The Ratway

As Yuki leaves, Elizabeth follows him to the door. The former has a pout edged into his feathers as he rubs his arm, his displeasure at being pricks evident.
"Good luck in there." He tells Taro, but he doesn't walk away. Instead he decides to sit and wait. After having been through the ordeal first, he feels nervous about Taro having to go in. So he decides waiting would be best. That way he can barge in should he hear anything he doesn't like.

The doctor freezes when she see's Taro, pleasantly sitting there with a smile on his face. She beams, her whole face lighting up at the thought that someone was actually on time and willing to be in her presence. She motions for him to enter.

Taro offers Yuki a small smirk of a smile as he passes, but it's friendly and accompanied by a nod, and then he presses the untouched, steaming thermos of coffee into the woman's hands as he steps inside, movements neat and calculated in a way that entirely keeps him clear of even brushing her hand; nothing abnormal for him with any of them unless it's pre-empted, and it seems more on the edge of manneristic than or any discernible reason. Abby catching him in an unanticipated hug earlier nearly put a shutdown on his mind for a full few seconds, good thing they were busy fleeing.

"In all fair warning, it's likely I'm not going to answer anything you ask, and I won't be accepting injections of any form. I have built in anti-bodies for most any biological strain of illness." He says politely with a small smile as he sets himself down on the edge of the bed after visually perusing the room for anywhere else to sit. "You can have access to medically based infection and disease targeting schematics by tomorrow if you need them."

"That would be welcome." Elizabeth smiles after thanking him for the coffee. She takes a sip and carefully places it on her desk before turning her attention to Taro. "And though the bribe is appreciated, I will have to ask a few questions. You may be cyborg, but for me to feel comfortable I need to ask these. Every other crew member has received the same questions and I assure you, no one but me will be seeing the answers. Doctors promise." She smiles at him kindly as she places herself on the seat in front of him and begins to scan.
All things normal. No change. Slight raise in his anxiety level, but that could be put down to his need to avoid the questionnaire.

"You might have to ask but I'm not necessarily going to answer." He says, eyeing her levelly as she reads the scanner results. He lifts a shoulder in a small, dismissive movement and shifts slightly to settle in for the haul of avoidable questions. Likely avoidable. At worst, still rejectable. "I didn't think you'd get him out of the vents so quickly," he speaks up with a twitch of another smile, turning the thermos around between his fingers, nails tapping lightly against the insulating metal. "Or convince Mori out of the engine room. I've clearly underestimated exactly how intimidating you are when you're unimpressed."

He takes a drink, and looks around the room as she goes through the results. Still small, still cramped, but careful organised and arranged, and it's uniform to the point that he could probably find nearly any item there sheerly due to the perfect mimicry of the standard offices. Not overwhelmingly cluttered or overstocked, not coldly stark.

She seems kind, too, not blank and vacant, and it's nearly enough to make him regret wasting her time the way he's about to.

They definitely did something right when they hired her.

"I may seem sweet and innocent, but I have my ways." Elizabeth smiled at him. He seemed like a kind man, a lonely man. He seemed afraid of connection, of forming ties with anyone and getting too close. He used humor and distraction tactics to move the conversation away from anything he disliked or felt uncomfortable with.
It was a lot like Yuki, only he seemed like a harder man to crack.

She cleared her throat to start the questions. "How is your relationship with all crew members?"

He hesitates for a moment, and then tilts his head to the side with a sarcastic smirk. "The one relationship as a collective, you mean?" The expression fades after a split second - thinking of the strained guilt-mistrust-confusion and everything else that he's all but forced onto Yuki through solely the action of being there, and he's immediately aware that he can't answer as if over all, everything is positive. Not to mention, outside of Yuki's occasional company in passing, he spends most of his time alone. They're acquaintances at best, and at worst, captives; as unknowing as they might be. "Pass," he settles on with a flicker of a humourless smile, taking another sip of his coffee and calmly watching Elizabeth as the fingers on his left hand one by one curl inwards towards the thermos and then relax. "Assuming that's an option."

"It is, but it only raises more questions." Elizabeth places the clipboard down and fixes her eyes solely on the man before her. Her worry and care evident. "When I look at you I see a man who is lonely, cut off, afraid and all by his own choices. You may be here as part of a job, a glorified delivery boy if you will, but that doesn't make any of us the enemy. We want to help you, I want to help you and maybe, if you allow it, be a friend. But in order to do that, I need you to open up a little. I don't want to hurt you, or scare you away. I just want to help. We can forget the questions," She motions to the discarded board. "And we can talk about other things, things You feel more comfortable talking about but I have to know,
"Why are you so afraid? What has you so afraid?"

