Figuratively Speaking: Iceberg

[Sombs]

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November 25th, 824 - Omicron Kappa

5 am Sirius Standard Time. Sherry opened her eyes, facing the ceiling of her room. A very decent tone of orange shined against it and the walls around her. All simulated by the holographic windows to her side, giving the illusion of her quarters being part of some loft of Manhattan's skyline. But it wasn't. It was part of the Apahanta, a warship in the depths of the Omicrons. Yet, for a few moments, she allowed herself to smile, enjoying the simulated sounds of the street. Hovercars here and there, sounds of people talking in a crowd, honks, snubs in the air. To her left, everything she was missing every now and then was there. After two minutes of just taking it in, she decided to turn to her right, to see her quarters. It was right next to the bridge of the ship. Her eyes pointed at the empty space next to her. To her right, everything she was missing every now and then was missing.

Sounds of morning routine filled her bathroom minutes later. The toilet flushed, the shower rained cold water down her shivering body until she decided to turn it warm. For a few moments an electric shaver was audible, followed another two minutes of showering sounds. From the ceiling hanging down, three blow-driers took care of her wet coppery hair as she stood infront of the sink, looking at the mirror to pluck one or two tiny stray hairs of her thin eyebrows. She straigthened her hair, brushed her teeth, added lipstick with a barely visible color, mostly because it was one of those that were good for the lips. Mostly because of that. 5.40 am Sirius Standard Time. She left the bathroom, looking at the holographic windows again to see the sunrise of Manhattan. Mild smile. Moving over to her cabinet, she retrieved her underwear, a thin slip and a sport bra to keep her B-cups in place. For a moment, after having covered her private parts with the dark blue underwear, she looked at herself in the mirror of the cabinet, letting her fingers slowly slide down her skin.

The touch was self-aware, to enjoy the reality she lived in. Her captain told her to do that every now and then. The feeling of her fingers very gently pushing on the skin, the appreciation of how soft and smooth the skin was. Simple biology. She was young, not even 30 yet. Her body was in a good shape. Very athletic. Her fingertips moved over her barely visible abs. It made her smirk slightly, thinking about it. How weird must it look if there was someone else seeing her doing that? And then, how would it look when her captain did it? For a moment, her smirk evolved to a grin, and she blushed slightly, closing her mouth again as she saw herself like that in the mirror, feeling a bit embarassed. To continue, she withdrew an Apahanta suit from the cabinet, one of the many she had. She pulled it over her legs and the upper part over her lower back, then one arm in the left sleeve, then the other in the right sleeve. Adjusting, and a moment later her body was fully covered by the skin-tight suit. There was a button at the sleeve that caused the material to comfortably adjust to the skin, making it become the second skin. Well temperated, soft, not limiting her movements. Revealing the shapes but not the actual parts of her body. To a certain degree, it was weird first, in the first days of the Core. Yaren's people were often rather direct about it, most male and female people rather prefering some more casual Core uniforms, but on a spaceship, shame and luxury were tertiary. Luxury. In the end, it wasn't an issue on the Apahanta, as most crew members wore similar Apahanta suits.

Throwing her copper-colored hair back, she gave herself one final checking look, scanning for any flaws in her appearance. She was the Commander, the second-in-command. People expected professionalism from her - she thought. They were used to her professionalism, yet she herself was most proud of it. She was respected, by crew, herself and most importantly, the Captain. And it was him who came into her view the moment she left her room. His quarters were on the other side of the corridor, right infront of her own room. He was standing there, just as perfectly ready as she was, smiling at her in his typical charming way while making a step towards her. The door behind her closed automatically as she stepped out of her room, her expression as neutral as anyone expected from her. It commanded respect to all of them. The Captain however was the one who knew it was an act. An extremely well played act. "Good morning, Captain," she greeted him in a firm way.

His reaction was an even wider smirk for a very short moment. She played her role and he didn't want her to stop. It was good the way it was, so he didn't try to change it more than usual. "Good morning, Commander."

The day was one of routine, as usual. Breakfast from 6 am to 7 am, including a short daily briefing at the end, an hour later half of the crew found itself in the gym to partake in the daily morning workout to ensure fitness and health, lead by Captain and Commander. If she was honest, it was one of her highlights when the Captain was there as well. He didn't hesitate to lead and show all of the exercises. She appreciated it in two ways. One, he was a former biology and phsyical education teacher on Curacao. He was very direct when helping his crew, when talking to his people. He wasn't respected as firm authority but as the good cop, the friendly, charismatic leader. He knew how to motivate with humor, boasting and games. The crew still was small, growing smaller with the loss of their former chief engineer due to his resigning. A little more than twenty people. Everything else was handled by the reliable Kishiro Service Robots.

The second reason was because he was attractive. It was no secret there was a cliqué of female crew members who reliably showed up whenever the Captain was leading the workout. She often looked at them staring at the captain when he showed his upper body. He wasn't buff, more the athletic type. A surfer, as most of them knew. Yet his abs were quite inviting to look at, and his V-cut made even herself fantasize about his black sweatpants loosing a little to reveal more. Most of the time she tried to not look at him, as she tried to avoid suspicious blushes. She stood next to him and concentrated on the workout, yet always with weirdly treacherous thoughts. The result of having to keep distance from the crew on a battleship that rarely allows to visit solid ground. Every now and then she took a day off and moved with a shuttle to Livadia or Corinth, as they have some offers to break to monotony, but nothing was more of a reality check than actually being on a planet again, be it her home Gran Canaria or Curacao or Manhattan, her favourite world.

Surviving the workout and the refreshing shower afterwards, she jumped into her suit again and checked her appearance again. Blowdrier, flat iron, lipstick, one last smile, then she moved to the bridge. All systems needed to be checked. The ship needed repairs and general maintenance. KSR reports, crew talks, long range scans - it wasn't like there was much that needed to be done. There wasn't much that could be done by her as Commander. All she was doing was to ensure she wasn't bored more than necessary. She wanted to be useful. The crew appreciated it, as she often helped the technicians with the repairs. But this time there was nothing she could do. In those cases, she launched one of the Apahanta's remote controlled drones and scouted the area and the systems around them. This time she used the Handsome Rover, Ezrael's first drone ship. It was a Gitano Light Fighter, the cockpit stripped down to make enough place for the remote control module fabricated in the workshop of the Apahanta. One of the gifts Leon Isley left here before leaving the ship to return home to Curacao.

While she usually didn't find much interesting stuff on those patrols, this time it should be different.

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[Sombs]

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November 25th, 824 - Omicron Kappa

The hull was slightly deformed as the Handsome Rover returned to the Apahanta. Nothing a bunch of nanorepair robots couldn't fix in a jiffy, yet it was alarming. On the bridge, the Commander sat at one of the drone control consoles, only accompanied by a bunch of Kishiro Service Robots and the bridge officers, all of them pretending to do stuff like routine checks or openly playing games from their consoles. The screens infront of Sherry displayed the footage of what the Rover recorded. Green mist, a high density of flat rocks, lightings, three suns.

Mines.

This was something that caught her interest. She knew there was something nomadic there from earlier investigations, but she never took a close look at those mines, so she loaded the footage up to a PDA and moved to her room. There was a good amount of visual data to go through over and over again. It took quite some time, but she had nothing better to do, as the technicians, KSRs and nanobots repaired the Handsome Rover. So she sat in her armchair, looking at the holographic windows which where now showing the footage instead of Manhattan's skyline. To a certain degree, it was tiresome. The green everywhere, the gas explosions, the rocks. She was almost falling asleep in the comfortable armchair as the door bell rang. "Come in!"

