Tickets For Two, Please

by Word_Sledgehammer

Summary:

Francesca Bates is a seasoned security officer hired to provide her experience to a budding extra-terrestrial colony. However, she's awoken far ahead of schedule by a mysterious person in desperate need of help. Will her obligations to her duty force her hand, or will her past coerce her heart to write checks that she cant cash?

Notes:

This is a short story set in a larger science fiction setting that I'm developing for a table-top game, for fun. If you're ever interested in finding out more about it, lemme know!

Chapter 1: Snap Out of It

Clear waters flowed all around, cooling her body. She drifted through a pool on her back. The pool was barely deep enough to reach her taut shoulders when standing, but she knew how to stay afloat, to tread idly, with ease. Massive koi, explosions of oranges and whites and blacks, scaled calicoes, sailed by in the electric blue waters. Despite the vivid glow beneath her the sky above hung black, vacant, giving the impression of a grotto over her. She knew better. There was no sky, no roof, not even water or fish. This was her restful, idle state. This is the dream her mind had conjured during…

Attention: Beginning Thaw Procedure

Fran scowled. Was it that time already? There was no way… What time is it?

2314 Local, October 1^st, 2756

WHAT!? This is three years, seven months, and a day early! DAI, give me a status!

Nominal. Thaw initiated manually via local controls.

Oh dammit, if they’re waking me up the hard way this early…

Fran flexed her senses and tried to wiggle her consciousness back into her physical body. Even if they didn’t rush the process, this was going to suck, royally.

Thaw Procedure expedited via local command.

SUNOVABIIIIITCH

Fran’s mind thrashed as she tried to grasp at what felt real within herself. The koi scattered in a frenzy, leaving her to rise upwards in a whirlpool of blue lights and bubbles. No matter how hard she tried to focus it felt as though her body was being folded into a pretzel and sucked into a tub drain half her size.

DAI you better tell those assholes who woke me up to expect a fight if we’re not already in one! This is SERIOUSLY NOT COOL!

Message delivered, pending response.

Fran raged within herself, her skin tingling with pins and needles while hot lances of searing agony ran like stitches up her spine.

Welcome back CPO-2A Francesca Bates. Please stand by.

PISS OOOOFF AAAAAAAAAAA

- - - - -

Blub

Blurb blub blub

Fran opened her eyes. Sticky slime ran like egg whites over them, irritating her. She made to speak, then to yell as she discovered her tank had only just barely started to drain, and that her nutrient line was still ran down her throat.

What is this amateur hour!? They’ve barely popped my cork! I could fucking drown like this!

A dim bluish light filled the clear pudding-like liquid all around her. Above her head a dark space spun in circles with her vertigo in full effect, but it told her that the lights in her bay were still off. No muzzle flashes or explosions, though. Nothing that would demand the attention of one the most senior security supervisors on board.

Then what the hell is the point of kicking me out like this!? Gaaaah!

Fran squirmed. Her arms cut through the gelatin with the straining force she pressed into her quivering, spasming muscles. Her right hand pushed hard towards the side of her tank, into a blinking red pad. Her body rocked upwards as the plexiglass shell split like flower petals and fell away in a tidal wave of stasis slime. With the fluid draining faster her hands slapped onto her face, narrowly finding their goal as her mind reeled and floundered. She grasped her face and began to massage her nutrient line up and out of her esophagus. The soft ribs of its plastic tubing scraped her throat and tongue, thudding against her teeth as it went. With a final pull she retched fluids all over herself and the half-full tank around her.

“YouuuuuffffuuugginmuhfugginKILLYOUasssssssshooooooollleessginnaonceI” she took a deep breath “MURDERtheefforlovinshitoutofyoualllllhomyGAAAAAAAAHHHHHH—” Fran threw up once more. She groaned as it spilled across her bare chest and down her side. “FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaakaaaaayyyyy…” She groaned, loud and irritated, and rolled onto her side. With fumbling hands she tore off her head harness and vitals chest plate. Free of those she tried to sit up, wincing and gasping as her muscles woke up. “CAN I GET A FUCKING COFFEE AT LEASTAAAAaaaaaa…” Finally upright, she pitched to her side and leaned on the lip of her stasis tube, loosing a deep, whimpering groan.

Fran fought to catch her breath for several minutes.

She wiped her eyes and looked around, blinking clarity into her sight as she fought to catch her breath.

“Hello!?”

A massive wall covered with blue, glowing stasis tubes like leaves on creeping vines stretched out to both sides of her. Apart from the tubes she saw no other light. Across from her was a ruddy grey metal bulkhead of their ship, and some distance to the right on that side was a mightily tall window with a view into space. The window let in starlight to little effect.

Not a soul was in sight.

“Helloooo!?” Fran sat up again before falling to the other side, catching herself this time. “Who the fuck woke me up like this!?” No one answered her echoing voice. “DAI, is there someone else here!?”

A jingle preceded a pleasant feminine voice emanating from the small console attached to her tube.

“Yes, Chief Petty Officer Bates. One lab technician is within two meters of you.”

Fran whipped her head around despite how it aggravated her vertigo. “Are you sure? I don’t see anyone! Who is it!?”

“They are not on the departure manifest.”

“What the fu…” Fran froze. With calm determination she looked up… “Oh thank God.” No strange person hung in the air above her, staring down like a macabre human spider. Like THAT would’ve happened, Fran thought with a small laugh. “Nobody here? Weird…”

She groaned one final time. “Alright Fran… time to… get your old ass up then.” Fran deliberated a few moments longer. She placed her hands on the plexiglass rim of her tub and with a deep gasp pulled herself up. “AaaaandthereweeeeAAAHFF—” Her muscles gave out and she landed on the metal floor below with a splat. “I hate thiiiis…” she moaned, “I wanna go back to sleeeep…”

When she finally righted herself into a sitting position she wiped her face. She leaned forward and pushed a wobbly leg beneath herself, but before she could rise something caught her eye.

A foot covered in a black sock stuck out past the end of her tube’s dais.

Fran tensed. “Uhhh… hello?”

No answer.

She finished standing and waddled towards the end of her tube station, supporting herself against it.

“Who are you? Identify yourself!” She edged closer. “I can still kick your ass like this!” Probably, she finished, mentally.

As Fran finally cleared the end of her tank she was taken aback by what she found.

“What the hell… are you?”

The thing sprawled on the floor certainly had the clothes of a person: a white lab coat, black wool sweater, and what could be capris or long, tight shorts cut from a dark khaki material. But the rest of it, this thing, raised many questions.

Their physique was thin, haggard, drawn, emaciated like a victim of starvation. Their pale skin clung to their figure like a burlap sack wrapped around a tree branch. Their hair lay long across them and the floor: a deep oily black that obscured most of their face. But what Fran could see sent a shiver down her spine. The one visible eye was solid black, sclera and all, and sunken deep into their face. Their dry mouth, lips cracked, was set amid gaunt cheeks and gasping gently for air. And in that mouth… was a pair of massive fangs that jabbed at their own lower lip when they protruded.

Vampires weren’t real, Fran knew better. But if someone were to be one, this is pretty damn close to what she’d imagined they looked like. She took a step back. She had an idea of what this was.

“You’re… gene-modified?” They nodded with a short, jerky bob of their head. The next obvious question was why, but this person wasn’t in any condition to be answering questions that elaborate. In fact they probably shouldn’t be asked any questions apart from how they wanted their remains disposed of, because viral gene mods needed to make a person into something like this, let alone a vampire looking monstrosity, were unbelievably fucking illegal and a death sentence in more restrictive places. Like this. Quite explicitly like a colony ship, in fact.

Fran knew she should have knocked it out, smashed its head in, throttled it, destroyed it, or something to to snuff it out. Protocol demanded it be destroyed due to the viral threat it potentially posed. Somewhere in the back of her mind she did find it a kind of revolting. Supremely unnatural, highly illegal, very much a health risk… Something about this pathetic bag of bones struck a chord inside Fran, though. She didn’t dare touch it, but…

“Are… you okay?”

Despite their condition they formed an expression that spoke for them. Seriously?

“Alright, fine.” Fran rolled her eyes as she wiped cryo fluids off of her legs. “What… what can I do to help you? Took the time to wake me up, after all. You need something, that much is obvious.” That made the most sense in her head. People didn’t seek out law enforcement unless they needed serious help, and this was absolutely the case, here.

They raised an eerily white, clawed hand, gestured between them. Their voice sounded like pieces of paper being rubbed together on the far side of a wide room; rasping, weak.

“Help… or… kill… me… don’t… care…”

“Goddamn…” Fran muttered under her breath. The exhaustion in their tone (probably her tone?), the look in their (albeit weird) eyes, the way they barely clung to life, it all rooted around in Fran’s heart for a kind of pity she hadn’t felt in a long, long time. For a reason. But there it was again.

Fran scowled and relented. “Help it is, then, I guess.” She took a step closer but froze. “Wait, are you gonna try to bite me?”

They nodded, eyes wide and… afraid?

“Seriously? Glad I asked but you’re just gonna tell like that? Straight up?”

They shook their head. “Instinct…” They wheezed. “Can’t… control… it…”

Fran bit her lip. “Alright, fine. Can you hand me your… lab coat? Why do you have a lab coat?”

They wiggled on the floor, grasping and flailing at their jacket in a vain effort to remove it. It didn’t take long for them to give up, letting themselves fall flat on the metal deck in a battle for breath. They shrugged.

“Okay. We’re doing this my way, then.”

Fran closed the distance and stood directly over them. She knelt down and grasped their shoulders, firm. In a fit of curiosity, though, she raised one of her wrists over their head. They eyed it like a fiend possessed and leaned up for it, gnashing uselessly in the air as they were too weak to reach her. Fran couldn’t contain a smirk. But as she rolled them face-down and jammed a knee in their back her smile evaporated instantly. They began to cry, tears dripping onto the cold metal deck as they choked out weak apologies in a brief burst of lucidity.

Fran gulped, suddenly extremely self conscious. “Uhm… sorry about… all this.”

She grabbed their coat by the collar and worked it down their shoulders and back before sliding it free of their arms. She rolled it up part ways between the sleeves and, grabbing the top of their head, worked it around until the rolled up lab coat filled their mouth, gagging them. Fran tied the sleeves behind their head. Then she pulled the sleeves of their sweater top down, using the stretchy wool fabric to tie their hands behind their back beyond their hands. Near the collar a bright Tiffany blue color caught Fran’s eyes; bra straps. A she it is, then. Well, maybe that depends on what the mutagenic compounds left behind…

With a grunt Fran hoisted the woman up into her arms, and the difference between them became glaringly apparent. Fran outclassed in width, weight, and height by a significant degree. Fran was no featherweight, regardless: Five feet Nine inches, two hundred pounds of mostly muscle, she was built to the nines for security work. But the lithe little thing in her arms was the complete opposite: no guess on height above five and five but maybe… ninety pounds? They were starving, after all.

That was painfully apparent as Fran stood up straight. She bumped her face uselessly against Fran’s clavicle, mindlessly fighting a pointless battle to feed on the larger woman. Fran grimaced. God you’re in a bad way in all this… She swallowed a long-buried pang of grief that tried to worm its way up out of her core, but she pressed it down with a thought.

“DAI, is there anyone else awake right now?”

“No, Chief Petty Officer Bates.”

Fran groaned. “Just call me Fran, if you could. Can you turn on the subsystems in the nearest medical bay for me? And get a floor-line going for me, I’ve got no clue where I’m going right now.”

“Yes, Fran.”

A red line ignited on the floor and ran down the huge length of the cryo bay, to the left of her pod, before it snaked around a corner in the distance.

Fran groaned a final time and began to plod across the wide space. She winced as she looked back at the wet mess of cryo-slime on the floor that she left behind. Glancing down at her senseless charge she snorted. “I’m gonna make you mop all that up, afterwards.”

Chapter 2: A Professional Baseline

The lights above flicked on in the low, white room as the door slid open with a hiss. Fran waltzed in with a cool certainty and immediately made for the nearest medical bed. The padding hissed and creaked when Fran lay her frail charge upon it and without hesitation she began restraining her. Composite manacles held the willowy woman in place; limbs stuck to the edges of the bed. Fran didn't take the coat gag off, not just yet.

