Stranded (Kor/Bones)

[Bones]

"I don't care if you two don't get along—you need his skillset. This client is paying a lot and I want this cut. Fucking make it work."

-Click-

Jahni mashed the call end button with a snarl. It was probably the fifth time she'd tried to talk her way out of working with a partner, but Marcus, the agent, was having none of it. Marcus had become increasingly frustrated with Jahni lately, as she'd become more and more wreckless in the work he gave her. But nothing compared to sticking her with a partner. And one so notoriously dull as the one she watched now with narrowed eyes. He seemed to be checking on the ship's auto pilot again. He'd done it at least ten times an hour since they took off. One of the long list of things that had eaten away all of Jahni's patience.

"You don't have to check the course every five minutes you know," her words were more of a grumble to herself as she reentered the main cabin of the ship. But it didn't matter, he wouldn't fight her. Not for lack of trying. She'd been passive aggressive towards him since the launch and he was having none of it. Slowly, her comments became more and more prickled. In truth, it probably wasn't this male who annoyed her the most, rather just the fact that she wasn't working alone. Jahni had always worked alone. Anyone else on missions, or in life, felt like deadweight. She was stronger alone.

Growing up fast and hard, Jahni was incredibly physically fit and ruthless in her line of work. Her cold and distant demeanor helped. Politics were not how she got what she wanted. She was quick, stealthy, but she knew how to fight. Over the years, she had been trained in many weapons and learned others quickly on the fly. She wasn't good with people, but what she lacked in people skills she more than made up for. Which is why she had become so valuable to those who contracted her. Unfortunately, her inability to work well with people had carried over to life outside of work, and so Jahni's seclusion in childhood perpetuated into adulthood.

"Fucking Marcus thinks this mission is so much more goddamn important than any others for some reason. As if I'm somehow incapable of people a target up alive and keeping them that way." For all intents and purposes, she was. "Probably just some rich guy who got himself into trouble and got his kid taken as revenge, anyway." She kicked a chair out from underneath the table in the center of the room and sank into it heavily and with another snarl of disapproval. It was probably obvious to her 'partner' that she had tried to get the job to herself multiple times, so the uncharacteristic start of a conversation seemed to fill the cabin with even more tension.

[Azhtek]

Sthemio sat at the console he'd found himself planted in front of for the past several hours. One hand cradled his chin as he scrutinised the data on the screen, while the other lay flat on the metal panel beside the keyboard. Other than the gentle rise and fall of his shoulders as he breathed in and out, he was completely motionless.

For the most part, he had been turning a deaf ear to Jahni's complaining. He had no interest in it as the orders for the mission he'd been hired for came from someone in a position beyond hers. Though her comment about him checking the course broke through.

"There is something wrong with the navigation system. A deviancy of 0.04% in values regarding the position of systems and our path. I'm ensuring that we aren't going to pass through a star or a debris field." His voice was even and crisp, reserved and almost formal, as though he'd been raised in high society and taught to annunciate clearly. Though those who knew anything about him recognised that wasn't the case.

Sthemio, or Seth in the more informal situations, was a crafted organism. His world, a world of machines in which all beings shared a single mind, had constructed this body for him and placed a splinter of their collective within its brain. The intelligence and knowledge of a machine placed into an organic body. He had been sent off into the universe as an experiment, to see how effectively he could survive and interact with other beings and their societies. As it turned out, the answer so far was 'fairly decently'.

He had taken jobs as a translater, mediator, negotiator and ambassador. His abilities to learn languages and the social cues of other beings at an almost uncanny level due to the rate at which he processed information had lead him to many interesting jobs.

The hand at his chin fell down and rested on his lap, the dull claws on his fingers picking at the plain cloth garments he wore. After a few moments of silence, he turned in his seat, one arm resting on the back of the chair. "Is your dislike of me purely professional, or do you have a personal problem with me being here? I feel as though we should clear the air if we're to be working together."

His voice was yet again calm. Whatever direction the conversation was heading in, it was apparent, at least to him, that he wasn't taking her offence to him being involved in this task to heart.