The word 'pass' is right on his numb lips, but she's right, she's right, that's only more questions, isn't it? So he mentally sweeps away the moment of indecisiveness and just smiles on back, almost apologetically, as he unflinchingly meets her eyes. He stops turning the thermos around, because he just might fumble it, and the slightest hitch here could sell him out of his omissions. If she wants him to speak, he can speak. "I'm sure everyone has at least one task or job in their life that they don't entirely enjoy." He states quietly, still smiling faintly; still not looking down or away, or fidgeting.

"You've all been, very accommodating, even though I hadn't been mentioned earlier. I honestly appreciate that. I was expecting... the exact opposite, and I can tell you now that it's not any of you that have made me uncomfortable, if that's the impression you have. But, I just don't tend to discuss such personal details with strangers, no matter how many clipboards they have in their office." The light tease is poor, but he nearly hit so many walls there despite careful phrasing, and he can actually feel his chest tightening.

He mentally reaches for the comfort of the digital network lines around the ship, sears the current security footage into his mind, keeps his desperation for something else to do, anything else to think about, locked in the back of his mind - leaving him outwardly appearing settled and quiet as he tears through streams of unfiltered data, the faintest lines of code scrolling across the synthetic pupil of his left eye.

It's all too direct. 'Pass' would have been steadier ground.

Elizabeth smiles softly, though she is filled with slight disappointment. He does have good points in his arguments. She is a stranger, no matter how good her intentions may be. She shouldn't press and she shouldn't pry.
"You are right. I am a stranger, though I wouldn't mind changing that." Her smile never leaves her face. "I'm happy to discuss anything else, if you would like to. The door is also open if you wish to leave. But, if you ever find yourself needing to talk, about anything you know where to find me."

"Thank you." He says, and he smiles in return, but his eyes drop and he examines the metal thermos in his hands, pausing before speaking like he's considering something, and when he does speak again his voice is thick with drily amused self-deprecation. "If its not an inconvenience to you, I'd never say no to company. Maybe there's something technological around here I can help out with. Maybe a program for file storage- I'm not sure what I can do, but if there is something I can do for you in return for company, let me know. I just don't want to be in the way."

Elizabeth laughs gently, her smile turning amused and genuine. "When it comes to friendship, favors do not need to be exchanged for company. Maybe we can have coffee, or watch a movie. I hear that this old ship has quite a few files stored. Who ever had this ship prepared for sale didn't do a good job at wiping the drives."

"I'm so very aware of that." He says with a quirk to his lips, and then he gives a breath of laughter, shaking his head and standing up. "You wouldn't believe some of the places this ship has docked - the old navigational records are almost hilarious. But, regardless, I'd like to be able to help out if I can. Off record," he says, arching a brow, "it would be nice to have an actual... Useful purpose here that doesn't have anything to do with, with why I'm here. If you want to help," he continues, smile slipping into something faint, "Let me help with something. Even if it's just for de fragmenting your files. Something."

"Well, I could use help with my equipment. I feel like their not acting to their full potential." She stands with a smile. "Would you like another coffee? I noticed that you've been nursing that one for awhile."

It's likely that she's grabbing at the first thing that comes to mind, but it's good, it's exactly what he was after, and Taro offers a quick smile and stands up, shaking his head. "I don't need one, thank you. Elizabeth. I need to speak with our Captain, finish something up, and then I'll be back to help out, if you're not busy."

---

Days pass too quickly, and while Taro starts to emerge more often from his own quarters - snatching moments of time with Yuki, with Elizabeth, talking with Abby about the upcoming planet, even clocking some minutes with Mori, when an unusual morning left the two trying to navigate around one another in order to get to the coffee; there's still a constant undercurrent of growing ill ease around him. He ups the performance of their medical equipment, upgrades communicators and stabilizes the software of the ship systems - and while he never seems quite relaxed, he settles into a comfortable level with the others, at least, enough that Mori isn't glowering with mistrust every time he sees him.

---

"Well, I'm just not sure," Taro offers in vague bemusement as Mori scowls at the bizarre, pointless freaking gigantic pipe stuffed full of machinery and bizarre tech, brandishing a power-gauge with a little too much frustration. "Have you tried-"

"You know, by this point, I probably have."

"Ah."

---

"It would be irresponsible not to drink," Mori claims seriously, lifting a placating palm up in the air, trying to defend himself from the pointed eye-narrowing that was getting sent in his direction, and he shrugged a shoulder, grinning a little, "Hair of the dog's safer than a hangover, at this hour, anyway,"

Taro smirks but forces a serious face back on before Elizabeth can notice before turning back to the charts with Yuki.