When all was said and done she stepped back. The ghoulish woman looked back at her. Sweat shined her face, her breathing ran quick, hard, and shallow. The minuscule aberration of the shape of her pupils gave just enough of a reflective indicator to tell Fran vaguely where she was looking in the sterile light of the medical office, but even without that Fran noticed she could feel the woman's gaze. As pathetic as her body was now her focus radiated a predatory energy that kept Fran on edge. She knew when this thing was looking at her and it wasn’t far removed from being under the barrel of a gun.

Maybe... I could let us breathe for a minute.

"DAI, are there any towels in this room?"

"Yes Fran. Cabinet 23D by the door has towels and medical garments within."

"...Thanks..." Fran gave the pale thing one last thoughtful glare before walking away.

She took her time wiping away the last of the stasis jelly, getting into her pits and creases before it dried out into a tough, stiff membrane that would itch after a few hours. Not very well thought through, Fran grumbled to herself. But quality comes with cost. When she dropped her towel she covered herself with light blue scrubs and a pair of white, soft plastic slippers. She didn't shy away from being exposed, basic training had done away with that concern, but her professional standards had dues to pay. Or maybe she didn't mind the time it took to change to get away from...

Fran approached the smaller woman again. Indeed, a woman, which was the aspect Fran decided to appeal to here. She had been watching her the entire time, Fran could feel it. As certain as the sun’s rays on her back. Fran crossed her arms and leaned back against another nearby bed.

"So..."

They nodded, sitting like a child in time-out after being caught out all day with their most mischievous friends.

"Are you... a lot like a vampire, or no?"

They nodded wearily, eyes shut.

"Hrmm. So you... need blood?"

Their gaze trailed away, and eventually they shrugged with another, now half-hearted, nod.

"Wait, so you can eat and drink normally?"

She looked back at and stared at Fran for several long moments. Then she gave her another ambiguous nod.

Fran grunted. "But of course, you can't just break into the food stores without ship-board clearance."

She nodded again.

Fran scratched her chin. This is moving past a yes or no interrogation fast. She balanced the potential cost of this little endeavor with what there was to gain from it. She could dig up a little blood, and in return she would know how serious this breach was. Were there more of them? Had they damaged something vital via being here? Had they contaminated something? With diamond clarity Fran's goals laid before her. Once more she had a job to do.

"Alright... miss... if I... feed you, are you gonna be lucid? Compliant?"

She nodded vigorously, now.

Fran blanched at their enthusiasm.

"... DAI, where're the blood bags at?"

“Please specify item type.”

“The uh… transfusion blood supply.”

"Refrigerator Unit 7." A green light blinked on a glass door near the far end of the room.

Fran gave her charge another long look before standing. The wispy slap of her slippers provided a weak serenade for her thoughts as she approached the fridge. Inside the glass door several clear plastic drawers with polished steel frames hung in rows, backlit with pale blue light. Blood type labels adorned each of them. Fran smirked. I wonder if they have a type? Well, when in doubt... She touched the O+ drawer and took two bags when it slid open with a whisper. Fran shoved each bag under her armpits and her hands into her pockets before strolling back to her impromptu guest.

"Do you care if it's warm?"

They waited an awful long time before shaking their head.

Fran regarded her curiously for a moment.

"DAI do we got a heater for these things?"

"Yes. On the wall near you."

Fran gently clicked her tongue with a studious but neutral expression before turning, and the woman wilted as she walked away. A shelf near the heater contained a small bevy of medical equipment. Fran snatched up a plastic IV tube, sans needle, just as the heater dinged.

As she walked back to the ghoul Fran plugged the tube into the blood bag. "Can't imagine the anti-coagulant and preservative mixture in this stuff'll taste good, but it's better than nothing. Right?"

The frail woman had already become unresponsive. Her eyes faded into an eerie vacancy as they stared with rigid attention at the bag of red liquid in Fran's hands. For a long moment she analyzed the woman who seemed to have forgotten about her entire existence.

Like a starving dog. Well then.

Fran wasn't a risk taker. She didn't even gamble plastic chips; it irritated her. When she went to remove the gag she locked the small woman's head in place with a grip as firm as steel, but gentle as a surgeon's touch against her eerily cold skin. She pressed her head back and loosened the wound-up lab coat. To her surprise, though, the woman's black eyes shifted to her and her mouth let out a slight, keening yowl of desperation. She actually seemed to try to close her gasping mouth. She sneered, snarled, sniveled, but didn't attempt a lunge or a bite. Interesting. Fran gently pushed the end of the tube between her lips. The woman froze in place as she drank, now truly completely oblivious to the world. Fran let go with a snap, but it was for nothing. The woman seemed to finally be at peace. With nothing else to do Fran stepped back and leaned against the other nearby bed once more. She did her best not to stare.

"Uh... DAI, you can just... deduct that from my paycheck."

"Sufficient medical coverage could negate any expenses."

"Yeah that’s not fuckin’ likely… What if we call it a medical emergency?"

"Deferred payment options for conditional care are available."

Fran sighed and massaged the bridge of her nose.

The woman finished her meal in record time. Is there a record time for drinking a bag of transfusion blood? To her amazement some of the color returned to the woman's face, and just a smidgen of her gaunt, haggard look was smoothed away. Even more surprising was the unexpected glimmer of relief Fran felt in her chest.

The woman spit the tube out with a tiny pop, and the end of her tongue hung from between her lips for a moment. Fran covered her mouth and turned away, stifling a laugh.

"Uh... what is... it?" The exhausted wheeze that had defined the woman’s voice before had worn away, leaving behind a gentle feminine lilt.

Fran waved her hand. "Nothing, you uh... have a bit, um... on your lip."

"Oh. Can you…? Ah, nevermind." She licked her lips, mouth wide to avoid her fangs.

Fran couldn't help but chuckle as she watched her. "Anyways... feeling better?"

Those eyes locked onto her again. Fran felt a muscle in one of her knuckles clench.

"Physically... yes."

"Hm. That's all?"

She scowled. "I didn't ask to be like this." Fran frowned. "Or... at least not like..." she shrugged. "This."

"I see..." Fran massaged her mouth as she thought, arms crossed again. "So, let's start with the simple stuff. What's your name?"

"Jill."

"Full legal name, if you could."

"Jillian Marie Mournewall." Fran snorted. "What?"

"That's your last name, and you're a… vampire… thing? Come oooon."

"The irony isn't lost on me," hissed Jill through tight lips.

"Alright alright, sorry. Just cant help myself, sometimes. Are you alone?"

Jill nodded in silence. Then, quietly, "I am, now."

"So there were more of you. What happened to them?"

"One, Doctor Holloway. He… died." Jill averted her eyes momentarily.

Fran tilted her head. "How?"

"UV exposure. Suffered a lethal incidence of solar erythema."

"...Seriously?"

Jill sighed. "Yes..."

Fran couldn't help but laugh. "Don't you all think you've taken the vampire trope a little too far?"

"Yes, obviously." Fran squinted at the brutal honesty. "This whole thing is a ridiculous experiment gone catastrophically wrong."

"Hold on, out here in space, away from the stars, through the heavy windows of the ship? That still tagged him with a lethal sunburn?"

"We weren't sure at what distance solar radiation would dissipate to safe levels of UV light. We were still quite close to Sol when we... tempted fate."

"Tempted fate, yeah, you could say that agai--" Fran snapped her mouth shut. Her eyes bored into Jillian. "Sol? We haven't been anywhere near Sol in..."

"Fifty eight years, give or take," Jill finished for her. To her captor's stupefied expression she continued. "We snuck on during launch prep, smuggled through cargo containers coming up the Holguin Elevator."

"Where did you sleep in the meantime!? You can't access a cryo tube without--"

"Yes. I'm painfully aware," Jill answered with her voice just above a whisper.

Fran leaned back against the bed, gobsmacked. "You mean to tell me that you survived alone without access to food and drink for fifty eight years!?" Fran touched her hands to her temples, grasping for comprehension. "How?!"

Jill sniffed. "I broke into one of the triage offices near Engineering. There I was able to jury-rig a supply of Morphine from storage through one of the medication dispensers. It... helped." Fran stared at her, aghast. "In a way... we kinda proved Doctor Holloway's thesis..."

"And what thesis was that? How to create the most miserable existence possible?" Fran tossed the spare blood bag onto the foot of Jill's bed before wiping her face down. "Christ and Hunter, you're probably nuts by now! Not to mention the deterioration of… like, your bones? Muscles? I’d have gone mad!"

Jill grunted. "Slept through most of it. But... well, yes. The point of our... his program, was to find a way to minimize resource needs for alert crews in transit. We... sorta figured that out."

"Yeah he made you some weird kind of immortal, alright."

"He made me a monster!" Jill bit back. "I was a stupid, naive kid and I let him do this to me! And for what!"

Fran watched a fresh well of tears drain from her midnight black eyes. The contrast of such a human display on her maligned features only made her all the more pitiable in Fran's experienced eyes. For better or worse, she was undecided.

"I get what you meant, when you woke me up." Jill looked at her. "One way or another, solving your problem." Fran looked her over. Her clothes had worn threadbare in many places, cuts and tears had been patched up with tape or coarse threads, even wires, and a patina of grime and grease had built up in the more obvious places. Fran nodded. "Well... let me get you some clothes and we can figure out where to go from there." Fran left Jill to collect herself.

From the same cabinet that Fran got her own scrubs, she withdrew a second set. The benefit of these was that regardless of the size of the person wearing them they could be cinched tighter to fit their figure. Fran didn’t have to tighten anything, but Jill would be figuring out a sweet spot for a while. Fran grinned to herself at the thought of Jill fidgeting with the awkward garments until she looked up.

Jill sat on the end of her bed, free of the restraints and sipping away at the second blood bag.

Before a breath, a blink, or even a thought could transpire Fran was upon her. She slammed Jill into the wall. Jill screamed until Fran cut it short with a hand around her neck.

"QUIET!" The sheer volume of Fran's command locked the younger woman in place. Jill whipped her hands back, away, to rest against the wall so as not to provoke. Fran noticed, but a point had to be made.

"You've just made an awfully large withdrawal from our meager bank of trust." Jill gulped, black eyes darting every which way. "I don't know who or what the fuck you really are, and until then you're not gonna move, you're not gonna wander, you're not gonna eat, you're not gonna shit unless I give you the go ahead. Am I understood?" Jill nodded as fast as her weak neck could move. "I'm well within my authority to kill you and be done with it. I could do it six different ways with my bare hands alone. Is that what you want?"

Jill hissed and gurgled. "Why not? Why not just do it? Be done with it?"

Fran repeated herself with force. "Is that what you want? Killing for fun isn’t my thing!”

Jill looked away.

Fran examined her face in detail. It still possessed a kind of youthful grace, but tiny wrinkles, crows feet, stress lines, and minute scars marred the natural beauty of it. Fran found her eyes drawn to these minor blemishes, enhanced by the mess of blood smeared across them from their scuffle.

"Everyone deserves a second chance, Jill. A fighting chance. You're gonna get that from me. But so help me God if I put you somewhere your ass stays there."

Jill nodded again.

They both caught their breath as best they could, Fran gently setting Jill on her feet.

"Get changed. I have to watch."

Jill pressed herself to the wall once more. Her voice quivered as she stared at the floor. "Why?"

Fran took a long breath in before letting it out slowly, deliberately.

"Security procedure. I know you've been through a lot, but it's my job. I do my job." Fran reached back and plucked the fresh scrubs from the foot of the bed. "Here."

"Everything?"

Fran nodded with a pain she could not hide on her face. "Everything."

Jill hesitated. Then she began unceremoniously ripping the rest of her clothes from herself.

"Good. Burn them. I don't ever want to see them again."

Notes:

You know once upon a time someone tried to explain Show Don't Tell to me and they did it in the worst way possible. I think it genuinely set my writing back by years. Now I feel as though I'm slowly pushing back against the misconceptions that have plagued my efforts. If you can think of any pointers on that front I'd love to hear them.

Chapter 3: Birds of a Feather

“So what systems have you accessed while here?”

Jill walked slightly ahead and to the right of Fran- upon the Chief Petty Officer’s direction. She snuck tiny cubes of frozen banana out of a mylar bag, pinched them between her clawed fingers, and chewed them into a fine puree before swallowing. Fran had no problem whatsoever getting her some food, but advised Jill to start slow.

