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The St. Anne

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Thomyris “Riz” Heroux
Location: Loading Bay
Tagged: Donovan, Jin-Lai, Elaine.

It was little comfort to hear Thomyris wasn’t the only one being hunted. It was not in the least bit helpful to trade off in such a fashion. Oh, we got attacked on your behalf so it makes us even when we get attacked on ours. If it could be up to her, no one ought to be attacked at all. She nodded to Donovan’s explanations, knowing he was more suited for such deicisions than a cargo-keener like herself. She was just about to turn on her heel to depart, having much to ponder over, when there was a loud crash, followed by Elaine popping out.

Now that was relieving. One less possible death on her conscious to worry about and she huffed in relief, smiling a little despite the redhead’s fierce. “It’s a long story.” She simply answered in a flat tone, not wanting to get into the specifics of her debt. “But they mean business, the sort handled at the end of guns. Let's just try to get everyone safe back aboard, alright?” She replied and soon after, that particular meeting was adjourned.


Thomyris “Riz” Heroux
Location: Bridge
Tagged: All.

There was naught much to do in the downtime while waiting for the Captain to awake or others to check in. She didn’t know if they were still up for the consignment of potash they had arranged, wondering if the merchant was in on the ambush as well. He didn’t seem shifty to Thomyris though or Iona. Still, she ran the usual diagnostics and analysis of the cargo space, visualizing in her mind how to fit and store everything, when the summons to the Bridge was made. For a moment, further relief flooded her body. The Captain was awake, though no thanks to her, but at least it would give her a chance to make amends over what happened because of her.

Iona looked like she meant business when everyone filed in, Thomyris giving her a slight smile but getting no reaction in return, she dropped her gaze in a sullen demeanor, wondering if she was going to be publically berated for her skeletons, as Donovan put them. Then the video was played and Thomyris nearly baulked, her relief dissipating at once as icy cold fingers of fear seized her.

They had Mateo, under pain of a very cruel death.

And now they wanted Thomyris in exchange for him. Her eyes went wide with fright and her lips opened, quivering a little as she looked about her in the short moment that followed once the video ended. The silence hung thick and heavy and she could only whisper a faint “No…” when Iona looked to her and flatly sentenced her to be handed over, the cuffs flashing as they were tossed, not at all missed by Thomyris. She found it very hard to breathe all of a sudden, chest and shoulders rising in laborious panting even under her jumpsuit. They can't be serious! But they were, deathly so.

There was no chance to run and if she did, where could she go? She backed right into the bulkhead behind her with a thud, staring hopelessly at Iona, before Donovan came before her. She wanted to protest, to remind the Captain all that stuff she said about not dealing in cargo that thinks, including debt-slaves like her. But Iona had also made it clear that business and personal was separate. Her crew was at risk and possibly their next consignment. Even if she liked Thomyris, which she figured was all a lie at this point, Iona could not keep her over the others at risk. They needed to eat too. Thomyris shut her lips and stared with empty eyes towards the blue-skinned enforcer of the St. Anne.

She did not offer her arms to be cuffed, though they were taken and done so anyways. She immediately drew her arms to her chest, feeling small and unimportant now. She stood there, resolute yet limp, too petrified to move. She was being handed over, to be returned into a life of debt-ridden slavery, working away her debt on some harsh mining world, at the mercy of taskmasters and cruel guards. Thomyris could already feel their hands drifting in on her. Then Donovan spoke and Thomyris couldn’t help but give a morbid laugh, short and nearly similar to a choked cry of sorrow. “Hurt me? Cause you’ve never done that before. Or aren’t doing that now regardless.” She sneered bitterly, before turning to the side, facing away and not wanting to see any of these...these…traitors.

“I don’t care anymore. Do as you like.” She murmured under her breath, closing her eyes and waiting for the hands to close in on her, to drag her off like a prisoner. I’m sorry, father. But I won’t cry, not in front of these profiteers and villains. At least she could go to her doom with some dignity.
 
Elaine Reid
St. Anne Loading Bay
Evening Watch
Tagged: Donovan, Jin-Lai, Thomyris

"It's...it's not fine Jin, but just do me a favor and check next time? Punctured bulkhead or anything like that and I could've been sucked out into space." She sighed and shook her still helmeted head. She didn't balk before Donovan's threat, instead she grinned behind her visor, her hand not wavering. "Y'know Don, I don't think we've ever had a contest of speed before, but I was told that in another life there was a distinct possibility I was a quick-draw champion. Now's not the time though, apparently we've got bigger problems."

"The Captain got k/o'd? Damn. Impressive bit of fuck up on their part." Her fingers curled around the handle of her pistol, a signal of her protectiveness of the crew.

As the chime of the overhead comms rang to life Elaine grumbled, then turned from the main bay. "I'm going to go get my other gun." She trudged off to her quarters, tapping the door code and ducking inside. She sealed it behind her - an unnecessary step to be sure, but sometimes paranoia was a good thing. Once inside she knelt by her personal locker, tapped the code for it and unsealed the cache. From the locker she drew a long-barreled shotgun with a shotshell bandoleer-sling. She loaded that bandoleer with half high-explosive and half gel rounds, then snagged a further four cylinders for her revolver and tucked them into a side pocket of her hardsuit. This done she slung the shotgun over her shoulder and moved for the bridge.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Elaine
Location: St. Anne Bridge
Evening Watch
Tagged: All

Seeing the Captain standing at the helm was a relief at least. She'd been concerned for her employer and friend when Thomyris and Donovan had given her reason to worry about her being injured and answering none of her questions on the matter in the docking bay. Even still, the ominous air of the bridge set her on edge, something was going on beyond the norm of their sometimes borderline illegal activities after all. She let her hand drift back down to the grip of her sidearm.

The video, once it began, made her gag and her hands moved up to unseal her helmet. She dropped it to the deck with a clatter and covered her mouth, trying to keep a wave of nausea down. She'd fought and killed before but seeing someone she'd been talking to and teasing scant hours before so brutally tortured before her eyes was sickening.

That concern was only amplified by Iona's harsh command and Donovan's immediate and blind obedience. Her hand closed fully on the pistol at her hip and, more tellingly, her finger drifted into the trigger guard. Elaine was a soldier-type, her trigger discipline was impeccable and rare was it for her to make that move without a body dropping shortly thereafter. "Jesu fuck! Iona did you see that video? You saw what they're willing to do to Mateo, what makes you think that Thomyris is even gonna survive the shit they've got planned for her! Shit Don just. Stop talking and tone the eyes down. You're scaring the piss out of her even more than the Captain!"

She didn't draw the pistol after her outburst, but neither did her hand leave the firearm. She breathed deep, calming her tone before continuing. "Shit. If they're willing to go to lengths of kidnapping over a few fucking credits these guys are monsters. Cap, just let me and Donovan get a hold of them. We can break in and space the bastards before they can lay hands on Mateo. You know that. We can't just let them have her! Hell, what if it were me or the Doc they were calling for? Would you just hand us over just like that, no questions asked? Fuck even if its just me let me go and deal with the bastards myself, cause if what I just said is true then my life's about equal to Thomyris' in your eyes, right? We've all got ghosts so even though its Ris's that came calling it might well be one of us tomorrow or the next day!"

Then, finally, her hand fell free of her sidearm and she bent to retrieve her helmet from the deck where it had fallen. She didn't don it, though she did consider doing so to mask the anger in her eyes. She instead mag-locked it on her left hip. Let Iona see her anger and Donovan know her resolve to at least ease Thomyris's last few hours on the St. Anne if they were, indeed, tied to this insane plot.
 
Jin-Lai Park
Evening Watch.
Location: St. Anne: Bridge


Jin had come immediately upon getting the order. She had wandered out of the docking bay questioning herself, and so of course she threw herself into her work, approving the new AutoServ receipies she had been testing and pushing them to the crew-facing menu. Not only were there new choices, but the choices should be at least palatable compared to the "styrofoam and sludge" taste of the previous chef's recipes. It wasn't so much his recipes as opposed to the shoddy so-called food components he used. This way at least the crew could grab a quick bite any time of day and get good nutrition and a littl satisfaction as well. She had added a square of chocolate on the side to each of the recipies too. Everything is better with chocolate.

Now on the bridge, she listened and her heart sank. This, this was something that chocolate was not going to help very much. Her normally inscrutable face was obviously dismayed, her eyes wide, she looked like she might cry. She looked around at her shipmates. Elaine was agressive as usual, her hand on her gun. Thomris looked humiliated and defeated, and so vulnerable, Jin wanted to reach out to her. Donovan seemed philosophical but firm. She liked him like that, she noted, even if he was doing something that Jin could not really support. The doc, she looked sad like Jin, but confused as well. And she had a suitcase? Was she going somewhere , too? Not to mention , there was something not right about her, she seemed off her game, but Jin didn't know her well enough to say for sure.

