By the time Tasha has emerged from Melchior, Raehab has gotten his flight helmet off and is brushing ice crystals from the rest of his flight suit, since he rode up in the Titan's hand. "Never expected the Phantom to be God's pocket-watch," he calls to Tasha.
"Well, if God couldn't tell what time it is, we'd have a big problem," Tasha insists with a grin after thumping to the ground next to the man. After giving her Titan the once over she thumbs towards the open hangar and the darkness beyond, walking that way just after. "So do I need to explain anything?"
"Everything," Raehab replies, hooking his helmet to his belt before following. He also starts removing the glove from his taloned hand - the insect one doesn't need protection against cold and low pressures apparently.
"So, as you can probably guess, Harmonia is a ship. That's not her original name -- I don't know what that is -- but it's what I named her after we met." The hangar is as big and empty as it always is, but Raehab does pass a stack of crates that look similiar to the ones the Melchior brought as well a cooking supplies and a stove. "Apparent;y she's here to observe, though for what and for who we're still working out. The thing is, she knew who I was and accepted my command unconditionally when I boarded, so clearly they know about at least one of the deeper mysteries of the Expedition -- the original one. So, now I'm the captain, though it's strange to captain a sentient, living being. Even if she is still a ship."
"Thinking ship," Raehab mutters as he takes everything in. "Not sure if that's good or bad. Ships are fickle enough without being people."
Tasha barks a laugh at that; it's all too familiar. "Isn't that the truth," she agrees as she steps on to the conveyor floor, though she doubts it's a conveyor in the Expedition-tech sense. The cadet begins to slowly drift away, turning to wave the man to follow. "Floor moves! It knows where I'm going, so climb aboard and come along. I need to be on the bridge."
A second set of hooves steps onto the solid-surfaced river of gold. "Why is it all so.. fancy?" Raehab asks.
"It -- she -- is Khattan." The hybrid makes a upraising hand motion, as if employing some sort of magic by gesture, and low and behold the floor rises to form a smooth approximation of a chair which she drops back in to without even checking to see if it's finished forming. So long has she been aboard, going back and forth, she knows the timing by heart. "Do you know about Khattans? Not the ones from Sinai -- although some of them are Khattans -- but the real power. The Khattan Trade Coalition. Interstellar stuff, traders. Powerful ones. The most powerful, at least in our part of the galaxy. They just love fancy. Automation too. It's a sign of status."
"Status or laziness?" Raehab asks with a bit of a snort. "Nice and shiny though, at least. Give them that much. Why is the ship so big?"
"I think leisure is also a sign of status. I haven't met a lot of galactic Khattans -- the one I did meet didn't care for my Titanian disguise. Called me a barbarian! Which I am, of course." She grins more, and lopsidedly. The chair drifts ever deeper in to the ship, its progress the only lit pathway and much of the ship lost in darkness. "I do really like Harmonia's design, at least once I got used to it all. As for big, well, it's a space ship. Space ships are all very large, all that interplanetary drive equipment, stators, and other machinery takes a lot of space. Crew reachable areas are usually small. Plus Harmonia has been here as long as the Expedition has, so she needed to keep going for six thousand plus years. The rest may just be that she's an odlr model that was recycle in to use as a scout."
"So, cargo ship originally?" Raehab asks. "Not personal flying palace?"
"I wish I knew," Tasha admits, shrugging her shoulders. "The design might mean something, or not. It's all very mysterious, maybe even dangerous, but I've learned to live with it. Can't be too picky." The armrest nudges her and she stands, the chair sinking back in to the floor and the cadet turning to stare down the barely lit path of their journey. "Almost there."
Raehab shifts into a slightly more alert posture, as if expecting a trap. "So, she mysterious about her past?" he asks. "Definitely female."
"Ha, ha," goes Tasha, who suddenly wonders if she's starting to sound like Riddle Smith and if that means she's starting to become a little too Terragen. I need more Vartans in my life. Luckily she brought one along. The shadows ahead of them light up: 'Harmonia, Bridge.'