She looked over at the door and it revealed the silhouette of the Captain, holding two wine glasses and a bottle of wine in his hands. He stepped in, the door closed behind him and his attention got caught by the recording. It showed the nomad mines and lightnings flashing in the distance. "Oh, interesting," he sounded as he placed the wine and the glasses at her nightstand. "Whose ship is that?" he added before moving over to her side, leaning against her armchair.

"The Handsome Rover," she gave him back, looking at the wine bottle, then up at him.

"No, I mean that carrier." In disbelief, she looked at the screen. What was he talking about? There was nothing. Yet he didn't sound like he was joking. Looking at him again in confusion, she saw him nodding towards something. Standing up from the armchair, she made a few steps closer to the screen.

"I don't see what you mean," she sounded, looking back at him, only to see he stole her place, making it himself comfortable in the armchair. First she thought he did it just because of that, but he pointed with his finger at the edge of the screen.

"That's the silhouette of a Bustard-class carrier. Apahanta, rewind for thirty seconds of the footage. Zoom in on the left edge of the screen, increase contrast by 100%. Highlight the silhouettes." Following to the point where Ezrael's finger was aiming at, she made another step closer towards the screen, almost standing at her bed now. Revelation struck her as she saw he was right. It was the silhouette of a Bustard. Turning around with surprise, she eyed Ezrael. "What?"

"How did you see that!? I'd never have found it." There was a pinch of excitement in her voice and she smirked at him in a certain astonishment, looking at the silhouette again. "There is a Bustard in that minefield. It's close to the nomad lair you found with the Canaan scientist. I'll send the Rover there again as soon as it is ready."

"You will do no such thing," he said with a firm voice, looking at her in a similar way before starting to give her his typical charming smirk. "The Apahanta might not be fully repaired yet, but all primary and secondary systems are online and at at least 90%. We'll go in there with the ship and take a closer look at it. Our hull is strong enough to allow us being in there for hours. Time enough for you and me to check that out."

"Are you sure about it?" She moved a step closer to him, smiling slightly about the plan.

"Yes." he gave her back, nodding at the bottle of wine. "There is a Bustard-class Carrier inside a nomad minefield in an extremely hostile system right at a nomad lair. Looking at the field, you can see it's not too dense. We can bring the Apahanta in there if we move it through carefully. If the ship is still stuck in there, it's likely a wreck. So we can loot it."

There was some visible confusion in her countenance. "What about the Nomads?"

For a moment, he looked at his lap, sighing slightly. "If they show up, we disappear. I know your concern, but you see those asteroids in there. The Apahanta is flat enough, so if we fly in a 90° angle, we fit in there. Marduks are bigger, they can't manouver in there. Irras can't effectively fight a battleship in there either. Gunboats neither. Bombers won't harm us. Mako wins." That and the fact he was protected from them made him believe the Nomads won't interfere. Maybe his efforts he put into Maren and their relationship would pay out now. He smirked up at Sherry, standing up slowly. "When we're done, we drink the wine over there. A good reason to stay alive during this."

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[Sombs]

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November 25th, 824 - Omicron Kappa

"We're uncloaked now, Captain. Shields are charging."

It was only an hour later as the Apahanta was deployed, leaving Livadia in cloak mode. Corsairs and PRIME were known to have started contesting Omicron Kappa, and the last thing Ezrael wanted was to provoke any of them. He had a sort of okay-ish standing with PRIME thanks to interactions with Progenitor, Empathy and Canaan, but one line of code was able to change anything for those robots. Now the Apahanta was uncloaking at the jump hole to their target destination, one of the most hostile systems one could think of. Power was diverted from cloaking module to the shields - being without shields in that system was a bad idea, maybe even lethal. The radiation in there was strong enough to alter a ship's hull within seconds

"Alright, should be enough. Enter the jump anomaly," Ezrael ordered, sitting in the captain's seat. There was a certain tension noticable on the bridge, people were excited. The Apahanta was rarely deployed, so this was a little adventure. Sherry sat in her seat next to him, the entire bridge stuff was at their consoles, everyone was ready. A few moments later they left the jump hole tunnel and found themselves in a hell of nebulae, explosive gases, asteroids, lightnings and radiation. "I want the shields to be at maximum power at all times, second priority are the engines. Set course for the marked coordinates on the grid. I want everyone to keep an eye on the visuals, the sensors aren't reliable in here. And tilt the ship by 90°, the Apahanta is thin enough to manouver here without a problem." It was a feeling both Captain and Commander were missing for a while. Adrenaline rushing through their bodies. Sherry eyed Ezrael for a short moment, seeing his anticipating smirk as his eyes scanned the main screen and it made her smile slightly until she noticed it and wiped it out of her face again.

"We will need to move around the minefield. The ship was spotted at DE-7," the Commander sounded.

"We'll fly through the minefield, carefully. The Apahanta fits through it," he told her, smirking over at her for the moment. "From what I know from our little expedition with Canaan, this minefield is huge. We don't have the time to move around it. We have a good navigator, it'll work, don't worry." If there was anything that was reliable, then it was Ezrael's 'don't worry'. So far, whenever he used it, nothing bad happened, as if he had a control over it. He didn't use 'don't worry' during the siege of Port Carthage. Back then, the Captain told the crew with very clear words that it was likely to end horribly. Thus only a small part of the already small crew stood with him, the others being evacuated to Livadia for the time being. A standard procedure - whenever it would get dangerous, Ezrael told them to stay in safety. Sherry knew all of this. She trusted his 'don't worry' and nodded at him.

The transit through the asteroid fields went surprisingly well. The ship really was thin enough. A few minutes later, after the passage through a horribly discomforting area with a strong increase of lightnings zapping around the ship, they reached the barrier. "Minefield ahead." Slowly the Apahanta approached the minefield. Again Ezrael was right, it is not dense enough to deny the passage through it. Cruising inside of the field was probably a very bad idea, but slow and careful manouvering would work.

"Your turn, Veronica. Bring us in safely," Ezrael ordered, nodding at Veronica Cummings at the navigation. Even the Commander refered to her by her first name, for a reason. The otherwise rather brazen woman at the nav console nodded, focused on her work.

It worked for two minutes, until the Apahanta was shaken. "Shit!", Veronica sounded as she corrected the course. The very lowest part of the ship scratched a mine and caused it to emit a spherical energy discharge. The shields were able to deal with it. "I'm sorry, Captain, won't happen again."

"You're doing great. Keep up the good work, Vroni." Her nickname. Better than Cummy, which was used by some of the crew to trigger her, often justified. Tension was strong here, the Apahanta was surrounded by mines, and at this point, it was better to just move ahead instead of turning back. In the faded distance, some things were visible. Silhouettes of something big, accompanied by smaller thing. It was a nomad lair Ezrael and Canaan already knew about. Yet no nomadic contacts by now, not even telepathic unease.

It took a few more minutes until the minefield ended. Weirdly open space, and the giant silhouette of the nomad lair was causing more adrenaline to rush through the bodies of the crew. They have been close to those things in the past, especially in the Chester system, but this time it was different. They didn't know much about this lair. Whether it was active or not. "Cruise speed to the coordinates. Let's not try to settle down here."

And there it was, a feeling of unease accompanied by visible lights in the distance. They were calmly moving around as the Apahanta passed by, approaching the other side of the mine field border. Then the ship dropped to impulse. There was a ship in sight, within the minefield. It was what they were looking for. A Bustard-class Carrier. Designation:

The Titanic.

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[Sombs]

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November 25th, 824 - Omicron Chi

"You shouldn't go over there. You'd be absolutely vulnerable." It was Sherry's voice, neutral and lacking any expression. An act, as Ezrael knew. They were in the preparation room, just Sherry and him.

With a constant smirk on his face, Ezrael was putting on the EVA suit. It was obvious he was looking forward to this little trip over there. "If something goes wrong, you'll be the Captain. Doesn't that sound good to you?"

