A/N: This is a Valkubus space AU. Rated M for future smut, language and violence.
Tamsin was a contractor, who would take cash and get job done, and Bo was a Astrobiology student researcher. When Kenzi went missing, Bo had to work with Tamsin (whom she didn't really like that much) so she could find her. As they were working together, they uncovered mysteries, secrets and possibly, evil being and all sorts of things.
This story belongs to a space AU series of mine called "Stardust". There is another fic in this series that I'm working on, which is a Clexa centric fic called "Stardust: Rise" (yes, I know, I haven't updated it in ages but I am not giving up on it just yet. I just have too many things that I need to take care of right now, and once I finish "Wake Me Up" I will go back to that). These two stories share the universe, and at some point, they are going to cross over. You do not have to read the other story, or to know anything about Clexa to read this one. When they show up, I will introduce them for a bit. If you have no idea who Lexa or Clarke is, you can treat them as OCs.
I want to give a little bit of a background of this AU series (which both stories share) here, just so you could understand the story better.
In far future, the Earth entered another ice age. Humans had foreseen that and long before the ice age occurred, they had migrated to other planets. They called these planets "Neoearth". The Neoearths together formed the Neoearth Federation (NF). Both Bo and Kenzi were from Mars, which was the first Neoearth that humans had conquered long before they arrived at other planets, and therefore was often referred as the "Second Earth". Mars was also the last planet that joined the NF, after a long, harsh sanction. Tamsin, well, her home planet was a secret (for now).
This fic consists of a series of stories that happened to Bo and Tamsin, like side quests they took and all sorts of other things. There is also gonna be a main plot (saving Kenzi for one, and bigger secrets for two) that is going to be slowly introduced as the story progresses. The structure of this story is very close to Trivial Days.
Other than Tamsin, Bo and Kenzi, I don't think I will include any other main LG characters. They are all humans too, well...maybe some of them is not quite human and we'll see, but the bottom line is that Tamsin no longer has wings or stink face, and Bo can no longer suck people dry, nor does she need sex every five seconds to stay alive.
The things that I will keep is that hate flirt, the internal struggles and of course the trust between them. They will also both be sexually active for sure, otherwise where are all those Valkubanging coming from, right? The relationship development, though, will again be a slow burn.
There will be quite a few OCs, and I will try to introduce them slowly and in an interesting way. They are important to the fic, so please bear with me.
I can't thank you guys enough for still hanging in there and reading my Valkubus fics after the show has pretty much destroyed everything. I really appreciate the support.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Lost Girl and I don't profit from it. Had it been mine, shit would have been completely different.
Chapter 1
Bo Dennis tried to pry her eyes open. Her heavy eyelids seemed to be fighting against her will. Through the crack between them, she saw a bright blur just a few inches away from her face. It looked like a patch of fog veiling rays of sunlight.
She wondered what it was, since it seemed to be changing its shape constantly, expanding then shrinking.
Behind the blurriness, there was something blue. It would go dim for a second and then quickly lit up again.
She couldn't hold her eyelids open any longer. She had to let them close. She heard the sound of herself breathing, shallow, rapid.
The sound of herself breathing, it sounded like she was in a confined space. Before she could figure out where she was, though, she drifted back into her sleep again.
She had some weird dreams, and then she woke up again. That bright blurriness was still there, a few inches away from her, expanding, shrinking, expanding, shrinking.
She stared at it numbly, until she suddenly figured out what it was.
There was a glass husk right above her. A thin layer of vapor covered the center of it, the vapor that had escaped from her mouth and her nose each time she breathed.
What is the blue thing then? And why is it no longer blinking? She wondered with her hazy mind.
She couldn't remember how many times she had drifted back into the weary darkness before she finally figured out what the blue thing was.
It was actually a collection of blue lines, contours and texts displayed on the glass husk, which also served as a display screen.
She tried to read the texts that was displayed there, but it was a language she didn't understand.
It was then that she noticed that she could move again. She raised her head a little and looked down. She saw her arms and legs in restraints. There was also three belts that held her down, one across her chest, the second around her waist and the third over her thighs.
She also noticed that she was lying flat inside something. This thing she was in, was like a big, sturdy box, with a glass husk on top.