Bright light pushes back the darkness and they're both in a dome-like room filled with seemingly endless gears, a raised dias center with a even more fanciful chair. "Welcome to the bridge," the young woman bids, waving both arms grandly as she heads for the dias.
Raehab steps off the walkway and onto the dais. He stands with his hands clasped behind his back in a military 'at ease' posture as he looks around. Seeing him there, Tasha has a flashback: Raehab on his knees in the same spot, his head sliced off by laser at her command - or rather, at the command of Tasha Bloodwings.
And so Raehab gets to see an expression on the woman he's never seen before, if only for the scant second she stares ay him before swallowing and veering up the steps. Unnerved horror, the too-wide eyes, ears back, teeth exposed in a thin, tense grimace. She's too quick when she starts talking. "Um, w-well anyway, this is the bridge. I, uh, I ... " The chair seems to get a similiar treatment, though he can't see her expression as she hesitates. "I ... I command. Here." And then she slowly turns and seats herself, looking entirely too stiff as she settles back.
The connection arm unfolds and the fingers connect to Tasha's interface studs, which Raehab watches closely. "That's how you control your Titan too, isn't it?" he asks.
The moment of discomfort passes; Tasha's grateful the man either didn't see or didn't press her unease. The question lets her distance her mind further from the memory and she lunges at it. "Yes! Same technology, too. Both Mel and Harmonia are Khattan as are my neural studs. There were no problems with me assuming direct command, and the studs are required for that--" She reaches up and taps the back of her head, then waves the hand forward in grand gesture.
The endless gears vanish and the floor seems to drop away untill the dias appears to float above the Abaddonian landscape. A window to the outside world. One by one other displays pop up, showing basic information Tasha isn't concerned about releasing. "--and with them I can command the whole ship with my mind alone."
After taking in the vista, Raehab asks, "Why all the supplies? Going on a long trip?"
"Maybe," Tasha answers, albiet hesitantly. She leans forward, arms on the chair rests, hand on her interfolded fingers. "You know I'm part of the JEF and taht I'm involved in things way beyond my rank and listed role, and tjose are part of why I need them. But there are other things, things all of us are dealing with, I might need to go address. It turns out exploration involves a lot more fighting than I expected." She shrugs a little; not the first time fighting has been an issue. "So, I wanted to have them on board in case I needed to leave."
"What are you going to fight with a giant bauble?" Raehab asks, turning to look at Tasha with is Vartan eye.
Tasha meets the gaze, but eventually shifts and looks off at nothing in particular. "Monsters," she answers, muzzle curbing in a frown. "A terrible monster. One that's been around too long. It needs to die."
"Which terrible monster?" Raehab asks. "No point in holding back now that I'm here," he adds. "Tell me everything."
"Fine, hokay," goes Tasha, wishing she hadn't sounded a bit pouty about it. The memory relaly threw her off, she decides. No gesture comes this time; for all appearances the young woman might as well have been brooding and in her own world when the bridge's scene changes, but the change shows how engaged she really is. At first it seems like the ship is climbing, though there's no sense of motion. Soon it becomes apparent that the bridge view is simply zooming out, farther and farther, until Raehab is staring at the massive globe of Abaddon at his feet. Icons flash to life, lines, targeting brackets, words in Vartan.
'Anomaly,' the recticle helpfully explains. Next to the point market on the surface another window appears, of a barren landcape and ... something. The word changes. 'Katha-hem,' it indicates. The display flashes across spectrums and soon its shape is obvious, some sort of starfish. Measurements are displayed. It's huge. There are details: 'Ogdru-hem, Harrower; hybrid real space, gravitation, exotic and possibly foreign nature entity. Sentient. Role: observation, (sabotauge).'
The old Vartan studies the information impassively for a minute. "Big," he notes. "Still got weapon that took out Tesla?"
