Tales Aboard Eve
an excerpt

CHAPTER ONE

Running down a corridor at full speed, naked as the day he was born, and yelling a loud, hopefully intimidating, yell was definitely not what Captain Khadien Vouche considered a very good time. The loudly echoing sound of many heavy footed boot steps behind him seemed to be getting louder and louder, and it spurred him to try and run even faster.

He rounded a corner, clutching his clothing all wadded up in a ball tightly to his chest. His boots laid on top of the ball and it was quite a balancing act to try and run, but also make sure that his boots didn't slide off the ball and onto the floor. He knew that he'd have to leave them behind if they did fall. Although he was so grateful that he was in such good shape. That seemed to be the thing that was helping him keep slightly ahead of his pursuers.

A soft, but audible beep sounds in Khadien's left ear. He doesn't hide the sigh that he utters, nor the growl of frustration. "I'm kinda busy right now."

"I'm sorry Captain. I was just wondering when you'd be back on the ship so we could get going. They just finished loading the shipment about an hour ago." There is a pause on the other end. "Captain...you're not in the middle of..."

As he didn't hide the sigh or growl of frustration, now he doesn't hide his irritation, while still trying to sound somewhat normal, despite the fact that he was breathing hard. "No Phawn I'm not! I'm just getting my ass chased and getting more and more lost. Why the hell do all these corridors have to look the same?"

Now it's Phawn's turn to give an audible sigh. "Captain, we really need to discuss changing the way you do diplomatic talks and the proper way to go about diplomatic relations. Contrary to what you may believe it doesn't mean screwing the brains out of the other diplomatic party."

Khadien grits his teeth as he turns another corner. He spies a door so he wastes no time in pressing the button on the control panel next to it to open the door, praying it's not locked. He barely choked back a whoop as the door slides open. 'There's no time for that now.' He tells himself, ducking inside. The door slides closed just as the sounds of the ones behind him go thundering past. He lets out a shuddering sigh of relief as he leans against a nearby wall and slowly slides down it. He closes his eyes, trying to work on controlling his very heavy breathing. "Phawn, just get me out of here," he says in a hushed whisper, "then we'll talk all that you want to once I'm safely back aboard Eve."

"Yes Captain. Give me a moment so I can pinpoint your exact location." The next few moments were full of tension for Khadien. His body was already dripping with sweat from his prior activities. The waiting though caused fresh sweat to pop out all over his body and every muscle, which had started to relax, tense up again. He was so on edge that he almost cried out in alarm when he heard Phawn's voice. "Ok, I see you. Please stand by. I think I was able to fix all the bugs outta the transporter."

It takes Khadien's brain a moment before it registers what exactly Phawn had said about transporter bugs. By that time though he felt the usual weirdness as always came with being transported. One can't help but feeling weird being taken apart molecule by molecule and moved from one place to another within a matter of moments, sometimes less when everything about the process went off correctly.

"Captain? Are you alright?"

The electronic voice that spoke was soft with gentle tones which caused Khadien to collapse on top of the transporter pad, knowing that he was finally safe. The feel of the transporter pad under his fingertips, pressed against his cheek, never felt so good. True, this wasn't the first time, nor would it be the last time, but he wasn't thinking about that right now. He was so focused on that transporter pad that he didn't hear the doors of the transporter room slide open.

Phawn kneels his small frame down next to the Captain, resting his arms on his knees. He watches his Captain with his gentle Orchid colored eyes for a few moments before speaking softly, "Eve, please check his vitals for me."

The same soft electronic voice speaks up again. "Yes Phawn. Did you wish for me to come down and do it in person or shall I just do it where I am?"

"I think he'll be ok. I'll stay with him. Just check the Captain's vitals and the continue to run that diagnostic that I asked for you to run on Titan."

"Yes Phawn. Right away."

Khadien chooses this moment to slowly lift his head and say quietly, "Phawn, you always worry too much about me. I'm fine."

Phawn gives Khadien a very annoyed look, putting his hands on his hips. "Khadien, you're the Captain of this ship! I mean, aside from Eve, you're the most important member of this ship. Besides, I worry and care about you. I don't want anything bad to happen to you, ever. I certainly don't want you ever getting into a situation that gets you killed, yet you seem to love giving my beautiful lavender hair more and more gray hairs. You really gotta cut that out. It's so annoying to try and constantly cover up or pluck each and every new one that I find, so just stop."

Khadien gives Phawn a roguish smirk as he gives his head a toss, moving his long, shaggy coffee colored hair out of his eyes and face. His sky blue eyes seem to give off an impish twinkle. "Oh c'mon, getting one's heart to race is a healthy enough thing for anyone. You really need some more excitement in your life. Get off the ship every so often, and more importantly get out and stay out of engineering for longer than a quickly wolfed down meal or a couple hour catnap. You'll never find someone if you don't."

Phawn gets a sudden surge of emotion well up inside of him at his Captain's words. Before he realizes it he's throwing his arms around Khadien and hugging him tightly before bestowing a tender, but loving kiss upon his lips. Khadien doesn't shy away, and in fact wraps his own arms around his main engineering officer and kisses him back with equal tenderness. They stay this way for what seems like an eternity before Phawn finally, and slowly, pulls away just enough to be able to gaze deeply into his Captain's eyes, allowing himself to get lost in them until he realizes that he really should speak and explain himself. "I'm sorry," he says, sighing softly, "it's just that...I don't want anyone else. I'm perfectly happy being with you. I know that you're with other people, and at times many other different species, but that doesn't matter to me. You know me. I'm not a jealous person at heart. You've never really given me a reason to be jealous of you nor your other relationships. You always come back to me. You always show me in many various ways that you love and appreciate me. That's some of the things that have me love you. I know that I can't fully devote myself to a relationship because I tend to often get all wrapped up in my work so that I often don't sleep or eat for days. Being with you is perfect. You're never upset at me that I spend too little time with you. You don't mind my weird hours. You accept me for who," his eyes glance briefly down at his crotch, "and what I am." He reaches out, gazing into Khadien's eyes again, to tenderly stroke his cheek with the back of his fingertips. Khadien smiles tenderly at Phawn and leans into his touch, holding him close.

