Chapter Text
Percy Montana wandered aimlessly around the corridors of the Tulip until she found herself outside her own quarters. She walked inside, and heard the doors 'whoosh' close behind her. She glanced at the mess that was her room. 'Home...' She thought to herself, and made her way to her small bed. She sat down and sighed. 'Home...' She thought again, and felt powerful emotions attempt to rise up and pass her defenses. She fought back, and felt a single tear slide down her cheek. She didn't bother wiping it away. Besides, she had other things to do. Crying was the least of her problems. She had the current condition of the ship to worry about - anything unbroken was likely to need fixing eventually - not to mention clean up her quarters.
"Car, what time is it?" Percy stared at the wall, and watched as the hologram suddenly appeared.
"It is 19 hundred hours." He answered, and watched her curiously.
"Thanks," Percy sighed, and picked up her bag from the ground as Carravagio disappeared. She sighed again as she left her small sanctuary of sanity, her only escape from the madness going on around her that threatened to break the last thread of sanity that she had left. That was the only thing keeping her from losing her cool.
She went down to the reactor core, and gazed at the damage done to it. There was a thick smoke hanging around on the ground. Every time she took a step, the smoke would swirl around in different directions. Percy watched it slowly stop moving, and walked over to a small corner, where she kneeled down, dropped her bag, and pulled off a section of the metal wall. Behind it were hundreds of wires just waiting to be fixed. She poked one of the blue wires, and didn't even jump back as sparks emanated from it, and shot out towards her. She welcomed the pain that surged through her arm, and pulled it back as it started to go numb.
"That can't be good..." Percy examined her arm, and shrugged. She grabbed a few supplies from her bag, and commenced her long night of fixing certain systems and repairing the damage to the reactor core. "Oh yeah, and that radiation should probably be stopped, too." She muttered as she began to feel light headed.
Percy stood up with the help from the bars on the walls, and she made her way over to where all of the smoke was coming from. Very slowly. She pushed a few buttons, changed a few of the wires, cut off the power to one system, and coughed a few times as the smoke suddenly stopped flowing out from the vent. She walked back over to her bag, and began to fix the ventilation system.
"A little of this, a little of that..." Percy spoke quietly, and looked down at her work. "And that should do it." Something beeped, and Percy beamed. "Yup, that did it." She grabbed her bag, and left the premises. The doors closed behind her, and she leaned against them. "Oh great..." She reached her hand up towards her head, and rubbed her temple.
"Stupid radiation." She said, and looked around rather dazedly. She caught a glimpse of someone approaching her, so she let her arm drop to her side, and regained her composure, or what was left of it.
"What are you doing? Don't you have work to do?" Rudolpho's voice met her ears, and she groaned.
"I'm taking a rest. And, yes, I have work to do. God, am I the only one around here who does anything?" She responded, and shook her head as she left Rudolpho behind to comprehend what she had just said.
He shrugged to himself, and walked in the opposite direction.
Despite her fatigue and growing headache, she concentrated on working to fix the Tulip as best as she possibly could. It took her nearly five hours to do almost everything on the list, when she finally found herself seeing stars, and her vision grew blurry. She fell to the ground with the work pad in her hand, and her bag alongside her. Her last thoughts were 'Oh great, I'm sure everyone's going to be mad at me for not finishing the stupid repairs... But I'm... really... tired...' Her mind went blank, and she knew no more as everything around her grew darker and darker 'til she could no longer see, nor hear, nor think anymore.
"The navigation is still a bit off. I thought Percy said she was going to fix that as soon as possible?" Callista Larkadia looked up from the console, and stared at Travis Montana, who shrugged, and sat down on the captain's chair. He pressed a button, and spoke.
"Percy, why aren't you finished with the repairs yet? Why's it taking so long?" He took his finger off the button, and waited for a response. He received nothing, and looked back up at Callie, who raised her eyebrows.
"Maybe she's sleeping." Callie responded with a sigh and she shook her head.
"Marcus, go see what Percy's up to," Travis called back to Marcus Fegan, who was busy eating.
"Why can't you do it? I'm eating, I haven't eaten in hours." Marcus glared at Travis, who turned to him.
"Marcus, do it. Now." Travis Montana frowned at him, and Marcus sighed with defeat.
"Alright, alright, I'm going. Are you happy now?" He mumbled a few inaudible words as he left the bridge, and went in search for Percy.
