What's the Brig Idea? (Open)

[Akana]

Akana kept herself as far away from people as possible. Mostly she just used logic: people tended to frequent certain areas of the ship (like the mess hall), and she avoided them. As a consequence, she'd become pretty familiar with the loading dock, and other less traveled areas.

At the moment she was sitting cross legged on a small crate, meditating. She felt so... emotional lately. She'd never really liked being around a bunch of people, but it'd never bothered her. Now it seemed like she couldn't help but be anxious around them: her feelings spiked all over the place.

The loading dock was otherwise silent when she heard a very distant shout. It was too far to make out the words--probably echoing down the hallway just enough that she could hear it--but it sounded like it was heading her way. Akana winced, and pushed herself from her spot. If commotion was on its way, she didn't want to be here to meet it.

She turned towards the exit, just in time to see a rather unclothed man come around a corner. Immediately she felt a spike of fear, confusion, and anger. It was so strong that she was physically stopped in her place. Her pulse went from calm to jack-hammer in a moment.

[Kaden]

Kaden's bare feet his the hallways pretty hard. He was surprised at how odd it felt. He'd spent a good portion of his life barefoot but in the past couple of years he'd gotten into the Earth habit of wearing shoes where ever he went. Running with bare feet was proving to be quite the unenjoyable experience but that wasn't the only thing odd about this run.

To say that he hadn't noticed he was naked before would be inaccurate. It was a pretty hard thing to miss. But it had not been the most important detail of that moment and had gotten eclipsed by the fact he seemed to be teleporting for some unknown reason. He didn't really have time to think about it now either as he heard the captain and his men start after him but he was a bit more aware of it now that air was rushing past his skin. He looked down quickly to see that, yes, he was completely unclothed.

His collar etched into his chest depicting his life story was bare for anyone to read if they knew how. The two lion paw tattoos, one on each side of his chest, marked his birth house and had been given to him upon completion of his rite of passage. Each carefully marked paw was surrounded by one swirl that led and connected to an oval that was tattooed into the center of his chest. He only had one line because he had only traveled one year before getting married. He had seen brothers with three, four, sometimes five or six lines. The tattooist always made it look artful but so many lines were still considered a bit of a failing and as such were unpopular and unfashionable.

Inside the oval was the eye of the Drago, the house he'd married into. And above the Drago oval was one, lonely star. The whole pattern was surrounded by an artists interpretations of grassy stalks to signify the plains of his birth and craggy mountains to depict the Dragon's Lair. Instead of taking away from the important things the small pictures blended in and complemented the greater pattern, forming the collar that seemed to drape over his chest and shoulders like a piece of cloth. His life. His old life.

He looked up and set his attention on running. He had been trained to memorize maps and routes so that he wouldn't get lost in situations like this and he'd spent his time in jail sharpening his memory and recalling various details of the hallways they'd led him through on his way down here. He knew his way back to the bridge but he didn't need to get to the bridge. From the bridge he could find his way back to the hangar bay but it would take much too long and his pursuers would have caught up to him by then.

Still, maybe he should lead them on a merry chase. Even if he got to the hangar bay before them he'd have no chance to start up his ship before they caught up to him and put a hole in it. But if he led them through the Laika first he may be able to close a couple of doors behind him, maybe even lose them altogether. Especially if he could keep jumping (though even the thought of jumping again made him feel sick with dread).

When he saw a turn ahead Kaden made a split second decision and took it. He wasn't sure where it led but it was in the right direction for the hangar bay and he was going to hope he could jump his way into losing his pursuers.

Coming around the corner he spotted another person in the bay and silently cursed but didn't slow down. As he passed by he saw that it was a woman and, for a moment, he felt a strong desire to hide and apologize profusely for his lack of clothes. If he was the same recruit who had arrived on Earth two years ago he probably would have. He had never been undressed in front of any woman who wasn't his wife and the situation would have been near unbearable.

But he'd been in the fleet long enough to be able to ignore his cultural upbringing and concentrate on his job. He'd had to stop thinking of his fellow female pilots as women and start thinking of them as pilots or he wouldn't have gotten far. This woman was no different. She was still a pirate.

And yet...

Kaden stopped a couple of feet past her and quickly turned and executed a sloppy bow. "My apologies Di." As he lifted his eyes to her face there was a brief moment when he thought he recognized her but before his brain could even take hold of the feeling, let alone track it down to its source, it was gone and he saw the Captain and his crew come around the corner.

