Things were, it seemed, becoming progressively more complex than Aelyn-Paeryc would have liked. This seemed to be a theme by this point. If it wasn't bad enough that the place for which he endlessly searched was trapped in a paradoxical state of nonexistence that he knew nothing about, now the barriers between dimensions were collapsing?
A.P. had been a rocket scientist, a biologist, a psychologist, a psychohistorian, but never a theoretical physicist - that had been Paeryc's specialty. Sure, in building that revolutionary stardrive they had collaborated - creating an engine that could move incredible sums of mass over inconceivable distances at incredible speed required some toying with space-time - but in regards to dimensions, planes of existence? He had only the most rudimentary understanding.
Paeryc had been a genius - something beyond a genius, even. The man - no, not a man, Aelyn never could bring himself to see his little brother as anything but the kid he had watched over in Ares, that great, steel jungle on Mars.
But he had achieved things impossible even to this day - to someone valuing the 'laws' of space-time such as that detestable Kampfer were to uncover his existence, Paeryc Petrovalyc would be number-one most-wanted. He hadn't broken the laws of space-time - he had positively raped them, destroyed them, rebuilt them in his image - lucky for the dimensional lords that his time had been so short, so long ago - lucky that he had disappeared with Earth, so long before the Galaxy had even been colonized.
Briefly, the concept that those 'Dimensional Lords' might have had something to do with all this - including the disappearance of Sol - flitted through A.P.'s mind, but he let it go quickly enough, still not entirely able to take the idea of those 'Lords' seriously.
Yet now, space-time was collapsing. It was as if Reality itself was collapsing. Or, at least, that was how it seemed - A.P. was level-headed enough to see that he had only the minutest fraction of the information needed to make any worthwhile decisions on the matter.
It had all blown so very out of proportion. This changed everything - and yet it changed nothing, since what had he really been going on this whole time? He had been going on almost nothing. Complex knowledge that made little logical sense was better than total ignorance...right?
Crossing his arms, the Captain glared thoughtfully downward at the dull metal floor. The Mechanics' Bay was virtually silent, large, cavernous and strangely empty - probably Volo had ushered most of the staff to somewhere else in order to allow for some measure of privacy among the robots and other included parties.
"Timelines, then?" he mused, vocalizing only half of the thought before repeating himself in full. "He had talked about things like that - alternate timelines, different dimensions...You're telling me that multiple versions of the same universe, in which Time has proceeded differently for each, are..." Mentioning ’he’ without clarifying to anyone exctly who he might have been referring to.
Then, all at once, his fragmented thoughts came crashing together. Eyes intensified, the inky pools seeming to ripple in the emptiness of themselves.
Aelyn's jaw tightened - to the outside observer he seemed merely to be thinking intensely, but inwardly he was suddenly in chaos. He watched the holographic image of what was supposedly Earth, but eyes looked through it, too far gone in thought.
Suddenly, he glanced toward the looming Arsinova and said - perhaps with a twinge too much haste in his voice; "You said 'because a Dimensional Lord had to get involved'. Is the identity of this character known?" as he spoke the question, he transmitted it simultaneously to Dorin Harkahn - who had still yet to respond, to the Captain's gradually mounting anxiety.
Seconds passed, before he seemed to restart his thought process. So what if Kampfer or some other ‘dimensional lord’ had something to do with it? "Alright...Something is causing parallel dimensions of our universe to collapse and intertwine." he began slowly, annunciating carefully to keep himself from getting off track, "We're to assume that my Earth is still in this universe, correct? Now, leaving all of this universal **** behind, what we need has not changed. We need to find the location in this universe that Sol once inhabited, before disappearing." he turned at last once again to Arsinova, asked more intently "Where do we start? If we're to assume that the location of Sol is consistent in most Universes-" eyes lit up now in realization, perhaps even hope? "That means that the Galactic coordinates for the Sol in your universe should be stored on that datachip you gave us, right? If we're to travel to that location and enter notspace we might just..."
For perhaps the sixth time since the beginning of the story, Alexa spoke up, quietly, to finish Aeyn's sentence. "Find Earth."
Another long, perhaps slightly awkward silence before Aelyn put a finger to his ear and positively barked via BrainPal™ ”Harkahn!” Grab the damn remote and get your ass back to the mechbay now..”
He paused for the briefest second, before softening somewhat, apparently receiving the answer he had been looking for.
-
From a slot just beneath the primary control unit, Dorin Harkahn slid a thin, rectangular device consisting solely of a deep blue screen, lightly patterned with intercrossing grid patterns. Automatically, the BrainPal™ logo appeared in holographic image some inches above, but the analyst was paying no attention to the little thing as it booted up and established a secure connection with the Stella mainframe.
The man was pale as a ghost, he seemed to have aged a decade or two since his hasty departure not so long prior. Rather than his energetic sprint he moved at a power-walk pace, ignoring everything around him. It was, in regards to total damages incurred, a much more successful procedure getting back to the mechbay than it had been exiting it – he only resulted in one catastrophic coffee spill, which he promptly ignored and kept moving.
Weary, haggard and looking like he had just witnessed Satan himself, Harkahn appeared in the doorway and half-stumbled his way back to the group.
There was no need to explain – he had uncovered the same disturbing truth that Arsinova had only moments prior explained to Aelyn. The two merely exchanged grave expressions – not that A.P.’s expression wasn’t always grave – and after a moment of stressful silence Harkahn took a deep breath, ran fingers through ruddy hair, then held up the little tablet-device and allowed the holographic image to crop up into the air before them. It looked, for all intents and purposes, like the three-dimensional, holographic equivalent of a computer desktop, complete with BrainPal™ logo acting as the ‘wallpaper’. There was no need for touch controls, considering the BrainPal™ integration allowed those of the crew authorized access to manipulate it remotely.
”There were a number of encrypted file types that the mainframe wasn’t able to recognize.” he said, getting straight to the point, motioning with a finger toward the quaint little question mark icons that hovered stationary among the holographic field. A glance toward Arsinova, glasses reflecting the rusty colored light from above and obscuring his eyes – for once it did not coincidentally coincide with a sudden revelation or other pertinent moment. ”I collected all of the incompatible stuff right here – are you able to access these through your systems, or will we need some other device? Might be able to put something together with the salvage if that’s the case, but I can guarantee that we’ve gotten everything of use and I could see it still not being enough.” having only recently learned of the gradual collapsing of reality, it appeared that Stella’s chief analyst was rather…jumpy.
Alexa spoke again – her mind seemed always to run on a parallel course to everyone else, which tended to be helpful to at least some minor degree. ”Bravo kept mentioning an ‘Angel Moon’ and a ‘key’.” she needed say no more to clarify her implications, that being the possibility that there may have been something on that ‘Angel Moon’ which would help them access those mysterious files and possibly unlock the spacial coordinates which had once harbored that legendary Sol – assuming, of course, that Arsinova was incapable of accessing that data without outside assistance.
Everyone seemed to be speaking in half-formed ideas and partial sentences – it might have proven annoying to the outside observer but it was a testament to the efficient chemistry among the crew which allowed them to function as might a single entity.
”My concern is not for the wellbeing of the universe, but for that of the people aboard this ship.” he said, replying verbally to some BrainPal™ transmission, probably from the increasingly anxious scientist beside him. It seemed almost as if there was an added degree of solemnity in the Captain’s voice. ”I don’t intend to play the part of hero. I’ve got a job to finish and nothing is going to stop me, now…” he turned the black eyes back to the huge mech, ”Where do we start?”
Again, Royanna Kallenger breathed easy. She had gotten the boy to calm down, return to a reasonable state of mind – and the idea of fetching something to eat was becoming increasingly appealing.
”Who, Ritters? He’s about the nicest guy I know. Couldn’t hurt a fly.” she said, before mentioning that food – and before Christofer went positively elated over the idea of food. In fact, Royanna couldn’t help but smile at his enthusiasm – not only was it so relieving to see him in a state so opposite to the misery he had been so recently seeped in, but it had been a long while since she had seen anyone get that excited over anything. The woman stood, if a bit stiffly thanks to that damnable shoulder wound and associated new-skin treatment beneath the bandages, but managed to keep from letting a pained expression mar her face.
”Hey, careful with that tail, huh?” she said, still smiling and with voice mild enough to make clear the fact that she was not really scolding him, if but playfully. ”Y-…You don’t wanna’ go breaking things now.” it was then that she would look as if something had just stabbed at her, stumbling over the words and yet being unable to re-direct the statement in any other direction. Again there was furious scolding in her mind – stupid! bringing up his new canid form was the last thing she should be doing if she wanted him to stay calm! She hoped it would go over his head – not too farfetched considering his preoccupation with the anticipation of food, but still.
Changing the subject quickly in an attempt at keeping him from thinking about it, Roya motioned to a small stack of folded clothing which rested just out of tail-range on the counter. ”They left some clothes for you, since your other stuff was pretty torn up – you’ll probably want to change into that before we go. I’ll give you some privacy.”
The clothing consisted of Imperial standard-issue civilian wear – shoes that resembled black, low-ankle work boots, black canvas cargo pants, black nylon belt, white cotton T shirt with the diamond ‘GE’ logo printed on the left breast, as well as associated undergarments. Conveniently, Christofer would find the clothing to fit relatively well, if slightly larger than necessary.
”Oh, and make sure you’ve got that badge I gave you.” she added, referring to the lower half of the blue and green metallic ‘GE’ badge that she had given him to wear loosely ‘round the neck before stepping out and leaving him alone in the room to change.
AS expected, the moment Royanna stepped foot into the hallway, there was Captain Perry, fists clenched and storming toward her with some anxious looking doctors in the background. Still feeling uncomfortable in her abnormally casual wear – the same white cotton shirt as Christofer, but with her own pants and boots – particularly in the presence of the overdressed Captain, Royanna merely stood straight, closed the door over behind, and faced the red-faced man with a low scowl to match the one she was being given.
”God dammit Kallenger, you’ve caused nothing but problems since you’ve been aboard this ship. What in Space were you doing in there? You think you have the right to disrupt my operations and cause chaos on my ship just because you’re the brass’s favorite little pet project? Well you don’t and I’m not going to stand for it, do you understand?” Perry spoke lowly in a furious, rapid half-whisper that did little to conceal the rampant chastising from anyone within earshot. Royanna merely kept cold eyes locked on his face and gritted her teeth.
”God damned DEU, what a crock of ****, high-rank privilege for chasing around some imaginary bogeyman. I’ll have you know that whatever stupid excuse you give me to explain your behavior you try to shove off on me I’ve already submitted an official complaint form and I’ll have you permanently banned from this vessel by the time we reach Ardella. I swear, Ihave never been so revolted in my life, you’re actingchild, I can’t believe they …
Perry went on, and on, and on, shooting off his gripes endlessly, halting only when the door behind Kallenger would nose open to bring him back to the reality that there were, in fact, other people in his vicinity who might hear him – and even if Kallenger’s companion was just some blasted anthromorph he could still cause problems down the line – at least, that was Perry’s manner of thinking.
As such, he glanced to the door with a scowl, then back to Royanna. Growling something incoherent under his breath before spinning with some force and storming back down the hallway, parting and ultimately dispersing the small crowd of doctors and aides as he exited the medical bay.
Royanna took a deep, deep breath – followed by several more. Holding her tongue there had been infuriatingly difficult, especially since there was really no obligation for her to do so, given her rank – but a confrontation with Perry would make the process of getting food vastly more difficult than it had to be. Everything was easier this way.
Seconds passed before she turned to Christofer with a mild half-smile across thin lips. With a nod in the general direction, she indicated that it was time for them to move along, seeing nothing worth saying about the lecture she had just endured.
As they entered back into the antechamber of the medical bay, the grey-haired physician from the night before leaned in with some meekness to ask if everything was okay – clearly he wanted to stay out of all that business and was concerned only with the wellbeing of his patience. ”We’re fine, thank you.” Royanna replied mildly, and that was the end of it. She led Christofer out of the medbay and into the hall, glancing to the blue-screened wristwatch for a quick reference to the vessel’s layout as she proceeded and giving no other indication that she might not be entirely at-home in this strange facility.
Hopefully, she thought, the kid wouldn’t hold his tongue if he had anything to say. That would make everything just that much easier.
Ketin couldn’t resist a bubbly giggle as Kampfer fell to instantaneously to the floor – but still well-meaning at heart, he clumsily reached to help him back to his feet. It was almost disastrous however, when he very nearly took the wrong hand. Luckily one of them caught the impending mishap and it was narrowly avoided. Something like that would have really ruined the night.
It was not long before the sorry pair had made their way to where the real fun was, and was it ever a glorious sight. The boy was beaming as he scanned over the chaos before him. It had been too long since he had such an opportunity to go on a real bender. Ketin Clarke felt at-home in a lot of places – crowded cities, seedy dives, jam-packed concerts – anywhere that vice and people could be found in copious quantities.
Like a kid in a candy store – or an alcoholic in a liquor store – Kete didn’t even respond, merely jumping right in, grabbing Kampfer’s wrist – the one that wouldn’t shred him to bits – and yanked him along behind. Professional partyboy Kete Clarke was on the case~!
The next two, three hours went by in an incoherent blur, though not lacking for at-the-time gratification. It didn’t matter that the population were Z-bots and not humans. It didn’t matter that a number of illegal activities may or may not have taken place. Nothing mattered – it was a no-holds-barred, non-stop disco.
Eventually, the inevitable occurred; and Ketin Clarke managed to become the center of attention. For someone constantly on the run, he had a terrible tendency to turn into the main focus of a large sum of individuals in certain situations. For all his faults, the kid was too charismatic for his own good.
Three hours after first entering into the madness, following that blur of nightlife akin to the wealthiest playboy, Ketin Clark had usurped the stage and taken the part of vocalist.
And despite all the booze, one thing was obvious – that kid could sing.
He was a natural – decades of benders ending in career-level vocalism had given him more enough practice, and his voice was equal in quality only to his incredible stage presence.
”Take, on, me~ Take, me on, I’ll be gone, in a day or twoooooo~!”
There was a healthy reddish blush across his nose, reflecting just how inebriated he was. He clutched the microphone stand and swung with it energetically – between fingers hung loosely some kind of greenish plant which was crushed up and wrapped in a vaguely tubular fashion. The end of it was lit aflame and it emitted a wispy smoke – now and again, between verses or during instrumentals he would put it to his lips and take a long, generous hit or two.
It was not marijuana, though it could have easily been mistaken for such given the appearance. Many of the effects, such as a feeling of euphoria and tremendous appetite were also present. It was, however, a much more potent drug, enhanced with synthetic compounds that gave it a variety of stimulant effects, halting just short of hallucination. Due to the intensely corrosive nature of the compound it was highly illegal in most of the Galaxy – it could prove deadly in too great a quantity, though that did not seem to stop Kete from hitting on it like a professional.
”Any way you wan’ it that’s the way you need it any way you wan’ it~”
His hair almost seemed like more of a mess than it usually was. Somewhere along the line he had acquired a red and black bandanna which had been folded up and wrapped like a headband, partially obscured beneath the fiery orange hair.
”When you feel my heat, look into my eyes, it’s where my demons hide, it’s where my demons hide~”
He had also apparently lost his T shirt, but kept his jacket. It hung loosely on him, doing little to conceal a torso that was positively marred with scars of all shapes and sizes – though admittedly many of them would likely be too faint to be seen from a distance. Still it seemed, in a way, uncharacteristic.
”Hol’theline! Love isn’t always on time~! Woahohoh~”
Kampfer would have found himself, over the course of the evening, drowning in a virtual sea of women – he had, after all, joined the ultimate wingman – such a charmer that he had no trouble at all making his unusual new friend seem incredibly desirable.
By the time Ketin was on stage singing his heart out however, Kampfer would likely have found himself wearing a flamboyant, loose-fitting Hawaiian-print shirt – he might also have yet to realize that he may have gotten a stylish, if…asymmetrical haircut. Ideally, if Kete had his way, the Lord of Technology would have joined him on stage to some effect or another – whether or not the man actually had any musical experience.
”We can dance if we want to, we’ve got all your life an’ mine, s’long as we abuse it, never gonna’ lose it, everything’ll work out right~”
But eventually everything had to wind down, and Ketin was no exception. After a hearty thirty or forty minute performance it was about time to call it a day – so he ended the show with something special.
It was the oldest, most famous folk song in the history of the wide, Wide Galaxy. Everyone knew at least the chorus, and perhaps a couple of the hundreds of variants of verses. It was a song without ‘official’ structure, and even the tune it was sung to could be swapped at will – but it was a special song.
It told of the greatest legend, of the ancient, mythical world that birthed all Mankind. It told of the worlds that circled the legendary Earth of Sol, the moons in crimson, silver, amber hues.
The band struck up a somber, bluesy and universally recognizable tune.
Kete swung in rhythm and absolutely sung his heart out; The Green Hills of Earth.
”The arching sky is calling~
Spacemen back to their trade,
All hands, standby, free falling~
And the lights, below us, fade~
Out ride, the Sons, of Terra,
Far drives! The thundering jet!
