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Post by LucianG on Mar 3, 2007 12:27:42 GMT -6
Arriving in the shuttle bay, Roxzanna-Rizou knew she was too late. Looking out in the distance, she imagined a shuttle just disappearing from her field of vision, but it could have been the reflection from one of the flashing departure lights that shut down at just that moment. Looking around the shuttlebay, she saw that it was now almost deserted, with the shuttle repair crew coming back out into the bay to resume work on the same shuttle they’d been working on earlier.
“Hi again, gentlemen!” she called to them as she approached. “Was Major JustinB on that shuttle that just departed?”
Their heads nodded, but several of the goofy stares seemed focused somewhat below the level of her face. Taking advantage of their distraction, she asked, “And was the red-head still with him?”
More nods, with the continuing stares. “Men!” she thought. “Weak creatures who would do anything or give up anybody for the right price.” Hoping that would be the case here, she asked, “How’s the work coming on that shuttle? Almost done?”
“Not quite, Ms. Roxzanna. We’ve still got a long way to go. It may not be ready before the jump.”
“Say, do you think you could finish that thing a bit quicker than that? I need really need a ride to the Callisto, and it looks like that’s my very last option.”
“I don’t know, Ms. Roxzanna. I don’t think we can make it,” said one of the men who seemed to be the repair crew chief. Though still not sure, she felt he was likely the one who had made the original report.
Seeing that he had relatively clean hands, she stepped closer to the man and took his hand. Holding it gently, she pulled him several steps away from the main group, then turned and pulled it close to her, just millimeters from her bosom. Leaning close so her cheek was close to his, and her lips close to his ear, she said softly, seductively, “If you can get it done and get me and my vid-op to the Callisto, I’ll be sure to make it well worth your while….”
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Post by LucianG on Mar 3, 2007 19:45:16 GMT -6
The next two centars were long and boring, but Crew Chief Deloprion drove his crew unmercifully, and the effort seemed to be progressing at a fairly rapid pace…for shuttle repairs, anyway. Roxzanna-Rizou spent some of the time speaking with some of the crew members, learning their names, and forgetting most of them just as quickly. A bit later, she and N’Rondar had moved into the crew lounge where they appropriated a table and pulled some equipment out of the vid-case.
“Ms. Roxzanna,” called Deloprion as he entered the lounge, "we’ll have it ready in about ten more centons. I’ve contacted the pilots, and they’re on their way down here now.” He approached closely and whispered, “Now, about my reward?”
Roxzanna-Rizou smiled and said, “Yes, your reward, of course. We’ll take care of that in just a couple centons. Make sure you’re ready, okay.”
“Yes yes, yes, Ma’am!” replied the excited crew chief, who almost ran back out of the room.
A couple of centons later, the reporter followed and called, “Oh, Chief Deloprion, it’s time.”
Deloprion with an excited grin, scampered up to her asked, “Uh, where are we going to go?”
“Let’s do it right here in front of the shuttle,” replied the reporter, waving toward it.
Deloprion’s mouth dropped open, and he looked at her questioningly. “Here? Everyone will see!”
Roxzanna-Rizou winked at him, and replied, “Sure, why not? Isn’t that the whole idea? Besides, it will be a good view, too. Hold on just another few moments, okay?”
Turning toward N’Rondar, she waited until he signaled, and then she spoke, “Good evening, this is Roxzanna-Rizou, reporting for the IFB from the shuttlebay of the Starliner Alpha. As reported earlier this evening, the Fleet will be leaving the Quarro system for destination unknown in just a few centars, and in preparation for the jump, there are numerous last centon deliveries and transfers that have to be made to make sure that all of the ships of the Fleet have enough supplies to last through the duration of the jump, rumored to be between three and nine cycles. According to the book makers in the Casino upstairs here on the Starliner Alpha, the odds are currently in favor of a jump lasting 5.7 cycles, which means, lots of supplies are required, and a fleet of shuttles running in tip-top condition to make the requisite deliveries. The shuttle you see behind me should be part of that effort, but due to some mechanical difficulties on its last trip, it’s been out of commission. However, this shuttle repair crew, led by Chief Deloprion, has made heroic efforts tonight to restore the shuttle to tip-top order so it can do its duty in assisting with the pre-jump effort. Chief Deloprion, tell the people of the Fleet what it’s like assisting our people with such a critical job,” she said, shoving the microphone right in front of his face.
