Chapter 28

Garden of Minos

"This is seriously the best thing you could find?" Jinx asked, holding up the stylish, but slinky dress.

"Yeah, I mean, all of the men's clothes were like, sized for Brick or something, I mean, you could've used each pant-leg as a dress, and there weren't any kids' clothes."

Jinx shot her a dirty look, but kept her mouth shut.

Gaige continued nervously "What other option do we have? You can't exactly go out as you are."

She gestured to the sheet that was wrapped around the other girl at the moment. Jinx kept giving her the dirty look as she flatly stated "Then you wear it."

"Huh?"

"Give me your clothes and you wear that...thing."

"But, I mean, why, it's not..." She sighed and looked at the dress and muttered "Why do I feel like you're abusing the situation."

After a few seconds she declared loudly "Fine, I'll go find something that fits me." And stormed out.

A short while later Gaige came stomping back down the hall and through the door only to find Jinx sitting there wearing a tank top and jeans repairing her chest protector.

"Huh?" Gaige froze for a second before heatedly asking "Where'd you get those?"

"Huh? Oh, he brought them for me." Jinx replied, nodding to where Deathtrap was floating.

"And where'd you find them?"

"Urguru"

"You Digi..."

"Why didn't you think of that?"

"The closets were just so big, and, and, now I feel like an even bigger idiot."

"Well, at least the dress looks good on you." Jinx said, glancing up at her.

Gaige looked down at the dress she'd picked out and at the bundle of clothes under her arm and cursed inwardly before she ran out of the room.

A few minutes later she came back into the room silently but with her cheeks still tinged red. She looked to where Jinx was sitting, finishing stitching her chest guard back together from where the bed had sliced it apart. She noticed Gaige's attention and spoke up "About the only thing I could salvage."

"Yeah, sorry bout that, didn't realize that it was gonna cut all your clothes off or I woulda done something sooner."

"What is that thing anyway?"

"You mean the medical bed? You don't know about them? Not that it's not expected, they're rare, expensive, it's just that I thought that you might have seen one on a hunter's ship or something, since a lot of them seem to be rich."

"Some of them are, but I've never been on one of their ships."

"Sorry. Anyway, there's a couple different brands of these things, but basically they're all pretty similar in what they do, which is to be a self-contained doctor."

"Huh?"

"Think of it like this, it can diagnose a patient and treat them all in one bed."

"So why aren't these things all over the place?"

"Cause they're a couple trillion each."

"T-T-Trillion!?"

"Yeah, and that's just for the bare bones model, not that anyone that's installing one of these things would be caught with one of those."

"And you found one of them here?"

"Actually, that was Deathtrap."

"Urgur"

"Thanks bud."

"Urrrr"

"But how'd you know this ship would have one?"

"We didn't, we just needed the ship with what we hoped would be the best med-bay we could get to, and we got lucky."

"And what would've happened if you hadn't? Gotten lucky I mean."

"We would've had to do it the old-fashioned way and gotten our hands dirty. Or bloody, that's what I meant, bloody. I mean we would've had to do it ourselves."

"I guess we did get lucky."

"Yeah, I really didn't want to have to cut you open, no offense."

"None taken, I mean, I get it. So, thanks, I guess, for saving me and all, but what're we doin next?"

"Well, now that you're back on your feet, I guess we should get outta here, before these bandits find us."

"Shouldn't we gear up a bit first?"

"With what? This things a pleasure barge, not a military ship, it's not like they're gonna have an armory or anything."

"Yeah, but shouldn't it have like a security station, or don't rich people have those tacky gold guns and stuff? Shouldn't we at least look?"

"OK, point, but we need to be quick, I didn't have any tools so Deathtrap kinda had to pull the panel out to get us in, so it's not like we're hidden or anything."

"We should get tools as well, as long as we're looking around." She paused and looked back at the bed for a moment before asking "Don't suppose there's any way to take that with us?"

"What, you want to install it onto your ship? Or were you planning on trying to sell it?"

"Seems like a useful thing to have around, besides, I doubt we could get much for it."

"True. I mean, I kinda had to override the thing to get it to recognize you as a user." Seeing the confused look on the other girl's face she continued "Most of these types of things are keyed to either a specific genetic code, or password protected. Prevents them from being black marketed. Bandits and pirates often tried to sell them."

"And you managed to override that kind of security?" Jinx said, obviously impressed.

"Yeah, took longer for me to calm down then to actually do the work. But as for taking it with us, I mean, I could look into it, but it's probably wired through the floor, so it might take a while."

