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Voyager: Chapter

"Crane!" I ran out to the fence. "You damn mutt where have you been?" I was filled with joy at the sight of him. How could I have simply given him up for dead without any hard evidence? I need to remember that he's one tough son of a bitch.

"Those damn Collectors chased me half way across the city." He still had is hands up since the guards were still aiming at him.

"Hey guys." I looked over my shoulder to the others who were now walking over, except for Dana. She kept back. I didn't think about why and merely shrugged it off since I was focused on the man who I thought was dead just a few minutes ago.

"So, this is Crane?" Susan walked up to one of the soldiers and pushed his gun down slowly. The others lowered theirs as well.

"Yep, the one and only." Crane put his hands on his hips and smiled. I had to admit, he looked rather well. He had found some new clothes, a thick grey sweater with a long cuff that went right up to the base of his chin and some loose jeans that were held up by a black belt that was looked like it was made with some cheap synthetic material.

"This is him?" Susan asked again, but looked at me.

It was him. His fur was slightly matted and seemed to have a slight tinge of green to it from who knows what. There was a lot of gunk that could found on the street which would easily stain his fur any color. The water treatment plant I had worked at had this nasty chemical that had turned my hands pink for a week. I was lucky, a man once got the same stuff spilt on his face It wasn't toxic at all so he was fine except for the pink splotch that covered his entire face. It was him alright.

"Yeah." I nodded my head and Susan had the guards open the gate.

Crane walked in cautiously, but confidently. He looked around, his gaze going over everyone and everything. "Nice little set up you found here Liam."

"I didn't find it, they found me." I nodded at Susan. "They showed up the day after you disappeared."

He scratched the back of his neck in an embarrassed manner. "Yeah, I'm sorry about that. The Collectors chased me through half of the city. They nearly got me, but I managed to get away."

"We've heard a lot about you." Tom stuck out his hand and Crane took it and shook it. "Supposedly you're the best shot around."

"Well." He slowly said. "I don't like to brag."

"The hell you don't." I cut in with a laugh. "You love to brag and show off."

His face got serious but quickly broke with a grin. "Shhh." He held up a stubby finger to his lips. "If you tell them that, they may not like me as much. I'd hate to be thrown back out there."

"You're welcome to stay. In fact, we had orders to bring you here anyways." Susan took her turn to shake his hand. "By the way. I'm Susan, that's Tom, and that's Carlos." She pointed them out as she said their name.

"Where's Dana?" We looked around.

"There." Tom pointed at Dana, who was just inside the doorway to the building. She seemed scared, which was odd since she was so outgoing most of the time. "Dana, why don't you come out and say hello to Crane."

She shook her head and ran back into the building without saying a word.

"That's odd." Tom turned back towards the rest of us. "That's really unlike her. I'm going to go inside and talk to her." He gave a short wave and walked into the building.

"Well, I guess we should head in."

Susan gave the same basic tour that Tom gave to me. I broke off once they began to go down to the basement. Carlos made it clear that it was impossible to radio the Admiral, something about how the position of the sun in the sky would interfere with the signal. We would tell the Admiral the good news tomorrow and hopefully he'll tell us that they'll be getting us off of the planet.

With Crane here, I was more willing to leave. I would have left before, but now I felt like I wasn't leaving anything behind. I decided to take a walk around the outside of the building. The inside was a bit stuffy and it was nice to be able to walk around outside and enjoy the air without the fear of being attacked. The sun was going down, casting an orange glow across the horizon that slowly turned into a dark blue as you looked up higher into the sky.

When I got to the back where the gardens were, I ran into Dana. She was tending to the tomato plants. She was slowly and methodically pulling weeds out with her hands. There were some tomatoes on the plants, but it was getting cold enough that the rest would have to be picked before it got too cold.

She noticed me walking towards her and stopped. Putting aside the small bunch of spiky leafed weeds, she brushed the dirt off of her hands. "Hi Liam."

"Hey Dana." I replied causally. I was glad to find her here. I hadn't seen Tom, so I guess I would get my chance to find out what had disturbed her so much to make her simply run off.

I sat down on the concrete border that went around the garden and held in the dirt. I patted the slab next to me and Dana happily sat down.

"What's wrong Dana?" I asked her and the small smile on her face went away. She played with her paws, picking the bits of dirt that had imbedded themselves under her nails and between her fingers.

