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

Catrin smiled. "Of course. It's interesting, how many rituals and traditions your culture has. Perhaps it's the length of your lifespan, among other things, that causes that - such a long life needs to be punctuated by them, otherwise it would feel like going from nowhere to nowhere, forever." She paused to consider something. "Especially for those whose vocations are relatively uninteresting."

Then she smiled. "Any last pieces of advice before we land? I think I managed to read enough about etiquette to avoid being challenged to a duel, and I hopefully I'll manage to be reasonably polite as well." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "I suppose I'd better sell some of my platinum before we go shopping - I should have some money to spend, or it won't as much fun as it should be."

Tara giggled, "Shopping without money kind of defeats the purpose, doesn't it?" She then looked Catrin up and down, as if considering if she was ready to b unleashed on Aerin, "So long as you remember to defer to those who are older than you... or your assumed identity at any rate, and those of a higher social standing, you should be fine."

"We've entered the outer limits of the station's automated systems." Thyr informed them, "I've ceded navigational control to the station's AI, she'll bring us into an open berth."

"Great, I guess that means you can ready the ship to power down, and get all your subroutines in order before you go gallivanting around the planetary 'Net." She said.

"I'll start powering down the ship's systems once we're docked, then I'm going to send a few subroutines around to see if any of my old friends are still knocking about." Thyr said.

Catrin smirked and made a little 'raising the eyebrow' gesture. "Well, I would think freelance prospectors who are enstranged from their parents wouldn't tend to show vast amounts of deference to their elders or betters." Then she grew more serious. "Unfortunately, important subtleties of demeanor often remained unmentioned in etiquette manuals, after all they're ingrained in almost everyone due to their upbringing. Sadly, I've never been one to defer much." She grinned at Tara and listened to the rest of her conversation with Thyr with attention, smiling as he mentioned looking for old friends.

"In that case, the best of luck finding your old commander."

Tara smiled slightly, "Yes, well... please at least make the attempt... I'm only an anthropologist, and I don't exactly have the social or political capital or influence to spend dragging your butt out of every faux pas and insult... just try not to tick off anyone actually important."

At the mntion of his old commander, Thyr said, "I am not hunting for Aelya specifically... but if I should so happen to come across her whilst she is off-duty, I will of course be catching up with her. Alone. Without anyone there to make... inappropriate comments." Even though he hadn't manifested his hologram, you could practically feel the glare he was directing a Tara from his tone alone.

Tara took on a wounded expression, "Now would I do that? I am a thousand years old, an eminent academic, I am far too dignified for such banal and childish pursuits."

"... No.... no you aren't." Thyr replied.

Catrin smiled. "I'll be fine."

She laughed afterwards. "Which is, beyond a shade of doubt, a good thing. Eminent academics tend to make rather lovely inappropriate comments - very educated-sounding and creative. I'm just hoping you'll make some when I'm around to hear them."

Tara laughed at her remark, "Well then, I'll be sure to make use of my many witticisms."

The entire ship shuddered and Thyr said, "The Station's auto-dock systems have caught us in their tractor field. I've deactivated all propulsion systems."

A soft, feminine voice suddenly chimed in over the comm system, "This is Station Y-0983 to the civilian Starsinger class yacht Truth Seeker, you have been placed in docking berth A-72, please deactivate all non-essential systems and prepare to disembark."

"Acknowledged, Station Y-0983, non-essential systems deactivating, thanks for not crashing us." Thyr replied.

"Hm? Heh, haven't heard that one in a while, welcome home flyboy, try not to shoot up my docking berth while you're here." The Station's AI replied.

"Don't worry, this bird's got no claws." Thyr said with a mock-sigh.

"Good thing too, I remember how trigger happy you military-types are." She said with a chuckle.

"Hey, if you've got the big guns, there's no sense in letting 'em sit idle." Thyr replied, "See you around, Station Control. Truth Seeker out."

"Just try and stay out of trouble, flyboy. Station Control out." She responded.

Tara rolled her eyes, "Old friend?"

"Nah, but the AIs stationed on Starports tend to be friendly; they interface with thousands of ships and hundreds of different AIs on a regular basis. Tend to get a bit gossipy though." Thyr chuckled, "Sounds like that one used to see a lot of military traffic."

Catrin gave Tara a friendly smile. Afterwards she listened to the conversation between the Station Control and Thyr carefully. She was pretending to be someone who had gone through many of those, after all. She laughed when it was over. "You don't need big guns to be trigger-happy," she told Thyr. "Anything that can possibly be used as a weapon will do, it seems."

