Private Long Time, No See

[Shai Maji]

Shai scratched at the back of her head as she listened to Aerith speak. She had a point. They could talk about it later. Right now they had to figure out where to go with the coordinates she had stuck in her head. "Sith space? You got any idea what it is? There's a kark-ton of sketchy stuff in the middle of Sith space." she asked her as she dropped into the co-pilot's seat.

She glanced at Aerith, her face immediately curling into a concerned frown as she studied Aerith's injured arm. "You know... when you mentioned that you and the body could share parts... I thought you meant fixing yourself up." she commented as she pointed to the damaged bits. "Seriously, Aerith. That's not good. At least lemme take a look at it. See if I can patch it up. Just throw the ship on autopilot and I'll take a look at that." she insisted as she turned to face her. She was not going to take no for an answer. "Especially if we're going into Sith space... also, I'll need to get stuff from my ship. I ain't flying into that part of space without my armour." she suddenly realized.

She excused herself and rushed back to her ship. A little while later and she returned with two duffel bags. One had her armour and some extra goodies while the other had her weapons. She dumped them in the mess room and rejoined Aerith in the cockpit of the ship. "Okay... now you can throw the ship on autopilot so I can take a look at you." she insisted once again.

Once they were underway, she got to work on studying the damage on her arm. "Nothing too serious. If you don't try and punch your way through a blast door you should be fine. What did you do to that body anyway? We could have swiped a few parts off it." she asked her casually as she gave Aerith a tap on the shoulder. "Did you get anything out of it? Any useful information or something?" she asked carefully.

Aerith Krayt

 

[Aerith Krayt]

It was funny that Shai thought she had a clue about what she was doing. Truth being told, Aerith hadn't the foggiest idea. She just felt it was right. "This ship is designed for high speed infiltration missions. It'll be fine." She affirmed, looking back to Shai with a hint of the old fire Aerith once held in her eyes. Though when her injuries were pointed out, and cyborg scowled, shaking her head. "Some of the smaller bits, sure, but most of my hardware isn't compatible. I got replacement parts but I mean..." She held up her damaged right arm, the hole from the vibro-sword puncture earlier flashing out several sparks in the process. "I didn't need this at the time, this is my pummeling arm. Was gonna fix it up later." She downplayed the damage, knowing that while Shai probably wouldn't agree, Aerith knew her body a bit better than the other woman.

Still, Shai would be insistent on fixing her up, and there wouldn't be any getting around that. Though she was a tad amused that her companion thought she was intending on leaving at this very moment. As bold as Aerith was, she knew that was a terrible prospect. "Hell no, I need to stock up on things before we head off there. Need my armor and gear refurbished firstly." Still, it wasn't long before Shai was gone, seemingly willing to throw away whatever she was planning for Aerith's sake.

She frowned at that, feeling guilty for once more dragging the woman into her messy life. Seemed to be a constant habit for her. Sighing, Aerith took her left arm and detached her injured right arm, setting the device on an open terminal for Shai to tinker with when she returned. Moving back to the cockpit, she plugged herself back into the computer and got to work.


When Shai had returned, Aerith had just finished sorting through her duplicates memory unit, and shifting through the various memories that she had gathered. There was some manner of base there, that much she had gathered. The how's and whys though, that much was an unknown. She heard Shai working away on the limb, and didn't bother to turn to face her. After all, Aerith could see her via the security feed in her minds eye, and she was still connecting the dots with this revelation. "I disposed of the body, but I kept uploaded the neural interface implant and the memory unit into the mainframe. I didn't keep the other things due to the overriding coding. Remember Mandalore? I'd rather not repeat that event." Aerith remarked coldly, trying hard not to dwell on the fact she effectively murdered her 'sister'.

Being tapped on the shoulder snapped her out of the little research dive, her eyes focusing on Shai. "Someone has a little cloning operation, and I'm the template." She said softly, blinking slowly, before turn away. The idea unsettled her greatly, the idea that someone was mass producing copies of her for some unknown purpose.

It made her stomach turn.

