Wings

[Xeenah]

[ This story is linked to Out of the blue..., from Cher's point of view ]


ENTRY: February 1, 29483 - Cherelle Clay

Well. Ain't that a surprise... I dropped a comlink message to Krish, couple of days ago. Just took a chance. Seems I'm lucky. *grin*

Krish came over last night. Damn he's changed... Much sharper than he was. A good taste "smartassery", his enthusiasm shines through even though he tries to dim it. I spared him the details of the vibes I was picking up. *snickers* It felt great to see him. He has... grown, blossomed, not sure how to put it... But he's not the shy and discreet engie he used to be, locked up in his shop all the time.

I invited him in, I gave him a little tour of our home as it was the first time he set foot here. I think it was the first time he saw one of the Lux apartments. These are nice to recharge the batteries.

We chatted a bit and I brought up the topic of my message. I told him about what we were looking for. A ship, not too big, not too small, to carry some cargo while remaining maneuverable. We can do it in our spare time, and with Assembly being so quiet, we have a lot more of that on our hands.

We're clanners. Omni-Reform teaches its citizens to consider us as terrorists and public dangers. Armed and dangerous, that we are. Terrorists, I'm not sure about that. I don't feel the terror being brought by Clans to Omni-Tek, but rather the other way around. Anyway. Semantics.

There are people out there, outside... who would love to get their hands on certain things found here, but without deal with OT. I understand them. And Kotts happens to be good at finding things, be it stuff or information...

His hair brained plan isn't so hairy after all. I found myself looking forward to it, hence my call to Krish.

We need a ship to carry the merchandise. We don't need a frigging cargo liner, it would be a nightmare to get past the Aliens blockade with a bulky freight liner. Not to mention it's not what I'd call discreet. A shuttle, a small cruiser... Sure.

I would love to pilot one of those again. It's been too long and I couldn't afford one of my own. And when I could, I had no use for it.

Damn... Mack's baby would be perfect for that... It had what it takes. I don't know if it's still in condition to fly, though. Heck, I don't even know if I'll be able to reach him. We lost touch a while ago, a long while ago, and I haven't heard from him since. Maybe his right-hand and secretary would know... What's her name already... Ugh. Never met her, but Mack mentioned her name once or twice...

IF he still has it, and IF he would part with it... The question would be is it still in shape?

If that plan falls through, though, there are other options. We can try to buy one - but that's always a tad bit tricky. We can try to find parts and have someone competent assemble it... Not so easy to do. I know I suck at these things. Gimme the driving stick and I'll fly that bird in a needle hole, but don't ask me to repair it, unless you have a death wish.

Last option... Gather parts from the crash sites. There are tons of wrecked ships all around Rubi-Ka. If the scavengers left anything good, we might be able to find the parts, or at least find enough that we won't have to buy all the parts. Again, not so easy to do and I can't do it. Neither can Kotts. He's a fixer, not a spacecraft engineer.

That's where Krish can play a part. I exposed him our project to get a ship, told him about our options. He seemed very interested. In fact, at some point, he asked if we had a workshop. He made me realize that we didn't have a spot to build that ship. It's not done on the corner of the table. Duh. Didn't think about that one before he raised that up.

Aaaah, Krish... He offered to use his late father's workshop in Newland. He didn't set foot there since his dad was assassinated, and even though he assured me that he made his peace with that... That's what they all say before they actually step on the site where ghosts dwell.

It would be perfect, though. Newland doesn't pose a threat similar to, say, Athen or Tir, in the eyes of Omni-Trans. Besides, a son taking over his late dad's shop is not suspicious. Newland is a neutral city. There are clan and Omni-Tek citizens there. Krish is discreet.

And he said he's interested in digging that question. He's planning to contact the Tir School of Engineering and access the data on aeronautics. *grin* That sounds like someone who's interested.

But mostly... It was good to see him again. And it's good to thing that I might fly again. And to think that I'm not gonna be confined to being strictly a paperpusher *chuckles* As important as it may be, I miss direct action sorely.

