“Mm, a little bit. I’ll come with you the cafeteria. That way I can make sure you go to your room right after you finish,” she teased.
The two of them headed down through the maze of hallways until they reached one of Arriss’s favorite rooms in the ship: the dinning hall. While they did have lights in the room, Arriss preferred to keep them off and allow the light from the galaxy to filter in through the dozens of windows that adorned the walls. After making Ronnie sit down at one of the windows, she disappeared for a few moments only to come back with an assortment of freeze dried and powdered foods.
“Nothing like the stuff on earth, but hey. It’s food.”
Arriss sat down next to him, placing her head against the window and watching the universe as it passed them by. She was thinking deeply about something, barely eating as they sat there together.
“Yes, Valiel, I’m sure you know how to control many things, but how about a space ship?” he questioned. “I, for one, have no what I’m doing.”
Conner walked throughout the room, gazing at the assortment of levers and buttons laid out before him. The captain must’ve had a lot of training to know what all these different mechanisms did.
Ronnie smiled at her, and didn't protest.
He took the food, prepping it as usual, and ate slowly, trying to get full more quickly so he didn't have to eat as much of this….stuff.
He glanced over at Arriss, watching her look wistuflly off into the stars. He wanted to ask what she was thinking about, but he didn't want to break the moment.
…………………
Valiel waggled her eyebrows at Connor. "I think I can handle it. I've flown before. Not this model, of course, but a ship is a ship, right?"
She plopped down in the co-pilot's chair, which had significantly fewer buttons and levers and gadgets. On the course they were on, she shouldn't have to do too much adjusting.
She did have a question, though. "Why do you tease the two of them so mercilessly?"
Eventually, Arriss looked over at him, a few of her cinnamon-colored curls falling into her face. It was clear by her expression that something was bothering her.
“I got a new order from home base. We’re going to reach a new enemy ship in a day.” She let a sigh. “Our orders are to go in, seize the resources, and kill everyone on board.”
For most privateer ships, this was a normal mission. Most of the citizens were usually killed on the enemy ship. However, that had never been the way with Arriss’s crew. She would usually avoid death by taking the men on board captive, but this is the first time she’d ever been told directly to kill the crew.
She let out a sigh and looked back out the window. “I don’t know if I can do this.”
“Mm, okay. Just don’t crash us.”
He grinned and winked at her before he sat down in the chair beside her, folding his hands behind his head.
“And as for my teasing…” He shrugged. “Beats me. They’re cute together, aren’t they? And knowing them, they’ll probably never be a thing without a little bit of encouragement.”
Ronnie made eye contact with her as she looked over. Something was wrong; the expression was more stressed than just tired.
She relayed the orders to him, and he nodded carefully. There came a point in war where the idea of 'total war' came into play. No prisoners, no differentiating between civilians and soldiers… destruction and death. He'd hoped they wouldn't still be enlisted by the time that came about, but…
Other pirates were in the habit of killing, but Arriss had always done otherwise. Now they were being ordered to, though, and he could see it was weighing on her.
He looked down at his hands when she looked away. It took him a moment to respond, but he did eventually.
"I can." He didn't look up. "I've already got a lot of blood on my hands. You focus on the resources, I'll do the dirty work."
……………..
Valiel laughed. "i'll try not to." She returned his wink, though it was super exaggerated.
She shook her head. "Humans. They are cute together, but surely they can see each other's mutual attraction… why should they need encouraging?" She glanced at Connor. "If you want a thing, just take it, as long as you're not hurting anyone."
“No, Ronnie. I couldn’t throw that sort of weight on you. This mission is ours, and we’ll all handle the dirty work.” Arriss stood up and walked over to his side, her gaze still focused on the ground. “Well, at least the two of us will. I have my doubts that Connor and Valiel will help.”
She couldn’t blame them. Conner didn’t seem like the type to hurt anyone. Valiel, while Arriss had never seen her do so, seemed like she could, but she also didn’t think Valiel would go after the innocent civilians aboard the ship. Arriss and Ronnie would have to take care of them.
“I just…I hope Conner and Valiel don’t look at me differently after all this goes down.” She
looked over at him. “I hope you don’t look at me differently.”
Conner laughed and leaned back in his chair. “Pssh, no. There’s one more thing about humans, Valiel, that’s annoying. They’re super oblivious,” he replied. “They could kiss, hug, send love letters… check all the boxes. But they would still be oblivious. Trust me.”
Ronnie shook his head. "Cap, I've done this stuff before. Ex-marine, remember? I've been ordered to kill more people than I can remember, and easily half of them shouldn't have had to die." He looked down as Arriss walked over. "Valiel can. She doesn't like to, but she can, and she has fewer qualms about it than you might think." Training with her had been… interesting. He was just glad they were on the same side.
