The view on Sigma-59 was pretty impressive, and Sombra enjoyed looking at the blue giant while she waited for the briefing to begin. Her, Commander Aguilar, Noel and Chief Engineer Leon Isley were present, just waiting for the Captain to join the group at the observation room.
The Chief Engineer was busy talking with the Commander, while Noel moved over to Sombra's side and looked out of the window with her. "Looks like things are getting serious today."
"Excited?" she asked him, turning her head to face him. "You don't need to be worried. Ez won't risk the ship, so you'll be safe here anyway."
"I'm not worried. It's just... something unexpected? It's different from what we usually do. Different from roaming around in the void, searching for things some unlucky adventurers and explorers left behind." He looked up at her. "You know what I mean?"
"Well, at least it won't get boring." She smirked at him and slapped his back, a bit too rough. In the same moment, Ezrael entered the observation deck and joined the four.
"Alright, listen up. Former Guildmistress Ishibashi hired us for a job. Technically two jobs, but I assured her we wouldn't do a certain part of it. We'll do it anyway. The Apahanta will move to the Honshu system and scout it for Rheinlandian invaders. The GMG suspects one or more battlegroups to have reached Kusari, but they don't know their location. If they are in open space, we should be able to spot them. If they are not, it means they are hidden in the Crow, where GMG is at advantage. Either that or they are simply not there, which would be the best status."
Commander Aguilar cleared her throat, obviously wanting his attention. "Pardon, Captain, but why are we doing it against her approval? We'll not get paid for that, if I understand that correctly?"
Nodding at the woman with the chestnut colored hair, Ezrael continued. "I didn't tell her about our potential. I hinted it only. In this case, I believe it would be alright to do something on our own and just add it as a bonus to the final report. Apologizing is usually better than asking for permission for something you already know you won't get."
"... could it be that she explicitly told you not to do it?"
"That is exactly the case, and I want to prove her wrong. Trust me, it's worth taking the risk if the GMG can plan a surgical strike on the invaders before they attack Honshu's installations. If we do our job very well, chances are we'll have an enemy less to care about, which is a good trade in my book. If it doesn't work out as intended, well, then we'll roam around less in the Sigmas. Not that much of a loss."
"Or in the worst case, we die. You should add that," Leon sounded, throwing a frown at Ezrael.
"It's not exactly the first time we've sneaked into house space and scouted out areas. We're cloaked, we have drones that map jump hole connections for us and we have a powerful sensor array on this ship, which gives us a higher detection range than most other people have. And that's where I need you. Sherry, take our drones and let them check all kusarian jump hole connections we have mapped in the past. I want to know whether the Apahanta can use them without any harm. Then find us a good way to Honshu that is not via Sigma-21. If Rheinland took a direct way to push into Kusari from Sigma-21, they probably have eyes on that connection."
He then turned to look at the slim gold-haired engineer. "Leon, I need you to become an expert on the Crow nebula and how it messes with sensor systems. If they hide in one of those clouds, I want to be able to see them before they can see us. Make sure they can't see us."
Leon's countenance switched to a mix of apologetic and apathetic. He sighed. "I'll try my best."
Ezrael nodded, then moved a bit closer to Sombra and Noel. "Sombs, I need you to do a bit of trading between Sigma-15, Omega-3 and that PlanetForm station in Hudson. Freeport 1 and Freeport, uh, 8 surely can use those filtering systems they produce there, and Freeport 1 has some ores available. Just find some trade routes, do a few runs. Look like a trader who just moves through Rheinland for the sake of trading. On the way you can take a few looks at The Ring and Alster Shipyard. Take pictures of the stations, their drydocks and anything docking there as well as anything stationed there. Just don't draw attention. Noel will come with you, just in case some Rheinlander stops you. He can talk with them."
Noel gave Ezrael an incredulous look. "Wai-"
"Ah, perfect! Finally someone to fill the co-pilot seat!" She put an arm around the young man next to her and pulled him close, squeezing him slightly. Noel was about to say something, but Ezrael continued.
