<blockquote><div><cite>Kestrel wrote:</cite>When it rains harder than the roof can take; it will start to leak. When a car reaches top-speed the windows no longer fully protect you from the air pressure. When a spaceship is attacked, you cannot expect every part of the flight to flow smoothly. <br/><br/>The Elyandra's corridors were the devil's dancefloor. With every sound of the alarm it swung a little more. The battle outside initiated the tumult within. Every pilot, medic and crew-member hasted towards their posts. Amongst the middle of them struggled Nickel to find a path through the masses that looked straight over his head. Nickel did not like this; wasn't he supposed to be tall, like his father? The tumult and chaos he understood, but dealing with the flows proved atrocious for the boy.<br/><br/>His hands latched onto a piece of white cloth, as such Nickel trailed the path created for him by the large figure - forcing his way through the crowds. Normally he would have grinned at this victory over the human river; but today he found himself dragging his own fate towards the medical rooms. Efforts to locate a pass-through were in vain; along the white coat it was.<br/><br/>"Hey you! Your cousin is looking for you!"<br/><br/>Although Nickel couldn't have found an easy escape himself, a woman that grabbed him by his shoulder managed to pull him aside; it was the one he had gambled with. She stood at the elevator, waiting for the small room to carry another dozen of space fighters towards the hangars, her fellow gambling comrade must have already been in his mech. "Vera be lookin' for me?" Nickel replied in a heartbeat. She was always on his back, especially when there was another attack. The boy just wanted to roam the Eyandra freely, which he could if the officer wasn't constantly keeping both eyes open for him. His dependency on her didn't help either. After all, Veronica was the very reason he was aboard this ship.<br/><br/>"No, no, missus. Me cuz founda me." Nickel lied to the woman. "But you better go. She be in a grim one today."<br/><br/>"Tell me about it." The woman grumbled in response. "But what's a kid like you doing in this mess? Aren't you supposed to -" But she was cut off by the boy, who had assembled a repetoire of lies and escapes in seconds.<br/><br/>"I no kid, I be helpin' the nurses."  He pointed in the direction of the white coat he was trailing behind. "He ask me, he ask me!" Nickel didn't want to wait in the dorm, he wanted to be part of this adventure, no matter what crazy situation his excuse would throw him in, everything was better than aimlessly staring at the cieling from Veronica's bed. Nickel already did that every night before he fell asleep... <br/><br/>"You bettah hurry missus, the elevator be comin'! I can hear!"<br/><br/>But it wasn't, so Nickel did the only logical thing a kid afraid to get caught did; tried to believe his lies had become true. Quickly he merged himself in the stream of people again, ferociously trying to swim against it. Never had the boy thought he'd exhaust himself from a walk that was supposed to be a breeze of five minutes. But at least he was still amidst the action or soon enough he would be when they'd bring the casualties in. Nickel pondered; should he offer his help? The boy knew a couple of tricks with the micro- and nano-bots deployed for medical purposes, but his ability never stretched far from first aid and his own tools were probably outdated in comparison to the new and fancy technology of the Elyandra. But that might not be so bad, maybe that was an opportunity.<br/><br/>The room however, remained event-less. A nervous mood dwelled in the air; that was certain. A nurse asked Nickel in quasi-shock why he had not stayed not back on the moon - "Me only family's on the ship, mistah." - and why of all places he had come to the medical bay when they could expect reports of casualties any second - "I be safe here, mistah. I be watchin' the doctors. Ship's heroes ain't only outside." - but there weren't any reports of injury requiring treatment and so Nickel ended up spending his the way he had wanted to avoid; by staring at the ceiling.<br/><br/>Until all of a sudden it became crowded in the bay. Carrying in half of the tumult that was on the corridors an hour ago; two casualties were brought into the ship's medical centre. Like gulls the white coats crowded the bodies and began to make sounds; but their voices were quickly over-ruled by a beastly roar.<br/><br/>It was not the first time that Nickel had seen a human infused with animal DNA - in fact it was quite a common sight on the ship - but back where he had lived the occurrence was rare. Two wounded pilots had undergone heavy transformation; one of them even showed more feline features than human. It didn't make the boy feel at ease - at all; these people were prone to instinct and often impulsive; predictable but dangerous. Nickel knew many who had learned this the hard way. And the stories did not lie about their beastly ferocity either; the lioness swept around viciously; even catching one of the medical staff in her outburst - a nurse that was thrown of his feet!<br/><br/>Shortly after the woman in charge came in - as if it wasn't crowded enough already - the presence of this woman seemed to banish the utter madness out of the bay. The captain barked orders and then held a - a staring contest with the lioness? Was that all you needed to make such a beast submit to you? 'Duly noted.' The boy thought, carefully starting to go through the possibilities that might just open up...</div></blockquote>