6. Earth: Colony Centre Landing Area

[Renekin Skywalker]

A few days later!

Tawfeek has picked up a very big contract. Something he had been pacing excitedly about since the second day at Carson's Weigh.

He had picked up a contract to ferry a group of new colonists to the Mars colony.

For the whole of the trip back to Earth, Tawfeek had been grilling Foreman on the best courses, Jessica on the security measures to keep the families out of trouble, McKenna on the safety and medical procedures to give to the passengers, and Mensk and Xavier on the ship's functionality.

At the same time, he had picked up a large shipment of grains he was to bring to Mars with the families.

While larger colony ships (with more than 100 passnegers) left every month, the 4 families Tawfeek was bring were chartering the space so they could get there between the major colony craft.

As the ship fuelled, was checked out and loaded, the sun rose over the Cape Breton spaceport. (Something about a post-card-perfect departure to have a good memory of their old home.) Anyone on the bridge or in the galley can see the warm Atlantic sun shining in on them, the clouds cutting it in and out every few minutes. Trees on the edge of the spaceport were waffling a little in the breeze.

Jessica found herself, as Tawfeek's first mate, on the edge of the landing pad, getting ready to greet the passengers.

"Was I drunk, or did we consider getting uniforms?" Tawfeek asked Jessica.

McKenna, Foreman, Mensk and Xavier are left to themslves on the ship, but are expected to do preflight procedures. Note that Tawfeek gave no budgets for new supplies, despite being on Earth (since a couple of people had mentioned upgrades or fancy medical mumbo jumbo). The notable exception was some new plants for the garden.

[Mierin]

Jessica grins at Tawfeek as they wait for the passengers to arrive. "I think you were drunk."

[Renekin Skywalker]

"Your other room is locked up, right?" Tawfeek asked, as the first pair came up the ramp. "Oh, looks like our customers are arriving. Do we stand at attention?"

[sasqaricious]

Xavier spends most of the time getting to familiarize himself with the ship and it's inner workings.

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[Mierin]

Jessica nods with a serious look on her face as she replies "Of course, Cap'n. It's always locked and the only two people who have access to it are the two of us."

Jessica grins as she shakes her head. "No, it's not necessary to salute." Her grins grows as she adds "People do like it when they are smiled at in a friendly manner though."

[dakota]

With medlab always kept ready, McKenna was devoting her time to the hydroponics bay. she still didn't know what she was doing really, but it gave her something to focus on too try to keep her mind from wandering. she had taken this job mainly because it would give her some distance from people, but her little outburst at Jessica at the bar hadn't helped, and then there was Foreman. I don't want a relationship yet she kept telling herself as she tended the garden, but her mind kept wandering back to Flip. she had done her best since that night to keep her distance from the others, but she knew it couldn't last forever.

not paying attention, her hand slid acrossed a sharp edge. she pulled it away quickly, but it was already too late as she looked at the blood tripping down the side past the corner that had hooked her. cursing, she inspected the damage and saw it was minor, but still headed to the medlab to clean and treat it. The entire way she scolded herself under her breath," I gotta stop letting him distract me."

[Dome]

Foreman sits in the cockpit staring out the front window. The trip from Carson had been quite tense for him. The Captain hardly gave him a moments rest with all his planning for the next job. He had yet had a chance to talk to the Doc, about what didn't happen on Carson. He sighs, and mumbles, "there goes another one you'll just be friends with you moron," he says to himself.

He turns to the systems and begins to pre-flight the ship. He checks all the systems to make sure that they are all in the green. He makes sure and check the life support system. With more people on board, they need to be working at top efficiency to keep the air clean. He toggles comms to the engine room and says over the comms, "Preflight check, let me know when I can power up the engines gentlemen."

Toggling off the comms he looks around the cockpit again while he waits for the engineers to get back to him. His eye catches movement on the ship cameras. He looks closer, and sees MJ walking towards the med bay. He sighs and leans back in the chair banging his head back against the seat. Leaning forward he touches the monitor briefly, "I said it could end badly if we slept together, who knew it would end badly if we didn't." He sighs again and leans back waiting to hear from the engineers.

[dakota]

With one hand held in the other to try to contain the bleeding a little, McKenna rushed in to her workstation and held her hand over the catch basin. " I'm bleeding like a stuck pig." She sputtered as she looked at the droplet trail she'd left behind. Scowling, she started to rinse out the wound. On closer inspection, she saw it would need a couple sutures .

McKenna kept sputtering as she numbed her finger with some ice before putting in two sutures to hold it from spreading. " I need some music in here." she said to herself as she began applying some liquid bandage over the cut. she glanced at the bloodtrails and realized," Oh crap, I gotta clean this up before any of the captain's passengers get onboard."


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[Dome]

Foreman changes the camera to see the inside of the med lab. He looks closely and can tell that something is wrong with McKenna's hand. He toggles the comms to the engineers again, "I'm stepping off bridge for a few, but we need to get those engines pre-flighted guys."

He turns off the comms and heads down to Med Bay. Walking there he can't help but notice the blood on the floor. He walks in and says, "MJ are you ok? I thought I saw blood on the floor in the hall."

He sees the blood trail and follows it to MJ. "Hey are you ok?"

[dakota]

McKenna was suprised to see Foreman standing in the doorway, and even moreso by the concern on his face. " It's okay Flip. I, uh," she held up her hand," gouged my finger is all. Not that bad, just nicked a blood vessel and bled alot. What," her expression changed to curiousity, " are you doing down here? Aren't you supposed to be prepping for takeoff?"

[Dome]

Blushing for a second, but not wanting to admit he was watching her on the cameras again, he says, "uhh, well... um... I'm about all ready, the engine rooms aren't answering. I was going to run down and see if their comms were broke or if they were just playing cards. I saw the blood, here I am.

"Is there anything I can do to help," he asks taking a step forward.

[dakota]

" No, I'm fine." McKenna smiled slightly at Flip's concern. Then her brow furrowed," Wait a minute, you don't have to go this way to engineering."

[Dome]

"Well I...uh.. I was waiting for the engine room boys to answer and while waiting I glanced at the surveillance system I saw you were hurt. I wanted to see if you were ok. I'm sorry I lied. I don't want you to think I was trying to watch you," he says looking down, face covered in a shameful grimace.

[dakota]

McKenna stepped closer, and despite her better judgement, she lifted his chin with her other hand. " You're sweet Flip. Spying on me is a little creepy, but sweet." she smiled and leaned in to give him a peck on the cheek. " You're serious, aren't you? Now you're making me regret trying to walk away from you back on the Carson."

She looked down. " I gotta get this mess cleaned up before Tawfeek finds it, or one of the passengers. and you better get back on the bridge before you get caught. We can, uh, maybe get to know each other a little better once we get them to Mars?" she hoped her tone didn't sound too hopeful as she smiled lightly.

[Dome]

Flip smiles, "I wasn't spying, I swear," he says blushing.

"I do have to go down and find out why these guys aren't answering. Though I can spare a few moments to help you clean up."

He looks at her again understanding her tone, "well its not going to be a short trip, I'm sure we'll have some time to talk. He can't keep us working the whole way."