"A few... minutes."

The two make their way through the ghost-ship.  Long, blasted corridors, desiccated signs of what was once life.  For a few ghastly moments he feels like he and Heather are the only living things in existence.

The bridge, however, still seems alive.  Though the air is gone it was still intact, and there's a lot of evidence that Gerald lived in there for days after the act.  Littered food boxes and half-eaten crumbs float through the air, some with signs of rot and mold.

"Power... good,"  Heather tells him, tapping the console.  It's his first time near a captain's chair.  Cracked leather and deformed foam suggest it's a very well-used chair.  A dreamcatcher hangs over the top of the console, the threads inside cut.

The computer has the following logs:

[DAILYLOGS]
[CHIEFENGINEER/ACTINGCAPTAIN:LOG]
[CHIEFENGINEER:MANUALS]
[CHIEFENGINEER:TEMPLATES]
[CHIEFENGINEER:BUDGET]
[CAPTAIN:LOG]
[CAPTAIN:MANUALS]
[CAPTAIN:MASTERTIMESHEETS]
[NAVIGATOR:LOG]
[NAVIGATOR:CHARTS]
[FIRSTMATE:LOG]
[FIRSTMATE:MANUALS]
[FIRSTMATE:TIMESHEET]
[FIRSTMATE:EXTRALOG]

All this data feels a bit too much to scour through wearing a space suit. "I'll just download all of this and look through it in my office, not like we could find any other physical evidence of what we hope to find... or hope to not find." He says.

Plugging the HD in and starting the transfer, it shouldn't take too long.

Then he turns back to Heather, "You wouldn't happen to be one of those dragonblooded who have a talent in finding things? Finding anything related to the first mate could prove beneficial later on." he asks.

"We could... still find his quarters," She remarks, "I... have a talent for finding my way around things.  This is not... necessarily finding things."  She looks at the dreamcatcher and frowns, "... This ship bothers me."

She touches it.

"The... evil eye.  Not the... talisman so popular for tourists.  Shuns... evil.  protective.  Why was... it cut?"

The files download quite quickly and happily.  They're automatically sandboxed, quarantined.  CORE goes through great lengths to make sure necrocompinomiconiphages don't affect the ship.

((Roll learning  to know stuff
9, 7, 5, 4, 4, 2 & 1

24 + 10 + 5 = 39 vs 40, nope!))

The look on Kendall's face when the gears in his head slowly turn as he tries to remember anything even slightly related to that talisman to sound smart, but coming up empty he is pretty disappointed in himself.

"You tell me. My knowledge on the matter is purely guesswork." he replied.

A thought he doesn't say out is in the lines of 'why am I even here? there must be someone else better suited for this' But then again he is a Solar so of course he will end up doing stuff like this... or does he? What did this have to do with anything again? He gets the feeling he would have more important stuff to do than running around playing Sherlock... That would make Heather Watson... Lets just hope she doesn't get lost.

"They're used... to do more than catch... bad dreams.  Some of them.  Hm." She whispers under her breath, "Some of the transport pilots... they believe they turn... away evil.  They're wards."  She tries to explain, "Each part is... important.  The strings are... important.  Cut the strings, cut the ward, protects against... low-grade evil.  Or so it's sad.  I am not... a thaumaturgist."

She touches the dreamcatcher.

"This feels... bone deep.  The darkness here." She looks at him through the helmet, "... You're impatient.  You can't... feel it?"

He breaths in deep the cold dry air circulating in the spacesuit and crosses his arms, "My apologies, my levels of discomfort and impatience are quite on the same level right now. And unfortunately no, I haven't felt anything so far."

He tries to 'feel' what she is talking about. Not really knowing what to do practically.

"Would make sense for a place that witnessed a lot of death to hold lots of feelings of dread and terror of the recently deceased. Again, purely guesswork." He ponders out loud.

"It's a... talent, but can be... improved," She tells him, "You haven't... felt essence long enough.  Lived... the life of the Enlightened.  You're like a bird... diving into water and learning... how to swim."

Heather shrugs.

"I can... keep looking through here.  If you want.  Forward you... anything I find."

"That is a nice way to put it, never was a fan of drowning..." He sighs, gaining back some enthusiasm.

"Right, so if you could map me a way to get to his room and you stay here and look for anything you can find, any connection to the dead or corruption are our main bets. Or were you instructed to stick to me like your googly friend?" He jokes. He really doesn't know much about the relationship of her and the symbiote... it was a demon right? Can't remember much about the eye ball. Sure hope it's not a taboo to them to joke about it.

"I was only instructed... to do whatever... you needed me to do."  Heather Wu tells him blankly.  "I can't... stick to you closer... than my partner.  It's... impossible."

Another eyeball erupts from her cheek and blinks.

"He also says... you're welcome... for helping translate.  I don't speak... much English.  Or often."

"Well, on a second thought, maybe it's best not to split up. We have time so there is no need to rush either, so take your time here and then we will move to the first mates quarters afterwards." He states while walking across the room.

He taps the pocket he keeps the HD in, "We got the files, so anything from this point forward is a bonus. Tell you what, if you find something juicy i'll treat you some quality beer."

"I don't... drink alcohol.  Dehydrates.  Juice."  She says as she starts poking around the console.  She kneels down with some difficulty, looking under one console.

"Ah."

