On the Mei Hua (Juliet&Angel)

[Juliet Harwood]

Juliet wouldn't say she liked being on the Mei Hua any better than she had enjoyed the Sally Ride, but she was getting used to being on ships. There hadn't been much fresh food to work with, but there were enough herbs and spices to make even rations taste decent. She had used up most of the fresh food the first night making a baked lobster with crab and shallots. Where they had gotten the seafood, she didn't ask, but it turned out well.

Captain Lee didn't talk to her much, and the rest of the crew was much the same. There was a pilot called Harris, a mechanic called Miller, and an extra hand called Amanda. They all had rather suspicious looks about them, though what they suspected, Juliet didn't know. All she knew was that they tended to avoid questions.

On the second day, as she cleaned up from breakfast, Miller stuck around the kitchen rather than heading off to the engine room.

"What do you want?" Juliet asked.

"Nothing much," he said. "Just to talk."

[Victoria Angel Paulsen]

Victoria was extremely uncomfortable on this ship. Nothing about it felt like a home, it just felt empty. If Juliet hadn't been there, she probably would've gone batty. She would've been really lonely that would be for sure.
She got by doing little things around the ship to help out, some cleaning here, some cargo moving there, just little odd jobs. She didn't much talk to the crew and they didn't much talk to her, and she noticed they treated Juliet the same way.
After breakfast the second day she noticed the mechanic stay back and start talking to Juliet, which made her very uncomfortable. She stayed behind, but out of sight to listen in on what was going to be said, but the captain saw her.
"The hell are you doing?" the captain asked.
"I ain't comfortable with this. You or your crew ain't said two words to us the whole day and now all of a sudden he just wants to talk. What's your game?" she dared to ask the captain.

[Juliet Harwood]

"All right," Juliet said. "Talk." She hadn't seen much of Miller, since he stayed mostly in the engine room, and when he was in the lounge he tended to have some project he was working on by himself.

"What's your name? You've been here for some time now, and I don't think you've said ten words to anyone but your friend."

"Is there anything wrong with that?" she asked, scrubbing at a pan. Synthetic eggs were just about impossible to clean, even if they tasted almost as good with enough salt. "No one on the crew seems to want to talk to us."

"Nothing wrong at all," he said. "We're not terribly used to strangers on board. We tend to know all our passengers already, if you follow my meaning."

She didn't, so she continued cleaning in silence.

"You still haven't told me your name," Miller said.

"Juliet. My friend's called Victoria. Is that all you wanted to know?" She looked up and saw that he had entered the kitchen.

[Victoria Angel Paulsen]

"You're awfully protective of your friend there," the captain answered, avoiding the question. Victoria just narrowed her eyes, she was still trying to pay attention to what was going on in the kitchen. But the captain would have none of it.
"You ain't gonna be questioning mine or my crew's motives. We do what we do."
Victoria was getting angry. She and Juliet had answered all the questions they'd been asked, and truthfully. Why this sort of treatment?
"We been nothing but straightforward with ya'll, and we keep getting the cold shoulder. How would you like it if the situation were reversed?"
"I'd kick your asses off my ship," the captain answered, knowing it didn't make sense to the question. She did it just to anger the woman, and it was working beautifully.

[Juliet Harwood]

"Does it bother you that I'm curious?"

"No," Juliet said. "Not as long as I know why."

Miller shrugged. "You're not quite like other people we get on the ship. You're more... normal isn't the right word, is it?" He frowned. "Innocent, maybe? Sure, your friend Victoria's tough, and you act it, but I doubt you'd hurt a fly."

Juliet tried not to remember how she had acted so small and scared on Haven. "You'd be surprised," she said. "I've gotten involved with criminals. It's why I'm going to Ariel." Perhaps she shouldn't tell him everything, but she was sure that if they tried to turn her in, she could do the same to them. Miller had all but told her they worked with criminals often.

"Got some fancy job, have you? I won't pry. Well, maybe just a little." He grinned. "Do you want a hand with the dishes?"

[Victoria Angel Paulsen]

"Tell you what," the captain started. "Why don't you get back to what you're supposed to be doin', and I'll forget this little incident even happened. My crew ain't gonna hurt your girl."
"You're damn right they won't," she yelled out.
The fury in her eyes totally differed from her nickname. She was no angel at this moment, and it looked as if at any second she might hit the captain.
"Look here, you calm your tone down, and I won't throw your ass out the gorramn airlock. Then who's gonna protect your friend? Think about it."
Victoria's fist came crashing into the captain's face, sending the captain stumbling into the kitchen. She hated herself for what she was about to do, but she stomped on the captain's gun hand and pointed hers at the captain's face.
"No one is getting jettisoned. I don't much care what you do to keep going, but you threaten us, you bother us, you get a bullet. We clear?"

