(Cut out the entire gun firing scene, changed the argument between Ryo and Jasmine)
Chapter 26: Goodwill
With the meal done and the plan in place, Jasmine began collecting the plates to take downstairs.
“Let me get that for you,’ Beau offered.
“It’s no worries mate,” Jasmine assured him balancing the white china in one arm.
‘Now now, I insist, you got us cleaned up and fed, the least I could do in return-”
Beau reached out to take the dishes when the sudden and distinct tearing of fabric halted his pursuit.
The Hawaiian shirt, while colourful and flattering, was simply not able to withstand the girth of the man wearing it. The sleeves torn from their panelling, Beau had no choice but to rip them off, leaving him with a sleeveless vest.
“Yeah well, I didn’t like the shirt anyway.” he sulked and threw the fabric scraps on the table in disappointment.
“If you didn't like it,” Ryo piped up in his actual voice “why wear it?”
“‘Cause its the only thing I could get on,” Beau folded his arms, “The universe seems determined to have me naked,”
“I mean, if you really want to find some more clothes we can search the rest of the cars for gear,” Jasmine shrugged as she turned to leave.
“That’s an option?” Ryo asked, following her to the kitchen.
“Well, yeah, it's kinda my job to go through and categorize all the belongings,” She dumped the dishes in a hot and waiting sink, the pair looked at Jasmine, who smirked, “It’s kinda fun really,”
She stepped past Ryo and Beau, walking out onto the deck and whistled.
“Hey, Rynard! Care to introduce yourself?!”
The ten-foot tall tyrannosaurus-look alike bounded over the railing with practised ease, much to Xants chagrin and the other humans surprised.
“Yeah Jasi?” The Captain stood, posing a little to show off.
“Care to take us downstairs? The guys want to search some cars for better threads,”
Using the Dino-lift was quicker than climbing down the yacht to the informal car park.
Right at their feet was a large plastic tray filled with car keys.
“Take your pick and see what we find.”
All the names were there, Toyota, Hyundai, BMW, Mercedes, Ford, Ferrari, all the luxury and others amongst the mix, Ryo frowned.
“(You have all these keys and you drive around that rust bucket?)” He threw his thumb over his shoulder at the aging Nissan.
“That's MY rust bucket,” Jasmine replied defensively, “or rather, Checkovs’, it’s the car I was abducted with,”
“(So? You could still drive a different car,)” Ryo replied dismissively, perusing the keys during conversation and ignoring eye contact.
“I don't want to drive a different car,” Jasmine folded her arms.
Ryo picked up a set of Lexus keys and pressed the immobiliser.
“(Then you can keep the rust and I'll have the chrome,)” he smirked before running off to find the source of the beeping.
Jasmine let out a groan of frustration, she hadn’t had to deal with that kinda shit since high school.
Beau was still surveying the keys before him.
There were hundreds of vehicles and not nearly enough keys, but he reached for something familiar to start his search.
He plucked up the keys with a big American flag and a chevy badge hanging from the ring.
“Wanna bet it’s a pick-up?” he smiled.
“10 bucks say’s it’s red with a ‘freedom’ decal,” Jasmine laughed, Beau raised an eyebrow happy to play along.
“I say it’s black, but there's the full-sized flag tucked away somewhere,” he held out his hand, and Jasmine took the shake.
“Deal,” she laughed.
“So, handshaking is not just for greeting then?” Xant asked, observing the human interaction.
“Not always,” Jasmine naturally went into explanation mode “it can also be used as an agreement for a verbal contract,”
“A gentleman's agreement,” Beau added despite not being able to hear Xants question, “‘course, a mans only as good as his word, and words aren’t what they used to be,”
As they made their way through the car yard with Beau periodically pressing the beeper, it came apparent that Jasmine had lost the bet.
Beau opened up the passenger door and without looking reached under the chair and pulled out an American flag, steam pressed in a triangle.
“Wait, its your car isn’t it?!” Jasmine exclaimed.
“You’re the one who took up the bet,” Beau held out both hands in innocence, “Without asking more questions,” he tapped his skull with his index finger and a giant grin on his face.
The chevy was huge compared to the Pajero, an urban tank on the inside, in the tray were several steel lockboxes. Neat, tidy and orderly.
Beau pulled out a gigantic military green canvas bag from the back passenger seat.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need a moment to change into something that isn't going to tear at a moment's notice.”
Jasmine laughed and turned around, a mocking hand over her eyes.
“There's plenty of space mate, I’m not gonna peek,”
Xant and Rynard followed Jasmine's lead, but as ever the scientist couldn’t help but ask questions about the situation. Having human on human interactions before him occurring naturally without prompts revealed more than either alien probably intended.
“Why would you ‘peek’?” came the innocent question and Jasmine's cheeks turned the slightest shade of pink.
