Hephaestus Mining Station ICThread

Rules:

In Character only on this thread! Watch the OOC thread for char bios, game info, and to chat about char actions/motivations. Also, ask me any questions about the world there.

Adult Content goes here. Don't make me edit your posts. Will make me very unhappy.

Feel free to generate NPCs. You may post blurbs about them in the OOC thread so that others may interact with them. Make sure you double-check with the creator (and this goes for PCs, too) regarding actions/words that may be out of character. At no time are you allowed to assign thoughts or motivations to another person's character (PC or NPC) Capiche?

Good grammar and spelling is a must. If I have to strain too hard to make out what you write, I will be most annoyed.

Please post once (max) per day. This will allow everyone else time to put some thought into a good, coherent post, and keep me from getting lost, because my time is limited. If no one has continued the story in 24 hours, tonly then are you allowed to double-post. (or unless I give express permission)

Remember, individual characters know what is said and done ONLY! I am a nazi about meta-gaming and am merciless. Ye be warned.

To follow are the first combined RP sessions between myself and Blackwulff, which should demonstrate what you're in for here. Never fear, by no means do all posts have to be this long -- especially once we get some real character interactions, but be ye not afraid of waxing eloquent!

Good characterization will earn you forgiveness and cool stuff!

Dark wrote:

Information on the station:

Hollowed out of an asteroid in Sol's outer asteroid belt, Hephaestus was designed with the latest in technology to crunch and process raw rock into the high-grade ore necessary to fuel Earth's expansion. There are new habitats and new ships to build to supply the new colonies being sent out into the galaxy. Hephaestus has dozens of levels filled with the best, top-of-the-line equipment and technology that money could buy.

There are three docking bays. The first and largest is a complex, composite area, for the mining crews and the rocks they bring in from the field. Maneuvering ten-ton rocks (or larger) with only a few kilos of a mining pod is thrilling, but dangerous work requiring lots of space. The second bay is for the supply shuttles and freighters. Their main task is to keep Hephaestus supplied with the foodstuffs and materials to keep the mining installation in working order, and to ferry back the processed minerals and ore to Archimedes Moon Base, the primary supply hub for the UN; but passengers are also able to book room on the freighters, both in and out-bound. Being isolated in a tiny corner of the system, Hephaestus has a high turn-over rate, especially amongst the mining crews.

Inside the station, there's an unspoken rule that mining pod crews (pilots and boomers) do not mix with mining support technicians or other support staff when off-duty (Jack is the one exception). There are three main areas for the mining crews. The first is the hospital, the second the recreation deck, and the third the lounge.

Hephaestus has a fully-staffed and maintained hospital that pays enough to lure some excellent specialists. There is an extensive greenhouse to grow a significant portion of the food required to feed the five thousand-odd residents. One whole level and half of another holds the sports and recreation area, with a park, and sports complexes for pretty much any sport anyone can think of, with and without gravity. Everything except water, that is. Water is still strictly rationed, having to be brought in and melted from ice or manufactured chemically. There are three main eating areas, the cafeteria and two smaller clubs or lounges, one of which is situated in the section of living quarters designated specifically for the mining crews.


Information on Mining Crews:

Mining crews come in twos: a pilot and an explosives/demolitions expert called a boomer. The pilot is responsible for flying the mining pod out to the field to the chosen rock and then towing said rock back to the station and into the processing queue, all the while keeping the pod and crew from being smashed to pieces by other random asteroids in the field. The boomer is responsible for deciding which rocks to go after (high-grade content versus risk and skill) and breaking that rock into smaller chunks when required. Often, that means an EVA out on the rock itself.

Boistrous, rowdy men and women, mining crews come in all shapes and sizes, with all manner of reasons for being there. The start-out costs are high, with the expenses of purchasing and supplying a mining pod, living charges, and insurance fees putting most into a hole they never climb out of. Get killed or irreparably injured while in the line of duty and the debt is forgiven, but damage to station or personnel through your own, individual foolishness carries equally heavy penalties. Few bother to actually read the fine print, seeing only the potential for making a lot of money fast. The job sounds deceptively easy and the station offers free transport to new miners; they just have to sit through the safety and legal briefings on Archimedes (and sign on the dotted line) first.

Most miners, once they complete their contract (i.e. pay off the initial debt), quit. Only a few are crazy enough or determined enough to stay on longer.

The mining crews spend the majority of their time out in the asteroid field in two-person teams, confined into a tiny but powerful craft with no one but each other for company for days, sometimes weeks, at a time. Well-functioning, stable teams are hard to come by, and profitable ones even more rare. It takes a special kind of person to be able to function well in such a high-risk, high-stress environment. Throw in the extreme isolation and all manner of things have been known to happen, the least of which being the ones who go out into the field and never come back.

There are millions of rocks, ranging from practically planet-sized to the kind that sizzle like dust in a pod's shielding, but finding (and getting to) the right kind of rocks takes skill, ingenuity, and a good memory. Mining crews are border-line paranoid about their section of the field. Making money often means hiding the best asteroids from other crews, so someone else can't swoop in off a run and steal the best ores. Good rocks mean good money, possibly bonuses, which are essential if one wants to get out of debt before one gets turned into space dust.

Those miners who just can't take flying the field any more but still have debt to pay off usually opt to finish their contracts by switching to support staff or taking the expense of being trained to work in the refinery.

For Teo Diluca, life had never been easy. Born on Mars in standard time 2157, Teo had thought he'd had his life pretty well mapped out. His proficiency tests said he had the aptitude to be a pilot, so he'd set his sights on being a United Nations Peacekeeper and flitting around the solar system in one of their gleaming fighters or battleships.

Hephaestus Mining Station had not been -- and was not -- what he'd had in mind. He was one of the few who had stuck around after completing his contract, but he didn't consider himself to be there by choice.

Teo was a good pilot, one of the best in the system. That's why he was there.

He called his pod the Icarus in homage to the ancient Greek legend of the boy who tried to fly too close to the sun with wax wings. Seemed fitting, considering the station was named for the Greek god of the forge. He'd had the pod long enough to have needed several retro-fits and repairs, but he'd grown attached to the tiny, ugly, little thing, with all its dents and scrapes. They'd had a number of close calls together, but they always made it out okay. Pilot or crew, all had the initial expenditure of a mining pod on their sheets, though if you could find an old-timer, like Teo, who already had a pod and was willing to take on a noob, that expense was automatically refunded. Of course, want your own or want to change crews and that cost came back, but that wasn't usually considered by rookies hyped up on propaganda and their own inflated egos.

Those miners who just couldn't take flying the field any more but still had debt to pay off usually opted to finish off by switching to support staff or taking the expense of being trained to work in the refinery. Once again, that was why Teo found himself called into the Operations Manager's office in the middle of a well-deserved break. He and his partner, Trin, had just brought in a records-size chunk of ore that had put Teo well into the black for that quarter and he was determined to work through the profits by an equally appreciated amount of swill, gaming, and company. Oh, yes, lots of company.

At 1.75 meters tall and 70 kgs of pure lean, wiry muscle, he didn't consider himself particularly striking to look at. He had the same ego and don't mess with me confidence all the veterans accumulated, but Teo rather thought he looked old for thirty. He kept his thick, brown hair short in a military-esque cut and crows feet crinkled the corners of his dark-brown eyes. It was his smile he relied upon, that he used to such devastating effect, tipping one side or another of his mouth into a lopsided, roguish grin.

J.T. Calloway, however, had developed an immunity to Teo's charm. He styled himself the general of Hephaestus' mining fleet, managing and overseeing all mining operations. His office overlooked the vast cargo bay, with mining pods and refinery crews zipping around at all hours of the day. Teo could appreciate the military efficency of the man and found him a likeable enough fellow ... outside his office and with a few drinks in him.

Currently, the stern-faced older man looked about ready to shred plas-steel with his teeth. If the force of words alone could make walls shake, his office would be vibrating. Personally, Teo had received far worse dressing-downs, but he had to admit that he'd never made J.T. this pissed off before. And for what? Why was it his fault if his newest partner had decided she wasn't cut out for mining work? So? With the reward of their latest haul and the bonus of not having to work off a mining pod debt, the rookie was far better off than any rookie by rights ought to be. She should be grateful!

Teo gritted his teeth and tuned out his boss, mentally subtracting the cost of losing his partner against his standing debts. He'd still manage to remain in the black, even after repairs to the Icarus and re-supply costs for the next run. Unless he couldn't find another partner in the next couple of weeks. That would be pushing it, what with rookie training and getting approval. And J.T. was just the sort to hold up the paperwork simply to make him sweat.

"... So you'll take this assignment?"

Teo blinked, suddenly realizing that J.T. had just asked him something.

"Diluca!" J.T. bellowed. "Decide now! You either work with Liam or I kick you out on the next shuttle, what's it going to be?"

