Disclaimer: same as always, I own not what I want...
sketchy sketchy sketchy!
And a little about Hannah's past
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Hannah looked down at the many buttons, screens, and switches in front of her. Closing her eyes, she thought back, Which one...the switch...but which one? Remembering when he'd switched off the life signs scanner, she reached over and flipped one of the switches. Unfortunately what met her was nothing she understood. There was a jumble of symbols, and a meter that was decreasing slowly. She glared at the weird lettering, wishing she could understand it. Slamming her finger on the com button again, she prayed for a response, "Yeyinde? Yeyinde, are you there? Yeyinde?" Her voice started to rise in panic. I'm stuck out here, I'm alone...Yeyinde... Tears started to well up in her eyes, both of loss and fear. "Yeyinde!" She called out, jamming the button down again, "you can't die! You can't leave me out here! YEYINDE!" She growled in frustration. "Please, answer me," she added in a soft whimper.
The com line hissed and crackled, then a voice answered, "Hannah, do you think I would die so easily?"
Tears of relief spilled down her cheeks, "Yeyinde! You're alright!" She bit her lip to hold back a sob of joy.
"I am injured, but I will be fine. I am coming over with the data from the ship's computer," Yeyinde informed her.
Hannah smiled, "Alright." She watched the hatch of the other ship, waiting to see her friend. My friend...my only friend... She chuckled, realizing her only real friend was a being from a different world, literally. She wondered if she should find a first aid kit or something, but didn't think she'd be able to recognize it. She caught sight of a hand on the hatch. Then a head, Yeyinde's. He reached out and grabbed the tether, clipping it onto his suit. Kicking off, she watched him float towards their ship. A trail of bright neon green floated out behind him. Is that blood? Ohmygawd! It is! She panicked a little and nibbled on her bottom lip.
Yeyinde growled as he reached the hatch to his own ship, and grabbed the handle by the open hatchway. Pulling himself through the barrier into the breathable atmosphere, he grunted as the weightlessness was stripped away. Quickly shedding the space suit, he took the data chip to the pilot seat. "Hannah," he said her name quietly.
She was pulled from her thoughts and whipped around to look up at him. "Yeyinde!" She stood up and threw her arms around his chest, not reaching all the way around him.
He gave loud a surprised click, before softly clicking his mandibles together, regarding the little human embracing him. "Well, I suppose a chi'ytei is an unexpected return." He patted her back softly, returning the guesture in his own way.
Looking up at him, "a what? Chee huh?" She stepped back and saw the neon green blood oozing from a wound on his side. "Yeyinde! You're bleeding!" She looked down at herself and saw her arm and part of her chest were bright green, "all over me..." Looking back up at him she frowned and gave him a fake pout, "now I dont expect that's very nice of you!"
Yeyinde growled out a laugh, "Well let me go fix that. And a chi'ytei, it is an embrace." He turned and plugged the data chip into his computer lettiing it download while he went back to mend himself. Looking at the wound he saw it crossed another scar, making an X shape now. He smiled at it, pleased by the look of it. Also noticing that it wasn't life threatening, but was bleeding rather heavily, and quite wide. She is turing out to be quite interesting. My little warrior. It should turn out to be very interesting. Grabbing a medkit from the back room, he pulled out a small cylinder. Opening the top he ran it over the wound. It hissed as it cauterized the wound. He bit back a roar of pain, hating the feeling of his flesh burning, even if it was by the device in his hand. Besides, it was weak to roar about mending. Closing the top, and putting the cylinder back into the kit, he grabbed a rag and wiped the blood from his body. He grabbed another rag and went back to the cockpit of the ship, handing it to Hannah, "here, clean yourself." He sat down in the pilot's chair that she had vacated. He pulled up the data from the other ship, and read through a screen of diagnostics and information. Sighing, finding nothing there except a power conduit exploding, causing the hull breaches, he turned and looked at the video information. Images came up onto screen, and he watched something whizz by, not sure what it was. When he slowed down the image he saw the creature he had killed. It was large and sort of like one of the Kainde Amedha, except that the head was rounder, and the body more compact. It had bladed wings on its back, and a stinger rather than a tail. Scythe-like claws were attached to its first pair of arms, and clawed hands to its other two pairs.
