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Post by Eli Wellington on Jan 16, 2010 21:46:05 GMT -6
In truth, he really wanted to explore the ship, but he had a feeling that sounded like a bad idea, so he opted to follow her upstairs. First, though, he had to retrieve the first payment out of his bags, lest he forget and someone shoot him later for trying to screw them over. Eli often broke promises to get what he wanted, but this was a situation in which keeping promises was the only thing keeping him alive.
He dug around in one of the clothing bags, finally fishing out the money he'd hidden there. The first payment was to be handed over right away, and the rest of it needed to stay locked for it and Eli's safety, so there was no point in keeping the first chunk of cash in the same case as the rest of it. That combination wasn't going to be used until he gave it to Grace upon arrival.
Once he'd found the money, he hurried after her up the stairs. Thankfully there wasn't too much up there for him to get lost in, so he found her quite easily even with her head start on him.
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Post by Grace Forjacks on Jan 16, 2010 22:16:11 GMT -6
Grace's chair had a dried bloodstain on it from Klove. She sighed, turning off the self-destruct and sitting down in it. The blood wasn't going anywhere, and she could always take care of it later. Cold water and soap would get rid of most of it.
She knew the ignition sequence by heart and was halfway through it by the time Eli caught up with her. "You can sit over there." She told him, nodding to the mostly useless console. It was locked at the moment, so if he ended up mashing buttons, nothing bad would happen. Grace flipped a few toggles, feeling the ship starting the rumble as the engine got going, and then pulled the yoke up, taking them up.
The scenery outside quickly pulled out as the ship rose, revealing row after row of old concrete basements, mostly-rotted homes and old cobblestone streets. These too faded as they kept blasting up higher, heading out of the atmo and into the night sky, a billion stars laid out and waiting for the Queen to join them.
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Post by Eli Wellington on Jan 17, 2010 16:48:51 GMT -6
He put the bag of money down in front of her. "Three million. As promised." And then he sank into the other chair, glancing at the panels in front of him. It all looked pretty alien to Eli, who had no idea what he was even looking at. But it sure was shiny. "What's this do??" he asked, pointing at a button that was a different colour than the rest. He was pretty inclined to press it, but he was still on guard and didn't want to mess anything up.
When the ship rumbled to life, he jumped a little, grabbing hold of the chair arms in surprise. It was definitely a strange feeling. Like a house that was starting to move. He vaguely remembered a sensation somewhat like it back when there were humans. Back when he was a human. The jolt of a carriage beginning to move as the horses began their journey, he realized. He was pretty sure he used to enjoy those rides, so this couldn't be that terrible.
He stared in awe out the front as the ship began to lift off. A carriage never went up. That was the difference. Eli couldn't help but grin wide as it finally hit him: He was leaving the planet. He was actually permanently leaving Nox, never to set foot on the place he had just spent nearly two thousand years on. He watched the land get further and further away and spontaneously decided it needed a proper send-off.
So he gave it the finger.
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Post by Grace Forjacks on Jan 17, 2010 18:52:29 GMT -6
Grace glanced at the cash, pausing to pick it up and feel the heft of it. It was heavier than she'd expected, but she should have known it would be. The vamp was stronger than a human. She'd count it later, after Eli was settled and the ship's course was set and auto-pilot was on, so for the moment, she put it up in the right-hand corner of the main console.
Eli's hand went near the engine-reboot button, and Grace eyed him. While nothing on that panel would be working at the moment, she didn't want him to start thinking he could get away with pressing anything. "That gets the engine moving. And since the engine's already going, don't touch it."
But any worries about him reaching out to press buttons went away as Eli was quickly distracted by the take-off. She didn't have much time to look at him since she was piloting, but she managed to sneak a glance as the kid's face lit up. And then in a terribly familiar gesture, he promptly told Nox to go fik itself. Grace snorted.
As soon as they were past atmo, Grace brought up a map of the system and charted her course, making sure to avoid any stations or places with Terran military. The Queen wasn't a well-known smuggling ship, and Grace had made sure to keep her reputation quiet so she didn't have to deal with non-stop hassle from military patrols. But even though the chances were low that they would be stopped, she simply couldn't risk it this time. Eli was an instant death sentence to all of them, and while Grace wasn't afraid of dying, she wasn't in any rush to hurry up and do it again.
They'd swing by the far side of Glacies, avoid Corus altogether, skirt near the mountains on Antheia (and land in that region if she did take the job there), and then land on the northern side of Terra, near an elevator that would take the vampire straight into the Below. Grace locked the course in, switched it over to auto-pilot. "We're out of Nox orbit. You're officially off-planet."
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Post by Eli Wellington on Jan 17, 2010 22:24:15 GMT -6
The sky always seemed huge when he looked at it from a field or open space on Nox, but this was completely different. It wasn't sky any more, because there wasn't ground. It was just infinite black, dotted with stars. Behind them, Nox. He didn't look back at it.
