Fire Star (closed)

[carnor_jax]

Kircanos leaned back in his chair, he looked down at the brown boots with silver buckles that rested on the ships console. He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly feeling the perspiration starting to cool on his skin. They exit off of RA237 had been a particular rushed and dangerous one. They planet had been going through some civil unrest and differing factions were trying to control the ore export. They had rushed to get the ore loaded and secured and getting off of the landing pad had been fun as a group of rebels started to take shots at them. Luckily they only had small arms and couldn't really do any damage to the space freighter. He ran his hand down the side of his chair feeling the cool metal against his finger tips. She wasn't the biggest or fastest ship but she had been through alot and he knew what he could get out of her.

He leaned back and closed his eyes for a few seconds before a familiar beep filled the cabin. The computer had finished plotting their jump path and was ready to engage. He leaned forwarded and pressed a red button for the ships intercom system "Hold on, starting the jump sequence" he said. He straightened up and entered the commands for the computer to take them into hyperspace. The ship lurched and then everything became very still, he took a deep breath of the coppery tasting recycled air. His dark brown eyes focused on the forward view screen as the star field flew past him.

His ship the Star Fire was comprised of a small crew Ajax was his copilot, Karena was the mechanic and Gareth was the everything else guy, he did some cooking, if you could call hydrating the prepackaged meals cooking.

Kircanos eyes flicked back to a blue screen that gave him some readouts of the ships progress. They were on schedule to make their delivery and all of the other readouts look good. "Hmmm" Kircanos let out a low sigh, their oxygen reading seemed to be a little lower than expected. Keying up the com system again "Gareth, did you fill the O2 tanks full" he asked and listened to the static as he waited for the reply.

"Yes" came a somewhat snippy reply "I'm not sure how good their gear was down there are compressing it but they were full by the time we left".

"Well, it looks like we might have a scrubber on the fritz" Kircanos said “Karena, can you check on that and see which one isn't functioning at full capacity” he said as he let go of the mic and sat back in his chair. He shook his head, every flight was an adventure in itself.

 

[slut_in_white]

To say that Max was sick of her home planet was an understatement. She's been trapped there, stuck doing stupid little jobs for stupid little crime lords for most of her life. They were all small-time and foolish. Max wanted more.

That was why, when she'd found herself alone on the hangar with the freighter, she couldn't give up the opportunity. She'd slipped onto the ship and hidden herself away in a corner of the cargo bay. She hadn't given much thought to how she was going to eat or drink - she's always been a figure-it-out-as-you-go sort of girl.

Problem was, she didn't know much about ships, and it turned out that an extra set of lungs breathing the oxygen was actually rather noticeable. No one would have come looking in her hiding spot otherwise, wedged as she was in behind one of the scrubbers. But as it was, Karena came wandering in, and Max scrambled to get out of sight, but it was far too late for that.

"Hey!" Karena's weapon was out in a flash. "Come out of there!"

There wasn't anywhere else for Max to go, so, begrudgingly, she squeezed out from behind the scrubber. Maybe if she offered to pull her weight, the crew wouldn't mind feeding her...

Karena looked some combination of angry and afraid of Max. She lifted a comm to her mouth. "Hey, Captain, I found a stowaway back here. I'm bringing her up to the bridge." She turned the comm off and glowered at Max, waving the barrel of her gun slightly. "Go on. And don't try anything."

Max sighed. "Relax. Attacking you would be stupid. I won't do anything."

Karena still seemed suspicious, but relaxed a bit, and motioned for Max to go ahead of her. That was how, held at gunpoint, Max ended up walking into the cockpit of the Fire Star.

 

[carnor_jax]

Kircanos was surprised when he had heard that they had a stow away on board. He hadn't run into this situation in all of his space travels. He sat there for a moment trying to decide what he was going to do. He stood up as he heard the door open to the cockpit. "This what you found" he asked Karena as he looked at the figure she had her blaster trained on.

Karena nodded "Yep some street urchin" she said nodding to the dirty appearance of their intruder.

Kircanos pressed his lips together as he looked at her, she was young but looked like she might be able to do some things around the ship. "So why did you sneak on board my ship" he said taking a very angry tone. "You know that there are no free rides in this galaxy" he said. "You had better have something you can do to pay for your passage" he said.

"Whats your name" he said as he stood in front of her putting his hands on his hips.

 

[slut_in_white]

Max glowered at the captain. She didn't mind the idea of working for passage, but he'd seen what it was like on her home planet. How the hell could he justify getting so angry with her for wanting to leave?

"Maybe next time you should lock your ship up better," she snapped in response, straightening her spine. "And who are you to assume I was even looking for a free ride? I know how to pull my own weight. Don't be such a dick about it."

 

[carnor_jax]

Kircanos crossed the distance between them quickly and grabbed her by her shoulder jacket he pulled her close to his face "You will learn very quickly on here that such disrespect will only bring you pain" he said as his face was cool and calm. He let her go with a soft shove back.

He looked past her and to Karena "lock her in bunk 3" he said as his gaze returned to Max. "I will decide what we are going to do with her" he said as he watched her face. "Im sure we can figure out a use for her" he sneared.

Karena jabbed the blaster into Max's back "Move" she said roughly.

 

[slut_in_white]

Max wanted to snap back at the captain, but she recognized the threat in his voice and demeanor, and couldn't quite forget that Karena still had a gun pointed at her. She decided that angry silence was the best option for a response, so she sneered back at him while Karena prodded at her to move.