“You know I thought it’d be harder to eat real food with these ungodly… teeth.” She blinked and turned back to Fran as they walked. “Oh, sorry, what did you say?”

Fran couldn’t help but smile as she watched the small thing come back to life. Her pale skin and light-blue scrubs painted a sharp contrast with the gunmetal halls that loomed above them. Jill-as she was now-was basically born into this existence, separated from so many normal interactions after her transformation that every little thing from here on out could have the same significance of an infant learning it. Fran had to check her growing anger at the idea, the cruelty of the circumstance.

“I was asking if you broke into anything.”

Midway through another cube- “I brohfp imtuh ah yanituhrfs cloffet I fink?”

“PLEASE finish chewing before you talk.”

Jill chortled. “Mfkhay.” Gulp. “I broke into a janitor’s closet, I think? I made this, like, little nest of towels. It wasn’t bad, actually.”

“You didn’t… y’know… relieve yourself in there, too, did you?”

“Oh god no, so gross. No, the bathrooms aren’t locked. Besides, after like ten years I kinda stopped going to the bathroom like that. There’s water, I drank plenty of that, but… y’know, not much to eat.”

Fran scowled again. “Really a shit situation you had to go through, all that…” They glanced at each other. Fran admired the very human look in Jill’s alien eyes, a semblance of optimism. “I guess it’s better than dying, though. Right?”

Jill blinked. In lieu of an answer she turned away, continued eating. But then-

“I wonder what’s worse.”

“Hm?”

“Waking up and suddenly realizing that so many people you knew and loved are now gone, or being trapped away from them, knowing it’s happening with every passing day?”

Fran’s jaw locked, tensed. She had an answer, but decided against pushing back with it. “How did it feel for you?”

Crunch, crunch, crunch. “Ah… I guess it’s like… a frog in the boiling pot, kind of thing. You get used to it, unless you sit down and force yourself to focus on it.” Crunch, crunch, crunch. “Mmfyou?”

“I’ve already lost… I mean, there’s no one that I really left behind. It’s part of the reason I came here. I decided to give myself a new purpose.” Fran raised her hands emphatically. “Which, I mean, makes you just that much more impressive. You survived all this time, trapped here? That’s amazing to me.”

“…There’s nothing amazing about being too afraid to die.”

Fran choked on a mouthful of saliva. “How— um, how did that happen, again? How did you survive?”

Crunch, crunch, crunch, went Jill’s mouth. Ssslap ssslap ssslap went their feet on the metal deck. Jill ruffled the bag of frozen banana to break up a chunk.

“The scientific angle… the whole point of Dr Holloway’s experiment… was to create a minimal need organism. Instead of food and sleep you get little half lifed monsters like… me… who can stretch out calories, surviving off of very little. His thought was to have a handful of normal crew that… fed… a larger crew of… look, let’s just call it what it is. Vampires, okay? I’m a goddamned vampire.”

The derision that rolled off her tongue with that hollow proclamation soured whatever was left of the pleasant mood. To Fran’s relief, though, she continued unbidden.

“Besides that, there’s the low-light vision, other heightened senses, speed, agility… I’m not really any stronger…” Fran made mental notes of what Jill listed off. She added in that somehow Jill was able to escape her bonds in the medical office with little issue, but bringing that up for a question seemed in poor taste. “None of it made a difference for surviving here.”

“So if it was just the two of you… was that the end of it? Seems awfully shortsighted to only have two test subjects.”

“Dr Holloway carried a small batch of the mutagenic serum. Maybe he imagined we could convince someone else to… try it, or something. So stupid… Anyways, I think it was destroyed when he… combusted.”

“Oh my god, did he really explode in the sunlight?” Fran laughed at the absurdity.

“Eeehhh, not really. But damn close.”

“That seems prohibitively… volatile. Especially in space.”

“In hindsight: absolutely. But again, there was a lot we didn’t know. Didn’t imagine… didn’t think about… A lot we wanted to find out on this trip…” Fran felt an open end to that statement. Again, though, Jill obliged her. “Travel the stars, become a peerless woman of science, command those around you with superhuman power!” Jill snorted. “He didn’t pick me cuz I was the smartest. He picked me because I was the cutest and... smallest.”

Fran felt the tang of bile burn the back of her throat. “Sounds… like you’re better of without him.”

“That’s what I thought, until you realize that you’re alone… and trapped. No one to talk to, no one to ask for help, nothing but the drugs and sleep…”

“Wait, you couldn’t talk to DAI?”

“Unregistered guest! Please create a profile with administration!” Jill mimed DAI to a T with a hand curled beneath her chin.

“Wow, that was pretty good.” Fran gave a dry chuckle. Probably because she heard it hundreds of times. She steered them towards a nondescript door. “Alright, here’s us.”

“Oh, what is this?”

“My room.” Fran waved a dismissive hand. She sized up the access panel to figure out what it wanted from her.

“You get a room? Weren’t you gonna sleep all the way there and then move on to… something else?”

“Ah, no. Once we land on Agdlissartoq the main ship segment is supposed to function as a sort of capital building. My ass is stapled to a desk, here, so I get a plain-Jane little room to sleep in.”

“Seems kinda… I dunno… underwhelming for a chief security whatever.”

Fran couldn’t help but grin at Jill’s reverence for her position. She watched the buttons blink and depress as her fingers punched in the code to open her room. After several beeping moments it began sliding open. It surprised her that she remembered the code. “Yeah, well, my days of glory are long gone.” She stepped into the darkness and flicked on a light.

Another low room. The typical gunmetal construction had been accented with bright sky-blue panels. A queen-size bed was built into a spacious cubby in the wall next to which a wide desk made of wood-veneer lined steel rested. Several cabinets lined the opposite side of the room next to a wide flat screen television and a two-seater couch dressed up in synthetic brown pleather. The couch and similar office chair were strapped to the wall.

“Shockingly cozy for a room on a boat,” Jill tutted to herself. She strolled to the desk, crunching away.

“Yeah, home sweet home. Not that I’d really know, this is my first time seeing it.”

“What? But… isn’t your… stuff here?”

“They dropped my belongings off while I was under. Oh! Yeah, I’ve got clothes here, too, if you want to try anything.”

“Oh, uhm, thanks…” Jill laughed. “Wait, you’re like twice my size! Nothing you have is gonna fit me!” She set her bag of nanners down on the desk as an afterthought, turning to see how serious Fran was.

“Hey spandex and sun dresses do a lot of heavy lifting, alright? Can’t hurt to try.” Fran folded a closet door open to reveal a row of zippered bags hanging from a bar inside, as well as a tall vanity mirror on the inside of the door. “Come pick your poison.”

“Wow, you in a sundress, huh? I feel like I need black lace. What’re you gonna wear? We can be complimentary.” Jill laughed- until she choked.

“What?” Fran asked with a devious grin. She had stripped off her top and was in the middle of stepping out of her stiff scrub bottoms, leaving herself on full display for Jill. She pushed her shoulder-length dirty blonde hair aside and looked for Jill’s reaction. Jill seemed to be stunned and performing her own rendition of a blush, at least so far as her deathly features allowed her. But… Fran saw something else in her eyes, and in her faintly parted lips. “There it is…”

Jill flinched. “Wh-what? What’s with the… what’s with the strip-tease. You’re n-not an… exhibitionist, are you?”

Fran took a step towards her. Jill took a step back.

“Wh-what’re you doing?”

Fran took a step to her right, Jill took a step to hers- and into the wall. She chirped in shock when her shoulder bumped into it. Fran reached out and grabbed her under the chin.

“A-are you testing m-me? Is that wh-what it is?” Fran nodded, a cold grin marring her features. “Oh well, of course, what’s more tempting to sink my teeth into than a big bare body like you-BLEGH!”

Fran grabbed her face by the chin. She gazed deep and hard into Jill’s black eyes, searching, hunting, for any sign of weakness. Jill took tiny fitful breaths through her nose, Fran could feel them tickling across the skin of her arm. Then Fran stuck her thumb into her mouth.

“Weeggh! Fuffing fthopf iff!” She didn’t fight back, though. Her knees knocked and her hands slapped against the wall behind her, but she didn’t resist.

Her fangs framed Fran’s thumb perfectly. Easily an inch long on each side, a perfect ivory white.

Fran removed her thumb, only to replace it with the webbed edge of her palm between her thumb and forefinger.

“Ggggghhhhh!”

Sweat dripped down Jill’s forehead, her eyes darted side to side so fast it made her face appear to vibrate.

“It’d be so easy. Here it is. You’re not hungry anymore?” Fran leaned in. “Are you sure?”

Jill’s hands beat against the bulkhead to a furious rhythm. Her moans of frustration turned to growls of anger while her head wiggled side to side, fighting to escape Fran’s grip. To her credit, though, even as her gleaming dagger fangs pressed gently against Fran’s skin, she did not bite. Fran smiled.

“Hmmm… yeah, you’re a good girl.”

Jill’s hands slapped onto Fran’s wrist. With shocking power she pushed Fran’s thick, calloused hand away from herself. “Get off of me!”

Fran released her and staggered back a short step. There still wasn’t any threat here, but it was a small surprise. Maybe adrenaline had a bigger impact in her altered biology? Two liters of blood and a few cups of banana had put quite a bit of life back into her.

“What the hell… is the matter… with you?”

Fran blinked out of her thoughts. “I would apologize, but—”

“Yeah yeah yeah, you’re just doing your job. Gotta make sure I’m not a bloodthirsty psychopath, right!?” Jill spit. “Are you satisfied?” Her shaking hands wrangled her hair back into place, hissing on about Fran being mean, cruel, even.

“Are you?” Jill’s face blanked. She flattened herself against the wall voluntarily, now. “Didn’t that crush any doubt that you’re still in control? That you’re not the monster you think you are?”

Jill said nothing for a long while. Then, she shook her head, slowly at first. “I… I am. Just look at me. I’ve been turned into some kind of demon...”

Fran took a firm step towards her, causing Jill to shrink a bit. “On the outside, maybe—”

“How come you give a shit all of a sudden!? I’m just a stowaway!” Jill lost focus, wiping her face down, ignoring Fran, now. “Just doing your job… it’s your job to care, huh? Is that what it is?”

“It’s not all there is.”

“Well then fix it! I don’t need it, and I don’t want it, okay!?”

Fran stepped closer, leaning over Jill now who shrank farther still.

“What, you spend fifty years learning how to ignore the pain of being a survivor? Learning to bottle it all up and hide it deep down inside of you where no one can risk cracking it open?” Jill balled up a hand and beat the fist against Fran’s chest. It echoed through the room with a dull thud, almost entirely unnoticed by the larger woman. “It’s gonna boil you alive inside, it’s like swallowing pure uranium. You either vent it out or it vents you out.”

Jill hammered her again as her expression disintegrated. “Why do you care!? You’re just some stranger! Some asshole rent-a-cop on a boat to nowhere!”

“I don’t think it was a mistake that you woke me up.”

“It was! I picked you at random!”

“Then it was meant to be.”

Whump , Jill struck again. “No! It was a mistake! A mistake!” Thump. “A mistake!” Thump. “A mistake!” On the last blow Jill leaned against Fran with her hands, sobbing openly. “Whaddyou know about what I’ve been through!? I’m- I’m eighty-one years old! And you’ve been frozen for the last fifty fucking years!”

Fran took a step forward and closed the noose. She gently set her hands against the wall to trap Jill between her arms.

“No… I think you were in stasis, too, all these years. Trapped with no way to escape, to grow, forced to run in place with no resolution… It may have been fifty-some-odd years, but I don’t think you really aged a day. It’s okay, though. You can talk to me about it. I’m a bit of a survivor, myself.”

“You… you don’t know anything about… about this…”

Fran looked down at her for a long while. She reached up and traced a line across Jill’s chin, and the smaller woman tried to turn away from it. Suddenly, though, she tightened her arms around Jill and pulled her close- but gently, in a hug. Jill gasped, her crying quieting down a bit. Fran took a deep breath.

“Back in Eighty Two… I was in the Alaskan National Guard. There was a small corporate insurrection over fishing rights, or mining or oil rights, something stupid. I was in the Aleutians when a skirmish popped off, I had just become a non-comm, promoted above my peers… I don’t even remember the name of the group… they cracked open an ancient cache of chemical weapons and decided to make a point with them sooner than later.”

