Galaxy's Edge Space Bar

[RAFrukh]

|THETA-PI
Theta observed his surroundings. The pod was gray on the inside, with only a wall of blinking lights. The entire thing was operated by interlink. It was nice to have anothr voice in his head, even if it was a computer.

Status., Theta sent.
OPERATIONAL. TRI-40 EXTERIOR ALLOY FRACTURED; SUPERFICIAL. SCUTITE INTERIOR ALLOY UNDAMAGED. INTRADIMENSIONAL FLUX ENGINES READY. Z-SPACE QUANTRYON EMITTERS CHARGED AND READY. G-SPACE TELEMETRY RELAYING. COLLECTIVE INTERLINK NONFUNCTIONAL; ATTEMPTING TO REESTABLISH.
Negative; do not attempt to reestablish interlink with the Collective.
FUNCTION IS AUTOMATIC. AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED TO CARRY OUT REQUESTED PROCEDURE.
Authorization Theta-457 Pi-63947
INTERLINK WITH ALVIE MAINFRAME IS REQUIRED TO AUTHORIZE THIS PROCEDURE.

Theta-Pi sighed instinctively. It felt good to have some of his normal reactions back finally. He knew this pod inside and out - probably because he instantly acquired the schematics - so he removed an airtight panel and snapped some mechanism in half with his clawed hand.

INTERLINK TRANSMITTER DESTROYED. REGENERATING.
Negative; do not attempt to regenerate the Interlink Transmitter.
COMPLIANCE.

Theta-Pi nodded in satisfaction. Maybe having the computer in his head wasn't so comforting...it was a nuisance...

He accessed the G-space relays, the most advanced sensors in the Universe...but the mechanics were to complex to explain to many species. Alternate universes, transdimensional reformation, live sector recreations.

He watched, literally, from behind as Claxter approached his pod. Theta could see anywhere on this rock from any point, any angle, any altitude. He could be in the bar without actually being there. He could be at Claxter's side. And for kicks, he could watch Ossanlin's brain from inside his skull.

Primitive functioning., Theta mused.

[warren_bearclaw]

"Funny thing about people who try to kill you- you don't tend to like them."

With a slight snicker, Sapttus added "I could relate..."

Al frowned, then brushed the spoons on his jacket. He pulled the lid off of the ice cream and stuck in a spoon, holding out the other spoon to Jasper as he continued speaking. "He's dangerous, and he wants Salem dead. What I can't figure out is why he'd come in here and talk to us, instead of just shooting." He looked back at the door out which Rathien had walked. "It's interesting... it seems like he'd almost be my kind of guy, if it weren't for his whole 'gotta kill people' lifestyle."

Sapttus wasn't liking the whole 'wanting Salem dead' thing. He, and Al, were the only people who'd bothered saying more than a sentence to him this entire time. Well, and Ms. Ewa, but... Salem also had the potential of finding a cure. That was too valuable. Way too valuable to not do something about. "Maybe it was too crowded in here. Maybe he wasn't sure how everyone else would respond to a shoot out, so he erred on the safe side. I don't like him though. If there's anything I -...we... - can do to assist either of you in regards to him, let us know. "

"Yes. If he starts making trouble, we'll throw rocks at him." Jasper added, slightly sarcastic. Privately, he said. <<But seriously, what the heck do you think *we* are going to do? Closest thing I have to a weapon is a whittling knife. Loads of good that'll do us.....>>

<<You've got your hologram thingamajigger. Be creative. You're good at that.>>

Jasper blinked. He hadn't thought of using that for anything, like, useful before. Heck, it was still brand new to him. He was going to have to do a lot more than just squiggly lines if this was the case.

"Thanks" They said, accepting the spoon. He scooped out a bite of the orange- and yellow- speckled ice cream, and contemplated it. It looked a lot like Reese's Pieces, yet different somehow. Either way, it was sure to hit the spot. He popped the spoon in his mouth.

[Terenia]

The scowl covering Mike's face deepens and Terenia flips the comm off, moving to join Illim near the hatch. "Efan can wait," she snaps, peering down at her angrily. She is quickly distracted, however, by Salem's arrival. "You're not coming aboard," she cautions him, moving in front of the hatch defensively, left hand resting on the butt of Mike's Dracon.

