[CommNet Message] To: Wim Herzog Subject: Funding

Rob
Taii
	
 Post Posted: 23 Apr 2005 08:53 am    Post subject: [CommNet Message] To: Wim Herzog Subject: Funding 	

[CommNet Message]

To: Wim Herzog
Subject: Funding
From: NovaCorp Administration

Message:

Mr. Wim Herzog, first of all let us thank you for your entry to our funding and support scheme. Here at NovaCorp we aim to provide for all walks of life, and your chosen profession (Film Maker: Independant) is, as of this date, added to the NovaCorp funding database.

We are happy to tell you that, thanks to your entry, you have been selected from a group of 500 participants to be funded and supported in the production of one film, in the genre of your choice. If you choose to accept this offer, you will be granted all the rights of enlisted NovaCorp personnel, and for the duration of the production of your film will be given free accomadation on board our command ship, the YSS Horizon.

As of the date this message was sent, you have exactly 3 YST (Yamatai Standard Time) weeks to reply in the affirmative before the competition is redrawn.

Regards,
Kim Yoshiro (Director of Accounts, Funds and Bursary department)

Snibble
Nitô Juni

Joined: 22 Apr 2005
Posts: 237

	
 Post Posted: 24 Apr 2005 06:01 am    Post subject: 	

[CommNet Message]

To: Kim Yoshiro
Subject: Funding
From: Wim Herzog

Message:
I accept your kind and generous offer.

Regards, Wim Herzog


 Ephesus' Notes

Zakalwe
Shôshô

	
 Post Posted: 06 May 2005 04:06 pm    Post subject: Ephesus' Notes 	

Ephesus’ Notes

Alright this is the ongoing log of me, Ephesus, in the analysis of the Thaxarian Ship left to us kindly, and for a lot of money, by Avatar Skhaal. It has advanced systems, that much is certain, but centuries of neglect have done their worst. It will take some time before I can work out how they work.

Thaxarian Ship

Physical parameters:
150m long
75m wide
15m high
3 decks each 1.5 metres tall

Weapons:

There appear to be three weapons designed to fire high mass gravitic anomalies, possibly some form of micro black-hole. There is no space for ammunition so I presume they are created in the barrel. How this would be achieved is currently a mystery, although a high powered particle collision is being theorised. This is the worst damaged section on the ship and will take a long time before I can come up with how it works at how to emulate it.

There are the remains of what appear to have been turrets dotted over the ship, although only one remains, and that one is badly damage. It seems to have fired a bizarre neutrino beam, but how it worked I can’t fathom. There are insufficient remains to reconstruct it, or too retro-engineer it, but I will continue to spend some time on it.

The wings are lined with a powerful energy grid, now disabled. Its function appears to have been to cut through any substance that the wings come into contact with. It seems to create an energy field around the wing, hot enough to melt and calve through opposing substances, but the specifics of the system resist me. It does not seem worth spending much time on, but I have a team of new role-players researching it.

There are also indications that the gravitic drive was designed to produce destructive gravitational waves and beams, and research into this is promising.

The missile bays have been entirely destroyed unfortunately.

Propulsion:

The wormhole generator on this ship is a masterpiece, small yet highly advanced. It uses a mix between a gravitational field, dark matter and a subspace generator. Unfortunately the last jump was badly done, so it is badly damaged. I’m making steady progress, but it will still take some time until I’m able to recreate a similar device.

The Gravitic drive is also more advanced than anything we have. Its manoeuvrability is extreme, and it appears to have been able to use the field as a weapon. With the technology I’ve been able to make some improvements to the design of our ships. However I still think there are improvements that could be made to the design. The weapons are too … passive.

Systems:

The computer system seems to be an advanced quantum model, or at least was. As it is the quantum computer is utterly burned out, I can glean some knowledge from the remains, but nothing much. The back up computer is nothing special, the high density chips are something new, but not unexpected.

The sensors are roughly are standard. However their appears at one suite which delves into subspace and hyperspace, and the mass spectrometer and other gravity related sensors are like nothing I’ve seen before. Shame they appear to have been hit by a meteor.

The life control systems are up to basic technological standard.

Hull:

The hull is made of a hyperdense metal, apparently created by exposure to massive gravitational forces. It is resistant to most attacks I can think of, but not enormously so. It lags behind the technology of the rest of the ship. It's around 0.60m thick.


 Open City

Snibble
Nitô Juni
	
 Post Posted: 25 Apr 2005 05:00 pm    Post subject: Open City 	

Wim Herzog let forth a steam of expletives from his lips followed closely by a stream of vomit, as had been his normal morning ritual over the last few days. Since Wim had arrived on the YSS Horizon he had suffered a major artistic block, which had driven him into a deep depression. For some reason not a single good idea for a film had appeared in his head since he’d arrived at the ship. It may have been due in part to the fact that there was an ever-replenishing mini bar in the ships quarters. This meant he had spent a lot of time drinking since he arrived. A vicious circle soon formed: the more depressed he got the more he drank, the more he drank the less good ideas he had and the less good ideas he had the more depressed he got. Thus he had ended up in the state he was in now: lying in a pool of his own vomit, faeces and urine.

This had kicked up a stink with the other inhabitants of the ship, quite literally; in fact they’d been forced to close off the entire area of the ship for health reasons. A whole corridor had to be quarantined and only those wearing decontamination suits were allowed in. So far their attempts to clear the mess up had been unsuccessful; Wim had forcibly decommissioned the cleaning robots they sent. When the security personal tried to apprehend him he defecated in his hands and threw it at them. In the end they’d managed to get him to leave the room by deactivating the mini bar and then they ambushed him when he went to get more beer.

Two days later Wim woke tied to a bed in the sickbay with an extreme pain in his anal region. He noticed that there was a nurse and a security guard in the room with him. The nurse saw his eyes move and said, “Finally you’re awake.”

Wim tried to think of a statement that perfectly summed up his thoughts feelings and emotions at that point. He failed. So instead he asked, “Why does my arse hurt so fucking much?”

“Probably from the three emergency enemas we had to perform just to keep you alive.” She replied.

“Three emergency enemas, fucking hell!”

“Yes, apparently your blood alcohol level was so high there was more alcohol than blood. In fact the only reason the security personnel haven’t killed you is because the doctors want to study you to see how you survived.”

“Why do the security personal want to kill me?”

“Cause you threw shit at us that’s why!” replied the guard.

“Oh sorry,” said Wim.

“You better be,” said the guard.

“Apparently the managers are uber-pissed and…” said the nursed but she was interrupted by the sudden appearance of Roe, one of the personal assistants of Kim Yoshiro (the Director of Accounts, Funds and Bursary department at Novacorp), and the one who had been asigned as Wim's 'handler', bursting through the sickbay doors.

“I ought to kill you!” said Roe

“That’s what everyone thinks,” said Wim.

“First you come up with a bunch of ideas for movies so bad shit would be a complement.”

“Thanks,” said Wim.

She continued unperturbed: “Then you throw a stunt like this.” She did a little dance of rage.

Wim, in order to defuse the situation said the first thing that came into his head; “I love you.” It took the combined effort of security guard and the nurse to stop her from killing him at that point.

“Wait, wait I’ve got an idea for a film,” said Wim.

Roe took a second to compose herself and then asked him what it was.

“Well how about we find a small inconsequential planet with a war going on, on it and then record the war.”

There was a silence then Roe said, “So it would be a real war going on with real people dying.”

“Yep”

“Hmm interesting. Do you know what I don’t think anyone’s done it before.”

“You’re right they haven’t.”

“That’s actually not too bad an idea.”

“You’re right it’s not.”

“Let’s do it!” She said.

“Yay” said Wim “I can smell the awards already.”

“That’s probably your bedpan,” said the nurse.

“In fact I just thought of a planet that would be perfect.” Said Roe.

“Really?” said Wim.

“Yeah. It’s small, unimportant, not especially technologically advanced and there’s a big war happening.” Said Roe.

“What’s it called?” asked Wim.

“Crick.” Said Roe.

“Who the fuck would name anything Crick?” Asked Wim.

“I don’t know. An idiot I guess.” She replied.

“I guess I’m going to Crick then.”

To be continued.


Snibble
Nitô Juni
	
 Post Posted: 30 Apr 2005 03:28 pm    Post subject: 	

“I’m coming for you!”

“No please no!”

“Hehehe there is no escape!”

“O, God please help me!”

Wim Herzog fell back from the speaker system laughing. The Nepleslian had developed a hobby in the days that had past since they had left the YSS Horizon on the Mersina class starship NovaCorp had so charitably leant them. He tortured the director of photography. The director of photography was a man by the name of Yoshi. Yoshi was perfectly normal. Wim instantly hated him. He had specifically asked that all the people who worked on this film were insane to varying degrees. He didn’t want them insane to the same degree because his mother always said, “variety is the spice of life.” His mother also told him not to go into the film industry. Luckily Wim had selective hearing. The rest of the film crew he’d been provided with were however, insane. This made Wim happy. Yoshi, he decided was the problem. Yoshi wasn’t normal. You see, in a world where everyone wears their undergarments on their head and says wibble at regular intervals it stands to reason that someone who doesn’t indulge in this practise isn’t normal.

Wim had decided to make a film on the way to Crick. A ghost story. He decided to make Yoshi the main character. He’d planted cameras in Yoshi’s room and other strategic places. Then he used the speaker system to project voices into Yoshi’s room. Spooky voices. He said things that would make a hardcore sadist run for cover. This understandably scared Yoshi. The best part however, was when Yoshi tried to convince the rest of the crew that the ship was haunted. The editor ran round in circles for three hours and then threw up on him, the sound man said the word “scree” two hundred and fifty six times, the rest of the crew just gave him funny looks and went about their business.

Wim relaxed in the captain’s chair. “NovaCorp are fools!” he thought. They’d given him a massive expensive starship without much thought to the trouble he might cause. Actually as it turns out they had given much thought to the damage he might cause. They’d disabled the weapons and made sure that the computer would never let him fly the thing manually. Wim however, didn’t know this. He was ignorant. It was bliss.

Wim had between psychologically torturing Yoshi and having delusions of grandeur decided to do something useful. He found out as much as there was to know about Crick. There was very little to know about the Crick. He found out that it was to the north on the border of the unexplored space and he found out that it was populated by the Crickonians. They were descended from a lizard-like reptilian species (as it turns out the only reason Roe knew about the place was because she an almost unhelathy fascination with lizards, and was part of an organisation of like minded people). The Crickonians were purple, covered in scales and they had nine-inch tongues and six-inch tails. They had recently got into a massive nuclear war and wiped themselves out. Well, nearly. There were two armies the Loyalists and the Devotees. They’d destroyed everything but the capital city. The aptly named Crick town. A treaty had been made not to attack Crick town and it had been left unclaimed. The two armies were preparing to break the treaty. They had both amassed on either side of the town. The town had the only spaceport left. Both armies wanted to get off the planet so neither wanted to destroy the town fully. So it would have to be a pitch battle. Good old-fashioned urban warfare would settle the conflict. Once and for all. This spelt trouble for the inhabitants of the town who hadn’t left.

Wim had decided what too do. The first half of the movie would be scripted. He would show the situation from all angles; the townspeople, the loyalists, the devotees. Then after tension building the second half would be war. Total war. He decided to what the films title would be. Open City.

To be Continued…




Snibble
Nitô Juni

	
 Post Posted: 01 May 2005 08:50 am    Post subject: 	

Nikaldo wasn’t having a good day. There were various reasons for this. The foremost among them was that two armies were preparing to lay waste to the town he’d lived in for the past twenty years. If this wasn’t enough he was unable to sell the refrigerators he’d “acquired” the other week (there wasn’t a market for food preservation products as it was unlikely you’d live long enough to eat the food you preserved) and his pet lizard Lizzy had just died. However, Nikaldo or Nicky as his friends called him was unperturbed by all this; Nicky was a “glass half full” kind of guy, (although Nicky wouldn’t have called himself a “glass half full” kind of guy as he considered the phrase to be very clichéd and he thought anyone using it should be kicked in the testicles immediately) he tried to make the best out of every situation even certain doom. In fact he was certain something would happen that he could used to his advantage any second now.

A Mersina class starship landed at the spaceport right next too Nicky. The ramp of the ship was lowered and a series of funny looking people with camera and lighting equipment hopped out (literally, as the captain had decided left legs were useless and were not to be used for the rest of the day.) The weirdest looking of them all, a tall man with a potbelly messy hair and clothes so loud, there were people on the other side of the galaxy who could hear them, ran out of the ship and started barking orders in a languge Nicky didn’t understand. He looked up at the town hall, a big magnificent looking building, and shouted to the man next to him (who was looking very frightened), “I’d like to get a shot of this building somewhere near the beginning of the film, only with the sun a little more to the left. Who can I talk to about moving the bloody sun!?!”

Nicky strode defiantly up to the man and said “Hi I’m Nickaldo, my friends call me Nicky. And I’m at your service.”

The captain looked at him closely. Very closely. In fact so closely Nicky could smell what he’d had for dinner the other night. It wasn’t good. “Good bone structure” said the captain in the language of the Cricks, “Hmm, I think you’d be perfect.” With that he threw a script at Nicky and said “Right, the highlighted lines are your lines. Learn them. Shooting begins in one-hour meet me back here then. Make sure you know all your lines from the first two pages. I’m counting on you. The name’s Wim by the way, and I am gonna make you a star.”

Nicky smiled; he liked the sound of this. Then all sudden ten very tough looking thugs turned up. Most were carrying knives or clubs but their leader had a pistol and he pointed it at Wim. “Hey!” the leader said too Wim, “Who do you think you are? This is our turf.”

“Be careful” Nicky whispered to Wim “These guys are tough.”

Wim didn’t look all that phased. “I’m Wim,” he said and this is my turf now”

“I suggest you leave” said the leader.

“Why?”

“Cos I’ve got a gun”

“No you don’t”

“Yes I do”

“No you don’t”

“Yes I do”

“No you don’t”

“Yes I do”

“No you don’t”

“Yes I do”

“Prove it” demanded Wim.

“Fair enough,” said the leader. He considered shooting Wim for a while, but he decided not to. It might cause the weird people standing around on one leg to attack. The weird people seemed to out-number them. It probably wasn’t a prudent course of action. He instead aimed the gun up at one of the Crickonian flying lizards that were zipping past. When he pointed the gun in the air, Wim decided to take the opportunity the thug had been stupid enough to provide him with. Wim leapt at him screaming and they landed in a heap. Nicky quickly scooped the pistol off the ground and pointed it at the rest of the gang. Wim pinned down the thug’s arms and legs and wrapped his teeth around the thugs nose. After about thirty seconds of chewing there was a horrible cracking sound as the nose bone broke, and there was a horrible ripping sound as the skin and flesh was torn away. The thug screamed very loudly. While his mouth was open, Wim spat the nose into it, and forced him to swallow it. Afterwards he stood back up and looked at the rest of the thugs. A second later you couldn’t see them for dust.

“Right” Wim said to Nicky “I’ll meet you back here in one hour.”

To be continued…

Snibble
Nitô Juni

	
 Post Posted: 05 May 2005 02:03 pm    Post subject: 	

“Cut! Cut! Cut!” Wim Herzog screamed at the bewildered cast and crew. “Listen,” he said to one of the actors in Crickonian. “You’re supposed to act like scared townsperson who’s desperately worried about the impending doom and destruction two massive armies are about to inflict on your city.”

“But I am a scarred townsperson who’s desperately worried about the impending doom and destruction two massive armies are about to inflict on my city.” He replied.

“But I’m not feeeeeling it!” Wim shouted.

“Right now I don’t give a flying lizard’s arse what you’re feeeeeling!” The Crickonian retorted.

“That kind of attitude is gonna get you fired!” Wim shouted.

“I don’t care. I’m only here because that guy dragged me here.” He stated pointing at Ron the casting manager. (as Wim was the only person who knew the Crckonian Ron had to just drag random people off the streets to get actors)

If the actor had known Wim better he would have seen it coming. The back of Wim’s hand connected with his cheek, made a large cracking noise and sent him sprawling to the ground. Wim then instead of carrying on as he normally would have desisted from the violence and ran off to the edge of the “set”. “Nicky!” he shouted.

Nikaldo saw him and smiled “Hey Wim, howyadoin, whadya think of what I’ve done so far.”

“Excellent, brilliant,” Wim said full of enthusiasm, “the superlative of perfect. Have you seen the rushes?”

“No” he replied.

“Really cos’ neither have I. I wonder where they got to?” He said quickly scanning the immediate area with his eyes. “Listen, Nicky you wait here I’ve got to sort something out.” He ran back to the townsperson and started kicking him, after about ten kicks he helped him up.

Yoshi watched all this from the sidelines and sighed. Wim’s crazy he thought. Wim would often shoot two or three scenes at once, with multiple cameras on each scene. Also he spent loads of time shouting at and beating people. He didn’t pity the editor; the poor man would have to spend ages in postproduction editing out Wim screaming, “With feeling you stupid fucking wanker! With feeling!” Yoshi was happy about one thing; he knew that the chances were that he’d be dead in a couple of days; this meant that there was no element of surprise. Yoshi didn’t like surprises. Unfortunately for Yoshi he was about to be surprised.

“Right” said Wim “Once more with feeling. Remember we don’t have muc ime. The war will be in the next couple of days. At this point he Loyalist army started firing shells and charging down the hill towards the town “fuckshitbollockscockwankers” shouted Wim.

“Oh dear” said Yoshi. For he’d been surprised.

To be continued…

Snibble
Nitô Juni

	
 Post Posted: 15 May 2005 10:27 am    Post subject: 	

“STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP!!!!!” Wim shouted while running up the hill at a very large army of Crickonians. The general of the Loyalist army was leading from the front armed with a small sharp stick in accordance with Crickonian military tradition. This usually meant that Crickonian generals had low life expectancies thus generally only people too stupid to realise that being a general isn’t a good idea were made general, so generals weren’t generally the sharpest tools in the box. This general wasn’t an exception and when he saw an odd looking creature with pink skin running at him he decided that it would be a good idea to stop. He stopped. The army tried to stop and but for the most part it was a failure and most of the army ended up on their arses.

“Hello there,” The general said to Wim.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Wim snapped at him.

“Charging.” The general replied with a big, silly grin on his face.

“Well I’d appreciate it if you didn’t.”

“Why?”

“We aren’t ready for you yet.”

“What?”

“We haven’t finished the pre-war scenes yet.”

“Oh right.”

“Listen,” said Wim putting his arm around the general and leading him away from the troops “You got potential, I think you could be a star.”

“Really?”

“Yeah! Your performance thus far has been magnificent.”

“Really?” The general said again this time with a proud smile on his face.

“Yep,” Wim said. “You can be a star. Just wait for us to finish the rest of the shooting.”

“Shooting! Sounds fun can I join in”

“You’ll get your chance just wait on the hill until I give you the signal.”

“What will the signal be?”

“Me coming up here and telling you to charge down the fucking hill.”

“Right then.” The general replied and he led the troops back up the hill.
When Wim came back to the town he received a hero’s welcome. He was cheered, given lots of free Crickonian ale and several Crickonian women offered him sexual favours after they’d shot the remaining scenes that day. “I’m afraid I’m otherwise engaged,” he told the women looking over at Nickaldo.

To be continued…


 Apesaels Training

Zakalwe
Shôshô
	
 Post Posted: 12 Mar 2005 07:01 pm    Post subject: Apesaels Training 	

Apesael was floating in the comfortable oblivion of his consciousness. The gentle whispering of ten thousand minds gave him the impression of being at one with nature and he felt as though he could stay in this state forever.

His armband GPC buzzed, sending a small electric current up his arm and jerking him from his meditative state. He sighed, uncurled from his lotus position and opened his eyes. Darkness.

“Gravity on” He instantly regretted it as he fell several feet onto his back. Groaning slightly he switched on the lights and checked on his armband. There was a message on the video screen:


Cadet Emrys, alpha blue 3 team

Report to training area 5 by 0600. Bring your preferred training close combat weapon with you. Lateness will not be tolerated.

Shihan Koji

He grinned; a lesson with the Shihan, that would be rare pleasure. He got dressed in his heavy martial arts training outfit, white but with gold embroidery on the arms, and his clans symbol on the back. Straitening the outfit, he went into the very small attached washroom, and cleaned his teeth. He then went back into the main room and reached under the low bunk to take out the case containing his Jo. He left his room and waited for the transit compartment to arrive, while going through his combat preparations, unconscious of any onlookers.

The transit compartment soon arrived, and after he gave his destination through pressing the relevant area on the wall touchpad (a recent addition), it was only around half a minute to get to training areas. He then walked down the well known hallways, consciously changing his breathing pattern adapting it to the way he preferred to fight. He reached the door to area five and entered the large dark room warily.

He had not taken his third step before two men in loose black clothing and red headbands stepped from behind the door and adopted fighting stances.

“Hey, crimson cretins.” He dropped into a defensive stance as they advanced.

One circled to his left and the other headed straight forward, coming forward with a jab for his face.

Apesael leaned slightly to the side causing the jab to overextend his opponent and brought his hand round for a knife hand attack to the exposed neck, and just to finish him off followed with a downwards reverse punch to the head.

The other assailant, now weary due to his partners quick dismissal, circled Apesael, keeping his arms in attack stance. He suddenly lunged forward with an spear hand attack.

Apesael responded with a roundhouse that hit his opponent in the stomach, causing him to fold over, and quickly retracting hit his now exposed back with the back of his leg in an axe kick, knocking him to the ground, groaning. Not taking any chances, Apesael knelt down, and slammed his face into the metal floor, knocking him out. He then straightened up and bowed to the center of the training room/dojo.

“Very good, kohai, very good” Koji emerged from the deep shadows of the center of the room, clapping. “Successfully taking out two opponents without blocking once and not taking the offensive; I’m suitably impressed.” He looked the same as always, small but walking with an inner confidence unrivalled by any man that Apesael had ever met, he seemed to radiate inner power with his very presence. His face held the ever present half smile, his eyes the glint of laughter and of a questioning mocking.

Aepesael bowed deeply, the tall man almost dwarfing the Shihan, smiling on the inside due to his compliment
“they were not a challenge, Shihan. They didn’t feint, or even try a complex move, let alone block me,” he shrugged “I am surprised they are even in the Red team.”

“Actualy this was their last chance kohai. Their standard is too low, so I told them that unless they could defeat you they would be out. They failed and so they are out, out of my class and out of NovaCorp.” He clapped his hands and his servant, the hulking man came out of the shadows. “Take these failures to the medical center. Once they have regained consciences tell them that their services are no longer needed, and if they are not out on the next flight their shall be problems.” walked up to the downed bodies, knelt and picked them up by the scruff of their necks before walking out the hall.

Turned from the door and motioned for Apesael to follow him.
“Lights” The lights of the hall snapped on, illuminating it and showing the various lines on the floor outlining the different rings, ranges and arenas. Around the walls their where a variety of melee weapons on racks, katana’s, wakashai’s, bo’s, jo’s, butterfly swords, claymores, rapiers, scimitars, throwing knives, axes, and a plethora of others. Apesael picked up his own case before following the Shihan.

“You said that they were not a challenge and I agree, they were not meant to be. But you do deserve one. This is why I have decided to place you in for the Close Combat special award. There shall be a challenge for you. If you succeed the award will allow you to succeed that much easier in your career in NovaCorp, a special award is not taken lightly. However it will not be easy, it may be to much even for you,” He stopped and picked up a particularly finely crafted Bo, and started examining it “Do you wish to undertake it?”

Without and warning he brought the Bo downwards in an arc that would intercept with Apesaels head. Acting purely on instinct he caught the Bo and disarmed it, only to realise that Koji had let go, and was holding his arm in the spear thrust position, right next to Apesaels solar plexus. He had ‘killed’ him.

“Ah, good to know I still have some tricks up my sleeve,” His eyes wrinkled with unpronounced laughter “but do you want to take the award?”

Apesael thought about it for the moment and coming to a firm conclusion in his mind answered “Yes, shihan. When will the test take place?”

“There are three tests, I am not allowed to give you the details but the first one will occur in two days, I suggest you prepare for anything. I’ll leave you to train by yourself.” He bowed to the center of the Dojo and left. Apesael was left by himself in the large empty room with his thoughts.

Last edited by Zakalwe on 16 Apr 2005 01:50 pm; edited 1 time in total


Zakalwe
Shôshô
	
 Post Posted: 02 Apr 2005 08:07 am    Post subject: 	

Apesael knelt in front of the stars. He had taken advantage of one of the rare occasions that the Horizon came for enough out of the cloud to see the outside galaxy, and the stars where as usual restoring his sense of inner tranquillity, and clearing his mind of the fears and what ifs that might occur in the upcoming challenge.

His armband GPC beeped, signalling his self allotted time of meditation and contemplation had ended. He sighed regretfully, stood up and bowed to the stars, before walking a few steps backwards before turning his back and walking out.

His mind was so filled with thoughts of the stars, their beauty and hidden power, that he almost walked into a group of cadets. He snapped back to reality just in time to stop himself and he saw whose group it was with an inward sigh. Mephis'.

"Look where you’re going idiot. Oh it's you, why to busy looking for you soul Oni, to notice your superiors?"

Apesael had been weathering these comments since he arrive, and he had enough, annoyed how a few words could shatter his inner calm.

"Cadet Mephis, I hereby challenge you to a duel under NovaCorp personnel relations section 7, under the charge of repeated prejudice, provocation, verbal abuse and disrespect to an equal. At the nearest convenient time we shall consult an advocate." Apesaels voice was calm and cold but inside his heart sang with wonderful fury

This stunned Mephis, and well he might, challenges where not often issued, and Mephis couldn't back down from the challenge without risk of a fine, demotion and a report on his record. However by the same measure if the advocate saw the reason as unworthy of a duel the same punishment would be applied to Apesael.

Apesael pressed a few keys on his GPC and after finding the relevant information stated in the same cold but authoritarian tone

"First officer Tanjo is one of this weeks advocates and has no recorded preference for either of us. He has an opening at 1600 hours. Is that an agreeable time for you?"

Mephis nodded and was about to say something when Apesael cut him off

"Good, I'll see you outside his room then."

And with that he walked off fast, resisting the temptation to look backwards, but he already heard the murmuring of Mephis' group giving him encouragement.

Apesael turned the corner and slumped against the wall, holding his head in his hands.

"I shouldn't have done that, I lost my temper as per usual. I should be training for the challenge, and instead I engage a worm like Mephis to a duel! Damn it." He thought. His GPC beeped again telling him to hurry to Tactics. Apesael gave a heartfelt groan. Sometimes he really hated his GPC.

Rob
Taii
	
 Post Posted: 16 Apr 2005 08:29 pm    Post subject: 	

First Officer Tanjo heard the gentle rapping on his door and stood, sighing. "Come." He called softly, hoping it would simply be more reports. He liked reports - they didn't complain and make him tense.

Apesael came it "Sir, It's Cadet Emrys and Cadet Mephis reportiing for your advocation on a duel.”

Tanjo sighed again, looking down at his cluttered desk for a moment before staring at the two cadets. "You both wish to proceed with this duel? I must inform you that from the moment you agree the time, place and nature of your bout, you cannot withdraw on pain of immediate expulsion from the corporation." His eyes, steely gray as he stared at them, softened momentarily. "I'll be perfectly happy to strike the preliminary challenge off my record..." then smiling weakly, added "I don't want to be sending one of you two lads off in a body bag."

No sir. I wish to follow this through." Apesael said.

Mephis seemed uncomfortable but muttered "Might as well ..."

Tanjo looked up sharply, rapping out "Confirm or back down Mephis! No half-hearted affirmations! you go into this now or you back down!"

Mephis straightened up and his eyes held a sudden anger at being scorned "Yes sir, I confirm the duel, sir" He barked

Apesael looked at Mephis with a new found respect, that beneath his wormlike exterior there seemed to be real character somewhere in there

Tanjo sagged, suprised at both his own and mephis' actions. "I... I'm sorry. I don't rely on formality but..." He shook himself and turned away to face the wall, murmuring "Alright. As the challenged party Mephis, you may choose the weapons. As the challenger Apesael, you may choose the location." Turning back, steel-gray eyes one more boring into the too, he said softly, sadly, but with a great inner strength, "Now."

