Microcosm

[Sombs]

---

July 26th, 824 - Omicron Kappa

For almost a year now the Apahanta was being a decorative element to the Omicron Kappa system, having left it only very rarely. Mostly hidden in the Peloponnese Cloud, the Mako was often moored with Livadia, disappearing when anything Core-related showed up with the help of its cloaking device. Only the population of Corinth and Livadia and a few selected individuals knew about the stray Mako and kept the secret rather well. They were all sitting in the same boat, after all. With the support of the Confederation of Freeports, approved by the very Finn McCool himself, Livadia and the Apahanta shared their ressources. The one being able to maintain the light battleships, providing it with food, fuel and other important commodities, while the Apahanta's presence ensured in many cases the peace in the area around the shipyard. Corinth received a few samples of the equipment produced on the warship, happily analyzing and reverse-engineering it as much as possible. Not much, actually. Core EVA suits, an array of sidearms, nano repair drones, medical equipment and replacement parts for the warship. Later, a bunch of deliveries done by Ezrael's fanatic friend, Sombra Hookier, imported some rather luxury commodities from Curacao and Bretonia, which were shared with Livadia and Corinth. Not much, but enough to maintain a healthy relationship with those two stations, which were frequently visited by the Apahanta's crew. Especially Corinth, as the little promenade deck of the station was a welcoming change of atmosphere for everyone in Kappa, given most of the time people were looking out of the window to see a thick green cloud of radiation and aliens outside of the hull.

Because this view was incredibly boring, frustrating and reminding people of the terrors of the Edge Worlds, Sherry Aguilar, the second-in-command on the Apahanta, decided to use the holo-windows of her room next to the bridge to show the skyline of her home city, Los Dragos on Gran Canaria, in the nightsky. It looked realistic enough to make it feel like her room on the Apahanta was an apartment in one of those skyscrapers. When her working day was over, she used to sit down on her couch, enjoying the view, knowing she had no reason to return home, as her family thought she died when the Apahanta defected. That was what the Core told them, as they didn't know better. With only one exception, Cordelia Lyell and whoever the devil decided to share the truth with.

On the bridge, Sherry was not Sherry. Whenever the crew was around, she was not Sherry. She was Commander Aguilar. The crew respected her, which was why she was in this leading position. And nobody else was able to do it the way she did, as she was handling the crew, the ship, the Livadians and the Apahanta's Captain, Ezrael Vertiga, without allowing any weakness shown by her. But then there were the moments when she entered her room, being alone. Being Sherry.

This time, in the late evening, she was not alone. Her lounger was occupied by the Captain, who lay on it, spooning her as they idly watched what the holo-windows showed them. The back of her head was at his shoulder, her hands on his hands on her belly. There was a slight blush on her cheeks, which was something never happened during her time as Commander. These times with Ezrael were mostly the only times she allowed someone to get close to her.

"How do you feel?", his calming voice sounded behind her head, after a long moment of silence. He knew perfectly well how much she isolated herself from the crew. Something he himself never did.

"I feel alright, I think," she gave him back, in an unusual lame sounding voice. "I'm fine."

"How was your day?" he asked her with a hand stroking her athletic belly. The fact they were both still wearing their uniforms made it less sensual, especially as their hands were still gloved.

"My day was okay. No events worthy to be mentioned. Nothing memorable. It's nice to have you on the ship, the crew is more motivated to do the daily workout," she replied, refering to a certain group of women. He knew what she was talking about. It made him smirk slightly.

"Are you satisfied?" he asked her, and she blushed even more for a moment, looking at his hands at her belly.

"What do you mean?" It was evident she was insecure about his question.

"With how things currently are. If you're unhappy with something, you should tell your Captain," he explained, moving a hand away from her belly to stroke along her arm.

"You know the things I'm not happy about," she gave him back, feeling relief about the turn of the conversation.

"I do. But tell me about how you feel right now about things."

