Text; UN: NavySpear

[charlieoscar]

There were people here before, right? So where's all their stuff? Even if they all got chest-bursted their belongings should still be here, but I didn't find so much as a toothbrush in my cabin.

Has anybody found anything useful?

Comments

[solarcharged]

Yeah. I tried making replacements but it's just really obvious whenever you play the 3 of diamonds, 9 of spades or jack of clubs.

[charlieoscar]

You could try replacing half of them.

Or get really good at solitaire.

[solarcharged]

Or snap. I'm pretty good at snap. And I'm now officially a card tower building champion.

...There isn't really much to do on this station, can you tell?

[charlieoscar]

So what is here? What's the day to day?

[solarcharged]

There's a gym and a bar. And I think they're trying to clean the pool up too but I've no idea how well that's going. So it's mostly exercising and drinking yourself silly. Take your pick.

[charlieoscar]

And hopefully a concentrated effort to get the hell out of here's mixed in somewhere?

Any word on your plan to pop some doors?

[solarcharged]

We're still working on Project Door. Coming up with a new codename is top of the list. And figuring out how to create an airlock around the door in question.

[charlieoscar]

I don't know, could be worse. It's short, simple, and easy to remember.

You come up with any better idea as to what might be waiting behind it? Even with the failsafe of an airlock, it's best to be prepared. Or to try and be, anyway.

[solarcharged]

No further ideas, no. We're all so madly out of our depths here, there's no hint as to what could be waiting for us on the other side. Other than just being ready to shut down the whole deck, what can we do? It feels so useless.

[charlieoscar]

You're not just ripping it open without any go-ahead plan, that's not nothing. And you realize you can't know every single possibility.

Both are good places to start from. Ego kills as much as anything else.

[solarcharged]

[ Apollo hadn't realised just how much he needed to read the reassurance in Mike's words. He's grateful for it, and pauses to reread his words a few times before typing back a response. ]

Yeah. This isn't my forte. Normally other people do the planning and just point me in the direction of something that needs blowing up.

[charlieoscar]

[Mike understands his self-doubt. He'd been there. Remembered vividly what it had felt like, that first time he'd stood on the bridge of the James and had looked expectantly to his right and found only a window instead of Tom. That's what it had really hit him that it was all on him.]

I've been there. And I can tell you it doesn't really get any easier. But for what it's worth, I meant it.

If you're starting as you mean to go on, I'd stand with you.

[solarcharged]

[ Somewhere along the lines this conversation became important. Apollo stares at the words on his comms device, oddly touched by them and surprised by just how feeling they unearth within him. The last time anyone put him in charge of something it didn't end too well. That was nearly twenty years ago. Taking control of anything since Stormwatch Zero had felt like too dangerous for Apollo to risk it -- or for him to risk anyone else. ]

Thanks. That means a lot.

[ The words feel oddly small in comparison to the depth of feeling that inspired them. But there isn't much more he can bring himself to type. ]

[charlieoscar]

[Mike senses it, more from the long pause between messages than anything.]

You're welcome.

[Damned if he can let sentimentality just lie though.]

Get me killed and I swear I'll find a way to haunt your ass.

[solarcharged]

[ That makes him smile. ]

Yeah, yeah, like that would be any creepier than the rest of this station.

[charlieoscar]

Maybe not at first. But, hell, I'd have plenty of time on my hands to learn.