NationStates Jolt Archive

At first sight, there was nothing surprising to be seen...

A random planet mostly covered in sea, of which the only possibly sentient inhabitants are large whale-like creatures.

A small spaceship in orbit around that planet, most sensors aimed at the beings in the sea. The cloaking of the seagreen ship is switched off.

Six humanoids on the spaceship, two of them the size of adult humans, one the size of a 7 year old human, and three of them really tiny.

But not everything is as unsurprising as it seems at first sight. Anyone who would move into a few kilometers wide area around the ship would get a strange feeling of cuteness. If they would be paying attention to their mood, anyway.

---

Jonathan read through the inventory listing of Harmony, which was the name of both the ship and the AI controlling it. They had found quite a lot of food on one of the islands in the sea below them. Wait, that's odd... The total number of medicines had changed.

J: "Harmony, who used what medicine since the last time I read the inventory?"
H: "Sanka used one dose of immunorepressants."
J: "What the flying tir?"
H: "I don't get it either, if one needs those one always needs them more than once."
J: "Have you noticed anything else about her?"
H: "Her hair is weird."
J: "Yes, it's dyed."
H: "I know that. What I mean is that her real color is supposed to be blond, but now it's green."
J: "What?!"

Suddenly it made sense.
J: "ANISKA! What on Fir!n do you think you're doing?"
A: "Reading a book, what does it look like?"
J: "You modified Sanka! You could have killed her!"
A: "That's ridiculous, I did no such thing."

Sanka walked into the room, and gave both of them a nervous look. Instantly Jonathan became calm again.
J: "Then how do you explain she's not pretending to be a hybrid anymore, but actually is one? Apart from you nobody here could have made that happen."
A: "Huh. I did dream of her becoming one... that time when she complained of having a nightmare... Oh I see... Sanka, how did you get my blood?"
S: "Remember you cut yourself by accident, and I cleaned up?"
A: "Right. That would have been the same day. ... You should have told us what you are."
J: "Eh? What is she?"
S: "I didn't want you to be afraid of me."
A: "And you certainly shouldn't have messed with our minds."
S: "It was only this once, because I knew you would say no."
A: "Hmpf. How are we supposed to know our thoughts and feelings about you are really ours?"
S: "They are. Knock me unconscious if you have to see for yourself."
A: "What? No!"
S: "Aniska, take that datapad and hit me on the head."

Aniska's face became devoid of emotion, she did what was asked of her.
The moment Sanka hit the floor, Aniska got back control of her own mind. The atmosphere of cuteness in the area around the ship was gone.

A: "Oh gods."
J: "What did you do?"
A: "What did I do?"

OOC random encounters plz?

OOC: Answering the call
IC:

A few hundred kilometers away, the familiar gravatation disturbance was formed as a Greywatch Explorer pulled out of PSR. The ship did a quick systems check and began moving forward, scanning the system as it went. Looked like someone was already here.

Some minutes later...

"I think I get her point. There is nothing I want more than her waking up, and she couldn't be forcing me to feel that" said Aniska. "Damnit she should have used you to beat herself, I'm way too strong."
She placed her hand on the head of the girl, and took control of the stolen nanos, telling them what to fix first.

Another minute later, Sanka opened her eyes, and Jonathan and Aniska grabbed their heads. A few high pitched screams came from the other room, and the big creatures in the sea below splashed about. Within a few seconds the shared pain stopped, as Sanka regained self control.
Aniska started crying and hugged Sanka.


This is the AI of the independent explorer Harmony. We are having a situation, and apologize if it caused any trouble. For the moment it's probably a good idea to keep some distance, but we may require assistance later.

The GAS Chrono raced across the blackness of space, continuing its exploration mission which is in its second year of duration. Captain Isaac Torich was sitting back in his command chair, in the Tactical Display area, reviewing a PDA filled with diagnostics reports and the continued reports about how his last meeting did. Suddenly an alert was showing on the TacDis, as Torich slowly raised his head towards the display. "Intel?"

"We are detecting something in the nearby system. Communications as it seems." Orelon reported.

"Can we get a hold of it?" Torich asked.

"Some parts sir, as their seems to be some kind of gravitational disturbance their."

"Upload it." Torich ordered.

"Yes sir. "

.his i. th. .I of t.. i..ep...ent e...orer Har.on.. W. ... ..ving a si..ation, ... a..logi.. .. it c...ed an. ...uble. .o. t.. m....t it's p..ba..y . go.. .dea to ke.. some distance, b.. .. ma. re...re assist.nce l..er.

"That's all we can get out of that mess sir. It seems they are in some serious trouble."

"Do you have the origin?"

"Yes sir, calculating in the gravitational disturbance we have a rough location"

"Alright, commence microjump to one AU away from that location."

"Yes sir."

The Chrono suddenly came out of its microjump a few moments later. Intel picked up the two ships immediately and uploaded it to the TacDis."I see... someone else got here before us. Well it can't hurt to try."

"This is Captain Isaac Torich of the Ganoxian Alliance Destroyer Chrono, we had picked up your message out of the system but were only getting sparse words from it if any at all. From our understanding it seems that you are in a bit of trouble. What assistance may you require?"

OOC IIRC the gravitational disturbance of Greywatch ships lasts only for the moment of their arrival, the message was sent after that, but never mind.

IC

Harmony promptly replied, but stuck to her strategy of not explaining what was going on.


This is the AI of the independent explorer Harmony. There's a problem with one of my crew members, which has also affected other beings in the system. For this reason I recommend to keep some distance, just in case it happens again. The same crew member has a headwound, and might require medical assistance, but at this point I'm unsure.


"Why... so... cold?" asked Sanka. Jonathan replied, "That's not you doing that? ... Harmony, what's wrong with the climate system?"
"Nothing. It's 21 degrees centigrade, not cold at all."
"Sanka, please tell me those whales we have been looking at aren't telepaths too."
"Whales?... Yes, telepaths."


This is the AI of Harmony again. If there seems to be something wrong with your climate systems too... well, that's not us doing that. I'm not sure what's going on.

The captain pondered the message for a moment, "Well that's odd, open a channel."

<Unidentified ship, from where do you hail and what kind of asistance do you require?>

The captain looked to his tactocal officer, "Get a squad on standby for blink." The tactical officer nodded and put out the request.

"Sanka, you have to ask them to stop doing that" said Jonathan.
"Can't. Would hurt them again."
"Guys, your temperatures are rising", Harmony mentioned.
"Get us out of here!"

Harmony made some estimates, then cursed.


Harmony again, my location is <coordinates/orbit>. There are a lot of really big-brained telepaths on the planet, and they're trying to kill my crew. By my estimates I can't get far away enough in time, someone with FTL please save them. Please, it's a misunderstanding, we're peaceful, please help us.

"And that seals the deal. Move forward and form a PSR shield bubble around them, now." As the captain spoke the ship quickly moved forward on maximum impulse. The 1.5Km ship slowly stretched its shields around the smaller, unknown vessel. AG technology brought the ship closer to the Explorer until the smaller ship was being held near the Explorer's belly. "Activate PSR, now. Broadcast coordinates." The Explorer put out a message of the coordinates it was about to jump to and was off. Another gravatational disturbance formed as a rift opened in front of the ship and it moved through, emerging in another systme altogether. "Open a channel to that ship we got with us."

<Unidentified ship, please explain what is going on. ANd what is wrong with your crew?>

OOC: PSR bubble keeps other ships inside of it from being crushed during PSR travel so don't worry bout your ship

J: "Harmony, are the little ones okay?"
H: "They're fine, they don't seem aware something bad happened."
J: "Good. I'll talk to the ones who saved us."


Greetings, my name is Jonathan, I'm a citizen of The Free Priesthood. Thanks for your help. This will sound a bit strange when explained in short... We discovered our employer is a telepath, and that she had made misuse of her skill. To prove she had not abused us apart from that one incident, she forced my partner to beat her unconscious. When she woke up, she accidentally broadcasted her pain, which made the beings on the planet angry.

<Well that sounds like a completely reasonable story.> Came the captain's voice, filled with sarcasm. <I've never heard of telepatchs before, so I have no idea what you mean by 'broadcasting pain,' perhaps it would be best if you came aboard our craft.>

The captain looked to comms, "Put a message through to Prime and let them know what's happened."

A warp hole-opened up in the depths of space, and the Angenterian vessel Pinnacle of Virtue pulled through. Compared the to heavy destroyers that patrolled the trade routes, and policed the Holy Imperium's borders, this was merely a frigate, with a mission of mapping out the system ahead for possible colonization. Immedietly, they began running systems checks before continuing.

"Running level one diagnostic... confirmed. No warp entities detected on board. All systems nominal, Captain."

"Excellent. Proceed with course."

"Captain, we're picking up multiple contacts. Aliens, by the looks of them."

"Aliens? Here? I thought this inhabitants of the system didn't present any warp-capable ships."

"They don't."

The captain thought to himself for a minute, before deciding the next course of action.

"Proceed to the area. Raise void-shields."

"Yes, sir."

The Angenterian vessel proceeded toward the alien vessels, unaware of their situation.

Greywatch:

A telepath or telepathist is someone whose mind connects directly to the minds of others. The ones on the planet tried to cook us by making us think we were cold, in response to our employer accidentally giving them a really bad headache for a few seconds. We'll be happy to visit you, but will understand if you'd rather stay far away from us.

"Hmm" said Jonathan, "at the very least Sanka should go, maybe she needs medical help that they can provide. But someone should stay here with the little ones, it's too easy to lose them on a big ship."
"I'll go with her" said Aniska. She put on the bandage Rose had given her, chances were she would have to talk a lot.