Up leaps a race, of Earthmen~
Out far, and onward yet~!”
Ketin had never really believed in the myth of Earth and Sol – most people didn’t. But it was the kind of story that got passed through generations nonetheless. The ultimate folk song, as old as time and Mankind itself – a million variants, a million ways to sing it, but always the same sentiment.
That somewhere out there, in some dark, forgotten corner of the Wide, wide Galaxy, the true home of all Mankind whirled ‘round the most ancient star, just waiting for her children to return once more.
”Across, the seas, of darkness~
The good, green Earth, is bright~!
Oh star, that was, my homeland~!
Shine down, on me, tonight~!!
We pray, for one, last landing~
On the globe, that gave, us birth~
Let us rest, our eyes, on the fleecy skies
And the cool, green hills, of Earth~….”
The accompaniment grew softer with that last, timeless verse. Every eye was on him, clutching that microphone as though it might fly away, drunk enough to pour his whole being into that magical song.
Uproarious applause shattered the gradually petering silence of that final note. Kete threw his arms in the air, flailed around in acknowledgement of their applause, and eventually stumbled his way off the stage…just barely managing to avoid a potentially brutal collision with the floor in the process. He was elated, beaming, laughing, and one might not help from feeling that it was not the drugs or the alcohol or the sex (There had been a lot of that~) that made him that way. The elation became him.
Kete stumbled off and the party continued. Some other musical group gradually took his place to keep the volume maxed-out and the booze flowing.
He wondered if, in however long it had been, if Nirix had gone looking for him – but it was an idle thought. The bulk of his mind was busy processing the various vices he had been consistently pumping into it. It was busy making sure, subconsciously, that all those pesky problems were neatly buried, deep, deep down beneath layers upon layers of denial and intentional ignorance and lies.
If nobody stopped him on the way out, Kete would proceed from the noisy chamber back into the stifling, mechanical silence of the hallway beyond. It was only then that he noticed the furious headache that was already starting to build up in his temples, but it was distant enough to be ignored, for now.
And Kete felt better.
Tsuan only chuckled mildly and shook his head. ”I don’t think I’ve ever seen tech this old. It’s probably propelled by pedals.” he said, adjusting the rifle that was slung over his shoulder. ”Corporal Sane might be able to figure it out but I’ll be of no use in that respe-“ he was cut off suddenly by Armston, who had been examining the thing from afar with a puzzled sort of look across her face.
”I think I can fly that thing.” she said with an air of perplexity, as if she was surprised at her own words. Naturally, this would grant her odd looks from Tsuan and likely Ducote as well – it was more than obvious that Dallen Armston was not technically minded.
Still, that might have been the exact reason that she could make the old thing move.
A moment, she hesitated and seemed to debate whether or not to continue, then in the same tone ”Yeah, I…I flew somethin’ like that when I was a kid. ****in’ rusty old thing b’I didn’t know it was that old…I mean, ****, no promises but-“
And there it was, interrupting their conversation, a sharp, icy voice echoing from the hallway and stairwell just beyond the great, cavernous hanger. There was only one feasible entrance to the hanger, that being the one that the soldiers had only recently come through themselves. There was an expansive, open sightline between them and that entrance.
Dallen was instantly at the ready. Eyes wide and intense, she spun around with rifle shouldered, eye training the ironsights on that entrance. Expertly trained hands switched it to precision-automatic mode in an instant, and she was a killing machine ready for action.
Tsuan had been startled by the sudden voice as well, he spun around similarly but did not immediately bear his weapon, instead slowly, gradually unshouldering it to take the rifle-grip in hand and aim from the hip in the same direction – not that he was frightened or any less capable of firing than Dallen, but he was less paranoid and preferred to see the threat before getting it in his sights.
And again, that icy voice echoed through the halls.
Tze, Reltakov, Sane and Sand had not responded.
When it occurred to Lance Corporal Armston exactly what that frosty voice had been exclaiming – a delayed occurrence, really – she couldn’t help but raise a brow. ”Queen…?” she mouthed silently, giving Ducote only the quickest glance so as to keep eyes hawk-trained on that doorway.
There was definitely someone at the bottom of that stairwell, and they definitely had the potential to be hostile – perhaps it was a soldiers’ intuition, but it couldn’t have been more right. It was a long, progressively intensifying silence.
And at last Armston could take it no longer. She barked with words hasty, official, prompt and authorative ”Lance Corporal Dallen Armston and Staff Sergeant Harlan Ducote of the Earth City Defense Force! State your identity immediately or we will open fire!”
Tsuan did not seem offended that he had been left out of her admittedly foolish outburst. Despite the fact that there was no longer an ECDF, it was really all Dallen knew to say that might alleviate that tension.
It didn’t.
A.P. had been a rocket scientist, a biologist, a psychologist, a psychohistorian, but never a theoretical physicist - that had been Paeryc's specialty. Sure, in building that revolutionary stardrive they had collaborated - creating an engine that could move incredible sums of mass over inconceivable distances at incredible speed required some toying with space-time - but in regards to dimensions, planes of existence? He had only the most rudimentary understanding.
Paeryc had been a genius - something beyond a genius, even. The man - no, not a man, Aelyn never could bring himself to see his little brother as anything but the kid he had watched over in Ares, that great, steel jungle on Mars.
But he had achieved things impossible even to this day - to someone valuing the 'laws' of space-time such as that detestable Kampfer were to uncover his existence, Paeryc Petrovalyc would be number-one most-wanted. He hadn't broken the laws of space-time - he had positively raped them, destroyed them, rebuilt them in his image - lucky for the dimensional lords that his time had been so short, so long ago - lucky that he had disappeared with Earth, so long before the Galaxy had even been colonized.
Briefly, the concept that those 'Dimensional Lords' might have had something to do with all this - including the disappearance of Sol - flitted through A.P.'s mind, but he let it go quickly enough, still not entirely able to take the idea of those 'Lords' seriously.
Yet now, space-time was collapsing. It was as if Reality itself was collapsing. Or, at least, that was how it seemed - A.P. was level-headed enough to see that he had only the minutest fraction of the information needed to make any worthwhile decisions on the matter.
It had all blown so very out of proportion. This changed everything - and yet it changed nothing, since what had he really been going on this whole time? He had been going on almost nothing. Complex knowledge that made little logical sense was better than total ignorance...right?
Crossing his arms, the Captain glared thoughtfully downward at the dull metal floor. The Mechanics' Bay was virtually silent, large, cavernous and strangely empty - probably Volo had ushered most of the staff to somewhere else in order to allow for some measure of privacy among the robots and other included parties.
"Timelines, then?" he mused, vocalizing only half of the thought before repeating himself in full. "He had talked about things like that - alternate timelines, different dimensions...You're telling me that multiple versions of the same universe, in which Time has proceeded differently for each, are..." Mentioning ’he’ without clarifying to anyone exctly who he might have been referring to.
Then, all at once, his fragmented thoughts came crashing together. Eyes intensified, the inky pools seeming to ripple in the emptiness of themselves.
Aelyn's jaw tightened - to the outside observer he seemed merely to be thinking intensely, but inwardly he was suddenly in chaos. He watched the holographic image of what was supposedly Earth, but eyes looked through it, too far gone in thought.
Suddenly, he glanced toward the looming Arsinova and said - perhaps with a twinge too much haste in his voice; "You said 'because a Dimensional Lord had to get involved'. Is the identity of this character known?" as he spoke the question, he transmitted it simultaneously to Dorin Harkahn - who had still yet to respond, to the Captain's gradually mounting anxiety.
Seconds passed, before he seemed to restart his thought process. So what if Kampfer or some other ‘dimensional lord’ had something to do with it? "Alright...Something is causing parallel dimensions of our universe to collapse and intertwine." he began slowly, annunciating carefully to keep himself from getting off track, "We're to assume that my Earth is still in this universe, correct? Now, leaving all of this universal **** behind, what we need has not changed. We need to find the location in this universe that Sol once inhabited, before disappearing." he turned at last once again to Arsinova, asked more intently "Where do we start? If we're to assume that the location of Sol is consistent in most Universes-" eyes lit up now in realization, perhaps even hope? "That means that the Galactic coordinates for the Sol in your universe should be stored on that datachip you gave us, right? If we're to travel to that location and enter notspace we might just..."
For perhaps the sixth time since the beginning of the story, Alexa spoke up, quietly, to finish Aeyn's sentence. "Find Earth."
Another long, perhaps slightly awkward silence before Aelyn put a finger to his ear and positively barked via BrainPal™ ”Harkahn!” Grab the damn remote and get your ass back to the mechbay now..”
He paused for the briefest second, before softening somewhat, apparently receiving the answer he had been looking for.
-
From a slot just beneath the primary control unit, Dorin Harkahn slid a thin, rectangular device consisting solely of a deep blue screen, lightly patterned with intercrossing grid patterns. Automatically, the BrainPal™ logo appeared in holographic image some inches above, but the analyst was paying no attention to the little thing as it booted up and established a secure connection with the Stella mainframe.
The man was pale as a ghost, he seemed to have aged a decade or two since his hasty departure not so long prior. Rather than his energetic sprint he moved at a power-walk pace, ignoring everything around him. It was, in regards to total damages incurred, a much more successful procedure getting back to the mechbay than it had been exiting it – he only resulted in one catastrophic coffee spill, which he promptly ignored and kept moving.
Weary, haggard and looking like he had just witnessed Satan himself, Harkahn appeared in the doorway and half-stumbled his way back to the group.
There was no need to explain – he had uncovered the same disturbing truth that Arsinova had only moments prior explained to Aelyn. The two merely exchanged grave expressions – not that A.P.’s expression wasn’t always grave – and after a moment of stressful silence Harkahn took a deep breath, ran fingers through ruddy hair, then held up the little tablet-device and allowed the holographic image to crop up into the air before them. It looked, for all intents and purposes, like the three-dimensional, holographic equivalent of a computer desktop, complete with BrainPal™ logo acting as the ‘wallpaper’. There was no need for touch controls, considering the BrainPal™ integration allowed those of the crew authorized access to manipulate it remotely.
”There were a number of encrypted file types that the mainframe wasn’t able to recognize.” he said, getting straight to the point, motioning with a finger toward the quaint little question mark icons that hovered stationary among the holographic field. A glance toward Arsinova, glasses reflecting the rusty colored light from above and obscuring his eyes – for once it did not coincidentally coincide with a sudden revelation or other pertinent moment. ”I collected all of the incompatible stuff right here – are you able to access these through your systems, or will we need some other device? Might be able to put something together with the salvage if that’s the case, but I can guarantee that we’ve gotten everything of use and I could see it still not being enough.” having only recently learned of the gradual collapsing of reality, it appeared that Stella’s chief analyst was rather…jumpy.
Alexa spoke again – her mind seemed always to run on a parallel course to everyone else, which tended to be helpful to at least some minor degree. ”Bravo kept mentioning an ‘Angel Moon’ and a ‘key’.” she needed say no more to clarify her implications, that being the possibility that there may have been something on that ‘Angel Moon’ which would help them access those mysterious files and possibly unlock the spacial coordinates which had once harbored that legendary Sol – assuming, of course, that Arsinova was incapable of accessing that data without outside assistance.
Everyone seemed to be speaking in half-formed ideas and partial sentences – it might have proven annoying to the outside observer but it was a testament to the efficient chemistry among the crew which allowed them to function as might a single entity.
”My concern is not for the wellbeing of the universe, but for that of the people aboard this ship.” he said, replying verbally to some BrainPal™ transmission, probably from the increasingly anxious scientist beside him. It seemed almost as if there was an added degree of solemnity in the Captain’s voice. ”I don’t intend to play the part of hero. I’ve got a job to finish and nothing is going to stop me, now…” he turned the black eyes back to the huge mech, ”Where do we start?”
Again, Royanna Kallenger breathed easy. She had gotten the boy to calm down, return to a reasonable state of mind – and the idea of fetching something to eat was becoming increasingly appealing.
”Who, Ritters? He’s about the nicest guy I know. Couldn’t hurt a fly.” she said, before mentioning that food – and before Christofer went positively elated over the idea of food. In fact, Royanna couldn’t help but smile at his enthusiasm – not only was it so relieving to see him in a state so opposite to the misery he had been so recently seeped in, but it had been a long while since she had seen anyone get that excited over anything. The woman stood, if a bit stiffly thanks to that damnable shoulder wound and associated new-skin treatment beneath the bandages, but managed to keep from letting a pained expression mar her face.
”Hey, careful with that tail, huh?” she said, still smiling and with voice mild enough to make clear the fact that she was not really scolding him, if but playfully. ”Y-…You don’t wanna’ go breaking things now.” it was then that she would look as if something had just stabbed at her, stumbling over the words and yet being unable to re-direct the statement in any other direction. Again there was furious scolding in her mind – stupid! bringing up his new canid form was the last thing she should be doing if she wanted him to stay calm! She hoped it would go over his head – not too farfetched considering his preoccupation with the anticipation of food, but still.
Changing the subject quickly in an attempt at keeping him from thinking about it, Roya motioned to a small stack of folded clothing which rested just out of tail-range on the counter. ”They left some clothes for you, since your other stuff was pretty torn up – you’ll probably want to change into that before we go. I’ll give you some privacy.”
The clothing consisted of Imperial standard-issue civilian wear – shoes that resembled black, low-ankle work boots, black canvas cargo pants, black nylon belt, white cotton T shirt with the diamond ‘GE’ logo printed on the left breast, as well as associated undergarments. Conveniently, Christofer would find the clothing to fit relatively well, if slightly larger than necessary.
”Oh, and make sure you’ve got that badge I gave you.” she added, referring to the lower half of the blue and green metallic ‘GE’ badge that she had given him to wear loosely ‘round the neck before stepping out and leaving him alone in the room to change.
AS expected, the moment Royanna stepped foot into the hallway, there was Captain Perry, fists clenched and storming toward her with some anxious looking doctors in the background. Still feeling uncomfortable in her abnormally casual wear – the same white cotton shirt as Christofer, but with her own pants and boots – particularly in the presence of the overdressed Captain, Royanna merely stood straight, closed the door over behind, and faced the red-faced man with a low scowl to match the one she was being given.
”God dammit Kallenger, you’ve caused nothing but problems since you’ve been aboard this ship. What in Space were you doing in there? You think you have the right to disrupt my operations and cause chaos on my ship just because you’re the brass’s favorite little pet project? Well you don’t and I’m not going to stand for it, do you understand?” Perry spoke lowly in a furious, rapid half-whisper that did little to conceal the rampant chastising from anyone within earshot. Royanna merely kept cold eyes locked on his face and gritted her teeth.
”God damned DEU, what a crock of ****, high-rank privilege for chasing around some imaginary bogeyman. I’ll have you know that whatever stupid excuse you give me to explain your behavior you try to shove off on me I’ve already submitted an official complaint form and I’ll have you permanently banned from this vessel by the time we reach Ardella. I swear, Ihave never been so revolted in my life, you’re actingchild, I can’t believe they …
Perry went on, and on, and on, shooting off his gripes endlessly, halting only when the door behind Kallenger would nose open to bring him back to the reality that there were, in fact, other people in his vicinity who might hear him – and even if Kallenger’s companion was just some blasted anthromorph he could still cause problems down the line – at least, that was Perry’s manner of thinking.
As such, he glanced to the door with a scowl, then back to Royanna. Growling something incoherent under his breath before spinning with some force and storming back down the hallway, parting and ultimately dispersing the small crowd of doctors and aides as he exited the medical bay.
Royanna took a deep, deep breath – followed by several more. Holding her tongue there had been infuriatingly difficult, especially since there was really no obligation for her to do so, given her rank – but a confrontation with Perry would make the process of getting food vastly more difficult than it had to be. Everything was easier this way.
Seconds passed before she turned to Christofer with a mild half-smile across thin lips. With a nod in the general direction, she indicated that it was time for them to move along, seeing nothing worth saying about the lecture she had just endured.
As they entered back into the antechamber of the medical bay, the grey-haired physician from the night before leaned in with some meekness to ask if everything was okay – clearly he wanted to stay out of all that business and was concerned only with the wellbeing of his patience. ”We’re fine, thank you.” Royanna replied mildly, and that was the end of it. She led Christofer out of the medbay and into the hall, glancing to the blue-screened wristwatch for a quick reference to the vessel’s layout as she proceeded and giving no other indication that she might not be entirely at-home in this strange facility.
Hopefully, she thought, the kid wouldn’t hold his tongue if he had anything to say. That would make everything just that much easier.
Ketin couldn’t resist a bubbly giggle as Kampfer fell to instantaneously to the floor – but still well-meaning at heart, he clumsily reached to help him back to his feet. It was almost disastrous however, when he very nearly took the wrong hand. Luckily one of them caught the impending mishap and it was narrowly avoided. Something like that would have really ruined the night.
It was not long before the sorry pair had made their way to where the real fun was, and was it ever a glorious sight. The boy was beaming as he scanned over the chaos before him. It had been too long since he had such an opportunity to go on a real bender. Ketin Clarke felt at-home in a lot of places – crowded cities, seedy dives, jam-packed concerts – anywhere that vice and people could be found in copious quantities.
