[h2][center]An Unexpected Rescue[/center][/h2]
[center] A collab between Crossfire & Silver Carrot[/center]

Qoorb faded back into consciousness, and looked all around themselves. Their ship's console was dead, yet there was still power, and the automatic emergency distress signal light was blinking. Good. That meant help was hopefully coming. How they could explain why they were so close to an aged derelict outpost, they didn't know. Their first order of business was to return power to the communications in case they were being messaged. They might even be missing a message happening right now! With a little re-jigging of the emergency battery lines, Qoorb now had a working communications circuit. All they had to do now was wait until rescue or death. There was something relaxing and zen about their very life being out of their control now, and they instead chose to look up and the remains of the attack above them...or would it be below, seeing as how from a gravitational standpoint, there were orbiting the derelict outpost upside down? 

While...acquiring materials for their shop, Qoorb was spotted by some kind of pirate craft and disn't have to to leave or open comms before they were fired at and then promptly ignored, while the pirates looted the derelict dry. Not that Qoorb saw any of this on account of being knocked out, but he could see it now. The derelict was a carcass of its former self.

After one last check to make sure his suit was 100% sealed, Stryker set the anchoring system to the wall and attached the other end to his belt. The airlock door slid open and the sudden whoosh of air being sucked out of the docking bay filled his ears before being drowned out instantly by the vacuum of space. Stryker engaged his repulsor boots and slowly floated out towards the immobile escape pod of a single-occupant craft. The ship it has been installed in was nowhere to be seen, ditto for the vessel, or vessels that had attacked.

Stryker's HUD detected signs of life, even though he couldn't see anything through the small port-hole, so he slowly waved his hand in front of it. A gesture meant to mean 'stay calm, we'll get you out of here.'

He disconnected the anchor line from his belt and attached it to the hull of the pod with one of his tracking magnets. The captain wrapped one arm around the line and reached over with his free hand to his Wrist-com to activate the anchor's recall system, he simply held on as the line began to reel itself in, towing the escape pod at a slow and steady pace.

Once both Stryker and the pod were safely back inside, the airlock sealed shut and Stryker removed his helmet and radioed up to the cockpit.
[color=orange]"Tib? We're good, get us back on course."[/color]

He walked over the pod and cautiously knocked on the port-hole.
[color=orange]"Hey! You alive in there? I'm gonna open the pod."[/color]

Just in case the being inside was hostile, Stryker slipped one hand down by his holstered pistol, the only weapon he had on hand. With the other, he carefully eased open the cover of the emergency access panel and triggered the door lock override.

A Rek sat inside. Groggy and shaken up, but otherwise it looked ok.

[color=orange]"Hey, take it easy, not hostile. Do you understand me? Are you alright?"[/color]

The Rek nodded, breathing shakily. "Yes, I'm alright. Just very cold," it replied, before climbing out of the pod. Now that it was standing up, it was huge! It didn't take any offence at the gun. It may or may not be used to it. "My name's Qoorb. Thank you for rescuing me."

[color=orange]"Well we were passing by, couldn't exactly just leave you stranded."[/color] Stryker said [color=orange]"Call me Stryker, what are you doing this far out Qoorb?"[/color]

Qoorb looked around at their surroundings, taking in the details of the room they were in, before discerning from the color and state of this room that this was unlikely to be an Alliance, Military or Corporation vessel. It was lo-fi but not quite at the 'space dog' level of decrepit. This ship could likely be trusted to hear the truth without turning Qoorb in.

"I was, ah, searching a derelict outpost for salvage, when I was attacked. I'm assuming they were Pirates, because they cleaned out the derelict, and a scavenger wouldn't shoot anyone else down."

[color=orange]"And blew your ship to scrap. Yeah, sounds like pirates."[/color] Stryker said, considering the options here. They were already slightly behind schedule, but there could be consequences to revealing the true nature of the ship to a completely unaffiliated entity.

[i]'Screw it'[/i] he thought [i]'Already picked up one stowaway.'[/i]

[color=orange]"Alright, so here's the deal. Me and my crew are en route to a job out past the edges of the Deadzone, and we've got a schedule to keep. We can give you a room, food, all the essentials, and once we're done out there, we can drop you off wherever you want to go, how's that sound?"[/color]

The Rek shook it's head. "You are very generous, but I do not believe in taking without giving back something. Is there any way I can assist you during my passage?"

[color=orange]"If anything comes to mind, I'll let you know, but for now, let's get you set up and get the doctor in to make sure you're ok."[/color]

Stryker motioned for Qoorb to follow him and led the way into the ship proper.

"Your hospitality is most generous. I've never experienced anything like it. I'm both thankful and a little confused." Qoorb remarked as they followed, taking in all of their surroundings as they did so.

[color=orange]"Well, the way I look at it, there's way too much bad in the universe. I've been party to much of it. An opportunity came up to do some good for a change, and I took it. Don't make me regret it. Ah, here we are."[/color]

He came to a stop in front of Room 10.

[color=orange]"It's one of the few free rooms we've got, our crew has sort of... ballooned up in the last day or so. I'll introduce you to the others later, we had a meeting scheduled to happen shortly, you're free to join us if you want. Let's see what else? Oh, galley's back that way, the door on the right just past the stairs and the elevator, and the bathrooms are just over there, end of the hall. I know that Rek are genderless, so I suppose I have to get ahead of this: It was an Alliance-built ship originally, and a little behind the times, so I'll have to apologize for the ignorance of my kind, what with the male and female rooms. Don't worry too much about that."[/color]

On that slightly awkward note, the captain looked around and slowly said
[color=orange]"So, uh, any questions?"[/color]

"Oh, nearly all other registered species are gendered. I take no offense. I just hope that my presence doesn't mean that the room system is too disrupted. I have no questions at present, and I will join the rest of your crew shortly to make introductions."

[color=orange]"Ok, sounds good, I'll see you in a bit then."[/color]

They bid farewell and Stryker headed off to remove his armor. As soon as he was back in the cockpit, he rolled his chair around to face away from Tibulass and used the resources available to start a search on 'Qoorb' looking for anything at all across public records, news articles, arrest records and active warrants. He may have shown the Rek kindness in saving it, but he wasn't going to let his guard down and assume everything was all good.

Over the course of an hour or so, his search turned up a high number of very minor infractions, most of which fell under the category of 'illegal scavenging.' There was also a single count of public intoxication that included a mug shot. It was a match to the Rek who was presumably resting downstairs.

[color=orange]"Story checks out."[/color] he said to himself. A small beep chirped out from the navigation console.
[color=orange]"And there it is, we've crossed over into Federation territory. Be extra careful now Tib, we can't get flagged en route to the system"[/color]