The first person to reach Ansgar was the lass Teg, who was calling out about anyone being injured. Between the explosion, trying to put down the damage and flames, and the general din and noise of all that, the last thing he really cared for was shouting. Well, he couldn't readily fault the shouting, though he would still rather it not be going on. Not like the situation wasn't under control or anything right now. Teg herself was an unlikely suspect, most of the crew was to be honest, even that judge outside of being a bloody damn bad luck charm. He was still leaning against the bulkhead to prevent anyone from wandering in until he knew why they were trying to, to give the go ahead, and not get in the way of trying to get the fuel system back up and mostly running. The longer they were limping on half engines, the worse their odds were. "Nay lass, ain' no injured oe'er 'ere 'sides th' poor ship bein' injured now. Damn 'nemies"

Of course, as he had requested, the good Captain had made her way down to the engine room and was already questioning him on what the hell happened to her ship. He didn't even blink an eye at her tone of voice, he was too pissed off with the fact that his life had gotten a lot more complicated because some sodding wanker on his home had been bought off or planted to make their lives more difficult. Well, the goal was to kill them outright or leave them stranded and dying a slow, painful death to starvation, pirates, both maybe. Hard to say. But the question needed an answer, and he clearly took his time to avoid letting the accent make him completely unintelligible, which happens when he was fairly pissed off. "Aye Lass, whoever ye paid to fuel the ship was either bought of by our 'friends', or one o' them wa' on th' payroll of th' 'friends'. Did th' usual sweep fer bombs in th' lines, an' found one before it hit th' main fuel tanks. If it 'ad gotten there, we wouldn' be 'ere dicussin' it."

It was at this point that Ansgar pulled out a coffin nail and lit it, taking a drag and half closing his eyes for a few, letting the warmth permeate his chest, before blowing it away from all present living beings. Including that damned cat. Speaking of bad luck charms, that cat was nothing but trouble and the Captain refused to believe it. Now that the captain was here, he could start smoking as to avoid accusations of smoking by an open fuel line or something patently stupid. And it was about now that he deigned to respond to their illustrius pilot and her complaints about how soon they'd be back online. "Oh ah' dinnae know, cabbie. Ah'm sure ah can just use a couple o' them bendy straws to fix th' damn fuel line. Yer lucky ah ignored th' complaints on splittin' th' engines on each side t' mixed lines, or ye'd be flyin' with my rig't engines only. Soon as ah can fix th' fuel lines, ah'll be more tha' 'appy t' let you go back to fiddlin' with yer flight stick."

---

Teg flashed a brief frown at the mention of the now wounded ship. Still, the ship could be repaired, a crew casualty was a much more troublesome problem. She knew that if anyone could fix the ship with duck tape and questionable jurry rigging it was Ansgar. The Judge's armor seemed to be made of enough metal if it came to that. Teg felt certain he could be persuaded to part with it if necessary and if not he was outnumbered and outgunned. She'd always wanted to rob a Judge. Not in a professional capacity of course, but just for fun. It would be one hell of a story.

Caught in plans of furthering her own reputation by pulling off yet another amazing act of daredevilry Teg almost didn't notice the nagging feeling that she was forgetting something or maybe someone as it jolted through her brain. Running through the chaotic web of lists that she kept in her head the young mercenary wondered if she had forgotten to remove the detonator from the plastic explosive in her cabin. Or maybe she'd left her journal in the dining room? What was the perfect mixture of chemicals to ensure that a thermal explosion would keep burning long after the metal of a vehicle was turned to ash? Where was the cat? When would Andrea and Ansgar finally give in to their passions? Why did the Judge always wear his helmet, did he have a gnarly scar? Did Maria ever sleep? Was Kev secretly a housekeeping robot? What would be the best way to distract Kai so that she could liberate some of his more potent herbs?

Kai. Kai! Teg muttered a low curse of irritation as she finally remembered. He said he was fine. Which he probably was. He was a doctor after all. But she'd seen the glass. And the blood. She wasn't sure how well Ithlo's handled head trauma. Maria wouldn't be too happy if she'd let the only ship doctor die. More importantly, had he complimented her? A concussion seemed likely.

"Right, well don't blow up the ship. I'll be back in a bit, I heard something from the medical bay. I have to go make sure we don't lose an alien doctor in addition to several meter of piping," Teg said, patting Ansgar good-naturedly on the shoulder. "And don't do too much digging without me, I want a look at whatever is left of the bomb that did this. Maybe they left us a note."

Turning back down the corridor Teg made her way back to the medical bay at a brisk pace. She didn't run, because running in space rarely ended well. Spaceship corridors were narrow and full of metal that would push back.

Stepping into the medical bay, she brew a loose strand of hair that had escaped her elaborate knot out of her face. "Doc, I told you not to call me Miss. How's your head?"

