Rhaef stood on the edge of the hall, smiling. The kid pilot had done the landing ten times better, in a tighter space, than he could have. It'd been about half a year, he reckoned since Kale had promoted him, and this was the first R&R the Captain had let the crew have since. Rhaef had some credits in his pocket, but no particular burning need to spend them. He simply stood at the edge of the dining hall, wondering what to do.

He heard the padding of shoeless feet, and looked up and saw the mechanic coming in. He smiled, "Hey there, Charlie, any plans with a suddenly abundant amount of free time, and excess credits?"

"Oh, yeah, 'f course."  Charlie spoke as she walked down from the cockpit, smiling at Rhaef.  She was using a rag to wipe the remainder of the engine grease from her face and hands, still leaving splotches of oil along her arms and neck.  She didn't seem to mind too much by it, her disposition sunny as usual.  "Nothin' you'd be findin' your sorta int'rest in, ah'm assurin'.  This is'n yer core world'r nuthin', so y'just go out'n find what'cha can.  Y'know, fresh food'n maybe a new pair'f boots, little bits'n all'f stuff tha'cha need."  She laughed a bit, stuffing the rag in the pocket of her pants and heading past him to the Cargo Bay.  "Jus' don'be gettin' too lost, y'hear?"

She walked down and out of the ship, and into the open-air environment of Bernadette's open trade.  The grass was matted down from ships as well as the feet of hundreds of people, but the grass was like a gift to her bare feet, soft and slightly cool from the breeze that had been going all day.  She let out a sigh, taking a moment to close her eyes and let the setting sun warm her skin.  It was odd that her favourite part of the ship was getting off of it.  It was funny, she'd never thought twice about it when she was growing up on the farm on Whitefall.  Blue skies and cool breezes were an everyday thing, but they had become a delicate thing.  With a slow exhale, she stepped away from Destiny, proceeding on her mission to find the compression coil that Destiny needed...and perhaps something sweet to drink, if she just happened to pass something by...

As Charlie walked by, a man with a dark crop of hair and a beard broke into stride right behind her, wearing a lond dark coat with his hands stuffed in his pockets.  He walked with a limp and favoured his right leg.  It wasn't immediately noticeable, but it was definitely there.  He trailed her for a few moments until they were a good distance from the ship, finally catching to where he was almost next to her.

"Find anything good?"  He spoke in a low voice, just cutting above the din of people.  "I hear that the roses are particularly nice, belle."
This message was last edited by the player at 00:30, Fri 17 Nov 2006.

Charlie had been walking through an assortment of men selling horses when she heard the voice.  It was most likely just a salesman, speaking about his stock with nothing to worry about...although the word "roses" did seem to have a particular push.  I haven't heard something like that since-...  The thought stopped dead when she heard what he had called her, and she nearly stopped, turning her head to catch sight of him from the corner of her eye.

"My god, Ilan, is that...?"

"No no no."  Ilan grabbed Charlie's arm, pulling her along with his slightly-hobbled step, still moving forward.  "Don't stop, don't want to give anybody any ideas.  I saw more than one person come off that ship armed.  I don't want to give any of them any ideas, any chances to wander over and wonder what poor little Charlene is doing."  His other hand pulled back his coat, showing the revolver that was at his side.

"Let's keep going, I'm sure there's some lovely shiny things to look at all along the wayside.  You never could resist those, could you?"  There was a dark chuckle in his voice, something slightly menacing in the background.  His grip was like a vice, even in the slickness of Charlie's slightly-greased arms.  No one was going anywhere unless it was where he wanted.

Charlie bit her lower lip, allowing him to lead the two of them further into the crowd of people.  Her stomach had dropped as far as it could, and she could already feel a slight mist break along the corner of her eyes.  She wanted to look back and see if anyone from her crew was there, but they were all off doing their own trade.  Besides, she wasn't exactly sure on what her plan would be, if she had a chance to get away.  Her head slightly sunk and she kept moving forward, allowing him to push them further into the crowd.

"Ah did'n know tha'cha were lookin' fer me'r anyone else offa Whitefall were.  Ah mean...y'know, ah'd jus'...ah'm humped here, aren'I?."  She managed to speak, her voice coming out low.

