back to Ben and Ribecka
"Uh....Ben," Elsie responded, the figure on the screen looking shocked. "You said you wouldn't we---"
"I know what I said, Elsie." Ben sighs sadly. "But it's time to......oh I don't know. It's time to forget. Time to....live. One day perhaps I will return to that past. But I have to be prepared to live if I can't. Lately, I've simply been surviving." Ben nods, coming to a decision. "Unlock the dress uniform."
"Are you sure?" Ribecka asks Melissa.
The tall blonde nods and smiles. "Listen, Becca, I'm never going to wear the thing again. I bring it with me for luck. nothing more. I can't even imagine myself wearing anything but combat fatigues anymore. Well, except a jump pack and a shotgun," she finishes with a grin. "Looks good on you, it really does. A bit shorter on you than on me, but hey, maybe that's what you're looking for."
"No," Ribecka says, turning sideways and attempting to use the Head mirrors to see her whole body. "Its not like that. Well, I'm sure it wouldn't hurt, but this guy is great regardless."
"It couldn't be local," Melissa says with amusement, "We just got here. Who do you have the sweets for? Ground pounder of 'mechwarrior? Is it Hudson? I saw you two during transit, he seemed to like you."
"Yeah, I think he did... But I don't know if he liked me, or me," she said, lightly hoisting her bossom.
"Ahh... So, give. Who is it?"
"You'll see if it works out. I'm not about to go showing off just to get dumped!" She grinned back at Melissa.
Ribecka walks out of the infantry quarters where she was stationed with the rest of the platoon. The setting sun catches her golden hair which is up in a nice bun. Spikes of hair spreading from the bun look like they are radiating the red the sunset has bestowed on them, like they were beams of the sun itself. A part runs down the left side of her head, from brow to bun. The sunset makes the red silk dress she is wearing that much more deep, the golden designs woven into it standing out brilliantly. The dress is tight but not uncomfortably so. It ends in a crooked seam, the right side of it ending above her knee, while the left side dips down a few inches below the knee. She wears a pair a small white athletic shoes, apparently not having red high-heels on planet. Somehow it doesn't look out of place, however. The finishing touch is a small handbag that matches her dress.
She walks slowly up to Ben. "You look very handsome, Benjamin." She reaches out her hand, palm down, waiting for him to react. While waiting she eyes all of his uniform, her eyes lingering on his medals and rank insignia. She's obviously not sweet talking him, but means what she says. A small sound issues from the door of the barracks she just exited, but becuase of the sun in his eyes, Ben can't see who it was. At the sound, Ribecka blushes.
"M' lady," Ben says half bowing. Instincts war for an instant, then he follows his officer's training and takes her hand, raising it to his lips gently.
"Sheh-sheh," Ribecka says politely to the waitress. "I had a friend that spoke Mandarin Chinese back home," she offers as an explanation. "He tried his hardest to teach me...that's about all I remember."
The waitress walks away with their orders and Ben looks across the table at Ribecka. "So, how long have you had Chariot," he asks, trying to start up a conversation. He picks up a glass of water and takes a sip, waiting for her response.
"Well, the Chariot and me have only been together for a few months. I met the Major before he hired you guys. I've driven ground-effects my whole life. I simply love it. They can do so much, just give me such a feeling of freedom. I know pilots might feel differently, but I'm guessing it's akin to the freedom you guys feel. I just can't get into orbit, yet," she says smiling. "I never had the money or schooling to get into a flight academy. But my parents owned a few hovers. I've just always had a way with them. When the Major "gave" me the Chariot, it was the first hover that I was actually in charge of. It's my baby. At first I didn't think it would behave correctly becuase it's a bit larger than what I'm used to, but it's also the first military vehicle I've driven. They're very precise, even the larger ones." She pauses to take a sip of water.
"I've driven in battlezones before, plenty of times. Just never as an official participant." She stares at the water for a moment before looking up and displaying a smile while resting her chin in her hand after positioning a napkin to pad her elbow from the tabletop. "You know, being an aero pilot, I would have never taken you for the type to get motionsick."
Ben raises his glass and looks at it for a long moment. He takes a sip and puts it down firmly. "It's not motionsickness. Or at least that's not the MAIN problem." He looks at Ribecka (avoiding eye contact), his face a mask. "I'm not......comfortable.....when moving fast in hovercraft. Any ground craft......but especially hovercraft." He pauses for another moment. "I've had.......well." He looks her in the eyes, his own as mask-like as his face. "Accidents happen." He looks away again as the mask starts to fail and takes a sip of water.