The crew chief’s eyes were wide and his mouth opened and closed, but all that seemed to come out was, “Ah, oh, ahem….”
“Ah…thank you, Chief Deloprian. He said he would be ready, but it seems he’s just a bit camera-shy," she laughed. "Well, while the shuttle crew has been busy in this heroic effort this evening, I spoke with some of the other crew members.” She signaled to N’Rondar who activated the report they had completed while in the lounge….
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Post by Amy81 on Mar 13, 2007 13:54:33 GMT -6
(Continued from reply #98, this thread)
Ally's dad walked through the rehab center, amazed as always at the activity. Everywhere he looked medtechs and experts from all fields of medicine were hard at work, heading somewhere, doing something. It was smart to put such a facility inside this old, faded liner. From the outside, it didn't look like much of a strategic target, and on the inside, well, the percentage the residents of Starliner Alpha got for the facility being housed here had helped tremendously in accelerating the ballroom and casino restoration. Plus, having such quality health care on board meant the residents were in pretty good health compared to some of the lesser vessels.
Except for a certain warrior, his daughter Ally.
She'd had to leave, join the warriors, and he'd been proud of her. He never could have stopped her anyway. Now she was home, and as much as he had missed her and wished she'd stop re-enlisting, he never wanted her to come back like this, how she was now....
He reached her room, wanting to break down and give into the grief like he did so often in private, but there she was, that same radiant smile lighting up the room as she turned her head and saw him in the doorway. How could she smile like that the way she was? She always amazed him, and now even more so.
"Dad" she said, the smile still there.
He walked in, mustering up a smile of his own. "Ally" he managed to say without his voice cracking. He was at her bedside now, picking up and holding her hand. It felt the same to him, soft, warm, but dead weight and lifeless as he stroked it gently. "I've just come from the ballroom. It's in full swing. Full swing."
"I wish I could see" Ally said. "So much work went into it. You all should be so proud."
"We are, Ally" he replied. "All of us. Proud of you." And his brave front collapsed, tears filling his eyes.
"Don't dad" she said. "Please don't. I'll beat this. You know I'll beat this..."
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Post by Amy81 on Mar 14, 2007 12:03:53 GMT -6
"I know. I know" he said, trying to convince himself with the words. "It's just... we were so close to losing you. When the Callisto contacted us, I thought you'd... that you'd..."
Ally fixed him with a gaze, the only thing she could hold onto him with. "Well, I didn't, dad. I'm here! Right now, I'm here! And I will beat this." She watched as her dad held her hand tighter, pressing it to his lips as he blinked away the tears that came to his eyes. She wished she could do something, wiggle a finger, anything to prove to them both what she was saying was true, but nothing moved. Not even a tremble. And to see him holding her hand while she could not feel it scared her. But still she smiled at him, for his sake she smiled.
She waited in silence as he got control of himself at last. He breathed heavily. "Have the doctors been in at all?" he asked. "Anything new?"
"They're in and out all the time" Ally said. "But the specialist was here a little while ago. They've determined that I can't spread this infection, so it's just me who has it. But what it is they can't grasp yet. They were able to stop it before it killed me, but not before it...."
Her dad gripped her hand tighter.
Ally flashed the smile again. "Hey, any word from my squadron mates? Nobody's let me send out any messages. Any come in?"
Her dad sighed. Nobody was to tell her that her condition, everything about her case was in lock down. No information in or out while the infection was unidentified. But she'd been in and out then, under heavy sedation most of the time, rarely out of it except when undergoing tests, until it was determined the sedation wasn't necessary. Now she was awake most of the time. She knew her condition, what she was facing, and she deserved to know the rest.
"Ally" he explained slowly, "No one knows anything outside of the medical staff and family. None of your mates knows how to contact you, or what your condition is."
Ally's face fell. "You're serious? Dad! They'll be wondering, worried! What kind of felgercarb is that?"