So many things cross my mind... For now, Kotts had to leave Rubi-Ka, maybe he will find a ship out there, or contacts... or maybe not. But when he comes back, I hope to have news for him.

Good ones.

[Xeenah]

ENTRY: February 10, 29483 - Cherelle Clay

My Master used to say that when something was meant to be, nothing could get on the way to prevent it.  I'm not ready to say that just yet, but things are sure looking up.

Jen landed on Ka last Saturday and she came over for dinner.  We did a bit of catching up - not quite enough, though - and she saw the kids.  They have changed so much...  I'm gonna have to talk to her again in the future regarding Sai.

During dinner, we started talking about this and that and when asked what we've been doing, our project was brought up.

When Kotts first talked to me about this idea that he had, I wasn't really hot for it, but the more he explained, the more it got my interest perked up.  And that's pretty much what happened when we told Jen what we were planning to do.

To my surprise, she was interested!  I'm surprised that I was surprised...  I should have known her enough to anticipate.  Seems I have more catching up to do than I thought.

Today, I got an odd call from Isha.  She was saying something about a guy looking into lifting some hefty amount of credits from a certain account, and added that he was a former candidate of Assembly.  That raised my curiosity.  When she said his com ID was Zatchibana, that did it.

I contacted him and we met.  Him being applicant with Digital Alliance didn't really raise my sympathy, as well as him disappearing without anything as much as a word.  But he made up for it.

He told me about a way to "fuel" our project...  And that was very unexpected.  But it would allow us to have a production with a legal front, while behind the curtains...

Tea.  Not just any tea, though.  There are two things I forgot to ask him, and not the smallest ones...  The first: Is the tea usage he told me about is well known?  If so, that would raise suspicions.  If not...  Well, we'd have a convenient production.  Very convenient.  A legal production that would also make juicy profits and give us a definite advantage.  The second thing is...  How will we process and store the powder so it can be used for the ship?

If we can find a supplier for the seeds, we'd need land to grow it.  I might have something for that.  We're gonna need time and equipment to make sure it grows.  I'm gonna have to give this more thinking.

In the meantime, though...  Unless we have the friggin' ship, we can't get any stuff offworld to our buyers -- no, prospective buyers.  *sigh*

We need more funds.  Kotts and I have been sweating to get some cashflow in, Isha has offered to toss some fat credit chips in, but we're still short by about 350 millions credits, and that's for cheap second-hand parts only...

It's not done just yet.

[Xeenah]

ENTRY: February 16, 29483 - Cherelle Clay

Holy poop on a stick!  I got a hold of Felina!  Remembering her name in the first place wasn't so easy, I had to dig up in my old files...

Felina was - still is, I think - Mack's aid, secretary, assistant, whatever they're calling it.  Anyway, bottom line is, she can get a message across to Mack!  I was starting to think it wouldn't be possible to get a hold of him...  Damn S.P.A.R.T.A.N. training, he's not gonna be found if he doesn't want to.

Anyway, now I'm trying to hold back from making projects based on hopes that might not come true...  It would be damn nice to have Mack's ship, and heh, it would be a bit of him with us, hehe.

It would be nice to have him back, though.  Oh well...

Oh, Kotts is back.  I wonder what he saw in Newland that kept him distracted...

[Xeenah]

ENTRY: March 6, 29483 - Cherelle Clay


Oh boy, oh boy.  We're gonna fly.  We're gonna fly!

Okay, I'm gonna stop saying everything twice *grins*  Felina relayed back a message from Mack.  He's flying under the radar for a while, no pun intended.  The Talon's ownership titles have been transferred to Felina for safekeeping, until he figures out what to do with it.  He said we can have it!  I couldn't believe it...  He said we could discuss credits later.  I suspect any transaction for his ship from us to him might set off a few alarms, if he's trying to keep a low profile...

