Shipboard Sounds

Posted on Mon Jun 7th, 2021 @ 3:55am by The Narrator & Daiyu & Chloe Waltz PhD & Kindra Graham

Mission: I Ain't Fraid of No Ghost...
Location: Landing Pad on Planet Surface
Timeline: November 1

Inside Echo, they could hear that rhythm above - THUMP, Thump, thuuuump. Repeat. A strap caught against some part of the upper hull? Life seeking life? The angle from the cockpit window and a lack of working cameras offered no visual answers, allowing only logic and imagination to answer those questions.

At the main airlock, on the ramp, James stood sentinel in protective duty, his radio link ready to allow for updates from either party. Alison and Tristan out on the hull, Kindra, Chloe, Daiyu and Karen within its safe-keeping.

"See anything?" James's voice asked.

For a second, to those on the bridge, there was motion - a shadow rather than anything overtly physical played upon the window to the world beyond.

"We should hide." Daiyu's eyes were spread wide in terror -- not the paralyzing numbness of the unknown, but the terror of knowledge. Great, horrible, terrible knowledge. "They were here. They might return. They might still linger..."

"Nothing in here," Chloe responded over radio from the engine room. Despite still having her gun on her lap, her casual unconcern stood in stark contrast to Daiyu's worry. The woman knew there were no windows in the engine room and so they probably weren't asking her, but perhaps talking would cover up the creepy sounds a bit.

Kindra answered via the intercom. "For a moment there might have been something here. Like a shadow cast across the bridge viewport. Could easily have been a piece of cloth or tarp blown by the wind." She started checking com channels for word from Alden, Jonas, and Whit. Or Alison and Tristan. Nothing. Kindra began checking sensors.

"Received," responded James. "Waiting on Ali and Tristan to confirm. Can't see la shi from here..."

The old Firefly's sensors picked up the wind and the existence of the distant hab, but the cameras on the top of the hull still denied the crew any useful information, just a blurry darkness that implied something needed a major fix. There was no hint of anything living between here and the hab though, only a mess of information that seemed to be confused as hell by Ghost's very nature.

"Daiyu I invited you to the bridge with me because you seemed scared, and being alone can make things feel even more scary," said Kindra, soothingly, if a bit distractedly. The sensor readings were just… weird. Not that she was any kind of expert. "But you don't have to stay on the bridge. You can hide, if you want to mei mei. It's okay." Kindra's concerned gaze rested on Daiyu. "Or you can tell me about what scares you, if that helps."

"She is coming..." Daiyu said in a trembling whisper.

"Oh, my dear." Kindra stepped closer to Daiyu and touched her shoulder, leaning down to catch the shorter woman's attention. She tried to connect the woman's other mumblings, but this was raw fear, and raw fear wasn't always rational, poor girl. Calmly she said, "It's okay. Alden and Whit are expecting to find people here. Engineers and technicians, working on progressing the terraforming project on this planet. What are you afraid of? Who is coming?"

"They... She... Ahhh!" Daiyu threw her head back and covered her face with her hands.

"It'll be okay, mei mei," said Kindra softly. She rubbed Daiyu's back with a gentle touch, unsure how to help. "Do you take medication for your… uh, anxiety? Shall we ask Karen… Doctor Dawson… if she has something that can help?"

"NO!" Daiyu screamed. "She will make me go to sleep again! I can't sleep... Not if they are here..."

Chloe tensed when she heard a scream. Then she relaxed, just the slightest, when she realized it was a scream she recognized, but tensed again when she realized it was Daiyu's. At first she clicked the intercom, about to ask them if things were okay, before pausing. No. If Daiyu was on the bridge, and about to snap... Who knows what she did already? Who knew if Kindra even still had a face? Chloe assumed worst case scenario, grabbing her sonic gun. Best to not give any warning, if it came down to conflict. If things were okay, well, she could say she were just checking up on them and the strange sounds warranted carrying this weapon. If not... well, she wasn't looking forward to plan B, but she certainly did not want Daiyu in charge of the bridge - especially while the Echo was under the gravitational influence of not only a planet, but a planet that lacked the atmosphere to safely abandon a ship in.

