Treasure Hunt

[Dr. Andromeda Reyes]

Andromeda just stood there for a full minute, gaping at the wall opposite her, unable to even comprehend that Josetta had just brushed her aside like an annoying bug beneath her shoe. At the ship-wide comm. announcement, the doctor finally roused herself. Golden eyes narrowed, she let out a soft growl before stalking onto the bridge, clenched fists held at her side.

"Captain Hart!" she called. Josetta wouldn't even look at her, showing some sort of data chip to a stunned-looking Morgan.

"Not now, Andi," the redhead called.

"Captain!"

"Busy!"

"Josetta!" Andromeda finally shrieked, her temper completely frazzled. As evidenced by the fact that she actually used the Captain's first name out loud, in public. Something she never, ever did. It quickly garnered everyone else's undivided attention, staring at the flushed and furious doctor with wide and uncertain eyes.

The Captain of the Plunder barely twitched, still oblivious. "Can't talk right now," she pronounced flippantly. "About to become the greatest pirate in history."

Andromeda was surprised that smoke hadn't started rolling out of her ears, by this point. "Well fine," she hissed. "You do that. I'll just go try and put my sister back together again. Over-using one's power doing something stupid and completely encouraged by the person who's supposed to be an authority figure to her and collapsing into unconsciousness tends to take it right out of you. But I'm sure she'll be fine!" Andromeda snarled to no one as she spun on her heel and began stalking off the bridge, her whole body literally vibrating with rage. "So what's a few hundred burst blood capillaries and prolonged optic nerve hemmoraging, after all! I doubt she'll care much after she goes permanantly blind from the retinal scarring! Then she can wear an eye patch just like her 'mother!' She'll be a great pirate then!"

The door to the bridge finally closed on her shrill shrieking, though the muffled sounds from behind it hinted to the fact that Doctor Reyes probably didn't stop ranting all the way back to the med-bay.

[Admiral Hart]

Jo whistled to herself and slid the memory stick into the main computer. "Devote all available cycles to decrypting this."

"Jo." Morgan began. "You should talk to Dr. Reyes."

"I'm sure she'll be fine eventually." Captain Hart said, waving it away. "She just needs some time to cool off."

"Do you even know why she was upset?" Her first mate said, growling between his teeth.

"I'm guessing she found out about Cassi helping and thought it was my fault somehow. But that's rampant speculation." Hart answered, typing away rapidly at the computer in front of her.

"She overdid it. She passed out again." Morgan replied. Jo turned a concerned look to him.

"Is she alright?"

"Well, yes, but..."

"Oh. Okay." Hart said, going back to the terminal. "I was worried for a moment."

"Damnit Jo!" Morgan snarled. "Stop thinking about fame! She got hurt helping your little quest!"

"And I'm thankful she helped. And she's okay now. Why aren't you this upset about Dane? He got shot. And battered." Hart replied calmly.

Morgan paused at that before saying, "She's your daughter, damn it."

"And she's fine. And her mother's going to be the most famous pirate in the history of piracy." Hart continued without pausing. "No one made her use her gift. She was probably going to use it anyway and get herself passed out anyway. But she's not going to get any better without practice, and she's not going to stop."

"You could order her not to."

"Yeah. That'll work. I remember my mom ordering me at that age. 'Don't see that Anton boy, there's something not right with him'." She said, making her voice deeper when impersonating her mother.

Morgan started to say something else but sighed, defeated.

"Glad you see it my way."

[Clara Hart]

"Clara....Clara..."

Clara eyes opened and she found herself on a vast plane of grey, cracked earth that looked into a grey, cracked sky.

"What are you, little Clara?"

The voice came from everywhere, and nowhere. It sounded like a child's voice. Most likely female.

"Where are you?" She snarled to the emptiness. "Show yourself!"

"What will you be, little Clara?" The voice chimed again.

"Who are you?! Stop playing games with me!" She roared, white fire glowing around her.

"Poor little Clara. Ignorant of your destiny. An accident in a lab, accidental inheritor of a great mantle. A great potential." The voice giggled. "One you have nowhere near filled."