Jill watched her with watery eyes, but Fran was miles away.

“I was… we had just finished digging in, I was in the communications room sending a report when… Ditka started screaming. Gas gas gas! My training kicked in, I had my suit sealed up, mask on, in seconds. Rooney, our radio man, wasn’t as quick, wasn’t as practiced. He started frothing at the mouth. I got his mask on him, but he drowned in it, anyways. I ran out of the bunker to see how everyone else was doing…”

Fran took another long breath. Minutes passed where she said nothing and Jill didn’t dare speak.

“Spitz, my best friend… spent his dying breath warning us. It was almost instant. VX, some godawful blister agent, they hit us with everything and the kitchen sink.” She ran a finger through Jill’s hair. “Out of twenty four, I was the only one to survive. I had to sit there in that trench, surrounded by my dead friends, looking at their faces for nine hours while the snow slowly covered them all up. The whole time it rained shells overhead; our attack choppers, the Venoms, ran strafing runs constantly to fight off the infantry they tried throwing at us. We didn’t have anything else to stop them with, we knew it. Just boom boom boom boom all night long. And I just sat there and watched the glow in the distance. Never once saw a man.”

Fran adjusted her grip, causing Jill to flinch.

“And then they flew us home. Just… me and twenty three… quiet boxes. Y’know?” Fran smiled a dead smile, her attention coming back to life to find Jill and her night-black eyes.

They locked eyes, both having their own reasons to sit in silence.

Jill then grabbed onto Fran and climbed up her until their heads were level. There, she wrapped her arms around Fran and held her, saying nothing.

Fran spoke, finally. “C’mon, I got my own bathroom. We can… wash each other’s hair, or something. We both could use a scrubbing.”

Jill nodded, feeling the warmth of Fran bleed through their hair as it was ruffled between them.

Chapter 4: And Behind the Ears

Fran studied her warm outline reflected in the glass before her. Her skin glowed golden against the white laminate plastic that built the box of her shower stall.

“Gods above this cryo slime is like crystallizing axle grease. Did they really have to use such a low-grade glycol based combi-polymer? I bet it itches like crazy, too!”

Fran chuckled, her head rolling back and forth as Jill’s weak fingers wormed through her shampoo-laden hair.

“Yeah, it definitely does. Those rich assholes who funded this shit-heap put a lot of money somewhere, but it sure as hell wasn’t in the stuff we little people see.”

“And you signed up for this? After knowing that?” Jill whistled. Fran raised a brow, shocked that she could with her teeth so long like that.

“Hey, it’s a… fresh start. We could all use one of those from time to time.”

Jill said nothing, opting instead to scrub Fran’s hair with supreme diligence. Fran chuckled again, moreso to herself. She felt Jill’s naked body press against her back while she sat on a small square stool in the shower. Jill’s hip bones jabbed into her corded back muscles like a smooth pair of goat horns, bare of meat like the rest of her. The state of the poor girl (who was old enough to be a grandmother several times over at this point) wormed around in Fran’s gut, worrying her. Neither of them seemed to resistant to the idea of showering together; they both likely had their reasons which no doubt overlapped a great deal, but now Fran couldn’t ignore the state Jill was really in. She had asked her for help. She had to do something.

“I’m gonna rinse now.”

Fran nodded, watching the rough portrayal of her head bob in their reflection. “Mhm.”

What’re you gonna do for her? What can you even do for her? She’s sick in ways you don’t even understand…

“Y’know it feels like you’ve got me on an awfully long leash all of a sudden.”

Even with the warm water pouring down her, through her hair, leaching warmth into her core, Fran felt Jill’s forearm braced across her shoulder, felt her empty hand idle on her scalp between passes. It tickled her, the contact. The smaller woman felt cool to the touch but still radiated a strange energy that left Fran’s skin feeling charged. Such an intriguing sensation… like closing a circuit. She sighed.

“I made my point, and you’ve behaved.”

Jill’s voice barely competed with the water, quiet and tense. “Could almost forget you… slammed me into a wall.”

“I promise I’d hesitate for a millisecond if you asked for an encore.”

Jill gulped and noticed a single open eye watching her in the reflection.

“All done.” Fran jolted upon hearing her voice. The shower head clicked back into its lower slot somewhere beside them.

“Already? I guess it’s your turn.”

“Yeah yeah I gue—wha-hey! Lemme go!”

Fran reached behind her and hooked Jill’s waifish figure with her thick arm. The scrabbling little gremlin flailed to no gain as Fran pulled her around. She pushed Jill into her own lap and not long after she relaxed.

“I… can wash myself, y’know?”

“Let me do your hair, at least.” Jill mumbled something nondescript. “Thank you.” Fran chuckled once more and took a fat blob of foamy lather from the dispenser next to them. She labored the soap into Jill’s lengthy black locks, massaged it into the clumps of strands. “Did your hair grow the entire time, here?” She drew them out to admire the water falling from them.

Jill shook her head, swaying the sodden black bridge of hair leading to Fran’s hands. “No, it slowed down a lot after a few years. It’s surprisingly… tough. I can cut it, but it doesn’t seem to break down like normal hair.”

“Doesn’t seem to knot like normal hair, either…” Fran mused out loud and dropped the hair where it seemed to pour like oil over Jill’s head, curtaining her face once more.

“Lucky me…”

“Hey, I’m a little jealous, okay? My hair is a nightmare to untangle sometimes. Quite pretty, too…”

“Uh huh…”

Fran watched Jill sit listlessly in her lap, felt her lean back against her. She looked just a tad bit funny in the reflection, like a long black blob hanging in front of Fran’s chest. She grabbed Jill by the neck and gently turned her head to get to her scalp. Jill’s neck felt bony, bare, weak in her grasp. The wispy fragility of the tiny woman’s body hit Fran like two pieces of styrofoam rubbing together. She hated it.

Then something dawned on her.

“I can see you.”

They stared at each other in the mirror for several moments.

“Oooookaaaay?”

“No I mean- in the reflection, I can see you.”

The hiss of water filled the air.

“I— oh.” Jill laughed out loud. “Well no duh! I’m not like— don’t you know that whole reflection thing is based on, like, an ancient myth? Vampires didn’t show up in mirrors because they used to be made with silver in them, which was considered holy. That’s all fiction! I’m a normal woman- er, was and then just got—” Jill threw her hands up. “I’m rambling. Look, I’m not a biblically accurate vampire, alright? Sorry! Geez.” She laughed.

“There were vampires in the Bible?”

Jill froze. “I— I don’t know! I haven’t read most of the damn thing!”

“But you do know a decent bit of vampire lore…” Fran muttered with a devious grin.

Jill gawked at her reflection. “… Yes! We did plenty of research! I think… I think that… goes without saying!”

Fran burst into laughter and after the sting faded from Jill’s cheeks, she joined in, too.

As it died down, Fran hummed to herself. “Jillian.”

Jill straightened her head to look at her in their reflection even as her hair curtained over her face.

“Hm?”

“Oh, nothing. It’s just a nice name when you say it all.”

“Oh. Um… thanks.” Jill nestled herself into Fran, shifted side to side on her lap. “Is your name just Fran? Or…”

“My full name is Francesca. Francesca Bates.”

“What?” Jill laughed. “That’s so much prettier than Fran. Why would anyone wanna go by Fran.”

“Gee, thanks.” Fran grinned and shrugged. “It’s easier. One syllable versus three. In a job like mine brevity is the soul of wit, as they say. And we gotta be pretty damn witty to survive.”

Jill snorted with a grin. “If you say so.” She reached up and pulled a narrow width of hair away from one of her eyes. “Francesca,” she said, still grinning. One of her teeth was visible, poking out over her lip. It looked surreal; her wide black eye loomed above her ivory fang, but for some reason the whole ensemble came across as… endearing. Fran noticed Jill’s face go blank and her body slack.

“What is it?”

“Huh? Oh, that just… feels really, really good.” Jill looked away, swallowing.

Fran realized she had moved from massaging Jill’s scalp to rubbing her neck and shoulders. Since she had already dashed past permission and hadn’t needed forgiveness she simply continued. She smiled now, though, as she rubbed her thumbs in short circular patters up and down the wiry muscles in Jill’s neck. The slim bands of meat danced back and forth as she plied them with pressure. Occasionally she would slide down to a tendon or joint and fish for a knot or a clump to work out. Jill seemed to melt in a pale imitation of a person shaped from pudding, sighing contentedly. She made no objection as Fran absentmindedly moved down her arms, pushed around the upper crest of her pecs attached to her collar bones (that stuck out like the prow of a ship, Fran noted with distaste), and even ran a gentle line across her stomach.

“Mm, Francesca…”

“Hm?”

Jill laughed, drawing a smile from Fran. “Nothing, it’s just nice to say.”

Fran massaged her stomach. She could feel the tiny, deflated mounds of her abdominal muscles. A poor imitation of a six-pack. The grim humor made her wince.

“Jillian…”

Jill laughed again. “Yeah?”

“I… don’t like how thin you are…”

Jill flinched, tensed. “… Okay…”

“I just… I gotta do something about that.”

Jill snorted. “Well, we’re off to a good start. Maybe you can afford to buy another pack of frozen bananas. Best thing I’ve had in years!”

But Fran held her arm up in front of them both, palm up and fingers splayed towards the glass shower door. “Is that enough?”

“What?” Jill whispered. “What- what’re you—I… what is this, another test?”

"No! No, I just... I feel bad. I want to help you."

Jill sat, unspeaking, feeling the water pour over her. Then: "is that part of your job?"

"In the spirit of the law, yes it is!"

"Hmph. You're not like any cop I've ever met."

"That's right, I'm better. I've been around long enough to know what makes a good cop."

Jill reached out and placed a gentle hand on Fran’s forearm. "Does this make a good cop?"

"Forget about that. Would it help?" Jill's fingers prodded with gentle little touches, feeling the thick skin. Fran raised a singular brow as Jill's other hand joined in and traced slow lines up and down her wrist. "Is it better this way?"

The hands moved on and on, back and forth. Fran felt her prod at her muscles, her veins, felt them linger. Was it her pulse that caught Jill's attention? Or just the vitality in her virile body? Or was it maybe the smoothness of her skin? Maybe it was something else entirely.

“I can… smell you. I can smell your blood, your hair, the oil on your skin. Ever since you rinsed the rest of that cryo garbage off it’s… it’s almost suffocating. I’m… so hungry… so hungry I almost can’t even see straight.”

Fran’s free hand rose to cover Jill’s chest. She felt the tiny staccato heartbeat of the slight ghoul patter against the calloused skin of her palm. “What would a bite feel like?”

“It’s not pleasant. At least… I don’t imagine it would be. I’ve never…” Jill gulped.

“I’ve lived through worse.”

Jill shook her head. "No..." She pushed Fran’s arm away. "No it's... unhygienic. I... need to decontaminate before I... do anything. Um... like that." Fran relaxed her arm- but then pulled it in around Jill's stomach, drawing her close. "S-stop it. What're you doing?"

"You ask a lotta questions, y'know that?" Fran lifted her other hand and cupped Jill's jaw. Unbidden Jill leaned into it, a quivering sigh escaping her. “Just relax little ghoulie. Doing good so far letting me wash you off.”

Jill sat for a moment, her eyes wandering the floor of the shower. “You just don’t know how badly I wanted a real shower…”

Fran laughed. “Oh I absolutely do. Can’t take too much longer, though. We’ve got one more work thing to do today.”

Jill grumbled as she lay against Fran, letting her rinse her down with the delightfully warm water. “And what would that be?”

Fran clicked her tongue a few times. “You gotta show me where Dr Holloway's body is.”

Jill didn’t move, save for a tiny nod and a distant glaze on her eyes. Her skin suddenly felt like the kiss of ice on Fran’s skin.

Chapter 5: You Didn't Have To Ask

Fran walked with a casual pace. Her thumbs hooked into the belt loops of her deep-blue, plain cut fatigues that fit tight to her muscled figure. BATES read bright and proud with yellow stitching on a nametag sewn to her uniform top. A matching patrol cap carved a smart outline of her head, enhancing her attentive demeanor.

