Swamped

For whatever reason, the sponsor wanted a completely new crew.

But it turns out finding that many sailors is hard. Towards the end of recruitment, they were falling a bit short.

You happened to sign up at that point. Just before they gave in entirely and asked about two dozen of the old crew to come back. There wasn't time to get anyone else.

That doesn't seem to be widely known. You only learned about it because you were pretty much the last newcomer to join the crew. So you overheard a few names. Wasn't really a secret but it wasn't really talked about either.

And every name you recognize comes from that list. From the old crew.

You have no idea what to make of that yet. You're still chasing down a separate hunch, after all. You reach the laundry room and knock.

And the face that comes out to greet you is none other than Ms. Rebecca's. The hair's a solid match, too. But she's in the middle of covering said hair with a bandanna, which does a lot to obscure the resemblance.

"What do you want?" she asks.