Andrea snorted at the first mate's remark. "Still floating, more like. Some jack ass probably tried to blow up the ship again. You'd think they'd have given up by now and just stormed the ship to gun us all down." She checked the systems and scanners again, hiding her anxiety behind busyness. She spoke up, speaking as much to herself as he was to Kevej. "We're gonna be fine. Ansgar can't speak worth a damn but he knows his way around ships." She glanced quickly at the Naka. "Don't tell him I said that." It wouldn't do to have the ugly little goblin crowing about any compliments he begrudgingly got from her.

She gave a small sigh as Kevej reported that they didn't have any company, even though it only slightly eased her worry. "Well, that's a relief. No piracy for us to deal with today." They couldn't run from a transport ship right now, much less a pirate ship that's designed for speedy hit and runs. If pirates or, even worse, the people who sabotaged the ship did show up they'd just have to pray that the bastards didn't just blast the Lux out of space and pick over the remains like vultures.

She gave a quick nod as the captain's voice crackled over the comms. At least they didn't have any injuries to deal with. Not that she would have been heartbroken to hear that their dear passenger had been injured in the explosion, but injuries were messy and costly. They couldn't afford to waste bandages and stitches on the likes of the Judge and she would be the only one in favor of just letting him bleed out on the floor.

The pilot was going through her third, completely unnecessary, check of everything when their eloquent engineer decided to speak up. She visibly bristled at the thrown insults and tone, her finger practically stabbing into the comms button to reply. "Oh, you mean that split that has slowed us down so much we almost got shot out of the sky five times over, plumber? You're lucky I'm so good at 'fiddling' with the flight stick otherwise we wouldn't be able to have this conversation! Let me know when you've shoved enough bendy straws into the fuel lines to get us up and running again. Or would you rather preen yourself on something that's only worked in your favor once so far some more?" She cut off the comms and continued her check, muttering to herself in irritation. "Who does that little shit think he is? Telling me off for something that slowed us down and only saved him this one time because he didn't do his check as soon as he should have. God damned mouthy little grease troll...."

---

---

The woman’s wit was sharp, he had to admit, and the mention of “Miss” had the Ithlo laughing inside, but outside, he kept rather cool, following up with a slight smirk.

“I’ll try to remember that next time.” He said with arms crossed, knowing for a fact that it would take more than a few times to deviate from typical formalities when addressing others, especially the human standing in front of him. He could never figure out where the name “Teg” had come from based on her own name other than the fact that she enjoyed keeping others on their toes and guessing. But he also knew little about the woman and wondered just how much of herself she was hiding from the rest of the galaxy. Either way, this was not the time to ask such questions, but rather keep to the matter at hand.

"In any case, I am feeling fine, thank you." The Ithlo nodded toward the other. "A bit of a scratch to the forehead, but nothing more." He shrugged, raising an eyebrow as he continued. “By the way, how is our mechanic -Mister Staudinger- faring? Based on what little info I’ve collected, I assume the blast came from the engine room, so I should check up on him presently. One could never imagine what toxic fumes might be circulating after a shockwave such as that.”

“Which...reminds me.” He then turned his attention to the control panel along the wall.

Kai stepped over to the communication console and called up to the ship’s cockpit. “Mister Vin'Akali” I would suggest you perform a bow to stern sweep of the ship’s air quality to ensure no harmful chemicals have escaped into the ventilation system.” He paused for a moment, ready to disengage with comms, but then continued. “With the Captain’s permission of course.”

The Veritas Lux Mea’s First Mate was another who would rather have a nickname tacked onto his identity, especially coming from those of the “alien” species, but once more, Kai’mos couldn't bring himself to address the man as “Kev”. There was something almost demeaning when it came to shortening one’s name or using an alias, as though to tell the world “I do not approve of my birth name”, but the Ithlo had always been a traditionalist no matter which planet or species he had the opportunity to interact with.

Perhaps one day that would change.

No sooner had the Lux sped on its way away from the Hub when the bomb hit, sending the ship right back into motionlessness, though perhaps somewhat indirectly, since the device only took out half the engines.
Of course, on a seedy ship like this, Judge had expected nothing less.
As the captain and first mate bailed from the mess hall, leaving him alone, he returned his swords to their places on his belt, finally satisfied with the keenness of their edges. Then, almost casually, he took up his empty mug and crossed the room to finish making the new pot of coffee that Kevej had abandoned. The damage to the ship was no business of his, anyway, and he was absolutely sure that after this, more than a few of the crew would trust him even less - so for the sake of avoiding a headache, it would be better if they didn't catch him wandering around unsupervized, for the time being.
Thus, he opted to stay put.
And anyway, he wanted more coffee.

"We're gonna be fine. Ansgar can't speak worth a damn but he knows his way around ships." Andrea paused and shot a look at Kev. "Don't tell him I said that."

