Forums » Sci-Fi Roleplay » Travellers (Semi-Open RP between Tara and Catrin)

Tara shook her head, "No questions right now. I think I'll have to take a little while to absorb all of the data and do a little reading in the ship's databanks before I ask more questions about it." She shook her head, "That really is a most interesting ability."

"Miss Catrin, now may be a good time to discuss our cover story for your sudden appearance on our ship, and why you have so much valuable material for sale to produce your starting funds. I suggest that we tell others that you are a person from an uncharted world in the Deep Frontier, the unexplored regions beyond Senate Space. We shall say that you were prospecting for valuable minerals in an asteroid belt in a system near to the one we were studying and that your ship was damaged. We answered your distress beacon and decided to take you back to Senate Space with us, you brought along the material you mined from the asteroid belt and paid us for our services with a small amount from said materials." The AI said.

Catrin listened to the AI with a pensive expression, then she shook her head. “That's very generous of you, but no. Mostly because if I really do start doing rather dangerous things anywhere, I don't want to be trackable back to you and put you in danger. With enough information, I'll be fine. If you just recommend a suitable world I could be from, I can sell a part of the metals on a local black market after getting to some world in the Senate Space, then obtain an identity, fly away and sell the rest legally, claiming that I brought it over from my home planet in order to begin a new life.” She tilted her head, looking at Tara. “You have been very generous, but I can't guarantee I'll be completely reasonable and make no enemies – in fact, that would be a first,” she said with a smirk.

Tara smiled, "Well, I've made a few enemies here and there myself. Not everything I've written has been uncontroversial. In fact, I can think of three planets where there's a standing 'kill on sight' order and another two with a bounty on my head." She shrugged, "Some of my studies upset people with power, and whilst I'm not exactly hunted by anyone, I'm not without people who wouldn't crack a smile at my funeral."

"Thankfully, such individuals are few and far between and very unlikely to do something stupid." The AI said, "After all, Tara is well known and well liked. Not to mention she grew up calling Sritar Morlan 'uncle'." The AI chuckled, "Now there's a man who can make a person and the planet they're currently standing on very dead very quickly."

Catrin chuckled. “Well well. And you seemed so harmless.” She smiled at Tara. “Nevertheless. I certainly don't mean to add to the list of your enemies. Besides, you have too much information about me – imagine what would happen if someone really wanted it, and decided to extract it by force.” She shook her head and frowned. “I really, really hate it when people hurt my friends.”

Then she gave Tara a reassuring smile. “I'll be fine. Besides, if you'll allow me to, I can teleport directly into your ship, in case you want to talk to me later on without it being detected. But now that I think of it, I can't afford for you to be linked to me.”

Tara grinned, this time showing each one of her sharp teeth. It was an unsettlingly predatory expression coming from the scholar, "You seem to forget, Catrin, that Terelains are first and foremost hunters, predators. My prey might be knowledge, but predators are never harmless, even if we look it." She hid her teeth again and said, "And the teleport thing is a great idea."

The AI sighed, "Wonderful. I'll have to keep her room template in storage just in case she decides to pop over for extended visits."

Tara smirked, "Oh shush, you know you don't mind really; you'd love the company."

"Why would I need anyone else's company but your own, Mistress? We certainly have... illuminating conversations." The AI said.

"Flatterer!" Tara said accusingly, "You've spent half of Catrin's time complaining to her about me."

"Most of my complaints are minor and meant to be taken as forms of humor." The AI said innocently.

"Hmph, well they better be!" Tara said with a smile, "I am, after all, perfect."

"In every way, Mistress." The AI said with complete seriousness.

Probably unexpectedly to Tara, Catrin smiled at her warmly, not in the least unsettled. “Of course. Knowledge is the most dangerous thing of them all.” Her next smile was slightly cynical. “You may be unsure what to do with your claws, but that doesn't mean anything, now does it? Ideas impact so many more people...”

She gave the AI an ironic smirk. “I don't get what all the fuss is about. If you mind it that much, I can bring over my own sleeping roll and things and use an empty room. Hm. Or I could alter the shape and colour of the room myself, if you wouldn't mind. I could probably do it faster than you, too,” she added, rather wickedly. “Plus, I need one fixed point that won't change to teleport to, but hopefully that won't be too much of a problem, right? It can be the lounge or the cockpit for all I care.”

Tara smiled and nodded, "Exactly, and anyway... I can use my claws as weapons!" She frowned slightly, "Well... I could give you a good scratching if you tried anything anyway..."

