RP: ISC Phoenix [Interlude] - Splish Splash

"He's a civilian amongst the rest of us, and a Nepleslian at heart. He's scared of the unknown and strange - it's a human reaction that has to be unlearned sometimes." For a teenager, it seemed as though she knew a lot about the human condition - perhaps a little too much.

Allison looked around the room noticed Rebeka and waved to her. "Hi! I haven't seen you before, what's your name?" She seemed oblivious to how tall she was or how mechanically she was examining the room's dimensions. "Have a seat." John seemed to stiffen upon hearing this and glanced at Allison.

Her body language was relaxed, casual and laid back. She seemed to have something in her hands. Rebeka could smell the synthetic oils used to maintain ships coming from her clothing despite her attempts to wash the smell out. Energetic polarisation of was on her too, perhaps from working the Inline Aether-to-Plasma engines on the ship.

The smell of burnt cordite was lingering at the place where someone she hadn't seen was sitting a few moments ago.

And she could smell John's sweat; and Vita's parentage, reinforcing the apparent bond between father and daughter. It was now undisputed that the two were related.

Seiren, who had to walk quite a ways in order to reach the Crimson Kestrel, only just now arrived with his case in tow.

"Hum. Work on candy machine, or bother people in the lounge. . ." he wondered aloud, setting the container next to the machine frame he made. With a snap of his fingers, he decided. "Procrastination pays off now!"

The childish inventor merrily skipped down the halls, munching on some lemony sweets he had in a tin in his pocket. This skipping continued into the lounge, where most of the group was. And a relatively familiar stranger.

Seiren froze where he was when he saw Rebeka, then slowly inched towards her.

"Erm. . . You're not here cuz of me, are you?" He asked her, remembering the Shattered Shell.

Zeta was in Kestrel's makeshift garage working on her new car. It needed a bit of work and new colour job, so she worked at it now killing time. She did not really feel like going to pub with others anyway. Then the message from John came in. The time sure flew, hours went by and it seemed Luca was now on the Kestrel. In his bedroom too. It would be nice if he moved in permanently. Zeta wiped her hands and walked to Captain's suite.

She wore a jumpsuit, which she now unzipped and tied the sleeves around her wais, revealing a tank-top under it. Like that she walked into the room to where Luca was. It was still full of dust as she did not get to clean yet. They were in Sargasso few days already, but before that Kestrel was hidden away and John took care of it. That meant half of the ship was duty and what not.

Not to mention that Zeta was a bit busy and since she got back she slept down in the garage. She did not even get to clean the Captain Suite yet. Zeta did not expect Luca to get back on Kestrel that fast.

When she walked in, she saw Luca sitting on the bed. "Hey," She just said and walked to him sitting down on the bed next to him. "Welcome home." She said and linked her fingers with his.

Luca had exited to his room and Mako was left with Luca's blue car by the hangar, having watched him and Echelon unpack and start moving his possessions from his dingy apartment. John had left to go into the ship along with that strange, hime-cut tall woman who if John's paranoia was correct, ate people; and Vita.

Having found herself alone in the hangar, Mako sighed. It was strange to be back on a vessel that was there for combat. As she stood there looking around the hangar, her communicator cheeped. A message from the storage company said that her stuff was being delivered now. "Now?" she was a bit confused, the request to deliver it was made only a half hour ago, then she heard the sound of a large aerospace craft flying low.

As she walked out the rear of the ship she saw it, an old cargo drone flying feet from the ground, its rear hatch was lowered to mere inches off. Intrigued, she walked outside and studied what was going on. A large drogue chute blossomed out the rear pulling a medium sized crate with a sled out the back. Once lighter, the craft shot up into the sky while the crate slid along the ground and came to a stop, kicking up dust in its wake.

The communicator chimed again with the message, 'Package Delivered.' She stood there in awe of the spectacle that she had just witnessed. If this was Yamatai she would have had to go and pick it up at an office or something after signing paperwork in triplicate. Neplesia was pretty damned cool. Racing over she found the packing manifest on the crate. It was indeed her stuff.

A question hung in the air about her beloved stuff. What would a Mindy be doing in private ownership? Nekovalkyrja had to give their Mindies back when they were done since they were sensitive technology to the Yamataians. Perhaps it was kept in her name due to a clerical error. Whatever that error was, nobody had come to collect.

Grabbing a hand trolley she dragged and pushed the crate aboard the ship, wanting to get it out of sight before opening it. According to the manifest, there was her Mindy - minus the gauss weapons. She noted to rig something up to replace them. The only weapons the thing had were the Aether blades in its arms.

