NationStates Jolt Archive

"Can I ask what that meant?"

"The Kitsune male fled rather than seeking contact but after the reprehensible 'greeting' uttered by one of our security forces, I can not blame him for that reaction."

Her quick sensor analysis of the biological debris left behind by the Kitsune had been enough for her to identify his sex, age, general health and species. All organic entities and many non, left behind invisible to the naked eyes veritable trails, pools of such information - shed skin cells, and more. Her sensors were definitely sensitive enough to sample and more than advanced enough to analyze those - though had much more time past, in this setting the evidence would have been scattered enough to have rendered it uncollectible with out additional equipment.

“We mean no harm, and as Lieutenant Commander Campbell stated, we stumbled upon this planet by sheerest chance. And I am pleased that you are willing to come forth and greet us."

"Kitsune male? You mean Sio? I wonder what he was doing around these parts... speaking of which, I wonder where he is now. Chances are if he fled then he pro-" Lia tensed up, "Excuse me." She leaped into the air, performing a bit of acrobatics before using a powerful kick to intercept an equally powerful punch of another being. The two dropped to the ground, immediately rolling away from each other and preparing for combat. Lia looked through the dust and the straightened up, realizing who she was about to fight, "Walter? The hell are you doing here?" The other being lowered its weapon, a fully loaded Banisher rifle. It was indeed Walter, the Drone looked to Lia and then to the other two beings, "Lia, who are they?" Lia sighed, "Not hostile. Explorers or some such," she looked into Walter's eyes, "can you deactivate your genocide protocol? You know that's only for emergency situations." Walter closed his eyes for a moment, upon opening them they had returned to their solid black color.

Campbell had taken a step back as the fighting between the two Sentients had begun. She stared at them, her own pistol out, ready to fight if the need so desired. Luckily for her, it seemed that these two knew each other rather well. So the First Officer straighened up, tucked away her weapon, and smiled.
"Greetings Walter," She ssaid, offering a small bow, "I am Lieutenant Commander Campbell of the Allied Starship Exile. This," She pointed to Ishtar, "Is the Lady Ishtar. You mentioned the Kitsune's name was Sio. Is he a part of a Kitsune colony here?" She asked calmly.

Walter looked to the other two, black hair moving in the breeze. He was slightly confused but didn't show it, it was nice to get a normal greeting for a change. Most people simply stared at Drones due to the sheer amount of black they had on them. Lia shrugged to the Drone, "You ain't gonna say anything Walter?" The Drone looked to her and then to Campbell, the weapon it was holding dematerialized into nothingness. "A colony? Hardly, the Kitsune you saw was Sio, one of the people in a party of five that crashed here some six or so years ago."

"A party of five..." Campbell shook her head in disbelief. They were in the middle of nowhere, a century's travel from Alversian space already. How could five individuals make it this far?
Campbell expressed this in a less than delicate manner,
"How the hell did five people, yourselves included I guess, get so far out here? It's in the middle of nowhere"

"Oh, this'll be a fun story." Said Lia, voice dripping with sarcasm. Walter nodded and proceded to explain, "We were all on some Calaverian world which was attacked by fallen gods know what. We managed to get a ship and flee but its nav system was broken. Next thing you know, we crash here. Does that story make sense?" Walter said, it was clearly a rhetorical question, "I think not, but its pretty much what happened."

Ishtar had not moved as the two strangers tangled with one anothers, but she had discretely activarted her shields. However when the aggression appeared to be taken care of that was dispensed with.

She noted the changes in the other non biological sentient with interest, but most of her attention was upon Campbell and the one named Lia.

Though she sent out a greeting over the communications frequency used by Aumani CS's, wondering if she'd get a reply. "Greetings Walter, I am Ishtar."

"Ah ha," Campbell stated, hands on hips in a disbelieving fashion, "Alright then. Regardless, I would like to speak with this Sio if I may. He ran off because he was confronted by a Calaveran. He needs to know that there are Alversians and Kitsune here as well from the Empire and the Republic."

She turned to Ishtar,
"Can you track them?" She asked the Aumani.

Walter shook his head, "Ah, I made a mistake, group of six. One of them was a Calaverian scientist but I haven't seen him for a few days... the rest of the group is fleeing at this very moment, scared for their lives. Oh right, part of the story I left out: two of said group members were raped by some Calaverian... soldiers..." Walter looked to Lia who simply nodded. Walter continued, "If you go looking for them, expect a hostile response. They're on edge and, at this point, may not listen to reason."

Campbell gave a deep sigh at the response from the Greywatchers,
"Figures," She shook her head and tapped her link to the Exile,
"Captain? We may have an issue here," She explained everything she had been told herself and explained the problem,
"If they're running, it could take days even weeks to find them. This is a pretty big jungle"

Winterfire sighed heavily over the vox. "We will do our best from up here to assist you, but I don't like this. We have no way of knowing if these people are telling the truth, but in any case we have to try and find that Xiscapian. Do not take any risks, Lieutenant, and I order you to order the Calaverian detatchment to remain at your camp and to not under any circumstances enter the jungle, for the safety of everyone."

Exile Bridge...
The scanners began their sweep of the planet, but Winterfire doubted it would help much. They were military-grade, of course, but thickly forested areas like these could cause problems, and even if they managed to pinpoint the location of the Xiscapian or his group they would have a tough time trying to follow their trail from orbit. Given enough time and exposure they could track any individual being on the globe from orbit, but all the normal indicators, like communications links, modern weapons, power armor, replicator use or Force surges would be absent. It would take time and effort, while the away team potentially risked their lives from attack...either by the supposed panicked castaways, or these new contacts, strange beings if he was any judge.

Ishtar waited until the Captain had been apprised of the incident.

"Can you track them?"

"Yes I can, but it might be better if we asked Lia and Wlater to escort us to their camp and along the path they took. Being in the presence of those they know mean them no harm will be proof of your open and honest intentions."

She looked over at Ealter and Lia, and asked earnestly "Would you be our guides? We truly mean none of you any harm, and while the Calaverans are not beings I would normally associate with, or commend, they are under the command of others, whom I gladly associate with."

Ishtar (http://jkayjax.googlepages.com/ishtar) paused for a second, then added slowly sadness leaching into her voice "I am sorry. There was a time when my word as an Aumani would have been accepted without heistation within the greater portion of the universe. But that time is long past, and I may be the only one left. However that as may be, I can but report that they are under the command of Captain Winterfire, a Kitsune from Xiscapia."

Lia nodded, "Well, I'm not sure if I'll be able to track them as well as your high-tech device there. All I have is the boar I killed, I dunno, I could try bribing them with food but I doubt that'll work if what Walter's saying is true. If you really want me to come, I will, but I figure I might just get in the way." Walter didn't say anything to Lia's comment, "I can show you where the camp is and what direction I saw them heading in."

"That will help immensely," Campbell nodded, "We would appreciate any help you could give us" She sighed and looked over at the jungle. What a nightmare.
Because they had seen a Calaveran, this group had fled to god only knew where on this planet. They had to find them and she would be long dead in the ground before she stopped.

She listened to the Aumani talk with a little sadness. Though she took solace that, although she was an individual in the universe, she would never be alone in the company of the Exile. They would make sure of that.

"Very well," said Walter, "Then we best make haste. Lia, come just in case." Lia sighed, "Fine, fine." The two prepared to move out. Walter looked to Campbell, "Whenever you're ready." He then looked to Lia, "You're fast, scout ahead. See if you can pick up something like a scent." Lis nodded, "Gone." With that she took to the trees and was out of sight in a matter of seconds.

Campbell nodded,
"Let's go," She stated. She felt confident that she could leave the Landing zone in the capable hands of Decius. The Alumina would be able to handle any threats and especially the Calaverans. They reacted poorly to command from Alversians and Xiscapians at the best of times, though if anyone could force control from them, it would be an Alumina.

"Fine." With that one word the Drone was off in the direction of the camp. It moved at high speed, occassionally stopping to let the other two catch up. It was an unnatural being, anyone could tell that much by watching its movements and its appearance.

It took Campbell a little more effort to keep up than Ishtar but soon they were all back in a group within the forest. Campwell wiped the sweat from her brow and glanced up at the clear blue sky,
"Are we heading for a camp or what?" She asked, all diplomatic subtly lost with her breath as she struggled to stay with the two machine-like creatures.

Lia jumped from branch to branch and kept up the speed. She'd gotten good at this over the years. Walter just sprinted as if there was no tomorrow, having no need for oxygen, it didn't need to breathe. Walter slowed itself so it was running next to Campbell, "That is correct. We will be there shortly." Within ten minutes, the group had come upon the campsite, in all its empty and primative glory.

"Wha..." Campbell lacked the breath to say anymore, "Wha...where have they gone?" She turned to the Drone, then to Lia and finally to Ishtar,
"Where have they gone from here?" She was starting to get annoyed now. What was the point of chasing one Kitsune the whole way across a planet? Because she was an Alversian, it was what she did best.

Walter pointed in the direction Sio had gone, "They went that way. That's where they were headed when I last saw them." Lia looked in the direction, "Ha, looks like they may be headed to the mountains. I've been wandering all over this planet as a pastime and last I checked, there were some mountains off in that direction. There's also a lot of undergrowth... that might slow them down a little." Walter shook its head, "Or not, seeing as they were in such a hurry." Lia shrugged, "Well, Ishtar, you got a bead on them?"

Well, Ishtar, you got a bead on them?"

"Yes, their mental state is poor, and it shows in the amount and type of biological 'trail' they left. " She looked over at Campbell, concerned at seeing her so winded, then offered

"Lieutenant Commander Campbell, might I offer you a lift. You will see better for the added height."

"If you're willing to offer, Ishtar, then I am willing to accept," Campbell sighed, finally gaining some of her breath back. She was not unfit but, in her current company she was certainly the slowest. She took the offered lift then looked back at the small group,
"How long will it take to get to them from here?" She asked.

Lia shook her head, "Depends how fast they're going... I doubt they can go through the forest at my speed but they've got a head start. Hold on." Lia closed her eyes and put her hands together, "Its been awhile... since I used this..." She mummbled. Upon opening her eyes, they were glowing a bright blue. Walter smiled, "Level one Huntress Form? I haven't seen that in quite some time." Lia looked to it and then in the direction it had pointed, "Let's move." With an inhuman burst of speed the two agents were off once more. Lia's eyes were nowhere near as accurate as Ishtar's scanner but were still able to pick up the ever so small disturbances cause by people moving through the undergrowth.

Ishtar formed a roughly chair shaped platform with her pressor beams for Campbell to sit on, then adjusted them to act as a 'windshield' as well "This will buffer you from the winds" she commented as she levitated to just above the tree canopy.

"I can go as fast as" she paused a second to translate the speed equivallencies "five hundred miles per hour in atmosphere. So it should not take very long."

"Alright the...500 what?!" Campbell was taken aback slightly for a moment by the number that was broadcast to her, "Alright then," a small pause, "Um, just don't go that fast while I'm here," She smiled, "I like my atmosphere slightly slower than that. Regardless, if you know where they are, then let's get to it," She grinned at Ishtar,
"We have a Kitsune to catch."

Lia and Walter, out of earshot by this point, continued through the forest at their high speed. Lia jumped from branch to branch, occassionally swinging on a vine to mix it up a bit. Lia kept her eyes open for anything that could count as a trail. Walter kept behind a bit, following Lia's lead.

Ishtar, flying just above the canopy easily over took the pair and kept up with them, her keen sensors scanning ahead for signed of those fleeing.

And it wsan't long before she spotted the small group. "There they are Lieutenant Commander Campbell" She pointed them out.

"Do do not believe they have spotted me yet. How would you like me to approach them. I could swing wide and speed ahead, then land so that they, in effect, come to us. There is a large clearing ahead of their path, if I land there, where they have a chance to observer us, and a choice to meet us....It might make them less afraid, if they were allowed to initiate the meeting." She offered the suggestion.

Ahead...
"Shit!" Sio took hold of both females in each arm and tugged them away, changing direction. "Something's chasing us," he hissed, trying to make as little noise as possible as they veered away from their original course. There had been distant rustles, crashes and voices behind them, some kind of tank or armored car, Sio suspected: Post Walkers would have been easy to see from a distance. Vix looked afraid, glancing behind them. "How did they get on our trail so fast?" she asked anxiously.
"They're Calaverians," Sio shrugged as he jogged, "it's what they do. Let's go low to ground for a while, see if they pass us. We'll try to find a way around before they double back."

Lia and Walter, while not being as fast as Ishtar's hoverign device, didn't take long to catch up to the fleeing group. Lia's eyes picked up the change in course almost immediately and she and Walter began closing in. "How close?" Asked Walter. "Five to seven minutes give or take..." She replied, taking breaths in between words.

"Alright then Ishtar," Campbell nodded, then called down at the running Kitsune,
"Hey!" She called, "Hey! I'm from the People's Navy!" She roared, "The Alversian People's Navy!! Stop running!"

Stacy looked behind and up at the pursuing group and, through her terror, she saw the APN uniform even from this distance,
"Si!" She called to the male Kitsune, "I think she's telling the truth"

Sio skidded to a stop, looking back, spear held at the ready. He examined Campbell's uniform, aware of what the colors, if not the rank, signifyed. His eyes moved to the one she was...sitting on? Riding? Some strange women with blue-tinted skin, wearing veils, obviously not Alversian. He took a step back and so did Vix, the female's eyes darting left and right as she tried to discern any others approaching though the jungle foilage. Sio didn't lower his spear, but he didn't make a move to run, either. "Who are you?" he called to them, wary.

Lia dropped down a few feet away from the group, followed by Walter. She looked around before straightening herself up, "Dammit Sio, and I went through all that trouble trying to get you a boar too." Walter placed his hand on Lia's shoulder, "Not the time." It then looked to Sio, "They're allies, or at least friendlies."

Campbell and Ishtar were not long on the ground after Lia and Walter. Campbell was the first to step down, Stacy subconciously darting behind so as to remain hidden from the Officer.
It was obvious she was an Officer, she wore the APN deep red, along with the piping to indicate a Lieutenant Commander, a standard service pistol hung by her side,
"I am Commander Louisa Campbell of the Allied Starship Exile, this is the Lady Ishar," She nodded behind her to the Aumani, "We were here scanning the planet when we ran into one of your own," She nodded to Sio now, "And we have been in pursuit ever since. I must admit you had me run ragged." She offered a smile.

Meanwhile, behind Vix, behind all her fear and doubt, Stacy felt a strange elation. Did the woman in front of her signal their rescue after six long years?

Sio looked from Walter to Campbell suspiciously. The spear point wavered as he considered what to do. Walter and Lia obviously had good reason to be with the two, and the women was wearing an APN uniform...but what about the Calaverians?
"Are you aware of an Observer nearby or in orbit, or any GOU on-planet?" he asked, still not fully trusting her. It just seemed too fantastic, that after six long years these people had shown up out of the blue.

"They're under her command, Sio." Said Walter matter-of-factly. Its voice had no emotion in it at this time. Walter wanted to add something in about over reacting but then remembered the day it and Lia had met up with the group. They definately had a bit of a reaons to be afraid. Lia on the other hand simply sat on the ground, legs crossed, not saying anything.

Campbell nodded at the Drone's words,
"The Calaveran Alliance as you probably knew it has long since gone," She smiled, "It exists now as a Vassal state of the Kitsune Empire. The Calaveran Troopers you saw are acting as our security force. There have been Observers in system for years," She looked from one to the other,
"Sorry but I do not know your names"

Stacy just looked at Sio for guidance on what to do. He was the leader of the group and he seemed the best one to deal with this.

Sio took a moment to process the information, only slightly surprised, lowering his spear. After those things had invaded Celestis, he wouldn't have expected the Calaverans to survive as they had been, and if they'd resurfaced later he knew the Kitsune Empire would have come down on them like a ton of bricks. Interesting that it was a vassal state now, but there was no way he would ever trust a Calaveran. Not after what they'd been though.
"I am Sio," he said finally. Vix looked cautiously at Campbell. "I'm Vix," she said in a small voice, then looked to Stacy for her to introduce herself.

"Pleased to meet you Sio and Vix," Campbell offered a Kitsune bow, relieved that they were actually talking and not trying to run from her. Again. Campbell now turned to Stacy to introduce herself but it took a few awkward moments before the Alversian summed up the courage to speak in front of the figure of authourity,

"I'm Stacy O'Neill, Ma'am" She stated shyly, still behind Vix.

"Pleased to make your aquitance," Lousia did not bow to Stacy as that was not Alversian custom, a mere nod the head was more common. Campbell now tapped her communicator and linked up the Exile again,

"Captain? Campbell here. I've managed to track them all down" Campbell reported it while keeping her eyes fixed on the attire of Vix and Stacy. To say their clothes were revealling was...an understatement.

Ishtar had been content to listen quietly, saying nothing. She felt that the castaways had enough without trying to absorb her oringins. There woulf be time enough later. Though her scanners took very thorough medical readings of each one of them. Life could not have been easy for them and they might need treatemnt for parasites, chronic diseases, nutritional lacks, or old injuries that had never healed properly.

"Well, it all ended good then. Now, not to sound selfish or disturb the mood or anything, but can we get the hell off this rock? Six years without seeing my homeworld... fallen gods..." Walter placed his hand on Lia's shoulder again, "Not the time..."

Campbell's vox crackled again, a harsh sound to those who had heard nothing like it for over six years. "Summarize your situation, Lieutenant," came Winterfire's voice. Sio was now looking at Ishtar, who had neither spoken nor moved the whole time. He wondered if she was some kind of hologram, or an android, to stand so unnaturally still without any fidgeting or shifting of weight. Her scans would show something none had revealed; that both females had given birth roughly six standard years ago at about the same time, that the one called Vix had an artificial kneecap in her right leg and healed tissue around it from what seemed to be an inexpert transplant, that the Alversian in the group had damaged nerves in her left hand, from a second degree burn or electrical discharge. Despite these all seemed very physically fit as a result from living in the jungle for so long, especially Sio, who had built up a considerable amount of muscle and girth from his hunts.
These were not the same people who had vanished from Xiscapia all those years ago.

"Sir, we have one Kitsune male, one Kitsune female, one Alversian female and two beings who have identified themselves as Lia and Walter," She sighed, "We are in the north of the jungle now, several hours walk from the landing zone. Is this the whole group?" She asked Sio, who was evidently the leader of the group.

"Ah," Campbell stated when she heard Lia's question, "There's actually a slight complication with that." She offered an embarressed smile, "I think I should leave the Captain to explain that once we return to the ship"

Stacy was still staring, staring at the first Alversian she had seen in over six years.

"There are three others," said Walter, looking away, "Though it may be best if they explain that particular story. If you don't mind, I'm heading back to the landing zone." With that Walter was off, back into the jungle. Lia sighed, "Something tells me I'm not going to like this."

Ishtar took stock of the data her scans revealed. She knew that she and the other medics could fix the problems found - the inexpert knee graft on Vix, the nerve damage to the hand of Stacey - and that pleased her, that they would be able to help these lost, now found, ones.

"Something tells me I'm not going to like this."

However Lia's words and tone made her uneasy as well. Perhaps this discussion might ber better had at the landing site. she thought and spoke up.

"Given the distance we have come from the landing site, I can can create a platform for You, Sio, Vix and Stacey to travel upon. I believe your combined weight is within my tolerances. Thus we can return quickly and more safely than journeying afoot." Ishtar offered in her melodious voice.

Sio nodded to Campbell. "There's four others, actually, all unaccounted for, a Calaveran, a Veela and two...children." His head jerked when Ishtar spoke, he had begun to think the creature was either not equipped with speech functions or was a mute. "That...sounds good," he glanced at Vix and Stacy.
So they were finally found. But there was a 'slight complication' involving taking them away from here. Perhaps they feared the outcasts had alien diseases? Sio didn't know how much the People's Republic or Kitsune Empire had changed in six years, it all seemed to be the same so far, but he had seen very little. Who knew what could have occurred during their absence?

"I though the Veela put herself here on purpose." Said Lia, "Though I guess its best to mention her too."

It was boring, defending the base camp. The clones talked together on duty, always agreeing and laughing with eachother. Frosty stood up, strechted, and with a yawn grabbed his weapon and scanned the area with his eyes. He squinted as his eyes adjusted from the nap.

"Well," Campbell sighed, annoyed that her work was not yet over, "Where are they? The sooner we can get back to basecamp and back to the Exile, the happier I shall be,"

Basecamp

Decius stalked the perimeter of the basecamp impatiently, taking long strides that seemed to make her glide around the positions of Calaverans. Each earned a disapproving look from the Alumina. Though she was in command of the camp, she did not have the authourity to berate the Calaverans for something they hadn't done, though she would have dearly loved to. To her, they were just drones, machines without any mechanical advantages and many physical disadvantages. Of all the species that the Alumina frowned on, and there were many, the Calaverans seemed to be their new favourite.

Without so much as a sigh, Decius tapped her vox and began to talk to the ship orbiting in space,
"Captain Winterfire," She did not even bother announcing herself, the Alumina voice and accent were quite distinctive, "We have completed our scans and are waiting for Commander Campbell's return." She even made the report sound disapproving.

While Lia sat with the others, not saying much as there was nothing for her to say, Walter was on his way back to the basecamp that had been set up. Within a good half an hour he would arrive back there.

"We don't actually know," Sio admitted. "No one's seen the good doctor, the Calaveran, since yesterday, and the other three tend to keep to themselves. They'll show up eventually, I suspect they're probably already aware of your presence here."

Camp...
"Very good, Chief Engineer," came Winterfire's crisp voice. "Hold your position and wait for further orders from the First Officer." He didn't bothered reinforcing that no Calaverians were to enter the jungle; he knew she knew her orders, and would follow them, however resentfully, to the letter.

"Well," Campbell seemed tired now, irritated, "I guess I have to look for them now as well. Where would they be normally?" Campbell asked the entire group.

Stacy didn't know. Though Lara was her child, she was already an adult and the Alversian saw no reason to meddle unneccessarily in people's affairs.

Basecamp

"Yes, Captain," Decius cut the link and stared at the Calaverans. 'What a waste of space and oxygen,' She thought to herself, 'Utterly useless'
She saw a group of them laughing and strode to their position,
"Eyes front!" She snapped, "This is not a social gathering, this is a military basecamp. Stop acting like the Children you are and stand to attention!"
Satisifed for the moment, she moved back to the engineer and Doctor who had little to do since the scans had been completed.

Lia looked up, "I've been a wanderer for the past six years, most of time I was off doing my own thing, so I haven't been paying too much attention to this particular group and their business. Walter might know, its always been the sneaky, observant, spying type," Lia thought back to just what she and Walter used to do as a profession, "but its headed back to your camp... perhaps you should contact whoever is there to ask it."

Walter at this point was nearing the basecamp, having made excellent time with no one around to slow it down. Maybe ten more minutes...

The clones turned and replied " You want us to be professional, fine, we will when were thought of and treated as allys and friends in this adventure." The other clone pitched in with his identical voice. " With that, yes mam, right away mam." The clones went back to duty. The only sounds were of there deep pitched vocal transmissions of reports as they stood like statues, cycling through different visions to detect any intruders.

"Alright then," Campbell sighed, "If I must," She was on the vox to Decius for a few moments, then smiled at the little group,
"Ready to go back to civilisation?" She asked them all, indicating to Ishtar.

Basecamp

Decius heard the comment from the Calaveran and wanted to laugh, she refrained from it though. She even refrained from any expression,
"You want friendship from this Alliance trooper?" She asked sarcastically, "You should have thought of that before you began to dissect those around you and as for treatment as equal members, I shall treat you as an equal member when you prove to me that you do have some ability for logical thought and can act like someone in military uniform," This was snapped out, as if Decius was in a seethign temper. In fact, she was merely acting normally.
She recieved the message from Campbell and looked back to her Calaverans, waiting to see what happened.

At this point, Walter came through the trees, landing in the middle of the base camp. It was about as subtle as RPG to the face but at least it managed to have a little style. Walter didn't say anything to anyone around him, chances were the Campbell had radioed ahead. If she didn't, oh well.

Meanwhile, Lia stood up. "In that case, I'll run. See you guys back at camp." With that, she was gone.

"Hell yes," Vix said firmly in answer to Campbell's question, slightly surprising because of her shyness so far. Civilization was something she'd desperately missed, out here a million light years from anywhere. She moved aboard the platform eagerly, though a little uncomfortable with this strange, new technology. Sio climbed aboard as well, brooding, wondering what had changed in the Empire and Republic over the last six years. An alliance of any kind with the Calaverans was, to him, simply unbelievable. Why in all the galaxy would the Emperor permit such a thing...?

" We don't need your freindship, although that wouldn't hurt. The Korr inflicted more damage to you than we ever did yet they are now allies. Our people are allies if not then we might as well start trading blasters for bullets." The clone said. Frosty watched he situation unfold, he then turned to see the Alversian hybrid " You come here"

OOC: NC there are no Hybrids yet. And where's Edward in all this?

Decius now drew herself to her full height, over seven feet, towering over the offending Calaveran,
"You threatening an Officer, Trooper?" She asked in a menacing voice, this time there was fury in her eyes, "You want respect yet you act like spoiled children, you want alliances yet you threaten violence when your offer is refused. You want friendship yet have shown no qualities that would endear anyone, not even the rather generous Alversians, to your side. I have said it once, Trooper, I shall say it again, seeing as I can add deafness to your incompetance, ill-discipline and insubordination. You want my friendship, then you shall have to earn it like everyone else has had to." With one more wilting look, the Alumina turned back in time to see the Drone enter the camp.

Missed by the Calaveran sentries, obviously. The realisation only deepened Decius' thoughts on the species as a whole,
"You are the Greywatcher?" She demanded of Walter.

Jungle

Stacy just grinned at her partner's outburst and embraced her tightly, tears of joy in her eyes. They were finally going home!
With Campbell and the trio aboard Ishtar, the Aumani was given permission to head back to basecamp.

"Affirmative." Came the reply from Walter. It didn't exactly know how Decius knew where it was from, but it didn't really care either. As for its response, what more really had to be said?

Carefully providing her passengers an encompassing shield has she had before Ishtar rose to above tree top level and took the most direct route back to the base camp. With flight capability of five hundred miles per hour, she was slowing to arrive at a more sedate pace in just over a minute.

Gently she settled down in the clearing close by to Walter, and carefully away from the Calavarans. "I hope my speed didn't startle you. I am not among the fastest of my kind, but it has been so long since I have had any real chance to fly. It felt good"

Vix laughed and whooped as they took off, moving with exhilarating speed. Her eyes, too, shone with tears of happiness as she embraced Stacy. Sio, meanwhile, just tried not to look over the side of the platform as the ground raced by at what he was sure exceeded several hundred miles an hour. He continued to ponder the condition of the galaxy, how it would be after their exclusion from it. The kitsune hadn't had anyone when he had left, all his family had either died or didn't care about him and he had had no friends, but he wondered how Kel, his place of residence for years on end, might have changed, he wondered about the fate of Celestis and what had become of it's horrifying attackers, but most of all he thought about Xiscapia.
What had changed?
The question burned within him, and he knew it could be next to nothing, or everything. He had been promised answers in the form of the Captain of whatever ship was over this moon, but he knew his patience was burning fast.
The former miner and now leader of the group knew, though, that his heart had never really rested with the Kitsune Empire. It was with Vix and Stacy and Edward, and, to some extent, Walter, Lia, the twins and that strange old Veela as well. Whatever might have happened at home, he still had what he had come to think of as his family. Weird and disjointed, made up of half a dozen different races and cultures, which sometimes clashed, but family nonetheless.

As they stopped Vix hopped easily off Ishtar's platform, apparently delighted. "How did you do that?!" she exclaimed to the Aumani. "That was incredible!" Sio stumbled off and concentrated on not being sick in front of his rescuers, barely noticing the Alumina or Calaverans in his discomfort.

