The prize that Egypt had to collect turned out to be a 'Karaoke Kane' - a golden rod far too short to be a cane, topped with a replica of Egypt's gaping-mouthed head. The back of the head had the microphone and holographic controls, with an ultrasonic virtual speaker in the mouth. The bat hugged it to herself all the way back to the ship.
Tasha walks along with a little spring in her step. She isn't exactly sure why, bit watching Egypt sing her heart out and hug her special prize sparked something in her she'd quite forgotten about in the rush to be a leader and be taken seriously: the desire to take a risk and vent, this time through music. She decides to give it a shot at some point, when none of the others are around to tease her or worse realize she's venting.
"Well we're all done here, then. The others are heading up and we'll be leaving in a little while. Now's your last chance to buy anything or get a souvineer," Tasha remarks, hands going behind her head as she walks. "If you see a place that sells fish tacoes, let me know?"
"I don't know if the fish they have here are for eating," Hakeber comments, but Egypt actually bursts out laughing for some reason.
The hybrid gives the Eeee a funny look, then she shrugs her shoulders. "I wouldn't know, I've never been here before. Besides, it's just a thought. Next stop is Phryxus. Lava fish, maybe? I don't know."
"I don't know anything beyond it being some sort of Celestial outpost," Hakeber says. "I mean, we could just look it up, but then it wouldn't be a surprise."
"It sounds friendly though," Liza offers.
"And where's the fun in that?" The hybrid nods to Hakeber, then drops her hands before reaching down to scoop her up in a huge. She carries her along infront of her like a stuffed animal. "So it sounds friendly? I hope it looks friendly, that's usually a better indicator."
The next system is that of Barnard's Star (to the Terrans) and Dragon Eye to the Celestials. The other Galactics may have their own names, but they aren't around to explain them. So far, Tasha has seen some strange worlds, with the majority being deliberately strange. What she sees as they approach Phryxus is.. still pretty odd though.
Phryxus is a naturally occurring double planet. And while double planets aren't super rare, ones so close together that they look like eggs are unheard of. Both lobes are the same size and mass, and so close together that they're designated as a Roche-world, named for an ancient Terran scientist that determined the closest distance a satellite could approach a planet without being pulled apart by the gravitational field. Phryxus A and B were right at the edge of one another's Roche limits, separated by a gap of little more than a hundred kilometers. Phryxus Station was a ring that sat right at the barycenter of the two planets orbit. And while one was a gray rock, the other was covered in a turquoise ocean.
"Huh," goes Tasha, who has deigned to help by taking up the navigation console. She's in her uniform, fresh from a shower only a half hour earlier. She cocks her head to the side at the planetary duo. "I kind of like it. The view form the ground must be really amazing. Do they share atmosphere?"
"The have only thin ones," Yue explains. "The liquid isn't water, but a weird mix of hydrocarbons and silicates. The Celestials are trying to find out if it's natural or not, and what special properties it may have."
"I guess one of its special properties is 'no swimming', so I'll leave my swimsuit on board." Tasha glances over at Gabriel and perks her ears. "How's the Roche-effect impacting the ship?"
"No telling what the Maelstrom is like around here, but since we're pretending to use hyperdrive we came out well away from it," Gabriel notes. "I'd expect some frame-dragging effects, but not sure if they'd be measurable."
"I want to fly th-through the ring!" Kaa notes. "It is an urge."
"It is silly," Moka whistles back. "The ring isn't even on f-fire!"
"Hmmm," goes Tasha, who then sits up and frowns down at Kaa, leaning over the controls. "If they fine us or if you dent my ship, I'm going to take it out of your fin, Kaa!"
This earns Tasha a raspberry sound, but the Dark Horse smoothly merges into the provided approach vector that will take it to docking section of the ring instead. The structure itself is very pretty, with translucent panels arranged to make them look like scales, so that the whole structure gives the impression of a snake biting its own tail.
"Interesting design, I wonder what it means to the Celestials. I doubt it's 'sometimes we bite our own tails,' in a metaphor for, uh ... drinking too much, I guess?" And so Tasha shrugs, dropping back in her stea. She had remained half-standing to watch the approach, not getting to the bridge as often as she used to and wanting to enjoy it. "I wonder if they sell models?"
The docking hangar is inside of the 'head' of the serpent, but not through the mouth at least. It's through the ear-hole instead. There are not many other ships - not surprising, since Dark Horse may be the biggest one that could still fit, making the others little more than shuttles and what are probably landing craft. As the ship prepares to dock, Katie asks, "Well.. who gets to wake up the nanny and tell her we're here?"
Tasha grunts, pausing as she climbs out of her command seat. "I guess that's me, speaking of snakes eating things. Try not to ruin my manicured hooves if you have to pull me out of her head?" The young woman continues on, hopping to the deck with a bit of a clatter, then stretching before beginning forward. "Set leadership skills to maximum, evasive pattern: don't get head chewed on."
