Space Piracy

Mr. Noronian

"Excuse me sir, are you okay?"

Noronian tensed, then rolled onto his side so he was facing the woman who'd addressed him. He had a few scrapes from being drug across the ground, and his usually neat hair was dishevelled.

The first thing he noticed about the speaker was her brilliant white hair. The second was that she was young and didn't seem like a laborer.

He shook his head miserably in response. Normally he would have thought about how ridiculous the question was, seeing that he was practically naked and tied up, but the only thing on his mind was Evin.

He tried to say something but it was completely incoherent, as was to be expected.

Lenala Jaymes

The man was completely pathetic lying there on the ground. He mumbled something else through the gag in his mouth. Lenala sighed and bent down to remove it.

"Thank you." the man said as soon as the gag was gone.

Lenala then busied herself with untying his other restraints. When she finished the man stood slowly and stared off into the distance.

"Sir, are you okay?" Lenala asked again.

Mr. Noronian

"N-no," Noronian repied. He looked up at the sky and shivered. "They took her."

Lenala blinked. "Sorry, I don't-"

"Evin, my daughter! He took her from me!" he suddenly shouted. Noronian spun around, eyes wild with panic. "Where's Brannin? Where's my ship?"

"Look, I don't know what you're talking about. I found you here alone."

The business man let out a cry of frustration and grabbed his hair. "Cursed man, why did he leave me? And now... now she's... and I can't..." He was trembling.

Lenala hesitantly put a hand on his arm. "Calm down, okay? You need to get inside and into some clothes, you're gonna get sick running around with nothing on."

"What do I care?" he said. "As though my health means anything to me. I just want Evin back."

The pirate captain sighed in frustration. "What's your name, anyways?"

"Gelding Noronian." He didn't know or care if she'd heard of him before, or if she'd even believe him.

Lenala Jaymes

Gelding Noronian...he was a big man in business. In the news a lot with his father. Lenala wasn't about to let it show she knew him though.

"Well, Gelding." Lenala said. "Come on with me, you can borrow some of my brothers clothes. He's about the same size as you."

Lenala quickly let the nearly naked man through the streets and back to Milo's apartment building. I can't believe I'm doing this, Lenala thought as she knocked on Milo's door.

"Who is it?" Milo's voice called from the other side of the door.

"Lenala." she called back.

Several locks clicked and the door opened to reveal a man in a much better state than Lenala had left her brother in.

"Sobered up, huh?" Lenala asked, disgust in her voice.

Milo nodded and cleared his throat. "So who is this guy? Decided to have a night of fun before heading back to Arkwald?" he said while eying the unclothed man.

Lenala pulled Milo aside. "That's Gelding Noronian." she said quietly enough for only Milo to hear.

Milo's eyes widened. "Gelding Noronian? You could get a ton of money off him, Lenala!"

"Hush, he'll hear you." Lenala placed a hand over his mouth. "And you didn't see him when I found him, something is terribly wrong."

Milo rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "Never thought you'd be a decent pirate anyways."

Lenala growled and pushed Milo against the wall. "I did it all for you, you scum of a brother. Now get him some clothes, nice clothes."

Milo left the dingy living room to find some decent clothing from his bedroom. Lenala turned back to Gelding and smiled as sweetly as she could possibly manage - which wasn't much. "It'll just be a moment, Gelding."

Mr. Noronian

Noronian collapsed on the couch, staring at the floor. "I can't thank you enough for your help," he said listlessly. "Today's been hellish."

Lenala couldn't help smirking a little. "I can imagine. What happened exactly?"

Gelding looked up at her. "The guard called. They told me Eisenstein had been seen near my farms, geared up like he was going on a raid. I wanted to make sure he was apprehended as he'd been threatening my daughter and I."

He grimaced. "Evin refused to be left behind, so she joined me and my bodyguard in my private ship. When we arrived, they sent out some sort of signal to disable the ship. Brannin and I attempted to drive them away, but they dropped him with an electrified dart and disarmed me.

"Eisenstein said something about... about his best friend being killed I think, I really don't know what he was talking about, then boarded the ship and took Evin." He shuddered. "Then they took my clothes, tied me up, and left me by the ship with Brannin. But... I still don't understand where Brannin or my ship went. It doesn't make sense."

He buried his face in his hands and groaned. "I may never see her again..."

Milo and Lenala Jaymes

"Here." Milo tossed a pile of clothing at Gelding, he couldn't care less for the man on his couch. All he cared about was getting enough money to get wasted for the rest of the week.

Gelding looked up at Milo and smiled weekly. "Thank you."

Milo grunted and walked towards the little kitchen unit across the room.

Gelding buried his face in his hands again. "I don't know what I'm going to do..."

Lenala thought for a moment about this mans problem. His daughter had been kidnapped, a situation where Lenala would normally talk herself into helping. She may be a pirate, but she wasn't nearly an evil one. It was just the fact that Eisenstein had been the one to kidnap the poor girl. Lenala and Eisenstein didn't exactly have a...peaceful past.

