"Phew! Finally finished!" a pale girl says exasperated as she leans back on the final black plate that she put onto her ship. She looks down to her fairly greased and torn jeans and the now black sports bra and the high-laced boots that she wore when building. She sighs with a tool still in hand as she looks around her father's garage. She remembered when she first started working on this ship when she was five, on the designing and blueprint computer on an old, rickety card table near her father's work. A decade has passed now, and for five of them she was the only one of her three other sisters to actually get down and dirty like this. "About one more month to finish the internal business, and a bit more fine tuning, and this bloody craft of work should be flying by the new year…" she says to herself under her breath, reciting to herself what else she must do for the ship to be completely finished.
Suddenly she saw light from the side of the garage. The door opened with a small creak, and she jumped off the wing of it and to the floor without a sound. Cat-like, she stalks the footsteps that she hears. She can already sense the tension in their beating. With a mischievous grin she silently drops the tools in her hands and like a cat, walks on all fours. She finally rounds the ship and catches sight of her prey. She freezes at the sight of him as he does the same. She climbs effortlessly onto the front part of the wing and onto of the laser launcher and crouches there in the shadows of the darkness. She glances through the cockpit window beside her to see if anyone follows. The grin grows as she pushes a bit of the deep purple and blue highlights that surround her face and flips back the base black of her hair as well in preparation. She loosens then tenses, her prey still frozen to the spot. She then concentrates on the muscles in her calves and thighs', calculating how much energy is needed from her to pounce on her large target, without falling short, or over shooting it as well. She finally springs into the air and lands squarely onto her father's back. "AAAHHH!!! GABRIELLE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING YOU TART?" screams the old, yet strong man as he spins around trying to pry himself from his own daughter. She holds on to him, spinning with him, her legs dangling to the sides as she does not want to impair the poor man with her heavy metal boots. She giggles in humour and she finally releases him landing on both feet, leaving him with his hand to his chest and the other supporting himself on the table of wrenches nearby. His knees buckle and the scarred, weary man settles himself into the chair in front of it. "Christ girl! Could've given me a heart attack!"
"That's why man invented the rehabilitation chambers and anti-gravity to slow down that…" she replies the grin still to her glowing face, but the giggling now ceased.
He sits back still trying to catch his breath. He looks up to the ship and says slyly, "I see you are done with the last layer of the titanium. I wonder how you will get that hunk of metal off the ground they way you do it."
"Don't forget that most of the weight is within the turbines, and the jets, and the light speed coursing, and the-" she says gesturing to him as she lists the other factors of the weight involved.
"Yes, yes! I understand that," he says holding his hand up and interrupting. "It doesn't mean I don't have any faith in you my dear girl. I just don't want you to hurt yourself in this nonsense."
"Nonsense you call it! Where in the galaxies did you get that, pray tell?" she says flicking the cheek with the jagged scar.
He rubs it viciously as he thinks for a moment, but then retorts; "This was nonsense as well. And don't start because I remember the stories that I tell about it! But being a Bellatrix is not all fun and games… It is a hard and also lonesome life my dear… Do not forget the consequences for…" Gabrielle sighs and mimics him by jabbering her mouth to the same tune as he, for she has heard this speech many a time.
His pasty, broad face stops as he finally looks to his daughter who is still mimicking him further than he has got. The muscled man's face turns cold as his daughter finally looks to him and sees his glance. Surprisingly, she does not flinch at his stare, but returns the look back. Taken aback so much, his face softens and he sighs, "Fine, do as you want. I see that your mind has settled on it already, there is nothing that I can do to stop you."
She sighs as well, for this was yet another speech that she knew well. But suddenly her father's face turns backwards and he grins mischievously, just like her daughter and says as well, "But I see that I should not fear that no one shall bother you, for you have inherited my stare."
She looked back to him, the stare ceasing, but the flickering remaining in her eyes. She stayed silent as she reminisced if what she did was truly necessary. After a moment of the silence they both sighed simultaneously, and Gabrielle looked to the opening in garage up to the now night sky. Her father followed the arch of her neck and looked up as well. He finally asked her "So, what are you to name your ship Antares." He says using her proper birth name. She sighs through her nose then says under her breath, but still audible,
"My ship shall be Alshain Algorab…" her voice reverberating around the solid metal walls of the immense garage.
Her father smirks, "Oh really now. Another star name isn't it?" he says not looking to her but still up to the sky.
"Yes…It's the Falcon Raven…"
"Intriguing my dear girl."
"Uhumm…" she says.
A few more minutes of silence and her father finally looks to her and says seriously, "Believe me Antares, the stars will not seem as bright after you have been close to them for too long…" He then stands from his seat and makes his way out of the door, the metal creaking as usual as he does so.
She doesn't look back to him as he leaves, but instead she jogs over to the blueprint computer and starts making a list of all the things needed for the inside of the ship, and also for the secret transformation.
"That girl worries me Zeldaria…" the old man says slumping into his chair as Gabrielle's older sister leans to him on the kitchen table.
"Daddy, don't worry! She is going through the same phase that Mom went through; hopefully it won't be as deadly though. She just wants to make her place in the world, and I'm surprised that you didn't help an inch…" She says the last sentences under her breath, but he hears anyway and retorts loudly.
"I told her we made a bargain. If she wanted to become a Bellatrix like her mother and I, she would have to make the ship by herself, and be restricted from buying any models."
"You are a harsh old Scrooge." She says leaning over further and pinching his un-scarred cheek. He pondered over how much Antares looked equally like him and her mother, while her other siblings favoured more to one parent then the other. The pinch brought him back to reality and he leaned back into his chair and rubbing his other cheek he replies,
"Where are your other watery tarts called brothers and sisters?"
"Cassia is with Sarah at the malls around this colony, and Jean is gun hunting again, and Dameon is out with his friends again." She says blankly as if it was routine. They both fall silent as Zeldaria grabs the coffee in the Beverage Bot. "Hot or cold Daddy?" he grunts in return. She sighs and gets him lukewarm mocha and pushes the buttons on the computer. She grabs the cup out of the chute and tosses it to him. He grabs it; pops open the lid, and sets it on the table. She once again sighs and waltzes up the stairs like the child she once was, and still acts like, as she enters her bedroom for the night.
He sits and slowly drinks his coffee, not noticing the taste or the temperature as he ponders and wonders over the fact that her littlest girl actually carried out her dream while the others left it in the back of their mind to be forgotten over the years. He watches as her short yet slim stature finally enters the kitchen through the garage door. She waves to him and runs up the stairs without a word, seeing that she can't stand to be in the grease and grime much longer. He nods to the dashing figure as it leaps up the stairs in goodnight, and he himself finally falls asleep in his chair still wondering over the facts and factors…
**********
Thanks for reading! It may take a chapter or two for her to meet Gene and the gang though… (Just a warning!)