S2E6.2 - Hunter or Hunted

[Ian Dugan]

Ian set down the last of his load and nodded at Lin, agreeing to what Abe said.

"If it's ok we can get started."

It would be nice to get away, if even for a few minutes, with Abe.  They still had work to do and it would be an excuse to get Abe out of the ship and into fresh air.

He would keep a watch on her.  that was sure.

[Abenette Kelker]

They stood there for a bit but got no direct response from Kuei. So Abe took it as permission.

"Let's get started then, right?" she suggested to Ian as she hopped off the crate only to have the world spin.  She gripped it hard, white-knuckling it trying to make sure she didn't face plant it on the floor.  "I think I may need ta get somethin' ta eat here first.  Now that I ain't pukin' my guts up."

She turned to Ian and spoke in a lower voice.

"Feelin' a wee bit lightheaded.  It's been hard ta keep anythin' down," she explained as the world spun a bit less.  "Some protein perhaps?"

She stood up straighter, feeling more confident.

But the more she thought about it, the less she was able to front about her condition.  It wasn't some kind of reaction to what she'd been drugged with before.  That should have been out of her system by now.

She needed to talk to Ian alone.  They needed to figure this out. 

Right away.

[Ian Dugan]

Ian watched her as shw swayed and caught her self.  He knew her well enough not to jump over to her, she'd prolly deck him where he stood if he did.  She was that independent. 

He would step in if he really thought she was in danger and take what ever she gave him.

As it was, he watched her.

"Get food.  I'll get the Blaze ready."

He nodded to Lin and left the ship.

The wind picked up the tails of his coat, but he reigned it in and kept it from billowing out  He wasn't here for drama ... not yet anyway.

He figuried that drama would find him.  It always did.

He saw his personal Death flirt around the edges of his vision and though he longed for her embrace, he flipped her off and made his way to the Blaze.

[Lin Kuei]

Lin nodded at the duo before making his way further into the ship. Touching the comm in his ear, he reached out to Vega. "Mount up, Vega. We are going to try and move the ship. Ian and Abe will be heading out to round up food, water, and any additional medicine we may need using his shuttle." Making his way into the remnants of Ops, Lin pulled maps and layouts of the land area looking for a safer spot.

"Ian, there is a box canyon a couple of miles northwest of here we can rest up in. We'll need to get any equipment necessary to help fix the ship in your shuttle after the consumables run. I'll get the ship prepped and move it out. Vega will be with me for more security and Abe with you." Lin stopped by his quarters to see Victoria still asleep which was still a good thing.

Moving back into the cockpit, he patched a few wires together before trying the ignition. It took a few attempts before it caught fire. "Abe, Ian, I'm closing her up and heading out. Feel free to follow if you want now or find us later. I trust your judgment." When the hatch for the cargo bay signaled the light in the cockpit, he gave a mental count of thirty before lifting off. To say it was a struggle would be an understatement.

The ship lifted off with all the grace of a bloated trying to reach the surface but lacking the buoyancy. Lin got it about thirty feet in the air before turning the thrusters to move forward and propel Ronin. It was an ugly slow flight and he took the tops off some of the taller trees as he guided the ship towards the box canyon not far away.

Bringing it in low, he was pleased to see the taller trees formed something of a makeshift cover for the ship. A concerted effort would not stop them from being spotted but a quick flyover would allow them to remain concealed. He settled the ship on the ground with a crunch and quickly shut it down. "Landed at the new shiny spot. Best of luck on getting the other supplies. I'm going to adjust the outgoing burst message." Lin quickly set about doing so.

[Ian Dugan]

From the Blaze, Ian stood by Abe as the Ronin lifted off.  It rocked badly as it did and disappeared over the first rise.

He looked back to Abe,

"Come on.  We got work ta do."

He activated the thrusters on the shuttle, lifted it off the ground and flew her back toward the enclosures nearby, to salvage what they could.

[Lin Kuei]

Lin worked on getting out the outgoing message changed. It needed to be altered and set on a periodic frequency. The altered message would have the old campsite as the location with the requirement they would need to reply on the indicated frequency before proceeding further. It took a little time but not enough to make him worry.

