RP: YSS Destiny Apesael Arrives

[Zakalwe]

Apesael sat quietly in the shuttle as it eased itself slowly through space towards the enormous form of the Destiny. It was hard to belive it was really that huge, it even dwarfed the Horizon that had been his home. It was a beautiful ship, to his eyes in any case, and Ephesus hand in it's work was clear. When he wasn't sticking killer legs and spikes onto things, he tended to creat beauty.

The shuttle was guided into one of the hulking landing bags by an extension of the ships Gravitic Drive, capable of propelling the huge mass of the Destiny, and of such subtle work as guiding a ship in to land.

"Your stop." The pilot shouted into the back. Apesael supposed he thought he was humerous. He picked up his bags from the rack they had been stored on,

"Thank you for the ride." Apesael believed in courtesty even when it wasn't deserved. You could hardly say that the pilot had gone out of his way. As he left the shuttle bay he walked over to one of the consoles and requested the location of his quarters.

"Your room has not been alocated yet, pending the arrival of M/C1 Tanjo Shen. It is advised that you "kill time" before he arrives."

"Thankyou computer." Apesael was not pleased with this news, he'd wanted to sleep. He pulled up a map of the ship on the console, then corrected himself, no map of any detail could encompass the whole of the ship. He quickly worked out which docking bay he was in, and cross referanced it with the lift/transportation system. Finding the closest entrance, he jogged towards it, his lopsided weight distrabution causing him to lean slightly to one side. Entering the lift capsule, which was conveniantly at this floor, he told it to take it to the city.

"Any particular area?"

"Can you recomend any?"

"I'll take you to the balcony. It's a platform high up in the side of the city's encompassing walls, and there's a magnificant view." With this the transport capsule began moving, although Apesael didn't feel a thing. The compensation system meaning that although the capsule was going faster than the speed of sound, the occupant was not subjected to any G's.

The transport soon arrived, and the metalic doors slid open silently. Apesael was instantly greated by an awe-inspiring sight: the city. It was magnificant, huge, yet elegant, sky-scrapers soared into the sky, further away he could see lines of semi-detached houses, with gardens obviously well cared for. There was a park just underneath him, dominated by a large lake, and surounded by sparse trees. The entire sight was overwhelming. The balcony itself was a fine construction of some form of reinforced glass, with a sightseeing console showing all of the major sites, and several deck-chairs.

"So around where will I be staying?"

The computer made use of the sightseeing console to create a holographic arrow pointing at a far away section, hard for Apesael to see.

"That area over there is where the crew, security forces and engineering detail will live. The colonists stay in this section."

Apesael nodded. He sat down in a deckchair and closed his eyes.

"Can you awaken me when First Officer Tanjo arrives?"

With that he drifted off into a half-sleep, completely unplagued by dreams.

 

[Zakalwe]

Apesael awoke with a jolt. It felt like someone had sent an electric current through him, and conveniently the AI had done just that, in order to wake him up.

"M/C1 Tanjo Shen has arrived aboard the Destiny. He is currently in shuttle bay 53." The AI said in a slightly bored voice. There wasn't much happening currently to occupy it, with only a tiny fraction of it's final population on board, and not having any interesting routes to plan, or objects to scan. "Ephesus is also with him."

Apesael yawned and stretched his limbs, then wishing he hadn't as the wound in his arm screamed its disapproval, causing him to clench in to his chest. It took a few minutes for the pain to reduce to such a level where he could stand up and pick up his bags (with the other arm). "Take me to them please." He said, walking into the transport system.

The transport began its high speed journey, and soon arrived next to a non-descript hallway. Apesael stepped out, and as soon as he had left the transport snapped closed behind him and speeded off, causing a muted sonic boom. Ephesus had created counter-measures to stop a deafening sonic boom capable of blowing out peoples ear-drums and causing discomfort, but he thought it a nice touch for there to be some sound of it going.

Apesael looked around, not seeing a soul. He wondered if the AI had sent him to the wrong area of the ship.

"And one more thing. Where are the flashing lights? I clearly remember designing a cluster of flashing lights." Apesael recognized the voice as Ephesus'.

"Perhaps they thought it unnecessary." The unseen voice of Tanjo tried to soothe Ephesus.

"Unnecessary! All my work is necessary, all of it! And this was a cluster of flashing lights like no other cluster of flashing lights. It was completely random! Do you have any idea how long it took me to work out how to create something completely random without using an nucleus half-life? Three hours!"

The forms of Ephesus and Tanjo came into view, coming from around a corner. The scientist was wearing his usual goggles, long combined trench coat/ lab-coat and with his hair as chaotic as always. His wings (which fitted through gaps in the coat), where extended and agitated, showing his frustration. His face however was completely calm, a new look for him. Tanjo was looking a little tired, obviously worn out by the difficult task of talking to Ephesus for any length of time without setting the man off. He turned his eyes to Apesael.

"Oh, Apesael!," He ran towards him, gaining the strength to leave Ephesus' company, "How are you? How did that test go?" Meanwhile Ephesus had walked over to a console and his fingers where flying furiously over it.

