Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

Posted on Sat Mar 27th, 2021 @ 12:49pm by Alden Loxley & Alison Bliss & Karen Dawson MD & James Thomson & Tristan & Daiyu & Chloe Waltz PhD & Jonas Bailey & Kindra Graham & Whit
Edited on on Sat Mar 27th, 2021 @ 12:57pm

Mission: Back in Black
Location: Fortune's Echo - en route to Ghost
Timeline: Day 24 - 15:30

Departure from Santo had been slightly delayed by the comings and goings of an Alliance ship that no one wished to argue with, but finally, with Alison's capable hands at the wheel and Chloe riding shotgun in the engine room, the Fortune's Echo returned to the darkness between the stars. Santo's yellowy-blue globe now filled in its rear-view while Ghost's distant pale pink new clouded form showed on the Echo's destination display, though not anywhere near to being in sight as yet by any other means.

Alden swung down the metal stairs from bridge to upper catwalk above the cargo bay where he'd asked everyone to gather, long limbs aiding his swift downward passage. Some folks were already below him, and a couple were conversing mid-way down the steps, but Alden waited for everyone to gather before he started speaking, simply casting his gaze around the myriad of people now travelling on their rickety old Firefly.

"Okay," he asked, with a wry smile. "Anyone been out around Ghost before?"

Karen was among the few that sat on the stairs. The lowest landing, to be exact. When she heard the name, a vague memory hit her.

"Visited, no... But I recalled a wave my parents sent me a month back. Alliance is looking for skilled people in education, medicine, and governance to move there. But it's not a world I'm familiar with," Karen confessed.

Alison stopped behind Alden, resting against the railing toward the top, she listened to Alden and then her eyes moved at Karen. Her eyes curiously moved at others in the cargo hold, wondering if anyone was there. For now, she decided to remain silent.

"Yup," Alden confirmed Karen's observational comments. "Not for a while yet, but Alliance is looking to encourage some community. Lay the groundwork so to speak. Or at least they were," he added.

Kindra stood on the cargo bay floor near the steps, immensely curious to see all the ship's compliment turn out for the briefing. There were at least two crew members she hadn't met – so far.

In answer to Alden's question, she shook her head in the negative. All Kindra knew about Ghost was the disappointingly sparse information available on the cortex.

Jonas sat on the edge of a container...again...and kicked the backs of his heals against it. "Can't say I've ever been. But if the Alliance is looking for skilled people out there, seems likely they might have a small group there."

"S'possible," Alden responded to his friend. "Never can tell with those folks. Suspect they have some hard-ass individuals about more'n'likely," he added with a sage nod. "Nothing we can't handle, I'm hoping."

Tristan leaned against the back wall, staying out of the group as a whole. His fingers picked at the hem of his maroon hoodie as he looked down. He'd never heard of this place and he was hoping they'd stay as far away from Alliance presence as possible.

Alden's gaze tripped to Tristan, simply acknowledging the boy's presence and offered a simple nod to let him know he was present and accepted. He looked for Daiyu then, who was quietly casting her attention about the gathering of souls.

There were rumors about Ghost but Daiyu did not offer them. She always said the wrong thing, at least in group settings where the odds of someone getting the wrong idea weren't in her favor. Her almond eyes were wide and unblinking as she stared at each person in turn, though, wondering what the trip would mean for all of them.

"It's a No Man's Land," Whit offered. "Terraforming is still only half done, which means no farmers or ranchers and the like. Just fortune-hunting corporate types and their grubby workforce huddled all snug as a bug inside pyramid hab structures they pray every night won't fail to channel the lightning storms into the ground instead of their bedposts. Might get lucky and strike it big, but so far nothin' doin', meaning Ghost is a bit of a redheaded stepchild in the ranks of the Alliance's colony worlds. If they ever make the terraforming stick, maybe they can get some industry booming in the open air and turn a profit, but for now it's just a good place to get lost." He smirked at the group. "And that's where I come in. Got some missionary work, you might say, in the form of a missin' person. If I need help, I'll ask. Otherwise I just need ya'll to keep your noses clean until I call wings up." He threw a mischievous look at Alden. "Begging your pardon, Captain Alden. Wings up by your leave, 'a course."

"That, uh," Chloe hesitated. "That sounds like a perfectly safe, pleasant place." The woman spoke with a dry sarcasm that seemed almost out of the place for the shy engineer. "Why, exactly, are we going there?" She asked Alden.

Alden smiled, and indicated Whit with a flourish of his hand in the older man's direction. "On account of our lonely Shepherd here contracted us with enough credits to make the journey very worthwhile," the Echo's captain answered. He looked to Whit then, locking gazes with their patron for this trip and let their eyes hold for a long few seconds. There was something worse going on underneath the rescue mission, of that he was sure, but every job had its risks and he had eight or nine days to drag more information out of the Shepherd.

"You come back a'running and a'screaming," Alden said, with a wry grin. "These wings'll be headed up real fast, right Ali?"

"Right, right." Alison said glancing curiously at Whit. Leaning sensually against the railing, she had her usual playful if not taunting grin. "Missionary work? Like what exactly?" She asked tempted to ask more questions but Whit seemed like intelligent and devious enough to pick only those who he might want to answer and drop the rest, so she decided for the most open ones. The man was as mysterious as he was handsome and he certainly was suspicious.

