Joy had a plan. Joy always has a plan. The Invictus was too unique to blend in at the port at Absalom Station, too easily spotted. Especially with the Drow on their heels, and Lilith purposely sending them that way in the first place in order to buy us more time to get repairs and vanish. How was Lilith supposed to know that Lady Valeria would send us right into the decoy location? But maybe, just maybe we could make it to Nebulor Outfitters Shipyard, leave the Invictus for upgrades, disguise ourselves as another crew, borrow a cruiser to get William to Absalom Station, and Bob's your uncle! It was a perfect plan! That is until it went all wrong and Joy wasn't able to inform anyone of the plan before Vicky was altering us to a fast, oncoming ship.
It was the Stewards, of course, it had to be the Stewards. A group of interplanetary law enforcers and peacekeepers serving the Pact Worlds. The ones that could detect a lie a mile off. The ones that only saw in black and white, no shades of gray existed, whereas the crew of the Invictus was nothing but shades of gray at this point. Joy quickly calculated a new plan, whereas the Stewards could save the day, and we could still keep the Invictus safe. She just needed to keep everyone else from communicating with the Stewards and everything would be fine. Joy explained to the fine Overwatch Captain that there was a medical emergency and they were there in the nick of time. We had ship issues that needed to be fixed and a man to deliver in the opposite direction at Absalom Station. So if they could so kindly take those of us who needed to deliver William with them and let the remainder go fix the ship all would be well in the world. It almost seemed to have worked, that is until Benny wandered in. At least Benny's story of the events backed up what Joy said and didn't say. What it didn't do was hide the fact that Benny had a lot, I mean A LOT of parking tickets. William ended up saving the day. He showed his credentials to the Stewards, credentials that had the crew of the Invictus in shock, they really had no idea the kind of man they had aboard and they had been tasked with his safety. What was Lady Valeria thinking? William paid the fines given to us on the Invictus not being a Space Travel Registered ship, and the parking tickets Benny owed. However, the Stewards wouldn't take us aboard, there was no leaving the Invictus in safe harbors, she was coming to Absalom Station whether we liked it or not.
At the station, we were first instructed to arrange for the identifying beacon of the Invictus to be installed before we even considered doing anything else. That is where we met Bubblegum. A giant of a man who could kill a fly just looking at it. He was beyond burly and covered with scars from burns and more. The cost to fix the Invictus was beyond what we could afford, especially since our repair credits were sitting over at Nebulor Outfitters waiting to be tapped into. Goblina asked Bubblegum why did he have Cobra tattooed across his knuckles if his name was Bubblegum, which I must say is a valid point. Joy was figuring out a way to negotiate bare minimal fixes, when Ash started flirting with Bubblegum. That's one way to get a better deal. Bubblegum decided to see what he could do for us overnight, but invited us all out to his establishment the Cantina to hear him sing later that evening.
Until then, we still had to deliver William to the medical facility with our own personal Steward escort. We were all just hoping and praying we would not run into any Drow along the corridors since none of us had a chance to disguise ourselves, especially since that would have been unexplainable to the Stewards. At the lab, William spoke to each of us like we were dear friends with a long past friendship. You couldn't help but feel that William, Dr. Pratt if you will, had depths that we had only begun to scratch the surface of. He told us that there was a man in there that he was there to save. A man who would have far-reaching effects on the future of the universe. He told us he would pay us handsomely if we got that man to safety after his operation. Joy agreed, saying William had more than paid for the fare of this favor, but William deposited credits into all our accounts regardless. And with that, he had to go in and ready himself for what he called his greatest operation. At that time the Stewards let us take our leave.
We decided not to risk being identified while at the station and slipped into a back alley to disguise ourselves. Since Goblina had no ties to House Zeizerer she didn't have to worry about a disguise. Joy, being relatively the same size and having the ability to speak Goblin, decided to dress as one of Goblina's relatives. Chanterelle morphed into her Jackie persona, an over-plump, orange gourd. Luckily, Tybar still had that dress from our run-in with a former squad member's brother. With us ladies all dressed up we headed first to the weaponry store where William instructed Tybar to go. The proprietary was a very, very twitchy Yoski, but boy was his gear amazing. We were all able to procure many unique items at a discount. Then we kept our promise to Goblina and took her out on a girl's shopping spree, spa day, and much-needed gal time before we had to make it over to the Cantina.
At the Cantina, we watched and listened in amazement as Bubblegum sang his heart out. Who knew a voice that could come from a man who looked like that? Ash might have been flirting in the beginning to get a better deal, but Bubblegum was doing a fine job winning her affections. Tybar bought Goblina a drink and took her dancing, pleasing Goblina to no end. Joy and Chanty were enjoying a relaxing evening at the bar when a man tried to interrupt Bubblegum speaking with us. Bubblegum bopped the man on the head, but with so much force he fell to the floor instantly. We quickly administered first aid, but it was a side to Bubblegum that we could tell he hadn't wanted to share. And then, to make matters worse, a man brought in an urn and asked for us. He handed over the ashes of William and gave us his condolences. William wasn't there to perform an operation, he was there to be operated on. The man we thought he was there to save, well he did save, but not in the way we thought. You see, this man had a rare disease where his body would reject any synthetic organs, so only the organs of another living person with the same disease could be used and William had that disease. William left us a video recording explaining all this to us. He explained that once upon a time he was rushing home to his wife, and he was so tired, so very tired. He fell asleep and ended up killing an innocent person he ran into. Shortly after that, his dear, beloved wife passed away. William spent his whole life wanting to return to his wife, but he felt she was in a good place and because he had killed an innocent person, he could never be reunited with her in the life beyond. But this, this life for a life, then maybe, just maybe he would have created enough worth that he can be with his love again. And that is why he made the ultimate sacrifice of giving up his own life for another.
Join us next time with the grieving crew of the Invictus as they continue to doge the Drow, deal with the Stranger they agreed to transport who is the reason behind William's death, and get to know Bubblegum a little bit better.
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