[HNMS Eidolon] Grasping at StarDust...

[Exhack]

"Ano... !" Masami exclaimed, her cheeks turning a bright scarlet colour at the question. Despite her ability to project holograms, she'd never actually expose herself in such a manner, especially not on the job. Still, she could project things within a reasonable range, is she wanted to...

"I've elected to stay clothed while I'm working. I like staying warm too much, and I'm not sure many people would be able to pay attention with a nude Neko giving them a physical." Masami replied half-jokingly. The doctor calmed herself down a little and offered a shy smile to the Nepleslian cook.

"And yes, I received the basic knowledge for my courses digitally, but I still spent a lot of time in classrooms to work out the practical knowledge. I can tell you I have 'learned' more from practicing my trade than I have downloading information."

 

[SUBLIMEinal]

Worfield did his best not to show his pleasure at finding himself on a vessel with another Nepleslian. It certainly erased the slight concern that had been plaguing him concerning her being some random murderer who had snagged a Nepleslian uniform.

"How was it on a Nepleslian ship? I hear those guys are pretty rough with girls. Like, savage almost. Don't they drink, like, gallons of alcohol?" The G-man made sure his face conveyed surprise and wonder, doing his best to show a curious, ignorant civilian, which was exactly what his cover was.

 

[Kim]

Ceres grinned at Masami with a chuckle. "Oh, tht does make a great deal of sense. I wasn't sure if it was in fashion to be naked or else I was going to feel really over dressed!"

Her eyes turned to look at the FIO with a look of amusement playing across her features. "It can be pretty rough sometimes but they're not all bad guys. After a while they do understand that it isn't a good idea to mess with someone that makes their food. How is it on Yamataian ships? The press I get makes it sound like a never ending orgy."

There was a slight cough heard from the doorway as the leggy captain leaned against the frame. "I know you folks are just starting to get cozy in here but remember, we also have 3 other crew lurking about on this ship somewhere that'll want a place to sleep. I hope none of you are terribly shy, we'll see seeing a lot of each other during the next couple of weeks.

I'm Morya, your captain. The little girl you see behind me is Eda, she's our ship's avatar so be nice to her pr she'll tell me." A little girl peeked out from behind Morya's legs with a shy wave behind hiding again. "We'll be twiddling our thumbs until we reach out client's ship so we'll have to find things for you all to do until we get there. I would like everyone to take turns helping clean up and helping Ceres to cook. Don't worry, I'll tell the others this same thing whenever I can find them.

You can decorate the bulkheads with whatever you want, just keep all bodily fluids off them, eh?" the captain said teasingly. "If you need me, I'll be on the bridge."

 

[SUBLIMEinal]

"I've never actually been on one bef-" Kamatsu's response was cut short by the captain of the ship as she entered the room. The cybernetic eyes were quickly at work, and soon had a nice collection. He even managed a quick snap-shot of the tiny ship avatar.

As the captain left, the FIO forced a slight giggle, but it luckily sounded natural enough. "Looks like you were right about the orgy thing, Ceres."

 

[Kim]

Ceres laughed. "Maybe, maybe not. Unless the crew is made up of more men, you might be in luck to have the beginnings of your own little harem, Kamatsu," she winked at him. "So you've never been on a Yamataian ship before? I don't think the Eidolon really counts as one but we are doing some sort of supply thing for the Star Army. So I guess by proxy it could.

OH! You never said how you like your fish. I can put it into some sushi depending on what we have in our food supplies and I can probably come up with something unique as well!"

 

[Exhack]

"Eh?" Masami exclaimed inquisitively, wondering what exactly Ceres meant by a harem. The idea of being scantily clad and sitting down in a room strewn in pillows and exotic cloth, along the rest of the female crew all around Kamatsu seemed rather ridiculous. Though something told her that the far more likely scenario wouldn't be so unpleasant. It had been four years since she was born, and she could not recall sharing a bed once since her birth.

"I'm sure Ceres-san will make something delicious, or at the very least, hearty. I hear it's a point of pride in SMODIN nowadays." Masami concluded, a very relaxed smile gracing her features.

 

[Kim]

"Yes, good food that doesn't bite you back is always the pride of our armed forces," Ceres replied with a grin. "Unless you folks enjoy food that'll grin at you first. It makes for an interesting night but a messy presentation." She winked teasing as she moved away from her chosen bunk, toying with her dogs tags for a moment before letting them fall softly with a light clink against her chest.

"So sushi, fishy type stuff and tea then?" She inquired again. "Do you want the fish steamed, blackened, crispy, or raw? I can give it to you any way you want it, you just have to state a preference or trust that I'm not gonna give you something you dun like."

She again and laughed. "While I cook dinner, you guys could start the fun or something."

 

[SUBLIMEinal]

"Uh... raw, please," Worfield had spent the past several minutes attempting to come up with some sort of reply that would make sense. Having never actually consumed sushi in his life, it was quite a choice. He didn't flinch, or really even react to the mention of a harem. He was a good actor, but after all the time Grand Veles had put into making him into an exemplary agent, he couldn't bring himself to throw that away, could he?

"Uh, excuse me, is there a restroom?"

 

[Kim]

Ceres made a face. "Raw it is. Go out the door go to the doorway on the right, it's next door." She watched the FIO oddly for a moment and shrugged to the Doc as if trying to make some sort of unspoken comment about men in general.