"I could pass any field sobriety test you could possibly come up with. I bet you fifty points."

(And Taro wasn't planning on getting at all involved, but the night only gets more ridiculous after that).

---

"You're kidding. Elizabeth. You're- Sweeping? I'm on Sweeping duty?" Mori exclaims, waving a hand at the communication board that's been secured against the wall in the mess room. Taro smiles pleasantly, and Mori rounds on him as Taro politely takes the digital pen and scrawls 'Mori antagonising duty' in the last column, assigning shifts between himself and the rest of the crew for the following seven days.

Mori tries to delete it, but Taro just grins and won't explain why the 'chore shift' program suddenly has the capacity to lock columns.

---

Mori follows suit with the rest of the crew and buckles himself into a seat as Abby gets ready to land - the route to the Hilean docks of Planet Llanfyll plotted out on the holographic screen that Taro's still making adjustments to from the other side of the room - something that's never going to stop bothering him. The blonde looks serious, though, and his fingers are tapping relentlessly at the arms of the chair. It's enough to make him start feeling anxious about the landing, so he looks at Yuki instead.

First stop. Great. Time to get out of the ship and stock up on drinks (and food) and maybe stretch a little, find something different to do for even just a day.

It's going to be a welcome relief, he's sure, but feeling that first bizarre conflicting tug of the planet's own gravity as they start their descent snaps him right out of that and he grits his teeth to stop from cursing. As intent as he is to actually watch a landing from here, it's damn well frigging - horrible - and he's immensely glad all of a sudden that Elizabeth's on the ball enough to make sure Abby hasn't been drinking.

"Remember, Llanfyll is a main hold of the Empire, and their detainment laws are extensive; you're going to want to be extra careful to not make someone angry," Taro advises them all calmly over the engine noise as Mori tries to look like he's not physically restraining himself from covering his face.

Abby gripped the controls tighter, her teeth biting a cut into her lower lip. She forgot how much she hates landing. Landing sucks. Flying she can do. Flying is easy, controlling the assent, the smooth way forward is second nature. But landing.
Landing is ridiculous. The controls struggling to do their own thing. The ship wanting to just do a sudden fall.
Its taking all she has just to keep the ship at a safe nose dive. Heh, she never thought she'd say that. At least everyone is buckled in and- Holy shit! Thats a building!

Abbys focus returns fully to the task at hand, her thoughts can wait. The ship jolts sharply to the right. From her spot she can hear Yuki's groan of discomfort as he's thrown to the side.
Focus. Focus Abby. The dock is only a few clicks ahead. The ship is swaying from the sudden movement, but she'll make it. She'll make it and everyone will live. That alone deserves a celebration drink.

-------

Yuki groans as he talks to the docking chief. Apparently their arrival was violent and will cost more than a few credits in damages. Even his charm isn't getting him out of this one.
Though to be fair, they did nearly take out the left side of the hangar door. But that doesn't mean that he's happy with the situation. When he gets back to the crew, Abby is on Ship watch duty. She can use the time to figure out how to land a damn ship better!

----

"What?!" The pilot exclaims when the captain shares the news with her and the rest of the crew. "How is that fair?! I landed us safely didn't I?"

"Safe for us maybe." Yuki retors easily. He motions behind him, his movements showing just how shaken he is. "I can say the same for the damn door you nearly took out!"

"It came out of no-where, I swear! I mean, why do they even need doors anyway?! Doors are stupid! Come on Cap, I could really use the air. I feel like I'm going crazy all up in here. Please, please, please let me go outside." The look she gives him is the perfect imitation of a wounded puppy. She drapes herself over the console and the look only intensifies. Yuki holds his ground though. He will scold this girl like a child and he will not be won over by those damn eyes.
Though maybe he can... No! He will win this war damn it!

"Sorry Kid. Use the time to some use. Like practicing how to avoid doors, and buildings."

"And that one street light." Elizabeth pipes up. Abby sends her a glare that the women didn't think the young girl was capable of.

Yuki turns his attention to the rest of the crew. "Check in is at 00:00 Hours. I mean, it i shore leave. So seriously, have some fun while we're out there. We're gonna be stuck with each other for another month after this." Abby groans louder and maybe Yuki is starting to feel a little guilty.

Elizabeth places a hand on the girls shoulder as she walks by. "I'll make sure to bring you something. It wont help much, but I'll make sure that its amazing."
Abby may have taken that as salt in the wound with ay other person, but Elizabeth had started to show herself as more of a caring person than a clinical doctor of late.

Besides, she could use the time to her advantage. Like looking for Dairies and drinking Mori's booze stash.

