He was Almost Absorbed by the System

Chapter Eighty Three - On Board The Sabine

Author's note; I have been abusing a website called fantasynamegenerators.com, which helped finish the last arc when I got bored of mix and matching names (Liû means Willow, btw and Yu Long is supposed to be jade dragon and Jie Long heroic dragon. Whether that works or not...) and I've lazily used it to inspire names, surnames and even ship names for this arc! So I thought I should plug it a little.

"Captain!"

The rugged looking man, glanced over at his first mate from where he sat in his office aboard his ship.  "Well, what's the verdict?" he asked, his voice was gravelly and deep.

"Song says that she was telling the truth!" 

The slashed leather trousers on his legs creaked slightly as he leant back in the chair.  He rubbed at the stubble upon his face.  "Well, I'll be damned."  He hadn't believed the little princess when she had given them that tidbit of information on top of the stack of credits she was willing to fork out for transport across the border.  Still, he wasn't gonna risk his crew on the teeny tiny chance she might be for real, so he had his second pilot, Song leave a drone to check things over when they had left the area.  "Have Song blow up the drone."

"Tch, she ain't gonna be happy," his first mate, Haig Tidus, also known as Sly mentioned. He was a wirey man and slightly bow legged, but more agile than his awkward form let on.

"She ain't gotta be happy," he growled, "she's just gotta do as she's told."

"Yeah, but you ain't the one that Sing is gonna piss on, cos his lil wife is throwing a fit!" The man grumbled as he went to follow his Captain's orders.

"Well fuck them and their marital bliss!" He retorted, before bringing up the hidden network for news. With a nod of satisfaction, he noticed that the rest of them got away as well.  No spoils for the Armada this time.  Stretching his long, thick limbs, he rose from his chair and walked the three steps it took to walk into his bridge.  The moment he revealed himself, the feisty red head had already bounced up from her control panel, ready to rage.

"What the fuck, Captain!" Song cried out, her husband, who happened to be his first pilot did nothing to calm her down. 

"Get over it Song," he advised, snappishly,  "it's the fucking Armada.  You really want them tracing us cos you refused to blow up a freaking drone?"

She huffed, before tapping out a few instructions which would signal the drone to self destruct.  Of course she understood, but it didn't mean she wouldn't let the universe know how unhappy she was with the decision.  Those drones were structured and programmed by herself, they were her babies!  She sank in the pilots chair and proceeded to sulk.  Captain Maerlon Sarvian chose to ignore her.

"Ah, I didn't get to meet up with Hershey from the Fortunes," Rylan Yao, his second mate complained suddenly.  Rylan was an odd one, he had the face of a fairy tale prince with the golden hair to boot. He also had a fondness for the colour green, not a colour often found inside a rust bucket of a ship like theirs, just held together by spit and thumb tacks. "That guy owes me 50 credits still."  Sing chuckled.

"We were all looking forward to a little down time, right, Captain?" Sing said, with a slightly proactive undertone. That wasn't his real name, of course, pirates seemed to traditionally refer to others by nicknames rather than birth ones.  After all, it was all to easy to be overheard in bars and clubs or just on the street, better to stay anonymous in this line of work.  It also had something to do with trust and comradely. Of course, there were always exceptions.  Their quartermaster, for example, call him anything but his name and he'd rip you a new one.

"I heard that the Wailing Widow was due to dock at the station," Rylan or as his shipmates knew him; Swab mentioned, latching onto the theme.

"Oh so that's why your so bitchy today, Captain," Song's freckled face sparkled in the artificial lights.  "You missed out on a chance to get into Captain Cheney's panties!"  The Captain sent her a harsh glare, but she continued to beam happily.