She grimaced as she also smelled the dead and decaying. Then her captain started to behave odd. She looked to her captain confused. "hear what Cap? Captain! Are you okay!" when he blacked out she just barely helped him fall to the floor without splitting his head open.

"Danngit! Don't do that to me!" She cried as he woke up before she could call the doctor.
"If you don't go get a quick med check up, you'll be no good to anyone Sir..." She growled out him. She knew he was thinking of shrugging it off. She saw the blood at his ears. There was something strange going on.

Xander's left eye twitched momentarily as Leila pat him on the back and left him in the Medical Ward. He sighed and looked at Arij. "I hope I'm not troubling anyone by being here." He said wondering how he was going to explain to the Chief Doctor about what he'd been feeling. He tried to think through his confusion, so he took a deep breath. "I thought I should come here, but I doubt that it's anything serious." He said in a fairly calm manner.

Leila let her panicked look dissolve into a smile when she saw Ashriel. She acquiesced to her request to help with her hair and walked in, happy to be of some help.

"Sure."

Her hands went out, but paused for a second, recalling what she had done with a metal plate just moments before. What if she tugged too much or was too strong? She shivered in fear at the thought, and decided to just be extremely careful. She began to braid, every once in a while running her fingers gently through the blonde locks. Although the person she was speaking to was rough and course sometimes, her hair was anything but. It was nice and silky to the touch. Then again, this was coming from someone whose hands were always in goggles or touching metal...

It sort of reminded her of when she was little and her father braided her hair. He said that she looked just like her mother then. It was the only really girly thing she knew how to do.

Leila smiled as Ashriel spoke, chuckling at the mention of the kiss.

"Oh, I know, I'm very memorable. I'm excellent at not only 'goodnight' kisses, but 'goodbye', 'hi', 'I like you' and 'Come to bed with me' kisses as well." She laughed, trying to fight away the almost nervous, depressing tension at the mention of the cryo-freeze.

"I know..I was so confident in the technology of the ship.." She mumbled, a little embarassed "...That I didn't think it would fail. I mean, I was afraid of what was going to happen but...I looked through the ship, several times. I was confident I'd done all I could do to take care of these people...and yet..." the blonde mane in front of her eyes blurred as she began to cry and she let out a slight sniffle.

"Sorry...I don't mean to sound so depressing." She laughed again, as if laughing off her own feelings.

Arij turned to him with a smile. She was helping people, really helping them! It was amazing to watch wounds knit, strength be restored, even didgets regrow! What an amazing advance for medicine this was! She chuckled as she reached over to support a man that had to be dragged in "Nonsense Xander, you're never a trouble. What is it?" By the time she had the man back on his feet he was able to stand on his own and looked at her with wondering eyes. She patted him on the back and pushed him gently towards an area of benches usually used as a waiting room that she had turned into an impromteu resting area "Sit for ten minutes at least and report if you feel odd." Turning back to Xander she beckoned him on as she moved to the next person "Walk with me as we talk."

Ashriel turned her head slightly when Leila begant o brag about her memoribility. It was true that while their kiss had been a brief one, it was very memorable to Ashriel, but she wished ot desire all these others that Leila made examples of, however kept her mouth shut for now.

As Leila began to get embaressed and this embaressment descended into sadness, not to mention the audible sniffles that Ashriel could hear she shifted and turned, letting her braid hang over the front of her body as she stood closer to Leila, looking down on the slightly shorter female. The security officer reached her hands forth, placing them around Leila and pulling her in close for a hug.

This was perhaps the most unbelievable action anyone could ever come up with. The hard-ass chief being this nice to some-one was rare enough. Hugging them so endearingly was probably thought to be impossible as she brushed her own cheek up against Leila's temple. In some ways this was a personal test. Leila wouldnt feel pain and she knew it. this only confirmed it.

