What's on the Slab

[Jay Fuller]

Jay tossed the last of the cleaning wipes into the trash bin - he wiped the operation table and counters down twice each, just to be safe. From the infirmary, he felt the shake and sound of Ilana's mulebike and trailer careening into the cargo bay, and its doors shutting.

"Sounds like my cue," he said.

Jay walked with a quick pace down the hall, down the stairs and into the cargo bay. As he did, he heard Ilana shouting "Someone want to tell me what the fuck happened out there?!"

Oh shit, Jay thought. He heard Rina shout, "I'll spin her up!" and she blew past him. Jay came out to see Ilana off her bike, throwing angry glares at Helios and Jace. They were still in the trailer; someone must have royally fucked up, Ilana doesn't shout easily.

Sam scuttled past Jay into the galley; good for her. It probably isn't very encouraging to join a crew and immediately have something go wrong. In the corner was the other new guy, Roman, sitting with his crates strapped in.

Without missing a beat, tunnel-visioned into finding the injured, Jay walked up behind Ilana toward the two on the trailer. Roman chimed in saying, "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."

That was when Jay saw Helios dripping in his own blood, he had at least a couple injuries.

"Roman's right, let's get you fixed up. Are you okay to walk up to the med bay or do you need help?" He asked this as he maneuvered around Ilana and reached the back of the trailer, prepared to sling at least one of them over his shoulder.

Wanting to get a feel for what he might need to be treating, he added, "Jace, you alright?"

[Helios Hamilton]

Helios had been staring at his injuries when they pulled in to Eden. Everyone began to talk and Helios just kinda blankly stared at them as he clutched his bag, really the only thing he could do. Some stranger on the boat was talking about letting Helios get patched up before questioning, Helios liked this idea.

"Roman's right, let's get you fixed up. Are you okay to walk up to the med bay or do you need help?" Jay said as Helios forced himself up and off the Mule, the stranger must have been Roman.

"Nothin but a couple flesh wounds." He said as Jay also asked Jace. Helios was definitely feeling the extent of the wounds now that the adrenaline had worn off.

[Jay Fuller]

Jay took a cursory assessment of Helios as he said, "Nothin but a couple flesh wounds." Looked like a hand injury, maybe something else he couldn't see, but it didn't look irreparable. Not from this angle, at least.

"Okay, let's get you up there, then." He looked over at the other one on the trailer, "Jace?"

Instead of responding to his question, Jace asked, "Is he going to live?" referring to Helios.

A little confused, Jay said, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure we can patch him up, but what about you?"

[Jace Cisco]

As soon as the mule came to a complete stop in the cargo bay the ship erupted in motion. Ilana wanted the rutting thing in the air, Rina was making quick work of controls and heading fire it up. "Someone want to tell me what the fuck happened out there?!" Ilana was yelling. Jace tossing the gamebox onto something soft, after all he still wanted the damn thing since he didn't get his holotable.

"Cap'n save the questions when we get to the black, we got the fuel for hard burn? We need to fly low under detection far enough to get clearance and then git off this wong ba duhn!" Jace said hastily as he practically helped drag Helios towards the med bay. It was mad easier once someone came to assist with him. Helios seemed like he was a little out of it and surprised by the whole encounter.

Jace was happy to be on the ship again and they were going to the black where he felt his best. He was also happy to see Jay at the entrance to med bay. Jay did a quick one over, but Jace was starting to sweat every second he wasted was closer the feds would be to getting here. Jace had barely even heard Jay asking him if he was ok.

Jace looked at Jay and down at Helios. "Is he going to live?" Jace honestly didn't know how injured he was or how bad of a shape he was in. Jace began to grin when Jay told him it seemed to be minor with the exception of the hand and that he should be able to patch him up. Jace happily handed over the wounded man to Jay.

Pulling his pistol out he fired and shot Helios' into his right ass cheek, holstered his weapon and started running towards the controls while yelling behind him.

"Jay patch him up and keep the knife I want it!" Jace didn't have time to explain why he did that and he was sure to be getting a mouthful for doing that if not getting floated out the lock, but he was pissed and didn't give a damn at this point. That ben tian sheng de yi dui rou almost got him killed, himself killed, put the entire crew in danger, and that moonbrained fool now has feds coming down on us. Jace swore, as his feet slammed on the metal flooring flying through the ship, that if they didn't make it off this fancible rock a shot in the ass would be the last of that boys' trouble and he swore that on everything he believed in.

