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In the span of several milliseconds, a collection of atoms - enamel and metal and ceramic and flesh alike - had been transported several thousand lightseasons. Unlike the approach to the nebula, there was no rain shower broaching their arrival; there was transit for less than the blink of your eye, before there was void. That had been two days ago.
Tantalus was massive ‘above ‘them, and even in all the photos Elizabeth had personally observed and taken during their brief stay in their salvation-cum-terror nebula, she hadn’t truly appreciated its majesty. Even so close, vines of starlight extended like fingers, grapes emitting radiation to the basking of billions. She imagined the Guin ’s proprietary viewscreens weren’t doing the images justice, but she was content inside the bridge; at least it was pressurised.
“Looking at it won’t make it reach us any faster, boss.” A rare jovial voice cut through the damaged air, breaking the grasp those astral fingers had had on her. “A watched pot never boils and all that.”
Elizabeth adjusted the medical blanket she’d taken for a cloak, the silver sheen reflecting every colour the HUD screens put out. “Not your boss anymore, Croft.”
“When the fact settles in I’ll stop calling you that.” He kept his hands far from the controls. “Besides, we’re still on your payroll ‘til we get back to Cardeus, at minimum. In my books, that makes you the boss.”
“True, but…” Elizabeth glanced around the darkened, “night-time” bridge. They needed the viewscreens on to tell where they were, she had argued. It was actually because she hated the unnatural darkness of the low-power state the Guin was in. She’d suffered a mere day before her whining (or maybe her puppy dog eyes?) had convinced Cass to turn them back on. Maybe they reminded her of Firewatch a bit; the constant magma glow was something she’d missed. She had still struggled to get much sleep regardless.
“But what?” Croft smirked, ration can in his hand that sloshed gently with water. Elizabeth rested her head back on her flight seat, all but the most basic controls deactivated whilst she sat in it.
“I’m not sure I deserve the title much, anymore.” She said with her signature chuckle. “It’s like… would you call someone captain if you didn’t trust her to lead you?”
“Hmm.” Croft said from the rim of the water can, not sipping but blowing on it like it was hot. “I’d probably skip town before it got that bad. If I’m starting to worry about who’s the boss, why they’re the boss, how they got to be the boss, and on and on and on, I’d be packing my bags.”
“Mm.”
“Which is why you’re still boss, boss. I’m sure someone will find something to complain about when we get back. Maybe a lot of people, even… but, look, I think you’ve done the job as best as you could’ve. I wouldn’t have done better in your situation.”
“Would you have gotten to the rank of Director, anyways?” Liz smirked.
“No, absolutely not. Too much responsibility.” Croft finally took a sip from the can, before holding it back to his chest. The water condensed in the air when he breathed out, the heaters also suffering on low power mode. “I mean, sixty thousand people, that’s…” he trailed off.
“Yeah.” Liz nodded out from her blanket.
“Yeah.” He took another sip.
Elizabeth glanced back up at the starscape, the warm rumble of the Guin’s main engine filling the air between them for a short while, the colours bleeding through. She had an odd sense of deja vu, all the way back to her university days cramming theorems four coffees into the night, when Firewatch, great and red and wide, would peer over the horizon just to remind her that she, and the rest of the world she resided in, still existed. She could see the very same star up in the sky, brighter in isolation than any other sun in the sky, and yet still indescribably small.
“I hope the skiffs got through okay.” She mumbled. “And the escape pods.”
“Lighter craft, they probably got caught by Gatehouse itself.” Croft smiled again, like he was incapable of frowning. “They’ll be alright, boss. And so will we.”
“Mm.” Liz nodded, eyes still captured by the starscape. Under her blanket, she felt around for the device she’d wedged between the flight seat’s cushions. Finding it, she pressed the detonator’s button a few times, the battery removed to power one of the portable heaters. It made a satisfying click , like a ballpoint pen but heavier. Click. Click. Click . She heard rustling from behind her, and stuffed the detonator back into its place before footsteps, slow and calculated, followed.
“Hey you,” she said quietly as Cass approached the front of the bridge.