"I want to help you." Lenala told Gelding.

"Will you really?" Hope was plastered all over the man's face. "I would be forever grateful."

"I don't know how much help I could actually be though. I don't exactly get along with Eisenstein. I could probably get you close to him though, or at least find someone who can."

Gelding Noronian

Noronian got to his feet, an act which sent the clothing to the floor. He obviously didn't notice. "I'll give you anything, anything you want. Money, power, land, you name it. Just help me."

Lenala took a step back. "Take it easy, I already said I'd be willing to help." Her eyes went to his boxers. "You really should get those clothes on."

"Clothes. Right." Pull yourself together. You'll be of no help to your daughter if you keep acting like this. He started to pull on the pair of jeans Milo had tossed at him. "Seriously, if there's anything I can give you for your trouble, miss... sorry, didn't catch your name."

Mikael Eisenstein

As soon as we were a safe distance from the mercenary cruiser, i marched angrily over to the makeshift prison before kicking open the door and grabbing the scared Evin Noronian by the hair and dragging her out.
"What do you know about that assault on our raid?" I shouted at her angrily.
"I don't know what your talking about." She sobbed.
"Tell me! Who was it? How much are you paying them?"
"I told you i don't know."
"You had better be telling the truth, because if your lying some very unfriendly men are going to get hold you and then i wil send your father whatever bits of you are left when they are done!"
"I swear to you!" She sobbed. "I don't know. Please don't sell me, i promise i'll do whatever you want!"
"Shut up and get back in the brig," i sighed off handedly. "And send Sam out here!" I shouted at her retreating form.
What am i going to do with them?, i thought anxiously. I can't just sell her, i might need her later. After all she hadn't done anything wrong. But her father had to suffer and i was sure every moment of her absence must be agony for him.
I was stil deep in thought when the now bedraggled Sam approached. Once again i put on my most attractive smile and struck a dazzling pose.
"Now, where were we?"

Evin Noronian

Suddenly the door flew open, and Evin staggered back from the door. Before she could even process what was going on, someone had grabbed her by the hair and pulled her out into the hall.

She stared into Mikael Eisenstein's furious blue eyes like a mouse in front of a coiled viper.

His barked questions rang in her ears, and she could barely whimper out her replies. "I don't know," "I swear I'm not lying," "Please, I'll do whatever you want"... It was only a minutes or so, but it felt like much longer.

He pushed her away, apparently disgusted. "Shut up and get back in the brig."

Evin staggered back and walked, shaking, back to the door.

"And send Sam out here!" She flinched and disappeared into the cell. "S-sam, he w-wants you."

As Sam left, she hurriedly slipped a pen from her pocket between the door and its frame, preventing it from closing all the way.

Now if she could just wait for Eisenstein and Sam to leave the hallway... there was no way she was going to sit and wait to be sold to some Arkwaldian pleasure dealer.

Milo and Lenala Jaymes

"Lenala Jaymes." Lenala saluted Gelding as she introduced herself. "Pirate captain extraordinaire." Wow, that was overdone.

"Thank you, Lenala Jaymes." Gelding said for the thousandth time. "Thank you from the bottom of my heart."

Lenala nodded. "Yes, of course. Just stop thanking me."

Milo appeared at Lenala's side again and whispered in her ear. "I'm going to need payment for the borrowing of my clothes."

Lenala rolled her eyes and punched her brother in the face. "There's your payment, scum." She then grabbed Gelding by the arm and towed him out of the apartment, leaving Milo to examine his bruising eye in a broken mirror.

As soon as they were out of the apartment, Lenala picked up her pace to return to her ship. She was already behind her previous schedule and now she had even more to deal with.

"Not a great family relationship, huh?" Gelding asked as the two made their way back to the shipping yards.

"My brother is a lazy, good for nothing, coal mining addict." Lenala stated. My tone made it clear I did not want to continue the conversation.

It wasn't long before they reached Lenala's ship. It was a small thing, greatly modeled after an ancient pirate ship. It suited her imagination quite well.

"You've had a rough day, feel free to make your way towards my quarters and rest." Lenala told Gelding, pointing to the door marked Captain.

"Brought your brother aboard?" Stevenson, the first mate, asked as soon as Gelding had left.

"No, Stevenson. Just a man who needs help finding his daughter."

Stevenson nodded and looked to the sky. "Beautiful stars out tonight." he said. "Great night for a raid."

Lenala sighed in discontent, though she had to agree. "Set our course for the nearest cargo ship. Then we'll head straight to Arkwald. I need to find someone willing to get a man onto Eisenstein's ship."

Stevenson obviously wanted to inquire as to why Eisenstein's ship needed to be boarded, but knew better. "Aye, aye captain."

Soon enough the ship was leaving the ground and moving off into space.

----
whoo thats long

Gelding Noronian

Gelding nodded and made his way into her quarters. The business man immediately collapsed onto the bunk.

