Sergei had fallen asleep again, they had some time, two more days, until his meeting with Li Hana. He needed the rest, for some reason his last few days had been taxing on him. But he dreamt of flowers and fields of gold, there were half blurry faces of people he thought he once knew, he heard voices, distorted but familiar and he felt warmth and calm. Each time he tried to focus on these individuals he felt a sting in his mind, as if something was trying to block him out of being able to see or hear clearly. Sergei opened his eyes, he was getting used to the pain, but of course he’d like them to stop. He put his clothes on and sat down by the desk and checked the net. He searched for anyone that seemed to have any knowledge in implants or similar technologies, there were only a few and those were not exactly available to anyone.
He sighed and clicked off the console and took a look at his tablet, he saw he had a message waiting for him, as he clicked open the message he saw a man that he had never seen before. Sergei was confused but played the message; “Mister Sergei, I was introduced to you by a common friend, Julian at Rochester, he told me you did not mind doing less than legal trade. Oh, I forgot, I am Richard Haine, I work for an upcoming company in Liberty and we have possible opportunities for a man such as yourself. Now, there’s no job at this moment, but I can assure you that in the future there will be a lot of lucrative deals to be made, for both of us. Well, you got my frequency, feel free to respond to this so that I know you might be interested in working with us. Have a good day, Mister Sergei.”.
Along with the message was the man’s frequency, Sergei saved it, “More job offers, perfect. And here I was thinking we’d be just drifting along until Heinrich called.”, he felt like complaining, but he was really quite happy with having opportunities for work, they always needed credits, everyone does, that’s the way the galaxy runs.
As he came into the mess hall, most of the crew were already eating, Sergei gave a wave, “Good morning.” and grabbed his own breakfast, he nodded at Stein that was working the kitchen, “Thanks Stein, appreciate it.”. Stein smiled, “Got two fresh pots of coffee too, captain.”, Sergei grabbed a cup and sat down at the table with the others. The crew had all been out drinking the night before, while Sergei was out killing. He always believed himself being cold and unemotional, but he wasn’t, at times he wished he was, but he also knew that he had been numbed to certain aspects of life. The crew kept talking and laughing at the strip club they were at, Alice was red in the face and smiled awkwardly when the others mentioned she went back to the ship with a guy. It was nice to see the crew have a good time, mostly because it might turn ugly eventually and rather have them in a good mood for those times.
As breakfast ended and people went on with their duties, Sergei found himself on the bridge, where Karl was working, he turned, “Boss, I got a good trade deal, Sake.”, Sergei couldn't help but laugh. It took a moment for Sergei to move over to Karl and check the monitor, “So, we’re in the alcohol trading business now are we? First Rheinbier and now Sake?”, Karl just grinned, “But it’s a really good deal, but.. Destination is strange.”. Sergei checked the details of the deal, “Ile-de-France? F*cking Gallia? We’re going to Gallia?”, then he saw the profit and whistled low, “Would seem we are going to Gallia then..”. Karl chuckled and brought up a second window, “Here, this is the route and should only be half a day or so.”, Sergei nodded and patted Karl’s shoulder, “Ok, set a course, we’ll get going in an hour.”. Karl nodded, “I’ll head and get the sake then.”. Sergei nodded and moved to the intercom and broadcasted to the entire ship, “Ok people, we got a deal in Gallia, so we’ll be off in an hour, if you got sh*t to do in the city, tell me now and go do it, or get it when we come back. Sergei out.”.
As Karl prepared the route, Sergei checked the details of entering Gallia, “From what I gathered, Freelancers are fine in Gallia, so, we should be good.”. Karl answered from the other side of the bridge, “Yeah and we’re just selling alcohol, should be fine.”. After that Karl went out to get the wares from the commodity broker near the landing area, he managed to get a good price for a large batch.
Eventually the Lindwyrm hit the lanes again, traveling through Kusari for a while was something Sergei never really done, he enjoyed the sights and aesthetics here. But soon they’ll hit the Taus and off to Gallia, he had never gone to Gallia either, “F*ck, Heinrich was right, exploring Sirius..”, he chuckled to himself, earning a glance from Karl, “Boss?”. Sergei chuckled again, “Nothing, just.. Just remembered what Heinrich recommended, go exploring, it would seem to be what we are doing right now.”, Karl chuckled as well, “Good point, never did I think I’d do that either to be honest. I worked on a cruiser, all I ever saw was the dungeon of an engineering bay and the hangars at homebase.”. Sergei smiled at that, “Yeah, after working with the Military in Rheinland I got to see a hell of a lot of just that,. Rheinland, and sometimes the Omegas, but.. Yeah, no.” he sighed, “But back in the coalition I saw most of Sirius, or at least the independent systems.”.
There was a short silence before Karl asked, “Do you miss it, boss?”, Sergei had been thinking about this since Marlon called, “Yes and no, I miss the sense of family I had back then, but.. The freedom I have now is hard to beat. But I do miss the duties I had back then, being a Commissar in the coalition is quite.. Important. And I did a lot, organized a few battle plans against Bretonia and Rheinland and..”, Sergei stopped himself, “There is a lot more to it, but I haven’t been able to remember it. I spent years with them, but only got a few clear memories left.”.
Karl was silent again for a bit, “Can it be because of the implant?”, Sergei sighed, “Yeah, It’s malfunctioning and I have no idea what’s wrong with it and no else seems to either.”, Karl asked, “But you were in the coalition for a few years and then.. You worked for the military? Espionage?”. Sergei chuckled, “That’s right.”, Karl walked over to the side of Sergei and looked down, “Do you remember your time with the military though? All of it?”. Sergei looked up at him and shook his head, “No, I remember the first year well, but somewhere down the line, I forgot about the coalition and the last few years I was Hans and only Hans, then.. Something happened to the implant and both lives got f*cked up and mixed.”. Karl frowned, “Why not go back to the Coalition at that point?”.
Sergei was silent for a bit, “I did, once, Marlon helped me, but, at that time Katz had been gone and most of the information from my time with them was sealed away. Most of those I knew were gone or dead. And the information on the implant was sealed away as well, if it even existed anymore. I could’ve started again, as Sergei, worked myself up in the ranks and made a difference and maybe gotten access to the data, but, I got the feeling that I wasn’t really welcomed, to all except Marlon. But, I left.”. A long silence followed and then Karl nodded and said, “Sounds like you had a difficult time, boss.”, Sergei chuckled and looked up at him, “It was fine, I survived. Now, I just want to fix the implant and then we’ll see what happens. I am Sergei now, not Ivan.”.
Karl tilted his head, “Wait, could the implant override who you are now?”. Sergei just stared at him then frowned and thought for a bit, “No I don’t think so, I don’t think it was meant to change my identity, but rather that, since it was connected to the hippocampus for direct access to my memories, save them and then I could send the data back. So, now, when it f*cks up, I forget things at times now, sometimes long and sometimes just a few minutes.”. Karl smiled, “I’ll keep you updated in case you forget something, promise, boss.”. Sergei felt a bit of genuine happiness from that promise, he smiled at Karl and patted his back, “Thanks, number two.”. Then they eased back into their duties as the Lindwyrm entered the Taus, on course to Gallia.
//OOC: Please give me feedback in this thread: Feedback Thread. Anything would be nice.
Also, just a reminder if you missed the first ooc in the first post, each new character will have a link as their name when they are first introduced (those that matter), this link will lead to a picture of said person. You can also find the pictures for each character in the feedback threat! Thank you!//
Tau 23, had been a while since Sergei was up here, or rather Ivan. He remembered fleeing Crayter ships as well as Outcasts, he smirked at that and once again remembered the nuclear mine encounter. He leaned back in the chair as they moved closer towards the Languedoc jump gate, “You know, I bet we’ll be stopped as soon as we enter Gallia.”, in response, Karl chuckled, “Most likely.”.
As they entered the queue for the jump gate, seeing a pair of freighters ahead of them, Sergei checked his tablet. There were no messages right now, which he was glad for, he’s had enough offers that will last for a while now. As they passed through the jump gate and into Languedoc there was, of course, a patrol, a cruiser and two fighters, the moment they arrived a hail came in. “Welcome to Gallia, please obey our laws and do not attempt to interact with any potential criminal activity, you will be scanned and registered if this is your first time to Gallia, be patient until we contact you again, thank you.”.
Sergei was impressed, they really kept a well organized area of space, a customs basically, but he bet with all the smugglers that try to sell their sh*t here they need to be. It took a few minutes, the Lindwyrm had powered down by now and was idle, then the two freighters hit the trade lane and it was their turn, “Now, we have scanned your cargo and found the Alcoholic beverage Sake, from Kusari which is not illegal here, but we request some information on you and who you work for. Please give us your name and current employer, if none exist, say that.”.
Sergei took a moment, “Bonjour, officers, my name is Sergei and I am an independent trader and explorer, we seek profit where we can and we saw that there was a good deal on Sake and that it was in demand here in Gallia. We have no current employer, this trip was self sponsored so to say. Anything else we can explain, sir?”. There was a longer pause and silence on the channel, until the officer returned with a pleasant tone, “Captain Sergei, welcome to Gallia, the Lindwyrm, which is an interesting name, is registered here, if you seek further opportunities within Gallia, do seek out potential employers on any of our planets and bases. Have a pleasant time.” and that was that. Sergei looked over at Karl, “That went really well.” to which Karl nodded, “Yeah, nice change.”. Sergei chuckled and grinned, then steered the ship into the trade lane.