Liam? Liam who? He swallowed. Whomever it was, he couldn't leave. Not yet. He nodded. "Sir, I accept."

"Good. You're a good pilot, Diluca, I'd hate to lose you, but you scare off more crew than anyone else and cause more damage --"

"I also make you more money!" snapped Teo. He'd been on Hephaestus eighteen months and had not yet lost either pod or crew. The speed with which he'd paid off his debts made him a legend in the short memories of mining pod crews. Experience had taught him where to find the best ores, so he didn't even need to rely on his boomer's instincts to make money. He could almost do this job solo.

"Now, you listen here, hotshot!" snarled J.T. "I don't need you here making my job even more difficult and endangering the lives of the men and women in my charge. You keep your nose clean or, so help me, debt or no debt, you're out of here, understand?"

'Fuck you!' was what Teo wanted to say, but he only nodded curtly. "Yes, sir."

The Ops Manager handed Teo a datapad. "Here. Liam's record. He's one of my best and you will treat him with the respect he deserves. Lost pod and pilot in a bad crash, so he's assigned to you until current debts are re-paid."

Teo's eyes widened at the scrolling figures on the datapad. He whistled softly. Nanite and bacta treatments. It was a wonder this guy was still alive!

"If," J.T. continued, "at that point, Liam wishes to change partners, I will not charge the change-fee to either of your accounts. I'm doing this because Liam's in a bad spot right now and stands the best chance of getting out of it again with your help."

"Understood, sir." An experienced explosives expert available now? Why the hell would Teo refuse? He wouldn't have to deal with half a rookie's shit.

"Good, then. Get out of here and let me get some actual work done. Oh, and Diluca?" he called as Teo turned to leave. "Your pod should be ready to go in twenty-four hours. Be ready to ship out."

"But," he protested. He still had a couple weeks of earned leave!

J.T. scowled.

"Fuck," Teo spat. "Yes, sir."

Teo glared at the intruder. The small man just stared right back. The stalemate held.

So, this was Liam.

"'Scrap heap?'" Teo echoed. "Piss off, my ship's prettier than you -- and ain't likely to get me killed, either."

Oh, yes, Teo knew of this man. Who on Hephaestus didn't? Half the regulations were due to the dumb-shit perpetrated by this bastard; but, more than that, scuttlebutt claimed he'd gotten his partner killed out of sheer stupidity. And Teo'd been there the day this guy went bananas in the docking bay. He was a crazy fucker.

The little man went almost completely still, folding his arms over his chest and scowling.

Assignment or not, faced with Liam Aver, 2-B, the 'two-boom' guy, Teo would just as soon tell J.T. to go fuck himself. Unfortunately, the nature of Teo's position (positions? eh, whatever ...) did not allow him that option. So he scowled. He scowled hard. What the hell could he do to get this man -- this liability -- out of his life as quickly as possible?

Then the corner of Liam's mouth turned up in a smirk. "Say," he almost-purred, taking a step closer and running a finger along his jaw, "I hear you'll fuck anyone. Want to give it a go?"

Injured or not, Teo hauled back and swung. "Fuck you!" he spat, looming with as much loom as his not-so super-imposing frame allowed.

Liam chuckled, rubbing his jaw in earnest now. "That's the general idea," he replied, not daunted in the least. "Get all the tension out now ...."

"Ben tiansheng de yi dui rou!"

Liam stared at Teo for a second or two, blinked, and then his face split in a huge grin and he started laughing. Not just normal laughter, but clutching your sides, deep, body-shaking, howling laughter.

If Teo were to scowl any harder, he thought he just might crack his teeth or dislocate his jaw. A pilot's life was sometimes measured in nanoseconds. Teo gave Liam exactly 0.75 seconds before turning on his heel and leaving the docking bay. Red so clouded his thoughts that he was at the crew lounge before he could shake loose the image of his hands around Liam's slim, space-tanned neck, throttling him like a doll.

He picked up his usual pint of grog and turned his back on the bar to survey the always rowdy crowd. He saw some familiar faces, but most were new, and that's just the way Teo liked it. Grabbing up his pint, he moved to a table towards the center.

"Yo, Jack, deal me in." Setting mug on the table, Teo rolled up his sleeves and sat in an empty chair. He dug some credits out of his pocket and set those to his left, close enough to the kid there that Teo could, accidentally, of course, brush his hand as they played.

Jack, a man of such mixed ancestry that he just called himself human, lifted a brow at Teo's obvious ploy, but dealt out another hand. The rocks, ships, and people on the cards were the tech's own invention. He'd been on Hephaestus longer than anyone else Teo knew. He was also Teo's favorite tech. Whenever he brought in a shipment of ore, Teo always checked to see if Jack was available to look it over.

"So, what'd the boss-man want?" asked Jack, as play proceeded.

Teo took a large gulp of his drink. "You'll never guess." He winked at the kid on his left. Teo called most folk around Hephaestus kids. Not that they were young, far from it, but because he felt so old compared to them. He'd seen and done too much in his short existence. He didn't remember ever being so young and idealistic.

"Bet you a chicken I can."

"Fair enough," Teo replied, mouth watering at the idea of fresh food. He had no idea where Jack procured it all, but the odds and ends he turned up was the foremost reason he'd pursued the big, handsome man. So far, his efforts had all been in vain. Jack liked big-breasted blondes, something in which Hephaestus was rather lacking. He'd never had a fascination with boobs himself, but women did have their uses.

There was an unspoken rule that mining pod pilots and crew did not mix with techies or staff when off-duty, but Jack had never paid that no mind. He was one of the rare few not only allowed, but welcomed in the mining crew lounge. It was an unlikely friendship, him and Teo, but Jack was friends with pretty much everyone. Helped that he had good contacts, both on Earth and at Archimedes Moonbase.

He raised the pot a cred, lifting a brow at his young friend. "You owe me a chicken, 'cause I know that Trin signed on as tech today. Assigned to me for training."

Teo smiled. He had money to burn, wouldn't hurt any to pay Jack his pirate's fee for finding the poultry. "Ah, but can you guess the rest? If not, then you cook, and I want it tonight."

Jack set his cards down and leaned across the table. "That'll cost you, Diluca."

Swinging his arm casually over the back of his neighbor's chair, Teo poured half his grog into the man's cup. "So you say," he agreed easily. "Trin quit on me. Hardly noteworthy news."

"So, who's your new partner?"

"Ah, but that's the game, isn't it?" He nibbled at a bit of exposed neck, making his victim shiver.

The others at the table laid down their hands as well, knowing that the current game being played was not over card values.

"Well," drawled Jack, "were I J.T., I'd slap you with a hefty fine and toss your ship to the end of the repair line, but you're looking far too smug. I'd say you've somehow managed to wiggle out of the hot seat once again." He shook his head in amazement.

Teo's hand dropped down to the top of his target's thigh. "Getting warmer," he murmured, chin resting on the kid's shoulder, feeling his breathing hitch. Teo smirked. "You'll never guess."

Trouble rarely ever stuck to Teo. Oh, he kept his nose clean enough, unless he was out in the pod, and then he became the dare-devil, hot-shot pilot that had made more techs piss their pants than Jack could count. Teo's first partner, an experienced explosives expert, had returned from their first run together in hysterics and refused, point-blank, to ever fly with Teo again.

That was when he'd shelled out the credits to get his own pod. Jack had won the pool that had laid odds on how long Teo's current partner would last. He'd said she'd be radioing in for a transfer as soon as they came within contact distance. Crew transfers involving Teo automatically went to the top of the pile. Trin'd been approved within two days.

Jack picked at his teeth with a thumb. "Boatload of rookies due in in a couple weeks. You're on the back-burner until then."

Hand ghosted over groin. Teo whispered in the man's ear, "What's your name, kid?"

"B-Bryan ...!"

Teo turned his attention back to Jack, the heel of his hand grinding mercilessly against a quickly-hardening erection. "Bryan, here, and I would like dinner at twenty-one hundred."

"Bullshit, Diluca!" growled Jack. "You expect me to believe you've got a partner already?"

"You bet your chicken," he replied, pulling open the back of a collar to suckle at damp skin.

"Who?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" He scooped up his creds, pulling Bryan to his feet. "Tell you at dinner." He laughed at their expressions, grabbed the two mugs of grog, and strutted from the lounge.

Departs for Adult Content ... back soon ...

Bryan wasn't bad -- wasn't particularly good, either, but the kid made up for it with stamina. With the rosy cheeks of the freshly fucked, he didn't talk unless spoken to and that was fine by Teo. Talking was for couples and women. Teo didn't need -- or want -- either.

Dinner, of course, was excellent.