"Excellent. I hate to send you out there in a transport, but if this works out, we'll have less problems in the Omicrons. I'm sure the GMG can arrange something. Any questions?" Noel was about to raise his hand, but Sombra pulled again and prevented it from getting up. "Excellent. We'll jump to Livadia first, where you two will get to the Catport. After that, we'll take the route Commander Aguilar marked for us to get to Honshu." He smirked at them, then patted Noel's shoulder. "There is work to do!"
Sombra turned with her pilot seat towards the co-pilot seat and smirked at Noel, noticing the red stress spots skin. "Huh. Everything alright?" she asked him, standing up to walk over to him.
He gulped, then threw an insecure glance at her. "How the hell can you remain calm after what just happened?" he asked her, his voice shaky.
The black haired woman chuckled and patted his head. "I'm doing this for more than two years now, Noel. The most important thing to keep in mind when being a transport pilot is knowing your place in the food chain. Pirates are a level above us." She leaned forward to peck his cheek, remaining close to his head as she continued. "None of those was after us, Noel. I admit we were lucky today, and the Kusarians attacking Rheinland were an unexpected sight, but they are only after military assets, not after us."
"So you weren't afraid?" he asked her, turning his head to look into her eyes.
"Space is dangerous. I'm always afraid when I'm on this ship. Everything between me and death are these heavily armored hull panels, an emergency cloaking device and a thick transport shield. In most cases I don't need to rely on either, given that most pirates just want to make money. We've made around fifty million credits today with our tour. That's enough to pay ten pirates." Pecking his lips quickly, she moved to the back of the cockpit.
Noel turned around with the seat, looking after her. "Do you think that Corse transport made it out alive?"
"Probably not. That Kusarian was not alone out there. The next station was too far away." She sat down on the edge of the bunk bed at the wall. "Better him than us, really."
Noel stood up and came a bit closer. "Why do you do this, Sombra? You're risking your life every week like this. Ezrael could just hire someone else to do the logistics."
"It would be inconvenient," she gave back, patting the spot next to her, signaling the boy to come over. He did. "I have an established network. I know the names of the trading managers on many stations in Sirius and know when they have things cheaper than usual or in higher quantities, when they have special offers or special demands. I've done things for many unlawful elements out there. Rogues, Blood Dragons, Hessians. I can get stuff other people can't get that easily." As he sat down, she leaned against him. "If I can help Ezrael like that, I will continue doing that. I can take care of myself, as you see. Whenever I'm not doing these trade runs, I can just rent a shielded mooring point for my ship at a station and relax a bit, or I come to the Apahanta."
"So you do all this just for him, huh?" he asked her, looking at her lap. He had stopped shivering.
"Not just for him, but primarily. I love him, no matter how many other women he has. And I know he loves me, and whenever Maren isn't around, he can show it openly. I'm fine with that," she explained and let herself fall into the soft mattress of the bunk bed. "He does so many things for us and risks his life for us. He doesn't demand it but I believe returning the favor is only fair, you know."
"I guess." He took a deep breath. "What's going to happen now, though?"
"We'll stay here at Heisenberg for a while, get some sleep, eat and all that. The robots will refuel the ship and unload our trading goods from Freeport 8. The next run is from here to Omega-7 or Omega-3 tomorrow, where we either get Beryllium or Robotics, which we will bring either to Cold Bay Depot or Freeport 8. As I said, we'll be safe here because of the station shields. Heisenberg can defend itself quite well, and looking at how many other ships are docked here, one can assume nobody tries to pull off something weird."
"Uhm, okay. Where do I sleep?" he asked her, and she began smirking.
"Right here."
"And you?"
"Right here, too. I'm usually the only person on this ship that needs to sleep. The robots have loading stations. So there is just this bed."
He sighed. "I guess I'll start compiling the data we got today..."
The tables of the canteen were filling more and more as the crew arrived for dinner. Only a handful of people was still on their stations, making sure the cloak was holding while the Apahanta illegally scouted the Honshu system for potential Rheinland battlegroups. Ezrael sat down next to Commander Aguilar, who as usual pretended to nourish herself with a cup of coffee only. His tray was filled with a bowl of fruit salad and a sandwich, a glass of milk and a cup of tea, as well as a hard-boiled egg. More people sat down at the table. Abigail right next to Ezrael, talking with another crew member.