Campbell stepped down as well and focused on not throwing up for a moment, then smiled when she saw the delight in the group's eyes at the sight of the shuttle. She nodded to Ishtar,
"Your speed was more than sufficient for us, Ishtar, thank you." She offered a smile and headed over to Decius and Walter,
"I was told you know where the two siblings and their trainer is?" She asked mildly. Their own Veela still had yet to leave the shuttle, preferring instead to sit and meditate.

Walter turned to face Campbell, not saying anything for the moment. "I might." The Drone said in a voice lacking all feeling and emotion. Campbell would sense that she was no longer speaking to the same creature. Due to being found, Walter had been ordered to revert back to acting more like a Drone and less like a human. "I don't think we need to look for them. They're already aware of our presence, I'm quite sure of that. Their senses are much like Lia's, they probably saw your shuttle and have decided that they wished to wait, rather than come out right away."
-------
Lia, meanwhile, was making her way through the forest at a brisk, yet relaxed pace. She was certainly glad to get off this world but felt that taking her time wasn't going to cuase any problems. They were going to look for the two children, well, teens at this point, and her arriving ASAP would just mean she'd have to wait around bored for awhile.

"I see," Campbell was rather put off by the Drone's sudden change of attitude. It was like talking to a wall, she decided as she contacted the Exile to update Captain Winterfire of the situation,
"Sir? We have all but four of the Occupants with us at Basecamp and we're waiting for one enroute. Request permission to go with Ishtar to track them down?" She finished and sighed. What should have taken two hours had turned into three. And the longer Decius remained on the surface, the less time she had in Engeering to fix the Hyperdrive.

The Drone sat on the ground, legs crossed. "Explain the situation. This does not resemble an exploration mission. And you mentioned something to Lia earlier that suggested you were not capable of leaving this place. I want to know why, now if you don't mind."

"How did you do that?! That was incredible!"

Ishtar smilled at the happy Vix ""I am fortunate to possess advacned gravitics, though I never took a FTL upgrade, I didn't feel I needed one. I lost my physical wings in the attack on the ship I was travelling upon, but they were for decoration and not necessary for me to fly. I am glad that you enjoyed the trip."

Her smile fading she looked over at Sio, concerned for hm "Sio would you care to see a medic, I am sorry if the speed unnerved you."

"Permission granted, Lieutenant," Winterfire answered his First Officer. "Unless you are using them to assist you in tracking down the missing members, the rest of your party is to stay at the camp. Have the medic run basic checks on everyone you've found here, patch any wounds and make sure none are carrying diseases or parasites, I don't want any of my crew getting sick. If you haven't located the rest of the party within three hours, you are to return to the camp and begin shuttling everyone up to us."
"Explain the situation. This does not resemble an exploration mission. And you mentioned something to Lia earlier that suggested you were not capable of leaving this place. I want to know why, now if you don't mind."
"We do mind," Winterfire's voice cut across any answer Campbell might have been making. "The situation will be explained to you in due time, sir, but at the moment we have other issues at hand."

"I'm," Sio coughed, "okay," he was leaning against a tree, looking a pale shade of green. "Just need a few moments to...recuperate." He sat down and closed his eyes, concentrating on breathing. He hadn't moved that fast in many years, it had been both thrilling and terrifying.
"Wow," Vix whispered almost reverently when Ishtar explained her method of travel. "You used to have wings? And you could have traveled FTL?" She looked the being up and down, old technical knowledge coming back to her. No normal, biological being could do what she had described. "What," her voice was laced with awe, "are you?"

Campbell nodded,
"Aye, Sir," She looked across at Decius, "You are back in Command of the Basecamp. I'll take two of the Calaverans and go hunting for the others, seeing as our charge is not in a co-operative mood" She looked darkly at the Drone and headed off into the jungle.

Decius watched her go, then turned to the two Xiscapians and Alversian who had been recused,
"You will go to the Medic to be examined," It was not a request, "Be as quick as you can," She looked at Si without sympathy, then moved on.

Walter thought the Alversian foolish, she was obviously hard of hearing. Or her emotions were nothing but a blindfold. It had said it might know, and that much was true, Walter followed the siblings, but never very far. It didn't know about there little secret area, but it had a few good guesses. Secondly, it never said it wouldn't help, it said it saw no reason, but most organics were like that, they only interpret, never takign words for what they really are. That was not Walter's concern, it was more interested in this other creature, the Alumina. It looked to her, "Is there any way I can be of use around this camp? I may have a few... useful skills." It was then that Lia touched down beside Walter after jumping from a nearby tree. "Gotta be kidding me, cheaters..." Walter raised an eyebrow to her comment, "Well at least you're here."

"What,are you?"

I am an ÄÜ’Manni Cybernetic Snetience, and I am embodied in what we term an 'avatar'." Her long agile tail looped up in what they wouls soon learn was the equivallent of laughter "Many of the Aumani race had wings, and so I was given the option of having them as well, when I designed my first body."

She pulled a small data pad fron her belt of many things and clicked up a small hologram of a typical ÄÜ’Manni. The main difference being that he was a organic entity, and she wasn't- and their skin hues were much different. His were a medium bronze tan, and hers was the etherial lumunious blue white of the nanosynth ceramide that made up her 'skin'.

"And as for FTL, I like company, so I far prefered travelling with others about our ships."

She watched Campbell leave with a slight fown, and then the Alumina recieved an even deeper one. Ishtar had no liking for arrogance and ego, and if Decius was the example she seemed to be... No Ishtar knew whom she'd be avoiding.

She rurned back to Sio and the others. "Here, I am one of the medics, so Let me escort you over and we'll check you out while we are getting you some clean clothes and such."

As Ishtar spoke she privately contacted Captain Winterfire. "Sir, far be it from me to compalin, BUT Decius is as un sympathetic a being I have ever met. These castaways need not only more than a few good meals, they need clean clothes and a chance for 'civilized comforts. Could you have such sent down so while their medical check up is on going they can also have some comforts?"

"You will go to the Medic to be examined, be as quick as you can,"
Sio just nodded weakly at Decius's statement, not daring to speak. He knew he needed such a check-up, and it was nice to let someone else have control for a change. Standing, trying not to shake, he leaned against the tree for support, breathing heavily.
What the hell is wrong with me?

Vix listened to Ishtar's words with a mixture of further awe and amazement, trying to visualize an entire race of such advanced, powerful beings alongside their creators. She had liked the look of the Aumani, they reminded her of kitsune for some reason, and anyone that could make such a benevolent, graceful creature such as Ishtar couldn't be evil.
"Here, I am one of the medics, so let me escort you over and we'll check you out while we are getting you some clean clothes and such."
"Thanks," Sio pushed off from the tree slightly ahead of them, hobbling over to where the Xiscapian doctor was waiting, a small table set up with an array of tools spread out. Vix walked alongside Ishtar, anxious to pepper her with more questions. "What was it like, making you own body?" She asked, obviously fascinated and completely ignorant to the fact that the Alumani was also conversing with Winterfire. Vix knew she had wished before, particularly in her teenage years, that she could have chosen her own form as she wished. And she had to admit, Ishtar was not unattractive.

"Sir, far be it from me to compalin, BUT Decius is as unsympathetic a being I have ever met. These castaways need not only more than a few good meals, they need clean clothes and a chance for 'civilized comforts. Could you have such sent down so while their medical check up is on going they can also have some comforts?"
"I'm afraid that's just how the Alumina are," Winterfire sighed heavily. "Their society regards emotion as a weakness, to be abhorred, but at the same time they are well aware of their intellectual superiority to most of the galaxy's sapient beings. The result is an aloof but arrogant creature, though she is irreplaceable as an engineer.

I'll had someone beam down some supplies, it doesn't sound like these people are in very good shape."

A few seconds later a small pile of boxes appeared behind the medic as he began to run a scan over Sio. There was nine packaged jumpsuits, all of them a soft, deep blue color with underwear, socks and boots included, a MRE replicator with plasticware, four boxes of soap, two bottles of shampoo, combs, toothbrushes and other toilet articles, and a few other odds and ends. Once the lost had bathed and cleaned themselves, changed clothes, eaten and undergone a basic check-up, it was hoped they would be ready to come up to the ship.

"Sio, Lia, Stacy, Vix, the captain sent down clean fresh clothes and other amenitites for you all's use. And I can righ a hot show from the shuttles tanks though it will be very simple as I'm not much of an engineer"

They could take turns while she and the other medics looked them over more thoroughly than her earlier scans.

"Stacy I can fix the nerve problem in your injured hand, but my most delicate instruments are back aboard the Exisle, so that must wait, I am sorry to say. And Vix your knee can also be replaced with better if you wish as well."

then she answered Vix's question "What was it like, making you own body?"

Oh I looked through hundreds of thousands of holograms, and I had long debates with my mentors about the strengths and weakness of many variations on forms. I could have chosen one that would have allowed quadrapedal motion as well as bipdeal, but I decided against it after much discussion. My body is hyper flexible, naturally when one is free from the constraints of evolution, some can solve or avoid many of the problems that 'flesh' is heir too." She smiled gently - she had at one time envied her organic friends. Their faces would naturally grow and age and hold a far deeper character than hers ever would.

"I chose similar but not identical features to those of the great grandmother of the Constructionist, that is our term for an inventor, aresearcher, who first found the way to take artificial intelligence and I wanted to honor her without infringing on her uniqueness.

Sio was being checked by the doctor, the kitsune investigated his mouth, all four ears, eyes, tail and general condition. It would be a little while more, but he seemed to be in good shape, if a bit dirty and lacking certain vitamins and minerals.
Vix listened it Ishtar quietly, she had even more questions now but the mention of the hot shower overrode everything. After years of bathing in the same cold water of a stream a hot shower would be a gift from heaven. "I'd like to take you up on that offer of a shower..." she said finally, still wondering at the potential for quadrupedal motion and the ability to reconstruct the living face of a person long dead onto a...artificial life form.

Lia awaited her turn to be checked out, she was probably in the best condition due more to her Encryptive abilities than anything else. However, she had spent much of her time on this world hunting and wandering, this provided her with plenty of exercise and a decent enough diet. Due to this, she was still very fit and very nourished, keeping the appearance of the typical Leanorian. The offering of clothes and a hot shower didn't really mean much to her; she could walk around naked and be perfectly comfortable (something she had done a lot on this world) and Leanorians had bathed in rivers and streams long before Greywatch had met them. Walter, as Ishtar had stated, or rather not stated, needed nothing since it was an artificial being. However, some new clothing might be better than the Forbidden Ministry's robes, the last thing Walter needed were people asking questions about its dress. And so, with little else to do, Walter disrobed and watched as its clothing disapeared into the storage unit that hadn't used in so long. Seeing Walter without clothing wouldn't be anything interesting: a pale-skinned humanoid creature possessing no genitals whatsoever. It took a set of clothes and put them on quickly and quietly before leaning against a nearby tree, perfectly bored.

Campbell moved through the jungle a second time, devoid of Ishtar's company this time and with only two Calaverans for company, she was not in the greatest mood ever. However, she stomped and kicked her way through the unfamiliar jungle in search of the three missing castaways.

Campsite

Decius waited until had been examined and confirmed clean of infection by the Medics on the ground before she used her own vox to communicate with the ship in orbit,
"Decius to Exile," She put it simply, "The Castaways are ready to be transported to the ship. There are no dangerous diseases amongst the group and they are relatively heathy." With that, she moved on without another word. Not even checking if the Castaways wished to be beamed up yet.

The shuttles water tanks were easy to tap into for a simple draw off of hot water - their schematics showed how to do so for 'anti contamination' wash downs. It might not be as luxurious as those available aboard, but it was a start for the return of civilized luxuries. Once it was set up, and the supplied curtains forming a privacy cubicle Ishtar stepped back and smiled at Vix and the others.

"There you go, enjoy away. " Ishtar handed out the soaps, shampoos and other needs.

While the castaways showered she turned on a small ionizer built in to her palm and ran it over her hair, removing any contaminents from it. She'd shower later though - she loved standing under hot running water - and even more soaking in it. Group soaks had been a large part of ÄÜ’Manni social life, events filled with good conversations, and much laughter. She wondered did her new world include that...

Jungle...
"What are we waiting for again?" Vash impatiently asked of his sister. He hated waiting like this, passively preparing for something to happen. He wanted to find them, not the other way around.

Campsite...
"A beaming device will be readied momentarily," came Winterfire's voice back to Decius. The Captain was somewhat wary of these lost souls: Who knew what untold years away from all civilization might have done to their minds?

Sio, Vix and Stacy all entered the shower together, for the sake of efficiency and for one of the others to wash the places one could not reach. None minded: All three had seen the other two naked at some time or another, not to mention Sio had captive been forced to witness the rape of both the females at the hands of Calaverian soldiers. Throughout their adventures all guards had been let down, and trust was total: It had to be, for to survive they all had to depend on each other. Afterwards they exited, dried and dressed, looking like new people, layers of grime washed away, hair clean of any twigs or leaves, skin fresh and moist.
Despite this, all was not well.

The doctor looked grave as he approached Ishtar while the castaways talked amongst themselves. "The three females are in good health, as far as I can tell," he nodded, "but the male complained of occasional, sudden fevers, hallucions, migraine headaches and a weakness of the muscles. I'm afraid, based on this information and what my scans have discovered, that he is suffering from advanced stages of the chronic disease Nhanh Tìm Kiếm, or Swift Sword. It is a virus confined to my people, the kitsune, exclusively, and while it can be prevented, we have never found a cure for it. Though not contagious, it is lethal ninety percent of the time, and once it has a hold on the body, it acts quickly...the victim may only have days to live."
OOC: Al, Tan, TG.

Lia was sure to shower alone, or at least that's what she tried to do. She was joined by Walter, odd for the Drone to actually care about bathing. "Walter, by the fallen gods, what are you doing?"
"Bathing."
"Why? You don't even smell."
"As if you'd know. Youre used to the smells I've picked up during my stay here."
"Yeah, whatever. Perv."
"I don't even possess sexual organs, how could I possibly be seen as perverted? The only reason I'm here is because despite not being able to sweat and all the rest, my odor is not appealing. Or so I imagine."
"Whatever."
"Speaking of which, you're missing a few spots." Walter took the washcloth it was using and began wahsing Lia's back, much to her discomfort. "Stop your whining and loosen up." Lia gave a slight groan.
Once the two were done, Walter quickly dried off while Lia took her time. By the time Lia had gotten her fur more-or-less dry, Walter was suited and holding a brush. "Lia." Lia looked to Walkter and gave a slightly hateful look, "I can do it myself."
"That's funny," Walter said, no emotion in its voice, "Get over here. You know you need it." With another groan Lia let Walter begin grooming her. Walter was suprising good at what it did, as if it had performed this task many times before. It started on her legs and worked up, after it was done Lia's quickly dressed herself. "Say it," said Walter.
"Say what?"
"Say it."
"Not a chance."
"Say it."
"No."
"Say it before I begin rubbing your belly. You know I'll do it."
"Thank you." Lia said begrudgingly.
"You act as if I couldn't tell you enjoyed that." Walter gave a slight smile. Lia stretched and got ready for whatever came next while Walter made sure all their stuff was in the storage unit.

Campbell continued to tramp through the forest, now in a bad temper as the GOU followed her. She turned to them in irritation,
"Well spread out," She snapped, "Form a search line. Keep within sight of each other though," She added. By god she hated Calaverans.

Caves

"Relax Brother," Lara smiled, "They are coming for us now. Not long to wait for our plan to come to fruition."

"Yes mam" There clones forces replyed as they spread out. They kept there rifles in the air in case they needed to open fire quickly. The one thing that was bad about different personaltys was that there was always those who annoyed people, and that was Campbell's rol for now. The one thing you could do to the Kash clone was to give it orders and it would comply, if your rank was sufficent. The world leader thought about selling himself for soldiers to distant planets, but took back the idea quickly.

a much needed BUMP!

yet another bump

"Though not contagious, it is lethal ninety percent of the time, and once it has a hold on the body, it acts quickly...the victim may only have days to live."

"Nhanh Tìm Kiếm?"..a virus?" Isis brought up all of the downloaded material on the virus. "A virus should be able to be countered with an appropriately tailored antivirus." She murmured half to herself.She felt stymied though - she had barely a fraction of her equipment, and the medical technology aboard the Exitle was not up to her needs. She could fabricate the necesesary equipemtn, but it would take much time, more time than Sio had left according to the information.

Her shoulders drooped. The ÄÜ’Manni had had their own incurable diseases, and she had had patients die on her before. It was and would never be easy to accept.

"Then you should discuss this with him, and prepare him for the end" She suggested softly.

"I..." The doctor hesitated. "I have never had to before," he confessed quietly. "I'm afraid my bedside manner is simply not up to the task. Do you think...?" His orange eyes probed hers pleadingly, asking the unspoken question.

Caves...
"Never liked fruit much," Vash grumbled to himself.

Frosty had taken a walk through the forest until he reached a cave. He looked in, it was blackness for the most part. He threw a glow stick inside to see if anyone had made it there home.

OCC: Sorry, just really tired of waiting.

"Well, then," Lara grinned, "Luckily you don't have to wait any longer." She heard the glowstick being dropped into the cave and, in a suitably frightened voice, called out,
"Hello? Is...is someone there?"

"I'm afraid my bedside manner is simply not up to the task. Do you think...?"

Isis blinked and frowned. She was not offended at the doctor, but she was angry at herself. "Forgive me doctor" She said softly, "but Ihave not been thinking through properly. I had completely forgotten about my stasis chamber. It may take me some time to construct what I need to create a retro virus to counter act the Nhanh Tìm Kiếm but time I have if he is in stasis."

"Excuse me" And she was strifing off to where Sio stood with his fellow castaways, looking much more comfortable now that they were clean and clothed.

"Sio, might I speak with you?" She asked him in her normal calm and competent manner, giving no outward appearance that anything was wrong.

Sio looked at the strange being. "Sure thing," he said amiably, nodding to Vix and Stacy as he walked off with the construct."What is it?"

Cave...
Vash moved forward slightly, staring at this new person, hand near his lightsaber where it was concealed beneath his cloak. The hybrid itched to take the man, to rend him in half and take his armor and equipment for himself, to find his ship and escape this dreary world into the galaxy beyond.

Frosty saw him and bent down a little bit " Hello, come out here..." He talked into his com unit to two G.O.U, he didn't want to alert the Xiscapians or Alversians of this just yet.

Vash moved cautiously towards the Calaverian...this was what a GOU looked like, this magnificent specimen in black armor, with the rifle and helmet and everything. Not his father, no, this was some other, some inferior, not Kash himself, but he would have to do for now. Frosty would see Vash as a disturbing mix of the characteristics of Kash Wilson and Vix, both just separate enough for one to distinguish the parentage. The kitsune Calaverian didn't speak, just watched the soldier with weairy, baleful eyes, suspicious and trying to hide the excitement he felt.

Frosty gasped when he saw the kids face " Holy shit....you look like..." He looked confused as the two GOU clones made there way there. One of the clones took off his helmet, with serious eyes he stared back at the kid.

In the same manner as her brother, Lara put on a weak voice and shuffled behind her brother, eyes wide and frightened. She looked at the GOU and her Alversian side kicked in, she almost scoffed aloud. He was useless, nothing more than a pawn in the great scheme of the universe. Despite this, she was determined to act to her weakness. He was a pawn,
"H-hello?" She said hesitantly, "Are you here to rescue us?" She asked.

Vash was busy staring at the clone, and at the face of his father. At last. "We've waited for so long," he rasped. "Are we to finally be free?" They have no idea what's coming.

The clone almost seemd to instantly outrank Frosty " Get your things and come with us...what are your names" He said look at Vash and Lara. They both had similariteis to him.

"Vash." He answered simply, having nothing to take with him: It would be a joy, not a sadness, to leave this world behind.

Frosty walked up to get Lara as the clone walked up to Vash and stuck him with a needle. He knew his own blood when he saw it, and it might be needed later. Kash was still a little more experienced in combat, so he was able to obtain the blood with little difficulty. After he put a bandade on the needle mark he bent down and cupped his hands on Vash's face "....I'm your father Vash.."

"My name's Lara Sir," The Hybrid replied shyly, noticing another Calaveran had just appeared and stuck a needle in her arm. She did not care. She wanted to get off this rock and these nice people were offering her and her brother the chance they needed. All that time, and all that training, would finally come in handy.

Then, the GOU's vox crackled,
"Lieutenant," Campbell barked impatiently, "I told everyone to stick together. Report"

Frosty replied to Campbell " Yes sir, we found more survivors, were returning back to the base campe." He turned off the radio and told Lara " Stay still, this might hurt." He plunged the needle into her arm. " Now go meet your father" He said pointing to the other GOU clone that wasn't holding Vash.

Vash's face contorted into a grimace of pain as the needle bit into his arm. However, it was over so fast he didn't have time to react, though he turned fully to face the clone, wrenched himself out of his grasp. "What the hell was that for? You might be my father, but I don't know a damn thing about you aside from the horror stories. What was that?" He brushed his hand over the hole in his skin, smearing the blood in a streak across his arm.

"I...he...Yes Sir," Lara replied meekly, walking over to the GOU. She had heard all about their needles and their 'special effects' from her Mother, when speaking of her conception. If some GOU thought he could get away with raping her, then he had another thing coming his way, another painful thing.

"What is it?"

"Sio, you have a virus. And it will take some time for me to devise the cure for it. Untill then, however, you must enter stasis." She spoke with gentle authority as they walked side by side and utter confidence that she would be able to cure him. Ishtar knew she would and that shown through in her manner.

"I am sorry to spring this on you so bluntly, but I felt that transparency was the best policy."

The Kash clone brought Vash and Lara in front of him " I just took a blood sample that's all." his right and left hand were on Vash and Lara's shoulders and he knelt down. " Your coming home with me, I know this must be difficult but theres a big universe out there with lots of oppurtunitys that are waiting for you. You two are going to be treated like royalty, youve earned it from living on this world and trying to survive so long."

Vash looked the soldier in the eye. "You're a Calaverian, aren't you?" He asked softly. "My mother spoke of your kind..." His glance edged sideways to Lara. Just a few more minutes...

Camp...
"A virus?" Sio didn't seem so much afraid or angry as puzzled. "How long will I have to be in statis for?"

"...so did mine," Lara agreed, smiling, royalty, she liked the sound of that. Soon all of the galaxy would be bowing to her as a Conqueror, "She said you were a terrible race who forced yourselves on her." She left that awkward statement in the air, enjoying the tension.

The Kash clone nodded at his question. " Yes, and you two are at least half. I'm sure you mother made all kinds of storys...most of them even true." He said coldly. He was going to be real with these two, give it to them straight. Frosty tapped him on the back " We got to get going". " Let's go..." The clone said to the two siblings.

Vash followed, but he spoke as he walked noticing he was nearly as tall as the other GOU. "Where are we going? Back to your base?" Something about that armor was strangely appealing to him...

OCC: http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/800/800896/halo-3-20070701114740171.jpg
OCC: its pure black and the facemask is grey.

He nodded " Yes, when you get there you are going to answer some questions and then you will be staying with me. I'll let you two use our bunk room, we can stay out on the bridge or something. Do you have all your things?"

"We have no things, we were born with nothing," Lara replied, "Apart from our abilities".
She was disgusted at the thought of taking and using the GOU's beds but, if needs must. She hoped that they would be able to stike before that happened, that she actually had to sleep in the same bed as her Father's race.

I'm not certain Sio. If we were in your home Empire, I think that it would be no more than a few months. But as I have to completely fabricate the qquipment needed, it may take as long as one of your years." ishtar replied forthrightly, glad that he ws reacting so calmly, not that she had expected him to react any other way.

In her short time aboard the Exile she had found many, many admirable, and comforting things about the Xiscapians and the Alverseans. The Calaverans didn't bear thinking on however.

"Well..." Sio sighed, seeming to take it as yet another obstacle to be overcome. "I'm not going to pretend I'm not afraid, if I was fearless I'd either be reckless or stupid." He looked at Ishtar. "It's Nhanh Tìm Kiếm, isn't it?" He looked down again. "It killed my brother, too, during the War."

Forest...
Share beds? By the Force, I hope not. It would be like sleeping with half of myself.
"Did you come here on an Observer?" Vash asked.

Forest, elsewhere...
Campbell's vox chirped, spilling out Winterfire's slightly impatient voice. "Lieutenant, what's taking so long with those castaways? I thought the Chief Engineer said they were ready for beaming!"

The clone answerd Vash " No, were now allies with the Xiscapians and Alversians...somewhat. We have a shared ship at the moment. I'm sure you would like to see the newer Surgical class, much better than the ones that have been described to you.

"I'd hope so," Lara stated, looking around, "Are we heading back to this...Allied ship now or..." She shrugged, indicating it was up to the GOU about what they did. It didn't sound right in her head. After all she had heard about the Calaverans, an Alliance with the Righteous Xiscapians and Alversians sounded unfeasable.

Landing Zone

Campbell had since returned to the Landing Zone and the shuttle, deciding to keep an eye on the GOU with scanners rather than waiting for them to come into eyeview. She heard the message and replied instantly,
"They were Sir," She said silently, away from the main group, "But it seems one of the Castaways has developed Nhanh Tìm Kiếm. He is being informed now. Please standby for transport. We are also waiting for the last two Castaways Sir." She finished and turned to face the group again, not speaking, leaving the handling of the situation to the one who was best suited for the job, Ishtar.

They arrived at the base camp, Frosty ordered the clones to there original guard dutys. He then made his way to report to Campbell. " Mam, we retreived the two cast aways."

"It killed my brother, too, during the War."

"Yes it is. It will, as I said, take some months to construct the equipment I need to synthesize a cure, but it is not beyond my abilities. Time will have no meaning for you while you are in stasis." Isis said reassureingly. "I will have the capatin beam us up to my chamber and I will prep you for it myself."

She suited actions to words - contacting Captain Winterfire and requesting that she and Sio be beamed up to her cabin - she had asked that the stasis chamber be emplaced in her cabin so she could keep an eye on it.

"So it seems," Campbell looked over the two beings in surprise. She was amazed that the GOU had actually brought them back to her, she had been expecting them to do something...less chivilrous.
"That's everyone then," Campbell sighed, "Time to get back to Basecamp." She turned and began to head back, keeping up a pace with Vash and Lara,
"You two okay?" She asked uncertainly, not trusting the GOU to have left them completely on their own.

Camp...
"We're fine, ma'am," Vash replied shortly to Campbell. An Alversian. How delightful.

Meanwhile Winterfire spoke directly to Ishtar. "I'm afraid we don't have the necessary technology or materials to install a statis chamber directly into your quarters Mi'Lady, but we can have the computer send you the biological stats of the occupant accurate up to the second. If he requires your attention it would take almost no time for you to reach him if you used beaming. You'll both be beamed to your quarters now."

Now the Master and Commander of the Exile broad casted to everyone who could hear: "Lieutenant Campbell, please withdraw all those under your command and their equipment to the shuttle. We will be beaming the castaways up directly, the Chief Engineer reports we have gained a small utilization of our back-up hyperdrive so we may at least leave this system."
Lia, Walter, Lara, Vash, Sio, Vix, Stacy and Ishtar were beamed up to the Exile, Sio and Ishtar to her quarters and all the others to the hanger bay. A few crewmembers were waiting to receive them and show the castaways to their quarters while Campbell would be making a full report to Winterfire.
It was time for them to leave.

"Took 'em long enough..." muttered Lia. Walter moved forward, quickly seperating itself from the rest of the group, Lia followed closely. "Greetings. Please take my companion and I to our quarters now. We are planning to share so I do hope they are large enough for two." The Drone spoke with the authority of a high-ranking officer, though its voice stayed an unemotional monotone. As far as Walter and Lia were concerned, this was just another part of their journey back home, nothing more.

"Thank you Captain Winterfire, that should be most suitable" Ishtar replied privately as she and Sio were beamed to her quarters.