Once completed, the former Black Mist Yakuza quickly moved toward the cargo bay and lowered the door. "Good hunting, Ian. I'll do what I can from here." Lin set about getting several of the plates they recovered a few months back into a "basket" in order to haul them to the top of the ship. Grabbing a welding kit with a spare tank, he worked his way back through the ship to a dorsal access point and exited on to the roof of the ship. With the welding equipment set down, he made his way back down to the armory.

Grabbing a crossbow, some rope, and a small quiver of bolts, Lin went back out to the cargo bay door. Using the rope, he threaded it through a center ring of the constructed basket and tied it off. The other end was tied to head of one of the bolts which was fired up on to the roof at an angle. The first few times, it did not catch or stick without the weight of the rope pulling it loose. Finally, Lin made his way to the side of the ship where he targeted the edge of a vent near the window of the kitchen and fired. The bolt managed to latch and the weight of the rope got it to catch in place.

Content enough it would stay for a small time, Lin jogged back inside and up to the roof again. Dislodging the bolt, he took a hold of the rope and quickly started pulling it until the weight of the basket could be felt. Putting all of his body into it, Lin slowly started to elevate the plates off of the ground and, with some serious effort, got them on to the roof of Ronin. He took a breather before he started working welding over the holes in the top of the ship.

[Abenette Kelker]

Abe watched Ian as he regarded her.  She could he was doing this while not calling attention.  It was sweet in a way, but right now, sweet was not going to hack it.  They needed to talk.

"Get food.  I'll get the Blaze ready."

She nodded and headed up to do just that.  Some protein bars.  Maybe they will stay down.  Surprisingly, she went with one of the more bland flavors and they did.  So she headed back to the cargo bay.  There she heard Kuei.

"Ian, there is a box canyon a couple of miles northwest of here we can rest up in. We'll need to get any equipment necessary to help fix the ship in your shuttle after the consumables run. I'll get the ship prepped and move it out. Vega will be with me for more security and Abe with you."

This was good.  They needed to move the ship before someone came back or a new threat arrived.

"Abe, Ian, I'm closing her up and heading out. Feel free to follow if you want now or find us later. I trust your judgment."

Abe jumped off the ramp and headed to Blaze as Ronin's engines began to heat up. Once she got to Blaze, her stomach was rolling again and now her fear was intensifying.  Something was wrong.  Definitely not right in any sense of the word.  She and Ian watched as Ronin climbed into the air, albeit not too gracefully.

They boarded and Ian began the process of getting them in the air.

"Come on.  We got work ta do."

She nodded as she double checked her weapons.  After all, having something else to focus on was better, right?

"Landed at the new shiny spot. Best of luck on getting the other supplies. I'm going to adjust the outgoing burst message."   "Good hunting, Ian. I'll do what I can from here."

They took off and made it to their destination, but on the way, Abe's stomach went full on nauseous.  She bolted for the bathroom and upchucked the protein bars she just ate.  With shaking hands she managed to rinse out her mouth and found her toothbrush.  She smiled as she picked it up; Ian had kept it there.  She brushed them quickly before stepping outside again, hoping the need to retch would leave her.

She waited until they landed before going to Ian and pulling him close to her for comfort.

"Somethin's wrong with me.  Very, very wrong," she said quietly.  "Can't reason it bein' an allergic reaction to the sedative.  Been too long.  It's something else."

Then she looked up at him with tears in her eyes.

"I'm scared, Capt'n," she whispered and that said volumes.

Abe didn't get scared.  Even when Ronin was under attack, she wasn't scared.

But scared didn't really describe it well enough.

Abe was terrified.

[Ian Dugan]

Ian shook his head and looked down at Abe.  He took her hands in his.  They were cold. so he pulled her into an embrace and sat down on one of the seats on the side wall of the shuttle.

He thought he had sussed out the problem.  He had gone through it at least once before.

"I might be wrong, but Sonya had this problem before.  Back on the Glory."

He paused and continued.

"How are you doing with your cycle?"

[Abenette Kelker]

Ian felt like home when he took her hands and pulled her down to the seat nearby.  She looked at him intently, thinking that he seemed to know something.  Maybe he had seen something like this before?  Maybe he somehow knew what was wrong with her?

"I might be wrong, but Sonya had this problem before.  Back on the Glory."

