Ensign Braya - Taking What's Mine

[Braya of Clan Ralnek]

((Eagle Outpost))

Word traveled fast in the tightly-knit campsite, and news like ‘pack up, we leave in a week’ moved like lightning. The entire camp was vibrating with activity in minutes, people rushing this way and that. With so much to do, most found the days all too short for what they wanted to accomplish before they left. But for Braya, it felt far different. Every hour of every day dragged on for what felt like months. Each minute was one where Braya expected the inevitable tap upon her shoulder, and a summons to Adea’s makeshift office. 

Times spent with Eyna and Williams were helpful distractions, but her attention always drifted, even in the briefest quiet moments. It was surprising how many horrible futures a person could imagine in the spare second between sentences or in the fleeting absence that hooked together two strings of thought. Like a tether, worries kept her mind mercilessly hitched to the certainty of what was to come. 

The days passed, the camp packed in a manner that bore a hint of bittersweetness. In spite of all her anxiety, the dreaded call never came. The only hint Adea remembered her at all was the request to join the senior staff for a briefing. 

oO He wouldn’t do it now. Not in front of everyone. Something is very strange. Oo 

As the meeting progressed, Braya hadly blinked at her assignment. The cargo hauler wasn’t the first ship she’d stolen, and the Bounty wouldn’t be the last. Her fingers splayed and she began popping her knuckles, only to jerk upright at the next words out of Adea’s mouth.

Adea: ……The Bounty’s cloaking device was transferred to the Enterprise during Frontier Day. I need you to go and get it so that nobody can find us once we’re off the museum……

oOWhat…what the hell’d ‘e just say? Oo

The calculus of futures she’d considered exploded around her. Speculatives spiralled in her imagination as she zoned out of the rest of the meeting, scrutinizing what she’d just heard. Piercing eyes fell on Adyr, trying to ascertain what, if anything, she’d said to their Captain. 

oO She…musn’t ‘have told ‘im. No way he knows if one, he doesn’t call on me, and two, thinks we need ‘nother cloak Oo

Leaning back in her chair, Braya was first out the door when the meeting was dismissed. The sun was already dipping below the sandy horizon, casting pod and shelter shadows long into the dunes. Stalking fast, it was seconds after leaving the office that she rounded a corner of stretched tarp and all but collided with the scavenger from the depot. 

Braya:: ::Grabbing his coat, hauling his head down close:: It’s still in the ol’ cargo tub, right? 

With a nervous swallow, he just nodded in reply. 

Braya: ::Smiling:: Not for long. Y’see, pal. You an’ me? We’re gettin’ it back. Right now. 

Eyes on a swivel, Braya shoved him toward the cargo ship. It was then, belatedly, that she processed what Adea had finished with. 

oO …Wait a tick. ‘Adyr’s ship’?! It was me flyin’ it. My cloak. My deflector! ‘Adyr’s ship’ my damn foot. ‘Braya’s ship’ more like it. Oo 

Incensed, she grabbed a tool kit and slunk aboard the cargo vessel. . 

Scavenger: ::Whispering as they worked:: Are you sure you won’t need it? 

With a shrug, Braya freed the device from its interface couplings and stashed it in her pack. It wasn’t until some time later, when the cloak was ensconced in the microtorpedo launch tube of her Valkyrie, that Braya spoke to him again. 

Braya: ::That ain’t no fear o’ mine. A museum won’t have reason to take issue with us. We’ll be fine. 

oO Probably. Oo

END

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Ensign Braya of Clan Ralnek

HCO

USS Eagle

E240205B13