"But then again I don't have anything to fight with right now..." She muttered with a frown. She didn't just want to borrow anything, who knew when she would drift off on her own again.

After dragging it onto the ship, she could take the stairs, or the elevator to uncrate the goods in the privacy of an empty cabin, or she could simply tuck the box into a corner where some other crates were. Most of the things on the Kestrel's cargo were ammunition, weapons, food, mechanical parts, tools... and the occasional oddity that set the ship apart from the military.

Tani could see a pair of barrels with Yamataian writing on it reading 'TaneTane Resort Mud - 41 Gallons - Hydrate Thoroughly'. TaneTane was a resort on Tami known for mud bathing near an area of volcanic activity - what two barrels of mud would be doing in a ship on Sargasso was an enigma.

With a giggle at reading the barrel tag, Tani pushed her crate with the others. She looked around for a few moments and she found a crowbar. She was alike a kitten on Yule-fest morning as crate popped open quite readily once it met Mr. crowbar. She saw her Mindy holding her duffel on its back just as described in the manifest.

"Good to see you. We are back to work it seems," She talked to the PA as if it was her sister or something. "Though I think you might need a lick of paint before we go out... maybe a bit of green or something. What do you think?" Of course the PA didn't respond, even with the basic AI in it, it was still just some armor.

Reaching in she pulled her duffel off of the PA and dropped it to the deck. Then she closed the crate up the best she could. Knowing that if she needed it, it would be there for her.

"Well, if you need me boss gimme a shout. I need to go set up my cleaning equipment," stated Makari with a tip of his hat. He sauntered off to find an unoccupied room and settled with the third door on the right. On the wall opposite of the bed, Makari set up his fold-able cleaning table and began to clean his guns again in anticipation for future fights.

Rebeka steadily glanced back over her shoulder to see Seiren behind her, half eclipsed by her own shoulder. It took her a moment to recognise that name before she turned with lead-feet to face him.

Her eyes were distant and her lips formed a small curious smile.

"Sweet tooth, is it?" her voice poured slowly in careful measured quantity.

Despite its honeyed quality, her tone suggested more should have followed.

But more never came.

The ball was in Seiren's court.

For whatever reason, she was much more intimidating this time. Maybe it was the lack of attractive short Lorath standing next to her. Maybe it was the lack of food. Whatever the case, he felt like a rabbit in the gaze of a wolf.

"U-uh, sweet tooth? Yeah. I've got one. . ." he mumbled in reply, hastily pulling out a candy from his pocket and stuffing it into his mouth. "D-do you want a piece too?"

"Of teeth?" Rebeka replied. Her expression said she was seriously considering it.

Her eyes traced the motions of Seiren's hands hands eagerly. Hearing him chewing, her long leaf-like ears twitched and once again her expression changed, almost imperceptibly for the better.

"What's that?"

"Not of teeth, of candy!" Seiren declared, a sort of confused curiosity crossing his face. Seriously, who the heck IS she, anyways?

He pulled a jawbreaker of some sort out of his pocket, offering it up to Rebeka like a sacrifice to placate an angry god. The outermost layer was made of candy glass, and underneath green and blue could be seen.

Carefully, Rebeka bent over to take it, looming over Seiren like some vast giant. She held the thing in her hand, rolling it through the functional palm of her bodysuit before holding it toward her face, parting her darkly painted lips.

And there she paused with the marble hanging on the brink, looking back at him for some sort of confirmation.

She'd never done this before.

As the banter went at Reeves, Bronzi and Sura were but specters among their chosen motley. The larger Gartagen sat with a massive cigar clinched in his teeth and a cloud of sweet smelling smoke began to form around him creating a miasma that seemed to fit him like a well worn coat. Sura one the other hand was carefully observing the interaction.

The pair began speaking but not in Nepleslian. Sura had her translator switched off, and Luca would hear the flowing soft language of the Sharans.

"Inglesha et nuburo, Da?"

"Keta." Bronzi snapped back, but was nodding his head in agreement.

Grinning at Luca he gave the man a silent wave. he held his hand up a second longer than usual before he turned his attention back to John.

"I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually. If this sort of thing really is commonplace that is." Reeves gnawed on his nails trying to quell his nerves. When asked to follow John he nodded quickly. "I ah... okay." He was content with walking silently until Vita made a comment on his stature. Giving them a genuine smile he looked from the others feet to their eyes. "That's because I am small. Its not an optical illusion I swear." He paused tapping his foot against his other heel before letting out a sigh. "I'll have a look around for her thanks." Committing the name and description to memory he continued to walk.

