Last Day on Hera

Posted on Wed Sep 23rd, 2020 @ 8:14am by Karen Dawson MD & Alden Loxley & Alison Bliss & James Thomson & Daiyu & Chloe Waltz PhD & Jonas Bailey
Edited on on Wed Sep 23rd, 2020 @ 8:33am

Mission: Just A Short Hop to Priam
Location: Fortune's Echo - Galley
Timeline: Day 15 Early Afternoon

She was mostly back together now, the ship. Hull plating hammered and welded, destroyed engine replaced with the beating hearts of long abandoned relics from the U-War. Chloe had taken on oversight of those repairs, while Alden and Alison had taken on the usual tasks of rewiring and running checks. Teamwork.

It had been a rough few days since they'd lost Noah, since they'd fished the two Ezrans out of a grave in Serenity Valley and it had been a surprisingly quiet and event-free period of recovery too, which had Alden a little on edge. Suspicious. Confused. Wounded but recovering.

Alden stood now at the head of the long communal table in the galley, fresh produce from Hera's markets laid out for a crew lunch, and he looked to the diverse group of people he currently called 'family'. Sure, there were some new faces in the mix, but they were all in this together and that's what really counted.

"I think," he said, serious for once. "You've all met Chloe now. She's gonna be staying with us when we head off tonight, so I wanted to officially welcome her to the crew as our new engineer." He raised a mug of tea in Chloe's direction. "Welcome, Chloe!"

Chloe gave a shy smile and lifted her hand in a halfhearted wave at the introduction.

There was more, though, and Alden grin's now lit upon the eldest person at the table. "Before we all sit down and eat though, I have two more new faces we're taking with us into the black." He indicated Niamh first. "Niamh's renting a shuttle and she's kindly offered to serve as a freebie counsellor for us all, god help her," he added, with a wink at his old friend. Another raise of the mug.

"And," Alden took a breath. "By luck, fate or curse, you're also stuck with Jonas here," he lightly punched the man stood next to him in the upper arm. "On account of he was sent here to kill me."

Chloe looked over at Jonas after Alden's comment. What sort of trouble did this ship invite? Or was this a joke? To Chloe, everybody was new and she didn't know any of them well enough to know when they were joking. And somebody being sent to kill you wasn't something Chloe herself would joke about. The woman frowned, just slightly, silently trying to work this out.

James sat quietly, probably best he left what he wanted to say to this Jonas to himself. It didn't stop him from staring daggers at the stranger though. Besides him sat Niamh, she too remained silent but offered a tip of her cup towards the table at the mention of her name. One of the three that James had actually bothered to communicate with, James had been in Niamh's orbit since her arrival, intrigued by the woman who helped so many of his cousin's woes. The older woman didn't mind, he didn't realise it but he was doing all the legwork for her in regards to trust. She knew it wouldn't be long till she cracked him.

Jonas never bothered to return the light punch. He just stood there, next to Alden, and took in the room. Based on the couple of looks so far, it was going to be an interesting meal and meeting. He also anticipated a few 'talks' later on. But hey, who trusts a mercenary who was hired to kill the man standing next to him. Well, except maybe the man standing next to him. "Looks like a pretty decent spread you got here."

"Eat up! Might be the last trip we take," Alden said lightly. "Unless Chloe knows her stuff."

Alison sat at the table, seemingly indifferent about the people but looking at each to gauge their state, and noticing some colder stares here and there. Honestly, she suddenly felt like on a different ship, where the crew changed completely. At the first realization of that, she felt a bit of anger, but by now, she just decided it was not worth it. This was not her ship after all, she lost it fair and square to Alden. Reaching for a mug, she poured some water in it and took a sip, waiting for things to develop.

Karen seemed in a better mood, overall. She still made herself scarce to most people, but at least she hadn't lashed out to anyone in the last 24 hours. Still, as she took in the new faces, one of them working for Noah's sister, Karen felt uncomfortable.