The Nakan held up his hands defensively and shrugged, trying to hide his grin. The pair of them got along better than either of them would ever admit. After the initial panic the general mood amongst the crew had transitioned into relief, everyone in the know knew it could have been much much worse. There was still the mystery of who set them up to solve which meant the captain would be knocking some heads together when they reached port until a culprit fell out. Speaking of knocking heads Andrea had gone back on comms to begin tearing Angsar off a new one about his circumspect business ethic.

Kevej left the two love-birds to it and responded to his own comm, from the ship's esteemed medic; “Mister Vin'Akali, I would suggest you perform a bow to stern sweep of the ship’s air quality to ensure no harmful chemicals have escaped into the ventilation system. With the Captain’s permission of course.”

Kevej shook his head, the damned formality. He spoke haughtily to the air in front of him, his comm muted. "Ah yes, thank you Mister Varthus for the suggestion, what a most splendid day for a bloody great explosion my good sir." he shook his head, took a breath and keyed the comm on;

"Kev to Kai'mos, I've run it through a couple of times and it's on it's third pass, just to be sure. Not that I object at all, but I assume by the fact you're telling me how to do my job that means you don't have any casualties to deal with yourself?" or at least if there was anyone out of action they would be in safe hands. Kai'mos was as stiff as a board but he knew his business.

Kevej was always awkward around the Ithlo in person and he could never put a finger on why. Whether it was the strangely tinted skin and hair or the constant 'professionalism' that was usual in Ithlonian culture. Kevej found it odd that his life had left him less socially capable of talking to aliens that his species had known for generations than the newcomer humans.

The first-mate considered going down to the mess to keep an eye on their passenger, but thought it maybe better to stay at station. Just in case something big popped up. Besides, it seemed to Kevej this kind of situation was probably an everyday thing to a judge, and likely wouldn't need any help

Captain Maria Thorne

---

While her pilot and engineer flirted argued, Maria listened. An eyebrow had arched in a disapproving manner as the woman gazed at Ansgar. Their antics were usually amusing, but at this particular point in time, Maria had little patience left for foolishness. They needed to get the ship back up and running before pirates came and pounced on them like buzzards on a rotting corpse. They were limping along, sure, but they weren't exactly in a position to be fending off raids. The Captain waited until the rest of the crew had their say, and then flipped on the comms.

"If the pair of you are done circling and pointing fingers at each other, let's get back to fixing the half dead ship, shall we?" It was more of a statement than a question. She decided to ignore the passive aggression from Kev towards their doctor, and continued on without waiting for anyone to answer. "Andrea, continue scanning for vessels in the surrounding area. If someone decides to take advantage of our situation, I'd like to have a little advanced warning." She flipped off the comms. "Ansgar, take a look at the damage and see how fast you can jury-rig something to get us to the Glao port. I don't care if you actually do have to use bendy-straws, figure something out and get back to me."

Having said her piece, the captain turned around and went to go check on their cargo and make sure none of it was damaged. The last thing they needed right now was to be forced to reimburse a disgruntled Glao after screwing up their merchandise, on top of having to buy parts to fix their ship. Maria was muttering a string of profanity as she trudged back up the catwalk to the cargo hold, where she proceeded to start cracking open crates and check on what was within. For a moment her gaze floated over to a small corner where the supplies for the rebellion were hidden behind a metal panel, but Maria didn't dare check on them right now. If the Judge caught wind of the weapons, there was a slight chance he may want to intervene. Best to check on them when there was a little less excitement going on.

Having made sure that their Glao cargo was secured and undamaged, the captain walked up the steps of the cargo hold balcony to go check on the bridge.

"Andrea, how far did we actually manage to make it before some bastard crippled us?"

If it wasn't for their captain stepping in, Ansgar might have marched right up to the bridge and gave that damn fool a proper talking to. And shove one of those damn fool trinkets of hers so far up her arse that she'd have to open her mouth to crow over the damned things. Seething in his thoughts as he was, the pat on his shoulder by Teg got a glance from the typically irritated mechanic. She wanted to sift through the mess and see if she could figure out the details of what blew their fuel line in half? Sure, long as she stayed out of his damn way, far as he was concerned though, the damage was done and it wasn't likely that, even if the bastard who had shoved a bomb in their fuel lines had left a calling card, it would have survived the fuel and explosion itself. "Aye. fine, jus' stay out of m' way. Th' Lass 'as a point, ah need t' get us runnin' full speed. Not like th' arrogant cabbie in th' bridge'll be any use fer t'at."

