I suppose i was a bit premature... I rewrote all of this last year i can't remember all i know is Jim did something really stupid and Jade was pissed and Cece wanted to spank him.

Sixty Three

She was riding a horse. Tori could feel the motion under her, and the exhilaration rush of wind against her face. She was sitting in the front of a big, strangely crude saddle with the security of a warm body behind her and a strong arm looped around her middle.

A long, long road stretched out before her, seemingly without any end she could see, and on either side, a beautiful forest spread out with no signs of human habitation.

It was beautiful.

She was filled with a simple happiness that wanted nothing else but the warm sunshine and the two sets of laughter rising up into it.

Then the horse bucked.

Tori's eyes popped open, dragged from a sunny day into pitch blackness with whiplash suddenness. The ship moved violently under her again, and tossed her up off the bed and back onto it. "Jade?" She yelped.

"Yes." Jade sounded tolerably awake.

Tori grabbed hold of the edge of the bed as the ship tilted alarmingly to the right. "Is this normal?"

For an answer, Jade wrapped one long arm around her and a leg for good measure, pulling her closer. "Well, it's open water."

The creaking had grown quite ominous, and they could hear thunder rolling outside. The pitch of the vessel had become pronounced, and the cabin was moving sharply from side to side as the ship rolled in the waves.

"Ah." Tori swallowed audibly.

Jade lifted her head and peered through the darkness. "You okay?"

"Uh, sure." Tori said, inhaling sharply as the ship tilted to one side again.

"Sure about that?"

Her partner swallowed again. "Well, possibly not."

"Hang on." Jade carefully disentangled herself from both the bedclothes and Tori's grip and eased off the bed, grabbing hold of the bathroom door latch as she was almost pitched right back down next to the latina. "Whoa!"

"Woah." Tori repeated in a subdued voice. She clamped her jaws shut after that, and tried not to think about how her stomach felt.

Jade hit the light switch. Nothing happened. She hit it again, then in a fit of unreasoning technical mindlessness, flipped it back and forth rapidly. "God damn it."

"Mmph." Tori wasn't inclined to add anything useful. She was just glad that if the lights weren't working, at least the AC still was. The thought of the room being clammy and warm and… "Ohgodthatwasstupid."

"Tor?"

"Mmprh."

Jade felt along the wall until she found the desk, cursing as she almost tripped over her backpack, fallen to the floor in the pitching. "Ouch."

"Ermp?"

Jade dropped to her knees and unlatched the pack, yelping as a rolling motion knocked her off balance and sent her tumbling across the carpet to land near the bed. "Son of .." With a growl, she crawled back and grabbed the pack, sitting down on the rug with her legs sprawled out.

That seemed to solve the motion problem for the moment. Jade untied the top flap and dug inside the bag, yelping a little as she poked herself with a pair of diagonal cutters. "Damn dykes."

Silence. Then Tori cleared her throat. "What did we do now?'

"Not us." Jade dug further, and discovered a small vial. With a satisfied grunt, she drew it out.

"You have some other damn dykes in your backpack? Wow."

"Hah, hah." Jade scooted over to the bedside and reached out, searching for Tori's hand. "I have something for you." She blinked as warm fingers curled around her wrist, a little startling in the darkness despite her knowing how close Tori was to her. "Think you can swallow a pill?"

"Gimme a minute." Tori muttered.

Jade waited, pressing her back against the bed and grabbing hold of the frame as the ship moved up and down again.

Tori made a small groaning noise.

"Easy." Jade grimaced in sympathy. She'd been relatively lucky so far in life with her experiences of seasickness, but the few times she'd suffered from it had convinced her never to travel with out medication for it. "Ready?"

"Nuh uh."

Jade frowned. "Need some water?" She felt the grip on her wrist tighten, and Tori's forehead came to rest against her shoulder. "Hon, if you can get this down, it'll help. I promise."

Tori merely stayed there for a moment, then she exhaled, warming Jade's skin. "Move."

"You're not going to throw up."

"Jade, move."

Jade grabbed the bottle of water and got up onto the bed, hauling Tori up to a sitting position mostly by feel. "Breathe." She felt her partner's body jerk, and she steeled herself to deal with being thrown up on, but Tori's jaws locked shut and she could feel the tension in the muscles of them as she laid her hand along her cheek. "It's okay. Just do what you need to do, Tor."