Meanwhile the captain, she looked grim and yet far too sure of this course. It did not compute.

"Captain?" She said "I.. look, ok fine she owes money, and we absolutely have to get Mateo back. I get that, but i have also been in Riz's shoes. I have owed some rather.. unscrupulous folks that i had gotten into business with" Jin's cheeks flushed, she had almost had the senseback then that they were not only trying to steal from her but to drive her into debt slavery. "But I know not everyone has a ... unique family background like me to take care of things like that"

She bit her lip. "This doesn't make sense... this crew is your family, its their family. I .. I just have to believe you have something else in mind. I will trust you Captain, but im praying you have something up your sleeve. I can't believe you give up this easily. " Her words came out more like a plea than a statement of fact or even belief. At that, Jin reached out and touched Riz's shoulder comfortingly and then she stepped back "I.. I am sorry i shouldn't have said anything" She wanted to leave and be anywhere but there now.
 
Iona Knutesdottir
The St. Anne / Bridge
Evening Watch
Tagged: ALL

Secure in the knowledge Donovan could drop Elaine before her pistol did more than begin to move out of its holster, Iona ignored it after the first flick of her eyes at the motion of Elaine's hand going to it. She ignored everything, seemingly everyone, their protests and questions and worry and outrage lashing against the breakwaters of her Captain's face and not leaving any trace on it, no sign that it had swayed her in the slightest. Once the last outburst was done she stayed silent for almost half a minute, looking at each member of the crew in turn, even Thomyris, with a flat expression, making them make eye contact with her before she looked at the next person.

Finally she turned back to the screen, towards the camera she knew was there and no one else. "We'll contact you within one hour to arrange the transfer. Dr. Khan, a shuttle pilot, and the debtor will be aboard."

"St. Anne out."

Iona reached to the controls and turned the live feed off, the feed she'd been broadcasting the entire time to the kidnappers, then she threw the vid of it up in a smaller display, sound down but not muted, to play in the background for the crew to see.

"Get those cuffs off her now," she ordered, face finally showing emotions. Anger, self-loathing, a pain that was as bone deep as her exhaustion. It was as if the color fell out of her face and she grabbed the back of her Captain's chair to keep from staggering.

"Thomyris, everyone, I'm sorry I had to put you through that. It was the only way," she gestured towards the recording that was now playing, "to make your reactions believable. To make them believe I was going to trade you for Mateo." Iona's mouth quirked to the side and she brought it back in place after she obviously didn't say something she wanted to but couldn't. "I don't deal in human cargo and I'm not about to start now." It hurt her, deeply, to know that her crew had believed she would but that was her fault. She'd chosen to trick them, sure it was for a good reason but she'd thrown their trust in her out of the porthole with her actions and just because she told them it was a ruse didn't mean their responses weren't real, and the aftermath of them wasn't going to not happen.

Head up, looking straight ahead, Iona walked past her crew and to the hatch out of the bridge. Hand on the edge of it she stopped and turned partially back, head looking over her shoulder at them. "Get him back," she ordered then looked away and headed down the corridor towards her stateroom. The hatch to it sighed open then shut.
 
Donovan
The St. Anne / Bridge
Evening Watch
Tagged: ALL


Donovan eyed Elaine as she reached for her gun again. He really didn't want to hurt any of them but if she drew on his captain he would put her down without a second thought. His let out a silent sigh when she showed no signs of drawing.

Standing with Riz as the crew all spoke out against what was happening he stayed silent. He wanted to believe Iona had a plan, he knew her to well to expect anything else, but if not, he was going to take Riz back from them after the exchange everything else be damned.

A smile broke the stoic expression on his face when Iona made her big reveal. Turning he didn't even bother with key, simply grabbing the cuffs by the hing and twisting them apart one at a time letting the ruined metal fall to the floor with a clank. "Sorry Riz." He said reaching out and ruffling her hair affectionately. "I told you before, it wasn't your fault, and that I didn't want to hurt you. I don't care if you believe me or not, but if Iona didn't have a plan to get you out of this I was going to come for you. You're one of us."

Turning away from the younger woman he looked at the rest of the crew. "You heard the Captain. We're going to get our Tin Man back. El, I can assume you will be the one piloting the Annie with Sonakshi and Riz aboard correct? If not you then Jin. I don't think they will be all to happy to see my face anytime soon, not after killing some of their men, stealing supplies from them and burning their clinic on the Kohlburg down." He smiled dementedly at the mention of screwing them over in such a brutal manner. "Who ever isn't on the Annie will be with me if they decided to go. I'll be taking a gravsled and finding a way inside. More than likely through an airlock. While the 'exchange' is going down I plan of murdering as many of those fucks in hot blooded, unadulterated rage filled vengeance as possible for fucking with my people. The most important thing though is that we get all our souls back aboard the St. Anne as safely as possible. If that means we have to bolt, then fucking bolt. Myself included. Iona has already had to make hard decisions today and put herself through hell, let's not add to the weight of her grief by dropping bodies on top of it all."

Walking past everyone to leave the bridge he paused at the door before he exited. "I want everyone ready and in position in forty. Grab whatever gear you feel is necessary and rendezvous in the docking bay." With that Donovan left and made his way to Iona's stateroom. He had some explaining to do and he wanted to check on her himself before they left.

Reaching the door he knocked instead of just letting himself in as he normally would have. The day had gone to shit in a bad way and he didn't really want to add onto Iona's burdens but he needed to debrief her on everything that him and Sonakshi did on the station, the potential danger he added to his already impressive load since she brought him aboard. "Permission to enter Captain." He requested through the thick door.
 
Doctor Sonakshi Khan
The St. Anne / Bridge
Evening Watch
Tagged: ALL


Sonakshi trembled oh so slightly when Iona revealed the ruse. If that meant that the captain she was turned out to be the captain the doctor had in mind, that must have taken a toll on her, apparent in her body language, her palor. Of course, a good part of it was the effects of the g-loc and the ebb and flow of adrenaline in her system, but she had taken a hit to her reputation, the image they had of her just for the sake and well being of Mateo. Safety above everything, after all. Seeing the look on their faces must have been hard for her, or so Sonakshi thought, a feeling that made her want to be with the captain, drown those feelings in alcohol, say she was sorry for doubting her.

And yet she did nothing.

Iona was standing strong, suffering through the motions to keep her status. It was fine counting on her crew, having the trust she had just gambled with, but she couldn't appear weak. Sonakshi didn't care about that when it came to, but understanding her position as she also couldn't help but project a persona of her own, she respected the strong brave captain and didn't rush to her. She could have managed half a hug, perhaps some whispered words under the guise of a medical check, but she didn't dare to do it. Even if the wounds caused by the lies, the half told truths and the words unsaid could fester and infect, she couldn't heal those no more than any of them could, and would only be repaired by care and loyal service.

Not to mention that with her role on the ship she would have the advantage of visit the captain almost as she pleased, and a bottle of booze could easily be stashed with a couple of glasses in her medical briefcase. The captain had Donovan as well, Sonakshi trusted him to carry Iona's sins as he did with the doctor's own.

For the time being she got ready to pack what she needed to take care of Mateo's special needs. The doctor didn't know how banged would he be and how much those scumbags had made him suffer, but she would patch him up and bring him back to the ship.
 
Thomyris “Riz” Heroux
Location: Bridge
Tagged: All.

The others rushed to her defence but Thomyris heard or saw little of it, in fact fearing it more than anything. Poor Mateo was already bad enough, weighing on her conscious and killing her deep seated stabs of guilt. The last thing she wanted was the rest of the crew, people she practically viewed like a second family, getting at each other’s necks. It amazed even herself how when her own life was at risk, she was willing to endure whatever ordeals, even torture and rape. Yet when the life of a comrade was at stake, she felt a tumult of emotions, from rage to sorrow to despair. “Don’t.” She tried to beg of Elaine, with her hand on her firearm, but her voice sounded no more than a squeak if anything, managing to only shake her head next when Jin-Lai apologized. For what? She had done nothing wrong.

The message was sent and Thomyris was to be handed over in an exchange. She would cooperate and make it right. For Mateo’s sake at least.

Get those cuffs off her now. If the entire room was a myriad of emotions about to implode, it was dipped entirely in the inverse with those words. Thomyris gasped aloud and shot her expression up, looking with utter shock at the Captain as she revealed the deception. “It…it was all a ploy? I…” She stammered, still not believing it. She immediately shut her mouth and raised her chin, fixing her gaze upon Iona with renewed wonder, with a look of hope itched into her features. All the words, the thoughts, the feelings of betrayal and loathing for Iona was replaced by even more guilt and shame in having doubted her. She wanted to shout her undying thanks and gratitude when the Captain marched out, but found she nearly choked in a sob instead, more embarrassing than nearly weeping from the betrayal.