Like a kid in a candy store – or an alcoholic in a liquor store – Kete didn’t even respond, merely jumping right in, grabbing Kampfer’s wrist – the one that wouldn’t shred him to bits – and yanked him along behind. Professional partyboy Kete Clarke was on the case~!
The next two, three hours went by in an incoherent blur, though not lacking for at-the-time gratification. It didn’t matter that the population were Z-bots and not humans. It didn’t matter that a number of illegal activities may or may not have taken place. Nothing mattered – it was a no-holds-barred, non-stop disco.
Eventually, the inevitable occurred; and Ketin Clarke managed to become the center of attention. For someone constantly on the run, he had a terrible tendency to turn into the main focus of a large sum of individuals in certain situations. For all his faults, the kid was too charismatic for his own good.
Three hours after first entering into the madness, following that blur of nightlife akin to the wealthiest playboy, Ketin Clark had usurped the stage and taken the part of vocalist.
And despite all the booze, one thing was obvious – that kid could sing.
He was a natural – decades of benders ending in career-level vocalism had given him more enough practice, and his voice was equal in quality only to his incredible stage presence.
”Take, on, me~ Take, me on, I’ll be gone, in a day or twoooooo~!”
There was a healthy reddish blush across his nose, reflecting just how inebriated he was. He clutched the microphone stand and swung with it energetically – between fingers hung loosely some kind of greenish plant which was crushed up and wrapped in a vaguely tubular fashion. The end of it was lit aflame and it emitted a wispy smoke – now and again, between verses or during instrumentals he would put it to his lips and take a long, generous hit or two.
It was not marijuana, though it could have easily been mistaken for such given the appearance. Many of the effects, such as a feeling of euphoria and tremendous appetite were also present. It was, however, a much more potent drug, enhanced with synthetic compounds that gave it a variety of stimulant effects, halting just short of hallucination. Due to the intensely corrosive nature of the compound it was highly illegal in most of the Galaxy – it could prove deadly in too great a quantity, though that did not seem to stop Kete from hitting on it like a professional.
”Any way you wan’ it that’s the way you need it any way you wan’ it~”
His hair almost seemed like more of a mess than it usually was. Somewhere along the line he had acquired a red and black bandanna which had been folded up and wrapped like a headband, partially obscured beneath the fiery orange hair.”When you feel my heat, look into my eyes, it’s where my demons hide, it’s where my demons hide~”
He had also apparently lost his T shirt, but kept his jacket. It hung loosely on him, doing little to conceal a torso that was positively marred with scars of all shapes and sizes – though admittedly many of them would likely be too faint to be seen from a distance. Still it seemed, in a way, uncharacteristic.
”Hol’theline! Love isn’t always on time~! Woahohoh~”
Kampfer would have found himself, over the course of the evening, drowning in a virtual sea of women – he had, after all, joined the ultimate wingman – such a charmer that he had no trouble at all making his unusual new friend seem incredibly desirable.
By the time Ketin was on stage singing his heart out however, Kampfer would likely have found himself wearing a flamboyant, loose-fitting Hawaiian-print shirt – he might also have yet to realize that he may have gotten a stylish, if…asymmetrical haircut. Ideally, if Kete had his way, the Lord of Technology would have joined him on stage to some effect or another – whether or not the man actually had any musical experience.
”We can dance if we want to, we’ve got all your life an’ mine, s’long as we abuse it, never gonna’ lose it, everything’ll work out right~”
But eventually everything had to wind down, and Ketin was no exception. After a hearty thirty or forty minute performance it was about time to call it a day – so he ended the show with something special.
It was the oldest, most famous folk song in the history of the wide, Wide Galaxy. Everyone knew at least the chorus, and perhaps a couple of the hundreds of variants of verses. It was a song without ‘official’ structure, and even the tune it was sung to could be swapped at will – but it was a special song.
It told of the greatest legend, of the ancient, mythical world that birthed all Mankind. It told of the worlds that circled the legendary Earth of Sol, the moons in crimson, silver, amber hues.
The band struck up a somber, bluesy and universally recognizable tune.
Kete swung in rhythm and absolutely sung his heart out; The Green Hills of Earth.
”The arching sky is calling~
Spacemen back to their trade,
All hands, standby, free falling~
And the lights, below us, fade~
Out ride, the Sons, of Terra,
Far drives! The thundering jet!
Up leaps a race, of Earthmen~
Out far, and onward yet~!”
Ketin had never really believed in the myth of Earth and Sol – most people didn’t. But it was the kind of story that got passed through generations nonetheless. The ultimate folk song, as old as time and Mankind itself – a million variants, a million ways to sing it, but always the same sentiment.
That somewhere out there, in some dark, forgotten corner of the Wide, wide Galaxy, the true home of all Mankind whirled ‘round the most ancient star, just waiting for her children to return once more.
”Across, the seas, of darkness~
The good, green Earth, is bright~!
Oh star, that was, my homeland~!
Shine down, on me, tonight~!!
We pray, for one, last landing~
On the globe, that gave, us birth~
Let us rest, our eyes, on the fleecy skies
And the cool, green hills, of Earth~….”
The accompaniment grew softer with that last, timeless verse. Every eye was on him, clutching that microphone as though it might fly away, drunk enough to pour his whole being into that magical song.
Uproarious applause shattered the gradually petering silence of that final note. Kete threw his arms in the air, flailed around in acknowledgement of their applause, and eventually stumbled his way off the stage…just barely managing to avoid a potentially brutal collision with the floor in the process. He was elated, beaming, laughing, and one might not help from feeling that it was not the drugs or the alcohol or the sex (There had been a lot of that~) that made him that way. The elation became him.
Kete stumbled off and the party continued. Some other musical group gradually took his place to keep the volume maxed-out and the booze flowing.
He wondered if, in however long it had been, if Nirix had gone looking for him – but it was an idle thought. The bulk of his mind was busy processing the various vices he had been consistently pumping into it. It was busy making sure, subconsciously, that all those pesky problems were neatly buried, deep, deep down beneath layers upon layers of denial and intentional ignorance and lies.
If nobody stopped him on the way out, Kete would proceed from the noisy chamber back into the stifling, mechanical silence of the hallway beyond. It was only then that he noticed the furious headache that was already starting to build up in his temples, but it was distant enough to be ignored, for now.
And Kete felt better.
Tsuan only chuckled mildly and shook his head. ”I don’t think I’ve ever seen tech this old. It’s probably propelled by pedals.” he said, adjusting the rifle that was slung over his shoulder. ”Corporal Sane might be able to figure it out but I’ll be of no use in that respe-“ he was cut off suddenly by Armston, who had been examining the thing from afar with a puzzled sort of look across her face.
”I think I can fly that thing.” she said with an air of perplexity, as if she was surprised at her own words. Naturally, this would grant her odd looks from Tsuan and likely Ducote as well – it was more than obvious that Dallen Armston was not technically minded.
Still, that might have been the exact reason that she could make the old thing move.
A moment, she hesitated and seemed to debate whether or not to continue, then in the same tone ”Yeah, I…I flew somethin’ like that when I was a kid. ****in’ rusty old thing b’I didn’t know it was that old…I mean, ****, no promises but-“
And there it was, interrupting their conversation, a sharp, icy voice echoing from the hallway and stairwell just beyond the great, cavernous hanger. There was only one feasible entrance to the hanger, that being the one that the soldiers had only recently come through themselves. There was an expansive, open sightline between them and that entrance.
Dallen was instantly at the ready. Eyes wide and intense, she spun around with rifle shouldered, eye training the ironsights on that entrance. Expertly trained hands switched it to precision-automatic mode in an instant, and she was a killing machine ready for action.
Tsuan had been startled by the sudden voice as well, he spun around similarly but did not immediately bear his weapon, instead slowly, gradually unshouldering it to take the rifle-grip in hand and aim from the hip in the same direction – not that he was frightened or any less capable of firing than Dallen, but he was less paranoid and preferred to see the threat before getting it in his sights.
And again, that icy voice echoed through the halls.
Tze, Reltakov, Sane and Sand had not responded.
When it occurred to Lance Corporal Armston exactly what that frosty voice had been exclaiming – a delayed occurrence, really – she couldn’t help but raise a brow. ”Queen…?” she mouthed silently, giving Ducote only the quickest glance so as to keep eyes hawk-trained on that doorway.
There was definitely someone at the bottom of that stairwell, and they definitely had the potential to be hostile – perhaps it was a soldiers’ intuition, but it couldn’t have been more right. It was a long, progressively intensifying silence.
And at last Armston could take it no longer. She barked with words hasty, official, prompt and authorative ”Lance Corporal Dallen Armston and Staff Sergeant Harlan Ducote of the Earth City Defense Force! State your identity immediately or we will open fire!”
Tsuan did not seem offended that he had been left out of her admittedly foolish outburst. Despite the fact that there was no longer an ECDF, it was really all Dallen knew to say that might alleviate that tension.
It didn’t.
Her movements were fluent, her breathing controlled and even.
Silently, the Eoclu moved through her elegant Kata in the observation deck, which had now seemed to be her only safe haven from Kampfer's various Z-bots and other contraptions. Occasionally Arthur would approached her to strike up an conversation, only then would she briefly pause, granting him a small bow as an acknowledgement of his presence before answering whatever it was he requested and then continuing to work through her exercises.
Lavender eyes closed in concentration, she focused on keeping her breathing light and on the soft rustle of clothing before she eventually ended her practice.
Nirix's mind was clear, her prayer had been made and that had lessened her load of the doubt and distrust that racked through her brain. It had been long however. The strain of the days she had spent traveling, running, fighting, had finally gotten to her and the Eoclu wanted nothing more than to eat a good meal, take a long deserved shower and find some form of bedding to sleep on.
But that would have to wait;another pressing matter had to be attended to.
Where was Ketin? The question was now a burning enigma in the front of her mind and suddenly a twinge of concern and fear that she had worked so hard to eliminate, had resurfaced. He had left her, if Nirix could remember properly. Where he had went, she had not a clue and if he would even want to meet back up with her, if he could even stand her presence, were all questions that Nirix longed to know the answers to. What would become of the duo now? Would all her work be for naught? With a sigh and distant glance at the stars outside, Nirix pressed on, wanting to get the search for her Da'len on and over with. With luck he would've gotten himself in trouble and she would have to bail him out of it once more.
The thought brought a small smile to her lips.
Silently, the Eoclu moved through her elegant Kata in the observation deck, which had now seemed to be her only safe haven from Kampfer's various Z-bots and other contraptions. Occasionally Arthur would approached her to strike up an conversation, only then would she briefly pause, granting him a small bow as an acknowledgement of his presence before answering whatever it was he requested and then continuing to work through her exercises.
Lavender eyes closed in concentration, she focused on keeping her breathing light and on the soft rustle of clothing before she eventually ended her practice.
Nirix's mind was clear, her prayer had been made and that had lessened her load of the doubt and distrust that racked through her brain. It had been long however. The strain of the days she had spent traveling, running, fighting, had finally gotten to her and the Eoclu wanted nothing more than to eat a good meal, take a long deserved shower and find some form of bedding to sleep on.
But that would have to wait;another pressing matter had to be attended to.
Where was Ketin? The question was now a burning enigma in the front of her mind and suddenly a twinge of concern and fear that she had worked so hard to eliminate, had resurfaced. He had left her, if Nirix could remember properly. Where he had went, she had not a clue and if he would even want to meet back up with her, if he could even stand her presence, were all questions that Nirix longed to know the answers to. What would become of the duo now? Would all her work be for naught? With a sigh and distant glance at the stars outside, Nirix pressed on, wanting to get the search for her Da'len on and over with. With luck he would've gotten himself in trouble and she would have to bail him out of it once more.
The thought brought a small smile to her lips.
Neylan knew that most would describe ravengers as thieves or horders but she described them as sort of a family to her and Nako who was now sleeping in the back of the ship curled up in a nice little ball.Honestly sometimes that boy was infuriating....but so was she at his age and admittedly still is,she had just landed in the ravangers space port when she noticed something perculiar.No one was there the place was an utter ghost town her steps creaked and groaned against the old metal rust bucket they called home. She all too soon for her liking came upon a body of one of the lower level ravangers and pushed Nako behind her quickly arming herself.They walked at a brisk pace passing dead body after dead body each looking worse then the last until she finally reached the ships bridge where upon entering she found several bodies each frozen with as face of fear and shock.Nako stood behind her arming himself as well
As his mother left to inspect the bodies of all her fallen comrades he decided to explore a bit by himself as he came to the ravangers commanders quarters he did to find the commander himself but rather his remains and in his now skeletal arms he held something. At first glance it seemed to be a bunch of papers bonded together,but upon further inspection where covered with letters of an ancient language that he was somehow able to read."I think the ancients called this a...book?" He mutters as he begins to read it's contents.
After reading the contents of the book he got up and brought it back down to the bridge where his mother was checking the engine specs. "Mom?" He asked cautiously making Neylan turn her head to him with an arched eyebrow in question.He quickly takes a nervous shaky breath and asks
"What's an Earth?"
As his mother left to inspect the bodies of all her fallen comrades he decided to explore a bit by himself as he came to the ravangers commanders quarters he did to find the commander himself but rather his remains and in his now skeletal arms he held something. At first glance it seemed to be a bunch of papers bonded together,but upon further inspection where covered with letters of an ancient language that he was somehow able to read."I think the ancients called this a...book?" He mutters as he begins to read it's contents.
After reading the contents of the book he got up and brought it back down to the bridge where his mother was checking the engine specs. "Mom?" He asked cautiously making Neylan turn her head to him with an arched eyebrow in question.He quickly takes a nervous shaky breath and asks
"What's an Earth?"
The party, the drinking, the debauchery....this is considered one of the happiest moments of his life. The drinking and the singing, the women, everything Kampfer enjoyed as the party went on. The one thing he enjoyed most was being with Ketin and hanging out and having a good time. Singing with him even though his accent wasn't really good and dancing with him all made the mad doc very, very happy even in his drunken bliss. Kampfer even took a hit of the marijuana-like plant, but for him, he shrugged the effects off, seeing it the drug itself as weak to the drugs that Kampfer makes when he has almost nothing to do, but still doing it, he felt most alive than ever before, even though being a living corpse with a slowly decaying body. No doubt this is one way to go before going into major surgery on a different planet with a fellow Dimensional Lord doing the operation.
Soon after Ketin left into the hall, Kampfer followed. Whether he wore a Hawaiian style shirt or not, this man like Ketin hadn't have his shirt, showing his pale smooth chest a completely different contrast to Ketins faded scars. One can see his full metal arm placement, in which has a smooth transition from his flesh torso to his metal shoulder. Unlike Ketin though he was missing his boots, apparently someone stole his boots and his pants were unbutton and slightly pulled down, showing signs someone was trying to steal his pants as well. Kampfer makes a rush stumble towards Ketin and leans on his back a little. "T-thanks Kitten, I..I h-had a *hic* great t-time" he says as he slurs his words and pets his head affectionately. "W-wanna t-take this *hic* party t-to some place private" he slurs once more with a smile on his face as he goes for a light tug on his tail, to try to get a certain "reaction" from him. Even though being used to be married, Kampfer had no problems being with others of the same sex. "I c-can show you a g-good time *hic*" he adds even though they both had a good time at the party. "Or m-maybe you can" he suggested as he smiled at him once more and trying to gently bit Ketin's ear for some strange reason. Maybe in reality Ketin's drug may have had an actual effect on him. Either way Kampfer had a great time and one way to relieve all the stress and anxiety before his surgery.
Arthur looks at Nirix and tilted his head slightly and says "Is there a problem I can help you with, madame Nirix?" his hands behind his back as he glances at the space just outside the window. "A beautiful sight, indeed" he states as he looks back at Nirix.
Soon after Ketin left into the hall, Kampfer followed. Whether he wore a Hawaiian style shirt or not, this man like Ketin hadn't have his shirt, showing his pale smooth chest a completely different contrast to Ketins faded scars. One can see his full metal arm placement, in which has a smooth transition from his flesh torso to his metal shoulder. Unlike Ketin though he was missing his boots, apparently someone stole his boots and his pants were unbutton and slightly pulled down, showing signs someone was trying to steal his pants as well. Kampfer makes a rush stumble towards Ketin and leans on his back a little. "T-thanks Kitten, I..I h-had a *hic* great t-time" he says as he slurs his words and pets his head affectionately. "W-wanna t-take this *hic* party t-to some place private" he slurs once more with a smile on his face as he goes for a light tug on his tail, to try to get a certain "reaction" from him. Even though being used to be married, Kampfer had no problems being with others of the same sex. "I c-can show you a g-good time *hic*" he adds even though they both had a good time at the party. "Or m-maybe you can" he suggested as he smiled at him once more and trying to gently bit Ketin's ear for some strange reason. Maybe in reality Ketin's drug may have had an actual effect on him. Either way Kampfer had a great time and one way to relieve all the stress and anxiety before his surgery.