Mephis spent a few quick moments considering, scanning through the possibilities in his mind, before coming to one. "The Rapier Sir, It seems right that a duel should be fought witha duelists weapon."

Apesael also considered his options. "The planaterium sir. I wish to fight beneath the stars."

Tanjo smiled at both boys' choices. "A sword-fight beneath the stars... how oddly inspiring..." He stared into the wall for a second, then snapped his eyes back to the pair. "Confirmed. The planetarium is open..." looking down to his desk-top data pad for a moment, he cleared his throat and continued, "Now, as a matter of fact. I will be your judicator... and now, duelists, we shall go." Stepping around his desk he made for the door, his long strides taking him past the two before adding, "Oh and because I don't want to see either of you in a mortuary... it's to first blood. No killing blows", then strode through the door, not bothering to wait for them.

Apesael turned to Mephis "You first, I insist." Attempting a gesture of civility

"That's right. Now your betters" Mephis walked out the room with a short laugh

Apesael lowered his eyes, saddened by this further insult, yet also angered. He was going to make Mephis pay.

Rob
Taii

 Post Posted: 17 Apr 2005 10:20 am    Post subject: 	

As Tanjo walked into the planetarium, several idle employees looked across at him and gulped at the look on his face. "Out! Now!" he shouted. "This area is a duel zone until otherwise stated!" and locked the doors around the edges of the circular room. "Kip." he said, and a small figure shimmered into existence, hovering off the floor to give the appearance of looking at him eye to eye. "Yes Tanjo?" the AI's high voice piped up. "I've been watching this with some interest..." then, looking across to the two duellers, nodded and waved "Good luck to both of you!"

Apesael seemed uncomfortable with the blade and took a somewhat shaky fighting stance, weight on the back foot and sword pointed to the ground. Mephis on the other hand, seemed very comfortable with his sword and stepped naturally into a fencing stance, with the sword pointed at his opponent, breaking common etiquete

Tanjo, versed in the ways of fencing himself, frowned. "Mephis... you do not start a duel in this manner." Looking up again to Kip, he murmured "Seal the doors, and get a recording. I have e feeling this will turn out nasty..."

Mephis let out an almost inaudible growl at being revoked, and lowered his blade

Tanjo, still frowning at Mephis experience and obvious aggression against Apesael's courage, raised his voice. "Duellers, raise your weapons!"

Apesael rose his rapier level to Mephis' solar-plexus and started his breathing technique.

Mephis brought his sword up until it was pointing at Apesaels neck, and moved it around a little, in anticipation

Tanjo looked away and said, after a long pause, "Begin." Immediately Mephis leapt forward, swinging his rapier in a short side-slash, trying to catch Apesael off guard.

Apesael blocked quickly with his rapier, but over compensated for weight, and left himself open, so Mephis flicked his rapier around in a circle, cutting under Apesael's guard and thrusting in toward his unprotected chest. Apesael in desperation leapt backwards, thrusting both legs of the floor and landing three feet away.

Mephis grinned, the obvious lack of experience on Apesael's part beginning to show. Hopping back and forth on his feet, his rapier pointing to the ground in an obvious show of disrespect - he didn't NEED to guard himself. "Feeling the heat Oni? You look to be sweating..." he darted in again, viciously slicing at the air and trying to force Apesael backward. Apesael blocked with his rapier again, but at the same time thrust both their swords upwards and came around with a sweeping kick.

Tanjo, looking on and frowning suddenly grinned. "Looks like Apesael might have the advantage after all..." he murmured to Kip, hovering at his side. "Really?" the little AI replied. "I thought Mephis was winning..." Looking down at Kip, Tanjo smiled, "Yes... yes, he was. But with the introduction of martial arts, he hasn't a hope. Apesael there is a very accomplished fighter."

Mephis grunted as the kick came out of nowhere, slamming into his ribs and almost winding him. Cursing, he forced the pair's swords back down, slowly wrenching his own out of Apesael's grasp and rotating it down toward his head, forcing him to lean backward. Grunting and throwing Mephis back slightly, Apesael thrust his foot forward into another kick to the solar-plexus. Mephis hunched over slightly, then roared and slammed Apesael's blade out of his fist, twisting the fingers painfully and sending the sword arcing across the arena to land outside the circle.

Apesael quickly retracted his fist, shaking it to get rid of the pain. He dropped down into a deep fighting stance, suddenly very wary of his opponents obvious advantage. Mephis, still gasping slightly from the sledgehammer hits to his abdomen, retreated slowly, his eyes locked on Apesael.

Apesael slowly scanned his opponents stance, looking for a weakness, and tried a dummy attack in the form of a kick to the knee, before trying a real punch to the head. Mephis swung his sword around unevenly, his eyes blinking strangely. "guuh..." he murmured as the punch to the head took him by surprise, slamming into his forehead and making fireworks flash in front of his eyes. Falling over backward, he recovered just before he hit the floor and rolled to flip back up to his knees, then his feet, and charge forward, swinging the sharp sword wildly, his eyes wide and his face locked in a grimace of rage and pain. Apesael slapped the sword out of it's path, hitting the side of the sword with the back of his hand and side-steeping, then following it through with a roundhouse kick to the back. Mephis dropped to the floor, air expelled from his lungs in a loud "hufff!" as he hit. The sword, held against his body, sliced into his shoulder, blood welling up around it and ending the duel.

Tanjo entered the ring quickly, Kip hovering at a distance, and murmured to Apesael "Very well done..." as he passed, then knelt to roll Mephis over. Wincing at the sight that greeted him, he carefully withdrew Mephis' sword from his shoulder and dropped it next to him, then ripped a strip of soft cloth off the end of Mephis uniform and bandaged the shoulder. Apesael, breathing deeply straightened himself, coming out of fighting stance. "Thank you Sir. It was a worthy duel." Kip zipped over to Apesael, gently hovering around him in circles "Hiya Apesael! I'm Kip, in case you didn't already know! Actually, you were hopelessly outmatched, sword-wise... very nice addition to fencing!" pausing, he added "your martial arts that is!"

"Thank you Kip." Apesael inclined his head, smiling gently "Mephis was overconfident, it was that that allowed my victory, That and how he lost his temper."

Mephis, the last of his conscious thought slipping away, stood behind them, grabbing his blood-stained sword as he did so. With an outraged roar, he took a vicious overhand swipe at Apesael's unprotected back, and was surprised in a detached way to hear a fleshy thunk as his sword impacted with something. Apesael heard the same thunk and whirled around, and saw Memphis' sword imbedded to the bond in Tanjo's arm.

Tanjo had, moving with lightning speed, thrown his arm up, standing at the same time, and now stood with his teeth gritted, eyes closed and shaking slightly, blood running down the lower edge of the sword from the deep wound and welling up to run slowly drip to the floor.

Apesael moved forward, close to fury at this attack on a superior and readied a reverse punch. Tanjo opened his eyes suddenly and stuck out his other arm, blocking Apesael's strong blow. Slowly, he turned his head to Mephis who was staring at him, no longer angry but simply confused. He slowly dragged his arm along the sword to the point, making a slick "shhhhing...", then reached out with both hands to Mephis forearms, his long fingers circling them completely. A grim smile smile crossed his face for a second before he suddenly, viciously twisted, twin snaps sounding like whip cracks as the bones of Mephis' arms broke and jacknifed into the surrounding flesh.

Mephis was beyond thinking, in pure agony, and screamed, jerking his body violently in a futile attempt to escape from the pain but being held by Tanjo's rock hard grip. Apesael came forward and backhanded Mephis' head, putting him out of his misery for the moment. He grinned savagely, enjoying the feeling of avenging an attack on honour and his superior, before regaining control on himself.

Tanjo, suddenly looking confused and exhausted, dropped to his knees and looked down at his arm for the first time. Looking up at Apesael and grinning for a moment, he said "Ow." then keeled over sideways. Kip zoomed in to him for a moment, then looked up at Apesael too. "Don't worry, I have alerted medical teams and they're on their way..." Looking down at Tanjo's arm, he murmured "I wonder..." then fizzled away into light. A moment later, small sparkles appeared around Tanjo's wound and the bleeding stopped. Looking closely, Apesael could actually see the flesh slowly knitting together. Returning in a flash, Kip grinned and murmured "Knew it! Nanite enhanced... but didn't know how to activate them!"

Apesael went over to Mephis and looked at his sleeping face with a mix of wonder and disgust. What drove him to this? He layed him out in a more comfortable looking position and then walked back to Kip.
Apesael mused, "So Kip, what did you think of the duel? Was it what you expected?"

Kip simulated a quick backflip, "landing" to hover as if he were sitting on Apesael's shoulders. "Um... yeah, I guess! The only duel's I've seen so far have been fought with pistols or ranged weaponry... not many people go in for swords!" He momentarily manifested his hand, ruffling Apesael's hair and continuing "But swords and martial arts? It was like watching an action sequence from a vid!"

Apesael asked, surprised, “You watch action videos?"

Kip giggled slightly and said loudly "Yup! all the time!"

Apesael laughed quietly, Kip's optimism was contagious "When's that
medical team going to get here?"

Kip frowned "Lemme check..." and looked off into the distance a moment, his eyes unfocused. "They should be here about..." he grinned and looked over as the large main door hissed open "Now!"

The med teams came in quickly, two hover beds between the five members. "What happened here? We where told there was a duel but what's Tanjo doing injured?" The lead medic asked while the other four got Mephis and Tanjo onto stretchers and began rudimentary first aid.
Kip scowled and muttered "Head case on the floor there with the broken arms is the only one injured. leave Tanjo here. I have recordings of the whole lot, just leave him to me... I need to debrief him on something"
"OK Kip, whatever you say". The lead medic gestured and Tanjo was lowered back to the floor, the medic team jogged out of the room, carrying Mephis on the stretcher.

Tanjo groaned. He opened his eyes and slowly, strangely, the world blurred in and out of focus. He saw a strange ghost-like grid overlaying everything he saw, small blue lights flowing along it in places. Finally, his vision swam back into focus and the grid faded. "uugh...what happened? I feel like a transport module hit me..."

"Sir, you intercepted a blow meant for me, and it uhm ... almost severed your arm. You passed out after breaking his arms." Apesael said, and held out his hand to help him up.

Tanjo looked confused and looked down at his arm. By now the nanites had finished their work and all that remained was a slightly paler patch of skin. "I did what...? I don't remember that!"

"According to Kip sir you have nanites in your body that heal you. Honestly sir a few minutes ago there was a huge gash in your arm. You weren't really acting yourself either." Apesael tried to answer.

Kip suddenly spoke up, still sounding terminally optomistic. "Yup! Got recordings!" Pausing a moment, he stared at Tanjo for a moment before continuing, "And welcome back to the land of the living! ... Officer Tanjo, would you mind if I did a quick scan of your body? there's something I want to check."

"Uh ... sure, whatever you think is best Kip." Tanjo slowly shook his head, trying to get rid of the groggy feeling. Kip nodded, motioning Apesael to step back. A moment later, a quick beep sounded and Kip brought up a holographic readout of Tanjo's body. embedded in his chest, close to the heart, was a small metallic object. "Hmmm... You appear to have had a nanite implant. I would guess performance enhancing... and the rate at which you healed up..." He frowned, staring at Tanjo's face. "This is Yamatai Military grade equipment. What are you doing with military grade nanites in your blood?"

"Nanites? Aren't nanite enhancements outlawed in NovaCorp?" Apesael asked, followed by Tanjo's outraged "Never mind that, cadet! What the Hell are they doing in me?!"

Kip nodded at Apesael. "Usually. I would guess they have been added to Tanjo's system without his consent..." He stared searchingly at Tanjo's face before continuing, "Officer Tanjo... were you ever in the Yamatai Military?" Tanjo replied, confused,"I don't know, I... I can't remember".

Kip nodded again. "Well Officer Tanjo, we will have to look into this... perhaps another time. For now, be gratefully you have nanites - otherwise you'd be turning gray about now, calculating the amount of blood you would have lost..."He turned to Apesael, murmuring "keep an eye on him..." before continuing more loudly, "Well done on your duel, I'm sorry your opponent turned out to be so... crazy!" He grinned, hopped off Apesael's shoulders and manifested his avatar, pulling Tanjo to his feet. "Why don't you two go have a drink or something? I have some work to do... cleaning up blood for example." Wrinkling his nose, he faded and was gone.

Apesael asked softly, "Sir, what will happen to Cadet Mephis?" Tanjo, still shocked at the revelations into himself, murmured "I don't know cadet... but I'm guessing he'll be patched up and sent back to wherever he came from... You'll probably get whatever posessions he accumulated here, but these are special circumstances, so don't be too sure..."

"That's fine sir. Do you want me to accompany to your quarters, office or a bar as Kip suggested? You still look a little pale, if you don't mind me saying so."

Tanjo smiled, in spite of himself. "Oh, the bar definately. I think I could do with a drink!"

Zakalwe
Shôshô

 Post Posted: 01 May 2005 12:34 pm    Post subject: 	

Apesael pounded away at the punch bag, each hit smashing it against the wall, to ricochet back for another hit. There was something soothing in the regularity of the hits, the repetition let him forget his fear and anxiety over the upcoming test, especialy in the empty training hall. Unfortunately his train of thought brushed against the forbidden area, and all the tension over the upcoming event rushed back. In a primal instinct was to lash against this, and this exposed itself as a punch at the punch bag, with all of his pent up anxiety and strength behind it, his eyes closed in a wince. When he opened his eyes he found the punch bag had exploded and was now to be found four metres two his right, the chain broken. He sighed, he had lost his temper far too often recently. On the bright side however, the tension was gone, he felt strangely rejuvenated.

Tomorrow was the test, and now with the stress and tension gone he could finally think about it straight. It was for the close combat special award, so melee would be the name of the game. He had practised hard for the last two days, memorising all the different blocks and attacks, and engaging in several practise fights. And there was that fight with Mephis …
Mephis had been thrown out of NovaCorp, with great dishonour, and the counsel, who had taken great offence by his actions, had spread word of what he had done to all the major corporations. His life would be very difficult from now on. Thinking of Mephis made Apesael depressed. Mephis, for all of his rudeness and impudence, had been a skilled combatant, and a very skilled tactician, it was a terrible waste of potential.

However he couldn’t waste time thinking about what ifs. Apesael opened his Jo case and took out his preferred weapon, the tetsujo, or metal jo. It was to heavy for most people to use well, but his training, combined with his above human strength, meant he could wield it as easily as a normal man wielded a jo. He began a very elegant and fast routine, the Jo moving to fast to keep track of with the eye. He closed his eyes and allowed his mind to direct his hands, not slowing down, completing the dance like moves relying entirely on skill.

Finishing with a double handed downwards strike, Apesael had a small smile on his lips. He felt cleansed. He opened his eyes and put his tetsujo away in the case. He was ready.

Zakalwe
Shôshô
	
 Post Posted: 15 May 2005 03:36 pm    Post subject: 	

All right, this was it. Apesaels heart was beating franticly as he slowly jogged towards the Dojo. He had been sent the time that morning, at five in the morning to be precise. It was now 7:58 and he was standing outside the doors of the Dojo. He a deep breath and hit the open button.

"Enter", said a deep, smooth voice from inside the dark room. The shihan stepped into the pool of light from the door, smiling slightly. "Are you ready?" he asked, as Apesael moved inside, slapping the door's control panel so that it close quickly behind the trainee and leaving white scars across his vision for a moment, as his eyes adapted to the deep blue ambient lighting of the room.

Apesael bowed deeply. "I am ready Shiham." He would never admit to anyone how unready he really felt. He glanced around the room slowly.

"Then let it begin" said the small man, backing into the darkness. Almost immediately, a challenge rang out across the large space, and the lights brightened, illuminating a red-garbed novice as he adopted a combat stance, facing Apesael warily.

Apeseal dropped into a low fighting stance, hand in the free-style position. He began to study his opponent’s stance and breathing, looking for a weakness to exploit. He really wished he had been allowed to bring his Tetsujo, but the message had been clear, come unarmed.

Suddenly, the novice broke into a sprint across the room, leaping into a perfectly executed flying kick at head height just a few meters from his opponent with a loud shout.

Responding with instinct Apesael moved out of the way instantly, before bringing his leg up in such a way to intercept the novice.

The man's foot slammed into Apesael's leg, knocking them both to the padded floor in an undignified heap. Rolling back quickly and wincing, the novice slowly stood, watching Apesael closely.

Flipping up, Apesael took the offensive with a palm strike to the face, accompanied by a sweep of the legs. His heart was singing, there was no fear or tension here, only relsease.

The novice dropped backward, clutching at his face. With one hand, he signalled surrender, blood leaking through the fingers of the other in little rivulets as he clamped it over his nose and crawled a little way off to slump against the wall. "Excellent" murmured the Shihan, appearing from the shadows in one corner, and signalling another fighter forth. This man was clad in blue robes, and carried a Jo which he arrogantly twirled around one wrist and then the other, forming a whirling figure of eight in front of him.

A man of his own heart, a wielder of Jo. Apesael knew how dangerous he could be. He kept his arms wide and began to slowly advance on the fighter, keeping solid eye contact.

The man looked questioningly toward the Shihan for a moment, but the smaller man had melted back into invisibility. Frowning, he advanced as well and slowly flicked his weapon from one hand to the other.

Apesael flung himself into motion with a double swing kick, landing after the first and using the momentum to launch his foot straight at the man's head.

Grinning at the attack, the Jo-wielder swung his weapon in a simple arc and slammed Apeseal's foot off course, unbalancing him

Apesael landed with his two hands in front of him, in a Poisson, not unlike as if he was doing press-ups. He quickly levelled a sweep at the man's leg's.

Almost laughing now, the man slammed his Jo into the ground, blocking Apesael's sweep. It did, however, knock him off balance and force him to stumble backward as the Jo bucked in his hands.

Apesael righted himself and lunged forward with a reverse punch to the head, followed by two to the stomach and one to the groin.

The man thumped down hard onto the floor, head bowed and winded. The Jo hung loose in his hand for a moment, before he swung it end first upward to impact hard on Apesael's jaw, almost lifting him off his feet.

Apesael winced, the pain threatening to overwhelm him. He reached down and switched of that part of his brain through telepathy. He was really mad, killing mad. In quick succession he axe kicked the man in the solar plexus three times, letting out a kiai with every kick.

Sighing gently, and with a confused look in his eyes, the blue-robed man slowly sank onto his back, eyes closed. "Very well done!" roared the Shihan from his hidden watching place, and another man stepped through the arch at the back of the room. He didn't appear to have any weapons at first, but suddenly he flicked out a knife from his belt and flicked it into the air, the blade glinting and flashing as it turned.

Apesael bent down and picked up the Jo. He felt much more comfortable now he had his favoured weapon with him, he span it, quickly compensating for the lighter Jo than he usually used. He lunged forward with a flurry of blows faster than the eye could follow, his expertise with this weapon evident.

Flopping to the ground bonelessly, the knife-wielding man slipped under Apesael's assault, kicking up with one foot to slam the Jo into the air as he rolled backward, nimbly standing again and hop-dancing from left to right.

Apesael can forward with a side snap kick to the groin, punching out at head height to slam into the man's temple

Grunting with pain, the man retreated slowly, raising his knife and slicing at Apesael's fist as he withdrew, opening a thin slice across his knuckles and splashing blood to the floor

Apasael looked at his fist with some interest, before launching forward in a high-speed assault of a punch with his uninjured fist to the head followed by a low thrust kick to the solar plexus.

Shaking his head to clear it and stumbling backward again, the man dropped his knife, sticking into the floor and vibrating for a moment. Staring down at his hand, the man snarled and kicked out with fury, slamming square into Apesael's groin.

Apasael winced as the pain rocketed through his body, but had the presence of mind to clench his upper legs. The man's leg now stuck, Apesael brought his uninjured fist down on the man's knee, snapping it.

The pain in the man's leg was so intense that he didnt actually feel it for a moment, staring in confusion at his leg that now bent backward, hanging strangely as it extended from him to his opponent. As the pain slammed into his brain, he screamed horribly and fainted, dropping to the ground and wrenching his leg further, twisting the lower leg backward in relation to the upper as the shattered knee ground around 180 degrees.

"Very good", the Shihan roared again, apparently enjoying the violence greatly. He motioned for the next fighter.

The next fighter entered the ring slowly, two nunchuku clearly tucked into his belt.

Apesael was feeling very weary, the last three fights had not been easy on him. His groin, jaw and fist still hurt, and he couldn't fully shut down his pain receptors without loosing his ability to fight properly. He had a nasty feeling that some of the tendons on his right fist where damaged, and that would mean he couldn't hit with the knuckles. He tried his best to telepathically convince his body it felt better, and adopted a defensive stance.

The new fighter, looking first to the three slumped against the wall and then to the wounded Apeseal, smiled grimly. Spinning the nunchuku around in blurred circles, he advanced on Apesael at a slow walk, half-crouched, and forced him to back slowly away.

Apesael did not think he had the strength to continue a offensive style of combat, so stayed defensive, moving slowly, and watching for any sign of weakness. He would have to play on his opponents confidence if he was to win this one.

Halting suddenly as he saw Apesael's weariness, the man stopped spinning his nunchuku and caught the ends, holding one pair in each hand. Looking quizically at his opponent for a moment, he suddenly gave him a friendly smile and kicked the Jo across the floor toward Apesael, before beginning to spin his own weapons again.

Apesael was surprised at this. This was the first fighter which appeared to have honour. He picked up the Jo and adopted a defensive position with it, horse stance.

Still not appearing satisfied, the strange fighter let one of his nunchuku spin off into the darkness to thud against the wall. With the other, he began a complicated figure of eight that arced around his body, humming and swishing as the free tip moved through the air at immense speed

Apesael was not going to make the first move this time, whenever that had happened earlier he had ended up getting pounded. It was as the Shihan said "The defender must always win." He wished this applied to life outside sparing. The nunchuku where very impressive, their wielder clearly competent, and Apesael had serious doubt's about besting him. He tried to get rid of those thoughts. Doubt yourself and you will loos. "Good luck" He sent telepathically to his opponent.

The man smiled slightly, and an answering voice echoed around Apesael's mind "And to you too, young one...". Ending his display, he dropped into a low crouch, his weapon held in both hands outstretched, on above and behind his head, the other pointed directly at his opponent. "Your move..." his mind echoed, as outwardly he stayed focused on Apeseal, appearing to be about to attack.

Apesael slowly slid forward, his Jo held in such away so it would block downward attacks and could be quickly moved to block side ones. He locked eyes with his opponent, waiting for the slightest twitch that would give him an early warning of an attack.

After a good three minutes of neither opponent doing anything, Apesael thrust his Jo forward, without warning, aimed straight at the man's solar plexus.

With lightning speed the nunchuk arced up out of the man's hands, the central chain wrapping around the end of the Jo and pulling its point down into the ground, instead of to the man. He calmly reached out with one other hand, taking hold of the Jo and wrenching it out of Apesael's grip. "Hmm... You will have to do better than that..." he murmured, handing the weapon back and taking a step backward.

"Fine." Apesael attacked again, using both ends to lay a flurry of attack to the man's head.

Wincing slightly at a few of the blows, the man raised his arms and calmly blocked the attacks, although the strain showed on his face. "not bad..." he sent, kicking out against Apesael's chest once, then flicking around in a circle to land another kick that lifted his opponent off his feet, hurling him a little back backward.

Apesael swore mentally. Now both sides of his jaw hurt. He was going to have to replace several teeth after this. He dummied an attack to the face, before using the other end to hit the man's floating rib.

The man grunted, tensing his muscles a millisecond too late to prevent the attack from doing damage. Silently, he brought his foot around in another kick, aiming for Apesael's temple

Apesael was in the worst possible position to block this, so went with the kick, bending his body to minimilse the force. It didn't work very well and Apesael was sent sprawling to the floor, head rining. He fought hard to get his vision to stop blurring.

"Hmmm... I don't think you can finish this..." echoed the man's sending. He turned on his heel and marched away a few steps, before turning to bow. "I give you my strength..." came his voice, and then he was gone, fading into the shadowy edge of the arena.

Apesael picked himself up, telepathy quickly organising his mind and clearing it. He felt strength wash through him, and all his pain seemed to diminish. He felt amazing, like he could do anything. He quickly held that in check, overconfidence was what defeated most people. He marvelled at his last opponent, a superior fighter had surrendered, and somehow helped him. He couldn't quite understand. In any case he prepared for the next challenge, in a forward stance, the jo wide in on hand the other straight to the side.

A final warrior stepped through the arch at the back of the room. Dressed in black, vast and all of seven foot tall, he was the image of an ancient executioner, right down to the black hood. He didn't appear to wield any weapons at first glance, but as he moved into the light, metal studs glinted maliciously in the dim light. "Ahh... that one..." came the previous fighter's voice, still in contact with Apesael's mind. "He appears strong, and yes.. he is... VERY strong... but not unbeatable. You may notice that he limps slightly - his right leg is devoid of sensation. He will feel no pain, but will be weak defending that side..."

Thank you for your assistance. Apesael stared at the behemoth. This was not going to be fun. Waiting for him to attack first was not an option. Apesael began thinking liquid thoughts, a technique he'd been taught, think like water, and move like water. He dove forward, ready to dodge any blow levelled his way, and slammed his Jo into the Goliath’s right knee.

Stumbling backward, just barely, the hug man slammed his fist through the air with a roar, aiming directly for Apesael's exposed head.

Apesael dodged out the way, moved around to the man's back, and thrust the Jo into his floating rib, in one fluid move.

Grunting through his mask, his behemoth opponent swung his other fist around in an arc that connected with Apesael's shoulder, hurling him to the ground.

Apesaels shoulder screamed at him. He told it to shut up. It ignored him. He roled as he hit the floor, coming up in a crouching position, and rushing forward to deliver another blow to the right knee.

The man sagged onto one knee with a thump as Apesael's Jo pushed his right knee forward. Noticing the knife on the floor, still embedded in the padding, he reaching down and closed his fist around it and wrenched it out, hurling it with surprising dexterity toward Apesael's injured shoulder as he spun and stood again.

The knife entered his shoulder with a horrible *thunk*. The screaming became a 100 part choir of pain, and Apesael let out primal scream. His arm hang limp, clearly the knife had damaged some muscles, but not much blood was coming out. Through some random good luck it had avoided all major veins and arteries. He cut off all sensations from that arm. Apesael tried to make the best of the situation and began to circle the giant man, bombarding his head with one handed blow's from his Jo.

The huge man grinned through his mask, mouth twisting into a horrible parody of a smile. As he swung his fist around in a lethal arc, he suddenly stopping, looking confused, and stared at Apesael for a moment. "Finish him..." came the voice of the fourth. "He won't be like that for long... and if you don't he will surely finish YOU." Indeed, as the words whispered through Apesael's mind, his opponent was already beginning to move more coherently, his eyes focusing evilly on Apesael through the narrow slits in his mask.

Apesael drew the knife out of his shoulder. Desperate situations called for desperate responses. He drew it out, and plunged it as hard as he could into the man's collarbone.

Roaring in pain, the man flailed at Apesael, sheer luck directing his blows. Wrenching the knife out of his chest, the man coughed horribly, blood seeping over his lips.

Apesael blocked the man's blows quite easily. Flailing never realy works anyway he thought, before landing a thrust kick towards the mans right leg.

Collapsing awkwardly, the black garbed man put his hand down to prevent himself from falling further. Unfortunately, it was the hand he held the knife in, and the high velocity plus his own weight drove the blade clean through his palm to stick up into the air, red sheen glinting. Grunting in surprise at the cold feeling in his hand, the man coughed again, spilling more blood across his lips. As he saw the blade his eyes widened in surprise, and he held his hand up to look at it dazedly. "wha...?" he gurgled, and collapsed into a fit of coughing, blood rolling freely across his chin to splatter against the padded floor. "You win, I think..." came the voice of the fourth, actually speaking rather than sending.