As they traveled through Gallia, both Karl and Sergei realized that the house was quite beautiful compared to most houses, as they neared Planet New Paris they encountered yet another patrol, in total they had seen six, “They keep a close eye on things here, that’s good.”, Karl chuckled, “Unless we want to start smuggling.”, that brought a smile to Sergei’s face, “Good point.”.
After having been scanned by a cruiser in orbit they were allowed to land in one of the main ports of the capital, the city itself was quite beautiful, wonderful architecture and as they walked out onto the landing pad they were greeted by a well dressed man that had a wide pleasant smile, behind him a few feet stood a military guard. As the man got close enough, he said with a smile, “Welcome to New Paris, we are always pleased to meet new visitors from the rest of Sirius, what are you here to trade sirs?”, the man pulled up a tablet and began to type on it. Sergei nodded, “I’m Sergei and this is my ship and we are trading in alcohol, Sake from Kusari right now, we heard there was a demand for it here.”.
The man looked up and smiled, “Well, there is somewhat of a demand right now, the brokers buy the beverage for thirty two credits per unit.”, Sergei looked at Karl and he looked right back, “Wasn’t it near seventy on the net?”, Karl confirmed that and they both looked back at the man, “Well, it would seem the Sirius net has not pulled the correct data, a month ago the prices were around that figure, but interests and demands were met and the demand lessened, but, we would be happy to buy them for thirty two a unit.”, Sergei thought on it for a bit then looked at Karl, who just shrugged, turning back to the man he nodded and offered his hand, “Deal.” and they shook hands.
As they began to unload the Lindwyrm, Sergei and Karl had a look at the local prizes and uploaded the current values to their database. “Wine.. More alcohol..”, Sergei groaned, “The most profitable route would be to Shikoku and to the Casino there, which is owned by the Hogosha, right?”, Karl nodded, looking over his shoulder, “Shouldn’t be a problem and it’s better than selling it on New Tokyo.”. The crew had some time to explore the city, this time including Karl, but Sergei decided to stay back at the Lindwyrm.
Fascinated by the net there in Gallia, checking any news site that is translated to English, seeing how quite a lot of traders choses to trade through here from Sirius. He also took the chance to read up on the different companies in the house, EFL, “Hm, interesting. The EFL created the trade lanes here in Gallia.”.
It took a few hours for the crew to have explored enough, Sergei had kept himself busy, cleaning the bridge for some damn reason. As the crew came onboard, Karl walked directly to the bridge, Sergei looked at him and Karl looked at Sergei as he was kneeling by a console with a spray bottle and a cleaning rag, “Uh, boss, we have a crew for that.”, they looked at each other for a bit more, then they chuckled and Sergei put the spray bottle and rag away. “Did you have fun?”, Sergei asked with a smile, “Oh yes, we did, we went to a local restaurant and had lunch, yours is in the mess hall, ready to be reheated.”, Sergei smiled at him and nodded, “Will go eat that when we’re on our way again.”.
With that they got clearance to leave the planet, as they traveled back towards the Taus they weren’t stopped once, but were sure all the military patrols scanned each ship when they had the chance. Sergei settled in his seat and half drifted off to sleep, but when he closed his eyes he heard a clearing of a throat and that made Sergei snap back and look at Karl. “Maybe time to get that food, I can keep an eye on this as we enter Kusari, take some time off, boss.”. Sergei realized that he really did need food in him, so he went to the mess hall..
There was only one crew around, Alice. So, he sat down next to her. “How are you doing, Alice?”, she smiled a little, “I am fine, sir.”, Sergei looked at the cup she had in her hands, it a lovely scent came from it, “What’s that?”, Alice smiled widely and showed the contents of the large cup, “It’s called ramen, it’s instant in a microwave, ate some on New Tokyo and fell in love, so I may or may not have spent a lot of credits and bought fifty of them.”. It took a moment and Sergei blinked, “Fifty?! Is it really that good?”, she nodded and offered him a fork with ramen, so, what else was there to do, but to eat the ramen. “Damn, that is some good food.” and actually did enjoy the taste, even better than sushi. Then they sat there and chatted for a while as they entered Kusari space.
The Lindwyrm exited the trade lane by Planet Junyo, it was a short and uneventful trip, as they were about to change course towards the Golden Dragon Casino, Sergei asked aloud, “Think we should play while there?”.
Karl took a few moments before chuckling, “Never did was one for gambling, what about you, boss?”. Sergei turned towards his second in command and grinned, “I used to love doing texas hold ‘em with the other recruits in the military, but never went to a proper casino for it. We’ll just have to see.”. Half way through the next trade lane they disengaged and flew under their own power towards the Casino a few clicks away. As they entered the scanning range of the Casino a hail came through, “Welcome to The Golden Dragon Casino! Where you will have the time of your life and hopefully leave a happy man! To assure the safety of our guests, each ship that intends to dock with us, will be scanned and we ask you to power down your weapons within range.”. There was silence for a bit, until the voice came back again, “Wonderful, scan complete, Freelancer Lindwyrm, are you here as a guest?”.
Sergei chuckled and responded with a cheerful tone, “No, we are here to trade, we carry a cargo full of wine from Gallia and we had information that you might be interested in the shipment?”. There was almost a minute of silence before the man responded, “We are indeed interested in a shipment of Gallic Wine, please dock with port A-2. Welcome to the Golden Dragon.”.
The Lindwyrm docked at said port and Sergei and Karl headed down to the docking port, telling the crew to start packing the crates of wine and prepare to move them into the station. As the door opened, a smiling Kusari gentleman met them, “Welcome! We look forward to taking a look at your shipment, we’d like to take a look at the crates first and try one of the wines, if that is ok with you, Captain?”.
Sergei nodded and led the man inside of the Lindwyrm’s cargo hold, where crates upon crates of wine stood. Stein opened one of the crates and handed Sergei a bottle, who nodded in thanks to the young man. As the man had a taste of the wine, Karl had walked into the station and was looking around, Sergei saw him in the corner of his eye. The man nodded, “Quite fine wine, oh yes, I apologize, I am Kaito Arai and I am one of the administrators here at the casino.”, he offered Sergei a bow. Sergei bowed back in return, “Sergei, pleasure to meet you, Mister Arai.”. The man just chuckled, “Arigato, now, we will discuss price, yes?”. Sergei nodded and moved over to the side and picked up a tablet and walked back, “We had the information that you were buying wine for forty nine credits a unit, is that correct?”. Kaito smiled, “Well, that is the market value, but we don’t really ‘need’ the wine, so our price will be a little lower than that. We offer to buy from you for forty credits per unit.”. Sergei squinted slightly, smiled right back, “How about forty five and we get a few hours to enjoy ourselves at your casino?”. Kaito chuckled, “Forty two and a visit to the casino, last offer.”. Sergei smirked and shook the man’s hand, “Deal, will it be ok if we remain docked here while my crew visits the casino?”. Kaito nodded and smiled, “Of course, I shall transfer the credits now, while your crew brings the shipment onboard, I have a crew waiting in the storage in the next room for it.”.
They finalized the deal and the shipment was brought into the casino's cargo hold. After they were done, Sergei told his crew they could visit the casino if they wished, they’d stay here for a few hours so there was no rush, both Karl and Sergei visited as well, leaving the ship locked down.
It was quite a sight, this casino, really over the top, with fancy restaurants and plenty of bars, not to mention the obvious thing to be found here, the games, there were so many games to join and lose money at. The crew ended up splitting in pairs, Sergei ending up at the bar with Klaus who was in quite a good mood. Sergei did not know Klaus that well and normally he might not have cared to try either, but, he couldn’t help but feel he wanted to at least attempt to. “So, Klaus, what do you think of Kusari so far? You had some time on New Tokyo as well as here.”, Klaus drank his ale and grinned at Sergei, “It’s pretty good, sir, it’s not Rheinland though, I fear nothing will beat home.”. Sergei understood what he meant, he looked over the heavier man, he wasn’t sure how old Klaus actually was, a beard such as his would imply him being middle-aged at least. “But, I have to admit, sir. The women here are much more beautiful than back home.”, Sergei chuckled, “Exotic women always seem more interesting and attractive. But, I do agree, they are quite beautiful.”. They sort of drifted into small talk, Klaus did speak of his time in the Hessians and how he wanted to be a fighter pilot, but wasn’t skilled enough for it.
After an hour or so, Karl and Stein came by the bar. “I can’t believe I won over five thousand!”, Stein was grinning ear to ear as he showed the markers to Klaus and Sergei, “Damn, nicely done Stein.”, Said Klaus with a grin. “That means the next round is on you.”, Sergei smirked.
Time passed and most of the crew had found their way to the bar, only missing Jurgen. “Anyone seen the kid?”, Sergei asked, the others shook their heads, “No captain, not for a while...", Alice said. Then Stein snapped his fingers, “Wait, I do remember he was up on the second floor by one of the black jack tables, that was like an hour ago?”. Sergei frowned at this and nodded, “Ok, how about you all split up two and two and we go looking for the kid, clear?”, the crew nodded and headed off out into the casino. Sergei brought along Karl and they both walked and searched the second floor, both of them were perhaps somewhat concerned for him, “He’s just a kid and this isn’t always the safest of places.”. Karl shook his head, “Doubt that anyone would try anything here, with security and all.”, Sergei nodded, “Good point.”. They searched the second floor and ran into Alice and Stein, “We haven’t seen him yet.”, Alice said with a worried tone. “It’s fine, we’ll keep on looking, check with any guard you see as well, check?”. Both of them nodded and were off again.
