Edtoto cursed herself for not making an actual hiding spot for her stuff. She had been here long enough that someone on the crew felt comfortable enough to start playing pranks on her, and this one was by far the cruelest. Innocent enough, but when you're a cold blooded creature who has been finding a hard time getting heat to begin with, stealing her helmet was just mean. She had wandered round the ship trying to find it, but eventually she lost just enough heat to give up and sit at her crate barely moving. She hoped whoever took it would eventually show up and give it back. She wore her pilot's skin in fear of just such an occasion.
"Hello?" the voice of Blesi Ingrid called into the cargo bay. "Edtoto, are you in here?" Her boots clicked on the metal flooring as she checked between the various crates for the Vekimen. She sighed with exasperation as the usual hiding spots were empty. She growled in frustration and started looking around more methodically, going from the front of the bay towards the back. She found her hidden behind her usual crate, lying still and quiet.
She moved over towards her and shook her shoulder. "Hey, Edtoto. Are you awake?" She snapped her fingers in Edtoto's face trying to get her attention. Ingrid felt a nervous panic begin to form as Edtoto ever so slowly and groggily acknowledged her existence. "Are you okay, Edtoto?"
The snaps and calls barely registered to the Lizard, but she knew they were there. What got her attention was the heat. The less civilized part of her brain only cared about that, and her body slowly started to move. It was probably like watching molasses crawl up a hill on a cold day, but she moved. Her tail slowly wrapped around Ingrid's ankle, the scaled underside much colder than what was probably comfortable for the Vekimen, as her hand reached up to clutch at the snapping fingers. Ingrid tensed as Edtoto latched on to her, her Minkan strength enough to offset the pull from the wilted alien. She could hear the slightest, faint vocalization from Edtoto, but it was in Vekimen. Not understanding her, she leaned her ear towards Edtoto and said, "I can't understand you, say it again."
"Cold," she barely managed, trying to slip her head past Ingrid's ear and over her shoulder. Her other limbs were weakly grasping at the science officer, trying to pull her in and use her warm-bloodedness to the Vekimen's advantage. "Helmet... gone," she added.
Ingrid nodded. "Okay," she replied. She freed an arm and pressed her hand to Edtoto's face to feel her temperature. Edtoto was approaching corpse-cold. Ingrid's mind raced briefly while she tried to think of what to do. She comforted herself with the realization that a cold-blooded creature could probably survive a body temperature as low as 4°C without suffering any real harm, so room temperature wasn't going to be dangerous for Edtoto. Besides that, Edtoto had already told her that she could survive being frozen solid even! Ingrid was able to use this to calm her panic. What next, then?
First, Edtoto needed to be warmed up. Second, Edtoto needed her helmet back so she could stay warm.
So, how to warm her up? Her own metabolic heat and frictional heat would get things started. Hopefully she could get enough warmth into Edtoto that she could have her explain what happened to her helmet. "Here we go, we'll get some heat into you, Edtoto." She pulled Edtoto closer and began rubbing her hands up and down the Vekimen's back.
Edtoto leaned into Ingrid as she was pulled close. Edtoto moved one of her hands and started to undo the second skin she was wearing. "Out," she groaned, her voice startlingly deep. She was trying, but it would take her forever at the rate she was going. "Help," she asked, letting her arm drop.
Ingrid caught on to what Edtoto was trying to do and began helping her out of the suit. The insulated suit would be capable of keeping heat out just as well as it kept heat in. She fiddled with the Vekimen designed seals, trying to figure them out. With an, "Aha!" she released them and began peeling the sleek pilot's skin off of Edtoto.
Once the suit was off, Edtoto leaned forward and pushed into Ingrid firmly as she resumed rubbing her back. Even her tail curled around the Minkan's body, squeezing tightly. The "fur" of her mane, back, and tail looking and feeling more like the rachis of a feather than anything remotely like hair. All of them were tight to her body, but they rose in the wake of Ingrid's hands, like spectators in a stadium doing "the wave".
It didn't take long for Edtoto to start warming up, indicated by how strength started to return to her body. Edtoto's arms and tail constricted slowly, making it harder and harder for Ingrid to breath. The Vekimen seemed to relax without easing up as if a stiffness was being replaced with strength.
"Edtoto," Ingrid grunted as she stopped her rubbing motion and tapped her on the shoulder. "Edtoto, you're crushing me. Edtoto!" she wheezed as her tapping became frenetic.
Edtoto eased her grip on Ingrid, letting her tail slither lazily around the Minkan's body. She looked around with a tired, but significantly more aware look. "My apologies. I don't know my own strength sometimes" She mumbled, trying to stay leaned into Ingrid as long as she would let her stay.