Sonya...  She knew about her.  She was the woman who he had a child with.  Abe looked into his eyes and waited for his possible explanation.

"How are you doing with your cycle?"

Cycle?

She looked at him with confusion.

"What do ya' mean?" she asked. 

Then it dawned on her. 

He was asking her if...

She shook her head.

"No Capt'n.  I take my shot on time.  I ain't pregnant," she said quickly. 

She thought back to when she got her last one.  It was a small clinic on the outskirts of a small town on a small moon.  Not high tech by any means, but it was fully accredited.

"Really Capt'n...  I went ta that clinic on Mycroft...'

Then she remembered about a newsfeed she had heard right before all this mess with Ronin began.  There was some theft.  People replacing drugs in shipments sent out to that area with what basically amounted to a placebo.  Her eyes widened.

Could someone have stolen all the birth control shots?  Seemed like an insignificant thing to steal, but they probably could still make money.  And it would be on something that wasn't going to get anyone dead.  You steal pain killers or medicine for serious maladies?  That would cause notice.  Stealing stuff they could sell on the market for less than the going price?  They'd still earn a killing and look legitimate while doing it.

"Ya think that I..."

Oh my God...  What if she was?  Her kind of life was a bit unwelcoming to a child.

"Oh God..."

But something rang true to his hypothesis.  There were plenty of woman on her home world poppin' out babies.  Some had morning sickness. Some didn't.  And some had it all damn minute of the day.

"Oh God..."

Did Ian even want more kids?  Did she? 

"I think I am gonna be sick..."

She got up and was inside the bathroom quick as quick can be.  Just in time to lose whatever was left of the protein bars.

[Ian Dugan]

Ian sat back in his seat as Abe ran into the refresher unit and closed and locked the door.  All he could do was smile.

He was gonna be a Dad.... Again ... Ian would have a brother or a sister.  He wouldn't be alone.

He knew of all the problems child birth could encompass.  He also knew of the trouble of bein in the Black while this was goin on.

He hoped that he and Abe would be able to handle it.

Now he had to figure out if she wanted him to make her and honest woman .... 

[Abenette Kelker]

Abe finally came out of the refresher unit and faced Ian.

"If it is true, what are we goin' ta do?" she asked. 

She shrugged.

"How are we ta even find out if'n it is true?"

She sat down across from him.

"And how do ya feel?"

Her hands wrung a bit as she stared at them in her lap.

"Do you think that Kuei has any kind of feeling about this?" she asked.  She shrugged again.  "If'n it is true, it ain't like he can do much about it."

She looked up at him and smiled shyly. 

"I'm babblin'," she admitted, but then pinned him with a hard stare.  "This life ain't conducive ta a baby, Capt'n.  What will we do?"

She knew she was rapid firing questions, but she was scared and panic was beginning to grow in her gut.  This was not in her plans.  What was she going to do?  Take up a firing position on jobs with a baby on her hip?  Or one of those backpack looking things where you could strap it into?  Do they make body armor that could protect a baby?

She put her head in her hands.

"What are we going to do?" she whispered again.

[Ian Dugan]

Every time he had tried to answer her question, Abe threw in another one.  So, Ian waited until she had run herself out of questions and put her face in her hands before he spoke.  He had been smiling his crooked smile the whole time.  He put one hand on her back and took one of her hands into his, pulling it away from her face.

"You have such beautiful eyes.  You should never cover them. ... Unless the sun is in them and you need shades.

He paused.

"We'll just have to assume that you are with child, and if Kuei doesn't want a baby onboard the Ronin, then we wont be on the Ronin."

He paused again.

"'Course, all that means nothin if'n you don't want ta have a baby.  ... I don't want that forced on ya.  Me, I'd love ta have another son, or daughter.  But ..."

He actually pulled away from her for a moment and got down on one knee in the cramped space of the shuttle.

"Abe .... I don't have much, but all I have is yours, if ya want it.  Abe... 

He took both of her hands in his, looking into her face, her eyes...

"...Would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"

He found that he had actually held his breath in anticipation of her answer.

