Just Another Day On Rubi-Ka (Part II)

[FoosballX]

[[well I finailly got part two done, I was hoping to get it done much sooner, but with the heat and IR things, and well I am very lazy at time.
Anyway this story pretty much takes place right after part one. so in case someone is reading this and didn't read part one, and has no plans on reading part one. This story takes place a few months back, it would have been right around the time Nulion came out and said he joined the Legion.
For those that have been playing along and asking OOC why Foos is nice to Nulion I hope this will answer a little. And this one is a little long as well as being in two parts itself. Enjoy ]]

His moment of relaxation was brief as a call came over his com ending the quiet he was so enjoying. “Foos are you there?” it was Ninnyhammer, he liked her but he could hear in the sound of her voice something wasn’t right. “Yes Ninny I’m here, what’s up?” he tried not to sound too perturbed by the disruption of his much need rest.
“Where have you been? I’ve been trying to get a hold of you all day.”
“Sorry Ninny I was busy on a job, I had the com turned off”, he didn’t like were this was going he and Ninny talked a lot as she was one of his few close friends, but he could tell something was off.
“Oh”, her voice sounded questioning, almost as if confused as to why he would turn his com off, even thought she knew he normally would during jobs. “Look Foos, we need to talk”, he knew right then something was wrong. Even though there was no romantic involvement between him and Ninny, their relationship was more like close siblings in nature, he knew whenever a woman used the phrase “We need to talk” most of the time nothing good was on the horizon, she was mad at him about something.
In an attempt to gauge how mad she was at him he said, “No Ninny I will not go and blow anything up with you or at least not today.”
“Aww, why not? What? No never mind, just meet at Neuters ASAP. Ninny out.” Her voice was both disappointed and frustrated, but he was able to break her concentration for at least a brief moment. It was a good sign that she wasn’t too angry with him. He stood up going over in his mind what in the world he could have done and headed out toward Newland City.

He entered “Neuters’R’Us” with a heavy head still having no clue as to what he could have done, but the thought of there being alcohol cheered him up a little bit. As he rounded the corner into the main part of the bar, he saw her sitting at a table with more then enough booze laid out and ready for the both of them. “Oh no”, he thought to himself, “This is going to take forever”. She saw him and with a smile waved him over.

He strolled up to the table bobbing his head to the beat of the music, and took a seat across from her. “Ok Ninny I’m here, what’s up?” he asked her as he grabbed a beer and opened it.
Sitting there with an open bottle already in her hand she looked at him and said, “Well Foos, I’ve been hearing some things” she stopped and took a drink.
“What things Ninny”, the statement complete confused him and he had no idea as to what she could be talking about.
“Things Foos, I’ve been hearing some things” she said looking at him with downcast eyes.
Slightly annoyed by the repeat of the question, “Alright enough Ninny, what things? What is on your mind?”
“What’s on my mind?” she stared at him like she was ready to kill him on the spot, “You! Getting all chummy with a guy that openly said he was working with the mother****ing LEGIONNAIRES, that's what!” she took a sip of her drink trying to quell her anger, “That's just not cool!”
“Nulion?” he asked her, he knew who she was talking about but he needed to make sure.
“Yeah, Nulion, that’s him, the guy working for the child killers” she looked at him and her anger started to boil once again.
“Look Ninny I’ve got no love for the Legion but”, he took another drink, “I don't ever remember having to ask permission on who I can and can't talk to.”
“Well you should have” she put her drink down and clinched her fists; she was in disbelief by his answer.
“No, I don't align myself with anyone; I do as I please you should damn well know, and understand that” Finishing off his drink he grabs another “Asking permission would be I was following someone, that time
I checked I followed myself.”
She looks at him for a moment. Almost insulted by the comment she is somewhat calmer and lowers her voice,”Uh, duh. Come on man, you and I are both non-conformists together. But that aside”, she looks at him puzzled as he sit there drinking calmly in front of her. She starts to yell at him once again “Why the hell would you want to talk to him? Why would you want to be nice to someone who affiliates themselves with a goddamn MONSTER? I want to know why and/or what possible reason you could ever want to do this Foos?” she sits there with her fist still clinched looking at him as if she is getting ready to take a swing at him.
“Ok Ninny”, he raises his hand asking her to calm down. “I have my reasons, and as much as I hate to explain myself at times, but you are my friend so I will tell you” she looks at him and folds her arms, making a ‘this better be good’ expression to her face.