"It's okay," Ingrid said as she resumed rubbing Edtoto's back. "You're coming out of a stupor. It's fine."
"Thank you for sharing your warmth. Your warm bloodedness is quite the remarkably useful trait. Since the I'ee left, I have been without people who would be willing to let me borrow their warmth" She said, rubbing her forehead against Ingrid's shoulder. The lizards tail actually appeared to droop at the mentioning of the I'ee. They sat there quietly for a moment, Ingrid not responding to Edtoto's expression of her loneliness.
A whiff of odour escaped from Edtoto's respirator mask as she shifted her face against Ingrid's body. She wrinkled her nose at the smell, but was reminded that other headgear was missing. "What happened to your helmet, Edtoto? Why didn't you put it on when you were getting cold?"
Edtoto grumbled, "Well, I think I've been on the ship long enough to either over stay my welcome, or for crew mates to be comfortable pranking me. Someone stole it and I can't find it," she said, looking around. "I can't operate my suit's enviormental controls without well... The Environmental control system. My wrist computer only communicates with it, the power source is on the helmet itself. By far the most complicated piece of tech in the Sivaro Armoury," she stated, maintaining her close proximity.
Ingrid frowned and thought on this for a moment. "Well," she said, thoughtfully. "Clearly, it's not a harmless prank. I'm going to call in the big guns on this.
"Blesi-hei to the bridge," she said, using her body's communication system to transmit. She cocked her head as she listened to a voice that Edtoto couldn't hear. "Bridge, Edtoto Nar'Sivaro reports that her helmet has gone missing. She's indicated to me that she is not responsible for its misplacement. Can you see if someone knows where it's gone? Our guest is suffering for not having the controller to her suit's heater."
Ingrid listened intently to a lot of loud silence, then she quipped to Edtoto with a wide grin, "The Taii's on the bridge right now."
Edtoto listened as Ingrid seemed to just talk to herself, confused for a moment. "You do not have a radio device. How are you communicating to the bridge?" she asked, looking the Minkan over. "You don't appear to have one at least. Does Yamatai have micro radioes? That would explain why I am having a hard time finding one," she explained.
"Ah, yeah. I've got an implanted communications suite. It's a bit more robust than just a radio," she said. "Your helmet is going to be found and the captain will make sure it doesn't get snatched again. How are you coming along? Warming up?" she asked, her arms burning from fatigue and the warmth they'd generated for Edtoto.
Edtoto nodded. "You can stop rubbing my back. I'm good like this," she explained, resting her head against Ingrid. "If you don't mind that is. Honestly, this has been my favorite moment since Sally and Yui left. I've been rather, well, lonely I guess you could say," she added.
Ingrid looked impatiently towards the doorway and hoped that someone would show up with the helmet quickly. Edtoto's breath rose and fell and she fidgetted. Ingrid wrinkled her nose as another whiff of air escaped the seal around the respirator. She glared at the door, then at her behavior, sighed and then, instead of simply holding Edtoto for warmth, she squeezed her a bit, a trace of compassion sneaking into the embrace.
"You know, we need to come up with a better solution to your breath problem. The crew may find you more approachable if they aren't always terrified of your breath," Ingrid said.
Edtoto nodded. "I am painfully aware of how the crew feel about my breath. Especially you. I would try and do something about it, but I'm not allowed in many parts of the ship. Now that I understand trade, I could operate the infirmary, but that is one of the places I am not allowed in right now without supervision. If I could find a way to deal with it, then I would be fine. I just need to make sure I don't kill the bacteria, or at least not all of it. I have been practicing cleaning my mouth to see when the negative effects start. I've done mild things with no bad effects, but any further then that and I start to feel sick," she explained.
"Well, clearly that's not enough. I think we should take a different tack," she said with a look of intense thoughtfulness. "Short term, we can probably come up with a way to chemically neutralize the odours themselves. A breath spray or something that can freshen your breath temporarily. More long term, maybe we can do some work on the bacteria themselves. Hmm."
Edtoto nodded, thinking about it. "We studied it before so that we could avoid mistakes at night. We have lost quite a few Vekimen over the last couple years alone due to one of us drooling on another during our sleep and them just being too far gone for us to even help. It's not a pleasant realization to wake up in what is essentialy a puddle of a family ember," she frowned. "I accidentally bit Yui when they were saving me from their Thoot. The only thing that saved her was her exoskeleton and me knowing what medical alcohol smelled like," she stated.