"I don't like Crane." She said. "He doesn't feel right to me."

"What do you mean?" I didn't quite understand. Crane could be annoying at times, but hadn't been around long enough to annoy anyone.

"I told you I could get a feeling of what people are thinking." She looked up at me.

I nodded, and let her continue.

"Well, when I tried to get an idea about Crane." She paused and closed her eyes as if she was trying to will herself to keep talking. He tail was starting to get frizzed, sort of like a cat, but not nearly as dramatic. "I didn't get any feeling. He's like an empty can." Her voice quivered.

"Has this ever happened before?"

She shook her head. "No I could always get something, even though I haven't always been able to tell what it means, but I didn't get anything from Crane."

"Maybe." I tried to think of a possible reason. "Crane has some sort of way to block it out." I had no reason to doubt Crane, but Dana had no reason to lie either. Crane did tell me that he had been in the military, maybe he had some sort of mental conditioning that allowed him to block out this kind of stuff.

"I guess that's possible." She conceded and looked down at her feet as she kicked them about.

She was just a child still, despite all that she may have seen and experienced. Lots of people were like her when at her age, afraid of anything that was different. She just needed to learn how to adjust more. We'll get off of the planet eventually, I was certain. The temporary government couldn't possible leave people behind. There were over thirty here, there could still be more in other cities in other countries. I just hope a decision is made soon.

"How about this, tomorrow, since it's already getting dark, I'll introduce you to Crane?" I asked her, thinking that it was all she needed. Crane was a nice guy, slow to anger and full of bad jokes, children should love him.

"I guess." She gave in. "You can't leave either." She grabbed my hand and squeezed it.

"Don't worry." I smiled. "I'll be right there. You'll see, Crane is a nice guy."

We spent the next few hours just talking the night away. Her brother eventually came out and took her to go to bed. She was barely able to keep her eyes open by then. Each time she spoke, it was interrupted with a yawn.

I was feeling tired as well. It had been a long day, but a good one. I had plans for tomorrow as well. First on the agenda was to try out those showers and then if nothing happens after a breakfast of canned food, I'll introduce Dana to Crane. Probably going to be assigned some kind of menial duty, but after spending years treating the sewage of one of the most populous cities in the world, I could handle anything that they needed me to do.

Feeling good, I got up and started heading inside. I still needed to find out where I was going to sleep. A few questions to a guard and I found myself inside. The tour had overlooked a few rooms near the center of the building that had been cleaned out to act as bedrooms. There were enough that you only had to share the room with one other. Since Crane and I were the latest additions to the team, I found myself sharing a room with him. There was no beds, just an empty room to store our stuff in and put down bed rolls.

I walked into the room which look as if it had carpet in distant past since there were patches of fluff stuck to the ground near the corners. Could have been mold, but I'd rather think it was carpet. The rest was just a dull room with white painted walls. A small light that didn't fit into the hole in the ceiling hung by some wires and gave a low glow that was just enough to be comfortable in. Crane was already unpacking his bag which he had brought along. I found his methods extremely tidy. The cans were categorized base on what was in them and the water bottles were in their own groups, full, half-full, and empty. He had his bed roll out in the far left corner so I settled down in the right corner.

"What do you think of the place?" I asked him as I began o sort through my own things.

"It's something." He didn't look over, instead busying himself with some bandages he had on his neck.

"What happened there?" I asked and he quickly stopped fiddling with the bandages that were on thick.

"Nothing, just a cut I got. Had to move fast so I just did what I could to address it." He pulled up the neck of his sweater which covered it up.

"It's not bad is it?" I asked a little worried about the possibility of infection. We had some pain killers, but no antibiotics. I didn't want to ask Susan to spare anything since they were probably low on meds as well.

"No." He waved the concern away. "Like I said, Just a cut."

"Ok. Just checking." I rolled out my bed spread. Looking over form my corner to his, mine looked like a mess. Oh well, I thought and laid down on the bed and tried to get comfortable. I didn't feel tired so I pulled out the book I had in my bag. Now that I had some time, might as well try and get some reading done.

About an hour later, I did see that Crane was messing with some more bandages he had on his leg, but thought nothing of it. If it was serious he would tell me or someone to get it looked at. The bandages didn't even look bloody, in fact they were almost spotless. Just a cut, I said quietly. I went back to reading and soon fell asleep with the book still in my hands.