{{Written by Caitlin}}
The crew of the Feisty Dragon all sat around their makeshift common room. Some lay on couches, others had strewn themselves across the pillows and blankets that lay in piles on the floor. Victoria had her black leather boots propped up on the table, and her head reclining back onto the cushions of the faded tapestry couch. After a long day of trying to maneuver both her ship and the Singing Nun through heavily police patrolled space, she was exhausted.
As a communal sigh seemed to pass through the company, Stella padded in barefoot from the kitchen with an apple clasped between her teeth. As she reached the pillows and people, she took a stage fall into an open space, landing on Marie’s feet in the process.
Marie yelped and shouted, “Stella, what the hell? You landed on my feet!”
“Oh” Stella responded, sitting up and taking a bite of her apple, “Sorry honey. Didn’t see them.” Marie, placated, rolled over and lay back down. This small commotion had drawn the attention of the scant crew and most heads had lifted to see what was happening. The last to look, Victoria raised her head off the cushion slowly. With great purpose she slid her eyes over the Stella.
“Stella…” Victoria began.
“Yes Vicki?” Stella responded through her mouthful of apple.
“Stella, what are you wearing?” Victoria took in the sight of Stella in oversized pants and a shirt that looked like a tent.
“Comfy clothes, I mean the combat boots and knives are great for when battle could be imminent, but right now, I just want something I can swing free in.” Stella squirmed and shook her feminine parts about to provide a visual to her statement.
“Okay, and one more question...”
“Shoot, Skillet.” Victoria smiled at the nickname Stella insisted on calling her by.
“Why are you on my ship?”
“Cause the day of running from baddies is over, and the Nun is still docked with the Dragon, so I jogged on over for some R and R.”
“Yes, but you have your own ship, with your own common room, and your own ship’s stores of food”
“And? Food is so much better when it catches sight of Marie, and resting is so much more...restful… when I know that if I’m feeling feisty I need only throw a pillow at Kots to get something started.” Stella was grinning impishly at this point in time. At the mention of his name Kots sat up and looked either frightened of Stella, or hopeful that a play fight would ensue, it was difficult to tell what he was thinking sometimes. Victoria sat, slightly perturbed looking, as she gazed upon the closest friend she had. Arturius, next to her, stifled a small laugh with his hand as he saw the look of frustration on Victoria’s face that only Stella could put there. In an attempt to avoid what would become a playful, but sometimes intimidating insult contest between the captains of the two ships, Geneva asked a question.
“Hey Stella, how did you get the Nun anyways? I don’t think I’ve heard the story.”
“Really!” was Stella’s response, “well I’ll tell you. Vicki don’t try to help me, you just end up making tangents and taking an hour to tell a story. Okay so it was almost a year ago…
The Feisty Dragon was just coasting through space while the Captain and her Prima sat in the cockpit. The two of them were joking and smiling in a way they only did when alone. As Stella sat with her feet up on the console, and Victoria with her legs tucked beneath her, a small light began to blink on the display panel. Stella saw it first and sat up.
“Something coming up on radar” she muttered.
“Oh great” Victoria complained, “I’ll rally the troops” Victoria then pressed a button and shouted into the microphone nearby, “Everybody to stations, we have something on radar and its big.”
Members of the crew like Violet and Marie just strapped themselves in while Cornelius rushed to the engine room and Arturius rushed to the bridge. Once the main crew was assembled, Victoria moved the Dragon closer to the radar blip. As they neared it, they began picking up the white flag signal. Whatever this ship was, it was giving up before they even got close enough for visual. Working without orders, for they all knew their jobs so well, Stella, Arturius, and Victoria readied the Dragon for combat as they came into visual range. Suddenly a massive ship appeared on the view screen. A massive, rusting, unarmed, medical ship. Victoria laughed out loud.
“A medical ship? God, I’ll head over and clear it out myself.” Stella stood up, her jovial nature gone and replaced with the fierce protectiveness of a first in command.