Reeves peeked into the lounge spying the gaming system and the ladies playing it."Um I'll just run and toss my things into an open room then. I'll be back soon." He didn't want to interrupt their session so he figured he'd find his own way. Waving John off he continued toward where he assumed the crew lodging would be. He'd come back to the Lounge after tossing his belongings into his room. going down the corridor past one of the elevators he spied an open door. Slowing his pace even more he stared at relatively empty room. He could only assume this was what John meant when he said the doors were open.

Exhaling loudly he took a seat on the bed setting his bag on top of it for now. He has a good feeling about this place. He rubbed at his mechanical eye before standing and jogging back to the lounge. The girls who had been gaming were finishing up. He chuckled at their antics before taking a seat on a sofa.

"What's that you were playing?" Reeves asked Allison curiously. Gaming was a luxury he rarely had time for before now. It did seem like a lot of fun what little he did try.

"NSS DeathWish, we got all the DLC." Allison replied to Reeves as she passed him the other controller. "I heard you were going to be one of our next engineers, right? Means you'll be answering to me most of the time rather than the boss."

She then noticed the tall person in the room talking to Seiren and he stared at her. "And who ... are you?" Allison was definitely curious about this person, if it even was a person. The way she spoke was disjointed and strange - maybe she was a construct of some sort. "Hi, new person!"

John just gave her a look of disbelief and mouthed a simple 'why' to her. She shrugged at him before turning around to watch Seiren pass the new addition some candy. She could see that this tall being was unfamiliar with the concepts or physicalities of sugary confection. This fact only spurred her fascination further.

-

That familiar metal arm.

Though the bare metal itself was a cold thing meant to replace what was once alive, or perhaps replaced willingly as a means of augmentation to do one's job was now firmly around Luca's shoulders, followed by blonde strands of hair at the corner of his vision.

And a hand on his lap, the real one. It was only fair to let it meet Luca's real hand too, not a hand sheathed in that burden called the Grapple Stunner. He reached under his right armpit with his left arm, pulled the release and it slid off of his arm before he pulled the rest of the length away. Seeing the bare fingers on his right hand was a mercifully rare occurrence. Like his right eye, his fingers looked like they were cut up and not entirely healed - it didn't seem to pain him at all though as he grabbed Zeta's hand and squeezed back.

Home was always where the heart was, but Luca's heart was still in freefall. The room around him still a reminder of the past glories that propped him up for a fall. The mountain was in front of him and all he had to do was climb back up; he did it once before, how hard could it be now that he knew the terrain? "Home it is..." he mumbled as he leaned on Zeta.

Echelon was standing at the door watching the two. She could've wiped a tear from her eye if she had tear ducts. Instead, a hologram of floating hearts sufficed. Now would've been the right time to play the music, and so she did as per Allison's instructions. "PHOENIX MAN! He don't let the odds, stop him doin' right."

Luca's head turned around to look at Echelon standing in the doorway, watching him and Zeta, and he couldn't help but smile at the Freespacer and start chuckling at how cheesy that song was. His crew were there for him - they just had funny ways of expressing it. -

Reeves saw Allison typing something into a datapad resting on the couch before she looked at him again. "Co-op?" she asked, picking it on screen and picking a starter mission for the two to play together on. "Just follow my lead."

Vita, meanwhile saw that things had wound down in the lounge and walked back to the captain's suite. She could hear the radio from Echelon and paused mid-step before continuing, recognising that horrible themesong. The song wound down and there she was, standing beside Echelon, looking into the room. At Zeta. At Luca. She felt as though she was here once, but it was a hazy memory - possibly not even hers. At least all there was left to do was to clean the room and to unpack everything.

"So, Dad," she said, breaking the silence between Zeta and Luca, the father's eyes whipping around to meet her daughter's. She seemed to have a smirk on her face, perhaps judging the two. "I see you're settling in just fine, but this place is a mess." She stepped into the room, following the footsteps Luca had made in the dust, so as not to create any new ones. "I didn't move you out of one mess to get you into another, let's get this place cleaned."

"1'LL G3T TH3 CL34NY STUFF," Echelon replied as she started walking away, footsteps audible as she went to the Women's head. There were laundry and cleaning supplies in both of the Heads, and she eventually came back with a trolley.

"Guess you are earning that double allowance," Luca said.

"I said I'd unpack, I never said anything about cleaning the room," she tried to shirk the responsibility.

"Things change, and if you want that double allowance you'll help me clean and unpack, Vitalia."

She groaned. She needed that allowance. It wasn't often her dad had put his fatherly foot down, but since the members of the Phoenix started arriving he'd been doing it more and more. "Fine."

