12

—The day of The Arrival—

The cockpit was quiet as Curly sat in the pilot's chair, eyes trailing off towards the empty seat besides himself with a soft hum. This would be his first time landing the Tulpar alone and he wasn't quite sure how he felt about it.

The man shook his head and looked back to his equipement, bouncing his leg a few times before taking a deep calming breath. This would be fine, everything would be just fine, and heh, this time he didn't have to worry about crashing, right?

He gave a wary chuckle, glancing behind himself, just making sure the cockpit doors were open so he had an exit escape just… just in case. But well, this should be fine… just fine. Yeah? Yeah. He could do this. He just had to keep up the confidence he'd had when making the announcement to the crew about their upcoming arrival.

Any minute now, any moment they'd be entering Mar's atmosphere. Curly took a deep breath, straightening in his seat as he felt the turbulence rock the ship. Fuck, fuck— okay this was happening, and happening right fucking now. The captain stretched his good hand and after a moment of hesitance, feeling the turbulence grow more intense before it smoothed back out, he moved to disengage the Tulpar's auto-pilot. Curly swallowed back his nerves and grasped at the controls.

He was pleased to find the motions were still practically muscle memory at this point, though he supposed about six months as a living corpse paled in comparison to his years of service flying on these cargo carriers.

Curly nodded quietly to himself as he waited for his signal request to go through, speaking into the mic when he saw the light blink twice. The words practically rolled off his tongue, "Rosaline Traffic, Express-way zero-nine-two-six-Whiskey-Orion heavy requesting to land in spaceport."

The answer was almost instant. "Rosaline Tower. Express-way zero-nine-two-six-WO, request received. Say altitude?"

"We are currently at flight level three-four-zero."

"Received. Express-way two-six descend to flight level one-eight-zero."

Curly yawned into his shoulder with a nod, eyeing his instruments as he eased the ship to the corespondent altitude. "Understood, descending to flight level one-eight-zero, thank you."

There was an absent kind of silence as he felt the ship descend, the man nodding as he double-checked himself. When he was content with his position, he spoke up again. "Express-way zero-nine-two-six Whiskey-Orion, flight level one-eight-zero."

It felt good to do this again, the blond settling back into the familiair song and dance, him and ground control speaking back and forth to get the Tulpar landed and the correct services set on route to meet them once there. Jimmy was going to get one hell of a wake up call when the law enforcement showed, that's for sure.

~

Anya jumped in place as Curly's voice spoke up from the above head speakers, the woman admittedly having forgotten that those were even there in the first place.

"Hello, hello, everyone! This is your good ole Captain speaking!"

Swansea looked up from where he was eating one of the few slices of cake left, "No shit, I thought it was the voice of God."

Daisuke got a laugh out of that, shaking his head as he tilted his head up to listen.

"We're about five minutes out until we will be entering the Martian atmosphere, so if yall wouldn't mind, please settle in and expect a bout of turbulence as we enter. I'll be getting in contact with ground control soon afterwards, so unless we have an onboard emergency arise, I would ask for the crew to keep themselves busy as I get this ship landed, cheers!"

"Cheers," Anya echoed with a chuckle, closing the textbook she'd been reading beforehand. "Goodness I can't wait to get out and stretch my legs."

Swansea grunted, "Tell me about it."

"Now with that all said, please enjoy the remainder of your flight, Captain Curly over and out!" There was a crackle from the speakers as Curly turned them off once more.

Daisuke spoke up after a minute or so of the three of them sitting about, "Hey, boss?"

"Hmph?"

The younger shifted himself so he could rest his chin on a fist, "You ever been to Mars before this?"

"Yup," Swansea waved his fork about, "Never really got out and walked around though, first time I think me or Curls will be visiting more than just the port, so I can't exactly tell you what to really expect bout exploring the place."

"Well, is it like true that it's basically like a second Earth?" The guy asked wide eyed, Anya admittedly getting curious now too.

She'd heard rumors about the place, seen some pictures of the terra-forming efforts that'd been carried out decades after the first people had arrived to the planet, but besides that? Anya hadn't really committed much to memory, afterall, she had never expected to get beyond the city she'd grown up in, much less visit another planet.

The fact she was actually here honestly hadn't quite settled in for her just yet.

Swansea snorted, "The place isn't all that, sure, I'll give credit where it's due, place used to be one desolate planet, hell, I remember the stir there was when the first people arrived. Heh, that was something, I was in a bar with couple college idiots when they played it on the Tv. Them two were both so drunk, they were convinced it was a hoax while it played live."

The man shook his head, a reminiscent smile on his face, "I never did expect it to actually be all that inhabitable. Yet, here we are. And well, I will say, that one Noah-wannabe helped make something damned beautiful."

