RP: YSS Resurgence Resurgence of Yamatai - Mission 1: Homeworld

[hyralt]

Kwabba-an tensed at the snap of Poppy's glove but felt strangely relieved at the biological questions. She wondered why they seemed to comfort her and decided it was simply better to think about anything other than death.

"Most of my organs are in my insect abdomen, so it is only natural that my digestive tract reaches its conclusion there."

When prompted, she laid down on the table. The thought of the brain scanner made her anxious again. What if it scanned her brain while she was anxious? Would that be her default state if the scan were ever put into a new brain? Would she ever know if there were a difference? Her head was so full of questions that she nearly didn't notice when Poppy asked her another one.

"I would miss this body terribly if I had a different one. As far as I know, there are no others like me. As wonderful as Nekovalkyrja bodies are, I would want a copy of this one." Another thought occurred to her, and she brought one of her hands up to touch under her arm where she had been injured. "Would you grow a fresh body from my DNA? Or would a copy of my body include the present imperfections such as scars? I think I would miss them too. They are a part of me."

 

[raz]

Cargo Bay > Wardroom > Bridge

Just as she'd planned, Kagura strolled down deck 5's wide ventral hallway that bisected the ship and found her way to the Resurgence's forward wardroom. She gave Sanda a thumbs-up and wink as the two passed each other upon Sanda's exit from the galley, having telepathically heard Majime's communicated approval of making allowing the wounded Ranger to cook for them. The prospect of partaking in Sanda's food had been at the back of the young First Officer's mind since the train trip, and she was glad for the chance to eat something made by a veritably purported expert in restaurant-ing (as well as happy for Sanda to find a fulfilling task while she carried the specter of Glimmergold in her injury).

Kagura came into the wardroom quickly after, laying her immediately-impressed pink eyes on the vaulted dining chamber. By virtue of deck 5 being double tall, this place was certainly much bigger than any other gunship's wardroom Kagura had ever seen. But more than that, it rivalled the accommodations she'd previously used on larger vessels, no doubt because of the freshness of its design and task as an "expeditionary" gunship intended to make dignified first contacts with new aliens and entertain them in the process.

"Woooooooow!" Kagura exclaimed to nobody in particular, being alone as she scoped out the wardroom for the first time.

The XO's eyes darted all around, first to the trellised hydroponic gardens that covered both walls with all sorts of fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs, and then over to the entire gallery of dining space that ringed the entire room above where she stood. But what most grabbed her attention was the big transparent Zesuaium window that laid smack-dab in the center of the wardroom. Only the landing pad here at Ketsurui No Iori beneath the YSS Resurgence could be seen right now but, as she trotted over to stand atop it and look down, Kagura could only imagine the magnificent ambience some new planet or nebula would provide her and her crewmates on a daily basis.

Between the cargo bay and this wardroom, Kagura had already fallen in love with her new assignment.

Still, the Taii didn't want to dally too long in acquainting herself with the ship. There'd be plenty of time for that in the coming months — or even years — so she took one last spin on her heel to commit the wardroom's sights to memory and then exited into the corridors again. One of the ship's four main zero-gravity passageways soon provided Kagura with a path upward to the bridge, being only a few meters in front of the wardroom's doors (both the port and starboard sides had one, and the aft of the ship mirrored the arrangement — in the cargo bay on this deck). Once inside, Kagura hopped up and zipped vertically toward deck 3 where the bridge lay two levels above, motivating her Nekovalkyrja body to move in the weightless environment.

The white, padded walls in the zero G tubes were very familiar. It seemed that even latest and greatest warship designs by Ketsurui Fleet Yards still incorporated tried-and-true technologies, which struck Kagura as entirely sensible even despite her awed reaction to the Fuji-class thus far. As the Nepleslians say, Kagura generally agreed, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

From deck 5 to deck 3 in a flash as quick as a shadow-stepping Eihei samurai, Kagura made her way out of the starboard passageway and past the the line of three escape pod entrances that lined this thin corridor's exterior wall right next to the bridge's right-side doorway. After entering, Kagura gasped instead of letting out a long "wow" as she had in the wardroom, and then saluted due to the captain's presence before proceeding into the ship's command center fully.

It certainly didn't feel as small as Kalena had made it sound. But it was certainly different than most small vessel bridges that Kagura herself had served on. Its design principles reminded Kagura of something you'd see on a bigger ship with a more space-limited scale. Now that she saw it, too, the XO could see why there was both an engineering station and one for systems monitoring — the latter more or less amounted to a display of the Fuji's decks and critical systems, and could be seen clearly by the captain, while the former spot seemed to provide the ship's engineer with bridge presence and tools to address any technical problems that might arise. Half of Kagura's thoughts up to now had been dedicated to wondering about Kalena's initial description of the bridge, so the platinum blonde First Officer was relieved to see her working environment wasn't as weird as it could have been. It would definitely be a change, though, just like every new class of ship she'd served on.

