[[Historically|history]], the use of the organic starship received criticism from religious, political, and enviromentalist parties. The use of growing and evolving matter to support the area of survival within any given part of a ship was seen as dangerous to some, and immoral to others; the classic metal models, built and perfected much earlier, were getting the jobs done as easily as ever, and there was little room for a small and potentially fatal market. However, the actions of one such politician--Klaus Hartjen--reversed that with an upcoming company's radical concept of spaceship design: a sleek and innovative model of spaceship designed to filter and function with as little as a quarter of the crew needed to upkeep a metal ship. Though risky, Hartjen funded the creation of three such ships designed for cargo transportation. The lab-grown matter that lined the innards of the ships filtered the air and water of the ship, managed its heat supplies, and cleaned self-sufficiently. Needless to say, metal ships soon became much more rare to see; and harder to get work for. However, [[you|tessa]] were lucky enough to grab a technician's job onboard the ISS Comet.The Spacediver, known formally as the SS Solar Flare, was the first manned spaceship, metal or organic, to successfully travel beyond the edges of Earth's solar system to explore what lay beyond the relatively small area that humans dwelled within. Developed in the year 2066, the Spacediver was a now-obsolete behemoth of a spaceship, designed primarily to transport large amounts of raw materials and house a small group of pilots in order to direct the ship itself. The technology to terraform Earth had been developed little more than two decades ago, and the process to improve Earth's output of remaining materials was still moving slowly enough that fear of a barren world drove those brave enough to develop a way of transportation that could hold and sustain a colony of forty human beings until they reached a suitable planet that could provide anything to revive a dying Earth. Truthfully, the colony aboard the Spacediver did little to find this planet. The amount of both water and food needed to keep alive the colony could not be gathered nor grown on the spaceship itself. Instead, the pilots remained in cryogenic hypersleep for the better part of seven years. During that time, the ship automatically ran a series of systems that provided for the colony the essentials to running a healthy body, though the effects of hypersleep greatly lessened this required amount. Outside of the bounds of the solar system--which the Spacediver crossed two years into the journey--did the Spacediver's radars sense the possibility of a planet covered with vegetation chemically and biologically similar to that on Earth. Waking from hypersleep proved to take little time. Though six of the bodies on board did not survive the strain of the cryogenic solution, the remainder of the colony found itself filling the Spacediver with a variety of hardy and resilient shrubs and saplings, some already being sent to a small observation and testing lab to see if the atomic structures were similar to any known lifeform on Earth. The trip back took four years--one was spent on the planet, dubbed Einope by the colony. Though the ship itself was sturdy and built for space travel, the actual, physical conditions only simulated in lab and on Earth proved stressful for the Spacediver to manage. The engines slowly burned out, though they managed to transport the colonists safely back. Still though, there was always a little bit of [[unease|Start]] after that.You'd been apart of the shipcrew for several months now, apprenticed under a Captain whose no-nonense attitude had rubbed off onto you like a second skin. Your little corner of the ship, filled with wires wrapping around pipes like vines and a thick exoskeleton of reinforced metals, was as comfortable as your home on Earth. You weren't scared much anymore, crawling around and tightening screws and fixing minor issues. It was even relaxing at times to sit on the grids, high above the main floor, and look down at the people who crawled around like ants below. [[One day|alien]], someone mentioned to you that your ship was carrying something special.It was Annalise who brought it up. You were sitting in the small cafeteria, eating the typical space fare under dim, flickering lights; you would have to change those later, surely. Nothing was particularly interesting about the food, or the conversation, or the way that silence fell over the deck as soon as everyone sat down together. It was a tradition the Captain liked to keep up; she said it would raise spirits if everyone remembered they were in it together. But Annalise gave you that look, and you stopped pushing around your noodles to devote your attention to [[her|talk]]. (live:2s) "Hey, uh, Tessa? Have you been down to the lower decks lately, with the cargo? I know we usually don't have any malfunctions down there, but I've been hearing some stuff moving around in there, like sparks." (live:4s) She looks around and lowers her head, eyes drilling into yours with something you'd rarely seen up here: true fear. "I've heard some rumors that something bad is going on up here, and they had to send us out on this old ship to stop it. Remember when we landed back on Epsis a week or two ago? Jeremiah said that something was loaded into the docks." (live:10s) "I want to go check it out but...I'm afraid to go see. If you can make some time to come with me, I'd appreciate it. You [[consider|choice]] her words for a minute. Something...dangerous?Really, it's quite obvious what you should do; it's the same thing the Captain would want you to do. [["If you can meet me in about two hours, I should be ready to go see if anything's down there.