"Yes." Tasha looks up. Several lines are drawn from random areas across the globe and in fact circle it, connected with 'Katha-hem.' The zoomed image clones itself, a model world showing the sky and the creature, when something appears on the horizon. The world is engulfed in light and smoke, and when the smoke passes, the creature remains. The air seems to warp around it, albiet briefly. "It can probably control gravitation. That's a mockup I did a few hours back, working out a plant-planet kinetic bombardment. Not relativitic, but up there. High kinetic-energy conversion. It'd stop it if our guess ir right. So ... " Several more screens appear, all of them what appear to be weapons with many details intentionally ommited by blurs. One screen flashes, labeled, 'hyperspace missile.' " ... I'm thinking of a fancier rock to throw."
"How do you know it can produce gravity force field?" Raehab asks.
"It's Ogdru-hem. They're made of the stuff, gravitation I mean. Elements that can warp it. I've met Harrowers that can relocate planets, bend space and time. They're regular matter, sure, but a lot of dark matter, gravitation, stranger stuff. Maybe even elements from outside our reality. They're alien aliens." The second cloned screen vanishes while the first cycles again. Various structures are highlighted as 'Stator core material.' "You can think of it like a ship that's alive. Like Harmonia, though probably more powerful."
"Got closer look at that network?" Raehab asks, gesturing to the image showing the stator material.
The image zooms, though it's hardly in perfect detail. A warning lists the imformation as incomplete, off-colored areas as best guesses. "It really doesn't like being scanned," the woman notes. "In fact it nearly destroyed Bellerophon. Gabriel, my sister, Fred and Hake-bear. The recruits. Liza. While I was gone, I almost lost them. And that thing's the reason. It's why I have my scars."
The Vartan's beak clicks a few times. "I don't see any closed loops," he says. "It looks like circulatory system.. blood. No closed loops means no projected fields. Stators have to spin the material at high speed to generate field. Like a magnet. Energize material only provides low level effect. Material by itself doesn't do anything. That thing does not have a force field."
At this, Tasha's ears go up. Brows too; she leans forward. "I thought you were just a crime lord and an ex-pilot, how do you know tha-" She blinks, then leans back a little. "Are you smuggling stators?"
"Pilot for secret weapons project, reverse-engineering technology," Raehab notes. "Confederates do not use stators. Vartans did though. I know how they were used for military ships." He points to the network again. "That not a field projection layout, it's for hull integrity. Energize that material creates short range field that affects relativistic density - makes things stronger without increasing mass. Used in warships."
Raehab points to the five extremities of Katha-hem. "Those are the weak points. Strike just past the tips, in the canals. Shockwaves and plasma will follow the canal, hit the underside of monster. Underside should be vulnerable, if that what it use to create monsters. This is where giant monsters come from, right?"
'Hrrrum,' goes Tasha who lays her head back on her fingers and waggles her head back and forth, staring ahead and not at all at the image itself. "Simulations tell me that could be correct. If it's true, then it can reinforce itself. That'd make sense, as it arrived who-knows-how-long agao by bellyflopping on to the surface. It probably reinforced itself to survive. We might be dealing with the scout or survey class of the Ogdru-hem." She unbinds a finger long enough to run her nose. "It is what makes the monsters, or at least the mastermind. If it's 'hangar bay' is open, maybe we can strike fast enough to hit all the canals and obliterate it. And here I was just expecting drinking and awkward introductions!"
"Oh, there be drinking," Raehab promises. "That thing makes monsters, so no long range physical offenses. If it could generate fields, could have lobbed rocks instead of send monsters. Probably can't even move arms. Any fine manipulators will be underneath, exposed. Armor-field will have limits as well, and be weaker at the edges and tips. Needs power. Nothing has unlimited power."