Landing in the pilot's seat he threw the comms on.

"Rina we good to go! Hard burn or not tell me something please!" Jace wouldn't be so demanding if he didn't expect an Alliance crew pinning them down any second. Without word he went ahead and began raising the ship above ground hoping he would get an answer soon he began flying low to get the distance without alerting the purple bellies.

Now that Jace was flying and trying to simmer down before he let it bother him too bad to fly correctly he paused.

"D'un Yi Shia!" Jace said, "who the hell was the pretty boy?"

========
wong ba duhn - son of a bitch

ben tian sheng de yi dui rou - stupid inbred stack of meat

D'un Yi Shia - wait/hold on a second

[Marina Kseniya Sebastien]

Everything in the engine room was lit like Christmas.

But in a good way.

Rina strapped herself into the console chair and listened hard. Eden's engine sang through her bones, her voice one that Rina knew as well as her own, and she caught it the instant Eden changed pitch, a split second ahead of her sharp ears. A dissonance warbled through Rina's skull, making the middle of her brain itch. Grimacing, Rina adjusted a setting and watched the gauge climb. The disruption smoothed out and she sighed with relief. She thumbed her comms live to the bridge.

"We're green! Go!"

Her thumb came off the button with a snap, then she kissed her fingers and touched them to console, her eyes fluttering closed as if in prayer.

"Fly, lyubimaya devushka," she whispered. "Show them what you've got."

[Ilana Logan]

Ilana shot a murderous glare at Roman. She knew full well what his "calm down" voice sounded like. Jay came around from behind Ilana and immediately began assessing injuries. Good, she thought, slightly relieved. At least one gorram person on this boat knows how to do their job.

"Roman's right, let's get you fixed up. Are you okay to walk up to the med bay or do you need help?" Jay asked, which made her even madder.

Jace, Jay, and Helios fired questions and answers back and forth communicating that no one was dying. Jace a gamebox onto a sandbag in the trailer, adding to her confusion.

"Cap'n save the questions when we get to the black, we got the fuel for hard burn? We need to fly low under detection far enough to get clearance and then git off this wong ba duhn!"

"Of course there's enough fuel, just get out of atmo first. I want to get the hell out of here too, but it doesn't look like we were followed and I'd rather not give anyone a reason by drawing attention to ourselves," Ilana called after Jace as he all but dragged Helios upstairs toward the infirmary with Jay. Ilana followed behind while they made their way through the ship.

"Is he going to live?" When Jay said yes, Jace pulled out his pistol and shot Helios right in the ass. He then holstered his weapon, and immediately ran off for the bridge.

"When we get in the air, you and I are going to have a serious conversation about who it is appropriate to shoot!" Ilana called after Jace.

To Jay she said, "Do you need a hand in here with anything or can I go chase down the pilot and find out why the hell he just shot the navigator?"

[Samantha Greystone]

With the sounds of the engine firing up and the feeling of the ship lifting off, Sam felt a sense of relief. The black was very much home to her and she wanted to get back there.

This particular ship was new to Sam but being on this kind of ship wasn't. Various jobs had given her access to a variety of ships. She had a special fondness for cargo ships; having been raised on one.

The brunette closed her eyes for a moment; and breathed it all in. She had definitely been on the ground too long.

Two months, Sam had stayed in Osirus for two long months. She didn't recall the last time she had stayed any place for that length of time. On top of it not being particularly safe for her to stay on any planet for that long; the itch to be off land had been really getting to her.

While part of her was more content than it had been in a while; the rest of her didn't have that same feeling. The hacker in her wanted to hack into the ship's system, not to do anything, just because it was there. The part of her that reminded her, on a constant basis not to trust anyone, was doing its best to make its presence known. She didn't know these people, and it would be a lot of observing before she felt like she did, in any real way.

The fact the shit hit the fan, her first day, really didn't bother Sam. The calmness about that wasn't an act. She was used to situations like that.

She had been with crews that would have just left Helios and Jace there, on their own. Sam hated crews like that. The fact the Captain and Rina went to get them spoke volumes.

Sam knew this could be temporary. Nothing ever seemed to last long for the girl. She had learned to just take things in the moment.

Sam put her earbuds in, turned on some downloaded music, and closed her eyes, allowing herself a short moment to enjoy this feeling. It had definitely been too long.