This allowed her to take yet another extraordinary action as she kissed Leila on the forehead. They had privacy so these personal actions could stay private for now,
"Leila, there was nothing you could have done.. You couldn't have predicted something like this. As loud and annoying as you can get, you remain as much a genius engineer as you were back then. This thing suffered a blow and crash landed on a planet almost five thousand years in the future. I think thats a testament to the sheer genius that you have. Any other designer's ship would have crumbled into a heap and barely anyone would have survived." Ashriel stated, praising Leila in an attempt to cheer her up. Though she was not incorrect in what she was saying, how this thing had held together after so long was certainly some kind of glorious miracle, but in reality it was all down to their chief engineer's practically flawless work on their ship,
"Now, buck up. I'll be damned if I'm gonna watch you break down and not do anything about it. it hurts in here to see you sad." She pointed at her heart , letting go of Leila eventually,
"We can count our blessings, no matter how many we lost, just as many lived, we have to develop, find a way off this rock and let the human race, if it still lives and breathes as we do now, we must let them know we still survived and we'll need you in full condition to make sure it happens, even if it takes a lifetime, got it?"

Ashriel had finally said her piece, taking a deep breath and sighing,
"Now help me finish this braid." She jokingly ordered with a smirk, adding then, "When its time for us to sleep till tomorrow, I wouldnt mind getting one of those memorable goodnight kisses again. So I'll be expecting to see you at that time, okay? And you better be your normal self again."

Lights flashed on the other side of his eyelids, and he grimaced against it. It was warm and comfortable where he was, like being in a soft bed, bathed in sunlight and sleeping in. He didn't want to wake up. Sounds came to him muffled and indistinguishable. And that flashing. He tried to roll over in his bed. He never should have bought that alarm clock. It was nothing but a nuisance, making him get up when he wanted to sleep in. But he couldn't roll over. In fact, he couldn't really move. A voice sounded somewhere above his head, echoing like it was trapped in some small room.

"Draining procedure complete. Ejecting inhabitant: Co-Chief Security Officer Delavega, Tal. Repeat.
Draining procedure complete. Ejecting inhabitant: Co-Chief Security Officer Delavega, Tal. Have a nice day."

"Oh."

He heard a pop and he stumbled blindly forward, his feet connecting with something solid and very, very hard. As if temporary blindness wasn't bad enough, now his foot was throbbing, and he had fallen over. The ground wasn't any friendlier.

"Fuck!"

He pushed himself upright and curled his legs beneath him Indian-style while he took a few very deep breaths and tried to clear his vision. It didn't take too long, but what he saw when he finally did have the ability was a group of smirking ladies. Gods, there were far too many women on this crew.

"Oh go on, you pervs, stop staring at me in my knickers, eh?"

They turned from his door, still smirking, and he slowly got to his feet, brushing himself off. It took a moment to register what his eyes were seeing. Holy shit. His room was trashed. He wobbled over to his desk, or what was left of it. Sharp fragments of wood stuck up like tufts of grass on a metal plain. His closet had a heavy cabinet smashed into it. He was lucky it went for his clothing and not his pod, or he might not be around to have such a pleasant throbbing in his toes. He scanned the floor and found the trunk that he had connected with when he first stepped out of the pod. The lock was still intact, but it looked really banged up. There were sizable dents in it. He was thankful that he didn't have anything seriously fragile in there. As he stretched and tried to work his limbs back into proper working order, one of the ladies peeked her head in.

"Hey, Captain says to get your uniform on and um, assess the ship for danger. It's in bad shape, so we need to, um...."

She kept looking at him and then looking away quickly to stare at the ceiling, then the floor, then she became very interested in her nails.

"What are you..." he began, but then became suddenly very aware of exactly what he was wearing. Those damnable suits. He quickly turned away, feeling his face flush slightly.

"Oh. Oh...sorry...erm...well...it is morning for me...."

"I'm just gonna...um...nice to have you...up and...with us...sir."