Makari, after setting up his cleaning supplies and meticulously checking them over twice, ambled his way back to the common room in time to see Allison and Rheeves starting to play NSS DeathWish. He gave a quiet chuckled and remembered the hours he had dumped into that game when it had first come out. Though he knew better than to start playing again, it was one of those games he couldn't bear to put down once he started playing. He ambled over to an empty stool and withdrew his flask containing a mixture of rum and whiskey and took a swig. "Seems like the gang's all here. Wonder when we're going to get going on our grand adventure," Makari remarked to no one in particular.

OOC: Just wanted to get this up. May replace with a slightly improved version later.

"Y-yeah, you eat it. It's candy. It is a thing you eat," Seiren clarified, feeling slightly more uneasy now than he was five seconds ago. Why was she so tall if she wasn't a Fyuunen?

"Caunde" she echoed back, rolling the word in her mouth several times before getting the pronounciation right. She slid the thing between her lips, sealing them behind it and began chewing with worrying ease -- though something made her slow to a crawl and then finally stop as if chewing on broken glass.

Seiren winced as she bit down, but it didn't seem to bother her. Much.

"Uh, you're supposed to suck on a jawbreaker. It's called a 'jawbreaker' for a reason. And it's pronounced 'cahn-dee.'"

With grace something her size didn't deserve, she sat aside him cross-legged, still taller than he was.

"And you. . . Make these?"

"Yes. I make them. They're supposed to be treats. Fun things to eat."

She swallowed the glass like mixture, running what would appear at a glance three or more tongues through her cheek, judging from the forming bulges.

"May I have another?

Seiren stared at Rebeka incredulously.

"Uh, sure?" he said, his tone wavering. He fished another one out of his pocket, equally wrapped up as the last, and handed it to the elegant-looking woman.

Her fingers took the sweet and with that, it disappeared again. She paused, rather chan chewing, a lump forming in her cheek - stretching her oily black painted lips to one side.

"Like thisssh?"

Something about that unnerved Seiren. Likely, it was the fact that she could fit something that large into her mouth so easily.

"Er, yeaaaaah. . ." he said nervously, scratching his chin.

She slid the bauble aside, swallowing it whole. The motion distended her throat visibly. With her anatomy, perhaps she was setting it aside for later?

Her eyes then snapped back, staring at him.

"What is your function here?"

Seiren raised a finger in protest, but sighed and shrugged it back down. He'd have to get her to eat that properly another time.

"I invent things and make candy. Also I have a Frame."

"You're so small though. Were you always this small?"

"Uh, well, I used to be smaller. And my height is a very good height to be!"

Seiren made a declarative pose with his hands on his hips and his legs apart, looking off-center like some hero. Since he was so short, however, the dramatic effect was a little more than lost on him.

Rebeka watched with that upturned smile and thise poker-eyes.

"You're a very strange little girl"

"But I'm a boooooy!" the inventor complained, waving his arms out.

Rebeka was taken aback by this somewhat -- eyes widening at first before settling down into something calmer than her usual demenor. Not quite sleepy but much warmer than she had, even her voice smoother. She reached forward, pinching Seiren's cheek with one of her gloved hands.

"Then why do you dress like that?"

"Wh. . . what? It's just a long-sleeved shirt and pants. . ." Seiren mumbled, shivering. He felt trapped, almost. A rabbit in a wolf's gaze. And he could have sworn he saw her licking her teeth.

"Huuuh... Then why do you look like this?" she said now, cupping his cheek with that hand as she leant down.

This reminded him of that little "business trip" he took before the previous mission. Except this time it was the tall one asking the question, and not the short one.

"I look how I look, 'kay?!" He blurted, glaring at Rebeka.

"Neoteny" she said, with a smile he found unnerving. "You'd be very popular on Lor."

"Neowhat now? And what is THAT supposed to mean?"

Seiren contemplated running out of the room.

"Do you know how to fight, little one?"

"O-of course!"

The inventor flicked his wrist and his a pistol popped out of his sleeve.

"I mean with your hands" the Sourcian stated, obviously not entertained.

"I use guns with my hands."

"Can you throw a punch?"

"Why. . . would I need to do that?" He asked, cocking his head to the side. After all, by his measure, what good were fists when there were lasers and bullets around?

"You pilot a frame, you said?"

"Yeah. Small one. It's got lotsa weapons, though! And an illegal power source, but we're good as long as we're not in Yamataian space."

"Make and model?"

"Origin-brand LEAF, about two years old now? Not used too often, but it's taken a bit of damage."

Rebeka hesitated, looking aside.

"Any logs I can go over?"

"Uh, a few. I write post-combat reports for stress testi--."

