Fleeing the Scene

Posted on Sun Jul 28th, 2024 @ 8:04am by Lieutenant Marikit "Kit" Urso & Lieutenant Commander Andrei Petrov

Mission: S1 Episode 8: Resolutions
Location: Aeroshuttle
Timeline: Date 2371-12-27 at 0730
1216 words - 2.4 OF Standard Post Measure

ON

As soon as Andrei returned to the shuttle, he reviewed the medical records that had been obtained from the Vidian woman. It was unfortunate that he had to go to such extreme measures to get information from her, but in his mind, it was her own fault. He had tried to be nice, which he now believed he shouldn’t have done in the first place.

After just a few moments searching the records, he’d found the location of Dr. Pel. She was stationed on a Vidiian research station less than a week’s journey away from their location. He was so excited about the news that he had stripped into casual clothing and had a few celebratory shots. Now half drunk, he watched an action flick on a wall-mounted screen while he waited for Kit to return. On his lap was a large bowl of popcorn, and he leaned back in his chair in a pair of athletic shorts and a form-fitting black t-shirt.

The sound of the transporter pad cut through the noise of the movie Andrei was watching followed by a groaning growl of frustration. “I swear to the gods I have never been around as many stupid smart people since I was in school. Andrei, are you up here?”

She reached up and unzipped her uniform, walking into the sleeping quarters to pull more clothes out of her bag - or maybe they were on the floor.

Andrei was laying on the couch in the all-purpose room, his eyes locked on the screen as one Chinese man flipped another one over a table.

“I’m in here!” He called out, having heard Kit’s voice muttering something he found unintelligible over the din of the movie. He popped a handful of popcorn into his mouth and chewed.

Kit shuffled in carrying a box, wearing a faded graphic t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. Her eyes moved up to the screen and she eyed it dubiously.

“The hell are you watching?” She asked.

“It’s called Ip Man. It’s about a guy who kicks ass and can’t stop it.” he said, and ate another handful of popcorn.

“Uh… sure.” Kit eyed the movie a moment longer then moved over to take a seat in one of the chairs. “So since you’re back and just sitting here, I take it you found whatever you were looking for?”

“I sure did, not that they made it easy for me. Aliens really can be so bothersome and stubborn.” he responded with a sigh. “But yes, I found the doctor's location. She’s quite close.”

“Really? Well that’s great news.” Kit said, though her enthusiasm was mildly dampened with the knowledge that Annalise would likely be quite cautious about the whole ordeal. Still, she wasn’t unreasonable. “Well, I can leave you to your movie I guess.”

“What, you don’t like watching guys beat the shit out of each other?” He asked, looking over at her.

“I prefer sappy romance movies.” Kit replied with an expression that didn’t quite indicate if she were kidding or not. “Oh, here. I won this in some sort of raffle. I don’t know if you ended up with time to get Lyra something; I figured you might want to give it to her if you didn’t. I had some at the conference and it was too sweet for my taste.”

She offered him the box and inside was a clear bottle filled with a deep purple liquid that was likely alcohol given the shape of the bottle.

Andrei looked over at the open box with the bottle inside and took it in his hand, almost dripping the bowl of popcorn on his flat stomach when he did so, but having quick enough reflexes to catch it.

Kit watched him nearly drop the popcorn and quirked a brow while she reached out to put a hand on the bottle so he didn’t drop that too. “Are you drunk?”

“I’m celebrating.” He answered, pulling the bottle out of the box as if he had all his skills of dexterity still in place. “It’s a nice bottle at least. I’m sure she can find a place for it in her stores.”

He slid the bottle back into the box and took it out of her hand, placing it on the floor by the couch.

“You’re welcome.” Kit shook her head and laughed, not really offended by his lack of thanks. It never would have even dawned on him just like the gift for Lyra hadn’t either. “Anyways get back to your movie. I’m going to go check on things.”

She left him there, wandering up to the cockpit area at a slow pace.

Contrary to Kit’s assumptions, Andrei had gotten Lyra something he suspected she would like very much indeed. It wasn’t, however, the kind of thing he could tell the engineer about. He leaned back on the couch and resumed watching the movie, grabbing yet another handful of popcorn and eating it.

About five minutes later, Kit appeared at the entrance to the common area with her arms crossed and her eyebrows raised. “So uh… got a question for you, Big Boy.”

Chewing, Andrei looked over at the entrance, and raised his eyebrows.

“What is it?”

“Why are we getting hailed by the Vidiians demanding you return to the surface of the moon to answer for murdering two people?” Kit asked, frowning slightly. “They seem quite adamant… and angry.”

Andrei looked at her with confusion in his eyes. He reached into the bowl and pulled out more popcorn, popping it into his mouth.

“Two?”

“Yeah. A woman and a kid?” Kit asked, seemingly mildly uncomfortable about that second one.

Andrei ate more popcorn and looked at Kit in silence. He chewed and swallowed, seeming almost indifferent to the whole thing.

“Set a course for the trading post so we can rendezvous with Vengeance. If we stay here much longer, these morons will just make trouble for us.”

“Yeah, sure.” Kit took just a moment longer looking at him, her thoughts on the matter rather hard to read, then eventually turned and walked back to the cockpit to sit down at the helm and set them back toward the fleet.

Kit had no particular love for aliens but she didn’t vehemently hate them as some did. Picturing him killing a child didn’t really sit well with her; violence against children really never sat well with her at all. She knew it was likely because she had been surrounded by children in one way or another her entire life until fairly recently, but she couldn’t help picture what it might be like were one of her family members taken in such a way.

“We’re heading out!” She called to him.

Andrei said nothing in response to her call as his eyes were fixed on the screen In the back of his mind, he wondered if Kit was going to make a big deal of what she had heard or not, but mostly shrugged the issue off. He would finish the movie, and then he supposed he would see what happened next.

END