[i]Her eyes fluttered open, surprised to find herself alive. The last thing she remembered was the  the crew quarters filling with water, and… and his eyes as the light left them, his final breaths forced from his lungs. She tried to sit up, finding herself restrained, and cold. Looking down her body, she saw that she was restrained to a table by magnetic straps, nothing but a thin, papery robe for clothing. Trish tried to speak, but found her throat incredibly sore and swollen. 

[color=red][b]“Ah, the terrorist awakes.”[/b][/color]

Trish tried to look at the source of the deep, cold, male voice, but couldn’t find the source.

[color=red][b]”We’ll fix that throat of yours up here in a bit. Drowning can really do a number on you. We’re lucky you lived. All that information you know would’ve died with you and your shipmates. Can’t have that now can we?”[/b][/color]

She heard a hiss as a door formed in a wall, and a large man stepped through. He held something that looked similar to her own multi-tool, and a sinister grin upon his face. 

[color=red][b]“Now, since you can’t talk, let’s consider the next few hours a sort of… warm up. This is how we will get to know each other. Trust me, Katrishka, we will know each other very, very intimately.”[/b][/color]

The use of her real name shocked her, and brought back memories of her father, and the mother that never existed. She’d never used that name. Only her father did, after he sobered up the next day and decided to apologize for his monstrousness. She hated that name, the one from her mother’s people. It was everything that made her weak. Already her body was shivering, her eyes shaking in fear as she looked at the new monster before her.

[color=red][b]”Well now, that got quite the reaction out of you. Good, that means you know this is all quite serious.”[/b][/color]

He walked over to her table, her eyes never leaving his, noting how looked at her like both a game and a meal. Holding up his tool, he adjusted a couple of settings, settling on one that ended in a very fine needle. 

[color=red][b]“Let’s start off easy.”[/b][/color]

He loosed one of the straps restraining an arm, which he held in an iron grip. He brought it up in front of Trish’s face, so she could easily see what he was about to do. He stuck the needle in her wrist with the precision of a skilled surgeon, barely more than a pinch.

[color=red][b]“This is a fun little thing. I’ve just inserted this needle directly into the nerve. With it, I can make you feel literally anything. Though, because of the area, it will be localized to your forearm. All the pain, none of the mess.”[/b][/color]
He started turning a small dial, and Trish felt an odd… itchy, tingly sensation, moving in her arm. As he increased the dial, it began feeling as if something was crawling around within it, another turn, as if it were burrowing, eating its way through her. That’s when the muffled screams started, Trish ignoring the pain of her damaged throat. [/i]

Trish awoke, covered in sweat, screaming, awake for real this time. She pulled her knees to her chest, sobbing, rocking lightly, trying to focus her mind on something else, to calm herself. It took her a while, but she managed, and quickly realized that getting back to sleep would be damn near impossible. She’d been having this nightmare, this… memory for a while now, and finally decided to put a plan in place so she’d never experience that again. But for that, she needed to collect some parts. She tried to remember back to earlier in the evening, when her and Angel had explored the ship, thinking of what she’d need. Most of it could be found from fairly innocuous items, but two bits would need a bit of extra searching. 

And one of those was in the off limits engine room. She needed fuel. 

She got up and got dressed, and slipped out into the hallway. Considering knocking on Angel’s room passed through her mind, but decided this was best done alone. She was about to turn toward the engine room, when she realized there was a measurement she’d never taken. Pulling out her multi-tool, she set it to her digital calipers. She pulled her shirt up above her midriff, and sucked in her already too thin stomach, to make her lower ribs stand out that much more. She quickly began measuring the widths of the ribs on her right side, the distance between them, their curvatures, and everything else she’d need to know, paying no mind to the fact she was still in the middle of the quarters corridor.

[color=6ecff6]“What the hell are you doing?”[/color] Came a voice from down the corridor. When Trish turned to look, it was Jinxy, who had her arms crossed over her chest. [color=6ecff6]“Are you… seriously measuring yourself?”[/color] She asked, raising an eyebrow. 