Arthur looks at Nirix and tilted his head slightly and says "Is there a problem I can help you with, madame Nirix?" his hands behind his back as he glances at the space just outside the window. "A beautiful sight, indeed" he states as he looks back at Nirix.
Cathorine felt appalled by the soldiers call. "How dare they demand something from me!" she thought to herself as she produced a very angry look on her face. In the end she understood why they would be like that since it is obvious that they do not know who she is. She went up the stairs a little more and stopped. She straghten herself out and boasted her chest up and exclaimed "I am Queen Cathorine, the Frost Queen of the former Frost Empire, an Empire so glorious it rivals the mighty Sol Empire! Next time you ask for a Queens identity ask it with a bit more respect!" she slowly came into view, exposing her form to them with arms raised as the weapons drawn on her. She looks at them, with a typical royalty look of hidden anger. "If your gonna shoot don't miss or you'll regret it" she snaps at them as she still have her hands raised.
Christofer was quite embarrassed over the tail, having not gotten used to the strange new body parts just yet. His ears would glue themselves on the back of his head as his head lowered and he slowly put up an embarrassed smile, grabbing the tail and pulling it to his lap from the side, instead of having it hiding between his legs. Holding the fluffy thing was actually rather comforting, although it did weigh a bit.
"Mhm..." The boy nodded when she did mention him breaking things. It was slightly downgrading, not because of the new tail, but because of the fact that he couldn't control it just yet, at all really, it did what it wanted.
He hoped that Kallenger wouldn't mention it much to him. He did want to get it all under control, but getting reminded of it made him feel a bit uncomfortable and it made him wonder if he could really even handle it. If she'd note him about it in public, he wasn't sure what he was going to do, stopping and turning all red - or whatever color this new him would turn when embarrassed...
Christofer looked at the clothes once Kallenger had pointed them out.
"... Mmm... Ok... ... Where are my actual clothes?" The boy looked at Royanna, tilting his head at the same time. "Do you... Do you think they'll patch them up..?" He sounded unsure. He was hoping that they would indeed fix them up, but by the tone of her voice, he was going to take it as a no.
"Ok... I'll remember... He assured her before she left and turned to the clothes. At least they were normal clothes, he would have a bit more trust on the people around him. The boots were familiar enough to be nice, but the rest of the clothes felt slightly off. Did they think he was... Fat..? Was it because of the fur? Did they think he was overweight? Shouldn't be, the fur wasn't really all that thick, his original clothes had still fit on him just fine. Oh well... Maybe he would get something more fitting clothes later on when the doctors and such would get to know him a bit better. It wasn't their fault for getting him over-big clothes, they had only seen him for a few hours after all. But for now he just had to try tucking and stuffing the extra fabric somewhere.
As Perry started to talk in the room outside, the ears of the German would spring up as a sign that he heard them talk and was trying to listen at least somewhat to what they were talking about, lifting his head and directing it at the door and the shut window. He would soon realize that the talk was not a very friendly one, it was obviously ment to hurt and stomp on the two outsiders. His ears would fall back again, making him think twice if he should ever even think about going to the other side or was it going to cause too much trouble overall... And so he would wait, with the tail between his legs and back hunched over because of the scolding...
It would take a while until he decided to creak the door open ever so slightly, as the angry voices had started to die down. He'd peek his head out carefully to see what the situation was like. Instantly upon meeting Perry's eyes, Christofer pulled his head back and closed the door to the point where he could only barely look out.
Toffi was relieved when the scary man would retreat and leave the office. Royanna's smile would help the situation a bit too, but the boy still felt guilty for existing. He'd cling onto Kallenger's hand after exiting the patient room, staying silent and hiding behind her when anyone would look at him...
"Mhm..." The boy nodded when she did mention him breaking things. It was slightly downgrading, not because of the new tail, but because of the fact that he couldn't control it just yet, at all really, it did what it wanted.
He hoped that Kallenger wouldn't mention it much to him. He did want to get it all under control, but getting reminded of it made him feel a bit uncomfortable and it made him wonder if he could really even handle it. If she'd note him about it in public, he wasn't sure what he was going to do, stopping and turning all red - or whatever color this new him would turn when embarrassed...
Christofer looked at the clothes once Kallenger had pointed them out.
"... Mmm... Ok... ... Where are my actual clothes?" The boy looked at Royanna, tilting his head at the same time. "Do you... Do you think they'll patch them up..?" He sounded unsure. He was hoping that they would indeed fix them up, but by the tone of her voice, he was going to take it as a no.
"Ok... I'll remember... He assured her before she left and turned to the clothes. At least they were normal clothes, he would have a bit more trust on the people around him. The boots were familiar enough to be nice, but the rest of the clothes felt slightly off. Did they think he was... Fat..? Was it because of the fur? Did they think he was overweight? Shouldn't be, the fur wasn't really all that thick, his original clothes had still fit on him just fine. Oh well... Maybe he would get something more fitting clothes later on when the doctors and such would get to know him a bit better. It wasn't their fault for getting him over-big clothes, they had only seen him for a few hours after all. But for now he just had to try tucking and stuffing the extra fabric somewhere.
As Perry started to talk in the room outside, the ears of the German would spring up as a sign that he heard them talk and was trying to listen at least somewhat to what they were talking about, lifting his head and directing it at the door and the shut window. He would soon realize that the talk was not a very friendly one, it was obviously ment to hurt and stomp on the two outsiders. His ears would fall back again, making him think twice if he should ever even think about going to the other side or was it going to cause too much trouble overall... And so he would wait, with the tail between his legs and back hunched over because of the scolding...
It would take a while until he decided to creak the door open ever so slightly, as the angry voices had started to die down. He'd peek his head out carefully to see what the situation was like. Instantly upon meeting Perry's eyes, Christofer pulled his head back and closed the door to the point where he could only barely look out.
Toffi was relieved when the scary man would retreat and leave the office. Royanna's smile would help the situation a bit too, but the boy still felt guilty for existing. He'd cling onto Kallenger's hand after exiting the patient room, staying silent and hiding behind her when anyone would look at him...
The sudden pause in her movements told all. Nirix had nearly forgotten just who she was with and where exactly she was. With a quick turn of her heel, the Eoclu regarded Arthur with a simple nod before speaking.
"Just Nirix, if it's all the same" She responded at the added Madame to her name. It reminded her too much of home.
"I was wondering about the facilities here. There has to be a place to require a meal and possibly a room for rest and or at least a place I could shower?" She asked carefully, slightly hiding her intentions of finding Ketin. Maybe he had already received this things, maybe he was locked up in a cell.
Wherever Ketin was, Nirix hoped that he would be alright. So what if he had abandoned her, this was no doubt his way of dealing with all that he had went through recently. Yet still, the fact that he was not in sight of her, that his location was unknown to her knowledge left her slightly on edge. Briefly, she thought about changing her question but ignored the feeling once again. She had done so much to elevate her stress and fear, that Nirix felt annoyed about gaining back so suddenly.
Ketin was important but so were her needs. However, there was no reason that Nirix couldn't achieve both of her matters.
"Just Nirix, if it's all the same" She responded at the added Madame to her name. It reminded her too much of home.
"I was wondering about the facilities here. There has to be a place to require a meal and possibly a room for rest and or at least a place I could shower?" She asked carefully, slightly hiding her intentions of finding Ketin. Maybe he had already received this things, maybe he was locked up in a cell.
Wherever Ketin was, Nirix hoped that he would be alright. So what if he had abandoned her, this was no doubt his way of dealing with all that he had went through recently. Yet still, the fact that he was not in sight of her, that his location was unknown to her knowledge left her slightly on edge. Briefly, she thought about changing her question but ignored the feeling once again. She had done so much to elevate her stress and fear, that Nirix felt annoyed about gaining back so suddenly.
Ketin was important but so were her needs. However, there was no reason that Nirix couldn't achieve both of her matters.
“Your clothes?” Royanna replied, before initially leaving the room. “I think they were taken with my coat. I’ll make sure you get your stuff back.” she said, reassuringly. As such, she added a quick request that the boy’s clothing be returned once cleaned and patched up, which was hastily obliged.
Once in the hallway, she did not speak for a few moments. The sounds around them were that which one would expect in such a setting – the low murmur of speaking, faint mechanical sounds from internal systems, the occasional announcement by a soft, pleasant voice for a given staff member to report to a given location.
He took her hand, and Roya couldn’t help but clench her jaw slightly at the gesture. Certainly less personal than how he had been previously clinging to her, yet it felt all the more unusual for her that it inherently made her feel as if she were returning it – which just didn’t feel right.
But shaking the kid loose would definitely not be the right thing to do – she even recognized that it would be downright mean – so with a nondescript little breath she let it go and gave no sign, however minute, that it made her uncomfortable.
And astonishingly, within a few minutes it occurred to her that it in fact did not make her uncomfortable.
At last, she said “Christofer, you said something to me last night. You said ’Es tut mir Leid’…or something like that. What language was that?” giving him the occasional, conversational glance as she walked, making sure the two of them refrained from colliding with the occasional busy passer-by. The question was spoken casually, simultaneously implying that she was curious as to the translation, along with the name of the language itself. “The inflection sounded familiar, reminded me of a song I used to sing when I was little. I believe it was called ’Spann den Wagen an’. Do you know it?”
The greater problem at hand here was that Royanna had become relatively certain that this kid was from one of those underdeveloped planets – the kind that had been colonized so long ago that their epoch of technology had regressed to something more primitive. Those worlds often exhibited unique cultures and languages, which were particularly uncommon in a Galaxy where Standard was spoken almost universally. It was something of a special talent to know another language.
People from ‘Old World’ planets were often ignorant of the rest of the Galaxy entirely, ignorant that there were other inhabited worlds, ignorant that Mankind had been existing throughout the Galaxy for all of time. They did not know Galactic Standard Time and determined the year by a planetary scale instead – that would have explained why he answered the nonsense of some early 2,000 number when asked what year it was.
Old Worlders were not necessarily any less civilized, less intelligent or less human than everyone else – sure, they often developed unseemly habits and some cultures were downright disturbing – but most managed to retain civility and intellect, which would explain why even though the kid was seemingly unaware that they were currently in the bowels of a great starship, hurdling through space toward another planet he was still coherent and intellectual – if a bit cowardly.
But then, Roya couldn’t resist finding that charming, in its’ own little way. Excessively strange, considering her typical loathing for cowards!
Yet the problem remained – how to break it to the kid that he was no longer on whatever world he presumed to be the world? All too often, Old Worlders would be exposed to the reality of the Galaxy and regress into madness over it, unable to accept that the Universe was so drastically different than they had always conceived. The kid was…easily frightened, to be gentle – surely anything too harsh would damage him even more, and Royanna did not want to be responsible for that.
Generally, the people around them did not seem very threatening – most were dressed in sleek, semi-casual attire in colors of black and white, given that most were staff of the cataloguer ship or otherwise Imperially associated. They all seemed busy and preoccupied and tended to keep to themselves or their conversations, finding no particular reason to get involved with the passing Royanna and her canid friend.
If any of them were giving Christofer dirty glances for being an anthromorph, they were being spectacularly subtle about it…But then, the general opinion among Imperial staff of otherkind had been improving over the last couple decades. Captain Perry was an outdated relic, even despite his relatively young age of perhaps thirty.
It was some six or seven minutes before the pair reached the canteen, which looked not unlike the cafeteria at an upper-scale hospital. More clean, sleek colors of black and white, plenty of well-spaced tables, a long row of various vendors with various culinary specialties. Still, there were no windows, but the room was large and open and generally pleasant. Since there was no real day/night schedule aboard the ship for the majority of crew and staff, there was no real ‘breakfast rush’ so it was never particularly crowded.
“Get whatever you like.” Royanna said, easily. “Just hold up that badge for them and that’ll take care of payment.” again, the implication proceeded that Royanna was indeed a very important person – given that her badge apparently granted her free food in potentially unlimited quantities, among other perks…Not to mention the way she had talked down to the man calling himself Captain the night before. She had made it clear already that she was a ‘Special Agent’ with some kind of military organization, though she knew that much of the situation still eluded the boy. It would come with time.
Roya stepped toward the third booth down, gestured toward the container of some kind of pasta with meat beyond the glass counter and the young man running the stand served it up along with a side of what looked like mashed potatoes but was actually a dish made from radishes and some alien variety of grain – and some kind of steamed vegetable which was green, but did not particularly resemble anything what might prove familiar to an Old Worlder – or an Earth Dweller, if there was such a thing. She held up her half of the blue-green metallic badge, still not saying a word – as was typical for her it seemed – and the man’s eyes widened some in a sense of awe. A quick nod and a gesture of the hand to imply ‘all set’ and she fetched silverware, filled a provided glass with a clear, carbonated beverage at what looked like a soda fountain, then took a seat not too far from where they were, keeping Christofer within eyesight so that she might wave him down if he had ended up taking longer than she at ordering.
There were very different kinds of food at each booth, and much of it looked entirely strange, but nothing smelled particularly unpleasant or seemed particularly inedible. Some things it seemed never changed and would prove familiar – such as Royanna’s pasta dish, which smelled oddly like a cheeseburger and would prove delightfully tasty. She waited for him to sit before starting to eat.
“Good choice.” she said when he did sit down, nodding at whatever he had picked out regardless of whether or not she would have considered the stuff herself. IF what he had picked proved to be too alien for him, she had gotten something that would likely appeal to even an Old Worlder, just in case. The woman did tend to think things through.
Kete couldn’t stop giggling. “Hehehey now, jus’ ‘cause Halfies was’ bred f’specific purpose don’mean…hehehthat we got a unmilited…unilmiled…alotta stamina huh?” he replied, happily nuzzling into the hand that pet him on the head, but giving a laughing-yelp at the tug on his tail, lazily swatting in that general direction – then giving something of a bubbly yelp at the nibble of his ear, apparently finding it excessively ticklish. ”Nyaahhah~styahpit y’horny bastard~!” he said playfully, with more clumsy half-flailing in ‘retaliation’. Sooner or later it would lead him into leaning against a wall, hunching over slightly, hair obscuring eyes but lips never ceasing to smile.
”Mehheh~ I’unno I think I might’a…hit tha’stuff a’lil too hard y’know? I should…hueueheprobably take it easy~” as he said the words, the joint which had yet to leave where it dangled loosely between his fingers moved to lips again for another hit. The thing had probably come dangerously close to lighting at least one of them on fire in the bit of flailing moments prior, not that either party would be even remotely aware of it.
Holding his breath for a long moment, Kete relished the smoke, exhaled, and clumsily crushed the tip of the thing against the wall, extinguishing the flame, minute wafts of ash flurrying harmlessly to the floor. It was deposited back in his pocket shortly after – even if it remained hot, the flame-retardant leather would keep anything unpleasant from coming of the casual method of storage.
For his size, Kete had an incredible tolerance for alcohol and drugs – but he was still much closer to human than Kampfer was, and would surely suffer more drastic adverse effects in the near future – but that was okay with him, he had fared worse…And besides, Halfie metabolism might have failed to quell the severity of these kinds of things, it tended to reduce the duration of the suffering, which was nice – a good night’s sleep and he would be almost back to normal.
Probably.
Seconds later, he stood up straight again – wobbling a little – and let himself half-fall into a half-hug, nuzzling into the fleshier of Kampfer’s shoulders for a moment. ”Y’gonna’ do fine y’know’at? It ain’t nothin’ you can’t handle, you got this.” he said in woozy, but confident reassurance before disconnecting, taking a step or two back, then yawning and stretching grandly, arms over his head, putting him momentarily off-balance and almost sending him onto the floor again – almost. ”I’mma go take a nap, huh? I don’t got no…like superpowers’r whatever like you do so…I’mma prolly’ ge’like a…like a hernia or whatever f’I don’t…See’y’round, ‘kay~?”
And with that – and a wide, swinging wave – Kete spun uncertainly on a heel and took to meandering off down the hall, only aware in the vaguest sense of where he might be going, or what he might be doing.
He took to humming a damaged version of ’Green Hills’ as he rounded the corner.
And then he was gone.
Just like always.
He fell into someones’ life, shook it up, maybe changed it forever, then just like that, he was gone.
(Other parts later~)
Once in the hallway, she did not speak for a few moments. The sounds around them were that which one would expect in such a setting – the low murmur of speaking, faint mechanical sounds from internal systems, the occasional announcement by a soft, pleasant voice for a given staff member to report to a given location.
He took her hand, and Roya couldn’t help but clench her jaw slightly at the gesture. Certainly less personal than how he had been previously clinging to her, yet it felt all the more unusual for her that it inherently made her feel as if she were returning it – which just didn’t feel right.
But shaking the kid loose would definitely not be the right thing to do – she even recognized that it would be downright mean – so with a nondescript little breath she let it go and gave no sign, however minute, that it made her uncomfortable.
And astonishingly, within a few minutes it occurred to her that it in fact did not make her uncomfortable.
