☆ call-out post

[runawayballista]

call me out

Milly ✪ Baten Kaitos (CRAU) bombsheltered By night: Starbreaker, cyborg superhero. By day: cyborg trust fund baby and barista.	Lina Inverse ✪ Slayers dragonswag Beautiful sorcery genius, dragon spooker, every monster and innocent village's worst nightmare.	Agent York ✪ Red vs. Blue (AU) neverknocks Special agent, infiltration expert, professional smartass.
Cordelia Naismith ✪ The Vorkosigan Saga fontofhonor Survey astrocartographer turned Countess Vorkosigan with emotional x-ray vision.	Miles Vorkosigan ✪ The Vorkosigan Saga forwarmomentum A manic mailbomb of a human being living two very exciting lives.	Padma Vorpatril ✪ The Vorkosigan Saga sometimesnotsober Handsome, affable, and well-practiced in the ancient Vor art of day drinking. Dead at 35.
Jake Peralta ✪ Brooklyn 99 titleofyoursextape (voice testing) Ace detective. Terrible adult. Encyclopedic knowledge of 80s action movies.	Dr. Micah Niadem ✪ The Vorkosigan Saga (OC) withanh Excitable Betan Survey geologist and liquor connoisseur. They're really, really into rocks.	Sonia Vorbarra ✪ The Vorkosigan Saga vorbratta Willful princess, war survivor, expert prankster. She can start a rumor like nobody's business, especially when it's none of hers.

Comments

[falsify]

Eames follows at a decent clip, running, but not so fast he can't keep an eye out for anyone coming after them.

Micah's faster than he expected, at one point Eames stops to shoot someone coming around a corner (just to put them out of commission, it's not a kill shot,) and when he looks up he loses track of them for a moment. It's a worrying moment, he likes Micah and he's being paid a lot to get them home safe, but he catches sight of them and, well he'd be relieved if he had the time.

There's definitely some gunshots behind Micah, the occasional shout — sometimes anger, sometimes pain, at least one that sounds more shocked and offended than anything — but Eames does a decent job following their lead. He just really hopes Micah has at least some idea where they're going.

[withanh]

Even in the panic, Micah knows exactly where they're going -- they turn a corner and they can see the hangar lift at the end of the hall. Every gunshot behind them sends a fresh jolt to their senses, and the urge to turn and look back out of curiosity is strong at times, but not nearly as strong as Micah's fight-or-flight reaction. They all but skid to a halt in front of the hangar lift and immediately open-palm slams the down button. The door...does not yet open.

Judging by the faint grating sounds from below, it's on its way, but that doesn't stop Micah from repeatedly hitting the button again in desperation, finally glancing back down the hall at Eames with a very what do we do now face.

[falsify]

When he catches up, Eames spares a moment to frown about the fact the lift isn't here yet, but it's fine. It's good. It's not like all the security personnel on this ship know exactly where they're going.

He'll just... meat-shield and hope. Eames moves to stand in front of Micah so he's between them and anyone who comes down the hallway, the fabric of his clothes audibly straining as he bulks a little just to make sure he's covering them.

"So," he checks the charge on his gun and then glances at Micah over his shoulder with a light smirk, "how's things?"

[withanh]

Mashing the elevator button always works in video games, but this is not a game, and there are men with guns fast approaching. Micah swallows a nervous laugh.

"Oh, you know -- defended my most recent dissertation, decided to take a sabbatical for some more research, got kidnapped to -- I don't know, probably work on some doomsday device or something." It wouldn't be the first time! When will people learn. "What about you? Do anything interesting lately besides, er -- wearing someone else's face?"

[falsify]

"Got a new jump drive," he half wonders if putting Micah in front wouldn't be smarter. They're precious goods after all, but glancing back at them over his shoulder, he can't tell whether or not that'd just end up with Micah having a panic attack on the floor.

Eh. Good thing he's probably got significantly more live fire experience and a biological advantage over all these guards. It means his aim doesn't waver all that much when folks start rounding the corners after them,

God this sucks.

"Here's hoping we get out of her soon so we can take it for a spin."

[withanh]

“A new jump drive? Which one?” For a moment, academic excitement banishes the fear from Micah’s face, replaced with one of abject, intent curiosity. Sometimes all you have to do is mention something even tangential to wormhole physics to take Micah’s mind off the present. “That research I just mentioned, it’s actually regarding the dynamics of—“

Nothing like gunfire to bring one right back to the present, of course. Micah sucks in a breath and moves to press themself flat against the wall just as the elevator doors part in some technological divine intervention. Micah immediately ducks inside. “Ride’s here!”