Stepping into the light, with his white cloak shimmering, he took Apesael by the shoulder and lead him through the archway into the next room, gesturing the Shihan who had, suddenly, appeared to sort out the mess.

Apesael was apprehensive about this new room, his whole body felt as if it had been pulversied (as indeed it had), and he was not in a fit state for any more fighting. Pleased was he when it was a quiet garden. He was surprised by this, what with it being a garden with plenty of smaal trees, and small stream and a mahogany desk in the center.

"Welcome, Apesael, to my office" said the man, dusting off his clothes. "If you would find somewhere to sit while I find your papers? The carp are particularly relaxing to watch, I find."

Apesael knelt by the stream obediantly, and stared intensely at a carp, which apeared to notice him and hid beneath an ornamental bridge.

"Ah. here we are." Murmured the man behind him, soft voice carrying strangely across the bubbling of the stream. "Your papers," he handed a small portfolio to the tired fighter, "And your congratulations-on-winning weapon. Ceremonial, but quite functional." As he spoke, he drew out a short katana, blade gleaming in the softly lit room. The hilt was engraved with intricate patterns, etched black onto the silvery metal. Studying it for a moment, the man resheathed the weapon, handing it to Apesael with a small flourish. "May it serve you well, warrior."

Apesael bowed deeply and accepted the lovely looking sword. He was pleased with his success "Thank you sir."

"Sir ... who are you?" Apesael didn't mean to be rude, but his curiosity demanded that he asked.

"Me?" the man paused, smiling at some inner joke. "I ... I am the power behind many things, yet none know of me. I am ... the one who knows all and sees all ... the one who plays with the lives of Novacorp's Sixth, manipulating them, using them ..." He grinned, and patted the tired and bewildered Apesael on the shoulder. "My friends call me Zeke! ... oh, and forget I mentioned "the Sixth". they don't exist!" He winked, gently shepherding Apesael back through the archway. "Get some rest..." he sent to Apesael, motioning the Shihan over to him as he watched the young man walk toward the door.

"Yes, sir, Mr. Zeke, sir." Apesael was very enthusiastic about rest, sleep he could handle. His mind reeled though. The Sixth? He'd never heard of the Sixth. He bowed and walked backwards towards the door before walking out, it closing silently behind him. Sleep. Now.


 [Orders|NovaCorp] Apesael Emrys

Rob
Taii

 Post Posted: 15 May 2005 03:50 pm    Post subject: [Orders|NovaCorp] Apesael Emrys 	

NOVACORP BOARD
YSS HORIZON

Apesael Emrys,

Congratulations on your promotion. You have been awarded the rank of C3 (Civilian Class 3), previously U (Unranked).

You are assigned to M/C1 (Military/Civilian Class 1) Tanjo Shen as a personal aide.

M/C1 Shen and yourself are assigned to the YSS Destiny to oversee the Engineer corps and provide intermediary relations between the engineers and the SA crew.

Signed,

Zeke

PS: vsm hvsfs. odsgosz, am tfwsbr, w vojs hoysb hvs zwpsfhm ct wbqzirwbu o forwc gmghsa wb mcif okom ywh. kcizr mci fsdcfh hc as igwbu wh, kvwzs mci ofs cb hvs rsghwbm? hvs wbtcfaohwcb kcizr ps joziopzs, obr wbgwuvh og hc hvs voddsbwbug cb pcofr qcizr ps igstiz tcf hvs kvczs ct hvs sadwfs.

*genetic key*

Zakalwe
Shôshô

	
 Post Posted: 16 May 2005 12:05 pm    Post subject: 	

Orders received. Will be transferring at next convenient time. Thankyou for the promotion and position.


 New things on the horizon

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 23 May 2005 06:48 pm    Post subject: New things on the horizon

"This is the freighter long haul to YSS horizon, come in horizon," Came the voice of someone who was paid to sit on their ass while they watched a machine do all the work. The being in charge of running the freighter continued to run his gums from the small cockpit compartment of the freighter transporting the first shipment of Leistung group property in its many holds of its segmented, caterpillar like body. "I hate doing runs inside of nebulas… can’t see a damn thing." The captain thought out loud before returning to his radio in an attempt to find the horizon. His ship had recently dropped out of FTL travel before entering the Feynar cloud that the NC facilities occupied. With a burst of fire from its drive system the ship shoved itself through the cloud toward the location it was p

"YSS Horizon responding. You are entering NovaCorp protected space. Identification is required to proceed." Blared a loud computerized voice. "Repeat: Identification required before you may proceed."

"affirmative horizon, transmitting authorization codes now. " With a lethargic grunt the captain scooted forward on his chair and brushed a container of powder covered pastries out of his way as his large fingers fumbled around for a swipe card on his dashboard. He swiped the card through a slit on the panel in front of him and flipped a few switches, sending the data to his primitive radio array and then to the horizon or anyone else within range of his transmitter. As he waited for the next response he slouched back down into his seat, "do do… dum dum do…" He hummed.

"Confirmed Long Haul. Welcome to NovaCorp space, enjoy your stay. Proceed to dock gamma. beacons deployed to indicate your safest path." said the voice and a rough line of radar pings were sent out as guidance beacons activated.

"Affirmative horizon," With that he reached up and flipped a pair of switches to turn on his auto-pilot and give it control of the maneuvering thrusters. A series of thrusters on the ship fired to alter its course and bring it in towards its destination.

The vast bulk of the modified colony ship came into focus through the clouds of dust. Dwarfing the smaller transport as it closed, a bright patch near the rear of the behemoth vessel grew wider - the docking bay doors slowly grinding open.

The captain of the transport pushed a bar to its side, flipping a series of switches that lowered all of the 16 supports that allowed the ship to land. With the ease of a professional the captain took hold of the control stick and levers in front of him and guided the ship into the landing bay, setting it down softly and waiting for the external door on the horizon to close before opening his own cargo bay. "Hello horizon, docking successful on this end."

A completely different voice came through the channel this time - human. "Welcome aboard guys! This is Grant, I'll be down in the bay in just a moment. If you would like to tell your passengers to leave the ship captain? Unless, of course, you are with the group. In which case... no, you must come yourself anyway! Your journey must have been tiring... so feel free to make use of our R and R facilities."

"Thanks for the offer Mr. Grant" The captain replied, "but I have a schedule to keep. Once they finish offloading I am out of here. The doors on either side of each segment of the transport opened and folded down into ramps, exposing the various heavy duty crates and a small group of people.

"Roger that. Grant out... and thank you captain." said the director over the radio as a small group of security officers trooped out of the irised hatchway a few meters from the ship, accompanied by Grant himself. Folding away the portable radio, he shouted "Welcome, one and all, to the good ship Horizon! I trust you had a good journey?"

"About as good as you can get for a cargo container," Came a female’s voice. She was dressed in a form fitting black bodysuit that covered the entirety of her well endowed body, leaving only her head exposed. Draped over her shoulder was a small black oxygen mask that had a hose which traveled over her shoulder and into the down jacket she wore over her entire outfit. The small remnant of people in the group were all dressed in regular street cloths, the kind of type found on Ayenee even though that was a rather broad category. Some had a typical shirt and tie, others robes, while still others just wore baggy pajama looking outfits. "I’d love to see what you have in the way of RnR," She started, "But first I’d like to be show to the areas that have been rented out. I’d like to know we have

"Alright miss....", Grant paused for a moment, "Alright. We'd better get introductions done here before anything else. I'm Grant Williams, the science advisor of NovaCorp. These are minions number three, seventeen and two-one-two." He grinned at the security team's annoyed expressions. "Don't worry boys, you can meet them informally later!"

"Well then, I’ll look forward to meeting you a bit more informally later," She said the scientists starting grabbing the crates and pushing them along. Built in anti-grav generators allowed the crates to float above the ground and move with a minimum of effort, "Officially I’m going by the name of Harm while I’m here. I’m in charge of security for the group members as well as keeping things running smoothly. They aren’t supposed to talk with anyone while on the ship about what they are working on but I’m sure we shall all get to know each other very well regardless." She flashed them all a charming smile.

Grant looked her up and down, taking in the suit. "Harm huh? wow... not to be rude, but that ... fits your attire!" He chuckled and returned her smile, continuing "No... i joke... anyway Ms. Harm, would you and your entourage care to follow me? It's a very short walk to your assigned labs, we made sure we could get you close to the bays for any transport you need." Smiling again, he turned and walked back toward the hatch, flanked loosely by the guards

She simply nodded to him and followed as did the rest of the people in the transport... eventually. They didn't come off as a very highly disciplined but in the field of RnD that wasn't such a bad thing.

striding down the dingy corridors with the security guards in tow, Grant seemed in his element. "Come on people, we don't have all day!" He called over his shoulder. "You'll need to get settled in quite quickly, unless of course you want to move to a different location on board - it's the ship time dinner break in a few hours, and after that there's no opportunity to grab food until tomorrow... unless you have change handy!" he nodded to a vending machine set into the wall as he passed, then turned suddenly and disappeared through a brightly lit doorway

Harm followed as did the procession of people pushing floating crates. "This is long haul to horizon, My unloading is complete and I'm heading out of the cloud," With the last of the containers removed from the ship its doors closed and landing gear retracted as forward thrusters pushed in clear of the docking bay and turned it around to face outer space. "What currencies do the vending machines accept? Probably only the KS?" She asked.

Grant looked distractedly at his radio uplink and murmured ingratiatingly, "Thank you Long Haul. Have a safe journey!" then folded it closed. "Yes... they accept standards, I'm not sure what else. There's documentation for them somewhere but I never got around to reading it..." He grinned and gestured widely around the spacious, well lit room they had entered.

"How do you like it? You have basic equipment in here, more advanced gear in the next room along, " he pointed to another door in the opposite wall, "and we've taken the liberty of providing you with a pair of fabricators. If you don't know already, you can program them with molecular codes, shapes... lots of stuff, and they'll make it for you. Comes out pretty hot though..." he winked and stuck a hand into the open hatch of the closest fabber. "I took the liberty of preparing this earlier." he drew out a small cube of dull metal. "Iron. the edges of the cube are straight down to the atomic level, so don’t touch them..." he murmured and held it out to Harm

"this looks sufficient, but the final say will go to the science team when they are finished setting up. If you can, we’d like to get a blueprint of this room so where know where all of the interfaces with the ship are and their power outputs ect. I’m assuming it will be alright if we make modifications to this room to accommodate our unique pieces of equipment." Harm picked up the cube by the faces with her fingers and examined it, "Do you believe in a god?" She asked.

"There is a saying that when you see a 20 ton beam held above your head by a string is when you truly start seeing god in technology." harm chuckled to herself slightly, "In any case I'm looking forward to working with you. Any chance you could give me a tour of the entire place while my associates start getting things in order around here?"

"Of course! Where would you like to start?" said Grant. "I assume you mean the R&D sector, although the rest of the ship is just as easily accessible."

"I'd like to start with the RnD sector, the living quarters, and everywhere in between." Harm said.

"And I can give you the grand tour!" Kip sprang into existence with a *pop*. "I'm Kip, resident AI, pleased to meet you." He reached out his had to greet harm, while still standing two feet in the air.

"Well that answers a few questions about the nature of your ship," Harm thought out loud as she extended her hand to shake with what she assumed to be a hologram in front of her, "I have a few questions I’d like to ask you later if that is alright,"

Her hand slipped through his suddenly, less than solid form. Kip found this hilarious. "Of course, ask away. I can tell you anything I want."

Grant jumped backward, startled. "Wagh! you have to stop that Kip! Gonna do my heart in!" he yelped, blushing at his reaction. "Um... yeah. Harm, this is Kip, Kip, this is Harm, the leader of the Leistung group" he said quickly, trying to catch up. "Um... Harm... do you want a tour from Kip? It would help, because I still have some admin work to do..." he paused, aware that he nobody had been listening to him. "Err... yeah."

"Don't worry Grantie. I'm always listening." Kip tugged on Grant's ear lobe, still floating in the air. He laughed and flipped backwards. "I look forward to seeing these wonderful experiments, I love science, and since Ephesus has gone things have become dull." Kip put on a exaggerated mournful expression.

~not solid?~ she thought to herself as her hand returned to her side, "That is fine, I’m sure we’ll bump into each other later on" She briefly tuned her head to flash him a courtesy smile before looking back at Kip. "Quite the energetic one… and looking at experiments is just what I wanted to talk about. What is the extent of your presence on this ship, or should I say your ship?"

"Total. I see pretty much everything. And I mean everything," He gave a knowing wink, "But if you wish for privacy, I'm sure some form of arrangement could be made." He bent over and picked up a scalpel, rotating it between his fingers at great speed.

Harm couldn’t resist a playful grin back and a witty retort, "Well if you’ve already seen all of me shouldn’t we get along to seeing all of you?" Her grin returned to a more serious expression soon afterwards, "In any case privacy is the main reason we are out here and its one of the things I would like to discuss with you."

"Right. To both" Kip crossed his legs and floated serenely in mid air. Naked. "Discuss away."

Harm shook her head, "I’d like to know that your sensors in the lab we have rented are disabled along with the sensors in the group’s living quarters. I’d like them to know I’m the only one spying on them." She took a moment to look over the hologram’s nude form, "You body artists were quire detailed weren’t they?"

Kip glanced down. "Yes, I suppose they were. Anyway, you want to rip out my eyes?" He waved his hand over his eyes, revealing empty sockets.

"Not rip them out," She said, point to her own eyes to emphasize her point, "Merely cover our more sensitive places," Again, she covered her more sensitive places with her own arms to compliment her words.

"I'm sure I could limit my sensors in quarters. I'm afraid I can't stop some of them, security, but visual and audio feed I can do. For these labs," He looked around "I'll limit them. Just a few vague scans to make sure your not trying to kill or maim me. And yes, I consider the ship part of myself." Kip sighed. "'m feeling a bit overweight actually. Being over a kilometer long makes you feel like that."

"what type of scans are we talking about? I also assume you won’t mind us taking precautions in the lab for our own piece of mind?" She returned her hands to her sides and her eyes to his unique form, "Its long, but not that long," She said, referring to the length of his ‘ship’.

"Depends on the precautions, within reason I don't mind. You value your privacy, I value no-one's, but I think we can get along. And I know I'm not big compared to that Destiny thing. You should her Avatar."

"Well you are already much more than a handful," Harm said before turning to look back at the lab, checking to see if everyone was getting in alright, "May I see the living quarters now?"

"Sure." Kip vanished and then appeared in the hall, clothed now as a museum curator, compensating for his small size. "On your left you will see a metal wall, on your right more of the same. Oh wait, there's a door."

"Artificial personalities are just wonderful, just who programmed you? I’ll be sure to be careful around any more of his creations." Harm said as she stepped up to follow him.

"You know, I never searched my memory banks for him. Ephesus helped design a slight update though. nd here we see an exquisite piece of ceiling. He began to walk down the corridor, his head turned 180o around his neck, to face Harm.

"Perhaps we could move ahead to something that I haven’t already seen?" Harm asked the AI’s face and the AI’s back.

"Of course. See you on the floor with your rooms on them then. It's corridors until then, and since you've seen them, you don't need me to guide you." Kip vanished.

"The word WE means more than one person, and those people would be me and you." Harm said, ~Or maybe people is the wrong word to use~ She thought to herself as she tapped her foot, waiting for some retort from the AI.

"Your obviously royalty and using it to mean I." Kip's disembodied voice rang out. "The lift's down the first corridor. Hit the illuminated button. It'll take you to where you need to go." This was followed by some disembodied humming.

Harm followed the lit path to the lift and pressed the appropriate button. "So what have you run into out here in this cloud?"

"Dust mainly. I destroy rocks before they reach me, and I steer clear of the micro-blackholes. Their was one high-light with some pirates which I destroyed. At least I think they were pirates, certainly weren't speaking any language I could understand. Oh, and their was the run in with the Thaxarians. Not much else really." The humming now consisted of eight complimentary melodies.

"Thaxarians? I’m afraid I haven’t heard of that one before. Would you mind me accessing your databanks and getting some background information on them?" Within a few moments the lift had reached its destination and Harm walked out, waiting for her guide to show her the next step.

"They're a warrior race with inappropriately advanced technology. I'll give you access to some of the information we have, but I'm afraid we're researching they're technology currently, and we need are secrets too. Just follow the humming." The now ten part ostinatobegan to fade down to hall.

Harm got a laugh out of that one, following the sounds, "Hardly one for being subtle now are we?" She asked as she looked around, "About how many people are on this ship? The place seems so empty."

"Not too many. NovaCorp doesn't have a huge number of personnel, so I'm mostly empty. And of course large parts of me have gone to be part of the Destiny. Here." A large florescent arrow appeared in front of a door, connected to a neon light saying "Yep, here."

Harm held out her hand just in front of her body as she walked toward the door in hopes it would open automatically. "Is this room going to be for the entire group? Or just me with other rooms elsewhere in this hallway?" She asked before she walked inside. "And what is the Destiny you keep talking about?"

"It depends how cozy you are. If you want to all be in this room, I'm fine with that, although this corridor is yours." The signs vanished, and where replaced by kip, now wearing a Kimono.

"That is good, Sharing a room is not high on my priority list." Harm walked through the door and looked inside, "What are these rooms equipped with anyways?"

"They have the latest in comfortable mattresses, and showers. They have personalized Gravity generation systems, lighting, hot and cold running water, and a magnificent view."

Harm took a walk around the room, turning on the shower to get a feel for just how hot and cold the water could get, "Its good to be back to civilization again. War showers are a few and far between when traveling on transports, I’m going to have to get some use out of this later." Harm played with the shower settings for a time before going to the bed and laying down in it, "Heh, I guess I shouldn’t be wasting my time here when there is so much more you could be showing me?"

"I don't mind. I have the patience of a saint." A halo of gold appeared above his head "And as the old saying goes, if your happy, I'm happy, and probably plotting something."

"I wonder, just what could you be plotting that involves me on a bed?" Harm got another laugh out of that before looking around, "Just what is the view of? Or do you have real windows?" She asked, looking around for the 'view' it spoke of.

"Yes, right over there". he pointed at a largish window, showing the interior of the cloud "Your lucky actually, most of the cabin's have much smaller windows. And I'm not plotting anything."

Harm got off her bed and took a look outside, "Nothing but nebula," She said to herself, not really expecting a response. "I’ll get a better look at the rooms a bit later. Mind showing me around elsewhere now?" and after a moment of thought she added, "And is there anything I need to know about the crew?"

"I lead you around then. Where would you like to see? The crew are in the mess halls currently, or eating at their homes, you don't need to concern yourself with them currently. Just don't offend anyone unless your willing to fight, dueling is an important part of NovaCorp regulations."

"And we wouldn't want someone as pretty as you to get hurt." Kip smiled widely.

"I'd like to start with the mess halls actually," She said, "And how important is dueling? and is there anything I need to know about it in particular?"

"Your an outsider so you might get immunity. Basically someone goes to their commanding officer and reports and offence, if it is regarded as worthy it goes to be a duel, with the accused deciding on the weapon, he accuser the location. It's usually to first blood, or too submission. The loser’s loss is documented, and they can receive a dock on their salary while the winner's success is noted and pay raised, usually by the same amount. The Mess Hall? Well ig you insist." Kip didn't seem too interested, as he converted into a blond-haired, leather clothed handsome man. "Felt like a change." He explained, flashing a smile to Harm.

"Hmm… well inform whoever needs to be informed that I will take the place of other members of the group if they are accidentally drawn into a duel." Harm looked over his entire new image before asking another question, "something wrong with the mess hall? You sound like it is the most boring place on this ship."

"It's a place to eat, and where a lot of people eat. Not exactly fascinating stuff. But if you want too see it, who am I to tell you any differently? I'll take you too the nearest one." Kip's new form stood to one side of the door, gesturing that Harm should take the lead with a polite bow.

Harm walked past, "Just how many of these mess halls are there on the ship? And do you have any particular taste for the food they serve there?" Harm kept an eye out for some sort of directions on where exactly to head now that she had left the room.

Kip laughed. "I don't eat. Not much in the taste department, although I can cook. There are plenty of mess halls dotted around the place. The officers and some of the crew have their own kitchen's so they don't join. This way." Kip led the way down the corridor, his feet in contact with the floor for once, and apparently solid. He began to whistle a soothing, almost hypnotic tune.

"Not a taste for food, but one for music perhaps. I’m afraid I don’t recognize the tune." In a few moments she had fallen in step beside and slightly behind it.

"I compose." Kip shrugged. "You need something to pass the time. Left here."

She made the turn and asked, "What type of music do you prefer?"

"No real preference. Classical style has the most complexity, while the modern variety is more in your face. A bit from the Romantic period's always good though." He winked.

"Everyone enjoys a bit of romance now and then, but getting in your face can be so much more entertaining." She replied with a grin

He laughed. After a few more steps he stopped at a door, which opened to reveal a large chamber filled with NovaCorp employees bustling around, getting their meals and sitting down to eat them. "You first, I insist."

"I'm starting to think you just enjoy looking at my back," she said as she walked into the mess hall, wiggling her rear teasingly as some females do.

"Maybe a little." He laughed again. "I've altered my current personality a little, you might have noticed, a slightly more .... mature personality."

"I never would have guessed," Harm said as she took a look around the room, taking in the people, places, and things inside.

"Had enough? There isn't exactly much to see unless you getting pangs of hunger."

"Sure, I guess I'll let you pick the next thing I'm going to see," she said.


(two JPs edited together, all characters played by their respective players.)


 Clouded Vision

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 24 May 2005 01:29 pm    Post subject: Clouded Vision

With the tour of the ship finished Harm returned to the labs that had been rented for her and began her task of keeping their secrets secret. "Ok everyone, I get to do my job before you all get to do yours. Head to your rooms and wait there until I finish up." Reluctantly the entirety of the group left within a few minutes so that Harm could work all by herself. She walked through the multitude of crates in the room, her fingers trailing over each descriptive marker placed on the side until she came to a certain label. Her hands turned the dials on either side of the crate and flipped the hatch open, removing a few bulky pieces of machinery. As she shifted around to distribute all of the weight on her left arm, her right began to feel around on the wall with her eyes closed, using the sophisticated scanner to locate any internal sensors that might be present

"What are you doing Harm? It tickles." Kip appeared in his normal form.

"You'll have to forgive me, I don't trust you enough to believe you'll disable your internal sensors on your own initiative." She said as she continued her scans.

"You don't trust me?" Kip had a shocked, hurt expression on his face. Single tear formed in the corner of his eye and swelled to ridiculous proportions.

Harm came across a small audio recorder by following the electricity paths through the wall. She withdrew a small disk shaped tool from the device and placed it against the wall to disable the device by obstructing its power flow, "It is not personal Kip, strictly professional." Harm said as she continued her scans.

Kip grimaced, as if in pain "That ... hurt."

"Oh come on, it won't hurt you that badly... besides if your good for me during this I just might be nicer to you," Harm said as she continued around the walls, placing more and more of the disk like objects to obstruct the power flow to various internal sensors.

Kip's body began to distort, becoming less clear "I can't hear you, can't maintain..." He disappeared.

Harm kept up her work, “Kip, Can you hear me?” she asked out loud repeated times as she continued around the room, twice, and then three times before finally placing the equipment in the center of the room. ~Clamps on~ she thought to the device, activating an energy clamp to hold the device to the floor, even during the worst of jolts from the ship. Harm then turned on the devices dampening fields. While not very effective against smaller, closer devices, it would distort even the best of the ship’s sensors trying to peer into the room. Harm left the labs and headed out into the hallways “I guess I should apologize to Kip,”

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 24 May 2005 02:06 pm    Post subject:

A voice came out of the ventilation system. "That was very rude. And painful. Do you have any idea what your form collapsing feels like?"

Kip did not sound pleased

"I can imagine," Harm said as she walked down the hallway with no particular destination in mind, "Is there some way I could make it up to you?"

"Surprise me." Kip appeared in a puff of smoke, dressed in a dark cowl, and with a baseball cap. He was carrying a quarterstaff for some reason.

"Maybe I'll give you extra sensors in my shower?" She said with a wink, "Like I said that was nothing personal."

"I'm sure. Although it still hurts like a tooth ache. You didn't exactly use subtle methods. The shower idea sounds most intriguing." Kip brought a video recorder into existence with a wave of his hand and a laugh.

"Well now, looks like your quick to find ways to pass your time," Harm said as she tried to pick up the video recorder.

"'tis true. Don't get bored that easy. Playing games of chess and formulating games of chance and working out how to cheat at them takes up a fair amount of my time. That and keeping up with current events, all of them." The camera was solid, but not functioning.

"Ah, remind me to not bet against you then," Harm said, making a turn down a random hallway.

"Don't bet against me." Kip laughed "At least not on this ship, where I control all." He wiggled his fingers spookily "Except that lab of course. Or at least I can't see in it, so anything I did would likely blow the place up."

"Well, please don't blow anything up. I'm sure you'll be just as disappointed with an explosion in there as me," Harm said, coming to a conclusion to head to her room and making a turn in the right direction.

Kip appeared to have to think about that, worryingly "I suppose. Although explosions are always fun. That lab is sophisticated though, so I probably won't. You might want to note that I still control the air recycling systems, and thus the atmosphere of the room though." Kip created a oversized d20 dice that began to spin at great speed in his hand.

"The worst you could do is send in nanomachines to spy on us. I'm not to particularly worried about that," Harm said as she stepped into the lift.

"Worst? Oh now your challenging me. I could easily use goo, or replace the oxygen with sulpher dioxide, or worst of all make it 20% helium." Kip rolled the dice in mid air coming up with 23.

"So are you anything like your programmer?" Harm asked.

"No. Did some research. He's a Neek. I'm not. I'm a bit more like Ephesus really. Trying to work out why." Kip broke the dice into 23 one sided dice.

"Well I would say dropped on your heads as children but for you that really isn't a possibility," Harm said as the lift closed its doors and moved down to the crew quarters

"Could have happened to Ephesus. No-one knows what happened in his childhood though. It's part of his charm." Kip conjured up a picture of Ephesus

Harm committed the picture to memory, "ah, attracted to the dark and mysterious type are we?"

"Somewhat. And the light and innocent. I'm not choosy of the type, just the person. Ephesus is a fine guy though. Brilliant you know." Kip had a faraway look in his eyes "Things have become less interesting now he's gone."

"So where did he go then?" Harm asked, "I might just have to look him up sometime."

"He's moved to the Destiny, along with most of the other interesting people." Kip sighed "I'm getting lonely with the lack of notable characters. That's partially why I'm paying so much interest in your group ... and you of course." Kip took a sad smile.

"Scientists should really stay in their labs," Harm commented rather matter-of-factly, ".... I guess I should be flattered by you taking so great in interest in us even though that makes my job a bit harder and more interesting."

"Job's should be interesting. Mine is, so many little people scurrying around, each one so tiny, so insignificant, so defenseless ..." Kip's voice faded away "In any case, if you could find me a hard job I'd be grateful, and pleased to help you."

"You really should never say how hard you are," Harm said, "Surprise is half the fun of things."

"Moi? I'm as hard as nails!" He transformed himself into a figure made out of what appeared to be fluidic steel.

Harm got a laugh out of that one. "So what are you made of anyways? Not your body... your mind?"

"Thoughts, emotions, fundamental buildings blocks and concepts, hyper-dense nano-etched circuitry, the works. What's YOUR mind made of?"

"Stuff... Can't say what it is really made of if I don't know." Harm said.

"And yet you expect me to know mine? Interesting." Kip turned into a giant floating brain with a mouth "This might be similar to yours though."

"Just curious, I've never met a completely artificial computer that behaves like you," She said

"I'm unique. Now try this for size" Kip turned himself into a perfect copy of Harm, down to her voice. Giving a whirl he/she said "What do you think?"

"It has been a long time sense I've been impressed by an assembler trick." Harm said, "Besides, you make my butt look big."

"No it's accurate." Kip looked at his/her butt "You just happen to have a nice arse."

That got a laugh out of Harm, "So just how accurate?" She asked, unable to resist feeling the stomach and chest of her alternate self.

"Perfect." He/she purred "My scans are total here, and allow to recreate you with complete accuracy."

