Firefly: Opportunity

[TotallyDrow]

Ezra had stood at his doorway, the door opened and the echoes of voices and sounds of people running up and down various hallways a sign that something had gone wrong.

 

Concluding that things had already deviated from the intended plan, Ezra turned around and walked deeper into his quarters, pulling out various plates of armor, primarily to cover his shoulders, wrist, thighs and chest. (refer to image)

 

Suited up, he slung the rifle around his back and placed his pistol in its holster before stepping out. The only weapon of his he had opted to leave behind was the sniper rifle, its size more of a hassle to carry around and its functionality not entirely suited to what was in store. He did however detach its scope, sliding that into a makeshift sheath just under the dagger he carried around his waist.

 

Making his way to the epicenter of the activity just after Luna had returned. "Hold it in" he commented, watching her reaction. Turning his attention to the captain, he stared down at her coldly. This was not the first time he had seen such a sight; death and blood a commonality in his line of work.

 

"Blink twice if you know who did this... blink once if you don't" he spoke, barely an ounce of concern present in his voice. While he did not have a strong relationship or sense of loyalty towards the crew or its captain, he was not just gonna sit here and watch his current employer bite the bullet before his next pay check. By all logic, the culprit would likely come back to finish the job.

[Mistress of Whispers]

"I don't have my medkit anymore, but I got this from the infirmary."

 

Xiao looked up to see Jay standing over her, his arms full of assorted medical supplies. She gestured for him to put them down next to her and started going through the pile. Several of the supplies had already been opened, negating their sterility, or they were past their due date, but most were good. She was glad to see that he had found both morpha and other painkillers - if there was a gentle, painfree way to treat a gunshot wound without them, it hadn't been discovered yet.

 

"We can transport her there if she can be moved. I hope these will do for now, though. How can I help?"

 

"Thank you, Jay," Xiao replied in her usual soft voice. If she was disturbed by Lyra's state, she didn't show it. "Luna will be returning soon with additional supplies and she can help me then. You grab a gun and aid Ronon in securing the perimeter."

 

"He...won't...kill me...until he's seen me suffer," Lyra began to speak. "I don't think...you'll be leaving...too soon now... I'll hire you out as a...medic if you want. Maybe I'm...dumb, but I'm not blind. You've either done this before...or you've wanted to."

 

Xiao filed Lyra's words away for later, but did not respond directly to them now. Instead, she lightly pinched the woman to keep her awake and asked the only question that mattered: "Do you know if you're allergic to painkillers or antibiotics?" Most people didn't know that until they found out the hard way of course, but given Lyra's line of work, Xiao reasoned that this might not be the first time she was injured or shot.

 

Just then, Luna returned with another medkit. "I... I... I brought it." Xiao noted that the younger woman looked decidedly pale - green even - and briefly considered that she'd been overly optimistic when she told Jay that Luna could help. On the other hand, she had come back and she wasn't running off... Besides, the only way to get used to it - as much as any person could get used to it - was through experience.

 

Opening the kit, she saw that - predictably - someone had already taken the morpha and other painkillers, but at least the box still held a pair of scissors and the sterile blanket. Perfect - those were the only two things she'd been missing from Jay's otherwise impressive run. Taking the scissors, she cut open the remaining fabric between her and the entry wound and began to examine it.

 

"Hold it in" another voice commented and it took Xiao a brief moment to attribute it to the mercenary Ezra. Ironically, due to both their habits of arriving in the mess hall after the others had eaten, she had run into him several times.

 

"Blink twice if you know who did this... blink once if you don't."

 

Without looking up, Xiao answered the question for him. "The captain was shot up close, from the front, and she didn't attempt to evade. Either she knew her assailant, or he was invisible." The latter was delivered without any trace of mockery or sarcasm; the last time Xiao had had an amiable conversation with an Alliance agent - which was admittedly some time ago - they had been working on a stealth suit and she supposed it could have been completed by now. Though, she wasn't certain why an Agent would go through the trouble of shooting Lyra. Could it be tied to the break-in in her shuttle?

 

"The captain also spoke briefly and said that 'he' deliberately let her live to suffer, rather than kill her. But I am unsure how lucid she currently is", she added before turning her attention fully to her work again. Now that she had located both the exit and entry wound, she was certain that the bullet had missed both heart and lungs. Nevertheless, there was a lot of blood and Xiao was relatively certain that an artery - hopefully not major - had been hit. Opening the suture kit and preparing several derma regenerative pads, Xiao filled a syringe with painkiller - it was probably better if the captain was 'out' for the next part.

 

"Could you open that stretcher, get the sterile blanket from the medkit and put it down on top of the stretcher? The silver side goes up. Remember to put on gloves first", Xiao said to Luna. It was too early to move the captain just yet, but it didn't hurt to have everything ready when it was time - and she was also hoping that having a defined task to focus on, would stop the scientist from getting sick.