"Footage" she interrupted him.

"Comes standard with the machine."

"If I'm right, the M8-1A is a muscle-trace model, not a neural or intention recognition model, yes?"

"Uh. . . I think? I move my arms, and the harness does kinda too. It doesn't plug into my head. Does that help?"

"And you think its unnessesary to know how to throw a punch?"

"I built in guns everywhere. Half of which are ballistic, the other half run on a secondary power-source so the primary is devoted to movement. I don't really need to."

She patted his cheek. Something about this was condescending, her voice rolling over his.

"If you don't know the difference between your mass and its, you will always be slower than you could be. A punch will tell you that difference instantly."

"Well, it's heavier than I am but lighter than a tank!" he feebly defended, feeling insecure around this woman.

"Think of it this way" Rebeka said, placing her hands upon his upper arms now now, fingers wrapping protectively.
"You have very small shoulders and... Long delicate slender arms. Your frame has very large, very heavy shoulders. Short arms."
Her large hands then rose along his shoulders - thumbing Seiren's collar-bone as her hands trickled lower.
"And your body. It is small. Narrow. Light. Your frame has a long thick body... And a much smaller face" she said, patting his cheek again.

Seiren had half expected warmth in the alien's cheeks, or even drool with the way she was staring so intently into him.

That rabbit analogy he thought of so original and fresh earlier felt all the more accurate at this time. Like a rabbit in a trap. . . or jaws of a predator! he thought, amused with his own comparison, but still quite goddamn nervous about being touched by Rebeka.

"Y-yeah, so?"

"Have you ever seen what happens when a pilot neural-links for the first time and they don't account for the mass difference?"

"Uh. . . they stand still?"

"They fall over."

"Well that isn't so bad."

"They have to undergo dissimilar combat training and learn to walk all over again."

"I fail to see what this has to do with a muscle trace system that I am familiar with."

"Its common to leave the balancers on, compensating for you. But it means you react slower. The clumsiness that comes from frames is usually the balancers over-compensating. That slowness will get you killed."

Her expression, her eyes and even her voice were still little above deadpan. And yet the way she squeezed his biceps, rolling her thumbs. There was fondness. Even concern.

Seiren shuddered again.
"So you're saying I left the parking brakes on this whole time?"

"Parking-breaks?"

"Wh. . . you know. When you try to drive, and the car doesn't really move because the emergency brake is on?"

"Drive?"

"Haven't you driven a car before?"

"A car..." she said, obviously thinking on the name.

"Automobile. Small transport. You know. beep beep vroom vroom?"
Seiren begin to feel very silly about this point.

"Ship?" she said, staring quite vacently now, her expression as if he were making this up.

Seiren stared blankly at Rebeka. Was she really serious?
"Alright, come with me. I'll show you the one I've got sitting in the cargo bay."

She stood to her feet, still in disbelief that this thing called 'car' existed.

Seiren took hold of her wrist and attempted to tug her along.
"C'maaaawn. It'll just be a couple of minutes."

She followed along - Seiren's arms as high as they would go -- and Rebeka's as low as they could to meet them.

Zeta slowly let go of Luca's hand. She did not want to, she wanted to just sit there with him forever. But time moved on and the moment was gone. There will be other moments. Some like this one, others will be different. Some will be bad, some will be better than this one. Point was to go forward and meet them. It was always like that for Zeta. Always move forward, never give up.

"I am sorry," she said smiling at Vita as she got up. "I really wanted to clean this place up, but I got pre-occupied with that new car. That said, we will now roll in style. Wait till you see what I am doing with that thing. Phoenix man, needs his Phoenix-car. I will be driving though." She added and laughed.

Cargo bay.

Carrying her duffel bag Tani was about to leave the cargo bay when she heard voices coming toward her. She didn't know why the urge can over her, but she raced to find a canvas tarp to toss over her crate. Once she was pleased with it she left to head up decks to find a bunk.


After poking her head into a few rooms she found one that had a free bed. it was Zeta's cabin, not that Tani knew that. She tossed her duffel up on to the free bunk and then sat down. "I guess I have found a new home... Shame it wasn't with the SA, But guess it works." she muttered to herself as she looked around at the cabin, wondering who she shared it with.

Phoenix echoed the words Allison said not terribly familiar with video game lingo. "NSS... DLC..." He fell quiet taking hold of the controller that was passed to him. Holding it how the others had he tested out which buttons were best pressed with his thumbs and which were best with his forefingers. He tapped his fingers lightly across them nervously hoping he wouldn't make a complete fool of himself.

