Emily sipped her caff. "Good stuff. Me, I was the number two engineer on the light cruiser De Reita. Lord William--or as we called him, Windy--was the chief engineer, my boss, and my friend. We took a critical hit in engineering at the Battle of Ruie. Stunned him and he almost caught a face full of steam. I got him into an escape pod when we started losing pressure and stayed behind to stabilize the power plant and keep life support going."joertexas wrote:Zaki sets a steaming cup of kaff down in front of Emily, then rummages around in a drawer for a pair of spoons. "There's milk and sugar, and," she holds up a bottle with a grin, "my personal favorite, honey." The blonde sits across the table from Emily and stirs a large dollop of honey into her zapana, and takes a sip. "Oh, that's perfect."
"So," she tilts her head a bit as she changes subjects. "A little about us, then. All of us except for Sigrun and John Lee were shipped here to Regina from all over the Imperium, since the war was still going at the time. By the time we all arrived, though, it was over. We got booted out of the military, and we went looking for work. That work came in the form of helping Sir William and his family; during that time, Sigrun and John Lee joined us."
"I'll let everyone tell their own story. For me, I came from the Lishun Sector, which is way trailward from here. I had been injured in combat," her voice falters for an instant, but she regains her composure, "and I don't respond to the regen process. So, I've been healing the old fashioned way. Carlos has been helping me look for new therapies as we go along, and we intend to go back to his homeworld one of these days. We have several runs to make for our current employer, and then we can go our own way with this ship."
She took a longer drink of caff and stared out into the distance. "That didn't work out so well for me. The Zhodani boarded us and I ended up an a running gunfight. Shot some, got shot a lot back. In the end, I had severe burns, broken bones, and gunshots when I ended up in the Zhodani military hospital. Pro tip: It's no fun having your hair on fire. I had radiation poisoning, too, I suspect from the comments about 'glowing in the dark' the Zhodani made just before they shoved me into an Autodoc.
"I'm told they kept me there and repatriated me in a prisoner swap. I woke in an Imperial military hospital. It's all fuzzy, but I think I had about six months on Medical Slow and in an Autodoc. Six more months of physical and psycological therapy later, they discharged me. that would be just a few days ago."
Emily rose and poured more caff for herself. "He didn't know I'd survived until I was awake. He thought I'd been killed in action. Almost was. He's a good man to help me get back on my feet and I'm pretty sure he put in a word with the Travellers' Aid Society. They never said who sponsored me, but I'm sure it was him."
Emily