Alien: Resurgence [M] (Bluemoon x Kach)

[Kach]

Cell 22, A Block- Pegasus

"Thanks boss."
Kyle replied between bites. He had gotten used to eating cold rations if he had any regular meals in his last twenty years fighting to stay alive on alien worlds, so prison food was more than agreeable. They didn't have long until their guard left again so now was the only time to try and gather more intel about the ship's crew. Kyle continued, trying to strike up conversation Katherine.
"So you keep drawing the short straw, or do you just love our company so much that you grace us with your presence for our three squares?
My money is on, 'no one else wanted the job.'
What do you think Red?"

When Kyle finished his meal he returned the tray and remained standing, leaning against the cell door as if he would do a push up against it, as he eyed their jailer. He was a large, well toned man that nearly filled the door. A playful smirk spread across his face.
"Red figures I don't look half bad. What do you think boss?"

[bluemoon]

Level 2--cell block--Pegasus

Katherine regarded the male prisoner with narrowed eyes, ignoring the laughter coming from the other cell. She had been warned about this in her very short briefing with the warden...the inmates trying to connect and putting on an approachable air. The exact words, 'Stay professional and don't treat them like a friend. They are tricky bastards and are always looking for a crack in your demeanor. The only things they care about are their comfort and freedom. Remember that. They are killers and one more notch in their belt is not going to prevent them from sleeping at night.'

Words to live by...or perhaps more accurately...to keep living by. She gave the man a half-formed smile, one corner of her lip turning up. "I'm sorry Mr. Jenkins, but that really isn't any of your business. Just be happy you are getting three meals. I was only instructed to provide two." She moved towards the cells, keeping alert for any quick movements as she collected the trays. The man's next comment caught her off guard, her neutral expression slipping a little as he asked for confirmation on the red head's assessment of him.

"I...um...don't..." she stammered, her face flushing red at the obvious blunder. Flustered, she stepped back, creating the necessary space between her and the opening in the door to avoid any contact. "That is not an appropriate question Ky...Mr. Jenkins...and I would appreciate it if you kept such queries to yourself." She turned away, angered at her drop in professionalism. Damn it all! She had tried so hard not to take notice of his physical attributes...most women would be drawn to his masculine form. She had felt a rush of warmth when she had looked over his files....murderer or not, the man was appealing, despite his age. The same could be said of Sally...too bad they turned out to be such bad seeds. She didn't bother to address them again before she collected the remainder of her things, her back to them as she pushed the cart back down the hall.

Cell 21

"Oh...My...God!" echoed from the ginger's cell, her laughter all too clear in the quiet of the captain's departure. "You got her good Chief! I think she just might feel all warm and tingly for you. You are such a flirt!" Again her laughter, followed by a slight hiss as she slid down the cell's wall to sit on the cold floor. "She is such a tight-assed bitch. I bet if you told her she was pretty, she would just melt."

Galley--Pegasus

Kath wheeled the cart to the galley, finally feeling a bit more herself after her morning's misadventure with the inmates. Leaving the trays by the recycler, she grabbed up a meal and took a seat across from her first mate, offering a slight smile as she pushed a strand of hair from her forehead.

"Thanks for waiting. I hate eating alone. I trust everything went well last night?" Morning pleasantries. She already knew there were no problems...or she would have been awoken...the routine of greeting part of her schedule. It was easy to talk to the young woman. Knowing she was an android did not distract from treating her as an important member of the ship's crew. They were short-staffed, and her ability to work through the night made the deficiency easier to handle. She was a valued asset.


With fervor, but not disgustingly so, the captain dug into her food. She was hungry...and still a bit flustered by the inmate's taunt. The day held little for her to look forward to...just routine monitoring of the ship and a view into the black expanse. A month...maybe a little more...and they would reach Earth.

[Kach]

Level 2 Cell 22 Block A -Pegasus

Bingo
Kyle mused as their guard's facade broke and revealed he had found a weakness. He pushed the advantage for a moment, seeing how deep he could probe.
"You don't what? Find me attractive?"
Kyle feigned looking hurt at the thought. He figured she wasn't green, but she hadn't had enough experience to thicken her skin. He maintained the act as she gathered up her things, admiring the only good views he got from his cell. As she pushed the cart down the corridor, he fired one last shot for good measure. When lunch came around he would have a lot more information.
"Things you don't say hurt as much as things you do."

Kyle returned to his bed and sat, smirking lightly at his neighbour's laughter. He found the noise pleasant, it reminded him of someone he knew what felt like a life time ago. He shook his thoughts back to focus, reminding himself the noise was coming from a deadly stranger.
"Well, I have been called a charmer..."

