There's a lot of cleanup work to do. The satellite has to be placed closer to the center of the libration point, since all of the debris is moving outwards from there after the machine-ship vanished. Bellerophon also moves into the zone now that its safe, and conducts active scanning. Several of the alien cables are recovered for use in towing their meteor candidate, and some of the 'tissue' from the alien Tasha shot is collected for study. Both Celeste and Digger-of-Ancients are kept busy with the artifacts collected in the cargo bay, while Gabriel pilots the shuttle to keep up the charade that Yue doesn't exist.
Since she was outside the shuttle and exposed to whatever active radiation the aliens used for scanning, Tasha is given a check-up by Dr. Caravelli. The brown and gray wolf also seals the med bay door for privacy. "There aren't any signs of ionizing radiation damage," he tells her as she lay on the reclining medical bed. "Your other readings though betray your mood." He sits down on the stool next to the bed, and goes from 'doctor mode' to 'counselor mode' by asking, "Want to talk about it?"
"What's to talk about?" Tasha asks, her gaze on the ceiling but focused somewhere beyond. "I said I'd fix things. And, I did." It all feels so matter of fact when she says it, so clean-cut, and yet simultaneously it all feels terribly dirty to the young cadet. Simple. Unclean. The radiation may not have tainted her, but she can feel another kind of poison in her system. The kind that can't be healed with medicine, the kind she felt when Balthasar died, when she murdered Blackwings. It's stronger this time. After all, how often does a person commit genocide?
End a people?
To Tasha, it feels like it should hurt more. She cried back on the shuttle, outside it, but she'd cried worse for lesser reasons. It's sad, she accepts that. She also accepts that it probably needed to be done, although the uncertainty in the details still gbaws on her like a festering wound. At the very least she's certain that she made an effort. That she tried, if not perfectly. The Bellerophon was in danger, too, and she knows she favored its safety. It all makes sense.
And yet it still hurts in a way she can't fathom let alone put words for. So she doens't.
"Can I go now?" Asks the young woman belatedly, with the hint of an edge.
"But did you break something within you?" Remiel asks. "It's one thing to accept that the universe is unfair, another to bury our resentment of that fact. And also to deal with the fact that not everyone is capable of change, even in the face of death. Isn't that how Blackwings was? Unwilling to compromise even to save herself?"
"She wanted to compromise, she just wanted me to make the compromise," the cadet mutters, head shaking before she lifts her hands and tucks them under her head. She continues to watch the ceiling, never meeting Remiel's eyes. "And Warloq. He was a bit like her. I think he taught her, or, influenced her. Maybe drugs? I don't know, they never told me. He wanted to compromise too. Let me go, I'll vanish. Join me, we'll escape together. No and no. Just like Blackwings. I knew what they'd do so I ended them. Like Balthsar. Better for me to do it than leave it for someone else ... "
Finally the young woman looks over. Her eyes are hard, so unlike the eyes her doctor knows. " ... Right?"
Remiel's eyes certainly don't hold any judgment in them. "They were hard decisions, and you made them. What makes them hard is how you have to deal with them afterwards. But at the same time, you were forced to decide by the situation, and their actions. If you had stayed behind and let the Knights Templar deal with Blackwings, how would you have felt?"
"Like a coward." Tasha returns her gaze to the ceiling, not wanting to continue eye contact. It's isn't that she's afraid of judgement, she knows Remiel too well to expect it, it's that she doesn't want to level her gaze at him. Angry and full of frusteration, she doesn't want to make him the target of that. Her friend. She isn't sure she can hold back right now, if pushed too far. "I killed her because I knew she'd just keep doing what she was doing. I loved her, see? I can admit it. I still do, even though I hate her. I did the world a favor in killing her. But you know," her head shakes again, "a part of me wondered, why am I doing the world a favor? What do these Savanites matter to me, they're not Blackwings. They're not someone I know. Or even met. Why am I helping them? And then I met Warloq, and he seemed like he knew how I felt, knew it all. Knew how broken the universe can be, and he almost made sense. Gods ... " she pulls in a breath, then bites her lip a moment. At length she
admits, "I almost agreed with him."