"What is that?" Hannah asked from behind him, the rag in her hand smeared with his blood, her shirt only partly cleaned. She sat down in the co-pilots chair and looked at him. "Did you, kill it?"
Nodding, his hissed angrily, "Blasted the pauk-de head right off!" He closed the display and grumbled, "would have been a perfect trophy."
Hannah laughed, "silly yaut'ja, destroyed your trophy." She stopped laughing when he glared at her. Shrugging slightly, "I only tease friends." Then she stood and walked to the fridge-like box, and found another naxa. Peeling it, she pulled it apart and started to munch away. "So, what now?" she called up to him
Yeyinde didn't hear her question, he was thinking about what she said. "I only tease friends." So, I am her friend? Friend. He smiled to himself. It had been a long time since anyone had considered him a friend. Long before everything had turned bad...
"Yeyinde! Are you even awake? Geeze!" Hannah tossed the rag at him, and it landed on top of his head. She giggled as she popped another peice of naxa in her mouth.
Turning and snatching the rag off of his head, Yeyinde growled a warning at her, "you'd best behave yourself on my ship, you tarei'hasan!" He glared at her, throwing the rag back at her, watching in amusement as it landed on her face, covering it completely.
She didn't know what he said, but figured it to be an insult. "Hey!" She cried just moments before the bloody rag hit her face. She sat stunned for a second, then heard his laughing growl. Pulling the rag from her face, leaving little neon green smears all over, she glared at him. "That's just mean! And gross! That's worse than when you spit on me!" She tried to wipe the blood off with her sleeve.
He thought back to when he'd first met the little human. He'd roared at her, trying to scare her, and had accidentally spit on her. She was brave even when she'd first saw me. He remembered the picture she'd shown him, of the other human female. "Who was that female in the picture?" He asked.
Hannah paused for a second, "Oh! That is an old friend of mine. Her name is Lex. She was part of some science expedition to Antarctica. Apparently there were yaut'ja there for a kainde amedha hunt." She told him, "I met her when she came to our town to visit some family. That was a long time ago though. When I still had a home." Her voice got quiet, and the sadness and pain was evident.
He wanted to asked what had happened to cause her to be homeless, but he figured she probably didn't want to talk about it. "I see, what happened to this Lex?" he asked, stearing the subject back to the female.
Shrugging, Hannah answered, "She wrote me once, telling me all about what had happened, and everything she saw. She even tried to draw a picture of Scar." Hannah laughed here, "Drawing isn't one of her main talents." She walked forward and pulled open her bag, digging she pulled out a sketch book with a dirty cover. Opening it, and pulling out a paper that had been crumpled then smoothed again, she handed it to him, "here see." It was Lex's sketch.
Yeyinde took the paper, careful not to tear it with his talon like nails. It was a rough sketch of his old friend, Scar. Though he did have to admit it didn't look much like him. "I see that you are correct. It does not look much like Scar at all." He handed back the paper to Hannah.
Taking it, she sat down, and pulled a pencil out of one of her coat pockets. "Can I draw you?" she asked him innocently, turning the sketch book to a new page.
He glanced sideways at her, "if you think you can." He chuckled to himself, I wonder what she sees me as. he thought, wondering what the drawing would look like.
Hannah smiled and set to work, pulling her knees up, to give her something to rest the sketch book on. She sat quietly sketching, occasionally looking up at him, sometimes for a couple minutes, then returning to her sketch book, working furiously. Once she got the basics done and was ready for texture and shading, she started to talk, "so, what's the plan now? I mean, what are we gonna do?"
Yeyinde was almost surprised to hear her speak again, "I do not know. I figured that if you wanted, I suppose I should take you back to your home." I forgot about this...I did not want this to end so soon.