She moved to one of her cases and pulled out a packet. In it was the mesh body suit that a biological wore while in stasis. "Here Sio, this will keep your skin and fur protected." She handed it to him as she led him from her quaters to where the Aumani stasis chamber had been emplaced.

Then Ishtar began the sequence for opening the chamber while he changed into the the thin, close fitting webbing.

"These strings of lights are the future of the ÄÜ’Manni. We were transporting them to a new colony when we were attacked" She explained as she looked over the readout "The crew held the Imitators off long enough to put me in the chamber to be their guide, guardian and some day...mentor" Her voice was sad as the loss of all she had known crashed over her once again, but she shook it off.

"You sure?" Campbell did not seem at all convinced until the message from Winterfire came through the vox,
"Aye, Sir, returning to the shuttle now." It was not long before they were at the shuttle and heading up into orbit back towards the Exile.

Lara smiled at the sight,
"So close..."

Stacy looked around in shock at the number of Alversians and Kitsune she could see, no longer used to the crowd. She took a small step behind Vix, as if asking the elder female to do the talking. Her arms were wrapped around Vix's waist at the same time.

Ishtar's Quarters...
Sio pulled the suit entirely on, clothing so recently given to him in a pile at his feet. "I would be much obliged," he said politely, softly, "if you would allow me to help you, once I am out of statis and healthy again. It would be the least I could do, to repay ya."

Hanger...
The kitsune Walter had approached stared at the Drone with clearly evident surprise, noting the black teeth, black fingernails, black eyes and deathly white skin. "Ah, yes sir," he responded at last, resisting the urge to salute. Turning, the spacer led the two Greywatchers along to their quarters, which had originally been two rooms, but could be fit into one if they so desired. "Anything you need, you just call out," he tapped the bulkhead meaningfully before leaving them.

Meanwhile Vix and Stacy were quickly approached by several members of the crew, though kitsune castaway seemed nearly as reluctant as Stacy to greet them. "Right this way, madams," another female Xiscapian motioned to them. "We'll show you to your quarters, you've got nothing to fear from us."
As the shuttle docked and the others of the crew began to disperse throughout the ship a petty officer stepped up to Campbell. "The Captain would like to have a word with you, First Officer." Behind her Vash stepped into the ship, gazing around at the interior of the Exile with an air of satisfaction. I don't sense a crew of any more than a hundred, he thought to Lara, thoughts well-screened from mind-readers as they had been taught by their master. They will not be a difficult obstacle.

"Of course," Campbell nodded and headed off in the direction of the Captain's Quarters. Elamna, the Veela, simply glided off to her own chambers to rest and meditate. She knew her goal now. Her goal was to keep an eye on her Comrade's two Students, who were facing the wide universe for the first time.

It did not take long for Campbell to navigate the corridors she knew so well and reach her location. She pressed the button to request access and, once given by the Captain. She entered and saluted,
"You wished to see me, Sir?" She asked.

Crew Quarters

Stacy followed the crew, wide eyed, hand entwined with Vix's as they were brought through the many corridors of the ship. It had been so long since she had stepped around a vessel of any kind and it now seemed as strange and as unfamiliar as the jungle had all those years ago. The noise was frightening and disorientating after many years of relative silence. However, she made it to the room, a single room and, once the crew had gone, she turned to Vix and smiled,
"A proper bed at last," She closed on the Kitsune and began to gently kiss her, working on the clothes to remove them as quickly as possible. She was delighted to finally be alone with her Lover, to have that privacy.

Elsewhere, Lara nodded, secretly agreeing with her Brother,
"I think we should wait for the right moment. Get far enough away from this damned planet so they can't send for our master until it is too late. She is still too powerful for us both."

"if you would allow me to help you, once I am out of statis and healthy again.

"Sio, I help without expectation of repayment. That is not the ÄÜ’Manni way. Somehing is doen, or not done because it is 'right' but you have proved that you have a great instinct to care for others, your caring for the others here these eight years proves that. IF you would like to help me raise the Aumani because it would be enjoyable, enriching, and good for you - that help I will gladly accept."

She handed him a small cup of green liquid that he didn't exactly see where it came from - her internal naon factory had made it in accordsance to the scans she had taken easrlier - tailoring it completely to his own unique biology. The billions of nanites in it would permiate his entore body, an extra layer of protection while he lay in stasis.

It tasted faintly of mint.

Ishtar's Quarters...
"It won't be the same as my time here," he downed the liquid, tongue tingling after years of relatively bland food, before continuing solemnly "but I need to do something later, and that seems like the thing for me."

Crew Quarters...
"Mhmm..." Vix murmured as they fell into the bed, the first real one she had lied on in many years. She had slept, eaten, played, made love and even given birth on the cool, hard ground of that unnamed planet, and the sheets, mattress and comforter felt so good she would have fallen asleep then and there if it wasn't for her partner...

Halls...
But... Lara would sense a moment of hesitation from her brother. I sense another. Someone else, of equal power, perhaps. Someone who could stop us. Here.
Their private conversation was interrupted as the crewman who had been leading them down the hall stopped. They'd had individual rooms prepared for every one of the castaways, but they all seemed to have paired up in some way and wanted to share the same room. These two seemed to be no exception to the rule. "This is your quarters," he told the hybrids, looking from one to the other, shivering slightly. It wasn't just that they both reminded him of Kash the Butcher, there was an almost physical aura of coldness, of continual calculation even he could feel emitting from the siblings. "You need anything...just give a holler."

The kitsune strode away, grateful to be leaving these two particular castaways behind.

Bridge...
"Yes, Lieutenant," Winterfire was standing with his back to her, hands clasped, looking out at the star field with the world "above" them. "While your work in the planet was sterling, I cannot help but be concerned with regards to several issues." The Xiscapian Captain turned to face his human second-in-command, and she could see his face was grave. "While I have met none of them, I was able to see the castaways on the hanger camera from here. To be blunt, Lieutenant, I have never seen a stranger group, and we know virtually nothing about any of them. While none of their names or physical appearances match the Imperial database of known criminals or exiles, the species of two of them are unconfirmed, two of them appear to have lightsabers, and the male is suffering from a deadly disease."

He stepped forward across the deck, visibly anxious. "To complicate matters, there is an undeniably close physical resemblance between the two youngest and the late Kash Wilson, though his death his...debatable." The distaste was almost palpable. "The fact remains that, while I have no objections to taking on these people, they could be a band of marooned pirates or escaped criminals or some kind of escaped foreign experiment group for all we know. I wish to know, Lieutenant," he looked at Campbell seriously, "what you propose we do about this."

Living Quarters

"I sense her too," Lara suddenly realised with a sinking sensation that there was another Being on this ship, just as powerful as their Master, but just as quiet, as hidden as a person in a bank of fog. It made her uncomfortable. Even thinking about it made her uncomfortable. Neither of them, no matter how hard they had tried or how long they had fougnt, had been able to defeat their Veelic Master in combat. She had even fought them both on occasion, swatting away their most fierce attacks like they were not even there. It concerned her. It concerned her greatly. She looked at her Brother and, sensing his thoughts, nodded,
The time for Patience was over, it was time for action. She was letting him take the first move.

Bridge

Campbell frowned at the question. It was not customary for an Alversian Captain to question an Inferior in front of the crew, even one as small as this. She did not disapprove of Winterfire's suggestion, for all she had to go on were Ishtar's scans and the Survivor's own stories. She knew the vessel had an Office for the Captain. The Exile had been Alversian designed, while the engines were of Xiscapian make, so she knew that, to the left of the bridge, there was an Office where the Captain could work on the more dreary side of ship command but still be within easy access of the Bridge in case of an emergency. Normally, she would have had one as well, but, as the vessel was too small, she did not have an Office of her own.

"Sir, shall I give my report in your Ready Room?" She asked, indicating to the room. One of the Ensigns on the Bridge could watch the ship for the brief moment it would take to give the report.

She was in the room with the Captain in an instant and was quick to give her report.
"On the surface, Sir, I was with them for quite a while and none of them displayed anything remotely suggesting of hostile intentions. Elamna, the Veela, confirms that she sensed no illwill from the Survivors. They may be unknown to us Sir, but from what they have told me, they have been through hell. And we have yet to explain to them that they will not be seeing their Homeworlds as soon as they think."

Calaverian Quarters
Edward was tied to the bed. Frosty walked over to him and pulled the hankercheif out of his mouth. " Your lucky I got you on board without being seen, now your gonna fix this ship and get us out of here, if you don't...you die...." He said as he left the room to the bridge.

Bridge

Frosty yawned as he walked onto the bridge with his slightly bulky looking armor on without his helmet on. He sat down at one of the consoles as they left the planet. " Lt. Frosty reporting"

The other clones were on guard duty, standing in the hallways, they were gorilla like in shape with there muscular shoulders and arms under there GOU armor. There faces always forward under there emotionless helmets. It was eery when one of the clones heads turned to look at Vash and Lara before turning back to attention.

"We must strike quickly," Vash spoke aloud now. "They will not expect it: The element of surprise is on our side. Once they move away from the planet, we will attack the two most critical areas: The engine room and the bridge, to destroy their capability to move by securing the area, and to capture or kill their commanders. The crew will prove no threat: We will be in position before they know what has occurred, and by the time they realize our intentions, it will be too late. Once this ship is under our control we may dispose of or use those aboard as we need: Only those loyal to us, or those we can influence effectively shall live."

Ready Room...
If Winterfire had been anxious before, he was simply annoyed now. "Lieutenant Commander, let me make one thing perfectly clear: My procedures, doctrines and customs are not your procedures, doctrines or customs. Traditionally, reports are received and given on the bridge; we do not keep secrets from our loyal bridge officers. If, in the future, you wish to make your report here, please indicate as such." He finished severely.

Now the Xiscapian considered Campbell's words. "We do not even know where half of the castaways come from. All the three kitsune have told us is that they come from the Kitsune Empire, and the others have not even told us from where they come. In two standard hours I would like you or one of your subordinates to find and update all the castaways as to our situation, then question them as to their origin and the events that brought them to that world. Do you understand me, Lieutenant Commander?"

"Very well," Lara spoke aloud, She looked over as two of the Exile's crew moved back down the corridor. She remained silent for the entire time, watching their backs as they withdrew. She sighed and nodded,
"We'll have to take it quickly and quietly. One of us shall take the Bridge, the other shall take the Engine Room." She smiled menacingly at her Brother,
"It's so close, I can taste it"

Ready Room

"Of course, Sir," Campbell took her scolding without a change of expression, standing at ease with her hands behind her back, legs evenly apart. She stood perfectly still, with a straight back, eyes straight ahead. She had been told off by Officer's before and she knew that the way to get off most easily was to nod and accept a Senior Officer's viewpoint.
"I apologise Sir, my instinct was to follow my own protocols. I will bear it in mind for the future."

She took in the details about her assignment as they were spoken by the Captain. She frowned lightly at the request, but nodded,
"I can gather the various groups in the conference room and inform them about the currant situation. I shall have the information within the next two hours." She paused for a moment, "Is there anything else, Sir?"

Lia thanked the spacer while Walter simply nodded. As soon as he was gone Lia was finally free to relax while Walter sat on the floor, already making plans. "Damn," it muttered as it went through its thoughts and the thoughts of other Drones. They already had some new orders: if they could, they were to learn anything and everything about the ship they could, as well as the crew. Walter figured this would happen, it was the life of an agent, or as the FM called them now, 'Darkeyes.' Walter stood up and walked over to Lia, looking down at her as she tossed and turned happily in the bed. She didn't seem to have a care in the world and after all the two had been through, Walter actually regretted the fact it had to burst her bubble. She stopped to look at her companion, "What is it?" Walter sighed, "I still have the storage unit. Get your stuff ready, just in case."
"Just in case? Wait... We have orders?"
"Yes. Due to our failure to return to base, we're technically still on a mission. Us being on this ship is a possible threat to the Ministry's operations as our hosts are certainly going to be asking a lot of questions."
"Fuck," Lia was noticably annoyed, not so much at the new orders but at the fact that Walter was right... their operations were supposed to be secret. Even though Lia and Walter could make something up, she wasn't so sure about the others. "What have we got left?"
"We burnt plenty of ammo during our escape but we're still in the yellow, at least by my assumptions. I don't know how much of your in-field kit is still there, nor do I know what basic Leanorian stuff you brought. I still have the banishers, and most of my kit. Not to mention we still have our clothing... some of it."
"I see. I'll need my Leanorian and in-field gear for sure, I know I still have some essentials. You should take a combat knife at the most if you're gonna do what I think you're about to do. We don't want our hosts getting any ideas..."
"Agreed. I highly doubt I'll come to a combat situation but if I do, Cryption will serve me well enough."
"Good, then I'll keep the storage unit."
"Very well."
The two only needed five minutes to get everything in order. Walter left everything with Lia including the knife, the Drone decided it wasn't worth taking it. Lia had enough weaponry, both Cryptic and normal, to defend herself fairly well for a short period of time if absolutely neccesary, though both she and Walter hoped it wouldn't come to that. Walter wanted to change into the FM robes but decided against it in the end. It moved to the door, giving Lia a glance.
"You're going?"
"I'm just going to do a little exploring."
"You sure they'd be happy about that?"
"No. But they never said we couldn't. Plus, I am slightly curious about this ship, and that's not just my agent side speaking."
"Very well, Walter."
Walter stepped out into the hall, looking around him. Well, it remembered the way to the hanger, for what that was worth. Walter chose a random direction to begin walking and went on its way, aware that there was a good chance the owners of the ship might be slightly annoyed to know the Drone was wandering around without a guide, or permission.

Frosty leaned in the chair before standing up and walking up to a door " Permission to enter Captain...." He asked the Xiscapian, holding his helmet at his side. He turned and looked at a Alversian guard and smiled.

OCC:Edited and TG Alversia

Ishtar escorted Sio down to where her stasis chanmber had been located by the ships engineers as optimum. It was not hooked to the ships power source, for it had its own, and Ishtar had put in a fresh ZPM as they had emplaced it. Her hands danced over the code sequence and with a hiss the heavy door unlatched. Icy air swirled out, condencing in the warmer air of the Exisle.

"Just step with in. The cold is momentary, they would won't feel anything until I awake you with the cure in hand."

Ready Room...
Winterfire shook his head. "That is all, Lieutenant Commander. Good work down there. Dismissed." He stepped out of the Ready Room past Frosty and walked over to his command chair, settling into it. Not ready to move yet, he thought, not until I get that final report from the Chief Engineer. But then...where?

Elsewhere...
"But not yet," Vash warned, reckless before and now cautious, on board the ship where he had seen the weapons the crew carried. "We cannot allow our plan to go into action prematurely, nor can anyone suspect our goals. When the time is right." He smiled.
It was not a nice smile.

As Walter walked the halls he would quickly discover two things: That it didn't take very long for him to walk from the bow to stern of the vessel, and that none of the passing crew, even the Marines, seemed to care that he was wandering without a guide or escort. He did, however, get looks from all of them, so it was safe to assume they would remember the strange creature. It would appear that most of those he saw were enlisted: The officers were probably in the restricted areas. Of the whole ship, only the bridge, hanger bay and engine room were restricted areas, although it would be unwise to attempt entry to the quarters of any of the crewmembers. However, as he passed one door to a room he could hear a muffled groan, not unlike the sound one would make when their mouth was significantly blocked with something...like a gag.

Ishtar's Quarters...
Sio turned just before the entrance. "Thank you, Mi'lady, for rescuing us and saving my life." He bowed deeply before entering the chamber. There was a flash of chill, the most frozen feeling he had ever encountered, then his eyes closed and Sio drifted away into the dark.

Campbell saluted Winterfire, secretly pleased with the compliment and headed out of the Ready Room, onto the bridge, then into one of the turbolifts down into the bowels of the ship. She tapped her vox as she did so, communicating with the entire ship,
"This is Lieutenant Commander Campbell. Will all previous Castaways please come to the Briefing Room. Thank you." She headed down there herself.
The briefing room was just just one deck below the main bridge and it was where the bulk of any diplomatic work would be carried out. It was also a handy location for the Senior Staff to meet and discuss plans without compromising Bridge effeciency. Another piece of Alversian design.
Campbell was soon there, waiting patiently for the ex-Castaways go arrive so she could inform them of the 'complications' of their position.

Crew Quarters

Stacy groaned in the bed next to Vix, listening to the vox as it called for her and her Lover to go to the Briefing room for a meeting. She did not even know where the briefing room was and she was loath to disturb the comfortable hold she had over the Kitsune, rubbing her skin gently as they lay together,
"That's us, Darling," She whispered in the Kitsune's top ear.

Ship

"Seems we have been summoned," Lara sighed, looking around, "We'll pospone our plans then. Might as well make ourselves useful as well," She shrugged, the plans were not important at this point. It would be better to find the weaknesses of this crew and vessel, something that could be exploited more easily at a better date. When the time was right.

Walter listened to the message but didn't seem to really pay it that much attention. Campbell was obviously not good at placing herself in the shoes of others, seeing as she didn't bother to explain where the briefing room was to the castaways that didn't know one thing about the layout of the ship. The Drone stopped for some directions before making its way to the designated area, walking into the room without bothering to so much as knock and taking the seat nearest to it. Lia walked in a few moments later, having also gotten directions, and was sure to sit next to her companion. The two were silent, opting to wait until the others arrived before saying anything.

Ishtar closed the stasis chamber's heavy armored door, sealing Sio in safely, recoding the lock as she did so and raising the unit's shields. Then she turned and took a second to access her schematic of the ship, noting where the Briefing Room was. She felt she should be there on Sio's behalf. And in a way she was also a castaway.

With out hurrying she took the most direct route there, finding Walter and Lia already with in, Nodding to them she tood a seat at random and made herself comfortable.

Quarters...
Vix sighed deeply, likewise unwilling to leave the cocoon of blankets and bare flesh that cradled her, but she rose anyway, pulling on her jumpsuit. "We only just came aboard, what could they want with us already?" She asked aloud. Before long the two had gotten directions to a passing Marine and were heading for the Briefing Room.

Briefing Room...
Vash and Lara were the next two in, Vash's vulpine eyes scanning along the four already there, two he knew, the Greywatchers, two he did not, the second-in-command on this vessel, and the...thing. He studied it, a blue-skinned female of some species he'd never seen before, as they sat, brother and sister next to each other in seats nearest Campbell. She is quite beautiful. Vash wasn't any judge after years of the same ten faces or so, but the sight of her stirred something within him. A feeling to be explored later. Now he needed all his wits about him for whatever was in store.

Vix and Stacy were the last in, holding hands as they went to sit at the far end of the long staff table. Vix and Vash barely acknowledged each other, mother and son: Their relationship had been strained from the day Vash had been born, her child always reminding Vix of what had happened to her and the associated feelings, and Vash simply found his dam a stranger. Much better to be with his sister or Master than a supposedly close relation who, alas, could not relate.
Finally they were all there, minus the sleeping Sio.

Campbell stood in the room, near a large screen as she waited for the various Castways to enter the room. She watched as the two Greywatchers entered the room, followed by Ishtar, who she supposed was here on behalf of the already unconcious Sio, then the two Siblings, who took the seat nearest to her. She did not pay the attention any detail, she was nervous, how in the hell am I going to tell them?
The last two in where the two Lesbians, who she noticed did not seem to pay much attention to their Children. She supposed it was natural in a situation like this. Both were unwanted children, both reminders of an old state she hoped was gone forever. For now though, she took a deep breath before speaking, taking the time to look out the windows to see space racing by them.
"Thank you all for getting here so quickly," She smiled as she looked around the table, "I can imagine that the past few years have been quite an adventure for you, for some of you, the adventure has waited until recently," She knew that Ishtar had been in stasis for a few thousand years and would have no detailed concept of what had happened in those years,
"You may be wondering what a ship of the Republic and the Empire is doing so far from our own space, way out here in the middle of nowhere. Well," She hesitated slightly, "The harsh truth of it is, we're not meant to be."
She turned and tapped a button on the screen behind her, bringing up a crosssection of the Exile,
"The Alliance Starship Exile," Campbell explained, "Wanderer-Class, crew of 70 Individuals and equipped with the latest AI. Propulsion methods include Impulse engines, a standard Hyperdrive, a Jaunt Drive..."

"...a what?" Stacy asked, gripping Vix's hand beneath the table. Her heart had been sinking the whole time that she had been on the ship, the sense that something wasn't quite right. The crew seemed demoralised, no one would explain why they were here in the first place and she, though she may not have trained as a Mechanic for a few years, knew enough about systems to know this one did not exist, "I have never heard of it." She confirmed.

"The Jaunt Drive is an experimental device fitted to the Wanderer-Class alone, of which this ship is the only one," Campbell gave a sad smile, "The Drive allows almost any trip to appear over in a matter of minutes. We were on assignment in Xiscapian Space, testing the drive when something went wrong, and we were stranded here. The Jaunt Drive is now fried and, with Hyperdrive as our main propulsion, we have calculated that, by the time we reach home, most of us will be well into our old ages." She gave a forlorn look to the shocked faces of the Castways. Their rescuers were in fact, lost? It didn't sound right.
"Rest assured, we will do everything in our power to get this ship home, but it will not be an easy task...if not impossible. I hope I have explained the situation to you and wonder if there is anything you would like to ask me on the subject?" She looked around the table, noting the silence.

"So we have been rescued only to be lost again." Vash was the first to speak, hiding his pleasure at the news. If the Exile was already presumed lost, no one would ever know once he and Lara took it over. The crew was demoralized and susceptible to suggestion, no one was watching them or waiting for the ship, and with this intriguing FTL drive they could go anywhere in the galaxy they wished, once it was repaired.
A more perfect situation Vash could not have formulated.

Vix just looked at Stacy, suddenly sick with worry. They could be stuck out here for years, if not forever, and who knew what horrors lurked between here and the Kitsune Empire? She wasn't even sure how much use she could be to the crew or the Exile, she had been a technician but she had not practiced her old trade in years, and no doubt the systems she was used to where no longer present, replaced with strange, improved designs.

Ishtar spoke slowly, denying Vash's interpertation. Something about him prickled at her...but was it unease or something else...She found herself unsure however that was a meditation for later

"No, I would not say we were lost. We know where we are, yes? It's just that to return to your home spaces will take time, for you were flung far further than you expected. I will gladly work with Lilah and any Aumani drive technology that can be integrated I will glady assisst with to the best of my ability."

She'd already warned them that engineering was not her specialty, but she still held much knowledge that surpassed that of the Kitsune and Alversians by orders of magnitude. The Aumani, even in their day - over a million years ago- had few technological equals.

It was now Frosty's number one priority to protect Kash Wilson's children and return them to Calaveras immediatly. He would spill the beans to the Xiscapians and Alversians if it ensured they were "property" of Calaveras and not off the Xiscapian Empire or the Alversian Republic.

Lia snickered for a moment before simply giving in to her laughter. It wasn't a loud laugh; quite the opposite, it was actually a rather quiet laugh, though still noticeable. the laugh of someone who found the situation to be truly ammusing. She calmed herself after a matter of seconds but her smile still went from ear to ear, her eyes bright, her face telling of her delight. "That is irony for you. Too rich, just too rich indeed. And yet, it was so obvious something was wrong." She didn't look at the others but instead turned her gaze to Walter, "Well, my old friend. What say you of this little situation?" Walter lifted and eyebrow at her reaction before looking to Campbell, "A grave situation indeed." The Drone started in its typical monotone, its eyes giving no indication of life, "But no matter, since you will no doubt need all the help you can get... I offer our services. Lia," Walter held a hand out to the Leanorian, "can serve as a medic if you so require; she has a few skills that you may find interesting. She can also do any heavy lifting you need done. As for myself, well, I'll speak to you of that later when we can have some privacy."

OOC: TG Greywatch

"Indeed," Campbell nodded, looking warily at the Leanorian 'Glad somone's looking on the Bright side', "We will need all the help we can get and two new Recruits in a matter of days is no bad thing. I suspect that the Captain will be willing to hear your abilities as well," She nodded to Walter, "So I suggest we meet him together to discuss this. As for the rest of you, I suggest that you..."

"Stop," Stacy said quietly, causing Campbell to stop in mid speech and look at her curiously. There was no opposition to her interuption, so she continued, "I don't want to sit here like some useless cargo while you all try to get us home," She sighed and looked at Vix before looking back to Campbell,
"What positions are available?" She asked the Lieutenant-Commander.

The Alversian, curiously amused by the reaction and eagerness to help, thought for a moment, running over her memory of the Ship crew logs. It was only a small vessel, designed to be nothing more than a testbed. It certainly didn't have many of the positions needed for a long range mission. And this was as long range as it got.
"Well," She said, still thinking, "We lack a Helmsman, a Science Officerand an Operations Officer. All need to be filled."

"And we can fill them," Stacy said with a confidence she did not quite feel in her gut, "I've piloted everything from Freighters to a Calaveran Probe Fighter, it shouldn't take too long for me to learn all this ship has to offer," She smiled, "Vix is good with technology, so maybe she could fufill your Operations Officer post, Lara could be your Science Officer and Vash could be the head of Security. They have the strengths of all three of our races, so they should be able to handle anything thrown at them. Is that okay?" She asked hesitantly, afraid she may have made a fool of herself.

Campbell was struggling with the decision put before her. These people were offering their services and doubtless they would be needed in the struggles ahead. But she had been ordered by the Captain to brief them only and to find information on their backstories, not promote them to Officers on their first day back in the vessel. She would have to leave this to the Captain. Her instinct told her that they would be nothing less than admirable in the role. But the choice was not hers.

"I shall have to seek the Captain's approval," She informed the Castaways before handing out a series of PaDD's to each Castaway, "In the meantime, it would help us immensely if you could write down everything that happened to you from the moment you were taken from your own space to ending up here. It may seem like a pointless thing to do but any number of things you did or saw may be a new discovery to our peoples. It will help us," She flashed them a reassuring smile,
"In that case, You are dismissed, hand in your reports when you have completed them. Take your time," She nodded, wondering if this was the first report that they would give as Officers. Obviously the two Greywatchers already held a rank in their own forces, but the others were Civilians. It was a dilenma.
She turned back in time to see the Drone leaving the Briefing Room and walked to catch up with him,
"If you are not busy Sir, we can see the Captain now." She offered as she heade towards the lift.

Elsewhere, Lara was struggling with something as she and Vash left the lift,
"Science Officer?" She seemed shocked, such a thing she had not expected and now she was getting butterflies. Her mission to capture the ship was suddenly drowned out by the nerves of starting a new job. She may not have wanted it, but she wanted to do well in it.

Also walking down the corridors, back towards the Crew Quarters, Stacy turned to Vix and hugged her warmly,
"I hope I haven't put you under too much stress," She said to her.

"Very well." Walter said, exchanging a nod with Lia as the two seperated. It followed Campbell to the lift, pleased with how smoothly everything was going. Walter now had to figure out exactly how to explain itself to the captain, no doubt people would have a problem with a spy working as a... anything that needed to be done.

Campbell was silent for the whole trip up the lift and out one more level to the main Bridge. She saw the Captain and nodded to him,
"I have a report to make on the Castaways Sir," She reported dutifully, learning her lesson from the last time and letting him make the decision as to where he wanted to hear it. Personally, she thought the conversation should be confined to the Captain and the Drone, it was not the crew's business to know what happened between them. But then, she was only the XO.

Halls...
"It is nothing more than an excellent cover for you to be everywhere you would not be able to go otherwise," Vash answered his sister. "I doubt you will have any serious duties." He was still jubilant at his own appointment. Head of Security! Lia might have thought she saw great irony, but this was simply delicious, Head of Security when his very goal was to neutralize the guards of this vessel. Vash didn't believe that any one or group of entities, supernatural or otherwise, controlled his fate or that of anything else in the universe, but if he believed in a god he would have thought he/she/it/they were smiling on him now.

Halls, elsewhere...
"Not at all," Vix answered, hands around Stacy's waist. She laughed. "For the first time since we left the Kitsune Empire, I have a job!" She shook her head in part disbelief, part happiness. "I see why you brought that all up, it's much better than being deadweight."

