All Work and No Play

[Sebastian Gates]

<sup>October. It was always a boring month. Jobs were few and far between, and Steamhardt was packed to the brim with passengers, cargo, and crew openings. Bastian was hoping that he would at least find pilot soon. It wasn’t like he couldn’t fly with ship himself, but he didn’t like being stuck up in the bridge so often. A captain should be in his ship, keeping order and doing whatever he wanted, not stuck at the helm setting courses and taking waves. As it stood now, Steamhardt was flying out to the rim to drop some meds off on Athens. The job didn’t pay well, but at least he didn’t have a huge to crew to pay at the moment. This honest work was going to kill him after all.

“285,” Bastian said to no one, counting his chin ups out loud. There was a radio playing some unfamiliar style of music softly in the background, but it might as well have been silent in the cargo bay as the captain exercised alone. Most everyone on the ship would be asleep at this time, but Bastian slept very little these days. He tried to busy himself with workouts, cooking, plotting routes, or even reading to help keep his mind off of his drooping eyes and increasingly bad mood. If things worked out well, they would be on Athens within a few days and he would finally have his chance to rest, even if it would only be for a few hours. Athens wasn’t exactly a popular tourist’s getaway, but the passengers would make do. Fresh air was fresh air.

Reaching 300, Bastian dropped to hit feet and decided to give it a break. Normally he would push himself to 500 reps, but tonight felt like a lazy night. Scooping his towel off a nearby crate, he wiped the sweat from his brow and hoisted himself up to sit on the crate that was full of medications. He suspected it wasn’t all what he was told, but he wasn’t about to go asking any questions. If a job paid, he couldn’t be too picky. Wrapping the towel around the back of his neck, he picked up the nearby water bottle and took a drink, letting out a satisfied sigh as it quenched his thirst.

Steamhardt was a decent sized ship, and Bastian was pleased as he gave the cargo bay a good look around. When he was younger, the thought of owning a ship like this was just some farfetched dream he got teased for from the other hoodlum children in Persephone. “I’m going to be a pilot just like my daddy!” he would exclaim, puffing out his chest and trying to look indifferent. That would only earn him more teasing and laughter. Bastian never knew his dad, and he couldn’t remember much about his mother. This ship was his only home now, and he liked the sound of that just fine. It wasn’t like he was living in some shack in the slums. He was living in… a… well a ship that could use a little more love than it had seen in the past few years.

The ship itself was a fine machine. He had bought it for a bargain, but he soon found out why. It was infested with pests, didn’t run at all, and had more than a couple of holes that would have been considered fatal. It took a lot of work, and a bit of trust in Miss Star, but now she was sailing the skies like she was born to do. Bastian leaned back, propping himself up on his hands as he threw his head back and stared up at the mule that got kept suspended just below the ceiling. It was a raggedy thing that spat and sputtered for a good half hour until it fully warmed up, but it was a good machine.

He closed his eyes, allowing his body to cool down. As his breath slowed and became less labored, he felt himself dosing off a bit. Steamhardt was on autopilot for the moment, and now so was it’s captain.</sup>

[Adalira Lynx]

Adalira was not at all asleep in the shuttle that she used for entertaining clients should she need too or well meditating. At the moment that was what she was doing. She was not enjoying the increasingly bad moods that the captain seemed to be in. Nor did she enjoy the fact that he waved her off more often then not when she was trying to comfort him. Still she would endure like she was trained to do. She was a companion but she was well versed in her weapons and the fact that she could tolerate a lot more pain then some of the more dainty girls back at the academy. She had taken her cues mostly from Inara when she was there. She looked up to the older woman a bit. Still Adalira was hard headed and stubborn and a good match for the steamhardt captain really. Match in the sense the they were fine with having entertained each other every so often and then others. She expected nothing less. They were both in for business so to speak.

