Chapter 45: Book 1: Chapter 18 (Part 3 of 4)

“Weirdo who swears a lot,” I commented. “Sounds like Dean, whom Shana and I have also had dealings with. So, he was the one who made you into a dungeon. Out of interest, why would you accept such an offer? Or did you not have a choice?” I asked her.

Although I was eager to get on and see the rest of the ship, I didn’t want to waste an opportunity to learn more about Anastasia while she was in a sharing kind of mood.

 “I had a choice, but not much of one,” she related and stuck her tongue out while rolling her eyes heavenwards. “I was twenty thousand feet over the Pacific in a broken aircraft plummeting towards the ocean where we would have been smashed into tiny little pieces. If by some miracle I survived the crash, I’d have drowned or died of hypothermia.”

“And then all of a sudden, I was in an open plan office with a bunch of other girls, who all looked like models, and the aforementioned weirdo. He told us about the Framework and that we were all in situations where we faced certain death. That becoming a dungeon was the only option that would remove me from the plummeting plane and put me somewhere safe. I said yes, and you know the rest.”

“All of the other women were attractive, yes?” Shana questioned Anastasia further when she was done, her brows furrowed in thought.

“Hmmm, what? Yes, definitely,” Anastasia clarified. “What of it?”

Instead of answering Anastasia, Shana pressed her further. “Do you know what happened to the other girls?”

“I’m not sure, they weren’t handling things very well and after I said yes, it was just me and the weirdo for a minute before I awakened as a Core. I don’t know what happened to them after that,” Anastasia said and looked a bit confused.

Shana tutted at Ana’s answer, ground her teeth and sighed audibly.

“What are you thinking, Shana? What’s got you so perturbed?” I prodded.

“Torin, I’m thinking there are no coincidences where Dean is concerned,” she said and started to count points off on her slender fingers. “He summons a group of only pretty women in deadly circumstances. Makes an offer that can’t be refused to become a dungeon. Puts this brand new, very high potential dungeon, within the range of your dungeon sense. And then tells you that you need to claim a core as fast as possible. You know what I’m thinking.”

“Oh, that fucking arsehole, he did it again,” I snapped.

“Did what?” Anastasia and Jackson asked simultaneously.

“Led me around by my fucking nose,” I snarled. “He dangled your dungeon in front of me like a tasty treat knowing I would gobble it up but didn’t fucking trust me enough to tell me he’d arranged it all in the first place and let me decide if claiming a former person was something I wanted to do.”

“Uh, so you wouldn’t have enslaved me if you knew beforehand, because that’s not the impression I got from you a few hours ago,” Anastasia remarked scornfully. “…sir,” followed on as an afterthought.

I glowered at her, and she mouthed the word sorry, but she certainly didn’t look it. “No, it wouldn’t have changed anything. You were, and still are the best option for all of us to survive.”

“Errr…” Jackson squeaked and asked nervously. “If you wouldn’t have done anything differently, why are you so angry?”

“I do not appreciate being manipulated,” I growled.

<Playing Devil’s Advocate, I feel I should point out that Dean did this before what happened with Shana’s character upgrade, so he technically didn’t do it again> Quixbix interjected.

“Not helping, Quix,” I yelled and slammed my fist into the wooden panelling of the wall.

The physical expression of my rage didn’t hurt as it should have but failed to help either.

“Well…” Anastasia said and drew out the word. “You break it, you bought it,” she quipped and continued. “Shall we finish the tour?”

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My glower refocused on Anastasia.

“What?” Anastasia whined and shrugged her shoulders again. “I’d be lying if I said I was particularly sympathetic to your plight given our very recent history.”

I took a deep breath, she wasn’t wrong, but I’d need to find a way to make the dynamic between us work. She was far too flippant and disrespectful, in private that could be tolerated, maybe, but when we had a full crew, it would be unacceptable.

To be honest, her bolshy attitude would probably have already undermined Jackson’s opinion of my authority, if he hadn’t been so overwhelmed by events.

The Canon gave me a measure of protection, but only if I were strong and commanded the respect of those who signed it. Letting this fester would simply be an overly lengthy suicide attempt.

“Yes, let us finish,” I said instead.

“Okay, to be fair there isn’t much more to see,” Anastasia remarked. “On the right, you have the Cargo Hold which is empty, the Galley, which apart from cooking stations also empty, and the Mess, which is a bunch of benches and tables, thrilling eh?”

“On the left, we have the Captain’s quarters which has a big fancy bed for you, sir. The Crew Quarters, which has a lot of very unfancy bunk beds, enough for forty crewpersons. And the Brig, which has a variety of different sized cells and cages. You could fit a hundred prisoners in there, two hundred if you squeezed them in.”

“Finally, you can see there is a secondary set of stairs to the prow of the ship, it exits through a hatch which can only be opened from this deck and can’t be opened from the outside,” she finished.

We performed a quick reccy of the lower deck then. The rooms were nondescript for the most part. The galley was devoted to some basic cooking implements and several stoves. It connected directly with the mess which as described was a large room with plain wooden tables and benches.

The Cargo Hold was the largest of the rooms and resembled an empty wine cellar with multiple shelves waiting for us to load our booty. While we were in here, Shana disgorged the excess from her inventory, and we stored it away.

The bunks in the crew quarters proved to be quite comfy, or so Jackson informed us. He would have the room to himself for the time being, Shana would be staying with me.

When we got to the Brig Anastasia had more to say than usual. “Just so you know, because this ship is special, every part of it has what you could call an interference field. This field prevents people, not signed to the Canon, from accessing their spatial inventory. Either to retrieve things or to put them away.”

“The cells in the Brig go a few steps farther. Anyone you put inside will automatically have their inventory contents emptied into the Cargo Hold. Also, you get a large buff on social actions against those in the cells. Useful for commands, like back away from the door or put your hands out to be cuffed and keeping the prisoners compliant. It would help for interrogation or coercion too.”

“Each cell has an alert bulb in red above it, see,” she said and pointed to a small red glass dome above the cell doors. “If your attempts at a social action fails the red light will come on. It’s not foolproof, though. Someone with a high enough Willpower and Charisma can beat your checks and not trigger the alert. As the ship advances both the buff and sensitivity of the alert improve.”

“Good to know,” I said.

We didn’t spend much more time in the Brig, just long enough to confirm the cells were sturdy, effective, and unlike standard movie fare, blessedly clean.

All the rooms, including the cells, came with toiletry facilities which was also a relief. Although the toilets in the Brig cells were as basic as can be.

That left only the Captain’s Quarters, my quarters. It was an expansive room indeed, as large as the Crew Quarters which was meant for forty. The floor was carpeted in a thick, dark green rug. The far side had windows looking out onto the river through the crystalline hull.

The bed placed on the left of the room when you walked in was grandiosely enormous. Big enough for a dozen to sleep comfortably without elbowing one another, it wasn’t a four-poster, but an eight-poster, with navy velvet drapes and black silk sheets. Off on the right were a series of antechambers which included a dressing room and ensuite bathing facilities.

The entire room was needlessly excessive, and I loved it.

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