"This is why you're the one who makes these choices, Tasha," Remiel says. "I know that you don't always feel like you're contributing - you don't have special expertise or years of training like the others. But the thing about training and discipline is that it doesn't really help when you have to think about a choice. It's all designed to bypass thinking. A soldier doesn't have time to think. So every likely situation is tested and drilled until thinking isn't necessary. We're trained to analyze things. But you need to decide with your heart sometimes. You're good at that. Better than Nora was."
Tasha snorts a laugh, head leaning back as she rolls her gaze back across the ceiling and down the wall. Her shoulders roll, and her head shakes. "So," she begins as she slumps back in the bed, looking over agaon. "That's what I'm good at? I'd been wondering why I'm even here, because why did the JEF really need me anymore? I'm not trained for this and most of the time I'm running in to danger just so I can prove I'm useful for something. Because if I stop, what's left for me? What else would I miss? Everyone would leave me behind. I'd be back on the docks -- nobody." Her brow arches. "But that's it? My brain isn't much use, so it's my heart?"
"It's what drives you. We're all in the same situation, even you don't really see it yet. Our mission.. failed. Not the goals of the Expedition as a whole, mind you, just our small part. Nora felt that the most I think. It's why she insisted on being the last one into stasis, and recovering Fred's remains. Logically, she should have just gone in with us. And when we woke up.. we had to deal first with the ones who didn't. Gabriel almost didn't make it through that. The captain is supposed to go down with the ship and all.. he let Nora have her way because he knew she needed it, but it nearly killed him when we woke up. You kept him alive. You're his drive now. It would be easy for us to just give up."
As Remiel talks, he can see the change in Tasha. At first her expresion hardens as she prepares for another lecture or another comparison to other people, and in time, her angry rebuttle whether or not it makes sense. Anger for anger's sake, but it isn't what she expects. As the sad tale of history goes on her face softens and her shoulders begin to relax, until she simply looks tired rather than defiant. A young woman who has been through much and is resting, rather than one who is trying to stare down the world.
She doesn't say anything, not for a long moment. After biting her lip a moment more, she speaks. "I don't know why I never thought of it that way," she admits, turning to face the man again. The fire in her eyes is gone; she looks closer to the Tasha Remiel knows, if overwhelmed if the shadow behind her eyes is any indication. "I know Gabriel needs me. It's hard for me to accept it, but I know. That's why I brought Katie in to things, in case I don't make it. So they're not alone. And you and Eli, I remember how sad you were. Like the whole world abandoned you. I was happy, when you found Fudgy." She smiles, worn and pained, but it's a smile. "Maybe I'm the only one who thinks I'm useless. I guess it's a hard habit to break? This, all of this," she waves her taloned hand vaguely, indicating the ship and everything beyond, " ... is still hard to accept. Sometimes I feel like I'm not here, or, can't be here. It's hard to explain."
"I get that too," Remiel confides, and pats Tasha's hand. "As for why you don't see it.. it's your past. You've probably always felt like you didn't fit, given your hybrid nature. To defend yourself you created a whole persona of tough indifference. I'm sure Blackwings didn't help. That sort needs people to be dependent on them for any bit of attention, good or bad. Now that you've outgrown your old shell, you're more exposed - but it's a necessary step to growth. Like molting. And with nobody around to attack your vulnerabilities like you're used to, you maybe fall back on attacking yourself."
"Well, someone has to, right? Better me than someone else, isn't that it?" Tasha's grins is wry when she rolls back on to the bed. Instead of looking at the ceiling again, she shift, squirms until she's resting on her side, facing the doctor. "I just never imagined ... Genocide, that what it was, wasn't it? An entire people. I know Blackwings killed people -- a lot of people -- but this was ... It is different. These things don't happen on Sinai, the things out here ... what happened ... How am I supposed to deal with it? Yue talked about it like it happens all the time, but to me? A people. A PEOPLE. I killed a people."
"They were already gone," Remiel says. "Instead of living, they chose to stagnate unless they got what they wanted. I know Yue calls them the Spiral Dancers, but back in my day, we looked at the destruction and called them Berserkers. Self-replicating machine life could easily wipe out the organic. It looks like they decided to take that path, and other powers of the age burned them down for it."