"Maybe come back and see, but for now, let's move on."

They split up to search, with Deathtrap going up to the door and keeping a look out for trouble.

Jinx headed into the personal quarters and found that Gaige had been right, the closets were insane, with clothes of every conceivable color, and a few she hadn't even known about, but almost all of them were low-cut, or made out of material that she could see through, or were completely impractical, with straps and metal spikes. She chose to ignore them and checked behind the clothes to see if she could find a hidden panel or anything of the sort.

It wasn't until she was checking the men's closet, which was filled with an array of clothes from extremely formal, to as bad as the women's, and all in sizes that would dwarf her if she tried to wear them, that she found something, a small, slightly discolored knot in the wooden paneling.

Taking the chance, she pressed it and a chunk of the wall slid aside, revealing a safe. Sighing, she made mental note of it and continued on till she hit the bridge, which is where she found her first weapon, a Hyperion pistol, which was, in fact, gold plated.

Figuring that it was better than nothing, she attached it to her belt and took the few rounds of ammo with it before heading back to find Gaige.

They met up back at the med-bay, where Jinx showed Gaige what she'd found.

"Good, better than nothin."

"What'd you find?"

Gaige smiled and held up two handfuls of tools. Jinx noted that she also had on a worker's belt with a number of additional tools hanging from it and nodded.

"Any weapons?"

"Only a solid wrench I can use to bash someone with."

"That's it?"

"Like you did much better. OK, you did, but still, one pistol on this whole ship? Kinda pathetic."

"I also found a safe."

"What? Why didn't you say so earlier? Still, it's probably just reports, or money, or dirty tapes that they filmed here. Show me where it is."

They headed back into the closet and as soon as Gaige spotted the safe, she nodded and declared "Yep that's a safe. You want me to open it?"

"Why're you asking me? Don't you wanna open it?"

"Well, it's just, I didn't wanna..."

"Oh for the love of, make up your own damn mind."

Gaige flinched back which just caused Jinx to sigh and start over "Look, do whatever you want, I don't really care, but if you're workin on the safe, lend me some of those tools you found."

"Sure, what do ya need em for?"

Jinx held up her cyber-arm, showing the gash across it's back and stating "I need to find out what all's wrong inside it, I already know the blade won't pop out, but I need to see if I can fix it or if not, what I can do."

"Aw, it was such a pretty arm." Gaige said earnestly.

"I thought you thought it was childish?"

"I thought I already apologized for that and told you it was a beautiful piece of craftsmanship, but I might be wrong. Maybe I only thought that." She said looking at the safe and seeming down.

Jinx ground her teeth, but was silent as she started working on her arm, quickly removing the backplate and getting a look inside. It didn't take her long to see the problem.

"Well, there's no fixing this here." She said, holding up the broken off piece of the blade. "But I think I can get the Digi-blade working again, how're things coming over there?"

"This is a serious piece of work, but I'll get it. Hey, can I ask you something?"

"I guess, I mean, I wanted to ask you about something as well."

"Oh, you go first."

"You were the one that brought it up, so you go first."

"No, it wasn't really important so you go."

Jinx groaned and glared at the other girls back "You really need to stop this."

"Huh? This what?"

"All this subservent, susurveint, subservient, that's it, subservient crap. I mean, you're not acting like yourself and you're just gonna get frustrated and snap and say something that you'll regret."

"I'm just trying to act how you want me to."

"No, you're not."

"Then how should I act?"

"Why do you need to ask me that? Can't you just be yourself?"

"Well that didn't work out so well now did it? Sorry, I didn't mean that, it's just, I don't wanna screw up again, you know, so I don't know what you want."

"If you have to have me tell you that, then that's the problem, I mean, what would you say if I asked you how you wanted me to treat you?"

"Um, like you used to?"

"Which was?"

"Like a friend."

"And why can't you treat me the way you want to be treated?"

"Cause I'm a lousy friend."

"So am I. But that doesn't matter, you need to treat me like you want to be treated, so if you want me to defer to you for everything, then keep acting like you've been, but if you want me to start liking you again, then you better start acting like it."

Gaige hung her head but gave a nearly imperceptible nod.

"Good, now ask your question."

"It wasn't anything really important, but I was just wondering about your name. Your real name I mean."

"Jinx?"

Gaige nodded "Was it like, a nickname or something? Or did your parents give it to you because they knew about, well, you know? Or what? I mean, it just seems a bit odd to name your kid a misfortune."

"I thought you read up on Salvation."

