[h3][color=#40826D]Nguyễn Nở Vĩnh[/color][/h3][hr][sup][h3][b][i][/i][/b][/h3][/sup][color=Gainsboro][indent][indent][indent][indent][justify]The screeches and pops from the lower deck felt louder with the ship in port. Selfishly, Vĩnh still wanted to slip out and pretend she hadn’t heard or even been around to hear whatever was going on down there. But that was a shoddy excuse at best. She gazed longingly towards the airlocks for a moment, then resigned to her fate. She had to at least check. And as much as she wanted to avoid it, she’d have to get in there eventually. She had to do her job, even if attempting to work around someone so intensely territorial wasn’t in her job description. The last time she’d tried to get in there to clean, Jax had stonewalled her and grown increasingly distressed no matter how gently she tried to frame what she was trying to do. She’d approached it from a number of different angles already. Unfortunately, it was increasingly apparent that he wasn’t going to budge if he didn’t absolutely have to. And what would happen if she continued ignoring it? Never mind being fired, if he was just left to his own devices in there, there was always the possibility that he’d blow a hole in the ship. No factor pointed to Jax practicing any reasonable safety measures with whatever he was doing in there. 

Now, there was the possibility she was catastrophizing and connecting dots that weren’t quite there. Maybe the screeches of metal and other concerning sounds had reasonable explanations. At least, she’d thought so until she entered the cargo bay. The lights flickered. She snapped her head to look in the direction of Jax’s room. Little wisps of smoke snuck past the old seals on the door. Vĩnh’s stomach turned. Had he set the ship on [i]fire[/i]?

She darted for the fire extinguisher, then for the door. She opened it and wheezed as the smoke drifted outwards. Without hesitating, Vĩnh activated the extinguisher. The device roared to life as the vacuum chamber was opened. The smoke rushed towards the nozzle. As the air began to clear, Vĩnh began to dart her head around, trying to discern the source of the smoke. To her horror, there were plenty of candidates.

[color=#40826D]“Where’s the fire?!”[/color] she exclaimed, barely audible over the sound of the vacuum extinguisher.[/justify][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/color]