With that, the mechanic casually turned on heel, leaving a feint trail of ciggarette smoke in his wake as he marched his not so happy ass back into the engine room. Putting the smoke out in an ash tray that he was, begrudgingly, forced to use that had somehow not gotten knocked down or shattered, much to his annoyance, he strapped a rebreathing mask back on before climbing back up to the now ruptured pipe to start digging around and figure out what he could do to get the fuel flowing again. Reminded him of a book his old man chattered on and on about that had not somehow survived the transition over to this place. Muttering under his breath about 'spice' and such nonsense, he kept crawling about the ruined pipeline, getting an idea for what he could do. Sure, the Lass might not be too pleased with him welding underway, but if it got the fuel going, what did she care? Well, at least this time.

Continuing to mutter and grumble under his breath, Ansgar crawled back down, grabbing spare scrap metal he kept on hand for just this sort of occassion, as well as a welding kit and pair of goggles. No sense ruining his eyes, he had to see to slug that damn pilot in the face for being a thot pain in his ass. Or on general principle. Both? Both was good. Right now he had work to do, and that mercenary best hurry her ass up because he wasn't going to wait long. Mainly since he had to get this ship back up and running and he really didn't need the Lass, or that damn fool cabbie wannabe, yelling at him over the coms. Again.

---

"By the way, how is our mechanic -Mister Staudinger- faring? Based on what little info I’ve collected, I assume the blast came from the engine room, so I should check up on him presently. One could never imagine what toxic fumes might be circulating after a shockwave such as that."

"Well, if you're not going to bleed out, then let's go!" Teg interjected impatiently as soon as Kai had finished chattering over the comms. "We have to see an angry engineer about an exploding space ship. Socket promised I could take a look and I'm not sure how long he'll wait before he makes a mess!"

Full of cheer, too much cheer, an alarming amount of cheer that was probably dangerous, Teg could not help but be swept away by her emotions.

In a flury of sudden motion, she grabbed hold of Kai's hands and pulled him closer. Guiding Kai's right hand to her back, Teg placed her left hand on his shoulder as she clasped his left hand tightly in her right. Humming loudly she danced towards the corridor, practically forcing the Itho into an impromptu waltz consisting of several elaborate twirls. She had no idea if Kai could dance, if Ithos danced, or even if they could dance. She didn't care. She was positively giddy with excitement. She was hopped up the adrenaline of almost dying, yet again. It was going to be another great day on the job she thought with a low laugh.

Releasing the Kai in a fluid motion, she curtsied and flashed her best smile. "I'm hoping it was something cool, something new. Maybe the Verrens have developed another proprietary plastic explosive? I'm tired of all this amateur stuff. I need something new and shiny, something that will go boom in all the right ways. Something that will reduce a space station to rubble with barely a trace amount!"

"We'll save your herbs for another time," Teg added wistfully as she marched out of the medical room, indicating with a wave of her hand that Ithlo should follow her. The freshly stacked cabinet of herbs called out to her and reminded her of all the previous times that she had convinced the Ithlo to part with his wares. Recreational use of controlled substances made the more boring aspects of space travel so much more palatable.

"Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me, I was just gonna sit here and hope that no one snuck up on us while we were incredibly vulnerable. Because, you know, I'm an idiot. " Andrea muttered, safely assured Maria couldn't hear her, checking the surrounding space for the umpteenth time. She settled into a pattern of checking the ship's systems every few scans of the surrounding area, just to make sure nothing else broke when they weren't looking. There was nothing for her to do now except hope that the mouthy little greaseball in the depths of the ship was able to fix their engines in a timely manner. And hope that he didn't make any other 'improvements' while he was down there. She wouldn't put it past him, using this disaster to try and 'make the ship better' when she couldn't do anything to stop him from violating the Lux anymore than he already had. She rubbed the coin around her neck, hoping that its luck hadn't run out yet.

Andrea jumped slightly when Maria spoke suddenly, the pilot having missed her captain's arrival as she focused on her scans. "Give me one moment, and I'll have your answer." She brought up the navigation, whistling quietly to herself. "We got about of the quarter of the way there. We could still get there, only a little after we're supposed to drop off our deliveries, if the plumber down stairs can't find enough straws to fix our problem, but it wouldn't be pretty. And of course, that depends on if we're left completely alone for the duration of the trip. Which, given that we're going to be going into Glao space, is extremely unlikely. We'd be covered in pirates like flies on shit."

She shrugged. "Of course, we've got a Judge with us so we can just shove him in the frontline and either he'll die or they will. A win win, as far as I can see."

---

---

An exploding ship?

Kai arched an eyebrow as he thought to himself while Teg's barrage of words in her response came out of almost nowhere. Most likely the rush of adrenaline from all the excitement. Humans brain patterns were erratic during times such as these, and the woman was not much different. She played it cool most of the time, but what came next certainly made the Ithlo question what he really knew about Teg at all.

