Starspeaker IC (Closed for silvertongue217)

By the stars this is painful, Vera thought to herself. Thankful that Jase wasn't looking at her as she processed his words. She could understand his views, she really could. As the Chancellor she shouldered the blame and responsible for everything that PEACe did. Everything it had ever done. She dedicated every day of her life, every ounce of her own energy and will, towards trying to end the abuse perpetrated in the name of PEACe. To try and bring the whole organisation back to it's original mission statement - Peace and harmony through unity. She knew of the atrocities he gave as an example. The last year had been dedicated to sorting through the problems of the mines and abuses of power. She was so close to a resolution too- so close to convincing PEACe's constituents to change their ways. Instead she was here, with him, chasing down an ancient relic which might not even exist.

But if it did...

What she wouldn't give for the Lexicon. For the freedom to understand and communicate with the entire galaxy. To smash the cultural barriers and ingrained cultural oppression that was now being attributed to PEACe.

There was so much she wanted to tell him. So much she wanted to justify to him. Hell, to everyone in this damn galaxy that saw her as the enemy. But she couldn't. If he knew who she truly was she wondered if he would be so open towards her. No, he wouldn't. Not yet.

Instead of caring more, instead of letting her emotions get in the way, she tugged her Chancellor armour back on. It was more than she could care about at the moment- those problems, they were another issue all together. Right here, right now, she needed to focus on him. On building their relationship and not tearing down one of her most promising resources in this quest.

Vera got to her feet and walked over to Jase. She stepped up close, pressing her body against his back and placing a soft kiss on the back of his neck. Her hand joined his caressing the spines of his book. The books he went to for comfort.

"Looks like we're both stuck on opposite sides of a war we have little control over," she murmured, shaking her head sadly. "But I know now we want the same thing Jase. An end to the evil. You and I, we're two sides of one coin... In alternate dimension we could have been partners." She let some of the genuine pain she felt seep through into her voice, but kept up the charade that she was far less invested in PEACe than she truly was. To make her words that bit more genuine.

He felt her presence against his back and sighed half moaning as she kissed the back of his neck. He was surprised surprised she had comforted him rather than pulled away. She was after all with PEACe which meant she signed up which meant she believed in the mission they said they were trying to follow. He of course knew the truth knew the bloody past PEACe was tring to sweep under the rug but he had not expected her to react for him.

"I" He said sighing and closing his eyes "we could be if you decided to run off with me" he said turning to her sighing and stroking her hair.

"Though some thing tells me i wouldn't like the answer to that" he said smiling softly "so lets table it for now i mean were partners and working together right?" He said winking at her before giving her a swift kiss and moving away to slap her ass.

Jase softened to Vera's touch, he even returned the affection. When he mentioned her running off with him she knew she had won her gamble. They may not see eye to eye yet, but there was strong potential for it in the future if she kept up her good work. The thought pleased her, perhaps more than it should have.

Vera jumped in surprise at the slap on her arse as he returned to his happy go lucky self and subverted the emotional distress their discussion has stirred.

"Partners, hey?" Vera asked, stepping into stride beside him. "That means you should probably show me your junk."

Her eyebrow waggled suggestively and she motioned to her plain clothes.

"It seems you have quite an arsenal of gadgets and weapons, where as I am not quite equipped for all eventualities. I could do with some more gadgets if you're willing to share. Normally I would supply my own, but my ship has been gutted and I have been kidnapped by a dastardly but dashing space pirate." She joked.

He laughed shaking his head and snorting before ignoring the junk comment

"step into my office" he said opening the door and leading her out. He led her down a hallways then a ladder moving more into the belly of the ship before stopping at a door. It was heavily armored the door much more so then any other on the ship and it had a bio scanner embedded into the wall.

He reached over placing his hand down on it and wincing at is took a sample" He moved his hand as it swished open and a soft blue light bathed a work area brimming with parts and different gadets.

"Pick your poison" He said coming in and waving his hands "or you can tell me what your looking for and we can work out a trade for you to pay for it" he said winking at her.

Vera looked around at the army's worth of weapons and tech Jase had amassed. There was so much that she was genuinely surprised. Ans a good deal of it was illegal. He was really throwing all of his cards on the table for her. Even if there weren't a bounty on his head this armory alone would earn anyone who turned him in to PEACe a lifetime's worth of reward.

"There is so much here," Vera said, letting her appreciation be known. "The team I am on tends not to rely on much tech. We usually stick with the basics. Good quality and advanced basics, but basics nonetheless. What would you reccomend? I felt thoroughly underequipped on Centrepoint. We made quite the odd couple. Pick stuff to make us look more like a team."

