Starlight A story by David R. 'Nutzoide' King Chapter 03: The Waiting Game Tataku stood nervously on the Academy station docking platform, watching as the ship slowly manoeuvred into position. Her mind raced as she tried to think if there was anything she had forgotten. There was no time to go back for anything later. As soon as she got on board they would be leaving again. Misaniti-sensei had already made the arrangements with the ship's crew, and there was no need to take her own ship since apparently this one was big enough for her as well. She hurriedly removed her glasses and tucked them self-consciously into her bag as she saw the crew emerge from the ship - the crew she would be spending the next two weeks with. The first one off was a short girl who introduced herself as Sylvie Ferr and the taller, subdued one who followed just called herself Yae. Behind them was a woman about her own height in clothing that seemed to drown her, though it didn't fully hide something that covered her leg. She turned out to be Jei, the courier she would be working with, and finally came a very grumpy blonde whom Jei named as Angelica and who didn't seem to be in the mood to talk. "We also have a guard for this trip, Crow October. You're the university representative, correct?" Tataku nodded and bowed. "Yes, I'm Tataku Moniko, from the advanced cultural studies course. Nice to meet you." "I assume you know the details of what's needed?" "Umm, yes I do." Tataku said, a little worried at Jei's blunt manner. She was reassured a second later when Jei gave her a brief smile. While the others might not have believed it, Jei was not one to intimidate those she worked with. "Good. We'll leave as soon as you're ready." And with that she turned and headed back into the ship. "Don't worry about her," Angelica said a little louder than necessary, "she's always like that. Good to have you aboard." When she too had vanished back inside Yae stepped over to her. "Do you have everything?" she asked, indicating the two bags at Tataku's feet and giving the girl a reassuring smile. "Yes, this is it." The green haired girl lifted the bags onto her shoulders. Yae nodded. "Good. Don't worry about them," she said, motioning to the ship door and the two who had gone in, "it's just each other they drive crazy." The three of them headed into the ship, Sylvie bringing out Andy from under her arm. "But the ship is doomed!" she said, putting on a lousy faux voice this time. Yae giggled a little, which Tataku thought seemed a little odd considering her image and previously dour manner, but it made her seem much more alive, and she was thankful for the friendliness. Tataku herself smiled and quirked an eyebrow at them. "Oh, and don't mind her with the panda either. She does that occasionally," Yae commented, giving the toy a bop on the head. "This isn't the time." Sylvie just smiled back at the pair and stuck her tongue out playfully. "With those two in there we need him more than ever! His name's Andy." thought Tataku as she headed inside with the two soldiers, *** Tataku wasn't wrong either. She had brought several of her textbooks with her but she never had long enough to start studying properly before something happened. After a full day of it she had only had a single conversation with any of them, but it felt as though she knew each of them inside out. Right now Jei was, as she always seemed to be, fending off Angelica's company as the energetic outlaw tried to engage her in some form of boredom relieving activity. It was actually quite clear the taller woman was having a hard time trying to rein in her anger and not lash out, and over the last four hours she had been muttering to herself almost non-stop, but that didn't phase the outlaw in the slightest. "I mean, seriously, is Sylvie the only one of you lot with any sense of fun? Come on, you have to admit that panda is cute. You're talkin' anyway so there's nothin' stoppin' you talkin' to me, and I know you've got nothin' to do either. The other two are flyin' this thing so it's up to us three to pass the time on our own." Jei gritted her teeth. "Just leave her Jei. Hitting her didn't do any good last time and it won't now," she said under her breath. "Why won't she leave me alone?" "You do realise that in the old days talking to yourself was considered the first sign of madness, don't you?" Angelica opined as she sat at the table Jei had picked in the leisure room. Jei looked up and tried to exude an aura of menace. "There is nothing to say that I am not in fact insane, so if I kill you it's not my fault. For the last time go away!" Tataku felt very sorry for Jei as she watched them from behind her glasses. It seemed Angelica was blissfully unaware that she was driving the target of her attention completely up the wall, even if Jei hid it very well - apart from the muttering of course. The thought made Tataku ever so slightly ill. It was a very cruel way of doing it if that was the case. Angelica smirked and began petting her cat when he jumped up onto the table. "So, you're not goin' to tell me to leave any more? Guess that means we can stay, huh Tangalo?" The enraptured feline just purred into her hand as she scratched under his chin. Jei on the other hand growled audibly and left the room. "Once more. Just once more and I'll make her regret it. Just once." She could feel her resolve cracking. Badly. This was why she always, *always* worked alone. She prayed to herself that she had the strength not to break down and cry next time. She knew there would be a next time and she wouldn't give that