She was stronger than her physique lead anyone to believe, catching Kai off guard as he found himself being pulled toward her. Much closer than he'd ever been to be sure, as Teg placed her hand on his shoulder before leading then both out into the corridor via a somewhat clumsy waltz of sorts. Awkward? Absolutely. But there were much worse situations he could be in than an impromptu dance with a human woman he was attracted to. For a split second, his rigid frame kept about secure as a steel pillar, but quick calculations to keep time -as best he could with one who was a bit off her timing- their movements eventually aligned about mid-way into the main corridor. Teg's smirk and otherwise silly laugh brought a smile to the Ithlo, realizing just how much fun she was having. Was is at his expense? Perhaps. But he didn't care. She deserved the release, as short-lived as it was.

Kai bowed in kind, keeping his eyes locked on the other until contact was broken a moment later as Teg began to head down the corridor toward the engine room. For those brief few moments, it was as though no one else in the galaxy even existed. A brief few moments that the Ithlo would cherish, no matter how insignificant it may have seemed.

“So I gather you have had experience with explosives such as the ones mentioned?” Kai fell into lockstep with Teg’s hurried pace, glancing down the lit corridor, another slight smile crossed his dark bluish lips with the thought of the previous scene.

Humans.

Captain Maria Thorne & Judge

---

Maria nodded at the pilot.
"Alright. I'll come back and check on things again in a while, but for now I'd better go update our passenger. Let me know the second something blips on our scans."

As she had done with the others, Maria left without waiting for a response. The captain wasn't one to stick around and chitchat (unless you got her relaxed), and even less so in circumstances like they were currently facing. She marched down the catwalk to the galley.

The warm scent of coffee drifted down the hall, getting stronger as she approached where she'd last seen their guest, and silently Maria thanked whatever god still looked after her. Just the smell was enough to lift her spirits slightly.
"Seems someone tampered with our fuel line," Maria informed the Judge as she entered. "It's slowed us down a bit, but we should reach our destination relatively on time."

The Judge, having been quietly working on his second cup of coffee, looked up with his yellow eyes as the captain addressed him.
Time was irrelevant to him. He had plenty enough of that - all he needed to do now was wait.
He had even more time now, since that bomb had sucessfully achieved what it had been intended to do.
"Your crew is incompetent if they didn't think to check for tampering before we left."
He sipped his coffee.
"Then again, perhaps the oversight was intentional."

If the captain was offended by what he said, it didn't register on her face. Or perhaps she was simply too preoccupied with obtaining some of the precious energy-restoring nectar she'd been craving to pay much attention to what he said.

"I'm partly to blame as well. I should've checked to make sure all the proper scans had been done," She replied, pouring some whiskey into her mug along with the coffee. "As far as their intentions, I can't see anybody in the crew having much motivation to blow up the ship. Not that I'm completely ruling that option out. More than likely, it was one of those low lifes back on The Hub."

"More than likely?"
The man's tone was amused, possibly even scoffing.
"You haven't done much in the way of investigation."
It wasn't an insult - more of a simple observation.

"Well right now my first concern is making sure we're not complete sitting ducks if some pirates decide to raid our crippled ship, and making sure I don't pass out."

There might have been a slight edge to her voice, but it was nothing personal against the Judge. The poor woman was just tired. While she finished fixing her beverage, the captain muttered under her breath about 'damn yahoos' that wouldn't give her a break and 'cowards trying to blow her up.'

She took a long gulp of the whiskey/coffee mixture.

"My engineer is currently trying to fix our fuel line. When that's done, I'll have him help with identifying some aspects of the explosive. Might help me pinpoint it's origin. At the moment, though, I am going to sit down for ten minutes and drink my damn coffee."

As if to emphasize her point, the woman plopped down at the table adjacent to his.

The Judge nodded slowly, gazing into his own mug.
"One of the few things worth waking up for," he replied.

She snorted, the corners of her mouth curling upwards in a small smile.

"I can definitely agree with you on that."

It didn't take long for her mug to find itself empty, and so she got up again to refill it, using the same mixture. She held the bottle of whiskey up and looked at the Judge, evidently offering to share with him.

Why not?
After all, he was alone out here. No one around to tell him he couldn't drink "on duty".
It was a short move of seats for him after he took up his mug to sit down across from the captain.
He wasn't familiar with this kind of alcohol but hey - liquor is liquor.
he accepted the proffered bottle and topped off his coffee with it before handing it back to the woman, silently going back to drinking.

Maria had half expected him to reject the bottle, but was pleasantly surprised to see that he didn't see to be as rigid as the last Judge she'd been around. Man wouldn't even look at her without sneering. Then again, it probably helped that this one wasn't currently on duty, and they weren't in his jurisdiction.

"Don't tell the doc. He'll probably lecture me about 'ruining my health,'" She said, then added mostly to herself, "I wonder if he knows how much this bottle has saved the health of some of the crew..."

"I don't know what you think I'll be telling him."

Maria smiled. "I knew there was a reason I didn't hate you."

Kevej settled in his chair a bit. As bad as things looked people were dealing with it, business as usual.