The first thing Teo did was transfer over credits for the meal. The expenditure barely made a noticeable dent in his new balance. Provided Liam didn't screw things up, Teo could look for a lengthy furlough when they got back. Not that he'd actually have a vacation. While scuttlebutt said Teo did nothing but sleep, drink, gamble, and fuck away his time on station, there was little truth remaining to the rumors. Sure he did his share, but the majority was just that, rumors he'd spent weeks cultivating. His persona on this mission was important to allay suspicion. He played close to the truth, because in all honesty he wasn't much of an actor, but bringing out the extremes of his real personality was as tiring as hacking the station's database.

And, along the way, Teo had managed to make a few friends.

Jack was one. They ate and drank and played cards late into the night. Teo dragged Bryan back to his small quarters for more stumbling, drunken sex, but was too tired to kick him out. He wasn't completely heartless.

Waking to Liam's unwelcome intrusion, however ....

Naked, hung-over, and crusty with the night's activities, Teo stood and prowled across the room towards 2-B. "Get," he stated, cold, stacatto words punctuated by Teo's finger in Liam's chest. He stared down his nose at the boomer. "The. Fuck. Out." He'd be down at the hanger when he was good and ready, damn it.

Blackwulff wrote:

Liam's eyes narrowed and he ignored the fingers prodding in his chest. "You stink." He said flatly, his eyes deadpanned, "I hope you're showering before we leave." He moved aside and went to sit in the little chair on the side of room, crossing his legs, "If you want me out, you better fucking throw me." He growled, settling back with a vicious glare. As soon as this run was done, he was putting in for a transfer, if he didn't do it as soon as he left the damn room. He had his 'stubborn jeans' on, as his mother had referred to it and he wasn't taking them off until Teo was showered, dressed, and in the damn hangar ready to go. Or maybe he'd leave them all the whole time. Yeah, that sounded safer, much safer.

"This whole thing stinks," Teo muttered, but it was far too soon for glaring. Palm to face, he strode past into the little cupboard that housing the toilet and sonic shower. Shaving in low-gravity sucked, so Teo dabbed on the growth-retardant, was showered and dressed within ten minutes. Slinging his pack over one shoulder, he walked past Liam without speaking, heading out the door and to the pod.

Before entering his ship, Teo took a walk around, making sure that the ship was in as good of repairs as possible. Satisfied, he palmed the locks, stored his bag, and shimmied out of his station clotes to pull on his emergency jump-suit.

Orange, the suit fit snuggly over Teo's shorts and undershirt. Should the mining pod get breeched, the jump-suit would buy its wearer enough time to get to the space-suits carefully stowed away in the survival lockers directly behind the seats. Provided, one supposed, that the ship wasn't smashed to pieces. If that should happen, they'd be toast.

He pulled on the mask and goggles, plugging in the connections with the ease of long practice. They'd essentially be living in these suits for the next few days, or however long the run lasted. Sitting down at the pilot's console, Teo started the warm-up procedures. The headset fit tight over his ears, serving a dual purpose of protecting fragile eardrums in case of decompression, and allowing him to speak over the com lines. There was the power cord to snap on, the safety harness, and then the jack for the mask's microphone.

"Tower, this is the Icarus, requesting permission to take off."

"Roger that, Icarus," was the reply. "Teo, you filed your flight plan?"

"Heading to Q-15-X, boys," he said, referring to the box on the grid of the asteroid field that was his assigned territory. Him and a half-dozen others. Of course, mining pod crews rarely, if ever, stuck to their assigned routes. Teo wasn't planning on going there at all.

"Very good," said the voice in the control tower. "Icarus, you are cleared for take-off."

"Roger, Tower. See you in a few days. Over and out."

Blackwulff wrote:

Liam watied somewhat patiently, though he did maybe, just a bit, sneak a peek when the other was showering, it wasn't a bad view, if he did say so, he worked out anyways. He hurried to his feet as the other came out and followed him intently as they arrived at the ship. He helped load the bags, taking his own and warning Teo away from it, under threat of explosion should he rattle it too much and the wrong things clacked together. A lie, of course, Liam had packed them too well for anything to do that.

He pulled his black boomer suit on over his regular jumpsuit, and zipped it up, bright purple zipper and all, his was a prototype, but damn if he didn't get his little touches somewhere. His boom-suit was practically armour, this was for just in case a charge went off, for the most part he was safe, all he had to do was paddle back to the ship. The boom-suit was made of pseudonuim (a recent metal discovered harder than steel by about fifty times and lightweight too) reinforced leather get-up that fit super snugly over his whole body. It took him a few months to break it in, but now that he had... He looked like a girl. It's snug upper part held resemblance of a corset, riding over his narrow hips and up his chest while the shoulder and arm armour looked like something out of a ninetys sci-fi movie, all stormtrooper plating, but snugger, fitter, 'classier' the boss had call it, Liam called it 'girlier'. His boots were heavy, thank god, combat, military issued pseudonium plated toes and cased his legs up to his knees, where his pants, leathery and creaky, barely kept all of him contained. It was a wonder he hadn't lost blood circulation to his legs with the pants snugness.

He boarded quickly as well, quickly finding all the places he needed in his part of the pod, pulling his helmet on and attaching it to the comm system as he flicked on the power grid for his suit, feeling the little tingles of the nanobots still in him to monitor his progress. Goggles were next, then his mask, then his mic, and he was all set to go. Bring on your worst Teo DiLuca, I'm not afraid of you...

Teo finished his pre-flight check, glanced at the proximity sensors, and then slowly raised the ship from its cradle. However much he might 'play' off-station, take-offs and landings were always dicey affairs. With a headache the size of one of those floating asteroids, Teo wasn't taking any chances.

He did his best to ignore his boomer, but that damned, purple zipper kept catching his eye. What the hell? Some fashion statement I don't know about? Gritting his teeth, he turned his eyes back to the screens, not relaxing until the cold, blackness of space enveloped them in its welcoming silence. Only the thrum of the massive engines behind them reminded him that he wasn't alone -- Well, aside from the silent, all too-cheery personage in the crew seat.

A slow smile crept over Teo's face. Giving one last, cursory check of the sensors and indicators, Teo throttled the engines hard, shooting them out into the field, completely opposite their 'assigned' flight plan. He whooped, spinning the ship on its side in a barrel roll that only barely avoided an incoming 'roid and pinned him down into his seat with the impulse.

He knew where he was going; Trin wasn't coming back out into the field and Teo wanted to get the last of that ore before she told somebody else its location. Rookies. They didn't have any sense of the harsh realities of this job. Good rocks were essential, especially if one wanted to get rid of one's partner as soon as fucking possible.

They had fuel enough to last through twice as many acrobatics as Teo had ever pulled. Most crews filled up with as little as possible, fuel was expensive, but Teo always put the max in. He'd learned a long time ago that one had to plan for unexpected occurrances. One of these days, his caution just might save his life.

For now, however, Teo swooped and dived and doubled back on their course such that even he would have had difficulty tracking the ship, or following, and he knew where they were going!

Laughing with glee, the desire to make Liam barf up his toenails faded into the genuine pleasure of being back out in space, away from the hassles and double-sided responsibilities of harsh reality. This, flying, was what Teo lived for.

When he finally settled, and Liam spoke, Teo jumped. He'd forgotten the man was even there.

Blackwulff wrote:

Liam went through his own checks, little things mostly, his job was to blow shit up, he didn't have to worry about the pilot things. He just had to sit back until they reached the fields. He settled in as they lifted off, but as they slammed forward, he couldn't help but shriek as he was pressed back into the chair. He clutched the arms of the chair and sat up as the rocks flew past him in a whirl. Maybe he wasn't quite ready for what Diluca had to deal out. He gasped as an asteroid rushed by them with a woosh of air. He'd never been on a ride like this before and it scared him. If his belts had allowed it, he would have drawn his knees to his chest, as it were he took a deep breath and closed his eyes tightly, feeling the lurch and whirl of Teo's flying. He had to fight not to fall into a panic attack, but he schooled his face into blankness, most of the obvious terror in his arms, not his face.

He clutched the arms tighter as they spiralled, dipped, turned, whirled, lurched, dove, back rolled, front rolled, and did everything possible to make Liam's fragile hold on reality slip further away. His eyes were pinched shut tightly, but his stomach and his mind played the trip out perfectly, and Liam wished for anywhere but here. As they finally stopped, Liam finally opened his eyes, quickly undid his buckles, stood as best he could and slugged Teo as hard as he could in the general direction of his jaw.

Furious and sick to his stomach, he glared daggers at the other, "You... you..." He growled, he had no words for the amount of pure animosity he held towards the pilot as he pulled his mask over his face and attached the breathing cables, "Where are the fucking rocks?" He snarled over the comm as he undid the tech attachments to the console and plugged them into his suit, so furious he fumbled with them a moment before he got them in. He yanked on his gloves and pulled them in place, tapping the keys on the back of his hand as they snugged beneath his sleeves and sealed, skintight. Thank god they were breathing, the suits ran air through his suit to keep him warm in the chill of space. He was still furious and it wasn't wearing off, he wanted to throttle Teo more than anything else at this moment, even beyond the desire to see explosions in the chill, oxygenless space.

