Fic: Altered Trajctory (cont.)
Sep. 3rd, 2010 04:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalMoving closer to the climax...
Six hours later a pair of stern faced guards fetched Rufus and Hazel, dressed once again in orange prison jumpers and restraints, to the Scarlet Claw’s airlock, Lady Softpaw was waiting there for them. As soon as they entered the lock she dismissed the guards and sealed it behind them.
“I am so sorry,” she said, avoiding their gaze.
“As your sovereign lord I could order you not to do this,” Rufus told her.
Softpaw chuckled mirthlessly. “A fine problem of fealties. Which oath shall I betray, the one of subordination to you, or the pledge of love and protection I have made to my husband?” She shook her head. “I’m sorry, there’s no question in my mind. I can only hope the Holy Den Mother forgives me. I won’t be so arrogant as to expect the same from your mother.”
Rufus did not press the issue again. She had a point. It would be a fine bit of drama for a vid, but not a real argument in the real world. He would betray all the oaths he’d made to own his House to keep Hazel safe. Such a pity I won’t even get the chance.
The airlock’s telltales blinked green, indicating it had equalized pressure, and Melika cycled the door open. Separated by five meters of boarding tube, Lord Rolas and Commander Blake waited, also without guards as had been negotiated earlier. Rolas looked worse for wear, one foreleg encased in a plastic, while he balanced awkwardly on the other, leaning against the wall of the airlock for support. His face was a mixture of relief and dismay when he saw Rufus, Hazel and Lady Softpaw all standing together.
“Good, you’ve got them both,” Commander Blake said, smiling grimly. “I’m glad you’re being reasonable about this.”
“Just send my husband over,” Softpaw growled.
“Just so long as Lord Brushtail and his woman come along at the same time.”
“That’s interesting question,” Hazel said. “What are you going to do if we all sat on our asses and refused to move?”
Commander Blake’s smile grew tighter. “Shoot Lord Rolas and Lady Softpaw and take you anyway. My father the Admiral has an aversion to unnecessary casualties, but if you really want to press the issue, I wouldn’t mind at all.”
Rufus blinked. After their initial encounter with the then Captain Blake, and the descriptions of her father in his twin’s universe, he had thought that in his own world they were cut from the same cloth. It would appear however that he was severely wrong. She didn’t get demoted because she failed him, he realized, It was because she went overboard following his original orders.
“Hazel, I advise you strongly not to provoke her,” he said. “We will come quietly.”
“Wise move,” Blake observed. She watched them like a hungry hawk as they shuffled along the boarding tube, hampered by their leg irons. Forced to hop on one leg near the wall, his captor not bothering to give him a crutch to use, Rolas met them just at the halfway point in the tube.
“We will get you out of this,” he whispered as they passed. Rufus acknowledged this with only a flick of his ear.
When the reached the opposite airlock, Rufus turned his head to see Lady Softpaw embracing her husband as she glared daggers at Blake. “You have what you want,” she called out. “Now undock and leave us be!”
Blake punched a code on her airlock’s enunciator. “Bridge, have you finished transferring the Swift Wing to our hanger?”
Affirmative, ma’am.
“Very well. Seal this lock and retract the boarding tube.” She turned back to Softpaw. “My crew should have given you back the parts to get your superluminal drive functioning again. If you’re very lucky, maybe you’ll get them installed before a real pirate hunter finds you. Farewell.”
As the airlock door began to roll shut, Softpaw shouted back at her, “May your soul be lost in the cold forever!”
Rufus tried to keep calm as he listened the air pumps sucking the atmosphere out of the boarding tube and its motors retracting it into the hull of Blake’s ship. They had the White Knight and by extension all of its navigation data leading straight back to Galapagos Prime. But it was code locked. Unless Blake had her own cyber glider onboard her ship, she wouldn’t be able to access the data. The same went for the precious data chips in the pocket of his spacesuit, locked safely away in the White Knight’s small cargo compartment. Of course if she did have a cyber glider onboard they were all well and truly screwed.
It was at times like this Rufus wished he hadn’t given up drinking.
The inner airlock door opened, and the inevitable guards saluted Commander Blake before pulling Rufus and Hazel none too gently into the corridor.
“Escort these two to the brig and make them ready for interrogation,” she told them. “I’ll be up on the bridge overseeing translation to superluminal.”
“Rufus,” Hazel muttered as they were dragged away once again. “Two things I want you to be aware of.”
“Yes, love?”
“One: this is the third time we’ve been taken prisoner on this trip, and I’m going to tell you flat out that I’m getting really tired of it.”
“As am I.”
“Two: If you ever buy me any article of clothing that’s the color orange, I will not be responsible for my actions.”
“Not a stitch, my word as a Brushtail.”
