Futuristic Transsolar

[Dragongal]

Adira looked at him for a few seconds. He still thought that she worked by yelling at people, didn't he? She preferred to strike home. After a moment of silence she walked around the room opening cabinets until she found his stash of sedatives. She took one out and looked at it. "Only for use when prescribed by a doctor." She tossed the near-empty bottle to him, then pulled out another and read off the same thing and tossed it to him again. On the third bottle she turned to face him and opened it up, pouring the capsules into her hand. "You've been taking sedatives without telling Doc. If you got hurt and she gave you something, it could have been lethal. That would have left us with Marshall in charge - or dead." She rolled the capsules around in her hand for a moment before looking him in the eyes. "What if I took a bunch of these? You're next in command after Saami. So, we have about the same level of importance. How would you fare with that all?" She had mixed emotions about this - pity, surprise, concern, a bit of anger. By regs he should have been put in the brig. But by regs he wasn't supposed to have a symbiote on his spine or an ATTD in his heart either. "Vince, I'd have at the least expected you to tell Doc. Maybe even me. I understand that you didn't trust anyone when you came on board - I didn't either. But I'm honestly a bit disappointed that you took that risk. It's not about you, it's about the crew. There's people on here with families." Adira poured the pills back in the bottle and tossed it to the ground. "Look, I don't hold it against you much because... I understand the fear. But that doesn't make any of this okay." Her voice had been quiet and gentle the whole time she spoke. She was definitely not yelling at him or chastising him - she was just showing him why it was so stupid to take such a risk. The moment he was put on this job, it wasn't just about him anymore. The moment he got close to her, it wasn't just about him anymore. She walked over and took his chin in her hand, forcing him to look her in the eyes. "No more drugs of any form without talking to Doc. I need you on this ship, I can't have you taking these risks unnecessarily. The crew needs you. I'm not going to punish you, because I trust that... that you won't do it again, now that you know Doc and I won't admonish you or anything, we're here to help. Okay?"

 

[BookWyrm]

Vince hadn't known what to expect from Adira, especially when she had started into his cabinets. The first bottle missed, falling to the ground beside him, but the second one he caught before it struck his face. He narrowed his brow as he watched Adira, listening to her intently. She....she was right. About all of it too. But...who would he have told in the beginning? Hell, he was pretty much a demon among people the way they treated him. He'd seen the looks some of the crew gave him as he walked by. Even the security team held a fearful respect for him. Dropping the word Outliners usually warranted as much, but putting SIAD in that same sentence made him as infamous as the Xyvir, and sometimes twice as dangerous.


Adira hit the mark when she brought the crew into this though. His whole reasoning behind joining the service was to protect and serve people. No matter what had happened to him in the Outliners and SIAD, his purpose remained the same. He'd be given a second chance, and now he seemed to be screwing it up. When Adira had grabbed his chin he hadn't fought it, instead he matched her gaze and held it. Vince found himself without the ability to respond. He knew what she was doing, but it was so much more personal and intimate coming from her. He knew this wasn't just his Captain worrying about him. After several quiet moments Vince nodded slowly, still unsure of how to deal with this situation and despite her saying she wasn't going to punish him he still expected it, and he wouldn't hold it against her if she did. For all rights he deserved whatever punishment she would deal out.

 

[InsanEleven]

3487/12/06 23:00:00 SST


Odd. That was perhaps the best word to describe the leisure day to him. Half of which hadn't been a leisure day anyway, as he had to catch up to missed work. Getting threatened by Marshall, then having breakfast with Saundary, only to find the captain herself and Woods holding hands. Whatever this ship contained, it sure was more interesting than the numbers Saami was staring at on his screen. Suddenly he found himself yawning, and realised that his thoughts had been going in the wrong direction for a while now. And indeed, not much later a message popped up in his head, notifying him of an increased surge in sleeping hormones. Immediately the command to find a sleeping place followed, and he was smart enough to simply follow it.


There was a sequence to his evening routine, just as much as there was to his morning routine. And just as with the morning routine or his eating habits, he didn't quite realise himself how strictly he followed them. To him it was the most normal thing in the world to brush his teeth for exactly two minutes, starting with his right bottom teeth and ending in the top left. Perhaps because he had never seen anyone else do it, except maybe an INANES he shared a room with on the military facilities. Those did things exactly the same as him though, so there was little human to learn from that.