Ingrid's look of horrow was interrupted by the door to the cargo bay opening and a voice calling out, "Hello?"
"I'll be right back," Ingrid said as she pried herself away from Edtoto. She disappeared out of Edtoto's sight as she went to the door.
The lizard stayed quiet as Ingrid went to deal with the person who came into the Cargo bay. Edtoto could feel the annoyance in the Scientists voice more than she could "Hear" it, and figured she had gotten her helmet back. She stood up and put her pilot skin back on, looking over at the cargo bay's main door.
Ingrid came back around the corner, presenting Edtoto's helmet and wearing a look of smug satisfaction on her face. "One Vekimen space helmet, returned good as new." She held up her other hand, miming the presentation of another object. "One Nekovalkjyra ego, freshly shredded by the ship's command staff." She lifted up the helmet and plopped it over Edtoto's head, smiling.
The lizard shifted the helmet to slide her horns through as she removed her respirator, and snapped the pressure clasps to seal the helmet around her horns. After a few moments, Ingrid could hear the hiss of air leaking before Edtoto clasped another seal and it stopped. With that, she walked over and gave Ingrid a hug. "Thank you. I feel better already now that my systems are running. I appreciate you warming me up. Not many people on this ship would do the same" She said, the polarized visor blocking her face, so she simply tapped it with two nails.
"You're welcome, Edtoto!" Ingrid said, beaming. Her smile slowly faded and she furrowed her brow. "Ah, I came looking for you for a reason, but now I forget what it was." She thought for a second, then shrugged. "You keep thinking about the breath problem. I'll find some literature on biotechnology that you can read to try to familiarize yourself with what's possible. We'll tackle it together!"
Edtoto nodded with a smile. "You get me into the lab, and I'm sure I can do what I can biologically to deal with the problem. The Vekimen may be in a bad spot, but we understand biology and medical sciences perfectly fine. Biotech like implants and such we had at one point, but we stopped that on the station due to the need for recycled materials. I'll take what you have, though because Yamatai may have a solution we don't know about," she stated.
"Great!" Ingrid raised her arms and hesitated a second, then she patted Edtoto on her upper arms and gave a thumbs up. Her enthusiastic smile wavered slightly. Ingrid rolled her eyes at herself and then grabbed Edtoto in a short, friendly hug. She turned and headed towards the exit, saying, "I'll see you in fifteen minutes when I remember why I was in here in the first place."
Edtoto nodded, waving. "I guess I'll see you again in 15 minutes. I'll probably still be here" She said, before vanishing into her den of storage boxes.
"Hello?" the voice of Blesi Ingrid called into the cargo bay. "Edtoto, are you in here?" Her boots clicked on the metal flooring as she checked between the various crates for the Vekimen. She sighed with exasperation as the usual hiding spots were empty. She growled in frustration and started looking around more methodically, going from the front of the bay towards the back. She found her hidden behind her usual crate, lying still and quiet.
She moved over towards her and shook her shoulder. "Hey, Edtoto. Are you awake?" She snapped her fingers in Edtoto's face trying to get her attention. Ingrid felt a nervous panic begin to form as Edtoto ever so slowly and groggily acknowledged her existence. "Are you okay, Edtoto?"
The snaps and calls barely registered to the Lizard, but she knew they were there. What got her attention was the heat. The less civilized part of her brain only cared about that, and her body slowly started to move. It was probably like watching molasses crawl up a hill on a cold day, but she moved. Her tail slowly wrapped around Ingrid's ankle, the scaled underside much colder than what was probably comfortable for the Vekimen, as her hand reached up to clutch at the snapping fingers. Ingrid tensed as Edtoto latched on to her, her Minkan strength enough to offset the pull from the wilted alien. She could hear the slightest, faint vocalization from Edtoto, but it was in Vekimen. Not understanding her, she leaned her ear towards Edtoto and said, "I can't understand you, say it again."
"Cold," she barely managed, trying to slip her head past Ingrid's ear and over her shoulder. Her other limbs were weakly grasping at the science officer, trying to pull her in and use her warm-bloodedness to the Vekimen's advantage. "Helmet... gone," she added.
Ingrid nodded. "Okay," she replied. She freed an arm and pressed her hand to Edtoto's face to feel her temperature. Edtoto was approaching corpse-cold. Ingrid's mind raced briefly while she tried to think of what to do. She comforted herself with the realization that a cold-blooded creature could probably survive a body temperature as low as 4°C without suffering any real harm, so room temperature wasn't going to be dangerous for Edtoto. Besides that, Edtoto had already told her that she could survive being frozen solid even! Ingrid was able to use this to calm her panic. What next, then?
