attached to the ship. She did the parts that she knew required a specific touch. "Wrench please," she undid several bolts, "easy boys!" She gave a yell as it started to detach from the haul, "Be sure not to damage that or else it won't work," a couple more twists and undoing and it was down and the boys were taking it away.

Lily stood, wiping her brow and smearing grease right above her left eyebrow. Not that she particularly cared but as she was doing so, taking a moment to breath and wipe her hands off on a rag she noted a figure standing across the bay simply watching and she stared back. Her brow furrowed and just as she took a step forward to see the man better he turned and headed out. That was strange, perhaps she was something of an oddity here.

It had taken several hours to get both arrays off and it was hard work, she knew she was going to call it a day for now, she had probably been up for 18 hours other than her little nap from lack of oxygen.

"Hey Oracle, could you tell me the channel to call the Captain," she walked up the ramp to find him fiddling with a piece of the control panel the size of his palm but it controlled the scanning system and was critical to a ship, "Took me forever to find that, especially one so high tech, it can detect anything and everything. I haven't had time to experiment and see how far it can go out but I'm sure you could figure that out."

He happily helped her before getting back into his own world once again with Isaac chatting away at what ever he was asked of to scan or give a reference to.

She pinged the Captain and as he answered, "Lily to the Captain, I think that's as much progress I'm going to be able to get done today, we made a large dent that's for sure." She told him as she looked around at the already dwindling Aurora, "I'm ready to be escorted like the obvious princess I am." She said sarcastically and smiled as their com ended. Lily climbed the stairs of one of the catwalks and looked down at the ship, her small satchel beside her as she sat down, let her feet hang over the edge, and waited for Duncan.

She took the first moment she's had to herself to pull out her notes and go over to make sure everything was there, pulling the small vial from her shirt and looking at it in the artificial light. Inside of the vial was what looked like water but as if it had its own space atmosphere it floated in a small orb inside of the vial. The blue of the water changed colors slightly in the light as it moved on its own. She was still skeptical of it but hopeful that he father would be able to find a use for the substance and how to utilize it to the best degree.

Steps upon the catwalk, vibrating beneath her, caused her to quickly close her hand around the precious vial and put it away. Gathering her papers and readying herself to get up.

To anyone that was watching her she must have looked like an odd disheveled woman, her glasses smudged and oil on her forehead, hair in messy waves, and various scuffs upon her pants and toe of her boot. But she didn't mind, her work was always more important to her than her looks although her father liked to tell her it should be the other way around. But she was head strong and wouldn't be stopped no matter who told her otherwise.

For now though, she had to focus on getting home safely, and she hoped Duncan was going to hold to his word and make sure she did.

 

[Blackthorne]

Duncan had been about 5 deep diverted with various tasks, but he had made sure to talk to his XO first. Lang might have been one of the few officers aboard taller than Duncan, tall , ram rod straight, a military bearing that had been both drilled and bred into him. Lang was a grim man, rarely given to smiling, almost as if his face would break if he were to give in to such a silly expression. Distaste was his natural resting expression, and yet as an XO dealing with various crew members with variying moral codes, not to mention various factions of crew members, that was a plus.

He had also made a point to talk to Jon Wilson, one of his tactical officers. Wilson would be second officer once Duncan left; and his bridge rotations put him in a place to keep an eye on the crew. He wasn't about to leave a ship like the Damascus without some trusted people in key places, and Wilson had a kill-key if need be, that was only useable when Duncan was not on board.

Duncan trusted Wilson despite the fact that Wilson was in fact what LEOs and bounty hunters often called a Short Trace. , or Short. The name Wilson only traced back 1 or two generations back from Jon. It was one chosen by Jon or perhaps Jon's parents or grandparents, who selected a last name to “opt-in” to the system and avoid some of the stigmas and stereo-types of being a Spacer. Spacers were treated like the Romani Gypsies were back on old earth in less enlightened times - suspected of every crime , every problem apossible spacer sabotage. But it wasn't always like that.

