Realization hurts(Darcy,cont.)

[darcyneumann]

"Oh, you bet you are," Darcy said, flashing Lisa a grin. She was no doubt listening to the conversation, if abiding by her father's rule and not participating. Darcy had adopted Casey in her most awkward and fragile years. They'd had a lot of fun though, Darcy acting as mother, sister, and friend to the girl.
They didn't need to talk about her Dad, and they didn't need to talk about Lisa either if he didn't want to. Painful things they both both forced to remember on their journey to freedom.
"Sounds like a pretty sweet life to me," she smiled, picking up another sliver of vegetable - carrot this time. Crunch.

"Why did you decide to become a cop?"

[hugodouglass]

Hugo laughed, telling her:
"There's a difference between cop and detective that most people don't know. The cops are the big boys when it comes to enforcement: everyone's scared of em. Us? The detectives? We do the dirty work behind the scenes. Get all the info, go on clue hunts, undercover operations in dirty places...that thrill is one reason I wanted to be a detective. I also didn't want to follow my father into his line of work." Hugo pointed at the "book" Lisa was reading, saying:
"That story? It was adapted from a film called The Repulso Brothers, which was produced by Douglass Media Studios. My father runs the circus and I wanted something more...I wanted something tangible that would be making a difference instead of sitting with a bunch of hypocritical film stars who want nothing but their own cut." Hugo paused for a moment, then continued:
"There was also Marcia. Really good friend of mine got murdered. I snooped around the crime scene, got caught up in trying to find her 'killer' and eventually began to enjoy hunting for patterns in behavior, patterns in doing things." He smirked, continuing:
"Like I know that you, by offering your hand to me multiple times in our little dream escapade, are a very nurturing and supportive individual who probably at one time raised children of her own."

[darcyneumann]

Whoops, faux pas. Oh well, he laughed it off, so she chuckled too. Apparently she was like most people in that respect, well that was a change.
Her eyebrows rose; she had heard of Douglass Media Studios, who hadn't? And now he was saying it was his father's company. "You're full of surprises," she said.

"Well done," Darcy smirked in return, "on that psychoanalysis. I'm sure that many a nurse would embody those traits as well. Good nurses anyway. You do get jerks that forget they're there to help the patients, not just for furthering their career and looking good." Most professions had those sorts of superficial people, not just the media industry.
"The only things I've managed to discern about you so far are that you have a blind determination when it comes to your work, beligerent even. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, it shows a certain amount of selflessness if you're willing to do anything to find out a person's killer. And also, that you're a father, truly. If the lovely Lisa over there is anything to show for it."

[hugodouglass]

Hugo laughed heartily at her label of belligerent, knowing that he had been called much worse in his line of work(and for some reason, most of the bad names came from the people he locked up.). To know that she meant it in a GOOD way was even more humerous. He had never heard that term utilized in a sentence that wanted to confer a compliment.

But he would take it as one.

"You have to be, especially when a mother isn't around." He looked over at the now distracted Lisa, who was fiddling with one of the settings on the e-reader that made the book's text larger or smaller. She giggled as the text got REALLY big. Hugo shot her a look, which prompted her to get back to reading.
"She misses her. Her mother I mean. Kids need to have both parents around in order for them to really have a childhood." He leaned back in the chair, his once mirthful countenance changing to one of sadness, one of longing.
"It's been hard, you know. Being a single parent. Doesn't help that my line of work endangers her."

[darcyneumann]

Darcy sucked in her bottom lip a little, putting her food to one side.
Linking her fingers together in her lap, she nodded, "I'm not surprised," she said, "I never knew my Mother. I mean, I knew who she was, but she didn't want anything to do with me, she was just providing my Dad with what he wanted, a child of his own. So I didn't want to know her either. Sometimes I think that maybe I was missing something not having a Mom figure around, but I turned out okay," she glanced at Lisa, "I'm sure Lisa will too. Especially when she has you."

She sighed slightly, easing back in her seat. "I'm sorry," she said, "about Lisa. I know it must be hard. But at least here you know that there'll always be people around to help and protect little Lisa over there. If you let them."

[hugodouglass]

"Hopefully." Hugo chuckled, continuing:
"Look at me, a melodramatic mess. Haven't even eaten yet." He began to eat some of the food(GOOD) that was provided to him, a silence coming through the room except for the occassional giggle from Lisa(apparently the book was amusing to her). After a few moments of silence, he asked:
"How did you get onto the ship anyhow? Did UGAP come storming into your hospital and pluck you out of work?" Hugo didn't have a great experience with UGAP personnel while trying to get onboard the Venia. He felt as if they intruded on his life and made him suspend his work...

Then again, he was doing what he loved on the ship.
And he was sitting across from what he now percieved to be a very attractive woman. How old was she anyway? Probably mid-thirties from the way her forehead and eyes looked(stress lines were there, but not to the extent that a typical forty year old would.)

