Re: Let the Looting Begin!
Harada Eika woke to the sound of her own stomach. She affectionately called it "the grenade" because of how its grumbles were short and sharp.
She was on three days with no food. The last thing she ate was a large, half-eaten pretzel someone on the ship hadn't found appetizing and had thrown in the trash. It tasted fine to her, but she was used to old ration packs. Maybe it was the mold growing on parts of it. It was easy to pick off; some people were just ungrateful.
Eika was going to be very grateful when she found food again. Food she didn't have to steal from trash compactors in the kitchen, at least. She also was going to be grateful when she found a way off the stinking ship she was on, free from the stale, chemical-ridden cabinet inside which she hid herself. Most of the bandages and supplies inside the medical room were expired anyway; whoever had owned the ship first had not put much stock in good medical care.
The grenade went off again. She burped, too, old bile crawling up her throat. She wanted to cover her hand and utter an apology for her rudeness, but her arm was jammed at her side in the cabinet, and no one heard her anyway. She hoped. The most alpha member of the crew, who sounded like a woman with some kind of deformation of the mouth, didn't seem to like anyone. A stowaway wasn't likable to begin with.
Her hand could just reach the inside latch of the cabinet, which she was pretty good at opening after a couple weeks of practice of fumbling in the dark with something that had too many rough edges that ate away at her fingertips. She slowly pushed the door open and was glad it didn't squeak. She smiled. No one heard. No one smelled. She didn't bother smelling herself anymore, as after the ninth day she instructed her OS to filter out her own stench.
The ship was silent. Had it been abandoned? She remembered when it took off; if it was abandoned, it was likely in space. Pirates? She kept her cool. If the ship was abandoned, it could be in tow by pirates. Better yet, it was such a rust bucket they ignored it all together and went in search of a better target. Could she get a ship running again? Eika thought she could, if she had to do so.
She took a few steps forward into the medical center, then stopped.
Her OS was giving her a lot of warnings. Most of them had to do with energy levels, which she had been routinely ignoring. However, now her OS indicated she lacked sufficient energy to continue movement. She dropped to the floor in a heap.
Humans usually lost all functions at once, but a Nekovalkyrja's OS let her selectively shut down functions to maintain the highest possible combat capability available. Eika queried her internal diagnostic system and found the base OS had shut down motor control below her waist. She sighed. Fine, she could crawl. How much energy did she have left? Her diagnostic told her enough to crawl two meters. After that, she'd lose all muscle function below her neck, save for what was needed to breathe.
Eika frowned, which her OS mechanically told her reduced her remaining crawl distance to 1.998 meters. She could shut off her senses save for smelling and touch, but she'd only gain 0.3 meters, and the closest food was probably five meters away. She could not order her body to break down her muscles, as those were hard-wired to be reserved for stasis mode.
So she remained on the floor, thinking. Trying to come up with something that would energize her and let her at least get back in the closet.
Behind her, something creaked. She froze. The cabinet had an old gurney inside of it, metal and heavy. She realized she forgot to close the cabinet door behind her, leaving the gurney without something against which to be propped. The floor was metal, too, she realized.
*CRASH*
Harada Eika woke to the sound of her own stomach. She affectionately called it "the grenade" because of how its grumbles were short and sharp.
She was on three days with no food. The last thing she ate was a large, half-eaten pretzel someone on the ship hadn't found appetizing and had thrown in the trash. It tasted fine to her, but she was used to old ration packs. Maybe it was the mold growing on parts of it. It was easy to pick off; some people were just ungrateful.
Eika was going to be very grateful when she found food again. Food she didn't have to steal from trash compactors in the kitchen, at least. She also was going to be grateful when she found a way off the stinking ship she was on, free from the stale, chemical-ridden cabinet inside which she hid herself. Most of the bandages and supplies inside the medical room were expired anyway; whoever had owned the ship first had not put much stock in good medical care.
The grenade went off again. She burped, too, old bile crawling up her throat. She wanted to cover her hand and utter an apology for her rudeness, but her arm was jammed at her side in the cabinet, and no one heard her anyway. She hoped. The most alpha member of the crew, who sounded like a woman with some kind of deformation of the mouth, didn't seem to like anyone. A stowaway wasn't likable to begin with.
Her hand could just reach the inside latch of the cabinet, which she was pretty good at opening after a couple weeks of practice of fumbling in the dark with something that had too many rough edges that ate away at her fingertips. She slowly pushed the door open and was glad it didn't squeak. She smiled. No one heard. No one smelled. She didn't bother smelling herself anymore, as after the ninth day she instructed her OS to filter out her own stench.
The ship was silent. Had it been abandoned? She remembered when it took off; if it was abandoned, it was likely in space. Pirates? She kept her cool. If the ship was abandoned, it could be in tow by pirates. Better yet, it was such a rust bucket they ignored it all together and went in search of a better target. Could she get a ship running again? Eika thought she could, if she had to do so.
She took a few steps forward into the medical center, then stopped.
Her OS was giving her a lot of warnings. Most of them had to do with energy levels, which she had been routinely ignoring. However, now her OS indicated she lacked sufficient energy to continue movement. She dropped to the floor in a heap.
Humans usually lost all functions at once, but a Nekovalkyrja's OS let her selectively shut down functions to maintain the highest possible combat capability available. Eika queried her internal diagnostic system and found the base OS had shut down motor control below her waist. She sighed. Fine, she could crawl. How much energy did she have left? Her diagnostic told her enough to crawl two meters. After that, she'd lose all muscle function below her neck, save for what was needed to breathe.
Eika frowned, which her OS mechanically told her reduced her remaining crawl distance to 1.998 meters. She could shut off her senses save for smelling and touch, but she'd only gain 0.3 meters, and the closest food was probably five meters away. She could not order her body to break down her muscles, as those were hard-wired to be reserved for stasis mode.
So she remained on the floor, thinking. Trying to come up with something that would energize her and let her at least get back in the closet.
Behind her, something creaked. She froze. The cabinet had an old gurney inside of it, metal and heavy. She realized she forgot to close the cabinet door behind her, leaving the gurney without something against which to be propped. The floor was metal, too, she realized.
*CRASH*
