Posts: 8,312
Threads: 737
Joined: Aug 2008
Staff roles: Moderator
Pulling his glasses off and rubbing his head for a moment in a break from his work, Doc looked up to see the very attractive woman standing before him. He paused a moment, a bit pleasantly surprised. His glasses still in his left hand, he motioned with his right to the seat in front him.
"Miss," he said, "join me if you would like." He then motioned a waiter to the table.
"Whatever she likes on my tab, please," he said.
Doc looked at the very attractive woman. For a moment, the fact he was married became lost. She truly was beautiful and it wasn't often he had such company.
"So, what brings you to Shasta?" he asked of her as he placed his glasses upon the table.
The woman beamed a warm smile to Doc as she noticed his eyes twinkle upon seeing her. It's always nice to know that respectable gentlemen such as Doc Holliday were the ones admiring her tonight... and not just fat, dirty lechers who were only after her unmentionables.
"Senor Holliday. A pleasure to finally meet you in person." She gave a small, polite bow before accepting Doc's offer for a seat. As she sat down and subtly inspected Doc from top to bottom and back, her left eye's color would switch from yellow, to purple, and finally back to the green that matched her right eye. A simple grin and her hair flowing gently down her shoulders indicated she was pleased with what she saw in front of her.
Turning to the waiter, she said, "If you have any stock, I'll have a tankard of Black Grog, please. If not, some Barcelona Tequila would do fine, amigo."
After Doc had (or had not) chosen his drink with the waiter, the woman said to Doc, soft enough to seem polite, yet loud enough to be heard above the Club's noise, "Pardon, Senor. I don't believe you remember me after so long. My name's Jaden Armand. I was the ex-Corsair who had trouble docking in Shasta more than a year ago?
"I wanted to ask you some questions of medical... and maybe personal nature." She paused, hesitant to continue, and looked like she was hoping for Doc's approval to let her take a bit of his sweet, limited time. But as if just remembering something, she quickly added, "Oh! And as for why I'm here in Shasta, like I said in my messages, I usually come here for trading, or for self-reflection. Finding you here, Senor, was just pure luck."
Posts: 8,312
Threads: 737
Joined: Aug 2008
Staff roles: Moderator
With a friendly look, Doc thought for a moment before nodding, "I do remember you, Senorita," he said casually, "it would seem that the problem was resolved." He waited for her to sit before finishing, "With so many Outcasts and Bounty Hunters not far from here, Corsairs seldom ever visit."
He was very much at ease and relaxed, putting his work away to chat with his guest.
"If you wish to talk medicine, I'm very willing to discuss it," he spoke softly yet surely with a soft smile. "Personal? So long as things stay on a personal note then I'm fine with that as well."
He changed his drink choice to a sparkling water to keep a clear head. "If you wish, we have some fine cuisine here if you're hungry, Senora Armand....on me."
"So, where do we start?
"Indeed, Senor. I hardly expect any of my people to show up this far from the Omicrons. And that's the way I prefer it, considering my... history. But I digress.
"Some food would be nice, Senor, gracias. If the Club can manage it, I'd like to have a large helping of Spicy Chimichanga, please. If not, a simple Burrito would do fine." She nodded to Doc in order to finalize her request.
Clasping her hands together on the table, she giggled as she slowly said, "Don't worry, Senor. I'm not asking you to reveal your entire life's story to me, or of your personal relationships or what-not. I thought about starting off with the medical question... but I'm afraid you may not get my situation if I don't begin with the personal ones first. If you're as cunning as your reputation precedes, you'll put two-and-two together and also get the medical one, anyway."
Sighing heavily, her smile quickly turned into a very low frown. She stared over Doc's shoulder towards the burning hearth as she began, "Senor Holliday... I love my people dearly. Even though they've long ago shun me from my home, I still do everything within my capabilities to aid them, be it delivering food and supplies to them, or tipping them of offensives against their borders and the like... But I fear my simple efforts aren't enough.
"Not too long ago, I managed to garner enough neutrality from the newer pilots to be able to enter Gamma. There, I got to look upon my homeworld once again... after so many years of being away. I look upon Planet Crete, the planet I was born on, and I cry a little inside. I came from a settlement situated within an active, dangerous volcano that spews hot soot and magma everyday. And everyday, it was a struggle to survive.
"And when I first saw death as a teenager, in the form of a friend of mine dying from the soot choking on his lungs and severe malnutrition when the food shipment was being very late, that's when I said to myself, 'This wasn't a planet for a little girl, or anyone to grow up in.'"
