Preparing to head out into space again has been busy. Now that there's some idea of what to expect, better preparations can be made, and those require a lot of traveling around it seems. First and foremost are the disguises: making the Karnors look like independent operators instead of military equipped personnel, even if the equipment is technically 'ancient'. This is done by aging and applying a lot of patches and unnecessary extra armor to the available suits, removing all insignia and changing out the communications systems with something shorter-ranged and with different encryption.
Melchior is also given a new suit. The polished black and gold skin is covered with thin layers of scavenged hull plate and other metals, and 'manual' thruster packs strapped to his forearms, with graspable control handles. There's unfortunately no way to test them in an atmosphere though, but Fred does provide some simulation software Tasha can play with.
Tasha herself looks a bit reminiscent of her original Titanian armor, but in this case it's made to more closely match Gabriel and Eli's equipment. The left hand is more of an armored mitten to hide the number of fingers, while also providing a control pad for the wing-concealing backpack, which has working maneuvering jets now (but a rather limited fuel supply). The pack is split into two halves to leave Tasha's back room to fit into Melchior's pilot couch. There's also a fake prosthetic half-mask to cover the feathered side of Tasha's face. It doesn't do anything, however, but the eyepiece uses a hologram to hide her actual eye without impairing her vision.
Part of Melchior's makeover includes a strap-on two-seat passenger pod for his chest. Fred assures it will work 'safely' during atmospheric flight - which is critical, since that's how they plan to get to the Gateway airfield, with a brief stop at Harmonia midway to recharge and pick up some compact, high-capacity batteries for the Titan that shouldn't raise any eyebrows when they need to be recharged.
"You Titanized your Titan!" Blammo declares once the group lands next to the Dainty Mauler. "It come with mine, yeah?"
"Yah," goes the equally Titanized Tasha, who glances back at her giant machine seconds after disembarking to the ground. She shoulders her halitool next, then turns back around. "Can't let Galactics know what he is, so hide it. First time we have our Titans working together! Oh:" Remembering she's here for more than just Titan-talk, she then gestures back to the passenger-pod and the two Karnor awkwardly departing it via rope ladder. "You remember Gabriel and Eli, don't you Blammo? I want them to come with me, but I'll need to ask the Captain."
"Ah yeah, you harem," Blammo nods. "Wait here!" He then head into the ship to find Rushfighter. In the meantime, Gabriel and Eli join Tasha, and one of the many cargo cranes begins to swing around above them.
"Did we all remember our toothbrushes?" Gabriel asks.
"How long was your previous flight, in subjective time?" Eli asks Tasha.
Tasha grins at the two men for the 'harem' comment, then looks up to follow the crane. "I still hate that thing," she remarks, having used sticks of wood, chewy bits and other Sinaian tooth-care options most of her life. "Not very Titanian though!" She lowers her gaze and turns to Eli, answering, "It took us roughly two days to reach Encanate, but whether that's how it always is or because the 'Mauler was fishing I don't know."
"I'll have to try and figure out if there is any correlation between travel time and distance," Eli notes.
Rushfighter arrives, with Grillfang and Blammo in tow. He looks up at Melchior, having never seen it before now. "You pack big this time. Hokay, you takes care of Yam God, so we bring you to Junkyard, yeah?"
"I really don't know," the young woman admits, and she scratches her nose for the thrid time this trip. "They used two types of FTL travel that I know of, and one trip was shorter, but I think there was a downside to i-" She lets her explaination fade as Rishfighter approaches, turning to smile at him. "Hi, Rush. That's right, we need to get some things in Galactic space and I'll need company if I'm going to get the Dark Horse working. You don't mind if I bring a bit more this time, do you?"
"It bunk it with Blammo's beast," the captain says. The crane is already descending and the tip splitting into grasping 'fingers' to pick up Melchior. "Junkyard run take some time. Decent fishing on way. You all take one bunk?"