"I don't want to talk about it," Mori manages bluntly when Taro gives him a considering glance as they exit the ship - the mechanic pinching the bridge of his nose and swaying slightly as he tries to get his solid-ground-balance back. Or any form of balance, after that 'landing' and gods, he can't even think about it.

But he's still thinking about it.

He wonders if he's gone a little pale, because Taro quite quickly agrees and backs away, leaving him to mutter and fumble for a cigarette, falling behind the landing party and standing still in the crowds engulfing the docks as he struggles to get the smoke to light. Fucking ship and the fucking hanger doors. Blazing hell. The fire takes and he draws a shaky breath of smoke, grinding a boot into the floor just to remind himself that it's, you know, there. He watches the blonde's back as he vanishes amongst the throng of people, and he turns to look back at the ship.

He's going to go and organise some parts while they've got time, get some serious exterior repairs done, make sure there isn't any hanger door wedged in the framework of the ship. That girl needs to work on her landings.

Sheer necessity, he decides, the cigarette bending between his fingers he's gripping it that tightly.

Parts.
Just find parts.

---

"I'm going to find somewhere that sells clothes," Taro states to Yuki as they walk in a way that still makes it come out as something as a question, and he smiles oddly as he walks, neatly dodging the traffic - thousands of people already in such a small area, the city's monstrous. "I'll be back before time's up. Call me through the com if you need me back before then, I won't be out of range."

The moment they're clear of the gateway into the city - the scanning gateways clearing everyone for access as they move beneath them, Empire border security guards crossing back and forth through the walkways - and Taro imperceptibly holds his breath as he crosses underneath the scanning structure.

Cleared.

Not that he was expecting anything else.

The city itself is expressly nicer than City 1.9; towering buildings jutting into the sky, lights pouring out onto the small but well-planned streets and the skies themselves full of air-traffic, constant movement and music and noise - posters and advertisements flashing on the walls. One building in particular, the housing skyscraper for the holders of high positions in the ISS all but glowing red with the projected militant banner of the Empress Summers herself.

It takes a special kind of criminal to go up against the Empire.

The alarms are what stir Yuki from his sleep. He has a moment to gain his surroundings before he does into a full out panic.
Alarms are not a good thing.
Alarms are never a good thing.
In fact, Alarms are a very, very bad thing that could mean his arrest. So yeah, he's going to go with not a good thing at all.

Yuki has never moved so fast in his life, okay maybe there were a few times he moved faster, but he can't think of them right now. All he can think about his finding his damn pants, his freakin shirt and where the hell did he throw his communicator?! He doesn't even pay attention to the woman whose apartment he's in, nor the affect his frantic searching may have on her. Right now he needs his shirt and for everyone to get back to the ship!

---

After a full bottle of bourbon and a couple of beers, Abby is no longer caring about her exile in ship land. In fact, she's having a marvelous time on deck. She has music blaring, has had a little dance and is right now using Mori's spanner and her barbie doll to create a mini puppet show.
The barbie looks to the spanner. "Everything is looking good from here." The barbie looks around at the discarded bottles and at some of Elizabeth and even Taros clothing. "Yes... This is a fertile land and we shall thrive here. We will rule over everything we see here and we shall call it...." She pauses. "Clothing heap."
Her voice becomes tinny as she speaks from the Spanners point of view. "I think we should call it your grave!"
The barbie jolts. "Curse your sudden but Inevitable betrayal. I should have known better than to trust a spanner!"
She mimics an evil laugh. "Mine is an evil laugh! Now you die!"
The barbie starts to move away. "OH no! Not now. Think of the children!"

The doll and the spanner hit the ground as she hears the sirens. She rushes to the window in front of her. The hanger is alive with activity. Officials are running about, pressing buttons. From the commotion Abby can think of a few things, and none of them are good.
"Son of a..." The pilot pushes herself into a standing position as she rushes for her communicator somewhere in the clothe heap. THe mess becomes worse as she looks, growing more and more frantic with every item she discards in her search. She then pauses as she feels a weight in her back pocket.
"Found it!" She exclaims to no one in particular as she raises the device to the ceiling. She giggles to herself a moment before pressing the call button. "Guys-" She has to pause as the giggles take over for a second time. She clears her throat and tries again. "Guys, for serious. We have a problem in here. As in, lock down problem."

"Rutting dren," Satori swears violently as the alarms blaze through her sleep, and she lurches up, snagging the sheet up enough that she's not entirely exposed as she pats down the bedding for her communicator - that's currently emitting the same noise that's coming in through the windows and the ceiling speakers and everywhere because that's the damn call to arms, isn't it?