"I did. Well, I more of skimmed it, why?"

Jinx sighed and looked up from her work for a second before answering. "It wasn't a nickname or anything like that. Where I'm from, there's a, well I guess you'd call it a tradition or something, to name your kid after a misfortune or curse. I think it came from a belief that when misfortune came looking, it'd see that you already were cursed and move on without touching you, or something. Incidentally I went to school with a dozen kids named Misfortune, a couple of Blights and a Pox."

"Really? Huh, I guess that makes as much sense as anything. So, did it work? The naming your kid's thing, I mean."

"As much as anything else I suppose. I mean, does knocking on wood really help?"

"Some say it does." Gaige shrugged, then suddenly seemed to realize something "Oh shoot, I'm sorry."

"Now what."

"I brought up your parents and with you being, uh, how you are, I just wanted to say that it wasn't your fault. What happened to them I mean."

"What're you even talking about?"

"Um, I just thought that you might feel guilty about your parent's accident, I mean, it must've happened around the time that you realized that you are the way you are and all. And I just wanted you to know that it wasn't your fault."

"Of course it wasn't, that was an accident, and I knew that I liked...who I liked since I was a kid so that had nothing to do with it. Look, I know you think it's baseless superstition, but"

"No." Gaige interrupted her "I don't think it's superstition, at best it's mediocre-stition."

Jinx just fixed her back with a flat glare that was hard enough that Gaige felt a cold sweat pop up on her back. Not turning around, she said "Sorry. I know I shouldn't interrupt, or mock your beliefs, I'll do better."

"Oh, this has nothing to do with that, that joke was bad enough that I'd be tempted to ditch you even if we were having the best day ever."

"Sorry."

"And stop apologizing all the time."

"Sor...you know, that's really hard to do."

"Yeah, I know, but try."

"I'll do my best, so, what'd you wanna ask?"

"Oh yeah, I was wondering about something that you said as you were trying to apologize earlier."

"Oh, what's that?"

"You said something about your dad and Marcie?"

"Hurk." Gaige made a strange sound as she froze up. Jinx could see the sweat dripping down the back of her neck as the muscles spasmed across Gaige's face.

"You wanna tell me about it?"

"I'd love to say no, but considering the rather, um, shaky ground I'm already on, I suppose I should."

"Look, if you don't want to, just say so. Don't try and be so eager to please me."

"It's not that, it's just, well, embarrassing, but I really do think I should tell you about it, now that you've brought it up."

Gaige paused and then started back up without turning around. "This is something that my dad told me back when we were on Eden, I didn't even remember it until he brought it up, at least not consciously. He told me that when I was young, one day I came home all excited, though I wouldn't tell him why exactly, he said that was part of why he remembered it, it was one of the first times that I'd kept a secret from him and he was worried about what it was, but that he let me keep it for as long as I could, which turned out to be not that long since I slipped up without realizing it later that night."

"Anyway, apparently I thought this new girl at school was really pretty, and the way I apparently talked about her was as if I had a crush on her, and looking back, he was probably right. But anyway, it only lasted that night, cause the next night I apparently came home broken-hearted cause I got to know the girl a little better and it turned out that she was an absolute stuck up bitch. And that was how I met Marcie Holloway."

"So maybe that experience soured my outlook on girls, or maybe it was just a phase, I don't know."

Jinx listened in silence and when Gaige finished, they sat quietly for a few moments before Gaige continued. "Then again, I can't say that I haven't been soured towards guys at the moment either, I mean, all those guys at the Bear's Den, and I felt nothing for them, not a one interested me at all. Oh, and at my party, though they were mostly related to me so I don't know how good a metric that'd be. And then there's the fact that I never really thought about girls until now, I mean, there was Moxxi, but I think everyone feels something for her, hell, I even heard some of the gay guys in the Crimson Lance muttering about her. But other than her, which doesn't count, there wasn't really anyone to consider. I mean there was Maya, but she was like a big sister to me. And then there was Lilith, but somehow, she just didn't seem to register that way. And Tannis? Yeah, no. And Tina was way too young. So I guess I've never really thought about it until now, so that's what I was trying to say earlier when I said I don't know if I can be that for you."

Jinx sighed and spoke up "And let's say you did, someday way down the line, but for argument's sake, let's say you found that you wanted to try. How am I supposed to believe that it's not just you trying to win me back? To appease what you think that I want?"

Gaige hung her head "I know. I knew that the instant you rejected me then that I was making things worse. And not just in the moment, but for the future. All I can say is, if that ever happens, I hope we've moved past the point where we each feel like this. The owing each other a debt that can't be repaid."