“It's rude to stare at the opposite gender while they change,” She replied, clearly having no intention of entertaining the conversation further. Xant recalled her turning her back when changing in his presence and he suddenly had no intention of questioning further.
“Phew! I am never complaining about standard-issue again!” Beau returned from the other side of the chevy having changed into good hiking boots and hunting camouflage. A pair of protective ear muffs hung around his neck and over his plain white t-shirt. He carried his canvas bag in one hand and threw it in the back tray.
He jumped in after in and fished out a set of keys from his pocket, opening up the locks.
Inside the locked boxes were steel cases, the kind Jasmine had only seen in action movies, guns and ammunition. He pulled out one of the four (she counted offhandedly) and spun the case open for her to see, inside the grey foam sat a wooden-handled rifle.
“Whoa…” Jasmine stared, unsure of what to do.
“Its not going to bite you,” Beau laughed as he pulled it out, “it’s just a hunting rifle anyways, ever fired one?”
“Never seen one in person before,” Jasmine admitted.
“You wanna fire one?”
Jasmine sparked up at first but then quickly brought herself back to reality.
“Uhh, I'm not sure we can fire it inside a space station... Xant?” she asked, the doctor was as lost as she was and turned to Rynard.
“All military-grade weapons are to be kept exclusively for training and or missions in the field and can only be operated once orders are given by a commander,” Rynard replied, reciting a safety measure no doubt had been drilled into him since being pulled from the Vat, “but you invoked requisition of all human items and technically, you're currently commander on hand," he grinned.
Jasmine beamed and announced to Beau that they could basically do what they wanted within reason.
“This,” he said pulling out the rifle from its case “is a gun, there are many like it but this one is mine,” he gave her a serious look, “as long as you follow my instructions and don’t act the fool we can learn something fun,”
Jasmine nodded her head and answered with a just as serious “yes,”
Satisfied with her answer Beau began listing the parts of the weapon, the barrel, chamber, trigger, Jasmine filtered the lesson through to him word for word and Xant was curious about the vernacular.
“Never point at anything you don't want killed, never have your finger on the trigger, keep the muzzle pointed at the ground, never have it loaded until ready to shoot,”
The weapon seemed extremely dangerous, he wondered if it was in their best interest to be ‘inspecting’ the thing. Xant watched Beau give the instructions without feeling his presence, it unnerved him, to say the least. He caught the human-looking over at him directly, a subtle stare before returning to instruct Jasmine.
“Care for a try?”
“Nah I’m good thanks,” Jasmine raided both hands, shaking them side to side with her head, an empathic no.
Xant looked between Beau and Jasmine, who had nothing but tripidation.
“May I hold it?” Xant asked innocently, Beau raised an eyebrow but carefully placed it into the aliens hands but never quite let go of the tool.
Xant mimicked Beaus position, following the instructions to the letter before looking down the sight. He could smell the burnt gunpowder of previous firings, feel the weight of the butt and barrel in his hands.
Galactic council weapons, those that he had seen, were nothing like the one the human presented. Acid sprayers, electric tasers, cauterizing swords, it said a lot about how they fought each other. Of all things available to them, they chose this weapon, a purely mechanical piece, instant kinetic energy shot away from their opponent.
He quietly put the gun in a safe position and offered it back to Beau.
“Not for him, he says,” Jasmine translated.
Beau took it back and set it up for maintenance.
“Hey Beau? Is it okay if Xant asks you some questions?”
Beau cleared the chamber and placed the gun back in its case loosely.
“Shoot,” he smiled, pun intended.
“How long do you train with the weapon?”
“As long as you plan on using it, the day you stop training is the day you don’t shoot anymore.”
“And is using the firearm crucial to your role?”
“Well, it was as a soldier, they all need to be trained in the use of their assigned combat weapon but my job was Canine escort detail, checkpoints, IED’s and such. So I had a bit more variety than your average Private.”
“Spades was a bomb dog, Beau was his handler” Jasmine clarified.
Xant stood there for a moment, while he considered the dogs being a very useful companion species to have a Creator and a User as partners in a field was something that he had never even considered.
“And you trusted the dog with this task?” Xant asked sincerely.
“I trust Spades with my life, and I still do,” Beau replied with the same sincerity, “you’d be surprised how many people can’t follow simple instructions when their lives depend on it, it’s half the reason I got out.”
“You changed professions?”
“Yeah,” Beau answered. “I did my tours, I served my country and saved my money, then I got out and brought my best friend with me.”
“So what did you do?”
“I went back to school, get my qualifications to be a Veterinarian,” Beau explained, counting his remaining ammunition as he did so.
Another case of a human willingly changing their career path on a whim, despite how well Beau seemed to handle the weapon, casting it all away for a completely different skill set seemed counterintuitive.
“Was it hard training from your first profession to another?”
