Welcome to chapter 3! This one deals mainly with emotional backstory stuff.
You get to learn some of Kathryn's now- the rest is revealed later. For
next chapter, I PROMISE there will be a lot more action. Probably a hand to
hand combat... And if you're all on your best behavior, maybe some guns.
This chapter's name! It's a song by the great Duke Ellington, one of his
more popular works. I chose it because it's kind of fits now, and it's kind
of ironic later on. Maybe you'll see.
Broken Hearted Melody Sophisticated Lady
That night, Kathryn dreamed more easily than she had in ages. She dreamed she was a young girl again, back before she had left home and undertaken the harsh realities of real, unsheltered life. She was a pretty youth, with a placid smile and beautiful grey eyes. She was teased for her sing-song voice, but she didn't care. She was protected and loved, and couldn't have wished for anything more.
She awoke slowly, to the sound of simple music. She slowly drifted from dream to reality, carefully examining each fantasy as it passed away. Her cheerful smile rarely turned up anymore; instead, she wore a forced grin. Her eyes no longer shone the way they did, but seemed dulled, still attractive, yet strangely haunting. Her lovely voice became the collected voice of an aged woman, perhaps more respectable, but less charming. It was all because of age, she often assured herself; yet things weren't the same...
She became aware of the tune that stirred her from memory. She turned over in bed, and saw Hannah putting on a pair of socks, humming to herself, looking rather clean and refreshed. A towel lay in a messy pile next to her bed.
Hannah glanced up. "Oh. Hello. Sleep well?"
"Very," Kathryn replied, still sleepy. "I dreamed about when I was younger."
"Ah... The new girl has a back story! Happy to be away from home?"
She hesitated. "No... No, not at all. I miss it."
"That's a shame. Why? Family?"
"Yes, partially. That, and the comforts of having a place to call home. You know-"
A loud knock on the door interrupted her.
Hannah rolled her eyes. "Come in!"
The door opened and Reilly stepped in, wearing a much more casual outfit than the night before. "Morning. The engine is fine again. We're on a course to Mars."
"Lovely," Hanna replied. "Is that all?"
He blinked. "...I guess."
"Then if you'll excuse us..." Hannah rose to her feet and began ushering Reilly out of the room. "We were having a nice chat, until you barged in."
He stopped and turned, pointing straight at her. "Now wait a minute! I knocked!"
"Out!" She shoved him through the doorway.
"Well, hey, wait!" Kathryn called, sitting up in bed. "He can stay. I don't care."
"Better idea," Reilly replied. "Get dressed, showered if you need to, and you can tell us about yourself over breakfast."
She shrugged. "That sounds fine. What are we having?"
Reilly made a face. "Fish."
Within an hour, Kathryn, Reilly, Nev, and Hannah were all assembled at the ship's makeshift dining room- a table surrounded with chairs, set up in the middle of the rec room, all wearing something along the lines of comfortable pants and shirts, good for relaxing in. Hanna had fried fish for them, while Nev scrambled eggs. Kathryn insisted on helping, while Reilly, on the other hand, refused to do anything. Instead, he sat around and watched television, until his meal was served, at which point, he dumped salt over everything and complained about the flavor.
"You're a real pain in the ass," Nev told him through a mouthful of food.
Reilly didn't reply, remaining fixated on his fork, which he used to mash his eggs further.
"He's like a little kid," Hannah went on. "Fix him a meal, and he'll complain about it for five minutes, then scarf it in two."
Kathryn attempted to keep from laughing.
"He thinks he's a royal princess," Nev smirked, "we should-"
"Anyway," Reilly declared boldly, slamming a glass of orange juice on the table, forcing it to slosh over his hand. "What did you want to tell us Kathryn?"
"Oh," she said with a blush, "nothing in particular. I just figured you might like to know where I want to go."
Hanna swallowed politely before speaking. "First, I'd rather hear about why you left home, and why you're regretting it."
Kathryn turned pink again. "Of course," she replied, collecting herself and beginning to speak. "Well, I lived a normal middle-class kid life, I had friends and family, and a nice home."
"Boyfriend?" Hannah asked curiously.