At last, she said “Christofer, you said something to me last night. You said ’Es tut mir Leid’…or something like that. What language was that?” giving him the occasional, conversational glance as she walked, making sure the two of them refrained from colliding with the occasional busy passer-by. The question was spoken casually, simultaneously implying that she was curious as to the translation, along with the name of the language itself. “The inflection sounded familiar, reminded me of a song I used to sing when I was little. I believe it was called ’Spann den Wagen an’. Do you know it?”
The greater problem at hand here was that Royanna had become relatively certain that this kid was from one of those underdeveloped planets – the kind that had been colonized so long ago that their epoch of technology had regressed to something more primitive. Those worlds often exhibited unique cultures and languages, which were particularly uncommon in a Galaxy where Standard was spoken almost universally. It was something of a special talent to know another language.
People from ‘Old World’ planets were often ignorant of the rest of the Galaxy entirely, ignorant that there were other inhabited worlds, ignorant that Mankind had been existing throughout the Galaxy for all of time. They did not know Galactic Standard Time and determined the year by a planetary scale instead – that would have explained why he answered the nonsense of some early 2,000 number when asked what year it was.
Old Worlders were not necessarily any less civilized, less intelligent or less human than everyone else – sure, they often developed unseemly habits and some cultures were downright disturbing – but most managed to retain civility and intellect, which would explain why even though the kid was seemingly unaware that they were currently in the bowels of a great starship, hurdling through space toward another planet he was still coherent and intellectual – if a bit cowardly.
But then, Roya couldn’t resist finding that charming, in its’ own little way. Excessively strange, considering her typical loathing for cowards!
Yet the problem remained – how to break it to the kid that he was no longer on whatever world he presumed to be the world? All too often, Old Worlders would be exposed to the reality of the Galaxy and regress into madness over it, unable to accept that the Universe was so drastically different than they had always conceived. The kid was…easily frightened, to be gentle – surely anything too harsh would damage him even more, and Royanna did not want to be responsible for that.
Generally, the people around them did not seem very threatening – most were dressed in sleek, semi-casual attire in colors of black and white, given that most were staff of the cataloguer ship or otherwise Imperially associated. They all seemed busy and preoccupied and tended to keep to themselves or their conversations, finding no particular reason to get involved with the passing Royanna and her canid friend.
If any of them were giving Christofer dirty glances for being an anthromorph, they were being spectacularly subtle about it…But then, the general opinion among Imperial staff of otherkind had been improving over the last couple decades. Captain Perry was an outdated relic, even despite his relatively young age of perhaps thirty.
It was some six or seven minutes before the pair reached the canteen, which looked not unlike the cafeteria at an upper-scale hospital. More clean, sleek colors of black and white, plenty of well-spaced tables, a long row of various vendors with various culinary specialties. Still, there were no windows, but the room was large and open and generally pleasant. Since there was no real day/night schedule aboard the ship for the majority of crew and staff, there was no real ‘breakfast rush’ so it was never particularly crowded.
“Get whatever you like.” Royanna said, easily. “Just hold up that badge for them and that’ll take care of payment.” again, the implication proceeded that Royanna was indeed a very important person – given that her badge apparently granted her free food in potentially unlimited quantities, among other perks…Not to mention the way she had talked down to the man calling himself Captain the night before. She had made it clear already that she was a ‘Special Agent’ with some kind of military organization, though she knew that much of the situation still eluded the boy. It would come with time.
Roya stepped toward the third booth down, gestured toward the container of some kind of pasta with meat beyond the glass counter and the young man running the stand served it up along with a side of what looked like mashed potatoes but was actually a dish made from radishes and some alien variety of grain – and some kind of steamed vegetable which was green, but did not particularly resemble anything what might prove familiar to an Old Worlder – or an Earth Dweller, if there was such a thing. She held up her half of the blue-green metallic badge, still not saying a word – as was typical for her it seemed – and the man’s eyes widened some in a sense of awe. A quick nod and a gesture of the hand to imply ‘all set’ and she fetched silverware, filled a provided glass with a clear, carbonated beverage at what looked like a soda fountain, then took a seat not too far from where they were, keeping Christofer within eyesight so that she might wave him down if he had ended up taking longer than she at ordering.
There were very different kinds of food at each booth, and much of it looked entirely strange, but nothing smelled particularly unpleasant or seemed particularly inedible. Some things it seemed never changed and would prove familiar – such as Royanna’s pasta dish, which smelled oddly like a cheeseburger and would prove delightfully tasty. She waited for him to sit before starting to eat.
“Good choice.” she said when he did sit down, nodding at whatever he had picked out regardless of whether or not she would have considered the stuff herself. IF what he had picked proved to be too alien for him, she had gotten something that would likely appeal to even an Old Worlder, just in case. The woman did tend to think things through.
Kete couldn’t stop giggling. “Hehehey now, jus’ ‘cause Halfies was’ bred f’specific purpose don’mean…hehehthat we got a unmilited…unilmiled…alotta stamina huh?” he replied, happily nuzzling into the hand that pet him on the head, but giving a laughing-yelp at the tug on his tail, lazily swatting in that general direction – then giving something of a bubbly yelp at the nibble of his ear, apparently finding it excessively ticklish. ”Nyaahhah~styahpit y’horny bastard~!” he said playfully, with more clumsy half-flailing in ‘retaliation’. Sooner or later it would lead him into leaning against a wall, hunching over slightly, hair obscuring eyes but lips never ceasing to smile.
”Mehheh~ I’unno I think I might’a…hit tha’stuff a’lil too hard y’know? I should…hueueheprobably take it easy~” as he said the words, the joint which had yet to leave where it dangled loosely between his fingers moved to lips again for another hit. The thing had probably come dangerously close to lighting at least one of them on fire in the bit of flailing moments prior, not that either party would be even remotely aware of it.
Holding his breath for a long moment, Kete relished the smoke, exhaled, and clumsily crushed the tip of the thing against the wall, extinguishing the flame, minute wafts of ash flurrying harmlessly to the floor. It was deposited back in his pocket shortly after – even if it remained hot, the flame-retardant leather would keep anything unpleasant from coming of the casual method of storage.
For his size, Kete had an incredible tolerance for alcohol and drugs – but he was still much closer to human than Kampfer was, and would surely suffer more drastic adverse effects in the near future – but that was okay with him, he had fared worse…And besides, Halfie metabolism might have failed to quell the severity of these kinds of things, it tended to reduce the duration of the suffering, which was nice – a good night’s sleep and he would be almost back to normal.
Probably.
Seconds later, he stood up straight again – wobbling a little – and let himself half-fall into a half-hug, nuzzling into the fleshier of Kampfer’s shoulders for a moment. ”Y’gonna’ do fine y’know’at? It ain’t nothin’ you can’t handle, you got this.” he said in woozy, but confident reassurance before disconnecting, taking a step or two back, then yawning and stretching grandly, arms over his head, putting him momentarily off-balance and almost sending him onto the floor again – almost. ”I’mma go take a nap, huh? I don’t got no…like superpowers’r whatever like you do so…I’mma prolly’ ge’like a…like a hernia or whatever f’I don’t…See’y’round, ‘kay~?”
And with that – and a wide, swinging wave – Kete spun uncertainly on a heel and took to meandering off down the hall, only aware in the vaguest sense of where he might be going, or what he might be doing.
He took to humming a damaged version of ’Green Hills’ as he rounded the corner.
And then he was gone.
Just like always.
He fell into someones’ life, shook it up, maybe changed it forever, then just like that, he was gone.
(Other parts later~)
Soon after finishing the book and its contents Neylan gained a sly grin.She approached the transmission table near by and placed a soul gem in its center to amplifie it's power so that it may transmit throughout the entire galaxy she waited for the machine to charge considering it was a much older model.She sighs as she watched her son collect dead bodies that used to be their comrades,some times she wondered if it was worth it making this boy go through so much at his young age not knowing his race or about his strange powers or even knowing his real family he deserved so much more....more then she could offer but she was all the family he had and stealing a all they knew.So as the transmission finally patched through to every available signal in the galaxy she spoke "Hello......you may look upon me and wonder what manner of creature I may be but I assure you I mean no harm.I come from the planet known as syndria a planet you often refer to as the black hole planet and with good reason off worlders are most unwelcome by my race.....I regrettably thought this way as well for a time.That was until I found Nako....my adoptive son in the woods they tried me for treason and tried to kill us both.I fled and since then we have lived our lives as ravangers I am all the family this poor boy knows " she pulls Nako to the transmission so he may be seen." I ask for any and all who would be willing to help a family start a new life to help.....and if you can give us any identity as to this boy's family, planet,or race to please meet us at these coordinates....and if that be not enough incentive for you.We have a book containing vital information on the locations of planets long since thought lost as well as important facts on them....and to the galactic empire I say...my boy has nightmares about something you did to his real family and home......and if you lay one damn finger on my boy....you will me awnsering to one angery mother!" She then cuts the transmission off and looks down at the boy before her slightly teary eyed
" what if they try to hurt us?" He asks up to her innocently.To which she replies " if they attack I want you to grab the ship and run ok?"
The boy hugs his mother tight and replies " yes mother " knowing why such a thing must be done
" what if they try to hurt us?" He asks up to her innocently.To which she replies " if they attack I want you to grab the ship and run ok?"
The boy hugs his mother tight and replies " yes mother " knowing why such a thing must be done
The boy wasn't really thinking much about himself clinging onto Royanna, it was just the first thing he went for when he wanted to feel safe. He did keep it rather modest though, only holding the hand instead of embrasing the whole arm, or person.
"Oh..? Did I?" He looked up at Kallenger, tilting his head slightly. He hadn't even realized that he had switched languages in-between back then. The boy didn't even remember what he had said on the evening before, it was all just a faint tired memory in his head.
Speaking of his head, he hadn't really done anything much to it, so his hair would be rather messy, sticking to all directions - most people probably wouldn't think much of it, or so he hoped. Toffi would need to request a comb or a brush to fix the mess later on after he was finished with the food.
"... Yeah... I guess I was just saying I'm sorry... At times it feels more comfortable to switch to ones' native language." He'd look down a bit, unsure on how to react to it. Not feeling fully ashamed or nervous, nor was he glad about it; more confused than anything. "? Mmmm, that was German, heard of it? It should be pretty common language, they study it all around the globe." Christofer would explain shortly, still depading in his head the usage of the word globe. "... Or then it's known as the language of the devil... You know... The Nazis and all that..." With a sigh, Christofer looked at the floor. It was quite depressing that that was what they were the most known for.
"I could say that I do..." He'd reply when asked about the song. "... But I'd probably mess up a word or two here and there, it's been ages since I last heard it..." It had indeed been ages, but for how long exactly, there was no sure way of knowing.
Each time someone would take a glance at the canid, Toffi was more likely to just attempt hiding behind Kallenger rather than glaring back at the people. He shouldn't have cared of what they thought of him, but the inner weak person in him just couldn't help but to feel horrible whenever someone stared down at him. They didn't know what was going on...
Upon entering the diner, Christofer was slightly surpriced of its size. It didn't wow him though, as everything else so far had been rather sized as well. A part of it bothered him though, yet he couldn't quite catch what it was.
This place could use a little bit of color... The boy tought to himself, thinking that it must have been the reason. A part of him had adapted to think that they were underground, because of the lack of lights from outside, so there wouldn't be much reason for windows, although he did miss them and the view of clouds and sky.
The German nodded, looking after Kallenger as she went to get her food. He'd try paying close attenton on what she did and said - the latter being slightly pointless due to the lack of verbal exchance. It was different to him. Sure he knew that not everyone was all bubbly and buddy-buddy with the waiters and workers. But it was new for Him.
Once he could see what they served he saw plenty of slightly altered versions of food he knew - which didn't seem strange at all to him, considering that ech nation had it all slightly different anyway. After that he'd notice how there were some very strange dishes he had never seen before in his life. They confused him, and although it would have been polite to taste, the boy had started to feel slightly out of the ordinary and uncomfortable, and ultimately just ended up on getting what Kallenger had gotten. She ate it so it must have been good...
It was very strange of him to return from such a free-of-choice serving area without any kinds of sweets, but there he went. He'd hold a tight grip of the tray he was holding and walked over to Kallenger, sitting firmly and somewhat stiffly next to her.
"Mmmhm......" He'd make a sound to let her know that he was listening. "..... I just took what you took.... I hope you don't mind..." The German said meekly, hoping for her to not be disappointed...
"Oh..? Did I?" He looked up at Kallenger, tilting his head slightly. He hadn't even realized that he had switched languages in-between back then. The boy didn't even remember what he had said on the evening before, it was all just a faint tired memory in his head.
Speaking of his head, he hadn't really done anything much to it, so his hair would be rather messy, sticking to all directions - most people probably wouldn't think much of it, or so he hoped. Toffi would need to request a comb or a brush to fix the mess later on after he was finished with the food.
"... Yeah... I guess I was just saying I'm sorry... At times it feels more comfortable to switch to ones' native language." He'd look down a bit, unsure on how to react to it. Not feeling fully ashamed or nervous, nor was he glad about it; more confused than anything. "? Mmmm, that was German, heard of it? It should be pretty common language, they study it all around the globe." Christofer would explain shortly, still depading in his head the usage of the word globe. "... Or then it's known as the language of the devil... You know... The Nazis and all that..." With a sigh, Christofer looked at the floor. It was quite depressing that that was what they were the most known for.
"I could say that I do..." He'd reply when asked about the song. "... But I'd probably mess up a word or two here and there, it's been ages since I last heard it..." It had indeed been ages, but for how long exactly, there was no sure way of knowing.
Each time someone would take a glance at the canid, Toffi was more likely to just attempt hiding behind Kallenger rather than glaring back at the people. He shouldn't have cared of what they thought of him, but the inner weak person in him just couldn't help but to feel horrible whenever someone stared down at him. They didn't know what was going on...
Upon entering the diner, Christofer was slightly surpriced of its size. It didn't wow him though, as everything else so far had been rather sized as well. A part of it bothered him though, yet he couldn't quite catch what it was.
This place could use a little bit of color... The boy tought to himself, thinking that it must have been the reason. A part of him had adapted to think that they were underground, because of the lack of lights from outside, so there wouldn't be much reason for windows, although he did miss them and the view of clouds and sky.
The German nodded, looking after Kallenger as she went to get her food. He'd try paying close attenton on what she did and said - the latter being slightly pointless due to the lack of verbal exchance. It was different to him. Sure he knew that not everyone was all bubbly and buddy-buddy with the waiters and workers. But it was new for Him.
Once he could see what they served he saw plenty of slightly altered versions of food he knew - which didn't seem strange at all to him, considering that ech nation had it all slightly different anyway. After that he'd notice how there were some very strange dishes he had never seen before in his life. They confused him, and although it would have been polite to taste, the boy had started to feel slightly out of the ordinary and uncomfortable, and ultimately just ended up on getting what Kallenger had gotten. She ate it so it must have been good...
It was very strange of him to return from such a free-of-choice serving area without any kinds of sweets, but there he went. He'd hold a tight grip of the tray he was holding and walked over to Kallenger, sitting firmly and somewhat stiffly next to her.
"Mmmhm......" He'd make a sound to let her know that he was listening. "..... I just took what you took.... I hope you don't mind..." The German said meekly, hoping for her to not be disappointed...
Emperor Arthur jumped up a little sqilled a little like an excited school girl with hand movements and a slight jig that is included and said "OF COURSE!, I was hoping you were going to ask that! Follow me and I'll show you to your room, You'll love it and food will be brought down to you" he gestured her to follow him back into the elevator. As they were in the elevator, Arthur could barely contain himself so excited in showing Nirix the room. It's not a surprise if Kampfer's works like Arthur tend to do things other than what they are suppose to do, for example instead of a Doc-bot going into battle, it'll be in the cafeteria serving food instead because it enjoys doing that. For Kampfer, it just gave his army more personality than just being cold soldiers capable in committing genocide. As they arrived to the living quarters floor, Arthur escorted Nirix to her room...with her name on it. Little did she know, the reason why Arthur asked all of his questions to her about her people wasn't only to expand his knowledge, but to use that information to decorate a very comforting room, reminding her of where she comes from and who she is. He used his information he's acquire him her and info acquired from the intelligence on her race and design a room, in which Arthur thinks would most comfort her the best and even going so far as creating a picture of her and Ketin together on a night stand even though it being computer generated. Arthur opens the door for Nirix and says "My lovely Nirix, this is your room, may you enjoy it. Food will arrive shortly and there is a shower just behind that door across from here" as he pointed to the bathroom door and gives her a slight bow.
