Futuristic Transsolar

[InsanEleven]

Saami quietly turned around at the sound of Marshall's voice, nearly expecting trouble. How had it been that he hadn't sense the man coming closer before? Perhaps it was because the rancid stench of alcohol he had used to trace him no longer preceded him. Normally he'd smelled him long before he could hear him, but that tactic had now become obsolete. Instead of trouble, all he saw was the man just quickly turning around and bailing. Was he that afraid? It appeared that at this point Marshall was acting more like he was some unspeakable doomsday monster, only the mentioning of which would curse you.


Whatever it was he had done to give himself such a status, Saami truly wished he knew. Because then he could keep doing it. It was very effective at keeping knives from being swung close to his face. And even as a robot he'd find that rather distracting while calculating orbits.


However, he had more important dealings than a delusional mercenary, so without further questioning he continued on his way to the bridge. Whatever was going on with Marshall, Saami felt it didn't quite deserve a resource as precious as his curiosity. Rather he'd spend that energy on a few more mathematical problems; so he just started on those while walking. By the time he sat down on his chair in the bridge, he already had finished three.

 

[Dragongal]

Adira heard a blip from her tablet and looked down. She hadn't realized that she had started day-dreaming, and had gotten completely lost in thought. Her lack of sleep didn't help with that, of course. Looking ovre her tablet, Adira was surprised to see that the meeting with Marshall and Saami was over. And she'd gotten no death notices, so that was good. Of course, with Woods in the room, it probably wouldn't have gone that far. She knew that he was having a rough day, too, so she wouldn't have been surprised if she had gotten a notice saying that he'd punched Marshall. After a moment of deliberation, she typed out a message to send him. "How're you? How did it go?" In the end she sent the same message to Saami as well. She hadn't spoken to him since he walked in on her and Woods holding hands, but she was confident that he wouldn't do anything about it.

 

[Marianne]

Saundary caught a gold earlier on, however, she woke up well. This pleased her as she detangled herself from her sheets and tended to her usual morning routine. She was in the process of combing her slightly damp hair when she caught the monitor beside her miniature cuisine flickering. Walking over, she tapped the grey screen as it came to life, revealing that the Captain, Adira herself, had wanted to talk to her. Saundary's face had remained impassive a moment before she braved herself for the confrontation. Saundary wasn't sure what it was about, but she had to be aware that it may, or may not be, about Saami.

"Hopefully it isn't, right?"

Carefully, she ran her hands through her hair before securing her suit with a zipper and grabbing her holoscreen*. It took the half alien female an estimated five minutes to meet up with her Captain at the designated room. Her captain had her legs kicked up and her focus elsewhere that she just sat down rather than introduce herself. "You called?" Her voice held a soft ring, and her curiosity was evident as her brows rose - hiding behind her fringe.

*holoscreen - basically a tablet that is relatively thin, thicker than a piece of paper, but thinner then our modern tablets. Possibly fifteen to twenty printing sheets thick with a silver frame holding it in place. In Sandy's case, it is used for her to carry work everywhere she went. It isn't a government object, more-so a gift that she received from her father as a goodbye present. Almost everything she has is from family. However, it's not like she is the only one on board with one.
​

 

[Dragongal]

Adira looked up from her tablet and took her feet off of the table. "Indeed I did. Sorry about any inconvenience, but it's a bit of a mandatory follow-up. There were two reported incidents in which... you were involved. The one yesterday, and then one the night before. You're not in any trouble, I'll say that now. But someone reported that you were seen in the hallways later the other night hugging Saami. Is that true?" Just how much did this girl know? "Also... anything you say here, it's not recorded."

 

[Marianne]

Saundary wasted no time replying with her cheeky self, "Yes, I had hugged him." However, she had no intention in telling the woman why. Despite their roles, Saundary had made a promise with Saami, and although Saundary was almost positive the Captain herself knew about him, why would she not, she was not going to toss the promise she had made with Saami off to the side because of this questioning.