He heard rather than saw her quick retreat from the room and a noise like giggling emitting from a group gathered outside his room. He sighed and went to the door and pulled it shut. Last thing he needed was for them to see him change. As if that really mattered now. These damned things were no better than spandex. They showed every dip, every bulge...it was downright ridiculous. And...oh...as he peeled the suit off he remembered his most favorite part about the suit.

'I really, really, really hate being woken up.'

Gingerly removing all parts of the suit from his body, he looked around for a towel to dry parts of himself off with. His hair was still damp and matted to his head from the cryo-fluids. He groaned and realized that all his clothes and towels were in the closet. Curses. So with a heave and a groan, and fully aware of how it might look for the Co-Chief of Security to be muscling a cabinet from the closet in the nude, he pulled it free and shoved it aside. Surveying the damage inside, he was quietly grateful that his uniform survived. If only because it was shoved all the way to the side and out of the way. He rummaged for a towel and dried off all his bits before pulling on his uniform. It was comfortable, familiar, and made it easier to face the women in the hall when he emerged. He had his game face on, and that authoritative aura practically coming off him in waves. His face was strict and serious and immediately their giggling stopped. They saluted and he returned the gesture.

"What areas still need to be examined?"

A woman came forward and began directing him and he nodded, then headed off to do his job. As he passed the open door to his room, he could almost swear he heard someone say, in almost a whisper of a voice, "Sure, don't thank me. I only kept you alive for 5,000 years. Jerk."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

She was back to work, and by some miracle or other, the crowds seemed less, somehow. She barely had time to spare a glance around the room, but when she did, she noticed that Arij was flying through patients. It was amazing, really. She had never seen her work that fast effectively before. Of course she was a good worker, she was a great worker, and a fantastic doctor, but this was, well, it was amazing.

She smiled briefly, a glimmer of emotion that almost looked like a spasm across her face, before turning back to her patients. Whatever had happened earlier between her and the wounded man...well, she couldn't explain it. Whatever was, it didn't seem to be happening anymore. People came in and she did what she could for them, but sometimes, there was nothing she could do. She felt the heaviness of the situation settle on her shoulders again, and every time someone failed under her care, she felt this pain, deep in her bones, and a growing sense of urgency. She had to make this work. She couldn't stand to see any more dead faces.

The next person had two people help her onto the table. Well, help wasn't really the word. She was hysterical and she kept trying to pull away from the other two, who looked grim and anguished from what they were doing. They had the looks of people who knew they were doing good, but knew how much it hurt to do so sometimes. Anansii recognized this girl. She was a mother of two; they were passengers on the ship. She bit her tongue to focus her mind, even as images of broken tubes flashed across it. It wasn't their fate, it couldn't be. She couldn't think these things, they would only distress her. She had to help this woman. The woman, Molly, by her name tag, was biting hard on her lip and Ana knew it was to keep from crying. Even while the two held her down, she was struggling, desperate, it seemed, to be somewhere else. Maybe with her children. She was covered in burns, across most of her body. Her face was disfigured and her skin was charred in places. It must have been terribly painful.

"Please...I know you're in a lot of pain. I know you're worried. Just try to relax...I'm going to make you okay again," she murmured, hoping with every fiber of her being that she was right. As the woman twitched and jerked beneath the hold of the two medics assisting Ana, her mouth opened, and she let out a strangled cry of despair. Ana put both hands on the woman's shoulders, trying to mind the burns.

"Ma'am, ma'am, stay with me. It's okay, it's okay. You're safe now. Please, let me help you."

"The children..."sobbed the woman, tears streaming freely down her face, "I keep seeing the children...dead....I keep seeing it in m-my mind. Oh please, make it stop, please...please..."

The woman stopped struggling and instead sat up and clutched at Ana, who was so caught off guard that she nearly fell over. The two medics looked at her as if asking what to do. Putting her arms around the woman, she stroked the back of her head and moved her other hand in soothing circles on the woman's back, trying to calm her. She was so warm; she felt so warm, and she smelled like smoke and fire and molten steel. She could practically feel the heat of the flames coming off of her where her hands touched the woman.

