The Orilus Incident: Chapter 1
Hi everyone, I'm sorry that I've been away for so long, but for some reason I just got in a rut of only writing for classes and not wanting to write aaaaaaaaaaaaaaanything else. Well, break has started, and a friend fo mine made a random request which without warning threw me headlong into a ridiculous writing-spree as things just got bigger and bigger. So over the last three days I cranked this out.
Believe me when I say that this is just one of a buncha things I have still to come in my brain-place, and that I certainly have no intention of stopping work on my other stories which I've already posted, but I needed to at least get this out here and get me started. I'll probably be posting another story I've begun to this account in the near future, and I'd love some feedback on which stories you'd like me to read first, and especially what you think of this one.
And so I give you the begining of a rather long and unusually(for me) intricate sci-fi story which begins with the Orilus Incident. I had to turn autocorrect off for my sanity's sake as you'll see why in what follows, however I've read it a few times and -think- I've gotten most of the mixups. If you see any then point 'em out, but most of all: enjoy!
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I never signed up for rescue missions, or emergency situations that suddenly turn the crew from a well ordered lot of standard civilians into a frantic mess of righteous moralists just itching to jump into the fray. When I took the position as a bodyguard for hire I did it specifically because that silver-tongued Flynn had told me that none of her recruits had ever reported being in an actual combat situation, because the job included -not- fighting; and being off The Geneva meant I couldn't be around when they drafted for the colonies.
The siren rang just before we entered the sixth-tenth of the cyclon. The synthesized sunlight had been doing a poor job of making the sterile ceramic-based structure look less gaunt and lifeless, and the cultured citrusherb had been doing a poor job of making the mess halls protein cocktail any less wretched. The sirens weren't what I had imagined, not the kind of screeching sounds that send you crashing to the floor from a peaceful rest, but instead were a strangely insistent randomization of frequencies; a cornucopia of simple sine waves that mixed together in such a way that dug way down under your fur, grabbed you by the scruff, and casually told you that you were listening, and you were listening now.
So needless to say I couldn't finish my grey-brown paste in peace.
A calm voice sounded out through the intercoms, the low rumbling timbre immediately recognizable as the ship's captain.
"Attention all crewmembers, please do not be alarmed, we are in no immediate danger. However, could all security personnel..."
I couldn't help but raise a paw and rub at the side of my muzzle, security personnel meant me...
"...and head staff please report to the starboard side briefing room immediately. Thank you."
There was a telltale click, and the sirens and intercoms went silent. I glared up at the speaker in the ceiling expectantly, half believing that they'd start up with that unholy racket again, but after a few more moments had passed returned my gaze to the plate in front of me. I didn't have much food left on it, but frankly I didn't care to start eating that paste again. The first bite was always the worst part and you just had to marathon it from there, but by now it'd be the first bite all over again. I collected my things, slid out from behind the mess-hall bench, walked down the long aisle between the two main tables, dropped my plate into the Cyclical Generation Receptacle, and headed off down the hallway towards the Briefing room.
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The briefing room looked no different than the rest of the ship: cold, sterile, sleek, and claustrophobic. It's only real feature was a basic projection system which used one of the off-white walls as a makeshift screen. Aside from that there was a long oblong table situated dead center, illuminated with the same synthetic sunlight that filled the rest of the ship. I was one of the first there, following a young human named Jed who was our lead technician responsible for the upkeep of the CyGen systems. He was already seated and looked unusually alarmed and skittish, one hand tapping random patterns onto the leg of his pants and the other placed over his mouth, his expression that of deep distressed thought. He afforded me a quick glance as I entered, but quickly resumed his silent ruminations.
I had always admired the human race for being much more philosophically varied than a lot of the other species out there, but had always found their bland clothes and ludicrous biology distasteful. Jed was clad in a perfect example of earth-born fashion, two simple pieces of cloth-one to cover the upper half, the other to cover the lower- and more cloth-based foot coverings. His upper cloth was a deep red with highlights of black on the edges and seams, and his lower cloth was a deeper blue with white stitching, and nothing about it was defensive, useful, or even notably decorative.