"Some beings can draw power from higher dimensions or other-universal spaces and effectively have unlimited power," the Cadet counters, but she rocks her head abck and forth again and adds, " ... But Katha-hem is unlikely to be drawing off those, due to where we are. The Sifra might notice, might see it. It's hiding, right? Hiding from them, spying on them. They know what to do with Harrowers, and Harrowers fear them. So we bombard it, even if it surives they might see it and act." She lifts her head and spreads her hands. "To be safe, I could send the bombardment from space. Deep space, L3, or one of the others. Counterattack would take seconds or even minutes, even for light."
"What counter-attack?" Raehab asks. "What has it done already? And you got access to a Terran warship?"
"Well, it tried to turn me in to its very own personal big murder pilot," Tasha notes, head going back and muzzle all frowns. "And it tried to do the same with Harmonia. Nearly destroyed the Bellerophon, but it's all been what we'd call 'cyber attacks.' Even me, it attacked me through Mel, through my impants because I'm part machinery. But, see ... " She waves a hand at the screen; indicatingly, nothing changes. "I don't want to underestimate it. They're godlike, these things. Older than Vartans. Who really knows what it can do? I'm trying to be cautious this time. Sitting here, sitting back, has helped me think things through."
"So test it," the Vartan suggests. "You got fancy sensors that can see water underground, after all. Fly one up a canal to underneath, see what's there."
"I'd prefer to do some testing of its defenses and then bombard it from deep space. I ran the simulations, even light would take a long time to reach our position and getting targeting data at that range would be amazingly hard. Most conventional Expedition-era weapons don't even have the range, beams and such, projectiles would but it might as well throw insults at me for all the good kinetics would do." Tasha shrugs again. The scene changes, a listing of available probes and configurations begins to scroll at increasingly rapid speeds. "But I could. I don't like giving it notice, but I was planning to send test probes anyway, so why not a few more? I'll order their construction."
"Your Bellerophon, it got Terran shield?" Raehab asks.
Tasha's head shakes. "It has armor plating and stators, but Katha-hem can detect stators very easily. We even think it's monitoring gravitation as one of its primary duties here. Um, besides. Belle isn't doing so well after the attack. I'm thinking of handling this one myself. It's not like I don't have the resources or firepower and both Harmonia ad I surived its attack before." The young woman sits up now, leaning back. "It's better than dragging more lives in to this. We might even have Knights and Titans signing on, military forces. People could die, fighting it. But we might do it easier."
"Super kinetic weapon part of Bellerophon though," Raehab notes. "So, this monster can only do.. uh.. digital attacks? Radio?"
Tasha shakes her head. "That's only what it has done. We don't know what it can do. It might be as limited as we think, or it might be hiding all its best weapons and only using the very smallest amount of its power to accomplish its goals. I remember hearing about that somewhere, that machines or-- Was it life? Gods? Beings that are clever, use the least for the most; to expend the least energy and for strategic and tactical reasons." Her hands spead out to her side, an expansive gesture. "If I'm too careful, I don't think anyone will mind. They're be surprised, you know?"
"But before it tried to take over this ship?" Raehab asks. "Gots to ask yourself: which ship can you afford to fall under control of enemy? This what happened with the Titan nobody wants to talk about, that got you your special look?"
"Yeah," Tasha answers, her tone as sober as the frown on hger face. She leans forward again, head back down on her hands. "Yeah." Then her head shakes. "So my family or Harmonia and antimatter. But that's why I won't be around! I'm going to play a hiding game, going to go out in to deep space and throw rocks at it. If it doesn't want to die it'll have to come to me, but maybe it can't. So it'll keep getting bombarded until it falls in to a crater, with Sifran crystal to catch it. Then it's doomed. But I thought of even more." Her pinky unravels, pointing at the screen. The zoomed out video lurches farther, light-speed. It a blur of motion Raehab is looking at a kind of orrery; it takes only a second to see it's a realistic depection of the entire star system. orbits are outlined, Abaddon is highlighted, a window of it and its L-points shown.
