The teenage girl sat on her bunk in the room they had given her. She sat there, idly bouncing a ball off the wall in front of her, partially lost in the hypnotic rhythem as the ball bounced on the floor, the wall and then back into her open hand.
It wasn't that she was bored. She had the workshop and the computers and such that brought almost endless information to her fingertips.
But something was still bothering her.
Trax.
She wasn't sure how she felt about him at the moment. She still felt like he had pushed her away - that he didn't want her to go with him because she would just be a burden; someone else to watch and distract him.
"It's not that I don't appreciate the offer, but regardless of how I feel, or how you feel, I can't..." Trax paused.
"I already have to lay Mariah to rest because I failed to protect her, please don't ask me to risk having to do the same with you. This wouldn't be goodbye, it would be a chance for you to live, really live, while I deal with some stuff. And when I'm done, then I know I'll have the opportunity to get to know you."
Those were his words.
She needed to understand more about him. She needed to learn what had happened to Mariah and why she had mattered so much to him. She needed to learn what he was going to do that was so dangerous. And she needed to learn who Trax was. She didn't know why she needed to know. She didn't really understand why she cared. But she did.
She caught the ball she had been bouncing and stood up, grabbing a data pad and some other tech gear she had stashed in the room.
The best place to start learning about a person was in the place where they kept their things. She assumed that that place would be the Quarters Trax was staying in on the ship. There weren't really any other secure areas where he could keep it, were there?
She assumed the door would be locked. But there were easy ways around that...
So she set off, walking casually down the corridor....
When she arrived at the door to his room she listened to make sure no one was nearby. She had a basic life form scanner on her pad and she ran that, as well. She didn't want to walk in on Trax and Nim doing.....well...whatever it was they were doing. She had a feeling she might get shot outright for that....
The coast seemed clear so carefully she got to work, setting the Pad to match the security code needed to open the doors to the room.
As it worked she thought about what she was about to do.
Trax was an action man. He acted quickly and wasn't afraid to shoot or kill. That was obvious from their time on the station.
But he had....what she could only see as some sort of "soft spot" as well. THAT was what she didn't understand.
Was she being extremely stupid for trying what she was about to try?
Would he shoot her if he found an intruder in his Quarters?
She had to admit that part of her maybe even WANTED him to catch her, hoped that he would.
It was almost an instinct, in the human species adolescent years, to crave attention. Keshani had been significantly lacking in this attention for most of her teenage years so far.
Being exposed to some of that attention now, part of her craved more. And, as many teenagers finding themselves thinking (rightly or wrongly), negative attention was still attention.
She was curious how he would react. If at all. Maybe he just wouldn't care?
She shrugged. If he just ignored her then that would give her answer enough on its own...
The pad beeped at her almost immediately, although she hadn't realized it since she was lost in thought. It was flashing an "idiot" message stating that there was currently no security set on the door.
That caught her off guard. Who doesn't take measures to protect their personal possessions? Maybe Trax had enough in the way of credits that he didn't care if his went missing? Or he just trusted everyone currently on the ship that much.....
She doubted Trax trusted many people at all, but that was just her assumption.
She took a slow breath and took a step toward the door, opening it slowly and as quietly as she could and slinking inside the darkened room.
She left the main lights off and just held a hand-light as she looked through the room.
She was surprised by how little there was.
She reminded herself that most of them did lose their gear on the Station, but surely not ALL of his things had gone with him to the Station....
Stepping through the room she looked around to see if there was a data terminal or anything that he had been using that may have communications or data files open on it....