"Rad ship, Captain," Kagura said to Majime as she crossed the deck toward her XO's station. She admired all of the immaculate new seats that only a few butts maximum had graced until now, and grinned at the shiny and unblemished control surfaces that lacked any blemishes or personal residue. "Other than getting an orange panel aboard, anything else you need us to get for the ship?"

 

[Arbitrated]

YSS Resurgence
Medical Center

Arbitrated Iemochi gave her husband a teasing, familiar look. "Well, here we go again! Always something going on in here, right?" The family had had more than one... "Interesting event" take place within the medbay of a Yamataian starship. To be in one again is... Nostalgic - a medbay was, in fact, where the two lovebirds properly met each other for the first time.

"I'll take a back-up, please!" Aradia Sivins interrupted, the little hummingbird bursting into the room with a flash of tropical coloration and energy, slipping around her cousins nimbly. "Just in case," she finished.

Rolling her eyes as she gave Daniel a little pat on the head, Arbles chimed in, "I'd like for all of us to get backed-up, in the event of a catastrophe - but hopefully, things won't be that bad."

 

[hyralt]

Kwabba-an turned to see a group of Elysians enter the Medical Lab. She was immediately hit by a wave of anxiety, but it mostly faded as she recognized their faces from the train platform in Ketsurui no Iori. The beauty of their wings captivated her and she stared for a long time. She particularly enjoyed looking at the wings of the second woman who entered the room, because of their gorgeous gradient from blue at her shoulders down to pink at the tips. After some time, she realized she was being rude and gave them an embarrassed smile and a wave. The insectoid felt uncomfortably vulnerable as she laid on the table.

"Uhm, hello."

 

[Wes]

"You got it," Poppy said with a wink. It only took a few minutes for the backup process to get completed. She continued to asked biology questions about Kwabba's unique body configuration. "So your digestive system ends in your insect butt but you have reproductive organs in the usual place humans would, right? What about your urinary system? Where are your kidneys located?" as Poppy asked this she was actively looking for the urethral opening. "No anus between your legs, eh?" she asked, poking around with her fingers. "Very interesting."

Suddenly Poppy blinked and raised her eyebrow and looked over her shoulder, "Oh!? When did you get here?" she asked. He hadn't noticed the Elysians come in to the medical lab. "I'll be with you in a moment," she said, covering Kwabba with a towel for modesty since there were other people around. "Scan's done!" she said to the insectoid. "You're good to go."

 

[hyralt]

Kwabba-an recalled her primary education, which had been entirely provided by her parents who had divided up the subjects by their own interests. Her mother taught her mathematics, the Khoekhoe language, history, and as much of the literature and mythology of the Khoekhoe people as her mother could recall strictly from memory, which was substantial. Her father taught her the Trade language, Yamataian and Nepleslian history, and science. Kwabba-an had never been a particularly good student, but she remembered the biology lessons where her father taught her about her own physiology.

"Yes, I have mammalian reproductive organs in the usual place humans would, but it is unknown whether I would lay eggs in the insectoid way or bear a child in the humanoid way. Or most likely I am infertile as many half-breeds are. I have no urinary system or kidneys. I excrete crystalline uric acid like an insect or a bird or a reptile. I understand my mother's species evolved in a particularly hot and arid environment. Such excretion is much more water-efficient. Perhaps you could consider it as an adaption for future generations of Nekovalkyrja? I can survive for weeks without water, but I am not sure exactly how long." She smiled at the thought that some small part of her might live on in nekos. "To fully answer your question, the equivalent to a kidney in my physiology is a system of tubules whose name I forget. But these tubules process the same substance that kidneys would, absorb all of the available useful elements and excrete the rest as crystals. And they are located in my insect butt, as you put it."

 

[Wes]

Poppy nodded, "I thought you'd be a typical anthro that's just mostly a human with animal parts bolted on," she admitted. "No offense against Cassie or anyone. But you're actually part bug." She sounded impressed.

 

[hyralt]

Kwabba-an happily clicked the vestigial mandibles hidden in her mouth, and then she suddenly remembered that Poppy had said she was done, so she hopped down off the table and straightened the pleated skirt of her uniform.

"My father was a genetic engineer. He fell in love with my mother who is the last of her kind. They both felt it was important to combine their genes if they possibly could. I understand that it was no small effort. And that I am fortunate not to have succumbed to some genetic issue already in my short life. I am grateful for whatever time I have left." She wasn't sure exactly what to do, so she gave Poppy an awkward bow. "Thank you for everything, Poppy Pink."