She shook her head, trying to hide a mild smile as she approached him, intending to help him with the gear. "I prefer to be the second in command. You make the stupid decisions and I try to make the best out of it. And if I fail, you'll be blamed." There was a very short moment of him noticing a sort of cheek smile on her face as she moved to the side to fetch the helmet. Standing infront of him again, she stared into his eyes. "I will try my best in that case. But I'll also try my best to keep you safe, Ezrael. So don't try to make it harder than necessary. You have a tendency of risking your life."

"I also have the tendency to survive those risky situations," he told her, booping her nose with the heavy finger of the EVA suit. "Don't worry. Things will be fine. I'll make sure you won't get promoted that easily." It made her smirk, even grin for a moment before she placed the helmet on his head. With a satisfying sound, the EVA suit was sealed. She made a step to the side to get the energy rifle and handed it to him. "What do you expect me to find there, space lions?" The sound of his voice was now a radio transmission.

One can't know. You might need to shoot down some turrets or robots or aliens. Space lions." She made a step back, looking at him in the EVA suit. A HOT GEAR prototype, combining the Apahanta's APM and Thallia's IRG materials. "You'll be protected from the radiation and the alien organisms around for only ten minutes if you enter an unsealed area. So don't waste time out there. Dock the boarding pods, enter the ship, restore life-support and then let the KSRs do the rest. And make sure you have audio and video feed active all the time, no jokes."

"Alright, mother, no jokes." He smirked at her, holding the rifle in the direction of the door. "Pew pew!"

Minutes later, the shield bubble around the Apahanta grew. Not for long, just a few minutes. During those minutes, a boarding pod launched from the Apahanta in the direction of the Titanic, heading to the closest airlocks. With force the airlocks got opened and Ezrael and two heavy KSRs boarded the ship. On the bridge, Sherry stood infront of the Captain's seat while staring at the main screen, which displayed everything Ezrael was able to see with the helmet camera.

"No internal lights active, no emergency lights. Atmosphere is hostile, contaminated by alien organisms and radiation. Signs of internal damage, the internal stabilizers obviously ceased working when the ship got hit by the mines. Artificial gravity offline, we're depending on magnet boots right now. Looks pretty creepy here, I hope you have a good sight over there?"

"We see everything you see. Minimal visual distortion, they'll probably increase once we decrease the shield bubble again. Do us all a favor and keep moving, we don't know when the next radiation burst occurs." While everyone else on the bridge was both fascinated and intimidated by what was displayed on the main screen, Sherry kept her countenance. In mind she just wanted him to return and leave the system as fast as possible, but the crew was reliant on her keeping up the morale, just as Ezrael did.

"The doors here are sealed. I'll move towards the engine room first to see whether the power core is still working. After that the life support systems. If we can get things running again, even only temporarily, that'll give us more time," Ezrael sounded, excitement audible in his voice. The camera showed every single move of him. His breath was audible, as moving in the EVA suit with magnetic boots was exhausting him. "You have no idea how spooky that is..." A moment later, a KSR managed to activate a static light stick, placing it on the floor. It illuminated the room. "Now it's a little bit less spooky."

Slowly and steady, Ezrael and the two robots kept exploring the Titanic. There were many doors that needed to be opened with manual door openers. One of them didn't even work, so Ezrael had to find other ways. One lead him through a ventilation shaft, just wide enough to allow him in the EVA suit to move through. The KSRs secured the areas behind him, placing lights to keep the secured areas lit. At some point he reached the engine room. It was unharmed, and with the instructions of his crew on the Apahanta, he managed to get the emergency core running again. The ship was flooded in decent light, just enough to get rid of inconvenient darkness. Connecting the ship with his PDA, he was able to access some emergency systems and a map of the ship.

Half an hour later, more breaching pods approached the Titanic, transfering more KSRs to the unfortunate carrier. During all this time, Sherry had an eye on the surroundings of the Apahanta. Most of the mines were static, not moving an inch, while others were slightly floating around. What bothered her more however were the Nomads. They were in the distance and she was able to feel their presence, just as anyone else on the ship and Ezrael on the Titanic was. They remained calm. Yet it was unnerving to the crew. Ezrael however gave clear orders regarding the nomads: Do not attack. Do not provoke. Ignore, play dead, no fast movements. He never got to explain why the nomads stopped attacking them, but Sherry was sure he was not infected. Neither him nor anyone else of the crew.

"Captain," Sherry sounded a while later, "they are close to us. Multiple snub-sized nomads. They roam around us now. Numbers increasing, showing no hostility, though."

"Ignore them, they are probably just curious. How's the ship holding up, by the way?" he asked her, wanting to shift the focus of the conversation to the actual problem, the radiation. The camera was showing him typing at a console in the engine room.

"Primary hull integrity decreasing constantly, not dangerous yet. Shields still at 100%, all other systems at operational capacity. We're sort of fine here. Ten nomads are around now, some of them stopped, pointing with their noses at the Bustard." She blinked in surprise as the engines of the Bustard started to glow. "Captain, the engines of the Titanic are online, is that your work?"

"Yes." There was a very noticable connotation of proud satisfaction in his voice. "The engines are only damaged, they work, though. Whatever made the Titanic strand here, it wasn't the lack of engines. Even the manouver thrusters work. I'm pretty sure we can move the Titanic out of this place. I should be able to do that from here. No cruise engines, though, at least not yet. I think we'd need reactive the main power for that. I can do that only from the bridge, but I can't reach the bridge from here, as parts of the ship are soaked with this radioactive alien goo shit. Write that down, that'll be the new scientific term for the stuff here in this system. Radioactive alien goo shit. Short. RAGS." There was some giggling audible on the bridge.

"One wrong move and it'll damage the ship. The Bustard is a bit bigger than the Apahanta, and you're not-" She got interrupted by him.

"I trust that Veronica plots a good route through the minefield for us and then just follow her lead. Don't worry." In mind, she was pouting. He was stubborn and imprudent, yet the idea was not the worst. In the end, she figured he didn't want to waste time on arguments. After all, this Bustard was a unique opportunity.

Sighing, she nodded and hummed in agreement. "Veronica, plot the course, try to use the same one we used to get here. Captain, we'll send the waypoints to your PDA. Keep in mind you're manouvering a ship heavier than the Apahanta and not all navigational systems are back. Inerta might push you against mines. You need to be extremely careful. Fly at minimal speed. The Apahanta will guide you back to Omicron Kappa. There we'll just need to protect you from PRIME, if there are any showing up."

There was laughter sounding via radio. "Aye, Captain."

A while later, thirteen nomads roamed around, giving the impression of them watching the event. The engines of the Titanic started to emit even more light and the manouver thrusters carefully pushed the back of the ship around, very slowly and steady. Every movement seemed to be controlled and guided by an AI, smooth and effective as they were. The ship kept its distance from any mines while pointing more and more in the direction of the Apahanta. Like this, both ships moved out of the mine field, in the direction of the nomad lair, however remaining at the very border of the mine-less bubble surrounding the lair. The shiny nomads were following, some very slowly, some moving around the Apahanta and the Bustard. Almost playfully. It was unnerving and fascinating at the same time to those who were able to watch it.

The continuous breathing of Ezrael was audible on the bridge. As they reached the other minefield entrance, he tried to calm down again, taking slow and deep breaths. Inhaling... exhaling... inhaling... exhaling... "I'm ready, let's go." Without much hesitation, the Apahanta entered the minefield, followed by the Titanic. Again, every single movement was very slow and smooth, pre-calculated, taking care of any obstacles in the way. Halfway through, Sherry noticed something weird.

"Captain?" Yet there was no response. The camera showed him sitting infront of a console in the engine room, helmet still on his head, he was slowly breathing but his hands weren't moving. "Captain!? Ezrael!?"