"This had better have nothing to do with the fact that you're suddenly able to make your own booty call trips," She groans jokingly as she forces herself into action, half-rolling out of bed and pulling on her uniform as quickly as is physically possible. Her fingers fumble over the fastenings of her officer's jacket and she swears again before sinking to sit on the edge of the bet to pull on her combat boots, snagging her gun belt as she stands.

She's had some interesting mornings after various partners, but no, she can't say that fucking lockdown alarms are among the old list of memorable wakeups. She gives Yuki a hasty goodbye, shoves the bedraggled man's communicator into his hands and maybe feels up his biceps a little just the once more before she turns and practically runs out the heavy timber doors to her apartment.

Gotta take the opportunities you have.

---

First mistake?

Thinking back on it, Senna decides thoughtfully as he tears around a corner and leaps off the edge of the balcony in a perfect swan dive only to land in a nastily executed roll in the sculpted hedge of the street below, it would have to be the moment he picked up the stone without, well, properly checking for the security systems his intel claimed they definitely weren't using.

Claimed.

Weren't. Using.

He takes that back. First mistake was taking the stone at all.

His second mistake was probably laughing at the expression on the slack face of the first officer that caught up with him and waving the stone around in the air just to prove that yeah, he had done it, he was brilliant, thank you, round of applause instead of putting more focus into, ya know, running. Likely. Highly likely.

He shakes himself off and darts back into an alley, shoving and swerving around everyone, and there are officers right there behind him and whoa, just, whoa, they're actually going into lockdown mode going by the sirens, and he'd be insanely proud right now if it weren't for the fact that there were empire officers chasing him down. Which, actually makes him just a little proud anyway. He shoves the stone into an open slip of his backpack, stops exactly long enough to sweep up a supremely pissed off tom-cat that's like, two seconds away from being trampled and then races down the street though the dock gates as it claws and shrieks. He feeds it scraps every day, it needs him, and he's not going to be able to hang around here anymore.

Because, okay, this might be a little serious, and maybe his best option, other than dying, is to just, throw himself at a ship and hope that it's ready to go.

Thieves luck. Yes, more alarms sound the second he passes the dock gates, but hey, there's an unguarded ship, and he launches himself directly up the shitty boarding ramp and wastes no time in shoving himself and the spitting mad cat up into the first vent opening he can find, shaking with disbelieving adrenaline and hushing his partner in crime, grinning madly as he scrabbles to find purchase against the metal walls of the vents. There's not much the cat can do bar claw into his shirt, and that's okay. "We've got this," He assures the creature.

Totally fine.

---

"So, it's not like we're out of time, we can just wait it out." Mori responds through the comms, over the roaring of the sirens. He jams his communicator between his ear and his shoulder so he can fiddle with the part he's buying as the shopkeepers try and get the panicking customers to shut up. "They find whoever's doing whatever, we carry on- I'm not even started fixing things up yet-"

"I'm on my way back," Taro's voice says sharply over the line, "Two blocks out, I think I'll be able to get through."

"Hey," Mori interrupts, frowning deeply, "What's the big deal?"

"The big deal is that we're new." Yuki's voice interjects. He looks after Satori fondly. How he loves to watch that woman leave. He finds the remainder of his clothes and quickly begins to dress as he speaks. "So any and all Illegal activity will most likely be placed with us. So its best if we high tail it out of here and fast."

"Yeah, slight problem with that." Abby chuckles nervously over the com system. They were not going to be pleased with her at all. "I may have had a few drinks. And by a few drinks, I mean way to much."

"Abby!" Elizabeth exclaims when she finds an entrance to the group chat. "Watching the ship means actually watching it, not breaking into everyone's rooms to steal their booze."

"It wasn't everyone's. Just Mori's-"

"Look, it doesn't matter!" Yuki snaps into the system. He pulls on his boots; hurrying down the hallway as he does so, his communicator between his ear and shoulder. "Just get the ship ready. We have 15 minutes tops before the planets in lock down. That gives us exactly 7.8 minutes to make it to the ship and another 3 to take flight. I expect everyone to be there on time, understand?"

"On it Cap." Abby's voice was shaky as her nerves shone through. She pushed herself away from the window, only stumbling twice as she made it back to the consoles. Right. This would be easy. Just start up the ship. Get the ship ready.
Yeah, this would be a lot easier if the damn buttons stayed in one place!

------

Elizabeth made a mental note to ask the captain how he knew those stats. She sent a quick affirmative and clutched her purchases tighter as she fought through the crowed. From the reactions of the civilians, it was obvious that the alarms were not usual. It was pure panic on the streets. Creatures of all races made their way to doors, alleyways and in more than one case the bins.
This led to two possibilities. One; The creatures on this planet were quite skittish or two; the militia was a force to be avoided.
She decides that the second is more likely and starts to move faster towards the ship.