"Well, jeez, let's see...why wouldn't anyone want to see you, belle?"  He pushed her around a large tent, starting to lead her out of the general fray of people, and slowly to the other shipyard on the other side of trade.  "Now, I want you to imagine what things are like for my side, like I enjoy being here?  I imagined leading you around like this on my arm, and not dragging you along.  Don't worry, I'm not gonna go and do a stupid thing, like start beratin' ya like I'm sure your pa did his share of times.  He was a good man...you shoulda been more like him, and less like your brothers."  There was a tightness in his grip as he spoke, his fingernails beginning to dig into the flesh of her arm.

"I mean, day one I wake up and you're not there anymore...you're off.  I figured you went to 'work,' or whatever you called it."  He rolled his eyes, waving with the other hand to illustrate the point.  "I bet not even those sneaky crime bastards on Osiris knew the 'Verse's best chop shop is on the southern side of Whitefall.  That's something you don't learn unless you make the rounds a few times.  Funny thing, you get in those circles, and the Bourdain family name comes up a lot."

"What?"  Charlie spoke through her cringe, her mind taken from the fact that his vice-like grip had cut her flesh, and she could feel the blood beginning to well along his fingers.  "Ah'd...tha' was all'f mah brothers, kay?  Why'd ya think I left?"  She was speaking low, trying not to shout even though she could feel her anger speaking up on her.  The free hand curved into a fist, clenched tightly at her side.

"They'd been goin' inta it, kay?  Ah'd jus' been workin' on th'farm like mah dad, been havin' no sorta trouble.  Then ah'd jus' left, 'cuz they were gonna get in trouble, and ah'd not wanted t'get dragged down jus' like them, y'know?  Ah got a job that'd be takin' me all sorts'f places that'd be better than ah'd been, and ah'm not wantin' to...y'know...be into some sort'f tanglin' like that.  Ah'm not breakin' th'rules like tha', y'know?"

"Right, I'm sure you're flying with a whole crew of legit people now...nothing shady going on.  Lucky I'm here for you and not them."  He looked back to where they were walking, leading her around another corner and between two tents, both sides blocked off.  "Funny thing, when I couldn't find you, I found your brother, Alex.  Y'know, I had a warrant for his arrest...I was gonna tell you that before I did it, I thought you should know.  It was the worst part of being part of the law, sometimes you gotta do things to people you don't want to hurt.  It wasn't for tearing up ships, though...we didn't know about that.  We just thought you all were mechanics, and that's why there were a dozen boats coming in and out every night."

"No, we were more interested in an Alliance supply that'd been knocked over by a group of bandits.  They correctly fingered your brother, Alex, and descriptions that sounded just a bit like your other older brothers...Ethan and Nathan.  We never could press anything against them.  Here's the funny part, though."  He smirked slightly, stopping and turning towards her, looking her in the eyes.  "We found the empty safes ditched in a lake about ten miles away, which wasn't very smart to begin with.  They took prints, figuring that they could level something against Alex, and we'd have a strong case to go and find him.  You want to know what we found, belle?"
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 01:00, Fri 17 Nov 2006.

Charlie had become silent again, listening to what else Ilan had to say.  She couldn't say anything more without interrupting him, and he would only become more persistent and aggrivated if she spoke up.  She was already pulled into a recess where no one could see them, and she couldn't exactly run anywhere unless he let her go.

When he turned her, she didn't want to look into his eyes...but she couldn't seem to pull her gaze away, eyes locked together.  All of these memories seemed to just flood back from the parts of her mind where they'd all been locked away for safekeeping.  She bit her lip when he asked, taking a slow breath and looking down.

"What'd they tell you?"

"Well, they called me and told me that they hadn't hacked the code, which made me think the goods were intact.  Then they told me that the thieves had pried the control panel off and re-routed the wiring in the back, simply popping the seal without ever having to do that.  It's not exactly an easy move...someone would have had to have crossed several wires their entire life to do that."  He sighed, looking down, his hand taking the grip of the revolver as it remained in the holster...simply just holding it for a second.

"I asked 'em...'hey, we manage to lift any prints off of it?  Maybe something from Alex, or maybe one of those McCreedy boys he spends all his time with?'  They went on to tell me...you'll like this part...that they found my wife's prints all over it, as well as inside.  I thought to myself, what would that be doing in there?  So we went'n found your brother and threatened him, and he spilled it all about the ship-tearing you four were doin' on the back of the planet.  He told us 'bout how Ethan and Nathan were kinda leadin' everything, pushing the sales of the items.  He also told us about how you were the little genius mechanic out of them all.  He said that if it could be done, that you could do it...and you seemed to enjoy it, too.  Sounded like you knew what you were doing."

