The Captain's Grave

Adil looks at Cordell discerningly, then at 'Ceebee' to confirm they don't seem to need (or want) medical right now.

"Yes." They say gently, feeling this will help the nano cope with everything happening.

"We will still need something for our guest to wear." They observe, not wanting to comment on Cordell's fashion sense or ability to pick out a suitable outfit, they leave it up to him and Camus --who also seems like they could use a distraction and some distance from the body of the captain reminding her of the loss of body of her brother-- to divvy up the tasks.

"While you are welcome to any of my spares." They say to Ceebee. "I fear they are a bit... recognisable and we don't to draw attention if someone notices you are wearing other people's clothing." Camus is about the same size as the colonel, and has a good grasp of their inventory.

She looks at her clothes, or lack thereof, and sighs. "Want to slap me in irons until we get there? How long is that going to be anyway? It could be a year since I went in the bag."

Camus looks her over and says, "I've got something delicate and feminine that will fit you and hide everything but your head tats. Back in a second." She wanders purposefully to her bunk.

"Irons would just draw attention." Adil says, they don't get the impression anyone else here feels threatened enough to want that, but would hear them out if they did.

"I am sure we can alter or cover your tattoos." They say looking over Ceebee's features. "We don't want to rely on a hat." They joke. "We all know that will get blown off at the worst possible moment and reveal things best kept secret."

"Our navigator will know better how long it will take, once you tell them your destination." They say.

"What date do you think it is? When did you go in?" Adil asks, ready to calculate the difference from what the date is now.

"37 days." Adil says ruefully, not at all sure if that is a good or a bad number, or what Tyde was expecting.

"How pressing is your 'mission'?" They ask. "We need to deal with our captain's death," ...and what comes after. They don't add this last bit. "But we can work out with Areen how to get you where you need to be." There is a hint of a question in that: for if Ceebee wants to talk about where she is destined --or if she is just 'getting out'-- but there is little point till their navigator gets here.

"I'm afraid I can't be of any help with clothing, but it looks like Camus will be able to find you something suitable. I do have a question for you though. This destination that you are to be delivered to. Will it put the ship and crew in any danger? If so, we would want to be prepared, and even if not, any information you can share about it would be helpful to us."

Resalon knows this is a delicate situation and he is not confident that Dante will handle it correctly. This causes a small degree of anxiety in him which he hides well enough. As a fighter in the ring, his mentor had taught him never to telegraph your next move. This translated into an adeptness at keeping a confident posture and a blank expression. He employed those techniques now.

At that, Adil's ears perk up, but they also worry that their interest may have been shared by the captain, who may therefore not have been expecting payment for this job.

"Admirable." They nod. "But not everyone on this ship would care. What payment was expected at the end? Every bit we can do to mitigate some of the crews concerns and dissuade them from looking too closely --one doesn't ask too many questions when smuggling-- would be good."

"That will help." Adil nods. "Smooth things over."

With Camus retrieving clothes for their 'guest', Cordell decides to seek out Areen. He takes a moment to return to sick bay and wash his hands, the captain's body bag a heavy specter on his conscious.

Taking a breath, he headed back up to the ship's deck, and began looking around for their navigator.

When he finds her, he makes a somewhat subdued request to speak with her privately. "Something... complicated has happened. And, I don't know how to feel about it."

If he gets the chance to talk to her privately, he'll explain what occurred below-deck - particularly that Celia Tyde was apparently smuggled onboard by the late-captain, and that Adil, Resalon, and Camus have agreed to take on Lauchmair's mission themselves and deliver her where she needs to be. He doesn't mention if he'd agreed to do so too or not.

Cordell sees Areen's face become grimmer with every word he's saying. When they arrive, Areen grabs her weapon and enters. As casually-sarcastic as she can muster, she says: "Well, well, well, look what we have here. The great butcher, crawling on her knees in front of us, asking for help. Sure would be nice if you hadn't murdered a bunch of people who could be helping you right now, wouldn't it?".

She steps closer and continues, the shrapnel beneath her skin giving off an intense glow showing her anger:"The good doc here has informed me that you would like us to believe you're on our side now. You'll understand, I have my doubts about that. In fact, I'm starting to think that you're the reason the cragworm was on our ass, which makes you the reason the captain is dead." she makes a pause for everyone to grasp the situation.

"He was a good man, you know? But he wasn't infallible. This wouldn't be the first time he has trusted the wrong people.", Areen now turns to the rest of the crew: "I'm not keen on repeating the captain's mistake. If it were for me, I'd chuck her overboard and let her deal with whatever mess she has gotten herself into. It's not my decision, however. I'm certain I can lead her to wherever it is she wants to go, but the chances are high it's not anywhere we'd want to be and the captain is my priority."

Adil shares a look with Ceebee. This sort of reaction is going to be common, they seem to be saying. Best to let people process at their own pace. If they must know, and she must.

With the recent way Areen has been throwing around 'orders' and her commanding tone of voice, Adil worries she will clash with Dante over who is in charge. If it is to be one of those: rather the navigator; that way the ship-and-crew would stand a chance. But Adil is not convinced she has the conviction to take on such a challenge.

"We are not bound by the captain's secret contracts." Adil agrees. "But Samill would not 'put someone overboard'." They observe softly. "Well, not after offering them safe passage." They concede.

