For the right price

Chapter 7: The calm before the storm.

Rarity was sitting in her room, she was sitting on the bed, thinking about the last mission and the aftermath. All the people that had basically worshipped them, all the pain each one of them had gone through when Ilsa and Fluttershy had done a full health check on all the injuries they had gotten. She couldn't believe that cleaning solvent, medicinal creams and the biofilm that Ilsa applied using one of the medical robots would hurt so much as it did. But it was more than worth the one million credits they split, and the one hundred and twenty five thousand credits that she got to keep herself would be more than enough to buy some gear that could give her better protection.

Her mind slipped back the their last mission again, back to when they had gotten out of the factory room, after Isaac had killed that Logan guy. She couldn't let go of how Spike had acted towards her on their last mission, and it annoyed her. All she did was helping him up and tell him that it would be allright, she had called him Spikey too, but he had never had a problem with that before, but this time it looked like it had annoyed him.

She huffed and turned around, looking out the window of her room. He was not going to get away with being rude to her without apologizing, under no circumstances would she allow that to pass.

She walked out of her room heading down the hall to find Spike, hopefully he would be in his room.

Rarity couldn't understand why spike had acted that way at all, they used to be close friends when they lived at the imperial liner. He used to go out and buy her gifts when they docked at different space stations, and she had enjoyed it when he did, she felt like they were the closest of friends.

She walked down the hall thinking about the past and things they had done together, and felt a bit sad. She hoped that it had not gotten bad between them, she still wanted to be a friend with Spike.

She gave his door a light knock. "Spike, are you in there? I need to talk to you, please open the door."

A minute went before the door opened and Spike peeked out from his room, wearing a pair of dark pants but no shirt. "Hey Rarity. You wanted to talk?"

Rarity looked at him and smiled, not sure how to start. "Oh, could we perhaps take this in your room? It's a bit personal and I don't want the others to hear."

Spike nodded and held out his arm, motioning her to walk into his room. "Sure, come in."

She walked in and looked around the room, she wouldn't say that it was dirty or anything like that but, Well, it was easy to tell that a young man was living there.

She turned around to look at him as he closed his door.

He turned around aswell, giving her a questioning look. "So, what is it?"

Rarity cleared her throat, not sure how to say it. But after all, she figured that being honest and telling it as it is was the best way to go. "Well, I did notice how you acted at me back in the factory. I think that you were very rude to me when I tried to help you up after you got shot."

...

There was not much to do while taking a day or two off, but lucky for Isaac, there had been many technological advances in storing terran history, documents and files. This included movies, texts of fiction and science, movies and music. He was at the moment listening to a song that, according to the musical library was from the 20th century, it also described the musical genre as " Melodic metal".

Isaac danced around enjoying the sound of the electric guitars and the bagpipes that was coming through the speakers. "Haha! People thousands of years ago sure knew how to make some good music!"

He lost himself in the music as the chorus came, the song being sung by a female at first and then by a male.

Where is the wonder, where's the awe?
Where's dear Alice knocking on the door?
Where's the trapdoor that takes me there?
Where the real is shattered by a mad march hare.

Where is the wonder where's the awe?
Where are the sleepless nights I used to live for?
Before the years take me, I wish to see, the lost in me.

As the song died out he sighed and turned the speakers off. " I need to show the others that song someday, that is just pure amazing, and to think that it was from the 20th century, ten thousand years... They must have had an awesome century to live in."

Suddenly he could hear shouting and screaming from the hall. He went for the door and peeked outside. " Hey! What's all the commotion? Did someone steal your toilet paper or what!?" He shouted out into the hall, trying to get the attention of the screaming perpetrator, which he soon found out to be in plural.

A door opened and Rarity, followed by a half nude Spike walked out, shouting like they were trying to talk to one another from different star systems.

" Is it so bad for me to think that it was simply nice of you to do it?" Rarity shouted at the dragon, who answered her in the same vocal manner.

"No I don't, but when you know it's more to it than just gifts, why do you lead me on, thinking that you care about what lies behind it?"

Isaac groaned and stepped out into the hallway, making his way over to the two possible opera signers. "Allright, calm down, and stop the shouting, someone might be trying to sleep."

"Not anymore." Came Ilsas voice though the speakers in the hallway. "My readings of the vital signs on the ship shows that everyone is now awake."