"Well, it's good to know that they were that dangerous. We didn't have time to confirm that they'd destroyed the other ships here, that they were what we thought they were. There were too many uncertainties, which made it that much worse. It helps a bit to know they were probably a war waiting to happen; that killing them meant some poor civilization somehwere -- maybe ours -- wouldn't face destruction." Tasha sniffs, then rubs her nose, ears going askew. She thinks for a moment, then after cocking her head to the side she admits, "It's still a lot to deal with. Sometimes I think, I've now killed more people than Blackwings. Maybe than the entire Coalition War! But they needed to die, didn't they? And if not me, then someone else. Like Blackwings, like Balthasar. I'm not sure I'll get over this, but at least I feel justified. That's something, isn't it?"
"Well, you don't have to feel justified," Remiel says. "Just at peace with your action. Any spacefaring civilization is dangerous to others. The machines are just more efficient at it, and because they're of a different order it makes it easier for both sides to exterminate the other. We were just luckily that this batch was too insane to cooperate with each other."
"It's all a mess," Tasha declares. Head shaking one more time, she pushes herself to sitting, hunching over and watching her feet swing for several seconds before asking, "Do you think I could go? I don't know if talking about it is going to make me feel any better, I think I just need to work it out. Besides, Yue and the others might lose faith in me is I stay here too long. 'There goes Tasha, broken and in the Med Bay again.'" She snorts.
"There's a reason I'm a counselor," Remiel notes. "All ships are required to have one. Stress causes accidents, and accidents in space are often fatal. But go rest."
"You couldn't have said, "Everything is fine now?" You had to go with, "Accidents in space are often fatal?"" The red woman eyes Remiel. but then slides off the bed and walks over to pat his shoulder, smiling up at him. "I think by this point I might owe you for saving me. Try to get in trouble some, so I don't feel in debt, okay?" She winks, then she turns towards the door and waves as she walks, feeling like she'd done it a thousand times before.
"Just remember that I'm here if you need me," Remiel says. "Oh, keep an eye on your tablet as well, Gabriel was going to try and contact Dark Horse to test the relay."
"My heart may work but my brain is suspect, so I keep my datapad with me at all times. I envy machines some times," Tasha grins, stopping in the hatchway, "But only the right ones, aye?" The grin becomes a smile. "I've been trying to be stronger, but I will. We'll probably be talking more after this mission is done. Gods," her head rolls, "there's still more to come, isn't there? And more after that. When you're done putting me back together, I'm sure we'll have lots to talk about!" Another wave. "Have fun with the new recruits!"
And then she's off again, back to the bridge.
On the bridge, the only one in attendance is Nora, since Fred is also helping in the cargo bay with debris identification and analysis. The Karnor ghost-woman has multiple views projected in the dome, showing orbits of the major pieces of junk, the view from the shuttle cameras, and also a window into the cargo bay, where everyone is fully suited up despite the doors being sealed. It's Tasha's first look at a Silent-Ones spacesuit.. which has sculpted muscles and a golden material for the armor.
"Hi," Tasha greets her sister, trying to sound nonchalant in the hopes it will deflect all or at least most of the concern and questions she expects. "How's the analyis coming?"
"They just babble over one another, mostly," Nora says, waving to the seat next to her. "I turned off the audio feed. There's some alien stuff, which we decided is alien because we can't identify it. Might be able to use isotope analysis to close in on a star system of origin, but with Galactics that doesn't mean much."
Tasha drops herself in to the offered seat, putting her feet up now that no one else is there except Nora. "Babble, huh? Well, can you blame them? This is their first time doing this sort of thing, and in suits no less. I was a lot worse, back when I started. Less babbling and more breaking things and ... um ... Well. Figuring things out." She turns her head to glance at the bay, noting the assortment of objects and studying them for a moment. "Anything of immediate use?"