For a long set of pitching rolls, Tori just stayed where she was. Then the ship settled a little, and as it did, she straightened up. "I think you got ten seconds." She inhaled sharply. "But don't hold me to that."

Jade felt out Tori's lips, and put the seasickness pill against them, feeling them part as Tori trustingly accepted it. Then she applied the squirt nozzle of her water bottle to the same place, and squeezed gently. "Incoming."

Tori made a somewhat strangling noise, making Jade wince and close her eyes, despite the darkness. Then she heard the sound of over-exaggerated swallowing. "Please." Jade addressed the ship. "Stay fucking still, okay?"

"Gurph." Tori protested faintly.

"Not you." Her partner growled. "This godforsaken piece of rusted metal held together with duct tape and old piss we're floating in."

A shudder went through the vessel. Jade growled again, almost as though a battle of wills was being conducted.

Tori reasoned the thought alone was ridiculous.

But the ship, as many had before, bowed to Jade's will and cruised along peacefully for a time, until Tori finally relaxed and slumped against Jade's body. "Ugh."

Jade stroked her arm gently, leaning back and easing Tori with her until they were both half reclining. Wind blew rain against the balcony doors, startling them, but the ship's course remained, at least for now, relatively steady. "Hmph."

Tori wasn't ready to unlock her jaws just yet. The queasy feeling, though it had subsided, was out there on the fringes and threatening to recur at any moment. Throwing up now would not only be extremely yucky, it would also eject the medicine Jade had given her and if there were two things she didn't want to do, those were them.

Jade seemed to sense that. She shifted her grip and gave Tori a comforting light rub on her belly. "Just take nice, deep breaths."

Tori tried a few. "You've gone through this before?" She guessed. "I can't believe it."

"Mm. A few times." Jade admitted. "First time I took the Dixie out was one of them, matter of fact. That damn thing's a bitch to drive when you're tossing your cookies, let me tell ya."

Tori chuckled faintly. "You're just saying that to make me feel better." She accused.

"Nuh uh."

"Yes, you are."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Feeling better?"

Tori could barely see the outline of Jade's face in the dim light from the window, but her imagination filled in the angles and planes without effort. "Yes." She let her head rest against Jade's collarbone. "Oh, that sucked."

"Mm."

"What time is it?" Tori asked. "Were we sleeping long? I didn't think it was raining before we went to bed."

"It wasn't." Jade confirmed, reaching over and picking up her cell phone. It showed no signal, which she expected, but also provided her with a clock. "Four am."

"Ugh." Tori winced. "Two hours. No wonder I feel like something a cow stepped on."

Jade wondered if the ship was going to begin pitching again. Being out here in the dark, not knowing where they were heading didn't exactly make her comfortable and the fact that parts of the ship seemed to not be working well made it all the worse. "Wonder what the deal with the lights is."

"AC's on." Tori commented.

"Hm. Yeah." Jade felt the ship roll a bit, and she glanced at Tori. In the faint light, she could see the dark lashes fluttering a little, but her partner's body remained relaxed. Not surprising, since the industrial strength pill she'd given her usually knocked Jade out in fairly short order. "Doing okay?"

"Uh huh." Tori closed her eyes. The sick feeling seemed to be receding further, and she was getting sleepy again. The ship started to move, but the motion was slower and less violent now, and rather than make her queasy, it seemed to be relaxing her.

Weird.

Jade cradled Tori against her, finding a smile somewhere as Tori snuggled up willingly. She let her fingers comb through the disheveled brown hair and knew a moment of ridiculous contentment despite the circumstances.

Thunder cracked outside. As though in signal, the ship started pitching again, but one quick look confirmed that Tori was now safely asleep and oblivious to it. Jade braced her bare feet against the wall and the bedframe to keep them in place and sincerely hoped the damn captain was steering them out of the storm instead of into it.

It was still dark, it was still raining, and it was still rocking like a hammock when Tori woke again, in a fuzzy disorientation that had her blinking her eyes a few times before she could make them focus on the gray shadows surrounding her.

How long had she been asleep? Beneath her ear, she could hear Jade's heartbeat, steady and even and she remained still so she wouldn't wake her partner up. After a few seconds staring at the inside of the cabin, she let her eyes close again and tried to compose herself back to sleep.