Sighing, Ezrael looked over at the Commander's coffee cup. "You know, Sherry, effective time management would be to use the time in the canteen to actually eat something instead of doing it half an hour later alone in your room," he commented quietly, holding up the unpeeled hard-boiled egg infront of her.
"I've noticed that since Noel and Sombra are gone, Simone is eyeing our Chief Engineer," she returned and then looked at his egg. "Maybe she has an interest in him as well."
"No." He placed his egg back on his tray and grabbed his sandwich. "By the way, how's the crew thinking about this mission? Any unrest or something?"
"At this point, they are quite certain that as long as the cloak is online, there is no reason to be worried. We've brought an unregistered capital warship into kusarian house space, act against the wishes of Miss Ishibashi and could find ourselves between the fronts anytime here. We've dodge some patrols of both houses already, all with more than ten clicks of distance from the closest ship. I'd say so far everything is fine, and we can narrow down the potential locations further and further. That being said, Captain, I am slightly surprised we didn't start the grid-search closer to the nebulae."
Ezrael had taken his second bite on the sandwich. Dark bread with salad, cheese, bacon, some Apahanta-grown fruit and various spices. While chewing, he let a gloved finger slide over his lips, then licked it. Swallowing, he leaned a bit closer to the Commander. "To be honest, I was expecting Rheinland to avoid nebulae if possible and instead hide behind clouds instead of within. For once, if I would want to hide myself and had no cloaking device, I'd hide myself in a big cloud. If I was Rheinland, I would expect Kusari to try and think like me, which is exactly why I wouldn't hide in a cloud if I was Rheinland. Trying to be unpredictable. The other reason, obviously, would be the fact that the GMG knows the Crow better than anyone else, and Rheinland wouldn't want a repetition of the Eighty Year War." He took another bite.
"As far as I can recall, that war was won by guerilla tactics and playing the long game. GMG might be powerful and has an advantage in the Crow, but there are one or more battlefleets out there. It is possible that they fly in a closed formation. Performing surgical strikes on these fleets is rather impossible in such a case. GMG would do better by attacking logistical convoys that supply those fleets." She took a sip of her coffee, still looking away at some crew members. "These first months of war are probably highly in favor for Rheinland, as Kusari wasn't prepared well enough. Same for the GMG. I don't see what we can gain by doing this mission, given Ishibashi told you not to do it. If anything, you might get your support from her revoked and might lose your access to the Apotheosis."
"By all means, Sherry," he sounded, placing his sandwich down so he could take a sip of his milk. He ended up having a milk beard for a few moments. "What the GMG does with the intel we provide is their concern, not ours. If we do our job well enough, we make new friends and get rid of enemies we don't need. In the best case, that is. This is a good opportunity to prove our value to Ishibashi and her contacts. The chances of us getting detect are a bit higher than the chances of us getting into serious troubles. Both chances are low. We're cloaked, stay at distance, can jump away in the worst case. Sometimes we just need to take a little risk."
She cleared her throat and looked at him. "In the last three years, you almost died pretty much a handful of times. The Desertion, the accident with the power core, the battle of Port Carthage, our jump drive accident, you getting shot on Gran Canaria, you almost dying to radiation in Omicron Chi, and I'm not even counting the times you were threatened. Remember Miss Loyola?" she sounded quietly, holding her cup infront of her mouth.
"Enma doesn't count. Holding a dagger to my throat during intercourse was her way of dominating me. She never intended to kill me." He frowned at his egg. "I guess."
"I believe the crew and I would prefer if you took less risks, Captain. For someone who has rather meh combat skills, you're trying to be a hero too often."
That hurt in many ways. He took another sip of his milk. "I'm not trying to be a hero. My combat skills are alright, my body is in perfect shape even after the recent injuries. But then again, I wouldn't mind getting some training from you. Your Krav Maga is probably more useful than my Kickboxing in actual melee."
She smirked at her coffee, then at him. "I highly recommend you to put on a groin protector then," she told her with a hint of an audible cheeky grin.