“No Captain.” She said plainly leaving no room for question. “I’ll go prepare an away team.” Turning to Arturius she said, “Arty I know you are always vying for my position, but if anything happens to me you better goddamn protect her.” Arturius, who normally was made to smirk at Stella’s jovial nature could only nod gravely and stare at the shift in Stella’s demeanor when danger was presented. This was the most dangerous thing they had faced together other than the incident when they first met and procured the Dragon.
Stella strode off the bridge and stopped in the armory. Once there she called down Rosalie (Hannah that’s you!!!), her close friend and trusted fighter that they had picked up off a small asteroid colony, as well as two other random crew members that had been procured on other planets and supported their ideals. Armed to the teeth (literally, Stella had slipped a small sheathed blade into a special mouth holster she had made herself), Stella, Rosalie, and the others walked to the docking bay where the Dragon would soon be attaching itself to the large medical ship.
With a hiss the airlock opened and they strode forward into the other ship. Stella opened communications channels and began to report in to the bridge. On the bridge Victoria sat anxiously in her seat leaned over the speaker as she listened to Stella’s words. Just as the away team made it into the other ship Victoria heard something that worried her. A shriek came over the intercom and then she heard Stella yell,
“Oh hell….” Suddenly the communications broke off and only static was heard. Victoria stood up suddenly, but before she could announce orders the medical ship detached from hers. In a panic Victoria thought through her military training, trying to decide what to do. The stakes were different here than in the military. Here it was underhanded and secret instead of open, and here she had people she truly cared for in serious danger.
After an agonizing minute or two of silence the medical ship moved. It turned to face the Dragon. Startling both Victoria and Arturius, the view screen clicked off and showed the static that happens before a ship to ship video is initiated.
Meanwhile back on the away team, Stella had been giving a running dialogue of what was happening when they entered the medical ship. As the door opened she saw a handful of doctors with their hands above their heads. Before she could report this, Rosalie fell over one of them, shrieking with surprise. Stella was too excited to care. She had been pestering Victoria like a child for weeks about getting a ship of her own and the answer had always been “when we run across one that you can commandeer, its yours.” Stella took a step forward into the ship while uttering her standby phrase of excitement, “Oh hell yeah!”
As soon as she entered the other ship her communications cut off. One of the doctors spoke up:
“It’s the medical equipment in this part of the ship, it fries short range comm. devices.”
“Oh,” Stella said still looking about the ship excitedly. “So listen, I’m taking your ship. We can work out the details later, but for now these two are gonna stay here and keep and eye on you while Rosie and I head up to the bridge m’kay?” Not waiting for an answer Stella drug Rosalie off, following the signs that led to the bridge.
Once there she sat down, accidentally hitting the airlock release button. Her new ship was now free of the Dragon, so Stella took the controls and began to try to manuver it. After a few minutes of trial and error, Stella was able to turn her ship to face the Dragon, and, punching in the access code, hacked into the video feed of the Dragon so she could tell Victoria herself about the new ship.
Back on the Dragon, Victoria yelled for Arturius to prep the weapons as the video feed began to clear. She shouted the order to fire just as Stella’s face appeared on the screen. Realizing her friend was on the bridge of the medical ship, Victoria reached out with inhuman reflexes and caught Arturius’s hand as he was just about to depress the button to fire the main guns. Looking up they both saw Stella smiling hugely on the screen.
“Hey Vicki!” She shouted, “ I found a ship! Can I keep it?” Victoria sank into the chair, feeling weak from the stress of the last few minutes. She smiled slightly at the childlike behavior of her friend.
“Yes Stella, you can keep it.” She responded. Looking to Arturius she said, “Looks like you are Primus now.”
….And that’s how I got the Nun.” Stella finished. Geneva just looked at her.
“You scared the Captain like that!?” Geneva yelled at Stella throwing a pillow towards her head. “That’s just not nice…apologize, right now!” The company laughed and relaxed as they Stella took another bite of apple and began to jokingly apologize to Victoria.
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