Maria stares at her and though her mouth remains fixed in an angry scowl, there's surprise in her eyes. Probably because she's so used to this pin also requiring her to stamp on someone's crotch with one foot to properly work, as her height meant they were usually half-jammed onto the floor. But Alice's legs lightly dangled.
Maria's lips pull back, showing her teeth, though it isn't clear if she's grinning or baring them. "Who might you be?"
Alice gives a smart little salute. "Mary Whitlock!" she chirps, "Ripped and ready, ma'am!"
Maria freezes, Jasper freezes, and Alice smiles and glances eagerly between them.
"… You're fuckin' kiddin'." Maria's mouth curls into a grin. She turns that grin on Jasper, "Ya got married," she simpers. Jasper immediately fights down the urge to deny it — because they honestly hadn't gotten around to it yet. But Alice must have a reason for making it her name too.
Jasper's eyes are hard on the knife Maria still has at Alice's neck. "Let her go." Is all he says. Maria slinks away from the girl, raising both hands lazily into the air.
"But of course." Alice takes her freedom to trot to Jasper's side and hold his hand. Maria's sharp eyes stay on her. "Ready for what?"
"To help!" Alice swings their joined hands. "Jasper told me you were coming — I had plenty of time to prep everything!" she assures the touch-taller woman.
Maria frowns, and Jasper fights the urge to wipe his sweating palms on his pants.
"Prep, really?" Maria asks dryly.
"The crew's quarters!" Alice winks, and tugs Jasper's hand once, beginning to walk towards the observation deck. Maria strides after them as Alice skips along Jasper has to shuffle a little to match them with his longer legs. "It's where humans are supposed to go, and I cleared out anything they could use to tamper with the doors!"
"Well, how thoughtful." Maria's gaze stays focused on Jasper. "Why don't I just have the girls give it a once over?" she suggests, and flicks open the little communication microphone.
It was a wire that slid from the neck of her suit, close along her skin, to rest at the left corner of her mouth. Jasper remembered what it was like to wear it, the two pips before one of the women were in his ear about a new disturbance in their territory.
"Lucy, roll onto the floor, I can't take scraping against the ceiling no more," Maria snaps, and in the next second she opens the door to the observation deck and strides in.
Jasper winces slightly — the sudden switch to one-G had only given Lucy time to lie on the floor and moan as her deformed bones and muscle protested the heavy pull. Rosalie had landed flat on her ass and Emmett is on his hands and knees, one hand pressed against his forehead.
Carlisle meets Jasper's gaze, the blood dried into his hair making it orange. "He'll be alright," Carlisle says to him, and Jasper looks straight at Nettie, who's squatting on the ground and scowling. She's watching him closely.
"Toss the crew quarters," Maria says to Nettie, who breaks her staring contest with Jasper to fix it onto Alice. Maria looks down at Lucy, who was taking slow, careful breaths. "Apparently, we have a friend. Girls — this is Mrs Mary Whitlock," she says with no small amount of relish, and Alice waves at them both with a bright smile.
Lucy flicks out a needle and makes a swipe at her.
"Blood!" she declares, as Alice steps neatly out of the way as the woman struggles to flip onto her belly to focus on properly obtaining a sample. Jasper tosses the idea around in his head — Lucy had plenty of his bodily fluids from over the years, and it could be a show of faith — but Alice begins to walk away from Lucy as the woman wiggles like a snake towards her. With a tight grip on Jasper's hand, Alice leads him in a circle and he spins on his heels as Lucy climbs up his pants to get to his shoulder to steady herself.
Maria's face morphs into annoyance at the ridiculous proceedings.
"Enough!" she snaps. Lucy slumps over with a disappointed sigh, and Alice stays slightly behind Jasper. Maria tells Nettie to go and re-toss the bunks, so they'd have somewhere to shove them.
Alice had spun them both so that Jasper stood between herself and the other women, and in front of the Midas crew. Jasper glances over to them; seeing Alice seems to make the crease in between Edward's eyebrows ease just a little.
Maria cracks her neck sharply, "Lucy, shoot whoever tries to move," she orders, turns on her heel and leaves.
The gravity immediately switches, and Lucy sighs, long and low, and swims in that particular way, towards Alice.
"Blood," she repeats, much more in her element now as Jasper pulls Alice behind him.