((AN: and here we are, caught up to date. Guess it's actually my turn. O.o ))

Liam's punch rocked Teo back in his seat. He stared after the irate (and rather green) boomer with surprise, and a slight smile. Teo liked his men to have some spunk.

"You want rocks?" he muttered, not caring if the com were connected or not. "We're about to get rocks."

Flying with nothing nearby was pure enjoyment and thrill. Venturing into the asteroid field, where a nanosecond's miscalculation would see them pulverized between two chunks of rock left over from the creation of the solar system? That took skill and concentration, and Teo didn't mess around. Like ancient sailors and the sea, Teo knew better than to turn his back to space, especially where they were going.

Technically, the boomer dictated where to go and which rocks to retrieve. The last part Teo still intended to honor, but he had no intention to spend any more time with Liam than he absolutely had to. There was no way he (or anyone else, for that matter) would be able to follow him or re-trace his flight path, so the risk was minimal. He was headed for the motherlode, smack-dab in the center of the Triangle.

"Strap in, back there," he warned. "We're going in."

The rocks of the asteroid field shifted erratically. Solar flares and any other disturbances of the solar winds (including some of the planetoids colliding with one another) sent shock waves rippling through the asteroid field. The mining crews called them rock storms. One such storm had sent Teo into a bizarre section of the field called the Triangle, after some old Earth legend.

The Triangle wasn't really a triangle, more like a tear-drop shape, but the area was dense with asteroids, big and small. For some reason they seemed to move faster and shift more frequently than out in the rest of the field, perhaps pushed and pulled by the conflicting magnetic fields due to all the ore at their cores. Whatever the case, there were lots of rocks, with very little, constantly changing maneuvering room.

The first time was an accident, and Teo's boomer had about shit his pants in fright. They'd been on almost friendly terms until that point. Teo got them out again, though not without a few hair-raising close calls. His boomer, convinced that they were both cursed for venturing into the Triangle, made him promise not to tell another living soul where they'd been. That was fine with Teo; though unconcerned with such hocus pocus as jinxes or curses, he had another reason for keeping his silence.

Inside the Triangle, the ship's sensors went wild. The rocks were off the charts for ore and mineral content. Teo suspected that the first miners had also seen those readings and gone after the treasure only to end up smashed on the rocks, thus giving birth to the legends of the place.

From time to time he'd snagged rocks from the edge of the Triangle, when he both had a boomer he trusted enough to blast and secure the rock, and when he had a boomer new enough to not recognize where they were. This was an understandably rare occasion.

Liam was, by all accounts, an excellent boomer. He certainly hadn't earned his nick-name from nothing. He was one of the old-timers, as rare as the rocks of the Triangle. Teo didn't know quite how long Liam had been at Hephaestus, he'd never cared enough to dig up his record, but he knew it was a long time.

And even if he guessed where they were, who would he tell? Who would believe him? Liam was insane!

Liam merely shot Teo a dirty look as the other muttered, he could hear perfectly fine through the comms. He looked out the portals, adjusting his gear, "Where are you? We aren't even near the scheduled flightplan." He asked looking over the other's shoulders to see the layouts in front of him. He huffed, riding along, making sure his straps were tight when the other warned him, his eyes pinching shut in dread of a potentially sickening flight.

When he heard the instruments going wild with readings, he touched on his controls, reading over his own panels, his hands scanning them, almost incredulous with the findings. "Where the hell..." He trailed off as he looked out the portal, his face went a sort of palish color, between green and yellow, "We're in the... Triangle." He said quietly, swallowing softly, quickly pulling himself together, "Hot damn." He said, a few bits from here and he'd be out of the reds and into the blacks for a good long while. Maybe he'd be rid of Teo all the faster for it.

He reached for his pack, looked like generic poppers weren't going to do the trick (though the rarely did) and he'd have to make some Special Brew for these babies. He clinked and tinkered around for a few minutes, pulling out a variety of highly dangerous, and extremely flammable ingredients from his pack, suddenly very excited to use his favored goodies for making things go 'boom' in the night. If the other asked what he was up to he didn't hear it as he mixed his powders and liquids in all the very worst ways, making his brew as chemically unstable as he possibly could (made for prettier lights) and capping it, slipping a fuse into the top and securing it with Duct Tape (the bright purple kind) and grabbing his helmet, "Zoom me over to this one." He highlighted a rock that he liked, a decent size with a moderate amount of ore, one that would be fairly easy to both snag and break down without having to flight into the heartland of this three-sided hell. "Don't shake too much, don't need us to blow up with with the rock." He held up his not-so-generic-popper the kind he liked to call Bottle Rockets after the Earthian firework, mostly because it sounded fun and explosions were a ton of fun.

"Oh, right," spat Teo, his voice thick with sarcasm, "Like your pilot always stuck to the flight plan. Jackass." This last he murmured more than said as he took the pod over the edge of the Triangle.

Here in the Triangle there was no room left for error. Distance that wasn't there to the naked eye opened for them, closing behind them, mapped out with the extraordinary exactitude bought at extraordinary price. Unbeknownst to anyone, the computer in the Icarus was like no other in the mining fleet. There was a particular technology new to the U.N. and stolen by the Alliance: Virtual Reality. Soon, this fledgling technology would be in every ship, and Teo's unique position had earned him one of the first prototypes.

The AI of the pod was exquisite, managing the computation of VR but without the direct hook-ups still being developed. The AI and Teo moved together as a flawless team, reacting to the perilous environment with time-proven exactness. Teo knew the tiny mining pod better than his own hand. He flew as if the fragile composite silica-steel was an extension of himself, his world narrowed to what the sensors showed, watching six different screens at once, fingers and feet flicking with hair-line precision.

Of course, the rock Liam picked was an irregular lump that wobbled and spun irregularly, bobbing helplessly between two much larger cousins. Both of the larger asteroids showed clear signs of the close association, their inner sides gouged and pocked from collisions, the space between littered with detritus.

Teo dodged the debris and stuck to the sides of Scarface, the asteroid with the long, jagged scar, slightly smaller than the other on the opposite side of their target. The computer tracked and analyzed the erratic courses of the three asteroids. Sweat trickled down the sides of Teo's face, unnoticed. They'd been flying for hours now and the strain was beginning to show, but his hands, like his eyes, remained focused and steady. He knew at the exact instant when the computer was ready, and a slight touch on the maneuvering thrusters pushed them through a narrow opening, to land as gently as an eyelash on the most protected surface of their spinning treasure.

"We're here," he said unnecessarily, breaking free of his trance and shaking out his hands. He grinned ferally at the boomer. "You got 86 minutes before this thing's path smashes us into big daddy over there." He gestured towards one of the looming asteroids.

"And the sky's overcast," he added, in mining slang for the surrounding dust and debris cloud. As much as a pain in the ass Liam was, an inconvenience and a liability, Teo wasn't exactly impatient to see him killed. "Watch yourself."

"At least my pilot made an attempt to stay in the general vicinity of where we said we were going to go, rather than in the exact opposite direction." He returned acidly, "Numbskull." He mumbled the last away from the mic and moved his hands over the operating controls of his side, his hands moving with a mind of their own, the magnet panels on the outside of the ship switching, and moving, both to draw the rock in and to keep the larger of the rocks at bay, not to say that they couldn't push past that magnetic field, but it would sure as hell wouldn't hurt to have that few extra seconds of delay between approaching rock and 'squish' bloody smear on the rock. That thought gave him slight vertigo as he had a brief flashback to his old partner, which he quickly stuffed, bottled, locked, keyed, sealed, and drywalled away.

He had to work this delicately, however, he was, after all, playing with the ships ability to shield against interplanetary debris. It was as useful as he was in these early stages while the other was flying for the perfect spot to go at this particular... particulate of space.

As they set down, Liam undid his belts and grabbed his helmet and his special toys, as the other spoke his unnecessary 'We're here' he glanced at him briefly and stepped into the miniscule airlock, barely big enough for a boomer to fit into, and had he been any bigger, the Icarus' lock wouldn't have fit him at all. It was good thing that most of his kind were smaller than the average sailor, he thought wryly, even the Gambit's lock hadn't been this small. He slid on the helmet and locked it in place, not much more than a tightly woven cloth that fit over his head tightly, with a face mask, much like a diver's mask, for going underwater, but thicker, heavier, and a helluva lot more secure. He felt the rush of air into his mask and he felt the lock seal and push him out as he set down on to the rock.