“First profession? Military wasn't my first job, I did the paper route and movie usher before that, made manager at 16 ‘cause I was over 6 foot, I was a bean pole back then,”
“You were not always this size,” Xant felt his questions wondering, perhaps it was his other consciousness seeking the questions and starting him from the topic, or maybe it was Jasmine's influence.
“Lord no! I was 6.1 but only 80 pounds soaking wet, calling me a featherweight would be generous!”
“So how did you get so large?”
“Exercise, protein and a humourless drill sergeant ” Beau joked, but Xant was happy with the answer and proof that he too might get to the human’s size one day.
The interview was interrupted by a large designer duffle bag being thrown between them.
Ryo had found some designer street ware and was trying really hard to look effortlessly cool.
“Hey! Care to join us?” Jasmine waved, “Beaus showing off his collection!”
Ryo shrugged and then casually pulled out twin pistols from his pocket.
“I’d like to try these out instead,’
“Whoa!” Beau exclaimed “Those are some nice pieces! Let me get a look!”
Ryo spun them around for him to look at, Beau held the guns in his hands before disabling them both in two swift movements and confiscating them.
“Whha?!” Ryo shouted but Beau shook his head.
“I’m not letting you wave around some drug dealers show pieces, blasting your own fingers off,”
Ryo scoffed and argued with Beau.
“I’m not a kid! I’ll be fine!”
“Famous last words, NO,” Beau argued back, and leaned over the younger male, “No guns in space, punture the station and we all be taking a space walk without a suit,”
Ryo simmered and grumbled under his breath, rummaging through his coat to hand Beau loose ammunition he had found with the pistols.
“Jasmine?”
“Yeah Xant?”
“How is it that even without a Freq presence, you both follow Beau’s instructions?”
“Well,” Jasmine shrugged, “It’s a little complicated, but the best I can sum it up is, He’s an adult.”
“So, authority is derived from age?” Xant asked for clarification.
“Not always, I wouldn’t listen to any random ‘adult’ who acted like a dickhead, But he’s got a lot more experience than me and he hasn’t talked down to me at all-”
Ryo reached out to give more ammunition but the jacket snagged and another, smaller pistol got caught on his pocket. It misfired.
Blasting the back window of the Pajero and shattering the glass.
“Whoops,” Ryo gulped.
Beau ripped the gun out of his hands but Jasmine let off a misfire of her own.
“Fucking, what?!” she cried, nails clawing down the side of her face in disbelief, a burning painful blast punched the lungs, “My car, my fucking car-”
“It was an acident!” Ryo snapped defensively, inadvertently blasting the area with sharp, cold glass, puncturing through the burn with his own pain, “It’s just a car-”
“Just a car?!” Jasmine screamed back, ready to lay down hands, “Thats my Friends car! I dont see any auto mechanics around here do you mate?!”
“Its just a car,” Ryo repeated, waving an arm at the parking lot, “just get another one-”
“Thats not the fucking point!” She shouted rage blazing inside her like a fire, “I cant replace this one-”
“Well I can’t change that can I?!,” Ryo smacked back against the fire with his own cold rage, “whats done is done, get over it!”
“How ‘bout the fuck I don't?!” Jasmine screamed, a fist raised and aimed at his face as Xant pulled her back and Beau twisted Ryo’s arm behind his back.
Rynard extended his claws and growled audibly, baring his teeth feeding off the intense emotions in the air.
“Okay everybody time to calm the fuck down,” Beau shouted, restraining Ryo.
Jasmine struggled against Xant, ready to smack the horrible disgusting, and weak piece of-
"Jasmine!" Xant pleaded, snapping her out of her rage, like water thrown on her face she stood there anger turning to confusion, then pain.
She felt punching Ryo for his actions was justifiable, but violence was never her first port of call.
Jasmine had been literally blinded by her own freq-aggression that she never noticed Ryo’s presence.
His stomach was twisted in knots, shame burnt her face, he couldn't even look her in the eye.
Did…
Did she want to punch him, or was it because he wanted her to punch him?
Shame, regret, jealousy, anger, disappointment, self-loathing, complex emotions swirling and weaving their way past her own feelings…
She had been surrounded by aliens for so long, Jasmine had forgotten how complex humans could be. She stopped struggling against Xant, closing her eyes and recentering herself.
“You didn’t need to do that…” She said quietly.
“... Sorry” Came Ryo’s quiet but sincere reply. His face was blank facing the ground, he couldn't fight against Beau even if he wanted to.
“Sorry…” as the word passed her lips she felt the fluctuation in his Freq aura, genuine gratitude for her apology, then regret his own actions, a spur of anger at himself.
Beau threw Ryo down, letting him go and getting back up off his feet.
“That was a stupid thing you did, I know you’re better than that.”
The disappointment stung like a knife to the heart.
Ryo took off towards the ship, Beau shook his head.
“Damn, we’re going to have to keep an eye on him, he’s more messed up than I thought.”
Jasmine and Xant looked at each other,
“More than you know,” she said under her breath.