Private Jetsam

[Vesper Thrace]

DEEP SPACE
Aboard the Sirenjack
Mutiny +3 hours
​

It was quiet. The ship was all but powered down, its navigation systems on standby, engines cooling. The crew had been sectioned into groups. Many hands, after all, made light work (of cleaning up the aftermath of a mutiny). Locking down security systems. Accounting for weapons. Deck-by-deck sweeps for stragglers. All sorts of things. The worst task, in Vesper Thrace's opinion, she had saved for herself. As the rest of the crew -- the ones who had stood with Vesper and Tavi Corvask against the duplicitous, cowardly Captain Xiralan -- dispersed to their assigned tasks, she waited, watched until they were alone on the command deck. When it was just she and Tavi, she sighed and stripped off her jacket, tossing it over the CIC rostrum.

"Wish it hadn't come to this," she said with enough aggressive nonchalance that Tavi must have known it was covering a deep and festering wound.

She crouched next to a corpse, began to slowly pick through its pockets. Anything that would identify the body as a member of this crew was removed. Keycards, patches, notes. Credit chits, of course, because why not be a grave robber as well as a mutineer? Vesper wanted to vomit. She straightened at last, stood up, then -- after a sniffling breath -- bent over and seized the corpse by the lapels of its flightsuit and began to drag it toward the exit of the bridge.

"Don't help me," she all-but snarled at Tavi, before he'd even had a chance to offer.

This was her chore. This was her penance.

Right or wrong, mutiny was a sin. A curse that one had to carry. The captaincy had landed -- perhaps rightly, perhaps wrongly, definitely improbably -- on her slight shoulders. The curse was hers to bear now. The tragedy of the thing was that she had done it for the body she was dragging as much as for the ones who lived, going about their tasks belowdecks. Vesper dragged and dragged, until she was outside the airlock. She touched the controls so that it slid open and bent again. Already a dull ache had formed in her back, but she muscled through, dragging the body into the airlock. She crouched and awkwardly folded the crewman's arms over his chest. "That will have to do," she muttered. "Mother of the Void take mercy on you, sailor."

Vesper stepped out of the airlock, pushed the button to cycle it. The corpse whisked out into the black. The airlock cycled again. She turned and walked back toward the bridge, trying to ignore the ache in her back and the ache in her chest.

___________________________________________________________________

Tavi Corvask​

 

[Tavi Corvask]

Vesper Thrace

In the time that Vesper and Tavi worked together it always surprised him just how... sensitive she could be. Not in a bad way, not in the way most men would use the word sensitive as if to imply a woman was hysterical, emotional and unfit for command. It was different here. Vesper was rough around the edges, straight-laced and formidable.

Great qualities to have in a Captain, but at the same time she could be remarkably sentimental and concerned about those she decided to care about.

He could intuit her mood at this point and as such gave her a wide berth. Letting her feel the full swing of what she needed to feel.

Didn't try to help. Just walked with her, while lighting up a cigarette and watching her work through the paces. "We did what we had to. Would have been better to save more, but they picked their side." Tavi reached out, grabbing Vesper by the shoulder and risking getting hit in the face for the effort, but did it anyway.

"Hey, we did the right thing, for the betterment of the ship. He only thought of himself and would have sold us all out to dry if he thought he could get away with it."

 

[Vesper Thrace]

"Maybe we did," said Vesper curtly as she heaved another body to a halt outside the airlock, then straightened to cycle it open. "Maybe we didn't." She took a moment to lean against the bulkhead. Not winded, just aching at the small of her back. She snapped her fingers impatiently at the cigarette until he handed it over and she took a deep drag, making the embers glow. "Maybe fuck yourself."

She handed the cigarette back, still a lungfull of sweet t'bacc smoke, and leaned over to drag the corpse into the airlock, exhaling the silvery tendrils. "Void Mother's mercy," Vesper said, waving vaguely with her hand before stepping out again. She slapped the button, and the corpse was whooshed out into the vacuum.

"What we did -- maybe don't have a crew after this next stop." She shrugged her coiled body, an exaggerated movement. "Hang around garbage and you start to smell, yeah? What it does to someone who hang around a mutineer? A traitor? What am I supposed to do, explain? Provide context? That's why maybe fuck yourself."