"That fine- er, that's fine. We don't want to take up any more of your space than we have." Tasha then thumbs back towards her comrades. "Do you need them to stay in their cabin, or can they walk around and see what Titanians do? Maybe should meet Old Ma? I also have some interetsing information about the invasion the Khattans tried here, and a lead on the same House -- it's Khomen by the way."
"Kitties are sneaky, need to be chased up trees ev'ry now and then," the Titanian captain says. "They help fish.. Old Ma see who she want. If she want, they see. Stay out from underfoot though. Don' like smart guys wand'ring around."
"Hokay. They misbehave, you tell me -- I take care of them!" The young woman winks, then turns back and waggles towards the ship. "Time to head in! We find our cabin and unpack, then we can rest and get ready to help fish later. Going to be a longer trip this time, so, at least two days."
It was seven days. Parts of the Star Sea they passed through were rough as well. Eli spent nearly all of his time on deck observing the infinite tube of water, while Gabriel treated it all as more of a vacation. He had a ball fishing with Tasha and the Titanians, and was very relaxed about it all. He didn't mind Eli spending his time as he did, since that left him and Tasha plenty of private time in the cabin together.
Curled up with Gabriel on their fur-covered bed, Tasha is reading through her previous mission notes along with her mate. She's been extra-cuddily; After all, she only gets to see Gabriel between her missions, rarely on them, and her last adventure put her in a place to really need some comfort and closeness.
They're just about done when Tasha looks up. This comes with a kiss, then a comment. "This is fun, isn't it? I almost wish we'd chosen to do this, but it's not very charitable. The Star Sea is beautiful, though, don't you think? Relaxing."
"I always liked being on the water," Gabriel says, nosing Tasha's neck. "And the sails.. well, they aren't traditional sails, and this ship is as big as a battleship, but still." He lets out a happy sigh. "It's refreshing. No decisions to make, just do what someone asks when you feel like helping out. Practically a pleasure cruise."
"You see why I liked it so much, then!" Tasha puts her datapad aside, then rolls over on her back so Gabriel doesn't have to lean as far, and because she knows that deep down he likes when she does that too. "If things don't work out, why don't we do something like this instead? We can still explore, and we'll help where we can, but we'll keep to ourselves more, too. What do you think?"
"A traveling retirement?" Gabriel asks. "That could be fun," he admits, and starts to really nuzzle Tasha.. when the sounds of the ship change subtly. Tasha is familiar enough to know that the Mauler is beginning its transformation from sailing vessel to starcruiser again, along with a building hum that means the Maelstrom Drive is powering up. They're about to leave the Star Sea for normal space.
Just about to let her mate continue, Tasha bites her lip when she feels teh ship begin to change. "We're almost out of the Star Sea," she notes, sounding a bit mixed. On one hand her ship awaits, on the other hand, Gabriel is definitely not waiting. She lays her ears back, thinking, then grins that old familiar mischivious grin. "Better be quick."
"I always wondered what it would be like to make love during a dimensional transition," Gabriel admits with a grin.. and tries to be quick. It certainly is memorable due to the distorting effects of traveling through the maelstrom. The entry into normal space comes with a bump that is at least well-timed.
Various klaxons and sirens announce the change as well.
A good few minutes later, Tasha is looking happier and a lot messier. "Mmm," she goes, cuddling up to Gabriel all over again now that everything has settled down -- except Gabriel. "Why do I run off on adventures? This is much better." She pauses, then grins, ears canting. "I'm glad Titanians have a weak sense of smell. Poor Eli."
"He seems to be enjoying himself, in his own way," Gabriel notes. "We should probably get dressed and see what's going on.."
"Hokay ... Just have to um, get unstuck." She grins and shrugs, leaning back and reeaching for her clothes so she can at least put them in a pile for later.
It's a good several more minutes before she can get going, and even more to clean up and get ready. Luckily for Tasha, Titanians aren't high on fashion -- or hair combing -- and so she can cut some corners to hurry. By the time they're both ready, it's later than they'd have liked. Finally, though, they make their way out.
