A few days later...
The Resurgence crew assembled for a brief meeting after their stay in Kyoto for Victory Day to make sure everyone made it and then fell out to grab their bags and their tickets. Hojo had taken care of travel arrangements and had arranged for a private train car for the crew with several sleeping rooms and a small dining area.
"All aboard," Captain Majime called, with a big smile. "I've always wanted to say that," she added afterward.
Pidole moved forward carrying her duffel and backpack, while Kawa Euikoshi followed her with a camera, getting footage. Pidole's blue beetle followed in the air as well.
Kwabba-an hoisted her bag onto her shoulder and looked down at her caseless Zesuaium bass, admiring the carbon scoring it had gained when it was blasted by a Kuvexian, before grabbing it by the neck and lifting it. She stepped forward with the rest, excited to get on board. She took a moment to look around, past her crewmates, and appreciate the train station. She had visited before, when travelling back and forth between her school in Kyoto and her parents' place in Ternifac, but something felt different before such a big journey.
Chelith wore her uniform with immaculate pride, her bag was slung over her shoulder. She blended to the point of near invisibility with the other Nekos.
Gabriela and Poppy Pink followed along next, with a speediness to their step so they could claim a room together. They were friends who had shared a train ride before. "Poppy, will you watch what you drink this time?" Gabriela giggled.
Poppy gave her a look. "I'll have to ask before accepting random drinks from random aliens in Ternifac, that's for sure," she replied. She gave a wave to Kwabba, too.
Taii Hojo Kagura stood at the edge of the platform beside the train's door, playing the role of depot usher for her crewmates as they entered. With a datapad in hand, she smiled and nodded as each passed her while they carried themselves and their luggage onto the locomotive. She marked Pidole, Kwabba-an, Chelith, Gabby, and Poppy with a quick swipe of her finger — and the others who followed — all the while daydreaming about what the journey ahead would bring. This would be Kagura's first train trip; the abundance of easy access to shuttlecraft made travel easy and quick within the Yamatai Star Empire. So the first officer was excited at the prospect of going overland through Yamatai's terrain instead of flying above it.
Kwabba-an noticed the pink-haired medic waving at her. She felt a little embarassed, but smiled and waved back. She didn't know many of her crewmates' names yet and felt like she should introduce herself, but the thought made her chest tighten with anxiety.
Kalena scanned the area with her gold eyes and followed the group towards the train. "Gabriela, do you mind if I share a cabin with you?" she asked. "You're okay with nudity, right?"
"Sure," Gabriela laughed. "Just watch out for Poppy, she might get excited!" she grinned.
Poppy made another funny face at Gabriela.
Cassie still looked a little jittery from the giant battle they'd been through in the Glimmergold system. They were quiet and withdrawn compared to his usual self lately.
Majime waited for everyone to board near the door of their private train car.
With everyone else on the train but Majime, Kagura lowered the datapad to her side and gave the Captain a quick salute before boarding herself. She'd only brought a backpack for her part, packing light because she preferred to rely on volumetrics to project the uniform of the day over her Type 40 exercise uniform's bikini bottoms and fitted sports top. Other than battle, Kagura was always prepared to surf or wrestle, and was most comfortable wearing less.
Gabriela, Poppy, and Kalena claimed a room. Each of the rooms had four beds, two on each side. They had navy blue wool blankets and white cotton sheets and two fat looking pillows each. The walls were made of dark stained wood paneling.
Kwabba-an couldn't help but eavesdrop on the conversation between the crew ahead of her in line. Sharing cabins? Somehow, she had envisioned their train car being one big room with bunk beds. She wondered with whom she would share a cabin, and couldn't help but think about her friend Kozakura. Looking around, she couldn't see the journalist. Oh well, she thought, we'll see plenty of each other on the ride.
Cheilith sidled up to Kwabba, "This is going to be fun, like a train is like a ship, but all in a single long line. We can watch the scenery pass and just relax. I wonder if they serve sandwiches here? Anyway, you want to share a cabin for this trip?"
Kwabba-an was momentarily startled when the black-haired woman walked up beside her, but visibly relaxed as soon as she started speaking.
"Hello, Cheilith," the insectoid said with a smile as she hopped on board. "I also love trains. They have a wonderful, hypnotic rhythm. It puts me right to sleep if I close my eyes. It would please me to share a cabin with you."
"Awesome!" Cheilith enthused, "Lets see if we can grab a good one, I think this might be a double decker, so do you want to be on the top or bottom? Also we should figure out port or starbord. I don't think it will matter much, but it's something to think about." Cheilith asked as she moved towards the cabins.
Kwabba-an nodded, clearly impressed with her friend's knowledge of trains as she followed closely behind through the narrow corridor of the train. "I prefer to be on top but I have no preference for port or starboard," the insectoid stated. "If I knew the route better, I might know which side had better scenery. Alas, I am quite ignorant on the matter. Have you been this way before?"
"Nope, I'm only like a hundred and twenty days old. So I haven't done much yet. But I will someday!" Cheilith responded as they headed up some stairs.
Kwabba-an's eyes went wide with excitement. "Oh! Are you a Nekovalkyrja?" Kwabba-an asked. "I did not realize. How unobservant of me. My genetics were created in a similar way to yours, but I did not develop nearly as quickly as you did, I am afraid."
Of all of the things that Kwabba could have said, that was perhaps the last thing Cheilith would have ever expected. "I am, and a pretty average one at that. Average height, average weight, common colors, nothing special. Are you blind or something? All of us Neko look pretty similar."