Eve had been watching the entire scene closely and quietly with her sensors that were installed in various areas of the room. She chooses that moment to speak up. "I am glad that you are fine Captain. I would also feel amiss if something bad were to happen to you."

This statement causes Khadien's face to break out into a broad smile. "Aw, Eve. That's so sweet that you care so much. You know you're my favorite gal, my favorite ship. Without you I'm nothing, I have nothing. I'm glad that you're always gonna be with me." He then looks at Phawn and holds up his hands briefly for emphasis before putting them back around Phawn. "And fine, you both win. I'll do my best to take better care of myself, but you both know me. I can only try my best, I can't promise nothing 'cause you know how much I hate breakin' promises. Still, that's the thing about this profession that we all choose the minute we stepped aboard this ship. In order to make the money to get us by, even barely, we gotta run the risks, make sure the shipments get picked up and safely dropped off to their destinations before we can even collect our payment. We gotta run under radars to avoid detection, out maneuver other ships, even the police ships. We've done it though and we'll continue to do it for as long as possible. If I gotta do my best to make sure I don't get killed, then you both gotta do the same thing.

"Phawn, I appreciate all that you do to keep this rusting hunk of scrap metal going despite all that I've put it through. It's like through thick and thin you're always there for me. Sometimes I feel like you've cloned yourself just so that you can be everywhere at once just to keep things going, just to keep us just enough ahead of the ones chasin' us." Khadien looks up at where the speakers in the room were that Eve's voice filters in from when she talks. "Eve, I appreciate you too. You've always been there for me ever since I acquired this hunk of junk. You always know how to fly straight and true. You keep me company and keep my bed warm just when I need you. It's like I don't even have to ask for you. You read my thoughts, you sense my emotions and then you're just there waiting for me. I dunno what I'd do, or where I'd be without either one of you. No, wait, actually I do know. I'd probably be in a prison cell somewhere on some remote planet where I'd just be there to be forgotten and just rot. Well, either that or dead. Probably most likely dead from all the crap that I've pulled."

Eve's voice continues to sound soft and gentle, even loving, if that was even possible. "Captain, I am glad that I am here for you as well."

Phawn nods. "I agree with Eve. I'm glad that I'm here for you as well. I'm glad that you picked me up when you did. Any other place I'd probably be bored out of my mind and feeling like my many gifts and talents were being wasted." He grins and shakes his head. "I don't feel that way here. Here it's like I'm constantly challenged. Constantly trying to figure out new and different ways to make Eve keep running, a lot of times literally, despite the fact that things often get broken either due to being old and worn out, or else shot off or blown apart. That and the fact that most of the time I don't even have the correct parts or tools to do the necessary repairs or maintenance that I need. It's ok though because that's where the challenge lies." He says all this as he gazes fondly at his captain.

Khadien's face breaks out into a rather large smile. "Thanks you two. I really needed that, especially after this last round of negotiation talks." He takes a deep breath and quickly shuts up as he realizes that he could very quickly say something that could get him digging a rather deep hole for himself. Although when he thinks about it he realizes that he might have already dug himself. His mind absently wanders over the events that had led up to his mad dash for his life as he slips back into his clothing. He hmmms as he pulls his boots on as a thought occurs to him to set his nerves back on edge. "Eve can you please check to make sure that we're not being chased after, even from a distance."

There's silence for a moment while Eve reaches out with her scanners to follow her captain's orders to see if they are being chased or not. She tries both short and long range scanners, but strangely enough she can find no trace of any ship that is after them. She makes her scanners more sensitive to sense any annomolyes, again within the short and long term scanning ranges. Even the very slightest blip, or the smallest spacial distortion could be a tell-tale sign of a ship's cloaking device. Nothing except the normal things that one finds naturally in space. "Negative Captain. I am not picking up anything on the short or long range scanners, not even a cloaked ship. I do find it highly unusual that they did not send even one ship after us. Do you think they are trying to attempt to catch us off-guard so they can do a sneak attack on us later?"

This causes Khadien to frown and give pause in the middle of him pulling on his boots. "Eve, I really wish you wouldn't say or ask things like that. Do you even realize how nervous and freaked out saying and asking stuff like that makes me? I mean, Phawn said earlier that the stuff I do makes him get gray hairs, of which I am sorry for making that happen to him, but when you say and ask things like that, well then that's how you, in your own digital way, give me all of my gray hairs. I mean, I know you're an android and you really don't mean to say or ask me such things that freak me out on purpose. You're just trying to get information about stuff, but still..." He forces himself to stop in order to close his eyes and take several deep breaths to try and calm himself and focus his thoughts. "I do guess though that at this point we can only hope that they decided that we're really not worth going after. Besides, we got all our shipment aboard, we're on our way to our next destination to drop it off, then we'll get paid. For the time being we're all safe, that's all that matters. Although Eve I do want for you to continue your sensor sweeps to make sure that we stay that way. Also, keep an electronic ear, if not both of them, out on the communication channels, all frequencies just to make sure there's no chatter about us or possible locations where we might be."

"Yes Captain."

