rix_scaedu

I wrote this to aldersprig's second prompt.  It follows on from Tilly.

Tilly had unwanted company, of course, but no-one could object to her attending the planetary amateur games, could they?

Except the clean cut, perfectly uniformed lieutenant did.  His latest complaint was, “We shouldn’t be doing this!”

“Why not?”  Tilly was leading the way through a back route to the pistol shooting’s change rooms.

“We don’t have tickets.”

“We’re not sitting in seats or otherwise watching the competition, so we don’t need tickets.”  Tilly was reading the labels on doors now, obviously looking for something or somewhere in particular.

“Getting in the way we did was against regulations!”  He was hissing at her now.

“Against service regulations,” she corrected him absent mindedly.  “I’m not in the service so they don’t apply to me.  As for you, it’s not like I made you follow me.”

“I’m under orders!”

“To follow me anywhere?”  She knocked on a door labelled with a male competitor’s name.

“Within certain public decency limits.”

She looked him up and down.  “Interesting.  We should discuss your ship skills sometime soon.”

The door in front of them opened and a seven foot tall man loomed above them.  “Tilly!”  He sounded pleased to see her and then, “I was sorry to hear about Killen and the others.  What can I do for you?”

“You busy after the competition?”  Tilly was keeping her voice light.  “I’m hiring for a trip beyond the border.”

“To do what?”  The competitor’s pass around the tall man’s neck was in the name of Perrup Ferrisson.

“The guys crossed the border in hot pursuit of Jeredghal after he tried to blow us to kingdom come in a bar here.  The ship was found as a cloud of debris a week and a half later.  Listed as lost with all hands.”  She shrugged.

“And?”  Ferrisson was looking at her intently.

“There wasn’t enough organic debris to satisfy me that they were all on board when the ship blew.  Jeredghal takes prisoners.  There are three places within reasonable travel distance he could have gone to sell off such…acquisitions.  I want to check them for survivors.”

“And that’s all?”  The big man regarded her with a serious expression and the lieutenant was flabbergasted.  This had not been in his briefing.

“On this trip, yes,” Tilly confirmed.  “This is reconnaissance and hopefully rescue.  Those don’t mix well with revenge.  I’m offering your usual rates, of course.”

“Then I’m in,” Ferrisson smiled.  “Just let me deal with this competition first.”

This is written from aldersprig's third prompt.

Tilly woke in a hospital bed.  The armed guard at the bottom of it plus the uniforms on the ward made it clear this was a military hospital.  That she could see the marine’s face glaring at her meant that she was under guard, not being protected.  She tried to shrink down under the covers and then winced as various bits of her hurt.  A drip fed into her arm and she couldn’t see who was in the beds beside her.  The guard at the foot of her bed seemed to be the only one, so perhaps if any of the guys were here with her she was the most mobile...

The guard gestured and a nurse hurried over.  She, in turn, called over the doctor who called a more senior doctor from another part of the complex.  When he arrived Tilly spent half an hour coughing on demand, having her vision checked and having various body sounds listened to.

Finally the senior doctor asked, “Now, what do you remember?”

“Last?”  Tilly thought.  “Being in a bar, finding a bomb and trying to get everyone out.  I remember the pressure wave...”

He nodded.  “That was over a week ago.  You were in a coma at first and there was the punctured lung too.  The CO will be down to see you in a while, now you’re awake.  We’re sorry about the guard but the chain of command says you’re a flight risk.”

“I ran away from home about five years ago.”

“Ah,” he nodded, “and I’m afraid your ship left without you.  They left a message.”  He gestured at her bedside table and there it sat.  A rolled up scroll of paper stuck in the top of one of Killen’s empty rum bottles.

The guys had gone on without her.