At the fourth floor they spoke to some people, asking for any information. They were losing hope when one of the guests, a pudgy old man, spoke, “Oh, blonde kid? Yeah, I saw him go with a pair in white suits to the VIP section.” and pointed to a stairway on the side, with a guard at its entrance. Karl and Sergei looked at each other and frowned, heading to the VIP entrance, the guard held out a hand, “Stay right there, this is only for VIP’s and you are not on the list.”. Sergei noticed he had no list, “What list?”. The guard, stone-faced, said, “The one in my head, now, leave, Gaijin.”. Sergei sighed hard, “Look we just want to know if a friend of ours went in here, with two men in white suits, he’s a shorter young guy with blonde hair, have you seen him?”. The man looked at Sergei, but said nothing. So, Sergei decided that the only way forward was bribes, he pulled out a chip and offered one to the guard, “Ten thousand.”. The guard looked down at the chip and then up again, Sergei sighed and added another twenty thousand with casino chips. The guard took the chips and nodded and took a step to the side, “He’s up there, but not with the best of people.”.
Sergei and Karl walked up and into what can only be called a penthouse, with its own bar and three servers, all pretty young Kusari women, in the couch sat two men in white suits, but no Jurgen. As Karl and Sergei came into the room, two men sat in a couch they looked at their visitors, “This is a private party, you are not invited.”, Sergei held up a hand, “We’re just after Jurgen, the blonde kid that came with you.”, they both looked at each other and laughed. “That little Gaijin was being disrespectful, so he is learning a lesson, in private.”, the man on the right grinned at them. “Well, get him back here, he’s part of my crew and we’re leaving.”, Sergei had had enough of this, Karl crossed his arms and stared the two men down. “F*ck you, gaijin.” and they stood up, the servers moved into a backroom of the bar, the two men walked up towards Karl and Sergei, “Oh my, this will be interesting.”, Karl chuckled at Sergei's comment. The man on the left struck first, letting lose a kick to Sergei’s side, he winced in pain, but managed to grab the leg and twist it so the man fell. The other man aimed a punch to Karl’s face, who blocked it with his own hand, then ramming a knee up into the man’s stomach, he doubled over in pain. Sergei’s partner managed to spin himself while on the ground, kicking Sergei’s feet from under him, falling on his ass. Karl aimed a second knee up into his sparring partner’s face, but the man managed to collect himself enough to move to the side. Sergei got up at the same time as his target did, but the man pulled a knife out of his jacket, “That’s nasty, f*cking cheater.”, Sergei grinned at the man, who lunged at Sergei, cutting in the air as Sergei took steps back and to the sides to avoid the sharpened piece of steel. Meanwhile, Karl and his guy were exchanging blows, but Karl managed to slam his fist into the man’s ribs, causing him to double over yet again and Karl tried to end it with another knee to the face, the Kusari man instead charged into Karl and dropped them both down onto the floor. Sergei was doing what you aren’t supposed to, fighting barehanded in a knife fight, but so far he had been able to avoid getting cut. Eventually Sergei saw an opening as the enemy thrust to his right, Sergei leaned to the left and grabbed a hold of the knife wielding hand and twisted it, forcing him to drop it. Then, aiming a kick into the man’s ribs, the man let out a yelp of pain before he dropped to the ground, Sergei kicked the knife away. Karl had managed get a good grapple on the other opponent, and was in the process of strangling the f*cker. Sergei then walked up to his own assh*le and stepped on his back.
“Now, get our friend, or I will plunge that knife into your back.”, the Kusari man gasped for air but said, “Fine fine, but we’ll remember this!”, he pointed at a side door. Sergei walked over just as Karl finished making sure his partner fell asleep for a while. As he opened the door, they saw Jurgen bound to a chair in black light lit room, he looked up at Sergei and he could see that the kid had been crying. On one hand, Sergei felt sorry for him and pissed off as f*ck, the other side of him, the commissar, he pitied him, almost wanted to call him ‘weak’. Sergei just felt angry instead, focusing on that, he walked over and untied Jurgen’s hands. “You good, kid?”, Jurgen managed to say a low, “I am sorry sir..”, Sergei frowned, “For f*cks sake, you’ll be fine, let’s head back.”. As they walked into the VIP area again, one of the Kusari men was unconscious on the floor and the other now holding himself up on the bar, he turned to look at them, “We’ll remember this, gaijin.”, Sergei chuckled, “Whatever, f*ckface. Bye bye.” and they walked back down towards the Lindwyrm. Sergei couldn’t drop the emotions he felt when he saw Jurgen, it was like a battle within him, trying to decide which he actually felt. They let Jurgen go and sleep, they’d talk more later. “F*ck this place, let’s head back to New Tokyo.”, Karl nodded, “Yeah, that’s for the best.”. And the Lindwyrm set off back to New Tokyo.
//Attempting using paragraphs and such to make it easier to read, but I am not good where to put them and I kind of liked the blocky way of writing But yeah, let's see if this works for you guys!//
A dark metal room, laying on a table of some sort, hands and feet latched to it. He moved his head to the right, seeing a desk with bottles and instruments on it. Next to it stood an advanced looking contraption, it had several implements, long drilling devices and what seemed to be two large see through container attached to the top, one filled with a blue liquid, the other red. He felt out of place, confused, disturbed, his chest felt like it was under pressure, something heavy and hard. He looked straight ahead, right up towards the ceiling, a round object that had several smaller circles on it. “Lamp?”, Sergei thought to himself.
As he heard the voice in his head, it sounded wrong, distorted? No, just, wrong, it was darker than he expected. He turned to the left and saw another table, this one had a large box on it, it was cracked open and he could see what he believed were cybernetic components. Next to it sat a smaller box, this one some kind of tool box, it had pliers and some kind of hammer. “Nope, don’t like that. F*ck, my chest.”, he wanted to place a hand on it, but what good would that do, even if his arm was free. There was an eerie silence in the room, until he focused and heard a dripping from somewhere further into the darkness. Eventually it was all he could hear. “Drip drip drip..” he couldn’t let it go, “Drip drip drip..”. He grimaced as he lay there, unable to relax at all. After what seemed like hours, there were heavy footsteps from somewhere outside of the darkness. He heard voices, speaking loudly and intensely. “No, Project Babushka needs to continue, the Premiere did not allocate millions on this project for it to be abandoned after the first step had been done!”, it was a familiar voice. “But sir! We do not know the consequences to replac-” the man was silenced by the former voice. “You are the expert in this, find out the consequences, or they both will die and that will not please the Premiere.”.
They stopped arguing and the footsteps were heard again, moving away. Then a door clicked and there suddenly was light at the end of the darkness. A man in white overcoat came in, he sighed and walked over to the desk and clicked a button and a monitor appeared. He cleared the desk from bottles and the medical instruments. “How can they expect me to be able to finish this.. It's not some regular technology, think damnit, THINK.” and he slapped the side of his head a few times. Sergei could see the monitor on, but not what was on it, he tried to focus but all he managed to do was wince and groan from the pressure the movement caused. The man in the coat turned around, seeing Sergei awake he rushed to the side of the bed. “You are not supposed to be conscious, here, let me help you sleep.” and went and filled a syringe with some clear liquid from a container near the desk and walked back over to Sergei. “Don’t worry, it will be fine, comrade, just.. Close your eyes and rest, you’ll need it.” and he injected the liquid into Sergei’s arm and in moments, Sergei felt so tired, so incredibly tired.
He didn’t wake up in a panic this time, the ending of the dream almost felt as it was affecting him in reality. “Cause this was.. Reality, right?” he silently thought to himself.
As he got up from bed he got dressed and yawned heavily, it had been a restless sleep it seemed, the nightmares kept returning, always something new. He groaned and picked up his tablet from the desk and headed down to the mess hall.
In the mess hall, most of the crew was eating breakfast, Jurgen however, had not left his room since yesterday when they came back. He did feel sorry for the kid, he was abused and humiliated, most likely for the first time. As he approached the kitchen, Stein again was in charge of the kitchen, he smiled at Sergei and handed him a plate of eggs and bacon, not fresh of course, but good enough. Sergei went to sit down next to the others, idly listening to their chatter, most of them were in good moods, he liked that.
After breakfast, Sergei brought a plate of breakfast over to Jurgen’s bunk, he was lying there, curled up in a blanket. Sergei put a hand on the kid's arm and squeezes. “Hey, kid, you need food, sit up.”. Sergei was soft spoken, he knew he could break if he was rushed or stressed. After a few seconds, Jurgen turned around, his eyes were red and he was a bit pale. Sergei frowned and sat down next to him, placing the plate on the bed behind him. “Kid... Jurgen, these things happen in this line of work, but look, you survived and this is an experience you will have use of in your life. If anything like this happens again, which I hope it doesn’t, you know how it feels and with time you can learn to resist it.”, Sergei placed a hand on his shoulder, the kid was looking down at his hands, they still had marks from the cuffs that they put on him. “I’m sorry captain, I should’ve.. I could have fought back.”, he took a deep breath, most likely to focus and not cry in front of Sergei.