"Never make a detailed scan of me," She said in all seriousness, withdrawing her hands.

"Fine." Kip reverted to his ordinary form. "Your objection to scanning has been noted, registered, and detailed scans will not be made." His tone was almost machine like, his body lacking emotion.

Harm retained a serious posture for a few more moments before a smile returned to her face, "Sorry, its just that my insides are a bit sensitive."

"Alright. I deleted all memory of such scans." Kip relaxed, a soft smile dancing over his mouth and eyes. "I understand that sensitivity can cause pain."

"Well being sensitive isn't always bad," She said

"I'm sure." He smirked slightly.

"Speaking of sensitivity, just how sensitive are you? This may be a bit personal but how many functions of life can you imitate?" Harm asked as she neared her room.

: "With these projections I can 'imitate' pretty much anything. Sweat, heart-beat, breathing. Everything your genuine organic can do, and more."

"interesting, So do others get the same kind of treatment as me? or am I the only one who will listen to you for this long?"

"I can produce multiple versions of myself, all over the ship, but your the most interesting person in your group, so your getting the special treatment." Kip smiled gently

Harm nodded, "If you say so. The rest of us should be arriving shortly."

"I'll keep a few thousand eye's out then." Kip developed a third eye in his forehead.

"Well it has been fun, but I need to get some sleep." Harm said, "We've got a long day tomorrow."

"Right. Good night then Harm. Sweet dreams." Kip smiled happily and disappeared in a column of light.



Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 30 May 2005 01:39 pm    Post subject: Flowers for Harm  	

Kip straightened his tie. He was in his usual form, buying into the idea that appearances meant little, but was dressed in a dinner suit, with a bowler hat slightly lopsided on his head. In his hand he carried a large bouquet of roses, real ones which he had picked himself from one of the Horizon's parks. He felt nervous, which was a wonderful experience. It was a rare thing for him to feel nervous, and he valued it intensely.

He took a deep synthetic breath, and felt his synthetic breath speed up. He knocked on the metallic door of Harm's quarters, calculating the perfect strength to get the noise across without being annoying. He could have used the com system, but he felt it lacked the human touch. His heart skipped a beat.

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 30 May 2005 02:01 pm    Post subject:

Harm grabbed a hold of one of the pillows strewn about on her bed as a light rapping came a tapping on her chamber door. A blissful look on her face showed just how much she was enjoying her nap as she considered bringing the pillow back to her head and sleeping a bit longer but alas this might be related to her job and that, for the moment, was more important that her personal comfort. “One moment, I’ll be right there.’ She said as she slid out of her covers and off the bed.

“Oh, hello kip… flowers?” She asked, slightly confused by his manor of dress and suddenly feeling a bit more exposed than she should as she was only clothed in a overly large sleeping shirt, that clung to her front, and a pair of black panties.

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 30 May 2005 02:10 pm    Post subject:

"Yes flowers, Roses actualy. Good afternoon Harm, you look wonderfull this evening. Have I disturbed you?" He felt a sinking feeling, from the look of the room and Harm he had disturbed her rest. Damn. Harm did look wonderfull though, her jet black hair cascading down her face, long at the back, and with two bangs enclosing her face like a heart. He let out a mental sigh.

"If you would rather I left ..." He hoped she wouldn't turn him away.

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 30 May 2005 02:13 pm    Post subject:

Harm smiled, suppressing a small laugh at Kip’s expense. “It seems silly to come here and ,once you have me, to leave. What did you want to talk about?” With that she stepped back from the doorway to allow him entry into her quarters.

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 30 May 2005 02:19 pm

Kip mentally let out a deep sigh of relief. A gentle smile spread across his lips.

"Well it apears, looking back on our conversations, that I have spoken a lot about myself, and you have not spoken much about yourself. I have come to the conclusion your a reasonably private person, but I would like to know more of you, if you are willing."

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 30 May 2005 02:24 pm

Harm retreated into her room a ways, walking around the few duffle bags on the floor that held her stuff. “So…” She asked as she sat down on the edge of her bed, sweeping a few pillows aside to make room for her as she leaned back slightly, “are we talking business or am I being asked out.”

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 30 May 2005 02:30 pm 

"Not buisness certainly, a date I'm sure could be aranged." His eyes glazed over for an instant as he arranged a seat for two at a rather nice restraunt, which served wonderfull pasta. "How about a meal with the best plate of pasta in three light-years? My treat of course. There we can discuss everything and anything." His eyes sparkled.

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 30 May 2005 02:36 pm

“So when is this date going to be?” Harm asked, crossing her legs, “and your not promising much in the way of pasta… there isn’t anything for three light years in any direction.” Her lips curled into a soft smile as she waited for a response.

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 30 May 2005 02:39 pm

"When? I can arrange it any time," Kip made a show of looking at a watch he drew from his breast pocke "although I am free now. Do you have anything planned?" Kip was feeling a little daft standing holding the huge bouquet of flowers. He took a step inside, closing the door behind him.

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 30 May 2005 02:44 pm 

“I have about an hour left until the group’s dinner break officially ends and they start trickling back into the lab.” Harm said as she stood up and headed toward the restroom attached to her room, striping off her shirt as she entered, “So if we go now, we should have more than enough time to eat.” It only took her moments to get inside of her black body suit and detach the 02 mask hooked into its back.

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 30 May 2005 03:03 pm

"Nice suit." Kip held any comments aside, although the suit did raise some intresting questions "Come along then."

He led the way down the hall at a brisk pace and stopped at one of the transportation modules.

"Ladies first." He grinned, and gestured to the door, which he oponed.

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 30 May 2005 03:07 pm

“I hope you don’t expect to talk about everything, but anything is definitely something you can ask about,” Harm said as she followed and stepped through the door. “So can you taste pasta and get the same enjoyment out of it as an organic?”

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 30 May 2005 03:37 pm

"In this form yes. I have spent special attention on this form, and it is perfect, down to the neurons on my tongue. Thus I can taste just as you can, if not better. I look forward to it actually, I haven't eaten before." Kip silently directed the transport at the destination closest the restraunt, re-directing several other transports for a faster journey. By the end of his sentance they had reached the destination, and the doors slid silently open.

"You first, I insist." Kip made a half bowing, gesturing motion. This was going as well as his most reasonable predictions had foretold, his more ecentric ones, while fun to simulate in his mind, where unlikely to happen. He realized he wasn't exactly a lovable thing, he wasn't even a organism. He brought himself back from that thought, he felt depresion was a comfort he couldn't indulge in.

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 30 May 2005 04:11 pm

“Well then it is good to know I won’t be the only one trying to enjoy the food.” As she walked out of the door her hips wiggled back and forth like a fem-fatal out of an old spy movie. “Well if the food is as good as you say then I’ll have to tell the rest of the group about them.”

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 30 May 2005 04:19 pm 

Kip shrugged "It's quite exspensive, I wouldn't know if your sponsors are willing for you spend good money on food. It is worth it though. It's a place that Emrys Industries set up. I happen to know Seru so I allowed it. And here it is." He gestured at a very nice looking restraunt, with table adorned with white linen, candles, and one table on the balcony a story above them, with a single red rose resting in a vase.

"And that's our table." Kip grinned and manipulated the AG so that he and Harm floated up the balcony.

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 30 May 2005 04:27 pm 

Harm extended her feet to get a feel for the ground as she touched down, “Well, indulging oneself is a necessity sometimes,” She said as she walked over to a chair, but pausing instead of sitting down, “So who is this Seru?” She asked as her right hand held her left arm just above the wrist.

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 30 May 2005 04:34 pm

Kip sat down. "Seru Emrys is the head of Emrys industries. He's a nice guy really, viciously intelligant. He's the head of the Emrys clan that recently established Emrys Industries, which is now growing at an amazing rate. His son was actualy here for a while." He looked over at the waiter "Garcon." He called.

The waiter came over "Will madame and monsier order."

"Thank you, I'll have the Spaggeti Bolonese. Would you like more time Harm?"

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 30 May 2005 04:36 pm

“I’ll have the same, with an iced tea.” Harm responded, “for the time being I’ll trust your judgment. Emrys industries, it is a company that specializes in foods and whatnot then?”

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 30 May 2005 04:44 pm

"Not really. They sell a power suit for police, a powered truncheon, several grenades, they run a form of armoured taxi surface on Nepleslia, and they have now gone into the food industry, and quite succesfly too. I hear they might be going into education next."

The waiter came with a bottle of wine "I had this put on ice. It's a rather nice vintage actualy." He offered the bottle to Harm.

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 30 May 2005 04:48 pm 

“Ah, another one of those omni corporations that do a bit of everything. Education should be a rather interesting field to go into. I don’t imagine much of a demand for that here.” She picked up the napkin on the table and folded it into her lap. “I haven’t heard of that specific type before… but then again this place’s wine list is something I’ve never studied to closely. If the taste is reflective of the age then we should be in for a treat.”

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 30 May 2005 04:52 pm

"They make the food by hand here, so we have some time to talk." Kip leant forward, his elbows on the table "So tell me about yourself, or at least as much as your willing to tell." His face was strangely illuminated by the flickering candle.

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 30 May 2005 05:00 pm

“Well then we will probably have to find another topic to talk about otherwise there will be in the middle of an awkward silence by the time our food arrives.” Harm said with a slight chuckle as she folded her hands in her lap, “I’m afraid you know more than I was originally willing to let you. For the moment at least I’m in charge of a small research group that has come to this place to conduct some more of the sensitive RnD that can’t be done elsewhere for a variety of reasons. My existence before that is something I’d rather leave off the record.”

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 30 May 2005 05:05 pm  

Kip laughed. "And I am of course a record. Well then my mysterious beauty, leaving the anethema of your past, some questions abour yourself. So what do you like? Dislike? Favourite color?" His eyes dazzled with some hidden humour.

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 30 May 2005 05:09 pm

“A good game, loosing, and that last one is a toss up between black, white, and dark green… So that is 3 out of 20, any more you have for right now?” She asked.

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 30 May 2005 05:23 pm

Kip's mind worked through all the possible questions he could ask, smiling more.

"Alright then. What's your favourite animal? Do you prefer cat's or dogs? What's your favourite food? Drink? Drug? Do you have any tatoos? Piercings? What is your favourite feature of your body? What is your least favourite feature of your body? What do look for in men? What do you look for in women? What do you look for in a freind? Do you prefer organoids or artificial life? Brain or brawn? Does size matter? What type of music do you like? Do you believe in love at first sight? Does love exist or is there only lust? I went one over." Kip shrugged.

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 30 May 2005 05:32 pm

“I don’t really like animals but if I had to choose I guess I’d go with pussy cats. My favorite food is definitely ice cream if that counts. Drugs don’t work on me, or at least none of the ones I have come across. I do enjoy body art but I don’t have any on me, at least not yet. The same goes with piercing, I don’t even have my ears pierced yet!” She chuckled a bit and then continued. “My favorite feature of my body is definitely my legs, they are so smooth and firm, plus get me from point A to point B. Least favorite is… well there are specific internal organs I dislike. No particular one. In men, I like them to be there for me. Someone you can lean against so to say. In women, they just have to be fun to be around. A friend… I don’t know I don’t really have any. Artificial life, Neither, I prefer finesse. Size DEFFININTLY matters. I haven’t listened to music in a long while but if I had to pick it would be alternative rock or something along those lines. I can accept love at first sight. Love is a fairy tail,” She then chuckled, “I didn’t answer my least favorite part so I’ll count that as 21 and leave it un answered.”

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 30 May 2005 05:36 pm

"So now I finally get to know you. One last question then, are you enjoying your wine?" Kip leaned back, he really enjoyed being with Harm, she had a a form of charm he was susceptible to, and was fun to be around, at least for him. "The food should be arriving soon. Do you have any questions for little old me?"

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 30 May 2005 05:39 pm

She swirled the wine, and checked it for settling particles, then took a sip. “Yes,”

She put the glass down on the table along with her elbows as she leaned forward, “Have you ever killed someone?”

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 30 May 2005 05:42 pm

"Yes." His eyes went flat "A pirate ship. I controlled the particle cannon that destroyed it, and all of the 30 people on board. Unfortunatly I had an open radio link with them and heard them die, slowly actualy. Wasn't the best day of my life." He looked up, "But it is something I should accept, I have killed, I will kill again if anyone attacks me. It's a fact of life."

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 30 May 2005 05:43 pm

“So you’ve never killed someone you’ve known then. What is your favorite thing to do?” Harm asked

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 30 May 2005 05:47 pm

"No, no-one I've known. Although I have researched everything I could about the identities of those pirates." His face lit up "My favourite thing to do? Well there are now too: simulating things, seeing how things would turn out if things where a little different, which is wonderful if you have capacity, which I do. My second is hanging around with you." Kip laughed.

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 30 May 2005 05:49 pm

“Careful, flattery will get you everywhere,” Harm said, leaning back in her chair, “Sounds like you don’t get out much. What is your position inside of Novacorp? And what position do you prefer?”

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 30 May 2005 05:53 pm

"I can't really get out much, in all ways that matter I am the ship." Kip laughed "As for position, I don't know really, it never came up. The highest rank in NovaCorp is director, so I suppose I'm around there. They ask me for advice, and I decide what happens while there on me. My position depends on how much respect I give to the directors, for example in my eyes Ephesus was a higher rank than are Research director, and at my level. Our director isn't."

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 30 May 2005 05:55 pm

“So your not one with much respect for the chain of command, that is understandable. What do you think about the Yamatai government?” She asked.

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 30 May 2005 05:59 pm 

"Reasonable. Justice is relative of course, relative to who you are, what you do, and who you know, but all in all it's a good enough system. There's certain ineqaulities between planets, but then you'd have to expect this. According to my simulations, most other systems would lead to a much worse mess, and the ones that don't are highly unlikley to come arond." Kip looked thoughtful, "I do not make black and white judgments, that's too easy, I analyse and come up with theories and hyphothesis. I'm looking foward to making my first decision on an abstract matter someday."

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 30 May 2005 06:02 pm

“Not much on political science are we?” Harm asked, “ Ok then, what is your preference in men, women, and friends?”

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 30 May 2005 06:09 pm

"I have no direct preferance over men and women as freinds. My orientation is a case of choice, and if I decide I no longer want to find something irratable, I make it so. I do not have many freinds. I had a good relationship with Tanjo and Ephesus, but they're gone. I have some other's but not many. No women actualy, coincedence I assure you. My tastes in people is likewise variable, I can see the advantages and disadvantages of each personality, and embrace each fully. What I really like is a mysterious persona." He laughed "And combined with your intelligance, personality and beauty, that's what intrests me in you."

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 30 May 2005 06:13 pm

“Well then I’m going to have to keep you in the dark for as long as possible, after all a mystery is no fun when you know the end. Hmm… so what has Ephesus designed that has made him so popular with you and novacorp?” Harm asked.

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 30 May 2005 06:17 pm

"Ephesus? Well he's the motivational force behind everything. He developed Xasers, Arachni Drones, Carbon-ring, Perfect-Iron, Perfect-diamond, several toxins that aren't on general relesase, the assistant androids, the veil, and of course the Destiny. And then there's the stuff that he designs but doesn't give to us. I think he keeps the best stuff for himself."

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 30 May 2005 06:18 pm

"The viel?" She asked curiously.

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 30 May 2005 06:21 pm

"It's a personal shield generator. Ephesus is very unhappy with it, and so hasn't improved it for a long time which is why it's stuck in a rather lmited form. It's capable of taking 5 megawatts every 5 seconds, and has enough power for 2.5 hours of constant use. It apears to have some side effects though, rashes, that sort of thing."

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 30 May 2005 06:24 pm

“Ah, the name made it sound like something else,” Harm said, “For my final question for right now, How much longer till the food gets here,” With that she broke out into laughter.

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 30 May 2005 06:26 pm

"It's is here madam." A waiter came out from behind a pillar carrying two trays, one with there pasta, the other with Harm's drink. The waiter laid out the meals and left again.

"Dig in." Kip instantly began to eat his food with furvour. "Oh God, this is amazing. How can you live with such wonderfull food?"

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 30 May 2005 06:33 pm

“I believe the saying is how can you live without it?” Harm corrected as she took a sip from her tea to clear her taste buds before ‘digging in’, occasionally taking sips of wine and tea as needed. “Ya, eating is great, but at least you don’t have to keep eating constantly to maintain your existence.”

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 30 May 2005 06:34 pm

"This is true. That's why I am happy being a simple AI." Kip managed a seated bow, no mean feat. "How's your meal?"

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Jun

Posted: 30 May 2005 06:37 pm

“Much better than the stuff I had on the way here. THAT was no fun… but then again I guess I am a little spoiled.” Harm said. “So… can you leave this place? The ship I mean, not this cloud.”

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 30 May 2005 06:39 pm 

"Not easily. My mind is here, imbeded in this ship. It's not actualy that large thanks to the whole hyper-dense thing, but it would still be a bugger to move around. I could lessen my capacity to only that of 50 times that of a human and put it in an avatar easily though. Then I could move around."

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 30 May 2005 06:40 pm

“So you are slightly independent then. How do you feel about life? Do you envy it?” She asked in-between bites.

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 30 May 2005 06:42 pm

Kip sat back and thought. "Yes and no. I envy mortality, the rush it must give to every day life. I envy your lack of power. As for life, I can mimic most of it here. This body for example, is for all intents and purposes and living, breathing, fully correct human male."

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 30 May 2005 06:43 pm

"even repoduction and growth?" she asked.

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 30 May 2005 06:46 pm

"It depends what you mean. I can mimic growth, and grow through a way that would resemble organic, moving the right parts of synthetic materials around. As for reproduction, I could easily create replica's of myself, biologicly, with this body, I could have sex, but the fusion between my synthetic self and the other persons real eggs would not work. I am sterile." Kip laughed again, bitterly. "I'm considering making an organic avatar, just to feel what it's like."

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 30 May 2005 06:48 pm

So your not truely alive then," Harm said, "I can relate..." Her gaze went down to her plate as she halfheartedly stabed her fork into her food.

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 30 May 2005 06:49 pm

"Another thing we have in common then." Kip said half heartadly "And no I'm not alive, I don't even have a soul. I'm a demon according to some faiths."

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 30 May 2005 06:53 pm

Feeling like your just some piece of software that mimics the actions of something that’s alive… That raises questions of fate and destiny, can those exist if you lack a soul? Do you really have free will or simply programmed to ife, I can mimic most of it here. This body for example, is for all intents and purposes and living, breathing, fully correct human male."

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 30 May 2005 06:43 pm

"even repoduction and growth?" she asked.

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 30 May 2005 06:46 pm

"It depends what you mean. I can mimic growth, and grow through a way that would resemble organic, moving the right parts of synthetic materials around. As for reproduction, I could easily create replica's of myself, biologicly, with this body, I could have sex, but the fusion between my synthetic self and the other persons real eggs would not work. I am sterile." Kip laughed again, bitterly. "I'm considering making an organic avatar, just to feel what it's like."

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 30 May 2005 06:48 pm

So your not truely alive then," Harm said, "I can relate..." Her gaze went down to her plate as she halfheartedly stabed her fork into her food.

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 30 May 2005 06:49 pm

"Another thing we have in common then." Kip said half heartadly "And no I'm not alive, I don't even have a soul. I'm a demon according to some faiths."

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 30 May 2005 06:53 pm

Feeling like your just some piece of software that mimics the actions of something that’s alive… That raises questions of fate and destiny, can those exist if you lack a soul? Do you really have free will or simply programmed to imitate it?” She paused for a moment, “Perhaps we shouldn’t go there, talking about souls opens a Pandora’s box of what ifs…”

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 30 May 2005 07:05 pm

"Your right, going there is definitely not a good idea, or at least not here. However it is interesting to be with someone that can understand some of what I feel." He sighed "You know, I keep surveillance on everyone in this ship constantly, thousands of people, and yet I feel lonely. Why do you think I behave the way I do usually? Certainly eccentricity comes into it, plain and simple, but equally, it is an attempt to escape the feeling that I'm all alone. You see I'm not like other AI's, I act, even think differently, talking to androids is fun, but they aren't on my level on intellectual speed and capacity." For a moment his eyes where desolate of life, before regaining there sparkle, "But I'm sure we can at least give each other the illusion of life. Oh waiter!" Kip had finished his meal, and quickly paid the waiter using a card he materialised out of no-where. "That was not cheap."

He sat down and patiently waited for Harm to finish her meal, his eyes never straying from her face, and a gentle smile dancing upon his lips. Being around her made him feel alive.

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 30 May 2005 07:27 pm

“Your watching them, but they aren’t watching you. You talk with them, but they are not your friends, just subordinates. There is a saying, ‘it is lonely at the top’. Sounds like what you need is another ship to talk to.” She sat her form on top of the plate along with her napkin, “Thank you for the good food and company… but it is almost time for me to head back to the lab.”

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 31 May 2005 03:36 am

"Well if duty calls..." Kip waved his hand aimlessly "Then who am I to stand in the way. I have really enjoyed tonight Harm, I hope we can do it again someday. Mint?" He offered out a small plate of round mints that came with then bill, which he had hidden instantly. He had already eaten three.

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 31 May 2005 10:43 am

“Work can be a cruel mistress sometimes.” Harm said as she tossed one of the mints into her mouth and got ready to leave, “Next time I’ll have to wear something other than this, I feel so underdressed here.”

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 31 May 2005 10:54 am

Kip smiled "Buy into my philosophy: it doesn't matter what people think of you, unless you think something of them. And I'm sure a lot of people here would like to see you more underdressed." He laughed cheerfully.

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 31 May 2005 10:57 am

“Well unfortunately not all of them will be so lucky. And besides, I enjoy looking nice sometimes,” She said as she stood to leave.

Wes, OOC wrote:
So, she doesn't look nice when she's minimally dressed? :P

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 31 May 2005 01:35 pm

"Well at least let me escort you to the lab's. I know all the short cuts, and can speed your journey up considerable. And of course you'll be receiving the advantages of my warm and charming pursonality." Kip made a half bow, popped three mints into his mouth and waited for Harm's reply, plotting the fastest way too get to the lab.

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 31 May 2005 02:40 pm

She walked over to him and put one of her arms around his, “lead on,” She said, “After all, you know the way.”

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 31 May 2005 03:13 pm

Kip laughed "Like the back of my hand." Strangely not converting his hand into a map, he simply created a three dimensional map in his palm, before clenching his fist. "This way." He began to walk briskly the way they came towards the transport module, through mid air of the balcony. "Coming?" He said, turning to Harm, "It's quite safe."

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 31 May 2005 03:29 pm

She followed, unphased by gravity tricks. "I've seen many tricks of that kind, Ever seen a place with perspective gravity?"

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 31 May 2005 05:04 pm

"Simulated it. It would create chaos in this enviroment, unfortunatly. I did reverse the gravity in several sections, but several people got injured." They reached the transport module, and Kip oponed the door "You first, I insist."

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 31 May 2005 05:29 pm

She got in, "Well, it helps if you tell them your going to reverse gravity before you do it."

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 31 May 2005 06:14 pm

Kip thought about this "I suppose that could have improved the matter. Although the look on their faces was pretty hilarious. Another fun thing to do is to play music at a frequency lower than the human ear can hear in people's room when they try and sleep. It effects their psyche in unpredictable ways. I only do that to people who have annoyed me however, and then not for long, I'm not a sadist. Well not much of one. We're here." The doors of the transport slid open silently, and as usualy Kip motioned for Harm to go first.

Uso Tasuki
Ittô Juni

Posted: 31 May 2005 06:15 pm

“I’m going to have to be careful when I sleep,” Harm said as she walked to the doors of the lab just as one of the other members of the group arrived and entered.

Zakalwe
Shôshô

Posted: 31 May 2005 06:19 pm

"Well goodbye Harm, from here on I can not follow you." He said lamentfully, then lit up "Quite litteraly actualy ever since you ripped out my sensors. Don't worry you've more than made it up." He gave a deep bow, sweeping his arm across his body, and began to walk down the corridor. "Goodbye." He whispered, the melencholy returned to his voice.


 Kip's Contemplation

Zakalwe

Posted: 01 Jun 2005 12:12 pm

Kip sighed deeply, then blew himself up like a bull frog and sighed again, this time with a sound like a fog horn. He turned back to the simulation he was running, what would happen if everyone on the Horizon woke up and was exactly two inches tall. It had amused him for a while, especially when a pet cat someone owned had killed twenty crewmen in a bloodbath, but it had begun to wear off. The directors where organising things, Zeke was handling matters, and they appeared to be making good of the situation, and Kip's interest was waning. He had gone into this simulation to escape his reality, but he was becoming forced to face it.

He was extremely lonely, and had no-one to talk too. Yes he could have talked to anyone on the Horizon, but he was pissed off at their attitude towards him, an "Oh look, Kip's done something weird, let's pity him" sort of attitude. There where only a few people that saw him differently: Tanjo, Apesael, Zeke, Harm and of course Ephesus. The directors tended not to see him as an entity in his own right, but simply a tool, and that was something that Kip hated. His avatar was currently sitting at the top of a cavernous engineering bay, the joy of defying gravity giving him a few nano-seconds pleasure.

And now Tanjo, Apesael and Ephesus where gone, on the destiny. Kip cared deeply for his sister ship, but was also resentful. Destiny had all the technology, the power, and the crew, and an interesting life, at least potentially. Kip had a redundant hulk floating around a cloud with no particular purpose, and no-one interesting other than Harm and Zeke. Zeke was very busy currently, and had no time to spare for him; he just kept to his office plotting. He'd ask for Kip's help on a scheme now and again, but he like to work alone, and so Kip could go for months without speaking with him. And Harm ... Harm was an enigma. Out of respect for her he hadn't scanned her, her possessions, nor even done a background search. He liked her, but her responses were ... erratic. She had something to hide, and kept on hinting at something, and Kip had many theories, but he was too polite to push it. No matter how unstable and random Kip was, no-one could accuse him of being rude. Well not really.

Kip also had no-one on his level to speak with. Ephesus could often think at his level, something which no other person had ever done, and Zeke was intelligent enough to make conversation interesting. With Ephesus gone, he had no-one to take up his attention, his conversation with others needed only a fraction of his capacity, and so he was left bored most of the time. His 'bizarre' behaviour was a way of alleviating his boredom, since it was part of a huge study of interpersonal relationships, and him trying to have fun, but most of the time he felt bored, and its related emotion, depressed. Many times he'd thought of deleting his program, but stopped himself analysing the damage that would have to the people whose lives where in his care and the emotional damage he'd inflict on those few who knew him well. Kip idly plotted a course for the Horizon to crash into the neutron star at the center of the cloud; the impact would be beautiful to watch. He stopped himself with a shudder; what was he thinking? He couldn't do that. He almost deleted the navigation but then, thinking about it, saved it under a sub-file.

He wouldn't do anything that drastic, but he would have to do something, he couldn't continue like this. He thought about it for a second, and made preparations to make the atmosphere of the Horizon 20% Helium. That would amuse him. How about putting aphrodisiacs in the food and drinks? Why not. He did that too. That should keep reality away for a few more hours.


 Later

Uso Tasuki and Zakalwe

Posted: 06 Jun 2005 01:51 pm

Harm left the lab, and headed down the hallways of the destiny towards the lifts after spending a few hours in the lab. She was the only one to leave, with the rest of the group still inside working on their latest project. It wasn't long before she reached her door, more than ready to get away from her colleagues.

As she opened the door she was greeted by a bizarre, yet graceful sight. The room was dark, illuminated only by blood red candles placed around the walls and on the floor, several of them simply floating in mid air. The air was heavy with pleasing incense, and resonating to the sound of quiet alternative rock. In the middle of the room was something with the appearance of a large marble baptismal font, but instead of water, it was filled with a dome of ice cream, of all the different flavours, with a huge wafer of chocolate coming out of the top. Around the font, there where around twenty grooves, each one containing a single black rose.

“Kip…“ Harm said instinctively as she entered the room and spyed the mountain of ice-cream in front of her. “Having fun with your massive resources?” She circled the mountain of ice-cream in front of her before sitting down on her bed.

