May's Daughter
Simmon’s personal log Entry One:
This seems rather redundant of me, given the circumstances at the moment. However, Helen gave me this personal log book and she recommended that I record my thoughts and feelings within, she said that it would be a healthy choice for my emotional well being. I though, why not, what else am I going to do when I’m not working with the captain--With Skye-- on repairing the ship. This place is-- well it’s just magnificent, I do not think words would ever be able to touch the natural beauty of this strange place. The atmosphere is clean and mild, it’s so easy to breath and for a moment, when one is holding this untouched air within their lungs; everything is perfect. And the sunset’s and sunrises on this place is like nothing I’ve ever seen before, nothing like I’ve ever read of before, most nights so far (we’ve been here exactly a week) I go out on the roof of the ship to watch the sunset... Sometimes Skye joins me.. I-- I like her company. She doesn’t talk very much when we’re watching the sun go down, and her presence is... enjoyable next to me, although sometimes I find myself more distracted by her watching the sunset instead of the actual event. I’ve-- I’ve probably said to much, so, anyway, repairs are underway, and Helen along with Alecta estimates we’ll be finished within in at least two months. Two weeks ago I would have been devastated by that news but now.. Well, I suppose I could spend two months on this planet... They truly treat me like an equal here while I’m working, I guess that degree in bio-mechanical engineering really did come in handy and it’s fun to see Skye’s shocked face every time I fix entire pieces of the engine by myself.. She’s has the cutest impressed face.. Anyway, I will try to update as much as possible.
Simmon’s out
On board The Mockingbird, Captain Morse stood over a map of the neighboring galaxies. She had just dropped the passengers off onto O-Nah, and after a long and grueling affair with O-Nah’s intergalactic security force, where they interviewed every passenger and every member of her crew, finishing with a long interrogation of the Captain herself, in tones she very much did not appreciate.
They were obviously more concerned with the loss of money in this situation and the possible effects on O-Nah’s relationship with the Milky Way Alliance rather than on Dr. Jemma Simmons, an attitude that made Morse boiling mad. In addition, they had been extremely worried about Dr. Simmons, until the cargo she brought aboard was found, then they were just “Pleased that Dr. Simmons had performed her task bravely and even in the face of death had understood the lasting effects on diplomacy that her items carried.”
It wasn’t long after they found the books that the interviews with the passengers and crew became less concerned with the Dr. and more concerned with the possibility of insurance fraud. However, they never found anything concrete about the encounter with the pirates, everyone seemed to have a different story about what they were doing and how many pirates were on board. They had numbers ranging from ten pirates to “ I think there must have been hundreds!”
The security force, when they were finished with their investigation, had given Captain Morse a speech on proper safety practices in deep space and the importance of every life traveling on their company. It had taken everything she had not to puke on them.
The minute they left she had dropped every appointment she had and began to focus entirely on finding this “Skye” and more importantly, Jemma Simmons. She had given her inexperienced crew a surprise shore leave, chalking it up to a traumatic journey and she had called in a few of her old colleagues from the planet’s surface.
“The Avenger has reported in, captain. She says they lost them, Captain.”
Morse didn’t even look up from her small holographic map of this galaxy, her mind racing a million miles an hour, as she thought about the implications of The Black Widow losing a small ship such as the one that Skye captained.
“She has given the coordinates, Captain.”
“Plug ‘em in.” A piece of the map was highlighted in red, it wasn’t a very specific area, in fact it covered and entire quarter of the galaxy they were searching. Captain Morse’s brow furrowed in frustration, finally she straightened up and walked to where the communication’s officer was mulling about.
“Let me in.” The captain, scooted the younger officer away and pressed a button on her helm, then she spoke into the air. “I’m disappointed Natasha.”
The screen then came to life and the Black Widow was in sitting in her chair, looking at the captain. She laughed and sat back, bouncing her leg excitedly. “That hurts, Bobbie.” She quipped un-seriously.
“Why are you protecting them, Widow?”
“Because I’m impressed, and there was no way that I was bringing them in alive with the fuss that they put up. I’ve got better things to do than toying with your political dreams, I tried to reason with her-- for you, mind you-- and it didn’t work. So now, I’m content to go about my life. Also she's May's daughter..” The Widow added more quietly.
