RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 20] Strangers (Essai Dreamworld)

Cargo Hold

Sune had watched the first team head out. There was only so much they could do from here. Without drones they were effectively blind.

He picked up the nearest hand and dialed ship wide channel. "Attention all hands, volunteers to form a second team report to the cargo hold."

He made a quick trip to the cabin he shared with Hanako, and picked up his Uno Sunglasses, and his katana. Then with his science scanner attached to his belt he headed back to the hold.

Cargo Bay

Mitsuko noticed Sune preparing to make an announcement, listening as he did so. She frowned for a moment, glancing towards the Armor Bay. She couldn't control Misato, and she didn't want to be lumped in with any volunteers that showed up. After a moment of hesitation, Murakami turned and left. She'd find something to do, somewhere. She'd have to stay on her feet, though, to avoid nodding off again.

Bridge

Natsumi bit her lip as Sune's announcement of needing volunteers for a second away team boomed in. She was torn now. She was more than curious to explore this new and strange world, but she did not know if she should as she was the only person manning the bridge.

To that end, the operator opened a line to the XO, she asked through the wireless connection.

Cargo Hold
Sune returned to the cargo hold still trying to figure out how shuttles were traveling far beyond the borders without a support ship. Two more crew members, cabin assignments are all full. I guess for now they can bunk in the sleeper module. He thought.

"Yamashiro-Hei, you can join the team. Victory-Hei can stand watch on the bridge."

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He looked around the hold and spotted the two new soldiers waiting at the ramp. He crossed over to them.

"Welcome to the Eucharis, Kanashii and Namach Hei. I am Jalen Sune-Chusa, the first officer. Our commander Ketsurui-Shôshô is current off ship exploring this planet.

Currently our main cabins are all full. So the two of you will have to bunk down and stow your gear in the sleep module other there until cabins become available." he said pointing to the module.

"I am putting together a second away team. If you want to be part of it you best get your gear stowed and return here in a few minutes."

Medbay

After standing in the awkward absence of a returned introduction for a few seconds, a voice came over the intercom. Sienna raised her head toward the ceiling, looking off into the nothing from whence Sune's voice came, calling to assemble a second away team. She raised an eyebrow; that could only mean a couple of things, and the tone of his voice didn't sound distressed or urgent enough to make her think this was a half-assed rescue or fire support mission. The folks outside must've found something interesting, or at least determined the machine world not to be a threat for the moment.

She turned her eyes back to the Neko seated in front of her, who had withdrawn back into her robot-like focus on the equipment. She clearly wasn't interested in a conversation, and Sienna didn't feel like she was going to get anything interesting or useful out of her even if she was. The invitation to the planet's surface suddenly didn't sound so bad. The ship was nearly deserted anyway, and while in any other case it would have been a golden opportunity for her, the prospect of investigating a completely artificial planet was far more intriguing to her at the moment. There was no telling if that kind of chance would come along again. Maybe it'd even be as good a place as any to get dropped off if she saw enough potential in it.

"Right, uh," she continued with a quick sigh and a shrug of her eyebrows, putting her hands on her hips. "Looks like you're busy anyway. Think I'll go see if they'll let me tag along after all." She slid her hands around to her backside, slipping her fingers into the hip pockets on the back of her pants. "You have fun here," she added as she walked past, heading for the cargo hold.

Cargo Hold

Karei stepped onto the ship as they were welcomed aboard by the first officer. He put his things down momentarily and with his arms held on either side of him he went into a bow. It was not the lowest of bows but one that signified the correct amount of respected afforded to his superior officer. Upon rising he deftly picked up his bag again.

“Thank you Jalen-Chusa,” he said, “I am glad to be back in service of Ketsurui-Shôshô and the Eucharis.”

He was not overly pleased with having to stay in the sleeping module rather than a proper cabin but he supposed there was nothing that could be done about it. It would have to be enough that he was back on the Eucharis. Karei turned away from the executive officer and headed to the indicated module. He wondered if the other science officer was with the Shôshô’s party. If that were the case he might be more useful going over the information packets she was inevitably transferring to the ship. Then again he would also be very interested to see what wonders the planet might behold. I will just have to ask Jalen-Chusa.

Natsumi replied. She got up from her seat at the operator's station. Victory, as if telepathic, entered the bridge.