 

[Exhack]

"Crispy for me please, Ceres-san. I'm not too finicky with spices, so feel free to experiment a bit." Masami told the cook reassuringly, a thin smile on her face. Certainly, as long as she could ingest it, and it was fairly palatable, she'd be fine. Besides, work wasn't really a place for fineries.

 

[Kim]

"Okay, I'll go ask the Captain what she wants and get started with the cookingness. I got a raw... sushi and a crispy anything goes fish. I'll let you guys know when it's ready or ask Eda to come get you," Ceres said with a playful wink as she sauntered out of the bunkroom and headed towards to the kitchen on the other side of the ship by way of the bridge, where she knew Morya was.

 

[Kim]

Time crawled by on the HNMS Eidolon, space was tight with the seven crew living in a bunk room that felt like a shoe box and with nothing much for the crew to do. Conversation among the young and inexperienced had gotten harder as the hours had dragged on and many of the shyer crew had taken to just sleeping the time away.

About 4 days had passed without incident before Eda suddenly started crying one night at about a couple of hours after everyone had finally settled down into sleep. The little girl avatar's sobbing echoed loudly throughout the corridors of the ship...

 

[Exhack]

Masami pulled herself from her bed and dropped down to the floor using her gravity manipulation. She walked down the hallway, hoping to find the avatar. She was worried, and knowing that the crew had become a little on edge, wanted to keep a less than fantastic situation from getting any worse. She massaged the ship with her datapad, hoping to find where Eda's physical body was.

Eda-chan, where are you?

 

[SUBLIMEinal]

Worfield heard the sobbing when he finally stepped from the bathroom. The Geshrin-bodied operative yawned and looked around, trying to locate the source of the noise. By this time, he had been able to grab pictures of close to every crew-accessible area of the ship. He reviewed them as he headed back towards the bunks, still looking for the little girl. When he arrived to his room, having had no luck, he saw Masami standing with her datapad.

"You know where Eda is, Masami?" He asked quietly. He didn't want to wake up the rest of the crew, although the crying would probably do it eventually.

 

[Kim]

There were indeed, few places for any one to hide on the small ship. The little girl avatar took a couple of minutes to respond, though her sobs could still be heard.

I...I...'m in...the kitchen. C...come....quick.

Captain Morya Scott was not in the bunk room but hadn't said or done anything about the crying avatar, so it was unknown why or what was really going on. Perhaps, once they located Eda, the avatar could give them a more accurate update as to what the situation was.

 

[SUBLIMEinal]

'Kamatsu' headed for his bunk, pulling on a shirt before heading out towards the kitchen, waving for the doctor to follow him.

 

[Exhack]

"Ano... in the kitchen..." Masami told Worfield, having just received the message. "We should hurry. She seemed in distress, even while messaging."

Don't worry Eda-chan. We'll be there as soon as possible.

 

[SUBLIMEinal]

"Yeah, I know, Masami. C'mon!" He waved her towards him again before heading out into the hall, and down to the kitchen.

 

[Kim]

“I couldn’t believe what I saw. We had only been out heading blindly to wherever the Captain had programmed us to go and then…. The ship’s child avatar, Eda, had started sobbing uncontrollably in the middle of the fourth night. I wasn’t quite prepared for what I saw but then again… I wasn’t the first person on the scene… Doc and Kamatsu were… for all I know it could have been…”

As the two crew members rushed into the ship’s small kitchen the first things that assaulted their senses aside from the tacky green floral print wallpaper that was pasted against the bulkhead was the stench of burnt flesh and the heavy meaty scent of blood; the squishing sounds of their feet stepping into the steadily pooling puddle of blood at their feet and the grizzly sight of what might’ve been the captain’s brains splattered across the wallpaper.

The body of the tall, Nepleslian woman was half propped up against a counter with a loaded HHG in her hand. There were smears in the puddle that would’ve indicated that there might have been a struggle. There was no sign of the person that might’ve attacked the woman. The child avatar’s projection stood beside the spot where the captain was location, sobbing uncontrollably still. Her holographic eyes were swollen and her eyes were red as she looked up at Masami. “M..M…asami! You…you can save…Morya…please!”

There were footsteps behind the Doc and Kamatsu as the other four female crew members looked on past them.

“Hey, what’s going on?”

“Why’s Eda-chan crying?”

“Where’s Morya?

“Why are you all in the kitchen?”

 

[SUBLIMEinal]

Worfield had, in his particular line of work, seen plenty of blood. But they were usually less graphic affairs than the one his eyes were currently turning into byte on the hard drive lodged in his brain. He instantly began wondering what to do. His mission wouldn't be much good for the IPG if he wound up dead, or the ship didn't actually get to its operational area.

"... Son of a bitch..." He cursed, something that had been rather infrequent for him while pretending to be a Yamataian citizen. He surveyed the wrecked body, wondering what did it. Burnt flesh pointed to an energy weapon, and considering the captain was holding onto a projectile pistol, it mostly ruled out a suicide, though he'd have to take a look at the ammo to be sure. "Masami, get the AI out of here..." He turned and looked to the crew behind him.

"Listen up," he stopped for a moment, wondering what exactly he would say without 'breaking character'. He then decided to go with ' fuck it, I would like to figure out what just happened'. "Stay back. The captain..." He looked back and sighed, "Something got her. We're going to find out what, but we can't have everyone tracking around the area if we're going to."

He stayed put and waited for the people gathered to hopefully heed his words.