 

[Soban]

Chelilth came into the sickbay. "Oh, Hey! It's the Iemochi I didn't expect to see you, isn't this ship so cool? It's brand new and so everything... just has that new feeling you know? I'm here to get my checkup, but I'm not expecting anything, I'm only slightly older then the ship." She enthused at the smol Elysian and her husband.

 

[Wes]

Bridge

"I want to take this ship for a spin," Majime said. "Gabriela, take us up into space," the captain ordered.

"My pleasure," Gabriela nodded. The ship lurched up into the air, and Kalena stumbled at the cargo bay door and closed it as the ground started getting further and further away. "Hey, wait for me!" she said, hurrying towards the bridge. The Resurgence raced through the air and soon blue gave way to black and the gorgeous blue sphere of planet Yamatai was below them.

"Now, put the observation deck facing the planet," Majime ordered, and left to go see the view for herself.

- - -

Medical Lab

Poppy helped Aradia and Iemochi get make backups and then Chelith. "I know what you mean, Cheilith! And we get to have this ship as our home! I haven't even got my cabin picked yet."

 

[Cowboy]

"You've got to come up to the observation deck and see this!" Majime gushed over the ship intercom. "The view is amazing!"

Kwabba-an heard a somewhat unfamiliar voice over the intercom and although she was anxious about meeting new people, the thought of an observation deck sounded fabulous. The insectoid quietly snuck past the quickly-growing group of people gathering to have all their routine scans at the medical lab. She made it down a couple of corridors before she realized that she didn't know where the observation deck was. She thought for a moment, then correctly guessed that it would be on one of the uppermost decks, so she started one of her random walks through the ship, trying to go upwards whenever possible, until she found herself on the observation deck.

With Majime off checking out the observation deck, First Officer Kagura hadn't planned on leaving the bridge herself. Someone had to maintain a presence there per regulations, after all, and she thought that it might as well be her. The bridge had that cool panoramic volumetric capability, anyway, from which Kagura thought she'd scope out the view. Still, Majime's shipwide call made it easy for Kagura to get away from her station and continue exploring the ship.

"Hope you can handle yourself so soon, MEGAMI," Kagura said aloud to the ship around her, not having been introduced to the Resurgence's computer intelligence yet. "I'll be on the bridge with the captain. Let's go check it out," she added, beckoning the bridge bunnies currently on the bridge to come along.

Because the Zero G passageways didn't extend to the dorsal deck 1, Kagura and whoever else came along would have to take the stairs up. The first set were closeby to the bridge, and only a few meters behind the row of escape pods that heralded the bridge's corridor. But once on deck 2, they'd have to make their way all the way to the Resurgence aft staircase and up. It was a quick enough little walk, and Kagura soon found herself at the top of the steps with the observation deck on her left and the ship's science lab on her right.

"Woooooooow!" Kagura said after coming in and seeing Majime viewing planet Yamatai below, amazed again in what was becoming a common occurrence today.

"We're going to have a lot of great sights out these windows," Majime grinned. "Look, you can see the lights of Kyoto. Speaking of Kyoto, Love Day is coming soon and we have a chance to go to Kyoto for it. Now that we have our ship, we can zoom around and send small teams to multiple locations instead of going around the towns looking like a big gaggle of tourists."

Kwabba-an, upon realizing that the voice over the intercom was the captain, and now finding herself on the observation deck with much of the bridge crew, felt quite intimidated. She looked out of the windows at Majime's suggestion, and tried to focus on the glittering lights of the city below.

"As much as I loved that train trip, nothing can beat trans-atmospheric shuttle travel," Kagura said, nodding in agreement with the Captain. Instead of busting out her datapad to make a note of Majime's musings, as the XO normally would, she simply committed the change of plans to her memory. This was too great a moment to sully with being overly-dutiful; a soldier only got to be impressed by the novelty of serving aboard a new ship once.

"Look how big Ash Bay is!" Kagura chirped. It'd always seemed relatively small when she'd visited, but it looked like a massive gulf from here.

"What about teleporting down?" Majime asked Kagura. "I mean, provided there's a safe place to appear at..."

"We'll be sure to remain at condition two at least!" the XO joked with a chuckle. "Teleporting around everywhere in a Mindy would be quick, you're right."

Sanda had barly made it back to the ship with food supplies before the ship took off. "What the Hell!' She exclaimed with shock as the ship rocked her back and almost made her drop the bottles of wine and alcohol she had bought for their first dinner aboard ship. "Damn pilots, give a girl a warning." She muttered as she secured the food stuff. Once the ship stopped rocking as it found an orbit Sanda rolled her sleeves up, put on an apron and tied her hair back with a bandana. "Alright, lets get to work."