Something was vibrating. Noel opened his eyes. Breathing was difficult with the additional weight of Sombra's upper body on his chest. How did Ezrael do this every night!? Trying to be gentle, he pushed the girl off his body and took a deep breath. There was still something vibrating. It was the PDA, on the floor right next to the bunk bed they were forced to share. Leaning over, the young boy reached to the floor to grab it and pick it up, just to lay down on his back again, looking at the sleeping Sombra. Then at the still vibrating PDA. It was a high priority message.
Sighing, Noel opened it.
"Sitrep?"
It was from Ezrael, and Noel sighed again. They hadn't send him any data yet. In fact, they hadn't even said hello. Noel didn't even send a message to Simone, given she probably didn't know to read or respond without a drawing. His eyelids were still heavy, but remaining where he was, he began to type the response.
"We're in Sigma-15 at the Freeport, moored. Gathered a bunch of data, but mostly only obvious stuff like defense fleet locations and a few scans of bypassing transports. "
Only seconds later, Ezrael's response came in.
"What are you wearing right now?"
Frowning in confusion, Noel didn't question that any further and made a picture of himself lying in bed as they were. It was a POV shot showing his body chest-downwards, skin covered fully by his Apahanta suit.
"Why do you ask?"
"Why do you wear your uniform in bed?"
Rolling his eyes, Noel took a picture of Sombra laying next to him. Other than him, she was not wearing a suit. Or anything else, besides a blanket that was severely off. Before sending the picture, the boy added pineapple emojis to censor the private parts the blanket didn't cover.
"Oh."
"Exactly."
"Bad time to have a girlfriend, haha!"
"...
And what are you doing right now?"
"We're all shittalking you."
Ezrael sent him a picture of the canteen on the Apahanta. His crew was having breakfast, all at a bunch of connected tables. Once more, Noel sighed. He would have liked to be there as well. Especially after the events of the recent few days.
"You know, being on this transport here strongly reminds me of my life before you picked me up at Livadia, Ez. On the Apahanta, I feel way less vulnerable all the time. Since the beginning of this mission, we've been pirated three times. One pirate, one Junker, one Gaian. Sombs said that happens all the time and she seems to be fine with it. She just gives them what they want from her."
He looked over at Sombra, who was turning into his direction and leaned against his body, her eyes closed. Her long black hair was everywhere, partially covering her face.
"I'm not a fan of it, either, my boi.
I'd like her to stop doing that, or at least not roam around in Rheinland, so she can legally use the cloaking systems of her ship, but this mission requires this kind of compromise. That being said, you're pretty safe there, Noel.
Her ship is heavily armored and she can use the cloak in emergency cases anyway. Fuck the law. Survival is more important."
"Let's hope we won't have emergencies. God, I can't wait to be back on the Mako."
For a while, there was no response. Sombra scooted even closer, pushing her head against his neck and shoulder. A leg of hers moved over one of his.
"At least this ship has water showers, Ez. I need to shower cold quite often.
Anyway, how's it going in Honshu?"
Five minutes passed before Ezrael responded again.
"We've found the first rheinlandian battlegroup. It's lead by the Westfalen. They aren't hiding, not at all. Between Akita Border Station and the Sigma-19 gate. We've seen some patrol wings fighting each other, involving cruisers.
Pretty fucked up. We're currently scouting the southern region of the Honshu system. Rheinland patrols are quite frequent here, which indicates at least one other battlegroup being there. There are also new trade lanes, we haven't found out yet where they lead to. Keeping the patrols away far enough is quite a challenge in the Hiryo Cloud."
"Just be careful, okay?"
"Why? If the Apahanta gets destroyed, you'll spend the rest of your life with Sombra. Isn't that luck?"
Noel looked at her. She was rubbing her body against his every now and then.
Still hidden by her cloak, the Apahanta continued her search behind the Hiryo Cloud in the Honshu system. The crew was mostly doing the daily routine. It was somewhen between breakfast and lunch when Ezrael was leading a workout session in the gym, attended by a dozen of crew members. At this point, it was push-ups. Everyone was trying to stay synchronized with their Captain.