Hannah laughed, "you forget, I don't have a home. So, what's next? I mean, what would you normally do now? Cuz, if you don't mind, I'd like to stay for a while, if that's ok with you." She peered up at him, wondering what his reaction would be.
Stay? She wants to stay? He looked at her and nodded, "you may stay with me. I will need to restock some more food for you. We will return to your planet to do so. But first I must take care of this ship." Nodding towards the drifting carcass of the other ship, he started to move them above it. Once they were closer, he hit a button and a cable shot out, attaching to the hull of the other ship, and they drug it. He looked at the star chart, "your sun is the closest. We will bury them in it."
Hannah looked up, "oh, really? Is that how you do space burials?" She kept sketching, only looking up for a few glances at him.
"No, we usually just cremate the bodies and scatter them. But when disposing of a larger mass such as a ship, we deposite them in suns. We may be hunters, but we do not leave our messes lying around space. It should not be long until your race reaches the stars." He told her, trying to sneek a peek at her drawing of him.
Seeing him leaning closer, Hannah leaned back, smiling when she got an aggravated growl from him. "I think it will be a while. I mean, seriously, we're too caught up in politics. All sorts of crazy stuff there. War too. Lately it's been crazy." She sighed and kept sketching, almost finished. "It will be a long time before we're space borne."
"For you maybe, but not to yaut'ja. We outlive you by hundreds of years," he told her, watching the ship on his screens. It was starting to twist a bit. Pushing a button, he sent another cable out, and used the second to stop the twisting.
"Yeyinde, how old are you?" she asked, looking at him steadily. Hundreds? Wow, he's probably seen a lot then.
He paused and she could hear his mandibles clicking together slowly, "ah...I am over 350 of your years. I do not remember exactly how many, however. In our years I am," here he paused again. "I am 32 of our years. They are much longer than your years, for our planet circles two suns. Both of which are much larger than your own, making the journey around them much longer."
Hannah nodded, "So that's why you keep it so hot in here, you're used to a warmer climate." She was back to her sketching again. "Almost done."
"Yes, our climate is much warmer than yours," He just now noticed she'd stopped wearing her coats, and they were hung on the back of the co-pilots seat. She was now in a dark blue tank top, with patches of black material, and a pair of lighter blue jeans, with brown patches and holes in them. Her feet were covered in what used to be white shoes, that were worn through and had pieces that had fallen off. She needs better clothing. Not these rags! He looked at the mark he had placed on her cheek when she had killed the kainde amedha. She was an honored part of his clan now. Even if she would be called unworthy by some. She'd made the kill. She'd passed the trial. He felt himself looking proudly at her. She was what they considered a Young Blood. While he was a warrior, he spent most of his time alone, hunting by himself because he was not fond of hunting with others. In fact, in the past few years, his years not hers, he'd only returned to his clan's ship twice, once to mate and once to refuel.
"Ok, you have to promise not to laugh at it," Hannah said, sitting up suddenly. She held the sketch book to her chest so he couldn't see. "I don't know if I did any good by your standards."
"I promse, I will not laugh at your drawing," he turned the chair to look at her. Taking the little book as she handed it to him. On the page was an image of him, standing over a kainde amedha corpse. His dreadlocks were flying behind him, as he was driving his spear into another of the hard meat. It was a very flattering picture, showing his scars well. He clicked his mandibles together as he looked it over. "It is a very good picture. I like it very much," he told her, hoping that was an appropriate response. By the smile that lit onto her face, he figured it was. He immediately tried to remember what humans did with pictures they liked. "May we, hang it?" He asked her.
It's good enough to hang? IT'S GOOD ENOUGH TO HANG YAY! OhMyGawd! Her mind was estatic. "Uhm, sure where would be safe place to hang it?" she looked around at the walls, pulling out a little roll of tape she had in her bag. There wasn't much left, just enough to hang the little picture.
Yeyinde looked at the separations between the view ports, "how about one of them? They are wide enough," he said pointing at them.
Hannah looked at him puzzled, he'd spoken to her, but it all came out in yaut'ja. "Translator broke completely," she told him, moving out of the way, since she was in front of the panel that it was in.