"It's okay...it's okay...everything will be fine...I promise.."

She let go of the woman, letting her lay back down on the bed. The look on her face almost unnerved Ana, but there was a strange sort of calm around her.

"It's okay, Doctor...the pain is gone...It's okay..."

Xander nodded slightly as he walked with her. Watching her heal people with practically only a touch. "I'm guessing me and Leila aren't the only ones then." He said softly. He took a deep breath. "Well, for starters, I was nearly crushed by a falling piece of ceiling just a few minutes ago, but Leila caught it. And I mean, with her hands." He shook his head. "And I keep seeing things, but I don't particularly believe that I'm seeing hallucinations. It might be the only reason, but I don't think that it's the reason."

Xander looked around at all the patients. "As I said, I don't believe that it's necessarily serious or that it's anything to really worry about. But I can't help feeling that something unusually strange is going on. And I think it may be happening with all of us." He said as he watched her work.

Leila was in shock. Sure, Ashriel had shown her kindness before, but she still felt that maybe she and Xander were dead. That the slab of metal had connected with her skull and she experiencing severe brain damage...

But after thinking that and dismissing it, she just felt warm. On the inside and the outside, (she mentally slapped herself because of how corny that sounded.)

As she listened her face lit up, it was always great to hear such compliments. Heck, she knew she was a genius, but someone telling her, especially this someone made her feel...well, it was indescribable really. Or maybe she just didn't want to acknowledge it. She wiped the rest of the tears from her face and wiped her nose on her sleeve like a four year old to stop the mucus from leaking out.

She chuckled when she was given the command to finish the braid, and a rather roguish grin spread on her face when she mentioned the goodnight kiss. She didn't have to command her to do that. Though she did have to admit sometimes she liked to be pushed around...

"Yes ma'am." She saluted, going back to fixing her braid.

"...and thanks. Alot." it was merely a whisper, but she knew it was heard.
((this should be good. My apologies for not having it sooner. ^_^))

Arij nodded at him, slightly more serious "True enough. Ashriel suspects the same, and you know how good her judgement is. She's seeing things as well, momentary replays of things that have just happened, and don't touch her hands, they deal massive amounts of ain. Believe me I experienced it first hand." She shivered slightly and the man she was treating coughed. She returned her full attention to him and almost instantly he was well. "As for myself it seems that each different part of my body deals something by touch. A man patted me on the back and collapsed from some disease, but my hands seem to heal everything they come in contact with. A more thourogh examination will be in order once everyone here is stabalized. Rest assured, whatever happened happened to many people, and from inital examinations, is effecting almost no one adversely." She blinked and looked at Xander "I just realized, someone should tell Captain Murdock and get him to make a general announcement. It might prevent much panic, and possibly death from those who aren't expecting their new abilities. Xander, could you...?"

"Could I go and talk to him about it?" Xander asked and smiled. "Certainly. I suspect you are much too busy here to be able to handle the task yourself. I will go look for him and let him know." He said and sighed. He found it hard to believe that these things were really happening, and that he was here in the midst of it all. But he resigned himself to go find the captain.

It took a few minutes of meticulous searching, but he eventually found the room the captain was in, along with November, the First Mate. He made a noise in his throat to announce his presence and then stepped into the room. "Might I have a moment to talk to you, Captain?"

Murdock shook his head and his first Officer, “We don’t have time to go see the doctor.” He moved to one of the newly awaken crew members and caught him before he fell. “You’re alright, this is Captain Murdock. I’ve got you.”

The crew member stumbled a bit. ‘Man I hate those cryo-chambers.’

“I know,” Murdock chuckled. “You always come out freezing.”

“Huh? The man looked up at him with a curious expression, “Um, yeah.” The man’s eye brows furrowed, ’Did he just hear me?’

“ ’Course I heard you, You’re speaking loud and clear.” The Captain smiled. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you.”