"Like dropping rocks on someone from high in the sky. I can hit it, can't hit me. Not unless it tunnels, but will it know where I am?" More screens pop up, showing multiple points in space and travel times, planetary impacts, then lines tracing the inbound ones, back. Times are shown for a multitude of potential weapons. Then a scatter is shown from the launch point, a sphere of travel for Harmonia during the time it'd take for the bombardment to strike. "See? We could be anywhere in that sphere, and the weapons are all too slow. Even gravitational waves take time. It'd have to be able to detect us instantly at fractions of an AU or more."
"Where you get the rocks?" Raehab asks. "System is clean. Only debris in planetary rings."
"Oh there's lots of things. L3 is full of junk: Old ships, rocks, Berserker leftovers. We weren't the first to come to Primus." L3 is the next to be zoomed in on and given a window of its own, the view a graveyard of stellar wreckage and dead ships. "Even if that's not enough we can use our fancy folded space-time. Or planetary rings. We could use ship's hull. If we're lucky we might evenbe able to give it a hyperspace shunt, just to be safe. Or other things."
"Hmm," the Vartan ponders, looking at the planetary map. "If you can stop it from making monsters, would that be enough?" he asks. "Big impacts throw up lots of debris. Lots of that will be monster-matter, which would be scattered all over then. Would that kill it, or just make thousands of smaller monsters?"
Tasha's muzzle twists in a grin. "The monsters aren't as complicated as they look. They're really very shoddy." The screen gets another new window, showing the monster from the dam. Its tail is seperated, rotated and zoomed, showing the interior with various explainations. The tail is reattached and more explaintions elaborate on how it's little more than muscle and basic control; an organic drone and an unsophisticated one at that. The summary then adds that it's probably controlled by quantum entanglement. "They're all centrally controlled and recharged. No more Katha-hem, no more daikaiju."
"But is Katha-hem made of the same stuff as the monsters?" Raehab pushes. "Look at crater it sits in. Either it was much much smaller when it hit, or else it is not as massive as it seems. Need to know what it really made of before potentially raining bits down all over hemisphere. If dangerous, need to consider surgical strike that kills it without destroying it."
Tasha groans, she hadn't thought of redecoarying the planet with Katha-bits. More delays; more details. "Well," she begins after scrunching her muzzle up. "I'll run simulations, but without knowing what it's made of entirely I can only do so much. It might be worth the risk. What sort of surgical strike, you think?" Her head cocks to the side. "This is really very surgical, I can always limit the bombardment. I was just using saturation to help ensure there's nothing left to strike back."
"First, set up seismic sensors in a ring around it, maybe 20 kilometers out, then create seismic event in distance. Reading will tell you density of alien," Raehab says. "Integrity network may not be armor, may be skeletal to hold it up against gravity if it low density. Also, don't use space junk. Junk tumbles when it falls.. no accuracy. 20 tons of aerodynamic-shaped iron is better. You want penetration power, with primary impact below the beast. Otherwise use explosives brought in through canals. Take out power center or network, and it may just be crushed by Abaddon's gravity."
"Alternative: wait for it to send another daikaiju, strap bomb to it that goes off when monster goes home," the Vartan adds.
Raehab is treated to his words being shown in yet another window, transcribed verbatim. In fact parts of the sentence are highlighted and from the way Tasha's expression twitches, her eyes chasing after things the man can't see, more than record keeping is being done. "Uh-huh, so anything else? I'm querying our production capability. I really should have brought on more raw materials. Maybe we can locate them and bring them aboard." The longer she talks, the more it seems she's tlaking to herself.
"Plenty of places can make big iron javelin, not a problem," Raehab notes. "No point in hiding that your attack is an attack. Chance of actual debris falling from orbit here is infinitesimal, especially if thing been watching for thousands of years. If it smart, and can communicate, it will negotiate surrender terms if you show you can hurt it. But first, need to see the belly, get density. Plan from there."