Slowly, the engineer walked up to the bridge, trying to look in and see if everything was alright.

James's voice sounded off across the main intercom again. "Y'all alright in there?" He called. Then, with a deeper more overt concern. "That Daiyu? On the bridge?" Oh, that couldn't be good...

Kindra responded on the intercom. "Yeah, James. Daiyu's on the bridge. That rhythmic banging has her pretty rattled though, poor girl. I hope we hear from Alison and Tristan soon, sure would like to know what's making that irritating sound."

There was the muffled sound of James swearing effusively in Chinese. "Maybe look to get her off of there," the Ezran said, with the sort of tone that would be gifted to a weary drunk who had pushed his luck a few too many times. "Ali and Tris are up top, they're outta view now, but y'all should see 'em real soon." They had to cross the upper windows sooner or later.

She saw the engineer lurking outside the bridge then. "Oh, hey Chloe," said Kindra, relieved. "I'm glad you're here. I thought I knew how to operate the ship's sensors, but maybe I'm not doing it correctly."

"Too late," Daiyu whimpered. "Nobody ever sees them till it's too late!"

"I can, uh," Chloe stepped up on to the bridge, trying to keep Kindra between herself and Daiyu. "I can take a look at those sensors." She offered. Not that she thought she could see anything - a Firefly's sensors were, (in her own skewed opinion) simple, and didn't need much concern to read. But at least it was something to do rather than stand here awkwardly.

"Thanks Chloe." Kindra regarded Daiyu again, uncertain. She wanted to stay on the bridge with Chloe, to hear any updates right away. But it was hard for the companion not to attempt to help a member of the crew so desperately in need of comfort. "Hey, Daiyu. Will you come to the kitchen with me? We can make some soothing tea. And that banging sound might not be so loud there."

Chloe caught a glimpse of Alison's shadow, followed by the definite shape of Tristan crossing close enough to the wide cockpit window to be clearly seen. They were right above the trio now, homing in on whatever was making the noise.

"I'll have some tea if you're making some," James called over, sounding laidback and thirsty.

And on the sensors, Chloe managed to refine the view enough with a simple twist of a dial and the reattaching of a barely broken wire beneath the console when she took a closer look to the reason for the fault. Now she could definitely see something that looked way more like a big, dark blue blur - maybe a box or trunk of some kind. A warning light blinked up on the console before her too, reporting a blocked duct and the suspicion of something caught up in the engine intake valves.

Chloe felt her grip on the gun tighten. Perhaps the way Daiyu was acting was having her a bit paranoid. Still - if the word got out that there was something caught in the intake, no matter how harmless it might be, well, Daiyu might turn a non-problem into a problem. "Hey Kindra," Chloe asked over the intercom, looking at the sensors with an intrigued frown. "Can you get Daiyu back her room?"

Kindra nodded to Chloe, the engineer knew what she was doing. After what happened with setting up the aeroponic garden, she knew there was animosity between Daiyu and the Chloe, but she still had no idea why. Kindra liked Chloe, she was intelligent, quirky, and good company. She also like Daiyu, obviously damaged by some trauma that seemed to give her a childlike self-centered perception of reality.

She took Daiyu's hand and spoke to her soothingly. "Come with me please, mei-mei. We can go to your room, or we can go to the kitchen and make a pot of tea. James said he'd like tea." Kindra tugged gently on Daiyu's arm, urging her to follow.

"No, they will find us there," Daiyu said. "We need to hide somewhere they won't see!"

"Show me," said Kindra, with another gentle tug on Daiyu's arm. She had tried, over and over again in the last few minutes, to get Daiyu to communicate with her. But the girl was either incapable or unwilling. "Show me where you want to hide."

Daiyu shook her head. "Too late to hide. We need to run!"

"We're headed back," James' voice called over the comms. "Coming in via the cargo bay airlock on account of we found something up top. Something alive mebbe. It's in a crate. Nobody open the inner airlock! Ali and me gonna check what's in here first, okay? Sound off, please."

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