Trish started at the sudden, seemingly cross interruption. She looked up to see probably the one person that would make this endeavor of hers near impossible, though Amir and the pilot would likely be equally difficult. No point in lying, but that didn’t mean she had to tell everything, [color=yellow][b][i]”Yes, specifically my ribs. What brings you outta the ship’s death trap?”[/i][/b][/color] She hoped that this would dissuade her from asking more on the subject, acting as if this was normal and such. 

[color=6ecff6]“Heard we had a guest, and I wanted to make friends,”[/color] Jinxy said, and Trish couldn’t tell if she was serious or not. [color=6ecff6]“Also, I got thirsty. The ‘death trap’ as you put it is quite hot. I’ve been sweating since I started work on it. So besides measuring your ribs, what are you doing here?”[/color] She said, leaning up against the wall, her eyes locking with Trish’s. 

Trish cocked a curious eyebrow, [color=yellow][b][i]”A guest? Let me guess, in the cargo hold?”[/i][/b][/color] Jinxy shrugged. [i]The one place me and Angel decided not to help look.[/i] Trish settled on a half truth, one that might get the mechanic off her back. [color=yellow][b][i]“I’m scouring for parts, and was gonna check out the mess hall and kitchen first, if you need a drink, you can join me?” [/i][/b][/color] She hoped that she could get what she needed out of there, ditch the mechanic, and quickly cut back to the engine room and get some of the fuel while she was still out. It could work. Maybe. 

[color=6ecff6]“I was just planning on grabbing a drink and heading back… gotta make sure this heap doesn’t fall apart before we get to Oberon. Seriously, who uses gum,”[/color] Jinxy said, seemingly muttering to herself there at the end. 

[i]Shit. That means I need to ditch her before and I’m not sure that will be enough time.[/i] She wondered if telling her the truth would do any good. But all of her past experiences had always taught her that the truth always came back to hurt you worse. She’d just have to risk earning the ire of the mechanic then. She began leading the way toward the mess hall, [color=yellow][b][i]“I never even bothered to see if they stocked anything in the kitchen, and Amir only checked the one cupboard before cooking. There could be a full Vicerian dinner hiding somewhere in there for all we know.”[/i][/b][/color] 

Jinxy simply shrugged again. [color=6ecff6]“Don’t care. Don’t usually store engine parts in the kitchen, so I don’t bother checking myself,”[/color] she said simply. [color=6ecff6]“Also, anything is better than gorram prison food.”[/color]

Trish could only agree with that. Prison food could barely be called food. It was just protein mush, likely ground up bugs, rodents, and careless prisoners. They never said, and no one ever asked. Entering the mess hall, Trish decided to try something that had only worked one other time before, and that was with a particular stupid trigger merchant. [color=yellow][b][i]“Sh-- Kao, rutting son of a whore.” [/i][/b][/color] She quickly turned on her heel, hoping that Jinx would just think her crazy or frustrated and keep on about her own business. She made her way back toward the junction, that led toward the quarters, as well as the engine room, depending which way you took. Slyly she turned back toward the quarters, glancing back to the mess hall, seeing if Jinxy went back in, or decided to follow. 

The intercom buzzed to life. [color=6ecff6]“Just so you know, if you steal anything from my engine room, you will crash the ship and we will all die, just a little info for you,”[/color] Jinxy’s voice said. [color=6ecff6]“Also, we got no spare parts or fuel.”[/color]

[i]Guess I’m not as good an actress as I think I am.[/i] She still made her way toward the engine room, knowing that if Jinxy was at the intercom, she’d been in the mess hall proper, at least for a moment. But she stopped right at the entrance, sighing to herself. She stared inside, but never crossed the threshold. Is this really how she wanted to make her way on this ship? Lies and distrust? She didn’t want to live the life she’d been living since she escaped from that prison hell any longer. Her and Angel had built some trust, and even some with Amir to an extent. Hell, that was half the crew. Well, a third now with the new stowaway. Trish heard the footsteps approaching from behind her, knowing they could only belong to the mechanic.

Jinxy soon appeared next to Trish, glass of water in hand. [color=6ecff6]“I was joking about crashing us all. I can’t do that. But I was serious about the no spare parts or fuel. But, I’ll make you a deal. I already got the go ahead from Am… I mean the Captain to overhaul the engine when we get to Oberon. I’ll give you the used parts that arn’t broken for your, uh, whatever it is you do. However as for fuel, you’ll have to talk to him about that, if you want your own supply,”[/color] she said, taking a sip of water.