"Andrea, how far did we actually manage to make it before some bastard crippled us?"

He started back out of his seat again, frantically making it look like he was doing something. Dammit, if it wasn't like the captain could teleport around this damned ship! She shared quick word with Andrea before heading away. Kevej tentatively settled back into his seat.

*bleep*

*bleep bleep*

He leaned forward again, 'No rest for the wicked'. A quick few flicks across several instruments and... There it was! A ship contact, it was too far out right now to distinguish size or class but there it was. In a perfect galaxy this would bring elation at being rescued, but this wasn't a perfect galaxy. "Dammit, Andrea, you see this ship on sensors?" he didn't wait for an answer before grabbing the ship comms.

"Captain, we've got a ship on scanners. It's too far out to get a reading or heading." he cut comms and cursed under his breath. There was little else to do until it got into sensor range expect pray it wasn't pirates. Please let it not be pirates.

Captain Maria Thorne

---

As soon as Kev’s voice sounded out over the comms, Maria was on her feet and bounding towards the bridge, walking in just in time to hear Andrea hailing the approaching ship in order to identify them. It was obvious they had already saw the Veritas. Now they just needed to determine whether or not they were hostile. Andrea was hailing, but there was nothing but silence from the other ship.

“Andrea, open a comm to the ship,” Maria requested. When it had been done, she stepped forward to speak.

“This is captain Maria Thorne of the cargo vessel Veritas Lux Mea. Please identify yourself immediately or we will be forced to assume you are hostile, and blow you out of the sky.”

She waited. And waited. And then she walked over to the wall and pushed a button to open the ship-wide comm.

“Attention all hands, we’ve got a little bit of unfriendly behavior. Teg, get to the port turret. I’ll man the starboard. Socket, get me warp right now. Andrea, evasive maneuvers." The words had barely left her mouth before there was a crash, and the whole ship shuddered. It wasn’t unlike what it had felt like when the bomb went off in the fuel line, but this time it wasn't an internal issue. The other ship was firing. Maria wasted no time in sprinting down to the starboard turret so that they could fire back. Apart from the turrets, the Veritas was also equipped with two canons that the pilot could fire, so no doubt Andrea would be helping them out with blasting things out of the air if they couldn't handle it on their own. More than likely, her own hands would be full with evading the shots fired back. As soon as the captain made it to the turret, she climbed up and flipped a few switches, putting on a headset so she could keep in touch with the rest of the crew.

Meanwhile, the other ship was coming at them with alarming speed. With the Veritas puttering along, their unwelcome friend was upon them in an instant, and they were locked in combat. As Andrea continued evasive maneuvers, Maria aimed her turret and fired, wincing as the other ship fired in return and made the Veritas shake violently.

At this rate, it wouldn't be long before their shields gave out.

“Attention all hands, we’ve got a little bit of unfriendly behavior. Teg, get to the port turret. I’ll man the starboard. Socket, get me warp right now. Andrea, evasive maneuvers."

"Oh, aye, ah can just work a god's damned miracle an' magic everythin' back to normal!" The sarcasm was dripping even through the comms, though this was also audible over the sounds of the mechanic grabbing the necessary tools to effect rather abrupt emergency repairs, so it was apparent he was obeying the orders. Grabbing a large pipe, kept on hand for emergencies, he hauled it over to the ruined fuel line, continuing to mutter and grumble under his breath, ignoring the attack on the ship until he could get things running only so he could bitch the vultures out good and proper instead of half assing it while working on something else. With a grunt he wedged the pipe, just a touch too large, into place, and began welding, a pair of goggles protecting his eyes from the sparks. The rumbling and hits from the enemy ship caused the pipe to shudder, nearly giving under its own weight, but with some quick welding and judicious application of duct tape to keep it in place, he was able to get the fix patched into place.

"All 'ands! Fuel line repair is in, give 'er a go. An' if I start hollerin', well, y' won't 'ave time to notice if I do." Ansgar had a handful of patch kits and the welder on hand still just in case he needed to jump in and fix something in a hurry. Plus a fresh roll of tape, since the last one had been used up on the pipe job. If it wasn't for the fact that it would both be ineffective and restrict him from fixing engine damage as it came up again, he'd try to put a few holes in the bastards chasing them. With that, he braced himself and had to trust in his patch work, and the fact this old bitch of a ship was a lot tougher than some might credit her at a glance.

---

"So I gather you have had experience with explosives such as the ones mentioned?"

"If it blows things up. I've used it. Gotta keep tabs on the latest and greatest in things that go Boom with a capital B," Teg began before the ship shuddered beneath her. She never talked much about her past or her past jobs with the rest of the crew. She had learned early on in her career as a mercenary that it was best to remain mysterious and aloof. People had a nasty habit of judging you for blowing up a space station or two. The Colonial Defense Forces had taught her all that she needed to know about combat demolition and she had simply expanded upon her training as she jetted across the galaxy. It wasn't that she was ashamed of what she had done. She wasn't. At least that was what she told herself. But mercenaries weren't much loved to begin with. She wasn't going to stoke the fire with stories of her own ethically tricky contracts and questionable actions.