Tasha knows the way to the observation deck. Bumper is there, with Eli next to her, and the shields are open to let in the light of a lot of stars. The sky is denser than Tasha has ever seen! "We're near the galactic core," Gabriel notes when he sees it too. "Nobody's been this far in before.. in my time."
"I'd only heard about the core. That it's old, and there's a much higher density of stars and other celestial objects," Tasha notes, voice tinged in awonder as she walks up to the edge of the observation dome. "It's so bright. I could spend a life time counting the stars!"
In the distance ahead, there's a dark line splitting the sky. It grows thicker by the moment, like a wall in space.
Tasha squints. It's hard for her to focus, what with all the shiny objects filling the sky. She's never seen so many stars! And for a moment, she wonders how long it would take, if she decided to visit them all ...
After a moment of overwhelming realization, she blinks, then catches the line as her focus is momentarily shifted. "What's that?" She asks, pointing at the stretch of, well, something.
The tactical display is finally up and running, the hologram showing the marker for the Mauler approaching.. a wall. From the numbers being displayed, it appears to be about one million miles high and a thousand miles thick. The course line shifts, so that the Mauler will be going under it at an angle.
"It's enormous ... " Tasha breathes, glancing back at the display. She watches it for a moment, then turns and walks over to examine it closer. "What is it?"
"Ring," Bumper says. "Think Pak make it, dunno for sure. Can't scan through it, opaque to everything."
"Like the Torus? An old space station of some kind? The Pak?" Tasha asks in excited, leaned-in, rapidfire questions. "You use it to hide your graveyard on the galactic plane?"
"Yeah, good for hiding stuff," Bumper says. As the Mauler angles below the ecliptic, there's a flash of light along the bottom edge of the wall. A star, peeking beyond the edge. From this distance it looks the same size as Primus does from Sinai. "We gots to do go under, then up at steep angle," Bumper explains. "Can't have course that intersects inner surface at any time. That be bad."
Tasha has to shield her eyes, but when she can finally peak out again, her brows go up. "In orbit, then. Close to a star, the ... the 'livable belt'." She gives Eli an apologetic smile, and a shrug, then turns back to Bumper and asks, "Bad beyond running in to a solid object with this much mass and speed? Because of the materials?"
"Meteor defense still works," Bumper says. As they drop lower, more detail becomes visible. Since the Ring is the same width as the star it's visible on the other side as well - a band of red, with shadowed areas between the lit ones, millions of miles across.
Eli mutters to himself for a bit. "3 million," he finally says. "3 million times the surface area of Terra."
"How can anything be so big ..?" Tasha has seen the like of it before, if not in this way: Impossibly large objects created in ages past, of unknowable construction, by ancient species. Even so, the awe has never diminished -- not even for an instant. Their presence slips from her mind after a time, to big to contain, too incredible to over becomes used to; The incredulousness returns anew for every sight of them.
The cadet's stunned silence last minutes as she tries to wrap her head around what she's seeing. In time she manages, "Is this real, Gabriel..?"
"I'm not sure," the Karnor says, looking up through the dome. The thousand-mile-high rim wall passes, revealing the near surface. A dry shallow ocean passes overhead, filled with islands that must be as big as entire worlds. "That's Terra," Gabriel says, pointing to an island. "Polar projection map.. probably 1-to-1 scale. Our whole world, redone as an island. I can see Zion too.. Probably all of the inhabited worlds of known space are there."
"Walls to keep the atmosphere in," Eli notes. "Rotational speed.. about 770 miles per second?" he asks Bumper, who just shrugs.
"How can that be ..?" Tasha looks up, but she has a hard time believing what she sees. "This must be the work of an entire species, over who knows how long! The great project of an old, space fairing people ... Their pride ... It has to be ... "
"Lifeboat," Bumper says. "That our guess. Life boat for entire galaxy.. at least, those that breath same air. Never finished though. Dead, all desert. Material is impossible. Metal, but with tensile strength similar to strong nuclear force." Another ring is visible, closer in to the star. It's made of giant rectangles, spaced evenly apart to provide the day-night cycle.