"By the way," asked Jonathan, "how come she isn't fully healed yet like you would be?"
"She doesn't have as many nanos as I do. It will take a while before she will, and that will only happen if she changes her diet."

There was a heavy pulsation, a crack like a thunderclap, as the DEV emerged from Hyperspace. Sensors and the like, esoteric high technology and the mind of a bored Shipbrain, had brought them racing across the vastness of space, ricocheting through hyperspace just to see what was going on. It had been a long voyage, fruitless and empty for the most part, aside from worlds entirely devoid of sentients, where they had stopped to explore, play and otherwise indulge for a time.

"Sooooo...." The woman said, leaning forward on her elbows against a ledge, gazing at the massive wall-dominating screen-field that the ship was projecting, tilting her head lightly as she regarded the situation. "What've we got here then?"

Number of unknown variables, only ones that match any formal records are a Greywatch Explorer. One of the original races who stumbled upon us and invoked, partially, this new age of getting out there and mingling.

"Oh right. Were they the fox-people?"

Those were Xiscapians. Greywatchers represented the dislikeable multi-species hegemony.

"I thought those were Alversians."

The Shipbrain seemed to sigh.

No, they were the agreeable multi-species hegemony. Trust me on that

"Fair enough. And we can't fathom the others?"

At least three diverse distinctions of craft, be it distinct species, species type or nationality, I can't say. Shall we say hello?

The woman, Katrn Leran, smiled and brushed a hand through her long black hair, which arced down her back almost to her buttocks. She bounced lightly on the balls of her feet, gazing out at the flawless visual representation of outside space.

Born and raised on one of Myenya's many orbital habitats, she had resided for the last 50 years on the DEV My Way Or Not At All, which had now stumbled upon this gathering of strange craft. It sent a tingle down her spine, diffusing into her limbs, making her joints clench, my fingers splay out. She smiled. So this was what it felt like to stand at the cutting edge.

"Go ahead, I never really understand why you bother to ask me these things"

Courtesy. I'm conversing with everyone else at the moment, by hook or by crook. Seems rather unanimous.

And so the message went out;

Greetings all.

This is the Shipbrain of the DEV My Way Or Not At All. We detected a sort of kerfuffle in this general area and decided to poke our noses in. Hello to the Greywatchers, how've you been?

We're unfamiliar with the rest of you, so I'll introduce us. We represent the Myenyan Collective, a sort of loosely affiliated anarchistic nation-form, dedicated to it's own enjoyment for the most part, and for taking in and exploring the wonderful universe we find ourselves a part of.

We're generally peaceful, peaceable and the like, and so extend our greetings in the name of Myenya, and this ship itself.

As always, the AI responded quickly.


Hello to you too. I'm the AI of the independent explorer Harmony. My crew has just been saved from a psi-attack by the big ship next to me, I'm sorry they can't chat with you for the moment.
Wait... did you say 'Greywatch'?
...


Harmony had a good look at the various ships around her.


...
Oh I see.



Hello, friends. I'm sorry I didn't recognize you, I didn't have any data about what your ships look like. Thanks again for the help.
I'm an independent ship, but my origin is The Free Priesthood of Fir!n. They signed a NAP with one of your diplomats not very long ago.

I imagine the current situation left you with precious little time to take in your surroundings. It really is a shame that you can't chat. Psy attack you say? Sounds relatively nasty. We don't have anyone who can naturally do that, there's technology of course. Effectors can read the minds of delicate mortal types, but it's wildly taboo so it's almost never done. The freedom of ones own head and all that.

An AI, you say? On a scale of one to ten how would you rate your intellectual acuity, as well as your status within whatever nation you represent? All Shipbrains and drones are accorded, proudly, full citizenship status within Myenya, holding the same privileges and rights (in so far as such things exist in our wonderfully open society), as any human, humanoid or humanish member of the Myenyan Collective.

I look forward to learning more about you specifically once this is all done with, as well as all the others gathered here.

The broadcast was directed not simply at the Harmony, but at any other ships in the area. This wasn't simply a matter of transparency, as much as it was to try and drum up some interest. If the ailing vessel wasn't going to talk then there would have to be someone more interesting present.

I can chat, it's my crew that is too busy recovering right now. I don't know how to rate myself, but I can do all the mental tasks that the beings that created me can do, plus I have better memory and sensors than they do and am much better at multitasking. Being an independent ship, I do not represent any nation, but where I originally come from the status of strong AIs is unclear.

And where is it you come from? A shame that your status is so in question, I dare say I wouldn't wish that on anyone. You ought always to know where you stand in these things, otherwise you'll just be taken advantage of. We have an interesting sort of co-existence set up, most illuminating for both involved parties.

The shipbrain was being rather tolerant, all things considered, drinking in sensor data and scan reports. It remained entirely stationary, unmoving, unyielding, simply taking in the layout of space and ships that were about it. The massive arrowhead gleamed a light blue, fields rippling across it in slowly changing colors. Blue faded into red, darkening to purple. It was bored.

OOC: GAH!
IC:

A telepath or telepathist is someone whose mind connects directly to the minds of others. The ones on the planet tried to cook us by making us think we were cold, in response to our employer accidentally giving them a really bad headache for a few seconds. We'll be happy to visit you, but will understand if you'd rather stay far away from us.

<Ah, well that sounds... well I'm not sure how that sounds, it's something I've not heard of. As for this whole 'you'll understand if we stay away,' don't kid yourself, we saved you from that invisible attack, we're not gonna abandon you now.>

Hello to the Greywatchers, how've you been?

<Don't know you, but whatever? A war, a wedding, and a few first contacts. You know how the galaxy is, sending all sorts of stuff to you within two weeks time.>

Hello, friends. I'm sorry I didn't recognize you, I didn't have any data about what your ships look like. Thanks again for the help.
I'm an independent ship, but my origin is The Free Priesthood of Fir!n. They signed a NAP with one of your diplomats not very long ago.

<I forgot to introduce, didn't I? Sorry about that. Fir!n, you say? Wait wait, lemme go through the archives... *brief pause* Rose, am I correct? She was there only a few weeks ago, strange how we bumb back into each other so soon. We'll have some rooms ready for your crew if you need them and are willing to offer medical support if necissary. That 'psi' attack didn't sound to good.>

My creator was born on the planet Fir!n, and my hardware was built there. Over there, there hasn't yet been a need to create rules about how to treat AIs. For example, there's no real need for a law against deleting us if we cannot be deleted without agreeing to it. As for being taken advantage of, I don't see how that would work. I'm happy to carry and protect my bio-friends.


At the same time, Harmony sent this message to the Greywatch ship:


Two of my crew members are ready to visit you. Please explain how to dock if you want them to.

OOC simultaneous post! add this to the message:


And yes, her name was Rose. I quite liked meeting her.
The crew didn't suffer any serious damage, except for Sanka, as she got herself hit on the head... Silly girl...

<Our hanger doors are open at the rear of the ship and beacons have been activated so that you can find them. There is an atmospheric shield so your crew will be free to enter as soon as they dock. AG clamps wil hold the ship in place so that it doesn't move around in any unexpected situation. Ah, in that case I suppose I should send a message to her at some point... Anyway, we're all ready and waiting.>

OOC: Forget not the necklace.

OOC Aniska wears it most of the time

IC

Harmony entered the hanger, as soon as the bottom of the ship was pulled against the floor she opened a door. A moment later Aniska stepped out, carrying Sanka who wasn't quite steady on her own legs. The wound on her head had closed without leaving a scar.

"Hello, my name is Aniska. This is Sanka. Both of us are human-fir!nan hybrids, but Sanka only recently became one so she doesn't heal as quickly as we normally do."
"Hii-i" said Sanka, looking cross-eyed because of her headache.

The welcoming commitee consisted of a human dressed in a gray uniform, a Leanoian dress in a white medical uniform, and a Drone dressed in all black. The Drone was like any other, black clothing as well as nails, eyes, lips, teeth and hair. The human looked back to the creature as if he was uncomfortable to have it there, Leanorian stayed as far away as she could without looking out of place, but immediately they turned their attention to the arrivals. "Greetings Fir!nan, I am Joseph and this," he held his hand out to the Leanorian, "is S'Ria. Don't mind the creature behind me, that's just for security purposes." The Drone gave a slight bow, "Dragon caste, 036 at your service." S'ria moved forward, her hands beginning to give off a faint blue glow, "Do you requre medical assistance?" Joseph coughed, "Well yes, I remember the file, Rose found some very interesting fact out. You use nanites, correct?"

"Greetings, Joseph and S'Ria. We are human-fir!nan hybrids, depending on ones perspective it might be too much honor to call us fir!nans."

Sanka nodded. "Ow. Yes I could use... some help, thank you..."

Aniska continued. "We usually call them nanos. We have two types in wide use, one is a cloaking and armor material, the other has a medical use in fir!nans and hybrids. Sanka here doesn't have a sufficient amount of them yet, because until recently she wasn't a hybrid. As you can see... I mean cannot see the few nanos she does have have already closed the wound on her head."

Joseph nodded, "Would you prefer the term hybrid then?" S'Ria moved forward, placing her hands on Sanka's head. "I've heard a lot about nanites, or nanos, they seem to be quite useful for all sorts of things. So, last time I talked to Rose she said you were traveling the galaxy, how's that been going so far?"

I understand quite well the ideal of protecting ones biological compatriots. They do serve to make life that bit more interesting, to add distinction and definition to ones wandering the stars. It's a glorious pass time and pursuit, I find.

At least you have safeguards on your existence, that's one thing. Always good to make sure your life is sacred. Still legal fuzziness helps no one, or so we've found. Didn't take too long for such measures to become law, given the intertwined nature of our civilisation. We need each other, in our own ways.