The guest cabin is surprisingly cool, meaning Parsu has probably been in low-metabolism mode for most of the voyage, and Tasha doesn't recall her ever coming out to eat.. and she's seen both of the kittens running around, so the snake hasn't been out foraging. She's still coiled up around her stasis case containing the child though.
Tasha closes the hatch and, making sure she's well back, clears her throat. "We have arrived, madam nanny. You may arise, collect your snakeling, and depart at your earliest convenience. Alternatively, you may remain on board until our moderate inconvience."
A pale membrane slowly pulls back to reveal one of Parsu's eyes, followed by a flick of blue tongue. "Pleasssse warmer," she hisses softly.
Tasha pivots to peer at the temperature controls, then punches in a new number. After a moment, she punches the 'increase' area on the touch screen several degrees warmer just to be safe. It makes her realize how little she understands about Celestials; in some ways she's had more contact with their machines and gods than the beings themselves, at least at an interpersonal level. After pivoting back around, she arches her brows. "Better?"
"Better," Parsu agrees, and begins to slowly unwind. Tasha has seen the kittens stretch, seeming to do it one section at a time, but that's nothing compared to a Naga stretching and warming up. "Did you sssay we have arrived?" she asks. "At Phryxusss?"
"Snake-ring having a nibble at its tail, between two space eggs? That we have." Tasha reaches back and taps over to the local space display, knowing the motion by heart after having spend many weeks aboard ship. "We just slid in to port and will be docked momentarily. Not a lot of ships local, by the way, if you were worried about that. It's all just shuttles in the dock, nothing in local space nearby."
"Good," the Naga claims, finally getting the last of her bulk warmed up. "Big shipsss would worry me," she says, and finally looks at the display. "Thisss isss not what I expected."
Tasha blinks, looks to the screen to make sure she didn't accidentally punch up her last holovid (which would have been very embarassing considering the content), then looks back. "You didn't, um, know what it would be like? I guess you didn't have a lot of time to prepare, did you?" She considers for a moment, then adds, "Do you need any help?"
"I still have to pay your for the voyage, but I would appreciate sssome.. muscle?" the woman asks. "Body guards, I mean. Extra paranoid if possssible."
"Hmm, it's not a service anyone has asked for before, but maybe we can do that. Let me check quick." Tasha half turns, then hits the intercom button, watches as it recognizes her, then taps Gabriel's listing. "Cap'n, do we provide muscle? The scary kind, with weapons. For others, I mean, not for ourselves."
"Define 'weapons'," Gabriel replies. "We aren't supposed to be armed on the station. I suppose the Phins' sasers count as tools though. And we have lots of beat-em-up style muscle. Aside from the dolphins, Shojo and I look intimidating. Aaron and Yue do not, but are dangerous. How visible does Ms. Broccoli want her protection to be?"
"Well, how about it?" Tasha asks, turning to face the reptile. She steps to the side so Gabriel can see the response as well as hear it.
"Can I have both?" the serpent asks, which probably isn't a surprise.
Tasha turns back to the display and shrugs with her hands; you heard the snake. "I guess I can suit up, too? I don't want to risk Kaa when something might happen, especially away from the ship. So, me, Shojo ... and whoever else wants to tag along? Did you want to come, or take the day off?"
"I should be there to balance you out," Gabriel claims. "We've got our other passenger to disembark, after all."
"We can have Yue and whoever wants to go with her walk with our singer," Tasha agrees. She returns to the Naga and nods. "Well there you go, muscle. That'll be extra for the risk, of course, and the delay. Give us some time to get ready and we'll escort you over."
The crew moves in three distinct groups. Lacci, Shojo and Tasha keep close to Parsu and her package, with Gabriel, Hakeber and Jonas making up a non-flying group that can move easily through the jungle-gym structure. Katherine and Egypt form the core of the third group, since the two are both dressed in shiny jumpsuits. Yue and Aaron stick close, especially since the Lapi is stuck carrying the Eeee's frog-like fumitory Kiz'zeek'ra.
Liza is back near the dock, acting as a lookout of sorts. The place seems built to accommodate for more people than are present, but those who are seem focused on the activity near the center of the ring, where space-suited figures are setting up odd equipment.
Tasha wore her Vartan space suit -- the standard, if now antique, model -- and not the revamped 'Mk. II' Magi piloting model she's been working on with Jonas. This lets her be fashionable and slightly armored, as well as providing the magnet for magnetic walking. "Well, I'd give this place a five or six out of Tasha's Ominous Planets & Things Rating, or if you want to be brief it's ominosity, so there's a mild-to-moderate sense of danger and strangeness. Of course, that's why we're with you." Turning the young woman frowns at all the activity, which tends to increase ominosity by degrees. "Do you know what's going on with the machinery, Parsu?"