She struggled to connect the dots - the box with a glass husk, the fact that she was lying flat inside, all those restraints, the display. It took her forever to realize that she must be inside a medical pod.
But, why? Why would she be inside a medical pod like this? Did she get hurt or something?
It hurt her to think. Every time she tried to retrace her memories, a strong headache would occur. It was killing her, and she was too weak to fight it.
She sighed and closed her eyes, letting herself get sucked into that soft, edgeless darkness again.
She started to spin. She spun, spun and spun. She started to see things. All sorts of things. Colors. Movements. Glares. Sparkles. There were sounds too. Voices. Noises. Echoes….
The huge, red sun that was hanging right behind the horizon. The blanket of crimson moss that covered the ground. The pom-pom-like flowers, they flickered in the gentle breeze.
The mist from the waterfall. The mist from the beautiful, magnificent waterfall. The red flames soaring in the sky.
She spun, spun and spun, falling into a kaleidoscope of colorful shards where each shard contained a broken scene. Everything there had a vibrant color. Everything seemed really bright, but nothing really remained still. Soon, they all started to spin with her.
She saw the huge swirl in the air. It distorted the image of the sun. The sudden, high air pressure that hammered into her chest and temporarily stopped her from breathing. The gust. The screams.
There was something...blue and sharp. It was glowing. It was blue, and it was sharp. It came at her like blades.
As she fell, everything started to fade away. She fell into that soft darkness again, and somehow it made her feel safe.
Though, the bloody taste in the back of her throat reminded her that something had happened. Something must have happened. Something bad.
The moment she thought about it, fear ran through her like a cold rush. Suddenly she was having a panic attack for no reason. She panted, choked and gagged. She struggled inside the medical pod like she was drowning, pulling against the restraints hard.
Then, she heard a voice, a voice that had come from outside the pod. Someone was outside and that person was talking to her.
She inhaled hard, forcing air into her lungs. The air went in too fast, and coughs burst out from her throat.
"Calm down," someone told her calmly. "You're fine."
It was a woman's voice, or at least something that sounded like the voice of a human female.
"Now get outta there, so we can talk," the woman told her.
Bo kept coughing as she opened her eyes again. After she had caught her breath, a ray of blue light slowly scanned her body from her head to her toe.
The light went out after a few seconds. Something popped out on the display screen. The texts kept scrolling until everything had stopped.
The restraints retracted automatically, first the three belts and then those on her wrists and ankles. The glass husk ejected itself and slid to the side.
The bright ceiling light above Bo hurt her eyes. She shielded her eyes with her hand and sat up. She felt a little heavy, but that weariness seemed to have disappeared.
Panting softly, she looked around.
She was in a spaceship, that she could tell. It was an old one too. Unlike most modern spaceships which had smooth, bright walls and sleek interior designs, everything inside this one was a bit rusty and bulky. The metal walls had lost most of their paint. The pipes supplying air, water or fuel were attached directly to the ceiling without having any sort of covers. They hummed and rattled, as if they were pushing a large growling animal through.
There was a drop door to her left, with rows of switches and handles beside it. An emergency level switch was among them, and it was installed without having a safety cover.
And the door, the drop door. That kind of old style door were no longer legal to be installed on newly manufactured spaceships, not even the ones made on Mars, which was considered to have the least advanced technology. The reason for that was those doors were too heavy and they would close too fast. The laws considered them dangerous for passengers.
Bo slowly scanned the room, and then her attention got caught by a window. Through the window, she saw a massive docking bay. Hundreds of thousands of spaceships, shuttles and pods hovered inside the arriving zone, waiting to get authorization to enter.
It was an Neoearth Federation bay for sure, for she recognized the hologram of the NF symbol. It was a green-blue globe which resembled the Earth - not any of the "neo" ones, but the real Earth. Just like any other NF symbol displayed at every NF locations, it was projected as a hologram into the air above the docking bay, spinning and glowing.
She stared at the symbol for a while, and then she watched a large fleet come through. The fleet, it looked like a school of fish swimming in the ocean.