woman the satisfaction of seeing her broken. In the leisure room Angelica chuckled as she stroked her pet. "You know Tangalo, she can't ignore us forever, and she's not goin' to pay up soon either I'm guessin'. Well, if I'm stickin' around with her she's going to learn to lighten up whether she likes it or not before I go nuts. What's the point of life if you're not goin' to live it?" She played idly with Tangalo of a while, the cat rolling around as he enjoyed her ministrations. "Hey, Taku, what are you doin' on this trip anyway? No-one tells me anythin' around here." Tataku frowned, slightly irritated. "Umm, I'm here to buy the chemicals we need. And my name is Tataku." "Oh." A little more succinct than she had expected, but it was at least an answer. "Right. So, the old guy on the radio said you were a student right?" Tataku nodded. "I'm taking the cultural studies course there." "Cultural studies? So that's, what, learnin' about different people and stuff?" Tataku nodded again. "We learn about the various races and their subcultures, how they function and how we can better understand each other." "Jeez," Angelica said as Tangalo playfully gnawed on her finger, "ain't that a bit dull?" "No, it's very interesting!" She felt rather offended by that, but it saddened her that the other woman couldn't recognise the need for such understanding. "And it's important to understand each other so we can avoid any more conflict. We don't have to like each other, but nobody can afford any more wars. With today's space reliant lifestyles and so many interdependent communities it would be disastrous." "I guess. Better you than me though. I couldn't stand it." After a short silence Angelica sighed, utterly bored and leaving Tangalo sleeping on the table as she rose. "Let's go find that sourpuss and do something. Anything's better than just sitting here!" "I think she wants to be left alone for a while," Tataku commented, looking up from her book. "She's just somewhere on her own bored stiff, just like us, and she just doesn't want to admit it. She thinks I'm just after my ship." "What are you after?" Yae had already filled her in on the reason Angelica was there. "I'm her partner until I get my ship, and partners work together. She's just bein' rude. And if we find Yae we'll bring her too. I've been here a week and all she's done in all that time is fly and mope. So, I'm gonna get us all together and we're gonna enjoy ourselves." She reached over and plucked the book out of Tataku's hands. "And no studyin' either. Come one." Tataku didn't have time to complain about it as she was pulled to her feet, Angelica leading her by the arm out of the room. "Ow, t-that hurts, please stop it!" "Just 'cos you guys don't know how to have fun doesn't mean you can't learn," Angelica said lightly as she led the thin girl through the door. Tataku would never have thought Angelica was as strong as she was from looking at her but she managed to drag her effortlessly down the corridor. Tataku on the other hand was never a physical person, and her attempts to struggle out of Angelica's vice-like grip were completely futile. "Please, you're hurting me! Let me go!" Angelica turned to say something but was silenced immediately as Tataku's hand flashed across her cheek. The taller girl was close to tears as she pulled her arm free of her grip. Angelica had no idea what she had done to deserve it, but the sheer fact that the shy bookworm of a girl had slapped her left her reeling. Tataku stood there glaring through her watery eyes at her as she rubbed her sore arm. "Maybe you should try thinking about other people's feelings before you try doing what's 'best' for them." Angelica just stared as the green haired young woman turned and ran, but it was Tataku who was the most shocked by what had just happened. She was too confused and upset to realise it at the time, but that was the first time she had ever hit another person in her life. *** Jei's nerves had calmed by the time she had found the entrance to the observation deck of the Gal's Army. It was a huge room that covered the entire top floor of the ship, huge hyper-reinforced glass panels giving the viewer the magnificent spectacle of space at every possible angle. And since there were usually only ever two crew members it was always deserted. Sylvie was better used at the scanners than this place if anything came up. The only things to obscure the view were the six gun turrets that lined the upper edges of the ship, mirroring the ones Jei knew were on the underside. "Oh, hi Jei. What's up? Does Sylvie need me back downstairs?" Jei looked over to see Yaedite sitting cross legged in the middle of the room, her hands inside her jacket sleeves, fidgeting listlessly with the cuffs. "No." "Oh." Yae's smile faded a little. "So, what can I do for you?" "I just came to be alone." "Oh, I see." Yae sighed and got to her feet. "I'll leave you to it. I could do with some sleep anyway." To her surprise Jei blocked her path as she headed for the door. "I don't need to be on my own to be alone. Since you're here too I would be happy to have some company that had a practical dress sense." Yae looked down at her crumpled clothing and gave a little smirk as Jei's sense of humour. "Oh. 