 

[Dragongal]

Adira raised her eyebrows a bit. Well, that was blunt. "Alright. Well, the person also reported that Saami was crying, but that's for later discussion.... I got it on video that Saami sent me, but... what happened with Woods, why do you think it happened? You stepping in and Marshall talking to you?" Not only did she want Saundary's opinion on the incident, but her opinion on Marshall's actions as well, and an explanation for why Saundary got involved in the first place.

 

[Marianne]

Sandy straightened her shoulders as she thought about her words, carefully. "I stepped in because I had not appreciated how Marshall was treating my boss. Never mind the title, but no one should be treated the way they are no matter who, or what, they are - at least not in such a negative manner. It's uncalled for and unnecessary. Marshall talking to me was simply because I had got involved, anybody would do anything to provoke a reaction out of anybody, and his aim was a failure simply because Saami and I simply have a co-friendly relationship. I was intoxicated, he sought to it that I was returned to my quarters." And none of it was a lie, Sandy was, indeed, telling the truth.

 

[Dragongal]

Adira looked at Sandy and then nodded a bit. All of it went with the story, for the most part. In honest, Adira didn't want to stir up trouble. But she was more than willing to bet than Sandy knew. It was a risk to find out for sure though, and she wasn't about to take that step. "Well, that covers the mandatory questioning - again, sorry about that. Now, down to something more important." Adira paused and looked Sandy over for a moment. "Would you like to join the groundcrew?" After a moment she added, "It's dangerous, and it's not comfy, but I think we could use someone with a knack for the weather - that storm just proved it. You'd be tasked to continue tracking the weather even while we're on ground, but perhaps you could find something you couldn't see from above; maybe something nobody's dealt with before.

 

[BookWyrm]

Vince pulled out his tablet as he neared the infirmary. Seeing the message from Adira was enough to make him smile. He swiftly typed in his reply.


Everything went as expected. Marshall is still an asshole, Saami is still Saami. Me..well...I'm on my way to see Doc. Gotta get examined and all. Detox fuckin' sucks. Wouldn't mind some coffee and good company tonight, if you want.


Vince put his tablet away right as he entered the infirmary. Finding Doc was easy enough, but he couldn't help but wonder about the rest of the staff. "Reporting in for the exams as agreed. Uh," Vince raised an eyebrow as he looked at the rest of the medical staff. "Are they going to be here as well?"

 

[Marianne]

Sandy practically hopped out of her seat, but she gripped the arms of the chair and sat up straighter. Her legs tapped the ground in excitement as her eyes widened. "A-Are we serious? Are you serious?" The girl could barely contain her excitement. She practically squealed, but her voice caught in her throat as she managed to cough out, "Yes, I would love to," and inside she was practically cheering. She had wanted to hop and dance and twirl. Her chance, a small dream, was about to go into action, and she honestly couldn't wait for it - oh the likelihood of her getting distracted may or may not be high. However, she knew that if she was to keep the job, she had to stay concentrated. After what had felt like three minutes later - of hyperventilated excitement - she teasingly, yet professionally added, "Yes, ma'am," for her character required her to do so in spite of the modest protests her Captain may feed her.

​

 

[Dragongal]

Adira smiled at the girl's enthusiasm. It was always nice to have people on ground who wanted to be there. "Being on ground means you are going to have to up your physical training to add some fighting skills, and if, by chance, you gain higher ranking among ground crew that will mean more physical training as well as ranger training, but I think you've got the aptitude for it. I'll help you if needed, with the paperwork and the physical work. Perhaps eventually you could even join the group for meeting with delegates, ambassadors, new species, the like... not as glamorous as it sounds, mind." At that moment Adira received Woods' message and replied, Sounds good to me.

 

[InsanEleven]

Dr. Jones

​

With one gesture and a few words the rest of the medical staff disappeared to continue on other work that mysteriously happened to be on the other side of the infirmary. "Nope, and I have everything already set up in my office, if you would follow me?" Not waiting for an answer she lead Woods there, assuming he followed.