Try as she might, Kwabba-an simply couldn't calm down. Instead, she abandoned the beautiful view and started following random corridors through the ship again. She felt much better walking around, even if she didn't know where she was going. There was no social pressure to talk with people she didn't know. Instead, she just wandered.

"Uh," Majime hurried after Kwabba. "Sorry, I should have said hello," she apologized. "You're welcome to join us. I just got excited about the view and all the adventures I want to have. I am new at being a captain so please bear with me."

Kwabba-an tensed up as the increasingly-familiar voice of the captain called after her. She turned and smiled nervously. "Oh, hello. That's okay. I do not think you did anything wrong. I am just very nervous around people I have not talked with much before."

This much was quite evident from the insectoid's extremely anxious expression.

"Please do not let me interrupt, the view is magnificent."

"Okay, let's get back to work then," Majime nodded. "Let's get a shuttle down the surface again. Pidole and Cassie were going to go to Ketsurui Fleet Yards at Ketsurui no Iori, and Euikoshi and Poppy were going to go to the former PNUgen site there...but it might make sense to keep Poppy here making backups."

Kwabba-an nodded. "Poppy seemed very busy in the medical lab. I can go in her place, if that would make things easier?"

"Sounds great," Majime nodded to Kwabba.

"Then I will try to find Euikoshi. I hope we do not need to leave soon. I am...quite inept at finding my way around the ship." Kwabba-an, unsure of what to do, bowed to Majime, turned, and resumed her meandering. This time, however, she had a goal: to find Euikoshi.

Galley

Sanda put two big pots on the stove top to start boiling water and got out several cutting boards. She went into the fridge and got a out some of the fresh vegetables she just bought and rinsed them off in the sink. She took out a large knife and ran it a few times over the sharpener, an old habit from when she worked with her sister. Satisfied that the knife was sharp enough, Sanda began to cut and dice the vegetables. Chop, chop, chop, chop, chop, chop went the blade. Sanda began to hum an old rhyme she only half remembered her sister huming as she went to work on the onions.

Kwabba-an walked past the power armour bay, vaguely remembering that she had stumbled into the shuttle bay somewhere nearby. Seeing a door at the end of the hallway, she knocked on it and then opened it to find herself in a small room full of cooking utensils and appliances. Then she noticed Sanda chopping onions, and felt tears start to well up in her eyes.

"Oh," she sniffed. "Hi, Sanda! What are you," sniff, "doing here? I do not think this is the shuttle bay, is it? Have you," sniff, "seen Euikoshi around?"

Sanda looked up from her chopping and smiled. "Ah music bug. Since the ship doesn't have a cook assigned to her yet, I've volunteered. I use to work in my sister's resterant before joining the Star Army." Sanda looked around her and shook her head. "No, this isn't the shuttle bay. I haven't seen anyone since I came aboard truth be told." Sanda finished with the onions then moved on to carrotts. Chop, chop, chop, chop, chop, chop went her blade again.

Kwabba-an walked in and looked at the groceries and bottles that Sanda had gathered, then looked to Sanda again, now wiping the tears from her eyes.

"Should there be more people helping out? It seems like there's a lot of work to do if it's just you."

Sanda shrugged. "I'm use to cooking a lot of food with just me and my sister. Though I'll admit, it has been a little while since I've done this much cooking. I wouldn't say no to some help." She noticed the water had started to boil in the pots and turned down the heat on them until she was ready to use them.

Kwabba-an thought for a moment. She had said that she would find Euikoshi and take a shuttle to the planet, but then again she wasn't sure how to find Euikoshi and Sanda seemed like she needed help now. Maybe she could help out and then go find Euikoshi?

"I can help," she said, then looked around in confusion. "How can I help?"

Sanda raised an eyebrow at Kwabba-an, "You know anthing about cooking Music bug?"

"Of course," Kwabba-an smiled wide, then sniffed a little. "You heat the food up, and then you eat it."

Sanda laughed out loud. "Alright, cheif Kwabba-an. Put on an apron and give me a hand stiring these pots." The Nepleslian woman dumped some of her vegetables in one pot and added some salt and other spices. To the other one she dumped several cups of rice and put the lid on. She adjusted the tempeture on the stove then went into the fridge again and came out with several large cuts of raw meat.

Kwabba-an grabbed an apron and put the loop over her head, then wrapped the arms around her narrow waist, tying it off in front of herself. Then she noticed that Sanda had tied up her hair in a bandana. The insectoid patted herself down for some time before concluding that she didn't have a bandana. Instead, she found a coiled guitar string. She tied up her hair in the same way that Sanda had, using her guitar string instead of a bandana. Then she grabbed a couple of big ladles and started stirring the pots.