"Ilsa" Isaac said, having a difficult time to hide his smile. "This is not the time, I'll take care of this."

He looked back at the two combatants and gave them an irritated look. "So , do you care to explain why you're shouting at eachother."

Rarity crossed her arms. " Spike was very rude to me back at the factory when I helped him up. I thought that it would be a good idea to talk to him about it, and suddenly he says that he is mad at me because I've apparently lead him on before."

Spike didn't wait to let Isaac respond and kept on going. "You did! I bought you gifts because I was interested in you more than a friend. If you would have told me that you're not interested in a relationship I would be fine with it. But you never said that, you wanted me to keep buying you gift didn't you? That's why I'm mad at you, because I think you're a greedy bitch!"

Raritys eyes widened at this, furious that he'd call her such a name. "How dare you!?"

"STOP!" Isaac told them and put his hands on their shoulders. "Talk, don't shout, and please no name calling, that is doing nothing to help."

He turned to Rarity. "Now, if that was true, that you didn't tell him that you were not interested in a romantic thing, then Spike is right you lead him on."

Rarity looked frustrated now, and you could see her brain working to give an answer.

"But I thought it was nice, that he was friendly to me, and I thought we were really good friends. I actually bought things to him too when I got the chance."

Spike huffed and started to walk in a little circle. " Yeah, right. I bought you a really big golden necklace with a ruby on it, and what did you buy me? A TINY RUBY SHARD!"

Isaac groaned again. "Okay, calm down Spike. I understand that you are frustrated okay? But listen, both of you, that was in the past, though I think that some apologies are in order."

The two of them looked at him, they looked like they agreed, but that they did not want to be the one that apologized first.

Isaac looked at them in turn as he continued to speak. "Rarity, I think you should apologize for not being thorough with Spike, that you did not explain to him what you felt and what you really wanted, that way he would not have made the mistake of thinking you were interested. Spike, you should apologize for being rude instead of talking to her, asking her about it, and you should apologize for calling her a bitch too."

Spike and Rarity looked at eachother, and both of them said sorry at the same time. This caused them to be quiet for a moment, then Rarity continued her apology.

"You're right, I should have told you that I wasn't interested in you in that way."

"And I should have taken you aside when we had the time to talk to you about it, I shouldn't have let my actions speak for me." Spike told her, sounding like he was ashamed for stooping so low.

They gave eachother a hug, sealing the apologies.

Isaac smiled, relieved that they could resolve their argument. " Im glad you worked it out, we can't have the two of you fighting. If anyone of you need me I'll be in my room."

Rarity walked down the hallway heading back to her room, and Spike turned to Isaac. " I need to talk to you aswell, Isaac."

Isaac smiled, wondering what he might want to talk about. "Allright, what's on your mind?"

"I need to talk about what's going on between us."

"Oh."

"Don't worry, I don't want to stop it, I like giving you affection and when you show me the same, but. What if it affects our missions? Maybe I do something stupid because my feelings for you are so strong?"

"Hmm... I'm not sure, my best guess is that we both have to restrain ourselves to not let anything that's between us have any effect during the missions. It might not be easy, but it's either that or this relationship is a no go."

The speakers sprung to life and Ilsas voice came through them once again. "My calculations on how you have acted towards eachother in a romantic manner while having days off compared to preparing for missions, the chances of you letting your feelings get in the way of a mission is 1245 to 1."

Isaac shrugged and looked back at Spike. "Well there you go, can't argue with those computer calculations."

Spike chuckled, thinking that Ilsas timing was good. "I think I have to agree with you. So, uh... Isaac? Do you want to get something to eat with me?"

His boyfriend smiled and kissed his cheek. "Hehe, yeah. I'd love to Spike." He wrapped his arm around Spikes waist and they walked towards the small dining room.

" I want some more of that squid and mashed potatoes you had back at the liner, I wonder if I remembered to fill our stock with some of it?" Isaac said as they went around the corner of the hall.

Spike sighed and shuddered. "Ugh, you LIKE that crap?"

...

The days went by, not much happening at the Nordin. Isaac had wanted to take a few days off to allow their wounds to heal and to just wind off for a while, letting all the stress from the earlier missions wash away.