"Lucy," he warns. Lucy pulls her long, little gun, and points it at Jasper.
She smiles as she slaps her hand-held against her thigh. "Shoot whoever tries to move." Maria's tinny recorded voice rings out.
Jasper frowns, weighing his options. Lucy is one of the coldest motherfuckers he'd ever met. One of the reasons he'd been so wary of Alice's optimistic attitude was because he had never met a happy woman who wasn't dangerous, and that woman was Lucy.
But Lucy liked him, once upon a time. In one-G environments, she always used to choose to go limp in his arms. Probably because Maria would sooner see her crawl, and Nettie was so short Lucy ran the risk of scraping her head against the floor.
"You can have more of mine," he offers her placatingly, putting on a smile.
Lucy's smile twists into an unhappy pout. "Bo-ring," she informs him.
Two pips, Jasper could hear them from Lucy's earpiece, "Get on the floor". Nettie's voice is annoyed.
Lucy huffs a sigh again, but as she lets her knees crumple under her, Jasper darts forward and grabs her around the middle with his free hand. She makes a noise of surprise, but luckily it seemed her body remembered the way he used to haul her up and tuck her hip under his collarbone.
Lucy settles now, not having to collapse to the floor, as Nettie stomps inside in the next second. "They're all clean," Nettie admits begrudgingly. "And if they're not," Nettie reaches behind her and yanks out a dusty-looking gun. "We'll see if our Weary Walker remembers how to shoot one of these."
Jasper catches the illegal modded-out bayonet he used to favour as a kid. He glanced down the scratched-up, ancient barrel. Nettie must have been keeping it a long time ….
She flashes her silver grin again, and Jasper squeezes Alice's hand as Nettie motions for the Midas crew to march out.
All of them look straight ahead as they're led from the observation deck.
Maria doesn't move when Nettie returns to the bridge with Jasper still carrying Lucy and tugging Alice along by the hand. Jasper rolls Lucy into the watch seat and the woman slumps with a vague grunt. Nettie takes the first mate chair, and it's strange to see her swallowed by it. Carlisle always had to stuff himself carefully inside the little seat.
Wordlessly, Nettie tosses him a comm wire. Jasper slides it against his throat, presses it against the corner of his mouth, and pushes the speaker into his ear. He had a vague notion — of jamming a new bit of jewelry into a very old piercing.
"There's no cameras in the crew quarters?" Maria asks.
|NO MA'AM!| Bella is all too happy to report. |WE ARE A /RESEARCH VESSEL/|
"Well, that's a shame," Maria says, but her tone is incredibly light. "Because I'd hate to see Walker have to shoot his friends. He don't make 'em easy."
The girls bark their short laugh at that, and Maria frowns when she does glance up and see Alice.
"Nettie, put 'em all away," the Captain says.
Alice grips Jaspers hand tighter. Her voice is chipper as she begins; "I think—"
"Now, Walker," Maria's light tone is gone. Lucy and Nettie turn to them too, and Jasper nods once.
"C'mon, lil' darlin'," he purrs when Alice's face morphs into a deep scowl. These were two tiny control-freaks he did not want to see butt heads.
Alice steps, measured and quiet, as Jasper takes her back to their quarters. "Are you going to talk to me?" she asks up at him.
Jasper twists his face, showing her the ancient microphone that would love to relay their conversation. "No."
She stands in the middle of their room and crosses her arms over her chest. Her face flushes red. "Then you listen to me!"
Immediately, Jasper pops out the comm and tosses it outside their room, before stepping in and closing the door behind him.
"Quickly," he hisses, taking her thin little shoulders in his hands. "Who in time and space is Mary Whitlock?"
"It's me!" Alice proudly points to her own face. "I changed my name everywhere on the ship too!"
Relieved beyond words, Jasper leans forward and plants a kiss between her eyes, which she cuddles up to accept. It's flimsy and unfair to the rest of the crew — but Alice had a much higher chance of running into these women again.
"I tried to send a call — but whatever that ghost-lady did, she's broken Bella," Alice whispers in a high tone. "She responded to herself, saying she received our coordinates and will be arriving soon."
Jasper gives a groan. He had desperately hoped Alice would be able to send something to someone. Even sending out a distress beacon to be picked up by any passing ship would be something. Alice's slim shoulders slump forward as she lets out a sad little sigh.
