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

[astrogator]

It's another temporal rift.

That's Lieutenant Tayrey's first thought, as she struggles to make sense of her surroundings. She knows a starship engine when she hears one. This particular low hum alerts her to the fact that isn't the Prosperity, or a ship of equivalent size. It's smaller. It's not until she starts wandering the corridors that she realises just how much smaller. The lights are dimmed, and that means second-shift - or night, to planetsiders. It's possible, of course, that deductions which work for her own sector might be entirely inaccurate for somewhere so foreign, but they're the best she can do for now. She'll revise as necessary.

It's a small ship, and quiet. Dark half of second-shift, she thinks. That's good. That gives her time to come up with an explanation for being here. A lone Tradeliner materialising on a ship familiar with the organisation is bad enough, but in a place where her credentials likely mean nothing? It'll be an upsystem struggle not to get tossed out the nearest airlock.

Hearing footsteps, she flattens herself against the nearest wall, watching a figure pass by. Luckily, Sergeant Coals is too preoccupied to be looking around corners. It gives her an idea of what she's dealing with. Military? It's possible. Those looked like rank insignia. Another best guess, to be refined as necessary. She carries on down the corridor once she's sure she won't be noticed.

Not long after, she comes to a locked door, with a small window at eye level. Naturally, she can't resist peering in. A sleeping woman. Now that's curious. Aboard a Tradeline ship, the only reason to lock someone up would be if they were both dangerous and due to be put off the ship at the next station. That's an assumption that she doubts will carry well or accurately, but still it makes her nervous. She glances quickly down at her gun, secured to her belt as always. That's safety, as Tayrey's concerned.

Now, she has a decision to make. Wake this prisoner, or talk to the crew instead, or try to avoid everyone and keep out of sight until she has more information. She's not one to dither over her choices, but it seems that she doesn't get to make one after all. She has just been seen.

[hasapoint]

There's not much fanfare to Need appearing. No lights, no sound, no production. There is, maybe, the suggestion of an archway or an opening which is there one instant and gone the next, and between instants a short sword with a crossguard like two crescents appears and drops about an inch onto the deck. There is a sound - fortunately, Coals is just far enough away not to notice it.

Need recognizes what's happened immediately, as all her inputs and contacts in Velgarth cut off. She's not a stranger to traveling to other realities. How it works, the really short and non technical version, is the body stays behind and the soul and consciousness voyage on and are enrobed in a version generated by the process in the other place, and will last until vacated. In her case it's her anchor, not her body. She starts taking stock, reaching out with her metaphysical senses, and within a few seconds has a picture she doesn't like.

There's plenty of magic and it's even still generated by life but the stink of sacrifice magic is overpowering. The spirit world is a flowing current of death and misery. Something went wrong here. And on the physical plane there are only a few people and lives around in a tiny bubble for miles and miles - this is one of those awful places where people go in little ships in the sea of stars, where distance and scale gets really dramatic. It's always so much work to learn those.

The sword she's bound to has not moved or done... anything. It's a sword. While it's a very unusual one, unless she chooses otherwise it takes a close examination by a mage to tell that it's magic at all, and it seems only modestly so. 'Just' a several thousand years old sword that won't break, or dull, or rust.

[redlightgreenlight]

If Camilla stirs, she will see an unfamiliar glowing sword resting against the wall. At the sight of it, however, Palamedes will recognize it immediately, and perhaps recognize the significance of its appearance. It glows steadily, the red gem bright. His former roommate is nearby, even though she is not in the room.

Meanwhile, Valdis is trying to get her bearings. This place feels wrong, but powerful. She can almost feel the Void and her own powers vibrating with anticipation. The Thanergy is immense, quite opposite to her own world which is filled with thalergy. She takes a breath, her lungs heavy with the thickness of death in this universe. This is a spaceship?

She's here for a reason, surely there is someone nearby who will know her, or whom she knows. She sinks back into the shadows as someone passes, then a tug on her soul draws her in the direction the person had come from. She's not the only one from her world here. Revelations has also come. Valdis heads in the direction of the tug, letting it guide her through the ship.

[ablativeholopleather]

When Wayne awakens here, much as he had when the Serena Eterna had taken him, he isn't particularly alarmed. Same shit, different day and all that. What he wants to know is whether he's alone, if he's surrounded by strangers, or if maybe he's been translocated and placed with his friends and loved ones. As if the first time around, it had simply been a mistake and he'd been separated from them while they'd all been here.

A long shot, but one he would hold onto unless it was proven otherwise.

He moves through the ship like he knows where he's going. Indeed, the layouts of these places tended along similar lines, and he can see his way to finding the other occupants easily enough. He can hear voices, unfamiliar, but more than that, he can peek into rooms and through portholes and note a distinct lack of ocean outside (which is a comfort) and, upon peeking into Camilla's window, realize that even if he isn't somewhere with people he knows, that there is the possibility of making friends anew.

Now, he wants to see if he can locate the Warden. If she's here, he can't be far behind, right? He would knock, but sleep is important. So off he goes. Perhaps he'll find an intercom or radio system along the way.

[neverleave]

Sergeant Hot Coals of Vengeance sees the sleeping form of Camilla Hect.

They don't see the teenager crouched low, his body pressed against the door to keep himself out of sight. Natsuno's initial reaction is of tired exasperation - he thought they were done with surprise rifts. He barely has time to get his bearings when he realizes there's someone on the other side of a window, and ducks before they can see him. Their footsteps fade away soon enough, but that leaves the person inside the small room.

Natsuno stays low, staring at the woman through red, glowing eyes. There's something familiar about her, but it doesn't click yet. Not when he's still trying to figure out where is he now, in this small room that smells of recycled air and dry bones.