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Tara blinked and looked up at the vent and then laughed. She couldn't help but laugh harder as he continued his explanation either. She just found it extremely funny. As she started to calm down, the Rhyzo character showed up and asked if she needed help. "No, no. Continue on your way. I can handle this." she said as she quickly fixed the ladder and climbed up into the vent.

"I'm sorry Kambel this is just too funny. You have some pretty shitty timing to get lodged into the vent." Tara said as she grabbed his wrists. "Hold on." she said as she quickly as she jerked him forward. The sudden jerk slammed her back against the edge of the vent though. "GOD DAMN!" she said loudly, hoping that she had managed to un-lodge him from the damn vent.

The laughing he was expecting, Rhyzo's voice joining hers after it had stopped... not so much. Getting humiliated in front of Tara was one thing, she didn't seem to be too bad and was an actual crew member, but the stowaway-slash-passenger-slash-possible new guy? He was starting to really dislike this day.

"Forget my timing, it's my luck in general that just sucks." Merrion told her as she pulled him free. Using the side passage to give him room to straighten out again, stared down it curiously for a moment as something dawned on him, then moved back until he was facing his rescuer and could crawl out after she did. "Thanks, Tara. It's times like this I'm glad I'm not claustrophobic."

Sondra looked at her screens, watching the smoke pour out from her vessel. When you shouldn't have smoke in space, then smoke in space is probably a very bad thing. Weighing her options in her head, it seemed that at the moment, she didn't really have one. "Thanks, Firefly. I'd appreciate that." She edged up towards the larger vessel best she could, initiating the docking sequence, did a quick sweep of the ship, gathering the few personal belongings that she had with her- mostly her weapons and ammunition. She slipped both of her guns into their holsters with the safety off- in plain sight but away, within reach but not a direct threat, as she knew nothing about the vessel or crew she was about to encounter. Taking a breath, she headed to the docking port, ready to open her door at the other ship's ok.

Rhyzo stood back a bit to give Tara and the engineer more room to get out of the vent again. When both them well and truly were, he addressed Merrion.

“Don’t know if you heard,” he began, and his tone became vaguely sarcastic as he continued, “But apparently we’re supposed to come to the bridge, bringing-… what was it? ‘Our very fanciest of armament.’ I don’t suppose you can lend me a wrench or something, can you?”

In a rare feat, Tyler managed to get the two ships couple smoothly, with a minimum of jostling. With a sigh of relief, the captain of the Viator sat back in the chair and slowly released the pilot's yoke, which he'd been gripping tightly for what felt like hours, but was really only a few minutes. Closing his eyes, he flexed his hands for a minute or two, restoring flexibility and taking a moment to deal with the shakes that he always got after an adrenaline crash. A second later, his eyes snapped open and he was out of the pilot's chair, walking briskly towards the cargo hold and the hatch, stopping to give the assembled threesome of Tara, Rhyzo, and Merrion a tired look. "We're about to have a new guest. Everyone act appropriately."
Taking a few steps, Ty turned and looked at the tall new medic, his eyes narrowing as he eyeballed him. "Do you not have a gun? You don't have a gun, do you? Of course you don't have a gun, you're from the gorram core. <This day is far too interesting.>"
With a sigh, Coolie shook his head and beckoned Rhyzo and Merrion to follow him down, having taken too long already. With his hand on his shotgun, Coolidge checked the seal, then called over the okay to the other craft, pulling open his door and doing his best to look nonthreatening but prepared.

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"If you had been claustrophobic you would have been lodged in that shaft screaming your head off freaking the fuck out.." she groaned as she straitened her back, trying to work out the pain in her back. "I definitely bruised something." she said. Tara turned to look at the captain as he walked by quickly whisking away the two men. She blinked and sighed shaking her head. "Appropriately my ass. I'm not changing the way I act for some noob." she mumbled to herself, seeing as no one else was there.

She looked up at the vent again and pursed her lips. What the hell had Kambel been doing in the god damn vent in the first place. She sighed and shook her head. She wasn't going to clean up the open vent or the ladder because she hadn't been the one to drag the stupid stuff out. So she made her way back up to the bridge and plopped down in a seat wincing. There was no way she HADN'T bruised something when her back had hit the vent.

Looking curiously at the vent when he got out, Merrion raised a hand to it for a moment. The airflow felt normal again. Did the jostle to the ship unclog whatever it was, or just displace the problem? Rhyzo's mention of armament made him decide to worry about it later. "The Captain's okay with you being armed? I kind of doubt tha-"

Coolidge stepping out of the bridge cut off his sentence. From the man's reaction, apparently he really expected the pharmacist to be packing heat. If Merrion had actually heard the Captain's call and hadn't been stuck in the vent at the time, he would've been able to offer his spare gun to Rhyzo. As it stood, that was still locked up in his quarters with his sword and running off to get it probably wasn't the best idea since the Captain wanted them to come along now.

