Dark Horse did not fly like Bellerophon or any other craft that depended on Newtonian physics, stator or not. While the main thrust vector was forward, the ship could move along any other axis without turning - just with less acceleration. Or with zero acceleration if needed. Kaa had figured out the safe limits for the non-primary vectors through experimentation, and thus indirectly the limits of the Horse itself. His conclusion was that the forward vector was optimized, since there were two ventral structures that probably served as thruster-equivalents. It still wasn't clear where the Horse drew its energy from and how exactly it was transferred to the hull.
In practice, the ship maneuvered in real-space via a rippling gravitational fields across the surface, with points of constructive interference determining the direction it was pulled in. Since the ripples couldn't have a frequency larger than surface area they followed, a maximum non-primary force could be calculated. Still, that left a maximum maneuvering acceleration of 20 gravities, and a primary one of over 100 - but with limitations on how long the Horse could maintain them. After 18 minutes, acceleration would begin to rapidly drop, but lower accelerations could maintained almost indefinitely. Most ships limited themselves to about 1G for in-system acceleration, with only missiles using high-G accelerations.
The other big difference was the inertial disconnect. Even with stators, acceleration from the rocket motors was felt on Bellerophon due to inertial drag on the gravity fields. Dark Horse maintained complete inertial isolation between the inner space and outer surface of the hull, and even then the ship was using a mild form of overspace drive that further isolated it from inertial and other relativistic effects. As a result, there was no way to pilot by feel, which was Gabriel's biggest complaint.
"Still couldn't get up to speed-of-causality with the main drive," Kaa claimed while Tasha used the long fall back towards Caltrop to practice. "Aldersen tram-points and hyperdrive depend on quantum effects, since no ship can be observed to be traveling faster than C in any given space-time. Overspace drive is also effectively invisible, so can't be used to violate causality, but early warp-drive theories did allow for time travel because they didn't take into account the isolation effects."
Apparently FTL-without-time-travel is a big deal, since otherwise FTL travel couldn't exist - but there were still notions about building time machines. D-Level Hyperspace usually was the key to them, due to the two time dimensions, but most equations showed that using it to travel into the past would actually send you to a completely different universe in order to avoid paradoxes.
It's all a bit over Tasha's head, but she gets the gist of the situation, the rules, and most importantly the general idea of the rules of flight. Taking away the practical and applicable is often a key part of her nebulous job, as making sense of grand concepts, abstract ideas, and even incomprehensible-to-mere-mortals ideas is necessary for her to make any progress what-so-ever. It requires careful pruning of what is and is not important and what she does and does not have time for -- no matter how much she might like to really understand the ideas at hand -- and acting upon the distilled remains. Alas, it does nothing to help her sense that she's in over her head or not nerely so well educated as the people around her.
"I think I get it," Tasha remarks of Kaa's ongoing lecture, but ultimately she doesn't need to. The 'science and theory of Tasha' demands that for every new piece of information finite time exists in which to understand and act on it, and almost always insufficent time is available for full understanding unless action is sacrificed, and even then there still may not be enough time. Not that she doesn't appreciate hearing about it, she never knows what's going to be useful, and certainly knowing how to fly her own ship is very useful. The lack of time is always vexing, however, and remainsd a gulf between here and her associates. She does wonder about time travel though: Did dhe travel in time and exit to another universe? Is The Way an exception to paradoxes? What about Darksight, did he get shunted aside in time and in universe? And if she met Atum, was Atum shunted or deflected to some other universe by interacting with her? Is she still there? Her muzzle wrinkles, though not because of Kaa.
"We're approaching the hyper-event-horizon," Moka reports. Tasha knows that to be the closest approach a ship in hyperspace can make before 'vanishing' into the gravitational singularity that the real mass of a star creates in hyperspace. Dark Horse surfaced into realspace hours ago though, so that Tasha would have time to practice. From this point on, they had to behave like a normal hypership would. "We can put on our new uniform at any time now."