"I am a titan. A god!" She screamed. "You will answer me!"

"No." The voice was more serious now. "You are not a god. Not yet. Anton LeValle was a fool, setting this in motion. But it is in motion and thus you have been chosen to bear the mantle."

The tiger-girl's fire died down. "What are you saying?"

"I'm sorry, little Clara, but it is time to wake up."

----

Clara woke with a start, breathing heavily, sweat dripping down her face. She then looked down at her claw. The dream made sense. But it made no sense at all.

You are not a god.

Her hand glowed with white fire.

Not yet.

A few moments later, she was curled up next to Tina. The girl woke with a start.

"Clara...what are you...."

Her panic subsided, and the tiger girl cuddled up to the unusually thin girl. Then, the two of them dozed off together.

Not yet.

[Dr. Andromeda Reyes]

Andromeda did what she always did when her emotions were in turmoil. She shoved them onto the back-burner and focused entirely on her work instead.

She stood in the hall of rooms for the coma patients, at present, in front of the bed of one Christian Monroe. His vitals were strong, aside from current brain activity, stronger than the others. She suspected it was because he was in such peak physical condition. The boy, approximately eighteen years of age, was powerhouse of well-toned muscle beneath his lightly furred skin. This made apparent at the moment by the fact that he was dressed in a pair of drawstring bottoms and nothing else from where he lay innert on the bed. He was one of the most obvious Magi--his thick hair looking just like the mane ruff of an adult male lion, his ears were faintly pointed, his skin covered in a thin layer of dark gold fur, his finger and toe-nails resembling blackish brown claws that were slightly retractable. Not to mention his elongated incisors on the top and bottom jaw, and his golden yellow eyes--which looked more like the eyes of a great cat than a human.

The other kids had cautioned her about this one, however. Said he was different. "When they brought him onto the ship, they had him strapped down in aerantium and starmetal chains," Gloria had pronounced, eyes wide. "The scientists said something about him being a test-tube baby, a failed experiment. Some kind of super soldier or something. If I were you, doc, I'd just leave that one a vegetable."

Of course she wasn't going to do any such thing. He was no more responsible for his circumstances than the others were. And with his enhanced metabolism and stamina, Christian would be the ideal first trial for the drug she had been trying to perfect to help bring the children out of their comas. She had taken Gloria's warning to heart, however. Christian's arms and legs were firmly strapped to the bed, hopefully to prevent any undue unpleasantness if this worked.

To that end, Andromeda neared him and rubbed the fleshy junction between his neck and shoulder with alcohol, and then quickly injected the greenish substance in the needle she carried. The doctor set the syringe aside, and then watched his vitals carefully. At first, nothing happened, and she felt herself slump a little. But then she tensed, hope flaring, when his brainwave activity suddenly launched into the stratosphere.

Even then, she still jerked when his eyes suddenly flew wide open, and then centered on her. She gave a small laugh.

"It worked! I can't believe . . . oh, forgive me. Good morning Christian. You've been in a coma--,"

Andromeda got no farther than that.

With an inhuman snarl, Christian suddenly heaved up off the bed. The doctor gasped as the restraints snapped away from him as if they were made of tissue paper. Before she could even properly process it all, he was on his feet, had her grabbed up by the neck and then slammed up against the opposite wall. Andromeda choked, clutching at his furred hand, her feet kicking somewhat ineffectually--as they were now a good three feet off the ground.

Christian's gaze darted around the room, long hair floating down well to his narrow waist. His expression was torn between fury and fear, like a wild animal trapped in unfamiliar surroundings, and blindly lashing out at anything that came near him on complete survival-mode auto-pilot.

"Please," Andromeda wheezed through his hold. "I wasn't . . . trying to . . . hurt you . . . ."

The cat-like teen hissed at her, his lips pulled back in a snarl to reveal his deadly-sharp fangs. "You humans are all the same!" he growled, his voice deep and rumbling. Andromeda cried out as his fist tightened, the claws of his hand piercing into the skin of her neck like little razor blades. "All you ever do is hurt me! You don't know how to do anything different!"

