Captain Reggimi

Posted on Thu Feb 6th, 2025 @ 5:09pm by Lieutenant Adrianna Baciami

1,938 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Stars Around the Well
Timeline: Past

Adrianna knelt beside Vance, pressing down on the wound at his side as blood seeped through her fingers. His breathing was shallow, his normally sharp eyes clouded with pain. The job had gone south fast– an ambush, a firefight, and now their captain lay bleeding on the floor of the cargo bay while chaos reigned around them.

“Stay with me, amore mio,” she muttered under her breath, tearing a strip from her shirt to bind the wound. He didn’t answer, only let out a faint groan as she tightened the makeshift bandage.

The crew were looking at her now, waiting for orders. Lutz, usually Vance’s second, was already snapping at her. “We can’t leave yet,” he argued, ducking behind cover as a blast of plasma fire hit the bulkhead. “We don’t have the goods– this job’s not done.”

Adrianna whipped her head around, eyes flashing. “Merde! Are you serious? The Capitano is bleeding out, and you’re thinking about a cazzo di paycheck?”

Lutz’s jaw tightened, “I’m thinking about keeping this crew afloat. If we leave empty-handed, we don’t eat and we lose clients.”

Adrianna got to her feet, shoving her phaser into her holster and running to the far side of the cargo bay, hitting the button to shut the cargo bay doors, “And we don’t eat if we’re dead either. Get your priorities straight– Salek, get the ship in the air, now.”

Lutz looked like he wanted to argue, but he shut his mouth when he saw the way the rest of the crew were looking to her. She wasn’t just taking charge– she was leading and being a lifeline.

“Fran, cover the rear,” she barked orders, “anyone still shooting when those engines fire up, put them down.”

The ship rumbled as Salek ran to the bridge and powered the engines, and Adrianna turned her attention back to Vance. She knew she couldn’t move him– not easily. He was built like a damned tank, all muscle and a dead weight.

“Doctor!” she called. The Pendragon's Vulcan doctor was already on his way, stepping past her with precise efficiency. Without a word, he crouched and hauled Vance over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry as if he weighed nothing at all.

Adrianna fell into step beside him, keeping her phaser in its holster as they made their way to the medbay. By the time they were safely in orbit, Vance was unconscious, his pulse weak but steady. Adrianna didn’t leave his side, barely noticing the crew checking in for orders or asking what came next. She answered without thinking, issuing commands, making decisions– keeping them together. Right now: she'd instructed them to hide out in a nearby asteroid field until Vance was awake.

The medbay was dimly lit, the low hum of the ship’s engines the only sound apart from Vance’s steady, if slightly ragged, breathing. Adrianna sat slumped in a chair beside his bed, exhaustion settling deep into her bones. She’d barely left his side since the moment he'd been dragged in. This wasn't a mission, she loved him and wanted to make sure that he was ok, and now that he was awake, the tension coiled tight in her chest was finally easing.

“You took over,” Vance said, his voice hoarse.

Adrianna straightened slightly. His gaze was sharper now, less clouded by pain, but he wasn’t angry– just watching her carefully, like he was seeing her in a new light.

“Someone had to,” she said simply, leaning over and going to take his hand.

Before Vance could respond or take her hand, the medbay doors hissed open. Lutz strode in, his expression thunderous.

“You think you can just give orders now?” Lutz snapped, stopping at the foot of Vance’s bed, “We lost the job. No goods equal no credits. You know what that means? It means we get nothing for this mess, and all because you decided to play captain.”

Adrianna let out a short, mirthless laugh and stood up, bracing herself for a fight she prayed wouldn't come, squaring her shoulders, “Are you actually saying we should have stayed? That we should have let Vance bleed out for the sake of going back for a few boxes that are probably insured anyway?”

“I’m saying we’re not a charity,” Lutz shot back, stepping closer to her, “You don’t get to make that call, Reggimi.”

“I made the call that mattered,” she hissed, “You were too busy counting profits to see the bigger picture– this crew doesn’t function without him. We barely made it out as it was. If we’d stayed, we’d all be dead.”

Lutz scoffed, “you think the crew’s just going to accept you taking over whenever it suits you just because you're in bed with him?”

“I don’t give a merde what they accept,” she barked, ignoring Lutz’s wrong assumption about her and Vance's relationship, “They followed because I did what needed to be done.”

Lutz looked like he was about to scream at her, maybe even turn this into a physical fight, but was quickly halted in his tracks.

“Enough!”

Vance’s voice cut through the tension like a blade. Even in his weakened state, it carried, silencing both of them. They both looked at Vance. He shifted, wincing slightly as he propped himself up on his elbows, his sharp gaze flicking between them, waving off the doctor who wanted to have him lie back down, but knowing better than to interrupt this.

“Lutz,” he said, voice rough but firm, “you got a problem with how she handled things?”