Bunk 3 wasn't far - just down a hallway or two. Karena gave Max an unnecessary shove into the room and locked the door behind her. That left Max alone in the room to take a look around. It was clearly uninhabited at the moment; there were no clothes in the drawers, no personal items visible around the room. There was a small washroom in the back corner, and a serviceable bed along one wall, plus a set of drawers topped with a smudged mirror opposite the bed. It was stark, as ships generally were without the personal touch of decoration, but it would work. Better than home, anyway.

With nothing to do and no idea when anyone would come to figure out what to do with her, she flopped down on the bed, lifting her arms up over her head, and took a nap.

 

[carnor_jax]

Kircanos returned to the controls of the ship and made sure that they were on course. He turned to Karena once he was satisfied "Run her through the holonet and make sure that she isn't wanted or anything" he said. "She might be worth something" he said with a smile as he turned back to his station.

"Yes Sir" she responded as she tuned around.

He made sure that they were out of the gravity well of the system before he flipped on the auto pilot and decided to have another chat with their visitor.

He walked down the corridor and punched in the unlock code to her room. He walked in and waited for the doors to close behind him. "So what is your name" he said as he stood near the bed. "Why did you sneak on board" he asked this time his tone much more normal giving her the opportunity to not be on the defensive.

 

[slut_in_white]

Max glowered at the captain when he walked in. She didn't want to be on good terms with him, not after getting caught as a stow-away, but she had to give him credit: he was being a lot more civil this time around.

She sat up, cross-legged on the bed, and looked squarely at him. "I'm Max. If you've done your job right and run a search on me, you'll know its not my real name, but I won't answer to anything else." She paused, then. She didn't want to answer his second question. She didn't like admitting weakness to people she didn't trust. "I left because... Well, because things fucking suck on that planet. I don't care where you're going. It's better than that shithole was."

Part of Max's problem was her looks. She was small, both short and thin, with just enough of a chest to make sure that no one could ever forget she was female. Her hair was long and blonde, and she had big blue eyes and big pouting lips. In short, she was pretty, feminine and sexual enough in her appearance that the red-neck bruisers at home had refused to take her seriously. She could have ruled that planet if she'd had a dick because the little gang kings that had squabbles between themselves were so incompetent, but she could never do anything about it because none of them were willing to listen to anyone with boobs, and she could never follow someone who hadn't proven themselves worthy of it. She wondered idly if maybe this captain would be different.

She looked at the captain, frowning. "So. What are you going to do with me?"

 

[carnor_jax]

Kircanos stood there and listened, he could understand her plight and wanting to get off of that rock. He knew that every where in the universe had a bad place, but he had seen some really awful things on that place. He was also happy to have blasted off when they did and be headed some where better. He looked at her, she was dirty, but maybe if she was cleaned up she could be pretty.

He shrugged "Not sure yet, checking around to see if there is a reward for you first" he shook his head "and if its worth the fuel cost". He watched her face to gauge her reaction to that. He knew that if she had pissed off one of the crime lords bad enough back home they would pay to have her back. He sort of figured that might be the case with her being on the run like this.

"And then if that isn't the case then maybe we can put you to work" He smirked "We got a lot of greasy stuff around here that needs cleaning"

He started to turn "Oh and I wouldn't try and sneak out of here Karena is in charge of ships security and she is mighty pissed right now." he said with a chuckle.

He walked out of the room and headed down the corridor to the galley. He found most of the crew there. He looked at Karena "Get her cleaned up" he said as he headed back to the bridge.

 

[slut_in_white]

Karena came marching into the bunk, evidently pissed that she was going to have to be the one who babysat the stowaway. She threw a set of towels, a bottle of shampoo and a fresh set of clothes to the foot of the bed. "You know how a shower works, right?"

Max glowered at her in return. "You're a friendly one, aren't you?"

Karena just sneered at her a left. Max took the opportunity to shower, grateful for a chance to get the dirt and grease off. Some of the utilities had been cut off when the fighting started, so she hadn't had a chance to shower in more than a week. Needless to say, she had developed a sudden taste for that particular simple pleasure. The water ran cold faster than she expected, but she realized she shouldn't have been surprised: ships probably didn't have particularly large hot water tanks.

Once she was finished, she toweled off and dressed, then flopped back down on the bunk and started braiding her hair for no reason other than to find something to do with her hands while she waited for someone to come back and give her something to do.

 

[carnor_jax]

Kircanos checked their course and plotting to make sure that they were going to stay on it and avoid anything out there in space. He felt pretty comfortable with the auto pilot but ti was always comforting to double check it occasionally. He got up from the chair and headed to his cabin. He washed his face and started to relax for a bit.

He needed to clear his head and make sure that he was clear on what he wanted to do. He needed to figure out what they were going to do when they hit the next stop and delivered their cargo. They had already negotiated the price for the delivery so this should be a very straight forward drop off and collect. He knew it would never be that easy, but he hoped that it would go smoothly.

Then there was the decision he needed to make about their tag along. He figured as long as they had her on board he might as well get something out of her. He headed to her cabin.

He walked in as the door slid open, he looked at Max "So can you cook" he asked.

 

[slut_in_white]

Max had been sitting on the bed with her eyes closed, so they popped open again when the door open and she winced at the question. "I won't accidentally poison you with my cooking or anything, but I'm not exactly a chef either. I could do some manual labour, and I'm a damn good shot, if you ever need that sort of thing."

She pushed herself to her feet. The clothes Karena had given her didn't fit well. The shirt was about a size too small, making the material strain across her chest. The pants were a size or two too big, so they hung loosely, and too low, off of her hips. She crossed her arms, looking unflinchingly at him. "I'll do what I have to to convince you not to vent me out of your ship," she promised solemnly. She knew captains did that to stowaway sometimes, and while this particular man didn't seem the type to wantonly murder people, she'd misread men before.

There was a beat of silence, and the she asked, "So, what do I call you? Captain?"