Jill trundled along next to her wearing a conservative selection of borrowed clothes. A loose-fitting bright blue sweatshirt gave her upper body a pillowy shape while a pair of black leggings barely clung to her legs. A pair of red socks and black flip-flops haunted her every step with their hissy-slappy report, echoing in the high-arching halls all around them.

“It’s a nice ship. Cheap, sure, but it gets the job done.”

Jill braced herself with an arm crossed over her lower chest, hand shoved under her other armpit. Her free hand fiddled with the hem of her sweatshirt-dress. “Getting the job done is nice, I guess.”

“It’s the definitive threshold. If it didn’t get the job done it is certainly not nice.” Fran laughed at her own observation. “Down this way?” She pointed left as they neared a junction.

Jill grunted in the affirmative.

Fran smiled and they turned as one, Jill reluctantly staying apace to her right.

“Basic functionality, yep, that’s basically nice in my eyes. Everything beyond that is great, or getting better. So the ship is nice ‘cuz it gets us there. But it’s also a building when we land, and has all these facilities packed into it, plus storage of all the stuff we needed to bring – a lot of that is kinda junk, in my opinion, but anyone with some cash and a pulse could buy space on this thing.” Fran laughed again. “Space on a ship in space, hah.”

They meandered across and through the core of the ship, now one long non-descript hallway with doors that led to unknown rooms. Well, Fran had a vague idea about the rooms, but it wasn’t relevant now. The gunmetal walls peaked high above where warm diode-lights cast their glow upon the strange pair. The lights had ignited as they entered the hall and would certainly die when they exited.

Soon another junction opened up their left and right. Fran glanced at Jill. With a sullen nod she pointed to the right. Fran eyed her carefully for a moment, then nodded as well and began walking once more.

This hallway ran the perimeter of the ship, down its oblong length. One of several floors, at that, but the primary one. The arch of the hall above them leaned to their right, following the outer curve of the ship’s hull. Fran passed the distance with an almost careless stride.

Ahead of them a wide swath of light intersected the hallway. It spilled in through a tall window to the outside. Another window, nearer to them, did not share its luminosity. Fran realized that one of the large orbital rings of the ship spun directly in the path of whatever star shed its light on them. She stepped up to the dark window, admiring the corona of light generated by the obstruction of the ring out in space. The wide gray band of metal spun around the ship at great length, one of three massive rings that circled its enormous fuselage.

“It’s so strange to me… I mean, I get it, but it’s odd.” No answer. “We avoid a lot of stars outright, moving around them so they don’t screw with our trajectory- in a way we can’t control, I mean, but the light is still so much brighter than I expect.” She looked back to Jill who was miles away, staring at the floor. “Brighter than you two expected, yeah?” Jill’s fingers fidgeted in front of her. “Something wrong, Jill?”

Jill gulped. “I… I’m not a nice person.”

Fran snorted and gave her a sidelong smile. “You seem plenty nice to me.” She stepped in close to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Maybe one of the nicest people I know.”

Jill shook her head. Her lip trembled. “Nice things are things that do what they’re supposed to. Right?” Fran tilted her head. “That’s what you said.” She gulped. “I… didn’t do what I was supposed to do.”

Fran laughed, though. “What were you supposed to do? Clean up a body?” She moved her hand to Jill’s cheek. “That ain’t your responsibility.”

Jill couldn’t meet her eyes as she shook her head again. “I didn’t… finish him off.”

The humor drained from Fran’s face despite her lingering grin. “Then we’ll do that when we get to him.”

Jill raised her eyes, slowly, inexorably, upwards to Fran’s. “We… um… we gotta go out there.” Jill raised her arm. A lone finger pointed out to the spinning ring.

“Well alright, then. That’s easy enough.” Fran gestured to the starlight. “What are we gonna do about this, though?”

The stared at each other awkwardly until Jill turned and walked up to the edge of it. “I… could test…”

“Should you?” Fran raised a hand to forestall anything dangerous.

Jill pushed her hand forward until a finger touched the light. Instantly the white skin blistered and reddened. “Youch!” She yanked her hand back and sucked on the finger, growling.

“Okay! Let’s not do that again, alright?” Fran placed a hand on Jill’s shoulder causing her to look up and away from her and her injury. “Let me stand in front of you, or something, yeah? That’s simple to do.”

Jill sighed. Her head raised higher to look at the ceiling high above them. “It might not be enough…” She walked to the outer wall and touched it with her hands. “Here, I can just do this.”

“Wha-oh!” Fran reared back a hair as Jill seemed to transform into a dark blur. She skittered up the wall without a sound and passed over the column of starlight via the ceiling. “Hey, hold on, don’t—!”

With a cry of surprise Jill lost her grip.

“I got you!” Fran yelled out, dashing forward and caterwauling in a jerky dance to position herself before- “Oof!” Fran stumbled but salvaged the catch, cradling a curled up Jill in her surly arms. “You’re lucky you’re light!” she laughed.

Jill lay a clawed hand over her eyes while the other grabbed onto Fran’s sleeve with her bony thin fingers. Her breath came quick and ragged, but weak rushing between her thin lips and long fangs. “Gods I’m… so tired… I… I mean I haven’t… tried that in a while but…” Her eyes fluttered, flickering the blacks pits as she looked up at Fran. “I thought I still had some strength…”

“Hey hey hey it’s okay, just take it easy for a bit.” Fran smiled down at her, rosy and bright. “We can take care of you if you want, it’s not like—”

“No, no, we gotta get to him first. The LAST thing I want is for him to sneak up on you when…”

Fran gave her a sympathetic smile. “Y’know if you’re in better shape that’s less of a problem.”

“Okay thank you but no, no I can deal with it right now, okay? That’s- just- one thing at a time, please.”

“What if my priority is to take care of you first?”

“Why, though!? What about me makes that such an appealing concept to you!?”

“We’re like a team, aren’t we? I mean, you called me up to plate and, y’know, I gotta take care of my team. And besides, you asked me for hel—”

“Yes I know I asked you for help, I get it. But, like, a team? What makes me team material for someone like you?”

“Well it’s just that after all these years you’ve still got some kinda positive attitude. I like that a lot- I mean, it’s really impressive to me, is all.” Fran shrugged and began walking towards the connection zone for the orbital arm. “Y’know?”

Jill stared at Fran for a long while, ignoring the metal halls that passed by them. Fran glanced at her, offered her another tiny smile. Jill couldn’t help but blush and cover her eyes again.

---

The gunmetal walls gave way to yellow hazard stripes and an odd, disjointed break in gravity. Neither of them struggled with the awkward transition. In fact Fran noticed how they both seemed to appraise each others’ movements through the space. It wasn’t a first time for either of them, here. Nothing particularly strange about that, though, Fran thought to herself. Soon the doorway to the connecting arm awaited them.

“Do you think he’s still out there?” Fran idled by the door’s control panel. “Still out in the ring?”

Jill stood still with her arms crossed and eyes closed. She nodded. “Last… time I saw him… he was little more than an animal.” Fran noted how Jill had accepted her more-or-less implicit acknowledgment that the professor still lived. “He probably associates the tube with danger or pain or something like that. Probably just avoids it entirely. Same goes for the rest.”

“And now he just lives in the ring?” Fran wiped at her mouth, considering the circumstance. “No food out there.”

Jill shook her head, now. “That doesn’t matter.”

“Can you guys really survive that long without food? That’s kinda insane!”

With a pinch of her own bicep Jill shrugged. “If I had to estimate by rate of muscular deterioration, we could probably survive a little under eighty years. He’d be too far gone to see the end approaching, anyways. He may even be dead already.”

“Issat so?”

“Yeah I… can’t smell him in the main body of the ship. I won’t know for sure until we cross over.”

Fran gave her a thumbs up. “Alright, works for me. Shall we?”

“Well if the ring is turned to where the light—”

“Let’s crack the seal and play it by ear, arright?”

Jill shrugged and waved her on.

Clicks and beeps preceded the hiss of hidden servos. The door split down the middle in a jagged, geometric line and separated.

Before them lay a monolithic, tubular expanse of metal floor and glass walls. It easily stretched hundreds of yards into the starry void with a metallic, flat band of the orbital ring rising above it. Dull floor lights illuminated the space every dozen feet or so, achieving a bare minimum of visibility.

Fran turned to watch Jill staring intently down the hall. She didn’t move when she spoke.

“He’s still alive.”

“Wow, how can you tell?”

Jill pointed down the desolate tube. A black space filled the end of it.

“That door is open.”

“And you can smell him all the way over here?”

Jill nodded. Suddenly Fran laughed. “W-what’s so funny? This isn’t the time for jokes!”

Fran shook her head. “I’m gonna have to bathe constantly around you, else I’m gonna feel too self-conscious to look you in the eye.”

A mortified expression came over Jill as she gawked at Fran. Then she shook her head and looked back down the hall. “W-whatever!”

Fran laughed again. Jill growled and took off walking down the tube.

The distance to cover stretched on for far longer than Fran expected. She had never actually walked any part of the ship, merely consulted maps and holographic layouts for a general impression of the floor plan. It was something she had to know, but the practical exam had come far sooner than she expected. Her trust in her tactical adaptability was absolute, however.

On a whim Fran looked back at the ship behind them. The body of it twisted in place, locked on an axis created by the orbital mechanism of the ring.

“H-uh, that’s kinda neat.”

“Hm?” Jill turned, too. “Oh, yeah, that’s a neat perspecti— uogh…”

Fran looked down at Jill who held her head. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing… I mean, sorta something. Looking at it spin like that gives me motion sickness, apparently.”

Fran tried not to laugh again. “That’s… okay that’s kinda silly. You can climb walls and ceilings and stuff but that gives you motion sickness?”

“It’s because I can normally still tell where the ‘ground’ is, y’know?”

“Ain’t no ground in space…”

“You know what I—” Jill saw the sly grin on Fran’s face. “Ugh! You’re the worst!” Fran burst out laughing and Jill slugged her on the arm.

The laughter stopped when a glimmer caught Fran’s eye. The star that graced their vessel with its light began to crest the tail of their ship. Her head whipped around. The nearest cover was a structural band in the middle of the connecting arm maybe some twenty feet wide. Their only problem was that it was still two hundred feet away.

“Fuck!” Why didn’t I think about that!? This thing is ninety percent windows and it moves!

“What is it?”

“Sunlight! Run!”

“Wha-why-wh-where!?”

Fran grabbed Jill by the shoulder and burst into a sprint. “The middle of the tube! Come on!” Jill cried out in shock as she turned into a ragdoll next to Fran. To Fran’s horror, though, sunlight already began to glimmer across the high spine of the connecting arm, lighting up the glass with menacing sparkles. The band still lay a hundred feet away. “Fuuuuck! Sorry!”

“Wha-?!”

Fran grabbed hold of Jill’s shoulders. In a blink she flipped her to face her and hooked her hands under her arms. She bent her knees low and rolled her shoulders before, in one sweeping motion, unwound like a sideways trebuchet and flung a screaming Jill towards the band of the arm.

Jill skidded across the wide deck like a rocket, hands and feet flailing wildly.

The starlight appeared on the window to their right and rapidly descended towards the floor on which Jill slid.

Fuck! Fuck, not fast enough! Fran shot forward at a breakneck sprint.

Her fears were misplaced, though. Jill slowed just under the band, and even overshot it by five or six feet. With haste she clawed at the floor and spun herself around to scrabble back under cover.

The cover proved futile, though. Their angle relative to the star adjusted and soon it began to fill with light, as well. Jill looked around in a panic with nowhere to run.

Fran imagined she could climb the tube to follow any potential shadow, but then she remembered catching Jill after her grip failed in the hall. Not good enough!

“Curl up!” she commanded with a roar.

Jill turned to her for a split second and complied, curling up into a ball. Fran’s boots screeched on the metal deck as she came to a stop next to her. Her hands ripped open the snap-buttons of her top and dropped to all fours, covering Jill like a tent with her body.

And then it was still.

The sudden change in excitement left them with nothing but their pounding hearts and gasping breathing to focus on. Fran glanced to the side as the light reached them… passed over them… and lingered on them. Jill seemed okay. She had no idea how long they’d have to stay like this, but it would certainly be a while. Fran considered that she could have just draped her uniform top over Jill, but it was too late for that, now.

