The Darkstorm definitely interacted with the military crew more than when Charyd commanded it. The ship apparently only wanted some respect like everyone else. Fine. They will mop the floors more than once. He would personally brush this ship clean if it meant it listened to him. After he saved the crew. Without questioning, Charyd looked at the picture of Saar and morphed into him.

Another wave rocked the ship until it jerked with a sudden stop. The engine did not turn on to adjust, someone must’ve anchored the ship down. It wouldn’t be long until the captain left for the prison.

The doors opened up with the sounds of multiple hissing snakes. “Saar? Why are you here? I was waiting for you.”

Charyd moved his pale hands to his shaved head. “Was only a short nap. I don’t need your aid.”

“I bet it was disgusting too. Where is Charyd? You have his uniform.”

Gorgons have multiple eyes and peep at all the little details. “Charyd lent it so I could do my job. His stink is worse than the shit.” Charyd was not surprised with himself at how easily the insults came. He had heard them all. “I came straight here because C.P. was desperate to have this code done. Now stop sniffing me with your tongues.” He turned back to the screen with a harrumph. Saar would have been harsher. The words still worked and they chased the medic away without a question.

The flight logs opened up on the screen. Multiple error messages that declared false data flashed brightly and then faded to a more acceptable color. He compared them to the video of when the ship shook. It was an endless stream of error messages when Captain Posey messed with the Darkstorm’s internals. Rewatching it still made him gag, but he had to know what she did. The error messages only stated override success. He deleted the false data entries, if the data was wrong, why keep it? All it took was morphing into Saar to access this data. For him to fiddle with the hologram he just needed to change into Ilise Posey. A steady hand and luck are all a pilot really needs. Charyd had not been caught by the military yet, so he had plenty of luck.

“Officer Charyd.” The Darkstorm stated. “I believe you should get going to catch up to your crew.”

Charyd morphed back into his other persona. Thank goodness the watch went unnoticed. “Thanks… Tony.” It felt odd calling the ship by an intellectual name, but the Captain did it and the ship obeyed her. It also did help him multiple times already. “You run things -uh well.”

As he walked out the door, Tony replied with a short and clear beep. He did not make it far. Officer Boil slid down the ladder from the Lightning Strike weapon. “Heyo. Where are you off to?”

If anyone wanted a decent amount of privacy on this ship, they had to be trapped behind the walls. “I want to see the workings of this prison.”

“That’s not suspicious at all. What good is the navigational pilot in the prison? No offense, but you require high clearance as is, being a shifter.” Boil scratched at his neck awkwardly and broke eye contact.

“What am I going to do? Morph into a prisoner and walk out? They wouldn’t bat an eye because of my biochip. Did you clean up that mark?”

“They really didn’t care for the Darkstorm; they carved it into the panel. I just finished sanding the epoxy. Getting some paint now.”

Looking up at the Lighting Storm, Charyd felt his plan click into place like the corner of a puzzle. The cap bombs were in place, all he needed was everyone off the ship now. Boil’s attempt at doing his job would work in his favor. Especially since it was so close to the Lightning Strike system. 

Onto the next step of his plan. He wrapped an arm around Officer Boil. “Mate, let’s check out the scum of the world. Remind ourselves why we chose the path we have.” He elongated his fingers just enough to slip under the man’s tight collar and pin a small device there. For a short moment, Charyd felt bad using the guy this way. He was cool. But then he remembered Alice’s face when the security bar pierced her ear as she was taken down. Her cries as she was ripped out of Charyd’s mind still echoed from when the device activated and she was cut off telepathically

“If C.P. finds out that I’m not done-”

“You’ll finish it before we get back to base.” Charyd did not realize how cold his voice had become until he felt Boil tense under his arm. He tried to force a smile and it felt too natural. “Seriously though, do you want to see what weapons they’re packing here? This is a water planet, could you imagine what would happen if the Lighting Strike went off?” He steered Boil to the exit of the ship.

“Ah, that would be horrifying to be next to. Water is a conductor and it’ll probably fry up the whole base with a powerful charge from the Darkstorm.”

“Let’s make sure no one is on the ship to accidentally shoot it off then.”

They caught up to the Darkstorm team waiting at the dock. Captain Posey was arguing with someone on her comms. “Stop the delay and open the gates. You know we’re from the Cadoon Military Space Force. You even admitted that the Commander reached out to you. What more do you need? Vetting!? Fine. Whatever gets me and my necessary crew in there.”

Boil wrapped a fellow arm around Charyd. “Looks like we are going to be waiting a while.”

“Don’t worry, it will be worth it.” Maybe he will kidnap Boil, he kinda liked the guy.

They slipped on the wet stern of the Darkstorm. Sisyphus and the gorgon officer were trying to shelter their heads from the falling rain. Due to the gravity of the planet, it fell so slowly that it looked more like snow. One could swat the rain away as they moved. Psi Trident was 99.9% water. A tenth of a percent leftover was only because of the buildings that were floating about like lily pads in a hurricane. Everyone was waiting for the Captain to lead them into the prison. The Darkstorm had positioned itself on one of three landing spots. Charyd noted two docking chains on the ship to keep it from sliding around. Those would have to go. One of them was plugged into a panel Charyd had replaced himself after an altercation during his command of the ship. It was easy to replace again, even in space. The other docking chain, however, was hooked into a thick metal bolt that looked important. 

“For safety protocols, everyone should note that the dock is wet.” The Darkstorm hologram appeared right at the edge of the entrance. “The ship is wet. And when you come back inside me, you and I will both be wet. And I’m slippery when wet.”

“Tony!” Captain Posey said. Through the constant rain, her face luminosity glowed with the heat. “Lock the ship down and stay on alert.”