Yeah, she was pretty.

[darcyneumann]

"You're an adorable melodramatic mess," Darcy smirked, following his cue, picking up her food again, eating a more substantial portion of it this time. My, her body had missed food these past few days.

"Not exactly," she said, by way of answering his question, "it was a little more formal than that. They came in, sat me down, essentially read me my own life story, sang my praises, and asked me if I wanted to join. With Casey off at school, I figured, why not? It's certainly been a lot more interesting here in the past month then it has been back on New Earth for a good few years."

She offered him a smile. Truth be told, she'd been lonely what with Casey being away, only seeing her on holidays. She'd needed to be around new people, try something different, this had been her way to do that.

"How about you?" she asked, "I'm assuming they brought you on board to help with the ongoing R4 threat?" She munched on what was left of her meal, looking at him expectantly, and curiously.

[hugodouglass]

Hugo ate quite contently(he had to remember to thank the chef for the AMAZING food), listening to Darcy recount her experience with UGAP. It seemed like a very typical recruitment pitch: You're amazing, save the world, get home in time for dinner.

They didn't tell you everything though...did they?

Hugo responded to Darcy's question with a smirk:
"I'm here because you guys needed help nailing some bad guys. And from what I've been reading, I don't blame the Alliance for wanting someone on board with street experience. These guys are tough, gritty, psychologically unstable, and very good at covering their tracks. In fact, the only hard evidence the Venia has been able to provide for me on these guys are a few profiles that were constructed by Will. Didn't know an engineer could do such neat profiling." His smirk broke into a smile as he continued:
"In fact, I'm surprised at how smart all of this crew is. I was expecting a bunch of dunderheads. What I got was more than I could ever asked for." Hugo then asked:
"Casey...that's your kid, isn't it? Where is she studying right now?"

Downstairs, Hugo's comm rang loudly. When no one answered, a message was left.

Silence.

[darcyneumann]

Darcy let out a small snort of laughter when he said that he'd expected the crew to be 'dunderheads'. Seriously, who would send a ship of idiots out into space to save the lives of people across the Universe. It was a recipe for disaster. Darcy had to admit though, R4 were making it hard.

"Yes, adopted daughter," she said, "I think I mentioned it before? She's off at college in New New York studying culinary arts, wants to be a chef. We spent her holidays over the years before college going to all sorts of places, trying all the different foods, flavours, and styles, all for her benefit. She's really good though, got a natural talent. Almost as good as Sam's food here."

She polished what was left, putting the tub down before casting another glance at Lisa who had her lips pursed together, shaking, trying not to laugh out loud. It made Darcy grin, before turning her attention back to Hugo, catching his gaze. He was a classically handsome guy, dark hair, bright eyes. She was tall, with abnormally long legs, brown hair and brown eyes. She thought she was somewhat attractive, but it wasn't hard to have doubts about that when men, for the most part, didn't approach her. She'd never figured out why.

Bringing herself back to reality, she tried to summon up another question, "so what do you like to do outside of work? Apart from the obvious." She nodded towards Lisa.

[hugodouglass]

"Good to see we still have some cooks in this part of the galaxy. Seems like everyone else wants to go into 'saving the world'. Gotta have food to do it."

Lisa, who hopefully had completed her assignment, was now thoughtfully staring at a scene she had created with her multi-faceted EMFGI(Education Module for Gifted Individuals), in which a kingdom was in need of a princess. Enter Princess Lisa.

Hugo laughed inwardly as he heard Darcy's question, responding with a quip:
"Outside of work? What's that?" He laughed a bit more before continuing(a smile still on his face):
"I like to read. I don't get to that very often with work and that monster." He nodded to Lisa as he continued:
"But when I do find time, I'm in my chair, reading books. Not all that electronic garbage. Actual print on paper in binding. Can't find that much anymore." Hugo couldn't help but laugh again as he said:
"I also watch cartoons with Lis. There are some educated things in Monkey and Chum." Monkey and Chum was the latest hit kids show that was almost EVERYWHERE.

[darcyneumann]

Darcy let a "ha! slip from her lips at his retort, she knew what he meant there.
"Monkey and Chum, huh?" she couldn't help grinning, "sounds incredibly intellectually engaging." Casey had never been one for kids programmes, she'd sort of outgrown them by the time she came into Darcy's custody.

"There used to be this show, I don't know if you'll remember it," she assumed he was a few years older than her, "called Batwing and the Allycat? It was two superheroes, one who bore an uncanny resemblence to Batman (the 20th Century superhero), running around solving riddles and catching criminals. I used to watch it whenever my Dad was out at work and couldn't catch me. It beat reading about biology and chemistry any day."

That was a random forray into her past there, it had just sort of come out. She smiled, a little embarrassed, but didn't let it show.