[Lin Kuei]

Lin edged the plates out of the basket one at a time until they all rested on the roof of the ship. Wheeling the welding equipment over to one part of the roof, Lin jogged back to the pile of metal plates and grabbed one. Awkwardly sliding it across the roof, he winced a bit at the screeching noise as he settled it into position. Turning to the welding gear, he donned goggles and started up the acetylene turning the dial to make it into a bluish-white flame. Lin set about welding the first plate into position. He moved carefully, making sure to get two edges on one side done correctly before proceeding with the remaining sides. The process took longer than he expected but he often was not the one doing any welding.

Lin leaned back and arched his back slightly then popped his neck. He shut off the fuel and moved to get another plate. Dragging it into position, he collected the gear again and set about welding this one into position too. It was getting easier but only because what little training he had was coming back to him. Examining the roof and counting the plates, he realized there were eight more spots to cover but he only had half a dozen plates on the roof. It would have to get done what he could for now. The sun would be setting in a few hours. What he was unable to finish would need to get done in the morning. Lin set himself to work and started pushing himself faster to get completed while he could see with the natural light.

[Abenette Kelker]

Abe was near panicking, when Ian addressed her in the sweetest way.

"You have such beautiful eyes.  You should never cover them. ... Unless the sun is in them and you need shades.

She looked up at him for a moment to see that adorable crooked smile of his.  Why was he being so calm about this?

"We'll just have to assume that you are with child, and if Kuei doesn't want a baby onboard the Ronin, then we wont be on the Ronin."

He was assuming she was pregnant?  What if she had some serious disease?  But no...  He was in 'baby mode.'

"'Course, all that means nothin if'n you don't want ta have a baby.  ... I don't want that forced on ya.  Me, I'd love ta have another son, or daughter.  But ..."

Then he was getting down on one knee and she just gaped at him.  What the Hell was he doing?

"Abe .... I don't have much, but all I have is yours, if ya want it.  Abe... 

Holy shit...  Was he...?

She was stunned as he took both of her hands into his and locked eyes with her.

"...Would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"

He was!  He was proposing! 

She took a deep breath.

"This ain't the right way ta propose ta someone Capt'n," she said calmly.  "There ain't no ring and I don't want ya promisin' to have an' hold when ya are only doin' it because ya think I am havin' a baby."

No.  This was not the way she wanted it.  Hell, she didn't even know if she wanted to get married at all.  Her Daddy would probably be thrilled and would insist of settling down and popping out more of them, but that life wasn't for her.  And if she was going to consider that, it would be because he loved her and not because he was feeling obligated.

"It ain't like I don't love ya,  'cause ya know I do with all my heart," she said as she squeezed his hands gently.  "But I'm also not assumin' anythin'.  I say we go back ta Ronin and hit the med bay and find out for sure before any proclamations are considered."

She hoped he wasn't disappointed.

"So that ain't a yes, but it ain't a no either," she assured him.  "I say we find out for sure whether parenthood is the culprit or if I have some kind of terminal disease, then think our next steps."

She almost hoped it was a terminal disease because it seemed less terrifying than being a mom.  But what if she was?  One thing she knew was that she'd have it.  She just didn't believe in anything else.  And another thing she knew for sure was that she had no intention on telling any of her family.  They didn't like her lifestyle and how she earned her money already.  If they knew that she was bringing a new life into the world?  That would cause all manner of problems.

[Ian Dugan]

Ian's smile never faded or dimmed.  He just let Abe talk her way through.  He just watched her ... and smiled.

Then he spoke.

"Lov, if you think that the only reason I've asked for yer hand, yer sorely mistaken."

He paused and continued, his eye misting as he spoke.

"A lot of things have happened to me over the years, and I can honestly say that you are one of the best.  I want you to share the rest of my life, whether you are with child or not."

He paused again, let go of her hand ands stood up.  His knee gave a loud pop as he did.  He grimaced but still managed to smile.

"Getten old."

He sat beside her and took up her hand in his again.

"If ya want ta wait until I have ring, I'll except that.  We can do it then.  I have my Mom's ring back on Osiris in a deposit box.  Went we're able, we'll head there so I can pick it up and do things the right way"

He paused one last time.

"If you haven't realized it yet, Abenette Keller, I'm very much in love with you."