But why was the Captain looking so tired and exhausted? The cuffs were removed and Donovan apologized, ruffling her hair. He wasn’t to be forgiven so easily though, having terrified Thomyris the worst. “You…ass. You gave me a heart attack.” Was all she managed to sneer at Donovan, even going as far as to give his shin a kick of indignant fury, though she hurt herself more by kicking that hard muscle, a spike of pain throbbing into her foot. Her lips however quirked into an uncontrollable smile like a baby being flashed a shiny, jingling item, unable to truly be angry. They had got her and got her good with this, making her feel ashamed. She bent down and collected the cuffs as well, using her relatively lesser strength to try and bend them back into a shape. They did need them for their ploy in the end, did they not?

Orders were issued swiftly next, Thomyris paying apt attention, now wishing to take full part in it all despite her initial reaction. She hooked one half of the cuffs on a wrist but left it dangling, while taking the stun baton Donovan had gifted her and sliding it into a sleeve of her jumpsuit. “I guess as the prisoner, I ought to wait on the Annie and look the part…” She mumbled, not really seeing herself do much of anything else to prepare. She departed with the others yet saw Donovan veer off towards where Iona would be. It caused her to frown, though she didn’t follow. She knew she owed the Captain a great deal of thanks and probably her life as well. If anything should lay claim to the debt on her head, it would be Iona.

While the rest of the crew prepped themselves however they needed to, Thomyris simply waited by the Annie, taking a moment to collect and compose herself. Today had been a day like no other for her, fucked up beyond any recognition or description in any of the many languages of humankind. A part of her still did want to cry, especially for Mateo’s sake, who was getting the worse of it because of her. She made all sorts of motions in his head, like perhaps giving him a cut of her pay, her dessert at the evening meal, maybe even covering his night watches to let him recover and sleep in. Whatever it may be, all she knew was that she owed him a debt comparable to that which she owed the Captain and everyone else on this ship.

Fumbling with her cuffs, she managed to make them look plausible on her wrists. Yet there was new fears and all to consider. If they were going to ambush the captors, there would certainly be shooting and a great deal of risk, with herself in the middle. She had already faced one combat situation today and barely managed to keep herself from freezing up. The anxiety of what might happen in the next, if not to her then to others, was daunting.
 
Iona Knutesdottir
The St. Anne / Bridge
Evening Watch
Tagged: ALL

"Enter, mind the grav," she added automatically, voice crisp over the speaker. Since it was Donovan she didn't really need to warn him her quarters were most likely in reduced or micro-g, but safety trumped everything else so she gave the warning just the same. Iona was floating feet towards his left side, rotated 90 degrees relative to the hatch, and was...

Just floating there, eyes closed and her arms and legs partially curled up, an instinctive posture given the lack of gravity or defined up or down. Emerald green showed at the top of her shipsut where the seam was undone, exposing her undergarment but she'd lacked the energy to do more than begin to take it off. On her neck the adrenaline patches showed, complimented by the little bugs of analgesic bubbles.

"Shut the hatch," she ordered, then waited until she heard it cycle before opening her eyes. They were tired, had seen too much damage done to her people, and while they met Donovan's they didn't match him with the intensity he was used to. "Don't," she asked, or was it a plea, holding a palm out towards him, stopping him or at least asking him to stop from closing the distance and gathering her in his powerful but infinitely delicate arms. "I can't. Not...not now," she added.

"Can we do it? Can we get him back?"
 
Elaine
Location: St. Anne Bridge
Evening Watch
Tagged: All

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!" Elaine yelled as the vidscreen was shut down and the ruse revealed. "Fucking shit fuck!?" Elaine, when angry, lost most of her non-vulgar vocabulary. After a few calming breaths she growled quietly, "What the hell's the point of that? Could've just...I don't know! Making us think we were handing her over Cap that's...that's low." She shook her head and clenched one gauntlet-clad fist. Then she delivered that fist directly into the ship bulkhead beside her, denting the metal. The Captain would be mad and she'd likely pay for it later. If there was a later. After something like this she was sorely tempted to jump ship rather than serve under a captain who found it so easy to nonchalantly lie about something as serious as that.

Rather than continue that line of thinking she growled, punched the bulkhead again - deepening the dent - and spun towards the hatch. "I'm going to my room to get more ammo. If you hear shooting that's me. I need to shoot something and I've got a few cans." The redheaded woman was still furious, but she at least unhooked and donned her helmet once more to at least partially obscure the angry sneer on her lips.


Elaine Reid
Elaine's Quarters
Evening Watch
Tagged: All within earshot.

Elaine clanged through the hallways of the ship with a noise more akin to Mateo's thick frame rather than her own, her strides providing yet more evidence of her fury. She tapped the entry code on the pad then, after a moment, added an ancillary trigger she'd added to the door's mechanism. The door clunked as the modification she'd made to lock out all door override codes save a secondary one she'd created shifted into place. Then she swung inside and sealed the hatch behind her.

Once inside she stripped off her helmet once more and flung the armored helm at the far bulkhead, which it clanged off of. Then she moved to the beside table, snagged her bottle - still open from the night before - and took a hefty swig of her rotgut. She was used to drinking the stuff, but usually she watered it down with something or mixed it. Shooting it from the bottle wasn't a good idea. She coughed violently as it rolled down her throat but she kept going until the bottle was empty. She thought about setting the bottle down and leaving it. Instead, she flung it into the air, drew her gel-round loaded revolver and delivered six quick shots into the bottle, sending shards flying about her room. One nicked her cheek, drawing a deep bloody line across it as a dozen others clinked and bounced from her armor.

She turned to her bed then and sat heavily, her head drooping into her hands. "Dammit Iona. Why the fucking deception? Isn't Mateo being gone enough to worry about without making the rest of us wonder if we're gonna be traded off like those sheep?" Her fingers tangled in her hair, tugging almost painfully at it. "I don't want to leave this ship but...if I've got to worry day after day if the bounty's gonna be enough to hand me over what's the point in staying?" She sighed softly, shook her head then stood.

She made her way to her door, entered the two door unlock codes needed to unseal it and made her way towards the hangar bay.
 
Donovan
Evening watch
St. Anne, Iona's stateroom
Tagged, Iona

Opening the hatch and entering at her command he closed the hatch behind him on instinct just as she instructed him to. Burnt orange eyes found her floating partially curled in her normal posture when she was in micro-g and not busy. He could see the exhaustion on her face even with her eyes closed and gently pushed off the hatch to float to her.

Not saying a word to her plea he slowly floated to her and instead of taking her into a comforting embrace he grabbed her body and slowly rotated her so he could finish removing the shipsuit she was clearly to tired to do herself. "We can, and we will Iona. I will make sure that all our crew returns home safely and once I know they are safe I will make any survivors pay for what they have done." His voice was soft and sure of his words.

As he peeled the shipsuit from her body carefully he was silent for a moment. "I have some dirt on the Blue Mountain group." He spent the next few minutes explaining in detail the events of the day, how they attempted legal means to find medicines, how he found an illegal clinic that was more a front for organ harvesting and human trafficking, how he killed everyone there and set the place ablaze making sure that Sonakshi was cleared of any blame. She was after all only following him. He reported the supplies they gained from his actions, the possible retribution that could be sought against him and the intel he had acquired on the group and some of their dirtier actions as well as names, locations of stashes, meeting points and times, and even some account information for anonymous bank accounts. The entire report was given in a steady tone that held no remorse or regret for his actions.

By the time he was finished he had Iona completely undressed with the spent analgesic bubbles and adrenaline patches removed to help her sleep better. With a hand on her bare stomach he floated her across the room to the anchored sleeping bag and carefully got her inside it. "Sleep Iona, the crew is capable, and I am there to watch their backs. I will do everything in my power to keep everyone safe. I'll report back to you once we have returned." Moving his face closer to her he brushed her dark hair from her forehead and gave it a light kiss.

Leaving her quarters Donovan sealed the hatch behind him and in the slightly less than standard gravity of the corridor walked briskly to his room to get himself ready.

In his personal quarters Donovan donned his back up hardsuit, it was slightly bulkier than his standard but was more than good enough for what he was going to do. Leaving behind all his weapons and gear with the exception of his combat knife he made his way to the docking bay, eyes blazing behind the shielded helmet of his hardsuit. The thousands of screaming voices all were in unison, their cries drowning out the shrieking static that normally filled his head. They all wanted blood and Donovan was going to give it to them.

