A/N: Here we go again.
I don't own Eden's Zero
I hope you enjoy the chapter.
Chapter 2: The Undine
Ziv looked between Luan and Vero, swallowing nervously as she saw the frustration on Luan's face and the annoyance on Vero's after Map had twisted their arms into taking her in, the little robot looking up at Ziv with a smile on his face screen, quietly reassuring Ziv that everything would be all right, though the moment would be broken up as a man walked onto the upper deck next to Luan, his stern, dark brown eyes staring down at the duo.
"Shall I ensure they're properly introduced to the ship then?" the man asked, Luan turning to look at the man.
"Give them to Mun for that. I want you to figure out what the girl's job will be in the meantime, Magnus," Luan ordered as he stood up straight, no longer leaning on the railing in front of him, "I'll be taking command of the bridge again in the meantime," Luan stated as he turned around and entered the door behind them.
"Yes, Captain," Magnus responded before the other man was gone before he lifted a sleek and thin tablet, poking at it for a moment before holding it back down at his side and walking down a set of stairs on the far end of the upper deck and heading down to the main deck so he could approach Ziv, Map and Vero. Though, before addressing them, he looked around at the crew on deck and scowled, "Everyone back to work! You don't earn your pay by standing around!"
Ziv looked around as the many other individuals on the deck quickly went back to work on the man's orders, "Who is this guy?" she muttered quietly.
"First mate, Magnus Riggs, and your direct superior. You will address me as 'Sir' or 'First Mate' when speaking to me," the man quickly stated as he turned his attention back towards Ziv, "Stand up straight when I'm speaking to you," he ordered, Ziv quickly scrambling to her feet in response and straightening up, stiff as a board when she saw that Vero had also done so.
"Yes sir!" Ziv answered as the man looked her up and down, Ziv trying not to be distracted as she noticed the ship starting to move through space, Kakorum growing smaller in the distance.
"Name?" Magnus asked as he lifted his tablet back up and was now poking at it again.
"Ziv!"
"Ziv…?" Magnus repeated, as if waiting for her to fill in a blank.
"Um… Just Ziv, sir."
"I see. Previous occupation?"
"Scavenger… I'm also a B-Cuber," Ziv answered, a light blush on her face, "Um… it's called…"
"I don't need more details than that, Scav," Magnus interrupted as Ziv's face fell, a sinking feeling forming in her stomach after hearing the nickname, "So, your skills would involve mechanical disassembly and recovery then?"
"Um… Also repair and maintenance."
"Yes! She repaired me back to fu-fu-fu-BZT! ACCEPTABLE OPERATING CONDITIONS!" Map chirped in, sounding more mechanical than usual after his short circuiting.
"He… still needs some work," Ziv sighed.
"Did you have any previous experience when restoring that model of Mechanized Astro-Navigation Plotter?" Magnus asked.
"Not really. Not that old at least," Ziv answered, "Map is missing a good chunk of his hardware."
"Interesting," Magnus mumbled, scratching the side of his neck before moving his hand to his clean-shaven face, rubbing his chin in thought as he looked over his tablet, strands of his dark, pine green hair loosely falling around his face before he looked at Ziv, "Ship maintenance and repair would be a fitting duty for you."
"Yeah! I can do that! Um… Sir," Ziv replied happily.
"We'll have to run you through the licensing process first though and ensure you have an understanding of the ship's systems if you are to be an Engineering Officer though," Magnus added.
"Aren't you pirates? Why would I need a license?" Ziv asked, cocking her head in confusion as Magnus sighed at her.
"You really have no idea how piracy works, do you?" Magnus sighed, "Marine Vero, please enlighten her," he requested as Vero let out a sigh.
"Look, Ziv, it's like this. Any pirate crew worth a damn makes sure they're registered with at least one planet to have the legal authority to engage in piracy. In the case of the Undine, we're registered with a planet called Pelia and a planet called Blue Garden here in the Sakura Cosmos, as well as at least one planet in each of the other cosmos. Make sense so far?"
"I think? But why?" Ziv questioned.
"Because without that authority we'd have nowhere safe to go and nowhere to sell our treasure or safely make repairs. So, in return for a share of our treasure haul on each return trip and not attacking any vessels from their planet, the authorities of these planets we're registered with leave us alone and even help us from time to time if we're fighting against their enemies," Vero continued to explain.