By now, her face wrinkled a little from sadness, her right eye started to glisten in tears, but strangely enough her left eye wasn't welling up. She did her best in keeping herself from coughing on her next words, "Senor Holliday. What do you... What is your opinion on having Planet Crete be re-terraformed into something more habitable?"
The woman's left eye shifted to faint green, while the other seemed to sparkle brilliantly before Doc's discerning gaze, like the countless stars of Sirius had suddenly been encased within that single window into her soul. But that glint, however, was a look of desperation, of being in a cruel crossroads where every path before her looked dark and bleak for light years on end.
She grew more agitated and nervous with each passing second as she waited for Doc's reply. Her hands retreated to her arms in what was a vain attempt at using friction to warm herself. The mood, from that of warm greetings and welcoming company, had quickly turned for the stale and the cold, despite the fireplace's efforts in keeping the air around them friendly and bright.
Posts: 8,312
Threads: 737
Joined: Aug 2008
Staff roles: Moderator
Doc gave Jaden a soft smile. It was one of comfort and concern. He had noticed the welling in her eye and offered her a handkerchief.
"It's OK, Senora," he said calmly, "even the strongest among us break after awhile. There is no shame in hurting."
He placed his arms out, his hands extended out on the table, "It has been quite some time since I went to Crete. More than once my ship was filled to the breaking point with food when I landed and I most often left without accepting one credit for it. I couldn't accept credits for something that is humanitarian like that."
Thoughts of the many things of the Empire that he didn't like crossed his mind. The fact that the Corsair government often sterilized it's female population without them having a say in it. The time a Corsair ambassador threatened his wife and most recently, the assault of Gran Canaria. Still, he was a doctor, a man who valued life and it was this thought alone that softened those feelings.
"Terraforming," he said aloud and paused. He then looked to her face, "I suppose it would be possible but with the hot environment of Crete, I don't know."
He thought again, his fingers drumming on the table, "If there were an area of Crete that wasn't so volcanically active or hot, say, a place at one of the planet's poles, it might be possible."
He then reached for his datapad, "Hang on." He sent a message to someone on Med.Force.One with the question. "We may have to wait a bit for his answer." He then put his hand back on the table.
As they waited, he made the best of the environment. "Let me ask you a personal question, Senora Armand. Did you leave the empire on your own or were you forced to leave? Either way I won't judge you."
The woman smiled weakly to Doc when he finally replied. A bitter-tasting, seemingly-forced smile, but a smile nonetheless. Sighing slowly and deeply in an effort to maintain her composure the best she could, she accepted the handkerchief, wiped the tears from her eye, and then placed her hands along with the cloth she held onto the table, her palms laid flat against the furniture.
While his initial statement served to lower her spirit, his follow up of a slight chance of a terraforming prospect on a planet as hostile and barren as Crete still being possible came as quite a shock to her! For so long has the belief been ingrained into her psyche that Crete was considered nigh-unchangeable, and here was someone... the very first someone she's ever met, in all her life, who's ever challenged that 'fact'. She beamed so happily she could have jumped on the table and victory-danced like a crazy, drunk gringo, and she wouldn't have minded one bit!
Of course, she didn't, nor did the occasion deserve such. While the possibility was there, the bigger question was... would her people be in favor of it?
But before she could entertain that trillion-Credit question further, her ears picked up a question from Doc. And it was a question she always found hard to answer to. "Well... It's more complicated than that, Senor. I guess you could say I was forced to leave because I chose to live."
The woman closed her eyes and took a deep breath, the hand holding the handkerchief clenching into a tight fist as she painfully began, "Don't suppose you've heard of the Corsario term, Intocable? It means 'Untouchable' in Sirian. It's a term given to hermanos and hermanas who have shown great dishonor to the Empirio, and to their familias. They were treated almost as spitefully as gringos, and only almost because the Empirio still needed pilots as cannon fodder for the enemy."
She opened her eyes and looked bitterly at Doc as she continued, "As you can guess, I was... am one of those Untouchables. My great dishonor was... for cowardly fleeing from a major defensive against the Outcasts... leaving my amigos to die... and compromising the safety of Crete... But despite being Intocable, I continued to faithfully serve my people. I even believed I and some of the other Intocable were on a roll in redeeming our honor by how well we were doing, despite our lack of everything."
The woman lowered her head to the floor, her hands clenching tightly. "... But... There were those... that wanted to keep us in our place... never liked us. One day... Bounty Hunters Guild... They... They were..."
