Bad Timin'.....

      "Wasn't surprised to get a call from Xoxo. She needed pilots. Said she had a shipment outbound from Dragon's Egg to Londinium. Her BlueSun cure." Had to snort at that. 'Her' cure. Hell, I knew it was Lily's. "I owed the folks there, so took the job. Had to haul fife large cargo crates full of the stuff. Jet was there waitin' to load his cargo. Seems a couple others were there too loadin' the crates into their holds. Definitely made a gorram mess of stuff...." Hangin' out in the ATS avoidin' folks wasn't helpin' with the mood...

     "On the way had a lot of time to think of what all my breakin' the blockade at Al Raqis done.... And how many folks were payin' the price.... Lot to think on. Gonna do what needs to be done to fix it. Ad if it means to haul Xoxo's meds, then I'll do it. Better save lives. Seems I'm not good at it of late. Can't even get back to Al Raqis to try to find AuroraBlue. been havin' pretty wild dreams, speakin' of..... Ridin' 'cross the sands.... On a big worm. Could smell the spice hangin' in the air.... felt the hot air on me....AuroraBlue."

     "Londinium air control cocontacted me, tellin' me where all to land the cargo. Wasn't likin' bein' there much.... Too many troops and 'liance flags...."

     "Landed the Shadow on the docks. Gorram Dock patrol gave me a run 'round on my papers, then let me unload the crates. Kept on eyein' me. Didn't like it one bit. Headed for a quiet part of town while the ship was bein' refueled." Takin' the time to go through all the backlogged paperwork I been neglectin'. Pariah showed up and was seein' what the new uncovered town was lookin' like.

  "Not a lot of folks walkin' 'round out there. Most of em were either sick, or to afraid to come outside for fear of the pox. Most everyone was wearin' some kinda mask to keep the germs from gettin' em. Had to admit some of the masks were gorram funny lookin' on some folks. After some more harassment by the 'liance troopers, was able to dust off and get the hell off of Londinium"

   "When I got back, seems all hell broke loose. Was back at the office when I hear an explosion. Doubt most folks'd hear that. I did. headed outside to see if I could spot where all it come from. There were small fires all over. Debris from where the explosion come from. Lot of smoke billowed out the main door of BlueSun's underground lab."Decided to walk outside. Was gettin' a mite edgy again.

     "Headed inside the underground buildin', when I head a scream.Took a bit of searchin' but found someone in the upper level. Grabbed what I could to stop their clothes from burnin' more, then carried em out to the lift. Gorram thing wasn't wrokin' right. Had to put the person down to pry the doors open. Soon as it was open 'nough I lifted the person and carried em outside far 'nough away from the entry. Puttin't he woman down, saw it was Xoxo.... and burned bad."

         It was startin' to get dark. Could see the clouds changin' colors. Don't get much time to set and watch a real sunset. "She was bad burned up. her clothes were torn and burned. Half her face was like melted wax. Only thing I could do was go to the truck outside and call for a medic. Ended up callin' the 'liance for help. Had to wait some time. So covered Xoxo in a cargo blanket from the truck and wait till they showed up. Wasn't too long b'fore the medic shuttle showed up. Got pushed aside while they did what they had to. Decided to head up there to make sure she was gonna be ok."

     Walked back to the office. Not sure why... Didn't want to do the papers. "They took her into the med room. Gave me the crawlies. Not sure why... but it didn't help me sleepin' that night. old nightmares came creepin' back..... The docs worked fast to stabilize her. They were doin' all sorts of stuff to her. Cuttin' melted clothin' and wrappin' her in gauze. A trooper made me leave. Coulda punched him, but knowin' me, I'd end up in jail for it. That wasn't gonna help Xoxo in case she needed somethin'. Lily wasn't 'round to be there, so it was up to me."

     "Couldn't get over how bad burned she was. Looked like she was tryin' to protect herself and didn't quite get covered. Wonder if she was doin' somethin' and it backfired on her. Can't put it past her..... But then she made some good enemies of late too. if Lily decides to get back, maybe she can find out what all happened.... But then I overheard the troopers talkin' 'bout em sendin' someone down to investigate the explosion....Figures."

     "When I was able to hitch a ride back to the surface, one of th etroopers kept badgerin' me 'bout what I saw and did. Wasn't much to tell. But figured they'd suspect me of somethin' anyway. Not the first time....." Someone was comin' I could hear the light footfalls on the bricked road outside the office.... The scent was familiar....."For now I was not ot go nowhere 'tilthey finished their investigatin'. How the gorram hell'm I s'posed to do my work if I can't go no where." Caught the scent...... Was Lily showin' up.... But there was a smell, different.... Baby smell. She come back... and had a new baby with her.

        Ok.. not a good time for her to show up with it.... Xoxo in bad shape..... And the 'liance not lettin' me work..... And a baby?