Harbinger

[Sombs]

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January 15th, 825 - Omicron Delta

A quiet day in Delta. After a little tour through the Omicrons, the Apahanta was approaching Freeport 11 in order to get the jump drive fuel to jump back to Omega-49, where the battleship was usually hiding in the Barrier clouds. A little Sabre was accompanying it, dancing around with blue and purple lights all over the hull. It was the Sweetheart, Maren's Sabre. With a constant comm channel open between her ship and the Apahanta, the bridge crew was able to listen to the little casual sass Maren and Ezrael gave each other. It wasn't the first time this happened. They were used to it. Maren often was trolling Ezrael, and he usually paid her back.

"Battleship Apahanta to Freeport 11, this is Captain Ezrael Vertiga speaking. We're entering the No-Fire-Zone now to moor with Freeport 11 and refuel." Ezrael sounded via comm channel to Freeport 11 and shortly after it, he got the acknowledgement of the Freeport 11 flight control. They knew the Apahanta and the crew. It was not a rare sight in Delta, especially since the Core and the Apahanta ceased the hostilities with each other. Defending Port Carthage and raiding the Vault of Baltrum made everything easier again for Ezrael, at least when it was about the Core.

"Love?" Maren suddenly sounded, her Sabre whirling around at Freeport 11, not intending to moor with it. "Could I land in your hangar quickly?"

It sort of came out of nowhere. Ezrael stood at the bridge, looking over at the video feed of Maren. It was slightly hard to look at, because Maren constantly turned around and whirled weirdly around with her ship instead of just stopping like a normal, non-Eliza-Valdez-person would do. "Sure. Bridge to hangar, Maren will land on the Apahanta. Make sure her ship gets refilled and restocked."

"Could you come to me before you go to Freeport 11?" she asked him, smirking at him in the video feed.

"Sure."

A few moments later, Ezrael entered the hangar. Maren's Sabre was there, barely fitting. There also was one of the Apahanta's drone ships, the Handsome Rover, a Gitano. Those two ships filled the entire hangar, reminding everyone that the Apahanta was a small battleship and not a carrier. The tall man with the long black hair moved towards the Sabre, glad that Maren turned the lights of her ship off. It was one of her many ways of trolling him. Watching his girlfriend using the ladder outside the cockpit to leave her snub, he thought about getting her a more appealing-to-the-eye flightsuit. She used a very boring one, he thought. He came closer and looked up to her as she climbed down, a moment later reaching the floor, just to look at him slightly panting. "Little workout, eh?"

The expression he gave him in return made words unnecessary- That expression changed quickly as she made a step towards him, then tip-toed with her hands on his chest, just to push her lips against his. An extremely surprising move. Maren was not a romantic person, and this was very much not like anything he was used to from her. He gave in to the kiss, embracing her with his arms to pull her closer, closing his eyes. A moment later, when he opened them again, he noticed something weird. She moved one hand up to his cheek when breaking the kiss, retracting her head from him. It allowed him to see his surrounding had changed. The hangar was completely empty. No robots, no Sabre, not Gitano. Just him and Maren. And Valery, sitting on the floor, behind Maren. Ezrael began to understand. Mindmelting. That was why Maren wanted to see him? But why? Valery, the little red-haired and freckled woman, an avatar the incubus created to look less alien to them, waved her hand at him, without a word. Ezrael looked at Maren, meeting her eyes again. "Why?"

"There is a nomad on Freeport 11," Maren said quietly, giving him a more stern look while keeping her hand on his soft cheek.

It caused a certain sigh from Ezrael. "Oh, really. Are you for real? You're only being romantic on purpose when you tell me about a nomad on Freeport 11?" he accused her, more of a joke than it sounded.

She returned a lopsided look, using her other hand to stroke his hair. Some of his bangs were haning infront of his chest. "I want you to be careful, okay? Don't take too much time, try to not get involved in anything. Just do your thing there and don't do anything else. Can you do that?"

Looking into her, for some reason, beggin eyes, he sighed silently, exhaling through his nose. He knew why she was doing this, as the last time he had used his special status with the Nomads and the Wild, he hindered the Commune from infecting Elena Voigt, a Knight Captain of the Forlorn Hope. Maren and Valery had to put effort into solving the situation, the latter threatening Ezrael that made him not daring anything like it ever again, realizing the incubus was, despite all they went through together, not his friend. "I'm not an idiot."

The response was something she expected him to say, and while it was not exactly what she prefered to hear from him, she let her hands slowly slide down his cheek while moving her face closer to his again. Another kiss, another time he closed his eyes, just to open them again, facing Maren who let go of him. They were back in the reality. The Sabre was there, the Gitano was there, the robots were there. Not a second had passed in reality. She looked up at him, trying to give him a lovely stare, which then turned into an apologetic one. "I need to pee."

Smirking, he made a step back, gesturing her to walk with him. "Go pee, take a shower and wait in my room for me. I'll quickly get the stuff from the freeport." And thus they walked together, leaving the hangar, moving through the corridors. Once Ezrael escorted Maren to his room, he left it again, heading for the airlocks. The Apahanta had moored with Freeport 11 in the meantime, and the Kishiro Service Robots of the Apahanta started with refilling and restocking.

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