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Post by William Blake on Jul 13, 2010 16:38:46 GMT -5
Clang. The spanner hit the other side of the room with a loud metallic sound, ricocheting off the wall and clattering to the floor. Will threw his arms up in frustration, his fists colliding with the underside of the warp reactor core, and he clenched his teeth through the pain. The core had been giving them grief for a few days now, and no matter how much time Will spent trying to fix the damn thing, nothing work. And now his tools were feeling the pain, as were his knuckles. He wasn't sleeping either.
Climbing out from underneath the reactor, he refused to collect his spanner, and stared at the thing, his brow furrowed into a deep frown. This was getting the better of him, and he hated it. He needed to take a break, but he also needed to get this done. Which feeling would override the other?
He looked at his watch, and found only bare wrist. Great, he'd forgotten to put it on. "Time," he said out loud, the computer replying with a 6.55 a.m. Breakfast, perfect. He'd refuel, then come back to work half an hour later with new perspective. Wiping his hands on his shirt, he walked out of engineering and headed down the corridor to the mess hall. The bio-synthesiser gave him a bacon sandwich and a coffee, and he sat, eating with one hand, drawing on the table with his finger, schematic plans of the reactor, mulling the problem over in his mind. |
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Post by Alliana Porter on Jul 14, 2010 4:03:46 GMT -5
Alliana had been sleeping much better now. When she couldn't sleep, she could always find Luke in the flightdeck and they passed the night away talking about everything in the universe from vintage comics to the meaning of life. She was definitely doing better. " It's 7 am Miss Porter, this is your wake up call. How did you sleep?" Alliana gave a small chuckle, still amused that technology talked to her. She would never get used to that. "Much better." she breathed a reply to the mechanical voice.
Although she could have easily spent more time in the comforts of her bunk, she had work to do. Ally yawned and stretched with a small squeak, before rolling out of bed. She slipped on a pair of jeans and a vintage vneck and followed the pathway to the mess hall. She gave another big yawn and muttered incoherently into the machine. It made her coffee wrong, just like it did every other morning: Thankfully, there were a few creams and sugars available to fix it's mistake.
After grumbling again at the machine, she received her piece of toast and jam, with a few side slices of Bacon. She gave a burdened sigh and plopped down into a table. Not many were up yet, that or the super early birds were already to work. If she didn't get up, the computer would harass her until she did. She saved it the trouble and forced herself up every..,well...most mornings. Ally looked across a few tables and watched William huff over something. She had maybe spoken three words to him and given her name. So far, that had been it. She bit off a piece of her toast and watched him for a bit.
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Post by William Blake on Jul 14, 2010 11:47:17 GMT -5
Will had been too busy wracking his brains about the problem at hand that he hadn't noticed Alliana enter. He was supposed to be taking a break, but he knew that wasn't going to happen. He was just eating while continuing to beat himself up about the issue. He'd done this all his life, it was what made him so determind, and why he always (eventually) got the job done. He drove himself hard and was ultimately rewarded for his efforts.
He felt all the hairs on the back of his neck go up, and turned, bacon sandwich still in his hand, to look over his shoulder at Alliana. He was being watched. "What?" he said, rather abruptly. He'd met Alliana... that was her name, once before - that he could recall anyway - and neither of them had really said much, if anything. Shame really, she was stunning, but he'd seen her with the pilot, whatever his name was... Marty? Lune? Who knew. "I got something on the back of my head or something?" he rubbed the back of his neck, not feeling anything, but also smoothing down the hairs there. |
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Post by Alliana Porter on Jul 14, 2010 13:02:09 GMT -5
Alliana felt sheepish for staring, she hadn't meant to, but now she was paying the price. "What? No....nothing, sorry I didn't mean ta stare." she replied in a soft tone though her thick Sydney accent. Her mother had graced her with a smooth voice, almost like vanilla to your ears. Her looks had skipped a generation, straight from her grandmother and intense eyes from her father. No genetics could have ever saved her from her troublesome destructive nature however, which is why it took a lot of her strength not to bitch straight back at him. The late night chats with Luke was helping- that and her friendship with Anna.
With a heavy sigh, she turned her attention back to her bacon. There was a module touch screen practically screaming to be messed with. After wiping her hands, she pressed up her fingers to it, fiddling with it's fascinating technology. Anything to avoid conflict with a seemingly pissed off William Blake.