"Fourteen..." They were sweaty from previous activities. Other than some of his crew members, however, Ezrael enjoyed the workout very much. "Fifteen..."
The doors opened and Ezrael looked over, spotting Commander Aguilar. She entered the room and looked expectingly at the Captain. "Seventysix... " The crew members started to chuckle. "Seventyseven... Don't give up yet, people, we can do the hundred! Seventyeight..."
"Captain, please follow me to the bridge. I believe they can do the twenty on their own." Ezrael gave her a surprised look. How did she know? Nevertheless, he stood up and followed suit, a towel around his neck.
Arring on bridge, Ezrael instantly looked at the main screen. Nothing in sight, just the Hiryo Cloud. Blue shiny particles that caused sensor disruptions on long range. Wisps of the Crow. He moved to the commanding seat and sat down, throwing a glance at the Commander, who sat down next to him on her chair. "And?"
"We've recorded another encounter ten minutes ago, 15k in the distance. Apahanta, please put the footage on screen."
Ezrael stood up again and moved to the railing, staring at the mainscreen. He sighed, then turned towards Sherry again. "Ishibashi was right. The Hiryo Cloud is full of patrols right now, both Kusarian and Rheinlandian. That's now the fifth bigger patrol encounter in two days."
Raking his fingers through his slightly moist hair, he took a deep breath. "We know about the position of the Westfalen Battlegroup, since they aren't really hiding. And the Hiryo Cloud is suspiciously heavily patroled. At this point we can assume Rheinland has at least one additional battlegroup in there. Given the frequent fights we have recorded in and around it, it is too risky for us to delve deeper into the cloud. I guess that is all the information we can really gather here for now," the Captain sounded and received a nod from his second-in-command.
"Shall I prepare a report for Miss Ishibashi?" she asked him, but he shook his head.
"No, I will do that. You set a course for us to leave Kusari and return to Sigma-59. No risks. If there is anything in the distance, ignore it. Let the sensors record anything, though. Maybe the lady wants to see some of that."
The woman nodded again, and after taking another look at the mainscreen, Ezrael exhaled and headed for the door.
Under the protection of Freistadt Base's shields and the Altenburg's fleet, the Catport lay moored at the IMG station in Omega-7, together with many other traders and shippers. Another busy day of profit was coming to an end, just like the mission Ezrael had sent Sombra and Noel. They had received the call for the debriefing, to Livadia Shipyards in Omicron Kappa, the next day. Having survived multiple piracies and kusarian raids, and what they didn't know, a Wild raid, Noel was glad to finally be able to leave this, for his standards, vulnerable transport.
There was, however, one good thing about this ship, he had to admit. Given Sombra mostly relied on a robotic crew, there was more space for luxuries such as a bathtub. In the sirian evening, the young boy had entered the bathroom. He looked at the bathtub. It was hilarious, he thought, but in the twentythree years of his living, he had never gotten to use a bathtub, only showers. There wasn't even a bathtub on the Apahanta. Taking off his suit and underwear, he smirked as the hot water began to fill the oversized bowl. Steam was emerging from the hot water, and bubbly foam was forming. A nice scent filled the air. Fruity. He folded the suit and placed it ontop of the toilet seat. One last glance at himself in the mirror, one last smirk. He remembered he looked like when Ezrael had picked him up. It wasn't like he had gained any fat, but he didn't look like a starved man anymore. Something he was pretty happy about.
He entered the bathtub carefully, the hot water first being slightly uncomfortable to the skin, but then quickly becoming more and more pleasant. Almost disappearing fully in the foamy, wobbly surface, only his head remained untouched by the liquid. His breath grew stronger to cope with the additional pressure to his body and the heat. He wanted to close his eyes, but being rather new to the sensation of his body being fully surrounded by water, he wasn't sure whether that would cause him to lose control and accidentally slide into the water fully. Not that he was afraid of it to happen, but it would have been uncomfortable. It reminded him that he never learned how to swim, not that it was relevant in the bathtub. A few minutes in, he tried to close his eyes nevertheless, thinking he had a good grip on the situation. It felt heavenly.