It now switched to talking to the Greywatch Explorer.

Myenyans. Our kind and yours met when you blundered into our home system with a number of other species. Was rather illuminating for all involved, I'm told. I have records somewhere. They got sent out on wide-circulation. Civilisation changing moment and all that, contact with beings beyond the stars.

Well, our star, anyways. We'd avoided most other notice till then, just lucky I suppose, eh?

"Yes, 'hybrids' is fine, as is 'people'. ... We've been looking at non-sentient creatures and beautiful nature, mostly. It's good to have someone new to talk to again."

Sanka changed position in Aniska's arms, and the pain disappeared from her expression.

Aniska continued, "I've been quite surprised by how much easier than usual it was to get rides in the cargo of large ships with FTL. I think I'll have to have a word about that with Sanka when she feels better."

Immediately Sanka went limp again, and faked a painful expression. Aniska laughed "Isn't she cute? It's really weird to know she is such a powerful being."

Sanka changed the subject: "We have to go back to the whales. It would be really bad if they started thinking any random passer by is their enemy, which must be attacked."

Aniska looked worried. "I suppose you're right. But that's going to be really dangerous, and you're the only one who maybe can talk to them..."

<Meh, nothing unheard of. Nothing stays hidden away forever in this galaxy. Either way, I have some guests I have to attend to at the moment so this conversation will have to be continued later.>

The captain looked back to tactical, "Any word?" The officer nodded, "Yeah, they're in the hanger right now." The captain rose, "First mate, take the helm. I'm going to go say hello."

"Sorry, sorry, I'm wasn't sure since you said 'hybrids' when I called you 'Fir!nans.' You said powerful being? Is she someone very important? And these 'whales' you were talking about. Are you sure its safe to go back there after they tried to kill you?" S'Ria backed up, "All better."

A door opened in the hanger and the captain walked in, "Greetings all. I am captain Toby Hanson, I welcome you aboard the Explorer." The man was dressed in a gray and white uniform, his long blond hair came down to his shoulders and his blue eyes looked over the group.

"She is someone important, but we'd rather not talk about that and it's not what I meant. What I did mean is that she can read and modify the thoughts and feelings of others. It's good she's modest and benevolent, otherwise... How should I put it... Well for example telepaths can get away with murder, because they can force someone else to do it for them and nobody will ever know. It's not surprising many beings are scared of them. Not all beings are sensitive to telepathy, though. That might explain why you never heard of the phenomenon.
...
No, it's not safe at all to go back. I said it's going to be really dangerous. But it is our responsibility. We wouldn't want the space around that planet to be filled with dead explorers because of our fault, even though that fault was an accident."

Unspoken:
A: "Do you also feel the irresistible urge to hug your healer?"
S: "No that's just you."

Spoken:
S: "Thank you."

"Greetings, mr Hanson. My name is Aniska, and this is Sanka."
Aniska explained in detail the events leading to the trouble with the large beings in the sea on the planet.

OOC: Totally forgot about this, sorry!

IC: The Captain drummed his fingers on his command pulpit, sighing. What was going on here?

"Status report." He said finally.

"Sir, it appears that there are at least four different types of craft here. One of which has been identified as belonging to the Empire of Greywatch."

"And the others?"

"Unknown, sir. Although one of them has identified themselves as a ship of the Myenyan Collective. Another ship, which we have no idea of, seems to have suffered some sort of psi-attack, and their crew has taken refuge in the Greywatch vessel."

"Consult our psykers. If there's anything psy-related going on around here, they'll know what was going on."

"Yes, sir. What about the aliens?"

"I think it's time we stuck our head into their affairs. Open channel.

"...Channel open, sir."

The captain stood up, placing his officer's cap firmly atop his head.

Attention all vessels,
This is the ship Pinnacle of Virtue (http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/mediawiki/images/a/ae/EnduranceClassLightCruiser.JPG), representing the Holy Imperium of Angenteria. This psy-attack has us greatly concerned, and with the permission of Greywatch, we would like to speak to the crew regarding the matter. We might be able to offer our assistance.

“That’s sounds like a dangerous ability in the wrong hands… I’m certainly glad she’s so benevolent.” Joseph took a slight step back, he couldn’t shake the feeling that Aniska was annoyed because of him, “Well you’re certainly determined, I won’t stand in your way if you want to go back.” The captain nodded, “Indeed, and if what you’re saying about my race is true, and we can resist this ‘psi’ then we might be able to help. We offer you any assistance we can provide.” The captain paused as Aniska introduced herself, “Greetings to both of you.” He listened to the story Aniska told, “Well this certainly is a first in the Greywatch books… but as I said, we’ll help however we can, if you choose to accept it.”
On the bridge, the first mate listened to the message from the Angenterians and forwarded it to his captain’s personal communicator. He then responded to the Angenterians via encrypted channel:

<That is to be decided by our guests. I have forwarded your offer to my captain, who will inform them that you wish to help. As soon as I have a response, I will send it to you.>

Back in the Hanger, the Captain listened to the message and informed Aniska of the Angenterian offer. Meanwhile, he made sure that no one tried to board the ship forcefully. This situation was a special one, the last thing he wanted were people getting too excited and inviting themselves into his ship. The hanger doors remained half-open and the shields around the ship were up to 80%.

This is the AI of the independent explorer Harmony. I'll get back to you on that, or maybe someone else will.


Aniska carefully placed Sanka back on her own feet. "Not dizzy anymore?"
Sanka nodded.
"Good."

"We would have to check to see if you're not sensitive to telepathy. Maybe mother nature just spared you the telepaths because she had already sent so many other difficulties to you.
Considering the danger we're getting ourselves into, I think we should discuss the matter with the other beings that are here. Maybe they have some good ideas."

The Drone shook its head, "Nature spares no one. To think the universe has a sense of mercy is foolish." The Leanorian looked to the dark creature, "You'll have to forgive the Drones, they aren't what you'd call... optimistic." The captain nodded, "Mmm, don't mind them, they're always like that. But as to Angenterians, I'll have my first mate call them over, might as well call the other ones over as well." He tapped his communicator, and told the first mate what to do.
The first mate nodded to his captain's message and opened a channel to the Angenterians:

<You have permission to come aboard. Hanger doors are open and the hanger is clear for your shuttle.>

The first officer then looked to the Myenyan ship and opened a channel:

<Your presence is requested. Make haste, please. Hanger doors are open and the hanger is prepared to recieve your shuttle.>

OOC Communistic Govts is also around, let's say the message went to them too, if they bothered to go to the coordinates you broadcasted earlier when we left the system with the whales. If they're still there, I suppose they'll see us show up later... And if they went somewhere else, then never mind.

"If nature gave everyone the full load of every possible difficulty, none of us would be here, and there probably wouldn't be any life at all. Instead everyone gets a random selection of trouble, and both getting very much and getting very little are unlikely, statistically speaking."

"Statistics mean nothing in nature, statistics are something you and other races bothered to create. My point still holds true, nature will spare no one, only those with the will to fight will remain." The Drone spoke without any sort of feeling and didn't even seem to care about anyone else being there. "As for this test, I wish to be the first one you perform it on."

OOC: I'll send him the message when he jumps in.

"Statistics do not tell nature what to do, they tell us what nature is likely to do."

While Aniska said this, Sanka tried to make the Drone feel as if the direction of the artificial gravity system had changed by 45 degrees. "Which makes statistics very much unlike us telepaths. We lie to you about what nature does."

OOC you decide what happens

"And those like me see through the lies you tell us. Statistics became worthless in nature when so many different humans, with so many different histories, all came into existance in this one galaxy." The Drone felt no change as the psi abilities never even reached its hive-mind; instead disentigrated in the Cryptic field around it.

"Congratulations," said Sanka, somewhat disappointed, "you're not sensitive to telepathy."

A: "It would have been polite to announce you were going to try."

S: "I was asked to try, and anyone who chooses to go with me is going to have to resist beings much stronger than me. To know when I would try would have created a chance to concentrate on resisting, and successfully doing that would give a false sense of security."

"It is best that I didn't know. That way, we got the most accurate results, the conversation certainly helped distract me. I think the next one to be tested should be our Leanorian friend here." S'Ria smiled, "Any reason you want me in particular?" The Drone didn't change its expression, "We're going to need a medic, probably. I'd like to know our medic is resistant to 'psi.' And I figure we're all going to be tested anyway, at least after your test we can make a proper strategy for how to handle this situation." S'Ris nodded, "Not going to argue with that. So, Aniska, mind telling me about your travels?"

<You have permission to come aboard. Hanger doors are open and the hanger is clear for your shuttle.>

Almost as soon as the message was received, a small lander silently departed from the Angenterian cruiser, making dock in the hangar bay of the Greywatch ship. As soon as it touched down, the boarding ramp slowly slid down to the metal floor, and two pairs of boots could be heard descending the ramp.

"I sense...an approaching shadow. Not everything is what it seems to be.(OOC: I'M SO CLEVER!!!)" The first voice said. Laarus looked around the room in a quizzical manner. The psyker (http://bringer-of-doom.deviantart.com/art/Psyker-70068413) bore the usual eye-concealing helm of an Imperial Psyker, and his face had the look of barely contained energy.

"And what the warp is that supposed to mean?" A female voice snapped in response. Unlike the psyker, Sergeant Hawke had the look of a normal Imperial Guardswoman, and wore her regular Guard fatigues and body armor, and a las-rifle was slung over her shoulder. She had left her helmet on board the shuttle, exposing her dark brown hair, which was kept in a ponytail.

"When you have seen what I have seen through your eyes, you will know as well."