She shook her head. Reputations were earned over years and wrecked in seconds. "Anyway, it's my word against his. Everyone will see I had something to gain and I gained it. Sirenjack, my new ship. Wages of sin. Bastard Xiralan. Maybe should have killed him after all. Maybe should have recorded his -- " Her hands waved irritably at the lack of a suitably unpleasant adjectives to describe his treachery " -- fuckery, put it on a business card to hand out at ports."

Grim. Angry.

Sad.

She knelt at the next body. "Maybe you take over. Blame me for the mutiny. Say you put me off at the next port as a courtesy. Or say I escaped the brig. Why wasn't it you, anyway?"

___________________________________________________________________

Tavi Corvask​

 

[Tavi Corvask]

Vesper Thrace

Tavi listened, didn't interrupt, he was good at that.

Making someone feel like they were being heard. Like they could trust him, because he was so full of sympathy for your plight. Right until somehow a nugget of little information would be utilized mercilessly for his own gain. So far, nobody had caught on. The ones on the other end of his charm either never realized it was him or were too dead to be able to squeel.

He passed his cigarette to her without any comment either, but a smirk did tug at his smile at her swearing at him.

"I did say we should kill him, didn't I?" Tavi finally said, sweetly, as if everyone wanted to hear a 'I told you so' right after an incredibly stressful situation that had changed everything for them.

But Tavi also believed in harsh truths when need be.

"Half measures never work out in the end, Cap. Either you are a bastard or you are a saint. You can't be both and if you try, you are gonna get yourself and me killed." He paused there and thought about it. "Or thrown out with the shirts on our back, I don't really know which one would be worse."

Then a smirk.

"Come now, Captain. I am not Captain material. I don't want the authority, the responsibility... I just want to help and enable you to succeed." Offering his cigarette to her again after taking a drag.

"So, good try but no cigar, you are the Captain now and I will do everything in my power to keep you in the seat."

 

[Vesper Thrace]

"Did," Vesper said bluntly. That was as close as he was going to get to you were probably right, I guess, in your roundabout way for the time being. "But kill him or don't, doesn't change the stink. We killed plenty." She nodded at the next corpse then crouched down. Her thighs were starting to hurt from the unnatural position. "And he's good as dead. Maybe worse. We're so off the charts that it'd take a miracle for anyone to stumble upon him." She glanced at him over her shoulder, blowing a wisp of unruly black hair, uncharacteristically loose from the otherwise tight braids, out of her face. "And no. We're not going back to kill him now. We must rock onwards and upwards, as they say."

She didn't know who 'they' were in this instance, or if anyone said it. Mostly she was talking to fill the heavy silence now as she rifled through this poor sod's pockets. Vesper worked in grim quiet for a few minutes, then began dragging. Listening to Tavi's -- well it felt like treachery to Vesper, but it wasn't, but she didn't have a word for what it really was -- cloaked in generosity and confidence in her abilities and loyalty. She almost barked a laugh at the notion.

"First Officer Corvask has been an exemplary officer," she began in an almost-respectable sing-song, as if narrating his mid-year performance review. "Unfortunately, recently he has begun to display a shocking lack of ambition, and has not had the same go-getted-ness that originally endeared him to his crewmates and his captain. Improvements are needed."

She straightened at the airlock, took the cigarette he offered and took a drag before handing it back. "Should start thinking next steps. Need to find a place to repair and resupply. And maybe look for somewhere to belong, earn some dosh while we lick our wounds. What you think?" Vesper crouched and dragged the corpse into the airlock. "Void mother with you always," she muttered, stepped out, and then punched the cycle button.

___________________________________________________________________

Tavi Corvask​

 

[Tavi Corvask]

Vesper Thrace

"I don't want to be a broken alarm, darling, but we are pirates. If we don't murder people we are nothing more than smugglers." He pointed out, again, as he watched her vent yet another corpse.

In all this time he didn't once pull his sleeves up to help her with it.

She had told him not to and he took that seriously. Not that it was a heavy lift (pun intended) for Tavi, he didn't particularly want to busy himself with such matters if he could help it. "If we didn't have at least a little stink on us, we wouldn't be any better than the Han Solo's of this world. You know, rogues with golden hearts?"

He sniffed there.

"Soon enough we would start to get fanmail from the High Republic and the Jedi, asking us for help against the Sith." Tavi shook his head at the mere thought of it.

