Bryn was trying to get a feel for her new posting on the Viking so she was walking the corridors and peeking into rooms and bays that allowed her to do so. After she’d located her quarters and put her things there, she’d spent some time pacing the area and touching different surfaces to establish a connection of some kind with the space. It didn’t work.

Her marriage partner, Sym, was somewhere else on the ship. They didn’t share quarters or much else. The marriage had been arranged by their parents and both the bride and the groom were savagely disappointed when the veils were removed after bonding. Theirs was a marriage ‘in name only’ and it was doubtful it would ever change. However, due to the uniqueness of their marriage bond, the two couldn’t be separated by too much physical distance from each other or they would die.

But because she was feeling alright, Bryn knew Sym was on the ship, so she continued to explore.

—Shar, CNS