Swamped

What was this person wearing?

"So if she didn't have a coat on, what was she wearing instead?" you ask.

"Just a dress. Not one o' them fancy ones for a ball or somethin', though. Pretty ordinary dress, all things considered."

Hmm. That could be a good lead. She'd be getting to work soon, so she'd have to change out of the dress. If you're lucky, she might even have brought it to the laundry room and you can try to find some more information there.

Still, that's not a lot to go on. Maybe you'd have better luck sticking around here and trying to see if Graham can give you info on anyone else at the party.

Hmm. But you've got a funny feeling all of a sudden. You can't say why, exactly, but you've got a hunch that time is of the essence.

Well, if your gut's right about that, you'd better make your choice quick.

Follow your gut! Run to the laundry! Maybe Graham can come too. 

Are you sure it's not just indigestion in your gut?

You can't shake the idea that this lady's important. You think looking into her is your best bet, and the laundry room is your one idea for how to do that.

"Think I'll go asking around as to who that was," you tell Graham. "Sorry to bother you."

"Nah, it's no big deal. Got a free shift right now anyhow."

That's odd.

"Right after the party? I thought everyone there went to work right afterwards."

"Oh, right. There was a last-minute change of plans. The guy who was supposed to check for guests got sick or something. So a little bit before the storm, Lou asks if I can do it instead. I've got two free shifts and I usually just spend them being bored out of my mind anyways, so..." He pauses. "Hey, on that note, mind if I tag along? Got nothing better to do."

"Sure," you say. You don't know how helpful he'll be, but if nothing else you can ask him more questions along the way.

You hurry to the laundry room, and asking some basic questions along the way, you find out that Graham only recognized a few people. And out of those people, you only know about half the names. He says none of them seemed to be involved in organizing the party.

But there's something that jumps out at you about the people you know there. They all have one particular thing in common.

They were all part of the ship's crew on its previous mission.

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.

Graham speaks up before you do.

"Oh, say! Nice to see you again. Want to apologize - I thought you were Ms. Rebecca, so I never actually asked for your name earlier. A bit rude of me."

She just groans.

"As it happens, my name's also Rebecca. So I've gone by Becky since I got on here. I prefer not to talk about it. It feels weird every time I see her, especially since when I do, she's usually giving me some kind of orders." She shakes her head in exasperation. "But what are you doing in the laundry room?"

"Ah," you say. "Well, the thing is, I have some questions about the party, and I was wondering if you might be able to answer any of them."

"They were organizing a union," she says. "That's what was really going on. I understand there were to be some negotiations with Mr. Resk, but he had to leave suddenly. That's all I know."

"A union?" you ask, surprised.

"As in, an organization of workers collectively bargaining to..."

"I know what it is. But it's a weird way to do it."

"I agree," Becky says. "But as it turns out, there's a lot of overlap between the things you do to quietly organize a union and the things you do to quietly organize a mutiny. And there's plenty of captains who don't see a difference between them in any case. So it tends to lead to this sort of decision."

Hmm. Strange that she's explaining that so readily, then. Almost feels like she's trying to give you information in order to steer you away from asking about something else.

Well. How do you handle this, then?

Was it Lou's idea, or did his birthday party get hijacked?

"So was this whole thing Lou's idea? Or did somebody else decide to use his birthday party for this whole arrangement?"

"I wouldn't know about that," she says with a shrug. "All I know is, once I arrived, Lou asked me to explain to the various volunteers what they were supposed to do. I did, since I figured he shouldn't be kept from celebrating his own birthday, but it didn't seem like much of a celebration to me."

"Volunteers," you mutter. "So, like Graham here. And I saw Colleen out by the door to the kitchen. Anyone else?"

"There were another two or three people on, well, I suppose you might call it security. And another six who just carried out the stew from the kitchen and brought the bowls back afterwards. And let me think... Another was attending to Mr. Resk." She pauses. "I think there were some people helping out in the kitchen, too, but now that I think about it, I never spoke to them. They seemed to already know what they were doing."

You're still unsettled by how freely she's talking about it. You can't shake the feeling that she's giving you all these answers so you don't notice she's hiding something else.

How should you approach this?

Change the subject. What did this ship do before it began its current mission? And what did YOU do, Becky?

It's time to go with your gut.

You don't know for sure that Becky is one of the old crew. But if she was that involved in the party, she must know something about why so many of them were there.

"You ever think about how weird it is that this ship's mostly a new crew?" you ask suddenly. "I mean, for a journey this long, I'd expect experienced sailors would be an asset."

"Can't say as it matters to me," Becky replies. "I just took the job because I had nothing else to do for a few years, and it pays well."

Now she seems just a little defensive. You think you may have gotten a bit closer to what she's hiding. Time to keep this line of conversation going and see what you can get out of it.

"Yeah? Wasn't like that for me. I was going to be a scholar, but things fell through at the last minute. Then again, hopefully I'll learn a lot from seeing another continent with my own two eyes." You glance at Graham. "How about you, what'd you do before coming here?"

"Worked at a tavern," he says, almost smirking. "Main job was breaking up fights and kicking out rowdy customers. But I also worked behind the bar a couple of times, believe it or not."

