The End Is Where We Begin

Posted on Wed Oct 26th, 2022 @ 6:07pm by Drake Loxley & Chloe Waltz PhD

Mission: Home Sweet Wonderful Home
Location: Fortune's Echo - Three Hills
Timeline: November 15th - Late Evening

Somewhere between the food out on that fine lawn and nightfall, Alden and Jonas had headed out into Cloudwater Port for a cheeky drink or two, and there had been a quiet peaceful sense of tranquility about the stationary Firefly. It sat, wrapped in sea mist and shrouded in tarpaulins to keep said moist air out of the open sections of work in progress engineering fixes, and happily purred.

Internal lights on minimum, air conditioning and all the mod-cons of life in the 26th Century of a Verse full of humans ticked along nicely as evening fell into night and the sky beyond the old ship darkened. There, caught between shipboard entertainment and sleep, Fortune's Echo held its own as the intruder sought to slip covertly inside. An outwardly silent trip switch flashed the lights in Chloe's cabin and in the engineering spaces where she worked. Someone was using an old code to enter the ship's main airlock and the sound of boots on metal steps was muffled as they tried to sneak further into the Firefly's innards.

Sounded, from the cadence of those feet, as if they were on this deck.

Chloe was on edge. She had never not been on edge since she took up a job on this Firefly; but today, even more so than usual, she could feel the faint pulse of nerves in her veins as she flipped idly through a book. She let the book snap shut as the light flashed.

Oh. Oh dear. That was not a good sign. And of course, things would happen while Alden and Jonas were away. But she could hardly just let somebody sneak onboard. That would almost certainly get her fired. The woman gave a quiet - very quiet - swear before grabbing the sonic gun from beneath her bunk and slipping out into the common area of the ship.

Around Chloe as she walked, the Firefly was peaceful and devoid of anyone at all. Until the Echo's engineer walked into the social space outside the infirmary, where she could see someone crouched down low, legs to one side and position shifting still lower as they tried to look under the battered sofa. In soft lighting and approaching said person from behind, Chloe could see dark trousers and boots and a mop of blonde curly hair that looked very familiar.

"Hello?" Chloe asked, announcing her presence. As much as she tried, she couldn't keep the slight, defensive tone of alarm out of her voice. The woman stopped about six feet away from the figure; although she didn't raise her gun, she didn't try to hide it either. Was this Drake? What was he doing here?

There was some colourful cursing that meshed Chinese and English with an unpleasant jangle, and Drake froze in position for a second or two as if trying to decide what to do. His head turned as he shifted position to sit cross-legged on the floor and a pair of deeply brown eyes regarded Chloe from under that unruly blond curly mop. "Hullo," Drake said, sheepishly, then held his hands up - empty and innocent like - as if Chloe really might shoot him. "You got me," he added awkwardly.

"What are you doing here?" The woman asked simply, not taking her eyes off Drake despite her curiosity about the couch. Then, with a strange feeling that she might be intruding, despite the fact that this was her ship and she was not the one sneaking around, she suddenly softened her expression and muttered an apologetic "sorry."

"I... er..." Eloquence failed him and Drake offered up a wry smile. "I think I lost my keys last time I was here, was just seeing if I could find them." He canted his head to the site, remained seated on the floor to deliberately give Chloe the higher ground, and added. "Sorry for what?"

"I didn't recognize you at first." Well, that was true, but it wasn't at the heart of why Chloe apologized. Frankly, she had no idea what sort of relationship Alden had with his.... brother? And wasn't sure what sort of authority the man had here on this ship when Alden wasn't here with him.

"Hey, don't worry about it, Chloe," Drake responded, well aware who she was. He made it a point to know who his brother was flying around the Verse with, and to keep his own business as shrouded as possible. Alden wasn't the sharpest, but he wasn't stupid either, and Drake had been playing a lot of games lately. Honestly, he'd been half-expecting whoever came across him to be armed and unfriendly, so this was a pleasant surprise. "I probably shoulda knocked or called ahead or something but... well I think I've annoyed Alden enough this month and I just wanted my keys. We cool?"

"Did you find your keys?" Chloe asked, partially under the pretense of friendly conversation, partially because she wanted to see if his story had some physical proof behind it. The woman had visibly relaxed a bit since from when she entered though. "Flying with this crew has just made me a bit... jumpy." She shrugged.

"Nope," confirmed Drake and he wiped his palms against each other. "Just some peanut butter and dog hair," he added with a wry smile. He too had noticed the difference in Chloe's demeanor and appreciated the subtle shift. "Maybe someone else did though." Though if Alden had, his brother hadn't mentioned that for whatever reason. Interesting. "Hey," Drake noted, standing up slowly and regarding the Echo's engineer from a short distance back. "Jumpy? You okay," he nudged gently and what seemed like genuine concern for this young woman's well-being. "You need any help?"

Drake frowned. "Chloe, you need a way out?" He pushed a little.


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