Efaen notes Salem's arrival with a single dismissive stalk eye, but she does not deign to speak with him. The trader is of little to no interest to her. Her focus remains on the two Controllers, this time addressing who she assumes is Corliss. <You were so eager to convince me to join your ranks not so long ago,> she says icily. <yet now I seem unable to do so in the manner my Prince has allowed. I will abort this mission and return to the Dome Ship if this is going to become a fruitless venture.>

"Fine," Terenia sneers, glaring at Efaen. She no longer needs the Andalite as a host; her only use is the human DNA she is storing. "Go away, then. I'm sure we'll all be better off."

Efaen's shoulders stiffen and her spine straightens, main eyes narrowing at "Corliss". <Very well, then, Yeerk,> she says coldly, taking a step back. She does not turn to leave, though. The last thing she wants is to admit to her Prince that she has failed in her mission, or that she will be serving aboard the Tyrennian. More likely, she will be placed in some meaningless job fit for females, or shuttled back to the homeworld as too great a risk to the fleet. Both are unacceptable options.


Zorish tilts his head, looking at Serid curiously. "You are an Andalite," he realizes; something he should have picked up on when he first saw the human shadowing Ossanlin. A small, girlish giggle escapes his lips, which twist into a smile. "I do not think I have ever seen an Andalite willing to take on human form. Most of your kind would not dare lower yourselves to mere primitive primates. How intriguing. Tell me, why do you choose to maintain this form?"

He glances at Jocun, "And what makes you believe these Time Matrix fairy tales so easily?"

[Chad32]

"There have been multiple accounts from multiple sources. The Skrit Na, and the......Andalite bandits of Earth." He said. he hesitated before saying the real species of the rebels. His instincts told him he should be careful about telling this Sub-Visser the Earth rebels were Human. "Upon the capture of the rebels, there was information about the Time Matrix. Information that was deemed too dangerous to be told to the public. There was a leak about the Time Matrix's existence, but not its location. That location remains a secret, and I would rather not scour the Earth for it. If it's even still there."

He glanced over at the Human accompanying the Andalite. He did have an Andalite-like posture. He probably was one of them in morph. He didn't see much reason for an Andalite to pose as a Human. Maybe he was a nothlit. If so, his situation could be worse.


Claxter began wandering away from the wreckage, continuing his search for Theta. Perhaps he would go to his ship and try scanning for nearby cyborgs.

[AmberKatira]

Ewa began undressing as soon as Van left the room, stacking her clothes on the platform he had indicated.  Both her belt and boots seemed fine, so she kept those back.  The shower controls weren't overly complicated, now that they had been explained, but she still couldn't read any of them.  At least she could sort of make sense of the various bottles of soap.  She had a smattering of Common that was useful for reading some of the translations of human literature, but she was actually much more comfortable with Alliance Paladinian--which she spoke at home--or even English.  It would have been a useless language to know in any other profession, but many members of her family believed in getting as close to the source material as possible.

Mostly she relied on her nose to decide which of the soaps to use.  Why does Van need so many of these things?  It felt wonderful, just letting the warm water flow down her whole body, but the bath waiting outside sounded even more tempting. When was the last time I had a bath?  Maybe that medieval fantasy scape a year ago?  The family Compound didn't have any baths.

When she stepped out, she noticed that her pile of clothes had disappeared.  She paused for a moment by the tub, thinking.  The scent wafting from the water was sweeter than what she would normally prefer, but even though she could read some of the other options, she wasn't really sure what any of them were.  And that might necessitate refilling the bath, which would be a waste of water.  Ewa figured she would feel cold and silly waiting for it too. No time like the present then.

She sank down into the tub, her hair floating out around her.  It was wonderful and warm and relaxing, and just the sort of place to not think about anything for a while.  If a few things in the back of her head tried to surface, they were at least temporarily overwhelmed by the physical pleasure of the moment.