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Post by William Blake on Jul 14, 2010 13:29:53 GMT -5
Will had forgotten she was Australian, not that he knew she was one to begin with. She seemed to quickly wrap up the conversation and turn back to her food. Bacon. Funny. That's what he was eating. He scratched the back of his head, chewing on his lip a moment. He had this propensity to be snappy or rude, especially when he was in the middle of something like this. It was one of the traits he had unfortunately inherited from his scumbag father. His saving grace there was that he looked more like his mother, the mother he never knew, only pictures of her.
Putting the remains of the sandwich down, he dusted off the crumbs off his hands and rose from his chair, the table swallowing his plate, half eaten food and all. It would be broken back down into it's elements, cleansed, and used again. Sort of disgusting, but not wasteful. He then grabbed his coffee and walked over to her table, putting the coffee down before seating himself. "Fun, huh?" he said, nodding towards the table. He wouldn't apologise for earlier, but engaging her in conversation might help to take his mind off the damn warp reactor. "Clever folks who designed this stuff." He neglected to mention that his research had helped design some of the tech on this ship, that's how he knew it so well. "Alliana, right?" |
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Post by Alliana Porter on Jul 14, 2010 15:44:37 GMT -5
Alliana rose a slow gaze to meet his own. What did he want now? She searched his eyes for a moment, silently as she tried to figure him out, letting out a short breath after not reaching a valid conclusion.
"Yeah pretty cool." she repeated quietly, speaking halfway though closed teeth. "I...I'm not used to all this technology." First he decides to rudely snip at her about a small issue, and now he wanted to talk? She didn't want to. Not if he was still going to pull up this attitude. She would only snap back, and a fight wouldn't look so well on her fabricated lie of a reputation.
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Post by William Blake on Jul 14, 2010 16:38:02 GMT -5
Wow, riveting conversation. He scratched his chin a little, looking around the room. He wasn't usually too bad at small talk, but this was just awkward. Maybe he shouldn't have snapped at her before. Stupid mistake, easily fixed, and yet...
Will cleared his throat, pondering over whether he should even bother trying to continue to talk to Alliana. She didn't look forthcoming, if anything, it looked like her eyes were shooting daggers. Soon she might start grinding her teeth too. Maybe he should duck and cover. "You ever have one of those moments where you want to rewind and start again, I think this is one of them." It was halfway to saying he'd made a mistake. "Maybe I should go out and come in again." |
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Post by Alliana Porter on Jul 15, 2010 2:33:00 GMT -5
Now she was heavily confused. What was going on here...really. "I...I'm sorry, I didn't mean ta be rude." she replied, feeling like she should apologize or something. Then agan, she wasn't sure why she was taking the blame. Whatever. She didn't need to make any enemies. She heaved a small sigh and stretched the touch screen again. Her afternoon was free so she located available movies. Just because.
"So....uh...Engineer huh? How's that like?" In the bck of her mind, she really wasn't sure what they would talk about. There wasn't much in common between the two of them. She understood science, but technology? Not so much. He had approached her, so maybe something was winding in that head of his.
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Post by William Blake on Jul 15, 2010 4:58:15 GMT -5
Will waved it off, not meaning for her to apologise. Obviously she hadn't understood what he'd meant. Fortunately, she tried to lead them down a different topic of conversation, although, she still didn't seem like she wanted to be here talking to him. It was like he had an odour or something. Probably 'cause he had been a bit of a jerk.
"Interesting, to say the least," he said, "technology is rapidly becoming a replacement for a lot of human functions, ones that we see as redundant and should be completed by 'mindless' machines rather than ourselves." He kept his hands in his lap, tapping his foot lightly on the floor out of habit. "Not that it's the right way to go, but if we didn't, then I'd be out of a job, right?" Taking a gulp of his coffee, he said, "how about science? What do you guys actually do?" he was curious. |
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Post by Alliana Porter on Jul 15, 2010 15:14:35 GMT -5
Well, now she was forced to talk, so a change in mood was in order. This was great...just great. "Science is life. You, me, everything breathing, living. We help it, it helps us.' She started, sounding rather profound in her statement. It's how she felt about it, about life, everything really. "Everyone does something different. I usually work with chemical compounds, trying to find ways to break the anomaly code....you could say. Space isn't really my thing, so I really just go where I'm put." She heaved a small sigh, and decided on a few flicks for later. The classics...really really old classics. The original Star Wars, Whip it and a few scattered episodes of Fringe.
