The Heart Of Gold – Planet Regina

“Shee-niou piece of crap!” shouted an older feminine voice from under the main console in the bridge of the Firefly class ship the Heart of Gold that had landed on planet Regina for some quick repairs. Fingers grasping at the edge of the counter and curling around until the woman pulled herself up and stood up, pushing her white dread locks back over her shoulder so they spilled down her back. Narrowing her eyes she balled up her fist and slammed it against the computer. It blinked a few times before it finally powered up. Grumbling several curses under her breath she made her way out of the bridge and into the main room that the crew used as their kitchen and eating quarters, passing it quickly to continue deeper into the ship and out the back of it where it landed.

The sun was high in the sky and it was far too hot for the captains liking, it may not have been as bad if the ship didn’t seem to keep falling apart on her and causing the crew to make an emergency landing. The only solace she could find was that at least it wasn’t a heavily patrolled Alliance planet and her crew could slip in and out without much worry. With the cargo they carried the last thing she needed was the Alliance to be poking their noses where it didn’t belong. Granted the cargo was the least of her worries right then. She wasn’t exactly on the Alliances top ten list of most lovable and the rest of her crew had not exactly been model citizens but they were a good crew, to a point. Some were newer than others; some had been with her for years. She hadn’t left a person in deep space in over eighteen months, so things were shiny.

“Come on folks, we need to finish up the repairs and get the hell off this dust ball to make our delivery,” she yelled both towards the small town that looked like it was something straight out of an old western back on Earth and into the ship. She wanted to break orbit before the sun set but the way the repairs were going both with the computers and the hull were going slow. Not because of the crew so much but because the cost of parts this far out was a lot more than she was willing to pay. The last two days she had spent being rather persuasive with the local merchants to get a fair price, that persuasiveness usually being the barrel of a gun to the temple of the merchant that was nothing more than some back-berthed low life. It may not have been the most polite way to get her point across but it got the job done and now that they had the parts they needed she felt there was no reason they couldn’t be off world by sunset.

The captain of the Heart of Gold was not the most reasonable person in the ‘Verse but she knew how to run a ship and get the job done. It had been well over ten years since the end of the war and the former browncoat had never really lost her hardened exterior. She had purchased the spacecraft at the end of the way, fixed it up and started finding a crew quickly. Some of those that she had first hired were still with her, others had well…. Gone another path. She wasn’t an easy person to work for but she wasn’t unkind, just harsh. She didn’t mince words and told it like it was no matter the situation. Captain Akechi Lee Ko, better known as either Captain or Lee to those who had known her for a long time, made sure the ship was her crews home. She expected loyalty and paid well, when funds were available. Though there were times there was no money and they would ride on fumes for days while they found a planet to refuel on. That was the life of a smuggler. It wasn’t grand and it wasn’t a dependable paycheck, it brought in the worst type of people and made you look at war as a Sunday picnic but she wouldn’t have it any other way.

Iean was picked up on Persephone with some of the cargo from that one job that time. Now he has heathens a plenty right here. He helps with the lifting and look out type jobs. Other times he blesses the food quietly and the cargo. He has currently said a prayer for the crappy compression coil three light years past the expiration date. To pass the time in between ports he can be found reading in his room practicing the lepers and hell fire speech for them that need it. Other times he is doing tai chi in the open space of the hold. He wears traditional Shepperd garb and some times his traveling clothes.

There were hints at the skills he hid by the various things he knew that a shepperd wouldn't normally know. The insignia of alliance commanders, the knowledge of covertly gathering alliance signals from the cortex without being detected and passing the info to the captain. In his room he keeps a long brown coat with a hole by the right leg stained with blood in the bottom of his foot locker. The fact that he was in the war as a brown coat is known, but only the few he served with know the real Iean.

Looking at the mechanic who was under one of the consoles Iean scratched his head as to how this situation could be resolved through faith then he remembered one of these guys was a carpenter. Which made him an engineer of sorts. So following that logic and saying something similar to "Heal thyself" in Chinese he hit the console a few times with the good book. Scratching his head again with a smile on his face, "Well, to be fair that normally works on the younger generation."

