042: Outrageous Fortune – Two
While not quite as impressive as the sprawling, city-sized markets on the Quanvengier, Amanhecer Station had a decent enough selection of non-standard items Rhea and Elytra could pick and choose from.
The pair of them had stopped off at a restaurant to grab a bite to eat while they waited for Pryseia and Nevara to deal with the Avvisi side of things, and once they got the update to their joint account from Nevara, Rhea spluttered out a disbelieving laugh.
"Oooh wow, that is a stupid amount of numbers!" She said as she shot Elytra a grin, "I would have killed to have that king of security net back in med school!"
"Yeah, I probably would have attempted higher education myself if I'd had that to take care of my living expenses," Elytra breathed, "This pirate job pays well!"
Rhea cheersed to that.
Afterwards, they managed to get top ups and extras of the raw matter they'd need for their item and food fabricators, and even found exercise equipment that would suit the different physiologies of the crew. After that, the pair of them went on the hunt for the other miscellaneous the others had asked them to keep an eye out for, and all the while Elytra was keeping an eye on how the edit of their heist was doing on their socials.
"We've picked up a sizeable number of paying audience members," she answered Rhea after the human asked how they were doing, "A lot more than I expected for our first mission, see?"
Rhea opened the link Elytra had forwarded from her own Longan (they'd been having Elytra use her Longan Unit more often in order to get her up to their speed when it came to familiarity with the device), letting out a low whistle when she saw the hit counter actively going up on all the videos they'd uploaded so far. "Damn, I did not expect us to be popping off quite like this right off the bat!"
"It's a fluke, I'm sure."
Rhea and Elytra shot each other a surprised look at the unfamiliar voice, turning around to find that the speaker was none other than Lauter Hulan of the Briddbragnan, the dour fuglaz glaring down their beak at the pair of them.
"Can we help you?" Rhea snapped, her normally affable nature evaporating in the face of Lauter's hostile attitude.
They scoffed, flaring the feathers on the back of their head in indignation. "I sincerely doubt it. You got lucky, hitting that Zymeth museum. Any crew could have taken that on."
"So then why were half of the bounties we picked up from that place sitting around unfulfilled for centuries?" Elytra countered.
"Why waste time on easy pickings?" Lauter shot back.
The laugh that escaped Rhea was more Bathory than her normal cheer. "Says the captain who almost exclusively goes after lightly defended cargo ships."
That got a glare out of them.
"Look, whatever this is," Elytra gestured to all of Lauter, "That you're trying to start, we're uninterested. We've got our own mission to take care of, and a rivalry with another crew, especially one as lacklustre as yours, doesn't fit into our narrative."
Lauter let out a low hiss that was probably their species' equivalent to a derisive laugh. "Those weird Odazaen that you have, right? That's your mission? You think those are the key to your success?"
"No, I think the skills we have outside of them are what's gonna set us apart," Rhea said, crossing her arms as she glared at the avian alien, "The mechs are just going to make reeling in Leviathan that much easier."
"We'll see." Lauter sneered before they turned and marched off, clearly smug that they'd gotten the last word in.
Rhea raised her fists at their retreating back, the middle fingers on each hand extended for some reason.
"Is that a curse-casting gesture among your people?" Elytra couldn't help but ask.
"More or less," Rhea replied with a little laugh, "It's got a whole lotta meanings to it! Fuck off, fuck you, get fucked, fucking piece of shit idiot asshole! The sky's the limit with these things!"
Elytra laughed at the vitriol on display, and though it wasn't quite as effective with her three fingers to Rhea's five, she flipped her own middle fingers at Lauter's retreating back as well.
Later that evening, supplies bought and paid for and sent off to their ship, modifications fully installed and tested, and any stray Kith paperwork taken care of, the crew of the Pelekys met up at one of the eateries on Amanhecer Station to take advantage of the non-fabricated food available to dine on.
"Yeah, and then they just walked off. Absolute waste of our time." Rhea finished recounting their encounter with Lauter, which was met with much eye-rolling.
"I honestly can't figure out why they're so hostile towards us. We seem to be operating in very different modes within the Kith." Elytra wondered aloud.
Nevara laughed noiselessly, shaking her head. "Some people assume every shadow's a threat."
"Well they can go harass easier targets, we've got more game to hunt. Which reminds me," Malakh said, touching a finger to her Longan as she linked up their inter-Unit communication to the Pelekys' comms, "Hey Vi, you got a sec?"
"Just running my scans, but I can multitask?" Was her response.
"They've got some long range remote link drones for sale here. It wouldn't be quite the same as physically getting you off the ship - and with how your network is integrated across the Pelekys, we couldn't get you out without killing you as is - but you'd be able to pilot them around and have a look at the world outside your circuits. Want me to pick up a couple?"