"well if were going to be a team first things first" He said reaching for some thing and pushing it into an auto injector "hope your not squeamish" he remarked before plunging it into her skin and hitting the activator.

Seconds later telemetary data filtered across her eye and then connection established flashed

"now your hooked into me and Samantha" he said ignoring the "Hey!" thats sounded in both of their ears.

"we can share views and also talk without using communications we can even do so by thought though its still buggy and a stray thought might end up in their if your not careful" Jase explained turnign back to the armory.

"Okay moment of truth" he said turning to her "I can either give you a fairly standard stuff, stuff you can legally get or i can show you some of my own home made goodies goodies that might get you in trouble but its your choice"

Vera swore when Jase injected her. She snatched her arm back nd glared at him. Then, she heard Samantha's voice in her head and feigned annoyance. It was actually great to have this access, though she would need to be careful.

"Can you hear me?" She thought, trying to project herself to Jase. She was amazed. PEACe was still trying to perfect this technology, they certainly were not at the stage of rolling it out to troops.

"Well, if I have to look your partner I need to be a space buckineer, not a PEACe enforcer. Give me whatever contraband goodies you got. I wanna see what I'm missing out on!" She said aloud as she rubbed the insertion site.

"I can hear you" Jase thought thinking to her before smiling "if you say so but i got to warn you once you go for the goodies its hard to give them up" He said rooting before pulling out a pair of functioning yet sexy high heeled boots.

"Here you go" he said tossing them to her "this will let you boost like i do and mag to the metal surfaces should be good for the space station"

"Also from what i can tell your a close quarters girl so" He said grabbing a sheath of throwing knives and tossing them to her "prick them with your blood and it will take your DNA in as long as you throw them they will seek you out"

"He pulled out a small handle next and tossed it to her as well "short sword press the button and it will extend out"

"not exactly illegal but fun to play with" He said pulling out some armor pieces "your council armors pretty good but i bet you my stuff is better to bad its bulky and hides your body" he said eyeing her up and down "ill have to work on making one for you"

Vera watched as Jase rifled through his tech, handing her stuff that was perfect for her style of fighting. She thought about her own armor- not Council branded, but council standard nevertheless. It was light and strong- not as strong as it could be, but the Enforcers needed to be able to move well. He had such a range of items here, Vera was particularly intrigued by the high heel boots. They were something that she had erased from Council Issued combat gear a long while ago.

"Is this an old pair of yours?" She joked, holding them up with a smirk. "They'd look good on you. But probably better on me." She took a seat and decided to try them on. "I don't normally fight in heels, sexy but impractical. Though I can make the sacrifice for the boost and mag."

As she'd expected they tightened on her once she had strapped them on. They were heavier than her normal footwear, but not so much that it would effect her fighting too badly.

She played with the weapons, pricking the knives right away and then extending the short sword and collapsing it a few times.

"Fun!" She said, placing them back on the table as she looked at the armour he offered. Her own armour housed her own computing unit. She could transplant it into his, but it would probably be more trouble than it's worth.

"Though I might keep my armour. Why go to the trouble of looking hot in heels only to cover the rest of me with bulky armour? Perhaps I can dazzles our enemies to death with my assets." She turned around and poked her backside at him, waggling it about playfully.

"Got grenade of any sort? Would be fun to have some distractions up our sleeves. Also might be worthwhile taking some medical gear... small stuff just in case."

"she asks if I have grenades" Jase said shaking his head and turning back before coming back with a bandolier full of them.

"color coded to make it easier" he said tossing it to her "red standard frag green smoke blue ice purple distorts gravity before slamming them down pink pops up a shield"

"and yes those used to be council standard" He said nodding at her high heeled boots "but i modded them my self" he said winking at her before turning back to his locker.

"I dont want ot load us down to much i have a feeling were going to be doing a lot of running around in the station" He said before pulling out a pair of standard medi gel injectors and handing her one "its standard but it will do the trick also my armor has trauma kits inside of it that should take care of me I can work on upgrading your armor when we get back" he said before turning to the door.

"speaking of" He murmured "Samantha how long until were ready to go?"

Avery would have loved the grenade selection. Vera ran her fingers over them, knowing they would be well equipped this time.

"We'll be dropping out of hyperspace in two hours. I'll take us into the belt. Then we're just waiting for her people to come through." Samantha said as she appeared in the room, making a point to glare at Vera when she mentioned 'her' people.

"Like I said, they are a max of sixteen hours, but probably sooner as we've had our eyes on Merian and the Blood Pack conflict for a while. I guess we settle into the belt and go in just after PEACe dock, make the most of the ruckus they cause. Should give us a bit more time to play around before getting a decent sleep."

She looked down at her clothes and frowned.