Fish. That was one of the things that fascinated her the most, since they were so rare on Mars. She had always wondered what it had been like on Earth when humans had been dwelling there. The Earth, the planet where all humans had come from, there used to be massive oceans and roaring rivers, with millions of fishes wandering inside.
"...hey, you," the woman called her. She seemed a bit impatient. "Now is not the time for stargazing, okay?"
Bo turned to that voice and stared at the woman who was sitting in a chair a few feet away from her medical pod.
Had she been sitting there all this time since she woke up? How could she have not noticed this woman a minute ago?
Who is she anyway? Bo wondered as she looked at the woman. Her mind was too hazy, and she had completely forgotten that staring at someone like this would be considered impolite in many cultures.
"Hey," the woman called again as she snapped her fingers. After Bo's eyes moved to her fingers, she asked,"do you speak English?"
After staring at the dazed Bo, she impatiently added, "can you talk at all?"
"Umm...yes, I think so," Bo replied absentmindedly. She was surprised how hard it was to push those words through her parched throat. She swallowed hard, before she nodded and repeated, "yeah I think so."
"Good," the woman replied simply. "Since you look fine, now would be a good time to introduce yourself to me, woman."
Bo barely registered that command. Half of her mind was still somewhere else, and the other half was completely drawn to that woman.
It wasn't her light, piercing eyes that drew her attention. It wasn't the sparkles inside them either, though they did look like bright stars. It wasn't her loosely curled blonde hair, or the way those curls lazily hugging her face. It wasn't the fact that she was a human either.
It wasn't her appearance at all, well, maybe a little bit, because she was indeed a stunning woman and the last time Bo had seen someone nearly as stunning, was maybe months ago when she still had been on Mars.
What actually caught Bo's eyes, though, was something inside that woman's green blue eyes. She seemed to have some burning flames in them, or a blast of storm. There was something that was both fierce and vigorous, about to destroy anything that was in her way.
Afraid that if she stared any longer she'd get sucked into that storm, Bo moved her eyes down. She saw that the woman was wearing a dog tag. It was a military name tag. The design of it looked identical to those worn by NF defenders, however the NF symbol in the middle of it had been scratched off.
So she's an NF soldier? Bo thought, but immediately shook her head. That dog tag had way too many wear and tears for someone who was currently serving the military.
She wasn't wearing the army uniform either. She only had a light gray tank top on, with a pair of dark pants that hugged her legs perfectly. The lower part of her pants and her boots was covered in fresh, wet mud.
"Hey, quit staring," the woman demanded, though her tone had softened. "Do you at least remember your name?"
"Yeah, I do," Bo answered, nodding. "I'm Bo, Bo Dennis."
As she was saying that, she noticed the woman's guns. She had one holstered under each of her arms. She also had a sheathed combat knife attached to her belt.
Bo couldn't help but notice that the strap on the sheath had already been unbuckled, and the other woman also kept her right hand close to the hilt the entire time.
Bo licked her lips as she held the woman's gaze. "W-who are you?" She asked. "Where am I?"
She looked around again in reflex. This time, she noticed that there were three more medical pods to her right. She had never seen this type of medical pod models before. They looked really advanced. Maybe they were the newest model from some high tech planets? But...then why would this spaceship look so old?
"You don't need to know who I am, Bo," the woman said. She pronounced Bo's name like she was playfully popping a bubble out from her mouth. "Just remember that I was the one who pulled your ass out of the damn river and saved your life. If you want to thank me, paying me cash is one good way to do that."
The last part of her words sounded like a tease, and it made Bo smile. She looked at the woman curiously, before she asked, "what happened to me? Where am I?"
"You are in my ship," the woman told her.
"How did I...why am I here? I don't-I don't remember boarding a spaceship and I don't think I know you, wait...do I know you?" Bo asked, frowning.
The woman sighed. "No, you don't know me."
"Oh...okay," Bo murmured, nodding. "Then why would I be on your ship? And you said you pulled me out of the river and saved my life...what happened to me? Why would I be in a river?"
The woman furrowed her eyebrows at Bo. "Do you not remember what happened at all?"
"Well, I ummm..." Bo murmured as she tried to put together all the bits and pieces that she could remember.
What exactly happened? She asked herself. The last thing that she could remember clearly right now, was leaving that hotel on planet OE344tk-003. She remembered that the meal had a funky taste and the host seemed shady.
