Page 5 Repost and Update 19.

The newly named Captain merely righted the flat cap on his head once more, looking back towards his rather shabby crew.  It was clear there was already a massive disarray in everything that was going on; Tesla was just about hanging off his leg, while Lily was in the fettle position.  Swabbie turned his head, only to see Garrus yawning sleepily, acting like he had nothing to do and was about to knock off for some rest.  Gritting his teeth in anger, Swabbie turned tossing the spare coat at Garrus before pointing finger at him and issuing the command.

“Garrus, I want you outside taking a look at the ship; my knowledge is basic at best.  You’re the expert here so I want you to make sure everything that can be salvaged from this piece of scrap is.  If this bird isn’t worthy to fly; we’ll make it a base of operations till we can either find some help or can create a way to send an S.O.S. up to Roshire.”  Garrus and Swabbie then exchanged heated glances before Garrus sighed once, putting on the coat and pulling up the hood.   Grumbling, he began walking back out of the pod.

“Well, I’ll give you one thing, you at least get shit done.  Never could complain about that when you were the janitor; guess I can’t complain about it now that you’re the captain.  Just don’t break my back alright?  We’re still friends, even if I am looking out for myself; cause you know… aside from the ol’ Captain... you were the only person on that ship that would really talk to me.”  Stating this, Garrus turned his head, with mild trepidation half expecting Swabbie to deck him again, instead, he found the male just shaking his head with a distinct distaste. 

“Garrus, you tried to fuck me over, you’ve been a bitch since we got into this whole mess and aside from piloting, you’re about damn near useless.  Still, bygones are bygones; you’re my friend, but sometimes I’ve gotta smack you around a bit or else your head would get too big for your body.  Now then, get your ass outside and give me a damage report when I get back; besides, the exercise will be good for that body of yours that’s starting to get flabby.  I swear sometimes I couldn’t tell the difference between you and Rorsh.”    The pair laughed before Garrus gave Swabbie a playful jab on the shoulder.  As the two had finished reconciling for the moment, the pilot spoke once again.

“Yeah, yeah, I get you.  I’m getting fat, I’ll do something about it, you just make sure we stay alive you bastard.  Now then, I have a ship to look at and you have food to gather; hmm…by the way, you owe me a beer as soon as we get to Roshire.”  At that, the pilot merely turned about and proceeded to walk out of the ship; his body visibly straining for a moment when we exited, but he slowly fixed himself and proceeded to push through the pain.  

“Sure, I’ll buy you a beer with my non-existent amount of credits.”  Captain Swabbie snorted before looking down at Lily.  She had been there for him in the past, now he supposed it was time to be there for her.  Swabbie had never experienced much loss in his life, at worst he watched a few chickens die; nothing to get particular worked up about in his mind.  So how could he respond to her in a way that wouldn’t seem offensive?  Milling over those thoughts, he pushed a column of air out of his nose before pulling away from Tesla and waving her off.  “Hey, Tesla, give me a few minutes and we’ll get ready.  Make sure that Garrus doesn’t need any help at the moment.”  Saying this without taking his eyes off of Lily for an instant, he found himself slinking down to the floor next to her.  Already, he could see the shock of the loss was passing and it was hitting her that her adoptive father was dead. 

The nearby door shut, the magnetic locks sealing the entry wall from all but those who knew the particular code.  Which at the moment was everyone but Tesla; sitting down next to Lily, there was an awkward silence. What should he say and what should he do?  It wasn’t as if he could just magically make all her pain go away; however, it was also true that if he didn’t say something she would likely be stuck like this for a while.  Despite her claim to be able to cut anything they brought to her…if she didn’t calm down, she would likely make a mistake and that could be fatal.  It was just something that couldn’t be tolerated at this point, especially since he would normally trust her with their lives.

“Lily…I…”  Swabbie started, but before he could even get the words out, Lily raised her head slightly.  Her lower lip was puckered out slightly, her eyes watering as she cut him off.

“Stop, I know what you’re going to say.”  Her voice was already on the verge of breaking.  Fighting back the urge to whimper uncontrollably, battling to keep rationality in her voice and losing.  “You’re going to ask me to stop thinking about him, but that’s not possible!  Sorison….he wasn’t my real dad.  You know that, you knew that better than anyone.   Yet, he was the only person that cared about me; he was the only person who gave enough of a damn to make sure I stayed alive.  The only person who didn’t look at me like a piece of meat or a sex toy, which I’m already going to tell you, I won’t be for you.  I may have agreed to do anything, but don’t think I’m just going to bow down and suck you off every time you bark the order.  You’ve got the red headed skank for that.”  She sneered, obviously making a joke to ease the pain, but it didn’t seem to work all that well.

Swabbie listened, letting her vent, though he was surprised at the off-color comment about Tesla.  Letting out a small chuckle at her words, he looked back down at her.  His mind was contemplating how to ease her pain.  Nothing really came to him, so he held his tongue waiting for her to speak.  When she didn’t all he could do was to tentatively speak and try to win her over.  “Sorison…was a good guy.  I really didn’t know him that well though.”

“Yeah, I remember when you showed up a month ago Swabbie.  You looked like a scruffy kid.  You were thin and it was obvious that you hadn’t been eating very well.  It was clear you were desperate and would do anything you could just to get by.  It…reminded me of myself back when I was five; the way he sort of just took his arm and wrapped it around you.  It was like he was adopting another child….”  Just listening at this point, the Swabbie nodded slowly catching every syllable that fell from her tongue as if it were a life line.  He and Garrus were all she had left now, so this was the least he could do for her, considering Garrus never would.

“Lily…can you tell me about Sorison?  I never knew him that well, he was always just my boss.  Sure, we had a few conversations but in the end, he was just my boss.  I never got to know the man behind the mantel of the captain.”  Those words…where did they come from?  They just seemed to escape his lips without any form of thought involved; an impulse which he was sure would get him slapped.  Instead, she looked up for a moment, surprised before turning her head back to the ground.

“You’re just asking because you want me to function in the group, not because you actually care.”  Those words felt like a slap to Swabbie’s face, the final stress at the end of the word care coming out particularly heated.  As he sat there with his jaw hanging down, his feet pulled up slowly tucking themselves against his ass.  Soon after, his arms descended looping around his own knees so both he and Lily were sitting in the fettle position.

“Actually…I would like to hear about him.  Back when I was out job hunting no one would even talk to me; most of the employers were of different races than me.  Not really surprising considering that humans only make up roughly three percent of the current universal population.  Most of the species I encountered didn’t want anything to do with me.  Some wrote me off for being human, others for my lack of work experience, others for not having finished college.  In the end, I stood in the unemployment line over and over again; just waiting for someone to take me.  Finally, I got an offer, Sorison needed a janitor and he wasn’t picky about who took the job.  I was on the verge of giving up hope when he took me in; there wasn’t a day that went by this last month where I didn’t thank him.”

Swabbie’s face changed as a small smile formed upon it. His arms clutching around his legs tighter as the words slipped from his lips.  It was becoming relatively clear that he was just a kid in reality; someone thrust into a situation he had no control over anything.  Youth spreading over his face so it was clear that he was only about twenty or twenty-one, likely still having second thoughts about leaving his family behind; just barely old enough to be considered a full grown adult.  Now with so much responsibility on his shoulders, one wouldn’t be mistaken for thinking he was going to crack.   Letting out a soft sigh, he felt Lily’s head lean against his shoulder before his arm came up and wrapped around hers.

