A Dream of Earth (REBOOT) - IC

[Lyri Bladedance]

Lillian sighed as she watched Hotaru leave with a heavy heart. She really wasn't used to traveling on a Cruiser and leaving her Skimmer in someone else’s hands. Ever since she raised enough money buy it, she was hesitant to lose her source of independence. She moved through the ship, looking for a place she could settle in for the trip.

(Short, but if anyone wants to talk, let me know. Otherwise I'll respond again after takeoff)

[Longshanks]

Click. Click. Click. Click.

Danny stepped away from the access hatch as he heard the rather distinct tapping of a woman's heels approach the ship from the loading bay doorway. Looking over his shoulder to locate the source of the noise, he found himself suppressing an amused grin as his eyes came to rest on the woman carrying two very large suitcases. She looked very out of place, especially if she was planning on taking a flight on the ship currently at rest beside him. As he wondered over to the passenger ramp however, he couldn't help but notice the clear, albeit brief, look of disgust and disbelief on her face as she tapped away on a very expensive pad. He quickly added two and two together, the expensive shoes, the expensive pad, the expensive... animal. A spoilt runaway, great.

He turned back to look up the ramp, still wondering where the crew were hiding when the woman suddenly scooted in front of him. He nearly jumped, not having expected he to drop her bags and wander over so quick. Not to mention, she was stunning. For a moment, Danny couldn't help but wonder how much money the woman standing before him spent on her appearance, having never met anyone so... Level 1.
“Um, pardon me, but this can’t be the Marilyn Monroe, can it?”
The woman fluttered her eyes as if she wanted something, something more than just a confirmation on what her pad had already told her. He nodded, still quite taken in by the walking money tree before he opened his mouth to reply.

Before he could get a word out however, the Monroe suddenly burst into life. The engines began to hum, system drills whistled in the cargo section and the loading crane began to roll out, promptly followed by a young girl, upside-down. Danny quickly took a step around the blonde, the case that rest in his hand dropping at her feet and toppling into her, in an attempt to make sure the girl now hanging by her feet didn't fall on her neck. He stopped in his tracks as the girl suddenly gave a beaming smile, whisking her pad out from her belt above her and tapped in a few details before addressing the group that now stood at three on the base of the ramp.
"I'm Hotaru Haitachi, and welcome to the Marylin Monroe!"
The girl was far too cheerful for someone who's blood was rushing to her head and even after she dropped to the floor she managed to get back onto he feet with the exact same grin on her face. When being advised about stowing his luggage, Danny turned back to Brittany and his case. Stepping over to retrieve it, making sure not to intrude on what he expected to be a "personal bubble", he decided an apology was in order.

"I'm sorry about dropping my case on you miss." He said as took a step towards the passenger hold. "For a moment there I thought the girl over there was going to need a neck brace or something. Still, at least now we know this is indeed the Marylin Monroe. Or at least the wreck of it. Still time to find a luxury cruiser I'd imagine. Or at least a ship that will actually make it to New Hope." He smiled as he finished climbing the ramp, leaving the woman to her new ticket problem as he stowed his duffel bag in one of the cargo storage sections. The case stayed with him as he found a spare seat, as close as possible to the nose, and dropped himself into it. The harness was not the most comfortable of belts, so he left it where it was and made himself comfortable. At least for now.

[SailorKat]

He was cute enough, in a natural way, though he could probably use some face cream. Just a smidge. He was adorably flustered as he attempted to answer Brittany’s question, but he was interrupted by the engines of the derelict ship as they spun to life. La-La whined in her bag. “Hush, baby. It’ll be okay. She squinted at the hulk. “I think.”

A little monkey of a child popped out of the ship doing acrobatics. Brittany backed away in sheer self defense. The girl was filthy! This observation was followed swiftly by a small shriek as her fellow passenger jerked away, dropping his suitcase. It almost scratched her brand-new heels! She glared at him. Cute or not, he owed her an apology!

The monkey chattered away, and a man Brittany hadn’t noticed walked by her to enter the ship. He never once looked at her. That was impossible! Nobody ever ignored her! She opened her mouth to give him a piece of her mind, but then the girl was speaking to Brittany. “Oh, Brittany, um….” She couldn’t give her real name, Daddy would find her in a second. “Fern! Brittany Fern.” She gave the girl her brightest smile.