This sort of thing was supposed to be fun. A Technician that hadn't laid hands on video games was probably a rare sight. Exhaling slowly he attempted to clear his head and not worry too much. "You heard correctly. It will be a pleasure working with you I'm sure. Once I get to know the Kestrel I promise I'll be invaluable"

He made a visible sigh of relief when Allison chose cooperative. At least he would be able to rely on Allison's skill to get him through. Once the level leaded up he began to quickly press every button making note of it's output. "Now then what's the goal of this game?" He asked before chewing at his lip nervously. The movement on the screen was a tad disorienting but he probably would get used to it. "Ah why's that meter going down?"

SOME TIME PASSES...

Crimson Kestrel - Lounge

"Mission 1 - Complete!" the screen chirped. The mission statistics came up for the cooperative match to see how the players had done. Allison had been doing the introductory mission with her eyes shut and scored an illustrious 'S' rank. Reeves was, with Allison's lead and the tutorial's helpfulness earned a B out of E. Not bad at all for a first timer.

"Not bad at all. Must be those tech skills rubbing off on you." She then put the controller down and stood up, grabbing Reeve's hand and guiding him up wiht her. "I'll show you around to engineering. Inline Aether to Plasma can be tricky to work with but I'll show you the ropes. A majority of it is on third deck, near the bridge and escape pods."

She took the elevator with the minuscule technician, but he noticed something. She wasn't taking her eyes off of Rebeka while the doors were closing. As the elevator rose, she bit her bottom lip. She was very, very curious after watching its behaviour. She tried to ignore it while she was playing with Reeves, but he'd see her looking at the strange, alien construct when cutscenes were playing.

The engineering room was one of the only places Luca dared not enter to disturb Allison and Echelon's ecosystem. When they were working on something, they demanded absolute calm and no interruptions from without. The EVA suits were hanging up. Three workbenches were there, one on each wall that wasn't the one that had the door leading into the engineering room.

Allison's bench was on the left, wall plastered with schematics, diagrams, and tools. By her desk was a large box of scraps and offcut materials that could be turned into all a manner of devices. Labelled tray boxes of various parts were under the desk for tasks electric, logistic and structural. A creative mind with a well organised workspace so she could put it all together.

Echelon's side of the room had some computers set up, invading the space of the EVA suits. Three screens were haphazardly bolted to the wall, sometimes flickering with odd displays and readings of print lines of the ship's AI, as well as ship security. Strange engravings, adornments, baubles and fetishes of Freespacer design were on display - it was just something that happened naturally when a Freespacer was left somewhere long enough.

The middle desk was the collaboration bench, and the ship's overall status readable to human eyes on the left near Allison's side. The bench was currently empty, but Reeves could see that other technicians had been here too. A toolchest with Seiren's name labelled to it was hiding beneath it, as were smaller ones for John and Vita. There was plenty of spare room under the table for Reeves to put his toolchest.

Echelon had left after the cleaning and was sitting in the lotus position near her desk as though she was meditating. Her head peeked up shortly after Allison and Reeves entered the room. "0H41 4LLY. H41 R33V3Y!" She clapped her hands together. "WH4T 1S UP?"

-

Captain's Suite

The floor was clean enough for a stingy Yamataian diplomat to walk upon. The furniture was where it needed to be. The desks, computer viewscreens, dressers, closet, weapons rack and bathroom were spotless, as were the papers, figures and items in them. Whatever was old was thrown out for the sake of newer, faster things; whatever was irreplaceable was given better treatment.

The Phoenix Man! figurine was now standing upright with his crew upon the dresser, and Luca contemplated it for a few moments with Zeta by his side as they sat upon the freshly changed bed. Naoko's bed, still uncannily clean was untouched. The screens were turned on now, and Luca could see the status of his beloved Kestrel: watching identified people move around on the deckplan map, seeing how the power and systems were going - all readings nominal. The oversight was nice.

The keyboard had been replaced and the computer was upgraded and optimised with Vita's help. For her skills combined with Echelon's knowledge of the ship inside and out it was a trivial job. Origin software was always so easy to configure. It was running faster than before, the whole ship's operating system was. "WH3R3'D SH3 L34RN T0 H4CK?"

"School of hard knocks!" Luca replied with a chuckle. Satisfied, Echelon left the room to head to the Engineering room.

"Dad," Vita said as she sat upon Naoko's folded up futon, one leg resting upon her other knee, chin resting on her interlaced fingers. "You miss her, don't you."

"Why wouldn't we? She left an impression on us all," Luca replied solemnly.

Vita remained quiet to chew on that. She was an impression of Naoko in herself, a sort of continuation. "You don't mind if I take her stuff, do you?" She stood up off of the futon, crouched down and tucked it under her arm.