Even laying down on his bed was a calculated event, with of course his right leg first and his left leg second. Laying on his back and with his hands on top of the sheets, he just sort of stared at the ceiling, until he'd sleep. It could be that that was the reason why he didn't quite like sleeping; he'd been doing it the robot way, and everyone knew that robots and sleep didn't match. It wasn't as much a case of relaxing, as it was waiting for him to go into standby. Though occasionally, he did dream about things. Yet it was a strange thing to him; usually he had a perfect photographic memory through his implants, allowing him to look back on everything he saw and heard. Dreams didn't work that way however, because they were created inside his head and had no sensory inputs to retain. Therefore, the only thing he could forget, was what he dreamt, and he didn't like that feeling. It felt foggy and faulty, and he wasn't sure what was more wrong to him, dreaming in the first place, or forgetting things. Neither of them he liked, he'd rather just lay down, close his eyes, and open them again in the morning without anything happening.

 

[Dragongal]

Adira smiled a bit and went back to the cabinet. "Now, like you promised Doc, we are cleaning out all of these sedatives." She didn't wait to ask for help or permission, she just assumed he would follow her and help. She grabbed a trashcan and started cleaning out the innumerable botttles of sedatives. "I assume you have a list somewhere of what sedatives do or don't work?"

 

[Spazzycat101]

In her calm panic for some kind of solution for the plant, Lydia had wandered again to her room, within which the smaller portions of samples resided. It had re-occurred to her that this particular vine had been growing in decomposing organic matter, and she hadn't realized she had collected plenty of such a thing already. She simply had to make it decompose. In a state a bit less blindly determined, she would have realized beforehand such a thing would be far, far easier said than done.


It was during her walk back to her room that she begun to notice that the little wriggling vine had slowly been lessening in its originally strangling grip. Lydia didn't blame it; it had probably used more energy in the last few hours of being prodded and poked than it had ever simply growing where it was before, and now it had little source of energy at all. Assuming such a species was reliant on both photosynthesis and a root system.


It was also when she noticed the flora declining that she saw bruises on her wrist and arm, some already appearing dark and blue. She would have considered how annoying the bruising would be, but instead she quietly cheered like it would encourage the little green tendril.


'Yay! Yay, good plant! Don't die, don't die yet..!'


One she had collected a decent pile of what would become compost and rooted out that which was poisonous or venomous, Lydia stuffed the various greens into a plastic container, she scrambled off down the various hallways again as if it were a race between herself and the plant's 'death,' although it wasn't really. She made her way not back to the companionway yet, but instead to the lab. Working with more speed still to escape the stiflingly clean and orderly place, she several times fumbled over and forgot what it was she had come for. Finally, she returned with a few things, a small electromagnet, and if that didn't short out the lock, then she also carried with her one of her weapons. Disassemble it and use the charging feature and a small metal rod she had brought with her from the lab to zap it.


Later, she had more or less set up camp outside the door, the single most annoying door on this ship. Lydia had organized each and every thing she had brought in a neat semi-circle behind her, where she knelt before the electronic lock. She didn't know very much about technology and engineering, that was someone else's field, but she had hopes that she could shock the lock into submission. In her right mind, it would' be occurred to her how tight security on this ship would be.

 

[BookWyrm]

Vince watched Adira for a few moments before getting up and joining her by the cabinet. "No list. I rotated them out every week to two weeks. It, or well, I, would adapt to the different sedatives after so many days. After a while I mixed it up and took a different one every day." The good news was that he kept all of the bottles in the same place. No one was ever in his room anyway, why would he worry about someone looking through his cabinets? Well, that was before now. "I wasn't doing it to get high you know. I had thought at one time that I might try to get it removed, but I guess it is too far gone now."

 

[Anaxial]

Boredom had overcome Marshall's internal struggle to change, he'd never really spent time behind bars... at least not for long before he'd make his escape. He sat on his bed and watched the guard come and get relieved by another member of the security team. When the new guy took up his watch of Marshall, the Mercenary stood up from his bed and approached the bars, resting his arms between the bars and leaning against his metal cage.


"So, what do you think of all this?" Marshall asked with a somewhat hushed voice, the guard ignored him. "Havin' fun on our little adventure?" Marshall flashed a smile and spoke as if he were talking to a child. Continuing to ignore him, the guard turned his back to Marshall and stood watch over the door, well out of the Mercenary's grasp. A frustrated gust of wind escaped Marshall's lungs and he pushed himself away from the bars on the cell.


He started pacing in his cell, a surefire sign that boredom was overwhelming oneself when the simple act of walking was more excitable than what was currently happening. Eventually, Marshall saw that the guard had moved in the room towards the watch desk and was writing something down in a handheld journal. Marshall returned to the bars and called out to the guard once again.


