If Damian thought that he was receiving lots of stares the day before because of his clothing, he was certainly receiving tenfold the amount of attention now. The crew members halted in their step and openly gawked at him, several of them with their mouths hung open as they stared at him make his way down the open hallway. When he entered the cafeteria the entire area just stopped. Every eye turned to him as he stood in the open doorway, standing tall, his blue captain's shirt clearly visible. A few crew members snapped to attention, though they seemed unsure of themselves.
Damian briskly walked to the lines as they stepped out of his way, letting him pass to the front of the line. An alien stood behind the counter, one that he couldn't quite identify. It had eight long arms, tentacles really, and stood on two squat legs. Its face resembled that of a slug, its two black eyes held far above its head on two slimy pole-like appendages. The alien stared at him as he typed his order into a small screen on the counter separating him from the cook. He wasn't particularly hungry, and the stares he was receiving made him extremely self conscious. He began to think that perhaps giving him the captain's uniform wasn't the most generous thing the Captain could have done. He ordered some toast and some orange juice. After receiving his tray he walked to the far corner of the cafeteria, sitting as far away from everyone and facing the doorway.
After he took his seat the cafeteria slowly buzzed back to life. He took a few bites of his toast as he watched them. Quickly they seemed to forget that he was there as their conversations came back to life, each of them speaking in their native languages. Typically the crew members associated with those of matching uniform shirts, their races intermingling. Humans and aliens alike mixed with each other in the cafeteria, and though english was typically made out other languages were to be heard in the mix. They all seemed to be excited about something, certainly not about him, Damian thought, as they seemed to forget that he was even there. They were much more animated than they were the day before. Something important must be happening today.
Damian took a deep breath as the lift raised, he was finally free from the stares, though it would only be a brief respite. During breakfast he had observed the workers animately talk about some upcoming event, several of them surrounding a few workers and slapping them on their backs. He wondered what that was all about.
The elevator doors opened and the control room expanded out in front of him. Once again he was greeted with a cacophony of noises as the workers talked to each other in their rows, their expressions showing their excitement. They were definitely acting different than they were yesterday, their postures more relaxed and their voices louder than before. He immediately assumed that the Captain was out of the room and glanced to the bridge to check.
He was taken aback when he saw her standing in the center of the circular platform, looking as stunning as when he had first laid eyes on her. He was confused; the day before when she had been in the room her crew had been the epitome of productiveness and activity, though today they were much more relaxed even though she was right there. Suddenly the pieces clicked as he saw the several floating screens in front of her. Though she was in the room she obviously wasn't paying much attention to what was going on around her as her fingers flied through the air, her entire focus on the work in front of her. Her workers must have noticed that and taken the liberty to slack off. He should have expected as such, no one would be able to look so productive for so long, so as soon as the Captain left or ignored them they would be able to work at their normal pace.
Damian felt the stares on him once more as he stepped into the room, the voices suddenly hushing as they saw him standing there in his captain's uniform. He held his arms behind his back as he stepped to the side of the lift, keeping his eyes on the Captain. He saw her lift her head in response to the sudden change of noise as she glanced at her workers through her screens, following their gaze until her eyes rested on him. He felt very pleased that he had taken the time to actually arrange his hair that morning as she looked him over. She then waved for him to join her on the bridge as she returned to examining her screens, her fingers flying in the air.
He walked forwards, shocked yet pleased that she was allowing him on the bridge once more. He felt dozens of eyes trace his movements as he carefully took each step up the stairs, keeping his back straight and head held high. Once on the bridge he watched the Captain's reaction, but she was faced away from him, her entire focus on the screens in front of her. Damian was content to wait. He held his hands behind his back as he watched her movements. Her amount of focus was incredible; each screen was scrolling through information on its own, several of them in entirely different languages. She jumped from one screen to the next, making adjustments, skimming over messages, quickly typing a few of her own, sometimes two hands doing something entirely different at once. He noticed that the rest of the crew members had turned back to their work, seemingly accepting the fact that now they had two captains. He wondered what she had done in order for them to just blindly accept the fact.
He glanced to his left and was glad to see that the Treshiss wasn't in her small corner bowed over her e-book. He didn't much like the second in command, and he knew that feeling was mutual between them.
