[M|IC] Starstream

[Biophysicist]

Impossible geometries etched in blue lightning gave way to star-studded black as reality reasserted itself.

On the transport Guernica, Captain Sorokina's eyes were glued to her command console. The ship's exfiltration from Zeconis Station had been compromised by a Unity command carrier, of all things, deployed to resolve a customs dispute, and what followed could be described as hyperspatial speed chess with half a gunship squadron as Guernica tried to outmaneuver them before her own arcane residue jammed up the jump engines. That same residue, the remains of four jump spells in rapid succession, now bled from the hull like blue dandruff, filling the captain's sensor feed with snow and static. She whispered a prayer to the soul of a onetime rival and lover, ambushed while smuggling escaped slaves out of truly corrupt orbital.

A speaker crackled to life, jostling her back into the present - all static at first, but individual words began to resolve themselves as the hull cooled.

"...ain, Ras...tun to Oz... reading you thr...lometers off the rendezvo...nt. Ozone, ...our situat...n?"

All the tension left Captain Sorokina's body all at once. She leaned back in her chair and laughed with relief. They'd made it! She grinned as she reasserted herself at the controls. The sensor feed had cleared up enough to be legible, and she liked what she saw - one TF Ion designated Rasputin, one modular deep-space storage container, and nothing else save the metallic asteroid that was their landmark. The captain hit the PA toggle with a chuckle.

"Right on target and no sign of pursuit," she said. "Ans, I'm not paying you enough."

Thank you, Talia, she added silently.

And then she switched over to ship-to-ship comm, and all trace of levity left her, replaced by crisp professionalism suitable for dealing with clients.

"Rasputin, this is Ozone," she began. "We ran into a patrol off the Trafalgar and had to run the circuit to avoid detection."

Ozone. Any smuggler ship worth its fuel had a half-dozen fake IFF transponders, and hers was no exception. The actual Ozone had been an aftermarket void prowler, salvaged from interplanetary space at the behest of someone who really didn't want it being traced back to him. Rasputin, likewise, was most likely an alias as well.

"Understood, Ozone, the voice over the comm said. "Your diligence is appreciated. You may dock when ready."







There was always something about being on a new ship that put Captain Sorokina on edge - an unfamiliar space coupled with the never-quite-implausible possibility of an ambush. All the same, she did her best to seem relaxed as Rasputin's airlock hissed open.

The captain always made a point of looking nice for new clients. She was dressed in a freshly laundered blouse and slacks, and she'd even gone through the effort of styling her hair.

Rasputin's captain, it seemed, didn't share her sensibilities. Too much skin oozed out of what had once been a uniform of the Zeconis Sector Militia, and if there was any soap on his ship it certainly was someone else's idea.

"Captain Sorokina!", he boomed out in a loud but cordial sort of voice - definitely not the voice from the comm. "I'm Carl Sinclair. Welcome to my humble ship!"

Humble? An Ion freighter was as humble as a penthouse apartment. Either this Sinclair was putting on airs or he was new to this whole smuggling thing. But he held his hand out to her, and she always made a point of being polite.

"Call me Lex," she said as she stepped forward to shake it, her crew moving in behind her. Okay, no one had pulled a gun on anyone yet - that's one worry out of the way.

"Lex!", he repeated. "Nice to have you on board." He gestured to an orcish woman standing off to the side. "I'd like you to meet Jayax. She'll be traveling with you to make sure everything stays in order. In the mean time, why don't you and your crew make yourselves at home while mine get that crate secured?"

Lex discretely glanced at her crew, sizing up their reactions. This felt like a trap.

Many months later, she would wish she'd trusted that instinct.

[Splat]

Jayax stood at attention behind the captain she had the misfortune of traveling with for almost 2 weeks. She remained quiet and attentive, watching and listening closely to the men and women that exited the ship she would be calling home for who knows how long. In a sense, she was nervous, but the nerves were mostly brought on by excitement. She may not know much about the task at hand, or the people she would be protecting, but she was eternally grateful to get back into the field. Anything was better than clinking glasses with another entitled diplomat.

When the large hulk of a man in front of her mentioned her name, she moved her gaze to the human woman, of whom she knew from her file as Alexis Sorokina. Her hand shot up in a short, polite salute, and her eyes moved over the entire lineup of the small freighter's crew. A half-elf woman, and two other men. One of the men, a taller, older man, looked to Jayax to carry himself like a soldier. She made a mental note to ask him about it during the long hours they would spend together, then returned her focus to Lex.