Shai Maji

 

[Shai Maji]

Shai calmed down instantly when Aerith mentioned not setting off immediately. In hindsight it made a lot more sense to take some time to get ready. "Oh... hehe, makes sense." she admitted with a snicker. "Gives me some time to get some extra stuff too. And to let this kriffing scratch sort itself out." she admitted, glancing down at her side. It was feeling better already, but she would prefer to let it heal up properly before they jumped into a sith facility filled with a bunch of cyborgs.

When she returned to Aerith's ship, she quickly noticed the detached arm and got to work on it. She wanted her to be in top shape. Cybernetics weren't her specialty. They could get tricky and things can go wrong. Luckily it wasn't the neural connections and simply damaged parts, taking out a lot of the difficulty. It was similar to droid parts, something she was much better equipped to deal with. After a while she returned to Aerith in the cockpit. She smirked at her comment on Mandalore as she set the repaired arm down beside her. "Kinda hard to forget that day." she admitted softly as she rested a hand on her shoulder with a soft squeeze. She looked at Aerith with sympathy as the cyborg explained who they were fighting. "On the bright side, picking targets will be easy. Just look for the ones that have fashion sense." she teased, hoping to cheer her up.

Her smile faltered after a moment. She wrapped her arms around Aerith and rested her head on her shoulder. "It's gonna be okay. When we get there, it's game over for them. There can only be one super awesome 'borg friend, anything or anyone else is askin' for a bolt in the head." she reassured her softly. Her hug around Aerith tightened as she pressed a soft kiss onto her organic cheek. "I'll be with ya every step of the way." she muttered as she held her. "I'll be back in a few. Gonna get some stuff for the trip. I doubt you got everything you need for a proper meal." she joked as she let go of her and made for her own ship.

Shai eventually returned much later, landing her own ship beside Aerith. Using a hoverpad, she loaded a bunch of weapons, food, tools, and other supplies into the cyborg's vessel before she returned to the cockpit. With her hands on her shoulders again, she looked down at her with a smile. "You wanna camp out in my ship while we get everything sorted? Proper bed, movies, drinks, whatever you need to get your mind off this mess." she suggested, resting her chin on Aerith's head.

Aerith Krayt

 

[Aerith Krayt]

Aerith looked to the repaird limb and carefully lifted it up, attaching it to the connection point on her arm and locking it in. She felt the sharp 'sting' as the device connected, feeling momentary discomfort before it faded. Flexing her hand, she experimented with the limb, and found it to be satisfactory. Shai always did decent work, too bad the woman was effectively doing all of this for free.

There had to be a way to pay her back for all this.

Feeling Shai's hands upon her once more, Aerith turned her head, watching the woman from the side of her glance. Her cheeks reddened at Shai's words, but in truth she wasn't at all convinced that this battle would be a cake walk. Shai pecked her on the cheek, and the contact struck her with a mix of memories and feelings; both good and bad.

She smiled, her hands coming over Shai's, mind musing about what to do next. She was quiet for a moment, processing several things at once, though she knew being a worry wart wouldn't help her accomplish too much. "I was hoping you'd want to stay over here for tonight, I actually have a bed if that's tantalizing enough for you." She said softly, her chest feeling rather warm and fuzzy as the words left her throat.

She was unsure as to what Shai would say now, as Aerith let the words hang in the air, waiting for the woman to accept or deny the suggestion.

Shai Maji

 

[Shai Maji]

With Aerith holding onto her, the moment was pleasant. Plus there was the added benefit of making her blush which was always fun to do. However, the cyborg took her completely by surprise with her offer.

”Yeah of course a bed’s... oh.” she trailed off as she realised what Aerith was asking. Now it was her turn to blush. ”Um... yeah, su-sure! I can camp out here with you before we head off. I’ll even bring my projector and a speaker in case we wanna watch some stuff.” she agreed as she gave her another peck and let go.

”I’ll go get my stuff real quick.” she excused herself and jogged over to her ship. This was something she didn’t see coming. Spending the night with Aerith. It wasn’t the first time. But she didn’t exactly sleep over on Shai’s ship on their “date night” so long ago.

Still, this felt different somehow. Her mind wandered off to all kinds of places, however she yanked them straight back. She didn’t want to assume something or put Aerith in a spot that could ruin what they built up over the years. She was simply going to treat this as another night with her friend... despite her desires to open her big mouth already and ask Aerith what she truly wanted to ask.