Well, that was a bit of good news, though she didn’t need any of the parts from the engine room, since she’d not been in there to see what was available. Reaching into her canister pouch, that held the various materials that her multitool used, she pulled out a tiny, metallic one, roughly the size of her pinky finger. Jinxy would be able to tell that it was used for storing fuels under high pressures, and would be rather volatile if full, at least, if she was as good of a mechanic as she seemed. Trish held it up, [color=yellow][b][i]“I just need to fill this. And… I’m not sure if Amir would understand. It’s not for… a job or anything like that… just… personal.” [/i][/b][/color] She found herself glancing over at the mechanic, not sure how much truth and admittance she could handle for one day, after her spiel to the captain, and to Angel. Vulnerability was weakness, and that seemed to be coming in spades these last several hours.

Jinxy seemed to be thinking for a moment as she looked at the tiny tube. [color=6ecff6]“Hmm… well at the moment as I said, we don’t have much fuel. We’ll make it to Oberon, but… I’ll ask him for a bit more fuel, like a just in case scenario, and I may be able to give you some. But, on your word, you will not use it on this ship, got it?”[/color] She said, looking at Trish. 

Trish considered the request, which wasn’t unreasonable in the slightest. Once again, however, her mouth decided to say more than she wished, [color=yellow][b][i]“Don’t need to worry about being taken prisoner on ship anyways. Or at least by that point it’s too late to matter.”[/i][/b][/color] Rather than acknowledging her slip of the tongue, Trish just stood there in awkward silence for a bit, before continuing, [color=yellow][b][i]“You have my word.”[/i][/b][/color]

[color=6ecff6]“Alright. I’ll take it. I’ll do what I can,”[/color] Jinxy said and offered Trish a smile. 

Trish smiled lightly back, and handed over the tiny cannister. [color=yellow][b][i]“Thank you.”[/i][/b][/color] She moved to leave, running through her checklist of the other parts she’d need. She’d have to dismantle that old boombox she’d found, probably steal a few wires from the appliances in the mess hall, and get a tiny dial from the cockpit. [color=yellow][b][i]“Want me to meet you back here after I get the rest of the parts I need?”[/i][/b][/color]

Jinxy paused, seemingly in thought. [color=6ecff6]“Probably after we land and stuff. I won’t have anything ready for you till after we land on Oberon,”[/color] she said. 

Trish nodded and left, to gather up the rest of her parts. It didn’t take long, and she decided to end in the common room, since she didn’t have a workspace in her own quarters yet. She quickly set to work, turning the mess of wires, battery, and such into a trigger. She melted a few metal brackets that she’d snitched from a few signs that hung in the corridors, so that she could snap the cannister within them. Then she molded the other ends in a similar shape, in accordance with the measurements she took earlier. She was absentmindedly humming one of those songs from earlier, wishing she didn’t have to dismantle the boom box. Making a mental note to fix it after they landed, she held her odd contraption up to the light. She measured everything again, including her bottom rib one last time, tested the battery and wires again, and was seemingly satisfied by what she produced. Popping one last cannister into her multi-tool, she began spraying the entire thing with a saline based polymer, specifically designed solely for implants that were placed within the body. The saline prevented the body from recognizing the object as foreign, so there was very little fear of immunorejection. The only downside was the saline polymer made the entire room smell like wet dog, and would take a few minutes to subside.

Once the polymer had dried, and she checked it over to ensure it was fully coated, she made her way back to her own room. Now she just had to wait for Oberon. She just needed to make a little bit of money, and find a Pysche doctor. She didn’t know what everyone else’s plans were, but none of them had included her in them, so she’d be flying solo, it seemed. Slipping into bed, she was confident that she’d be able to sleep in peace now that she’d managed to busy herself, and had a half formed plan in place. Slipping beneath the scratchy blanket, she wondered if it was wise to be going off on her own. But if everyone else was busy with their own thing, there was no real choice in the matter, was there? She’d just have to be a bit extra careful, and hope that the GA didn’t have a large presence on this planet. And that the Waegu didn’t know who she was.