| Never Simple |
| Summary: | Nataly performs a favor for Vandenberg |
| Date: | 02 Feb 2042 AE |
| Related Logs: | None yet? |
| Players: |
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| Elpis Corridor |
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| Similar but not identical to those on military vessels, this hall features a hexagonal structure, with pressed metal plating on the floor and walls. Hatches line it, providing access to other parts of the ship. |
| Post-Holocaust Day: #341 |
At the appointed time outside of Pete's, Natalie is waiting. She's leaned against a wall and..not really looking anything like a Marine. At all. She's in her black combat boots and battlepants, but that's where the uniform ends. She's got the short sleeves rolled up on a grungy old t-shirt that fits her like a glove. Its from some concert series near about a dozen years ago from one of those arena rock bands that only sappy middle aged people listen to for memories of their youth. People like Vandenberg. There's a pair of music player earbuds hanging out of the front collar of the shirt and a red do-rag on her head. She's covered in dried sweat and looks like she hasn't seen bed yet.
Nataly walks towards Pete's, all comfy in her overalls, at around the appointed time. She is humming a song softly to herself as she does, her notebook, as usual, sticking out of her bib pocket. Spotting Natalie, she grins and walks over. "Hey there. Long day?"
Vandenberg smiles at seeing Natalya and snorts, rising off her lean. She keeps her voice quiet as she steers the girl away fromthe normal traffic. "Yeah, something like that. Spent the whole damned night and morning building shaped charges. I still have a shift to work this evening, too." She takes a breath, glancing around lazily - though with an eye for people listening in. Looks good so far. "How you doin? You hear about that mob assault the other night?"
"Yeah, I did. S'all anyone's talking about, these days. I missed it, I was over in the newsroom doing some filing. I heard it was you who led the Marines." She sighs. "Reading between the lines, you handled it pretty damned well, but the spin artists are going crazy with it."
"Glad you missed it. Godsdamned trainwreck is what it was. A little piece you can have? Our Marine that was involved in the attack? He's in critical condition. The victim should be okay but he's beat pretty bad." Natalie doesn't seem proud of the fact that she had to beat one of her people so badly, but hey. "Yeah, those fraks are gonna spin it around bad. Nobody is going to care about the poor guy who got hit. Just that one of our people was involved." She exhales sharply. "I talked to him earlier. His name is Magnus Dekker. This is where the favor starts, Nataly. Up for doing a snatch and grab operation for the military?"
Nataly's eyebrows raise in curiosity. "Wow… you certainly got my attention. Uh, sure. I can help you guys out. What do you need?"
Van looks around again and settles on Natalya. "Check it out: Mister Dekker? He's had enough. He ain't coming back if he can avoid it. He thinks he's going to be hit again after what happened during the assault. He's joining the fleet as soon as he can walk again." She sniffs, wiping a thumb across her nose. "He needs something retrieved from his quarters. Its a laptop and a backpack. Normally I'd just go snag it but the military -cannot- afford to be seen going into his quarters or even questioned about searching it. If we're seen doing that then these frakkin spin doctors are going to claim we're preparin to charge Dekker to get Sholty off - which is not going to happen."
Nataly nods. "Doesn't sound like a problem. You know which bunk is his, I could do it now, or go over to Cerberus so he can ask me in person to get it for him. That way, its just a favor, and if anyone asks I can just tell them the truth." She smiles. "No worries."
"Yeah, I think he's up on Charlie Deck, Cabin twenty-two. He shares it with three other men. And no, don't bother. There shouldn't be trouble, we just can't afford to be seen up there." Natalie watches an older man pass who looks both her and Nataly up and down like a wolf eyeing a meaty meal. The Marine gives him daggers from her eyes before she looks back to the young woman. "He's just afraid people are going to try and steal his laptop. I guess theft has been a problem here. Both the computer and backpack should be under his mattress - which one I have no idea so you might have to look quickly. The laptop isn't classified but apparently its got some serious code on it - shit that could really help us out. Just, whatever you do, don't try to open it or start it. It'll wipe the drive because he's got some kind of protection system on it. Think you can pull this off real fast?"
"Absolutely. I can go right now, if you like." Nataly gives the man her usual cool gaze. Not directly confrontational, but making clear that she isn't particularly interested.
"Great. Remember, this is -not- for the military." Natalie is serious about that. "Alright, head off. I'll wait here. If it takes longer than twenty minutes I'll try to come looking." That seems to be all Van has right now.