[pyrebird]

Inside the Captain's Quarters, Van had made out a rather comfortable room for himself.  Inside was a comfy bed, covered in luxurious sheets of delicately embroidered plant motifs. A hanging plant dangled from the ceiling, though it looked a little worse for wear. A large window was at the right side of the bed, its thick sill covered in pots of yet more plants of various kinds. The privacy shutters were drawn over the window, and on them, several glowing panels detailing the status of the ship were available, most of which were flashing red.

Van ignored all that and opened up a closet in the back. He leafed through gun parts, clothes, packets of food, and plenty of bizarre alien jewelry searching for something that would suit Ewa. He crawled in deeper, and found a chest filled with makeup -Having various aliases meant he had to look the part- and several piles of delicately made wigs, meant to bond with his hair and make him look like anything other than Beryllian.

Eventually he found the storage panel at the bottom, and thrust it open. "Aha! There they are! I wonder if they are going to fit her, chaa? Mmm, nichaa..."

Van plucked up several carefully stored dresses, skirts, and colorful armored blouses. All of it was women's clothing, and meant to grant Van one of his most notorious disguises: a lady. Women were great at deceiving people throughout history, and lucky for Van, he looked an awful lot like one. Altering his pitch to sound feminine wasn't hard, and his slender body was often mistaken for that of a woman's, despite his flat chest. Really, he was quite androgynous, but for Van, that just made the game all the more fun.

However, tricking Ewa in this fashion wasn't on his mind. Van picked out a couple clothes he thought she would like, and set them aside. Then, he got up, and left the room, picking up the items she asked him to clean, and headed down another set of stairs to the maintenance level and cargo bay.

Down there, he could do the laundry. By the time he arrived, her clothes were ready to be tossed into the machine, and washed. It didn't look as if the machine was broken, so Van rather carelessly threw them in. It was built to clean the delicate clothes of nobility, so Van wasn't worried about how they would turn out. In fact, the only time that machine had broken was when Niccolo Cassini threw his dirty boots and gun holster in there, only to cause a small fire five minutes later.

Though Van was plenty worried about the Vivalite, making sure Ewa was attended to was important. The pirate eventually climbed back upstairs after cleaning the bloodstains off her items, and headed back into the Lounge. He figured she wouldn't want to eat, so instead, he set about cleaning up the room.

"Siyan Ah-calmesen-nyah, daljiri sichaa? Tasin, chaa!" (Status of the main engines, would you, please? Now!)

The computer barely broke out a proper sentence, but from Van's guess, the engine worked properly, though other systems were rather broken. "Tch! It doesn't take the genius to guess that," he muttered.

[Aluminator (Kit)]

All grinned at Jasper. "I don't like the guy either, but if he knows who I am, at least I can stop doing Salem's little thing and going incognito or whatever. Having to shut up and sit still just makes me antsy." I'll let Salem know that you're willing to back him up if anything goes down between him and Rathien, but I'm not sure what you could do. I'm not sure what I could do either. I'm pretty useless in a fight," he said with a grin. "Much more of a lover than a fighter."

He stuck his spoon into the ice cream and pulled out a large spoonful, which he contemplated for a moment before stuffing into his mouth. "I don't think... Ahhh!" He screamed, clutching his head. "Oh cold! Oh, very cold! Ow! Ow... ow ow ow..." He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment and let his head fall to the counter with a thump. After a few moments, he turned his head to Jasper with it still lying on the counter. "Ice cream is cold," he said in a pitiful voice.


Salem glanced at Efaen. Something was weird here. She very obviously did not like the Yeerk who stood at the top of the ramp. He smirked at Terenia, still under the impression that he was talking to Corliss. "Yeah, yeah, Yeerk, I get it by now. No me on your ship. You have a real problem with repeating yourself, you know?" He held up the little device he'd grabbed- a transparent, glass-like cylinder, about the size of a baby-food jar, capped with what looked like finely-polished copper at both ends, with a metallic bit of wire or string extending from the center of one of the copper ends. "No need for me to come aboard if you pay attention and learn to operate this thing. Think you're up for it? It's pretty simple, but I'm a little worried that you, specifically..." he stopped, feigning embarrassment. "Never mind." He smirked.