He let out a long sigh, looking back up at her.  He was obviously a bit distraught, but swallowed it down as he cleared his throat, hand still on the gun.  "Your brothers, Ethan especially...seemed to spill it all when they'd realized you split the planet.  They told me that gettin' married might've been their idea, to keep all sortsa investigation away from them."  He closed his eyes for a moment, shaking his head.  "Before I take you anywhere, I gotta know...is that true?  I vowed...and if you love me, then maybe I can see if we can go easy on ya.  Were you just scared'f gettin' caught, tried to get out early?  Tell me...and maybe I can help."  The distraught was obvious in his eyes, and he seemed to be getting more and more fidgety.

Charlie had begun to cry when he had started talking, and the tears silently rolled down her cheeks, dropping off at her jawline to the grass below.  She took a moment to look him over, remembering the way life had been before the ship.  All the little memories seemed to fill her in, both good any bad.  For every memory of Ilan bringing her flowers, she had the same of him coming home drunk and yelling at her.  He hadn't been bad, and he'd certainly never taken a hand to her or any harsh words...it all just hadn't been there.  It just hadn't been like she had always envisioned her marraige would be.  And of course, there was whether her brothers.

"Ilan...y'dun understand..."

"Don'cha lie to me!"  Ilan took the gun out of his holster and brought it across her jaw, sending her sprawling to the ground as he released his grip.  He stepped around and put a foot on her hair, keeping her trapped to the ground as he looked down at her, shaking his head.  "How'd ya think that all worked for me, eh?  You ever think of me, just once?  Think about it...local lawman is makin' a run for sheriff, and turns out his bride is cuttin' up registered ships as well as knockin' over Alliance supply.  You think that makes me look like I'm any sort of good at upholdin' the law?"  Ilan crouched down as he spoke, kneeling on top of Charlie so that he didn't have to shout at her and attract too much attention.  He waved with the gun as he spoke, never quite pointing it at her, but it didn't seem like he would have much concern over doing it.

"So here's the deal they cut with me, since I'd obviously been duped.  I bring you back, dead or alive, and I get my badge back.  I've been huntin' you for a year, and it's not just gonna stop like that.  You go to Belle, I follow.  You go to Persephone, I follow.  You go to Paquin, I follow.  Now I've got you, and we're going back to Whitefall.  Maybe I'll let you write a letter to your crew, tell them everything...unless they know already."  He holstered the gun, pulling out a pair of handcuffs, the metal clinking together.

"For better or for worse, sweetie...you're with me again.  You got anything you want to say for yourself before I stop thinking of you as my wife and start remembing you're my bounty?"

Rhaef watched Charlie leave the hall, and smirked, he was thinking about getting a new pair of boots, and well he'd been gone long enough, that maybe nobody'd recognize him.

Finally, he bucked up the courage, and tramped down the gangplank toward the market. Unlike Charlie, his eyes darted over it, looking for anyone and anything he might have recognized or worse would have recognized him. He'd worked a thousand markets like this in the past, intimidation, extortion, kidnapping, and beatings - he done it all. He'd stopped short of murder, but that'd probably was not some great moment of character, but rather a case of not being necessary, or at least as he was told, not something for himself to dirty his hands with.

He consciously checked both blasters, making sure they were ready and easily available, then he pulled up his collar and slipped into the bazarre. A little while later, he ented a bookmakers and found a new pair of boots, ones that seemed made for him, that fight his feet like gloves, he left his ratty beat of pair with the bootmaker for spare leather, and slipped back out of the shop.

He stopped cold as he did, catching a glimpse of the Moxon Twins across the marketplace. They were not Hand, well, not at least when he was in the family, but they were the kind of people that Curio farmed out the "dirty stuff" too, and worse than that, they were the kind of people who'd jump on catchin him as a chance to join or advance in the family.  What worried him was, they were not usualy bright enough to be working alone, and even if they were not looking for him, which would seem likely, that meant someone else who knew him was probably in the market somewhere.

Even as he thought this, his slipped into the shadows, pulling a gun, he hoped a fight was not coming, although at the same time, he knew it probably was. Well, he'd stayed with Destiny long enough, maybe it'd be better to run before he got caught up in any entanglements that would make it harder.