The lock closed behind him. He was on his own out in the cold, dark recesses of space. He was thrilled! He knelt down to set to work, setting up a holographic grid on the rock and a sound detector as he pulled out a handful of echometers and starting to walk the grid to place down the echometers. When he'd found what he was looking for, packed up the echolocators and disappeared from view onto the other side of the rock. He had picked a most unpleasant rock, to mine, due to the positioning between the two larger, but, oh well. He was almost eager to dig into the bigger ones he saw in the distance, making a cave and mining for more than a few days of a run, disappearing for maybe a week or two before coming in with the motherload of all expeditions... But that would have to wait until he had ditched Teo. His nose curled slightly in the suit, but he had set up one of his personal poppers, "As soon as these go, we're going to have to book our asses out of here, because the fields of the two bigger asteroids will draw to one another without this one here to mediate." He said over the comms as he finished setting up the popper. The second he placed not three feet away from the first, and started wiring them for the remote trigger, fortunately the rock had enough of a gravity field to keep the wires from flying away as he began measuring, cutting, snipping, tearing, and pulling apart the different pieces he needed for the remote.

It wasn't long before he had the box set up and flashing and he moved back to the ship, really, flying to the ore wasn't that long, nor was blowing up the rock the hard part, it was gathering the pieces that had enough useable material and packing them away for transportation and getting all the pieces that you wanted to be processed, that's the part that took days on end, really. The debris that already littered the air around him had started to get thicker, pelting his suit with little rocks, and he was startled to find that the big rock seemed to be much closer than it was a few minutes ago. Had he been out here that long? He gulped and climbed back into the pod. Unfortunately they couldn't take off until Liam was sure that both charges had gone off, this was much more difficult with inexperienced boomers, as they tended to use more charges than they needed to blow a rock. Liam did not have this problem.

He returned to the cabin and pulled off his helmet, shaking out his hair, moving to the portals and setting off the charges. Blue fire lit the sky before it was suddenly extinguished and the second lurched into the sky. For a second nothing happened and Liam had enough time to worry, 'had he lost his touch?' when a deep, gut churning crack echoed out among the rocks, echoing and rebounding over everything, as the rock split and began to crumble, the internal gasses in the rock lighting up with blue and orange and green, tearing the rock apart, and starting to collapse it beneath their ship. "Go, go!" Liam said after the first crack and he hurried to his seat, strapping in and buckling himself up, bracing for flight.

They were far closer to the big asteroid than Teo was comfortable with when he felt the ship shudder from the boomer's explosives, brought to them through reverberations in the surface. The Icarus flashed warnings, and Teo's hands dashed across the panels to get everything ready. He released the parking struts that secured them to the rock as soon as Liam came back aboard. They floated freely, drifting free of the surface as Teo carefully maneuvered them to the exact angle he needed, had planned for their escape.

Ignoring Liam's words, the looming asteroid, and the rock breaking apart beneath them, Teo waited only for the all-green signal that Liam was locked in, the pod ready to depart, and then shoved them through the narrowing gap between asteroids. They needed to get out of the way of the shock wave, and fast! It wouldn't take long before the void they'd created filled with the two larger asteroids, and Teo didn't want to be anywhere in the Triangle when that happened.

He'd programmed in calculations for predicting the danger zone, doubled it, and found a relatively stable rock to set down on. He could see the boomer staring, mesmerized at the chaos that was the Triangle, but Teo didn't care at the moment. He set the usual alarms, unbuckled, and staggered into the heavily shielded living section of the pod.

Shaking hands found an energy pouch. He pulled the tab and drank it down without waiting for the drink to heat up.

"Are you okay?"

In all honesty, Teo felt like death; waiting for a boomer to do his work, and praying that the explosion wouldn't catapult them into a smashing end or that they'd still have enough time to get away once the boomer was done was not easy on the nerves. Liam had eaten up every last second of Teo's margin. It was a senseless risk, for him, just for a reputation -- never mind his own daring of the Triangle, he was confident in his own abilities, but this was too much.

He turned around to glare at the other man. "And just what in the hell was that?"

Liam was entranced with the explosions, so much so that he did not care about the rapid flying that the other was doing, or how close, in fact, they came to death. All that mattered was the exhilaration of heat, and fire, and the silent explosions that disappeared as quickly as they came. Only after the fires died away, did he refocus and watch Teo stagger out of his seat into the living section. "Are you okay?" He asked, and snickered when the other popped a energy sack and quickly downed it. There was wry amusement in Liam's look, "You mean to tell me," He said, "That flying, whirly-gig through space, insane and wild is all cock and balls to you, but the second you see a little firepower and a couple explosions you're all trembly?" He asked, snorting, "Brady and I came out of closer scrapes than that, you're a grade A pilot, supposedly, if you can't take the heat, you should get out of this business." He grumped, sure it was fun and games when Liam was ready to vomit his bladder out his nose, but the second Teo got spooked it was all cigarette and booze.

He turned when the other finally addressed him, "That?" He pointed to the window, "Do you mean the 'that' of the explosions, or the 'that' of whatever else you're talking about?" He asked, "Because my 'that' was a few grams of carbon combust and about ten grams of methane, anathane, and black power." He said, "Some of my own personal poppers. They work really well. If I had a bigger window, I would have only had to use one." And he, feeling a slight bit petulant, stuck his tongue out at the other as a final statement.

((bladder ... vomit ... nose ...! ))

The tongue. That was the last straw.

Anger darkened Teo's features and he took a step forward, grabbing Liam by the front of his jumpsuit. The pod had enough gravity to maintain an 'up' and 'down,' but hardly any strength was needed to hurl the boomer across the small space.

"The fuck!" Teo shouted. "That," he answered, pointing towards the cyclone that was the Triangle. "That, as in taking your own sweet time! You have no idea! how fucking close we came to being just another goddamn paint smear! I don't chant 'fuck' for my own amusement!"

The drink pouch crumpled in his hand and he glared at the smaller man.

"You pull that shit again and I'll fucking leave your ass! I said 86 minutes and you took 89! Your Brady was nothing to me! -- If he was here instead of me, both your asses would be gracing some asteroid right now!"

Frustration and the stress of a long day's work on little sleep had him wound up tight and although he was mortified over his outburst he couldn't seem to stop. There was just something about Liam that pushed every last one of his buttons, in quick succession. Teo had never wanted to pummel another man so badly as he did right then.

He advanced across the pod floor, shouting and waving his arms. "If I wasn't the best fucking pilot in the system -- I was stuck with you and if you want to get out of that black money-hole you're sinking in, you'll do things my way! When I say 86minutes, you got eighty-fucking-six minutes!"

Liam didn't really see it coming as the other advanced on him. He had expected some sort of violent extension, but the sensation of being picked up and hurled across the little pod was a dizzying experience in space. He went end over end before he crashed into the pilots chair and slid down, groaning a bit, it hurt, those chairs were soft to sit on, but otherwise it was all steel and bolts. He sat up as the other advanced on him, immediately bristling, his teeth bared in a snarl. He hissed, as the other pointed out the portal, "I didn't take my sweet time! It would have been longer if I had used more charges!" He growled, standing, though it didn't do much to make him look bigger, he was slightly smaller than the other, he'd have to start wearing bigger boots.

He growled, "Pull what shit? I was perfectly fine on time! 86 minutes precisely!" At least it was according to his watch, though the blow on Brady was low and Liam surged to his feet with a snarl, "You may not like me and I certainly don't like you," He moved forward until he was scant centimeters away from the other, looking up slightly, "but by god you will respect the dead and those that have passed on!" He shoved the other back away from him.

"Best fucking pilot! Ha! You're insane and every time you go out you're on a suicide mission!" He shouted, "If you want to die, that's fine by me, but you're not. Going. To. Take. Me. With you!" He had advanced on the other and shoved him with each punctuated word, when it came to feelings about 'companionship' he had little with this one and with every push Teo gave, Liam would only push harder, stubbornness and hard-headedness, Brady had said, would get him in trouble, but sometimes they could be the best part of him. Sometimes.

"I'll do things the way I've always done them, if You don't get of your high-horse and accept the fact that I'm the only boomer who will fly with you, you'll be left without one and you'll never get the goodies here." He growled, "Eighty-six minutes." He rolled his eyes, "Get, the fuck, over it." And he promptly turned his back on the other to go and sit in his chair and watch the Triangle, half hoping the other would continue, he was still partially angling for a fight, it'd do something to work off the tension.

There was too much said and unsaid, felt and held back, for Teo to let Liam turn his back. He caught the boomer's shoulder and spun him around just in time to catch a fresh punch, straight to the jaw.

"If I wanted to suicide, I'd fucking well do it!" he shouted, and then Liam was on him and they crashed around the interior like their own private rock storm, kicking and punching and throwing each other into things. If they weren't so well grounded and with the anchor claws set, Teo might have spared a thought for concern they might rattle the pod right off their asteroid, but he didn't.