"At your service, ma'am," the orc said, attempting to remain professional.

[Enigma]

The excitement of rattling off multiple jump spells had faded, leaving Ansegl feeling a little hollow inside. She should have eaten something before joining the crew in boarding Sinclair's ship - but now, the funk that filled the air killed her appetite, leaving her feeling queazy while her eyes watered.

And then Jayax saluted - the motion was so unexpected that Ansegl stepped back, arms sweeping to her sides to prepare a defensive spell - and smacked her right hand into a pipe.

"Oxygen raping iron!" she screamed, instinctively cradling her hurt hand against her chest. "Sausage-sucking lockjaw clamping fart-sniffing limburger cheese suppository licking soap-spacing durian fruit smuggler!"

[Queen]

Ignoring the outburst of various curses by the elf and the aired nature of the man's words who welcomed their new captain to the ship, Shiro himself stood at attention in the same line as the rest. The only difference was he did not feel anything compared to the rest. His back and posture was straight and firm as was his facial expression. Even as the half-elf woman began to scream profanity's of a sort, his expression did not change. It was neutral. Silent would be a more apt word, but nothing about his expression or posture changed, nothing stole his attention.

[Biophysicist]

Ma'am. Lex couldn't help but smile. Ex-mil, perhaps? Certainly not one of Sinclair's usual associates. She went a ways towards reassuring Lex's worries. If he'd gone through the trouble and expense of hiring a security contractor to watch over his property, then his airs of hospitality were probably just pretentious, not an ambush. Lex relaxed.

"'Lex' will do," she said with a chuckle, "or 'cap'n' if you really want to be formal. Welcome ab-"

Lex got cut off by a sudden stream of vulgarity from her right. She spun around to see her navigator cradling an injured hand while simultaneously yelling at it.

"Hey, Ans," Lex interrupted as gently as she could, "you okay there?" She was acutely aware of several pairs of strangers' eyes staring at the two of them. Why was it always in front of clients that she had these outbursts? Ansegl was a peerless navigator and a fine friend, but the metaphorical bull in the engine room when it came to public relations. And besides all that, she was on the crew, and Lex didn't like seeing her upset.

"We're going to be here probably half an hour," she said. Leaving too soon risked creating noticable starstream turbulence, and they were already on shakey ground with those Unity gunships. "If you want to go back to the ship and rest up a bit, you've earned it."

Lex turned back to Sinclair, hopeful that she wouldn't have to do too much damage control. Plain talk, she'd found, usually went over well with these types - they never wanted to make a scene.

"Four chained crash jumps," Lex explained with a shrug. "Frankly, I don't know how she does it."

Sinclair frowned. "You are sure those fighters didn't track you?"






"Powers below," muttered a pilot half an orbit away, "that shouldn't have happened."

"Not the first band of crooks that got away," replied her gunner from across the cockpit. "Not the last, either. That's just how things are out here."

"It doesn't sit right with-", the pilot began, before a blip on her screen caught her attention. "Hold up, I'm getting some turbulence."

"I see it," the gunner agreed. Her eyes widened as the blip resolved further, and she toggled on the ship-to-ship comm. "Heads-up, flash contact! TG Prominence with unknown intentions, designation Decisive Wind. Shield check, everyone."







"Absolutely," Lex reassured him. We lost them around Luxor and jumped through the boneyard just to be sure."

The Luxor sector jump point was one of the busiest areas of the system. Jumping there had been a bold move, but all the starstream activity there made tracking an exit jump nearly impossible. The "boneyard" was slang for a scrapyard in the periphery of the system, and both the distance and the sheer number of derelicts made it a navigational hazard. Captain Sinclair nodded, appeased.

"Captain," she said, "your crew may begin loading whenever they're ready. Sam, why don't you and I get to know our new guest?"

And then she turned to her engineer and quietly added, "And I suspect the captain wouldn't mind if you asked about his ship."

[Enigma]

"Hey, Ans," Lex interrupted as gently as she could, "you okay there?"

"We're going to be here probably half an hour," she said. "If you want to go back to the ship and rest up a bit, you've earned it."

Ansegl looked up wide-eyed at her captain and blushed, wanting to crawl under the nearest table and die.

"S... sorry Captain, I uh, banged my hand. I'm sorry about yelling like that, still shaky from all the jumps. I'll uh, head back." The half-elf turned and fled back through the airlock.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" she muttered angrily once she was back aboard the Guernica, tears streaming down her burning face. Why did she have to do that, in front of a customer no less! If the captain drop-kicked her ass out the airlock next port they reached, she couldn't blame her.