"I, for one, could sure use a shower after working up a sweat earlier." She said, thinking that it would be nicer to relax if she were clean and in fresh clothes.

"yeah i figured as much" Jase said sighing and shaking his head at Samantha "you could have been nicer" he thought before turning back to Vera.

"Well then we need to be as fast as possible and hope our good doctor hasn't found the tracker just yet" he said frowning "if she had then we might be falling into a trap and need to be prepared to take her out" He said rubbing the back of her neck before eyeing Veras clothes.

"Yeah me to now that you mention it" he said looking down "Care to shower together he asked" grinning and waggling his eyebrows dramatically

Vera looked Jase up and down.

"And risk getting your dirt all over me?" she joked, "never!"

She walked towards the door.

"It does sound appealing though. But is there room? The stall seemed pretty small last night. I'd hate to accidentaly knee you somewhere sensitive."

Vera leaned over and took the boots off, then started to unfasten her shirt, slowly revealing the upper edges of her bra cups to him.

"If you let me go first, I'll let you face the shower while I use it this time." She teased before making her way through the ship.

Vera retrieved a new set of clothing from the bags in her room before she could get to the shower. Just something comfortable to wear around the ship until they needed to suit up for their mission. Nothing overly appealing, but she chose some of the nicer underwear that Jase had picked out for her. She made sure it was on the top of the pile before heading to the shower room, not sure if Jase would have made it there first. The vibrant crimson contrasted nicely against the dull grey casual gear.

"I wouldn't mind getting kneed there if it meant you brushing up against it" he called before shaking his head

"I still think this is a mistake" Samantha grumbled in his ear

"Oh please you never liked any girl i bring home" He reminded her making his way to the shower

"You know how i feel about PEACe after what they did to your... our parents"

"I know Jase said sighing "but its not like she is the empress or any thing she's just a soldier a good one at that" he said leaning against the bulkhead and sighing.

"mmmm choosing one of the more risque items" he said watching as she sat the clothing down and licking his lips "you surey our okay with me sticking around?" He asked watching her.

"It's your ship," Vera said with a shrug, setting her clothes down on the edge of the sink nearby, "you can go wherever you please."

She unfastened her shirt fully and shrugged it off, depositing it beside her other clothes. She now wore only her bra on her top half. It was plain black, Council Issued, but it held her assets well. She turned, stepping back towards Jase and motioning for him to help with the fastening on the back. She could have done it herself, but where would the fun be in that?

Next, she unbuckled her cargo pants, and slid them down her legs, bending as she went. Still bent over, she removed her panties. She tossed them with the rest of her clothes before straightening up and stepping into the shower cubicle. Jase would have gotten an eyeful of her naked body from behind before she slid the shower curtain shut behind her, one arm covering her breasts to keep a little of the suspence going.

"my ship but your body" he reminded her coming up behind her and leaning in to bite and kiss on her shoulder blades "And i would hate to make you uncomfortable i would be a poor host" he told her snapping the bra strap easily and letting it fall back. He watched getting an eyeful of her ass before the shower door slid shut and she was obscured.

"one thing im confused on" he said watching her not bothering to hide his appreciative looks "your part of the council forces right? Dont you have to report in or risk going AWOL or some shit? I mean unless you think there not going to care once you get the lexicon....." He said trailing off as he tried not to focus to much on that.

Because then they would have to decide what to do about the other

Jase turned out to be quite the gentleman. She had thoroughly enjoyed the bite and kiss, pleased not only because it felt good, but because all the little things would make it easier for her to seduce him.

Then, he asked his question. She was wondering when that would come up. She switched the water on before answering, groaning in contentment as the warm stream cascaded over her.

"At this stage they would have put me on alert on their systems," she explained. She knew the intricate details of what would happen internally, but she decided not to tell him too much. It wasn't really important and she should reduce what she shared. But there were some easy-to-obtain procedures she could explain in their place.

"Normally they would send a recovery mission out for me, but because I sent in that distress signal they will do that instead." She ran her hands up and down her body, enjoying the feel of getting clean.

"After discovering that the Blood Pack was there, and not finding my body, they will assume I've been captured.... They will probably hope that I can get myself out of strife before following up with anything drastic. My training covered such situations anyway..."

She trailed off, not bothering to explain what capture could mean for her as far as PEACe was concerned. It wasn't a nice policy, but at times necessary.

"hmmm" he said shaking his head and shrugging "well hopefully they dont start trying to chase you down as well" he said even though a part of him secretly hoped they would.