Ribecka reaches across the table and takes his right hand from his glass with her left. She holds it for a moment, letting the heat warm his hand from the chill the icewater gave it. She hesitates a moment before speaking. "Would you like some wine...or something else before dinner?"
Ben closes his eyes for a moment, then raises them to meet hers. A smile comes to his face and eyes. "Yes. Wine would be good. What's your favorite?"
Ribecka returns the smile with turns into that grin of hers. "I've always been a sweeter kind of gal. I think they call what I like "reisling", although anything sweet will do considering this place probably hasn't ever heard of that type of wine. It's real old fasioned."
Ben nods and catches the waitresses attention. He orders "something sweet" and waitress goes away to get it.
Ribecka squeezes his hand before continuing. "How long have you been flying your plane? That same one, I mean."
Ben leans back and thinks, trying to remember. "I don't know how long I've had Betty. Years. I must have been......twenty-two....maybe twenty-three." He pauses and grunts. "Six years.....gotta be six years." He smiles softly. "She's been my only true love since-" Ben cuts himself off and shakes his head. "My only true love since I got her. Flying." He laughs softly. "My flight instructor told it was better then se--" He cuts off again and blushes. "Ah....that is.....um.....nothing compares to it."
He nervously grabs his glass of water and takes another sip.
She laughs lightly and squeezes again. "Go on, you can tell me. Better than what?" His flustered manor makes her grin but she lets him get off this time. "I understand. Don't know if I agree, but I understand." Another grin reveals she is still joking with him. "Like I said, it's probably nothing in comparison to Betty, but the feeling of being off the ground, on your own. Just so exhilerating."
She lets go of Ben's hand and leans back as the waitress arrives with their wine. The golden liquid is chilled enough that the glass is already sweating. She gingerly picks her glass up by the stem and raises it. "To Elsie," she begins, toasting the one who found the Chariot's problem. Then she thinks better of it and chooses a new toast. "To tonight. May we bond a friendship that will never be broken." She holds her glass out waiting for Ben to acknowledge or add to it before tinking them together.
"To friendship," Ben responds and tinks his glass against her's. He takes a sip and puts it back down on the table. "So where you from," he asks smiling.
She leans back and smiles. "I'm from a rock called Johnsondale. Mountains and fields...about all that's there that's still part of the original planet. Great place to run around on a hover." She looks back at him. "So where are you from? Born in the League?"
Ben nods. "I was born on Marik. I and my family are big supporters of the Captain-General. We have a martial tradition of supporting Marik dating back to the fall of the Star League. And before that, we fought FOR the Star League." Ben smiles and looks at the wine glass. "In fact, according to our family legends, two Pryde brothers fought in the battle to liberate Terra from Amaris. It is said every member of the current Pryde clan is descended from one of those brothers......an aerospace pilot." Ben winks. "Actually, legend says he was a Land-Air 'Mech pilot. And because of that, the Pryde's have always had a larger percentage of LAMs then any other family. We seek them out, where ever they can be found."
Ben's eyes suddenly narrow in anger. "But now the CLANs are here," he says, making it a swear word. "They destroyed the last plant that made spare parts for those old birds, and now even for MY family they are hard to find and keep running. Especially with what the PIDGEONS have done to our name. Made it something to FIGHT for....to KILL over....Like some kind of PRIZE in an arena of DEATH." Ben looks Ribecka dead in the eyes. "There's not a single Pryde, whether loyal to Marik or otherwise, who does not look at these.....INVADERS....with anything but loathing. Especially the PIDGEONS for dragging our name through the mud."
Ben leans back as if a spell lifts, and he exhales slowly. "Wow," he says, releasing his death grip on the wine glass and putting it down. "I guess I hit one of my OWN hot buttons there. Whew."
Ribecka forces a smile that fades quickly. "My brother was killed by the Clans," she says quietly and Ben's eyes flash in anger. The battle over crying is evident on her face for a few moments. "I'm impressed that your family is so...honorable... It fits you, it really does. Others may not see it, but I do. That tradition is in your blood. Me? I don't follow any such noble of histories. I'm just plain old me." She smiles again, although the genuinity can't be told. "Let's get past our hot buttons and back to here and now, alright?" She takes his hand again. "What's the climate like on Marik? Is that the capitol of the FWL?" she asks speaking the letters instead of the full name of the nation, as she often does for all of them.