"Send probes in waves, too, if you can," he advises. "First wave to survey, second to explode, third to check damage, fourth later to check on repair rate."
"We're working out the designs now. I'm also drawing up locations to get those javelins from. We could probably even extract them from the ground, but I don't like bringing the ship that close to the surface and Mel can't do it alone." The young woman wiggles her muzzle, twisting it back and forth much as she had rolled her head earlier. Thinking. "It'll take some time, I'm having to dredge through maps and I've sent a polite request to Mr. V. to look over the idea and maybe recommend suppliers for the javelins. Still working out probe requirements." Her gaze stops chasing the visions in her head, fixing on Raehab. "We have time, then. So, want to meet her?"
"Meet who?" Raehab asks. "Thought it was just us on board?"
"Harmonia of course. She knows you're here of course, but you haven't actually been introduced or met her. I've requested a avatar." And so Tasha thumbs back towards the exit. "ETA One minute twenty-eight seconds, twenty-seven, six ... "
The Vartan casts a confused glance back towards the walkway, until the Avatar shows up. And for whatever reason, Harmonia has created a Vartan one without the usual clockwork motif - she looks real, if made of gold. She bows when she enters, saying, "It is a pleasure to meet you, Commander Raehab. You have my thanks for leading my Captain to me."
Raehab's lone eyebrow rises up. "Uh.. you're welcome?" he replies, then looks to Tasha. "Does she drink?" he asks.
So surprised is she, Tasha doesn't even think to mask her reaction as she leans back and raises her brows. "Wow," she breathes. Still staring, she almost misses the question directed at her. Raehab is blinked at. "What? I mean, she doesn't usually-- I mean, this is new, and ... " Her gaze snaps back to the avatar. "Do you, Harmonia?"
"I can perform social interactions as needed," Harmonia replies, and winks.
"I've never seen her wink before," Tasha admits with more than a hint of wonder in her voice. "She never looks that nice for me."
"You requested a specific appearance, Tasha," Harmonia notes. "I believe that I owe Mr. Raehab a certain amount of comfort, given our past interaction."
"I did?" Tasha asks, rubbing her head now. "I must have. Subconciously?" Uncertain. She exchanges a look with Raehab, then the interface arm withdraws from atop her skull and she begins to stand. "Well, we should go somewhere more suitable then," she admits, still sounding a little dazed. "Do you want a restaurant? A Sinaian tavern? I think we have a copy of a Vartan club template, it's historical now."
"Someplace with cushions," Raehab says. "I miss cushions. Best things to pass out drunk on."
"The club then. It's a Khattan template, so we have it. I'm, uh ... " Tasha looks down at herself; she's dressed in that Katie once termed 'military casual,' her outfit as directed by Liza. It doesn't inspire a sense of relaxation or fun. "Going to change. I think I have something. Harmonia, can you make something?"
"I can create a progmat based outfit easily," Harmonia says, and approaches as if intending to remove Tasha's current clothes.
The Cadet leans her head back and gives the avatar a particularly leery expression, almost about to step away, but she bites her lip and stands her ground. The Captain can't run away from her ship.
Raehab remains quiet as Tasha is stripped to her underwear, and only coughs once when Harmonia removes her own clothing to drape onto Tasha. "What would you like?" she asks.
Privacy? Are you getting me back for something, Harmonia? "Ummm, a dress? Something, I don't know, suitable for a Vartan club? There must be, um, records, or ... something ... " She shifts, but Harmonia is right -- a little show probably is the least Raehab deserves for having most of his body fried by microwaves. She can endure.
The draped fabric rearranges itself into a wrap-dress that spirals down Tasha. Below the hips it wraps solely around her left leg, while at the top it wraps her right arm.
Tasha holds her arms out, looking down at herself for a long moment before turning to Raehab. "What do you think?"
"Your underwear shows on the exposed shoulder, but I can forgive that," Raehab says with a polite leer.