Ally looked up at him again, giving an apologetic smile. Maybe he was an okay sorta guy...maybe. He seemed to be cooling down. But seeming and actually being, were two completely different things. And speaking of maybe, she was considering going to say good morning to Luke, but that in itself was a maybe. Whatever..again.
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Post by William Blake on Jul 15, 2010 16:14:00 GMT -5
Will listened to her speak, forcing himself not to interject at any point - he was already on dangerous ground, and he didn't fancy having his head ripped off, by her or her boyfriend. If that's what that guy was.
He opened his mouth, about to speak when he heard a voice over his comms.
"Venia, come in. Private Willis, I'm on the surface and I need back up, ASAP. About two blocks East of the hangar bay. Hurry. Over."
Will rolled his eyes. What was this idiot doing getting himself into trouble at 7am for crying out loud? "Did you hear that?" he asked Alliana, figuring this Private Willis had broadcasted around a general channel, accessing everyone's comms. |
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Post by Alliana Porter on Jul 15, 2010 16:39:05 GMT -5
Alliana watched his mouth hover over words, but he couldn't get them out. His comm link beat him to it, and Ally furrowed her brow a bit, just to be nosy and listen in. It buzzed a but louder than he expected so she got the jist of the message. Some private or something was in trouble. helping him would be easy for Will, but rather risky for her. What if he recognized her? What if he told someone higher in power? or worse...what if he WAS someone? The worst would soon come. She wasn't ready to go to a government jail, wasn't ready foir her life to be over.
"Uhh..no, it was pretty muffled." she lied, picking up her toast to finish it off. She didn't want to be heartless and insensitive, but this was a risk she wasn't sure she was willing to take. She tilted her coffee to her lips and took a small sip, trying to act oblivious to his pleas.
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Post by William Blake on Jul 15, 2010 16:49:15 GMT -5
Okay, not even Will has heartless enough to leave this moron without any help. If someone else was going to help him, they would have heard so by now. He was sure Alliana had heard it. He narrowed his eyes at her, thinking about lecturing her about how she should help this guy, despite him being stupid enough to get into trouble in the first place. Eventually, and it wasn't with difficulty, he rose from his seat, and said, "I'm going to help him, come with if you want."
With that, he left the room, not paying attention to whether Alliana was following him or not. He made his way back to his quarters first to grab his gun, figuring that was probably best. The Private hadn't exactly given them a lot of information as to what was going on, how bad it was, and whether he needed armed help or otherwise. Other than swinging a good punch, Will wasn't that great at hand-to-hand combat. His gun would help. His agility might also come in handy. |
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Post by Alliana Porter on Jul 15, 2010 17:09:59 GMT -5
Well, that was worthless. Ally heaved a rather heavy sigh and pushed herself up from the table, letting the table take care of her plate. "yeah...fine, okay..' she muttered, turning to follow him. It only took her a few minutes to grab her important necessities, her heavily buckled black leather boots and jacket. Sure it wasn't much, but she almost felt naked without them off the ship.
She pulled her hair up tight, meeting him the hallway. He had a gun. great. What did she have? Her fists. The good news is that she would never have to register to get one. She avoided writing her name on any sort of legal document. Better safe than sorry. "So...what are we doing exactly?" she asked, raising a curious eyebrow for an answer.
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Post by William Blake on Jul 15, 2010 17:17:49 GMT -5
Will raised his eyebrows when he saw that Alliana had actually decided to come along. "Heading towards the point where Private Willis said he was would be a good start," he said, holstering the gun, nodding towards the hangar bay. They'd be able to get off the ship there and continue on foot. He set off at a jog, figuring she'd keep up. "I don't plan on running straight in." That was a damn sure. It was a sure fire way of getting ambushed, and maybe even getting killed. That wasn't on the agenda for this morning.
They made their way off the ship, turning out of the hanger to head to the East, in the direction of the Private. As he ran along, he kept mostly quiet, finding a quick and easy route through the buildings, dodging through morning traffic, all the while making sure Alliana was keeping up. "All right?" he called back to her, actually enjoying the run. He needed to get out and do this more often. Maybe not with someone's life at stake. |
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