Kampfer gives Ketin a smile after he reassures him everything will be okay. Just hearing that brought tears to his eyes as he leans up against the wall. "Such a ****block you are *hic*, foxy boy" he utters as he passes out on the hallway floor, face-planting upon the metal floor, loud *Thud* sound as he made contact. The floor it seems was going to be his bed. Even in a drunken stupor, Kamfper is still a pretty good strategist, in that he anticipated Ketin going in a certain direction walking upon his room, with his name on the door. Inside his room, is what with very limited information that could be brought up was put into his room, to make him feel very comforting. Its the same floor plan as Nirix's room but not same decoration. For Ketin though not only does he have a picture of him and Nirix on his night stand but also another picture and to one a slight controversial... The other picture depicts him and Doctor Addler and Doctor Glades and this one being a real non computer generated one unlike the Ketin and Nirix one. It depicted not only the two Doctors but a much younger Ketin, no doubt one when he was at least a few years into Addler's care, with both of the adult individuals standing behind him with there corresponding hand on one is shoulders looking into the camera. This picture was placed into his room because even in Kampfer's and Glade's eyes Addler just used Ketin for his own gain but in Ketin's eyes's they saw that he was very much attached to the decreased Doctor. Kampfer only took the picture from Doctor Glades to help Ketin and not to hurt him. In a way, Kampfer sorta hopes that he could see that.
In a nearby asteroid belt near Neylan's position, a rather large light elongated cruiser is inside the asteroid belt using it as cover so they can listen into Imperial communications and channels and collect minerals nearby on asteroids, but easily heard the distress call from Neylan. After hearing the plea for help, the cruiser deployed one of the smallest warships Kampfer has in his fleet: A26 Arado(Federal Corvette from Elite Dangerous if you need a reference) and sent it to distress call with unknown intentions.
Kampfer gives Ketin a smile after he reassures him everything will be okay. Just hearing that brought tears to his eyes as he leans up against the wall. "Such a ****block you are *hic*, foxy boy" he utters as he passes out on the hallway floor, face-planting upon the metal floor, loud *Thud* sound as he made contact. The floor it seems was going to be his bed. Even in a drunken stupor, Kamfper is still a pretty good strategist, in that he anticipated Ketin going in a certain direction walking upon his room, with his name on the door. Inside his room, is what with very limited information that could be brought up was put into his room, to make him feel very comforting. Its the same floor plan as Nirix's room but not same decoration. For Ketin though not only does he have a picture of him and Nirix on his night stand but also another picture and to one a slight controversial... The other picture depicts him and Doctor Addler and Doctor Glades and this one being a real non computer generated one unlike the Ketin and Nirix one. It depicted not only the two Doctors but a much younger Ketin, no doubt one when he was at least a few years into Addler's care, with both of the adult individuals standing behind him with there corresponding hand on one is shoulders looking into the camera. This picture was placed into his room because even in Kampfer's and Glade's eyes Addler just used Ketin for his own gain but in Ketin's eyes's they saw that he was very much attached to the decreased Doctor. Kampfer only took the picture from Doctor Glades to help Ketin and not to hurt him. In a way, Kampfer sorta hopes that he could see that.
In a nearby asteroid belt near Neylan's position, a rather large light elongated cruiser is inside the asteroid belt using it as cover so they can listen into Imperial communications and channels and collect minerals nearby on asteroids, but easily heard the distress call from Neylan. After hearing the plea for help, the cruiser deployed one of the smallest warships Kampfer has in his fleet: A26 Arado(Federal Corvette from Elite Dangerous if you need a reference) and sent it to distress call with unknown intentions.
Dmitri would growl at the man, not liking the downgrading they were directing at him, he wouldn't complain, however, at the taller man pinching them and telling the albino wordlessly to be quiet. Even though Dim had no true master, he'd deem it better to just stay silent and not interrupt what they had going for them and the stranger. The canid would keep on staring, but stopped growling for the time being.
"It is true that they do not allow most of their canid recruits to work and progress on their own, however, that is a matter to be discussed some other day." The taller man wold answer calmly instead of the albino, seemingly not changing his view or perspective on the stranger for mocking his underling.
"A Yinxen?" The man would raise an eyebrow at the question. "Never heard of such beings around this area, are you sure of their existence?" He wouldn't exactly be looking for an answer to the question as he wasn't particularly interested on the subject. He did, however, know some slight facts of the species that he wouldn't share for the time being.
"You are looking for a way to get out? If you are willing, and that means you possess a working functional, non-artifical, set of intelligence there, I could be somewhat willing to aid you, for I know you will not make it far on your own, especially in the state you are in currently." It wasn't often that the man talked this much, but something in the stranger had sparked his interest. "You do not seem like one of the modernized mechanical beings what are you?"
As they were talking, Dmitri would keep an eye on the stranger, making sure that he didn't move when he wasn't asked to. It was also his job to listen to the surroundings outside of the awaiting troops...
"It is true that they do not allow most of their canid recruits to work and progress on their own, however, that is a matter to be discussed some other day." The taller man wold answer calmly instead of the albino, seemingly not changing his view or perspective on the stranger for mocking his underling.
"A Yinxen?" The man would raise an eyebrow at the question. "Never heard of such beings around this area, are you sure of their existence?" He wouldn't exactly be looking for an answer to the question as he wasn't particularly interested on the subject. He did, however, know some slight facts of the species that he wouldn't share for the time being.
"You are looking for a way to get out? If you are willing, and that means you possess a working functional, non-artifical, set of intelligence there, I could be somewhat willing to aid you, for I know you will not make it far on your own, especially in the state you are in currently." It wasn't often that the man talked this much, but something in the stranger had sparked his interest. "You do not seem like one of the modernized mechanical beings what are you?"
As they were talking, Dmitri would keep an eye on the stranger, making sure that he didn't move when he wasn't asked to. It was also his job to listen to the surroundings outside of the awaiting troops...
It shouldn't have been possible.
Keeping her expression neutral, Nirix merely glanced at the room with a small interest. It was warm, the room an unconvincing replica of what had once been her own. The medium sized room was cool, round and dome shaped windows reflected large mosaics that provided an off-putting light. Fluffy pillows provided the necessary seating for the room and the small table in the center, the color scheme a gradient of pale yellows, reds and greens.
The only thing that hadn't been necessarily accurate was the bedding.
"Thank you for supplying me with a room," Nirix spoke softly, trying to ignore the tightening of both her throat and heart. Nostalgia had tugged at her heart, her memories, her longings and her regrets threaten to resurface without an end. For all that previous purging of her emotions and worries, Nirix still couldn't shake them off. They were deep, hidden wounds that she wanted nothing more to heal and scar over.
But like everything that was currently happening with her, the Eoclu had no control.
"Excuse me," She muttered, pushing her way into the room before closing the door behind her. With a sigh, Nirix discarded the meager amount of items and found herself laying on the bed, a bed that was not hers. She was finally alone. Something, that previously Nirix would've found as a blessing. But now, she wasn't so sure. Yes, Nirix was alone but now she was alone with only her thoughts. Thoughts that lingered on things that she could not escape.
Where was her troublesome Da'len when she needed him?
Keeping her expression neutral, Nirix merely glanced at the room with a small interest. It was warm, the room an unconvincing replica of what had once been her own. The medium sized room was cool, round and dome shaped windows reflected large mosaics that provided an off-putting light. Fluffy pillows provided the necessary seating for the room and the small table in the center, the color scheme a gradient of pale yellows, reds and greens.
The only thing that hadn't been necessarily accurate was the bedding.
"Thank you for supplying me with a room," Nirix spoke softly, trying to ignore the tightening of both her throat and heart. Nostalgia had tugged at her heart, her memories, her longings and her regrets threaten to resurface without an end. For all that previous purging of her emotions and worries, Nirix still couldn't shake them off. They were deep, hidden wounds that she wanted nothing more to heal and scar over.
But like everything that was currently happening with her, the Eoclu had no control.
"Excuse me," She muttered, pushing her way into the room before closing the door behind her. With a sigh, Nirix discarded the meager amount of items and found herself laying on the bed, a bed that was not hers. She was finally alone. Something, that previously Nirix would've found as a blessing. But now, she wasn't so sure. Yes, Nirix was alone but now she was alone with only her thoughts. Thoughts that lingered on things that she could not escape.
Where was her troublesome Da'len when she needed him?
Having the door closed on him, Arthur just merely nodded his head seeing Nirix happily satisfied. He then turns to his right and continues down the hall, since he has a couple of things to take care of and in help his Electron brethren since they unanimously chose him as there spokesman to Kampfer. The only demands they want is the further integration of the Electron units into the army, but Kampfer won't allow it since he has them as bodyguard detail and wishes to keep them a sercet from 'verse. They know with Arthur, they now have a literal voice instead of constant beeping for Kampfer. For Arthur he feels slightly sympathic with them since they won't to contribute even more for there master even they are happy with the honor of protecting him, the just apparently don't feel like they're doing enough.
Anyway his feelings for the Electrons will have to wait since a much familiar face is about to meet him, not face but mask. "Oh Colonel Pyrus, I didn't know you were here" he says as he runs up to her like child running to a relative they finally see. Pyrus's gas mask digital eyes closed and tilted her head petting Arthur's and says "Well it's good to see you, after seeing the situation on Earth is finish I'm on my to do a sercet mission for Zetta" he eyes now open but looked at him a little sad. Arthur looked at her with a little concern, "a direct order from Zetta?" he questioned himself knowing full well if that Zetta is giving out a order to one of Kampfer's best influtraitors that the mission is super important but her eyes one could see there was a good chance wasn't coming back. "Here give this to Kampfy-kun" she says as she hands Arthur an envelope with a letter inside. "I'm gonna miss you, but hey now your gonna see an Asgardian Knight" she says as she walks pass him going towards the hanger.
Arthur just stood in the same spot, frozen really as he could guess what was in the letter. He turns to look at her but she disappeared though like a ghost. But before he he started off, the one thing that stood out of his head was "What the hell was an Asgardian Knight?"
Anyway his feelings for the Electrons will have to wait since a much familiar face is about to meet him, not face but mask. "Oh Colonel Pyrus, I didn't know you were here" he says as he runs up to her like child running to a relative they finally see. Pyrus's gas mask digital eyes closed and tilted her head petting Arthur's and says "Well it's good to see you, after seeing the situation on Earth is finish I'm on my to do a sercet mission for Zetta" he eyes now open but looked at him a little sad. Arthur looked at her with a little concern, "a direct order from Zetta?" he questioned himself knowing full well if that Zetta is giving out a order to one of Kampfer's best influtraitors that the mission is super important but her eyes one could see there was a good chance wasn't coming back. "Here give this to Kampfy-kun" she says as she hands Arthur an envelope with a letter inside. "I'm gonna miss you, but hey now your gonna see an Asgardian Knight" she says as she walks pass him going towards the hanger.
Arthur just stood in the same spot, frozen really as he could guess what was in the letter. He turns to look at her but she disappeared though like a ghost. But before he he started off, the one thing that stood out of his head was "What the hell was an Asgardian Knight?"
The tenseness of that critical moment only increased, gradually – until at last the figure revealed themselves, cresting the top of the stairwell with unhealthy, bluish skin and an outfit which was outlandish at best.
Dallen Armston held her breath.
Then, unable to contain herself any longer, she lowered her rifle…and proceeded with laughing uncontrollably.
It was some time before she could speak, and even then only through the gasps for breath and clutching at her midsection, turning to Ducote.
”Wh…whahat the *** is this Ducote? Some kinda’ joke?! Y’can’t be ***in’ wit’us like that~! GreatSpace that *** ain’t funny~!” Though it obviously was funny, to her at least.
However it was not long to occur to the soldier that her comrades were not taking it with quite the same outlook as she was. With some effort she subdued the laughter and said more lowly ”C’mon Ducote, this is a joke, right? I mean what the ***’s up with that getup?” There was so great a distance between the soldiers and the newcomer woman that it would be hard to hear all but the faintest wisps of what they were saying…Although the laughter was more than obvious.
Not waiting for a reply from Ducote, Dallen glanced toward Tsuan to see that he too did not seem to find any humor in the situation – and that meant something. There was no way that he would have teamed up with Ducote just to screw with her – and come to think of it, going through all that trouble in the first place didn’t seem like it would have been a very tactical choice.
So it occurred to Armston that this was, in fact, something strange happening.
At once regaining her cold, soldierly resolve, Armston turned back to the pale, oddly dressed woman who was claiming to be a queen of something and raised her rifle again. Curiously, she raised it more slowly and gradually this time – it was actually a very subtle, but clever technique she had learned from a now long-deceased comrade; raising the weapon at just the right speed gave the target a chance to see what was happening without forcing them into an automatic, knee-jerk reaction. The target might still choose to return fire, but it would be a conscious choice – this had made the difference between life and death a number of times in Dallen’s military career.
Perhaps it was not the wisest choice, considering the target still had her hand raised and may have been concealing some kind of wrist-mounted weapon there, but the soldier felt comfortable with her action given that the target was outnumbered…And it did not seem as though she really intended to do any harm, besides.
In fact, she was seeming more and more to Dallen like someone who had been trapped in the facility on some kind of exploration and gone mad from the cold or the solitude…Or something like that.
”Alright!” she barked, continuing to take matters into her own hands and completely disregard the chain of command – which she figured no longer applied anyway, since they were no longer members of a ‘real’ army. ”I’mma need you to explain real carefully what the **** you’re talkin’ about before I order the guys standing behind you to fire! Understand?”
Was there really anyone standing behind the probably-crazy woman? Surely she would not be stupid enough to turn and look, considering that would leave her vulnerable to the weapon-wielder who would certainly take the opportunity to open fire if it had all been a trick…But what if there were soldiers who had managed to sneak up on her undetected? It put the ‘queen’ in a difficult situation, to say the least…
Meanwhile, Tsuan was working through an entirely different thought process, still continuing to hip-aim his rifle but appearing to be in thought running deeper than the danger at hand. He seemed puzzled by something, if subtly. To himself, he silently mouthed the words ”…Sol Empire…?”
He could swear he’d heard the words before, and already it wasn’t adding up.
Kallenger failed to completely disguise the stab of frustration that came with Christofer’s meekness, confirming with her that it was ‘okay’ that he ordered the same thing that she had. It came in the form of words that sounded a fair bit sharper than she had intended them to be.
”Why would it not be okay for you to get the same food as me?” she demanded rhetorically, and immediately regretted the harshness of her words. To compensate there was an immediate, drastic descent into a softer expression and much milder tone.
”You gotta’ stop being so nervous, Kid.” she said, with a light, earnest smile. ”I don’t mean to snap at you. I just…Well my usual company isn’t so…” she almost said ‘sensitive’, but already that sentence had begun to go the wrong way so it was time for another restart. ”I mean, most of the people I deal with…” ’deal with’? Again the woman was finding it so infuriatingly difficult to communicate with this boy, who was indeed very sensitive. The usually stoic woman, cold, emotionless, uncaring and harsh – and yet she was reduced to the stuttering awkwardness of a teenager trying to talk to this kid that was in no way, in any possible universe, even the slightest threat to her socially or otherwise.
A little huff as an indication that she was, in fact, having difficulties speaking again. ”N-not that I’m dealing with you. I mean, you’re…you’re just…You’re not an asshole.”
Smooth.
What a way to make a person feel better about themselves. At least the shy, insecure and self-loathing little thing knew that he wasn’t an asshole.
Royanna realized as she said it that it was not exactly the most flattering way to go. Fed up with her inability to communicate properly, the woman gave another little huff, and returned the majority of her attention to the food before her.
”You know what I mean.” she grumbled after a moment, with what could only be described as humiliated indignance.
Nothing more was said on Royanna’s part for a few minutes – she was content to eat in silence and try to forget about that pitiful display of human interaction.
Once long enough had passed that it seemed sufficiently behind them, she tried again – but starting a new conversation, this time. Just as when they had first met, it seemed Royanna was proving to start conversations strangely, with statements and questions that did not really make sense or seem to pertain to anything in particular.
“Hey, what do you know about space travel?” she asked, out of the blue. Whatever he responded with she would have no response – only another strange question.
“So, you’ve never been on a spacecraft before?”
Then, after hearing his reply and waiting a moment to gather the gall to say it, she asked with eye contact and an expression that clearly implied that she was being quite serious; “Now, I want you to keep an open mind when I ask you this. What would you say if I told you that the Ga…The world…the universe is very, drastically…different than you have always thought or been told it was? What if I told you that we are, right now, on a starship and heading toward another planet?”
The words she was saying were absolute madness, surely – some kind of joke?
But if there was one thing Royanna knew how to do in a social situation it was force the implication that she meant what she was saying. Sure, she might still have come off as absolutely mad, but if nothing else she did have a way of making her words hold serious weight. She did not, for instance, sound like some nutjob conspiracy theorist…Perhaps an eccentric, at worst.
Kete couldn’t hold back the quiet little giggle when he saw, through Kampfer’s eyes, the man pass out cold. He was not in the least bit concerned for his wellbeing, as he may or may not have been when sober. The kid was difficult to gauge in that respect…
He meandered and wandered, stumbled along, humming that timeless tune. Even in blind-drunkenness he was interconnected with his surroundings – still in the eyes and minds of those nearby, still one with the technology and electromagnetic field. It was beneficial, to an extent – much of the reason why it seemed that no matter how smashed Kete got he could still never be caught or pinned down…Unless he wanted to be.
Sure, his reactions were slower and his judgements were definitely off, but having other minds nearby allowed him to, metaphorically speaking, bounce his consciousness off of theirs and back to his own. They were extra senses – similarly impaired as the rest of him, but still giving him the edge over life that he so desperately needed to keep living the way he did.