"Who?" Anya tilted her head.

"Huh?" The mechanic paused and grunted, "Ah. Yeah, that's what folk started calling this one rich guy that payed his way here, wanted to build some sanctuary or something for this one kinda tree and well, turned out the damn things actually survived the trip out here and managed to take root. He paid for several trips after that to bring all manners of critter and plants onto Mars."

"That sounds actually pretty neat," Daisuke said, visibly awestruck.

"Mhm, sometimes some rich idiot does something worthwhile, though, if I'm remembering correctly the guy tried to make a commercial safari park after that, then with the publicity he was raising, managed to get the medias attention, someone went and spilled some information, turns out he was doing some tax fraud in the mix, and last I heard they shipped his ass back to Earth."

"Anyways, by then a lot of those critters kinda had their own thing going and attempts at trying to get rid of some animals like those damned pigeons was met with bunch of backlash by those working out here and welp. Yup. That bout sums it up, other places are little more than industrial or mining towns while the larger places are about on par with your average city."

Daisuke stuck his tongue out thoughtfully, "I thought you said you've never actually been outside the port? How come you know all this?"

"Yes, well, you'll meet quite the diverse group of people in the port, I've talked to some from all over both planets, so it's not like I don't have some idea of what to expect."

"Do you think it'll be nice out of port?" Anya asked, brushing a hand through her hair. "Are there even a lot of people living on Mars?"

"I think as of last year it's about a million people on the planet, which might sound a lot but there's nearly ten billion folk on earth, so there's that to consider."

"Dude… it's going to be soooooo weird talking to other people again!"

Anya nodded along to the intern's words, "Yeah… though, is, um standardized English spoken much?"

"Eh, depends on where you are, since you got some places claimed by certain counties… off the top of my head standardized English is one of the most popular ones spoken along with Mandarian, international Spanish, and what was that other one… eh, it's either Canadian-French or Latinized common?"

"And well, again I don't know if that's changed up since last I've been here," Swansea shrugged, taking another bite of his cake, "Either way, I've heard just bout every dialect and language you could imagine, if there's one thing space is good for, it can be one hell of a melting pot."

"Really?"

"Course, there's a reason planetary settlement's called the Space Race's successor. Everyone wants to either be the first to claim land and resources or the first to learn something before everyone else—"

The man cut himself off as a groan tumbled through the ship, Daisuke visibly jumping. This was all the warning they got before the ship began to tremble and shudder, Anya clutching to her seat with a startled look about, "Oh, what is that!?"

"It's just the turbulence we were told about," Swansea snorted, looking startlingly unbothered as he relaxed back, "We're just fine."

"Y-You sure?" Daisuke managed as the shaking grew more intense, "This, this feels a lot different than leaving Earth!"

"Different atmospheres, kid, I promise, it'll be fine."

Daisuke shared a wide-eyed look with Anya as the ship positively shook.

~

Upon landing, Curly found himself funnily enough misty-eyed of all things. The man cleared his throat, carefully dragging himself to his feet. He stood there a moment, just taking in the way that the ship groaned and rumbled under his feet, the steady tremble as the engines shut off and the ship began to settle.

"Christ," the man muttered, rubbing his eyes with a weak smile, "Finally." They had made it, they'd all fucking made it to their destination. Curly laughed, running his hand through his hair, turning to leave the room and check on everyone now that he could.

The captain found the rest of the crew in the common room, Swansea being the first to notice him as he glanced over. The older man gave a grunt, "Another perfect landing, Captain."

Curly's smile became a bit more genuine, the Captain waving him off. "Hell, I'm just happy to be on solid ground again, cheers, eh?"

"Mhmmm, gave these two a scare though, ha!" Swansea motioned his head over to where Daisuke and Anya were sat, the two notable paler and quieter than usual, "You'd think it's their first trip or something."

"Or something," Daisuke muttered, the guy giving a forced smile, "J-Just, just a bit bumpier than I, um, expected?"

"I think I had a heart attack along the way," Anya said simply, the woman shakily standing up with a hand over her heart. "You weren't kidding about a 'bit of turbulence.'"

Curly tilted his head, "Yeaaaah, re-entry is always bloody delightful, Earth's got itself a thicker atmosphere than here, so it's always a bit more…" He made a vague hand gesture, "…rocky, I suppose, yeah."

"I think… I'm just gonna lay down, uh, lay down f-for a bit," Daisuke managed as he slowly got onto his back, staring up at the ceiling. "Just. Just for a bit."

Curly gave a sympathetic hum before glancing over at Swansea, "Oh, by the way, Imma need your help for a minute, if you wouldn't mind."

