NationStates Jolt Archive

Undisclosed location, Abysia.

The Abysians - or humanbreds, as the Anathemant Warlock knew them - were so excited of the finding of those three old ships that had been abandoned just before they had been launched into space that they could not help themselves. After some light checkups, they had become certain that the ships could still be operated, even if the technology in them was much more advanced than that of their own. The ships had been built by Abysians in the past, that they could tell, but practically all of the breakthroughs in space technology, all the great advancements had been lost during the reign of the military dictatorship, and this rusting technological graveyard was the last place still standing.

They only had half-trained crews for their own suicide boxes, but they were too excited to think about it more thoroughly, and those crews were placed into the ships. Let's just say that it was a good thing that their predecessors had been wise enough to write manuals on how to use the ships and leave them into them... Some diplomatic staff would go with them too, if they would finally find some other cultures, other civilizations, other species. They did not want their first possible meeting of other beings to end into a war.

They christened the ships with all due haste just before it was time for them to be launched. "Xarduc the Blue Dragon or "Ice Breather", "Zaldaru the Red Dragon" or "Fire Breather" and "Watuk the Green Dragon" or "Poisoner", after the three dragons of their myths, although they were normally just called dragons of their respective colors.

The general area of the ships was cleared, and they began the countdown.

5... 4... 3... 2... 1...

They did what the manuals said would be required to do to start the ships and they were supposed to automatically find their way into the orbit. But... What? Nothing happened? The ships still remained on the ground!

... WRONG.

When they had almost lost all hope, the ships started. The rumbling was ear-piercing, which didn't make the situation better for the startled Abysians.

http://sensori.soldats.net/kuvia/launch.JPG

They had successfully lifted off, and were headed for the orbit of Earth. What wonders would await them, or is the universe as desolate as it has seemed?

A small ship was in orbit, no more than one hundred feet in length. A simple boomerang shape, glaring the sun from its stainless steel skin. A seamless skin, which would seem quite odd, for there were no signs of a hatch, or even bay windows. It had been drifting here for so long, everything absolutely stale and static. Aliliah, how much longer would they drift here. They had been dispatched by the Ministry and never recalled. Thing is, the crew forgot what they were supposed to be doing. The crew though, consisted of one person. That's absolute madness.

Sitting there, half asleep and half insane, is Jakishi. The cockpit was blanketed in a quilt of ink, the darkness smothering and pressing in on everything. In complete darkness, in complete silence, in complete weightlessness, in a void of sensory stimulus which would cripple someone if abruptly exposed to a fraction of a sound, a light, or even they were to set foot on the ground. All of this for over a year.

Then a light flashed.

A tiny, dim red light, blinked only once. It could have been comparable to a solar flare in the cockpit after that hell. After another relay through now dated and worn circuitry, the light flickered again, and was determined to stay lit. A crackled and low voice sounded in the cockpit, a recording in the ships programming.

'Collision cours- ...attained. Evasive maneuvers-s-s-s su... ...gessted.'

The only occupant of the vessel reacted oddly. His eyes shot open, focusing on the hideous light which had invaded his space, tearing at his retinas and searing his mind. The audio came to his ears garbled and as astonishingly loud, nearly rupturing his thoughts. Agonizing pain shot throughout him for some reason, lack of anything at all for such a long time might be to blame.

The vessel, having attained no response from the occupant, rendered a weak willed AI into effect. A loud crackling and buzzing filled the ship, causing him to only curl up into a small ball in the void, trying to escape the torture. Then an otherworldly sound filled his head, causing him to whimper. A hailing frequency.

A hailing frequency was sent out to the fast approaching vessels, one of which was heading straight for them.

It was the blue ship that was in a collision course with some unknown object orbiting the planet. Its systems came to the conclusion that the ship would collide with an object if it was to continue on course, the autopilot automatically made some changes to its trajectory, although since the ship was still trying to leave the planet's atmosphere, making great changes to the course weren't even possible. Though, considering the rather small size of the object in orbit and that of the ship itself, evasion did not require much effort.

The ship made all those changes without the crew and the passangers even noticing it as anything else but a bit different rumbling as the ship turned and changed course

In the "bridge", one of the crewmen noticed that a red button was blinking in a console in front of him, just below a display screen.

"Hey, what's this button blinking here! It's a red one!"

The "captain" started browsing through the manual to find out what that means. He was supposed to be the commanding officer of the crew, and he was sitting on a chair that had been positioned right in the center of the bridge. That chair at least looked like it was meant for the captain of the ship.

"Ah, you're in front of the communications' console! That would mean that someone's trying to contact us and that when you press it, you accept the 'call'. Wonder if this is a first contact situation? Apparently it'll connect to... This thing," he pointed to a part of his chair's left side, "So just press that button and let me talk."

"Right," he said, and without further ado, pressed the button.

"This is the captain of the Abysian ship Blue Dragon. Who's am I talking to?"

While they do not speak the English language but Abysian, their predecessors had installed a primitive "Universal Translator" of sorts into the system, something they hadn't even thought of. They had completely forgotten that actually understanding what they are saying, and what the others are saying, is quite important. It was all so new to them.

A loud buzzing echoed in the cockpit as the others reacted, the ship shaking, moving for the first time in a long while. The wake of the passing ship, whether is be magnetic or thermal, pitched the ship to its side. He gasped, feeling a pressure on his side as a small bit of weight was simulated in the pitch with that movement. Small thrusters blew rust from their orifice and stabalised. It was steady again.