Chrice calmly checked over the already laid out equipment once more before starting the procedures to get the samples she needed. "You're a big boy, so I won't waste any time trying to tell you that this won't hurt." She hadn't even finished her sentence when she put the needle used for drawing blood in Woods' wrist. It would only be the first of many samples she needed, all to make sure that she completely understood how this organism inside of him worked. "We might be here for a while, I need to make sure I have everything I need to understand how you and your worm buddy work. Wouldn't want to start cutting in your chest only to have tentacles steal my scalpel..." This was her version of making small talk in the short moment she had to wait for the blood sample.

Saami

​

Saami had finished most of the initial calculations, and had been giving out directions to the navigation crew as to what their next targets were. Usually there would have been 3 man with him on the bridge for the afternoon shift. However, with Saundary gone off to her chat with the captain, he only had two people to delegate and work with. Even then things seemed awfully calm though, his orders and a simple yes or no the only things being said. Occasionally he asked for further clarification, but all in all things went extremely smooth. In fact they had been ahead of schedule the entire time, and these were just preliminary tasks to ensure the harder work would go equally well.


However, there was one important task scheduled to get done for this afternoon, except the most important asset in doing so was missing; their meteorologist. For their on ground mission he needed several sets of data, including predictions of the storms and the density of the atmosphere. A well timed blip of his message system showed up Adira's question asking about how the talks went, and he decided that he'd answer that question while walking to the room she kept his weather girl in. Without Saundary there wasn't that much left to be done anyway, nothing the two others couldn't handle on their own and otherwise he'd just help them from a remote distance. So it wouldn't matter if he had to wait outside.

 

[BookWyrm]

"Fuckin' A!" Vince clenched his right hand into a fist and held it tight. When the needle was finally removed he sighed and rubbed his wrist as he contained his desire to glare at Doc. "It's not a worm, or..at least...I don't think it is. Not anymore anyway. They inserted it into my body at the nape of my next so it could have direct access to my spine and brain." The comment about tentacles made Vince laugh, though she had a point. It was integrating into his body at a rapid pace, and if it felt threatened it might defend him and itself in some way. "I don't know how in the hell you are going to try and get a tissue sample from it."

 

[Marianne]

Saundary nodded her head, "Of course, of course! I don't mind, it's been a short while, but I love the use of firearms. I've been told once by my coach that I shouldn't go for the firearms unless they're necessary. She says that I can't be trusted with them, and i'm not quite sure what she had meant, but I believe it's due to her being a retired military soldier," now Sandy was just rambling. If the girl was to listen to herself, she would be positive that neither of this had made sense. However, she was happy, and she also had to rearrange her schedule, but that was fine! She was happy. "Or something," she trailed. "Any how, is that all Cap'n?" She was so energized, she was ready to throw her arms around just about anybody, including her Boss' Boss - Captain Adira - that she had nearly a difficulty in restraining her self. She still managed.

​

 

[Dragongal]

Adira chuckled and nodded. "Yes, that is all. You're up for our next trip to surface in about a week, so, plan accordingly. I'll fill out the paperwork and get everything settled. You're dismissed. Go have some fun after work. You earned it after catching that storm for us. Though, if I may suggest not getting drunk this time?" Adira was still smiling as she referenced Sandy's drunken antics in the lounge.

 

[Marianne]

Saundary nodded in understand and said no more, her cheeks flushed in color when her incident in the lounge was mentioned. "Of course, of course. Thank you so much," she called as she stood up and headed over to the door. She paused when it opened on its own, then stopped and turned as it would close when she stepped away. Inwardly battling herself, this continued for a couple of minutes - her walking back and forth - before Sandy made the decision to walk over to Adira and hug her as she sat before, officially, walking out.

The door closed behind her as she left.