He looked up at Arris and shook his head again. "Cap… you know full well that I walked onto this ship with more blood on my hands than the rest of you combined. And you've treated me no differently. Why would I look at you differently after this?" He made eye contact, willing her to believe him.
………………….
Valiel shook her head slowly. "How could anyone who flirts as much as you do be oblivious? Surely Some of you are self aware?"
Skin-changers, the Charad-ati in their own tongue, were blatantly obvious when they were interested. They made it clear, and got a clear yes or no.
In fact, the reason Valiel was comfortable around Connor was that he seemed to be that kind of open. They'd had a weird kind of energy from the get-go, wherein she would flirt back with him, but she also knew humans had taboos against relationships with animals and aliens. Maybe Connor didn't, but she hadn't pushed that far. No need to make things awkard.
“Thank you, Ronnie.” She smiled faintly. “Thank you.”
After a moment of hesitation, she moved in to embrace him, wrapping her arms around his waist. It wasn’t often that Arriss hugged or even touched them. With them being a serious mission, she tried to keep things as professional as possible when it came to him. But, work aside, they were still friends, and she still wanted to drop the professional facade from time to time.
“This conversation got real deep all of the sudden.” She laughed softly, glancing up at him. “We still have a day till that all goes down, so let’s… let’s try not to think about it too much.”
“Mm, maybe some.” Conner snorted at the irony. Not even he seemed to be self-aware most of the time. “But most of us… well, most of us are kinda dense. Let’s just hope they get together eventually. Wouldn’t want any unrequited love aboard this ship.”
Ronnie smiled back at her. "You're welc-…"
The hug caught him completely off guard. Alarms went off in his head, memories of his drill instructors yelling about professionalism and not getting attached to people in a combat zone and officers needing to be ready to order their men into death zones and not have their heart hung up and-
And she was soft, and inviting, and Ronnie was tired and still a little sick, despite what he'd said, and he just didn't have the willpower just now to say no.
So he hugged her back, sinking into her touch just slightly.
He couldnt look her in the eyes when she looked up at him, though he chuckled with her. "It did…"
He did look at her when she mentioned they had a day still.
"You can talk it through if you need to. And I still say you ought to let me handle it. I can, Cap. Easily."
……………
Valiel had to laugh. "Why, does unrequited love cause such huge issues it would be a problem?" She glanced at him, her grin growing. "From the amount of it that shows up in human media, you guys seem to love unrequited love."
She smiled as she felt him return the embrace. At first, she was worried that he wouldn’t. He was a sweet guy, of course, but she had always known him to be professional and to never be close with anyone. When he returned her hug, she pulled him a bit closer, soaking in his warmth.
“For the last time, I’m not letting you do it alone.” She smiled faintly up at him. “Military or not, I’m helping you.”
Eventually, she pulled back from the hug, his warmth leaving her. He likely wouldn’t let her hug him like that again, but hey. It was enjoyable while it lasted.
“Oh, yes. We love unrequited love, but I’m sure you do as well.” He grinned and winked at her. “I’m sure you have lots of unrequited love for me.”
Ronnie wanted to argue, but she was the captain. In some ways, it would be easier if she let him handle it, but… "if you insist."
She pulled away from the hug, and part of him was relieved. He wasn't good with intimacy and feelings…
And the other part of him was definitely wishing she hadn't let go.
He stuffed that down deep, and stood up. "Well. I better get back to sleep. You too, by the way."
……………….
Valiel waggled her eyebrows at him. "My species is pretty obvious. We like our relationships straightforward."
She had to grin at his antics. "And if I did, would you know, or would you be oblivious?"
“Aww, but you would be lonely without me.”
She laughed softly and stood up along with him. To be honest, she was starting to feel a bit tired. Guess the caffeine effects were finally starting to wear off.
“I’ll walk you to your room.” She smiled and winked at him. “You know, to make sure you don’t pass out from exhaustion before you get there.”
“Mm… you’re right.” He thought for a moment before he snorted. “I am human, after all, so I bet I would be totally oblivious.
(( So sorry that it’s a bit short 😭😭 Imma bout to head to work but I was tryna get one more reply in ))
(no problem. I'm at work now so I totally get it)
Ronnie smiled, and didn't respond. He would let her walk with him, because no matter how inapropriate it looked, he was too tired to… do anything else.
………
"Uh-huh. You might be." Valiel's grin grew. "Besides. Not being human, I don't know how you'd react. I'm quite weird."
(( Backkkk! ))
As they walked, Arriss stayed silent. She couldn’t imagine the amount of teasing they would get if Conner caught them here even though she insisted they were just friends. Luckily, Conner didn’t catch them together before they arrived at the door to Ronnie’s room.
She turned to him, pulling her curls over her shoulder. She hated to return back to her quiet bedroom, but she knew she needed to sleep. “Try and get some rest, okay?” she said softly. “Make a full recovery.”
