“Hey, if you guys don’t cut out the bread puns I’m detaching this thing and unleashing a flour-y of bullets on you!” Jan half-jokingly retorted to the banter going on above him. Evidently, either one of them had forgotten to close the communication channel, or they enjoyed people hearing them go back and forth like that.

Playfully ‘distressed’ and rolling her eyes, [color=39b54a]”I loaf you guys, get the fuck away from me.”[/color]

[color=00aeef]”Never. Anyway… Yeah, I can’t think of any other puns. How’s your NC looking, Jan? It obviously got fucked in the leg. Otherwise, good?”[/color], Bill inquired.

“Well… considering the cockpit isn’t a flaming death chamber right now, I’d say it’s all pretty good.” He looked over the damage report again to be sure. “Nothing much really, just the usual bullet holes… scorch marks… That bloody psycho’s flamethrower probably bent the wing decals in the heat too… I like those things damnit!.” He cursed lightly to distract himself from the realization the only thing that had stood between him and fiery death had been the shell of metal around him. It was the same post-mission realization as always. Going over all the tiny mistakes he made… And all the times where fate decided he wasn’t quite ready to get splattered yet. “Yeah... just the usual scratches. You guys happen to know anyplace ot eat nearby? I’m starving”

Bill went back to snarking, [color=00aeef]”Oh, yeah, let’s just land at a taco-place and get some burritos. Aren’t there MRE’s in NC cockpits? Y’know, emergency rations?”[/color]

Jan looked over to a small cabinet on his left. “Yeah, but those things taste like shit wrapped in vomit… Heh, guess that’s among the better tasting things you can get these days.” He clicked open the cabinet, and out came the cut-and-dry rations, sorted in exact units with nothing but boring labels on the packing to tell them apart. How did that one heater thing work again? Oh yeah! just add water.

“Water”. Jan couldn’t stop thinking about water. He continued preparingg his MRE’s, a little weirded out by his thoughts. “Water..”, what would it be like to drown? Could he survive that? How about drinking so much water his stomach bursts? What about being scalded alive, even his organs? Could a person live through that? Why couldn’t he stop thinking like this all of a sudden?

That’s when his cockpit broke. All he could see was gallon after gallon of water pouring in through the hatches’ seams. In a second, it was up to his waist and shorting out the wiring connecting his neural plug to his NC’s legs. “What the fuck! what’s going on?!” He shouted in a panic. All his NC’s eyes could see was the bottom of the ocean, beautiful and serene.

It then stopped, all at once. The water wasn’t there anymore and the Goldenspur was back in the ‘Freighter One’s clutches. Alex checked in on Jan, [color=00a651]”Hey, what’s wrong? You started mumbling something about the ocean.”[/color]. Bill continued for her, [color=00aeef]”Yeah, ‘The sea is where I belong’ or something? What are you going on about?”[/color]

“I uh…” Jan stammered and checked goldenspur’s recent system logs… It should have recorded something right. “I… think something shorted out somewhere… There was water everywhere… but it wasn’t really there” He took a deep breath, checking whether the air he was breathing right now was real. “I think I need to go see the medic after we get back…” He felt all over his head, maybe he has hit it against something during the mission? Yet, he couldn’t find anything to indicate such a thing happened. No blood, no cuts, not even a bruise or a painful spot.

Yet, for some reason, whenever Jan looked down at the sea, he felt a sense of longing..