"Oh." Was Viatrix's stunned reply after a moment, "Yeah, I think I'd like that."
"Then I'll grab some before we head back." Malakh promised, "They should have the schematics for them too, but if not, we can always take one apart and see how they work!"
"I look forward to it. See you when you're back!" Viatrix signed off, her excitement readily apparent.
"It'll be good to let her stretch her proverbial legs." Pryseia nodded approvingly, "I must admit, I did have a lingering sense of unfairness over the fact that she must always remain within the confines of our ship."
Malakh pointed her fork at Pryseia before spearing up some of her food. "So did I. After the Thalatte, the idea of a person being trapped in one place has my hackles up. Been looking into drones for a bit, but haven't had the time to build any myself, what with the heist and everything. These drones were exactly what I was looking for."
"Well the night is young, and we've got plenty of time to finish up here and pick those up before things really start swinging on this station." Rhea said, eyebrows waggling as she grinned at the others at the table.
"What has caught you're interest?" Nevara asked, eyes darting between the matching grins that both Rhea and Elytra now wore.
"A nightclub," Elytra told her, cutting to the chase, "I know we had our own little celebration the other night, but there'll be drinks and music and a crowd of Kith to mingle with. It'll be as good for our reputation as it will be for morale."
"And you can dip on out as soon as you need to," Rhea added, reaching a hand across to give Nevara's shoulder a gentle nudge.
Nevara let out a sigh, though she wore a slight smile. "I suppose someone should come along to mind the rest of you when you get too in your cups."
"Yes!" Malakh said with a little flourish of her tail, "It's been way too long since I got to actually go to a club! And we've never all had a chance to go together!"
"Then let us lay waste to our meal, the dance floor awaits!" Pryseia said, grinning from ear to ear.
Nevara had never been one for the nightlife, even before her enslavement by Thalatte forces, but she was familiar with what a nightclub was supposed to be like.
Dimly lit dance floors, writhing crowds, substances to cater to the whims of the clientele. She assumed that a Kith nightclub would be much of the same.
So it was that the multi level and extravagantly decorated spacious establishment that welcomed them came as something of a pleasant surprise for her.
There was a dance floor, to be sure, a DJ at the helm of an elaborate sound system that was pumping out tunes that were bringing the revellers to life. The tracks were being pulled from all across the galaxy, from all the myriad music scenes out there, yet despite that there was a cohesion to the set list that had Nevara taking notes.
Rising above the dance floor were a handful of different bars, each decorated to stand out from one another, and to advertise just what, exactly, they each had for sale. Drugs, alcohol, stimulants for one race that didn't even affect the next, if you had the funds, you could find what you were looking for here.
And while there were ground floor tables outside the perimeter of the dance floor, there were raised lounges set into the walls of the establishment, partitions both physical and electronic that could isolate those seated from the rest of the club goers as much or as little as they desires.
Nevara was more than happy enough to post up in one of these lounges while the others mingled among the crowd.
Even then, she was hardly left alone for long. Lost in themselves as they tended to be now that they had the opportunity, Rhea and Malakh still swung by often, to catch their breath from their dancing as much as to drag her into conversation. Elytra had been proving herself to be quite the social butterfly, bouncing from crowd to crowd, but always taking the time to swing by the lounge to see if Nevara needed her drinks or snacks topped up.
As for Pryseia, she had fallen back on her old habits from when they'd been civilian pilots before their capture. Like Elytra, she moved through the crowd, rubbing elbows with the assorted crews, and radioing any juicy gossip to Nevara whenever she stumbled upon it. As such, Nevara now had a very accurate social map of the crews they should avoid or mingle with once they were back out among the stars.
But despite this return to form, her friend was not adhering to this song and dance they way she did before the Thalatte took control of their lives. For starters, instead of playing things up while nursing a single drink the entire night, Pryseia had actually consumed enough to be properly drunk.
"How many did you have?" Nevara asked as the woman in question swung herself into the booth across from her, a half empty drink in her hand.
Pryseia shot her a rakish grin, threw the rest of her drink back before slamming the glass on the table and announcing, "Six!"
"Is that wise?"
"Undoubtedly not, but I've had near a century of tightly leashed control. Slipped of the harness, I will indulge for once."
Pryseia said this while looking out into the moving mass on the dance floor below them. Following where her eyes had wandered, Nevara saw that there was a deupazing with red skin and curling horns on the dance floor, smilingly enticingly up at Pryseia.
"You've a mind to indulge in more than music and libations, it seems." Nevara said, shaking her head.
"Let the others know not to wait on my behalf?"
"Go, have fun with her," Nevara smiled, waving Pryseia away, "Call if you require assistance."
