The Long Journey Home

[Universal_narration]

Echo Squad:

Meia looks at the disarmed grenade then picks it up and throws it at Arthur's head. She grits her teeth and says slightly angrily.

"Don't mess with the equipment unless you have my say so, got it? Now, I'll only let you have the small detonation charges that are in storage B7. I don't want you causing too much destruction nor altering them that much more." She huffs a bit, then playfully says "Nutter." [/b]

She sits back down and notes on her paper that the small charges are being taken out, likely to be used.

As Arthur gets back onto his feet Raymond walks through the doors of the Armoury.

 

[Arthur Campbell]

Arthur regained his composure. Ah, Mr Morissette I assume you're here to procure your sisters' suit. He opened up storage B7 and took out the explosives with a small glint in his eyes.
These will be perfect Meia, hopfully I'll be able to return most of them to you in their current state. He smirked slightly. As he headed out he picked up the inert grenade and put it back on the table.
Ready to go when you are Mr Morissette, lets hope your sister and Damiano have finished the surverying.
He stood by the door waiting for Raymond to join him back to the site.

 

[Aleksandra Zhukov]

She stopped and slowly turned back a strange look on her face, somewhere in-between anger and sorrow. She choked the face back and stepped forward putting one hand on his shoulder.
"After all these years you're still the only one I can't lie to."
She paused a moment an then removed the hand, straightening up and suddenly becoming much cheerier.
"Of course you are right about one thing, this is starseeker. So I'll be a chirpy ex Lieutenant Paratrooper with darkness in her past and you can be a stern daredevil ex Tank commander and we can take it form there."

She stood for a moment and then extended a hand out to him. "Hello Private Zhukov It's a pleasure to meet you I am Private Zhukova, I hope we live long enough to earn each others trust."

She then waited for his answer.

------------------------

Behind the counter the two holos slowly peeked out from behind cover.

 

[Mikhail Zhukov]

Mikhail accepted the handshake as the usual grin managed to conquer back his face.

A pleasure to make your acquaintance private Zhukova. I hope one day we will find comrades in each other in this vast void of space.

Releasing her hand Mikhail left out a sight and declared:

Well such an occasion demands a drink!

He made his way towards the bar.

And on the first day he created a mojito Mikhail announced while operating a shaker with one hand and attacking a mean looking lime, using a knife with the other. and when he finished he looked upon his work and he liked it he finished as three glasses were filed.

Well I better get back to the cockpit as colliding with something and dying right now would be incredibly lame.

 

[Aleksandra Zhukov]

"Indeed, get back to driving." Aleksandra collected the other two mojitos and brought one over to J.D.

"There you are J.D, sorry about that, now where were we?"

----------------------------------
The two holos came properly out of hiding clearly relieved. Ula sank in to a kneel and sighed while Olga came over and doffed Aleksandra on the ear. "A little warning would be nice next time." she said irked.
"Ah gomene Olga chan. I'll get it to you in writing next time." Aleksandra teased with a silly little smile. Olga sulked.

 

[J. D. Tsuba]

I believe you had asked me about my academic past Miss Zhukova.
Well I brief overview is this:
I studied my first degree at Tokyo U just like you, Astrophysics and Theoretical Space Travel, which I took to Phd, then when I was 20 I went to Oxford and got an Msc in Applications of Theoretical Physics in Electrical Engineering.
taking his mojito from aleksandra
ah thankyou, I have always been interested in space and its many bodies, mapping and predicting them. Ever since the Gothenburg disaster twenty years ago (which was actually only 78.3% as powerful as Tunguska in the last millenium) I have been, what one might call, slightly obsessed with predicting and altering the movement of celestial bodies.
obviously not accustomed to drinking, J.D takes a swig and chokes a little.
A bit more fluidly if a little more slurred, he continues
When paksis came along a few years ago, I was the first to jump at the opportunity, finally what we had been waiting for, an engine that could force movement through the fabric, we might finally begin to explore other worlds!
getting more animated and spilling little bits of mojito
If I could get into space with one of those things, I might be able to find a way to stop these things from ever happening again! no-one else would have to die!
suddenly he stops shouting excitingly, sits and starts to look more and more morose.
closing his eyes, his face goes through a series of expressions so quickly its hard to follow, then he opens his eyes again, not a hint of emotion or blurriness in them

sorry about that, I don't usually get that way, I believe there may have been some alcohol in that drink. I apologize for my outburst, please accept my deepest apologies.

upon his recomposure he bows to both Zhukovs and puts the glass down. Sitting quietly as before, nothing in his face betrays his thoughts as he trys to forget the memories

 

[Mikhail Zhukov]

With both his sister and Tsuba in place, captain Kasper removed and alcohol applied Mikhail initiated stage 4 of his cunning master plan. The lights in the cabin went dim and romantic music subtly made its way across the UMT " Snowdrop".

 

[Universal_narration]

Echo Squad:

Meia looks up "Your sister's MDA is where it always is, once you get that is there anything else I can help you both with?"

She looks down at the grenade momentarily then looks back up.

"This grenade will be in working order when you get back I assure you."

 

[Aleksandra Zhukov]

"Very funny Mikhail, but I'm afraid that isn't appropriate." she got up and flicked the lights back to normal, leaving the music as the only controls for those were beyond Mikhail in his cabin. "We are, if you've forgotten still of duty and an important mission to affect repairs to the Wanderer's external hull. Also we should probably stop drinking before us light-weights back here have too much and go off task."

She turned back to J.D and collected the empty glasses dumping them in the sink behind the bar. Sitting once more she put a hand on J.D's shoulder. "Don't worry J.D we wont hold it against you. You are clearly a well educated man who has deep feelings of pacifism and that's fine. I sometimes wish I could go back to simpler times when I felt that violence solved nothing but I'd also never want to lose the experiences that made me what I am."
She took the hand back down to her side and settled into the chair.
"So astrophysics and T.S.T, that would put you over in corridor 3 room 3c right? Do you remember Professor Kaito, the one the jowls?

 

[Ray Ray]

"Oh,you could help me with alot of things, babydoll."

He winked as he hauled out the MDA, noting how much lighter the construct was than his own. He'd never understood why Rey didn't opt for the same suit as him as they shared so many things, though he was probably the only one that didn't understand, it would be succinctly evident to most people that they were dissimilar in many ways, least of all gender.