Sergei was both disgusted by his own weakness that he felt sorry for him and Jurgen’s own weakness of not toughing it out, like he would have made it through this easily, even untrained. “Jurgen, would you like to go home?”, he asked plainly, better to rip off the band aid than letting the kid try to force himself to stay. Jurgen was quiet for a while, then he took a deep breath and shook his head. “No, captain, I want to do this. I just.. Need a little help with these kinds of things.”.
Well, that brought him back, he straightened and took a grownup decision, Sergei actually felt pride at that moment, he slapped Jurgen’s back and said with a smile. “We’ll teach you, don’t you worry. But, eat some breakfast and go help down in the kitchen today, no need to stress yourself out immediately, ok?”.
Jurgen nodded and Sergei left him to eat. As Sergei walked down the corridor to the bridge, he was annoyed he just didn’t kick Jurgen off the ship and on a transport to Rheinland, better lose the weakest link than it becoming a risk later. But that’s not what he did.
Karl was already on the bridge and was working on the navigation console, he nodded at Sergei as he walked in. “Boss, today is the day, right?”, Karl said with a light smile. “Yeah, just waiting for Li Hana to call.” Sergei walked over to the console Karl was standing at. “Anything interesting?”, Karl shook his head in response. “No, just checking our nav charts, we have some information about Shikoku and the location of Morioka thanks to her coordinates.” Karl points at a part on the map and then at another symbol on the charts. “Think this might be a jumphole, but I have no idea where to.”, he taps the symbol a few times. “Right, well, good to know if we need to run. But wait..” he checked the charts and zoomed out, seeing the systems near that edge of Shikoku. “Kepler or Galileo most likely. Kessler had been going through a dark matter storm or something, right?”, Serge tapped the Kepler system symbol and Karl went over to another console and checked the net. “Yeah, it is, so let’s not try that jump hole.”. Karl sighed and walked back over to the nav station. “Well, we’ll just see what happens, we got the cloak if sh*t hits the fan.”
Then they went back to their duties, eagerly awaiting the communications from Li Hana and making some good credits. As he sat by his console on the bridge, Sergei began to feel a light stinging sensation in his implant, a frizzle almost and in the corner of his eye, the text from before appeared. “BABUSHKA; Subject not connected. PROJECT LEAD; Ivanov, Doctor; ATTEMPTING TO SEND SIGNAL.” and the sudden sting of pain deep in his head caused him to wince and lay down against the console. “SIGNAL ERROR; SECOND INSTANCE; UNAVAILABLE; SHUTTING DOWN:” and the pain stopped and so did the text. Karl was suddenly at his side. “Boss? You ok?”, he looked concerned and by god so was he. “It’s fine now, the implant just went batsh*t on me.”, Sergei sighed and hit the side of his head twice, he knew it did nothing, but it made him feel better. “Boss, you have a nosebleed.”. Karl took out a piece of cloth and offered it to Sergei, who took it and wiped the blood from his nose. “F*cking sh*t..”
They had waited for nearly six hours on New Tokyo, when finally a transmission came through, Sergei walked over to the comm console and accepted the incoming hail. On the screen were the ever lovely Li Hana, she did not smile, but there was a hint of what Sergei would guess to be ‘interest’, most likely not in Sergei himself, but what he offered. “Mister Sergei.” she nodded her head and Sergei smiled and nodded right back. “Just Sergei, mistress Hana.”, he couldn’t help but smirk slightly, which she noticed. “Li Hana.” she corrected, “Now, we are prepared for you to come to us at Morioka whenever you have the time, my sisters have been informed of your visit and you shall not be targeted. But do not dally, we have business to attend to.” and then shut off the transmission.
Sergei turned to Karl, “Well, that’s that I suppose.”, Karl chuckled and walked over to the nav console as Sergei requested permission to leave the planet.
As they glided through space and hit the Shikoku jumpgate, Sergei was reading up on the net about the Chrysanthemums, unfortunately, there were little to no details on the net. He frowned and sighed. “I’ll be working with nothing in this deal, gonna be tricky, but I suppose that I should just approach this as working with any other Kusari organization. Respect.” he groans and looks over at Karl. “Want to take over, number two?”. Karl barked out a laugh, “No, not all boss, you go right ahead and deal with the hot terrorists.”. Sergei laughed at that right back.
When the Lindwyrm left the last trade lane both men on the bridge took a moment to look at each other and nod before heading into the Keiun cloud, where the Chrysanthemums had a base and were in complete control. After a minute or so gliding through the cloud the sensors beeped and they saw two beautiful Chrysanthemum fighters, they passed the Lindwyrm and then turned around to guide the ship further into their territory. “Seems they brought a welcome party, quite happy it’s a literal one and not an explosive one. I am decently sure I would not like to fight the sisters if I could help it.”, Sergei smirked and Karl reacted with a short snort.
A hail came onto the speakers, “Lindwyrm, do not power up your weapons and stay on course.” “Got it, staying on course.” and made sure that their weapons were indeed powered down. A few minutes later, the Lindwyrm and its guides came upon the Morioka, a station like any other, but this one had some nasty looking weapon platforms that all seemed to target them as the Lindwyrm approached the base. “Lindwyrm, you are clear to dock.” a female voice said, Li Hana’s, Sergei maneuvered the ship to dock as requested. As the ship and base connected, Sergei exhaled and looked at Karl. “Ready?”, in response Karl just shrugged, “As ready as I can be.”
As they walked through the corridors towards the airlock, Sergei wasn’t really nervous as much as he was preparing for problems. He checked the gun on his belt and tapped it twice, Karl noticed and tapped his in response. The crew had been told to stay away from the airlock, just so they don’t seem threatening.
The airlock hissed open and in front of Karl and Sergei, stood two beautiful Kusari women, the one on the right carried a pistol on her belt and Li Hana had one in her hands, which were held against her stomach. As Sergei and Karl stepped onboard the station, Li and her sister bowed their heads slightly. “Mister Sergei, who is your friend?”, Sergei and Karl bowed back and Sergei looked at Karl and then back at Li, “My second in command, Karl.”.
Li nodded at that and turned to her side and motioned them to follow as she and her sister walked further into the station, Karl and Sergei looked at each other and then followed. They were led through several corridors and past a few rooms, all they saw were female Kusari, each occupied in some kind of job. Eventually, Li led them to a conference room of sorts, two chairs on each side of a round table, there were beautiful pieces of art on the walls and a very fine statue in the corner. On the table sat a bottle and four glasses, as Li motioned to two of the chairs, she started to fill the glasses with a clear liquid. Both Sergei and Karl sat down and bowed in thanks for the drinks, the Kusari women sat down as well and took their glasses. “We are looking for people to run certain goods for us, normally we’d have others do this work, but..” Li looked at her sister and then back at Sergei and Karl. “Well, normally, but in this case we need someone that isn’t aligned with anyone. We have.. Precious works of art that we need transported and in return we are getting weapons. There is in total ten thousand units of art in exchange for ten thousand units of weapons.”. Li squinted and observed the two men.
Both Karl and Sergei frowned slightly, then looked at each other, as they turned back to Li, her sister scoffed. “See, they can not do it, I told you it was a bad ide-”, Li snapped her fingers and her sister shut her mouth, then Li spoke again. “Are you able to do this job, yes, or no?”
Sergei sighed but said, “Yes, but it will take some time, we have limited space on the Lindwyrm.. Where are you selling the art?”.
Li smiled and nodded, “Bretonia, we have found a buyer and in return he has arranged several thousand units of arms, which we could have some use for.”.
Sergei nodded, “We can do it in four trips, and it should be fine. What’s the payment?”.
Both Kusari women smiled, “It is negotiable, but we are thinking Eighty credits per unit.”. Karl frowned at that and leaned to whisper to Sergei, who listened. “It’s hardly a big profit, boss.”, Sergei nodded and looked back at the sisters. “A hundred per unit and we want a bonus for the job itself, a nice hundred thousand.”, Sergei was hoping they were desperate.
Li and her sister also began to whisper with each other, Sergei couldn’t hear much but he realized it was useless since they spoke in Kusari. They took a few minutes to discuss, Sergei sipped the drink and he recognized it as sake, which he actually did not mind at all. Eventually they turned back to the two men. “Ninety a unit and eighty thousand.”, Li had a smile on her face and Sergei knew that she was playing a game. But, he was actually ok with that. “Ninety Five and eighty thousand and we have a deal.”
Li stared at Sergei, observing him for a long time until she nodded. “Deal.”, she raised from the seat and walked over to their side and offered her hand. Sergei and Karl rose as well and stood in front of them, Sergei took Li’s hand and nodded. “Arigato.” he said. Li quirked an eyebrow and chuckled. “We have the cargo here, so you can begin when you see fit. We know that the art itself is not illegal, but might raise questions if scanned. The arms though, well. I think you’ll manage.”.
Sergei chuckled and shrugged, “It’ll be fine, we’ll manage, just got to take the jump holes. We’ll start today and get a good route planned out.”.
Li nodded at that, “We’ll show you to the cargo bay, you can have your crew get the first batch of art and you can start.”. Sergei and Karl, together with Li and her sister, walked down to the cargo bay and indeed found crates upon crates with art, statues, pieces of vases and other precious objects. Sergei had no idea of what they meant or which periods they belonged to, but they sure were pretty. All the time they were in there, there was at least one guard with a pistol in her hand nearby.