"Andi!"

Both of them turned to see Cassi standing in the doorway. Christian let out a bellowing roar--which sounded so eerily similar to the sound a real lion would make it brought goosebumps to her flesh--causing her sister to stumble back and nearly fall down in shock.

Andromeda clawed somewhat desparately at the fist holding her in the air, her lungs screaming from lack of oxygen. The edges of her vision were starting to blacken with it.

And then Clara was suddenly in the doorway, looking completely calm and unproturbed. "Alright, that's enough. Release the doctor and calm down, or I'm gonna have to beat the stupid right out of you."

Christian roared again, and then Andromeda was flying through the air. She struck his bed, hard, and then fell to the floor in a heap. And didn't have the strength or the presence of mind to get up right away.

Meanwhile Christian stalked toward Clara, his clawed hands held out at the ready. "You can try."

[Clara Hart]

The bestial boy roared and leapt at Clara then, stronger and faster and more agile than any human could hope to be. Clara met his pounce with a thrust kick to the solarplexus that knocked him back into a wall with an intense thump and the wind solidly out of him.

Christian gasped, wide eyed, and tried to stand. However, Clara's foot pressed against his chest and shoved him both back down and against the wall.

"Stay down." She ordered. "That doctor you just assaulted? Without her you would be dead right now. Without my human mother, you would be in transit to Titan where you would have been ground up and fed to me." The small but powerful girl said calmly. She felt his anger start to recede, replaced by fear and uncertainty.

"You are safe here. As long as you do not harm any of the crew of this ship." She continued, taking her foot off his chest and walking over to Andromeda. "Are you alright, Dr. Reyes?"

"A little battered, but nothing permanent." She said as she dusted herself off and Cassi helped her up.

Clara turned back to Christian. "My name is Clara. While you are on this ship, I am in charge of you. If you raise another fuss, I will come back to take care of it." Bright, white fire glowed around her hands as a strong wind gusted through the room. "And next time, I burn the stupid out of you. Understood?"

He nodded.

"Good. Now, let Dr. Reyes check you out and see that everything's in working order and macke sure I didn't break a rib just now." Clara replied. "Then we'll sort out your room and get you a meal."

[Cassiopeia Reyes-Hart]

It was a true credit to her sister's infinite good-will that the doctor held no hard feelings toward the powerful teen for having assaulted her a moment ago. Ignoring the livid bruise and bloody cuts ringing her throat, Andromeda gave a now highly-uncomfortable-but-well-behaved Christian a thorough examination.

Cassi stood near-by with Clara, holding Roger and fidgeting.

"Will he be okay?" she questioned, uncertain. Clara just nodded.

"He has been abused and mistreated by the humans," the redhead murmured, "while they tried to mold him into something of their base desires. An imperfect being." She turned to glance at the elf-girl then with an assured smile, reaching over to pat her friend on the arm. "But we'll set him right, Cassi."

Andromeda carefully felt down his ribs, her fingers sifting a little into the gold fur that covered him. Christian never flinched. She sighed after a moment, straightening. "You've got a few cracked ribs, I think, but nothing a few weeks of rest won't be able to heal." She patted him on the shoulder, something the powerful teen instantly looked uncomfortable with. He made to jerk away, hissing, then glanced at Clara and thought better of the rude reaction. Instead he stiffened up and glared somewhat ineffectually at the wall in front of him.

Cassi almost got teary eyed. The poor thing probably didn't even know what affection was. She vowed then and there to befriend the lion-like teen. One way or another.

Moments later Christian had been dressed in a spare pair of slightly baggy blue jeans and a black muscle shirt, and the two much smaller girls were leading him through the halls of the Plunder on either side of him. Christian was so tense with nervous agitation he was almost vibrating with it, staring around at all the crew members distrustfully, a faint rumbling escaping his chest every now and then. Especially as they were all eying the powerful, lion-like teen in little hidden nervousness and curiosity. Cassi sighed. She supposed it was like some sort of instinctual reaction.

Act like prey, and the predator was going to treat you like it.