I approached the table and looked for a telltale groove in the edge. When I found one, I pulled and the makeshift stool of a seat slid down from the side of the table. It didn't offer much back support, but also didn't cause any problems with finding the tail-slot, so I couldn't complain too much. Because travel in the void can be unpredictable at best, solar winds and other turbulent situations could wreak havoc on any room with loose items just hanging about, because of this all public areas required that all seating either be magnetically fixated to the floor, or permanently attached to a non-moving structure: such as these chairs were.
As I was settling in I could hear a door down the hallway slide open, and the sounds of voices drift into the near-silent room. Both Jed and I glanced up and waited patiently as the voices grew closer. Accompanying the voices were the continually rhythmic steps of a human, and the unique skidding thump indicative of a Drie.
"...not going through this seven times Kriss, you can wait until everyone's here before we discuss what we're going to do."
"Yourr concerrn underrstandablle. Making ideas firrst. Tellll now."
"For Christ' sake no!
A few seconds later they entered the room. The loud and obviously frustrated voice belonged to our Communications technician, another human by the name of Noland. His clothing was even less inspired than Jed's, the top cloth matching the bottom in a uniform grey with yellow strips of color running the length of the seams in a simple pattern. The other voice belonged to a Drie named Kriss.
As I've mentioned before, I have a distaste for human fashion, however given the choice between following human fashion and Drie fashion, I'd choose human every time. The Drie were originally an aquatic race, and as they grew through the cycles of their life, they would construct carapaces encasing their bodies. As the Drie continued to grow, they would have to release a mildly acidic secretion which would soften the incredibly hard shell and allow them to reshape it and rebuild it. I've heard estimates that a Drie spends a full third of its life creating and reforming its outer shell. The finished piece is meticulous and is vital for Drian survival on dry surfaces, and frankly I'd rather just lie down and die than spend that much of my life doing anything.
I had seen Kriss a number of times in the ships infirmary, and if I wasn't mistaken he was the ships main physician. He generally dealt more with psychological issues caused by being cooped up in this tiny ship for weeks on end than with actual injuries, but I could see him being invaluable nonetheless.
Noland glanced around the room before turning red-faced back to the Drie.
"You see! We've only got half the group here. I'm sure the others will be here soon, but I'm not going to repeat the same goddamned story five times just so you can be five minutes ahead of the game."
The Drie settled its carapace on the floor and there was a firm thumping sound from within, a short measure of silence, then a second.
"Suite sellf Nolland. Waiting." He hobbled over the the space next to me, and lowered himself to the floor. Despite his care, his carapace still made a spine-tingling scrape against the surface of the table as he came to rest. He slowly tilted his entire form towards the door before settling in, all visible movement ceasing.
From my understanding of the Drie they only have a very rudimentary type of eyesight, developed in the most recent millennia. They originated from a deep oceanic environment where vision hadn't been necessary, but as they had risen from the depths over the years their vestigial eyes had begun to regain function. However, they still relied mostly on vibrations that they sensed through amplifications chambers built into their carapaces in a specialized type of sonar. Because of this, they sometimes were a fraction of an inch off from their visual mark, but they were always in the right ballpark.
When I looked back at Noland he had already taken a seat next to Jed, planted his elbows on the table, and drooped his head into his open palms. The silence was absolute for a few tense minutes before Jed began fidgeting again and the sound of his incessant tapping broke the silence. I had zoned out in the meantime, and came back just in time to hear the door down the hallway slide open again. Kriss and Noland didn't respond, however both Jed and I looked to the door, awaiting the next arrival.