Kwabba-an laughed nervously. "I have no such excuse. I suppose I just never noticed." She looked around at their crewmates and finally saw others who looked similarly. "Indeed, now that you have pointed it out, it seems quite obvious. Perhaps if I heard you all singing, I could tell you shared similar voices."
"Perhaps, do you mostly experience things through sound? I've never really thought about it, or met too many species from outside the Empire." She said as they found a cabin.
Kwabba-an nodded. "I pay much closer attention to how things sound than how they look. It is not a feature of my species," then she frowned. "Or rather, it is not a feature of the species of my mother nor the species of my father."
"You parents were of different species then you? Did you develop in a tube like me? I thought that most people who weren't Nekos were born the other way you know." Cheilith asked curiously as they unpacked.
"They are. My father is Minkan and my mother is !Khoekhoe," Kwabba-an pronounced the consonants of the last word with clicks just as she had with her true name. Rather than unpacking, she simply placed her bass and bag in one corner of their cabin. "Very similar to the insect known as an ant, except much larger. Unfortunately, to the best of our knowledge she is the last of her species. I believe my parents had their genes combined and inserted into one of the eggs of my mother."
A chime and a loud hiss came from the train.
Cassie took a look around the station and hopped on the train just before it started lurching forward, and rubbed his chin considering who they should share rooms with. Cassie didn't want to get in the way.
Kwabba-an looked out their cabin's window for a moment, but then closed her eyes and let the sounds of the train relax her. She sighed calmly.
Deciding to give everyone else a chance to pick their bunks first (and thus, perhaps, curse whoever happened to have an empty bed at the end with the presence of an authority figure), Kagura posted up in the dining level for now. The booth seat she chose was on the side of the train that faced away from the station so she could watch the scenery out of the locomotive's big, panoramic windows as it coasted out of Kyoto. She pulled out a little sealed pouch of dried fish jerky that she'd saved from a Type 31 ration pack from her backpack beside her, which she'd saved for just such occasions.
This was already shaping up to be a fine trip, Kagura thought, perfectly content with her setup. And now that she was out of the public eye, the first officer decided to drop her uniform's projection in favor of some loose forest green running shorts plus a white crop top t-shirt that had a wide, loose collar that showed off her compression top's left strap. With the privacy afforded to them by the reserved car, she decided to make the most of it and get comfy.
Euikoshi came out her her cabin and grabbed Cassie by the waist with both hands and maneuved the gray cat-anthro into her cabin. "I know how to make you smile," she promised.
Cassie's eyes got big as they were pulled into the cabin, but they didn't resist.
The train took North off for Pagoda No Uesu.
As the train pulled away, Cheilith looked outside, "Ohh, We're starting the trip! Comeon let's see if we can get good view in the lounge car or perhaps the dining car if your feeling pekish."
Kwabba-an opened her eyes, turned to Cheilith and nodded. "Let us go," she replied confidently before slipping into a more tentative tone. "I am not sure if I am peckish. How are you feeling?"
"I could eat, but if the lounge car has a better view, I'm into that. Perhaps we can grab a sandwich on the way." Cheilith said as they left the cabin and started down the hall.
Kwabba-an listened to her friend's voice and then nodded and followed along. In truth, she was hungry but felt shy about eating with others and avoided it whenever she could.
"Hey, the XO is in her exercise uniform," Poppy observed with her pink hair protruding into the passageway and the dipping back in.
"Well, she can't be wrong," Kalena laughed, starting to undress immediately. Poppy and Gabriela did too and soon the trio were in their exercise uniforms as well. "Interesting tattoos," Kalena remarked. She had seen Poppy's cat tattoo, the face on her arm, and a third one that had a heart shape and a lewd word. "Is that a suggestion?"
Gabriela ducked out of the cabin with a wink and joined Kwabba and Cheilith to get some snacks. "I love trains," she told the two.
"Hey Gabs! We're seeing if they got any sandwiches. I've never been on a train before, have you? Was it on this route or somewhere else?" Cheilith asked.
Kwabba-an smiled and made a small wave at the bright-eyed anthro who joined them. Though she wanted to speak her agreement, she simply nodded instead.
"Yeah!" Gabriela grinned. "I got to ride one up to Ralt for for the Year-End Yule festival! But I got called back early for the Battle of Glimmergold. Poppy was with me! We stopped at a bar in Ternifac and she drank something weird and I ended up having to hold her hair in the bathroom."
"Glad you're all getting cozy, girls," Kagura called when she saw that some of the junior crewmen had taken a cue from her attire. Their little pow-wow had drawn her attention away from the view and down the hallway. Poppy's tattoos gave her pause for a moment, but the first officer didn't think much of them. If the medic's body art had made it through recruiting and health checkups then
someone must have cleared them as appropriate. "Just remember that we're still representing the Star Army even though we've got this private car, so be on your best behavior if any train staff come through."
Kwabba-an turned and gave a serious nod to the executive officer. She made a quiet "mm" sound to indicate her understanding.
"Yes Ma'am" Cheilith chimed in, grabbing herself a BLT from the bar. "That sounds interesting, are we going to be stopping there on this trip?" She asked Gabriela.
"No, it's far East of here and we're going to the West," Gabriela replied.
"Ok, I'm sure we'll find new places to have adventures!" Cheilith enthused.
OOC: JP by Wes,
@hyralt,
@raz and
@Soban