Hey! here is ch2, hope the few who read enjoy. Please feel free to leave any comments or critiques.
Location Unknown
Emerald felt like she was floating in a sea of blackness for what felt like hours, as the minutes passed by she could feel slight tingling return to her fingers and toes with the occasional sound emanating like a specter in the blackness.
"What do you mean you can't find the case." came a deep authoritative voice.
"Like I said it's somewhere on the blasted planet, don't worry all I have to do is go back down and retrieve it." responded a fearful voice sounding desperate to placate his apparent master.
"Then why is it you even boarded the blasted skiff in the first place, with a fucking primitive no less!?" the deep voice raged.
"B-b-b-but i-its the local's bossman, they all have these powers. I-I-I don't know how else to describe it, this girl somehow is capable of creating illusions that's how she stole the case from me the first time and she probably did it again when I tried to retrieve it."
"Listen Yacob I don't care what "powers" these primitives have. I have Tri Tach bean counters breathing down my neck. The trinkets you and your boys dug up aren't going to placate them forever. If we can't get that blasted Alpha to them soon we..."
The conversation faded out of Emerald's mind and a soundless sleep took her.
Emerald felt like she was in a state of trance fading in and out of consciousness only picking up chunks of conversations happening around her.
"Aren't you a pretty one."
"You think this Vacsuit will fit her?"
"Why bother with a primitive?"
"The core must be recovered if it activates…"
"What if the Hegemony finds out what we found, or worse the Ludd's?"
"We sit upon the greatest find the Persean sector has ever seen, if we don't place our claim now it will be lost to us forever.
"Is she ready to be woken up?"
Emerald felt a coldness flowing through her body as her senses started to return. When She cracked her eyes open she was blinded by a bright fluorescent light. She tried to raise her left hand to shield her eyes but the hand didn't move. Looking over to her left she saw her hand strapped into a large technologically advanced armband with a digital screen showing a pulse meter. Probably some Atlas base, she thought.
As her eyes adjusted she realized she was in a reclined chair in what to her guess was some kind of medical bay. The walls had an iron-like tone to it with a painted red cross on the door opposite her confirming her suspicions.
"Wakey wakey," came an enthusiastic voice, looking over she saw the familiar pale freckled face, green eyes and messy brown hair of Yacob sitting next to her in a chair with a couple of bowls. Unlike his attire during their confrontation, he was wearing a very plain navy blue jumpsuit which showed his thin frame. To Emerald's satisfaction, he also had some kind of brace over his left leg. Emerald, immediately tried to launch herself out of the chair but realized her arms and legs were strapped down. But worse than that, where are my clothes!? Rather than her normal attire, she was wearing an olive green baggy jumpsuit similar to Yacobs.
"Now listen here we are going to try this again alright, I feel like we got off on the wrong foot the last two times we met alright? It was nothing personal just business alright? Now, let's start with some proper introductions, my name is Yacob Cabrakan. '' Holding the tray of food up to her "What's your name?"
Emerald only glared at her captor "Emerald where am I and where are my clothes?"
Yacob sighed and put one of the bowls on her lap and unlocked her right hand. "You're aboard the ISS Dikiy Rebenok and I think the doc threw them in the recycler."
While upset that her clothes were thrown in the trash she was terrified that she was apparently aboard some kind of boat or airship going who knows where. Despite the fancy medical system she was strapped in the rest of the environment didn't fit Atlas's or any other kingdoms style looking kinda worn and old.
While wanting to ignore the food from her captor Emerald felt like she hadn't eaten for hours and begrudgingly took a spoonful of the apparent chunks of meat covered in green sauce. Upon her first bite she immediately recoiled as she began to chew, it tasted like someone placed a pasta sauce with the texture of toothpaste over undercooked beef chunks. She forced down the food and looked up dumbfounded as Yacob continued to eat through his similar bowl. "The hell is this!?"
Yacob looked up from his bowl confused "Uh vat-grown beef with soy paste."
"Did you even bother to cook the food? It tastes awful."
Yacob shrugged. "Well, you don't get to pick and choose what you eat up here. Besides it's designed to provide nourishment not taste," he said while wagging his spoon at her as if he was scolding a child.
Emerald was immediately put off from the meal hearing this was some kind of pretend meat, however, she was starving and resigned herself to the meal. I do what I must, slowly she began eating through her bowl pushing off the green paste and just eating the meat that was leftover.