[Helios Hamilton]

Helios was zoned out when Jace asked if Helios would be. Then after the doctors response Jace shot him in the ass. Helios yelled in pain reaching for his revolver but the bastard was already gone into the cockpit having shouted back to the rest of the crew. Helios angrily thought of how satisfying it would be to shoot Jace but knew the captain would be even more pissed if Helios shot the pilot.

"Doc get these wounds patched quickly so I can use that knife he wants to take his ear." Helios told Jay while he muttered curses under his breath.

[Jay Fuller]

Jay let out a surprised shout when Jace shot Helios, shouting “Tā mā de!” Jay nearly dropped ole pink hair, both from the shock and from the kid squirming to pull out a revolver. It took Jay a second to process before guiding Helios back into the Med Bay. He muttered in Jay’s ear about fixing him up so he can knife Jace up, but did not receive a response.

As Jay was settling Helios onto the operation table, Ilana said, "Do you need a hand in here with anything or can I go chase down the pilot and find out why the hell he just shot the navigator?"

“I got this,” Jay muttered. “Unless you want to take the knife with you?” His ears were still ringing from the gunshot right next to him, in a small hallway. He had settled from shock to being irritable. As he began collecting the necessary items to treat the stab wound, bandages and wound disinfectant, as well as a fancy dermal mender that could avoid some stitching, he took a few deep breaths to calm himself. He reminded himself he also had to now get items to remove a BULLET, which was significantly more time consuming.

“Tell Jace he better pay for the supplies it takes to remove a gorram bullet!” Jay shouted after Ilana.

He turned to Helios, “I’m going to start with your hand, because the longer we leave the knife in there the less likely you’ll get to keep using it properly,” he said. He came over with the items needed. “Then we’ll tend to the second hole in your ass. First I’m gonna have to remove the knife, and you’ll have to keep some pressure on both sides for a second while I prep cleaning stuff. You ready?”

Once Helios gave the okay, Jay got to work mending.

[Ilana Logan]

Ilana was still furious, but she still wasn't entirely sure what happened on the ground, though she seriously doubted Jace would have shot Helios in the gorram infirmary if he hadn't caused it, at least in part. At this point, though, Jace was the only clear target for her anger. He'd just shot one of her crew without explanation.

The only thing that was clear was that, from Jay's remarks, Helios wasn't going to die, but he was looking a little peaked. Like he'd lost a bit more blood than his body was comfortable with. As the doctor wrestled Helios onto the operating table, Helios muttered, "Doc get these wounds patched quickly so I can use that knife he wants to take his ear." After that he dissolved into soft cursing. Ilana rolled her eyes.

“I got this,” Jay said to her. “Unless you want to take the knife with you?”

She had a bad idea, but decided that apparently today was the day for bad ideas, so she waited around for the knife. “Tell Jace he better pay for the supplies it takes to remove a gorram bullet!”

"Oh, he'll be paying. I imagine they both will," she said. "If he starts trying to come after Jace while he's still healing, dope him. We don't need someone in a homicidal rage running around the ship."

Wasting no time, Jay got to work and handed the knife off to Ilana. She saluted Jay using the still bloody knife and off she went. She didn't run. Running with sharp objects rarely ends well. Still, the bridge wasn't far.

Through the halls into operations, she stopped at the doorway to the bridge. Jace had his back turned, sitting in the pilot's chair doing his job. Wonder of wonders, she thought.

Ilana tested the weight of the knife and found it weighted well, though she knew little about throwing knives. She took aim at Jace's left foot, just showing beside the chair. She pulled back and let the knife fly. It stuck deep in the chair, leaving a small spattering of Helio's blood around the fresh hole in the fabric.

"There's your gorram knife!" she growled, still furious. "You wanna tell me what the hell happened down there?

[Jace Cisco]

Jace wrapped in his thoughts as he tried to figure out who the pretty boy was, his anger was at least dissipati-. Jace suddenly jerked tipping the ship abruptly before straightening back out.

"Juh shi suh mo go dohng shee!" Jace jumped at the sound of Ilana's furious voice as he now had a new ornament in his chair. Growling a bit to himself as he stared at the woman in the doorway blankly her anger evident, his cheeks tinging red as his also began to return.

"Well Cap'n," he added a bit of snark in that last word, "Ho tze duh pi gu, got himself stabbed! The chwen of a shopkeep almost shot me!" Jace indicated the hole in his now bloodstained suit shirt. With his eyes averted to his suit his eyes widened at what exactly the damage was to his suit and Jace's anger started all over.