Problem was, now she could hear all the creaking around her again. Outside the cabin in the hall, she could also detect the sounds of someone moving around, crashing against the walls as the ship moved restlessly in the waves.

Despite the size of the ship, it felt very fragile, it's bones screaming and complaining as the sea pressed in on all sides.

Paradoxically, however, here in the loose circle of Jade's arms Tori felt completely safe, regardless of the ominous clatter around her. The ship could fall apart, she mused, and as long as she and Jade were together she was sure they'd come through it just fine.

How did she know that? Tori didn't really understand how, but she knew at some deep level that it was true. She'd known it since they'd been trapped in that hospital together, when Jade had brought them both out from under the collapsed wall refusing to allow mere concrete and metal to stop her.

At the time, she'd been stunned and overwhelmed, in pain and in a state of high anxiety over what was going to happen to them as well as what might have happened to their friends and family. But one thing she hadn't been was afraid though she hadn't realized that until much later.

Tori listened to the noise in the hallways, a muffled drone slowly resolving itself into a pair of voices, male ones, obviously upset. One had a heavy accent, and she couldn't understand a word of what was being said, but the other had a clearer, sharper tone.

"Bloody bastard, I'm not hiding you no more!" The voice said. "No wonder you had to shut the bitch up.. she probably got sick of you as I am!"

Tori's eyes opened. She glanced up at Jade, to find the faint glitter of her partner's eyes looking back at her. "You hear that?"

Jade nodded.

"Shaudup." The other voice growled. "Put you inna trunk and toss you over."

Tori's nostrils flared. "Oh no." She whispered.

"What?"

"We're in a bad television movie."

Jade chuckled soundlessly. "Probably drunk." She uttered softly.

A loud crack made them both jump, then something impacted against the outside of their door, followed by the sound of a violent scuffle.

They both sighed simultaneously. "Excuse me." Jade disentangled herself and got out of bed, heading for the door as she pulled her t-shirt somewhat decorously around her. She slapped at the light on her way, grunting when it stubbornly refused to produce anything but a sodden click.

Tori hesitated, then scrambled out from the sheets and followed, getting behind Jade as she yanked the cabin door open and glared out into the dimly lit corridor.

Two figures were struggling, having swung across the hall and slammed into the door across from them. Far down the corridor, there was a sound of a second door opening as well.

"Hey!" Jade let out a bark. "What in the hell do you think you're doing?"

The two men stopped fighting, and turned, staring at her. "What are you doing here?" The smaller of the two demanding. "What are you doing on this ship? Get out!" He advanced on her. He was burly, and had had a rough, scraggly beard along with an un-pretty face.

Jade straightened to her full height, easily eight or nine inches over his, and braced her arms on the doorframe, not backing down an inch. "Buddy, if you know what's good for you, just stop." She warned him. "Who the hell are you, and what are *you* doing up here?"

The other man stayed back in the shadows, wiping a sleeve across his mouth, but saying nothing.

"Estevan."

The men turned at the sound of the captain's voice. He was standing at the end of the corridor, near an almost hidden panel half obstructed by his body. "Captain." The smaller man backed off, and half ducked his head. "I found these women here!"

Tori was now peeking out from behind Jade. Her eyes fell on the other man, who was starting to edge his way back down the corridor. Something familiar in his profile caught her attention, and she leaned forward a little, sliding her arm across Jade's back to keep her balance.

He was taller than his companion, and thinner, but he had an air of general seediness that reminded her of the backwater carnival workers she'd occasionally see when the church yearly fundraiser was on up in Michigan.

Which reminded her of something she hadn't thought about in years.

The man caught her looking at him, and scowled, ducking his head and heading off at a more rapid pace, half shielding his face with one arm despite the darkness making him nearly invisible anyway. Tori watched him go with a very thoughtful expression.

"You did not find anything here but trouble, Estavan. Please go to your quarters, or take yourself down to the engine room where you belong. Do not bother our guests, or myself with your noise any longer." The captain stated firmly.

"But captain.."

"Go." The captain let his voice raise slightly.

"Aye." The man turned and trudged off after his erstwhile adversary, disappearing into the darkness as he turned the corner.

The captain glanced at them. "My apologies. He is my senior engineer, and has been on this ship a very long time. He does not like strangeness and changes." He turned to go back through the portal. Then he paused, and turned, peering back at them curiously. "They did not assign your private quarters?"

Jade looked him right in the eye. "We don't need them."