A faint dragging sound could be heard along with a soft but regular set of thumps. I knew even before the mottled grey head wandered through the doorway that it was a Flynn. I had worked with many Flynn back on Geneva and could say without a doubt that they are some of the strangest creatures I know of, but also some of the most brilliant. Their structure consists of a boxy sort of muzzle, a thin, compact body, and six legs-a longer pair located near their necks, a second smaller pair midway down their abdomen, and a final set just at the bottom of their abdomen. Because the Flynn are sightless, relying instead on a variety of navigational methods perceived and controlled by a sensory array located towards the front of their face, they tend to prefer a large amount of tactile feedback. Because of this, they will almost always walk near walls on their four longer legs, their shorter ones feeling up and down whatever surface they are near.
This Flynn was no exception; as her squared head peered across the threshold, her smaller legs were busy feeling the frame of the door and the floor beneath her. She stopped for a second to 'observe' the room.
"Greetings friends. I do believe the others will be arriving soon.
The Flynn were responsible for the translator modules which most of the Unified Void Races wore. They shared a home-planet with the Drie, and as such had the unique opportunity of being faced with xenolinguistic problems far before they perfected void-travel. Each device was constructed to target the linguistic center of its owner's brain, and was programmed with the basic syntax, grammar, and structure of all currently known speech-capable species. As anyone spoke to you, the module would interpret their sentence and recreate it in as close to your own language as possible. It was a strange experience to get used to, as you could still hear the timbre, inflection, and sounds of whomever was speaking, but you simply interpreted what they said as words in your language. The system was far from perfect though; certain languages had extreme differences between grammar rules, and some languages had numerous specialized words for which there were conditional definitions.
Because of this, the module had strange results with some species. With the Drie, their words seemed to catch on certain sounds, elongating them in an almost imperceptible way, but which became gratingly uncomfortable the longer you spoke with them. In addition to this, their language was incredibly straightforward, and lacked entire parts of speech found in many. As such, Drie sentences were sometimes hard to decipher, containing all the necessary information, but lacking a lot of direction.
The Flynn's natural voice was almost melodic, and sweet, and as such they always were enrapturing to listen to, however their sentence structure always seemed formal and unfeeling. Their lilting phrases wove beautiful pathways through your mind that if you didn't follow carefully, would leave you behind. Due to the Flynn's lack of a gender concept in relation to themselves, the device always altered any personal pronouns to the feminine, and coupled with the translator modules treatment of their language it led to a great many people simply thinking of all Flynn as females, though I can tell you that many of them are the farthest thing from feminine.
The Flynn stayed close to the wall as she wandered into the room, her middle leg almost caressing the wall. I turned back to the table before she had settled in only to look back towards the door as the captain strode through with another human named Mary-our lead navigator-close behind him. The captain stopped suddenly as he surveyed the occupants of the room, closed his eyes, then slowly raised his hand and tapped on his ear cavity in frustration. The subtle flick of his tail and lowering of his hackles told me all I needed to, but was entirely lost on the humans in the room. Both Jed and Noland, who had looked up at the captain's arrival, had a confused glaze over their eyes, mirrored on his other side by Mary, who had almost run into him when he stopped.
Sintha and I were two of the eleven Logran-I passengers aboard the Lyara, and as such many of the crew didn't have a lot of experience with our body language. I chuckled softly to myself before turning back to the captain.
"...I suppose," He paused for a few moments, formulating his words, "that I should have been more specific as to what I meant by 'head staff'...". He lowered his hand, tail revealing that he was much calmer now, "however come to think of it, this situation may require as much consideration as we can muster." He walked into the room and headed around the right side of the table towards the far side. As he passed Jed the fidgety tech opened his mouth to speak, but was cut short by a dismissive gesture from Siantha who continued on, pulled down a stool, and sat heavily on it. Mary, who had been waiting by the door with a stern and stoic look on her face quickly approached the table and pulled down the stool next to Noland. She settled into it as he and Jed began whispering to each other.
"...sure..."
"...just...anything...know..."
"...last... ...hallway...you."
