RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 7.2] Sorting It Out

When told of the destruction of the mothball fleets Darnell said, "Really? That's a pity. I know some gangs on Nepleslia used to keep bombs hidden in their weapons stores. If they were seized, they just detonated the bomb. Maybe Yamatai could do it on a grander scale." He paused a moment and then explained, "It wasn't a secret, though, the entire purpose was to use it as a deterrent."

Darnell put his hand on his chin. If he had had a beard it looked like he would be stroking it in contemplation of some evil scheme. "That's very odd. Maybe they're just there for shock value? Or in the hopes you'll destroy your own machinery hoping to destroy them? But would that really be worth it..."

When Darnell heard his ideas he said, "The problem with counter lifeforms is that they tend to be hard to maintain and are almost impossible to mass produce. Unless you wanted to base them off of the Neko or Yam, which would raise all kinds of moral outcry. In the few cases where they are, it is usually a disease and the problem there is making sure the disease doesn't infect you. And if the Star Army has drones that can differentiate between different life forms that might work, but I'm no engineer."

He waited a moment and said, "If we're very, very lucky, we'll know something about the species it is based off of or find something in the creature that is vulnerable to something we are immune to." Then he had a sudden spark of realization, "If we don't know the purpose and have live samples... why didn't some give them a functioning system and see what they do with it? Like put a bunch of them with a starship engine equipped with a lot of sensors and see what they do to it?"

The Taii crossed one leg over the other and, still sitting back in her chair, folded her hands politely. She listened quietly to Junko. When the engineer finished, Shizu nodded.

"That sounds more like what I read in the reports. Now that you are a Heisho, I expect to be briefed like this in the future."

She smiled a little bit.

"The failure in communication was not your fault. Himeya-Hei is now informed of the problem and, I think, she is in a good position to make sure the bridge is in communication with engineering in the future."

The Taii then paused.

"Also - You now have two people you will be responsible for. I believe we took on a new engineer today and Black..." the Taii faltered slightly for a moment. She had to pull the datapad over and check it, to correct herself. "...Yarani-Hei. He's qualified to monitor the equipment, but he isn't an engineer. It should free the two of you up for what needs to be done, but ultimately it's up to you how you want to run that department."

She looked back down at the tea cups. She seemed to consider them hazily for a few moments. It was gradually becomming more apparent, little by little, how tired she really was. Hadn't she just said earlier that she hadn't even had any sleep? Finally, she looked up again.

"Forgive me, Himeya-Hei. If you're going to get drinks, I would like more tea."

Sune make his way to the curb and looked for a cab to flag down. “Well, I only had time on the Eucharis to conduct the dissections before the decontamination team arrived and we were taken off ship. My recommendations to the SSS was to conduct experiments in a controlled area like a maintenance conduit. As I said, the infestation was complete on the Paradise. I agree with you, I do not think the Misshu would take the time to create such creatures just for shock factor. Since the creatures do not at least during the infestation stage cause significant damage, it is likely that a ship infection could go unnoticed. So that would imply some sort of delayed trigger may be needed to reveal their true purpose.” Finally a cab approached and Sune flagged it down. He opened the door to the cab and motioned for Darnell to enter.

“Actually the idea of a drone would most likely be a new construction. Perhaps during our examination or the SSS’s; we may find a chemical signature that a drone could be programmed to look for.”

"Junko finally let loose..." Nika lightly smiled as Junko commenced what she had wanted to say since the debriefing. Once the Heisho was done, it was the Taii who continued commenting on the communication issue within the ship.

"I do have to apologise for that... there was so many data to look at, so many to process. As much as I could to help Takeda-Heisho during that time..." Nika paused as she stood up, "I will keep it up and help out as much as possible."

With that, the neko went off to dispose her empty plate and proceed to get the drinks...

Mikael did not really know how to respond to the extremely energetic female standing before him. He tried to answer some of the questions she was asking him, but he was always cut off right as he opened his mouth. All he could manage to do after a few times of this was to raise his right eye brow and feign a smile. Not that he didn't like her or anything, just way to much energy.

He waited for Konoka to finish before he turned his attention back to the Captain and bowed once more. "If you will excuse me, I am going to get to know more of new friend here. Have a safe trip ma'am." Mikael said to Hanako. He moved over closer to Konoka and raised his eyebrow again and looked at Ramiro before speaking to her and giving a nice really firm handshake.

"The name is Mikael..Mikael Harris. Guess I will be seeing a lot of you, especially when the shooting starts happening. Combat is breed into me.." Mikael said before lowering his voice and leaning to whisper in her ear "My grandfather was a ID-SOL." He raised up once again and resumed his normal voice. "So what are you two planning on doing today? I had no plans other then weightlifting later on today, but I only do that when I am bored."