"What's your opinion on the leadership around here?" Marshall asked, almost desperately and yet the guard continued to ignore him. It didn't stop Marshall from talking however. "I gotta say, I had my bets towards Woods but recently... I think I'm starting to like Adira. She reminds me a girl I knew years ago, name was..." Marshall paused for a second as his eyes scanned the floor. "Ellie, she reminds me of Ellie!" He said excitedly. Finally the guard responded, looking up at Marshall for a brief second as if he couldn't understand the man.


"Oh yeah?" the guard said bluntly before returning to his journal.


"Yeah, I was younger when I met her though, she was pretty young too when we parted ways but I think that if I saw Ellie grow up... She'd be a lot like Adira." Marshall said shaking his head and sighing to himself as he reminisced about his past life- before his descent into vagrancy. "Woods though... Heh, he ain't so tough." That definitely got a reaction from the guard, a short laugh and once again he looked up at Marshall, setting his journal aside.


"You think you could take him?" How kind of the man, not to judge Marshall's prowess when being stone cold drunk. Marshall gave a short shrug.


"Maybe, but I'm not talking about fighting."


"Are you kidding? He's..." The guard looked around cautiously as if Woods would appear behind him any minute. "He's SIAD. Those are some tough cookies."


"That's what he's got everyone thinking but... He's hurtin', bad." Marshall said nodding again and looking over at the guard. "I think Adira is counselling him or something, can't blame him though. I imagine we've seen a lot of the same things and there is plenty that I want to forget."


"But not you?"


"Hmm?"


"You don't need counselling? Don't need to get anything off your chest? Honestly I can't see the resemblance. You and Commander Woods are nothing alike." He spoke defensively, just as he should. Couldn't have his superior getting defamed by the drunkard in the tank. Marshall couldn't help but chuckle aloud, averting his gaze to the ground for a moment before turning back towards the guard who seemed invested in their conversation now.


"Oh please." Marshall retorted, throwing his hand through the air. "Woods and I are the SAME person. We're both shitty people, we're murderers, we've killed plenty of each other's friends I'm sure."


"Bullshit." The guard quickly responded. "There's no way you took down a SIAD Op."


"Oh yeah? That knife they took off me earlier? That belonged to a SIAD guy who busted a..." Marshall had to pick his next words carefully, incriminating yourself was a bad thing. "Unpaid labor force out in the fringes of Empire territory." He spoke proudly of the event, it was something that Marshall actually did take some sort of pride in, taking down a SIAD operative by yourself was just as likely as taking down a Xyvir by yourself. "Hell, I bet Woods was at that raid too. Don't get me wrong though, I'm fairly certain I'm the only one who got away from that mess."


"Holy shit... Woods hasn't killed you yet?" The guard asked, a bit disgusted with how Marshall boasted about his kill.


"He either doesn't know, or is smart enough to be able to take in the body count." Marshall said waving a finger quizzically in the air.


"Body count?"


"Yeah, if we compared kills, I'd bet you the Tin-Can that Woods has killed FAR MANY MORE of my friends than I've killed of his." The guard almost seemed to understand but couldn't shake the anger and disgusted look on his face towards Marshall.


"It's different. Serving with folks, trusting your life with them. You become more than friends, more than family." the guard said, agitated at Marshall's callousness.


"You don't think I trusted my life to those people? That I didn't serve with them?"


"They were slavers."


"They were people. Very few of them I might add enjoyed doing the work. But when you piss off the Empire, you have little choice but to turn to a life of crime. Especially when you have a family to support." The guard fell silent as he thought upon the subject. "You see, me and Woods are the exact same person deep inside. Morally, objectively. The only difference is: I can accept what a shitty human I am, and he lets it eat him alive."


There was a long silence in the room after their conversation, Marshall had returned to his bed to reflect upon what'd had just transpired. He'd definitely said too much be he couldn't help himself. Maybe he was lying to himself and was being eaten by his past just like Woods and finally a bit had escaped the inner machinations of his mind. Still, he couldn't help but be pissed off at himself for bringing up memories he'd rather forget- Ellie, that slaver ring, even the murder of the SIAD Operative seemed more morbid and less like a trophy kill the more Marshall thought about it. Facing his emotions was a tough deal, even tougher now that he couldn't bury them at the bottom of a bottle.


"Why'd you do it?" The guard asked, Marshall lifted his head from his pillow and saw the guard standing at the edge of his cage. The guard's voice was curious, genuine, but his question was harrowing. Marshall threw his legs over his bed and leaned on his knees.


"Why'd I do it?" Marshall repeated, shaking his head.


"Yeah, you said that others were forced to do it out of necessity. Why were you there?" His voice was stern now, the guard seemed to have a need of knowing whether Marshall was heartless enough to enjoy slavery.


"I was running." Marshall said bluntly.


"From?"


"Ellie."

