"And I was a kid with a father and a house on the countryside of manhattan. I can sound more Xeno-ish than any of them. You'll learn it pretty fast. You need to own their respect. That begins with the shower. I'm the only female on Ouray. There's no shower for girls here. Just a gun and a few harsh words and it's all yours!"
The office door opened with another loud squaking noise.
"There's no other room left for ya. You can sleep in my room, for the first days i don't mind sleeping in my ship. Wanna eat something? A drink? We're poor but mother's finest will blow ya socks off i promise!"
"And please.. think of a name. I'll call you Emma for now. Sounds almost the same, but i had an Emma in my class, back in the days... She died in a firefight when she was on vacation on Denver."
She was surprised by how she acted, since not even an hour ago she was ready to rip her guts open by herself. She follows her, evading all eye contact with the people onboard the station. For a moment, she had forgotten she probably was nothing but a bounty for all of these people, or maybe even worse, simply an outsider that deserves to be gutted, that she was a sheep in the middle of the wolf pack. But no, though they all look paranoid, they were all normal people and she couldn't detect a bloodlust in their eyes, the one she had so often heard about when she flied for the Unioners. After an awkward silence, she replies. ''Thank you for your generous offer. I'll indeed lightly eat before going to bed. And... I'm sorry for your loss. Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I read, isn't Denver supposed to be a peaceful vacation resort? And I perfectly understand if you don't wish to talk about it, we've been through lots of emotions today.''
Friendship and compassion were indeed weird feelings, ones that she hadn't lived for years.
"Ya.. we really need to work on your accent." Going upstairs, passing a few more corridors, they finally arrived at Corals cabin. She opened the door.
"I don't bother myself dressing like a girl. All i care about is my hair actually. The only thing that's left. Though there might be something you'd like to were instead of that uniform. I have some dresses from when i came here. They should fit. Afterwards i'll show you the lockerroom and the shower. Then we can eat something at the Inn.
And think about a name so i can start getting your ID fixed. Now.. hurry!" she said while pointing at her dorm.
"I'm waiting for you, outside."
She walks into the dorm and takes a look at the dresses. It wasn't really her style of clothing, but it made 3 days she had the jumpsuit she was wearing on. She gasped as she removed it, remembering her neck tattoo. A hand holding up a hammer, the symbol of the Unioners. Oh, why did she had to get drunk that night on Pacifica and let herself dragged into this tattoo business... She grabs a sweater and makes sure that the tattoo cannot be seen, and then puts on a pair of jeans. When she walks out, a grim, worried look on her face. ''I think we might have another problem...'' She slightly pulls the collar of her sweater down to show her the tattoo. ''Probably that up north, most of your men do not know what this means, but it still is a bugger...''
"I guess i know someone who can remove it. Let's have a look if he's here!" On their way back downstairs they passed the showers as promised, aswell as the kitchen and finally the Ouray Inn.
The wooden doors which looked like some old school movie ones, opened with a cracking sound.
"Welcome to Ouray Inn!" Coral smiled, proud like a girl having her first day at school..
"It was abandoned a while ago, so i build it up again, With the help of some of our little.. OH look there he is!"
She pointed at a huge, white haired but young looking man in some kind of black steel armor, wearing a mask and sitting on a huge steel bar.
"The wooden chairs always cracked, so we build him a special one, so he don't need to leave his suit everytime he's here. He doesn't like that. He doesn't look too happy today, so we better don't bother him today"Coral smiled. "Maybe later. But look! Let's have something to eat, and then you can sleep a bit. You look exhausted. Now, what do we have today. Soup!.... I'll pass!" Coral raised her hands in the air as if she was going to give up.
''Ah, well soup it shall be, then!'' She grabs a plate and a bowl of soup, then heads to one of the tables at the corner of the inn so they would be alone to discuss some more. At first she is silent, obvserving the asteroid field through the window bay, slowly sipping her soup. The last two hours or so went so fast for her, she looked confused about them, as if she was unsure that all these events really happened. Maybe she was still on Pacifca observing the asteroid ring of Bering, maybe she just imagined all this. She then observed Coral silently, and realized that no, it wasn't a dream. She felt reassured, and then kept on silently observing the asteroid field.
"This is the key to my room. Guess you'll find it? I'll have a word with my.. with Jararaca about your problem. I'll also like to have you coming up with a new name tomorrow, so we can get ya a new identity.
Oh! Also there's some movies on the computer. They're old and pretty bad, as they're all made on Ouray and Refugio. But they may help you to get familiar with the accent.
I'll go to take a nap soon. If you need me, i'm in my ship then. "
Coral then turns around and walks straight to the man in his black battle suit.
About seven hours later Coral's night was over. A distress call from a xeno patrol being under attack woke her up rather harsh. She hadn't slept well at all. She did regret the choice of leaving her room to the Kraut and started her ship while shouting some curses at the patrol for waking her up. 'Not even time to make my hair...'
As her ship docked again, she straight went to her room to wake the Kraut up. "Yo, Kraut! Get up, it's time for you to meet some descisions!" she shouted while knocking at the door.
"I also need a shower and need to pick some clothes. Killing Navys in a Pajama isn't fun at all!
Come on girl! WAKE UP!"
The door immediatly opens, as she was already showered, dressed and prepared for action. She hadn't sleep at all, but she was still very aware. Plus, she knew as soon as the alert was given that she'd be tested. With a forced southern that she 'learned' by watching old movies, she asks: ''What's going on?'' The silliness of her accent made her giggle, but she quickly got over herself. ''I guess I'll have to practice this later.'' She leaves her room, that she had neatly cleaned and ordered beforehand. ''I took the freedom to clean your ream, I hope you don't mind. Please, get prepared, then tell me if I can help by any mean. I'll be waiting here.'' She pats her back lightly, then lays against the corridor's wall, waiting for her to be ready.
Looking a little puzzled at the Kraut, Coral started to inspect her room. It was indeed cleaned up. "Uh yeah.. I.. will go to the shower first and then we see.. uh... Let me showe first."
She came back after ten minutes. "Water all empty again. I hate that... We will go to Refugio later, they have enough water. Did you come up with a name yet? It'd be great, because we could start to get the things done, y'know?" Coral snickered at the woman.
"Also i'll show you your new ship tomorrow. We found an old Eagle at Dyrden, i told the guys to get it repaired again. All we need would be some new engines, but.. nothing to worry about. We'll find some."
Coral was inspecting the woman from the corner of her eyes.
"Also we have to talk about your future here. Where you want to live? Barrow? That's far away from here girl. And you'd be almost on your own. The southern boys are rookies.
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