"No," the Naga replies, looking about nervously, and presumably for her contact. So far everyone they've seen is looking toward the activity instead of anyone else, but it's a big ring and the contact could be farther away from the docking area. Egypt is also watching the activity outside, and checking a display on her wrist every so often.
"I kind of want to know what that is out here, usually people stare at us more," Tasha asides to Lacci, then nods her towards the onlookers. "Would you be a dear and ask for us, Lacci?"
The other armored Vartan looks uncertain. "We're the only non-Naga that I've seen so far," she points out, but figures it should be safe enough to ask. She drifts over to a large Naga threaded through the metal poles that make up the jungle-gym structure. She has to use her translator, since what comes out of her doesn't match her beak movements. A few moments later and she's floating back towards Tasha. "They're waiting for a miracle," she explains. "I think. I don't entirely trust the translator. I think.. it may be a religious thing? This station looks a bit more like a temple than a research base, now that I think about it.."
Egypt and her escorts have negotiated the forest of pipes and the Eeee is floating just past it, facing the unobstructed view, as she takes one of the tentacles from the fumitor.
"O-okay, temples add two points to the ominosity scale, and miracles are at least five points if they happen. Two if they don't. It makes people upset." She turns to observe the gathering, then frowns at Egypt in what feels like the thousandth time since she came on board. "You don't think our crazy Eeee lady is up to something, do you?" Usually, they're the ones up to things. Tasha isn't quite sure how to handle other people up to things without her, especially when they're paying other people. "Er, well, lets keep going. The others can watch her."
As they move along the curve, Tasha catches sight of Egypt pressing the sharp tip of the tentacle.. what is usually the pipe part.. into the base of her own skull. She even seems to be offering to do the same for Katie and Aaron, who.. do not even try to be polite about declining.
"Do you, um, have any idea what sort of religion is involved here?" Tasha pulls out her datapad and pings the ship, hoping some database or other on board has an answer. She looks up. "Still no contact, Parsu? Do you know who we're looking for?"
"I will recognize him," Parsu says. The ship's database doesn't have anything about the station being a religious installation. And the images don't match with what it looked like from outside, beyond the general shape. If this is some sort of special event, it might explain why it was made to look so gaudy from outside though.
Tasha just shakes her head, deciding (as others have long suspected) she may just be a magnet for weird events. As surely as her feet are sticking to the floor, she sticks to strange happenings. "Wellllllll, I'm sure he's around here somewhere. It's not that big a station and we are an obvious arrival. How many Khattan Yachts show up here, anyway?"
"There must be larger ships in the system somewhere," Lacci notes. "Most of those shuttles are long-range." As they continue to about 30-degrees off from the port, Tasha hears Gabriel in her earpiece saying, "Two Nagas just came through the floor ahead of you."
"I wish I had known that earlier Lacci," Tasha chides, giving the Vartan a look. She seems about to say something else but is interupted by the signal, which she quickly responds to. "Send me a picture?" She waits, then shows the image to Parsu. "See anyone you know?"
"No..." the Naga replies uncertainly. "Familiar, but not as I remember."
More telling, perhaps, is that another Naga emerges carrying an identical case to the one Parsu has.
"A disguise, maybe. We should wait for them, but act with caution. I'll walk up with you, Lacci, Shojo, follow behind and maybe circle around." Tasha steps in closer to Parsu, turning and walking with her in the newcomer's direction.
The other group of Celestials begins to climb into the jungle-gym, heading closer to the transparent section. "We should do the sssame," Parsu hisses to Tasha.
Tasha eyes the jungle gym, which seems to her like a a flyer's nightmare tangle, but she nods anyway. "I'll follow as best I can. Lets go. If they're not who you expect, you let me know immediately." With a nod she continues onward, angling on to this new course.
At least they can stick to the outer edges, which make it easier for Tasha. The other group is going through the middle, since they don't have wings to worry about, and reach the inner part of the ring faster. Aside from them, the Vartans and the Karnors on the 'floor', there isn't anyone else nearby.
The space strikes Tasha as both good and bad. Good for anyone nearby who might be dragged in to a fight, good for fighting, yet also bad in the sense if feels like an ambush. Or, someone not wanting to be observed. She hopes it's the latter, but continues forward undaunted. "They seem like they picked an empty area for a reason, that could go either way," she asides in whisper.
As they make their way closer, a loud hiss sounds through the station. An alarm of some sort? It's almost immediately after that when Tasha sees a 'signal lost' icon flash in her vision: the comms are down, followed by a dimming of the station lights.
"Oh great," mutters Tasha, who reaches back to make sure her helmet is secure, just in case. It is, and she shakes her head. "Well I think whatever is going to happen is about to, otherwise there'd probably be more people running -- slithering? -- for emergency, uh, things. I guess these guys up ahead want to see it, too." She keeps going.
