Mercenaries’ Tale – 4.04 The Crash
Panting filled the air. Doug was lying on his back on the single bed in the tiny cabin that was Blaise’s room. He could hear the far off sound of the cruise ship’s engines and the creaking of the ship as it battled air resistance. The mattress was thin and lumpy, springs threatening to escape their flimsy confines. The mattress was also very cramped.
Blaise herself was lying beside him, his right arm underneath her and holding her close, her right arm draped around him, her hand playing with the hair on his naked chest. There was no scar there accept some smaller ones he had received during his PSF days, the one he had received from Abaddon absent.
The two were drenched in sweat and out of breath but Doug felt good. Better than he had in a long time and yet there were tears in his eyes, his face wet as they rolled down his cheeks. He was trying hard to stop but they just kept coming, his body shaking as he sobbed.
It came as a surprise when Blaise’s pale hand reached up and wiped them away.
“Hey now, it’s ok,”
“S-sorry…I don’t know why I’m…I’m so stupid…”
“No you’re not. This was all so sudden. I can’t believe it happened to be honest…”There was a flicker of a smile on Blaise’s face.
“It was a bit spur of the moment, yeah,” Doug chuckled, the sobs slowly subsiding, “not exactly how I thought the morning would go! But then I wasn’t really expecting us to explain, well, everything to each other either… you ain’t regretting it, are ya?”
“No! No, I…this was nice…”
“I feel like there’s a but coming on…”
“I dunno, I’ve just been trying to keep things professional between us for so long…I’m not sure I’m really ready for whatever this is…” she swept her hand over the bed to indicate their current undressed state, the bedclothes being the only thing protecting their modesty.
“I think this can be whatever we want it to be,” he grinned at her, eyes still glistening from the tears. She turned away.
“Doug…”
“Blaise, we don’t need to turn it into a big deal. Lets just take it a step at a time-”
“Kate,” this threw him off.
“What?”
“My name’s not Blaise, it’s Kate. There’s a lot you still don’t know about me. What happened to my family barely scratched the surface…And I’m afraid you might hate me when you learn the rest of it…” Doug’s features softened. He rolled over and leant in to kiss her forehead, giving her arm a reassuring squeeze.
“I could never hate you. Try me.”
“…I was a member of New Dawn for eleven years?” this gave Doug pause.
“Oh…”
“Is that it? Just oh?” Kate asked, a brow raised.
“I mean, it explains some things? Being told you just banged a terrorist is kind of a big thing to get your head around…”
“Ex-terrorist,” Kate corrected him.
“Well, when you put it like that…”
“I- Look, I’ll leave if you want me to. My New Dawn connections were probably going to just jeopardise your plans anyway-” she moved to get up but Doug held her in place.
“Don’t you dare. I don’t care what you used to do, you’re still you no matter what you call yourself. ‘Sides, I don’t think I’m ever gonna find someone else that’ll care enough about me to lock me in their bedroom and call it suicide watch!” he laughed. Kate frowned.
“You know sleeping with you wasn’t part of the plan. You were supposed to be on the floor…” Doug glimpsed down at the lack of floorspace in the tiny cabin.
“Yeah, that was never going to happen though, was it?”
“From what I remember, you kissed me when I agreed to help you kill Silverton…” she trailed off with a smile. Doug laughed.
“Yeah, and I’d do it again too!” he exclaimed, following up by beginning to kiss her neck, causing her to laugh.
“That tickles! Doug!” his kisses moved up her neck until he was in line with her face, Doug now pinning her to the bed. He smiled down at her.
“I love you,” he told her, Kate’s laughter subsiding as she smiled up at him. Her reply came in the form of a kiss, Katherine using her forearms to lift herself up to connect with his lips and Doug responded in kind, the two slowly sinking back down onto the pillows.
As the kiss deepened, Kate slowly became aware of another sound joining the backdrop of engine noises and creaks. She gently eased Doug away from her as she turned to peer at the far wall.
“Do you hear something?”
“…Sounds like a passing ship?” the soldier replied with a shrug before leaning back in to continue with what they had been doing.