First, Edtoto needed to be warmed up. Second, Edtoto needed her helmet back so she could stay warm.
So, how to warm her up? Her own metabolic heat and frictional heat would get things started. Hopefully she could get enough warmth into Edtoto that she could have her explain what happened to her helmet. "Here we go, we'll get some heat into you, Edtoto." She pulled Edtoto closer and began rubbing her hands up and down the Vekimen's back.
Edtoto leaned into Ingrid as she was pulled close. Edtoto moved one of her hands and started to undo the second skin she was wearing. "Out," she groaned, her voice startlingly deep. She was trying, but it would take her forever at the rate she was going. "Help," she asked, letting her arm drop.
Ingrid caught on to what Edtoto was trying to do and began helping her out of the suit. The insulated suit would be capable of keeping heat out just as well as it kept heat in. She fiddled with the Vekimen designed seals, trying to figure them out. With an, "Aha!" she released them and began peeling the sleek pilot's skin off of Edtoto.
Once the suit was off, Edtoto leaned forward and pushed into Ingrid firmly as she resumed rubbing her back. Even her tail curled around the Minkan's body, squeezing tightly. The "fur" of her mane, back, and tail looking and feeling more like the rachis of a feather than anything remotely like hair. All of them were tight to her body, but they rose in the wake of Ingrid's hands, like spectators in a stadium doing "the wave".
It didn't take long for Edtoto to start warming up, indicated by how strength started to return to her body. Edtoto's arms and tail constricted slowly, making it harder and harder for Ingrid to breath. The Vekimen seemed to relax without easing up as if a stiffness was being replaced with strength.
"Edtoto," Ingrid grunted as she stopped her rubbing motion and tapped her on the shoulder. "Edtoto, you're crushing me. Edtoto!" she wheezed as her tapping became frenetic.
Edtoto eased her grip on Ingrid, letting her tail slither lazily around the Minkan's body. She looked around with a tired, but significantly more aware look. "My apologies. I don't know my own strength sometimes" She mumbled, trying to stay leaned into Ingrid as long as she would let her stay.
"It's okay," Ingrid said as she resumed rubbing Edtoto's back. "You're coming out of a stupor. It's fine."
"Thank you for sharing your warmth. Your warm bloodedness is quite the remarkably useful trait. Since the I'ee left, I have been without people who would be willing to let me borrow their warmth" She said, rubbing her forehead against Ingrid's shoulder. The lizards tail actually appeared to droop at the mentioning of the I'ee. They sat there quietly for a moment, Ingrid not responding to Edtoto's expression of her loneliness.
A whiff of odour escaped from Edtoto's respirator mask as she shifted her face against Ingrid's body. She wrinkled her nose at the smell, but was reminded that other headgear was missing. "What happened to your helmet, Edtoto? Why didn't you put it on when you were getting cold?"
Edtoto grumbled, "Well, I think I've been on the ship long enough to either over stay my welcome, or for crew mates to be comfortable pranking me. Someone stole it and I can't find it," she said, looking around. "I can't operate my suit's enviormental controls without well... The Environmental control system. My wrist computer only communicates with it, the power source is on the helmet itself. By far the most complicated piece of tech in the Sivaro Armoury," she stated, maintaining her close proximity.
Ingrid frowned and thought on this for a moment. "Well," she said, thoughtfully. "Clearly, it's not a harmless prank. I'm going to call in the big guns on this.
"Blesi-hei to the bridge," she said, using her body's communication system to transmit. She cocked her head as she listened to a voice that Edtoto couldn't hear. "Bridge, Edtoto Nar'Sivaro reports that her helmet has gone missing. She's indicated to me that she is not responsible for its misplacement. Can you see if someone knows where it's gone? Our guest is suffering for not having the controller to her suit's heater."
Ingrid listened intently to a lot of loud silence, then she quipped to Edtoto with a wide grin, "The Taii's on the bridge right now."
Edtoto listened as Ingrid seemed to just talk to herself, confused for a moment. "You do not have a radio device. How are you communicating to the bridge?" she asked, looking the Minkan over. "You don't appear to have one at least. Does Yamatai have micro radioes? That would explain why I am having a hard time finding one," she explained.
"Ah, yeah. I've got an implanted communications suite. It's a bit more robust than just a radio," she said. "Your helmet is going to be found and the captain will make sure it doesn't get snatched again. How are you coming along? Warming up?" she asked, her arms burning from fatigue and the warmth they'd generated for Edtoto.