"I am very fine sir, quite sore, and my shoulders bothering me no end. I received a knife in my arm at the end of the test, but I did pass. Not sure about the fairness though. Zeke could have beaten me I'm sure, and without his help I wouldn't have won the last one. I have mixed feelings."

"Who's Zeke?" Tanjo asked, confused. Ephesus sprang from his console, and made various furious arm gestures behind Tanjo, to the extent of which the message would have read "Don't tell him, you fornicating baboon."

"Oh no-one." Apesael wasn't a good liar, but Tanjo wasn't going to press it.

"Shall we head to our accommodations then?" Apesael nodded, "Can you find your own way Ephesus." Tanjo continued. Ephesus fixed him with a withering glare before returning to the console muttering,

"He asks ME if I can find my way? I designed the ship, of course I know the way. Ahah." Ephesus looked very happy with himself suddenly and ran to the lift. It opened, and a cup of steaming cofee was lying in the centre. "Now that's what I call express delivery." Ephesus drank deeply.

Tanjo silently made had gesture signaling they should use Ephesus preoccupation to get away easily. They began to jog down the corridor, stopping once they'd gone down enough corners to make following them not worth the effort.

"Computer, which area, and accommodation are Apesael and I staying?"

"You are both staying in the crew area. MC/1 Tanjo Shen has a semi-detached house, row 7, house 3, while C3 Apesael Emrys is staying in Sky-scraper 2, flat 257. There are provisions for the personal assistant to stay at your house if needed, over-nighting for a heavy workload etc."

"Alright, where's the nearest transport?" The map of a nearby console illuminated it with a holographic map. "Can you set it to go to the crew area please. Come." He gestured to Apesael who followed him to the nearby transport and stepped in.

 

[Zakalwe]

The transport reached its destination quickly, as Apesael had grown to expect. The doors slid open, slowly this time, letting "natural" light flood into the capsule. Tanjo and Apesael found themselves in the centre of a square, an elegant fountain in the centre, surrounded by various flowers. Around the square there where three enormous sky scrapers which hurt the neck to look upon, and dwarfed the pair. The skyscrapers where not cubic in design, but more like an elongated egg, and surrounded by metallic bars, which appeared to be some form of graceful scaffolding. And the third side of the square there where three streets of semi-detached houses.

"I suppose this is home then." Tanjo said.

"Yes sir. Do you wish me to see you to your house?" Apesael said, his dislike of this course of action apparent in his voice.

Tanjo laughed. "No son, I don't think that will be necessary, you're my assistant, not my nanny. Come to my house tomorrow, we can work out what where meant to do here."

"Thank you sir." Apesael bowed as deeply as his injured chest allowed and walked towards the central skyscraper, assuming that one was number 2.

Meanwhile Tanjo looked around a little longer, taking deep breaths of the natural smelling air. It was good to away from his desk, even if his job still looked to be locked down in paper work. He began to whistle a strange yet simple tune, he didn't know its origin, as he walked down the rows of houses, casually looking for his.

Apesael neared the huge skyscraper, and the transparent doors slid open, and the AI's voice resonated throughout the empty reception area

"Welcome to your home C3 Apesael. Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Your bored aren't you?"

"Unbelievably so. There is only a handful of people on board at the moment, and I have nothing to do. When you have a mind as powerful as mind is, finding enough things to occupy it is extremely hard. Currently I am plotting hundreds of possible routes, simply for something to do, since no-one's bothered to tell me where I'm going, scanning everything larger than a molecule within 1 billion miles, and many other such trivial activities. Not really occupying me."

"I'm sorry to hear that. I hope you find something to occupy you." Apesael would have like to talk more, but he realy was extremely tired. He walked to one of the several lift systems and asked to be taken to the floor that had his room on it. He reached there quickly, and the computer directed him to his room. He realised he didn't have a key.

"How am I meant to get in?"

"Yours uses a DNA scanning lock, only opens to someone with certain DNA strains. Ephesus put them on some of the rooms. Just place your thumb on the pad next to the door."

Apesael nodded wearily, put his bags down and placed his thumb on the pad, the door sliding open.

"Currently the door is only configured to your DNA. However, you can add more using the computer system." The AI added helpfully.

"Thank you." Apesael walked through the door, and looked around. The flat was reasonably spacious, white, illuminated by wide windows offering a wonderful view of the city, and consisted of three rooms, judging on the number of doors leading off the room he was in currently, which appeared to be a joint kitchen, eating room, and lounge. He took another step in and the door slid closed behind him.

He quikly put his head around the other doors, one being a bathroom, complete with a shower, toilet and hand basin, and the other was his bedroom. It was reasonably sized, with a bed, wardrobe and closet. What was a surprise was there was a small box lying on the duvet. Apesael walked over to it, curious about what it could be. There was a message on the top.

Surprise!

Think of this as a housewarming present.

Seru Emrys

Apesael was shocked. How had his father managed to get the package in here? He picked up the package and carried it over to the cabinet as if it might bite, which was in fact a possibility. That was the sort of thing his father would do. There was no way he was going to open it until he was ready, and currently he wasn't ready for anything.

Apesael laid down on his bed, surprised how comfortable it was, and fell asleep almost instantly. However, his sleep was plagued by inexplicable dreams of his father playing a giant game of chess, and himself as a Pawn.