Her stomach rumbled. Now that she was out of that foul-smelling funk, her hunger pains were back with a vengence. She paused at the doorway of the Guernica's galley, tempted to pass it by - but her stomach rumbled more forcefully.

"Gotta eat something, can't let down the captain," she winced. Again.

Ansegl fetched out of the food lockers one of her yams, a large spoon, and a jar of chocolate hazelnut butter. She hurriedly shoved the yam into the kitchen cooker, setting the timer for five minutes. While it hummed to itself, she opened up the half-empty jar and sighed, taking a heaping spoonful and shoving it in her mouth. Glancing up, she caught her reflection in the cooker's glass.

"You idiot!" she muttered, shaking her head.

[dakkagor]

"Certainly Cap'n" The big, quiet guy in marine armour with the insignia carefully filed off pushed his hand towards Jayax. "A pleasure. Let me show you around the ship and get you settled in a berth."

He lead the Orc back along the boarding tube, and aboard the Guernica.

"Con is up there, down there you got the engine and the navigator console. Wedged below you got cargo, accessible by these ladders." He pointed each feature out at a languid pace, like he had all the time in the world.

"And here we got the galley. I sleep just there, so if you want something to eat while you adjust to our ship-time, you just kick me awake and . . dammit Ansegl!"

He leaned over a counter, unclipping his helmet as he fixed his eyes on the half-elf.

"Why you eatin' that out the jar? I've got fresh bread in the bin, least spread some of it on some carbs." He sniffed the air. "You cookin' somethin'?" He ducked down and scowled at the oven. "A yam. Shoulda known. I was plannin' on making candy out of those."

He pulled the half-elf to her feet.

"Get your ass back to quarters, and I'll finish your baked potato for you, and bring it to you in your bunk. Now get some rest, and stop tryin' to burn down my kitchen."

[Splat]

Jayax accepted the firm handshake. "The pleasure's all mine." She followed the man into the ship, still a little shaken after the half-elf's sudden outburst. She put it into the back of her mind, thinking that the woman wouldn't be on the ship if she wasn't valued for something. She carefully noted every detail the man laid out for her, not wanting to make a fool of herself by simply forgetting where something was. She was startled out of her thoughts again by a sharp scolding. Her eyes followed his gaze down into the kitchen area, where the same girl from earlier looked to be eating something.

Jayax couldn't help but stifle a chuckle when she regarded the casual nature of their conversation, although she inwardly felt a tad sorry for the woman. It reminded her of the rowdy nights back in her family home, and it was a welcome change from all of the "yessirs" and "no-ma'ams" of her usual work. As the man spoke to the elven girl, she took the chance to take in all the little nooks and spaces in the eating area. She was going to be here a while, so she might as well get familiar.

As the man led her back through the ship, she brought up some polite conversation. "I hope it's not too forward of me- Sam, was it?- but you seem to me like you've spent your fair share of time as a soldier. Might I ask where you served?"

[dakkagor]

"Perceptive." Sam smiled, and gestured for Jayax to sit. "I did serve, though it was a while ago now, with a local outfit on my homeworld of Jarak Prime, the 6th Marine Regiment. Did a couple of tours on and off world, served aboard a ship, saw a share of the galaxy. But when I came home I reckoned I'd get too bored being a home body, you know? So I took off, and by means fair and foul I ended up here." He turned and cracked open the fridge, before thinking and closing it again.

"Word to the wise. Some aboard may not like you pryin', so just wait for them to come to you. With new people, they'll talk your ear off eventually, but they gotta trust you with it first."

He re-opened the fridge and started to rummage.

"You hungry? I got leftovers of a couple of things. What do you like?"

[Splat]

Jayax listened to Sam with intrigue. "Jarak Prime?" she finally said. "No wonder you're the cook. I've heard wonders about the food there. I served a couple tours myself, mostly on ships," she continued, changing the subject. "I went right into security after my time was up. Figured it'd be a good fit, all things considered. Though I don't get out into the field much nowadays." She fell silent, fearful that she was droning on.

She cocked her head at his next comment, and chuckled. "I get you," she replied lightheartedly. "This isn't my first rodeo."

At his mention of food, Jayax's stomach replied with a low growl. The excitement of earlier had oppressed her hunger, but now that she was comfortable it had come back in full force. "I'm fine with most anything," she said, smiling.