------------------------------------------------

When Kathrine returned with lunch four hours later, Kyle attempted some conversation but wasn't surprised when she didn't take the bait. The fact she came back told him a lot. She was either too stubborn or didn't have anyone to swap watch with. He was disappointed they didn't receive anything to read so he would have to make do with chatting with his neighbour.

Galley-Pegasus

Lucille could be heard humming as Kath made her way to the galley. She stopped abruptly when the captain entered and offered a greeting.

"It's my pleasure Captain DuPre." She nodded happily. "Smooth sailing across the friendly skies. All reports for night shift were nominal, though I did note an issue with the injectors again. I informed Engineer McGovern and he is looking into it and submitting a dry dock request as we speak. I trust your morning walk through went well."
She offered, noticing a slight change in the woman's demeanour today and making an opening to talk about it if she wished. She returned to eating, her food now room temperature from the wait but she didn't mind.

Command Deck-Pegasus 15:47S.W.T.

An alert began scrolling across the screen at Lucille's station.

'Nuclear Explosion Detected.... Radar contact lost.'

She had been tracking a ship travelling a few thousand kilometres away on radar when it was enveloped in a huge explosion. From their position it was only an orange pin prick of light, but P.E.G. picked up the energy spike. Lucille sat up straight in her seat as thoughts rushed through her head.
Was that a core failure?
"P.E.G. scan for distress beacons." She flipped a switch on her control panel turning on the ship wide secure transmission intercom that covered everywhere but the prisoner deck. "Captain Dupre, to the bridge, immediately."

[bluemoon]

Middle Deck--Engineering--Pegasus

After finishing breakfast and talking a bit more with Lucille--leaving out the details of her encounter with Kyle--Katherine headed down to Engineering in search of Quince. She found him in front of the malfunctioning engine, his index finger angrily tapping at the pressure gauge which appeared to be inching its way slowly into the yellow. He turned at her approach, a grimace on his face.

"May need to shut this one down Cap...until I can reroute some of the flow into the other engines. I fixed the leak in the oxidizer, but the frickin' gauge refuses to drop. It's been rising steadily for the past hour. Don't want to fly short an engine if we can help it." He wiped his greasy hands on a soiled rag in his belt, then sat down at a small table in the corner. The paper work Lucille had filled out for him was sitting in its center, signed and dated. "Sorry to spout out like that...was there something you needed?" he asked, realizing she hadn't spoken since her arrival.

Kath shook her head. "No, I was just coming to check up on the problem...hoping it was nothing too serious. Lucille didn't think much of it, but..." She shrugged, then picked up the papers. "I can submit these for you, if you like. Not much to occupy me today." She tucked them under her arm. "What time were you thinking of shutting it down?"

"Not until tonight...when everyone is asleep. Except Lucy of course," he added with a chuckle. "I'm going to be doing a routine check on her tonight after dinner. There are a few upgrades I'm going to install...shouldn't take more than an hour or so...if you think you can do without her."

"Of course...I'll just plan around it," she said with a nod.

She left shortly afterwards, pleased to note that Quince had not smelled of alcohol...a sobriety check the real reason she had popped in unannounced.

A few hours later, after the prisoner's lunch had been taken care of quickly and without conversation, at least from her end, Kath had gone to rest for a short time in her room. She was going to have to deal with Mr. Jenkin's flirtatious personality in her own way--maybe a light sedative in his food. Working through her options, she had drifted off with her daily log open in her lap, the sound of the intercom shocking her awake a short time afterwards.

Command Deck--Pegasus--15:52

Kath arrived at the command deck in just a few minutes, her hands rubbing out the wrinkles in her uniform. She was a bit mussed, but the urgent call took precedence over her appearance. She immediately went to Lucille's side, looking at the control panel's screen.

"Damn...is that what I think it is?" she asked her second mate as Quince joined them. Panting heavily the man took in the screen and grunted.

"Holy fuck..." were the only words to pass from his lips as he pressed himself up against Lucille's chair to get a closer look.

[Kach]

Command Deck- Pegasus

Lucille was already into the process of preparing an incident report, her fingers typing with mechanical precision. She had never seen a vessel have a total core failure before and hoped at least some of the crew had made it out. Her eyes darted between her report and the scanners, waiting to see if anything appeared from the hazy cloud of ionized gas.

Incident Report
First Mate: Lucille Taves
At 15:47:33 S.W.T. P.E.G. registered a loss of radar contact with Colony Transport Ship Ishimira that had been on scopes since 09:22:17 and recorded a significant nuclear explosion centering on last known. Called Captain DuPre to the C.D. to advise. Ionized vapour clouds prevented scans from locating lifeboats.