“Mm… are you insinuating that you like me, Valiel?” he teased. “I wouldn't be surprised.”
(Sorry, my thursday nights are booked solid!)
Arriss was quiet on the way to his room, and Ronnie couldn't tell what was on her mind. He returned her advice at the door.
"You too. We need our leader alert." He wanted to say more, do more, but… not the time. Instead, hi thumbed his door panel and gave her a smile as it closed behind him.
……………..
"Insinuate nothing." Valiel waggled her eyebrows. "If I thought humans were down with inter-species love… If my entire species thought humans were down for it as a whole…" Granted, there were always the outliers, but in general there seemed to be a taboo on that, even with very human looking aliens.
((You’re all good!))
She stood at his door for a few moments after he shut it, silent as she stared up at it. Like him, she was wondering if there was something else she should’ve said; it felt strange to end that day on such a simple note after they had shared that moment together. But, with no clue of what to do, she turned to walk away.
“Good night, Ronnie.”
With that, she crept back to her room across the hall, leaving him behind her.
“Pssh. You look like a human, act like a human, sound like a human.” He let out a yawn and rubbed his tired eyes. “I’m down with it.”
Ronnie was back asleep pretty quickly, despite all his misgivings about resting more after just waking up.
………..
Valiel chuckled, before shifting her skin. She became this strange, scaly form. Purple skin, 6 tentacles that ended in more tentacles, like tentacle hands, an upper body that looked vaguely bear like, minus the arms, covered in bright red fur, 5 eyes, and a maw with grinding plates instead of teeth.
"Still feel the same?" she hissed, her mouth unsuited for English in this form.
“You kidding? That’s lit!” he exclaimed. He was a bit surprised by the unexpected change in form, but he didn’t seem too scared of her. “Looks like something from a sci-fi movie.”
Conner chuckled at his own irony. It was almost like they were living in a sci-fi movie, if he was honest. Only a few short years ago, the idea of space colonies and aliens would’ve been unrealistic. But now, it was just a new part of reality.
“Alright, Valiel. I don’t see any ships nearby on the scans, so I’m gonna set this baby in autopilot and hit the hay,” she suggested. “But before we do that, let’s check on the other two. You know, to make sure they’re not still up.”
Valiel shifted back, her bright blue eyes sparkling. "You can go check, if you want. We told the Captain someone would drive in her absence. Plus, you and I both just woke up." She giggled. "Tired already? And you say you're down… how would you ever keep up?"
“Nah, just standing up takes way too much effort. Besides, we have another raid tomorrow, so I wanna rest up as much as possible.” He grinned and pecked her cheek. “So goodnight, love. Wake me up if you ever wanna trade off.”
Valiel laughed, not in an unkind way. "Oh, so straight to love then, huh?" She smiled up at him. "I should be ok. Thanks though."
“Of course.”
Conner walked away, and it was hours before the three sleeping crew mates finally began to wake up. For most of the day, Conner stuck to his duties, doing research and everything else he had to get done to keep their voyage going smoothly. Eventually, after spending most of the day doing work, Conner went to find Valiel. When he did, he stood in the doorway of the room and knocked softly.
“Can I come in?”
Arriss’s schedule that day was far from it usually was.
Normally, when she would wake up in the morning, she would check on her crew mates and maybe have conversations with a few of them. After finishing up with her own tasks, she would go help Ronnie with his. However, by the time the evening rolled around, no one had seen the Captain. Not even during meal times. She had been locked away in the cockpit preparing to raid the other ship.
Valiel had stayed in the cockpit for several hours, watching the stars go by, until Arriss had come in and relieved her. She'd gone to check on Ronnie, found his temperature had gone down and he seemed to be sleeping well. Checked the rations, checked a couple of the cargo holds that were housing some of the more…esoteric resources they'd swiped, and eventually headed back to her room.
She was watching the recent coverage from Earth about her people's role in the current war, when Connor knocked on her door.
Valiel kept the gravity in her room flipped, enabling her to 'hang' from the ceiling while also orienting the room the same as the rest of the ship. When Connor knocked, she had to slither out of her cradle and shift to human. As much as he hadn't flinched, she didn't want to make things weird. Humans were funny about tentacles.
She opened the door. "I've got the gravity flipped, what's up?" If he needed something, she'd go check with him, but if he wanted to talk, they could go somewhere that didn't require her to reconfigure the gravity plates.
………………………..
Ronnie had eventually woken up, hungry and slightly disoriented. He could tell his metabolism was going nuts, fighting whatever sickness he had, but once he ate, he felt much better. Valiel had left hi a note that said he was past the worst of it and she wouldn't keep pestering him about it. He'd smiled at her choice of words.
His duties for the day including checking, priming, and assigning the weaponry for the next raid. He needed a few details from Arriss, but she was nowhere to be found.