Though I'm sure the Flynn and Drie could make out what they were saying quit clearly I could only make out every few words and quickly gave up. Instead I looked back towards the captain who was staring intently at the table in front of him, his hackles once again at their normal place.
The remaining crew-members filtered in shortly after. There were a variety of humans, including our Structural Engineer Merissa, Resource Management Officer Adler, and two more I didn't recognize. Two Drie entered together in their laboriously deliberate steps, one was a friend of mine named Fayr who was in charge of the propulsion systems, and the other whom I had met more recently was called Ariss, and she was in essence our Nutritional Guidance Officer and made most of the food for the crew- a strange vocation for a Drie in my opinion given their lack of taste buds, but in an operation like this I have to assume balanced health overwhelms varying tastes.
Only one more Flynn joined us, and though they can occasionally be hard to differentiate, I knew this one to be D'rana who was my superior for this assignment as she was the Head Security Officer. As she entered, the captain glanced up at her and immediately straightened up on his stool, and slapped the ground twice with his tail, a movement which somehow was able to silence the room immediately; it was clear that very few people knew what was going on, and the rest were intensely interested in finding out. D'rana tapped out a subtle rhythm on the wall with her left arm in a formal greeting to the captain before she sidled into the room and took up a stance nearby the other Flynn.
The room wasn't quite yet full, but even so the captain seemed to have everyone he had intended to talk to there, and with one more decisive slap of his tail on the ground he stood up from the stool and laid his paws flat onto the table in front of him, the familiar hiss of the stool sliding back up into the table filling in the silence. A few seconds passed during which the rest of the crew were deathly silent and I could see the captains eyes darting about the surface of the table as he chose his words carefully. And just when the oppressive silence began to get unbearable he breathed out long and low, and looked up towards the far side of the table, eyes failing to meet any particular person as he proceeded.
"We received a transmission," He paused for a second more as I noticed looks of confusion crossing the faces of a number of the humans seated across from me. "From a ship located in the...Vectra System I believe." At this he looked over towards the first Flynn who had entered the room. The Flynn gave a single sharp rap of her claw on the wall.
"That is what I believe to be the origin sir, in being exact I find that it is from a derelict just shy of the fifth moon of the mass designated Orilus."
Sintha nodded before continuing on, "Based on the structure of the message and the outward broadcast pattern we have come to believe that it's either a distress signal from a ship in need, or a warning of some kind, and as we're the only ship scheduled to run through this area for the next three Geneva-cycles we have to make a decision as to whether we ignore it, or investigate... I called you here," He looked around the room, his glance lingering on Ariss and one of the humans I didn't recognize, "Well...most of you...so that we could discuss which course of action we should take."
There was again a space of silence before Noland cleared his throat and the assembled crew turned to face him. "Sintha Sir... I understand that you want to help this group...but I think full disclosure may be the only way to approach this...sir."
Sintha's tail twitched irritably as he drew in a long breath. "I'm well aware of what -needs- to be done Noland, just as I am entirely aware of what -should- be done. I would be loath to allow this opportunity to pass us by given that we may be the only ones who coul-"
"Where did the origin of this unidentified signal find its roots may I ask?"
Everyone turned to look at D'rana, who still hadn't moved since positioning herself by the wall.
"Excuse me?..."
"Well sir, if you would excuse the addition of my own input, there have been no reports given of a missing ship in this system, and as you yourself so eloquently put, there will be no other ships scheduled in this area for the next three Geneva-cycles. From my records we are the only vessel determined to be through this sector for several cycles prior. And yet you say that there is an unfortunate and needy craft situated in the middle of the sector in a barely explored system near an uninhabitable moon. I merely find the assumption that the accidental destitution of a vessel without report or alarm given the circumstance would be utter folly. As you are still suggesting attendance to the ships request for help, it gives reason that you believe there to be some explanation to this lapse of probability."
For a long moment everyone stared at D'rana before Kriss spoke up quite suddenly from his place next to me.