Phawn had quietly moved over to the doors of the transporter room, but stayed out of sensor range of the doors so they wouldn't slide open. He stands with his hands clasped behind his back and silently watches his captain dress along with his interaction between him and the ship, whom the captain never hid what his feelings were towards her. Phawn wasn't the jealous type, it just wasn't in his nature. Besides, he knew just how lucky he was that the captain was even interested in him. True things were a lot more open and accepting with the humans and the aliens co-existing with one another. If it wasn't for that then the biological, genetic and technological advanced humans wouldn't even exist. Yet for someone like Phawn to have been born both female and male, and having parents who decided to wait until their child was old enough to make their own decision about which sex they wanted to be. What made things even worse for Phawn, and more difficult, was that when that time came Phawn choose to present himself as male, and use the male pronouns, yet he did nothing to remove his female sex organs. His chest, thankfully, was a male chest, but it remained hairless. He felt that having both organs made him even more unique and special, but it also cost him many relationships in his life. There were still far too many that looked down upon people like him. He hated the fact that he was considered a freak and he had gone through many many years just stuck in a deep and dangerous depression. He threw himself into fixing, building and tinkering with things just so he could forget about the rest of the world around him. He had been a complete and total mess until Khadien had found him. Khadien had been the first and the only one to never ask any questions, never look down upon him. He had been the first and only one to show Phawn was real and true love was, and Phawn would be forever grateful for it. Now he opens his mouth to speak. "Khadien, you must be famished. I could use some food too. Let's go get something to eat, ok?"

Khadien looks Phawn over as he moves at his normal striding, almost a strut, gait toward him. He smiles again as he lays a hand on Phawn's shoulder. "You know, a bit of grub does sound look a good idea." He moves closer and drapes an arm around the smaller guy's shoulders. "C'mon, let's go." With those words said the two of them move toward the transporter room's exit, stepping on the hidden sensors on the floor so that the duel doors silently slide open and they leave, on their way to the meal's area.

* * *

Phawn holds onto his tray containing his plate of chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, and cut up steamed carrots along with a glass of hot apple cider as he stands nearby and waits for Khadien to make up his mind about what he wants to eat. He watches as Khadien simply stands there stroking his chin with his fingertips in front of the food and drink replicator machine. "You know this isn't a life or death decision or anything like that," Phawn says with a yawn. "Just pick something already so we can sit down. That and my arms are going to get tired, not to mention my food getting cold as we speak."

Khadien doesn't take his eyes off of the machine as he gives Phawn a dismissive wave. "Phawn, you should know better than anyone that such a decision as choosing what to eat can be very important, and should not be taken lightly at all, nor rushed in the slightest." He hmmms softly as his mind goes back to trying to decide just what he wants to have to eat and drink. A moment later though he finally comes to his decision. "Let me have a plate of fried platar with bonbok on the side, devonlan and bilaquil to drink." He watches and listens to the machine hum softly and give a soft blue glow in the empty shelf slot that's about waist level for him while it processes his order and a second later a tray with his food and drink resting upon it appears. Khadien reaches in to carefully pull the tray out before turning to look at Phawn, "Ok, now let's go pick a place to sit." He then turns around and looks at the couple of tables with two chairs each that are scattered about the room. Why he kept so many tables when it was mainly just him and Phawn that used that room to eat in was simply because he liked the variety of being able to sit at different spots on different days. Besides that was how he had gotten the ship and he just never bothered to change the layout of that particular room. He didn't feel he needed to.

Sliding into a seat, Phawn is finally able to set his tray down. A yawn escapes his lips which he tries to quickly cover up with one of his hands, but Khadien catches it as he slides into a seat right across from him.

"I'm sorry Captain," Phawn says, "I've not been able to sleep well lately."

Khadien nods as he takes a sip of his drink. "So which is it? Too many long and late nights messin' with stuff, or just too many days of flat no sleep and caffeine and other stims to keep you going?"

Phawn pauses briefly in slipping his fork into his mashed potatoes and gravy. He may be irrational, childish, boarding on insane or else just plain stupid and dense at times, but one thing that one could never ever say about the captain was that he wasn't observant. Phawn finds himself slowly nodding. "Too many days with just my stims, caffeine and stuff to keep me awake. You'd be surprised, well maybe you wouldn't but, hitting one's hand with one of my heavier tools is enough to surely keep someone awake for several hours, if not fully wake them up. Of course, that is unless they go the opposite way and pass out from the pain." He winces a bit as he remembers how close of a call it was as he tried to hurriedly get himself to the medical room. How he was stumbling badly as his mind kept wanting to shut down from the massive amount of pain that his brain was registering from the nerves that were silently screaming in his badly mashed hand. The hand that he clutched lightly with his good hand, yet he had to not hold onto his injured one too tightly, nor look down at it. If he had looked down at it then that probably would have been the end of his medical room trip for him. His hand no longer looked like a hand, but instead looked like a flesh colored version of a jelly fish. All the bones in it, save at the ends of his fingertips, had been shattered, destroyed almost to the point of them being nothing but goo. It had felt so odd and creepy holding his injured hand with his good one. It almost felt surreal in a way. Phawn had taken that trek from the engineering room to the medical room so many times that he'd actually lost track. It had never seemed like that far of a distance, until that day. That day it seemed like the corridor ahead of him seemed to stretch on forever ahead of him, like in a dream, or some horrific nightmare actually, and that no mater how fast he ran, or on that particular day stumbled, it seemed that he would never get to the medical room before he gave into the pain and simply passed out. By some miracle though he had made it, but by that time there was barely nothing of him left. The events of how he managed to use the medical room's equipment to scan his hand to diagnose exactly what was wrong and then go and use the necessary equipment to repair his hand was all just a blur to him. All he knows is that he'd been able to do something that many people would have considered impossible. As that memory comes flooding back to him now though he makes a face, swallows hard and does his best to shove that memory out of his head. It takes a bit of effort, but he's able to do it.