"Car, can't you tell me where she is so I don't have to go looking everywhere?!?" Marcus stopped to lean against a bulkhead, and clutched his stomach. "I'm bloody hungry, and he wants me to do this??"
"I'm sorry, Marcus, but my systems are all mixed up, I couldn't tell you where you were if you told me in the first place." Car appeared and disappeared in front of Marcus, who groaned. Rudolpho passed by him, obviously lost in his own thoughts because he didn't bother greeting him.
"Rudolpho!" Marcus jumped forward, and grabbed him by the back of his shirt. Rudolpho spun around to meet Marcus with a look of impatience on his face.
"Oh, it's you. What do you want?" Rudolpho folded his arms, and watched Marcus intently.
"Where's Percy? Have you seen her? Travis is making me go look for her." Marcus sighed.
"I saw her a few hours ago by the reactor core. She could be anywhere by now." He watched as Marcus's face fell considerably. "Sorry, mate." He added, and clapped Marcus on his shoulder. "Good luck finding her." With that, he walked away, leaving a very disgruntled Marcus behind.
Marcus headed towards the reactor core, and could still smell the faint smell of the radiation from the core. He shuddered, and continued on his hunt for Percy. Within minutes, he found her lying on the ground on her stomach, with her things spread out around her.
"Percy..." He shook her shoulders roughly, and pushed her onto her side. She had a small cut on her forehead from falling on the sharp metal from the ground. "Percy!" he shouted a little louder, and Percy's eyes opened slowly.
"What..." She tried to look around, but everything was spinning, so she couldn't even sit up right.
"Are you alright?" He pulled her up into his arms, and was surprised that she didn't protest. She usually didn't like anyone even laying a finger on her.
"If I wasn't, it's not like you would care." She trailed off as she tried to fix her eyes on the person above her, but everything was still moving.
"Well what if I did care." He gazed down at her face.
"I'd think you were a hostile alien that took over Marcus's body and were trying to get information from me about something." She replied as she reached her hand up to her head, and frowned as she felt it pounding.
"Well lucky for you I'm not a hostile alien, I'm just plain Marcus. Come on." He stood up, and hoisted her up onto her feet, but she swayed, and nearly fell down again. He helped her to walk very slowly to the med bay.
"Okay, plain Marcus." Percy muttered as they walked down the corridor.
"Marcus, have you found her yet?" Travis's voice boomed all around them, and Marcus heard the irritation in his voice. He walked over to a console, and pressed a button.
"As a matter of fact I have." He spoke into the screen, and wasn't surprised to see that Travis was busy chatting with Callie. They looked up at him. "Well, what's left of her."
"What do you mean 'what's left of her'? What happened?" Travis leaned forward, and glared suspiciously at the screen.
"I mean what's left of her. She doesn't look too good, but god knows I'm not a doctor. I guess Car is still analysing what's wrong with her, but it'll take him a while. The ship's still in bloody pieces from the last attack. Anyway, I found her lying on the ground unconscious in front of her work. Maybe you shouldn't give her so much to do." Marcus raised his eyebrows as he spoke, and Travis sighed.
"Alright. Car, tell us what's wrong with her when you're done, okay?" Car nodded once in acknowledgement, and disappeared. Marcus turned off the com and the video screen, and walked over to Percy, who was lying down on a bio bed. He leaned over her, and pushed the bangs out of her face. He was clearly distracted, because he didn't notice Carravagio appear right behind him.
"I'm done analyzing, shall I tell you what's the matter with her now, or later?" Marcus jumped, and turned around.
"Car, don't do that! You nearly gave me a heart attack!" He exclaimed, and leaned against the bed. "Fine. Yes. Tell me what's wrong with her." He said slowly.
"She has radiation poisoning, a fever, a concussion from hitting her head on the ground, and several minor bruises and cuts from who knows where and when." Car concluded, and watched Marcus's face.
"Well then, she should stay here, right?" Marcus was about to leave when Car spoke again.
"No, she should be returned to her quarters." Car said simply.
"By who?" Marcus frowned.
"By you, of course. No one else is around." Carravagio disappeared as Marcus sighed, and picked Percy up. He brought her to her quarters, and lay her down on her bed. Before he left he whispered something that only he himself heard, but barely. "You're pretty nice when you sleep, you don't talk back or anything."