"I'm sorry I made you go through that, for leaving you behind, and... for whatever else I did."
Sounsyy made a small 'hmph'ing noise as Ryanti moved past her and climbed into the darkened cell. Her light shimmered down the abandoned corridor but fell on nothing sinister in the shadows. After another quick pass she climbed into the cell after Ryanti.
Sounsyy found herself in a tiny room with several tables and instruments she did not understand. Shattered glass, test tubes, syringes - or rather what may have at one time been syringes. She moved to one of the tables and tenderly lifted one of the aged instruments between her thumb and forefinger to examine it. After five-and-a-half-thousand years even the gentle pressure disintegrated the artifact into crumbs in her cupped palm.
Sounsyy breathed out a slow, "Shite," as she brushed the dust off her hands. She looked about the room, catching the sight of the window to the outside world shimmering under Ryanti's torchlight. She looked quickly away, fearful to gaze overlong into that abyss.
"Ain't entirely yer fault," she said in answer to his apology at long last. Her eyes were averted and she began visiting each of the tables to see what implements they might have once held. "The circumstances we met under. I ain't the most trustin' person at meh bes-"
TZZZT! PZTT!
Both Sounsyy and Ryanti whipped around to face the crackle of energy snapping through broken powerlines. It was as if this ship was trying to revive itself, but was too weak. Too far gone, though it kept limping on in the attempt after all these years. Ryanti's light fell upon the source, two exposed wires poking out of an air vent whose grate had long since warped.
"I don't like that vent..."
"I'll check it," Sounsyy said emotionless. She shuffled over to the underside of the vent with rifle raised and shone her light upwards. Seeing nothing, she lowered her rifle and slung it over her back. She selected the nearest table and began dragging it so that it sat directly beneath the air vent. It made a screeching noise as it slid by its hind legs that seemed unbearably loud within the small room.
She placed a hesitant heel upon one corner of the table, testing its sturdiness before climbing on top of it completely. The table wobbled some, but held despite its protesting creeks and groans. The captain gave a quick sigh of relief before erecting slowly from her knees to a standing position. On top of the table she could just reach the bottom of the grate. Her nine fingers eased carefully in between the empty spaces, careful not to touch the wires. With a few sharp tugs downwards, the grate broke free, sending fragments of broken screws skittering and tinkering across the room. Sounsyy knelt down and gently set the grate to one side of her table, picking up her rifle and shining the light up into the air duct. All that moved in the light was the shimmering of dust that had been unsettled.
"Looks like enough space to crawl up into," she reported, almost to herself more so than Ryanti. She looked blankly at Ryanti, unsure if the fear bubbling beneath the surface of her expression was visible. "I'll let an ankle dangle."
She slipped her rifle's strap off of her shoulders and laid the weapon on top of the table next to the grate. She didn't want to risk it getting caught or lodged in the narrow passageway if she needed to make a hasty retreat.
With a delicate sweep of her hand Sounsyy brushed away the once-live wires to one corner of the vent. With a path cleared, she reached her arms up over her head and took hold of one side of the opening and pulled herself up and into the vent with some effort, her legs kicking out a little after she was halfway up into the vent to give her momentum to get her knee up over the side.
She knelt inside the air duct on one foot, her right leg dangling down into the cell below from about the knee down. The thin metal groaned under her weight as she shifted a bit to keep her balance on one leg. In front of her lay an empty stretch of ducting, coated with dust, with little rivulets of disturbance over the years leaving variations in the thickness of the dusty coat. She tried not to cough and buried her mouth and nose into the inside of her elbow. A musty stench emanated from somewhere in the airway as if something had lived in it and died in it. She gave a soft cough of disgust into her arm and turned away from the smell to the other side of the shaft.
This side was coated much the same as the first, but the torchlight flashed against several white striations that were not present on the other side. She withdrew her arm from her face and reached out to wipe away the dust. In the metal were long, white scratch marks that disappeared down the long shaft. The cleaned area beneath Sounsyy's outstretched hand sported five semi-parallel marks running side by side into the darkness. Sounsyy splayed her fingers apart to find that the claw marks were similar distance apart. Someone had been dragged through this vent...
Sounsyy lifted her torchlight so that its light shimmered further down the hallway. She found more furious scratches several fulms down the tube, as if something had thrashed wildly against its course. There was a narrow, dark streak in the midst of the scratching. Black and stained into the metal. Was that blood or... rust?
"Seventy-seven...?" Sounsyy whispered nervously, unsure of what to make of the stain. Below her she heard the sound of her partner carefully mounting the tabletop. Her eyes were fixed ahead of her, scanning the far end of the shaft for signs of movement.
"Here, trade places with meh, there's somethin' at the end of tha-"
But then another loud clamor deep within the ship that echoed down the air vent, reverberating within Sounsyy's eardrums. She shut her eyes as if it would dull out the volume but she missed the subtle hiss of the wires coming to life or the flickering of lightning aspect leaping across the wires.
