tabaqui | Scaling Heaven part four and final NaNo update!

Scaling Heaven part four and final NaNo update!

tabaqui

Tuesday, November 29th, 2005 06:04 pm

Hallo!
Just 'cause I can, GIP!! Made by the frantabulous

pervy_icons. Just for me! Wheee!

Now, final NaNo count:

24,489 / 50,000
(49.0%)

Not so bad. I slaked a bit, i'll admit. But I also *wrote* and got my brain all into plot-mode, which is my biggest stumbling block. And i know where it's going now, so i would say that, over all, NaNo was a success! Wheeee!!

Actual word count that includes what i wrote before is 29,888. I've got a long way to go, but Tod and London are alive and well! Yay!

And, of course, more Space!Spander! Yay!
*ahem*
Is it unseemly for me to be excited about it like that? I should be all 'oh, yes, here's more, read if you like...' *affects yawn*.
Heeee.
Not likely.
*smoooches you all*

Previous parts are here.

When they got down to the galley, Ferro was getting something - maybe lasagna - out of the cooker and Nia was making one of her nasty Fairy things in the blender. Juice and weird powders and what Xander always said were beetle eyes. Nia just grinned at him and made little cricket noises and Xander pretended to gag into his supper.

Tonight though, there was no teasing and no smiles. Ferro looked up and scowled when they came in - Nia punched blender buttons a bit harder than necessary, and Spike mentally groaned. *Ah, Jesus, nothing worse than a crew with the sulks.*

"Smells good," Xander said, getting plates out of the cabinet and Spike slumped down in his chair, watching Ferro dish up - yes, lasagna - for himself and Xander and Nia. Watching him hesitate and then slop some onto a plate for Spike. Xander got a panful of cheese-and-garlic toast out of the top part of the cooker and they all shuffled to their seats and ate in total silence for about one minute.

*C'mon and ask, for fuck's sake! Just ask, I'll tell you...didn't mean to keep it a secret for this long... Ask, ask...Ferro, c'mon -*

"Why're you dealing with Rrahn, Spike?" Ferro, like Spike figured. Spike ate a forkful of his lasagna and wiped his mouth - pushed his plate away and leaned his elbows up on the table.

"The fee'll keep us for a year, Ferro."

"She left that - There's a dog on the ship, Spike."

"Yeah, I know."

Ferro prodded at his food - picked up his toast and looked at it and put it back down. "You know you can't trust her, Spike! I mean - Jesus Christ! She's the reason we were all almost sold to the toads!"

Nia slurped her drink, looking narrow-eyed at him.

"I know. I know, Ferro! It's - she told me this m'ryi was gonna be - available. Told me Y'yis was gonna be trying to collect it when he wasn't supposed to touch it."

"So it was a set-up to take Y'yis down," Xander said, and Spike sighed and leaned back in his chair.

"Yeah. Y'yis and Fat Jack. Rrahn took that m'ryi a year ago - took that jyiiy out. Y'yis and his house were supposed to be allying with them but when they got the chance - they took it off Rrahn. We stole it from them - Y'yis had Fat Jack put out a bounty - Rrahn got 'em all. The toads are supposed to know better than to fence a m'ryi.

"Okay - okay, I - kinda get that. I mean - Y'yis needs to be made into fuckin' giblets -"

"When did we steal it?" Xander asked, interrupting Ferro and scowling at Spike and Spike got up and got a beer from the cabinet - opened it and drank half in one gulp.

"When we boosted that shipment out of Farpoint. Those - artifacts? All that - was what was left of Han-y'ri jyiiy. Y'yis had it re-routed - that's how Rrahn knew."

Ferro made a noise very much like a growl and Spike's demon hissed in approval. "That bitch - we couldn’t fence half that stuff! Jyiiy artifacts - no wonder nobody'd touch 'em!"

"Yeah - made her add a couple million to the fee for that."

"Right, okay - so - couple million?" Spike nodded. Ferro looked over at Nia, who shrugged. "Fuck. What the fuck do we do next?" Ferro forked up the last of his lasagna - looked at Spike's mostly untouched plate and grabbed it. Nia took a nibble of her own portion and looked thoughtful.

"I think we're gonna see a hole or two in the Outsider's ranks real soon," Spike said. "I think Rrahn's trying to collect as many m'ryi as she can - I think she's making herself a fucking army."

"Army." Ferro stabbed at his food - dropped his fork with a clatter and picked up his toast - shredded it as he sat there, his leg bouncing, bouncing, bouncing in the grip of nerves. "So, what, she's plannin' on recruiting us? Makin' us part of her little war?"