A million different scenarios of what could be happening to his daughter flashed through his mind. He saw Evin huddled in the corner of a dirty cell on the pirate's ship... being led through some slave market in Arkwald with a dozen terrible faces leering at her... lying motionless in a nondescript room, eyes staring sightlessly at the ceiling while Eisenstein laughed...

No, you CANNOT allow yourself to think like that, he reprimanded himself mentally. You'll be there in time; Eisenstein will want to negotiate, being a pirate. Don't worry, she'll be fine...

Noronian forced himself to think about them being reunited, putting his arms around his little girl.

With that in his mind, he sunk into a fitful sleep.

The Gryphon approached the damaged Spiral Ship.

"We're being hailed," Adelaide said.

"Let's hear it."

"Unidentified ship, this is Spiral Guard Ship Benevolent. Identify immediately."

"Benevolent, this is the SPEW Gryphon II out of YWS Station. We have captured a pirate drop-ship and wish to transfer them to your custody and collect any reward that applies," Adelaide answered. The Comm channel fell silent for a moment. They were probably scanning the ship.

"Gryphon, this is Benevolent. We're transmitting coordinates for a rendezvous. The Captain would like to meet with you in person."

"That's fine," Grif muttered.

"We'll be there Benevolent, Gryphon out," Adelaide responded. The channel went quiet. "What do you think?" Adelaide asked.

"I've got a few ideas, but nothing firm. We'll see when we get there. I'm going to change, let me know when we're close," Grif said.

*****

The airlock lights went green as the boarding ramp was pressurized. Grif walked up the ramp to the Benevolent. He wore his battle armor, but carried no weapon. He didn't need a gun to win a fight. A cadet met him. For a moment he stood, gaping at Grif. With his armor, Grif stood at two meters high and looked very intimidating.

"Sir, I'm Cadet Arka Brough, I'm here to take you to the Captain," he said.

"Lead on Cadet," Grif said. They moved through the ship. Some sections were undamaged, while others showed evidence of heavy fighting. There was one corridor which was particularly violent, just beyond it was the bridge.

The Captain of the Benevolent was old, with a face like a hawk.

"So you're the Captain of the Gryphon?" he said, unimpressed.

"You can call me Grif, Captain Abraham," Grif replied. The man gave him a closer look and then laughed.

"You do your homework, I like that. Do you know the status of my ship?"

"You're stuck in orbit around Gensha, your engines are offline and your internal structure has been compromised by a couple of anti-matter charges."

"The damage is far more substantial than that. In addition to breaking the ship's back, they also managed to destroy our main computer. If there are any rewards for capturing these men, we have no way of knowing. We can take them, but we can't pay you for it."

"I see," Grif said.

"The nearest Spiral Guard ship we have is three days away and it will take another two weeks before an armada can be assembled and get here. Until then, the Gensha system is defenseless. We would like you to stay in system and provide security until the armada arrives. Once they get here, I can see about compensating you for the prisoners as well as your time," Captain Abraham.

"What are your conditions?"

"I want some of my personnel on your ship. We'll also want your engineer to come and help us repair our ship."

"I have no engineer, but I can leave you a few robots to aid in your external repairs. I will let you have personnel on my ship, but only if it is Cadet Arka Brough," Grif said. The Captain and the cadet both looked surprised.

"Your request is unusual-" Captain Abraham started.

"Condition, Captain, or I will return to my ship," Grif said. The Captain weighed it for a moment.

"We have an agreement. I'll have the contract done in fifteen minutes. Cadet Brough, you have that much time to get ready. Dismissed," the Captain said.

((Tomorrow night I'm leaving for Colorado and won't be able to post until Sunday. This is by the American central time zone, which is five hours behind GMT.))

Sam~~

Putting the pen in the door was the least I could do for that poor ruffled girl, whoever she was. I smiled at the thought of her causing chaos, great photography moments.
"Where were we?" The self loving captain of the ship said, putting on a gorgeous smile.

"You were talking about yourself," I sighed on the inside, I couldn't think of anything to say. My head hurt from hitting my head against the hard wooden metal mix of the door. The captain went into detail about his personal life and talked of how his father and him were some big pirates. My head was banging, maybe because I hadn't eaten since yesterday afternoon, maybe.....

I collapsed on the poop deak.


*sorry my head really is in pain >>*

Evin Noronian

**I'm assuming that they began walking off**

Evin waited as the voices died away, then crept out of the cell as quietly as she could. She'd have to find some way to thank Sam later.

There wasn't really much hope of her finding an escape pod and getting out of this place, but she had to take the chance. After all, there might not be an opportunity like this coming up again any time soon.

She edged down the hallway, back to the wall. Suddenly she froze. Someone was coming towards her.

A woman pirate came into view. "Hey, you're not-"

In a panic, Evin swung a punch at her face.

((That can be either Kristyn or Georgina.))