"Sure thing, Captain!" Hannah chirped pleasantly as the white-haired woman berated the crew. She took the Captain's tough love in stride; she'd been taking it in stride for years, after all. She was pretty sure it wasn't actual anger. ...pretty sure.

The pint-sized space pirate didn't try to jump in on the ship part wrangling—she was no engineer. Instead, she continued on her path into the ship, whistling cheerfully as she walked up the cargo ramp, arms wrapped around a wooden crate almost as big as her torso. Anyone peeking between the slats would see smaller metal boxes marked 'munitions' and 'warning: explosives' with faded block letters. It almost didn't seem possible, looking at the round, sweet face of the person carrying it, but there must be at least fifty sticks of dynamite in there.

Her favorite kind of cargo—especially if she got to surprise the captain with it later. Hannah kept up the jaunty tune as she proceeded into the ship, planning on taking her load straight to her bunk. These kind of incendiaries would be safe away from prying eyes...and she could attend to them privately later. Not that she was weird about explosives, or anything, she just...gave them special attention. She waved to the preacher as she passed through the bridge, smiling slightly to herself. Soon, they'd be getting off this dustball planet, and back up in the black.

April rose from her seat in the cockpit and rolled the kinks out of her shoulders. Truth be told, she was getting pretty sick of these emergency landings - not that she had any difficulty with them. When she'd taken this job a few months ago, it had seemed lucrative, exciting, and a good way out of some hot water. The Heart had needed a pilot, and April had needed a ship. What nobody had told her was that the ship was a complete rustbucket.

Well, maybe the new parts the Captain had... 'acquired' would get that straightened out. If she was lucky, it might even happen this millennium.

"What the shit is taking so long?" she hollered back as she stormed out of the cockpit. "Yall hired me to fly a ship, not look cute, so any chance I'm gonna get to do my job?" The impatient pilot began storming through the ship towards the engines, rolling her eyes as she walked past Preacher Weirdo banging on something with his book. She passed by Hannah, the slightly off-kilter demolitionist, and elbowed her good-naturedly.

Rolling her sleeves up, April arrived at the engine room. The girl lowered her goggles onto her head and bent down to survey the problem. "Wow. Our baby girl is fucked." The girl winced as she surveyed the damage. The ship had never been in great condition, though much of the obvious wear and tear was clearly from the engines being pushed quite a bit past what could be expected of them. "Shit. I do that?"

Without waiting for an answer from the ship's engineer, April grabbed a wrench from nearby and knelt down to being making repairs

"Listen, I've told you everyday for the past week, I don't make goram rocket launchers," Silas sighed, rubbing his face in frustration.

"But what if you did?" asked a scraggly, slightly unhinged looking goat farmer who was missing one eyebrow. "C'mon! I got the coin," the man persuaded, waggling his lone brow at the gunsmith.

'I need to get off this planet,' Silas mused, shooing away the grungy farmer. 'Nothin' on this rock but crazies. What does that man even need a rocket launcher for? Is he gonna blow up his livestock?' The brunette thought, packing up his wares briskly. He glanced over at the shipyard, were there was a single ship docked. It was smoking ominously and it's captain was yelling orders back into the cargo bay at the crew. 'Should probably wait for the next one, that thing looks like a death trap.'

Just as Silas was making plans to stay another night, he spied the goat farmer again, staring at him through the window of the local saloon an waving excitedly. "Nope," Silas mumbled to himself, locking up the crates and making his way over to the ship, nodding at the dreadlocked woman he assumed was in charge.

"Are you taking on travelers?"

Benny had been picked up when they got this cargo- it was him, in fact, that needed to get it moved, and him that got the job for the cap'n. He may have said something out of hand, and his boss may have gotten angry, and so he offered to transport the goods for cheap in record time... hence why he was on this rust bucket.

He sat in his room looking at the relatively cramped quarters. It was such a downgrade- how could he possibly work efficiently when the walls and ceilings were peering over his shoulder, like so? Even Garry seemed out of sorts- he was in power-down mode, which he only did when the small artificial intelligence was feeling stressed or especially tired.