The older narrowed his eyes, standing up with a huff, "Alright then, let these two have their breather while we get ready to head off-ship, hm?"

"Yeah, yeah…" Curly waited until they were out of earshot to start talking in earnest. "Aight, so I've already let the port know about the Jimmy situation, law enforcement should be heading to the ship soon enough, but uh, I-I admittedly don't know how this is going to go down, and I am kind of freakin' out here."

"That so?"

"Y-Yeah, yeah, I-I know that, that uh, there's probably going to be a lotta folk coming onboard, uh, people asking questions and, and probably looking through the reports we'd filled out prior and, just shit." He ran a hand through his hair, "W-What if we did something wrong or— or when they're trying to get Jimmy off-ship he d-does something or—"

He jumped as fingers snapped in his face twice, Curly blinking back over at Swansea. The older man reached out to give him a firm pat on the back, "It's gonna be just fine, got it?"

"But what if—"

"Look. We'll deal with it. No matter what scenario, no matter what hypothetical problem, we'll deal with it, alright?"

"I… I suppose?" The blond rubbed at the back of his neck, "Just… just can you stay close when, uh, things start gettin' going please?"

"N'whys that?"

Curly didn't met the man's gaze, shifting in place before finally figuring to speak up. "Things… feel safer when you're 'bout." He cringed at the words, feeling heat raise to his face. Christ. Had he actually just said that?

There was a silence that churned his stomach, the blond sputtering, "Sorry— s-sorry, that, t-that was stupid of me, I don't know why I—"

"Hey, hey… look at me, alright?"

He clamped his mouth shut, Swansea giving an approving nod when Curly managed to look back up at him. "There ya go. Look, you just… caught me off guard there, is all. But 'course I'll stick about, can't let you knuckleheads get yourself into some new bullshit."

The blond snorted, giving a wry smile, "Yeah?"

"Mhmmm. Anya's the only one of you bunch with some braincells now that I t'ink bout it…"

"Wha— hey!" He shoved playfully at the older's shoulder, watching as Swansea gave him a mock confused look. "Take that back!"

"Mhmmm, nope I think I'm right, nothing in that noggin of yours."

"Oi!" He couldn't smother the laughter building up in his throat, covering his mouth to try and stifle a snort. "You rude old twat!"

"Ha," Swansea moved to drop a hand on the blond's head to ruffle his hair, "Am I wrong?"

Curly shoved the man's hand away with a grin, "Whatta bout Daisuke, then, huh?"

"Probably has more sense than you do if I'm being frank."

"I didn't know your name was Frank!"

The look of sheer disappointment was worth it, the blond finally bursting into laughter as he leaned against the older for support, "Cmon! It ain't that bad!"

"Hmphhh."

~

It didn't take long for the Tulpar to be swarmed by officers and medical personal, Swansea and Curly in particular being sought for answers as the senior officers aboard. There were people asking questions, statements being written down, and of course, discussion based about the main focus of this investigation, Jimmy's attempt at murder.

Anya was admittedly feeling quite overwhelmed as she was questioned herself. At the very least the investigator sent her way was a collected, older woman who'd told Anya to call her Yue in the most soothing of voices. She watched as the woman sorted through the folder her and Swansea had put most of their evidence and incident reports into.

"So dear, after that you punched the copilot, correct?"

She nodded softly, "I, ah, yes… um, it was honestly all I could think to do a-and—"

"You're all good, dear." The investigator said gently, shifting through the photos provided. "No worries, at all. I can imagine it was a stressful moment."

"You, you believe me?"

"Well, these photos certainly help put together the picture," Yue chuckled humorlessly, holding up one photo of Anya's busted knuckles (which thankfully had healed over much by that point in time) and one of Jimmy's busted face. "These photos were one smart call on your crew's part, we've had it certainly where people have gotten so scrambled from an occurrence like this that it's just a mess of sorting through everyone's stories, trying to put together what evidence was managed, and looking over the bare minimum our forensics team can scrap up."

"This… this kind of thing has happened before?"

The woman ran a worn hand tiredly through her silver-steaked, dark curls, "Oh dear, some people aren't made for these long-timed, isolated trips, but they still manage to slip through the cracks, especially when some companies are… a bit loose with their credentials and background checks."

Anya nodded, leaning forward to rest her head in her hands. "You're not wrong about that, goodness gracious."

"Mhm, now, what happened after that, dear?"

She sighed and opened her mouth to continue her recount. Anya really couldn't wait for this to be over with.

~

Curly hissed out a breath as he jerked away from the medic checking on his shoulder, eyeing the person warily as they gave him an apologetic smile. They pulled the needle they'd used to apply an anesthetic away, capping the tip before placing it in small biohazard box. The blond just gritted his teeth and looked away again, bouncing his leg.