“Mmm, sounds like its – mmm – getting really close…” Kate managed to say between kisses. Doug was about to say something else only to be interrupted by the far wall suddenly caving in and what looked to be the hull of an aircraft rushing towards them-
Doug woke with a start, fully clothed and strapped to a bench inside the Flying Hound. There was no signs of an aircraft having breached the wall, he wasn’t as flat as a pancake and Gratin was present on one of the other benches, meditating or possibly sleeping. It could be hard to tell sometimes, Dark Worlders’ sleeping arrangements being quite a bit different than humans. Gratin always seemed to fall asleep sitting up or mid-meditation. If he slept at all…
Wiping his forehead, Doug glanced down to see Kate’s sleeping form resting beside him, the two having been leaning against one another. The music player was still performing its one function, “Mister Sandman” currently coming out of the earpiece in Doug’s ear.
“…Mister Sandman, send me a dream, make her the cutest that I’ve ever seen…”
His breathing evening out, Doug reached down and turned the player off to conserve the battery.
Removing the earpiece, he leant back against the wall and considered his dream. It had felt so real! The uncomfortable mattress with the springs that felt like they were about to break out, the warmth of the desert heating up the ship, the sensation of Kate’s lips pressing against his own…
He shook his head in an attempt to clear it. Deciding it had only been a dream and that he needed to find something to distract himself, he unbuckled himself from the bench and then gently prised himself out from under Kate, carefully lowering her so she was lying across the bench. Now free to roam around, he made his way to the cockpit to see how the Major was getting along.
The cockpit was in a similar state of disrepair as the rest of the ship; the console had panels missing and buttons so worn that it was hard to believe that they were still responsive, the pilot’s seat had so many repair patches sewn or tapped on that it could have been mistaken for an intentional aesthetic, an attempt to add a splash of paint to brighten the place up had been made but evidentially the wrong kind of paint had been applied leaving the colour thin and patchy at best and out right flaking off at worst. Doug took all this in and found himself internally groaning at the sheer disrespect the Major showed towards his ship. He could guess where the money for repairs and maintenance went…
“Alright Major? How’s it go-”
“Ah! Bugger!” the Major clearly hadn’t been expecting anyone to come up behind him, the elderly gentleman jolting forward in shock.
The open flask of whiskey fell from his hand.
Doug watched as the little tin flask bounced off the edge of the console, rotated 180 degrees in the air and proceeded to dump its contents onto the exposed wiring that was barely contained within the casing.
“What the bloody hell did you do that for, Sergeant?!” The Major cried as the electronics began to spark. Some of the paperwork scattered haphazardly across the console began to ignite. Doug looked around in alarm, spotted a fire extinguisher on the wall besides him and ripped it from its housing.
“Me?! The fuck are you doing drinking in here!” roared the mercenary as he began to spray down what was now kindling.
“I am perfectly entitled to have a snifter of whiskey every now and then! Who are you to barge into a cockpit unannounced? There are protocols for a reason!”
“Yeah, and one of the first ones on the list is don’t bloody drink behind the wheel!” Doug yelled back, finishing putting out the flames. He took a deep breath in an attempt to get his temper under control only to become further agitated when the on board guidance system lazily decided that now was an appropriate time to sound an alarm.
Both men glanced over at the instruments, taking in the warning lights and indicators while slowly becoming aware that the ship wasn’t as level as it should have been.
“Damn and blast!” The Major yelped as he grabbed for the steering column and tried to course correct, “it’s unresponsive!”
Doug wasted no time leaping into the copilots chair and trying to wrestle with the controls found there, all the while very aware that the view out of the window wasn’t just white due to cloud cover but also due to the white snow field rapidly approaching from below.
There was a blizzard outside, the plane being buffeted by gale force winds as it plummeted downwards. Doug was pulling as hard as he could on the controls but the vessel was barely responding.
“Oh dear…I think connection to the starboard engines was shorted out. They aren’t registering!” said The Major as he fumbled with various switches and buttons on his section.
“For Faust’s sake!” to say Doug was angry would be an understatement. This was one of the few times where he hated being right.
In the hold, the alarm caused Kate to stir.