Donovan
Evening watch
St. Anne, Docking Bay
Tagged: Thomyris


Donovan opted to keep his helmet on and the face shield darkened. He could feel mad grin on his face twitching and his glowing eyes flitting about like insane humming birds trapped in a too small cage. What he couldn't hide was the way his hands twitched, jumped and how his fingers bobbed, curled and fidgeted like the legs of an spider dancing across it's web. He was ten minutes early for his forty minute deadline. Riz being the only other on in the Docking bay.

Moving to her he stopped short several feet. "I want to apologize again kid. I owe Iona a lot and I gave her my word to obey any command she gives me in exchange for returning something of my humanity back to me after it was cut out of me. I deserve more than that kick in the shin for what I did. I'll make it up to. How much is your debt?"
 
Jin-Lai Park
Evening Watch.
Location: St. Anne: Bridge, Galley

Jin-Lai skilled wth a blade, but had only sparred, and never faced armed foes. When it came down to guns, she would try to stay out of the line of fire. Or would she ? It was then she hatched a bit of a harebrained scheme. One so crazy, it might just work. She wasn't about to get in a fight with gun-totting guards, but if she could distract them, that was another thing. She would need to do some quick scrounging, but she was always pretty good at that.

Her first stop of course was her galley. Most of what she needed would be found here. First off she grabbed most of the big magnets she had just bought on the planet. She would have to make due without most of them in the kitchen most likely. Or she would be shot dead and it would be someone else's problem, she bit her lip as her considered that possibility. She almost prefered that to a disorganized galley, but that was probably just her.

Next, she grabbed a cloth bag and set it on the butcher block counter, and then opened a drawer and pulled out 6 kitchen timers and some electrical tape. She programmed each timer to the same stopwatch setting and then set them to sync to her datapad or manual push. Then with the black electrical tape she connected each timer to one of the big magnets, and made the timers look more sinister at the same time. Now if only she had some more wire. She found some bits of wire, enough to make one of the magnet/timer devices look like a pretty credible IED. But she would need to scrounge for some more.

She next took a small canister of gas and put it in the cloth bag. The gas they used for cooking was odorless, the canister was used to add a certain well known smell to the gas that smelled like rotten eggs, an unpleasant smell that humans were trained to associate with dangerous gas leaks. It was an advanced form of mercaptan gas, though if she had needed to she could have whipped up some hydrogen sulfide with the stuff from the compost machine if need be. It was a fairly universal additive to gasses and should be recognized by even brain-dead guards.

At that point, she went scrounging for wire. She wasn't really sure where to look for that so she decided to first see who might be on the Bridge. That is when she saw the message console flashing similar to when there had been a message waiting on the Annie. Maybe it was Serena? Maybe Mateo had escaped and was messaging them. Fnally curiosity got the better of her and she inadvisedly pressed the button

The message she got was from someone named 'Crecy' who sounded serious. But he had seriously bad timing - the deal to hand over Riz was happening very soon, and she would not go against what the captain had agreed to, or abandon the crew in this hour of need. She had already volunteered to pilot the shuttle, really she was the only one not needed for something actually important, so they were counting on her.

She slid into the Comms seat and took a deep breath and began pounding out a message, then flipping through the station menu she found a droid courier service. She would keep things general but this Crecy would know what she meant. Uploading her message to the drone courier that would deliver the message to bay 4 on the station, she hoped very shortly she would hear from this man called Crecy. If that was his real name.

She included with it her latest public encryption key. Of course it took her private key to decriypt the message, at least without a huge computer and a lot of time. It wasn't sub-quantum encryption or a singularity lock by any means, but it was all she had time to arrange.

Still she didn't find any bits of wire she cared to pull on on the bridge, and so she went to the workshop. She found the wire she needed , as well as a spray can of black molecular bond paint. She pulled out the timers from the bag and made the other 5 fake IEDs and stuffed them along with the can of paint into the bag, and a trigger switched that wasn't actually hooked to anything, her fake deadman's switch.

She made a quick stop in her quarters, putting on something.... special, under her normal outfit, and then then reported to the Shuttle bay and reported for duty and the final briefing, after which she did a full pre-flight check without skipping any steps, and making sure she had a helmet as well.


Jin-Lai Park
Evening Watch.
Location: The Annie.


Jin then boarded with those she was taking to the specified coordinates and began to carefully pilot the shuttle. As the shuttle passed threshold of the bay , she made a brief transmission "Shuttle Annie departing to make the trade. Wish us luck, St. Anne"

She flew at the agreed upon speed and heading , to make sure to give the 'Strike' team led by Donovan plenty of time to get in position. She didn't have a good easy way to see where they were, but she knew they were out there in the inky blackness. She was a little worried It would be nice to have this crecy dude to help sell her IEDs , but she didn't need him to land, and she was not going to start placing them until everyone was well clear of the shuttle bay.

If she got a message she would simply say that she would make it worth Crecy's while if he backed their play and protected the crew. There wasn't time to go into detail back and forth anymore.

"Everyone ok back there? We are going to be landing in their shuttle bay in 3 minutes. " She then sent the agreed upon callsign to the Blue Mountain ship "Shepherd this is Lamb , coming in to dock , Please transfer control of the bay door to our console " These guys were more like the Big Bad Wolf than any shepherd but she didn't have time to arrange everything. With control of the bay door, she had everything she needed for her plan. She opened the bay and activated the automated landing subroutine. She had considered stripping down immediately to her bra and pantes, but she didnt want eyes on her just yet , she wantd to place few fake bombs first, but before that , she needed Doc and Riz to get clear.

"Good luck" she called after them from the back of the shuttle. She had the bag of fake IEDs to begin placing . They were set to go well after the shuttle should have departed. She hoped Crecy wouldnt point them out until the signal was given. She hadn't told him what else would happen at the Signal, of course, she didn't trust him that much.

Her plan was to get as many guards as she could into the bay to investigate the explosives and then open the bay doors while she was safely on the Annie. It could work but it was dangerous and this whole thing was a crap shoot. She of course was ill to her stomach and began to have second thoughs about placing them at all. What if it screwed everything up? She of course had let the team know she had some ideas to distract the bad guys, but she wasn't sure if they took her seriously. She just hoped she wouldn't screw it up.

She could kicked hersef - she had almost forgotten to start releasing the smelly gas. She did that and let it waft down into the shuttle bay. She hated the smell herself and yet somehow it actually settled her stomach. This was happening
 
Thomyris “Riz” Heroux
Location: Loading Bay
Tagged: Donovan.

Thomyris was still staring down at her lap, her cuffed wrists upon them, when she heard the heavy thumping of footsteps heading her way. She didn’t even need to look up to know who that was, being only one individual who could make such a dreadful approach. It wasn’t until Donovan’s boots appeared in her downward field of vision that she finally looked up, her face sullen and full of doubt. The moments before a battle or skirmish was always the worst, when the mind played all sorts of terrible fantasies in her head.

She listened to Donovan, appreciating his attempt and explanation. No, she didn’t expect otherwise from him. “My debt?” She pondered, dropping her gaze again, shuffling her hands together awkwardly. “I…don’t know the exact figure. Lots. Tens of thousands, I can tell you that. They trick you too. They don’t tell you half the terms, like when the interest is due. And if you miss a payment, they tack it on to the principal amount at compounded rates, so it just gets bigger and bigger.” Thomyris glanced up again, frowning. “You can’t pay it. It’s been building for over a year now. It killed my father with the stress and when he died, it got transferred over to me. I didn’t even know.”

And when her father had died, he had barely been in the ground when someone had come and tried to collect. And more. A young woman without any male guardians seemed like easy prey for him. Unfortunately, Thomyris had been so bitter and resentful from the revelation and the crude attempts at sexual favours that she had snapped…and killed the man. She fled that very day, leaving it all behind.

“Don’t, Donovan.” She then pleaded, rising to her feet. “It’s my price. I’ll handle it. Somehow.” She said, giving a weak smile as she tried to portray some confidence. Yes, with my meagre savings of some four hundred…only sixty thousand to go or more.

Thomyris “Riz” Heroux
Location: The Annie.
Tagged: Jin-Lai, Sonakshi Khan.

Whatever the plan was, Thomyris knew she had to trust the others. Sitting next to the Doctor in the hold of the Annie, she couldn’t help but gaze at the older woman sometimes in awe and envy. How could she continue to be so calm and composed after working a profession that put torn apart bodies back together? Perhaps one just became insensitive to it all after a time. It was something Thomyris wished for, hating how she froze up even for a second or two with Iona when they had been ambushed. Now more than ever she needed to be brave, as both her and Sonakshi would be going right into the frying pan.