As that point, he heard the sound of a gun hitting flesh, and he froze. He hated this sound. He might have been a monster, but hitting a woman was unacceptable. Well, if he was going to get himself in a fight, he cast a glance over his shoulders toward the Moxons who did not appear to have noticed him, putting a ruttin' wife-beater down was one way to do it.

It was then when he looked up and saw the victim, little Charlie. Who'd want to hit her, she was the closest thing to true goodness he'd known. This made him even angrier, and Rhaef allowed this anger to fuel him. He moved quietly, slipping back into his past life, wondering if this would be the time, he finally killed in a bazarre. There could we worse reasons, he thought to himself.

He could see them talking, although not hear them. He was too focused on arrvinging unnotcied. Both guns were out now, and seemed like fluid extensions of his arms, as moved through the alleys toward his quarry.

Rhaef was on him moments, his mind soley focused on gaining the advantage, he heard little of what he said, sounded like he was trying to use Charlie as a bargaining chip, which only made him more angry. His left hand loosed itself from the sleeve before he realized he'd failed to put his glove back on, after leaving the bootmaker's. The tatoos gleamed at him, a permanent reminder of what he was. "'Bout time, I put them skills to good use." He hissed coldly to himself.

Then he sprung, faster than anyone could have expected. Striking like a viper, he hit the man, as he growled at him. He used the momentum of the roll, came out on top, a boot to the man's chest, and the other on his clamping gun wrist to the ground. "Now, friend, ain't no way to treat a lady. Hittin' on her and all. You've got 'bout, oh, one minute to give a me reason not to shoot ya."

He paused with a merciless grin spreading across his lips, there was a reason he was used for extortion by the Hand. "Look around, this be the rim, and you wandered down an alley alone. Ain't no one round but us, and ain't no one on a backwater like this, gonna think twice about shots being fired in one of the alleys." He grin beame toothier, almost like a preadator, bearing its fangs. "Although can't I expect less from the likes you, a coward who hits women."
This message was last edited by the player at 05:25, Fri 17 Nov 2006.

Ilan was knocked to the ground by Rhaef's attack, and might have been able to take him.  He'd been a strong man, and his years working to tackle drunks and chase away smugglers on Whitefall had garnered him a decent build and good response.  However, his bad leg immediately buckled and sent him to the ground, where he was stuck under the man's boot.  He nearly spat at him, looking up at him with the strongest stare that he could.  "Ung jeong jia ching jien soh, what are you doing?  This is a matter of the law."  He narrowed his eyes, never breaking contact with Rhaef as he did, despite the man's words.

"You want to play with bulls, son, I understand...you're gonna get the horns."  He growled through his clenched teeth, looking back at Charlie for a moment before his gaze went back to Rhaef.  "I don't have a single bit of business with you.  If you're gonna hit me, then hit me.  If you're not, then get off of me so I can do my job."

Rhaef barely stiffled a laugh, "The law, friend. You're about as much law as I am. Law knows better than to rough someone up in public, unless its absolutely neccesary," Rhaef cocked one of the blasters. "And more than that, what makes you think I have any care for the law anyway? You're on the rim, son, law's about as useful as screendoors on ships out here."

He looked over at Charlie, to make sure she was okay, "I'm guess you're a bounty hunter, and a pretty bad one at that, the question is why'd you hit the girl." Yet Rhaef did not wait for the answer, he brought he left hand down hard into the man's face, with incredible speed, he was back on his feet again, just as quickly.

He stepped over toward Charlie, and took a position between the man and her. "Now Charlie's a friend a'mine, you want to hurt her, you'll have to go through me." Rhaef's grin widened again, "and trust me, I've been spoiling for a fight more than you can ever imagine."

Ilan couldn't respond after the punch, as it had seemingly shaken him to his core.  He made a gurgling sound through the blood that had started to pool in his mouth from the strike, seemingly dazed, and maybe out of it for more than just the moment.  He seemed to fumble with his hands, searching for the gun that was thrown from his grip when he'd been punched...but the stumbling arms were weak and confused.  It took a moment, but his body finally passed out with the effort of rolling onto his side, slowly dripping blood from the corner of his mouth...