A few minutes passed as his mind raced, these feeble audial and visual effects tormenting him in his bleached state. After a set of wimpering, he took a deep intake of the old and recycled air, and settled himself. He croaked in an attempt to speak, voice harsh and grated, not remebering or caring how an audio transmission was sent, his voice probably transmitting as he spoke.

"Find who has disturbed my death of the thousands.. Living is no longer acceptable for either of us.. I must end this torture that has plagued me and end whoever keeps me from dying.. "

The old AI crackled and computed the arcane command, converting it into something of technical status. A control panel lit up with a light blue light, the small and cramped cockpit doing so as well from almost every surface. Bolded lines of black seemed to divide this light into seperate pieces, an intricate assembly like that of a jigsaw puzzle, some sort of orginisation must be present. The AI crackled again, and the vessel began to move, stabalising thrusters shooting off.

'Tracking ing ing ve-essel--'

The response confused everyone on the bridge. Either they don't speak the same language, or there's something really wrong with that man. After a few moments of silence, the captain chose to start speaking, just as the ship reached orbit.

"... What the hell was that?"

"No idea, captain. But it seems the ship tried to translate it, so maybe it lost the the meaning?"

"Well... I don't think it could be that bad. But we have two possible options: The man's insane, or the ship's translator is inadequate."

"It's a good thing the ship has one, though."

"Why?"

"... Since we don't have any of these things ourselves. These ships are way more advanced than our technology is."

"Oh..."

"Captain! The ship has begun following us!", came from the other side of the bridge, from the captain's left side to be more exact. One of them had found the sensor screen.

"What? It has? What the hell are they up to? You'll be in command of the sensors from now on, by the way."

"Thank you, captain. Do we have any weapons?", the newly appointed Abysian in command of the sensors asked.

"Hmm, let's see... Yeah. We do. The odd limb-like things protruding from the ship seem to be weapons for destroying small things that get too close. They seem to even move a bit. And you," he pointed at a crewmember just behind the "sensors' officer", "are the one who'll have to use them."

"Me?", she said. "I'll do my best, Captain!"

"Now that everyone... Well, almost everyone knows what they do, communications' officer, patch me through to that ship!"

"OK."

He pressed the Red Button (tm).

"This is the captain of the Blue Dragon. We received an odd message from you, and although we did not understand it, we know that you obviously do not like our presence here. We do not wish to fight, but we will act accordingly if you attack us."

Again the buzzing filled the cockpit. Unable to comprehend or not wishing to understand, the transmission reached his ears as an inferno of echoing screams. Perhaps a short circuit in the ships audio? Or perhaps a short circuit in his mind? Two main thrusters kicked on and blasted the ship foward quickly closing distance, the sound a stabbing pain, the vibrations breaking him. They spurted and kicked off though, one billowing out a trail of vapor, it still being an ancient.

"Let me see their faces.. Let me see the faces of who has torn me away from deaths loving grasp.. Let me see their faces.."

The blue lights flickered as the vessel pitched to the side.

'DockDocking procedure -intiatiatia ..attempt one -initiatiatia. Sending hailing frequency. DockDocking prep.'

"... Umm... Captain. The ship is docking to us."

"What?! You people.... You were sleeping, weren't you?! Let me..."

He went through the manual again.

"... Contact security."

He pressed one of the many buttons next to the microphone-like thing he had been speaking to.

A few security guards had been stationed onto the ship. They just sat around idly in some room they had been told to use as their "base of operations".

"Security? This is the Captain speaking. Go check out the intruder that's docking into the ship. Out."

"... Huh? Did he...?"

"Yes. He did."

"Well, crap. Check out the damn console and let's go look at what's trying to come into the ship."

"Roger."

"..."

One of the them looked at the console in the room, and looked at a map of the ship.

"Let's go, I know where the breach is gonna happen."

And so they went. One of the diplomatic corps ran to them and came with them to see what was coming to the ship. The ship's interior was quite well designed, so the walk wouldn't be all that long.

"There it is!"

The vessel clumsily slugged past the ship, barely grazing it. All stabilizing thrusters shot off at once and it did this sort of elegant, or idiotically awkward, turn and was facing the now oncoming vessel.

'NoNo hatch detected by ... Doppler.'

For we all know how accurate a Doppler radar would be at detecting that.

'Aggressive entry intiatiatia-'

Two chutes opened up on the underside of the cockpit, in the bend of the vessel. A puff of vapor emitted and then out shot a pair of thick steel cords firing towards the Blue Dragon, on the end of each a large circular module. They struck, denting this part of the skin in, and immediately fired dozens of charges, curved spikes being driven into the hull and welding a seal instantly. They began to reel the two together as they retracted back into the Boomerang.

His head was spinning, stomach turning inside out from all of this excessive movement. He would have heaved if he had eaten anything during the past few months, but all his body could manage was to cough up a small ammount of blood. G-force restraints were disabled a long time ago. the Boomerang shook slightly as it was reeled in towards the Blue Dragon, but he was becoming more aware of things in the past minutes. He could tolerate sight to a point, and keep his eyes open even. A light began to blink and out of an old instict he smacked it. He froze, a bit confused as to why he would do that.

Bay windows slid slowly open in front of him, illuminating him to the outside.

"..Stars?"

'Distance remaining... forty feet.'

After reaching the point, they started waiting for the ship to actually breach the hull. Minutes passed, and nothing happened.

Until...

They were almost ready to give up when suddenly a loud clonk, or actually two of them, came from the outside. Startled, they backed off a little.

"Wh... What was that?", said the ship's head of security. One of his underlings answered.

"I don't know! We'll..."