 

[Dragongal]

Adira looked at Woods for a few seconds. "I know. But you still shouldn't have done it." Once the cabinet was emptied out, Adira sighed and looked at the trashbin full of sedatives. "I'm trusting you to never do something like that again. Any drugs go through Doc first." Ater a few moments, she reached out and took his hand in hers. "Please just promise me that."

 

[BookWyrm]

"I'd sooner swear off medication, prescribed or otherwise, than to see you hurt by something I did again." Vince couldn't find it in himself to smile. In truth he wasn't sure what was going on at the moment. His vision had blurred, almost like a cloud had formed in it, though it passed in a matter of second before pain shot through the back of his eyes. He clenched his eyes shut and rubbed the sides of his head for the few seconds it took before it cleared up. "I'm going to guess that was it getting into my ocular system. I'm fine, just some mild pain. Lets get rid of those things before I change my mind."

 

[Dragongal]

Adira was taken back by his statement for a moment. That was more than anyone had ever done for her. They'd only been... close for a day. And he was willing to swear off all medication for her? She'd never want him to do that, but it meant a lot to her. However, she pushed that to the back of her mind almost immediately when Vince appeared to be in pain. Adira nodded when he suggested getting rid of the sedatives immediately. "I'll be right back." Adira took the bag out of the trashcan and out of the room, disposing of it in one of the incinerator bins. Well, there was the point of no return. She went back to Vince's room and sighed. "The deed is done. Nobody will have any clue but you, me, and Doc." This whole day had ended up being much more chaotic than she had planned....

 

[BookWyrm]

Vince nodded gratefully as he managed a smile. "I think it'd be a good idea to get some sleep." Vince ran a hand through his hair before sighing. "Probably in our own rooms. It has been a day or two since I last took anything, so I'd prefer it to be alone for a bit just in case there are complications." That and he wanted time to think over everything. He needed to sit down with Marshall and have a serious talk with the merc, but that would have to come after the addressed the issue with Saami and Saundry.

 

[Dragongal]

Adira felt her heart drop in the slightest, but she refused to let it show. She just nodded and smiled a bit. "I understand. Of course, you're still welcome to come to my room if you need me." Well, back to a half a night's sleep. Before she could leave, though, she pulled him into a hug. After only a few moments, she let go. "Good night. I'll see you tomorrow." With that she left for her own room. The instant she got into her own room, she closed the door and leaned against it before slowly sliding down tot he floor. What the fuck am I getting myself into?

 

[InsanEleven]

3487/12/06 23:15:00


"What the fuck do you think you are doing?" A security guard had come down to the companionway after an alarm had gone off. Someone trying to break in. He hadn't expected to find the girl sitting there, yet still lifted his rifle. It was obviously on stun, but he doubted he needed it now. While trying to break the lock with electricity, it had instead bounced back unto the girl. With enough force to knock her back down into the ground. Silently the guard just poked her a bit with his rifle, confirming she was still decently alive. Breathing, a decent heartbeat, just stunned and probably a bad case of hurt pride. Yet the security guard just sighed a bit annoyed. "It's too late for this shit..."


The man still decided to do his job without much more complaining though, grabbing the girl and lifting her over his shoulder before making his way back up the stairs. A trip to medical, and then straight into jail. Leisure day... more like 'lock them up' day.

_____________________________________

​

Thin fingers reached out, slowly. Moving through viscous liquid until they reached something hard. The thing containing. And from behind that came muffled sounds. Nothing made sense. All that was, was him. And he didn't know what he was. Confused. Could those sounds tell? Tell him what he was, why he was. Could he ask? How did he make those sounds? Not with fingers or feet or any other limb. Uselessly drifting. So instead he used his fingers to trace himself. Blindly searching for a hidden thing.


Doing so they got caught. In things not him. Soft and hard... and going inside him. Following up lead nowhere as he couldn't reach. Following down he only felt himself. They were different from his body. They didn't belong, he knew. He didn't know why, but he knew they weren't him. Yet when he pulled a feeling that had been lingering in the background became worse. Alive. Hurt. Losing control. His body doing things he didn't know they could. Muscles he didn't know he had contracted. Tugging even harder. A pressure inside of him. It couldn't get out, but it had to. The things inside him controlled. Didn't allow him to let it out. Didn't allow him to breathe. To scream.