“Ok…since you really seem interested.  I’ll tell you about him.”  Looking up at him, there were tears still glistening lightly in her eyes; before she moved in a little closer.  “Just…keep holding me like this till I’m done…ok?  I know...,”  She sniffled softly at that point, turning her head away from the swabbie.  Sheepishly turning her head covered in short blonde hair back to the Swabbie.  “I know you have to leave soon enough, but till then just listen and hold me; you and Sorison…you two were the only people who cared.  Now…you’re all I have left.  Garrus…he always treated me like a piece of meat, despite Sorison’s reprimands.  I wish you didn’t have to leave me here with him, but I understand.” 

Swabbie took a short breath and nodded, listening intently at this point.  He remembered Garrus speaking teasingly and seriously about how he was going to bed Lily.  It seemed to him to be nothing more than a fantasy regarding what was likely the only other human female for light years around them.  The port he had visited saw Garrus leaving immediately for the red light district and returning piss-faced drunk with the dumbest smile on his face.  Yet, he never expected him to only view Lily as a fuck-toy for the crew, especially considering she never slept with anyone.  Those thoughts dissipated the moment she started speaking again.

“Sorison adopted me when I was five; the first time I saw him.  I was enthralled, he just seemed like everything I used to see in the picture books or passing glances at holoplayers in the store windows.  Crisp, clean and proud everything that a hero needed to be; I learned later that he wasn’t the hero I thought he was, but he was still always dad to me.  He would put his ass on the line to make sure I was safe and stuck up for me when others wouldn’t.  Though, if it hadn’t been for a bit of feistiness on my part, he probably would have never adopted me.”  Giggling, she let out a soft sigh while the Swabbie rose one eyebrow.

“You, feisty?  I can hardly imagine.” 

“Oh you’d be surprised, Captain, I snuck on board the ship the ship and stowed away in the cargo bay.  By the time anyone realized I was on the ship, it was too late to turn around.  Not like I had anywhere to go anyway.”  She laughed at this, but it was all too clear to the Swabbie that she was hurting deeply;  breathing outwards, he slowly turned his body towards Lily’s and felt her push into the gap instantly beginning to weep freely against his chest.  It had done her some good to release some of the pent up emotions that she had been hiding; he could already hear her sobbing: “Daddy, daddy.”  Over and over again as she clutched tighter against the back of his coat, finally her voice went hoarse and cracked for a moment before she leaned in closer.  Mentally exhausted from all the strain that had been put on her, she didn’t have anything left to give at the moment but a few more words.

“I’ll tell you more later…if you’re interested…I’m sorry I broke down like that.”  Swabbie only shushed her in response, putting a finger up to his lips before stroking her hair.  In silence, he lifted her almost completely limp form and carried her towards the center of the escape craft.  Hitting a button with his butt, as he didn’t want to disturb the female in his arms, a release of air prompted a fold-out mattress to appear from the wall.  Falling down from a latched in region, which could be clearly seen; it was large enough for most species to fit in comfortably and for people of average human size, about two to three before it got cramped.  Laying Lily down in the teal colored sheet, resting her head against the white pillow before his hand slid up to her face. 

“I’m always interested.  Get some rest Lily…this has been harder on you than anyone else.”  Swabbie removed his hand quickly, then proceeded toward the exit of the ship.  “I’ve already kept Tesla waiting too long…Garrus should just be getting into the analysis of the ship.  So I’ll just hurry along with Tesla and gather up any food that I can while we’re out there; hopefully we can find a vegetable patch or some fruit.  I’m not gonna get my hopes up for meat right now.”  As he thought this, Lily’s weak voice called him back to reality, just as the doors in front of him were opening.

“Be careful out there.”  She chirped almost too quietly to hear before her head hit the pillow.  Already sound asleep, the Swabbie let a smile grow on his lips before pushing his fingers together and saluting her.  A gesture that he had always used to mean: “Will do.”  It was time to get serious now though, he had three people and himself to take care of and not a lot of time to do it.  Grasping the velocity knife from the emergency cabinet as closely as he could; he proceeded to walk out of the ship, letting the doors close behind me.

“I was wondering when you were going to come out.  I was starting to wonder if you two weren’t heating up the ship.”  Tesla’s sultry voice sounded out from behind the Swabbie as she stood with her back against the hull of the escape vessel.  Her libido seemed to have calmed down for the moment and she was much more serious about the entire situation, though there was a bit of an aura about her that told the Swabbie to stay on guard.  “So handsome, shall we get going or are you just going to stare at the flowers under your feet all day?” 

“Flowers, what flowers?”  Speaking this before even bothering to look down, the Swabbie couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw that spreading out all around him, Tesla, Garrus and the ship, was a field of bright orange and yellow flowers; all of them glimmering dimly in the near pitch black darkness around them.  He had assumed the lights around them were coming from the shuttle’s emergency beacons, but those appeared to have been turned to slag by the impact.  Finding himself almost in awe of their beauty, he knelt down, cupping his hands around one of the flowers and gazing into it.  As his face got nearer, he was suddenly yanked away by Tesla.

“No, no…Captain, you don’t want to get too close to these.  While their pretty to look at and I’m sure you want to touch the pretty glowing flower, Garrus already found out what happens when you do.  The petals of these particular flowers, the Dosrochire,  radiate at about eighty-eight degrees Celsius when they feel threatened.  Otherwise, they tend to stick around twenty degrees to keep themselves warm and to keep the ice around them constantly melting to provide water.”

“Uhh…thanks for the warning Tesla.”  Swabbie uttered in thanks as he pulled back, shocked at how beautiful the plant was, but how deadly it could be.   Standing up slowly, he turned his head around; noticing a nearby wooded area where a variety of florescent blue grasses were glowing dimly in patches surrounding a few sparse trees that seemed to made of fossilized amber.  “Tesla, do you think that area would be our best bet for hunting and gathering?”

“Most likely Captain, though those trees produce a sap that when processed right can be consumed for most of the nutrients you humans need; mainly handling vitamins A, B, and some D.”  Looking back over at the Captain, she tilted her head for a moment, quizzically inspecting his neck; causing the male to shift uncomfortably for a moment before walking towards the florescent blue of the woods about fifty yards away.

The sight could have been something out of an old Disney movement, the closer they got the more the lighting seemed to dim down; the colors growing vibrant and setting a mood.   Swabbie’s eyes feasted on the scene around him; taking in every little note.  He may have never been a survivalist or left out in the woods, but he knew how to read the signs of the land.  Right now it was screaming to him that this place was being used by something as a hunting ground.

“Tesla, I don’t like this place.”  Swabbie hissed lightly as he noted the female bending over and proceeding to pull an oddly shaped tuber from the ground.  Each of them shaped like fist-sized octagonal prisms, small red dots revealing their eyes; Tesla was picking as many as she could and ignoring the feeling in the air that Swabbie had warned about.  Pulling the velocity knife out of its sheathe on his chest; he felt the nylon grip comfort him.  The hum of the blade in his fingers giving a bit more before it all dribbled out of him; what he saw next caused that comfort to dissipate.

Standing not ten meters away was a beast, its head almost level with Swabbie’s own as he noted three eyes lining either side of its head.  A pair of dirty-yellow fangs hanging down at knife length from its lips, these curled back into a snarl as it exposed a double row of interlocking canines around.  Swabbie swallowed as it prodded forward once more, body lowering down into a threatening stance as a flanging growl escaping out as the rest of its body could be seen.  It was massive, at least nine feet long with six legs each tipped off in a paw that looked like it could tear a man’s head clean off.  The guttural growls continued, white fur standing on end across its back as a single brown stripe became visible on the beasts grown. 