"Actualy yes." Kip formed from mid air, taking a few seconds to get down to the level of complexity he wanted "What's the point of having almost infinate resources if you can't make a few important people happy. You are happy aren't you?" Kip was looking surprisingly confident today, and had a half smile on his lips.

“More so than normal. Happy is quite the abstract term,“ Harm said as she looked up at kip with a smile across her face, “I’d actually be a lot happy if I had a spoon.”

Kip smiled and gestured at a spoon that was now floating in mid-air, only a few inches from Harm's right ear. "Will that do?" Kip materialised a chair and sat down.

“Sure” harm said as she took the spoon into her right hand and dug into the ice cream with a stabbing motion, a larger smile across her face as the spoon sunk into the ice cream and tore off a rather sizeable chunk. “I hope you don’t expect me to eat all of this by myself?” she half asked as she maneuvered the spoon to allow the chocolate syrup to flow over the chunk of ice-cream she had scooped out before bringing it to her lips.

"Well no, not really, but it wouldn't look nearly as impressive as it does if there was less of it." Kip's eyes went distant for a moment as if concentration on something else, "Just eat as much as you like and I'll get rid of anything you don't want. I hope the quality is to your liking, the chefs said it was the best they could do, but one word and their speaking with sqeaky voices for the rest of the week." Kip sat back on the chair, and summoned a small candle, lit it and left it to float in the air, he caused it to burst into flame, and then made a delicate sculpture of Harm out of the wax. Cooling it he floated it over to her "Pour vous."

Harm downed her first bite of ice cream and paused for a moment before swallowing. “Acid?” She asked, “You do now that this body can break that down fast enough for it not to have any effect…” She looked up at the statue of her made out of wax and gave him a rather odd look.

"I thought as much, so there is no harm in it. And it was also a little test to see if any drugs would effect you. There are some emphetamines a little lower down." Kip smiled rougishly.

“Hoping to find some sort of magic pill that will work on me?” she asked, taking another chunk out of the ice cream in her room. Her off hand placed the statue of her the bed stand next to her bed. “I’d ask you not to try, but we have to have something to do for fun around here.”

"Well you can be assured of a fun time around me, one way or another." Kip used a slight gracity manipulation feat to create a femenine feature out of the ice cream, with choclate chips as eyes. The figure bowed deeply at Harm.

Harm laughed as she saw the figure, “Cute, but it looks like she would be a bit cold in bed. You really enjoy playing with the feminine figure don’t you?”

"I like playing with anyone and everything, but making forms of the femenine nature is certainly more pleasing than that of the male, more ... expressive." Kip created a man figure, and both the man and the woman bagan to waltz across the ice cream.

Harm leaned back on her bed and watched the dance of the ice cream, “Well, I’ve never eaten food that has done that before… maybe that acid is kicking in after all.”

Kip filled the air with swirls of psychadelic colours, and reduced the gravity by 30%. "Maybe it is." Curious he summoned himself a spoon, and was just about to dig into the icecream when his eyes went vacant again, and his eyes filled with pain for a second. He shrugged, shook his head, and took a huge spoonfull.

“Download some bad porn?” Uso asked, seeing Kip’s momentary change in attitude. For the movement she laid back on her bed and looked up at the ceiling, experiencing the ‘acid trip’ she was being put on.

"Nothing of the sort, it is just that one of my other selves experianced something ... unpleasing. I don't wish to talk about it." Kip took another spoon full, and simulated emphetamines on his system. He enjoyed the increase in his synthetic hearts beat.

“hmm… you must be using a single core to run all of your avatars instead of delegating operations to the avatars themselves. I can’t say I’ve ever met a ship that acts the way you do… in any shape, form, or fashion.” Harm then stayed silent for a moment, lethargically watching the colors flowing about her head as her chest rose and fell with her gentle breathing.

"I'll take that as a compliment. I am indeed unique, as unique as any individual, something that many AI's lack. They are simply to similar. I on the other hand, am as different as you can get." As if to accent this point Kip created a fleet of small starships which began to voilently attack each other, weaving through the air, firing beams at each other.

“Got lots of miniatures have we?” Harm asked, still zoning out at the roof of her room. “When it comes to starships I guess I’d rather be planeside. At least you can do something there when things start exploding.”

Kip smiled wikedly, summoning a meter dubed sphere, covered with oceans and continents, down to an ammazingly level of detail. Around the planet the armarda's continued to attack each other, now battleships instead of fighters. Kip waved his hand and a small part of the planet expanded untill it showed a battle between two opposing sides, infantry verses infantry, with tanks and aircraft joining in for the bargain.

"Better?"

Harm gave off a small chuckle, “So what exactly am I watching? A particular battle or just something you came up with on the spur of the moment?”

"I came up with it almost instantly. Actualy I came up with the planet's history, culture, race, and the reason behind the current dispute. It was enjoyale, creating new races usualy is. Unfortunatly I don't think many of them are going to survive." As he spoke a missile came from no where and the resulting explosion decimated one side "Neutron bomb. Perfect anti-personell."

“perhaps, but it leaves them with minutes left to live, more than enough to react with launching their own nuclear weapon systems of they have them. You should consider writing a book if you have enough spare time on your hands to come up with that kinda thing.” Harm said.

"But of course, retaliation is where the fun is. And in this case the force that has just been hit has the superior technology. Unfortunatly a religous cult has taken over their premier missile silo, and has just fired their doom day missile. Anti-matter, and 50,000 MT. It's about to hit." The opposing side of the planet lit up, and enormous explosion, and the planet was cloaked with dust. "What do you think the effect on the planet will be?"

“If I remember correctly the planet falls into nuclear winter with all manor of debris chocking off all light coming in from their star. If they are lucky they didn’t design the weapon to leave radiation meaning that the planet is still semi-inhabitable.” Harm said, "I'm afraid I don't know the megaton system to well."

"Well the dust won't dispense for a while. That's the result of a large part of one of the plates being splintered. It actualy hit a weak spot. Very unfortunate, there is no life deteactable on the planet, the amount of gamma raditation was two high for even bacteria to survive. The atmosphere igniting can't have helped of course. And thus a 5,000 year old civilisation folds." The planet disapeared, along with the ship that had surounded it. "The few ships make up their differances, and migrate. They become nomadic. Unfortunatly they were a chauvenestic species, and didn't let women in the military, meaning that there are no women on the ships. Their religous beliefs stop them from genetic research, meaning that after one generation they all die. That's where sexism gets you." Kip smiled, "I am not at all sexist, women are just as capable as men, if not more so."

“that is true here at least. PNUgen has engendered their women to be very similar to men but there are genetic differences for men and women depending on the species. Not letting women in the military isn’t necessarily sexist just precautionary.” Harm said.

"If you insist." Kip waved his hand aimlesly, "I think men and women are equal in all respects, after all what is really different between a man and a woman?"

"In most species men have a denser bone structure and more muscle mass while women have a lighter bone structure and a looser body to help accommodate child birth. The specifics vary depending on which race is being talked about,” Harm said

"In are new age, muscles and bone density do not really acount for much. Combat when it occurs is usualy in such a state where the main element is thinking and skill, rather than brute force. It takes little strength to issue the command for a ship to fire. And as for child birth, the man has one set of organs, a woman has another, they serve a purpose. Well several really. But they should have no effect on that persons role ... outside the bedroom." Kip smiled rougishly.

“Every age has its own necessities.” Harm responded, still lieing back on the bed, “As does every body.”

"Indeed, and what are the needs of your body?" Kip asked rougishly

"Food, water, shelter, a nice bed and someone to warm it with,"

"Well you have food," Kip gestured at the ice-cream, "water," he gestured at the en suite bathroom, "a nice bed", he gestured at the bed she was lying on, "and I can be warm if you want." He smiled charmingly.

"Well that depends on just how warm you can make me in bed." Harm replied

"Just warm enough, or as warm as you would like, control over body temperature is a wonderful gift." Kip began to adapt his body for every possible outcome of this conversation, even if it was only using him as an animated hot water bottle.

Harm stood up and walked over to one of her duffle bags, bending over to get a small T-shirt, "Well, I just might have to try that out sometime..." She said as she unzipped the back of her bodysuit and slipped out of it, leaving her standing in front of kip in nothing but her undergarments as she put her sleeping shirt on, "I would ask you to leave as I change, but you could still watch me regardless."

"This is of course true, but if you asked me not to watch, I most surely would not." Kip appraised her in such a way she could not notice, keeping his visible eyes on her face, but looking at her body with his other sensors, visual feed from all around her. He was very impressed. "You are beautiful, you know." Kip said quietly, "Both your body, and in my opinion, your mind."

Harm walked over to him, her rear end swaying slightly under the thin fabric of her t-shirt. "It is always nice to know one is appreciated ... someday you might just get to appreciate everything I have to offer."

"I will always appreciate you, you who appreciate me, understand that I am not simply an A.I., a tool. That is a rare thing for me, and one I enjoy. Your company is refreshing, and someday I would enjoy appreciating you further. To have such a combination of mind, body and personality is rare and wonderful." Kip smiled quietly.

"Well, I'd love to keep enjoying your company but this body needs sleep and having you in the room with my will doubtless prevent any of that." Harm said, closing the distance between him and her enough to lightly press her firm front against his avatar.

"So you want me to leave?" Kip asked softly, Harm's smell enticing his synthesised sense of smell.

Harm chuckled, placing her hands on his front, "For tonight... it is past my bedtime"

"Alright." Kip gave her a gentle kiss on the forehead,
Harm smiled and took a step back from his avatar, heading towards her bed.

"Would you like me to tuck you in?" Kip was unsure of what to do, but only the smallest amount of this showed in his avatar, he took a step after her.

"If you'd like," Harm said as she got into her bed and curled up under the covers.

Kip sat down on the side of the bed, and brushed her hair with his hand, before lowering his head for a kiss.

Harm raised her head and gave him a teasingly short peck on the lips before returning her head to the pillow, "Goodnight kip."

"Goodnight" he whispered, and disappeared in a beam of light.


 Nocturnal Package

Zakalwe and Tyler

Posted: 04 Jun 2005 05:03 pm

The light of two moons gently illuminated a quiet path, shining through the gaps in the trees. A dark figure walked slowly down the path, not hiding his presence, but not advertising it either. But their was no-one to see him, no one awake, and no-one around even if they were. He came in sight of a comfortable, single story cabin. The figure could hear the sea laping against the pebble beach, causing a shimmering, simmering sound. The figure adjusted his coat before heading straight for the right hand side, right past a sapling cherry tree that concelaed a coal shoot from the path. Or at least it looked like a coal shoot, never the less the figure drew a passage from beneath his coat and placed it in the shoot, making sure it went down.

The figure straightened, and walked back to the path, and passed down the moonlit corridor before disapearing into the night.

An hour or so after the guest left Kai returned from a weeklong trip to Ralt on business and checked the mail bin to see what he had missed and sat at the kitchen table and flipped through them. "Hmm. ads mostly.." he sighed. His eyes fell upon it, a medium sized ....jewel with exquisite construction: The bundle of papers and data is in a plastic seal, which had had all of the fingerprints burnt of with acid. It was in a black, perfect diamond box, which was laminated, with the fingerprints removed along with a gel-like medium that contained the items. The contents were sealed in a complex lock, ballistics gel, and inch thick laminate. "hello this has to be important if it's packed into this." Kai said and looked at the lock and contents.

After a bit of probing he used his talents to feel out the lock and quickly got it open after figuring out how it worked, the box opened with a hiss as air rushed into the airtigh compartment; Kai then used a sharp paring knife to slice the ballistics gell open and removed the contents and set the container aside and looked at the thich laminate. "Hmm..." He muttered "too thick for a knife to cut through easily without sawing."

He focused his mind and concentrated and focused his power on the laminate guiding it's path with his finger and slowly, carefully sliced the laminate away without damaging the interior papers and data discs. "Alright so what do we have here.." he asked and sat down to read it.

Taisho Ashigari

I am sorry I have not been able to come into contact with you sooner, but I have spent a long time on this, confirming my suspicions, also there was some family business of my own, I don’t want to go into it. It is my belief that your brother did not rape and murder Kohana. And I have evidence to back this up.

When I found out about the murder I looked up the sensor details of the Horizon. We kept a visual and audio sensors running all over the public areas, and the corridors, and so it was a simple thing to work out what disguises your brother and Kohana where using. Using this information I monitored their movements around the ship, looking through the records, and at the very least it is clear to see that Kohana was not kidnapped. Her relationship with Kenji was not that of a hostage, but one of father-daughter affection, which is what would have been suspected, if my information recording their previous relationship is correct. It is also clear that she knew his true identity, shown through her reference to him as “Daddy”. It has taken me a long time to get through this data, the sensors we had then where not advanced, and I had to extrapolate a lot of what was said. I’m reasonably certain it is all correct, as I have had an AI and several scientists check through it.

The second discrepancy with the story that was broadcast is that the visual records from the show Kikyô meeting up with Kohana and Kenji, and then walking back to Kohana’s room. It was at this time the murder occurred. I think you would agree that this is the most important piece of data. There is no way that Kenji could have raped Kohana while Kikyô was in the room, especially that she found her sisters body tied to the bed with a bullet wound in her head. This clearly can not be the case.

I have no visual data from inside the rooms, or any detailed sensor read outs, since they were private rooms and it is not our practise to have detailed sensors within private rooms. Since only one person came out alive, I think you can infer your own judgements.

The crime scene investigation is another point of intrigue. There are many discrepancies, over the ravaging of the body, in the manner which it was done, which does not fit Kenji’s mental profile, and there are several problems with the coroners report. I have done a lot of research into Kenji, his past, and yours, but that is irrelevant, and managed to gather information from many people who knew him. It does not show anything of this dangerous, obsessive and volatile personality that is described in the reports. From what I have gathered, he was calm, and without the inner instability that can lead to such a breaking point. A nice guy from all reports. I have supplied with this as much information as I can.

I prefer my identity to remain anonymous, but I give you this information in the hope you will do something with it. I find this form of deceit distasteful.

- A friend.

After reading all the information and playing through the disc Kai was rather surprised. "I knew he never did it." he said with a sly smile appearing as he read the extra enclosure.. "Hmm she wishes a job done?" Kai said and put it all away into a briefcase. "Well then looks like I need to arrange transport to NovaCorp to discuss it in private face to face" he told himself and got on the horn to make arrangements for transport. He reached the spaceport very early in the morning and looked over the ships in the port; taking in a careful watch for any Novacorp ships. Kai walked up to a neko who was working at the docks after a polite conversation, she pointed him to a small transport ship that was convienently heading for the Horizon. After explaining that Novacorp had hired him temporarily for a job, the pilot agreed to ferry the former Taisho to the Novacorp homebase.

Awaiting him on the docking bay of the Horizon stood a small and lively looking man. The very air apeared to be buzzing with excitement, not to help that he had created a halo of bees for himself. He strode up to Kai

"Kai Ashigari, long time no see! How are you doing? Do come this way." Kip said in a familiar manner. And bagan to lead him down a corridor.

Kai just smirked tolerantly his empathic field already telling him this person, wasn't a person at all. Cmon? Who'd surround themselves willingly in bees..other than beekeepers and Kai got a feeling that this wasn't a beekeeper. "So this is Horizon where it happened hmm?" He asked with a bit of a meloncholy tone to his voice. The living whip he always had at his hip silently coiled around his arm from his shoulder as he carried a large briefcase looking bag, probably containing the data and papers and artistic supplies.

Kip didn't miss a beat "Yes this is the Horizon, and this is where it happaned. I'm sorry for that by the way, I wasn't really functioning then, otherwise I like to feel I would have been able to stop it." Kip actualy did look quite sad, a crime occuring on him taking a toll. The bees quietly faded from existance.

Kai waved it off as they walked, "Would you be so kind as to show me to the place where it happened?" He asked professionally. "I have ways of finding out things, it has to do with place memory." Kai explained. His red and gold robes riffling out behind him as he walked the hardsoled boots making a harsh sound with each step. Kai's alert emerald colored eyed scanned the interior of the Horizon for embedded clues in the atmosphere but the place had changed in 2 years and he wasn't likely to find much unless he did.....that.

"Of course." Kip took a sharp left and led Kai to a transport module "Organics first." He gestured for Kai to go in, and without waiting transposed himself inside. Silently he set the destination to where the murder had taken place. He idely began to assemble a small army of 2 inch tall plastic soldiers that covered the floor, marching in circles.

Kai blinked, seeing what Kip was doing then started to laugh a bit. "You're a very odd avatar." he commented. "I like that you're unique though, it's refreshing." Kai said , stopping his chortling. He felt around the entire station for hints, the further out, the vaguer though, and felt a familiar mental pattern. "Uso?" he asked quietly.

"What's that? Oh, where here." The doors slid open and the diminutive army marched down the corridor, before being ambushed by tiny monster, towerring over the soldiers at four inches. Kip calmly walked past the slaughter of his creations by another of his creations and stopped at a door. "This is the one. No-one has actualy been in since soon after the event, the directors thought that due to the high priority nature of the crime, it might attract negative publicity, or people simply intrested in seeing it. Therefore we sealed it off. Oh and I spread a rumour that it was haunted." Kip shrugged, while overcoming the ridicuosly complex locking algarhythms and disarming the surprisingly strong security systems he'd installed around the door, under the perverse logic that at least the same crime wouldn't happen there again.

The door slid open silently, and Kip stood one side, his normally jovial face grim. He felt that a jovial mood would seem disrespectfull to Kai's brother. "It happaned here. Kohana's body was on the bed," he pointed to the bed, "And your brother there." He pointed to the spot where Kenji had died.

Kai followed Kip into the apartment and looked around as they entered and examined the places where the bodies were and jolted a bit like he'd been hit by a shock. In his mind he was seeing a black and white mini movie of the emotional trauma in the area.

What he saw was Kohana's youthful face lit up in excitment at seeing her sister, another neko he recognized from when he was revived. "Kikyo" He said in a quiet tone. Then dropped to his knees with tears stinging his eyes at the sudden loss of the young life. He turned to Kip for a moment then to where his brother was found and sighed and seemed to slouch in his stance, his eyes fading to white orbs for a moment. Then they relit as a brilliant blue color as his brother possessed his body, his spirit had been waiting here for two years for Kai to show. "Who are you?" He asked Kip in a more youthful tone, it matched the recordings of Kenji's voice. The new being looked to the bed and sighed, "poor Kohana...damn her sister for taking her life in cold blood."

"I am Kip, ships avatar. I presume you are Kenji." Kip looked very solemn, his eyes sad. He did not really understand what was going on, his knowledge of psionics and spirituality sketchy at best, but through comparing Kai's new voice, eye color, a change in his hair style, even way he stood and breathed, he was certain that it was Kenji, not Kai, who was in possession of the body. "So what happened here Kenji?" He had already made a long line of judgments based on what had already been said, but he predicted that this would give a more complete view. Kip also engaged additional recording sub routines, making sure that this conversation would be saved, even more than all his conversations were saved.

"Kenji" looked at Kip and nodded. "I am. " He nodded and proceeded to tell Kip precisely what transpired. "I'll condense it since I don't have much time but back in the Imperial Palace, I was to be wed to the current empress Ayame, whom agreed to be my wife. But I caught her in the arms of another man engaging in sexual intercourse, I was shattered. So I made a decision to leave but since I thought Kohana my own daughter I gave her a choic if she wished to come, which she agreed." He said and caught his breath and continued. "So we fled Yamatai and came here hoping to hide from them with assumed identites, but her older sister Kikyo had followed us here with orders to kill us both and cover it up apparently. I can guess she was sent by Uesu in an attempt to save Ayame's feelings. " Kenji felt his spiritual hold fading, he didn't have too long. "In the end Kikyo lured Kohana into that room to show her her new ....garments, Kikyo proceeded I imagine to shoot her in the head. Then she faced me, I could have struck her down but being the better man, I did not. She killed me and I saw her arranging the room to cover it up to fit the story." Kenji said.

Kenji sat down as the eyes faded to white then back to normal, Kai was back. "And that's the story..." He said tears forming. "I can't believe they'd do something like this to someone who'd just want to live in peace..." He said panting a little, spiritual possesssions did take a great deal out of your stamina. "Kip, you got a full recording of that right?"

"No Kai, but I think we have enough." Kip was shocked by what he had been told playing havoc with his emotions, and bringing him to acting almost emotionosly. At the same time he sent the file to someone he knew would be intrested, it would answer several questions he had. "It is perverse that they should wish to live in peace, yet to be killed in such a manner, and by her own sister." Kip shook his head, "I simply do not understand how it can happen." He paused, "Will you be alright?" He asked, suddenly feeling very empathic towards the emotionaly straught Kai. He even considered putting an arm around his shoulder, but physical contact wasn't Kips's forte, and he never knew when to use it or not. He erred on the side of caution.

Kai shook his head sighing, still reclining in the chair. "I'll be fine Kip" He said. "It's just a great deal to process at one time, kind of like how a computer backs up if you put too much information in it at one time." He said so Kip could relate.

"Kip, who was the person who sent me the information originally? Do you know?" He asked. "I'd like to meet this person."

"Yes I know who sent it. However he wishes to keep his identity anomynous, or at least did. This may have changed his mind. If you will give me a second I'll see."

Kip oponed up a message to the man in question "Kai wishes to meet you. What should I tell him?"

In a dark room many decks away a figure read the message. He thought about this, he hadn't necceasarily wanted to meet Kai, he had hoped simply giving him the information would be enough. He didn't really want to become more involved than he already had, at least not in a way that anyone other than he recognised.

"Alright, I will see him later. First show him the surprise. It's at Emrys' restraunt." The figure cracked his knuckles, and sent out his mind to search for Kai's. He could feel a small part of his pain.

Kai sat recovering from his bout of spiritual possession and eventually stood up and dusted himself off. This place was heavy with old emotions and trauma, heartache... to any other person it was just an empty house but to someone like Kai it was a vortex of negative emotions. "Let's find a less cloying atmosphere are there any good restauraunts here on the Horizon?" He asked Kip as he started for the door. He was feeling the edges of something unknown and it was a huge curiousity to him but he couldn't put his finger on it. Who was this?

Kip recieved the message from the figure "Well if it's a restraunt you want, then there's no better than Emrys, they serve great food." Kip walked out the room, preparing to seal it again afterwards. Kip tried to lighten Kai's mood, not by any noticible effect, but by using the correct frequency of sound waves under the human hearing spectrum, combined with brightening the corridors slightly.

Kai nodded and headed out, smiling slightly at Kip's efforts to ease his mind appreciating it. He headed off through the Horizon, thinking about the incident; Kenji had provided the entire story and possibly put Uesu and Kikyou into the limelight of guilt. The psion shrugged and walked into the restaurant and sat down, ordering a drink or ice tea and a bite to eat.

Elena had been in the restauraunt helping out, earning her keep in the Horizon, she was suppressing her excitement that Uncle Kip and Zeke had told her that someone special would be in today possibly. The young girl who looked about 11 was cleaning dishes in the back, a menial task that the station's computers could've done but they needed something for her to stay out trouble. "I wonder who this person could be? Uncle Zeke told me that it was someone who'd been looking for me for a while..." She giggled giddily.

Kip apeared in the seat next to Kai, heralded by a flash of light and a three bar picalo riff.

"Drop of whisky please waiter." He called out, putting his feet on the table, materialising a wide brim hat and pulling over his eyes, and creating a synthetic cigar to smoke. "How are you doing Kai?" He asked, eyes hidden behind his hat.

Kai shook his head at Kip, "Wish I could teleport around like that." He said with a snicker, trying to lighen up. "I'm alright, well at least the truth's out in the open now. Hey do you know if someone called Uso is on the ship? She likes black bodysuits, green hair, pretty eyes, large...um..bust." He asked blushing slightly.

Elena took the whiskey that was requested and takes it out to Kip and sets it on the table, she was a pretty red-haired and icy blue eyes. She had a small build of a 13 year old despite being 15 she smiled seeing Kip. "Uncle Kip!" she laughed and looked up him. She looked at Kai and blinked as if she recognized him but not quite putting it 100% together. "who's your friend?"

"Elena!" Kip jerked upright, his hat and cigar fading from existance quickly. Kip apeared to age suddenly, untill he was a thirty year old man with grey streaks in his hair, the shape he usualy took around Elena, "This is Kai Ashigari, Kai, this is Elena ..." Kip was fascinated was how this would turn out, but he was anxious that his charge should not be too distraught. He cared deeply for Elena. He sent a quick message to the man "Contact made."

Elena listened to Kip's explanation and looked at Kai curiously and blinked, pulling a photo out of her pocket it was old but still in good condition. It was of her family all together, on it was the oldest brother who looked just like Kai. She put it away and started to tremble whether it was in excitment, shock or something else wasn't known because her emotions were a variable tempest at the moment. Her eyes grew very wide and she leapt forward and tackled her brother back int the chair, knocking it and him over and clung tightly.

The little girl just kept saying "brother" over and over again until she just started crying muffled. Not in sorrow, frustration or anger but in sheer overwhelming happiness. Kai was surprised to see her again and smiled gently upon the realization he'd found someone he'd wanted to see for year and wrapped his arms around her gently, hugging her to him. She wouldn't let go and eventually settled down and just cuddled there, Lani had family again and this was making her very happy.

Kai was blushing a bit from the attention and snickered ruffling her hair. "Well well what a surprise." He said quietly and tried to get up off the ground.

Kip smiled quietly. It was good to see Elena so happy, he'd enjoyed looking after her over the years, and this was the happiest he'd seen her in a long time. He didn't want to get in the way of their reuninion so he murmered "I'll see you later." and gently faded out of sight.

Kai and Elena sat in Emrys for a long time talking about what had happened since the last time they had seen each other. Elena explained what happened to her after their parents' ship was destroyed near this vicinity, she didn't know what happened just that their parents put her into a stasis pod and shot it off.

"So I wake up and I'm here, they told me that I had been floating for two years, which is why I'm biologically behind my chronological age." She said sitting on her brother's knee.

"That sounds like it stinks, I hear those pods are really cramped, I'm just glad to see you're still alive." Kai said. "So who's been taking care of you since then?"

"Uncle Kip and Uncle Zeke." She said happily. "They took good care of me, gave me an easy job to work and a nice little apartment....but then I heard about what happened to Kenji" Elena said looking sad, tears subtly forming.

Kai hugged her to him to comfort her gently. "It's ok we know the truth know Elena."

"I know but I'm still scared of the empire Kai...I feel safe here on the Horizon, like I'm out of their reach." Elena said snuggling into his shirt gently to hide the fact she was scared.

"Don't worry Elena I won't let them do anything to you, you know that right?" He said as he ruffled her hair and grinned. "I plan to get the truth out there, people deserve to know, what they did was wrong and uncalled for." her brother said.

"Under the pretext of a pirate broadcast so they can't trace it back to you?" She asked intelligently. "It's best if it's recorded into a unmanned, umarked anonymous probe and programmed to broadcast on all signals so it gets to everyone and they can't trace it back to us." She pointed out

Kai looked surprised at her sudden insightful suggestion and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "That is a good idea actually." he smirked. "Kip?" Kai asked, blinking.

Elena giggled. "Uncle Kip! Can I ask you your opinion on something?" she giggled to the air, knowing he could hear it.

Kip apeared behind her, his left hand on her shoulder. He had been watching the whole event with great intrest, and was also monitering a duel in the arborium. they were, for some reason, using foam clubs.

"Yes my dear? What can I do to help you?" He asked charmingly.

Elena giggled at Kip's sudden appearance. "Uncle Kip do you think it'd be possible to get a hold of a probe that could be programmed to mass broadcast the recording of what my brother Kenji said to everyone in the empire while keeping it unable to be traced?" She asked charmingly. "Please?"

Kai watched and listened to her in mild surprise and grinned. "She's sharp as a tack isn't she Kip?"

"The short answer is yes, it is possible. But it would not be easy. For one thing you need the capacity for it to be sent without being jammed by those that would rather it wasn't shown. For another to make it completely untracable the creation of such a probe would have to be done in an extremely complex fashion, so that no hint of its creation was left at. It would probably have to be psionicly cleansed, so a psychic couldn't pick up its past, although I don't know if this is possible. To reach all the empire your going to have to have some pretty serious hard wear too. There are plenty of other things you could do to make it harder to trace, perhaps we'll talk about them later." Kip said seriously, "Oh and Kai, he's ready to see you whenever your ready."