[falsify]

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Eames huffs a slight laugh at Micah's questions. It probably says more about him than he's entirely comfortable with that it's something he finds endearing, but it's not like that's something Eames plans to give any thought to. Especially not when the bulk of his attention is on those seconds between him backing into the lift after Micah and the doors closing when he hits the button. In here is the most vulnerable they're going to be and he doesn't like it.

But the doors do close and there's the gentle hum of the elevator's descent in the background while Eames desperately hopes they're not going to be greeted with guns in their faces when those doors open.

"It's a modified CCX-DS-8," he finally answers, entirely nonchalant as he checks the gun in his hands. It's a drive that was set to be a big deal in various militaries, but no-one was interested in buying it for what it was worth after word got out that blueprints and a prototype had been stolen.

It's also supposed to be for ships bigger than the one Eames is leading Micah to, which certainly looks like just an escape pod from the outside. But that's not what's important here.

[withanh]

"Modified how?" Micah even almost forgets their unease around guns, watching Eames's face rather than his hands. And by whom, since Micah knows Eames isn't an engineer by trade. But they go silent when the elevator creaks to a halt on the hangar deck, staring out as the doors grind open.

And no guns jump out to greet them. Micah lets out a provisional breath and leans slightly to glance out the side of the elevator, but doesn't move otherwise. They look over at Eames uncertainly.

"Maybe they haven't alerted security on this level yet?"

well i sure hope this works for you

[falsify]

"You'll see," is his response, accompanied by a wink as he gets Micah to his ship and gets the door open quick as he can. Once they're in, it'll be pretty easy to see the engine that takes up much too much space; it's not exactly an expert job but definitely someone who has a good idea what they're doing has fitted the thing so it won't blow out the ship's systems whilst maintaining most of the speed and manoeuvrability it was designed for.

None of this is anything that Eames cares about right now. He's in a hurry to get out of here, rushing back and forth to get Micah onboard, manually open the hangar, and get back to the jumpship without being sucked into space. Which he manages, just about, and knowing nobody's gonna be able to come down here without suiting up gives him some breathing room to get things up and running. (In the interest of maintaining that breathing room, he gently shushes Micah at the first indication of any questions.) Time to get out of here.

It's smooth sailing once they're out of the hangar bay, it's not like these kidnappers are willing to use lethal force, and the pod is a small target with an excellent pilot. Granted, being a retrofitted escape pod, it doesn't have the best internal gravity system, but it's fine. Eames is managing just okay. Easily outmanoeuvreing the larger ship and the few pilots sent out after them. It doesn't take long at all before he's confident they're home free and Eames is making the journey to the port where his own ship is docked.

At the speed this thing can move, it's less than a day's travel to get there, not long at all before he's 'docking' at the ship's main cargo hold and running through several layers of security to get them on board. It is significantly more spacious on the actual ship, (not that that's hard,) and it come to life with a low hum that feels like home to Eames, tension easing out of him as he moves through this space that's his.

He's not quite ready to pay full attention to Micah just yet. There's a display on the wall toward the exit to the ship proper, mostly for logging inventory but they can run quick diagnostics from it too-- he just wants to have a quick look and make sure everything's running okay since nobody's been onboard for a few days. Shifting as he moves without considering that Micah's never seen him do it before, back to himself in his stolen (and uncomfortable) clothes by the time he reaches the panel.

please do not feel obligated to tag back i was just feeling extremely nostalgic

[withanh]

Micah, for all their squishy civilian-ness, is pretty adaptable. You don't start your career doing blind wormhole jumps if you're averse to a little risk. Nor do they mind the close quarters of the pod, cultural sensibilities being what they are. But for all they'd managed not to lose their nerve during the escape, they're not really cut out for being chased by people with guns, and their brain feels like it's rattling around in their skull a bit by the time they finally arrive on Eames's ship.

But now Micah feels like they're close to getting out of dodge, and that eases the anxiety. And it is nice to be able to stretch their legs and move around a little bit. They have dozens of questions for Eames, but it's clear that his full attention needs to be on the matter of their escape and — whatever he's doing now, Micah assumes it's important. Far be it from them to intrude on their rescuer; even the excitable scientist can embody the spirit of patience.

But they momentarily forget all of that when they see Eames shifting and instead exclaim, "How did you do that?"