[IC] Aphelion

[Blackbeard]

- Best laid plans -

"So what kind of time are we talking about here, before the Prometheus' landing site is found?"

Before he could answer Natan was distracted by a short vibration in his pocket, slipping out his personal system. From the same man who was questioning him now he quickly selected to send the chosen files. Quickly throwing the phone-like data bank into his pocket again, he picked his head up to answer the question.

"It could be anything from...minutes to...days. It depends if we find it near the life boat,"

His answer was quickly followed by another question,

“And please tell me we're not landing this beauty in the middle of some kind of rock-shard-cyclone-shitstorm; preliminary readings from that moon look like hell,”

Natan let a smirk cross his lips and a faint laugh escape his mouth.

"I'll try to avoid any unwanted weather, anyway it's your job to make the landing smooth."

tilting his head forward, almost like a tip of the hat, he gave a cheeky yet respectful nod to the pilot. Equally eager to avoid any hostile weather systems Natan knew just how important Raymond would be if they were caught by surprise.

- -
Not soon after, Reddick had arrived and the Captain was ready to give her briefing. Various holographic projections flew and hovered in front of the crew whilst Lena gave her precise and detailed reports on what had been learnt so far. Natan had already been through most of the data and what he had not been explicitly told he had logically come to of his own accord. What interested him more was the obvious disdain for Reddick that his Captain so obviously held. Natan had not spoken to Reddick much if at all, and whilst he wasn't his favorite person he had no real reason to dislike the man. Having said that he had a respect for Lena, seeing her so readily willing to try and put the mission supervisor down gave him a sense of caution when dealing with the grey haired man.

“Wey-Yu will have its pound of flesh, don’t worry. We all are very aware of who footed the bill for this little jaunt, and who is signing the paychecks when we get back. Give it a rest.”

Natan gave a little interior cheer as he could sense the shift of power return to Lena. He was equally pleased to see the man slump back in his chair, unwilling to fight her over the matter. He hated to think what some of the people on the ship would be like if they got into some real trouble. Tensions were already rising and they had only just woken up. Natan fought the urge to smile as he thought to himself the benefit everyone, certainly the Catpain, would feel if Mr. Reddick had been left in his Cryo-sleep chamber for another year or so.

Natan was snatched from his inner world as he was directly questioned by Lena,

“We have what? Two hours to planetfall? Something like that."

In his quick fluster all he could manage was a quick few nods, before he actually looked down to his watch to check.

"Anyway, I want everyone to use that time to get set. Bridge crew, I want you at your stations following this briefing. As for the rest of you, especially the landing team, I want you to get your gear squared away so if we’re good to land, we can get you out there ASAP.”

Natan watched on, no more questions arose and so everyone set off to complete their various duties. With a slight glance back at Reddick, the man pursed his lips and lifted his brow in a sarcastic manner. His hopes were not high, he was simply here to supervise and it was obvious this wasn't the kind of job he had signed on for. Another mouth to feed, another person to look after, all because those who signed the checks didn't have faith in what their checks had bought.

Natan had little time for his musings about the rich. He was going down to the surface, he had to prepare.

[The New Yorker]

Reddick walked in midway through Diego’s final sip, which slowed to a crawl as the Columbian’s cocoa eyes pierced the mission Op’s soul. That is, whatever Reddick settled for instead of a soul. He was one of those men that would do fine anywhere he went, a slimy little chameleon. Diego laughed at himself when he remembered he was the same way. His eyebrow arched at the subtle chiding Reddick received from the Captain. She seemed to have something against him, something personal. Reddick was the sort of individual who would rather make enemies than friends, and he liked it that way. He was a master manipulator, and nihilistic narcissist. The word projection came to Diego’s mind, and he smiled to himself. Anyway, the point is, Reddick was only interested in his own behalf, and those who could keep him safe. Diego could keep him safe, but from what? He made a note of that option, ranking along all the other options he had before him. Finding the truth behind this mission would be hard, but not impossible, and Diego was determined to find out what it was.

Of course, he had no evidence that such a thing actually existed, but it gave him something to do.

The dubiously calm moment between Lena and Reddick was over in a moment, and so was the coffee. When the briefing began Diego considered getting more coffee, but thought better of it. Everything seemed familiar, there was nothing mentioned that he hadn’t heard at least two other times before, or read about. But, when Reddick interrupted, Diego felt a coarse chill wade up his spine and wash over the rest of him. Memories from his time with the CIA came rolling back, and his brow furrowed the more Reddick spoke. With each passing word Diego’s gut turned, and the lump in his throat grew. Lena discounted it as a simple, selfish reminder; with good reason. But Lena missed the malice, the grotesque underlining. She fumbled the dirty little secret, but Diego was able to quietly retrieve it from oblivion. Those words confirmed his suspicions, they made clear the crystal ball and revealed the conspiracy. ‘What a web they’ve weaved,’ was all he could think, ‘what a web…’.A high pitched noise sounded from somewhere in Diego’s mind and all he could see was Reddick’s face, fully illuminated upon a black backdrop. The words, and how he said them, so effortlessly spilled from his mouth. They were echoed by a voice far off, distant but familiar. Suddenly Diego’s mind was quiet and Reddick’s face had disappeared in a mist.

“… are there any questions?” was what Diego heard as he emerged from the fallow caverns of his mind. He stood, almost a little too suddenly, and looked back around the room, gauging opinions and expectations. It seemed as if his lapse went unnoticed, probably for the better. He rubbed his eyes, to clear the cloudiness, and ruffled his hair with a final puff of air.

Diego walked to the sidelines where he saw D’Angelo, tossed his cup into the receptacle. “I think I could go for another two years,” he said jokingly after a yawn. He settled next to John Paul, and rubbed his eyes a little more. “Is it bad that I just want to go home now?” Diego asked with a tired smile, having decided to forgo all the other more prevalent, more personal lines of dialogue.

[Nosuchthing]

Alice had been prepared to respond to the Security officer’s quip, but before she could a shadow darkened the door of the cafeteria, swiftly obliterated by the harsh white lights as the shadow’s owner stepped forwards into the room. He did not look at all pleased to be there, and barely afforded the captain a greeting before turning to the coffee machine. Alice had to make a real effort to keep her jaw from dropping, the arrogance rolling off the man was like a physical force. Lena called the man over, and Alice raised an eyebrow, she might not be one for politics, but it was clear that there was something like that going on here, and that the Captain wasn’t happy with it. For their first day out of cryo, it wasn’t good.

As Lena started the projection, Alice sighed to herself, it hadn’t really been her place, but she had suggested simply building the projectors into the room itself. It made no sense to utilise an entirely self-contained unit when it would be cheaper and more effective to use a room-spec hologram projector instead. This seemed like nothing more than showing off just how small Wey-Yu could make things. Even if sensitivity was an issue they could simply have plugged in a data-chip. Sure the ship was crammed with wiring and machinery, but here there was ample space to fit the small units and processor that would have been required.

As the briefing finally began in earnest, past the chemical contents of the atmosphere which really didn’t interest her. She listened to the rest of the briefing in silence, even when Reddick interjected with his cold contribution.

At the final question, she raised her hand, “uh captain, if we fin’ it, can ah take a look at the Prometheus? Ya know, see what went wrong, if it was a malfunction that is, they haven’t really tol’ us anything.”