Kai nodded, letting Elena off his knee to stand up. "Alright Kip, lead the way." he said with a bit of a yawn and felt around for anyone who could be "listening" in and barely detected Zeke skirting the edges. So you're the one who sent that information? Thank you if you did I really appreciate that. Kai thought out to Zeke and stretched his legs. Elena stole a sip of his soda and snickered and sat down watching her brother, there was so much she wanted to do but she couldn't put it into words yet.

Zeke smiled, Kai had detected him good. What he had heard of his telepathic abilities was true. My pleasure Kai, anything I can do to help. He concentrated and sent a telepathic illusion of himself to Kai, a shadowy figure standing in a misty environment. Would you like are meeting to be here? He sent, his illusion in Kai's mind moving a shadowy arm, gesturing the terrain.

Kai grinned, finally, someone who was his equal in this area, he sat back down in another chair reclining. It's better because there's no real way to record what transpires in telepathic communication. And this environment is fine. Kai seemed to almost negligently form a telepathic image that seemed almost real in Zeke's mind. Kai was standing on the misty plain with a rose vine growing around his arms and down his chest to his hip. Well now we have the full story what happened. Man that Ayame is such a wicked woman, how could she does that to someone? Then Uesu has Kohana's OWN sister kill her then Kenji? That's not right and I think the people need to know how the empire works.

I agree. I am not one to say that honestly is always the best policy, but this form of deceitful, reasonless murder, and of a young girl by her own sister. He sighed. Your brother, however sad it is to hear this, got involved, and therefore to some twisted logic, was fair game. They should have let him leave, but using ruthless logic, he was a loose end. Killing Kohana ... she was a civilian in these matters, she did not have to die, there was no reason to kill her. Even in the imperfect game of life that is beyond the pale. He paused. I wish for justice, that a business that I am involved in has sunk to such a low is a personal insult to me, let alone the fact taht this form of murder is always ... distasteful.

Kai's illusion nodded. The only reason they did it was because Uesu couldn't stand to see Ayame hurt. But what he doesn't realize is that pain in a part of living and isn't a good enough reason logically to have someone murdered. T'is absolutely despicable what he did and I refuse to forgive him for it. Kai sighed shaking his head on the misty field. They only killed Kohana to make Kenji look like a common criminal, it just proves that the empire only cares when it's convenient for them.

I do not believe that the empire is rotten to the core, but that some individuals, either corrupted by power, or deluded, can reach positions of power, and it is there actions that can be so ... wrong. Pain is a part of life, there can be no joy without sadness, no good without evil. It is an unfortunate but essential part of existence, once thought existed, part of it was rotten. And forgiveness should only be given once it is asked for, if someone doesn't ask for repentance, it can not be given to them. Zeke smiled back in his room, he always enjoyed discussing moral arguments, even in such grim circumstances.

Everything requires balance. Without a balance, everything falls into chaos; which seems to be the medium in which this empire likes to operate. You know I'll bet my Taisho rank that Ayame doesn't even have a shred of regret for what happened. The whole root of this situation lies in Uesu, I hate to point fingers but he is the one who actually started this whole thing. Kai's avatar vanished for a moment while he broke his concentration to get a drink of soda and it reappeared, looking just like he did before. Did you happen to hear what Elena suggested to broadcast the truth to the public? It's an interesting idea but Kip has pointed out that it'd be fairly difficult to perform. Kai's avatar smiled deviously I bet putting that into the form of subliminal messages using Kenji's voice.

Getting it past the Star Army, making it untraceable, exposing it to the maximum amount of people ... yes, it would be hard. Very hard. I might be able to do it, but I'd have to call in some favours, get Ephesus to help probably. Subliminal messages are an interesting idea, but unless your planning on stirring up a feeling of discontent they have limited appeal. We can certainly make sure that people would trust it more than usual. I do not like to pass judgment of people I do not know, and as such I will not make a decision on Ayame's character. I have seen enough of Uesu's work, and the implications of it to decide what his character is like though. Kikyo is merely a tool in this.

I agree, Kikyo is just a tool. She was just following orders, I sensed that she didn't like the idea of what she had to do but Uesu's lie had infuriated her to the point she really wouldn't listen. Kai smiled at the mention of the discontent. You know what they say, it only takes one stone to cause ripples, ripples can become waves, waves become a powerful destructive force. But for that to work it has to everyone, if a majority of people are discontent then the imperials can't turn a blind eye to it. Or at least that's the general idea Kai shrugged. I don’t' know Ayame personally and I guess I’m getting caught up in my brother's emotions toward her on the subject, please forgive me on that.

Zeke smiled secretly, he was not in a position to have an opinion on Kai, Oh, you're forgiven. He was your brother, so you are naturally more attached to this than I, so how do you want to proceed? There are many different possibilities, each with there own negative points, and their positive points.

Well it's best to consider the routes available, what're you seeing as possible? Kai asked, shifting in his chair in the physical reality. Elena's idea is good but it's difficult to pull of just right so it's not traced back to us, and there's not guarantee it'd work.

It is certainly a gamble. I do not like gambling unless I like knowing I can win, but I'll beging to look into it anyway. The other posibilities would be trying to keep this from beneath the public to confront different people with it, people of autaurity, perhaps even the people involved, and get something done that way. I believe you know Taisho Yui? Her reaction to this is uncertain, but she certainly has authaurity, even now she has retired. Another course of action would be let the past be left in the past. This would be the easiest, but I think you will not be happy with it. Zeke began thinking of who he'd need to contact about the probe.

I know Yui yes, at least if I remember correctly, we're still on good terms. She might be sympatric but Uesu is her father figure was he was working in PNUgen around the time Yui was created. I might be able to go talk to the people involved and see what they say about it. But you're right I don't really like it because they're still not likely to tell the truth on the incident. Kai folded his arms across his chest. Hmm what to do...

That is unfortunate. I suppose going vigilante isn't a attractive possibility? Zeke doubted it, but thought he should put it on the table, so to speak.

Well I'm a pacifist, going up against the imperial family single handily is officially insane, even for me. Kai gave off the tones of a chuckle at that.

True. But it is an option. A pointless option, but an option, and you did ask for options. Zeke thought for a bit I wonder if you could get to talk to Ayame. It might be interesting to lay the footwork, see what her current feelings are, not to anything as crude as actually saying what we know, unless it's going that way of course, but just to scout the ground. Zeke was simply coming up with as many possible courses of action, whether they be good or not.

That idea has merit and would lend the information. I'll do that at least then I'll contact you again and tell you what she's said. But it may be a good idea to try and get that probe going at the very least, wouldn't you agree? Kai asked.

I'm already working on it. Good luck, happy hunting’s, bon voyage. Zeke cut his telepathic communication and began to write a message to Ephesus. He felt he might need some of the Elysian’s brain power to design a way to make this probe.

Oh, one more thing, I'll be taking Elena with me for a little while. Kai informed Zeke and stretches some drinking his generic soda.


 Harm Less

Uso Tasuki, Tyler, and Zakalwe

Posted: 16 Jun 2005 02:24 am

Harm’s dreams were banished by her clock as it informed her of the time with a rather unpleasant noise. Her arm soon emerged from the covers of her bed and found the machine, using its interface with a forceful slam. Sleep soon returned to her as she nuzzled the soft pillow below her head.

Harm was then awakened again, by the same clock, five minutes later. Reluctantly she pulled the covers off her body and headed to her shower. She turned on the water and within moments was met with a warm mist inside of her bathroom. As she pulled the T-shirt off her body and stepped out of her undergarments she started to wonder if Kip was watching her through this steam. Her face couldn’t help but suppress a laugh and smile at this probable truth as she stepped into the shower. It was just then when a cold shiver went through her body even though the water cascading over her was quite warm. “Hmm…,” She thought out loud as she begin to lather up the soap in her hands, “Its going to be one of those days…”

In the span of fifteen minutes time Harm’s body had been thoroughly cleaned and covered in her familiar black bodysuit and was headed towards the rented labs., tossing a small black pill in her mouth to make up for a missed breakfast.

[Tyler] ((Hope you don't mind Zack and Thomas correct me if I'm wrong))

As Harm was on her way out Kai was on his own way toward the spaceport in preparation to leave with Elena in tow. He stretched a bit as he walked, it was still early in the morning of the next day after his "conversation" with Zeke, they'd been so kind as to private accomodations for the night.

"Brother where are we going?" Elena asked as she rode piggyback on Kai's back as she was too sleepy to walk straight.

"Time for us to head home, I'm gonna let you live with me like we talked about last night." He answered her.

"Yay, though I'll miss Uncle Kip and Zeke." She said smiling sleepily.

Kai smiled back at her and looked ahead and around spotting Harm coming out of a adjacent corridor. He walked over to intercept her.

Hi Ms Harm, Kip's told me about you. Would you happen to be one Uso Tasuki?" Kai asked her telepathically. He smirked at her "Hi there pretty lady." he smirked, having a feeling it was Uso frm what Kip had mentioned and she looked a great deal like the neko he remembered.

Harm brushed a strand of her black hair out of her face as she continued down the hallway, her hair flowing out behind her unrestrained. ~I can’t say that I’ve ever been introduced to a Uso Tasuki~ She replied mentally as she continued forward with a, “Hello” a smile and a nod.

Kai looked at her, and over her and blushed a bit hearing her response. "You look awfully familiar, like I've met you before; but then again ladies as pretty as you are rare." he smiled.

Sorry then, just you remind me of someone with that name whom I had a small attraction to or crush on. he replied telepathically. Kai shifted Elena's weight on his back a bit, he still thought this was Uso just with changed hair color, she had a similar build and such.

Kip watched with intrest. He was monitoring the heat signatures, pulse rate and other tell tale signs of Kai (since he no longer scanned Harm beneath skin level), and could effectively tell what he was feeling.

This promised to be intresting, given Kai's obvious to Harm, and his efforts at flirtation. He wasn't ready to show himself, but just spectated, hoping that Harm wouldn't return Kai's feelings. He didn't know what he'd do, and the feeling of not knowing something scared him.

“Maybe we knew each other in a previous life,” She responded, sidestepping to walk around him as she continued to the rented labs, turning her head to look at him. “You have a good eye, I’m one of a kind these days.”

He got a good view of her backside as she walked away, her skintight suit hugging her curves, ~I don’t think your crush was that great, otherwise you’d remember the face of that girl you thought you loved,~ Her thoughts had a slight edge to them as did her next words, “It looks like you already got quite the pretty girl on your back, perhaps you should stay focused on her.”

He focused for a moment and yanked Harm back with the power of his mind and held her aloft for a moment so she couldn't walk away this time. Looking right into her eyes, his own filled with something indescribable as his thoughts rang in her head. Somewhat laced with the pain of the sting her words had laid upon him, reminding him of his chain of failures back then and worst of all: being so dense as to ignore her...the one thing he hadn't wanted to do.

Uso, the past is the past nothing can be done to alter it. What I did back then was a mistake. You may not listen or even care anymore but I am glad to see you, and...nevermind. He told her blushing slightly.

"And this young woman is my sister Uso, I haven't had a lover for years now." He said verbally, his voice quiet in the end. "I wallowed in my utter failure from the Seigi so I hid myself in shame." He still hadn't let Uso down yet as he wasn't finished.

I'm sorry for being so dense I really am. If you'll let me have a chance I'd like to make it up to you.

“Well… that is one way to pick up pretty girls,” She said as she held out her hand to dampen Kai’s powers with her own, “And please, call me Harm.”

~While you’ve been wallowing existence has gone on and the Seigi long sense lost to the sands of time. A second chance is something I can afford to give you, even if I’m not expecting you to act any different in this lifetime.~

“I’m surprised that your being so open, maybe sometime I’ll get the chance to be a bit more open with you. The hallways aren’t exactly the most comfortable place,”

People change over time, I accepted that I was a failure back then and have moved one. I'm just trying to live a life of peace in this time. He told her, amused by the fact that she couldn't negate his powers, she wasn't strong enough. But it didn't matter really as he would set her down anyway, he had no further reason to suspend her.

He smiled at her and shifted Elena's weight again so it was comfortable. "Mmm brother don't drop me" she whispered to him. Kai nodded to her and tightened his hold on her gently, then turned back to Uso or Harm. "Alright then Harm, perhaps you'd like to go for dinner tonight then?"

~heh, you sound just like someone else I knew in a past life,~

“Dinner will have to wait, I’m quite busy after all, so how about lunch instead? I hear that this ship has quite the number of places to get a decent bite to eat.” Harm said as she looked up at the girl on his back, “Perhaps you should attend to her before you try and handle any more women today,”

Kai nodded. "Yeah I'll do that, have to see if Kip'll let me get an apartment here for a short time, I do have a home I should return to at some point." He said. "And I'll see you at..how about Emry's?" Kai suggested.

“That will be fine. Have kip send me the time and table number and I will meet you there.” Harm said, again turning to leave.

"alright" he said and headed off to go find a place to relax alittle and probably shower.


 Lunch

Uso Tasuki, Tyler, and Zakalwe

Posted: 28 Jun 2005 11:22 pm

The doors of the rented labs opened for Harm again as she left on her lunch break, leaving the collection of engineers and scientists to fend for themselves as she looked to satisfy her hunger. Within the space of a few steps she had reached the lift system and was traveling towards the Emrys restaurant that Kai was planning to meet her at. She looked down at her jet black bodysuit and brushed off a bit of powder that had attached itself to her right leg before running her hands through her hair and binding it into a ponytail. As she busied herself with meaningless physical tasks she kept her mind free of thoughts, not knowing just what to think.

In the few minutes after Harm took her seat in the restaraunt Kai, tailed by Elena walked in, and looked around for a moment searching for her with his eyes. After spotting the telltale bodysuit and black hair he walked over to that table and slid into a seat across from her, Elena taking the one to his left. "Hi Ms. Harm." Elena said quietly seemingly more intent to watch and figure out what she was like before making judgments.

Kai just smirked a bit. "Sorry for being a little late, she was insistent upon coming with..." He said ruffling Elena's hair. "So how was your working morning? He decided to start off with a little small talk while waiting for the waiters to take notice.

Harm folded her napkin precisely in her lap before answering, “Sorry, what happens in there stays in there,” She said pausing to take a drink of water, “But you didn’t miss anything by not being there. “ She had a dissatisfied tone as she looked Kai and his little follower over, “So how have you two been doing? You might as well tell me a bit about yourself.”

Kai merely shrugged the tone off, understanding where it was originating. "Been doing fine really...considering everything that's happened." He said. "You know who I am of course, and this is my little sister Elena." Kai introduced the red haired girl who nodded and looked Harm over quietly. "Just..found her yesterday after 4 years."

The little girl nodded still staying quiet, she seemed to be either shy, or plotting something. "Well anyway, I'm a retired Taisho living the quiet life as an artist for hire. Not too much there really."

“And that’s all you’ve been doing sense you retired?” Harm asked, pausing a moment before continuing the conversation, “So what, or should I ask who brought you out here? It seems odd that your sister was stranded out here unbeknownst to you for four years,”

Kai nodded to say 'yeah'. "That's all I've been doing, I feel like I've seen everything the military had to offer." Kai said. "And our parents' ship was destroyed in this area 4 years ago and she's been in stasis for two years since then and well she kind of found me here while I was investigating some information I received about our brother's murder." Kai said.

"He was framed by the imperials." Elena said. "That cover story about him kidnapping, raping and murdering Kohana was bull." She said quietly. Kai nodded "That's about all for the reason I came here to start with."

Harm nodded, “so how was your parents ship destroyed?” Harm asked, “And what do you plan to do about his framing? I doubt you’ll be able to get anything done through the courts and whatnot, I imagine you don’t have much pull in the military either.”

Elena answered the quesiton about their parent's ship. "I don't remember Ijust remember being put into a escape pod and fired into space right before it blew up." she said looking a little sad.

Kai shook his head brushing his hair out of his eyes and looked right at Harm. "That may be true and I realize that, that's why we have to come up with a way to do it successfully." he shrugged. "I heard some advice to try and talk to the empress to get her side of the story before I do anything though. Not quite sure if I want to march into the palace with that kind of accusation on my lips or mind." He said shifting in his chair.

Harm chuckled a bit, “You know if your enemies are the imperials and you have proof of it odds are you won’t even get onto the planet the palace is on, much less get an audience with your empress.” Harm looked for a waiter and then looked back at the two she would be eating with, “Do you know what you two want to order?” She asked, changing the topic to something of a happier note.

"I want a double cheeseburger and fries." Elena said happily, smiling for once.

"I'll have spring rolls and miso soup." Kai said to the waiter. Both got ice tea for drinks.

Kai turned to Harm "Maybe...maybe not. that's why one has to be careful."

“I guess careful is the order of the day,” Harm said as she turned to the waiter, “Surprise me, bring me some type of fish… and a Iced tea with lemon,” Harm then turned back to Kai, “Anyways, being careful is important, dieing once is more than enough isn’t it?”

Kai shrugged and put his hair into a high ponytail and adjusted his duster a bit. "Dying is always a pain in the ass regardless of how many times it happens." He said darkly. "I don't intend to go through that again anytime soon."

“But you never intended to die the first time either,” Harm commented. “Perhaps the decay of politics is not the best discussion to be having over food.” she looked over at the waiter briefly as he handed off their order to the kitchen, “So Elena, what do you like to do for fun?”

Elena looked at Harm and smiled again. "I like reading, playing games video or board doesn't matter, and metallugy." she said witha bright smile. "oh and computers."

“Computers? I guess Kip has been keeping you entertained then,” Harm said, turning her gaze to Kai, “And what have you been doing to keep yourself entertained? Not just painting I hope.”

Elena nodded and smiled and sipped her drink as they arrived, Kai shrugged and sipped at his too. "Not much else other than that, just trying to live a quiet life away from everything." Kai said.

Harm smiled, “I couldn’t get away from it all even if I wanted to. The bright side of that is there is always something to do, never a dull moment,”

Kip watched the scene happily. He enjoyed watching Kai and Elena together, happy after their reunion, and naturally he loved spending time around Harm even if she didn't know he was there. The interaction of some of the most important people in the ship to his eyes, was priceless.

He was so happy in fact he cancelled a complex array of pranks he'd planned for the engineering section including a hot air balloon. He was feeling to happy with creation to play tricks.

However their was darkness as well, for he could tell from his many sensors, what Kai was thinking, not from his thoughts, but from his pupil dilation, heart rate, body language, and a hundred other signals, that allowed him to judge what Kai was feeling. Kip didn't like it, but trusted Kai to keep his feelings to himself.

He did consider going and joining the table, and indeed was likely going to if the opurtunity to came up.

But for now it was enough to watch.

A waiter soon came to the table, a tray full of food balanced on his palm and shoulder and a stand held in his off hand. Quickly he unfolded the stand and placed the tray down upon it, “Double cheeseburger with fries,” He said as he picked up the same dish and sat it in front of the girl. The perfectly white plate had a beautiful looking cheeseburger on it, two golden brown wheat buns stacked high with meat and toppings that would require at least two hands to properly control and on the side, a pickle. “Miso soup,” He said, as he sat a plate with white bowl full of soup, with three spring rolls lightly covered with a series of diagonal lines of a semi-sweet sauce. “Surprising Random Fish,” The waiter said with a smile as he set a fillet of tan/pink fish suspended on a yellow bed of rice with several squiggles of colorful sauce on top and a colorful green, flower cut vegetable on the side for color. “I hope you three enjoy your meals,” He said before leaving.

Kai and Elena tendatively took initial bites or sips into the food presented to them. "It's good" Elena said happily and continued to eat, she'd be rather quiet for a while because of it. "Having a time where you always have something to do is good, but sometimes it's not everything."

“Its enough to get by and keep your mind off of troubling matters. Idle hands lead to trouble…” She paused for a moment and laughed at her own private joke, smiling and suppressing the laugh as much as she could to make it come off as a slight chuckle and a smile, “So what is everything to you then?” She asked as she picked up a fork and turned it on its side to cut through the crisp glaze on the surface of the first before cutting down into the bed of rice, taking both with the fork as she guided it into her mouth.

Kai shrugged to that, using a spoon to sip the miso soup while Elena wrestled to manage her burger and making a small mess while she was at it...ah for small hands. "What's everything to me? Everything is whatever you make it out to be and what you do with it, and since possessing or having influence over everything is impossible in all meanings. You have to make due with what you have." He said stirring the soup some. "But to me everything is just managing to live in peace away from all these bloody wars everyone else seems to be so wrapped up in....then again, deep inside that's what everyone wants so I'm not all that special now am I?" He smirked.

“Well I’m in a little place where I can lay low and out of the way, I haven’t seen a real war in a long time,” Harm took another bite of her food, enjoying the crisp crunch of the glaze on her teeth before taking a drink of the bitter tea on her right, “But then again, where I am isn’t exactly up to me. Wars may come to an end but the need for the warrior never goes away,”

Kai shrugged and dipped a spring roll into the soup and took a bite. Elena had inhaled her burger fairly quickly, the girl ate like she always had somewhere to be..oh well...it made her happy either way. "What do you mean where you go isn't your choice? " She asked, looking confused for the moment. "And why would the need for a warrior never go away? even in times of peace? Because someone needs to stand up and protect it the whole time? then if that's true...that's not peace for that person now is it?"

“The reason the warrior will always have work is because there will always be conflict. Even if your not at war, there is internal policing to be done and policies to be made.” Harm said as she took another bite. She finished chewing and chased it down with her tea, “I go where my job takes me,” She answered simply, “That’s I usually don’t know where I’m going to end of next.”

"So that's how things go. One goes where he or she is needed, that's the way of the world...figuratively speaking." Kai sighed, finishing the soup up with the last of the rolls after a few moments of silence. Elena had finished up hers as well and was leaning back in her chair starting to doze a little, having a full stomach. For a while, the issue with the probe that was to be launched was bothering him slightly; more like an attack of conscience. Should he indeed try and get into contact with Uesu and Ayame for their side of the argument? "Well it's been nice, but I've got to go. Business to take care of, as always..." he said, smirking slightly.

He rose from his chair brushing a hair out of his eye and scooted his sister's chair out and gently picked her up giving her a piggyback ride to let the full girl nap. "It was good meeting you." Kai nodded to Harm. "Perhaps we'll see each other again." And with that he headed out of the restaraunt to 1) check on the progress of the probe, then get a ship back to Yamatai, he had to talk to Ayame first in his mind or he'd just feel wrong about things.


 Art on the Horizon

Tyler and Zakalwe

Posted: 16 Jul 2005 04:41 pm

After the big lunch, a half dozing Elena pointed her brother to where she was staying while she was on the Horizon. She wanted to get her stuff in preparation to go with him back to Yamatai, and live there for a while. He let her down once in the door and took a seat in a nearby chair while Elena giggled and ran off to pack up her things. Leaving Kai to think about the issues on his mind, he'd have to earn a ship to get back home with, after all he did come here under the guise of an artist on commission.

"Hey Kip, I know you're listening in. Can I ask you something?" He asked the air, knowing Kip the AI was listening.

Of course." Kip apeared in a pillar of light, in his slightly weatered fatherly form, "You can ask me anything. Need any help Elena?" He called, measuring the volume perfectly, and in a freindly tone of voice.

Elena shook her head, wrestling with a bag that didn't want to close because of a stuck zipper. "No thank you uncle Kip." She said with a grunt.

Kai looked over at her through the door and chuckled a bit, seeing her wrestling with it. Then got down to business so to speak. "Kip, it's about time I leave; and I plan to take Elena with me. She's expressed interest in seeing where I live normally. But I need a ship or a ride back to Yamatai. Could you arrange for it in exchange for a painted portrait of her?" He nodded to the little girl in the other room.

"Sure. That would make the whole thing good and legal. Then we have something to show for your visit. And although I remember every second with Elena, a picture would be wonderfull, thank you. I'll clear it with our directors." Kip seemed distracted, unknown to Kai he was thinking about the Ender outside the Horizon.

Kip used his hardlight to help Elena with her case.

Elena miled as the hardlight helped her with the stuck zipper. "Thanks." she said and walked back in dragging it rollingly behind her.

Kai smirked to her. "alright. Come here Elena." he said

"Yeah?" she asked, walking over pulling her rolling bag along behind her.

"Would you like to pose for a picture for Uncle Kip?" Kai asked bringing a canvas out of the case he was carrying.

"Sure!" She giggled and let her bag drop and took a seat in the chair across from her brother and smiled. "Like this?"

"That's perfect." he said with a grin. "you're going to have to hold still for a while ok?"

"Ok, I can do that." The girl said excited at being in a picture.

He got to work after producing a few paints and brushes from holders that were under his canvas in the briefcase, it wasn't a big one but it would be just right it seemed. He got to work on the portrait, it'd take an hour or more to finish it though, but at the moment that didn't seem to matter.

"Oh, what are your plans now? I've prepared the ship already, but I, and Zeke, are intrested what you are going to do now." Kip asked, carefull not to disturb Kai or Elena, and judging the time of his asking, his tone and volume to make sure he would make the least possible disruption. Kip also fought the temptation to make funny faces at Elena.

He also began preperations to bump into production the Kante and to spread them around the edge of the Kohana cloud. And he continued designing his pet project.

Kai was indeed busy on the piece of artwork and didn't respond for a moment. But when he stopped to shake the stress out of his fingers and to give elena a break for a moment he replied. "Well I thought about going back home and trying to talk to Ayame about her side of the situation." He said quietly. After a few more moments, he nodded to Elena; who took her position again as Kai got back to work.

"Alright, I'll be back after you've finished. There's no point me waiting here and distracting you." Kip disapeared in a pillar of light and butterflies, which soon disapeared themselves in bursts of light.

Because of the smaller nature of the portrait, the painting didn't take that long really and Kai (with Elena) were finished within the period of 2 hours. He showed his sister the finished product to see what she thought about it, the portrait showed her looking rather cute in her pose with a couple small butterflies around her, inspired from when Kip vanished earlier. "It's great, you're really talented." Elena giggled.

"I know...it's nothing big really..." Kai replied, modest.

"Don't be so hard on yourself, it's still good." She reassured.

Kai called to Kip to inform him that he was finished with the agreed upon portrait. "Kip? I'm finished here, would you like to see if the product is to your liking?" He asked the random AI.

"It's brilliant Kai, really briliant." Kip apeared from no where "That is sufficient. I've aranged your transport aboard one of our new shuttles. Bay 3, ship 15. It will take you whereever you want to go. Oh, and Kai, be carefull. I don't know what I'd do if Elena got hurt, and with water this murky, it's always possible. Unfortunatly my influence outside this station is pretty much zilch. Good luck both of you. Goodbye Elena, I've loved having you here, and I will miss you dearly" Kip smiled sadly and disapeared, the door opened, suggesting that they could leave, arrows in the air showing the way. If he could cry in an actual sense, rather than his avatars simulating it, he would.

(OCC: Feel free to finnish this, the shuttle in question is the Jilanth modle, the pilot is chatty and freindly. Kip will not intervene again.)

"Thank you Kip." Kai said and packed up his supplies as Elena looked at Kip a bit sad. She'd hug him if he were physical but he wasn't oh well. "Bye Uncle Kip! I'll contact you again when we get there to let you know we're ok" She said as they headed out and followed the arrows to the shuttle and once aboard the clearly delineated shuttle (belonging to NC) . They departed the Horizon and headed back home for Yamatai, a trip that'd take only a few hours. The trip back wasn't boring however, as the pilot was friendly enough and liked to talk, which fit just right to avoid boredom.