“I’m fine.” Thomyris answered Jin-Lai. Three minutes. Her heart began to pound in her chest. What if…what if this ruse was in fact a ruse being played on her, that she was really going to be handed over and surrendered. Like she told Donovan, her debt seemed unpayable and she wouldn’t dare ask anyone to pay it on her behalf. It was her mess, not theirs. Perhaps she deserved to be handed over. No, trust the captain and the others. They are willing to die for you. Can you do any less?

As they began to land though, Thomyris suddenly turned towards Sonakshi, reaching out with her cuffed hands to touch the woman’s wrist. “Flick my nose.” She suddenly demanded, referencing how sometimes a blow to the nose could cause involuntary tears to form in one’s eyes. They needed it to look genuine, that Thomyris was truly being handed over. Anything to put Mateo’s captives more off-guard and how better than to imply she was truly defeated and given up on life? “I would eat some leftovers from what our previous cook left us but this is so much easier…” she added in a morbid jest, lifting her chin to leave her nose more exposed.

Atfer that, they could disembark and get on with this…bargain.
 
Doctor Sonakshi Khan
Location: The Annie.
Tagged: Jin-Lai, Thomyris.


"No, you aren't" Sonakshi talked for the first time in a while, directly contradicting Thomyris words. "After all that happened and what's about to happen, there is no way you are ok. None of us are fine" she groaned, unhappy with the whole deal. "But we will be. We will keep you, bring back Mateo, let Donovan do horrible things to those who hurt us and be back in the ship for drinks to drown it all" the doctor sounded sure, like it was a done deal, a plan that was going to happen without trouble. "But until tomorrow's morning watch catches us all with one hell of a hangover and maybe with odd company or our bed or someone else's, we are not fine, not at all" she frowned. There were a million things that could go wrong, and they may not return in once piece, if they returned. Hell, maybe Mateo was too far gone for all she knew. But they were professionals, they were the best or Iona would have kicked them out long ago, so they were going to do the job, whatever it took.

Sonakshi looked surprised at Thomyris' request, but as she made a nervous joke about the previous cook's inability to produce anything edible, she understood her and complied without remorse. She had promised to do no harm, but she had already broken that promise hundreds of times in her life, and with the day that Donovan and her had on the station, she had already done quite enough that very day. "I'll rough you up if needed for them to believe it" she said flatly. Not an apology. Not a suggestion nor a question. It was just a fact, fair warning it you will.
 
The Bad Guys
Shuttle Annie in the Landing Bay of Gramercy's Run
Evening Watch
Tagged: All Big Damn Heroes

In the silence of vacuum, the Annie landed. As per usual procedure the window overlooking the bay from inside the ship was covered by an armored shutter to protect the ship. It would take several minutes to finalize the procedures and to fully pressurize the bay, allowing the inner hatch to be open. There would be a two minute window of partial atmo, enough to live in but enough to keep the main hatch from opening to the kidnapper's ship.

Silence gave way to hissing as atmo returned to the hangar bay and after two minutes the personnel access hatch from the ship into the bay opened, allowing the kidnappers to file in, one of them pushing Mateo on a cargo sled. They fanned out across the bay.

Thinking they had the upper hand, and drunk on the drinks and pleasures the money they almost had in their greedy hands would bring them gave the kidnappers tunnel vision. Focused solely on the Annie they didn't even have an active search going for other craft and had even left the bridge unattended, their porcine greed and lack of discipline pulling everyone on the ship into or near the landing bay as if that would help them get richer faster.

Mateo lay on an industrial cargo sled, strapped down with wide yellow nylon bands like a piece of equipment but they weren't able to be slipped off, they were more to keep him from sliding off. They'd stopped beating him at least but bruises, blood, and battered cybernetics showed Mateo had been through a brutal time. He seemed conscious and aware if not exactly mobile. A single guard stood near him, the wide barrel of a riot gun drifting between Mateo's body and wherever the guard happened to look. It was an area effect weapon, intimidating to unarmored targets and it had a huge psychological terror for those who looked down its wide, fanned barrel.

Like the cowards they were, three other guards were gathered in a group near each other, almost directly across from the Annie's cockpit. The side hatch was just visible to them but they wouldn't be able to see inside much. A single guard stood opposite that, looking nervous in his body language and unarmed except for pistol at his side he kept touching. High up on the bulkhead above the three guards a lone man, his body language confident and aggressively arrogant, watched through the transparent window, armored shutters retracted, and a level above the exit from the hangar and behind several closed hatches, presuming they could even find a way up to him.

"Spread out you idiots," a voice called over the loudspeaker, the slight delay almost matching the words they could see the man behind the window.

"Bring out the debtor," he ordered, voice electronically amplified and booming across the hangar bay. "Any fuckery and we'll shred the 'borg," he said and the man with the riot gun moved it to cover Mateo, finger on the trigger.
 
Donovan
Gramercy's Run
Tagged: Breach Party


Donovan and Elaine cut through the void of space at just over 2-g's on the gravsled. He wanted to push it faster but didn't need to cause Elaine G-LOC or grab unwanted attention from the Gramercy's Run. It only took a few minutes for them to reach the ship and a couple more to find an airlock hatch. Tethering the sled to the hull of the ship Donovan examined the airlock and behind the black visor of his helmet he smiled wickedly. It was too easy, a simple one touch interface. Pressing the bright red button he watched the door on the inside close and seal before the outer door opened to them with a hiss of atmo escaping.

Going inside with Elaine he closed the airlock, waiting for the atmo to rebuild then entered to ship. Through the comm he spoke to Elaine. "Split up, raise hell, the landing party will be in the landing bay if you want to go for them. I am going to cause the bastards some heartache. Going silent." He finished cutting the comm link to the entire crew and breaking away from Elaine.

Still in full suit, a matte black affair with the exception of the gloss black visor that hid the face of madness behind it. He moved through the corridors like a silent cancer. They were mostly abandoned, he figured that was due to everyone meeting the Annie. It was a seventy seconds before he came across the first guard.

Darting around the corner he made nearly no noise as he closed the distance to the guard. At the last moment the guard noticed Donovan and raised his firearm, but it was too late. Donovan lashed out with both arms, the first two fingers on each hand pointed out and held stiff. The stiffened fingers drove into precise points on the front of the guards shoulders, connecting with nerves. The guard let out a cry as both his arms fell limp to his side completely numb. In a flowing motion Donovan closed his hands into fists with his thumbs extended bringing his hands together and driving thumbs into the curve of the guards throat with a crunch.

The moment the threat was eliminated Donovan moved on like nothing had even happened. In his head there was a blessed silence for the first time in a long time, but there was a cost to that silence. Right now Donovan was gone. VH24601JV had taken over. A creature with a human shape and nothing else. It was literally built for this work, go in to a FUBAR situation, clean house silently and leave an opening for a larger force to come in behind to take control. Though this time, there was not larger force. He was here for extraction and extermination.

Burning orange eyes flitted about behind the opaque visor as he moved through the ship to the taking in details and mapping a path. Despite the speed which he was running through the halls his footfalls made minimal sounds. He passed by several more guards, solo, pairs and even a small group of four. Each dropped with deadly precision in a flurry of blows that disabled then killed the men. Nerves struck, bones snapped, joints torn and he never stopped his forward progress.

Mess hall, galley, armory, crew quarters, a long away around the landing bay and finally to the bridge, leaving a trail of broken bodies in his wake. It was short work to kill the crew on the bridge and once he was the only living thing left he moved to a control console and brought up a display of the landing bay. He trusted his crew to do what was necessary and with a little work VH24601JV took control of the ships defenses. There were turrets it the corners of the landing bay and he now had access to them. He wasn't going to act until shit went sideways, if it did he would give them cover fire while they made their escape.
 
Jin-Lai Park
Location: Landing Bay of Gramercy's Run


Damn. Jin knew immediately her big distraction job would not, could not work. Because they were already here. Hell. There was no way to distract them to pull troops away from Mateo and the rest of the crew and the borders. She sighed. Of course, being professional bad guys, they probably had a lot more experience in controlling hostage hand offs than you're average plucky restaurateur turned ship's cook.

She wished she had gone with her other plan of the hot sauce bombs, but honestly she had thought they would be wearing helmets and atmo suits. SHe also didn't like her chances of doing anything before the asshole with the shottie blasted Mateo, her, or both and others.

She only took solace in knowing that meant the boarding party was likely lightly opposed.

And so Jin made a decision, and stepped in front of the Dr and Riz "Whoa, whoa there, you know we are flesh and blood here, and you have your finger on that trigger there. What , are you trying to kill us, how about a little firearm safety here?" Actually she didn't see if he did or not. The point here wasn't to actually elicit a change in behavior, it was merely to distract from whatever the boarding team might be doing right now. It was fairly weak, but it was safer than a bonsai charge with her vicious vibro-dagger. She prefered her distractions be without her blood and guts splattered up against the Annie.
 
