Damian followed the Treshiss down from the bridge and back to the lift, feeling the stares on him as he passed. He knew that stepping onto the captain's deck, the bridge itself, was something that no one besides the captain and second in command were allowed to do. He was surprised that the captain had required him to personally type in the coordinates, he could have just written them down or sent her a message, but instead she had allowed him onto the bridge and had let him personally alter the course.
He wondered what her actions meant. Was she showing him that she was leaving this task to him? It certainly seemed that way. If she had put in the coordinates it would show that she was still in charge of the situation and whether or not she would take him to the Time Gate, but instead she had let him do it on his own, basically announcing to the world that he was in command. She was certainly an interesting character.
He followed the Treshiss into the elevator, and as the doors slid shut behind them she didn't say a word during the quiet descent. The captain could have chosen any crew member to lead him to his rooms, but instead she had chosen her second in command. Again, it was an act of respect, showing him that he was above the help of any lowly crew member. The action had showed his power to the crew members, and they would certainly have to treat him with respect.
He had never been treated with such respect before. People merely tolerated him, they might recognize his genius, but they only treated him with common decency, hardly expounding more effort on their part. It felt strange to be in such a powerful position just because of the Captain's actions.
The doors to the lift slid open and the Treshiss immediately stepped out and into a long hallway. The hallway was identical to the one that he and the captain had passed through earlier, though he knew that they were on a different floor. The doors on either side of the hallway were all closed shut, and eventually there came breaks in the hallway as the walls opened up to lead to connecting hallways down the sides. They turned right down one of these hallways, and saw more doorways on either sides, the hallway branching off into more corridors as well. They took a few more sharp turns until finally the second in command stopped in front of a doorway. She waved her hand over the sensor and typed in a short four digit code as the door slid open. She turned to him, motioning him inside. He stepped inside the small room. The walls were white, matching the bleached floors. A small bed was attached to the wall, a pile of sheets folded nicely laying on the bottom of the bed, a desk stood to his right as a place to store his belongings. To his left there was another doorway.
"This will be your room, Commander." The Treshiss spoke with a hiss, the first words she offered to him.
Damian nodded and dropped his duffel bag onto the bed. The room would suit his needs, he didn't require much.
"Your bathroom is through the doorway," she spoke again, pointing to the door he had noticed earlier. "You may shower and change into your uniform."
Damian scowled and turned to face her, hating the idea of being forced into a uniform. She didn't see his expression as her face was glued to her e-book as she swiftly pressed buttons and swiped the screen. "You may travel wherever you wish in the ship, the cafeteria and common rooms are in the next floor down." She continued, completely oblivious to his glare, or ignoring him. "This is your pass code into your room," with a flick of her wrist a small transparent screen floated up in front of him, the code 7437 clearly readable on the screen.
She turned to leave, the screen disappearing behind her, but she paused at the doorway. "Oh, and the Captain has just informed me that all of your meals and amenities will be provided at no cost to you," she read from her screen. Though her previous information had been given in a dull monotone, this last statement had a twinge of malice laced through her otherwise emotionless tone.
Damian knew that the Treshiss' pride had probably damaged because the Captain had made her and not some lower member of the crew guide him to his room. It wasn't her job to meet his needs, and not only was her task of leading him an insult to her pride but he had also been allowed to personally alter the course, which he recognized as a task only the captain was permitted to do. He took pride in the fact that he was able to get on somebody's nerves without trying and let a small smile form on his lips as he watched her depart hastily from his room, the door sliding shut behind her.
He decided that throughout the day he would walk around the ship in order to understand his surroundings, as it would take at least a week for them to reach their destination. It would be a good idea to get to know his surroundings, besides, he wanted to learn more about how the Captain ran the ship.
He was intrigued by the Captain. Her reaction to his declaration of the possibility of actual time travel was nothing short of astounding. She had smiled at the concept, immediately accepting it and following his explanation as her responses showed her comprehension of the difficult subject matter. She would be an interesting person to study as they travelled to the Time Gate over the next few days.
He stood and departed out of his room and once standing in the hallway he realized he had no idea where to go. The Treshiss was out of sight, and when she had lead him to his room she had walked swiftly through the maze of hallways and rooms, he figured that the doors all lead to rooms similar to his own as the level appeared to be where the crew had their personal quarters.
No one was in sight, and he needed a map. He glanced down the white walls and closed doors of the hallway, looking for a camera. He noticed small black circles on the ceilings, evenly spaced down the long hallway. He stepped directly beneath the black circle, recognizing that it must be a camera, and held out his right hand towards it. He swung his hand to the right and suddenly a transparent screen appeared in front of him.