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[Sombs]

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November 25th, 824 - Omicron Chi

Flashing lights. Fading blur. Snippets of consciousness. The headaches were strong, but the feeling of exhaustion was stronger. Every now and then he felt how he opened his eyes, but he didn't understand his surroundings. His stomach was hurting, he felt like he needed to vomit. At one point, he saw a body moving towards him, flying. "Ezrael!" A familiar voice, but he felt too drowsy to make any connection. What was going on? He suddenly felt weightless. No gravity. "Apahanta, I got him!" And then he felt a pull. Everything was moving around him. Trajectory kept him moving. His arm got pulled through the area around him. Everything hurt. It was horrible. He just wanted to sleep. His eyes closed.

More snippets. Gravity was back, but he didn't remember it was different. The lights were strong and he heard many voices, all of them blurry, no clear words. Something was pushing and pulling him, but it was okay, since he felt less weight after each push and pull. "Undress him, please." He tried to smile as he heard that, but he didn't feel like he had any control over his facial muscles. The silhouettes of two humans were drawing shadows in the brightness. His eyes hurt, something was forcing the eyelids to stay open for a moment and a piercing light shot into his eyeball. Shortly after it, he felt warmth of another body. It was pulling him. "I'd give much for him commenting this right now," the voice sounded. He still didn't grasp what was happening, but he felt cold air on the skin. "His lower body as well?" - "Yes, undress him completely." If only he knew what was happening. Those voices sounded female, familiar, and they were undressing him! But everything was so damn blurry and faded, it was frustrating. "That's really something you don't see all day..." - "I wish it wouldn't be thematized every single time the captain is here." - "Sorry, Doctor." The warm feeling was gone again. He was aware of him laying on something that wasn't too comfortable. Doctor? Was he in med-bay? There was no success in trying to connect any of those thoughts.

There was a sting. Something pierced through his skin. He still felt horrible. Drowsy, blind, his head was aching and his stomach pulsating as if he was about to throw up any moment. He tried to move his head to the side, as the light was hurting his eyes. Yet he had no control over it. "Both of you need to stay in here for a while." - "How long?" - "You, probably two hours. He however an entire day. I'll keep you and your vitals screened. You'll also need to undress yourself for the decontamination." There was an audible sigh. "Do you think he'll be fine?" - "Sadly, yes. The EVA suit protected him well, so the damage the radiation dealt is only temporary. He'll annoy you again, soon." Sadly? Annoy? He heard that. "I'm alright with that." - "Try to get as much sleep as possible. I can give you something for that, if you want." - "I'm okay, really. Thank you, Doctor."

It felt like he only closed his eyes for a second, but everything was different. Blue. His vision was less blurry. It still was hard to get any idea of his surroundings. Blue lights. Everywhere. Oh no. Decon, he thought. "Apahanta, please turn audio and video surveilance of this room off." That was Sherry's voice. Was it? The lights were intense and hurting. At least he didn't feel all that horrible anymore. The headaches were still there, as was the stomach ache. But he felt like he could move his neck again. He closed his eyes again, the lights were just hurting. A short moment later, he felt warmth on his lips. Hair was tickling his facial skin and a hand was cupping his cheek. He wanted to open his eyes, but it didn't work. Consciousness was lost again...

Confused, Ezrael opened his eyes again. Still everything blue. He was slightly sweaty. Rubbing his eyes, as they itched slightly, he felt he had control over his body again. Almost not headaches, his belly was fine. The inconvenience was still rather strong. He had no idea on what happened. Why was he in the decontamination? His muscles felt sore and weak, but he managed to sit up. He lay on a mat in the middle of the room. Everything was illuminated in blue by the decon radiation. There was nothing else than the few pieces of furniture here, not even any clothing. He was alone in here. "Doctor Carr? Can you hear me?"

A brief moment later, the radio played her voice. "I can hear you, Captain. How do you feel?"

Massaging the bridge of his nose, with eyes closed, he replied. "Okay-ish, I guess. My head hurts. What happened?" he asked her, trying hard to recap the events of the past.

"You were being a stubborn idiot again, Captain."

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[Sombs]

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November 26th, 824 - Omicron Kappa

Still being bound to the decontamination chamber, Ezrael lay on the mat and looked at the ceiling. It was sort of hot in there, and the air didn't smell like anything but hot air. He lost track of how long he was in there by now, and no matter where he looked, there was blue light. It was irritating his eyes. Even with closed eyelids, it hurt, because he knew the light was still there. Unnerving. Annoyed, he stood up, slowly as he felt weak. To his right were multiple benches, all of them empty and uninviting. To his right some closed cabinets, which would dispense stuff if he requested it. He looked down at himself, shaking his lower body out of boredom, just to see the trajectory work down there. He couldn't even work out in here because he had no underwear to keep his bodyparts in place. Incredibly annoying when jumping.

Time just didn't want to pass. Walking around in the decontamination chamber, in circles. Sometimes faster, sometimes relaxed. Crunshes, push-ups, squats. After a while, he fell back onto the mat, breathing audibly while sweating. That must have killed time! It didn't, though. "God, this is boring." The muscles still felt sore, and to a certain degree, he was afraid of suffering from the restless legs syndrome, but it was just a general muscle restlessness caused by the the pharmaceuticals against the radiation sickness. For hours he tried to sleep and every now and then managed to get some rest. It was very early in the morning now. Ezrael lay on the mat, letting his fingers slide over his facial skin, feeling tiny hairs piercing through his skin. He hated beards. Only losers had beards. It was one of the things he always told his students on Curacao. Losers have beards.

At some point, he noticed there was a rod over the locked door. It looked pretty stable, but he had no idea why it was there. It was horizontally connected to the wall over the quarantine locks. He stood up, staring at it. Then he moved towards it. Then he reached out for it, grabbing it. He pulled himself up once. Then again. Ten pull-ups. Twenty. Twentyone. Twentytwo. Twentythree. The door opened as he did twentyfour. Sherry blinked confused, being greeted by Ezrael's dangling manhood. Ending the twentyfourth pull-up, he let go of the bar, glaring at the Commander. Her eyes were focused on his as she extended her arms, offering him a folded Apahanta suit. She wasn't saying anything for the moment. He could hear an audible gulp. Then she cleared her throat. "Doctor Carr said you're good to go. You'll still need to recover, but you don't need to stay in the decon any longer."

"Good." He took the suit out of her hands. "News?"

Keeping her head stiff and her eyes fixated at his countenance, she continued in her typical neutral tone. "Livadia's repair ships are sealing the hull breaches on the Titanic. We've placed filters to restore the atmosphere and radiation levels on the ship. Will take time. Right now, we can only explore it in EVA suits. Doctor Carr forbids you to do that, so I'll take a few people of the crew and do it." She blinked unually often.

"Anything else?" He smirked at her.

Instantly: "No."

"Good. Then maybe you want to turn around and pretend you never saw me naked, as usual." His smirk turned into a grin, yet she already turned away. "I'll make sure the recordings of me saying this won't be seen by anyone."

"Thanks."

Hours later, the bridge main screen showed the interior of the Titanic. Things were way clearer to see now, without Omicron Chi's nebula inside of the ship. Energy generators of the Apahanta were providing the carrier with enough energy to have the equipment work. Lights, filters, tools used by the Kishiro Service Robots to repair the ship. Leaning onto a railing at the bridge, Ezrael stood there and watched everything on the main screen. Only a few other people were around, most bridge consoles were occupied by other robots. The camera showed the same view Sherry had on the Titanic. This time it was her in the EVA suit, again. "You know you have all the time in the world to do this. No need to be there for longer than an hour."