Foos takes another sip of his drink and looks at her, “There are a few reasons I guess”, and he pauses to make sure she is listening. Ninny nods her head for him to go on. “There are a few reasons. First off, I like talking to Nulion. I enjoy the meaningless chats I have with him. Stuff like how’s the weather, or hey I got this new recipe for a barbequed reet stew or whatever. But don’t misunderstand me. Its one thing for me to talk to him over a public node. If he and I were to meet face to face? Well that might be a different story.”
She looks at him still not satisfied with his answer, “But…” her words get cut short.
“Wait Ninny, I said I had more then one reason and that was only the first.” He opens another drink as she sits there silently listening to him. “Another reason is” he stops and looks up thinking of the right words. Looking back in her face he says, “I believe in redemption. Well at least I do for most. I don't believe there's a line you can cross in which you can't come back from. And I feel, sometimes when you shun someone for making bad decisions they may believe there's no reason to turn around a walk back from that line.” He looks at and Ninny and then down to the floor, “Think of how many we have killed, will there be redemption for us?”
Angrily spiting out her drink, “I would happily slit Volcatius' throat, given the chance. Over, and over, and over, there's no redemption for that beast.” She takes in a deep breath to clam herself, “Nulion?” she pauses for a moment to think, “Maybe, but I’m dubious about even that. But even so, why do you care? It’s not like you really even know this guy.”
“Well” sighing, “I guess I really don’t care if this guy changes is path in the end.” Ninny looks at Foos completely perplexed, but before she can ask another question he raises his hand to stop her, “Let me ask you Ninny, have you ever been alone?”
She looks at him raising her eyebrows, “Of course I’ve been alone everyone is alone at some point in time. What the hell kind of question is that?”
“No Ninny, I mean alone with no means of finding anyone else. I mean being out in literally in the dark, with no one around. And having to sit there thinking this might be it, that you’ll slowly die with no one ever finding you. I mean truly alone?”
She looks at him not feeling for a second the slience between them, and finally breaks it by saying, “No. No I guess not.”
Foos looks up and closes his eyes as if trying to bring back to his mind a story from his past stored away with all thoughts and events that have happened in his life. Looking down at her and into her eyes he says, “Ok Ninny I’m going to tell you something I almost never talk about, it’s something that happened to me a few years back.”

[FoosballX]

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As you know Ninny, I grew up on a starship traveling from place to place. Space travel can be very dangerous, even more so if you live and work on a trading vessel. You live with a constant threat that someone out there wants what you are carrying and are more then will to come and take it by force. Some are almost happy to come along and fight you for what you have. So you have to be prepared to do what you have to do what you have to do to survive. Most of the time that means fighting and killing, but sometimes you might have to (Foos sits there still for a moment, quietly reflecting on his past) take other options.

When I was very young my father didn't like the idea of his son being caught in a firefight. So my father bought a special shuttle pod. It was slightly bigger then an escape pod, but not by much. It pretty much consisted of a small cockpit, sleeping area –which was pretty much a small space it a cot in it- and a restroom. My father made sure there where enough rations to last three to four lifetimes, and the life support would be more than ample to keep me alive for my entire life.
But as I said this ship is small, if you weren’t looking for it you would never see it. On scanners it would just look like another piece of debris.

Anyway, I use the ship on many occasions when I was young. My father would sneak me out, and return when the fighting was done. It was around the age or fourteen when I stopped using it. By that time I had become officially the ships second in command. As much as my father didn’t like it, I told him that if I were to be his second then I needed to fight alongside the crew, that I couldn't just run and hide. I had a responsibility to my ship and crew. So after that I had fought along side my crew killing my fair share of invaders.

I was about nineteen, we were delivering –pauses for a moment— you know I don’t even remember what it was. What I do remember it was very important and a lot of people were on our tail to try and get it. And they were pulling out all the stops to get it. It came down to a point where we knew we were going to get boarded and searched. It was all corporate fighting crap, but we were caught in the middle. Since we knew this was going to happen, my father and I decided our best course of action would be for me to take the shuttle pod out with the package and I would wait for about a day and be picked up. It was a small package around the size of a briefcase, so there was more then enough room for it.

Now keep in mind this ship hadn’t been used in like five or six years, and over that period it had parts cannibalized for other things, I would practice on it for learning about com systems and engines –very basic stuff mind you, but still. Now don’t get me wrong, the ship was still in working order so I knew it would do it’s job and keep me safe.
But there was one good thing about the ship not being used for awhile, most of the crew we had on didn’t even know it was there, so we felt pretty safe nobody would blow us in, and report our plan, should any of our crew be on the take. As for the few that did know, they had been with us for so long they were considered family. Granted there is always the risk that you closest friend could be just waiting to turn you in, but some times you just take that leap of faith and trust your gut.

Anyway --Foos takes another drink and pauses— I’m getting away from the point. So we are in a hurry and time is short, our pursuers will be catching us shortly, so we didn’t have a lot of time. We get the thing fueled up, and run a quick systems check to make sure life support is working and run a scan to make sure the hull is going to, I really didn’t feel like being sucked out a crack in ship out in the middle of space. So we check everything, and I get all set up to make my little trek. Again nobody really knew about the shuttle so it was easy for me to slip away.

Now we knew the ship chasing us was very close but not close enough to have us in visual range. The plan was simple enough, we drop the shuttle out, I sit there and wait for the other ship to pass, and then after awhile I would kick on the engines head to the rendezvous. So we drop the ship with me and the package inside. No when we drop the ship we do just that, the shuttle pretty much gets sucked out the ship due to the vacuum of space, this in case we are in visual range it just looks like a piece of debris falling off or passing the ship, nothing too out of the ordinary. Now the other thing is I have to sit there and wait for the other ship to pass. Should I be in range, the glow from the burn of the engines could give me away. Now the only problem with sitting there and waiting for the other ship to pass is if my ship is a direct path of the pursuing ship. Then its kick on my engines and try my best to run.