A loud booming sound came as the armor gave up a part of the hull dropped on the floor, as the ship had some kind of artificial gravity. Luckily, the intruder had been kind enough to not just leave a gaping hole into the ship and had sealed the hole.

"..."

"U-uh... I think we'll see soon enough what's gonna come from there. Get ready for anything."

"You think?"

"Shut up! I might be the head of security, but we weren't trained for anything like this! A potentially hostile party might be invading the ship!"

The one from the diplomatic corps interrupted this rather heated conversation.

"Now now, stop it, the both of you. If they don't start firing at us the instant they enter the ship, that's what I'm here for."

The Head-Of-Security sighed.

"... Gaah. Alright. Let's just wait."

"Good."

(OOC: Crimson Sparta, Abysia is on Earth.)

The Boomerang was now snugly up against the Blue Dragon, both cords having retracted fully. Another chute opened directly underneath the cockpit, releasing a puff of vapor as well. It stayed ajar for a moment, and a moment longer. Quite a long moment before anything happened. Then a cylyndric pneumatic hatch shot out, smashing into the section of hull between the circles. It sealed itself on with the same type of module, followed in procession of mechanical arms digging in and tearing the steel open vicously.

'Docking achieved. Pressure equalizing ing ing.'

The arms receded, followed by a tiny hiss. A small staircase descended from the opening with a rush of stale air.

'Stand...by'

OOC: Withdrawn

The seal opened... A gush of awful smelling air came from the hole. The stairs had gone down, but nothing had come out.

"What... Could... Live with air like that? Get ready, men --"

Two of them had already gone to look into the hole.

"Damn it..."

"Hey, I can see someone in there!"

"... What? Can you say what it looks like?"

The head of security walked closer to them.

"Human male, sir! Looks like he's in a rather bad condition."

"Human? How the hell did...? Nevermind. Hey, you, diplomat! Get the doctor here!"

"Alright, alright," he said, and ran away.

One of the two security guards tried to go closer, but the head of security stopped him. The three now stood just a few meters outside the hole.

"Don't. Let's wait for the doctor."

"Roger."

(OOC: "Humanbreds" as the so called true Abysians would call them, look much like humans, with the exception that their skin is very pink and stone-like, but it's kind of flexible anyway. Think of molten lava with the difference that it's not burning hot. Just warm to the touch. Oh right, and they don't have any hair. They call themselves Abysians, since there haven't been practically any true Abysians for thousands of years. Ba'al Chozron is the first one of their kind the "humanbreds" have met in millennia. They are called "humanbreds" because they're a mix between human and Abysian, which they themselves know, in a way, but they don't know how they came to be.)

A small orb rolled out to the top of the stairs. An orange ball, just sitting there. It paused tehre curiously for a second, then rolled off, bouncing down each step one by one by one. It bounced off the last step, and floated in the air. It crackled and buzzed, blinked, then fell suddenly to the ground.

A rasping breathing came from the opening now, the clanking of slow footsteps resounding in the hatch. Another step down the staircase, and another, and he found true light.

He stood at around the height of six feet tall, with a lanky form supporting him. One that had been wasting away for years, leaving only the bare necessities to maintain his life. A greasy tomentum of a rusty umber weaved down past his chin, slightly casting over a pale and bleached face. A starved and breathless expression was painted across this canvas, one that held perfectly two glowing eyes. A pair of hues as dark as the wall to which the stars are strung. As void as the prison to which he had been confined. In such a high contrast to his physcial state was his uniform. A black fitted uniform with white cuffs and collar, simple, but clean. He hunched over in the light on the stairs, grabbing the side rail. He took a few deep breaths, and fell the rest of the way down the stairs.

As the man fell down the stairs, the head of security went forth to stop him from falling all the way down. Yeah, it was obvious now that he was a human, although it wasn't all that obvious what he was doing there, alone in some ship. Those questions would have to wait.

He shouted as he supported the human so that he, in a way, was on his feet.

"Where's that damned doctor?!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming!", came a reply. The doctor was running towards them, with the diplomat running after her and pushing something that kind of looked like one of those beds they have in hospitals.

"Here's your patient, doctor."

"So, that's the human? ... Better take him to the medical facilities. Just put him on that and we'll go... I'll just put that drip on... We're set, let's go!"

And there the doctor and the diplomat ran away with the human to the same direction they came from, and one of the security people went with them. The head of security and a couple of guards stayed there, at the hole.

"Let's check it out. I want to know if we can find out anything from the ship."

"...What about the human, sir?"

"We'll question him when he wakes up. Now, let's go."

They went up the stairs, not knowing what would await them.

Heat. Warmth. He could feel heat.

He opened his eyes, and saw their faces. The sketches that needed to be erased. He went to move, and couldn't. Competely frozen and unable to do so much as twitch. They were the devils, standing over him and taunting him as such, being unable to move to gut them as the deserve. He closed his eyes again, wishing to ease himself of this and took a breath in. His eyes shot back open and he jerked, continuing to cough up blood as he had started. The air was as dry as sand to him, barely any humidity to sustain more comfort than an oven. His coughing calmed, and he took another deep breath in, gills on the side of his neck flaring open. Still nothing. He began to cough again, in heaves, blood also spilling from these slits.

Such a hell.

The orange orb that had fell from the stairs, still laying untouched, blinked again. It rose, and seemed to spot whoever was entering the vessel now. It clicked, and rose slowly up through the hatch after them.

"He has been coughing violently for some time now. His biology seems a bit different from that of a normal human, but we haven't been able to find out what the problem is."

The doctor was speaking to a recorder, as it was customary to record everything they did.

They, the doctor and a few nurse-types observed the patient, wondering what they might've be doing wrong.