"It's way less dangerous here now, I can do this." Her breath was audible, yet it sounded heavier than it actually was. She was right, radiation levels were acceptable, now that they weren't in Chi anymore. The EVA suit was protection enough. It just was heavy. "The sooner we can enable life-support again, the sooner we can explore this ship more. I don't know what you think, Captain, but I want to know how the Titanic ended up in Chi."

He hummed in agreement. "Alright then. Keep me informed, I'll get something to eat and then take a nap. Don't do weird stuff over there."

"I know my limits, Captain." As Ezrael heard that, he just had to smirk, then grin. It made him shake his head, as he felt there was a certain depth in what she just said. Maybe it was her intention, maybe it wasn't. Nodding at his third-in-command at the sensor console, he left the bridge.

Another hour passed and Ezrael lay on his bed in his room, on the blanket. There was an open audio channel to the Titanic, so he was able to listen to Sherry. Her breathing and the actions she did. One of the holographic windows at the wall next to his bed was showing her live feed, but he didn't feel like watching her typing on PDAs and consoles while checking all of the stuff in the engine room for possible damages. At this point however, the sound of ventilation was audible. "Life support is online now. The ship is pumping air through the ventilation. The KSRs are busy with the radiation clean-up. Technically I could advance now into the inner parts of the ship. The automated shut-down should be revoked as soon as the ship is hospitable again."

"No. Take a break and return to the Apahanta. I won't let you have all the fun on your own," Ezrael sounded with a grin, standing up from the bed to take a look at the screen.

"Denied, Captain. If I come back now, you or Doctor Carr will just force me to stay in the decon for hours again. I want to reach the bridge before that and access the data core. The black box will tell us about everything that happened." The camera showed her moving away from a console and re-equipping herself with an energy rifle. She made her way out of the engine room, heading through a corridor.

Advancing through the ship in a rather slow pace, based on her being careful and the EVA suit itself being heavy, she entered a bigger room which was barely illuminated. "Seems like some maintenance area. This part seems undamaged, just a few things floating around in zero gravity."

"That means a lot of stuff will break the moment you activate the artificial gravity. I guess that should be done last, anything on that ship could be valuable in some way." Moving over to one of the many metal crates in his room on the Apahanta, he kneeled down to open one, fetching a bottle of carbonized water. As he stood up again, his eyes widened at a horrible sight.

"Oh no," Sherry sounded as a rotten, bloated, frozen corpse entered her sight. It was floating, parts of it all over the place. It was not inviting to look at. "Captain, I think I found one of the crew members." She made a few steps closer it, keeping a steady hand at her rifle.

"I can't even tell whether that was a man or a woman. Looks like the body was both affected by atmospheric decompression, judging by how bloated it is, as well as the Omicron Chi alien organisms and the radiation. Like bathing in gaseous acid. Do you think you can continue?" Ezrael asked her, frowning at the sight of the deformed body. It was nightmare fuel. One reason why he didn't want Sherry to go there without him. "It is likely there are more of those bodies all over the ship."

"I was with the Core longer than you, Captain. I had to stomach much stuff like this in similar conditions," she reminded him and moved ahead. She would lie if she said she wasn't affected by this, but she was the Commander. Time for crying about the less inviting realities of space and death was definitely not now but anywhen else. "I think this way leads to the bridge."

"What makes you think so?" he asked and then saw it himself.

"That sign literally says it," she gave him back. The light of the rifle was pointing at a sign with said inscription and an arrow leading in the direction, a blue line at the wall was leading through another corridor.

---

[Sombs]

---

November 26th, 824 - Omicron Kappa

A door opened and revealed the sight of the Titanic's bridge. An unusual way of construction, but the Bustard-class Carrier was an unusual ship as well. Like before, Sherry spotted quite a bunch of dead bodies here. All horrible to look at, none of them looking remotely human. The only indication was the shape. Looking around carefully, as if there was anything that could survive in this hell of radiation and alien organisms, Sherry moved forward, taking a look at the bridge consoles. With the reinitializing of the ship's systems done from the engine room, they were glowing now, supported with energy. "I'll try to access the ship's primary systems and the database now." A task more easy than expected, but Sherry didn't mind it. The consoles weren't locked, there was no lock-down protocol intitiated when the crew died. Moving her fingers in the zero gravity environment and in the EVA suit was a bit difficult but manageable.

"Unlock all systems and transfer the database to a PDA. Then come over, do not stay there longer than necessary,
alright?" Ezrael sounded via radio, still watching her every move.

"My nose itching slightly and I'd prefer to scratch it sooner than later, Captain," she returned with somewhat of a smirk - since nobody was able to see it right now. Kneeling down in her EVA suit, she tried to open the canopy of the console to access its innards. It was difficult. Zero gravity, EVA suit, the disgusting feeling of decomposing meat floating around in the area and the fact the environment was slightly rusty and gooey thanks to the biological remains and the radiation that were all over the place. A forceful punch against the canopy helped with the removal of it, and Sherry was able to connect her PDA with the console, using a cable. It took minutes, and in the meantime she walked around and stopped by at other consoles, but in the end, she got what she wanted: the database. Or, at least, the latest bits. "That's it. I'll return to the ship now."

"Good job, Commander. I guess there is enough stuff to do for you in the decon," he said to remind her of the very next hours of her would be in the blue light of the decontamination chamber. She didn't comment on that but typed into the PDA. It would remain here and send a constant stream of information to the Apahanta while allowing her to access the ship's bridge systems remotely. With this set up, she made her way back to the breaching pod, and to the Apahanta.