"Catport, please be so kind and access my PDA's music archive and play something,"
The music was loud enough to make the young boy forget about everything around him for a few minutes. No pirates, no raiders, no war. There were no threats for the next minutes. Nobody would be so mean as to not give him a few minutes of rest. Exhaling deeply, it felt like stress was leaving his lungs. His vision was black, his mind on the Apahanta. Ezrael was there. His friends were there. He thought of the hydroponics and the apple tree. Then of the canteen and the nice food they got every day. He thought about all the cool things he had seen from the observation deck and the few times he had been there with a bit of synthetic mary jane intus. He thought about his work in the engineering. The Terminator turrets they had built recently, which made him pretty proud as it was one of his first bigger projects to partake in actively. He thought about the energy core, which illuminated the room in a deep blue light. He was one of the few people outside of the Core who were learning how it worked, how to maintain it. And then he thought of Simone. Her flawless soft skin, her long red-ish hair, her insane backstory and the very few times she actually talked. Her very weak voice. And the drawing she made to ask him whether they were a couple now. He smirked at that thought.
The water moved and Noel opened his eyes, surprised about Sombra entering the bathtub on the other end. Her hair was tied up, with a few strands being somewhat loose. She smiled at him while lowering her naked body into the hot water. With her body causing it to rise, it overflowed, spilling onto the floor. The music was still running. Noel stared at her eyes in a rather flustered way. The bathtub was large enough for two people, but not without body contact. The bubbly foam was preventing him from seeing what was happening beneath, but he had a good idea about how she sat over there and where her legs and her feet were.
"Couldn't you have waited for me to leave?" he asked her quietly, the music being louder than his voice. She still smiled almost innocently, putting her flat hand at her ear, signalling him to speak louder. He exhaled, for a moment considering to repeat himself, but he figured it would lead nowhere anyway. For the past few days she had been seducing him over and over again, just like on the Apahanta. It was like a game to her, he thought. Blushing, he looked away from her and closed his eyes again. If she just wanted to bathe, let her.
He opened his eyes again when he felt her hands grabbing one of his feet, placing it on her lap. She gently knead the foot, massaging it. It tickled every now and then, but he didn't want to give in and still kept looking away. She kept going like that for a while, then continued with the other foot. It was certainly nice, in a way.
Then her hands were sliding up his lower legs, brushing through the little hair. His legs were thin. The strokes were nice, but he knew she wouldn't stop there. She leaned forward, her hands on his upper thighs. There was a certain pressure on them as she shifted her weight to reposition herself, ending up ontop of him, her chest against his and her face close to his. He still refused to face her. Now that she was so close, he was certain she would be able to hear him. "You should save that up for Ez. I really don't want to."
"Catport, please lower the volume to 20% and play something my playlist."
Her arms were slung around his slender upper body and she lowered her head onto his shoulder, facing him while he looked at away from her. It felt weird to him. He felt her breath on his neck and chin, and her chest heaving. "You're the only one finding that funny, really."
"I don't do that to play with you, Noel," she sounded quietly. "I'm glad to not be alone right now. I'm always alone on this ship. I do all these trade runs as fast as possible, so I can return to the Apahanta as soon as possible. And there I can be with Ez and you."
Her grip on his became more tight. "This week was very nice, because I wasn't alone the whole time. I had you with me. You sat next to me when we moved around. You helped me fixing the machines..." She chuckled. "Well, I watched you fixing the machines. I had a warm body next to me every night. I know you think I'm just toying with you since you joined us, but... it's different."
Noel exhaled, not wanting to think how his body was reacting to her teasing in this very moment, and that she was fully aware of it. "I would do anything you want with you, but I respect that you don't want that. That mute girl captured you right infront of my nose."
"You have Ez," he sounded quietly.
