The Librarian and The Rockstar

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Her feet pounded the ground, the metal echoing under her, as she ran down the corridor. He was close behind her, almost struggling to keep up. She ducked as the heat of a blast seared over one shoulder, then swung around and got off a couple of shots with her own weapon. The man cursed and ducked as he ran, glaring at her.

"I thought you knew how to shoot!" she snapped at him as she picked up her run again.

"Not while I'm fucking running!" he said through gritted teeth.

"Useless," she muttered before grabbing his arm and yanking him around the turn with her. "This way," she ordered and he didn't fight her, rounding the corner at a full run.

"My ship is just down this hall," she said.

"It'd better be ready to go," he growled back, still panting for breath.

She grinned. "It's always ready to go."

Their pursuers seemed to have been thrown off by the sudden turn and when she made another, it sounded like they passed by. Marie didn't trust that though and continued to sprint through the halls to her docking bay. John followed after her, the adrenaline pumping through his veins.

"Almost there," she said under her breath. With a final turn, they were there. Marie pressed her hand to the bio scanner. She bit her lip as she waited impatiently for the scan to complete. Thankfully, it went through this time with no issues and the door slid open with a hiss. "Let's go," she said, jumping through the door.

John paused, glancing back. "Where are we going?" he finally asked.

Marie growled and grabbed his arm. "Away from here!" she almost shouted, especially as there was suddenly an explosion of heat on the wall near her head. John jumped through the doorway and she jammed the lever on the other side, shutting the door before they both turned and ran down the tube. It was set up so that the ship's door would open when the docking bay door opened, so they were able to dive through to her ship.

"Shut the door," she ordered as she went straight to the pilot's seat. John obeyed and rammed the lever up so the door shut and locked quickly.

"Get us out of here," he said, seeing people running down the tube through the window.

"Trying," she muttered as she booted up the ship. "Come on, come on." Finally the various orange and red lights on the dash turned green and Johnny heard the roar of the engine reverberate through the ship. It peeled away from the dock and soon there were various radio channels chattering through the speaker. Marie slammed a button and the radio cut off.

John held his breath for a moment and soon he felt the subtle shift as the ship moved into a higher speed.

"We're gone," Marie said, satisfied as she stood up and walked towards him. "Now, where is it?" John went stone still. "Where's what?" he hedged.

Marie's eyes narrowed and she shoved him, hard. John stumbled a little but crossed his arms. "You know what I'm talking about. The drive. Where is it? I know you grabbed it."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Marie growled and pulled her gun from the holster on her hip. "I swear John, I am not above shooting you to get that drive."

John looked her in the eyes and realized that she was quite serious. "Fine. I'll give it to you once you tell me what's on it."

"I can't do that."

"Why not?"

"I'm not allowed. Not until I put it into the Library."

John gaped. "You're a Librarian?"

"Yes, I’m a Librarian. Now give me the drive." Without another word, John reached into an inner pocket and produced the tiny drive. Marie snatched it out of his hand and held up her right arm. As she bent her hand back, the skin suddenly slid open like the ship door earlier and she dropped the drive into it. Johnny gaped again.

"You've got c-netic's?" he said, taking a step back.

Marie rolled her eyes. "We slept together and you still didn't notice?" she said dryly, closing the compartment and walking back to the pilot seat. John followed her, although not too closely. "I was focused on other body parts at the time," he said with a smirk.

With an exasperated sigh, Marie sat down in the pilot seat. "Whatever." She waved a hand negligently behind her. "Get comfortable. We're gonna be stuck here for a while."

"Shit," he suddenly cursed, uncrossing his arms and tucking his hands into his pockets.

Marie swiveled in her seat to look at him. "What?"

"My band," he growled, looking at her. "My cruiser. They're all," he waved a hand in the vague direction of the planet space station they had left.

A flash of sympathy showed in Marie's eyes. "There wasn't much choice once they saw you with me," she said with a sigh.

"I've got at least let them know I'm alive," he said. "The last they're going to hear about me is me being chased by the patrollers."

Marie was silent for a moment, before sighing again and swiveling back to the dash. She studied numbers for a long moment. "Give me two hours," she said finally. "We'll get somewhere where they can't trace us and you can send something. Do you have an emergency code or anything they'll check?" John rubbed the bridge of his nose as he thought. "Yeah," he finally said before looking at her. "What am I going to tell them? I have a feeling you're not going to just drop me off somewhere." Marie rubbed the back of her neck uncomfortably. "If you hadn't taken the drive," she started.

John rolled his eyes. "Like I would have known it would lead to this."