He examined the screens that surrounded the captain, though a few of them were obscured from his sight by her body. The first screen he noticed was a report of the ship and all of its functions, codes and numbers zooming by the screen. On one of the screens it appeared to be a list of obituaries of several of the nearby planets, he realized that she must be doing the same research as he had the night before. From where he stood he could see that some of the names were simply disappearing. On another screen police reports were scrolling by, which was odd as he hadn't been able to access those. A few of the other screens had recent events outlined, and another one was a messaging center. A lot of the things on the screens he could not recognize as they were in languages that he had not learned, and yet her eyes skimmed those as she typed a few messages of her own using the different languages. He was amazed at her skill at multitasking and linguistic skills, she was certainly a sight to behold. He figured he could stare at her all day as she worked, but after a few moments she suddenly waved all of the screens away.
She turned to look at him, her eyes appraising the way the uniform fit his body. "How do you like your uniform, Commander?" she asked as she stepped towards him.
"It's fine." Damian responded, "I appreciate your efforts to make me feel welcome, Captain."
The captain smiled, her teeth blindingly white. "I was told to treat you as my partner, and so I figured holding you to a matching rank as me will help us to be equals."
Damian furrowed his brow, not aware of that command. He hadn't expected to be treated so highly, he was merely using her for her ship to get to the Time Gate.
"It's time for me to make my rounds. Would you care to join me?" She asked, jarring him from his train of thought.
"Certainly." Damian responded, knowing that he had nothing better to do.
She turned and lead him off the bridge, he noticed that the crew had once again became fully alert, sitting forwards in their chairs with their voices lowered as they focused on their screens. Apparently they kept track of when their captain was alert. She lead him to the lift and after the doors slid open she stepped inside, Damian joining her at her side. The doors slid closed and they were alone.
"I noticed you looking at the local obituaries." Damian began, wondering what she had learned in her research.
She frowned. "There have been an influx of deaths, though they are all being written off as 'unknown cause of death,' and then the reports disappear entirely." She turned to look at him, her gaze penetrating. "Do you think the 'affected' are being completely erased?"
Damian pursed his lips, amazed that she had already pieced the clues together in order to know that the deaths were normally reports of the affected's work. "Yes. I found the same results, and I think that the two universes are counteracting each other, allowing the 'affected' to kill each other before all of their records completely disappear."
The captain nodded and then turned back to the doors as they slid open, revealing a wide and long hallway. She stepped off the lift, Damian following close behind. An expanse of yellow and pink shirted crew members stretched on down the hallway, each of them briskly walking down the hallway with a purpose.
"Isaac." The captain called to a crew member in a yellow shirt. The crew member stopped and turned to look at the two of them, quickly snapping to attention, holding his feathered hand to his head. His skin was made of bright red feathers and a long beak extended where a nose should be, the beady eyes flashing between the two of them. Damian recognized the alien as being a Eudocimus from the planet Ruber, known for their bright red feathers and long beaks.
"At ease Isaac." The captain said sweetly as she stepped towards the Eudocimus, who relaxed but still glanced hesitantly between the two of them. "How are the engines?"
"Fine." The Eudocimus chirped. "Everything has been running smoothly Captain." His voice was high pitched and accented with trills, sounding like a bird.
The captain then began speaking to him in another language, her voice high and clear as she chirped and whistled fluently. The crew member then answered her in kind, apparently using his native tongue. Once finished she spoke a few more words and then nodded at him curtly as he turned away. She glanced back at Damian, who raised an eyebrow at the strange conference. She smiled at his look of awe and confusion and instead just continued down the hallway. Damian fell into step besides her.
"You speak Eudocimean?" He asked, astounded once again at her skill.
"Yep." She responded cheerfully, then turned her head to give him a sly smile, "don't worry, we didn't talk about you." She then turned off into a wide doorway, not giving him a chance to respond.
An expanse of engines stretched out in front of them, each of them running smoothly as yellow shirted crew members milled about the large machines. The room snapped to attention as she entered, though she quickly said "at ease" to let them relax. She walked forwards to a large man manning one of the engines, muscles rippling under his tight uniform.
"Hello Jacob." She said cheerfully as she approached.
"Captain." He responded with a salute, his eyes briefly glancing over to Damian.
"Are you planning on participating in the games today?" She asked him.
A smile spread across his lips. "Yes, Captain." He was clean shaven and his hair was shaved close to his head and a long scar extended across his jaw, his appearance shouting that he was a warrior.
Damian looked between the two of them, confused. He thought of the excited chatter he heard in the cafeteria that morning and the elevated noise in the control room, perhaps the "games" were what everyone were excited about.
"Good. Which ones?"