He began to cough again, in heaves, blood also spilling from these slits.

One of them noticed it, and was awed by the fact. No wonder, as it was the first time he had seen one.

"... Did you see that, doctor? There's blood coming from the sides of his neck! He has gills! That's what we've been doing wrong!"

"What?! We've been trying to help an aquatic being with what we'd use for a terrestrial one? ... Fill that tank with water and put him inside, maybe that would help! And keep the water's temperature at the same level as his body temperature is!"

Guess that would explain the horrible smell that came out of the ship when it opened...

And, as quickly as they could, making sure that they won't make the drip go all tangly and whatnot, placed the... Thing they had now made sure that wasn't human to the tank. They had to strap him up in it a bit, so that he wouldn't strangle himself with the drip.

"I wonder if that'll help. I don't think any of us has been trained to help aquatic beings. If we could get any reaction out of him... But if that tank helps, all we need to do now is feed some oxygen into the water from time to time."

**

They had just gone through the hatch and were about to enter the cockpit of the odd ship that had made a hostile entry into their own ship, when one of them noticed that there odd, orange light was coming from behind them. Soon he realized that it was that damn ball that had come into the ship.

"Uh, sir. That ball has apparently gone operational again and is following us."

"..."

He sighed heavily.

"Sir?"

"This ship is creeping me out. Somehow I'd prefer not to stay here. I think we should send that surveillance robot and look what it gives us instead of going in ourselves..."

"Good choice, sir."

They turned, and began to walk out of there.

Water? While not what he was accustomed to, it would suffice. He took a huge gasp and blasted it through his gills. Instant relief. He sort of sighed, and closed his eyes in content, gills flaring rhythmically.

Where was he? Who were these daemons? Why had they waken him? Why couldn't he move? He opened his eyes again, and could see clearly this time. He saw them, and he wanted to kill them. He began to cycle through a repetitive thought through his mind, eyes half closed.

Move your little finger.. Move your little finger..

"Whew. Looks like that was the right call, doctor."

The said doctor let out a sigh of relief.

"Yes. But we still have no idea who he is, where he is from nor even if he's hostile or friendly towards us. But, as far as I can tell, it seems that he's going to live."

A security guard came in. The one that had ran off with the doctor and the diplomat. He had been standing on guard outside the room, with the door open.

"Uh, doctor, I heard something about this ship having a thing called an 'Universal Translator' in its systems. Could that work?"

"Actually... Yes. We would just need someone who knows how to get it work around the ship."

"OK, I'll go ask the captain if someone in the ship knew how to do that!"

And so, the security guard ran away, leaving the doctor, the diplomat and the few nurse-types alone with the odd aquatic being.

--

One security guard ran back to the Head of Security who was waiting for the robot and its control system to be brought in front of the entrance to the ship. Apparently he did have something with him, too.

"So, that's it?"

The guard breathed heavily, trying to catch his breath. After a while, he replied.

"Yes. This is it."

"Good. Now, put that thing up to the hole so we don't have to walk it over the damn stairs."

"As you say, sir."

He did as he was told, and came back.

"Now, give me that control device."

Without saying a word, he gave the "control device" to the head of security. It looked like a glorified joypad with a small LCD monitor on it.

"Let's see if we just overreacted..."

He pressed the "forward" button on the controller, and the small robot began to move towards the cockpit of the ship.

The small orb was floating about randomly, crackling and buzzing in the cockpit. It flashed violently and fell to the ground again with a loud clank, and began rolling towards the stairs. With a small ding it collided with something new, and bounced back down the hallway a small bit. It clicked a few times, and a blue light lit up from its center. Another few clicks and it rolled back to the cockpit.

Mechanical arms from the gate slowly came into action, flexing there digits and rotating as the mech entered the ship. One reached down from the roof, and simply grabbed onto it, plucking it a few inches off of the ground. At least three other arms articulated around the object, and froze. They dove into a frenzy and began to tear the machine to bits, tossing about shredding parts and ripping it to nothing in only a minute. When nothing was left to shred they all retracted back, nothing else sensed in the gate.

The orange orb clicked excitedly.

The head of security looked at the LCD monitor, surprisedly. The ship attacked the machine when it was about to enter it. Then the monitor went dark.

"HOLY CRAP! Wow, shit, we were lucky that we didn't go there! The ship's defenses just ripped the damn robot apart!"

The two guards with him just nodded silently. Their jaws had dropped when they saw the machine meet its end.

"You two, guard this... Thing. I'll go look how they're doing with the human."

"Roger, sir."

And so the head of security ran to the medical facilities.

--

"Here he is, here he is! This man is the communications' officer of the ship, and he apparently at least got to read the part of the manual the captain's been hogging which told him how to make the translator work even here."

He saw the being that looked like a human in the tank in the room. What is that all about? ... I'm not paid to ask questions, so I'll just...

"Okay," responded the doctor, "There's the console," she pointed at a computer, "I'll let you get to it right now."

"Alright."

The man walked to the console, sat on the chair in front of it, and began typing.

At that time, the head of security ran to the room. He saw the doctor, looking at the console some crewmember was working on.

"Where's the patient, doctor?"

She turned her head a bit, and said, "Right behind you, actually."

"Huh? ..." He turned, and saw the tank. And the thing he had thought to be human in it. But... It had gills. He turned back to the doctor, rather amazed.

"So, uh, it wasn't human, after all?"

"Yes. It was a good thing that one of us saw him coughing blood from those gills of his. He would've died soon if we hadn't realized him to be aquatic."

"Well, uh, good. What're you doing, anyway?"