“Tesla….”  Swabbie hissed trying to get her attention, now seeing it crouching down, getting ready to pounce on the princess.  Tail standing straight up looking more like a battering ram than anything else; Swabbie had never known fear like this.  Yet, someone was depending on him and he had only three options at this point. 

A.       Charge the beast, giving Tesla time to run.

B.     Run leaving Tesla behind.

C.     Grab Tesla and run.

Page 4 repost and Update 18

Reality collapsed in on the Swabbie in a moment of heart-wrenching, fear inducing cataclysm on his mentality; nothing in life could have prepared him to make such an on the spot decision.  Yet, there was something, nagging him in the back of his mind, no it was forcing itself onto him and demanding that he choose the mountainous world of frost over the others.  Eyes still clamped shut as his flat cap went flying off his head and onto the floor, the ship entering what felt like the thousandth roll; Swabbie couldn’t help but scream over the cries of panic from Lily and Tesla, while Garrus tried to remain calm. 

Clear that the red headed, douche-bag of a pilot was in the most control of his emotions at this point; Swabbie didn’t want to fuck anything else up by ruining his concentration as they proceeded to plummet out of space, through an atmosphere and into whatever surface that they would have to deal with.  At that point, Swabbie just let out a deep breath, keeping his hands gripped fiercely against the arm rests while he tentatively opened one eye to see them still spiraling almost completely out of control while Garrus got them closer in range to the three planets now below them.  “Garrus, get us onto the Mountainous ice planet, the landing will be the softest in the snow; just try to pile drive us down the slope of a mountain or into a snow drift.  It’s the best we can hope for.”  Speaking clearly, the male immediately pushed his head back into the seat, grasping the seat as he heard Garrus’s response.

“Aye, Aye Captain; deploying landing gears and reverting central power to the atmospheric shield; we should come in way hotter than any natural landing, but it will be better than if I just let this sucker fall straight into the ground.”  Garrus’s unnatural calm was soothing to the Swabbie, it felt like the man was going to take care of them to some degree; despite his earlier display of greed.  While he didn’t believe that he had changed in any degree, the Swabbie did admire his sense of self-preservation over everything else.  Made him think of a lab-rat working together with other animals just to save his own ass; it just made him seem all that much more untrustworthy, but he was the only person Swabbie could trust in this situation.

A sickening lurch hit his stomach; they were falling alright, heading straight down and already the heat from the atmosphere of Waquil was worming its way up his body; small beads of sweet beginning to pass over his skin slowly, running down into a slick puddle on his forearms and finger tips.  Everything felt like it was on fire, he didn’t dare to open his eyes to watch; he knew outside of the ship was nothing but a flame of friction bursting up as the entered into the foreign atmosphere.  No time to think, no time to breathe, no time to shout; it was there, they were breaching the surface now and all he could think of to do was clutch the armrests harder.

No sound, there was nothing for a moment, just the thought that they had died, that reentry had completely obliterated every fabric of their beings leaving them nothing but gelatinous puddles in the atmosphere, only to come crashing down as something akin to rain later.  He didn’t dare to breathe, only sat there in silence, the infinite darkness of his world behind his eyelids suddenly vanishing as he opened his eyes.  Life and Death hanging in the balance before him as he saw Garrus attempting to stabilize the ship while still in mid-barrel roll; the outside of the hull still glowing bright red as their descent through the atmosphere was about to end.

Yet, all Swabbie was really paying attention to was a world of dimly lit white below him; almost no light penetrating the surface as they spun.  Time slowed down as he saw a massive forest spreading out just out of the corner of his eye; while some odd plants sprouted up from the ice and snow itself, seeming to thrive off of it like a tundra plant would back on him home.  Gasping, sound returned crashing upon him like a wave, Tesla and Lily had stopped screaming, while Tesla was reciting something in her own language, Lily had proceeded to begin whimpering uncontrollably.  Garrus meanwhile had only turned his head toward the Swabbie for an instant, noticing that his eyes were open before tilting his head back to the situation in front of him.

Alarms buzzing, the shrill cry of the electronic sirens continually screeching into their ears while the sound of the air rushing past them outside only further illustrated the point that they were going down; suddenly, the world became white once more, their nose dive leveling out as they came down onto the side of the mountain that had been the most notable portion for Garrus upon entry.  Metal crunching and scramping against solid stone and ice met their ears, the landing gear being torn completely off the escape vessel as they began to slide furiously over the surface of the mountain; descending down the slope at a rate of speed few could track. 

Friction and heat began to melt the ice away, leaving them with nothing but rocks to hammer away at them while the trail of water poured over them, causing an avalanche as they fell.  A cloud of pure white snow raged down at them, turning into a raging river as it attempted to pummel them; sliding after them as their descent suddenly met a road block, a massive chunk of ice directly in their path.  

No longer  able to steer, Garrus’s finger tips merely clutched the wheel into a death grip, the coloration of his fingers disappearing as both he and the Swabbie’s clothing had already been saturated from the sweat that accumulated on entry.  “Well Captain, it was an honor to serve you…I salute you and pray that our deaths might be swift.”  As Garrus said this, he pulled back releasing the wheel completely, crossing himself once and bowing his head with his eyes closed; Swabbie meanwhile only rose an eyebrow at his display shaking his head before speaking.

“Shouldn’t pray to a God you don’t believe in Garrus, only going to give him more incentive to have whatever warden of your hell is shove a pitchfork up your ass with no lubrication.”  Stating this as he already knew that Garrus had no real religious affiliation and merely dabbled from time to time; he knew that prayer was nothing more than a hollow attempt to please any celestial being out there before he passed away.  The son of bitch was looking out for himself to the bitter end it seemed; as that thought rushed through his mind, the nose of the ship collided with the chunk of ice.  Swabbie merely closed his eyes again at this point, waiting for a shard of it to pierce his heart or brain, but that didn’t come; instead, the piece of ice shattered in front of them, the bottom of the ship being lifted up and sent air borne leaving both Swabbie and Garrus screaming in shock as they started to drop once more.

“Grab the fucking wheel Garrus!   Grab it and try to steer us!”

“What the hell do you think I’m trying to do!?”  The pilot screamed back in response before they began to barrel roll down the side of the mountain once more, the slope bottoming out and running flat, but by this point they were already rolling once again.  Metal screeched, the girls both screamed and the men followed suit as crunch after crunch responded out; ice shattering around them as craters were formed before finally it all stopped.  Everything was silent, the ship now battered and far worse for the wear laid resting in the center of a field of vibrantly glowing flowers; where surprisingly little snow had stuck to the ground.   Tendrils of smoke rose from the wreckage of their ship before the shot, left-side engine fell completely off of the ship; leaving only a smoking, flaming piece of metal laying on the ground. 

“Oh…God, my head…”  Swabbie groaned, fairly certain he had suffered a concussion, but was glad that he could at least move most of his body without much trouble.  Glancing over ever thing, he was suddenly extremely thankful for all the safety equipment that they packed into these escape vehicles.  Still, it didn’t occur to him that he was alive until he saw Garrus’s smug face patting himself down, then congratulate himself.