The AI ignored Tara and said, "I would greatly prefer that you use the lounge, since having anyone suddenly teleport into he cockpit, or Tara's bedroom Tia'Ren forbid, would most likely give me a panic attack. As for saving your room template, that is already done. I was merely trying to keep up my facade as the grumbling, overbearing AI, the only one, it seems, on this ship who takes their own and everyone else's safety into proper and due consideration."

Catrin chuckled. “A 'good scratching' sounds like some sort of a massage therapy.” She cleared her throat. “And of course, the lounge it is, then. I certainly don't want to trigger a panic attack for you. Gods know what you might do. And I don't like being grumbled to, so my normal response is to offer over-the-top accommodation in response to any protests I encounter.”

Tara smiled slightly, "Well I'm pretty good t those too."

"Then I shall attempt to grumble less, Miss Catrin." The AI said, "In any case, we are almost in visual range of the gas giant. Mistress, do yu wish to go to the cockpit, or shall I activate the holosuite?"

"Hmm..." Tara frowned thoughtfully, then she smiled, "Well, I think even Catrin might be impressed by the holosuite. Activate it when we come within visual range of the gas giant."

"Yes, Mistress." The AI said.

Catrin beamed. “Oh, you are? Would you like to try giving me one? Whenever it would be convenient, of course,” she added hastily.

Then she smiled at the AI. “Grumbling less to me will be just fine, I can't imagine what would happen if you stopped grumbling to Tara. Your total conversation length would suddenly be reduced to 30% of the original time and she would die of boredom, I would imagine.” She smirked. “And I rather like making up my over-the-top responses, so if completely changing your personality when speaking with me would be unpleasant, just stay the way you are."

After hearing about the holosuite, her eyes lit up. “Impressed, huh? Well, now I'm curious.”

Tara smiled, "I'll be sure to make room in my busy schedule of 'doing nothing' for the next few days so I can show off my skills." She wiggled her fingers for emphasis.

The AI then spoke, "Your point is quite valid, Miss Catrin, and I wouldn't wish for Mistress to get bored. Besides, I enjoy grumbling too much to stop."

A slight shudder ran throughout the ship and Tara blinked, "What was that?"

"Nothing, Mistress." The AI said, "We're nearing the gas giant system, it was simply a magnetic eddy from the outer limits of its magnetic field." It paused, "Hm, I shall activate the holosuite now."

Almost immediately the entire room seemed to simply vanish as the walls and furniture shimmered out of existence, leaving Catrin and Tara seemingly reclining on nothing in the middle of space, though Catrin would still be able to feel the chair she was sat on. Off to the right was the bright point of this system's star and directly ahead was the gas giant; small at this distance, but growing noticeably larger as they approached. It was vibrantly coloured; splashes of orange and red mixed with yellows and sandy-gold. the great bands that covered the world rotated, some sowly, some fast, as vast, unimaginable winds howled beneath the thick atmosphere of a world capable of swallowing a thousand Earths whole. Here and there were great spots of various colours; vast storms larger than most planets, some many hundreds of times larger than the Earth.

Around the gas giant were two sets of bright rings of gas, dust and ice; one set encircled the planet's
equator and the other was slanted diagonally from the north-west to the south-east. Tiny against this leviathan world were dozens, maybe even hundreds of moons, dancing a slow celestial ballet around the planet.

Tara was still reclining in her invisible chair, her eyes full of wonder as she stared at the planet, "That," She said softly, "Is one of the reasons I do what I do; to see the wonders of the galaxy."

Catrin smiled happily at Tara and when the AI spoke, she smirked. “I can see that.”

When activating the holosuite was mentioned, she perked up, looking around her curiously, and her eyes went wide when everything disappeared to give way to the illusion of vast space. She immediately clutched her chair with both hands to get at least some sense of not falling down, then she continued looking around, quite fascinated by the gas giant, the myriads of colour shades and all the moons dancing around it.

She gave Tara a weak smile when she spoke. “It looks wonderful. I can't get rid of the feeling that I'll fall through the floor any moment now, though. Having both gravity and a view like this is unsettling.”

Tara grew a mischievous grin, "Well, that's easily sorted." Suddenly gravity switched off and Tara started floating out of her chair, "Better?" She asked with a joyous laugh.

