"Hale's Moon... This is..." Duncan trails off a little and then forces the temble from his voice. "Raivenn shuttle one, we're runnin' on fumes here and carryin' wounded. Need landin' clearance sharpish and quicklike."
He's holding onto the controls as if their lives depended on it, and truth be told, they probably did. In the back of the shuttle, Gabe, Emma and Venice sit slumped down in their seats, similar dazed expressions on their faces. What can be seen of their faces, at any rate: They're all covered in soot and dirt and blood.
A robotic recording crackles up through the ether. "There is currently no landing operator, you may land but caution."
Duncan punches the console, pushing the yoke forward. "Hold on back there..." He glances once again at an array of blinking red lights. "Caution my ass..." he murmurs and shaves the vector as much as he can.
The voice of LilyBell Snoodle hisses through the speaker. "Her gots you back. Waiting." She pauses, and the silence is filled with chatter on the channel as several people try to hail the smoking shuttle currently moving towards the surface at an alarming speed.
Duncan grits his teeth. "Brace yourselves," he barks over his shoulder and then almost shouts back to the wireless as the whole shuttle shudders wildly. "This here's more luck than science at this point, fella." Some helpful soul was trying to guide them down blindly.
Finally, after what feels like an eternity, the shuttle kisses the ground, skids along the concrete, and comes to rest inches away from the back wall of the Hale's Moon clinic.
Emma falls of her chair at the sudden stop. "Ow!"
Duncan slumps back in the seat. "How're we doing?"
Venice stretches in his seat and looks over at Duncan."Any you can walk away from... right?" he deadpans.
Voices start to drift in from outside the shuttle and Gabe raises her head. She grunts a low response to Venice.
Duncan pulls himself out of the seat and begins cranking the door release.
As the door slides open, Gabe stumbles out of the shuttle, her legs barely supporting her weight. Her face is set, stony. Several people have gathered outside, and in her dazed state, she barely recognizes the familiar faces of Lily and Mikie Rhiadra, approaching from a distance.
"Anyone need a heal bed?" a tall, dark man asks with concern in his voice.
Lily is dragging a hover stretcher, and pulls it up to where Gabe is standing. "Miss Gabe..." she says.
Gabe staggers for a moment as she is pushed to the side by Emma, who comes running out the shuttle. The slim girls makes it about five yards from the shuttle before she falls to her knees and throws up on the ground.
"Please Miss Gabe, ...lay," Lily pleads. "I take you to med place." Gabe looks at her without really seeing her, then looks away again.
Venice sticks his head out of the shuttle doorway and blinks. "Huh... We drew a crowd." He sounds surprised.
"Crahes tend to do that..." Emma comments in her usual deadpan tone and wipes her mouth dry.
Mikie has crossed the tarmac from her ship and frowns a little as they get out of the shuttle. "The hell happened?"
Emma rips the duct tape and throws the bullet proof vest away. "Well that didnt help...." She blinks, "Huh?"
Gabe looks around her, her eyes resting on Emma for a moment, but she doesn't move to help her up. She lifts her head and looks towards the horizon, her eyes unfocused. The inside of her head feels as if cushioned with cotton; her thoughts aren't moving in their usual, relatively linear, way.
The tall, dark man is still yapping. Gabe looks dully at him and his fancy clothes. "Seems to me you ladies need to get in the med centre!"
Duncan limps over toward the 'crete and lowers himself slowly down looking ruefully at the shuttle and then breifly at the people standing 'round.
Venice stretches again, clearly relieved to be out of the cramped shuttle. "Remind me not to insult your flying again..."
Duncan goes to reach into his pocket, out of habit, but stops halfway, blinking, his hand lowering again. Mikie Rhiadra walks over to him and crouches down. "Coop?" Behind Gabe, Lily and Venice are speaking, but their voices sound distant to Gabe, like they're behind a wall of water, and she can't make out the words.
Duncan looks up at Mikie. "Got a smoke? Mikie nods, reaching onto the side pocket of her pants and pulling out two, handing one to Duncan before going for her lighter. With a quick flick she lights it, holding the flame out to him. Duncan leans forward lighting the cigarette, inhaling as deep as he can before the pain in his ribs is too much and lets a plume of grey smoke escape as he exhales.
Gabe makes a sound, an odd sound, coming from her, a kind of dry sniffle, then falls silent again. For a moment, it felt like an iron hard squeezed at her heart.