[hugodouglass]

Hugo laughed hard now, nodding his head in approval as he laughed. Lisa looked over at her father and giggled slightly. She liked it when he was happy. He wasn't happy enough sometimes.

After a few more moments of laughter, Hugo wiped away a few tears that had come to his eyes, responding:
"That..is great! I had the whole series on my drive before it got wiped a few years ago...wow. That's great." Leaning back into the chair, he continued:
"Who wants to work when you can watch the adventures of Batwing?" Hugo glanced down at the empty tub before realizing: he had work to catch up on. Big work.
"You mind if I split? I have some more work to catch up on. Might as well get ahead while we still have time." He got up, continuing:
"Thanks. For talking." With that, he motioned for Lisa, who quietly went to her father(she was tired now) and the two disappeared.

"I like Darceeeeeee, Daddy."
"I know you do, honey."
"Do you like Darceeeee, Daddy?"
"Yeah...yeah."

Hugo walked into his office to be greeted by a blinking red light.
"Voice message: playback." He commanded, the row of computers in front of him combining their energies to form a holographic representation of...

A shadow. So it was a no name. Off the grid.
It played:

"New Earth. Midnight Rain. Two a.m. Tomorrow." It ended. Hugo played the message back several times, noting the vocal distortion. Oh it was good.

And it was action.

[darcyneumann]

Darcy chuckled as Hugo dissolved into reels of laughter, she wondered how many people had seen him laugh like that, and how often. It hadn't been intended, but all the same, she was happy that she'd tickled his funny bone.

"Oh wow, seriously?" she laughed, "I stopped watching years ago now. I keep getting the feeling like I should dig some of the episodes up and see how ridiculous they are now though. It'd be funny to see."
"Of course," she said, "no problem." She didn't have much time to react before he gestured to Lisa and they both left the room. She'd put her hands on her legs to rise from the chair, but relaxed them, watching the two disappear around the corner.
With a deep sigh, she eased back, closing her eyes for a moment. She had to admit, that was probably the most she'd laughed and smiled in a while. She liked it.

[hugodouglass]

Hugo enjoyed being a liaison: no restrictions, no red-tape, just a whole lot of freedom. Of course, the Alliance didn't pay him nearly as much as they were paying the crew(nearly half of what most were getting on board), but stuff like this?

It was worth it.

After securing his equipment, making sure Lisa was taken care of(he left her a holo-recording...like she would follow his instructions anyhow. At least he did what he could), and asking for leave from the ship(a V.I. handled that kind of thing...lucky for him.), he was sent via automated mini-shuttle into the deep chasm of space. New Earth wasn't that far off from where they were...

Which meant that the guy who left the message knew where the Venia was. Which also meant that this informant could have a lot more information that Hugo could..."extract"

New Earth was just as bustling as he had remembered...a lot cleaner too. This new major...Jacowski? He really knew what he was doing in terms of conservation.

Of course, he was ignoring the Third, one of the worst ghetto's in this system, but what tourist would WANT go into the Third? Rumors of cannibal aliens, REAL cannibal aliens(and other aliens too), as well as some of the more ruthless gangs in the sector. Yeah, that's not something you publish in a tourist pamphlet. He made sure to check into a hotel, noting the time: ten p.m.

1:45 am:

It was hard getting a shuttle into the Third. Most common shuttles didn't even have it on their path. Hugo had to cajole a few drivers before he could get in.

The place was just as seedy as Hugo thought it would be: trash on the streets, buildings falling apart, strips of nightclubs promising "action" beyond your wildest dreams. It was all disgusting.

Midnight Rain, from what he had seen in his hotel room(he had looked the place up on his galactic crime-watch handheld, useful for trips into seedy underworld-like type of places), was one of the more popular places in the Third.

And it was packed tonight.

[darcyneumann]

Curiosity, it was going to get her into trouble one of these days.
Considering that Hugo said that he was retreating to his office to do work, Darcy had been a little confused when she'd seen him en-route to the hangar bay, apparently leaving the ship. He had no bags, and Lisa wasn't with him... where was he going?
After a couple of moments of deliberation, she grabbed a coat, a hat and a scarf and headed after him, curious to see what he was up to.

Just because she wasn't experienced with men, it didn't mean she didn't know how to use her feminine wiles. They were exceedingly useful, she found, especially when pilots stereotypically tended to be men.

She was a little more than surprised when she ended up following him into the Third. New Earth had been her home for many years now, she knew the planet well, but she hardly ever came here - only a couple of times on 'home' visits. The lowest of the low lurked in this part of the planet, no one came here unless they were desperate, crazy, or both.

Standing just inside the doorway of Midnight Rain, she pulled her jacket tighter around herself. "What the hell is he doing here?" she muttered. Was he in trouble?