Tasha prepares the flight system to transition to the new style of control. The Dark Horse seems to have an every-increasing collection of flight models and the systems by which a pilot can control them, making fluid switching between each system for ship and pilot key to operating the vessel effectively. In a way it's not one vessel, but one vessel with many forms and faces, such that it feels like flying many different ships. This is something new to Tasha, whose 'things that fly' -- her Titan, Bellerophon, and of course herself -- really just had a few modes. "Hokay, well, I think I got this, so why doesn't everyone go ahead and change?" She glances around, then turns back to resume frowning at the control display. "I promise not to kill us until at least a few days from now, if not more!"
"Transponder is active, broadcasting our new IFF," Moka reports. "Initiating external shell." A hologram in the central imaging space shows the Dark Horse as the ship puts on its own uniform. The shell is gold, black and white, with various Khattan touches such as overlapping sections to give some areas a woven look, while the rest is sleek. The plasma ring is encased in a giant stator ring, and decorative nacelles sprout at where the ring connects to the 'wingtips' behind the main airlocks. Some features are completely covered over and others are exaggerated. The overall effect is to soften the predatory features and emphasize the more feminine ones to create a feline look. It certainly looks like something Kaa helped to design.
Tasha looks up and smiles. "Very nice, I assume you had something to do with it, Kaa? You did a good job. It looks Khattan, and it doesn't look like a warship, alien vessel, or anything else that would worry anyone. Uh, hopefully! Anyway, good job." And so the young woman switches over the flight controls, giving each axis a brief try to get a 'feel' for how the ship moves now and by extension how Khattan vessels might feel. After a good moment of this, she adds, "Kaa, Moka, you can change too if you want. I'll call you to the bridge if there's a problem."
"I thought for sure he'd have put nipples on it," Gabriel notes. From underneath, the ship does look a bit like a fertility icon, with a round face, breasts, belly and even stubby legs. The ventral periscope-fin breaks the illusion though. From the navigation seat, Gabriel lays in a course towards Outpost Caltrop. "Keeping to one G will get us to the Caltrop Navigational Control Zone in about 20 hours. How do you want to spend it?" he asks Tasha.
Now that her flight control consists mainly of 'fly in a straight line' which further requires she simply not touch the control stick, Tasha's flight experience has become rather limited. She could easily hand off control to Kaa, Gabriel, or even Moka and rest assured things will go fine unless a change in the situation dictates otherwise. As she slumps back in her chair, looking a bit crumpled, she thinks of how much work it used to be to keep an airship in a straight line, especially one powered by living creatures, sails adjusted by crew, and a whip-carrying younger self doing her best to coordinate it all with the helmsman. She could never fully rest, never really stop paying attention. Now it feels like it's all so easy, even if it really isn't. The responsibility has simply been lifted from her hands. "Iuuunnooo," she mumurs noncomittally. "Wha'do'you wanna do?"
"Well, we need a mission plan," Gabriel notes. "We don't have any formal job offers yet, but we can't just sit around either. We need to know what we're going to do next so we can provision for it properly. There are a few things that can we can do for money that are relatively low risk, for certain values of low."
Tasha slides a little father down her command chair, hher arms resting and drapped over the edges of the seat now. "You know, I think I already miss being in the field. Talking is great and everything, and I love my robots and machines, but I don't feel like I'm doing anything. I know I am, but it doesn't feel like it. Uh. So, I was thinking, since we've got our crew and a lot of new people and members and other things, we should do something that isn't safe. Something a bit risky, and not, um ... " Boring. " ... casual and business-y. The crew needs to see what we're about and danger always brings people together, right? And I want to see the universe a bit before I have to go back to talk-talk-talk, don't scratch your hair Tasha it will get messed up land. I was thinking, why don't we go look at some of those Ash Zones ourselves?"
"Actually, survey data on those is pretty high-reward," Gabriel notes, and brings up the map of known space, with its various ash zones. "The Sol and Chiroptan zones are pretty well known," he notes, and highlights other zones, which seem to vary quite a bit in size and shape. "The closest to us out here is Acheron, which has seven star systems in it, and nothing beyond astronimical data in the Library, which we know to be inaccurate in a few places."