"They found a fragment of a Library unit," Nora says. "It's got the symbol, but it's a spiral with five arms instead of one. So definitely from an older Galactic civilization. There were little hints dug up that made Those In The Know suspect the previous civilization consisted of five galaxies. We've got barely a dozen sapient species in one little section of one arm of our galaxy. I feel inadequate."
"And then there's the Old Ones, the Outsiders and the Sifra, who have their own times, can warp reality, and really just make us look boring?" Tasha glances at her sister, brow raised. "You sounds pessimistic today, is something bothering you? I heard from Katie and Hake-bear that you avoided them, and now you seem to be avoiding the recruits, too. What's wrong?"
"I don't like being reminded that I'm dead, I guess," Nora says. "I envy Hakeber, and Katie scares me. As for the others.. it wasn't that long ago for me that the Expedition happened. The Silent-Ones sabotaged Fenris. And I'm not really comfortable giving orders to a human yet. Have you been down to see Mariel yet?"
"I didn't think about howhard it might be for everyone when I pushed for a multi-racial organization. I'm not so good at these sorts of things, apparently. Does it help that I meant well?" Tasha reaches up and scratches her nose, but pauses in it as she thinks in Mariel. "No. I'm not really sure how to talk to her right now. "Hi Mariel, I just got back from genocide, how are you," just doesn't seem like it'll make her sleep better. I know I won't for a while."
And then Tasha's brows go up. "Wait, Katie scares you? Well she scares everyone, but you?"
"What? Why are you surprised?" Nora asks, looking surprised herself. "She's prettier than I am, and rich and famous."
"I just never thought those things would scare you. I mean, sure, I see how they could -- and can and do -- scare anyone, but I guess you're not just 'anyone' to me," the cadet admits, shrugging her shoulders and smile at her sister. "Did you know the Silent-Ones call her the 'Silver Volcano' She more or less crushed me, just so you know. It wasn't even a contest and she wasn't even trying. She's terrifying when she's trying." After sucking in a breath at the thought, Tasha asks, "Think she'll make a good ship second?"
"Oh.. so you want her as my replacement then?" Nora asks, looking at Tasha. "And yeah.. I can't compete with her. That's what scares me. I'm pretty competitive you know. And I have no idea of her command qualifications. Sure, people will do what she asks, but will she also be a distraction? She'd need a really ugly uniform I think. I'd want her for public relations though. Any situation that requires making a good first impression, or actually diplomacy. We weren't trained in diplomacy."
"Oh stop being so self-concious, it doesn't suit you -- and definitely don't be vengeful. That does suit you," Tasha tells Nora, wrinkling her muzzle. "I've offered her the position on my ship. The thing is, my ship doesn't really need a crew except for a navigator and for away missions. That means the captain and commander are more about dealing with the crew than the ship, about making decisions, diplomacy, and about loyalty. Katie can charm people, but I know she hungers for more than being the world's prettiest Karnor. She's driven so I think if given the chance she'll rise to the challenge, making up for what she lacks on a base -- it's a ncie base you know? -- a base that's already strong. Besides look at me," the cadet waves to herself, "people look at me and think, "I want a blood sample!" I need a pretty face."
"You have the perfect face for a holo-drama space pirate though," Nora says with a grin. "You're your own parrot, with the feathers. You left Eli in charge of things didn't you?"
Tasha sticks her tongue out, but then she twitches and lays her ears back. "Gods, I do don't I? And I'm the owner, so I'm really the mastermind. Galactic powers don't see a lot of independent ships. I am some sort of space pirate, aren't I? Wonderful. I should just go with it, resisting is just too exhausting after everything else." Her head shakes and then she throws up her hands. "I'm already a Titanian! An official one now, after what just happened." Her hands fall and she rubs her nose. "My own parrot. Hrmp. Eli? Yes, but he's on his way back. Moka is in charge with him gone."
"Well, space mercenary, at least," Nora notes. "What did you give Eli to do while he's in charge? Test the ship?"
"At least 'space mercenary' is traditional," Tasha considers, head tilting. "I can settle for that. As for Eli, he's testing the ship, researching it, keeping people in line and probably bombarding the Niss with questions. You know about the Niss, don't you Nora-Nora?"