"All you should need to do is stick this," he said, holding up the silver string, "directly into your power stream. Then you twist this," he said, turning the opposite end of the container. "Sends the signal to the Malleon that this is ready. They know it's coming, so they know to head for the source. They'll make their way into the container here," he indicated the glass container. "When they're all aboard, the ones on my ship will call me. And then, I guess, I'll just... shout or something. Maybe call you. Then you just pull the tube out, close up your power supply, and bring this thing back to me. If anything happens to them, my Andalite friend here and I are storming the place, tails blazing," he said, jerking a thumb at Efaen. He was quick to send Efaen a private thought-speak message, fully aware of the average Andalite's sense of humor... or lack thereof. <<Of course, I'm only joking, Andalite. For effect.>> He continued speaking to Terenia, "Think you can manage that?" Without waiting for an answer, he lobbed the container underhand up the ramp at her. "Catch."

[warren_bearclaw]

"Well.. I'm not sure what I could do either, but... I dunno. I'll uh.. find something? I guess?" Jasper said.  "I've never been in a fight before either. I'll just uh.. have to be smart... yeah... something like that." He said, pulling the creamy chocolatey deprived spoon from his mouth. Between the drink and the desert, he was actually feeling a lot better. Anxiety attack diverted. He jumped when Al started screaming, having no clue what the heck what was happening. "Uh... yeah... it's called "ice" cream, dude. It's... kinda cold. You've never had it before? You sure you've been to Earth before?" He grinned at the last part. Ice cream was like, a staple. Sapttus laughed internally. "What you are feeling, my friend, is referred to as 'Brain Freeze'. Though how an android is experiencing that sensation, I do not quite understand." Sapttus looked confused momentarily, but then they shook his head and chuckled. "I hope you don't mind me prying and all, but...." Jasper began "... Im just dying to know... well.. everything. You don't know how cool it is for me to be talking to a real android right now. So um.. yeah, if you don't mind... I'd love to hear a bit about yourself."

[Terenia]

Terenia grabs for the container, catching it a little clumbsily and drawing it into her chest. <Why the hell do you have to be left-handed?> she complains, wrapping Mike's hand tightly around the container and letting her glare flit between Salem and Efaen. How much time have those two gotten to know one another while I was stuck blind and helpless in the pool? she wonders. She has no doubt that Efaen would relish the chance to attack them, despite the fact that she has not followed through with her threat to leave.

"Yeah, string in the power stream, twist the end, you'll shout when they're all gone," Terenia repeats sharply, taking a step back. She lowers her voice so that only Illim can hear. "Trouble is, how the hell do I trust that the dapsen is being honest. I guess we have no choice right now." Raising her voice again, she addresses Salem. "This had better not be another fancy trick of yours, Salem." Without another word she turns, leaving Illim at the hatch and making for the main computer. She sizes it up. <Alright,> she says to Mike. <Power source.>


Efaen watches the exchange, uncertain what it is they are talking about. She is surprised to hear thought-speak from the one known as Salem; from Terenia's experiences she knew that he had a sort fo thought-speak weapon, but she was not aware that he could communicate in the normal Andalite fashion as well.

<<Are you a nothlit?>>> she asks him, her intrigue adequately distracting her from having to make the decision to stay or leave.


"Stories and fables," Zorish says dismissively. "Even if there is truth behind them, what good will that do me? I can't investigate a device that is light years away, and hidden at that. This bar is here, and it is most certainly of interest to me. Perhaps for similar reasons as your Time Matrix, perhaps not." He smiles a little, "As our Andalite friend here was quick to point out, my specialty is in intelligence. Cultural intelligence, specifically. It is for me to equip my people with enough knowledge to adequately infiltrate Earth without raising alarms. We do not all have the benefit of human hosts to learn from." He shrugs. "As a side product of my profession, I suppose you could say that I've developed a certain affinity for the....taste of different places throughout the galaxy, if you catch my meaning. And this place has a very unique taste, indeed."

[Chad32]

"I believe my original point was just that you should be careful." Jocun said. "Regardless of whether or not the Time Matrix is real."

