The groups splits in half as the more blood thirsty elements depart to hunt the "mad ones". Cirok sets down and begins to look over his notes and how they correspond to this machine. Even with his notes it is easy to tell that even the famed Mikkl would still take several hours. Berta slides the door shut, just far enough to allow for a hand to get through and push it open easily. A quiet falls across the room as you hear the other group exit the hallway and enter on to the bridge.

"I don't like waiting," Berta admits to Cirok.  "But I don't know that I want to see Viktor slaughter the little creatures - he might not mean it, but when the battle-rage is upon him he's nigh unstoppable."

"Strong as an ox, and with about as much common-sense, sometimes ..." she shrugs.  "But for all that I like him."

"You're going to have to tell me what I can do to help - just be mindful that if you have me juggling delicate wiring or holding something important, it's more likely a foe can sneak up on us."

"And I've got Rael's conconction smeared on these," the warrior woman holds up her hands to display the heavy brass fretwork on the back of her gauntlets.  "Markedly less effective if I'm not wearing them !" she grins broadly.

"I suppose you must be used to all the laughing," Cirok replied, while inspecting one connection of the device before beginning the dismantlement.  "Maybe you don't hear it after a while?" He shrugged a little, but his glance at Berta gave away his skepticism.

Fishing around in the tool bag he pulled out a smaller wrench than the one he'd held earlier and set to work on loosening a bolt on one of the support braces of the device.  "I will let you know when I'm ready for you, but I suspect you'll be most useful once I'm ready to start manhandling this thing to get at the interior connections.  For now I'll gladly accept the company while I work, and your keeping an eye on the door."

Cirok continued steadily, loosening the support bracket and then opening an access panel within which ran a stream of coloured threads.  He pored over the instructions Mikki had provided and fingered the threads very carefully - apparently this was an important step and the sailor didn't want to mess it up.

"Aha!" he proclaimed, apparently finding what he wanted and unclipping the connection.  As he moved on, he engaged Berta in conversation to pass the time.  "How long have the group of you been together?  You all seem pretty close, perhaps with the exception of the Melnibonean?"

Cirok engrosses himself in the work at hand, which does nothing for Berta who finds absolutely nothing to look at in the near featureless room. After what seems like hours to Berta, Cirok is finally able to work one portion loose from the housing. Unfortunately as one of the couplings slides loose something round and almost knuckle shaped bounces from the machine, on to the floor, and skitters out the door into the hallway. Cursing, Cirok lunges for the nut to no avail. Instinctively Berta follows suit.

As Berta enters the hallway, she catches a glimpse of a pale green light just before it "flows" through the door on the opposite side.

"The rest of them have been together for a time - I met with them but recently.  They have proven to be staunch and reliable companions - I've not known them long enough to presume friendship, but I am ... comfortable with them - I like them.  Yes, even Angrboda."  Berta is happy enough to talk while Cirok labours, though she does not forget her charge and keeps her watch meanwhile.

"She does not suffer fools gladly and will ignore the counsel of others, believing, knowing that her own instincts are correct," the warrior woman snorts.  "And even on our short acquaintance, I find that she's invariably right !  Perhaps that is a necessity for one who would bargain with demons and their ilk for their gifts.  Yet I trust those instincts - I have trusted them, with my life.  And I'm still here and breathing."

"That laughter is ... something new, though perhaps not unsurprising - Viktor does find great joy in the roar of battle.  I think this place may affect him more than the rest of us."

"But what of you ?  How came you to be aboard the Mistr..." Berta breaks off as the nut rolls across the floor.

"I'll get it," she advises Cirok, crossing to the doorway and pushing it open, stopping in her tracks as she sees ... something pass through the opposite door.

"Did you see that ?" the warrior woman stares at the door.

"The nut I dropped, you mean?  Seemed awfully intent of escaping, didn't it?" Cirok answered, a frustrated look on his face until he registered that Berta wasn't talking about that.

"What?" he asked, now suddenly alert and tense, with one hand resting uneasily on the hilt of his cutlass.  "What did you see?"

Suddenly a mundane task has taken on a feeling of unease. The hairs on the back of your neck tingle as you think you feel a set of eyes on you. Unfortunately beyond you two the room is devoid of any other being. Not sure if the flowing green "light" was a figment of your imagination does little to dispel the now haunted feeling of this vessel.

The single nut lies in the middle of the hallway, almost daring you to leave the "safety" of the room to retrieve it.

"I saw ... something ... a light," without Cirok to confirm the sight, the warrior-woman is suddenly unsure what she saw, but elects to risk being thought foolish.  "A pale green ... ghost is as good a word for it as any.  Passed straight through that door," she gestures towards the opposite portal, still tightly shut.

She shrugs, as if to shake off the tension.  "Do we need that nut ?" Berta tries to sound devil-may-care as her finger drops to point instead at the offending item.