Standing there, she looked at the ground. Sandy processed everything that had happened before hopping and twirling on her toes off to the side. She had almost missed Saami standing on the other side of the door, that she paused. Her cheeks were flushed pink, her hair was a mess, and her colored lips parted in bewilderment. "Ah," she gasped before chuckling bashfully, a wide smile on her visage as she sniffled in the midst of tucking a strand behind her ear.​

 

[InsanEleven]

Dr. Jones

​

Chrice looked over at her tools and smiled a bit wryly. "I've been thinking about that, but I haven't found a solution yet. Worst thing comes to worst a bone marrow sample would have to do." She finished taking a few other small samples before moving on to more invasive practices that included more needles and sharp items. "For now I'll try and see what I can find out about it just from what I can get like this." There could be microsamples to work with, that could provide enough information when combined with regular scans about how the symbiote behaved. She disliked the idea of having to cut the man open just to obtain such a sample, as he was in such an important position on the ship, but if necessary she would do it. "The only other way that comes to mind is simply cutting you open and forcefully taking it, but I am not sure how well that would work. It wouldn't be good for my image if the doctor herself put you out of order for a week."

Saami

​

Saami watched as Saundary passed him by, which he could only ascribe to her being scatterbrained in her elation. Normally she'd never have missed the chance to admire his hair after all, he knew that much about her. Still, the last few days he had been treating her solely robotic, knowing he couldn't make any slip-ups any more, especially not during his work when the remaining navigation crew was present.


"Miss Etrasmus, if you are not occupied or required elsewhere, I request you return to the bridge. There are several tasks that require your expertise." With a simple gesture he pointed her towards the bridge, soon after walking that way himself. This time he was sure to lead the way, not taking any chances of her getting lost again. If she managed to nearly miss him, he didn't doubt that she could surely manage to get herself lost.

 

[Dragongal]

Adira was no doubt surprised by Sandy's hug, but after the moment of shock, she smiled. Once Sandy left, Adira returned to her tablet. She had to find someone willing to help Sandy with weaponry now. Sure, she could do it herself, but things got busy sometimes. After a few moments, she checked the roster for the medical bay. Woods hadn't been marked in, which was good - it meant everything was still low-key. As Adira clicked back on her tablet, there was a sharp pain in her head and the room seemed to spin as darkness enclosed on her vision. She sat up and closed her eyes as she took slow, deep breaths, trying to keep from passing out. Luckily she succeeded, leaning back in her chair again a few minutes later. That had been a rather close one....

 

[BookWyrm]

Somewhere between Vince's body getting poked, cut, and probed, as well as the thought of getting laid open or a bone marrow sample taken, some mix of all that must have raised Vince's heart rate and agitated the symbiote. He felt a strange tingling sensation run throughout his body before he gave a short chuckle. "I think that might be a problem if it came down to it. I'm not sure how it would retaliate, but I don't think it likes the intent behind that procedure." He was just guessing from the fact that it responded to his short rise in stress, which made him wonder if it would actually try to defend him and itself if he felt threatened. "I'm not completely sure, but what you were saying about bone marrow samples and cutting my open to get at it definitely raised my stress and heart rate some, and I just felt it stirring in a different kind of way. I think it is starting to respond to my body more now that it is integrating into me."

 

[Anaxial]

Without alcohol to kill time, Marshall found the days waning on longer and longer and seemed to wander the ship more and more as his body started to crave the burn of a hard drink. Thankfully he hadn't become dependant, but he certainly was going through a small case of withdrawal. He had made his way back to the mess decks and eyeballed the hole in the table he'd made with the knife and couldn't help but sigh, a bit disappointed in himself.


"Damn..." He said in a whisper. "I missed him." he chuckled to himself, not quite remember what happened when he'd walked in here but did recall trying to intimidate a robot and that seemed even stupider now that he was here reflecting on the situation.


He didn't take long to eventually fish out a bagel and toasted the sweet circular bread to a perfected golden brown, a little black on the edges and made himself a cream-cheese sandwich. He took the first bite in the mess deck and then returned to his seemingly endless patrol of the Lullaby's Passageways. However morbid it was, Marshall actually really did like that knife and hoped it would be returned to him along with his other gear when his little probation was over.


As he walked along the P-ways, he eventually found himself in the same passage as Saundry and Saami, cringing at the thought of having to confront these two after what happened, Marshall almost did a 180 and simply avoided the situation, but a deep seeded knot in his stomach stopped him. He wiped his face with a napkin, swallowed the bite of Bagel and forced his legs forward.


What was her name again?... Shit...


