Private Going Salvaging - six hands are better than two hands

[Brie Jaxx]

Pushing the lever on the dashboard into lightspeed, Brie watched the instruments looking good and the stars turning into straight white lines on the black sky of space. Like so many times before., the B-29 freighter went into hyperspace. This time was different though, rather unique even, as she had not one but two passengers aboard. Two of her friends gained when she joined the mixed bag of characters that was called Darkwire. Even though they had work to do, something told her that this trip was going to be kriff of a lot more eventful and hopefully more fun than her regular ones.

Brie already had her teal and black spacesuit on, with black boots and her blone hair casually done, some loose strands left at the sides. She was just about to get up from the pilots chair when the holoprojector came to life and the blue image of Ahxel appeared in front of her. Her eyes grew big by surprise and she settled back in the chair. Quickly pulling a strand of hair behind the ear, she smiled at the boy whom she met on their mission to Frego some weeks ago.

''Ahxel? Hi! Wha- what a surprise! I mean, it's good to see you!'' Brie blurt out searching for some sensible words to greet the boy with.

''Heh! It's good to see you too, Brie! Thought I'd try the number you gave me, and turns out you didn't make it up, which I'm glad for... How's things? You're flying?''

''Yeah yeah! I'm good! Me and my friends, you remember Daiya and the zeltron Zo'i, from the party... We're just making a little trip, you know I told you about my... well... travels?'' she continued with gaze flickering from the boy and out to the stars passing by the cockpit window. Ahxel nodded and seemed to remember what little she had to tell him at the party. Some of it had slipped, she had to admit that, but it was merely harmless information. What would become of them, and Daiya and Jezper, was yet to be found out. ''How are things on Frego?''

''As usual, I guess. It's back to business for everyone. I think it took about two or three days to clean up from that party...'' Ahxel said and ended with a chuckle when mentioning the party. It had been a realy great and wonderful night. First time for Brie to attend such a luxurious gathering, and the first time to be kissed. Speaking with Ahxel made her heart flutter slightly, to tell the truth.

Brie broke into a light laugh in response and when thinking of it all. ''Yeah, I can imagine! It was a good night...'' she said and nodded thoughtfully, while she could not help but sway the chair a little back and forth. ''Listen... I- I think they're needing me back there, so... I'll call you later, okay?''

''Sure! You take care now, alright? See you later!''

They shut down the link and Brie drew a deep sigh of relief. Ahxel made her be on the edge, but she didn't knew if it was for good or bad but probably a bit of both.

Daiya Zo'i Prihm

 

[Daiya]

The transformation was incredible, if the girl was to be the judge of it. Brie's ship was alright she supposed, it was small and a bit noisy inside, but it was far from the worst starship Daiya had ever been on. And Daiya tried to keep that number as low as possible on purpose. Being in space was an unsettling feeling for her, made all the worst by the dull, utilitarian design of her friend's starship. It was probably good for the salvaging runs that Brie made solo, but it was woefully inadequate for hosting company! Thankfully, Brie had made the right choice in letting Daiya invite Zo'i along for the run as well, and together the two girls had turned the lounge into a proper sleepover space.

A carpet of blankets and pillows, with more piled up for structure or comfort later in the day, had turned the boring lounge into a cozy den for the trio of teenagers. Daiya had to give Zo'i most of the credit, the Zeltron girl had a far more normal childhood than she did, and was far better equipped at suggesting what supplies they needed for the trip. Daiya only remembered snippets of spending nights over at a friend's place when she was much younger, and a centuries-old Wookiee hardly counted regardless of how often the girl had tried to help her erstwhile guardian bring a little more cheer to their shared apartment.

No, this lounge was lightyears beyond what she had ever achieved before, and Daiya couldn't help the giddy exuberance of her adrenaline high that was making her bounce all over the place.

"Are you sure we brought all the blankets up here?" Daiya asked Zo'i, looking over their collection as she paced around to different corners of the lounge space. The compartment, set in the middle of the ship's upper deck behind the cockpit and a tiny hallway connecting the two, was tiny but constructed in a way to make efficient use of its space. That meant lots of corners and nooks and crannies that defied conventional pillow/blanket placing techniques. To the girl's eyes, their coverage spread looked a little thin. "I'm going to go check the crate again."

Daiya spun on her heels towards the short hallway, bunching up some of the blanket beneath her socked feet as she did. The teen did a little jig to fix it, before scurrying off to the ladder that led to the lower deck. She passed close to the cockpit, where Brie was doing all the flying things from her single pilot's chair. As she did so, the teen heard her older friend talking to someone, and peeking into the ship's cockpit earned her a glimpse of a certain Balosar boy the pair had once met on Frego. The girl giggled to herself as she skittered down the rungs to the deck below.