Kaden turned and kept running.

[Archer]

Dean rounded the corner with the Captain and Bartleby, his boot slamming against the cold metal of the hull. He touched his ear-piece shouting "Now Disc! Now!"

Disc didn't respond, instead the Dustrunner- in all its nearly-blown-up-glory- came to life. Engines roared (well...not really. Saying that they roared is a bit of an exaggeration. They more so puttered to life), guns cocked and loaded, and the fighter ship lifted off the ground.

Disc leveled the apex of the bow at Kaden, using the comm. speakers. " Not another step fed- .....Wait. He's naked? Why is he naked Dean?!? Just what kind of interrogation where you doing?" It was impossible to miss the snickers in his voice.

Dean just kept running with the others, muttering, "I really don't have time for this."

[Bartelby]

Bartelby ran as best he could, but he was quickly falling behind. His clothes were comfortable, and allowed for movement, but they just weren't made for running. It wasn't long before the others were getting ahead of him.

But then he stopped. He was confused by what was going on. He saw Kaden, some sort of ship, and a seemingly random girl, all crammed into the room he had just entered. But the main confusion was that the ship was up and running, and also talking. It wasn't as if Bartelby was shocked by this. It was just unexpected was all.

"Stop! Don't you try any more of your tricks!" Bartelby yelled out between breaths. He still didn't understand what the escaped prisoner did, but Bartelby decided he should continue to play his own part. He straightened out his white robes and tried to regain some of his composure, but it was a bit difficult at the moment.

[Gregoire]

((As far as I can tell, Dean's ship is blocking the way? If not, I can certainly edit my post.))

The boy he'd shouted at made no attempt to chase after Kaden, but Greg didn't have time to urge him to help further. With his boots hitting heavy against the floor, the Captain turned the corner with the other two crew mates not far behind. They'd all turned into the loading dock, where a female member of the crew was apparently exiting. At the same time, the fighter pilot's ship had turned itself on and was presently aiming itself at the escaped prisoner.

Greg skidded to a stop, hearing Bartelby's shout. There weren't many more options for Kaden now; the ship was blocking one way, they were blocking the other. Taking in a small breath, a cocky smile spread across his face. The adrenaline of almost losing his teleporting prisoner topped with having to run after him was still pulsing through his veins. The Captain otherwise had the presence of a calm man.

"I'm not sure where you think you're running to, Kaden. This ship is finite in its space, sadly, unless you were planning on disappearing into space," As he spoke, he was rolling up his sleeves. He was still poised to keep running, realizing that Kaden could teleport once more. He'd done it twice already, and Greg had a feeling he hadn't seen the last of it. "What now? You can't keep running around in my ship forever."

[Daxen]

Daxen was rooted in place, back in the brig. Should he follow them? It sounded more interesting, who knows what could happen? Although the naked guy was probably very dangerous, full of histories of kicking puppies and stealing breadsticks. He lowered his gaze in distraught confusion. Y'know, sometimes you just wanna sit down and lament about the unwanted, scary events that happen in your life.

But he knew he was a passenger aboard the Laika, albeit just an unfortunate, hungry citizen, and he knew he should at least leave the brig. He gulped, cast an accusing look at his perfectly tame shadow, and ran ahead, making sure to stay at least a few feet behind the group so he's not in the prisoner's sight should he go on a murderous rampage.

[Kaden]

Kaden came up short when he saw the ship rise up ahead of him. He looked down and could see his own ship behind it and then looked back up at the ship that was hovering in the air in front of him. He hadn't seen a pilot run into it but that didn't mean one hadn't been in there, or maybe a mechanic. Then he heard a voice over the comm speakers and he recognized the ship for what it was...an AI.

He thought about using the Cease and Desist order all AI were sworn to obey, a protection of humanity that the AI ambassador on Earth had been fighting against. To make a whole people swear to answer to another, even in just that specialized case, had struck many as unfair. Not enough though. Ambassador Logan's bill to drop it kept getting defeated in Congress. Too many people were afraid of what the AI would do if they weren't controlled.

But the truth was the AI weren't controlled any how. Using the Cease and Desist order was just like telling a human to stop and put their hands in the air. There was no way to force a being with free will to listen to a command. Logan, because he had been Kaden's friend and mentor, had warned Kaden about this. Most humans believed that AI were coded to listen to the Cease and Desist order and that they couldn't break it. AI all across the galaxy kept up this pretense, knowing the less powerful of their number would suffer if humans ever truly believed they were uncontrollable. If this AI was loyal to the rest of its kind it would play along. But if it wasn't...Considering it was hanging out with pirates there was no reason to believe it was more honorable than the human company it kept.

