scribblemyname (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
scribblemyname) wrote2015-07-19 01:09 pm
scribblemyname) wrote2015-07-19 01:09 pm
Entry tags:
Andromeda Promptathon
Prompts can be:
- Quotes from the beginning of the episodes
- Quotes from the actual episodes/characters
- Prompts for the characters/world
- Prompts for fusions/crossovers
- Prompts for original characters in the Andromeda world
The Right and Wrong Salvage
(Anonymous) 2015-07-20 04:05 pm (UTC)(link)I figure Reventes for Nietzcheans. It was that or something close to Vedrans, but I know more about Nietzcheans and could see enough parallels where it made sense. Plus... I think I like the tribal dynamic. I've used similar concepts before in other unrelated stories.
If a person could be in lust with a ship, then Felise figured she was, just a little, with this one. Standing in the derelict's slipstream core, she stared, mesmerized by its inherent beauty and danger, unable to believe how well-preserved and maintained this place was so long after the fall of the Commonwealth. She could stay here for days and admire just this part of the ship.
That was, if she wasn't being hunted and didn't need the parts desperately to make her own ship work so she could run. Again.
She grimaced, trying to get the console to respond. She'd found door control easy to get, and she'd made quick progress to the core, but while the slipstream drive seemed like it would be fully functional, the power was doing strange things through the ship—she probably should expect it to die soon—and she needed to hurry.
“I'd prefer it if you left that where it is,” a voice said, making her want to jump. “That is my slipstream drive, and if you tamper with it, I'll have to kill you.”
She shook her head, swallowing as she turned to face the man who'd spoken. Tall, dark-haired, the sort of human that could have been trouble if she'd been willing to let her hormones rule her instead of her upbringing, he managed to challenge her lust for the ship for just a moment.
“Nice try, but the high guard has been extinct for years,” she told him. “And I checked—there are no salvage claims on this vessel. It doesn't belong to you. Not to anyone, not anymore, so me borrowing a few parts... Not much you can do about that.”
His eyes went to the force lance in his hand—great, he'd managed to raid more of the ship than she had—and back to her. “If you want to live, you will refrain from touching that drive.”
She shook her head. “No, if I want to live, I need the parts from the drive to get me out of this system. I'd have gone with a slipfighter if I could have, their parts would have been closer to what I need for my ship, but it seems someone else has already salvaged all of them.”
His lips curved just slightly, and she thought he was amused by what she was saying.
“And anyway, it doesn't really matter because at the rate power is dropping through this grid, there won't be anything left to salvage soon. Shame, really, because they don't make ships like this anymore, and it's beautiful, but with this much damage, it's only good for parts.”
“Trust a Nietzchean to say that,” another voice said, this time from behind her, and she was tempted to hurt something, anything, since her scans hadn't shown any lifeforms on this ship and now she had two of them to deal with. “I guess that explains a few things, though I've never seen a Nietzchean on her own doing salvage runs before. Aren't they all supposed to be back at home, making little babies and staying where it's safe?”
“Some Nietzchean prides allow their infertile females to prove their worth in other ways,” the one in the high guard uniform said, and Felise glared at him.
“Who are you calling infertile?”
“You,” the second one said, amused for a moment before dropping his smile. “Guess since you can't create things you figure on destroying them, but it's not going work here, Freckles.”
She would have whirled and hit him, maybe even shot him, if she wasn't sure she'd take a force lance blast the moment she did. Freckles were a genetic impurity. She did not have them, no matter what anyone said.
“Alik.” A third person had joined the party, this one another woman, and Felise looked down at her scanner, tempted to throw it into the core for all the good it had done her. She just needed a quick salvage run. A couple parts and she could have been on her way to someplace safe.
“We've lost control of more of the key systems,” the high guard one said. “I know. Enadar, escort our guest here to her quarters.”
“Alik, if we're losing containment—”
“Then it is my responsibility to fix it and you are not going anywhere near it,” he insisted, reaching over to take Felise's gun. “Don't get any ideas about trying to escape. You hurt him, and you will answer to me—if you survive the ship's internal defenses, which is unlikely, even with your advanced genetics.”
“I'm an engineer. If you need help with something—”
“You'll do it out of the goodness of your heart?” the one called Enadar said, snorting as he pushed his gun into her back. “We're not stupid. No one trusts Nietzcheans.”
“Except to do what they have to in order to survive, idiot,” she reminded him. “If I can't get off this ship, the best thing for me to do is help fix it.”
“Yeah, except you're probably working with the ones that sabotaged it in the first place, and there's no way we're trusting you with so much as a holonovel.”
“You know, you have no more right to this ship than I do. It's open salvage. You can stop poking me with that thing because if you don't—” Felise cut off her words as the ship fired at her feet. Enadar smirked at her, and she glared back at him. “If you've lost as much of the key systems as you seem to, then that was just an accident, and I'm not afraid of you and your little gun.”