He looks at her hand and his renewed anger subsides, a smile coming over his face. "Marik is a nice world. A bit hot and dry of course. And the summer dust storms can be.....fun. She was settled back in the 22nd century because of her rich mineral deposits. The Mariks used those resouces to build up the Marik Commonwealth, and in turn the Marik Commonwealth was one of three governments who formed the Free Worlds League. Marik isn't the capital, but the capital IS in the Marik Commonwealth. Atreus." He lingers on the word like its a precious gem. "I've only been there once. When I was a child." He smiles, remember the visit, then looks at Ribecka. "So where is....." Ben pauses, trying to remember. "Johnsondale?"
She grins. "Johnsondale is in Crucis. Uh, the Crucis March I mean, FedSuns half of...well, I guess now it's just Fedcom. It's a nice world, at least I thought so. Plenty of adventure to be had in the mountains, plenty of speed to be had in the plains. It's not that much of a backwater what with Valiant Vehicles making things there. You know the Strikers that local militia has? We made those. I recognized the ID tag on the base of one of the turrets. The factory wasn't but 5 kilometers from my home"
Ribecka leans back as the waitress returns with a small plate of vegetables, mostly cabbage and lettuce with a few chili peppers in it. "Sheh-sheh," she repeats. "If you like spice and vinegar, you should try this. It's wonderful." She sticks a piece of the cabbage in her mouth and purses her lips and she sucks on it, savoring the flavor.
Ben digs into the lettuce, making sure to get a healthy helping of peppers. "Crucis March.....that's around New Avalon isn't it?" He stops suddenly an idea coming to him. "Don't know about the name....I mean, there never was an OLD Avalon." Ben wiggles his eyebrows and smiles.
"Well, we aren't next door neighbors, but yeah, it's in the area. And, you know, I think there...well...hell, I don't know if there was an old Avalon," she says, grinning as she digs into the plate again.
After chewing and swallowing Ribecka looks back to Ben and grins, a large piece of cabbage placed over her entire top row of teeth. "Do I have anything in my teeth?" she asks, keeping the grin and successfully taking her mind off the previous topic, hoping it might get a genuine Pryde smile out of Ben again.
Ben's hand covers his mouth, trying to hide something suspiciously like a smile. "Ah.......now that you mention it....I think some cabbage decided to ah.....stick around."
She reaches forward, sputtering past the cabbage, and grabs his hand, forcing it away from his face. "Don't hide it!" she says loudly, the drin on her face bursting out with laughter when the air it took to say the one sentance causes the cabbage to fly out and land on the table. Ben laughs, struggling to keep from exploding at full volumn as he looks at the cabbage. Ribecka leans back and laughs strongly, an almost musical sound until she heaves forward with a large gasp for air.
"I'm so sorry!" she says just as loudly as before, the only difference is this time she can barely be understood through her laughter. "That *gasp* was so *gasp* gross! I'm sorry!" The tears appear in the wells of her eyes again, although this time it laughing tears. Her face is the brightest of reds, however whether it's the embarassment or the exertion you can't tell, although she knows it's a healthy dose of both. She continues to laugh, trying to gain control. The dissaproving glare of the waitress only makes her erupt again. "I'm sorry!" she gasps again, obviously unable to help herself.
He finally brings himself completely under control and looks at the waitress as Ribecka starts laughing again. "I don't think we need any more wine," he says carefully after clearing his throat. He looks back at Ribecka again and waggles his eyebrows.
Another laugh ripples out through Ribecka's previously clamped mouth, this one under enough control that Ben can understand her words. "I think I need another glass now!" She brings herself under control. "I'm sorry, really," still smiling. "It's not the wine, trust me, it takes more than a few sips for this girl. I guess...just a stress reliever. I need that." She inhales deeply, a refreshing look on her face. "Ahhh... That's better. I can handle this whole dinner thing now. Mercy..."
Ben looks at her doubtfully, obviously teasing her.
She reaches forward and takes his hand again and squeezes it, keeping it in her hand. "So, describe your perfect evening to me, Mr. Pryde."
Then he puts his other hand over her own and sighs. "Talking." He looks back up at her. "Sitting outside under the stars, talking. About anything......or nothing." He smiles and leans back again, pulling his hand back off her own.
"Perfect answer, as I suspected," she says. "As long as you said "outside" and "under the stars" I'll be with you. As long as that is the setting, I'll do about anything." She pauses and blushes as she realizes she left herself wide open after that one. Ben raises an eyebrow and listens intently to see how she tries to extricate herself. "You know what I mean." She says to cover herself, although the wink she flashes might make one think they don't actually know.