Sounsyy felt a pair of strong hands grab her by her ankle and calf and yank her out of the vent. She screamed and toppled off balance and crashed into Ryanti below. The ancient table gave way under their weight and the pair crashed into the ground, splaying across the dust and cloudy glass. Sounsyy had tried to curl into a ball, but the jarring force of the fall flailed her outwards as she rolled out of Ryanti's embrace. She had landed atop the Miqo'te and crushed the wind out of him when they crumpled to the floor.
When Sounsyy had pushed the wires to one side before her climb, their frayed ends had come close enough to connect and in a brilliant surge of ultraviolet light, the cell was lit before flickering. The hot wires sparked and sizzled angrily from sudden use, burning off all of the dust that had collected upon them over the centuries.
In the brief flashes of light, Ryanti found himself laying amidst a cell full of ancient Allagan writing and archaic formulaes. They coated the walls of the lab, angry scribbling of bygone equations that did or did not work to improve human life. The symbols burning and sizzling for Ryanti to remember what had been forgotten. But when darkness fell upon the room, the symbols were too pale and aged to be seen beneath the dust and shroud of darkness. Only in the pale blue light of the Allagans did the writing shine true.
Sounsyy, who had pulled herself away from Ryanti, did not see the symbols for her eyes were fixed upon the ruined remains of that table and that open segment of air duct. A soft river of dust floated lazily out of the vent upon the remains. When the lights flickered on, she witnessed another dark stain upon the floor beneath that vent that they had failed to notice upon entering. They had been too busy shining their lights upon the tables or at the walls to notice the stain that had collected in the very corner of the flooring. Something unmistakable as blood.
With a start Sounsyy bolted upright onto her hands and knees. Something had been in that vent! Something had pulled some hapless victim up from the ground and dragged him down that vent to his death - or so the wild ravings playing inside the captain's mind thought. Sounsyy was hissing with increasing conviction, "Get out, get out, get out, get out," as she tripped over her own feet as she moved towards her rifle.
"Come on!" She pleaded as she pulled at Ryanti's suit, but kept moving towards the doorway. She toppled out of it and into the hallway. The lights flickered once more, blinding her some as the hallway shimmered to life, and then the power gave out completely, sending everything back into complete blackness. Sounsyy had pushed her back tightly against the wall just to the left of the opening, panting heavily in the darkness. She no longer felt entirely alone. The very darkness seemed to seep into her suit.
"A-are you okay?!" she called out fearfully into the dark.
Sounsyy made a small 'hmph'ing noise as Ryanti moved past her and climbed into the darkened cell. Her light shimmered down the abandoned corridor but fell on nothing sinister in the shadows. After another quick pass she climbed into the cell after Ryanti.
Sounsyy found herself in a tiny room with several tables and instruments she did not understand. Shattered glass, test tubes, syringes - or rather what may have at one time been syringes. She moved to one of the tables and tenderly lifted one of the aged instruments between her thumb and forefinger to examine it. After five-and-a-half-thousand years even the gentle pressure disintegrated the artifact into crumbs in her cupped palm.
Sounsyy breathed out a slow, "Shite," as she brushed the dust off her hands. She looked about the room, catching the sight of the window to the outside world shimmering under Ryanti's torchlight. She looked quickly away, fearful to gaze overlong into that abyss.
"Ain't entirely yer fault," she said in answer to his apology at long last. Her eyes were averted and she began visiting each of the tables to see what implements they might have once held. "The circumstances we met under. I ain't the most trustin' person at meh bes-"
TZZZT! PZTT!
Both Sounsyy and Ryanti whipped around to face the crackle of energy snapping through broken powerlines. It was as if this ship was trying to revive itself, but was too weak. Too far gone, though it kept limping on in the attempt after all these years. Ryanti's light fell upon the source, two exposed wires poking out of an air vent whose grate had long since warped.
"I don't like that vent..."
"I'll check it," Sounsyy said emotionless. She shuffled over to the underside of the vent with rifle raised and shone her light upwards. Seeing nothing, she lowered her rifle and slung it over her back. She selected the nearest table and began dragging it so that it sat directly beneath the air vent. It made a screeching noise as it slid by its hind legs that seemed unbearably loud within the small room.
She placed a hesitant heel upon one corner of the table, testing its sturdiness before climbing on top of it completely. The table wobbled some, but held despite its protesting creeks and groans. The captain gave a quick sigh of relief before erecting slowly from her knees to a standing position. On top of the table she could just reach the bottom of the grate. Her nine fingers eased carefully in between the empty spaces, careful not to touch the wires. With a few sharp tugs downwards, the grate broke free, sending fragments of broken screws skittering and tinkering across the room. Sounsyy knelt down and gently set the grate to one side of her table, picking up her rifle and shining the light up into the air duct. All that moved in the light was the shimmering of dust that had been unsettled.
