Let’s see, which dorm room was I assigned to again…

Ah, here it is!

According to Typhin, the time is like 22:00 in standard hours, so it’s actually pretty late. I’m not tired though. The troopers work in shifts with around a third doing the night-shift (even though there’s no concept of “night” in space), so most who are supposed to be in bed are already going to sleep. I’m a little late to the party in that sense, but it’s okay! I’ll be sleeping in the same room as Atte, so I don’t think I’ll be treated too badly.

I slide my ID into the reader and watch nervously as the door slides open. Four pairs of eyes turn to look at me, each hidden behind a helmet. One was halfway taken off but the second he glimpsed me the helmet quickly went back on.

I gulp down my fears and step inside. I smile at the four. “Hi, I’m Mort! I’ll be sleeping with you until we reach the Outbound Flight. Please take care of me!”

Crickets are chirping. You could hear a needle drop.

I can tell which one Atte is, but like the other three, he seems completely mute. Though, unlike them, he seems more so stunned to silence by their quiet. Maybe he’s afraid that if he says something the others will renounce him too.

Silently, I walk into the room. On each side are bunk-beds three beds tall. At the other end of the room stands a cupboard and the side of the wall has slid out to reveal a hanger of sorts for their armours. Two spares are hanging there at the moment. It seems like I stepped in on them just as they came back from whatever task they’d been doing.

By the look of it, the two topmost beds are unoccupied, so I subconsciously choose the one above where I think Atte will be sleeping.

Quickly, before I can think about how they’re all staring at me with fear and reproach, I climb on top of it. I sit for a moment, look at them. They look up to me. Nobody is saying anything. Nobody is moving. I can’t tell if the air in here is cold and frigid with tension or if it’s just how it feels to me. I can remember moments when people have looked at me like this, but none of them are pleasant. Especially not now. It feels kind of like I went into a lecture the day after doing something horribly stupid while drunk. All eyes on me, nobody daring to say anything.

My eyes move slowly from one person to the next. Finally, they fall one Atte. He looks away.

Ah. Okay, then.

Without saying a word, I swiftly hop down from the bed before turning to leave the room. Maybe if this was a drama or something like that they might have told me to stay, but instead, all I hear are released breaths of relief. Right. Only a single pair of eyes watches my back with some sort of hesitance, but even then, it’s muted by the obvious relaxation of his comrades.

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Okay. Okay! So, in other words, can’t sleep there. Otherwise they’d never remove their suits, would they? Probably not.

Maybe they’re just embarrassed to undress in front of some random guy? Maybe! I dunno!

The lights in the hallways have turned a little muted, probably to signify night.

I could probably ask to sleep in Typhin’s room, but I don’t want to bother him. Also, wouldn’t it look really bad if he let me sleep with him? The Lieutenant looks down on him as is, so having me sleep in Typhin’s room would probably only worsen things for him. And I can’t exactly bother Fern either. I like him, and I’d consider him a friend, but I wouldn’t do something like that to him.

I don’t have to sleep, technically speaking. Yeah, if I tell Typhin tomorrow that I just didn’t need to sleep, I wouldn’t need to tell him about what just happened!

Great idea. I’ll just sit up researching all night.

I pass by a room full of turned-off droids. Hm. I peek my head inside. It almost looks like they’re asleep.

Well… I do need to check out how my larger body is doing. Which means I should probably get someplace where I can lie down and close my eyes without anybody thinking it’s weird and asking if I’m okay.

I walk into the room. It’s completely dark inside, but once I come in, one of the droids beeps to life. It’s the size of a rubbish bin, and once it blinks a bunch of lights for a few seconds, the head-portion turns to me, beeping and booping. “Hi, uh, I have no idea what you’re saying. Sorry.” The droid emits a whistling tweet that somehow sounds a little sad. “Yeah, sorry.”

After looking me up and down, it seems it has decided I’m no harm, so it turns back into its slot on the wall and goes dark.

Well, at least one of my bunk mates here greeted me. I sit down on the ground.

Okay, let’s see here…

I close my eyes.

The black of my eyelids quickly shifts to the black of space, dotted with countless stars. Furthermore, it seems I’m holding a massive skull. Okay, if one of my tentacles is a little less than 800 meters long, then this skull is just about 200 meters. Wowzers.

I munch in. As for how many points I have, it seems to linger at around 50 000, being constantly used and added to as I subconsciously make purchases. Eh? Haven’t I become the most literal impulse buyer? Weird, weird.

Anyway, I continue eating. Just eating and eating.

I hesitate to call it pleasant, but when I’m eating, I don’t have to think about anything. Not about the Emperor possibly making me an organic weapon, not about the fact that there doesn’t seem to be a single purely good guy in this whole galaxy, not about how I’m not even accepted by those aboard this ship…

I bite into the temple of the skull, crunching a mouthful of the semi-hard stuff before swallowing it down. It’s actually a fair bit harder than stone. I like crunchy stuff better than soft stuff. It takes a little longer to eat. Sometimes, the bone is accentuated with bone marrow. It has no flavour, but it brings some consistency apart from pure bone. All and all, a 4/10.

...But when you spend too much time doing a menial, tedious thing, you start to stop thinking purely of what you’re doing, and your thoughts start to wander.

At least Typhin’s nice. And Fern. Though, then again, it’s not like they’re fully nice. When we first met, calling Typhin nice would be a stretch. The second Fern and I were no longer alone, he instantly suggested using me as an organic weapon. Atte’s the same. He’s a nice guy when it’s just the two of us, but the second he’s together with his trooper buddies, he turns his back on me.

Even now, it almost feels like I can hear his voice, calling out to me.

“Mort…”

Like he’s from someplace else, across the stars.

“Mort..!”

Wait a minute…

“Mort!”

I snap my eyes open, coming face to face with a white death’s head. “Gack!” I scramble away, bumping into a wall. No, wait, it’s not a skull, it’s a stormtrooper helmet. And, that smell… “...Atte?”

The man sighs deeply, sinking to crouch in front of me. “Yeah. I… look, I’m not gonna beat around the bush. I’m sorry.”

...Huh?