"What you mean distrress orr warrning!?? Surrelly one orr otherr! Can't considerr without know..."
Sintha tapped one of his right claws slowly against the table, his tail swishing in too regular of a pattern for it to be an accident. A whole number of the more finicky members of the crew had started to fidget in a way that made even me uncomfortable. I wished he would just spit it out already.
"Alright...so there's a bit more to this situation which I agree should be shared before we discuss it. Kriss would be absolutely in the right to question the vagueness of my statement, because we can't know for sure whether this is distress, or warning."
"I'm sorry to interrupt...but wouldn't a warning be...I don't know, warning us against something. And a distress call would be...y'know...asking for help?" This was one of the humans I didn't know the identity of. Based on his cloth choices, I didn't want to either...
"Yes...that would normally be the case, however we have much less to work with from this particular message because the content isn't able to be translated..."
Fayr's distinctive rumbled tone spoke up from across the room from me, "Signall Distorrted? Data Corrrrupted?"
"Well...our issue isn't that the data is corrupted, but more particularly that the mainframe doesn't recognize the format of the message no matter what known system we pace it through. We've tried electromagnetic pulses, video, audio, chemical construction, tactile interface, every method of communication we know of. The closest we found to any of it was under audio, because it forms a cognizant and intelligible variation of sounds that could easily be described as a phoneme-based language but...it's not a language that we know of."
There was a heavy stillness in the room, accompanied by a sudden and complete silence. Noland spoke up first.
"But, as Sintha said earlier, we've run the format of the sentence...syntax, repetition, everything through the system, and have been able to learn a little about it even if we can't yet translate it word for word. We know that it's a very short sentence on repeat and that it lines up with tonalities and speed patterns that indicate a level and even heart rate at the time of recording as the phonemes don't appear rushed. The message isn't cut short and doesn't sound slapshod, but was edited post-recording to create a professional-sounding loop, so it stands to reason that this is an automated pre-recorded message which was activated such as any standard distress beacon. The only other type of message we have ever encountered that loops would be a warning, however the message is too short to warn against anything in particular, and ship-borne warning messages in all known systems have to be manually recorded then placed on repeat- I see no reason why someone would have a prerecorded warning beacon. If a situation ever arose that a nondescript warning beacon became active indefinitely it would be more likely to act as a lure towards the danger which incapacitated the crew rather than as a warning against any specific dangers which may lurk in the area."
The silence in the room remained absolute
"It's my personal opinion that..." He took a deep breath in and let it out again, a technique I've learned human's use to calm and steady themselves, "We have encountered a distress signal from an unknown, sentient, voidfaring race, and may have the chance to both assist them, and make first contact on behalf of the Unified Void Races..."
"We're not equipped to launch a rescue mission. Hell, we're barely equipped to deliver cargo, and that's what we're supposed to do!" It was the human that I didn't think I wanted to get to know. The more he spoke the more my conviction to avoid him continued.
"Hane, we can't just ignore the fact that there's a ship out there which needs help, regardless of who's in it." The other unknown human next to this Hane suddenly earned far more of my interest than he would ever have gotten. Granted I as of yet hadn't decided on whether I wanted to help this ship- frankly I was leaning towards no because it involved less work- but this human at least had some verve, and her top cloth held a decorative frill around her neck. Far more creative than many I've seen about.
"I bet we don't even have enough resources to make that kind of a detour, do we?" At this Hane looked towards Adler, eyes filled with what I assume was some form of hope.
Adler only cocked his head towards the man, one furred eye-ridge higher than the other, "Hane...you know as well as anyone else that my job is to ensure that the mass of personal possessions doesn't exceed the amount required by the system to provide basic necessities for the crew. The CyGen systems use the atomic base of items and as such have no waste potential or loss of mass. We can go anywhere so long as the core remains stable and maintains output."
At this Hane looked towards Fayr, who remained still. After a very long and increasingly awkward silence I slapped my tail once on the ground which immediately drew every eye towards me.
