Against the Tide - A New Elysium Story [Complete]

Escapism

Content Warning:
It's gonna get a bit steamy in this chapter. If you don't like to read that kind of thing, I suggest skipping it. The next chapter will make sense even if you don't read this one.

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Null awoke from a dreamless sleep to the sight of the star-spangled darkness of space.

As she sat up on their bed in the Captain's cabin and stretched, she winced in pain. The fight against the augmented Major General of Orion's Reach had definitely left a bruise or two, and their legs felt like they had been running a marathon. But other than that, their augments informed them, they were perfectly fine.

Overall, she felt unusually well rested, as if a great weight had been lifted off of her. The memory of the burning Orion's Reach headquarters on Astraphos filled her with content and for the first time in a long while, she felt at peace.

Well, there you have it, Captain Scott, she thought, recalling their conversation form their dream, Another problem solved by blowing it up.

Good morning, Lars mumbled at the back of their head.

Is it morning? Null wondered.

I have no idea... We have slept about twenty hours I think. I have to admit I lost track of what kind of time we're running on, he replied, still sounding groggy.

Twenty hours?!

The loud rumbling of their stomach only seemed to confirm his estimate.

Well it's always time for breakfast somewhere in space, she remarked.

Twenty minutes later, they sat freshly showered and dressed in the galley, while Rutherford was preparing scrambled eggs with bacon. On the video screen above the kitchen counter, a news feed was running, reporting on the terrorist attack on Astraphos. The authorities were still in the process of figuring out who had been behind it, so the report focused on a long list of Hunters that had been declared dead after the attack. A smile flickered across their face as they spotted the name 'Nicolas Meyer' among them.

"Enjoy, Ma'am," Rutherford addressed her as he placed the plate before them.

"Thanks Rutherford," she said and began to dig in.

Ensign Darwin rubbed against her legs under the table and meowed impatiently. When Rutherford turned his back on them, she fed the cat a piece of bacon. At his grateful purr, she was reminded of her words to General Neris, about not being able to buy loyalty with money or lies. Food, however, was a different matter.

"So how are the repairs coming along? When can we leave?" she asked Rutherford while she ate.

The Android crew had watched over the ship during her absence. They had hidden the Blackstar and Nova's ship in the orbit of an uninhabited planet in the same system as Astraphos. However, they had been gone far longer than expected. Upon their return they found that raiders had discovered the seemingly abandoned ships and thought they could salvage them easily. Heisenberg had made quick work of them, but Nova's ship had been damaged in the process. Null felt like the least she could do after all that she had dragged him through was to offer their help with the repairs, but being in the same place for too long always made her feel antsy.

"I did not want to disturb your sleep while the repairs are ongoing, ma'am, I hope that was in your best interest. Higgs has informed me that he had to improvise on some of the damaged parts, but he estimates to be finished within the next two to three hours," Rutherford reported. "Meanwhile, I took the liberty to offer Mister Nova a bed in the infirmary."