Thyr materialised his hologram, with a grin on his face, "Improvisation was a big pat of my programming, as a general-purpose military AI I might find myself in a position where my weapons were offline, but I still needed to resist the enemy. Having a few bloodthirsty quirks to my program came in handy... like, say, running enemies into debris near light-speed, using my engine backwash to overwhelm the radiation shields of enemy ships... or squishing annoying biologicals with my landing gear." He said this last with a wry smirk, "Given enough processing power, I'm fairly confident I can turn anything into a weapon."

"Anyway, let's get off the ship and into the station. We can catch a shuttle to the surface. Since it's near the festival, I suspect the station will be pretty crowded." Tara said.

Catrin grinned back at Thyr and laughed when he got to the part about biologicals.
"Maybe I can think of some challenging objects later on, when we're out travelling again." She chuckled. She and possibly Tara throwing random object names at Thyr and him trying to figure out how to use them as weapons would be a very weird parlour game.

She nodded. "I'll get my things, then." She had modified her backpack earlier to make it look like something the locals might be carrying around, not wanting to draw attention if it could be avoided. After picking her things up, she would follow Tara outside, shooting a grin back at Thyr before they left the ship. "Wish me luck."

"Wish you luck? I think I'll be wishing the whole planet Aerin luck... the poor fools have no idea what we're unleashing on them!" Thyr was smiling cheekily, "If anyone needs luck around here, it's them!"

"Oh hush, you." Tara said, "Go find your girlfriend on the planetary 'Net, we have exploring and shopping to do! And that's an order!"

Thyr chuckled and his hologram dissolved into nothingness as he turned his attention away from it and to other matters. Meanwhile, Tara exited the ship and came out in the sparse, utilitarian silver-grey docking berth, or rather a medium-sized room right outside it, since the docking berth itself was exposed to hard vacuum. Through a wide window, the smooth silver teardrop-shaped stellar yacht they had spent the last few weeks living in was visible, held fast by the docking camps protruding from the walls of the docking berth.

Tara barely spared the ship a glance as she made her way to the door on the other side of the room, it slid open at her approach and she came out in large promenade; the sights, scents and sounds of hundreds of sapient beings was overwhelming, mostly the felinoid Terelains and the sandy-dun coloured reptilian Isthenir, but individuals from dozens of species were present; the pale, tall and delicate form of a Xin'Ta'Faxi trader, wearing costly clothing of synthsilk and with a haughty, almost arrogant sneer constantly plastered on his face, his large oval black eyes blinking but rarely, behind him a slightly shorter, though still very tall Xin'Ta'Faxi was following, and behind him were floating a bunch of cases, held in the servant's telekinetic grip, elsewhere a small group of Human tourists were forcing their way through the crowds, snapping holo-pictures and chattering excitedly amongst themselves. A vaguely bemused-looking Terelain wearing silver jewellery and loose clothes of a strange shimmering material manoeuvred around them, looking very much like an adult watching the amusing antics of young children.

Whilst bipedal, humanoid lifeforms were predominant amongst the crowds, here and there tanks holding the aquatic Vurshan could be seen, the cylindrical vaguely jelly-fish like creatures floating in their mobile aquariums, paying little heed to the air-breathing land-creatures around them, and other, even stranger conveyances held even more exotic forms of life.

Tara paused for a moment at the entrance to the promenade, her ears flattening reflexively as she had grown unaccustomed to the bustle and noise of the starport after thirteen years away on a primitive planet. Her hesitation was brief, however, and she quickly recovered, "Wow, this place is pretty busy... then again, it is near the festival, and Aerin is the nexus for most of our trade routes." She eyed the crowds for a moment and then said, "We can do a little shopping here on the promenade, or we could just grab a shuttle and shop in the markets on the surface, oh and there's usually a bunch of bars and casinos and things on stations like this too. The starports handle most of the civilian traffic to and from the planet, so there's always a lot of travellers, merchants and tourists passing through. You can get almost anything, or any form of entertainment if you know where to look and have the coin to spend." She giggled, "My dad always told me to stay out of the rec facilities of starports, but then he's a military man, so I guess he's seen his fair share of seedy dives... not that he'd ever let mum find out, unless he wants to sleep on the floor for the next few decades."

Catrin thought about it. "Actually, that's a good point." Then she grinned and followed Tara into the docking berth. She was perceptive, but didn't stare, simply noticing all the various life forms present. The sheer number of them together with the noise was slightly annoying. She listened to Tara's explanation, smiled and nodded. At the mention of casinos she grew thoughtful, then she shook her head. "I need to sell what I have before doing any shopping, or playing," she said, refraining from saying what she had among so many people. "But if you want to look around or buy something, I'll be happy to come along."

She laughed. "Oh dear. On the floor? That is rather harsh. One could only hope the seedy dives were worth it."