She pulls out a small round metal object and flips it over to the Senator.

It's a coin, about the size of a bottlecap- at least he thinks it is.  It's tarnished to the point that it's practically black.  A small blinking red diode with a battery is attached to one side and there's a symbol scratched on to the other, ten lines jaggedly reaching one perpendicular line.

"Another old... superstition.  A medallion... mounted on the dash somehow.  Should be pure silver.  Electronics to... connect to the god.  Maybe not... worth a juice."

Strange, Battles said she liked beer and he didn't have a reason to lie did he? What ever, it's not that important.

He looks at the... item... "Well, maybe a small juice." He puts it in his pocket and continues towards what ever is left of the doorway, "We better get going then, if you please."

"Alright,"

Heather Wu walks out, a hand tapping repeatedly on her hip.  "His... quarters should not have been... totally destroyed.  First mate's is one of the most... armored.  On the ship."

It's not far from the captain's quarters- in fact it's right across the hall.  There's a faded smiley-face decal on the front of the door.  Heather taps the console and the door fails to open.

"Hm. Locked.  Should be open... hold on.  Will... hotwire."

((Feel free to make a Lake roll for Awareness.  This is targeting Heather Wu.))

((Awareness to watch Heather(s ass if this fails)
8, 5, 5, 5, 3, 3 & 1.

*35 + 10 + 5 = 50
*float 3 - 3))

Right now Kendall is just readying himself for some boogeyman to jump out or something else equally inconvenient to happen.

Suddenly he realizes that there's an eye watching him from Heather's neck, never really looking away, and that she's scared of him.  Or whatever he represents.

She works with jerky motions, picking away at the lock before letting out a low 'aha'.  She takes a step away as the door snaps open.

It looks like it should smell foul.  There's no air inside but there's dried mold and moss on the walls, covering posters of scantily-clad women and his small desk and bed.  The blankets even look fuzzy with the dehydrated, freeze-dried filth.

There's a hand drawn on the wall with two fingers bent out at angles, and a big eye on the palm.  The eye has a big X painted over it.

((https://ctl.s6img.com/society6...of-fatima-prints.jpg))

Kendall steps inside, glancing over everything and start taking pictures first and samples next. He stops at the drawing after taking a picture, "I don't recognize this, do you? Protection against evil again, but defiled?" He asks Heather.

He also looks for any possible journals or a personal terminal, anything he could have used to write something on.

"... That's right,"  Heather remarks with a nod, "Almost certainly..."  She points at it, "Hand of Fatima.  Traditional... ward against evil.  Eye in the palm deflects... the negative.  Mold isn't normal..."  She gestures about the room.

She looks as he starts taking samples, "Suggest... full quarantine.  Burn suits after."

There's a desk terminal nearby, somewhat used, a little crusty with mold across the keyboard.

"Well, I do agree on the quarantine, can never bee too careful about these things. I'll just check this terminal and I think we are good to go." He states, starting to clear of the frozen mold off the keyboard and tries to access it.

The mold flakes off easily in the airless void, spinning past him.  The keys are still crusty and gross but at least he doesn't need to touch it with his bare hands.

The terminal blinks on, slowly, grudgingly, and asks for a password.

"We are... agreeing," She says as she starts checking for personal belongings, "This is... too... incomplete."

He types in the admin password and if that doesn't work, he makes his best guess and if that doesn't work, he just takes the terminal apart and takes the HD inside, he doesn't have the patience to fool around with this.

"Incomplete? How?" He replies.

Neither admin or his best guess works- he is forced to remove the hard drive, which comes away with a faint spark from its ports.

"Things are... missing.  The hard drives are... useful.  But it's a big bucket.  Of incomplete." She says, growing visibly antsy, "... A puzzle missing half pieces."

Kendall looks at the hard drive in his hand before putting it in a sealable plastic bag.

Letting out a long sigh, not really pleased with what they found but not having any enthusiasm to chase puzzle pieces that might be somewhere in the ship, better just go back and analyze what he already found.

"Lets head back, mind leading the way?"

"Absolutely." Heather Wu leads him out with undue haste, stopping only to recheck his seals before they jump across the void gap again.  Then she hits the QUARANTINE button on the airlock, first exposing them to the void, then flooding the room with essence-infused god-powder, and then spraying them down with some kind of foam.

She helps Kendal remove his suit, then chucks it into a 'to-burn' bin.  Then she begins her process.  "You can... leave. Call me... if you need."

And with that Kendal is back in the land of the living!  The Quarterdocks is bustling; another ship has come in, this one with some fresh food from a grain-production ship that just docked.

His phone chooses this moment to blow up with texts.  This is fairly common.  Most of it is junk; he gets the usual petitioners-who-somehow-got-his-number, a few boring status updates from his office, and a CORESNAP private video from Xene, which has all sorts of... implications.

Tempted by implications, he still chooses to look through the hard drives with due haste. He sends a text to Battles asking, "Yo, I got some Hard drives from the ship and need to look through them, got a place for this kind of stuff so I dont accidentally contaminate the refuge?"
And a text to Xene suggesting a meet up after work because why not.

If Battles answers he heads to wherever he suggests.

Several
on Refuge or off?
Off safer for Refuge
But on Refuge safer for us
the Cubit can fuck u up

The texts flurry back.  The Cubit?  Kendal's never heard of that one...