The blood drained from Morse's face and she lowered her head, repeating the Widow's words- "She's May's daughter.. You mean to tell me I got robbed by the Calvary's daughter?"
"Her only child" Romanov confirmed.
Morse took a deep breath, "This changes nothing, Widow."
"Oh really?" The redhead asked incredulously
Morse snickered “You’re not the same Widow I used to know, what is this? Compassion or fear?”
“And you’re not the pirate I used to know!” Romanov snapped venomously, causing the captain to move back slightly in surprise.
The captain looked down and away from the Widow’s prying eyes, “You’re too caught up on sides, Natasha.”
“Maybe, but good luck finding the good Dr., Morse. Widow out.”
Morse glared at the now black screen, her past had just come back to bite her in the ass just as she had feared. “Pirates.” She mumbled angrily to herself.
.
.
.
“The kitchen is still broken, so I hope you’re okay with MRE’s again tonight.” Skye moved through the cabin where Jemma was sitting at a console. She tossed two dull gray bars towards the other woman and then plopped down in the other chair.
Skye sighed, “Helen’s lucky she doesn’t have to eat.” She said, before tearing a corner off the aluminum wrapping and tossing it in the disposal, a feature that Jemma herself had put in within the last week. She took a bite of the crunchy tasteless bar and grimaced slightly.
“At least they’re nutritious.” Jemma said, smiling over at the captain as she swallowed the bland bar forcefully.
Skye chuckled, “Yeah, keep telling yourself that, when I get out of here I’m think I’m going to Jupiter... They have this high rise restaurant that is--- just trust me, it’s amazing, and you get piles of food. Best place in the milky way. Around here--” She made a circular motion with her finger “They eat a lot of dried food, dried meat, dried fruit, dried vegetables.. I don’t know about you but I want something greasy.”
“Hhmm..” Jemma thought for a moment, “When I get out of here.. I would love to have a Caesar salad-- Mmm..” she closed her eyes, “There’s a place three blocks from my house that has the best Caesar salads.. and when I want to cheat they also have a huge selection of organic treats.”
“Caesar salad? Really?”
Jemma nibbled on her MRE, “What?”
“After this whole--” She made an explosion motion with her hand-- “Debacle, and you could have ANY food in the universe and you choose the salad from down the street?” She asked skeptically.
“Well-” Jemma began, “There’s something about the comfort of home isn’t there? I mean, don’t you miss the food around your childhood home?”
Skye leaned forward, “Nah, there was no “one” place when I was growing up.”
“That must have been difficult for a child”
“Actually I loved it.” Skye smiled, thinking back to her childhood, “My mom used to take me to the craziest places to eat, every week it was some new area." The captain's eyes unfocused and her hands began to move excitedly with every word. the memories seemingly filling her with a new found passion,
"In fact, when i was.. When I was 8 she took me to this Iida-Aile place, it was called.. I don’t know some weird collection of beeps, but they only served this thing called a DanGa squid. It’s like this weird puffy thing that you eat while it’s still moving."
Skye laughed, "My dad threw up, but I gotta say it was really good. It made your mouth tingle, and it was like a sour, bitter, salty mix of flavors. Finding places like that isn’t easy( at least where you won't get shot) but my mom could scope them out blindfolded.”
Jemma laughed, “Honestly? That sounds terrible!”
“My dad thought so too.” Skye took another bite out of her bland food and grinned while she was eating.
“So your mother and father.. They were..?”
“Pirates? Yeah.. Well--” Skye started again, “My mom was the pirate, one of the greatest to ever travel the void but my dad? He sort of got caught up in the whole thing and never left, he was actually a security officer working for Shield, taking priceless artifacts back and forth from Pluto to Sida--”
“Sida? Where’s that at?” Jemma interrupted,
“It’s close to O-Nah, like a small moon that houses important artifacts and where they take in unidentified objects and learn from them and stuff.”
“Okay, thank you, sorry.”