"Fayr, he's looking to you for information on the core. I don't know if he's hoping you'll tell him that the core is unstable and we're all about to die and therefore can't make this detour, but I thought you should know the reason for the silence."
Everyone looked back at Fayr. There was a small rumble from within his carapace, then a thud as his foot tapped the floor.
"...So is. Sorrrry, did not see. Corre optimall. Death unllikelly. CyGen capablle rrun unknown time beforre faill, but lleast amount many cyclles futurre."
Merissa added, "Though I don't necessarily agree with Hane's reasoning, I do have to agree that this ship was not designed for exploration or any kind of engagement. If we should encounter any type of trouble along the way we'd be sitting water-birds. And besides, why would they want help from us, we won't even be able to communicate with them."
A thump came from Kriss, " Do not have supllies to help serrious wounds. Onlly forr milld sickness and mentall heallth."
Sintha pulled the stool down again and sat in it with a heavy thud, "Well, we've already run scans of the system and have verified that there are no emissions visible on any of the planets, so they are all assumed to still be uninhabited, and there are no electromagnetic evidence of a drive core being active in the area, nor any chemical residue indicative of a more primitive propulsion system. From what we can tell nothing has been active in the area for at least a half cycle, and those signatures appear to be from the ship we'd be investigating. And though we are not built for entering blindly into unknown Void, this area has been explored and charted; I see no danger to the ship or the crew." He turned his gaze to Merissa, "And as far as them accepting our help, I believe that a phrase of your species will fit quite nicely in the situation: parasites can't make choices." At this I couldn't help but twitch my tail...I'll never understand humans.
"The cargo!" Hane spat out suddenly, a certain liveliness in his features that had been lacking before. "We need to deliver it to our client's contact on Harnstead. Surely you wouldn't risk our job for the sake of this possibly hostile presence!"
There was a sudden clack from the wall as the Flynn I had yet to meet called for attention. "I believe that our files have marked this particular cargo as a non-priority delivery and that the deadline was to be set for a date a fifth-cycle henceforth. I find it unfortunate that I find myself providing this information to one who should be well acquainted with both our cargo reports as well as the impending necessities each piece of cargo holds. Have you not examined the full purview of each of your documents as is your station?"
Hane stared back at the Flynn open-mouthed for a moment or two.
"Have I...wha...? Examined the full...? The hell is a purview?!"
A soft thump from Ariss drew my attention towards her. "I think she states Hane man know shoulld that carrgo not underr pain forr delliverring. This because Hane man trrade negotiator and have made contrracts."
Suddenly a Drie whom I had not met before entered the room. She stopped as most everyone turned to regard her, resonating thumps coming from both her and the currently present Drie.
"Appollogies. Sllept as announced past. Tolld when woke." She entered into the room as deliberately as the others before her, apparently oblivious to the tense atmosphere, and set herself off just to the side of the door.
As I looked back to Hane I noticed he had turned a stranger shade of red than he usually was.
"I'm sorry, where were we," Sintha said, his tail flicking back and forth in amusement, is voice dripping with a deliciously sarcastic tone, "I'm fairly certain Ariss had just translated for you N'lara's concerns about you not doing your job."
"yeah I got that! And of course I knew when the cargo was due!...frankly I'm just trying to find a way to talk you all out of this asinine idea!" He made a short huffing sound before he put one arm on the table and held his head in his paw.
I looked around the room again, and most of the inhabitants capable of sight had started staring off into various directions in thought as the situation sank in, meanwhile the Drie and Flynn in the room remained as stoic as ever.
The only human to match them was Mary, who had remained silent and fairly complacent throughout the meeting thus far. From what I knew of her, she had joined the Lyara after her length of duty with the human fighting forces had been completed, and though I had seen her several times around the ship, I had never actually seen her voice so much as a singular personal thought or opinion (something I had come to believe humans couldn't refrain from doing if life was on the line). Thus it was to my surprise when she suddenly spoke up, her voice startling Jed who also didn't seem to think she could speak autonomously.
