New Beginnings [2430-2-2-Tues-12:30]

[Rebecca Ranger]

“Well,” Becca told her companion, “I’m on time. I guess I’m an on time kind of person.” Sam snorted. “You’re on time because I helped you get here. If it weren’t for me you’d still be wandering around aimlessly.” “Fine then.” She shot back, “Spoil all my happiness. Do you really want that to be the last thing I remember about you?” Sam gave in and hugged her. “See you around Becky. Have fun.” Becca grinned as she stepped away from him. “Only because you’re making me.”

She hadn’t taken herself to be a sentimental person, but as Becca turned around to wave goodbye to Sam, only to find that he’d been swallowed up by the crowd, she suddenly felt immeasurably sad. He might not have been much, but he was all she’d ever known up until this point. Still, she didn’t want to stay with him for the rest of her life. She had already lost thirty-some years of her life. She wasn’t about to waste another second. Now, if she could only figure out which ship belonged to the woman who’d hired her…

[Grace Forjacks]

The black saucer gleamed in it's berth, and Grace sat up on the top, doing her best to repair the minor damage done by a stray bullet. If she had to guess, it probably came from the confrontation with Eddie on Romulus, nearly two weeks ago. By now, the bastard probably already had his ship back and running again, though hopefully he stayed on his end of the universe. Occasionally they did their best to murder one another, and it always end up being an expensive experience.

It wasn't all that bad, not really. It had only chipped the paint a little. Better than having him hit her windshield. It was hell to find replacement parts for old Saucer ships, so you usually had to custom order them. And they usually cost an arm and a leg. A chip in the paint was fixed with a little repainting, and Grace had time to kill while waiting for the new crew member to show up.

She usually didn't hire off of ads, but after the past few disasters, she decided to give it a shot. Anyway, Rebecca had kept it short and to the point, and Grace appreciated a woman who didn't beat around the bush. Hopefully she was as good with a gun as she claimed to be. Grace didn't need another greenhorn like Kenna passing herself off as someone with skill.

Grace finished covering the pit and looked at the drying finished product. She wouldn't be able to tell for sure until the paint dried, but it looked like a good match. Grace tossed the can down the airlock and looked out over the docks. A woman was standing out front, but it was hard to tell if it was Rebecca. Grace just put her arms on her knees and waited to see.

[Rebecca Ranger]

Rebecca was lost. Again. She cursed Sam silently. He just had to be right, didn’t he? But there weren’t too many ships docked, hopefully it wouldn’t take her too long to find the one she needed. A tall woman with brilliant red hair sat on the ramp of a ship close by, bent over her padd. After a moment Rebecca approached her and waved awkwardly. “Hi. I’m uh, looking for a Captain Grace?” The woman looked up. “Saucer.” She said simply.
Becca stared. “Huh?” The woman pointed.

“Oh. Uh, thanks very much.” The dark ship was indeed shaped like a large saucer. Rebecca couldn’t help thinking that it cut a rather impressive figure among all the other strangely shaped vehicles. As she got closer, she could see a dark-haired woman perched on top of the ship’s hood. She looked up at the other, squinting a bit in the sunlight. “Are you Grace?” She called, hoping this wasn’t a second misunderstanding.

[Grace Forjacks]

So the woman was looking for Grace. Punctual was a good quality to have. Rebecca was already earning points with Grace. She yelled down, "I am! So that would make you Rebecca. I'll be down in a moment! The gangway's down if you want to come in!"

She stood up and headed over to the airlock, dropped down into her ship. Grace manually shut the aperture so nothing else would get in, and headed downstairs. Her boots clanked loudly on the stairs as she went down, partly on purpose to give Rebecca a heads-up that Grace was on her way. She headed to the storage and slid the door open, stepping inside.

It was more or less empty at this time, since they were between cargo shipments. There were a few odds and ends here and there, mostly engine parts and some jugs of water, nothing too valuable or worth noting. That would change when Grace eventually figured out if she wanted to run legal for a bit, or illegal.

Grace stepped towards Rebecca, offering a hand. "Grace Forjacks. And this is the Queen of Spades."

[Rebecca Ranger]

It was a relief to know she’d finally come to the right place. Becca took Grace’s invitation and climbed the gangway into the ship. She looked around curiously as she waited for her new captain to come down. Rebecca couldn’t remember ever having been inside a spaceship before, but then, that wasn’t saying much. She heard Grace’s steps on the floor above her. At least, she assumed they were Grace’s, although there might have been someone else on the ship.

Her assumption proved to be correct however, as Grace appeared in the doorway. Rebecca reached out and shook the other woman’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you. This ship is great.” She winced at how juvenile the comment sounded. “I mean, it’s really unique.” Becca was terrible with words. She had often wondered if it had something to do with losing so many memories.