Kaden looked a little longingly at his Falcon, the black ship shining with a menacing glare, looking like a beautiful blade surrounded and very out of place surrounded by cargo. He wished now that he had accepted the neuro link to the ship. It would have linked the ship to his neural net and effectively made the ship a part of his body when it was activated. But he'd been afraid. There had been many of cases in the early days of people losing themselves in the machines they sought to link with, unable to tell where their body ended and the machine began, starving away to nothing before they learned to control it properly. They had all been warned about the dangers of the link. Once you were linked to a machine your brain could not tell the difference between it and your birth given body. It was just another thing to control like an extra hand or foot. The link was foreign at first but the human mind was an amazing thing and it learned to adapt fairly quickly, incorporating its new limb into its functions. Unfortunately that was the problem. You had to make sure you could keep track of what you were linked to, knowing when a feeling you had was coming from your blood body and when it was coming from your ship. Some never found the right balance and had to give up the link.

No one officially said anything since the links were a new technology and not very widespread, but those soldiers never seemed to rise very far in the ranks after that. And it was common knowledge, though, again, not officially acknowledged, that all Battlestar Commanders could successfully link to their Battlestars, taking direct control of the ship in great times of need.

A lot of Senators didn't like the links. It blurred the line between human and machine, a touchy subject with the spread of the AI's and their movement for rights. But the military found them useful. Especially because the technology was hard to come by outside of the military so far. They knew it would leak to the black market eventually, knowledge was the one thing that it was impossible to contain, but they planned on exploiting their edge while they had it. No soldier was forced to take on the link and undergo training. But it was highly encouraged and there had been a lot of pressure to do so. Pressure Kaden had withstood, unsure how he felt about such a connection.

He did not look down on the AIs or machines. Logan had been his mentor when he'd come to Earth, teaching him Common much quicker than he could ever have learned without him. Even now, when Kaden spoke with a surprising lack of accent, he thanked Logan in his thoughts. It was just that he'd been raised to revere his body as the product of generations and generations of careful breeding. The Safi were self bred to contain the best qualities of humanity. Kaden put on muscle mass, had an amazing capacity to learn new things and memorize anything put in front of him and it was a rare day that he got sick. He hadn't realized this was anything special, certainly he hadn't been an outstanding specimen back on Takatifu though he hadn't been compiled of the dregs of the gene pool either he thought with no little pride. But once he'd gotten to earth he realized just what it meant. He wasn't super human. He was just among the best that humans could be without artificially modifying their genetic code. And he'd been hesitant to add to his body in such an unnatural way.

Now he cursed his foolishness. If he had been linked to his ship this would not be a problem. In fact, he probably could have avoided capture in the first place. He looked up at the floating shape, making his decision. He could not command the AI to stand down. It would put it in a compromising position. It would either follow his order and preserve the illusion of AI docility. Or it would ignore him and he would have wasted his time. No, he couldn't call it out publicly.

He stared at the top of the ship and started running straight towards it. He found himself dreading and hoping in equal parts that he would transport as he had done a moment before. To his relief, and to his regret, he did. He stumbled to a halt before he fell off the curving side of the ship he'd transported onto. He took a moment to get his legs steady under him and then looked at his own ship, preparing to jump again.

[Angel]

The hostage completely ignored Greg, and he muttered a curse under his breath when Kaden began running towards his ship. Then, again, in one blink, the man had disappeared and reappeared on top of the fighter ship. That was it. Greg was tired of running after this person--this thing, whatever he was, man or spirit or something else. This was Greg's ship, and under his control, and prisoners weren't supposed to be running around. The Captain had patience, but by now it had been ground down to a fine dust.

"STOP!" Greg roared, the one word bristling with his stern, commanding tone. He was pointing one finger at Archer's activated ship, hazel eyes burning. "Or I'll have your precious little bloody ship blown apart by this one, and then you next." The expression on his face spoke the seriousness of his threat; Indeed, without realizing it, he had drawn his gun again and had it pointed at Kaden, finger tightening around the trigger. There comes a point where a person loses their usefulness, and Kaden was beginning to walk that line.