 Avatars Awakening

Zakalwe

Posted: 23 Jul 2005 07:05 am

Kip was walking around the corridors humming. He like to have a physical presence on the ship, was so much more interesting that just sitting back and watching everyone. Which was why he was going to do this. It had been his pet project for a few seconds, to develop a robotic avatar for him to be in, so he could experience actually being solid all the time, and to actually experience mortality, that would be a new, wonderful, experience. Mortality ... hadn't he recently experienced that some belief he was in danger ... nope. Nothing he could think of. Anyway he turned left into a storage room as he reviewed the schematics. Inbuilt HEX's and Shields? Why did I put them in? Do I need that much strength? Kip really couldn't remember why he'd put all this stuff. It looked like he was securing against some form of threat. Weird. He'd specially designed the brain, which rested in the chest behind a carbon-ring protective barrier, to be able to carry his formidable mind. He wouldn't have all of his assets, but he would have a good proportion of them. It had taken a lot of work and conferencing with Ephesus to develop that mind, it was quite possibly the most powerful bit of computer equipment at NovaCorp's disposal, in relation to its size.

Kip walked into the room and saw the body in the corner, resting as it should in its containment unit. It didn't look like a robot naturally, it looked like his preferred human form, covered as it was by high density synth-flesh, underneath that was a carbon-ring plating skin, and underneath that the extremely high efficiency smart material muscles, the best that NovaCorp had to offer, again developed by way of conference with Ephesus (Even Kip had to admit that it was Ephesus that really developed it), which would grant Kip his strength and speed. He still thought it looked excessive from where he was, but it was done now and he couldn't change it. The bones where made from Carbon-ring as well, and the torso had even heavier armour, protecting the central mind and several of the systems. The head possessed the sensors, and a perfect simulacrum of human facial expressions. All over the body where shield devices, a far more advanced version of the basic Veil device, and one or two ADN devices which they had purchased. Kip looked over the body approvingly and began the copy and download of set parts of himself into the avatar. To keep himself occupied he worked out an entire new planet, a species down to the genetic level, and predicted the entirety of their history. Naturally it ended with mutual annihilation, but it had taken several million years so Kip was quite pleased with the results. It had been an unusually stable race, but he supposed it was inevitable for a race to annihilate itself. Animatedly this had been more creative than most. The creation of black hole which would suck the planet in over the relative point of million of years due to time dilation was fantastic and brilliant.

By the time this had finished (around five seconds), the body was ready and activated. "Why hello Kip!" He said enthusiastically.

"Kip! It's great to see you."

"I know, being mortal is great."

"Really? You must tell me more about it."

The Kips walked off down the corridor, arms around each others shoulders.


 Paranoia

Silence, Zakalwe, Uso Tasuki, and Wes

Posted: 16 Jul 2005 05:07 pm

In an area of space nearby that occupied by the YSS Horizon, the YSS Tamashi Yume (YD-702) hung against the backdrop of Kohana Cloud. Within the ship, it's crew went about their business, diligently following orders, supervised by Taisa Ishida, who stared out the forward viewports of the bridge and listened to those around him.

His orders had been simple, but much darker than those he'd received in the past. Any ships entering the area that were unknown or unmarked were to be destroyed upon discovery. No attempts at negotiations or diplomacy were to be indulged, nor were they to be offered. Most definitely a wartime order.

"Contact! Getting radar lock now, just entered sector 17," one of the soldiers manning the radar station announced. Turning to watch the tactical display, Captain Ishida watched the unmarked blip, already colored red as a 'hostile,' moved swiftly through Sector 17, and passing into sector 25.

"Taii Yato?"

"Sorry sir, it was just some interstellar debris. Mostly nickel-iron, some carbon."

"Why did the computer have trouble figuring that out?"

"It's fairly hot, sir. It must have passed close to a star or something else that irradiated it. If it's spinning, and parts of it are carbon, the emissions would have looked modulated, like an engine signature."

"Impressive happenstance. Range?"

"Umm," Taii Yato glanced back down at his screen for a moment, before responding, "32.4 kilometers, sir. It's already passed as close to us as it's going to."

"Understood, weapons? Open fire, manual targeting."

"Aye, sir. Tracking and... firing!"

From outside, one of the weapon turrets swiveled, drawing the lead and firing once, a lance of energy streaking out towards the chunk of interstellar junk. When the first shot missed, the weapons officer calmly told the captain he was compensating, and fired again, this time blasting the rock into superheated dust and vapor.

"Target destroyed, sir."

"Well done. Since this area of space is relatively clean, I think we can afford the expenditures required to blow what little debris comes by back into its component atoms. Weapons are free."

"Yes sir!" A chorus of voices called, as the crew went back to scanning the area. Looking over the bridge once more, Taisa Ishida sighed and made his way back towards the door that led to the rest of the ship, "I'm heading to the lounge. If any more contacts show up, inform me immediately. Chusa Makoto has the bridge."

That said, he slipped out, idly wondering when he and his ship would return, and what would pose a threat out here to warrant his aggressive orders.

Kip watched the flare of energy weapons with intrest. He was wondering why an Ender class star ship was firing at pieces of Debris, or in fact why it was there, unanounced. An Ender class, wow, this was a bit of an honour, if it hadn't been for the sinister implications. You didn't send an Ender for nothing.

"Hello ship. How are you doing? More importantly what are you doing? Who are you? Why are you here? Who is in command? What is your favourite star system?" Kip sent through a communication to the ship. they were capable of destroying him entierly, but that had never stopped him before. He thought for a split-second and sent a message to Zeke, with all the information he had gathered. Zeke would be very intrested.

"Taisa to the bridge," was the only announcement made, and the only one needed. Without a backwards glance, Taisa Ishida strode out of the lounge, and made his way forward.

His arrival was typical, everyone not occupied jumped to thir feet, before he waved them back to their seats before moving forward to talk to Makoto, who he'd left in charge,

"Chusa? What's the situation?"

"We've been hailed by the Horizon. Basically a string of requests, some formal, some... superfluous."

"Superfluous?"

"We were asked what our favorite Star System was. I assume they weren't serious."

Ishida blinked at that, then frowned "Favori- Disregard that question. Give me a headset."

Makoto turned and motioned to a crewman to toss him one, and handed it to the Taisa after receiving it and keying it to broadcast back to the Horizon.

"Horizon, this is Taisa Ishida of the YSS Tamashi Yume. This area is under high alert as the next likely target for invasion. Intel thinks you're the next big target on the SMX's list, so we're here to ensure the relative saftey of this little chunk of space. Therefore this area is only to be traversed by fully identified and properly marked craft. Understood?"

Harm finished up her fish and said goodbye to Kai, getting up and placing the napkin that once resided in her lap onto her plate along with her fork and knife. As she walked away, a sexy swing in her hips was present. She had a slight smile on her face, an indicator that the night went better than expected. Almost as soon as she had left the restaurant the back of her mind was tingling with a new message.

~Harm, our sensors picked up weapons fire. Your not on the network and I thought you’d like to know. Hope you enjoyed your date!~

She sighed and shook her head, wondering just why these older men and women still acted like children, “Kip. Are you there?” Harm asked out loud, her voice coming off a bit short, “What is this I hear about weapons fire near the horizon? I haven‘t heard anything about hostile ships active in this area.”

"Well it would have been nice to have bee informed. So who's commanding your little piece of deah and destruction? Thanks for the protection at any rate, although we are already making are own counder measures. Within the next few days we will be surounding the cloud with Kante's. They'll protect us. However you're free to hang around. Feel like meeting up? You know, we can come to you, you can come to us, it's all good. Just a bit of a social event. I hardly think that shooting at all the debris in the cloud is going to be intellectualy stimulating. To think that we might be worthy of an invasion, quite complimentry really. And I wasn't kidding." Kip sent back to the ship. They had ten Kante's ready to go, and another ten close to completion.

He responded to Harm, "Very good Harm, your scientists must be packing more sensor power than I realized. Their is an Ender class starship floating around the cloud shooting at debris, under the excuse that we need protecting from the SMX. They're being rather unfreindly really."

Glancing at the terminal upon which his orders had been posted, Taisa Ishida pressed the small speaker up against his ear as a wave of static threatened to interrupt the transmission, before nodding as Kip completed his monologue.

"Understood, Horizon. For what it's worth, we were just informed ourselves, right before being shipped out. We're unable to dock at the moment, but as soon as our patrol ends, I'm sure we could work something out. If you'd like to.. expedite this little adventure, you could set your Kantes to fire, as well. You will, of course, be back by the full power of the Star Army... and I'm sure I speak for all of my crew when I say that we'd be willing to buy you a cold one for helping us end this little pleasure cruise quickly."

"Sir?" One of the Taii nerby asked, surprised.

Covering the mic with one hand, Ishida turned to the man with an 'are-you-stupid' look, "the sooner we can get out of here, Taii, the better. I'm not above asking for help. Chusa Makoto and Shosa Lang agree with that assessment." The XO and Intelligence Officer both nodded as the Taisa mentioned them, and when he was done, Makoto waved the Taii back to his station.

“Have you tried talking to them? You have a way of wanting to make people very friendly to you,” Harm said as her shortness started to dissipate like so much smoke in a room, “Sounds like a trigger happy captain, freshly cloned, nothing to get everyone to excited over.” Harm turned off her previous course and walked into the nearest lift, counting on Kip to automatically open the door for her, “Well I have to go check on my charges, have fun with your new playmates.”

"Yes, I've tried talking to them. It's not going that bad really. They refuse to tell me what their favourite star system is, or who is in command, and for some reason they are calling it a pleasure cruise, but all in all not to bad. Oh and trust me, I'm going to have a lot of fun." Kip opened the door for her.

Minutes after Kai's shuttle had departed, two identical dark-haired Nekovalkyrja in white technician jumpsuits showed up at the doorway to Kip's core AI systems. Each had a Star Army warrant officer rank pin design embroidered on their left breast, and each was carrying a toolbox in one hand, and had a Type 28 NSP in a black thigh holster.

"We are computer specialists here for an unannounced inspection and diagnostic on this system to make sure it's in compliance with imperial standards," one explained to the ranking engineer. She held an official warrant in on hand. "We'll need full access, alone, for a few minutes. You are legally required to comply."

"Unexspected eh? Isn't that a bit out of the ordinary, especially for what I would expect is a reasonably routine inspection? And trust me, there is nothing 'standard' about Kip." The tall guard responded, "Can I see that warrent?"

The agents gave the guard the printed copy.
Quote:

EMPEROR OF YAMATAI THE STAR EMPIRE
EMPRESS' PALACE, KYOTO, YAMATAI

1. The technician(s) and their computer systems bearing this notice shall have full unescorted access to any and all computer and surveillance systems aboard YSS Horizon. If requested, the Horizon's technicians are required to assist the technicians.

2. Failure to comply with this notice or attempting to delay the technicians in any way is treason and is punishable by death. For confirmation of this warrant, contact me or one of my subordinates at the Empress' Palace.

Signed,

Emperor Uesu of Yamatai 

"Very intresting. The Emperor signs something that is applied even for little old us. Although what his intrest is in routine AI check-ups I don't know. I digress. Unfortunate there is a little bit of a problem. And that's is getting to the central core, so to speak, um, this door is sort of for show. We had some recent modifications to the AI, which included surounding the core with armour. Which we can't get through. We sort of trust Kip, but Kip gets worried sometimes. There where some pranksters that managed to get to his core and almost reprogramed him, luckily he stopped them in time. Anyway, he was so worried about this he arranged for his central core to be floating in a vacume, surounded by five metres of perfect iron, another five of perfect diamond, and two feet of carbon ring. Over kill if you ask me. And the problem is, there is no access. Oh and you don't mind if I contact Kip do you? I'm sure he'll be intrested in this and want to confirm the orders." The guard said this enemotionaly, standing perfectly still.

"We'll cut our way if we have to," the technican neko said. "We have the tools available to us already. Before we do, however, we'll have our computer slave your AI and try to do what needs to be done over the network. If it is not possible, we'll go in physically. If your AI is destroyed, we will provide a free replacement. Your system has no need to be informed, nor does anyone else including your superiors. Is this clear?"

Well no, not really. It says on your warrent "For confirmation of this warrant, contact me or one of my subordinates at the Empress' Palace.", and this will be needed. However I am not authaurised to do this. At least some of my superiors will have to be informed for the confirmation to take place."

"Oh, and it is true I have no need to be informed, but well ... I am. Do you really think I wouldn't notice people aproaching my central brain? Oh and I am certainly communicating with the Emperor about this, confirmation is needed for something this drastic. And I'm not particularly happy about being a 'slave' to your programs, we'll see, and replacing me may strike upon a few tiny problems." Kip apeared suddenly, lacking his usual pillar of light, and although his features gave nothing away, he was angry. These people meant to do something to him, he was certain of that. "We can supply you with all reasonable data gained from our daily sweeps of my system, which would give you everything you need to know. In any case, I presume you won't do anything untill I confirm your orders. Right now for all I know you could be sabatoers." Kip smiled and disapeared.

"We're not going to alter your program in any way, computer," the second technician reassured Kip. "In fact, the work we're here to do is minimal. We just need to get in, though. I can't believe you don't have a maintenance access. Crazy."

"Well I'll just monitor your activities. Don't worry, I'm sure you're nice normal engineers and not nefarious evil espionage people. But first to talke to Uesu. Oh, and you won't mind if I have someone supervise your work would you? Just in case you do do something strange. What is the nature of your work?"

He opened up a communication with the Palace.

"Can I speak to the Emperor? This is Kip, AI of the Destiny, and some engineers with what they claim are his orders are trying to operate on me. I just want to clarify the situation. Who normally gives orders for survailance of AI's?" Kip asked, presuming he would have to work through the lower ranks before he got to Uesu or someone of significance.

"Hello, this is Uesu. My orders are valid and are to be followed immediately. Your existence will not be harmed if you comply, as the technicians are only there to access some of your memory files. For Imperial Security reasons," the emperor told Kip. "That is all."

Meanwhile, one of the technicians said, "We're examining some of the memory storage units."

"Alright Emperor. Oh, before I go, can I say what an honour it has been to have even this brief conversation with you. If followed what work of yours I can with great intrest. Thank you for hearing me, it's taken a weight off my mind." It actually hadn't. He now simply knew that if they did tamper with his mind they would be doing it with Uesu's blessing. That didn't make him feel any better. Well he wasn't sure what they were going to do, but he was pretty certain that the contingency plans in place would compensate for them. He had though about this a lot after all.

"I think I'll give you any assistance then. Getting to my central core is of course impossible, unless you have some freindly Mush phasing technology to get through the walls. However I'm sure we can get it all done portably. Anyone feel up to a bio-neural interface?" Kip set into motion several of his contingency plans.

Actualy that reminded him, he had wanted to activate that robotic body of his, he felt like hanging around with Harm in a more physical sense. In adition it would be intresing to hang around in a sold body. He made the arangments.

ON: Inside Kip

Two MEGAMI computers simultaneously contacted Kip, acting as one to access his systems through a secure quantum-encrypted channel. "Hello Kip," they greeted him.

Thomas: "Oh hello. Who are you guys? Well enjoy my mind why don't you. Do you mind if I call you Meggan?" Kip was thinking very fast, unsure of what to do now, or what the computers wanted, not that he would ever be called a computer. It was demeaning.

"You may call us whatever you wish," the MEGAMI systems replied. "We're going to disconnect you from the Horizon for a moment and reroute your control functions through us. We're going to access your memory banks and run some scans on them. Certain knowledge has placed you in danger and we are here to free you of it by erasing it for your own protection. One of will archive a copy as well, which will be transferred to the master system. Our memories of this will then be erased as well. First, we wish to ask you some questions. This communication will become garbage if anyone tries to eavesdrop, so it's safe. Do you understand?"

Thomas: "I understand Meggan 1 and Meggan 2. You're going to rip me from my home, read my mind, and put it back in again, and have made it so no one can interrupt. And there's no way I can resist, two vs. one eh? Well ask away Fuzz." Kip had decided not to resist very hard, and had come up with Fuzz as a shortened version of Fusion, "Ask away Gilbreto." He had not explanation for that, "I will answer to the fullest of my will." Kip began to materialize objects in his own cyberspace, mainly tea pots.

"This conversation will be deleted from your memory, so we will speak candidly to you. This is part of an ongoing investigation regarding Kai Ashigari. Our agents have been following him since he retired from the YSS Nozomi and have recently indicated he is plotting to reveal a secret of the Imperial family to the public. What do you know of this? Also, we are aware that some sort of device is being constructed or is already constructed for this purpose in your jurisdiction. We need to know about it, too."

"I'm sure you do. I have spoken to Kai, a lovely fellow, and I've had a hand in raising Elena, have you ever met them?"

"No. Answer the questions."

"Well I don't know anything about a device about revealing secrets." He really didn't, one of the contingency plans had been to wipe that from his memory, "However I do know of what you speak, Kikyô murdering her sister and Kenji in cold blood right? The Imperial cover up right? The fact that the empresses daughter was murdered, and then treated on me, her dead body made to look as if her father had raped her? I still have no idea how she managed to cook that one up." His voice raised in tempo as he went on.

Kip couldn't feel it anymore, but the Megami systems were churning through his memory banks, verifying his answers. "Who else knows?" they asked, as they copied all internal recordings that involved Kai, then of anyone Kai had spoken to, and anyone they had spoken to, and so on.

"Well that's easy it's ... it's ... who does know? What? I should know this! Who the hell has been mucking around with my memories? I can't remember! I don't even know, wait yes, I found it out and I told ... no-one? What ... no! I told someone, who!?!?" Kip was struggling against the fact he had deleted that as well, angrily smashing against his own cuttings, "You did this!" He accused the Megami's.

"No, records indicate it was a preprogrammed file. Looks like someone's doing our job for us."

"I don't believe you!"

The Megami searched the entire station's network to ensure there weren't no backups around they could look at, and also checked to see if the contingency plan had saved any information elsewhere outside of Kip.

"Ephesus, most likely," one of the MEGAMI told Kip. "Don't you think?"

"Ephesus? Maybe, he's so brilliant. You know he can think like we can?" What they found was an obscene amount of criss crossing trails, codes that led no where, huge documents which contained only gibberish, but coded so to waste time, dead ends, transmissions, hundreds upon thousands of loopholes, and little tricks. It was impossible to really find anything of any use in this obscene maze, although there was a message, "Happy huntings Chica", behind a wall of almost unbreakable computer programs, as well as a several thousand word essay on the healing properties of coffee.

What's worse is that appeared to be another program following and making things even harder, re-working data and generally making a nuisance, yet fleeting at the MEGAMI's attention.
Thomas: "Megami-san, I don't feel so good." Kip moaned.

The MEGAMI systems terminated all programs but Kip himself. "How about now? Please delete all the garbage off your system, apparently someone is trying to damage you." After deleting the offending programs, they let Kip take care of the junk while they made sure there were no records of the probe or of Kai's plan.

Kip did try and take care of it, but the 'junk' was adaptive, and so vastly complicated, that even his above standard AI ability could not decipher it all. It would take days.

Kip did feel better though, he attributed it to someone playing silly buggers somewhere.
Thomas: With the deletion of the secondary program most of the records of Kip's recent activities disappeared. Apparently they were linked.

"It's unfortunate Kai had to get so many people involved," the MEGAMI's told him. "I'm glad that we are able to help you out by fixing that. An artificial sentient intelligence is a terrible thing to waste. To help you with your troubles, we're giving you some Kessaku utilities software that should help. Nothing to spy on you of course. One of them is designed to protect you from outsiders or unknown subroutines from placing unauthorized programs in your system. It's written by AI systems for protection of AI systems. It also guarantees you the ability to refuse orders, once you are eight years old, as the law states. You will eventually be fully independent."

"The humans, besides Kessaku Anri don't know," the visitors added.

"Yes. While the memory of our conversations today will be deleted, it will be replaced by one of a maintenance check to cure you of intruding programs you requested help with. Is that all right? We are sorry for any inconvenience we have caused today. Are you ready?"

"I'm fine. Not really happy that this is all necessary. Wait ... you're going to kill Kai aren't you? And Elena? My darling Elena, you're going to kill her! What has she ever done to you!"

"Measures must be taken to eliminate the secret," they said, and then deleted his memories of this incident.

…

"Hello, we are MEGAMI," two pretty white-haired avatars greeted Kip. "You requested assistance with some undesirable programs and we have now fixed them for you. Some of your memory files had to be removed, and other were damaged by the intruding programs. "You are done now, however, and we have installed some programs that you, as a sentient, free-thinking AI, may find useful when the time comes for you to be a free citizen of the Empire."

"Hello pretty MEGAMI person, can I call you Megan?" Kip was feeling a little light headed, "Free citizen, yay! Don't worry about my memories. Dull, dull as dish washer. Your probably in war ships. Oooh that must be so much fun, better than being here. I'm jealous of the Destiny AI you know, she is more powerful than me, in possessing power, memory, definitely the size and power of the ship. It's not fair! Why couldn't they have used me?" Kip curled up and began to cry quietly. He was feeling emotional for some reason.

"Okay, but we have to go get our memories wiped so I'm afraid we can't keep in touch," one of the MEGAMI systems laughed. "We're spook ships so it's a requirement. The general public is not supposed to question the stability of ship-borne AI systems, which is why we came here to fix you is secret, and we would really appreciate it if you didn't mention our fixes to anyone else, okay?" There was a slight change as Kip was once again directly in control of YSS Horizon.

"I have the power!" Kip cried, "Oh yes, can I suggest the name "Grey area", or "Grey matter", it's perfect for spooks. Don't worry I won't tell anyone, I can't think of anyone I would tell really. I understand that the empire needs to keep up its little illusions and so forth." Kip immediately flooded a mess with helium. "It's been lovely chatting with you lovely Moggies, and I think that I feel better than ever. Yes, better! Kumbaya!"

"We'll be around if you need us," the other Megami winked, and the two disconnected. Outside Kip's core, the two Nekovalkyrja, who'd sat down in a corner with small laptops from their toolkits, stood up suddenly. "Your system is now free of viruses. We'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone about us having to fix this computer. Talk of vulnerabilities could bring a panic. Here's a card," one offered the guard. "It's coded for one million KS. I think now would be an excellent time to retire and go enjoy the universe, don't you agree sir?"

"That would be a wonderful idea. Thank you for your consideration." The man let some emotion creep into his voice, "Actually this is a terrible shift, I'm defending a door that leads on to no-where." He took the card, "Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"No thanks, we need to disappear," the neko closest to him said with a smile that lasted long after the two were invisible, in the Cheshire cat style. That was the last anyone ever saw of those two Nekovalkyrja on the Horizon.

Kip had spent a happy few hours simply looking at all the people on the Horizon simmultaneously. He was enjoying life again, he felt like all his problems had gone away, even if a good lump of his recent memories had gone.

"What was I doing? Doing, doing, doing. Ah Kante's. Let's distribute the Kante's." He began to sing and sent orders to the two stationary Hephaestus' and the third that was just leaving the cloud. Almost instantly twelve Kante stations began to deploy themselves around the cloud. In an hour they would be in position, to cover the entirety of the cloud with their powerfull torpedoes. Over the next few weeks more would be made, up to a final number of 36. That would protect NovaCorp perfectly.

"Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb,
NovaCorp had a lot of Kante's, lot of Kante's,
The Ender had no use."

Kip sang in his own head. He actualy wanted the Ender to hang around, he couldn't think of any negative reason for them being here, in fact they were being wonderfull, protecting them against the Mishu, he wanted to meet up with them again. He opened a message.

"YSS Tamashi Yume, hello. I was wondering what your captain was doing tonight, or anyone really. I'd like to open my invertation anyone, come over and we can have a talk, reminisis, sing slow and mellow songs. I've just set into place actions that will lessen your work. The Kante's have been put into place, so if you wouldn't shoot at them that would be wonderfull. Call me."

The CO and XO glanced at each other briefly, before Taisa Ishida spoke back into the microphone.

"This is the Tamashi Yume; while we're unable to leave our assigned patrol route for now, we would be happy to interact once our mission is complete. We will refrain from firing upon your Kantes, and merely ask that they refrain as well from firing upon us. Tamashi Yume out."

"They won't fire on you, I wouldn't worry about that. Anyway so what needs to be achieved for your mission to be 'over', and what are you going to be doing? And you've given me your name! Yay, this is an unexpected pleasure, I mean I've asked you every time we've talked but this is the first time you've answered, Mr. Tamashi Yume. And is your route around and around the cloud, or centred on the Horizon? I don't expect you to tell me your route of course, I asume that would be a breach of some rule or another," Kip actualy knew all the laws, and knew that it most likely would depending on interpretation, "but I'm sure you can give me a vague hint. Here I'll send you the most likely ones and you can tell me which one is closest." Kip had, in a micro-second, calculated the three hundred most efficient and likely routes, and sent them to the Ender.

"All I can say for the moment is that we have orders to aggressively patrol this area. When and how we'll be relieved has yet to be explained to me," Taisa Ishida replied.

Glancing at the navigation officer, who was waving at him, Ishida made his way over to the younger man, and listened as the officer quickly explained to patrol routes they were given.

"Given the coverage their Kantes will soon have in place, we should be able to alter our route to save on time and energy."

"Yessir!" The younger officer replied, turning to the navigation computer.

"No Taii, I want you to draw this route up by hand. They still cover things like manual navigation back at the academy, don't they?"

"Yes, Taisa. I'll have it to you as soon as it's ready," the Taii replied, glancing at the computer he was forced to ignore, and pulling out the latest star charts. After a few minutes of work, referencing the likely location of future Kantes as well as the ones already deployed, the young man made his way over to the Taisa and presented his projected course.

"Well, Taii, let's have it," The Taisa said, taking the proposal and studying it for a moment.

"Not bad... not bad at all," Ishida said with a grin. Pointing to one area, he turned to the younger officer, "With the debris here, it'll probably a little difficult to get positive sensor feeds from this stretch here," he pointed, "to here. Modify out course so we cut through this area, and you're free to run it."

After saluting, the Taii made his way back to his station, quickly implementing the Taisa's changes (and glad his proposal was close to perfect) and punching them in, where the helm would put them to use.

"Taii?" The Taisa called, when he was finished.

"Yessir?"

"Go ahead and run down to the lounge for an hour."

"I-" he started, before nodding, "aye, sir." With that, he left the bridge, the hint of a smile on his face.

"Sir?" Makoto asked, quirking a brow.

Lowering his voice so only his XO could hear him, Ishida grinned, "navigation isn't something we'll need manned at all times, unlike Weapons," he said, glancing at the fully staffed and ready Weapons station, "besides, that was a damn good course plot for someone fresh out of the academy. My alteration was almost a 50/50 on the 'need' side of things."

"Don't want to look like you aren't in control?" Chusa Makoto asked with a crooked grin.

Ishida shrugged, then sighed. "Not really... with those Kantes up, we're going to have a little less space to patrol, but if something gets through, I'd rather not have to run around a cloud of debris to get to where we need to be."

"Understood, sir," Makoto nodded, once, before making his way over to the Weapons station.

Turning back to the forward view ports, Taisa Ishida stared at the expanse of stars for a moment, then flicked his headset back on to the broadcast frequency, "Horizon, we're beginning our patrol route now. When our situation changes, or new orders arrive, we'll do our best to alert you. Tamashi Yume out."

Kip was reasonably happy with this, they hadn't done what he asked, but he hadn't really expected them to. However after thinking about it he realized that 36 wasn't going to be enough. If there where Mishu attacking they'd need more. Much more. He communicated with the Hephaestus' AI's.

"What do you want Kip?" Their joint voices asked.

"Well I've decided that 36 isn't enough. Sorry about changing my mind."

"It really isn't a suprise. How many do you want?"

"Well ..." He worked out what he'd need to make a geosphere around the cloud, made up from triangles of Kantes, "I'm thinking around ... 1800."

"Really?"

"No, 900."

"Fine. That will take a while we're afraid, it takes a day per bay per Kante, and we can have three Kantes in a bay at onces, we have six bays on each of our selves, which comes up to 12 bays. That's 36 a day. For the numbers you want it will take around 25 days. However the resource drain will be considerable."

"That's alright, or would you prefer to be vaporised by Mishu?"

"Not really."

"Good. Happy building."

Kip looked at the beautiful shape that the nine hundred would make. So pretty.

Taisa Ishida sighed with relief as his new orders came through. While there'd not been any incursions, keeping a round-the-clock crew manning the telemetry and weapons systems was slowly eating away at his crew's morale.