Misaki snorted awake. Sometime in the night a tricky bit of her hair had just made it's way into her mouth, prompting her to wake up. She never slept heavily, and had accidentally drifted back off after being torn from her sleep with Hanako several times at normal sounds during the night. She slept easier on a starship, and there almost never was time on the ground enough to change that. Resigned to the fact, she plodded naked to the shower, the XO's mind clearing after minutes under the water.

That was hard. It's only going to get worse. I hate the political ones. They scheme instead of taking time off. Groaning at the needling frustration she felt, the Chusa finally finished washing all of her hair, a task that was no small feat to be truthful. She could have worn one of Hanako's uniforms, but had forgotten to ask the night before, so she took the fresh PT uniform waiting outside the door, putting it on, the t-shirt last, only to sit down to her hair again.

That morning, she chose two rather long tails to put them in, minimizing how the bands showed on the side of her head so they just seemed to come out naturally almost, looking less girlish and more stylish. Well. It's our home. Do it for them...come on, don't look at me like that. Smiling at herself in the mirror, the officer finally finished, and left the hotel suite for room service to work on. She hoped they would go to the beach.

Arriving downstairs, she bowed towards Hanako, then offered the crew a smile, that same warm one she often had around them, and went to fill her plate. Several helpings of strawberries later, she grabbed as bagel and a bit of tea to bring her seated at the table. "Congratulations everyone." It was good to see the paperwork had gone through, though a twinge of worry came to some of the promotions. It might just encourage discipline problems. Deciding faith in the soldiers always paid off more than doubt, the bland expression on the XO's face crossed into a smile again.

When Mikael moved, she occupied his space next to Hanako, unaware of the incredibly hurtful things she'd been telling Shizu. "I still think Aomori is a good idea. Lots of shops, and we could try getting tans. And you know I've never been swimming in the ocean."

Junko watched the Chusa enter, a little wary that her proximity to the Taii might somehow earn her a place in the midst of another... disagreement, should one start up again. She turned back as Himeya walked off, and split her time contemplating her still untouched plate and the officer before her. Pursing her lips, she tried to figure out how exactly she was going to spend her day. Her mother was off planet at the moment and she had no other particular attachments to people or places that could entice her to visit. Remembering the Taii's mention of a meeting, she looked up sharply. "Ma'am, were you intending to speak to the other Heisho today?" she said quietly. "It's not that such a meeting would be a problem. I'm just trying to figure out what there is to do until we can return to the Eucharis."

Finally Kim finished her training and dressed, putting on a fresh uniform and quickly brushed her hair just a little, and after a (third) check that her uniform looked right, she finally made her way downstairs. Once there, she gave a smile to her crewmates and found a seat, just catching the end of Misaki's comment.

"Aomori sounds good to me. Last time I was on leave, I went up north. Not much of a tanning environment." The soldier commented as she poured herself some tea and took a bagel to eat, at least to start with. The earlier workout had driven a hunger into her.

Darnell got into the cab, again nodding his thanks to Sune, and gave the cabby directions. He continued, "That might make sense, but if they're so stealthy how did you notice them? Nothing about stealth came out in the rumors. But if they are meant to be stealthy maybe their job is to overload the system using a lot of very small shocks? If they're attaching themselves to the circuits they're effectively becoming resistors though..." Darnell reclined in the seat and thought to himself, But I don't understand how the Mish, Yams, or Neks think anyway.

Darnell said, "Wouldn't it be simpler just to equip them with a standard sensor package? And would drones really be a good counter, particularly if the things decide to fight back? And besides, there's no way every ship in the fleet could store enough drones to counteract an infestation without taking time. I'd prefer to find something that's poisonous to them that is fine with us. For example, a Neko mistakenly made too modified can find chocolate poisonous. Not that mistakes or made very often, or tolerated as far as I know."

"Mmm," replied the Taii. To her credit, she only seemed to glance at the Chusa when she arrived, but her gaze lingered between the two other officers. Her eyes were distant, momentarily, though it was difficult to read her expression or guess at what she could be thinking just from that.

"I think you should go enjoy yourself," the Taii said, returning her attention to Junko. "After I take care of some of this paperwork, I know I'm going to disappear for the rest of the day. Have you ever visited this city before?"