"Like this?"

Sanda noticed Kwabba tying her hair up with a guitar string but at this point there wasn't much Kwabba could do now that would surprise Sanda. "Yes, but let the rice cook a little bit first, then when you stir it, stir it towards the center." The lightning tattooed woman cut up some more onions along with some peppers then took a second knife and began cutting a slab of beef into thin strips. It took her hardly any time to cut everthing just so then it was all thrown into another large wide pot and set on another portion of the stove.

Kwabba-an nodded slowly and left the rice alone. Instead she focused on stirring the other pot. The action of stirring the pot somehow reminded her of practicing her instruments. The repetitive motion combined with Sanda's instructions on proper technique let her zone out on practically everything else around her. Her world became the pot, her ladle was an instrument, and the waves of the liquid was her music.

Sanda stired the other pot she had just added to the stove then pored in teriyaki and a few fingers or rum. She took a swig of the rum as well before putting the lid back on it. Another stir of her pot and she checked on Kwabba's. It looked good. "Good job, Cheif Kwabba-an. Keep an eye on the other pot for me. Give it a stir every 5 to 10 mins. I'm going to see if I can remeber how to make sushi. Our XO is quite a fan or sushi and I'm pretty sure I remember how to make i

"5 to 10 minutes, got it." Kwabba-an looked around and saw a clock on the wall. Rather than trying to remember to look up every once in a while, she timed how fast she was stirring and counted out the rhythm in her head.


OOC: JP with @Wes @raz @hyralt @Cowboy

 

[Arbitrated]

YSS Resurgence
Medical Bay

Aradia didn't seem to notice Kwabba's interest in her at the time, bubbling off random facts about Soul Transfer to her cousins. "And not only that, but I heard they're working on a more secure connection to counteract remote hacking. Sterilizing the inputs and outputs so you can't actually access the data to update it through normal means. Should stop that from happening in the future," the hummingbird concluded. It took a bit of convincing to actually get the little lady to sit still long enough for the backup to be created.

"Oi, raidy," Arbitrated asked, "Did you even notice - no? The young insectoid lady - Klabba?" She paused for a moment, failing to recall the name of the musician. "She wanted to say something to you. I think she went to the observation dome, you should follow her!"

In response to this call-out, Aradia pouted and retorted, "Fine, Mom," before giving her shorter cousin a teasing, friendly pat on the head and waving good-bye to Mochi, Daniel and Alicia.

Corridors
Strolling through the starvessel to get their bearings, the Iemochi family caused quite the commotion as the Resurgence suddenly lurched into motion, Arbles herself almost toppling if it weren't for the quick reactions of her diligent husband to catch and stabilize her on her feet.

"Thanks, hun!" Arbitrated mumbled, taking a moment to calm the fours of them together with her voice and mind. Luckily, the ship seemed to be flying smoothly now!

Galley
It seemed that Kwabba was not, in fact, the only person to get lost on a Fuji class - though perhaps that wasn't a good thing to know, as Aradia was supposed to be a properly experienced soldier by now - and this fact was made apparent as the colorful little scientist walked into the galley confidently, realized this was not the way to go, turned around, realized she recognized Kwabba in the room, turned around again, and... Realized she didn't know what to stay. And thus was standing there, quite awkwardly. One wing flitted with a quiet buzz, barely audible over the sounds of boiling water and exhaust fans, only adding to the awkwardness of her position.

 

[hyralt]

Kwabba-an continued to count full rotations of her stirring as beats. She kept the tempo of the first pot at a comfortable adagio of about 70 beats per minute as measured by the clock on the wall. Extrapolating from that, she stirred the pot Sanda had just put onto the stove once for every 490 beats so that she stirred it once every 7 minutes. She didn't know the name for such a slow tempo and wondered if the beats were frequent enough for most listeners to even identify a pattern. Perhaps there were some species whose perception of time was different from hers who would easily pick up on it? The insectoid wondered idly as she continued to stir.

When she heard someone enter, she looked up to see the elysian with light brown-red hair with different-coloured eyes who wore a green-panelled uniform, whom Kwabba-an recognized from earlier in the medical bay. But what practically hypnotized Kwabba-an was the elysian's wings, which were blue at their base and transitioned through a smooth gradient to pink at the tips.

The insectoid stared, her face clearly showing her amazement, as the elysian span around and then flitted one of her wings as if to show off for Kwabba-an's entertainment. Despite her evident distraction, her musical training let her continue stirring at the same rate while her mind was otherwise occupied.

"Wow, so pretty," Kwabba-an said aloud before she seemed to awaken from her daze. Realizing what she had said, her skin blushed to a slightly darker shade of red while she tried to compose herself and find something else to say.