Bridge...
Winterfire's eyes flicked over to Walter for a moment as he saluted, obviously surprised at the presence of the Drone on the bridge and not even noticing that his First Officer hadn't saluted him first. He looked back to Campbell from his place at the holographic 'window', turning fully around. "Make your report." He commanded steadily, waiting to her what his Lieutenant had to say. Once she told him what she had been told, then they could get to the matter of this strange castaway she had brought with her.

Campbell nodded and looked in time to see three or four of the Bridge Ensigns turning quickly around to face their control panels again. She hesitated. Far be it from her to contradict a superior Officer but she was loath to explain what she considered to be a private request from the Castaways to these Ensigns. They were essentially part of the crew and the last thing she wanted was the whole crew to know of this. They would find out when the time was right, but she did not consider that time to be now.
However, Winterfire was Captain and she was not, therefore she did as commanded,
"Sir, I have explained our situation to the Castaways," She reported dutifully, "They have accepted our position and volunteered to help. This Greywatcher, however, felt the need to discuss any role he may have in the running of the ship with me and I felt it best to talk with you." She handed it over to Walter from there. She could explain the details once the Captain decided to retire to his Ready Room. That was what it was there for. To receive reports away from the crew where they may draw their own, incorrect, conclusions from the report. The older ships of the APN had been without Ready Rooms before. It had been a nightmare for Security.

Crew Quarters

"Glad I could help," Stacy grinned as she pressed Vix against the wall of the corridor, doing nothing more than gently carressing each other's bodies, "Though the Lieutenant Commander said she would think about it, not that she would give it to us" she sighed, feeling nervous about the answer. Like a Student waiting for end of year test results. She felt SO nervous about it.

Halls

"I dunno," Lara sighed and, for the first time, Vash would begin to sense other feelings in his Sister. Nerves, doubt, uncertainty, things that had not been there previously. She seemed to represent, through the force anyway, someone who was ready to take a plunge, no doubts at all, then suddenly hesitating on the edge. It seemed like Lara was having second thoughts.

Walter started as soon as Campbell finished. Full privacy might have been nice, apparently this was as good as it was going to get. "While there are many things I could talk about and would like to get out of the way, I'll start with the most important. I know that you are in a... we'll lable it as a difficult situation. What I've come to offer is a way of at least communicating with those back at your homeworld. This is assuming you do not possess that capability already..." Walter paused, best to see what the captain had to say before continuing.

Meanwhile, Lia arrived back at the room and went right back to lying on her bed. She took all of her Leanorian gear out of storage with the exception of her spear and other weapons. If she was going to be working as a medic, she'd want to be wearing her own clothes.

Halls...
Vash stopped walking, looking sidelong at Lara, a grimacing frown on his face, and she could sense anger, disappointment, frustration and...fear? "Hesitation, sister, is a luxury we do not have," he said coldly. "If you have that Lieutenant Commander in front of you and your blade is drawn, hesitating before striking her down could cost you your life." He turned fully to face her, and he seemed now like his father more than ever. "We have no time for doubts or games, I have waited too long and come too far to fail because you," He took a frightening step closer, finger jabbing into her chest, a snarl on his face, "are too weak."

Crew Quarters...
"I think she will," Vix ran one hand though Stacy's black hair, fingers massaging her scalp and smoothly tickling her neck.

Bridge...
Winterfire gave the smallest sigh. It was very clear to him that his X.O. was uncomfortable with giving reports on the bridge, probably because of the lack of privacy it afforded them. Winterfire knew his Sensor/Scanning Officer, Diagnostics Officer, Communications Officer, Armament Officer and the Marine at the door could all be trusted to be obedient and discreet, but his First Officer obviously did not share his faith in their loyalty. The true reason he had abhorred the Ready Room was the fact that the space was redundant: All the kitsune on the bridge had been able to hear every word when he had given his Lieutenant Officer that dressing down and her orders. Typical of a non-kitsune to forget their excellent hearing.
However, he needed to put his most senior Officer at ease.

"Let us move to the Ready Room," He looked directly at Campbell, as if challenging her to say anything, and led them inside. Once they were there and the door was shut, for all the good it would do, he invited both Campbell and the Drone to sit. She was supposed to get the reasons the castaways are here...what the hell is going on?
"We cannot communicate with Xiscapia, or indeed any other planet or installation within Allied space: The Exile lacks the standard issue ansible device necessary for long-distance transmissions. We have short-range communications, that is we are able to transmit and receive messages at a distance of about six and a half billion miles, or roughly seventy AU. Do you have a way for us to contact Xiscapia?"
If they could indeed contact Xiscapia, Winterfire knew he would be able to receive additional instructions from his superiors and possibly even get some kind of idea concerning exactly where they were.
OOC: TG GW.

Lara recoiled away from her Brother's anger and he would feel something else coming from her. Fear. Not the fear that she had experience normally but a seemingly different type of fear, the fear of danger within. Lara had always been close to her Brother, far closer than she had ever been with her Mother, yet now she was unsure, fightened of her Brother's rage. None of the previous feelings had gone, Vash's anger had only made things worse. Was this what she was like as well? Unlike Vash, her dominant side was her Alversian side and she was now scared more about her Brother than these people. Try as she might, she could not picture herself holding a weapon to the Lieutenant Commander's throat, she just couldn't.
"I...I'm sorry Brother," She tried to apologise for her weakness, looking into his face with wide, frightened, vulpine eyes, "Please, don't hurt me."

Halls

"I hope she does," Stacy was delighted by Vix's approval and she dropped her hands to the Kitsune's rear, rubbing it gently and kissing her in the lips.
'My God' She thought to herself, 'How can one Kitsune be so perfect?' She smiled internally to herself as she kissed the female in the corridor, not caring who saw her.

Ready Room

Campbell felt much more relaxed in the Ready Room, knowing that they were in a secure area where they could discuss ship business. The Ready Room was insulated and sound-proofed so that even a Kitsune's sensitive hearing was useless. The Alversians had known the Xiscapians for long enough to know that.

just bumping--

"Possibly." Came the response from Walter, "I will not promise anything. But I believe I might be able to get at least something through to your empire. I'm sure both of you are aware that I'm not a natural being, far from it. I am called a Drone, 'Walter' is simply an alias thought up by my companion who felt I was too artificial. But, back to the point: being a Drone, I have a natural mental connection with the other Drones in my family. That is to say that I am hive-minded and there are 49 other Drones that can hear, see, and feel everything I'm seeing, hearing, and feeling right now. To that end, if my... creators were to send one of the Drones in my family into your space, that Drone and I could serve as communicators,unbound by limitations like range." Walter paused, it had a strong feeling there were going to be a lot of questions now. But then again, the pair might just accept Walter's ability without question.

Ishtar left the briefing room slowly, rather disturbed at the inconclusiveness and abrupt ending of the briefing and questioning of the castaways. She couldn't help feeling discomfited by what had been left unsaid, unexplained.

And how could anyone miss the odd eddies and currents the two youngest caused? Why had not the captain himself come? She would have felt comfortable going to her captain. He would have known, sensed, without being told what was going on with Vash and Lara. He had been a Grand master in his own right and had been highly discerning.

She fingered his sigil blade and her thoughts went round and round. ÄÜ’Manni C.S.'s had always been able to 'see' and measure the Veil of Life, but could not touch it, could not manipulate it - but they were immune to it, unaffected by it.

"Rrrugh!" Vash shoved against Lara hard, sending her sprawling onto the deck. The words poured from his mouth like angered insects from a hive and there was something dark, something twisted and evil in his tone. "If you want to redeem yourself in my eyes you will help me take over this starship," he growled, "or else. Things that don't work get broken. Remember that, sister."
He turned and stalked away, shaking with rage. As he continued onward his pace slowed, and outwardly he became more thoughtful, inwardly he began to feel regret, shame, and the smallest bit of fear.
Had he just alienated the only family he'd ever really had?
No matter, he thought, pushing those thoughts away. Soon the Exile will be mine and all her crew will bow to me. Soon this puny vessel, after that a world, and from there I will build my army.

Ready Room...
Winterfire opened his mouth, full of questions that had sprung to mind, and shut it again. Now was not the time for an inquiry into the past or nature of this 'drone.' Later he would find out personally, seeing how his Executive Officer had given it a slip of paper he doubted it would write anything on, true or not. He would have to confer with all of them, and while Winterfire prided himself on his perception, he needed to be sure he got the truth: He could not afford any lies that might bring destruction onto them all. Elamna...or perhaps Lady Ishtar, can help if they will spare their time.
He shook himself out of his thoughts to answer:
"Please try, if I can contact my superiors we can receive additional orders, and maybe a way home. I will not hold you to it, but if you think you can send a message to your Drone brethren, do your best."

Lara hit the wall of the corridor hard and slumped to the ground. She looked up, terrified, to see her Brother stalking away, sensing nothing but rage from his soul. She got up slowly, only once he was out of view, visibly shaking, hugging herself tightly. She was scared. All of a sudden, she was terrified. She felt tears begin to touch at the corners of her eyes and she blinked them away. Why was her Brother so mad with her?
He had always been there, like the Parents she could never have, always been there to strengthen and support her. Now that trust was gone. She saw nothing in him but anger, she could not see past his rage.
She was walking corridors now in a shell-shocked trance, ignoring the crew, passing them as if they weren't there, even when one of the Calaverans saluted her. Her dazed mind could think of only one place to be.

Crew's Quarters

Stacy lay with Vix on their bed, not actually in it and not undressed, just laying on top, enjoying the warmth of each other's bodies, taking in the delight of having some time to themselves for the first time in years. They were just enjoying each other's company. Then the doorbell rang.

Stacy sighed and rolled over, allowing herself to fall gently out of the bed. She looked over at Vix, smiling at the Kitsune before turning back to the door. She opened it and found, to her immense surprise, Lara, her own daughter, standing there, shaking.

"Lara?" She asked, shocked that she had come here. Why was she not with Vash as always? Had they had a falling out?

Stacy went to ask this, but before she could say the words, Lara came forward and put her arms around her Mother, tears falling freely now from her smooth, young face, unable to hold back the shock any longer.
"Mummy..." Was all the Hybrid could say as she cried, using her Mother as support for the first time as long as any of them could remember.

Stacy had taken a step back at first, afraid that her Offspring wanted to hurt her. She took another step back in shock as she embraced her. Lara had never come to the Alversian for comfort or advice, always prepared to go to their Master or to Vash himself. Now she hung on, something must have happened.

Stacy could say nothing. She only steered Lara away from the door and shut it behind her, offering her presence to the upset Hybrid. Whatever had happened, Stacy was still her mother and still had that role to play.

Shuttle Bay

Meanwhile, down in the relative peace and seclusion of the Hangar, another being started in surprise. Elamna had been down here, meditating, connecting to the force, using it to feed her energy, to recharge her emotions and to supply her with the strength to live out her People's mentality. One with the force as the force is in one. Together forever.

She had started at something she had felt. Anger. Not any anger but the worst, the sort of anger generated by fear. Both emotions were not uncommon on a ship where there was no way home, but this was worse, much worse. She chided herself for not feeling it before. She gave a sigh, for whoever it was had been hiding their feelings. Now, all of a sudden, those feelings had exploded into the open. It disturbed her.

With a gentle sigh, she got up from her kneeling position on the floor between two shuttles and strode from the hangar bay, startling the two Mechanics who had not known she was there. She had only one thing on her mind.
She had to talk to Ishtar. She had to know if these were feelings within her sub-concious. She knew that if the Android could sense the same as she, then she was not imagining it and they may be in serious trouble.

OCC: ITS spelled CALAVERIANS! with an I before A :D

A voice ripped through Vash's mind, it would sound familar but a little foreign to him. " Your speacial...your destined for great things. You shouldn't hit your sister, you will need her in the future. Proceed with whatever plans you may have...I will be watching over you."

Ishtar returned to her quarters, she was not on duty for several more hours and she intended to meditate on the various currents swweeping though the ship. She also intended to review various knowledge she had but seldom accesed, perhaps she had the schematics for technological advances that the those of the Exile could take advantage of.

bump-

bump= >.> <.<

Is this thread dead?

OOC: Not dead, just waiting for Greywatch

OOC: Since GW is currently AWOL and we don't want this thread to die.

Bridge...

Winterfire was silent for another few moment, contemplating the possibilities, before nodding to Walter. "Dismissed," he said simply, turning to Campbell as the Drone left. "The rest of your report, Lieutenant Commander?"

Crew Quarters...

Vix had opened her mouth slightly, an query on her tongue, but she closed it mutely as she watched Stacy's bastard child dissolve into tears. She looked to her mate as if uncertain, worry creasing her face. "What about Vash?"

Ready Room

Campbell watched as the Drone left before she turned to face Winterfire and hesitated, unsure of how to put forward her question, in the end, she just took a deep breath and came out with her report,
"Sir, the Castaways are writing down their stories as we speak. That way we can cross reference them and it will be a handy record of all they encountered and experienced." She reported before continuing with the difficult part, "They have offered to serve aboard the ship Sir. They have the skills needed to fufil some vital roles during our long voyage home." She handed him a PaDD with the report of each Castaway and the positions they could occupy. She had thought she could explain it, but protocol demanded a formal report so that was what she had delivered. She stood to attention to wait until he was finished, awaiting questions or arguements.

Crew Quarters, Vix and Stacy's Room

Stacy could not reply, but held on to Lara for several more minutes while she cried. Soon, the Hybrid had cried herself out and allowed herself to be lowered onto the bed, Stacy sitting beside her and offering her comfort to the trembling Padawan. She sobbed a little long before answering Vix's question,
"He's okay," She explained, "We've had a...falling out," She could not think of anything to say against Vash. He had hurt her yes, but she still couldn't say anything against him. Not at the moment anyway. She was still his Brother.

Crew Quarters, Ishtar's Room

A bell rang along the side of Ishtar's room, the being who wished entry was Elamna, the Veela. She was waiting patiently for entry, keeping herself calm continiously throughout. She was waiting for council from the Android.

The door chime pulled Ishtar from her deep reverie. Going as deeply as she had in accessing her basic data base was akin to being lightly asleep for her. Standing she stretched luxuriously her long tail joining in the sensous motions. Though the stretch wasn't truly necessary, as she had no biological muscles to have gotten stiff, it was something she enjoyed.

Gliding over to the door she keyed it open, after checking the monitor to see who stood outside requesting a entry.

"Welcome Elamna. Please come in Elamna. I've been wishing to meet you, but given the various circumstances I did not think I should intrude." That was true, but additionally the knowledge she had gotten from Liah spoke of a very reclusive people. She had not wanted to overstep the bounds of what the retiring Veela would welcome.

Ishtar stepped aside to allow Elamna to enter, and offered her one of the comfortable chairs the tiny living space held.

Ready Room...

Winterfire barely glanced at the datapad, turning away from his First Officer with a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Executive Officer, naturally I cannot appoint anyone to any post until we have carefully checked into the past of each and every castaway. I found no Xiscapian beacon that would indicate exiles were here, nor did the appearance of any match that of any wanted or exiled criminals in Kitsune Imperial databases, but we cannot be too cautious when dealing with these people. Their competence is also in question, and while I hate to see idle hands on any vessel, I must be assured of their skills before they can be promoted, if at all."

Crew Quarters...

"What sort of falling-out?" Vix looked anxious. She had always slightly feared her own son, for his power and the fact that he exhibited certain characteristics that were definitely not her own.

Ready Room

"Of course Sir," Campbell still stood to ramrod attention, "I was not suggesting that simply promote them Sir. Of course they're skills and credability must be examined before they can be made a Member of this crew, let alone Officers, but they have stated they have the skills and I think that we should examine them further and test this assumption Sir." She had said her piece and now remained silent, still at ramrod attention.

Crew Quarters, Vix and Stacy's Room

"I...I..." Lara wiped away her tears, "...I don't know why he turned on me. We fought and he hit me," She said quietly, as if ashamed by the words. She turned her head back into the pillow and started to cry again. Stacy patted her on the shoulder and crooned gently to her. Stacy looked up Vix, concerned.

Crew Quarters, Ishtar's Room

"Thank you, Lady Ishtar," Elamna offered a bow and took the seat. Normally, she preferred to sit on the floor, but she had been offered a seat and it would be hugely impolite to refuse. She sat in the seat, adjusting herself to make it more comfortable before looking up and smiling at Ishtar,
"I trust you know what I have come?" She asked, knowing that Ishtar had a link to the force as well and would have felt the same disturbing emotions from the ship.

"I trust you know what I have come?"

Ishtar took a seat across from her and met Elamna's gaze, nodding slowly. "There is a vortex...a hurricane I think is the term?...that spirals about the two. And Vash seems to be hurtling down the path of darkness." She hoped she was incorrect, but feared that she was not.

Ready Room...

"If you believe that is the best course, then I give you full authorization to proceed as you see fit, Lieutenant Commander. However," Winterfire lifted a finger in warning, tail swishing, "any and all appointments and 'promotions' must be screened though me first. They will need to be interrogated, tested to determine their areas and levels of skill, trained in the ways of service on a military vessel and properly equipped. If we find any to be unfit for service, they will be restricted from certain areas of the ship and denied access to the database. Now," he seemed to relax some, "how would you propose we go about implementing your idea, X.O.?"

Crew Quarters...

Vix met Stacy's eyes, feeling anxious. "Hit you?" She asked quietly. "Why...did he do that?"

Ready Room

"Of course Sir," Campbell saluted, pleased to have been given the chance to prove her idea as worthwhile. She had been thinking long and hard about it before she had even come to the Bridge, but now that she was here, she might as well voice her idea and allow the Captain to approve it or discredit it. She took a breath before continuing,
"Well Sir, perhaps we could temporarily appoint the Castaways to the recommended positions, however, with heavy crew supervision and without real powers of command, at least until we can be assured of their trustworthyness and competence."

Crew Quarters, Ishtar's Room

"Then I have not mistaken the omens," Elamna shook her head sadly, long ears swishing from side to side, "Alas, I have also felt this disturbance. Young Vash has a lot of untamed anger and ambition. Together they are a dangerous mix." She sighed, "However, I do not feel confronting this anger in the open is the best option. I think between us, we should watch this young one and avoid making moves that may provoke him in a rage that would be harmful to both the ship and it's crew."
She said this all comfortably and smoothly, looking at Ishtar with a mixture of respect and curiousity. She was interested in this individual, but things had to come first.

OOC: TG Tan

Crew Quarters, Vix and Stacy's Room

"He...he..." Lara just sighed, "He lost his temper...I said some hurtful things and he lost control." She just couldn't betray him yet. There was nothing Stacy could say to persuade her otherwise. She looked to Vix again, unsure of what to say.

"moves that may provoke him in a rage that would be harmful to both the ship and it's crew"

Ishtar nodded in agreement "His darkness is not necessarily of evil intent. Anger and ambition may well be harnessed to beneficial purpose. But it would wellk hurt him if some one does not reach out to him. The two of them seem to be overly intertwined co enablers, codependants to an unhealthy degree. It's natural to a degree but perhaps exposure to a wider number of people, and personalities will be beneficial to them both."

"Their mother, quite understandably from some view points, seems to want to have little to do with them. And that knowledge - for children are so very sensitive - can not have been good for the children, infact... knowing you are unwanted?" She shook her head her voice compassionate. "Harmful, most harmfull and they totally innocent victims."

Ready Room...

"A trial run, hmm?" Winterfire nodded, almost to himself. "Should they elect to participate, you, First Officer, will personally oversee each one of their shifts. First and foremost, however, we must collect information regarding their past and the events that led to their being stranded on that planet. Once that has been done and the stories cross-referenced and confirmed, then we may begin with your experiment, XO."

Crew Quarters...

Vix didn't have any more experience than Stacy with this sort of thing, and could only shrug helplessly. She was totally lost: After the first year or so, once her bastard child had matured to become of three years in such a short span of time due to the enhanced aging process he had been infected with from his father, the Veela had come and Vash had been swept up in training, generally disinterested in his mother who wanted little to do with him anyhow. The young kitsune was only in her late twenties, and completely unprepared for motherhood, and such, combined with the violence of the conception, had resulted in her pushing her unwanted child away. In response Vash had sought out his sister and his Master for companionship, and the two had grown apart to the point that they barely knew each other.
She could no more comfort Lara than she could her own son.

Ready Room

"Of course Sir," Campbell nodded in agreement, relieved that the Captain had agreed to her suggestion. The Castaways would be pleased with the approval, but only if they're stories could be confirmed. She wondered if she could find out more about these individials from the database, someone called Stacy and someone called Vix, who claimed to have been kidnapped. She would check it out, see what she could find.
In the meantime, she would have to see that each Castaway was appointed to the correct positions and given the correct training to succeed.
"Sir, may I get to work?" She asked, awaiting dismissal from the Ready Room so she could get to work.

Crew Quarters, Stacy and Vix's Room

Stacy shrugged and looked to Lara, putting her hand on the Hybrid's shoulder,
"Listen, Love," She said gently, "You can stay here as long as you want," She assured her, "We'll be in the next room if you need us."

Lara nodded in appreciation, stretching up to give her Mother a hug before settling back down on the bed and drifting off to sleep.

Stacy walked over to where there was a small circular table and three chairs. She sat in one and, with a heavy sigh, took out her PaDD,
"Might as well do this," She held it up to Vix, "Get it back to the Lieutenant-Commander as soon as possible." She just wanted something to take her mind off Lara and the problems of her only child.

Crew Quarters, Ishtar's Room

"I agree," Elamna nodded, "The Mothers have been through an intense physological experience and their fear is being manifested in their distance from their Children. However, there is little we can do to reconcile them at the moment. All we can do is keep an eye on these two children and try to calm them down, find the heart of their anger and try to deal with it."

"Understood." Came Walter's reply as it left the room. The Drone was glad that no questions were asked, that was one obstical out of the way. It entered the room without a word and sat on the floor near the bed. "So, what's the word?" Said Lia, looking to the Drone. "They didn't ask any questions, this might not be so hard after all."
"And our personal stories? We aren't the cleanest people here."
"Well, that's what comes from working with the FM. We do what we can, write down what we did, and leave out the nasty parts. I suggest you get on that, now. I'm going to set up a meaning with our superiors..."
"Fine then."

OOC: Sorry 'bout that.

However, there is little we can do to reconcile them at the moment. All we can do is keep an eye on these two children and try to calm them down, find the heart of their anger and try to deal with it."

"Yes for all the maturity of their appearance, they are still so inexpereinces, so little knowing of the Universe" Ishtar agreed. "Perhaps we should try to be come their friends, and mentors. They will have so many questions I think"

Ready Room...

"Dismissed," said Winterfire simply, bidding her to get on with her work. The database would show that the Kitsune Empire had registered two people having gone missing from the moon of Kel; a civilian miner and a low-ranking Marine soldier. The miner had simply never reported in for his assingned shift, though this in itself was not something to arouse suspicion, for the Xiscapian could have simply quit without informing his supervisors. The trooper, however, had gone missing from the barracks and a search conducted by the MP and then the local police had revealed no trace of him, and it was presumed he had boarded a vessel when he was off-duty and deserted his post, perhaps in leui for a fresh start on some other world. If Campbell digged deep enough, the only reference she would find of Vix and Stacy would be records in one of the ports of Kel under which two technicians by such names had been screened by Port Authority to provide their services on a freighter, the Field of Dreams. The only event worthy of note was the desertion of the Marine, for such things were rare in Xiscapian military ranks, but even this seemed to have no connection with the others aside from the fact that he had gone around the same time the miner had been reported missing.

Crew Quarters, Stacy and Vix's Room...

Vix examined the datapad. It had been so long since she had last commited anything to a computer or even old-style paper and pen she feared she had forgotten, and indeed her first attempts to write about their experiences were slow and full of sighs as she corrected her mistakes. In time she began to gain more confidence, occasionally referencing Stacy for her point of view or memory, scribing accurately everything which had occured from the time she found herself a captive to the crew of the Field of Dreams until making planetfall on the world that had been their home for six years. The tale was a long one, and hours passed as she sought to remember everything she could so as to provide a detailed account of the past six years she had been far removed from Xiscapia.

Bridge, Several Hours later

It had taken a while for Campbell to find all the information she was looking for in the Imperial Database and it had taken even longer to piece it together into something that remotely resembled a report. Nevetheless, she had written it down on a Datapage and prepared to show it to the Captain. She knew where he would be, of course, on the bridge as usual. She waited until the doors to the bridge opened, offered a salute to the two Marines and Captain and handed over her report,
"Sir," She stated simply, "Report on the Castaways, from what I could find in the Imperial Database."
The report detailed everything she had found and learnt of. It included profiles matching those of the Miner, the Marine and the two Mechanics. The Marine had been an after-thought, something she decided to look over anyway. After all, there were no Marines amongst the Survivors and none of them had referenced to it. However, the lead had allowed her to find when the others had gone missing. Her next link was the Field of Dreams. She had looked over it's shady crew and looked in vain for a manifest of the next time it made port. To her surprise, it seemed that the vessel had not made port again in either the Republic or the Empire, a strange occurance.

Her third link was a gravity well detected by sensors on one of Alversia's Outposts near the Xiscapian Empire. The report was minor, small enough to be ignored but important enough to be logged and for the Authourities to be noted. For the well had matched that of an Observer from the Calaveran System. But the gravity well was brief and no one paid much attention to it.

The final link she found was from the databanks of a destroyed Calaveran probe above Celestis, dating from the time of it's destruction by the Imitators. Naval personnel had discovered it floating in space, it's parent structure destroyed, and thought to bring it back with them to analyse. She had gone over it for an hour before she could get anything conclusive from it. One Probe fighter had broken orbit during the battle, but this one, in defiance of the pattern of the other Probe Fighters, had not turned towards the Imitator fleet but rather broken orbit altogether and fled into space. She could not be certain of course, but chances were, as Decius would say, 'Highly 'probable'.

She waited until the Captain had digested the report, not really caring if it was read on the bridge or in the Ready Room, the crew knew already about the potential officers and gossip was rife. If they heard about it from the two Senior Officers, then perhaps the rumour would stop.

Crew Quarters, Ishtar's room

"I agree," Elamna nodded, standing, "We shall both watch them carefully and try to guide them in their first steps into the Universe as a whole. We shall do what we can for them and hope that they mature with the knowledge that they shall gain, and this anger shall boil away into curiousity." She smiled and turned towards the door,
"Unless there is anything else, Lady Ishtar, I would like to return to my meditation. I found it important to seek your council on this matter and now I must council my own thoughts for a definitive answer and a greeter understanding to this dilemma,"
She bowed and exited, thinking of Ishtar as she did so. She liked the Android who was old, wise and powerful yet gracious and easy to approach. She saw herself as someone who kept herself to herself yet always had an ear, a large ear, open for any problems of anyone, that she would then try to solve the problem in the easiest manner possible. Yes, she liked Ishtar, admired and respected her. With a smile, Elamna headed back to the relative quiet of the shuttlebay.

Crew Quarters, Stacy and Vix's Room

Stacy too, found it difficult to record all of her experiences. They were so long ago that the iron details of many had simply faded into the background, some by accident, some by force. Stacy wrote of Celestis with a trembling hand, her other locking itself into Vix's free one for support as she wrote of her violation and subsequent breakdown. After a few hours though, she leaned back in her chair and sighed, hand aching. She looked over her shoulder at the bed. Lara had rolled over and was fast asleep, her sides rising and falling with each deep breath.
"Finished," She whispered to Vix, indicating behind her to her sleeping child, "How much more have you to do?" She looked over at her Lover's work.

Bridge...

Winterfire leafed though the report, secretly impressed by how complete it was, his Second-in-Command hadn't missed a thing. He passed over the section concerning the Marine, knowing that nothing in the galaxy was a coincidence, and that Campbell surely knew of this wisdom, even if they did not yet know how it fit in with the Castaways. It took him several minutes to read the whole compilation, and once he finished he walked about the small bridge for several seconds, collecting his thoughts. His braid swung slightly as he turned to face the Alversian, a small smile on his face. It was the expression of one who had worked out a particularly troublesome problem.