"Drunk as I may be, as out of use as my talents in the matter are, I don't think I will be requiring aid for the evening ahead." Pryseia smirked.
Nevara laughed at that, shooing her friend away as she said, "Then go show her what decades of deprivation have wrought in you!"
Waggling her eyebrows, Pryseia made good on her escape.
From her seat in the lounge, Nevara watched as her friend made her way over to the woman she'd had her eye on. The red skinned deupazing greeted her with a slow smile, hands curling up over her shoulders while Pryseia pulled the woman in by the waist.
This type of physical intimacy, and what would no doubt be following soon after it, was something that Nevara still found baffling, even after all these many years of knowing aliens who engaged in the practice. But so long as her friend was happy, she could be happy for her.
After everything they'd endured, a little reckless fun was more than allowed.
True to her word, Pryseia and her companion for the evening had vanished from the club not long after they'd come together on the dance floor, though the others had lingered to drink and dance for a few hours more before returning to the Pelekys.
Giddy and inebriated, Elytra had bid them all a goodnight before succumbing to sleep in her quarters. Rhea and Malakh, on the other hand, had retired to the former's room in order to get up to a different type of horizontal activity.
Nevara had intended on sleeping, but the music from the club had her feeling inspired, and so she'd made her way to the rec room in order to put that inspiration to good use. She got so caught up in her creative process that she didn't realize that several hours had passed, her mind thrumming with rhythms and beats, when a noise that sounded suspiciously like a body falling to the floor sounded from the hall and startled her from her focus.
The door to the rec room slid open before Nevara could do more than pause her music program, Pryseia catching herself on the frame and looking as stunned as Nevara was to see her there. She was still quite drunk, eyes squinting even in the dim, evening lighting in the room, her clothing dishevelled in a way that made it apparent she'd pulled them back on in the dark.
"You're not yet abed?" Pryseia slurred from the door.
"I lost track of the time." Nevara replied, motioning to the array of data pads she had spread out on the low table before her, each one running a different instrument subroutine.
Pryseia smiled at that, stumbling into the room and collapsing on the couch next to her. "I'm glad you found a passion outside of the constant conflict of our lives. Exemplar pilot though you may be, there is more to your soul than flight. I thank the ancestors that the Thalatte did not destroy the creative spark within you."
"And what of you?" Nevara asked with a fond smile of her own, "Did your time under the Thalatte's purview dim the spark of your… talents?"
Pryseia threw back her head and laughed uproariously at that. "I can assure you that I left my erstwhile partner more than satisfied!"
"I'm surprised you didn't spend the night in order to repeat your performance in the morning, then." Nevara smiled back, though it quickly turned to a frown when Pryseia's expression grew brittle.
"What is it?" She asked, worry suddenly flooding her.
Pryseia took a breath as if to speak, but she stopped herself, instead looking off to the far side of the room before tipping over so she could lean against Nevara's shoulder. After a tense few seconds, she finally asked, "Would you think poorly of me if I admitted to jealousy?"
"It would depend upon what you were jealous of." Nevara told her honestly.
The other woman was silent for a few moments more before she quietly admitted, "Rhea and Malakh, the way their hearts sing for one another. I find myself envious of what they have. And that is unkind of me!" She exclaimed, sitting back up to shoot Nevara a guilty look, "They've been forced to keep their feelings under lock and key for a criminal length of time, shackled by the Thalatte as they were. And my own heart leaps with joy, truly, over the fact that they now are free to indulge in their feelings for one another! And yet… some dark, bitter part of me is sick with longing, for basking in the light of their fire, it longs for a torch of its own."
Nevara made a sympathetic sound in the back of her throat, shifting so she could slip her arm around her friend. "That type of relationship is something your species has built itself upon for eons, I'm not about to fault you for behaviour that stretches back millennia. As strange as it seems to me, what the two of them have is something I can more than understand a jealousy of. I'll not think ill of you for wanting such as that for yourself."
Pryseia made a grumbling sound herself, watery and embarrassed as she kept her head down. "I do apologize for this sudden turn to the maudlin. This was, by all accounts, a wonderful evening."
"You are also highly intoxicated," Nevara pointed out, "Your emotional state is understandable."
That got a laugh out of Pryseia, and she sat up enough under Nevara's arm to scrub her flesh hand down her face.
"You are correct. The hour is late, and I freely admit that I indulged perhaps more than I should have."
Nevara gave her a brief squeeze, saying, "Then let's retire for the evening. My music can wait, and there should still be some of Rhea's hangover remedy left in the mess hall."
Pryseia shot her a wry grin, saying, "As hellish as the bulk of our life has been, I am glad I refused to leave you to die in that escape pod, so many years ago."
"A sentiment I share, my friend," Nevara replied with a smile of her own, "Now come, sleep beckons us both."