"Gotcha, Cap." Geoff said in a swirl of elegance and vociferous expression.

Well, okay, maybe not so elegant or vociferous, but expression, definitely.

Geoff looked up to Kyoko and nodded.

"Might wanna go shut down the non'sentials in yer shuttle... 'r least ways, get where's gonna be comfy-ish."

He then turned to Lei, noticing that Wei-Li had already gotten herself ensconced in the rigging.

"You gonna wanna find a hidy-hole too, Mei-mei?"

Lei's eyes widened up at Geoff as he suggested she find a hidy-hole.

"Maybe not a hole," she began a little cautiously, feeling her stomach squirm with the thought. She tended towards the claustrophobic side, understandably of course, with having been boxed inside a crate for who knows how long. And seeing as how she was taking Geoff's words of hidy-holes quite literally...

"But I should find a place to hide, yes?" she added, glancing to Wei-Li, as that seemed to be precisely what she was doing.

Lei allowed her eyes to roam the cargo bay once, and though she spotted a good deal of places that would be more than adequate hiding spots for a girl of such tiny stature, she was hesitant about bundling herself in any place on her lonesome in the dark. A moment's longer hesitation, and she was turning back to Geoff, chewing gently on her bottom lip as she studied him carefully, eyes still a little wide with that underlying apprehension.

"Will you hide, too? With me?"

With a grin plastered across his not-quite-ugly mug, Geoff nodded at Lei.  "Yeah.  An' I'm thinkin' a small place ain't such a good idea."

Again he grinned, indicating his much larger dimensions.  He then nodded toward the Mule, locked into place.

"Let's go sit in there, yeah?  Strap in an' go fer a ride."

A few moments after Geoff and Lei settled into the mule that lights went out and the ship started shaking slightly - they were entering atmo.

It was almost showtime.

Wei-Li closed her eyes only to force them open again a moment later.  She could feel her heart in her throat as she fought to remember that she was safe, that the station was a long time ago and more importantly nothing evil stalked the decks of Destiny.

'you're home you're safe... ' quickly became her mantra.  She hoped they would land soon, the straps where cutting into her hands where she had them in a death grip.

A cracked and not-quite-melodious voice rose upward in the darkness of the cargo bay.  It was an ancient song, a song of Earth That Was.  It was a stupid song.  But the point was to relieve the stress of darkness and shaking things.  It was something someone, long, long ago, had sung to bring peace to a terrified little boy.

"Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream.  Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream."

Lei's apprehension subsided a little as Geoff found them a hidey-mule, and she did quite well with strapping herself in and keeping in relatively high spirits.

That is, until the lights went out, and things proceeded to get a little bumpy.

She managed no more than a very small gasp at all of this, though she balled her hands into little fists, pressing her fingernails into her palms and tightly pursing her lips.

So it was that Geoff's song, however crackly, served to calm her down a little, her short breaths becoming a little longer. A small giggle even escaped through the darkness, Lei's fists unclenching as she murmured to the bay at large,

"We aren't rowing, silly. We’re flying."

Kyoko swallowed hard and continued hanging onto the railing for dear life. She sighed, next time, she was getting somewhere more secure...

"Yeah, but ya can't much row a space ship now can ya?"

He asked with good humor in his voice.

Now that the ship had landed some of the systems began coming back online.  The lights being one of the first, there was a flickering and then slowly the lights in the cargo bay hummed to life.

[From Destiny: Bridge]

Kale entered the cargo bay just as the lights began to turn back on, they were dim as he moved down the stairs to the lower level but were gradually warming up.  He moved around Kyoko his hands double checking the guns at his hips.

"Alrigh', you two ready?" he asked Geoff and Wei-Li.

Kyoko paused for a few seconds, before doing the only she could do.

"Captain..."


"Good luck..."

Wei-li grabbed the edge of the webbing and lowered herself to the ground.  She checked to make sure the contents of her haversack were still unharmed and nodded.

"Ready."

Grinning from his seat on the mule, Geoff released the safety harness and sprang - as much as his bulk allowed him to - from the beast, landing with a loud 'k-thunk' on the grilled floor.

"Ayup, ready, Cap."

The time for action had come.  And he was ready!