"Be advised that when we reach the gas giant I will begin accelerating at one standard gravity." The AI said, "I'll reactive the artificial gravity before then so you don't come crashing down, but just in case, try not to hurt yourselves."

Catrin gave out a short surprised laugh and let go of the chair with one hand, then she other. She pushed herself away from Tara a little bit, not to accidentally bump into her, and then then she paid full attention to her surroundings, or rather the space around them, so she just nodded when the AI made his announcement. After a minute or so, she turned back to Tara and smiled. “This is actually much better! Thank you. It feels much more natural.”

Tara smiled widely, "I quite enjoy it myself, I've got a similar system in my bedroom; I like to turn it on sometimes and fall asleep under the stars of my homeworld." Tara giggled and started swimming about in midair; her movements fluid and graceful in the zero-g, she then turned ad squinted slightly and pointed to a bright star near the gas giant, "That's the star we're going to head towards, it's home to a small colony of the Earth Empire and the closest Jumpgate."

Catrin smiled back at Tara. “What a lovely idea!” When she started swimming, she watched her fluid movements – she herself hadn't tried to move yet, she was just floating around aimlessly. She contemplated the possibility of trying to do the same and then she shrugged, imagined that she was levitating and just moved herself towards Tara in the same fashion, using magic. Trying to move around without it probably wouldn't end well, especially with the walls and other objects invisible to her right now. Plus she hated feeling clumsy.

When she reached Tara, she looked where Tara was pointing to and smiled. “Quite impressive, to be able to cross that distance in a day or so.”

Tara smiled, "Yes, well, it would be, but it'll take us about a week via conventional FTL, but once we get to the Jumpgate it'll go much quicker; it takes a single standard day to travel via Jumpgate, no matter the distance between two 'gates, this can cut down week- and month-long journeys into mere days."

"Unfortunately, this system lies on the periphery of Senate Space, the Near Frontier, and so it is not linked o the Jumpgate Network." The AI said.

in front of them, the gas giant loomed large, a vast, gaudy bauble suspended in star-scattered black, the AI said, I am preparing for burn and acceleration, re-initiating artificial gravity in three...two...one...mark."

Suddenly there was the sensation of weight again, slight at first but quickly growing as Tara floated don to the floor, she landed with feline grace on her feet on the floor, a slight shudder rippled through the ship as it began accelerating, The AI then said, "Accelerating at one standard gravity and increasing, we should reach a viable jump-point in under thirty minutes."

Catrin nodded. “Oh, OK. Sorry, I misunderstood.”

When the gravity was re-initiated, Catrin was hanging head down, and she landed on her extended hands, steadied herself and then stood up from the handstand. She looked around. “Now where are those chairs?” she asked with a smile.

Tara watched Catrin land and smiled, "That was rather impressive." She said, "You're quite agile aren't you?"

"Apologies about the chairs, deactivating the holoprojectors now." The AI said, an instant later the room shimmered back into existence.

Tara sat down on her chair and reclined back, "Hm, once we get into Senate Space I'm not sure whether to head back into the Star Kingdom or to Cosmopolis to access the Senate Archives... hm, or maybe I could go to the Imperium and have a look through the Imperial Librries."

"A virtual iteration, I hope Mistress." The AI said, "I would thank you to not attempt to land on Xi'Teleath again, or you might cause an international incident."

Tara sighed, "I know, I know, but there's only so much data I can extract from a computer screen."

"Besides, if we plan on beginning your study with ancient Sithrimni funerary practices I doubt there'd be much information in the Imperial Libraries." The AI said.

"You'd be surprised." Tara said, "Sure most of it will be inaccurate propaganda and sitortion, but there are always hidden gems of truth."

"No." The AI said firmly, "I'll sabotage the engines before I let you come within ten lightyears of the Xia'Vex System."

Tara huffed and crossed her arms stubbornly, "I'm not stupid; I won't attempt a landing."

Catrin laughed. “I just don't like falling on my head and I doubt I would have managed to turn back before the gravity kicked in. But in the end, I was quite near the floor, hence the impressive ending.”

When the room reappeared, she had to blink a couple of times to persuade her brain that this really was the new look of the room, and to stop expecting gas giants and stars everywhere. When she succeeded, she went to sit down, and then followed Tara's example and reclined, too. And closed her eyes to listen to the newest instalment of bickering. She smiled on occasion while listening to Tara and the AI.

“Do you always assume every organic person is stupid?” she eventually asked the AI. “Or just some of them, and sometimes?”