[Abenette Kelker]

All through the speech Abe gave him on why they should wait before thinking about anything as grand as marriage, she couldn't help but notice that Ian's smile stayed constant.

"Lov, if you think that the only reason I've asked for yer hand, yer sorely mistaken."

She raised an eyebrow at that one.  Of course it was the reason.  I mean, she knew how he felt about her, but he would have never proposed without something to push things along.

Like a baby.

"A lot of things have happened to me over the years, and I can honestly say that you are one of the best.  I want you to share the rest of my life, whether you are with child or not."

Jesus Christ...  Was he getting emotional?  She just didn't know what to do with that. Then he was standing in front of her and standing was accented by the loud pop from his knee and a slight hint in his face that it wasn't completely pleasant.

"Getten old."

She snorted at that one.  Sure, he was older than her, but she never thought about him in the geriatric way.

So she continued to gape at him as he took her hand and sat next to her.

"If ya want ta wait until I have ring, I'll except that.  We can do it then.  I have my Mom's ring back on Osiris in a deposit box.  Went we're able, we'll head there so I can pick it up and do things the right way"

Wait...  Did he just say that?

"If you haven't realized it yet, Abenette Keller, I'm very much in love with you."

Abe was frozen, not knowing what to do.  She finally got use of her vocal cords.

"First, Capt'n, we're already sharin' a life.  That's kinda moot," she started.  Her mind was still boggled a bit.  "And ye ain't old.  All of us have our pain, even me."

That was true.  Her shoulder still hurt from time to time from when she took that one bullet and almost died.

"And I know ya love me.  That ain't lost on me," she told him.  "But marriage?  Official and like?  It should include a ring with the proposal and some kind of plan for settling down once kids start coming.  I can't do that.  Don't wanna."

She didn't think and also didn't stop.  Terror had a way of affecting people.

"Won't be settin' up dirtside.  Need to be free.  Need to be movin'," she explained.  One thing she knew was that she was not a staying at home, little woman in the kitchen type of person.  She was not gonna end up like all the women where she grew up.  Home and preggers, million kids all around, waiting for her man to come home.  She knew how to set up house, but was not ready for long term domestication.  She would feel like she was suffocating.  But in a weird way, she wanted to be married in time for a little one to be brought into the world.  For her there was no other way.  "What do ya say we table this for the time bein' until we can get back to Ronin and find out for sure, m'kay?"

Then she tried to switch subjects.

"What're we supposed to be gettin' while we're out here?"

[Ian Dugan]

Ian just shook his head at her speech.  His smile never dimmed.

He said only"Who said anything about 'dirtside' and settling down'?

He moved back a pace to give Abe room too stand and answered her question.

" We're to scavenge for parts, tools, and whatever else we can find."

He moved to the door opened it and motioned for Abe to join him.

"Shall we?"

And, still, through it all, his infernal crooked smile never faded.

[Velocity Grey-Lambert]

((OOC: I hope that the following is okay. Please let me know if it is not or needs tweaking andI will happily oblige))


It had been another disastrous ship for the white-haired, comically visaged, vertically exaggerated woman. She had got off it alive and with the most important of her meagre possessions but without food, water or any other means of sustaining life. If she had been in a space port that would have been one thing but having been turfed out literally in the middle of nowhere was quite another. The ground, the bottom end of a gravity well, dirtside, or whatever one wanted to call not being in space was never a comfortable place for the woman and being in a forest where, even had it been dark and clear, she wouldn't have been able to see much of the sky to get her bearings by made it just that much worse.

It came as a considerable shock to see the battered ship wobbling its way just above tree height and come in for a very uncertain landing. To the woman, the ship seemed to almost sigh in relief as the landing gear took the weight and the engines spun down and silence came once more to the forest, broken, to start with, only by the ticking of the cooling engines.

"Is it real?" she asked out loud, not caring whether or not there was someone to hear. Other people's sensibilities didn't feature highly  in the woman's list of priorities.

"What if it is? It's the best hallucination I have seen today!" she answered herself.

Not trusting the reception she would get she eased herself to the ground and lent back against a tree and watched, head on one side, birdlike, while a man came out and struggled to get a rope up to somewhere high enough on the dorsal to gain access to it.