So I get dropped from the ship and I sit there for a bit and wait as planned. The other ship comes by with in an hour or so. Fortunately when the ship passes it far enough away from me, I can see it out my windows but just barely. So the ship passes by, and I sit there for about another hour just to make sure I’m out of range again. So turn on my engines and make my way to the rendezvous. The second I turn on my engines I get a malfunction, they go straight to full burn and I just start zooming through space, and I can’t get the engines to turn off, to make matters worse I start losing ship control, so I can’t even just fly in a circle and try to stay close to where I’m suppost to go. I pretty much just take off in a straight line through space.

So after awhile the fuel finally burns out, but I’m still moving pretty fast through space, and I have really no way to slow down. Maybe I should have mentioned this before, but this ship I was in, and ones like it, well they are pretty much toys for rich kids that live in space stations. They don’t have the most powerful and most sophisticated systems on them. Even my com system was very short range. Now here I am speeding through the middle of space. There is nothing around me just black. So with my limited knowledge of com systems and ships, I was able to redirect power from all non-essential systems and boost range of the transmitter. Not by very much, but it was better then what I had.

So there I sat in a darkened ship out in the middle of deep space, alone. For awhile I would spend most of my days calling out, for someone, anyone. Hoping anyone would hear my signal, and then after an awhile I just gave up. I turned on the beacon and lay down. I then spent my days sleeping, eating, and going to the bathroom. It was around that time the demons started to come, my demons. Those things that live in the dark places of your mind, monsters of your own creation that you have no choice but you fight. Its funny, one would think in situations like those your mind would take you to paradise, but instead it takes you too hell. You have to fight through it and find your way to paradise, and the path is not an easy one. Fortunately, my studies over the years helped me get through that, but again I’m straying form the point.

After some time my father finally found me, they told me I was lost for six months or so. To be honest for me time had become irrelevant, I could have be there a month to ten years I and wouldn’t have known the difference. Part of me feels that I was gone longer then six month, maybe more like a year, but nobody wanted to tell me the truth for what ever reason. But they told me six months so I believe six months.

Either way my point in telling you this Ninny, is when I hear Nulion come on over the node I hear the voice of that lost kid alone in the dark, and I would never let another being feel like that. And yes maybe it is different, but somewhere inside it still feels the same to me. Think me a sap if you will, but I would not let someone suffer that feeling of loneliness, at least not if I can help it.

[FoosballX]

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Ninny sits there quiet for a moment staring at Foos, not sure what to say. She finally opens her mouth and says, “Well since you put it that way, I guess I can understand why you talk to him. I guess that explains why you speak to him, but I’m still not sure why you’re nice to him.”
Foos sits there and takes a swig of his drink and looks back at Ninny as says, “I told you Ninny I just like Nulion.” Foos moves his rubs his hand over his forehead and looks down, “Well there is one other reason, its more of a bonus, then a reason in its self. I can’t say its a major motivation, but it is still there.”
Ninny looks at Foos, and her eyes peak up with curiosity, “Go on, I’m listening”.
Looking up at Ninny, “Part of me hopes he'll slip and give away a little more then he means too. I'm not trying to play him. It's more if I keep him talking he might say something. If the Legion turns out to be a real threat I want to know how they move. It's always best to know the ways of your enemy.” Foos take the finishing sip of his drink and placing the empty can back on the table, “It not at all my main reason, but it still there floating around in the back of my mind”.
Ninny makes a loud breathing noise and says, “You and your tricky meat-ish logic and rationality”.
Foos looks at her and smiles, “I guess you got me there. So are we cool Ninny?”
“Yes Foos we’re cool”, out of nowhere Ninny stands up and takes a swipe with the back of her hand to Foos’ head. Foos quickly moves back making Ninny’s strike just miss his head. In his hast to dodge the blow he loses balance on his chair and falls back then forward and on to the table, knocking the empty drinks to the ground.
“What the hell was that for”, he said while he lifted himself up from the table.
Ninny looks down at him and yells, “What did I say about being dramatically ominous?” lowering her voice to a normal level and with a kind softness, “And if you would have told me all this sooner, I wouldn’t have wanted to cut your head off” she looks at him and grins.
Foos stand up from the table and brushes himself off, “Ok Ninny I have to go to work”.
While starting to move her eyes around about the bar, and if something new has caught her attention, “Anything you need help with?”
“No Ninny this is something I have to do alone, but thanks for the offer” as he begins to walk away from her.
“Alright then I'm going to go chase after sparkly things” and she begins to dance around the bar.
Foos looks back shakes his head and leaves.

[Nulion]

((Enjoyed this story, as I did the last one! Keep up the great work, Foos ))