"Me? I'm just looking at the monitor while he's getting the translator working so that we could ask the being some questions."

"..."

He turned and walked away to the door, while looking at the... Thing in the tank.

What ever could that be? I've never seen anything like that... Hmm... Better stay here...

He turned to talk to the other security guard, who soon went away, and he took his place.

"... Done. It should work now."

The doctor smiled.

"Great. Now, if you'll excuse me..."

She walked to the tank.

"Can you hear me? Can you understand me?"

He was constantly flexing the fingers from his right hand, cycling through the same thoughts.

Move your wrist.. Move your wrist..

His gaze lazily drifed over the one who had approached his confinement. It was the first time he could clearly see them face to face, and he grinned with the thought of what he would do to them once he could move once more. He reached his arm he had been trying to animate towards the glass of the tank, only being able to raise it slightly, when she spoke. The wretches knew his language, and this infuriated him. How dare they speak to him in his tounge.

His lazy gaze was lingering on the one who had spoken. He couldn't reply, all that issued from his mouth were bubbles. The devils should know better.

No response came from the being. One of the nurses came closer to the doctor, and spoke.

"... Maybe he can't speak underwater?"

The doctor turned to face the nurse. She shrugged.

"Might be. But might also be that he's too weak to speak. I mean, he hasn't moved at all in the tank, not even wriggled, unless you count those very small moves he does sometimes. The restraints shouldn't stop him from moving at all, just from damaging himself and the surroundings."

She walked to the man who was on the console.

"Is it alright if you leave the translator on in this room?"

"Well... I guess so, don't see what harm it could do."

"Great, thanks."

"Do you need me to do anything else?"

"No, thank you. You can leave whenever you want."

"Alright. I'll just go back to the bridge, then..."

And so he rose from the chair and walked off. The doctor walked back up to the tank, just looking at the being. We know nothing of it... Not even how powerful it might be. Is it safe to keep it here? I don't know... But even we need to sleep at some time... What will we do then?

--

Two guards came to the Head of Security who had told the guard who had been standing in guard in front of the room to get them and stay there himself instead.

"You need us to do something, sir?"

"Yeah. Guard this room. I'll need to go do something myself."

"Very well, sir. Will do."

He found it.

As most of them left the room, he smirked. Only the one who had spoken was left in here, and she was right up against the glass. He broke into a smile, and seemed to chuckle in the water, head nodding down. He reached out both hands and pressed them against the glass, laughing, bubbles issuing from where his hands were placed.

He looked back up and to the Doctor with half closed eyes, smile wide, his tomentum waving in the water as turbulence increased in the still body. He began mouthing a string of words in silence, only a small stream of bubbles spilling forth. Any restraints in the tank were whipped away as the water inside roiled, it becoming one foaming mass in an instant. Pressure built inside quickly, then the glass shattered into a fine dust. The tank emptied out in one fell swoop.

He was left standing there, hunched over, where the tank had been. Now free. Now capable. Now tolerant. As the last of the water drained from around his knees, he looked to the doctor again.

She was mightly startled by what the being did. She blinked with her mouth open, as did the nurse-types, of whom one had been looking at the console, and the other had been next to the other, but looking at the tank. It was looking menacing. Very. Menacing. Blood was coming from the back of his hand, as he had forced the drip off his hand. The doctor panicked.

The doctor took a few steps back, and said, rather quietly...

"Guards?"

Then she took a few steps further back, with her voice getting stronger.

"Guards?!"

She tried to take a few steps further away, but hit the bed, and fell to sit on it.

"GUARDS!", she shouted.

The guards ran into the room from the door.

"What ma..."

And they were quite surprised when they saw the... Thing all powered up there, smirking like an idiot. They wielded something that looked mostly like stun guns.

The diplomat, who had been in the WC for this time, opened the door and... Saw a rather nasty situation going to transpire.

"Uh... What's going on here?"

He looked around him. So, the being had "awakened"... All he could think of was... Hell, years of training as a diplomat, and yet, all he could think of was...

"Where might you be from?"

He spoke in a grainy voice, one ruined through either disuse or constant screaming, either one leading to the same effect.

"Where I am from is lost.. The daemons would know that though, so why do you taunt me.. Where I am going though, is very quite clear.. It's where you'll be going first.."

He stepped down from where the tank had been, keeping his gaze focused on whoever had spoken to him. They all knew his tounge most likely. They knew everything. Did they know where they were going? They better. He laughed in a raspy tone and took a step toward the questioning one, gills flaring still, as the humidity was tolerable now. He raised a spread hand to this one, and began to whisper a string of words, echoing in on himself.

"Jakishiti yaku nori.. Naomi dee nay omni dee.."

An old, old magick.

"Taunt you?"

The diplomat thought for a second, as the thing started to chant something that the translator couldn't translate to them properly.

"So you think it was us who did something to your kind? That's impossible. This is the first time we've met anything that's not human nor Abysian. We wish you no harm."

The guards went closer to the being, and one of them glanced rather angrily at the diplomat.

"Uh, I think they want you to stop your disturbing chanting."

He went silent for a while, after which he spoke again.

"... I hope you do not think that it is somehow incriminating that we understand each other, um, you see, this ship is equipped with a system that translates everything we say to your language and vice versa... It causes the lip-sync to be kind of off, too. Do you see it? We're not speaking in your language, the system just mimics it somehow. We don't know how, but it still does it."

The doctor had regained her composure, and she spoke after the diplomat.

"The only 'daemons' we've ever even heard of are in the historic records of our nation. 'Demonbreds' they were called, some odd mix of an Abysian and demon. We have no idea how they came to being, nor if they ever really existed, but... Is that what you mean?"

