Calvert + Rosette - "STOKEing the fire in my heart" pt1

OOC - This is a JP from SMandy and myself :
Who: Jed Calvert
Where: Parrotts Bar
When: During the crew's time off.
Jed sat alone at the bar sipping something that looked like it would
burn his face off. He poured it over his dry, cracked lips and didn't'
even feel the pain (Although he would feel it much later when he used
the urinal in the gents). Jed licked his lips, although now it wasn't
because of the liquor, it was because he'd seen someone walk through
the door.
Jed liked women. And that was an understatement. He normally liked
easy women, women that would dress up all nice and get drunk easily,
and who didn't mind that he never washed. Women he would easily win
over with a simple drink, or even money. But the girl he was looking
at now was the total opposite. She was dressed in ripped jeans, with a
simple blouse covered with a leather jacket. Jed could just see the
metal glint of knives poking out from underneath her belt. Immediately
he was intrigued.
Rosette moved through the large pub, this place was big, bigger than
any bar you'd find on earth. She wandered up to the bar, and leant on
her elbows, leaning over it slightly. She raised an arm towards the
one single woman serving, but the steady flow of customers kept her at
the back of the queue.
"smegging hell, COME ON!" she called, "I've been here longer than some
of these!" she added for no reason. She knew it was because she
wasn't a cute guy that the bar woman could ogle.
She looked over, and saw Jed sat at a table, almost staring at her.
She looked away for a second, trying to break his stare.
He recognised the girl vaguely, after having seen her in passing on
the Promenade or from the away mission to Halkon. But he had never
actually talked to her. Jed was like an animal, he sprang off his
stool and stood next to her.
"Let me gettya this 'un missy." he said, and gave a glance to the
barmaid. She almost looked frightened as Jed looked at her, and
immediately sprang into action getting Rosette the drink she wanted.
She almost looked frightened as Jed looked at her, and immediately
sprang into action getting Rosette the drink she wanted. She picked up
the drink, and took a gulp, the froth from her generic, barely cooled
beer gave her a bit of a 'tash, which she licked away quickly.
"Can I ask why me?" she asked, a little curious.
Jed wasn't a tall man, but he had a way of making him self look taller
by looming over people. He had first discovered this talent when he
used to be a freelancing trader, intimidating people in bars like
these into either buying the things he was trading or defending
himself against unhappy customers.
"A girl carryin' those around must have balls." he said. There was a
pause, as Rosette didn't quite know how to answer that. "An' I hear
that you'se not got an official job around here yet uh?"
"Well, I help out here and there." Rosette said, hoping that the
Captain wasn't about to give her a bollocking about staying on-board
rent-free.
"Well, if you're not listed as an official crewmember then I might
have a little job fer ya." Jed said calmly, but with a lot of
resonance in his voice.
"A job?" she asked, not wanting to be forced off the ship for not
doing what the captain asked her too. "what kind of job?" she asked,
taking another drink of the beer.
She adjusted her jacket, to show off the knives she had. They were
red and black, with serrations all over them, and guards over the
grips. She smiled weakly, not knowing if he was actually offering her
a job on the ship, or hitting on her. Right now though, she didn't
care, he was the captain after all. She took a big gulp of her beer,
she hadn't even noticed that he was offering her this job because she
wasn't listed as crew.
"Okay, here's tha thang. About 4 years ago I worked with a guy named
Al, Al Moneymiser. He was a no-good tight-ass, but he was my pardner.
Together we made a fortune by buying an' sellin' stuff to miners out
on the rim, or to lonely Space Captains, who will pay good money for
anythin' if you get whut I mean." he elbowed Rosette in the ribs, who
didn't know what he meant at all.
"Anyway, we both got in a bit of trouble with the feds, so we put all
the earnings of the year in a big metal casket, bit like one of those
coffin's you see being blasted out into space. An' we buried it on an
obscure planet where no-one would find it."
"Oh yeah? Where?" Asked Rosette.
"New-Stoke." Jed said in hushed tones.
"New-Stoke?" Rosette asked.
Jed nodded. "In the Bretonian sector of the Nouveau Terran sector.
Somewhere so far from civilisation, buried where no un' else would find."
"well, I can see why no one would look on new-stoke for a fortune..."
Rosette agreed, and laughed a bit.
"why do you need my help? that sounds like something you'd be better
off doing with someone not unlike yourself..." she hazarded, though
she had to admit... the idea of finding riches did appeal to her.
She daydreamed a bit, of searching through jungles, finding ancient
ruins, and fighting deadly aliens... Things she'd wanted to do since
she had lived alone, with no other family... She hated to think about
it like that, but she had no one anymore, no real friends, no
family... No reason why she should not risk her life for a bit of fun.