LilyBell walks over and stands right in front of Gabe, trying to get her to focus her eyes. "Miss Gabe. You need lay down and I take you to the place to get fixed". She points to the stretcher. "See, it nice. You lay, and I take you, so easy..." Gabe blinks at Lily's face and tunes out the pleading voice.
"Jiejie...," Emma pipes up from the ground. "Go get fixed... you got..."
Duncan nods a thank you to Mikie and looks over at Gabe. "Gabe, you good?"
"Ta ma de!" complains the fancy man. "Nimen de bizui... get that woman into sick bay!"
"It very stubborn," Lily says. "Last time I gots to shoot it leg to make it not go somewhere it want to go." Gabe realises Lily is talking about her, but she can't recall the incident. She shakes her head violently and takes a couple of steps away from Lily. "Fine," she says. "I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine."
Mikie nods a little, keeping an eye on Duncan as he starts to focus his attention on his crew, knowing he tends to forget about himself.
"No shooting... no more shooting today," Emma pleads, her voice thin.
"Well if Miss Gabe not care enough about Mister Duncan to go get herself look after, that fine wif me," Lily says in an almost prim voice, and turns away from Gabe.
The fancy man has been cursing in Mandarin in the background the whole time. "Ng suoyou de xingqiu saijin wo de pigu ...WOMEN!!!!!"
Duncan glances at the shuttle again and raises the cigarette. He sniffs, noticing, for the first time, the acrid smell of cordite clingign to his fingers.
"Mister Duncan... you smell funny," Lily tells Duncan. "Funny day," he quips a little bitterly. "Lily?"
LilyBell Snoodle looks down at him.
"Tell Seana, reavers out past the Bailey. Ship's oughta be watchin' for them."
"As the advocate in this town I suggests you all take baths and gets rid of any interesting residues!" the fancy man exclaims, and for the first time since... *that*, Gabe feels an actual emotion; a very strong desire to rearrange the man's face.
Lily's eyes widen. "Oh no...She out there wif...oh no. Yes yes I tell her."
Duncan takes another drag on the cigarette and looks over the man fussing over them. "Reavers?" the man says. "All the more reason to take a bath!"
Duncan leans closer to Mikie. "Who's this guy?" he asks quietly.
Gabe looks over at the tall man, really seeing him for the first time. "Mister," she says, her voice coarse and low. "Shut the hell up." And at that, her legs fail to support her and she sinks to the ground, breathing quickly and shallowly.
The man huffs and shrugs."I'll be in my bunk!" He stomps off, to the complains of no-one.
Lily hands Duncan a cup of water. "You, drink... you need drink nice good water... ok ok I give to them girls too..you take." She holds out the cup to him.
Duncan sighs and slips the empty gague off his shoulder; using it as walking stick and grunting he gets back to his feet and takes the cup, draining it quickly.
Lily moves between the crew of Raivenn, handing out cups. "Miss Emma... take this cup. Drink."
Emma half smiles, "No thanks... Not thirsty..."
"You drink!" Lily insists and thrusts the cup at Emma, who grabs it to stop it spilling, "Ok... ok." She downs the water quietly.
Lily puts another cup on the ground by Gabe. "Maybe you can pour down this one, there plenty of medicine in there. Her need care."
Duncan limps over toward Gabe. "Up," he states simply. Gabe blinks up at him. Duncan looks back down at her. "Up," he repeats flatly. The barely contained panic inside almost breaks out as Gabe meets his eyes, and her forehead knits into a confused frown. "Duncan..." she whispers. Slowly, painfully, she starts to climb to her feet.
"S'okay..." Duncan replies evenly. "Need to find a place for the night, get food for the..." He pauses and blinks. "... the crew."
Several more people approach the growing crowd, and one of them speaks up. "Commander of the distress, how many are wounded?" Another newcomer, a woman with dark hair, stands close-by, her eyes trained on Gabe.
Emma looks at Gabe and Duncan, "Don' get up... everyone stay sitting... Tired."
Mikie moves to Duncan and lightly places her hand on his shoulder. "When you're all ready... let me know where you need to be, I'll get you there." Duncan looks at Mikie. "We can work..." he says, not totally convincingly.
"I know..." Mikie gives Duncan a slight nod, letting him know the offer is open ended.