 

((Narath, I'm not sure if your reference is also ST:A's Ronon, but your description is certainly spot on - that's exactly the actor that I was picturing in my mind even before I clicked your picture link.))

Edited November 3, 2013 by Mistress of Whispers

[TotallyDrow]

Ezra listened to Xiao, her words registering with him as he shifted his gaze between the two of them. If what the captain had said was more then just the mumbling of some 'dazed' shooting victim and in fact had some weight to it, then there was the likelihood that the culprit would not stray to far. After all, the closer you are to the 'entertainment', the better the show.

 

"I'm going outside" stated Ezra, already turned and heading towards the ships exit. "Do what you can to tend to her wounds... if what she said is the truth... then I doubt the culprit would have strayed too far.."

 

With that said, he left the area and headed towards the exit.

[Mousia]

Lyra was going to say something, but then she suddenly felt as if the stars had let all their breath out on her and lifted her up. She heard only blurry snipits of words again, but knew that Xiao had asked her a question. "I'm not 'lerg t'nythin'. But y'd be'er ge' t'a workin' fast 'gain, 'cause we've...got'a job t' do..." she mumbled, her speech slurred and all her energy remaining used to put together a sentence that made sense. Her brain felt slow and sluggish and everything was fading in and out. Hearing, sight. Smell was already shut down in preparation for sleep, or...as much as it would shut down, because she could no longer smell her own drying blood or the warm metal of the bullet. God, I hate being weak like this... He could come a back and shoot me and I'd be none the wiser...

 

(Translation: I'm not allergic to anything. But you'd better get to working fast again, because we've got a job to do.)

 

(Also, RD, the italics is her thinking. She never said that he'd have killed her if he wanted to out loud.)

[Mistress of Whispers]

(Also, RD, the italics is her thinking. She never said that he'd have killed her if he wanted to out loud.)

((I'm not sure if you meant RD or me, but if the latter - Xiao was referring to this part of your post:

 

"He...won't...kill me...until he's seen me suffer." Smiling dully at Xiao, she tried to chuckle, but coughed a bit instead.))

[Mousia]

Like Lyra said, if she had been wanted dead then she would be dead.

 

(I was referring to this part of RD's post.)

Edited November 2, 2013 by Mousia

[Mistress of Whispers]

(I was referring to this part of RD's post.)

I.... completely missed that . Reading fail on my part .

[RainDash]

[Fixed it. Don't have more time for an actual post. Sorry.]

[Narath]

((OOC: AAAAH! You are gone for one day of work, and suddenly everyone appears while you are gone. If only I could do this during my breaks.

Yes! It is Ronon from Stargate! Wooo! I'm glad someone got it.

You really think he is that spot on? Wow, thanks.))

 

Ronon

 

Ronon joined Ezra as he move towards the exit, hitting the door controls on the way. As he exited, Ronon surveyed their surroundings. There wasn't much to see, and it made Ronon wonder how Lyra's assailant dissapeared.

"I'll watch the door." Ronon said. "You have the rifle, so maybe see if you can get a high vantage point."

[Biologist]

Jay quickly headed back to the room he had been allotted as a member of the crew. He hadn't had time to unpack and had thrown his stuff on the empty bed. He found his bag as he had left it on the bed and knew what he was looking for: his trusty shooting iron.

 

He checked to see if the gun had enough ammunition and put two extra clips in his pocket: he had been on the run when he had booked passage on the Opportunity and he had been expecting trouble. Soon he was up the ladder again and hurried towards the cargo bay.

 

Joining Ronon and Ezra, he greeted them silently. "Any news?" he whispered to Ronon, glancing through the open cargo bay door to the surrounding countryside, checking for spots from where people could lay an ambush, or where snipers had an advantage and pointing them out just to be sure.

 

"Maybe we should get the cargo as well. The sooner we're off this dustball, the better. I reckon the captain won't be happy if we leave empty handed." On a nearby display screen he retrieved their coordinates. "It should be only one click due south. With the mule from the cargo bay it'd take only a few minutes. Once we get the perimeter clear, that is."

[Mistress of Whispers]

With the painkillers rendering Lyra insensate, Xiao carefully spread the wound open with a pair of medical pliers. As she had already suspected, the bullet had gone straight through and missed heart and lungs - this was all good news - but it had ricocheted off a rib, spreading bone splinters in the wound, and ruptured an intercostal artery. She'd have to repair the artery, remove the splinters and stop the bleeding. She briefly considered putting a dermal patch on the exit wound, but while that would prevent some blood loss, it would also result in blood pooling up inside the wound and making it harder to repair the artery. So instead, she took a laser scalpel from Jay's pile and started to cauterize and reknit the artery.