Sergei and the crew managed to cram as much cargo as possible into their cargo hold, at least to the degree that they all were safe and secure. Jurgen had popped in his head into the cargo bay as the last crates were brought in, he had a bit brighter expression than when Sergei had spoken to him. And as Sergei walked over to the airlock to say goodbye to Li, Jurgen trailed a bit behind. Li was waiting for him at the airlock as he thought, she gave Sergei a smile. “Very good, Sergei, we look forward to the first shipment of arms. There is no real time limit to this, so, don’t take too many risks, yes?”, she again bowed her head.
Sergei mimicked the motion and smiled back, “Of course, we’ll be back as soon as we can. Goodbye.”
Li looked behind him and saw Jurgen, she tilted her head before looking back at Sergei, then hit the airlock panel and as it closed she said. “Goodbye.”
Jurgen walked up to Sergei, who turned to him. “Feeling better?”, Sergei knew that it was just a matter of time and food, to get him in a better mood. “Yes, captain, I wanted to thank you for.. Well, you know.” Jurgen sighed and offered a light smile to Sergei, who in turn patted his shoulder. “You’re fine, come on, let’s go, we got smuggling to do.”
//Here we go again, forgive me for any errors or such, I tried to proofread it but is tired. Please send some feedback to me if you'd be so kind. But it's nice to be back. EDIT: Linky to Feedback thread//
He was hovering in a dark void, his body heavy, but at the same time it felt light and something else, cloudy? Is that really what he was feeling? He couldn’t decide on what he was feeling. Then, the ice cold knife stabbed into his spine, somewhere along his lower back. He couldn’t make a sound, he just had to live through the pain with no chance to even grimace. It started to get easier to handle after a while however, but it was there, stabbing. Stab stab stab. He never was one for crying, just wasn’t him. He never had that emotional freedom.
It was on Leeds where he lost his warmth, somewhere in the deep corners of the industrial pits. After his dad died in the factory accident and his mother fled Bretonia, Sergei had no choice but to take care of himself. He was twelve, when he ended up in the streets, with the other kids, ten or so of them. And there were several clans of ruffians as well, nothing too organized or such, but enough to keep the lower city in trouble with the authorities most of the time. Sergei, then Michael, never did sign up with the clans, but he did some minor stuff for them all at times. No one seemed to mind him just running about, no one demanded his loyalty. Most of the other kids, the Rats as they were all called, were just doing what they could to survive. There was this one guy, in a Molly Clan, Rorick, he was dangerous. He kept giving the Rats small jobs, jobs that were meant to keep attention on them and not on what he was doing. It never went too badly over the years, just some arrests, but even the police had no idea what to do with the street kids, so they just let them go with the promise of punishments in the future.
Sergei remembered Ana, his first crush. The reason he kept himself emotionally cold. They were around fifteen when the Rats got a job by the Molly’s, they were to break into a warehouse and light it on fire and run away, an easy and relatively safe job. Ana, Sergei and three other rats managed to get into the warehouse and they set that place up in flames. What the Molly’s had forgotten to mention, was that the warehouse was another Clan’s storage. Smuggled goods. Expensive goods. So, after a few days, the rats got a visit. The other clan came by knocking and they decided to make a point, by killing Ana. Yeah, that was the day Sergei stopped himself from feeling. Or tried to.
He spent the next six or so years working for whoever could pay him the best. Until his mother contacted him. Explaining how she was working with the Coalition and how she could get him an invitation to join her. Those feelings again, always them, always betraying Sergei. He took the chance and then joined the glorious Coalition, as Rasputin. He had read of the name of Rasputin once, some kind of warlock with a silvery tongue. Very different from him, but it sounded good at the time.
Sergei opened his eyes, slowly, the pain was still there, in his spine. He tried to twist and when he did, the pain let go and he could feel his entire body relaxing. He sighed and sat up in bed, grabbed the cigarillo in the ashtray by the bed, lit it up and took a deep pull from it. Blowing out a nice thick cloud around him. He just sat there for a while, enjoying the taste and fragrance of the smoke.
It had been two months since they picked up the job from Li Hana, the Chrysanthemum mistress they had the fortune to have gotten to know. Well, know and know. Sergei had two dinners with her when they had returned to Morioka. She seemed to enjoy his company and he did not mind hers either. But, again, emotions are bad. And now when he was thinking about it, he’s put into the position where he began to actually feel things for his crew. They needed him. He wasn’t sure if he hated that or not. But his life had hardened him and proven to him over and over that having feelings or connections leads to pain and suffering. But, could he say he didn’t have them?
He sighed and lay back onto the bed, with the cigarillo in his mouth, the ash falling off it onto his face. He couldn't care less. He lay there, staring up at the bulkhead. The very alloy that made up the ceiling of his cabin was still looking decent, despite it not being the newest ship, or the cleanest. They each took care of their cabins and worked together with the rest of the ship to make sure it remained clean. Well. Clean enough. This particular section of the ceiling was surprisingly clean. Had he actually cleaned the damn ceiling, even once? And why was it important? He sighed and put out the cigarillo in the ashtray. “Why the f*ck..” Sergei sighs. “I need coffee.” and he pulled on his pants and wore his tank top and headed towards the mess hall.
As Sergei entered the mess hall, he only saw two others in there. Karl nodded at him as he walked towards the coffee that was brewing on the counter. The other, Alice, had a bright smile on her lips as Sergei poured coffee into his old, even ancient cup.
“Good morning, Captain.” She happily said. “Too happy..” Sergei thought to himself, but at the same time, it was nice to see her smile. She was such a young woman. At times Sergei wondered how the hell she ended up working for the Hessians.
As he sat down. “Good morning you two.” he sipped his coffee, black, as it should be.
“Hey, Alice, how did you end up working for the Hessians?” Sergei couldn’t help it, the curiosity was killing him. Besides, he should know that, being her captain, right?
Alice tilted her head, thinking for a bit. “Well, I am not a revolutionary or anything, but ended up there while traveling and looking for a job. Not that many in Rheinland want to employ a woman engineer.” She still had that smile on his lips.
Sergei chuckled and nodded. “Yeah, I bet. Well, glad you’re with us.” he winked at her and she chuckled.
Karl looked from one to the other and then rested his eyes on Sergei. “What’s the plan, boss?” he said before sipping his own coffee.
Sergei sighed and twisted his head slightly, until it cracked. “Not sure, we have that Liberty contact” Sergei looked into his coffee.
“Haine, right?” Asked Alice.
“Yeah, Richard Haine, not sure who he works for, but he mentioned he could have some potential work for us in the future, we could send him a message and see if he has anything.” Sergei yawned hard, but covered his mouth.
“Right, well, might be good. But, we did make a great profit from Hana, we have the resources to relax and just fly around, looking for other jobs.” Karl offered as he leaned against the table.
Sergei sighed and nodded a few times. “We made a f*ck ton of profit, there’s no real rush here. Besides, I think the crew could do with some R&R, there was a rough few weeks smuggling.”
“Oh! We could visit Curacao!” She said with a sudden grin.
Both Karl and Sergei jumped a bit from her sudden outburst, which they both chuckled at.
“I mean, that’s not the worst of ideas, boss.” Karl said, which Sergei was surprised at. He could never imagine Karl in bathing shorts and with a cocktail in his hand on some beach. Now that he is imagining it, he sort of shuddered at the imagery.
But Sergei had to admit he wouldn’t mind a proper vacation. He grinned and nodded. “We’ll gather the crew later and have a vote for it, I mean, Baden Baden exists as well.” he winked at Alice, who was still grinning.
Eventually, Sergei found himself in his cabin again, he had gotten a ping on his pad of a new message to his personal console. As he sat down at the console, he hesitated. Something felt wrong. And then. Bang. His head and nervous system was on fire, again. He groaned and ended up on the bed as the pain shot throughout his body.
A series of flashing images were forced into the front of his consciousness The first was that of New Berlin, seen from inside of a ship’s cockpit. The second was of a woman, blonde of hair and a brilliant smile. Then there was this schematic, it was strange, with strange letters, but he couldn’t focus on it before the text scrolled onto his vision.
Sergei did not know how long he had been out cold, but, eventually, he awoke to knocking on his door. He slowly got up and hit the button to open. In came Karl, concern in his eyes. “Boss, are you ok? I’ve been trying to contact you for ten minutes.”
Sergei groaned and went to sit by his desk, head in his hands. He cursed. Softly. “It’s.. My implant.. Again.”
Karl frowned and sat down on the bed, tapping his fingers on the frame. “Boss, do we need to try to get someone to take a look at it? We can go to the Coalit-”
Sergei raised his hand. “No.. I don’t want to go back with them. That part of my life is… Partly over.”
Karl looked confused, then sighed and leaned back against the wall. “Boss, talk to me here.”
Sergei sighed and nodded. “I told most of it to you at that time.. Most of who I knew was gone alright. Even my mother, who was top staff in the Coalition industry, no one had heard of her, not even Marlon. Who was my contact and first employer within the Coalition.” Karl had been tapping his finger against the bed frame as Sergei spoke, but he was listening intently.
”I am not sure where, why or how they decided to put an implant in my head.”
