Chapter 7: Did I do that?
Alaires woke up suddenly to a pounding in her ears. Her eyes took a moment to come into focus, but all she could see was dim light. She couldn't quite make out whether she was at the Esper Mansion or in the hospital. All she knew for certain is that her head wouldn't stop pounding, as if someone were hammering a spike into her brain. Forcing herself to sit up she began to really take stock of where she was. Blinking and rubbing her eyes she began to see that she wasn't really in the Mansion at all but on the shuttle. It took her a moment before she realized that she had "borrowed" the shuttle to get to Motavia. That bump on her head must have really knocked her brain around if she couldn't remember that she had to rescue Rune. Jumping off the bed, she soon realized the folly of that decision as her the room began to spin and she fell to the floor on her hands and knees with a loud yelp. "I guess I need to look first before leaping" she thought to herself as she slowly gathered herself together and stood up before careening into the wall. At least this was something a bit more stable. Taking a few deep breath's the room didn't spin so much and her throbbing headache was, in the very least, becoming a dull annoyance. She found her way to the light panel and pressed it. No sound emitted from the panel to her surprise, but she just figured she didn't press it hard enough and tried again, but to no avail. She then realized that the door to the room was open and decided to take a look. The hallway didn't shed much more light than the room she was in but at least there were only 2 directions, left or right. Deciding that left was best, she made her way to the door at the end. She placed her palm on the panel next to the door and was greeted by the sound of it opening without much fuss. Soon her head began to ache again as she was assaulted by the sounds of clanging and banging. Quickly covering her ears, she made her way into what appeared to be the engine room of the shuttle. A hatch was open to the left most corner opposite of where she was standing and that seemed to be where the strange noise was coming from. Tip toeing as much as she could over to the hatch, she leaned down to take a look and was greeted with a dark helmeted man covered in grease. She fell back with a scream and quickly scooted her way to the opposite wall. The man looked familiar somehow, but she couldn't really tell with the dim light and the grease. All she knew is if she didn't get in trouble from stealing, she might be killed by a would be pirate. Her heart started to race as she just stared into his grey eyes, waiting.
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Alden fished around the pipes as he began to take stock of the situation and go over what happened hours before he found himself above the engine's housing compartment:
After getting thrown out of the door on the bridge and plummeting down the hall as the shuttle went into light speed, the trip was soon halted as something loud came from the engine room followed by an explosion. Soon the lights began flickering on and off as alarms began to blare, alert anyone on board of the situation. He quickly hurried down the hall past where the loading ramp was and entered a door leading past the med bay and into the engine room. Speeding along, he began to smell smoke and feared the worst. Opening the door to the engine room he was assaulted by heat and fire which would appear to explain the explosion. Covering his head with his right forearm and leaning against the flames as if being pushed back, he made his way to the left most corner where the flame seemed to be spurting out the most. He pressed a button on the back of the suit's collar which released two pieces of metal that quickly adhered itself to his head to form a helmet. Pressing a button on the side of the helmet lowered the blast visor and brought up displays scanning the damage. It would appear in his haste to finish his work, he didn't align the couplings to the starboard engine, causing it to come loose during the light speed travel and ultimately crashing into it's holding area, and damaging everything around it. Twisting his left wrist, a small cylinder popped out just above the top of his hand. Holding his left wrist and pressing with his thumb and forefinger, the cylinder spurted out some emergency fire foam and he quickly blanketed the panel the fire came from, cooling it in the process. Letting go of his extinguisher, he quickly opened the hatch and sprayed some more foam inside, breathing easier as he noticed the fire going out and smoke dissipating. Twisting his left wrist in the opposite direction, the extinguisher went back into it's holding area and he raised the blast visor from his face. Now all he had to do get back to the bridge and see to the little thief. He made his way back to the bridge and saw the little girl was crumpled to the floor below. Kneeling down he did a cursory examination silently cursing as he had no medical training. Lowering his blast visor again, he began using the scans that would be mainly used for examining vehicular damage to examine her. Luckily the software could determine flesh from steel and gave him a rough report that she only suffered minor injuries to the head and that they would heal over time without a proper medical adviser. Picking her up, he took her to the med bay and laid her down in the bed there and turned to the med computer for the automated doctor. He was quickly foiled as the power to the computer was out due to the damage caused by the engine. Realizing he couldn't do much else, he made his way back to the engine room to attempt some on the spot repairs to hopefully restore power to the shuttle and the engine.