----

It takes Yuki 3 minutes to make his return to the hanger and Elizabeth 5. When the latter enters the ship her eyes widen in disbelief as she begins the scans imminently on the young pilot.
She decides to ignore the discarded clothing that just happen to be hers. Including the fact her favorite shirt is currently on Abby's head like some damn hat. Yuki's panicked state is enough to make her sit silent and simply listen to instructions.
She ads another note to her palate. Question the Captain on why this is affecting him so much. The scanner beeps, alerting the older woman to the fact the results are in."Abby, you are way over the limit for legal flying. There's no way you can actually get us out of here."

"That's what I tried to tell you gu-"

"It doesn't matter!" Yuki snaps loudly. He turns to face both girls completely, a look of determination in his eyes. "Abby, you may not be the best at landings, but you're a damn good flyer. I trust you to get us out of this alive. All I know is that we are not being stranded on this stupid planet were fun is practically illigal. I trust you to do this. I know you can."

The girls swallowed loudly. "Right. I can... Right.." She turned shaking hands towards the controls.
Fuck. Could she do this?

Taro grabs hold of one of the bridge's support struts with a hand for the sake of stability as Abby reaches for the controls, and he immediately re-connects his mind with the internal systems, scrapes together old scraps of programming, anything he can find from the routine take-off logs, some form of half-written emergency auto-piloting system. He can't do a think to pilot the ship, that would take an immense amount of time and technology they didn't have - as well as expertise he entirely lacked - but at least he could maybe nudge the systems enough so that, if they did crash, they might not crash in a deadly nosedive.

"Abby, I'll keep an eye on the Stabilizers, you'll be fine," Taro intones clearly as Mori appears in the hanger, the bay doors hissing and locking behind him as he wastes exactly zero seconds in slamming the manual locks into place. The blonde's head jerks at the sudden noise, and he watches, standing straight-back and tall, knuckles on the rail white with tension and a sharply humourless grimace of a smile on his features.

"I'm going to go make sure that nothing shorts out," Mori calls as he moves quickly across the room, booted feet clanging against the metal stairs as he clambers down into the underworks - they had so many repairs ready to go, desperate to go, and no, they'd not done a single thing, and damn it if any of those systems went offline because of his area, he would happily throw himself out the escape hatch.

Yeah, that's not going to happen on his watch. He can deal with Abby, and the remnants of his alcohol stockade, when they weren't in danger of being arrested or whatever the hell's happening. The sirens are still screeching out through the docks, and the ship walls are doing nothing at all to deaden the overpowering noise; militant alerts calling out over the systems, the same phrases stating the lockdown, that nobody would be harmed, if they simply abode by the current commands.

Mori reaches the interlocked gear system he'd been pulling apart that morning and launches himself into work, not even bothering with gloves, because these fucking parts need to be back together before she banks, or else their attempted 'steady cruise control' was going to turn into a spiral straight back down to the frigging planet.

"Shitting fuck," Senna complains in a bare whisper to the cat that he's got pressed up into his shirt to muffle its sporadic mewling as he kicks at the metal wall again to jam his foot into place - because apparently they're going to be experiencing a takeoff from the cozy, secure location of the fucking air vent, and this wasn't a great plan to begin with, but in his defence, the idea was that the ship wasn't going to go anywhere. Who, the actual hell, did these people think they were, taking off in the middle of the goddamn lockdown he'd set off? They were so, so, royally screwed, and he could practically see the disaster playing out. At least the cat would have a nice body to cushion it.

Goddamn.

What a bunch of total dickheads.




...He'd totally be doing the same thing if he had a ship though, so he just grins over the seething disbelief and tries to find a spot that won't mean instant broken elbows the moment they get shot at, which, hey, is likely to happen the moment they hit empire air-space.

The shirt around Abby's head is removed and replaced as a makeshift bandana. Elizabeth physically winces at the treatment her favourite garment receives.

The pilots hands shake for a moment as she tries to focus on the controls. She swallows loudly. "Right. Well, everyone hold onto your hats! Or... you know... Socks. Everyone is wearing socks right?" Her stalling game apparently wasn't on point, as Yuki fied her with a galre that actually made the young girl shake.

"Just fly." He warns.

"Right." Abby agrees. "Flying now." The ship is started, so that only leaves the take off. The lift off is shaky at best. The ship wobbles from side to side as it rises. The attendants below notice the unauthorized ascension and immediately go into panic. Voices raise over the speaker, demanding the ship remain where it is.