She sighed. “I think I made this a bit awkward.”

Jill gulped, still fighting to steady herself. “N-no, no it’s… it’s fine. You, um, you saved my life… just now.”

Fran glanced down, seeing little but the crown of Jill’s head meeting her collarbone. “I… yeah, guess I did.” She snorted, then. “I think… if you had just pulled the sweater up over your head… you’d probably have been fine.”

Jill didn’t answer.

“Are you okay?”

Nothing.

Then a touch startled Fran, causing her to jolt. Tiny, gentle touches tickled her sides, just below her ribs. Jill’s hands crawled around her torso, stopping just over her kidneys. “O-oh!” Fran squirmed as Jill suddenly squeezed her, pulled her down. Soon Fran laid flat on top of Jill, pressing her into the floor as her elbows and knees slid wider across the deck. “Ah… o-okay…” Fran nodded, looking around at nothing in particular. “Alright. We’re cool.” She chuckled. “Worse reasons to be stuck somewhere, yeah?”

“Please be quiet,” hissed Jill, muffled by her companion’s chest.

Fran marveled at how little heat emanated from Jill. Her breath didn’t warm her, her hands didn’t make her sweat. In fact it the sensation was rather pleasant, if not a bit surreal.

“Ow- ow ow ow!” Jill squirmed. “Ow, shit!”

“What’s wrong!?”

“Socks-! Cloth is- too porous! Burning fucking needles, argh-”

“Bend your knees! Pull your feet up under me!”

Jill complied. She pushed her knees out and slid her feet up under Fran’s sizable bulk. That, though, left her…

Fran blushed. She realized she now lay on top of Jill who had her legs coincidentally spread as wide as possible beneath her.

“Uh… um…”

“Don’t say a fucking thing!” groaned Jill, still muffled. “This is so… ugh!”

Fran sighed and leaned her head on one of her hands. “Yeah, this is a real pain in the butt, huh?”

Jill didn’t respond.

“You don’t gotta feel weird. It’s alright…”

Jill squeezed her tight.

They didn’t have to wait in awkward agony for too long. Soon the light crept back up the opposite side of the orbital arm and they once again had the cover of shadow to move. Fran stood herself up like a long-legged table and inched away from Jill. Once free she stretched her limbs and back in long, languid gestures. She had to stifle a snicker as she looked down and found Jill curled up again with her hands covering her face.

Fran posted a hand on her hip. “Do you… wanna take a break? Go back and try again later? ‘Cuz it feels like this is getting to be a bit much, maybe.”

Jill jumped to her feet. “No! No, we need to get this dealt with! I can’t risk this sort of threat to yo—” She bit her tongue. “It’s my mess. I’m gonna clean it up.”

Fran stepped closer to her. “It is definitely not your mess. Just because you were involved doesn’t make you responsible.”

Jill turned to the side. “Don’t act coy with me. We broke into this ship, we had a plan for unsanctioned experimentation. I’m… I’m just as…”

Movement above Jill’s head caught Fran’s attention. She had time to open her mouth, widen her eyes, before a cadaverous monster of a man with claws flared barreled into them. Fran’s only possible reaction was to push against Jill who flew to the side with a cry of shock. Fran took the impact straight to the chest.

She bowled head over heels, backwards, to land sprawled across the floor. The hissing growl of her opponent instantly seized her attention and in the blink of an eye she flipped onto her feet again. The revolting visage leering at her now put a snarl on her face. She flicked some of her messed hair away to see him better, having lost her hat.

The former Dr Holloway, now little more than a slavering beast, had the body of a sickly man covered in lesions and sores that wept blood and puss in equal measures. Madness filled his black eyes, covered partly by tufts of matted black hair. His clothes hung torn and tattered from his haggard frame, and he stood with his claws and fangs bared in a predator’s stance.

Fran grunted, acknowledging the threat.

“Fran run! Run!”

Jill was curled up on the floor, kicking herself back into the wall between the windows. She leaned up, grasped at the wall and with some effort rose to her feet. Dr Holloway looked at Fran, looked at the larger woman who was farther away, then turned around and looked at Jill. He took a step towards Jill.

“OI! You fuckin’ shithead! You wanna fight you come to ME!!”

The former Doctor reared on her and her noise and roared. The incoherent rage in his eyes only served to fuel Fran’s excitement, though. But then-

Jill leapt forward. She brought both hands full of claws down across his back. The shriek of pain he loosed filled the entire hall. He spun and swiped at Jill but she ducked and leapt back.

Jill crouched and roared in answer, hissing like a monstrous serpent on steroids with fangs bared while her hands spread wide and vicious behind her. Her black eyes held an infernal rage of their own that Fran couldn’t help but admire.

Fran stomped forward, circling the disgusting wight to his left. “Hey! I bet I taste a hell of a lot better than her, fucker!”

“No! NO Fran he’ll kill you!”

Fran merely laughed. She pushed a tiny drop of blood off of her lip with her thumb. “Here’s his chance to try.”

Jill cried in rage and leapt, but Dr Holloway stood fully and reared on her, punching her midsection and kicking her aside. Even before she came to a stop she reached out and screamed.

“Nooo! Fraaaan!”

The Doctor already lunged for Fran.

Faster than sound Fran’s left hand snapped forward and grabbed the ghoul by the throat, seizing him in midair.

Everyone froze.

The deranged expression on Fran’s face morphed into a demonically sinister smile. “Oh! I’m sorry, did you think you were the only person who knew what the fuck gene-mods are?!”

His claws sank into her arm. One slashed savagely across her face. Blood splattered across the window of the tube.

Jill shrieked unlike any mortal thing Fran had ever heard.

But then Fran raised the Doctor into the air like a ball of cotton candy. In one smooth motion reared back and slammed into the deck plates.

KRACK!!

She roared out a laugh more monstrous than her companions and raised her polished black boot heel, bringing it down onto Dr Holloway’s head. It exploded like an overly-ripe melon under the wheel of a truck. Red mist painted the floor and lower portions of the walls around them.

“Oh my GOD I have wanted to do somethin’ like that for so long!” Fran stood tall over her dead opponent and laughed, long and proud with her fists up high. “FUCK me this is awesome!” When she finally looked down at Jill and saw her locked stock-still, mouth agape, eyes wide, against the wall with her hands holding her head, she only laughed that much harder. The tiny spatter of dark blood across her face was a bit picturesque, too.

“Hey! Hey hey hey, Jill! We did it!” Fran pranced over to her and squatted down in front of her. “Hey, your monster guy is dead!”

Jill didn’t move apart from gasping for breath.

Fran rolled her eyes. She shoved a finger into Jill’s mouth and wiggled it around. “Boobaloop!” Jill slapped Fran’s hand away and spit as Fran nearly fell over laughing. “Works every time!”

Jill squawked and sputtered, though. “Wha-dja-you-he—just like that!? You killed him!? I- you- but- he—”

Fran put a hand on her shoulder. “Jill, Jill. Jill. I’ve killed more people than you have fingers and toes.” Jill’s eyes snapped to her and she leaned back against the wall again. “I don’t mean to brag but I’m pretty fuckin’ good at fighting. And that was before the gene-mods.”

“You— But you said gene-mods are illegal!”

“And they are! Unless you work for the government and they give them to you!” Fran laughed again. “So not the point, anyways.”

“Whabujah-bu-you-guh—” Jill clutched her head again. “What the ffuuuuuuu—”

“Hey, it’s alright. Take a minute and breathe, everything is fi—”

“No! No! Fucking no, everything is not fine! I—” Jill bit her tongue, steadying herself as her body sagged sideways.

Fran rolled her eyes yet again, noting how this all started to annoy her. “Alright, look, I get it—”

“What do you get?! This is—” Jill’s breathing began to race. “I think I’m gonna be sick…”

“Is the stress—”

“You need to clean your face up, right now.” The deep, yowling hiss of Jill’s voice put pause to Fran’s protests. “The smell, the smell, the smell, oooooh the smell…” Jill buried her face in her arms.

Fran reached for her.

“Get away!” Jill kicked herself sideways.

“Jill stop!”

“Get away from me! I— rrrggghhh!” Jill squirmed and rolled while her hands pressed and squeezed at her face. “Please! Please! Just let me walk into the light!”

Fran stomped forward. Her hand grasped for and caught Jill’s ankle, eliciting a howling screech from her. “Stop it! Just stop!” As Fran commanded blood sprayed from its leaking trails that crossed her mouth.

Jill raised her hands in supplication, though. “It’s your job, isn’t it!? I’m a threat! I’m a disease! The virus we made is unstable, there’s no telling—”

“It’s my job to decide—”

“The choice is made for you! You know what’ll happen when everyone wakes up! Just do it now, gods just get it over with—!”

“IT’S MY CHOICE!!”

Fran’s voiced exploded throughout the tube. Its echoes washed over them, freezing a gasping Jill in place. Fran towered over her, fists clenched at her sides, huffing air through her nose over a steel-tight jaw. Terror filled Jill’s face as she stared up at her psychotic, blood-soaked expression.

“It’s my choice! I decide!” She slammed her hand into her chest, the thuds reverberating off of the windows. “You woke me up! You asked ME for help! You wanna take the easy way out? That’s too fucking bad!”

Jill said nothing for what felt like a millennia. Then she squeaked out:

“You’d take… death… from me?”

Fran’s scowl deepened, forming a ferocious snarl. Until suddenly she nodded.

“Yes.”

Fran took one step forward and dropped to straddling Jill. The petite woman screamed in rebellion until Fran grasped her hair in a vice grip to pull her head back. She raised her other arm. Jill gasped but the protest she’d attempt died in her throat. With an implacable force Fran brought her forearm and Jill’s face together.

Fangs sank into flesh and muscle.

Jill convulsed while still failing utterly to remove herself, but that, too, faded. Her expression dulled, her resistance collapsed, her eyes glazed over into animalistic simplicity. Then her arms shot forth and wrapped around Fran’s, bracing herself to the limb.

She drank.

Fran winced at the sensation of needles rooting around in her forearm. Despite that, though, she pulled Jill to her lap as she rolled over and sat, scooting towards the wall. She stared out into the stars as she left Jill to her task in peace.

Notes:

This chapter takes me to over 300k words posted on Ao3! Woooo!

Chapter 6: The Pieces Fit

It’s not a problem.

It was, however.

Fran’s scowl deepened, her eyes darkening under her brow.

I won’t let it be a problem. It’s my decision and I’ll hold to it. I just need to get it rubber stamped before anyone can object.

She knew better, though. As soon as attention was drawn to it catastrophe was inevitable.

I’ll make it airtight, a mutual effort, signed and sealed by every scrap of authority I— “Gh- hey, not so rough, alright?”

Jill didn’t- couldn’t- hear her. She licked Fran’s face like a drowsy dog devoid of sense. Her tongue crossed Fran’s cheeks, crested her nose, wormed around her eyes, even slid across Fran’s lips a few dozen times. All the while she giggled in a stupor.

Apparently giving a little vampire like her so much blood after decades of drought knocked her three sheets to the wind almost instantly. The woman was drunker than a sailor on shore-leave after a year at sea. The perk of it, however, was two-fold. Jill had free reign of all the blood already out of Fran’s body, and Fran had the lacerations on her face sealed up. Fran noticed that her saliva was a fast-acting coagulant. She couldn’t let Jill drink too much- else it certainly would have killed her- and in removing her found how quickly the bite closed. Faster than she ever expected. After that, well, the problems solved themselves.

They floated amidst the dull yellow walls and lifts of the connecting bay between the orbital arm and the rest of the ship. There weren’t any gravity fields or plates in the space to ease the transition between the moving parts, and Fran found the weightlessness strangely comforting. She needed it, since despite their lack of gravity her heart felt heavy.

Jill had been amicable so far. A bit timid, shameful of her condition, but pleasant. For all intents and purposes Fran had essentially poured gasoline on a lit match. The Doctor gave her a strong idea of what a rampant… vampire… was capable of, and that was in the throes of starvation. Her face ached at the memory. Now fully fed, what if Jill suddenly lost her sense? What if she decided that amicable wasn’t acceptable?