[AmberKatira]

Ewa focused her awareness on her breathing, the slow rise and fall of her chest, her body floating away from the surface of the tub.  She closed her eyes and the immediate world fell away, her mind at once narrowing to the singular experience that was her body living in the warm water, and expanding to comprehend the minutia it encompassed.  Slow breath.  Relaxing muscles.  Expanding joints.  Tiny currents of water moving sensuously through her hair.  Nothing to orient her or draw her back.  Like floating out past forever.  The universe was floating, and she was the universe.
 
I could use this time to plan, if I knew who I was, her mind surfaced, popping the sense of nonidentity but leaving the stillness untouched.  You'd think I'd at least remember why I came here, with no character past to interfere.  Maybe I didn't choose to come here myself.  Maybe Van and that other male didn't chose to be injured.  Here to dance on desperate strings for a twisted mind, and we musn't speak a word.  Or can't speak a word?  Damage a few minds to hurt one another, damage a few more to hurt themselves.  Like a hidden vein of reality in a dream.  So much blood.
 
 Ewa opened her eyes and sat up in the bath, water falling off her upper body like a sheet.  She felt clean and rested and calm--more ready and able to confront the disturbing details of this scape.  Not sure how to drain the tub, or even if she was supposed to, she simply climbed out and dried herself off.  After shifting a few of the soap bottles she found a comb to work a few of the tangles out of her hair.  It went straight into a ponytail after that, still wet or no.  Don't want it getting in the way again.  Only two of her knives had straps--one for her left arm and the other her right ankle.  The others she'd have to carry around until she had real clothes again.  In the meantime she slipped into the blue robe, tying it loosely at the waste.  The last thing to go on were her boots.  She felt a little silly, wearing them with the robe, but she already had enough to carry and it seemed inappropriate to just leave them there in the meantime.
 
 She gathered up the rest of her belongings, tucking them under one arm, and headed back up the stairs to the living room.  Van had managed to put it mostly to rights in her absence.
 
 "It was a wonderful bath," she thanked him, smiling beatifically.  "I wasn't sure how to drain the water though.  Or do you reuse it?"

[Aluminator (Kit)]

Al breathed deeply for a minute and then lifted his head and smiled at Jasper. "Of course I've had ice cream before. It's not just big on Earth anymore where I come from." He grinned, "I guess I just forgot that I'm simulating human physiological responses to substances. Makes it so I can get drunk. And get brain freezes, apparently. It tastes so much better when the chocolate can actually affect endorphin release, though." He took another spoonful, smaller this time, and stuck it into his mouth, closing his eyes. "Mmm..."

Al grinned when they asked to hear more about him. "Alright, I'll tell you a story, but you've gotta promise to reciprocate," Al said. "Meeting interesting people is half of why I am who I am."

He cleared his throat dramatically, brought his arms up, and locked the elbows at right angles, and his movements became abrupt. Overall, it was a pretty good robot impression. "I am Al-3PO," he began his voice altered to sound slightly tinny, a little more robotic, and a bit more effeminate, "boogie-cyborg relations. I am fluent in over six million billion bajillion..." He momentarily dropped his imitation-robot veneer and grinned at Jasper with a shrug, "or at least a couple dozen..." He then switched smoothly back into his robot imitation, "forms of entertainment." His voice now switched to a very exaggerated impression of William Shatner's halting speech pattern so often associated with his portrayal of James Kirk. "These are the voyages of the android Al. On his ongoing mission to seek out new fun and new entertainment. To learn everything that ever has or ever will be enjoyed. For Boo-Yah. For Squee. And for party animals everywhere."

He laughed and returned to his normal speech pattern, "I was built by a guy everybody's gotten to referring to as Squee the Great. I still maintain that you can't choose your nickname yourself, but history's kind of proven me wrong. Basically, short version, he built me to have a thorough understanding of fun and entertainment in the universe, and together we founded Furka, which has kind of grown into a big deal. Think of it as a club, spanning the entire galaxy, centered around nothing other than having fun, in all possible ways, all the time!" He became more and more excited as he spoke, making bigger and bigger hand movements, until finally, as he said "all the time," he whirled his arms around and almost fell off his stool. He caught himself on the edge of the bar and laughed.