He pushed buttons on the transparent screen until the ship's map was brought up, a golden dot showing his location. He memorized the route it took for him to get back to the lift, and then scrolled to the next level down and searched for the eating area. A large cafeteria was directly below him and he learned that it was open 24/7 and there were no assigned eating periods, and instead the crew made time to eat whenever they were off duty.
He closed the screen and made his way back to the lift, retracing the route he memorized from the map. He noticed that the cameras spanned all the way down the hallways, so should he need to pull up a map again he would be able to. However, he did not want to appear lost and determined to not pull up a map again unless absolutely necessary. He made his way to the lift without any problems and stepped inside, the doors sliding shut behind him. He pushed the button for the floor directly below him.
The doors opened in front of him to reveal a wide hallway, the ceilings exceptionally higher than the ceilings on the level above. He was no longer alone, dozens of crew members were seen walking down the hallways, their different shirt colors showing that this area was one where anyone could meet. As he stepped out of the lift he noticed their eyes glancing towards him, but he paid them no heed as he walked towards the cafeteria.
A wide entrance opened up into the cafeteria, tables were spaced evenly throughout the wide open expanse. At the far side of the room was a long bar that a few crew members were lined in front of, large screens showing the meals for the day. Damian noticed the stares he received from the crew members at the tables or the ones milling about the cafeteria, and a collective hush went throughout the area as they turned to stare. He ignored them as he made his way to the lines, knowing that he stuck out from the rest of them because of his choice of clothes. The stares lingered, and Damian began to wonder if word had already gotten around about him crossing the bridge and planning their course. The chatting then began again and he couldn't help but to wonder if they were talking about him.
He stood behind a tall humanoid in a yellow shirt that defined him as an engineer and peered towards the menus floating above the bar. Several of the food items were strange and foreign, but he eventually settled on an average looking sandwich. After getting his tray of food he turned to look for an open table. He found one at the corner of the cafeteria, far away from anyone else. He took his seat, all alone, and peered all around him.
Damian rolled over in his small bed, blinking the sleep from his eyes. He had retired to his bed after spending his day strolling through the ship and examining his surroundings, none of the crew members approaching him and instead just ignoring him. He didn't want to go back to the bridge as there was nothing for him to do there, and he didn't want to return to the bridge and be in the Captain's way. He had no tasks right now, all he could do was wait until they reached the Time Gate, hoping that the universe didn't collapse around them.
When he had retired to his room after wasting his day away exploring the ship he had sat down on his bed, exhausted by his inability to do anything useful when he felt like the world was falling around him. Determining to at least try to do something about the impending doom he had waved up the transparent screens and spent a majority of the night searching for more cases of the affected. He searched among news reports for any mass murders but couldn't find anything.
Something wasn't right, there should be thousands of reports all over, so he continued to dig. He then brought up the obituary reports of a nearby planet, focusing on the ones that didn't have an explanation for their deaths, hoping that something would be there. As he peered at the numbers, he noticed a strange pattern. Over the last few days there were increasing reports of obituaries lacking an explanation for their deaths. The reports were astounding, hundreds of thousands of unmarked names showed up on the screen for the deaths of the day. He was astounded by the amount of recent deaths, and became infuriated with the concept of the Time Gate. They should have left the other universe alone.
The oddest part about it all is that no one seemed to even notice. There were no reports on the increasing amount of deaths. He wished that he could hack into the police reports to see how they dealt with the bodies, as there certainly should be records, but he couldn't find anything. He only had limited access of course and was unable to hack into their systems.
He instead continued to scroll through the long list of obituaries, and to his surprise they suddenly began to disappear. He clicked on one of the unmarked obituaries before it also disappeared. A smiling man's picture appeared on the screen, Robert Carlyle written in bold letters under his name. Cause of death: unknown. 54 year old male. He was probably one of the ones affected, Damian reasoned, as his cause of death was unlisted. He clicked on 'personal information,' but nothing popped up. That was strange as in this day and age everyone's personal life was easily accessible over the many social networks online. He backed out of the man's page and returned to the obituary list, the name still on the screen. Suddenly Robert Carlyle disappeared, the list shortening.
Curious, Damian blinked, wondering if his mind was just playing games with him. Just like the other names on the list this one had disappeared as well. He brought up the search bar and typed in the man's name, but no records appeared.
He wondered why the records were disappearing. Could the merging universes be counteracting one another, completely erasing people who should never have been born? He considered the fact that perhaps the information was just kept from being leaked to the public by a strict police force and lack of news casters, but that explanation was highly illogical. If a loved one suddenly turned and killed their entire family and people close to them, killing until they themselves were killed, there would be a social outrage. Instead, there was nothing. Only records of the deaths, and even those were disappearing.