Jed grinned. "I need you cos you can't be traced to the Blue Dwarf."
he said, and moved sideways. Meet me on the flight deck in half an hour.
----------------------------------------------------
After a short ride in a Starbug, the Captain and the stowaway were
stood on a new world. It was damp underfoot, cloudy and it looked like
rain. This was the planet of New-Stoke
Who: Jed Calvert and Rosette LaChance
Where: New Stoke
When: A couple of hours later
Jed took a shovel out of the back of the Starbug and started looking
around.
"So... do you know where it was buried?" she asked. looking over to
Jed. She had a pickaxe, to compliment the shovel Jed was carrying.
She didn't know much about burying expensive things, but she followed
anyway.
Jed said nothing, but carried on walking. "so.. nice place they have
here..." she said, trying to make light conversation. "at least its
not raining..." she added, though she definitely got the idea that it
had been raining recently.
Just as she said that she cursed as two large clouds overhead crashed
into each other and started depositing their payload on their heads.
"Great." Said Rosette.
Some might not believe it, but Jed knew exactly where to look. The
location of this booty had been engrained in his mind for so long. He
put his back to a tree and faced towards what Rosette assumed was North.
"It's 25 paces in this direction. Then we start digging." he said.
Rosette sighed, she didn't like the thought of digging in the rain.
Jed paced and she followed him into what looked like a thick forest.
"10, 11, 12... 22, 23, 24..." Jed stopped.
Rosette looked up to see the well kept grounds of a rather posh
looking mansion. It looked so out of place that it shouldn't even be
there, like an illusion. "Can that be right?" she asked.
"It be." said Jed. But he couldn't quite believe it himself. "Although
it oughtn't be."
"what do you mean?" she asked, "you didn't bury it in the grounds of a
mansion in the middle of nowhere?" she added. She looked up at the
rain clouds, the rain getting heavier. She did her jacket up, and
slung the pickaxe over her shoulder.
The sound of a heavy door closing rattled through the air, Rosette
looked up, and saw the windows all lit up on the bottom half of the
house. "What's going on?" she asked.
They snook across the immaculately-mowed grass and ducked behind a
bush. Several anti-grav carriages were pulling up in the outer
courtyard and many well-dressed people were getting out. Women wearing
long ball dresses were helped by men wearing top hats, holding
umbrellas to prevent the women's dresses from getting wet.
Rosette looked over the courtyard, and a wide smile broke across her
face. "It's a ball!" she almost shouted. She hadn't been to one in
years, and no one could dispute that her blood was blue.
One man in particular was meeting and greeting people. He was
obviously the host of whatever function was going on, and presumably
the owner of this grand mansion.
"I guess he's the man in charge." Said Rosette pointing.
Jed didn't say anything, but fumed quietly. Rosette could see him
scowling.
"Are you ok?" she asked, she could see the anger building up in his
facial expression.
"Thut's Al. Al Moneymiser, my old pardner." he spat. "Th' sneaky
bastard mus' have come back for the money an' built this big place to
spite me."
They watched as Al went inside, leaving two burly doormen outside to
stop the rif-raff from getting in.
"Can you climb?" she asked, moving further away from the door, to a
section of the fence that couldn't be seen by the doormen.
She took off her jacket, and flung it over the rails, before reaching
up and flinging herself over, doing a flip in mid-air, landing
gracefully on the grass on the other side.
Jed watched in awe. This girl DID have balls. And for some twisted
reason that made him fancy her more than the cheap floozies he was
normally into. He was just about to try the same manoeuvre when
Rosette came hurtling back again. Jed fell to the floor to avoid her,
for some reason she was running at breakneck speed back into the
woods. He was just about the get up again when something else flew
over the rails.
It was a guard dog. A Doberman. Or more precisely the one thing worse
than a Doberman. A genetically Modified Doberman with a laser turret
mounted onto his head.
Jed wasn't scared of most things. Mostly only of things that could
devour his genitals. This thing could cook them first. He ran like
hell after Rosette.
"we need another plan..." she said, as she ran back towards the
shuttle they came in. Mud splattering all over her jacket, and
ruining her jeans. "For the record, this is fun!" she called back,
sprinting into the back of the shuttle, watching the Doberman firing
bursts of laser towards them, trying to catch them both.
In the safety of the Starbug they both panted for breath. "So how will
we get in?" she asked. Neither of us are exactly dressed for a ball.
She pointed at their mud splattered clothes.
<to be continued!>