Fran brooded with crossed arms and legs, body hanging in the air. Time passed and Fran could only complain that it did so at an unknowable rate, lacking any sort of clock. Jill clung to her with arms gently holding the larger woman’s head, face bobbing to and fro as she cleaned her face. Fran barely noticed her, honestly, with how deep in thought she was. How long was she going to be like this, anyways? Fran snorted, admonishing herself. They’d been through enough, she could afford to take it easy, now. Besides, the little slick of Jill’s tongue tickled her worn face in such a delightful way. It was kinda cute. Endearing, almost.

With a sigh Fran shifted, putting her arms behind her head as she stretched her body as far as she could lengthwise, grunting with exertion. Jill’s tittering laughter prattled on like birds chirping far away. The little woman adjusted herself until her legs wrapped around Fran’s torso, but she didn’t stop. Fran simply chuckled and shook her head. Until-

Between licks, Jill pressed the smallest, tiniest of pecks to her lips.

Fran didn’t move, but her awareness snapped to full attention instantly.

“Uh…”

Jill vibrated for a moment but otherwise continued on.

“Nope, no, I caught that.”

“Uhh! Umm, no, no you didn’t! There wasn’t anything! To- uh- to catch- oh fu—” Jill began to unravel from Fran in a desperate play to escape.

Fran wouldn’t have it, though. She had Jill caught in her arms before they could blink.

Jill held still with her black eyes cast away. She wrung the hem of her overly-large sweater in her anxious hands. To Fran’s amazement she actually spoke. “Can… can we just chalk it up to… me being all loopy and stuff?”

Fran laughed. “Just kiss me if you want to.”

Jill shook her head. “I… but I don’t know why I want to… That’s not fair, right?”

Fran pursed her lips in thought, humming for a moment. “Nah, it’s fine. In fact, I think you should do it again, anyways.”

“… what?”

“If you don’t I will.”

“… would you?”

Fran shrugged. “Alright.”

“Wai—!” She mashed her hands into Fran’s impending kiss, forestalling it.

“Whamf fa maffer?”

“I dunno!” Jill whined. “I… it doesn’t make any sense! I’ve known you for all of about five… six hours? And now I… I want to…” Jill shook her head. “Is it because I drank your blood, do you think?”

Fran studied her searching features. The blood had worked a miracle on her haggard appearance. She didn’t gain any color- likely never would- but the gaunt hollowness in her features had filled in significantly. Even if the work was unsanctioned, the gene-mod was a marvel. Regardless, Jill looked… like a proper woman, now. In fact she looked like she was still in her… late twenties? While she was, in reality, in her eighties? It was incredible.

Fran pressed her palm to Jill’s cheek. “Y’know, for an old lady you look amazing.”

Jill started to say something but held short. Instead, her uncertainty hardened into a bemused smirk flavored by… something more. “I… wish I could say the same for you.”

With a lone finger Fran traced one of the plugged gashes on her face. “Yeah, well, let’s blame your old boss for that one. May he rest in piss.”

Jill’s fingers joined Fran’s as she shook her head. “No, no I think… I think the scars add something. Make the most of it, right?”

Fran laughed. “Yeah, something like that.” She hummed for a moment. “Really, though, do what you want.”

“I don’t understand it, though!” Fran laughed, musing out loud about the plight of the human existence. “I’m serious! I can’t just do it cause I feel like it! I’m not… some cheap harlot…”

Fran shook her head. “I’d never assume that. I’m just glad you’re okay and we can wrap up the drama for a while.” Jill frowned. “You’re allowed to like me and you don’t need a reason, but if you’re worried about it… take some time. Think about it. There’s no rush.”

Jill scoured her face with her midnight eyes. She laughed to herself. Is this what they mean when they say the void looks back?

“What?”

Fran snickered. “Nothing, just deconstructing old adages in my head.”

Jill smiled. “You’re… awfully well educated for someone in your… position.”

Fran jabbed her with a slanted grin. “Oh, in my position, huh? I’ll have you know I graduated from the school of hard knocks and nearly finished college- twice!”

Jill laughed out loud now. “Well, that’s once better than me. I never… actually graduated.”

“No kidding? I assumed you were at least working through your graduate.”

Jill shook her head. “No, this was… supposed to be my final project.” She groaned. “It was… worth eighty credits.”

“Final is right. How’re you gonna graduate ninety three light-years from Earth?”

The grin on Jill’s face soured as her eyes narrowed. “Yeeeaaah… really thought it through, didn’t I?”

Fran shrugged, laughing playfully. She pulled Jill into a tight hug. “Well, onto bigger and better things. Speaking of, lets go change- or at least, let me change- and we can go poke and prod the administrative side of this mess. How’s that?”

Jill laughed, too. “Sure. I knew we were never gonna escape that part.”

Fran moved Jill over to her left and made to gently push her towards a ladder. “Don’t worry, I’m a whiz at writing reports. It’ll be totally painless.”

---

After a short jaunt they made it to Fran’s office. More akin to an office within an office, since it was situated in the back of what would be the law enforcement headquarters for the budding colony. Fran sat behind a simple wooden desk colored in dark browns as she flipped through menus and digital documents on her computer. She had ditched her fatigues for her own level of comfort with a pair of slightly-elastic jeans in dark blue and a grey hoodie. When Jill questioned her choice to ditch her official garb Fran had retorted that she really only wanted to see if her uniform still fit, and that it wasn’t as though there was anyone to give her a hard time for it.

Jill silently observed the office, listlessly glancing at the seemingly random items on display for ‘flavor.’ “It’s a weird name for a planet, isn’t it?”

Fran glanced up at her. “Yep, definitely is. Apparently it’s the uh… what was it… the Uzbeki word for ‘mound of snow,’ or something.”

“I doubt they chose that name ironically…”

“Oh no, it’s absolutely a frozen ball of ice.” Fran laughed for pity’s sake as Jill stuck out her tongue at the idea. “It’s not all that bad, though, from what I hear. Got some decent places to check out, maybe even its own wildlife.” Fran waved the tangent to pass. “Anyways, anyways, so…”

Jill rolled her head over to look at Fran at her desk. “So?”

“So so. Categorically speaking: you’re a stowaway.”

“Right…”

“And potentially a biohazard.”

“… Yes.”

Fran held up a finger but smiled. “Normally that’d all be a huge problem in a setting like this!” She waved the finger at her monitor. “But seeing as how I’m endowed with a significant number of frightfully powerful credentials, and there’s no one awake to stop me, I can invoke the time-honored right to do whatever the fuck I want!” Jill snorted a tiny laugh. “Isn’t that right, DAI?”

“Correct, Fran.”

“Correct, exactly.”

“I forgot she was there…” Jill muttered under her breath.

“Soooo we’ve got a handful of options, and they are as follows: One, I can issue you a research permit. Once we land you can be a miscellaneous scientist with a writ of survey and maybe an office somewhere, etc etc, might cause a bit of a stir with the administration because there’s a lot of ‘government buy-in’ needed with those. Two, I can issue you a merchant permit. Lotta the same fuss but you can sell or trade things, open a food stall or something, up to you when we land. Three, I can file you under refugee status. At that point you become a charge of the soon-to-be state and go through that whole integration process. First refugee on Agdlissartoq, might be fun!” Jill blanched at the idea. “And finalllllyyyy: Four. I can side-step all of that and generate a marriage license between you and me. I’m not gonna make any demands in the case of that, and you get to do whatever the hell you want with no fuss at all. Yay nepotism.” With a few clicks of Fran’s keyboard a stack of papers began printing from a slot set under her desk’s top.

“I…” Jill paused. “That’s… all of those seem like an awful lot of… liability for you, no?”

Fran straightened in her seat. “The alternative is that you’re arrested and imprisoned, maybe even destroyed given your experimental nature.” Her face darkened into something empirically stern. “I won’t let that happen.” She leaned back. “So a little liability is the least I could shoulder for sake of keeping you safe.”

Jill raised her hands as though trying to summon an understanding of it all. “Just because I asked you for help?”

Fran nodded at her, a smile replacing her formerly grim expression. “Yes. Now, here’s some paperwork for every option. There’s a few… less appealing ones we can consider, later, but these are the best. Now read through them, though, because that’s only my opinion.”

Jill raised from her leather chair and slowly crossed the distance to Fran. She took the stack of papers from Fran’s hands and looked down at them as though they threatened to grow eight legs and crawl across the walls at any moment.

“Any… of these?”

“Any at all.” Fran smiled on. “Take your time, please.”

Jill turned them over, if only to buy time to think. It wasn’t enough, however.

“I… Fran I… I will need some time, yes.” Fran nodded, a flicker of worry passing over her face. “I’m going to go for a walk. After that… I should know.”

Fran tapped a button on her desk, opening the door to her office with a hiss. “Take as long as you need. I’m going to go back to my room, get some rest. Do what you need to do, and I’ll be there, waiting.” She offered Jill one final, wide smile. “I’ll leave the door open for you.”

Jill couldn’t muster as sincere a smile, and instead decided to leave it at a polite, if not a bit dour, grin before she turned and walked out of the office door.

Fran sat down as Jill’s pale blue silhouette disappeared beyond the portal. She clasped her hands together and sighed, looking down at her weathered digits.

Chapter 7: I Do

Fran rolled over in her bed. The temperature felt pleasant, the soft sheets soothed her skin, the lights were off, she had nothing to wake up for… And yet she couldn’t sleep.

It had been hours. She didn’t dare look at the clock to see how many, doing so… it might hurt.

Fran rubbed her face.

Be honest with yourself for once. You know what you want her to choose.

She nodded to herself. Despite her knowing better she glanced out of her bed cubby at the open door, faint light beyond giving it an eerie, surreal outline in the dark. She sighed for the hundredth time. One of her old friends would’ve given her a hard time for being so dramatic. ‘There you go, huffin’ and puffin’ again! You’re making us nervous being all upset like that!’

Fran laughed, now. She missed Cototi, he always had a positive thought despite his gruff demeanor. He was probably dead by now. The man was in his fifties when Fran left… People lived a long time, though. Maybe, when the colony started to get set up, she could buy a bit of data on the Quantum Antenna, call and see if he was still alive on Earth.

What would Jill do when the colony got set up?

Fuck…

Fran couldn’t escape it.

You saw the potential. Even in a weakened state… both of them put up a vicious fight. And what if it really is a viral mutagen? What will you do if it gets out of hand? Will you make yourself the one to put her down, or let someone else do the dirty work? Would you be too ashamed to do it yourself?

Fran rolled over again in bed, grumbling, growling.

What if they do it for you? What if they take all of your good intentions and shit them right out the window as soon as everyone wakes up? What if you

can’t

do

anything?

“Ffffuuuuck!”

Fran threw herself out of bed. Her feet slapped against the metal floor and she crossed the wide room to her bathroom. With the light flicked on she had to stare at herself in the mirror.

Her dirty-blonde hair trailed down over her haunted, baggy eyes. All of the blood from earlier had been cleaned off, but the deep cuts across her face- four of them- left surreal, red, jagged lines that fanned slightly from her cheek. One above the eyes, one across her cheeks and nose, one just above her lips, and one over her chin.

“Look like a proper warrior now, eh?” She sighed, leaning over the sink. “Better a warrior in a garden than a gardener…” Her eyes fell to look at her naked body. The muscles flexed and turned as she breathed, adjusted herself, shifted her stance. They were bigger now than they had ever been while she was enlisted. It felt good, it felt like power, like capability.

The image of Jill being dragged away in chains slashed through her thoughts like an assassin’s dagger.

“What if it’s not enough?”

The tickle of tears pushing out of her eyes shocked her. She almost didn’t believe what she saw in the mirror. One of her hands reached up, a fingertip gently picked up a tear. Her hand rolled back and forth as she examined the tiny gem of liquid. Then, she smeared it into oblivion.

I… haven’t cried in so long…

“Didn’t know I could still do that…”

With a shake of her head Fran ran the hot water in her sink and splashed it across her face. She left her white towel resting on the sink and excused herself from the dark gray space. Above her bed she paused, resting her head against her hand on the top of the cubby as she leaned against it.

“This time… at least this time… you can just try. Fight. Just do your best…”

Fran sighed again and settled into her bed.

-

After a few more hours she finally began to ease into a restless sleep. Her descent was interrupted, though.

A presence… someone was behind her, her back to the door.

She knew who it was, there was no one else.

Fran didn’t move.