And so here he was, fishing around ripped pipes spurting oil and groaning in protest at the gaping holes they now suffered. He knew he was going to need his repair kit which was left at the shuttle bay in the mansion. Luckily he knew of a spare kit in the cockpit and stood up to get it only to almost bump into the little girl who, in shock of her own, fell back screaming rather loudly and almost causing him some momentary discomfort if not for the helmet he still wore. Watching her scoot to the back wall he just started into those purple eyes full of fear and pain. He waited a moment before introducing himself.
"Hello there little one, I'm Alden. Are you alright?"
The little girl just stared for a moment before responding,
"You're not going to kill me?"
He laughed "No little one, I'm not going to hurt you. You don't think I'm some pirate do you?" She nodded her head, unsure yet curious at this introduction. Smiling to himself he climbed out of the hole and started to walk towards her. She jerked away as he got closer and whimpered. Realizing that he probably didn't look the most presentable, he touched the button on the back of his suits collar again, retracted the helmet and showing his dark blue hair. Noting a bit of ease in her posture, he sat down and took out an old cloth that he used to clean his tools and rubbed the grease off his face. After finishing, he looked at her a smiled,
"So, tell me your name little one. Unless you liked to be addressed as little one...."
"A...Alaires is my name"
"Alaires hmm? What a pretty name. Tell me Alaires, what are you doing trying to take the shuttle? You know only adults are supposed to be using this."
"I know but...hey how do I know this isn't some trick?"
Chuckling to himself he knew it would be a long trip if she didn't trust him. "I'm the one who helps repair all the shuttles in the mansion. If this was some trick, would I be stuck here with you?"
She thought about it for a moment and smiled a bit. Seeing the tension ease out of her with each passing moment, he relaxed as well. He knew how to handle himself around children but he wasn't quite sure what to do with her given the circumstances. Taking out his hand held reader he saw the time and realized she might be hungry.
"It's kind of late, I bet you're hungry. Want to see if I can get the food synth's up and running?"
Satisfied with a nod, he stood up and held his hand out to her. He waited as she looked at the outstretched hand, waiting to see if it was some other trick. Apparently satisfied, she took his hand and let him help her off the floor. They walked into the med bay where the closest food synth was and he began looking it over, calculating how he could divert the power. Looking around, he saw that the bed she was on had a scanner that wasn't working properly. Taking the scanner off the side of the bed he began to dismantle it, hoping to find a power source inside. Finding one, he took the wires that were hanging from where they would connect to the bed and attached them to an emergency panel next to the food synth. After a few moments he was able to power the synth with the scanner. It wasn't running at the full power, but it would do to get some food. After getting her order and something for himself, he sat down against the wall and started to eat. A few long moments of silence went by before she started to talk;
"Are you really going to turn me over to the authorities?"
He looked at her and thought for a moment before replying
"Well you did hijack a shuttle and took it off of Esper property without proper clearance. I am obligated to do something."
He eyes grew big and seemed to well up with tears.
"Please don't! I wasn't trying to do anything bad. I was just trying to help Rune." She quickly covered her mouth, obviously not wanting to give out that information. Puzzled he tried prying the rest of the story out of her.
"Rune? What's wrong with Master Rune?"
She shook her head, keeping her mouth covered with her hand. He realized, from past experience anyway, this would take some bribery.
"Tell you what, you tell me what's going on with Master Rune and I won't tell them you took the shuttle."
This seemed to get her attention. Slowly moving her hand from her mouth she studied him as if she was reading his eyes to see if he was telling the truth.
"Really? Ok well Rune was going to Knowles Inn on Motavia to meet someone and you know how bad that place is."
"Knowles Inn? I wouldn't know why he would do that but he can take care of himself"
"I know he can take care of himself dummy! But he was looking for something and he got a note saying that they found it and he rushed out of the mansion! He's going to get into trouble and I have to help!"
He couldn't help but smile at the courage and devotion she had to Rune. Of course he couldn't let her go on her own and get hurt at the same time. It looked like he might have to go with her but they weren't going anywhere until they got the shuttle fixed. He considered telling her he was going to take her there and then go back to the mansion but the last time he did that, he had to go out of his way to make the child and the parents happy.
"Ok, tell you what. I'll get this bucket working again and we'll go help Rune"
Her eyes lit up at the mere mention of helping out the Esper Lord.
"Really?! You mean it? Ok what can I do to help?"
"Ok ok first things first. Let's finish up our meals. After that you're going to get some sleep and I'll work on fixing the engine."
She pouted "Awwwww meanie!"
He laughed at the "insult" and continued to eat. He knew something was going to change when he woke up this morning, he just never imagined it would turn out like this.
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