Free Without Rhythm (The Lament) by P.S. Power Page B

keeper and by crap you better have cleared it with me or the watch first, or I swear I'll set you off at the next port. Understood?" They all nodded except the big man, who just stood dumbly.
    "Go, get some coffee, you all have the long day watch now. You too Dovish. Get with engines. I want that place so sparkling I can eat off the floor by mid day meal, understood?" her voice was considerably less harsh with him than the others.
    When he spoke it was clear as to why. He sounded young, like a child. His face was attractive enough, but it was clear that something inside his head just didn't work right.
    "Sorry ma'am. I weren't trying to cause no trouble."
    "I know, but you left when we might have needed you. Don't do that again, alright?"
    "Yes'm"
    Then, as a group the ship crew went inside, leaving Mara to smile about the whole thing.
    "Not always a solid bunch, though decent over all. People can get lazy over time, but this is a dangerous watch. People try to do something to the ship at least once or twice a year. Since we can never know who will be doing what, we need to stay ready all the time. You've dropped out of state by the way. You can tell when it happens, because the eyes focus differently. I'll have you practice that in a week or two, so you can see the difference for yourself."
    Pran sighed and tried to get back into the right mindset as soon as possible. They spent the rest of the morning running. They'd dash for a bit, then walk, jog for a while then stand and watch. There was no real pattern to it, which was, Mara assured her, on purpose.
    "Don't let yourself move in a rhythm. If you do people can anticipate what you'll do next. Work without any pattern at all and people can't understand what you're doing. Many won't even be able to see or hear you at times. It takes a lot of practice to master, because we're all creatures of habit. I'd like you to hold that in mind as well as trying to stay alert and focused all the time. Use patterns when you want to interact with others, and break them when you don't." Then the woman waved toward the far side of the airship.
    "Take that side for a while. I'll be trying to sneak up on you, so don't make it too easy. It's an open space, so you should be able to spot me three times out of five, if you really try."
    It was harder than it sounded and Pran managed one in four to start with, feeling a little frustrated, until she realized that it might be harder to sneak up on her if she tried to be a little random too, like she'd been told, instead of standing in place and waiting.
    She spun suddenly and crouched down, then shuffled in this awkward state to the right two waddles. There was no Mara, so she jumped and ran for a bit, realizing as she did that the very act of running was a pattern, slowing to a walk she fought to make it irregular, her breath feeling tight inside as she did, the staggering, limping and scattered movement hard to maintain even for a couple of steps. She just wanted so badly to make it into a pattern that it moved back into one on its own. That was nearly a constant thing.
    On top of that, trying to break her natural rhythm was making it too hard to pay attention to anything else. She struggled for it, seeing Mara as the woman stepped up alongside her, having closed a lot of ground before being noticed.
    "This is harder than it sounds like. A lot." Pran tried not to sound grumpy about it, but that didn't work very well. "I keep losing focus while trying to do it. Plus I look like I'm drunk, instead of like you do."
    "It takes practice. We'll work on this every morning for the time being. Right now we probably don't need a ship watch, since the crew can do that in the daylight. I need to get some sleep soon, so I'll put you on early watch with the Judge. She does her own exercises early, so follow along with her and make sure she doesn't have any problems. Stand guard, and come get me or Clark if she needs to leave the ship for any reason. We sleep in