The Sabre covered with the space dust of countless asteroid fields of the Barrier, stands at the center of the hangar, as it appears ship made a long flight without stops. A young-looking woman leaned on the Sabers left wing. With her arms crossed, she just wearily looked at the bit dirty floor. She is dressed in a pretty worn outcast pilot jacket, on it the marks of many ripoffs insignia. It is possible to guess the silhouettes of the Crimson Cross, Core and Auxesia badges. Now only the family cross of Loyola decorates her breast. The young woman seems to be not in the best condition, uncombed hair and desperately tired face.
Suddenly the sounds of rumbling metal spread throughout the hangar, young Maltese woman bit startled. After a moment the hatch opened in a few meters from her. Working zoner in a dirty uniform nimbly jumped out of the hatch then pulled unknown to Maltese instrument from it. Zoner was not confused when saw Maltese, just muttered something under his breath and moved to the exit. Woman for some reason thought that he is bretonia, but had no any particular reason to believe so. She just sighed with relief when he came out and quietness reigned again.
A few minutes later she heard the sound of frequent footsteps, they are amplified and then other door was opened...
Three men entered the hangar, all of them were armed and they wore practical but worn clothes. From head to toe, they looked like fighters. Experienced and battle hardened. The one in the middle had a smug grin on his face and then left the other two waiting at the door. He walked with that certain elegant swiftness that was akin to cardamine users. Being able to assess any situation quicker than a normal human made them that way.
As he came closer to the young woman's ship one could recognize the patch of The Crimson Cross on his shoulders. Some scar ran over the left side of his face that didn't exactly add to make him look nicer. On his right leg was a gun in a holster and on his belt was combat knife which he also didn't bother to conceal. He looked her over and his grin became a bit bigger as he was sure that she was the woman he was supposed to bring back home.
"Ciao senorita... I halfway expected I'd have come and get you myself. Good for you that you managed to arrive on your own." He said and stopped a couple meters away from her, leaving some distance between them as he was still being careful.
Maltese woman tried to act like nothing is happening, but kept be very nervous inside. It was hard to read some excitement in her eyes, but her hands were shaking a bit. She looked up at scared face and smiled slightly when heard his words.
"Ciao." She looked at the others. "You can't do anything without clownery, right?" Maltese woman sighs and shifting the reliance on her feet instead of ship. She pulls her hand out of her pocket and looking at the soldiers again remaining silent.
"Clownery?" He asked and stepped forward, watching her closely. "I believe you aren't quite understanding your position." He said a bit angrily while he kept moving towards her, ready to grab a weapon though.
"And in addition to that you made me wait for quite some time." He said when he was only an arms length away from her. "I don't like waiting." He said and grabbed her at her chin, looking down at her, grinning as he finally had her in his literal grasp after he had to go through the trouble of forcing her to go here. He saw no way how she could possibly escape and he would for sure rise up in the ranks of the Cross for this. And it wasn't exactly an unpleasant job to track her down. "I am quite curious how long you will keep that rebellious attitude, of yours, up."
Scared man sensed persistent smell of cardamine and alcohol once he get closer. When Maltese woman saw him closer her fear diminished considerably, there was nothing to afraid anymore. There is nothing left in her powers, now she felt herself as a sliver in the ocean. It can be called an absolute despair, however it was incredibly relaxing.
She slowly turned off his hand. "Get your filthy hands off my face. I came as fast as I wanted to and your time is the thing of the lowest value. I don't know who do you think you are and how you dare to discuss my position... This is ridiculous indeed, now I see that my remark about the clowns was more precisely than I thought." She laughed a little, she did not feel fun. It was a hysterical laugh caused by alcohol and cardamine overdosing. She quickly calmed down, but continued to smile.
When she stopped spouting nonsense at him but still smiled he got angry. Grabbing her at her throat, he pushed her against the spaceship in her back. "You will regret it if you don't shut up right now. These filthy hands will otherwise hurt your pretty face. He said and moved the fingers of his free hand over her face while smiling again. The obvious satisfaction of having caught her so soon in his eyes. He would get a nice promotion for this, someone higher up was watching the whole thing.
"You will come with us now. Someone else will get that ship of yours home and then you can meet your brother again." He explained to her. "I am sure he is looking forward to meet his traitorous sister." He added and waited for her to agree.
She rapidly moved out his hands out of her face once again and smiled again.
"Oh, can we move already?" Enma is trying to fix her hair with badly coordinated moves, but her attempts are failing. She looked at him with barely sane eyes. "You should keep yourself on the track, you have a talent and probably with sometime you will do really impressive performance." She touched her neck. "But for now just keep it for someone else, alright? Yes you badly want me back and now I'm here, so let's do it -without clownery-. "
He grabbed her shoulder and roughly pushed her towards the way he came from.
"You better keep that mouth shut if that is how you want to talk to me. I figured you'd be more intelligent, but then again, you are a traitor." He said and laughed once while pushing her towards the exit of the hangar. One hand on his gun in case she tried anything. The two men at the door got ready to depart and one nodded, planning to follow them. Vittor was both glad and bored about the fact that Enma didn't try anything on her way to the freighter that was waiting in the hangar. It was an old and rugged ship, but nothing seemed damaged beyond the usual wear and tear or had been fixed well. "Look. I even got you a nice ride. Hope you enjoy the trip." He said before pushing her up a ramp to the little cargo department in which someone else would take care of her. Putting her in a small cell until they would reach Malta.
After undocking procedures were made the Dromedary undocked and met its escort of two Rapiers and a Sabre outside the Freeport. They quickly engaged cruise and went to make the trip to Malta. Flying through the asteroid belts to avoid detection and carefully maneuvering the gas pockets while locating the jump hole hidden behind them. The rest of the trip was rather easy with the occasional patrols meeting them and securing the area that would mark the maltese territory.
On Cali they restocked on Cardamine and fuel, which made the trip quick and easy. Tau-37, Omicron-80 and soon Alpha came in sight. A beautiful pearl in the middle of a chaotic ocean. Orange continents surrounded by green oceans. The mere sight of home made the whole convoy but Enma relax. Soon she would set foot home again. Whether she wanted or not.
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