She finished her meditation having had some music playing in the background she got up and turned it off before picking up her things off the floor and folding them up neatly. She snuffed out her scented candles and watched the dragon she had put her incense in finish its last puff so to speak. She stood up and walked over to her mirror and started to brush her hair. It took only a matter of minutes before she was done. Dressed in a light lavender spaghetti strapped dress, her hair half pulled back the rest falling down her shoulder, she walked out of her shuttle. She walked towards to cargo pay and watched as Bastian took a sip of his water. It would seem that he's been exercising again. Hopefully it put him in a slightly better mood. She moved gracefully along the cat walk and then down the stars towards the pile of medication boxes that he was sitting on.

"How are you doing Bastian?" He voice was calm and soothing. Many said that she could sooth even the darkest creatures in the verse. She never wanted to try that. Reavers were not her thing.

[Sebastian Gates]

<sup>Bastian was just about to fall asleep before he heard something, or rather someone speaking to him. He wasn’t sure if he was imagining it or not and had decided it was his imagination until his elbow kinked and he nearly fell. Jolting up, fully awake once again, he blinked his eyes and looks down at the interloper on his quiet time. “Ah, Adalira,” he said quietly, a hint of sleep in his voice. Taking the water bottle, he splashed his face a bit and then wiped it off with the end of the towel. Mostly, he was trying to wake himself up a bit more, as the mini nap he just took made him groggy, but he was trying to play it off as just wiping the sweat from his face.

“I’m glad to see you, actually,” he lied, setting the bottle back down to his left and training his eyes on hers. “I want to apologize for the number of rim planets we’ve been visiting lately. We are headed to Athens now, and I know someone of your… ahem… stature might find it difficult to find work there. We will be there for two days from the moment we dock, in case you have any… clients there.” Bastian was never very good at talking about her job. He did his best not to make a big deal of it, but he was unfamiliar with the inner workings of being a companion. Adalira hadn’t been on the ship for too long yet, and she was the first companion that he had ever met.</sup>

[Adalira Lynx]

Adalira hadn't really been having a problem with her time off. After all she could pick up clients where ever they went. She could sing and entertaining. Plus she was also one of those companions that didn't mind getting a little dirty or helping out some of the doxy houses and such every once in awhile. However it wasn't largely known that she partook in anything too illegal. After all she was a respected citizen and that sometimes worked out well for the Steamhardt. It seemed however that Bastian was a little more tired then he wanted to let on and she was not going to provoke any angry outburst from him. After all that was the last thing she wanted. She fawned over him most of the time too. But she'd not do too much of that until he had proper rest. She never said a bad thing about him even when she wanted too.

She knew he was lying about seeing her. It was the tone in his voice. She let it go however and took it as he was glad to see her. "Thank you very much for letting me know. If you need anyone to help you fly Bastian. you know I can help." He never did like asking for help and in the little time that she had know him it had been one of the first things she had noticed. Her job was a mood point for them. It wasn't spoken of much and it seemed to make Bastian uncomfortable when they spoke of it so it wasn't spoken of much. "Would you like something to ea?. It might help with energy levels." She gave him a soft smile her voice never raising but it wasn't monotone either. It was almost like a melody soft and sweet.

[Sebastian Gates]

<sup>Although her offer was tempting at the moment, he wasn’t too keen on having her in his bridge. As it stood right now, she was just a business partner. Granted, they sometimes had more than the standard business partner relationship, he was still new to this whole thing and less trusting than he could be. “Thank you for the offer, but I’ll catch up on my rest when we hit Athens. This cargo makes us a target, and I won’t be able to rest until I’ve delivered it safely,” he said, speaking the truth. If he had gotten a chance to lie in his bed, he would only be able to stare at the ceiling wondering if they were still on course or some cruiser was just around the bend.

“Actually, I just ate a little while ago,” he confessed. She was a fine cook, and he had half a mind to just eat again, but he thought better of it. There was a scarce supply of food as it were, and he didn’t need to be eating it all himself. For a few minutes, he sat silent, wondering what to say next. Finally, his curiosity got the better of him. “Adalira,” he began, almost hesitantly. “]What is it exactly that a companion does?”

