The bridge was full of nervous chatter that was breaking short periods of complete, focused silence.
Djinn turned her tired eyes away from her console and sighed.
"You get something from it, Carmilla?" she asked, frustrated. Since the beginning of their shift, both of them fought with the script retrieved from the derelict, but the code seemed to wiggle in their hands, refusing to be simplified.
One quick look to her right told her that Carmilla appeared not only aggravated, which could be deducted from her hitting the keyboard as if it killed her dog, but also looked really sick. Her complexion was ashen and she had dark circles under her eyes. "Hey, you okay?"
Carmilla made a face at her monitor. "Yeah, I'm fine. Haven't slept well tonight and all."
"Maybe you want out? We can talk to Keeler..." Djinn began, but Carmilla shook her head. Her oddly colored bangs covered her face.
"I don't think so. It seemes that he had a fight with Chronos and is really pissed. See?" near them, Keeler was grounding a navigator for walking too loudly, when everybody else was concentrating. Djinn rised her eyebrows at that, but ducked her head to the monitor just as the Lead's sight went to her. "And I feel so stupid. It shouldn't be so hard to decipher all of this!"
"Oh, c'mon. Theseus and Seiryu looked like death when they left their shift and they usually get things after the first time."
"Doesn't change the fact that I look at it for five hours straight and it made more sense in the beginning than it does now!"
"Aren't you a little hard on yourself?"
"I don't have time for this!" Carmilla threw her hands into the air in frustration, when her monitor was littered with errors yet again. "what a meaningless piece of-!"
"Chatting, ladies?"
Both women twitched, when Keeler's sweet voice sounded in their ears from very, very close.
"No, sir!" Djinn intervened quickly. "just exchanging tips for this code. Sir."
"It wasn't what it sounded like, navigator." Keeler was still being overly nice, but his words started to drip poison. "Don't you think our situation is a little too serious for simple chat?"
"No, sir!" Djinn somehow panicked and got tangled into grammar.
"Oh, you don't?"
Carmilla made a breathe out sounding as if an elephant sneezed.
"We don't think the situation is not serious, Keeler sir. We were working."
Before the Lead Navigator could react to such obvious gesture of rudeness, another navigator made his way towards them, politely, but decisively taking Keeler attention and anger on himself.
"We are all a little on edge today, sir. Everybody is working double shifts and it makes people unsure, so they tire out quicker. Even you, sir, need to rest sometime."
It was evident that Keeler wasn't in the mood to let anyone tell him what he should have done or not, but right then his commlink beeped, signaling message of great importance. One look at the screen made the Lead Navi frown harder, but it appeared that now he had different trouble to think about than his tired crew.
"Go back to work everyone. I expect your assignment to be done by twenty hundred hours, Abel." he said sternly, uncharacteristic scowl making his hansome face distort in wrong ways, when he looked at the eager blond. "as for you two..."
"I'm going to help them, I've just translated my part." Abel cut in quickly, seeing that neither Djinn nor Carmilla knew what to say. "we'll be done in a flash, sir."
"You better be."
After he stomped away and the whole bridge took a breather, Djinn turned to Abel.
"Hey, thanks a lot. I didn't think that we did so bad to make him like this."
"Oh, you didn't. "Abel smiled broadly. "I don't know what happened, but he is like this since morning. Don't mind it." he bent over Djinn's console and looked at her screen. "Did you try Magellan's method?"
"I did, but it didn't respond."
"Hm..." Abel hit the keys for a moment, thinking. Then, with more vigour, he wrote a line in code and accepted it. All lights previously in alarming red, now flashed friendly green.
Abel took their double thanks with a nod of his fair head and a little laugh. He waved them goodbye, already leaving to help someone else and Djinn sighed with relief that some of her work had been taken from her shoulders, but she snapped to attention again, seeing that Carmilla looked after Abel with a scowl not much different from Keeler's.
Asked what was wrong, Carmilla tensed.
"Weird, wasn't it? That he got it so easily..."
/
Castor's commlink beeped.
"Finally!" he stated with satifaction. He was pulling the file from the communicator to his tablet, when a disheveled blue head popped out from under a duvet on the lower bed.