|go]] [["I don't really like the idea of snooping around in the cargo; they always told me to stay up here."|stay]]She nods and looks away. "See you then, I suppose. Meet me at the side entrance, would you? Don't want anyone to get too worried." Annalise walks away; there is still suspicion lingering in your mind, but you easily brush it off. [[Two hours later, she's standing her uniform, and you're holding a mechanic's light and your toolkit on your back.|descend]]Annalise frowns, and sits with her back straight against her chair. "I mean, I just wanted to make sure that we were going to be safe up here, y'know? I have a family back down on Earth, and I want to make sure I get back when I'm supposed to. What if something spilled and we were poisoned? I couldn't bear the thought of them throwing a funeral because we were lied to." She pushes herself away from the table, grabbing her plate in one tense hand. "I have to go enter in some coordinates for our next stretch, alright? Keep us safe, Tessa." You watch her walk away from you, eyes narrowed. It's not that you don't trust her, [[but Captain would want to hear the rumors.|rumors]]Dumping your food, you climb out of the cafeteria deck and make your way up the ship. The thunk of your boots against the metal steps falls into a staccato rhythm as you keep going up. (live: 5s) And up, and up, until you feel like you're brushing against the edge of the galaxy itself, and the cold, dead air is wrapping around your neck just like an umbilical cord, strangling you. (live: 10s)You have to stop yourself from thinking that way; it's quite morbid, especially when you're about to speak with someone so important. She would want to see you at your best. (live: 15s)The Captain's door slides open when you reach it; [[her cameras were on again.|captain]]She's sitting in her desk, travel logs surrounding the room and a communication pad directly below her hands; you can see the letters popping up quickly, even as she looks up to nod at you. You give her a salute in response, and take a few steps into the room. "Captain Sarah. I need to tell you about something," you begin, lowering your hand back to your side. It shakes a little as the Captain looks at you. "You could have sent it over a communicator, you know," she gestures down at her own. "Unless it's too important for the rest of the crew to know you're sending?" It takes you a minute to find the right words to respond. She always knows what the exact issue is. [["There's been rumors of...something...down in the lower decks."|laugh]]The Captain gives you an odd look, something of suspicion and pride, before bursting out into a raging laugh. "Oh, those rumors? I've already heard about those, Tessa! It's nothing but some crawlers that got attached to the dermal layer of the ship." Her laughter quells your worries a bit, but there's still that choking fear of malaise from earlier. "I just...wanted to make sure that you knew about them. Cameras don't always pick up every word," you say, giving her a small smile to convince her you're alright. "Yes, yes, but my ears work perfectly fine, too. You're just the same as ever, Tessa." She speaks to you now with a fondness, born from the training sessions you spent together. The fact that you would doubt her, at all, sticks to the back of your throat and makes your shaking hands a little colder. [["I'm sorry for doubting anything. I'm going to go back to eating now," you weakly say.|end1]]Even before she dismisses you, you turn and walk out. Before, the rhythm of your boots was comforting. Now, it's a blunt and harsh noise at every connection. Again, you feel things crawling around in your mind. (live: 5s)Like the thought of crawling out the airlock, the emergency gate, out into the openness of space. (live: 10s)And floating like a child would, unworried for only a second before the lack of oxygen registered in your body until you were nothing but a husk, floating in total darkness. (live: 15s) You shake away these thoughts, and walk back into the lower decks. You hear the familiar hiss of a steam pipe, the pressure pushing against the metal and threatening to break. It would be best to replace that now. And that's what you do, without thinking about Annalise or the Captain or anything below your feet. You work, like you came up here to do, and you keep a strong hold on your thoughts; that is the best you can do for now.Neither of you feel the need to say anything; without any ceremony, you unlock the door and begin walking down the stairs. Quickly, you fall into a rhythm of walking with her. One foot after another after another, until you're creating a symphony with only your feet and the occasional knocking of a hand against the wall's panels. [[You never quite realized how big this ship was.|enter]]Eventually, you reach a door. There's a keypass on it. Annalise looks at you, and then down at her own pass. "One of us is going to have to do it and, I guess this was my idea, yeah?" She slips forward and slides her pass down in a fluid motion, the red light blinking to green after a few seconds. The door hisses as it slides back; your breath frosts up in the face of the chilly, dim hallway before you. You look at Annalise, who looks at you, and you're both a bit fearful of entering the hallway. [[You tell yourself not to be afraid of the cargo, and you walk.