"Uhm, hello. I saw you in the medical bay. And at Ketsurui no Iori. I am !Kwabba-an Ternifac-xuralkhi," she said her name with a click on the first consonant. "You may call me Kwabba if it pleases you."

 

[Ethereal]

YSS Resurgence
Medical Bay

Seinosuke smiled warmly as Aradia gushed about how awesome ST technology was, to both Arble and himself. She was right of course, it was a wonderous thing, but his interest was more in things that breathed and moved. It was nice to see someone as stoked about sciency stuff as he was a few years ago. "Remote hacking, huh? Soon there'll be no flaw in the Star Army's whole arsenal, huh?"

When his turn came, the father waited patiently while his data was copied into the machine. While he was getting his backup done, Seino could overhear the two other birds chatting, concluding with a rather humourous "Fine, Mom." At that, the blonde-haired Iemochi couldn't help but give a bit a short, snorting laugh. His emerald eyes shone with an amused look as he shot a glance to his wife. After waving in return to his cousin-in-law, Mochi's lips curled into a grin. "Did Aradia just.. pat you on the head?" The Elysian raised an eyebrow almost incredulously.

A little while later, while they were touring the new posting, the Fuji-class jumped into life. Seinosuke, no stranger to how unstable Arbles was in her current condition, became superdad in a flash. In no time, Mochi's strong hand whipped around Arbitrated's middle, keeping her upright as he planted his feet. His other arm shooting down to both of their little ones, as they snatched on just in case there were any more jerks or shudders.

When Arbs thanked him, Seino joined in with calming everyone down, cooing them both mentally and physically back to peace. "That was a close one! Careful there, honey. Or we might need to get you some stabilisers, hehe." Mochi jested, giving her a peck on the cheek before carefully releasing his small family from the bearhug he had wrapped them in.

 

[raz]

Observation Deck > Bridge

"I'll update the duty assignments and get our shuttle scheduled for departure, Captain," Kagura told Majime before turning back to take one last look out at the planet below. She'd seen Yamatai from orbit many times before but never got tired of the view. The majesty of its vast blue oceans and viridian forests could inspire even the most far-flung visitor. It was no wonder why so many different species chose to be subjects of the Empire with a capital world like this.

"Not many planets can match ours," the XO said with a smile. "Glad to be along, Majime-shosa," she added and then moved to depart the observation deck, making her way down to the bridge again.

Once back at her station, Kagura made Majime's earlier words official and noted in the appropriate logs and rosters that Pidole, Cassie, Euikoshi, and Kwabba were to visit Ketsurui no Iori again. All four were notified via electronic message, which could be received either via their digital brains or their communications devices should they lack wireless communication capabilities in their bodies. And Poppy was informed that her duties in the Medbay would allow her to remain aboard for now. Additionally, Kagura shot a message off to Star Army Personnel to make sure Majime's desire for a logistics soldier got through ASAP — hopefully in time to have one come back with the shuttle that'd be sent out with the four Resurgence crewmen.

 

[Arbitrated]

YSS Resurgence
Galley

The compact Elysian was, thenkfully, quicker to respond than Kwabba herself was. She pressed down a bit on her fresh, green-colored uniform and responded, "Thank you, Miss.... Kwabba? Miss Kwabba. Yes, my cousin mentioned that, but I was a little, uh, distracted. Sorry about that." Aradia was rather used to getting compliments about her wings by now, her tropical coloration catching more than a few eyes - and even more if she took to the air. Internally, she noticed how the insectoid alien was able to work even while conversion, without missing a beat. She wasn't quite a xenobiologist of the same level as the Iemochi man, but nonetheless she was curious. She held her tongue, for now, and diverted her thoughts with a question.

"Where do you come from? I've never seen anyone like you before!"

 

[hyralt]

"There is no need to apologize," but then she clearly hesitated as she couldn't recall having heard the elysian's name. Then she remembered that many people who met her gave her a nickname, such as bug girl, rather than try and pronounce her particularly difficult name. She would have to try and think of one.

"My last name, Ternifac-xuralkhi, is a statement of my origin," she explained, glossing over all of the nuance in the phrase from her mother's language. "I come from the city of Ternifac on Planet Yamatai. But I suspect you are asking a question of taxonomy. I cannot give you a very good answer, I am afraid. I can tell you that my father is a minkan and that my mother is an insect much like a species of ant that simply grew to be the size of a small human. Sadly, she is the last of her kind. Happily, my father is a genetic engineer and devoted his life to combining his and my mothers' genes. I am not sure what that makes me, exactly."

"Where do you come from, hummingbird?"