"Your 'Retired' Order machine intelligence?" Nora asks. "I know enough to be worried about it. But.. I wonder how it survived, just like these Berserkers you found. With these, I can sort of rationalize that it means this system is exempt from whatever wiped out everyone else. Your Niss were found in a weird dimensional tide pool, though, right?"
"They were explorers, exploring D-Level Hyperspace. I'm not sure if they attempted to transition back in to normal space and got stuck or if they were pulled in to the tide pool, but stuck they were. If we hadn't come along, they'd be gone too." Tasha turns to stare at the console infront of her for a moment, not really seing it as she thinks on what she said for a moment. At length she smiles a little, noting, "Well, at least I helped save a civilization too. Maybe more? We'll see. But yes, stuck. And as for being a concern, well, they make me nervous but not because they've been hostile. They're so alien it makes me hackles raise some time, but they've always been nice to me. In fact, they've been very helpful. A lot more helpful and, um, willing to be ported around than I'd expect an Old One to be."
"Something like that.. I'd expect it to think of me as a pet," Nora admits. "Then again, it probably doesn't take much effort at all to deal with you, so they're probably getting more out of it than it seems. Or.. it's just that old people like it when young ones pay any attention to them."
""It doesn't take much effort to deal with me?" I think I've been insulted, and it's worse because it's true. Well, they did link with me through ... However it is these things are linking with me. Whatever the Harrower did to me, it's come in handy, but I don't understand it at all. One more mystery in my life -- in my literal life too," says the hybrid, who shifts and gets comfortable again. Then, she props her feet up just to see if her sister will react to the lack of decorum. "They know about the Progenitors too, I think. I mentioned them briefly and they said I'm 'quantum entwined' or something along those lines with an event. They refused to follow me before, not wanting to "interfere," but now they do follow me? I don't know."
"Maybe the event passed already, or was something that didn't seem consequential to you at the time," Nora supposes. "Who knows how they perceive time? With enough brainpower, I imagine you could simulate the future pretty accurately. Or else make it happen the way you want."
There's a beep from Tasha's tablet.
"Well clearly I lack that level of brainpow- hrrm?" Tasha's ears go up at the beep, then she digs out her datapad and activate it. "Cadet Argentine, the best Argetine. How can I help you?" She chimes in.
There's a message waiting for her, from Dark Horse. Text only.
"Well that was a waste of a greeting ... Oh, what's this? My ship sent me a message! It remembers me." After manipulating her datapad all the more, she brings it up and waves Nora over to read it with her.
Dear Tasha, the message reads, We have made a few discoveries of note. The most important of which is that it is not safe to loiter in the maelstrom without moving. The length of time will surely vary, but within 20 hours we were attacked by what Kaa is calling a Void Kraken which is apparently a predator that sensed the horse. This may be why the ship was abandoned in the first place, if it's original purpose involved loitering and spying. We did not sustain significant damage, but there are some scratches on the hull.
"I'm sure it'll buff out," Nora tells Tasha.
"See I knew about those!" Tasha cries out, throwing up her non-datapad-holding arm in dismay. "The things in the Maesltrom, I know about those. The Source explained them to me. This lack of contact between us and the Galactic area, I'm glad it's now over. I could have warned them and prevented this. I'll have to write something later." The hand falls and she taps her nose, then says, "It won't buff out, it's made of a rare kinetic metal. But, at least it hasn't effected the envelope. If the hull collapses the internal bent-space may too." She shakes her head and keeps reading.
Jonas took us to another abandoned mining station, which we salvaged. He recovered a 'scooter' which could be used to visit Caltrop without having to bring us in too close, or use the Vartan shuttle, the message continues. He returned with two kittens. The Jotoki have bonded with them, and the felines ride around on their heads. They hiss at the Phins though, which Kaa finds hilarious. We are currently deep in the asteroids again, as a Silent-Ones Megatitan has arrived and is taking position near Caltrop. Their claim is that they are there to dissuade Khattan adventurism. This may be a response to the cruisers we saw at Encante.