Khadien sigh softly, feeling that twinge of guilt that creeps up upon him as he hears Phawn's words and then watches the other man's face. "Phawn, I'm so sorry. I know I've been promising for the longest time to hire on a ship's doctor, but you know just how busy I've been. Plus, it's so hard to find a suitable candidate on a ship like ours. I mean I have all my secrets, You have your secrets. We can't just trust anyone, that would be stupid." He digs into his food, chewing it and savoring the taste in his mouth before saying anything else. "I know you've told me before that I'm picky, but I think you've been with me long enough to know damn well that I'm picky for a reason, right?"

Phawn picks up his clear glass mug of hot apple cider and watches the steam rise from his drink for a moment before gently blowing on the surface of the liquid, and it's only after all that that he is able to gingerly take a sip. "You know and I know that there are things that we agree on, things that we don't agree on, and then there are just things that we just have to agree to disagree on. This is one of those things though that I completely agree with you on." He sighs as he leans back a bit in his chair. "It's like whomever we bring aboard with us we have to be able to be completely honest with and have that rock solid assurance that he or she won't go running off at their earliest convince and go spilling our secrets." He takes another sip of his cider. "There's also the fear of us getting a really huge payment from one of our little jobs, the good ole doctor finds out about it, slits our throats in our sleep, probably sleep that was brought on by him, and then make off with our loot." He shakes his head. "In our line of work though can we really say there's a good, honest, decent person that can be trusted with info like we've got?"

"Yup," Khadien says simply before shoving a forkful of food into his mouth and chewing. As he chews his eyes glance from his plate to Phawn's. He then smiles and has to force himself to swallow his mouthful before chuckling. "You know, some things never change. Here I'm always willing to take the dare, be bold and try out new foods, sample new flavors, and you just tend to stick to the same ole same ole Earth food. What is up with that? I mean, don't you get board of eating the same type of food from the same planet three squares a day, with snacks in between, day in and day out? Week after week, month after month, year after year?"

Phawn shrugs. "Hey, I have no problem with not being a dare devil like you are, Captain Khadien Vouche. Besides, I can think of plenty of times where being bold, daring and trying out new foods and sampling new flavors have gotten you in just one huge heap of trouble after another." He leans back forward in his chair to get his mug down and then begins ticking things off on his fingers. "Let's see, there was the pruvian pudding that had you so sick for days that even the very thought or mention of it made you nauseous. Carlot tea that was so spicy, even though you kept claiming loudly over and over again that it wasn't, that it left you with blisters on your tongue and gums. The same tea that I had warned you about because I had done research on the Xhatal race prior to our arrival and I told you about their tea ceremony. They know they're a race that's famous for their spicy tea and that they've gotten used to it, but it could be very potent for outsiders, yet if you told them 'nital' while bowing, then they know not to add the final ingredient that makes it so potent. You decided to try it the same way they drank it. I watched you. They even gave you a couple of chances of saying 'nital' before they put the final ingredient in, but no, you had to be stubborn and you paid for it." He pauses briefly, watching Khadien's face carefully. "Shall I continue on or have I made my point?"

Khadien has his head bowed and his eyes closed as he wildly waves his hands in front of him. "Ok, ok, I get it, geez." He sighs. "I just, like the variety in my life. The food, the women, it gets all boring to me if I don't mix things up as often as I do, and I've been doing it for so long now that it's like become second nature to me. Besides, how am I going to find out if I like something or can tolerate it or not if I don't try it? See, I view life as one big adventure, and I'm going to do all I can, see all I can, hear all I can, touch all I can and taste all I can while I still can. It's like that old Earth saying goes 'You only live once', and then there is that other one 'Live life to the fullest', so that's exactly what I plan on doing until I either get so old that I can't move no more, or else I die, one of those two. Hopefully it'd be the first one though." He then can't help but smile before throwing his head back and laughing. "Yeah, that dying thing would really really cramp my style of living and that would suck. I imagine that it would hurt too, especially if certain people who really really truly hate my guts get a hold of me and do all those mean, nasty, horrible things to me that they've threatened to do to me before, well that is before I was able to pull off those wickedly cool escapes. You know, it is kinda funny how when you're in the enemy's hands how certain ones of them like to get all carried away once they have you, and they think there's no possible way you can escape, so they start monologuing. I mean they go on and on and on about how they're going to kill you slowly and how they're going to use this this this and this in order to do it, and they just get so wrapped up in hearing their own stupid voice that they can't seem to focus on anything else. Yet they seem to at all pissed off and on a rager when you escape and they either catch you escaping or they find out that you have successfully escaped. It's like duh, if you had been keeping a better eye on me instead of blah blah blahing me to death, then maybe you'd have been able to do some of those torturous things to me that now you can only dream about." He shakes his head. "I mean really, how moronic can some people, or even some species, be?" He looks at Phawn and shakes his finger at him to emphasis. "You know, that not being able to move because you're too old, I would imagine that that would suck a lot too, but I'm still young, I will got my looks and all that, so I don't really seeing me doin' the old thing for a long time yet, so whew, that's one less thing to worry about right now." He grins happily.

Phawn shakes his head and sighs. Leave it up to the Captain to take such a gloom and doom subject such as one's own death and turn it around, or try to anyways, into something humorous. That was probably one of the things that attracted Phawn to Khadien. That he was able to almost always go and be able to find the bright side of things, no matter now slim, no matter how small, but that was also one of the things that bothered him so much. He never wanted anything to happen to his captain which was probably why he had such a hard time listening to him when he talked such as he was. Yet the really odd thing was that Phawn had also had the misfortune of seeing Khadien when gloom and doom subjects and thoughts like this one brought him down into such a deep and dark funk that he had greatly feared for his captain's safety. He had even sat up with him and kept a constant vigil on him to make sure he didn't do anything stupid, like attempt suicide. Hearing the captain speak as he was now made a thread of fear run through Phawn, seeming to travel up his spine and cause him to shiver visibly. If Khadien noticed he didn't say anything. “Captain, please don't talk like that. It bothers me.” He stares down at his plate and pushes his food around with his fork.