“You might try being afraid of the ship instead,” Enadar said, shoving her forward into a room. “They didn't build him with a sense of humor.”
Felise snorted. “I came on board because this wreck was floating dead in space with no salvage claims on it.”
“You can't claim an older brother,” Enadar said, shutting the door on her, and Felise shook her head in frustration. She knew this ship was in no state to fight. She wasn't sure how anyone had managed to stay alive on it, but whatever hack job they'd done in getting the ship going again, it clearly wasn't working. She could fix this, and while she might not be the most stereotypical Nietzchean out there, she was enough of one to want to come out of this alive.
She went to the closest wall panel, pulling it off and starting to work.
“If you bypass that system, you cut off life support to this section of the ship.”
Felise looked up, almost smiling when she saw the state of the AI hologram. Gray and indistinct, it had nothing more than a flat computer voice lacking all personality. “I'll risk it.”
“You may be bred for a level of genetic resistance, but even your body cannot withstand the effects for very long.”
“Yeah, well, your little attempt to make me think I'm dealing with a—whoa. Someone gave you a nasty little virus, didn't they? This thing is eating through your code like candy. And here I thought you were just a little feint from the bad salvage crew to make me think that a high guard AI still existed on this ship,” Felise muttered, recognizing the trojan for what it was. “Fortunately for you, I've seen this thing before—the Annapurna pride created something similar to help them battle with larger ships before they were wiped out. Now it's used by cowards and pirates that are too weak to fight fair. Though why they'd need to use it on a derelict...”
The hologram flickered out, and she shrugged, going back to work. She didn't care if the AI had been a trick. She knew she could stop the virus—it wasn't half as adaptable as it pretended, and its main strength lay in overwhelming any ship's systems to where it was hard to prioritize what to fix, not in actual complexity.
It didn't make it any less of a pain in her genetically perfected rear to fix, but she could do it.
“What did you do?”
“I killed the virus and saved all our lives,” Felise said, frowning when she realized that she wasn't talking to the malfunctioning hologram but to the live members of the crew. She had better hearing than that. How had her door opened without her hearing it? She should have been out it and getting the part she needed by now. “You could be a little thankful.”
“Awful convenient you just knowing what virus was running through the ship and could shut it down like that,” Enadar said, shaking his head in anger. “How many times do we have to tell you we're not stupid?”
“You don't want an answer to that,” Felise said, biting back a kludge even though she never used that word.
He snorted. “You think you're so much better than us when you have to resort to this kind of thing to be able to steal from us. Yeah, right.”
“Enadar,” the woman said, and he just rolled his eyes at her.
“Malina over there is such a bleeding heart she thinks we should drop you off at the next drift with supplies and our gratitude,” Enadar said, shaking his head. “I suggested leaving you for your friends to deal with, but Alik says they'll likely kill you for your failure.”
Felise swallowed. Alik was right, though failure wasn't the only reason her family wanted her dead. She didn't want to admit that. “I saved the ship. I think letting me go is not only the least you can do, but in your best interests.”
“It's not happening,” Alik told her. “Out of respect for Malina's wishes, you will not be left behind in a crippled ship as easy prey for those who come, but trusting you would be a mistake, and it is not one I will make. You will be moved to a location without any access panels for the duration of your stay and any further attempts to alter the ship will be dealt with using lethal force. Is that clear?”
“Yes,” Felise said, anger welling up inside her. “But if you think—”
“Three Nietzchean ships have just exited slipstream,” the ship's hologram reported, only this time it looked and sounded like Alik. “They will be in firing range in less than five minutes.”
“Your friends?” Enadar asked derisively, shaking his head as he did.
“It doesn't matter,” Alik said. “Enadar, move her where she can't do any more damage. Malina, command deck. Now.”
The other woman nodded, starting to run, and Alik followed after her. Felise felt Enadar grab her arm, and she glared at him.
“You know I don't have to go with you. I can disarm you and be off the ship in minutes.”
He pulled her along, keeping his gun pointed at her. “If you really believed that, you'd already have done it. You'd have killed all us kludges and left the ship.”
“Except one of you isn't a kludge, is he?”
“No.” Enadar said with a grim smile. “Big brother is the avatar of a warship. And your friends just pissed him off.”
Re: The Right and Wrong Salvage
Re: The Right and Wrong Salvage
(Anonymous) 2015-07-20 04:51 pm (UTC)(link)Though if the ship gets boarded and they try and kill Felise, he'll finally understand. Though I get the feeling Alik's hologram would be kept very busy trying to keep them from fighting.