“I am the greatest pilot ever!”  Garrus laughed loudly, arrogance seeping through his voice as the Swabbie stared at him with utter contempt before unbuckling himself, turning slowly and slugging the pilot as hard as he could directly onto his nose.  Pulling back and shaking off his hand, as it now ached from the blow, he could noticed that there was blood staining them; looking back down, he was thankful to see it was from Garrus’s nose.  “WHAT THE FUCK SWABBIE!?”

“That’s for being a bastard.  Now stop your bitching and give me a damage report on the ship.”  Stating this with a cold stare, the pilot merely rose his shoulders slowly and began to punch through some numbers into the onboard computer, which was always the most protected part of the ship, seeing as it controlled just about everything that kept everyone alive during flight.  Garrus only stared at him with venom in his eyes before sneering lightly. 

“Going to take some time for the system to register everything that just happened, we damn near overloaded it ‘CAPTAIN’. “  Swabbie only stared back for a moment, before popping his knuckles lightly, causing the pilot to flinch before looking it back over, quivering.  “I’ll….let you know when its down configuring everything.  Sorry.”

“You’re about useless to me right now Garrus…you’ll get respect when you have a ship you can fly; till then, you’re just another grunt like I used to be…only you never taught yourself how to fight or bothered to exercise.”  Shooting Garrus a ‘I have you right where I want you grin,’ the Swabbie left the cock pit and looked in on the two women he had agreed to take in exchange for all of the money they currently had;  Tesla was already out of her seat, having unstrapped herself and righted her clothing, she was hovering over Lily who had a laceration just above her eye brow that had been bleeding profusely moment before.  From the looks of things, Tesla had removed a spare strip of clothing, which was barely none existent before and used it to clean up and put pressure on the stain.  “Are you two alright?”

Swabbie’s voice was careful at this point, he didn’t try to make himself sound more masculine, nor did he bother to put on a show of over-caring, but it was clear that he was at least concerned about them.  Lily’s green eyes caught hold of Swabbie’s own, blinking a few times before she blushed again and nodded slowly then pointed to Tesla.  Her own voice, shy and withdraw from the moment as she fidgeted in her seat slowly.  “The princess took care of me, it was just a cut…nothing serious…the bleeding should stop soon enough.”  As soon as she had finished, Lily pulled her head away slowly, maneuvering  in what Swabbie would have called an embarrassed fashion towards the emergency cabinet opening it slowly and pulling out a med-kit.

The white box with a red cross on it sat lightly in Lily’s hands as she opened it slowly and retrieving a few bandages and began to bind the wound to her skull slowly, her hands gingerly going about it.  Before she could go any further though, the Swabbie was already kneeling beside her; grasping the bandages and doing them up for her.  “Does it hurt when I apply pressure Lily?”

“Umm…a little.”  She whispered softly, biting her lip as she noticed Tesla watching with interested eyes, measuring the pair up slowly before sauntering back to her seat to sit down.

“Swabbie!  I’ve got a damage report for you.  Most of the life support systems are still up, namely the gravity controls are up, the heat is slightly working which will make this place bearable if slightly uncomfortable and we’ve got enough power to last us for a week and a half.  That’s the good news, bad news is…just about everything else is demolished; the engines are blown, we’re about out of fuel which has been spread across the ice and probably most of the atmosphere at this point.  Our ability to take off is gone and we’re left with nothing more than a sitting pile of junk; if I had some parts I might be able to jerry rig the ship up enough to get us to Roshire, but the best bet here is to wait for a rescue or try to find something on this planet.”  Sigh as he ended the statement, Garrus stood in the doorway of the cockpit, feet pressing up against one side while his back leaned against the other.  “Still…these things aren’t really stocked with food, we forgot to grab that on our way out; so we’ll need that.  I know there are some heavy coats stocked into the emergency cabinet along with a fire extinguisher and a velocity knife.”

Swabbie only looked up for a moment at Garrus, staring at him as the four of them looked at each other before all eyes fell upon him.  “You’re the Captain now kid, do what you want, I’m not getting off the ship; the planet’s gravity is twice that of Earth’s and you’re the only one here that’s equipped to go out there; those boots of yours were designed to keep in a constant homeostasis at least where gravity is involved.  So its pretty clear to me, you and Tesla are gonna be the only two that can go out there.”

Glancing back up, Swabbie could only raise an eyebrow in confusion at Garrus before looking back at Tesla.  “Her?  How can she go out there with the gravity being that high and it being that cold?”  Tesla only giggled before answering before Garrus couldn’t. 

“My species lives on a very……hostile planet at times; our bodies have evolved to shift our core temperature’s needs and disperse or focus the push of gravity onto our bodies so that we can survive nearly twenty times the current effect.  Don’t worry about me dear, I can handle myself.”  The red head giggled lightly again before looking back at Lily who had merely pulled her knees up to her chest and was hugging them before looking down at her feet.

“When you go out, I know a lot about preparing food and can cook just about anything you bring me and make it edible.  So please, do what you need to do, I believe you can keep us alive Swabbie.”  Glancing back at them for a moment, the Swabbie merely chuckled for a moment, shaking his head slowly as he picked up his flat cap from the cock pit and pulled it over his head quietly. 

“I’ll do my best, but I’m not the Swabbie anymore.  My name was always something no one ever wanted to use, something that just abandoned. To my parents, I was just son….to my teachers, I was just student 32A, to my co-workers, I was the Swabbie and to everyone else I was a nobody, a waste of space.  So I’ll discard my name and keep living on like that, but I’m not the Swabbie or the Janitor…I’m the Captain now.”  Chuckling before turning around at his little bit, he merely threw up his shoulders, grabbing the heavy coat and heat long johns out of the emergency closet before tossing the other pair to Tesla.

“Put um on, I’d feel better if you didn’t have so much flesh exposed out in the cold.”

“Yes sir, Captain.”  Tesla replied with a slightly sultry voice, a smirk coming across her features as she tore off the ribbon of red fabric that had been barely hiding her naked form from the rest of them.  Standing there completely in the buff, she looked over the Captain with a small smile, almost asking if he liked what he saw and he had to admit he did.  Her red hair falling down straight in some place with a few curls here and there wrapped around her shoulders, while her slightly pointed ears graced her elegant face with the solid black orbs of her eyes staring towards him. 

All of that being accented by her, I don’t give a shit grin, as Lily, Garrus and the Captain stared at her naked body; she was tone and fit, with not a single imperfection of her form distracting away from her beauty; her breasts, which the Captain could now tell to be slightly larger than C-cups were not only well formed, almost perfectly round, but were slightly perky, pointing upward as the nipples on the breasts poked outwards  weakly, a point she didn’t fail to expose.  Strong, yet thin arms danced around in a sort of angelic grace as she pulled the long-johns that Captain gave to her own seductively, wiggling her hips as her plump ass stretched the fabric out slightly, making it so he could see the pink of her pussy lips through the fabric as she bent over to tug the last of it up. 

Both his and Garrus’s jaws dropped at that point, the two men looking at each other just to verify it was really happening before she finished tugging up the long-johns with a bounce of her tits and ass; leaving her looking like a smug kitten.  Soon a pair of heavily padded black snow pants were yanked up over them as well, but not before she gave the group a show that would have made a stripper blush.  Her ass bobbing downwards, nearly touching the ground as she wiggled it in anticipation before pulling them upward, in a sort of reverse strip tease.  Captain would swear that he had never thought that someone putting clothes on could be so sexy. 

