VIDEO; DECEMBER 17

[neveroutwrenched]

[Only a few hours out of a two week cryo sleep, Ratchet feels like he's waking up to an entirely different ship. The corridors are empty and dark, and the usual steady hum of smoothly working ship is distant at best. Manesseh's message was a startling first communication, adding only more questions (and concerns) to the pile. He was groggy, he was hungry, he was freezing his ass off...and looks exactly that happy in the MID comm, although he tries to force a somewhat positive note into his voice, despite the hunched shoulders and shivering.]

So I noticed....uh, I noticed it's a little chilly on the ship. [An awkward pause.] And also that one of our captains is dead...

[A longer pause there as he hesitates, trying not to sound irreverent.  He hadn't known the Captain in question, but it didn't make her death any less serious.  When he does continues his voice sounds strained.]

Does anyone want to help fill me in here? Power's still on the fritz, there's maybe someone killing people, with a particular taste for the captains, and there are a....lot of...cats? Am I missing anything? Does anyone want to tell me what the heck is going on?

Comments

[neveroutwrenched]

[Peridot.]

Ah, yeah, well, you know I thought about getting up early but decided....what the heck? And hit snooze for a few extra days.

This feels like the start of a horribly cliched video game. TIME FOR YOUR MISSION BRIEFING.

[peridork]

[She adjusts her visor with one finger like a fucking anime character, the eye-wear having gone crooked on her nose with the erratic twitching of her expressions.] I'm assuming you're being sarcastic, which is doing no one any favors, Ratchet. I was down in cryo not 20 minutes ago, and you were still out cold!

[ Being Peridot, she means that literally, and without any trace of humor whatsoever.

Making an exasperated noise, she sets her indignant fury aside and tries to stay on task. ]

You would have been better off hitting this "snooze button" of yours for even longer. The whole ship is in crisis; did you see the Captain's warning?

out....cold...ahahahaha

[neveroutwrenched]

[Now it was starting to feel like the old Moira. Ratchet's not sure if he's proud of her for catching the sarcasm or not.]

Yeah. I saw. I don't know what I saw exactly, but I saw it.

I thought I answered this already wtf.

[peridork]

[Be proud of her. It wasn't an easy concept for her to get her head around, and even now her ability to catch it is pretty hit or miss.

BUT MORE TO THE POINT...]

Isn't it obvious!? What you saw was some kind of monster attacking one of the captains! [Her words are picking up in pace and pitch, voice cracking a little.] And whatever did it is loose, and it's attacking crew members!

[She pauses, swallowing nervously. It's obvious she's scared shitless, but isn't going to admit it.]

What's concerning to me is that it has to have originated from this ship. We haven't docked anywhere since Cauducus Primary, and if it snuck aboard from there, why would it wait until now to start attacking people?

[neveroutwrenched]

Maybe it just wasn't hungry until now.

[It's not a very funny joke, he realises a moment too late. A little too much plausibility.]

Okay, okay. Just, stay calm. Have you seen this...whatever this is, for yourself?

[peridork]

[The way her face falls is fucking comical. That was like, literally, the worst possible thing you could have said Ratchet.]

N...No, I haven't-- You really believe it might be consuming people!?

[That's it, she's going to start crying.]

[neveroutwrenched]

What, no, I...I mean I didn't say that. Not exactly. It was joke! [And a poorly thought out one, at that. And then, in an attempt at reassurance;]

I seriously doubt it's eating anyone, Peridot.

[peridork]

Wha-- Why would you joke about something like that? [she gestures wildly, disembodied fingers drifting apart haphazardly] We need to focus, we need to--

[She breaks off with tiny whine. Runs a hand absentmindedly through her weird hair, glancing away from the MID and at her surroundings, whimpering softly.] I-I... I need to find Jasper.

[neveroutwrenched]

Listen, sorry, I thought it would lighten the mood, you know? Things are less scary when you can joke about them, right?

[He shrugs, an unconvincing smile. Peridot definitely doesn't seem less scared, so that answers that hypothetical. It takes him a moment to remember who 'Jasper' is, having only spoken to her once.] That other gem, you mean? Are you worried about her?

[peridork]

What, Jasper? [Weirdly enough, that gets a chuckle out of her, albeit a kind of exasperated one.] She's a Quartz. She's more than capable of handling herself. [Which is why she wants to find her, of course.]

[Taking a deep breath to center herself, she looks a bit more determined.] Look. What I was trying to explain before you distracted me with your jokes, is that the ship has been suffering from power issues for much of the time that you've been in cryo. Non-vital functions have been shutting down in order to conserve energy for keeping life support online. Which brings us to my suspicions.

[neveroutwrenched]

[Ratchet almost asks 'what's a quartz' but thinks better off it. Best not to distract her any further from the more pressing matters, when he could ask about it any other time. He raises an eyebrow as she continues.]

Your suspicions?

[He makes a go-on gesture, genuinely interested to hear where she's going with this.]

[peridork]

[She glances around, looking conspiratorial, and then leans in closer, hissing at a whisper:] I think... that this monster came from one of those locked rooms that we aren't supposed to go into.

[neveroutwrenched]

You think the captains just kept a dangerous monster - or whatever it is - in a locked room on the ship, and their total security measure was a locked door and telling us not to open it?

[He's skeptical, yes, but not so much so that he thinks she's wrong.]

[peridork]

It's the only thing that makes sense! I already told you that it can't have come from one of the planets we've docked at, and its appearance coincides perfectly with the power fluctuations!

[neveroutwrenched]

Okay, but why? Why would they keep something they knew was this dangerous on the ship?

[peridork]

I don't know, why would they keep a bunch of stolen statues on the ship? [ She's extremely adamant that she's right about this. ] I get the sense sometimes that even they don't know what's behind half of those doors.

[neveroutwrenched]

Yeah. I get that feeling too. [And in no way was it a comfort.]

I asked Than about the statues, and got a pretty vague answer. Like always. I can't tell if it's on purpose or if they're trying to be misleading, but it's frustrating either way.

[peridork]

Well that's not surprising. They wouldn't give me much information on the power issues, either. Even though I was offering to use my considerable skills to try and fix up this junk heap!

[Mind, in reality that's not entirely true; they did give her some information. It just stopped being sufficient after a certain point, and then she'd begun to complain about it, and they started to ignore her. Peridot considers this a personal insult worth complaining about.]

Look, the point is, we know that the locks on those rooms are electronic, and the ship barely has enough energy to keep life support online as it is! So either it somehow boarded the ship from the vacuum of space without setting off any alarms, or it came from inside the Moira.