Peace Offering

Posted on Wed Oct 14th, 2020 @ 6:05pm by Alden Loxley & Alison Bliss

Mission: Just A Short Hop to Priam
Location: Fortune's Echo - Bridge
Timeline: Day 16 - late

Landfall wasn't more than 4 or 5 hours away now, Priam in sight on the monitors, their approach noted and granted in principle. That journey had been logged and confirmed when they'd left Hera, and one of the last moments he and Alison had agreed on something. Buy, sell, move forward, the day to day of ship-life.

Somewhere in between he'd fucked up, and Alden refused to admit it. Fucking up was a point of view, and he stood by every one of his decisions. Daiyu. Niamh. Chloe. Jonas. He'd do the same if he had to repeat those moments. Still, he felt bad for pushing Ali to the point that she stood down, and he felt a need to address that.

So, knowing she'd be keeping a vigil on the bridge, Alden strolled in, confident and tall and in no mood to talk business. In his hand, a quarter bottle of whiskey - nowhere near enough to get them drunk, but a peace offering of sorts. He placed that down before his First... no... his pilot and then placed something else beside it. A bright shiny darkly metallic cube with etchings on each surface.

"This is what Noah died for," Alden muttered. "Have a drink with me?"

Alison was sitting at the pilot seat, checking the final approach vectors toward the planet. They were going to land soon. She leaned back against the back of the seat hearing someone entering the bridge. Without looking, just based on the steps, she was guessing it was Alden. She gave the readings one final look and happy to see things in optimal ranges she turned to the captain. He had this look on the face she'd seen many times before and was able to read through it. She responded with a simple, small smile.

When he put the cube down, Alison reached out and picked it up. "Sure." She replied to the proposition while she weighed the cube. It wasn't heavy, but seemed solid. She looked at it closer, using the other hand she traced the etchings. "Do you think there is something hidden inside?"

Alden watched Ali heft the cube in her hand, knowing what she'd sense from that gesture. It was heavier than it looked, it felt cool to the touch and never seemed to entirely warm up. The runic symbols on its six surfaces weren't like anything he'd seen before, though he'd had limited access to Earth That Was artefacts and he was no language expert. That, and it didn't seem to have any means of opening it.

To her question, Alden shrugged. "No idea. If there is I can't figure out how to get inside."

"Maybe we should smash it?" Alison grinned and put the cube back where Alden put it originally. "Maybe itself it is a key... like in those old books. You put it in a slot of an old machine and it comes to life." She moved her eyes from the cube at the captain. "What do you plan to do with it?"

Alden shook his head vehemently - no - and looked down at Ali from beneath a definite frowny face. "We're not smashing it," he told her, firmly, though he knew (hoped) that she was joking.

"Yeah, I've been wondering about all the things it might be too," he admitted. "Normally I'd ask Drake, but figure better if he doesn't know we have it. Y'know, since he's not kidnapped or hurt or anything..." He thumped a fist into the bulkhead behind him and grumbled a few curses. "I plan to keep it safe until we figure it out." A small grin crept onto Alden's face then, like a small child with a secret. "Maybe... maybe we find this machine some day huh?"

"Maybe..." Alison reluctantly agreed. She doubted that the fate would just bring them to the machinery. That part she considered a wishful thinking. "Though I guess we should actively look for answers. The Verse is too big for just handing us the answer." She pointed at the cube. "You might want to hide it somewhere though. Just in case. We might want to lay low on that for a while too."

She then pointed at the bottle and flexed her fingers in a gesture suggesting he should give it to her.

"Let's drink." She said.

"Well, yeah," Alden said, his tone a little off-beat as if this was a no-brainer. "I didn't think the Verse was gonna simply drop the answer in our laps, Ali. We're gonna have to seek it out, but right now we have no place to start from, and sooner or later those guys who shot us will realise they don't have it. I'd like to be far away from Ezra and Three Hills when that happens."

He reached out, grabbed the whiskey and flipped it to lie horizontal in his hand, then handed it off to Alison. "You first," Alden told her.

Alison raised her eyebrow and took the bottle. She unscrewed it and took a swig.
"Do you have a plan how to solve the mystery? Or for now you just leave it be?"

"Plan?" Alden asked, a wry grin on his face. "Me? Nah. Not yet. Wouldn't even know where to start. Like..." Another thought occurred to him. "Like the locket, Noah said he stole, but he didn't, cos neither of us even knew it existed... Figure the Verse is messing with us some, little things, nothing cohesive, y'know?"

"What's with the locket? Did you figure it out?" Alison asked and took another swig before she extended her hand offering the bottle to Alden.

Alden shrugged, took the bottle and stole a mouthful of the amber liquid. He held it in his mouth for a few seconds, then swallowed. "No clue," he answered Ali. "Picture's all blurry, inscription's mostly worn away... not much to go on. But we still don't know much about our baby," he grinned, looking up at the interior of the ship above him.

"Whatever she hides, it doesn't matter. Finder's keepers." Alison replied and shrugged. "Echo is yours now."

He handed the bottle back to his partner in crime, canted his head and frowned deeply at the blonde before him. "We found her together," Alden reminded her. "It matters."

Alison took the bottle and nimbly took a swig. She sighed feeling the liquor warming her up inside.

"Yeah, we did. Didn't we?"

He grinned, a little tentatively and with too much optimism perhaps, but a genuine happiness nonetheless. Alden hadn't forgotten, he'd never forget that day, or most of the two years that had preceded that discovery.

"Yes, ma'am," he teased with a generous helping of over-politeness. "Wouldn't want it any other way. And when I screw up, I'm always glad you're the one who tells me that." Alden rested a hand over his heart. "Anyone's gonna hit me hard where it hurts, I'd rather it was you, Ali." He blinked, a moment of silence framed by long lashes and dark blue eyes. "Sorry for being a jerk."