The man stood on his own then and took a few steps back. “How could you have heard me? I was thinking….you know INTERNAL monologue.”

Murdock blinked, “What?”

“I didn’t say that out loud.”

“Okay, Maybe I should see the Doctor.” He looked over at his First Officer, “Get these men out and too work, I’ll be joining you soon.” With out another word he turned quickly to head out of the room, running smack dab into Xander as he did.

The Captain was a sturdy enough man that it was more like a bounce, and he stopped to look at the man with raised brows. “Did you need me for something Xander?”

Xander smiled weakly. "Umm, yes, it appears as though something unusual is going on. I've spoken with Doctor Arij, and she said I should probably speak to you." He sighed. "It appears as though all of us are a bit more than we appear to be." He said trying to think of a way to explain.

"First things first, so far from what I've seen, I would come to the conclusion that all of us have some kind of unique power, or so. It would be impossible for me to explain fully, but I think that the crew members and passengers may all be just as altered as we are, and for some who don't know about what's going on, these changes could be rather dangerous." He finished, waiting for the captain's reaction, unsure of how he was going to take this news.

"YESSIR!" She snapped him a perfect salute, glad taht he was indeed going to go check in with the doc.

She took the arm of the other man and helped steady him, speaking soft calming words when needed, sharp commands to get them going. She filed through them going to each pod patching in release codes and helping them get oriented. She tried not to look or smell the ones that hadn't made it.

As she opened each one, there would quite often be a burst of mist. The cold steam didnt' seem to phase or even touch her. this went on under her radar, so she didn't notice that it would go right around her, leaving a few inches of clear space, like if she was in a personal bubble.

"Come on, hurry up to your posts! Move it people, We got a lot of work to do. People's lives could depend on that second your slacking!" She herded a group that had started to mingle after she got them up. She sighed and looked at all the rooms and pods that still needed to be deal with.

"I hope they rest of the command crew is doing ok..." She muttered under her breath.

She punched at another pod and opened it, peering in.

((If you have a character in a pod you can use that last sentence as November letting you out if you like))

Murdock blinked a few times at the man before closing his eyes and nodding, “For some reason, I’m not shocked at all. I’ve been having some troubles as well.” He looked up at the man, “Thank you Xander, I’ll go see the Doctor now.”

He headed off then, his mind mulling over everything. People were exhibiting strange abilities. Normally he would have shrugged it off as foolishness, but he’d heard a man’s thoughts. HIS THOUGHTS! He couldn’t deny this and he had to do some thing about it.

As he got closer to the Med lab, his mind worrying more and more he started hearing the chatter of people again. “Shit, not again.” He ignored it as much as he could as he marched up to the Doctor, speaking a lot louder than he needed to. But with all the voices in his head he felt like he could not be heard other wise. “DOCTOR I HEARD THERE WAS A PROBLEM!?” He looked back at the people in the lab. “GEEZ! DO YOU PEOPLE ALWAYS THINK THIS MUCH!? STOP FOR A MINUTE WILL YA’ SO I CAN HEAR MYSELF THINK!”

‘Whoa, is the captain okay?…What’s wrong with him?…Why’s he yelling so much?…What the heck is he talking about?’ Those and many other questions in so many voices popped into his head. No one’s mouth moved as they all stared at him like he was crazy.

He rolled his eyes and looked back at the Doctor, sticking his fingers in his ears as if it would help…it didn’t, “CAN WE GO SOMEWHERE A LITTLE MORE QUIET? THIS PLACE SOUNDS LIKE AN ARENA MATCH!”

Loki was waking, and not in an entirely pleasant way. It was like being woken long before you were ready to wake. Or rather, waking long after the time when you should have woken up. He had a throbbing headache as he fell from the cryo-pod to land at the feet of someone standing there. He coughed a few times, trying to dislodge the cryo pods fluids from his throat. He succeeded momentarily and then he took a moment to breathe deeply.