"Time will tell. Speaking of time, how's that safe coming along?"

"Almost got it. How's the arm?"

"Not so good, the Digi-blade's lens is cracked, so no chance of getting that working again without parts, additionally, the anti-electric properties of it are shot."

"That sucks. You have enough materials back at the ship to make another?"

"Yeah, I should have my test one left and maybe enough to make another leg."

"What's wrong with the leg? And wait? Why're we fighting with this safe instead of going back to the ship?"

"We can't get back to the ship without cutting through either the bandit or the creature's territory. Trust me, I looked. Besides, we need the guns in case we run into the bandits on the way. Plus we need to find noise canceling headphones if we're going to try fighting the creature."

"First, of course we're going to need to fight the creature, we need to get at the ship, the Ranger's Iron, I mean. Plus, it'll help us later on. But how do you know the headphones will work?"

"That's what Mentes used. Said it saved his life when he got here."

"Right, good enough for me."

"Speaking of Mentes, that's the other reason we can't go back to the ship first."

"Huh?"

"You know that I disable the ship in some way before I leave it somewhere right? Well, I need that part for us to get inside."

"Oh crap, and where's it at? Don't tell me, it was taken by the bandits?"

"No, it..."

"Was in your backpack and is now somewhere in that field of ships."

"No, it..."

"Oh, is it..."

"SHUT UP! Stop interrupting me, seriously." Jinx huffed as Gaige cowered slightly whispering "Sorry."

"Just let me talk, alright? It was in Shadowstar. I didn't lose her when I got attacked and Mentes had removed her from my belt, I seem to remember her sitting on the table next to me when I woke up, but I'm sure that I saw her under the bed when I got kicked, so she's probably there."

"So, we just have to get to this Mentes's house and get her back."

"Yeah, but that's the problem, I never saw where it was. I mean, I was unconscious both times I went through the door, so I can't be sure of where it is, but it has to be close to where I fell, so we can start there."

"Well, we should probably take care of that after we kill the Orochi. That way we don't have to be looking over our shoulder while we search."

"That was what I thought as well, oh, and as for my leg, the impact when I fell must've shattered the anti-electric layer. When I was escaping the Luring Orochi I mean."

"Ouch, that sucks. Alright, I got it." Gaige switched emotions instantly as the safe gave a clunk and swung open. "You wanna do the honors?"

"Not really, just check for traps and get that thing open so we can get outta here."

"I know, I know." Gaige muttered as she checked the door and when she didn't find anything, carefully swung it open. Inside she found stacks of journals and ECHO logs piled on one side. On the other were large leather folders lined up across the top and under them was a smaller door. Without much hope, Gaige opened it and her jaw dropped.

Inside were jewels the likes of which she'd never seen. Even for a girl like her that didn't wear fancy accessories, these were stunning, even if a number of them ran into the wrong end of overdone.

There were gems of every color, some set in gold, others in other metals, and a few appeared to be connected by nothing.

She tentatively reached in and picked up a necklace with a sapphire the size of a baby's fist dangling from it and held it up.

"Is that all that's in there?" Came a voice from behind her that brought her back to reality.

"Yeah, at least in this part." She said carefully putting the jewels back and grabbing one of the leather folders. Untying the cord that held it closed she flipped it open and looked inside. It took her a bit to find out what she was holding but when she did, she let out a soft whistle.

"What is it?"

"Stock certificates, deeds, and the like. All kinds of stuff that's worth a whole lot of money. Or they would be if we could get our names on them."

"So worthless?"

"Pretty much I'm afraid. Though we might be able to get something out of them as a finder's fee if we could get them out and to the right person."

"So, no guns. Waste of time then."

"Well hold on. First off, if these gems are real, then they're worth a fair amount. And that's if we sell them, lots of precision machinery uses gems in them."

"Well, if you want them, you carry them."

"You don't want any? This one would look nice on you." She said holding up a tasteful pair of silver earrings set with deep purple gems.

"My ears aren't pierced. Plus, they'd just sparkle and give me away on the hunt."

"I thought you were retired?"

"Considering how often I get attacked, same rules apply."

"Fair enough, but we could rework them so you don't need to pierce your ears."

"Whatever, if we're done here, let's move on."

"Hold on, I wanna see what's in these journals and on the ECHOs first. Speaking of which, can I borrow your ECHO for a minute?"

"Fine, just be quick." Jinx said with a sigh, handing the battered device over.