But its too late. The ship is already moving. Too fast in fact for the area that they occupy and no where near steady enough for what she is attempting. The bay doors are closing. The squeeze to get out is far too tight for the upright ship.
Thats when her Podracing skills kick in. She turns the ship too fast, causing the large craft to swing onto its side and slide out through the opening. The alarms appear to get louder as she drives through the streets, again far too low to be legal.
Smaller crafts begin to fly towards her, each one shouting its own warning to land.
She needs to gain altitude and fast, or else these ships will start firing. The ratway can't handle that kind of force, especially not in the state she's in.

A sharp right, a hard let and a sudden tilt send the ship flying higher and higher. Abby swears as more twists and turns are needed in order to escape the buildings that just seem to damn tall to be useful. They just keep appearing out of damn nowhere and it's too hard to focus on keeping the ship a safe distance from the glass objects when she has a friggin armada of smaller, far superior empire based flyer right on her friggin tail.
And yep, now they are firing.

She makes a sudden, if not slightly inebriated call to forsake the perfect structure of the skyscrapers before her. The ship lets out a loud groan and a sudden shriek every time it makes contact with the buildings. Which is actually quite a lot.
But the falling shards of glass seem to have deterred the persuising ships for the moment. So she takes that as a win.

Higher and higher, faster and faster the ship goes. She breaks free of the towering buildings and to the sky above. The sky which currently has a giant fucking bubble beginning to enclose it.
She increases speed. She's not sure if the ship can handle it as it shakes violently. The hole of escape is growing smaller.
Theres no way the ship can make it unless it moves faster! Why do they have such a useless ship anyway?! If they're going to be doing dangerous shit like this then they need to be able to run away at a pace that doesn't make it an action movie every damn time.

She's closer now. The ship might make it. They may lose an outer casing or two as they squeeze through but they'll be safe. They'll be...

The ship shakes violently, the speed decreases as the bubble begins to close around them. Abby pushes more, feels like she might be sick. THe ship isn't happy. The people below aren't happy. Hell, the whole of the crew isn't happy.

Mori and Yuki are going to kill her for harming their baby.

The ratway makes it through. The bubble snaps shut behind them. They're safe, they're in space and... Holy shit! Is that an empire mother ship off to the starboard?!
They really need to invest in some cloaking devices....

It's chaos, the moment she startes swerving through the buildings send Mori scrabbling through the machinery to keep in one spot, to get the fucking cables connect, making every stop-gap repair he possibly can in as little time as he can make it, and it's a nightmare, and probably the only good that comes out of it is the satisfaction of watching the gears locking in under their Drunk-Ass-Pilot's control, and knowing that at least it hadn't been some other mechanic that didn't learn the dodgy side of things first.

Could have been so much worse.

Of course, that's when they hit some kind of resistance and he's jolted from the base support strut he's been grasping and slams bodily into the crates at the side of the room, grunting and cursing as he tries to clamber up and get back to the damn gears, because if something doesn't take, if she gets out and it can't lock in-

The ship lurches again, shudders, and then-- Settles.

He barks a laugh.

Well shit. They made it.

---

"Captain, you're getting a call from, ah," Taro breaks into the moment of stumped silence when they all land eyes on the ship that's quite visibly hulking just off to the side, blocking out the piercing brightness of the sun currently on their side of the planet - which only makes the ship seem bigger still, because it's blotting out the blazing light with the efficiency of a small moon. "It's from the Empire Mothership, over, there. Shall I, patch them through?" He asks, lips twitching into a slight, strained grin as he flicks his fingers in a small gesture from his temple to the comms screen in front of the Captain's chair.

He doesn't wait for a response, though, and just immediately passes the call through, because it's alarmingly apparent that the ship they're all still staring at is heavily armed, and who knows how many of the fleet are housed within it? He could find out.

The screen flickers, twice, and then an image of a woman flashes onto the screen.

She's the perfect picture of an established Empire officer; tailored uniform, perfect posture, and her face bearing a mixture of cocky arrogance and the same kind of strict, lawful stubbornness that end up pretty recognisable on the faces of most law-based authority figures - black hair pulled up in a loose bun for the sole purpose of keeping it out of her eyes, and every inch of her secure and balanced. At least, she looks absolutely secure until their own visual transmitters snap into place on the other side and she actually gets a look at Yuki. Her eyes widen, and she shifts on her chair, leaning in and staring in blatant disbelief.