"Isn't that what magnetic handgrips are for?" she asked rhetorically but her voice wouldn't have carried. "Or perhaps dropping the end of the rope from the top?" She shrugged. "Perhaps there is something I can't see that prevents him doing that," she added, giving the man the benefit of the doubt because doing so cost her precisely nothing.

It didn't take long for hunger to drive Velocity into action but it took a while for her to get herself off the ground, sling her tiny kitbag over one shoulder and her violin over the other. She was weaker than she had thought from lack of food and water, and her steps were faltering even as she started on the few hundred yards from her tree to the ship. By the time she had made it half way she had stopped to rest five times, each interval between rests shorter and each rest longer. It was a losing strategy for her hunger and thirst grew more as a factor of time than effort expended, the latter being very little; despite being impossibly tall she was impossibly thin.

On her sixth rest she could no longer remain standing and slumped to her knees, bruising them in the process, despite the soft leather "armour" that she wore. She was only a hundred yards from the ship but she wasn't sure that she would be visible to the man working on it, even if he cared to look in her direction.

"Is this the way it ends, Valerie?" she asked herself. "Does it matter if it is?" she answered herself. She knelt back and swayed alarmingly. The kit bag slipped off her shoulder but the violin, at least, she managed to get to the ground gently; it was a present from Bonnie and she valued it more than life.

"Bonnie," she croaked. "Bonnie," she repeated, her tone imploring, before slipping sideways to the ground.

[Lin Kuei]

Lin wiped the sweat from his brow as started welding the second to last plate into place. There was still a few places that could be better served or more easily gotten to for these last two plates but the areas were not as vulnerable. The particular hole in question that this plate was covering was about the size of one of the truck's tires and right on top of operations. It took a few moments before it was completed but the piece was welded solidly into place.

Lin lifted the glasses off of his face and stood.  The breeze that kicked up felt cool and refreshing to the touch. Only one plate left to wield but they still had a couple of holes that would need to be fixed. This one was placed port side also along operations. Thankfully it could partially rest against a horizontal place on the ship as he wielded it into place. It took a bit of time but all was good just as the sun started to set.

Lin was about to check in with Ian when he noticed a human form, albeit a tall one off to the side of the ship. He could jump but the twenty foot distance was not necessarily the safest move. He quickly scampered back up to the airlock and lowered the welding gear back into the ship as tapped his comm. "Ian, found a body outside the ship. Port side near the jungle. Did not look like it was moving. About 100 yards, heading to check it out."

With the equipment inside, Lin jogged through the ship and out the cargo bay doors toward the downed form. Getting within twenty feet or so, he slowed up and carefully walked over to the body. Whoever it was, definitely was alive and warm. He felt for a pulse and found one that was faint. He slowly rolled her over. "Huh. Never seen a woman this tall. ... Let's get you up and inside the ship. I'll carry you if I need to." Lin started trying to help the woman to her feet.

[Abenette Kelker]

Abe was so relieved when Ian continued to smile, but shake his head at the notion of settling dirtside.

"Who said anything about 'dirtside' and settling down'?"

So he meant to raise a child possibly in the black as they currently lived their lives?  There would definitely be some adjustments to be made though.

She shook her head just a bit, trying to clear it.  Why was she even thinking this over like it was a done deal?  It had yet to be verified.  Was she putting the cart before the horse?  She couldn't help but know deep down that she was pregnant.

With Ian's child.

She could help but to have a small smile at the thought.  She did notice that the Captain's smile never wavered.  If she was pregnant.  Ian Dugan wanted the child.  And obviously by the proposal, he wanted her too.

" We're to scavenge for parts, tools, and whatever else we can find."  "Shall we?"

She nodded and they set about their goal.  Grabbing anything that might help them out.  They had a good haul loaded into Blaze, her taking it easy for obvious reasons.  They were about done when they heard Lin.

"Ian, found a body outside the ship. Port side near the jungle. Did not look like it was moving. About 100 yards, heading to check it out."

A body?  Her gaze shot to Ian with concern.

"We flew over that section on the way out," she said, reminding him.  "There weren't a body there then.  We should get back.  Kuei could be walkin' inta a trap.  We lost more than a few of the crew.  Don't wanna lose any more."

Plus, if everything was on the up and up, they could find out once and for all.