"Whatcha yellin' about?" Seiryu asked through a wide yawn.
"I finally retrieved the data we needed. We still need to decode it though, but that's a start."
"Show me?" Seiryu sat on the bed, scratching his shaggy head. It wasn't long since he left the bridge and he could certainly use some hours of uninterrupted sleep, but maybe when they come back to the base after the mission...
"I don't think it's any language you know." Castor pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
"Show me nonetheless. Wanna see." after a moment of confused silence, Seiryu handed back the tablet he impatiently had laid his hands on. "Yup, total gibberish. What we gonna do with that?"
"Give to Carmilla."
Seiryu made a face of complete disbelief.
"Really? Look, I know it's not reliable coming from me, but I'm pretty good at what I do. You think she is better?"
"Believe me, she is. At least Faraday said so and I believe our Comander."
"Then she must be a god or something." Seiryu still looked unconvinced, but resigned from an argument and covered his head with a duvet again.
/
A good night's sleep did wonders to Helios and his concentration, so he couldn't help himself from humming quietly, while marching to the docking bay. He had made plans with Selene to check their ship and then go together to find some unoccupied flying sims. Thanks to the last days' events, Helios didn't have much time to spend with his navigator, since Keeler put everybody on double shifts to speed up translating and decoding the data retrieved from the derelict. Selene was coming to their room nearly transparent from exhaustion, usually in tow with Helios himself or another navigator coming off work. Last night, as Helios had been occupied with a task Encke gave him all of a sudden, they had met just in front of their door, with Selene, being supported on an arm of Faraday's fighter, a tall guy with navy blue hair and a characteristic scar on the bridge of his nose. Helios knew him from training – he was code-named "Suzaku" and was exceptionally good with his aim, but nonetheless, Helios had nearly ripped Selene from him in a sudden act of baseless jealousy.
Today however, as it was Selene's well deserved day off, they decided to spend together some time after Helios finished his PTs and what could have been better than a flying simulation? Not to mention that it would mean being close together in a closed capsule with no prying eyes, but with relatively healthy and rested Selene and as such, Helios could think of some usages of this situation...
Deep in his sweet daydream, he was about to pass rarely used corridor leading to cargo rooms, when a string of colors, a movement caught his attention. He stopped abruptly in his tracks. Was it a person he noticed? What would they be doing there? Aware that Kepler didn't carry any cargo that would require checking on it, Helios tensed. He didn't know what to do, but something told him it might be important. So, before he could second guess his choice, quickly and quietly, he followed his hunch.
The person that sneaked into the bay must have felt rather confident and using a communicator of some sort as Helios could hear only one voice.
"... why not? You said it wasn't a problem." at first he couldn't place it, the person was talking quietly. "I know, but that's not we agreed on. Listen, it's not like I have to have it now, but it would be a damn help if you hurried."
Moving very, very slowly, Helios managed to silently get near the door and peek around the corner. Baffled, he nearly betrayed his presence by gasping at the sight in front of his eyes. Luckily for him, the one inside the room laughed and quietened his blunder.
"You don't talk much, huh?" Muffin asked, cocking her head to the side. "Alright, you know what? Let's say you hurry up and steal it tonight? Yes, if nothing happens. And then my boss will get you off the hook and, who knows?, maybe even reward? Yeah, yeah, I'm joking, chill. So, as we agreed, huh? You don't even know how much it makes my work easier. Thanks, Deimos."
When Muffin emerged from the isolated corridor, Helios had already fled from his observation spot. Unusual situation he had seen made him frown in uncomfortable premonition that there was something strange going on and he was apparently missing it entirely. He didn't talk much to Deimos, but knew quite well the guy didn't talk to just anybody or made a deal with them, for that matter. Why he did with Muffin? Who was 'the boss' she was talking about? Faraday? Or someone else altogether?
Deciding with a sigh that it was surely not for his brainpower to ponder about, Helios made a note to himself to tell Selene everything, the more so that he was just approaching the docking bay.
However, one step inside made him immediately loose his good mood, as he could see people crowding around and shouting, most probably with hostility. Elbowing his way through a group of yelling technicians and fighters, Helios almost toppled over with relief finding Selene safe and sound, even if a little confused.