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Post by Amy81 on Mar 15, 2007 10:07:44 GMT -6
"Pretty serious felgercarb" her dad replied. "Everyone was quite scared. For your life of course, but also for what was happening to you. What the infection was, what type of ammo was used, every aspect of your case." He shrugged. "An information lock down seemed the best way to avoid needless rumor and panic, or so they tell me."
Ally shook her head. Kept shaking it, the only part of her body she could move. Finally she calmed down enough to speak again. "You know who my friends are, right? Could you find out how they are, and let them know I'm okay?"
Her father looked at her sharply as she said the word 'okay'.
Ally rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean."
He nodded, then asked "Which friends do you want me to check on?"
"All of them" Ally replied. The smile came back for a moment. "Brik, from Gold Squadron. Logan too. And Skyler. And from Bronze: Grease, Bulk-Up, Hush, Ho-down..."
Her father chuckled as he jotted down the names. "What crazy names... Ho-down? Bulk-up?"
"Ho-down is Janey, dad" she replied. "You remember her. Find out about her, okay?" Her eyes glazed over. "She and Hush, I don't know what happened to them." Her lip began to quiver as her face twisted in worry and sadness.
"Easy" her dad said soothingly. "Easy girl. You'll set off the monitors and get my behind booted out of here! You don't want your dad to get in trouble."
Ally smiled briefly, but the worry for her friends was still there. She shook her head no.
"I'll find out for you, sweetheart" he went on. "But you've got to rest and be calm as you can, okay?"
She nodded, trying to compose herself. "Don't forget Brik and Logan."
"I won't" he promised. "Communication between ships is out while were in jump, but maybe the lab here will have some information. I'll ask about these people, let you know, and when the jump is over I'll send messages to them all."
She nodded. "Thanks dad." Her eyes fixed on his with sadness mixed with gratitude....
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Post by Amy81 on Mar 15, 2007 17:17:28 GMT -6
Ally watched her dad leave the room, and when she couldn't turn her head any further and he was out of sight, she took to staring straight up at the ceiling.
She thought about Janey, straining hard to put the memories together. There had been the explosion in the core. Who could have survived that? Hush and Janey both were in the core when it happened. But then Ally remembered hearing Janey's voice in the hallway of the basestar. But that was just before....
She remembered rising up from behind her secure position, and something tearing through her shoulder. She remembered falling, but then nothing clear after that....
Except on the transport off the baseship. A medic. She remembered him pleading with her to stay with him. She remembered thinking 'where else am I going to go?'... Then she remembered Bulk-Up being there. Where had he come from? Was it a dream? It was hard to separate what was truth. It was all so hazy.
She closed her eyes. Thought of Brik. And like the other times she had since she woke up here, a tear came to her eye. And again she tried to move. Something. Anything.
But she couldn't move. And before it became too much for her she forced Brik from her thoughts. What would he want with her now? She didn't even know if he had survived. If any of them had.
Weasel hadn't made it. She knew that much. She remembered gently holding his head, trying to sit him up, the light already gone from his eyes. Poor Weasel....
Think of something else. Anything else...
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Post by Amy81 on Mar 19, 2007 12:09:21 GMT -6
Ally's dad was at the information desk, filing out the request form for the status of the friends Ally had asked about. To his left, two warriors had walked up to the counter, talking the entire time.
"We should have taken that last shuttle, I'm telling you" one of them was saying. "Major Jorlan will have our necks when we miss role. Not to mention the debrief."
The other warrior was firm in reply. "To me it's worth it. Besides, I wasn't stopping you from going."
The first one laughed. "Like I'd just go after all this. I'm concerned too, you know. I just hope you are right. That she's here."
"She's here" the second one insisted. With that, he leaned on the counter, filling in his name and who he wanted to visit on the clipboard. He set the board down and spun it around so it faced the nurse.
The nurse glanced at the board, shaking her head. "I'm sorry guys. That patient is not cleared for visitors other than family."
"Told you she was here" the second warrior said smugly. Ally's dad, driven to distraction, had stopped filling out his form and leaned on the counter, looking at the two warriors.