Confused, hurt, naked... those were the first things he opened his eyes to. Bright light growing green through what was containing him, dark lines and tubes grasped by white hands. Creatures moving behind the short reach of his existence. Fighting... struggling... anything to make it stop. To get it out of him. To get out. Exhausting, excruciating... existing. But he couldn't; the tubes tied too tightly, the glass too thick. Any sound or scream he tried to make was caught in the tubes. Any move he made stopped by this invisible barrier. Instead his lungs burned, and his hands slid across the glass uselessly. Just in time for him to see a line going into his wrist turn dark. Filling him with the same darkness. First he felt his limbs go. Drifting dead, doing nothing. Then his lungs stopped. Leaving nothing but mechanical breaths. Finally his mind got caught. Until there was nothing.


3487/12/07 03:37:23 SST


Gasping for air Saami shot up, his fingers instinctively reaching for his throat. Breathing. He could breathe. See, hear, feel... safety. Quietly he ran his fingers up to his lips, nearly expecting to still find tubes defiling him. He found only a fearful silence spilling over them. There were no tubes nor liquid nor glass. Did it matter? Nothing of it was his, nothing he saw, he touched, he felt. No movement, no sound he made, it wasn't his. Yet then why was he sweating, panting, scared? Running his hands through his hair he tried to recollect, but things were already fading. Without the mechanics to grasp onto, his dream had nothing to linger on. And he wanted to forget. He'd give anything to forget. It wasn't his memory was it? No matter how many times he ran through the database of his life could he find anything like it.


Then why had it felt so real? Why was he scared of finding himself back in there? When he didn't even know if he had ever been there in the first place. Was... was that really how he got made? No love, no safety. Just cold glass and tubes forcing him to exist the way they wanted him to. No... he didn't want that, he couldn't accept that. So instead, he just did what he could only do with dreams. Forget. All of it. Laying back down and returning to the darkness. Just like he had done before.


It was easier... not to exist in the truth.


3487/12/09 14:00:00 SST


Silently he sat in the room he had been appointed to, his form perfectly robotic. It was like sitting in a serpents' nest; Woods and a security guard already there, and Marshall probably on his way there straight from his cell. He doubted the man was in a good mood, and he knew for a fact that Woods wasn't a fan of him either. Great... it reminded him of home. Well... 'home'. At least he had experience with situations like this. He'd be a good roboboy, like his programmers had envisioned him to be. So he just sat and stared his uncanny valley stare while his eyes glowed white as he did some mathematics; he didn't have the luxury of being able to get worried. Might as well get some work out of the way instead.

 

[Dragongal]

Adira had been alerted of a disturbance late in the night. Lydia had gone meddling somewhere she shouldn't have and got zapped. That could have waited until morning, the reason she was called was because the Guards had checked Lydia's room and found that she was trying to make a biological weapon to kill the spiders. The moment Lydia didn't seem like she was going to pass out again she was in a cell, and Adira was there too. There were few times in her existence that Adira could recall being more livid than she had been at Lydia. She had told that girl that Science Division didn't exterminate things. Then Lydia goes and pulls this bullshit, which put literally everyone on board at risk. What if she had made a calculation wrong and ended up making something that killed anything, not just spiders? Adira could understand being mad about Rea's death, but risking everyone else did not make up for it! They were sent on this mission to study things. Everyone knew it was a risk. So Lydia tries to exterminate?!


Adira returned to her room for the little sleep she could have left, but mostly to cool down. As hard as she had tried, she'd ended up yelling at Lydia, or else basically growling at the girl. There was no way she could talk to her like she had to Marshall or Woods when they had made mistakes. This was just too far over the line. She knew something was off about that girl. Now here was the proof. Adira had sent a notice to the onboard therapist/psychiatrist/shrink, notifying them that Lydia's sessions would begin immediately, but she was not to leave her cell in the brig.


Now it was 14:00 and she was sitting in an empty room waiting for Saundary Estramus. She needed to follow up on the two incidents involving Saami: the one with Marshall, and the one reported by Lydia. At least little sleep was something Adira was accustomed to. She didn't want Saundary thinking she was mad at her, but they needed to talk. How much did Saundary know about Saami? Why did she keep getting involved with him through rumors and the like...? Adira put her feet up on the table and read off her tablet. Woods was supposed to be managing a talk between Marshall and Saami right now; she hoped it was going well. She'd only seen Vincent during breakfast, and had sat across from him, but being in the presence of many others, they couldn't do more than chat. Now, though, was the time to focus on the reason she was here: Saundary.


@Leviersa

 

[BookWyrm]

Vince sat in the chair at the head of the table. To his left sat Saami, and to his right Marshall, whenever he finally arrived, would be seated. In truth Vince felt like shit. He had dealt with withdrawals all night and hadn't slept worth a damn. He'd drained as much espresso he could physically tolerate over breakfast. The good news was no one would know anything other than he was tired. No one but Adira anyway. As he and Saami waited for Marshall Vince could help but look over at the INANES and ponder on what he was thinking.