“So, as of late, I get these pains and flashes of text, images and sounds and even scenarios in my head. I am guessing some are memories. But.. The text.. It’s like it’s some kind of computer in my head.” Sergei groaned and shook his head.
“And I had some high up Zoners take a look at it a while ago, they took scans and all, but had no idea what kind of tech it is. They told me that they could most likely operate and pull it out, but they weren’t sure how it was connected with my brain and that they would not recommend having it removed. At least without knowing more about it and how it worked.” Sergei was beginning to feel tired, but he owed Karl the truth.
“What about those technocrats? The Aux something something?” Karl asked, again, and again.
“No, I don’t know or trust them. I’ve never spoken or met them. I don’t want to put my life in someone unknown’s hands.” Sergei was telling the truth, he did not trust them, even if they might be of the few that could know what the implant was.
“But boss, that’s all you have. A lot of unknowns. If the Coalition is a no-go. Then we need to think outside the box. We need an alternative.” Karl frowned, then stood up and walked over to Sergei and stared down at him, then, he did something out of character. He smiled at Sergei.
“We’ll figure this out, boss. No matter how long it takes. Ok?”
Sergei was shocked, but he nodded and stood up. Which prompted Karl to give Sergei a hug. No one had hugged him in years, but they did the man thing, pat pat on back and then they stopped. Sergei chuckled a bit at that.
“Well, that’s enough of that for a year.” Karl said with a chuckle of his own and Sergei nodded, agreeing.
“Let’s have that meeting, maybe we do need a vacation, Karl.” Sergei said with a nod.
//Decided to continue with the story today, so, added it to the end!//
They were landed at New Berlin at the time of the meeting, but before that, Sergei grabbed a case of liberty ale from storage and started walking towards the mess hall where the others were gathering. He knew that a vacation is exactly what they needed, or, rather, especially him. With the continuous implant issues, nightmares, daydreams, lines of text in his head. Yeah, no. Maybe unburdening himself of stress and getting some time to relax. Who knows, maybe he’ll find a nice girl to spend some time with. Now when walking and thinking, he couldn’t remember the last time he properly had a stress free week, or even weekend, in the last year or so. There was the casino in Kusari, but even that got stressful eventually and besides, casinos aren’t exactly known for being places for relaxation. He chuckled to himself as he walked into the mess hall. There, his crew waited, every single one of them. Karl stood by the end of the main table, along both sides sat the rest, they were all chatting with each other, the mood being quite relaxed and positive. Sergei walked up to the table and sat down the case of ale. “Here you go guys, some ale for the meeting, thought it’d be nice to get a little buzz while we decide on what to do next.” Sergei smiled and grabbed a bottle of ale, pulled the cap off and drank some. Then motioned to the crate and the others quickly grabbed a bottle each.
“So.” Sergei said and sat down and motioned for Karl to sit too, which he did. “Well, we have two choices.” He drank some and looked them all over once.
Karl, his Number Two, Hessian and as far as he knew, former military. He was reliable and experienced, a bit withdrawn, but f*ck, who is he to judge him on that. Then it was Jurgen, young, inexperienced, a liability and a damned coward. For now, thought Sergei who wanted to see promise in the kid, but time will tell. Then next to him sat Alice, a young, pretty girl, engineer. She had a lot of promise and Sergei did enjoy her company, the few times they had spent time together. Klaus, Stein and Morgan were all trained crewmen, they had experience but lacked any proper motivation or direction. He got some information from Karl regarding them. Klaus was enlisted with Rheinland Military but got discharged for refusing to follow orders, something about arresting a woman on New Berlin. Stein on the other hand, despite his age, had worked on ships since his teens, he did a lot of things, kitchen, cleaning, repair and even some combat training. Then we have Morgan, smuggler, he did jobs all over House space, but never did join any outfit officially. They had a lot of use from his skills while they worked for Li Hana, he showed them a few Jump Holes in Bretonia space that even Sergei had missed, not to mention who to speak to on New Berlin to help with the goods.
They were a good crew. And Sergei once again felt something, something that he reactively wanted to push away. A sense of companionship and responsibility he never really did have before, at least from what he remembered. He hated that feeling, that.. Weakness. That was his Coalition side speaking, the side that tells him to not make connections cause they will end up dying eventually and then, loss, sadness. No, he had worked hard to not care too much about people. But, even with that in the back of his head, he really wanted to feel something for someone. “So, we could look for work in Liberty with a guy named ‘Haines’, he said he might have work eventually for us up there. Most likely more smuggling, since he got our information from Rochester.” Sergei took a big sip of his ale as the others looked around and then back at Sergei. ““Well, captain, what’s the other choice?” Asked Stein with a tilt of his head as he drank from his bottle.
Sergei chuckled a little and then raised his bottle. “Or, we go on vacation on Baden Baden for a week or so. Now, before you decide on doing more smuggling work, cause, whoever wants to go on vacation for a whole week?” He grinned at the others as they laughed. “Well, captain, I think that we all would, despite it being the bad choice, prefer a week's vacation.” Klaus said and the others all nodded and raised their bottles, to which, Sergei did the same.
They continued to drink for the remainder of the evening and eventually went back to their bunks to get some sleep. Early in the morning, they’d contact Baden Baden and check for reservations.
As Sergei got into his room again, carrying two bottles of ale, he saw that his console was blinking from a message having gotten through. Sergei looked at the console for a long time, maybe ten or so minutes, until he drank heavily from one of the bottles, throwing it into the bin by the door. As he sat down at the console, he clicked it open and checked the sender. On the screen, stood the name of ‘Margeret’. The name of his mother.
--------
As the Lindwyrm lifted off from New Berlin and they laid in the route in the nav computer, Sergei sat down in his chair on the bridge, he kept tapping his finger against the console screen as he pretended to study something. “Margeret..” He thought to himself. “Can’t be her.. So, why..” He frowned and pushed it aside, stood up and walked over to Karl, who was sitting in the pilot seat. “I got the confirmation on the booking for the resort, cost us a pretty penny, but not enough to hurt us.” Sergei said, trying his best to focus his mind on other, more enjoyable things. “That’s good captain, glad they had rooms for us.” Karl said, looking at Sergei. “A week then, boss?” He asked and Sergei nodded in confirmation. “A week, then we’ll get back to work. Maybe check in with Heinrich while we’re in Rheinland space. What do you think?” Sergei asked, knowing that it might be the right thing to do, but rather wouldn’t. But, he got the Lindwyrm from Heinrich, it’s only fair to see if he needs any help. “Well, boss. I’d say he’d appreciate the visit if nothing else.” Karl would chuckle and continue. “But he’d also want us to report on everything we’ve done since we left Rheinland space and most likely ask us to do some work for him. But, that is what you were hoping for, yeah?”
Karl knew Heinrich pretty well and now, Karl seemed to pick up and learn more about Sergei as time went on. “That’s an issue.” Sergei thought to himself before chuckling and answering. “Hoping is a strong word, but, work is work and Rheinland tends to be a bit easier to work in than for example Liberty, cause there they have too many groups and way too many navy ships on patrol. Doing some work for Heinrich could refill our pockets and give us something to do with our time. Right?” Sergei knew Liberty was a shit show for those of the less than legal mindset, seeing how their navy has more ships on patrol than most houses together. At least that is how it felt each time he went there on transports, always patrols, scans and stops. But, then the rewards get even juicier. “Right boss. That’s clever thinking. And I am sure the crew wouldn’t mind seeing their old friends at Northeim either. I know Jurgen’s dad works in the engineering section.” Karl turned away from Sergei as they exited the lane towards Stuttgart Jump gate. “That could be good for them, raising the morale even higher. That’d be good if we were to get into some more… Dangerous work.” Sergei mused to himself if it was possible to avoid any work that would be too dangerous, seeing as they might have a Frigate class ship, but it’s not armed with anything special, only civilian weaponry. “We might be able to get some new weapons on Northeim as well, these guns we have does good enough work for fighters. But anything heavier than that is an issue.” Sergei bit his lower lip in deep thought. “We still have the cloak, boss, that’ll give us some advantage in a fight, right?” Karl asked, while they waited to enter the Jump gate.
Karl was right of course, that was their ace in the hole. But, armed with, let’s say proper Rheinland turrets, could prove to be all they need to survive even larger fights. “Yeah, that’s right. But, I want us to be ready for anything.” Sergei wasn’t sure why he was making such a big deal of something that might never happen, at least right now. Now there’s also the fact that they might do work for the Hessians, which would mean that it’s possible they run into Corsairs, and those do not play around. “Corsairs for example.” Sergei said as an explanation as they jumped through to Stuttgart.
As they returned to realspace, they found themselves facing a Rheinland Cruiser, who without a second's notice began to scan the Lindwyrm, a hail coming in. “Await Scan, Lindwyrm.” The dark voice of a man was heard, along with some background chatter from nearby patrols. As usual, it took only a minute or so, until the voice returned. “Where are you headed, Lindwyrm?”
Sergei sighed, but saw no reason not to tell the truth. “Baden Baden officer, we’re off for a vacation.” Sergei said with the most pleasant voice he could manage. On the other end, the officer chuckled. “Have a good vacation, Lindwyrm.” and the hail disconnected.