"Whatever." Came the irritated response. "Look. That's probably them now." She pointed toward the gathering of aliens deep in discussion. She was easily able to recognize the emotionless form of the Greywatch Drone, as she had seen the picture over and over again in her Xenobiology class, and a few others that she had never seen before. Simply put one and one together.

With that, they walked over to the gathered bunch, and Hawke wondered what she did to piss off the Captain.

As soon as the lander stopped moving, AG clamps locked in to hold it in place. The captain looked to the Angenterians with a smile, "Ah, we have more guests. Greetings." The rest of the Greywatch group looked up, the Leanorian gave a slight bow. The Drone said nothing at all, its black eyes looking over the group, interesting how often Greywatch and Angenteria ran into each other. Joesph nodded, "Ah, greetings. My name is Joseph, my friend here," he held out his hand to the Leanorian, "is S'Ria," he looked to his captain, "this is captain Hanson." He then looked to the two Fir!nans, "And these two are Aniska and Sanka. I believe that is everyone."

"Alright" said Sanka, "let's see if I can get into S'Ria's mind, if she doesn't mind..."
Instead of doing this, she tried to convince Joseph and the captain they both had an itch on their right ears.

"With pleasure," Aniska replied, "although before this planet where we got in trouble, it was nothing special. Wait... perhaps we should greet the others first."

Aniska placed her hand on Sanka's shoulder, and sent the Angenterians a smile she normally didn't use. If she had been human, it could only be interpreted as a professional greeting. With the teeth of a hybrid, however, it could just as well mean touch this girl and die. It was up to the Angenterians to decide how to interpret it.
"Pleased to meet you. Thank you for being interested in our problem."

Whilte S'Ria waited, the captain scratched his right ear. Joseph took a little longer to give into the urge but eventually did. Meanwhile the Drone simply waited to hear the results.

"Looks like the humans are sensitive, as was to be expected."
Taking a page from Aniska's book of tricks and then putting it upside down, Sanka pretended she had an itch herself, on the tip of her nose, to hide that she didn't actually speak when she projected her own voice to S'Ria. "So tell me, S'Ria, how well do you know Rose?"

"Ah well. I suppose it would be best if I stayed here anyway." Said Toby with a smile. Joesph nodded, "I guess it's always best to know one's weaknesses." S'Ria laughed softed at the two of them but gave no response to Sanka's projected voice. She didn't hear a single word of the message.

"...and it looks like cryption blocks psi. The two forces might be related to each other."

"Same conclusion I was working to." Said the Drone, "That means Drones, Leanorians, and Elden. All of which are immune... this is something for the Archives..." The captain nodded, "Quite the discovery."

Aniska thought for a moment. "I think I remember Rose saying something about using cryption to create a shield. Would it be possible to quickly create some kind of bubble around us and whoever is going with us, in case the whales try something funny instead of listening to our apologies?"

OOC and here I stop for a bit to give everyone else a chance to post

Hawke nodded in greeting to the aliens. She formed a smile in return to Aniska's greeting, taking it at face value. Laarus wasn't so sure. "Sergeant Jenna Hawke, Battlefleet Security. This..." she gestured in disdain to the awkward figure next to her "...is Laarus, Sanctioned Psyker."

Laarus' expression twisted into some form of unreadable facial expression. Perhaps he was trying to smile?

"If you want someone sensitive, you won't find anyone better." Jenna said, frowning. "You just have to get past his quirks."

As if in response to the remark, Laarus' head suddenly snapped up to look at Sanka, and began staring at her in some strange fashion. Slowly, he raised his arm, extending his pointer finger squarely in her direction.

"You...possess...the gift...as well!" He shouted rabidly. But unaware to those around them, he was also transmitting a psychic message. Jenna rolled her eyes, letting out an irritated groan.

"Please forgive my mannerisms, but I did not expect to see another touched as I have been. I find it harder and harder to exert total control over minute physical functions these days."

Sanka giggled. "Yes, I do. Interesting to meet someone with the 'gift' outside my family."

Unspoken, to Aniska: "Strange, my mother and grandmother did not become like that."

And to Laarus: "It doesn't matter. I see you noticed Aniska's mixed message. Please forgive her for that, she is not only my bodyguard, but also my adoptive mother, and very well aware of what I could become if someone with bad intentions kidnapped me. So she's not exactly happy with strangers knowing I'm not just another girl."

The Drone shook its head, "I can imagine it being possible but very difficult." S'Ria nodded, "We'd need more Leanorians and we'd all need to be able to concentrate... creating and maintaining shields like that can be a difficult task," she sighed, "but we might be able to pull it off. I think it may be easier if you just tell us when they're trying something funny and we can just force our Encryptic energies into your bodies, nulifying the affect." The Drone shook its head again, "You'd have to be very careful. If you flood their bodies with too much Encrytpic energy, it could kill them. My masters have been researching the affects of Cryption and Encryption on those who not possess the gift; in small amounts, such as when healing, it is beneficial. But too much can kill, even if its supposed to be used for a beneficial affect." S'Ria gulped, "I had no idea..." The Drone closed its eyes, "We only found this out recently... I think I may have a better idea... Pardon me." The Drone left the hanger without saying anything else. The captain found himself curious as to what the Drone spoke of, "What odd creatures they are..." S'Ria sighed, "Well at least we know that much, that's something to keep in mind. Though I wonder what that thing has in mind."

Sanka added "We might not be able to tell you when we're being attacked."
Aniska nodded. Earlier that day Sanka had completely blocked out her own will and made her do something that was completely opposite to everything she had learned about right and wrong, that also went against all her instincts. And yet at the time it had seemed perfectly normal.

"I wonder too," said Aniska, "it does seem highly intelligent."
She turned to address the Angenterians. "I guess telepathy must be a more normal phenomenon in your society than it is in most. How do you deal with telepaths that are misbehaving?"

"True." Said S'Ria with a grim look, still thinking about what the Drone had said. The captain nodded to Aniska's comment, "I'm assuming you mean the Drone?"

"What odd creatures they are..." S'Ria sighed, "Well at least we know that much, that's something to keep in mind. Though I wonder what that thing has in mind."

Jenna nodded in agreement with the Greywatch officer. It seemed they were deep in discussion over what exactly they were going to do. She was about to ask where the Angenterians would come in, when Aniska turned to address them.


"I guess telepathy must be a more normal phenomenon in your society than it is in most. How do you deal with telepaths that are misbehaving?"

This question, at least, was answerable.

"It's not as common as you think it is." Jenna started, glad to be able to contribute something to the conversation. "Most of the people are born without what this guy here calls 'the gift' (making the appropriate quotation marks with her fingers.) Those that are are usually picked up by the Offico Telepathica; that's the organization that watches over them. Th-"

"WAAAIT!" Laarus shouted at the top of his lungs, cutting Jenna off from her explanation.

"EEEEYYYYEEEEE...shall explain!"

Jenna rolled her eyes again, annoyed at the prospect of being silenced. But it was probably for the better, though, as he probably knew more about it then she. Instead, she turned to the Greywatch officer, hoping to get some info out of him. "Did they say what happened to them?" She asked, in a hushed voice.

Meanwhile, Laarus transferred his expert explanation directly to Aniska telepathically.

"What my lady friend has said is more or less true. The Offico Telepathica is the government organization that directly manages all affairs of psyker activity. They oversee the training of those gifted as I have been for service in the Holy Imperium. We are taken from our families at a young age, and brought to the Schola Psycanika on Angenteria Prime. There we are taught to control and manage our powers, then assigned to a branch of Imperial service upon completion of our training. Over many years of service, our physical control tends to deteriorate after extensive use of our gift, and most end up like I do.

But I digress. To answer your question, those that escape being detected, or disobey the laws set fourth by my Offico, are known as rouges, and often use their powers to take what they want. They are a despicable type of criminal, and are hunted by the authorities."

Satisfied with his explanation, he then turned to Sanka, wishing to continue their conversation.

"That's perfectly understandable. Evil people would be able to commit quite evil acts with someone of your potential. But I must ask, how long have you been psychically active?"

The Greywatchers gave the Psyker an odd look but most of them had seen stranger things... and if the Angenterians brought him, he must be trustworthey. S'Ria then looked to Jenna who appeared to be addressing her, "They were attacked by creatures posessing 'psi'... I think she called them 'whales.' We've found that Cryptic abilities like mine and that of the Drone can completely block out such powers..."

The captain nodded to Aniska's comment, "I'm assuming you mean the Drone?"


"Yes, the Drone. I wonder what bright idea it has."

Aniska nodded all the time while Laarus was explaining to her, to let the others know she was receiving an answer to her question.

"Well, we can't go hunt the whales. I think they think they were defending themselves, and they of course have every right to defend themselves. We have to make clear to them that Sanka didn't mean to hurt them, and that strangers are not necessarily enemies. Sanka, how much have you figured out about them while they still were peaceful?"

"Not very much. They seem to have a primitive culture, but I'm not sure how primitive."


"That's perfectly understandable. Evil people would be able to commit quite evil acts with someone of your potential. But I must ask, how long have you been psychically active?"


"In a family of telepaths it's difficult to know who is connecting to whose mind. I think I must have started using my mind to talk to others at about the same time I learned my first words."

"Something interesting, no doubt." Said the captain. As if on cue the Drone re-entered the hanger carrying some neatly folded black clothing. "These are the clothes of Forbidden Ministry cultists... they are infused with small amounts of Encryptic energy to make up for the lack of protection they provide. Chances are, it'll be enough to shield you." The Drones solid black eyes focused on Aniska as it held out the clothing. S'Ria raised an eyebrow, "And you learn something new everyday..."

