When two weeks have gone by, Silver begins to notice that he has strange dreams. It wasn't so much that the dreams themselves were strange, just that the noises he heard sounded eerie and yet familiar in some way. 'Ah well', he thought to himself, 'tis just the ship ' ta worry over.' But every other night he would hear the sound. REOOOOOOOEEEEEMMMM...MRRRMRMRRMM...WOORRRRR...SCRWWOOOO

It seemed to reverberate in his mind. PRRRRRM... QRRRRRROOOO...EEEEEEIK EEIK EEEEK-

Waking with a start, he realizes the sound is rattling the whole ship as well! He got out of his hammock, quick as he could and made for the sound. As he strode up to the main deck, and the sound grew louder, he couldn't help but wonder if he knew what it was. But how? No, he thought, impossible! When he finally saw where the noise was emanating from, his suspicions were proved to be right after all. Astounded, he watches as if he were still in a surreal dream. It seemed as if Dawn was playing a slow melody on her tin whistle with those humpback space whales weaving their voices in with it. She seemed... haggard and it appeared as if she were crying. One whale uttered a very low note which Silver identified as the one that woke him up. The other whale seems to be a pup for it cannot make so many impressive sounds as the adult, yet it can match the muted tin whistle in the in-between notes. Dawn makes a strange sound come out of the instrument...a sound that causes Silver to experience strange emotions. Loss. A keening sound it was. The whales dipped their heads to it and matched their calls as well.

Silver silently backed down the stairs and returned to his room. He wanted to ask her what caused her to grieve so, but he felt that it must have been a private moment for her and did not want to disturb it. He fell into a fitful sleep. The next day, Silver noticed right away that Dawn seemed to be quieter than she usually was. Usually, she greeted him and proceeded to ask him if he knew such-and-such about a particular topic or would be talkative. Silver thought he should carry on as usual, but was worried when she wouldn't say much to him and instead asked if she could please be allowed to clean off the hull of the ship. Silver raised an eyebrow at this, but said she could. With a quick glance at the hull, he figured it would take her all day to clear it all off. Boy, was he ever surprised to see her finish it in half that amount of time and then asking him if she could go do another strenuous task. This continued for several days, with Dawn not speaking to him except to say"yes", "no", to help plot their course, or to see if their was any job that she could do. One evening, she rushes out of the galley when Silver comes in and makes her way out to the railing. Silver lets her be out there by herself, thinking she would come back in once the temperature dropped, as it always did in the etherium. But she didn't. After he had finished what he needed to do, he walked over to her and stood beside her, wondering at her foul mood. They stood in silence for, what seemed to Silver, a very long time. Looking over at her, he saw tears streaming down her face and she was clenching and unclenching her fists and trembling. Not knowing what to do, Silver looked back out at the etherium as if searching for his answer in that vastness.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Dawn broke the silence by saying in a steady voice,"Why did you lie to me, Silver?"

A million things were rushing through Silver's brain at once. What was she talking about?

"Lass, whatever do ye mean?"

Dawn steeled herself and said through clenched teeth, "You are the one who killed Seth aren't you?"

Then it became clear to him. But how? With a heavy sigh, he said quietly,"I just couldn't bring me self ta tell ya. If I-"

She cuts in and says with a strange coolness, "Is that like a habit for you or something?! You see someone that you think is an officer of sorts and you kill them just like that? How could you be so cruel? And to LIE about the whole incident afterwards?"

Silver tries to explain,"I was not trying to kill him,only-"

"Oh, if you didn't MEAN to Silver,you would have come clean long ago!" She shouts back and starts to turn away from him in anger.

Silver's temper is flaring now as well."Dawn, I tell ya, I WAS NOT AIMING TO KILL HIM! I was meaning to only injure him so that he wouldn't alert any other officers of my presence!"

Dawn's eyes flashed in pure hate. "YOU WERE THINKING THAT, YET YOU FAILED TO LET ME KNOW THAT SO I WOULDN'T KNOW THAT YOU'RE A COLD-HEARTED MAN!"

If Dawn could have seen how those words hurt him she would have seen pain and regret etched in his face. Silver knew that he should have come clean like she said. He wished things had turned out differently. It seemed as if that was all he did recently...regretting choices he made throughout his life.

Then Dawn slowly turned back toward him and said something so quietly that Silver had to strain to hear her. "Why, Silver? Why did you do it?"