She gave him the bottle.

"Tell me better how are you going to get rid of Daiyu?" Alison asked looking right into Alden's eyes. "You do realize this is not a place for her?"

Alden gifted the bottle a long look, grateful for its lack of any opinion with regards to his Captain skills or his choice of passengers. Finally, he shrugged, then shot Ali an unhappy look. "I don't plan to 'get rid' of her," Alden said outright. He took a mouthful of the sugar-brown liquor and passed it back before he added. "But yeah, I know she needs professional help. We can't exactly just dump her on Priam, no credits, no friends..."

Alison held his look and kept looking right into his eyes. Calmly.

"I am not saying get rid of her. I am saying to give her to someone who can help. A ship that is constantly being shot at, with a motley crew of people who have their own demons to deal with, constantly working in the grey area between law and criminality, flying into unknown parts of the Verse, risking lives, is not an environment to help a troubled kid. No matter how hard you feel responsible for her and how much you feel you need to protect her." She pointed fingers at him accusatory. "Stop being so egocentric. Keeping her around is not the best for her. It is just the best for you. It makes you feel good about yourself but be honest, it has little to do with doing what's the best for Daiyu."

Well, that hit home, just as Ali no doubt intended. It hit home and hurt. Alden said down hard and mustered up a bit of quiet time in which to truly consider those harsh words. Truth. Ali's truth. Daiyu's truth. He sighed, closed his eyes and forced himself to face the fact that his old friend's point of view was one he really ought to be embracing. Had he really been that selfish? Alden swore, quietly and under his breath.

"Maybe you're right," he partly conceded. "But I just have this feeling she's safer with us than anyone else for the moment. Someone did something powerful unkind to that girl, and she's no child." Alden made unhappy face and shrugged. "If I drop her off somewhere I need to know, or at least believe, I'm not making her life any worse. Can we agree on that?"

"You are the captain. You don't need permission from anyone." Alison shrugged and shook her head. "But you still don't get it... safer doesn't mean it is the best and doesn't really mean safe at all. You can't make her safe here. Remember this rocket we took?" She pointed with her thumb toward the aft of the ship. "You do know that there is Niska somewhere that will chase us to take what Tristan brought us?"

Alison sighed.
"Dayiu needs mental healing and you can't heal her. She needs a professional help. She needs people who will be for her twenty four seven. But most of all, she needs a calm environment. You went to war, you know that healing PTSD is not something you can do on the side fighting in the war. If you want to help her, leave. Leave the Echo and settle down with her. Keeping her here will only fuck her up more. Or... find someone who you can leave her with. And make it a priority."

"You're right," Alden agreed simply, but with a grimace. He didn't often exercise his authority, or make harsh demands from his crew, yet on this point, for some reason he'd decided to stand firm. For a complete stranger, and a crazy one at that. "I don't need permission."

A heavy sigh. A heavier exhale. Alden shrugged. "Niska wants it that badly, there's nothing we can do about it. He'll go after my family or he'll come after us. We're never safe out there though," he reminded Alison. "One of your many once-rich ex-husbands could come after us at any point. Random trouble could come our way. I could lead us all into a firefight or danger of some kind any day now."

He locked his gaze with hers and spoke from the heart, the depth of the emotion obvious in both Alden's tone and expression. "I'm not leaving. But," he conceded gracefully. "I'll think about finding someplace safe for Daiyu."

Alison gave Alden long look. She knew him enough to realize she pushed him as far as she could. She knew him all too well also to predict that this would happen from the moment she saw Daiyu. Alden was very predictable when came to broken and young people who looked like teenagers. She felt only sadness that she felt he valued those people than her and their friendship. "I will finish then with drawing my line on this matter. I don't want to have anything to do with her. If that is your pet project... fine. Don't drag me into it." She pointed her index finger at him to add weight to her next words. "And to any other of your misguided in my opinion projects like that. My patience for them run out for at least next two years. I don't like them but I like you so I am going to tolerate them. Period."

He looked at the ceiling, well aware of the intensity of those eyes as Alison studied him, then Alden looked to the floor and, finally, he risked meeting her gaze directly. Yup, he couldn't really blame her. Alden was a big brother first and foremost, a traveller, a pilot, sometimes a captain, but always a friend. That annoyingly fortunate friend who, somehow, always seemed to walk out of the worst situations in more or less one piece regardless. Alden was becoming more and more aware, however, that when he pushed that luck, there were always casualties, even if they weren't him.

"I love ya too, Ali," he said, escalating her words, sincerely and fondly as one should a favourite ally or specially treasured friend. He didn't judge her in that moment, or compare her failings to his own, Alden simply added one word. "Thanks."

He figured - hoped - that she knew, as strongly as she understood his need to rescue, that when Ali needed to explore those vices and misguided ventures of her own, he'd support her too. That he'd come running when she needed help and tolerate any diversions her needs brought to their journey. If she didn't know that after two years in his company, then simple words offered in this moment wouldn't make any difference.

Alison's face softened though only to those who could read her like Alden could. She might be saying she was done and that she didn't want any part of it, and to a degree she could put some distance between herself and Alden's actions but the fact was their friendship meant more to her than she would admit even in front of herself sometimes. She understood him and moments like that made her realize that as much as she could be stubborn, Alden was stubborn-ier. Still, he always had her back. The same unconditional support he offered to all those he took under his wings also extended on her. Even if she couldn't do the same for everyone on the ship, she always would be there for Alden, regardless of troubles he get himself into.

"You're welcome." Alison said her voice calm.

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