It made her sigh inwardly. To her, it was obvious what he was doing, and he probably knew himself very well she was aware of her knowing it. It was his way of counseling her. Adjusting her head a little at his chest, she looked to the side, seeing a bit of his upper body and his arm. "We're testing the cloak over and over again. It works perfectly fine. Yet we're still here in Kappa, and I just want to leave this place. Omega-49, Omega-3, Bretonia, Cortez, Baffin, any place is better than this here. It gives me headache every time I look outside. But no, we still stay here and test the cloak in all possible scenarios. While the Captain isn't around very often. I sometimes feel like this is my ship, and I just can't do what I'd want to," she explained, knowing he knew her opinion, as she had voiced it often enough during those sessions. "I often think about what I gave up when I joined your defection. I probably would be Sentinel by now," she said, knowing she had the qualities of that rank.

"You'd be Guildkeeper by now, maybe even Guildmistress, if you'd have no issue with sending people into their avoidable death," he gave her back, his arm at her belly slinging more around her. "What would you do if you were to fully command this ship?"

"Looking at it from a romantic perspective, I'd have formed a battlegroup, established a public presence, recruitment, maybe even offered my services to Liberty. It's a warship, and there are many wars. Someone surely would need us," she explained, turning on her side, slinging her arms around his waist, pressing her cheek against his chest. "When I joined the Core, I was willing to fight someone else's wars as long as I was in command. Now I am sort of in command, but I don't have a war. Makes me think I wasted a year of my time, somehow."

"But?"

"But looking at it from a realistic perspective, we're doing better than anyone else in Sirius, I guess. We took a battleship away from mad people who only cause harm for the sake of profit and egozentrism and corruption. I could be Guildkeeper now, but I'd be Guildkeeper of barbarians and soulless hunters. I could command a warship in their name and slaughter innocent or give the nomads more reasons to attack Sirius without ever fully going against them." She looked down at his belly, letting a hand slide over it to feel the shapes. "Fighting someone else's wars is stupid. I know that now. I wouldn't benefit from joining the Navy or anything else. I don't have the means to maintain the Apahanta. I'm pretty sure I would have been forced to sell or scrap it. Thus I am content with you being the Captain. It is good we don't have to fight, and it is good you try and keep us away from trouble. The only bad thing about it is that my potential as Commander isn't blooming here. And that you're so often away," she added, looking up again, keeping her hand her his belly.

"But when we're done here in Kappa, we are very likely to fight," Ezrael reminded her, moving a strand of hair away from her cheek. "We have Bretonia's and Crayter's approval to move through their space. Next thing will be Liberty. We won't get a permanent permission to move through Liberty, but at least for Cortez. Meaning we will fight Gallic Invaders. Your potential will be needed there. You might think your talent was wasted so far, but in fact it wasn't, as a good commander prepares crew and ship for the fight. We're still lacking a major part of a full ship's crew, the Kishiro robots are currently filling the gap. Our human crew however needs the training you provide them."

"We."

"Right. It'll be only a few more test runs, Sherry. You'll have your war to fight very soon. And I need you for that. Both as commander and loyal friend."

The latter made her blush slightly. "Ship, crew and commander will be prepared for that, Captain." Adjusting her head at his chest, her cheek gently rubbed against the cloth covering him. His deodorant smelled fruity, as usual. "What about Nancy Sweetwater, by the way? Will she return to the ship?"

"No. Bretonia doesn't like her, so I have to use her somewhere else. She also isn't healthy enough be helpful when we're fighting Gallia. I can't risk her getting killed."

"Our chief engineer wouldn't like that, I guess."

"No, he wouldn't like that. In fact, I'll tell Lindsay to have a bit counseling with him," Ezrael said, scooting a bit more into the horizontal with Sherry laying on him.

"Counseling like this?" she asked him, smiling up at his face, getting a bit closer to it.

Smirking down at her for a moment, he turned his head away just wide enough to not invite her to come closer. "No. The rather classic and professional version of it. I'd be surprised if Lindsay would do it like this," he gave her back, obviously amused. "Get some rest, Sherry, the combat cloak scenario will need your full focus tomorrow."

Raising her head, she pecked his cheek for a second, then scooted off him, standing up. "See you tomorrow then, Captain," she said, this way signaling him to leave as he already stood up.

---

---

---

Uncharted System Stories: 18 | 32 | 34 | 37 | 38 | 85

Templates: Character | Transmissions

Alternative Soundtracks

---