The freckles are so much a part of her she had to have them. I couldn't resist. :)
Re: The Right and Wrong Salvage
Felise hefted her wrench speculatively and considered whether she could apply it to Enadar's head before Alik caught on. At least she wasn't considering using bone blades on him.
The ship hummed suspiciously, and she sighed and applied the wrench more appropriately to the broken part he'd approved her using it on.
"For the record, Alik," she told him, ignoring Enadar, who now looked miffed. "You are too fussy. He'd be improved by a little training in diplomacy with females."
Alik's hologram appeared. "That is unacceptable."
She shot him an absent glare then dug into her work as she pointed out, "I didn't do it."
In another part of the ship, Malina sighed at another of Alik's suspicious complaints. "She likes him, Alik."
"On the contrary, they never pass time in the same room without arguing."
Malina just shook her head at him, knowing better.
Re: The Right and Wrong Salvage
(Anonymous) 2015-07-20 05:58 pm (UTC)(link)I love Malina's knowing. Alik missing the true nature of their interactions. Him being overprotective. Enadar being Enadar.
:) this universe is dangerously fun.
When Your Matchmaker is a Ship('s avatar)
(Anonymous) 2015-07-21 02:57 am (UTC)(link)Alik leaned against the wall, eyes on her in a way that was both human and mildly unsettling as he did. “I would have thought you would have said I couldn't sneak up on an engineer. You do not seem much enamored with your species. In fact, you lack the vanity and pride most of your people possess.”
She shrugged. Being Nietzchean was about as useful as having a giant target painted on her back. “What is your point?”
“Enadar asked me a question about you that led me to reconsider Malina's opinion on your shared interactions,” Alik began, and Felise frowned. “After an extensive search through all available archives, I determined that she may be correct in her assumption. Bizarre as sentient mating rituals seem to be, yours is not entirely outside the normal parameters.”
Felise wasn't sure she believed what she was hearing. “You researched mating rituals?”
“It is an experience I would gladly erase from my databanks,” Alik told her, and she nodded, having no doubt that he meant that, artificial lifeform or not.
Still.
“Enadar and I are not involved in any kind of mating ritual.”
“I do not believe the Nietzchean creed of only mating for reproduction applies in your case, and I do not say that because of the infertility others would assume you had,” Alik said, going on in a logical voice that made her want to hit him. “However, I feel it necessary to warn you that should this particular mating dance continue on the way it has, it could be dangerous for you.”
“What, the big bad ship doesn't like the idea of me and his little brother?”
“I have no interest in the reproductive habits of any sentient being as long as they do not interfere with the operation of my systems,” Alik insisted. “Nevertheless, if Enadar were to come to harm as a result of this antagonistic style of courtship you two share, I would likely be forced to injure or kill you as well.”
Felise folded her arms over her chest. “First off, ship, Enadar and I are not doing any kind of mating dance. Second, your little habit of always protecting him and treating me like the threat is getting old. In case you haven't noticed, I've been doing my best to help you with repairs and never given you a reason to distrust me.”
“You are never quiet when it comes to how strongly you feel about the bypasses and patchwork done by the Kallas family to make this ship operate with less than the standard amount of crew. You frequently comment about the extent of damage sustained and my good fortune to be in anything resembling one piece.”
True enough, Felise agreed, since he was right. While parts of The Gates of Alexander were as good as the day they left factory dry dock, others were an unholy mess that she didn't know where to start straightening out.
“When I was... returned to functionality by the Kallas family, I gained additional directives, which may account for my sense of... responsibility toward Enadar and Malina. Their welfare comes first, their protection and their lives. If you harm him—regardless of provocation—I will be forced to intervene. That is... one of my core tenets in this iteration of my programming.” Alik pushed away from the wall. “You may consider yourself warned.”
She glared at him. “Unbelievable. Enadar and I are not—”
“I will also be forced to eliminate anyone who attempts to use me for wedding planning. I suggest elopement, even though I know it will disappoint Malina.”
“I should rewrite your entire code,” Felise yelled at his back, frustrated. She hit the wall before leaning back against it and closing her eyes. Great, now the AI thought she was in love with Enadar Kallas. Just when she thought her life couldn't get much worse, it did. And if she went after the one person she would have taken it out on, she'd end up being the one that got hurt.
“There is a panel on deck seven that needs to be removed and replaced,” the hologram said, shimmering in next to her. “It may be an acceptable alternative to vent your frustrations upon.”
“I'm still mad at you. Don't think I'm not just because I might actually do that.”
The hologram shrugged. “I wasn't programmed to be likeable.”
Re: When Your Matchmaker is a Ship('s avatar)
Re: When Your Matchmaker is a Ship('s avatar)
(Anonymous) 2015-07-21 05:46 pm (UTC)(link)Felise/Enadar make things so interesting with their "courtship."