She shared that smile with the guy who dropped his suitcase. He apologized. Good. She let the rest of his pretty speech flow over her, but was caught by his last comment. “One that will…Oh god! I have to make it to New Hope!” She seized the monkey girl by her shoulders. “Please tell me this hunk of junk is good for at least one more trip! I’ll-I’ll simply die if I don’t make it!” She flung her hand dramatically over her eyes.

*********

It was a bit disconcerting to talk to a girl hanging upside down, but he was familiar enough with their resumes to know that Hotaru was the younger sister of the pilot, Gennosuke. And despite her age, she was a brilliant mechanic. Though his talents lay more towards software than hardware, Benjamin could well appreciate a fellow professional.

She confirmed his tickets and he said a level, “Thank you.” Slipping his Pad from his case, he gave Miss Moneybags a wide berth and climbed aboard. He shook his head at her 'fake name'. It was entirely too obvious she was trying to be anonymous. Striding confidently through the cargo bay, he stowed his case in the indicated compartment and gave a friendly nod to his fellow passengers. Having traveled quite a bit, he had no hesitation in choosing a seat in the front row, port side, and buckling his harness with the ease of long practice. He pulled a stylus from his pocket and pulled up a blank notesheet on his Pad while he awaited takeoff.

[BitterLies]

"Well of COURSE you'll die if you don't make it! We all will!" Her smile had officially become creepy with those words. "Of course, that won't happen! The Marilyn Monroe is in amazing condition! She's flown for longer than you and me have been alive -- combined! A little jump to New Hope won't be anything for the girl. Here...let me get those stashed and I'll get you to your seat!" Hotaru grabbed her bags and moved to the lower level of the cargo bay, carefully stowing the expensive bags into the open cargo container with a gentle hand. Guiding the girl up into the plane itself was easy. Of course the damned door got stuck and it took Hotaru a few good pulls to open the door.

Once inside, she seated Brittany and turned around and went back to getting the skimmer prepped to be loaded. She lowered the crane completely and extended the loading arm. As she moved bits of heavy equipment around, more of the passengers began to arrive slowly. She took a few minutes with each and made sure they all began to filter into their seats. By the time the Skimmer had been hooked up and was ready to be loaded, almost all of the passengers had been seated. The middle row of seats had been lowered to allow for some movement, but they still had a full plane. All twenty five seats were booked and once the last passenger clicked in, she started moving the skimmer into the cargo hold.

It was nearly halfway loaded when the damned crane cut out. She clicked on the headset and called up to the cockpit. “Gennosuke, I need help. This damned pump needs to be rerouted to the main hydraulics line and I can’t do that alone!!”

*********************

Gennosuke laughed at Cassandra’s question. Pretty girl, front seat -- sure he’d be down for that. “Yeah, I don’t see why not. Have you ever flown a Skimmer before?”

She shrugged, but a shy grin crept onto her face. "Well," she said, trying to sound nonchalant, "I used to compete on the amateur circuit with a Kia XLT-Rawbody, but that was...Well, I haven't flown in a few years." She looked wistful at the memory.

"Ever fly anything big? Those little racers are fun, but have you done any real flying?" He lounged a bit. The cockpit was fully automated. He didn't need to do a damned thing to get the boat running and once it was in the air, the autopilot systems could get him from here to New Hope. It was only the takeoff and landing - plus any emergency that happened along the way - that would require his delicate touch.

She laughed. "Not unless you count a highly supervised turn at the stick of Grand's, my grandfather's, old yacht when I was about twelve."

They made idle chit chat for a few minutes, discussing the finer points of flying, going over some of the differences between a single seater and a boat like the Monroe. He talked about his days in the Air Force, a few tricky missions as well as a few hilarious events involving the squads. When he stopped mid sentence and held the earpiece to his ear, he simply sighed.

"I'd bet your grandfather taught you the first rule of sitting in the number one seat." He climbed up and poked his head out to Carlo. “Hey, turn on your radio. I may need an extra hand with things. We’re on channel seven.”

Cass just smiled. It hadn't been Grand. Even before the estrangement he'd been a remote and emotionally distant part of her life. It had been the yacht's pilot, Jerry, who took her under his wing and introduced her to the joy of flight. "I must have missed that class," she quipped.

"Eh...doesn't matter anyway." He opened the hatch to his access hold. "Have a seat...put on that headset..." he pointed at the communications equipment behind her, "...and wait for me to tell you what to press."

With that, he dropped down into the ladder, closing the hatch behind him.