He twitched. It was a fire charm he had been trying to work, but nothing came from it. They were impervious to heat it seemed.

"You have ghosts speak for you then.. You have spirits of past speak your mind for my tongue eludes you.. Yet do you not know all? Why mock me like this.."

He glanced over to the other one, looking intently to her. This was the one who spoke whilst he was in the water, and had chosen to put him there. The smile that was plastered ever so proudly evaporated with what she said, and he quickly closed distance with this one in a bound, coming toe to toe. This one angered him to no end in the short time in company.

"Do you mean to say that you do not exist? That the very form I see in front of me does not exist? That your very essence is nothing more than an illusion? I think not."

Language is something that had been stuck in the back of his head, something subconscious and hidden, yet there. He spoke really without knowing these words, a vocabulary surfacing in structure through an ulterior level.

"Why mock me."

You have ghosts speak for you then.. You have spirits of past speak your mind for my tongue eludes you.. Yet do you not know all? Why mock me like this.."

The diplomat-type sighed lightly.

"No, it's a machine, not a spirit. We don't believe too heavily on such religious concepts as 'spirits'. And no, we have no idea what you're talking about. This is the first time we have ever even met someone who, as I said before, isn't one of our kind or human. It's impossible for us to have done something to your people."

As the odd being turned to the doctor and spoke to her, for a moment, she felt fear. It was because of the... Way he was looking at her. After he had spoken, she hesitated a moment. But she still replied.

"Of course we exist, but we're not demons. Genetically speaking, we are very much 'terrestrial'. From Earth, that is. And we have much in common with humans. How could we be demons, unless you consider them to be 'demonic'? We don't mock you, we just don't know what you're talking about. Nothing, as far as I know, in our history says anything about us attacking anything aquatic. And just look at us. Don't we look as bound to land as you are to the sea? Your claims don't stand to reason. We breathe oxygen from air, and we can't even swim since our bodies don't float."

"If you are not the demons.. Then why have you taken me away from deaths sweet grip.. Why did you disturb my sleep of a thousand with hells eye glaring into my third, and the song of the damned to be my waking call.. "

He stepped back, eyes locked onto her in an icy stare that would freeze the sea. She spoke lies that only prooved to fuel his rage.

"But then again, why am I asking you these questions. They serve only to waste my breath as you have still done as you have. The balance was upset."

-----

The Boomerang firmly attatched to the Blue Dragon began to hum a deep, low tune. Small white lights blinked on along it's curved edge, spaced out with a few feet between them. The entire cockpit flickered, panels one by one lighting up in a deep purple color, the blue quickly siddapearing. The little orb, still in the gate blinked again and began buzzing excitedly.

'Systems check complete. Seventy-eight percent of mechanisms fully functional. Thruster two in need of service. Coolant engines in need of service. Accelerator not operational. Pilot authorization, Jakishi. Pilot not present. RPES activated. Vital functions critical, activate RPI function. Systems check scan continuing.'

The little sphere flickered and changed into a deep purple as well, floating up into the air. It zipped quickly down the stair case, and banged into the wall. It did a small spin, and went crashing down the corridors towards the Pilot.

The doctor, for a moment, looked away from the being, but just for a moment. She gathered her courage and replied to the accusations of the thing.

"What we did? I was briefed of what happened, so I think I know better. It was hardly our fault that your ship was over our country when we had our very first lift off, almost causing this ship to collide with it. It was you who tried to contact us first, too, not the other way around. So, you yourself disturbed your own sleep. It was quite possible that we wouldn't have even noticed your ship had you not contacted us. If you claim it wasn't you, your ship has been acting against your will, then. And that's still not our fault!"

--

The Boomerang firmly attatched to the Blue Dragon began to hum a deep, low tune.

Well, shit. I should've known. It's been getting ready for something.

The ball went past the head of security who had been trying to find out just what the ship was, causing him to lose his balance and fall to the ground.

"Ouch!"

Maybe we should've sealed that hole as quickly as we could when that thing first came here... And hit it off the hull with those close range weapons of this ship... Having something completely unknown, hanging in our ship is really unnerving.

He rose up, and began to follow the ball, as it tried to trash the place finding its "owner" or something. It had even changed color...

The sphere ricocheted about in a corridor for a bit, crashing into anything it could get to and left a few large dents. It crashed into the wall in a decided attempt to get through it, and obviously failed. It stuck there for a moment before falling to the ground, and bouncing down towards the guard it passed. It rolled towards him, bouncing off his toe and flitting into the air to eye level.

'System restoration in progress. Eighty-two percent complete. Materials needed. Search and find in progress. Occupant. Pilot. Jakishi. Medical stats critical. Query as to location?'

A small hologram was produced and hovered above the sphere, shimmering slightly. The image was of a younger pilot. A cleaner pilot. An all around happier looking one. One that was smiling even.

'Query? Query? Query? Query response nu-nu-null ... response.'

The image flickered away quickly, the sphere blinking into an orange color. It fell to the floor again.

----

"Limbo is not bound by realms of the living. Justification of the intrusion of death is babble."

If they were impervious to a fire charm, they must have been from fire itself. Water over fire. Worth a try at least.

"Dacka soosie dacka soosie.. Kracken. Daka soosie..."

He held up his hand, fingers splayed, as he recited this chant in a whisper. Vapors began to swirl and collect, condensation forming in a small circle on the ceiling, directly above him.

The head of security looked at the holographic image in awe. Then the ball dropped on the floor again.

"Oh, so it's looking for its 'master', huh? I'll just..."