"It's called stealing you know."

"Oh and how you got it was just borrowing?"

Marie sniffed and sat back down. "To answer your question, no, I can't just drop you somewhere. For one, I don't have time and I don't want to take the risk of being found by the patrollers. For another thing, I don't know how much you know and if you looked at the drive before you gave it back." "You know very well I didn't have time," he growled, plopping down in the seat behind her.

"What if you have a c-netic eye? You could have seen what's on the drive," she retorted, swiveling back to look at him.

"We slept together. Would think you would have noticed if I'd had one," he shot back.

"Look, it's not my call, ok," she finally said, pushing her hair out of her face. "I'm just a Retriever. What happens to you is an Admin's call. If I dropped you somewhere and they found out about it…." she trailed off, letting him think the worst.

"Fuck. Fine. Two hours you said? I'll get something recorded. I assume you won't let me send it without you listening," he said sarcastically.

"You already know the answer to that," Marie said, turning back to the dash. "There's a recording station in the living quarters," she continued, pointing to corner that contained a large bed and a small station next to it.

John looked around, taking in the entire ship now that he had a moment. It was completely open, with no walls separating the different sections. He could see the living quarters she'd indicated, as well as a small cooking station, a medical area and there were two doors at the back that he assumed led to the engine room and the bathroom. The brief thought passed through his mind of trying to sabotage the engine room, but he only had the minimum knowledge of engineering. Enough to keep his cruiser running, but that was it. With a sigh, he went over to the recording station and sat down. Marie glanced at John as he walked away and tried to push away the twinge of guilt. It was really his own fault, she told herself. He'd grabbed the drive and she hadn't had time to get it back from him before the patrollers had broken into his room. How they'd found her was still a mystery and it irked her. Had someone betrayed her? Had she left something behind? She'd been so careful…

Shaking her head, she banished the thought. It was too late now to worry about it. She'd report and the rest of the Library would handle it. She could hear the faint murmur of John's voice as he made his recording but didn't try to listen. She'd be listening to it anyway before it went out. It was best to give him the idea of privacy, even if he knew it wasn't real.

Marie fiddled with some of the settings on the ship's board, making sure their cruise was as efficient as possible. It was imperative getting that drive safely to the Library. Its contents… she almost didn't want to think about it but forced herself to. It was a list of names. All influential, representative's names that were being bribed into making decisions to lead the galaxy into a direction that was unpleasant, to say the least. The Library was still investigating whatever this organization was, but once they had that list of names they could start tracking the bribe history and hopefully find out whoever was behind this whole affair. If they couldn't stop this, who knew what would happen to the people who were already being crushed by the boot of the government.

***

Marie yawned and stretched, leaning back in her chair. She'd listened to John's recording and hadn't found anything that was suspicious and had sent it out on a carrier signal. Once it had arrived to its destination, it would transfer onto a clean signal and finish its journey to his group he'd left behind. Turning around, she found John staring out the wide viewscreen of the outside, giving the false impression of a window into space. His hands were tucked into his pockets, his hair tied back while he stared. Standing up, she joined him.

"For what it's worth," she said quietly. "I am sorry."

John shook his head. "Nah. You were right. I knew you were gunning for the drive when I snagged it from my agent. If I'd known you were a Librarian though, I wouldn't have touched it." He glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes. "Thank you though. For telling me who you really are." The silence stretched between them, thick with suspicions and uncertainties.

Marie yawned. "We should get some sleep. It's been a long day. Hope you don't mind sharing a bed." John snorted. "Wouldn't be the first time." Saying little else, he followed her to the bed. "Which side?" she asked with a smirk. The bed was tucked in to an alcove and was only accessible on one side.

John gave a little laugh and gestured. "After you." Marie grinned but didn't argue and crawled into the bed, scooting to the far side so she was against the wall. Sitting up, she pulled off her shirt and then wiggled out of the leggings she'd been wearing. Her boots had been discarded ages ago near the dash. She looked up to see John watching her.

"What? I want to be comfortable," she insisted, crossing her arms before tossing the clothes onto the floor beside the bed. Scooting under the covers, she glanced up to see him shaking his head before he pulled off his own shirt and climbed into bed. Curling onto her side, she faced the wall and sighed, grateful to finally be able to sleep. She felt the bed shift as John climbed in beside her, but he didn't say anything and soon she heard him breathing steadily. She twisted to look at him, a little disappointed, but couldn't blame him given the situation. With another sigh, she turned back to the wall, her mind whirling over what would happen once they reached the Library.