Doctor Sonakshi Khan
Location: Landing Bay of Gramercy's Run
Tagged: Jin-Lai, Thomyris.


Sonakshi pushed Thomyris out of the Annie, roughing her up a bit but keeping her at arms reach. It was somewhat scary to see how easy was to fall in that role, to be the one that hurt people instead of healing them, and what that notion could do to a person. No wonder than Donovan came off as unhinged, the things he must have done, how his acts and the ones of others shaped him. Enough of behaving like a soft rookie, it wasn't much that was asked of the doctor and she was going to perform it as well as possible.

Her eyes unavoidably went to Mateo, trying to judge from a distance how injured he was, how much work she would have to do to return him to form. It was frustrating not being able to run to him and just start to tend his injuries, but she'd have to wait. "If you have gone too far with him, you will get nothing" she said, raising her hands on the air, showing that she was unarmed and as inoffensive as she looked. After all, nobody would deem the little chubby doctor as dangerous. "I'm Doctor Khan and I want to check on Mateo, see if you haven't damaged our merchandise" she spoke, sounding as disaffected as she could. "Then, you'll have your debtor" she added, glaring at Thomyris for a moment, then back at those lowlifes.

That way, Sonakshi wouldn't just be able to see how Mateo was, but also be in the midst of their foes as the things began. It was risky, but anything that served to make their formation less compact and divide their attention between the crew of the St. Anne would be welcome. And if it wasn't, Donovan could bark at her later, if both of them got out alive.
 
Iona Knutesdottir
The St. Anne / Bridge / Space Plus
Morning Watch
Tagged: All

In retrospect the sheep had been the cleanest, least worrisome part of their whole layover.

Iona had still been in the grips of Morpheus when the crew returned, big damn heroes all of them, from their rescue mission. There had been a little shake up in personnel, not for the better or for the worse just folks making the decisions that best filled their pockets. Working a tramp freighter wasn't for everyone and there certainly wasn't any glamour to it but it also avoided a lot of the rigidity of a big corporation or, she mentally shuddered, military service. While Iona knew the military served useful purposes the idea of serving under their command or running her own ship like that made her hair stand on end.

Outside of the bridge screens the twisting, star streaked landscape of Space Plus rushed past, showing the St. Anne's progress but not in any fashion that science had been able to discern. Millions of records from voyages, some at almost the same time from exactly the same place and destination didn't even look the same. The eggheads insisted there had to be a pattern to it, a code, but spacers like Iona simply knew it was one of the mysteries of the deep that you couldn't understand, you just experienced it. A countdown in the bridge rapidly drew down to zero.

And...transition. The St. Anne winked into existence in normal Space and Space Plus simply ceased to be. Normal stars replaced the much busier view and Iona waited for telemetry to come back verifying first that there were no objects on a collision course and second that they had ended up where they belonged. Knowing that anything within light seconds had already been tracked and discounted as a threat, she relaxed the tension in her core and moved away from the helm. Anything further out would take longer but also offer more chances to dodge, not that the St. Anne was sprightly.

Floating, waiting patiently, she waited until a decent map of the surrounding area came up. It was empty except for a hard but distant return, a return that absolutely had the signature of a hulk, a ship without power, and she wondered what it was. Well that could be answered by either knowing where they'd jumped to, how close they were to her intended destination, or by spending time navigating to it under conventional power. Iona didn't plan to waste time on that unless absolutely necessary. They were already bleeding credits, having had to jump without taking on their cargo, and were in default of the contract too. The St. Anne was in dire straits and the last thing she wanted to do was throw credits out as reaction mass.

Light dings refocused her and she pulled up their position report, read it, then read it again and was glad she was alone on the bridge so no one would hear the impressive, polyglot string of swears that came out of her mouth.

They'd misjumped.

It wasn't fatal. They had enough fuel to make it to any of several destinations from their current location, but it was going to be time consuming and expensive.

"All hands, report to the Bridge. Yes, this means you in your bunks too." Iona's broadcast went out shipwide.



"....that's the situation," she finished up, giving her crew the run down. She'd learned it was better to get out in front of the facts than let scuttlebutt run amok. "Us, a whole lot of empty, and that hulk out..." she oriented herself and pointed down and to the left of the ship's current facing. "...that a way. Records search comes up empty. There haven't been any battles or incidents out here that I can find, and she's not showing power or comms of any sort. From what I can tell she's pretty much at background temperatures too. Scan puts her as, oh, about five times our tonnage so whatever it is she's big and cold and dead."

"Shipmates, I'm almost done for in the coffers," she admitted. "Not your fault," she told the crew with a special eye towards the ones involved in the mess back at their last port. "Just is. If there was an insurance claim on that thing it's probably been long settled. Either way she's legitimate salvage and there may be enough in it, or possibly in her hold, that I can dig us out of this mess."

Iona paused and played with her long braid before flicking it into a slow spin around the crown of her head. "Not going to lie. It's grim work and there's a lot of superstition - bad joss - about messing with a hulk. Won't blame none of you if'n you think we should mark it and let it be. Think on it and I'll call you back up in a few hours when we're near enough to make a better decision."
 
Thomyris “Riz” Heroux
Location: Landing Bay of Gramercy's Run
Tagged: Sonakshi Khan, Jin-Lai Park, the baddies.

Thomyris strode out of the Annie with bleary eyes, a sniveling expression, and pain lancing through her nose and face. The good Doctor had done just as she requested, roughing her up enough to invoke tears and a feel of sullenness in the supposed captive. Other factors helped to add to her facade, especially the outright fear of being thrust into combat. And not even on the edges of it. All eyes would be on her, more than one gun would be aimed at her, and the only measure of protection she had was the value of the debt on her head. She was no good to anyone dead if they wanted to collect.

“It’s alright, Jin.” Thomyris said weakly, voice choked. Sonakshi had really hurt her, though she had asked for it so she couldn’t complain. She was dragged out before the mercenaries and cast an apologetic glance towards Mateo for having gotten him stuck up in her troubles. As the Doctor began to negotiate, Thomyris remained still, arms falsely bound before her, only returning a fierce gaze of hurt and betrayal when Sonakshi glanced her way. Yet despite the illusion, her heart still pounded in her chest and ears. It can still go bad. The others could be killed. The plan could backfire. I could die. Or worse, they will all die and I will end up in their hands alone…

They allowed her to see Mateo. They allowed him to go first, thinking they had all the advantages. Thomyris was then shoved forward as part of their side of the exchange and she found herself before a sneering gunman, breath reeking like liquor, with eyes roaming her body that made her feel...ill. “Back to your prison, little debtor.” He mocked, grabbing Thomyris by the scruff of her neck.

But then there was chatter on their comms. An alert? A warning? Something was going on within their ship. Patrols weren’t checking in. A body was found. The gunman, the leader of the group, spun towards the trio of them. “You think you can trick us, you motherfuckers?” He roared, pulling his sidearm free to immediately gun down whoever was nearer.

Thomyris looked up with a glance of utter venom. “Well keep your mother off the streets and I won’t fuck her!” She roared back in defiance, built up for so long over the past few hours. In the most barbaric, heinous act ever, she reared her foot back and kicked the man right between his legs, shedding the false cuffs and drawing out the stun baton Donovan had given her, hidden within a sleeve. Full power, she jabbed it into the man’s neck and shocked him into oblivion.

Then all hell broke loose.

Thomyris “Riz” Heroux
Location: St. Anne
Tagged: All.

It was a harrowing escape and gunfight, but they managed to get away. Thomyris was still panting with adrenaline, hands white knuckled around the stun baton, as they returned to the ship. Someone would have to remove it from her, its deactivated length stained with blood and other matter. Thomyris knew she had it in her. She just never thought she would be capable of repeating it...more than once. She at once retreated to her quarters and threw herself on the bed, thinking she might cry or weep from the entire ordeal, of nearly being betrayed, of putting up a deception, of being caught in the middle of a gunfight. All over her.

Surprisingly, she felt nothing. Hollow. Empty. Sleep came fast and not even dressing down, she fell on her hard bunk and lay there as if she was dead herself.

She would be awakened by blaring alarums and the Captain’s voice over the comms demanding all hands to the bridge. Were they under attack? Had they been followed? But they wiped out the Blue Mountain gang by all signs, clearly. Despite the concern and worry in Iona’s voice, Thomyris felt relief at hearing it, at once jerking up from her bunk and looking around. It took a heartbeat or two for her to snap into focus, splashing cold water on her face before grabbing her helmet and hurrying off, datapad in hand.