"The medical bay can carry any aid needed, locals can provide a place to rest," says stranger number one. "Can you provide details of what attacked you?" As he talks, the woman approaches Gabe and grabs hold of her arm. "You shouldn't walk," she says. "Let me carry--"
Gabe looks around at the woman. When she grabs Gabe's arms she jerks away, almost falling over again. "Don't touch me!"
Duncan glowers at the woman. "Let her be." Venice walks between the two of them. "Its been a bad day. Lady wants space, you would too in her shoes."
The woman glares at the three of them. "You dont want help? Fine!" Muttering, she hangs back, hovering at the edge of the crowd.
"Duncan, can you provide what attacked or what injured your crew?" stranger number one drones on. Mikie looks to the man. "Reavers..."
Gabe looks over again at Venice, then down at Emma. She feels numb, even with the burns and the wounds, she feels cold and numb to the core.
"Great..." the man says. "Did they follow you?"
"Figure iffn' they'd have followed em in, they'd be here by now," Mikie murmurs.
"Followed as dust..." Emma whispers.
"They's dead." Gabe's voice is low, monotone.
"They aint coming. they burned with the boat." Duncan looks firmly at the man. Emma nods slowly. "Big badda boom..."
Gabe draws in a short breath and shivers, shaking her head slowly.
The woman pipes up again. "Now will you stop your nice way of talking and let me take you to the hospital? Or you prefer to stay on the ground?"
Duncan finally looks over to woman. "Lady, you wanna go to the infirmary?"
Mikie frowns a little. "These folk have had a hell of a shock, last thing they need is a stranger givin' 'em lip and grabbing hold of 'em."
Gabe is hardly in any kind of condition to put anyone in the infirmary at this point, but that doesn't stop her from staring the woman down. "Don't. Touch me."
Mikie takes a step closer, tensing a little.
The woman stares at them, then walks off in a huff.
Not even giving the departing woman the tiniest glance, Duncan looks at the stranger. "There a place to eat 'round here?"
"Yes, sadly on the other side the town," the man says. "I can provide a ride, if you like."
Duncan shakes his head, stubbornly gritting his teeth as he straightens up. "We'll find it." He limps back to the shuttle and sits in the open doorway. A dog, its fur singed and matted, slinks past Duncan out of the shuttle, tail low, head low, and pads over to Emma. It whines and licks her arm.
Venice looks over at Coop. "Boss?"
Duncan ruefully shakes his head. "Reckon you'd best get used to callin' someone else that, V."
"Doubt it would have such a nice ring on anyone else," Venice deadpans.
Gabe watches Duncan, then follows him over. She stands beside him and reaches out, her hand shaking, her fingers stopping just an inch shy of his shoulder. "D...?"
Duncan looks at Gabe, lines in the corners of eyes deep as he squints in the breeze.
Tears rise in Gabe's eyes, and she blinks them away. "He's not goin' anywhere," she whispers. "None of us are." It could mean any number of things, and she's not even sure herself which it is.
Still looking at Gabe, Duncan continues speaking to Venice. "Put this crew together on the promise of work... no boat means no work, an'.." A bitter note enters his voice. "I ain't rightly sure as to when that state of affairs is gonna change."
Emma looks up from her knees, "Don' be dumb..." The dog whines again and butts Emma's shoulder with its head. Emma puts an arm round the animal's neck and scratches its ear. She pulls herself onto her feet, using dog as support a little. "Need t'get food. no one thinking straight..." she says.
Mikie sighs a little, unsure what to do "D... anything I can do to help, you or your crew... just say the word.... you know you're the closest thing to family I got..."
Duncan looks at Gabe and then glances over to Mikie "We'd use a ride."
"You got it," Mikie says immediately. She looks to Emma. "Girl's right though... you need to get some food into you... "
Emma nods. "Vegtable food... no... meats... or things with blood. Not today" She shivers.
Duncan nods and looks at Gabe again. "Food?"
Gabe shrugs apathetically. "Sure."
Duncan begins fishing in his pockets for money and then frowns. Still no coat pocket. "Food? Where?"
"Guessin' Fooks' is still the place here... been a whole lifetime since I was here," Mikie says.
"They do, uhm... serve things that are other than rats, right...," Emma says hesitantly. "'Cos last time I was there I had to eat a rat-bun... don' wanna eat a rat-bun..."
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