"Sintha sir. If I may make a suggestion."
Sintha looked across the table at her, his hackles puffed out in curiosity. "Very well..."
"Sir. The obstacle presented at the head of this meeting was that the information required to make a vote as to the course of action we should take had not yet been presented. I believe that we are all now aware enough of the situation that a vote can be made to that end. I feel that most of us here have already made our decisions to one side or the other, and wasting more of our time debating back and forth won't help any more than it will hurt."
I heard a subtle murmur of assent among a number of the attendees, though most of them remained in silence.
"Alright...I just wanted to ensure that everyone knew what they were getting into...as well as what they might be ignoring if that choice is made. I think you all know where I stand, but clearly my opinion is not unanimous. I do however feel that there is no reason for us to believe that this situation will pose a risk to any of the crew, and that we have no excuse to ignore the cries for help of any species, be they known or otherwise."
Hane looked up from his sulk with a bit of a glare, "If it's help that they're actually looking for..."
Sintha looked over towards Hane and appeared to be about top say something, however he must have thought otherwise, as instead he turned his gaze out to the rest of the assembly. "So you know the information, and I agree with Mary that a vote is in order. However I think it might be best to not force a decision before it's required, or before all the crew's considerations have been examined. The signal isn't too far off of our trajectory, and as such we will lose very little time if we choose to detour...perhaps ten to twelve cyclons round trip at most. Because of this I will allow some time for you to reconsider what you would like us to do. I feel that it is important that you let your staff know at your discretion, as they also will be involved in this venture, and feel free to take their input to heart, however I will make my decision based on input of head staff only, so don't send them to me! We'll meet again in five cyclons time to make the actual vote, which will leave us seven cyclons from that time to adjust our trajectory and make preparations if necessary. Are there any questions?"
There was a brief moment where no one said anything before a thud came from the Drie who had entered the room late. "Apollogies Sintha-I, but prresent not forr necessarry inforrmation."
"I suppose that's true. Noland, would you be willing to fill Trantorr in on the earlier details of our meeting at your convenience. She and her staff have as much a right as the rest of us in this matter."
Noland made one of those human sigh gestures before he nodded in assent. "Yes sir."
"Good. Then we'll meet back here in five cyclons on the third tenth. You have until then to make your decisions and have any individual conversations you may need. I would like to have that meeting be as short as possible. In the meantime you are dismissed. Mary, I would like you to come speak with me on the bridge in a half-tenth." With that Sintha stood up accompanied by the hiss of the receding stool, and walked out of the room. The humans were the next to leave, rising from their places and milling together as they began to talk amongst themselves in a variety of hushed and excited tones. They began filing out through the door in sets of two or three, very quickly leaving me with a host of Drie and Flynn, both groups of which had remained where they were. Kriss suddenly rotated in his space next to me and began moving towards the door one heavy step at a time. He stopped just short of the doorway and made a single knocking sound against the floor.
"Llike tallk?" There were two assenting thumps from Fayr and Ariss before they began moving towards the door. "You too N'llarra..."
The sultry tone of the Flynn echoed pleasantly in the near-empty room. "If that is your wish then I will gladly join your conference." And she began to follow after them, leaving her proximity with the wall for only a second as she passed around D'rana. They exited the room to a chorus of thumps and scraping, leaving D'rana, the Drie who had entered late, and me in the room together, the only sound I could hear was the swish of my tail as it swayed lazily across the floor.
"I believe that it is now the time for me to inquire as to the content of your opinions concerning this most recent discourse of information so that we may form a consensus of proposed recourse for Siantha." D'rana left the wall and lumbered towards the table, forgoing the available stool and instead settling down onto her hind legs as they crossed together to form a support, her upper legs resting on the table next to me, her arms placed just on the edge.
