[M|IC] Starstream

[Queen]

He shrugged his shoulders at the request and simply followed Lex. He did not really respond to it because he knew he let his anger and uptight personality get the better of him and this probably jeopardized their future dealings with Captain Sinclair. He was an idiot and acted like a child, though it was more nerves that set him off. He hated the idea of ever becoming a captain of a vessel like his father and mother and last he heard, his brother and sister. And sitting in the chair staring down one of the more ruthless captains that often worked with Unity was completely unnerving, even for him who was the one with alot of backbone usually.

Regardless, his mind turned to the captain. He followed her because he wasnt about to let her move around alone in a place like this junk heap. Sure she could protect herself, but in a criminal hive like this, anything could end up happening. Getting shot, stabbed, robbed and even worse. It was better to stick in pairs and thats at least what he told himself.

As he moved down the hangar though, a peculiar ship caught his attention. A fighter class ship called the 'Courser', developed by Mitsu Corporation, a powerful military industrial firm in the Outer Orion Arm system that Unity contracted some of its ship building too. The Courser was a private luxury military ship though. Nothing standard that Unity had in its arsenal but it was quite popular with mercenaries that had money to throw around and was one of the few ships capable of jumping to distant systems like the bigger ships using hypercharged Lifestream cores.

It was a ship Shiro had been wanting to get his hands on for a while now. He always favored fighter class ships over the others though and often preferred to piloting his own ship rather than just repairing the ships of other pilots, a fate he would have suffered had he remained on Earth, but what was done was done.

He continued on with the Captain though as they made their forward towards some unknown destination he was not sure of.

[Biophysicist]

Lex sighed inwardly as Shiro turned to follow her. More than anything she wanted some space right now - space to herself, to destress and meditate and make sense of the events of today before attending to a personal obligation. But politeness had made her invite him, and there wasn't an easy out now.

And so Lex tried not to be annoyed as they walked through the hangar together, but Shiro's attitude really wasn't helping. He stood close and constantly looked about like he was expecting a fight, and the irritated part of Lex wanted to tell him she could take care of herself, thank you very much. It wasn't just the protectiveness. Wayfarer was pretty safe as private habitats go, but it still paid to look out. But he was a newcomer, relatively speaking, to her crew, and as valuable as his considerable engineering talents may be, he'd rubbed her the wrong way on pretty much a daily basis since then. It would be different if it was Sam, or even Ansegl - both long-term friends, and neither of them had cussed out a client like that.

A pair of elves - possibly brother and sister - headed the other way walked past them, chatting animatedly about an upcoming tournament of some sort. From what Lex could catch, it sounded equally physical and illegal. They were so young and so eager, and she couldn't help but smile. Under her breath, she wished them luck.

So young... And Shiro, too. She needed to remember that. He was new here, but he'd get a hang of the crew dynamic in time. All the same, Lex found herself muttering a prayer to dear Thalia for patience.

And in time, the universe provided. Lex heard a quiet gasp from beside herself and followed Shiro's gaze to the glossy black angles of a Courser-class void prowler. Internal starstream conduits coiled throughout the ship's hull let it carry localized pockets of the lifegiving stuff inside, permitting jumps through deep space impossible to lesser vessels - a capacity backed up by enough tokamak volume to move an orbital. A pair of soldiers in Experimental Technologies uniforms slouched outside, one smoking and one pontificating.

Now there's not something you see every day. Okay, Lex could make a detour - and perhaps lose Shiro, if these gentlemen were as off-duty as they appeared.

"...and there's just no way it's going to happen," she caught as the ship came into earshot. (XB-FF Shikiri, the nameplate read.) "Where'd they go? Luxor ain't safe these days - what, you think they'll try Arcadia?"

The other soldier shrugged. "Not really our concern, is it, Mackie?"

"Well, no..."

Lex coughed. Both soldiers glanced over at her.

"I hope I'm not intruding," she said in her best diplomat voice. "It's not every day I have the privilege of seeing such a vessel as yours..."

The soldier with the cigarette snickered. "Believe me, the novelty wears off around the third full conduit flush. Still, she's ours."

Lex nodded. "I fully understand," she said with a trace of laughter. "My engineer was quite intrigued..."

The first soldier - Mackie - nudged the other, who shrugged. "Nothing secret aboard, if you're asking for a look around."

Lex grinned. She stepped back and gently pushed Shiro's shoulder towards them.

[Splat]

Jayax wiped a bead of sweat from her brow. From the excited response of the captain over the comm, it had seemed that they were clear of danger, at least for now. She sighed, leaning back in the gunner's seat. She certainly did not expect this much action on her first day. Shit, she thought. What have I gotten myself into... She dismissed the fleeting notion from her mind. A job was a job was a job, and she planned to see this one through.

Figuring the coast was clear, Jayax unstrapped herself from the turret mechanism and stretched as she walked down the hall. The ship still seemed to shudder after the shaky, impromptu jump, but the orc had a feeling there hadn't been any problems. She had heard from the captain herself that their astrogator was one of the best.

Unsure of her destination, Jayax found herself wander over to the cockpit. She gazed out of the viewport, marveling at the strange structure before her. A dead-in-the-water battlecruiser repurposed as a space station? Now that was something she didn't see everyday. She turned her head over to where Sam sat in the pilot's seat, somewhat worried about the girl. "Is... is she alright?" Jayax asked, referring to the unsteady-sounding voice of the astrogator over the comm. "I know a fair share about starstream science to know that stuff isn't too pleasant for the mage."

She scratched the back of her head. "What is this place, anyway? Some sort of refuge?"

[Enigma]

Ansegl sighed, taking in a deep lungful of perfluorocarbon and feeling it expelled from her nose. Around her, the screens that formed part of the spell circle that directed the ship through its jump was now updating with positioning information. In space, especially starstreaming, where you were before the jump was oddly more important than where you were going.

She pushed off from the bottom of the tube and did a slow spiral, taking in the position markers as the computers plotted their position.

"Sam," she said, her voice echoing slightly in the tank, "I've plunged us down to Zeconis Minor, it's going to take several minutes to get the jump engines primed."

An alert splashed on the screen. "Looks like someone's moving towards us...? I don't think it's a patrol boat but it's fast."

[dakkagor]

"I see it Ansegl. Take a breather, I'll deal with this." He killed the link to the jump con.

Sam grunted and turned in his seat to Jayax.

"This is Zeconis Minor. Bit of a way station for those who like to keep their business out of the Unity's business, if you know the right people to talk too."

He cracked his knuckles and laced his fingers around the control sticks, slowly guiding the ship in a controlled deceleration as it approached the station.

"Which we do."

He flicked a few switches, cycling the ships IFF tag to one that shouldn't be hot. He hoped.

"We just follow the landing beam in, pay the berthing fee's, and sit back and drink beers until the Captain catches up with us. Ansegl gets some time to cool off, I can run maintenance, and you get to keep an eye on a box."

He altered his course with a minimum burn, keeping to the landing path, and around the unidentified fast mover.