The thought of them being fugitive togethers WAS appealing

He watched her shower for a few more seconds "still i dont want to stick around the station for to long if at all possible this is going to be damn near a suicide mission as is" he said grimacing a little "it was the right call not trying to save merian but man is it going to bite us in the ass if we run afoul of her"

"It shouldn't descend into them chasing you," Vera reassured him, "I don't want that. If worse comes to worse I can go back and check in, then with the information I have gathered I should be able to be reassigned to follow up. They may give me a team to work with... I'd have to do deal with that somehow, but it is a better option than them hunting you down."

Vera took to washing her more intimate areas, hissing at the contact and how sensitive she was from all of their earlier activities. It had been a while since she'd taken a lover to bed, and now that she had time away from the restrictions and stresses of her regular life she realised just how much she missed it.

"I'm hoping for a quick in and out at the station. Probably will be more complicated than that, but one can dream, yes?" Vera turned the stream from water to air and let herself be dried.

"How about you, cowboy?" She asked, "Aren't you going to have to give a progress report to those pesky rebels?"

He laughed shaking his head and snorting "I doubt it will be that simple sweetheart but one would hope"

At the mention of the rebels he again shook his head

"I dont report to them and they know that" He said shrugging "If they dont hear from me for a month they will probably try and hunt me down the rebels arent the most organized and honestly i think they think this is a crap shot of a plan which is why they sent me after it instead of one of their teams" He remarked lightly and turned so she could get out.

"Ah," sighed Vera as she stepped out, noticing he had turned to afford her some privacy. "Well, if it is any consolation you are currently top on my list of people who should be on this mission."

She reached over and retrieved the lovely crimson underwear, both bra and panties sporting a bit of lace and a bit of cotton- a good balance of sexy and functional. She put them on and then cleared her throat.

"How does this look?" She asked, "I trust it is satisfactory and meets your standards?" She did a little spin around to give him a full view before pulling on her comfy greys. She shook her wet hair our before pulling it over her shoulders and combing her fingers through it.

It was good to hear that he wasn't overly tied to the rebels. It made sense too, with the bounty and all. They wouldn't necessarily turn him over right away, but they certainly wouldn't be afraid to turn him into a bargaining chip.

He turned eyeing her up and down before biting his lip

"I think they would look best being slowly slid off your ass as I bite and kiss it" he said laughing and going over to the shower stall

"You look ravishing" he said leaning in to nip at her neck before pulling hois boxers down exposing his ass. He moved in and shut the door behind him activating the shower as he ducked his head over the water.

Vera made sure she moaned appreciatively at his attention before he disappeared into the shower.

"That certainly does sound appealing," She said, calling out over the stream of water. She leaned back against the sink and looked at the pile of his clothes on the floor. She didn't notice anything clean for him to get changed into. She smirked, wondering what he would do about that,

"Do you think your ship could outrun one of Merians? Or the Blood Pack?" She asked.

The falcons were an older craft, and as standard Merian and the Blood Pack both had newer and faster craft. She highly doubted Jase's baby was standard though. She wished she had brought the wrist computer from her armour with her. Her mind flitted bac to the serial number branded on Jase's chest and she was curious. She wasn't alarmed- a lot of the people dragged to Kolift were there for political reasons rather than criminal. Highly evolved or intelligent people that refused to come to heel at PEACe's request.

"By the way," Vera said, as though she had a sudden idea. "I just realised that I have no idea how old you are. You could be as old as my grandfather, though your arse hides the wrinkles well." she exaggerated with a laugh. She knew he wasn't nearly that old. She estimated him to be around her age.

"Oh I'm not worried about their ships" base said beginning the act of washing up and turning to regard her as he did " those babies don't have any thing on gypsy danger I got enough mods on this thing to out race any one of their standard ships"

He finished watching his upper half and turned to his lower half "as for my age I'm 26 I was ten when I escaped Korlift" he said watching her

"How about you I'm guessing your either a tear younger or older than me" he remarked eyeing her up and down "or you one of those a woman never reveals her age kind of girls?"

Vera laughed, she had figured as much about his ships. She watched him, his figure obscures, as he washed himself. It was intimate, especially considering they had just met, but everything they had done thus far had been unusual in the grand scheme of her life. She didn't mind though, she imagined his hands running over his own body and shuddered in delight.

"If I told you my age, I'd have to kill you," she said in a very serious voice before laughing at her own terrible joke. "I find your assessment of my age very complimentary though. I am thirty."

She considered the fact that he was ten when he escaped the camp. That means he was seven when he went in. She let out a long range of expletive thoughts in her own mind. That wasn't possible. She had spent over a year poring over the kolift records. There was no one that young there. Yet, he had the brand. There was only ever one of those brands made and it had been destroyed along with the camp. She felt anger rising in her throat and itched to get back to a PEACe vessel to do some research. She'd had some suspicions before, but never anything this concrete...