[RP] The 'Verse (Accepting profiles)

[DeirdreTonbo]

Aria gave Jas a little wave and then headed down the hallway Jaden had told her was the right one. Without turning her head to do more than count the corridors she passed and only on the right hand side. Talking about zombies didn't leave her wanting to peer down all the left hand ones as well as the right. Or maybe she should check those too? No, since she was just being silly and letting herself get worked up because she was walking through a dead boat all by herself.

At the fourth right, she paused, shining her light down the hall with one hand on the corner. She wasn't going to get lost. Neither Jaden nor Jas would leave without her even if they did get separated for a long time. Right. This was the correct corner. Wasn't it?

She started down the hallway and just about the point she was starting to really worry she was going the wrong way, Aria could see Jaden's light moving around ahead of her. Good thing it was silent, her sigh of relief was unknown to either of her companions. By the time Jaden could see her face, Aria was calm and composed as ever.  

[Akai_ryu]

Jaden navigated the twisting corridors quickly, only having to double back and make a different turn twice before finding Aria. The ship's muscle grinned at the companion before striding up and pressing hir helmet to Aria's as if giving her a kiss on the top of her head.

"I don't know anything about zombies, Aria, you've gotta ask the doc about those. Wouldn't think that radiation would do it anyway. All I've seen radiation do to a man is kill him in not so fun ways." Ze said, speaking loudly and clearly so Aria could hear hir through her helmet without speaking over the comms. "Anyway, they're all very dead. Engine room's this way."

Then, with that, Jaden patted her lightly on the shoulder and strode back the way ze came. The route that ze picked this time was less convoluted than hir previous one, but still involved threading the maze that was typical on ships. Before long, Jaden stopped in front of a sealed hatch.

"I think the engine room's through there." Ze muttered over the comms.  

[DeirdreTonbo]

Although she would never admit it (outloud) Aria had never been very good at strange ships. And dark, dead ones were worse. She was alwyas grateful that neither of the others gave her a hard time about it. The only time if had caused them a problem during a salvage had been when Aria had gotten good and truly lost on a derelict ship. Of course they had come and found her, but she still very rarely had dreams about it.

Aria smiled up at Jaden when they caught up to one another. "I brought you a clicker. It's in here somewhere."

She kept up with Jaden's longer legs just fine. If she hadn't been able to she could have just grabbed onto hir and let Jaden pull her along.

After Jaden spoke over the comm, Aria flicked hers on as well. "Jaswinder, is everything okay on your end?"  

[Akai_ryu]

"Four down, nine more to move to the common room." Jas reported dryly. "No zombies here."

Although the others couldn't hear it, Jaden snorted at Jas' reply. The ship's muscle took the geiger counter from Aria and fumbled with it for a minute before passing the sensor wand along the edges of the sealed door. Numbers scrolled through the digital display before Jaden came to a conclusion.

"Looks like they might have had a bit of a leak. Shouldn't kill us, I think. But, Cap, if you and Aria end up with two headed babies I'd blame this salvage." With that, Jaden handed Aria back the geiger counter and began digging in the bag full of items for use before they got on the ship.

A moment of careful digging later produced the same item ze had used to lay down a bead to breach the outer seal and a second detonator. Carefully, Jaden laid another bead down around the door and put the gun back into the bag before rigging up the detonator.

"I'm setting this for a thirty count. We should duck back into that last corridor." Jaden said as ze carefully started setting the timer.  

[DeirdreTonbo]

"Yours aren't going to be zombies, they're not in the engine room." Aria answered with a sassy wrinkle to her nose they couldn't see but could hear in her tone.

She accepted the clicker back from Jaden, putting it back into the bag she was carrying once ze found what ze was looking for. While Jaden was getting the detonator set up, Aria was already floating her bag of stuff down the hall to the first turn. There she waited a few seconds for Jaden to catch up.  

[Akai_ryu]

Jaden hit the timer on the detonator and in a few bounds covered the space between hirself and Aria. A thirty count was more than enough time, but Jaden had wanted to play it on the safe side. They were in a confined space with no air and in space suits. Playing it safe was probably for the best.

And that was why once Jaden had joined Aria in the first turn, ze pulled her back a few more steps. Less than a minute later the bead Jaden had laid down flared, melted through the bulkhead and the sealed door shot past the pair and down the corridor until it hit the bulkhead at the end of the corridor.

"I guess that room had air in it." Ze mused before poking hir head around the corner.  

[DeirdreTonbo]

"They can build that good a seal and not spend enough to put lifeboats in?" Aria didn't look, not yet. She remained temporarily where Jaden had put her with her bag floating beside her.