“Nnngh, Doug?” she slowly lifted her head and realised that her friend was no longer besides her. She was alone on the bench, a klaxon blaring over head and a red light flashing above the door. Her heart skipped a beat as panic set in.
“Doug?!”
“In here Love!” the soldier’s voice sounded strained as it called out from the cockpit, “Do us a favour and wake Archie up! Bit of a rush!”
Kate jumped to her feet and stumbled across the hold, the floor sloping at an alarming angle. As she passed the door to the cockpit, she caught sight of the scene beyond; Doug straining himself to even out their flight and glimpses of the frozen wasteland below beyond the swirling snowstorm raging around their vessel. Kate swore loudly at the sight and scrambled to reach the mage.
Gratin was notorious for being a heavy sleeper. He was still sleeping soundly now despite all the shouting and alarms. She began to try and shake him awake but only received a light snore for her troubles.
The ship gave a violent lurch as the winds continued to buffet it. The sounds of Doug’s swears bellowed out of the cockpit followed by some whimpering from the Major.
“Where the hell is Archie?!”
“Screw it…!” Kate raised her hand and struck the mage hard across the face, Gratin jolting awake. Greenish light could just about be seen through the blackened glass that covered the mage’s eyes as flame wreathed around his arms, the mage instinctively raising them to defend himself only to realise his attacker was one of his friends. The flames immediately extinguished themselves.
“What in the name of-” he cut himself off as his senses took stock of his surroundings. Odd lights. Klaxxon. Turbulence. Shouting. The feeling of panic and terror filling the vessel. Something was wrong.
“What happened?” Kate was lost for words, taking in the scene around her with wide eyes and no time to cohesively answer the question.
“Dunno? Bad?!” she gestured vaguely in the direction of the cockpit, Gratin standing up and making his way over and becoming very aware of the angle they were leaning towards as he did so, bracing himself against the doorway and expanding his senses outside of the ship. It felt like an infinite cold void out there.
Doug caught sight of the mage’s arrival in his peripheral vision.
“Archie! Shield!”
Gratin followed the order, gripping the door frame and focusing. He couldn’t create a barrier big enough to engulf the whole ship but he could at least cast it wide enough to envelop the cockpit.
“Mistress!” he bobbed his head to indicate that she should get inside, the red head rushing past him and gripping tightly onto the back of Doug’s seat. Gratin tensed, green light shining around him momentarily before expanding towards the walls and solidifying the moment everyone was inside. The mage’s voice began to echo around them as Gratin began to chant, putting all his concentration into maintaining the shield.
The snowy landscape rapidly rose to meet them…
Doug let out a roar as the ship’s nose began to tilt…
The ship began to pull up but not enough to avoid a snowdrift, the vessel bouncing, slamming back to the ground and skidding a good twenty feet forwards before crashing into a rock, the nose crumpling. The sound of screeching metal was deafening as the inhabitants of the plane were violently thrown forward. Gratin and Kate hung on to their anchors for dear life whereas the two military men were held in by their seatbelts. The glass of the window was smashed in by the rock but bounced harmlessly off of the shield.
It took a moment once the plane had stopped for the occupants to feel safe enough to move. Doug was the first one up, the soldier rushing to Kate’s side to check on her. He helped her to her feet and started inspecting her for injuries, first brushing her down and then cupping her face and brushing her hair out of the way to check for concussions or so much as a cut. She was too shaken to object, her brain working over time to figure out what series of events had led to them being now on the ground.
Once he was satisfied that Kate was healthy, Doug kissed her forehead and dragged her in for a hug, gripping her tightly as he waited for his own heartbeat to level out.
“Thank Faust… dunno what I would’ve done…Shouldn’t have happened…” he was rambling.
“What did happen?” this came from Gratin who was in the process of wiping blood from his face, his nose bleeding due to the amount of power he had needed to put behind that spell. He was shaking, bracing himself against the door for support. He looked exhausted.
Doug turned to glare at The Major, who flinched at the sheer force of emotion behind the look.