She smiled. "A steady one every now and then. Never too serious. I had the occasional teenager problem, but I was satisfied with everything the way it was. I guess the real reason I left was because I didn't realize I was satisfied. As my friends began to move away, I though I wanted to as well. I was under the illusion that I wanted to see more, to know more... I was wrong. I guess I'm more of the stay-at-home type of person. I returned home, but my mother had been sick for the past few years, and passed away shortly after I came back. My father took it badly, and ran off on his own. I really don't know where he is now. After touring the galaxy, I had very little money left, and couldn't own a house on my own. I've been living from ship to ship and apartment to apartment for four years now. Two years ago, I found out my dad died. Last week, I lost my job as a pianist at a fancy restaurant downtown- maybe you've heard of it? The Western Sun. Nice place, stiff management. So here I am now, jobless and homeless. To explain why I want to leave, I'm looking for a very old friend of my father's. I think he can help me with my financial crisis, but I'm not sure exactly where he is. That's all, I guess..."
"Wow," Hanna said, sinking back in her wooden chair. "Poor thing. That's a lot to handle."
Reilly, who had cleared his plate, sat thoughtfully for a moment. "I feel for you. I know what it's like to lose all that. I know what it's like to jump from life to life."
"And yet you've never told us this?" Nev asked, raising a single eyebrow.
"Nope. It's none of your business. Anyway, Kathryn, you have no idea if this guys on Mars at all?"
"I think he may be. My father once mentioned something about his owning a club there- he's a very rich man."
Reilly chuckled. "Lucky guy."
The conversation that followed was light, apparently everyone was satisfied with the state of things. Kathryn's mystery was unraveled, for the moment, and the ship was flying finely. They all eventually drifted in separate directions. Kathryn returned to her quarters to set things up for herself, Reilly settled down on the couch, Nev went to do some reading, and Hannah entertained herself by playing computer games.
A half an hour later, Kathryn looked around her newly decorated quarter, satisfied. Her clothes had all been put in the dresser, her toiletries stowed in the bathroom, and her personal decorations put in their proper places.
"Oh, damn!" she cursed to herself, after searching for her wallet. She had left it in her purse, which was still in her car. She would have to find it in the hangar, which seemed to be an easy enough task- if she knew where the hangar was.
Nev had shut himself up in his room, and Hannah seemed occupied, wearing a large pair of headphones.
Reilly merely lay dazed on the couch, his eyes staring unfocused at the TV screen.
"Reilly?" she addressed him gently.
"Hm?" was his simple reply.
"Where's the hangar?"
Reilly didn't bother to say anything. He mechanically pointed to a general direction without taking his gaze of the television.
"...Okay, thanks."
Kathryn tried three different doors before she found the right one. She immediately knew the hangar, because she recognized the dim outline of Nev's ship in the dark. As she turned on a light, she discovered that the hangar itself was lined with large garage doors, though each one had a normal door next to it, so one didn't have to open the garage simply to enter the room. With a frown, Kathryn set to trying the doors.
The first was darker than the main hangar itself- perhaps storage? If she was lucky, it would be her car. She didn't feel a light switch on the wall beside the door, so she continued in, letting the door close behind her. It was a mistake- she was quickly enclosed in darkness.
"Now what?" she groaned. She had wandered too far away. "I guess I just have to bump around 'til I find the way out..."
She ran into a tray of tools, forcing them to clatter against the ground, and bruising her thigh.
"Damn it..." She kept her hand in front of her, and soon ran felt a large metallic surface.
"Yes!" she cried happily. "The hangar door!" Upon further inspection though, she proved herself wrong. The metal thing was shaped, not flat. She ran her hands down along its frame, discovering it to be a ship.
Suddenly, the door opened up, and light poured in. Kathryn glanced up at the object she was touching- it was indeed a ship, a planar level speeder, but this model was equipped with weapons. It was red, with a single-seater clear dome.
"What the hell are you doing in here?" a voice called angrily behind her.
Kathryn spun around, instinctively hiding her hands behind her back. A single, tall, silhouette filled the doorway, the top marked with eccentric hair. "Nothing," she spurted. "Sorry. I was looking for my car."
"You didn't find it," Reilly replied sardonically.
"I know, I'm sorry. The door closed behind me... Is this your plane?"
"No," he answered hastily. "It's Nev's. It's broken. Doesn't fly. Come on, I know where your car is.
