The Luxembourg Saga

[Kung Faux]

He laughed at Ingmar's roasting of Arnie. "Nice to meet you all officially. I'm Elias Harper." He didn't bother with his military rank, he was halfway ready to give up the ghost. These people didn't trust him, and Harper couldn't rightly blame them. Even though they were criminals, however, Harper had no intentions of ratting out the people who had just saved his life. He didn't bother saying that either, because they likely wouldn't believe him. He just sighed and smiled defeatedly, but happily. "Umm... Thanks for saving my ass back there, everyone. 'Specially you, Ingmar." Ingmar had known exactly what to say and do to get out alive. He had probably been in similar situations before. Harper looked up to him as somewhat of a role model.

Harper looked around the coal chute. There was little light except for a few small windows. A lantern would be dangerous in here because of the coal dust; if this place caught fire, the whole ship was gone. There was a manhole in the ceiling with a ladder up to it, and a port door in the wall to the left.

"Yeah, umm, Ian, I would appreciate it if you would give me the nickel tour. Gotta know my way around, especially the engine room, if I'm to be worth my salt around here." Harper had every intention of helping out as much as possible.

<Yeah, me too. I go to school AND hold down a job. Don't really get much free time.>

[Dovey]

OOC: I have to apologize for not posting too. It's been a pretty busy couple of weeks for me. If you guys need to play Stanley and Phoebe, you have my permission.

Meanwhile, Phoebe was watching Harper with narrowed eyes, emanating a simmering silence. She swung to her feet, having properly wrapped Stanley's wounded foot, and sauntered over to Harper as if to talk to him. However, with her fists on her hips and her chin high and haughty, her posture was anything but friendly and casual.

"Hold on a bloody minute." She put a hand up to stop Ian. "Dunno if we should trust someone who didn't lift a finger to save his own crew."

She was referring to Harper's own Luxembourg crewmates. It was a low blow, and she knew she was doing a hasty job looking for anything to get the Fed jock thrown off the Bellwether. Indeed, she knew herself that without Harper's help, if they missed that time window all of them would have been anonymous bodies thrown out of the airlock. Nevertheless, she wasn't about to stand by and let Ingmar's hair-brained decisions cast them into the Queen's penitentiary again. And if Ingmar was really going to let Harper join the crew, she wasn't seeing any potential; even though Harper could come in handy as a mechanic, she was having serious doubts about whether or not they could trust him.

Slowly folding up her sleeves to reveal her taut, scarred forearms, Phoebe brought herself closer to Harper until they were only inches apart. "Do you even know how many Luxembourg soldiers Zima captured? Or does your soldier upbringing make you ignore that and obediently put a hand to your heart and swear allegiance to the Queen?

"Because on this ship, it isn't every man for himself. We're in this together. What Zima wanted from us naused our situation up deeper than anything you ever will get into. We don't need a tosser to foul it up even more. You're either in or you're out."

With that, Phoebe turned on her heel, letting her words about Harper's threat to the safety of the crew sink in. An echoing, metal clank resounded in the distance as she defiantly shut the door to her quarters.

Stanley shifted onto his unwounded foot awkwardly and laughed half-heartedly. “Aw man, Ingmar. Glad we're in this together," he said, echoing Phoebe's words. "I thought you were really going to let them chib me. Wow.” Stanley grinned and slapped his captain on the shoulder but his face was still white, shimmering with cold sweat. It was a weak attempt to break the ice, but secretly he was glad they were mad at someone else.