 

[hyralt]

YSS Resurgence - Onsen > Galley > Ketsurui Fleet Yards

"Kalena, ma'am, can put your clothes back on? We have to go back down the planet and we need you to pilot the shuttle," Pidole asked the teal-haired officer.

"Pleasure will have to wait until after business, I suppose," Kalena sighed, stretching her arms over her head and exiting the onsen's pool. In a few minutes she was ready and she went with Pidole to find Kwabba and found her with Sanda in the galley.

"Hey, bug babe!" Pidole waved enthusiastically. "We gotta go visit KFY so we can check this place off our list of places to visit!"

"Oh, hello Pidole!" Kwabba-an turned to Sanda with a look of concern. "Sanda, I hope you will be able to finish this without me. I volunteered to replace Poppy on an away mission."

The bug babe put the soup ladle she had been using to stir the pots down on the counter to one side of the stovetop. She then gave the gradient-winged elysian a bow. "I am sorry, hummingbird. I hope we meet again soon."

With that, Kwabba-an walked over to Pidole. "Let us go!"

The three went down to the shuttle bay and soon they were headed down to the planet again. Since KFY had its own landing areas, Kalena was able to land them directly in Ketsurui Fleet Yards' headquarters.

"I'll stay with the shuttle," Kalena said once they were landed.

Pidole undid her straps and crouched out of the shuttle with her blue beetle buzzing close behind her in the air.

Once she was at KFY's doorway she turned around to face Kwabba. "Okay, so I think we just need to ask about the changes to KFY that the war has caused for the survey, and about new technologies. Does that sound right to you?" she asked.

Kwabba-an, mesmerized by the buzzing blue beetle, looked startled when she realized that Pidole was asking a question. "Hmm? Oh! Yes. Actually, I am not completely sure what our mission is. The captain mentioned that Poppy was meant to accompany you, but I volunteered to go since she was busy in the medical bay."

The insectoid blinked, realizing she hadn't really answered the question. "I mean, yes. That sounds good. I am interested to hear how they were affected. As a musician, the war felt so far away."

Looking up at the KFY's doorway, she wondered what answers lay beyond. This place was beginning to feel familiar to her since she had helped Gabriela retrieve a shuttle here before.

"Oh...we totally messed up, I was supposed to take Cassie with me and you were supposed to go with Euikoshi to PNUgen and learn about genetics...I just remembered. Because Euikoshi is the scientist and Poppy knows about medicine and you're interested in genetic stuff," Pidole blushed. "Uh, I'll send a text to Euikoshi that we're going to do both I guess." As she typed out a text message into her communicator the old-fashioned way with her thumbs, she stuck her tongue out the way people do sometimes when they're concentrating. After she as done, she looked up and said, "What do you mean so far away, you were there at Glimmergold, right?"

"Ah yes, I was looking for Euikoshi before I was distracted by cooking. Now that you say that, I clearly recall the captain telling me to go with Euikoshi." Kwabba-an seemed embarrassed, but not much more than usual. Kwabba-an was amused at Pidole sticking out her tongue as she operated her communicator. She was amused enough, in fact, to draw her attention away from the fantastically cute bug that Pidole seemed to keep with her at all times.

"I meant the war felt far away before I enlisted," Kwabba-an replied when Pidole mentioned Glimmergold. "Everything seemed so normal in Ternifac. I played music in bars. Sometimes there were a lot of soldiers, other times less so. I am not sure if I would have noticed the war was over since I don't clearly recall when it began."

"Though now that I think about it, even at Glimmergold I felt like a single instrument with a small part to play in the back of the orchestra." Kwabba-an looked off into the distance as she continued. "I could see it taking place, but much of it was beyond my control or influence. I remember being confused about everything I saw, then I saw the Presurgence being swarmed, and then I don't remember very much after that."

"If you think about it, if the Star Army is doing a good job, it means people at home don't have to worry while they live their lives,"

Kwabba-an nodded slowly. "That makes sense."

Pidole went into KFY again and asked for Han Eun-hwa, the KFY representative Gabriela had spoken with earlier.

"Hello, I'm Pidole Henitot and this is Kwabba-an Xylophone. We are with the YSS Resurgence crew," Pidole explained to Eun-hwa. "We are actually on a sort of survey mission from the empress to see how the war affected various places in the universe and we'd like to ask some questions about how KFY developed through the war."

So that's who it's named after, Eun-hwa thought to herself, impressed.

After being amazed yet again at the heavy-looking blast doors and huge, ornate hall, Kwabba-an tried to absorb more of the details this time. She was particularly impressed with the marble floors which made a particularly pleasing sound as her claws clicked against it while she walked. The noise rang out in the vast space in which they stood, then echoed back some time later after the waves had time to bounce back off of the distant walls and ceiling.