"Don't worry, it'll start to numb in a minute or so, okay, sir?"

He gave a meek nod, glancing over to where Swansea was sat not all that far away, the man gruffly speaking with an officer about his own statement.

Curly jolted as he felt his left arm being slowly lifted to test the effect of the bullet to his shoulder, the captain fighting the increasingly building urge to bite the person so they'd stop messing about. He just bit his tongue instead, sniffling a moment as the motion made him shudder.

"…have you tried moving this arm much after your injury, and uh, sir, have you a history with pain medications at all?"

"We just kept the damn arm bandaged, I try not to fuck it up by movin' it much, and I'd take'em shit pills the bloody'amn company supplied us with," he grounded out, "Uh, OxyContin I think it's called…?"

"Mmmm… how often have you taken that and have you a history of using it in the past?"

"Been usin' it since I got fuckin' shot," Curly snapped, pulling his shoulder away as fingers prodded along it. "Christ! Please stop fockin' poking it, hurts like a right'bloody bitch!"

"I… um, sorry what was that?"

The blond took a shuddering breath in before letting it out, face warm as he realized how thick his accent was getting with his irritation. "Been usin' the drug since the injury, aight? And it fuckin' hurts when ya try'n'move it."

"Ah, I imagine… there seems to have been pretty significant muscle damage and, um, your nurse certainly did her best with what she had—"

"She did even better than that," Curly said sharply.

"—of course, of course." The medic soothed, "I'm not saying anything to her discredit, but you're going to need some professional help looking over this. I'll try to get you a recommendation as soon as possible."

"Mmmphm. Can I go check'n with my crew now?"

"Of course, of course, I'll wrap this up and ah, I recommend you start easing off the current medication you've been taking, okay? That drug can be addictive."

"Great," he ran his good hand through his hair, shifting so the medic had access to his shoulder again. "Thanks."

~

"Daisuke, stop squirming," Anya muttered, watching as Curly and Swansea led some officers into the ship. She had an idea what they were doing in there, the woman looking back over to her friend, "The more you move about, the more difficult it'll be."

"Feels weird," Daisuke managed, eyes pressed closed as a medical officer worked to check on his cheek. As Anya had expected, her friend was going to need much higher quality stitching and to have his wound more throughly cleaned than she'd managed with her limited supplies (disinfectant spray only did so much afterall).

"At least you're reacting well to the anesthesia," she sighed, moving to hold his hand gently. "Just a bit longer, okay?"

"Mmmm…"

~

Curly rubbed at his temple with a sigh, his left arm having been placed into a sling rather than just bandaging along the shoulder and upper arm, the man leading law enforcement to that fucking supply closet with Swansea close by.

"I… I don't know if he's gonna try anyt'ing or what, but, uh, he's got an injury that's been fighting infection and he's been refusin' to eat these last few days."

"Thank you, sir," one person said with a hum, their name might've been Wade or something, Curly couldn't exactly remember. He hadn't a clue what the other two were called though.

The captain leaned back as they unlocked the door, giving a nervous hum deep in his throat. It didn't exactly take much to get Jimmy out of there, the man blinking sharply as an officer held him by each arm as they dragged him out. "HEY— who the hell— what the fuck are you doing—!"

The ex-copilot hissed as he was forced into handcuffs, the man writhing against the efforts before those dark eyes locked on Curly. The blond just silently stared back, swallowing thickly as the man's mouth flapped open a few times.

Swansea spoke up, "Would you just shut up for once, Jim. Make these folk's jobs easier."

Jimmy didn't even look at him, eyes staring daggers into Curly. His voice came out in a low growl as he was forced back around, "The fuck is this!?"

Curly winced, looking away, "This is what you deserve." The officers shared a silent look amongst themselves, stopping in place despite the way Jimmy tried to shake off their hands.

"…Curly?"

"I'm sorry." The man mumbled, hesitating before walking over, silently grateful for the officers not rushing off and giving him this moment. Curly moved to gently cup Jimmy's face, the man staring back at him with an odd mix of betrayal and fear. "We might've been friends once, but the sooner you leave my life, the better."

He pressed a kiss to the man's forehead, feeling Jimmy flinch under the contact before he leaned back. "Goodbye, old friend. Yall can… yall can head off now," he felt one officer gently pat his arm as they passed, "Thank you."

Jimmy seemed to have lost all the fight he'd come out of the supply closet with, staring after Curly as several emotions flashed across his face. Then he was being helped along off the ship, the blond watching after with something not far from relief.

He felt a hand rest against his good shoulder and he just wordlessly buried his face against Swansea. And even if he had no more tears to shed for that bastard he once called a friend, it hurt all the same.