"Our friend in statis must have been that miner, I'm sure he will be mentioned in the reports given by the others. However, I know of the fate of this ship, the Field of Dreams. You see, during the Rebellion, when we captured Kash Wilson, we also took control of a Calaverian Observer by the name of Defiant. This ship had been found and repaired to spaceworthiness by the Rebels on the former Imitator homeworld of Cyroartica, where she had crashed, and was originally named the Twilight. Old records indicated some sort of transaction was made with a ship called the Field of Dreams, and once this was done the Field of Dreams was destroyed by the Twilight's weapons. Since the technicians Vix and Stacy were never heard from again after operating on this ship, and their vanishing occured at the exact same time as that of the miner and the XIN soldier, I can only conclude the Field of Dreams handed the four over to the Twilight. The crash and subsequent events, though, are still a mystery, one which can only be revealed by the castaways themselves." The Exiles Captain looked quite proud of himself for his deductive reasoning.

Crew Quarters...

Stacy would be surprised to find tears silently rolling down Vix's cheeks, and if she looked down at the pad she would see the Xiscapian had nearly reached the end of the tale, where she had given birth to Vash, stopped in mid sentence. "I abandoned him," she whispered despondently, shivering, "just like his father. When he needed me the most I pushed him away, I'm a selfish, horrible person and because I'm like that he's the way he is-" She ended in a sob, head down, overflowing with guilt and shame.

OCC: sorry have been away and will post a reply and I didn't abonden him lol, i had no idea where you guys were you ran from your father!!!.

Bridge

"I agree Sir," Campbell nodded, secretly delighted that he had acknowledged her report and that he was pleased with it. She had put a lot of work into it in an effort to impress the Captain and she was pleased that he had found it up to scratch. She had not merely dismissed the Marine as a coincidence, knowing that it was unlikely that this Marine, she could not remember his name, it was in the report somewhere, had simply deserted after so many years of flawless service. The others were all follow ons from there, including a search from the People's Navy and Customs following the disappearance of an Alversian National. Despite their best efforts, no leads were forthcoming and it was reluctantly decided a few months later to declare the young Apprentice dead, it seemed now that she was not and had been having adventures of their own.

"Their stories seem to be checking out so far Sir," She stated, adding her own conclusion to the report, "And if they are who the report says they are then most are qualified for the jobs they had offered to take up. I would suggest that we give them a trial run once their reports are in, and see if they have the skills needed to man the stations required." She was pleased though, that she was able to take up their suggestion and pursue it. A sign of a good Officer, dismiss nothing, no matter how ridiculous.

Crew Quarters, Vix and Stacy's room

"Aw, hey," Stacy said tenderly, taking the Kitsune and hugging her tightly, allowing her to cry into her shoulder, "Don't cry, now," tears pricked at the corner of Stacy's eyes. Vix never cried, she was the strong one of the two. Stacy cried all the time, Vix was the pillar of strength and now it was her who needed supporting,
"There was nothing you could have done," She whispered into her top ear, "Nothing, you weren't ready for it. Neither of us was ready for it. You weren't selfish, just scared. Eimna did a better job of raising the Children than we ever could have." She kissed her on the top of the head,
"Don't be so hard on yourself. It's not your fault."

"now I must council my own thoughts for a definitive answer and a greeter understanding to this dilemma"

"I do not know if it is a dilemma, but it is a chance for us to help others, to pay forward to the universe what was granted us" Ishtar returned the bow as she showed the Veela out. Such young races, but Elamna is a fine and worthy being. I think I will enjoy her company and friendship. I might not be so alone The thought that she had to begin her life all over again brought an droop to her spirits.

Ishtar let herself mourn for a time, delving deep into her memories, playing them out - not just her favorites, or the great moments, though she had been a part of many of those in her fifty thousand years of life among the Aumani. For an Aumani C.S. she had not even been middle aged when she had been put into stasis.

No she remembered the little things, cherished moments of every day averageness that would never be again. For even if she did a proper work of raising the Aumani-in-waiting, they would not be the Aumani-that-had-been. Her duty now was to make the future worthy of the past.

Hours later she raised her head and realized that not moved from beside the door. Slowly she moved over to the chair she had sat in while Elamna visited and sat down. She had the knowledge base on Aumani security procedures and techniques and perhaps some of it might be useful to Vash. She would have to take the time to familiarize herself with it and sort it out, but it might be a way to get to know the youngster better
.

OOC: S'alright. BTW You have a TG

Bridge...

Winterfire licked his lips, looking at the Executive Officer. "Make it so, First Officer, but only under the strict supervision of yourself and those they shall be working with. They need to be competent, willing and mentally fit for their duties if they are to serve aboard this vessel."

Crew Quarters...

Vix's ear flicked at the feel of Stacy's hot breath, and she seemed to settle down a bit. "Yeah..." She whispered. "But...I feel so terrible. I never wanted him, and that hurt him more than I ever knew."

"Very well, Sir" Campbell nodded, pleased that she had been able to secure this little concession for the Castways. She knew it must have been difficult for them, stranded alone for so long. She saluted Winterfire, waiting for his dismissal before departing from the Bridge and walking along the corridors. She tapped the vox in her ear and broadcast a message throughout the ship,
"Attention, this is Lieutenant Commander Campbell. Will the Castaways please report to the briefing room immediately. Thank you"
She turned into the briefing room and waited patiently for her charges to come in. She could see them now already.

Vix and Stacy's Room

"Hey," Stacy hugged her Lover tightly, "That's for us. Let's go," She smiled at her, offering her a kiss on the lips, "Nothing you could have done," She encouraged the miserable Kitsune, "Nothing we could have done." She looked over to see that Lara had risen hesitantly, eyes still red,
"Are we going?" She asked uncertainly, as if waiting for her Mother's permission.
"Yes," Stacy nodded, smiling affectionately as Lara led the way. She's never realised before how beautiful her Daughter was.

The call from Campbell brought Ishtar out of her deep study of the old Aumani data, and she considered for a moment not going. Though technically n ot one of the castaways, she decided that since she had gone to the first one, it would be sensible to attend this one. And it would give her a chance to be close to Vash again.

She stood straightening her robes, her long tail wrapping about her waist as she strode from the room and made her way to the briefing room once again.

Lia looked up from the pad, "Walter, we have to go." There was no response from her companion, the Drone didn't make the slightest motion or sound. "Walter," she got up and moved to it slowly reaching out. A short bolt of dark energy jumped from the Drone to her finger like a static shock and a sharp, split-second screech tore through her mind. She fell back, eyes closed tight and ears covered. It was a state she'd only heard about but had never seen, she cletched her chest for a moment in an attempt to collect herself. Standing up, still a little shaky, she looked to the Drone one last time before leaving the quarters and making her way to the conference room. She entered slowly and took a seat, waiting for whatever Campbell had to say.

Briefing Room...

"Again?" Vix mustered the energy to roll her eyes. "Weren't we just there? Why can't she come to us for once?" It seemed her misery had made the Xiscapian a bit snippy. When she came into the room, however, she was composed, eyes dry if a bit red, and sat down where she had before, hands folded on the table, datapad with her nearly finished story tucked into a pocket of the jumpsuit. The door hissed again and Vash was the last of the castaways to enter, tail flicking behind him, cool orange eyes scanning the others present. Those attuned to such things would sense a good deal of resentment, some alarm, and perhaps the smallest amount of guilt as his fox ears flattened slightly. The hybrid mutely took a seat a space away from anyone else, avoiding the eyes of Lara, slumping slightly in the chair.

Campbell waited until everyone was in the room, noticing how one of the Castaways, the male, did not sit with the same girl as before but remained on his own, noticing the flat ears and their reluctance to look at each other. She especially seemed unable to look at him. She kept a straight face, as if scared to look towards him.
Campbell had always noticed these sort of things, it had helped her to come up to a Lieutenant Commander and now it would help her in this Sector. She noticed the hostileness but decided to leave it for the moment, it was not why she was here,
"I am gald to report that, after discussing your request with the Captain and doing some background analysis, that we are able to promote you all to the provisional roles you have suggested,"
She smiled at the expressions of the people around the room,
"You will be under the Supervision of an Officer in this trial period, but this is not permenant. If you fail in your duties, then you will be demoted and forced to remain a passenger for the remainder of the voyage."
She looked over to each of the Castaways, giving them their titles,
"Lady Ishtar, Medical Officer, Stacy O'Neill, Flight Officer, Vix, Operations Officer, Vash, Security Officer, Lara O'Neill, Science Officer."
She looked over at their reactions, some where smiling, others looked less happy.

Lara was happy to be given something to do, while she and her Mother shared her nerves. Lara was torn...did she tell the crew about Vash and his plan or did she stay loyal and quiet. Even Vash would be able to feel the uncertainty from her...as well as the fear.

Lia listened and looked around, figuring the Campbell had missed her before realizing she'd not yet completed her report. It would've been nice to at least specifically ask for the people that already had there stories finished so she wouldn't need to walk back and forth for no reason, but that wasn't her concern at the moment. At least she and Walter weren't in any databases, that made things easy. No troublesome background checks and such to deal with. She rose from her seat, "Well, looks like I wasn't needed. I'll be sure to get that report to you in an hour or so... 'til then." She gave a small wave as she left, figuring that with a possible lack of future disturbances, she and Walter could actually get together something worth presenting.

Ishtar was pleased that her assignment was made official, she had found the Exiles small medical compliment welcoming and easy to work with. She was certain that in any medical emergency they'd perform admirably.

But the sudden gulf between Vash and his 'sister' troubled her, and inwardly she nodded toherself. It had been a sudden sharp split - and that had made itself felt earlier, - felt if not exactly understood - and now she was able to see the tension between the two. And very disctinctly Lara's fear...of Vash.

As Lia stood and left, Ishtar sat back in her chair and reconsidered some of her previous plans.

Vix swallowed hard, suddenly burdened with the weight of responsibility. She had half expected the request to not go though, but it had and now she was going to be measured and put to the test for the good of this ship, her crew, and possibly Vix herself. "Thank you, First Officer," she nodded to Campbell. "I'll do my best."

Meanwhile there was a mental flare from Vash of satisfaction, but it carried with it a hint of fear and animosity, though precisely towards who it was impossible to tell. Now it all begins to come together. He frowned within himself. With one small kink in the works...

OOC: Right, so this technically, the next part of the plotline, the one that's been in discussion for weeks. If there are any uncertainties, then please TG me about them.

It had been several weeks since the Starship Exile had found itself trapped on the other side of the galaxy. Several weeks since it had been pulled from everything knowledgeable and knowing in the world and dumped in this empty wasteland of space. However, it had not been empty, for the Exile had already found a brace of new Crew members, filling many vacant positions. One of them was now Medical Officer, an Android from a species long extinct, wiped out by an enemy that no one of the modern era could recognise or comprehend. Two of them had never seen the lands they claimed to be their homes. Both born in this strange and barren wilderness. Their Parents were not here by choice, taken from their safe jobs and dragged to this dump, giving birth to unwanted children in the jungles of a remote planet. They were joined by two Agents of an unknown land, people who fought for a land and aims that were as much a mystery as this region of space.

Within the ship itself, amongst it's closed and cleaned corridors, two of it's Officers were stalking to an unknown destination. One of them was tall and catlike in appearance, an Alumina, she seemed quite annoyed but that was nothing new, the other was a young Alversian female who looked tired and rather annoyed herself. Again that was not unusual, for she was second in command.

The Alumina, known as Decius, seemed to be snapping at the Officer and she, in return was snapping back,

"I understand the problem, Pantheria-Lieutenant, I really do," She was saying in a tired voice, that suggested she really didn't have the patience to deal with this right now.

"Then you understand that such actions cannot be tolerated and must be punished with the highest measure. Spacer Daan and Crewman Richie cannot be allowed to brawl in an Engineering Section like it is a creche for Toddlers." She said it in her normal voice, a voice that hid a smooth smugness born from certainty and knowledge. She knew that she was amongst the smartest aboard the vessel.

"I know," Campbell snapped rather more louder than she had intended, "But leeway has to be given, we are suddenly so far away from our families, so far from everything we hold dear," She seemed sad at that, "That such outbursts are inevitable. We simply have to be tolerent and offer encouragement."

"It is unacceptable behaviour," Decius seemed midly shocked that the First Officer was taking this so well, she herself was not happy. It would not have happened on an Alumina ship. She knew that. She found working with these Beings overly challenging and rather ineffecient, but her people had chosen her to be a part of this 'Joint' Crew. So she had to endure.

"I have just been on the Bridge for eighteen hours straight," Campbell complained bitterly, "I have neither the time, nor the patience to deal with something like this right now. If there is a problem then talk to the Officer of the Watch"

"Very well," Decius went to split off from the Lieutenant-Commander, as they were heading in different directions. However, she paused for a moment, looking back at the retreating back of the Alversian,
"I am the Officer of the Watch," She said to herself as she continued on towards the Bridge.

She finally arrived in time to see who was on the Bridge with her. There was no Captain obviously, and the only other Senior Officer was the Diagnostics Officer. The others were all Ensigns or Lieutenants. Bridge Officer Tzu, she remembered it from the Crew Logs.
"Status report," She demanded immediately, standing in front of the screen, which showed thousands of stars zooming past. She had her back to Tzu, not even bothering to spare a glance for him. The Ensigns and Lieutenants scowled behind her back.

Living Quarters

Elsewhere on the ship, a few more of the crew were getting to know each other. Sitting in one of the many rooms, around a small table littered with chips and cards, sat the Science Officer, Lieutenant Commander (Acting) Lara O'Neill, Operations Officer (Acting) Vix, Medical Officer (Acting) and Android, the Lady Ishtar and finally Elamna, a Veela who had joined the ship simply to see the universe. They sat with cards in their hands, staring intensely at one another,
"I raise you twenty chips," Elamna said in her sweet voice, smiling gently at Vix, Ishtar and Lara, the later of whom was staring in total confusion at her cards.

"What do I get if I have all of the same type?" She asked aloud, innocently showing her entire hand to Vix, "Is that good?" She asked uncertainly, unused to the luxury of cards and certainly unused to this strange game where symbols could be twisted into something else.

Ready Room

Elsewhere on the ship, Flight Officer (Acting) Stacy O'Neill, mother of Lara, stood to attention in front of her Captain. She had just finished her test on the Flight Systems of the ship, he had been trying her knowledge and she had not been found wanting, however, of course there were other things that Stacy knew that she would rather not divulge. Like how she had brought her Daughter into the world, how she had been pushed away until recently when they had grown as close as a Mother and Daughter should be.
She looked up at the Kitsune in front of her, the Captain who commanded her and who had appointed her to her new role.
"Anything else Sir?" She asked, not unnervous about being in front of so commanding a Being. She had to watch what she said totally.

Card games seemed to be a near universal invention Ishtar thought with a smile. She'd never been any good at the gambling games though - she refused to count cards or figure mathematical odds. That ruined the fun of it in her estimation, and was a tad unethical when playing with non C.S.'s.

"What do I get if I have all of the same type?"

She looked at her hand then laughed aloud at Lara's question. She wondered was it four of a kind, or all of the same suite...that did make a difference.

Her hand was pathetic though and she closed the fan of cards with a decisive snap. "I'm out" She smiled as sat back to watch the others - she really, really enjoyed doing that.

OOC: Might want to check your spelling of "Living Quarters" Al. :wink:
IC:

Bridge...

Diagnostics Officer Tzu saluted from his place in front of a bank of computers, still crisp and militarily sharp. Elsewhere the discipline of the crew may have been wavering, but Captain Winterfire would tolerate no such thing on his bridge, and as a result the three Bridge Officers and two Marine guards were as drilled and percise as the day they left Xiscapia, over a fortnight ago. Tzu himself was a younger kitsune, new to the Xiscapian Imperial Navy, and he still possessed the enthusiasm and vigor some of the older hands lacked, if not the experience. "All active systems read nominal and are operating at an acceptable capacity, Chief Engineer. The Scanning Officer reports that there's nothing in near us for lightyears, and we have yet to receive or intercept any kind of communications." None of this was unexpected: The Wanderer class Exile prototype was still a new ship, and since they'd made the stop at the planet and found the group of castaways living there, nothing worthy of note had occured. Why should now be any different?

Living Quarters...

Vix herself had made a few credits back home at the occasional backroom table with bored pilots and dockhands, but she wasn't stellar at the game and years without practice had left her quite rusty. She stared at the hand, glancing from it to her own, noticing that Elamna seemed to be winning; poor Lara was totally lost, and Ishtar herself was out. "That's...four of a kind," she said at last, looking back at the Veela across the table. There was something too sweet about her smile. "I fold." The Xiscapian laid down her cards, sufficently intimidated and not confident enough to try her luck, trying to concentrate on helping Lara.

Ready Room...

Captain Winterfire of the Xiscapian Imperial Ship (XIS) shook his head, the short braid going from the back of his head down to the base of his neck swinging slightly. "That's all, Acting Flight Officer," he said from his place behind his desk. "I think you know the ship well enough now to recite her Flight Systems and method of propulsion in your sleep. Dismissed."

Bridge

Decius did not seem to be paying Tzu any attention, but instead stared out into the abyss that was space. There had been little to report for the past two weeks, little to do except map an occasional star or planet. She did not mind taking the shift and she did not mind being on the bridge. However, the longer she was away from Engineering, the more agitated she grew. She knew that her Second-in-command could be trusted to run the Section in her absence. He was actually quite impressive for a Kitsune, but they were her systems, she knew how to make them effecient and, when she was not there, she knew they were not working to maximum capacity and that annoyed her.

She wanted to get home like the rest of the crew but, unlike them, she did not place an obsessive emphasis on it. She saw it as something that had happened. Something that had been unlucky but avoidable. She knew there was no way to change it and, unless someone had access to the top secret materials needed to power a Jaunt Drive, no way to fix it. She was already making progress on the complex algorithms needed to get it online, it was just a case of materials.

She stared thoughtfully out at the stars on the screen, not even turning when the door behind her hissed open to reveal a sweating Ensign, who looked as though he had run the whole way across the ship to be here and looked relieved at it. However, before he had even taken a step, Decius spoke,

"Ensign Kay, you are one minute and twenty-two seconds late for your duty shift. Explain yourself." She still had not turned around but the annoyance was plain in her voice.

"Sorry...Ma'am," He stuttered for a minute, unsure what to call Decius, "I was held up in the Sonic Shower and I..."

"The ineffeciency of your sanitational practises are not an excuse to be late for duty. The rest of the Bridge Crew has managed to make it in time, you may have noticed and yet you have not."

"I..." Kay tried to explain, but he was cut off again, as if he hadn't spoken.

"...for that reason, you are being placed on a charge. This instance shall go onto your Service record and holodeck privledges will be suspended for 24 hours. Do you understand." Still she had not turned around, not even bothering to face the Ensign, who was giving her a look of pure, manevolent murder.

"Yes Ma'am," He gritted his teeth as he took his station, the Kitsune he was replacing giving him a sympathetic stare as he moved off. Stacy came onto the bridge from just off the Ready Room, taking her station at the helm. She did not need a lecture. She had been with the Captain.

So Decius stared at the viewscreen, standing straight as an arrow, and waited for something to happen.

Living Quarters

Lara looked down at her cards, then at Ishtar, Vix and Elamna in that order. She heard the laugh from Ishtar and smiled herself at her own ignorance. So she had a...'four of a kind'. What was a four of a kind? Was that good? She didn't know. And she didn't like the look that Elamna was giving her either. One of gentle pleasure. She also looked down at the chips in the centre of the table. If she won did she get them all? Her mind was swimming in confusion but she knew what she was going to do.

"I fold" She copied Vix's action exactly, proud at having done something right in with the game. Then the pleased look changed back to one of confusion, "Now what happens?" She asked.

"Now, Little one," Elamna said in her quiet voice, "I take the chips and can either choose to show you my cards or keep them to myself. However,"
She turned her hand around, to reveal that she had had nothing more than a pair of twos. She had not cheated, she had not used her powes in anyway. She had used nothing but her smile and luck.
"So...Elamna wins?" Lara frowned lightly, confused as ever, "Even if I had better cards?"

"I'll tell you what, little one," Elamna gave her an encouraging smile and pushed the pile of chips towards her, "even though I technically won, you had the better cards and you're still unfamiliar with the game. So I'll let you have them." Lara took the pile happily, looking at all the chips she had won.

Music of wisdom (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXRq4L4BcbQ)

Elamna's gentle generosity was an innate part of her Ishtar had discovered, and she found herself liking the Veela more and more.

However it would do no one any honor for Lara to continue under a misconception. And the real reward would be the youngster knowing of Elamna's generosity and the understanding that fun consisted of far more than just winning.

So Ishtar set out to explain as best she could. "You see Lara, she won because you folded, following my lead perhaps." Ishtar turned her cards over so all could see them and continued "See my hand was worthless, and so I opted out from losing more chips by folding. Your hand however was very potent, but your uncertainty led you to a less than optimum choice." She smiled gently, and gave Elamna a warm smile.

"This game is a lot like life." Her voice wsa thoughtful "Sometimes you must hold fast to what you have, stand up for your ideals even when you know that in all likelihood you're going to get beaten. Some times you have to fold, walk away from something you want very badly because standing actually disaccomplishes what needs be done to get what you want in the end. And yet other times you not only have to fold but must to runaway, though it hurts bad enough to make you wish to die - because if you stay and die then you can not obtain your goal. And still other times you must bluff, make an opponent think you hold what you do not."

Just as she had had to sleep for a million years to have any chance to accmplish her own goal

Ready Room...

Winterfire sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, sinking down into his seat, tailing twitching and curling around one arm. He had slept for a full ten hours since his last duties, far longer than he would have liked, but somebody (his Executive Officer was his prime suspect) had set his alarm so it had woken him four hours later than usual. He supposed it was a sign of just how tired he really must have been that his own internal, natural clock hadn’t woke him up, but the stubborn Xiscapian refused to believe that. He’d taken the next hour to bathe and prepare himself physically, mentally and emotionally for the coming twelve-hour shift he’d mandated upon himself with exercises and mediation. The final hour had been spent reviewing with his Acting Flight Officer for the day she would become a full Flight Officer and a regular among the Bridge crew. Now, with a glance to his small, functional desk chrono, he noticed he had a few minutes until his shift began, and looked up at the ceiling, musing, hands drumming on his desk. Finally he spoke in a low, even voice, like the monotone of someone reading from a script.

“Captain’s Log of the Xiscapian Imperial Ship Exile, Year of our Lord Emperor Foxfire Rose Eighteen, Death of the Death Season, Fifteenth Day in Unknown Territory, 2300 hours. Nothing noteworthy has occurred aside from the marking of a full half month lost in this strange, desolate territory. I am pleased to report that the castaways we found at the beginning of our journey have performed better than I had hoped: They are all hardworking and competent in their duties, if not very open or militarily-precise. However, elsewhere the crew is becoming demoralized, and even on the bridge I hear that some fear we may never see a friendly world again, doomed to roam the stars until we die. I and my subordinate officers are doing our best to keep spirits up, but the spacers and soldiers are restless and weary of travel. I am afraid they may mutiny out of sheer boredom, if only to break the monotony of our endless search for some way or manner with which to restore our Jaunt Drive and get home again."

Bridge...

Already slightly miffed that the Chief Engineer would ask him a question but not bother to listen to the answer, Tzu felt his blood boil when the Alumina reprimanded the replacement Scanning Officer. As if a minute and twenty-two seconds would make any difference when shifts were six hours long! He could not believe she could be so insensitive to the emotions of her fellow officers when they were thousands of lightyears from home with Qonn-knew-what dangers ahead, in circumstances which would frighten even the hardiest pilot or spacer. Knowing it would make little difference to her, and acutely aware that he too could be detrimentally affected by her use of authority should she so choose, Tzu spoke up.

"Chief Engineer," he used her title, struggling to keep himself in check, "don't you think that's a little harsh?" He turned to face her, the alien's back to him. "Surely you can recognize the substantial stress all members of the crew are under, does this not warrant them some ease in discipline? I don't know how your Navy is run, but the difference between yours and ours should be evident even to an oversized c-"

"That's quite enough out of you, Bridge Officer," Captain Winterfire's cool voice cut across Tzu's last word, who gave a tiny bow and stepped back, mouth firmly closed, obeying his Master and Commander with a respect he had not shown the Officer of the Watch. The sable-uniformed kitsune with bleached skin moved across the bridge of the Exile in a study of grace, an economy of movement, not one motion wasted as he crossed to where Decius stood. "Dismissed, Chief Engineer," he said cordially, barely looking at her, eyes fixed on the starfield on the viewscreen before them. His hands were clasped behind his back as usual, tail limp and hovering a few scant inches above the shining deck, face composed and betraying nothing of his thoughts. It was impossible to know how much of the events he had heard, and indeed the rest of the bridge crew wondered if he had been listening, out of sight, the entire time.

Living Quarters...

"Or you win some, you lose some," Vix murmured, pressing her cards back into the deck. "But I don't think this game is too much like life," she looked at Ishtar. "Events are often governed by the whims of people and the ideals of institutions, rather than the motion of things and tides of Fate. Poker is all mathematics, chance and luck. Life is more about people, perception and reaction. I don't think I'm here today with the people I know and love because of random chance." She smiled. "Everything happens for a reason. There are no coincidences."

Decius had seemingly ignored the rant of the Bridge Officer, rolling her eyes out of sight at his lack of discipline. She did not care in the slightest at his words but would have bristled in anger at the use of the word 'Cat' before Winterfire stepped onto the Bridge. She did not turn to acknowledge on, nor give him any form of salute. She was still staring out the window, her slender tail flickering lightly as she was dismissed. Without a word to the Captain, nor to the Diagnostics Officer except with a grim and, perhaps even satisified gleam in her eye. She did not care about bridge duty, it was an unfortunate side-affect of her rank.

In truth, she wanted to be in the Engine Room so that was where she went. Ignoring the fact that she had been awake for eleven hours already without so much as a break, she would go on for another two or three if need be. If not then she may retire to her quarters for a few hours, get out of everyone's hair for a while, like she knew they wanted her to. She did not care about the Crew's personal feelings. If they let their feelings get in the way of their duty then they deserved to be trapped out here. So she walked on.

Elsewhere, the Scanning Officer looked on in triumph as his Officer was dismissed from the bridge, giving her a confident smirk as she strode past and left the bridge. He knew that no Superior of his would accept a blemish on his record put there by an Alumina. He knew that they and the Alversians were Allies but, by God, he hated being in the same room as them. Yet, like all Alversians, he found them strangely fascinating.

Then a beeping came from his console and looked down at it, frowning lightly at the strange noise coming from beneath him. He tapped a few buttons then looked to Winterfire, professional again
"Sir, Contact 50.45 degrees off the port bow." He reported.

Living Quarters

"So..." Lara stared blankly at Ishtar, then at Vix, "...folding is a lot like life? Only it's not?" poker, Lara had decided, was the most impossibly difficult game in the universe. She had folded so she lost, even though she had better cards? That didn't seem very fair to her.
She thought for a moment, as Vix and Ishtar talked, about Vash. He was on the ship somewhere, ignoring everyone, while she was here making new Friends and generally enjoying herself.

"Everything happens for a reason. There are no coincidences."

"Then we shall have to agree to disagree. I fully believe and have witnessed complete coinicdences, random chance, purest luck and utter entropy. We are not bound by fate, nor is there a reason for everything that happens." Ishtar smiled at Vix, unruffled. She then turned back to Lara.

"You lost because you folded. If you had not folded, but matched her bid and called, you would have won. But because you chose to give up, to quit, you lost. Though giving up is not always bad, but then again stubbornly hanging on is not always good. You have to develope discernment. And that is a very hard to learn, but valuable beyond belief ability. And it of course must be continually refined."