Seeing that she finished he took her bowl placed it on his lap and took an almost business-like tone. "Now then down to business, I am not going to waste your time here I just want to know where the case is. You tell me that and you're free to leave."
With a chuckle, Emerald shook her head "I don't know what you're talking about the last thing I saw was you trespassing in the Beacon armory and being the good huntress that I am attempting to apprehend this intruder."
With a sigh, Yacob looked into Emerald's eye, to her surprise rather than a look of frustration or the emotionless look of an interrogator. Instead, when she looked into his green eyes she saw only pity, either he is a poor interrogator or he is actually concerned about what will happen to me. "I am gonna be honest with you, you are in a very bad situation at the moment."
"I have been in worse."
"No, I don't think you have."
"I am sitting in a relatively comfortable chair, I just ate a mediocre meal, and I am being interrogated by someone who doesn't know how to talk to a girl. Soooo a rather bland night out on the town, or just a day in class."
A pleasant laugh came out of Yacob as his head tilted down hiding his smile, as it came back up he still couldn't wipe away a slight grin but his eyes remained the same. "Well, I am not trying to interrogate you or hit on you. I just want the case, and hopefully not have my compatriots kill you when this is done. I am willing to negotiate a considerable level of compensation in exchange for your help."
"How much?"
Yacob seemed to think for a minute counting on his fingers as if trying to solve a simple math problem. "How about 500,000,000 Lien?"
Emerald jaw almost dropped at the number, 500 million Lien was just under Schnee levels of money
"There is no way in hell that you or anyone aboard this ship has that kind of money. If you actually had that kind of cash to throw around you wouldn't be walking around the streets with something even more valuable in a freaking briefcase. Why should I make a deal with someone who is either incompetent or stupid enough to think I would fall for such a lie." While the thought of compensation intrigued her she was also thinking how much this could interfere with Cinder's plan and if she doesn't get out of here soon all of her masters carefully laid plans would be wasted and herself being the target of her ire.
"Ah and that's where you're wrong!" Yacob said with a wide smile, looking like a child that was holding a bad joke. Pulling a scroll out of his pocket he began speaking to someone, hey can we go on the drift for a bit just so I can make a point down here.
After a few seconds a voice crackled through the other end, "Sure but only for a few minutes."
Immediately Emerald felt a shift in herself and the environment around her; her stomach felt like it was gently rising as if she was in a bullhead in heavy turbulence, her body then rose from her seat with only the restraints keeping her in her secured. Yacob, on the other hand, was sent rising upwards from the ground using his hands to keep himself from hitting the ceiling, rotating himself so that he was floating upside down with his legs crisscrossed in a sitting position. "You will not be compensated in cash rather in precious items worth that value on your world. Right now we are orbiting around your world's moon 300,000 Km from the surface aboard a ship that is capable of traveling the stars. Not only are you the first person on your little planet to leave the atmosphere but … and here's the clincher you are also the first person to have also met aliens. So the less time we have to spend on your planet the better once we have that case we are gone and you get paid simple as that."
At Yacobs reveal Emerald burst out laughing "I was expecting a lot of things to come out of your mouth but that, that was certainly not one of them!" This is ridiculous, does he really expect to trick me with a story like that, he is either stupid or just mad.
To his credit, Yacob seemed unfazed by Emerald's reaction instead he simply smiled and nodded. "Glad I could be of such amusement, but everything I just told you is true and if you don't believe me let me show you."With a press of a button on his scroll, the restraints holding Emerald in the chair released freeing her but when she pressed off she began floating uncontrollably into the air bumping into the ceiling and floating back down. As she reached the floor she grabbed onto the chair desperately keeping her feet planted onto the deck.
Yacob seemed to have no trouble moving in the change in gravity simply pushing off the ceiling with one foot and rotating till he was upright he then clicked the heels of his shoes together and attached himself to the floor. Seeing her struggling with the lack of gravity he started laughing " You are such a well stomper aren't ya." He then crossed the room and opened a locker pulling out a pair of boots and a suit and helmet. "Let's get you suited up, and I'll give you a more undeniable piece of proof.
To Emerald's dismay, the suit was extremely uncomfortable, the suit itself consisted of two layers the first was a kind of full-body black wetsuit that was skin-tight, covering everything from toes all the way till just underneath her chin. "A suit must always be tight so that way any punctures can be quickly sealed before all your juices flow from your body," Yacob explained
To her dismay there was little privacy Yacob refused to leave the room but agreed to look away while holding a bowl over the security camera. With the first layer on she was then given the boots which Yacob explained had magnets to them which kept the crew planted when they had no gravity. "Just think of it as if you were walking in pumps and you should be alright."