She shrugged and followed him out the door.
The next day, Kathryn awoke to an empty room, marked only by the gentle droning of the ship's machinery. She stumbled out the room, sleepily, in her pajamas, wondering if Hannah was always such an early riser. She found her roommate still staring blankly at her computer monitor, frantically clicking the mouse and occasionally slamming in sentences on the keyboard.
"Hanna!" Kathryn gasped. "Have you been at that game all night?"
"Mm..." her eyes were red with black bags beneath. "Yeah..."
She shook her head and continued down the hall, looking to see if anyone else had risen yet. Upon entering the living room of the ship, she found Reilly, quietly running through standard martial arts movements, adhering to a painfully strict routine of positions and attacks. She stood silently, admiring him for a good few minutes before he finally noticed her.
"Yeah? What's up?" he asked, breathing a little heavily, looking a little annoyed.
"Oh... Nothing."
He snorted. "It's always nothing with you, huh?"
"I was just watching. I'm sorry."
"It's alright... I was almost done anyway."
"What were you doing?"
"Jeet kune do. It's an old martial art."
"Ah... I didn't know you fought."
"I don't. Well, not anymore. I just use it to keep in shape, and as a sort of focus activity."
"So... Do you think you'll ever need to use it again?"
"To fight? Maybe." He thought for a moment. "Probably. Someone's bound to catch up on me sometime..."
"What do you mean, 'catch up on me?' "
"Did I say that?"
"Yes. Quite plainly. What did you mean?" she repeated.
"Eh... There's probably a few people out there who don't exactly agree with some of the things I've done."
Kathryn didn't feel too comfortable pressing a man she had just met, but this one intrigued her. "Like what? Were you ever a criminal? Who did you used to fight."
Reilly hesitated, choosing his words carefully. "A lot of different kinds..."
"So were you?"
"Was I what?"
"A criminal!"
He stopped, then actually began laughing. When he spoke again, he dropped his dramatic tone and picked up a normal, friendlier one. "Well now, I guess that depends on what you call a criminal! Either way, what's done is done. I'm not concerned with my past anymore, and you shouldn't be either."
"Okay. Sorry if I intruded."
"Not at all. I will tell you... one thing I have learned, we do need to remember the past sometimes..." He smiled to himself and left the room, leaving Kathryn behind, looking rather bewildered.
Broken Hearted Melody Sophisticated Lady
That night, Kathryn dreamed more easily than she had in ages. She dreamed she was a young girl again, back before she had left home and undertaken the harsh realities of real, unsheltered life. She was a pretty youth, with a placid smile and beautiful grey eyes. She was teased for her sing-song voice, but she didn't care. She was protected and loved, and couldn't have wished for anything more.
She awoke slowly, to the sound of simple music. She slowly drifted from dream to reality, carefully examining each fantasy as it passed away. Her cheerful smile rarely turned up anymore; instead, she wore a forced grin. Her eyes no longer shone the way they did, but seemed dulled, still attractive, yet strangely haunting. Her lovely voice became the collected voice of an aged woman, perhaps more respectable, but less charming. It was all because of age, she often assured herself; yet things weren't the same...
She became aware of the tune that stirred her from memory. She turned over in bed, and saw Hannah putting on a pair of socks, humming to herself, looking rather clean and refreshed. A towel lay in a messy pile next to her bed.
Hannah glanced up. "Oh. Hello. Sleep well?"
"Very," Kathryn replied, still sleepy. "I dreamed about when I was younger."
"Ah... The new girl has a back story! Happy to be away from home?"
She hesitated. "No... No, not at all. I miss it."
"That's a shame. Why? Family?"
"Yes, partially. That, and the comforts of having a place to call home. You know-"
A loud knock on the door interrupted her.
Hannah rolled her eyes. "Come in!"
The door opened and Reilly stepped in, wearing a much more casual outfit than the night before. "Morning. The engine is fine again. We're on a course to Mars."
"Lovely," Hanna replied. "Is that all?"
He blinked. "...I guess."
"Then if you'll excuse us..." Hannah rose to her feet and began ushering Reilly out of the room. "We were having a nice chat, until you barged in."
He stopped and turned, pointing straight at her. "Now wait a minute! I knocked!"