Cassiopeia did her best to distract him with a steady stream of cheery chatter, hoping to take his mind off of his worries. Clara just walked along silently, giving a subtle glance in Christian's direction if he tensed a little too much or looked on the verge of doing something irrational again. And amazingly Christian responded to it immediately. Aside from the fact that Clara had totally owned him in the med-bay, there seemed to be something more to the way he was deferring to her now. Cassi's mental image of a pack mentality only grew stronger, harder to ignore.

The girls led Christian into the mess-hall, and sat him down at one of the tables. "Okay then, what do you want to eat?" Cassi questioned kindly.

He swallowed a little, obviously struggling to sound civil. He probably didn't have a whole lot of practice talking to someone and being sociable either she realized, with another pang of sympathy. "Meat," he finally pronounced, his deep voice rumbley. "A lot of it."

For some reason, that made Clara grin.

[Admiral Hart]

Jo sighed to herself in her bunk. They had twenty hours before decryption stopped. She could go talk to Andi. She knew this. It would not have been hard. She had not really left med-bay for weeks.

She really wished Andi understood all this pirate stuff. Despite being on the crew for over two years, the medic was still no pirate. She did not understand pirates or think like pirates. Explaining why this was so important might as well have be talking to a wall.

And, yet, almost against her will, Jo found herself putting on her jacket and walking to med-bay.

"Andi, we should talk, I'm sorry about brushing you oh god what happened to your throat?" Jo asked, rushing to the half-latina woman.

"One of the Orphans was a bit hostile. Clara talked him down, though. No serious damage." Andromeda replied stubbornly.

"....if Clara talked to him, he's probably been set straight. He break any bones from this discussion?" Jo asked, smirking a bit. Andi shook her head, not amused.

"He cracked some ribs but nothing major. Now if you'll excuse me, Captain." Andi went back to her work.

"I'm sorry I wasn't more interested when you told me about Cassi." Jo said.

"That's fine, Captain. I forgive you." Andi replied, clearly not meaning it.

"It was pretty sexy when you called me by my first name. Next time you yell that we should be in friendlier circumstances." Josetta began. "I mean, really moaning it out loud."

[Dr. Andromeda Reyes]

Like a train-wreck, the image of herself in such a position as to be moaning Josetta's name out loud flitted through her mind's eye. Though her experience and imagination was admittedly limited, the mental picture was still hot as hell.

And unflappable Andromeda Reyes promptly dropped the box of supplies she had in her hands, the contents scattering across the floor in a loud clatter. She gasped, then, her face turning an uncomfortable shade of burgandy underneath her dark copper skin.

"Captain," she hissed, diving down onto her hands and knees to recover her supplies. "I can't even begin to tell you how highly inoppropriate that was."

Josetta's mouth twisted up into a knowing smirk, and--like any good Pirate Captain--pressed the advantage while she had it.

"And I can't even begin to tell you how many sorts of dirty things I can think of to do to you to get you to stop calling me Captain all the time." Her red eyebrow quirked high, expression determined and without an ounce of remorse. "And you crouched down there on your knees isn't helping me contain myself much, either."

Andromeda shot back to her feet, whirling on the Captain with a scowl. "Just stop it!" she snapped. "Do you think this is funny? This isn't a joke!"

And then Andromeda gasped, as she was suddenly being crowded back by the taller redhead, her blue eye deadly serious. "No," Josetta agreed, tone rough, "it's not funny in the slightest."

Andromeda felt herself starting to tremble; from fear, dread or raw, bald wanting. Maybe all three. "You can't," she whispered somewhat tremulously. Josetta let out a soft, bark of laughter at that.

"Of course I can, Andi. I'm a pirate. Something you fail to understand completely even after being on my ship for over two years now. We do whatever we want to, whenever we feel like doing it. We pillage and plunder, baby," she growled low, her mouth only a hairsbreadth away from the trembling doctor's own. "And I am very, very good at plundering . . . ." Josetta tilted her head and continued to close what little distance was between them, and Andromeda realized somewhat belatedly that she wasn't going to stop her this time.

Even knowing what heartache was waiting for her on the other end of this road.