---

Titanic Data Storage Integrity is at 80%. S-A: show latest mission data Accessing Blackbox Reading data Filtering data for latest mission data [November 05th, 824] - Ship reactivated after repairs, Poole system, coordinates -47000, -1000, -25000 (approximately) - All systems online - Coordinates set for 6E00307C-E3D5C293-60731D26-8F7AABF3-5C089DF4-8339C774-34354377 - Jump Drive charging - Jump Drive active - Jump successful - Waypoint set: B7 - Charging Cruise Engines - Transaction with Ũ̴̥˞ñ̰˞ˡ̙̪̊̈k̽̃̽̈˞̴̰̼̠̠n̩̠̯̈̊˞ˡ˞̴˞ɔ˞̴ɯ̻̪̘̈˞n̪̊ - Payment sent to Ũ̴̥˞ñ̰˞ˡ̙̪̊̈k̽̃̽̈˞̴̰̼̠̠n̩̠̯̈̊˞ˡ˞̴˞ɔ˞̴ɯ̻̪̘̈˞n̪̊: 25.000.000 Credits - Receiving cargo --- 2 FAT GIRL-class planetary mining mech suits --- 300 barrels of Plutonium --- 20 nuclear devices --- 10 DR1LL MK1 ore drills --- mobile refinery module --- 300 containers of Neodymium --- Talisman (LF) - Waypoint set: C7 - Charging Cruise Engines - Entering Jump Hole - Entering ˡ˞̃ɲ̈˞̴œ̯̤˞ɽ̙̪̊˞̴ð̴ḍ̻̻ⁿ̟̠̽˞̴ʁ˞ʲ̊̊̊̊ˡ˞̴α̴̺̺̺̺̪̘̪̺̺̺˞ʉ˞̴ʷ̃ɒ̤̈̊˞̴̰̃ɮ˞̴k̽̃̽e̊̈ - Waypoint set: B34 - Charging Cruise Engines - Leaving ˡ˞̃ɲ̈˞̴œ̯̤˞ɽ̙̪̊˞̴ð̴ḍ̻̻ⁿ̟̠̽˞̴ʁ˞ʲ̊̊̊̊ˡ˞̴α̴̺̺̺̺̪̘̪̺̺̺˞ʉ˞̴ʷ̃ɒ̤̈̊˞̴̰̃ɮ˞̴k̽̃̽e̊̈ - Entering Jump Hole - Entering ɰɚɪ̈ʄśkʊɠɚɮɸɛɬð - Sending mooring request: ʜɛi̠̠̺ʂ˞̴ë̘̝̻̯̽ɳ̻̙̈˞β̽̊̽̈e̺̹̟̟̊̈̊˞̴ʀ̴̃˞ˡʛ R̴̻̞̝̝̝̙̜̩̤̰̼̈̽̃̽̃̃̽̃˞ɚ̴˞̺̈ʃ̙̹̬ë̙̃̊ɒ̃̊̊̃̃̈̈̊̊̊r̊̊̊̈̊˞ⁿ̺̙̘̬̬̻ɕ̩̩̰̰̽̽̃h̪̹̹̥̥̥̥̥̥̹̜̟̽̈̊ ʄt̪̪̺̺̩̠̠̩a̩̜̻̽ð̙̈̽ɨö̈ɲ - Mooring with: ʜɛi̠̠̺ʂ˞̴ë̘̝̻̯̽ɳ̻̙̈˞β̽̊̽̈e̺̹̟̟̊̈̊˞̴ʀ̴̃˞ˡʛ R̴̻̞̝̝̝̙̜̩̤̰̼̈̽̃̽̃̃̽̃˞ɚ̴˞̺̈ʃ̙̹̬ë̙̃̊ɒ̃̊̊̃̃̈̈̊̊̊r̊̊̊̈̊˞ⁿ̺̙̘̬̬̻ɕ̩̩̰̰̽̽̃h̪̹̹̥̥̥̥̥̥̹̜̟̽̈̊ ʄt̪̪̺̺̩̠̠̩a̩̜̻̽ð̙̈̽ɨö̈ɲ - Receiving cargo --- 550 Jump Drive Batteries - Unmooring - Waypoint set: EF9 - Charging Cruise Engines - Coordinates set for 59013A4E-748DB8AF-44C9DAF6-9B6A9B73-E679847E-6B04CE61-34641B69 - Jump Drive charging - Jump Drive active - Jump successful - Waypoint set: B7 - Charging Cruise Engines - Entering ç̪ɦαɔ̺̺̠ ˞̴F̺̊ɪ̈̽e̠̠̠̠̠̠̠̠̠̠̺ɭ̴̃̽˞ð - Sending mooring request: Tɧɚ ̴Mɪdˡ˞̴ɳiγɥðˠ̽̃ Rʊ̠̬̞ɳɲ̤ɘ̈̊ʁ - Mooring with: Tɧɚ ̴Mɪdˡ˞̴ɳiγɥðˠ̽̃ Rʊ̠̬̞ɳɲ̤ɘ̈̊ʁ - Removing cargo --- 1 FAT GIRL-class planetary mining mech suit --- 300 barrels of Plutonium --- 20 nuclear devices --- 5 DR1LL MK1 ore drills --- mobile refinery module --- 300 containers of Neodymium - Receiving cargo --- 550 Jump Drive Batteries --- 1.024 Teraquads of data --- 6 NEMP warheads --- 3 NEMP launchers --- 500 Artifacts - Unmooring - Waypoint set: B7 - Charging Cruise Engines - Leaving ç̪ɦαɔ̺̺̠ ˞̴F̺̊ɪ̈̽e̠̠̠̠̠̠̠̠̠̠̺ɭ̴̃̽˞ð - Coordinates set for D4012401-71̬1̺̺̪3̻̩̯̙̬̊̊̈̽˞C̴˞ˤ̙̬̜̠̺̻̩̻̈̽̃̊7̴̻̺̙̞̪̝̥̜̙̟̯̼̺̞̊̊̈̽̃̃̃̽̈̽̊̽̊̽̚̚˞ˡ˞̴̰̼̽̚̚F̘ʰ˞̴ˡ̻̬̜̞̩̰̚E̪̙̞̹̬̬̊̈̽-̽A̯̪̞̝̹̜̪̙̽̈̊˞̴4˞̴̰̃̽̃4̠̪̙̞̽̊ⁿ˞̴̽ʘ̼̰̯̠̟̹̥̞69F3-1744̚˞̴9̴̪̙4A̺̩̚3̚˞-Fɕ̪̜̠̈̃˞̴βACC7F-1625C̻̊C̽6α-34385770 - Jump Drive charging - Jump Drive active - Jump successful - Waypoint set: B1 - Charging Cruise Engines - Entering To˞̽̃ɹfɐ̴ɚɳ A̴ʃteʁ˞˞̴œɨɖ F˞ɨɜɮ̚d - Entering ʊ˞ɫ̺s̺ˡ̺˞̴θ̺ɚr ɶ̽ɮ˞̴œ̊˞̴ʉð - Sending mooring request: Tɧɚ ̴Mɪdˡ˞̴ɳiγɥðˠ̽̃ Rʊ̠̬̞ɳɲ̤ɘ̈̊ʁ - Mooring with: Tɧɚ ̴Mɪdˡ˞̴ɳiγɥðˠ̽̃ Rʊ̠̬̞ɳɲ̤ɘ̈̊ʁ - Removing cargo --- 512 Teraquads of data --- 2 NEMP warheads --- 1 NEMP launcher --- 500 Artifacts --- 4 S.U.P.E.R.S.O.N.I.C. Codename Guns --- 50 tanks of Oxygen --- 50 tanks of Water --- 100 Synth Paste rations --- 200 tanks of Deuterium [RED ALERT] - Interrupting cargo removal process - Force-shutting cargo bay doors - Unmooring [INCOMMING TORPEDO] - Diverting power from life support to defensive systems [INCOMMING TORPEDO] [INCOMMING TORPEDO] [INCOMMING TORPEDO] - Jump Drive charging [INCOMMING TORPEDO] [INCOMMING TORPEDO] [INCOMMING TORPEDO] [INCOMMING TORPEDO] [INCOMMING TORPEDO] [INCOMMING TORPEDO] [INCOMMING TORPEDO] [INCOMMING TORPEDO] [INCOMMING TORPEDO] [INCOMMING TORPEDO] [INCOMMING TORPEDO] [INCOMMING TORPEDO] [INCOMMING TORPEDO] - Jump Drive active - Jump successful [WARNING! MINES DETECTED!] [HULL BREACH: DECK 1] [HULL BREACH: DECK 2] [HULL BREACH: DECK 3] [HULL BREACH: DECK 8] [HULL BREACH: DECK 9] [HULL INTEGRITY 75%] [LIFE-SUPPORT: OFFLINE] [ENGINES: OFFLINE] [SENSORS: OFFLINE] [LIFE POD LAUNCHED: 5] [LIFE POD LAUNCHED: 6] [LIFE POD LAUNCHED: 1] [LIFE POD LAUNCHED: 2] [LIFE POD LAUNCHED: 3] [LIFE POD LAUNCHED: 4] [LIFE POD LAUNCHED: 7] [LIFE POD LAUNCHED: 8] [LIFE POD LAUNCHED: 9] [LIFE POD LAUNCHED: 11] [LIFE POD LAUNCHED: 10] [LIFE POD LAUNCHED: 12] [CRITICAL TECHN- Unable to restore data. End of Blackbox recording. S-A: show cargo roster Accessing cargo roster Reading data Hangar Bay: --- Talisman (LF) Cargo Bay 1: --- 24 containers of Neodymium --- 13 containers of Plutonium --- 5 containers of Lead --- 4 containers of Aluminum --- 4 containers of Gold --- 25 tanks of Water --- 23 tanks of Oxygen --- 39 crates of Synth Paste rations --- 27 crates of Common Goods --- 4 containers of Toxic Waste material --- 5 DR1LL MK1 ore drills Cargo Bay 2: --- 1 container of Magnets Cargo Bay 3: --- 62 tanks of Deuterium --- 8 tanks of H-Fuel --- 45 units of Jump Drive Batteries --- 226 Shield Batteries --- mobile science module --- mobile refinery module --- mobile industrial 3D printer module --- mobile drilling module --- mobile salvaging module --- 4 NEMP warheads --- 2 NEMP launchers --- 1 container of Natrium Chloride --- 62 containers of Common Goods --- 1 box of self-sealing stem bolt S-A: show crew roster Accessing crew roster Reading data Candace Maldonado, Captain Wendy Schultz, Conn Mario Moss, Conn Luis Cohen, Weapons Roland Baldwin, Shield Distribution Elisa White, Armory Agnes James, Security Ann Patrick, Security Amanda Joseph, Security Dan Gutierrez, Consultant Hugh Mason, Consultant Jeremy Castro, Damage Control Tasha Poole, Damage Control Paulette Vargas, Damage Control Leeroy Jenkins, Diagnostics Kate Dawson, Diagnostics Loretta Bryant, Fabrication Gretchen Patton, Maintenance Forrest Harrison, Maintenance Nick Armstrong, Maintenance Thomas Mccormick, Systems Antoinette Bridges, Systems Lynda Hunter, Technician Elsie Soto, Technician Jackie Castillo, Technician Samantha Moran, Power Core Larry Bell, Flight Deck Irving Poole, Hazard Systems Deborah Hammond, Hazard Systems Spencer Harrington, Quartermaster Dan Spencer, Sensors Mary Lopez, Sensors Donald Payne, Salvaging Candice Rodriquez, Salvaging Eva Caldwell, Salvaging Jennie Rose, Salvaging Darnell Hart, Cargo Lola Johnson, Cargo Stewart Lynch, Cargo Irvin Butler, Astrometrics Frances Estrada, Biologist Sophie Gray, Botanist Cecelia Bradley, Development Lab Rochelle Fleming, Development Lab Devin Summers, Geologist Vernon Hernandez, Geologist Joseph Thornton, Geologist Opal Gregory, Gravimetrics Jesus Myers, Research Lab Sidney Baldwin, Jump Drive Marlene Montgomery, Jump Drive Lucas Snyder, Biochemist Tyrone Douglas, Counselor Marty Garza, Counselor Latoya Figueroa, Counselor Sidney Wallace, Doctor Alison Holloway, Doctor Brenda Taylor, Medic Randolph Bates, Medic Dominick Weber, Medic Hector Burgess, Medic Lester Warren, Advisor Michael Büchel, Bartender Sherman Gardner, Chef Josia van Loon, Entertainer Jody Wade, Miner Catherine Rice, Miner Kelvin Fuller, Miner Bradford Gray, Miner Angelo Hart, Broker Monique Lyons, Broker Alberta Curry, Nurse Amber Roberts, Nurse Derek Poole, Child Amy Poole, Child Michele Baldwin, Child

