Traverse (Tim)

[Bannanachair]

(That was an awesome one-liner. I can't follow it up so I won't speak.)

I take my gun out of my pocket and aim it at Mateo as soon as I see him.

[Tikobe]

(Oh. My apologies.)

Mateo doesn't really put up a fight. Sure, he mentioned things along the lines of "Holy shit," but it seems he knew he was caught. You happened to catch the time; You were minutes away from Avesh-8.

As you got up to the brig, the speakers came online.

"Uh, Robert. It's Henry. We just got a message from the bottom deck asking for just you and me. I'll meet you down there."

"I'll be fine," Miranda replies. "Just gonna give him to Kaminski and then I'll be up at the command deck."

[Bannanachair]

I head down to the lower deck.

[Tikobe]

You return the dark door, where Henry sits on the steps. The door's still closed.

"Phew. You're here. Now I get to finally see what I hope is the last secret of this place. Did you manage to find out when you came by earlier?"

[Bannanachair]

"I couldn't get in; not even I have clearance to enter."

[Tikobe]

"But you're the captain. That makes n-"

All of a sudden the door opens up very slowly. Inside was only a faint blue light, most of it was shadows. You could see white blobs made out of spider web everywhere.

"Enter," a voice says. Or at least, from the sound of it a translator said. The voice of the speaker was entirely made out of clicking and clacking noises. You've never heard of a language like that. Too bad you couldn't see the speaker from outside the door.

"Uh-huh. Well this is creepy. Goodbye!" Henry says as he stands up and begins to walk away.

"No. Enter."

"Ah crap," Henry says, slowly walking into the bottom deck, hand rested on his gun.

[Bannanachair]

I take out my gun as well and aim it in the direction of the voice that I heard. "Who are you?" I ask, taking a tentative step forward.

[Tikobe]

"Name K'Tck'K'Bk"

"Uh... Don't think we can pronounce that one," Henry replies. "Got a nickname or something we can call you by?"

"No."

Henry approaches. You hear a growling noise followed by a few more ticking sounds.

"Weapons, no! Only talk. No weapons, then enter."

Henry takes his out of the holster, and leaves it on the stair.

"That good?"

"No! Captain. No weapon."

[Bannanachair]

"Alright, I'm putting it down," I say, as I put down my gun. "Now, what is this place?"

[Tikobe]

"Engine."

"Yeah, I think he knows that. I already told him about the blueprints for the ship's design. I think he means why are you here?"

"Legacy."

"Legacy as in...?"

"Legacy."

Henry sighs as he climbs into the room, where you here him yell a loud "Holy shit!"

It doesn't sound like he's in any danger, but whatever he just saw clearly scared him.

[Bannanachair]

I run in after him to see what I can see.

[Tikobe]

When you enter the room, you realize that the dim light was the light of the engine above. In front of it, hanging from a web, was a humanoid spider thing. You've never seen an alien of this race before. Below it was a large blob of white, with what looked like giant pearls. It didn't take long for you to realize that it was an egg sac. The translator was on the floor right below that.

"Legacy," the spider says one more time.

"Y- You mean the eggs?"

"Yes."

"Do the Keepers know you're here?"

"Yes. Their apology. We work engine, power. We find home. Raise legacy."

"We, so there are more of you?"

"Not more me, other things live down here."

"Can we see them?"

"No."

"And would that be your choice?"

"No. They spiteful. Fearful. Will not show except to Repentant."

[Bannanachair]

"Are there people like you on other ships as well, or just this one?"

[Tikobe]

"Just here. I am last. Protects legacy. Manages apology of Repentant. Manages engine, power. No other me."

"This 'Repentant' dude. Who is he?" Henry asks.

"One who burned world. Killed other me's. I lucky."

"Amazing how he can still speak broken Standard with a translator," Henry grumbles. "Is this 'Repentant' on the ship?"

"Yes."

"Do you know who he is?"

"Yes."

"Can you tell us?"

"No."

"Why did you call us down here?"

"Request. We see all. We saw you hunt. You came here. Here safe. Always. Never come again."

[Bannanachair]

(This is probably the most dangerous spaceship ever to be the captain of, given all that's happened on day 1.)

"If you see everything, do you know where Mateo Abrantes put the jamming device that caused the engines to shut down earlier?"

[Tikobe]

(Get buckled. It only gets worse.)

"Yes. Already found. Girl gave you before you hunt man. Earless man fixed problem. All okay."

"Earless man? I think he means a Zathrelle. Did Miranda hand something over to one of the two we have on our crew?" Henry asks.

[Bannanachair]

(I forgot that the device was already found when I wrote that.)

[Tikobe]

(Do you want to change something or do you want me to come up with some kinda BS to continue it on?)

[Bannanachair]

(I got it, I think.)

"Miranda said she found it in Mateo's quarters and then she took it to Kem. I just wanted to double-check that it was the right device, given that I also found fighter parts in his room and there could be god knows what else in there. Was Mateo working alone, or did he have accomplices on board this ship?"

[Tikobe]

(Alright. And I'm just gonna call this alien the Spider. He isn't gonna be using any other names except the one he gave, and other races don't have the vocal cords to say it.)

"No. Not here. He alone. To my knowledge."

"To your knowledge?" Henry asks.

"Reason I see all, camera," the Spider replies.

"Camera? You mean you have surveillance equipment? I thought that the Keepers chose not to plug those into the Magellan."

"Cameras for we. We must safe. You no have. You not must safe."

"Huh, so we're on our own."

[Bannanachair]

"On the other hand, we have some evidence that we can tell Drake to shut the hell up when he accuses William of being a Schall spy again."

[Tikobe]

"No. We secret. You not suppose know about we. We tell you because neighbors. No tell others. No tell Miranda. No tell Drake. We make Drake stop accusing. Promise."

"So, you're living here, taking care of our engine and our power, but we can't come back here to talk to you, and we can't speak about you?"

"Yes."

"Alright, nice to know we're on the same page, but how are you gonna make Drake stop if we're to act like you don't exist?"

"Secret."

"Of course."

[Bannanachair]

"If we can't talk about you or speak to you again, why tell us that you exist at all? Why not let us go on in ignorance?"

[Tikobe]

"Said before. You hunt man. In hunt you came here. More hunts, more coming here's. You suspect, dangerous. Kill suspicions, no coming here's."

"I think he's saying that he wants to give us a reason to not investigate this part of the ship again," Henry translates.

[Bannanachair]

"And how are we meant to convince everyone else not to come here?"