She returned to Aerith’s ship with the items in hand, setting them down in the mess room’s table before she returned to her friend. ”I even brought the hot chocolate over in case you’re in the mood for it.” she offered as she rested her head on Aerith’s.

Aerith Krayt

 

[Aerith Krayt]

Her heat sensor detected a slight spike in Shai's facial temperature, a minor spike of .7 degrees, which confirmed what she had suspected. The woman was blushing. Well, that was one goal achieved for tonight. "Sure, that'd be delightful." She remarked, watching as the woman began to collect her belongings, clearly given a sense of haste at the prospects that Aerith had offered her.

She wasn't entirely surprised, this had been something they had been working towards for some time. As Shai departed, the cyborg was left to muse to herself, focusing her attention towards her suit, and setting about the final touches so it would be ready for deployment. Taking up the red helmet, she fiddled with it with her idle hands. In one way, this suit was her prison, and in another way, it was her greatest tool. She'd be needing it for the task that loomed before her, and thankfully, it had held up thus far. Gently, she locked the helmet into place, and booted up the suits diagnostics. It came up green across the board, which indicated to her that she could set up the weapon system when she had a chance.

But that could wait.

Moving back to her bedroom chambers, she began the task of dressing in something more appropriate for the night, casting aside her more casual attire for something more comfortable; a pair of sweatpants, and her a cropped black tank top. When Shai returned, Aerith was in the midst of coupling up her REC rail-gun to her suit, the cyborg pausing as she finished connecting up the main firing array, feeling Shai's head press against her shoulder. "I just finished the final touches on my suit, so work is all done for tonight." Spinning to face Shai, Aerith's hands gently settled on Shai's shoulders, and slowly moved down, brushing against her arms, and stopping as she attempted to take the woman's hands. "It's a bit unfortunate my nerve sensors are shot right now, I can't feel much of anything in my arms at current." She joked, having forgotten about that bit of damage, but often it had been such a nonissue she never took the malfunction seriously.

Shai Maji

 

[Shai Maji]

Shai grinned as Aerith mentioned being done with her work. That meant more free time with her. She leaned back to give her room as she spun to face the Shistavanen. Shai’s grin merely broadened as Aerith took hold of her and gently let her hands glide down towards hers. ”That’s fine. I only got feeling in one arm so we’re almost even.” she teased as she took hold of Aerith’s hands and squeezed them.

Her hands shifted to instead hold Aerith by her sides. ”Come on. Lemme setup the projector. I found this hilarious low budget horror movie about zombie storm troopers. It’s a disaster.” she spoke with a cackling laugh as she positioned the projector and connected the sound system to it.

Soon enough she was on Aerith’s bed, patting the space besude her to usher the cyborg closer. Once she was close enough, Shai wrapped her arms around her and pulled her closer. ”No matter what, at least we can spend some time together. Nobody can take that away from us.” she muttered as the movie started. Glancing at Aerith, she gave a warm smile and rested her head on the Cyborg’s shoulder.

Aerith Krayt

 

[Aerith Krayt]

Seeing the look Shai was giving her, the cyborg put all thoughts of work aside. It could wait for a later date it seemed. Feeling affectionate hands being placed upon her, Aerith smiled ever so slightly, hearing the hint of excitement in the woman's words. It had been a while since she had seen Shai like this, or she herself feeling anything akin to hopeful at the prospects of the future. It was strange, almost amiss, but a sensation that she felt certain she could grow into. "Go ahead and get it set up, I'm not going anywhere." She said softly, taking up her seat on the bed, and taking up her blanket as she tried to work out proper space for herself and Shai.

Sure enough, Shai had everything set up, and Aerith soon found herself on the receiving end of the woman's affection. She was right about one thing, no one could take this time away from them, though she was certain that whoever the hell made those copies of her was planning to. Her mind still a tad uneasy about the prospects of confronting those clones of hers, she let her mind relax, trying to enjoy the comfort of someone that wanted her around for the time being. "You make a good point." She said softly, her arm gently wrapping around the Shistavanen, her mind slowly able to distract her from the concerns that would soon come to pass.

Shai Maji