But she brought the smirk right back at her teasing. "Oh, I got a whole lotta ambition, Vessy. There is a little shadowport a few clicks from here. Owner of it is a pal of mine, we can lay low there a little and lick our wounds. But yeah... we should consider options. We only got the one ship left, not quite the dangerous armada anymore, so do we stay independent? Or do we try and join up with someone while we start recruiting?"

Both had their own issues, dangers attached to them.

 

[Vesper Thrace]

Ahh, the philosophical debate. This wasn't the first time. Probably it wouldn't be the last. "I always say -- and I think I'm right, whatever the dictionary says -- that smuggling is transporting stolen goods, and piracy is stealing the goods to begin with. Murder not inherent in either one."

She grunted through this bit as she dragged another corpse down the corridor, watching Tavi move like the world's slowest escort, leisurely wandering down the hall with her. She shoved the body into the airlock. "Void Mother, et cetera," she said as she slapped the button to cycle it.

Turning back to Tavi, she took the cigarette again. "Know what I think?" she asked, then took a drag. Held the t'bac in her lungs for a few minutes, then gestured with the cigarette between her index and middle finger at him. "Think you want to kill people. Troubling personality trait, if I'm honest. But since sometimes you got to break eggs to make omelets, you know, good to have you on my side." She handed the cigarette back after a drag.

Thrace disposed of the final corpse. Some would read it as getting rid of the evidence of her crimes. That wasn't it, not really. Part of her wanted to honor them with a burial-at-space, the proper sendoff. The point was they needed to move on, and the less reminders -- the less foci of guilt or rethinking or regret for the rest of the crew -- the faster that could happen.

"Put the coords," she ordered, pointing at the navicomputer. If he wanted her to be the boss, well, she would damn well be the boss. She went to the CIC and activated the ship's intercom. "This is your captain speaking. Prepare for hyperjump. Make ready all stations. Signal readiness at your earliest." She disconnected the intercom and folded her arms.

"I have every intention of rebuilding this armada," Vesper said, her voice low, her accent thickening the way it did when she felt passionate about something. "And when we do, it will be something to fear. But until then... we can talk about joining some larger operation. I can follow orders when they're good orders, from someone whose head is not irrevocably lodged in their ass."

She watched as the signals came in from the deck, until each read a steady green on her console. "First Officer Corvask," she drawled. "Prepare to jump on my mark. Three -- two -- one -- mark!" She waited until the stars streaked into lines and then leaned over the console to stare at him, predatory, though her voice had a hint of humor. "And if you call me Vessy again on my own command deck I will give you the Void Mother's mercy, too."

___________________________________________________________________

Tavi Corvask​

 

[Tavi Corvask]

Vesper Thrace

Tavi felt like someone caught with their hand in the cookie jar, except that he didn't have the good sense to look guilty or even caught for that matter. Instead just that damned smile, a bit self-aware, a bit charming.

"That is quite the observation you are making, Captain Thrace." He murmured smoothly as they walked to the CIC. "But perhaps I am merely interested in closing the opportunity for trouble before it becomes such. And there is no better way to do so by-" Then pausing himself and Tavi sighed. "Well, we have gone over the up's and down's of my approach, no sense in brow-beating. What is done is done and I am extremely curious to see if you end up right and he won't ever cross our paths again."

When she ordered him, there was no hesitation in his movements, he immediately got to work.

It lend credit to his position. Tavi truly wasn't concerned about being below Vesper, it at least lowered the chances of him low-key plotting a coup against her as well.

That would have been a silly thing anyway, because he could have seized power right after they dropped the last captain off. But it was not beyond possibilities. Men could be silly things after all. Who knew why they did the things they did. You couldn't trust them. You shouldn't. It was what Tavi had told Vesper many times over.

Do not trust anyone. Not even me. We are all vile creatures who look for the greatest advantage, at all times.

Yet, here they were, thick as thieves and close as murderers. Or was it lovers?

"Aye-aye Captain, on your mark." And he engaged when she said mark. Then smirked when Vesper threatened him. "You know, Captain, coming from you it almost sounds like a loving invitation." He purred softly.

"We will be in Hyperspace for a while. Would you like to go check out our new quarters? I am sure the former Captain had some good whiskey stashed somewhere."