"Not in this fucking lifetime," Xander muttered, and Spike privately agreed. If one jyiiy - one House - took out another, all the ranking members were killed as well as any blood-kin, servants - hell, they killed the sodding pets. What was left was folded into the victor's household, seamless and without debt. The loser's name was struck from all records and all memory and the m'ryi - the history of a House - became the possession of the winner. All the victories - all the triumphs - became the new House's history. It was as if the defeated jyiiy had never existed. Of course, eventually a jyiiy got to big and a branch would split off - a new house form. Like cells dividing. But the loyalty one might expect didn't last past the inception. What Rrahn was doing was dangerous.

"I dunno what she's doing for sure. She's - planning something big. And she's nervous. And anything that makes an Outsider nervous... I want a cushion. I want - backup in case everything goes to shite and we're stuck out here with the kind of war that pushed these jyiiy into our space in the first place."

"Yeah, I get that," Ferro said quietly. "Well fuck." He picked up his glass - milk, it looked like - and drained it. "I hope you've got some kind of plan, Spike. For when Rrahn turns on us like a rabid fucking dog. Or when her flunky down there does."

"She's too caught up all her fuckin' - drama," Spike said, waving his hand vaguely. He felt in his pocket for his smokes - pulled one out and lit it and watched his crew. Ferro was finishing off the last of his food with rapid jabs, acting as if the noodles, cheese and sauce had personally insulted him. Nia was taking tiny bites, looking as if she wasn't enjoying it - too much salt for her, probably. Washing it down with whatever she'd concocted in the blender and even from across the table it smelled foul to Spike. Xander was eating in that head-down, elbows out way he'd acquired out at Whale Deep when his money was scarce and protection scarcer and Spike nudged him under the table - watched him look around and straighten up and slow down a little.

"I can probably get us out of this. Rrahn wants us to do another job for her - maybe more, but - I can get us out. If that's what we decide." He looked at his crew, who were looking at each other, silent communication. *Good crew. Best fucking crew there is and Rrahn be damned if she thinks I'm going to risk them for some half-cocked scheme... Don't care how good the money is. But oh...fuck - money is so good -* Something - some current - seemed to go through them all and Nia shrugged again - got up to rinse the dregs of her Fairy-drink out of her cup. Ferro grabbed her plate, too, and Xander got up to scoop another big spoonful out of the pan.

"So - you think she's gonna want us to get another m'ryi? Are we gonna be part of taking out a House?" Xander didn't look at Spike - concentrated on getting another piece of toast. Surreptitiously rubbed the back of his hand over his chest. Spike pushed away from the table and crossed to him - wrapped his arms around Xander's biceps and chest from behind, hugging him close.

"I dunno, love. Won't let you get hurt, no matter what. Promise."

"Yeah." Xander turned his head a little, looking at Spike, and Spike had to kiss the curve where jaw met skull. Mouthed the warm skin gently for just a moment. "I'm in, then."

"I'm almost in. What's the fee, and what's my cut?" Ferro brought over the scraped-clean plates from the table and dumped them in the washer - turned on the faucet and got some soap on his hands.

"Fee's - six hundred million. Your cut's one quarter, just like always." Spike felt Xander go stiff with shock in his arms - watched Nia turn slowly to look at Ferro and watched Ferro soap his hands over and over, staring at him.

"W-well - okay, then. I'm in. We're in."

"Good gods yes," Nia muttered, and Spike felt that little coil of tension - that had rode tight and aching in his belly for the last hour - finally unwind.

"This ship and this crew take priority - first sign of it all going south, we're out, right?"

"Right," Xander said, and Spike let him loose - watched him go back over to the table and sit down, plate and fork in hand. "We can get a whole new OS for Dru. Computer like that one we saw on Dur'rhii -"

"Get rid of that damn pulse-gun before it blows us all to bits - get something with more kick to it - less plasma-bleed." Ferro practically bounced to the table, flopping down next to Xander to talk upgrades. Nia put her cup in the washer and then leaned on the sink, looking at Spike.

"You really good with this?" Spike asked, and Nia held out her hand. Spike sighed and held out his own, letting Nia take his and hold it for a moment between her palms. Heat - stillness - the scent of beebalm and new-cut grass and Nia was blinking - looking at him with a strange expression.

"Oh, I'm fine. It'll - work. Somebody to see you, though."

"See me?"

"Somebody...old." Nia shrugged - grinned up at him and let his hand slip away. Spike shivered. "I'm going to check our position - thirteen minutes until we skip out."

"Yeah, okay," Spike said, and watched her walk away. The heat - lingered.

The Drusilla skipped out, leaving a vague shimmer and a sudden emptiness on any nearby radar. Inside, her crew lay in tilted chairs, securely belted in. Dreaming. Skip-dreams, that took you backward and forward and downward and upward and sideward, maybe. Xander - dreamed.

