The Juz’ nodded at the mention of his name. Though it’s technically said wrong, he knew that he had to compensate for human diction.
“…I think the Alliance is surprised we've lasted this long to tell you the truth. Being on this ship is just a less boring way of serving out a life sentence... usually anyway, these last few weeks have been fairly dull, but that'll change fast…" said Stryker, making Koren mentally note the information that he just gleaned. The captain told them that they can leave their things there for the time being, and the Juz’ obliged by putting down his duffle bag and the heavy hard-case trolley that he had been dragging around so not to hinder their little tour. The captain quipped about them needing an engineer and the Koren pursed his lips at the thought.
“Might be able to give a hand or two with that. And what about you?” he says, turning towards Harrison.
“Will you also be joining me?”The tour ended up as something standard and not particularly memorable. Though, being shown around helped him memorize the place pretty easily. He decided that he will roam around the ship from top to bottom again, by himself, later on when they are given time just so he can see if there are other alternative paths that he can place in his mental map. By the end of it, they were back to the lower decks where they were heading to the gym supposedly being outfitted by a couple of their members to become a firing range. Stryker came in first, speaking with slight surprise in his voice. Koren lets Harrison in first, not finding gyms particularly interesting nor is the prospect of firing guns. He was about as passive as he has been throughout the tour until he saw an oddly familiar white-haired girl facing away from him as she moved rolls of something at the back-most part of the room with another human with a bionic arm. The juz’ felt his eyes widen at the sight as he was left wondering if this person was who he thought she was.
“…Harrison and Koren, this is Benny and Matija,” their captain introduced and Koren’s eyes widened. He felt himself walk past Harrison, and then past Stryker as the woman who Stryker referred to as Matija turned to look at him with an equal amount of shock as the Juz’.
“Koren?“ she started but the sound of something crashing diverted her attention to the door. Stryker moved towards the source of the sound to investigate and Koren’s attention goes back to Matija, as hers went back to him. The mecorian reached out to gingerly caress his face to feel if he was indeed real.
“They said you were dead,” the Juz’ said, not caring much about the commotion outside.
“I’m here, ain’t I?” she responded with a smile as she brushed her thumb on his cheek, making him close his eyes and lean towards her touch.
“I don’t get why you did that. You just… Disappeared,” she said.
“You…” she repeated.
“YOU,” Matija said darkly as she raised her palm and quickly struck the Juz’ cheek with a sharp slap, making him stagger to a side as he held the struck cheek.
“YOU LEFT WITHOUT A WORD! WE FUCKIN’ THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD, YA STUPID BOY!”Koren winced at the sound of Matija shouting at him, but he felt that it was justly deserved for what he did. Fearing her wrath, he let her continue speaking as it was better for his health to do so than to interrupt.
“Do you know how long we searched for ya? Huh?!” the angry mecorian said with gritted teeth, prompting the juz’ to apologetically look up towards her as she shifted her weight to her left and placed a hand on her waist.
“Fuckin’, YEARS!” she said as she threw her hands up in exasperation.
Shame washed upon the entirety of Koren’s body. He hung his head down, not even bothering with the painfully warm tingling sensation of her slap on his face anymore. The Juz’ never thought that he had caused this much trouble, nor did he thought that Matija would react like this when she sees him.
The Mecorian sighs when she sees him at a loss for words, shaking her head as she ends her tirade. Outside, Stryker would call out to them, saying that he needed help in order to immediately carry someone up the Med Bay. Matija sighs loudly and rubs her temples from the stress as she walks to assist Stryker outside. But not before shooting a glare at Koren.
“We’re gonna talk about this later,” she said warningly as she left the threshold of the gym to help their captain, leaving Koren standing alone with a familiar sense of dread for what’s to come.
Little Bill