Star Crossed

Posted on Fri Aug 10th, 2018 @ 12:29am by Captain Remas McDonald & Lieutenant Commander Shadi Zatra

1,473 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: S1:3: Myriad Problems
Location: Outside Engineering, Same Time As Kindred
Timeline: MD1 22.00

Parting had been such sweet sorrow. Shadi and Mazarin had spent so much time coiled in each other's limbs that they had to literally peel themselves apart. The... Shadi struggled to recall the name for Mazarin's species... the divine dragon agreed to take their proposal to Abborax while she petitioned Remas. It was their hope that the sooner they broached the matter with their patrons, the sooner they could join together again.

Shadi stalked the corridors, led by scent as surely as sight. She knew Remas had been to sickbay by courtesy of the ship computer. Now she would search him out the old-fashioned way. The primal way of the Ragolar huntresses and predators who took down their target no matter the cost.

She caught a fresh note of scent before her eyes tracked him.

"Captain Remas!" Shadi bounded on hands and feet, her limber body falling into a rhythmic, slithering gallop, until she caught up to her captain. "Captain Remas, I need to ssspeak with you!"

"Well, this seems to be a first, you seeking me out in this...manner. Some sort of urgency to your questing one takes it?" Remas asked an eyebrow hitched high as he looked at her. It could well be he was pondering the reason for her rush to find him, or perhaps how many offers from professional sporting groups she had turned down.

"I don't see Mazarian with you, so one is to assume he has returned to Abborax?" he pointed down the hall. "I have a meeting with a certain someone, so we can talk and walk if that's agreeable?"

Shadi stood back up on her feet and shrugged. "Worksss for me." As they began walking, Shadi instantly regretted her utter lack of prepared dialogue. "Mazarin is amazing..."

"No, that was stupid," she hissed under her breath.

Starting over, she took a deep breath and then unloaded on Remas everything she had thought on the way over.

"Mazarin says it's a great honor to travel with the Myriad, and that I could go, and that I'm smart, and that he wants to me to be with him, and that we just need permission from you and Abborax!"

She grasped Remas by the hand to make him look at her. "Please, Captain Remas! I really want to go! I promise to be good! I promise to come back! I ssswear it on my unlaid eggs and the bones of my foremothers!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down there. Not all of us have skin immune to razor-sharp talons" Remas chuckled as he was turned about by Shadi's grasping hand. He paused in the middle of the corridor and leaned in closer. "You'll pardon me for saying so, but this does seem a little out of the blue...Ah."

A life among the Rish taught you a few things about ships meeting in quiet nights. After all, for many Rish, even the largest Homesteader ships turned into small closeted spaces with no air to breath, and any chance at a new face or experience was jumped at.

"I think I see," Remas said, looking into the large eyes of Shadi. "It's a big responsibility for you Shadi. Not only under the auspices of an Away Mission, but also as an ambassador for the entirety of the Federation."

Shadi stood up straight, tall, and proud. "I am a daughter spawn of N'Ragolar. There isss no finer representative of the Federation than us!"

"Of that, I have no doubt," Remas said with a smile. "But I'd still want to talk to this Abborax fellow to get a lay of the land. We're stranger's here, and a misunderstanding over lending and gifting a crewman might be had."

All Shadi heard was that Remas agreed to talk to Abborax."Oh, yes, yes!" she hissed in delight. "Mazarin is talking to him now. Let's go find them!" She excitedly reached for Remas hand again.

"Easy on the throttle controls there Young Miss, Abborax and his ship aren't pulling away from the pier side just this very moment," he chuckled, taking her hand and looking at her. "I just want to look you in the eye and knowing I'll be able to trust you'll find your way back to us. A good Op's Chief is hard to find, I'd hate to spend the rest of my wandering days looking for another."

Shadi nodded vigorously. "Yes! You have my oath and my bond, Captain Remas. Now let's goooooo!"

Pulled along by Shadi, who was as eager as any Rish child on Navigator's Day to seek out her presents, they made quick time to the engineering department where Ari should have been giving a grand tour of the ship. What they found, in a open stretch of corridor, was Abborax studying a ruby red sphere that floated above his hand.

At their appearance, his fingers flexed, and the sphere lowered into his hand, turning to a liquid quickness that fled into the crevasses of his palm.

"Pardon me, just catching up with Myriad business," the urbane trader said with a smile. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your company Captain? Perhaps you have come prepared to sit and negotiate a beneficial trade?"

"In a way, I believe your associate Mazarian might have spoken to you..." Remas ventured.

"Not yet. Alas, I have been most captivated by your Chief Engineer's tour of this fine vessel," Abborax beamed. "A most unexpectedly fascinating individual. I can see why you selected him for his role."

"He was indeed the man on deck when needs were not met. But what I bring to you is a matter of some importance. I believe, according to my Chief Operations Officer, that she and Mazarin have enjoyed each others company most thoroughly," Remas said with as much diplomatic aplomb as he could muster.

"Really?" Abborax said with a smile, turning the full wattage of his eyes onto Shadi.

Shadi turned coy under Abborax's penetrating stare. "Yes," she said, chin down, claws intertwined, swaying in bashful eagerness. "He invited me on board your ship! With your approval, of course..."

She winced and looked at Remas to salvage her clumsy outburst.

"He did...did he?"

For the first time, a less than kindly tone was laced through the words spoken by Abborax. Usually warm and charming, there was just a hint of brittle ice to his words. He brought his fingers together over his waist, steepling them.

"Whilst it was not his place to forward such an invitation, I would be remiss in my duties as his host to not provide for the comfort of a new guest. Usually, passage with the Myriad is brokered and negotiated over a period of weeks if not longer. I have known negotiations to start with one ruler and end with a new heir on the throne before they are concluded," he said thoughtfully, before smiling. "But I am sure an accommodation can be made."

"If it's trouble-" Remas began to say, before being waved off.

"Hardly," the trader scoffed. "But when we sit to discuss other matters, this is arrangement will sit firmly on my side of the weighing scales when we bargain. I can assure you that, whilst in my care, she will be handled as if she were my most precious cargo. A unique voice from beyond the Sphere. It will be quite a feather in my cap. Yes...yes I do find myself warming to the idea."

His eyes looked at Shadi.

"How much cargo will you be bringing with you? I can provide for most things a Saurian might require, but the familar trappings of home are sometimes harder to fabricate," he said ruefully.

"A daughter spawn of Ragolar requires naught else but her honor," Shadi said.

"If only all of my guests were so easily pleased," Abborax chuckled. "I find this agreeable Captain. When we sit to negotiate the terms of this, I will ensure this aspect of trade is treated with all due respect."

"That is all that I might ask. When you are finished with the tour, just have Ari comm me we can have that meeting,' Remas said.

"I look forward to it," Abborax said with a look of genuine pleasure on his face.

Shadi bobbed up and down in barely contained excitement. "Where is Mazarin? I can hardly wait to tell him the news!"

"I am sure he is nearby," Abborax said with a charming smile. "I am even more sure that you will be spending a not inconsiderable amount of time in his company for the subjective time of our association. I am sure you have things you need to accomplish before you leave."

He nodded to the pair.

"I'll go and join Chief Zhuri, I'm sure he has something spectacular to show me," he chuckled.

 

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