Then, what happened next? She remembered walking. There had been a lot of walking for sure. She was hiking. She was heading somewhere. Yes, she did hike along through the woods and she did climb up a mountain.
She remembered the lush vegetations around her. Red, crimson, pink, orange….Everything had a reddish hue, even those flying creatures looked like soaring flames.
Those creatures, they swiftly fleeted across the sky. As they moved in the air, the tiny parasites living under their skin scales got forced out by the air flow and together they formed a puff of bright red smoke which looked like flames in the sky. Those flying creatures...they would echo any sound they heard, including the sound of the waterfall.
Right, there was a waterfall. A huge, beautiful one. The water tirelessly crashed into the rocks down below, turning into millions of drops of sparkling pearls.
That waterfall, it was the whole purpose of her visiting the planet. Or wait...was it? Since when did she get more interested in waterfalls than living creatures on alien planets?
Unable to figure out the answer, Bo let her mind wander again. The image of the flock of flying creatures lingered. It was as if she could still hear them echoing sounds of her laughter and Kenzi's grunts.
Kenzi.
That name made Bo jolt. Fear suddenly seized her. "Kenzi..." she murmured, feeling the cold sweat in her palms now before even remembering why she would be so afraid.
Right, Kenzi was with her the whole time. Kenzi, her best friend, was with her on planet OE344tk-003. They left Mars a couple of months ago to travel in the galaxy. As for Bo herself, she took this trip solely for her research. She was doing research on change of the species that originated from the Earth and were later introduced to other planets. She wanted to know how the environment had affected their evolution, and how they had affected the local ecosystem.
And Kenzi...she chose to join her because she just loved travel. She ran a live visual journal broadcasting site and she had a lot of followers. She had promised her followers that she would update her trip as live, visual recordings.
"Where is Kenzi?" Bo blurted, for she couldn't recall anything that had happened after they had arrived at the waterfall.
"Who the hell is Kenzi?" The other woman frowned.
"The...there was a girl. We were...she was with me. She should be there with me. We…we travelled on OE344tk-003 together. Where is she?"
"How the hell do I know?" The woman rolled her eyes. "Shouldn't you be asking yourself that question since you were the one who was with her?"
Bo rubbed her temples hard and closed her eyes. She wanted to put the pieces together but she had a hard time doing so. Everything after the waterfall seemed to have been shattered somehow.
"Ummm...how did you find me again?" She asked the other woman. "You said I was in a river, right?"
The woman shrugged. "I was on on OE344tk-003. I passed by the river in the valley near that giant waterfall, and saw you in the river. I pulled you out and took you back to my ship. You were unconscious and bleeding, so I put you in the medical pod."
"You...found me near the waterfall?" Bo frowned. "And I was injured?"
The woman nodded. "Yes, you were in pretty bad shape. You were barely breathing. You were maybe a quarter mile away from the waterfall."
"Did you...have you seen anyone else there then? If...if you found me near the waterfall, Kenzi should be there too. She shouldn't have gone far, because she was with me the whole time…You-you found her too, right?"
"No, you were the only one there, unless this Kenzi is that fat space rodent I found in the river that was probably instantly killed by your heavy butt falling on top of it."
Bo rolled her eyes. "No, Kenzi is a human," she said. "She's my age, a bit shorter than me, petite, long, black hair...she ummm...I guess that you could also say that she's a cyborg too, although the only biomechatronic part in her was that visual signal processor embedded in her optical nerves."
"Cyborg or not, I didn't see no one," the woman emphasized. "The only one that I found in the river was you."
"No...no that's not possible. She was there. Kenzi was there with me!" Bo exclaimed, panicking.
"Lower your voice and calm the fuck down, woman," the blonde told her. "I can't help you unless you tell me exactly what happened. If you remember anything else, now is really a good time to share."
"I..." Bo murmured as she fisted her hands. She took a few deep breaths and squinted her eyes shut.
What else had happened? They were at the waterfall and they were laughing, then what?
What was that blue, sharp thing that kept popping into her mind? What was it?