She blinked at the empty space where he had been standing moments before, then looked at the console with trepidation before sitting gingerly in the pilots seat and setting the headset comfortably over her ears.

************************

From the front hatch, Gennosuke emerged. He quickly made his way back to the main cargo bay, looking where Hotaru had gotten herself stuck. The passengers had since been loaded and at this point, no one had any business on deck near the hatch. Everything was buttoned up...as soon as this damned skimmer was pulled in.

“Gennosuke, there, grab the main Hydraulics line and pull a shunt over to that console. You’ll see the empty nozzle, just clip it on with that bunch of copper wire there.” Hotaru was doing something on the upper mechanism of the crane. apparently it was messy. The ramp was stained with some hydraulic fluid.

“You know, things like these are really good to sort out when passengers aren’t on board, Hotaru.” Gennosuke laughed as he used a knife to cut one of the hydraulic lines. One of the staircases up to the main deck collapsed under its weight. He nodded to himself for picking one that wasn’t important. Once he rerouted the cable, he wrapped the wire around a few times and stuck a nail through the loop, twist tightening the thing down until the seal was complete.

“Maybe I’d have a chance to do a full work over if we didn’t have to fly out every day. What’s the harm in stopping anywhere for more than a week?” Hotaru yelled at him over the comm. He knew they weren’t alone - but she didn’t. There were a lot of things she didn’t know, and right now was NOT the time to explain them.

Clicking on his comms, he called to Cassandra. “Alright, Cass, there are three green buttons with glowing icons on them to your left. Press the middle one.” He knew his console was mostly in Japanese, yet the layout was very intuitive and the icons were forgiving. Without knowing the words, most made sense.

The crane jumped to life, pulling the ship in completely and tucking itself up to the ceiling with ease.

Hotaru came out from the hold covered in grease and the black liquid she’d spilled from the system. Gennosuke gave her a pat on the head before smiling at her, speaking now instead of using the comms. “We’ll plot a trip out to New Everest for a few weeks. It will let us rest, and we can refit the old girl some there. I’ve got enough money for parts.”

The girl giggled, immediately thinking of one of the deck hands on New Everest who’d she’d taken a flutter to last time they were there. Unfortunately her smile darkened some as two men walked up to the rear of the plane. They were both Japanese, and neither looked fun. For a moment, Gennosuke considered his options. They couldn’t have been here for him.

“Go inside, start the preflight run through. I’ll get into the cockpit through my hatch. Last thing we want is for the passengers to know the Pilot stepped out during preflight.” He smiled as he patted her on. She gave the men a strange glance as he hopped down to greet them, but vanished into the hold shortly after. He considered calling down Carlo, but he knew that this would be over before he could be of any real help. Plus having him run through the ship would raise questions. Less questions were better. “Cass, Carlo, stay where you guys are - I’ve got a situation to defuse.”

Gennosuke still looked the part of pilot, his leather jacket, flight hat, and aviators. “Ohayou Gozaimasu!” He bowed to the men, falling back into his native tongue.

Neither of the men wanted a moment. With an angry scowl they shouted at his cheerful attitude. “Urusee, Hikkondero!” He threatened Gennosuke with a backhand as he very forcefully stepped forward.

The other moved to walk into the plane, but Gennosuke moved to block him. He continued speaking in his native tongue. “Excuse me, Gentlemen, but this is my plane. You’re not getting on board without a ticket.”

The shorter thug grabbed Gennosuke by the collar of his shirt, shaking him. “We’re looking for someone, and you’re not gonna stop us. Now get out of the way before we teach you a lesson in manners.”

The taller thug moved closer, smiling. “Listen, you let us on, we find our man, and we leave. No rough stuff - just some polite business. Now...if you’re gonna insist on keeping us off the plane, then I’m gonna let my friend here get a bit rough with you.

Gennosuke smiled. They weren’t after him. That was a relief. Still, they were not gonna get on the plane. He let a few seconds bleed off, assessing the two men before him. Both had size - they were bulkier than he was - and they were most likely both armed. He spotted the hint of color near the short man’s collar, and the tall one had a coiling dragon running up to his ear. These guys would have knives. Still, they hadn't drawn yet. He felt himself cool down, his inner calm radiating through his limbs and the sharp tingle at his fingers of adrenaline. He’d give them one more chance.

************************************

Hotaru ran through the passenger cabin with a skipping gait after she closed the rear hatch. Moving to the staircase up towards the flight deck, she patched her headset into the P.A. system in the cabin. With a bright smile, she began her preflight passenger prep.