I was first thinking about Kotts hacking into Omni-Trans files to get me a pilot's license...  Omni-Trans wouldn't look kindly at a Clanner trying to renew a pilot's license, now would they.  But it's gonna be easier to do it from Earth.  Kotts won't risk raising suspicions by hacking the Omni-Trans files, then.  Safer, easier, I buy that. *grins*  I'll be taking the kids with me so that my favorite fixer gets a little break.  I'll make a stop at both the grand-parents with the twins *smiles*  I guess they're gonna get spoiled for their first birthday *chuckles*  Once I have my pilot's license renewed, then Felina and I can make the transaction to transfer the ownership of the Talon.

*slightly grinning* Krish was a bit disappointed because he thought he wouldn't have to build a ship from parts or from scratch.  But having a ship in working order will allow him time to further his knowledge in aeronautics and... chemistry, for purpose of building a second ship.

That's hoping we can make enough doodies from contracts with the first ship.  I still need to get a hold of Gincho.  And Kotts still needs to find the information about this peach tea.  For now, we have some stuff that can fetch a very good price.  Oh yeah.  We can get started after we polish the details.

Isha signed up with us again.  Good girl.  She's gonna handle some paperwork and things commercial.  Jen has a good network and can probably get us more contracts to start, she already did with that oddball...  He was all kinds of weird but he was regular, so no questions asked.  Krish will do the maintenance on the ship.  Kotts will find the goods we will be fencing, and I'll pilot the ship to our buyers and back, through the Aliens ships and the Omni ships.  Good thing they don't use the orbital stations to hunt down little spacecrafts.

It's starting to come together nicely...

...But we're gonna need more people.

[Xeenah]

ENTRY: March 15, 29483 - Cherelle Clay


*mumbling*


Okay, hope it's recording...

I fi. na. lly.  got my g*@&!%& pilot licence renewed...  A@¢£&%$.  I hate overzealous paperpushers.  I'm still amazed that I didn't slam my palm in the nose of that narrow-minded blonde secretary.  I'm really improving, aren't I.

Anyway, I'm on my way back to Ka now, with the kids.  Of course, the grand-parents of both Pauly and Clay families were more than happy to enjoy their grand-children longer than expected *grins*

We should arrive soon.

[Xeenah]

ENTRY: March 19, 29483 - Cherelle Clay

For the last few days, I've been trying to get a hold of Felina to check out the details of the ownership transfer of the Talon with her, so that I can have solid information for Jen.  I'm still waiting for Felina's call.

Speaking of Jen, I haven't heard from her in a while, since this improvised supper we had at our place.  I hope she didn't get tied up with her brother again...  As the saying goes, "one doesn't choose one's family".  I'm sure she didn't choose that...  Anyway, I'm looking forward to get a hold of her.  I'd love to catch up a bit more with her, with a good meal - planned, this time! - and see where this is going, or where it should be going.

Maybe Krish could even join us, we'd have a good time. *smiles*

I hope Felina's gonna call me back soon, but mostly, I hope nothing happened to her.  She's supposed to call me when the ship can be delivered...  Or something like that...

[Xeenah]

ENTRY: April 13, 29483 - Cherelle Clay

"No, we don't yet... Maybe soon, just Krishnitt for now.  He's gonna be freaking busy..."

"Why two? We don't pop engies just by snapping our fingers! What is it, is the ship scrap or close to it? Wh..."

"Nonono!  That's not what I mean, but why -- Yeah...  Yeah...  Uh huh..."

"...Ah.  I didn't think about that one..."

"Of course, I can't be in two places at once, but... Isn't there an automatic pilot on th--  Hmm, point."

"Okay, I promise.  I'll check with Krish and see when the hangar's gonna be ready to welcome the Talon.  'Kay...  Okay.  Bye bye now."


That's not what I expected to hear from Felina.  Oh, sure, we gonna have the ship delivered, that's not the problem. The problem is that I wanted to hop in the cockpit and try this big bird.  But Felina's right: it's not a Yalm. Besides... I don't really want to risk crashing in on the first flight.