"My custom suit!" Jace shouted, "Wo yao shale ta!"

With a sudden flair of anger he turned the bird to autopilot and gripped the bloodied knife handle and yanked it from the chair as he got up to go back to the infirmary. His suit was obviously ruined and tear in the middle where it came from he had no idea. The bloodstains coming from Helios, and his nice black pants had chemical burns and fading from them being splashed around on him.

Staring down at Ilana who stood in his way.

"Cap'n, he also ruined my suit."

Indicating towards the tattered garb he was wearing.

"Third he almost brought the feds down on us with his little stunt. We don't even know if we can get in the atmo yet, because that moon brain down there caused a mighty fine ruckus that could have the entire gorram planet shut down. So we aren't out of this yet, and if we were tagged we are done for. So Cap'n if we get pinched in the end I wanted to make sure he remembers his stupid mistake. He has put us all in danger and I don't like having what is mine threatened including my freedom."

Jace squared himself, "Ilana I will not go back into the loving hands of the purple belly overlords of ours." Jace had said all he needed to, but he felt he made the right choice. He eyed the Captain though much smaller than him he knew she was tough and he knew she was a good leader, but he would die on this hill of the moral conundrum he had created on the ship. He would accept her judgment, but he kept his gaze locked on her and back at the door wanting to get back to that infirmary maybe not to really kill him, but definitely hit him another time or two.

==========
Juh shi suh mo go dohng shee - what the hell is this crap

Ho tze duh pi gu - Monkey's ass

chwen - idiot

Wo yao shale ta - I'm going to kill him

[Ilana Logan]

"Juh shi suh mo go dohng shee!" Jace shouted, the ship dipping violently. The satisfaction in having startled him brought a slight smirk to her face. It was gone within two more words from her first mate. "Well Cap'n, Ho tze duh pi gu, got himself stabbed! The chwen of a shopkeep almost shot me!"

Jace gestured at his fully ruined suit, eyes wide. "My custom suit!" Jace shouted, "Wo yao shale ta!"

He punched the autopilot button on the console, stood, and ripped the knife from the back of his chair. "Cap'n, he also ruined my suit," he said, almost pleading, gesturing again and the suit that was honestly barely covering anything on his front side. He wasn't wrong. His suit was ruined.

He launched into a tirade about the feds being brought down on us, courtesy of Helios, all the while advancing toward her, still brandishing the knife. Ilana still didn't even know what that meant, but she trusted Jace for the most part, and didn't really think he'd stab her. Still, she had her pistol if he tried. He'd told her so much, yet so little. "Ilana I will not go back into the loving hands of the purple belly overlords of ours."

She gave him a beat to make sure he was done, but made no move to leave the doorway. She stood her ground, looking up at him, anger fading somewhat. She was still furious, but she understood a bit more now. He was afraid. Afraid of getting caught by the feds. She'd felt that fear before, not only from him. Ray too. He'd been in the war, and he'd been caught too.

"Are you done First Mate Cisco?" She asked, biting out his name and title around her anger. "Good. Because first, no one is killing my crew on my gorram ship. Two, no one on my boat is going to the feds. Over my dead gorram body will that happen."

Ilana paused for a minute to let Jace take in what she'd said, so he'd understand she meant it. "Three, can you take a breath that doesn't wreak of murderous intent and tell me what actually happened down there? Because I get that your suit is ruined and it's Helios's fault, but I have no idea what he even did."

She paused again and a thought occurred to her. "By the way, how the hell did you end up with a gamebox in all that mess?"

[Jace Cisco]

Jace growled a bit settled himself a bit better and took a few breaths. He shrugged as he look down at the pathetic view of his ruined suit, wiping the knife blade on his shirt and cleaning what blood was still left he slid the knife in his empty sheath for his other knives.

"Well I got a shiny new knife at least." Jace joked grimly, it was his way of trying to calm down instead of being a straight pain in the pigu.

"I honestly don't know half of what happened down there Ilana. I was in the shop looking around for some shiny new things to add to our ship. Jay and I were gonna go halves on a holotable and I would still have some credits to spare so was going to get some more stuff for the kitchen."