Of course the tradition of the Spacer was a long , storied ones. Most of those who took on the last name Spacer were men, and they were predominantly men, to be sure were walking away from a past they didn’t want to follow them. Debts, marriages, children, even convictions and desertions. In a way it was like the French Foreign Legion of old. Space ships needed men who would take on unreasonable risks in uncomfortable conditions without any guarantee of riches. That was true back in the days of sub-light travel, and near jump short haulers; and today with the Far jump mega freighters. Space stations needed to be crewed with dockworkers and scutdogs, fuelers , hazmat containment hands , spacejacks, brown and grey water swampers, and dozens of other positions as well.

Many of the original Spacers were those who called themselves Belters, they had individual family names still but identified as someone who spent their entire life in the Asteroid belt. They weren’t accustomed to comforts and luxury or even safety, they had a sense of mission and purpose and were rugged individualists. Their language was most similar to the earth language known as Singlish. Belters have unique talents due to their bodies being formed and fully acclimated to zero and low-g life and are tolerant to low oxygen and high toxic level environments. But on a planet, or even a large satellite, they were at a severe disadvantage, some even helpless or worse. Some belters were so fragile boned that prolonged exposure to a planetary gravity well could crush every bone in their bodies.

Meanwhile, many of those who had first taken on the surname of Spacers fell into mining, much like the belters back in Old Earth Space. Those who did so often took on the name Miners, though today there was not much crossover between the groups, as Miners had a generally better reputation; but were just as cutthroat and stuck together. There were just 2 factions to manage . Besides Spacers and Miners , there were the virulently anti-government Freemen, and their rivals the Outlaws; along with a few anti-technology faction the Humanists, they were strongly against computer AIs, and those were just the named factions.

Duncan had finished a few more tasks when he got the page from Lily. He set down his extra datapad on the helmsman's station, and made his way to meet her. He had to admit, she was an interesting woman. As he came up on her, she was a total mess. He had never met a woman who could dedicate herself to this kind of work, but he knew she also had an amazing scientific brain; not to mention being a master level scrounge and kit-basher. Anyone who could impress Oracle certainly held Duncan's esteem.

He smiled at her, an almost avuncular, protective smile. She obviously was working too had, and yes, she was a mess, under there though, along with the genius, that was also a woman , one that Duncan wanted to know. He took her hand and pulled her to himself, purposely pulling just a little too strong so she pushed into his chest. He looked at her and brushed her hair out of her eyes "You could use some rest. You know the sonic shower in my quarters also has steam" He grinned - a rare treat, but the water was more than 99 percent recovered from this use , but the moisture was so luxurious, he rarely used it.

Ships systems in general were all mostly made of necessity with few luxuries like that. The head, for instance, solved certain problems - you didn't want to rely on an expensive Sonnberg field to make keep the waste where it belonged. Luxuries like steam were rare on a military designed vessel. He brought her to his cabin now and set the do not disturb. "This is your cabin for now. Whenever your changes are installed enough, we willl be leaving on the Kos. Once aboard we will be able to speak more freely, " he smiled at her, he hd almost brought her to his cabin there, but he had wanted to give her the experience of the steam shower as she looked like she could use it.

 

[KayLove]

Lily swiftly packed up her papers and slid them back where they belonged and she looked up to see Duncan smiling down at her. She couldn't help but give a small laugh and held out her hand for him to take. A small gasp of surprise escaped her lips as she lost her balance and both hands ended up on his chest, "Haven't you ever heard the old saying of know your own strength?" She asked in a soft voice, "Or not..." She drifted off as his hand came up and gently pushed hair that had fallen in front of her features.

If it weren't for her recent life of being out in the sun all day and getting an extensive tan, well, burns and then tanned it might have been far easier to tell when she was blushing. But she would never admit it.

She cleared her throat and straightened herself, picking up her almost forgotten bag and following him. His long strides seemingly fast but natural. "Do you?" She was slightly shocked, she wouldn't have guessed that that sort of update would have been prevalent enough to instal in the first place seeing as what kind of ship it was as well as the people on board. She was, needless to say, pleasantly surprised.

Lily knew he was right, she could only push herself to much before her mind refused to process any more information.

Walking in behind him she set down her bag and took a moment to roll her shoulders as he spoke of what was to happen next. "I think that sounds about right, we shouldn't be long, maybe one more day of stripping Aurora and installing and we should be fine. As long as your men finished what I instructed tonight we should be on time..." She was thinking out loud as she sat on the edge of his bed and removed her boots, socks, and started to unbutton her shirt revealing a black bra.