“Ohayou Gozaimasu! Thank you all for choosing Silver Lining Transports! We’re honored to help you do your business! We will be taking off momentarily, so before we get underway, we’ll go over some basic safety features of our wonderful aircraft!”

She pulled a mock five point harness - one that matched the ones on the seats, and began demonstrating the process of buckling it up.

“First, familiarize yourself with your harness! We’d ask that when this light--” she pointed at a red dome in front of the cabin and flicked a switch, activating the spinning alarm light, “-- switches on, you immediately fasten yourself into your seats! Due to inclement weather, mechanical failure, or pirate attack, the aircraft may not maintain level flight, and unsecured passengers and cargo may fly about the cabin during such maneuvers. Since your safety is our top priority, we’ve ensured that all of the harnesses are in proper working order. In order to secure yourself, pull the lock, and it’s two shoulder straps, over your head, placing the buckle squarely on your chest. Grab the seat strap, pull between your legs, and secure to the bottom snugly.”

She let the device hang around her neck, and quickly showed the process of clipping and locking the metal pins into place. Then she tightened the straps, pulling it secure.

*************************************

Gennosuke shook his head, “No, I don’t think you’ll be allowed on the plane. See, we’re about to take off...”

The short one answered back angrily, drawing his fist back to punch. “Not if the pilot is in the hospital.”

Gennosuke blinked, and immediately grabbed the thugs wrist that held his arm. The slow hay-maker he was preparing gave him plenty of time to deliver a quick jab to the short thug’s inner elbow, breaking his grip on the Pilot’s collar. Twisting the wrist that he held, Gennosuke put the short thug between him and the second, then brought a knee straight up into the little man’s face, smashing his glasses and nose.

As he reeled back, the tall man pulled a tanto from his coat and paced to Gennosuke’s left. The short one had fallen back to his haunches, trying to clear his eyes from the blood and tears that came with a broken nose.

Over the comms, in English, he spoke to Cass directly. “Cass, start the rotor sequence and engage the drive shafts. Get the engines spinning, we’re good to go.”

*******************************************

Smiling, Hotaru continued with her speech to the passengers. “Next, quickly grab the two side straps and plug them into their corresponding ports. Once they’re secure, pull the straps tight and you’re ready to fly!”

She showed off how the harness should look, then clicked the center button to release the three lower straps and remove the harness.

“Now, in the event of cabin depressurization, you’ll find an oxygen mask directly beneath your seat.” She produced a mock version, and began demonstrating it. “Pulling the mask from it’s holster will begin the oxygen feed. Secure the straps behind your head and breathe normally.”


********************************************

Cassandra listened to the sounds of raised voices and fighting, and thought this was not the most auspicious beginning to their trip. When Geno’s voice came over the comm sounding perfectly calm, if a little breathless, she admitted to some relief. She looked at the console, trying to ignore the indecipherable labels in kanji, and went for the familiar, a button with the universal icon for “engines”. It might have been pure luck that had her flicking the right switches, but she liked to think she was better than that. A grin of pure enjoyment lit her face as the engines spun up with a satisfying growl. This is turning into an exciting ride, she thought.

Gennosuke tossed the man a grin, dropping back into Japanese as the engines started their slow rotations and the gears grabbed the rotor shafts, spinning the massive blades that would push the Monroe forward. “You’re not getting on my plane.”

The tall thug answered, deftly wielding the knife. “I guess we’re gonna do this the hard way then.” He lunged forward, pulling the knife close to his chest as his left hand prepared to block or parry any punches from Gennosuke.

For his part, Gennosuke managed a quick sidestep, caught the man’s left hand, twisted, and stepped to the left and behind him, spinning him around and using his momentum to throw him into his partner, who had just managed to get his feet. He knew Cassandra was still stuck up front. “Next, you’ll need to release the brake on the wheels. Blue buttons, fourth column, upper right panel.”

She did as instructed, and the cruiser gave a tiny shudder as the mechanism released. Then, without warning, the entire ship lurched forward, like a drunken sailor on dry land, and started moving. Oh that is SO not a good thing, she thought, panicking more than a little. She did a quick inventory of mechanicals she could see, desperately seeking one particular.... There! Her hand yanked down on the brake stick, and the Monroe halted. She laughed out a relieved sigh.

“Check.”