Suddenly, Daiya realized she wasn't sure where the crate was now. She remembered carrying it in with Zo'i, and setting it down someplace. And then after they realized Brie's own quarters were much too small, she remembered wanting to Zo'i wanting to move the crate somewhere else. By that point, the girl had gathered a bunch of blankets and pillows in her hands in order to start making over the lower deck. That was when Brie had mentioned there being a whole upper deck beyond the cockpit, and Daiya had eagerly left the crate to go up the ladder.

She found it sitting just outside the boarding ramp, as it happened. Daiya had expected Zo'i to move it to the cargo bay for some reason, or out of the way. But no one here was going to yell at them about keeping things tidy or being too loud or any of the other boring reprimands adults loved to foist onto teenagers. The girl grinned at the thought as she opened up the container, finding only a couple small blankets left inside.

And beneath them, a very small stuffed animal.

Daiya giggled again and scooped them all up. She headed up the ladder once more, and peeked into the cockpit on her way back to the lounge. Brie was alone again, and seemed to be...thinking? Her friend seemed to spend a lot of time in her own head, probably a little too much. The girl knew more than most that keeping everything inside wasn't always the best approach. Which is why the first thing she did when she got to the lounge was practically tackle Zo'i and get close enough to her pink ear to whisper, "Guess who Brie was talking to on the holo-comm?"

Actually, she wasn't about to wait. "A boyyy! Ahxel!"

The girl devolved into a fit of giggles, both from sharing this dirty detail and from the realization that she might have been a little too loud. The blonde girl stepped back from her Zeltron friend, casting her eyes toward the cockpit to see if Brie had noticed anything. Nothing yet. Her blue eyes dazzled back at Zo'i, and she winked as she put a finger up to her mouth to impress the need for secrecy. For now, anyway.

There would be time later on to dish and gossip with each other, especially when Brie stepped away from the cockpit.

It was the only real reason Daiya had agreed to come along. Aside from the fact that the older teen had offered at the right time, the young shadowrunner wasn't exactly the ideal partner for a salvaging run. She had her blasters along, and had packed other equipment just in case, but Daiya was pretty sure that they were going to go unused for the whole trip. From all the stories Brie told, it sounded like she spent all the time picking over old cargo crates or cutting up dead ships. Boring stuff with no fun or thrill involved.

Which just meant that Daiya and Zo'i had to bring the fun and thrills themselves!

"Okay, so what about snacks?"

Brie Jaxx Zo'i Prihm​

 

[Zo'i Prihm]

Things had kinda sucked lately. Ok, not just kinda. Really sucked.

Some days Zo'i felt like there was no point in trying to make things better. Rhé was lost in her misery. Sentiri was off trying to figure a way to fix them all but rarely checked in with Zo'i. And Sun would ping her Zeltron protégé every once in awhile but generally didn't care whether Zo'i responded or not. The vile woman knew she had the teen under her thumb. Luminous Sun would be patient in her manipulation of Zo'i's future.

Other days, she thought it might be a good time to just move on, return to her aimless wandering through the stars. Sun might chase her down if she cared enough, but Zo'i's long leash made her think that Sun might not really even care. Rhé would probably be relieved not to have to worry about having an unruly kid to deal with anymore. She had other things to worry about. And Zo'i couldn't tell if Sentiri cared either. After all, she had her own kid to look out for. Not that the kid was even a kid yet. Or whatever.

So yeah, why not return to her original goal of figuring out what it meant to be Zeltron? Find some of her own people. Maybe look for her real family. She'd thought about that a lot, not that she knew where to start.

But then she looked at how hurt Rhé was and how driven Sentiri was and how putrid Sun was and she just wanted to scream and weep and tear her hair out and poke Sun's eyes out and take the biggest roll of tape she could find and patch her chosen family back together.

Sigh...

It was good to take a break from all that. Daiya had probably figured that Zo'i needed it. She probably should have been more thankful but really, Zo'i didn't want to talk about it or think about it or acknowledge that "it" was even a thing. Nope. She just wanted to hop on a ship, load it with girly things, have a good time with her friends, and maybe help more than hinder Daiya's friend with her job. An escape for a few days sounded like a good break. So she wasn't about to dwell.

"Pretty sure we have all the blankets," Zo'i said. She had tried really hard to sound upbeat when Daiya had first offered to bring Zo'i along. But they'd been talking long enough now that Zo'i was pretty sure that all of her words sounded like carefree-funloving-mischievous-Zo'i.

Daiya disappeared to look for things and Zo'i worked on rearranging the blankets and pillows to be better distributed. The metal can they were in was less than comfortable but the touches Daiya and Zo'i brought were a definite help. She jumped more than she should have when Daiya snuck up and surprised her. When had she become jumpy? Still, she didn't let anything seep into her voice when she responded.

"A boyyy?" Zo'i whispered back. "Oooo, you two will have something in common to talk about then," Zo'i said with a wink. "The snacks are in the fridge and over in my luggage." Yeah. Zo'i brought luggage: pink with white and purple flower stitching.

Brie Jaxx Daiya​