Secrets [2430-1-2-Fri 10am]

[Solomon Taylor]

The liftoff from Antheia had been bittersweet. In more than one way, Sol was happy and eager to get a move on things and get away from possible eyes that were still watching them. One the other hand, it felt like he was once again leaving home.

Once he was sure they were good and on a course suggested by Blaine--one a bit longer of a way in order to avoid patrols and other military outposts in between Antheia and the Underworld--Sol had shooed the pilot out of the bridge area and called for a Magdalen and Cass to meet him there.

It was time for the talk he'd been dreading. He'd meant to get it over with after dinner the previous night, but when he'd noticed that Cass had gone over to talk with Olive, he'd left it alone. Cass needed to start bonding with the crew properly, and frankly, Olive needed a friend who wasn't a man or a mother. Sol had been happy to see that they'd finally begun to hit it off. Or at least have something private to talk about, whatever it had been.

So now he'd sunk himself into the pilot's seat and was scanning over the main control dash as he waited for the girls. Blaine had been teaching him a lot about the ship over the course of the days, but there was still a lot here that Sol wouldn't dare touch without the pilot around. He glanced out, into the vastness of space. There was still a lot of universe to see. At the rate the last week had gone, he only hoped that he would survive long enough to see even a portion of it.

[Cassandra Nida]

Cass made her way up to the bridge, feeling nervous and slightly scared, even though she didn't have much of a reason to. Whatever she had to talk about with Solomon and Magdalen might be awkward, but the worst was over. They were putting distance between them and Cain, and Cass was still here on this ship, and still intact. If they were going to turn her in, they missed their chance.

Still, she felt so nervous. Cass shoved it aside as best as she could and made her way into the bridge, glancing around at the control panels and levels and toggle switches. Solomon was in the chair, facing away from her. Cass didn't need to worry about sneaking up on him. She was pretty loud on the grating, her weight making it shift and clank against one another. All the same, she managed a quiet, "i'm here."

[Solomon Taylor]

He glanced backwards at the sound of heavy footsteps on the floor, knowing it was Cass immediately. He smiled, motioning to the empty seats in the cockpit, the co-pilot's chair across from the one he was sitting in, as well as the navigator's seat a few feet behind that one. "Hey, have a seat. Take your pick."

He glanced down the hallway, wondering how long it would take Magdalen to show up as well. He'd debated including Olive into this meeting as well, but then decided against it. He would have a one-on-one discussion with her later on. She deserved it, and was yet to be privvy to a few of the things Magdalen and Cass had revealed to him anyway, so she wouldn't fit into the current reason for the meeting. He felt a little guilty talking to the others about it before sharing with Olive, who he'd known for so long, but the fact was that he didn't feel like he owed her like he did with the other two women, after prying things from them that they had been wary about.

[Cassandra Nida]

Cass waffled, not sure which seat she should take. In the end, she made herself take the co-pilot's chair. She was the first one here, she should take the closer seat.

It wasn't until she sat down that she realized she'd chosen wisely. The ship's console was right in front of her, and Cass could barely take her eyes off of it. There were all sorts of buttons and controls, some labelled, and some not. She could have spent a few happy hours locked in here just messing about with everything. Of course, that was an incredibly dangerous thing to do, and Cassandra was no fool, so she kept her hands to herself (no matter how tempting it was to touch).

Cass kept her hands in her lap, but she couldn't completely keep the small smile off her face. If she hadn't had to leave home... she wouldn't have gotten to sit here in this seat and look at the console. Cass would probably still have been home, fussing over her leg and showing her plans to her father- oh. Her father. The smile stole away, but she didn't cry or anything. She just looked at Solomon, wondering what he had to say.

[Magdalen Verena]

Magdalen followed shortly after Cassandra, appearing with both hands clasped together and her face relatively blank. Of course she had an idea as to what this meeting was in regards to, but a twinge of anxiety was persistent enough to keep the woman a little bit on edge.

“Solomon,” she inclined her head in a brief greeting and then turned to smile reassuringly at Cassandra. The other girl was likely nervous enough so it was probably best to put on a brave face for them both. The task remained more difficult than it should have been however, her mind on several things at once and body suffering from stress and the lack of sleep she’d managed to indulge in recently.

[Solomon Taylor]

Sol smiled at Magdalen as she came in. He motioned for her to take a seat as well, and then turned his own seat on it's swivel so it would properly face both of them. He paused for a moment, mulling over where to begin. "I, uh... I've been trying to figure out how to go about this for the last few days," he confessed. "And I don't think I've got it yet, so, we're going to wing it here..."

He leaned forward in his chair, clearing his throat. "Okay, well... I've called the two of you in here because I've got some things I'd like you both to know. Magdalen, because I feel like we're sort of on the same page here, even though I don't know what that page exactly is, and I hope in time you'll be able to share with me what it is you're struggling with, when or if you feel it's better sorted out." He glanced at the younger girl then. "And Cassandra, newest member of the crew, because I feel like I owe you something of my own life, after prying so deeply for answers from your own. I... I don't really feel like it's right demanding that of you while keeping my own personal secrets, captain or not."

