throw it back, throw it back (part CXXI)

(Roleplay entry. Continued from part CXX.)

Justine stood facing the elevator in her loft apartment in New Alexandria, and poked it again. It stubbornly refused to take her anywhere. She made some notes on her datapad as Dejah materialised beside her.

"What's that?" Dejah asked, receiving the data packet.

"That is where this elevator should go."

"Ah! We can fix that." Dejah got out her tools and began making changes.

Justine gave Dejah an appreciative look. "You look kinda nautical today, Deebs!"

"I was working on the eastern docks, for pleasure craft 'n such."

"I can't wait until we can start going sailing," Justine replied then added, "I mean, we could go any time, right?"

"Well, why not now?" Dejah suggested, "Come take a little walk, love."

Justine bounced on the balls of her feet, a grin spreading across her face. "Lemme get changed!"

*****

Dejah laughs as Justine trips on the way down the docks. "That needs a ladder!"

Justine climbed aboard, admiring the Ward above. "Wow, great boat, Deebs! Or should I say, Most Honorable Hand?"

"Deebs to my friends!"

Justine leaned back, enjoying the feel of the sun and the light easterly breeze on her skin. Dejah guided the little craft out of the harbor of New Alexandria and out onto the Dark Sea. Squinting, Justine peered across Dark Sea where Gearhaven was coming into view, jumping up in alarm. "What the hell is that over there?"

Deebs looked around. "We just passed into Gearhaven's harbor, so..."



Justine started to panic. "Holy FUCK. That's...that looks like Hiro's Liberator! Can you pull up over there? Is he still inside?"

"Let me rig for motor," Deebs said, dropping the sail and tacking towards the shore where the green jet tilted along the shoreline, clearly on fire. "Cabin's right empty."

Justine jumped to the shoreline, holding her head, trying to see inside the plane. "[F**k]! What HAPPENED?"

Dejah replied, "Not a lot of blast damage, not a big debris field, hull intact...looks like a rugged landing, not a crash-n-burn."

Justine searched in the trees and under the crashed ship, looking for a sign of a pilot. "I'm going to get the black box." Releasing the hatch, she climbed into the cockpit, crawling under the instrument board to extract the flight recorder.

"I can think of a few times I wish we'd known about flight recorders..." Dejah said, laughing ruefully.

"I think...I don't want to think this, but...maybe we should get dive gear out and search the harbour bottom?"

"Hmmmmm. I don't have any on the boat."

"Or...well...we don't even know who was piloting the Liberator."

"No, we don't."



Justine paces, unable to think. "I don’t know what to do. [F**k f**k F**K]." Taking a deep breath, she reached out to the feed and called for help on the Gearhaven network.

Meanwhile, Dejah had an idea. "I'm going to see if my alliance with the Elements holds up. Be right back...I think."

"Ok."

Blue light flickered, like sunlight on ocean, around Dejah, as they strolled into the water...and down. After a rather long time, Dejah floated up and out, rivulets running from their hair as they landed, just as Zack landed in the Varyag.

"Justine!" he cried, jumping from the ship.

(Continued in part CXXII.)