And with that, they glided along in space, hit the trade lanes and continued on their merry way. It would be a bit until they arrived, so Sergei walked back to his seat and console and was staring at the blinking notification symbol under the category of ‘Messages’. He kept staring at it, that flashing red light dug into his mind and without thinking, he clicked the delete button. ‘CONFIRM DELETION’ - Suddenly was in front of him in the middle of the screen. Sergei’s finger hovered over the button on the screen. He sat there for what felt like forever and as he was gonna close the button Karl said. “We’re closing in on Baden Baden, boss.”
And he deleted the message. He stared down onto the screen. For a few seconds, there was panic. But then, he settled and actually relaxed. “It was for the best, nothing to worry about now.” he thought and then turned to Karl. “Good, open comms.” And he moved to the comm panel. “Baden Baden, this is Lindwyrm, I am Captain Sergei, I contacted you earlier and booked a few rooms at the resort for a week. Are we able to land and get our rooms already?” Sergei was just looking forward to doing nothing for an entire week. He had downloaded six books on his personal tablet, he had been waiting for a reason to read again. He always enjoyed it when he had a chance when he was young, he remembered he had a bunch of fantasy books he had stolen back on Leeds. “Lindwyrm, this is Aaron Krelan of Baden Baden, you are more than welcome to land on pad Beta-Six, we’ll have a greeter to be there at your arrival and they’ll show you into the resort. Welcome to Baden Baden, Captain!” and the pleasant male voice goes silent and the com channel shuts down. “You heard the man, land the ship Number Two.” Sergei chuckled and then opened the comm channel onboard. “Gentlemen and lady, we have arrived, we’ll soon be in the comfort of our sun chairs and bathing in hot water. Plenty of drinks and lots of unhealthy food. Meet at the landing bay in ten minutes.” He took a deep breath in as he chuckled to himself, then looked over at the bridge window, seeing them exiting the cloud layer and seeing the black sand beaches and the large resort with swimming pools and fancy luxurious looking facilities. “Here we go Boss.” Karl said as he landed the Lindwyrm on the correct landing pad. “Let’s go.” Sergei stopped himself before exiting the bridge, looking down at the console he was at before, looking at the screen that was saying ‘MESSAGE DELETED’. He sighed and then just headed to his quarters to grab his bags and went down to meet the other’s at the landing bay.
They got their rooms rather fast, could be because they were one of the few guests at the resort at that time. But, each crew got a room of their own, all next to each other. Each room had a porch, which could be opened up to the neighbors. Sergei decided to choose his room at the end of the line, so that the others could interact more freely, also so he wouldn’t have all the crew on his porch all the time. Of course, Karl ended up on the far side of the line, while Sergei had Alice as a neighbor. Most of them had no swimwear or such, but the resort had plenty to sell. And not only that, there were shops for all their needs and more even if the others weren’t enough.
After settling in, Sergei decided to wind down on his porch with a book and a drink, some fancy rum and some sweet soda. They had a bar both by the pools and down by the beach, not to mention the large one by one of the restaurants inside of the resort itself. But, they also had access to a large fridge that was refilled each morning with plenty of alcohol.
Sergei managed to relax, for the first time in a while. The view from his room was a beautiful one, looking over the pools in the center section of the resort. And in the distance, the black sand beaches and the ocean spread across the horizon. There were these ships on the water, yacht’s and smaller ones built for speed.
His room was larger than he was used to, two rooms. A large bedroom with a queen sized bed, it had the view out towards the ocean directly in front of you when you sat up in bed. Sergei couldn’t remember the last time he slept on such a large bed. Must’ve been back in the Coalition maybe? There was also a huge bathroom, with a f*cking jacuzzi in it. Marble floor and white cabinets, they had spared no expenses in making these rooms as luxurious as possible. Not that strange since the cost of getting these rooms were insane, for ‘regular’ people that is. There was, as hinted, a large kitchen as well. With a normal and alcohol fridge, the normal one had some normal items, bread, butter, cheese, some vegetables and assorted mix of things one might need. It even had one of those fancy coffee machines that were in the wall. Then the living room, a large corner sofa in white leather, real leather as well guessed Sergei. There was a TV, almost the size of the damn wall. Along with some chairs and a sofa table and a dinner table near the kitchen. These rooms were obviously made for couples and not lonely single starship captain smugglers. That’s a sentence.
As he finished reading the first chapter in his book, a fantasy novel, from some guy in Liberty. It wasn’t half bad and Sergei did find a certain appeal. Must’ve been his inner child that came out. Nostalgia they call it. He put the book down and got up to look out over the resort, seeing a few of the crew and a bunch of other visitors down by the pool. A door opened to his right and Alice walked out onto her porch. Sergei was a bit surprised to be honest, Alice had an amazing body, not an ounce of fat and she had muscles, where the hell did she hide that? He tried not to stare and switched to look out onto the resort again.
“Great view, right captain?” Alice asked as she drank from her own drink, a pink cocktail of some kind. She glanced over at him with a smile.
Sergei chuckled. “Yeah, it’s gorgeous. I haven't seen anything like it. At least what I can remember.” He glanced at Alice again, she was sipping with a straw from her drink.
He then saw beyond Alice on the next porch, Jurgen that was waving at the two. “Heya Alice and Captain.” He had a beer in his hand and what seemed to be some sort of tablet in his other hand. “Heya Jurgen.” Sergei smiled and nodded at him. “Having fun?” He asked, then looked out over the resort again.
Jurgen chuckled and drank some beer, then put it down on the nearby table. “Oh yeah, had a blast at the pools earlier, but got a bit tired, decided to chill here.” He said as he checked the tablet in his hands, which was making weird noises, pings and dings. “What’s making that noise, Jurgen?” Alice asked with a quirked eyebrow.
Jurgen just grinned. “It’s a game I found while on Lindwyrm, some sort of platformer I think it’s called. It’s supposedly an old kind of game category. It’s really fun.”
And there it was, another evidence of his innocence, Sergei sighed, but smiled anyway. He was gonna have to learn with time.
Alice just snickered. “That’s good.” She nodded and continued to sip her drink, looking out just like Sergei. Who at this time had sat down next to the forward railing, he lit up a cigarillo and took a few deep drags from it, letting out vanilla fragrant smoke. He picked them up from one of the shops, along with a few extremely expensive cigars, but those were for later.
Then Alice put some music on from her own tablet. Some sort of synthwave, he recognized the beat and it was quite good. He had not anticipated that she was into this kind of music, maybe pop, or even rock. But who was he to judge, he enjoyed old style metal, the really loud ones. He chuckled to himself while thinking back on how he used to hang outside a music bar back on Leeds, where there were live bands every now and then. There was this Molly metal band, he couldn’t recall the name, but he had one of their songs in his head now.
There they sat, quietly enjoying their time as the sun set slowly and the hot temperature cooled, with a warm breeze flowing over their porches. The pings and dings had stopped, Jurgen muted it as soon as Alice began to play music again. From beyond Jurgen, the others had returned to their rooms and were beginning to gather at Klaus’s porch as it was in the middle. Jurgen saw it and put his tablet back and headed over to the others. Alice looked after Jurgen and then looked at Sergei. “Feeling social, captain?” She asked with a smile
Sergei shook his head. “Not tonight, I think I just want to chill with music, book and alcohol.” he shrugged and lifted a smaller tablet with his books on it. “And don’t forget the cigarillos, captain.” She winked at him, who chuckled and nodded. “I’ll go hang with the others, see you later captain.” And she left and headed towards the others.
Sergei could not help but watch her walk away from him, wearing a bathing suit and a really light see through kimono over her shoulders, that flowed over her back. He did not mind that view at all, but he turned back to his tablet and continued to read by the light of the room behind him.
He had been a bit tipsy when he decided to head to bed for the night. He had heard the crew having fun the entire evening. He had a look over there once or twice, he saw them all save Karl, who Sergei didn’t expect to be there either.
The morning after he joined the others at breakfast in the nearby restaurant, most of which looked like they had a lovely hangover, all except maybe Klaus and Morgan, they were a bit heftier than the other three. Not long after the others sat down came Karl and sat down as well. They had a nice chat, the others were gonna go snorkelling in the nearby reefs, they were gonna hire a boat to take them. Surprisingly, Karl wanted to tag along. Sergei wasn't that interested, instead telling them he’d see them later when they got back.
Sergei decided instead to hang by the pool bar and drink and read, that counts as being social, right? He thought to himself. There were a few others at the bar and in the pools, but most seemed to just be families or couples. Sergei didn’t really mind, he was never much for random socializing after all.
After grabbing a quick bite at the bar, a nice burger. He headed back to his room, it was around three when he decided a nap was good. As he walked into his room, he heard some old jazz music from the outside, very close nearby. Thinking Alice had returned he walked out on the porch, but the music came from the left, from the next door porch. Which yesterday had been vacant. As he walked out on the porch he looked over at where the music was coming from. There in a sunchair lay a beautiful blonde woman, maybe in her late thirties, she had a very revealing bathing suit on, but some linen coverup fabric around her shoulders and around her waist. She looked over at Sergei as he looked over at her, she smiled and then clicked off the music with a remote next to her. “Sorry, didn’t mean to disturb you, sir.” She said with a smooth confident voice. For a moment, he thought he had heard that voice before, but he couldn’t place it. He thought it might be a Libertonian accent that he recognized. “Oh, no, it’s fine. I actually enjoy Jazz, well. In smaller doses.” He said with a chuckle, he nodded at her. “Did you just get the room, miss?” He asked, leaning against the railing, turning towards her. He noticed she had a tattoo on her left arm. He couldn’t get a good look at it though. “Oh, yeah, I got here a few hours ago.” She grabbed a glass from the table next to her, drinking something clear and with bubbles, most likely some kind of champagne or sparkling wine. “Alone?” Sergei asked, then realizing how creepy it might have sounded. “Sorry, that was a strange thing to ask.” he chuckled and so did she as she waved a hand dismissing the awkward question. “Yes, I came alone. I realized I had not had much time for myself lately, work work work, you know.” She smiled and sipped her wine. “Oh yeah, work. The thing one needs to do to survive and all that.” Sergei smiled.
