Etaine got to the bridge and coalesced back into herself. The last time she had stood here as Greyla, she had been a real flesh and blood human. That was before they mutinied and fled back to Beldora against Jejliard's orders. She took in the view for a moment and enjoyed looking out through the large window into the vastness of star filled space.

It required a lot more energy to project herself in plasma form and the Sora was running low, but she needed to be solid to access the console. Fortunately, everything on the bridge was still functioning.

After ensuring she was there alone, Etaine connected to the power node and made herself a solid entity in order to enter Greyla's old pass code. It still worked. They were indeed orbiting the Dezba star system as planned. That was one piece of good news she could give to Hal.

A loud tapping on the window startled her. It came again, louder. She looked up and saw something shaped like a long claw tapping on the outside corner of the window. It traced something on the window.

“What? Nothing could survive outside of the ship!” Etaine said aloud.

Tap, Tap, Tap. It scrawled the window again. It appeared to be tracing a letter.

Etaine tried to make sense of the pattern it was making. “W? Nothing but an energy being that is."

The claw disappeared. "Correct!" said a voice behind her. Etaine felt a disturbance and turned to see a large bird like creature, over seven feet tall, with white feathers and a humanoid face. It had teleported onto the bridge from outside the ship.

"Widhbo! You were outside?"

"Oh, it's much safer out there." Widhbo said. "I see you didn't quite make it. You're a little messed up, Greyla."

"I'm Etaine now, ghost of Greyla. I had to detach my mind from my body to escape being eaten.” She paused and frowned. “Wait. The last time I saw you, you had taken up residence inside Nova’s physical file. It was Nova who murdered me!"

"Hmm. How very interesting!"

"So where were you while I was being attacked?"

"I see your point. Well, I wasn't in Nova then. I had to abandon the poor beast."

"Saved your own skin did you?"

"I did. Just like you shucked your body."

"I still have Greyla's file."

"And I still have Nova's file. But I can't be a leopard, anymore than you can be Greyla. We're simply not the same."

"What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question. I saw you first." Widhbo stood tapping one foot as he waited for her reply.

"I wanted to make sure we arrived at our destination as planned. To see if we’re in a stable orbit."

"We have and we are, " Widhbo replied. He turned his back to her and monitored the control console.

“Well I can see you made the trip intact. You’re as rude as ever.” She looked at long rectangular chest pushed against the wall on the far side of the room. “What’s in the box over there?” Etaine asked.

“That? Oh, that’s where I stored the remains of Jejliard’s body after he… “

“Oh, gross! Never mind. What can we do to deal with this catastrophe?"

"It’s far beyond my abilities. Strange. Lately I've been feeling little tingles all over," Widhbo said, rubbing his belly and shuffling his feet.

"You can keep that information to yourself," Etaine said puffing out her hair in frothy curls.

Widhbo teleported to the door, locked it and returned as quickly to the controls.

"What are you doing?"

"You asked that I not share information."

"I take it back. What tingles? What are you doing?"

"Oh Etaine, ghost of Greyla, you humans are so fickle." Widhbo flipped on the communication module. "I’m picking up a signal. It appears we're being hailed. I don't recognize the wave form, but it's an attempt to communicate. You should let me handle this."

"Another ship?"

"Maybe."

"Well, maybe they could rescue us. We could use the explorer pod to rendezvous with them."

"I'm putting you on 'ignore' for the moment."

Etaine popped into the cloud form, and made a thick fog, engulfing the room. "Ignore that!"

"Captain's log: Initiating contact with alien vessel. Slim chance to rescue survivors. Thick fog on bridge interfering with operations at present."

Etaine coalesced back to a pale ghostly figure of a woman and hovered over Jejliard's coffin box. She had donned a hideous mask with dark glowing eye sockets and blood trailing from a ghoulish mouth ringed by fangs.

"Not all survivors are friendly," she murmured.

Widhbo managed to amplify the signal and triangulate the source on screen, still ignoring Etaine.

"Sending universal distress call; dangerous life forms on board; pod rescue and ship quarantine requested." Widhbo said, broadcasting the signal and locking it to repeat.

Etaine said, "Hal is getting the master files for the personas and loading them on the pod now. Maybe we should look for the other survivors before we go."

"Negative. That would be fatal. Go straight to the explorer deck and find Hal. Small detail, I've just released the pod guards. Meet you there," Widhbo said. He unlocked the door to the bridge and disappeared.

Exposed and vulnerable again, Etaine left the bridge and melted back into the ceiling. She headed to the hangers staying well above the corridors below full of wandering, soulless creatures. She had muted her emo function, but faint color shifts still gave her away. Etaine wasn't very good at hiding her emotions. They kept breaking through with or without her permission. She found Hal waiting for her on the explorer deck.

"What took you so long?" he asked as she began to reform.

He gasped when she materialized in front of him."Etaine? What’s with your face?"

She was still wearing the mask. "Oh, sorry." She dissolved the gory countenance, revealing her normal face.

"Why were you wearing that?"

"Widhbo and this awful box... don't ask."

"Widhbo! You found him?"

"He found me. He's been outside the ship hiding on the hull."

"So where is he now?” Hal asked. “We’re ready to leave. Is he looking for the others?"

"No. He thinks it's too risky, We intercepted a signal from an alien vessel of some sort and sent out a distress call. Widhbo said he would meet us here on the explorer deck. We’re going to be rescued!" Etaine did a little happy dance. Her hair had grown longer and was badly tangled .

"I hate to leave without the others, but we can't win this fight," Hal said.

"They're all deranged by now, Hal. Anyone we may find wandering those halls are most likely under the Devourer’s control. Just look at me. I’m crazy, cracked, broken to pieces. I don’t think I would survive another encounter with him."

"Yeah. We need to go now or we'll both end up as one of his zombies,” Hal said. “And you’re not crazy. You’re just emotionally fragile right now. You’re smart, Etaine. That’s why you’re still alive.”

"I just want to get off this ship. They can blow it up for all I care. That's what I'd want if I were trapped in some stupid zombie," Etaine said. She picked at her hair and tried to sort out the knots.

A blur of white feathers moved past them and into the pod. Widhbo crammed himself in the small space. "Get in!" He said waving his wings.

"There's hardly room for you in there," Etaine said. "Why don't you ride on the hull?"

"I prefer it inside. It'll be cozy."

"No, it'll be all nuts and feathers," Etaine said. She stepped inside and flattened herself against a wall.

Hal squeezed in and securely fastened the outer hatch and inner door.

"I call feathers," said Widhbo.