"Have I really?" she returned, and Noel realized a hint of bitterness in her voice. He opened his mouth, about to say the first thing he had in mind, but stopped. She noticed that. "Don't get me wrong, Noel. I love him more than anyone else. I'm certain nobody loves him as much as I do, because I know him since he was my biology teacher. More than a decade. I accepted him the way he was and is, and pretty much devoted my life to him, even gave up on my ability to become pregnant. Not that he asked me to do that, but I did, knowing he never wanted to be a father. But you see how far that got me. He doesn't look at me the way he looks at Maren when she is there despite her being a horrible, horrible woman that doesn't satisfy him. And he will have a child with a woman that forced the child onto him. They treat him like dirt, and he lets them, while I risk my life on a daily basis for him, help him fund the maintenance of the Apahanta. I do everything he wants, and I would do absolutely anything for him, but in the end, I don't have him. I need to share him with two horrible women. One that dominates him and one that he will have a child with he never wanted."
Noel felt paralyzed. Never had he thought about her perspective of these events. Her rubbing against his body was quite uncomforting in this moment. "But you're the woman he spends most of his time with. You live on his ship, in his room, and you're with him five days a week, sometimes less, sometimes more. He rarely sees Maren, and he hates Abigail for what she did to him. He loves you, and I'm certain he loves you more than you realize he does."
He felt her face at his neck, her lips pecking him once. "He'll never be mine. There will always be other women for him." She pecked his neck once more. "So it is fine for me to have other men as well. But I guess, from your reaction, you are really all over that mute girl that has no idea what a relationship is." Another kiss to his neck. "I'm pretty and fit, funny, independent, rich, infertile and a bombshell in bed, and still get booted out by any other woman. Yet he prefers a messy, unreliable, dishonest and unfaithful infectee that hates me and a woman that literally abused him. And you prefer a woman with the brain of a child over me. Life is so unfair..."
Infectee? Did she call Maren an infectee? Noel didn't know that, and having her say that was a shock. She was one of them!? And Sombra and Ez knew that!? Noel suddenly had to think back of Lorena. There still were these horrible pictures burned into his mind, of the incubus leaving his mouth to enter hers, soaked in blood and spit. He didn't know whether he merely dreamed it or whether these images were what actually had happened. Ezrael refused to show him the recordings of what had happened back then when Vagrant Aphrodite took over the Apahanta.
The flashback stopped as Sombra had pressed her lips against his. Processing the reality took him two seconds, but she had broken the kiss already and lowered her head against his shoulder again. "Maybe I should leave for a while. Maybe one of you will start missing me when I am not around for a while. A few months. Mayb-"
"Don't," Noel returned, embracing her in the water. "Don't leave us. I don't want you to leave. Don't leave." She noticed how he was facing her and looked up at him. He hugged her more firmly and his hands stroked her back. "I won't let you leave."
Cuddling with him, she turned her head away from him. She didn't want him to see her tears.
IRG's efforts on upgrading Livadia and using the additional shipyard capacities were quite visible, and plenty of ships of the Zoner community were around, be it to support the efforts or sitting in queue for maintenance. The Apahanta had reached Livadia in the evening and the Catport was already waiting there for it. It moored with the Mako.
The airlocks were opening up and Noel couldn't wait to finally enter the ship again. Carrying his journey bag over his shoulder, he approached Ezrael on the other side of the airlocks with a wide smirk. Stopping infront of him, he dropped the bag and then embraced his Captain, who returned the hug. "So good to have you back," Ezrael sounded and stroke Noel's back. The young boy buried his face in his mentor's chest.
"Same," Noel returned, his voice muffled since he was talking to Ezrael's chest. "One day more and my pipe would have exploded."
Ezrael couldn't help but smile about that remark. He also realized the hug was lasting awkwardly long. "Most are already sleeping, I guess Simone as well. I thought we could eat a pizza or something in the canteen and you two tell me about your adventures."
Noel looked up at him, his tender arms still wrapped around the Curacaoan. "I'd really rather visit Simone right now. Like, you can't imagine what's going on down there after a week of getting blue-balled." He gave him an apologetic smirk. "You should spend your time with Sombra. Just you and her. You really need to pay her more attention. Maybe you should go on a vacation with her. Just her."
The boy let go of his Captain, and Ezrael gave him a questioning look. "Hm?"
Noel picked up his journey bag. "Mhm."
"Oh." Ezrael chew on his cheek. "Hm?"
Having picked up the bag and put it around his shoulder, Noel nodded. "Mhm..."
"Oh boy. Well, then have fun with Simone. She was super passive in your absence," Ezrael sounded and patted the boy's shoulder.