"Let's just hope none of Daiyu's narcotics get loose in the ship again," Karen noted with a dark look in the unhinged woman's direction. "Last thing we need is an incapacitated crew while out in tha black."

"It was an accident, you jiàn nu rén," Daiyu said. The profanity was terse and cold in delivery. "I don't have enough room to store my tinctures properly and they got mixed up when preparing incense."

Whatever good mood Karen started out with, melted like tin cans floating close to a sun. The doc stood up, placed her palms on the table to brace herself, and leaned forward at the tiny woman before her.

"Alden may have a soft spot for you," Karen began with cold eyes, "but I don't. You're crazy. You're a liability. You belong in a mental ward, not here. Now... if you'll excuse me for a few minutes, I need to go get my medical bag - never know when the ship's gorram psychopath will go off next."

Yeah. It wasn't all that professional of her, but Karen drew a line when it concerned how she let others treat her. And... she wasn't comfortable with Daiyu at all.

Alison glanced at Alden meaningfully and then shook her head slightly.
"I think everyone is a bit crazy flying with our captain. But that is a good point, how come you decided to stay with us, Daiyu?"

He opened his mouth to comment, but Alden's cousin beat him to it, so he just shot Alison a Look.

"Ain't nobody else going to take the abuse," James cut in, the ghost of a humorous smile on his face. He'd grown fond of Daiyu since Noah's death. Sure, she'd been nothing but rude to him, but it seemed his time spent with Alden had rubbed off on him more than he'd care to admit. Besides, he couldn't criticise anyone on conduct, he wasn't a much of a saint himself. His constant daydreams exploring the ways he would get revenge on Zan were evidence enough.

What could Daiyu say? That she had nowhere else to go? That she was on the run for killing a man? That she was sent away from the Monastery, the only home she recalled with any clarity?

"I'm not a psychopath," she said softly. The gentle timbre of her voice clashed with the fierce darkness of her eyes. "And I stayed because I was invited..."

Daiyu's lips trembled as if she would say more, but her mouth drew closed while she just stared.

"...And anyone invited by Alden is welcome," Karen agreed as she moved through the room, headed toward her medical bag. "But that doesn't mean your antics should be ignored either... More so if they present a threat to you or the crew."

Karen disappeared after that to go fetch her bag. Alden made a face, but didn't argue. The crew needed a chance to vent, and interrupting them was counterproductive at this point. Better to let it play out so long as they were just talking.

"Maybe I should get drunk and fornicate loud enough for the whole ship to hear," Daiyu muttered.

Chloe looked concerned. She glanced over towards Karen, and towards Daiyu. Considering her one experience with Daiyu had been the girl trying to get everybody high, "accidentally" or not, she didn't have particularly high opinions of her. The doctor, well, the doctor she hardly knew. She respected her already though; all too often she had found herself judging people too much by their education, a habit she told herself she would have break out here near the border worlds.

"So, uh..." Chloe looked back towards Alden, not sure what to do about the rather tense conversation. "Can we start eating now?"

"Help yourself," said Alden, his smile a little muted, but his expression kind. He reached for a handful of peanuts and an apple, which he bit deeply into.

Moments later Karen returned quietly with her medical messenger bag hanging across her body. She sat down like a practiced Core elite and tried hard not to stare at Daiyu. Instead, she acted as if the tiny woman wasn't even in the room.

"I'm not hungry." Daiyu pushed back from the table and stood up. Her eyes darted around the room, pointedly ignoring Karen, and then swept toward the ground. "I..." She swept her wild locks aside with a tremoring hand as she made for the rear exit in the direction of her bunk.

"If you get drunk, don't forget to call me. I can help you with the second part." Alison spoke after Daiyu with a slight taunt in her voice.

For reasons she might never be able to articulate, Alison's offer brought tears to Daiyu's eyes. Soft whimpering hung in the air for several seconds after she ran out of the room.

Alden stood, frowned, and moved to stand in the doorway caught up in the decision of whether to follow the young woman or let her be alone in private for a moment. "Leave her be," he said, appearing to make that judgement for now.

