This Way Up.

[Commissar]

A numb nod, her head resting on her chest. Did he know? Did he know what it felt like to live in a sea of uncertainties, caught between the rock of what you knew to be true, and what all other evidence said was real? It would have been easier to just give up. Lose faith in herself and let the tide of lies and claims carry her away, to become just another Mercenary in a sector already overflowing with blood. Another killer, out to earn wages paid for in the lives of whoever failed to keep up with the escalating bids. Some people said that such brutality was the way of things. Kill or be killed. Fight for your beliefs or die for someone else's. People said lots of things.

Finally, someone had said the opposite. The rest of Jeremy's speech rattled past her ears, little more than background noise. She barely blinked when his hand fell on her shoulder. He would help.

With each breath she took, the weight on her mind grew a little lighter. It wasn't completely gone. She knew it wouldn't ever really leave her, as long as she carried any doubt on the K'Hara, it would squat upon her consciousness. But it was lighter now. Bearable. It was something. She unclenched her fists, doing her best to ignore the indentations from her nails. They hadn't been cut in the weeks since she first step aboard Contents May Differ. Tiny crevices etched across her nail's edges, ending in jagged lines. She couldn't remember biting them, but that had been growing usual lately. More and more she found herself forgetting things that didn't relate directly to the Contents or its mission. Her mission. On introspection, it was worrying. Perhaps Jeremy was right.

"Alright." Another distracted half-nod. Surely she could take a few minutes. The exasperation that had colored her voice a few short seconds ago had all but departed, leaving her speech an exhausted drone. They would need somewhere to talk. She forced a fleeting smile. "Lead on, Captain."

She waved vaguely toward's the ship's open central bay, a patch of steel flooring beneath the ship where the first drone had landed. Almost invisible in the Content's shadow, the open cargo bay hovered a few feet above the ground. Ducking under the ship would be a stretch, but Sarah didn't seem unduly concerned.

---

May you live in interesting times.
| Sarah McFarlen | Jane Hartman |