He eventually went back up to the cockpit, thinking She can't have been up here the entire time…
The door was closed and locked, which was odd. They only usually locked it during raids.
He knocked carefully. "Cap?"
Conner looked a bit more worn and than usually, likely from worry more than anything else. To him, the whole crew had seemed… different that day. Especially when it came to Arriss. She had locked herself in the cockpit almost the entire day, and he had to bring her food.
“You know what’s going on with the Captain?” he asked. “She’s acting weird.”
“Give me a minute.”
For a few moments, the door stayed shut, and footsteps could be heard coming from inside the cockpit. Eventually, the door swung open, revealing Arriss standing on the other side. She looked a bit more rough than she usually did, but she still tried to remain optimistic as she spoke to him.
She smiled faintly and pulled her wild hair over her shoulder. “You need something, love, or are you just stopping by to say hi?”
Valiel shook her head. "I've kinda been buried in things all day. She seemed ok, if a bit focused, when she took over piloting earlier." She frowned at Connor's frazzled look. "Are you alright?"
……….
Ronnie kept his expression carefully neutral. "I'm here to check on you. Hadn't seen you all day and I needed to give the status report on our weapons systems anyway. Have you eaten?"
“Well, I think I might’ve found something.” He messed with the papers in his hand. “You know the raid tomorrow? Well, this isn’t going to be one of our normal resource foraging raids, Valiel.”
He sighed and leaned against the doorway. He knew Valiel would likely have no problem with what they had to do. After all, orders were orders, and they had to be obeyed. But him? He had never hurt an individual in his entire life. Plus, he knew how many innocent people lived on that ship. Innocent people that had nothing to do with the war.
“We have to kill everyone on board. Women, children… whoever we can find.”
“Um…” She paused. Arriss knew she hadn’t eaten at all today; she hadn’t even stopped her work to get a snack. Ronnie would whine at her for this, so she tried her best to play it off. “Eh, not really. But I’m not hungry, so it’s not a big deal.”
She stepped back, allowing him into the cockpit. The room was an absolute mess; there were papers and tools scattered around everywhere along with huge maps to lead them through the galaxy.
“So, you said you needed to give me a status report?”
Valiel's expression turned concerned. "Yeah, what about it?" She stepped fully out of the door, and closed it behind her, before leaning against the wall. Connor seemed bothered by something, and for a person who was usually a flirt and a jokester, that wasn't good.
Connor relayed the orders, and Valiel tried to understand. "So we're raiding a military transport ship, and we're ordered to kill everyone onboard. And you have an issue with that?" It was an empathetic question. Connor likely considered anyone who wasn't directly wielding a weapon to be an 'innocent bystander.' The Charad-ati had learned long ago that a war effort extends much farther than the hand that pulls the trigger. She seemed to have fewer qualms about this than he did.
Besides, how many women and children would be on a military supply ship?
………………..
Ronnie kept his expression level. He didn't want to push her, but…
"Please do eat. We need you at 100% for this thing. I can bring you something if you want?"
She'd looked away, and he didn't reach for eye contact. "Energy weapons are charged. I also made sure we had the kinetic weaponry cleaned and loaded. Nothing out of the ordinary as far as that all goes." He stepped into the cockpit, noting that her usual poise seemed a bit shot just now. He wanted to fix that.
He wanted to do a lot of things, but… well. She was the Captain and he was under her command and that just created a whole host of problems.
“Of course I do.” He crossed his arms over his chest, leaning against the wall. “Valiel, those woman and children did nothing to us. They’re doing what they think is right, and most of them aren’t even involved in the war effort. We don’t have a right to kill them.”
He sighed, his eyes flickering to the floor. He felt like he should be mad at the Captain for making them follow through with such a horrendous massacre, but he knew that she was just following orders. Orders from a government that was like just as corrupt as their enemy.
“Once we go through with this, we’ll probably be ordered to kill left and right.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know.” She forced a small smile. “I’ll eat, I promise.”
Sometimes, she wished he would just simply care about her. Sure, she knew he cared, but most of his reasoning went back to their work. He wanted her to eat because of the raid. He wanted her to sleep because she couldn’t to her job if she was exhausted. He was just always so… professional, and there were occasions where she felt like their entire relationship revolved around nothing but work.
But maybe that was her fault. They were on a very strict mission, after all, with no room for relationships or drama. Maybe he was in the right by keeping their relationship professional.
“Good, good.” She went onto the computer, going over logs and data. They had only hours until they reached the ship. Hours until they would pull of their most difficult raid yet. “Make sure the ship is in top shape. I don’t want anything malfunctioning while we’re boarding the other ship.”
(Oh wait. you lengthened your response before I responded to it. I responded to what I remembered was there and didn't re-read XD Can I edit my response? or would you prefer to just go ahead as is?)
((Either works! You can if you want, or we can just go ahead xD))
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