"Out!" She shoved him through the doorway.
"Well, hey, wait!" Kathryn called, sitting up in bed. "He can stay. I don't care."
"Better idea," Reilly replied. "Get dressed, showered if you need to, and you can tell us about yourself over breakfast."
She shrugged. "That sounds fine. What are we having?"
Reilly made a face. "Fish."
Within an hour, Kathryn, Reilly, Nev, and Hannah were all assembled at the ship's makeshift dining room- a table surrounded with chairs, set up in the middle of the rec room, all wearing something along the lines of comfortable pants and shirts, good for relaxing in. Hanna had fried fish for them, while Nev scrambled eggs. Kathryn insisted on helping, while Reilly, on the other hand, refused to do anything. Instead, he sat around and watched television, until his meal was served, at which point, he dumped salt over everything and complained about the flavor.
"You're a real pain in the ass," Nev told him through a mouthful of food.
Reilly didn't reply, remaining fixated on his fork, which he used to mash his eggs further.
"He's like a little kid," Hannah went on. "Fix him a meal, and he'll complain about it for five minutes, then scarf it in two."
Kathryn attempted to keep from laughing.
"He thinks he's a royal princess," Nev smirked, "we should-"
"Anyway," Reilly declared boldly, slamming a glass of orange juice on the table, forcing it to slosh over his hand. "What did you want to tell us Kathryn?"
"Oh," she said with a blush, "nothing in particular. I just figured you might like to know where I want to go."
Hanna swallowed politely before speaking. "First, I'd rather hear about why you left home, and why you're regretting it."
Kathryn turned pink again. "Of course," she replied, collecting herself and beginning to speak. "Well, I lived a normal middle-class kid life, I had friends and family, and a nice home."
"Boyfriend?" Hannah asked curiously.
She smiled. "A steady one every now and then. Never too serious. I had the occasional teenager problem, but I was satisfied with everything the way it was. I guess the real reason I left was because I didn't realize I was satisfied. As my friends began to move away, I though I wanted to as well. I was under the illusion that I wanted to see more, to know more... I was wrong. I guess I'm more of the stay-at-home type of person. I returned home, but my mother had been sick for the past few years, and passed away shortly after I came back. My father took it badly, and ran off on his own. I really don't know where he is now. After touring the galaxy, I had very little money left, and couldn't own a house on my own. I've been living from ship to ship and apartment to apartment for four years now. Two years ago, I found out my dad died. Last week, I lost my job as a pianist at a fancy restaurant downtown- maybe you've heard of it? The Western Sun. Nice place, stiff management. So here I am now, jobless and homeless. To explain why I want to leave, I'm looking for a very old friend of my father's. I think he can help me with my financial crisis, but I'm not sure exactly where he is. That's all, I guess..."
"Wow," Hanna said, sinking back in her wooden chair. "Poor thing. That's a lot to handle."
Reilly, who had cleared his plate, sat thoughtfully for a moment. "I feel for you. I know what it's like to lose all that. I know what it's like to jump from life to life."
"And yet you've never told us this?" Nev asked, raising a single eyebrow.
"Nope. It's none of your business. Anyway, Kathryn, you have no idea if this guys on Mars at all?"
"I think he may be. My father once mentioned something about his owning a club there- he's a very rich man."
Reilly chuckled. "Lucky guy."
The conversation that followed was light, apparently everyone was satisfied with the state of things. Kathryn's mystery was unraveled, for the moment, and the ship was flying finely. They all eventually drifted in separate directions. Kathryn returned to her quarters to set things up for herself, Reilly settled down on the couch, Nev went to do some reading, and Hannah entertained herself by playing computer games.
A half an hour later, Kathryn looked around her newly decorated quarter, satisfied. Her clothes had all been put in the dresser, her toiletries stowed in the bathroom, and her personal decorations put in their proper places.
"Oh, damn!" she cursed to herself, after searching for her wallet. She had left it in her purse, which was still in her car. She would have to find it in the hangar, which seemed to be an easy enough task- if she knew where the hangar was.
Nev had shut himself up in his room, and Hannah seemed occupied, wearing a large pair of headphones.
Reilly merely lay dazed on the couch, his eyes staring unfocused at the TV screen.