Edited November 3, 2013 by Mistress of Whispers

[Narath]

Ronon

 

Ronon grunted as a sign that he did not like the idea of working while his employer was injured. But Jay did have a point.

"All right then, we can get it set up for now at least." Ronon said. "While we do that though, we should have the cargo stretch across the entrance to the cargo bay doors. That way, if we are attacked, we can have some cover. Also, we'll need one of us to keep a lookout for Lyra's attacker, or attackers, so we have ample warning."

[Biologist]

"Right." Jay said as he turned around and made his way toward the MF-813 Flying Mule, the small transport land-speeder that was used to haul cargo from remote places to the ship when landing at a fully equipped docking bay was not an option, like now. The passenger ship that was parked in the cargo bay didn't help speeding up the process of aligning it with the cargo bay doors, but Jay was able to manoeuvre the bulky Mule past Xiao's ship without so much as a scratch on either hull.

 

"How's the perimeter?" He asked Ronon after he had set the Mule down. "I could drive out of Opportunity with engines at full speed, but that would kick up some dust the captain could do without at the moment." He briefly glanced over at where Xiao and Luna were working on the captain. At least they're working on her, that means she has a chance. Good. he thought, and he turned his attention back to Ronon, hoping he had good news...

[XxWaterGaridanxX]

((Hey guys! I figured I might as well plop my charrie into the mix .))

 

Athena Rochella woke up, her eyelids heavy with sleep, head pounding with groggy thoughts floating though her head. "What..." she groaned and tried to remember the last thing that she remembered, she had been on the dance floor but the man that she was with asked if they could go somewhere more private, of course, she smiled and said yes dear.

The companion sat up, she was laying on the ground and something warm and sticky was on her cheek, when she sat up it started to drip down. She ignored it for a moment as she took a deep breath and froze, the coppery smell of blood greeted her, she opened her eyes to see nothing but pure darkness as she wiped her cheek off.

She stood on shaky heels and turned on a light. What she saw stunned her, a scream stuck in her throat as she looked down at the bloody body of her date for the night. She looked down at her pale dress to see it stained with blood and her hands covered in it along with the long dagger still clutched in her right hand. Her heart was beating so fast, the only other time it had done this when the reavers came to her home.

"What have I done..." she said to herself as she backed away from the pool of blood staining her satin shoes and ran, bloody knife in hand.

 

 

Athena woke with a gasping breath with the lingering smell of copper and a sticky feeling on her hands. "It's just a dream," she told herself with a frustrated sigh. It was far too late for her to be sleeping in this late anyways. Like always she shook the dream off and started her last day here on Lilac.

Getting dressed in a simple (simple for a companion) dark blue dress that accented her eyes, it draped down over her hips like liquid. As she stood in front of the full length cracked mirror. A corset always made her feel safe and secure but also feminine.

Once dressed she started to pack her things. She knew that there was a ship coming to town and she was determined to be on that flight no matter where it went.

 

[Narath]

Ronon

 

"Not a thing." Ronon said uneasily as Jay pulled out of the ship. "Not one goram thing."

The silence, and the absence of, well, anything put the large man on edge. It was like the calm before the storm, or something like that. Some sort of old saying.

"Don't do that, at least not yet. Let's just get that cargo loaded up so we can use it as a barrier just in case."

 

((OOC: Flying Mule? I don't remember that from the series. When did that happen?

Did I spell goram right?))

[TotallyDrow]

Ezra turned his head slightly as Jay approached, acknowledging the mans presence, before turning back to Ronon and nodding. Without uttering a word, he began to walk towards a large formation of rocks, his assault rifle drawn and held at a diagonal waist height. As he walked, he scanned the scene before him, trying to pick out anything out of the ordinary, but to little avail. The attacker had done a masterful job at hiding their tracks.

 

At the rock formation, it took little effort for Ezra to make his way to a stable vantage point, his rifle now leaning against the side of one of the large rocks as he pulled out the scope, he dismantled from his sniper earlier. At least with this, his range of vision was increased tenfold and he could alert the others to approaching threats. The rocks itself acted as a good shield, the crevice he had made his way into allowing for enough space for him to duck in case of enemy fire.

[Biologist]

((OOC: Flying Mule? I don't remember that from the series. When did that happen?

Did I spell goram right?))

((OOC: I thought it was in the movie Serenity. Maybe also in the series. I seem to remember a reaver chase on one of those 'mules'. I think gorram is with two 'r', but I'm not sure ))

[Narath]

((OOC: Wait, what? There was a movie? GAAAAAH!!! Why did I not know this?!))

[Mistress of Whispers]

((@ All - I'll be posting a bit more slowly than usual for this scene. A medical procedure is going to take time and I don't want to do twelve "healing - healing - still healing" posts. So I'll post once every 24-48 hrs instead of every day. That way, Ronon, Ezra, Jay et. al. can secure the perimeter and cargo at ease, without the healing being 'super fast'. Just putting that out there so you all know not to wait for me .