"Hand to hand combat and last man standing, Captain."
"Excellent. I'm sure you'll do well, Jacob." The captain then turned her gaze to Damian. "Commander, would you be willing to participate in our games this evening?"
Taken aback, Damian gazed at her confused. "I haven't heard of them," he answered honestly.
"Oh, of course." She responded, then turned back to the engineer. "Jacob can you explain to the Commander what the games are?"
He nodded. "The games are a test of skills and allows for friendly competition among the crew members, tonight there are three different categories; weapons, fighting, and survival." He spoke briskly and straight to the point. "For the weapons category the contestants will shoot in the shooting range and the winner will be chosen for the greatest score, based on speed and accuracy. For hand to hand combat two contestants face head to head, and the winners move on up the ranks." He then stopped, a wide smile splitting his face. "I made it into the top ten contestants for that one during the last games."
Damian nodded, glancing at the scar on his jaw and his many muscles. If anyone were a perfect candidate for hand to hand combat, this man certainly fit the bill.
"The last game is the most exciting, in my opinion," Jacob continued. "It's called 'Last Man Standing,' and basically all of the contestants get sent into a maze and try to survive. Our guns our set to stun and our goal is to eliminate all of the other contestants, the last man standing wins."
"If I remember correctly you lasted for quite some time on that one as well." The captain mused.
Jacob proudly stuck out his chest, glad that she had remembered. "I was among the last three." He beamed.
The captain smiled. "I look forwards to seeing you there," she said as she patted Jacob on his shoulder, "good luck."
Damian wondered why the captain would conduct games on her ship. Certainly they weren't needed, and he had never before seen a ship do anything like this. Perhaps that was why her crew respected her so much, because instead of being stuck on a moving ship forced to do repetitive tasks they had chances to play games.
The captain turned back to glance at Damian before stepping past him to another worker in the room. This crew member was an alien that he did not recognize, its skin was green and slimy, and the most accurate description Damian could think to describe the alien would be to call it a toad.
"Jessica, how is it going?" She asked as she approached the worker.
The alien's neck bulged into a huge bubble as she answered in a surprisingly deep voice, "Everything is running smoothly, Captain."
The captain then began to croak and gargle to the worker, and Damian realized that she was talking to her worker in their native tongue. A thin film crossed over the aliens eyes as she blinked. She also responded in the other language as they continued to chat.
Damian was dumbfounded. This was the second language the captain had mastered, and it sounded to him as though she had spoken both of them fluently. He wondered why the Captain had taken the time to do her rounds on the ship, he knew that she had all of the records of the ship available to her so she knew exactly the state of the engine room, and yet here she was chatting with their crew.
After talking to the toad alien, she proceeded to pass around the room and talk to the other workers, often times including Damian in the conversations as well. She was very pleasant and knew all of the names of her crew members, confusing Damian even further. She was unlike any person he had ever met. Once she was done talking to everyone in the room they headed back into the hallway.
"Why are you doing this?" Damian asked as they began walking further down the hallway, crew members saluting as they walked past.
"Hmm?" She hummed absently, nodding to a few people as they walked by.
"Meeting with your crew members, learning their names, playing games. You don't need any of these things to run a ship."
"No, I suppose I don't need any of these things." She responded demurely. They continued on in silence. "All of the people on this ship are willing to lay down their lives for me." She stated out of the blue.
Damian was taken aback by the abrupt statement, not sure why she brought it up. She stopped and turned to face him, the people passing by giving them a wide berth. She looked up at him with wide blue eyes, her expression full of concern.
"Their lives are in my hands, and I want to know exactly whose lives I am risking every time this ship is put into danger." Her voice was full of emotion as she continued, "I owe it to them to give them the respect they deserve, and the only way I can think to do that is to spend the time to get to know them."
He was astounded at her sudden, heartfelt confession about her concern for her crew members. To him they were merely workers on the ship she ran, but to her they were much more than just workers. They were individual people who she had taken the time to get to know. There were several hundred workers, but he had the feeling that the captain had taken the time to learn every single one of their names. He was touched.
She then lowered her gaze and smiled, "the games are just a bit of fun that just started taking place a few years back, and now they have become incredibly popular. They boost morale and they give me a chance to fully determine my crew's skill sets." She glanced back up at him, waiting for a response.
Damian was glad that she had lightened the discussion by turning back to the games. "Will you be participating?" He asked.
She winked at him. "I might." She then abruptly turned on her heel to continue down the hallway.