Already he realized he was feeling different, and he couldn't quite place it. Maybe it was because he'd just fed better than he had in years, or maybe it was just the relief of getting off Nox. Or maybe, just maybe, being off a planet meant he didn't have to play by the planet's rules of day and night. Whatever it was, Eli felt great.
"Well, this is officially the best day ever," he commented, stretching his long legs up to rest his feet up on the console. He couldn't help but notice the level of dust on his boots, and he scrunched his nose for a moment, making a mental note to scrub them later. He put his arms behind his head, sighing. "So, what next?"
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Post by Grace Forjacks on Jan 17, 2010 22:59:59 GMT -6
"Next, you get the tour of the ship and we figure out if you're sleeping with the crew or if I have to put you somewhere else. And after that? I'm coming back up to pilot, and you can do what you want, so long as it doesn't piss someone off." Grace hadn't had a passenger in a long time, and the Queen wasn't exactly built for passengers. But she'd found ways to keep the mercs busy, and hopefully they'd be enough to keep an antsy vampire busy as well.
She locked the console and turned her chair around, getting up and heading out of the cockpit. Grace pointed to the Captain's quarters, door shut since Enan was sleeping. They hadn't spoken much and he'd gone straight to bed, but since he hadn't stomped off down to the crew quarters, that probably meant they'd be fine. "If I'm not in the cockpit, I'm in here, and if the door's open, you're free to wander in."
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Post by Eli Wellington on Jan 18, 2010 14:59:53 GMT -6
"Sleeping with the crew! Sounds exciting!" he stated, half jokingly, but also half serious. He was already wondering what buttons--literally and figuratively--could be pressed around the place without going too far.
One thing suddenly hit him, however, and it was that soon he was going to have to blatantly hide the fact that he was a vampire in order to survive. He subconsciously ran his tongue along his fangs. He hadn't needed to retract them in a very long time, since he'd been surrounded by nothing but other vampires for centuries. Well, and prey. But the kind of prey of late already knew he was a vampire. He'd have to find a mirror and do his best at practicing to hide the fangs. He only hoped he could remember how to.
He got up and followed her when she headed out of the room, eying the other door with interest. "Free to wander in... duly noted." Sounded fun.
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Post by Grace Forjacks on Jan 18, 2010 17:23:23 GMT -6
"Only if the door's open." She reminded him. Grace had a feeling Eli might 'forget'. He seemed like the sort to see how far he could take it. Luckily, Grace knew this game very well, and she knew how to lock the door behind her when she didn't want anybody else coming in.
They headed downstairs, past the kitchen. She popped the door open, showing him the inside. "Kitchen's in here, doubles as our med-bay. You probably won't use this too much since you're dead, but we do have a viewscreen on the wall if you want to watch stuff." She popped the door closed again.
She was about to take him down to the crew quarters when the intercom beeped. Something had gotten in the way of the auto-pilot path, and if Grace didn't get up there and help the ship around it, there could be a hell of a nasty collision. "The crew quarters are just down that way. Everyone's sleeping, so don't wake them up. Engine room is right here in the middle, don't go in there. I've got to take care of something, I'll be right back."
Grace headed down the hall and up the stairs, dropping into her seat and scanning over the viewscreen. Some piece of space-junk had wandered out here, some old satellite that escaped orbit and went wandering through the system. She got to work fixing the path to take them around it instead of straight into it.
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Post by Klove Makem on Jan 18, 2010 17:28:55 GMT -6
The beep woke Klove up. Always had, ever since Grace had let him know it meant the Queen was headed to a collision course. He heard Grace moving around and heading upstairs. Must have come down for a coffee or something. At least they were off Nox.
Klove's shoulder was aching, and he felt like crap. Enan had taken care of it and bandaged it all up, and then Klove had taken some painkillers and gone straight to sleep. The shoulder was already healing, with that old familiar itch as the skin and muscle knit itself back together. That was going to drive him nuts for the next few days.
He got out of his bunk, grabbing onto his towel and heading for the showers. Might as well grab one since he was up, before everybody else woke up and decided they did or didn't want one. Klove stepped into the washroom, ditched his sweats outside the opaque curtain, and stepped into the shower. His towel went up onto a hook, Klove grimacing a little as his shoulder ached with the movement, and then he just turned the shower on and all the way up to hot. The water felt really good, and he stuck his face under the stream, all too happy to clear out his eyes and nose. They were still sore from the stink of Romulus' atmo.
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Post by Eli Wellington on Jan 18, 2010 17:55:36 GMT -6
He peeked into the kitchen-and-or-med-bay. She was right, he wouldn't likely be in there often for either function. Unless, that is, that was where the blood was stored. He didn't quite know what a "viewscreen" was, but he supposed he could figure out quick enough. Sounded like it was somewhat related to the padd he'd stolen.