He shivered, and left his cramped room, trading that for a far too fragile door and for a cramped hallway. He felt like Heart of Gold was watching him- he started whispering quietly, as he walked up to the bridge, so low that no one could understand.

He stepped past the captain without even acknowledging her presence- even as he made way for her, his eyes were focused elsewhere, on a thought, sightless. He navigated up the steps, pulled out a small wireless device, and crouched to peer under the second console's desk, shifting through wires and pieces of technology, before finding what he was looking for. He pulled out a wire, plugged the device into its port, and then plugged the wire into the device- leaving the entire thing completely uninterrupted, except now he can remotely talk to the ship.

He pushed himself out from under it, and pulled out a 'desk' from a pocket on the side of his pants- a book-sized inch-thick piece of military technology, know for being practically indestructible. Its touch screen lit up as his fingers touched the hidden fingerprint scanner, and he started sorting through Heart of Gold's systems remotely, requesting troubleshootings and inserting handcrafted pieces of code into various pre-selected programs, altering them slightly to improve efficiency- and keep him locked in.

The he set it to sleep mode, strapped it back to his leg, and walked back down to the cargo bay to get a breath of fresh air. Heart of Gold may be a beauty, but she made him uncomfortable beyond words.

After walking straight down the middle of the ramp, he whistled, calling Garry- his little robot- which scurried down from his room, six radial legs working fast to move him to his destination. By the time he sat down, Garry had leaped a whopping ten feet and perched on his shoulder, rubber-tipped legs gripping his jacket.

He pulled his admin desk out of its pocket again, and started tapping away, solving problems within the ship with a tablet.

And when a man walked up asking if they were accepting travelers, all he had to say was, "Oh. Hello. Talk to the cap'n." Then he went back to his work.

Captain looked over towards Hannah and nodded as she boarded the boat with her box of goodies; she could never understand how that girl always seemed to remain so chipper, nothing seemed to bother her. Shrugging to herself she passed it off as being young but even when Captain had been young she hadn’t been that chipper. The girl got the job done, so that was all that mattered to her. Reaching into her vest she pulled out a pack of cigarettes where she had a lighter stuffed into the pack. Pulling out a single one, she placed it between her lips and flicked her lighter. Taking a long pull from it before exhaling she glanced around as she leaned against the outside of the ship, waiting for the rest of the crew to load up and for the repairs to be finished.

Perking a brow as she watched a man carrying some cargo approach the ship she took another pull from her cigarette as he came over to her and spoke; asking if she was taking on passengers. Blowing the smoke out from between her lips roughly she looked him over for a moment before nodding yes and then shaking her head no.

“I could be, depends on who you are,” she stated flatly as she pushed off the ship and tilted her head to the side. “What you want and what you can offer,” she added before flicking the cigarette off to the side, it landing in the dirt and smoldering there until it went out of its own accord. She was about to say more when Benny came over to them. At the words that passed she rolled her eyes slightly and walked over to where she had flicked the cigarette and picked it back up, relighting it and taking another long pull from it.

“Gorram crew gonna drive me to an early grave,” she muttered with the smoke held between her lips. Turning she walked back over to the two and shooed Benny away. “Go get that computer console fixed, I’m tired of the wires frazzling out and the navigation system blinking out. April is probably tired of flying blind. I know I am,” she stated quickly before turning her attention back to the new comer.

“So, who are you, what do you want and what can you offer?” she asked as she removed the cigarette from her lips and stood there with her arms crossed over her chest.

The ship seemed a clutter with the sounds of work, from fore and aft. Far back from the rest of everyone was the clanking sound of work in the engine room. There was only one at work, a man hard at work under the engine with tools for the job. He played with wires and reached through them, getting to the different parts to make the ship flight ready again.

Cyrek Krusek was in the process of replacing an engine part when he heard the familiar sound of complaining, as someone he recognized too well burst into the room. He turned his head to take a look as the pilot grabbed a wrench to start working on it herself.