Eventually, Teo's greater strength overpowered the other. A body trained for space-confined combat and honed for years had no give, easily countering any of Liam's efforts to break free. He sat astride the other's chest, knees on his shoulders, hands to the thinner wrists pinned to the floor. He ignored the few kicks able to reach his back and leaned down, dripping blood from a split lip.

"Brady, Brady, Brady!" he mocked. "That's all I hear from you! What the fuck do I care for the dead?" The dead were better off, in Teo's mind, but that didn't mean he was eager to join them. He did not hold to the belief that speaking of the dead brought ill fortune upon the speaker, but he did understand how a yearning for 'how things were' with someone now gone could affect a mind, causing the person to sabotage themselves, and not know it.

He ignored the hurt and anger. "Get the fuck over it. You keep mooning over him, and you'll end up dead like him, and I've got far too many more important things to do than be your gods-damned chauffeur!"

As cold and unmoving as a rock, Teo held Liam down despite any protests or struggles, leaning down so that they were almost nose to nose and not caring if he left bruises.

"My pod. My rules. You're with me because I can keep you alive. You fucking mess with that and I. Will. Kill. You." He was worth something back at that hell-hole of a mining installation, and he didn't need a boomer, if it came to that. Liam needed him, and that was that.

The dark eyes which stared into Liam's were not those of a madman. They were clear, absolutely honest, and darker than they ought to be given the color in the available lighting.

"My life," he continued, "is no fucking business of yours, or anyone else's. I --"

He ws too close to blurting out too much and abruptly let go, putting distance between them. He stood with his back toLiam, his hand on the cabinet-covered wall. His other hand fingered his short hair, then retraced the movement to rest over his eyes.

He stood there, heart slowly settling, mind easing, a dreadful guilt rising and pushed aside, making him angry again, and he shook with rage and frustration that had nothing to do with Liam and everything to do with being in this pod and this asteroid field. In that moment he hated everything about himself that made him so good at this job.

He was tired, more tired than he ever could have believed. He was too many people, not even sure who he was anymore, at the heart of it all. Nothing felt right anymore!

Things had stopped being simple long ago, when he'd made a new oath that broke his previous one, and shattered his childish illusions and all his dreams. Serving two masters was not easy, and he was torn between them, neither being what he'd thought they were, neither being what he wanted. His loyalty was with the Alliance, but his dreams were still with the Peacekeepers and he wanted to go back to that child-like state with every fibre of his being, when the world was a propaganda reel, and good always triumphed.

He kept on because he'd chosen one in the end, and it was all he knew to do. Setting his forehead against the forearm braced against the wall, he licked the cut on his lip and sucked the uncertainty and hurt back down. He could do this. he could. He'd been doing fine. Just fine.

Just fine.

Liam was spun about and caught the punch from the other, his head snapping to the side. He saw red, not the nice red of oxygen-enriched explosions, no, that would be nice compared to the blinding rage of this red. He launched himself at the other, "I fucking wish you would!" He hissed, the edge of his upper lip was turned up and his brows were so far down if they went any lower they'd cloud his vision more than his rage.

He threw himself at the other, uncaring of what he hit, just so long as it caused damage to the other, his hands hooked to draw blood, he'd bite the other if he bloody well had to, he was mad dammit.

Eventually, however, his smaller form was caught and forced down on the grating of the ship, if Teo thought it was the end, he would be very wrong if he got too close. As it were the other wasn't quite in reach, so his flexibility allowed him to get a few good thumps to the other's back with his feet, kicking him as hard as he could from that particular position. He wanted the other to hurt as much as he did, wanted him to regret fighting him, even if he lost.

He stilled as the other spoke and he made a low growl in his throat, "Maybe, unlike you, I actually care about something other than myself, even if he is dead." He snapped, "I hope you get every ounce of bad luck for your disregard!" Though he settled slightly when the other continued, the red vanishing and only coldness remaining, "Mooning." He said lowly, laughing, though the sound wasn't exactly pleasant, "I don't moon, and I never asked for you to be my chauffeur. Boss just though it'd be quicker, but I'd rather have a goddamned rookie than your sorry, cold-hearted attitude." He spat, and he went still, utterly still as the other leaned down and spoke his piece before Liam threw his head forward and tucked down, his forehead aiming for the other's nose.

If he hit and the other was sent back a few paces, he would squirm out from beneath him and climb to his feet, "I don't give a shit about your life, whatever made you think I did, you are sorely mistaken!" Acid dripped from his words, and if he hadn't struck the other, when he was let go he'd turn his back on the other, "If I didn't need the hell off this rock I wouldn't even be here, you were a last resort, nothing but a risk and shitty reputation, as far as I'm concerned." He went and sat on the floor, as far away from the other as he could get, if he could, he'd wedge himself under or against the control panel, so he could sit and nurse his possible bruised forehead, and, if not that, at least his pride. "I fucking hate you." He growled.

He sat cross-legged and searched through his pockets for some antiseptic he carried as he stripped out of his armor suit, most of the blows he'd been given hadn't done much damage to him personally. He hadn't stripped out of his at-suit when he'd gotten back into the ship, so any blows from the neck down hadn't left anything but mild bruises, it was his face he was sure was bleeding, probably his cheek, if that slippery feeling was right. He slid his arms out of the suit and pushed it down around his waist, wiping at his own split lip and dabbing the antiseptic on it before he rummaged around again and pulled out some bandages, which he used to dab at the places that he felt were bleeding and a few of them were, those he cleaned and put some of the slick goo on and bandaged it. He stood up and wriggled his way out of the rest of the suit and went to his bag, pulling out a box of tissues and going over to Teo.

"Here." He threw the box at him, for in case he'd hit his nose, or to dab at the bleeding wounds he did have, and he tossed him the antiseptic as well. He knew most of the ships were stocked with Band-Aids, but some of them didn't have the good First Aid kit. He went passed him then and went to the Living Quarters, the other would come get him when they started picking up the rock he'd blown up.

Silence filled the mining pod. Teo ignored Liam; and Liam ignored Teo.

Each day they braved the swirling cyclone that was the Triangle to fetch a chunk of ore the same size or larger than their pod. Teo, hyper-alert, would pilot the pod as close as he could to the target chunk and Liam manned the harpoon. Once snagged, they dragged the smaller piece of asteroid out to their base-rock and tethered the chunks together. Within a week they had all the weight that their pod could tug, and just enough fuel to get them back to Hephaestus.

In a week they hadn't spoken more than a few words together to each other, and nothing that wasn't strictly business. A week after their fight, no physical traces remained, but the silence was not a cold one.

Their cargo was large enough that the tower cleared away the other pods waiting to enter the hangar. Teo was able to belly up right alongside the spider-like evaluator that was the techs' mode of transportation within the hangar. While they hovered in place by the conveyor, the crane operator maneuvered the spider over each of the rocks in line. The tech operating the spider then weighed and measured the chunk. The spider's legs would close around the asteroid and then the crane would place the rock onto the conveyor before moving the spider to the next rock.

Jack rode this particular spider, and his appreciative whistle was loud in Teo's headset and confirmed the pilot's guess-timate of their worth. "Whoo-ee, Diluca! Where'd you find these babies?!"

The mining tech sent the price tally to J.T., the mining operations manager, for approval, and the final evaluation and credit would appear on the mining crews' debt logs within the hour. For Teo, each rock was a month's worth of pay. For Liam, this haul decreased his substantial debt by a quarter.

Smelly and tired, and not just physically, Teo set the pod in its cradle and grabbed his bag, leaving the craft to the deck hands who hurried out to start cleaning and prepping the ship for its next run.

Pilot and boomer stood just outside their pod and stared at each other for a moment; and then they walked in opposite directions.

-- End Part 1 --

Liam searched through his room, scrounging out every single piece of combustible material, even taking apart a few appliances that he didn't use and pulling out the wires, the chip plates, the mercury, and various other stuff as he used the pieces to create a few new bombs. He worked in silence, only the music in his head accompanying him as he pulled on a pair of goggles and fished out his soldering rod and some metal wires as he started building some of the more complicated bombs that required certain remotes that he built himself. Truly he was enraptured by this manner of work, and he rarely surfaced for the next few hours, and only when his stomach snarled and roared for food and his handwork got a bit shaky, did he put down his tools, turned everything off, and let the bomb chill for awhile to let the soldering set.