Nataly has left.
| Living Quarters |
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| The freighter has living quarters sufficient to accommodate around 800-1000 people, divided up into rooms of varying sizes. Each room holds multiple sets of bunkbeds, most commonly housing between 10 and 20 people, none housing fewer than four and some as many as 60. For each bed, there is a locker of some sort. These rooms take up several floors, and are arranged around a central 'courtyard'. Each floor has at least one common room, outfitted with scavenged couches and televisions, separate heads for men and women, and laundry facilities. The rooms are pretty barren — plain military-issue bedding on the bunks, and nothing currently adorning metal walls or floors. The lighting is unforgivingly fluorescent, and there is a constant soft hum of generators and ventilation systems in addition to the other noises common to areas housing hundreds of people in relatively close quarters. |
| Post-Holocaust Day: #341 |
Nataly walks through the maze of the living quarters like, well, one who lives there. She doesn't often go to C deck except to take newcomers, but she finds the room in question and steps in, glancing around at the beds.
The room is standard for the Elpis - and thankfully empty. There's a ramshackle coffee table in the center of the small room with a few chairs around it. The bunks are stacked not-unlike they are in the Cerberus berthings, but in here there are only four. Each has pictures and personal items in them though trying to figure out which one is Dekker's might be easier said than done. A few voices can be heard coming up the hallway, laughing.
Blast, if she'd actually gone to Cerberus to meet the guy, she might know what he looked like. Tsking with her tongue, she goes to the coffee table to wait for the voices to pass. No point in rousing suspicion by tumbling mattresses while others pass, not with the thefts on board.
The voices pass, a woman glancing in with a laugh and looks right at Nataly. She keeps walking, though, flirting with the older man she's with. Two of the bunks have pictures of middle age men in them with various other people. Family. Friends. One bunk has a few spare pictures of locations but not anything personal. Some scientific journal pages tacked up. The last bunk is that of a young man, not much older than Nataly. There's pictures of a girl all over the inside - a cute blonde with short hair and striking brown eyes.
Gods, even his age would have been helpful. Well, under the mattresses, right? Working quickly, Nataly starts with the bed of the young man, smiling briefly at the picture before raising the mattress to see what, if anything, is underneath.
Under this mattress? Its not pretty. There's pictures of a few other girls under there and a few well-thumbed porn mags. A couple of condom wrappers - some empty. An uneaten candy bar too. One of the last in the galaxy. Likely saved for a special occasion.
Nataly groans, lowering the mattress carefully back to where it was. Boys. The candy bar gets a longing glance as the mattress descends, but is left alone. Next, she heads to the bed with the scientific journals. As she crosses the room, her ears stay tuned for activity. She should have brought a book, or something.
Bingo. There's a laptop shoved deep under the mattress and against the wall. An orange backpack nearly blocks its view, the powercord and a few articles of clothing spilling out from the open main compartment. But even with ears like a hawk, sneakers are a bitch to hear. Hence the name. Shadows in the room move first before that young man enters. He does a double-take at Nataly. At first he looks like he might smile until he see's the raise mattress. "JERRY!!" he calls back into the hallway. "We're gettin' hit!! And she's HOT!!" Boots can be heard thunking towards them. Only one pair by the sound of it.
Calmly, Nataly pulls out the laptop and puts the bag on it, obscuring it as much as possible. All non-chalant, and easy going, like she belongs there. "You must be Magnus' roomates? I'm Nataly. Magnus asked me to pick up his stuff for him while he's in the hospital."
Jerry arrives just in time to hear the explanation from Nataly. Jer is one of the middle-aged men with a small gut and a balding head. One of the regulars up at Pete's who usually sits in the front row. Now one of the upstanding members of Elpis society. He's the one to speak up while the younger man steps the other way around the table, peeking towards his bunk. "Mag asked you to pick up his stuff? You know that guy is like fifty. You-" He pointedly looks her up and down. "You are not. Marines beat his ass up and then they took him back to their ship. Ain't nobody seen him since. How the frak you seein' him? You bangin him?" The younger man snickers and looks his bunk over more carefully.
"Athena and Apollo, he's not hard to find. They took him to the medical wing. I know one of the doctors, we were saved together on Tauron. Dropped by to visit him and saw Magnus who asked me to get his stuff. It's not a big deal. You could go over and visit if you wanted to, they offer passes." Her smile is bright and legitimately innocent. She isn't doing anything wrong, after all.