"Holy mother of moley, this ship is..."

"Piece of junk," the vamp says, and Xander shakes his head.

"Nah - not junk, just - Christ. Took some hard hits." Xander ducks under the skip-field array, his fingers gliding lightly on scorched and dented metal. Fingering actual holes, although only one had punched through the triple layer of steel and plex and fire-tempered porcelain. Whale Deep is the only shipyard in the 'verse that can dry-dock, up to a point. The S-class Chaddock ship - shaped like a spindle with the bubble of the bridge forward and the inverted parasol of the array aft - fits with about ten meters to spare, cradled in a suspension harness because this kind of ship - scout, infiltrator, assassin - was never meant to land anywhere. Xander marks points of repair on his slate - stands for a long, long minute under the port hatch, where the ship's name and code is painted. The Drusilla...and he shivers.

A hand grabs the back of his neck - the chain and tag he wears, twisting it so he has to cough.

"Not getting' paid to stand and stare, Harris. Get your ass in gear."

"Yeah, I'm doin' it," Xander mutters and the vamp stalks away. Xander rubs his neck, fighting the urge to slip the piece of whittled press-wood out of his pocket and stake the bastard. But - he can't. Indentured - in debt - fucked. And he has work to do.

"You the guy gonna fix her up?" New voice - different voice - and Xander looks over and then up, seeing a tall black man standing by the door. Left leg in an inflated cast - body held stiff, bandages showing at his collar. Finger-long dreads hanging down and scars on his cheeks - raised tribal markings that look old and well-worn. Handsome man with a gun and a knife and a Chaddock stinger at hip and waist and thigh - man with a scowl on his face and Xander's fingers clutch the slate a little tighter.

"Yeah, I - uh - I'm your guy. Don't worry, I'll - she'll be good as new."

"Better be, or I'll... Bloody hell. Harris?" And that's when Xander discovers that the Drusilla is Spike's ship. William the Bloody, Captain, and it's been 51 years since Spike died on the Hellmouth and Xander watched Buffy grieve him. And get over him.

"Yeah. Me. You - you're dead, Spike."

"I get that a lot," Spike says, and then he's walking forward and pounding Xander on the back, grinning, and the scary man with the scars is laughing and Xander feels...at home.

On the bridge Xander's eyes move, back and forth, back and forth as the Dru skips, light-years unraveling ahead and behind - the fabric of time and the ship and the crew skeining through space. And the dream shifts - flows - becomes something else.

"Xander! Xander, answer me! Bloody dogs said he was this way -" Spike's voice - Nia's - calling him and Xander twists in the rubble and stiffening bodies of the dead. He's bleeding - he can feel it, cold in the air from a ventilation fan - but he's numb and he doesn't know where he's bleeding from and he's - scared.

They'd been asked to ferry in an Outside matriarch to Llact, a joint Chaddock-Outsider station. Some sort of negotiations - some new trade route or a change of CEO's - it was hard to say, with the dogs. What they'd actually skipped into was two jyiiy destroying a third, down to the last new-born pup and little, jeweled lizards in gold-wire cages. An entire level of the station gutted - the patriarch and all the blood-kin dying slow deaths. Their passenger had wanted a tour - Xander had lasted five minutes and then couldn't go on. Lagging behind the rest, he'd taken a cat-sized Outsider pup into his arms. It was blood-covered, keening - torn and pitiful. Trying to save it was taboo. One of the Outsider's who'd been on the attacking side had simply turned and slashed him across the chest, claws digging deep. Leaving him there among the corpses.

"Sss..." He can't even talk - can't move - and the little Outsider pup cries and cries and cries until he wants to scream...but Spike is there, Nia is, and he's crying, he can feel it. Crying and trying to hold onto Spike and the pup is crying and then there's a crunch and it's not, and Spike's face is grim.

"Get a damn EM unit down here," Spike snarls, and Xander's hand clutches weakly at Spike's. They're both slippery with blood and Xander's fingers slide off.

"This terminal's fucked. Just a moment -" Nia says. Her long fingers weave wires together and suddenly power surges along blackened strands and she's talking to the station - talking to Ferro and Spike is holding him tight, tight.

"Fairy magic," Xander says, voice tight with pain. "I don't like this dream." His chest is burning - his lungs feel full of water and his heart is beating so, so slow.

"Dream something else," Nia says, and Xander turns - fish in a fluorescent sea - and dives into some other where.

The Dru shimmered into real-space like a faulty hologram - shiver-flicker-flash and then she was there, the skip array throwing off the last of the energy like a swarm of pale bees. In his chair Ferro stirred - pushed himself upright and groaned softly. Opposite him he could see Xander doing the same and behind them both was Spike, swearing softly. Nia already had her chair upright - had a pouch of drink open and in her hand. Her other hand was skimming over her boards and Ferro groped for the chair control - winced as he was powered upward and his innards all settled decidedly down.