Rolling on a pair of socks and placing on some boots, she strutted forward towards the Captain, pressing a finger against his chest, now hidden squarely behind his heavy brown coat before running it down the puffy fabric.  “You sure you don’t want me to just go out there like this?”  She cooed to him, whispering into her ear as she brought one of his hands up to her side, aiming it for her breast before the man formerly known as Swabbie pulled back slowly.

“As much as I would love to watch you bounce around without your top on…I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to put on the shirt and the coat.”  Turning his head away to resist any temptation to do otherwise, Tesla shot him a pout before doing as he commanded without any tease this time.

“All done Captain, so what are we doing?”

Page 3 Repost and Update 17

“You’re a fucking asshole you know that Garrus?  I used to think you were a decent guy, but you’re seriously going to try to fuck me over in a life or death situation?  I wouldn’t be remiss for saying you’re a bigger bag of shit than Faulkner, but you know what, I’m not going to put you on the level of a murderer just yet.  No, rather you’re just a pathetic con artist trying to rob one man and two women of not only money, but a decent chance to live.  So fuck you Garrus, keep your dirty money and shove it where the sun don’t shine because that is the only love you’ll be getting from now on, I’ll make damn sure of that!”    Swabbie hissed these words with all the hatred and anger he could possibly muster as Garrus just stared at him, not blinking and seemingly undaunted or phased by the words that the Swabbie had just uttered to him in his fury.   Pealing his lips back slowly, the red headed pilot merely shrugged his shoulders before yanking the bag of credits away from the swabbie and putting them down beside the wall closest to him. 

“If that’s how you feel about it, I don’t really give a shit.  I don’t need loving and I don’t need anyone else; since you gave me all the money then you’ll be happy to know you’ve just got yourself a pilot.  I’ll take care of my own fucking needs and I’ll be sure that you can take care of your own as well; otherwise, you just tell me where to fly and then stay the fuck out of my way.  Cause you know what, we’re both run-aways now, fleeing form some intergalactic beast man who seemed to have a hard-on for tearing out human throats.  So guess what princess, we’re in this together no matter what the fuck you say.”  Spitting out that last part hatefully, Swabbie didn’t respond as he figured that Garrus was at least partially right about their situation.

                Slightly defeated and now at least somewhat apathetic about his situation; the male looked backwards towards Tesla and Lily, the two girls both staring at him at the moment.  Lily’s eyes were wide and it was clear that there was a blush on her face, she seemed more…shocked than anything else.  “I wonder what she is blushing about, I can’t imagine that she’d think I’d value money over a human life, or rather would stink down to Garrus’s level at this point.”  Thinking this to himself, he found himself examining Tesla who shot him a wink the moment their faces met; immediately afterwards, the Swabbie’s face turned a bright shade of red, almost matching and Garrus’s hair color before he swiveled back around in his seat to look out into the vast void in front of him.  “We’ve got nowhere to really run to, sure we can planet hop, but that money is only going to last so long between the four of us…provided Garrus is willing to share, which he most likely is not going to want to.”  Swabbie thought to himself once more, his head crashing backwards into the comfortable padding of his seat before contemplating the matter further in his head.

“Lily and Tesla will obviously have some skills that we can make use of wherever we land….hopefully, but regardless of what happens next, we just need to find a place to land and hopefully avoid detection from that beast Faulkner.  Right now, none of us will be a match for him and the fact that he has a small army behind him only makes matters that much worse.”  Swabbie’s mind continually ran over the options that were being given to him and they were repeatedly limited; meanwhile, Garrus just seemed to be focused on getting the pod as far away from the Thespian as possible.  Granted, that would have been Swabbie’s plan as well, he still couldn’t help but to feel pissed at the arrogant slime ball for his actions earlier.  “Still, the guy is at least agreeing to act as our pilot without pay thanks to the money he just got his grubby hands on; granted, he doesn’t have anywhere else to go.”  Chuckling to himself, the Swabbie’s thought about what had just happened a bit more and how his life had changed so drastically in the last fifteen minutes.

“About twenty minutes ago, I was just another janitor aboard a trading ship; living paycheck to paycheck doing nothing but fantasizing about going back home or finding a better job somewhere.  Now, I’m a man with a target painted on his back, I’ve got two women who are willing to do whatever is necessary to make sure we survive and are successful.  I’ve also got this smart-mouthed, know-it-all, greedy prick of a pilot by my side who can at least serve a purpose from getting us from place to place.  So, does this make me the captain of my own crew now?”  Blinking that revelation, the Swabbie found himself looking down at his hands, these people…their lives were in his hands now, he had to make sure they survived, he had to make sure that they were feed and he had to make sure that they continued to be effective in the group.  Almost immediately, he sadly recalled something the captain had told him about a year ago about properly managing a ship.

“Swabbie, when you get to this position, you realize that being in charge ain’t rainbows and butterflies or all sex and power constantly.  It’s hard work, because you have to keep those under you happy or else they’ll turn on you in a heartbeat and then you’ll find herself dead, floating in the void of space with nothing on your body and your ship being sold for scrap.  If you do ever find yourself being a captain of a ship just remember one thing; make sure that everyone or nearly everyone supports your decisions.  You never know when someone could reach their breaking point and decide to stab you in the back.”  The irony of those words wasn’t lost on the Swabbie as he remembered the gravelly voice of the now deceased man in his head; picturing his grizzled features and that shitty goatee he always wore.  All this time, he preached about keeping people happy, but he pissed off the biggest, meanest and most deadly member of their former crew constantly.   How could he have not seen this coming?

Looking forward once again with a sigh, he found his body bathed in a red light; shock and immediate understanding hit him before the explosion in the rear of the ship did.  The escape pod rocked viscously going into a spiral as it began to rotate rapidly; Garru’s eyes were cut into rage, at least that’s what Swabbie saw before he had to close his eyes to keep himself from vomiting all over himself.  Dizziness was already prevalent as they continued to barrel roll out of control; darkness had overtaken him and all he could hear were Lily and Tesla screaming in horror in the background before he heard Garrus shout at him over them.  “HEY IDIOT, I’VE GOT SOME MINOR CONTROL OF THIS THING, BUT WE’RE GOING DOWN NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.  SO I SUGGEST YOU PUT YOUR HEAD TO GOOD USE AND TELL ME WHERE TO LAND.  THE LEFT ENGINE HAS BEEN BLOWN CLEAN OFF AND WE’VE ONLY GOT ENOUGH FUEL TO MAKE IT TO ONE OF THE THREE NEARBY PLANETS.  I KNOW THIS IS A BIT MUCH ON A STRESSFUL MOMENTS NOTICE, BUT YOU’VE GOT TO CHOOSE BETWEEN A JUNGLE, A CITY OR A PLANET COVERED IN SNOW OR ICE.  I WON’T BOTHER YOU WITH NAMES RIGHT NOW, JUST PICK A FUCKING LANDSCAPE AND I’LL TRY TO LAND US AS SAFELY AS POSSIBLE!” 

As he yelled, the Swabbie was already trying to think over the downsides and benefits to landing on anyone of them; yet, the constant tumbling was continually rattling his brain and body, making it harder and harder to think.  Suddenly, his mind went completely blank as the tumbling continued and a mysterious force began to exert its influence once more.

Vote: Which Planet does the Swabbie choose to land on?