Frosty approached Vash slowly before finally reaching him. The hybrid matched Kash's identity very much, more features matched his father than of his mother. Vash looks almost disturbed Frosty. He knew one of these days he might be shot in the back of the head by one of his own underlings and replaced by yet another clone. Frosty didn't care, he had spent so much time serving with and under Kash that he would gladly take a bullet from him than anybody else. Perhaps it was only a matter of time before that event happend. Frosty took off his helmet exposing the spikey white hair that gave him his name. " Vash, come here."

"Then we shall have to agree to disagree. I fully believe and have witnessed complete coinicdences, random chance, purest luck and utter entropy. We are not bound by fate, nor is there a reason for everything that happens."

"Amen to that." Said the deep voice of a familiar cryptic construct. Walter was leaning against the wall, a few feet away from the group. The Drone was being idle, a normal sight since Walter's abilities weren't really needed on a ship like this one. Meanwhile, Lia was back in her room practicing with some of her encryptic abilities. Healing was the one she focused on most bust this was a difficult task even for her, as she hadn't been raised a healer or a priestess. She'd been raised as a hunter and had only been taught the basic healing techniques. While the FM had trained her enough to make her a certified combat medic, she knew that it would benefit everyone if she could develop her encryptic aspects a little more.

Bridge...

Winterfire turned as Decius walked away, watching her go. The Xiscapian Captain refrained from gritting his teeth and just shook his head, irritated at the lack of response or salute. One of these days she's going to learn to show respect to both her subordinates and superiors, even if we're not her kind.
He then heard the distinctive beep of a sensor contact, turning back to the viewscreen even as his Scanning Officer confirmed his thoughts. "Sir, Contact 50.45 degrees off the port bow."
A slight nod. "Paint it with the scanners and magnify on screen." He felt the rush now, that electrifying feeling of command, finally something had happened!
"Shields up," he said almost as an afterthought, "but keep the weapons offline. If it's a ship we don't want to scare them, or start something we'll regret."

Living Quarters...

"Then we shall have to agree to disagree. I fully believe and have witnessed complete coincidences, random chance, purest luck and utter entropy. We are not bound by fate, nor is there a reason for everything that happens."

Vix just shrugged in acceptance. Lady Ishtar was an android, an alien entity even, how could Vix expect her to share her opinion? She knew there were others, even on this ship, who would agree with her, and others who would side with Ishtar-

"Amen to that."

-case in point.
"Oh?" Vix looked amused. "Perhaps you would care to try and explain to Lara how the game of poker and the living of life are similar?"

Corridor...

Vash looked up at Frosty, eyes flashing. The Hybrid, an Xis-Cala creation and the only one of his kind, was the result of a Kash clone raping Vix, resulting in his birth six years ago. The accelerated hormones introduced into the systems of all clones resulted in Vash and his sister, Lara, maturing both physically and mentally at three times the rate of a normal human, attaining adulthood in a fraction of the time it would normally take. However, his life span was in question: If he matured at such a rate consistently, he would die of old age before he was thirty, unplanned life brutally cut short by the very man who had spawned him, if only indirectly. This, combined with the spurning of a traumatized, unprepared young mother and training in the way of the Force, and the Dark side by proxy, made the half kitsune a dangerous character.

The teenage Hybrid took a step towards the Calaverian Lieutenant, as if intending to go to him as asked. The bars marking him Chief of Security flashed dully in the light from the shoulders of his pristine uniform as he did so, and he took Frosty's hand as if to hold it. Too fast for the eye to follow, aided by his alien reflexes, Vash grabbed hold of Frosty's shaving razor from his belt and dug it into the moon-shaped bit of flesh above the nail of his index finger. He smiled ferally for a moment before jerking his hand back, ripping the fingernail away, blood coloring the blade and dripping onto the deck. With a careless motion Vash tossed the razor away, the nail and a bit of flesh still attached, watching as the commander of the Calaverians clutched his injured hand, blood welling up between his fingers. "I am the Security Chief, and your superior, swine. You will refer to me as Commander, if you ever call me that name again I won't be so lenient with your punishment. I was created when my father sexually assaulted my mother; I curse him every day for that, and I will tell you now that he might be my sire, but he is not my father. I have no father." His hand was on his lightsaber, a moment away from activating it and cleaving the stupid man in two, but he thought better of it. Such an act would give him pleasure, but it would not further his goals.

With a noise between a huff and a sigh, Vash turned on heel and strode away, sucking the blood off his fingers, glad to be rid of the annoyance.

Bridge

"Yes Sir," The Scanning Ensign worked for a few moments on his console, tapping at the buttons that would be needed to fulfill the Captain's orders. He pushed any thoughts of that irritating Alumina out of his mind as he worked. It was not long before he had the scans needed to bring the image of the station (http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/memoryalpha/en/images/thumb/a/a3/Hirogen_Station_Flesh_and_Blood.jpg/292px-Hirogen_Station_Flesh_and_Blood.jpg) up on the monitor. Despite it's rather ancient appearance and small size. It was only the size of the Exile itself, it not a little larger. The Officer looked at it wonder as the shields were brought up, automatically triggering a Blue Alert as it did so. Almost by instinct he went back to his console again, conducting more scans before giving his report,
"Sir, hull cannot be penetrated by our sensors...there are no other ships in this sector"
Stacy remained at her station, waiting for orders from the Captain.


Living Quarters

Lara was about to speak her confusion again when the lights flashed blue in the room, along with a small alarm from somewhere. Lara may have been knew to the ship, but she had spent much of her time learning the procedures of the XIN and now, she knew what it meant,
"Action stations," She said to herself, standing up and preparing to leave, the cards abandoned for the moment. She had to get down to the Medical Bay which had been partially altered into a small lab for her.
Elamna remained behind as the others stood,
"Do not worry," She smiled gently, "I am not a Combatant on this ship so I have no station. I shall remain behind and clean up." She began to pick up the cards strewn across the table.

Walter moved forward, looking at the cards that sat on the table. Squatting, the being began moving random cards around with no particular goal in mind. "Situation. Reaction. Judgement. Choice. Consequence." Walter now began taking the cards and started constructing a house out of them. "The basic aspects of life as they were taught to me." Walter finished the house within a few seconds, hands moving with inhuman grace and speed. He looked at the structure, "The situation shall present itself and soon after comes your initial reaction. It is then that you must judge the situation, taking time to analyze. After you have analyzed the situation to the best of your ability or to your liking, you must make your choice. Do you accept everything as it is, or do you try to change your position? Do you charge forward or retreat? Do you say yes or no? Do you create-" Walter held a hand to the card structure it'd made, he then flicked a card and watched the entire structure crumble, "-or do you destroy? Or neither, do you simply watch?" Walter then placed its hand on the pile of cards, "And then, after making your choice, you face consequence for you actions. Be they positive, negative, or somewhere in between." Walter gathered the cards together into a neat pile, "The aspects of life can be found in many things, card games are no exception." Walter then took the card on the top of the pile and turned it 90 degrees, "When the situation presents itself, how will you respond?" It was then that the alarms began going off and Walter accedently scattered the cards in a moment of surprise, and Walter found that it would probably not recieve its response. "Until later, I suppose."

Ishtar stood as Lara did, and left beside the young woman. They headed quickly the same direction with out speaking, thought for Ishtar it was a companionable silence. She had never felt the need to chatter just to be chattering.

Shorty they parted company, Lara entering the small lab they had put together for her from extra space the med bay had, and Ishtar going to the next door down. She was pleased to see her tiny staff on hand and just finishing their checklists.

"excellent, and thank you all for arriving quickly and starting without me. I am very pleased at your initiative.” She smiled at their pleased looks. She had always felt that you reprimanded in private and rewarded in public.

Working together they finished up the last checklist, then the small group waited to see what was to come.

Bridge...

Winterfire turned as Decius walked away, watching her go. The Xiscapian Captain refrained from gritting his teeth and just shook his head, irritated at the lack of response or salute. One of these days she's going to learn to show respect to both her subordinates and superiors, even if we're not her kind.
He then heard the distinctive beep of a sensor contact, turning back to the viewscreen even as his Scanning Officer confirmed his thoughts. "Sir, Contact 50.45 degrees off the port bow."
A slight nod. "Paint it with the scanners and magnify on screen." He felt the rush now, that electrifying feeling of command, finally something had happened!
"Shields up," he said almost as an afterthought, "but keep the weapons offline. If it's a ship we don't want to scare them, or start something we'll regret."

Living Quarters...

"Then we shall have to agree to disagree. I fully believe and have witnessed complete coincidences, random chance, purest luck and utter entropy. We are not bound by fate, nor is there a reason for everything that happens."

Vix just shrugged in acceptance. Lady Ishtar was an android, an alien entity even, how could Vix expect her to share her opinion? She knew there were others, even on this ship, who would agree with her, and others who would side with Ishtar-

"Amen to that."

-case in point.
"Oh?" Vix looked amused. "Perhaps you would care to try and explain to Lara how the game of poker and the living of life are similar?"

Corridor...

Vash looked up at Frosty, eyes flashing. The Hybrid, an Xis-Cala creation and the only one of his kind, was the result of a Kash clone raping Vix, resulting in his birth six years ago. The accelerated hormones introduced into the systems of all clones resulted in Vash and his sister, Lara, maturing both physically and mentally at three times the rate of a normal human, attaining adulthood in a fraction of the time it would normally take. However, his life span was in question: If he matured at such a rate consistently, he would die of old age before he was thirty, unplanned life brutally cut short by the very man who had spawned him, if only indirectly. This, combined with the spurning of a traumatized, unprepared young mother and training in the way of the Force, and the Dark side by proxy, made the half kitsune a dangerous character.

The teenage Hybrid took a step towards the Calaverian Lieutenant, as if intending to go to him as asked. The bars marking him Chief of Security flashed dully in the light from the shoulders of his pristine uniform as he did so, and he took Frosty's hand as if to hold it. Too fast for the eye to follow, aided by his alien reflexes, Vash grabbed hold of Frosty's shaving razor from his belt and dug it into the moon-shaped bit of flesh above the nail of his index finger. He smiled ferally for a moment before jerking his hand back, ripping the fingernail away, blood coloring the blade and dripping onto the deck. With a careless motion Vash tossed the razor away, the nail and a bit of flesh still attached, watching as the commander of the Calaverians clutched his injured hand, blood welling up between his fingers. "I am the Security Chief, and your superior, swine. You will refer to me as Commander, if you ever call me that name again I won't be so lenient with your punishment. I was created when my father sexually assaulted my mother; I curse him every day for that, and I will tell you now that he might be my sire, but he is not my father. I have no father." His hand was on his lightsaber, a moment away from activating it and cleaving the stupid man in two, but he thought better of it. Such an act would give him pleasure, but it would not further his goals.

With a noise between a huff and a sigh, Vash turned on heel and strode away, sucking the blood off his fingers, glad to be rid of the annoyance.

Frosty walked away in pain. " That little bastard..." He had half a mind to put a roun into the kids back, but he was to important to kill. He cuffed his finger and went to his quarters to take care of the annoying wound.

From the shadows the black armor of a GOU came with a flash slamming against Vash with tremendous force that only the genetically altered soldiers could muster. The GOU impact slammed them against the wall. The GOU quickly grabbed the hybrids hands with crunching force and held him above his head. Vash could kick, but the GOU's large body was pressing against. The Black visor stared blanky at him waiting for the Hybrids responce.

Bridge...

"Hmm." Winterfire studied the station, frowning. No scan readings, no energy signatures, no nearby vessels...I don't like it. There was a number of options he could take: He could ignore the thing and move on by, he could stop near it and watch to see if anything happened, he could attempt to land a team on it to investigate, he could fire upon it or he could try and communicate with it. I don't have a good feeling about this...but we should try and interact with this thing anyway. Maybe the people there have technology or materials that can help us repair the ship and get us back home. I can't pass up that chance.

"Communications Officer."

"Sir?" The man responded.

"Broadcast a message on all frequencies in all languages and dialects in the databanks. Indicate that this is the Xiscapian Imperial Ship Exile, and that we come in peace and wish to make contact with the inhabitants on the station."

"Yes sir."

A few seconds passed.

"No response, sir. I seem to be getting some static, so at least they might have communications devices, but if they do they are either broken, insufficiently equipped to receive our broadcast, or they are not interested in talking to us."

Winterfire pursed his lips, not knowing whether he should be relieved or more deeply worried that the station could, at least potentially, receive their transmissions. "Diagnostics Officer, maintain course until point 009456, at which point you are to hold steady until further orders or developments. Please inform the Acting Chief of Security and the Chief Engineer that they may be disembarking shortly, and instruct them to don Biohazard suits for the task and move to the docking bay. For diplomacy or negotiations, I know not, but they should be armed and prepared for anything."

"May I make a suggestion, sir?" Tzu spoke up, nodding to show he had understood the orders.

"Certainly."

"If we find that the station is uninhabited, or those aboard are hostile to us, it might be useful to have a map of the interior of the station. I have a mapping device that can penetrate the inside of any given structure to give us an accurate conception of the layout, and I am the only one fully qualified to use this technology. With your permission, sir, I would like to go with the Chief Engineer and the Acting Chief of Security to map the station."

Winterfire considered this for a moment. He didn't like sending any more of his people into an area than was absolutely necessary, but the D.O. made a good point, and between the untested abilities of the Acting Security Chief and the less-than-friendly demeanor of the Engineering Chief, Bridge Officer Tzu might make up a vital component to a diplomatic party. "Very well, then. Please proceed to the hanger bay with your equipment."

Tzu saluted crisply. "Yes sir, thank you sir!" He left to bridge with a spring in his step.

Winterfire saluted back, turning to face Stacy. "Acting Flight Officer, please take the place of the Diagnostics Officer. As ordered, please maintain course until point 009456, at which point you are to hold steady until I say otherwise, or the situation develops further. Point 009456." He repeated.

Hanger...

Vix's own action station was in the hanger bay of the Exile. It was small, as hangers went, and held only two XX-40 starfighters, an Xiscapian Twilight class scout vessel in the corner, an Alversian heavy-duty drop ship and a lighter, more graceful Xiscapian Flyer class Shuttlecraft. With these were six pilots, one to each vessel save for the two needed to fly the drop ship, and all were present and waiting expectantly. Vix looked them over, two Xiscapians and four Alversians, all male, all staring at her under the pretense of waiting for orders, but actually running their eyes along the body under the uniform of the castaway. Vix blushed delicately at the attention afforded to her, but her loud command a second later made them all jump.
"IS the drop ship ready for flight, Pilot John and Pilot Thomas!"

"Uh, yes m'am, she's ready for service ma'am!" One of them shouted. "Turrets have been loaded and calibrated, diagnostics check out Flight Officer!"

"Good. Get 'er ready for launch, you lot are going to be flyin' her over to that station with an Away team. The rest of you, clear out! Flight in five."

Diagnostics Officer Tzu arrived moments later, an ominous form in Biohazard armor with a blaster rifle slung across his shoulder, a powerpack on his back and the mapping device on his belt. "All ready, are we?" He saluted Vix and looked around for his two companions and, not seeing them, was the first to board the drop ship.

Halls...

Vash was momentarily stunned by the power and ferocity of the assault, and for a second was in the GOU's power, pinned by the Calaverian. Then the Hybrid snarled in anger, and his lightsaber leapt from his belt, guided by the Force, the sheared away the right arm binding him. As the soldier fell back Vash snatched his saber from midair and curved it upwards, slicing from the clone's left thigh up to his right shoulder, a path that left a seared, smoking orange cut in it's wake. His foe was flung back, flesh and internals pierced by the glowing blade, dead as soon as he hit the deck. For a moment Vash just stood, crimson blade humming, staring at the corpse, before he deactivated the weapon, looking up the hall that Frosty had gone.
He was going to kill that Calaverian!

A second later an alarm on the bulkhead flashed blue with a klaxon, and Vash's vox crackled, ordering him to the hanger. The half kitsune stood frozen for a moment, thinking he had somehow been immediately found out, but a moment of thought told him that this was a 'shield's up' warning: A defensive 'Blue Alert' to a perceived external threat, not an actual internal one. Sighing in relief, Vash felt himself grow angry, and he kicked the armored body of the dead clone. This will have to wait... He guided the dead man into a nearby airlock, dumping it in and closing the door. Jettisoning it would be noticed, but inside the little room so close to the outside of the ship, off the 'beaten track' of the main halls, it would take some time for it to be found, perhaps even days. When he came back from the assignment he would figure out some way of dealing with the remains.

Turning, panting slightly with his lightsaber tucked back into his belt, Vash walked away again, wary of any more enemies lurking in the darkness. In short time he made it to the hanger, and silently began to put on his own Biohazard suit.

Decius arrived in the Hangar Bay, clad in Aluminan Armour, painted in black, slender, highlighting every curve on her very curvy body. Her face was hidden behind a smooth, black mask, only two green eyes showing where she could look and strange lines just below that that extended the whole way around the helmet, there were no additions for her cat-like ears, only two small ridges where they could be pressed into. Her long neck was protected by what looked like a series of plate armour but where simply highly advanced parts of her armour, offering maximum protection without compromising movement. Along the waist of her armour, black of course, were several pouches of equipment and gadgets combined with the long silver, Alumian pistol while she had her large sword draped of her back as normal. She looked around with her normal casual arrogance, obvious in command as the most senior Officer going across.

It was only a quick journey across to the station, several large airlocks more than big enough to fit the Dropship. Once it had settled down within the ship, Decius was out first, pistol in one hand and a handheld scanner. Even in this potentially hostile situation, she still seemed to exhume an air of total indifference. After a few moments of intelligable beeping, she turned to the others and nodded,
"The air is 65% nitrogen and 30% oxygen. There is no background radiation, no lifesigns. It seems we are alone on a safe station," She reported almost to herself in her soft voice, yet she did not remove her helmet.

The inside of the supposed hangar was massive, painted in a rust colour and in a large sphere shape, with a large number of cranes and platforms, though there seemed to be no equipment of note in the area. Decius walked over to one of the consoles and scanned it for several moments. Then, without hesitation, she tapped a button the console and brought all the lights up, reflecting off the brown-orange roof. She turned and, unseen through the black helmet, she raised an eyebrow in satisfaction.

She then took the lead as they walked up a flight of stairs to what was obviously the Control Room, a large circular room with consoles around most of the perimeter and a small circle within that was also laced with consoles in an unknown Alien language.
"Get to it," Decius snapped to Tzu, "The sooner we can leave, the sooner we can be on the way back to our own space."

Living Quarters

Elamna looked up, preparing to reply to the Drone who had delivered an insightful and thought prevoking addition to the conversation. But he had gone. She made a small note of suprise that he had left so suddenly, but she supposed that he had duties elsewhere. So she cleaned up the cards, patiently collecting them and sorting them, not using her own abilities, for to use use them so trivially was a crime in her culture. The reward was to have peace of mind, not to have the ability to lift something with the power of her mind. Once completed, she set the pack on the table and left the Room quietly, heading for her own Qaurters. She guessed they would be more peaceful at this time.

Five GOU had there own recon mission on hand as well, they took one of the Probe fighters from within the hangar over to the station. They had flown into the hangar behind Decius. The cloaked fighter decloaked within the brown-orange hangar bay. Quickly a squad of three GOU exited the fighter, the last would stand guard. Leading the three clones outside was Frosty, recovered from his little incident with the hybrid. He decided to just forget about the incident, it was after all Kash's son and he wouldn't dare put a finger on him personally. The GOU had there visors on x-ray tracking, the little bits of radiation use to light up skeleton structures of people were sent through the halls. They would also switch now and again to infrared and motion detection if need be. "This is Lt.Frosty with Alpha squad to Exile, we have just arrived, we will be secondary recon and a fall back force for Decius."

Unknown Station...

Vash loitered by the drop ship, somehow managing to slouch even though the Biohazard armor, looking around the airlock in a bored sort of way. Useless mission with these useless people and their petty little dislikes and eccentricies. He shook his head. Soon they will see the light...and I'll make sure to kill every last one of those Calaverians on the way.

"I don't think that's entirely wise..." Tzu trailed off as Decius began walking up the stairs, the kitsune just shaking his head in exasperation. I don't care how smart you are, you don't go messing around with alien technology if you don't know what it does, or how to turn it off for that matter. And the air might be breathable, but you can't know if there's toxins floating around that will kill you the second you take off your helmet. I swear she'll be the end of us all.

Following the Alumina warily the Diagnostics Officer knelt down in the command center and began to put together his mapping unit, a device about the size of a PDA.

"Get to it, the sooner we can leave, the sooner we can be on the way back to our own space."

"I'm setting up the device now," Tzu bit back, irritated by her ever-prevalent demeanor of arrogance despite the fact that she could have activated security systems that could have destroyed them all with her fancy little keystroke. Don't get your panties in a knot!
He glanced back down. "Power supply is at one hundred percent. Beginning mapping sequence now."
He hit a button and the machine hummed, lighting up and-

KWZAT!

There was a burst of static along the communications line and Bridge Officer Tzu fell over onto his back, legs splayed out, arms at his sides, tail limp. A bolt of lightening had hissed out of the mapping device and struck his squarely in the chest, melting though metal, flesh and bone and boiling fluids, creating a hole the size of the diameter of a drinking mug. They could see the deck on the other side, and there as no blood, the wound having cauterized faster than it could have spilled out, the glassy eyes of the first fatality of the voyage staring blankly upward from behind the helmet. The mapping device itself was completely burned out, a thin trail of smoke rising up from it, whatever reaction that had occur ed within it having killed the Xiscapian instantly.

Two things happened simultaneously: Alerted by the squeal on the frequency and the sense of death nearby, Vash started, lightsaber in hand but not activated, staring up at the control room. Meanwhile Winterfire saw, from the bridge, the biological signature of his Diagnostics Officer flacuate wildly for an instant and then flatline. Both their voices came to the Chief Engineer at the same time:
"What happened?"
"Chief Engineer, what's your situation?"

Decius took a leap back as the bolt of lightning shot up into the Diagnostic's Officer. She had been standing quite close to him and, already prepared for combat, had her blaster out and ready before the corpse of the Diagnostics Officer had even touched the floor. She scanned the room quickly, using both eyes and unseen sensors to check for anymore hidden dangers. There were none that she could see and so, she slipped the silver pistol back into it's holster and took a few steps closer to the smoking body.
She knelt beside the young Kitsune and pressed two long, slender fingers into his neck, feeling for some flicker of life that would signal that he had even a percentage of a chance. But there was nothing. He was gone.
"Captain," Decius chose to ignore Vash behind her, trusting that he would see the problem with his own eyes rather than waiting for her to spell it out for him,
"There has been a discharge of energy from the console which Diagnostics Officer Tzu attempted to scan. He is dead." She said it flatly, coldly, there were no emotions in her voice, no regret, no sorrow, she reported it the same way she would deliver an Engineering Report.

Then, as Vash took a step forward to examine the body himself, something else flickered from the panel. Decius snapped up to look at it and instantly knew that she was too late to stop whatever was about to happen. A beam of light flashed over the both of them, knocking them both to the ground. There was silence for a moment, before Decius got to her feet again and looked down at Vash. Without a word, she turned to the console and inserted a small disk into it. She waited for a moment while it clicked and beeped before she removed it again.

She slipped it into a pouch and beckoned to Vash,
"We shall leave" She ordered, not evn bothering to ask if he was okay, "There is nothing else here. I suppose the Captain will want his body," She nodded to the cooling Tzu, "Bring him"
With that, she headed down the stairs back towards the shuttles, trying to ignore a gentle buzzing that briefly entered her head and left just as quickly. She started at it. Had she imagined it? It was nonsense...Alumina didn't waste time with such things.

Ishtar stared at the bio monitor and cursed to herself. Diagnostics Officer Tzu's monitor had gone red, but as far as she could tell no attempts to revive him were being made.

"Medical Officer Ishtar to Captain Winterfire. Why is there no effort being made to revive officer Tzu?"

Surely the damage hadn't been that catastrophic? Ishtar knew that the medical sensors the crew wore were primitive by her standards, but they would have told her in 'gross' - that is in the most basic -overview, if his body was recieveing emergency medical stimulation.

And she was highly surprized that no attemp was being made, that just wasn't unethical, it was callus and inhumane...

"What the hell was that?!" Vash climbed to his feet, looking at the console with tredemption. "Something just shoved me over, where did that come from?"

Receiving an order instead of an answer, Vash looked down at the corpse of the Bridge Officer with a sigh and shouldered the weight with a grunt, only his strong muscles and a slight assistance from the Force allowing him to carry the bulk of the armored kitsune. He descended the stairs at a brisk pace, firing off questions at Decius.

"What was that energy discharge? What did you put on that disk?" The young Hybrid seemed very suspicious, and was looking around warily, fearing another attack. He seemed to grow angry. "Answer me, damnit!"

Bridge...

Winterfire had been about to order that the remaining personnel on the station retreat, but from the communications chatter it was clear Decius had already initiated that order, so he didn't bother to make a redundancy. The Captain instead stared at the red, glowing screen that showed the depleted life signs of his Diagnostics Officer, then bowed his head. Tzu had been a good officer, professional and unshakable to the end, and it tore at Winterfire's heart that this had been his first mission. He had still been so young. He would have to organize a funeral in space, after they got away from this damned station. The Xiscapian wanted to turn his weapons upon the accursed thing and pound it into dust, but it would be a waste of time and resources to annihilate the object which did not pose a threat to them otherwise.

"Acting Flight Officer," He turned to face Stacy, bowing "congratulations on your promotion. You will assume the duties of Diagnostics Officer as of now until such a time comes that you are unfit for duty, are relieved of command, we reach the end of our voyage, or you become a casualty. It is my duty to inform you that with your position you are entitled to full Officer's pay and all the privileges that come with your rank. As you were." He nodded and turned back around, blinking hard and swallowing.

"Medical Officer Ishtar to Captain Winterfire. Why is there no effort being made to revive officer Tzu?"

"Captain Winterfire to Medical Officer Ishtar." Winterfire responded. "According to the Chief Engineer, a discharge of energy has killed Diagnostics Officer Tzu. I assume no attempt is being made to assist him because such great damage was inflicted upon him that he was killed instantly, or so quickly that no aide could have been administered quickly enough to make any difference. Once the Away team returns to the ship we will be transferring his body, in his Biohazard suit, down to you. I would like you to preform an autopsy to determine exactly how Diagnostics Officer Tzu was killed, working in concert with Acting Science Officer Lara, who will be investigating the nature of the blast in that it was sufficiently powerful to penetrate the armor. I want to know precisely what killed him, and how it did so. Do you understand my orders, Medical Officer?"

The Alumina did not answer his questions as she settled back into the shuttle. She found the Hybrid Security Officer an irritating addition to the crew, someone who assumed that his heightened abilities granted him the power to do as he wished. Even Decius respected the hierarchy and knew that there were places where she could not tread. Even if she didn't show it. She settled into the shuttle and waited as the little craft left and drifted towards the Exile. She supposed that she would be required to attend any funeral held for the Kitsune. She guessed that his death was regretable. He had not seemed ineffecient. She did not enjoy such events. She pressed a button once they had passed into the hangar bay, transferring both the body and her device to the Medical Bay.

When the Shuttle docked again, Decius headed for the bridge to report to the Captain. She guessed he would want to hear about the events from her personally.

Medical Bay

Lara came out in time to see the body being beamed onto a bed in the Medical Bay. It was not hard to see how he had died, for a hole had been burned right through his armour and his body. She also took note of the small device next to the body. She picked it up curiously and noticed that it was the same as one that Decius carried around. She supposed that it had been sent down for her to analyse.

"Excuse me, Ma'am," Lara took the small device and showed it to Ishtar, "My Medical knowledge is severely lacking and I think I might be able to find out more about the weapon that killed Lieutenant Commander Tzu if I were to look at this."
Her gaze lingered on the body, she had never seen a real one before.

Bridge

"Of course, Sir," Stacy nodded, pleased a little with her new promotion but regreting badly that she had taken it from another person. She supposed that it was a good thing. She knew that the Captain had known the Kitsune before. She caught Vix's eye, she now got a Lieutenant Commander's pay?