"NO. FUCK NO. GET THE FUCK OUT. I NEVER SAID YOU COULD BE IN HERE!" Cyrek raised his voice in contempt. If he needed or wanted help, he would go out and ask for it, but for the majority of the time, he stuck to working on it himself. Of course nothing pissed him off more than when the pilot came in and tried to work on it.

A wrench soon went flying towards her, only to arc and hit the ground beside her. "Get out! GET!" He called, shooing her away like an old man to a child.

“I could be, depends on who you are,” the captain replied blandly, tilting her head like a thoroughly disinterested cat. “What you want and what you can offer," the woman continued, discarding her cigarette. A young man walked out of the hull with a mechanical spider like creature on his shoulder and some high-tech gizmo in his hand. He murmured something that made the captain so frustrated she actually picked the old cigarette back up and relit it. As she barked orders at what Silas assumed was one of her crew, the gunsmith couldn't help but take a long inhale of the second hand smoke. 'Jesus, that's good,' the brunette thought, hands flexing on the strap of his duffle bag. He had quit smoking three years ago, but he still had the urge whenever he was around cigarettes.

While the captain was minding her crew, Silas took a moment to study her. She was a taller woman, with sleeves of tattoos on each arm and eyes so light that they almost appeared colorless. The stern way she carried herself suggested that she didn't put up with anyone's shenanigans and the way her biceps rippled as she shooed the male technician told Silas that she would probably wipe the floor with him in a fist fight.

“So, who are you, what do you want and what can you offer?” The captain asked again, turning her attention back towards Silas and pulling him form his thoughts.

"Silas Fairbanks. I'm just trying to get to a different planet so I can sell my wares. I've got some coin," he told her, before he glanced over at another woman who was carrying a large box marked, 'munitions'. "...I've got ammo and the like to trade, but it seems like you've got that covered," Silas finished, nodding at captain's crew member. He entertained the idea of sticking his hand out for a handshake, but decided against it. This woman didn't seem like the type who enjoyed those sort of gestures.

@Warrior in the Shadows

Seeing the vulgar display of aggression forced the shepherd to speak up. "Brother, need I remind you of the good Samaritan story? The book says forgive and forget, love thy neighbor, be kind and rewind, no wait... I'm not sure on the last part. Ah, here it is. And he looked down and saw the debauchery and sin and they worshiped strange... No not that one either. Here it is!" His face grew dark and the voice was stern. "And they painted a "X" on the door in blood lest death visited their home." Satisfied from the look Iean was receiving that the message was taken to heart, he walked out of the engine room and into the hold to see if any new members had joined the heart of gold.

They had new comers, one in desperate need of prayer. Iean Walked down the stairs to the hold and greeted them. "Greetings(in Chinese)" He bowed respectfully. "My name is Iean I look after this flock if there is any type of spiritual needs that have gone unattended then please allow me the honor to guild you to the enlightenment of your choosing." He stood there with a smile and the buddy Jesus pose. He saw the weapons and ammo containers that were being secured. Iean shook his head. He stood there still allowing the new comers to receive his word if they asked.

Captain lifted her hand and took a long pull from her cigarette, holding in the breath for a moment and then exhaling through clinched teeth as she heard the commotion in the engine room from the ships mechanic. It seemed that April had wandered into the wrong part of the ship, once again and was trying to move in on Cyreks domain. Captain didn’t care if the girl made repairs, she felt it would move things along faster if two people worked on the problems instead of one but Cyrek was very possessive of the ship and the work he did. He hated people in his territory.

“Ching-wah tsao duh liou mahng,” she spat before holding two fingers up, the smoke resting between them to Silas; noting to give her a moment before she walked over to the com and pressed a button. “Bizui!” she yelled into the com box. “April, get your narrow behind out of there before Cyrek throws a wrench at you!” she bellowed and then heard the crash of what she assumed was a wrench. “Well, before he throws another one!” she added before hearing the Preacher pipe in and had to stifle a laugh. Preacher had balls talking to Cyrek and as much as she wanted to listen in she had others things to attend to.