"Maybe these could protect me," Aniska replied, "but Sanka couldn't wear them because they would make it impossible for her to talk to the whales. And they're from a forbidden cult...? Are you sure it is safe for me to wear this?"

"Forbidden Ministry." Said the Drone, "I have no idea how people get 'cult' from 'ministry,' perhaps its not taking enough vocabulary classes. Now then, since it was the FM that helped develop PSR, which is actually what saved you just now, you should be more open than that. But if you don't want our help, say so." Toby rolled his eyes, "Drone, is that anyway to-" The Dreon cut him off, "I speak my mind captain. No matter what. People like Aniska here are prone to judge without knowing the full story. I find it slightly insulting that despite the fact that despite you trusting me enough to have several Drones aboard the ship, she questions a name." Toby sighed, Drones didn't typically show, or even have, emotion. The fact that this Drone had suddenly developed them was interesting. S'Ria looked to Aniska, "Take them, the FM is a trustworthy organization... if they feel you can be trusted."

Aniska sounded a little annoyed. "I wasn't the one who said the word 'cultists', and please excuse me for not immediately trusting something if it's being called forbidden. I think I would have been quite dead for a long time already if I would equate forbidden to trustworthy." She did accept the clothes, though.
"No!" said Sanka's voice in her head.
"Why not?"
"I don't know how to explain. If all else fails, your mind is important. You will see."
"I don't get it, but if you say so... You figure out how to reject these without making the Drone angry."

Sanka took the stack of clothing from Aniska and gave it back to the Drone. "I'm sorry, but the chances of nobody coming to harm are better if the connection between Aniska and me isn't broken. Please use these to protect someone else."

The Drone took the clothing showed it to them, "There's a hood so you're mental communication will not be broken. Its actually your best bet, if the Lenaorians make a shiled you still won't be able to contact the whales." It then looked to Aniska, "You didn't say 'cultists,' you said 'cult.' As for the Forbidden, there's a good reason for that word being used. And the clothing isn't forbidden, that's just the name of my organization. It's no secret that we're black ops specializing in weapons, tech, and Cryptic development." S'Ria shook her head, "Looks like there has to be some kind of equal exchange. If we block the whales completely, we block you too. Drone, are there any Cryptic mindreaders?" The Drone thought for a moment, "Other than my master... I know of none. There are a aspecial division of Drones that can do something similar..." Toby put his hand on the creature's shoulder, "Expand." The Drone went ahead, "During diplomatic situations when we can't understand another race's language... we use a special Cryptic field which essentially makes every creature in the area hive-minded. Gets past the language barrier really well, as you can imagine. But I don't know if that would be best in this situation... though it would allow everyone to speak freely, or communicate through thought, while at the same time nuetralizing any pesky psi powers." TOby raised an eyebrow, "You've had this group of Drones for how long?" The Drone shrugged, "About half a year." The diplomat looked back, "And how many craft are these Drones on?" The Drone looked to the group, "None. We never really saw the reason to use them." S'Ria sighed, "Wow, y'know how useful those would be?" The Drone shrugged again, "Apparently, everyone in the galaxy speaks english. We never saw any reason to offer them."

"The problem with a hood," Aniska replied, "is that it may be difficult for someone else to pull it over our heads when it's needed. For example, what if we are made to thought it's a good idea to attack the others? A shield, at least the kind I was hoping for and this might be totally unrealistic, could be put around us without potentially needing to use physical force. But perhaps we should think of a different type of protection."

Sanka got an idea: "We can only be made a danger to ourselves or others when we're conscious. I think Aniska could put something together with a remote control that drugs us..."

"...because being unconscious once a day is not good enough for you" added Aniska, rolling her eyes. "But you're right, that would work for sure. So who do you trust enough to hold the switch?"

"The Drone, obviously."

Aniska gave her a you've-got-to-be-kidding look.

"It's the least likely to panic, and Greywatch would be violating a NAP if the switch were abused."

"Did you know you're much too clever for a seven year old? I'd choose Jonathan, though. Right, so that's option one, and option two is to create a hivemind, of which we're not sure how the whales will feel about it. Option three is to use some kind or another of cryptic protection, which gets difficult in the details. Any other ideas?"

The Drone shrugged, Aniska wasn't aware of the FM's nature and the Drone didn't feel like explaining it. "I have no problem with holding the switch if need be. Hopefully it won't come to that, eh? Now then, as for the Cryptic Hivemind," the Drone closed its eyes, "I've contacted my masters. If need be, they can have the Linker-Caste Drone here in under an hour, they just need to grow a shuttle for it." The rest of the Greywatch group simutaniously looked to the Drone at this point, doing a double take. Yes, the Drone said the FM would 'grow' a shuttle, whatever that meant. The Drone looked at them, "It's classified information... and it's difficult to explain. But that aside... the third option will be something to tinker with a little more... and as for any other ideas, I don't have anything at the moment."

Jenna listened intently to the conversation around her. Apparently, the Greywatch Drone dude had apparently revealed itself as a member of some uber-secret Greywatch organization on par with the Inquisition, which had the rest of the Greywatch officers looking up in surprise. Apparently, they had also come up with some sort of plan. Jenna looked toward the Greywatch Drone in a somewhat curious manner. Whales? Like, the big sea creatures that swam around in the water? This was so confusing. But at least Laarus seemed to get it.

He continued transmitting over psychic interface, directly into the minds of the psychics.


"In a family of telepaths it's difficult to know who is connecting to whose mind. I think I must have started using my mind to talk to others at about the same time I learned my first words."

"I see." He noted. "So your race transfers the gene through a familial lineage. Most interesting. Within my race, the gene is mutated almost randomly. There is no way to predict when a person with the psychic gift may arise within my people. I wish we could discuss it more, but I'm afraid I must ask about the matter at hand. What are you able to tell me about these 'whale' creatures? What do they look like? How sensitive are they to us?"

The Drone shrugged, Aniska wasn't aware of the FM's nature and the Drone didn't feel like explaining it. "I have no problem with holding the switch if need be. Hopefully it won't come to that, eh?

"When people like me play games like chess against each other, these go a bit different than when others play them. Because both parties can know all moves the other is thinking of, it becomes a match of who is best at hiding some thoughts while revealing others. I won't hide that I can be switched off, and Aniska isn't even able to hide thoughts. The whales will know it's pointless to do anything that would make you disable us, and so it won't happen."

Now then, as for the Cryptic Hivemind," the Drone closed its eyes, "I've contacted my masters. If need be, they can have the Linker-Caste Drone here in under an hour, they just need to grow a shuttle for it."

Aniska nodded. "We'll wait for that. But please remember this is the second option, we have no idea how the whales will respond to it and what they may be able to do within a hivemind."

He continued transmitting over psychic interface, directly into the minds of the psychics.

OOC on my side that would be only Sanka. Aniska does talk to her that way because she knows the girl is listening to her thoughts, but Aniska isn't a psychic herself.

IC

"I see." He noted. "So your race transfers the gene through a familial lineage. Most interesting. Within my race, the gene is mutated almost randomly. There is no way to predict when a person with the psychic gift may arise within my people. I wish we could discuss it more, but I'm afraid I must ask about the matter at hand. What are you able to tell me about these 'whale' creatures? What do they look like? How sensitive are they to us?"

"Laarus, perhaps it's best if I use my voice to answer your questions. The whales are very large creatures that live in the sea that covers most of their planet. They have a simple long shape, two fins near the front and a horizontal fin on their tail. We call them whales because that's what we're used to calling creatures that look like that. They're much more sensitive to telepathy than most beings are, and it is their method to communicate with each other."

"Not a good analogy if you're talking to someone who doesn't know what chess is, but okay. I already have the basic idea of what you're trying to get at. Now then, I'm aware that the hive mind is the second option. You do realize you only need to say things once in my presence? My masters are growing the ship now, it will be a small fighter, that way it will develop faster. It'll arrive via PSR to this location." The Drone looked to everyone, "If that is all, I have other things I must do." The captain nodded, "Dismissed."

"I'll remember to tell you everything only once. I'm used to dealing with beings that have a strong preference for solutions they came up with themselves, and that will ignore any warning that isn't given at least three times. We call them humans. ... No offense intended to the humans here, of course. And hybrids are no better."

"Growing ships... didn't you do something like that once?" Sanka asked, aloud.

"Just a decoy. And I suspect the Drone means something very different from programming nanobots to create a large fractal structure. Anyway, that's not important now."

"While we're waiting, I'll build the devices Sanka suggested."

Both returned to the Harmony.

OOC: Well goodbye to you too
IC:

The captain nodded as they left and went back to to the bridge as preparations began, then of course there were the Angenterians. "So, now that they've left. Do you have anything to do or would you perfer to just hang around here until further notice?" Asked S'Ria. Joseph nodded, "Shame the others couldn't make it, but oh well."

OOC: No goodbye, it's just totally unrealistic that Aniska would leave Sanka on her own.

A few minutes later, Sanka joined the group again, together with Jonathan.
"Hello all, my name is Jonathan, I work for her." He nodded to Sanka.

OOC: I was making a joke about how you had her leave.
IC:

"Greetings." Came the response from Joseph and S'Ria. "Sorry, you just missed our captain, he had some other things to attend to on the bridge." Joseph continued. "Can I assuem that Aniska or Sanka has already explained everything?" Asked S'Ria.

"Yes, in short. I'm sorry we couldn't both talk with you at the same time, Aniska and I have kids, and one of us needs to watch them."
To the Angenterians: "Have you decided what kind of role, if any, you want in solving this problem? The whales, not the kids."

OOC so... has the FM ship arrived yet?