 

[Spazzycat101]

At the moment, Lydia herself was in her cell, seated at the edge of the bed and swaying slightly from side to side in agitation. Every time the words 'biological weapon' had been mentioned, every time the thought so much as conjured itself in her head, her expression grew darker and the scowl painted on her face deepened, as if she heard words not scolding her for doing something, but for failing to do something.


A trap, she had had to resort to making a blunt trap instead of something more efficient, more reliable.


Lydia's gaze still swam if she stood too quickly, but she didn't. She simply remained where she was, silent as stone while she examined her green-stained fingertips with an incredibly intense interest. No trying to defend herself, no words of any kind. She knew with absolute certainty that whatever she might say would sound far less intelligent aloud than in her head.


In her head, those words were seething, furious and loathsome. Adira didn't get it, wiping them out, or even picking them off at a more measly pace, it would've been better than burning whatever hope for Rea there had been. But Adira buried the poor girl, she probably would've fainted from disbelief that Lydia was still hung up over that. But was it over Rea's death? It was; what else would it have been? An obsession with ridding the place of its grisly inhabitants?


Probably, Lydia managed to realize.


No, no. It was something else. If... if she could have managed to snare one of those things, she could've used it for study. After all, that was her job. And... if she knew more about them, perhaps she could find some defense against them more efficient than a gun? It had taken at least four bullets for each one of the creatures to effectively put it down. And that would need to happen sometime wouldn't it? Just because the archeologist or whatever she was died doesn't mean the job had to remain unresolved! There was a point to her project. There was. Wasn't there?


Of course there was.

 

[Anaxial]

Three days in a holding cell wasn't as bad as the first few hours, it never was. The human's ability to adapt to their surroundings was a magnificent evolutionary trait, even confinement to cell was an environment that one could adjust to- it was admirable. Still, Marshall certainly didn't put up a fight when the Security team unlocked his cell and told him he was free to go after this little meeting with Woods and Saami, an event that seemed strange not only to Marshall but to the Security team members assigned to it. Surely Marshall had done wrong and threatened Saundry, been intoxicated while in possession of a firearm, and threaten to damage machinery but that was just it: why did Marshall have to be interviewed by Machinery?


In any case, it wasn't their job to wonder, it was their job to Escort Marshall to the interview room and leave him be with the Commander and the INANES. Walking down the hallway was a guard behind him, Marshall strode with a renewed bravado now that he was being released, he talked casually to his guard who begrudgingly ignored him.


"I'm gonna let you in on something, just 'cause you been good to me." The guard said quietly, though he didn't break his military bearing. From a distant he looked as professional as ever. "Just take the hit man, go in there, don't start shit and walk out. It ain't worth it, Saami ain't worth it. You really had the Midas' touch with this one, the Commander wanted you dead."


"Hey, he can get in line. It might seem like I wing it, but I know what I'm doing." Marshall replied, mimicking the guard's posture to appear casual as to not arouse suspicion that he and the guard were talking. "Still, I appreciate the advice, good lookin' out."


It was a short walk before the sliding door whooshed open and Marshall stood in the doorway, his shadow casted down upon Saami and Woods. Despite his predicament, Marshall felt a smile curve across his mouth.


"There he is! How you holdin' up chief?" Marshall said, eye balling Saami before his escort shoved him forward towards his chair.


"Silence about the decks, prisoner. Take your seat." the guard commanded, holding his rifle at Port arms. Marshall, out of respect of his newfound friend took his seat with a bit of a sigh. The guard took up post besides Marshall and went to parade rest with his rifle.

 

[InsanEleven]

Saami didn't salute or greet Marshall when the man came in, something he normally would have to do in a face to face setting as his rank was still only lieutenant-commander. But Marshall's rank had dipped below that, and as a prisoner he hardly had any standard interactions going for him. Saami couldn't say it didn't somehow feel... pleasing, at least to be out from under the command of having to salute such a man.


Staring like a doll he followed the man and guard as they entered the room, the white glow in his eyes abruptly halting now he had found this new task to focus upon. Only when Marshall properly sat down did he in any form reply with a greeting.


"Good afternoon. I have been tasked with talking to you. Refrain from any illegal or unsollicited behaviour, for this would hinder conversation." It wasn't quite as much talking as it was simply reiterating what he was doing. The whole time he sat silent and expressionless, a little too perfectly still. His fingers an equal distance apart, his back straight and not a single detail on his uniform off. Even as a robot there wasn't much compassion to be found for the man, and though he hardly held grudges, he did assess a heightened risk. Which meant that Marshall got to see the robot tied to the war machine, instead of the robot tied to making one happy. And it showed; even if he hardly was the most intimidating (Woods, Marshall and the guards still holding that award) it would be a mistake to think he wasn't at all. Something in his robotic stare was menacing more than eerie. Even if these were just supposed to be friendly talks, it was clear Saami was still considering Marshall as a possible threat. Besides, he didn't know what 'friendly' meant to begin with.