Shaking her head she turned back to Silas and shrugged. “Yeah, I got room, but this ain’t gonna be no gorram joy ride and we don’t make special stops. Ya eat what we ration you, stay out of the way and report to Hannah, the chipper one,” she said before noticing that Preacher had come out to meet the new comer. Shaking her head. “second deck, third door on the right is your bunk, I’m getting out of here before this one tries to baptize me,” she said taking another pull from her cigarette and walking back into the ship.

It was the steady and familiar beat of a wave notification that woke her, not the roar and panic of the ship nearly crashing some two days prior. The noise reduction bulkheads she had lined in her shuttle added about an inch of thickness and cramped it in a bit but she slept better than the dead. Chang'e let herself yawn and stretch out and indulge in the pain of her limbs reminding her of life. She let the pinging go on for another minute or so while she did a quick inspection in her mirror. She pinned her waist-length hair into an impromptu bun, wrapping it over and over and letting the excess flow spill over her left shoulder. She wrapped herself in a red silk gown and cleaned off the evidence of drool off the corner of her lips.

It had been five (ten?) minutes before she answered the wave. Her monitor came alive with a young man with brown doe eyes who looked as though he had been waiting all this time in the same alert position. He was staring into the monitor with the attentiveness of an earnest lover that was waiting for the response to an all too important question. Chang'e regarded him with a polite smile, felt a yawn coming on, and stifled it with sheer force of will and a tilt of her head. "Oh! Did I, uh, wake you," he gulped and managed a smile that melted away the tension he built up in waiting. "Meihao de yuanjing?" So familiar, nánhái?

"No, no. I've just been..." She feigned at trying to come up with some clever lie by looking off to her side. She was thinking about breakfast and if she had enough provisions stored to keep off that protein poison the captain fed her crew. Then she brought her vision back to her monitor and laughed; a light and embarrassed admission of being caught in a lie. "Yes, you did. Traveling by space and not having the sun and moon to dictate my schedule has me...out of sorts."

"Oh, yes! I understand. Are you, I mean, I'm forgetting what to say." He took a moment and breath and started to speak, "You do me a great honor in responding to me, my lady. When I saw your signal come alive over all the stars and all the moons and..." He looked down off monitor. Chang'e took this moment to pop a small ball of dried tofu into her mouth. His gaze came back and it began. He stumbled over the declarations of her beauty and his good fortune and she eased him into natural conversation. She found him to be the nephew of a childless land owner, moving into this planet for property and possibly mining. He mentioned about a quarter of this. She inferred the rest. He kept looking off-screen. Possibly trying to figure out the ship's location. More likely re-verifying her guild status.

"You understand I cannot make commitments as this is--" He stopped her just shy of saying no.

"I do! I only ask that for what little time you are here that you...would do me the honor of joining me for a late lunch? I'll send a boy to fetch you. If you'd join me he'll take you to my estate. If you cannot...please, have him take you where you need to go. Allow me the pleasure of assisting you in some way." He glanced off screen again, furrowed his brow, and cut off the transmission abruptly. Chang'e thought him bookish and too clever for his own good.

Richard was awake and was a small bundle of brown fur nuzzling at her ankle. She pressed back gently with her bare feet and set about her routine. She spent the remainder of the free fall dressing herself, occasionally stumbling into her furniture, still disoriented. She slipped into loose fitting white low-waist ankle length pants and threw on a white dress imposed with blue flowers and a blue hem and silver sandals. She worked her hair into a braid. A silver chain hung off her left earring, hooked onto a hawk feather. Her make up was understated; a light blush and peach colored lips.

She walked out of her shuttle just as the ship landed. Outside of her noise-cancelling bulkheads the life and teaming personalities clashed through the echoing passageways. Her brief walk through the overhead and down the stairs into the hangar bay already open and letting in fresh air. She caught the captain in passing. The woman smelled of cigarette smoke and sunlight.

"Captain." She offered a polite smile in greeting. "How much longer will we be staying?" She said so in a sing-song voice and walked passed the captain as she said it. She was already expecting the growl and unhelpful remark she'd become accustomed to.

April scrambled out of the way of the (somewhat anticipated) wrench. "Hey, woah, grease monkey! Look, I know yall does dirty things to these engines when nobody's looking, but it don't mean nobody else can take a look at them. Maybe we'd actually get somewhere if you wasn't this ship's crazy, jealous ladyfriend!"