"Attention all hands, we’ve got a little bit of unfriendly behavior. Teg, get to the port turret."

Hearing the captain over the comms, Teg was momentarily caught between annoyance at having her inspection of the sabotaged fuel line interrupted and her joy at imminent combat. Lust for excitement and a fresh shot of adrenaline eventually won out and Teg accepted that she would have to wait to examine what remained of the explosives that hard torn the fuel lines apart. Shifting her focus, Teg recovered in a heartbeat and pivoted away from the engine room in a flurry of motion, avoiding crashing into the following Itho only by mere centimeters.

Moving with each shake of the ship as it took incoming fire, Teg darted forward with legs that had long since gotten used to motions of a space ship, even a space ship trying to dodge incoming enemy fire. As she moved, Teg grabbed hold of Kai's hand practically dragging him along with her towards the Medical Bay. Stumbling from a particularly violent spread of laser fire that seemed to shake the entire ship, Teg managed to gracefully grab a railing before she fell. Resting for a moment, she flashed Kai a warm smile and placed a hand on his shoulder. Squeezing tightly she pointed further down the corridor,"Doc, I'm going to go shoot down some probable pirates. Try not to die."

Without waiting for a reply, Teg turned away from the Itho and broke into a fast, low run. Following the momentum of the ship as it danced around the bright lasers bolts of the enemy ship, Teg bounced off the walls of the ancient ship with deft movements. Practically rolling into the turret, Teg brought the laser battery online as fast she could. Taking aim at the enemy ship as it hurtled past her, Teg squeezed off a series of bolts that sizzled into the hull of the enemy vessel with a satisfying flash of energy.

---

---

The Ithlo kept a neutral expression as he listened to Teg continue about her fascination with all things that go "boom". Explosives were something Kai's culture knew of, however, very rarely -if ever- employed. Instead warfare for Ithlo had more to do with pure martial combat, a fair fight, and victory through strategy, cold calculations, and a level head that always won in the end. Explosives seemed the cowards way out, and barbaric, to say the least, but it wasn't his place to judge others based on their preferences. Or, in the human women's case, an unnatural affinity for weapons of mass destruction.

While Teg was a loose cannon, her saving grace, as far as Kai was concerned, was a heart for the cause nonetheless. Under the flesh and blood, the facade she put up for everyone around her, there was good within.

At least, he hoped there was.

Moments later, with the captain hailing over the comms, the ship jerked and jolted from what could have been another burst in the engine room but…no, it was different. Kai steadied himself as best he could, steadying Teg as she passed by, unaware that she would once again grab his hand and pull him in tow as they headed back to the main corridor. They stopped in front of the Medbay, as Teg essentially bid her running partner a goodbye.

This type of behavior, especially from a lady, was something Kai hadn’t been used to. While gender wasn't an issue within his culture, Female Ithlo carried themselves with a certain degree of esteem and honor. But Teg, she seemed to do and say whatever had come to mind regardless of the outcome. It was different, somewhat aggravating, but mostly intriguing. Almost liberating.

“You fascinate me.” He whispered, watching the human girl hustle back down the corridor toward the main battery.

Well, it seemed to be one disaster after another on this ship. The Judge had been half-expecting this situation with the fuel lines would blow over, and the remainder of the trip would otherwise remain relatively eventless. Though, he supposed, a bit of peace and quiet for once would naturally be too much to hope for.
It seemed the crew all had their jobs to do and were busy going about them; which again left him to his own devices. Nevertheless, he was mildly curious about their uninvited guests. What was one to do in such cases as this? Well, one could always look out a window.
That is exactly what the bladesman did, though reeling somewhat from the laserfire. He had to admit, he didn't often travel by spacecraft - let alone one that got into firefights.
Bandits, scavengers, pirates - there was no real way to know who these adversaries were without boarding their ship.
He had half a mind to do just that, but he was also curious to witness how well the crew of the Veritas could handle themselves.
No, he would stay here. Stay and observe. If he was needed, he would be ready.

It wasn't long after Kevej's broadcast that Maria made her way up to the bridge, but the Lux Mea still hadn't received any response to their hails. The captain gave it a try;

“This is captain Maria Thorne of the cargo vessel Veritas Lux Mea. Please identify yourself immediately or we will be forced to assume you are hostile, and blow you out of the sky.”

It felt like the room was holding it's breath as the moments of silence went by. Kevej was trying to run through what the fight would be like with minimal engines in his head, and it likely wasn't going to be pretty.

