Chapter One: Deep Space Music

[Kunanaki]

On the way to Alice's quarters he remembers something. He pulls out a thing that looks like a pen. It was something the professor gave his crew so they could keep in contact. After looking it over he stops and starts to carefully examine it. Lights come on and off as he pushes buttons on it. Then he tells the pen "I'm not sure if this thing is working correctly, Alan, but if you can hear me stop playing around with your "toys" and get ready to go outside. We are helping Alice get some of her work done. Meet us at airlock AA-23. Hope he heard that. Silly contraption, why not just ..." he starts to mumble something as he continues headed for Alice's quarters. Holding the "pen" the rest of the way there.

[Akirapryde]

All her life, Alice had loved the smell of the mech bays and fighter hangers. The sights and sounds of the whole thing often called out to her. But she knew that this life wasn't for her. Skipping from conflict to conflict for the sake of cash just wasn't for her. Despite all of the draw of this world, her heart and skill rested with science. Since the first day she arrived on Tharkad as a child, she found a love for the clean world that was science. There was a sense of order to this world that her chaotic childhood had lacked. No, her draw to the dirty conflict filled world of the merc just wasn't for her.

Alice nodded to the young pilot, "We need a ride over to the Observatory station. I have to get my things from my quarters there to complete work on the Ark."

She smiled at the pilot, "would you be so kind to take over there?"

She turned back to Captain Thorchan, "Can I ask you something? How long have you been a Merc?"

[CarcerKango]

"Sure," said Jake, the pilot. "Right this way." Unerringly, he navigated towards the hanger where his Mark VII shuttle was stored. Several minutes later, they arrived and he triggered the cabin's door remotely, climbing up the ladder into the cockpit, waiting for his passengers to join him aboard the shuttle.

[Kunanaki]

Thorchan looked at Alice. What is it about him that everyone asks him that? He usually puts it out to just random small talk. Over time he has gotten use to the idea of "small talk". Someone once told him that the polite way to deal with "small talk" is to respond with short answers. So he just smiled at Alice, tasseled her hair a bit and said "Long enough, babe. Long enough." And continued to walk with her.

[RogueBonnie]

Lyona looks up as the door to her billet opens. She is surprised to see the Captain and listens to his instructions. When he leaves she looks up at Kyle "I guess this will have to wait until we get back. Time to earn our pay."
She gets up from the computer, removes the drive and places it into a small pocket in the sleeve of her shirt. Walking over to her bed she grabs her jacket and tool belt.
Putting her tool belt on, she tightens it to fit her waist. Throwing on her jacket she bends over and grabs her backpack.
Walking over to the door she looks at Kyle "well are you going to need anything." She heads out of the door and heads down the hall way.

[Akirapryde]

Alice Climbed in to the shuttle behind the pilot and found a seat for herself. "All we need to do is arrive at the station. I will run and get my things and be back in moments" she said softly. After Thochan climb in behind her, he made his short comment. She listened carefully to his statements. "I heard that you were once Clan. Is that true" she asked than paused. She looked down, "I born Jade Falcon. Both my parents were part of the Science Caste. Shortly after my birth, my father was killed during the Jade Falcon Civil War. Once word of the massacre on Sudeten surfaced, my mother and a handful of other scientists escaped Jade Falcon space. My mother and I almost didn't make it. That was when my mother met Professor Angsoft. He helped my mother reach Tharkad and to set up a home for me" she explained as she secured her seat belt.

[Kunanaki]

Thorchan gets in and listens to her story while he buckles in. As he adjusts his seat he says "What we are born with or without doesn't matter. Those Inner Sphere gurus think that because you are born in some great house that you are automatically some great super solider. Ain't that right, sonny." He pokes Jake in the shoulder, laughs a little, then continues " Some Clanners believe the same thing. But that is why you have to EARN your bloodname. Otherwise your just another solider in the military. So it sounds to me like your just a baby bird that got separated from its flock. Is that it? Or are you actually trying to BE someone?" He takes one last puff from his cigar, blows it out the door. He then pulls out a knife from his boot and cuts off the end of the cigar after putting it out on the knife. When he returns the knife to his boot he looks straight at Alice making sure both his eyes make contact with hers.

[Akirapryde]

'He is strange for a former clanner' Alice thought as she turned her eyes down. She didn't like the way he just spoke or acted. She wasn't separated from her 'flock' nor did she have anything to prove. She didn't need to be anyone other than who she was born as. She glanced at her laptop and sighed heavily. Getting her mother to speak about the Clans was nearly impossible and she wanted to know this piece of who she was.

She finally looked up and noticed that he was looking right at her. His gaze made her feel a bit uneasy. "Neither in fact" she said calmly as she squared her shoulders and held her head up high. "I want to know about the world that I come from. Everyone I have spoken to only speaks of the horrors of the Clan Invasion and how bad the Clans are. I don't remember my time there as a child. My mother....." she said softly then trailed off. She turned and looked away. Alice hated speaking of her mother. It wasn't like she hated her mother. In fact she loved her mother with all her heart. Speaking of her mother was just, painful. And she knew it reflected in her voice, "my mother had been my only link to the people and world I come from. Before my mother died, she hardly ever spoke of them. And when she did, it was always something bad."

She paused a moment to regain control over that frog in her throat that was causing her voice to tighten and her eyes to water. "My mother was a remarkable woman. I wouldn't be the person I am here today if not for her. So Jade Falcons can't be all that horrible. There has to be something worthy to them. This is why I ask you. Do you have anything to offer about them?"

[Kunanaki]

Thorchan just looks away and out the window and says "Honey, you don't want to know about the Jade Falcon from me. I was raised to hate them. Most everyone in the universe did. Inner Sphere and Clanner alike." He turns and touches her shoulder "Look, if you want to find out the truth of who the Jade Falcon are, ask them. Not even Jako here could tell you anything first hand. All I can tell you is what it is like to be a Wolf, just like Jako here can only tell you what its like to come from the Inner Sphere." He lets go her shoulder and looks back out the window and says "You want to know where you came from? Great. I think that is wonderful. But don't go picking flowers in a minefield." He looks down for a moment, hits the back of the seat in front of him and yells out "Dammit! Where is everyone?" Then unbuckles his seat belt and goes outside the shuttle to pace in front of the shuttle craft.

[CarcerKango]

Jake yelps a bit when he's poked, looks embarrassed, and begins busying himself with pre-flight systems checks, calibrating his neurohelmet, and generally running through everything he needs to do before the flight. Soon the reactor is warmed up and ready, and he's just waiting on Thorchan to get back in, and for everyone else to arrive, before he takes off.