Eventually, inevitably, Kete would find himself in the residential quarters, swaying as he strolled lazily along, narrowly avoiding collisions with passers-by, just barely keeping himself upright, and once or twice spouting off surprisingly pertinent marriage advice to strangers who had spoken not a word of their private quarrels.
But at once one of his many, many eyes noticed something that very nearly shocked him into sobriety.
There were cameras all over the station of course, and very few of them were linked directly to Kampfer’s battle network so as to make them thoroughly impenetrable. As such, Kete was in every camera lens – not simultaneously looking through all of them or even a great number – but he was aware enough to glance into his surroundings erratically and drunkenly.
There was a door with his name on it – but as unusual as this was, it was not the terribly startling part.
Naturally his first instinct was to enter the door – after all, it had his name on it – but habit took him to glancing into one of those many cameras just to get a quick, eye-corner glance of what might be behind it.
He stood in front of the door – just stood there standing blankly forward as if trying to look through the metal.
At first glance through his remote-eye, it seemed to be a bedroom, or some variety of personal quarters.
Even in his current state it was obvious that this must have been his quarters, and for a short moment he marveled at the coincidence of having stumbled upon it.
Then, for a moment shorter still, he wondered absently just how long he had been wandering. After all, if he stumbled around long enough, even on so massive a complex as this, surely he was to inevitably come across something like this…But he did not think so deeply into that matter.
With a shrug to himself, Kete stepped forward, allowing the door to sense his presence and open for him. (Naturally if it was not an automatic door he would still unconsciously make it open as if it were) He stepped into the room, initially inhaling with some pleasure the clean, semi-chemical scent that often came with a hotel room.
There was a bed and it looked fantastic. He made his way toward it, kicked off his shoes and proceeded with the matter of removing his socks by standing on one leg and wobbling desperately around in a miserable attempt to maintain his balance – even as he was working at it a part of him wondered why he didn’t just sit the heck down. Some moments later he had removed and tossed them disdainfully at the wall, as if it were on some level their fault for making it so difficult instead of his own for not just sitting down.
Instantly more comfortable with feet bare, he was just about to shrug his jacket off when he saw it.
There was a picture on the nightstand – two, actually, but only one caught his eye. He had barely seen it at all in the peripheral of his vision. He had so nearly missed the opportunity to fail to see it, and just go happily to sleep. But there it was.
Duros Aller’s face.
The face that every fiber of his being had forced into the deepest recesses of his mind. That was, really, the most important thing to forget. The guilt of what he had done ran deep, but it was so, vastly more painful when he had a face to attach to the corpse. The sight of that face was too much to bear, especially being noticed so suddenly.
Unaware of his actions, Kete let out a shocked, slurred cry that was probably more than loud enough to be heard from a room across or over.
”~HWHATh’FAHK~!!” he yelped incoherently, stumbling away from it as if it were some gigantic poisonous insect. He fell to the floor and scrambled back some, heart racing, breathing heavily, hair in his eyes and every muscle in his body tensed.
It felt to him as though he had sat there, staring at that picture from afar for an hour or two, but in reality only a couple of seconds had passed before he scrambled to his feet, hastily plodded toward it and leaned heavily onto the nightstand, grabbing the picture harshly and staring hard into it. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
There he was, perhaps ten years old. Not immortal. Not yet the monster that was Devil Eye. Just a kid.
A kid who looked so very happy and proud. A kid who seemed so at home even despite the unusual circumstances.
And there was Glades. Briefly he wondered why in Space he didn’t remember her…But it was the third figure, the tallest figure, which kept the majority of his attention.
That face.
Duros Aller. The one man who’s death tormented Ketin more than the entire population of Adrusade combined.
Why was this here?!
Kampfer must have ordered it, he assumed – it was the only logical explanation. But why?!
Again, it felt to Kete as if he had stared at that picture, tears gathering in his eyes as he held it with white-knuckled fingers for hours, though in reality it had been a matter of seconds before, in a sudden and violent swell of emotion, he flung the thing with all his might. It shot through the air, into the bathroom, striking the ceramic wall where wood splintered, glass shattered, all clattering to the floor. The picture itself fell with the remains of the frame and faced downward, but Kete did not stick around to admire his work.
All he had gone through with the intention of forgetting his problems, all that partying, all that drinking and vice, all for nothing! It was hitting him square in the chest all over again!
Going with the momentum of that swing, Kete allowed his body to go stumbling in the general direction of the door from which he had entered. He collided with the wall, but rebounded and pushed himself off to finish the stretch. The door opened for him and he stumbled without looking, ghost-pale and still barefoot, into the hallway. Naturally if there was anyone on the opposite side of that door he would meet them with a direct, head-on collision and a whole lot of momentum behind it.
If there was nobody immediately beyond the door for him to crash into however, he would merely go stumbling across the hall to sit on the other side, staring downward and trying not to breathe so heavily.
Dallen Armston held her breath.
Then, unable to contain herself any longer, she lowered her rifle…and proceeded with laughing uncontrollably.
It was some time before she could speak, and even then only through the gasps for breath and clutching at her midsection, turning to Ducote.
”Wh…whahat the *** is this Ducote? Some kinda’ joke?! Y’can’t be ***in’ wit’us like that~! GreatSpace that *** ain’t funny~!” Though it obviously was funny, to her at least.
However it was not long to occur to the soldier that her comrades were not taking it with quite the same outlook as she was. With some effort she subdued the laughter and said more lowly ”C’mon Ducote, this is a joke, right? I mean what the ***’s up with that getup?” There was so great a distance between the soldiers and the newcomer woman that it would be hard to hear all but the faintest wisps of what they were saying…Although the laughter was more than obvious.
Not waiting for a reply from Ducote, Dallen glanced toward Tsuan to see that he too did not seem to find any humor in the situation – and that meant something. There was no way that he would have teamed up with Ducote just to screw with her – and come to think of it, going through all that trouble in the first place didn’t seem like it would have been a very tactical choice.
So it occurred to Armston that this was, in fact, something strange happening.
At once regaining her cold, soldierly resolve, Armston turned back to the pale, oddly dressed woman who was claiming to be a queen of something and raised her rifle again. Curiously, she raised it more slowly and gradually this time – it was actually a very subtle, but clever technique she had learned from a now long-deceased comrade; raising the weapon at just the right speed gave the target a chance to see what was happening without forcing them into an automatic, knee-jerk reaction. The target might still choose to return fire, but it would be a conscious choice – this had made the difference between life and death a number of times in Dallen’s military career.
Perhaps it was not the wisest choice, considering the target still had her hand raised and may have been concealing some kind of wrist-mounted weapon there, but the soldier felt comfortable with her action given that the target was outnumbered…And it did not seem as though she really intended to do any harm, besides.
In fact, she was seeming more and more to Dallen like someone who had been trapped in the facility on some kind of exploration and gone mad from the cold or the solitude…Or something like that.
”Alright!” she barked, continuing to take matters into her own hands and completely disregard the chain of command – which she figured no longer applied anyway, since they were no longer members of a ‘real’ army. ”I’mma need you to explain real carefully what the **** you’re talkin’ about before I order the guys standing behind you to fire! Understand?”
Was there really anyone standing behind the probably-crazy woman? Surely she would not be stupid enough to turn and look, considering that would leave her vulnerable to the weapon-wielder who would certainly take the opportunity to open fire if it had all been a trick…But what if there were soldiers who had managed to sneak up on her undetected? It put the ‘queen’ in a difficult situation, to say the least…
Meanwhile, Tsuan was working through an entirely different thought process, still continuing to hip-aim his rifle but appearing to be in thought running deeper than the danger at hand. He seemed puzzled by something, if subtly. To himself, he silently mouthed the words ”…Sol Empire…?”
He could swear he’d heard the words before, and already it wasn’t adding up.
Kallenger failed to completely disguise the stab of frustration that came with Christofer’s meekness, confirming with her that it was ‘okay’ that he ordered the same thing that she had. It came in the form of words that sounded a fair bit sharper than she had intended them to be.
”Why would it not be okay for you to get the same food as me?” she demanded rhetorically, and immediately regretted the harshness of her words. To compensate there was an immediate, drastic descent into a softer expression and much milder tone.
”You gotta’ stop being so nervous, Kid.” she said, with a light, earnest smile. ”I don’t mean to snap at you. I just…Well my usual company isn’t so…” she almost said ‘sensitive’, but already that sentence had begun to go the wrong way so it was time for another restart. ”I mean, most of the people I deal with…” ’deal with’? Again the woman was finding it so infuriatingly difficult to communicate with this boy, who was indeed very sensitive. The usually stoic woman, cold, emotionless, uncaring and harsh – and yet she was reduced to the stuttering awkwardness of a teenager trying to talk to this kid that was in no way, in any possible universe, even the slightest threat to her socially or otherwise.
A little huff as an indication that she was, in fact, having difficulties speaking again. ”N-not that I’m dealing with you. I mean, you’re…you’re just…You’re not an asshole.”
Smooth.
What a way to make a person feel better about themselves. At least the shy, insecure and self-loathing little thing knew that he wasn’t an asshole.
Royanna realized as she said it that it was not exactly the most flattering way to go. Fed up with her inability to communicate properly, the woman gave another little huff, and returned the majority of her attention to the food before her.
”You know what I mean.” she grumbled after a moment, with what could only be described as humiliated indignance.
Nothing more was said on Royanna’s part for a few minutes – she was content to eat in silence and try to forget about that pitiful display of human interaction.
Once long enough had passed that it seemed sufficiently behind them, she tried again – but starting a new conversation, this time. Just as when they had first met, it seemed Royanna was proving to start conversations strangely, with statements and questions that did not really make sense or seem to pertain to anything in particular.
“Hey, what do you know about space travel?” she asked, out of the blue. Whatever he responded with she would have no response – only another strange question.
“So, you’ve never been on a spacecraft before?”
Then, after hearing his reply and waiting a moment to gather the gall to say it, she asked with eye contact and an expression that clearly implied that she was being quite serious; “Now, I want you to keep an open mind when I ask you this. What would you say if I told you that the Ga…The world…the universe is very, drastically…different than you have always thought or been told it was? What if I told you that we are, right now, on a starship and heading toward another planet?”
The words she was saying were absolute madness, surely – some kind of joke?
But if there was one thing Royanna knew how to do in a social situation it was force the implication that she meant what she was saying. Sure, she might still have come off as absolutely mad, but if nothing else she did have a way of making her words hold serious weight. She did not, for instance, sound like some nutjob conspiracy theorist…Perhaps an eccentric, at worst.
Kete couldn’t hold back the quiet little giggle when he saw, through Kampfer’s eyes, the man pass out cold. He was not in the least bit concerned for his wellbeing, as he may or may not have been when sober. The kid was difficult to gauge in that respect…
He meandered and wandered, stumbled along, humming that timeless tune. Even in blind-drunkenness he was interconnected with his surroundings – still in the eyes and minds of those nearby, still one with the technology and electromagnetic field. It was beneficial, to an extent – much of the reason why it seemed that no matter how smashed Kete got he could still never be caught or pinned down…Unless he wanted to be.
Sure, his reactions were slower and his judgements were definitely off, but having other minds nearby allowed him to, metaphorically speaking, bounce his consciousness off of theirs and back to his own. They were extra senses – similarly impaired as the rest of him, but still giving him the edge over life that he so desperately needed to keep living the way he did.
Eventually, inevitably, Kete would find himself in the residential quarters, swaying as he strolled lazily along, narrowly avoiding collisions with passers-by, just barely keeping himself upright, and once or twice spouting off surprisingly pertinent marriage advice to strangers who had spoken not a word of their private quarrels.
But at once one of his many, many eyes noticed something that very nearly shocked him into sobriety.
There were cameras all over the station of course, and very few of them were linked directly to Kampfer’s battle network so as to make them thoroughly impenetrable. As such, Kete was in every camera lens – not simultaneously looking through all of them or even a great number – but he was aware enough to glance into his surroundings erratically and drunkenly.
There was a door with his name on it – but as unusual as this was, it was not the terribly startling part.
Naturally his first instinct was to enter the door – after all, it had his name on it – but habit took him to glancing into one of those many cameras just to get a quick, eye-corner glance of what might be behind it.
He stood in front of the door – just stood there standing blankly forward as if trying to look through the metal.
At first glance through his remote-eye, it seemed to be a bedroom, or some variety of personal quarters.
Even in his current state it was obvious that this must have been his quarters, and for a short moment he marveled at the coincidence of having stumbled upon it.
Then, for a moment shorter still, he wondered absently just how long he had been wandering. After all, if he stumbled around long enough, even on so massive a complex as this, surely he was to inevitably come across something like this…But he did not think so deeply into that matter.
With a shrug to himself, Kete stepped forward, allowing the door to sense his presence and open for him. (Naturally if it was not an automatic door he would still unconsciously make it open as if it were) He stepped into the room, initially inhaling with some pleasure the clean, semi-chemical scent that often came with a hotel room.
There was a bed and it looked fantastic. He made his way toward it, kicked off his shoes and proceeded with the matter of removing his socks by standing on one leg and wobbling desperately around in a miserable attempt to maintain his balance – even as he was working at it a part of him wondered why he didn’t just sit the heck down. Some moments later he had removed and tossed them disdainfully at the wall, as if it were on some level their fault for making it so difficult instead of his own for not just sitting down.
Instantly more comfortable with feet bare, he was just about to shrug his jacket off when he saw it.
There was a picture on the nightstand – two, actually, but only one caught his eye. He had barely seen it at all in the peripheral of his vision. He had so nearly missed the opportunity to fail to see it, and just go happily to sleep. But there it was.
Duros Aller’s face.
The face that every fiber of his being had forced into the deepest recesses of his mind. That was, really, the most important thing to forget. The guilt of what he had done ran deep, but it was so, vastly more painful when he had a face to attach to the corpse. The sight of that face was too much to bear, especially being noticed so suddenly.
Unaware of his actions, Kete let out a shocked, slurred cry that was probably more than loud enough to be heard from a room across or over.
”~HWHATh’FAHK~!!” he yelped incoherently, stumbling away from it as if it were some gigantic poisonous insect. He fell to the floor and scrambled back some, heart racing, breathing heavily, hair in his eyes and every muscle in his body tensed.
It felt to him as though he had sat there, staring at that picture from afar for an hour or two, but in reality only a couple of seconds had passed before he scrambled to his feet, hastily plodded toward it and leaned heavily onto the nightstand, grabbing the picture harshly and staring hard into it. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
There he was, perhaps ten years old. Not immortal. Not yet the monster that was Devil Eye. Just a kid.
A kid who looked so very happy and proud. A kid who seemed so at home even despite the unusual circumstances.
And there was Glades. Briefly he wondered why in Space he didn’t remember her…But it was the third figure, the tallest figure, which kept the majority of his attention.
That face.
Duros Aller. The one man who’s death tormented Ketin more than the entire population of Adrusade combined.
Why was this here?!
Kampfer must have ordered it, he assumed – it was the only logical explanation. But why?!
Again, it felt to Kete as if he had stared at that picture, tears gathering in his eyes as he held it with white-knuckled fingers for hours, though in reality it had been a matter of seconds before, in a sudden and violent swell of emotion, he flung the thing with all his might. It shot through the air, into the bathroom, striking the ceramic wall where wood splintered, glass shattered, all clattering to the floor. The picture itself fell with the remains of the frame and faced downward, but Kete did not stick around to admire his work.
All he had gone through with the intention of forgetting his problems, all that partying, all that drinking and vice, all for nothing! It was hitting him square in the chest all over again!
Going with the momentum of that swing, Kete allowed his body to go stumbling in the general direction of the door from which he had entered. He collided with the wall, but rebounded and pushed himself off to finish the stretch. The door opened for him and he stumbled without looking, ghost-pale and still barefoot, into the hallway. Naturally if there was anyone on the opposite side of that door he would meet them with a direct, head-on collision and a whole lot of momentum behind it.
If there was nobody immediately beyond the door for him to crash into however, he would merely go stumbling across the hall to sit on the other side, staring downward and trying not to breathe so heavily.
Cathorine's face became red with anger as she clenched down on her teeth and yelled "HOW DARE YOU LAUGH AT ME, A PERSON WHO IS DIFFERENT FROM YOU BY LOOKS AND DRESS, WHAT A SORRY EXCUSE OF SOLDIER YOU ARE!" Her anger as she spoke was one that could be felt, Cathorine hated people that make fun of others looks, even though being a Queem she treated all of her subjects fairly no matter what race they were. Her anger even grew after hearing that she has to explain herself once again.
"Do you have bricks for ears!? I said I am Frost Queen Cathorine Queen of the Frost Empire, rival to the mighty Sol Empire and don't make threats unless you can back those up, you pleb!" She said as three giant ice spikes shot out behind her in the ground impaling anyone or anything that have has been behind her or forcing it to move away. "Now I need to get out of here to reach a comrade of mine" she added with a much calmer tone even though her eyes still spoke anger out of them.
