Colin MacGregor

"Dammit!", Colin exclaimed, all thoughts of the immigrants dropped. "He was righ' in front o' us!"

"That must have something to do with it", Liz replied. "The first outside entity to interact with the loop was handled differently by the etheric resonances."

"It means that Sean is in a different part of the story", Ryan explained. "We're all here because most of the tethers come from here. I bet Sean will be found wherever those other two tethers lead." He pointed up towards the ceiling - there was nothing visible, but all of them could sense the energies of two other spirits somewhere above."

"And that probably means the circumstances binding most of these poor souls are tied together - something we'll have to resolve before Tethys will be able to recover the Harvest." Marcus looked thoughtfully around the hold.

Colin's voice still held an edge of panic, despite the fact that to all appearances they were now on board a ship that was sailing normally instead of at the bottom of the ocean. "We need tae go and find Sean, he may be in trouble."

"That said, perhaps we should split up." Max was staring intently at one of the tethered ghosts, who ignored him. "Some of us stay here while others go and look for Sean."

"I agree." CJ turned from the others and headed for the stairs. "Anyone else coming?"

CJ's eyes narrowed. "Great", Colin heard her mutter as she passed through the bulkhead at the top of the stairs.

"Well, I guess we should see what we can find down here", Max said, and wandered off amongst the pressing crowd. The shabbily dressed immigrants mostly ignored him, though here and there one of the tethered spirits would nod in greeting, as though seeing him as just another of their compatriots.

Liz was slowly circling the room, eyes narrowed in concentration as she studied the crowd.

Colin looked at Marcus and shrugged. "We could check ou' tha' o'er door", he suggested, and Marcus nodded. The two spirits moved towards the opposite end of the hold from the stairs and passed through the much heavier metal door that was carefully bolted shut.

The low thrumming that had been present in the larger room became an overwhelming roar as they emerged on the other side of the door. Two enormous steam boilers were hard at work in the engine room, and several crew members milled about, shoveling coal into the furnaces and monitoring the pressure. Marcus shouted something at Colin, who simply put his hands to his ears with a confused expression then gestured back the way they came.

As the two re-emerged into the hold full of immigrants, both visibly relaxed at the reduction in noise.

"Now", Liz said loudly enough so they could hear her from across the room. "We figure out what to do with this bomb."

Colin spun towards the projector's voice and saw her staring at one of the passengers, a lanky man with a stained face, who was kneeling over a small bundle of dynamite. "Oh, bugger." The ghost hurried over to Liz as Max ran up from the opposite direction. "Can ye two try and disarm i', or summat? I'm gwan tae go find the o'ers and warn them."

Liz nodded, already kneeling to examine the device. As Colin started to head for the stairs he heard her mutter something about not being able to inhabit it and winced. "Jus' keep trying!", he shouted as he phased through the door.

The hallway Colin found himself in was completely empty. White painted steel walls and decking, no ornamentation of any kind, and no sign of life. Closing his eyes he sensed for the other two tethers aboard the ship, and noted that one seemed to be moving towards him. He ran down the hall in the direction of that closest source and nearly bowled over Sean, CJ, and Ryan.

They were in the company of three men, all of whom were wearing British naval uniforms, and included a man who matched the grainy photo of Captain Isaac Williams in the Intel briefing. The Captain was also the tethered entity he had sensed nearby.

The skinrider skidded to a stop and nodded to the three other agents, ignoring the Captain's startled exclamation. "Come on, we've go' tae ge' back down tae the hold..."

Colin glanced over at the Captain. "Yuir after seeing me, then? Interesting." He shook his head, dismissing the interruption. "Look, there's a bomb down there, Liz and Max are trying tae deal wi' i' now."

"Of course I can see you", the Captain snapped. "Why wouldn't I...what do you mean, bomb?" His eyes narrowed and the man surged forward, grabbing Colin's shirt and hoisting him off the ground.

The young ghost gaped in amazement for a moment before responding. "Och, one o' the...other passengers..." Colin swallowed, trying to come up with a plausible story. "We saw him fiddling wi' summat tha' looked like dynamite. The others went tae come find ye, which", he gave the Captain as winning a smile as he could manage under the circumstances. "I see they did."

"And you said nothing of this?", the Captain roared, dropping Colin, who promptly collapsed in a heap. "You make up some story..." The Captain gazed to the sky as if seeking divine understanding, then turned to the other officers. "You, keep an eye on these...passengers." Pointing a finger at Sean, he continued in an angry voice. "You will show me this bomb. Now."

"Ah...," Sean stammered, but recovered as Colin nodded quickly. "Of course, Captain."

Williams motioned for Sean to preceed him down the hallway, and the skimmer did so with a nervous glance back at his friends. As they turned the corner and moved out of sight, the two remaining officers pointed towards a nearby doorway.

The remaining Orpheus agents shared a glance as the second officer pushed open the door to what appeared to be a mess hall of some kind, filled with tables and chairs. The room was deserted at the moment, and CJ looked thoughtful for a moment before stepping in, followed by Ryan, Colin, and the two guards.

"We dinnae ha'e time for this", Colin said angrily. "We've go' tae ge' down there and..."

Colin rubbed his jaw and glared at the officer. "Tha' was a mistake." Reaching deeply into the anger, he tapped the spite within himself and summoned the shadows of the room to surround and conceal him. As the darkness swallowed him, he disappeared from view, leaving the crew members staring in confusion.

CJ scanned the room, looking for anything to use against the guards while they were distracted. The skimmer closed her eyes, then, concentrating on something. Colin felt the pulse of vitality as she reached out with helter skelter, preparing to launch an attack.

The young ghost quickly ducked out of the room and ran down the corridor after Sean and the Captain, grinning as he heard the crash of furniture against the walls behind him. He reached the door to the hold just as it was swinging closed and quickly manifested to hold it open for the others.

He swung the heavy iron hatchway fully open just as CJ and Ryan turned the corner at a run. He grinned back as they approached and stepped through the portal.

CJ cackled. "No, not after the one took a chair to the back of the head, especially."

Colin opened his mouth to offer his own praise, but no sound came out. He continued trying, and gestured at his throat, but Ryan and CJ ignored his motions, hurrying down the stairs into the hold.

The skinrider stared after them in disbelief before the realization hit. Calling on the stains tae disappear...and now I cannae reappear, or even le' them know I'm here.

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Last Updated: January 2, 2004 by Blake Sorensen

#0767 - On Board the United

November 13, 2003