Keib eyed the footage of the new people coming in and smiled, and noticed something unusual, then grinned, "Hakahn, take a look." The footage zoomed into a box in the new arrivals area, "I didn't order a box."
"A... box? You'd think a gimmick nearly a thousand years old would be idiocy." Commented the Fyunnen as he 'appeared' behind Keib, leaning over the smaller New Tur'Lista to watch the 'box', a slight expression of annoyance on his face.
"It worked for me on the Ur'balk reclaiming several years back," Keib shrugged before looking over to his erstwhile servant, "But anyway. Investigation. Must do it. Greg, would you kindly?"
"Mmfhrm." Greg agreed before trotting off with a smile.
Magically almost, a cup of steaming hot coffee 'appeared' in the ship commander's hand as he idly sipped from it, watching the events unfold with some interest.
-
The thing itself was a dull snowy white perhaps a meter and a half across, smooth ribbed carbon layered in threads - scuffed by whoever had brought it with its edges revealing the black carbon beneath. Letters signed a name in Lorath that took a second look to decypher beneath a brand name the crew were increasingly (and perhaps unwillingly) becoming familiar with, thick bolts with thin handles descended into the body like the pins of a coffin.
Greg looked at it curiously and measured the dimensions by eye, using its fingers and thumb and having a good idea of the distance it was standing from to deduce that this box could comfortably fit a person inside of it. "Lvrvfrfh." Greg mumbled, looking at the brand name and scratching its head. It decided not to mince words any longer, and get it open.
Fingers would twist the four pins, lifting them out of the assembly, almost like explosive bolts with a swift vaccumed pop as the lid came loose, slipping away like an Apple sliced in half.
Beneath the lid amongst white foam cubes of varying sizes, a glossy package, vacuum sealed around what appeared to be a small pale body hunched in the fetal position - fibered maroon cabling wrapped about its wrists, ankles and various other places, terminating in small sockets about the back of its neck that resembled the ends of stethescopes. Accompanying this strange setup was a thick bit between its teeth and a blindfold with what seemed to be clamps returning to the sockets which covered its mouth and eyes. Shiibari would come to mind. Almost like a ham order to roast.
Meanwhile, Keib exchanged a surprised glance to Hakahn and a smile over the video screens. Hakahn looked toward Keib, his facial expression conveying an unspoken question, 'Is it yours?' The executive officer shook his head in reply. The ship commander merely nodded, lifting the XO's communicator from it's cradle.
"Security, this is Ship Commander KaShan, we have an unknown in the ship berthing area, respond accordingly but hold fire until further instructions." He said in a flat.. almost bored voice as his cold eyes continued to stare at the image feed.
Greg was not nearly as composed as his superior, standing back to let the box unfold, and then just looking at the person inside the box. A helashio? No! Far from it. Greg tilted his head at the figure in the box.
Feeling the change in temperature, the sealed body would twitch and for a moment thrash like a fish on the deck, dreaming - the sound of the sealed plastic quite loud. Greg reacted by jumping away in fright again, before trying to unwrap this strange present. Little by little with his clawed hands.
First, the outer packaging would come away, a claw breaking the seal of the plastic - the action having the small body thrashing. From there, it would offer its wrists, the cabling needing to be cut as it shook in the cool air.
Looking down at the wrists and giving them a surprised mumble, and it obliged. To the beleagured assistant, this was amongst the weirdest of things it'd seen all day.
"Hm... frfhm?" It pondered as it tried to disconnect the cables.
Shaking fingertips rose to pull at the clasp about its face, fingers loosening restraining bolts either side of its temple and then its cheek. Both hands grappling at the bit, it would pull away at the thing which clung inside its throat like some complex squid of plastic and medical chromed plastic, coughing pale milky fluid up onto the deck and upon Greg's Labcoat, still blind-folded.
"Date?" the feminine figure promptly barked as if it had some semblence of authority. It got a reply when the blindfold was pulled from her eyes, and a digital watch with '28/10/YE34' was put in front of her, accompanied by a pointing hand and a helpful mumble. The assistant looked down at its labcoat and sighed.
Like a child, she was doing math on her fingertips now, muttering as she counted many days and then many weeks, nodding in satisfaction once she had some idea of how long she'd been in the crate in soft-sleep.
"So what did you break?"
A silence.
"From the sound of it, your vocal cords seem fine but your tongue could use work."
"Hmn." Greg groaned with a shrug and rolling eyes.
She soon had her arms wrapped about herself, having expected the captain to be present, shaking like a cat following a deeply unwanted bath. "Towel?"