With free hand pointing at Archer's ship, he snapped his fingers at the fighter pilot. "If he so much as moves, you have my clearance to shoot his ship." Even if Kaden did manage to somehow get into his ship and start it up, it was futile anyways--surely Kaden realized this. How did he expect to even get out of the loading dock? He would be trapped regardless, whether it was in a brig cage or in the belly of the Laika's loading dock.

[Richard]

Richard came into the scene on the opposite side of the captain and noticed three things off the bat: a naked man running, the captain yelling, and a ship in the air. "What is going on here?" he asked. He just got on the ship at the last stop and now there was already a situation.

He went over to the other ship and pulled out a stun gun. He aimed at the door after he saw that the guy could just appear there. "Now I wait for him to do something stupid."

[Kaden]

Kaden looked at his beautiful Falcon and knew it was useless sitting in the hangar of this ship. He hadn't been thinking really when he'd run for it. He had no pressure suit to fly it with even if he could get inside. And if he did and managed to start it up before the Captain carried out his thread what then? Blow a hole in the side of the ship and kill everyone inside on his way out? They may be pirates willing to play with people's lives but he wasn't. Even errant citizens of the UIR were owed his protection and loyalty.

Kaden ground his teeth together and looked towards the door to the hangar bay. If he could escape into the ship maybe...that line of thinking was cut off when another crew member entered and pointed his gun towards the door. Smart, he thought with appreciation and frustration. Besides what would the point be, they'd have a 24 hour guard on his ship after this.

Kaden stood up and faced the captain and the rest of the crew, looking down at them from his position on top of the ship floating in the hangar bay. Rage was very close to the surface and if his eyes could have drilled holes in the Captain's forehead they probably would have. These people were standing in the way of him and the duties he'd sworn to carry out and for no good reason he could tell. They could get his ransom price, he'd hand it to them himself, but it didn't matter.

Kaden looked into the Captain's eyes from his position on top of the ship and then he was standing right in front of him. For a moment they breathed each other's air and then Kaden decked him. It didn't serve any purpose, he couldn't escape, it was uncontrolled and unlike him but he'd had a bad day and it was getting worse.

He stepped back from the Captain and held his hands up as the rest of the crew reacted. "And how do you plan to hold me?" he spat at the Captain as someone grabbed his arms and another pointed a gun at his forehead.

[Richard]

Richard saw the guy surrender and pointed his gun at his head. He wondered about the guy's question on how to restrain him. How does one restrain a teleporter? He kept his gun trained on the guy while someone else grabbed him.

"Captain, maybe we should disable his ship until it is gotten rid of," Richard suggested. "I can remove some of the vital parts, so that it won't be able to fly. I can put them back later if need be." He hated the thought of teleporters as enemies, but as allies, he thought, they were the only real necessity of a fight. He wondered what would have happened if the guy hadn't surrendered and he had been ordered to take him down. He didn't want to hurt a guy that had done nothing wrong to him.

[Angel]

Greg didn't allow his attention to stray from Kaden, despite the distraction of another crew member entering the Brig. Just his luck, the more crew to restrain this man the better. The Captain met Kaden's heated gaze fully, the austerity of his threat visible on every inch of his face. Ransom or not, Kaden was becoming much more of a problem than Greg had ever envisioned. Even if a dead man meant a loss in profit and time, Greg was willing to go far to make a point. His tightening finger on the gun's trigger proved no less.

Then, it happened again. In one second Kaden was on his old ship, in the next he was face-to-face with Greg. The Captain had a moment to blink in surprise, breathe in a sharp breath, before Kaden's fist connected with the side of his face. Black stars wheeled across his vision as he stumbled back a few steps, free hand clasped to his throbbing cheek. A slow silence settled over the room, full of tension. Greg finally turned to the side, spitting blood and saliva, and gave a short bark of laughter. This seemed to signal the other crew members to react, and they rushed forward to grab Kaden's arms. With Kaden secured, the Captain held up one hand to stop Dean from taking any action.

Straightening up, Greg wiped the back of his hand across the corner of his mouth. A small trickle of blood was smeared there, accenting the pained smirk that spread across his face. Amusement flickered in his eyes, but only briefly. "The same way I've been keeping you, my friend. Locked up in the same sweet-smelling little luxury suite I've been hosting you in. But," He tapped the gun in his hand against his temple, "the rules have changed now. You're no longer a privileged guest, but a hazardous aggravation. Disappear beyond the Brig, and I'll have you shot out into space. Does that suffice?"