April put her hands to her hips, fully prepared to have another spat with the engineer, when the com box beside her crackled. "April, get your narrow behind out of there before Cyrek throws a wrench at you! Well, before he throws another one!" April rolled her eyes and spoke back to the box. "May be narrow, cap'n, but I can do great things with it." She turned and left the sputtering engine room and its fuming guardian.

Moving back to the cockpit, her eyes half dulled with boredom, she happened across the captain talking to a stranger. From the gist of it, it seemed like the man was asking for transport on the ship, and was prepared to pay for it with ordinance. Approaching as the man sealed the deal with the captain, April extended a hand, offering a confident smile. "You flying with us? My name's April Cooper, I'm the pilot. You're more'n welcome aboard as far as I'm concerned, but, uh..." She leaned in slightly and offered a mischievous grin, tapping him on the chest with two fingers. "When I say hold onto something? Hold onto something."

She turned and saw Chang'e, the companion, also speaking to the captain. "Oh, hey Dajie. You got another date? Want me to drive?"

Hannah had been returning to the cargo hold when she heard her name in the buzz of conversation—she paused at the doors to the catwalk that led down into the hold, head cocked to one side as she listened further. A new passenger? She brightened, careening down the ramp past the Captain and finally skidding to a stop with her hands clasped behind her back. April had emerged from the bowels of the engines, apparently, and was talking with the Companion who had been onboard for a while now. Hannah always felt like a bumbling elephant around the elegant woman—she wished she had that kind of grace and charm. She gave a little wave to Preacher, too; she wasn't devout by any means, but she'd been raised on Christ and bourbon and she kept up both traditions.

"Hi!" she said brightly, holding out a hand to shake to the newcomer. "Hannah, that's me. I can show you your bunk and the mess and all that. You said you had ammo? What kinds? I'm always looking for more. Got any large calibers?"

The captain shouted back to her crew once again before accepting Silas as a passenger, explaining where he'd be staying, and dismissing him in the same breath, before returning to the ship to avoid the in coming preacher.

"Wènhòu," called the Shepard, bowing as he spoke.

"Hello," Silas answered, nodding in a return.

"My name is Iean, I look after this flock. If there is any type of spiritual needs that have gone unattended then please allow me the honor to guide you to the enlightenment of your choosing," Iean said kindly.

"I think my spiritual needs are all seen to. Thanks though," the gunsmith replied, clapping the other man on the shoulder for a moment. Like most folk from Dyton, Silas was technically Roman Catholic. The brunette usually didn't make it to Mass unless it was a holy obligation day and he confessed even less than that. "I'm Si--"

"You flying with us?" Called a small red haired girl as she trotted down the main ramp. When she got to the bottom she reached out and shook Silas's hand. "My name's April Cooper, I'm the pilot. You're more'n welcome aboard as far as I'm concerned, but, uh..." the pilot paused her a leaned in closer, dropping his hand to prod at his chest with a tiny finger while grinning like the Cheshire Cat. "When I say hold onto something? Hold onto something."

"...Right," Silas said, pulling his hand back from the red head. 'Well, that was ominous,' he thought as he watched the pilot prance off before he had a chance to tell her his name. 'She's the pilot? She doesn't look like she's even old enough to have her license.'

"Sorry father. Like I was saying earlier, I'm Silas," the gunsmith continued, glancing back over to where Iean was standing, before catching sight of another person barreling down the ramp. Silas was sure he was going to have to catch her to stop the newcomer from face planting, but she stopped short, holding her hands behind her back.

"Hannah, that's me. I can show you your bunk and the mess and all that. You said you had ammo? What kinds? I'm always looking for more. Got any large calibers?" She asked excitedly, extending a tan hand in offer of a handshake.

"Silas," he told her, gripping her hand in his own and chuckling at how excited she got about the prospect of new ammo. He instantly liked her. "I've got almost anything you could need for a traditional gun and the biggest thing I have are my 50 caliber sniper rifle slugs. I don't have anything for laser guns or rocket launchers," Silas said the last bit with a grimace, forcing himself not to glance in the direction of the goat farmer. "I'd appreciate you showing me what's what, but can you tell me where to stow my merch first? It'd make me a might jumpy to leave them outside."

