Once more into the breach, dear friends

[hellonspectacles]

It is nighttime, or what passes for nighttime in space, and the ship Mount Ida is quiet.

It isn’t a particularly large vessel. There are berths for a dozen crew members and private rooms for the ship’s two officers, a mess hall, a med bay, an armory, a brig. Nothing about it is particularly luxurious—Blood of Eden doesn’t go in for luxury, and the members of Troia Cell are no different—but everything is functional and well maintained. The ship hums faintly with the sound of engines and life support and electric lights, a but most of the crew don’t notice it anymore.

Near the officer’s cabins is another berth, occupied (or so it seems) by a single person. It contains a bed, and a sink, and a table on which, strangely, sits the perfectly formed skeleton of a human hand. The door is locked from the outside and a crew member stands guard. Are these precautions to keep the person inside from escaping, or to protect them from coming to harm? No one is sure anymore.

The crew member, Sergeant Hot Coals of Vengeance, is bored. Their shift is almost over, they need a piss, and they’re not even sure what the point of this assignment is anyway. Sure, the room’s occupant might be a zombie lover, and she might be a little weird. And sure, she did dislocate Lieutenant Pash’s arm when they tried to take that gross little bag of bones from her, but that was months ago. These days, she’s polite, and she spends long hours in secret meetings with the Commander, and she always asks for an escort when she needs to leave the room.

Coals really needs to piss. They peek through the little window in the door.

Inside, Camilla Hect is curled up on a narrow bed, breathing steadily. She’s asleep, and anyway, the door is locked. What’s the worst that could happen if they stepped away for a few minutes?

Coals leaves their post, and Camilla sleeps on—or so it seems.

Comments

[hellonspectacles]

“Hah. Probably should lock it, just to keep up appearances.” He gives a huff of a sigh at her request. “Valdis, if you wanted to explore, I couldn’t stop you. But for the record, they would be quite upset.” He smirks a little. 
“So don’t get caught.”

[redlightgreenlight]

"Admittedly very few could stop me from doing what I want to do."

It's probably the kind of statement he expects from her, but that doesn't mean she's not right.

"I'll do my best to not get caught and will avoid using necromancy." Because that's the word he prefers for what they both do. "I'll also lock you in, but just so you are aware, I take guard duty very seriously so try not to die while I'm gone."

[hellonspectacles]

"We've stayed alive this long, Valdis. We won't die after a few hours alone in the dark. Have fun exploring."

Pal waits until she's gone, and then goes to the desk and records his meeting with Valdis in as much detail as possible. Then Cam returns to her body, and finding herself still in front of the desk with the notebook open, begins to read with interest.

[redlightgreenlight]

"Yeah, yeah."

She locks the door behind them, heading down the corridor to explore. She keeps all her senses open, locking on to every soul on the ship and tracking them as they move in relation to her. Many are asleep, some are patrolling, others are clustered in one area. Then there are the ones Palamedes mentioned. The important ones. There's the ones that don't match their bodies, the one he says he thinks is on their side and the unconscious one. She naturally gravitates toward both, but the draw of one is stronger than the other, if only because the soul is awake.

She stops outside the door, curious about the mismatch, but she'd told Palamedes she wouldn't get caught, so she starts to move on without investigating further.