They were drifting in space. Something had happened. But there was also a boon. On her datapad, connected to the ship’s central computer, Thomyris could see the outline and schematics of the drifting ship. “There must be some anomaly or gravitational field that affects passing ships. There’s no way both us and them could have ended up here by coincidence. Space is too big for that.” She mused in a low voice to herself, before glancing up. She still felt hollow and seemingly lacking in feeling. Her heart still beated in her chest. Yet she felt...eerily calm.

“I’ll go.” She volunteered when the Captain finished explaining, not bothering to wait at all. Why not? They were in this mess still probably because of her anyways. She was eager to make up for it however she could. “I can try and hook up into the ship’s main computer. Find out what it was, what they might have been carrying. Maybe even reactivate some of the essential systems like life support if possible. I’ll need a physical docket to plug in though. I’m not too worried over the superstition either, Cap’n.” She added, as if to make herself slightly more brave.

“I don’t suppose we could try and haul the entire ship into some shipbreaking yard? Or should we scavenge what we can for our needs and leave the rest to the scrappers?” She posed as an open question, though glancing at the Captain too if it was alright to do so, not wishing to usurp her position.
 
Doctor Sonakshi Khan
Location: Landing Bay of Gramercy's Run
Tagged: Hell got loose.

There was that moment where it seemed that everything was going to be ruined, that split second frozen in time when everyone was more or less in position and hell was about to break loose. Her role was mostly to tend to the injured, something that made Sonakshi spend most of the fight trying to shrink herself and not catch a stray shot. Some doctors in their zeal would try to cover a comrade's body with their own, but she had always found the notion stupid. The doctor getting a bullet instead of anybody else, not only didn't mean that it would be more difficult for the doctor to try and heal that wound, but also any other injuries that produced during the fight. Even if it could look selfish, Sonakshi worrying for her well being was the best she could do for her comrades. Good thing about fights, if there was anything, is that normally didn't last long, and that one that was mostly missed by her, was no exception.

Doctor Sonakshi Khan
Location: The St. Anne
Tagged: All.


Any doubts Sonakshi may have about the nature of not only herself but the rest of the St. Anne's crew came cleared as the ship stopped before scheduled. There was no rest for the wicked indeed, as while they had barely any time to lick their wounds and return to that now craved normalcy when there were halted by what seemed both danger and opportunity at the same time.

"No power means no survivors" Sonakshi stated the painful yet obvious truth, so there was little she could do there. "I'm a person of hard facts though, so I don't mind going to see what kind of supplies we can salvage" she said, trying to be as less macabre as possible for once. The ship would be probably crawling with dead bodies unless a breach had shot them outside, something that could unnerve even the most tough of spacers, but she didn't mind them.

If that thing turned out to be out of anything remotely profitable, she would have no choice but to reveal what Donovan and her had plundered on the station, even if that meant risking Iona's rage. Or even worse, disappointing her.
 
Jin-Lai Park
Location: Landing Bay of Gramercy's Run

Jin had responded when the chips were down. She was faster and more determined than them, and the martial training of her youth that she had always hated and even mocked later probably played some role in this. She came back blooded, her vibro-dagger having taken two, and she had taken no wounds more severe than a few bruises and heavy scrapes from her doging. To be sure she didn't wade into battle like a Samurai but she had played her part


She resolved to focus more on her fighting in the future.

Jin-Lai Park
Location: The St. Anne, Galley/Bridge
Morning Watch


The smell of fresh baked goods wafted through the galley and likely much of the ship. Of course since they had been jumping , it wasnt anything too exotic. Much like elevation, different areas of space could actually affect the chemical reactions needed for baking, so souffles and croissant for example were not something she would try at such times.

Still, fresh bread and butter, and beignet with fresh brewed coffee, woud surely be welcome by the crew. But just then she got the summons to the bridge.

She reported to the bridge and listened to the Captain's report. SHe tried to put out of her mind the thoughts of any number of issues that could be lurking here. Like tribes of scavs living on hulks, then going into suspended animation waiting for the next hapless crew to try and salvage the hulk. She didn't care how often she heard that tale, she refused to believe it. But then why was it the first thing that always lept to the front of her mind any time something like this happened?

"I will gladly do anything you ask me to Captain, the breakfast is almost ready so I am not tied down to the galley. " She could do a number of things even though probably most aboard could do them better, but she would be pretty good at estimating value of any preserved foodstuffs they might have, still she wasn't sure if she would be needed over there.
 
Donovan
Location: Bridge of Gramercy's Run

When the fighting broke loose Donovan acted. Using the turrets he blew threw the observation window the sole man stood behind bullets tearing his body apart as he tried to run in vain. Turning the turrets onto the guards below he laid cover fire for his crew, causing enough chaos for them to finish everyone off and get back to the Annie.

Opening the landing bay door for them he set to work on finishing off the rest of the ship. Fingers glided over the control panel opening all the bulkheads in the Gramercy's run and then disabling the security measures to lock them down. Next he remotely opened all hatches leading out to the vacuum of space. Even from the bridge he could hear the sound of the atmo rushing out of the ship. Reaching up to his helmet he enabled the oxygen and turned away from the controls. Casually he walked left the bridge and made his way to the docking bay. Inside were several smaller craft, all about the size of the Annie except one, which was slightly larger and it was the one that caught his attention.

Boarding the transport shuttle he ran through the take off procedures and left the dead ship behind.

Donovan
Location: Docking bay/ St. Anne Bridge.
Tagged: All
Morning Watch


Donovan was removing the two turrets from his new transporter. He had considered leaving them, but he was no longer a mercenary but a merchant and he didn't need the guns on it to move goods. It went against his better judgement but after the event's on the Gramercy's Run and Kohlberg station he needed to do something to remind himself he was no longer the thing built to kill, he was free man who could live a peaceful life if he tried.

Hearing Iona's voice over the comm's he grinned and left his work, the frist of the turrets already on the ground, the second almost ready to be removed. Not taking the time to clean up he made his way straight to the bridge.

Listening intently to the situation he grinned at the prospect of going aboard a hulk. He wasn't to worried about the status of the St. Anne's coffers, he had enough money to pull all of them out of debt and be set for years but what would the fun in that be? Stepping forward he bowed his head to Iona. "I'll act as a security escort for the boarding party, never know what you can find on those things, and I like the thought of exploring something that big for hidden treasures."
 
Iona Knutesdottir
The St. Anne / Bridge / Space Plus
Morning Watch
Tagged: All

Pride filled her chest and banished the weary mien from her face. Crew could either follow orders or they could be shipmates. Crew did what they were told, more or less, and nothing more. They worked to the task and the hours only and rarely anticipated the next command or worked to carry it out ahead of time. Shipmates worked their jobs and the job behind, in front of, and beside theirs and didn't need to be told what to do except in the most general terms. Shipmates looked out for one another and when extraordinary situations arose they stepped forward without hesitation. Every woman and man on the bridge had just proven to Iona, to the St. Anne, that they were worthy of the term. Sometimes she marvelled at her good fortune.

"I'll bring us closer then we'll all board and conduct a survey. I don't like leaving the St. Anne without a watchstander but we're short handed and there's nothing around. Still, we'll take the Annie and the other shuttle that someone," she looked at Donovan and didn't quite hide a smile, "seems to have acquired. Gives us a backup for life support and transport."

"Doctor Khan, whatever you need and a duplicate kit. I'll carry it. Donovan, whatever you think we need to be cautious and kit Thomyris out the same way. Jin-Lai, I'd really appreciate you bringing whatever smells so good up here for all of us before we leave and then I want you to grab an engineering and damage control toolkit and bring them up here. Oh, and everyone grab a survival bubble too." They'd be heavily loaded but other than bulk that wouldn't be a problem in micro-g.

"One hour," she said and went to the helm to begin moving the St. Anne closer to the hulk.


"Jane's says she is a Ticonderoga class assault ship. No definite hull number but they were laid down three centuries ago and they don't list any still in service." Iona had oriented the St. Anne upside down relative to the hulk with her bow pointed away from her to simplify emergency maneuvering. "Decent legs but she was dependent on the fleet for under way resupply and refueling. Could carry a full regiment," she looked at Donovan to expound on that information before continuing.

"I don't see any visible damage but she's cold and has been cold for a long time. She's dead in space. If there's anyone on board they're dead too," a somber tone in her voice.

"Boarding an abandoned ship is spooky, I won't kid you about that. The St. Anne is alive now but she wasn't when I went aboard. You start to think you see things, things that aren't there, and it is a primal sort of dread that fills you." A hand on the captain's chair anchored her as she addressed the reassembled crew. "We stay calm, we talk it out, and we stay together after we anchor the shuttles and rendezvous at the entry point."