"All yours" Natsumi smiled to her fellow operator as she turned over the conn. She left the bridge and hurried down to her cabin. There she grabbed her cap and set it atop her mass of snowy white hair, then grabbed her NSP and strapped it onto her belt.

All of that sorted, she headed down to the bay to meet up with the others joining the second away team. As she walked she spotted Sienna also headed in the same direction.

"Hi, Sienna!" she greeted cheerfully and quickened per pace to catch up with the other woman. "Are you going to come along as well?"

Medbay

Ayumi had originally planned to skin introductions herself, refusing to introduce herself to someone who had come into her space as opposed to her entering theirs. It was a strange rule of hers, but she was stubborn enough to let it stick. Had they met on neutral territory she would have introduced herself first. So when Sienna introduced herself, Ayumi was compelled to stand from her perch on the rolling chair.

Quietly she placed the medical scanner on the chair behind her, folded her hands gently over her lap, and bowed only slightly before straightening up. "Satonaka Ayumi, Santo Hei, Medic... Pleased to meet you." She replied softly, reaching behind her and picking up the scanner again.

As she spoke Sienna appeared to have decided to retreat, to join the away team it seemed. Apparently the apprehension which had plagued the crew beforehand was gone now, if they were going to be able to form a new team. "Be safe." Ayumi replied after Sienna.

Stubbornly she remained in her lab, sitting herself back down and going back to playing with the equipment. She didn't trust alien planets, especially not alien planets which had everyone so on edge- Even if it was only a temporary reaction from the other crew members.

Cargo Bay:

Kale waited as his now commanding officer greeted the now returning member of the science crew. At the appropriate time he bowed respectfully.

"It is good to be here Jalen-Chusa. I do not know if there is any particular requirement for my branch of skills on ship at the moment. If I am not immediately required I would like to join the second expedition."

Upon dismissal he went and dropped off his gear at one of the available bunks. He mentally shrugged. Habitation in the sleep module wasn't the best of ideal but then again it was only a place to sleep. He would probably spend most of his time plucking away at the various ship systems.

Taking his Datapad from his gear he activated a neural notepad program. It was one of his personal projects back at the academy. It recorded his thoughts in a coherent format for later perusal.

Kale left the sleep module and reported back to the cargo bay to receive his orders. He just knew that his tenure here would be, at the very least, interesting.

Alien City - Market

Meanwhile, Hanako was starting to talk to some of the merchants. She went to the stall with the light-based technology, where a spiky reptilian turtle-like creature was selling his wares.

"Hello," Hanako said.

In a few moments, the creature has his translator set up. "What are you?" he asked Hanako.

"Nekovalkyrja," Hanako responded. "My name is Hanako. I am a military official for the Yamatai Star Empire, a constitutional monarchy."

"I know just a little about your region of space. But you certainly look like a human. Only humans would make a whole new species but confine it to still living within their image. My name is Glyt Nazza. I am a Nezeer. We are know for our hard light forcefields. Nezeera is a high-gravity, desert-like, mineral-poor world that has three moons and is administered by a meritocracy. Our race has been traveling the stars for some time and we were from somewhere else before that. Lately there are not a lot of us left, so count yourself lucky to meet me."

Hanako gave Glyt Nazza a bow. "I am pleased to meet you. I have some questions about the currency here. What is used and where can I get some?"

"If you want to be my customer, I am happy to help," the turtle alien replied. "On the dreamworld, there are two currencies, battery charges and dreams. The first is simple enough. Power is always important. The second is allowing the planet to use your mind while you sleep. It wants your creativity, your thoughts, your memories and ideas to help it run."

Hanako looked back towards Takeyu, Bors, and Chieko and raised an eyebrow.

Chieko had been following along, stopping here and there to look at various things: dried roots, odd pet seeming things, a tank crawling with white headed red grubs. She caught up with the group again when mention of the local currency came up and only managed a shrug when Hanako looked back at the rest of them.

"Is it the information that they find of value," the scientist asked the turtle, "or is it also the processing power?"

Corridor

Sienna had just stood up to resume walking after adjusting the knife and sheath slid inside of her boot when she heard Natsumi call out after her. She looked over her shoulder as she walked, seeing her jog along to catch up. She smirked a sheepish little grin as the Neko called them both out on their mutual inability to stick to their word.