|hall]]Your uniform wasn't particularly made for walking down chilly, mildly creepy hallways. You usually worked with the hotter parts of the ship: steam pipes, engines, wires. Annalise fared better than you, sitting in a dock that needed cooling systems in order to keep the computers working properly. She still shivered as you walked. "Do you...feel anything? Like there's something...crawling around?" Annalise asks, causing you to jump after a long period of silence. You listen hard for a moment, and turn back to her. "No, not particularly? It could just be the ship's panels shifting in the cold." She shakes her head, red hair moving back and forth past her eyes. [["I mean in your thoughts, Tessa.|mind]]You scrunch your eyebrows together and consider her for a moment, unsure of how to feel. Her fears weren't exactly your fears. Your mechanical light didn't light up much, but if she feared the dark... Wait. You feel something, scratching away at your internal monologue. It's small, but it's like a bug moving up your arm. You cock your head to the side and shake at the sensation, trying to dislodge the thing from your head. But instead, you think of the space around you, and the coolness of the hallway. (live: 15s) And how welcoming it would be to break down the panels with your toolkit, and burrow out like a termite... (live: 20s)And how comforting it would be to be alone, in space, but you wouldn't be alone because something would be with you, something old and protecting of it's children. (live: 25s)Annalise pushes you gently, but enough to stop your train of thought. [[For some reason, your hands were bent back to reach into your kit.|continue]]"Oh, God." That is all you can manage, but you pull your hands back. The mechanical light resting in your grip illuminates you two, and your shadows loom all around. You point it directly forward, so that the shadows melt away. "We have to finish up down here, Annalise," you tell her. She nods quickly, and you take the lead in your journey. [[You walk until you see a door, plain and unassuming, with a simple lock on it.|door]]The crawling in the back of your mind becomes bigger, heavier, and you shake away the sensation of it. "It would...be alright if we didn't go in and look, Tessa," Annalise says. Even in the edges of the light, you see her hands shake as she rests one on your shoulder. "I think we should just trust in the Captain, yeah? She taught you well enough...so I think I can trust her on this." It's a quick decision this time, not like before. [["We should leave, yes. We're wasting time down here, and I...I don't like it down here. It's too cold."|end2]] [["No. We made it down here, and we have to know what's going on. What if we're in danger? You don't want any funerals with our names.|end3]]She lets out a sigh. "Thank God. I'll take the blame for being down here, but we need to just...make sure that we forget about this, probably." Her voice is weak, but you know she will stand firm in keeping your decision. "Let's leave, Tessa." You both turn, and the crawling in the back of your head grows a little weaker. And with every step away from the room, it lightens, until the only thoughts of space you have are those of the ship itself and how to take care of. When you reach the lower decks, you laugh a little, and Annalise joins you. For a second, she feels like your older sister, laughing at some inane prank you would pull back down on Earth. You turn and look out at the stars through the blast glass. They're dim and far away, but it's like looking out from Earth. It feels like home where you're standing, and you don't doubt that. You decide not to doubt anyone here--your family--as you make your way to your room, ready to sleep away this day.You grab the handle of the door. It's not locked, you realize, and your eyes go wide. Wasn't Captain worried about something being stolen, one of the specimen that you were transporting going missing? It would come out of your paycheck, and her paycheck-- (live: 5s)The room is empty, save for a simple mass of...something. (live: 10s)Annalise holds her breath, and you feel static in your head, buzzing and moving around the edges of your skull. The mass moves towards you, slowly, and you can hardly comprehend that it moved at all. (live: 15s) You hear a scream; it could be Annalise's or it could be yours. The mass is closer than it was before. (live: 20s) Your body moves, turning to preserve itself before your thoughts can catch up, but all you can think about is static and space. Your hands can't grip the handle of the door. (live: 25s)The mass is brushing against you. It doesn't feel like anything, but the static is louder than before. You're aware of the space all around you. It's reassuring but dark and frightening, and there's another scream. You can't see Annalise anywhere. (live: 30s)You should have told the Captain about the rumors. (live: 35s) [[You feel yourself somewhere else.|space]]It's dark, and you can't see or smell or hardly think, but you're somewhere. It feels cool around you, not quite icy but like an autumn, back down on Earth. Earth...that was something a long time ago, you remember. You don't know how long you've been floating up wherever you were. Something moves in the edges of the darkness. It's shapeless but you can still sense its movements, floating not towards you but just...around. Protecting you, mothering you. It's quite lovely to have found a family in space; you can't remember any other family before. Perhaps you had been here forever, and you were just remembering something fake and false, a myth from another world. You float, peacefully, and the shapeless thing lets out a singular noise, like static and violins. It's pleased that you're with it, you think, and you keep floating. The ISS Comet is nothing more than a story now, to you, and you for a moment remember the hands of someone guiding you to tighten a screw, grinning as it reset a pipe into place. There are no pipes in space, nothing but you and your mother. That is the way it should be.