Skye waved a hand to let her know that it was okay, “It’s fine, anyway, at some point he was sent to investigate what was happening somewhere along the route, a bunch of their ships had disappeared, along with some very powerful items. That’s when he met my mom, on “The Calvary”.”
“Did she take him hostage?” Jemma’s chin was resting in the palms of her hand as she listened to Skye’s story.
“Well, he actually tried to take on the Calvary.. Aaand it didn’t go so well.” Skye laughed, “They thought they were so big and powerful, my mom took them out with one hit, my dad didn't know what hit him, then next thing he knew the love of his life was behind him with a wrench."
Jemma put a hand over her mouth and laughed, “What?”
“Yeah, my mom found a way to transport unnoticed and she popped up behind him and knocked him out with a wrench she found on her way. My dad says he woke up with a massive headache, with his ego taken down a hundred notches. Anyway, he was stuck with them and I guess they fell in love, my dad had always felt that he couldn’t do any good for the universe in his position in shield and my mom, well, she did a lot of good.”
“What like a steal from the rich to give to the poor sort of thing?”
“Yeah, like Robin Hood, except my mom was like a billion times more brutal and she toppled governments and moved some really powerful weapons around. My mom ruled the void with an iron fist, and my dad was right next to her, advising her and taking care of me.”
There was a quiet moment as Skye looked at the ground, lost in thought, Jemma broke the silence, “You seem very proud of them.”
“I am. I really am..” Skye almost mumbled,
“When did they die?” Jemma asked tentatively,
Skye’s head shot up and she laughed, “Oh, they’re not dead, I’m sorry if I made it seem that way. No, They’re fine! They’re retired.”
“Oh, I’m relived, I just thought--”
“No, it’s fine I was spacing out--” She laughed awkwardly, “They’re retired, on some planet that my mom bought, probably spending the days bickering about current events.”
“Sounds like a strong marriage.” Jemma said laughing,
“It is..”
“So is this your mom’s ship?” Jemma asked, breaking the ice again.
Skye smiled and patted the metal dashboard fondly, “This old thing--”
“Wait until you’re in the last years of your limited lifespan; I’m going to say the same thing about you while I get my imortal ass refurnashed.” Jeannie cut in harshly through the fuzzy intercom.
The two women jumped at the sudden interruption, just as they were beginning to feel like they were alone. Skye groaned but started again, “I Bought her after I looted my first ship, a few years ago.” She continued, ignoring the touchy AI.
“And how did that go?”
Skye chuckled, “It’s a long story and basically the moral is, even if you don’t get caught by the law, you will get caught by your dad when he find’s a scratch on his super expensive modified personal transport.” She shook her head, almost talking to the ceiling which made Jemma laugh, “Oh, Lola, the times we had sneaking out.. All the girls we snuck away with..”
“You didn’t.”
“You bet your ass I did, had my first kiss in that ship, my first heartbreak, lost my -- Well, you know, Lola was my ticket to freedom when I was a teen.”
“It sounds like you were quite the trouble maker, I mean, not that that’s not surprising--” Jemma said, glancing around the cabin, “But still.”
“What do you expect? I was a teenager, my mom understood, but my dad?” She laughed, “Not so much. And what were you doing in your teen years?”
“I was studying, thank you very much.”
“Uh-huh.” Skye said skeptically,
“I was!”
"I don't believe that for a secon." The captain urged
"I LIKE following the rules and doing what's expected of me, it makes me feel nice."
Skye was leaning forward slightly in her chair, staring at the other woman skeptically, "everyone has a dark side." She said blatently,
Jemma leaned forward to face the captain very closely with a mischeivious smirk on her face that was unlike anything Skye had ever seen on her usually so pensive face, "No one, myself included, wants to see my bad side." She stated almost threateningly
Skye's features perked up, and Jemma stood up to leave with that statement, "Wait a second? What do you mean? What exactly have you done Dr. Simmons?"
"I told Helen I would help her in the hold, excuse me." Jemma rolled her eyes and walked out the door, leaving Skye hanging in her chair.
Skey thought about it for a second, "What kind of hostage did I take?" She asked herself, concerned before she stood up to go and continue badgering her crew. And her hostage?