"Reilly?" she addressed him gently.
"Hm?" was his simple reply.
"Where's the hangar?"
Reilly didn't bother to say anything. He mechanically pointed to a general direction without taking his gaze of the television.
"...Okay, thanks."
Kathryn tried three different doors before she found the right one. She immediately knew the hangar, because she recognized the dim outline of Nev's ship in the dark. As she turned on a light, she discovered that the hangar itself was lined with large garage doors, though each one had a normal door next to it, so one didn't have to open the garage simply to enter the room. With a frown, Kathryn set to trying the doors.
The first was darker than the main hangar itself- perhaps storage? If she was lucky, it would be her car. She didn't feel a light switch on the wall beside the door, so she continued in, letting the door close behind her. It was a mistake- she was quickly enclosed in darkness.
"Now what?" she groaned. She had wandered too far away. "I guess I just have to bump around 'til I find the way out..."
She ran into a tray of tools, forcing them to clatter against the ground, and bruising her thigh.
"Damn it..." She kept her hand in front of her, and soon ran felt a large metallic surface.
"Yes!" she cried happily. "The hangar door!" Upon further inspection though, she proved herself wrong. The metal thing was shaped, not flat. She ran her hands down along its frame, discovering it to be a ship.
Suddenly, the door opened up, and light poured in. Kathryn glanced up at the object she was touching- it was indeed a ship, a planar level speeder, but this model was equipped with weapons. It was red, with a single-seater clear dome.
"What the hell are you doing in here?" a voice called angrily behind her.
Kathryn spun around, instinctively hiding her hands behind her back. A single, tall, silhouette filled the doorway, the top marked with eccentric hair. "Nothing," she spurted. "Sorry. I was looking for my car."
"You didn't find it," Reilly replied sardonically.
"I know, I'm sorry. The door closed behind me... Is this your plane?"
"No," he answered hastily. "It's Nev's. It's broken. Doesn't fly. Come on, I know where your car is.
She shrugged and followed him out the door.
The next day, Kathryn awoke to an empty room, marked only by the gentle droning of the ship's machinery. She stumbled out the room, sleepily, in her pajamas, wondering if Hannah was always such an early riser. She found her roommate still staring blankly at her computer monitor, frantically clicking the mouse and occasionally slamming in sentences on the keyboard.
"Hanna!" Kathryn gasped. "Have you been at that game all night?"
"Mm..." her eyes were red with black bags beneath. "Yeah..."
She shook her head and continued down the hall, looking to see if anyone else had risen yet. Upon entering the living room of the ship, she found Reilly, quietly running through standard martial arts movements, adhering to a painfully strict routine of positions and attacks. She stood silently, admiring him for a good few minutes before he finally noticed her.
"Yeah? What's up?" he asked, breathing a little heavily, looking a little annoyed.
"Oh... Nothing."
He snorted. "It's always nothing with you, huh?"
"I was just watching. I'm sorry."
"It's alright... I was almost done anyway."
"What were you doing?"
"Jeet kune do. It's an old martial art."
"Ah... I didn't know you fought."
"I don't. Well, not anymore. I just use it to keep in shape, and as a sort of focus activity."
"So... Do you think you'll ever need to use it again?"
"To fight? Maybe." He thought for a moment. "Probably. Someone's bound to catch up on me sometime..."
"What do you mean, 'catch up on me?' "
"Did I say that?"
"Yes. Quite plainly. What did you mean?" she repeated.
"Eh... There's probably a few people out there who don't exactly agree with some of the things I've done."
Kathryn didn't feel too comfortable pressing a man she had just met, but this one intrigued her. "Like what? Were you ever a criminal? Who did you used to fight."
Reilly hesitated, choosing his words carefully. "A lot of different kinds..."
"So were you?"
"Was I what?"
"A criminal!"
He stopped, then actually began laughing. When he spoke again, he dropped his dramatic tone and picked up a normal, friendlier one. "Well now, I guess that depends on what you call a criminal! Either way, what's done is done. I'm not concerned with my past anymore, and you shouldn't be either."
"Okay. Sorry if I intruded."
"Not at all. I will tell you... one thing I have learned, we do need to remember the past sometimes..." He smiled to himself and left the room, leaving Kathryn behind, looking rather bewildered.