 

[Vesper Thrace]

"Our new quarters?" Thrace echoed, her voice cool. "Only one Captain, and you had your chance. Don't come crawling to me just because you want a soft mattress. If you behave we'll buy you a new mattress when we get to a port."

The Captain touched the intercom. "Second Officer, come to the CIC," she ordered. A moment later the lift arrived ant the Second Officer, a Zabrak man of indeterminate age, entered. "You have the watch," Vesper told him. "I'll be in my cabin if anything comes up. Corvask, with me. Bring the trash bags," she added, just in case the Zabrak got any funny ideas about what Vesper Thrace would need with Tavi Corvask in her quarters.

She got into the recently-vacated elevator and waited for Tavi to enter, then touched the control for the Captain's Quarters. A moment later, she stepped out into the vestibule and used the keycard she had taken off Xiralan's hands before marooning him to badge into the room. She hadn't spent a lot of time in Xiralan's quarters before, and was gratified to see that they seemed to be fairly minimal. There was a small office area to her right as she entered, a small display cabinet built into the bulkhead on her left. A few stairs down to a bedroom. A small wraparound sofa that could seat four comfortably and maybe seven hip-to-hip, curving to fit in the crook of the bulkhead, facing the bed over a small coffee table.

The bar was actually just the storage built into the bedroom bulkhead next to the wardrobe. "You -- get the hooch. I'm going to tackle this." Vesper opened the wardrobe and began to take the clothes out. Xiralan had some nice threads, to be sure, but she wanted nothing to remind her of his presence. Besides, who knew how long Falleen pheremones could linger on a fabric. She dropped the clothes into an open trash sack.

___________________________________________________________________

Tavi Corvask​

 

[Tavi Corvask]

Vesper Thrace

"Oh, come now, Captain. I did mean the First Officer quarters and separately the Captain's Quarters." Tavi said with a tease, quickly reassuring her that he didn't mean anything untoward.

That would be very foolish.

After all, Tavi knew the temper Vesper possessed and what she could do with it, if provoked.

"Aye-aye, Captain." He saluted as Vesper gave him the command of finding the trash-bags and joining her promptly at the elevators. No matter how he behaved in private, between the two of them, he was the very picture of loyalty and obedience with the crew. Nobody would ever notice any daylight between himself and Vesper.

And that hadn't just begun when she took the Captain title.

Even during the coup attempt, as some tried to look towards him, Tavi only had eyes for Vesper and deferred to her without hesitation.

"Oh, oh no. I always wondered what his wardrobe would be like, considering the stuff he was wearing." Tavi said over her shoulder, having popped his head in to look at the wardrobe. Then walking off to find the hooch, he was really hoping the good stuff was still around. "What do you think though, nice digs, right? More comfortable than the top bunk you were sharing anyway."

 

[Vesper Thrace]

"Yes," Vesper agreed simply, almost bluntly. "This will do nicely."

The bed called to her, and she actually longed for it. She felt bone tired, and a brief groping of the mattress suggested it would be a joy to sleep on, especially as compared to the micro-thin mattress the aforementioned top bunk with a thin, scratchy blanket.

"Going to have this fucker steamed to within an inch of its life when we get to the port," she told Tavi. "Smells like his cologne in here. Not in a good way." She set a bag of clothes to one side and ducked her head into the en-suite 'fresher. "Void Mother's mercy, if I'd known he had a private shower I'd have overthrown him years ago."

Showering in the communal showers, a drafty plastic curtain the only thing that protected what little was left of her modesty in a crew made up nearly exclusively of men, wasn't comfortable but it wasn't exactly a hardship. Most of them kept their distance, and all did after one pushed his luck a little too far and she'd had to shatter his wrist. Still, her own shower. Probably her own hot water tank.

It almost made her not regret the mutiny.

Almost.

"Did you find anything good yet? I'm parched."

___________________________________________________________________

Tavi Corvask​

 

[Tavi Corvask]

"He has a private shower? That dick, I asked him if he had one and he lied to my face about it." Tavi said exasperated over his shoulder as he started to rummage through the cabinets.