They stood there for a while. A long while. Minutes rolled by.

Then… something jostled the mattress. The sheet tugged across Fran’s shoulder, lifted, and then settled as a weight pushed onto the bed. A small hand rested on her side, just below her ribs.

Fran turned over and grabbed Jill. She pulled her close, tight, tucked Jill’s head under her chin. Jill quietly wrapped her arms around the larger woman. It wasn’t an answer to anything except that Fran was not alone for now. That was enough. Fran hummed and gently rubbed her hand across Jill’s tiny back, massaging her through the fluffy sweater that still encased her. Jill’s faint giggle was music to her ears.

“I… didn’t realize you slept in the nude.”

“Sorry, I can put a shirt on, or something…”

“Bit late for that? It’s fine. I don’t mind if you don’t.”

“Mm… ah, sorry, my uh… chest isn’t very soft.”

“Stop apologizing, Fran.”

Fran snorted and complied.

A comforting silence overtook them. Fran suddenly found herself becoming quite drowsy, but then Jill cleared her throat and she snapped back to full attentiveness.

“You know, given what I remember about names… your last name is… Irish?”

“Mhm.”

“It means… boat, or works with boats.”

“Sure.”

They both giggled, Fran shaking the bed as Jill held onto her.

“Well… I was thinking… It would be pretty appropriate if I… changed my last name to Bates. Then I, too, would be of the boat, here on this ship after I’ve left everything else behind.”

Not a single thought transpired in Fran’s head.

“Jillian Bates doesn’t sound too bad, right?”

Fran swallowed.

“…You…?”

Jill nodded. “Mhm.”

Fran instantly rolled over to stand poised over Jill on her knees and elbows. Her hands found Jill’s cheeks and gently grasped her head as she leaned in close.

“Would you really?”

Jill laughed. “Yes.”

It was Fran’s turn to plant a kiss. Immediately after, though, she reared back. “Shit, I’m sorry. Sorry! I… the… that was supposed to be your choice…”

Jill laughed out loud. She mirrored Fran and grabbed her head as well, gently holding it above her.

“I don’t understand it, but I want it. I just want it, and at this point I don’t give a damn as to why. We can figure it out when we wake up later.”

Something in her turn of phrase caught Fran’s attention. “When you say later…”

“When we get to Ag-… Aggy… Aggle-sart-sock—”

“Agdlissartoq, and no, that’s… not really an option.”

Jill slowly cocked her head. “What… do you… mean?”

“There’s no extra cryo-pods.”

“Uh! Um… Well, when you wake up…”

Fran stopped her with a finger pressed to her soft lifts, nestled between her long teeth. “First of all, absolutely not would I leave you alone for that long.” Jill made a cute noise. “Second of all… my cryo-pod is busted. I had to hit the emergency switch and it broke all apart.” She sighed. “Nobody is going back to sleep.”

“… Oh…” Jill thought for a moment. Then she shrugged. “I guess we’ll have three years to figure out if it’ll work or not, then. Yeah?”

Fran rolled her words around in her head, mulling them over for several moments. Something tickled her eyes again.

“Oh!” Jill flinched and touched at her own face. “Oh, Fran! Fran, what’s wrong?”

Fran lowered herself down onto the tiny woman and wrapped her arms around her once more, fully engulfing her in her hefty embrace. Her voice trembled as she began to speak.

“I… I’m clingy. I… like to talk a lot. I eat the same thing for weeks at a time. I only watch movies that I’ve seen before… You know I’m kinda rough sometimes, I take work too seriously. If I get in a bad mood I sulk for days.”

“Fran…”

“If someone I care about gets hurt I get really angry. I’m nosy and overprotective. I’m way too stubborn for my own good. I dress like a slob on my days off. I get really sweaty and sleep naked, but I like it when it’s cold. I don’t like to shave under my arms, I—”

“Francesca.”

Fran froze.

“You can’t change my mind. You’re… a good person. That’s all I need.”

Fran nodded, rubbing their faces together. Then she started talking again.

“You are too… Jillian. Jillian, it’s such a pretty name. And you’re so pretty! Your hair is so cute, and your fangs are adorable when you smile! I love your eyes, they’re so cool and mysterious, unique! And-and you’re so tiny, I just want to hold you like a kitten, but I know you’re not a pet, you’re strong, too, I think! I—”

Jill laughed and pulled Fran down for a quick kiss.

“Fran, it’s okay. I’m not going anywhere. I’m here for you, too.”

Fran jerked her head to the side, her mouth twitching, face quivering, as she fought desperately to swallow her sobs, to stifle her tears. “I-I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m t-trying not t-to—”

Jill pushed on her side, causing her to roll over. Laying next to each other she wiggled up and wrapped her arms around Fran’s head and pressed soft kisses onto her forehead.

“Take your time, take your time… we’ve got plenty of it.”

Fran nodded. She wrestled internally for a while until she could calm down. “I… I make a mean lasagna.”

Jill laughed, slowly Fran joined her.

“I can’t wait to try it.”

Chapter 8: Epilogue

“… And so to all gathered here on this auspicious anniversary of our Landing Day: I thank you. Our dreams thank you. Our goals, our hopes, our aspirations, thank you. Without your titanic effort of will and determination none of this would have been possible. To those of you who call our founding city home, and to those visiting Königsberg again, from where we all began our journeys together, I wish you great strength and good health. Thank you!”

A rousing and polite chorus of applause and cheering saw Governor Durant off of his podium. He waved and smiled in the warming glow of the late afternoon sun. Adjusting his ash-gray overcoat on the steps down from the stage, he pushed his wireframe glasses back up his short, steep nose. His owlish blue eyes found his coven of adjutants and advisors waiting for him, tongues pre-loaded with words, but to the side a small clutch of more prim and official looking individuals waited respectfully. He bee-lined to them.

“General DuGaul, I’m so glad you were able to join us for the festivities. Staying for the reception?”

An austere man dressed in a sleek, slate-gray uniform with a smooth, unornamented greatcoat that resembled the ones like those who flanked him smirked. A smile improved the demeanor of his hawkish face immensely, already struggling to shed its grim nature with a wide, thin white mustache and black eye patch possessing a glowing red camera eye. A similarly gray garrison cap with a pair of white insignia shaped like snowflakes emblazoned on one side sat atop his head.

“As time would have, I am indeed, Governor. If there’s one day I can permit myself a break it should be today, yes?” As he spoke the crowd of attaches dispersed from around them, resigning themselves to carouse around the gathering instead of being productive.

“Of course, of course!” The Governor shuffled over. “Now, how is Captain Durant faring these days? Not proving too troublesome, is he?”

General DeGaul laughed as the younger version of the Governor, wearing a proper military uniform, shook the Governor’s hand. “No, brother, I fear they’ll make an officer out of me yet.”

“What a shame, the Capital will never be quite the same without you.”

“Yes, what’ll we do with all this peace and quiet?”

The group laughed now and the Governor turned to his last guest.

“Lieutenant Bates, I’m so glad you found the time. How’s the promotion treating you?”

Fran took a long pull of her cigarette and let the smoke blow out her nose to mingle with the tiny flecks of pre-evening snow that fell among them. Her black dress coat contrived of lapels and layers contrasted heavily with that of her more rigid counterparts, but it complimented her look down to the black, squat garrison cap that crowned her dark blonde hair.

“Like a hole in the head.”

“It’ll match the rest of them.”

Fran barked a short laugh and clicked her tongue at Captain Durant. Her smile wiggled the faint red lines drawn across her face. “Nice speech you gave. Sounded like you meant it.”

“I try to save the impactful words for the holidays.” The group chuckled. “Where’s your wife?” General DuGaul grinned, Captain Durant chuckled, and Fran simply smiled her typically worrisome smile. “Ah… behind me, as usual?” He spun slowly on his heel. “Director Bates! So good to see you, even if you always manage to see me first.”

A short figure stood where he turned to look. Despite the bulk of their white winter clothing they possessed a feminine grace that suited their elegant movements, even when brief. They wore a thin-shelled white helmet dominated by a black face shield, obscuring their features entirely.

Jill’s voice sang through the synthetic noise of her helmet’s speakers. “Just think of me as an angel on your shoulder.”

Durant raised his hands. “No no, it wouldn’t do to invoke the Lieutenant’s jealousy.”

Jill’s laughter mirrored that of the group. She walked to Fran’s side and their hands joined. “The speech was lovely, Governor Durant. If you don’t mind, I’d like to borrow my wife for a bit.”

The General stepped forward. “Leaving so soon?”

Fran waved him down. “We’re not leaving quite yet. Just gonna enjoy the sunset while we can.”

Captain Durant looked to the sky. “It’s one worth enjoying, I’ll give you that.” They gave Fran and Jill a polite nod as the pair turned and meandered away. “Such a strange woman, but… in a nice way.”

The men huddled and pulled cigars from their coat pockets. The General raised a small arc lighter and offered it to the Governor first. “Strange is a word for it, right Joachim?”

Captain Durant raised his eyebrows at his brother. The Governor gave him a sly grin between puffs on his aromatic cigar. “Is there something more to that?”

The Governor shrugged, still grinning. “Three hundred thousand souls aboard our ship when we left Sol.” He took a long drag, chewed the smoke. When he let it out: “She was three hundred thousand and one. If Lieutenant Bates knows where she came from, well… maybe she conjured her up from the ether of space through desire alone.”

General DuGaul laughed and handed the Captain his lighter. “I’d believe it.” He took a puff as well. “I’d do the same.”

“Hm?” Captain Durant paused lighting his own cigar and turned. “Is… is she taking her helmet off?!”

“Never seen her before, have you?” His brother opined.

“I… no!” said the Captain with a brief laugh.

A small distance away across the wide, stony terrace carved from the hill that the colony ship had landed on, amid the snow and scattered crowd, Jill sat beside Fran atop a wide pillar. It was one of many on the wall, only a few feet above the walking space, but held them up with an artistic flair against the champagne and maroon clouds that filled the sky above them. Jill’s hands moved back behind her head and with a deliberate sweep raised her helmet up and away.

A gorgeous face, smiling wide, emerged. The full cheeks pushed up to her eyes- midnight black eyes, through and through, and her smile revealed two massive fangs peeking down from her lips. Her black hair swirled regally around her head, trailing like a serene shroud around her features in the faint breeze.

“My word…” Captain Durant raised a hand to tap at his chin, thoughtfully. “She’s beautiful, but… is she human?”

“Perhaps something a little extra,” said the Governor with a smile. “I’m sure we’ll find out, someday.”

Fran gently took Jill’s face into her hands and leaned in to kiss her. As one the group of gentlemen turned to admire the evening around them.

The sun hid behind a mighty bank of clouds that capped the mountains to the northwest. It cast a fiery glow into the blue sky high above while the glow diffused into the thunderheads and squalls circling far afield in every direction, turning them into surreal, fluffy banks of daffodils and carnations. The mountains below, laden with snow, framed the capital building of Königsberg as it gleamed in the fading evening sun as the promontory flowed and swayed with a crowd of citizens from the budding colony.

“A whole year, already.”

“Indeed,” agreed the Governor, tilting his head to the General.

Captain Durant raised his cigar in-hand and tapped his brow. “To many more, as beautiful as this.”

His fellows nodded in assent.

Notes:

This was a fun little story idea I had about someone being alone with a vampire on a colony ship in space. I actually haven't seen Passengers, yet, or whatever that movie's name is, hahaha. I think I certainly could've delved into some of the elements inherent to the idea a bit more, but the characters formed in my head and I let them do what came to them. They fell in love because despite the odds of their meeting, they had holes in their heart that the other simply filled in the most perfect way. That's what I saw, and that's what was written.

I've been getting better about letting the ideas unfold and giving them their space when I write. For a little while there I started to force it when I wanted the idea to just exist, I started getting impatient. But everything needs room to breathe in its own right. And if I have an idea I like, I want to let it live on its own, regardless of whether or not someone else may like it. If you do, and I hope you enjoyed it, I'm glad. I wrote it because I thought Jillian and Francesca deserved to fall in love and have their happy-ever-after. Even if Fran's a little broken, like me, and Jill's a little unhappy with herself, like me, they get their happy ending. I think we all do, someday, as long as we keep trying.

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 1 of Agdlissartoq: Tales from the Frozen World