“Now see here! If you hadn’t barged in here unannounced and startled me, I never would have-”
“What?! Spilt alcohol over the controls?! Left the electronics exposed?! Started a fucking fire and cut power to the engines?!” Doug let go of Kate and took a step forward, clearly seeing red. His breathing was uneven, hatred in his eyes.
He was surprised to feel a tug on his arm, Kate having grabbed it as he stepped away. He turned back to look at her, the red head moving forward and placing her hands either side of his face, forcing him to stare her in the eye.
“Breathe,” she instructed, starting to breathe deeply herself to set a pace. He took in the look of determination in her eyes, the hint of worry on her brow and he began to follow her lead, their breath syncing up and the crimson fading from his vision before the full PTSD attack could consume him.
Energy escaping, Doug rested his forehead against hers, hugging her once more.
“He could’ve killed you.”
“Not on purpose and you saw to it that he didn’t,” she forced a smile, “thank you,” Doug didn’t say anything, closing his eyes and deciding to just focus on her for the moment. Kate slowly turned her head to look at The Major, a stern look on her face.
“I’ll be expecting a reimbursement to say the least. That was hardly what I would call a professional landing…” she pointed out. The Major felt like he was lacking a significant amount of context for the exchange he had just witnessed but it was clear that he was lucky to still be on his feet. He cleared his throat and bowed low.
“Naturally, my dear. If there’s anything I pride myself on, it’s customer service!” he straightened up, “the return flight will of course be free as well! I can only apologise for the unfortunate series of events that led to that particular unscheduled landing!”
Kate and Gratin shifted their attention onto the front of the ship. The nose was crumpled around the rock it had hit and – now that Gratin had dropped the shield – a mountain of snow had poured in through the broken window with more entering by the shovelful as the blizzard raged on outside.
“Surely you do not intend for us to fly this contraption back to Centrissal?” Gratin queried. The Major waved his concerns away.
“This is merely a patch job. I shall escort you into town and as you three enjoy your holiday, I shall look to find a mechanic up to the job!” he beamed at them proudly, “I swear to you on my reputation as an officer of the Crimson Chests and former major of the PSF that I will see that you aren’t stranded out here!”
There was a scoffing sound from Kate’s shoulder, Doug’s head currently resting there, followed by an unenthusiastic “hooray”. All Kate could do was pat her friend on the back.
“We appreciate the gesture but perhaps we should look into other ways to travel home-” she began, trying to be as diplomatic as she could.
“Nonsense! I insist! I can’t help but feel, on reflection, that some of what occurred here may have, perhaps, been partially my fault…” there was a sharp intake of breath from Doug, the soldier clearly becoming agitated again. Kate tightened her grip on him.
“…Great…”
The Major had stopped paying attention to her and so did not notice the tension in her voice. Instead, he was reflecting on everything that had just transpired, a small detail coming back to him.
“Wait, what did you call Mr Galvison a bit ago? Doug?” The Major’s brow knotted together as the feeling of something not quite being right over took him. Kate’s mind began to race, an excuse forming on the fly as she realised that during her rude awakening she may have accidentally blown their cover.
“I…I said… Dough… because he’s my… cuddly Dough Boy?” she had turned bright red as she cobbled together this lie out of the first thing that came to mind. Doug slowly rose his head to give her the most confused and outright bewildered look she had ever seen grace his features. Gratin began to cough, clearly struggling to keep his composure in the face of Doug receiving a taste of his own medicine. The mercenary in question slowly glimpsed down and gave his stomach an experimental prod in a self-conscious effort to check for any truth behind the lie. The Major merely shrugged.
“Well I suppose we all gain a few pounds once no longer under the thumb of the PSF’s dietary requirements. Almost inevitable, really. Shall we press on?” the old man wandered away to find his coat, leaving the two human mercenaries awkwardly standing in the middle of the cockpit, both looking flushed.
After a moment that felt like it stretched out into eternity, Kate leant in towards Doug, speaking softly to him.
“I think we’re even.”
Post by Sam | November 5, 2022 at 12:01 am | The Mercenaries' Tale | No comment
Tags: Blaise, Doug McCracken, Dream, Gratin, Kate O'Donnell, Major Stanley Morrison, Polaris, The Flying Hound, the Mercs, vehicles and transport