Bastian felt silly asking the question, but to be honest, he never really knew much about the profession. What he had heard was mostly degrading slander, but he knew better than to take it to heart. The companions always seemed to be wealthy, well mannered, almost wholesome individuals. They were almost like fairytales. He knew the very basics of their job. Entertaining. He just wasn’t well versed in the extend of their training or the habits they kept. He had it in their mind that they just danced and had sex. The more time he spent with Adalira though, the more he suspected that he had only scratched the surface.</sup>

[Adalira Lynx]

Adalira just nodded when he said that he'd get rest when they got the cargo delivered. It was probably best. He didn't rightly allow her on his bridge only with out his excort really and that was well, rare. Okay so it hardly ever happened but she was okay with that. They had a business partner ship and though it was not standard things were new to the both of them though Lira trusted him a little more than he trusted her and that was alright. He had his reasons and she had hers for the trust and lack of trust they held in eachother. However it would be nice if he could actually confide in her just a little more. She's never reveil his secrets and she wished he'd realize that. She smiled at him and looked at the cargo. She was used to this by now but she really didn't like to see he captain all tense about things. Alas this was how one got work sometimes.

She gave a nod to him eating a little bit ago as well. "Alright." There was a limited supply of food in the galley she knew that but she had some of her own that she wouldn't mind putting into the supply on the galley anyways. She's probably do that when they were done with their little chat. After all she had the money a little more than they did at the time. She always had a nice cushion of it should she need to use it to help them which she was obviously more than willing to do so. Things were getting just a bit akward and she wasn't exactly liking it then her spoke her name not in his usual tone and then hesitantly asked her the question about her job. She was taken a bit by surprise but only for a moment before a smile came across her face. Maybe if she let him in more then he would let her in.

"Well a companion's job varies depending on what their client wants. Most if not all of use were trained with the Guild's backing. We keep to the Guild's code of honor. Though I do have the tendency to step out of that role and help the doxy houses from time to time. A companion is an excort, a partner should their client want them to be. And a sex partner. We can teach the unexperienced or spice up the life of those that are experienced. But not all of our work deals with sex." That was pretty much all she could say. A companion was just that. Someone to have next to you when you needed someone the most to comfort and sooth should that be their duty. For her it was for her song and her ability to calm the nerves of those around her. She was wondering if he had even more specific questions. Like precisely what she liked doing most.

[Sebastian Gates]

<sup>“Spice up the life?” he repeated with a bit of laugh. He could only imagine what that meant. All his years of travelling taught him a thing or two about the secrets of man. He had actually run across a guy in the back room of a bar wearing a woman’s tight fitting dress while a whore sucked his toes. Although he had tried a million times, Bastian never could shake that image. As if trying now, he shook his head like the memory would just plop out on the ground and be done with. “I’m betting slumming around on a ship like this isn’t exactly the Guild’s idea of good behavior,” he said absentmindedly. Steamhardt was a great ship with a great crew, but it wasn’t exactly flying the straight and narrow. Bastian wasn’t exactly the best of company either most days.

Sliding off the crate, he grabbed his water bottle and holster before turning back to Adalira. “Would it be in your job description to keep a captain company while he navigates the skies?” Normally, he wouldn’t outright invite her up to the bridge with him, but he hadn’t realized just how out of it he was until she woke him up. She might make the difference between them crashing into an asteroid or making it to Athens in one piece.

Without particularly waiting for a reply, he headed to the bridge, eager to get back into the pilot’s seat and get this cargo delivered. It was an easy enough task, sure, but it was lonely up there with just him and the stars sometimes. Most of the time, it served as a chance for him to escape and think about everything that had happened so far and where he was headed now. Tonight though, he couldn’t seem to get him mind off of the upcoming heist on Persephone. It was his first big illegal splash since he christened Steamhardt. Until now, he had only done a few minor things to put food on the table. There was something about this job that left him feeling downright uneasy, and it wasn’t the fact that it was illegal. Maybe it was that they needed two crews or that the details were missing a few key things; what they are actually stealing for example.

Bastian heaved a sigh and sunk into the pilot’s seat, tossing the water bottle beside the chair. Only one more day.</sup>