And the automatic pilot is not quite what we'll need to pass through the Kyr'Ozch lines either. It'll take more than that. I guess I'll have to get familiar with her... Hey, I wonder if we should find her another name.

I should contact Krish... I've been caught up with the Council a bit, lately. I need more action and less words.

Oh yeah!... *tapping on the entertainment center remote* That is -just- what I need...

[Xeenah]

ENTRY: May 25, 29483 - Cherelle Clay


So, here's our status.  What we've got:

We have 5 people: Krish, Kotts, Isha, Roland and myself.  Yeah, Roland took me by surprise.  When he was saying how serious he was, I challenged him by tossing him an invite.  He took me up on it, the answer pinged right back in my comlink.  Geez, that was fast, but he had a point: we won't get more people to help if we turn them down when they offer...

We have a ship.  The ship is technically mine, payment to be discussed later, given that Mack "Stonyman" Bolan doesn't get himself chopped up thin and eaten for someone's breakfast, which I doubt will happen.

We have a hangar, thanks to Krish, located in Newland.


What we don't have:

We don't have the ship, it's not delivered yet.  I got my pilot license renewed, but we'll have to do the pick-up.  That means to pilot it.  And to pilot this, she says I should bring two engies along, or one engie and a co-pilot, because I won't be able to pilot and rush to the engine room all at once if something goes south.  I don't have two engies to bring along, only one.  Option one, to pick up the ship with only engie, Krish.  Option two, to call in another engie or co-pilot, the hell if I know who I could trust.  I prefer option one, for now.

We don't have flight plans.  We need them so we can clear the Rubi-Ka atmo without being chased down by an Omni fleet.  Or accidentally shot by a notum shipment.  We need to find a flight pattern that will allow us to fly without being arsed with stupid details like Corporate goons on our tails.

We don't have clients.  Not yet.  Well, there was this nut job...  But I didn't hear from him since.  Off-world clients are not easy to find.  We kinda have to go off-world to establish contacts, and for that...  We kinda have to get a crew together for this.

We don't have a precise list of things to offer for sale.  That can easily be fixed.  Note to self: nudge Kotts, hard if need be.

We don't have a supplier for the goddamn FUEL...  That ship doesn't fly on water and promises.  We can't just dock in an Omni-Tek facility and say "Hi there!  Fill it up, please..."  We gonna have to do something about it.

...But ICC might work, though.  Mmm.

And, lastly, we don't have a name for the ship. *chuckles*  But if a good idea comes up, I can manage to find a bottle of champagne to do a proper ceremony, hehe.

[Xeenah]

ENTRY: June 8th, 29483 - Cherelle Clay

's that thing on?  ...Oh, right.  *clears her throat*

There's a side of Krish I didn't know.  He's ambitious.

Two days ago, he asked if we could escort him to Inferno...  I thought he was confused, so I said 'you mean Penumbra, right?'...  He meant Inferno.

Yeah.

So he skips Penumbra completely...!  That's the oddest thing I've ever seen.  I mean, I don't know anyone who ever did that.  Skipping Scheol?  Sure, been there, done that.  But beyond that...  Completely skipping Penumbra?  Never seen that.

Yup, I'll take him on board for the inaugural flight.

Hell yes.

[Xeenah]

ENTRY: June 16th, 29483 - Cherelle Clay

I'm gonna need help from Krish.  We Felina will help me with the details, it's been forever since I drove anything else than a Yalm or a Jetbike...  I'm rusty.  Dad says it's like walking, you don't forget it, you just need to shake off the lack of practice and there's only one way to do it: piloting.

I can hardly wait to get a feel of this ship...  My ship.  Wow.  I'm gonna have to name it.  Last piece of paperwork to complete before I can claim it.

My wings.  And if more are willing to jump in this adventure, it may become our wings.

[Xeenah]

[From "Meanwhile on Rubi-Ka..."; sorry for breaking the first person mode ]

October 3, 29483


The apartment was still empty, save for all that came standard with it. It didn't sounded empty though, thanks to the designers who worked on this fine piece of lodging. She slumped down in front of the screen on the mezzanine and tuned on the news.