Was it Kenzi who was screaming? Yeah...that was definitely her. Kenzi was screaming. Kenzi was terrified because she saw something. There was something in the air that scared both of them.
There was something in the air. It had come out of nowhere. Well, not really "nowhere", because she did noticed that swirl in the air. It distorted the image of that giant red dwarf sun.
That thing, it came out from the center of the swirl. It was blue, and huge, like the size of a train, one of those heavy, ancient transportation vehicles she had seen in the museums.
"Umm...I think there was a...there was a blue thing and it was huge..." Bo murmured.
"Blue and huge?" The other woman raised her eyebrows. "Oh! You mean that giant earthworm carcass in the river right beside you?"
"No. It was not an earthworm. It was definitely an...arthropod," Bo corrected her.
"Yeah whatever, if you are talking about that huge blue thing, it's dead," the woman told her while scrunching her nose slightly. "I think it was cut in half or something, cuz half of it was gone and the other half was really gross…."
Bo was barely listening to her, though. She immersed in her memories, since now that she had remembered that there was a huge, blue arthropod.
It looked like a giant centipede, only that it had several large, sharp claws. Glowing in blue, they looked like sharpened blades.
She had seen several types of big arthropods on other planets, but not this big. They certainly wouldn't glow like a jellyfish either.
Whatever it was, it attacked them. She remembered the huge claws slashing at her. She ran. She fell. She slipped off the cliff.
That must be how she ended up in the river. Kenzi and her had been standing on the top of a mesa when it had happened. The thing attacked them, and she fell off the cliff.
But, what happened to Kenzi? Did she fall too? Or did she….
Bo refused to think about the worst possibility. She forced herself to focus on every single detail, no matter how small or insignificant it would seem.
She remembered Kenzi screaming while she herself was falling down. At that moment, Kenzi was in the middle of the air too, because that thing tossed her off the cliff.
The huge arthropod launched itself at Kenzi while opening its mouthparts wide.
That was another weird thing. Its mouthparts. Part of them looked like what a centipede would have, but rest looked like the mouthparts of a moth.
That thing tried to catch Kenzi with its mouth, but before it caught Kenzi, Kenzi fell through that swirl.
The monster followed her too, but it didn't make it. The swirl disappeared before the thing could push its entire body through.
That was the last thing she had remembered. A quarter of the monster got cut off. The azure fluids poured down, making everything smell like sewage.
"There was..." Bo murmured as she pressed her hand against her forehead. "There was this-this swirl…."
"A swirl?" The other woman repeated.
Bo fisted her other hand and waved it rapidly in the air. She knew what it was, but she just couldn't remember the name of it. "The swirl, you know, in the air. It suddenly appears in the air. Things come out from it. It's...it's a-"
"-a warp tunnel?" The blonde raised her eyebrows.
"Yes! A warp tunnel! The swirl in the air, it was the entrance of a warp tunnel!" Bo exclaimed. "That thing...that big, blue thing came out of that warp tunnel."
"Who opened the warp tunnel?" The other woman asked as she straightened her body in the chair. She seemed to have suddenly become very interested in Bo's story.
"Ummm...I don't know. It wasn't me or Kenzi for sure," Bo said. "It just...it just appeared out of nowhere."
"Right, like warp tunnels just open themselves..." the other woman scoffed. "You think I'm an idiot? You don't think I know how a warp tunnel operates? Tell me who opened the damn warp tunnel!"
"I don't know. It just appeared! Maybe someone nearby did it?" Bo suggested.
"No one was nearby. The only person that I've found in a 100 mile radius at that time was you," the woman told her. "Stop lying to me and tell me again, who opened the warp tunnel?"
"Okay, then I'll tell you again. I. don't. know," Bo hissed. "All I know is that it appeared and that thing came out of it."
After a brief pause, Bo frowned at the blonde. "Wait...how would you know that there was no one but me in a 100 mile radius? What were you doing there? Were you searching something?"
"That's none of your concern," the other woman replied simply. "Tell me about this warp tunnel."
"There's nothing to tell. I've already told you everything I saw," Bo said. "Why are you so interested in it anyway?"
"I have my reasons," the woman smirked at her. "Was there anything that was out of the ordinary when the warp tunnel opened? Have you noticed anything unusual?"