Lucille was tapping her fingers restlessly as she waited for the scopes to clear; she didn't look up from her station when Kath and Quince entered. A pale blue aurora glowed where the ship had been far off in the star field. The bridge was dimly lit, most of the stations and lights were shut down except the screen casting a green hue that illuminated Lucille.

"It appears, a Transport had it's reactor fail." Lucille informed, keeping her voice measured and calm. "It will be another twenty minutes or so until the radiation clears enough to get a clear signal from any lifeboats. Permission to reduce velocity and adjust course to bring us closer? I have charted the deviation and it will add three hours to our total flight time."
It was Lucille's prerogative to help people, but she was still required to clear actions deemed 'unusual' with her captain; unless orders came down from higher up. She knew if they didn't pick up any survivors it was unlikely that another ship would come in time to find any still alive.
"What are your orders Captain?"

[bluemoon]

Command Deck--Pegasus

Katherine weighed her options before answering. As a prison transport, they were not required to follow the same guidelines as many of the other ships--meaning they could ignore the incident and keep on schedule. Also, their staffing numbers were low. But it was a morality call as well. If there were survivors, she felt a responsibility to assist...the convicts on board might miss their "appointments" on Earth, but she was sure they would be willing enough to take the delay. ...and the display clearly showed there no other ships in the area.

With hesitation, Kath nodded her head. "Alter course Lucille. If no distress signals or escape pods are noted within the next rotation, we will abort. You may need to delay shutting down Engine Block 3 until tomorrow Quince. Let's weigh our options once we determine the extent of our involvement."

The engineer nodded, moving away from Lucille's chair. "Of course. I'm sure the engine will be fine for at least a few more days...the needle stopped inching upwards after you left Captain DuPre. We are still in the green...barely...but it's better than I hoped. Not good, mind you, but the ship can work with it." He nodded to the two of them again before turning to head back out. "Keep me informed if you would Lucille. I'm going to make a few more adjustments and take advantage of the slowing engines. I'll see y'all at dinner...and I suspect our meeting afterwards is still on Lucy?" He offered a slight smile as he left the command center, thinking now would be a good time for a drink.

Cell 21--Pegasus

Sally was bored. Sitting on her bunk with her hands gripping the edge, she rocked back and forth, imagining herself on the other side of the cage. In charge. And free. She sighed softly, lost in her imagination until a subtle shifting under her feet caused her to look up.

"Chief? You feel that? My feet just vibrated. I think we're slowing down." She stood up and moved to the front of her cell. "We can't be close yet...and I was told there were no scheduled stops. Think we are having mechanical trouble? If the ship loses power, will the locks disengage? I would love to go on a round-about." Light laughter followed her statement. What she really meant was she would enjoy a killing spree. Her and the chief...they could have a lot of fun on this ship. She slammed her shoulder into the door, feeling the shocking impact run down her arm. Despite the pain, she repeated the move, a grunt slipping from her lips.

"Let me outta here...damn it!"

[Kach]

Command Deck--Pegasus

"Aye, aye." Lucille began tapping controls, switching the plotted course to the new detour passing closer to the site of last contact. The gradual deceleration caused a noticeable shift even with the artificial gravity.
"Will do." She informed Quince, still maintaining her chipper demeanour while watching the indicators respond to the change in course intently. The reminder of the diagnostic caught her a bit off guard and was noticeable in her reply. "Um, yes it is engineer McGovern."

After Quince left it was silent for a moment before Lucille spoke. "I sure hope someone made it out of there..." She watched the scanners intently waiting for any sign of something out there.


-----------------------------

Forty minutes passed before a lone blip appeared on the scope. Lucille blinked a few times to make sure it was real, recording the time of contact in her logs.
"There's a life boat!" She shouted, half to herself, before she switched on the intercom to the engineering deck. "Engineer McGovern, your needed at the docking bay to manually attach a lifeboat." Her voice showed a bit more of her excitement than she had intended. She began manoeuvring the Pegasus to intercept the lifeboat.

Cell 22A--Pegasus

Kyle had been laying in his bunk, trying to recall anything he knew about the layout of prison ships but wasn't having much luck. He felt the subtle shift in his stomach of the ship slowing just before he heard the question from his neighbour.
"We are." He confirmed, used to the motion of large ships. "We're definitely not at earth yet, and even if there were scheduled stops, why would they tell us? Could be mechanical trouble, or they stumbled on something they needed to slow down for." Kyle let out an amused chuckle. "Why would anyone think it was a good idea for the cells to unlock if the power went out? More likely we would be trapped in here...."
He listened to her pointless attempt to ram the door, knowing the only way they were getting out was if someone opened them from the outside.