Digging through his pockets as he followed the Captain, the best he could find was the screwdriver he'd taken off the vent cover with. It wasn't much, but the shaft was long enough to do some decent damage by stabbing someone with it. Provided anyone could get close enough to do so without getting shot.

"Best I can do right now." Merrion said as he offered it to Rhyzo just before the cargo bay doors started to open, moving his other hand to rest on his pistol once they did. It was then he really wished he'd asked just what exactly had happened and who they were supposed to be expecting. Surprises like these were never very good.

“Er… Right,” Rhyzo muttered awkwardly, taking the offered screwdriver, “Thanks.”

He put the tool in his back pocket, hoping that whatever was going on, didn’t require him to use it in any violent capacity, or any capacity at all. He was more familiar with screwdrivers than guns, but still. Guns were for law enforcement and military, screwdrivers for the kind of people that came over to fix your shower or waste disposal system. He had nothing to do with either, and that was probably as it should be.

As the doors opened, Rhyzo stayed close behind the captain and the engineer, and forced his face into the same expression he had had when he looked down the barrel of the captain’s gun, the jaded expression of a world-weary cynic. That was about as 'fancily armed' as he could get.

Sondra sighed, hitting a large green button the control panel to her right, the airlock on her door hissing to life. She watched it open, finding herself faced with three men, no guns drawn, but weapons obviously present, as were hers. She smiled, taking a small step forward after accessing the situation, trying her best to look friendly- something she wasn't the best at doing. As she looked to the man in the front, assuming he was the captain, however, her eyes locked with a pair of peanut butter colored ones, stopping her dead in her tracks. Her smile faltered, and her eyes narrowed as her fingers twitched slightly, though she made no move towards her weapons. "Oh, juh jen sh guh kwai luh duh jean jan..."

As he waited for the woman, a sense of dread began to grow in Tyler's stomach that he couldn't quite explain. The dread left him however, as his hands curled into tight fists at the sight of her short hair, and they began to shake as he identified more familiar features. And when Sondra spoke, it was all he could do to keep his calm.
Turning on his heel with military suddenness and precision, Tyler called over his shoulder as he talked, his voice quiet but deathly clear. "Put Sunnie in one of the passenger berths. And I don't want her walking around armed." The captain of the Viator said nothing on how he knew her name, or much else, instead he essentially fled to the bridge, not even checking for other occupants before he shut the door behind him. Coolie looked out the view port at the stars for a moment before walking forward and resting his forehead against the cool metal, his shoulders sagging and Tyler looking older than he had in a while.
As Coolidge had his moment, Charlie mewed softly before jumping up into Tara's lap, being a cat that went where ever it pleased, though the feline gaze did turn towards Tyler.

Tara jumped whenever the captain closed the door behind him. It had caught Tara off guard as she babied her bruised back, trying to find a comfortable position to sit in. She turned and looked over to him as he walked across the bridge before looking out at the stars. Just from his body language, she could tell that there was something wrong. She looked down at Charlie as he jumped up onto her lap and then back up to Coolidge as she lightly began to pet the cat.

She supposed that this was the time she should ask 'oh hey, you okay?' but she had never really been comfortable with...comforting people. Most of the time she told people to suck it up and get the hell over it. It caused less awkward tension, her her anyways. Of course, being an ass to the captain wasn't the smoothest move either though. "So...is the pilot of that other ship okay?" she asked, not sure what to ask really. Starting with the obvious was generally a good idea. She hadn't thought that the pilot might have been the cause of the captain's sudden mood change though.

Rhyzo looked over the woman from the damaged ASREV when the airlock opened, and leveled his gaze on the weapons she carried.

Marvelous, he thought, More people with guns.

He began to wonder if perhaps it might be a good idea to learn how to use one. It was unlikely he would ever find work on any of the core planets again, and many of the border planets were far more dangerous than what he was used to. This ship was already more dangerous than what he was used to.

The captain’s reaction to the woman did nothing to take away that idea. Apparently he knew her, and not in a good way. Rhyzo frowned and gazed after the captain when he strode away.

“… Right. Interesting,” he muttered to himself, despite not sounding particularly interested. “And thankfully none of my business.” He briefly looked at the woman again, then stepped aside to let her through, assuming Merrion would take her weapons and lead her to a passenger berth.

The Captain's reaction wasn't at all what Merrion had been expecting. Of course, he figured the arrival would have been some stranger, but the looks on Coolidge and the woman's faces made it fairly obvious they had some kind of history. Ever since they'd left Ariel things had gotten more interesting, and probably dangerous, by the minute.

Which made Rhyzo's quiet mumbling and moving aside like he wasn't involved a bit frustrating. He'd hopped aboard the Viator, then had somehow gotten the Captain's okay and was put to work. Which to Merrion meant he was, at least temporarily, part of the crew. As such, he was going to be treated like one, even if Merrion still had reservations about the man.