"Ummm, I'm not sure about you but I think a giant centipede coming out of it was pretty out of the ordinary and unusual."
"I am not talking about that earthworm. I'm not interested in it at all. I just want to know about the warp tunnel. Before it appeared, did you notice anything?"
"No, not really...just the usual change of air pressure you'd feel whenever someone opens a warp tunnel near you. There was nothing strange."
"What about after it then? Was there anything unusual when it closed?"
"No...it just closed. Kenzi fell through it, I think. And that makes sense since you said that you found no one nearby. That huge thing went towards the entrance too. It didn't make it. Half of it got warped to somewhere while the other half, well, stayed."
"I'm sure it did..." the other woman murmured with a voice so low that Bo could barely hear.
"I'm sorry, I can't hear you," Bo said.
"Wasn't really talking to you anyway," the other woman rolled her eyes. She studied the look on Bo's face for a while, before she asked, "so, you don't remember anything abnormal, at all?"
"Other than the giant centipede, no, not really," Bo shook her head.
The other woman seemed to be very disappointed. She stood up, stared at Bo for another few seconds, before she said, "oh well, I should have known. It's nothing but one dead end after another…."
She mumbled in low voice for a while with all sorts of curses and swears, before she told Bo, "since we are right outside the NF turf, I'll drop you off at the embassy. Why don't you catch a free shuttle there to go home or something?"
"Wait, what about Kenzi?" Bo said. "I need to find her."
"I have no idea where she is, and honestly, I don't really care," the woman shrugged, "but you are more than welcome to look for her on you own, okay? She fell through a warp tunnel. She must be somewhere in the galaxy, right?"
"Since you are so interested in that warp tunnel, you must know something about it, right? You know to where it warps things, right?" Bo asked. "If you know anything, please tell me!"
The blonde snorted and shook her head slightly. "Nope, I really don't," she said. "Hey, while you are at the embassy, just file a request and ask them to find her. I heard that they'll do that for free."
"Yeah, because the last time they actually sent out a rescue team for someone who isn't a VIP was never," Bo growled. "They are not gonna go out and look for Kenzi! She's...she's a nobody."
"Again, not my concern," the other woman snorted. "After you get outta my ship, you can look for her on you own or with other people's help as long as this other people isn't me, understand?"
She then grabbed Bo's arm and shoved her out of the room and towards the end of the hallway.
Bo struggled. "Hey! Tell me about this warp tunnel, please! It might-what if something you know about it could save Kenzi?"
"I said I don't know! Even if I do, do I look like I care about this Kenzi?" The blonde snorted as she stared at Bo.
Great. She's a total bitch. Bo thought . She yanked her arm out from the other woman's grip. "I can see myself out," she hissed in anger.
"Oh good, cuz I thought I'd have to kick your ass out," the woman scrunched her nose at Bo while heading down the hallway towards the escape room.
She stopped in front of a row of escape pods and opened one of the them while urging Bo to get in.
Knowing that this woman wouldn't help her, Bo sighed. She pulled the safety belt out furiously while trying to buckle herself in.
After she had buckled up, she let out a deep breath. Before she closed the door, she clenched her lips and looked at the blonde. "Well, I guess I should thank you for saving my life, even though you won't help me saving Kenzi's."
"Oh relax, she might not even be in danger," the other woman drawled. "She could be on a rescue ship already, sipping some drinks, all that kinda shit. Don't be so dramatic, will you?"
Bo rolled her eyes and gave up. "Fine," she grunted, "but if she is in danger, it's all on you."
"Ugh huh," the blonde snorted. "Weren't you thanking me just two seconds ago or something, or was I hearing things?"
Before Bo answered her, she pulled her lips into a rather mischievous smirk and said, "never mind, I don't need your thanks wanna thank me? You pay me in cash."
"You sound like a debt collector, the most notorious one," Bo commented.
"Oh, sweetheart, I'm way, way better than a debt collector," the blonde told her.
"Oh really? You are better than debt collector? What are you then?" Bo rolled her eyes.
The other woman gave her a cocky grin and replied, "I'm a contractor."
