Chapter Two: A Whole Old World

[aipsylon]

"Acolyte Suki, I am trying to help you, I know you are frightened, but I am not here to hurt you, nor am I a pirate. I am a patient here as well it seems and up until you started hollering I was out too. looks like I have you to thank for my recovery." He stayed there sitting in bed for the time hoping he could just talk her calm. "Take a few deep breaths, you'll hear how I am staying here, not approaching you. I am not a pirate, but one just like you. We caught your ship on sensors just before I blacked out when something hit my head, beyond that I don't know anything about our situation, including how to get to a comm. What I do know is that if you move yourself around there you are eventually going to step on something sharp. If you step back with your left foot you should be clear of anything and you will bring your leg to rest on the bed so you can get safely up there."

He took in a deep breath keeping his breathing loud enough to be audible intentionally. The girl was frightened it was clear for all to see and he'd do what he could to calm her down.

[Aria Blackthorn]

Suki looked around in hopes of making something out of the darkness. "Nothing makes sense" she said shaking "We were getting ready to jump to a new system. Something went wrong. I think we were attacked. I saw a strange shuttle just as the attack took place. It looked like it was frozen in space. Why were we attacked? " she explained while holding on tightly to her weapon as she thought.

"The last thing I remember is getting in to the escape pod and pulling the lever" she attempted to explain but she couldn't think straight. Her head hurt so much. She shifted around taking the step that the strange voice suggesting. Suki found the bed and leaned on it. She shifted her head around trying to make sense of it all, "do you know who attacked us? Or what happened?"

[aipsylon]

"I can't say I can help you much with what happened. I was in a shuttle when an anomaly began we saw your ship and thought we were under attack, after that it gets fuzzy I took a knock to the head and passed out. next thing I knew I woke up to you screaming and knocking the tray over If you hit your head you might want to lay down until the doc's can come take a look at you." He stayed in the bed, taking the deep breaths when he stopped talking. He couldn't imagine what it is like to suddenly find oneself blind.

[Akirapryde]

Alice had a sinking that suspicion that she knew what had happened. The idea of sounding like a mad scientist and with only guessing of what she suspects what is going, Alice held these ideas to her self. Instead, she remained calm and decided to attempt to keep radical ideas from the conversation. "I know we are all confused and scared. There is a logical explanation to what is going on" she said yet thought that the truth could very well be insane. "I don't suspect that there was an attack on either part. From the looks of it, it would appear that we were picked up by a Combine ship."

She looked around, "I take it we are in their sick bay? Have we been visited yet? I am surprised that there are no medical personal around."

She motioned at the picture on the all, "I think that picture is of a long pass Coordinator Theodore Kurita. I think he passed away in 3070." Alice paused a moment and then turned to the teenager near her. "Suki am I right?"

[Aria Blackthorn]

Suki opened her mouth to address Eric when she heard a female voice near her. She started to turn her head forgetting the fact that she was blind. The darkness around her was an ever present reminder of her current condition. A disgusted look came over Suki’s face as she turned towards the new female voice. She waved a hand in front of her own face, “seriously?”

On that note, Suki turned to face Eric’s voice. “We were located in an uninhabited system with a red dwarf as its star. We were supposed to jumped out of system a few days before but the Captain of the Jumpship and our group leader, Precentor Karimi, decided to hold off our departure because of my upcoming Birthday. Everyone knows how much I love comets. They took me on a fly-by of a passing comet for my birthday.” A tear started to form in her eyes, “please tell me what happened to my crew….my friends….”

[aipsylon]

"I don't know the answers to your questions, I am sorry, but for the time you just must wait, perhaps those that rescued you will be able to tell you more." He leaned forward feeling a bit better now that his head had a chance to clear, reaching for a chart at the end of the bed. That at least would give him a little bit of information to go off of, like who his primary provider was at least.

[CarcerKango]

A small frown of pity formed at the corners of Jake's mouth as he listened to Suki's tale. "Sorry about all this," he said weakly.

[Akirapryde]

As the party continued to get to know each other, the thick door leading in to the medical bay unlocked and slowly opened. The young nurse walked in to the medical bay while the doctor remained just on the other side of the door. The two guards seemed upset as the Doctor explained something to them in Japanese. A conversation that caught Suki’s ear. She raised an eyebrow as the words hit her ears. Once the short conversation was over the doctor entered the medical bay while the guards vanished from the doorway.