The sound reminded her of the experimental aether whip, whose concept she had suggested to someone at Ketsurui whose name she had forgotten. After Glimmergold, she realized how awful she was at ranged weaponry and wanted something that could reach outside of melee range and pull combatants towards her. Someone must have thought it was worth testing, so when they built it she offered to do so. She felt a little awkward to be back already without having made the time to even crack it once, and she hoped it simply wouldn't come up in conversation.

When she approached, Kwabba-an smiled at Eun-hwa, whom she recognized from her previous trip here. "Hello, again. Thank you for the shuttle, it was very impressive."

Eun-hwa was an ethereal, slightly muscular woman with long dark hair and pale skin. Her appearance was one of an aristocrat, with a well-shaded face and flowing, jet-black hair, which she combed herself with a black stylus. Her demeanor was also dignified, but it lacked the air of a king's when she stood in front of an envoy from the Star Army. "I am pleased to meet you, Ms. Pidole Henitot and Ms. Kwabba-an Xylophone. I am glad you approve of the shuttle. Would you prefer to ask your questions over some tea or would you like to walk around the development labs?" she asked.

Pidole looked to Kwabba to see what her preference was.

Kwabba-an's face lit up with interest. "I love labs. I would love to see what you are actively developing and what the process is like."

The insectoid thought back to the Nekovalkyrja lab at the Imperial Palace in Kyoto where she saw nekos being grown in tubes. Though she wasn't grown in a tube, she felt a kinship with the genetically-engineered warrior women because of all the genetic engineering that went into creating her. She had always assumed such things happened in a big lab full of people in white coats pouring different-coloured liquids into test tubes, and nothing she had seen so far in life had convinced her otherwise.

Eun-hwa nodded and began giving them a tour. "I suppose the thing you should know first is that KFY has leaned heavily into the production side of the business during the war more than the development side. We developed some new gunships such as the Chiaki-class 1B refit, Plumeria-class 2E refit, and the Azusa-class Light Gunship, and the 1B refit of the Heitan-Class Carrier, but other than that most of our resources were focused on production for the war. In other words, things slowed down for the development of new technologies. The development of the Izanagi class took enormous manpower as well. With the war behind us, KFY is hoping to get back to its roots in developing new ships and systems."

Kwabba-an tried desperately to pay attention as Eun-hwa was talking but inevitably found her attention slipping as the seemingly aristocratic woman began enumerating gunship names. The insectoid hoped that Pidole had an easier time and was taking notes.

The KFY rep took them down an elevator into a lab complex, "That said, we have been developing some new technologies. For example, these are prototypes of our new teleporter units for the Mindy power armor," she said, pointing to the wall behind a glass barrier, where the devices were on the wall or on the back of a test neko in a Mindy 4. "The new teleporter units are much less noisy and conspicuous when they teleport. This makes it much more feasible to use them in stealth missions or teleport safely into occupied spaces."

The insectoid gasped with excitement as she saw the shiny new teleporter. She remembered the feeling of teleporting around space at Glimmergold and she imagined they would come in particularly helpful during a stealth mission. She hadn't used one in atmosphere, but she vaguely remembered from her training that it was not recommended.

OOC: JP with @Wes and @hyralt, and @raz was hanging out with us too.

 

[Wes]

Cassie went and found Cheilith on the ship. "Hey," the gray anthro nervously said. "I got a question for you, and I wanted your opinion. This is kind of random but I was thinking about asking people to use feminine pronouns for me. Biologically I'm a guy but I have never really identified as a man or as a woman either and I'm wondering if I would fit in better with all these women on the ship if I just used feminine pronouns too. I mean, I don't feel confused about who I am, I just feel confused about how I should be labeling myself if that makes sense."

 

[Cowboy]

Galley

Sanda nodded a hi to Aradia but was too focused on her cooking at the moment to say more. She was slicing up ingredients for the sushi and needed to focus as it had been a long time since she had made sushi. She was only half listening to the conversation between Aradia and Kwabba when she heard Kwabba call the Elysian 'Hummingbird'. Sanda's head jerked up and her mouth hung open for a heartbeat before busting out laughing. She had never heard Kwabba call someone else a by a nickname before. Sanda of course did it all the time. She must be rubbing off on the music bug. However, Sanda usually wouldn't give a nickname to someone who out ranked her unless she knew them very well.

Sanda waved Kwabba off, reassuring the music bug that she could handle the cooking alone. "I don't think we've met officially." Sanda said to Aradia as she checked on the pots Kwabba had been stirring. "I'm Sanda Hoshi. Ranger and part time cook." The rice was ready so she set aside some to cool to be added to the sushi. "Do you know anything about cooking?" The tall tattooed woman asked the short girl with wings. "I wouldn't say no to some company."