Symbiotic ship

Current Operation: Further Investigations

It was an interesting walk back into the Sin Eater. Sarah had been fired right into the ship, and stuck like a dart in a board. She explained her sudden appearance as getting spooked by what she thought was the intruder, but was just a chimera. A few wandering crab-like chimera walked the scene, but after about the third one security figured they were a waste of ammo.

Sarah found herself in her room, looking over the pilfered data. She started with the plans of the ship, but soon got bored and decided to look up some other stuff. A review of mutated plants and animals turned up a lot of movies and comics, a few of which she bookmarked for later, but nothing solid. At about 2 AM she decided to search for the Sin Eater.

So many articles. Speculation, horror stories, film after film, it even had a category on something called a Creepy pasta. Sarah tried to read them, but was too tired.

The alarm went off at 8 and Sarah checked her assignments. To her dread, rather than a list of tasks, three words read across the screen.

Confined to quarters. Trying to open the door, Sarah found she couldn't. After about fifteen minutes of trying she gave up. In an attempt to not think about it, she started reading the stories about the Sin Eater. Most concluded it had malfunctioned and was destroyed. A few even had some pretty good romance sub plots between various high ranking team members. One suggested Emma was in a relationship with James, and in the end they jumped into the engine core rather than starving to death. That one got a big bookmark.

Finally, Sarah was called to James's office. She walked in and withered under his piercing gaze. Lei stood guard, giving little reason to wonder why she was here.

"Sarah." James said. "Did you violate orders and go on the ship."

Sarah thought about it. "Yes." She tried to look sorry, but it was pretty obvious she wasn't, and would do it again in a heartbeat.

"Sarah," he sighed. "There is a reason we asked you not to go over there. You're not even cleared for a shell walker, how did you even get over there? You don't have a suit." Sarah's eyes wandered to Lei, surprised he hadn't ratted her out. He refused to meet her gaze. "Do you know how much trouble you're in?"

"About as much as you are." Sarah said. James and Lei looked confused. Sarah took out her tablet and pressed a few buttons. "Court case 395847uze. And I quote, 'Today the collective chiefs of the interstellar vehicle the Sin Eater were found guilty of numerous violations of intergalactic law, chief among them being getting lost in the utter blackness of space. If they are ever found, each will be sentenced to one month in jail for every year they have been derelict in their duties, an approximate 25 years at present, in the Universal Council's secret prison on the planet Northern Neo Uranus." Sarah pressed a few buttons and sent the file to James. He looked stunned.

"What, no, that's not fair." He read the article, and re-read it. "Wait..." He looked up at Sarah. "This is from a satire news site!"

Sarah grinned, and Lei looked stunned. "Eh, it was worth a shot. So, how long am I grounded for?"

"Well, that depends, how much did you get on that tablet?" He must have seen Sarah's confused expression. "We didn't actually get the information we wanted before the ship flew off, something went wrong with the gravity tether. Yes, Carlos tried pinning it on you, but being on the other ship is the perfect alibi, so you're safe on that account. So, what did you get?"

"I got the plans for the ship, a few other things, and as much data as I could about the Sin Eater. Apparently we're as well known as the Bermuda triangle. That, and a lot of authors like to pair you and Emma together." That got a look. "Yeah, and Carlos is apparently anything from a sniveling coward to a courageous war hero. It varies a lot. I couldn't find anything on the organism though, I tired." Sarah hit a few buttons and sent the files to the ship. Almost immediately the e-mails started popping up, something about the date changing 473 years and 7 days.