Sol shifted a little uncomfortably in the chair, still unsure where to start, but knowing he needed one last warning first. "I want to make sure you understand that I don't yet want this leaving the room. It's not that it's super scandalous or anything, you know... I'm not a serial killer or something. But, it's personal to me, and it's not even something I've talked about with Olive yet, and I've known her for fifteen years, so you can imagine that I guard this stuff closely."

Feeling awkward, he couldn't help but look more often at the floor than the women as he spoke, so he had to force himself to look up at them for the final question. "Can I have your word that you won't share it with any of the other crew members until I'm ready to tell them myself?"

[Cassandra Nida]

This... wasn't what she had expected. Cass wasn't sure what she had expected, but it hadn't been this. Solomon wanted to tell her something about his own life? A secret so important that he'd rather not share it with the rest of the crew? That... was something she could handle.

Cass nodded. "I promise, I won't say anything to anybody else." Anyway, who would she tell it to? Olive probably knew, since she and Solomon were so close. And since Magdalen was here, and Cass wasn't close to anybody else, then there really wasn't anyone else to spill it to.

[Magdalen Verena]

Magdalen remained silent as Solomon finally broached the issue at hand, reminding herself to keep her face void of much expression.

It was surprising that he was ready to finally offer a shred of insight into his past. If he had yet to speak of it to Olive, it must have been something he intended to keep secret for as long as possible and opening up to two individuals he barely had time to properly know seemed like an idea that would put him very much out of his comfort zone.

Acknowledging this fact, Magdalen was prompt in her answer to his final question. “You have my word.”

[Solomon Taylor]

They both promised they wouldn't tell, and Sol wished that could have relaxed him a little, but it felt even more awkward now that they were looking at him with such interest and confusion. At least before, their confusion had likely been because they were worried he was going to pry more out of them, rather than give up his own information. He took a deep breath, trying to figure out where to begin.

"Okay, um... so as you know before this, I'd been living on Antheia for fifteen years," he finally began, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair. "And I suppose the length of time spent was my own choice, and despite being happy with the location in the end, I didn't exactly choose it for it's scenery. I ended up on Antheia simply because it was the nearest planet to the Terran military ship I was escaping from. The military ship I was stationed on. As a soldier in training."

He decided to pause there before going on, letting that information to sink in for a moment. He didn't want to move too fast over the most important part of the information he was giving them. The fact that he had history with the very organization after them in some way or another was the major reason for sharing anything with them at all.

[Cassandra Nida]

Cass was surprised. Solomon was a soldier? Or... well, had been a soldier. Fifteen years was a long time to not do something. And Antheia was pretty much the opposite of the military. It made her shiver to think of Solomon dressed in those same terrifying uniforms that had chased her less than a week ago.

But there was the other word: escape. He hadn't left them. He'd escaped. That meant Solomon was probably a deserter, and while Cass didn't know much about the military, she knew what a deserter was. "Why did you have to escape from them?" She asked, trying not to seem greedy for information, but unable to completely hide her burning curiosity. Solomon wasn't like her, so what had he had to run away from?

[Solomon Taylor]

((ooookay moving this along))

"Why did I have to escape?" Sol repeated the question from Cass. "Well... I was going to be taken back to Terra to be put on trial. For treason, essentially." He sighed, not knowing where to go from there. It would be hard to explain the events on Nox to anyone who hadn't been involved. The general public wasn't aware of what had really happened.

"My first and last real mission was to Nox," he finally began. "I suppose they thought it was going to be a routine first landing like all the other planets. You know: the space ship lands, curious natives come to check out the strange thing from the sky, and we humans get to show off how cool and smart we are compared to them, so on and so forth. So... they sent the cadets from the military school as an on-site lesson." He scoffed a little, thinking back on that trip. "We thought we were so ready... so grown up... really we were still just a bunch of scared kids."

[Cassandra Nida]

He'd been part of the First Contact party? That was a big deal. Cass remembered learning about the first First Contact, with the dwarves on Heimdall. There'd been lots of photos and video, and interviews with humans who'd gotten to be part of the mission. Same with all the other planets. It was a big honor to be part of First Contact. Except... thinking about it, she couldn't remember learning about Nox's First Contact. It wasn't that long ago. She'd been a really little girl when it happened, only four. But that was enough to watch and learn about it.

Cass frowned. "Something went wrong, didn't it? I can remember reading about every other First Contact, but I can't remember Nox. I can't remember learning anything about it-" A thought occurred to her. What was on Nox? Werecreatures. And vampires. Oh. She wasn't sure, but Cass felt she could see where this was going. "Oh no..." Cass said, thinking about it. Solomon would have been around her age...