He looked up at the person who had freed him from the pod, but his vision was still extremely blurry, so he couldn't tell who it was. After a few moments his vision cleared and he smiled up as he saw the face of his sister. Loki stood up and smiled. "Hey there, sis. Oh, and thanks for getting me onboard." He said with a mischievous grin. He was certain that she didn't know that he'd known about her pulling strings to get him onboard with the crew.

He felt carefree and weightless in his cryo-pod. He really didn't want to wake up, but he could hear the world outside and there were things to be done. He felt the fluid draining from the pod and tried to move his arms to open the door, but his limbs weren't ready for immediate action and he toppled against the door of the pod. The door fell under his weight with the fluid and himself following it down.

"Uhhh...what a way to wake up...." He groaned as his sight finally returned to him. He stood up carefully as his legs regained feeling by clinging to the side of the pod. When he felt the numbness fade from his body he made his way to the locker for his stuff. After opening it he proceded to dress in his normal cargo pants, muscle shirt and trench coat with work boots before exiting his room.

He noticed the condition of the hallway and sighed, "Ah man, Sparky's probably had ten of her 'my poor baby' fits by now."

He would have continued his monolouge if he hadn't noticed a figure walking toward him. "Huh? Hey, what's going on around here?", he questioned but didn't get a reply.

He was getting pissed and started to walk toward the figure, "Hey, buddy, I'm talking to you!", he said and stopped right in front of the figure. However, the figure didn't stop and walked right through Zeke. He stood there dumbfounded for a few minutes before running down the hallway to the med-wing, hoping that this was some sort of side effect of the cryo-stasis.

'Oh god, oh god, oh god...I'm insane!!', he screamed in his head while he neared the med-wing.

She blinked in surprise and then looked at where she was. Indeed this was where her brother was supposed to be. She tried to calm her nerves at seeing him, then what he said hit her. It was the last twig snapping.

"WHAT! HOW! YOU! GAH!" She stepped back fighting the urge to scream, after a few deep breaths she walked back over.

"Here let me help you out." She practically grumbled at him. Her voice was mad but her hands were gentle and caring, her body showing how much she worried and cared for him. Some of that reflected in her eyes as well.

"Are you ok? If not go to the med lab, otherwise we all have work to do.... It's a mess out here." She said and nodded to the room. It was full of debris, rotting smells, and a few signs of what caused the smell.

Arij turned to her captain as he started speaking, her eyes widening in confusion and concern as he started shouting. "Thinking? Oh dear..." she thought to herself as she grabbed his arm and pulled him outside the med bay. People were still coming in, but there were fewer at least. Her main duty at the moment was to insure that the crew could function and help those that needed it, starting at the top, and it didn't go higher then Captian Murdock.
Once out in the hallway she pulled his hands from his ears and wiped away the last traces of blood from his face. "Captain, no need to yell, I can hear you, and I gather you can hear me?" "Poor man," she thought to herself "This had been just as hard on him as it has on any of us, and that is one ability I don't envy." Aloud she said "As near as I can tell, most people have woken up with some new trait or ability, each seems to be unique and yours no less then any. Tell me, do you feel alright? Physically? Is this going to be incapacitating to you?"

Loki grinned mischievously. "Don't bust a nerve, I have my ways of knowing things." He said simply as he shrugged. "It's good to see you though, sis." He said and looked around. "I'm actually glad you got me in here. Else I would have been one of the last people to even be considered for being placed on a ship."

"It's not like I have a criminal record or anything, but... they probably wouldn't have let me on here." He sighed and then he looked up smiling. "I think I'm fine, physically. I don't feel like anything is wrong." He looked around again and found one of the lockers. "Should I dress like the other mechanics?" He said with a slight smirk.

She rolled her eyes at him.

"I don't know if you should thank me yet. We may be in some big trouble. As for the uniform. You think you can do a mechanic's job then do it. They can use all the help they can get. Dang your so annoying, come here..." She finally couldn't' stand it any longer and she grabbed the boy, giving him an intense rib cracking hug.