"What outfit are you from?" Ally's dad asked them.
"Bronze" replied the first warrior.
"Yes" the nurse cut in, "and as I was saying, Mr... Bulk-up?"
"My call sign" Bulk-up replied, adding "it's a legal signature."
Ally's dad perked up. "Bulk-up... you're one of Ally's friends!"
Bulk-up nodded, rising to his full height. "You know her?"
"I'm her father" Ally's dad replied. He held out a hand, and Bulk-up shook it firmly. Ally's dad then offered his hand to the other warrior.
"I'm Grease" the warrior said, introducing himself as he shook hands.
"Nurse" Ally's dad said, "these two can come. I'll vouch for them." The nurse sighed, but nodded. Then moved on to the hundred other things demanding her attention.
"She'll be very happy to see you two" Ally's dad said as he began to lead the way to his daughter's room. "But you need to know something first, about her condition...."
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Post by Amy81 on Mar 26, 2007 13:24:38 GMT -6
Ally's dad went first, to see if Ally was up for visitors. Seeing that she was, he came back out to Bulk-up and Grease. "You can go in now" he said, sighing. "Go easy. I'm really not sure how she's going to hold up. She's happy that you are here, but to have to see her like this... you know."
The two warriors nodded. Grease spoke up. "Look Bulk-up, why don't you go in first. Maybe it will be easier for her one at a time."
Bulk-up was about to protest, but Ally's dad agreed. "One at a time might be better. Like I said, she's happy you're both here, and she's a tough girl, but she's been through a lot."
Bulk-up nodded, saying nothing, his expression tinged with sadness. Grease gave him an encouraging pat on the back, and half pushed him toward the room. Bulk-up took a step forward, then kept on walking until he was at the doorway. He knocked on the frame.
Ally turned her head, smiling and beginning to cry at the same time. "Bulk-up..." she managed to say.
He walked in. "Hey, hey" he said. "I know I'm ugly, but you don't have to cry." He offered a small smile.
"I promised myself" she said, trying to get her breathing steady, "that I wouldn't... cry..." She blinked the tears that had come, and willed away any others that might think of coming.
"It's good to see you, L-tude" he said, picking up one of her lifeless hands. He let a small expression of shock slip out as he realized how frail the hand felt in his.
"Name's Ally, you jerk" she snapped instantly, forgetting herself for a moment.
"Saving the sleeping beauty routine for me, are ya?" he smiled. "Sleeping beauty didn't have a wise mouth."
"Lords, you aren't even close to prince charming" she replied.
He leaned in close, his lips nearly touching hers. "Should we try a kiss and see what happens?"
So many reactions came to Ally at that moment, all of them physical, and all of them impossible. Unable to push him away, she suddenly burst out laughing at how close he was. After a moment, he stood back and began to laugh too.
"Thanks, Bulk-up" she said. "I needed that."
"Supposed to wait until after to tell me that" he said with a wink and a little sneer, his eyes flashing down her body.
She laughed again. "Keep it up, Bulk-up."
"Just for you" came the automatic reply. How many times they had exchanged those words, Bulk-up had no idea. But it brought back tons of memories, tons of times they'd sparred back and forth, with him watching her flush with anger eventually, or just laugh him off. And he'd watch her walk away, caught up in her graceful motion, wishing he had the nerve to say what he really felt about her...
Their smiles gradually faded, and silence began to intrude. Bulk-up cleared his throat. "It's good to see you" he said truthfully. "I thought we'd lost you on the ride off that basestar."
"So it wasn't a dream" Ally replied. "I was sure it was, cause I thought we'd lost you before we'd even gotten to the core. Where did you go? What happened to you?"
Bulk-up shifted his weight uneasily...
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Post by Amy81 on Mar 29, 2007 18:06:39 GMT -6
"What?" Ally asked. Then it dawned on her. "Hey, if you'd rather not talk about it..."
"No, no" Bulk-up said quickly, "it isn't that at all..."
"Forget it" Ally decided. "I'm just happy you're alive."
"Grease is alive too" Bulk-up said, his expression brightening. "He's right outside..."
