Advice from a Caterpillar

[Samantha Greystone]

Before the Captain even got her response, Sam moved out away from the cargo bay and into the galley area. She figured it was where it always was in a ship of this type.

Not knowing which room would be hers, gave her little choice, even if the galley was more opened than she'd like.

As suspected no one was in the galley. She put her stuff on the floor and pulled out her datebook. 'Let's see what you did?'

It seemed as if the footage from the store was already tampered with. Someone must have a babbler because there was footage from the street and docks that hadn't been touched.

While she couldn't tell for sure, it certainly seemed like a robbery.

Time for some fixing. Sam purposely caused a glitch which scrubbed every camera from the pub, to the store, to the docks. She scrubbed from about ten minutes before the crew arrived at the pub to the current time, making sure it couldn't be traced. It basically looked like an outage.

Once finished, the young woman sat back and grinned slightly. "Gāisǐ de, wǒ kěnéng zhēn de xǐhuān zhège chuányuán." The girl muttered under her breath.


"Gāisǐ de, wǒ kěnéng zhēn de xǐhuān zhège chuányuán." - Damn, I might actually like this crew.

[Roman Kline]

"No, of course not. I-" she began, cutting herself off and cocking her head at the faint sound of gunshots. Roman saw her freeze suddenly, eyes widening in surprise.

"Liu Kou Shui De Biao Zi He Hou Zi De Er Zi!" Ilana shouted into her earpiece. "Hold tight. I'll be there soon!"

She took off then, hooking the trailer to the mulebike and jumping on. She spoke to the man, Jay as she said, and informed him that Roman would be taking the shuttle on the starboard side. Roman's face fell into a mask of confusion. This ship doesn't have shuttles… he thought, and he ought to know. It used to be his. Surely she meant the passenger dorm. She didn't give him time to respond though. She barked orders at the both of them and disappeared down the ramp and into the street.

"Hi Roman, I'm Jay, the crew's medic-" Jay said. He pointed at his sword and said "-and this is my new sword. Welcome on board. The shuttles are up the stairs, right across from the medbay, so it sounds like we'll be cabin neighbors. If you need to drop some stuff off now, you can follow me up, but you'll want to be quick. Doesn't sound they were far off."

Jay disappeared up the stairs and the man he'd ridden here with finished unloading his crates The were to the port side of the cargo bay lined up against the wall neatly. He secured them to the wall, carefully checking the straps. It definitely didn't sound like he'd have time to get them up to his shuttle. He leaned up against the cargo bay door by the ramp, casually flipping a coin.

A woman wandered up to the ship a short time later carrying armloads of things. She looked very young, as in might not be an adult young. He eyed her a bit skeptically as she came to stand in front of him. "Hey, I'm Sam. The new cook."

He opened his mouth to speak when the mule carrying the rest of the crew came flying up the ramp, nearly hitting Sam as it passed. The girl didn't even look like she noticed. She just darted away and up the stairs.

Ilana jumped off of the mulebike and yelled at what he assumed was everyone, "Close that rutting door, now!"

The woman on the back of bike shot off of it and slammed her small hand into the cargo bay door button. The door whirred to life, hydraulic arms lifting it into place, sealing off the ship. She immediately turned and said "I'll spin her up!" and disappeared up the stairs behind Sam, clearly headed for the engine room. Roman felt like he was watching a ball bounce around a room there were so many things going on all at once.

He turned back to the trailer where two men remained. One was sitting on the edge facing the cargo bay door. He was covered in blood. He didn't appear to be injured, but the same couldn't be said for the other man. He was half lying in the bottom of the trailer, bleeding freely from at least two places.

Ilana spun around to face the two men and shouted, "Someone want to tell me what the fuck happened out there?!"

He'd seen that look before. Ilana had murder in her eyes. "Perhaps we can get answers to your questions once the young man currently bleeding out in the trailer is being tended to by the young Doctor," he said to Ilana in a soothing voice.