Yet a bright white-blue flash of light caused both of the women to start, and then jerk apart. Andromeda blinked somewhat stupidly at little Toby standing on the threshold of the med-bay, while Josetta cleared her throat and took a few steps back, quickly regaining her composure. The tiny Magi boy wrung his hands a little, expression contrite while the electricity continued to arc and ripple across his skin.

"It's alright, Toby," she called, reading his expression. "Ah . . . the Captain was just leaving."

"Yeah," Josetta agreed, straightening her red jacket with a slight tug. Amazingly, the redhead looked almost as flustered by that almost-kiss as Andromeda felt herself. "Loot and plundering to see to and all," Jo continued. "I'll just . . . I'll be on the bridge. If you need anything. Right then."

And then the most feared pirate captain in the Eight Planets beat a hasty retreat.

[Admiral Hart]

Jo slammed her door and threw her coat at her chair hard enough to knock it over. She growled, stocked over to the chair, set it up straight, and collapsed into it, putting her head in her hands and desperately trying to quiet the throng of want in her heart, her nether regions, everywhere in her body. Every part of her wanted Andromeda Reyes.

Her self pity was interrupted, though, when a smiling cartoon skull popped up on her com screen.

"Decryption complete!" It cheered.

"Already? Wow. Good luck for once." Joanna brought up the directions, read through them, and then stared in horror for a second before bringing up a star chart and confirming her suspcions.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me." She murmurred.

"Attention crew." She said over her comm, probably waking them all up. "We've reached a slight snag on the pirate treasure. Now, it's still there in all liklihood. And, as far as I can tell, heavily trapped. This is not the bad news. The bad news is, it's going to be tough to get. Because it's in Ganymede.

"For those of you who have only heard the rumors, the terraforming process on Ganymede went horribly wrong. The air is poisonous. The remaining liquid is acidic. Much of the imported plantlife was horrible mutated by this, and, by some accounts, semi-mobile and occasionally vampiric or carnivorous. Oh, and it's haunted by most accounts as well.

"So get ready for poison, acid, evil plants, ghosts, pirate traps, and probably even worse things we don't know about, because we're headed straight to the lost colony."

[Beau Altair]

Beau slowly lowered the spork he had nearly raised to his mouth, eyes wide and mouth gaping.

"Ganymede!" Gloria burst out beside him, gaping. The curvy latina turned to Clara and Cassi, who--along with all the other teens currently sitting at the mess-hall table--both shared the same stunned look. "I'm beginning to think your mom is totally fuckin' nuts."

Cassi colored uncomfortably, looking as though she dearly wanted to defend her adopted mother but not quite having the backbone yet to do so. Clara just frowned a little, suddenly looking lost in thought.

"Well then, hope you have fun with that, dude," Rascal suddenly called, causing Stefan to snicker at his side. The pointy-eared teen had a sneering smirk on his face that immediately got under his skin. He didn't want to say anything out loud, but it seemed like most of these Magi kids got more snotty and full of themselves with every passing day.

Not to mention that Christian Monroe guy. The lion-like teen sat on the farthest end of the table only because Cassi had pleaded and Clara had ordered him to, softly rumbling to himself every now and then and glaring hatefully at anyone else who even attempted to look in his direction. Beau felt sorry for the treatment he'd endured, but there came a time when you had to look at a situation without sympathy clouding your judgment. Christian Monroe had all the mannerisms of a rabid dog. His contempt for humanity was obvious in everything that he did, and Clara's hold over him alone was all there was keeping him civil.

It seemed like it'd only be a matter of time before he turned on someone, and tore them apart. How responsible then was it to let someone like him walk around freely, unchecked? What if it was Cassi he turned on? The elfin girl was completely oblivious and stubborn to the danger, insisting on ignoring Christian's own distaste and going out of her way to try and befriend him. She refused to listen to Beau's protests on the matter.

Cassiopeia had even gone so far as to denounce him as being irrationally jealous of the attention she was giving the Magi. What was worse, Beau wasn't at all certain she wasn't right, which of course just made him feel like a pathetic ass.