Acknowledging Richard, the Captain scanned his eyes over Kaden's Falcon. "That's a beautiful thought, and a fantastic offer. But, no." His gaze rested back on Kaden. "I'd rather that he be able to taste freedom that won't be his." Then his tone shifted to a lighter note, addressing Kaden, eyebrows rising. "That is, unless you decide to join us. That offer, of course, is always going to be extended to you, should you take it. Your ship will stay nice and safe, and you'll even get to fly it again." A smile broke out across his face again, dark red blood glistening at the corner of his mouth. "See? I'm not so despicable."

[Kaden]

Kaden would have shaken his head except there was still a pistol pressed to it. Still, he didn't even bother looking at the man who held it, his eyes were only for the captain. "And if I said yes you'd take my word for it when you will not take my word for anything else? I think not Captain." The man hardly deserved the title but Kaden gave it to him nonetheless. "You have already told me my word means nothing to you so do not insult me now by offering to accept my oath of allegiance. I have already given it to the fleet and to the UIR and you are stopping me from fulfilling my duty to both."

"If I were you I would listen to the boy," he said, briefly looking at the man who had suggested disabling his ship, "for I will leave this ship and return to serve or I will be dead. That is the oath I swore and I will not be foresworn because of you. But for now, back to the cell?" It almost sounded like a question but Kaden jerked his head forward and smiled when he felt it connect with the captain's nose, breaking it. Especially because the captain had been standing five feet away from him. He did not normally take pleasure in causing other's pain, especially his enemies. Not only had he been taught such pleasure corrupted the soul, he had never had a taste for it. But this particular enemy had managed to anger him enough that he did feel a bit of satisfaction in causing him pain.

His arms were now free and the pistol that had been pointed at his forehead was now pointed at the crew member who had been holding him. Before they could recapture him Kaden calmly turned back towards the brig and concentrated on the door.

He took a step and made it half way across the hangar bay. He frowned a little. This was the first time he'd noticed a limitation to how far he could go but, then again, he hadn't been conducting a systematic study of this new found power on his hurried flight through the halls. That would change now. He hadn't lied to the captain. In fact he hadn't lied since he'd set foot on the ship. If the captain had let him go Kaden would have made sure his ransom price had been delivered to the place of the captain's choice. He would have even wrapped it and tied a bow around it if it had been asked of him. And then he promptly would have sought Gregoire's capture, other duties allowing. That too, he'd promised. And now he had promised to escape. He had always sought to be a man of his word he thought with anger and a little bit of the classic Safi arrogance that his people were hated for.

He concentrated on getting to the brig's door and back to the cell and went to take a step and went...one step. He looked up and saw the boy from before standing in the brig's door. He tried again and again nothing happened.

[Deux]

Deux had continued through the ship, walking a path he had around the halls unfocused. He easily avoided the others on the ship and a few were even polite enough to step out of his way when they say him coming. Even though he decided to walk the ship at what felt like random the crew was starting to recognize him.

Turning down another hall he walked until he opposite the brig door. Deux stopped and narrowed his eyes slightly. He felt like it was familiar but couldn’t recall the details. Sighing he looked away and down the corridor and was about to walk again when he say Kaden. The memories clicked and all feelings of frustration left. Though he was confused as to why the man no longer wearing clothing.

“Hello Kaden,” he said with a slight bow.

[Angel]

Greg smiled widely at Kaden. "Take only your word? Of course not." He shook his head. "No. Were you to join me, you'd be--" He motioned in the air as if he was writing on some paper. "--signing a binding contract with blood, the DNA, what have you. Anything that would identify you. And I keep it as a little incentive--a little piece of evidence to deter you from betraying your allegiance to me," Greg wiped the back of his hand against his mouth, swiping the blood trickling down his chin. "No biggie. But the contract is, as I've said, binding."

He waved his hands, as if to dismiss the subject. "That's just details, however. The rewards for being in my service, the very ideals that it represents--" Greg was suddenly cut off when Kaden head butted him. In the nose. Stumbling back a few paces, Greg let out a roar of pain, grasping a hand to his nose. Blood seeped between his fingers, dribbling down the back of his hand. When his head had stopped reeling enough from the pain, Greg forced his gaze over to where Kaden had traveled. A couple of the crew members were already on their way to Kaden, grabbing his arms in their fists.

The Captain stalked half the length of the loading dock, briefly noticing Deux's presence and the fact that Kaden had stopped without teleporting. In the back of his mind he took note, wondering why. Then he stepped in front of Kaden and swung a fist aimed at the side of the man's head.