"I can only maintain one active avatar," Harmonia notes. "And a horse. Since the horse cannot serve drinks, however, I will accommodate that role."
Tasha sticks out her tongue, then makes a show of leering back. "I'll just have Harmonia escort you then. Harmonia? Put on some clothes please, I'll let you show us the way. I can walk myself."
Sparing as little progmat as possible, Harmonia garbs herself as a Khattan-style dancing girl, even as she leads her guests out of the bridge. "Watch how she walks," Raehab asides to Tasha. "Good swivel."
"She even out-swivels me," Tasha murmurs, observing closely. "I really didn't know her biological simulations were this good, but it makes sense." She then blinks, bites her lip, glancing back to Raehab. "I shouldn't stare. You can, I won't say a thing."
So Raehab ogles all the way into the next chamber. It looks like the Vartan club back on Orpheus, but the bar shelf is stocked with a limited selection of whatever Raehab brought along, which is just a few bottles. The dull glass looks out of place amidst all the shiny polished surfaces. Harmonia steps behind the bar and produces two glasses from behind it. "I'm unfamiliar with the supplies you've brought," she apologizes. "Would you care to suggest the first round, Mr. Raehab?"
"I see why you want to stay here," Raehab tells Tasha as he claims a stool, and points to a large black bottle on the shelf. "Let's start with some Biter Venom," he says.
Tasha carefully adjusts her new dress before sliding on to a stool as well, making sure it hangs right and doesn't bunch. "The Khattans have spent thousands of years learning how to, um, work with us." She carefully avoids manipulate, not wanting to spoil the mood. "But you're right, it's nice here. I always loved this ship, being here. I can feel like the center of the world, and still feel a little distant too. The gears, like everything in its place. My big doomsday clock. If only more in my life had a neural link and a wet bar."
Harmonia pours two fingers of the amber liquid into each glass before sliding them forward.
"To our continued health, which we are about to wreck," Raehab toasts before tossing back his drink.
"Normally I'd day I shoudn't, but I have been working too hard lately! Disasters, weeks long trips, conspiracies ... Hello, alcohol. I missed you." Tasha picks up her own glass and clinks it to Raehab's. "To our health and the end of shadows," she returns, and then drinks.
The alcohol probably doesn't use actual Rotbiter venom, but certainly carries a kick. It's Vartan strength to be sure, and does cause an almost immediate buzz. It also numbs Tasha's tongue for a few moments afterwards.
The cadet smacks her lips, leaning back and almost rolling her eyes before closing them. "I haven't had a good drink in forever. I actually gave it up, I thought it'd make things easier. Maybe it did, but not everything. I'm glad you're here."
"Ah, because you can't embarrass yerself with me, right?" Raehab says, giving a wink with his one eye capable of winking. Then Harmonia leaves the bar and climbs up on one of the lighted-surface tables with the dancing pole, and begins to dance as music starts up.
"We've had at it before, you've seen me drunk. You brought me home, too. I remember." Tasha taps the side of her head, then has another sip. An actual sip, practiced and classy; a Karnor affection given the shape of their muzzles. "See, once I was better, I didn't know it was like I'd never had a drink in my life. I must have been a complete mess, the last time."
"No booze while you were recovering, eh?" Raehab says, turning his stool to watch Harmonia's pole-dance. "At least when I was in the tank, they had me doped up so much I thought I could feel my toes but nothing else."
"Oh I could drink, it was all just digital mumbo-jumbo. My brain was half-working, I lived in a made up world. It was nice, though." Tasha has another sip, turning to face Raehab more fully and smile. "See, Remy 'fixed' me -- all the way through. Complete overhaul, which meant no tolerance. Katie got me so drunk with this rainbow colored drink I threw Archon Strength-of-Stones against a wall and stole his mask. I couldn't look at him for days after I learned what happened."
"Ah, the good stuff," Raehab says, his eye bouncing along with Harmonia. "I miss that. Rappy and I used to raid the Base Commander's private stash back in the day. Confederate booze is pretty tasty, I'll tell ya. And no hangover. I really miss that part!" he laughs.