But even though there was calm and serenety on board the Nordin, out in the galaxy there was things that was set in motion, it might not have mattered much to the galaxy itself, since what has been set in motion is quite small and trivial compared to the universe, it would have a lot of meaning to the humans inhabiting numerous planets in the universe. These motions would soon echo out, and arrive at certain destination, where one specific human being was now sleeping in his bunk bed, aboard the Nordin.

Isaac was sleeping soundly, he had started to eat his breakfasts, lunches and dinners together with Spike, wanting to spend more time with him than he did, due to all the things that had to be done aboard the ship. The meal he had eaten earlier with Spike made him very content and very drowsy, so he had decided to take a nap, which resulted in him falling into a deep sleep with dreams of Spike swinging on a swingset, shouting "Look at me, I'm going at lightspeed!" and of random spacecrafts that crashed with weird farting noises.

As the swinging dragon and the repeated farting of the spacecrafts slowly faded, he opened his eyes and stretched.

"NHHHG!" He groaned as he stretched, waking himself up even more from this very logical and normal dream of his.

He sat up and rubbed his eyes, and as he did he noticed that his communicator was flashing. Usually, this was a sign that Ilsa had wanted to let him know that she had news for him, but that they were not so important that she would wake him up.

He stepped into his shower and after a quick sonic wave cleaning later he put his work overalls on and got out of his room, heading for the meeting hall.

He walked into the meeting hall and spoke out to gain Ilsas attention. "I saw that you had a message for me Ilsa, what is it this time?"

A screen flickered to life and Ilsas voice came through the speakers. "I'm glad that you're awake captain. The UNSC, The united Nations Space Command , has sent out messages to all the military branches of the UN corporations and anyone affiliated, that Terra is at war!"

Isaac sat down with a frown and faced the screen, where Ilsas face was showing. She looked like an older woman, with her hair up in a sort of ball on the back of her head.

"War? Terra has been preparing for the possibility of war for almost a few thousand years now, but it has only been to the extent of preparing. What made us break the peace?" Isaac asked, looking at Ilsa intensely, almost like he could not believe her.

" The planet Arrakis, which is one of the many planets colonised by the human race, is under attack by the Jeckyllean aliens. They have sent a fleet to Arrakis and have landed on the planets surface. They have attacked a large number of Spice melange refineries on the surface and have built bases in the deserts and in the mountain regions. The UNSC is sending a attack fleet in response to this attack, they feel that loosing Arrakis would deal a terrible blow to Terran economy and that it would also deal a blow to the overall trading in the local region of this galaxy."

Isaac sat quiet for a while, mulling the newly acquired information over. " In which starsystem can I find Arrakis?"

The screen that Ilsas face was shown on flickered to black. "Searching for relevant information... Searching... Seachring... Arrakis is orbiting the star Canopus in the Carina star system, which is located 312 lightyears, or 96 parsecs from Terra itself. Canopus is also called Suhayl in the native language of the humans on Terra that discovered it, and it is a white supergiant. On a side note, this the discovery of this start later led to the invention of the Canopus star tracker, a space navigation device that was used in the early centuries of human-kinds space exploration."

Isaac nodded and sat quiet for a few minutes. "Hmm... I know what I want to do, but I need to make sure that the others will go with me, if they do not.. Then I guess I have to let them go for a while."

He stood up. "Thank you Ilsa, you can go back to piloting the ship and keeping all the systems under control."

"Yes captain." She responded and went on with her duties.

Isaac walked towards the computer panel on the end of the table that was placed in the meeting hall. He pressed a few buttons and then spoke into a microphone that was placed next to the screen.

"This is the captain speaking, if anyone of you was asleep I apologize, but I have gotten some grave news and I need to hold a meeting urgently, everyone to the meeting hall ASAP. Thank you."

He released the button and sat down in the big chair behind him as he waited for his crew to assemble.

He let out a troubled sigh, thinking to himself. "I hope that they're ready to go to war with me. It's not like they haven't already, but this is different. I'm doing this for my people, for Terra. In any case I hope that they will stand by my side, and I hope that I am not asking them for too much. The Jeckylleans were ruthless, if they sent a fleet to Arrakis, it would by no means be a small and weak one. I hope that our fleets are as massive and lethal as we make them sound, otherwise this will be a short campaign."