voidtreckerexpress | Getting a Leg Up

Who: Agent 8 and Della Duck -- with possibly Senku and Devero
Where: Outside Cabin 7-C & Large Room on the Quiet Coach
When: Imagination 17
What: Della gets a foot to stand on & story time!
Warnings: prosthesis; emergency amputation?; sads?

Outside of Cabin 7-C is a single note that seems to has been pasted on the door on the far side of 7-C's door. It simply reads:

Della,
It's finished.
Come to where you left it.
~8

At the back of the quiet room, Eight was busy putting the final touches on Della's prosthesis. Knowing that she wouldn't have the time to work on it the day of the big meeting, she put in more than a little extra work to get it operational. She would have given up, too, were it not for the timely intervention of Senku and Devero.

With a warm smile she set the leg back on the table and put her blanket over to cover it. There was just one final thing that she needed to do. Picking up a paper bag with a pair of holes cut in it, she hastily popped it open and placed it over her head.

Perfect. This plan was foolproof.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Yep, I'm a mommy." But Della's smile was sad. This was not a tale of loving motherhood... not at first.

"And... I wanted to give my kids the same thrills and love of adventure that Uncle Scrooge gave me. I wanted to give them the stars... I wanted us to go space."

A heavy sigh. "But... Donald was against the idea. He said now that I was a mother, I had a responsibility to my kids, and I couldn't just go wherever I wanted without thinking. He and I fought over it a lot, and I thought I knew better than him. Meanwhile, Uncle Scrooge thought I might be right, so he set to work having a rocket-ship built in secret."

"Uh...huh..." Eight leaned in, thinking over her words. Usually when mothers said they wanted to give the children the stars, it was a figure of speech. But Della wanted to try to give her children that.

Eight was just happy to have a mama.

Suddenly, a memory. A large hand holding tight to a small magenta one. A stern silence through cold tunnels of stone and steel. Dodging patrols. A shaft of light cutting through the darkness. The hands encircle a tiny waist. A quiet lift up to a pillar of pouring light. Up above a metallic grate guarding an endless ceiling carpeted with glistening gems set within the endless sky.

Happy birthday a voice echoes, bringing the Octoling back to Della's story.

"I managed to find out about the rocket before Scrooge wanted to tell me. And... I wanted to take it for a ride. In that moment, I was only thinking of myself. I'd never ridden one before, but I'm a pilot. I assumed it would be like flying a plane, and I'd be back before it mattered. I left behind a note, and went into the rocket, taking off."

A long sigh, turning her head away.

"... But in space, there are a lot of things you can't prepare for. I didn't even think about what might happen out there. There was... an asteroid field. A ton of rocks that I couldn't dodge. I tried to turn back, tried to get away, but... I couldn't. I wound up crashing on the moon. The rocket ship itself was destroyed... and one of the parts landed on my leg."

She wouldn't tell the grisly details of having to give herself an amputation, but she left it vague enough to imply it.

Ah... that, too, was selfish and impulsive... but Eight didn't have the heart to call Della out. From the loss of her leg, to the tone of regret in her voice, it was clear that she had enough time to regret the decision.

"Did you miss the hatching of your children?" Was the only thing she could ask, her tone low and solemn.

Della closed her eyes. The truth was never easy to say, no matter how many times she told this story.

"... I missed ten years of their lives." She answered quietly.

...

A part of her wanted to yell, to accuse her of being foolish and short-sighted. But, wow. How could you after she no doubt lost so much of her life to that one stupid mistake?

No one deserves that, even if they were the most impulsive duck in the world.

But as Eight couldn't think of anything kind to say, she just... sits their quietly, taking it all in.

Della took a deep breath before continuing - fortunately, it wasn't all doom and gloom. "So, for those ten years... I set to work rebuilding the rocket. It wasn't easy... but I was determined to go home to my family. Losing my leg, needing to learn stuff I'd never even tried before, getting supplies eaten by moon mites, it was tough."

She then offered up a small smile. "But, during that ten year... I got some extra help. Turns out there's a whole bunch of people living on the moon, they were just hidden the whole time. And once I figured out how to help them with the moon mites, they began to help me out with the rocket!"

Oh!

Eight couldn't help but smile at that. Ambition should be tempered with caution, yes, but a far more laudable trait was having the ingenuity and ability to get OUT of a sticky situation. Especially so when the solution required mechanical skill and persistence. Eight approves +10 octohearts. "That's amazing!"

Though one thing that did somewhat worry her... "Actually, the leg you gave me was in pretty rough shape. And there seemed to be something black on it that smelled of licorice? Was that from the moon mites?" Not that she wanted to cast doubt on the story, but... could the person that constructed this leg rebuild a rocket?

At that, Della soured in annoyance - but not through any fault of Eight's. "No... that was leftover Oxy-chew." She shuddered just saying the name.

"One of my uncle's top scientists and investors is a jerk named Gyro Gearloose. He's the one who helped build the darn rocket, and the supplies inside. One of his so-called 'brilliant' inventions was the Oxy-chew... the moon doesn't have oxygen, but by chewing the special gum he made, I could breathe and eat it. But he only made it in one flavor... black licorice." Bleck!

On one hand, the fact that someone was able to come up with a gum that could be use for general respiration was amazing regardless of its flavor... on the other, Eight could feel the contempt radiating from Della.

So um... change in subject.

"So, mm... what did you do while you were on the moon? Ten years is an awful long time..."

Getting a Leg Up

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sorry for the delay -- lot's of stuff happened; it's fine if you want to end it here!