The screaming caught her mid-reload. She didn’t need to look to know why the man was screaming. Considering that only one person was screaming, her mind evoked images of meatloaf instead of the intended lesser damage over all three targets. Violent injuries were nothing new to a four year veteran of salvage duty. Vaccum exposure, hot vapors and liquids, electric current, exploding pressure vessels, shrapnel large and small, people trapped in an inferno so hot the heat cracked the teeth... Just two months before she got out of the navy, she slipped on a patch of charred goo that used to be a crew member of a freighter that completely burned out. She’d seen and smelled it all, but always as a third party. An unfortunate observer. But here, she did that to the man. Knowing she caused it made her sick. ‘Better them than me.’ she thought, but it rang somewhat hollow. Snapping in a new magazine with a shaking hand, she popped out of cover again and immediately recoiled back. Meatloaf. Meatloaf in marinara sauce.

The sound of her name being called brought her back into the here and now. Sprinting up the ramp and not even stopping as she hit the button to close it, she went straight for the airlock, heading to the machine shop. Having connected to the shipwide PA, Vigdis whistled into the microphone, completely uncaring about how weird it probably sounded to everyone else on board. She listened for the sound of doors opening or something moving in nearby vents when movement in one of the shelves near the ceiling caught her eye. To her infinite relief, she was met with the sight of Fritjof, eyes at half mast from having just woken up. “You lazy slacker, how’d you sleep through [i]that[/i]?!” She stepped closer to the shelf and tapped her shoulder, the cat taking the cue and leaping down onto her shoulders. “Sure wish I could’ve.” She ruffled the hair on his head before placing him in the carrier strapped to the floor for safety and made for the engineering section. As she was unregistered luggage on this trip, she might as well make herself useful.

Somewhere in the distance, something at last put an end to the muted screams of the man she’d crippled.