Modesty was something she had gotten over a long time ago, being on the ship with mostly men, male scientists at that, it was usually them who were the uncomfortable ones rather than her.

"You know if we can get those engines patched up on board using some of the spare parts on the Aurora they might be functional... But then again that might just be something we forgo..." Her shirt was fully unbuttoned and untucked from her pants as she took her glasses from the top of her head and placed them on his desk.

The woman's midsection was flat and slightly toned from simply staying active, and peaking out from the waist of her pants was three large scars, only slightly off from her natural skin tone. She barely noticed them any more but still they took up most of her left side from her lower ribs to the top of her hip.

"What do you think? Did you get a chance to look at them?" She asked, her fingers going through her hair to get some of the knots out before she showered.

 

[Blackthorne]

Duncan had served in the military and the police and both places had fully integrated forces where privacy was non-existent , even much of the time between men and women. But over time aboard his ship, in his cabin, however, usually when a woman disrobed it signaled something else, and was surely not done in so offhand a manner.

She was fit and shapely, though she took almost no care to accentuate her womanly assets, Duncan had noted. But he could see now that they were most assuredly there. He couldn't help but to let a crooked half-grin appear on the right side of his face. He noted her scars with a protective concern registering on his face. He wanted to touch them, and planned to do so, though it might have to wait til they were aboard the Kos.

Now as she spoke he smoothed away his crooked smirk and nodded. "Oh you bet I got quite an eyeful." he said, really of course more thinking about her body, but then now focusing on the engines. " I think those might take longer to get integrated on the Kos and there are some other factors I can't tell you until we are aboard, just for security sake. If you didn't know, I used to be Starlaw Intel, I guess old habits die hard." He said it in a way that he hoped she would get that he wasn't really just doing it to be thorough, but that he also didnt want to raise any alarms. What she didn't know was that the Kos could change it's ident and so it would be easier to find a space station to do the refit at, though they would likely do the work themselves; but a full scaffolding and tractor crane setup would surely help get it done quicker and better.

He stepped closer to her and touched her scars - a light touch so as not to hurt, but firm, not tentative in any manner. "Does this hurt, is this OK? This is recent isn't it? We can get it looked at but then again I am sure you are eager to get back to your father. You know, actually, it can help us " He wouldn't go on about that front, but in fact he intended to get her a full set of ID for a new individual, one known to have such scarring. He almost wish his own legend as a bounty hunter had such an unfakeable physical trait


He stayed there touching her side and his other hand rested on her shoulder right now "Look, I know you spent a lot of time isolated, if you would rather not be isolated tonight in a strange unfamiliar place, I can stay here . After all, it is a big room, we would figure out arrangements. Just say the word" His grey eyes were even darker now, intense as he touched her chin and lifted it just slightly to look into her eyes.

 

[KayLove]

Lily felt as though everything he told her was guarded in some way, form the moment he met her. It was a strange pang of realization that maybe he didn't have trust in most of the men on board. What a strange world he lived in where trust wasn't simply given to you because you knew that they meant the best. She had grown up so privileged and sheltered even. Her crashing was probably what hardened her and made her more incident in her abilities.

Her thoughts liked to run away from her as she took off her shirt and folded it neatly upon the bed, "No I simply assumed you were part of that kind of background. You've got the skills learned from it down and even more that you've acquired from... Well from this job of yours. Either way it's your ship and whatever is best it's your call." She told him.

Just as she began to turn from him his steady hand touched her side and she almost flinched but all that came of it was a rushed intake of breath. She looked down at his hand upon her side as he traced the ragged edge, it hadn't been properly taken care of. The sight of her own blood, the smell alone was enough for her to pass out but some how she had gotten pressure on the wound and stopped the bleeding. "No, it's um... It's fine, It doesn't hurt any more... I don't want it looked at, it's fine." Her tone was slightly shocked that he was touching her there of all places. She decided not to comment on his last note knowing he would give her a wrap around answer as if they were being watched.

Lily hadn't met his eyes, unwilling to let anyone see the memory of the trauma she experienced not only with her own wounds but finding all of her friends and crew dead. But she didn't resist as he moved her chin up to look at him.