"Go ahead," Luca replied. "Guess that can be a bonus on top of the allowance."

"'kay. I'm taking the room next to yours, where your parents were. They didn't leave anything behind but their smell. Hope you don't mind," she then tapped her chin. "Call them before you go interrogate that construct with Seiren, kay?"

He shuddered. He'd been out of contact with them for a long time and made no efforts to give them a call... but neither did they. "Afterwards," he compromised. Vita seemed to frown at him and shrugged her shoulders. All she could offer him was a suggestion and it was up to him to take it up. She left the room without another word.

The sound of a railgun being fired could be heard coming from below this paragraph, followed by a wet sounding thump. Luca's bottom lip dropped, he looked through the floor and he sighed. "The natives are restless. Better get to it and move things along."

He stood up off of his bed and started wandering down towards the cargo bay to investigate. He put a finger to his earpiece, "Seiren, meet me at the Cargo Bay. We're going to reactivate that construct and interrogate the shit out of it. We'll just reconsolidate what we know so far with Aiesu."

"Aiesu, we're going to crack that construct open. It's been in one of those Far-a-day Cages since we got back to Sargasso. Ech tells me it's for security."

-

Cargo Bay

Bronzi never liked being on ships. In his years in the Union RRF, it was the one thing he truely hated about his job. For most who sympathised with him, it was the fact that they were enclosed, and far from home that brought on the feelings of drudgery. For Bronzi it was the helplessness. For all of his skill, training and natural athleticism, his life was in the hands of some button pusher, and there was not a damned thing he could do about it.

Bronzi had some targets set up on the end of the Cargo bay, and all of his weapons were spread out across a table. Sura was standing over the table with her robes surprisingly off. The cargo Bay's environmental controls were cranked up to a 'chilly' 98.9 degrees, and warm air was swiftly taking control.

Bronzi was wearing a heavy wool tunic with a loose fitting pair of pants and boots. His armour was in an organised pile next to the weapons being repaired by three small spider like drones. The girl was wearing a loose fitted skirt, and a top that covered her blossoming breasts. She was well built if not thick and curvaceous. She would likely grow up to be a rather pretty woman, but she still retained a girlish appeal that screamed off limits.

"I recalibrated the coils on the rail rifle. The scatter gun needs to have its capacitor replaced...and your pistols are top notch. I uh...can likely built specialised ammo." Sura chirped as her assistant drone scurried over the axe Bronzi had, and began reloading it with another shot gun shell.

'Bah, Imma pop a few rounds off." Bronzi snorted as he lifted his primary revolver, and walked across the cargo bay.

A thunderous report reverberated through out the ship as the target shot hit the oddly Nepleslian shaped cut out square stuck to a large pig carcass in the heart (Left side of the chest). The clay round went clean through the target and hit the bulkhead with a loud THUMP, and flattened like a pancake . As Bronzi fired, Sura reactively covered her ears. "How do you like the soft rounds?!" She called out.

Bronzi paused. "Looks like they'd hurt a squishy."

"Imagine if it was explosive like that plastic stuff the Pinkskins like."

Bronzi lowered his weapon and loaded it with more of the clay rounds.

Sura crossed her arms accross her chest and perked a brow. "So uh....what is going on...Mr. Luca and Vita are....acting funny. That last mission kinda spooked 'em?"

Bronzi did not look at Sura, he held his gun up with both hands. "I derno. But, i'm fixin' on findin' out." He snorted in reply.

"The whole crew seems I dunno. Imma stop."

Bronzi did not fire his gun. He turned and looked at his child. "There's a storm on tha horizon. I dunno if they can feel it. Maybe they can. But somethin' is comin' for em, and they know it deep down."

"That's because you don't save a few lives without making a few enemies too." Luca walked in on the coattails of Sura's words. "Tit for tat, y'know?"

Sura looked at the deck of the ship unsure of how to react. "Just don't die for it." She said softly, with no indication if she was speaking to her dad or Luca. She then turned and went back to tinkering with the guns on the table. "I'm gonna clean the ones in the lockers when I am finished...if that is okay."

Bronzi shrugged and popped off another around. He snorted having placed the shot slightly off to the left. Luca jumped a little at the sound and saw the new splotch of clay on the wall, looking at Bronzi.

Bronzi grumbled at the miniscule imperfection. "Oh, sorreh." He grunted lowering the weapon. "I uh. was lookin to talk to ya when ya had tha chance."

