Lace Ravine

Chapter 3: Lace Goes Home - pt. 1

Brimming with angst, and a paradoxical urge to leave Graygue space but stay as far as possible from IAC territory and her undesirable objective, Lace plotted a course for the last place in the universe she ever wanted to be: The Fortan solar system.

She made grimaces at emptiness as she plugged in the coordinates to the ship's navigational control. With nothing better to do, she started up a conversation with herself, at peak sarcasm.

"Hey Lace!" She asked in a perky version of her own voice.

"What's that, Lace?" She answered in a lower key, looking slightly over her shoulder. Her shadow spoke back from her own lips.

"You know what we should do?"

"No, what?"

Her cheerleader side bounced higher. "We should go back to the heart of the IAC!"

"Wow!" She guffawed, eyes wide. "That's a great idea!"

"I know!" She responded to herself. "Totally not a death trap!" At last, she finished setting up her course, and prepared for takeoff.

Her outer dialogue stumbled from excitement to a groan. "Oh boy, I can't wait to relive all those repressed childhood memories..." She scowled as the ship sputtered, and careened forward, before lifting off. Hurtling through the air toward the fogged midnight sky, she shouted to the heavens.

"If there is a God, smite me now!" As she broke free of the atmosphere, and into the weightlessness of space, she sighed. "I think I'd be pretty popular in hell." Seeing that her vessel didn't need any help to drive for the next half a day, she stretched her short arm to press a button on the far side of the dash. A high 'bing!' followed, signaling her interstellar comm was ready for a command.

"Contact Maisy." She stated, and her ship's female robotic voice replied.

"Contacting Maisy Till." Lace cringed as a crackling, a-tonal melody started in the style of a traditional Fortan instrument, similar to the Earthan xylophone. It played for long enough that Lace knew what was coming next. "Contact not available."

The human frowned and tossed her head back. "Aw, c'mon, Mase." She exhaled, and reached for the button again. After the bing she commanded: "Contact Vin."

"Contacting Vinrd Caail." The uncomfortable tune sang again, luckily not for long before a static-charged voice belonging to Vin filled the room.

"Lace?"

Lace called out loudly to the microphone that was inconveniently located on the ceiling. "Hey- is Maisy there?"

"She's busy right now." The Phocorian sounded even less pleased than usual, and Lace stuck her tongue out at an invisible him before continuing.

"Really busy? Or did she just tell you to say that?"

"She's taking out her anger on some poor bastard that was siphoning funds from trade on Oroth."

Lace ran her fingers through her hair that was swirling around her head. "I'm glad that isn't me."

Vin's words cut in. "You're lucky that isn't you. What's going on? She's gonna call me in any minute to put him down."

"I just wanted to see how she's doing." That was part of the truth. Vin answered, just as flat.

"She's fine. And?"

"This is gonna take a little longer than I thought."

Lace didn't have to hear her friend's sigh to know it was there. "Well keep going. Faster the better."