TBC
Six hours later a pair of stern faced guards fetched Rufus and Hazel, dressed once again in orange prison jumpers and restraints, to the Scarlet Claw’s airlock, Lady Softpaw was waiting there for them. As soon as they entered the lock she dismissed the guards and sealed it behind them.
“I am so sorry,” she said, avoiding their gaze.
“As your sovereign lord I could order you not to do this,” Rufus told her.
Softpaw chuckled mirthlessly. “A fine problem of fealties. Which oath shall I betray, the one of subordination to you, or the pledge of love and protection I have made to my husband?” She shook her head. “I’m sorry, there’s no question in my mind. I can only hope the Holy Den Mother forgives me. I won’t be so arrogant as to expect the same from your mother.”
Rufus did not press the issue again. She had a point. It would be a fine bit of drama for a vid, but not a real argument in the real world. He would betray all the oaths he’d made to own his House to keep Hazel safe. Such a pity I won’t even get the chance.
The airlock’s telltales blinked green, indicating it had equalized pressure, and Melika cycled the door open. Separated by five meters of boarding tube, Lord Rolas and Commander Blake waited, also without guards as had been negotiated earlier. Rolas looked worse for wear, one foreleg encased in a plastic, while he balanced awkwardly on the other, leaning against the wall of the airlock for support. His face was a mixture of relief and dismay when he saw Rufus, Hazel and Lady Softpaw all standing together.
“Good, you’ve got them both,” Commander Blake said, smiling grimly. “I’m glad you’re being reasonable about this.”
“Just send my husband over,” Softpaw growled.
“Just so long as Lord Brushtail and his woman come along at the same time.”
“That’s interesting question,” Hazel said. “What are you going to do if we all sat on our asses and refused to move?”
Commander Blake’s smile grew tighter. “Shoot Lord Rolas and Lady Softpaw and take you anyway. My father the Admiral has an aversion to unnecessary casualties, but if you really want to press the issue, I wouldn’t mind at all.”
Rufus blinked. After their initial encounter with the then Captain Blake, and the descriptions of her father in his twin’s universe, he had thought that in his own world they were cut from the same cloth. It would appear however that he was severely wrong. She didn’t get demoted because she failed him, he realized, It was because she went overboard following his original orders.
“Hazel, I advise you strongly not to provoke her,” he said. “We will come quietly.”
“Wise move,” Blake observed. She watched them like a hungry hawk as they shuffled along the boarding tube, hampered by their leg irons. Forced to hop on one leg near the wall, his captor not bothering to give him a crutch to use, Rolas met them just at the halfway point in the tube.
“We will get you out of this,” he whispered as they passed. Rufus acknowledged this with only a flick of his ear.
When the reached the opposite airlock, Rufus turned his head to see Lady Softpaw embracing her husband as she glared daggers at Blake. “You have what you want,” she called out. “Now undock and leave us be!”
Blake punched a code on her airlock’s enunciator. “Bridge, have you finished transferring the Swift Wing to our hanger?”
Affirmative, ma’am.
“Very well. Seal this lock and retract the boarding tube.” She turned back to Softpaw. “My crew should have given you back the parts to get your superluminal drive functioning again. If you’re very lucky, maybe you’ll get them installed before a real pirate hunter finds you. Farewell.”
As the airlock door began to roll shut, Softpaw shouted back at her, “May your soul be lost in the cold forever!”
Rufus tried to keep calm as he listened the air pumps sucking the atmosphere out of the boarding tube and its motors retracting it into the hull of Blake’s ship. They had the White Knight and by extension all of its navigation data leading straight back to Galapagos Prime. But it was code locked. Unless Blake had her own cyber glider onboard her ship, she wouldn’t be able to access the data. The same went for the precious data chips in the pocket of his spacesuit, locked safely away in the White Knight’s small cargo compartment. Of course if she did have a cyber glider onboard they were all well and truly screwed.
It was at times like this Rufus wished he hadn’t given up drinking.
The inner airlock door opened, and the inevitable guards saluted Commander Blake before pulling Rufus and Hazel none too gently into the corridor.
“Escort these two to the brig and make them ready for interrogation,” she told them. “I’ll be up on the bridge overseeing translation to superluminal.”
“Rufus,” Hazel muttered as they were dragged away once again. “Two things I want you to be aware of.”
“Yes, love?”
“One: this is the third time we’ve been taken prisoner on this trip, and I’m going to tell you flat out that I’m getting really tired of it.”
“As am I.”
“Two: If you ever buy me any article of clothing that’s the color orange, I will not be responsible for my actions.”
“Not a stitch, my word as a Brushtail.”
TBC
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-09-03 09:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-06 08:28 am (UTC)Yeah conflict of interest :)
...but I hardly believe Rufus' mother will get to know about that with the information who the red vixen is...
*secretly includes bright orange shawl into Rufus next birthday present for hazel and is waiting to learn of the effects...*
mjkj