"For what though? To need this ... " Tasha's head shakes. It had never occured to her that there could be more than one galaxy-spanning threat! For all she knows, there could be several, hundreds ... Millions. "I-I need to sit down." She reaches over, then lowers herself in to an unoccupied control console chair. After a moment, she asks, "There wasn't just the Sifras, was there, Bumper? To need this ..?"
"Call the builders Pak, think they come from deeper in core, maybe," Bumper notes. "Didn't leave any gods behind. Just the defense system. Keep anyone that not know the trick from ever reaching surface. Scary." She looks to Tasha and says, "Universe itself a threat. This thing block all radiation, even neutrinos and tachyons. Supernova, gamma bursts.. it block all of it. Survival Bunker. Whatever they afraid of.. well, look like it get them before they finish."
"It can't be more than a few million years old," Eli says. "The continents of the Map of Terra look fairly accurate. If it were really ancient, they'd be in different shapes and positions."
"So another First Ones civilization," Gabriel says.
Tasha shivers. The explaination makes her feel very small, and even more vulnerable. She had difficulty with one man, she nearly died to threats so much smaller. To think how much larger the danger can be ... She's glad she's already sitting down.
"They were probably annhilated by the Sifras," the cadet notes, looking up at the inner ring and frowning sadly. "They might have been trying to prevent something else, only for the Sifras to get them from out of nowhere. The Primus System is far, far away."
"Junkyard at libration point along inner ring of shadow squares," Bumper notes. We get there by skipping.. little jumps. Can't go fast or we get shot down. Nothing withstand the defense system. Use star as weapon. Solar flare, magnetic constriction.. make it giant gas-plasma laser. Nothing survive that."
The young woman runs a hand through her hair; She never thought she'd be in danger of being shot at by a star. The very idea ... It all seems impossible to her, but there it is, right there infront of her. "H-hokay," is all she can manages as she turns her chair towards the inner ring and watches, waits.
There are klaxons and hammerings, and the view skips as the Mauler dips briefly in and out of the Maelstrom, jumping a million miles at a time. The inner ring gets closer and closer, until one of the 'shadow squares' takes up half the sky. There are tiny things near the edge, which get larger and larger. During one skip, they pass by a cable.. one of many that must connect the squares into a ring. It must be twenty miles thick. The Junkyard gets closer, and some of the objects in it look as big as moons themselves.
To stunned to move, to awe-struck to look anywhere else, Tasha continues to watch in uncharacteristic silence until they draw close to the inner ring. Once she sees the smaller -- relatively speaking! -- objects, she realizes their destination is close.
And so is her ship.
The cadet rises. She walks over to join Eli at the edge of the dome, wanting to see her ship with her own eyes rather than rely on scanners, to be there at the front as they arrive.
The skipping has finished, and the Mauler cruises through normal space now. It comes close to one of the giant, moon-sized spherical ships, and crosses into its shadow. There are more vessels here, orbiting the behemoth, of various shapes and sizes. As the Mauler slows, it's navigation lights come on to illuminate something relatively small - no larger than the Fenris, and dwarfed by the Titanian ship. It looks somewhat aggressive, with a long back and lowered head. A sharp dorsal fin rises from the back, and a smaller ventral one angles down from the nose. There's also a feminine look to the vessel. While the back is mostly smooth, with a few protuberances, the bottom is curved, with features suggesting a 'face', breasts and a belly, almost. It's dark with a greenish tint, and while the surface seems to be broken into plates, it isn't clear if it really is made of separate pieces or just an engraved whole. It seems quite lifeless though, showing no lights or other signs of power.
As Tasha watches the vesels come and go, she can feel her heart rise and sink along with them. She had no expectation of a behemoth, but for the others, there was no way for her to know until the ship stopped moving. It's a rollercoater, a pull-and-push of the soul, to the point she nearly can't stand it. She waited her whole life for this moment.
So close.
As time passes, she thinks they might never arrive -- that maybe it's all a big Titanian joke at her expense. She struggles, trying not to get her hopes up as ships pass, trying to see past them to the nebulous 'end.' When it comes, she almost misses it for lack of wanting to get too attached. Almost.
