Surviving The Theseus by Randy Noble

--“
    Rachel nodded towards her partner.
    “-- this is Blair Campbell.” Rachel looked
directly into Regina’s eyes as she spoke, never wavering from her
gaze.
    Blair looked around the room, his right leg
bopping up and down.
    Rachel continued to stare at Regina. “We’re
passengers on this thing, and we were hiding on this level after
coming out of our rooms and finding clothing lying everywhere, but
no people anywhere, until we saw you.”
    Regina looked them both up and down as Rachel
spoke. Rachel was older than Blair, maybe in her thirties, with
long curly, black hair, blue eyes, short and fit. Blair was a tall,
heavy-set man, with dark, slicked back hair to his shoulders, brown
eyes, and an engineering ring on his right hand. Regina missed no
detail. It felt like she was profiling these people, like she was
on the job.
    Blair smiled as he noticed Regina looking him
over. Regina did not return the smile. She was too busy staring at
his large off-kilter nose. It was wide and long, and looked like it
had been broken, but not recently.
    “So you’ve been hiding up here since this all
began,” Regina said.
    “No,” Blair said as Rachel gave him a
piercing stare that he ignored. “We tried the docking bay first,
but the entry doors were sealed and we couldn’t get in. We then
took the stairs all the way up here.”
    Blair’s leg continued moving quickly up and
down.
    “Have you seen anything else unusual, other
than the clothing piles?” Regina asked.
    “Yes, an orange light,” Rachel said, “in the
distance on our room level. We got an uneasy vibe from it, and
that’s when we tried to get to the docking bay.”
    Regina watched their eyes as they spoke and
she couldn’t tell if they were lying or not. They seemed genuine.
One thing that stuck in her mind and wouldn’t let go was the
engineering ring Blair wore.
    There were engineers all over the place, but
none Regina could remember that wore rings like Blair’s platinum
one. Only a particular kind of engineer wore a ring like that, but
she couldn’t remember what kind at the moment.
    Regina relaxed a bit and let her arm drop,
the gun now pointed at the floor. Blair’s leg stopped moving.
    “Do you have any idea what is going on?”
Rachel said.
    “None at all. I was hoping you two
would.”
    Rachel shook her head.
    “I’ve been inside the orange light when it
flashed,” Regina said, “and it felt very threatening to me. And
some sort of brown, gooey blob came out of nowhere at me. It
missed, but it almost seemed like it tried to follow me, as if it
were alive.”
    Rachel and Blair looked at each other. Blair
started shaking his leg up and down again.
    “That’s weird,” Blair said and Rachel
nodded.
    “Well, let’s go,” Regina said.
    “Go where?” Blair said.
    “Control Room.”
    Blair furrowed his brow. “What for? We’ve
stayed alive for hours on this level.”
    “And what did that get you? Alive, yes, but
nowhere near off this floating ghost ship. We don’t even know what
direction we’re headed, or who might be in control of this
ship.”
    Regina started to move towards the back side
of the couch. Rachel stood up.
    “Where are you going?” Blair asked
Rachel.
    “She’s right. We need to start thinking about
how to get out of here alive, and I’m tired of being a pussy.”
    Blair rolled his eyes. “We stay low, hide
out, and wait for a rescue. We don’t even know if anyone has been
killed.”
    Rachel raised her eyebrows at Blair. Regina
saw contempt in those eyes.
    “No,” Regina said. “We don’t know what we’re
dealing with. For all we know, a rescue team already came on board
and was wiped out. We move. Now.”
    Regina pointed her gun at Blair’s head.
    “What, are you gonna shoot me for wanting to
live?”
    “No, I’m going to shoot you because I don’t
trust you, and I’d rather you were dead than come sneaking up
behind me.”
    Blair exhaled heavily. “I’m starting to
wonder if you’re worse than