She also fired up her holopad and fired up files and applications and started hopping between them.

Andrew "Encyros" Phillips... Not much he could really harm the Council with... Nothing that couldn't be addressed, anyway.

The hack in the security system of the Tower of Truth, during the September session, was more disturbing. The warning relayed to the Council was a courtesy of Omni-Tek. It seems the corporation didn't appreciate that Clans were cracking into dealing notum. Not a very big surprise, though the "extreme measures" were still to be pondered over.

It was an odd coincidence that the next meeting after he was uncovered was 'interrupted' by this hack in the Tower of Truth security system. Hopefully, the security logs could reveal more about the hack itself. And the hackers, of course.

Agrestus was back, so that was another thing to add in the plus column. Mirura was released, also to add on the plus column. She had not been reformed, which would have been the end of her Clan days.

Cher wondered what exactly they do in Omni-Reform that makes a reform irreversible. Many people had claimed to have been reformed and that they somehow managed to break the reform... But this was likely a simple brainwash and reconditioning; a true reform process was not like a hangover that people recover from in just a couple of days, not even weeks. Heck, not even months nor years...

She shuddered at the thought and finished her note, then flicked on to the Council forums. Cindi's candidacy to the Clerical staff has been accepted by the Council. It would definitely help with keeping things running.

The ship still had no name. She's been tempted to keep the same name, but the history of the ship itself, if she didn't rename the ship, could bring more trouble than needed. Krish was off planet, so all work on the ship was halted. The test flight would have to wait.

Once that big bird would fly, and if it was able to take the kind of duties it was meant to be used for... It if was maneuverable enough, that is...

Too many "if" made her sigh impatiently.

She looked at the replacement comlink she had just received, then casted a resentful glance at the old comlink which let her down during last Council. She grabbed it in her hand and went to the ...bath hall? It was too large to be called a bathroom... There, she filled up one of the sinks, then turned the old comlink on. She quickly smiled. "Are you gonna jump, fry or just sink?" She held her hand above the water and released her grip with a large grin, watching the comlink touch the water with a brief blue fritzing, then float for a second before slowly sinking to the bottom. She twisted her mouth. "Aw, not even a little cloud of smoke?... Sheesh." She waited a few more seconds until the light on the comlink had gone dead, then drained the sink. She fished up the fried comlink and with a slow grin, she shook it to remove the excess of water.

"This time, let's get really creative..."

She threw the comlink up in the air and launched herself in a flying spin kick, missing the falling comlink by 2 inches. Both landed down on the tiles, the Opi much more graceful than the comlink, which lost two pieces in the landing. Cher tilted her head, putting the two parts on the counter, and proceeded to throw it in the air again, this time shooting her palm at the comlink, propulsing it quickly toward the large bay window where it shattered some more. She methodically put the parts on the counter with the other ones.

The petite Opifex kept beating the old comlink down to bits and pieces, using it as a practice target for her martial arts drill. When she was done, a myriad of bits and chips were gathered on the counter.

She then went to the shelves to bring back a frame, a canvas and a spray bottle of fast bonding glue. She framed the canvas and laid it on the floor, generously sprayed the canvas with glue, then picked up all the pieces of the defunct comlink, tossing them on the canvas. Cher sprayed some more glue on the result and nodded to herself.

She let it dry, browsing some more files and news in the meantime. Later, she walked in the bathroom again, with metal wires, some glittering powder and several bottles of holopaint. She proceeded to interlace the wires through the bits, scarred the canvas and bits with the holopaint in familiar patterns and sprinkled the glittering powder over it, adding a thin coat of spray glue to seal it all.

She stood, her arms crossed, considering the artwork laying on the floor in front of her.

"My eleventh comlink... Next one will complete the dozen."

[Xeenah]

ENTRY: November 10th, 29483 - Cherelle Clay


Looks like some Neutrals decided to jump in notum smuggling and bypass Omni-Tek by dealing it themselves.  I don't know if they deal raw or refined notum.  How the heck didn't I hear about the "Why Not" earlier, uh?  <deep sigh>

Well.  That doesn't really affect us, does it?...