-
"Want me to say hello?" Keib asked his superior.
Hakahn held the communicator to the New'Turlista, his eyes still locked on the screen.
The New Tur'Lista cleared his throat and started, "Hello and Welcome, new arrival. I was planning to greet you with the rest of the new folks," His voice addressed "But it seems my assistant Greg has had to welcome since neither of us remember asking for something from Lazarus, bless 'em."
"You didn't." she snipped back, still shivering. Greg had gone missing for a moment. Despite her lack of composure, she still had it in her to be rather harsh at the best of times. Greg returned with a towel and gave her a nod.
"We have an i...-invested interest in this mission," she felt her synthetic teeth clatter, tongue checking to see if the seals were still in place for a moment as she thought over how she'd deliver the alternative agenda, wrapping herself up in the towel. "I take it you have a standard medical bay?" she'd grumble, noting that the diagnostic routines weren't working.
"Check the Mok'Ro cargo logs, will you?" Keib asked his superior off camera while he kept his new guest entertained, "Of course we do. What're you after? Soldiers, please assist this woman." The handful soldiers who were monitoring the situation lowered their rifles and slung them over their backs.
Somewhere on the volumetric display Hakahn's hands danced, bringing up the various files concerning the Mok'Ro before finally settling on her final inventory log. With a stretching of the hand he brought it to the forefront of Keib's display. There were some Lazarus items of an undisclosed nature on the ship. That explains a lot.
"I need to make sure I'm intact for one. Storing the body like this is a gamble, even with quasisynthetics."
Quasi synthetic? Oooohhh... The inner scientist was getting the better of the executive officer, his expression lit up as he leaned in, "Sure thing. I'll have Greg and the Lab Boys check you out. Assuming you're an ARIA, which chassis?"
"3.5. Not slated for release for another year. If you're so fascinated, Mr. Smart-pants, take a look yourself."
"I think I will! Welcome to the LSDF Akahar!" He put the comms down and could be heard walking away from them.
Standing to her feet, she'd struggle with her balance at first, wobbling before falling face-flat against the deck with a resounding clunk. Greg helped her back onto her feet and looked at her with a concerned frown, almost saying 'Are you alright?'
Maroon eyes would stare back in distaste beneath wet matted black hair, promptly shoving the Helashio aside with what little balance she did have. Her gaze lowered slowly as a moment of realization set in, eyeing the unfamiliar sensation of the deck beneath and then her toes.
"This is new."
The soldiers exchanged glances, unsure of whether extending courtesy was a good thing or a bad thing, based this new arrival's conduct and appearance. Some exchanged shrugs.
It took quite a while before she'd even realise they were stood there, her naked body seemingly abscent of any secondary sexual characteristics, like a doll or sculpture. "Medbay. Now."
"Chop chop, you heard the woman." Keib could be heard walking towards the group, and the handful of soldiers sprung into action, escorting the walking doll towards the medical facilities, "So..." He asked as he and the other soldiers were walking through the ship's halls at a liesurely clip, wearing his lab coat open and proudly displaying a shirt from an Aethersperm concert that took place in YE32.
"You like music?" she mused, mulling over a new sensation. She wasn't aware that she could feel a headache in here present state but alas, such things were possible much to her dismay. She spent a few moment staring at the shirt for a moment before her eyes would rise back to Keib.
"To quote every Nepleslian out there: Fuck Yeah." Switching from Lorath to fluent Trade without thought.
For the first time, she would be seen smiling, lips parting to reveal the small marbles of milk-teeth. "Huuh... This is... unexpected. If I even breathed a word about this back at the dorm, I'd... " she trailed for a moment. "What is your name?"
"Executor Mar'zhaz Keib 'The Howler' New Tur'Lista. No need for all the dignitaries - just Keib will do." He was happy to answer as he turned a corner and went into the medbay, mulling over what this new arrival meant by 'dorm'.
The med bay was outfitted like most others of its type. There was very little variance amongst races as to the functions of a medbay, it'd just be that the labels were in different languages or the items in different places, and there'd always be a slab in the middle for the wounded. Either way, the tools were all there, and the doctor on duty was sitting back with a Nepleslian comic book, idle as could be. He looked up to Keib and raised an eyebrow at the new arrival.
Meanwhile, the commanding officer of the ship was watching all of this unfold with a fascinated stare.
-
Without permission, she hoisted herself up onto a Kakutama Heavy Industries Treatment and Examination Bed - noting it to be higher than she was used to and taking several attempts to climb aboard. She laid back, peering about as she noted a volumetric display. She soon began tapping through results, occasionally eyeing the doctor. "What are you reading?"