"I know!" Ally said happily. "My dad told me! Is he coming in?"
"If you can handle all the affection."
Ally laughed. Then drew serious again. "Bulk-up?"
"Yeah?"
"What about the others. Do you know? I know about Weasel. I was with him when he... he..." Her eyes started to water again.
"Yeah" Bulk-up said softly, "I heard about Weasel." He held Ally's hand with both of his now.
"Janey?" Ally asked, saying the name as if it might break if she said it too loudly.
Bulk-up nodded. "Yeah. She made it. Messed up but still kicking."
Ally began to cry with relief. Bulk-up reached for a tissue to dab at her eyes. He spoke softly. "She's good. Honest. Broken ribs and some bleeding, but she's good."
Ally closed her eyes, saying a silent prayer of thanks. She opened them again and looked at Bulk-up. "The others? Hush?"
Bulk-up nodded. "Logan, Brik, Skyler all made it too. And they all feel the same about you. All this not knowing is hades for everybody." Ally nodded. Bulk-up leaned over a little, picking up her hand again. "I'll tell you what happened to me...."
"You don't have to..." Ally started to say again.
"Oh L-tude, shut up for once and listen" he said, his voice graduallly getting louder again.
Ally opened her mouth, then shut it without a word. Bulk-up set her hand back down, patted it softly, then stood up straight and began to pace....
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Post by Amy81 on Mar 30, 2007 17:43:43 GMT -6
Bulk-up's voice took on a faraway quality. "That corridor was pitch black, remember?"
Ally nodded. The only thing she could do.
"Everyone just standing around, afraid to make a move...." Bulk-up went on.
"I wouldn't put it that way" Ally disagreed. "Caution seemed a better idea than yours..."
"You're wrong!" Bulk-up snapped, giving her a hard look. "All of you were. If you'd have gone tiptoeing down that corridor, you wouldn't have made it ten paces."
Ally refused to be intimidated, forgetting herself again. "But you did..."
"Yeah" he replied loudly. Then softer, "Yeah.... yeah." He looked away. "I hit that corridor at a dead run. Fast as I could. And when I saw what was there..."
"Saw?" she asked. "In the pitch dark..."
"Okay" he said. "Felt then. I could feel it. And I just kept on going, knowing I was dead. But somehow...." He shrugged, getting that faraway look again.
"What was in there?" Ally asked. He'd paced off to a corner, and she could barely see him from her position in bed.
"Centurions" Bulk-up replied. "Purple ones. Lined up, waiting."
"If they were waiting for us, how did you survive?" Ally tried to keep from sounding disbelieving. She'd give anyone in her unit 5 benefits of the doubt, but still...
Bulk-up shrugged, turning and walking back into her view. "I don't know. I think they expected the tiptoe routine. Not somebody tearing down their throats. Whatever the reason, I kept going, and as I passed by they began to fire up and come after me. I was going so fast I had them by a couple of seconds."
Ally studied Bulk-up's face. She knew him, or knew enough of him to recognize when he was full of it. And so many times he was. But he looked different this time. Older. As if what he went through took some yarhens off of him, and maybe some of his edge too.
"I've seen these purple cylons too. I know what they are like. How did you get away?" she asked.
Bulk-up allowed the smallest traces of a grin. "Pulled a Cain. Hung a left and kept on going. The centurions followed, nearly shot me a bunch of times. Those things can shoot. You know. And I've got a singed uniform to prove it. I set off a few grenades to slow them down, but they kept coming. But after a while I realized that they'd stopped. Maybe preprogrammed or something. Maybe they thought I wasn't a big enough threat. They were wrong about that."
"So by running off into the dark like that, you actually saved us. Saved the mission." Ally's eyes danced as she thought it over, her gaze on something distant in her mind.
Bulk-up sighed. Just sighed. Ally focused on him. The Bulk-up she knew would have taken full credit for something like that, even if it was an accidental by-product of his actions. But the man before her looked weary, his eyes downcast.
"I don't know if command will see it that way" Ally said. Bulk-up nodded, knowing it was true. Jorlan was a fair leader, but he would have to answer to those higher than him.
"So what happened next?" Ally asked....
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