On the view of the ship two green circles appeared, labeling their landing locations. They were both forward of the engine room and one quarter of the circumference away from each other. A red triangle marked where they would enter, a cargo hold plate that was designed to be manually removed to allow a working party entry into the ship. Recessed anti-personnel cannons guarded it but they were retracted, if they were even still present in the blisters, and with no power they would be inactive.

"It should manually retract but we can use the drill to run the crank. I'd rather not use the e-power cells and risk waking those," her finger tapped the guns.

"I've uploaded what schematics Jane's had to your pads, but they were extensively modified post-war. Still it gives us some general idea of the layout. We'll want to work forward towards the bridge and let Thomyris see what she can recover from the logs."

"Salvage law says that if she was a flagged military vessel when she went dead, she still belongs to that government or their successor under whatever terms of treaty they had if they lost. Bottom line is zero for us. Officially." The crew of the St. Anne proved they didn't always follow the rules.

"Otherwise, she's ours under open salvage. We may have to dicker with the company that paid her off if she was insured but they may not even still be around. I can't find any records suggesting who this ship is or who sailed her. It's damned odd."

"Questions? If not let's board up and transit over."
 
Ophelia Fitzalan
Ticonderoga Assault Ship



“You can’t just send him off like an unwanted puppy, father!” she yelled once again at the unrelenting patriarch of their family, trying to reason with him, begging him to find another solution. She stalked back and forth in front of her intimidating parent. He towered over her 6’2 foot, but she refused to cower.

“You know something has to be done Ophelia” he answered in his typical monotone voice, no emotion whatsoever evident other than annoyance at his youngest daughter’s insistent dissension. This was not an easy choice, but it had to be done.

“We are already overpopulating Lorion and we need to find a solution. This is the only viable one available,” he watched his daugher stomp back and forth, almost wearing a rut in their stone floors with her persistent pacing. “Everyone is sending family on this voyage. The opportunity to start a new colony is an exciting adventure...many are looking forward to relocating, their next home is bound to be a vast improvement.”

“But he’s only 15, da!!!” Ophelia’s desperation causing her to relapse into her childhood form of addressing him.

“I know how old my own son is, daughter!” finally losing his patience with the young woman and shouting back at her. Pulling a long tired breath deep into his lungs, counting to 10 in his head to regain his usual control, he turned to look out the window of their homestead.

He was proud of their home, it was practical and fulfilled their needs. With two levels, all the sleeping rooms where on the top floor while all the common areas were situated on the ground floor. Outside the environment fought their every attempt at taming it. Almost a century ago, when the settlement had first arrived from earth, haggard and exhausted from the endless space journey, they had hoped Lorion was the answer to all their needs. After the first 20 years they had created a comfortable home, but they hadn’t been as successful as they hoped to be.

Growing crops on Lorion was a long and difficult task. And 80 years later they were already feeling the effects of overpopulation. Unless a new technology was found to terfarorm their home, a new law with birth restrictions was going to have to be put into place. For now, they had contacted a Colonization Foundation to send a portion of their settlement to a new planet. Hopefully...a better one.

Turning back towards his 21 year old child, he watched her frantic movements, her long white blond hair cascading down her back, unbraided and untamed. Since the death of the children's mother 10 years ago, she had been both sister and mother to her younger sibling. He had known she would find the boy's departure difficult but had hoped for a modicum of acceptance. Her pale blue eyes met his slate grey ones, matching him in stubbornness and determination but with years of experience, he easily stared her down, refusing to give an inch. He knew that she knew and understood the reasoning behind the relocation, she just didn’t want to lose her baby brother.

Slender shoulders dropped in a huff of breath and defeat, Ophelia suddenly looked the mere 5’5 feet she stood high. “Fine,” she muttered absentmindedly while her thoughts took off in 100 other directions now that the decision was final. “Than I’m going with him…” she stated and meet her father’s eyes once again, finally recognizing the sadness hidden deep within, as he nodded his agreement.

*****************************************************************

“Have you seen these Philly?!?!” her younger brother’s voice as excited now, three months into their journey, as he was the first day they stepped from a large tin can that transported them off Lorian, into an enormous tin can that propelled them through vastness of space. She smiled patiently, hiding the homesickness she was feeling and watching as he showed her yet another game on the glass terminal found in the recreation area.

Ophelia could always find her brother. He would either be here with the other younger boys playing games, or they were all pigging out in the mess hall. She on the other hand, could barely eat. The constant rotation of the ship was devastating her stomach. Before this torturous trip she had impressed more than one grown man with her ability to match their appetit. At the moment, she was lucky to get through half a ration during meal times.

“Uh huh..” she replied absently to his enthusiastic chatter. He never really noticed if she were paying attention or not, his grey eyes glued to the game while his fingers moved across the play-board faster than she could follow.

Looking around at her fellow travellers, she was a little worried. Being one of the few younger single women making the journey, she realized the problems that might arise in the near future. Most of the colonists were couples with no children, younger men or older retired couples. If it had only been their group from Lorian colonizing this new planet, she would be a lot more worried, but the foundation had explained they were only one of several large groups making this voyage. It was exciting...but it also gave Ophelia nightmares.

*****************************************************************

Screeching alarms and lights blinking on and off… FLASH

Shouting and trying to hold onto her brother Cynric as they were dragged from their tiny room…FLASH

People trampling each other, the sour stench of fear overpowering everything…FLASH

Military shouting orders, a large hand bruising her arm painfully…FLASH

The cries of children screaming in fear as they are locked into small metallic pods…FLASH

Her own whimpers echoing within the enclosed walls, until she hears and feels liquid filling the chamber…FLASH

Screaming over and over, her throat raw, the ice cold liquid slowly closing in around her trembling body….FLASH

Choking and coughing as the thick, foul tasting liquid fills her lungs, they were killing them all!!... FLASH

Her last panicked thought, an image of her brother, hoping his death was less painful than hers. Everything slowly went dark as her body shut down. Her long platinum strands creating a silky cocoon around her head, all signs of life vanishing from her eyes.

*****************************************************************

In a dark room, filled with a graveyard of stasis pods and human remains, one endures. The shiny metal pod holds a young woman, trapped just as much in her memories as she is within the thick yellow liquid.
 
Doctor Sonakshi Khan
Location: Ticonderoga class assault ship
Tagged: The crew and lost souls


Sonakshi felt clumsy and bulky with the suit, even more so loaded with medical equipment she probably wouldn't need, or at least she hoped so, since in a ship without power the only need for medical assistance would come from her comrades, or so she thought. At least the suit would keep the smells at bay, at least until they reestablished power and made sure it was properly sealed. Sonakshi was fine with what others may deem as stealing from the dead, as in war either you used everything at your reach to survive, or you'd be the next one to end up a corpse. Some people couldn't live with that, but then again, some people didn't last long.

Getting into the ship wasn't so different from being a surgeon as some may think. It was graceful and precise, or at least it should be, but still consisted of opening a hole where there shouldn't be one with as little damage done as possible. Of course, it wasn't Sonakshi's task to open a way in, since her job would be mainly reactionary beyond having another extra couple of hands and eyes. "Remember my dear mates" even through the communication and the echo the helmets caused, doctor Khan's ability for being abrasive was more than present. "I don't care how harmless it looks, how much experience you have, or why you deemed it was a good idea" she continued. "The ship should be beyond dead, but in case you stumble into anything organic warn me. If I have to enforce a quarantine protocol because one of you messed with something, I'll personally put some gloves and shower you with bleach" she insisted. She could be nasty, and she was open to fulfill her threats, but it was for the good of her mates.

Once inside by the means of the handiest of the team, they floated inside the ship, flashlight beams tearing visible cuts into the darkness. The human mind was made to search for patters everywhere, to recognize faces anytime, so those small moments of visibility were felt with dread and anticipation. They all may be more or less versed in space travel, but stepping into a hulk that size was akin to wandering into the unknown. The ones with little experience didn't knew the kind of things they could stumble into, and the ones experience knew all too well, so the atmosphere was loaded with tension.

"Fuck me" Sonakshi broke the silence. Deeper into the ship, they had stumbled into a planetarium of horror, as dead husks that had been people long time ago floated scattered through the room. Tens, no perhaps hundreds of them, reduced to a mere withered parody of humanity, a reminder of how deadly could be for the human recklessness to face the perils of space. "Try to not mess them, we don't want any more corpse dust in the air" Sonakshi warned. "Captain, we'll need to secure them or keep the barge at 0g" Khan reminded, keeping her voice on the comm in an attempt to not give silence a chance.

"Fuck me" she repeated, something that coming from the weathered doctor was sure that she meant it.
 
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