Tasha begins to run a hand back through her hair, but then is immediately assalted by the thought of a sighing Liza and abruptly stops. "Wow, and here I was expecting them to be bored and annoyed with me," she admits, hand falling again. "And kittens? Do you know about kittens, Nora? They're from Terra -- Terra-kittens?" She glances over to the other red woman. "Apparently they're the original Khattha, and some Khattahs. Very cute, and very noisy. Not like Silent-Ones at all, and not sentient. I wanted one but Gabriel said no." Her head shakes. "But they like to Jotoki, that's god. I was afraid they'd be lonely so far away from their own kind. I know how that can be. And more politics ... And a Megatitan? What's a Megatitan?" Again Tasha looks over, then she also asks, "And adventurisim? Is that a euphamisim for 'attack and capture'?"
"I guess the Jotoki are like walking scratching posts," Nora says with a smirk. "Cats are all inherently evil. The cuteness just hides it. As for the Silent-Ones.. they can't declare war over what that one Khattan house tried to do, but they can disrupt their activities, I suppose. If they're big into black market trading, the Silent-Ones can be justified in trying to keep them out of the more lucrative outposts."
"Well good for them. I'd be glad to help stick it to House Khomen if I were out there," Tasha notes with a grin, but then the grin wavers. "Um, if they didn't think I was a Titanian pirate, abomination, or just as dangerous anyway. I hope Encante is OK though, I really don't want to see the planet fall." She shakes her head for what feels like the millionth time today and continues to read.
"I got the situation report from Gabriel," Nora notes. "The Khattans underestimate Terran military capability. By denying us full access to their fancy Galactic Library, it gives us the freedom to come up with our own 'primitive' tactics and weapons that they can't just look up the response to."
"Khattans. If I didn't think one was semi-nice, I'd have abandoned liking them a long time ago," Tasha admits with no small amount of distaste. "Still, from what I've heard the Khattan military is terrifying. Between them and the Celestials, it'd be a problem of they stop following their own rules. Of course they'd embarass themselves, but if they did. Well, hopefully they won't." The cadet glances over then, asking, "So the Library. I've used it before, I even made some money selling information to it, but what is it really? Some sort of multi-planetary database that the Khattans scrounged up somewhere, then said they invented? Clearly it's at least as old as the First Ones."
"Probably older than the First Ones," Nora says. "It's likely what made the previous civilization possible, with common communication systems and standardization of knowledge to make misunderstandings less likely. It might even be part of the Transcendent Order itself. God in a box, with the answers to everything if you know how to ask. The Khattans and Celestials built up their empires pretty quickly compared to everyone else, so having access to the Library has clear benefits. But we think it limits creativity. If you believe the Library knows everything, then why go try and figure anything out on your own? Why explore?"
"Besides, it has to be out of date, with no info on the species that have risen up since the fall of the last galactic civilization," Nora adds.
"If my experience with gods has taught me anything, they rarely tell you the whole truth and even then it's not always how you wnat to hear it -- if they tell you anything at all. Besides, if you ask and they answer, then there are all the questions you don't know to ask, which are only answered in exploration and reflection. Their idea of what you need or want may not even be accurate," Tasha agrees, turning to nod to her sister. "And out of date? I know you can add to it, right? But do you mean it lacks a bredth of additions? The same 'scale' that the old empires could add to it?"
"All of the knowledge accumulated by all of the known Galactic species.. probably less than a drop in the ocean," Nora says. "So finding it is harder."
"I'm not sure I understand," the younger sister admits, ears flattening.
"You've been to a library, right? Probably the Templar one?" Nora asks.
"Right," Tasha confirms. "The Galactic One too. It didn't know I wasn't a Titanian, so shows what it knows." She winks.
"Well, probably just a minor subnet of the Galactic Library," Nora points out. "They wouldn't put a full access annex on Caltrop. But think of the Templar library. Lots of books, right? With a big index? And how hard was it to find exactly what you were looking for? Now think of a library so big that the index itself is the size of a library. A planet-sized library. You'd need a researcher for the sub-index of the tertiary index of the main index.."
