The Navigator

14. Estonia

Author's Note: TRIGGER WARNING, implied violence, death and gore.

Song Credit: Encounter, by Max Richter

Disclaimer: This Chapter contains some mature language and sexual themes. This story is rated mature so discretion is advised.

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The devolving of the Estonia was something akin to a private hanging, a slow yet steady climb up the scaffold, a quiet and stoic gaze across emptiness then a quick drop with a short and final stop.

It had started among the crew, the three by this point had moved onto the Bridge; Jax on one of his first runs as a solo Navigator, Billy was working communications and Dade was running logistics and personnel, so they were not the first to be affected or notice the small changes. The hostilities, the uptick in violence over small insults, the tension. None of these things were unusual in isolation on any ship, but especially not on a FTL equipped Class II starship. Months in space does things to people, and some conflict is to be expected. Which helped explain why it took so long to notice, assisted the survivors in justifying their inaction to themselves so they didn't go mad.

A closer glance would have shown them the differences, the unsettling rage that now dominated each person who was taken to the brig for starting trouble. In all truth it probably was noticed by the person who spent some of their time meeting out justice in these cases. However, while it was acrimony that curled inside the crew it was a frigid slyness that gripped their Captain. A Captain who no longer punished the wrongdoers in any real way, but released them with a 'talking to' and ignored repeat offenses.

It was this unusual action that clued the three into the odd happenings, but it wasn't until Billy was requested to scan empty radio waves continuously, ignoring communications coming in from normal channels, that it became obvious to them that something very strange was happening. A low level suspicion that started to grow; something was wrong with the Captain.

The man was usually jovial yet stern, meeting you joke for joke until the crucial moment where something went too far, then his dark hooded eyes would snap to you demanding the silence that would quickly come. He was a man that was respected and well loved, but now his once sure step was halting, the humor gone, the sharp eyes now glazed. It was unsettling, and the three had discussed the obvious changes but what could they do? Even as officers, no offense had been great enough to detain a Captain, it would be disastrous to start something of that nature now. If it got worse, they told themselves, then they would do something. They thought they still had time.

When Billy, while scanning the empty channels, started hearing the voices that penetrated deep into his brain and lingered where he couldn't chase them out, the Captain did nothing for the convulsing young man seizing on the ground. Jax and Dade realized they had a choice to make; their assigned duties, or risk coming up against charges to help.

They chose Billy, picking him up off the floor and dragging him away trying to find help for their now raving friend. When they heard the same channel start to be played over the ships speakers and watched those around them react in the same way as Billy, the men had exchanged the look that had bonded them for the rest of their lives. A decision that would continue to define them for as long as they took in oxygen and expelled carbon dioxide. They had to put an end to this, and they would do it together.

They locked Billy in his cabin, hacking into the security system of the door, changing the allowances so only their ID tags could open it. The journey back to the Bridge was not an easy one, what played over the speakers pulled at the edges of their sanity, amping up their aggression and tearing away their control. They were further inhibited by the remaining crew who had begun a systematic slaughter of each other. No one who survived the Estonia did so without blood on their hands, and that included Jax and Dade.