Memories of that grim, fateful day flooded her mind like it was just yesterday. That day when, in a matter of seconds, she had lost everything. Her ties to the Empirio. Her only closest amigos. Her very first lover. And almost her life. Her eyes shut tightly once again, a quick tear streak running down the corner of her right eye as she fought hard to hold back those images.
But after a few moments, they slowly opened again to the sounds of the waiter having arrived and placed the two patrons' orders on the table. A tall glass of Sparkling Water for Doc Holliday, and for the woman, a plate of red-tinted Chimichanga and what looked to be a tankard-full of some of the most evil-looking (and smelling) black, gray-frothing liquid Doc has ever seen.
The woman looked at the meal in front of her with a sad, broken expression. "Some days... I wish I hadn't run away from that battle. Some days, I wish I had died rather than lived an exile's life."
She picked the tankard with her free hand, and began to take a sip to drown her sorrows away.
Posts: 8,312
Threads: 737
Joined: Aug 2008
Staff roles: Moderator
Doc listened to her every word to the point where he felt her pain and even some of the shame. He had heard similar stories before from an old friend at least, close in nature. He took a sip of his drink to keep his palate wet.
"A friend of mine would understand you well," he began, "your stories are similar but I will tell you as I told him. People will talk. I say let them. You chose to live and that is exactly what you're doing, living life on your terms and not those of someone else. In the process, you left the world and people you loved. Painful as it may be, it was needed for you to start anew."
He continued, "the friend I mentioned. He spent a lifetime in battle. From the time he was a child and could hold a blade, he fought and for what? His two wives killed, the first brutally so in front of him. He was ridiculed when he arrived here but I chose him as a friend. Some brand him a coward for leaving the warrior's way of life but he is living his later years in peace, good health and somewhat prosperously. He's now the administrator of Freeport 6, his kind were the two guards you saw when you arrived."
He leaned forward and took her hands, smiling gently, "My point is, you must do what's right for you. In time, you may be forgiven through a passage of time or perhaps a good deed to restore their faith but first, you must please yourself." He released her hands with a gentle pat of assurance and a smile.
"Bounty hunters," he quickly muttered, "now those are people with no honor, fighting for money only. I tolerate them at best."
He said nothing more on them.
"Now, back to terraforming. I'm not expert on it but I'm seeing what I can find. I may have to ask around a bit. I know Deep Space Engineering is pretty good about that kind of stuff."
He looked at her and paused, "Do me a favor?" He then leaned foward, "Smile!"
A hermano who could understand her pains? And an administrator of an entire station, to boot! As Doc mentioned about his friend, the woman put her drink down and etched in a mental note to one day schedule a visit to this hermano. Hopefully, she might find some answers, or at least some solace, out of meeting him. Indeed, with a universe as chaotic and crazy and meaningless as Sirius, OSC ought to think about monopolizing that intangible luxury goods t-
"Ah!" She couldn't believe it... Doc Holliday, the el presidente of the TAZ, was holding her very hands! Her cheeks couldn't help but glow a little red, not because it was intimate or anything, but because she always thought herself unworthy to be given such kindness, let alone concern, from people of such high positions. She had been so used to the brutality that was Corsair politics, that she had half-expected Doc to rebuke her for her weakness.
To experience this random act of kindness... To be feeling Doc's rough, yet gentle hands holding hers... it made her feel like that little girl back on Planet Crete again. That little girl who used to love sitting on her papito's lap on the couch by the air-conditioner, listening to tales of famous Corsario heroes of old that brought sparkles to those small, idealistic eyes. That little girl who used to love sleeping close to her papito, her back touching his chest as his powerful hand would slowly slide and rub itself against her--
... Oh dear! She promised her papito she wouldn't even remember those times again for both their sakes! Hopefully Doc hadn't noticed that mental Freudian Slip by the time he retracted his hands.
But to hear Doc say that she had to please herself first than others? This was not an easy pill to swallow. Much of her goals and dreams revolved around aiding her people who lived in that hellish planet, one way or another. Her promise to her dying amigo for an ash-less future. Her hopes that she and the other Intocables could one day regain their long lost honor. That she could one day regain her familia's long lost honor. While she did have her own selfish tendencies, she knew Doc was implying something deeper, something more meaningful and fulfilling.
But at least he was kind enough to tell her where to start. Quickly shaking away her bitterness, she lifted her head to look back at Doc, and gave the sincerest smile she could ever muster. Her soft hair weaved gently through her shoulders and her eyes twinkled in the Club's light as her simple grin radiated a glowing warmth that didn't need words to tell Doc that she thanked him dearly for his efforts in helping her.