Surprisingly, he merely sniffed, and nodded. "Very well. Good night."

"Captain." Tori spoke up. "Are they lights not working for any particular reason?"

The captain reached out and flipped a switch in the hallway, apparently surprised when nothing happened. He flipped the switch a few times, much as Jade had done earlier, then grunted and shook his head. "I will find out. They are functional where the officer's quarters are." He turned and disappeared through the portal, which closed behind him with a definite snick.

There was a sign on the door, but it was too far for them to read and too dark in any case. Crew only, Jade suspected. With a sigh, she glanced down at Tori's head, which was tucked under her arm. "Bed?"

"What, and miss all the excitement around here?" Tori asked in a whimsical tone. "Jade, did you see that other guy?" She pulled back as Jade turned, and they shut the door, leaving the darkened hallway behind them. "The one he was fighting with?"

"No, not really." Jade said. "I was too worried the little skunk in front of me might start grabbing."

"Hm." Tori latched on to the back of Jade's shirt and followed her back to bed. "Yeah, he looked stupid enough.. scary considering he's the ship's engineer."

"Explains a lot." Jade muttered.

They collapsed into the mussed bedclothes again and sorted themselves, the sheets and the pillows out. Jade stretched her body out and rolled half onto her side, as Tori did the same, both of them facing towards the balcony windows. Jade wrapped an arm around Tori's middle and they put their heads down at roughly the same time.

It was briefly quiet, and the sound of rain lashing against the window sounded very loud.

"That guy's bothering me." Tori spoke up suddenly.

"Hm?"

"That other guy. I've seen him before, and I'm trying to remember where." The brunette explained.

"Um.. not to be a smartass, but maybe it was here on this ship we've been working on for days?" Jade suggested. "Chances are, you've seen him, Tor."

"Mm.. yeah, I know.. but.." Tori exhaled. "He was acting really funny.. sneaking away like that when he saw me looking at him."

"Sneaking?" Jade asked. "Did he really?"

"Yeah. He put his hand over his face and walked off."

Now, that was a little strange. "Well." Jade mused. "Maybe he buys into that 'looking at gay people causes blindness' theory."

"Jade." Tori snickered. "But yeah, you're probably right. I probably saw him on here.. maybe down in the loading bay." She settled down, enjoying the warmth of Jade's body tucked up behind her. "Or on the dock. But what do you think they were talking about?"

Jade shrugged. "Sounded like they were just talking bs to me." She admitted candidly. "Guys do that."

"Girls do it too." Tori agreed. "Yeah, maybe." She pondered further. "The captain didn't seem whacked out at all about us."

Jade chuckled.

Tori turned her head and peered at her partner. "Does that mean I need to send my gaydar back into Sears for retuning AGAIN?" She asked. "Jesus, I feel so clueless sometimes."

"No." Jade gave her a little squeeze. "It's just that I think it's more accepted on these kind of ships than maybe what we're used to. I saw some of the guys up near the bridge having a little party when I was working on the sat dish."

"Oh."

"I looked at them, they looked at me, we all sort of went, yeah.." Jade lifted her hand and waggled it.

"I get the picture." Tori in fact did, and it made her smile. Gay women and gay men were so different at so many levels, sometimes. She'd talked to some of the people at their church about that, and found to her bemusement she often knew less about other gay people than she'd imagined. "Oh well. It'll come to me." She finally decided. "Where I've seen him."

"Uh huh." Jade pulled her a little closer. "After all this, I'm gonna be toast tomorrow."

"Me too."

Finally, it really was quiet. Even the rain found something else to hit other than their windows.

Morning found them out at sea, with gray skys surrounding them and the water a sullen dark blue. Jade leaned on the balcony railing and looked down, noting the whitecaps ruffling the surface and the forbidding appearance of a world she usually found so welcoming.

Maybe seeing it from a higher perspective did that. When they were on the Dixie, the surface of the water was mere feet away, and she always felt far more a part of it than she did now, towering so far above.

The sound of the cabin door closing behind her made her turn, and she leaned on her elbows as Tori crossed the interior and emerged on the balcony next to her, carrying two steaming cups. "Ah." Jade observed. "You found coffee."

"I found coffee." Tori handed her one. "I found the crew mess, actually. It was pretty empty." She peered at the sky. "So much for that sailors rise at dawn thing."