"Hey.. uh... Can I talk to you?" He called out towards the two, a weaker man might've gotten a frog in his throat, but not Marshall. His intentions were merely to clear the air and hopefully stop EVERYONE from hating him.

 

[InsanEleven]

Dr. Jones

​

Chrice stopped prodding into Woods for a short moment, raised her eyebrows in slight surprise, but then nodded at his words. "That's good to know. Disturbing, sure. But I'd rather know. I am still looking into medicines that might be able to use to suppress it, but no luck so far." Carefully she pulled the last needle out of Woods' back and patched the small prick. "That's all the samples I need for now. You're a free man, free to do whatever it is you do on a day." For now she'd have enough samples to keep her busy for a decent while, and in the meantime she could try and figure out a way to get a decent sample of symbiote tissue. If it became more and more active and ingrained, she didn't doubt that by the time she had to operate him it would have spread completely and fully. Though the tentacle part had been a joke, she had seen enough freaky alien diseases to know it had more truth to it than was good for any party involved.

Saami

​

Saami had heard Marshall coming this way, being more attentive to tracking him now he couldn't rely on smell anymore. Rather he would have just turned around completely and guided Saundary back down the hallway, but that would mean a longer route, and as a robot he couldn't sacrifice efficiency simply to avoid someone he didn't like. He did however make very sure that at all times he'd be in between Saundary and Marshall, even if it would be just so his body could act as a shield.


The moment he saw the man he started his scans, both of behaviour and appearance, to try and confirm if he was a threat or not. When it turned out to miraculously be the latter, he slightly dropped his guard, though he wasn't at ease yet. If anything he was now watching instead of guarding, but the moment Marshall even attempted to lift a finger the wrong way he'd be more than ready to defend Saundary.


At the moment though, he'd allowed some space so she could answer the question posed. The quicker they got this over with the sooner he'd be able to be at ease again. At this point it wasn't even so much that he cared about the work they still had to do, instead he was solely focussed on the well-being of his subordinate. With cold, emotionless eyes he hounded Marshall, the circuitry occasionally glowing blue as he watched for micro-expressions and small shifts in body language.

 

[Marianne]

Saundary nodded her head and followed Saami, for the chances of her getting lost was just about 93% - if one was to be technical. On the way there, she heard someone coming, but her steps were so cheerful, and her thoughts were still on the fact that she was assigned to assist everybody on the ground - there was just no way anyone could ruin her mood.

Even when she looked up, peered over the tall frame that was Saami, and saw Marshall before them. She stared, and she wondered if she was going to be angry, but she couldn't be. Nope, this little cookie was ecstatic - in a good mood - that she was wondering if she should tell him. However, the tension in the air reminded her that her first rundown with Marshall was not a good one, and neither was Saami's. She stayed quiet.​

 

[Dragongal]

Adira had left the room a few minutes ago to head to the mess. Water... something... anything would help, just to clear her head and get her thinking straight again. Of course, she didn't show that anything was wrong. She had gotten ahead on her paperwork and didn't even need to do any more of it today, which was a relief. She checked her communicator and tablet, surprised that neither Woods nor Doc had sent her any message. Well, maybe Woods was still getting tested. Seemed a bit of a long time, but who knew? Luckily the kitchens were empty again, so she got some water and a pear and resumed her normal place in the kitchen, sitting on the counter with her back to the corner.

 

[BookWyrm]

Vince felt worse off than he had before going into the infirmary. He walked out into the hallway and took a short moment to prop his hands against the wall and take a deep breath. His head was throbbing, the multiple areas over his body that had been tampered with were hurting, and on top of all of it the withdrawals were murder. He needed some coffee and a quiet, comfortable place to relax. Pulling his tablet out Vince sent a message to Adira.


Just left Doc. I feel like utter shit. Wouldn't mind some good company. Coffee?

 

[Dragongal]

Adira checked her tablet and smiled. Good thing she had finished her work. She typed a simple reply, Already in the kitchen. It's empty too. She didn't even need to think to decide not to tell him about earlier. And not to tell Doc, either. This was a problem that she had to deal with, without any help. She'd done it before, so it wasn't impossible or anything.