 

[BookWyrm]

Vince looked at the guard sternly before eyeing the door, his hand laying gently against his holstered pistol. Once the guard was out of the room Vince relaxed his posture and looked to Marshall. He had talked to Doc about the withdrawals and she had given him something for the headache, but weariness and grogginess were just a part of it. I dare anyone to think I'm any less dangerous because I'm tired though.


"I'm going to get this out right from the start. I am in no mood to deal with drama from either of you at the moment. If things get carried away I will personally kill you both and make it look like an accident." Vince's gaze drifted from Saami to Marshall. Although he at least halfway meant what he said his voice had carried a casual, if not tired, tone to it. In a way he hoped to lighten the mood just a tad, even if it was just between him and Marshall. Vince wasn't sure about Saami just yet.


"Now that the formalities are out of the way, I really don't think I have to go over why you both are here, but for the sake of the situation at hand I will state the purpose of this arrangement again. This is a small ass ship, and if we as a crew can't work together without hostilities, then there are going to be some problems and some unneeded crew rotations. Now, you two are here to address this spat that happened in the mess hall, and I am here to moderate the conversation. I won't remind you again about what I've already stated. Now, can we begin and finish this in a civil manner?"

 

[Anaxial]

Marshall kept his eyes on Woods as he spoke, a smug little grin spread across his lips. Crossing his legs and wiggling his foot that was now suspended in the air, Marshall couldn't help but let out a scoff and shake his head at Woods' empty threat of killing him or Saami. It wasn't that he doubted Woods ability or even motive to kill them, but more in the irony that such a threat would be made in this sort of meeting. Still, Marshall kept quite like a good boy and for the first time didn't even bother giving Woods any sarcasm or interruptions. When the introductions were over, Marshall uncrossed his legs and leaned forward on his knees, nodding contently to himself and looking Saami over.


"Alright, well then my first question is: why am I talking to a machine right now? It's already been established that the incohesiveness is on my side, not that things." Marshall threw a thumb at Saami. "So why bother bringing me in here? You want civility from me, you want me to not damage your equipment, I get it. You've already banned me from drinking and I'm sure you know what alcohol does to your emotions." He leaned back in his seat and cross his arms defiantly across his chest. Shifting his body to address Woods directly now, Marshall gave a confused shrug. "So even if I WANTED to apologize to the fancy vending machine- it wouldn't matter. That thing doesn't care that it's here, it's here because you told it to be here. If you want cohesiveness that's fine, then keep the walking mannequin away from me."

 

[InsanEleven]

Saami turned his head when Woods' words had finished, and Marshall's started. Quite unmoved by them he simply calculated his next words. And in that regard the mercenary was right, he was a walking, talking doll. But one that had a little bit more finesse and killing abilities than a shopping window mannequin.


"This is a confined space Mr. Marshall. It will be impossible to avoid me based solely on your dislike for my robotisms. We will have to work together, which will not go in the most optimal manner if you refuse to recognise my abilities." That should get the point across clearly, he didn't waste much breath on loose words. Of course his tone was overtly normal, to the point of being monotone perhaps. Without any emotion, simply stating a statistical fact. "It would highly increase the chance of survival if we do not have a feud based solely on what I am. If you deem my abilities inadequate for your intended purpose, I would not react if you decided against using them. However, disregarding what I can do on prejudice will not only endanger yourself, but the entire ship. Something I cannot accept as it is my purpose to defend the ship and all of it's crew. Which includes yourself Mr. Marshall." He would not suddenly stop defending the man if he hadn't done anything to warrant it. Though he doubted Marshall would need it, in his mecha-suit, Saami would not treat him differently from any other crew unless the man himself posed a threat. However, it would make things infinitely easier if it'd at least be recognised that he had abilities that would aid even someone in a tin can, and avoiding him completely was not exactly an option anyway.


Having finished his say, he continued looking at Marshall in exactly the same robotic manner, which he doubted would help his point. Yet he could hardly suddenly start becoming defensive or annoyed.

 

[Anaxial]

Scowling as if he'd been spat upon, Marshall gave a hollow chuckle and rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger. He looked over at Saami if only to match his eyes and gauge the machine, he truly believed he'd seen more in those eyes but as they were it seemed he was perfectly drone.


