angel of the morning :: corpsekkuno

ii

"So you want me to believe that there's a 'bad guy' aboard my ship." The sarcasm in his tone and mocking quotation marks around the words "bad" and "guy" were just insults to his injury seeing as it was, indeed, the truth. Staff Sergeant McLoughlin and I exchanged knowing sideways glances with each other behind the back of the ship's main electrician, who was the volunteer to be the bearer of bad news. Keyword: volunteer.

"Well, yes, sir." His voice had shrunk back a notch or two as compared to earlier. "Of course, no one blames you for this matter."

Toast put his head in his hands in frustration. To be quite honest, I did feel bad. Toast had just been promoted to this new position, and his first real task was to take charge and make sure this ship remained in tip-top shape, whether it was the maintenance or the crew. The stress Toast was under was felt by all the Master Sergeants directly below him, which just so happened to be me.

"So what do you suppose we should do?" Toast's defeated tone was unmasked, and I felt my heart break just a little for the man that supported me through everything. "I'm fresh out of ideas. I don't know how to weed out traitors; Corpse can tell you that much."

At that, Sykkuno and SSgt McLoughlin both glance at me, but I hold my gaze firm on Toast. It was one of Toast's bigger insecurities, and I didn't want to draw any attention to that fact by reacting to his comment. His unveiled vulnerability was indicative of his true feelings of inadequacy as a Senior Master Sergeant, and it left me at a painful loss of words to comfort my old friend.

"I know I'm really in, uh, no real place to suggest this," Sykkuno pipped up. "But what if we kinda just do a surveillance thingy." Toast peaks one of his eyes out from the coverage of his hands.

"A 'surveillance thingy'?" He made no move to hide his disappointed tone.

"Well, I mean that we need to be on the look out for, uh, suspicious characters." Sykkuno looks to McLoughlin and myself for reassurance, to which the Staff Sergeant eagerly gives with a quick wink and a thumbs up.

"We know for sure that this person doesn't need to be in electrical to, um, mess up Lights." I internally thanked him for sparing us his electrical terminology. "And that also lets us know that this person also doesn't need to be in any other vital area of the ship in order to sabotage it.

"I'm not necessarily saying that we, I dunno, completely lay off guarding these areas. I'm just saying that we need people around there for when these places are sabotaged in order to fix them in time; this especially holds true to our Reactor Compound and O2." Sykkuno holds his breath and glances slightly back at me from the corner of his eye. "Instead of worrying about our defenses, though, we have to take on the offensive."

I quizzically squint my eyes at him. "How will we even be able to tell this traitor apart from the rest of the crew? For all we know, he who-must-not-be-named could be anyone on this godforsaken ship."

"Yes," Toast draws out, interested. "How do you suppose we sus out the right person?"

"Well, I can already tell our perpetrator is getting antsy. The time between cut Lights is getting shorter and shorter, and it'll be anytime now that he'll get ahold of our other stations. And..." Sykkuno trails off, looking down at his grease stained pants.

"And what, boy?" Toast anxiously questions, his hands now fully removed and placed flat on his desk in anticipation.

"And, um, I fear that our, uh, traitor is out for blood, high ranking blood." His words hung in the air like a pungent, lingering smell. Sykkuno keeps his eyes averted as he wrings his hands behind his back while Toast and I exchange a knowing glance. He cocks his head at me, silently asking if I believe this mere electrician's theory.

I turn my head and fully take in the boy standing in front of me. He was youthful in nearly every sense of the word, naive and happy. While he may have some obvious self-confidence issues that could be mistaken as a lack of respect for authority, he seemed like a genuine person, and this deep part of me wanted to believe everything he was saying.

This other part, though... The part that got me through boot camp, with its awful drills and constant harassment from my superiors, was screaming at me to toss him out of the airlock. It was telling me that trusting him would be the last "good samaritan" deed I'd ever do.

Sykkuno discreetly glanced back at me again, and our eyes met for the briefest of seconds before he froze up and immediately turned his gaze back to the floor. The warmth that began spreading throughout my chest caught me off guard as I kept my eyes fixated on his reddened ears. Sighing, I nod.

"Alright," Toast affirms. "We'll take your advice. Albeit, we are going to spruce it up a little, add a few weapons here, sprinkle a few buff guys there...you get the picture."

Sykkuno perks up and smiles at Toast. "Oh, Jesus! I-"

"Up-up-up! Wait a minute," Toast cuts him off. "Before you go and give your thanks and such, you have to know that now that you work directly for me, I'm going to have to reel in your reigns a bit, keep you a little closer to me." I found myself suppressing a smile as Sykkuno's confusion was almost palpable.

"Master Sergeant Corpse." I look over at Toast. "You're gonna be partners with this boy until further notice, so make sure you make all the appropriate accommodations for him."

"Hmm?" I hum, still mildly dazed.

"I'll make sure to get some GIs to bring up this boy's stuff from his bunk to your room where you guys will work up strategies to nail this bastard." This boy...my room...strategies to nail...I trailed along in thought, not entirely processing the meaning of Toast's orders.

"Oh, no! That's not really necessary!" Sykkuno looks back and forth between me and Toast, his eyes pleading with me to object as well. "I'm sure Master Sergeant Corpse is fully capable of handling matters such as this on his own! I'm just-"

"Now, now. No need to be so modest." Toast waves his hand in dismissal. "If you and Corpse put your heads together, you'll be able to do it much faster." Me and Sykkuno's heads...together...doing it...faster.

McLoughlin slightly nudged my shoulder with his own, snapping me out of my thoughts. I look at him confused as he darts his eyes between me and Toast before I catch on.

"Ohh," I now realize. "Wait! Wait!"

"Wait nothing," Toast snaps. "I have already made up my mind. Master Sergeant Corpse, Staff Sergeant McLoughlin, Thomas: you are all dismissed."

Sighing inwardly, McLoughlin and I salute Toast before turning on our heels to exit the room. From the corner of my eye, I see Sykkuno awkwardly salute him and rush out of the room to follow me, but not before tripping over his own feet and stumbling to regain his balance.

"Good fucking god, what am I going to do," I murmur under my breath as the squeaks of Sykkuno's boots reverberate through the halls.