"You heard the Captain, Rhyzo. Secure... Sunnie's weapons." He told the pharmacist. After all, he was the one with a gun instead of just a screwdriver, so he'd be able to provide better support if the woman tried anything.

Rhyzo crossed his arms, waiting to follow the engineer and their new guest to wherever the passengers berths were, when Merrion told him to secure the woman’s weapons. He raised a skeptical eyebrow back at the man, wondering how exactly he would suggest he’d do that.

He then looked at the woman’s face, her weapons, back to her face, and uncrossed his arms, holding out a hand.

“Your weapons, please,” he grumbled reluctantly. “And by that I mean give them to me, don’t shoot me.”

Tyler slowly picked his head up from the cold metal, his body stiffening with what might have been a flash of murderous rage. Instead of snapping at Tara though, Ty relaxed and sank farther down, parking his butt on the edge of a console and keeping his eyes fixed to the stars that flew by outside the view port.
"The pilot is fine. A little smoke inhalation at worst, I think." The captain's voice was tight, as if his normally soft spoken words were standing on the ramparts against his infamous booming yell. "Would you mind decoupling us and getting us on a course for Beaumonde?"
Staring out for a bit longer, Coolie finally gave a sigh and lowered his gaze, staring at the floor before closing his eyes and shaking his head. "My ex just waltzed back into my life as suddenly and violently as she left it."

Sondra quirked an eyebrow at the man. "Oh honey, it wouldn't be right smart of you to be doing that. He said he didn't want me walking around armed. He don't honestly think for one second that you'd be able to get my weapons away from me." She smiled- smirked, almost- at him, gesturing to the second one as well. "Come on boys, better show me my room- it'll be a might happier once I'm out of sight, I reckon." She crossed her hands back behind her head, clear away from her weapons. "I'm not aiming to hurt you or anyone else on this ship. He saved my ass, and I ain't gonna kill off his crew- now that'd just be down right disrespectful. So we make this real simple- you walk, I follow. No need for hurtin' folks, and he'll think you did a bang-up job."

Tara's brows furrowed at the captains words. He shouldn't have been so weird about the new comer on the ship. When he asked HER to do the flying though is when she was 100% sure that something weird was going on. So she quickly moved seats, and started typing in what she needed to, the training she had years ago coming in handy. As they safely and carefully disengaged the other ship, Coolidge explained why he was acting so weird.

She looked over at him slowly, her face somewhat of a grimace. "Well...that's fairly awkward. We going anywhere specific to drop her off?" she asked, "There is a desert planet that has worked wonders for me. As far as getting rid of people goes." Of course, most would take it as a joke but Tara was extremely serious. Not that she had shared her past with most of the crew, this was a fairly big hint as to why she was on the ship and not still working for the Alliance. "We're a safe distance from her ship. Care to fly her? Or should I type in a destination and let auto pilot take over."

Tyler stared out the view port for a long moment, then sighed and rose, scuffing his booted feet at the deck before shrugging. "Maybe I'll ask her to stay. We do need a pilot."
Turning and taking the pilot's seat, Ty turned and gave Tara an uncharacteristic smile. Uncharacteristic in that there was no scowl, barked order, or smart-ass comeback that followed it. "I'll take the helm. Go get yourself something to eat, chill out for a few hours. I'll see you in the morning."
Taking a moment to steer the ship in the proper direction, Coolidge laid out a course for the smog infested planet, then let the autopilot take over. Stuffing his hands in his pockets, he propped his legs up on the console and stared off into space.

Merrion frowned, thinking. The Captain had said he didn't want her walking around the ship armed, so maybe stuck in a room armed was alright... and maybe the Captain would chew him out for taking it too literally. Still, he'd rather get yelled at than shot trying to disarm this woman. As long as she didn't shoot up the ship worse than he did, Coolidge probably shouldn't get too mad.

"Alright, but could you at least make sure your safety is on? There's been enough gunfire aboard today without any accidents. This way." He said, turning and leading the way to the passenger berths, listening for anything behind him that might have been someone about to take a shot at him. Not that he could focus very well with the headache he'd been mostly ignoring until now steadily getting worse.

At the tone of voice the woman took with him, Rhyzo’s face froze into a hard stare.

Patronizing, little shǐ dàn, he thought, but didn’t say. He wasn’t suicidal, not after having narrowly avoided being shot once today already. Perhaps it was the strange new situation, but he hadn’t felt this alive since long before he lost his job. He realized that losing his life now would be an annoyance.

When the engineer seemed to agree with ‘Sunnie’, Rhyzo let his hand drop back to his side grudgingly. He stepped out of the woman’s way. He felt vaguely irritated, not only because of the woman’s attitude, but also because he suspected Merrion of purposely having told him to take the weapons to make him look like a fool, or perhaps just to see what he would do.

Nevertheless, he intended to wait and follow behind the woman, if she would follow the engineer.