Kindra thought on the Shepherd's description of Ghost and its population. Whilst she might find some clients among the fortune-hunting corporate types she didn't hold particular expectation. This trip to Ghost would evade her stepbrother's pursuit, and that was enough for now. Kindra smiled at the nervous young man in a dark hoodie she hadn't met yet, who leaned against the back wall. And there was Daiyu, the young woman Alden's incarceration had saved. Two more of Alden and Alison's crew Kindra intended to get to know later.

"Just a missing person, right Shepherd?" Alden pressed subtly both the need for Whit to confirm such and for his business to be kept relatively private. "And we'll help where we can," his eyes skipped from Alison to Jonas and James in turn. "I need us all to keep each other safe, but once we get to ground, we'll read the situation as it is rather than making guesses. Just be sure you're all armed and dangerous in case folks need protecting - including us." There was a worried look then that he didn't bother to hide that skimmed from Kindra to Daiyu and lingered on Tristan. "No going anywhere on your own, understand?"

Daiyu nodded, a gesture which caught Whit's eye. Looking at Alden, he said, "I won't lie. I don't rightly know what I'm steppin' into down in the world. All I know is who I'm lookin' for and where they're liable to be. Everything else is in the Good Lord's hands."

Alden took a second to give Daiyu a low thumbs-up then looked from Whit to Alison, expecting... something.

Alison opened her mouth to comment on that but there was something in Alden's pose that made her just shrug and not say anything more. Instead she licked lips and remained silent.

"It's more than likely arms are checked," Karen spoke as she looked directly to Alison and Jonas. "If the atmo isn't breathable, I'd only risk knives or other bladed weapons for protection. Stray bullets can easily get people killed with cracked domes."

"The first place I intend to look is a permanent settlement by the name of Gaishan. It's half buried under a mountain where the pyramid docks ain't juttin' out like the Tower of Babel itself," Whit said. "Big, vaulted common areas, itty, bitty private spaces. Guns a'plenty, I reckon, though I hope and pray none will be used."

"No domes," Alden seconded Whit now. "Pyramid structures, double airlocked metal. We're talking real fifth-gen terraforming here, hard-grungy tech made to survive out there past the Rim. And if we see anyone who bothers to check guns and papers, I'd be rightly surprised and downright disappointed," he added with a grin. "We pass the Alliance's last frontier when we fly through their big ol' boundary." He looked to those who hadn't ever been out this far. "That'll be the six Alliance deep-space stations, command bases forming an orbital path between Core and the Rim." He paused then, expecting questions.

"This is a bad idea," Tristan whispered to himself, hoping no one heard him.

Alden hadn't heard the actual words Tristan had uttered, but he noticed that some concern had been voiced and noted to ask questions in private. At this point, with this information, worries were natural after all.

"So, we are going to land in the enclosed port? Or are we expected to wear breathers everywhere?" Alison asked unsure what to expect, still leaning over the railing and watching the gathering from above.

Now, that was a good question, thought Kindra, smiling up at Alison. It sparked another, and her gaze shifted to Chloe. "I'm not an engineer, obviously. But if we don't land in the enclosed port, will the ship's life support function when the engines aren't running?"

"Yes," Chloe said quietly. Then, louder: "Yes, of course. Most structures like this have external power docks for visiting ships that we can run life support off of, but even barring that, we can run on auxiliary life support without engine power for a short time, though efficiency wise I think..." Chloe looked around the room, realizing these people probably didn't care about the technical details. "The life support will work," the engineer said with a slightly embarrassed smile.

Alden waited while Chloe answered both Ali and Kindra's questions in one explanation, then after a agreeable nod, let his gaze pan across the others as he spoke.

"Yup," he noted. "First up we'll be parking up on an external landing pad," Alden explained. "That'll have a power and water hook-up so we can keep running and refuel. I don't want to land us within any structures until we've done a reccy and made sure it's safe. No idea what we're going into and I don't like the idea of being inside an enclosed space until we've gotten a better idea of such." He raised his eyebrows and waited for any complaints or comments.

"Right," Karen nodded, then stood up. "Those staying on the ship, I"ll be setting up some Mahjohn tiles... Or maybe something more table-top. Probably best those with a reason not to be noticed, to stay aboard, anyway."

Daiyu gave a rare smile. "I love Mah-jong," she said with a hint of surprise at herself. "I used to play it often...I think."

He'd never heard of this game, at least it sounded like a game, but Tristan nodded. He'd be happy for any reason to stay aboard the ship and not venture out into Ghost.

Alison glanced at Daiyu then and Karen and smiled, amused imagining them both playing. With the discussion moving off the main subject, things seemed to be settled. Whit's task was not their concern, the atmosphere was toxic, Mah-jong would be available for anyone who would stay on board.

"So I guess everything is settled, right?" Alison said from above.

"Arm up real good before going down, I assume," said Jonas. "Which won't be too much of a problem. Guess I'm all good."

"You don't need me down there, do you?" Chloe asked. "I've not been down on a planet like that before."

Alden looked to Ali, then back to their engineer. "Unless we have need of you - in which case we'll call back - you can stay with the ship, Chloe. I'd definitely rather keep the number of folks wandering about out there to a bare minimum, least til we know what's going on down there. Let us look around, determine what's needed, and we'll work from there. That goes for everyone."

Now, he told himself in the privacy of his own head, all they needed to do was negotiate the space between where they were now and where they needed to be. Then all that remained was to find out just exactly how much trouble and strife their Shepherd client was strolling them on into.

"We've got about nine days to rest up, get to know each other and..." Alden grinned and looked to Karen. "Maybe try something table-top, whether that's with dice or tiles, remains to be determined by each and every one of you."

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