[bluemoon]

Command Deck--Pegasus

Kath jumped up when Lucille noticed a blip on the screen, rushing over to her side to look over her shoulder. "Holy hell," she cursed softly, "...you were right." She kept her eye on the monitor as Lucille sent a call out for the engineer, noticing the craft appeared to be floating in space rather than moving towards a destination. That could mean a lot of things, but speculation would get her nowhere. They would know soon enough.

While Quince prepared things in the docking area, Kath left the deck to get dinner ready for the prisoners. Their dinner would be a little early, but she worried that her schedule was going to get a bit hectic once they had survivors on board. It was actually a little exciting to think they would have new faces to contend with---she was getting bored with the mundane schedule they were keeping. A short while later, she returned to the command center to inform Lucille to contact her if anything changed, heading to the second level with the warmed dinner trays afterwards.

Cell Block--Pegasus

Silence came from cell 21 as Kyle made his response, the red head inside turning abruptly towards the man's cell and putting her hands on her hips. Was he making fun of her? The humor in his voice and the condescending way he was speaking to her got under her skin. She began pacing her cell, grumbling with each turn until she grew tired of the repetitive motion. Sitting down on her bunk she sent an icy glare in his direction. Knowing that he could not see it did not make her feel any better...if only she could get her hands on him...


-----------


A few hours later, Captain Dupre made her way down the hallway towards their cells. Dinner consisted of fried chicken with a side of mixed vegetable and mashed potatoes. It was one of the better frozen dinners offered. She placed a hand-held entertainment device on each tray, deciding it was best if the prisoners were occupied in their cells tonight. She greeted each of them in turn, as she always did, asking them to step away from their doors as she inserted the trays. As was also her custom, she sat down to wait for them to finish their meals, her mind busy on detailing the protocols for bringing on passengers from another ship that may have been compromised. There would be a mandatory scrub down and a short quarantine period before they would be allowed to roam the ship freely. That was, of course, if the survivors were deemed healthy. Without a medical person on board, Lucille would have to be in charge of the examinations. The only other choice would be Quince, but his medical background centered around androids, hardly a good recommendation for a human's check-up. With these thoughts in mind, she idly watched Kyle and Sally as they began to eat their dinner, wondering just what the two of them talked about when she was not around.

[Kach]

Cell Block A Cell 22-Pegasus

Kyle eyed Kath curiously through the cell door, looking for any sign of what she maybe thinking about. She seemed to have her mind elsewhere as he took his tray back to his bunk. He found it interesting that she had decided to provide them entertainment. He would try to probe for information.
"So who are we picking up boss? Didn't think there we any scheduled stops.

Cockpit-Pegasus

Lucille manoeuvred the ship closer and opened a comm channel attempting to hail the life boat, but she didn't get a reply. A frown crossed her face, it would still be a few minutes before they could line up to dock. An alert appeared on her terminal, PEG had a message for her. Lucille eyed the alert suspiciously as she opened it.

New Directive, PRIORITY ONE
Executive Officer Taves
********EYES ONLY*******
Possible organic specimen of extreme value on Colony Transport Ship Ishimira
Secure and contain for delivery on arrival
All other priorities secondary

Lucille frowned, she really hated the company sometimes, but she had her orders.

[bluemoon]

Cell Block--Pegasus

Kath eyed the man calmly, calculating her words carefully before she answered his question. It wouldn't hurt to let the prisoners in on some of the truth...it was their last flight after all. She offered the man a slight smile, although it did not reach her eyes.

"First off, I do not answer to 'boss', I am the captain and you should address me as such. No names, just captain. As for the flight adjustment, it is not a scheduled stop as you had guessed. We only have one of those...and it's for Earth. We are just altering our course a bit to check out an anomaly. Then we will get back to the matter at hand....Earth." She folded her hands in her lap, watching the man closely. Between the two, he was the one she had to be most cautious around...the woman was little to worry about. Kyle could easily break her neck...or worse, grab her through the slot and force her hand. She had a taser for such an emergency, but had no desire to test it's effectiveness.

Docking area--central deck--Pegasus

Quince peered through the viewing port, his hand on the release button for the extractor, the escape pod now in clear view, although it was still a short distance out. He watched it carefully, the Pegasus slowly maneuvering into its flight path. Lucy was a good pilot and her approach was calculated to the smallest millimeter, the ship aligning well with the dock. He would only need to use the extractor if the ship did not hit the target perfectly, the claw like grippers an easy enough tool to manipulate.

He turned on the docking lights, opening the outer door which created a suction to help draw in the pod. The interior of the small vehicle was dark...but that did not mean there was no life...only that their reserves might be low and they were conserving energy to run the most important systems.

He took in a deep breath, his hand quivering on the switch as he waited. What he really needed was a drink...to settle his mind...about things...then he would feel more at ease. All this waiting was getting on his nerves.