"It sounds spooky, mysterious and dangerous," Tasha remarks of the zone, chewing on her lip a moment before nodding. "It's perfect. That's where we're going." And every adventure in to the unknown requires equipment, which means shopping for gadgets. "Go ahead and inform the crew, Mate-Captain Gabriel. We can even have Mr. I. see if anyone has special survey requests or other interets in the region, if you think it's safe to advertise. We'll need stuff. Maybe it'll help Mr., uh, H. figure things out better, I've been thinking about giving him more control over Mel."
"Sure that's wise?" Gabriel asks. "Mel isn't exactly mobile at the moment. As for letting people know our plan, I'd advise against broadcasting the fact. Ash zones are likely places for activities that are less than legal, after all, since nobody goes into them. Easier on us to find out what we can without anyone being warned about us."
"I don't know if anything is wise when working with people of Mr. H., um, caliber. They're all smarter, older, wiser and bigger than me, right?" Tasha rolls her head over and shrugs at Gabriel. "But I've done okay so far, so why not? It's the closest thing we have to something he can use, but I'll ask around and see if it's really okay first. And if he betrays us, I'd rather have him do it now than later. We have other options, although I'll be very mad if he takes Mel, too."
"As for the Zone, you know more about this than I do. Go ahead and handle it however you think will work best," the young woman finishes.
Gabriel cracks his knuckles, and notes, "Good thing I already have a stealth survey methodology prepared! You should also make sure Yue and Katie aren't getting into trouble. Those are two women who are scary enough without seeing how they deal with boredom."
Tasha wrinkles her nose. "Why didn't you warn me about command?" She doesn't mean it, of course, but complaining help vents her own boredom. "I'm going. Transfering flight control to the Captain, leaving navigation." She does so, then returns her chair back to where she can step off and alight on to the deck. After stretching she turns and heads for the aft exit. "Let me know if anything exciting happens!"
And then she's gone.
The corridor presents an unexpected obstacle: Rock and Rainbow are having what might be an argument, but with ten different voices going at once it's difficult to tell. There are definitely some Standard words involved, but they're lost in the mix of hoots, chirps and whistles.
This is new. It's Tasha's first Jotoki arguement, or maybe it's not. She isn't entirely sure. The only thing she can really be sure of is that it's different. "Uh, can I help you two?" She begins, her face a mask of bemusement. "Is there a problem?" She looks between each Jotoki. Not having spoken with them much, they're one of several crew members she knows little about on a personal level, but they are convientently color-coded and thus very easy to identify. "Rock?" Turn. "Rainbow?"
"Spear is best for fish, catch big fish," the burly Rock claims. "Net is best for fish, catch many small fish," Rainbow counter claims.
Tasha cocks her head to the side, arms folded. She thinks on this particular puzzle, and for a moment feels what she think more advanced cultures must feel upon encountering a more primitive one -- the challenge of dealing with an older style of living and the more direct form of problems such cultures face. While she also comes from a culture not far removed from Rock and Rainbow's own, she's also joined increasingly higher, more complex, more far removed ones as well. A whole world of culture, life and society reveals itself to her in this one simple problem, and so she suddenly finds herself with a overwhemling desire to test what she's learned and answer the question before her.
"Well, wouldn't that depend on whetehr you have big fish of many fish available?" She begins, head then cocking the other way. "If there's only small fish, use a net. If there's only big fish, use a spear. Now if there's both, it depends in what you need. If one big fish is better than several smaller fish that have the same amount of meat, because it's less work to cut up, then the big fish are a better choice if the amount of work is equal in catching them. It's sort of, um, you use the best tool for the job, but which is best depends on the job and what you want to invest in it. If using a net is very safe but using a spear is very not, then even if the big fish has more meat, then catching the smaller fish could be more desirable because you don't wnat to risk being injured."
There are a few moments of silence. Then rock says, "Spear best, Tasha say!" "No! Net best! I put you in net!" "No! No! Ask Kaa!" "No! No! Ask Moka!" The argument resumes, this time over who is best to ask for a second (clearer) opinion.
Tasha silently excuses herself, head shaking as she walks on. Ultimately she decides the answer might be, Wanting a simple answer to a complex situation is probably doomed to failure. She decides both of them are right, but their strong desire to have a single, simple answer is what's wrong. As she continues along and up the lift, she realizes the problem isn't the stated question, which is one of tools and therefore depends on what's being worked on and the requirements for that task, but one about trying to be right and wanting to be simple.