Khadien had been right in the middle of taking a sip of his drink when he happened to glance up and get a good look at his engineer's face. Just seeing the look on the other man's face made Khadien's own stomach twist and he felt like a first class asshole. He tears his eyes away as the table top suddenly becomes quite interesting to stare down at. “Phawn,” he says quietly, “I...I'm sorry man. I didn't mean to make light of that. I guess I was having one of my dense and insensitive moments at your expense and I'm sorry. I just didn't think and that was wrong of me. I know that normally you're pretty cool with my crazy kind of talk, and other times I just can say one phrase, a word, or a sentence that just hits on that one sensitive spot you got and then stupid me I keep going on and on before I even realized I've upset you.” He watches as Phawn slowly nods, while chewing on his lower lip. “I have been tryin' to change that. I really have. It's just hard an' I know it ain't something that I can fix and make it all better overnight, but that it can be a long and gradual process. You will forgive me though, when the times come that I gotta do that insert foot into mouth thing so that I can give my tongue a good stomping to teach myself a lesson, right?”

There is what seems like an extremely long and uncomfortable silence before Phawn looks up and his eyes meet Khadien's. “Sure,” he says quietly, “ok, you got yourself a deal,” he holds up a finger to point it at Khadien, “but you know when the time comes, and it will because I know you far too well, probably better than you even know yourself, then I'm going to definitely hold you to that promise.”

As much as he really wanted to, Khadien knew that he can't back out of something like that, lest he hurt his friend again, the very thing that he was working very hard to try and avoid. He holds both his hands up in a form of surrender. “Ok, ok, fine, you win, it's a deal. Happy?”

Phawn looks over at him with a very serious look on his face as he nods his head. “Yes, quite happy.” A moment later he smiles softly at Khadien and says quietly, “Thank you.”

Khadien gives Phawn a bit of a defeatist nod. “Yeah, you're welcome.” Silence decends upon the room again, save for the sounds of silverware clinking softly upon the ceramic plates. Each is lost in their own thoughts until Khadien is the one to break the silence. “So, we should be arriving at Lupubo in about three or four days. Do you think we'll be able to find our doctor there?”

Phawn lifts a shoulder. “I really don't know. I mean, I hope so, we really do need one, but we have been searching for one for quite some time now and we still haven't been able to find just the right match to suit us, so I'm kinda not holding my breath any more when arriving on new planets and in new cities. The way I figure it by now is that if we're supposed to have a ship's doctor, then one will find us and our paths will just so happen to cross. It's a safer way of thinking rather than going in and expecting something, only to be sorely disappointed when it doesn't happen. Although I also have this nagging thought at the very back of my mind that maybe we're just not the sort of people suitable for having a doctor aboard. That it's just one of those luxeries that we simply can't afford to have, and if we try to push for it, then we'll end up getting someone who's not suited for us at all, and will in fact end up compromising us and what we have here.” He pauses to swallow a bit nervously. The way he's speaking is quite a bit out of line for someone of his rank to be uttering, especially when he's got his captain sitting right across from him at a table where they're supposed to be enjoying a relaxing, peaceful dinner. He quickly adds, “Of course, I try not to pay attention to that little thought and try to keep it shoved as far deep and in the back of my mind as possible. Yet there are some days when I just can't help it and that thought just goes and slips right into my conscious thoughts before I even can realize it and try to stop it.”

“I know Phawn,” Khadien says, gulping down the remainder of his drink. “You're not telling me something that I already know. You know, you don't have to ever be afraid to share with me what you're thinking or feeling. I know I'm your captain and all, but we have shared a bed together on more than one occasion. We've been about as open and intimate as two people can become. That, I feel, is one of the ultimate experiences that two people can share with one another and feel special about it, sure in a different way for each person, but no less special to the both of them. Also, I've told you before, but I'll say it again, I want the ones close to me to be completely open and honest with me about everything. I can't have a smoothly running ship when someone from my crew is upset about something, but tries to keep it all to themselves, all bottled up inside here it simmers and simmers until it explodes out, nine times out of ten happening at the very worst time, and then things are far worse because of it. No subject is taboo. Come to me, talk to me, unload on me if you have to. Hell, we can even load up a program in the holo-illusionary room to try and blow off some steam and calm down from whatever's upsetting us. I can't help you with your problems when you don't come to me and let me know what they are. True, I'm not ship's conselor and contrary to what I would like other people to believe, I really don't know all the answers, but I can at least give it a try. That's really all I'm asking for. Ok? I know that you can at least do that for me, and give me the benefit of the doubt when I at least give things a good try.”

Phawn takes a moment to think about things, and he once again realizes that men like the captain were indeed a very rare breed. Not just anyone would take themselves and go to see eye to eye with their own crew members. Other captains that Phawn had known always walked around with their head in the clouds, nose up in the air, and if someone lower rank than them even thought of trying to speak to them, well how dare them for even thinking such a stupid thing. The fools who dared to be so bold were reprimanded with a harsh tongue in front of the rest of the crew, and sometimes were made even more of an example by whatever horrible thing that particular captain thought up in his twisted brain. Now he nods. “Ok, I can do that for you, but only if you are able to do something for me.” Yes, he is feeling rather bold right now, but as he was speaking the words a very bad thought came into his mind, one that made him chew his bottom lip nervously while he waited for the captain to respond.