 

@ Narath - yes, it's called Serenity and written and directed by Whedon.))

[Narath]

((OOC: Where is the face twitching emoticon when you need one? GAAAAAAA!!! I have to watch that!))

[RainDash]

"Wh-why me?" Luna stuttered, speaking to Xiao. "The sight of gunshot wounds make me sick..." she said, closing her eyes. "But I'll try." Luna then set to work, first putting on the gloves, then laying the blanket gingerly on the stretcher. She tried to focus on the work, but the fact that she could only imagine herself holding the gun with cold accuracy and yelling. Her husband came closer and closer, he was going to hit her again. He was going to hit her again and again until there was nothing left to beat. He was in control because there needed to be someone in control of her. She was a useless girl and had every blow coming. Luna tried to take a breath, but the smell of burning flesh made her choke.

Your fault. Can't you smell the shame of your own actions, Luna? You've lied, stolen, murdered, and run with brown coats. How are you any more honorable then me? She could hear her ex-husband's voice. He was right, of course. He was always right about these things. It's always been your fault.

[Mistress of Whispers]

Xiao didn't bother to answer Luna's question. Why you? Cause you're *here* - that's usually all it takes.

 

She did, however, speak up when she saw Luna... hesitate? stop dead in her tracks? stare into empty space? What was she doing exactly??

 

"Whatever you're going through right now, the Captain needs you to put it aside. You don't have to look at us, just listen and focus. Open the stretcher, put on gloves and put the sterile blanket down on top." Xiao's voice was calm and patient - there was no judgement about Luna's inability to handle blood, only a simply statement of the facts: the scientist's help was needed and it was needed now.

[Lore_Master]

((Right, sorry for being absent.))

 

Malcom was fast asleep when the ship landed on Lilac. For him, part of being on a ship for so many years was getting used to its landings. Unless it was crashed into the side of a building or into the ocean, Malcom would probably be still sleeping. In fact, he was oblivious to the event that had taking place. Rousing himself from his bed, he calmly walked to the crew hall, praying there was at least one tea-bag left. He looked through the drawers, he frowned heavily that he had ran out. However, once his motor-functions began to work fully, he noticed that there was nobody from the time he left his room to the time he got into the mess hall.

 

Something was wrong. Call it a Captain's intuition, or maybe it had to do with the fact his ship was smaller. Either way, he left the crew hall in a bit of a haze. He wanted to call out to his crew, but then again it could just be one of the crew pulling a joke, and as soon as he turned around the corner... BOO!

 

However, when he got near the door... He saw blood and the Captian. Luckily she was being treated, but his heart sank like a stone. He slowly moved towards her, dropped to his knees and looked at her. He remained quiet for a moment, before looking up.

 

"I want to be brought up, what happened?" He asked, losing any playfulness his voice had.

[Mistress of Whispers]

"The captain was shot," Xiao replied without looking up, "Ronon was first at the scene." It wasn't much of an update, but it was all she had - by the time Xiao had arrived, Lyra had already been bleeding on the cargo deck. Besides, as much as she understood Malcolm's need for a report, she had more important things to focus on.

 

She was making good progress in healing the artery, but the amount of blood the captain had already lost, had Xiao more than a little worried.

 

"Do you know the captain's bloodtype?" she countered Malcolm's question. She knew civilians didn't keep their bloodtype on record, but if anyone knew, it was likely Lyra's first mate.

 

"Barring a compatible match, I need to know if any of the crew or passengers are O negative." Xiao had enough resources to make a saline pack and buff the capatain's blood that way, but she'd feel much better with a bloodtransfusion and she knew the disused infirmary didn't have any packs or Jay would have brought one. She hoped she could leave the matter of tracking down a donor in Malcolm's hands and turned her full concentration back to her patient.

[Lore_Master]

"Yea... I kinda figured she got shot." Thought Malcom, he wanted to say it to her face, he wanted to berate her for being a pointer of the obvious. But this wasn't the time for him to show that he was sick was worry. He needed to be calm, light-hearted and most importantly, focused. When Xiao asked if he knew the Captain's blood type, he sadly shook his head as he got up onto his feet.

 

"Captain was always tightly-guarded with secrets, blood type included." He said, cracking a soft smile. The smile was forced, but he need to keep morale from crashing hard. When asked if any of the crew members had O negative blood, he again shook his head.

 

"Sorry lass, I never made it a priority to ask for blood types..." He said with some sadness, but with the same smile. However, an idea came into his head.

 

"I know someone portside, a contact from my youth. He probably knows someone that keeps bloodbags. It'll be half a day before anything comes of it however. Is it possible to keep her stable?" He asked Xiao, he was never good with medical care, and Xiao seems to know what she was doing.