He picked the ball up.

"... Pick it up and carry it there."

Then he began to run towards the medical facilities.

--

"He's chanting again!", one of the security guards yelled, and the two plunged towards the being with their "stun guns" very much pointed at it, getting as close as was enough to hit him with them. The difference in these to those usually used by people was that an electric arc came from them, one just powerful enough to cause most beings of that size to lose consciousness, so the guards didn't even have to get all that close to their "target".

The head of security was at that time close enough to hear the electric buzz as he came closer and closer to the room.

"What the hell is going on there?", he murmured.

Approximately 500,000 kilometers from the planet energy begins to build at a single point in space... space in the region begins to "shiver" and "wave, as a the very fabric of space-time tears open slowly, like an eye opening into... nothing..... the "disturbance" opens into an almost perfect disk, the surface, gray, and fluid looking, undulates like a pond... Out of it emerges a massive vessel. The TRSS Zues, 13.8 million metric tons, almost 4,500 ft in length, 1,200 ft in width, and 650 ft in height.... flanking it are two smaller vessels, each only about 120,000 metric tons, the TRSS Thor and TRSS Hades... the three vessels turn and head towards the planet, as the "tear" in space slams shut with a brilliant flash of light, as if the universe is celebrating the fact that it is intact again...

On the forecastle region of the Zeus, is a Blue and Gold painted flag, bearing a Spread Eagle... each of the smaller vessels possess similar markings.

On the Bridge of the Zues, the ships Commanding Officer, Commodore Brandeu, begins issuing orders to his Executive Officer, Captain Genar....

"XO, Send the Hades and Thor out to chart the system.... and take us into orbit, this planet appears to have a space-fairing culture on it.... I want a detailed sensor survey of the planet, and their ships..." Then turning to a Lieutenant to the left of the Bridge, he says... "Mr. Yates, open up a channel....."

Quietly the Lt. punches some buttons and other various items on his console. and then replies, "Channel open..."

"This is Commodore Brandeu, Commanding Officer of the Tekanian Republic Stellar Ship Zeus. Flag of the 3rd Fleet. We are on a routine maping and exploratory mission... We are on a peaceful mission, please acknowledge reciept of this transmission..." and with a hand gesture, he communicates to the Lt. to cut the transmission.

The Zues, slips into orbit, as the Hades and Thor break away to scan the other planets, moons and debies in the system....

(OOC: So, uh, you haven't been to Earth yet? You know, Earth, the planet we live on and most NS nations are in?-) )

OOC: You know, given the colonization of many planets, within the NS universe, and the many seperate realities, it is quite possible to have nationstates who are "disconnected" from earth, in a way... I know many fellow nations who have no connection to earth... We are talking of a universe here where "druid" types are using magic crystals to push wooden sailing ships into space... :P

][ The flying pirate ships, I loved them for some reason. ][

A shock riveted through him, causing him to seize up, eyes open wide. He hunched up a bit, and just plain fell over, sounding a soft thud on the floor. Static paced slowly up his arm, wrapping around his elbow then wrist, and lacing between his fingers before finally reaching and end to its conductor and fizzling out. A blue blood trickled from between chapped lips, also coming slowly from gills. Out cold.

The little ball nearby with the guard, blinked into a yellow color, and began spewing audio.

'This is Commodore Brandeu, Commanding Officer of the ... Zeus. Flag of the ... Fleet. We are on a routine-mission-We are on a peaceful mission ... please acknowledge reciept of this-'

It turned purple again. Gee.. That really was a monotnous feature..

'Medical qu- Transmission- que oui yanu ss .. Cht Cht kahrhr.'

The doctor quickly took a few running steps towards the being. The two security guards had to practically jump out of her way.

"You didn't have to go... Oh, good, he's still alive. He seems too hostile to keep here. I think all we can do is put him back into his ship and seal the way in."

The security guards nodded, took a good hold of the creature and put it back onto the bed.

"Do you need me for something anymore?", the diplomat asked.

"No," was the answer, and so the diplomat left.

Then then the guards pushed the bed out of the doorway, almost hitting the head of security, who was looking at the odd ball that had just flown out of his hands and changed its color again.

"What just happened, men?"

"We were forced to put stop him, sir. We're now taking him back to his ship, after which we'll seal the path he used."

"Okay, I'll go with you."

And so they began to run to the ship whilst pushing the bed.

--

"What? A transmission? From where?"

"From an alien ship, captain. Its location is on main screen."

"Ah. Put it through."

And so did the communications' officer do, and the captain listened to it. After listening to it, he made a reply, as they had asked. Hell, they didn't have fleet designations, so he just went off and winged it. And he was going to be the first of the captains on the three ships to answer to this call! The second real first contact situation in a day!

"This is the captain of the Blue Dragon of the... First Abysian Fleet. We have received your transmission, and understood its contents."

"Sir, message received from the blue vessel...." says Lt. Yates, and patches the communication to through....


"This is the captain of the Blue Dragon of the... First Abysian Fleet. We have received your transmission, and understood its contents."


"Mr. Yates, send transmission....." says Commodore Brandeu....

"Aye, sir.... open...." responds the young Lt.

"On behalf of the Zeus, 3rd Fleet, and the people of the Constitutional Republic of Tekania; I send greetings and salutations to you and your people...." the Commodore speaks into the com....

'Error five-hundred.'