“Good afternoon” the doctor said in broken English. “I am sure that many of you have your questions. I will do my best to answer them.” He walked over to the center of the room where the young nurse was standing. “First let give you some information that will help you. You are aboard the Draconis Combine ship Kawakaze.” He fell silent for a moment as if getting his thoughts together. “We are currently traveling through a recent combat zone. Because of the danger, tensions are high among our crew. When we detected your shuttle, this did little to ease the tensions.”

“Your ship was found three days ago completely lifeless. If it wasn’t for the EM signature of the death of your Jumpship, we wouldn’t have detected your shuttle at all. At first we were hopeful. There were so many escape pods littered around your shuttle. We expected more survivors then we actually found. Most of the pods were just empty, others held the those who you see here. From what we could tell, the pods came from three ships. Two Jumpships and a dropship” the Doctor explained as a frown came over his face. “We did our best to save as many as possible. But some simply couldn’t be saved.” It was clear that the doctor was speaking the truth as the emotions were written across his face.

“According to the local system control, there were no Jumpships due to arrive in the area.” The Doctor paused for a moment then continued, “we had fears that you were Lyran spies or worse, Lyran assassins. This is the reason why you were subject to such harsh interrogation. But you will not have to face this again. It has been decided that you are not Lyran spies. Just people who happen to be in need of help. For the time being, you will have free access to this deck of the ship. There is a lounge on this deck where you and your friends can get food and unwind. There will be no guards following you around. However, you cannot leave this deck.”

He looked down and for the first time lied. “I am sorry but we don’t have any free rooms to move your group in to. You will have to remain here till we arrive at our destination. Through that door is a bathroom for you to use.”

He looked at the nurse as the two tried to make sure that they didn’t miss anything. He turned back to the group, “okay so do you have any questions?”

[Aria Blackthorn]

Suki listened to the voices in the room turning her head to each one as she tried to follow what was going on. It was the Japanese language that caught her attention. ‘Sho Sho?’ she questioned to herself. It sounded as if there was a disagreement between the military and a Duchess of how to handle herself and the others in the medical bay. From what Suki could understand, it sounded as if the Duchess had won this round. All of a sudden the situation had taken a new more serious turn. Suki decided to remain silent while the Doctor spoke.

She couldn’t believe that she was mistaken as a spy. She worked for Comstar after all! An organization that was well known for its generosity in helping others. The others however, she found it a bit more fitting. That Jake fellow sounded kind of shady after all. The guy barely talks, clearly he has something to hide. It was hard for her to hide the priceless expression on her face as she continued to consider the suspicions that she was a spy. She only shook her head, ‘seriously’ she thought to herself.

‘Questions’ Suki thought. She had tons of questions and didn’t know where to begin. She took in a deep breath as she picked one. “I have a question. Where’s the rest of my crew from the Prince of Wales or the Divine Light” she asked while naming the Dropship she was assigned to or the Jumpship that moved them around the deep periphery.

“Please tell me this isn’t the only room with survivors” she prayed there were other survivors. Her heart sank as she thought of her friends. Those who had become like family for her during the short time she had served alongside with them. Suki did her best to hide her concern, but she felt the moister around her eyes and knew she was doing a poor job hiding her emotions. Her emotions were on the brink of running out of control as the situation was taking its toll on her. She wiped her eyes while trying to hide her intentions.

Suki thought of the ship they were currently on. She wasn’t sure how large this ship was. Could there be another medical bay where her friends were being kept? It’s not like she could have explored it anyways. The instructions were pretty clear. Don’t leave this level! Though she wondered if she could explore while playing off of her current condition. After all, she had a built in excuse. She could tell them that she didn’t realize. Then again, she dismissed the idea. Suki didn’t want to further their suspicions that she was really a spy after all.

[aipsylon]

Eric listened to the summary, a bit surprised by how it had come about one thing was for sure something strange was going on, there were no comstar ships surveying the comet that they had seen, at least no one had reported it during the approach, something he thought would have at least been mentioned. Making a note of it he planned to ask a little more about it later. He listened as it was explained to them how they came to be there as well as he rules that would govern the immediate time to follow.

A lounge, that was nice enough and no guards that was a blessing as well, clearly this was not a military controlled vessel or there would have been more questions. He could not ignore the ranks of those that had been in the bay not long before. He was about to ask a couple questions when Suki asked if there had been any survivors. To interrupt that would make him seem both heartless and rude. To that end he held his questions until hers had been answered, giving her time for any follow-up questions as well before he asked his.