"Probably shouldn't dish it, if she can't take it," Karen noted, pointed to the platters on the table, and mirrored Daiyu's question. "So... can we eat?"

"Y'all don't usually wait on my permission," Alden said, turning back to face them. "Eat. Go for it."

Jonas had already taken a seat and grabbed some ingredients for a small salad. Part of him wished there there was teriyaki meat on a stick with all of the produce. But he was a meat and potatoes kinda guy. He'd listened to the exchange while building his salad and finally sat back, popping a cherry tomato in his mouth. "Food, fornicatin', and fightin'...think this'll be a fun trip," he said, leaning back in his chair. "Though, I could stand to hear more about the fornicatin'."

Alden looked to Alison, then Karen, then back to Alison again. "Ain't rightly sure which we'll get out of these two overnight any more," he said, expression mixing mild amusement with gentle concern. "But it's only a day to get us to Priam. There we drop off the ore, pick up whatever gets us further out away from the Core. Either way it's far enough for a decent test of our fixed-up new engine and short enough that we won't be lost forever if we don't make it all the way there." He crunched his apple noisily and reached for a hunk of bread and cheese to mix up the flavours.

"Just remember who patches ya'll up, and gives ya shiny pain meds," Karen half-joked as she began to make a turkey sandwich.

Alison put some meat on the plate and added some veggies, then poured some water and leaned in her chair grabbing a fork. "For someone of your... appearance, I am surprised that hearing is what comes to your mind when someone says fornicating." She said to Jonas and put piece of meat in her mouth.

At that, Daiyu came back into the room. Well, stumbled would be more accurate. She could barely put one foot in front of the other. In her hand was a bottle labeled Surgical Spirits.

"How do you like me now?" she asked. Her eyes darted between Karen and Alison, but never settled for long. The unequal dilation of her dark pupils was apparent from across the room. She thrust the bottle toward either woman, but she was unable to hold it steady. "Want some? I... I bet you do. Ap-parent-ly it's the only way to make--"

And then she lost it. Heaving so hard that her body folded in half, blood vessels burst in Daiyu's face as she fought for air in between wretches.

Alison eyed the returning Daiyu, slightly sliding back with her chair and putting down the plate. She looked with disappointment at Alden when the girl started to speak and only turned her attention back to Daiyu when she began to gasp.

"Will she be all right?" She turned to Karen.

Though Karen had begun to loathe Daiyu, she instantly ran over to her and began to check vitals, as well as removed the alcohol from the woman's hand.

"Daiyu..." Alden ignored the look from Ali, and moved towards her, second in step to the rapidly shifting doctor though, so he stood, waiting on her verdict. "She okay?"

"She needs an O2 line and fluids to flush the alcohol from her system," Karen spoke instantly and pointed to Alden and Jonas. "You two, get her to the infirmary... Alison? Can you make a 50 M-L Dextrose solution into a 1,000-M-L bag?"

"I think so..." Alison said taking one final mouthful scoop of the meal before leaving in a quick trot toward the infirmary.

"You're gonna be lucky you don't go blind and end up on a ventilator," Karen spoke with an unsympathetic head shake to Daiyu. Why the crazy lady had to go and do this was... well... crazy.

"C'mere, you," said Alden softly, as he reached down and scooped up the puke-soaked frail form that was their mysterious freerloader. Don't die... he repeated in the privacy of his head. "Jonas, grab a towel and a jug of water," Alden added, nodding his head towards the kitchen area as he held Daiyu close to his chest and followed Alison.

"For once, I'd like to actually have a meal in this room without something crazy going on," Karen complained to noone in particular.

"I'm... floating..." Daiyu mumbled.

Jonas had been about to answer Alison's question when things took a turn. He threw a towel over his shoulder and grabbed a jug of water before helping Alden with Daiyu. "Well little one," he said to Daiyu, "let's just float you to someplace else right now."

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