"Do you have bricks for ears!? I said I am Frost Queen Cathorine Queen of the Frost Empire, rival to the mighty Sol Empire and don't make threats unless you can back those up, you pleb!" She said as three giant ice spikes shot out behind her in the ground impaling anyone or anything that have has been behind her or forcing it to move away. "Now I need to get out of here to reach a comrade of mine" she added with a much calmer tone even though her eyes still spoke anger out of them.
For Arthur, walked with his head down and letter hidden away. He is slightly depressed about hearing Colonel Pryus leave but one thing that stuck to his mind was the concept of the "Asgardian Knights" he search through all the data banks as he walks slowly down the hall and nothing, not even a single mention of it anywhere, it was like they don't exist. The thing about the Knights was deeply troubling since they are the unknown.
As he walks he notices Ketin sitting at the other side of the hallway looking down. Just from how he looks, Arthur already knew that something was troubling him. How fortunate when he notices, Ketin he was already by his room. He looks at the door and then looks at Ketin before entering. Once he enters, he instantly sees the smash picture in the bathroom. He walks over to it and sees it.
With this picture, it also exposes Kampfer's other weakness, his incapablity to understand complex emotion and hadn't realize that the picture mostly gave a more negative tone to it than positive. Arthur gave a big sigh and placed the picture with his letter and started to clean up the mess. Assuming that Ketin was still in the same spot, Arthur would walk up to him and kneel down and says "I do apologize if the room wasn't to your liking, but I did fix it though. So don't look so down or I'll, uh, tickled out , yeah tickle" he had to quickly find an innocent threat to get Keyin moving again and as he saw his bare feet it gave him the idea in tickling him instead, in which he is full capable in doing since his fingers are quite smooth. If he responded negatively or try to shoo him away, Ketin will find himself getting tickled by a highly advance "robot" in which for Arthur a perfect way to elevate his mind off of the troubles he's got.
As he walks he notices Ketin sitting at the other side of the hallway looking down. Just from how he looks, Arthur already knew that something was troubling him. How fortunate when he notices, Ketin he was already by his room. He looks at the door and then looks at Ketin before entering. Once he enters, he instantly sees the smash picture in the bathroom. He walks over to it and sees it.
With this picture, it also exposes Kampfer's other weakness, his incapablity to understand complex emotion and hadn't realize that the picture mostly gave a more negative tone to it than positive. Arthur gave a big sigh and placed the picture with his letter and started to clean up the mess. Assuming that Ketin was still in the same spot, Arthur would walk up to him and kneel down and says "I do apologize if the room wasn't to your liking, but I did fix it though. So don't look so down or I'll, uh, tickled out , yeah tickle" he had to quickly find an innocent threat to get Keyin moving again and as he saw his bare feet it gave him the idea in tickling him instead, in which he is full capable in doing since his fingers are quite smooth. If he responded negatively or try to shoo him away, Ketin will find himself getting tickled by a highly advance "robot" in which for Arthur a perfect way to elevate his mind off of the troubles he's got.
The robot’s intentions were good. Unfortunately good intentions did not always yield good results, and it seemed like any time someone really went out of their way to help him or make him feel safe it backfired. A poor understanding of a complex psyche littered with neuroses was present in the creator, and even with aspects of the personality of Ketin Clarke himself it seemed Arthur had been cursed with a similar affliction as the one whom had brought him into existence.
Arthur did not get the chance to kneel beside Ketin.
The boy had not been entirely aware of the robot’s presence initially, too wrapped up in whatever was whirling in his head at the moment. When it occurred to Kete that Arthur was not only nearby, but intending on approaching him, the kid absolutely lost it.
Arthur appeared in the doorway of what had been intended as Kete’s quarters and before he could take another step the boy had leaped to his feet and taken a few desperate steps back, moving along the wall and distancing himself.
“G-getawayfromme!!” he cried as he got to his feet, not giving poor Arthur the best greeting in the ‘Verse.
His earlier cry had gone unheard – unsurprising, since he had been in the room at the time, and the door had been closed – but this time his words were sharper and clearer, louder, and positively terror-stricken.
A vicious head-rush from standing so hastily and he was forced to lean heavily on the wall, one hand planted firmly at arms-length. Drawing sharp breaths, his expression had become something beyond desperate. There was a despair in his eyes, a horror.
“W-what the **** d’you want with me!?” he demanded, voice hoarse and full of pain, sharp with sudden, miserable harshness. “I don’t get it! M-most people wanna’ kill me and I don’t blame them. Th’rest wanna’ drag me back an’ I get that too. B-but what the **** do you people want!?”
His eyes had already welled and words tremored on the verge of mad sobs. He had, it seemed, reached his limit – in some regard.
“J-just leave me alone! I can handle bein’ hunted down b-but this, this, I can’t ****in’ handle this!” He broke at that point, but words continued nonetheless. After a few seconds. ” W-what, s’it some kind’a payback? W-well it worked, okay? It ****in’ worked! You win!” The hand not bracing him against the wall hung limp at his side and was trembling rather violently.
There was perhaps some chance that the substances were affecting him still. The drug he had hit so hard was known for adding the negative effects of many common stimulants.
If Nirix had come into the hallway to investigate, he would have words for her too – they seemed to be directed at both of them. “W-what, y’really think I’mma believe y’jus’ tryin’a help? I ain’t fallin for it! Jus’ ou’th ****in’ goodness of y’hearts, right? Fix’im up, make’im all better? Well even if you people were jus’ tryna’ help, some stories jus’ don’t have happy endings!” There was a pause now, as though he had to catch his breath. It was a long pause – probably not as long as it seemed – when he spoke again it was in a weaker tone, reduced to something of a whimper. He didn’t bother wiping his eyes.
“B’I ain’t gonna’ believe that. I’unno what you want w’me that y’can’t jus’ turn me in or kill me but I ain’t fallin’ for no more ‘tryna’ be helpful’ acts. I’m ****in’ done. Jus’ stay away from me would’ya? Jus’ ****in’ leave me alone. All of you.”
So the misfortune of Kampfer and company’s various attempts at helping Ketin all backfiring horribly had leaked to Nirix now. After all, just because she had been more successful in helping him didn’t mean that she was part of this newly conceived conspiracy against him. Maybe they were trying to drive him mad? Maybe they were just trying to make him miserable? He could only theorize – but the one thing Kete knew now was that nobody here was to be trusted, not for a second. He couldn’t let his guard down, even in his current state. He hated himself for having done so in the first place – but then, had he really? Or were these people just so hell-bent on tormenting his psyche that they tore right through that shield?
What choice did he have? Letting his guard down for anyone was only going to result in more hurt and he knew that now. He wasn’t going to let it happen again. They could drag him back to the Empire, they could torture him, they could kill him, but they weren’t going to get through to him. He would make sure of that.
(Platoon D's part later~)
Arthur did not get the chance to kneel beside Ketin.
The boy had not been entirely aware of the robot’s presence initially, too wrapped up in whatever was whirling in his head at the moment. When it occurred to Kete that Arthur was not only nearby, but intending on approaching him, the kid absolutely lost it.
Arthur appeared in the doorway of what had been intended as Kete’s quarters and before he could take another step the boy had leaped to his feet and taken a few desperate steps back, moving along the wall and distancing himself.
“G-getawayfromme!!” he cried as he got to his feet, not giving poor Arthur the best greeting in the ‘Verse.
His earlier cry had gone unheard – unsurprising, since he had been in the room at the time, and the door had been closed – but this time his words were sharper and clearer, louder, and positively terror-stricken.
A vicious head-rush from standing so hastily and he was forced to lean heavily on the wall, one hand planted firmly at arms-length. Drawing sharp breaths, his expression had become something beyond desperate. There was a despair in his eyes, a horror.
“W-what the **** d’you want with me!?” he demanded, voice hoarse and full of pain, sharp with sudden, miserable harshness. “I don’t get it! M-most people wanna’ kill me and I don’t blame them. Th’rest wanna’ drag me back an’ I get that too. B-but what the **** do you people want!?”
His eyes had already welled and words tremored on the verge of mad sobs. He had, it seemed, reached his limit – in some regard.
“J-just leave me alone! I can handle bein’ hunted down b-but this, this, I can’t ****in’ handle this!” He broke at that point, but words continued nonetheless. After a few seconds. ” W-what, s’it some kind’a payback? W-well it worked, okay? It ****in’ worked! You win!” The hand not bracing him against the wall hung limp at his side and was trembling rather violently.
There was perhaps some chance that the substances were affecting him still. The drug he had hit so hard was known for adding the negative effects of many common stimulants.
If Nirix had come into the hallway to investigate, he would have words for her too – they seemed to be directed at both of them. “W-what, y’really think I’mma believe y’jus’ tryin’a help? I ain’t fallin for it! Jus’ ou’th ****in’ goodness of y’hearts, right? Fix’im up, make’im all better? Well even if you people were jus’ tryna’ help, some stories jus’ don’t have happy endings!” There was a pause now, as though he had to catch his breath. It was a long pause – probably not as long as it seemed – when he spoke again it was in a weaker tone, reduced to something of a whimper. He didn’t bother wiping his eyes.
“B’I ain’t gonna’ believe that. I’unno what you want w’me that y’can’t jus’ turn me in or kill me but I ain’t fallin’ for no more ‘tryna’ be helpful’ acts. I’m ****in’ done. Jus’ stay away from me would’ya? Jus’ ****in’ leave me alone. All of you.”
So the misfortune of Kampfer and company’s various attempts at helping Ketin all backfiring horribly had leaked to Nirix now. After all, just because she had been more successful in helping him didn’t mean that she was part of this newly conceived conspiracy against him. Maybe they were trying to drive him mad? Maybe they were just trying to make him miserable? He could only theorize – but the one thing Kete knew now was that nobody here was to be trusted, not for a second. He couldn’t let his guard down, even in his current state. He hated himself for having done so in the first place – but then, had he really? Or were these people just so hell-bent on tormenting his psyche that they tore right through that shield?
What choice did he have? Letting his guard down for anyone was only going to result in more hurt and he knew that now. He wasn’t going to let it happen again. They could drag him back to the Empire, they could torture him, they could kill him, but they weren’t going to get through to him. He would make sure of that.
(Platoon D's part later~)
Arthur just stood there and watched as Ketin goes and in his mind, have is little episode. Of course, Arthur thought about what the kid had said and to be honest, he doesn't know why Kampfer decided to help this kid and go as far and wanting to be his father(In which he did a horrible job at the party, usually people like Ketin are usually ones of intrigue, but are usually have there brains dissected though and used in experimentation. The more Arthur thought about what Ketin said, it only affirm that he himself is kind at heart, even though not having heart, but with Ketin's constant depression-like statements only made him much more angry at him. He whistled and three Electron units turned off there cloaking device(They love being invisible) and waited for his orders in which he gave by standing guard making sure no one interferes, especially Nirix if she came out.
Arthur's light turned from White to a deep red and goes to grab Ketin and push him up against the wall hard to make sure, what he was about to say needed t be heard. "SNAP OUT OF IT DAMMIT!! WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BE SO LOOM AND GLOOM ABOUT LIFE, UH?! WITH THIS WIDE GALAXY WE ALL OCCUPY IN, TS GOOD TO LOOK AT IT IN A POSITIVE LIGHT AND NOT SUCH A HORRIFIC WAY! I UNDERSTAND THAT IN THIS GALAXY LIFE IS F'ED UP, BUT I SEE THE POSITIVES IN IT" he yells at him as he takes a slight pause. "IT'S COME REALLY HARD TO BELIEVE WITH YOUR KIND OF ATTITUDE, THAT YOU SURVIVED ON YOUR OWN FOR 300 YEARS. NOT DOUBT YOU HAD HELP BY PEOPLE WHO CARED FOR YOU, AND SOME EVEN LOVED YOU! IF NOT, YOU WOULD HAVE DEFINITELY HAVE ENDED UP IN A RED LIGHT DISTRICT, A DRUG ADDICT AND GIVING PEOPLE MR.HANDY'S UNTIL YOUR BRAIN WAS SHOT OUT!" he continues on his fiery rage at him, as he does the motion with his indicting what a Mr.Handy was. "WITHOUT THE FRIENDS YOU LEFT BEHIND, YOU WOULDN'T BE HEAR SURVIVING. YOU ARE TOO YOUNG TO BE AN EMOTIONAL WRECK, DIMENSIONAL LORDS ARE EMOTIONAL AND PARANOID WRECKS! NOT YOU! IF YOU EVER READ SOCRATES, YOU WOULD KNOW THAT THE MOST MISERABLE BEINGS IN THE UNIVERSE ARE GODS, AND IN A WAY DIMENSIONAL LORDS ARE THE SAME WAY...MISERABLE!" he stats as he slowly calms down.
"As the great Rafiki would say, you either learn from your past or you run from it and for you you have been running from it because you refuse to listen and with that makes you incompetent. Because you know whats wrong but choose to ignore it, living in incompetence, only living by impulse, like the Gods. You are mortal, even though your not" he says as his light starts turning white again. He gets closer to Ketin's face and adds "Don't you dare ignore what I have just said, like you always do to others trying to help you, if you continue to ignore these words of wisdom, then your gonna have the biggest beat down in that not even Kampfer can help you recover from nor Nirix will save you from" his tone was low but added with power and seriousness to it, which actually made the Electron units look at each other nervously, scared on what Arthur might do. "So yes, we are doing this out of the kindness of our hearts, I don't know why, but we do, because of your sorry excuse of person being so miserable and negative about life who refuses help from others even though they still lend there hands out in that hole of yours" he said as he tightens his hands. "If you don't learn from what I said this will happen" he added as he goes to punch Ketin right in the chest with his fist that would give Ketin not only feeling the force of the punch but also a good electrical shock, but still be fine and not need for medical attention, but still really hurt.
Arthur's light turned from White to a deep red and goes to grab Ketin and push him up against the wall hard to make sure, what he was about to say needed t be heard. "SNAP OUT OF IT DAMMIT!! WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BE SO LOOM AND GLOOM ABOUT LIFE, UH?! WITH THIS WIDE GALAXY WE ALL OCCUPY IN, TS GOOD TO LOOK AT IT IN A POSITIVE LIGHT AND NOT SUCH A HORRIFIC WAY! I UNDERSTAND THAT IN THIS GALAXY LIFE IS F'ED UP, BUT I SEE THE POSITIVES IN IT" he yells at him as he takes a slight pause. "IT'S COME REALLY HARD TO BELIEVE WITH YOUR KIND OF ATTITUDE, THAT YOU SURVIVED ON YOUR OWN FOR 300 YEARS. NOT DOUBT YOU HAD HELP BY PEOPLE WHO CARED FOR YOU, AND SOME EVEN LOVED YOU! IF NOT, YOU WOULD HAVE DEFINITELY HAVE ENDED UP IN A RED LIGHT DISTRICT, A DRUG ADDICT AND GIVING PEOPLE MR.HANDY'S UNTIL YOUR BRAIN WAS SHOT OUT!" he continues on his fiery rage at him, as he does the motion with his indicting what a Mr.Handy was. "WITHOUT THE FRIENDS YOU LEFT BEHIND, YOU WOULDN'T BE HEAR SURVIVING. YOU ARE TOO YOUNG TO BE AN EMOTIONAL WRECK, DIMENSIONAL LORDS ARE EMOTIONAL AND PARANOID WRECKS! NOT YOU! IF YOU EVER READ SOCRATES, YOU WOULD KNOW THAT THE MOST MISERABLE BEINGS IN THE UNIVERSE ARE GODS, AND IN A WAY DIMENSIONAL LORDS ARE THE SAME WAY...MISERABLE!" he stats as he slowly calms down.
"As the great Rafiki would say, you either learn from your past or you run from it and for you you have been running from it because you refuse to listen and with that makes you incompetent. Because you know whats wrong but choose to ignore it, living in incompetence, only living by impulse, like the Gods. You are mortal, even though your not" he says as his light starts turning white again. He gets closer to Ketin's face and adds "Don't you dare ignore what I have just said, like you always do to others trying to help you, if you continue to ignore these words of wisdom, then your gonna have the biggest beat down in that not even Kampfer can help you recover from nor Nirix will save you from" his tone was low but added with power and seriousness to it, which actually made the Electron units look at each other nervously, scared on what Arthur might do. "So yes, we are doing this out of the kindness of our hearts, I don't know why, but we do, because of your sorry excuse of person being so miserable and negative about life who refuses help from others even though they still lend there hands out in that hole of yours" he said as he tightens his hands. "If you don't learn from what I said this will happen" he added as he goes to punch Ketin right in the chest with his fist that would give Ketin not only feeling the force of the punch but also a good electrical shock, but still be fine and not need for medical attention, but still really hurt.
Neylan could hear the ping of the raider as the ship approached....she quickly put together outfits for her and her son and waited in the docking bay for awhile ....knowing that it was an imperial ship they kept their gunsat their sides just incase " remember if they try to attack I want you to run to the ship and get out!" She says with conviction but also sadness...." I'm afraid mom" Nako replies softly Neylan then grabs his hand reassuring him and smiles
This was it the moment that was going to define their place in the universe
This was it the moment that was going to define their place in the universe
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