Leaving skip-space was like the morning after a really good wake. Ferro felt along the edge of his console and found a drink-pouch - pulled the straw out - hard little pop that broke the seal - and drank. Not too fast, or it would come right back up. He felt - desiccated. Xander looked like shit - hollow cheeks and sunken eyes, skin tinged with a sort of greyish green. *Long fuckin' skip, Christ, that was...too fuckin' long...need to eat...*

Ferro took a last suck of the drink and shoved the empty pouch back into the webbing - fumbled for a bar and tore at the wrapping. He could hear Spike moving and he twisted slowly around. "Jesus fucking hell, Spike, you look -"

"Look like Nosferatu," Xander mumbled, and Spike scowled, death's-head with dandelion hair.

"Ah, man, don't do that! That's even worse!" Ferro took a bite of food - chewed with a jaw that felt like it had rusted shut.

"Nia, how long -?" Spike grated, sinking his fangs into a bag of blood. Ferro shivered and looked away. The vamp-face was even worse, thin as Spike was.

"It's.... Ship says - almost four months." Nia slurped the last of her drink and shoved the trash away - swung her chair around, unbuckling. She'd been awake - aware - probably a good fifteen minutes or more than they had. Fairies recovered faster from a skip - didn't lose so much to the down-time. "There's a marker out there, and what might be Rrahn's ship - I can't tell, we're too far out." She stood up - grabbed at her seat-back for a moment and then walked mostly-steadily off the bridge and toward the head. "Right back," she muttered and Ferro suddenly had to get up, too. Xander was unbuckling and Ferro yanked at the belts, the last one catching.

"Dibs, man, dibs -" he said, and the buckle and tongue parted with a grinding noise.

"Damnit, Ferro -" Xander wobbled to his feet and then put his hand to his mouth, looking more green than grey.

"Oh, fuck - yeah, okay, you next," Ferro said, grabbing another drink and opening it. Pissing could wait - he was not gonna suffer through Xander losing his lunch on the bridge.

"Gonna get air-sick bags, swear to fucking god," Spike muttered, licking a smear of blood off his lip - reverting to his human face and looking a little better already.

"It's the damn - drink," Xander muttered, groping for another one. "Can't stand that fucking orange."

"Sorry," Nia said, staggering past him and falling into her seat. Her wispy shock of hair was dark gold, slicked back with a handful of water and a few trickles ran down her cheeks. "Thought I gave you the cherry."

"Gave me both," Xander said, and lurched off the bridge. Ferro concentrated on his boards, making sure all systems were up and running. There was a warning on one ventilator shaft and he winced. *Fuck - wonder if this is where we're gonna be or - are we skipping again? Probably have time to fix that...* Spike slurped his blood and Nia made a disgusted noise and Spike laughed, tired-sounding. But it was laughter and Ferro felt his stomach unknot just a bit. Back to a little bit of normal.

"Guess I should'a let you do those filters after all," he said, when Xander came back to his chair. "Got a warning on number five."

"See? See? 'Get a bandage, Xander! Spike'll be mad, Xander!'" Xander dropped into his chair and groaned and Spike stirred, making a questioning sort of noise.

"Why'd you need a bandage?"

"Just cut my hand. He didn't even notice! Ferro stole my filters and now we're all gonna get particulate pneumonia and die 'cause a little blood makes him squeamish."

"It does not!"

"Children, hush," Nia said, and they all looked at her. She was staring at her boards with a sort of sick look and Ferro felt the drink in his belly curdle.

"Report, Nia," Spike snapped, and Nia did something on her keyboard that made a screen on Ferro's boards go live. Echoed to all the boards and Ferro heard Xander take a hard breath - heard Spike start to swear, low and angry and not English.

*We are so, so fucked.* Ferro stared at the screen - at the haze of blue-green oblongs and dots that surrounded a central, dark mass. The skip-point and all around were ships - maybe hundreds. And all Outsiders.

"Ferro - get going if you're gonna go. Things are gonna get rough," Spike said, and Ferro had to agree.

Part five.

ETA:Bones and House *possible spoilers!!* - was the courtroom stuff in 'Bones' really 'real' at all? Seemed so very *not*. I liked the Booth/Bones bonding over annoying personal handlers. The friend - can't remember her name - is getting *way* annoying in her zeal to make Temperance 'normal' with a boyfriend. Sheesh.
House! Oh, so fun. 'I'm gay, I'm with Wilson' *paraphrasing*. Wheeeeeeee!! Yis! *fist pump*

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