Sav wouldn't answer my calls today, either.
I had to actually go over to her place and break the news in person.
ST DOORBELL CAMERA
2281/03/24
AUTOMATIC TRANSCRIPTION
15:34:49
BANG.
The sound of a heavy knock on a flimsy plastic door.
BANG. BANG.
It's loud compared to the preceding quiet.
Silence returns for several long seconds, and then...
The sound of a mobile ringtone, tinny and shrill, muffled slightly by the thin walls.
The ringtone continues to play for thirty seconds...
One minute...
Two...
After three minutes, the ringtone stops.
A displeased sigh. And the knocking resumes, more loudly than before.
BANG. BANG. BANG.
A low voice calls out, "Sav, I know you're inside!"
There's no response.
"I have to tell you something... it's important."
Again, no response.
A shuffling sound, likely the individual at the front door digging around in their bags or pockets, and then a quiet scraping, followed by several clicks.
The sound of a door squeaking open.
I had to bypass the lock and let myself in... will admit, I feel a bit guilty about that. But it was for a good purpose, and anyway she knows I have lockpicks. If she really didn't want me coming in, she could have bought a better lock.
She didn't really react when I came in. I could tell she noticed, but she just sat there. I even called her name a couple of times, and she still didn't react.
I said "earth to space cadet"... without thinking, really. It's never been a problem before.
She gave me this... empty look.
And then when I asked her when was the last time she talked to anyone in person...
Cadenza Security Camera Five. Automatic audio transcription.
2281/01/03
0615
"Savvy? What are you doing—why are you here?"
"Kai? Kai! Are you—are you—"
"You pieces of...! What are you doing to her! Why did you bring her here? She's innocent..."
"No—no I'm not! I... it was me! You've got the wrong person! Don't kill her! Take me instead! Please!"
"Haha... Sav, it's no good. I already confessed... I told them everything."
"No..."
"I'm sorry, Sav... haha... I didn't want anyone else to be punished for... for my crimes..."
"But you're—you'll—"
0616
"They'll kill you! Kai—you have to fight! Please! What happened?! Why aren't you—"
"Ah... it... it hurts... hahaha..."
"Kai!"
"D-don't worry Sav... I..."
"No... no..."
"I'll be—"
Well, I gave her the news. I didn't know what I expected... I guess I thought she'd react or something.
ST DOORBELL CAMERA
2281/03/24
AUTOMATIC TRANSCRIPTION
15:41:11
"Sav, I didn't just come here to fuck up and accidentally trigger you or something."
A sound that could be either a laugh or a sob. Or, more likely, both at once.
"I've been... assigned the captaincy of a ship."
A quiet "mm" of acknowledgement, barely picked up by the doorbell camera.
"Its name is Cadenza." A long pause. "You know what that means, don't you?"
Finally, the other person actually speaks. "Yeah." Sav's voice is quiet and hoarse from crying.
"So. Uh. I get to choose my own crew, you know. And I..." More long pause. "Well, I thought I'd ask you if you wanted to be on the crew. I mean, I know it'd probably be upsetting for you so you probably won't but I figured I at least ought to a-"
"Yes." She sounds on the verge of crying again, but also determined. Resolute.
"...Oh. Okay then, I um, I'll get the paperwork ready and stuff, you'll have to sign it I'm sorry-"
After exactly ten minutes of recording, the doorbell camera shuts off.
But she said she'd come aboard. So I guess that's that.
Guess I'm officially doing this stupid thing. Can't be good for any of us but I don't fucking know what else to do. I can't get the look on her face out of my head. Empty fucking eyes. God. Empty eyes of a dead woman.
Not Sav's face today. Kai's face.
Kai when I visited the ship.
I shut her eyes for her but not before I saw her eyes no light in them at all. Empty empty fucking eyes. I can't even remember what she looked like before.
I need a fucking drink. Or a sledgehammer to the head.
I think I get the point of why they do this now.
It's not about punishing them.
It's about punishing us.
The sad sacks of shit that get assigned to crew one of these.
None of us would ever dare to fuck up like she did. Or even so much as THINK about turning a toe out of line.
Not now that we've seen the dead fucking eyes of the fate we'll get if we follow in her footsteps.
The stupid fucking thing is, now that I've seen what they did to her I'd almost kind of want to I can kind of understand why people do it. Even despite the punishments. Maybe that's why they assigned me to her in the first place. Maybe she'd been influencing me. Fuck, I bet she was.
Maybe she was right.
This is so fucking fucked up.
Goddamnit I still have to go ask Tanya and Dan. Fuck.
[More coming in between! Eventually]
Captain's log... Or whatever.
I thought I was hearing shit. Turned out it was just Sav. Idk why I didn't expect her to be there. Practically fucking wrapped around the column. She put a scarf on the damn thing, you know that? I've tried to tell her that it's not her goddamn girlfriend anymore it's just the body that USED to be her. Kai's not in there anymore. She's dead. She has to be. I fucking hope she's dead. Better dead than stuck in there. Better dead than stuck in here with us.
Fuck, I'm spiraling again. Paperwork time. Can't spiral when I'm filling out another stupid fucking form. Probably.
Cadenza Security Camera Four. Video and audio transcription.
2281/05/14
0100
Security camera four picks up whispering and movement on the stairway to the lower deck, and swivels to get a closer look.
Jasper Scordato, Cadenza's captain, slowly walks down the stairs, glancing around furtively.
"I must be losing my mind..." he mutters. "I swear to god I can hear her." He reaches down and pulls on the hair tie around his wrist, letting it snap against his skin. "Idiot." He snaps the hair tie again. "She's dead and gone, and I'm just hallucinating probably." It's really just a flimsy rubber band, worn and stretched from how much he's done this. There are places where the hair ties sold are wrapped in fabric that prevents the rubber from pulling strands of hair out, but those aren't the kind of stores an Imperial message ship captain could afford to set foot in. The rubber would chafe his wrist even if he wasn't always snapping the tie when no one was looking.
Jas hesitates for another couple of moments, before continuing down the stairs.
And then abruptly stopping short.
"Oh," he says. "It's you."
Communications technician Savannah Tillens turns to look at him, and security camera number five is at the perfect angle to view her face in as much detail as it can. Her hair is disheveled and lank, it's been over a week since she last managed to wash it. Strands of slightly wavy auburn fall into her face, seemingly without her noticing. Her deep brown eyes are red from crying. In the thin light given off by Jasper's digital ID badge, camera five can just barely make out her freckles and a thin cut along her cheek - a few hours before, she had tried to wipe away her tears without putting her cane down first, and a burr on its cheap plastic handle had grazed her skin.
Despite the scratch, the tears, and the suboptimal low-light imaging capacity even in the very center of the camera's lens and reflector, it's obvious that Savannah is beautiful. And equally obvious that she's deeply distressed.
It's the sort of image you might find in a cheap scan-acted soap drama about a beautiful woman, torn by grief after her lover heroically falls fighting anti-Imperial forces, possibly even entertaining a few doubts as to whether the victory was worth his death, and then swept off her feet by a dashing captain who reinforces her faith in the war.
But this is no propaganda soap, and Jasper is no potential lover. And her lost love is no war hero.
Behind her, the pedestal's protective cover has been removed and set aside, leaving the body within uncovered. A thin scarf has been wrapped around it, possibly as a protective gesture, or possibly to hide the numerous wires and cables that connect to its ports.
Jasper's eyes flick between Savannah and Kai's corpse with barely disguised horror.