Bronzi's head turned and looked at Sura, who had placed a set of head phones on her head and was bobbing it up in down mouthing the words to Yamataian Synthpop music. "She has a point. You an' yers have been goin' about likes toys in da attic. Tha move to tha ship...that synthoid walkin' around askin me bout my biology. What's comin Lewkz? What has you shakin?'"

"Something. Something does. I'm expecting a counter attack from whoever the hell poisoned Handler's Reach. I just don't know who from. Could be Lagrange, could be SAINT, could be Lazarus, IPG, Reds, NMX," what he did know after sitting back and mulling it over scared him. What he didn't know scared him a lot more, "could be the freaking Temperance League of Nepleslia for all I care." A truly lost cause if there ever was one, moreso than aether disarmament.

Bronzi grunted and nodded his head. "Me an you gots a good thing goin hea. An I don't walk away from mah responsibilitehs. So, I'll follow yer lead on this. But if I see any funny bidness from who ever the shit is comin our way..."

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! Luca would see the target now had a freshly made frowning face on the "head" drawn with holes made by the clay shots. "I'll take em down."

Bronzi reloaded the weapon and flipped it over in his hand, so that the grip was facing Luca, who smiled at him and put a hand on his shoulder. "It's good to know I've got people I can trust by my side. V says it's good for me, says it's been to long since I've seen friendly faces."

Bronzi smirked. "Ya, but dun go trustin easy. I know yer not fixin on backin' outta this shitstorm. But ya got every reason to."

"Nah. Not my style. Now, I'm expecting Seiren. We're gonna interrogate that construct Enzo facevented."

Bronzi half laughed at the though. 'Errr....I don't mean ta piss in yer Neppie-Os...But your crew is....Fixin stuff, flyin ships, shooting the EVERYLIVING out of the galaxy...we got it. But I dunno if any of em have the stomach to go on tearin somebody's toe nails out, savvy?"

"Aiesu told me they can't feel pain anyway. They can block it - it'd be a waste of time."

"Hrm. An it prolly wants us to kill it... well all we gotta do is make tha idea of livin in comfort a bad thing. Livin in comfort. Floatin' through space in a steel coffin...."

"We'll see. We'll see. I think Aiesu has that base covered. Seiren's getting it reactivated, and I'm asking questions-"

Luca heard a loud thud hit the table. He would see a large stack of papers clamped together with metal rings in front of Sura (About the size of a massive phone book). "I could read the uncut directors edition script of ID-Sol Dawn to it. Its 832 pages long!" She said excitedly.

Bronzi shuddered. "That is just... wrong!"

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Luca put his hands up defensively at the younger gartagen. "I'd pull out its toenails if I could - he could just walk that off; but ID-Sol Dawn?! That's just inhumane!"

"Hey!" she replied looking dejected.

"I could always read the script to the Luca Pavone movie coming out next summer..." Luca looked at Sura, wondering where she'd gotten that from.

"Vita showed me. She think's it is hysterical. She loves the guy they have playing you..."

"He looks like a shaved toilet brush with mince meat for a face," Luca replied, rolling his eyes.

Bronzi waved a clawed hand at his spawn. "I'm sure Luca will call you in when all else fails...back ta work." He turned back around to Luca. "So yer gonna ask dat thing who sent it and why. Then what? Plus if its a construct...wouldn't they have....if they had a trackin device on it, they'd prolly already be here..."

"That's the gist of it." Luca replied as he looked at the elevators to the Cargo Bay, waiting for Seiren, tension rising as he looked at the cargo container that was currently containing the remains of the construct and locked tighter than Hanako's panty drawers. Echelon had put it in a Faraday Cage as soon as she could. No signals could transmit in or out of it with the power on.

Bronzi huffed and began arming up. "Imma likely play it safe and guard up. Better safe den sorreh. We're gonna sit back and watch. Been a long time since me an Sura watched a Gartagen street trial."

Makari had taken a detour to pick up his arsenal before heading down to the cargobay. While he did not relish the thought of firing condensed plasma in the cargobay of his new home even if it was in drydock. However, the possibility of holes in the hull was better than the possibility of holes in everyone's heads. The construct may currently be in a faraday cage, but that didn't mean it couldn't find a way out. "Terminators" were tricky bastards and that creepy alien thing that Makari still thought was some sort of being also sent from the future to kill one of them could be in league with this construct. Having trust for everything and everyone was for chumps, even if they were on the same team as you.

He took the elevator to the cargobay and arrived just in time to see Luca nervously staring at the elevator. He gave Luca and everyone present a polite head nod and spoke to Luca, "Don't worry boss, if we can't interrogate it we can just smash it to little bits and use it as fertilizer." He patted his SiZi 30.