"I think I could happily spend the rest of my life under the stars. Imagine what it must have been like a thousand years ago on Terra, looking up and seeing the stars, but not being able to visit them. I wonder what kind of amazement and fear they posed to everyone? I wonder what constellations they had? I didn't realize when I was on my home world looking at the stars and picking out the Arena, the Mackie, the Crown, all of the constelations there, that I wouldn't be able to see them, at least not at the same angle, once I left my planet. In a way it's kind of isolating, but at the same time just seeing a starscape makes me feel like I'm still home." She looks directly at him and give a half-smile. "Corny, huh?"
"No. Not corny at all." He says, smiling. "The stars are a gift to us. We humans can't live in an atmosphere that keeps us from seeing them. Wherever we go, they are there. And every ship and space station we have ever made lets us see them. We are a race blessed with the.....option," he says with the air of not being able to find the right word,"....of seeing the stars. Every human from the time of Adam has been able to see the stars. And the stars are what truely bind us all together.
"Sometimes out there........when I let myself think about it........being out there, where I can see the stars with nothing in between.....I realize the purity of....everything." Ben's eyes focus on Ribecka again. "It can be truelly addictive. Flying. Out there." He laughs again, quietly.
"I've never been out there besides a dropship. No cruises or anything like that. Definetly no personal craft. I'd love to do that some day, maybe when I retire," she muses, not admitting that being a merc now gives her a good chance of not makeing it TO retirement. "Then I'll get something, an old fighter or freighter. I'll swim among them then. You know, I really envy you, being able to head out there and enjoy it. Not many people get to do that."
Ben makes a minimizing gesture. "You'll fly too....sometime. I fly because of my family." He reaches out tentatively and puts his hand on hers again. "You didn't have that advantage, but look how far you've gotten allready. You'll fly.....I have no doubt."
She takes another bite of the kim-chee. "I'm hungry, when do we eat?"
He pauses and looks around for waitress just as she comes out of the kitchen with two plates and a bowl of rice. He turns back to look at Ribecka again, eyebrow raised. "Good timing," he comments before the waitress gets in earshot.
She puts down the food and walks away.
Ben leans back in his chair and puts his fork down, the ruins of his meal scattered on the plate.. "That was good chicken. Never have liked veggies all that much though," he comments, pointing at the rice and green stuff still on the plate.
Ribecka smiles and also leans back, giving her stomach more room to expand. "I'm a girl. I naturally like veggies. And, you're right. Delicious. Who'd have thunk a planet like this would have good food?"
Small talk had taken them through dinner, a fact they both enjoyed after the conversation before the food came. But now he looked at Ribecka with purposeful eyes.
"Do you like to dance?"
She looks in his eyes in response to his question. "I love to dance. But...I'm not very good. Still interested?"
Ben returns her gaze, thinking for a moment. "Well if you lo......ah......sure. I'd love to." He smiles at her, content.
Ben and Ribecka walk up to her door hand-in-hand and stop before it. Ben turns to her. He pauses for a moment trying to think of something to say. "So.....could we do this again," he asks with a smile.
Becka turns to face him outside the barracks door and takes his other hand in her free one. "Yeah, I had a good time, I'd like that." She stops and grins. "But if we're going to do the same exact same thing, I'm going to have to limit you to three times. But, if you'd like to do some other things with me...well, we'll see how many you get."
"Oh don't worry....I think I can think of something else to do." He smiles and raises the back of her right hand to lips and kisses it. "M'lady."
She grins wider when he lifts her hand to his lips and after he kisses her, she pulls away and gives a mock serious look, hands on hips. "And just what did you have in mind? Or is that a surprise?"
"oh....a surprise....definately a surprise." He winks and motions for her to get inside. "I ain't leavin' until you are safely in your room......." Ben scans the area quickly and turns back to her.
"Don't think I can take care of myself, huh?" She smiles. "Thank you." She leans forward and kisses his cheek, then reaches out and wipes the spot off gently. "Do you want to schedule this surprise now, or will it be a surprise when I get the surprise?"
He smiles and grabs her hand. "Yes." He holds it gently with both hands for a moment before letting go. "Now shoo," he finishes smiling.
Giving him an appraising smile with pursed lips she simply mumbles "Mmm-hmm." She squeezes his hand back. "Goodnight, Benjamin." She backs up the steps, his hand still in hers as long as she can reach before they get out of touch and drop to her sides. She slowly turns and walks up to the door, opening it. One more look is given to him before she slips in quietly.
He watches the door close and turns to go back to the barracks. A quick look around gleans nothing suspicious and he takes a step forward. He stops suddenly and raises his wrist to his mouth. "Elsie wake up. I'll be over in a bit." He turns and strides determindly towards the hanger bay.