"Therefore," intones Tasha to herself as the lift opens, using her best impression of Eli and Remiel when they're talking about scientific matters, " ... the problem isn't if spear or net is better, because that's a question of tools and that's not what they want. They want a simple answer to a complicated problem, and they want to be right, neither of which has to do with picking the right tool so much as 'how can I use a question to be right and someone else be wrong' and 'I want a complicated question to have a simple answer', so the question is wrong and so are the people asking it!"
"What was the question?" Yue asks. The back of the lounge couch has been folded down, and both Yue and Katie are lying on their stomachs on it while Liza rubs their backs. "Are we there yet?" is Katie's question.
"Oh, which is better, net for many small fish or spear for one big fish. They don't want the answer, they want to be mad that life isn't simple and they want to be right so they can feel victory over the other person." Tasha drops on to a different couch across from the otehrs so she can sprawl a bit. "It's supposedly about tools, but that's not what it's really about, but they can't see it." She then shrugs a little, grinning a ruefully. "What can you do? And nope, twenty hours until arrival. We're coming in as a kitty-ship. We are going to get our stiff and go explore some scary, dark worlds though. Ash zones."
"Finally!" Yue says. "I've never been able to find anyone crazy enough to take me into one before."
"Are they like the Forbidden Zones?" Katie asks Tasha. "Full of crystal crab monsters and volcanoes?"
"The crazy train has all the best stops," Tasha retorts, then sticks her tongue out at Yue before turning to Katie. "Well, less 'the sky turns crazy' and more 'someone a long time ago murdered everything in them and now who-knows-what is going on there now.' I mean, they might have a crazy sky. Or there could be crazy murderbot civilizations or what's left of them. Library fragments. Pirates. Pirates we don't know. Treasure. Pirate treasure. Killbot treasure. Treasure that killbots. Pirate killbots. That sort of thing."
"And plagues," Yue claims. "Don't forget the plagues. Plagues that turn you into pirate killbots."
"I like the new look for the ship, Tasha," Katie says, getting away from the strange direction Tasha and Yue have gone into. "Very sensuous."
"I'm /already/ kind of a pirate /and/ a killbot, so it's /you/ all who should be worried!" Tasha lifts her fingers and wiggles them, presumably in a style a lazy killbot might be inclined to were it also disinclined from sitting up. She turns to Katie and nods. "You can probably thank Kaa for that, and Moka for it not being /rediculous/. It looks very Khattan, doesn't it? And more importantly, very /not something else." She then squints. "You're thinkung /things/ about my ship, aren't you. Kaa gets that look, /too/."
"Well.. aren't you thinking them too?" Katie asks. "Or would that be cheating?"
"You two have yet to see the really sexy technology out there," Yue claims, and uses Katie's distraction to try and get more attention from Liza.
"I know what you think, "Tasha, haven't you had sex with one or more robots?" But See Mel is my reflection, and we're kind of each other, so really it's not cheating and it's probably not other things because it's also my body. And it's not because Mel is a robot, because Mel looks like a Vartan in headspace. I'm not actually attracted to ships and robots and such. I lust after them because I like explosions, power, and gadgets and I likethem even better when they're mine. There's a reason I'm an honorary Titanian." Tasha lays back again, wings stretching out so mucb the fligth feathers begin to space out wider. "I've traveled through time and seen a gun the size of a universe and all of space and time, you know. I am kind of disappointed I can't have robot arms or a tail that shoots lasers or something. Apparently that's illegal."
"Also very inconvenient going through security scanners," Yue points out. "Women already have enough high maintenance body parts as it is, so why add a mechanic to the list of people that get to fiddle with your bits?"
"I like the power and control you get from a nice machine," Katie says. "And yes, there's a sexual aspect to that. Especially the motorcycles. I never got to have a pony as a girl."
"I think the Titanians just liked things that they could fight with and blow up and put back together," Liza offers.
"My parts are perfectly not high maintenance," Tasha insists, folding her arms now. "And there's always a reason for more arms. Or more wings! With thrusters. I mena, what use are my wings in these metal boxes Terrans love so much? And in space? And in skies without gravity?" And then she snorts. "Well I like those too, but mostly because I like being able to do more. Or, I don't know, I just like them. As a Titanian, I am allowed to not explain anything and break or build whatever I want."
