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Posted by Rebecca on 3/4/2004, 8:28 pm
In Memory of Steve.
Rosalyn stood in the corridor, hesitating. Overhead, the running lights and the bulkhead indicators flashed intermittently, and the flaring alert lights - set perpetually "ON" since the Melody's horrific debacle of an escape from Nar Shadda - painted the deckplates and the viewports violently red. This was the maintenance section of the Cold Maiden's Melody - her engineering section, computer core, and droid batteries were all stored back here.
In the twelve years she had possessed her, Rose had face countless engineering and maintenance issues as a part of her struggle to keep the vessel running. For years, one crew after another had quietly shaken their heads at the nearly-one-hundred-years-old starship, and wished her luck she had yet to find.
But all that had been before Ringdal.
Three years ago - nearly six months after her escape from Nar Shadda, and roughly two months since she had opened the "Flaming ACockorThree" on Naboo with Sharra and Caeru - Rose had found herself the first - and the last - bounty hunting contract she would ever take.
Rumor had it, and so went the government line, that there was a slaving operation well in the works on the planet Ringdal III. The rumors were inconclusive, and no one was really sure who - if anyone at all, really - was behind the pirate operation. But the authorities of Ringdal Sector were hiring - and paying WELL - for the extermination of the scum.
At the time, young Rosalyn, still fresh from her escape from Nar Shadda, flushed with pride at the opening of the new club, and riding high on a wave of excitment and adventurishness, Rose leapt at the chance to take the scum bag out.
Rue was against it - he always was. He always argued that it was either too deep for her, or too over her head - and he was usually right. The job was a total disaster. Captured on her first patrol, Rose was stripped and lashed in chains and trussed up in slaves' clothes before being tossed into the dungeon-like cell.
Her cellmate was young, Selonian male. Trussed up like a fancy prize, the boy was terrified of everything - including his own shadow. But he formed an affection to Rose, and when it came time that Rose fancied another ill advised escape attempt, it was the Selonian who got them out of the rather well-designed techno-jail-cells of their imprisonment. It was Rosalyn who then shot and killed two guards to save the Selonian, and got them back to safety on the the Melody.
The Selonian - whose name she never obtained - thanked Rose profusely in his own tongue until Rose, blinking and holding her ears against the alien language barrage she couldn't hardly comprehend, thanked the youngish alien with a kiss on his furry snout, and left him to Ele's care.
Ele - with her holographic matrix fully functional that day - led the young Selonian deep into the bowels of the ship, where she imagined he would be most comfortable. Part of this trip involved leading the young alien male through the engine room, and past the ship's powerful Hyperdrive Engine. Here, the young Selonian stopped, his jaw ajar and his eyes bulging as he took in the size and the power of the old, pre-Imperial construction. Moments later, Ele blinked as her auditory circuits were overloaded by a flood of excited garble from the young Selonian. Several times, Ele attempted to lead the youth towards the quarters she had prepared for him, and each time the Selonian flatly refused, and clung to the engines like they were a peice of his long lost family. Finally, Ele got the hint, and she left the youth alone in the bowels of the starship, ordering the droids to bring him whatever he needed.
It was the last time the crew had seen him.
Since that day, the crew of the Melody has spoke in hushed, intimate whispers about the young Selonian boy. Although they never saw him again, Rose suspected - confirmed by Ele's internal scans - that he was still with them, living down among the engines, where no one else ever went. When things broke, Ele supplied the data to the engineering deck, and things were fixed. Just as simple as that. Droids brought plates laden with food to the engineering deck, and every morning those same plates were returned, empty and scrubbed clean (except on those occassions when Rose tried to cook something herself.)
Today it had been four years. Four years since the escape from Ringdall III. And Rose had come to say thank you.
She set the plate down, ignoring the noxious smell of Selonian palate, and then lowered herself to the floor. Folding her legs underneath her, she sank back against the bulkhead and slid down into the deck plates.
The dark, red-hued Engineering section was eerily quiet - despite the low-pitched hum of the engines working at full power. There were no droids working this section this evening, and both Silas and Shia were in bed for the night. Ele was minding the helm.
"I just came down to say ... thank you." Her voice echoed through the corridor. She looked around her, but everywhere around her there was only darkness, and silence. "Thank you. I don't know the proper words... I don't even know if you can understand Basic, but ... thank you."
She looked down, and pushed the plate of food away from her, towards the engines. "Don't worry, I didn't make it." She allowed herself a small smile. "I just felt I should come down and deliver this personally. I felt that I should tell you .. in person.. that you are appreciated. That we've never forgotten you. That we know you're out there somewhere... and we hope you think of us fondly, because we know - we really do - we know all that we owe you."
She sat in silence for a moment longer, and then climbed to her feet, brushing her slacks off. With a last look around the seemingly empty Engineering Deck, she turned on her heel and left.
In the dark, reddish gloom behind her, two glowing eyes peered out from behind a maintenance bin, sniffed the air, and then descended upon the food with a grateful air.
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