Leaning in, the young woman pushes her nose to the glass-like canopy, trying to get as close as she can to the strange, small, green ship infront of her. When she realizes the Dainty Mauler is not going to move again, when she hears the sound of preperations being made, her heart skips a beat. She burns the ship in to her mind, and she can feel her heart reaching out. Her nails scrape along the canopy.
"Hi there," she whispers, low enough only Gabriel and Eli can hear. "It's me. We'll be together soon ... Just a little longer ... "
"Suit up," Bumper says. "No docking tube for this, we walk."
The young woman pushes off the glass, spinning and heading off. She doesn't need a moment, or encouragement to get going. She walks with purpose and speed, not even waiting. After a while, she breaks in to a run.
The passage over to the alien ship was brief. Bumper and Gabriel had no problems, and Eli very little. Tasha had to use her attitude jets a few times, but it was her first spacewalk. Making contact with the hull was odd.. it seemed to just absorb the impact, instead of giving resistance. The magnetic boots worked just fine on it as well, despite the exotic 'hammer' metal. They landed near a stator-like structure on the middle back, and Bumper waves to indicate they should follow her as she made her way towards the edge.
Tasha is slow to follow, as she stops to turn in place, taking it all in. A part of her can't believe she's really here; Here, standing on her ship! And what a ship it is!
A long time ago, the only Karnor-Vartan hybrid in the universe gazed up at the stars in awe, and dreamed. Today, here and now, the dream has come true. At last!
Realizing she's being left behind the hybrid hunches down to run a hand along the ships hull before she stands again, hurrying after the others.
Bumper steps over the edge.. only to apparently swing down and step onto the underside of the ship. Gabriel stays back to help Tasha with the transition, just in case.
She needs help. Having only been on the surface of Bellerophon, and then only as a simulation, Tasha's space-walking experience is almost nil. To add to the complication, her armor is as much disguise as space-suit, even if it is fully functional it's not built for absolute efficency.
As her mate helps her make the shift, he gets close enough to see her face behind the visor. He's been with her long enough to notice the tightness in her face, the too-glossy shimmer in her eyes. She blinks it back as they make their way over.
The down becomes up again, as the stand on the underside of the Dark Horse. Bumper leads them further back along the edge towards the widest point. She stops next to a surface that doesn't seem to match the rest of the hull. The patch is ornately engraved and lighter in color, and seems at odds with the curved lines of the hull plates. Bumper moves to the side closest to the centerline of the ship and turns to face the edge. Then steps forward.. her foot sinking through the panel and her body arcing as if she's stepping over the edge again, until she passes face first through the surface and vanishes.
Eli kneels down and presses his hand forward from the side of the panel, and meets a solid surface. It isn't until he moves to the inner side and imitates Bumper that he's able to pass through.
Tasha's eyes widen at the display. She's familiar with airlocks, of course, but this is her first experience with what appears to be a semi-solid material airlock. The carving, too, intrigues her; What does it mean? Who wrote it, in what language? Is it a language? Did the ship have a crew? What were they like? In a sea of mysteries, Tasha has no answers -- but at least she knows this mystery is her's.
She hurries along, racing to be next and giving Gabriel an apologetic smile. She knows he'll understand if she goes next. He's that kind of man.
Gabriel follows and stays close, but does give Tasha an 'after you' gesture when they get into the proper position.
Like Eli, she touches the strange doorway to get a sense of it. Then she steps forward and moves to the side of the centerline, turns, and steps forward.
It's like stepping over the edge of the ship, except she can feel the odd material as she passes through it. It even comes through her faceplate! But then she's standing in a large chamber, with Eli and Bumper waiting. The walls and floor are the same multi-toned green as the hull, except instead of plates it appears to be textured in random, bulging forms. It looks most like the surface of a brain, if anything. The 'inner door' of the supposed airlock is either open or nonexistent.
Tasha stops to wait for Gabriel, and to look around. Now that she's inside, she's in no hurry -- after all she's exactly where she wants to be. The young woman could spend all day just examinine the area around her.