[Juliet Harwood]

Juliet was about to tell Miller that he could do the dishes himself if he wanted, but then she heard Victoria yell. Her head jerked up from the sink at the same time Miller's turned away from her.

"That's your friend, right?" he asked, starting out from the kitchen.

"Yes." Juliet brushed past him, drying her hands on her shirt. "Do you know what might be going on?"

"She didn't seem to take too kindly to anyone around," Miller said. "Someone probably started a fight. We'd better break it up before the captain finds out. She hates it when there's fighting on her ship." He tried to step in front of Juliet, but she pushed him back.

"You don't need to worry about me," she said. "I can handle --" Her voice broke off as she saw Victoria. Behind her, Miller began cursing, the Mandarin muffled by a hand over his mouth.

[Victoria Angel Paulsen]

"Are we clear?" she yelled out, slower this time, clearly stating out every word and pushing the gun closer to the captain's face.
"I don't want to do this," she continued. "But you are forcing my hand, threatening us like that."
The captain didn't say anything for a moment, as if for that split second there was some kind of respect for the woman.
"You got a killer in you, girl. Ever thought about being a bounty hunter?" the captain teased.
"Shut up," she answered. She thought about letting the captain up, but keeping her gun trained on her, of course, but she kept her position.
"You ain't no better than us. You're a brigand, just look how quick you are to fight. Hell, you might fit in just right with my crew."
"I'm not part of your crew. Get us to Ariel, and hope you never see us again."
She holstered her gun and walked away, towards the cargo bay, not looking back.

[Juliet Harwood]

Miller had grabbed Juliet's arm to hold her back, but she shook him off when Victoria walked away. "I'd better make sure everything's all right," she said, trying not to look at Captain Lee.

"I'll... go do the dishes, then." Miller's voice faded as Juliet hurried after Victoria.

"Hey!" she called. "What was that about, back there?"

[Victoria Angel Paulsen]

By the time Juliet reached Victoria she was already down at the cargo bay, sitting on a crate, her head in her hands. She heard her friend call out to her.
"She threatened to throw us out the airlock because I didn't trust Miller talking to you all of a sudden. She caught me listening to what he was saying to you."
She half mumbled and half spoke clearly. She was upset, angry, tired. She didn't know what else to say.

[Juliet Harwood]

Juliet stood by the crate, torn. On the one hand, she wanted to help her friend, but on the other, she was still annoyed from Miller trying to keep her out of the fight. For once, her compassion won out and she sat on the edge of the crate.

"Do you want me to tell her she was overreacting?" she asked, somewhat awkwardly setting a hand on Victoria's shoulder. "Because keeping an eye on me isn't exactly something that ought to get anyone thrown out of the airlock. And if she's not going to trust us at all, it's only fair that we don't trust her."

Miller had probably gone to finish the dishes. He hadn't followed her here, at any rate. She probably would have kicked his shin if he had. "I can take care of myself all right, you know," she said. "If Miller had started bothering me, I'm sure I could have gotten a good swing out of the pan."

[Victoria Angel Paulsen]

She looked up at her friend, and shook her head.
"Telling her she overreacted won't do any good. Truth is, I probably overreacted too. I know you can look after yourself just fine. But with all you're being put through to find your man, I just want to make sure you get to him, you know?"
Victoria didn't trust the captain to begin with, something just seemed too seedy about her, but she pushed it away, as best she could, for Juliet's sake. It wasn't likely they'd find someone else who would take them to Ariel. They had to make due.
"Swing the pan, huh?" she said, trying to giggle a bit, but it wouldn't come out.

[Juliet Harwood]

Juliet grinned. "I work with what I have. It may not be cast iron, but it felt sturdy enough. I once broke a boy's nose with a book; a frying pan shouldn't be too much harder."

She glanced up at the entrance to the cargo bay. No one had come running yet, so she supposed the captain either didn't care too much about what had happened or had crawled away to lick her wounds like an injured coyote. For a moment, she wondered why the settlers had brought coyotes to Whitefall.

"Thank you," she said. "You've got good intentions, at least, and I'll bet that's a fair bit more than lots can say."

[Victoria Angel Paulsen]

Victoria shook her head. Yes, her intentions were good, but her actions weren't. She hoped to the heavens that she hadn't screwed up anything.
She let herself chuckle a bit at Juliet's first comment. A book? Really?
"I just hope we can find him for you and get you both back home to the life you want. You deserve that, you know. You've traveled this far just to find him. That's real love."

[Juliet Harwood]

Juliet smiled a little. She had thought of her relationship with Preston in terms of love before, but it felt a little different to hear someone else say it. She was used to hearing people talk about how young and impulsive she was, and that she would grow apart from him eventually. She'd be damned if she let that happen.

"Thanks, again," she said, getting up. "I'd better take the dishes back from Miller, if he hasn't left already. He's probably got some sort of engine work to do."