Khadien hmmms audibly. There were times that he wished he had been blessed with the gift of mind reading, either via birth or through scientific means. Sitting across the table from Phawn, Khadien furrowed his brow and concentrated, trying to hard to figure out just what might be the thing running around inside that engineer's little head, but try as he might he just didn't have a clue. Khadien envied the look that Phawn wore on his face at that moment. Hell, even an expert poker player would envy Phawn's perfectly blank expression on his smooth and slightly rounded face. Sighing, Khadien brings up his hand to cup his chin, absently stroking it with his index finger. He finally had to give up and admit silent defeat. “Ok, ok, I'll bite. What exactly is it that you want me to do for you?” As soon as those words are out of his mouth he takes a deep breath and braces himself. Sure he was no mind reader, but it didn't take one to put two and two together and figure out that whatever Phawn had to say it wasn't going to be good at all.

Phawn hesitates slightly, having to take a moment to pluck up his courage. Unfortunately it wasn't liquid courage, or else this would have been a whole lot easier for him to say, and wouldn't take half as long to get out either. “When we arrive at Lupubo I want to be the one to over see the unloading of the crates of stuff we have, then I'll make sure that all the money that's coming to us is properly transferred to us. You, I want to stay on the ship. I don't need any help. I've assisted you plenty of times to know I can handle it by myself with no problems. Besides, we hadn't really planned on staying on Lupubo any longer than a couple of hours anyways. Just long enough for us to drop the stuff off, refuel, and restock our equipment and medical supplies. Oh, and possibly pick up a ship's doctor. I kinda doubt that we'll be able to find one there at Lupubo though. There's not really much there on that planet to even attract a doctor, even one just passing on through. Anyways, I don't really think we have another pick up at Lupubo and once our business is done there we can go on ahead to one of the more populated planets in either that system or another one and then try to find a doctor there.”

Khadien, who had been wearing a slightly worried expression on his face, finds his tense muscles relaxing as he throws his head back and laughs. It takes him a while to recover, as he allows himself to have a nice good laugh. “Aw, but why Phawn?” He asks when he's finally calmed down enough to speak coheriently. “Do you really think I'm going to screw up things again like what happened at the place we were just at?” Phawn says nothing. He just continues to look at Khadien with that same look, except now he takes his arms and folds them across his chest, one of the surefire signs to Khadien that he was dead serious about things. Khadien on the other hand shot Phawn back a wounded look. He even lets it be heard in his voice when he speaks. “You wound me Phawn. You don't even trust your own captain to perform a simple exchange such as this.”

Phawn shakes his head. “No, I don't. Khadien, you seem to pull this same exact stunt at almost every place that we stop off at. It's like a pattern for you, one that you oh so conviently seem to forget about every single time the danger has passed.” He sighs before reaching out to take one of the captain's hands into his own. “Look, I love you a lot, and I know that you're not the type to be happy tied down to just one person. That's fine. I've come to accept that a long time ago. That's not it. What I'm objecting to is the fact that you willingly pair yourself up with too many others outside this ship that you know you shouldn't. All you seem to see is either the pretty face or the handsome face and if they let you in even a little bit and confide in you, then you seem to think that gives you every right to slip on in with just the right words to say and just the right things to do, then before you know it you're being dragged off to a back bedroom, a dark, quiet spot or where ever to get screwed stupid, or else you screw someone else stupid and you don't even stop to think of the consiquences before hand. I mean that's gotten you into really serious trouble, Khadien. From the insanely jealous husband, not even ex, but husband, to the very guards trying to protect their princess because she's supposed to be saving herself for the man that she's supposed to marry so he can be king and she can be queen via an arranged marriage that's been in place for years and years before you happened to come along.” He pauses. He has to. He can feel himself getting all worked up into an angry frenzy. He knows that he can't do that. He can't talk rationally nor clearly to Khadien when he's got all this angry emotion right behind his words, that comes out loud and clear in his voice. His hand comes up to his forehead and his fingers lightly brush against it as his eyes flick downward at the table's top as he tries to calm himself. After a moment he looks back up at Khadien. “Please tell me you get now why I get all upset at you when you pull stunts like this and that you see just how much it worries me.”

Khadien sighs heavily. He doesn't want to admit it, but he is angry at Phawn's words, but yet deep down inside and in the back of his mind he has to face the horrible truth that Phawn's right. He picks up his drink and takes a long drink from it, his adam's apple bobbing as he swallows. When he's drained his drink he sets his glass down and looks Phawn in the eyes. “Alright,” he says quietly, “I'll stay aboard the ship, and I'll stay in my quarters until we've left Lupubo. You have my word.”

A look of pure relief spreads over Phawn's face. “Thank you captain. Trust me, I'll make it up to you after we leave Lupubo I promise.”

Khadien leans back in his chair a bit. “You know, I kinda doubt it, but I guess we'll see then, won't we?” He finishes up the rest of his meal then picks up his tray with his dirty dishes and carries it back over to the food and drink replicator machine and slides it back inside. The sensors in the machine sense that the tray is being placed back inside it and it hums softly for a moment before the tray disappears. Khadien leans against the wall near the machine and watches it do it's thing. Once the tray disappears his eyes flick over to Phawn. “I'm countin' on you. Don't let me down. I guess I'll head to my quarters and do some more research and get us a doctor for this place.” He gives Phawn a nod of his head. “Let me know once we've left Lupubo.” He then turns and casually walks out of the room.