***********************************

“In the event of an emergency landing, these panels here...” Hotaru once more gestured to spots below the wing’s main mounting. They were outlined in caution signs and yellow and black tape, “...can be released and blown outwards for quick evacuation. Also remember that the rear access may be blocked by debris from the cargo space.”

As she replaced the oxygen mask, the whole ship lurched forward then stopped suddenly. She barely managed to keep her feet, but didn’t lose her smile. “Pardon that folks! Like I said, we’re going to be underway shortly.”

She didn’t miss a beat on her presentation, though. “Right here, down this access hatch, is the Lavatory - please be considerate and knock in the event you need to use the facilities! The other hatch here, and the staircase will be off limits to passengers - so please stay out!”

She smiled, putting a simple chain across her bedroom’s hatch, and the ladder up to the cockpit. “Now, we’re going to begin our taxi to the main launch bay, so please keep in mind the rules I’ve set, and have a safe and pleasant flight! Great Pilot Haitachi will have us safely up and airborne just a few minutes, at which point we can permit you to move about the cabin. Remember to disable all electronic devices, including Pads, Communicators, and other Commcore browsing devices! We’d hate to get our signals crossed and end up a burning wreck on the runway!” She giggled with that, as she lowered her own single seat between the staircase and her bedroom, strapping herself in neatly. Once in, she clicked back into the comm’s channel. “Gennosuke, what the hell is going on?”

***************************************

The two men rallied and separated. He’d be surrounded. They both stepped onto the lowered hatch of the landing bay. He hoped his timing was right. With a quick step he jumped off the aircraft, setting foot on the steady deck just as the wheels were released. The sudden movement of the plane put the tall one on his face and the short one staggering. Gennosuke didn’t give him a chance to right himself.

Stepping up to the short thug, he delivered two quick punches. One was parried with a desperate attempt at defense, but the other landed squarely below the man’s jaw, pushing his throat and sending him choking. He was done.

With a quick spin, he took three steps forward, back into his plane, and launched a quick kick into the tall thug’s knee - who happened to be using it to stand back up at that exact moment. The man shouted, and collapsed back on the deck of the ship. He heard Cassandra’s check and smiled as he readied for the man to stand up one more time.

Hotaru keyed into the channel just as he started speaking. “Feather the props, adjust throttle to 15% and use the rudder to start your taxi. Click the bay doors closed too. I’m done back here.”

“You’re not flying the plane?” she whispered.

“He’s sort of flying the plane, just....by extension,” Cassandra’s voice put in. she made the adjustments Gennosuke told her to and hit the bay door closure button. The Monroe crept forward at a fraction of the speed she could normally attain. She steered her toward the take-off runway. “Uh, shouldn’t we be confirming take off with the tower?” she asked hesitantly.

The tall thug was standing up again, relying on his good knee to balance. “We had some riff raff try to get a free ride.” He grabbed him by the collar and carried him to the end of the slowly raising bay door. He simply tossed the man out onto the tarmac, knowing they’d be far enough away that he’d never be able to keep up.

As the doors sealed behind him, he fixed his hat and glasses and headed for the hatch. He opened his radio to Tower Control. “GGCU Tower Control 12, this is the Marylin Monroe, we are scheduled for departure in five minutes and have begun our taxi to runway six, copy?”

“Copy that, Monroe, we’ve got your beacon. Running behind? You’re a few minutes past your scheduled taxi?” The Tower Operator was a good friend of Gennosuke’s. They’d served together before he took a bullet and lost his leg from the knee down.

“Yeah, Jake, we had some trouble on the Dock. Nothing big, but you may want to send security.” He opened the hatch and stepped into the passenger cabin. The numerous glances, stares, and wide eyed looks of shock at their pilot walking in from the cargo hold as they were on their taxi route was slightly unsettling, but he didn’t really mind. He just smiled and nodded as he politely made his way up past the seats.

Jake cut in over his embarrassment. “You’re clear for Six. Safe Skies, Hayabusa.”

“Check, logged departure, we’ll be clear in a few minutes. Sayonara, Mr. Wizard.” He smiled as they exchanged their traditional squad farewells. Neither flew for the GGCU anymore, but once you did, you were part of the family.

He moved past Hotaru as she shook her head, laughing. He put his pilot’s cap on her head as he gave her a smile back. Once up the stairs, he gave Carlos a nod as he passed under the turret. “Exciting flight already. Keep your eyes out for more.”