They sigh, steeling them themself for the words they don't want to admit. "The captain is dead. And not getting any deader. He would not rate his body --broken by his will, for us-- above his honour. If The Cragworm was after our passenger, he died for her." They observe, there is nothing she could have done --in stasis-- to stop him handing her over.

"If we are to do this." They say to all assembled. "It will take all of us. If we don't all agree, we can put her," --their tone and inflection reminding listeners that 'she' is a person, not a thing or a name-- "ashore and be done with it." There is iron in their voice, directed at Ceebee, reminding her she has no choice here.

"Personally: I am inclined to believe her --and the captain." They say, making it clear that this is a 'personal' choice. If those present have learned to trust Adil's judgement --as the captain did-- then this might have some weight, else they should all make up their own minds, decide and live with the choice.

Cordell waits a bit before following Areen down into the cargo hold, looking around to see if their actions had attracted any notice. The last thing they needed was for things to get more complicated, but Cordell had a sinking feeling that they would before long.

He just hears the end of Areen's statement, and all of Adil's.

It's a fair point, Cordell could admit. He personally took issue with the idea of tossing anyone overboard, but that certainly ran conflict to his discomfort with having anyone nicknamed 'The Butcher' on board the ship. Cordell always respected his captain - he, and Jolly, were the very reason the young doctor had gotten the courage to leave his home island, in search of ways to advance his practice.

But, perhaps Resalon was right and the nano was not as loyal to the captain as the others had been. Would Cordell have followed Lauchmair's orders against his own judgement? Usually, yes, but not when it came to compromising the oath he'd sworn when he first began learning medicine from his teacher. That, above everything else, was something he simply couldn't left go of. Did that make him less loyal than the others?

The thought had never crossed his mind that what the captain would have him do, and his oath as a healer would ever come into conflict.

"The technology she came in can preserve the captain's remains." Cordell says neutrally, directing the comment a bit at Areen. "It's also the best way to keep disease from spreading."

Areen shakes her head and laughs: "The captain didn't die for her, frankly that's an insult to all of us who were by his side. I don't know how you can trust her when all you have is some empty promises against this woman's past that is factually littered with mangled corpses. We don't even know if the captain didn't intend to bring her to justice and was only pretending to help. Or if he did trust her, why? I'm sure he wouldn't have endangered everyone on this ship if he didn't have some evidence for her telling the truth.

Either way, as the doc says, we need the crate for the captain. Do with her what you want, but I don't want to see her, I don't want to talk to her and the second she inevitably double-crosses us she'll have my polearm stuck in her chest faster than you can say: 'Oh what a surprise, the liar lied to us'.

Just tell me where we need to go and leave me alone." And with that, Areen throws a dirty look to Celia and walks out. Instead of back to her post she goes further into the ship.

Some time ago she had discovered a compartment, just big enough to hold one person, seemingly unknown to the rest of the crew. Sometimes when she was having a particularly bad day, she'd sneak down to clear her head. And today was, quite possibly, one of the worst days ever for her. She squeezes into the compartment and rests her head against the cool wood, trying to let go of the sick feeling to her stomach that even the mention of Celia's name causes.

"Uh. Sorry about that." Adil says to Ceebee. "You will need to wait for exact answers about how long the trip will take. We can hazard a guess and I will talk to her and finalise the details and set the route."

They sigh. "You may get a lot of that." They admit. "This is a stressful and emotional time, and trust is not in huge supply. We should keep you out of sight as much as possible, and hide your identity. Treat this as a normal --though, clandestine-- business transaction, so far as everyone else is concerned."

Adil worries that they made a mistake including Areen in the truth of this. But it is too late now, and they trust the navigator.

The navigator was allowing emotions to cloud her reasoning. At least that's what Resalon's read was on the current state of affairs. She was behaving like a petulant child when things weren't going their way, and it did nothing to help the situation. She did make an interesting point though, and it certainly was food for thought. What if the captain was taking Celia to justice and she was just quick and clever enough to manipulate the situation in her favor.

Picking up on Adil's uneasiness, he tried to send a look of empathy their way. There was no perfect solution to this problem the way Resalon saw it until they found out more about Celia and her destination. Her dangling the prospect of a good haul as a further enticement didn't sit well with him either.

Adil shares Resalon's look, and adds an almost-imperceptible shrug. We will have time to watch and work out the details as we sail.

They don't see why the captain would have kept secret a mission to bring 'The Butcher' to justice, nor why they would have kept her alive in that case, but it is always possible.

Up top, you can hear Dante barking orders, although what he's saying is too hard to hear over the rising wind.

He supposed that was that, then. It seemed Cordell and Areen were less inclined to trust this woman, but neither of them were likely to go to Dante with this information either. At this point it was just a matter of waiting for the other shoe to drop.

The doctor lets out a soft breath, then goes to investigate the crate and collar contraption once again, looking to determine what was needed to activate it. If it was portable enough, he could take it over to the captain's body and begin the preservation process.

Up top he could hear Dante yelling, but he couldn't quite tell what was being said. The quartermaster hadn't come to speak with him, and Adil seemed distracted enough by their unexpected 'guest', so Cordell supposed all he could do was carry on as usual.

Cordell had known their captain was one of the biggest ties that held them together, but he would have never guessed that they would fall apart so quickly once he was gone. What had the captain been thinking to keep such a damning secret from the crew? Did he really not trust them - or did he honestly think ignorance would be enough to protect them? Either way, it left a sour feeling in his stomach.