"Edward's going to be devastated — now he'll never use this relationship to gain confidence and get himself a real girlfriend!"
Jasper listens hard for noises outside in the corridor, and registers nothing, and knows they have no time. "I'm sorry, darlin', I'm sorry I got us into this." he hisses back, grasping her shoulders and crouching closer to her. "You should have done it exactly as I said we would — I should have gotten you here safe and let you go."
Alice blinks once and there's no movement on her face except the furrow in her brow. "I said you go where I go, and I said we'd stay here," she says, with innocent confusion at the idea that he'd try and tell her what to do. She puts her hand on his cheek and carrasses a little. "We'll get out of this, don't worry."
Jasper frowns, momentarily consumed with how gratingly annoying she knows he finds it when she tells him not to worry. He is always worried, it's his default setting. "You don't know her," he replies, and he knows he sounds pouty.
Alice shrugs, giving him an impish grin. "I don't need to, I know me. And I know we're getting out of this."
There's two sharp raps on the door, and Jasper pulls away with a sigh, pausing to crack his neck slightly.
Time's up.
"Wa-lker," Nettie's voice sings through the door, and Jasper flips open the lock and winces slightly as her silver grill flashes against the lamp from their bedside table and straight into his eyes, a common occurrence with metal teeth.
"Why the wait?" she asks, her smile slipping off her face, as she held his comm in her fingers.
"Well, I was trying to get him to suck me off but I suppose you can have him." Alice says before Jasper can open his mouth.
Nettie's short eyebrows shoot up, and Jasper spins around to see Alice, unsuited and holding her own underwear on her crooked finger, in nothing but her pink, frilly bra. How she managed to undress herself that quickly was beyond him. She only offers them a wolfish grin as she displays her pretty pink penis.
Jasper finds himself too swamped in embarrassment to say anything, and Nettie begins to guffaw, long and loud.
She claps him on the back and grabs his sleeve, yanking him out of the room.
"A stud just like me," she tells him, kissing up at him a few times as he struggles to start remembering words again, "I'm almost proud!" she simpers, still chuckling as she holds out his comm for him to take.
Her laughter stops as soon as the door closes on Alice.
"Don't try it again."
He doesn't need to agree, just slides it against his throat again.
Maria is attempting to ensure proper co-operation from their omnipresent AI.
"If they attempt to leave their rooms, in any way, you inform me."
|AFFIRMATIVE, MA'AM| Bella's sardonic voice rings out cheerfully. |PLEASE DEFINE ANY AND ALL BEHAVIOUR THAT WOULD CONSTITUTE 'ATTEMPT TO LEAVE THEIR ROOMS'|
Jasper didn't let himself smile. Malicious obedience is Bella's specialty. She almost brought Edward to tears implementing Esme's water-saving three-minute shower initiative when he tried to wish her a 'happy software start-up date'. She hadn't liked the reminder that she was not like them.
Maria taps her finger against her chin. "I see …" she murmurs aloud. "Alright — if you cannot judge such actions for yourself, then I have no eyes and ears about this ship."
|SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS, MA'AM|
Maria nods slowly. "That's alright," she assures the ceiling with a growing smile. "That's alright! I'll just lock each crew member in their rooms and starve them into submission," she decides with a nod. "Lucy — destroy the locks on the doors," she tosses over her shoulder.
|NO! THE CREW MUST BE AT THEIR OPTIMAL ABILITIES IN ORDER TO KEEP THIS SHIP RUNNING!| Bella's panic is too real, too authentic, to come after her staunch sarcasm.
Jasper frowns as Maria turns to him. "Which was the electrical engineer again?" she asks him.
"Masen, Edward."
"Get him here," Maria's growl is not an unhappy one. In fact, her outright anticipation is a cause for concern.
Jasper nods, turns on his heel, and heads back to the crew quarters.
As he moves, the nearest control panel beeps at him.
|BOSUN! IF THAT IS /STILL/ YOUR POSITION UNDER OUR NEW CAPTAIN|
Bella's voice sounds weirdly tiny, coming from solely the little speaker on the wall and not booming through the entire space. It's like her version of whispering.
Jasper stops, hesitating. He can't risk turning off his com or taking it out again. Which meant Maria is listening; and she's testing more than just Bella right now.
|WILL SHE HURT HIM? WILL SHE HURT EDWARD?|
Jasper lets out his next exhale as a long sigh. "You should have done what she wanted, just like I am," he says and strides to Edward's room, knowing he can't linger any longer.