"Oooooh..." Bo drawled. "Now that explains everything. You are a contractor, who would take cash payment for any job out there even if it would cause the destruction of an entire planet. Sounds like the perfect career for a heartless b-" she swallowed the word "bitch" back and instead said, "-person like you."
"Call me bitch all you want. I don't mind the sound of it at all," the blonde gave her a big smirk. "Being a heartless bitch with loads of cash is always better than being poor and desperate."
The words "loads of cash" suddenly gave Bo an idea. She leaned in and asked with a serious voice, "is it true that contractors would do any jobs as long as they get paid?"
"Well, it depends on the job, but in general, yeah, I get paid, I get shit done," the blonde nodded along.
"Then...if I pay you, would you help me find Kenzi?"
"Now you are talking," the blonde gave Bo a big nod while clicking her tongue playfully.
"Contractors do rescue missions too, right?"
"Like I said, you pay me and I get shit done," the woman told her. "As long as you can afford the price."
"How much would it take for you to find Kenzi?" Bo asked.
"5000 for take the boring job, another 5000 if I find her, and throw in an extra 2000 if I find her alive," the woman singsonged.
"That's...12000!" Bo exclaimed. Shocked by the price, she opened her mouth wide while wondering if she had heard it wrong. Then she swallowed hard and continued, "you are charging me 12000 for that?"
"Why, is this Kenzi not worth 12000?" The blonde teased.
"That's not the point! 12000 is a lot of money. You might as well rob a bank or something!"
"A, that is illegal, B, it needs a lot of planning, and C, banks don't carry cash anymore," the other woman replied as if it was a serious matter.
"I don't have that kinda money," Bo groaned. "I'm just a student researcher in astrobiology. I'm not-I can't afford it."
"Then I'm truly sorry, Ms. Dennis," the woman faked a sad tone. "Like I said, the NF embassy does the shit for free."
"Yeah, and you know what they are gonna do? They are gonna take my request form and put it on top of a huge pile of forms. Then, I will never hear from them ever again."
"Hey, you want better service, you gotta pay for it, okay?"
"Is...is there any other way that I can pay you? Like…a payment plan maybe? I mean, once I get a job, I will have more money. I will pay you once I have it, I promise."
"You know, promise is a really good thing. Except that it doesn't buy me weapons or fuel. It doesn't give me lap dance or get me drunk either. So, no, I can't take that as a payment. No payment plan either. Cash upfront or no go."
"What else do you take as payment?" Bo asked. "Do you take anything else besides cash at all?"
"As a matter of fact, I do. Other than cash, I also accept blue crystals, red plasma, government intel, and rare alien gene samples," the blonde replied. "Oh, and of course, rare artifacts and relics are always nice."
After getting one head shake after another from Bo, she rolled her eyes and sighed. "What do you have then?" She asked.
Bo pondered that question. The more she thought about it, the more frustrated she got. Eventually she shook her head and replied in a low voice, "I...I don't have anything that...that is worth 12000."
"Then, I guess the NF embassy is your only choice," the blonde said as she closed the door to the pod.
"Hey! Wait!" Bo pleaded as she pushed against the door to stop it from closing. "We can talk about this. We can make a deal or something! Let's make a deal!"
"I don't do deals," the blonde told her simply. "Not to mention that you have just told me that you have nothing to offer."
She closed the door despite Bo's struggles. After giving Bo a taunting smirk, she waved her bye-bye and locked the door tight. She saw Bo let out a big sigh and lolled in the seat in defeat, and she snorted.
She was about to pull the lever to eject Bo's pod, but suddenly Bo's eyes shot wide open. She jolted and started to slam her hand against the transparent door repeatedly while yelling something.
The blonde thought about ejecting Bo anyway, but for some reason she ended up unlatching the lock instead. She opened the door. "What now?" She asked impatiently.
"You-you are interested in that warp tunnel, right? What if I tell you that I have info about that warp tunnel that might interest you?"
"Yeah, nice try, woman, cuz I'm pretty sure you've just said that you remembered nothing else. Unless something miraculously hit your head and shook some real shit outta you, don't even try."
"No, but I know a way to find that information."
"Oh?" The woman crossed her arms in front of her chest as she raised her eyebrows at Bo. She looked into Bo's eyes and asked, "how?"