Tasha snorts a scoffing snort. "No hangover? That sounds soft to me. Back on Sinai, we'd drink this awful -- I didn't know how awful at the time being I was more of a backwater barbarian back then -- this awful swill made from, I don't know, fruits and meats and who-knows-wjat. I think my mother still serves that. It was horrible and I couldn't see straight, but I still had to work after. Let me tell you, a whip is the most horrible thing in the universe when you have hangover." She shuints now, over her glass. "So you and Age used to be together?"
"Age?" Raehab asks, then laughs again. "Oh right.. Age and Treachery, yeah? I trained Rapatia. We were married for a while too."
Tasha barks a laugh that Raehab remembered the nicknames; Tasha and Katie themselves being the Youth and Skill part of the old saying, soundly defeated. "Married. So you had kids, then? Little Raehabs and Rapatias? How come I never meet them?"
"Daughter all grown up.. your age now," Raehab says, pouring himself another glass while Harmonia is busy hanging upside-down by her legs. "Off in college. Turn out better than her parents, luckily!"
"My age ... " Tasha repeats,sounding it out. To think she's drinking with a father -- maybe grandfather -- about her troubles. Not that she has few troubles, nor that they're small, but it puts in to perspective how her life could grow and change. Where she might be, when she's Raehab's age. If she lives so long. Children may even be possible. She twirls what little remains in her glass, letting it circle lazily. "And married, too. And college. Not at the Winged Citadel?"
"Vasterlion Academy," Raehab says. "Civilian.. agriculture, I think. May end up in the Pit eventually."
"I'll say 'hi' if I see her. Tell her I drink with her father," the young lady insists. "And Mr. V has an academy? It sometimes feel like Mr. Vasterlion is everywhere. I suppose that's good, because I like him a lot. Do you know him?"
"I knew his father," Raehab says, taking another drink. "He built Phoenix. One of the few who believed me about the Phantom."
"It sounds like the Vasterlions are good people then, I'm glad I met them." Tasha pours herself a full glass, then reaches to toast again. "To the Vasterlions." After they have their drink, she then asks, "I bet you never expected to see the Phantom dance ... What is that dance?"
"It the dance of ever-tightening pants," Raehab declares. He then looks aside to Tasha and asks, "So.. what sort of sleeping arrangements you gots here? All in one big bed? I got plans for Miss Phantom.. you're welcome to watch though."
"I guesss you do deserve something for all your hard work and suffering." Tasha eyes raehab, then turns and eyes Harmonia too. She never expected it, but here she is, in this strange situation. First weapons and war, then this. Whatever this is. She can only wonder how many captains had to mull this sort of thing over. "And I am the Captain, so, maybe I'll just sit here and drink."
A grin creeps up the young woman's muzzle, her elbow on the counter as she peers over her glass. "The room's whatever you want it to be. Show me what you've got."
"Hah!" the bug-bird scrawks. "Want to see if you be scared off first, is that it?" he asks.
"If you think you can. I wasn't always little miss hero pilot. I worked a bar, too." The young woman gives a short, playful shrug as she sips, grinning all around the glass as she does. "The bug parts never bothered me anyway. Who am I to complain about weird Vartan hybrids?"
Tasha then lifts her free hand and waves Harmonia over. "I bet you have some database. Maybe I'll learn something?"
Harmonia slides off the pole, and sashays over.. her outfit literally melting off of her. She starts unzipping Raehab's flight suit. "Well.. if you insist," the gruff old bird says.
While Raehab is distracted, Tasha leans over the bar and fetches herself an entire bottle. Just because she's not participating doesn't mean she can't enjoy herself ...
Besides, she's hoped she'd make it up to Raehab. It's not a new well, or a dead god-thing. It's not world changing, but she can do this. She can wash aware a nightmare and have fun while doing it.