Boo To You Too!

Peace had been restored aboard the Lunar Veil… that is to say the doors were once again functioning. Patch said he took care of the “electrical issue,” but Serena knew better. It had nothing to do with Patch or electricity or anything mundane like that. No - there was only one explanation, and it was up to her to do something about it. Her bare feet padded softly against the grated floor as she sat at the galley table and deftly scrolled through the listings on a cortex. “Summon a ghost?” She said out loud to herself. “Why would anyone wanna do that?”

“Boo!” Tim teased, sneaking up behind the girl as he swatted one of her pigtails.

“Timmmmm!” She whined after near falling from the chair. In fairness, she should have smelled him coming, he reeked of his not-clove cigarettes. “Quit it! This is serious! What if he does something worse, while we’re out in the black?”

“What if who does something worse?” The pilot asked as he rummaged around for his tin mug.

“The ghost with the golden arm, duh.” Serena replied as Tim helped himself to a cup of tea from the kettle on the stove.. “It locked me an’ Vas in the water treatment room before, and locked Jago off the ship, but lucky something musta made it stop.”

“The ghost with the --” Tim dissolved into a fit of giggles and cleared his throat to act more seriously. “I tell you what, pigtails, I’d be happy to help on your ghost hunt.”

“I dunno…” Serena said warily. “On one hand, you *do* know a lot about ghosts… “

“I’m an expert,” the pilot bragged, leaning back in his seat.

“On the other,” the girl continued, twisting one of her pigtails as she considered it. “Vas said not to listen to you ‘bout stuff.”

Tim leaned in, and waved Serena closer, lowering his voice. “Maybe that’s because he’s possessed,” he whispered, and Serena gasped.

“Possessed?”

“Oh yeah, Ghosts do that all the time. They can hitch a ride so to speak. Hijack your body, take total control over someone. Has he done anything unusual?”

Serena scrunched up her face, contemplating. “No, everything he’s done is completely normal,” she swore in the same, whispered tone.

“Oh, oh no. That’s the worst kind,” Tim told her, trying not to laugh at her confused look. “It’s smart. It doesn’t want to draw suspicion, see?” Serena’s eyes went wide and she covered her mouth.

“Wait…” She said warily. “Are you teasing me?”

Tim held up both his hands in supplication and then crossed his heart with a series of “X” motions.

Crossing one’s heart - the unspoken ‘honest and swear’ made the teen gasp again. Vas could be in trouble, right under her nose and she was doing absolutely nothing about it! After all the times he was there for her, scared or not, she had to save him.

“What do I have to do?”

Tim sat back in his chair, a cheshire grin crossing his face. “First? You can’t tell anyone what you’re doing. You don’t want the ghost to catch wind of it, because then it may switch to someone else, or worse, maybe even you!” Serena looked horrified, but Tim, with a smirk, calmly looked at his wrist. “Go Ushi, I gotta get us in the air. You sit tight for now, we’ll talk more later.”

“Wait!” She said, trailing after the pilot, cortex in hand. “You can’t just --”

“Sorry, no one but the pilot on the bridge before take off.”

“We don’t leave for another few hours!”

“Pilot stuff. Super important.”

“You’re not even wearing a watch!”

“Remember pigtails, mum’s the word!”

“Word for what? Tim? TIM? What about the ghost!”

Serena clutched the cortex tightly to her chest. *What about the ghost?*