Truthfully, he didn’t think the Yakuza would send aircraft after them, but it never hurts to be sure. Once inside the cockpit, he plopped down into the number two chair and gave Cassandra a smile. “Not bad. A little slow for my tastes.”

“She’s a little quirky,” she admitted.

He smiled and reached over and pushed the throttle sticks to 25%, increasing taxi speed. Any faster and they’d be breaking laws. “Use the brake and keep us below Dock Speed. We’ll need the juice to get off the runway. The stick will want to pull your arms off once we hit the air, so make sure you’re ready for a fight. Once it’s level we’ll switch seats.”

He began punching commands into the navigation console. Their route, fuel costs, time, and landing still needed to be entered. While he did so, he punched in a message to Blake on New Everest, letting him know that he planned on making a trip out in the next week or so.

Hotaru popped into the cockpit. She looked at Cassandra behind the controls and gave Gennosuke a sly look. “Onna no tame ni yaru koto tte...”

“Shigoto ni modore tsuu no!” he growled, and she quickly chirped back into the hold of the ship, heading back to her seat.

[Ghurdrich]

What a damn hassle this is gonna be, I can already tell. Still, Carlo had signed up for the job, he wasn't about to back out now. Lighting a smoke, he switched on his radio and tuned it to the proper frequency, wincing a bit at the volume of the thing, before his ears got properly attuned. He'd have to deal with it over the noise of the machine itself, after all. He spent a moment enjoying their idle chatter before tuning out and stretching out as best his seat allowed him before takeoff.

“Cass, Carlo, stay where you guys are - I’ve got a situation to defuse.” Thus spoke the pilot before he started speaking in Japanese. Carlo had a bit of a running knowledge of the language, enough to communicate with folks that he couldn't speak it anyways, but it wasn't necessary. He understood the situation pretty clearly just by listening to their tone of voice. He sighed a bit before zoning out. "Eh, if the man thinks he can handle himself, then he can." There was probably a reason he didn't ask for any help, and Carlo respected that and left him be, focusing instead on quadruple-checking that everything was good to go. He wiggled a few of the handles and checked the safety mechanisms, which were still on. Everything seemed in order, just as it had been before. They might have been having a few troubles with the rest of the ship, but at least the guns seemed to work good as new - while they weren't shooting, at least. Carlo figured they were probably almost entirely separate from the other workings of the plane when they were in manual. It was only if they had an auto-targeter that they'd need to be connected to all the systems.

The rest of the takeoff felt like a bad hangover. There was lurching, yelling, people were fighting, and the noise was enough for Carlo to put his headset back on fully. Still, he didn't particularly feel like he was in any danger. Maybe because he'd been on worse, or maybe just because he'd sensed something in the pilot that he instinctively trusted. Either way, it wasn't too bad once you got used to everything.

They finally lifted off, and the ride smoothed out, at least for now. It seemed like Geno was chatting amicably away to whoever he had up front, like usual, and machine troubles were, miraculously, kept to a minimum. "Maybe I can relax a bit...?" Carlo wasn't optimistic enough to believe that they definitely wouldn't be attacked, but since they hadn't yet, he allowed himself to lean back slightly and fire up his second smoke since he'd gotten on the Monroe. He never really got a clear answer on whether it was alright for him to smoke up here, but at this point it was too late, and he was bored, so he'd deal with the consequences later.

[Taerra Firma]

Cassie settled herself into the surprisingly comfortable seat and tightened down the harness. She pulled a pair of sunglasses from her pocket and slipped them on. The grin on her face could rival even Geno’s now. The ship passed into the depressurization bay, and the doors sealed behind them, blocking off any attempt by any person without a death wish to follow. The only people in the bay were a couple of ground control signalmen, outfitted in full gear to protect them from the extreme conditions. The outer bay doors opened.

As they taxied onto their designated flight deck, out of the protection of the docking bay, the bright sun glistened off the radiation shielded cockpit windows. The Monroe shuddered as it was buffeted by the high atmospheric winds. Cassandra held tighter to the stick. The pressure doors sealed behind them, they picked up speed, and then they were airborne. It was a good thing Geno had warned her about the stick, otherwise they would have taken a nose dive off the end of the ramp. Instead, they soared away from the floating hulk that was the GGCU and into the bright day.

She relaxed as the ship leveled out and the autopilot accepted control of the flight. She grinned over at Geno, her eyes sparkling. “Well that was fun,” she smiled, taking the headset off and quickly finger combing her hair. She stood up and stretched as well as possible in the cramped cockpit. Between the take off and the fight, it had been a tense half hour. Speaking of which...