"Dude. She frakked with my bunk," the younger man blurts lifting his pillows. With people as paranoid as they are they probably make sure they can tell things like that. Jerry glances to the young man and back to Nataly. "Mag is a snotty frak from Caprica. Not Tauron." He kicks the door closed behind him. "Hey Bart, you think the Marines gonna do anything to this little sprite for theifin?" Bart turns to face them, "They didn't do shit when Reggie got hit last week. Why?"
Nataly throws up her hands. "The DOCTOR was on Tauron with me. I was in the Medical Wing to see my friend, the Doctor. Magnus was in Medical because he got beat the frak up, and wanted his stuff back. I don't know him that well, he just asked me to get his stuff for him, because I'm from Elpis, too. And you!" She turns on the younger man. "I didn't know which bunk was his. So yeah, I touched your mattress. It didn't have the orange backpack he said to look for. Go ahead, look at your stuff, nothing is missing."
"No shit you don't know him that well. Mag is some kind of Doctor, too. So I'm just supposed to believe that you're here to pick up his shit as a personal favor?" Bart turns to lift his mattress at Nataly's prompting, doing his best to hide the contents. That's embarrassing. Ahem. "Dude, she's right. All my shit is even in the right place." He drops the mattress and looks to Jerry as the older man takes a step closer towards Nataly. "You that little bitch that keeps writing about the military, aren't you?" Jerry's eyes narrow. Bart looks clueless. "Dude, let her take Mag's shit and leave. You don't even like him anyway. All our bunks are fine."
"That's me!" Nataly says, brightly. "Glad to meet a reader, sorry I haven't put out anything new in awhile. And of course I don't expect you to just let me walk out of here with his stuff." With a grin, she shoulders the bag, the laptop under her arm. "You want to make sure he gets his stuff, right? We'll go together. Catch a shuttle over to the Cerberus, get a Marine escort, just for security, of course, and then we'll go to medical. You'll see me give your roommate his gear, you can even meet my Doctor friend, if you like. Won't take long, and after maybe we can get a drink at Pete's."
Jerry spits on the ground at her feet. "Good. Sick of reading your propaganda bullshit for the military. A lot of people are." He cracks his knuckles. "Wonder if some people might be interested to know the press is diggin around the bunk of the guy who just got beat up." He looks her up and down again. "Bart, grab her. She thinks she can snowjob us." The young man blinks at Jerry and stands up a little straighter, looking between the two. Decision time. "Uh, dude." See Bart stall. Stall, Bart, Stall.
Nataly shakes her head. "Yeah, good idea. Have Bart grab me. That way, when the MPs come cause they hear some girl got pawed on, you get to keep Magnus' stuff AND Barts, after they drag him off." She shakes her head, then looks at Bart. "Sorry, I know living with this guy couldn't have been easy, and then on top of it all he tries to make you the fall guy. Lets go and give Magnus his stuff, then we can get a drink at Pete's. If you like, I hear a bunk on A deck opened up. Little less private, but the people have been here since the ship opened, and they take care of each other down there."
"You think I'm going to give you a chance to scream? Little frakkin theivin bitch like you oughtta be eating food out of a straw, anyway. Can't spread your BS through word of mouth if you can't speak through a broken jaw." Jerry takes another step closer and comes into arm's length. "Put his shit down. Its community property until he comes to get it. Heard he's got a wicked porn collection on there, too." He points to Bart without even looking, before the young man can even reply. "Shut your maw, boy, or you'll regret it. Again." Bart stands there, stunned into silence.
A look of fear comes on to Nataly's face. "Oh no, please don't hurt me, please, please, I'll do anything, I'll…" WHAM! One kick, straight to the junk. Just like Natalie had taught her. A dancer's kick, too. Her hand then fires forward, catching him between the ribs to knock the air out of him. It all happens in a smooth motion, like steps to a dance well rehearsed. That was a beer she owed Richards, he'd corrected her form on that particular blow several times.
Jerry is just starting to snarl, one hand lifting to his belt when that foot lands. That was absolutely the last thing he was expecting. He tries to absorb the blow by lifting on his toes but its not nearly enough. Not even remotely. He buckles forward into the swung fist and his whole upper body seems to deflate of air - punctuated by the sound of a loud belch that rapidly changes into vomit. "Run!!" Bart yells at Nataly and pushes past her to run a shoulder into Jerry, shoving the puking form onto Magnus' bunk.