"Kenzi...she has a visual signal processor embedded in her optical nerves. The processor constantly records and transmits data to her vijo and-"
"vijo?" The other woman frowned. "You mean visual journal site? For real?"
"Yeah, she has a visual journal and she has a lot of followers," Bo explained. "Her processor must have recorded the whole thing. All we need to do is to retrieve that data from her vijo server and-"
"First of all, there is no we," the other woman interrupted her. "And second, I doubt it has recorded anything interesting since you've said that you don't remember anything abnormal."
"No, I'm not talking about when the monster attacked us. I'm talking about where Kenzi is at right now. She must be at the other side of the tunnel, and I'm sure her processor is still sending signals to the server."
"Hmmm..." the other woman hummed and nodded slightly. "So...if we look into the things that thing sends back, we can figure out her exact location…" she murmured, and she seemed to have completely forgotten that a minute ago she had told Bo that there would be no "we".
"Yes, that's right. I think this would totally work," Bo said. "Once we know where she is, we can go find her. Then I'm sure you'll know who opened that warp tunnel because whoever opened it must have done it from the other side."
The blonde let out a soft snort, as if Bo's suggestion was way too optimistic for her taste. She stared into Bo's eyes for a long time, taking in all the desperation and pleas she saw in them. Eventually she sighed and said, "fine, I guess it doesn't hurt to check out her stupid vijo."
She paused for a bit, before she scrunched her nose and shook her head slightly as if she had just caught a foul smell. "Seriously," she said. "Who the hell still uses vijo? That shit is ancient."
"Hey, vijo is retro and it's coming back strong. Besides, it wasn't our fault that the NF has all those sanctions and embargoes of technology and pretty much everything on Mars for past ten centuries."
"Well, it was kinda the Second Earther's fault, or should I say the Martians fault. Mars refused to join the NF, and there was a price to pay for doing that."
Bo rolled her eyes as she released herself from the safety belts. She jumped out of the pod and suggested, "are we gonna go check out her vijo or what?"
"Sure..." the blonde murmured. "This shit better work, cuz I'd hate spending all day watching some stupid shit that doesn't help me at all when I have a lot of payment to collect and a lot of asses to kick."
"It will work. I'm sure her vijo is full of visual recordings right now," Bo said. Then, she sighed and murmured, "I hope she's not in danger or anything…."
The blonde frowned at how concerned Bo was about this Kenzi person. "What she's your girlfriend or something?" She asked, a part of her suddenly gotten curious.
"No, no, it's not like that," Bo shook her head. "She's my best friend. She's like a family to me, like my sister."
She paused for a while, before she added, "actually, she's like my only family."
The blonde let out a deep breath. "You know, she could already be on her way back to Mars...or wherever. This galaxy is way over populated and I'm sure there are a lot of creatures who are stupid enough to let a human girl hitchhike or something. It's not like she's gone to hell and she can't come back or something."
"But, she could be in serious danger and waiting for help," Bo argued. "The galaxy isn't-I mean there are a lot of dangerous planets, and some aliens do treat humans as their prey."
"Then maybe you should get your slow ass movin' and go get me that vijo playing," the other woman bit out.
"And where am I supposed to do that?" Bo asked as she looked at all the closed drop doors inside the ship. "Do you have a place where I can access her vijo and play all the recordings?"
The blonde pondered as she scanned all the closed doors. "Hmm..." she murmured, "I guess I should probably introduce you to my crew first. Otherwise when they see you, they might treat you as an intruder and blow your pretty face up or whatever."
"Wow, you have a crew? What you can actually work along with other people?" Bo drawled.
The blonde couldn't help but let that amused chuckle slip out from her lips. Instead of feeling offended, she found having Bo bickering with her quite entertaining, even though she had just known her for several hours.
"Follow me," she said to Bo as she led the way. "And don't touch anything unless you want to get your ass kicked."
"Who says I want to touch anything here?" Bo rolled her eyes. "And can I at least have your name since I'm probably gonna be here for a while?"
The other woman turned to her. "Tamsin," she said with a subtle smile. "And trust me, you won't be here for too long. As soon as we finish this shit, I'm kicking your cute little butt out of my ship."