It was a whole lot of nonsense. The kind of clutter you pile up after years of saying 'oh, I might need this some other time and it doesn't really take up that much space' and then you are several years further in. Suddenly all those little items gather up in a hoard. Exotic lighters, small artifacts from past raids, credit chits, fun stuff all in all, but nothing-

"Oh, here we go..." Tavi spotted a small contrast in tiles, a hidden button he suspected, and without thinking about it... pressed against said tile. Which probably said more about the pirate than anything else ever would.

Luckily for them this wasn't a self-destruct button.

Instead it pushed in and a hidden compartment opened out of the wall. Inside were several bottles of hooch. "Bingo, I got the motherload. I found his hidden liquor cabinet. None of that lukewarm beer shit, this is the real deal."

"You came across any glasses? or are we drinking this from the bottle straight?"

Vesper Thrace

 

[Vesper Thrace]

"That really how you go through life, huh? See a button and push it?" The Captain shook her head in disbelief. "Lucky that wasn't an ejector button. Void Mother's mercy." Vesper opened a cabinet door beneath the shelves of sub-tier booze and found a collection of mismatched glasses. She took two vaguely lowball-shaped glasses and set them down on the table next to him. "Make mine a double," she ordered.

She went to the little desk near the entry. Touched a button on the communicator. "Sanitation? This is the Captain. Please add a stop to the collection cycle. Captain's quarters. Bags in the vestibule area."

A beat. "Yes, ma'am. Fine to add to our morning round?"

"Perfectly fine," she replied. "Thank you."

Another beat. As if they'd never been thanked before. "Of course, Captain. Good evening."

She disconnected and turned back to Tavi, holding up a finger. She'd be right there. She took the last of the bags out to the vestibule for collection before finally she went back to the lounge area and finally she allowed herself to collapse on the sofa. "Fuck," she grunted. "Let's not have another day like this for awhile. Years." She took the drink and threw it back, grimacing as it burned down her throat, then held the glass out to him. "Please?"

___________________________________________________________________

Tavi Corvask​

 

[Tavi Corvask]

Vesper Thrace

"Come now, Ves, you have known me for years now. That truly can't surprise you at this point."

His fingers were permanently itching to press this button or squeeze that trigger irrespective of what the consequences would be. Tavi was either the luckiest son of a gun alive or fortune simply hadn't caught up with him yet, because so far it had gone in his favor. Even here in the small, it had opened up a cabinet full of perfect liquor instead of sending them all to death.

And so Tavi didn't learn his lesson as of yet.

Lounging on the couch he poured them both a drink, each getting a double, because it was that kind of day. He waited for her to come back rather than immediately start on his drink. But by the time she unceremoniously dropped on the couch next to him, she immediately swallowed down the whole glass.

"And here I thought we were gonna drink to our success, darling." Amused there but pouring her another drink at her request. "Shall we do so now then? To the new Captain, better and finer than the last one."

Tavi smirking as he pushed her glass to her and raised his own.

 

[Vesper Thrace]

"I appreciate you are attempting to put lipstick on this gamorrean," Vesper said, her voice hard, sardonic. "But I do not consider what happened today a success. A success would have been talking that green-skinned fuck into seeing sense and all of our friends still being alive. This is just a consolation prize. Nice consolation prize, but -- not a win."

Her eyes closed a moment, but then she opened them and touched her glass to his. "But me being a better captain than Xiralan? I drink to that." She took another sip and then lifted the glass again. "And to her new First Officer. Button pusher extraordinaire." Clink. Sip.

"How long to the shadowport?" she asked, setting the drink down on the table. Then, Vesper's nimble fingers reached up and began to unpin her hair. Tavi found himself in a very exclusive club: people who knew exactly how long Vesper Thrace's hair truly was. She unpinned it , unbraided it, unraveled it, until it fell over her shoulders, waved and crimped from hours of being bound in a tight braid. The effect was nothing short of astonishment -- she looked years younger, and the corners of her eyes softened a little, somehow more relaxed and less at the same time.

Vesper rose and crossed to the dresser, where she lined her hair pins up in a neat little row.

___________________________________________________________________

Tavi Corvask​

 

[Tavi Corvask]

Vesper Thrace

Tavi knew better than to say it.

Whose friends?

He thought it, but didn't say it, because he didn't need Vesper's fist through his skull. She had always been the sentimental of the two of them. Tavi was charming and knew how to make friends, but rarely if ever considered them his friends. He'd have gladly thrown the whole crew to the wolves (minus Vesper) if it meant some sort of furthering of his plans.