I looked over at Trantorr who was still situated by the door, unable to ignore my sudden curiosity. I knew that this assignment had another security hire with it, but had never met him before, or him I had assumed. Her carapace didn't look particularly tough, and I'd certainly never seen a Drie be one to jump into action or exhibit violence of any kind, but I've seen enough surprising things in my day to give her a chance. She rotated slowly in place until she was angled towards us, a courteous gesture for my benefit, and firmly thumped the floor.
"We going."
I cocked my head towards her, "Not if Hane has his way, though I didn't hear too much support for him."
"Not imporrtant if Hane man trries. Know wellll llike you we going."
I tapped one clawed digit slowly against the table, my hackles lowering slightly before I consciously willed them back out. I could sense that she also held no desire to have to be part of the investigative team, but it was hard to argue her point. I didn't know a whole lot of the crew, but the ones that I did know where more altruistic than they cared to admit, and that aside this presented a huge opportunity. We would be making first contact with a civilization unknown to the Unified Void Races, so even those who could care less on an emotional level would be hooked by the intellectual prospects.
My tail flicked as I debated my position, and grew still as I conceded the inevitable. I turned to look at D'rana who had remained statuesque in her demeanor.
"We're going, aren't we."
"My assessment of the crew would lead me to believe that the suppositions presented by your fellow are likely to transpire with minimal resistance even if our station presented itself in dissention of the motion."
I tapped the side of my muzzle as the moment extended into the dead silence of the room.
"If we're to be dragged through this tripe-spawned mess then we might as well get used to the idea now, damn the sky!"
D'rana rapped sharply on the tabletop. "I will offer our decision unto Sintha come the appointed time. You may elect to join that congress as is your desire, however you have no need of such if you prefer. Our company will certainly be a requisite of any boarding party which may enter this unknown vessel, and I believe it would be best of us to spend the next cyclons making any preparations necessary for the wellbeing and ease of our involvement in the operation. If you wish you may well find me and join in the inspection of our equipment." She unfolded her hind legs and got back up, front legs sliding off the table and back onto the floor. "Furthermore I will also be requiring that we congregate during the coming six cyclons to discuss what our standard operational duties will be, and to formulate some semblance of coherence to our unit that we may be prepared and with understanding when the time comes."
With that she backed away from the table, sidled around me, and headed out the door, her arm reaching out to slide along the wall as she lumbered away.
After the door in the adjoining hallway had slid closed I flopped down forwards onto the table, arms folded in front of me, jaw laying flat on the surface. I glanced over at Trantorr who was still planted by the door.
"I signed onto this sky-loving job because I was told I wouldn't have to do any work." I mumbled with a hint of a distasteful growl under my words, my hackles pressed nearly flat against my neck. "And now I'm stuck in this shit of a situation." I lifted my head from the table and looked up towards the ceiling in a well-needed stretch, several vertebrae in my neck popping back into place. I shook my head to loosen the rest of the muscles before looking back towards Trantorr.
She stayed as still and stoic as ever for a few seconds longer before a loud thwack resounded from her carapace three times. She turned towards the door and left the room without any further ceremony, the hiss of the door closing behind her leaving me alone in the empty room wondering what I'd said to piss her off.
I waited a minute or two, my gaze drawn back to the table as I thought about what I'd have to do to get ready for this thing. I looked back around the room one more time before slapping my tail decisively against the ground.
I certainly wasn't going to need anything from here.
I stood and let the stool slide back up into the table, the mechanism sounding unusually loud in the emptiness. As I exited I heard the lighting system auto shut-down behind me, leaving the room in complete blackness. I looked back over my shoulder and could still see the head of the table illuminated on the far side of the room by a streak of light given off by the hallway.
I'd be back in five cyclons to see what the plan was to be. If I was going to be a part of this, I might as well earn my keep and make sure things were done right. I continued down the hallway as the door slid open in front of me, leaving the black room behind me, and a whole mess of planning ahead.