Captain stopped in her tracks, the cigarette nearly done she held tightly between her lips as Chang’e caught her attention. She inquired to when they were departing and Captain shrugged before she set the box down she had picked up to move into the cargo bay. “I have no gorram clue. I am waiting on Cryek to get this boat in the air. What? Some man on this dustball want some fun time with you?” she asked; taking the last pull from the smoke and tossing it to the ground and stomping it out with her boot before turning her head to the side and blowing the smoke away from her through clenched teeth. Seeing April come over she groaned slightly. “Yeah, you take her and keep the com open, if we get ready to leave high tail both your narrow behinds back here post haste. And bring me back something to eat,” Captain said quickly before hefting the crate back up and tucking it under one arm and turning to walk off.

“Hannah, get the boy settled in and stow the explosives. I don’t want another whoops boom in the cargo bay!” she shouted as she walked off towards the cargo bay to stow the crate of food rations she had acquired earlier in the day. Once that was done she moved quickly through the ship to the engine room and stopped at the door, leaning against the frame as she crossed her arms over her chest.

“When the hell you gonna have my ship ready Cyrek?” she asked as she took another cigarette out and lit it. “I want to break atmo by dusk. Oh and we have a new passenger, do don’t throw any wrenches until we are in outer amto okay? Don’t want the little bloke running before I get some type of payment,” she said taking a pull from the cigarette and smirking, holding it out to him.

Benson sat outside on the ramp, ignoring pretty much everyone, while 'petting' Garry. He ignored everyone, ignored everything, ignored the stares of the goat farmer, ignored his goat which was also staring at him, and most importantly, ignored the urge to go introduce himself to the new person. It wouldn't be proper, after all- someone had to be different. The rest were all jumping over themselves to meet the new face- except the Grump, who was probably beating his head against the engine right now.

So eventually he finished rewriting part of the Heart of Gold's processing unit so that he could have a backdoor and exclusive access at the input of a password, and shut off the admin desk. Pocketing it, he took Garry up in one of his hands and then rubbed his thumb from his other hand across the shiny domed plate that made up the top of the small machine's central processing center. He wiped off the rubber-coated feet of the spider-like device, and then held it up in front of him, staring right into the bot's "eyes." Small plates attached to the front of Garry shifted and moved, some moving closer to each other, some farther. Garry had been programmed with a rudimentary artificial intelligence- one that manipulated the plates in accordance to pre-programmed 'emotions.' When they were tight against each other, it was because the situation was dire, he was running out of battery, or all odds suggested that he would fail. When spread as far apart as possible, he was relatively 'happy'- and the other emotions ranged between that. Right now, the plates were all stretched out from each other, expressing relative enjoyment and happiness.

Then he whistled, and Garry jumped off his shoulder and scurried off. Heaving a heavy sigh, he rolled himself to his feet, and walked back into the suffocating interior.

He passed people with only the simplest of his courtesy- to the 'Shepherd,' or whatever he called himself, he just said his usual, repeated many-a-times response to his attire, "Your clothing is ridiculous and outdated." To the Companion, he only said, "Garry likes your rabbit." To the captain, he reported, "Ship up to date and electronically sound." To the gunsmith, he said, "Welcome aboard. Don't go in my room." To the gunner, his face temporarily brightened- slightly- and said, "I bet I could break your safe."

Then he was walking past them all and was in his room, nice and quiet.

He dropped himself onto his bed and stared at the ceiling, feeling more apathetic than ever. Then he mentally waved it away, apathetic about his apathy, and started fiddling with the electronics in Garry's advanced little body.

"Fifty cal," Hannah said dreamily. Lord above, she loved fifty calibers. Not only did they mean big guns, and big guns were her one true love, but they also made excellent hand-to-hand weapons in the right situation. She herself was too small to do much damage with a punch, but get any kind of force behind a .50 Browning bullet and it was gonna go through flesh.