"Yeah," she replied, still smirking as she continued down the corridor toward the cargo bay while the snowy-haired woman-machine brought herself in step alongside her. "Guess I just wanted to see if the first team could wait at least a day before they got themselves in some kinda bind. Besides, the more I thought about it, an entirely artificial planet? C'mon. Tell me you don't wanna see that for yourself." She looked sideways at the Neko with another sly grin. "I guess you made a liar of yourself too when you said you wasn't going ashore either," she added.

Natsumi walked along with Sienna, nodding as she listened to the woman speak. "Donno if I see it that way" she said once Sienna was done and shrugged. "I didn't go with the first away team, but with so few left aboard it wouldn't be right for me to lay back and let everyone else have all the fun" she smiled.

"I am pretty curious to see this artificial planet, now that it seems the inhabitants are not just gonna eat us for lunch right away"

"Interesting," remarked Takeyu, as much as he wanted to fold his arms over his chest; he wasn't sure how that expression would relate to these people - heck - doing so could be considered an insult or even an act of war so he choose to remain expressionless as much as possible. "How would the dreams work though? How does the planet.. hmm.. use them?"

Cargo Bay

Sienna chuckled a little at Natsumi's statement, giving her another sly sideways look. "'Right away,' she says," she observed as the two women approached the entrance to the cargo bay where the rest of the volunteers were mustering. "All that really proves is they ain't stupid."

The door whooshed open as they entered, and Sienna tugged her snug blue shirt down over her waist again, and adjusted her jacket. "Guess we'll see soon enough, huh?" she added, looking at Natsumi and shrugging her eyebrows once.

"Never thought they were" Natsumi shrugged. "But maybe they are as peaceful as they claim?" she said. "That would be nice if they are"

She kept pace with Sienna as they entered the cargo hold where the others were gathering. "Yeah, I guess we will" Natsumi agreed to her companions question. She really did hope this planet was on the up and up.

Cargo Bay

Sienna continued to grin with one half of her mouth, but said nothing further on the matter. Although she considered Natsumi to be rather naïve, she really did find her constant optimism strangely charming in moderated doses. She found herself hoping that nothing would happen to her new acquaintance that would too abruptly shatter the rose-colored glass she saw the universe through.

She knew better, though. While she fully admitted that she had no way of understanding the rationale of alien minds she'd never before encountered, it didn't make sense to her that any civilization or organization, no matter how advanced, would arbitrarily reach out to any random passerby and invite them to mingle amongst them. They wanted something. That's what she had meant by her earlier statement - the fact that whoever or whatever was out there hadn't attacked them outright only proved that they weren't brutish or dumb. It didn't rule out the chance that the Eucharis and its crew were being analyzed for its value as they spoke, before they'd try to acquire what they wanted through whatever means they saw most appropriate.

That wasn't to say she was overly concerned about an attack or even any openly hostile action, of course, just that she didn't share Natsumi's belief that the alien invitation was a completely benevolent gesture. Peaceful offerings were a charade, little more than muted and concealed warfare. Everyone wants something, she found herself thinking, the irony not lost on her. Only difference is what means they're willing to go through to get it.

The women strode up to the small gathering on the cargo deck, and Sienna slid her hands into the pockets of her jacket as she purposely lagged slightly behind Natsumi, allowing the soldier to make the greeting for the both of them.



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Cargo hold

Sune considered the planet spread out before them. I wonder what type of currency these people use. Seriously doubt they accept KS. So better check with the other team. he thought.

Picking up his communicator he sent a message to Takeyu private mode.

Takeyu-San,
Have you folks been able to determine what these people use for currency. I am trying to figure what to bring to exchange for local currency.
Sune.

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Alien City - Market

"Both. The dreamworld craves the knowledge, ideas, and creativity of as many people as it can find. That is why we are able to stay here. Think of it as a peculiar form of space probe," Glyt Nazza answered Chieko. "The volumetric people you see are copies of aliens that visited. The Dreamworld keeps their minds and they wander the planet. In this way, no one ever really leaves."

Alien City - Market

"Like a mental Roach motel eh?" Bors said offhandedly, glancing around at some of the other hologram images of creatures. "You guys don't have a giant brain bank or something in one of these buildings do ya?"

Something in the back of his head told they did an that they were going to be the next deposit, though he shook it off and told himself that he was just paranoid.