"So why'd you decide to sign on here?" you ask.

"Got thrown up on one too many times. Then I had trouble finding work for someone of my build. It was pretty much this or military service."

Becky seems to have gone quiet. Maybe she's hoping you've changed the subject.

"How about you, Becky?" you ask. "Did you have another job? Or were you looking at doing anything else before you came aboard?"

"What's it matter? I thought you were asking about the party."

"Oh, sorry. I suppose I'm just a curious sort. Probably why I was so keen on studying."

"If you must know, I was in a theater troupe. They kicked me out suddenly, and I've lost interest in performing ever since. I also don't particularly care to be reminded about it, so I hope that satisfies your curiosity enough to leave the subject alone."

Something about her reply seems... insincere, in a way you can't quite place. You're not sure if this is getting you closer or farther from what you're trying to figure out.

Maybe you need to take a moment to think about what to do next.

Your best idea is to keep the conversation moving. If you keep talking, you might catch something.

"Fair enough, I won't pry," you say. "Got me wondering about plenty of other things already. Like, I wonder why the captain got into sailing. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I even know what this ship did on its last voyage."

"The captain must have done something pretty impressive," Graham muses. "After all, they specifically picked him to manage a journey to another continent. You don't put just any captain on that kind of job."

"Well, whatever it is, I ain't seen it," Becky says. "Seems like any other boss to me. Just tells you what to do and gets mad if you don't, or if you're too slow, or if he's just having a bad day and decides to take it out on you."

"You know, now that you mention it, I don't think I've ever seen the captain give an order himself,"  you say, thinking. "Other than to the officers, I mean. He's not a friendly man, don't get me wrong, but it's mainly the officers who deal with that."

"Oh, he's been pretty quiet on this trip, sure, but..." Becky starts saying something, then suddenly stops. "Eh, never mind. Shouldn't run my mouth off about things I don't know."

Well, you're not going to leave it at that.

"Hang on. What were you going to say?"

"My sister was in the old crew. When she got back she complained about him day in and day out. But I wasn't there, so I ain't gonna talk about it."

Interesting.

"Did your sister happen to mention what the last voyage was about?" you ask.

"If she did, I didn't pick it out from all her whinin'."

"But you signed up for this long voyage?" you ask.

"Didn't know it was the same guy until it was too late to back out."

Hmm. You get the distinct feeling she knows more than she's letting on. Maybe she was in the old crew herself? Or maybe there's another angle to this story.

Either way, you feel like you're getting close to something big. How should you try to fish it out?

You and your sister must be very close. ...Did you hear about what happened to Ms. Rebecca?

"Close with your sister, then?" you say.

You don't entirely have a plan yet. More like something's bothering you here, so you're going to poke at it and see where it leads.

"Not that close. We just live in the same house - well, we did before I got this job, anyhow. She's far more interested in sailing than I am. Like I said, I'm only in it for the money."

She mentions family, and there's someone on this ship who she has a strong resemblance to. Hard for you not to wonder. Just a matter of how to bring it to the surface without getting her too defensive.

"Bit of a shame, that. Suppose it's better than feuding, though. Do you wish you were closer?"

"Hardly matters," she mumbles.

"I dunno. Lots of accidents that can happen out at sea. I think it matters a lot if you've got something to go back to at the end of it all, personally."

"I don't get involved in dangerous work. As long as the ship doesn't sink, I'll be fine."

You have a weird feeling when she says that. Hard to place it, but you can worry about that after you find out what you want to know.

"Well, you never know. Your twin ran into trouble very suddenly, after all. Or did you not hear about that?"

It's something of a wild hunch. You half expect it to be wrong. But you want to see how she reacts.

"The hells? Is that why she's not here?"

She realizes a moment too late she's said too much. She stares at you and Graham for just a moment.

Then she tosses a pile of laundry at the two of you and makes a run for it.

You recover quickly and start chasing. But where could she be headed?

Down to the ballast deck?

You find you're following her downward. Down towards the deepest parts of the ship. Where they keep the water tanks.

It's a pretty empty part of the ship. The tanks are only checked about once a week unless they need to adjust the ballast. It's also cold and clammy, so you can't imagine it would be a comfortable place to hide. But why else run down here?

Well, whatever her reasons, you soon lose sight of her. But Graham calls out to you not long after.

"Someone's injured!"

You walk over, and immediately recognize the poor woman. It's Colleen, who was guarding the kitchen earlier.

"Can you carry her to the infirmary? I'll take care of our runaway."

Graham nods, and picks her up. Damn, he's strong. Not half bad-looking, either, but you really don't have time to think about that right now.

Now how are you going to track that Becky?

Listen for footsteps! Say, what's that weird buzzing noise?

One thing about the lack of people here is, if someone is around, they're going to make noise. Especially if they're running.

Now that you're alone, you just have to sit still for a bit and you can hear the pounding of feet on wood. It's a bit drowned out by the sounds of water tanks pumping, but it's distinctive enough for you to figure out where it is.

You think you also hear something faint... like an insect buzzing. That's odd, inside-out bugs don't make noise, and other insects are pretty rare on a ship. You'll have to look into that later.