And in truth he probably would have cut Vesper's throat if Tavi believed it would be beneficial to him.

It would have been a sad affair and she would have deserved a personal touch. But Tavi didn't believe in sentiment, only in results.

"Amen to both of those." Smirking at the idea of being the button pusher. He didn't correct her, because he was quite happy with that description. It meant people would not see him coming, if he needed them to blind of him.

Another reason why Vesper had to be the Captain and not him.

Let their eyes be on her. In the meantime he could work in the shadows for both their benefits.

When she turned around? Tavi's eyes were on her, warmly, rolling along the length of her hair and then back to her face. "We got some time to kill, quite a bit of it actually..."

 

[Vesper Thrace]

Vesper was acutely aware of Tavi's eyes on her back. She knew better than to let her guard down where he was concerned. He was reliable -- to a point. He was loyal -- to a point. The point was always where it would be in his best interest to stop being reliable and loyal. Vesper was not blind to the notion that she was not a special case. She was Captain now, and he was First Officer, and that would be fine for the time being. Until it wasn't.

"We got a big bottle to kill, too," said Vesper in response. She gathered her hair into a loose twist and clipped it, then returned to the sofa and plopped down. She took a drink from her glass and then picked up the remote to the holovision and switched it on, clicking over to some music, something electronic and relaxing.

"Tell me what I should expect at this shadowport of yours," Vesper said casually as she reclined on the sofa, popping her feet up on the coffee table.

___________________________________________________________________

Tavi Corvask​

 

[Tavi Corvask]

Vesper Thrace

Shuffling to the side a little to give Vesper more room to plop down.

Then he took his own glass and sipped from it as he closed his eyes. Enjoying the music filtering through into the room. "I bet this place has never heard any proper music." Tavi said lightly. "I think the old Captain was a Jizz fan." A little shudder there as he drowned half the glass in one go. To try and not to think too much about the name of that genre.

People were so odd.

"Mm, they are ruthless." Tavi murmured in answer, thinking about it while slowly turning the glass in his hand. "About as ruthless as I am. But they are pragmatic too."

A shrug there.

"If we can offer them something good, they will assist us, but we better have each other back there. But I don't think that will be a problem, will it?"

Tavi smirking as he offered to refill her glass and his.

 

[Vesper Thrace]

"Not worried about you," Vesper said. "Worried about them -- a little."

Not true, really. She was worried about everything, now. That was her job. She was the Captain.

The credit chit stopped with her.

But in the relative sense? Tavi was the closest thing to reliable she had at the moment. And while the chances that he would slip a virboblade between her ribs while she slept were never zero, she felt that -- at the moment -- they were reasonably low. Reasonably.

"Got credits," she ventured. "Got cases of this stuff. Better than the usual hooch, damned sure, but not so good I wouldn't barter it away if I had to." She took a drink of the stuff, tippled it against her tongue, oxygenating it before she swirled it once more and then drank it. It was good hooch. Would be a shame to barter it, but still.

"You got someone there, that shadowport? Family? Friend?" A pause, another long drink, another line of fire as it burned down her throat. "Lover? Several lovers?" Vesper shrugged. "I don't judge. You know. Just want to know what I'm walking into, que?"

___________________________________________________________________

Tavi Corvask​

 

[Tavi Corvask]

Vesper Thrace

"They'd take the hooch. If we can offer anti-matter, it would be even better, they know me..." Thoughtful there. "Even if we don't have enough to spare, we could probably come to an agreement to get it to them."

They'd know he was good for it.

And if he wasn't, they'd know how to get to him.

As Vesper drank, so did Tavi, but he was hungrier with it. Swallowing deeper, harsher, as if he was a man dying of thirst and the alcohol was filling a hole that couldn't be filled easily. It meant he got caught by surprise with her questioning. His eyes slid to hers, interested. They barely talked about their personal lives.

It had been cleaner that way.

But maybe things changed, they changed, with everything that happened.

"You know me, Ves, I am not much for friends or any ties." Then a smirk. "You are the only silk rope I allow around my wrists." Tavi stretched there slowly, refilling his glass and offering to do hers as well.

"How about you? Not there, obviously, but... any lovers, anywhere?"

Straight to the point, like a dagger to the heart.