"Broomsticks work fine in freefall environments, and you can also hit people with them as a bonus," Yue says. "And nobody looks at you funny if you cackle like a witch! Well.. that's not true, actually. Cackling always draws looks. But there's no telling what will actually be found in an Ash Zone. Old battlefields can be expected to have wreckage, but there's no way of knowing if you're going into a battlefield or.. something else. A graveyard, maybe."
"Ugh, I hope we don't have to fight more ghosts," Tasha complains, eyes rolling. "Have you ever fought a ghost? You can't argue with them, and you can't kill them without some special rules or magic or whatever-you-probably-don't-have and they're relentless because they don't have squishy bodies. I have fought ghosts, with a sword. It was fun, I mean, but also exhausting." She sucks in a deep breath, exhahles, then waggles ehr fingers again. "You're all required to put on your uniforms, too. Make me look good, you know the drill. Uh. Crewmembers and 'active duty' personnel get code nicknames, all based on some old Terran game Gabriel told me about. It's very symbolic, I was told. I'm Black Rook, Katie is Black Queen, I don't know if you want one Yue, uh, Shojo is Black Knight ... Gabriel is White King. There's a list."
"Maybe I could be White Bishop," Yue suggests. "I'm an advisor, but not strictly speaking a civilian one, assuming White pieces are those with Galactic backgrounds and Black ones are those with Primus backgrounds?"
"Uh, mostly it's how evil I think someone is or because I think it sounds fitting for some other reason." Tasha gives a little shrug. "I was going to make Jonas White Bishop because he's a doctor and doctors seem 'bright' to me, and he's supportive. There's no Black Imp chess piece though, so I guess you can be Black Bishop."
"Imp, eh?" Yue asks, raising an eyebrow. She can't turn to face Tasha without losing her backrub position though. "I suppose the call-signs only really matter for off-ship missions though, where someone might be listening."
"Yah, that. That's why I didn't want to use a real system, and wnet with what occured to me, so they can't use the system against us. I'm not one of the most important pieces either, so it's supposed to be confusion to an outsider." Tasha sits up then, smoothing out her clothes and then looking up. "Well, I'm going to go do some planning, maybe take a nap, play with Blaze. Try to think of what you need or what we may need, because we won't have another chance to get it after we depart Caltrop again."
For those aboard Dark Horse, two days had passed. That turned out to equal nine days on Caltrop. Time enough for Mr. I to arrange for an office, apartment and the fancy calling cards and for Miss N to secure the rest of their clothing and extra communication gear as well as set up a company bank account. Tracking down Hakeber, Lacci and their erstwhile chaperone would require calling them however, since they hadn't been checking in with Invention or Nessy.
"I'm glad Aaron was with them, or else I'd be a lot more worried." Tasha pauses, then lifts her pointer finger on her taloned hand. "But I am a little worried. Both Aaron and Hake should know better, and Aaron is responsible enough to know that we would expect them to and we would worry. There's a possibility something is wrong." After biting her lip, Tasha picks up her datapad and stares at it. "I'm going to contact them. Gabriel, Yue, Mr. I and Miss N? See about supplies and the prep work. Kaa? Katie? Shojo? With me, if we have to find the others. Moka, you have watch, but take it easy too."
It took some time for Kaa to get ready to leave, but soon the small force was inside the Outpost proper. And 'force' was a good description, given their combined fighting abilities and Tasha's mood. Now it just came to either calling them. Aaron and Hakeber didn't have the new comm systems, just their datapads.
"Here goes. I'm starting with Aaron first, if anyone's got a handle on things it'd be him. If he's not answering, then things look that much worse." Tasha stares at her datapad for a moment moment, having manuvered the party to just inside the station proper and off the docking spokes. "Datapad, Aaron. Aaron, answer me please."
The communications window opened, and once more was filled with too much of Aaron's face and not enough of his surroundings. The buck looked miserable - but then he usually looked that way, regardless of circumstances. "YOU'RE BACK! FINALLY!" he shouted. And still there was so much mechanical noise accompanying his voice that it was nearly drowned out. Lapi's are very good at shouting.