“Morning, skip.” Croft added as she rested her arm on her flight seat - which Liz had conveniently co-opted as her own. “Sleep well?”
The bags under her eyes gave all the answers. “Gotta give Meds her jab.”
“Oh?” Croft awakened his control screen. Four bells , it read. “You woke up just before the alarm I’d set.”
“Figures,” Cass mumbled. She flashed, with her best attempt, a small smile to Liz. “And have you slept at all?”
Elizabeth shrugged, resting her head back against the flight rest. “Eh, in fits and starts.”
The smile was gone as soon as it had arrived. “Pass me the medical bag?”
Liz nodded, reaching down besides the foot rest of the seat. They’d moved it there after Meds had tried to administer her own triage last time whilst already out of it on drugs. She’d been quiet ever since, except for the occasional rasp like a wounded animal. Meds was tough, and she was getting better, but that meant sleeping for most of the day. She handed the bag to Cass.
“Try and get a bit of sleep, okay?” Cass asked as she took it, and despite all the tiredness in her voice, a sweetness still pervaded her words.
“Yes ma’am.”
“You too, Croft.”
“When it’s time for a shift change, I’m leaving this seat, and no sooner than that.” He smirked, but Cass didn’t join him, instead her eyes were locked on the viewscreens now. Croft followed her eye, and thus Elizabeth did also, her lagging curiosity a symptom of dire sleeplessness.
“What’s that?” Cass asked immediately.
It didn’t take a moment longer for Elizabeth to wake up. There were loud, violent bright spots around where the dim star of Cardeus floating, appearing like bacteria feasting on a petri dish, before disappearing as soon as they came. Ten, a hundred stars appeared, then without smoke dissipated.
“What the hell…” Croft said first, before a light on both his and Liz’s console started flashing, a small polite beep joining the chorus of lights and sound before them. “Uh…” he tapped the screen a few times. “Widebeam signals, skip.”
“Signals,
plural?
” Cass was gripping the medical bag tighter and tighter.
“Yeah, yeah…” Croft was reading far more than he was listening. “A lot of traffic control signals, some civvie.”
“We’ve been hearing the bleed of those for days, I thought I told you to stop picking them up.”
“I did, Skip, but that’s just the start of this orchestra.” Croft tapped a few buttons again, before scrolling down a long, long list. “There’s… distress beacons. Automated alert signals. Uh… couple of CDF and Unioner ones too.”
Cass bit her lip, wrapping her arms around the medical bag like it was a pillow or a neck. Elizabeth took the initiative instead, reaching over to her own otherwise-deactivated console, and pressing play on one of the random incoming signal bursts.
“This is the…” a buzz followed. “CSV Morningstar , we are abandoning-” static is then all that bled out. Liz looked to Croft, before pressing another.
“... Schooner Minstrel Manifesto , we’re under attack and need-”
And another.
“-Union Frigate Francesca , we’ve been-” static bloomed- “something out of the gate!”
And another.
“Gatehouse TC calling any-” more and more static- “all hands, abandon ship, repeat-”
“Turn it off, Liz.”
She pressed another.
“Some kind of unidentified vessel-” static. Static. Static. “-We’re being slaughtered! Help us-”
Cass snatched the button herself, turning the entire flight seat console off in the process. Her breathing had become erratic, and Elizabeth hadn’t heard.
“Cass, I- I just had to know-” Elizabeth tried to start.
“Meds needs her injection.” Cass said through gritted teeth. “Croft, turn off the antenna until we’re nearing a high traffic zone. And change course to the Cardeus-Seravis Gate.”
“Skip, I can do Meds’ jab if you need-”
“I’ve got it.” Cass said through gritted, muddled teeth. “Focus on flying the ship.” And she stomped away, all five strides it took to cross the bridge. Croft glanced, open mouthed and furrowed brow, towards Elizabeth, who simply sunk back into her chair, holding the safety blanket to her mouth.
“You got it, Skip.”
The Guin’s drive adjusted slightly, as did the porthole view above them, ever so slightly. The entirety of Tantalus continued to stretch out above them, the small cluster of nascent stars being born and dying just as rapidly.
Click. Click click click. Click.