After Gabriel joins them, she turns to him and points at the strange brain-like material. "It reminds me of the architecture of the ship of the Niss," she broadcasts, having started up her com. "I think it's to gain surface area?"
"A good possibility," Gabriel agrees. The only light comes from their own lamps now, and the suit sensors still register zero pressure, but a slightly higher temperature than the space outside. Still too cold for any organic life however. Bumper stands at the inner edge of the room, which is a large open circle, and gestures for the others to join her.
When Tasha notices the expectant Bumper, she rises from running a hand along the surface of the interior to join her. "Was the ship like this when you found it, Bumper? Empty? Where did you find it?" She asks as they continue along.
"Yes, empty," Bumper says. "Found it here. Junkyard exist before Titanians come here. We just add to it." She gestures through the opening. The suit lamps show the opposite wall and 'airlock' along with the inner hull, which also varies between geometric plating and brain-wrinkles. There are odd shapes at various places on the hull, which may or may not correspond to any outer features. To their right, the space becomes more open as the ship widens, and there are crystalline reflections from something lower in the belly.
The cadet stops to look both ways, taking it all in. She thinks that they must have arrived at some sort of central corridor. Compared to the Fenris, which had correspondingly little interior space, this she feels much roomier. She knows Terran vessels use a lot of reliable technology, which often means it's older, bulkier, and much more easily understood at a glance. To Tasha, this ship is alien even beyond knowing its origins; It uses a wholly different design philosophy, and she's sure that's just the beginning.
"Aft, then?" She guesses, assuming Bumper is taking her to where she can awaken the ship. And while the ship is peculiar, even ominous, she knows many ships favor having their power generation and engines to the aft, or 'down,' depending on the design. That there are crystals that way only adds to the alure.
Bumper leads the way, walking down the odd surface, and mostly keeping to the relatively flat plated areas. It isn't a long trek, and soon they find themselves in the 'belly' section, forward of the what looked like engine pods (and which are large brain-bulges here) and the widest point, the 'wingtips' of the ship. There's a spherical structure here, about ten feet across. It's mostly crystal, and glowing a soft white, but covered in patches of paneling. There are crystal spars stretching out from it, connecting to the wingtips and the engine bulges and into the hull itself, but those are dark.
"This must be the power core?" Ventures Tasha, who has never seen anything like it and could only make the guess by virtue of the assemblies location and connection to the drives. She steps forward, lifting her gaze to peer in to that soft light, so filled with promise yet unawakened. She has no idea how it works, or if it works, only the gut feeling she may have reached the end of the line -- the end of one adventure and the start of another. A turning point. A moment of truth.
The light.. is deep. Deeper than the sphere can possibly hold. And at the center is something dark, amorphous and wispy, like a ball of smoke.
Tasha leans in, at first wondring how the sphere can be so deep, then realizing she may already know the answer: A area of stretched space, possibly even extra-dimensional or extra-universal in nature. Dark Time. Dark Space.
The crystal shell, at least, is solid, since Tasha's faceplate doesn't go past it. The contact does stir the smoke though. A tendril extends, seemingly blown about by some random current that still brings it towards Tasha.
Tasha can feel it, like a ritual. Like a dance. The next step she's supposed to take, it seems natural in such an unnatural place. A part of her urges caution, but the light calls to her like a candle's flame. The ship is reaching out to her, and so she reaches back -- each eager to meet the other. The movement passes in a haze as she lifts her hand, stretching her right arm out and extending her pointer finger towards the sphere of light and the creature that waits within.
Contact. "Don't be afraid," Eyeshine tells the girl. "Hold you hand out, fingers spread and palm flat.." Tasha does it, still trembling a little. The leathery beak presses against her palm. Nostrils flare, and she can feel her fur sucked towards, then blown back. The beast's breath smells like carrion. But through the skin, Tasha can feel something. Thump, thump, thump. The heartbeat is strong. She's never felt anything like it. The ptera is the biggest, most powerful thing she's ever touched. But it's just an animal. "It likes you," Eyeshine says. "You be a drover someday, yeah?" And then the memory fades. More tendrils are reaching out, touching other parts of the sphere. The crystal shafts fill with light. There is no heartbeat, no vibration or sound. The Dark Horse wakes up, slips into its harness, and the ship wakes up with it. Green and pale blue light flow along the gaps in the panels, through the strange structures on the walls and in the crevices of the brain-bulges.