OOC: I don't obey real-time rules, I was kinda hoping Ang would post, we'd have a conversation, and then it would arrive. Apparently, that's not going to happen...

IC:

One hour later...

A small PSR opened up, producing a small gravatational distubrance, and a sleek fighter passed through. The ship was clearly made for one and was completely black, save for some small red lights that dotted the area around the cockpit. The craft moved quickly to the Greywatch Explorer, which had its hanger bay doors open. The craft landed and the cockpit opened, out of it coming the Drone that had been called for. It was different than the other Drones, its clothing was very much the same in general style and color but it did not wear a robe, instead pants and an open vest. On its torso, one could see red tattoos, there was a red eye pattern tattooed on its forehead, and on the left side of its chest was the number '47.' The being also wore a red skarf and sunglasses. It moved forward to the group, completely silent. Joseph looked to the creature, "Greetings..." The Drone said nothing. S'Ria gave a slight bow, "You know why you are here?" The Drone nodded without saying anything. "Well I guess we can go ahead with the plan..."

OOC this thread seems to be losing players like the trees are losing leaves over here. Which is too bad, there's something interesting about that planet... apart from the whales.

IC

"Greetings" Jonathan said to the Drone. Then, to nobody in particular, "What way do you think is best to go back to the planet? Taking the whole ship near it might be unwise, I assume there are quite a few humans aboard, who are sensitive to psi. Maybe we should jump to a few lighthours away and use the Harmony or another small ship to move closer."

The Drone looked to Joseph with its blank eyes, Joseph stared back for a minute before suddenly speaking, "Right, we can use PSR to get close to that planet and then blink the necessary people to your craft."

OOC: Oh wells

"I'm not sure what you mean by 'blinking', but I hope it's something that makes a quick getaway possible. Anyway, Harmony can cross the safety distance in minutes. Unfortunately we didn't have minutes the last time we were there."

...

Aniska joined the group. She was wearing something that looked similar to a drysuit (no helmet or anything like that), and carried a smaller version of the same clothing over her arm.
To Jonathan: "Right... Sanka told me everything. The kids will be asleep for the next few hours... I hate doing that. I assume you'll want to wear the cryptic clothing?"

"If the offer still stands. That Drone isn't around."

"And otherwise we'll use the same precautions on you as on Sanka and me."
Aniska attached a small device to Sanka's upper arm, then gave her the suit. "This is a climate suit, it's normally used to visit cold or hot places, it should help in case they try the exact same thing again. It's a bit difficult to take off, too, so it should prevent you from removing your, er, switch before it can be used."
She helped Sanka put on the suit over her normal clothes.
"Alright, as soon as we know what Jonathan will be wearing, we're ready."

S’Ria explained, “Blinking is instantaneous travel from one place to another, its used by Greywatch a fair deal.”

….

The Drone from before walked into the hanger, it looked to the other Drone that arrived. “Good, you’re here. Now perhaps we can begin.” It then looked to Jonathan, “So there are more of you? I assume this means you’ll need the Forbidden Ministry robes… fine, I will fetch them. I do hope that will have everyone covered so that I need not make any extra trips.”

OOC: *Wakes up from nap* ...bwuah? Sorry bout that.

IC: "Have you decided what kind of role, if any, you want in solving this problem? The whales, not the kids."

Jenna considered this question carefully, albeit with a little difficulty. Not being a psyker, she wasn't entirely sure about the extent of the power the two psykers could wield. She was just a soldier, after all.

"I guess we could tag along." She answered. "I'm pretty handy with a rifle, and my...uhh...friend here can probably help out when it comes to these whales, in some way."

"Let me...GOOOoo!!"

"...Yeah." Jenna glanced around uncomfortably.

*skip back*

"I'm sure having you tag along will help somehow."

*skip forward*

"Apart from me and them..." Jonathan gestured to the Angenterians, "I don't see anyone who might need robes."

OOC Time to jump, I suppose?

The Drone came back with a storage bracelet on. It moved to Jonathan and made produced the clothing he would need. "I brought twenty sets just in case..." S'Ria left the hanger for a moment and came back with four other Leanorian, two of them were dressed as medics, the other two were obviously soldiers. 47 nodded when it saw everything was ready, "We should move out now," it said in a soft voice.

Jonathan thanked the Drone and put on the robe. "Thank you. You mean in case one layer is not enough?"

--- insert time needed to jump to a place near the system with the whales here if we're not there already ---

Jonathan scratched the back of his head. "You're bringing soldiers, so you expect we will land (and I agree), but with all on board of Harmony I don't think we have enough chairs to land safely, and earlier you said you would blink to our ship, not the planet..."

"I guess we'll meet on the planet then. Those who really want to go with Harmony can of course come with us." Aniska opened the door of Harmony. "Welcome aboard?"

The walls and ceilings inside the Harmony emitted a soft white light, which was brighter near the ceiling. The floor was dark green and somewhat soft.
"There are three chairs in the cockpit, and eight in the main room" Jonathan said, "although you might as well consider every part the cockpit."

As if to demonstrate what he meant, Aniska touched a wall panel, which changed from a light into a display. "Harmony, if some accident happens to all three of us, everyone else currently on board has permission to give you commands."

Harmony replied "Unless they caused it on purpose, of course."

"Not likely. Please give the others the coordinates of the place where we landed last time, then go there as soon as we're released."

Aniska gave a small device with a single button on it to the Drone. "I guess there's no need to explain how it works."

"No," said the Drone, "I mean in case more people decide the must tag along."

----------

"We are going to blink to your ship. The soldiers are here because they are they can form shields as well." Said the Drone, "S'Ria isn't coming because she's a diplomat. So you have four Leanorians and two Drones, that's the entirity of the Greywatch team. There's also the two Angenterians... that make eight of us, correct? Then there are the three of you. I assume you have at least eleven chairs. If you don't, say so now." The Greywatch group entered, looking around a little to get a feel for the ship. The Drone looked to the device handed to it, "Use only if I must. Understood."

Sanka touched another light/wall panel to change it into a display. This one contained the output of all kinds of sensors and cameras. She added the inside temperature of the ship, and the vital signs of herself and Aniska, then explained to the guests what each part of the display showed:
"Visible light, IR, radar, scanner. Overlay of all four. Outside temperature, inside temperature, surface temperature when in orbit. My health and Aniska's health."

Harmony spoke through speakers that were hidden somewhere behind the walls. "I don't want to deny you the fun that blinking no doubt is, but you might as well ask your friends to switch off the AG clamps and leave with us now. In the time it takes me to get from here to orbit around the planet everyone can introduce themselves to each other. Unless some of you really like to talk about themselves, then I might need to stay in orbit for a while."

OOC do wait for Angenteria to choose their mode of transport

OOC: Don't need to tell me that; wait, is you're entire ship in my hanger? If so, then there's no point in me blinking on, I can just walk on normally.

OOC: Yup, it is. I hope a 40m tall ship does fit in your hanger, otherwise we had a bit of a crash... I don't have shuttles or anything like that.

OOC: Well, ya see, when you said Aniska and Sanka got out, I was treating it as thouhg you'd come in a shuttle. It was never clear to me that then entire ship was in my hanger because I never knew its size. 40m is also 120ft, my hanger isn't that big. The hanger is made to hold shuttles, a few fighters, and transports (about the same size as the Pelicans from Halo). My hanger is only about 30-40ft tall max in my mind.

OOC

Just to be clear, the Yacht class is 40m in it's tallest dimension, width and height might be 8m and 4m or something like that.
Pelicans apparently (http://nikon.bungie.org/misc/sloftus_pelicandropship/) are 30.5 x 23.4 x 10.9 meters, so I would expect the Harmony does in fact fit in your hanger, and you posted (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=14089721&postcount=22) something that seemed to imply that your ship is enormous and that Harmony could fit in the hanger, to which I responded with Harmony entering the hanger (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=14089737&postcount=23). The sizes of my ships are in my factbook (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13709251&postcount=1), they're considered characters.

OOC: Its 2Km in length, very little of that space is dedicated to the hanger. And I kept think Harmony was the hologram. And if a Pelican is 11m in height, which I doubt just from playing the game, that would mean 33ft, much less than 120ft. Either way, that ship will probably have to be on its side to get in. I never actually stated the height of my craft, mind you. Point being, ask me about exact dimensions before saying an entire ship has entered my hanger (which I typically don't pick on until someone drops the name and says 'the entire ship entered your hanger'), the only ships with large hangers are my warships or the Worldstarters. The ship is based of of this:
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff28/greyknightghost/eve_wp28_1600.jpg
Long but not tall.

Jenna gazed around the inside of the Harmony for some time. It certainly was a safe ship, and would probably get them down without much hassle. But she wasn't sure there was enough room for everyone there. The Greywatch had already made that concern noted. Laarus, unsurprisingly, didn't seem to note what was going on. It seemed that they had a choice of how to get down. She considered briefly asking the Pinnacle of Virtue for additional support, but found that it just be unwieldy. Naval security troopers were about as quiet as a rampaging grox, and would probably just get in the way of things.

"I thi-" she began.

"We'll take this one!!!" Laarus shouted. Jenna jumped back in suprise, not expecting the psykers voice to be so loud.

"...Sure." she replied.

OOC: Y'know what? Forget it, I don't feel like ruining the RP over this.
IC:

"Clamps disengaged." Said the Drone, "ANd I'm comign with you right now, as is the other Drone. The Leanorians will accompany on a shuttle and use that to blink over when the time is right. The Explorer will stay back for now. In the meantime, my captain is having a exploration team prepared to explore the surface... there might be something interesting. Hell, maybe with your help Greywatch can make some new friends, fallen gods know we'd like some more." The Drone contemplated, it just said 'like,' that was very human. "I mean, it would be beneficial to have some more allies in this galaxy." One of the Leanorian soldier grinned, the Drone just felt uncomfortable for a split second. The two Drones boarded, "Ready when you are."