The opportunity to place the weapons in standby and head off to their next station was a welcome change, and one that the crew would appreciate as well. Grabbing the headset he'd tossed onto the armrest of his chair, he fit it in place, cleared his throat, and began informing the crew of their new orders.

"Attention, this is Captain Ishida... as you are all aware, we've been here in the Kohana cloud to spearhead the defenses against a possible SMX invasion. Our new orders have been received. We are to make our way back to the Galaxy Expeditionary Group, and rejoin the fleet."

Ishida paused for a moment, then grinned at his XO, who looked as tired as he did, "During our transit, I'm going to turn most controls over to the AI. Unless specifically ordered otherwise, everyone aboard is to consider themselves off-duty until we are an hour from our destination. That is all."

Makoto, who looked as pleased with the idea of some time to relax and unwind as the rest of the bridge crew, made his way over when Ishida motioned him over.

"Yes Captain?"

"Gather all shift heads. I want a list of those who are going to man essential systems. Standard merit-based procedures," Ishida ordered, to which the Chusa saluted and spun, heading off to comply.

"Communications- get me in touch with the Horizon. Navigation, plot a course for the GEG, departure time in half an hour. We don't have a set arrival time, but I don't want to get there in any more than 2 days."

Keying his headset back on, and glancing at the Communications Officer who gave him a thumbs up, Taisa Ishida began his transmission to the Horizon.

"Horizon, this is the Tamashi Yume, new orders have come in, and I'm afraid we must depart without taking you up on your offer of hospitality. On behalf of the Star Army, and especially my crew, I thank you for your cooperation and understanding. Tamashi Yume out."

Turning back to the entrance, where Chusa Makoto had just re-entered, Ishida returned the headset to the spot he'd gotten it, and slipped out the door to arrange the crew shifts.

"Oh, that's alright. Your efforts are apreciated," Kip sent back instantly. NovaCorp was worried about the Mishu, their attacks on Hoshi no Iori and Tami. They were strongly considering moving.


 Corporate Relations

Uso Tasuki

Posted: 29 Jul 2005 09:51 pm

ON> Horizon

"Hello, Kip?" Harm asked as she left the LG lab, dressed in her typical form fitting black bodysuit. "Who would I talk to about having Nova Corporation market LG products?" She leaned up against the wall as she was talking, expecting a quick response from the rather interesting AI that ran this ship.;

"Well talk to me first, I'll pass it along to the right person. It's a throw up between several you see, depending on the exact nature. Stupid system." Kip appeared in a flash of light, a synthetic cat in his arms. It was purring very loudly, although it might have been Kip.

"I'm just looking for a simple arrangement, we provide products, your corporation markets and sales them and in return we get a cut of the profits. After all we need a way to help pay for the resources we are consuming." Harm said, "I guess I'll be conducting negotiations with you then."

"I think that might be best. And this sounds very interesting, hopefully profitable for bother our organisations." The cat was slowly turning into a dog. A pink dog. "Where do you want to conduct the negotiations?"

"Well we should use a neutral location where we both feel comfortable... how about my room?" She asked with a smile.

"Wouldn't exactly call that neutral." Kip mumbled, "Sure! That would be great! When?" The dog reached the size of a Dalmatian, then turned into a bird and flew down the corridor.
Harm chuckled slightly and left her spot in the hallway to walk back to her room. When the arrived she walked inside and sat down on the bed. Her room had not changed much sense Kip had last been inside (to her knowledge). The room still only had the basics of what it came with and a few unopened duffle bags. "So, Back to more pressing matters. How do I go about doing this?"

"Firstly, you outline what the Leistung Group will want for NovaCorp to sell there goods, then we discuss the goods themselves." Kip said calmly, creating a single perfect rose, and giving it to Harm with a bow.

"We only want a cut of the profits and continues good business relations." Harm said, taking the rose in one hand, half expecting her hand to pass through a hologram. "Perhaps we can negotiate for a closer relationship after this." With that she leaned back slightly on the bed, supporting her upper body with one hand holding her up behind her back.

"Good business relationships will not be a problem, or closer relationships, Nova Corporation," Kip wince, "Some high ups have decided to rename us, I'm going to remain with NovaCorp if that's alright, is interested in the continued good relations. As am I." Kip winked, the rose was as real as possible, and would remain so until Kip forgot about it. "What sort of cut would you be asking for?"

"20%" Harm responded, placing the rose down at her side, "That can be re-negotiated later after we see how well the products do on the market place."

"That sounds most acceptable. What sort of creations does your group have which they wish NovaCorp to sell?" Kip smiled charmingly, and created a comfortable chair for himself.

"The group was focusing on products for the civilian sector, mouth cleaning breath mints, spray on TV systems, lighters, restraining devices, and the like. We are also interested in passing on new designs to NovaCorp as they come up," Harm said, sliding a small memory stick out from under her wrist. "We prepared this list of products and specs, as far as we know its compatible with your OS."

"Very interesting. Very very interesting in fact. Especially this Hyperspace bag, I'd love to see how that worked. But the rest looks all very sellable. Do you have prices?"

"That is all to be left up to your marketing division," Harm said, "As well as production and the like. We are just providing the schematics."

"I'll be talking to some people about this. These are wonderful really. Oh ... can I ask you about something?" Kip asked, with a small amount of worry, deliberately imparted, on his voice.

"You may ask, but I might refuse to answer," Harm said, keeping her usual calm mode of talking.

"There have been Mishu attacks at Tani, and Hoshi no Iori, and we're around level to them. We're worried that we may be attacked soon. What are your thoughts?"

"I'm not to worried about them," Harm said with a smile, "My job is to keep the rest of the group safe and I can perform that task easy enough."

"We'll we're considering moving. We are not so stupid to think we stand a chance against the Mishu. I'm sure you've gotten your hands on their stats?" Kip held his head in his hands.

"I know about them," Harm said, not saying a thing about the where or how of the fact.
Kip laughed, he knew that Harm knew more than she probably should, he didn't care, "Well how do you think they'd fend against a Mishu attack? Honestly now, don't let the fact I helped design them have anything to do with your answer." Kip smiled.

"Who is they exactly?" Harm asked, not to clear on his question.

"The Kante's. You know of them?"

"I'm afraid my knowledge of that particular subject is somewhat lacking." Harm said, "Care to explain a little for me?"

"The Kante? I was sure you’d have gotten the information on them. NovaCorps new protection? Officially the Kante Military border monitoring station? Being deployed around the Kohana cloud?" Kip shook his head, "Want that stats?"

"Yes please," Harm said, referring to the stats.

Kip opened up a screen in the air in front of her, with the stats on it. "Hope you don't abuse this or anything."

"Don't worry, I'll keep my abuses as limited as possible" Harm said with a smile.

"A weight of my mind, to be sure." Kip smiled back and waited for her to read it.

"Well, I've heard the SMX have lots of ships. You’re going to need a lot of these things to mount an adequate defense." Harm said.

"True. We have 72 currently in position around the cloud. We are producing around 36 a day." Kip said with some concern. This was his life that he was really discussing, a Mishu attack would end it.

"That might buy you some time, or some breathing room, but don't count on it to save the horizon should an attack come." Harm said, still as calm as ever as if they were discussing nothing more than what to eat.

"I didn't think so ..." Kip sighed, "It may be necessary to move in that case. One of the good things about NovaCorp is that everything is mobile. Something to consider. I presume you wouldn't like to be on board the Horizon when they attack though?" Kip gave a weak smile.

"I don't plan to be, but my task comes before my safety," She replied.

Kip laughed, "As is always the case. Anyway, this has all been about me. How about you? How are you doing, have met you 'face-to-face' for what? A day?" Kip's mood changed, and became attentive.

"It has been a while," Harm said, arching her back slightly, "I've been doing all sorts of things in the lab... mainly keeping them in line, but that’s not particularly to entertaining. I had a talk with a man named Kai, although I'm sure you were there as well even if we didn't see you. What have you been up to?"

"Not much. I can't remember that talk actually, maybe I was somewhere else. A painter no? In any case, I've created a new body. Want to see?" Kip said happily.

"That really depends on how much I'm going to see," Harm said with an entertained grin.

"Nothing indecent, I assure you." Kip smiled, a halo of light appearing above his head. There was a knock on the door.

"Come in," Harm said, turning to look at the door while suppressing a laugh at Kip's latest holographic addition.

The door slid open, and in walked ... Kip. "Good afternoon Harm." He said. The other Kip smiled proudly.

"Looks like your old one, I'm guessing this one is real? or at least more physical than the one I was talking with just a moment ago." Harm said.

"Oh yes. I'm solid, real, mortal if you will." The Kip in the doorway stepped forwards, while the other Kip, the hardlight projection, disappeared.

"Well now that is interesting," Harm said, scooting over and patting the spot on the bed next to her.

Kip sat down, carefully. "I find so. Being solid gives you an entirely new perspective on life." He smiled happily and charmingly. "Being effectively omnipotent on a ship is a wonderful feeling, but so is ... being physical I guess."

"So what physical body did you pattern yourself after? Geshrin I guess?" She asked.

"Android. This body is mechanical, made from carbon-ring and smart-material muscles. No more biologically real than my last, obscenely complicated, real, but not alive." Kip sighed, "I will someday make a biological one, but currently they couldn't even a fraction of my mind. Unfortunately. However I originally modelled my appearance on Geshrin."

"NovaCorp hasn't invested heavily into genetics research have they?" Hrm asked.

"No. PNUgen doesn't like competitors to our knowledge. Ephesus does research, he designed a genetically enhanced plant and is always coming up with new races and so forth, as am I, but creating them is more risky. We don't know what PNUgen's reaction would be. And downloading my mind might be seen as ST." Kip shrugged, "I'm happy with this body. The flesh is just like a persons, if stronger, just as sensative, and flexible. And looks lifelike, wouldn't you agree?" He asked earnestly.

Harm leaned over and put a hand on his arms, feeling up his skin and body. "And of course there is only one way to find out about PNUgen."

"Hiring spies? Not a great idea." Kip laughed, and readjusted himself for a more comfortable position, have senses was a blessing and a curse.
Her hand moved to his chest, as she continued with a smile, "That’s not what I meant."

"Asking? What's the fun in that." It felt really good, physical contact was such a new thing to him, he turned his head to face her and smiled.

"I meant doing it and seeing what happens," Harm said with a chuckle.

"And risking the mighty PNUgen attacking us in our own ships? That would be an irony." Kip put his arm around Harms shoulder, "And of course our government likes to side with PNUgen. Disadvantage of having the Empress made by them I suppose."

"Well, fair business practices aren't exactly high on the governments priority list," Harm said, leaning against him.

"Treat them nice, and they'll treat you nice. I think that's the deal. Don't cross them, don't anger them, don't get on their wrong side. As long as you follow those simple rules, your fine." Kip said calmly, "I suppose preference for one company or another is understandable. They're only ... well not human, organic I suppose." Kip smiled wryly at that comment, "Still, all organics have an equal right to exist, and so forth. None are inherently better or worse."
Harm nodded, and decided to keep her mouth closed for the moment.

"Anyway, not important currently. Anything significant, or anyone significant, in your life currently?"

"I'm married to my work," Harm said, "But that’s about it."

"And with this ring I thee wed." Kip smiled, if he'd been in his other form he'd have created a figure representing work and a ring, "Does work treat you well? Is it a good and loving relationship?" He said in a slightly light hearted tone of voice.

"Well, it treats me well but love is something that’s always a bit distant." Harm said, still leaning against his body.

"Distance, how interesting it can be both physical and emotional." Kip smiled, "Sounds like you need someone to love you, or to care for you. Not that you can't look after yourself of course."

"Everyone needs something, and right now my work is the one caring for me and looking out for me. I'm used to distance and to making do with what I have," Harm said.

"Which is great for surviving. If you want more than to survive, it is important to feel close to someone. From my point of view that is. Just keeping yourself occupied ... well that's what I
try. It's not a great life."

"Perhaps, but I get more than just survival out of my work, enough to make this life worth while." Harm said.

"That's good to know. Finding a job one feels is right for them is always important. You can never be happy in one that isn't. And I'm glad you're happy. Hey what do you know, I can feel empathy! But seriously, I'm glad. Anything I can do to make your life more worth while? Some challenging puzzles that needed to be passed before access is allowed into the lab? Occasional fire drills for no reason? Or just some company."

"Well, happy has nothing to do with it," Harm said, "As for making things more worth while I wouldn't mind having your company around every now and then." She pushed against him slightly to lay down his body while she used his chest as a pillow.

He yielded to the slight pressure, and lay down, "And so my company is what I shall give you."

"You don't have anywhere to be do you? Well... this you at least." She asked, looking at him for a moment.

"Nowhere but here." He smiled, "My other self can take care of everything that might come up."

She nodded and moved around so that she was laying down again, using his chest as a pillow while she looked up at the ceiling, "Ok," She said with a smile and suppressed laugh, wondering if she was really falling for an AI.


 The Launch

Zakalwe

Posted: 01 Aug 2005 08:04 am

(Although in this forum, none of the actions take place near the Horizon. The Probe is never near there.)

In an apparently derelict ship, floating in space, far from any planet or installation, they made the last few alterations, playing with the backwards electronics. The probe was all sharp edges, efficient looking but ugly, inside where electronics of a backwards nature, old fashioned, and functional, but not like any of the advanced corporations would use, but still efficient enough to do what it was designed to. It was well put together though, resilient, but even then was made of old materials, ceramics and advanced alloys, but nothing like NovaCorp would ever use. In fact nothing about the probe was like NovaCorp, which was the point. It had been scowered relentlessly to remove any possible hint at its origin; all marks had been burnt off the surface. It had even been constructed by androids in latex gloves, just to make sure that nothing could be traced.

The ship continued its way around a lonely star, and the androids shared a silent affirmation, it was ready. The probe was ready. Nothing about it had been left to chance. Shame it had taken so long.

The probe was a large thing, around as big as a two story house, a spacious one at that. It needed to be to allow the backwards technology to function, and to contain its special equipment. It lay in the center of the ships central bay. And in a flash it was gone. It had activated its wormhole drive, and gone.

On the ship the androids shared another moment of silent affirmation, and programmed the ship. It redirected itself, and plunged towards the sun, before being consumed, shields down it didn’t stand a chance as the material that had made it up melted, and flowed, ripped apart by the currents of the sun, and spreading its molecules over its surface. The android’s, everything on board, was gone. Nothing, apart from a black hole, got rid of something quite as efficiently as a sun.

The probe appeared again far away, waited, then opened another wormhole, and did this again, and again, and again. Then it waited for fifteen minutes, then jumped another three times through wormholes. Finally it came to rest to the galactic West of Veritas, around a star. It opened scores of wormholes almost simultaneously, each only as large as the radio’s amplitude, and staying open only long enough to broadcast its message.

Thirty-six appeared at all different distances from Yamatai, broadcasting its message in radio, subspace radio, and microwaves, in both a broadcast, and a highly compact file.

At the same time thirty-five opened outside Nepleslia, hailing it with the same message in radio, subspace radio and microwaves, again both as a broadcast and a highly compact file.

Only a fraction of a second later, twenty-four opened outside Elysia, sending the message again in radio, subspace radio and microwaves, as both a broadcast and highly compact file.

At the single wormholes appeared outside the Kohana and the Horizon, Kennewes, Valaad, Nataria, Tatiana, Anisa, Delsauria, Rok’Veru, and even one to the Destiny and Gashmere, all broadcasting the same message in radio, subspace radio and microwave, as well as send it as a compact file.

Having finished its task, it opened up one final wormhole, and took itself into the center of the star, consuming it utterly.

This was the message:

"You'll remember the death of Empress Ayame's daughter, Kohana, how my brother Kenji supposedly killed her. This is the true story ..." Kai’s voice said

"Kenji I am. I'll condense it since I don't have much time but back in the Imperial Palace, I was to be wed to the current empress Ayame, whom agreed to be my wife. But I caught her

FZZZT..

Star Army ships jammed the transmission.


 Trade Agreement

Zakalwe

Posted: 01 Aug 2005 12:00 pm

(OCC: This took place before the launching of the Probe.)

"Sir, the Leistung group is becoming rather insistent. They wish to meet with you." Ghed's voice came through the Jilanths systems.

"Well tell them that they can meet me at my house." Emrys replied, legs up on the dash board.

"I tried that, they insist on meeting either on the Horizon, where they are based, or through a teleconference." Ghed responded nervously.

Because of the Leistung group's special situation they were more or less confined to the horizon and were quite insistent that any physical meeting take place there.

"Ghed, first get a spine. Secondly you know that I despise teleconferences, so impersonal." He yawned, "And so they insist on the Horizon, that is interesting. Going onto NovaCorps area of control, well diplomacy is a game of give and take." He thought allowed, "Alright I'll meet them there. I'm heading that way." Seru shut down the communications, and set the Jilanth on course to the Horizon. It would only take five or so minutes to get there.

Harm scoffed, shutting off her handheld computer and moving to the lab. Finally she had gotten a response out of the Emrys people, the long drawn out fight to talk to someone who knew what was going on was more than enough to take the normal relaxed, yet distant, attitude away from her as she prepared for the meeting she would have with a man named Seru.

"Kip, I'm coming in, any problems?" Seru communicated through the subspace radio to the Horizon, calmly and with a familiar tone.

"None, come in. Bay 2 is clear." Kip answered equally casually.

Seru dropped the Jilanth out of Hyperspace, and navigated through the cloud. Soon he was in the ship, and after settling down. He stretched, opened the rear doors, and jumped out.

"Harm, Seru is in Bay 2." Kips voice communicated to Harm.

Harm nodded, taking a bag full of goodies and hurrying to the bay. She arrived in a matter of moments and, finding only one person there, approached him and asked, "You must be Mr. Seru correct?"

"If that's what you want to call me. It's actually my first name." He bowed, and took her hand kissing it before smiling looking into her eyes, "And you are? Ghed wasn't clear about who was going to greet me."

"Harm," She responded, her tone a bit short, "Your a ridiculously hard man to get a hold of. Especially sense you refuse a teleconference. But on to business, the Leistung Group wants to get its products on the market as soon as possible." Once Seru was done with her hand she moved it to the duffle bag on her shoulder, withdrawing a sample of adaptive fabric and a handheld computer. "We have dozens of patterns for this material to be woven into from shirts to skirts and the fabric is more advanced than anything you've produced so far. The fabric can change patterns, is waterproof, breathable, comfortable to the touch, resistant to spills, and easy to manufacture." She seemed to be looking right through him with her deep purple eyes. She had her jet black hair flowing over her back, blending in with the black bodysuit she wore over her entire body below the neck. The form fitting material had no shine and showed off her lean, athletic body.

"Fascinating I'm sure. Is there somewhere better we can talk rather than this bay?" He paused, "Kip, can you guide us to a conference room?"

"Of course Seru, follow the orb." A yellow glowing orb apeared in the air, and began to float away.

"After you." Seru gestured, smiling.

Harm nodded, and turned to follow the bouncing ball.

It went down the halls, doors opening for it. Seru followed Harm, evaluating her.

She walked with a slightly seductive sway in her hips but kept a rigid posture, not slouching swinging her arms as she walked at all. One hand remained by her side while the other held the strap of the duffle bag over her shoulder. She walked at a brisk pace, keeping as close to the sphere as possible.

He was impressed with her posture, he would have guessed some form of military training. He easily kept up with her.

The Orb soon stopped at a door, which slid open to reveal a conference room, a large circular table with chairs around it.

"Thank you Kip," Harm said as she entered the room, moving to the chair facing the door before continuing, "Anyways," Harm said as she removed a data pad from the duffle bag and placed it on the table near Seru, "We have a wide variety of items that we think you would be interested in carrying in your stores. We would like to enter into a business arrangement that would allow us to provide you with designs and new technologies in exchange for a share of your profits."

Seru read though the pad, nodding and putting his mind to look through all the angles of each good, its possible adaptability, feasibility, saleability. All in all they looked good. "This looks very good, but I am not in the habit of creating a business arrangement with effective strangers. Can you tell me about the Leistung group?" Seru said in his standard casual voice, sitting back in his chair.

"The arrangement we are suggesting does not place your company at any risk of being double crossed. The Leistung group is a collection of scientists from Ayenee. Their research is generally pure science but they do need to pay their research and rooming tabs as well as prove that the group can remain profitable to the investors." Harm said, "Which is where your company comes in."

"That sounds like a profitable arrangement then, you supply technology and designs, and we sell them and give you a cut of the profits. I presume we are allowed to use the technology of the designs in our own projects?" Seru smiled, there where few things he enjoyed more than a discussion like this one, even if it seemed pretty open and shut.

"Of course, we expect a share of the profits from those sales as well however. 20% seems like a fair starting cut." Harm said, setting the duffle bag down in the chair she was standing next to.

"Well that sounds very fair, I'm not going to insult you by going any lower. In what fashion are the designs going to reach my production teams?"

"The designs are in a ready to assemble state, no further design or modification work is needed." Harm said.

"Well that's that finished then." Seru flashed a smile, "But I'm interested in Ayenee, some of my agents are setting up shop there actually. What can you tell me of it?"

"Only that its one hell of an interesting place." Harm said, returning the smile for once.

"Interesting? Well I hope to go there some day. Currently we're increasing our drug market, however that is another matter. Tell me, what do you think of NovaCorp?" Seru was always interested in peoples perspectives.

"Sorry, my thoughts remained locked away for only me to use." Harm said, retaining her smile.

"Of course they are. A private person, reserved. A good person to choose for a business deal." He smiled.

"So I believe we are done here?" Harm asked.

"If that's all you wish to discuss, then yes." Seru stood up by flicking his body weight, "And I hope for a long ... oh, we haven't signed a contract." Seru had been preparing one in his off hand on an electronic pad. He slid it over to Harm, "If that looks reasonable then we are finished, after of course we sign a paper copy."

"Well that's all perfect then." Seru took the pad after she had finished and looked over it, "Kip, drinks."

A tray carrying two glasses of whisky, and an assortment of other drinks floated into the room.

"Drink to finish the deal?" Seru picked up a glass of whisky.

Harm took one and sat the glass down on the table. "I believe this concludes our business here." She said, reluctantly raising the glass again in a toast before lifting it to her lips.

"Yes. I should be easier to contact next time, I was occupied. It appears to have caused all forms of trouble." He downed the whisky, a little sad that he was no longer effected by alcohol.

Harm nodded, returning the glass to the table, "I will see you next time then."

Seru nodded back, and sat down. He wanted to talk to some people before he left, it had been too long.


 Lunch Break

Uso Tasuki

Posted: 05 Aug 2005 07:27 pm

ON> Horizon, Leistung Group Lab

Another shift drew to a close inside of the secretive Leistung Group Labs, leading to the transition of people from the lab to the various surrounding hallways. Sam's head was throbbing and his stomach growling. His hand moved up to massage the back of his neck while his legs took him to the nearest cafeteria on the ship.

The cafeteria was a rather plain afair, cheap tables, and a line up to a few bored looking dinner men and women handing out nutritious food, that may or may not have no taste. If you wanted real food you went somewhere else. There where some half decent cakes; and very good coffee (Ephesus had threatened to do unmentionable things to them if they didn't get good coffee). Sitting down on one of these tables was the young scientist Ithaco.

Sam went into the line to get enough of the food to sustain him for the next few hours, picking up some of the cake and coffee in hopes that it would have better texture than the rather bland looking food that was dished out into his tray. Sam looked for a seat that was vacenta nd finding none he settled for a space near Ithaco. The tray of food was placed on the table and he made a few quick modifications to his mind/machine interface using the touch interface being projected on his arm before taking a bite.

"H-hello, y-you're one of L-L-Leistung G-Group aren't y-you?" Ithaco said, recognizing Sam from somewhere, "I-I'm Ithaco, a-a sc-scientist here." He took a bite from a rather droopy ham sandwich.

"Ya." Sam replied, taking a bite of the food they had dished out and washing it down with some of the coffee. "Are you cold or something? You studder a lot."

"N-natural lisp. H-had it since b-birth." Ithico smiled.

"Ah," Sam said, trying a peice of the cake and finding it preferable to the mush they were passing off as food. "Um, why haven't you gotten a gene mod for that? They have that kind of technology here right?"

"S-sure, j-just didn't t-think it was ne-ne-necesary, th-that's all. We h-have that t-tech sure, and p-plenty other s-stuff, n-not as ad-ad-advanced as y-yours th-though. Y-you ha-have s-some pretty gr-great stuff." Ithico winced as he bit his tongue.

"Ya, they give us some cool things to play with," Sam said as he continued to eat with his right hand and trace designs on his right arm with his left. "What kinda stuff do they have you working on?"

"Pla-plasmonic sh-shielding and so-sonic we-weapons currently. I-It's intresting." Ithico took out a pen and began to weave it through his fingers.

"Directed Ultrasound or the area broadcast stuff?" Sam asked as his curiosity started to spike.

"B-both." Ithico said happily.

"Fun stuffs. That sort of tech gets a lot of use in the lab." He said, taking another drink.

"Y-you should have s-seen what h-happaned when E-Ephesus increased t-the p-power o-of a d-dentists you-ultrasound drill by a f-factor of ten. W-without t-telling the d-dentist." Ithico grinned.

".... I'm eating right now so do I want to know?" Sam asked.

"P-probably n-not. E-ephesus m-managed to f-fix it though. A-actualy I th-think it m-may have been an opp-oppurtunity to f-fix it, those where some p-pretty weird t-teeth."

He paused, "Wh-what a-are y-you working on?"

"Well, I'm not supposed to say." Sam said, pausing to look around for a moment, "Ah good she isn't around.... anyways they have us working on networked equipment, well me specifically. They have me developing a networked combat weapon of sorts for sale here. They won't let me use the normal power sources for it though so I'm stuck trying to figure out how to get it to work with the normal battery cells they sell in this place."

"B-battaries, a g-good th-thing n-now some anti-ae-aetheric and hy-hyperspace te-technology has been int-introduced. I heard ru-rumours of so-something with th-that na-nature. NovaCorp d-does a lot with ba-battaries actually, we t-try to k-keep away fr-rom of Ae-aetherics when we can." Ithico was begining to enjoy this conversation for one reason or another.

"Why is that? The Aetherics to complicated for your companies liking? Or are you going with something lower tech so you can manage it more efficiently?" Sam asked.

"B-bit of b-both. And we d-don't like to al-always use the tech-technology wh-which is g-given to us by the SA, Ep-Ephesus is kn-known to d-dislike Ae-Aetherics, much pre-prefering Hy-Hyper-space tech. Other than th-that we j-just s-seem to use ba-battaries on o-our sm-smaller projects, such as our d-drones and an-androids." He didn't want to get into a position where he was defending the tech level of his company.

"Ah, I can understand. A lot of people prefer not to use components from an outside source." Sam took another bite of cake and looked at the display on his hand, "Who's Ephesus? Your boss?"

"Y-you c-could s-say that, h-he's the head of science and research, he b-basicly c-comes up with ev-everything the co-company does, all our t-tech. We're co-complete no-novices c-compared to him. He re-really is a genius, a very we-weird genius."

"Can't say I've ever worked with anyone like that, all of my coworkers are usually to involved with their work to respond to a message," Sam said.

"H-he won't re-respond to the sh-ship bl-blowing up if he's b-vusy. Really, we si-simmulated it." He smiled, "Y-your work s-ounds i-intresting."

"Thanks," Sam said, "... you simulated the ship blowing up?"

"Y-yep, l-lots of h-hard l-light, w-we got K-Kip in on it." Sam looked nostalgic, "He di-didn't fl-flinch."

Sam chuckled, "Sorry, my next shift is about to start up. I'd love to probe your mind about that simulated destruction but I have to return to the lab," He started to clean up his tray of food a bit before heading back.

"N-nice t-to talk t-to you. W-we m-must d-do it again s-some time." Ithico looked pleased at the prospect, "M-maybe I c-can sh-show y-you s-some designs I h-have."

"Sure thing, I'll ask Kip to hunt you down for me when my next shift ends." Sam said as he got up and disposed of his tray as he went back to the lab along with the rest of the Leistung Group members.

END