Sitting on one of the sterile, warm benches in the decontamination chamber, Sherry put the PDA aside for a moment. Each of those entries was much to process. It was easy to read, apart from the corrupted data, but the implications were worrisome. There was much more to check, especially the ship's internal database, but it looked already pretty promising. "Apahanta, I need a comm channel with the Captain. Please open one." A little moment later, with a beep, the Apahanta did as she asked. "Captain, did you check the Titanic's cargo?"

"Yeah. NEMP warheads. We have NEMP weapons now, Sherry."

---

[Sombs]

---

November 26th, 824 - Omicron Kappa

Hours have passed since Sherry returned from the Titanic. She kept herself busy in the decontamination chamber, reading through the logs and the database of the Titanic. So much data to process. Time passed by rather quickly in the otherwise incredibly boring decontamination chamber. She continued her work in her own room. One revelation after another. It was incredibly interesting to her. Heavy-hearted she decided to take a break. She already had taken a shower in the decontamination chamber, yet she felt sweaty from the time after it, in the rather warm climate in there. Another shower, blow-drying. Stepping out of the bathroom, she looked at the bottle of red wine at her nightstand and the two glasses. Ezrael left the stuff there when they left. For a while, she played with the thought of just taking a sip. That would have been rude, though. Sighing, she moved to the cabinet and retrieved a new Apahanta suit.

A few minutes later, Sherry entered Ezrael's room. It was dark in here, only illuminated by the holographic windows displaying multiple 3D objects and text lines. The entire wall was filled with various pictures. Ezrael sat on an iron chair on the opposite side of the room, cross-legged with a PDA in his lap while looking at the 3D models. Hearing the distinct sound of two glasses chinking slightly, as Sherry brought the wine and the glasses with her, he faced her with a smirk. "I forgot about that."

"That's why I'm here," she said quietly and moved closer to him. She never liked the way he kept his room very spartanically equipped. It had no charme. She knew he lived differently on the Hoffnungsschimmer, his old Corvo, and that he has a nice bungalow on Curacao with his girlfriend Maren, but she never understood why he refused to make it more lively in his room on his battleship. After all he was the person who managed to get an apple tree for the hydroponics. Another thing that made the Apahanta unique, it was probably Sirius' only warship that had an apple tree. "What are those?" she asked him as she approached the table to place the wine and the glasses there. "Turrets?"

"Monsters," he replied, looking with a satisfied smile at her. "I was browsing the Titanic's database and found those babies. I think I slowly begin to understand what the Titanic was doing." Standing up and shaking his legs for a moment as they felt rather numb from sitting cross-legged, he moved over to Sherry. "Mind if we move over to your room for the wine? It has more charme."

"I was about to suggest that, yes," she gave him back with a smirk on her lips, a rare sight. Taking the glasses and the wine bottle once more, she turned around to lead him over. After all it was literally the room on the opposite side of the corridor. "And what did you find out?"

"Professional smugglers," he said quietly as they left his room, heading to the door infront of them. "And arms dealers, also professional. From what I've found out, the Titanic was part of a network, and the ship itself was based in Poole. I want to take the Apahanta there and find out whether I am right."

They entered Sherry's room and the doors shut behind them. She walked over to her nightstand and placed the glasses there, while Ezrael made it comfortable himself in her armchair, the only place to sit in her room that wasn't the bed. "With what exactly?"

"With everything. to put it short. From what I've seen in the crew log, the Titanic was used as a jump ship to secretly reach placed all over Sirius. There are logs about frequent jumps to Poole and Sigma-15." He watched her opening the wine bottle. She did it in a way that indicated she had some experience with it. "Something went wrong and their base in Poole got attacked by surprise. The Captain ordered the Titanic to jump, and they jumped. Without coordinates. They performed a blind jump into the Omicron Chi system. It was," he began and smiled as she poured wine into the glasses, "Figuratively speaking: Iceberg."

With two well filled glasses of sweet-smelling red wine, she moved towards Ezrael and offered him his glass, which he took with an appreciating nod. "That's what I read in the blackbox logs as well. I've been more busy with the Titanic's jump drive, though. I believe we can unmount it from the Titanic and use it for the Apahanta, if you want."

Looking up to her, he patted his lap with one hand, inviting her to sit on it. It wasn't the first time they did this, and she appreciated it. It was one of the few moments when she allowed physical closeness. Lowering herself onto his lap, she leaned her back against his chest and his empty hand slung around her belly. A move that caused her to slightly blush. "You think it would work?"

"Most likely. The jump drive didn't take any damage from the jump and the Titanic is bigger than the Apahanta. I'll talk to our technicians tomorrow and we'll look what we can do." Leading her hand with the glass to his, she waited for him to chink with her. "Then we can jump all over Sirius, Ezrael."

