Sera Reimer, Recon Captain, hanging half over the port bow railing, drives a nail home, hitting it probably much harder than strictly necessary. One of the hands holding her aboard by the waistband of her pants pokes her on the small of her back.

“There are far more effective ways of managing anger than taking it out on Skaoi, poor girl.” Bella tells her matter-of-factly. “Like taking it out on Des. I’ve always found that to work particularly well. Especially when all the anger is caused by one of her stupid experiments. I’d be perfectly willing to hold her down for you.”

Sera pauses. “Is it wrong that I’m considering taking you up on that offer?”

“…You’re right. Battery acid in her coffee would be far more humane. And not even noticeable if it’s a pot she brews…”

“We’re bad people. Okay, done, help me up.”

“Actually, it would probably an act of mercy. Natasha’s going to torture her for the rest of her natural life when she sees what Des did to the kitchen sink.”

“This is true.”

“There’s another loose one off the stern.”

“You’d think they could’ve taken care of these at the dock when they had her up on the blocks…”

“You’d think. But you know dock maintenance is lazy; slugs won’t do one inch more than is absolutely necessary. Case in point, did you see my cabinets?”

“This one’s too far down to get from up here. I’ll get it from the ladder, hold this.”

Sera straddles the stern, fingers gripping the wood tightly as she feels for the ladder. Second leg quickly following the first, she switches her death grip from ledge to webbing, swearing as one foot starts slipping back off the step. “I hate this thing.” She whines, quickly descending the next five steps. She locks the fingers of one hand around the webbing and reaches up her other for the hammer Bella dangles over the edge. She grabs for it, misses, and edges up onto her toes, snatching at the very end, just getting it. Carefully, she sidles to the far left of the step, fishes a nail out of her pocket, and leans far over, hooking her wrist in the webbing. It’s a near thing, but she manages to nail a loose board firmly back into place without a) dropping the hammer, or b) falling to her death. She scurries back up the ladder and flops back onto the deck, taking Bella down with her in her hurry.

“Assholes.”

“Who, Des?

“Maintenance. Jerks could’ve done that without risking their lives.”

“Yeah, well, that’s the way the world turns.”

“Fine, next time, you get to hold the hammer.”

“Can’t. ‘Fraid of heights, remember?”

“…you’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Sera, Bella, notice from Commander Lawrence!”

“Coming!”

“She sounds fairly normal. Is it possible she hasn’t noticed?”

“You’re joking, right? Probably she’s just already beaten Des to death, pried her floorboards up, dumped the body, and nailed them back down.”

“…You frighten me.”

“Oh come on, you definitely thought it too.”

Sera just rolls her eyes and thumps down the stairs, hammer swinging in her hand.

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Scene 4-I

Next: Scene 4-II