Another setting of the monotonous feature switched and clicked, and the ball was now a dark red. It clicked a few times, a blue light blinking in the center. It started to shake a bit, and then shot off. It went straight through the wall into the corridor, missing the door by only a few inches leaving a nive sized hole. It froze with perfect precision dead center in the hall, and shot off again. The ball went bouncing off of every surface, smashing anything as much as it can on its way towards the pilot. Nearing the congression heading towards the ship, it clicked loudly again, freezing in the middle of the hall once more. It started spinning rapidly, whirring a bit as it hung thre, and shot off at the group, crashing wildly into all. It tore in the legs of the bed, cauding it to clang to the floor, the occupant rolling out, as it starting aiming for the people.

'Error five-hundred. The Holy Empire of Fodmodmadtol pre-recorded comunique. Error five-hundred. The Holy Empire of Fodmodmadtol pre-recorded comunique'

Two holes opened up on opposite sides, and it began spinning faster. Fast enough that even a small crossbreeze was created, the whirr now a buzz. It sparked. Then it began to discharge ammo from it's orbit rapidly.

It happened so quickly.

The small orb began to fire around it, as the panicky guards tried to now carry the poor, insanity-ridden alien to its ship, as the strange orb had made the bed unusable. One of the guards were hit until...

Until something happened.

At the same time, in the bridge of the Blue Dragon.

"Captain, I've lost control of internal sensors and security systems!"

"What?!"

"... Not that I knew how to use them, but I still lost control!"

Back at the corridor.

"Unauthorized firing by unidentified target detected. Ejection of all unidentified targets... In progress," A cold, feminine voice said as heavily reinforced doors dropped from the ceiling to bar the orb any further access anywhere on the ship. Not only that, also the walls themselves around it were suddenly reinforced.

The AI scanned the Abysians. Although it had come to the conclusion that they were oblivious of the ship's capabilities, their DNA confirmed them to be of the species that were the ship's former masters, and so had to be obeyed. Then it scanned the unknown aquatic being and the orb. The AI concluded that it could not eject the aquatic being, since it would also eject its masters in the process.

It created a display screen before the panicking Abysians, which said, "Put the being you are carrying onto the floor and back away from it."

Which they did, after a while of good hearty running from the orb and realizing that they were really close to the opening already. They put it on the floor, and suddenly walls dropped from the ceiling and seemed to engulf it, much like what happened to the orb, except this time they seemed to form an odd looking passageway.

It had concluded that the orb and the unidentified biological being had come from an intruding ship that was attached to the ship, and would be returned to it forcibly. And so it did: The walls began to move so that they forced both the being and the orb to "follow" them, right up to the opening, which it sealed tight. On both sides, so that when it forcibly removed the alien ship from the Blue Dragon, the aquatic being was not sucked into space.

"Ejection, complete."

The AI reinforced the ship's outer hull to withstand further incursions attempted by the ship that was now classified as hostile by moving material from parts that were less needed. Then, all returned back to normal.

Back on the bridge.

"Um, sir! I'm back in control."

"Good, I guess. So this ship has something that's capable of taking over the ship we didn't even know of?! Lucky for us that it hasn't thought us to be hostile!"

(OOC: Yes, I know, this might sound ridiculous, but these ships are supposed to be... A bit odd. It didn't use its lethal defenses since it didn't deem the targets too powerful. Think of it as an electronic adaptation of sorts of defenses biological beings use against viruses and such.)

'Warning. Enviornment has become too hostile for predetermined acceptable levels in appropriate file. File check, title. Diplomatic Safety Conditions. File check, correct?'

Silence.

'Vital check, normal. File check,correct?'

Silence.

'File check query response null, hibernation mode activated.'

The entire Boomerang blinked a few times, the pneumatic gate still extended retracting back with a shudder. The lights along it's spine blinked off slowly, one by one. A dull hum sounded in the ship as it powered down for the moment. For the next series of moments. For the next million moments it would seem. The ship groaned as gravity played with it, tilting slightly. It was gradually pulled back with a shudder, it visibly flexing. It sprang back ridgid though, as a tiny white light began to blink above the cockpit. It slowly, but surely, began to sink away from the Blue ship, pulled back towards Terra.

The quirky little ball changed color once more. Now green, it began crackling. Sounded almost like a dial up modem.

][ Sigh. I was sort of hoping I could kill him, but alas, he's just going to be all.. Sleeping again.. In that insane state.. Drifting.. Hurm. Lesse what I can work for 'em. Maybe 'il land sommat somewhere. Eh. ][

][ Sigh. I was sort of hoping I could kill him, but alas, he's just going to be all.. Sleeping again.. In that insane state.. Drifting.. Hurm. Lesse what I can work for 'em. Maybe 'il land sommat somewhere. Eh. ][

(OOC: Sounds like a good idea. You know, it would've been really bad for the Abysians if the very first meeting they had with an alien would've ended in someone dying... I prefer it this way, somehow.)

IC:

"The intruding ship has detached and has floated away, captain. I can't detect it anywhere anymore."

"What an odd thing that was... Well, let's get back to work."

The three ships sat in space now, the crews of the two other ships inquiring as to what kind of difficulties the Blue Dragon had met, and they could hardly believe what they heard. After a while, the Red Dragon and the Green Dragon went to their separate ways as the commands were, to explore the surrounding space. But the Blue Dragon still had one thing to do right in this spot.

The alien ship that had contacted them earlier had sent a new transmission!

"On behalf of the Zeus, 3rd Fleet, and the people of the Constitutional Republic of Tekania; I send greetings and salutations to you and your people...."

"Uh, I guess they want us to reply, so..."

"And on the behalf of the Blue Dragon of the First Abysian Fleet, and the people of Abysia, I thank you for your courtesy and I greet and salute you and your people as well."

"I guess that should be good enough an answer," the captain said.