The corners of her full lips were turned down and her own emerald eyes met his, and she felt the heavy wall she built around her shake ever so slightly at his words. Although she had kept her hands from touching him all this time she let them do what they wanted now that her focus was blurred. One went to his hand on her side and moved up his forearm while the other took his hand from her chin to break her eyes from his always so intense ones. Lily cleared her throat softly, her whole body felt very wound up all of a sudden.

"Please stay...." She said in a faint whisper, he was right, again, she didn't want to stay alone in a place she didn't know and honestly didn't trust. She was almost ashamed to want him to thinking it made her feel inadequate.

"I... I should, shower I think..." She unwillingly took a step back from him, what little there was between him and the bed and headed to the sonic shower. She stopped at the door to the wash room and turned slightly to say something more but she decided against it. She was going to ask him if he would be there when she was through but she decided to leave that up to trust as she turned back and closed the door behind her.

She quickly undressed, her pants and matching underwear in a neat pile, she turned on the sonic shower as well as the steam. Hot as hot as the damn thing would go. And let it take away all the dirt, sweat, and engine oil. Her long red hair became ringlets at the end from the humidity of the steam and the muscles that had just been so tense from Duncan touching her began to unwind.

She really was a beautiful human, her feminine hips flaring out from her small waist. Her hands touched where his had just been and felt how the scar felt so different and wondered how he could touch it like he had. She guessed he had seen plenty in his lifetime.

Lily didn't know how long she simply stood in the shower letting the steam envelope her but reluctantly she got out, putting on her short style underwear and realized she hadn't brought anything to sleep in. But glancing about she saw a hanging long sleeved shirt of his, simple and a similar grey to his eyes, it smelled newly cleaned. She debated with herself for a good minute weather or not to put the damned thing on or not.

"Just put the shirt on Lily, what's the worst he going to do? Make you take it off?" Although that did seem like the fun option she did doubt he would care at all. She slipped it on and there were a couple buttons at the neck she left undone and pushed the long sleeves up. The end barely crazed the middle of her cheeks but she shrugged and opened the door, her bra and pants in one hand.

Stowing away her clothing she took a moment to braid her damp hair over her shoulder. "I hope it's alright, I don't exactly have a lot of clothing and seeing as it didn't matter when I was on the Aurora..."

 

[Blackthorne]

It was a good thing she had pulled back when she did or he would have gotten very quickly carried away. She was compelling to him in many ways, a complete woman, so brilliant , so lovely, and a little lost; an ideal damsel in distress, but nowhere near helpless. She could be useful as well. He had needed someone like her on his crew for a long time, this was the next best thing.

He smiled as he watched her go into the shower. He would damn well be there when she got out. He checked a few comms while she was in there; issued a few orders, but he mostly wanted to keep things normal. Duncan going out on the Kos on some half-cocked idea was really notreally that uncommon, and many times there might be a woman. He didn't want to raise any suspicions. She obviously had some secrets yet to reveal - she had been through a wormhole, she had been in contact with alternate technology... he didn't dare use the word alien. Maybe it was updated earth tech that they hadn't seen yet since voidcrash, maybe something the Persead Separatists had cooked up? Or from an alternate timeline, or the future? All of those things could be explained without the need for little green men. Duncan had learned his lesson on that point, years ago. In any case, she had touched something special, and been changed by it too. He wanted to know more, and his friend Oracle even moreso. Duncan had to threaten to call him Edgar on an open channel to get him to calm down.

He pushed his mind back to logistics and routes. He wouldn't do any route planning for his trip on the Kos until then, but he did have to give the Damascus a new course. Just as he finished up his backlog , he heard her come out of the shower, he turned from his standing workstation. His eyes widened and his mouth curled to a smile .

"Alright? Hell, you look better in that than I ever did. " He moved to her and smiled, putting his hand on her shoulder "You almost look surprised to see me, but I am still here, I am not going away" He stepped back and unzip his jumpsuit and stepped out of it, now just down to some shorts. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close, and pressed his chest to hers "Feel that, another person, another heartbeat. It's a precious thing , undervalued by those who haven't experienced terrible isolation. "

He paused, pursing his lips and placing his finger over them. " Shh, it's ok, you don't have to think about it now, what happened then. Tonight we are both here, no one else cares or matters". His eyes were warm and confident, his voice low and unwavering, he leaned in to kiss her tenderly at first and then let his lips come crashing down on hers more passionately, his hand lightly gripping her cheek, his other around her waist and resting on her ass. His hardness no longer something he could hide, pressed up against her now.