He went down to the cafeteria, absently wondering what manner of slop they were being served today was going to be. He picked up a tray and a plate and took a breath of the air, something with chiles, (though he could be wrong, his nose was sort of damaged from years and years of breathing in ozone and soldering fumes) probably chili, judging by the thick, gloopy... stuff that was being spooned into bowls. He sighed resignedly and offered up his tray to the gloop-scooper and winced as it made a loud 'splat'. He sighed, he'd cook himself, but he couldn't cook, really, it was deadly if he tried to cook, he'd given himself food poisoning the last time he'd tried. It was safer to eat in the cafeteria, even if it wasn't necessarily a culinary masterpiece. It was one of the many things he missed about being back on terra forma, his mom cooked like no other and his father was a good cook. He hadn't eaten well since he'd been up here, Brady could cook some, but it wasn't that great, really, but it had gotten him through more than one aversion to the cafe.

He frowned and went to sat down, grabbing his fork and stabbing at the stuff, waiting for it to move and eat his fork, or some manner of acid to start eating through the plastic at some point, as it would, no doubt, try to do to his stomach lining if he ate it. He made a face, but his stomach roared in protest, he needed to eat something. He sighed, reluctantly scooping a bit and wincing as he stuck it in his mouth, as he ate the foul stuff. Absently, he wondered if battery acid would do the same thing to him seriously contemplating on whether the battery acid could sustain his body (it'd taste better than this gook anyways...)

The first thing Teo did when he arrived back on Hephaestus was to scrub off a week's worth of grim in a quick but thorough sonic shower. Then he went to stand in line on the Rec level to soak in one of the hot tubs. No matter the hour there was always a wait, and the soaking tubs were one of the few amenities impervious to rank or privilege. The attendants were strict about their first come, first serve policy, no matter who you were. But the wait was well worth it.

There was only so much a ship-suit could do on a trip to the field. With only emergency water supplies and no shower facility on board a mining pod, the suits were designed to pull moisture from the skin and absorb body odors and oils. In theory, of course. In practice, they slowly but surely over the passing days began to feel like a pair of socks worn too long between washings.

Usually by the time Teo peeled off the suit he itched abominably. With the suit on, he smelled no worse than the deodorizers in the suit, but out of it, the smell had been known to wilt small plants. So, whenever he had the time, never mind the credits, he always indulged in a soak after an expedition.

Sunk chin-deep in water hot enough to boil his eyeballs, Teo frowned. Liam certainly knew his shit. Without his skills on the boom job and later on the harpoon, they wouldn't have the happy credits they had now, and they'd have needed a second trip.

Damn the man. Liam was frustratingly aggravating, so smug and condescending. But he looked so different, so lively and animated, when he was pissed off.

They both knew what they needed to do and did it without fussy words or constant praise or encouragement. In short, there was no one with whom Teo had ever clicked with so fast. Too bad he was an asshole.

Still, Liam was a good scrapper. Someone must have taught him a thing or two in the past, and his eyes!

"Ugh!" he muttered, scrubbing at his face with fistfuls of hot water. That was it! What he needed was some decent food and a good fuck. That would get his mind back on track where it belonged. He had work to do in the morning and needed a clear head. Liam could go fuck himself. Teo had two days to himself and he was going to use them. Wasn't going to see or talk to or even think about the other man. He wasn't.

Once he finished in the cafeteria (much to his stomach's dismay) he glanced down at the suit he'd failed to take off upon arrival. He was fairly certain he would probably have to was it more than once in order to take the scent, that was no doubt starting to develop intelligence, out of the cloth inside. He winced, probably safer to do so in his room (and purchase several bottles of fabric refresher, just in case it decided to linger). He dumped his stuff, his stomach already complaining about what he'd eaten as he sealed his door and shuffled out of his suit. He saw spots, god humans were rank, and he stuffed it away, into the laundry chute, as he hurried into his shower and shook out his hair. Ah to be clean. He ran his hands through his hair, sighing happily as he scrubbed off and stepped out, refreshed, and he went to check up on his soldering, well set, and he sat down, heedless of his nudity as he plugged back in his tools to set up for round two. He stepped into a jumpsuit and zipped it up around his waist, tying the arms around his hips so it wouldn't fall and sat down to work, his facemask over his head as he fixed together all his bits and parts for his specialty bombs.

Unfortunately, he found his mind wandering as he did his work, his mind visiting his time in the pod with his (annoying, irritating, bastard) partner, how good of a pilot he could be (when he wasn't being a bastard) and well, maybe Teo was actually kind of good at what he did. Though he didn't like him. Definitely didn't like him... "Ow!" He yelped, burning himself with his iron, "Dammit, dammit, ow, ow, ow...." He set down his tools and hurried over to the sink, running cool water over the burn, that was going to bloody scar, "Goddammit." He was even a bastard in his mind, making him burn himself in his work, "Ow..." He hissed softly, his teeth bared in a wince of pain. He finished rinsing the wound and moved over to a cabinet, pulling down the first aid kit and the package of gauze within, tying it around his hand. He'd burned a nice line across the back of his hand that hurt like no other (that bastard made him do it!) and he hissed softly as it throbbed beneath the bandages.

He sighed, he'd probably have to see the nurse at some point but it wasn't important now, besides, he was fairly certain his stomach was going to rebel for the next hour or so as it worked to digest the violent dinner he'd choked down. He dragged off the rest of his jumpsuit, tired now of his bomb-making, he could finish it in the morning. Nude now, he crawled beneath the blankets, loving the feel of the nice sheets against his body as he struck the lights and almost immediately dropped off to sleep.

It was dark in his dreams, lit only by the light of his mind. Things were disjointed, teeth, a tongue at the small of his back... He rolled over in his sleep a small sound slipping from him... hands, and hot breath over the back of his neck suddenly, making him shiver. He turned his head, brown eyes, serious face, who cared? He moaned, receiving a bite on his shoulder and he started, arching back into brief pain, a blur... grunts, quiet sounds in his ear making him turn towards the sound. Lips and teeth against his own and he cried out in his sleep, sitting up suddenly, bathed in a cold sweat and he shivered as the fan kicked on, sending cool air over his body in a sudden rush.

There was a wet patch in his crotch and he growled suddenly, frustrated, as he peeled himself out of bed and ripped the sheets off with a loud huff, shoving those down the laundry chute (he was anal about very few things, but his sheets and his bombs were two of them) and yanking open the bottom drawer in his dresser, dragging out the sheets inside. He made up his bed again before he hopped into the shower to clean up, making sure his bandage was secure, there was no way in hell he was crawling into a clean bed, dirty. It just wasn't going to happen. Just like that bloody dream, it wasn't going to fucking happen, at least not with a certain pilot who had brown eyes... He shook his head fiercely, oh hell no, not a chance anywhere, Liam Aver, you drag your brain off that path right this instant. He shook his head again, nope, nope, nope. It was just a dream. He was not going to spend the next few days he had to himself, without that annoying, arrogant, stuck-up, self-important bastard, thinking about the aforementioned bastard, it just wasn't going to happen, no siree-bob.

....nope...

...not a chance...

... Damn.

Teo didn't go to bed that night. He stayed up around the clock sipping his beer, playing cards, flirting, fighting, and waiting for someone to come in the door of the cantina. No one in the place had interested him for more than a passing glance or two. He wasn't sure what he wanted, but it wasn't there, and his scowl grew deeper by the hour.

Since mining crews kept odd hours, coming and going at all times of the day or night, the cantina was open around the clock, so there was no danger of being thrown out. The furniture was built to withstand a few brawls and a night rarely went by when there wasn't at least one.

He played fiercely, cutthroat without his usual banter or casual, teasing banter. There were plenty of faces he recognized in the cantina that night, but no one with whom he shared more than a passing acquaintance. Jack wasn't there, and he was the only person Teo might have confided in. He'd isolated himself on purpose; no friendships meant less danger of leaking something that would give him away. All of them out there, even Jack, knew Teo the brash, loud-talking, hard-punching, drinking, gambling man who fucked anyone at any time.

It was somewhat true. That personality allowed Teo to go anywhere on the station without worry that someone would see a pattern. They all expected him to be with yet another conquest, so no one would be looking for him. If he was an asshole, then they didn't try to make friends, and Teo was free to do what he'd come here to do.

Speaking of which, he'd dragged himself out of the cantina after an early breakfast, chugged some stimulants, and made his circuitous way to the station core.

At roughly the middle of the station was the heart and brain of the mining station. The computer was more advanced than anyone knew, constantly being upgraded with funds from the Alliance. They were secretly building their own fleet with the proceeds from Hephaestus. The UN knew; they were just trying to prove it, so Teo played a chancy game feeding information and misinformation to them.

Of course, the UN thought he worked for them. Little did they know he'd been recruited by the Alliance while still in the Academy.

The UN was a dinosaur of old policies hastily cobbled together to govern a changing universe. The world was much, much more than just Earth and the Moon. They had the solar system, and were moving out to the stars! The Alliance believed, and so did Teo, that each world, each planet, should be free to govern itself, make their own laws to fit their unique circumstances.

A universal body should be in place to regulate taxes and inflation and allow folks to travel freely and speak to one another. Keep standards, in other words. To the UN, this was all reversed. Worlds had a very limited number of laws within their own perview, and the UN laws trumped everything.