An alarm went off and she left him to his own devices. "Don't wake them up" pretty much meant "Don't go in there" to Eli, since he was fairly certain if he wandered in there on his own he would do exactly that, and probably not accidentally. He lingered for a bit in the hallway, poking at things he didn't recognize, and sniffing at others. There was so much blood on this ship, it was like someone had scented it just for him. The only downside was it made him constantly hungry. Thankfully he'd filled up pretty well on the chef, so he would at least be covered for a little while.
Suddenly he heard a strange sound echo down the hallway in the direction of the crew quarters, and finally his curiosity was piqued. He snuck down the hallway and peeked into the room. It was dark, for obvious reasons, but Eli was used to the dark and could make out the bunks around the room. He picked up the scent of a recently made trail, heading to another room.
The cat's scent.
He smirked and snuck fully into the room, surprised that awake Were hadn't picked up his scent yet. He must have had other things on his mind, Eli reasoned as he tip toed through the room and into what he realized was some sort of space ship version of a bathroom. Water was running to one side of it, behind a curtain. Bingo.
He lightly pulled the curtain back to peek in, and immediately enjoyed the view as he confirmed his suspicions. He slipped in, keeping himself out of the stream of water, and then leaned near the kid's shoulder grinning. "And here I thought cats cleaned themselves with spit."
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Post by Klove Makem on Jan 18, 2010 18:52:57 GMT -6
Klove jerked away immediately, caught off-guard by the unfamiliar voice. He tripped over his own feet, barely catching himself at the last second with his good arm. Klove whirled around to see who the hell was sneaking up behind him.
Holy shit, it was the vampire. Klove's mouth went dry. There was a fiking vampire aboard, and he didn't have any weapons on him, and oh shit, shit, Grace. "GRACE!" Klove yelled, hoping that he wasn't too late, that he had heard Grace going upstairs instead of another vampire. "VAMPIRE!"
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Post by Grace Forjacks on Jan 18, 2010 19:02:06 GMT -6
Grace finished plotting out the new course, locking it into place. They'd pass the satellite, detouring around it instead of getting into it's way. She took a moment to look at the old satellite, reading the company name on the side. Not only did she not recognize it, it didn't even have a tracker on it to scan for info. That meant it was probably about a hundred years old. It wouldn't be too much longer until it passed Nox, and then slipped out of the system, and disappeared into the vast emptiness of space.
Then Klove yelled and Grace bolted to her feet, pulling her gun. When vampire followed her name, she sighed in frustration and hurried down the stairs. Hopefully she'd get there before he could wake up the whole ship, or before someone ended up dead and hurt.
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Post by Eli Wellington on Jan 19, 2010 0:26:52 GMT -6
Eli broke into laughter as the cougar stumbled backwards, slipping and flailing in the water. He put up his hands in a sign of surrender or caution or whatever the heck that was supposed to be a sign of, he could never remember because it usually wasn't him doing it. He hoped it came across that he meant no harm for the time being. "Hey hey, cool it, kid. I'm not going to try to bite you. I'm not an idiot."
The kid had to know that Were blood was poison to a vampire. Eli had never met a Were who didn't, since it was their biggest defense against his kind. Their parents probably taught it to them as soon as they could walk. Eli definitely wasn't going to bite him. He liked his stomach the right way out. However, his mind was certainly already cycling through other things the young man would be useful for and he couldn't keep a smirk off his face. It probably wasn't doing anything to comfort the cat.
The really naked, really cute cat...
He kept his hands out in front of him. It still meant that he meant no harm... right?
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Post by Klove Makem on Jan 19, 2010 0:41:15 GMT -6
The vampire didn't attack. That... wasn't like vampires. They struck first, ripped out your throat and then went heading for the next target. Or they got your down and out so they could have fun torturing you as soon as you woke up. They didn't put their hands up and tell you they weren't going to bite you, or act like they were supposed to be here.
"If you've done anything to Grace, I'm going to rip your face off!" Klove snarled, trying not to think about the chances that something had happened. He heard boots. He knew that gait; Grace. Hopefully she had her guns out and ready to shoot the vampire bastard in the head, or he'd go after her, and then Klove would have to do his best to fight-
The vampire was really staring at Klove in a way that wasn't making him too comfortable. And his towel was right behind the vamp. Damnit.
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Post by Grace Forjacks on Jan 19, 2010 0:44:20 GMT -6
Luckily, Grace made it in time. Eli was still standing around, hands in front of him in what she assumed was his attempt at a 'no harm' gesture. And Klove was naked. Grace sighed, growling at Eli, "I told you to just stay put."
She grabbed the towel off the wall, tossing it to Klove, "Keep it down, I don't need you waking everybody up. And before you get all worked up, yes, I know he's a vampire, yes I knew he was on the ship, and no, he's not going to kill anybody. He's paying a lot of money to not murder us. Now just... cover yourself up and everybody stay cool."
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