Only when Jaden didn't tese up for a fight did Aria follow hir. It wasn't that she actually believed in zombies. She'd just gotten herself thinking about them while they were on this ship.

"Maybe something useful made it?"  

[Akai_ryu]

"Seals are things you can't sell off. They're part of the ship. Lifeboats...those are easy not to replace." Jaden growled as ze stalked forward through the newly opened door.

The room on the other side looked like a combination of a reduced machine shop and engine room. It had probably functioned as both. Once in the room, Jaden began searching for anything that looked like an emergency beacon...which could have been many things in the room.

"I doubt it, unless we're salvaging for scrap metal." Jas said with a grunt over the comms. "Which we're not. We're not that hard up and we don't have the space."  

[DeirdreTonbo]

Aria made herself useful by waiting just inside the doorway. She felt clumsy enough in the suit, it would be even less helpful if she snagged herself on anything in the engine room. Grey eyes surveyed the interior of the room as she waited, looking for the same beacon Jaden was looking for. Plus anything she thought Jin-li might like (which was... well Aria didn't really know). Most of the contents of the engine room looked like junk to her eyes.

"What about that, over there?" Aria pointed across the room from where Jaden had started, eyes narrowed behind the visor of her helmet.  

[Akai_ryu]

Jaden looked up from the pile of parts that ze was carefully poking around in. So far ze hadn't found anything that looked like a beacon. From Aria ze followed her pointing finger across the room to...what looked like a tangle of wires and parts that was either a sculpture or a half-disassembled something. For a moment Jaden turned it over in hir hands before dropping it back where ze had found it.

"No. I don't think it's in here. Maybe we should check crew quarters?"  

[DeirdreTonbo]

Crew quarters. Aria's skin crawled a little but she nodded. "If we split up we should get through them more quickly. Something that important should be in the officer's quarters I'd think." Her lack of enthusiasm was clear, but Aria was always willing to help.

She tied her bag of stuff around her torso like a purse, taking her time due to the clumsy big fingers of her suit. Tied around her it would stay close and handy but if she snagged the bag it wouldn't tear the suit.  

[Akai_ryu]

"Probably." Jaden grunted as an agreement.

Captain's quarters, security officer's quarters or the head engineer's quarters were the most likely locations since it wasn't here or on the bridge. The ship's muscle gave another quick glance around the room before leading the way. Navigating to the officer's quarters took a bit more work and involved turning around several times to backtrack, but eventually Jaden managed to find it a level down and not far from the bridge.

"You want to take Captain's quarters and the head engineer?" Jaden asked, knowing that it was unlikely the captain had been in his or her room when the ship died and the chances of the head engineer hiding out there was fairly slim.  

[DeirdreTonbo]

"Sure," Aria turned so she could smile up at Jaden before going to the central door that was most likely the captain's.

When the door didn't acquiesce to her attempt to open it, the companion stepped aside and let Jaden force the doors to separate with a crowbar.

"Jaswinder, if you had beacons stashed in your quarters, where would you keep them?" Aria asked over the comm. She didn't really expect a useful answer, but keeping in touch with Jas kept her aware that she and Jaden were both safe still.  

[Akai_ryu]

Jaden turned to the nearest door that ze hadn't offered to Aria to open and tried it. It didn't feel locked. Rather, it felt heavy and like it had been opened by power before the ship died. Which meant crowbars. Ze fished out a pair and offered one to Aria before prying open her door for her. Then, Jaden pried open the door that ze had tried to open moments earlier.

"I wouldn't stash them in my quarters. I rarely go in there and beacons belong in either the engine room or the bridge...but on something this size, I might stash an extra in the security officer's quarters just in case there's an issue with the passengers." Jas mused over the comm. "Also, I'm three quarters of the way done. You two going to be done soon?"  

[DeirdreTonbo]

Aria sighed heavily before answering her comm. "Yeah well on top of not having lifeboats, the bouy isn't in either of those places. Hopefully we're almost done otherwise..."

Aria wasn't quite sure what the otherwise was. Leave one of their own beacons? That would give away that someone had been salvaging and it was possible the beacon could be traced back to them. Gathering all those tags would not be a picnic either. But it was better than just leaving all these people here. They had friends and family who deserved some closure.

Another sigh that only Aria could hear and she started into the captain's quarters. They were posh, definitely seeing more use than Jas' ever did. From her bag of stuff, Aria found and empty sack which she scooped a narrow shelf of books into while she peered through the cabin. She had a hard time feeling too badly about re-purposing the captain's things. There was no way he/she had been unaware there were no emergency pods.