But Sam had said it would be unwise to reveal that particular personal detail to anyone. She was slightly nervous about confronting new situations without his advice, but that couldn’t be helped. “So,” She asked Grace as she looked around at the ship again, “Are there any other crew so far or are we it?” Rebecca didn’t know much about running a spaceship, but she was pretty sure it took more than two people.

[Grace Forjacks]

Grace still smiled at the compliment, always happy to see someone appreciate her ship. "Yeah, you don't see many saucers around these days. They fell out of style ages ago." She didn't bore Rebecca with the details about the saucer, since she hadn't mentioned if she had any mechanical skill, and probably wouldn't care about the engine, or the hardware. If she asked, Grace would answer, but she doubted it would come up.

"A few others. There's Klove, my first mate, Enan, the ship's doctor, and Szar, who's a merc. Though I haven't seen Szar for a few days, so he might have jumped ship." He hadn't been too pleased with the vampire passenger, but then again, Grace had been the only one who didn't mind him. "I'll take you around the ship."

She headed into the main hall, and towards the mess. "The ship's a saucer, so you can't get lost. Everything's branched off of this hall. Mess hall's right ahead. We don't have a cook, so we usually just make our own meals, or occasionally take turns switching off." Grace opened the door and let Rebecca take a look inside at it. It had been untouched for the past few days, since Grace preferred to eat off the ship when she was planetside.

[Rebecca Ranger]

“Hmmm…” Rebecca murmured, “I wonder why they went out of style…” But she wasn’t really wondering that. She was wondering exactly how long ‘ages ago’ was. Was it short enough that somewhere back, in a part of the life she couldn’t remember, she’d flown in one, sold one, or worked in a factory to make the parts for one? Perhaps even this very ship itself? Now that was a spooky thought.

She counted off the other crew members in her head. There were four then, possibly five if that Szar guy came back. Could that really be enough to run a ship? Becca supposed if Grace thought it was enough, than it was. Or maybe they were still waiting for more crew members before they took off.

“I don’t know about that.” She joked as she followed Grace down the hallway, “Getting lost is one of my special talents. I guess I should have listed it in the add.” Rebecca stopped outside the kitchens and peered in when Grace opened the door. She was shocked at how clean everything was. Sam’s kitchen was a total mess, due only marginally to her failed attempts at cooking, which had all literally gone up in smoke. She only hoped she wouldn’t be expected to reattempt anything of that sort here.

[Grace Forjacks]

"As long as you don't get lost in the middle of a job, you're free to do what you want on your own time." It was sort of a joke, but also sort of serious. If you disappointed in the middle of a job, Grace would leave you behind and take anything you left behind as a tax for leaving her high and dry. Otherwise, if you wanted to disappear in a port, well, Grace wasn't going to make you stay. She just wouldn't hire you ever again.

"Everything's locked up, but the key's right here." She tapped the key hanging on a curved hook. "Pretty much everything onboard can be opened up with this. It's not to keep people out, just to make sure things stay in their proper cupboards. The Queen's a hard braker sometimes, and if things aren't locked up, we end up picking plastic slivers off the floor for weeks. This also serves as med-bay, when we need one. All the supplies are in here." Grace nudged the chest with her boot.

She slipped back out of the kitchen and pointed to the stairs, "Cockpit's up there, and the captain's quarters. If you're looking for me, I'm usually up there. And the crew quarters are just back here." She headed in the other direction, sliding open that door.

Klove was sitting in his bunk, reading something on his eInkr. He fixed Grace with an annoyed look, but quickly banished it when he realized there was new crew. "Klove, this is Rebecca. Rebecca, my first mate, Klove. And these are the bunks. If you're not comfortable sleeping with the men, there's another bunk in the engine room. It's smaller though, and hot, but it's got more privacy if that's what you're looking for. The bathroom and showers are back there." She gestured to the bathroom, just behind Rebecca.

[Klove Makem]

Normally, Klove would out on Terra. Normally, he'd probably be wandering around in the Inbetween, or more likely, down in the Below. But knowing that Eli was loose and roaming around had been enough to kill any sense of adventure Klove had. So here he was, sitting in his bunk, reading news bulletins to see if Eli was already killing. It was hard to tell, since most Below murders went unreported.

He shot Grace a glare when she came in, expecting her to bother him. But instead, she had the new crew member with her. Klove put down his eInkr and got to his feet. The smell hit him first, big cat, just like Klove, and he smiled a little. Good. Life was easier with other cats around. Szar was alright, but the cougar in him was always a bit unsettled with him around. "Hey." Klove offered a hand to Rebecca. "Nice to meet you."

[Rebecca Ranger]

Becca was glad to hear Grace respond to her joke in kind, but all the same she made a mental note to stay focused when she was needed. She followed Grace through the rest of the ship, nodding as various things were pointed out to her. Lastly they entered the crew quarters and Rebecca, not expecting to meet anyone else, found herself suddenly being introduced to a young man whom Grace identified as Klove, the first mate.