"Second of all, keep it from talking to me. This thing refers to itself like it matters that it's even here." Marshall's disgusted face slowly turned into one of morbid humor. "and I'll stop you before you try and defend the thing: it doesn't matter how close quarters this ship is. The only time I've seen that creepy thing walking around was three days ago. I stick to the cargo hold, my room, I already stay away from the damn thing and I guess I'll just have to try harder in the future to avoid it." A tinge of frustration and anger cropped up in Marshall's voice despite his relax demeanor and humored facial expressions. "That's the best you're getting from me. I'm not apologizing or working with example of how science has gone too far. Fucking thing shouldn't even exist."

 

[BookWyrm]

Vince looked from Saami to Marshall and gave a shrug. There wasn't much he could do with either of them. In honest truth it seemed like Marshall was flat out scared of Saami for some ungodly reason, which was enough to make Vince smile and laugh quietly. "Other than the fact that there will come a time and place when the two of you will be working alongside each other in a mission, as long as you can coexist without any further complications, I think we are done here." This whole ordeal wasn't mixing with well with the detox Vince was going through. That, and he preferred to not have to put up with Marshall's pigheadedness for any length of time. "Saami you are free to go. Marshall you are going to be under suspension for a couple more days. Obviously that means you are going to be denied access to weapons of any kind, including the tin can, and I figure it goes without saying that you are temporarily just a body on this ship. Your rank and position will return once the suspension is lifted. But absolutely no alcohol or synthehol for the duration of your service on this ship, no questions asked. Good news is you are free to return to your room."


Vince stood up and sighed heavily. It felt like his head was trying to rend itself apart from the inside out. He waited until both Saami and Marshall were out of the room before stopping by the security team and giving them further updates on the situation. Once he left there it was straight towards the infirmary.

 

[InsanEleven]

Saami didn't even attempt to prove his point further, and it wasn't like he was particularly upset or even cared about Marshall's views at all. Not even as a human; he had dealt with enough people dismissing him as an object or a synthetic lab freak not to even mind them. To him it was little more than a hiccup in the statistical chance of their survival. If anything the only reason he even tried convincing Marshall to treat him otherwise, was because it tied in the safety of everyone else. Otherwise it would have left him absolutely and unchangeably cold what the man thought.


"Order understood sir. If you require me for any other task I will be on the bridge." With that he stood up from his chair, straightened any potential wrinkles in his uniform and left the room fluidly mechanical. A little too straight and artificially perfect, but not quite as eerie as his stare had been. Without even so much as recognising or acknowledging the existence of Marshall he went out the door; if the man did not want any interaction, he'd be sure to keep up his part of the deal. It was still part of his purpose to maintain the happiness of the crew, and if Marshall was happier without him, he'd make very sure not to cross him unless it was unavoidable.


For now he would just focus on keeping the ship nicely in orbit and mapping out the details for the next mission with the navigation crew. For a thing and an object that shouldn't be there, he did an awful lot of important things. Actually, he knew for sure that if it came to mattering, he was worth far more to the ship than a prisoner.


So once he was alone in the hallways and the irony fully dawned in him, he couldn't help raise a corner of his mouth. "At least this thing thinks..."

 

[Anaxial]

"Yeah, because I walk around in the Tin-Can all the time, right?" Marshall snapped back at Woods as he watched Saami leave the room. Marshall got up a few seconds after and left the room after Saami, leaving Woods to do whatever it was he did when not putting up with Marshall's bullshit. He walked down the halls with a sense of relief however, glad to be out of his cell and happier still to have literally evaded death. He could only imagine how the universe would punish him later for it however.


Even someone as arrogant as Marshall knew when he was on thin ice however, and his mind shrugged away the thought of giving Saami a piece of his mind again while Woods wasn't there to Lord over him. Instead he changed his mind to think about the Tin-Can, something to keep his mind occupied now that he couldn't melt away time in alcohol and he certainly wouldn't be able to get his hands on any drugs while onboard an Empire vessel. Still- Adira's words had never entirely left his mind and he heaved a sigh as he walked down the hallway. Maybe it was time to change who he was... No excuses this time now that the drinks were gone. As he walked down the hall however, he heard something, a voice faint and quiet but audible in the empty halls of the ships. Marshall rounded the corner to see Saami standing in the hall and after a quick scan of the area he seemed to be alone. A sinking feeling formed in the pit of Marshall's stomach and he watched Saami for only a second before opening his mouth as if to say something.


"What did..." the words escaped him but he immediately regretted it and turned away from Saami, quickly walking down the hall away from the INANES.


You're imagining shit, Marshall. Don't get dragged into this shit again.


The good thing about Marshall's stubborn attitude is he rarely doubted himself, once he'd made up his mind he was certain to keep to it.