Corridor

Elamna had found a body. She had not been looking for such a thing but merely strolling back to her quarters when she had decided, for no clear reason, to investigate one of the airlocks. Instinct, she supposed with a smile. Then she found the body of the GOU. It had been cut up rather specially, with precise movements and clean cuts. She understood who had done it, for no one else had a lightsabre on this ship who was unstable enough to do something like this. It was a disturbing occasion. She knew she had to alert the crew and so tapped the vox on her chest,
"Captain Winterfire, this is Elamna, I am sorry to report that I have found a dead body in airlock B2 on Deck Six. He is a Calaveran GOU"

OOC:Thanks I totally missed that!.


Ishtar looked at Lara and said with careful emphasis "I don't think you should handle that instrument until it has been decontaminated. To the best of my understanding no complete readings on the station were taken, and we do not know what dangers they may have found."

She looked past Lara and shook her head. The officers death might well have been averted if she had been present with her full ÄÜ’Manni medical kit. That was one thing she needed to cobble together from her existing supplies and what she could fabricate. Despite the wounds fearsome size she could have saved him - and Decius's assumption that he could not be saved angered her. She couldn't understand why the Alumina female had - to her with utmost callusness -and the implied uncareing angered her.

OOC:

There was a burst of static along the communications line and Bridge Officer Tzu fell over onto his back, legs splayed out, arms at his sides, tail limp. A bolt of lightening had hissed out of the mapping device and struck his squarely in the chest, melting though metal, flesh and bone and boiling fluids, creating a hole the size of the diameter of a drinking mug. They could see the deck on the other side, and there as no blood, the wound having cauterized faster than it could have spilled out, the glassy eyes of the first fatality of the voyage staring blankly upward from behind the helmet.

:rolleyes:

IC:

Halls...

After having spent the trip back to the Exile being ignored by Decius, Vash had decided not to pursue the Chief Engineer with his questions. She obviously knew something about what had happened on the station, but she wasn't talking, and at any rate she had been hit with whatever it was too, so if she wasn't seeking medical attention he wouldn't, either. He had since removed his armored suit and now prowled the halls of the Exile once more, biding his time and watching out for any more threats. He would love to go up against every Calaverian at once, but Vash knew that he would have enough problems getting rid of the one murdered body, never mind the other ten still aboard. The hostility disturbed him, he wouldn't have thought they would dare raise a hand against the son of their precious Kash Wilson, but it appeared that they refused to accept his position of authority over them. The familiarity they tried to impose upon him only made the Hybrid hold them in higher contempt, and he wished that his 'father' and those like him would simply cease to exist.
It would make things so much easier.

Bridge...

Winterfire was not facing Decius when she entered the bridge, but she could see his tail was flicking this way and that in agitation, fox ears perked. If she knew anything about kitsune body language, she would easily be able to see that the Captain was either nervous, afraid, angry or annoyed. He was listening to his vox unit, and she heard him speak into it in a carefully controlled voice that nevertheless held undercurrents of apprehension.

"Can you determine the cause of death?" He asked quietly. Two deaths on the same day from unknown sources... It made him extremely nervous. These were his crewmen that were dying, and unless they could either avoid or locate and neutralize the threat, he feared more casualties were to follow.

"I'm afraid, Captain," Elamna's quiet voice replied on the vox, knowing that the Captain would want to keep the news of such a death secret. "That he has been lacerated with a weapon that has cut off one arm and virtually cut him in half. I am afraid that, judging from the burns of the skin and cleanliness of the cut, the only weapon that can cause such damage is a lightsabre."

Decius did not speak, she merely stood at ease, waiting for the Captain to enquire a report from her. One thing that the Alumina did have in abundance was patience.

Campbell, on the other hand, looked over curiously, brows frowning lightly. She enquired silently to her Superior Officer but realised, judging from the level of reaction from his body, that he had recieved some bad news. So she decided that she would not need to ask until it was time for him to confide in her.

In the medical bay precission lasers lanced out of Ishtars fingertips, cutting cleanly though the armor, but not touching the cooling flesh beneath. Once it had been peeled away Ishtar went about completing the very thorough autopsy.

He had been a remarkably healthy young kitsune, and his death should never have happened. Ishtar resolved to request of Captain Winterfire that from now on she accompany all away teams.

She hoped Lara would find some reason for the mapping device to have produced so much electrical energy. It took a lot of elecrticity to kill a person and even more to burn a hole of that size through some one. Portable devices operated in the 9 to 12 volt range, it took massive transmission voltages in the kiloVolt range to do that much damage normally. How the small device had been so damagingly lethal baffeled her. To the best of her knowledge it had been completely 'weatherised' as well - if it had been dropped in a body of water it stikll should not have electrocuted, much less holed the one who fished it out. Had the destruction been caused by a lazer or blaster weapon she would be less baffeled.

Hours later with all the autospy tests completed she logged a report of her findings, save that which needed appending by Lara and her findings. She also included her recommendation on future missions.

Bridge...

Winterfire felt himself grow cold, and he could obtain no satisfaction from the confirmation of his instinct which had told him, weeks ago, that the castaways would mean trouble. "A lightsaber..." He whispered, shaking his head upon meeting Campbell's eyes. "Lady Elamna, Security Chief Vash is now considered a suspect in the killing of the GOU. I will be deploying a security team to detain him; please meet them on Deck Four and accompany them, your skills may be required. Thank you."

He let the button on his vox unit up and switched frequencies, giving a rapid set of orders. Two Marines, an Xiscapian and an Alversian, convened on Deck Four in full battle armor with rifles at the ready, awaiting the presence of Elamna. Vash was an unknown: He had apparently killed the GOU as quickly and easily as another might crush an annoying rodent. Winterfire didn't dare to send the security units in force, he wanted Vash to come quietly and without conflict, any more than two might make him feel threatened and cause the Hybrid to kill again. Winterfire was relying on Elamna's negotiating skills and supposed superior power to make his Security Chief come quietly.

Only now did he turn to Decius with a few curt words. "Chief Engineer. Report on the events that occured during the Away operation."

Some time later, Winterfire would browse Ishtar's report and find the findings quite troubling. It was incredible that the standard, stable technology on a small device would conduct enough electrical power -if that was indeed what had killed Tzu- to blast a hole though battle armor. He made a note of her recommendation and made it a mandate that she or another Medical Officer would henceforth accompany all Away teams to prevent further deaths.

Decius stiffened, her turn to give a report, and give it she did. She precisely described everything that had happened from the moment they had landed to the moment they returned. The report was precise and detailed but to the point. She finished, leaving Winterfire in no doubt as to what happened, and waited for any questions about the incident.

Deck Four

Elamna met up with the two Marines and walked to their head, taking her time not to advance too quickly, for she did not want to startle the Castaway. She could sense him, she could sense that he was close and that he was frightened. She turned to the two Marines and stopped,
"Wait here," She said silently, "If it sounds like I am in trouble, then you may come." She smiled.
She turned the corner and, sure enough, there was Vash, not far from where the GOU had been found,
"Hello Vash." She bowed slightly, "How are you? We have been busy it seems."

Bridge...

Winterfire had frowned as the story had been told, deepening steadily, until at last the report was complete. He seemed ill at ease. "Do you have any theories on how and why Diagnostics Officer Tzu was killed?" The Captain's eyes flicked to Campbell for a moment, then back to Decius again.

Deck Four...

Vash's guard instantly went up, mental barriers raising, and it was undoubtable from the widening of the eyes, slight recoil and barely noticeable crouch, combined with the flattening of the ears and the swishing back and forth of his tail, that the half Xiscapian, half Calaverian was wary. Elamna had never gone out of her way to talk to him, and so close to the dead GOU, it was making Vash very nervous. "You know." It was not a question.

Campbell shrugged at the look from Winterfire. She had no expertise in this area and what knowledge she did have was easily outclassed by the Chief Engineer. Again, she felt the location was inappropriate, the Bridge Crew had been close to Tzu and to learn of it in such a harsh and cold manner from the Alumina he disliked was not how she would have chosen to tell the crew. Regardless, Winterfire obviously knew what he was doing and it was not her place to judge. So she stood just between Decius and Winterfire and waited for the Being's response.

"Taking in evidence from the actions of Bridge Officer Tzu, the device he was using and my own readings of the station. I would suggest that it was a defensive mechanism designed to stop any Intruders from scanning the station fully. I was able to overcome these Security protocols and download their database. It should fill in any gaps in our knowledge." She had stared ahead the whole time, her tone never changing from it's normal, sneery pitch.

She waited for a response from the Captain. And yet, the buzzing would not stop.

Deck Four

Elamna nodded sadly, feeling and seeing his barriers go up. He was nervous, maybe even a little scared, but she could leave nothing to chance. Nothing to chance with someone as potentially dangerous as this,
"I'm sorry, Vash," She stretched out her hand, probing his thoughts at the same time, looking for any sign of an attack, "I'm afraid I must arrest you for this."

Bridge...

"And how long do you estimate it will take for the database to be decoded and analyzed into a usable, comprehend able form of information?" Winterfire wanted to know. He was still disturbed by Tzu's death, and he knew the others were too, but it would not do anyone any good to sugarcoat it. The Bridge Officer had died on an Away mission, and they would mourn his passing, but there were still things to be done, duties to be fulfilled, and Winterfire had a sickening feeling that his would not be the last casualty of the ill-fated expedition.

Deck Four...

Vash's head jerked abruptly, spasmodically, and in the same instant his hand went to his lightsaber. The noise was filling his head, making it hard to concentrate, hard to think. He knew he was no match for the alien Jedi, and he knew he would only make things worse for himself if he resisted, but he was rapidly losing the ability to make rational decisions. The half kitsune did not draw, however, his hand remained on the weapon as if about to attack, but he did nothing. The negative connotation of the word 'arrest', combined with the strange sounds that only he could hear, was frightening and angering him, but he still had enough sense left not to try his hand at combat with the other. He tail whipped about, the clearest sign of his agitated indecision, and his breathing was fast and panting, but still he made no move to strike or withdraw. Finally he let his hand drop, and it seemed as though the tension drained from him and the situation. "Alright," he said quietly, but the young one stayed still.

"It will...it will take..." Decius stopped talking for a moment, closing her eyes and trying to concentrate her thoughts. The words she needed, the information was there, but she couldn't reach it, the buzzing was drilling into her skull, making it almost impossible to think at all, never mind rationally. She stood there for several more moments, trying to keep herself steady,
"Apologies...Captain..." She muttered, putting a hand up to her head, "I am unwell...I wish to...retire to my...quarters..."
Damn but it was uncomfortable and it was getting worse by the moment. She needed to rest, if only for a moment.

Deck Four

Elamna saw the indecision and the fright on the young Halfbreed's face and she felt nothing but pity towards him. Her beliefs that this crew did not get on well with the Calaverans were obviously realised but he had taken it a step further and actually committed murder. She led him past the two Marines, indicating that they were dismissed, and brought him down to the Brig, setting up the forcefield and greeting the Marine who guarded it.
She then headed back towards her quarters, unable to shake the disturbing feeling she'd felt from Vash,
"Captain," She tapped her vox, "Acting Security Chief Vash has been remanded in the Brig. He came quietly."

Ishtar entered Lara's small laboratory and office after a polite knock. "Lara, I hope I am not disturbing you, but have you finished your examination of the instrument that killed officer Tzu?"

She looked about the space, pleased to see that Lara had made the best of the tiny area available and turned it into an efficient, compact workplace.

Bridge...

Winterfire raised an eyebrow and frowned, deeply concerned. The vulnerable, disoriented behavior he saw exhibited was most irregular for the normally cold, controlled Alumina. "Chief Engineer, might I suggest you pay a visit to the Medical Bay?" He didn't need to say anything more, for it was not a request: In the contained environment of a starship, an unknown disease was an extremely dangerous thing. Alien bacteria, toxins or viruses could spread throughout the crew quickly and sicken, immobilize or kill everyone within a matter of hours, depending on the infection in question. If Decius had indeed been exposed to some sort of chemical or biological agent, it needed to be contained and exterminated as quickly as possible.

"Acting Security Chief Vash has been remanded in the Brig. He came quietly."

"Thank you for your help in this delicate matter, Lady Elamna," Winterfire said quietly. "I will let you know how the situation proceeds."

As Decius left the bridge Winterfire tapped into the vox frequency to Medical Officer (he still thought of her as 'Lady') Ishtar. "Medical Officer Ishtar? This is Captain Winterfire. I have sent Chief Engineer Decius to the Medical Bay, she may be sick. I suspect she may have been exposed to a containment while on the Away assignment, naturally I would expect she will be placed in quarantine until exactly what her ailment is can be determined. I am going to speak with Chief of Security Vash, who was the only other on the station, as well; if he complains of sickness or shows any of the same signs, I will summon you to the Brig, where he is being contained. Winterfire out."

As he let up off the vox he turned to Campbell. "Lieutenant Commander, you have the Bridge." He saluted, then made for the brig.

Brig...

The soldier who had been summoned to guard the Brig confiscated Vash's lightsaber, placing it inside a metal locker, and herded the Chief of Security into one of the cells, where he was surrounded left, right, front, back and top by force fields. The cells had three 'layers': The force fields which contained the detainee, then the vacuum pocket between those and the next set of shields, and the final actual cell, which was whitewashed bulkheads on all side except the front, which was a translucent blast door. The kitsune Marine outside drew up a stool and sat on it, evidently bored and unhappy at having to be away from his friends and what entertainment the ship had to offer, rifle leaning against the bulkhead. Vash himself just sat on the deck, away from the recycled oxygen vent, back against one of the force fields, legs out, tail limp, wondering what he was going to do now.

"Sir" Campbell nodded and turned to face the screen in front of her. It showed nothing but space, for they had long moved away from the Station, unwilling to get any closer to it's mysteries and dangers that had already cost them one crew member. Campbell did not know Tzu well, but he had been young, enthusiastic and good at what he did. It was a pity to lose him and Campbell suspected that he was only the first, that more were certainly going to happen in the future.

"Chief Engineer, might I suggest you pay a visit to the Medical Bay?"

"As you wish," Decius turned and left the bridge as always. Not bothering with a salute. She headed down the lift and turned, not left for the Medical bay, but right towards the crew quarters. She had a Medical Scanner in her room, she could heal herself if need be, just like she would if she were aboard one of her own vessels. The buzzing was constant, an irritant that she could not get rid of. She didn't know what it was but she couldn't get rid of it either.
Then she blinked, shutting her eyes for less than a second but when she opened them again, she gasped in shock.

She was not in the bright, clean corridors of the Exile anymore. She was on one of her own ships. The dark narrow corridors could not be disguised nor mistaken. She shut her eyes tightly and opened them again, hoping the image would be wiped clean. However, it was there stronger than ever. She could even see the blue Alarms, signalling that the ship had been boarded.

Danaversians!

She knew it could not be happening, the logical part of her mind convinced that it wasn't, but she obeyed her natural instincts, that this was real and she could be enslaved at any moment. All the effects came rushing in, the fear, the panic and the joy of knowing that there were enemies to kill, the same enemies who had caused so much pain.
But the fear was the biggest emotion, as if she could already imagine some Danaversian advancing on her, just like it had been in her first ever attack, the same fictional images she had had back then. She looked at one of the passing Xiscapians,
"Najamk, larb ta! Wa oma ukhom opods! Il Pih! E ot ni gmepheakah!"
She said in her own language, in a frightened voice before letting out a snarl and throwing him out of the way, drawing her blade in one hand and her pistol in the other. They would never take her alive!

Science Lab

"Oh?" Lara had been studying a piece of text and had not heard her enter, "Hello, Ishtar. Sorry, I haven't found anything yet that would suggest what the weapon was but, judging from the rest of their archives, this is a highly fascinating species with a highly advanced culture. The station we found was one of many that guarded their frontier from attack from an unnamed Species. When the Frontier became untenable, they withdrew to a second line deeper inside their own territory, abandoning the outer stations to be regarrisoned at a later date.

They were of a highly advanced race. My guess is that the beam was designed to stop people scanning the superstructure of the station, though it seems rather pointless as most of the station was evacuated with the retreating Military. These stations were build on modules that would connect and disconnect to the station as was required. For example, if one needed a base for military vessels, than a dry dock could be fitted to the bottom of the station while extra crew quarters could be fitted to one side. The whole station was like one giant playset that could be added to or taken away from. Fascinating." Lara turned back to her pad, "Truly fascinating."

"Truly fascinating."

"Yes, fascinating indeed.” Her voice was acerbically dry. “So the mapping device shows no sign of how the station turned it into a weapon that killed Officer Tzu. Of how it managed to augment the devices own internal power system into a lethal weapon?."

"And how were their archives accessed? It was chief engineer Decius who managed to extract these archives?" Ishtar asked before breaking off as she received a communication Captain Winterfire. She had not thought those exploring the station – cut short by Officer Tzu’s unexpected death – had had any time to interact with the station in any meaningful way. If Decius had managed to activate the stations cyber system why had she not informed the others? And how had Lara gotten the information she was finding so fascinating?

"Medical Officer Ishtar? This is Captain Winterfire. I have sent Chief Engineer Decius to the Medical Bay, she may be sick. I suspect she may have been exposed to a containment while on the Away assignment, naturally I would expect she will be placed in quarantine until exactly what her ailment is can be determined. I am going to speak with Chief of Security Vash, who was the only other on the station, as well; if he complains of sickness or shows any of the same signs, I will summon you to the Brig, where he is being contained. Winterfire out."

"Yes Captain. I am currently in Lara's lab next door, but I will attend her immediately." She replied before turning back to Lara. "Since that recorder has on the station and you may have been exposed, please advise me immediately if you begin experiencing any unusual sensations or symptoms."

Excusing herself she headed immediately next door to await the arrival of the Alumina. She had not detected anything unknown - in the way of chemicals, biologicals or radiation on the body of Officer Tzu - and she hoped that it was just stress getting to the disdainful Decius.

Corridors...

The kitsune spacer looked with confusion and apprehension at Decius. He couldn't understand a word she was saying, and she looked absolutely pissed. "Chief Engineer," he began, voice colored with trepidation, but she gave a cry and he was thrown back, smashing against the bulkhead and crumpling to the floor. The blow, while powerful, didn't carry enough force to do serious damage, and, though winded, the kitsune was protected by his armor and staggered to his feet, wheezing. He edged back, hand dropping to his service pistol, unwilling to draw a weapon on a superior officer, especially the feared Alumina, putting his other hand out as if to ward off further attacks. "Easy now..." He murmured, backing away. "Nice kitty..."

Meanwhile Vix was just stepping out of the hanger bay, and witnessed the scene. "Great Qonn..." She muttered, drawing back into the doorway, frozen between going to intervene and retreating into the relative safety of the hanger and summoning security.

Brig...

Winterfire stepped into the brig, nodding to the Marine who rose to his feet and snapped off a salute. "At ease," he turned and looked at the lone detainee, looking the Hybrid from the tip of his tail to the two pointed ears that rose (now flattened) out of the top of his head. Vash stared back sullenly, unmoving, lounging against the force field wall, eyes meeting Winterfire's. The Captain and Security Chief stared at each other for a moment, then Winterfire drew up a chair, easing onto it and leaning forward, arms folded across the back, fixing the other with a cool intensity that was reflected in the smoldering yellow eyes of the other. Then the Master and Commander of the Exile let out a long sigh, shaking his head.

"Acting Chief of Security Vash, you are our prime suspect in the murder of one Calaverian GOU, who was found on deck Six in a portside airlock. He had been slashed multiple times with what appears to be a lightsaber, killed recently, inside of two hours. What do you say to this?" He shifted slightly.

"I killed him." Vash said simply.

There was a short silence.

"Why?" asked Winterfire finally.

"Assault on a superior officer," the other responded, licking his lips, twitching. Why won't it go away? The infernal buzz was back again, and it seemed to be getting louder. "I disciplined Lieutenant Frosty, and one of his men decided to attack me. I responded in self-defense, Captain."

Did he detect a note of smugness there? "Is that so? Why did you feel the need to react in such a...violent manner?"

"The hostility was quite apparently, he picked me up off the ground," Vash seemed to be getting annoyed. "He attacked me, I killed him. End of story."

"Do you recognize that your response was disproportionate?" Winterfire was debating with himself. Technically, Vash had done nothing wrong: It was fully within his rights to defend himself against assault, but the kitsune Captain had no way of knowing if he was telling the truth, or if he had killed the man out of spite, or just for fun. There was no use going to the Calaverians, they would tell a different version that would incriminate Vash, or worse. And no other crew member had witnessed the event, so it was impossible to know. Of course, Winterfire could have Emma council the castaway, she would know if he was lying or not, but Vash was giving off a vibe Winterfire didn't like...

"Damnit, why are you always asking me questions?" Vash shouted angrily, instantly losing his composed posture, standing up in his cell, hand reaching for the lightsaber that wasn't there. The Marine by the door started, but Winterfire merely raised an eyebrow. "There's no need to yell, Chief of Security-"

"Rrrgh!" One eye was twitching almost spasmodically, and the prisoner crashed up against the force field, making it flare and glow red. "They won't get out," he hissed, "they won't leave..." This last word turned into a choked-off sob, and his head lowered, tousled hair falling over his face. "I'll make them leave!" He smashed against the barrier again, a wild grin on his face, eyes wide, pupils dilated. "I'll fucking kill you!" He lashed out.

Winterfire stood up, surprised, while the Marine behind him began to work at the controls, trying to vent gas into the chamber to sedate Vash. An instant later there was a hiss and the sound of energy carving though metal and the lightsaber sprang free from its hold, whirling over the ducked heads of Winterfire and the soldier. Vash reached out with the Force, but this wasn't the subtle manipulations of a Xiscapian priest or skilled Jedi; these were the uncontrolled bursts of a Dark Jedi. The control panel to the cell smashed, sparking, and the force fields dropped as one, setting Vash free. "Look out!" The guard lunged in front of Winterfire, tugging his sidearm from it's holster, rifle forgotten by the door, but there was a blast of power from Vash and the soldier went tumbling back, slamming against the bulkhead, falling to the floor and lying still.

Winterfire was backpedaling as Vash's saber landed in his outstretched hand, drawing his own katana, knowing his blaster would be worse than useless. "Stand down, Vash!" Winterfire spoke his name for the first time, a forceful command, and it actually made the Hybrid hesitate for a moment. Then he attacked almost as quickly, and the swords met with a squeal and a crack, the cortosis repelling the energy of the energy blade. "Too late, Captain" Vash hissed, eyes clouded, not really seeing anything before him, "it's my ship, now." They were locked together, and Vash took one hand off his weapon, fingers crushing into his palm to form a fist. In an instant Winterfire had left the floor, katana clattering to the deck, floating and clutching his throat, making little gurgling noises as he struggled to breath. "I taught myself this little trick, you know," Winterfire could see, though vision streaked with spots and growing hazy, that Vash's eyes were bright, pupils contracted down to slits, and somehow he knew that it wasn't really Vash speaking. It was something else, something dark, twisted and ugly, hidden. "I'm glad you're the first to experience it..."

The Xiscapian Captain dropped to the floor, unconscious before he hit it, folding up and lying curled in a ball, deep bruises visible on his neck. "So sorry," Vash grinned madly. "But I couldn't let you get in the way." He stepped over the prone form and casually walked out the door, crimson lightsaber swinging back and forth in his grip, seemingly slightly hunched, and any psychic, Force or magic user within a lightyear would be able to sense the sudden burst of power.

Science Lab

Lara did not hear what Ishtar said as she left the little room that she called her own. She supposed that it was something to do with a Medical Emergency within the crew. She turned back to her device, reading the data as it streamed from the little pocket scanner that Decius had attached to the console. Why it had not killed her in the same manner as it had killed Tzu, she did not yet know. She would continue to pour over the information until something came up. She had not realised it before, but she enjoyed pouring over facts like this, expanding her knowledge of unknown cultures and peoples. Maybe this was her Calling, to forever wander this unknown sector of space, helping her Saviours to learn all they can of this region of space.

However, as she fiddled with a part within the device, the lighting dimmed, deep red, emergency lights began to flash in the corners of the Medical Bay along with a two tone siren. Lara looked up at the lights, eyes dilated with fear. Something was going on. Something bad. She knew that she should attend her station on the bridge. That was where she meant to be in a situation like this, a Red Alert. She did know what had caused it and she dreaded finding out. She closed her eyes for a moment, shutting out the violence of the alarm. She could hear people running about outside, the harsh calls of military orders. She felt out with the force, reaching into the neverending space where everything had a feel, a touch, something to identify it. Even movements had their own signature within the force. She could sense them all, the ship was full of it. Full of fear and determination.

Though there was something else. Fear. Anger. Panic. Madness.

Vash!

Lara leapt up as the stinging sensation reached her mind. He was behind all this! She could sense something within him. Something that should not have been there, something she had never sensed before. She turned and made to leave the Labratory. However, as she reached the door, she turned hesitantly and looked at the long silver device sitting on the desk next to her scanning equipment. She looked at it for a moment, debating within herself. Vash was on a rampage, he was trying to takeover the ship. She was one of only a few who could face him.

She stretched her hand out towards the silver handle, using powers she had not practised with since she had been rescued. The handle flew into her hand, fingers automatically gripping around it. It felt somehow comforting but, at the same time, scary. She had to face him.

Lara had chosen her side as she ran into the corridors and quickly located Vash. She stood, barring his path, lightsabre in her hand. She seemed to be shaking, staring at him, wondering where the loving, caring Brother she had grown up with had gone. Had she been like this as well?

"Vash?" She asked cautiously, tears building in the corners of her eyes, "Is that you? What's happened? What have you done?"

She fingers tightened on the handle, forcing her mind to prepare for battle.

Living Quarters

Decius stalked through the corridors, her pistol at the ready within her long, slender grasp. She was moving quickly but silently, ignoring the alarms, sirens and calls on her vox for her to return to her post. To her warped mind, they all confirmed what she had initially believed. This was a Danaversian attack. They were going to capture the ship. She was the only Alumina left, all the others were dead or captured, the later being the worse fate in her case.

Her breath was rapid and shallow, eyes straining in the darkness to find the first signs of a Danaversian assualt on her. Fear gripped her paranoid mind as she advanced through the Crew Quarters, deserted as the Crew attended to their own Stations or hunted for a mad Jedi. She was alone in the silence. She was almost sobbing she was that frightened.

Danaversians! Her mind filled with memories, facts, lies and propaganda. They were going to capture her, the worst fate imaginable to her Race. Capture meant Slavery, abuse, rape, torture and, if one was lucky, a slow and agonising death. She had seen it before, when they had captured Warships to find Alumina aboard, broken in every way, barely able to breath, unable to move, eyes, fingers and other parts gone, begging for death with ounce of their shattered strength. She had killed more than one herself, the only time when she had gotten such a strong sense of satisfaction from killing another Being. As if killing this Alumina had made her life so many times better. The bodies would be brought back, sometimes by mere Teenagers, young Cadets whose first taste of war was to watch a shredded relation burned to Severus, the Alumina god.

It was at this time that one realised why the Alumina had become like they were, what they were famous for. Decius had once been a young Cadet, full of life, energy and curiousity, keen to see the world, but keeping it to herself carefully. Then war had squeezed the youth from her. She had understood why she had to be as she was. The mind could take so much cruelty on a daily basis. Decius had cried when she was younger, cried for those who had been so badly mutilated and violated by Danaversians. Over time, the tears had stopped flowing and the resolve and stiffened. She was cold, heartless and detached because she could not bear to see her proud Comrades so humbled. Every Aluminan went to bed with the nightmare of being captured.

They would not get her!

She reached the end of the Crew Quarters and headed down the lift, down towards the cargo hold. She had to destabilise the Core, she had to destroy the ship. If the Danaversians were already here, then most of the crew would be dead. The Survivors would understand why she had to destroy the ship. She would do it. She was not afraid to die, but she was afraid of killing herself, knowing that if she hesitated, then she and all of her Comrades would soon be tortured Slaves. She would initiate the last line of defence, the auto-destruct sequence.