Jade chuckled, sipping cautiously at the beverage. It wasn't good, and it wasn't bad, the mediocre norm of bland hotel coffee, but it was hot and caffeinated, and that really was what counted. "It was probably quite a party last night. Did you happen to bump into the caterers?"

Tori joined her at the rail, the wind ruffling her brown hair. "Matter of fact I did. They're slightly freaking."

"I bet."

"I told them to just try to reuse the stuff they brought as much as they can, and put out little buffets for our folks at least. But I hope this doesn't last long."

"Me too." Jade agreed. "I just want the whole damn thing to be over."

Tori studied her over the rim of her coffee cup. "You really do, don't you?"

Jade nodded.

Tori slowly took a sip and swallowed it. "Know what I want?"

After a moment's hesitation, Jade gave a half shake of her head. "What?"

"Nothing." Tori leaned forward and gave her a kiss on the lips. "I have everything I need right here."

"Aw." A charmed smile appeared on Jade's face. "You say the nicest things to me." She returned the kiss, easing back to look into Tori's eyes and finding the most pleasant mix of passion and affection there. "So."

"So." Tori recalled the time with some regret. "Guess we better go get our job done, huh?" She let her hand rest against Jade's hip. "Get those POS machines out, then we can certify the system."

"And after that…"

"After that, it just is what it is." Tori finished for her. "C'mon."

They left their cabin together, and walked down the empty hallway, seeing no one until they were halfway down the stairwell where they bumped into Sinjin. "Morning." Jade greeted him. "Sleep okay?"

Sinjin stifled a yawn. "I'm not a great sailor." He admitted. "Man, I'm freaking lucky I ran into your dad last night boss. He fixed me up."

"Hm." Tori dropped down the steps two at a time. "Must be a family trait."

Several other techs came out of the hallway on the next landing and joined them heading down. Most still looked tired, a few still looked a little green around the edges. The ship wasn't moving nearly as badly as it had been the night before, but there was still a perceptible rocking and everyone held on to the handrails with the exception of Jade.

They entered the atrium, which appeared to be as they'd left it, boxes neatly stacked near the walls and machines lined up in rows awaiting deployment. A few of the boxes had tumbled across the floor during the night, but otherwise everything seemed undamaged.

"All right." Sinjin cracked his knuckles. "Let's check out the plan, dudes." He walked over to where a blueprint had been tacked up on one side of the elevator stack, which was still taped off and out of service. The print had deck plans of the ship along it's length, and there were blue and red dots to indicate where the equipment went.

Jade drew Tori to one side and they listened quietly, allowing Sinjin to do his job without interference. Tori looked around, noting the lack of crew. "It's so quiet." She whispered.

Jade nodded in agreement. "Not much for them to do I guess." She uttered, then paused as Talley appeared from behind the front desk and headed their way. She nudged Tori, who turned and spotted him. "Here comes your buddy."

"My buddy?" Tori gave her a poke. "Hi." She greeted Talley.

"Hi." The young man gave her a brief smile. "Did you guys hear the news?'

Uh oh. "No.. what's up?" Tori asked. "Don't' tell me we're being hijacked to China. If we are, I'm swimming home."

That got a smile from Talley. "No.. they cleared the port. We're headed back." He glanced at the techs. "So if you guys need to finish stuff, you probably better do it fast. From what I hear, the builders are on the docks waiting to jump on soon as we tie up."

Jade frankly didn't know whether to be relieved or disappointed. "Short vacation for you all, I guess." She commented.

Talley snorted. "It's all a big crock anyway." He said. "We all know the truth. Soon as Quest finishes with his scamming, they're going to scuttle her, and we'll all be dumped somewhere. So give me a break."

Jade and Tori exchanged startled glances. "You know that for sure?" Jade asked. "He's putting a lot of money into these ships."

Talley stared at her. "You're joking right?" He asked. "You don't think he's laid a dime out yet, do you? Everything's contingent on all you people finishing. He hasn't risked a cent.. and he won't!" The man put his hands on his hips. "He's just playing you people to the hilt, and you all fell for it."

Tori was aware of some of the techs listening surreptitiously. "Don't sell us short." She looked directly at him. "You don't' think we haven't thought about that?"

Talley looked around, then at her. His expression was plainly skeptical.

"Maybe we're playing him." Tori suggested. "Maybe we're using this project to advertise ourselves to the real ship companies who are watching… ever think of that?"