There's a definite vibration felt through the metal of the jungle-gym now, and light coming through the transparent hull turns blue-green. Outside, an alien ocean is flowing through the center of the station torus. There might be glowing shapes inside, moving too fast to focus on.. or it could be a trick of the sunlight shining through. The ocean covering Phryxus-B seems to be moving across the gap between the worlds, relocating to Phryxus-A. It is certainly distracting.
Tasha's brow furrows at the sight; it's hard not to look at. Besides being unique, it's also very shiny. "That's ... new," she remarks, fighting to return her glancing eyes back to the task at hand. "Maybe even alien oceans get bored sticking around too long? It reminds me of a hourglass."
There's motion behind Tasha.. but it's just Lacci and Shojo drifting towards them. The hourglass metaphor seems apt, as the process is certainly taking its time, and somehow disrupting certain technologies in the process. The other Nagas are moving towards them now.
"A giant alien space clock. Or, a random bit of ocean in a gigantic, random universe. One universe in maybe an infinity, where anything can probably happen." It's not said to anyone in particular, but a commentary on the event, and her travels in general. She isn't quite sure why she said it, either, except that it seemed appropriate. She advances towards the other party and then holds out her hand: stop. She taps her translator, then says, "That's close enough you two. Please identify yourselves."
The other Nagas don't reply, but the one in the lead.. changes. Or rather, the patterns and colors of his scales do. It's difficult to tell it happened at all in the fluctuating blue-green light. But Tasha thinks Parsu's posture relaxes. "They are.. who I am ssseeking," the Naga-nanny hisses quietly to Tasha.
"Alright," breathes Tasha, who relaxes in turn. She reaches over and pats Parsu's arm. "I guess this is good-bye, then. I hope you enjoyed traveling with us, don't forget the bill."
The flickering light helps to hide the exchange. Parsu and the other case-bearer don't exchange cases.. but it looks like they somehow swap places without moving. The light may be such to fool other Naga, but not Vartans: Tasha knows that Parsu and the other very similar female Naga swapped body patterns and scale colors. They take their time moving between groups though. The ocean 'migration' takes several hours to complete, enough time to play a slow-motion version of the classic shell game. The Parsu that ends up next to Tasha isn't the one that flew out with them from Caltrop.
"I guess we'll be traveling together a little longer, then," Tasha asides to the new Parsu, seeing no reason not to play along. Her expression has remained neutral throughout. Without knowing the plot, she's tried to keep her cool. Remain neutral, give nothing away. "What's your destination, now?"
"Wherever you are going next," the new Parsu says. Her accent is different, so she sounds more educated, somehow.
"We'll watch the show, then it's back to the ship." Tasha looks around a moment, then settles herself down to watch the ocean finish up its traversal, arms folded. "If you want to come along, we'll be returning to Caltrop after."
"I can make my way from there," not-Parsu says. Lacci and Shojo don't add anything.. but they're also mesmerized by the spectacle outside.
"Alright," says Tasha, sounding distracted and a bit far away as she watches the alien ocean continue on. It really is mezmerizing, now that she can finally relax enough to stare at it. As covers go, this is a hard one to beat. "I think it's about cycles," she notes, a few seconds later and out of the blue. "Back and forth. Alien. Mysterious. Like gods, standing for something even if it's just what we think it stands for. Cycles. A big circle, like the station."
"Sutaranakh," the new Naga says. "Goddess of the sea and life." Maybe the fact that double-planets are egg-shaped holds extra significance for the Celestials.
"I remember that name." Tasha had seen their statues in what feels like a long, long time ago. Back when she was a different person, before so much happened. She wonders what that person would think of this one, and all she had to go through to be here. She thinks there's probably a metaphorical comparison in there, somewhere. She also thinks the sight is pretty. "One egg to another, life to life?"
"It's just a bizarre natural phenomenon," new-Parsu replies. "One can find metaphor in anything if you wish to find one. It is pretty though, isn't it?"
"Very," agrees Tasha, who smiles despite herself. She waits there a little longer; she can spare the time to at least watch this possibly natural miracle play out. Isn't she supposed to enjoy these things? Everything else can wait a while longer.
Back at the ship, Katherine is carrying a nearly comatose Egypt, and Aaron is giving the stink-eye to the fumitor that he's carrying. But before they depart (and after new-Parsu has given Tasha a credit chip with a substantial amount on it), a very much all-business if monotone Egypt asks to purchase a one-way ticket back to Caltrop.
"I don't see why not, other than the fact that whoever was after 'you' may still be after 'you'. But we already discussed that risk, so welcome aboard. Again. In case you don't remember the layout, your cabin is this way," Tasha tells new-Parsu, whom she expects is likely quite a bit more dangerous than the last Parsu. "Maybe you can show me the little one? I bet he or she's really cute."