 

[KayLove]

Lily wasn't used to such a reaction in any sense by any man she'd met before. All those upon the ship were scientists or the crew, they found her untouchable. Although she wasn't the only woman, she was from such a prestigious family that no one dared to do anything unless she initiated it. Always sneaking out of the house to see someone she liked or simply not be in the large empty house for another moment longer. Her father already had someone in mind for her, actually several, but she had turned down every last one of them. All they wanted was her father's money and being the only child she would inherited it all. Only when she had embarked on the long haul to the outer colonies had she had a moment to herself where should could test what she wanted in a man. 

She watched as he unzipped his jumper before her and couldn't help from her hands twitching at the thought of doing that herself. She hadn't finished braiding her hair as Lily's whole body was pressed against his. He was so warm, even though she just got out of the shower just standing there had already began to suck the heat from her body. 

The doctor took a couple deep breaths, her hands on his sides and she looked up at him from his interesting choice of words, 'terrible isolation'. Lily felt a slight pang for the large man before her, wondering if he had experienced the same thing. Prison? Perhaps living this life kept him out of range from most. But then again she knew nothing about him, not even really knowing him.

"But-" her words were cut and her eyes widened slightly as his lips found hers.

Her body seemed to know what to do rather than her head, although that didn't keep her from thinking, as she mirrored his own actions. Her lips moved against his slowly, and hands began to touch his bare chest, fingertips tracing lines of muscles, tendons, scars. Her hands moved to his shoulders and both going to the back of his neck, her fingers moving up and through his hair pressing him against her lips as their kisses became more urgent. Her lean leg began to move up his and wrap around his hip as he pressed himself against her, Lily feeling how ruined her own underwear were from their simple actions.

She wondered how many women he has been with, how many times some helpless damsel appeared out of space, how many times she had thought about being taken by some sort of space pirate, how she had never thought it might actually happen. How, how, how... Like she often did when it came to social situations like this she was truly ruining it for herself. She knew so much, how much blood it took for the average male to become erect, how much fluid was secreted, what the average heart rate of both usually were, the names of every chemical that would explode in ones system to cause the feeling of climax, what muscles in the woman's body would flex and on average how many times.

Lily broke the kiss, "Gods damn it all," she groaned, her breathing labored and eyes shut tightly as her face turned away as she tried to yell at the inner voices in her head to silence themselves for once and let her simply be.

 

[Blackthorne]

Duncan wasn't really thinking about her father or her family, and definitely wasn't worried about her family money right now; though in truth her skills and experience were part of what made her desirable, but this was driven purely by his attraction to her. And as her body melted against his and she yielded to his kiss, apparently it was mutual, at least , mutual enough to spend the night together.

As she broke the kiss, he lifted her slightly as he kissed her harder and her leg wrapped around him, and lay her onto his large bed. He had a true double sized bed here, with a soft mattress and comfortable and clean sheets, belying the image of the filthy space pirate, and much unlike the rack bunks most of the crew lived with, which of course were standard on most spaceships. Now he feasted on her neck with his hungry mouth , kissing and nibbling her body as his hands smoothed over and then under her clothing.

His fingers squeezed her breasts firmly but just enough, his palms pressed on them, he could tell from her smallest micro-reaction when he was squeezing just the right amount. It was as if he could read her mind, but he was actually only reading her body. Now he went to slide up her shirt over her breasts and free them from whatever else she might have covering them, so that his mouth could have at them. He lay partly atop her, his weight holding her down a little , and began to grind the bulge in his shorts against her creamy thigh as he worked to relieve her of her clothing. As he did this he felt his own manhood swelling , and he groaned into her ear "I need you Lily"

Although he was moving slowly, at least for a man supposedly given to sudden bursts of violence; sill there was nothing in his demeanor to suggest he planned to stop. His whispers, his pressing, his grinding, his groans into her ear made it very clear that he soon intended to be inside her. His face began to take on a look of hunger , his deep eyes full of yearning and anticipation.

 

[KayLove]

Her world was turned and she gave out a low moan as his attention turned to her neck and she withered beneath him. Her thighs on either side of him tensed as her hips started to grind against his. A soft gasp of shock at his cold hands moved up her shirt and gripped her breasts. His hands so perfectly relentless against her sensitive skin. She quickly got annoyed with the fabric and arched her back off the bed and took off his gray shirt throwing it across the room to be left only in her black underwear a stark contrast to her pale skin.