'Besides." Jade interjected. "Think about it.. what if he's looking to get these hunks of junk bought by one of those real ship companies… you might want to clean up your acts."

Talley looked warily at them. "They won't touch her." He indicated the ship. "She'll end up in a scrap heap. We all know it."

Jade shrugged. "You don't know it until it happens." She shook her head. "So I wouldn't try to sink her yet."

The man stiffened, looking around quickly before he stared intently at Jade. "Where did you hear that?" He hissed. "Did they tell your old man? Those…" The sound of a door slamming filtered into the atrium, causing Talley to turn and look. With a last glance at Jade, he headed towards the sound, breaking into a trot as he disappeared behind the front desk again.

"What in the hell.." Tori blurted. "Jade, did you he.." She stopped, her lips stilled by Jade's fingertips.

"I heard it." Jade murmured. "Stay here. Let's get this damn equipment out. I'll go find Dad and see if he's got any idea what's really going on."

Tori frowned, a protest bubbling up. Jade cocked an eyebrow at her, and she squinted, triggering a rakish grin from her partner in return. "Okay." She reluctantly agreed. "But if you're gone more than fifteen minutes, I'm coming after you."

Jade ruffled her hair. "Deal." She pushed away from the staircase and headed towards the front of the ship, reasoning the bridge would be a good place to start looking for both her father and the truth.

Tori watched her disappear, and then she turned her attention back to the group of techs. They all were carefully looking ahead, not at her, but she knew at least some of them would have heard Talley's conversation.

She reviewed their response, and decided it wasn't something to worry about at the moment. Or at least, it was something to worry about, but it had to take it's rightful place after the other things she had to worry about.

"Boss, you got anything to add?" Sinjin asked. "We're gonna start on the bottom floor and work up for a change."

"Sounds good to me." Tori moved towards the lines of equipment. "Don't know if you all heard, but we're headed back into port, and we've got to really get moving with this stuff. I want to certify it before we tie the ship up."

The techs started moving faster, a buzz of noise arising as they reacted to Tori's statement. "Man, that's sorta too bad." Carlos said. "Those guys on the ship were gonna invite us to a party tonight."

Tori eyed him. "They were?"

Carlos nodded. "Yeah.. they got a bar downstairs." He explained. "That's where they all went last night." He picked up one of the POS systems, then appeared at a loss as to how to juggle it's attendant printer and assorted cables.

Tori resolved the problem for him by picking them up. "C'mon." She said. "There's sixty of these things. If we go in pairs, it's only four trips for each team, and we're done." She started towards the steps, glancing at the chart on the way. "And see? You'll get to see the crew's bar anyway. That's where we're going."

Carlos trotted after her, carrying his armful of POS station. They went to the stairs and started down, going past the last passenger floor and entering the crew spaces. It was still quiet, and their footsteps sounded very loud on the linoleum, Carlos' sneakers even squeaking a little where Tori's hiking boots merely scuffed.

On either side of the wall, aged bulletin boards carried notices and announcements, and lining the inside of one long space was a map of the ship, marked off into cryptic zones. To either side, doors marched past, labeled with chipped and peeling name plates.

They continued on down the hall towards the front of the ship, going down another half staircase and then down a narrower corridor. Ahead of them was a steel, gray door without a nameplate that had a very worn handle and a chipped and scarred surface that had been painted over many, many times. "That it?" Tori asked.

Carlos nodded. "They showed me last night." He explained. "So I could find it again. They seemed pretty nice about it." He added. "We got to talking about computers and stuff."

Of course. Tori tucked the printer under her arm and reached out to grasp the door handle, turning it and pulling the door open. She stood back to let Carlos enter, then realized the room was occupied. She followed him inside and looked around, spotting perhaps twenty crewmen in various states of repose around the room, all of them turning to look at them. "Hi."

Two men were at the pool table. They straightened and turned, looking her over brazenly. One of the men sitting on a threadbare couch near the wall whistled.

Oh boy. Tori continued across the room towards the small bar. Her shoulder blades itched, feeling the eyes on her and she was glad she'd put on a relatively staid blue t-shirt instead of anything more revealing.

Carlos put the POS system down and went behind the bar, oblivious to the men around them as he searched for a place to plug it in while Tori concentrated on connecting the receipt printer. She removed a small screwdriver from her back pocket and connected the cables, aware of some motion around her and the fact that several people were coming closer.