"I'm so glad your safe." She said, trying not to tear up as she was sure she was.

"You're very welcome." Ashriel responded, but looked at her with a rather hard expression, "Now.. You'd best not mention this little conversation to anyone. I have a hard image to uphold." Ashriel warned, pointing at her warningly, but she wasn't too threatening,
"Some people crack quickly under the fear of who they're faced with, if they know I've been nice before they'll get too damn confident and that makes more work for me because then I might actually have to get really nasty."

She drew her hand away and looked at it for a moment, wait, if it had such an effect on the doctor with one touch.. She had the perfect interrogation tools right here in her hands.. It was at this moment that an almost evil smile cracked onto her face as she chuckled to herself, somehow she wouldnt mind if for a moment if was believed she was nice. It would be the last mistake of any fool who misjudged her.

Once the braid was just about done she got the metal clasp that she typically pinned the end with, placing it around the hair and locking it in place before flicking the now finely braided ponytail behind her shoulders,
"By the way Leila, have you been experiencing anything strange? The Doc and I believe people may have woken up with interesting new gifts.. I've woken up with two.. I think... Especially these." She raised her hands and looked at them, "Promise me you'll never touch my hands when I'm not wearing gloves, Leila. They hurt the doc and dont think anyone else is an exception."

Loki smiled. "I think I know more than enough about technology to figure it out. If I can be of help-" He stopped there as she had suddenly grabbed him in what he would call a death hug. "Yeah, missed you too, sis." He said lightly. "It's mom and dad I never missed." He sighed. He walked over to the locker and pulled out a mechanics uniform. "Might as well get dressed." He said with a smile.
***
Xander walked after the captain momentarily and began working on opening more crew members. He was pretty certain that most of them were awake already, and those that weren't were probably those that were among the dead. He sighed as he walked on, looking to see if there were any more crew members to wake up.

Leila grinned sheepishly and waved her hand dismissively.

"Of course not, of course not! Then I'd have to admit that I cracked under pressure."

And she was sparky! She kept going no matter what. Her engineering team counted on her for that resilient attitude!

She continued to braid as Ashriel seemed to become interested in her hands. That's a little...oddd.

"I haven't seen anything like that since my college days..."

Pot heads were so fun back then~

Her eyebrow began to twitch as her blonde friend began to laugh. Forget telling people that she was nice. She was going to tell them that she was a hard-ass and effing insane. She scooted back a bit, away from said crazy person, letting her finish up by tying the braid.

"Actually....and this is really weird, but just before I lifted a really heavy metal plate that would've required a forklift with just my bare hands. I thought I was going insane, but if you're doing that...."

She remembered what the people around the ward were saying about the doctor screaming and nodded to herself. That's why. She knew Ashriel meant no harm to anybody!...Except for her enemies.

"It hurt? How did it hurt..?" She winced at the thought. "....I can still touch you anywhere else, right? And if you one of us has gloves on, then it's okay?"

Huh. She just realized that since she'd woke up she'd been wearing gloves... When did she ever take them off? When she was going to sleep. Well, as a mechanic she needed them....

As a test she bit on the edge of her glove with her teeth and pulled her hand out of the cloth.

"Hmm.." She brought her index finger to Ashriel's cheek and poked it gently.

Zap.

Tal was scouting the corridors, opening doors by force if needed and checking on the situation of the sections to which he had been assigned. He hadn't run into Ashriel yet, which didn't surprise him. She kept herself busy whenever on duty, and she took that duty very seriously. She actually kind of reminded him of someone back on Earth, a girl that use to run around in a gang he was in for a time. She was more than spunky, she was completely hardcore. But when they were alone together, she'd let her hair down a little and he could tell she was a softy on the inside. He had to subdue a loud chuckle.

'Ashriel, a softy. Riiiiiiight. Not in a thousand....well.....ten thousand years, maybe.'

