The man stood up from his bed, walking towards the glass door to his cell. "Hello?" He smiled with a slightly worried look to him.
Hetto stood dumbfounded, but with a slight shake of his head, he mustered a reply. "Who are you? How'd you get in there?"
"Committed a crime... How else do people get into prison cells?" He chuckled.
"There's no prisoners on board the Homemaker as of now; I know cause I just checked." Hetto refused to approach the glass door.
"To be fair, I did just arrive, so it would be weird if you had something on me..."
"So who are you?" Hetto was cautious with his wording, eyeing up the suspicious man.
The man saluted by pressing his fist up against his forehead, straightening his posture in the process. "Ambi, Vanguard Medic, 433.2."
Hetto didn't reply. Instead, he made a beeline for the console he'd just been at. He crashed into the chair at the desk, pulling the console close enough to start typing away.
"Aren't you supposed to salute back? Bit rude..." Ambi smushed his face up against the glass to see where he went.
Hetto stopped typing and started to read the console instead.
"You still there?" Ambi put his back to the glass, sliding down to the ground.
Hetto stood up and pulled a couple of the pins and levers on the clamp that held the console up. With a satisfying metal clang, he lifted the console and the clamp onto to ground, allowing it to slide along a rail with him as he walked back to Ambi.
"Dishonourably discharged. Over five years ago, most of your records were scrubbed, including your real name." Hetto clicked the console into place next to his cell.
"Real name's Liam Laker, but everyone calls me Ambi, so that'll be easier." He stood back up.
"Guess I can I slot you into our records a little easier..." Hetto created a new entry for the brig inmate listings. He left asterisks in the fields he couldn't put an easy answer down for.
"You the warden then?"
"He got fired, not enough inmates per year to justify a full-time role. I fill in." His attention was still on the console.
"Wow, Vanguard job security is as good as ever, I see. Did you know they used to offer VIP healthcare coverage for full-time front-liners? But they scrapped it when they realised it cost them nearly one-fifth of their quarterly budget. Why do they even have to pay for that type of thing..." Ambi put a hand up to his chin. "Why would you privatise the whole military..."
Hetto didn't engage in the conversation at all, "so why are you here?"
"Two reasons, because I truly don't believe I should be allowed to walk as a free man anymore. But also, I need to make sure the sacrifices of my comrades don't go to waste." His eyes squinted, giving Hetto the slightest hint that he wasn't just messing around anymore. "The hard part is over. All that's left is to finish things off."
"I assume you know something about the emergency taking place then..."
"Yeah, you looked outside yet?"
"No..."
"You're not very good at your job."
"Used to be."
Ambi smiled. "Seems to be a stroke of luck that I spoke to you first then."
Hetto took a moment to think about the situation. "I'm gonna go and report you. Sit tight." He turned quickly to leave the room.
"At least tell me your name!"
He paused before leaving, "Hetto."
Ambi heard the door open and close. He walked back to his bed and sat down with a sigh. The calm from his face wavered. "Here we go..."
Hetto took a route that allowed him to take a look outside the ship. When he finally managed to shove past the waves of people cramping the hallways of the Homemaker, he saw it. The ominous caramel substance that loomed just a stone's throw away from the warship. Occasional flashes streaked across its surface as if to remind onlookers to keep their eyes on it. Hetto averted his gaze and made his way through more busy hallways and elevators, eventually reaching the bridge. He scanned the floor, looking for his commanding officer. It didn't take long. He lightly jogged over to a neatly dressed officer. She looked to be talking to two lesser-ranked individuals, both of which eyed up Hetto with an oddly condescending look.
Hetto hadn't realised it, but his tattered and oily rags stuck out like a sore thumb amongst a sea of perfect blue uniforms. He'd not been there often, and the odd looks further helped justify his purposeful avoidance of the bridge. He waited for her to finish with the other two before grabbing her so she couldn't walk off without noticing him.
"Hey, Jann! You got a moment?" He nearly stuttered over his words.
She turned, "Hetto, what can I help you with?" She forced a smile out.
"I've got a suspicious male who's appeared in the brig, with seemingly no records of why he was placed there. He's claiming to know something about the caramel stuff outside."
Jann's face twisted more towards curiosity. "That is strange, I'll-" She was cut off by a message coming through her earpiece. "Understood." She nodded whilst holding her hand up to her ear. "Report this to the Empress right now. No delay understood? I have other matters to attend to. And we're referring to the substance as a Ritual Class Breaker, or RCB for short, got it?"
"Oka-... But..." Hetto tried to squeeze out the words.
"No excuses. Do your job, soldier." She hurried off.
He looked up towards the middle of the room. At the throne. Before slowly taking his gaze to the Empress. He froze as if time had stopped; the noise of the room cut out like static.
She was staring at him.
It felt like an eternity. He blinked. She wasn't looking at him anymore... Or maybe he'd imagined it. He swallowed his fear and took a deep breath. The steps that lead up to her throne were perfectly chiselled, barely used. It wasn't often that people were allowed to approach her. He inched past the throne, stopping just shy of passing her.
"Empress. I have a report to do with the RCB." He kept his eyes low.
The Empress didn't tilt her head.
Hetto swallowed again, "I have a man in the brig who appeared out of nowhere. Claims to know about the RCB, and is under the impression that he deserves to be imprisoned for his actions."
She seemed to react that time, before fully turning to stare into Hetto's soul. "Are you the Warden?"
He hesitated, "yes."
"I'm granting you all rights of a Homemaker Inquisitor. Do what is needed to extract any and all information from this man." She spoke with absolute confidence and judgement. "It may lead to nothing, and you may not even be qualified to do this, but we have a million different directions to look into, so we must do what we can with the resources we have."
Her split-second decision-making worried Hetto, who was still too scared to look up from the ground.
"I'm trusting you with this." She turned around, putting her focus back onto the large screen in the middle of the brig.
Hetto had never spoken to the Empress before. He started to head back towards the brig, forgetting to even respond to her as he left. He'd heard others mention how the Empress spoke, often without faltering. She was menacing, but all that had had contact with her had pleasant memories of the encounter. She indeed saw all below her as equals in their struggle to create new homes for all of humanity.
Before he knew it, he was back in front of Ambi's cell. He'd been so starstruck; he completely forgot how he'd even made it there.
"You alright, friend?" Ambi offered a comforting smile.