Carlos looked up. "Oh, hey." He remarked casually. "So how are you guys? Did you have a good party last night?"

One of the men slipped onto the barstool next to where Tori was standing. "You shoulda come." He answered. "And brung your lady friend here. Hey honey, what's your name?"

Tori didn't even look up. "Elle Roosevelt." She finished tightening the screws on the cable.

"Sokay if I call you El?" The man didn't miss a beat.

"Hey, chill out man. That's my boss." Carlos protested. "Don't talk like that."

"You work for a woman?" The man laughed, and his friends joined in.

"Sure." Carlos responded, cheerfully unruffled.

The man leaned on the counter, and tried to get Tori's attention. "Hey, can I buy you a drink? C'mon, look up beautiful." He tapped on the surface, right next to Tori's arm.

Tori obliged, straightening up. The man sitting next to her was around her age, with short, cropped dark hair and honey colored eyes. He wasn't unattractive, and there was a brazen sensuality about him that she suspected some women might be attracted to. "Thanks." She tried the polite route first. "But I really don't drink anything but orange juice before dinner."

The two pool players came closer, leaning on their sticks. None of them seemed threatening, but they were definitely interested in her. Tori accepted the flattery of the notion, but she didn't much care for the assumption that she'd welcome it.

Belatedly, Carlos seemed to realize things were sliding into the uncool zone. He stepped around the bar and came to Tori's side, a little unsure of what to do next.

"We've got some orange juice." The man said. "We'll just add a little something to it.. how about it? We can get the music going here, start the party early."

"Sounds good to me." One of the pool players said.

"Well, not to us." Tori added a touch of firmness to her tone. "We've got work to do. So, have fun with your party, gentlemen." She pocketed her screwdriver and started to move away from the bar. "C'mon, Carlos." She was suddenly aware that the room had no windows, and only the one door visible, and the walls seemed to close in on her as more bodies started to move her way.

"Yes, ma'am." Carlos stepped back out of her way and turned to follow Tori.

"Pussy." The man at the bar laughed.

"Hey, c'mon.. what's the rush?" The brazen pool player moved to get in Tori's way. "We've got time before we hit port.. and I like my ladies a little on the spicy side."

"Really?" Tori didn't even stop to think. She planted her left leg and half turned, whipping her right up in a roundhouse kick that took the pool cue out of his hands and sent it clattering to the ground.

"Hey!" The man yelped, and lifted his now empty fingers. "What the hell!"

The man came off the barstool. Tori lifted her hands up into a defensive posture, curling her fingers into fists.

"Dudes, you should like back off." Carlos advised them. "She's like a black belt kickboxer."

Tori's brows jerked up.

The men looked at Carlos, who looked back at them with devastating earnestness. "No shit." He added. "She's got like a hundred trophies."

Tori almost laughed, biting the inside of her lip as the men backed off a little, watching her warily. She relaxed her pose and started towards the door again, this time unimpeded. "Gentlemen. Have a nice day." She called back over her shoulder, as she opened the door and saw the blessed light of the empty corridor ahead of her.

Carlos followed her out and pushed the door shut behind them. "Was that okay?" He asked. "I didn't know those guys were such ass..er.."

Tori stopped and turned, putting her hands on her hips and regarding him with mildly twinkling brown eyes. 'Trophies?"

He shrugged sheepishly.

"C'mon." Tori turned and headed for the stairs up. "Jade has trophies, y'know." She made a mental note to find something nice to do for the unexpectedly resourceful Carlos.

"Yeah?"

"And she really is a black belt. I'm just a blue."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." Tori got to the top of the steps and continued up the hallway. Her knees were shaking, and she made a mental note to warn the other female techs to watch out for trouble. The ship chose that moment to roll to one side, and she was caught off balance, her shoulder smacking into the wall as the floor pitched under her.

Carlos hit the paneling next to her, and they hung on, waiting for the ship to steady and right itself. Tori became suddenly aware of the fact they were below the waterline, and just as suddenly, she wondered where Jade was.

A low rumble sounded, along with the hooting of horns.

She could see a flashing light down the corridor. The ship was still listing. "Carlos?"

"Yyes, ma'am?"

"Run."

"Ma'am?"

Tori grabbed his arm, and started for the stairs.