Gaige took it carefully and turned back to examine the stack of ECHO logs, they all seemed to have some kind of code on them that seemed to be a combination of a date and initials. Not being able to make sense of it without some clue, she grabbed one at random and popped it in.

She ejected it half a second after the moaning started.

Blushing furiously, she tossed it back without a word and handed the ECHO device back.

"What" Jinx started only to get cut off by Gaige.

"Not one word."

"How do you even get in that position?"

"Nope, we're not going there. Journals, let's see what's in the journals." She quickly said, trying to change the subject as she grabbed the top one and flipped it open.

After flipping through it she tossed it back in with a sigh.

"Well, at least we know why the ship was out here now, not to mention the advanced medical equipment." Catching the look from Jinx she continued "Seems that the owner was sick. Really sick. Not contagious, but dying and they were trying to find a cure, looking everywhere for something to prolong their life just a little bit further. And that's how they ended up here."

"Oh, that's useless."

"Well, I'm glad I know, now let me get a bag so I can take the jewels. Where did he find that Digi-structor." She muttered as she hurried out.

"Hey," Jinx yelled after her "Get me a bag as well, and see if you can make some canteens and food. Actually, I'll be right after you, I'm starving."

Gaige stopped and glanced back, feeling down again. She should've thought of that. She should've known that the other girl would be hungry after waking up, but she'd never even thought about it. 'Damn, how inconsiderate can I be?' She berated herself, but then stopped and watched Jinx in puzzlement as she grabbed the journals and ECHOs and sent them sprawling out onto the floor.

As she watched, the other girl grabbed another handful and tossed them. Having cleared the space, she reached in and started feeling around before sitting back with a look of triumph on her face and a pair of wooden boxes in her hand.

She popped open the top of the first one, the larger of the two only for her face to fall in disgust.

"Cigars." She said, tossing the entire box over her shoulder, before stopping and looking at Gaige "You didn't want those, did you?"

"Ew, no. Can't stand the smell of them."

"Good." With that she opened the second box, only to look disappointed again.

"What is it?"

"Not for you." Came the reply as Gaige stepped back into the room just as Jinx closed the lid on the box, but not before Gaige got a glimpse of the bottle inside.

"Hold on, let me see that."

When she got the flat glare, she quickly waved her hands and added "You can keep it, I don't want it, I just wanna know what it is, is all. I mean, I do know a bit more about alcohol then you, I can at least identify it."

Jinx opened the box and turned it to face her and Gaige leaned in and nodded "Well, it's a rare vintage, but not like the one that I lost. It's champagne, might've gone bad by now. He was probably saving it to use for celebration if he got cured."

"So not even good as a disinfectant." Jinx said standing up and walking out of the room. Gaige hustled along after her and they soon found themselves in the ship's galley.

"Digi-structed food." Jinx groaned as she got to work punching in the requests and watching the food appear before her.

Gaige kept her mouth shut and quietly left, returning a short time later with a pair of backpacks, hers weighing a bit more then Jinxes since she'd already filled it with the jewels tied up in a dress.

They quickly ate something as they packed away the food and water and after stopping to grab as many Insti-health vials as they could, headed up to where Deathtrap was keeping guard by the door. As they approached, he gave them a nod and they prepped to leave when Gaige suddenly remembered something.

"Oh hey, um, don't take this the wrong way but..."

"Weren't you the one that said that that never leads to anything good?"

"No, I think it was 'Don't get mad' but, yeah, 'don't take this the wrong way' is right up there, so can I ask?"

"Fine."

"You don't have a fiance do you?"

Jinx nearly choked and sputtered out a "W-what?"

"A fiance. You don't have one, do you?"

"W-where'd that c-come from?"

"Sorry. It's just that when I was starting to look for you, I called the Bear's Den, and Alec told me that the pilot of that ship that came in after us, Alec was who I talked to on the ECHO by the way, anyway, she told me that the pilot of that ship came looking for us and that he claimed to be your fiance, that you and him had met on a hunt and hit it off and that he was supposed to meet you just outside of here and that's how he got stuck."

Jinx shot her a dumbfounded look as Deathtrap opened the door and they stepped out.

"Judging by your expression, this is the first you've heard of this?"

"Yeah, no shit. What's this liar's name?"

"I think it was something like, hold on, Orion?"

"Son of a bitch, that bastard's chasing me?"

"You know him?"

"Yeah, he's..." She cut off and suddenly tackled Gaige, throwing both of them behind a small rise in the deck as a rifle shot tore through the air where they'd just been.