Xenotober 2022 01 Family

a/n: Most people don't have family in NLA. Lila Brown the OC NPC is no exception.

All the good things belong to Monolithsoft.


"What did you say her name was?" Lila didn't look up from the work tablet, watching the numbers for hourly fuel usage scroll past. At some point that week, there had been an odd flux in usage at the refueling station, and they were in danger of running short before the next delivery. She flicked back, scanning the appointments, trying to figure out why they had blown through a week's use in just 4 days. All around her, hulking skells backed into refueling bays under the guidance of tiny golden robots not much bigger than a lunchbox.

"You ain't minding me," snarled the technician waiting beside her. He shifted angrily from foot to foot.

"Maybe the construction fleet we serviced on Monday," mused Lila to herself.

"LILA," snapped Gino.

She looked up, blinked in surprise, and had the decency to blush. "Right. Who did you say came by?"

"You listening?"

"I'm listening."

"Great. She said her name was Avery and that she was looking for you specifically. Personal reasons. Blondie girl."

"And you didn't get her number," Lila said without emotion. Gino had a habit of trying to get the number of interested parties.

"I can't stand them shrinking things," Gino snorted. He mimicked a soft young voice. "Ooooh don't mind meeeeee, I'll just STAND RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FUCKING STATION UNTIL YOU PAY ATTENTION TO ME why hee hee if you have the tiiiime I guess I'll cough up a little info." He spit maliciously. "She got on my nerves real fast."

"Uh huh." Lila's eyes were drifting back to the business data.

"She reminded me of someone else I could mention, but at least she pretended not to think she was the most important bitch to walk this planet."

Lila looked over the edge of the tablet and stared into Gino's angry eyes. "Was it that bad?"

"What?"

"The lunch rush."

"Naw."

"You want to go talk to our Ma-non owners next time?"

"Hell no."

"I'll take that as a maybe." She handed the tablet back to Gino. "Give me five minutes to get out of this monkey suit and I'll relieve you."

"Yippee. Should I be grateful to get my scheduled break on time?" He didn't wait for an answer, hustling over to greet a newly arrived soldier, ready to pick up her skell.

Lila zipped into the station's office, built into a storage container parked at the end of the refueling bays. She shucked her heels off as she flicked the lock on the door, and padded quickly over to the lockers. Stripping out of her formal business outfit, cobbled together from a variety of ECP uniform pieces, was a blessing. She resisted kicking her skirt into a corner, instead stuffing it ungraciously into a cubby. Pulling on the orange station coveralls was exactly what she needed after a difficult meeting with the backers of the refueling station.

Candid & Credible were enthusiastic and supportive, but they were also infuriatingly vague about why they wanted to run a gas station for skells. They had to have a greater plan, as evidenced by their refusal to allow Lila to schedule regular use of the fourth bay in the station. Casual daily use, yes, but nothing long term. Lila had scheduled the meeting to try to get them to reconsider. The bay in question was the largest area in the station, and perfect for servicing a new contract with the delivery fleet for the Integrated Production Plant, or maybe even negotiating one with the Recycling division. That kind of contract was exactly the thing to keep the station solidly in the black. The Ma-non had warbled a series of negatives, without further explanation, and had offered her yet more pizza. She had accepted, not to be polite, but to give her teeth something to grind against.

Now she had half a day's work to catch up on, a head full of questions about the station's future, and a case of heartburn. She chewed a digestive augment and headed out to relieve Gino.

By dinnertime, she was in a much better mood. Pulling cable, setting the mixes just so, joking with the customers and with a refreshed Gino, these were the things she wanted in her life. She sometimes wondered if her grandfather would have been proud to see her running a filling station, if only as a manager. He'd owned his businesses, a chain of stations that had made him proud. He'd hoped that she'd follow in his footsteps, and then he'd quietly sold the lot of them when it was clear she wasn't coming home to stay, dedicated to the Navy and all the adventure it could offer. And now here she was, worrying about suppliers and staffing and expansions, as if she'd been born to it. It gave her some comfort, feeling a little closer to him with every customer dealt with and store display restocked.

"Yo, Lila!"

The last connector to a skell's fuel tank tightened, Lila slid down a stepladder nimbly and turned toward Gino's shout. Her relaxed smile became more polite when she saw a young woman standing next to him. Blond, as he had mentioned, and slim. Hesitant and apologetic posture, but also a stubbornness about the shoulders that indicated she wasn't going to leave without fulfilling her purpose. The mysterious Avery. She was almost as short as Lila, with a soft and gently curling haircut, wearing civilian clothes, slacks and a pale blue blouse that made her look harmless.

Lila approached smoothly. "Lila Brown," she introduced herself. "And you are ..."

"This is the Avery chick I was telling you about," Gino said. He looked from one to the other, picking up on Lila's hidden suspicion.

"I'm Avery Johnson and-" she took a quick breath, almost a gasp, "- and - I think I'm - I know - I'm your sister."


a/n: Daily stories for October returns, but I'm bending the prompts from the Xenotober 2022 group to my own dark ends. This story is going to continue for at least four more chapters.

Next up: Encounters. Sure. Lila encountering Avery counts, right?