"Will do. See you tomorrow!" And with that, Noel moved on.
Ezrael remained where he was, waiting for Sombra to arrive. He knew she had to secure the ship first before being allowed to leave. So he waited. Five minutes later, he saw her moving around the corner of the corridor on the Catport to enter the airlocks. She smirked at him and ran towards him. Other than Noel, who was already wearing his Apahanta suit again, she wore a pretty black dress. A pretty short one as well.
"eeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEZZZ!" And then she threw herself at him. He was prepared for that, having done that with her already often enough to know how to catch her without falling back. "I missed you so much, love!"
Holding her tight, he pecked her on her lips. "Me too."
She frowned at him. "You missed yourself, too?"
He smirked. "No, I missed you, duh."
The robots were passing by, moving new supplies from the Catport to the Apahanta with medlevs. The two Curacaoans were busy for a while with each other's lips before they allowed each other to talk again. "Was the data of any use?" she asked him, her hand reaching for his suit's zipper at the neck to pull it down a little.
"I don't know yet," he gave her back quietly. He smirked at her while she was revealing his chest slowly, keeping her hand at the zipper. "I've sent all the data we gathered to the Guildmistress. Well, former guildmistress. I don't really have high hopes for it to work, but maybe it is a good start." She continued to pull the zipper down to his abs. "You did great work, though, both of you. How was it, though?"
"Eh, nothing out of the ordinary happened," she replied, revealing more and more of his body as the zipper reached the lower end of his abs. "Having had him around was quite nice, breaking the boredom, really. I'd like to have him with me on my flights more often, but I don't think he would like that. Was a bit of a cultural shock to him, given he is used to live on a heavily armored warship."
The zipper reached the bottom end, and both of them looked down as she let her hands rest on his bare chest. "Noel told me you got pirated multiple times. You never told me about that." She didn't reply but let her hands disappear beneath the suit, hugging him that way with her hands on his bare skin. "You should tell me when such things happen, Sombs. I don't want you to get harmed," he said quietly.
"It's fine, Ez, those things happen all day and everywhere. Pirate shows up, transport pays pirate, pirate leaves, nobody gets hurt. I'm not a noob, I know how to deal with these people." She pushed her lower body against his. "Let's not talk about that."
"No, we do talk about that right now," he replied in a more firm way, a hand at her cheek to force her look up at him. Her eyes were wet. "You act like all pirates are the same. That is not the case. Some are not reasonable, they kill and rape. Imagine one of those showing up. Why have you never said anything?"
"Because of your reaction?" She gave him an apologetic look. "What are you going to do now?"
"Not send you out there anymore, for example? We can hire other people to do the dirty work. You don't need to risk your life every week for our supplies, Sombs."
"Fuck my ass. That's exactly what I don't want, Ez." She exhaled, frustration in her voice. "What else am I supposed to do if not doing the one thing I can do best? I'm a pilot, I have a network of contacts all over Sirius to get the best stuff for sale. I know plenty of pirates, smugglers, traders, I know who to bribe, I know who is dangerous and who is reasonable, Ez. I'll not allow you to forbid me doing the one thing that makes me valuable to you."
There was a moment of silence. Then he sighed while her face was buried in his neck. "Love, first of all it's only the second best thing you can do," he said and smirked down at her, his other hand at her bum. "Second of all, I don't love you because I depend on you as supplier. I love you because of who you are and because you're loyal to me for, uh, like a decade. Don't think I only love you because you're my transport pilot."
He placed both of his hands on her cheek, making her look at his eyes again. Her eyes were still wet. "I'd prefer if you'd stay on my ship, fulltime. You can still run the logistics and have someone else use your ship to do the supplies."
For a few moments, she just stared at his eyes, her lips indicating she was thinking about saying something a few times, before she averted her eyes. It made him sigh. "Then let me at least allow me to upgrade your ship a bit. The best possible armor upgrade and shields. And a few security robots, just in case anyone tries to capture your ship. Okay?"
She slowly turned her head again to face him. He wasn't sure about her expression. Then she tip-toed to kiss him on his lips again. "I love you."