You start running towards the noise. Hopefully you can catch up before she does something foolish. You don't even know what she's hoping to accomplish by running all the way down here - she's on a ship, so how does she hope to escape by running away from the lifeboats?

Well, the only other alternative is to get rid of the witnesses. Maybe you should have just reported this to the captain instead of just running around like a fool...

No, your gut's telling you you'd better be down here. Not that you know why...

Hang on. The pumping's getting louder. A lot louder.

You get the feeling you might have more than one problem here.

Well. Graham should be able to hear the pumps too, and he's already on his way out. Hopefully he's got the sense to tell someone to look into it. For now, you'll stick to chasing down your quarry.

Wait... You hear two sets of footsteps now. And neither of them is loud enough to be Graham's.

Well, it makes sense, doesn't it? If the pumps are moving, somebody's got to be making them move. And there was a beast on deck earlier - someone would have gone down to man the pumps to counter its weight. Maybe it just took this long before it was safe to undo that.

Or that's what you'd think if you didn't just turn a corner and see a bunch of tanks overflowing. There's water all over the floor.

Hells! Who'd do a thing like that? They'd be sure to go down with the ship.

And you never learned the pumps, damn. But there's nobody else around except a runaway and the saboteur... well, unless they're the same person, but then who else is walking around down here?

No time to think about that. You need to figure out what to do about these water tanks, fast.

Plug the leak with your finger until another one forces you to use another finger and you comically end up using your toes.

Or, you know, tighten any valves you can find?

You don't know how to work the pumps, but you can see a wheel, and there's only two ways a wheel can turn. You'll figure it out.

It takes you a little bit, as it turns out. Seems there's still a fair amount of slack. But you do figure out that you want to turn the wheel towards the right; hopefully any others you see will turn the same way.

But how many more are there? And how many is the saboteur going to turn while you're trying to find them? You don't know.

Would be damned useful if there were some more people down here. Maybe you should turn back... no, your gut is telling you otherwise.

Well. That's all well and good, but your gut isn't very good at giving you plans. Maybe you ought to think with your head a bit.

There's bound to be some kind of alarm down here. If something goes wrong, the whole ship's in danger, so there must be a way to send a warning.

Wait, that's weird, isn't it? This place is rarely checked. And the captain's not one to take a chance like that. So what happens if something breaks and nobody's around to notice?

Well, most likely water's going to overflow. Maybe that sets off an alarm.

But water's already overflowing. So what, does there need to be more water?

You don't really like where this idea is taking you. It would mean making a bad situation worse. You'll be better off figuring out a way to trip whatever alarm they've got without flooding the place faster. And you suppose that means thinking about where the alarm might even be.

The floor must tilt somewhat to channel the flow of water to the alarm. If you spill enough, maybe you can follow it to the grate or drain and investigate it up close. It's dark down here, though... Do you have something small that floats that you can let loose to see where the water is flowing?

You think about it hard. There's bound to be spills in regular use, and if it's just a little water, it shouldn't raise an alarm. So most likely, the water tends to flow somewhere - a drain, maybe? - and if that gets too full, an alarm goes off.

Well, there's a fair amount of water. But the lighting's not too good down here. Low priority for lightmoss, because so few people come this way. It's hard for you to track it.

Maybe if you had something more distinctive to follow...

Well, when it comes down to it, you don't really need socks. You slip your left shoe off, take the sock off, and put the shoe back on. Uncomfortable, but manageable. You toss your sock in the water, and use it to follow the flow.

Hmm. That weird buzzing seems to be getting a little bit louder. Maybe it's in the drain you're looking for.

You soon find the drain, and it's not hard to see the mechanism. You don't really have the means to get the grate off easily, though. Maybe there's some way you can trigger it without that...

The buzzing's getting quite loud now. And a little unnerving.

Well, if it's somehow dangerous, then it's probably best if you get the alarm going before it gets you. So you'd best think quick about how to do that.

It looks like there's a floating device connected to a chain. If enough water goes in, the little thing floats up, and when it floats up high enough, the chain gets pulled. That's probably what makes the alarm go off.

If you could reach your hand in, you could just pull the chain. But the opening's too thin.

The next best idea you've got is to hit the chain with your wet sock. If that fails, well, you've got another sock. Also your work gloves. Four tries ought to be good enough.

You slip the sock into the drain and try to aim for the chain as best as you can.

Your luck's better than you hoped - the sock snags on the chain before you even let go of it. So all you have to do is pull. Might even be able to get out of this with nothing worse than a hole in your sock.

As you pull, you start hearing bells in the distance. That's done the job, then. Now you can get back to finding your runaway. You pull the sock loose and stuff it in your pocket - not worth putting it back on right now.

The buzzing is a lot louder now. You turn around carefully.

What you see is a mass of bugs in the shape of a man.

Not just any bugs, though. You've studied insects enough to realize what's off about these ones.

They're all dead.

Doesn't seem to be stopping them from moving closer, though. And while you can give a pretty solid punch, dead bugs probably aren't going to feel much from one.

So what can you do?

Scream and fling a wet sock at it!