Charlie had slowly gotten back to her feet as Rhaef stood poised over Ilan, her hand over her jaw where she'd been struck by the butt of the gun.  The pain was slowly spreading into her neck, and while she knew enough to know that he hadn't shattered it, the blow had probably come close.  A few tears were running from the corner of her eyes, but she was doing her best to stay composed for the sake of both of the men there.  "Rhaef...c'mon, le's get outta here."  She stepped forward, her hand taking one of his arms and giving him a pull.  "We gotta get goin', find th'cap'n, tell'm th'law's got a hand outta 'ere'n maybe on th'ship.  There's nada f'tha time, y'know?"

Rhaef had been the surprise, to be honest.  He'd been quiet, keeping his company close with Kale and not saying much to her unless their paths deliberately crossed...and even then, it was all forced.  For all she knew, he didn't care one way or the other for her.  There was a part of her that was sure that he wouldn't blink an eye either way, and she'd have to pray that Ren or Kale would see her.  This was...well, a total surprise, to say the least.

Rhaef watched the man pass out, and fought the urge to hit him again, I mean, he hit little Charlie. Then Rhaef heard Charlie's voice, but not really her words, then he saw her tears. He could not help it, he reached out, and wiped them away with his right hand. It was a bit calloused and rough, but it was still a kind motion. "You okay, kiddo? He hurt you anymore than your jaw?"

A part of him remembered her mentioned the captain, he had no idea what the captain would say, but hitting a man claimin' to be the law, probably wouldn't go over too well, with him. "I told ya, too be careful, kiddo. Right time, you want to go explorin', if you want, I'll got with ya, help keep an eye out for scumbags like that." For good measure, he kicked the unconscious man in the ribs, "but you're right, we best get back to the ship."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~ E N D   F L A S H B A C K ~*~*~*~*~*~

Kale glanced once more at Charlie, a grim determined look crossing his face as he climbed up first.  His pistols at his hips but more importantly the shotgun in his hands.  He had 5 bullets.  Five shots if things turned ugly and he sure as hell hoped they wouldn't but these were Reavers ...

[To Torrance Station: Commerce Sector]

With her breath held, Charlie followed Kale out of the ship, doing her best to soothe her shaken nerves and to keep her heart from exploding in her chest...


----->to Torrance Station: Commerce Sector

After their daring escape from Torrance Station the crew of Destiny was left broken and beaten ... and one crew member short.  The mourning had just begun for the crew but they had to press on.  They dropped the young boy which Kale, Geoff, and Wei-Li had saved off with his father and then turned to Paquin for Ren's funeral.  It was a short trip that left all of them with heavy hearts but Ren's death had effected no one as hard as Acacia.  So two weeks later found the crew of Destiny on Osiris saying goodbye to their doctor.

And although he was millions of miles away, as Destiny and her crew suffered ... so did Rhaef ...
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:32, Sat 13 Oct 2007.

Geoff sat at the dining hall table a glass of water in hand ... it was an unusual sight.  The only kind of liquid most folk saw Geoff holding a glass of was some form of liquor ... and that had been the truth up until a week ago.  After the raid, well Geoff had begun drinking even more then usual - drinking every free moment he had.

"The magical forgetting juice, just a bit more and maybe I can forget I was ever been born!", he'd told Lei in one of his drunken stupors as she stuck close by his side.  The girl hadn't let him out of her sight since they'd flown away from Torrance Station.  Lei had stopped believing now though that his drink was some magical healer.  She knew what it was, the girl knew more then Geoff would ever know in his lifetime.  She begged him to stop, she told the Cap'n on him - but Kale didn't do nothing.  Couldn't do nothing.  There was far too many other things to be worrying about besides a big drunken thug running amok.  And although Geoff had known he was wrong he couldn't stop himself.  He just couldn't get the images out of his head ... the sound of the screams still haunted his dreams, and so he drank to hold them at bay for a few hours, to give himself just a few moments of peace.  It was slowly killing him.  So Lei had hidden all his bottles.  And Geoff, he knew that she'd done it.  He'd been angry.  Yelled at her to give 'em back.  The big man shook his head in regret.  Lei had started crying then and Geoff had deflated like a balloon.  He'd made Lei cry and he didn't ever, not ever, want to do that again.  He'd stopped drinking right then and there.  He promised her that he'd never yell at her again, he promised her that he would stop ... and Geoff was a man of his word, even if he was nothing else.

So he took a sip of his water and wished that it was a bottle of moonshine, and then slid his black piece along the length of the chess board and smiled broadly at the young girl seated across from him, "Heh, I believe that's a check mate 'lil one." he said, "Ain't that mean, I won?  See smarts don't give ya anythin', this game ain't so hard."