Legacy: Beyond the Veil

A million eyes

As it turned out, an actual lack of gravity was nothing like the freefall zero-g exercises Cai had been subjected to during his training at the academy. Perhaps it had something to do with how permanent the experience was: Simply knowing that the Striker Nebula would be on the float for at least a few more hours made his brain treat the feeling differently than it did when he only got a brief, twelve minute taste of it.

That wasn't to say that Cai disliked being without weight. The novelty of effortlessly launching himself through the ship's corridors hadn't worn off yet, and his training had prepared him enough to shrug off the disorienting dizziness and upset stomach which came with being weightless.

The final few seals of his null suit clicked shut and the mechanical arms of the armoring station retreated back into their niches. Cai pushed himself out of the alcove set into the outer wall of his bunk, now fully geared up.

His armored gauntlets closed around metal bars set into what could either be perceived as the ceiling or floor of his chamber, depending on which end of the ship was providing thrust.

Currently, neither of them was, so Cai supposed that all he really had was six different walls, two of which followed the rounded curve of the ship's hull. To call his bunk a chamber at all was a gross overstatement: The entire space was only about as large as two public bathroom stalls stitched together, providing him with the bare necessities of private space and sleeping accommodation.

Even then, his bunk was considered to be on the spacious side. Ships of the Vigilance class could also ferry along a total of sixteen passengers if need be. The bunks meant for them were located on the opposite side of the ship, sixteen potential passengers sharing the same amount of ship volume as six officers did. Cai did not mind the tight confines; they weren't too different from Svartheim, where he'd grown up. Some of the other cadets, especially those with a more luxurious upbringing, had more trouble adjusting to the claustrophobic interior of warstructs. Cai considered himself lucky on that front.

He hoisted himself to the airtight hatch set into the inner wall and caught his momentum reasonably well, only leaving him with a slight drift once he let go. That was one of the skills he was still working to improve on, though he doubted he'd ever get as good as Loten or Maxin, who had practically been raised in zero-g.

Using both legs and one arm, Cai anchored himself against the surfaces he could call up and down with his current orientation, then opened the hatches' mechanical lock and pulled it inwards.

Beyond his bunk laid the ship's spine: A hollow passageway leading from one end of the ship to the other. The five hatches leading to his crewmates' bunks were set into the walls at an equal distance to one another. Only Veriss, the ship's commander, didn't sleep here. Her chamber was located closer to the ship's core.

She and Loten were currently in their sleep cycles, and Harlan had the watch. Cai launched himself to the middle of the spine, then grabbed onto the ladder and flipped himself ninety degrees, like going from a front crawl to standing in the water, if he had been in a pool.

Cai kicked himself up towards the ship's center, using the bars of the ladder only as guidance as he let his gauntlets slide alongside them, the hatches in his way opening automatically as they sensed his approach. Ships in the Runoran navy were often built as skyscrapers, their decks lined up horizontally so that when the engines provided thrust, the linear acceleration of the ship gave the illusion of gravity. As such, even relatively small ships like the Striker Nebula counted fifteen decks. Cai passed several of them on his way up, viewing different sections of the ship as if he was moving through a cross-section.

Finally, Cai reached the crew's common area. He didn't have a real reason -or rather, no desire- to go there, but Captain Aduï's words lingered at the top of his mind. He decided that he should at least try the approach the old crone had suggested.