A.      The Bustling Metropolis Planet of Roshire

B.       The Tropical Rain Forest Planet of Palif

C.      The Mountainous  World of Frost, Waquil

Update Sixteen and Break Week

Alright guys, Update Sixteen is up and I am just letting you know ahead of time that there will be no update next week.  Exams will be over and I will be back home, enjoying my SINGLE day off from school before I go into the work force; so I may not be on as often and will likely only see you guys on my day off.  Just to let you know, during the summer updates are probably going to be extremely sporadic, as my family isn't very accepting of this sort of thing.  I've also been neglecting another project of mine and will be working on that as well, so anyway, I hope you guys like the update.

Page 2

Taking in a deep breath, the Swabbie decided that discretion would be the better part of valor at this point and the old saying, live and let live was the best ideal to live by.  It was the worst kept secret on the ship that most people didn’t like him, no matter how hard he might have tried to be friendly with others; not only was he one of the very few humans on the ship with the exception of the Captain and the Pilot, he was also the youngest member onboard by about six years, with the pilot being the next.  Combining those two facts together made the xenophobic aliens aboard the ship just cringe, thinking he was just another smart mouthed human with dreams of making it big and that he was too good for their little trading business.  For the most part, they were right.

“I could be back home right now, enjoying a steak dinner with the family, while going through school and getting a degree in biology like mom always wanted me to get; but no, I had to listen to my father’s bullshit and become an intergalactic tramp, with little food in his stomach and no money in his pockets.  So this is all my damn fault for not thinking that my mother knew what she was talking about and listening to my dad.  I mean for fuck’s sake, the man had to defer to mom on just about everything that happened on the farm, the guy couldn’t even figure out how to feed the chickens properly without mom’s help and I expected him to know about the mysteries of the universe!?”  The Swabbie slapped his face, pressing the warm, rough flesh of his palms directly into the center of his face and grumbled a bit more about his decision.  Feeling the callouses that had built up around the start of the fingers and all across them from years of hard manual labor; the male just plopped the mop back down into the bucket and began his chore.

It was no easy task cleaning up after a Gulgadon, Swabbie knew this after so many run ins with the creature that everyone on the ship called, Rorsh, the only Gulgadon that he had ever met and one that couldn’t seem to understand the fact that he left snail trails wherever he went without his traveling pad.  Yet, the Swabbie could never get into a fight with the creature, simply because fighting a blob of jelly was exactly what it sounded like, the creature would get a free massage and the attacker would get nothing but gunk all over their skin and bodies in addition to being too tired to do anything for the next hour or so.  Grasping the mop and thinking about the numerous ways he could kill that slimy son of bitch, Swabbie just pulled out the dripping tendrils of white from his bucket and pressed it down into the purple ooze that now coated the floor.  Almost in second, the gunk was cementing his mop to the floor making it nearly impossible to push it across the region without putting all of his strength into it.  Not only that but as soon as got small segment picked up from the ground, the ooze just spread itself thinner and reconnected into a single solid unit.

“Fan-fucking-tastic, someone has been feeding Rorsh grux beans again.”  The Swabbie muttered as he moved back to his cleaning supplied dropping the mop into the dirty water again and watched as the soapy water dissolved the disconnected bits of slime off of the tip.  Shaking his head, he tried to figure out just who the hell would be stupid enough to give the blob of glop grux beans.  The tiny almost pea-sized beans were bluish-pink in color and had the oddity of tasting like a sugar coated piece of asparagus crossed with a hint of lime, yet they also had the curious effect of causing bodily fluids to increase in viscosity.  For this obvious reason they have been marked as unhealthy for most species consumption, namely for the effect on the blood, those that do survive indigestion have to deal with pissing a slushy afterwards.  Considering that the Gulgadon race didn’t have any blood, but rather their entire bodies were made up of a semi-liquid, they could safely ingest the beans; however, their entire bodies would turn into a borderline molasses construct and any gunk they left behind would have that same viscosity.

Realizing that he would never finish this job on time with just pure brute strength, the Swabbie rubbed his face once more; smelling the putrid scent of Gulgadon waste on his hands, as it seems the gunk wasn’t the only thing Rorsh had left behind.  “I’m going to kill that fucking ball of purple shit when I get my hands on him!”  Swabbie muttered to himself as stepped around the goop, knowing that even with his anti/super friction boots on, the goop would act like cement and he would be stuck there until someone came along to help him out, unless he somehow reached his water bucket and poured it onto his feet,  which was a stretch in itself if it would work or not.  Breathing out a small sigh, he found his mindset slowly shifting more and more towards a kind of depression; so many months out in space and all he had to show for it was cleaning up after some of the most disgusting creatures in the universe.   Nothing was forbidden here, at least in terms of degrading the poor Swabbie by making him clean up mess after mess caused by the crew members; he was sick of it and it was about time to do something, but that would be a discussion to have with the captain later, not right now.  There was work to be done.

Nothing was like it was back at home, he was just another Swabbie, some kid to be pushed around and treated like absolute shit, because his job was to clean shit.  Mud was his name now and no one, not the pilot nor the Captain, probably his only two friends, bothered to call him by his real name; hell, it had been so long that he could hardly recall the last time he had heard it. Probably when he was putting in to the unemployment office about a year ago; stepping over the purple gunk, he could only think how it felt to be standing in that long line, aliens and species he had never seen before, most of them looking desperately ahead towards the other alien just standing behind a little booth.  The creature with six different heads, all spinning around, five resting while one did the work, then switching off in sleep cycles; the beings twenty arms filing and shifting through work as quickly as possible, Swabbie wasn’t even able to keep up with the pace of its movements as it finally looked at him and stamped him down onto the trading vessel’s crew, it was the only job he was suited for that had an opening.  At that point, he was pushed out of the room and sat down on a bus with all the other unemployed and they were carted off to their respective jobs.

Snapping back to reality, he found himself looking at the janitorial closet; it would seem that he had just automatically walked to this place in his daze.  Sighing softly, the Swabbie punched in the code to open the metallic doors watching them slide open and create a portal into the cramped room full of cleaning supplies.  Around the corners he could see bottles of cleaning enhancers, special soaps, toilet paper and paper towels; he could even see a few traps for any little critter that managed to get aboard the ship while they were docked, space cockroaches were the last thing that anyone wanted to have on their ship.  Shaking his head, he just chuckled a little bit before reaching up to the top shelf, pulling down a large green soap bottle before pacing around the room and pulling down a surgical mask and placing it over his face.  As soon as he was finished, he walked back over to the start of the mess where his mop was situated, then found himself turning his face away from the green liquid as he squeezed the bottle sending some of the liquid flying through the air over the mess.

Globules of the green semi-liquid shot out through the air about five feet, falling straight down and splashed into Gulgadon goop and the chain reaction began.  Purple and green mixed violently, growing upward as the green penetrated the purple and shot forward, light being created as a massive bubble of the gunk rose up, then plopped back down onto the ground, the purple mess acting like a sentient being as it withered away, creating small tendrils that were rising upwards, moving like fingers trying to grasp what remained of their life before fading into nothing.  Swabbie didn’t think anything of this as he moved down the line, spraying the substance known as ‘Atomic Waste Remover’, he never really understood the name, seeing as the stuff wasn’t radioactive, but he did know that it worked for removing ANYTHING off of the ground.  Checking down at the gunk on the floor after finishing spraying down the entire hallway, he noted that he was done about half of the bottle of the liquid and that there was now a distinct clearing on the ground which meant that the stuff would be easy enough to get up now. 