"Think of it like a sponsorship for your B-Cube channel, Ziv!" Map chimed in, "Governments sponsor space pirates to bring money and g-g-g-g-BZt! Merchandise back to their planets as well as fight their enemies in exchange for a safe place to go!"
"And they don't care that the money and stuff is stolen?" Ziv gawked.
"They're a government, of course not. They're usually committing worse crimes than we are," Vero chuckled.
"Like sponsoring pirates?"
"Now you get it!"
"I believe you now have a decent understanding of our crew's situation as pirates then," Magnus stated.
"Yeah, I just didn't expect a planet like Blue Garden to sponsor pirates. It always looked so…" Ziv started to say before Vero let out a scoff.
"Peaceful? Idealistic? There's a dark side to every world, no matter how pretty it looks. Trust me, the politicians of Blue Garden are the biggest, fucking hypocrites in the entire Sakura Cosmos," the pink haired woman stated harshly.
"We are the proof of that," Magnus added as a door below the upper deck opened, revealing a rather feminine looking alien that had a mix of reptilian and human features, including a large, scaled tail, "Scav, this is Second Mate Mun Ji-hu. She will be responsible for the majority of your education on the Undine's systems. When you are not learning from her, you will be shadowing Marine Vero and assisting her with her duties.
"Good to meet you! Um… Ma'am!" Ziv greeted, straightening up again as she spoke to the alien, Mun's yellow eyes blinking for a moment as she studied the younger girl.
"Just Mun is fine, Maggy here is big on titles and regulations. Me, not so much," Mun said before seeing a rather intense scowl on Magnus' face, earning a laugh from the woman.
"How many times…" Magnus began to say before Mun cut him off.
"Yeah, yeah, I know, Sir. You have a stick up your butt a parsec long," Mun sighed, Ziv noticing a rather large pair of fangs in the alien's mouth as she spoke, Mun idly playing with her black hair as she traded taunts with Magnus.
"What an in-in-in-in-BZT! Fun! Bunch," Map giggled, his screen a bright yellow has he watched the two trade insults.
"Anyways!" Mun suddenly said loudly, ending the argument, "We won't get a good view of the guts of the ship standing here on deck, come with me," Mun urged as she started to walk off, Ziv looking between Mun and Magnus until the man shook his head and sighed, gesturing for her to follow the Second Mate, Ziv quickly chasing after her as Map skittered behind Ziv.
"I think she won that one," Vero chuckled.
"Quiet, Veronica," Magnus huffed before Vero punched him in the arm.
. : + : .
Luan sat in his chair, slightly elevated above the rest of the bridge, surrounded by large consoles that held a variety of information about the ship and its various systems. All around the room were various other, similar consoles for specific systems, each one manned by a different crewmember. Up in the front was the helmsman's station though, right up next to the large, dome-shaped window that jutted out from the front of the ship, giving the pilot a good field of view.
"You're in an awfully bad mood despite the success of the mission, Captain," the helmsman on duty called out, a woman with long, white locks.
"I don't like having my arm twisted by little robots, Andrius," Luan responded, scowling when he saw the woman turn her head back to look at him, a cheeky grin tearing through her face, revealing a maw of sharp teeth, the flesh on her face quickly sealing back up as she stopped grinning.
"Is that little thing really Dread Pirate Talon's then?" she asked.
"Apparently so."
"No wonder it left you looking like someone just kicked your puppy! Ha! I wish I could've seen the look on your face when it put you in your place!" Andrius laughed loudly, spinning around in her chair to face her captain.
"Andrius," Luan warned lowly.
"It's probably used to dealing with much worse pirates than us," she chuckled as she spun back around in her chair, "Anyways, where we headed, Captain?" Andrius quickly asked before Luan could give her another earful.
"We're headed to Blue Garden first to restock and resupply before we start chasing this map. We'll figure out where we're headed to after that once we're there," Luan stated, pausing for a moment before standing up, "Listen up! I'll address the rest of the crew about this later, but it's of the utmost importance that we do not let anyone know that we have Captain Talon's map now! Let everyone else think it's still on Kakorum or else we'll have every other pirate crew gunning for us at every turn!" Luan ordered as he addressed the bridge crew, receiving a resounding, 'Aye-aye, Captain!' in response before he sat back down, hoping in the back of his mind that no one would do anything stupid before they arrived at Blue Garden.