He had just been about to turn out of a completely trashed room when he thought he heard someone say something. He turned sharply, searching for the voice. He didn't see anyone, but then, with all the rubble and debris, it would be nearly impossible to. The ceiling had caved in on this room, leaving a huge opening where a solid slab of steel should have been. Perhaps there were some cryo-tubes behind the huge sheet of metal? He could see right up into the room above, but it appeared empty.

"Hello? Somebody there?"

He listened closely, not moving, for any signs of life or voices. Somewhere in the corner, where part of the ceiling had collapsed, he thought he could hear crying. It was quiet and indistinct, and he could not tell if it was a woman or man, adult or child. There shouldn't be any children in this section though.

"Hold on! Don't move, I'll get you out of there!"

He was in action in an instant, pulling debris away from the area. In minutes he had cleared all but the fallen slab of metal. It was twisted and distorted, but he felt no heat coming off of it. His hands carefully found the edge where he could get some leverage, but it didn't seem to be budging. Well, of course not. It was a friggin ceiling! Heavy slab of metals didn't budge on a whim, especially to someone who was only human, like him. He quickly skirted around it, looking for any gaps or openings that he could squeeze through. He found one, but it didn't appear big enough for him to fit through. He swore out loud. The voice seemed so faint, he almost didn't catch it above his long string of colorful and inventive profanities. His very advanced and dirty vocabulary was something he had picked up on the streets. But you could find that in about any school with teenagers.

"It hurts...it hurts....oh, what is that man yelling about? Oh, my leg...."

He pressed his face to the opening, trying to look in, but it was black as pitch. He called out to the person, hoping they could hear him okay.

"I'm going to get help, just stay there! Try not to move! I promise, help is on the way!"

He sprang away from the area and ran out of the door, looking for anyone who could help. Most of these rooms were empty, they were the cryo-pods for the main crew and almost everyone from there had been woken and were at work. He flew past most of the open doors, running down the hall, when he saw from the corner of his eye two familiar people. Thank goodness. He skidded to a halt, or rather, he tried to, and successfully managed to stop. More by way of falling on his butt than reversing momentum, but after he got up and dusted himself off, nobody need know that. He walked briskly back to the room and rapped his knuckles on the open door before peeking his head in, saluting them both sharply.

"Sparky, Chief Ashriel, we have a problem. Someone is trapped behind a fallen slab of ceiling in one of the pod rooms, and I can't budge it enough to get them out. Sparky, do you or your team have anything that could cut through something like that without harming someone on the other side?"

He wasn't an empath, so he couldn't know that he just entered on a very intimate moment, which was lucky for him. Ashriel might pummel him if he had known. Still, would-be pummeling aside, he liked her well enough. She was a tough-skinned, stern, and sometimes slightly scary badass, and he liked that about her. She was strong and self-reliant, something he could relate to. She didn't let things get under her skin. And whenever something did, she had the threatening presence of someone who could beat the snot out of anyone, so it pretty much prevented further agitation. In fact, it tended to induce soiled pants and fleeing in terror.

He liked Sparky too; she had a good sense of humor and she could ease practically any situation with a well-told, albeit perverted joke. She had, well, spark, and she didn't worry about things most people did. But she could take things seriously and knew how to comfort someone when it was called for. Her personality was as multi-faceted as any gem, and just like any diamond in the rough, she had a lot of raw talent. Plus, he bet she cleaned up pretty well. But that could be said about most of the crew. Since most of the crew was female. They reeeeally needed more men on this ship.

"alright good. You do that...just...be safe okay?" She called out to him, the last much more softly but still audible. she turned and went about her duties. She knew she had crew and passengers to help. There were still lives to be saved. Other people's brothers, father's, sister's that could be released from this wicked nightmare they had crashed upon.

She went from pod to pod tirelessly. Most that she found were dead. But she did manage to pull a few survivors. When she needed a break for her sanity and health, she decided to check on engineering. She walked as swiftly as she could through debris to find the room. She walked in calling out to find who was around.

"Hey! Anyone here?"