Humming to himself now, he went about cleaning the floor, running the mop across it in long strokes and keeping up with his actions and the time as he maneuvered through the purple slop.  It didn’t take long for him to end up halfway through the mess and insanely bored; however, he knew he had to finish, then rinse the floors down before waxing them once again.  Small beads of sweat were building up as some bits of gunk were requiring more elbow grease than others and he had already been at work for longer than he could recall, he was getting exhausted.  Finally, a final sweep pushed the last of the Gulgadon waste up from the floor, leaving the place now wet and in serious need of some fresh air.  “I swear if anyone ruins these floors again after I clean them, I’m going to throttle them.”  Shaking his head, he leaned down to look at his mop, noting there was still a large bit of the Gulgadon gunk stick down from it; shrugging his shoulders, he figured he might take a sample down to one of the analysis rooms and have them try to synthesize something that would make the floors resistant to it.  Using the flat of his hand, he merely scrapped it down into a mason jar he retrieved from the closet before pocketing it and going back to work.

“I hate this part.”  Swabbie mumbled as he found himself starring down at the now clear floors, finding himself using a new mop to whip it down and pick up any stray bits of dirt that had managed to collect there.  It was a tedious and time consuming job that had him checking every nook and cranny of the place until he was turning red faced and his knees were beginning to creek from having to go up and down between the floor and back up to get the mop.  Grumbling to himself, he found this, aside from cleaning the toilets, to be the worst job on the ship; hell he would have rather cooked for all the scaly, smily, fur-covered and just plain weird creatures on this ship rather than do this, he probably would have gotten more respect for it as well. 

“Well, Captain better appreciate this shit, I’ve had to clean this damn hall twice today and I sure as hell not doing it again.”  That was all Swabbie had to say when he grasped the jar of floor wax, running the creamy white substance onto a rag and slowly beginning to rub it across the ground; the Captain had said he wanted the floors to be clean enough to eat off of and to be clear enough that one could see their reflection in them.  That was exactly what the Swabbie was aiming for at this point; he was going to do the man proud and whatever happened next and whoever those visitors were, they were going to see what a damn good job he had down.  It took another two hours, but when he finally finished, he found himself proud of the job he had done; the floor was now glistening in front of him and sweat was beading up on his brow, but the place was spotless and nothing was going to ruin it for him now.  Turning around, he decided to inform the Captain that his job for the day was done, before returning to his private quarters to clean up and then head to the mess hall.

“I hope they’re serving that special soup again, I don’t know what’s in it, but I know that it’s damn good.”  Stating this and being in good spirits for the first time that day, the Swabbie moved down the hall towards the front of the ship, getting about twelve feet away before the door opened in front of him; expecting it to just be someone knocking off for the night, he was more than surprised when he saw Faulkner standing in front of him; the massive, Ozwrick in front of him grinning in a curious fashion with all of his bottom teeth glinting over the top.  All of them pointed outward with fang like tips forming, looking over the beast, he noticed that there was a red stain on the front of his shirt, running down his arm.  “You really should learn to eat with some real table manners Faulkner, seems you spilled some tomato sauce or the chili all down the front of your chest.”  At this point, the Swabbie just stood still, figuring that the weapon’s expert would just push him out of the way and to the ground again before stomping off to his room once again.

“It isssssssssn’t….foooood, booooooy.”  One of the snakes said coming up from behind Faulkner’s head and hissing slowly, it and the others swaying back and forth as their tongues lapped at the air.  Each of them taking in the scent of the Swabbie and tasting him; something he was more than used to them doing, but it felt awkward today, as if there was some sort of visible threat from it.  Looking down at Faulkner’s hand, he noted that he was holding something, a mass of black connected to something skin colored.  A queasy feeling began to fill his stomach as he looked at it, something was definitely off and his head began to swim; he had a sudden urge to run, not knowing what the hell was going on.  Turning around slowly, the Swabbie began to move down the hall as fast his legs could muster, just having to get away from Faulkner, for a reason that he didn’t know.  It suddenly hit him, the smell, it had been the scent of blood, rustic and sharp smelling, Faulkner had just killed something, but what if it had just been some pest or something?  Why did he feel the urge to run?

The Swabbie’s legs continued to carry him for a moment, before he turned around, seeing Faulkner bending backwards, his hand holding onto the object like it was bowling ball before he sent it flying across the freshly polished floor; a massive swatch of red began to appear across the floor staining it before the object struck the Swabbie firmly in his legs, sending him toppling over and crashing to the ground, the object now pressed against his chest.  Pain was searing through his legs and his arms which had taken the brunt of the impact, they would be bruised but luckily the fall hadn’t been enough to cause him any real damage.  Still, his head was swimming as he tried to focus and found himself gripping the object and bringing it up to look at it.  “OH HOLY SHIT!”  He screamed as he tossed it away when he saw a pair of icy blue eyes staring back at him in the troughs of death; staring at it as it laid there on the floor, the Swabbie could only blink for a few seconds.  It was the head of the Captain, cut clean from the rest of his body; which Faulkner had just used like a bowling ball to trip him up and leave blood stains across the floor.  Laying on the ground, the male was utterly stunned by what he was looking at.

Blood kept dripping from the base of the neck, where long shreds of skin were torn haphazardly and teeth marks were apparent across it.  Staring down at the Captain’s head, he couldn’t believe it, one of his only friends aboard the ship was dead and there was nothing he could do about it.  Laying down, his fingers dipped down into the puddle of blood that had been left on the ground where he was situated and now staining not only his clothes, but also his skin.  Half of his face was no stained red as he looked up at Faulkner approaching him, the male brandish a long Ionite Cutlass, a weapon that looked like a sword, but when cut delivered a borderline fatal amount of voltages to the victim.  Knowing that Faulkner would torture him and seeing that his life would soon be at an end, the Swabbie crawled forward a little bit, until the imposing shadow of the Ozwrick’s blade and body found itself over him.  That’s when he leaned over, blade hovering into the killing position before Faulkner spoke:  “Any last words you useless piece of shit?”

“Yeah….Faulkner…I JUST CLEANED THESE FUCKING FLOORS TWICE!”  Spinning around while Faulkner had started to laugh, he threw the mason jar full of Gulgadon gunk directly into Faulkner’s face, the glass passing straight through the loops of his arms and shattering onto his face.  In an instant, the goop had spread over the majority of his face, covering not only his eyes, but his nose as well; his immediate reaction was to drop the Ionite Cutlass dropping it to the ground, where the Swabbie had to roll out of the way to avoid it.  Grasping the handle of the blade while Faulkner was still clawing at his eyes, frantically trying to get the purple ooze off his face, the Swabbie was pushing the cutlass directly into Faulkner’s chest, the snake’s hissing furiously as they tried to direct him.

“You idiot, he is over there, swing to the left!”

“No, no, you need to swing to the right!”

“Neither of you know what you are talking about just rush forward you moron.”

Yet, they were all silenced moments later by Faulkner’s own scream of agony as bursts of electricity began to pour through him, his muscles convulsing once before his arm came up and swung wildly, smashing into the side of the Swabbie’s face and sending him flying against the door to the rear of the ship.  Just then, Faulkner tugged once more at the gunk, unable to get it off of him as the doors to the front opened once more, the pilot rushing out leading a large group of armed sailors with them; most of them chanting Faulkner’s name in concern before the pilot slid across the floor and between his legs, standing next to the Swabbie who was hurriedly trying to force the door open.  “I take it you already know what happened?”  He asked his friend, the pilot, who was now scrambling through the crack of the rear door alongside of the Swabbie.