Rebecca liked Klove immediately. Part of it was that he also seemed to like her, but mostly it was something much stranger. He smelled good. It felt like such an awkward basis on which to get a first impression of someone, but she couldn’t deny that she felt instantly comfortable around Klove because of it.

As she reached out and shook his hand however, another emotion came over her. It was that strange feeling she sometimes got which she was at a loss to describe. It was as if some strange animal were lurking inside of her, just behind her eyes. She shook her head slightly, trying to be rid of it as she turned to listen to Grace’s further instructions.

Becca shook her head again, but this time for a different reason. “No, I’m okay here.” She’d slept in the same room as Sam for two weeks with no problems, she didn’t see why this would be any different. Realizing abruptly that she had failed to answer Klove’s greeting, she turned to him and smiled, hoping to make amends. “It’s nice to meet you too.”

[Grace Forjacks]

Rebecca's willingness to bunk with the rest was a good sign. So far, she'd seemed very level headed, but willing to crack a joke now and again. And it seemed that Klove and Rebecca had taken an instant liking to one another. That could have meant a couple of things, but most often it meant that they were dealing with a Were. Rebecca hadn't said anything, but that didn't matter. About half the Weres that served on the Queen of Spades never came outright and said they were Weres, even if Grace always knew from Klove. It didn't matter anyway, so long as they didn't try killing anybody else on board.

"The wage is two-hundred a day, plus a cut from our larger scores. The more you help out, the bigger the cut ends up being. I always pay up when we reach port." Grace covered the basics, since it was always good to have that sort of thing upfront. Then no one could say they didn't know what they were getting into. "As well, some of our business is less than legal. But always profitable. So that might be something to keep in mind."

[Rebecca Ranger]

Two-hundred credits a day, and possibly more? Was it just her, or did that sound like quite a lot of money? Unable to know for sure however, Rebecca just shrugged as said, “Okay.” But at Grace’s next point, she shook her head. “Don’t worry, I don’t have a problem with less than legal.” She’d lived with Sam for two weeks after all. Becca had looked up some of that stuff he ‘couldn’t live without’ on the Network. It was quite a bit more than ‘less than legal.’

She sat down on a bunk to her right, dropping her bag beside her. Becca hadn’t brought much, after all there was nothing much to bring. Sam had found her with nothing but the clothes on her back and a worn looking knife. She’d gotten a few more changes of clothes since then, in addition to a padd and two handguns. She still had the knife. “So,” Rebecca said into the silence, “When’s liftoff?” After about two seconds, something else occurred to her. “This bunk isn’t taken, is it?”

[Grace Forjacks]

Rebecca seemed pretty amicable, and the fact that she hadn't balked at the legalities of Grace's work was good. But, you never really knew where someone stood until they were in action. Grace had taken bigger risks before and had them pay off. She would give this one a try as well.

Grace smiled a little at Rebecca's eagerness to leave, "I'm just waiting to see if Szar shows up before we leave. If he's not here in another few hours, we'll leave him behind. We're headed to Heimdall this time. Feel free to settle in. Klove knows where everything is. And if you need me, I'm just up the stairs."

She left Rebecca to settle in. It was best if you didn't hover over the new crew. They weren't likely to feel comfortable if the captain was in their business while they were trying to figure out how everything worked. And it would give her a reason to make Klove start talking with other people again. It was too bad Castle hadn't been able to cut it. He and Klove had gotten along well, and Klove didn't exactly have many friends.

[Klove Makem]

"Nah, that one's free." Klove answered Rebecca, sitting in the empty bunk across from her. Grace gave the rest of the details, and then headed up, probably planning on plotting the course. Klove wasn't exactly sure what they were going to do on Heimdall. Probably something to do with dragons, since they sold pretty well everywhere you went.

"Grace gave you the tour, right?" Klove checked, not wanting to tread over old territory. "Everything's pretty straightforward. And if you get bored, there's stuff in there." He nodded to the chest under the dartboard. "Cards and darts and stuff, and a few spare old padds if you don't have your own. You can help yourself to them."

[Rebecca Ranger]

“A few hours. Excellent. And thanks, I guess I’ll take it then. She hadn’t expected things to happen quite so fast, but she was glad they were. Rebecca didn’t know exactly why she was so eager to get going, but the desire to set out, to be moving again (was it again?) was undeniably the strongest thing she felt right now. And Heimdall sounded exciting. That was the desert planet wasn’t it? With the dwarves? Rebecca had never met a dwarf. Probably because she’d never been to Heimdall. Or maybe she had. She just didn’t know.

As Grace left the room, Becca opened her bag and pulled out the pillow and quilt Sam had given her. He’d warned her that most ship bunks didn’t come with blankets and pillows, and he had been right. She stood up for a moment and arranged her thinks quickly before sitting back down on the mattress and tucking her bag underneath the bunk.

Then she turned to Klove. “Thanks again. Yeah Grace showed me around.” She paused, searching for a topic of conversation. “So, how long have you worked for Grace?”