Although her mind wasn't quite quiet as it was asking her why she needed to do this? To feel someone else's touch, to crave it more and more with each passing moment. She had missed it so much.

The sounds of his voice in her ear caused her to shiver and even a faint smile of excitement cross her features. Her hands that had been exploring his back began down his waist.

"You have to promise to make me forget...." Her voice was deeper, desire coating and dripping off of each word, "Make me think there is no one but you and me," Her half closed eyes opened and looked up at the man on top of her and let her hands move to the waist of his shorts, pulling at them to press him closer against her make him feel how utterly ready she was. She didn't want to be in control anymore, she had had to do nothing but control. "Please, Duncan.."

 

[Blackthorne]

Duncan could sense her yearning, her longing before she even said anything, from the way she responded to his touch. He put his mouth onto her breast now and sucks it, teasing and urging the nipple into his mouth and brushing it and tugging it lightly with his teeth before going back to sucking and nibbling her breasts.

All the while he moved his fingers down to tease her waistband of her panties, while he his right palm pressed against her sex, right between her legs Then she began to speak and he grinned darkly "Good, because there is only us, Lily" He leaned close to her and ear and whispered into her "And I'm going to be so deep inside you so very soon" He now took both hands and tugged down her panties decisively, moving them down. Had she more clothing with her he would have torn it off , as it was he was none too gentle.

He hungrily rubbed himself on her sex and felt how ready she was, and so he didnt waste another moment in plunging his hard shaft into her, pressing on her with his bulbous head and then taking her deeply in a long slow deep thrust until he was buried inside her. From there he began to pull out a little , just to thrust in deeper, his hands on her hips now, his eyes smouldering with lust about to catch fire as he urgently thrust deeper into her.

Soon its not a slow controlled entering, he is taking her in a wild frenzy, pulling her legs up around his shoulders so he can lean deepler into her "That's it girl.. your pussy is mine now.. Im in control. " He was only to happy to oblige the girl of course , claiming her core hungrily. He began to thrust even deeper. After each long stroke into her, he pivoted his hips now, adding an extra half thrust , battering her cervix and making his shaft move a little to stuff more cock into her. He groaned in wild abandon now as he pistoned into the girl hungrily, he was spurred on by her words and by her wetness.

 

[KayLove]

"Oh my-" She gave a long moan, biting her lip as her hands went through his hair. Every move he made against her nipples making her breath catch.

If Lily could have thought of the best thing in response to her pleading that would have been it. As she looked up at his devilish grin, her nipples hard and breasts heaving below him. Her lips parted in shock of his words but excitement seemed to win out as a surprised yelp unexpected came from her as her underwear were suddenly taken and thrown off the bed faster than she would have thought possible.

It seemed to happen so much faster than she'd ever had before. This was always such a tentative moment for any other man she'd been with, they were always so concerned about her that she never enjoyed it much. But this was.... Completely... Dear lord....

In one deep stroke she was filled. Lily held her breath as he did so, toes curling and head thrown back with her eyes tightly closed. He started to move out and she expected to be able to breath again but instead she let out a loud scream of a moan. Sending waves of pleasure with how much she enjoyed having him inside of her.

Her hands moved down from holding onto the railing of a headboard, and to her beasts to give them a squeeze as his demanding rhythm allowed her body to get used to it. But just as it did her world shattered again and his hands, from pinning her hips down were on the back of her thighs setting them atop his shoulders.

She was shocked by how the angle changed how much she felt of him inside of her. It hit different spots and her low moans because higher and more frantic. "Oh fuck, oh fuck oh-!" Her back was arched and she could feel herself tightening around his cock, she was going to climax just from him saying that, well and the fact that he was hitting something that she had never felt before and the utter shock of every time he did so was driving her body mad as it began to shake with pleasure, "Duncan!" She screamed and colors seemed to spark behind her lids as an intense tidal wave went through her and her core pulsed around him tightly. First of all she was in shock, as her abdomen stayed tense and her wild hair spread out upon the bed, she'd never ever climaxed that quickly.

