"Jakob! We have a guest on board, get out here!"
After getting no response for a minute or so, Emma gave a heaving sigh as she stood in the cargo bay of her ship, hands on her hips.
"That boy, I swear." She looked back to Lucius. "He's the best damn mechanic this side of the 'verse, but he'd have trouble finding his own gorram head if it wasn't on his shoulders." She shrugged and motioned for Lucius to follow her. "C'mon then, mister. I'll show you to your bunk." She gave him a smirk. "Don't be expectin' much, though. This ain't exactly a starship cruise liner."
Lucius just smiled back and surveyed the space within the Dragonfly. "Oh, I think this will do just fine. I'm no stranger to roughing it." He pressed his artificial hand against the wall, as if to try and feel it through the circuits and metal of his arm. "Besides…it seems like a good ship. Reliable." After a moment, he let his hand drop back down to his side and looked at Emma with a curious look. "Alright, captain. I'm ready for the tour."
The Dragonfly was designed as a transport ship, with most of its storage space located in the tail. Not that it had anything in storage, though – the captain had been having a hard time trying to find any decent paying jobs in the system. Most contracts nowadays required a full crew for any kind of consideration, and that wasn't something Emma had at the moment.
It was a sizable ship, to be sure – more than three hundred feet long, with the full wingspan reaching out at almost two hundred. Four crew cabins and eight passenger dorms were situated between the cargo bay and the flight deck, making the Dragonfly an even more obvious choice for moving large shipments without sacrificing crew space.
Unfortunately, it was all space and no cargo until they found a job for her. Emma had been under the hopeful impression that her newest addition to the crew would have the resources necessary to find that job, but his countenance made her worry a little more than she liked. It wasn't his smiling, she'd seen plenty of false ones before, and his was genuine. In all truth, it just came down to the fact that the man had Federation-issue, physiology enhancing prosthetics that were a part of his body – and he still hadn't mentioned how he came by them.
Emma finally reached the first passenger dorm along the right wing of the ship, Lucius trailing behind as he took in every detail of the ship's interior. She keyed in the ship code into the entry pad by the door, and it slid open with a quiet hiss. She held her arm out towards the open doorway, inviting Lucius inside. "Here's your quarters. As I said, not too fancy, but it should do just right for a place to sleep."
He stepped through and ducked to avoid hitting his head against the low doorframe. Looking back at Emma, he raised an eyebrow. "Not exactly friendly, is it?"
"What isn't?"
"The doorway. It just tried to assault my forehead!"
She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms in front of her. "What happened to "roughin' it", huh?"
He sighed and shook his head in mock defeat. "I guess this will have to do."
Just as he had set his rucksack down on the single cot and shrugged off his cloak, he heard the captain clear her throat. Lucius looked back – she was still standing in the doorway.
"Is there a problem, captain?"
"As a matter of fact, there is, Lucius." As she stepped into the room and slowly walked towards him, she gave him a look. "When I was going around asking for folks to join my crew, do you happen to recall exactly what the opening was for?"
He tilted his head to the side, slightly unsure as to the line of questioning. "Of course. You were looking for a mechanic who could keep your ship in the sky, and, I quote, "all of its pieces in one piece.""
Emma smiled sweetly as she finally stopped in front of him. "So you're the new mechanic, aren't cha?"
"Well…yes, I suppose so."
Her smile didn't waver as she continued. "Then where do you suppose you need to be right now, mister?"
Lucius looked back at the captain, and all of a sudden he realized exactly where he was supposed to be.
"The engine room, captain."
The smile dropping off her face, she gave him a scathing look that said "Buhn dahn" and "Now he gets it" in equal measure. "Nice work, Mr. Mechanic. Now git going."
Not wanting to lose his newest (and only) job, Lucius awkwardly scooted around the captain and made his way out of the cabin as quickly as he could without running.
As Emma watched him leave, she shook her head. Ai yah tien ah, give me the strength. Give me the crew I need.
Almost as an afterthought, she realized that she hadn't heard from her pilot since she stepped foot on her ship almost half an hour ago.
"JAKOB!"
Jakob, as luck would have it, was napping in the primary pilot's seat, which was his usual spot whenever the captain went on-planet to meet a potential applicant to join the crew. It was mostly a strategic decision – sometimes negotiations went awry, and they needed to make a quick getaway from whichever moon or planet they had the misfortune of landing on. In this case, however, his interference wasn't necessary, which is why he'd taken advantage of the brief moment to get some shut-eye.
The holo-transmitter activated on the comms dash, emitting a faint beeping noise as it continued to blink on and off, indicating an incoming transmission. Jakob gave out a yawn, stretching his arms behind his head as he leaned back in the seat. Taking his time, he reached over and tapped the comms panel so he could answer by voice, grumbling about "no decent sleep in weeks." He yawned one more time and covered his mouth with one hand as he answered with a sleepy voice. "Jak here. How goes it, cap'n?"
When the captain's holographic image appeared above the panel, he realized it wasn't going to go so well – for him. Her face exuded impatience and irritation, even over hologram.
"Jakob, where the hell have you been?"
He gave her a halfhearted, sheepish grin. "Would you believe me if I told you I was – "
"No."
"What if – "
"Nope."
"But – "
"Not a chance, péngyǒu."
He finally groaned out loud and laid his forehead on the dash. When he lifted his head back up, she was still there, looking mighty irked. "Well, Jakob? I'll be needin' an answer, and soonish, if you please."
As soon as he'd opened his mouth to respond, though, Emma waved at him to cut him off. "Never mind, I don't want to know. Look – I just got our newest member on board, he's getting himself settled in the engine room. Can you at least provide the courtesy of saying hello to him when you're not too busy doin'…whatever it is you're doin'?"
Jakob gave her an attempt at a salute. "Aye aye, cap'n. Will do. But before I go off and do anything hasty, would you mind telling me where exactly where we're headed next? You haven't exactly been forthcoming on the details, so – " And just like that, the line was disconnected.
The pilot let out an irritated sigh and turned off the transmitter. "That damn captain – "
"Is right behind you, Jak. So behave."
He almost fell out of his chair from surprise, but instead gave out a strangled yelp – the captain was, in fact, standing right behind him. He hadn't even heard the door to the cockpit open.
"Wou duh tian ah – ! Would you quit that? You're gonna give me a coronary one of these days," he muttered as he shook himself and glared at her. She just looked back at him with a small smile playing on her lips.
"Sorry, mei mei. Just keeping you on your toes." Emma brushed past him and stood in front of the cockpit window to stare off into the distance. "Besides…we've got scarier things to worry about. And sneaking up behind you every once and a while never hurt you." She sighed quietly, already lost in her own thoughts.
Jakob got up from his seat and stood next to her, glancing at her for a moment before focusing his attention on the endless sky above them. "So what's the story, captain? Do we have a destination in mind?"
Without looking away from the window, she responded to the question.
"As a matter of fact, we do. It's not too far, and we just have one more passenger lookin' for a pick up." Tearing her gaze from the landscape beyond, the captain looked directly at her pilot.
"How do you feel about making a trip to Londinium?"