Tasha leaves her hand there, her eyes wide at first, but slowly her muzzle splits in to a grin, then a smile that spreads across her face as she feels the ship stir to life. A warm feeling, like she'd made a friend. Just like the pteras, from what seems like a long, long time ago.
She spreads her hand now, running it along the orb and stepping closer. "Shh," she whispers. "That's right, easy now. Its been a long time. But you're not alone anymore. I'm here."
Whatever the response is, it is both alien and familiar. Not articulate, the Horse. "There's activity towards the front," Eli reports.
But Tasha nods none-the-less. She understands. She strokes the sphere of light for a few more seconds, then lets her hand slide free and turns to the others. "The Dark Horse is awake. We should move to the fore and see if there are any working command consoles."
It odd walking forward through the ship. Now that there's light, it looks even stranger. Even the light is strange, since it's not really coming from the glowing elements, but seems without source and ambient, like a slightly-green mist. Once past the neck, they can see clearly into the what would be the command section on the Fenris. The spherical space is filled with glowing symbols, mostly moving in nested rings. Some are connected by glowing lines, and in the center of them is something like a tactical display. It seems to be projected from a circular console on the floor, that is split into eight sections.
Tasha slows her pace as they enter the command section, lifting her head to see what's in store for them. Her gaze is filled with symbols overwhelming, but after a moment of peering through sea of them she spots the tactical display, and approaches that as the one thing she recognizes. "Do any of you know what language this is?" She asks as she stares at the projection. "I think this is a tactical map of surrounding space."
"No idea," Eli says. "If Bumper is right, this language is long, long dead."
"Don't know it," Bumper confirms.
"Maybe I can still learn it, somehow." Craning her neck up, she thinks for a moment, then has an idea. "Dark Horse? Can you hear me?" This she repeats in every language she knows, including repeating the same in her mind.
There isn't any response. The Horse itself lacks intelligence, after all.. and there's no indication that the ship has any. Even the control console is alien. Each section is a panel of even denser cortex-pattern, with odd shapes protruding that also seem to change slightly. Arcs of blue plasma dance between them. The panels are much closer to the floor than comfortable - the builders were either shorter than Karnors or had a different body style altogether.
"We need help with this," Eli says. "Serious help."
"Well, we can elimate thought control," Tasha notes, lowering her head. With so many questions and very few answers, the cadet decides there'll be a lot of trial-and-error in her future -- a burden she is more than willing to take on. Alien though it may be, this place is now her home. "Well, there's just us for the time being. Who would we ask? Should we split up and see if we can figure anything out?"
"What about your friends, the Niss?" Eli asks. "They're a collective quantum computer aren't they?"
"Oh! The Niss!" Tasha turns to Eli, grinning. "The Niss are at least First Ones, if not Old Ones. They might even know what species created this ship and remember their language. That's if they'll help, of course. I'm sure Kem will be glad when I return to recover them, too."
"Bumper, can you tow this ship to Outpost Caltrop?" Gabriel asks their Titanian escort.
"If it no struggle, yah, can do that," Bumper confirms.
"I'll, um ... I guess I'll be in here to watch the ship along the way. I'm as close as we have to someone who can work with it, however limited. I can transfer back now and then for food and oxygen refills," suggests the new ship owner.
"Better hope it waterproof," Bumper adds, and her grin is implied. "I bet it all lit up outside. Good fishing lure.."
"Don't get my ship eaten! I just got it!" Tasha insists, waggling a finger towards the larger woman. The finger then falls, she hesitates, then she steps forward and suddenly gives the big woman a hug, armored suit and all. "Thank you, Bumper!"