"So you're telling me that wasn't a cross-galactic booty call after all?" She asks bluntly. "I'm almost hurt."
"You're shitting me," A male voice snaps from the other side "Every time-" and there's movement behind her, but she just scowls and raises a hand to stop whatever was going on.
"Ethan, don't start with me. And... Captain Yuki? You're facing charges of both harbouring a high-profile criminal and pulling a dumb enough stunt to make them get me out of bed and up in the air in less time than is even reasonable for a mid-week. Together, with those two charges, you and your crew will be facing life in the Vault unless you make dock now, immediately, and hand him over. Don't make me do this so early in the morning." She continues, actually lifting a hand to pinch the bridge of her nose.

"I'm not even going to ask. That's my deal for you. I don't ask questions, and you, just, dock, and let us scan your crew, take the criminal, keep you for the minimum holding time and then just, let you on your way. That's the best I can do. You've got," She hesitates, and peers sidelong at a timer, "Just under one minute to agree before I officially have to come over there myself."

"There's no coffee on board, I woke up four hours before planned, and I'm extremely unimpressed. So trust me, you don't want that."

The insecure, frightened man that Yuki was suddenly changes when he see's the woman on the screen. His posture becomes more relaxed, his features cocky and slightly charming. "As much as I'd love to stay and spend more time in your..." He's eyes flash in remembrance of the night they shared before. "Wonderful company, I'm afraid I'll have to decline. See, we're on a very important mission and that Mission means that we have to fly." He leans forward in his chair. "Do us this one, tiny favour Satori. The only people on my crew are the ones you see in this room. Oh! And Mori, but he's in the underworks probably hitting something in frustration."

He stands from his seat and walks forward and away from the cameras and towards Abby. The young Pilot dives for cover.
Elizabeth moves over to the controls and slowly moves the camera after him. "If you check over our manifest, then you will see that this ship only has five members in its crew. Now, each one of my esteemed companions here have alibis at the time of the crime." At least he hopes they did. "Myself included." He grins at her. "Now, I know for a fact that a planet as high tech as yours would have facial recognition and cameras in even the darkest of corners. If you go back through the footage, you will see that we are not actually harboring any kind of criminal. No sirey. None at all."

"You mean, the footage I have, of the criminal in question boarding the ship minutes before you all returned?" She presses, an angry smirk that's somewhat delighted spreading over her features as she tilts her head in question, and the next second, the footage on their screen is no longer of her, but instead the security feed from the docks, facing their ship, and then, in slow motion, they see a young man clutching something to his chest and charging directly onto the entirely unguarded ship. The playthrough stops, and Satori reappears on the screen.

"That criminal?" She asks, arching a brow. "That, Yuki, that criminal? That one that you're not harbouring, that you're currently harbouring? There's absolutely no point trying to lie to me," She continues, "As you said, we've got facial recognition and cameras in every-"

"There is someone else on board," Taro murmurs under his breath, keeping his face obscured to the cameras so that the woman can't see what he's saying as she glares irritably out through the screen.
"Thirty seconds, Yuki. I strongly recommend against whatever you're planning, because it's going to land you in more trouble than I'm capable of getting you out of."
"Elizabeth, your scanners, your- Cameras, they're active, aren't they, you've got your communicator? I've only got the ship readings-"
"Twenty-five seconds."

Elizabeth works fast as her fingers type away at the computer console she is currently occupying. She logs into her communicator systems from there and brings up the ships readings. Heat signatures in the cockpit. Heat signatures in the underworks. Heat signatures in the air vents.
Wait. The airvents. She looks to Taro, awaiting for orders.

Placing his hands behind his back, Yuki begins to frantically motion for Abby to do something. Anything. They should have enough fuel for whatever the drunk pilot has in store for them. Right?
"Twenty-five seconds? Come on Satori. You and I both know I need longer than that. I mean I have to find the criminal first. The ship is old." The motions become more frantic.

The young girl frowns as she tries to understand what the Captain is implying. Clean? Does he want her to clean? No. Can't be that.
Is she meant to talk? because she's really not capable of that right now. At least not to officials. She's underage as well, that wouldn't end well for the crew.
Oh! Warp drive? Warp drive. Yes, warp drive. Right... If she just....

Still hiding beneath the panel, Abby reaches up to her controls. Her fingers type away on the buttons, inputting coordinates she knows well as a planet a few clicks west from here and that would be willing to help repair the ship. For a price of course. Maybe she'll even see Bruce again.
Thats if the giant hunk of ancient, fossilised dinosaur still works at the damn place.

She gives the captain the single, a rather loud cough that its all ready. Yuki grins wider.
"As fun as this has been, my fair flower of officialness who looks absolutely amazing in a black dress and heels, I must say my fair wells. I'll call you."

The ship flies forward a moment before zapping into nothingness. It appears orbiting a desert planet.
Abby grins. "I did it! The ship did it... Oh god I hope the baby's okay." She hugs her console.