Aaron can see Tasha's ears lay back and her muzzle roll up in a wince, as if the force of the shout had actually blown part of her face back. "Aaron," she begins in a too-calm, too-authoritative manner he's certainly not used to hearing from Tasha, " ... what happened, where are you, and is Hake okay? And Lacci."
"WE'RE IN THE JUNKYARD!" Aaron shouts in reply. Then turns to look to his right, which causes his black left ear to fall across the camera pickup for a moment. "WHAT?" he shouts to someone else. "ARE YOU SURE?" The ear is removed and Aaron shouts to Tasha, "WE'RE IN THE SALVAGE YARD. APPARENTLY THERE IS A DIFFERENCE!"
"Uh, Kaa, could you locate the salvage yard?" Tasha begins to walk, though not with any destination yet as she doesn't know where the Salvage Yard is yet. "We're on our way. Just stay there and we'll come by and get you."
"It's in the west spire," Kaa says, and starts towards the central hub of the massive structure. "Where we bought the old shuttles."
Tasha angles her own wandering to match Kaa's, moving up along side him. "Hokay, well, that's where we're going. They don't sound like there's a problem, but be ready just in case. And keep an eye out for anything we may need." She waves Shojo and Katie to bring up the rear, then they're off.
"We should take the tube-tram if it's going to be a long walk," Katie suggests, as one of the tube stations is coming up. "Better chance of catching them there, right?"
"Unless it's flying, I am all for fatser ways to go places." Tasha approaches the tube ancranes her neck, looking at how the tube extends up and in to the strange curve of the station's interior. "In we go." She steps forward with the party, leading the way.
The tube system isn't something that's been added on - it's part of the actual Sifran structure. Which means the only sense of motion comes from the scenery moving past outside of the tube rather than from the car itself. Since it doesn't come with seats or controls this is probably for the best. It's several stops before they get to the hub, where the Branch Library and embassies are. From there it's just walking to the tube going up the proper spire. Only the North Spire is used for general docking and business - the West Spire is for cargo, gas processing and the Salvage Yard which takes up most of the space. It sprawls about, the labyrinth of shop-sized spaces used for storage or display of any number of things, while the more open spaces have larger machines. The outer docking ledges no doubt hold used spacecraft, such as the shuttles. It's a massive place to try and find three people in.
And so Tasha uses a very old trick which is a very new trick to her: Triangulation. She and Katie form one party while Kaa and Shojo form the other and somewhere out in the Salvage Yard is Aaron's datapad. All the datapads have locator functions, beacons she made sure were included for emergencies, her own datapad included. The young woman has had too many brushes with disaster to ever think to leave them out, and expects the unexpected. "Hokay, lets keep in contact and head out. Any group should be able to locate any of the others, the pads will do the math work." It's said mianly for Katie and Shojo, but also to jog Tasha's memory of the procedure. "First team to find them gets a box of donuts, and see if you can find anything we might need along the way."
Five minutes in and Katie admits, "I have no idea what I'm looking at here, aside from the rocket motors." Indeed there is a lot of stuff, and the maze doesn't help, especially when the whole area is on the inside of a giant cone. Noise, however, is not a constant.
"I thought maybe you'ld just like to see it, and, well, Shojo and Kaa haven't had a chance to associate much. I'm hoping they'll be friends." Having to keep her attention on her pad, Tasha can't look around s much as she'd likem but she does manage to catch glimpses and occassionally stop to outright stare at something. "I'm not really sure what most of this is, either, but I wanted to try and figure it our myself. There's only so much being reminded of how little I know or understand I can take. Plus, it's fun, and they can't see me make any mistakes!"
"Mmmm," Katie says, glancing at a small, organized mountain of what might be miniaturized factories or complicated sewing machines. "I keep expecting to find typewriters," she says. Then they finally reach one of the central causeways, and can get a better line-of-sight towards their quarry. Which may be in a cluster of large vehicles that look to shiny to be salvage, and are also in the purple-and-red colors of Clan Erinyes.