They would never get her!

Bridge

"What the hell is happening?"

Campbell asked in frustration, looking over the screens of her Bridge crew as the sirens continued to wail. Things had moved so quickly that she had really been left with little information on what was happening. It had all started when a shortage had been detected near to the Brig, followed by a Security Report from Lieutenant Vix telling of how Decius had attacked a Crewmember in the Crew Quarters. Things had suddeny gone to crap. She had no idea where most of the Senior staff was as the crew collapsed around her.

She could not contact the Captain, she could not contact the Brig, she could not contact the Chief Engineer, she could not contact the Science Officer or the Medical Bay, nor the resident Veela. Perhaps the destroyed console had cut out some signalling equipment in the process. Had the Diagnostics Officer been alive, then she could have checked it out, for the moment though, the Ensign who had replaced him seemed to have his hands full trying to stop the Brig erupting into flames from the destroyed panel.

"Can't tell, Ma'am," Stacy reported, concerned for both Vix and her Daughter, Vix had contacted that she was safe, staying out of sight until required otherwise. But her Daughter was gone, she could be anywhere. She could be...no...she couldn't be.

"Damn, damn, damn," If this where in Alversian space, Campbell would have called for another ship to assist her, but for the moment, she was on her own, "Can you find the Chief Engineer?"

"She's on Deck Five Ma'am, heading down towards the hold."

"The Hold?" Campbell was confused, there was nothing down there. Nothing of importance. Nothing that could be used in a situation like this. She racked her brains, trying to recall the Design Specifications of the ship. She cursed the Alumina silently, knowing that whatever she missed, the Cheif Engineer would know perfectly. How the hell had she gotten into this mess?

Then it came to her! There was one panel there! One Panel that she had always supposed was out of place, but made sense at the same time, for it was so well hidden that no one who had never seen the plans would know that it was there. Decius knew it was there and now Campbell knew it was there as well. The blood ran from her face as she thought it, what it could do.

'God alive, deliver us'

She looked down at Stacy, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder and speaking with a confidence she didn't feel,

"Flight Officer? Send a Security Detachment to the Brig please. Have a Security team meet me on Deck Six"

"Ma'am?" Stacy turned to watch the Lieutenant Commander leave the Brigde, jumping up towards the door and into the lift, accompanied by one of the four Marines who stood on the bridge at Red Alert.

"Trust me," Campbell answered as the lift doors slide shut. She sighed deeply, trying to steady herself. She tapped her vox in the silence, trying to contact another member of Senior staff,

"Lady Ishtar? If you can hear this, please make your way to the Brig with a Medical Team. I fear I have lost contact with the Captain and I am worried about his fate. Please get there as soon as possible."

She finished, tapped off her vox and exhaled deeply, trying to calm her nerves. If she was wrong, or if she was too slow then she would not have time to regret it.

They would all be dead.

Walter had been idle, the being had been wandering the halls of the ship, as it often did, ever since the alert had gone off, simply because it had nothing to do. However, the Drone was no longer relaxed and calm, the signature red circles had formed in its eyes and many of the aspects which had made it seem 'human' had vanished. Genocide Protocol had been activated, rank 2 at that, by the sudden energy spike. Walter recited the order as it was given to him, "Genocide Protocol Rank Two, active. Seek and Destroy measures are to be taken. Neutral parties are to be treated as allies unless they seek to hinder the Genocide Protocol. Enemy parties are to be eliminated without question or hesitation. These are the orders given, these orders shall be carried out." Walter paused for a few seconds, trying to grasp where the sudden surge of unnatural energies had come from. Once it had a general idea of where they had originated, the Drone bolted at full speed back to its quarters. Walter had to make sure Lia was aware of the situation before charging into battle. Walter passed Decius on his way to Lia, not slowing down and apparently unaware of anyone else's presence. Nothing was going to keep it from its objective.
Walter arrived back at it and Lia's quarters in a couple of minutes and was quick to enter, finding Lia in her Leanorian garb, and preparing herself fot battle. Her spear lay against the wall and her gun was fully loaded, sitting on her bed. "Yes, I felt it too," she said casually to the Drone, "What's our plan of attack?" Walter said nothing for a moment, comtemplating what would be best, "We don't have one. I'll be tackling this problem alone." Lia looked up, about to protest but Walter continued, "You will find and alert anyone else you come across to be on their guard. Don't alert security until we know what's going on. Stay away from the area the spike came from." Lia shook her head, "No way in hell-" Walter bolted forward, faster than any creature would be able to comprehend, and grabbed Lia, its cold and lifeless hand on her shoulder, "Do not argue with me, agent. I have issued your orders and as a loyal minister to the Forbidden, you will follow those orders with hesitation or question. Do you understand?" Lia's eyes widened as she realized it wasn't Walter talking to her, but a superior simply using Walter as a means of transmitting a message, it had been a the first direct order she'd gotten in years. "Y-yes sir. I- I understand. Warn anyone I come across, do not alert security yet, stay away form the danger zone. I will follow your orders without hesitation or question," she said, her voice was shaky and slightly fearful. The Drone's hand moved from her shoulder and the being turned to leave, "Stay alive, Lia." The Drone looked back, apparently fighting the Genocide Protocol to give one last message of its own, "Please. Stay. Alive." With that, Walter was gone, continuing to where the Vash was, unaware of what was happening. Lia took her gun and spear, placing both back in the storage system which she then placed in her pocket, if she was going to warn others on the ship, it would be best not to be carrying a weapon while doing so.

Ishtar stiffened at the burst of raw, violent Force, it echoing through her. She was moving even before the communication from the bridge.

"Lady Ishtar? If you can hear this, please make your way to the Brig with a Medical Team. I fear I have lost contact with the Captain and I am worried about his fate. Please get there as soon as possible."

"Understood" She replied as she told the others to prepare for a sudden influx of injuries. "Be prepared for anything" she advised them as she left, moving at speed. She did not go directly to the brig however. There were items she had that might well be necessary, but they were in the storage containers in her quarters.

Ishtar moved far swifter than any human, Kitsune or drone but arrived at the brig to find Vash gone, the captain barely alive and the guard deeply unconscious.

Captain Winterfire was slowly dying of a crushed larynx, and the immediate necessity was to create an airway below the damage. Quickly Ishtar set up to perform that small but lifesaving surgery, while sending a communication to the medical team to be ready for her and her patient’s arrival.

Brig...

A quick check of the guard would have revealed that, though the kitsune was unconscious and had suffered trauma, it was not life-threatening and did not require immediate medical attention. Captain Winterfire, however, was now lying on his back, eyes heavily lidded and glazed, it appeared that he did not recognize Ishtar leaning over him. He could not speak due to the injury, and it didn't seem that, in his state, that he would be able to even if he could have. There was the pounding of boots on the deck and two Marines, one in Xiscapian armor, one in Alversian, came in, rifles unslung and held out, scanning for threats, stepping carefully over the bits of plastic and metal debris that littered the room. The kitsune trotted down the cell block while the human stayed by the door, looking up and down the hall. "All clear," the first reported, coming back, tail twitching in agitation at the sight of Winterfire and one of his comrades lying on the deck. The Alversian looked down at Ishtar, and, seeing she was in the middle of a quick operation, stood at the ready if he was needed but did not speak, not wanting to disturb her.

Medical Bay...

The two doctors, nurses and the orderly prepared the medical bay, clearing the operating tables, setting up the equipment, and placing at hand a number of potentially life-saving devices, including bacta canisters, tiny cellular replication and regeneration factories, nanobot swarm assistants and cloning vats. A number of other more mundane tools were put out, including bandages, scalpels, painkillers, scanners and other more personal, close-up items. Modern technology could fix almost anything short of death, but the Lady had told them to be ready for anything, so they were. Now they could only wait and see what time would bring.

Deck Six...

Six Marines, a quarter of the Exile's total security force, met Campbell and her guard. The troops were hardly elite: They'd been placed here either because they were green, they were coming near discharge and needed a few quiet last days, or it had been convenient for them to be placed there. Nevertheless, the kitsune and humans alike had quality training from their own nations, and were well-equipped. They were slightly shaken by the recent events, but more than confident they would be able to take care of any internal problems.

Halls...

Vash stopped when he saw Lara, a slow smile crawling across his features. "Sweet sister, dear sister," he murmured, blade held down at his side. "How could I ever hurt thee?" His eyes glittered: The adolescent was clearly mad, face lit by the eerie glow of his red sword, making shadows dance around him. "Ah, yes," the blade came up, "like this!" The last words were an angry snarl, and he lunged, swinging, the slash of the saber coming horizontally to cut his sibling in half.

Deck Six

Campbell nodded to the Security team, sadly noting how many of them looked either too young or too old for this sort of work. None looked confident in what they were about to do. Campbell drew her own pistol quickly, making sure that it was on safety, before entering the lift,
"Hold," She said to no one, though the lift began to move slowly downwards. She looked at the team that was with her in the lift,
"Stun only when you see the Chief Engineer. I don't her injured beyond what is needed."

They were soon in the darkness,
"Spread out," She hissed, "Two to a team"

Halls

Lara feel back desperately, her own lightsabre rising just in time to deflect his attack away. The force of it though, forced her off balance, which she was barely able to maintain for a moment. She looked at Vash with a combination of fear and determination. She could not let him hurt anyone else, she wouldn't let him hurt anyone else.
But could she hurt him?
"Vash..." She whispered, tears running down her face. She couldn't fight him. He would destroy her.

The area of the kitusne's neck was quickly prepped and sterilized. Then she applied a vasoblocker pair - two tiny devices that would temporarily block all blood flow to the area. With one precise swipe of her laser Ishtar made the tracheotomy - a small curvilinear skin incision though to the trachea, just below the crushing damage. Instantly she then inserted a sterile, semi rigid tube to hold the incision open. Thus the Captain would be able to inhale.

She rocked back on her knees as he drew his first whooping breath. Lifting away the vaso blockers she encircled the tube with a nano infused healing gel. This would not only keep the tube from shifting while he was being transported, but would seal out any bacteria from entering the incision. The tube has it's own filter to keep anything adverse from reaching Winterfire's lungs.

Later once she had the chance to fully repair the crushed area she would be able to remove the tube and seal the incision.

She looked over at the Marines. "Open that Transport tube and I will need your help in taking the Captain to the Medical Bay" She nodded to the one of two she had brought and waited while they expanded it. Once that was done she used her built in pressors to levitate the Captain's body and place him in the tube. With that done she sealed it and activated it's environmental controls, so that it had a slight positive pressure within.

Then the injured security offiver was placed in the other and she directed them to be taken to the Medical Bay.

Medical Bay...

"What's the diagnosis?" called out one of the doctors as Ishtar and the two Marines came in bearing the Captain and their fallen comrade. The downed soldier was still knocked out, but Winterfire's eyes fluttered and he appeared to be conscious, though whether he was actually awake and aware of what was going on around him was unknown.

Hold...

"If she's down here ma'am, we'll find her," the lead soldier saluted, and the seven Marines put their rifles on Stun, fanning out and covering each others backs. "Switch to thermal imaging," one trooper murmured over his closed vox, and their vision turned from the dim gloom of the hold, nearly pitch black to human eyes, to a wash of blues, greens, yellows and red identifying varying degrees of heat. The Chief Engineer would show up quickly, at which point they would be able to hunt her down, subdue and detain her.

Halls...

The other didn't answer, instead pressing the attack, hammering away at her defenses with a single-minded determination. Vash had always been the superior swordsman of the two, due in part to his Xiscapian blood and also to his fascination with striking weapons, particularly the lightsaber. In under a minute had had overcome her blocks and parries and swept Lara's weapon away from her, swatting the lightsaber away to slide across the deck. Now Vash advanced upon her, pulling back a hand and slamming a blast of Force energy towards her, full of unthinking hatred and malice. The sibling was thrown back almost to the top of the corridor, flailing, and fell into a crumpled heap at the bottom, bruised badly. A grin split his face and Vash let go of his saber, sword floating beside him and, arms outstretched, hands curling, fingers pointed, let free a shock of blue lightening, shocking Lara where she lay.

Decius was still in the Hold, down with one of the emergency consoles, muttering to herself in Aluminan, making all the changes that would be needed to blow the ship into the next world. No Danaversians to worry about, no fear of capture. She would do her duty and no one could think badly of her. Not her own Race and not these ineffecient ones that she had been stuck with...

...others? The thought struc Decius for a moment and she stumbled, holding her head. She was on an Alumina ship, with a totally Aluminan crew, almost all of whom where dead. So why did she remember others? A Captain...Winterfire, she remembered it, she couldn't remember it. She couldn't. This was an Aluminan ship, she was confusing herself with memories of the past, an old ship she had been on, nostalgia at time of death was common. She blocked it out.

"Lieutenant!"

Decius turned, wild-eyed to see an Alversian Woman standing there, wearing the uniform of the APN. She recognised her, she thought she did anyway. She tried to place the face, taking several seconds before a name floated through the muddy memories. Camp...bell. What in the name of Sevenus was she doing here?!

"Lieutenant, step away from the Console!" She shouted and that dragged Decius into the depths of madness again. She wanted her to stop destroying the ship! She was a turncoat! Working for the Danaversians!

"No!" Decius replied in defiance and pointed her pistol at the Alversian. She fired numerous times, hitting nothing but air as Campbell rolled into cover, the lasers flying down the hull and melting into the walls of the ship. She continued with her task, setting up all systems, all it would take was one word.

A flash. She was back. Decius closed her eyes for a moment, wishing the terrible headache would go away. Then she looked at what she was doing. She gasped aloud in shock. She was trying to destroy the Exile! And she didn't remember any of it.
"Co...Commander?" She called hesitantly, dropping her pistol to the floor, putting her hands up to show that she was surrendering.

Campbell came out of cover again, where she had been praying, for the only way she could have stopped the bigger creature from destroying the ship would have been to charge her and be shot by the blasts of plasma, now though, it seemed Decius had recovered from her madness. For the moment anyway.

"Take her to the Medical Bay," She instructed the Marines who had been drawn by the sounds of gunfire, "Erect a forcefield around the entire bay"
As the Marines led her off, she coming peacefully. Campbell let out a loud sigh of relief. Decius had been so close to destroying the ship. One more button was all it would have taken. Campbell quickly deactivated the sequence, then the terminal and left the Hold.

Halls

Lara gasped in panic and fear as the lightsabre shot from her hand. Vash had always been superior, mostly because of his physical traits and partly because he had sparred relentlessly with their master, while she had always been more content to manipulate the force around her and use it as a weapon. Her lightsabre skills had been sadly deglected. Now it was going to kill her.
She felt the lightening connect with her as she lay on the ground and her wholo body instantly felt like it was on fire. She squirmed under the attack, jerking this way and that, a heart wenching scream coming from her lips, eyes closed against the pain.
"Vash!" She screamed in her agony, "Please! Stop!" She dragged the last two words out as he attacked her again, unable to stand the agony, she continued to cry at the top of her voice, helpless. Why was he doing his to her?

Elsewhere though, another Being sensed her pain. Her quick walk turned into a run as she pounded towards the fight.

"What's the diagnosis?"

"His larnyx has been crushed. We will have to repair it tomorrow after he has had a night to strengthen. For now he just needs to rest."

Shjortly the captain had been placed into an induced medical coma via a somagen head band. He would feel no pain and his healing would be at a much higher rate as his body did not have to overcome the stresses of a conscious mind.

The injured security officer was slid into one of the beds to rest - his wounds packed with nano quick heal gell and his bruises and blunt force trauma being taken care of by a hypospray of antishock and system booster.

When Decius, escorted by the assigned Marines arrived, Ishtar listened to their report and Campbells orders to put a forcefield around the entire bay. "I will do so but it will be one I can control, as I wish to be able to enter and leave freely."

She had already felt the massive spike in the Force as Vash and Lara fought. She felt she needed to be there but her first duty was to those she already knew were injured.

Ishtar looked at the Alumina "What exactly were you experienceing?"

Medical Bay...

"I will do so but it will be one I can control, as I wish to be able to enter and leave freely."

"Yes ma'am," the Marine in charge nodded, unlocking the plasma cuffs that had been placed over Decius's wrists. "I'll be posting guards for the safety of the crew, Medical Officer, they'll be right outside."

Two soldiers peeled off to flank the door of the medical bay as the field came down over it, while the remaining five trotted off back to Campbell.

Corridor...

Vash's eyes took on an inner light, reflected from the violent electric blue bursts of lightening from his hands, and he was laughing as he did so, laughing madly, drinking up her pain and torment, grinning, until-

It all ceased. He stood, looking with confusion at his hands, lightsaber dropping with a clatter to the deck beside him. He looked from his fingers to Lara, and there was fear in his eyes. "Lara?" He lowered his arms, moving cautiously towards her, almost as if afraid. "What-"

And then the electricity burst from his hands again, throwing Lara back, and he was snarling, eyes wide and glowing, teeth bared, shaking with each volt. He began to speak, voice barely recognizable as a language, and there was no hint of his previous tone or infliction in that wild, angry, seething voice.

"If ever words were spoken
Painful and untrue
I said I loved but I lied
In my life
All I wanted
Was the keeping
Of someone like you
As it turns out
Deeper within me
Love was twisted and pointed at you..."

"Never ending pain, quickly ending life-"

A furious burst of fearsome agony, and he was screaming, almost incomprehensible-

"You keep us low! Fist! Low! Skull! Low! Break!"

...and then it receded and he became understandable.

"You keep this love, thing, child, toy
You keep this love, fist, scar, break
You keep this love

I'd been the tempting one
Stole her from herself
This gift in pain
Her pain was life
And sometimes I feel so sorry
I regret this, the hurting of you
But you make me so unhappy
I'd take my life and leave love with you..."

His tone was low and dark now, a frightening growl.

"I'd kill myself for you, I'd kill you for myself-"

Then the same unbearable pain, the same twisted, evil voice.

"You keep us low! Fist! Low! Skull! Low! Break!"

A footfall behind him.

Vash turned, visage contorted, teeth gnashing, pupils turned to slits, and saw Elamna. If anything he seemed to grow even more enraged, lightsaber igniting and flying into his hand, blade hissing. He approached with deliberation, every step pounding like the fall of a tomb door.

"No"

Step.

"More."

Step.

"Head."

Step.

"Tricks!"

He lunged, slashing with strength he had never known before, and the Veelic Jedi knew Vash had been possessed by the Dark Side of the Force.

"What exactly were you experiencing?"

Decius allowed herself to be locked behind the forcefield, looking ragged with her breath coming in deep pants. She looked exhausted, weak and frightened. She stopped to think about what had happened to her,

"Well," Decius tried and failed to keep her fear from her voice, "I...I guess I was just doing what I would do. There was...is...a ringing in my head...it's telling me to do things...it's like I can see what I'm doing but I can't control it. I'm only a Spectator," She stopped for a moment and put her hands to her head, screwing her eyes tightly shut,
"Oh Gods, that noise! It won't stop!" She fell onto one knee, "I can't control it, I can't ignore it. It's driving me mad!" Decius seemed to lose control for a moment, panic infecting her very being. It seemed a strange change from the normally so cool and calm Alumina,
"You have to get it out, I can't go on like this" She collapsed backwards, perfectly still, seemingly knocked out by this strange ringing noise that had entered her being and was slowly driving her insane.

Halls

Elamna needed just a fraction of a second to see Lara lying smoking on the ground and Vash charging at her. She was almost knocked back, not by the physical force of his attack, but from the blackness that radiated from his soul. He had been overrun by the darkside. It was controlling everything he did and said. It had nearly killed his sister. She could sense life in the prone Hybrid, but it was faint. He really had knocked her about. That made Elamna angry, and Veela were not good people to get angry.

She stood and stared cooly at his attack, as if it were a small and futil endevour. Her entire body seemed to be radiating a strange blue light that made her ears stand slightly and her clothes rustle as if caught in a gentle breeze. By itself, the lightsabre flew from her belt and blocked Vash's attack, the curved blade a brilliant white colour that drowned out even her blue auroa, though the two seemed to be in unity rather than competition. Once the inital attack had been repelled, Elamna grabbed the handle and held it in a combat stance,

"Vash," Her voice seemed to command the very particles themselves, such was the authourity with which it was spoken, "Look what you have done," She pointed her lightsabre at Lara's still figure, "Look at what you have done to your loyal, loving Sister."

Bridge

Meanwhile, Campbell had returned to the bridge and looked around exhaustedly,
"Operations Officer," She said, referring to Vix, "Please give me a full sensors sweep, most advanced setting. We need to find out what is causing this and, more importantly, if it will spread" Campbell was alarmed by the idea of taking permenant command of the ship. She hoped the Captain would recover soon.

"You have to get it out, I can't go on like this"

Scooping the Alumina up as she fell Ishtar laid her on one of the medical beds. She promptly brought out a finely tuned, ultra sensitive EEG reader and slipped the electrodes on either side of Decius's head. It would not only scan the various rythms of her brain but the activities of the various lobes and regions of the brain. Additonally it would produce an equivallent of an MRI, detailing any physical changes on the individual cellular structure, at a resolution of the cellular level.

But while it happened, it would also keep Decius asleep, and thus safe.

It would take some time, for the scan was deep and very thorough. While it was on going Ishtar would take other samples of the Almuinas biometrics to see how this was also affecting her body.

Bridge...

"Yes ma'am," Vix turned and bent over her console, relieved to be down on the bridge and away from whatever was happening in the rest of the ship. The command center of the Exile, like any Xiscapian or Alversian vessel, was unassailable from both the exterior and the inside: It would be easier to destroy the entire ship than to penetrate the extensive defenses of the bridge. Vix frowned as she watched the devices run continual sweeps of the light cruiser, dozens in the space of a few seconds, and she had her results in less than a tenth of a minute. "Radiation levels, magnetic levels, gravitational levels, electrical levels, power distribution levels, oxygen-waste ratio level, oxygen recycling levels and flux capacitor levels are all nominal. However, we appear to have fluctuating energy levels on Deck Six, and it appears all surveillance access to that area has been knocked offline. Additionally I cannot access brig surveillance equipment, and biological scanning of Deck Six indicate though emission rates, weight distribution on select surfaces and molecular composition that we possibly have one, maybe two, wounded in that area." She looked expectantly at the Executive Officer, waiting not for further orders, but to see what she would do about the news.

Deck Six...

Elamna, however commanding she might be, held no sway over the Dark side.

"Loyal sister?" Vash hissed, flourishing his blade with a hum. One could hear his voice, but it was subdued and monotone, nearly drowned out by the prevailing raspy snarl of...something else. "This scum turned her back on all we could have had and tried to betray me! I have no sister!"

Bridge

Campbell pursed her lips at the news from Vix and sighed. She supposed that she should lead another team down there and see what was going on. But she had command of the Bridge, of the ship, she couldn't storm off when she wanted to where she wanted. She had to be disciplined and in control. She sighed heavily and tapped her vox,
"Bridge to the Medical Bay, this is Commander Campbell, we need Medical Personnel dispatched to Deck Six immediately, reports of wounded Crewmember in that area. Ishtar, I would prefer it if you went along. There is something happening on that Deck that we can't detect and, if Decius' condition is stable enough to permit it, I think you're the ideal candidate."

Deck Six

"You betrayed yourself Vash," Elamna replied, holding her own blade towards the floor in a seemingly disarming fashion, "You betrayed her the moment you tried to hurt her. She never had anything but love for you and you turned your back on her. I can sense a good Vash struggling in there, but you need to fight it. This is not who you are. This is not what you wanted to become. She was willing to die for you."

Hours would pass as the very thorough scans took in every change and fluctuation in the Alumina’s mind, no matter how subtle they were.

“There is something happening on that Deck that we can't detect and, if Decius' condition is stable enough to permit it, I think you're the ideal candidate”

Ishtar did not need to sit in the medical bay doing little, which was all she could do there at the moment and Campbell’s communications allowed her to give rein to her deep feelings of disquiet.

“I will be heading that way immediately” she replies and taking her Aumani medical kit with her, she quickly gave orders on what to do if Decius or the Captain exhibited any changes. Then on fleet feet, and accompanied by one of the other medics, she headed to the location where the terrible stresses in the Force were emanating.

Outside the Medical Bay...

"Medical Officer?" The orderly was trying to put on a brave face, but his voice trembled a bit, and she knew he was frightened, dragging the stretcher at a feverish pace. His gray tail flicked back and forth in agitation, ears twitching at every sound. "What do you think is going on down there?"

Deck Six...

Vash's face contorted, warped and twisting, caught somewhere between a snarl and a smile, eyes lidded and dark, then bright, then closed, then wide. He seemed to be having trouble controlling himself, but he choked out a few more words. "Then...she had better hurry...and do so-"

Without warning he broke off, swinging at Elamna. She had seen Vash try to break through, and though he'd been swallowed back up by the Dark side, his movements were slower and less precise than before. He was struggling with the Dark side, and both were grappling for control of his body while it continued to behave aggressively, still at the will of the power.

Elamna easily drew her sabre up in time to deflect the attack from the struggling Youngster, effortlessly parrying his attempted strike upon her. She had had no need to move, no need to even look in his direction, yet it left more than enough of an opening to cut him in half if she desired. Yet she refrained,
"I know you're in there Vash," She said softly, "You need to fight. For her"

"What do you think is going on down there?"

Ishtar gave the orderly a bracing look and a comforting pat on the shoulder as they too the turbo lift down to deck six. "I am uncertain, but it will be alright in the end. It's nothing we can't handle." She said reassureingly as the door slid open

"Stay behind me though" She ordered as she stepped forth, moving swiftly to follow the threads of the force she felt swiring furiously ahead..

The orderly was only too happy to obey, moving to fall in step behind Ishtar, dragging the stretcher behind him, tail whipping into a frenzy as they began to hear sounds of battle.

Deck Six...

There was the squealing, ear-peircing howl of the lightsabers meeting and crashing against each other, pressed together as Vash continued to try to force Elamna's blade back, which stayed as solid and immovable as rock. If anything his spasms were worse now, and he seemed to be pouring all his energy into just mantaining the same position, sweat pouring off his body, breathing heavily. Finally, with a great shudder and a groan, Vash dropped to the deck on his hands and knees, lightsaber clattering down next to him and turning itself off. "Waarrrgh!" He dropped fully onto his stomach, clutching his head, rolling and crying out as if he was being beaten. His hands balled into fists, extended splayed out, then contracted again, his eyes wide and then tightly shut, whole form shaking at the Jedi's feet.

Ishtar broke into a run as the sounds of combat stopped abruptly and a sudden agonized cry filled the brief silence.

Rounding the corner she brushed past Elamna. Going to her knees next to Vash she took him in her arms, craddeling him against her, speaking soothingly. Ishtar looked up at the Veelan Jedi "Can you block the Force from him? Cut off his contact for a time?"

She didn't know if her aura would be enough to protect him, she had never exteneded it, though she knew that theoretically it was possible.

In response Elamna knelt beside the youngster, lightsaber returned to it's place on her belt. She put her hand on his head and closed her eyes, face screwing up in concentration. She gasped for a moment with the effort but continued with what she was going. It took a moment before she looked at Ishtar and nodded,
"He's...free," She gasped, the effort of keeping the force from his thoughts was a draining experience, but she persisted.
"Help...her," She pointed to Lara who lay not far from Vash. She was barely breathing, unconcious and there was barely a pulse.

Deck Six...

"I've got him, ma'am," the orderly assured Ishtar, now beside Vash, who had curled up against Ishtar, eyes squeezed tightly shut, silent tears streaming down his face, wetting her skin and clothing, tail curled up between his legs. He seemed as weak and threatening as a mouse, and offered no resistance as the orderly helped the young Hybrid onto the stretcher. "She looks like she's gotten hit real bad, ma'am," he nodded to Lara, and turned to Elamna, hefting the stretcher. "You okay, mi'lady?"