Setting the book on the bulkhead, he leaned over and opened the panel, reaching in and pulling out the translation device again. "Pauk!" He grumbled a bit to himself as he was fixing it. "H'ka-se?" he asked. He recieved a negative shake of the head, and fiddled with a few more wires. "Now?" This time he got a nod. "Finally. Stupid translator." He placed the device back and pulled the panel door back over it. "So, what I said was, How about on the separation between the view ports?"
Hannah nodded, "That looks as good a place as any." She looked over at them. "Can you reach it?" she asked noticing that there was a lot of instrumentation between them and the separation. She picked up the picture and pulled it out from the sketch book. Holding the tape up she put a little on all four corners.
Yeyinde looked over at it, then at Hannah, "I think you can." He bent down and picked her up, one arm under her stomach one under her legs, and leaned forward with her, as far as he could reach. He held her forward and she barely touched the separation.
"Hold on! Hannah hold on! Don't let go!" Georgia called from above.
Hannah lay clinging to the 2x4 leaning out from the window, balanced on the treehouse across the alley. Behind her flames licked at the end of it. It shifted beneath her and she screamed. "Georgia! It's breaking! Georgia!" She screamed to her older sister. The 2x4 shifts again and Hannah starts to cry.
She can hear her mothers screams from inside the building. Her father lay below her, having gotten her to safety and fallen. She saw him land, and stop moving. His neck was at a horrible angle and his arms and legs were laying awkwardly.
"Hannah hold on!" Georgia called, "I'm coming to get you!" She started to crawl across the 2x4 that was next to the one Hannah was on. They were intended to for the repairs to Georgia's room after the water damaged roof had to be replaced. "Hold on Hannah!" Georgia called.
"Georgia! No! That one's broke! Stay there!" Hannah called trying to warn her. "Don't come out here!"
The 2x4 beneath Georgia cracked suddenly and she jolted, swinging around to the bottom, she screamed as her legs lost their hold on the board. Firemen rushed beneath them, trying to get a ladder up to them from their truck. They couldn't get the air cushion up in the alleyway. "Hannah!" Georgia cried, her hands slipping off the wood.
"Georgia no!" Hannah watched as her sister fell, screaming until she landed on the neighbors car, and was silent. The ladder made it up a few minutes later, and a man grabbed Hannah, and carried her down with him. She couldn't tell what was going on, everything blurred together. The only things she saw were her dad and her sister falling, and she only heard the screams of her mother, caught inside the house.
Quickly slapping the tape onto the metal she whimpered, "put me down now!"
Setting her quickly to the ground, he realized how scared she was just then. He watched as she sank to the floor in a heap as soon as her feet touched down. He crouched beside her, "I did not intend to frighten you."
Hannah crawled over and hugged Yeyinde tight. Just being held up in that position had triggered the memories. She sat and cried silently, tears running down her face, as she saw her sister falling, and heard her mothers screams.
Knowing something was wrong, Yeyinde simply held still, placing his hand on her back, and making a soft noise he used with unruly infant pups, that was a lot like a purr. He felt bad for what had happened, but also reminded himself that he didn't know it would. He sat and held her until her crying stopped. Looking down he saw she had fallen asleep. He picked her up, cradled her to him with one arm, and pulled down her bed, and placed her gently on it. They'd go back to her planet after he finished with the dead ship, and she woke up. But for now, he figured it best for her to sleep.
An hour later when he was headed back to earth, he looked back, hearing Hannah stirring. "Are you awake?" he asked her, turning to look at her.
She sat up and nodded silently, not looking at him. I've made a fool of myself. What an idiot! she thought, wondering how she'd explain all of that. I suppose that the truth would be best...damnit. She jumped down from her bed and walked over to her seat. "Yeyinde...about, about what just happened..."
"I understand, if you should not want to speak of it," he told her.
"No, I think you should know. It wasn't your fault. It, just being held up like that...reminded me of a few years ago. Something horrible happened," she sighed. Slowly taking a deep breath, she relaxed a bit, and started to tell him her story.