She shook herself, tossing sandy hair out of her eyes as she smiled at the new passenger and pumped his hand enthusiastically. "Silas! I'll remember that. And I can take care of the rocket launchers and the lasers, don't you worry about that. Y'know, the other day I managed to get my hands on—"

"Hannah, get the boy settled in and stow the explosives. I don’t want another 'whoops boom' in the cargo bay!”

Hannah cut herself off, flushing red and wincing as she dropped his hand. "That only happened once," she mumbled, scuffing her toe on the floor. "...maybe twice," she amended, then shook her head again, calling over her shoulder, "Aye-aye, Cap'n!" She turned, beckoning Silas forward as she headed towards the grav lockers—specifically installed to keep ordinance safe during flight.

"You can put your gear in here," she said, inputting the passcode on one of the lockers and swinging the door open. It was the emptiest one they had, and even then, there were a few suspicious-looking boxes with 'Keep Out Please :)' written in Hannah's handwriting. She looked back to Silas, smiling at him. "Here, I'll help you with some of the boxes before we start the grand tour."

Benny waltzed by, saying something about her safe, and as usual, Hannah gave him her usual bright smile and wave. He never reciprocated, as far as she could tell, but she'd like to think it made him a little happier on the inside. Deep, deep inside.

Cyrek's rage was coursing through his veins, the only things usually good enough to put him in a better mood were weight lifting and drinking. He was furious with the pilot and could never find himself to respect her, as she kept coming in and trying to help out. He had a system, and his idea was that if people just left him to his work, he would be able to finish in record time. Unfortunately, he had an annoying teenager for a pilot.

Hearing the captain finally ordering her out, he shouted in response to April, "YEAH, great things, like, shove your head up it, or make like a tree and fuck off?!" His anger was strong, as he cooled himself, pulling up from under the engine and setting himself at his work area. He popped open a cooler filled with beers, before chugging one in a few seconds and then, tossing the can at the door. "If I paint a fuckin' X on my door, will you stay out?" He grumbled, tossing the empty beer can at the door. He took another beer with him, walking back over to his work area, crawling up under the engine and getting back to work.

The nice part about a firefly class ship was that it was simple to repair and soon he had the engines purring. Before he knew it, the captain of the ship said to him, loudly, him still under his engine. “When the hell you gonna have my ship ready Cyrek? I want to break atmo by dusk. Oh and we have a new passenger, do don’t throw any wrenches until we are in outer amto okay? Don’t want the little bloke running before I get some type of payment,”

He scrambled out from under the engine and ran over to his cooler, popping it open, and taking a beer from it, "You're IN LUCK, baby, darling, baby! She's purring like a kitten!" He announced proudly, walking towards her. It was a small amount of work, hence his reason behind shooing anyone out. Most of the work he did better on his own, and people would just end up staring at him while he did it all.

He graciously took the cigarette from her, offering her the can of beer as a greeting. "Thank you much!" He said, taking a drag from the cigarette.

Captain took the drink and nodded slightly as he took the cigarette from her fingers. Cyrek was a bit different, a little rough around the edges but then again so was she. They seemed to be on the same page when it came to the ship and as long as he kept her boat in the air she dealt with his blowing up on the rest of the crew. He knew the ship and had pulled her out of more than one tight spot when things decided to stop working.

"Good, now we can get off this world soon as the computers where ready to go."

As if on cue Benson reported in that all way aces and they were good to go. Taking a long drink she finished the can off before tossing it into the trash and hit the button on the com.

"Alright children, all day trips cancelled. Ship is ready to go, load up, secure the cargo and let's get of this gorram planet. April to the bridge, get this bird in the air, we have a shipment to deliver," Captain commanded through the com before releasing her finger from the com. Turning she looked at Cyrek.

"No red X's on you door. Hannah might take it as a place to test out her explosives," Captain said quickly. "Once we break atmo, I need a spotter, see you in the main hanger later," she said before turning on her heels and making her way towards the bridge. It was time to move out and be damned on waiting on anyone to do anything else. They could get ready to go or exit the boat. They had about ten minutes to make up their minds before take off.