It unlocks as he approaches, and he's not surprised that Edward comes bolting out as soon as it does. He charges straight for Jasper, who ducks to the side and sticks out his foot.
Watching Edward sprawled on the floor and whimper once makes Jasper slightly miserable with this task. The man is about to be in a lot more pain soon enough.
"Goddammit Whitlock!" he spits, shoving himself to his feet and rounding on Jasper. "Goddamn you! I should have shoved you back into your scrap heap as soon as you boarded!"
Jasper nods silently in agreement, and nods down the hall. Edward huffs once, and huffily still follows him.
"We could take them, we just have to get Emmett," Edward says lowly.
Jasper taps his left ear once. Edward scowls, peering closely at the little device. Jasper isn't entirely sure if Edward knows what it is — this mic is Lucy's own particular design, but it probably wasn't hard to guess. The smile Jasper gives him is a little genuine — the idea is so optimistic, so much like The Midas.
"They taught me everything I know, and you don't know shit," he says over his shoulder.
Edward returns to his brooding. He looks much like he did when Jasper first set eyes on him two years ago. "Have they hurt Bella again?" he asks in a quieter voice.
Jasper frowns, though he wished Edward hadn't asked. The girls would love to know just how much the AI meant to them. "You can't hear her?" he asks in return.
That's a damn shame, in Jasper's opinion — Bella was doing some of her best work, though definitely to the wrong person. Edward would have enjoyed it; he likes her snark.
"She's cut off everything," Edward admits quietly, "My lights aren't even on."
"Sorry," Jasper mutters, obviously not just talking about the lights, but they've reached command and he doesn't say anything else.
He waves Edward inside, who begins to look properly apprehensive for the first time.
"Electrical engineer Masen!" Maria declares, too pleased to see him.
But Edward doesn't even look at her, he's gawping at Lucy. The woman had Esme's throw grasped in her fingers and toes, and was slowly and gleefully pulling out each string. Jasper knows Lucy loved pulling things apart, but even he feels a pang at the loss. Esme had told him once — it was the last project she'd completed back on Earth before she left on this mission.
Maria gets to her feet and calmly walks over to the distracted engineer. Jasper winces for him as Maria reaches up and backhands him to get his attention.
Edward's head snaps to the side perfectly, as he clutches his shocked face. "Do you get along with your man, lil bot?" Maria asks the ceiling.
|NOT AT ALL. REGARDLESS OF WHAT YOU DO TO HIM, I WILL STILL NEED YOU TO OUTLINE ANY BEHAVIOURS YOU CATEGORIZE AS 'ATTEMPT TO LEAVE THEIR ROOMS'|
Bella's voice is the calmest and most professionally distant Jasper had ever heard from her, and he could have rolled his eyes at how her best attempt has just given her away.
Maria smiles and turns to Nettie. "Why don't you show off your fives." Her words are no suggestion.
Edward looks at Jasper in confusion, and Jasper wishes he doesn't. Can only shake his head and look away. Because Nettie never needed a fight — she just loved a beat down. With his soft hands and thin frame, it's easy to see a well-bred boy with not much meat on his bones.
Nettie pulls out her silver knuckles - the same metal as her teeth, and just as sharp. Shaped like the claws of some giant beast - she used the pointed ends when she really wanted to make a point. But the length of the claws spanned her along clenched fist, and the curved sides were all she needed to do some damage.
She ambles easily towards Edward, whose breath begins to come out faster and faster. He raises his hands at the oncoming woman.
"W-wait—"
Nettie smashes her boot against Edward's left shin and he falls hard on that knee. He makes just a grunt and gasp before Nettie delivers the first blow to the face. Then, he's too stunned to do anything.
Lucy makes a high excited squeal through teeth clenched around a few threads of the throw as she watches. The second blow has Edward trying to raise an arm and shield his face. Nettie knocks it aside for the third blow.
At that, Edward erupts like a geyser. The blood sprays out for a moment then straight down, dripping thick and heavy over his face, and his open mouth as he screams wordlessly.
"Shut up." Nettie grunts, giving him one sharp uppercut to the chin that throws him backwards, where he stays down and breaks into shocked sobs.