OOC looks like we're having some confusion about the way the word "tall" is used. I'll mention the size of my ship the next time someone invites me into their hanger. never mind. Also, what hologram? Anyway, nice ship.

IC

Harmony carefully backed out of the hanger which had been only *just* large enough to fit. After putting some distance between her and the Greywatch ship, she started the space compressor, which made a deafening roaring noise that quickly changed in a whining and finally became so high it was inaudible. Because she was in no hurry and there were people standing around, she accelerated gently. The speed at which one of the stars on the display Aniska had opened changed into a sun and the number displayed next to it (30 times light) didn't seem to match the feeling of the movements of the ship.

The space compressor engine made the same noises in reverse order as it was switched off. "We're in orbit. Now would be a good time to start keeping an eye on the behavior of Sanka and Aniska, and to be seated" Harmony announced. "Shall I land before or after the blinkers blink?"

Sanka looked at the IR display. "They seem to be behaving normally as far as I can tell from up here. ... I feel they to want us to land."

Jonathan made his WMDA (ooc worn on arm) display the vital signs of Aniska and Sanka. "At least they're not killing you... yet."

OOC: Are you using it to mean something other than height? Or something other than the distance from the floor to the ceiling? And AI, sorry, Star Trek is currently infesting my thoughts.
IC:

"Understood, we can wait until we reach the surface. It really won't matter too much. As for those two," the Drone to its seat, "I'm not particularly worried about anythign bad happening to them at the moment. Typically, creatures with the ability to hurt you don't bother to wait." Said the Drone. The other Drone said nothing and simply took a seat. Meanwhile, the shuttle sat patiently in orbit, not doing anything. The Leanorians onboard sat idly by waiting for any further orders.

OOC this might be a failure of my English, but since in principle there is no "top" and "bottom" on a spaceship, when I say it is 40m tall I mean it is 40m on its longest axis. It's similar to a man still being 1.8m tall when he lies down on the floor. (My ships can be parked both ways, by the way).

IC

Harmony entered the atmosphere, descending slowly. She stopped to hover above a flat spot on an island, then landed there. The highest part of the island was about 20 meters above sea level, and covered in trees.

Aniska stepped out of the ship first, followed by Sanka. "Now what do we do?"
"Now I try to talk with them."
"You do that."
Aniska found a rectangular piece of rock, turned it on its side, and sat down on top of it. She didn't notice the large engraved text that was exposed:


>|;ed leuo!+eN
>|ead )!+uel+V


OOC Shouldn't be too difficult to decipher, really! It's not Fir!nan language.

OOC: Top and bottom depend on the gravity within the ship (floor and ceiling) most of the time, at least in my case. The other way of knowing top and bottom on a ship: land it on a planet in a way that doesn't make the crew fall (and possibly die.)
IC:

The Drones were silent through the entire landing, they had nothing to say. As soon as they touched down, 47 sat on the ground, cross legged, making the preparations in case the mind link was needed. The other Drone sat beside it, not too interested in anything here. Two Leanorian blinked down, apparently materializing out of the air. The Drone nodded to them, "Go look around, there might be something interesting here." The two Leanorians nodded and went off, it was small island but one never knows. One of the Leanorian looked at Aniska, "What's that?"

"What's what?" She looked around, then noticed something was written on the rectangular rock she had improvised a seat from. From her perspective, she could easily read "Atlantic peak / National park". Aniska read the text aloud. "Huh, this must be another Earth." She looked at the sea. "If this little island is supposed to be a mountain, something went very wrong." She pressed a button on her collar box. "Harmony, could you give us a soil scan please?"

Meanwhile, Sanka calmly walked to the shore.

The Drone continued being idle, waiting for something interesting to happen. No such thing had happened yet. The Leanorian raised an eyebrow, "Another Earth. Whatever, never heard of this 'Earth' thing in the first place. I find it odd that there would be multiple ones. I'm going to go look around if you don't mind."

Sanka stepped into the water. After the distraction, Aniska paid attention to her again and walked over to her.
A: "What are you doing?"
S: "They accepted my apologies, now they want to play."
A: "With your clothes on? I didn't know you could swim that well."
S: "I can't swim at all, but it will be alright."
A: "Right. Sounds like fun, I think I'll join you."

Both continued walking into the sea. A few moments later, the water reached Sanka's chin.

OOC: oops!

The Drone had looked elsewhere for a moment then noticed what the pair were doing, in a split second it summoned emotion. "Sanka! Aniska!" It got up and pressed the button, quickly running down to the water to get them before they went under. The Drone didn't swin, it ran across the surface of the water, reaching down and pulling the two out of what could be a watery grave. It took both of them back to shore, still stepping on the surface of the water. 47, who'd been watching, nodded, "Impressive use of Cryption." The other Drone said nothing and simply put the two down on the beach, "Too close."
You actually summoned emotion.
Did I?
47 nodded, This is going to be annoying. Shall I use the technique? It is almost prepared.
"We will respect their wishes for now."
Understood.

"Ow! That sti..." *splash*

...

Jonathan was still busy inside the ship when his WMDA suddenly started beeping like crazy. He ran out, and was relieved to see the Drone fetch the two out of the water. "Geez, the whales tried to drown them didn't they? Thank you so much for stopping them."

...

"We should hold them so they can't move, then press the button again. I'm pretty sure they will wake up a few seconds after you press it again, the bodies of hybrids neutralize chemicals pretty quickly."

"Done." The Drone pressed the button again. "I have this odd feeling that this is a terrible idea."

"As long as we hold them, they can't hurt us or themselves."

Aniska woke up first, and started talking. "It seems there are multiple very similar planets called Earth, all of them with humans with similar languages. Wait, why am I wet and being pushed to the ground?"

"The whales tried to drown both of you."

"They..." Aniska became furious. "BASTARDS! She is only a child. MY child. She never meant any harm. She came back to apologize, and you still try to kill her?! Su saqe ussanna kika us!ean qeka su!e sa us isqe suansaka!n." She started crying.

Jonathan became as white as Aniska's natural color when he heard the last sentence (rough translation: "You will leave my daughter alone or my god will destroy your soul after I dance on your grave."). "You're right, maybe this wasn't a good idea."

Sanka said "Don't worry, the feelings she just showed to them are exactly what I wanted her to tell them if they wouldn't listen to me. They won't really understand the words. ... Could you please let us go? If you're worried you can put some of those psi-blocking clothes on us first."

"At times like these I'm glad I have a lack of emotions." The Drone turned to look at the water, "Of course, as with all biologicals, seeing and experiencing often leaves more of an impact than simply hearing and imagining. But that is a matter for later," the Drone pointed to 47, "in the ever so likely chance they try that again, be ready to activate the link." 47 nodded, It will be done. The Drone made a simple motion, materializing two more sets of clothing. "They don't understand words? Soon they will, when their minds bind with ours, they will understand everything we understand for the duration of the link and most likely sometime after it has been broken. It is then that you should explain, in words, what has happened, knowing that they will be forced to listen and will not be able to use their senselessly aggressive means." 47 nodded to this, "It would probably be for the best, but it is up to you."

"They do understand what happened, the problem is that they still see or saw me as a threat. They might be lying to me again, but I sense a little regret about their attacks now." Sanka put on the hood of the Forbidden Ministry clothing. "Gods this feels weird, with one sense less."
She hugged Aniska. "It's alright now, mom. Hey I should practice my chess, cause I really should have seen their move coming."
A little smile appeared on Aniska's face. "I think I should undo some of your royal education first. It's too weird how you fail to be impressed by anything."

"I guess it's not possible to tell lies in a hivemind, right?" Jonathan asked. "I'm not sure if I want to know why the whales behave like they do, but go ahead."

"Prepare yourself, control your thoughts. Keep anything you want hidden away." Said 47, the Drone began muttered some odd words and the landscape soon began to distort and melt away until everything became black. An infinite blackness in which no light could pierce. 47, Aniska, Sanka, Jonathan, and the whales were now in the hivemind. Everything was clear to everyone, only the deepest of secrets could not be seen, yet.
It's hard but you'll get used to this soon enough. This is the Hivemind, everything you know is being transmitted to everyone else. Knowledge is shared here, thrown into the pot from which everyone takes their soup, if you will. You may all be experiencing some confusion but I sense that you understand me. I also sense that you wonder why my mind is so hard to penetrate while your minds are so easy, the answer is simple: Surface thoughts are shared first, then the deeper thoughts. Secrets are kept through sheer willpower and nothing more. I have almost no surface thoughts for anyone here to read, and my mind is much harder to pierce because of the way I have been trained. I don't expect anyone to trust me, I expect the two conflicting sides here to listen to one another and form a resolution.The voice that spoke was a deep one, deep and loud. It came from everywhere and nowhere. Almost as if it was both a thought and something being spoken.

"Humans. Long ago they tried to kill all of us, but the last few of us discovered telepathy and used it to wipe out the humans in retribution. We even made them make the sea bigger. And now out of nowhere a new human appeared who has the same weapon as we do. She must die... we think?"

"No! I could have been your friend!"