CHAPTER TWO

Sitting at his desk Khadien had his chin on his hands and his eyes were drooping in sheer boredom. He really hates having to search through this database of doctors that are currently available for hiring. He never realized just how many of them there were. He'd just thought that many of them already had been assigned to different ships or else other hospitals on the hundreds of billions of worlds that were spread out through the galaxy. It boggled his mind now when he asked Eve to pull up a search of available doctors and had gotten tens of millions of results. Now right at his fingertips were doctors with various numbers of degrees, various backgrounds, various plants that they were from, various species and with various amount of experience under their belt. All of that was well and good, but what Khadien needed to find was someone who could be trusted with many many secrets and also be able to keep their mouth shut about Eve's opperations. That made things all the harder and more frustrating for him. He wasn't a miracle worker in the slightest so how in the world does Phawn expect him to find a suitable ship's doctor for them, he absently wonders with a groan. He lifts his head slightly so his chin is just enough off his hands to move them, and he closes his eyes while giving his temples a massage with his fingertips. He needs a break from his badly or else he's going to go nuts.

Eve must have been sensing how Khadien was feeling as well because at that moment she pipes up. “Captain, maybe you should get something to drink. Walk away from the data monitor for a bit. Your muscles are getting way too tense which means you are getting yourself all frustrated and stressed out. You know you can't think properly when you're like that. Besides, a break will do you some good. I'm sure of it.”

Khadien takes one last look at the data monitor before figuring that Eve does have a point. That and it never really was a good thing to argue with an artificial intelligence, especially someone like Eve. Taking a deep breath he puts his hands on the edge of his desk and pushes his chair away from it before swiveling it to the left and standing to his feet. He crosses the room over to the mini food and drink replicator that he had installed into the wall and thinks for a moment. What exactly does he want to drink? He folds his arms over his chest and leans against the wall, resting his head against it as well. After trying to force himself to think a bit more he finds himself chuckling softly. “I don't even know what I want to drink. My brain is that fried.” He sighs softly. “Eve, why don't you just pick something for me.”

“Yes Captain.”

The food and drink replicator hums softly as it processes the electronic request and a moment later a clear glass steaming mug of light brown liquid is sitting on the electronic sensor on top of the device's shelf. He hmmms softly as he reaches in carefully and picks up the mug by the handle. Lifting it to his nose is sniffs the liquid cautiously. It's not that he's afraid that Eve would ever poison him, no, she's far too loyal to him to do something that dirty and underhanded. Besides, it's not in her programing to ever harm someone that's she's sworn herself to serve like she has with him. He's just far too curious for his own good, yet at times like the ones he's experiencing right now he can also be downright picky about things. He knew it drove Phawn up the wall, and it probably would drive Eve up the wall too had she the ability to even become annoyed. That was one thing that he actually liking about having someone like her aboard. She had been custom made especially for him, even down to him being able to pick and choose which emotions she got to have. True, the one who made her did caution him that if she was allowed to do things for herself, like make her own decisions about things, that there is a very high probability that she could evolve past her programing, yet Khadien ignored that little detail. The man had said probable and could, not that she definitely would so he continued along with the illusion that she would never in a million years grow past her programing, simply because he couldn't even imagine such a thing happening. Now as he's sniffing his drink his mind tries to identify just what exactly it is that he's smelling. He knows that it's a pleasant smell and a familiar one, but it's as if his brain has already decided that it's done far too much thinking for the day and refuses to think any further. “Ok, so what is it?” He finally gives up and asks Eve.

Eve's voice has a tone in it that sounds like it has a hint of amusement to it. “It is an Earth drink that many find most enjoyable. Some of them even find themselves unable to function properly without at least one cup of it. Some have just a regular version of it with some cream and sugar, others like it straight, or with a bit of sugar, and then there are others who enjoy the very fancy and much stronger version. It is called coffee. I know you enjoy drinks that are sweet so I have added cream and several teaspoons of sugar to it.”

Khadien ahs as he gingerly takes a sip, being very careful to take only a tiny bit so that it doesn't burn the inside of his mouth or his lips. “Yes I remember coffee. I thought the smell was familiar to me.” His eyes get a far away look in them as he looks up at really nothing at all and lets his mind wander where it may. Both of his hands are cupped around the mug now. The mug being made of a special type of glass that only let the outside of it become warm, despite the temperature of the liquid inside of it. It made a very good hand warmer and had what seemed to be a soothing, calming effect on him. “I remember Mother used to make a pot of coffee a day for Father. He used to always say that it helped him start his day. Well, that and a good harty breakfast from Mother. She was one of the best cooks. Fried eggs, fried potatoes, sizzling bacon and sausage all cooking up in a skillet. Buttered toast that she used to have just that right shade of golden brown with lots of butter on it. Pancakes and waffles that you'd take one bite of them and you could swear they'd be melting in your mouth, and she used to load her pancakes and waffles too with different fruit or chocolate chips. Seems that you'd awake up and you could tell that she was already up and in the kitchen hard at work cooking up enough food to feed an army because you could hear and smell it. She'd even hand squeeze orange juice for you if that's what you wanted to drink.” As his mind thinks back upon things that happened back then he actually begins to tear up as the emotions well up inside of him and a lump forms in his throat. Silently he stands there, holding the steaming mug in both hands and trying so hard to force those emotions down that threaten to rise up even more than they are now and consume him, as they have many times in the past.

"Captain?” Eve ventures, “Are you alright?”

Even though she wasn't programed, therefore not capable, of worry, Khadien could still sense the undertones of worry when she spoke. Making his feet move again, Khadien walks with his cup of coffee back over to his desk and slowly lowers himself back into his seat. The coffee he carefully sets down to the left of his data monitor. “Yes Eve, I'm fine, just trying not to stress myself out over trying to find just the right doctor for us. This is definitely not an easy task.” He reaches up to roughly rub his face with his hands.

“I know, but I am sure that you will be able to find a most suitable candidate for us, Captain.”

Khadien slowly lowers his hands and a smile breaks out on his face. “Thanks Eve. Your vote of confidence actually means a lot to me.”

“You are most welcome Captain. I will now leave you to your work unless something happens that needs your immediate attention.”