"That new Phoenix Man! comic. It's supposed to be based on a true story or somesuch," He said tersely, putting the pages down on a bench and moving over, "What's up?" He looked at the strange, oddly featureless body up and down. It wasn't unlike looking over Greg to him.
"Basic checks. Nothing I need help with" she quietly disregarded him, her attention in the display and the results. "Could you fetch me some protein derms?"
The medic nodded and moved away to the cupboards to fetch the necessary materials. Keib, meanwhile, was leaning against the wall and was watching. "I can see that you're running on something most people would consider impossible. But, as far as we're concerned, those people are thinking small, right?" He grinned.
"I like you." she replied. "In a metaphorical sense, I'm not actually here with you -- nor in a legal sense, though technically my authority does legally carry over if I have a reperesentative here. And who better than myself?"
"So you're probably sitting in a cozy dorm somewhere far, far away, hooked up to something and running this body by proxy." He snapped his fingers idly as he tried to guess. This was a fascinating discourse to him, "You could reasonably be in a few places at once if you have no problems acquiring a body and hurling it somewhere, and given your employers - that is no problem at all."
"Actually, I'm independent. There's no puppeteering or wirework between me and ... Well. Me. I'm a translated construct of the original Aiesu - though for security reasons, I can't share the rest of my name or my house." she quietly continued, going over details as she thought about things rather carefully. "I am required to report back to my origin but otherwise, I'm autonomous."
I feel like I'm forgetting something. The executive officer pondered before looking at the camera, "That's right - Hakahn, could you call a meeting for our new arrivals? They have an assignment. I'll catch up when I'm done here." He then looked back to Aiesu, "Hakahn 'Braincase' KaShan Fyuunen. Ship commander. Bit of a stick in the mud, but knows his stuff."
" 'Braincase'? " Aiesu echoed. The XO tapped his head and gave her a wink and a cheeky grin.
A voice, sounding slightly intrigued filtered into the compartment through the ship's intercom system, "Attention, all recently arrived personnel report to the main pilot ready room in thirty minutes, that is all." A brief pop announced the system had been turned off.
Greg had poked into the room with a fresh lab coat, and a somewhat annoyed expression towards Aiesu. Keib raised an eyebrow as to why, and then made a simple "Ah." after a prolongued mumble from the gender-neutral-by-science-accident Helashio.
"Does that thing have a name?" Aiesu quizzed, glancing from the reports on her volumetrics with a sigh - some minor surgery required to make up for the storage decay.
"Greg." Keib replied, "My understudy, and everyone's friend on ship. I teach him - er, it some science and engineering basics when I've got the time."
"It?" Aiesu echoed, giving Greg another thoughtful look. It was apparent that behind the labcoat and beneath the underwear Greg was wearing, there appeared to be nothing at all.
Keib coughed in reply, rolling his eyebrows and making a grimace, "Long story."
"I hate waiting rooms. Now would be a good time," Aiesu said, hopping off the bed. "Is there something I could wear?" The doctor off-duty obliged by passing her some casual clothes from a clean laundry basket, amongst which was a Kirin Games Manufacture t-shirt.
Aiesu dressed, seemingly without modesty for herself on the spot, eyeing the shirt thoughtfully as she pulled on a pair of shorts and the shirt which came to about her thighs, several sizes too large and almost obscuring the shorts entirely. She sighed, shoulders rolling back with a click as she nodded. "Lead the way."
"Certainly." The mad scientist replied, opening the door for her. He noticed something as he held the door open, "Like Kirin?" Delsaurian gaming company that somehow managed to stay relevant in a gigantic world of starships, guns, war and death. No mean feat, but where there was boredom, there was always something to enjoy wasting time with if you had a SYNC connection.
"I've heard of them but little more," she said, making her way down the corridor with Keib, seemingly detached from her situation as if she were going to fall asleep.
"Once we're done with this Mok'Ro business, want to get a deathmatch going on NSS DeathWish?"
"What's a deathmatch?" the smaller of the two parried. Despite her vast knowledge, she was quite ignorant of many matters in the universe. The doctor just grinned in her direction before walking into the Pilot Ready Room and awaiting the new soldiers.
"You'll see once I brief everyone," He sat down and looked about the ready room, double checking that all of the soldier's items were in place, and that there was plenty of room for the new arrivals and previous soldiers on this mission, and Greg took its place next to him and crossed its arms. The doors were still open to the ship, and after this meeting, it would take off.
Aiesu, rather strangely chose to remain standing.