Ramiro got a big grin on his face at the mention of weightlifting. "Weightlifting sounds fun. Being up in space there really is no time for weightlifting. Now that I think about it I'm not even sure if the ship has a weight room." He pondered that for a moment. "Then again I'm not sure if the woman in our midst would enjoy lifting weights," he said as he playfully nudged Konoka with his elbow. "Personally I don't have any plans. I was just kinda going to tag along with a group that sounded like they were doing something interesting. Konoka might have plans though, well other than making new friends."

Sune watched the scenery pass by as the cab sped off. “Well they were not exactly stealthy on the Eucharis. They were making audible sounds as they were spreading through the ship. I believe the first was found by a crew member in engineering. I think what helped them to spread is their relatively small size. The size runs from .5 to 2.5 cm, easy enough to go unnoticed by personnel going about their duties. But the sensors on the Paradise did detect them, there just was no one on board to do anything. So I guess that makes the detection method easier, since the internal sensors can find them. Internal scans at regular intervals would at least detect an infestation early on.”

Sune looked out as the city sped watching the change as the cab passed from the military to the civilian side.

“Actually, I was raised here, ma’am,” Junko replied. “My mother retired here to have me after she completed her service.” She glanced up, looking through the windows at the world outside. “It has been a little while since I’ve been back,” she said, eyes unfocused. The suddenly narrowed as she spoke again, emotion now leeched out of her voice. “But I can’t say I have an particular attachments here, what with my mother being gone at present.” She shook her head, as if to dispel the uncomfortable memories obviously being trudged through. “And you ma’am?”

The blue-haired captain finished her meal and then wandered around the breakfast area; "Would anyone like to tag along with me?" Taisa Hanako asked each of the tables where her crew sat, trying to get count of her group. "I plan to visit the palace and then return to our starbase and the Eucharis."

The palace. Well, that was almost as good as the beach to a Ketsurui bred and trained solider. Misaki had always wanted to go, but had never managed it.

"I'd love to see the palace, and that will give me time to see to the members of the other crews at the star base. That's been nagging at me a bit." The XO announced, and stood to push in her chair. She was always a fast eater, at least when she didn't have too much.

If there was time after, maybe she could still go try to get a tan, or swim in the ocean but she was an officer and there were other things to think about in the bigger picture.

While getting her glass of orange juice and a cup of tea Shizu requested for, Nika 'eavesdropped' on several crewmates conversations, mentally taking note on where they would be going if she or anyone needed to find them.

"Seems everyone has plans for the day..." She commented to herself, returning to her table where she placed Shizu's tea in front of her, just as Junko finished her conversation with the former, "Taii, you tea..." Nika moved over to her seat and settled down, thinking, "Shizu will probably be resting up for the day... how about the other officers..."

It was a pure coincidence that Hanako decided to visit the palace. Nika's ears perked up on hearing the Taisa's plan, and she stood up immediately, waving a hand as high as possible.

"I will like to go too~" The neko beemed at Hanako, "Its been a while since I've return to the palace as well."

The Taii accepted the tea from Nika, inclining her head slightly in acknowledgement and offering a 'Thank you.' She took a sip from it and sat it off to the side before giving the Heisho a brief smile.

"I've been here once or twice. There are plenty of things to do if you are inclined to look. And if you care to look deeper, there is an entire culture and history here on this planet that has been, I suppose one could say, over-written. For instance - Have you ever seen a troll?"

Ramiro sighed, remembering he had promised himself to contact his family. He excused himself from the group, saying he had some personal matters to deal with and would catch up with them later that day if he was able. He the quietly made his way back upstairs to his room. Once inside he plopped himself on the bed, pulled his comm out of the holster on his side and began the long journey of catching up with his family...

Darnell said, "Then their ability to be stealthy is not really all that present. If that's the limit of their stealth technology, they're very primitive indeed. Besides, they were making sounds, which even the most primitive technology could prevent. These creatures seem rather useless, but we must accept that the Mish consider them useful enough." He paused a moment, "Or perhaps it was a test and they'll never appear again since they failed miserably. It's conceivable that the Mish simply tried to make a weapon and failed miserably."

Sune could see the SSS campus off in the distance. "I would say it is premature to make any definitive determination. The conditions of the infestation on the Eucharis were vastly different than on the Paradise. The Paradise being in mothball status had relatively low energy levels. The Eucharis on the other hand was at battlestations with all weapon and shield systems in operation. So its possible that with so much energy the infestation rate was explosive, and therefore their presence was more readily noticed." Sune paused for a moment and took a moment to dispatch a quick note to his friends on the Bouken.

"I doubt the Mishhu would waste their time deploying something they that they felt had no purpose. Given their terror tactics in the past, it is conceivable that a component of these creatures is to play on fear. The samples were sent to Ishi Kisho the Head of Xenobiology."