Chink! They took little sips of the fruity and sweet red wine. It was no surprise to her he was drinking it that often. It was good stuff, expensively imported from Gallia by Orbital Spa and Cruise, the stewards of Curacao. "This makes things much easier for us. All thanks to you finding the Titanic. Any idea what you want to do with your new ship?"

"Ezrael," she said quietly, moving her head to the side to give him a lopsided look. "You found it. It is your ship, and I believe you can use it better than me. I mean, you're the billionaire of us, you could afford maintaining a carrier. I'd probably just sell it," she told him.

"I'd salvage everything we can use and then sell it as well. One capital ship to take care of is enough. So I'd say we ask Livadia to help us unmount the useful stuff like the jump drive, restore the ship to make it look good enough to sell it and then we get rid of it. People probably pay well for a giant multipurpose ship." He smirked at her in a charming way, the hand around her body stroking her side slightly. "Still, without you, I wouldn't have found it. So if there is anything you want, just tell me and I'll get it for you."

Facing the holographic windows again, she took another sip of the wine. The sweet taste was rather intense, other than the alcohol. Taking a deep breath, she shook her head. "I'm fine with how things are. Right now."

---

[Sombs]

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November 27th, 824 - Omicron Kappa

5 am Sirius Standard Time. Sherry opened her eyes, facing the ceiling of her room. A very decent tone of orange shined against it and the walls around her. All simulated by the holographic windows to her side, giving the illusion of her quarters being part of some loft of Manhattan's skyline. But it wasn't. It was part of the Apahanta. Yet, for a few moments, she allowed herself to smile, enjoying the simulated sounds of the street. Hovercars here and there, sounds of people talking in a crowd, honks, snubs in the air. To her left, everything she was missing every now and then was there. After two minutes of just taking it in, she decided to turn to her right, to see Ezrael next to her in the bed. His chest was barely covered by the blanket, and out of curiousity, she lifted it for the moment to see how it looked under the sheets. His lower body was clothed, covered by his Apahanta suit. She needed a moment to try and remember what happened last night. It wasn't like she had headaches or a hangover, after all they only drank wine, not vodka. Remembering some parts again, she sat up, frowning. There was a weird taste on her tongue and she wanted to get rid of it, so she stood up. Herself still wearing the Apahanta suit she wore last night, she moved towards the bathroom and vanished there for a while.

Sounds of morning routine filled her bathroom minutes later. The toilet flushed, the shower rained cold water down her shivering body until she decided to turn it warm. For a few moments an electric shaver was audible, followed another two minutes of showering sounds. From the ceiling hanging down, three blow-driers took care of her wet coppery hair as she stood infront of the sink, brushing her teeth with more care than usual. She straigthened her hair and added lipstick with a barely visible color. Mostly because of that. 5.41 am Sirius Standard Time. She left the bathroom, looking at the holographic windows again to see the sunrise of Manhattan. Mild smile. Moving over to her cabinet, she retrieved her underwear, a thin slip and a sport bra to keep her B-cups in place. For a moment, after having covered her private parts with the black underwear, she looked at herself in the mirror of the cabinet, then over to the still slumbering Ezrael. A smirk formed on her face. Then she took her Apahanta suit and put it back on, just to move over to Ezrael, putting on a straight and serious face. "We got work to do, Captain."

Once more, the bridge was gifted with the presence of the bridge staff. Sherry sat in the Commander's Seat, still reading data of the Titanic, while Ezrael leant against the railing that dissected the Captain's area from the rest of the bridge, looking at the wine-colored nebula they were trespassing. It was the Poole system, one of the two bretonian systems connected to Omega-49. He had good memories with Poole. A romantic dinner with Maren in the cockpit of the old Montante, the CV-Sternenstunde, facing the brown dwarf and the wine-red nebulae around the system. Very scenic.

"Did you contact Miss Hookier already for the delivery of the materials we need for the new turrets?" Sherry asked him, still looking at her PDA.

"Yes, the very first thing after creating the shopping list. She said she'd do it within a few days," the Captain replied, still looking at the main screen. His eyes had a talent for spotting silhouettes in the distance, so he kept the focus on it. They vaguely knew the coordinates of where the Titanic frequently moved to, but the nebula was rather big and also said to be filled with Mollys. He didn't want to anger them.

"She does much for you," she commented, looking up for the moment. "Why?"

Sighing, he turned towards Sherry for the sake of the conversation, moving towards his seat. "I was her teacher for a few years. Then her mentor, best friend, lover and sponsor. I also bought the ship the is piloting, the Catport." Taking the seat, he made it himself comfortable next to Sherry, looking at the main screen again. "She's part of the family, so to say."

"Lover?" she just asked him in a curious tone.

"You sound surprised, Commander." It made him smirk.

"How many lovers do you have right now?" she asked, frowning slightly at him.

He smirked even more and looked at her for a moment. "Maren and I live in an open relationship, if that is what you wanted to ask. I'm sure she already took advantage of it, so I'll do the same. And there are no regrets about it."

"How many?" she asked again, slightly smiling at him.

Maren, Sombra, herself to an extent, maybe Elena, Paige of Hot Gear, Nancy, Enma, Thallia a year ago, there was quite a number of women he was dating. Looking at the main screen, he stood up as he saw something. "Apahanta, full stop. I think we found it" Ezrael said in a firm tone. There was a big silhouette, a big rock. Gases were leaking from it, it was quite well visible thanks to that. "Move closer to AB-1, there is an uncharted station. That's what we're looking for!"

And there it was, the Vented Smuggling Facility. It was obvious someone attacked it, impacts of torpedos all over the station, holes leaking gases and atmosphere. To Ezrael that would mean he had to use the EVA suit again. At least this time without alien organisms and radiation making things more difficult than necessary. The only problem here was that they didn't know whether the people who were after the Titanic and the Smuggling Facility would come back, and the Mollys.

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[Sombs]

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November 27th, 824 - Poole

The exploration of the station took hours. It was in a pretty bad shape, and it was obvious the damage was so big that a repair was impossible. It was more of a matter of time until the rock would fall apart. Maybe weeks, maybe days. Right now, it was okay. There was quite a lot stuff to find. After installing a mobile generator to provide the systems of the station with energy, Ezrael started to download the station's database while other crew members and a few teams of KSRs explored the station further to find and take anything that looked valuable. Here and there were dead bodies while the escape pods of the station were all missing. The two hangars were empty, parts of the station inaccessible.

Evening. The download was complete, the database deleted. What was stored here, was now in Ezrael's hand. "All done here, Commander. Call all teams back, we're leaving. Those empty stations are creepy as hell," he said via radio, shutting down the main computer of the station.

From the bridge, Sherry was able to see his view. He was moving through illuminated corridors in his EVA suit. The atmosphere around him was not breathable, some areas were even filled with purple nebula. "You heard the Captain. Everyone, return to the ship at once. Take your tools with your, bring the mobile generator back to the Apahanta. I'll inspect the loot later."

Ten minutes later, all lights turned dark. The Vented Smuggling Facility was abandoned once more, and soon it would fall apart. What Ezrael didn't know was that before that would happen, Gallia would stumble across the station. Not expecting this at all, he didn't think about erasing the recordings of the station security cameras would create once the mobile generator was supporting it with energy. So they knew about a guy with long hair in an EVA suit, a few people of his crew, his KSRs and even the Apahanta, a Mako-class warship. Enough to say 'ello.

Just like that, the Apahanta left the purple nebula, heading back to safe waters in the Omega-49 system. There was much to do. The restoration of the Titanic and the Talisman, finding a place to hide the new NEMP weapons, installing the Titanic's jump drive on the Apahanta, selling the Titanic, manufacturing the new turrets whose blueprints have been found on the Titanic, working through teraquads of data and trying to understand what happened in Poole. Who attacked the station? Who was after the Titanic? Who operated those?

And what was Maren doing in all this time?

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