Edtoto nodded. "You can stop rubbing my back. I'm good like this," she explained, resting her head against Ingrid. "If you don't mind that is. Honestly, this has been my favorite moment since Sally and Yui left. I've been rather, well, lonely I guess you could say," she added.
Ingrid looked impatiently towards the doorway and hoped that someone would show up with the helmet quickly. Edtoto's breath rose and fell and she fidgetted. Ingrid wrinkled her nose as another whiff of air escaped the seal around the respirator. She glared at the door, then at her behavior, sighed and then, instead of simply holding Edtoto for warmth, she squeezed her a bit, a trace of compassion sneaking into the embrace.
"You know, we need to come up with a better solution to your breath problem. The crew may find you more approachable if they aren't always terrified of your breath," Ingrid said.
Edtoto nodded. "I am painfully aware of how the crew feel about my breath. Especially you. I would try and do something about it, but I'm not allowed in many parts of the ship. Now that I understand trade, I could operate the infirmary, but that is one of the places I am not allowed in right now without supervision. If I could find a way to deal with it, then I would be fine. I just need to make sure I don't kill the bacteria, or at least not all of it. I have been practicing cleaning my mouth to see when the negative effects start. I've done mild things with no bad effects, but any further then that and I start to feel sick," she explained.
"Well, clearly that's not enough. I think we should take a different tack," she said with a look of intense thoughtfulness. "Short term, we can probably come up with a way to chemically neutralize the odours themselves. A breath spray or something that can freshen your breath temporarily. More long term, maybe we can do some work on the bacteria themselves. Hmm."
Edtoto nodded, thinking about it. "We studied it before so that we could avoid mistakes at night. We have lost quite a few Vekimen over the last couple years alone due to one of us drooling on another during our sleep and them just being too far gone for us to even help. It's not a pleasant realization to wake up in what is essentialy a puddle of a family ember," she frowned. "I accidentally bit Yui when they were saving me from their Thoot. The only thing that saved her was her exoskeleton and me knowing what medical alcohol smelled like," she stated.
Ingrid's look of horrow was interrupted by the door to the cargo bay opening and a voice calling out, "Hello?"
"I'll be right back," Ingrid said as she pried herself away from Edtoto. She disappeared out of Edtoto's sight as she went to the door.
The lizard stayed quiet as Ingrid went to deal with the person who came into the Cargo bay. Edtoto could feel the annoyance in the Scientists voice more than she could "Hear" it, and figured she had gotten her helmet back. She stood up and put her pilot skin back on, looking over at the cargo bay's main door.
Ingrid came back around the corner, presenting Edtoto's helmet and wearing a look of smug satisfaction on her face. "One Vekimen space helmet, returned good as new." She held up her other hand, miming the presentation of another object. "One Nekovalkjyra ego, freshly shredded by the ship's command staff." She lifted up the helmet and plopped it over Edtoto's head, smiling.
The lizard shifted the helmet to slide her horns through as she removed her respirator, and snapped the pressure clasps to seal the helmet around her horns. After a few moments, Ingrid could hear the hiss of air leaking before Edtoto clasped another seal and it stopped. With that, she walked over and gave Ingrid a hug. "Thank you. I feel better already now that my systems are running. I appreciate you warming me up. Not many people on this ship would do the same" She said, the polarized visor blocking her face, so she simply tapped it with two nails.
"You're welcome, Edtoto!" Ingrid said, beaming. Her smile slowly faded and she furrowed her brow. "Ah, I came looking for you for a reason, but now I forget what it was." She thought for a second, then shrugged. "You keep thinking about the breath problem. I'll find some literature on biotechnology that you can read to try to familiarize yourself with what's possible. We'll tackle it together!"
Edtoto nodded with a smile. "You get me into the lab, and I'm sure I can do what I can biologically to deal with the problem. The Vekimen may be in a bad spot, but we understand biology and medical sciences perfectly fine. Biotech like implants and such we had at one point, but we stopped that on the station due to the need for recycled materials. I'll take what you have, though because Yamatai may have a solution we don't know about," she stated.
"Great!" Ingrid raised her arms and hesitated a second, then she patted Edtoto on her upper arms and gave a thumbs up. Her enthusiastic smile wavered slightly. Ingrid rolled her eyes at herself and then grabbed Edtoto in a short, friendly hug. She turned and headed towards the exit, saying, "I'll see you in fifteen minutes when I remember why I was in here in the first place."
Edtoto nodded, waving. "I guess I'll see you again in 15 minutes. I'll probably still be here" She said, before vanishing into her den of storage boxes.