"I think that other one is part of a reactor core, and that's obviously a overspace warp nacelle, even if it's missing everything inside. You won't find any stators, though, unless they still work." Tasha lifts ehr gaze to peer down the long walk, then points at it using the pinky of the hand that holds the pad. "There, I think they're probably there. Those are Clan Eyrines colors, so it makes sense Lacci might be drawn to them, and Hake, uh, well Hake would probably go along if pulled along." She begins that way, but quickens her pace now that there's nothing to accidentally walk in to or trip over.
The pads show Kaa and Shojo closing in on the same location, but Tasha and Katie reach it first. The big carriers are full of.. stuff. Much of it with obvious damage. A big armored Vartan is glaring down at another Vartan wearing overalls, and Lacci is beside him in her own armor. Hakeber's tail can be seen wagging from amidst the 'junk' in the nearer carrier, while Aaron also seems to be in on whatever argument or discussion is going on between the Vartan men.
Some sort of heavy machinery is being moved around nearby as well, the likely source of the loud noise that came over the communication channel.
"Well this should be fun. I don't often get to arrive at arguements," Tasha whispers to Katie, slowing her approach and walking to stop behind Lacci and Aaron some good twenty feet out. She notes Hakeber's tail, glad to see her friend is apparently intact or at least her butt and tail are, and then nods to Shojo and Kaa as they arrive as well. "I'm not sure what's going on, lets watch and see."
The argument largely involved the Vartans waving electronic clipboards at one another until things seemed about to boil over, until Lacci punched her fellow Clansman in the ribs or Aaron tried to physically restrain Mr. Overalls. Things were loud enough for Tasha to get the gist though: Big Clan Man had to sell off this load of junk and and had a target price for the whole batch. Overalls didn't want that deal.. either he picked out which items to take and what he was going to offer for them, or Big Clan Man had to severely reduce his asking price for the lot.
"I liked the punching part. I haven't punched anyone in a while, did you know that?" Tasha tells Katie in a conversational tone as she continues to watch, wishing she had a drink and maybe a snack. "I miss punching people."
"When was the last time?" Katie asks. "Was it in a bar?" Her eyes wander to Hakeber's wiggling backside, and she adds, "What has she gotten into?"
"I don't know, it's been a while. It might have been a bar. I think I've stabbed or blasted people more than punched people lately, which shows my increased sophistication." She spots the wiggling tail again as well, following Katie's gaze, and so begins walking that way. When she gets close enough to call out without yells, she says, "Haaaakeeebeeeer, what are you doooooing?"
"Ouch!" Hakeber swears after a definitely metallic clunking sound is heard, followed by even more wiggling as she tries to extricate herself from the shelf of components she was tunneling under. "Tasha! You're finally back! And.. damn it Katie, why do you have to look so good in your uniform? My uniform doesn't look like that, does it? Oh! I was.. uh.. looking.. innocently.. through this.. uh.. stuff," she claims, but can't hide that wagging tail.
"We both know you're not as innocent as you appear, and you don't appear very innocent," Tasha remarks, stepping forward and hunching over, offering Hakeber her hand. "If you're stealing, I didn't see it. If you stole something for me, I definitely didn't see anything. So, what's got your tail going?" She then leans forward a bit closer and adds, "I know, right? Isn't it unfair? Katie, I mean."
Hakeber just gestures for Tasha to bend down and look through the path that she'd managed to excavate so far.
"Remember, I kick." But Tasha does so, carefully lowering herself down and trying her best to avoid dirtying herself and thus the displeasure of her small but quietly fierce personal assistant. She makes a exagerated gasp. "Hake, you found the darkness. It was under here all the time!" A pause, then, "What am I looking for or at?"
"Oh.. just wait for your eyes to adjust," Hakeber says. "I couldn't clear away more.." Tasha's eyes do adjust quickly enough, but it still takes a moment to really figure out what she's looking at. It's definitely something she's seen before. An armored hoof, just like one of Melchior's or her own environment armor. But it's more than twice as big as that of her armor - bigger than any Vartan hoof, armored or not.
"Hrum," goes Tasha in that thoughtful manner that foretells trouble. She doesn't say anything else for several seconds, then, "I want to see what this is. Lets see about digging it out."