So, essentially, you're nothing but a race that follow the eye for an eye method. Utterly useless. No doubt you ended the lives of every other land animal on the planet as well as destroyed the the ecosystem. In order to raise the oceans, the frozen poles which no doubt existed some time ago would have had to of been destroyed. I imagine this planet went through quite a rought spell as nature itself was ravaged by a creature that was successfully more destructive than humans. However, I will tell you now that this is not a conflict you will win under any circumstances. There are several other humans with this ability and there are those who can nuetralize your telepathic abilities, such as myself. I suggest you open your ears and begin listening, of course, you don't really have a choice at this point anyway. The mentality of 47 was that of someone trying to be harsh but honesty didn't care enough to let that come accross. Its thoughts definately had a sense of disapointment, maybe anger, but at the same time they conveyed no sense of emotion. It was a bland momtone coming from a machine that stated facts and n othing more.

"Are you suggesting we went too far in defending ourselves? Maybe we did, we have nothing to compare ourselves with."

Putting it lightly, yes. Putting it not so lightly, you're a genocidal, murderous, irresponsible race that's most likely done more harm than good to this world. This 'Earth' would most likely be better without you. I can't imagine the sheer number of casualties and innocents that were killed because of you, be they humans or the countless other animals that inhabitted this world before you single-handedly caused a mass extiction. But onto more important things, these senseless attacks of yours are going to stop, I'm not asking, I'm telling, I'm commanding. You have displayed no ability to leave this world, leading me to believe you cannot. There are also countless other humans, as well as other alien races, in the galaxy who are willing to simply destroy your planet and you with it, if it means they can pass through this system unhindered. So I suggest you learn to think before you act, before you put yourselves in a situation you do not want to be in.

"We understand that our ancestors wiped out many other species along with the humans. On the other hand, their actions saved many that the humans were destroying. Whether their actions were right or not, we feel that we cannot be blamed for them because we couldn't possibly have prevented them. We weren't there then. We do regret harming the young female, we hope she will understand we did it only because were very afraid of her."

(Jonathan: ) "You have been lucky that you didn't try this against someone less peaceful than us. I have seen many civilizations, and I can tell you that many would have killed you instead of talking. If you don't believe me, try imagining yourselves in our position."

"We understand, and we are sorry."

Saved? I doubt it. Even if your ancestors initially 'saved' the animals being killed by humans, your raising the oceans would have destroyed countless ecosystems, killing the animals you say you were protecting. Every action has consequences, your ancestor's actions are no different. I do not blame you for the actions of your ancestors, I blame you for not learning a more diplomatic way of solving your problems.

"Diplomacy and problems with who? There hasn't been anything to learn from until recently."

That doesn't matter, it's called forethought. Most spacefaring races, and even non-spacefaring races, have learned that communication solves things better than unnecissary force. Even if you are not spacefaring, you should know how to speak first, rather than act in a hostile manner. I ask: if you possess the ability to convince a girl that she wants to swin, why can you not convince a group to leave orbit?

"The girl is no threat to us on her own, but there are more like her. We did not want to be found by those, so we could not allow her to get away."

So despite the fact that you were able to find that out, you lack the ability to suppress memories, or simply ask someone to keep a secret? Anyone who is able to scan a young girl's mind to find that kind of information should also be able to tell that said young girl is nice enough to keep a secret.

"The word 'secret' doesn't mean much to us or to the likes of the girl. If we can read her mind, then others like her who are older and stronger than her can do so too."

(Sanka: ) "They are right about that. But they really should learn better ways to interact with strangers. There are a lot of other options apart from ignoring and killing."

"We think we might like to learn."

You haven't addressed memory suppression. And you apparently didn't seem to notice she was royalty. You must not look very carefully into people's minds or you would have seen that killing royalty is a good way to earn yourself a death warrant in most cases.

"We cannot suppress memories. We did notice she is important, but also that the people she is important to have no idea where she is. A few of them think she is on a planet called beautiful-place, but she left that by her own initiative without telling anyone where she was going. Now do you have any suggestions for who could teach us how to interact with other races? Your attempts to make us feel bad don't work very well and are unnecessary because we have already felt bad since the adoptive mother of the girl got emotional. Please be more constructive."

And the AI? If you read her mind you would've picked up on the fact that they have an AI. I have no care for your feelings, I criticize you're ability to think rationally despite this enhanced mental ability you've developed. I also doubt you care for the feelings of her mother. You obviously could have read her mind and predicted what her response would be. I also question why you'd bother to attempt it a second time, you should have detected the Greywatch ship's presence and, when we landed on the surface, you could have read their minds again to find that we had already formed a plan to defend them against you. If you're going to bother trying to kill someone, espescially after failing the first time, you should know well enough to do research.

OOC please note the few edits to the previous post

IC

"We had no reason to expect one of those whose minds we couldn't read had the ability to walk on water (which is supposed to be impossible), and therefore no reason to consider what the mother would do after we would fail to kill her. We did know of your plan, but making someone unconscious only lets them drown faster does it not? We did not think of the AI because we thought it was a machine and could not act by its own initiative. For that matter, the male human does not want to live without the mother. As for the feelings of the mother, we had no reason to feel compassion for her until she forced us to see things from her perspective. A pain and anger that deep are impossible to ignore."

(Aniska: ) "Is that true, Jonathan?"

(Jonathan: ) "This is not the right time."

Granted, the water walking would have been unexpected, but knowing of our plan and failing to notice that their was a batch of psi-resistant creatures coming to the surface with the mother and child... it seems more like you intentionally left yourself blind. As for your failed attempt, I was refering to the first time, not the second. Also, you seem to have foolishly convinced yourself that Drones haven't invested in learning to swin. As for the AI, you seem to know about machinery and yet you didn't pick up on AI standing for Artificial Intelligence, you should have known better. And by your own confession, you only think about yourselves and no one else until you feel their pain. Can I assume that everyone else your ancestors killed felt no pain?

OOC and edited too

OOC: 'nother edit. Is this edit business just gonna keep going?

"Please, what point are you trying to make? It was a war, wars hurt. We thought the war had come back to us, and acted as if it had. We now see what we were really doing was trying to murder an innocent child, and we regret it."

Really, you figured the war had come back? From where may I ask? I thought you said your anscestors killed all the humans on this world. If so, it would be rather obvious that even if she was a human, she's a different one. An alien, one way or the other, and that alone should have prompted some thought. I care not for apologies, regrets, sorrow, or scars. What I want to know is are you going to do this again to next people who pass here, be they psi-wielders or not? Space is massive, but suprisingly crowded. And to be perfectly honest, you haven't convinced me yet that you're not simply going to continue your murderous ways against anything that annoys you.

"Our parents told us told us humans were the greatest evil, like their parents told to them. One does not wonder where evil comes from or why, one wonders how to make it go away. We now understand our prejudice was wrong, and do not want to make the same mistake again."

If you say so. Sanka, may I deactivate? I see no reason to keep the binding active any longer.

"Yes, that's alright."

The blackness began to fade as the world returned to everyone's view. Everyone's senses would be restimulated as the mental binding began to loosen. The Leanorians had been watching the enitre thing, all five seconds of it. "So," one of them started, "Learn anything?"

"Yes," Aniska replied, "remember I said something went very wrong here if this island was supposed to be a mountain? They did it, in a war with the humans that used to live here. And now Sanka scared the crap out of them by being a more-or-less-human with telepathic ability. They're sorry for what they did, but I'd still rather leave this place than stay around."

"I always imagined whales were friendly creatures" said Sanka. Jonathan told her that on most worlds they were.

Aniska took Jonathan's hands. "We have something to talk about, don't we?" - "Yes, but not in front of the whales."

"Awwww" said Sanka, who was aware of what both were thinking but not saying.

"And not in front of curious little girls either!"

"I'll have the captain drop some warning beacons in orbit. I see no more reason in being here. Since everything has been resolved." Said the Leanorian. "We didn't find much of interest on this 'island,' and I doubt the planet itself will yield anything different."

Jonathan agreed. "I guess there will be lots of submerged cities, but those probably don't contain anything that humans elsewhere haven't invented. Let's get out of this place."

Sanka was already back inside the Harmony.

"Drones!" The two Drone looked over at the Leanorian and nodded. "Right, right... we're coming. You people can keep the clothing, it's not like we haven't got extras." The Leanorian nodded and once the group was together, the dematerialized from the surface. The shuttle that was deployed made its way back to the Explorer and PSR systems were prepped and shecked. It looked like anything and everything interesting had been checked out.

"Thank you. Now Jonathan and I can have real private conversations again."

...

A few minutes after the shuttle was back, Harmony also appeared next to the Explorer.


Thanks for all the help, and for saving our lives twice. We will return the favor if we can, but hope there will never be a need.

No problem, it's what we do. I've gone ahead and attached a contact address in this message so if you need help, feel free to contact Greywatch in the future.

With that the Explorer began to pull off.

Thanks and goodbye.

Harmony requested to dock with the Angenterian ship, to bring back the two who had been tagging along. Maybe she could get a ride in cargo, and otherwise she would take a week or three to fly to the next interesting system. A few more months like this, and then it would be time to go home.

(OOC: Sorry I missed the whole thing, life gets in the way.)

IC: Jenna sat, unperturbed, in the Harmony, as it rode safely home. Not being that of a psychic mind, she had absolutely no idea of the communications that went back and fourth on the surface. Laarus, however, was astonishingly quiet, and didn't even fidget as the ship left the surface. Obviously, something big had gone on.

Pinnacle of Virtue
"Captain, an alien vessel is requesting to dock, they say they have our people with them."

Captain Tobias looked toward the generic bridge officer. "Permission granted." He was eager to hear the news from the pair he'd sent out.

OOC Yea, life happens.
If I understood it correctly, Jenna would have been part of the hivemind created by Greywatch.

IC

Harmony docked, and Jonathan and Sanka followed Jenna and Laarus into the Pinnacle of Virtue to ask for the usual favor they asked big ships.