Kale nodded somewhat grimly at his crew, he wasn't sure what to be expecting.  He didn't know anything about that man that had contacted them or what the gorram hell Rhaef would be doing on Beaumonde.  But he knew that he had to get him back.  He owed the man that much.  Two years they had fought and traveled side by side.  Sure they'd had their spats and disagreements.  But now that he was gone, Kale had felt his loss more then most with the exception of Charlie who had been even more upset then Kale had expected her to be at Rhaef leaving.

"Alrigh' then, lets go be heroes." he said, and moved to the cargo bay door controls.  The hatch slowly opened and the ramp lowered to the ground, he looked back at Kyoko, "Charlie's gonna be checkin' somethin' out fer me so you can leave the doors open fer her, but make sure someone stays nearby watchin'.  I don' want no one that ain't my crew steppin' on board my ship."

[To Beaumonde: The Underground]

Geoff grinned, tossed a wink at Lei and took off after his captain.

"Time to go play." he chortled.

His footsteps somehow seemed lighter, fading away shortly after leaving the ship.

-- To Beaumonde: the underground

Wei-Li followed behind the other two, silently as their shadow.  This was what the other side of her family was known for, and for once-- she had no problems with her family history.

---> To Beaumonde: the underground

Daintily lowering herself down from the mule, Lei gave Geoff a small smile as he disappeared off the ship with the others, though the expression didn't quite reach her eyes. For a long time, she stood watching the door, long after the majority of the crew had disappeared into Beaumonde.

After what was almost an impossibly long time, she finally murmured very softly to Kyoko, the only one left in the bay, "I think that I might wait here. For Charlie, like Kale said someone should."

Though it was evident there was a lot more on the little girl's mind than just following the captain's instructions, as her eyes still had not left the ship's entrance.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:56, Thu 21 Feb 2008.

Kyoko nodded and sighed, making her way down next to Lei and ruffling the girl's hair.

"I suppose I'll wait with you..."

-------->from Cargo Bay

Charlie stepped out of the Engine Room, walking along the catwalk as she looked at those standing there.  They were all waiting for the crew to get back, most likely.  Normally, she'd be one of those, standing there and waiting for news of who was coming back.  She hadn't been able to do it when Rhaef had gone, however...and it was all she could do to not do it now.  She made her way down the steel steps, bare feet making hardly a sound.

"Hey, ah'm goin' under th'ship t'check all'f th'gear.  Y'all good watchin' th'door while ah'm out?"

Kyoko nodded to Charlie and smiled.

"I think that Lei and I will be good for the task, right Lei?"

Kyoko did her best to sound encouraging, just because she was somewhat, and generally consistently, at odds with the crew didn't mean she didn't know what was going on. She cared, in her own way, it was just showing it that sometimes misfired for her...

"A'ight, then.  Ah'll be down'f th'ship, y'know.  Don'be lettin'm take off'n all w'out me."  Charlie smirked a bit, tapping one of her temples at Kyoko as she headed out the door.  There was a chance that the job Kale gave her was just busy work, but he was right; the last thing they wanted is a small stupid problem keeping them from leaving, since the large ones were more few and far between.  That was just how things worked, of course.


------->to Destiny: Hull

Lei managed to peel her eyes away from the ship's entrance for long enough to muster a very small smile for Charlie as she left, before turning her attention back to Kyoko. "Yes. Right," she replied with quiet simplicity, her gaze being pulled out to the entrance once more. Hugging her thin arms across her chest, she added after a long moment of silence, "Do you ever worry that... that one time, they might not come back?"

Kyoko took a deep breath and a long pause. What if they didn't come back?...

God, she didn't even want to think about it.

"I find that, if I think about things like that, I cannot keep calm, and that's what the captain needs me to do right now...keep calm..."

Finally, Kyoko seemed to have gathered more of Lei's attention than the entrance to the ship had. Looking fixedly at her, wide eyed and completely free of any natural shyness at so openly staring upon a person - particularly a woman like Kyoko - Lei gave a small voiced, yet appreciative answer.

"Thank you. For not lying and pretending that you do not worry about those sorts of things."

Looking searchingly upon Kyoko for a moment longer, she then uncurled her arms from about her legs, placing her hands in her lap and fiddling with her pinky as she spoke, her voice a wavering murmur, "Calm... I can keep calm, too. If that is what we are meant to do..."