“So, uh, you have a habit of attracting thugs to your ship?” she asked, referring to the ruckus earlier. She wondered who the two men he’d beaten up had been looking for. It’s probably better for my health if I don’t know, she thought, but curiosity is the bane of every reporter. She idly fingered the amber set locket hanging around her neck and thought about what awaited her at the end of her journey.

“Nobody messes with my passengers. They wanted on to do some ruckus with someone, so I gave them the ruckus outside. Less damage that way.” He smiled, double checking a few instruments as he moved into his seat. As they reached a comfortable altitude, he clicked off the Seatbelt Klaxon, giving everyone a bit of room to move around and relax.

“Well, I guess it’s a good thing you’re so conscientious,” she laughed, “and apparently good in a fight...” She left the comment open, wondering if he would even bother answering. Frankly she wasn’t sure what to believe.

“That, or they were really bad.” He looked back over and smiled - features hidden beneath those glasses.

“Uh huh. And were they?”

“No.” he answered.

Her lips twitched, and she controlled them firmly. “So...who were they looking for?”

“A passenger - I didn’t really ask beyond that.” He turned back to the console and started working on a few algorithms for the auto pilot.

“A japanese passenger? They weren’t shouting in french...” she said archly. She studied him a little closer, but there was nothing to see, it seemed. His face could have been carved from cheerful stone.

“Possible - I was the one that started the conversation in Japanese, though...” He let his own mind deposit that little fact into his head. They were Japanese, yes, but these guys were Yakuza. Their target was Japanese, for sure. Yakuza didn’t mess with gaijin. But there weren’t any Tokugawan’s on the passenger list, were there?

“Do you think they’ll follow us?”

“No, probably not. If they go back to their boss and tell them a pilot laid both of them out, they’ll get another beating - one that will probably leave scars. No, they’ll say they lost him in the Airport - though I really don’t want to be them for the next few weeks.” He nearly giggled at the irony of his statement.

“You seem to know a lot about it,” she commented. “Have you been on the wrong side of these guys before?”

He thought about how true the question rang. “Yep. You don’t grow up on the streets of Tokugawa without seeing it, though.”

She laughed and shook her head. For someone who seemed friendly and open, he was awfully good at not answering questions. “You are a man of surprising talents, Captain Haitachi. Thanks for the flight time,” she said as she left.

When she climbed back out to the main cabin, she regretted giving up the relatively comfortable seats in the cockpit. Obviously it was a full flight. The only open seat was in the center of one row, and she apologized politely to the woman who had to get up to let her in. Ah, well. It didn’t really matter. It was only a four hour flight after all. She took out her pad, and sat back to do a little light reading.


************************************************** ************

It had been a normal, boring run until they were about half an hour out of New Hope, which was surprising since it was so close to the city’s patrol area. The first sign that anything was wrong was the clicking from the radio. It was a familiar sound to Geno, and one he did not look forward to. It meant someone was jamming his long range broadcast frequency, and they probably weren’t friendly. He quickly flicked on the seatbelt Klaxon and commed into his crew’s radio.

“Hotaru, make sure everyone’s strapped in and get up here. Carlo, release your safety - we have some trouble inbound.” As he spoke, he immediately began pinging the ships with radar and letting the tech hidden beneath the rust come back with some kind of ship classification.

Multiple contacts. Three total it looked like, blossoming on the screen like mold. They were small, and fast, probably skimmers, and they were buzzing in from four-o’clock high. If they had a carrier ship with them, it wasn’t in range. They probably did though. The closest city was New Hope, and they weren’t from there.

Back in the cabin, Hotaru nodded sharply. “Hai, Captain,” she said, a smile blossoming on her face. She stood and faced their passengers, clapping her hands together cheerfully. “Ladies and gentlemen, if you will please make sure you are strapped in and any loose items secured. We will be experiencing some turbulence shortly.” She waited only long enough to be sure they were all complying, before darting into the cockpit. She was a little breathless when she plopped into the co-pilot seat. “What’s the situation, brother mine?”

Before he could answer Hotaru caught a glimpse of light flickering out of the corner of her eye. She turned to look, realized it was the sun reflecting off the clear dome of an incoming skimmer, and barely a moment later a warning shot flew past the nose of the cruiser. “Well, damn,” she muttered.