"Looks like enough space to crawl up into," she reported, almost to herself more so than Ryanti. She looked blankly at Ryanti, unsure if the fear bubbling beneath the surface of her expression was visible. "I'll let an ankle dangle."
She slipped her rifle's strap off of her shoulders and laid the weapon on top of the table next to the grate. She didn't want to risk it getting caught or lodged in the narrow passageway if she needed to make a hasty retreat.
With a delicate sweep of her hand Sounsyy brushed away the once-live wires to one corner of the vent. With a path cleared, she reached her arms up over her head and took hold of one side of the opening and pulled herself up and into the vent with some effort, her legs kicking out a little after she was halfway up into the vent to give her momentum to get her knee up over the side.
She knelt inside the air duct on one foot, her right leg dangling down into the cell below from about the knee down. The thin metal groaned under her weight as she shifted a bit to keep her balance on one leg. In front of her lay an empty stretch of ducting, coated with dust, with little rivulets of disturbance over the years leaving variations in the thickness of the dusty coat. She tried not to cough and buried her mouth and nose into the inside of her elbow. A musty stench emanated from somewhere in the airway as if something had lived in it and died in it. She gave a soft cough of disgust into her arm and turned away from the smell to the other side of the shaft.
This side was coated much the same as the first, but the torchlight flashed against several white striations that were not present on the other side. She withdrew her arm from her face and reached out to wipe away the dust. In the metal were long, white scratch marks that disappeared down the long shaft. The cleaned area beneath Sounsyy's outstretched hand sported five semi-parallel marks running side by side into the darkness. Sounsyy splayed her fingers apart to find that the claw marks were similar distance apart. Someone had been dragged through this vent...
Sounsyy lifted her torchlight so that its light shimmered further down the hallway. She found more furious scratches several fulms down the tube, as if something had thrashed wildly against its course. There was a narrow, dark streak in the midst of the scratching. Black and stained into the metal. Was that blood or... rust?
"Seventy-seven...?" Sounsyy whispered nervously, unsure of what to make of the stain. Below her she heard the sound of her partner carefully mounting the tabletop. Her eyes were fixed ahead of her, scanning the far end of the shaft for signs of movement.
"Here, trade places with meh, there's somethin' at the end of tha-"
But then another loud clamor deep within the ship that echoed down the air vent, reverberating within Sounsyy's eardrums. She shut her eyes as if it would dull out the volume but she missed the subtle hiss of the wires coming to life or the flickering of lightning aspect leaping across the wires.
Sounsyy felt a pair of strong hands grab her by her ankle and calf and yank her out of the vent. She screamed and toppled off balance and crashed into Ryanti below. The ancient table gave way under their weight and the pair crashed into the ground, splaying across the dust and cloudy glass. Sounsyy had tried to curl into a ball, but the jarring force of the fall flailed her outwards as she rolled out of Ryanti's embrace. She had landed atop the Miqo'te and crushed the wind out of him when they crumpled to the floor.
When Sounsyy had pushed the wires to one side before her climb, their frayed ends had come close enough to connect and in a brilliant surge of ultraviolet light, the cell was lit before flickering. The hot wires sparked and sizzled angrily from sudden use, burning off all of the dust that had collected upon them over the centuries.
In the brief flashes of light, Ryanti found himself laying amidst a cell full of ancient Allagan writing and archaic formulaes. They coated the walls of the lab, angry scribbling of bygone equations that did or did not work to improve human life. The symbols burning and sizzling for Ryanti to remember what had been forgotten. But when darkness fell upon the room, the symbols were too pale and aged to be seen beneath the dust and shroud of darkness. Only in the pale blue light of the Allagans did the writing shine true.
Sounsyy, who had pulled herself away from Ryanti, did not see the symbols for her eyes were fixed upon the ruined remains of that table and that open segment of air duct. A soft river of dust floated lazily out of the vent upon the remains. When the lights flickered on, she witnessed another dark stain upon the floor beneath that vent that they had failed to notice upon entering. They had been too busy shining their lights upon the tables or at the walls to notice the stain that had collected in the very corner of the flooring. Something unmistakable as blood.
With a start Sounsyy bolted upright onto her hands and knees. Something had been in that vent! Something had pulled some hapless victim up from the ground and dragged him down that vent to his death - or so the wild ravings playing inside the captain's mind thought. Sounsyy was hissing with increasing conviction, "Get out, get out, get out, get out," as she tripped over her own feet as she moved towards her rifle.
"Come on!" She pleaded as she pulled at Ryanti's suit, but kept moving towards the doorway. She toppled out of it and into the hallway. The lights flickered once more, blinding her some as the hallway shimmered to life, and then the power gave out completely, sending everything back into complete blackness. Sounsyy had pushed her back tightly against the wall just to the left of the opening, panting heavily in the darkness. She no longer felt entirely alone. The very darkness seemed to seep into her suit.
"A-are you okay?!" she called out fearfully into the dark.