"What happened?!" Helios yelled at the top of his voice, trying to get through the noise. He protectively shielded Selene with his bigger frame from any stray punches that could come that way.
"There was... an accident." Selene said, as if not sure himself. He clutched to his fighter, so he wouldn't be swayed by crowding people. "Cain said something was wrong with his ship!"
"That's all?!"
"No!"
Helios didn't pay much attention to what exactly people were yelling about, but in the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of someone fighting in the middle of gathered fighters. Cain was standing there, his usual scowl in place, but he was watching the fight with intensity uncharacteristic even for him. Helios startled, when Selene hugged him closer and his attention switched back.
"I checked his and Abel's ship!" Selene had to raise his voice as well. "She's grounded! Her systems were all off the charts!"
"... what. Jesus!"
"We disconnected the auxilary drive and told others to do the same! It's dangerous!"
"I bet it is." Helios looked again over the heads of the crowd, this time with much interest following violent tremors in the fight. He could distinguish two people defending while all others were attacking, waiting for their turn in tight circle. Who was that..?
"I caught two fighters from Commander Faraday's squad." Selene continued. "they checked their ships and said they were okay, so other people got interested and said some things..." Selene looked strangely confused, as if some unlikely ideas came to his head and he considered them nonetheless. "They started to wonder who could do such a thing and someone said that it was all their fault and... and..."
Someone fell in the crowd after being punched soundly and in the space made by a missing person, Helios noticed Pollux, spitting away blood from a busted lip and standing back to back with Suzaku, presently raising his bloodied fists to defend from a sloppily thrown hit.
/
Lestat spat her cereal back into her bowl, when a newly arrived mail opened on her tablet. Ignoring disgusted looks the fighters near her sent her way, she shoved the monitor in Gasket's direction. Gasket calmly put down her sandwich and chewed what she already had in mouth before taking it.
"Oh."
"Don't fucking 'oh' me, Gasket! Move!"
Lestat jumped to her feet, in one hand taking the pad and with the other gripping her partner's shoulder, she marched to the exit, still cursing quietly.
The mail she got from Castor was short: "Phase II finished. Commencing preparations for Phase III."
/
Carmilla was just coming out of one of the rooms, when she was suddenly tackled with much force and dragged into nearby niche. Before any thought about screaming or struggling could cross her mind, a hand covering her mouth lifted and Selene hushed her in an urgent voice.
"Hey, it's me."
Carmilla observed as he checked both sides for something and only then turned to her when he was sure nobody was coming. His features were tight with tension and Carmilla, taken aback, took his face in hands, trying to find or guess what was wrong.
"Listen." Selene gently, but confidently removed her fingers from his chin, frowning. "I discovered something and I think I can overhaul that, but... do you work on the intranet pad? Is it connected?"
"No, my friend said Kepler's security isn't so good, so we isolated some of our workpads to ensure..."
"Good! Give me one."
Carmilla fumbled with her utility belt, handing her brother the device he wanted, worried by his too bright and feverish eyes. "Alright, but what are you..."
"Is 'sabotage' telling you something?" Selene was irritated, that much was apparent. He was also afraid he was already too late in his actions, which was driving him crazy, but when the question was asked, he had to take a second look at his sister. Carmilla, instead of becoming wide-eyed example of snow-white innocence, tightened her lips in a thin line and her face hardened into something impossible to read. It was Selene's turn to become worried.
"Actually, it is." Carmilla said, gripping her brother's elbow with strength he didn't suspect she had in her. Before he could react more decisevely however, Carmilla code-opened the door she previously left and stormed inside. The room was occupied; a navigator was sitting by the table, engrossed in his notes, but he raised his fair head, when the twins tumbled in together.
"Oh?" Castor turned to them, silent question evident in the arch of his eyebrow. "Did something happen? You just left not so long a-"
"Selene has something to say." Carmilla interrupted him, then turned to her brother. Selene took in a shuddering breath, when both navigators looked at him with similar, stony eyes. "what was that you were saying about sabotage, brother?"