"Wait!" Nataly calls after him. "Get your stuff, Bart. You aren't coming back to this unit." She moves quickly, knocking Jerry off of the bunk and pinning him with her foot right at his collarbone. "You were going to steal his things…" she snarls. "Community Property. Hell, there were scavengers on Tauron who talked that way. Guys with big arms and guns who attacked us, thinking they could take what they wanted because they were bigger. One of them killed my uncle." Her foot movers to turn his head. "You know what we did to them, Jerry? We killed them. Only way they wouldn't keep coming back. We'd shoot 'em, stab 'em. My Doctor friend? He taught me how easy it was to break a human neck, if I had to." Her foot is now on his throat. "If we were still on Tauron, I'd kill you right now. But we're not. We have law, again. Martial Law, for now. But Law. But if you think we should just pretend the military isn't here, and settle things on our own, then just frakking let me know." She looks up at Bart. "You ready?"
Bart is- Bart is completely shocked to see this eighteen year old hottie wreck a guy twice her size in a manner of seconds. He nearly trips over himself, trying to rip down all the pictures of the girl from his bunk and stuff them into his pockets. He leaves the porn collection - but not the chocolate bar. Hellz naw. A stash of clothing is shoved into a bag, the young man's eyes wide as he keeps glancing up to the girl standing more or less ON Jerry. "Ready," he squeeks. Jerry is sputtering puke, trying to choke something out while his face turns red trying to catch his breath. He's not going anywhere for awhile. It'll take him five minutes just to catch his breath unless she kills him..which judging by the dark color of red he's turning, she very well may if she doesn't lift that foot soon.
"Good." The foot raises, and she crouches down. "You should be good to go in about five minutes. Tell whoever the frak thinks for you that we're not all frakking sheep waiting to be pushed into kennels. We survived Cylons and Human Raiders. So we sure as frak aren't scared of you. As for all of this…" she gestures to the bunks. "Someone came and got Magnus' stuff. You didn't see who. And Bart decided to take the bunk downstairs. That way, you get to keep hanging out with the boys without them knowing you got your ass kicked by an 18 year old girl half your size. Goodbye, Jerry. Remember my promise. I WILL kill you, if I have to. Aren't you lucky the military is here to protect you?" With a sweet smile, she nods to Bart and they leave, Backpack slung over her shoulder and computer under her arm. "Natalie! Hey, this is Bart, he's gonna come along to see that Magnus is okay. Bart, this is Natalie, a good friend of mine."
Jerry's hands flail for his neck as he can -sorta- breathe again. Wide, massive eyes stare up at Nataly in stark fear of what the hell might rain down next - black belt kittens or something like that. She might be able to bring that! Bart just does as he's damned told. He doesn't say a word to anyone or anything on the way out. Not even when they finally approach the Marine, though the look he gives her seems to indicate more conscious thought: tight t-shirt. Hottie's friend is a looker, too! Natalie just lifts her chin on the approach. "Oh yeah? Well Magnus should be happy." She gives a pointed glance to Bart and then back to the young woman, looking her up and down, though this is a more critical view than Jerry's salivating. "Go drop it off for him. I have to get to my shift in Hydroponics." Yes, Hydroponics. "Don't want to be late. Have fun storming the Cerberus." She stuffs her hands into her pockets. "Nice to meet you, Bart. Might want to clean the puke off your shirt, though, kid. This little gal here's got class. She won't stand for that for too long." And Vandenberg seems to be turning to go.
Nataly nods to Natalie with a grin, and gives her a hug. As she does, she whispers in her ear. "Asshole in the room was gonna start something. I ended it. Bart's okay, but may need protection. I'll ask him. Love you." With that she gestures to the scared guy and walks on to the the hangar where a Raptor is waiting. This one happens to have some MP's going over, but no biggie. They hop on, and Nataly pats the seat next to her for Bart to sit down. "Don't worry, they're all really nice and good about visiting Medical. I'll vouch for you at security. So, are you gonna be okay back on Elpis? Sounded like Jerry had roughed you up before."
Vandenberg returns the hug slightly and eyes Nataly as she pulls back. "We'll talk later. Love ya too, hon." Its -really- hard to hide that pride. She just can't quite bring herself to completely duck all of it, either. Right at the edges of her eyes and smile. The nickname 'Nat' should be feared on the Elpis in a matter of weeks. Her arms cross as she watches the two of them drift towards the Raptor. In moments she's lost to the crowd. On the Raptor, Bart sits down, hugging the bag he packed tightly against him. As Nataly continues talking, his head just turns towards her with eyes wide. "Uh. Yes. Are you going to kick my ass if I tell anyone why I left? I don't want to die."