[Xeenah]

ENTRY: Addendum November 10th, 29483 - Cherelle Clay


Where are the others?...  What are they doing?  Did they forget how to contact my comlink?

[Xeenah]

ENTRY: July 10th, 29484 - Cherelle Clay

Seven months have passed since my last entry. Krishnitt has gone under, popped on surface briefly then went under again, keeping a low profile. I've had word from Monczeli a couple of weeks ago, and then from Sandra -- Redtricks -- about the same time. We recruited a couple of new members, hoping they're gonna stay around.

We need to get a crew together. I think Krishnitt is getting close to have the ship fixed and fitted for our needs.

I think I'll try to contact the "Why Not" crew. They're smuggling notum, but they may be interested in expanding their activities. There are other things than notum which would be worth a lot of money, off planet... If we can get some kind of partnership established with them, we could both have an interesting business going on. If not, well...

I hope they won't try to scr*w us. That would be stupid of them, not to mention bad for business.

But we need a bloody godd*** crew!!

[Xeenah]

ENTRY: August 30th, 29484 - Cherelle Clay

I've got in touch with a few people who came back to Rubi-Ka, briefly. I lost touch with Krish. We got a few more members, and Isha and Kotts are mostly paying for the city rent, I think Loccin tossed some in as well. I've never been too hot with credits so I'm at least gonna look into ways to help with that. We didn't want to call Jen and ask for funds - she wanted to see if we were caring enough, that's the best way we can say it, with actions, not just words... So, from what I gather, between them, the city rent will keep being covered. That's good to hear.

I have my F.O.S.S.* blaring in my ears. I hate that. I've recommended everyone in the Council to dust off their security measures... Change usual paths, make sure they were not being followed, change habits, move often... all that we've been trained to do in Assembly. I wonder if other Clans have received the same training we have. We were rather sharp... *chuckle* Well, I guess we can still be.

Anyway, I hope I'm wrong. Someone seems to be digging up the old Portman affair... The Council seems to be blamed but I wasn't in the Council, back then. However, Kotts was flat out stated in the warrant. Funny, when I mentioned this to the Council, they shrugged it off, like they always do... Why is it that so many clanners always take this lightly? All of them bragging of how they should have their own warrant, like if it was some kind of stupid trophy... *rolls eyes* Grow overconfident and one day, you just might make that stupid mistake, that's what I've been taught. *shrugs* I don't really care about this kind of trophy. When I see a successful operation, that's all the reward I need.

I hope nobody in the Council will catch heat for that old stuff. Most of them were not involved or have left RK. Taren found her little patch of land and finally has her farm... Sary's gone, and if she ever shows up again, I may nag her about this combined alien armor she borrowed from our depot... Steely's an advy, so of course he's hard to get a hold of *grins* I don't know what it is with advies... Anyway. The only person who's still around is Kotts and he knows how to dodge them.

So, with all that... I've put a hold on contacting the Why Not. I don't know if the Talon will ever be refurbished and be safe to fly. It's been sitting in that hangar for... too long. I don't want to count. Krish has been working on it to replace some hug panels and parts that have taken a beating on this off-world operation that BP and Mack and Kotts had. So, we can't really add the Talon to the Why Not just yet. My pilot license has been renewed in March 29483, so it's still valid until March 29488.

I don't know what Jen would say about the decisions we had to make... She's been away for so long now that I wonder if she's ever coming back. I think I'd like to see Assembly back in the Council... We're not big, but there have been much bigger Clans who didn't even bother showing up when it was time to make things happen, so... nothing happened. *snorts* I need to speak with her. And with Okoli again. I hope he's as smart as what's been written about him. If not... That's why we ask if there's any change of affiliation at the beginning of each Council session.

*sighs*

I must grab some sleep before the twins wake up... Cher out.





* Female Opifex Sixth Sense