She giggled, which made him smile even wider, he liked her. “Yeah, the thing.” She tilted her head at him as she observed him. “You’re quite handsome.” And then smiled at him.
Sergei, not used to getting any sort of compliments, especially not from women, froze, then just barked a short laugh. Which made the woman look confused and tilted her head to the other side. “Did I say something funny?” She asked, sitting up in her chair, looking as if she had done something wrong. Sergei shook his head and waved a hand. “No no, miss. It’s just that I almost never get a compliment. Sorry, didn’t mean to laugh.” he sighed. “I’m sorry.” he said eventually again. And she got up to walk to the railing, offering a slender fair skinned hand at him. “Lina.” And smiled at him. Who turned and took her hand in his and shook it. He felt that she had some strength in that handshake, surprisingly so. Immediately, Sergei thought she might be military. He then, without making it obvious, took a closer look at her body, arms and legs. Sure as hell, she had some impressive lean physique, finely toned muscles, hiding below a beautifully slender outside. “Sergei.” he said with a smile. “Pleasure, Sergei. Want to join me for some wine?” she asked as she opened the door between their porches.
At first, he was hesitant, but then just shrugged. “F*ck it.” he thought and joined her.
They had sat down on her porch on some comfortable chairs she grabbed from her room, drank some wine and chatted for a bit. For once, Sergei actually felt nervous. ”F*ck”, he was not even nervous when he had those dinners with Li Hana. But, eventually, he relaxed and she obviously noticed. “Not used to having pleasant conversations with a woman, Sergei?” She said with a smirk on her lips, before taking a sip of her third glass.
He hated that she had read him that well, usually, he was quite good at hiding his emotional state, the few that he had. He shrugged and chuckled. “Sort of, not the best one at being social.” And he thought to himself afterwards “By choice mostly.” “Ah, not enjoying it either I guess?” She asked, showing some interest in his reactions, he was damn sure of it. He immediately believed she might have some experience in psychology or some sort of investigative occupation.
She then just giggled. “Sorry, I keep making assumptions, I apologize.”
Sergei shrugged and chuckled in response. “You do seem to have good guesses so far, Lina.” he as well took a sip of the wine. He never was much for white wine, he could stomach it at times when it was required of him. Like now, he couldn’t really go and say that he wanted a drink, preferably one that gets him drunk quickly. And no, he wasn’t an alcoholic, but why drink for anything other than relaxing and what isn’t more relaxing than being drunk? “Hmm, maybe I am a bit alcoholic?” he thought, but waved that thought away from his mind. But then refocused on Lina and the conversation they were having.
She had stayed silent for a little bit. “It’s part of my former occupation, criminal psychiatrist. Worked in Liberty for a few years in the security forces, but, the work wasn’t rewarding.” she offered a light smile.
Sergei immediately got nervous again, but shut it down and forced it back into the dark of the back of his mind. “Aaah, military. I had actually guessed you were in that line of work. Actually close on both my guesses.” he smirked at her. Not sure why, but he felt a bit proud of guessing her occupations through observations. Then again, this is what he did back in the Coalition, at least from what he remembered. But he had always been good at reading people, mostly to see their attentions towards him. He wasn’t that good at estimating emotional states, but, body language and how one speaks tells a lot. “Oh, is that so? So, that means you had been in a similar line of work then?” she tilted her head and observed him. “Not to be.. Harsh. But, you do not look like you were a psychiatrist. Maybe military?”
Sergei chuckled and nodded. “Sort of, I had a few years in Rheinland military.” He was also observing her expressions as he spoke, carefully trying to interpret what she showed, but she was obviously trained and it was hard to get a grip.
Lina just smiled widely and laughed a bit. “So, we’re both trying to read each other now, are we? This can be fun.” She then straightened in her seat, put the glass down and looked him over. “Tattoos, some with what I believe to be a mix of ancient myths and legends, that one is a wolf of some kind, right? Maybe old Nordic?” She pointed at the wolf’s head on his upper arm. “And that down there would seem to be a Rheinland rune, most likely from the old Earth culture of the Nordics as well, yes?”
Sergei was impressed, he looked down at the rune on his chest, it looked like an B, he had gotten it the year when Hans stopped being who he was and he was Sergei. It meant Liberation and birth. He was never sure why he had gotten that one, perhaps because he felt like that? Rebirth. But, the tattoo artist on New Berlin, an old man with runes and ancient nord symbols on his upper body, had told him what the runes had meant and that rune stuck with him. The wolf's head was also linked with the nordic culture, it was that of a massive wolf called ‘Fenrir’. It was him that during Ragnarök would break free of his chains and collapse upon the gods that had bound him, eating the god Odin, the leader of those ancient gods. There was a theme there, breaking free of their chains. It was strange to Sergei that had those feelings when he wanted nothing more than to return to the Coalition. But, he supposed that was not truly what he wanted. Just like he didn’t want to ask them to help with the implant. He was free and he wanted to remain free. “Damn, that is impressive, Lina. I thought only Rheinlanders were this involved with old ancient cultures and mythologies. It is Fenrir, the wolf of old Scandinavian mythology, who were to devour the gods after getting free of his chains. And the rune just means, Liberation.” he touched the rune and then looked at Lina, observations be damned, she was truly fascinating. She in turn moved to touch the Fenrir tattoo then chuckled. “I only got this one.” Then turned to show him her own tattoo on her left arm, which had been mostly hidden until now. It was that a finely made Anchor with a compass rose next to it, finely intermixed with plant wines to bring them together. He tilted his head at the tattoo and then smiled. “Navy?” He chuckled and she nodded. “Yeah, navy pilot, two years.” She shrugged and sat back down and yet again sipping from her glass. “So, let me guess. Psychiatry school for three years, then, to get some experience, two years in the navy. Then, after that, getting a ‘promotion’ to criminal psychology for the LSF? But, the time with the navy was such an important part of your life, you and the other navy pilots decided to do a joint tattoo for the years working together?” He smirked and relaxed in his chair, sipping his own wine.
She on the other hand grinned at him. “Close.. I did do the tattoo after my navy time. But just me. My dad had the same one and I always wanted it, so, after I was a pilot I felt like I deserved to have it too.” She chuckled. “You weren’t half wrong though. It was an important time of my life. And I do not regret it.”
Sergei nodded at that. “I can understand that. Military careers are usually important for anyone, even if they change career paths later on.” He tapped the side of his glass. “So, Sergei huh? Former Coalition?” And again, she hit the nail in the first shot. He sighed, looked at her with a ‘That obvious?’ look on his face. “Now, I should say, I’ve met several non-coalition people with old Earth eastern block names, there are several families left in the houses, who’s ancestors fled with the other ships. But, with how you act, your rather good observation skills, physique and general attitude, I see military service. And with the name. Just an educated guess.” She gave him an apologetic smile. It was soft. Almost caring. “Yeah, in another life. Well, that was my second life. Sergei is my third life.” He was surprised that that came out of his mouth. He sighed again and downed the glass. “Hmm, three lives? So, first, working and living in one of the houses, second, joined the coalition, third, left the coalition? But why Sergei, would that not give the wrong impression if you left the second life? And not to mention, why leave in the first place?” She was right about that, he had chosen the name of Sergei for some reason.
Sergei pointed to her left arm and nodded. “Just like you choosing to do that tattoo. Something to remember from that time.” He wasn’t dishonest, but he’d rather not say too much about his time there.
She on the other hand just smiled at him, then stood up and walked into her room. He watched her leave. A few minutes later, she came out with a bottle of rum in one hand, a bucket of ice in the other and managed to hold a bottle of coke under her arm. Sergei just chuckled. “Could’ve helped you, you know?” He did help her with the coke bottle when she got close and put it on the table. “Then you can go grab two glasses, it’s completely barbaric to use wine glasses for rum.” She grinned at him. “Aye aye captain.” And headed into her room, while walking past the door to her bedroom, he caught a glimpse of what seemed to be a holster with a pistol in it. He didn’t stop walking, but made sure he remembered that she was armed. Not uncommon, a lot of people carried personal firearms. But, maybe not if you aren’t in the military.
He returned to Lina with two drink glasses, they were really fine and well made, just proving how much money the resort had spent on even the minor stuff. As he put the glasses down, she went ahead and made them each a rather strong drink, then offered one to Sergei as they still stood up. “To old lives.” she said and raised her glass towards him. Sergei chuckled, then clinked their glasses together. “To new lives.” He said, with a smile on his face. “Bad emotions.” he thought.
![[Image: Serpentis.gif]](https://sig.grumpybumpers.com/host/Serpentis.gif)
But yeah, let's see if this works for you guys!//