Jace shrugged and hung his head, "Next thing I know I hear shouting and gunshots one came close enough to my head I could swear I felt the heat, and the other ripped through my shirt. I thought someone was shooting at me until I saw Helios struggling on the counter. So I ran knocked out the shop keep I grabbed what chemicals I could find and threw it where I saw blood.

Taking a breath as he began speaking fast from excitement and the return of adrenaline pumping through his veins.

"I broke the counter to prevent the knife to be pulled out which would leave more blood and they could track Helios. Then I called you and shot the windows out to scare any feds from coming in too quick. So now we are flying low atmo, I could probably try to get us to the black now...and I shot him. He gave me a gamebox for some reason, but I plan on keeping that!"

Jace grinned at that last though. He was pissed at Helios, but he wanted the gamebox.

"I honestly don't know what Helios was doing. I probably shouldn't have shot him, but he put us all in danger. At least I didn't kill him he is still part of the crew, but I have witnessed people go through the airlock for less, but he genuinely has put us in danger. If we are tagged, identified, or tracked through any evidence left we are all done for, and Ilana I can't go back to their hands. Beyond their shiny buildings, and fanciful clothes. They are no more civilized than the next creature when it comes to war no matter what their holier than though and better than you laws and rules they have."

Jace leaned against his chair and offered to take the helm to get them into the black finally.

[Ilana Logan]

Jace grumbled to himself for a moment. Then he shrugged, looked back down at the tattered front of his clothes, wiping the blade of the knife on his shirt, and slid the knife into an empty holster.

"Well I got a shiny new knife at least." Jace said. He sounded like he was trying to make a joke, but his face betrayed his clearly still fraught emotional state. "I honestly don't know half of what happened down there, Ilana." Jace began, launching into his tale. He became increasingly more animated as he went on, speaking both more excitedly, and rapidly.

"He gave me a gamebox for some reason, but I plan on keeping that!" He grinned at that one, then continued rambling. This time about Helios' mistake, and how he put them all in very serious danger. About that, Jace wasn't wrong. She knew Helios would know some of the finer details Jace was missing, but when it came down to it, the overall of the thing wouldn't change much.

Jace leaned back against the chair that had so recently had a knife stuck in it. He asked if she was ready for him to take them out of atmo.

"Almost," she said. "But first, let me re-iterate. It will be over my cold, dead corpse that anyone on this ship gets taken in by the gorram purple bellies."

She paused and said, "Get us on our path to Bellerophon Jace. Don't go for full burn until we leave atmo though. If we don't draw attention to ourselves by rabbiting, they'll have no reason to suspect us. Least not til we're long gone."

Jace sat down in his chair and began prepping to leave atmo. "Oh, and I almost forgot in all this mess. While you guys had your R&R this weekend, I was working on showing some appreciation for my crew, 'specially those that've been with me as long as some of you have. I have decided to show my appreciation for not being flown into a sun by having the empty area below the operations deck converted into a new bunk just for you. It's fairly big, tall enough for you, and close to the bridge. You'll find your belongings unmolested in your old bunk. You can retrieve them for your new bunk whenever you like. The hatch in the floor in operations opens to a ladder to your new bunk."

Ilana turned to go but stopped, "And Jace, you did good, bullet hole in my navigator not withstanding. I'm glad I missed when I threw that knife."

She smirked and walked off of the bridge thinking That oughta make him wonder a bit.

[Jay Fuller]

Patching up Helios only took about an hour - Jay mended the skin on Helios' punctured hand but stressed, "It looks like its fine, but do not use it much for at least a week. Your nerves need time to heal and if they get messed up, your hand will cramp forever." He tightly wrapped in a bandage.

The bullet wound was the harder thing to treat, and Helios had somewhat of a bony ass so there wasn't a lot of fat to absorb the pain. Jay provided a local anesthetic as best as it could do, but this one didn't go very far. The close range shot also buried it further than most anesthesia could reach without a severely strong injection that Jay didn't have the tools for. He gave Helios a warning, but was able to get it out relatively easily despite the (understandable) yelping. [/b]"You are lucky this didn't make it to bone, or you'd be fucked,"[/b] he added. He patched the hole up, gave it some medicine and bandaged him up. "This will also be sore for a week or two, but you can take some meds for it."

The shoulder graze took maybe ten minutes. A quick cleansing, a go over with the dermal mender, and it was good as new save for some small inflammation that would go away in a day or two.

After giving Helios some pain meds, he said, "Alright champ, you're good to go. Play nice next time."