"That is a terrifying amount of reading," the hybrid woman admits, going so far as to lean back as if she were physically moved by the sheer amount of studying involved. As if, perhaps, studying itself had a kind of gravity. "But Hakeber would probably never leave. It sounds like the Library is like its own universe, a universe of knowledge. God-like. Is it sentient?"
"I assume if it was sentient, it would be able to find exactly the stuff you wanted," Nora says, wagging her tail. "So if it is, then it's a jerk for making you do it all yourself and charging you for the time it takes."
"That does sound very godlike though," Tasha points out, which involves her actually pointing. "Like a Khattan god. I see why they worship it."
"Well, the Terrans, Confederates and Silent-Ones don't really trust the Library," Nora says.
"It's not hard to see why. I'm not sure I trust it either, but that may be because I spent way too much time in the Templar library studying. I like research, but I prefer a more hands on research approach," insists the younger woman. She then picks up her datapad and peers at it, rewarding as she talks. "I wonder if the Niss can identify the Library? They knew enought to call the Sifra 'Xilfrim,' and knew who they were and what they were capable of. They'd have existed in the Sifra's era, after the Ogdoad sewed life."
Progress on deciphering the Tnuctipin technology has not been great, Eli writes. Similarly for the horse, although Kaa claims that it is 'learning' him and he it during the many speed and maneuvering runs he takes the ship on. We've been able to use sensors on the outposts to see how detectable we are, and at the higher subluminal speeds there is a definite gravitational wake that could be used to track us.
"I'm glad my faith in Eli and the crew wasn't misplaced. They're really coming through in terms of getting things done," Tasha remarks, waggling a hand vaguely as she does. "It seems that the Horse isn't as undetectable as we once hoped, but better to know that than not know it, right? And the Horse ... I felt that the Horse is aware of us on some level. It knows me, but I wasn't sure if it'd sense the others. It probably knows Kaa as the pilot, its drover. Otherwise I'm not surprised the Tnuctipin technology is so hard to understand, even the Niss are having a hard time with it and they're a empire-sized computer."
"I've seen the images of the ship," Nora says. "Whoever they were, the Tincupians were probably hunters. Definitely predators. You don't make a ship that looks that predatory otherwise."
"Does the ship eat meat then?" Liza asks softly from behind Tasha's shoulder, causing Nora to jump in surprise.
"Well, being predatory is just fine with m-" Tasha also jumps, mirroring her sister, and she's used to Liza. When she settles and turns back, she blinks at the woman a moment and then smiles. "As quiet as always I see, hi Liza. And no, it doesn't eat meat. I think it eats some form of higher plane energy, but know one really knows." She then gestures beisde her, to her near twin. "This is my sister Nora. Commander Nora Argentine."
Nora glares at the Lapi, and reaches out with a finger to poke her. "That's disturbing. The others weren't that quiet. And she masks her scent too.." Nora mutters.
"I just use the same soap is Miss Tasha," Liza claims. "I suppose I must smell like her as a result."
"She's some sort of magical bunny, I agree," Tasha conceeds, then she waves Liza closer and gestures to her. "This is Liza, my personal assistant. She was my maid briefly, but personal assistant sounded more in keeping with my role and having a maid made me sound a lot wealthier than I am."
"I organize Miss Tasha's life so she can get things done," Liza explains. "And I've come to remind you that you haven't eaten since your return from outside."
"She's like a more adorable version of my datapad. Maybe I should load it with a PersoCom Liza?" Tasha suggests to Nora as she rises. "Well, I don't want to make liza sigh at me again -- it's horrible in its quiet gentleness -- so I'm going to let her do her job and go eat. is that okay, Nora?"
Nora looks back at the displays. "No space monsters or alien ghosts attacking the crew," she notes. "Yeah, go eat. Once I'm off duty, maybe we can play a friendly game of cards?"
"That sounds like fun! We really don't do enough together," the younger sister replies, smiling. "Some day I'm going to take you to the Expedition City race track, we can make a day of it. It'll be fun, you'll see. Whatever else happens, it will be worth looking forward to." And then Tasha risks life and limb by leaning over and giving her big sister an obnoxiously noisy kiss on the top of her head. "See you soon!" She adds, as she rapidly escapes with Liza afterward.