When Damian had finally sent his screen away to get some sleep he had tossed and turned all night, his mind racing with the possibilities. People all over the universe were becoming affected by the merging realities, killing those around them, and then suddenly disappearing. It was so unsettling, especially since he couldn't do about it until he finally reached the Time Gate.
He sat up in his bed, knowing that he wouldn't be getting anymore sleep as he rubbed his aching temples. He was surrounded in darkness, so with a croak he said "lights" and they flashed to life, illuminating the small room. He swung his feet over the bed and realized that he had slept completely dressed, his belt and shoes had been taken off, thankfully, but his dress pants and buttoned shirt were wrinkled uncomfortably around his body. He stood and made his way over to the bathroom, waving his hand over the sensor to the door. The door slid open as the bathroom lights also switched on, revealing a small sink to his right and a tall shower with a clear glass door. He stepped the well lit bathroom, the door sliding shut behind him as he peeled off his clothes.
He stepped into the shower and began typing onto a small screen to choose his water temperature and pushed "Start." He closed his eyes as the water fell through the ceiling. As the warm water ran over his body he tried to relax, but he could feel his shoulders tense and muscles clench in anticipation for the worst. There wasn't much relaxation to be felt when impending doom was just around the corner. He opened his eyes and stared at the glass door which had messages on the screen. The time was clearly read on the corner, 08:13. He was surprised that he had slept in so long, especially since he didn't feel like he had slept a wink. He figured that because of his late night researching and because of the erratic, stressful last few days were the reasons why he had caught any sleep last night.
He brought up the list of shampoos and one of them caught his eye; lemon. He remembered the distinct scent from his private meeting with the Captain, and realized that she was wearing the scent. He suddenly became embarrassed that he knew the type of shampoo the captain used on her hair, so he quickly scrolled down the list and picked the one that was labeled as having no scent.
While lathering his hair he remembered the way he had felt when he had first laid eyes on the Captain. He was embarrassed by his looks, by his messy hair and out of date clothing. He reasoned that today he would make an effort to make himself look presentable, though he still didn't like the idea of wearing a uniform. He hated fitting in with others, which made his desire to appeal to this woman so strange. He reminded himself of the only reason why he needed her; to lead him to the Time Gate. He was unable to run a ship on his own that would take him all the way to the edge of the universe, he had to hitch a ride with a big shuttle, and so he was doomed to have to have help instead of making a solitary mission like he preferred. His brother had made him promise to let the captain know what was happening, most likely to spite him.
After finishing his shower the water shut off and he chose the option for manual drying as the doors slid open, a towel appearing out of the wall. As he wrapped it around himself he was surprised to see that his clothes that he had strewn on the floor had all disappeared, and instead a uniform floated in the air next to the wall. Even more surprising was the color of the uniform; the shirt was a dark blue. The Captain's color.
He was dumbfounded. The Captain had been showing him far too much respect. When he had rudely arrived hours early, she had done nothing to reprimand him or complain, when he had told her of the impossible truth of the combining universes she had accepted his explanation and then hadn't pressed when he told her that he would take care of the Time Gate himself, trusting his opinion in leaving her out of his plans. Even after lying to her about his rank- he wasn't actually a commander- she had accepted his title without a complaint though she probably knew that he was lying. Then she had further put her trust into him and showed her respect as she allowed him onto the bridge, giving him complete control over their course. It was too much to take in, he didn't deserve anything that she was doing for him. Though, of course, he was intending on saving the entire universe by himself, not that he was certain his attempts would even work.
His thoughts of putting on his own clothing were completely wiped from his mind as he stared at his waiting uniform. She was making him her complete equal in every regard, though he certainly wasn't fit to be a captain and didn't deserve her efforts. He held out his hand and let the material slip through his fingers, it was very flexible and durable and smooth to the touch. He let go of his shirt and picked up the black pants, letting his towel drop to the floor as he stretched the material in his hands, it was flexible and gave quite easily. He slid one foot into the stretchy trousers and pulled up, the material clinging to his calves and thighs. After pulling them up, surprised at how perfectly they fit, he grabbed the belt that was hanging in the air. He threaded it through the loops and clicked the silver button as the belt automatically fit itself to his waist. He pulled on the captain's shirt, again surprised at how perfectly it fit. His boots were sitting on the floor, and though the captain had allowed him to wear the same color as her uniform, he could see that the boots were not of the same height to hers and were instead identical to the rest of the crew members' uniforms. He pulled them on as they formed to his feet.
Now fully dressed, he examined himself in the mirror above the sink. He looked very proper in his uniform and began to wonder why he was so vehemently opposed to them before. The dark blue contrasted very nicely against his pale skin and brought out the blue in his greenish-blue eyes.