'kay." The pair sat down at the center of the room, Yae leaning back to look up at the stars while Jei stared off into the distance. "How's the knee?" Yae asked, giving a glance at the awkward bulge on the scruffy woman's leg. Jei let a hand rest on the cloth covering the scaffold that held her knee together as it slowly healed. "It aches." It would be some time before she could have the metal removed. The two of them sat there in companionable silence for what seemed like an age before Jei spoke. "May I ask you a question?" "Sure, I guess," Yae said, surprised that the other woman had broken the silence first. "I want the outlaw to leave. She has done everything she can to make me hate her, she took almost everything I had but left me alive, and she calls me 'partner'. I know I cannot get rid of her without using extreme force. I don't want to do that, so I don't know what to do." In all honesty Yae didn't feel qualified to answer that. In the time that she had known her she'd come to see Jei as a very complex person, and here she was asking her for advice. It seemed surreal. "I don't know either. She just seems to do what she feels. She is what she feels. I guess I'd just sit her down and talk to her and just try and get things straight. It's not as bad as it could be. You could be dead." Jei lowered her head. "That wouldn't have been a bad thing." "Come on, you can't mean that, and she's lost just as much as you. Maybe she's just hanging on to what she knows." Yae sighed. "Sylvie's the one to ask about this kind of stuff. She may be a bit shy but she knows how people work." Jei just nodded, thankful for the input, even though she didn't believe the advice would work. "Can I ask you a question?" Yae asked. Since the conversation had been started she was in no hurry to end it. If she were honest with herself she was glad to have someone to talk to. "I'm here." "Well, why were you watching me that night?" Jei's eyebrows rose. "What?" Yae pushed ahead, knowing Jei knew what she meant. "On Banpail, in the cafe. It was you watching me, wasn't it? Why?" It took a long time for Jei to answer. "... I don't know." "Then what were you doing there?" "Walking." Yae sighed. "You're not gonna give me any more than that, are you?" "I don't know." Jei thought about that for a while. All she had really wanted was to see where she was, and somehow she had ended up there. "I was seeing an attractive woman after she had cried herself to sleep. I was exploring what might have brought her to that point." "Huh?" Yae said, feeling very confused. It sounded almost like psychobabble to her. "I didn't mean any harm. I was just curious." Yae decided to let it go. The way Jei had said it made her feel a bit uncomfortable. "Just don't tell Syl I was crying, okay?" "She knows." That brought Yae up short. "What?" "She knows you were crying. It's in her eyes. You close yourself off and it pains her." "I know." Yae stared at her hands in her lap. "I'm just making things worse aren't I? I just can't get used to seeing her and not... What about you? You're always so cold. How can you tell about this stuff?" "I'm just myself, and I see what is shown to me." "So... what? You want to give me advice, is that it?" Yae didn't know whether to be hopeful or angry if it was true. "No. I live my life, and you live yours. Do you want advice? I don't know if I can give you anything worthwhile though. I'm not very good at it." Yae decided that it wasn't beneath her to ask for help after all. She knew she was slowly destroying the only friendship she had, and the only thing that mattered to her. "Yes. I do." "She doesn't return your affections, but hasn't stopped caring for you the way she did. Get used to living with her in whatever way you can manage, or else leave. Hiding from her in plain sight only makes the wound deeper." "I can't leave," Yae said defiantly. "Never." From behind them Sylvie gave a cute sniffle. "Good. I'd miss you if you did." Yae spun around in panic as she heard her friend's voice. "Syl, err, how long... That makes it sound really bad doesn't it?" Sylvie shook her head, and behind her a very timid looking Tataku was making the same gesture. "We only just got here, and it's okay if you don't want to talk to me about it." She gave the pair a warm smile but soon got onto the other matter. "I was looking for you and I found Tataku in the mess room. I don't know why, but Angelica upset her. A lot." Behind her Tataku shook her head in denial, "It's okay, I did something really bad. She just made me a-angry and I was feeling guilty. I'm sorry about this. I'll apologise." "Tataku, I'm sure it wasn't your fault," Sylvie said gently, and Yae nodded in agreement. "Show them your arm. It's okay." Tataku looked nervously at the other for a while before slowly pulling back the sleeve of her sweater. There were two small bruises just above her wrist where Angelica had gripped her. Yae practically exploded onto her feet, her eyes wide with anger. "I can't believe it! I'll give that arrogant bitch something that fights back to deal with!" "No, please, it's okay," Tataku pleaded, "I d-don't want to cause trouble. Please?" Sylvie lay a hand on Yae's arm. "It's your shift, and we can deal with it in the morning. Come on." Yae slowly acquiesced as Sylvie led her off to the cockpit. Behind them Tataku turned to Jei. "What did you mean about Yae's 'affections'? Is that why she's always so depressed?" "Yae loves her." "Love?" Tataku's heart instantly went out to the short haired girl. She could only imagine how hard it must be to love someone you spent your life with and not have it returned the same way. Jei nodded. "I read about it sometimes." She looked out to the other ship that slowly paced the Gal's Army. "I warned her. Time to earn your pay October-san." *** The following morning Crow ducked onto the Gal's Army, leaving the Maria's Summer safely anchored to the coupling dock.