Suspicions

Jay didn't come back last night
The thoughts of where he slept or more to the point, with whom, have been chewing away at my insides and making me feel physically sick
I know there could easily be any number of innocent explanations to excuse his behaviour, but since Katrina turned back up, he has barely exchanged more than a few words with me, and all this on top of me still not knowing what's going on with us, is starting to grate on me
It's not like I don't have any feelings, so I dunno... I'll probably tolerate another day or so of this shit before I snap

I'm sorry
I'm just tired
Personally, I barely slept a wink
It's amazing how empty a double bed can seem when you shouldn't be alone in it
I kept waking up, wondering where he was, only to to be hit by the recollection of my current situation, and having to miserably roll over and try to get back to sleep again
In the end, I just gave it all up as a bad job and got up in the small hours to make my way down towards the Foundries to try and take my mind off everything by tinkering with my toys

Technically I shouldn't be down here, nobody should; it's not really safe with all the Huzard's still running loose, but I've got Holly as my eyes and ears, and if I need them: I've machines down here that could execute every last smegging thing aboard this ship

The Foundries are a set of largely automated factories where spare parts are manufactured on the Dwarf class ships; they're very much like the mining decks, insomuch as they're rarely visited by any of the crew - I found them a few million years ago, and even back then, I don't think anyone had visited them in years
If you've the time, the raw materials (of which we have few), and you know what you're doing, you can fabricate all sorts of shit; Ultratech stuff like wormhole drives is obviously way out of the question, but you're good for plenty of other things - scutters, sensors ...stuff

I had originally started working on bringing one of the smaller manufacturies back online a month or so back, after I got pissed off with constantly having to forage for spares while I was reintegrating Holly's systems with Alex and Alfredo
It was meant to be a nice surprise for everyone
Not that I care much about that now

I spent an hour or so running tests on a few pieces of HK wreckage that one of the scutters had found, before finally turning my attention to the Elimination Device's

Did I mention that I used to be a Cybertechnologist?
Probably not
I usually like to keep myself to myself, although to be honest, as time goes by, I'm finding myself becoming less and less secretive now that anyone who cares what I did in the past is so long dead. Having Jay around has helped no end as well - I actually want to talk to him and for him to know who I really am; although if it comes down to it, I'll probably skip mentioning the murders - I'm not sure what he'd think about them, and it's (dark humour) always best to keep a little mystery in a relationship

Huh
There I go, thinking about him again, and getting that dull ache in the pit of my stomach
Smeg's sake
What's going happen with us?

In my defence, the murders were entirely justified
Especially my smegging father

Anyway...
Elimination Device's four to six have been complete and fully operational for a while now; they're nothing massively fancy - just AI enhanced metal puppets that I control via the neural interface I engineered myself while I was laid up, bored to death in the medibay one month
Yeah, yeah, I know - They're illegal (or at least were) and bad for your mental health, but I'm doing ok with it so far; although, top be honest: Even I'm not sure about having the damned thing - I only wormed it into my mind because I was so sure I wasn't coming back from that assault on the JMC headquarters
It seems you get a little cavalier like that when you're just a disposable, cloned backup of someone else and you're staring your insignificant little death in the face
; although right now, three million years later, I have a future - I'm me, my own person, and I'm utterly free, so yeah: I'll get the interface dismantled one day, even though I have neither the means nor a reason to do so at the moment

I digress

I spent the next four or so hours working methodically, recalibrating the two LED's and running a range of diagnostic routines, until I was interrupted by the Foundry blast doors hissing open, and startling the living shit out of me
The LED's swung around with inhuman speed and brought their weapons to bear on Ishani, as I fumbled to snatch my assault rifle up from the bench
“Woah!” she cried, flinching and holding her hands in the air
I eyed her suspiciously
, the silence punctuated only by the high pitched whine of the MED coming online and warming its weapons up
“How did you get down here?” I hissed - I should have been aware of her approach from about a kilometre out
“Holly said I'd be able to find you down here” she gabbled
Not good enough
“Holly?” I snarled “Run a full diagnostic sweep on on the security arrays; I want to know how this woman got here without me being aware of it!”
Holly grumbled from the terminal mounted on the wall but acquiesced to my demands
“I'll save you the trouble” Ishani smiled, tentatively relaxing a little “We have EW kit in our suits that's good against sensor arrays like yours”
"Why's it active?"
She shrugged
"Force of habit; I've been an Enforcer for over four hundred years - To last this long you have to be either lucky or cautious... I'm not lucky"
We regarded each other for a moment before she spoke again
, a hint of desperation about her voice
"I only wanted to talk... How about standing your droids down and putting that cannon of yours away?"
"Sure" I shrugged, tossing my rifle back onto the bench and cueing the machines - I figured that there was no point in me waving a rifle around and pissing a trained killer off when I could punch thirty or so fist sized holes through her in seconds with but a thought
"Thanks... Cig?" Ishani proffered a pack
I was tempted but they could be laced with anything
"I don't trust you enough"
Ishani raised her eyebrows and fished a fag out to spark it up
for herself
"Suit yourself" she breathed smokily
"I haven't made it to nearly twenty nine by being stupid"
Ishani smiled at this as she drew on her cig
"Touché"
"So what was it you wanted to talk about?" I asked, leaning back against the workbench and crossing my arms
"To business eh? Ok: What's going on between you and Chrysler!?"
"Oh, you spotted that, did you?" I sighed, shaking my head "Smegged if I know now Katrina's turned back up"
“I see...” Ishani licked her lips nervously
”Been together long?”
“About a month...”
I was starting to feel uncomfortable with this sort questioning
“Serious?”
“Apparently not for him!” I snapped, trying to keep the edge of bitterness out of my voice, the LED's shifting menacingly, belying my mood (I'm no fun when I'm as tired as this)
“For what it's worth” Ishani said softly after a moment “You and I are kind of in the same boat”
“Yeah, I figured you and Kay were an item” I scowled
“We have been for years”
“Think she's going to leave you?”
“Probably not” Ishani admitted “But I'm worried enough to come and see what's going on with you; information is power and all that – I'm sure Kay will be pleased to hear that he's moved on as well”
Smeg!
I’m too tired for this sort of conversation!
You smegging idiot Jones!
“Don't you think that would be better coming from him?” I croaked, but that was about as far as we got, as our cosy little chat was suddenly interrupted by the entire ship rumbling and shaking violently
“What the smeg was that?” Ishani gasped, grabbing the door frame for support
“Smegged if I know!” I snapped, wheeling away from her to shout towards the terminal “Holly! Status update! Now!”

It took a moment before Holly swam into view on the screen
“Alright dudes, what's up?
“What the hell's going on?”
“Dunno really; seems like someone just fired on that Archiver Cathedral ship”
“What!?” Ishani gasped “Who!?”
“Hard to say really” Holly shrugged (or shrugged as much as a disembodied head can) “My sensors down there are a bit dickey”
“Section?”
“I reckon it'd be around 822-4C”
“That's about a two kilometre walk from here” I started, cueing the LED's and snatching up my rifle before turning to Ishani “Coming?”
She shrugged
“Sure...”

It took us about a half hour to pick our way through the darkened, debris strewn corridors to the 4C cannon emplacements
“What the smeg?” I scowled, surveying the devastation before us
The cannon control systems all seemed to have been smashed up
“What the hell happened here?”
Ishani frowned
“Do you think those lizards – what do you call them?”
“Huzards”
“Yeah - Do you reckon they could have done this?”
“Dunno” I muttered glancing suspiciously around the debris “I'm not sure what happened here...”

<tag / tbc>
Anyone fancy joining us?