Khadien nods a bit, still smiling, glad that he has such a reliable and loyal person like Eve around. “Thank you. I do appreciate it.” He knows that she won't respond any more, but he also knows that she did hear what he said to her. Eve heard everything, but that was ok with him, he also knew her to guard his secrets and the secrets of anyone else aboard with her life. The only way that she'd break and tell something secret that she's heard is if it meant that one of the crew would be in danger. She was also programed to erase her memory banks upon capture and only Khadien and Phawn knew, not only the location, the codes to bring her memory back. He had been so lucky to have acquired her, even if it hadn't been in the most legal fashion. Granted, he hadn't stolen her, but rather won her fair and square in a poker game. It wasn't his fault that her previous owner had been both greedy and stupid and had given the opportunity for her to be betted on and for. He had felt no sympathy for the guy after he'd won and he got a look at the guy's face. It had been one of those looks of utter shock and disbelief. The guy had wanted to go another round, but the hour had been late and Khadien had been playing for several hours. Luck seemed a hit or miss thing with Khadien, and he had never had this much luck before in a game of cards, so he'd figured that he'd better stop playing then and there or else he'd most surely lose. He'd stepped out of the bar they'd been playing in to collect his new ship, and the guy had followed him out. That's when Khadien discovered just how much of a sore loser the other guy really was. Khadien was lucky that Phawn had his back that night, and had been hiding in the shadows just in case something went wrong. They didn't kill the guy, but he would always remember that he had lost his ship in a card game and had his ass kicked by the one and only, Captain Khadien Vouche.

Looking down at the top of his desk, Khadien gives it a tender caress with his fingertips, like one would give to a lover. She hadn't always been this beautiful. In fact, the guy that Khadien had bought Eve from was not only neglectful, but also downright abusive. The outside of her was deceptively sleek, stylish and a beautiful sight to behold. Inside the walls had massive cracks and large gaping holes through the ship. The chairs had their upholstery cracked badly, along with the stuffing coming out. Most of the control panels through the ship weren't even working, and the furniture looked as if someone had worked very hard to break it all into pieces. There were several rooms that served as quarters that all looked completely destroyed. The meal's area looked as if there had been not one, but several food fights in it. Food was stuck to the ceiling the walls, ground into the carpet in some places, and the tables and chairs appeared as though someone had finger painted on them with some sort of green substance. Khadien really didn't, and still didn't, want to know what that green substance was. There were trays, plates and cups, broken, bent or shattered which also covered the floor. It was only when he arrived in the medical room that he really got the shock of his life. There, laying unconscious on the floor was the heart, soul and brain of the ship. Eve was laying face down in a pool of her own fluids. When Khadien turned her over to inspect her he saw that she had massive cuts and bruises all over her body and it felt like several of her bones had been broken, luckily not her neck since in his panic of seeing someone laying face down like she was, Khadien had turned her over without thinking about how unwise his actions could be. It had been Phawn who had sprung into action while Khadien held Eve, and had went around the medical room trying desperately to find equipment still in tact that he could use to help Eve. A lot of it had been smashed and that room has also been made quite a mess, but Phawn had been able to save Eve, by some miracle.

Once Eve was up and fully functional again it had taken quite a bit to start in on the repairs for the rest of the ship, which also included restocking. Quite a bit of their finances came from shady deals that they made with the major crime lord circle that was largely known in that sector of the galaxy and was rumored to even have their power spread further than anyone else could even imagine, and no one ever dared to question that. Those who had been foolish enough to snoop around and ask questions about them mysteriously disappeared, never to be heard from again, as if they never existed. Well, that's how people treated the ones that disappeared anyways. It was far safer that way.

Because they had racked up such a huge debt with them they were now expected to run special little errands for them. Errands that they had no choice about. They had to take them or else they could end up among those that had disappeared. There had been some pretty vicious rumors about what happened to those who had disappeared, yet none of these rumors could be verified, yet they continued to circulate around, growing in number despite some of the ways being ridiculous and downright impossible to pull off, much less believe. At least they had Eve, all up and working properly though. Sure, there were times that they could just kick themselves for the stupid and rash agreement that they had made, but at the time they thought it was the only way to get Eve up and running as quickly as they did, and hindsight is always twenty/twenty.

Now they were on their way to drop off a shipment of several crates to a mysterious someone on Lupubo whom they only knew went by the name Felnoir. Khadien took his eyes away from the top of his desk and leaned back in his chair. They had been promised that after this drop off was over that they'd be able to take a break from all this for a while. Of course, they had said things like that before and it never really happened, some emergency came up at the last minute where they either had to do a 'quick' pick up, drop off, or both. The only problem with these type of emergencies were that they were even more dangerous than normal pick ups and drop offs, and they were never quick. Yet they knew they couldn't complain even a peep. That was the way things worked. You shut your mouth and did what you were told and things go along fine, but when you open your mouth you better be ready for the trouble that follows an action such as that.

Khadien's eyes glance over to his right and takes notice of the stars silently moving past the window. He picks up his coffee to take another sip of it, then carries it over to the window to look out it. He'd always been fascinated with the stars. He could sit for hours at a time, looking out through that very window and never get tired of watching them. When he was a boy he'd often wished that one day he could go up and be among the stars, and now he was getting his chance, although it wasn't quite in the exact way he had hoped. Now as he glanced out the window there was something odd going on, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. A moment later though he was able to figure it out as the stars moved by his window slower and slower until they stopped all together. The ship wasn't moving...? It was as if his brain either didn't, wouldn't, couldn't or a combination of all three, want to admit that they were no longer moving. The question was, why were they no longer moving? He didn't have an answer for that, but he knew someone who did. Before he even realized it his lungs had gathered in a much air as they could and he was soon yelling just one thing.

“PHAWN!”