. : + : .
"And here we are at the very end of our tour, the dormitories," Mun announced as she led Ziv and Map into a long hallway lined with several doors, "This in particular is the starboard dormitory and there's another identical one on the portside," Mun explained as she led them down the hallway, opening a door with a key card and leading the duo inside, "This will be your room."
As Ziv stepped inside the room she spun around slowly, looking around the room, which was a homey, dark brown in color for the most part, being made of the same wood-like material a good portion of the ship was while the room was dimly lit by soft, yellow lights that were spread out across the walls and a comfy looking bunk was off in the corner of the room.
"You also have an attached bathroom, so you don't have to worry about sharing," Mun added.
"Does everyone have a room so nice?" Ziv asked, turning to look at the alien while Map scurried about the room, opening every drawer and cabinet he could find as if he was looking for something.
"No. These rooms are usually reserved for officers and veteran marines while most of the rank and file are housed in the barracks a few floors down."
"Then why do I-?" Ziv started to ask before Mun cut her off.
"Luan wanted to offer you one of these dorm rooms as a show of good faith. While he's angry that he got his arm twisted by your little robot, he knows that he must cooperate with you both if he wants to get what he wants. So as a first step to show that, he's offered you this room, though you will have to work to keep it," Mun explained, "Like he said, and I believe this too, idle hands don't get fed. Everyone works to earn their keep on the Undine."
"I understand. I'll work hard to show that I can earn my keep. I've… never had such a nice room before," Ziv mentioned as she trailed off, thinking of her old, run-down apartment back on Kakorum.
"You didn't leave anything important to you behind, did you?" Mun asked.
"No… Everything I had of value I kept on me, even when I went to work. Or else it'd get stolen," Ziv answered.
"Well, feel free to store your things in this room from now on. The only people with access to your room will be you," Mun said while handing her a keycard, "Myself, Magnus and Luan. And we only have access to your room if we feel the need to investigate your room if we all suspect you of breaking the Captain's Laws."
"The Captain's Laws?"
"Luan might have mentioned it to you. His word on this ship is law and he has a set of rules you must follow in order to keep order on the ship. Or else everything would fall apart," Mun explained, "They're probably not as draconian as what your little robot is used to though."
"The only punishment was ex-ex-ex-ex-BZT! DEATH!" Map declared, knives appearing in his hands while his screen flashed red before returning to its normal light blue as he resumed what he was doing, dropping the knives on the floor.
"I'll have Vero go over those with you tomorrow though," Mun added as she watched the little robot run around the room, "For now, just take it easy for today, grab some food from the cafeteria if you're getting hungry and be up and ready by zero seven hundred hours tomorrow morning. We'll be on the ship for a few days before we reach our destination."
"Okay. Where are we going?" Ziv asked.
"Captain sent a message out that we're heading to Blue Garden a while ago," Mun answered as she moved her hair aside to reveal an earpiece in one of her ears, "We're gonna resupply there and then see where it is your robot is telling us to go to follow the map."
"I have completed my search! There are no bu-bu-bu-bu-BZT! Listening devices in your room!" Map declared happily.
"Thanks Map," Ziv sighed as she bent down to pat the little robot on the head, Map's face screen turning a pleasant pink in response to the head pats.
"Well, I'll leave you two to rest now. Remember, zero seven hundred hours," Mun said before leaving the room, shutting the door behind her as Ziv pulled out her B-Cube.
"We've gotta make a video about all this!" Ziv said happily, "This one's gonna go viral too! I can feel it!"
"Yay! Viral!" Map cheered as Ziv began to record the story of their day's adventure.
Credits:
Magnus Riggs – MyDearWatson
Mun Ji-hu – Dreadburner94
Andrius Seldanos – XlilMEkoX
A/N: And there we are, chapter 2! Sorry about the wait, I changed jobs since the last chapter went up so I had to take a good bit of time adjusting to all that fun stuff, but I should be back now.
Just want to thank Grimnack, Benthino and MyDearWatson for the reviews, they are appreciated as always.
But that's all for now. I hope you enjoyed the chapter.
Your host,
Dreadburner94.