And the follow-up of a childish giggle from her only helped to brighten the mood more as she said, "Well, I can tell you this much. I don't hold anything against those Bounty Hunters Guild pilots who nearly killed me that day. I've long accepted they were only paid by that traitorous pita to take me and my amigos out, so I have little hard feelings for them.
"... And besides..." She looked back at the fireplace behind Doc as she continued, "It was, ironically, another Bounty Hunters Guild member who rescued my pod and saved me. He was kind enough to fund and watch over my entire rehabilitation, and even convinced me to join the BHG for a time. You could say he was the first of many gringo's who had opened my eyes to the universe outside of the Empirio."
She lowered her head and closed her eyes in silence for several moments, before she smiled back to Doc and said, "So you understand I can't agree, on good conscience, with your saying that the BHG are entirely without honor. They're just another bunch of people forced upon, or broken and changed by the universe, to do unsavory things for one reason or another. Much like my people, who have monopolized over war and conflict for the sake of feeding their families. But I digress."
Her eyes fell back on the hearth once again. The glowing flames of wood being burned gave her a strange sense of peace as she said, "So Senor Holliday. With my first personal question down, don't suppose you've pointed out what my medical question is? And more importantly, why it's such a difficult question for one such as I?"
Posts: 8,312
Threads: 737
Joined: Aug 2008
Staff roles: Moderator
Doc was still casual as he felt good vibes during their conversation. What made it all better was having such attractive company. Still, he kept it professional.
"Do remember, Senora, I am a doctor and have had an awful lot of very deep and personal questions asked to me and of me so it probably won't shock me," he told her. "I'm sure you have your reasons as to why it's so personal and difficult."
He took a quick look at his datapad. Still no answer on his terraforming question. He then took another sip of his drink.
The woman hesitated. But after a few moments of thought, Doc Holliday was indeed a doctor, so she supposed it was alright. After all, they were in a little corner of the Club, a place that was also dark and noisy (albeit with dancing strobe lights and club lasers around to distract the senses), so it should be just as safe as if they were in his very office.
She took a short breath and began, "I... I'm infertile, Senor. I know this because ever since I undertook my Rite of Adulthood in the Malvada Cloud, my menstrual cycle stopped and has never come back since. On a side-note, I have tried with my past lovers to... ehrm... conceive children, but none of our attempts have ever been successful. I've looked far and wide for doctors who weren't jaded by my Corsair history, but the few that I've met didn't have the expertise to handle my case.
"But..." She lowered her head again as she continued, "The fact that I've become infertile due to my Rite is a problem in itself. All Corsario pass through that test to prove they've got what it takes to handle the dangers we face constantly, radiation being one of them. So when people such as I are rendered incapable of bearing children after our Rite, in the eyes of the Empirio we are no better than ghosts, destined to die and be unable to pass on our lesser genes."
The woman let out a deep sigh, then raised her head again to smile at Doc. But this smile looked slightly forced, and her right eye betrayed her as it formed tears within, but at least she took the time to wipe the strays away with the handkerchief as she continued, "Siento, Senor. To be honest, meeting you here has me both excited... but also scared at the same time. My issue may be medical, but its roots run as deep as my people's culture and beliefs. Don't take me wrong, Senor: I do desire to have children one day, and I do ask if it's possible for me to become fertile again... But...
"... What hermano within the Empirio would ever accept a ghost? What hermano would be willing to spoil his familia's pool with the genes of a lesser hermana like me?"
She let out a slow sigh before she turned to her Chimichanga, which had no doubt gotten a little cold from being ignored. With a sudden smile on her face, she picked the morsel up, looked at it with delight, and said, "How about you, fine amigo? You may not be a hermano, but at least you ain't no taco, heheh." With that, she took a large, crispy bite out of it and gave it a few happy chews. "At least you're still a little warm."
![[Image: 7Md2x4D.png]](https://i.imgur.com/7Md2x4D.png)
![[+]](/forums/images/collapse_collapsed.png "[+]")
Factions Involved In![[Image: Golden%20Oaks%20Tours_zpspoqc1yoj.png]](http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/ac347/Leonardo619Tigre/Golden%20Oaks%20Tours_zpspoqc1yoj.png)
![[Image: avatar_30918.png?dateline=1449208332]](http://discoverygc.com/forums/uploads/avatars/avatar_30918.png?dateline=1449208332){kind=avatar}
![[Image: mgasxy7.png]](http://i.imgur.com/mgasxy7.png)
![[Image: bM9dE4l.png]](https://i.imgur.com/bM9dE4l.png)