Teo knew from direct experience that the Peacekeepers were too powerful. They thought themselves above the law. Only once in the past decade had the courts decided against a peacekeeper in favor of the people he'd wronged. The courts. Now there was as corrupt a body as the presidential cabinet!

But that was neither here nor there. Getting to the core, and the relay conduit he'd hacked, took a great deal of care and all his attention. There were places where even his glib tongue wouldn't be able to get him out of trouble if caught. A mining pod pilot would not generally have access to the administrative and security levels.

The only up side was that people generally saw what they wanted to see. As long as Teo acted and looked like he belonged there, no one would question. Then it was just a matter of crawling through the right service ways to the out of the way corner he'd set up as his own private data port.

The information grid fed Earth (and to some extent the moon) with constant information. The information had to be broken down into packets and sent on tight beams to relay points throughout the system to keep ships and colonies in touch with each other. Consequently, there was a delay in information the further away from Earth you were. The only folks further out than Hephaestus were the ones in Pluto's system or out on the other planetoids.

There were a few other mining stations that the UN kept a tight rein on, but those were mostly in the inner-asteroid belt. They were not as productive or lucrative as Hephaestus, but they were closer. Those metals and supplies went to fuel the Peacekeepers, and the very few colony ships funded by the UN. As the conflict with the Alliance escalated, more and more fighter-spacecraft were being built, and Teo couldn't remember the last time a colony ship left for the stars.

Getting to his terminal, Teo pulled out headset and personal hand computer and jacked in. He had immediate access to all the latest newsfeeds, and all out-going information. His job was to erase or change the information sent out by the loyalists with his own reports for his Captain in the peacekeepers, plus report trends and concerns to his Alliance handler.

And all the while not letting any of them know who he was, where he was, or what he was doing for everyone else. The stress would see to that intermittent hard-on he'd been sporting all night.

He rubbed the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. Focus, Teo, damn it! Focus!

It took a long time to get something close to sleep in the time he spent rolling around in his bed, until he finally gave up and threw off his covers, he'd go down to the med bay, maybe something could be done about his hand, or maybe even Corbin was there, the man was always good for a laugh, (mostly to make fun of his height in comparison to the other man, but hell, he'd take anything right now). He swiped his card into the med bay and the doors swept open with a grating screech, someone had been slacking in oiling the doors... "Cor?" He looked around, maybe the big guy wasn't in yet, who knew. Either way, he sat down in the receiving lobby after signing in, it seemed like he'd spent a millennia down here, what with the psych ward being just a couple feet down the corridor, he'd grown to know a few too many of the doc's by first name. It made him feel terribly, terribly pathetic. The nurse had even asked him if he was feeling all right, if everything was 'normal' he snorted, what was normal, really?

Great, now he was moping and feeling sorry for himself, knock it off Liam Aver, you knock it off right this instant. He shook his head as his name was called and stood, hopping up onto the obligatory bed that felt like shit and the crappy, pathetic pillows that adorned a paper sheet covered, plastic, mattress. In the usual seafoam green. He exhaled unhappily, giving a dirty look to the doctor came in, asking if he was feeling all right, in addition to some subtle inquiries as to his mental faring, "No, I burnt my hand with a soldering iron, I'd like the condition of my possible second degree burn looked at before my mental state, please." He was more clipped than usual, he blamed it on Teo. The stress of working with him was nearly unbearable (or so he told himself).

It took two hours (two hours!!!) to look over his hand, to get some antiseptic, and a bandage over the damn thing and he stalked out of the office in nothing short of a bad temper as he harumphed towards the door, waiting at the counter for his little paper receipt for his insurance. Well, unless he was interrupted by a certain doctor. He looked around, he really did want to see Corbin, especially after this doctor's visit. His mind wandered and he wondered what Teo'd gotten up to, probably finding a pretty boy to boink (or a not-so-pretty-boy, really, all it needed to have was a pulse for Teo to go after it...) or playing cards. Seemed like to be the only things that Teo did on his days off. He growled, shaking his head, "Stop it." He murmured to himself, sighing, the nurse seemed to have disappeared all together and he was growing further impatient, and it didn't help that he had to stand amazingly straight (no he wasn't on tiptoes... he swore!) in order to put his elbows on the counter.

The nurse finally arrived and he gave her a nasty look, "Have you seen Corbin?" He said to her and she declined.

"No, he's gone back to Earth, we have a new med tech on, but he's running late." She said, just as brusquely before handing him paper work he needed to sign.

Liam sighed, sad day, he'd liked the man too. He signed the papers and grabbed the sheet, making his way out (making sure there was a poignant slam on the door on his way out) and stomping down the hall, his mind immediately going to all the things he could find at the moment with easy access, and he started making specs in his head... at least until he ran into someone.

He'd been in a bad mood all day, really, his lack of sleep, his bad doctor's visit, he was going to have to see his therapist if this continued, and the poor, unlucky sap who'd run into him was officially going to get the brunt of it. He cussed a blue streak, though most of it was indecipherable, he was speaking so quickly and so furiously, that only the occasional word like "...Fucking..." and "Ching wah tsao duh liou mahng..." Though that last he said rather loudly, "And watch where you're fucking going!" He snarled finally at the poor, defenseless person he'd run into.

Well… shoot, he was lost again wasn’t he? This area of the station didn’t look at all familiar and yet he still had no clue where he was. He’d gone and done it now, hadn’t he? He was needed on the medical deck and yet hadn’t the faintest idea of where he might have turned wrong. Retracing his steps might have been the best solution, although for Fede Zonderling, it wasn’t as simple as that. Chances were if he tried to retrace his steps, he would wind up even more lost than before, such was his luck.

“Where am I?” He muttered quietly to himself. He was getting tired of losing his way, he should have a map of the station. Wait! Didn’t he? He checked his wrist, his clothes, his pockets… nothing. “Well,” he said to himself, “not only do we have no sense of direction, we’re also terrifyingly forgetful.” He shrugged with a small laugh. He had always been told that he’d lose his head if it wasn’t attached to his neck. And it was likely true too.

With a short sigh, he turned round and did his best to retrace his steps. Maybe he could find his way back. It took him another thirty minutes at least, but he managed to get just lost enough that he started to recognize the area and could actually find his way to the medical ward. It was at least an hour after he’d planned on being there, but at leas he’d made it.

As he rushed for the office, he walked right into a man. He blinked frowning at the man, he was obviously in a bad mood. He didn’t speak for a moment after the man had finished his rant.

“Your statement is rather inaccurate, wouldn’t you say?” He offered thoughtfully, “Because for one thing I am quite certain that there are no frogs around to… hump. Secondly, I can assure that my mother is neither a ruthlessly ambitious woman or a dog.” He explained with a small smile creeping across his features. After a second he burst out laughing and held his hand out to the man. “I don’t believe we’ve met officially. I’m Fede Zonderling, the new med tech. You’re…” He paused trying to think back to some of the whispers he’d heard about someone resembling the man before him. He snapped his fingers as he found what he was looking for, “You’re Liam Aver, correct?”

Liam narrowed his eyes at the man, though it was hard to look intimidating when he practically had to look straight up, "One never knows what's lurking around this thrice blasted station, there could be plenty of frogs you've yet to find." He growled, folding his arms across his chest and puffing himself up a bit in an attempt to make himself bigger. "I suppose, perhaps it's your father's fault you look like that then?" He asked hotly, being disagreeable just for the sake of being disagreeable, his bad mood would not be ruined! But when the other burst out laughing, Liam was hard pressed to keep the smile off his face and he finally grinned a little.

He took the hand when he was offered, shaking with the very tall man, Fede, "I see, you're Corbin's replacement." It seemed like everyone was disappearing, and he adjusted his suit, "Yeah, I'm Liam, the resident crazie." He said patiently, his mouth turning down at the corners again, sighing internally. It didn't seem fair really, that people knew more about him than he knew about them, but that was the way the cookie crumbled, he supposed, "Where you heading, Fede?" He asked.

At Liam's retorts, Fede's grin widened, "Well, I suppose it could be true, but I have yet to see any myself." He said with a quick shrug and laugh, "Yes it is my father's doing. He's quite a handsome man, you know." He a replied proudly, eyes glittering as he stared down at the man. He winked through his laugh as he caught the other's grin.

"Yep, Corbin just left a day or so ago." He said, giving Liam's hand a firm shake. "Hey." He said seeing the frown returning to Liam's face. He really did not like to see other people frown. "Don't worry about it. We all have our problems." He laughed softly, "Take me... can't find my way out of a room with more than one door and I always seem to be lecturing myself for getting lost and being late." He offered a lopsided grin at that. "Off to work for me." He nodded int he direction of the medical ward. "Did you need anything, Liam?"