Beau started to reply to Rascal's smarmy comment, but blinked in surprise when a cup of water suddenly materialized above the brown-haired teen's head, upside down. Dumping all of it's contents all over Rascal's head.

"Don't be a douche, Ras," Gloria snapped, incensed.

"What the fuck, Gloria!" Rascal snarled, starting to get to his feet.

"That's enough," Clara called sternly. Immediately the impending fight was ended.

A few minutes later the group was breaking apart, lunch ended. Beau sighed heavily and watched as Cassi took Christian by the hand, Roger tucked up under her other arm, and led the highly-uncomfortable furred teen off to the recreation room for some forced socialization. He stuffed his fists in his pockets, scowling.

"She's not trying to piss you off, you know." Beau turned slightly, gazing at the blue-haired Latina behind him. Gloria gave him a faintly pained smile. "I wouldn't think it's possible, but Cassi's the genuine article. She's really only interested in being his friend, and helping him adjust." Gloria made a face. "Her sweetness almost makes me sick to my stomach. Almost." Now she grinned somewhat impishly.

Beau found himself grinning back. "Yeah, I know."He heaved a heavy sigh then. "I dunno, it's just . . . she seems to get real skittish sometimes, you know? When we . . . well, we've been dating for a few months now and we haven't really . . . done much more than kiss."

Gloria blanched a little. "Well, she's never dated anybody before you, right? I mean, she's probably a virgin. It's natural to be nervous." Beau shook his head.

"No . . . it's more than that." His green eyes became slightly haunted and withdrawn. "I dunno, something tells me there's more to it. Like . . . hell, I don't even know what I'm saying," he bit off, sighing loudly.

Not really wanting to speak his darkest fears aloud. That, while Cassi might be dating him at present, her heart really belonged to someone else.

He straightened a little when Gloria suddenly put her hand on his arm. Her smile was soft, dark eyes uncommonly gentle. "Don't worry so much, Beau," she comforted. "Cassi cares about you. I know she does. Just give her some more time."

Beau forced himself to nod, then smiled and squeezed the hand she still had laying on his arm. "Thanks," he murmured appreciatively. Then sighed. "Now if you'll excuse me, I better go check my gear. Carnivorous plants and ghosts to go fight and all."

Beau Altair turned from the mess hall then, never noticing the stare of pure aching longing that followed in his wake from the blue-haired Magi he left behind.

[Dane]

Dane grumbled to himself, lifting slowly out of bed, only wearing what god gave him, his hair messy and unbound. For once actually listening to Doctors orders, Mars mission beat him up a little more than usual. Still, plant fun with acid and treasure tossed into the mix? Perfect chance to try his newest baby out.

He stumbled into his gun room and lifted fiery friend, he checked the weapon quickly and ignited the flame, a bright blue-white flame hissed to life. The weapons expert grinned wide.

Perfect.

Dane left the gun room and headed for the door he snapped his fingers when he neared the door.

"Pants. Right."

[T.K.]

T.K. sat on a stool in one of the Storage Locks on the ship. The three shift leaders were in the room as well. All four of them were carefully inspecting the Environmental suits the crew would need for the treasure hunt. The rest of the Engineering staff had been left alone to deal with keeping the ship running. And if any of them valued their ability to breath, none of them would slack off while T.K. was busy.

“OK, that was the last Suit. Let's check on the other gear, then I'll go give the Captain the green light.”

Raul frowned as he sorted out a tangle of wires, which were supposed to be part of a sensor suite.

“T.K., are you sure you want to go with the others? That place is a hell hole.”

“I am not going to answer this question again. I joined this crew to be a Pirate. Pirates go on treasure hunts. The End.”

“No offense then Boss, but better you then me.”

After a few minutes of silence, Cassie spotted Shiyounin sulking in a corner.

“Sir, why is your A.I. Sulking?”

T.K. glanced over at her in time for Shiyounin to suddenly pretend she wasn't looking at them.

“She's mad because I'm making her stay on the ship. Apparently, she thinks I'm going to go and electrocute myself or something without her babysitting me.”