 

[Blackthorne]

Her reaction just fed his dark need for her, a cycle of passion and hunger, his stoking hers stoking his. He felt her spasm on his shaft as he filled her repeatedly, and kept his steady deep stroking into her, as if claiming her anew with each thrust. His hands around her legs and resting on her breasts, looking straight down into her eyes, looking deep inside. He would allow no avoidance, and sought none, no shelter of any sort in revealing his raw need and he grinned "Mmmm that's it Lily, come on my cock. Let it all go, give it to me, show me how much you need me inside you"

He pinched and pulled on her nipples as she came, and rolled them firmly, tying to draw out her climax longer. His thrusts grew hungrier, as did the look in his eye. the look of a ravenous predator who had captured his prey and was now about to devour her. "Ohh fuck, Lily, yes... damn you are ... so." He panted.. it was hard to talk, to focus. His eyes were filled with the hunger of a beast, and for now he was that beast. He had a low dark cunning; words were foreign to this creature he had become , his eyes might have looked ready to devour her, but his lust consumed him just as surely now. His cool collected control of her became hotblooded need to possess her

His panting grew deeper and his moans became growls as he drove into her faster now. His graceful long thrusts became shorter and rougher now, the look on his face almost angry. Soon those thrusts were more like jabs into her core, repeatedly slamming into her, constant motion, slamming his hips side to side in a circle in and out. But that didn't last long until they became straight-ahead once more, in even shorter, faster, more like brutal hungry stabs into her sex. His cock was throbbing inside her now . His eyes showed a strain as he struggled for words "going... fill you." His face twisted in agony of a need for her

With that he grunted and then exploded into her plunging into her with wild abandon, as he exploded his face went from anguished passion to relief , to pleasure, and then to immense satisfaction , as stream after stream erupted from his shaft deep into her, blasting deep into her, finally he stopped thrusting and let it spray into her as he was buried deep into her, and his hands held her down on the bed, and his eyes glazed over.

Finally, after an impossibly long pause, hie eyes began to focus once more and a smile crept across his face. He was a human once more it seemed, and he reached out to caress her cheek. Letting her legs down he laid atop her , still his shaft buried in her, his efforts still leaking into her , his fingers entangled with her hair as he kissed her on the lips, then broke the kiss. He placed his finger over her lips to keep her from talking and breaking the spell. Even simple words can sometimes dispel the most beautiful illusion, and for right now, they shared the illusion of bliss as his heart beat slowed once more.

 

[KayLove]

Her orgasm was like a never ending plateau, as it shook through her body. Even though she enjoyed it immensely it was almost too much. She didn't know what to do with herself. Her body was unknown and the lack of thoughts in her head was stunning. All she could think about was the wave after wave of pleasure that he was providing her with. And by the gods she loved every last bit. A willing butterfly in the web of a spider being wrapped up in his passion.

Her moans were breathless and thighs shaking every time he thruster into her with reckless abandon as her sensitive sex began to climb once more. She couldn't keep her eyes off of him, enjoying how much he captivated her attention. How the veins in his arms pulsed, she touched every part of him, holding his hand upon her breast, his muscular thighs, everything about him claimed her for himself and she felt small but at the same time ever so needed for his pleasure.

Every time his rhythm changed her body gave a tremble that came from her very core, making her scream out in pleasure, her back arching. She barely registered his words that he was going to release inside of her. The initial panic was quickly pounded away by the immense need for him to as her sex seemed to get even hotter by just him saying it.

"Yes, yes, yes, yes!" Was all she could muster as she came again around him but this time his own was pumping inside of her. And once again her body greedily took the orgasm and forced it upon every one of her senses and she felt nothing but the pleasure he gave her. Even as he stopped moving she still felt the faint throb and lingering sensitivity with being filled.

All she could do was watch as she was pinned below him the whole time, memorizing every feature, as he became a sedated beast of a man rather than a raging passionate one. A pleased smile slipped onto her lips as he released her, leaning her cheek into his touch. Her legs wrapped tiredly around him, not wanting him to leave her just yet but it seemed the emotion was mutual as she kissed him back.

Lily kissed his finger at he placed it upon her lips. Her thoughts were silent for once as her fingers caressed his cheek gently and down his back, gently scratching with her nails. She was practically glowing, a soft smile on her lips and green eyes sparkling with sedated bliss. She could get used to this.