The Second layer was far more uncomfortable, like the bodysuit it was tight and seemed to contort to her body. The "vac suit" as Yacob called it was the same Olive green as the initial jumpsuit she was wearing except that the material felt like a heavy rubber in her fingers with off-color splotches around the suit from possible repairs or stains. On the front of the suit was what looked like a brand logo of a red crescent moon over the words "Hazard Mining", and on the back was a picture of what looked like a child riding on the back of a missile knife held in the air, underneath was the ship's name "ISS Dikiy Rebenok". With Yacobs help, he placed the helmet over her head and pressed a few buttons on her suit's armband. A bunch of Icons appeared on the visor which quickly cleared leaving only two notices reading "O2 100%", and "Radio: Ship" in the corner of the visor. "I think George bought these at a discount from a bunch of minors, let's hope he didn't goof off when checking this one." The apparent state of the condition of the suits left her extremely uncomfortable, If they are aliens from another world how the fuck did they survive traveling the stars with a bunch of hand me down equipment.
Leaving the medical bay Yacob and Emerald were greeted by a giant bald man with what appeared to be a large shotgun standing guard outside the medical bay door. The man wore a dark grey jumpsuit which seemed to strain against powerful muscles that lay hidden beneath his uniform "George you mind escorting us to the airlock."
George simply nodded as he eyed Emerald keeping the shotgun in a relaxed grip but angled slightly in her general direction so as to quickly dispatch her if she tried anything.
As the three arrived at the airlock Yacob threw on his own vac suit and led Emerald through an extremely sturdy door about the size of a garage with only a plain room and another similar door on the opposite side of the room. As the two entered the door behind them closed and Emerald and Yacob were left alone in the empty room.
"So where is this proof that you are showing me?" Emerald asked but Yacob either couldn't hear her in the suit or he was just ignoring her, instead, he was tapping some buttons on a control panel. She then felt a vibration emanating from below her like the ripples of an earthquake. Turning she saw that the opposite wall was sliding open silently but she could feel the vibrations emanating from the door through the floor and up her body. Emerald didn't know what to expect she figured as soon as the doors opened she could try and use her semblance and make a getaway. As the door widened any thought of escape drifted from her mind as ahead of her was simply blackness. The door opened wider and Emerald hoped beyond hope that she could catch a peek of the ground. She was met with only blackness, a blackness so deep that it was the stuff of nightmares, the nightmares where you were falling for eternity and not even having the luxury of knowing where the ground was.
All that Emerald could hear from inside her suit was her rapid breathing and her rapidly increasing heartbeat. "Impossible." This has to be a dream or some kind of illusion, yes that's it Yacob must also have some kind of illusion based semblance and he is using it to try and scare me. There is no other possible explanation for this. Emerald began to step back looking for the comfort of the back wall but she was only greeted by Yacobs hand against her back.
"You're probably thinking this is some kind of illusion aren't you, that I am trying to trick you into helping me. Even now you are trying to find ways to reject what you see, is it an illusion, my semblance, maybe a giant screen we strapped to a door? No, what you see right now outside that door is… my home." A hint of frustration cracking towards the end.
"This...this is impossible."
"Why don't you have a closer look?"
Before she could refuse Emerald felt a firm press against her back as her boots disconnected from the deck and she began floating uncontrollably towards the door. Emerald yelped like a scared puppy and began flailing her hands wildly as if she was trying to swim away from the oncoming rush of the abyss. No matter how she moved or contorted herself she could not change the direction she was going and in a matter of seconds, her visor was filled with nothing but the blackness of space. "Please please help me, don't leave me out here! I believe you, I swear I believe you just please take me back in!" she began screaming hoping that someone could hear her over the suit's radio.
Yacob's voice crackled through a speaker on her suit "Calm down we have a line attached to you, for now, take some deep breaths and enjoy the view to your right and you will be back aboard in a minute."
Looking over her right shoulder Emerald was awestruck by the sight that she saw. A view of Remnant with the moon in the foreground. The colossal broken arch of the moon curving over Remnant looking like the moon was giving the planet a hug. This is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. No deep, philosophical, or artistic thought passed through her mind as she floated amongst the stars looking down on the blue dot that she had spent all her life on. All the fear and anxiety seemed to evaporate and she was left only with this view that she will never forget.