“Yeah, Faulkner lead a mutiny and the Captain’s dead.  Apparently we are on their hit list for being human and nothing else, so now we just need to get the fuck off this ship.”

“Agreed, we should head for the escape pods.”  The swabbie stated simply as the pair stood looking at each other for a second as the Pilot began inputting codes to put the ship into lockdown, as if something had invaded the rear of the ship; forcing the doors in front of them to form electromagnetic bounds between each other, buying them some time while they made their escape.  “So, we’ve just got to head to the escape pods right?  But what the fuck do we do from there genius, neither of us has much money and we sure as hell can’t go diving into the depth of space with nothing but the clothes on our backs and our lives!” 

The Pilot, a man by the name of Garrus Arkhum, stood looking down at the Swabbie, his short red hair hanging in a messy mop around his head as the brown of his eyes examined him closely; he was thinner and a little bit taller than the Swabbie, but outranked him severely, yet now wasn’t the time to pull rank.  Rubbing his chin once, he recalled something the captain and said and spoke to the Swabbie as he grabbed his arm and rushed to the back of the ship.  “Look, I heard the Captain say we are carrying a massive load of valuable cargo and amongst those is a storage of credits from some old guy that just passed away recently, while it might be illegal, we sure is hell could use the money right now; hell, if you are the type to always repay your debts, we can always find the family later and pay them back for ‘stealing’ the money.  I’m sure they’d understand the position we’re in.”

“I suppose you’re right.”  He replied as he found himself in front of the massive cargo hold, the Pilot instantly walking into the maze of boxes both marked and unmarked and shift around for the specific crate that he was looking for; the Swabbie meanwhile moved around a little bit through them, finding himself standing near one next to the escape pod as he thought he was hearing noises coming from the inside of it.  Blinking for a moment, he pressed his ear against the side of the box; hearing sounds of muffled struggling and the labored breathing, it sounds humanoid whatever it was.  Hovering over the box for a moment, he found his eyes growing wider as he heard beating against it and Garrus was still busy looking for the credit deposit.  Curiosity got the better of him as he slowly pulled out a small pocket knife, pressing the blade down into the wood of the box and slicing it open at the hinges.  Gravity locks slowly disengaged at the intrusion and the lid popped off with a quick ‘plop’ sending the top of it shooting up and to the side revealing the inside of it to him; his eyes immediately grew wide in amazement as he stared down at the contents.

Inside of the box was a woman, now slowly rising in her near naked form; her mouth gagged with a single white rag and her arms bound by several heavy chains and a gravity lock holding them down to the box; rising an eyebrow, the Swabbie leaned over, undoing the gravity lock from her arms and untangling the chains before pulling the gag from her mouth and letting it fall down over the long line of her slender neck.  She was beautiful in every sense of the word, creamy white flesh showing good signs of health, despite being a little bit pale, long red hair falling down to the small of her back, while full plump lips puckered slightly.  She was taking in gasps of air, causing the mounds of her rather large breasts to rise and fall relentlessly, each of them swelling outward into what looked like a double-d cup.  Her clothes were tattered and torn, but managed to wrap around her and conceal all of the ‘bits’ in a single swatch of purple clothing, that was laced into a short skirt around her waist and falling to his knees, while it run up over her left shoulder and wrapped several times around her breasts before falling down over her side into a small tail.  Opening her eyes for the first time, the Swabbie noted that they were completely black and were the only things that illustrated the fact she wasn’t human; that’s when he suddenly felt her lean forward, grabbing his face forceful.  Cringing, he got ready to be decked by some woman who now had a vendetta against all men, but to his surprise and pleasure, her lips met his immediately.

The sweet taste of the alien’s lips caught him completely by surprise, the Swabbie only staring forward with his eyes wide open as he blinked a few times, then closed his eyes.  Warmth spreading through his body as he felt her tongue invade his mouth and the supple flesh of her palms pressing into his cheeks; his mind turning to mush in the moment and was left wanting more as she pulled away, letting a trail of saliva connect their two tongues before putting hers back into her mouth.  That’s when she spoke, regally towards her new savor, causing Garrus to lift his head up in confusion as he pulled open one box and found the credit stash.  “Thank you Hero, my name is Tesla Oracon and I owe you my life as a debt for the deed you have committed.  You most certainly have saved me from certain death or slavery and for that I can never thank you enough!”  She clambered on happily as she moved around for a moment, looking toward Garrus who was walking over with the data tablet. 

“Ok…so we just happened to stumble upon Tesla Oracon, the princess of Planet Yor’zvin and the next in line to rule.  Well, we could certainly take her back home and collect the reward if you’d like, but Yor’zinians  are bound by a code of honor stating that they must serve their saviors in anyway they desire, no matter how embarrassing or shameful it might be.”  Tesla blinked slowly, batting long, dark eyelashes in surprise as she looked at the Pilot in confusion. 

“It is rare that we see anyone who knows of our bylaws outside of the planet.”

“I have a lot of time to kill and time to read books.”  Garrus responded quickly before noticing they had a fourth member of their little party approaching, the chef’s assistant, a young girl of about nineteen, whom had been orphaned some time ago; she was adopted by the Captain when she was only twelve and had been living on the ship since then.  She was looking over the small group in a borderline panic, and it was obvious to all of them, aside from Tesla, that she knew what had just occurred moments ago.  Her face was raw from crying and her short blonde hair, which just barely reached her shoulders was now in a messy pixie cut from where it looked like someone had tried to snap her neck by pulling on her hair.  The Swabbie stood there calmly for a moment, slowly moving forward and wrapping his arms around the girl, they had been friends and occasionally talked to each other, but otherwise, he barely knew her.  She was just the Captain’s daughter to him and he had no problem really admitting that.  Blinking for a few moments, Garrus rolled his finger slightly and pointed to the escape pod before speaking.

“Look, Lily, we don’t have time to be crying right now, we need to get off this ship now and figure out what to do from there.” 

The girl only sniffled a few times before looking up at The Swabbie and Garrus, nodding slowly.  “I’ll do anything you guys tell me to do, just take me far away from here and help me to forget what just happened.”  The Swabbie and Garrus both nodded before rushing into the escape pod with the two girls in tow, taking the time to fasten them down securely into the shock-absorbing seats, even placing the chest guard and stabilizers over them before Garrus punched the button that sent them hurtling into space with only minimal control of where they were going.  Once that had happened, Garrus slowly passed the credit log over to the Swabbie, tapping the button and showing him just how much was there.

“Holy shit….this is almost twenty million credits Garrus!”

“Yeah I know and now you’ve got a choice to make kid.  My services from here on out don’t come cheap and if you want me to help you, you damn well better make sure I get paid.”  His voice was flat as he stared at him for a moment, the pair’s eyes connecting as the Swabbie’s teeth set onto edge; even in a crisis, Garrus was going to try to screw him.

“What did you have in mind?”

“Well, the way I see it kid, you don’t know how to fly a ship and finding another pilot out in the middle of space is gonna be awfully hard.”  At that point, Garrus chuckled and began to break down the choices that the Swabbie could make, while he leaned forward smug in his own security as he handled the steering of the escape craft away from the Thespian. 

A.       Give Garrus all of the money and keep both of the girls.