Another moment passed, Kevej shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Maria took to the internal comms;

“Attention all hands, we’ve got a little bit of unfriendly behavior. Teg, get to the port turret. I’ll man the starboard. Socket, get me warp right now. Andrea, evasive maneuvers."

Kevej gave a distinctly alien curse. As first mate it was his job to make sure comms were relayed properly during combat, to make sure the turrets stayed full on ammo if their feeders went and to replace injured crew mates should they be too wounded to serve, and escort them to medical if they're too injured to walk.

It all sounded so simple

He switched to engine comms and was about to talk to Angsar when the ship rocked, hit by enemy fire. Instead he drew up a damage report and switched back to ship-wide channels. "Shields are holding!" with the silent addendum not for much longer. Initial reports signalled that the munitions fired were of similar calibre and quantity to a ship the same class as the Lux Mea, so at least they had that going for them.

The comm chimed back in, this time it was Angsar. "All 'ands! Fuel line repair is in, give 'er a go. An' if I start hollerin', well, y' won't 'ave time to notice if I do."

Kevej tried to keep an optimistic tone as he commsed' back "Thanks, Angsar, booting it up now," and kept his eyes fixed on the panel just in case any error messages popped up. He doubted he would have any chance at shutting the thing down in time if it went wrong but he wanted to have the best shot possible.

The steady thumping of ship-to-ship combat reached another crescendo as the enemy ship's main guns connected with the Lux Mea's shields once more, and for the last time. Kevej relayed the text now splayed across his monitor via ship comms "Shields down!". The shields being down wasn't a disaster, cargo ships like the Veritas Lux Mea's main defense lay in it's armour and bulk, but things had certainly become a lot scarier and risky as the battle proceeded.

Captain Maria Thorne & Andrea Malkis

---

There were no words to describe the sinking feeling in Maria's stomach as she saw a beam pass through where their shields used to be, and collide directly with the ship's hull, ripping away some of the beat-up plating. Now they had to worry about hull breaches, on top of everything else. Every blast seemed to make the ship rock and shudder even worse than the last, and the captain was half afraid the ship was going to shake apart before this battle was through. They were outgunned, out maneuvered (despite Andrea's excellent piloting), and there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell that they could outrun the other ship in their current state. This was bad. This was very, very bad.

"Cap, we've got another ship incoming!" Andrea's voice sounded over the captain's headset. No sooner had the words finished, a small fighter popped out of warp, right in the middle of their battle and started dodging shots fired by both ships.

Fighters were much smaller and maneuverable than both of the other ships, and thus posed a larger threat. The pirate ship may have had bigger guns, but they were also easier to hit back. At the moment the other ship's alliances were unclear. However, Maria didn't have much time to worry about it, as another shot wracked it's way over the ship. At least Ansgar had managed to get the fuel line fixed. Even now, Maria could hear the Veritas' engines humming to life, and a small ray of hope that they might survive this started to grow. If they could run, they could survive.

Andrea was doing her best on the bridge to make what little engine power they did have work, though throughout the course of the battle she yelled quite a number of colorful expletives. Most of them were aimed at the "bastard engine goblin." The figurines sitting on the dash had long since been strewn across the floor, and Andrea was hunched over her console, busily flipping switches and multitasking between making the ship dance clumsily through the sky and firing back at the vultures trying to scavenge their loot. She'd be damned if these pathetic bastards were her end.

"It took you long enough!" She hurled at Ansgar once he announced the line was repaired. Well, his version of repaired anyway. Given the amount of time he had, there wasn't much chance it was a five-star job, but it didn't have to be right now.

Their mystery ship still hadn't made their intentions clear, but Andrea had no doubt that they were some kind of backup for the bigger ship. A little parasite to finish off what the vulture couldn't. Hopefully they'd be able to outrun both of them, but Andrea wasn't going to get optimistic about the situation. It was taking the engines a couple of minutes to warm up, and the other ship was definitely taking advantage of it. Error messages were starting to pop up left and right, and a split second later the automated red alert siren started blaring out across the ship. Andrea was cursing. Among all of the other alerts going off, one in particular caught her eye, and she leapt to her feet, grabbing Kevej to drag him along with no explanation. She then shoved him in front of her and off the bridge. Immediately an explosion erupted behind the woman, propelling her forwards at an alarming speed and even lifting her off the ground. She literally flew off the bridge just as blast doors closed behind her, and then slammed into a wall with a sickening crunch.

Andrea went limp.

The entire ship would have felt that explosion, but it was doubtful they would differentiate between it and the other countless explosions in the past few minutes. The only reason Maria knew something was wrong was because there was a distinct lack of motion in the ship, though the engines were still running. They were no longer flying. They were drifting through space.

"Andrea, what's going on?"

There was nothing but white noise. Maria switched to ship-wide comms.

"Andrea! Kev! What the hell is going on?"