Lutz clenched his jaw, “We lost our payday, Cap. That’s a big problem.”

Vance exhaled slowly, eyes dark with irritation, “and what, exactly, do you think would’ve happened if she hadn’t pulled us out?”

Lutz’s silence was telling.

Vance forced himself upright, ignoring the way the doctor arched an unimpressed brow from the other side of the room. Vance's glare was fixed on Lutz.

“She was right,” Vance said, “she did what I would have done, and she kept you all breathing. You should be thanking her for saving your ass.”

Adrianna blinked. She hadn’t expected him to back her so easily.

Lutz’s expression flickered, but he clenched his jaw, “and what about the next job, Vance? You think clients will be lining up to work with us after this?”

Vance’s eyes darkened, “if they don’t, we find new ones. We’ll get paid, Lutz, but next time, if it’s a choice between money and the crew– choose the crew. Whether it is in the Pendragon or otherwise– a good captain will choose a crew. Always.”

Lutz looked like he wanted to argue, but he knew better than to push further. With a tight nod, he turned on his heel and stormed out.

Adrianna let out a breath she hadn’t realised she’d been holding. Vance turned his gaze to her, something unreadable in his expression.

“You saved my crew,” Vance simply said as he lay back down with a grunt of pain.

Adrianna folded her arms, raising an amused eyebrow, “Oh, now they’re your crew?”

A ghost of a smirk tugged at his lips, “they’re yours when I’m unconscious and Lutz is in that mood.”

Adrianna huffed, shaking her head as she sat back down, “you’re impossible.”

Vance leaned back against the pillows, watching her with that same unreadable look, “and you’re dangerous when given a little authority.”

She met his gaze, lips curling slightly into a mischievous smirk. “Scared, Captain?”

His smirk widened just a fraction, “oh, absolutely terrified.”

The medbay fell quiet, the tension still lingering a little after Lutz's intrusion like the smoke after a firefight. Adrianna exhaled slowly, rubbing a hand over her face before turning her gaze back to Vance.

“I'm glad that you went easy on him,” she muttered, “I think he just wanted to make sure that you were not hurt for nothing.”

Vance gave a tired chuckle, shifting against the pillows, “you think that was me being easy?”

Adrianna raised an eyebrow, “well, you didn’t throw him out an airlock, so si.”

Vance let his head tilt back slightly, eyes half-lidded with exhaustion, but there was still that sharp awareness in them, “Lutz and I go way back. He’s not just some hired gun or mechanic– he’s been with me longer than anyone else on this crew.”

Adrianna leaned back slightly, getting comfy in the seat next to him, exhausted herself, “and that means he gets to act like a stubborn asino?”

“It means that I understand why he acts that way,” Vance corrected. He let out a slow breath, his expression unreadable, “Lutz grew up dirt poor, Adri. Not just ‘scraping by’ poor– starving poor. Had to look after his sisters when his parents got themselves killed in some stupid gang feud. I get it– I was him, but somehow I got out a bit more unscathed. You learn to put money first when you’ve spent half your life making sure the people you love don’t go to bed hungry.”

Adrianna’s expression faltered slightly. She glanced toward the door, as if she could still feel the weight of Lutz’s anger lingering in the corridor beyond. She was silent, lost in thought for a moment.

“He ever tell you that?” Vance asked, watching her.

She shook her head, “he just grumbles about profits and paydays and I know he's always the first one to light up when he notes how I negotiate more than you when translating.”

Vance gave a small smirk, “Yes, well, that’s Lutz. He’s a stubborn– whatever that word was that you called him– about it, but he’s not wrong to worry. If we keep walking away from jobs empty-handed, this crew won’t survive long. People have debts, families– they need to know I’m not steering them into a deadend. Sure, you have had us profiting because of your skills in negotiation, but we've hit a lot of hurdles lately– between fleet and some hair-raising jobs that mean we have to repair the ship, we really needed this job.”

Adrianna exhaled through her nose. “I get it,” she admitted, “but I wasn’t about to risk all our lives over a crate of stolen goods– especially yours.”

“No,” Vance agreed, “and that’s why I backed you.”

That caught her off guard, “You did that without hesitation.”

Vance’s gaze locked onto hers, and for a moment, there was no hint of teasing, no smirk– just something steadier, weightier. “You were right,” he said simply, “I’m not in the habit of punishing people for making the right call. You know me– this crew, you, this is all I've got in life.”

Adrianna studied him for a moment before shaking her head with a small laugh, “want me to start negotiating higher?”

Vance’s smirk returned, lazy and amused, “wouldn’t hurt.”

Adrianna rolled her eyes and leaned back in her chair. She might not have liked Lutz, aside from the fact he got her the in for her mission, but she could at least understand him a little better. Perhaps after this mission for Starfleet, or even alongside it, she could get him a steady paycheck as a snitch. He was evidently a man that could be bought, after all. She'd let her handler know.

 

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