"I spent ages and ages just traveling Furka, partying and playing and singing and yelling and learning and reading and hiking and flying and just generally having a ridiculously good time. Then, one fateful night..." In spite of himself, Al changed his hologram so that his face appeared shaded over the eyes, in the way it might be if he was wearing a large hood and trying to be dramatic. "I got really messed up," he said, his voice growing deep and gravely, like Christian Bale's Batman. "Needed a ride home. I knew a guy from way back. We'd spoken before. He struck me as the trustworthy type, in my drunken state, so I asked him for a ride. And that's when things got sour."

His hologram faded back to normal, the shading across his eyes disappearing, and he smiled and shrugged, "Long story short, we got knocked into another universe, and have been getting kicked from one universe to another ever since. The guy was Salem, in case you'd missed that."

He took another bite of ice cream. "So, your turn, guys. I'm much better at listening to stories than I am at telling them." He rested his chin in his hands, stared at Jasper with a smile that was halfway between friendly and creepy, and fluttered his eyelashes.


Salem watched as Terenia turned and walked back into the ship, then turned to Efaen and smiled, "No, not a nothlit. Not anymore. I'm fully human." <<I just happen to be able to thought-speak. It's a recent Andalite development.>> He looked her up and down, and smiled, "I don't believe I've caught your name. We've been crossing paths at this bar enough that we should probably at least know each other's names, right? I'm Salem." He smiled and performed a slight, respectful bow. "And you... you carry yourself almost like a warrior, in spite of being female. Does that mean the Electorate is finally starting to get things right?"

[warren_bearclaw]

It was a rather fascinating story. At least for Sapttus. Jasper enjoyed it as well, but... really, he'd been hoping for more of a technical/mechanical explanation rather than a personal history. That was nice too, of course, but... well, the geek within was left wanting. No matter though.. surely there'd be another chance. "Fascinating." Sapttus said. He's laughed at the Star Wars reference, but only after Jasper had pointed it out to him.

<<Interesting fellow.>>
<<You got that right.>>
<<You want to lead this one, or...?>>
<<I uh... I guess so.>>

"Well, um... I don't know where to start, really...." Jasper began, still enjoying the chocolatey ice cream.

<<How about the beginning?>>
<<...you just wanted to be smart, now didn't you? I doubt he cares much where I was born....>>
<<He might like to know.>> Sapttus gave the mental equivalent of a shrug.
<<...Oi.>>

"Uh... Okay, well, I uh... I'm a draftsman. Always have been, really. Oh, that's kinda like an architect, but the work is different. I do more actual drawing, instead of planning and stuff. I like it better that way. I'm... I'm kinda good at it, I guess. Apparently, the Yeerks thought so too. One night, my boss asked me to stay late at work to finish up on a project. Well... after everyone else left, I got dragged into his office, where they infested me. With uh, Sapttus. I was totally freaked out by it, but...  I dunno, I got used to it I guess. Not like all my crying and begging did anything anyways. Anyways, Sapttus worked in "Infrastructure Reassessment", as they called it. Basically, he used my talents to make adjustments to human building plans so that the Yeerks could use them. Like... he made secret entrances and stuff like that. But he did it so that it was was hidden, y'know? It all blended in. That's why they grabbed me for the job." There wasn't much ice cream left, Jasper noticed. He'd been munching away at it a lot, so he slid the container over to Al, wanting him to have the rest, if he wanted.

"Well, after a while, Sapttus and I started to get along pretty well. It just... sorta happened, I guess. I was cooperating with him on the projects he was given, and, well, we just became friends. I started to think of him as a roommate rather than an alien slavemaster. After that, it was pretty much like it was before. Went to work every day, made some drawings, and went home. But it was better, because now I had a friend. Not like... i didn't have any before, but... it's different."

"Anyways... well, then there was that one day. We went to this grocery store we hadn't been to before. They had a special sale. One of the sale items was 'Instant Maple and Ginger Oatmeal'. So uh... we figured we'd give it a shot. That was a big mistake. Needless to say, we went back to that store many, many times. I've had a lot more oatmeal in the past 16 months than most people have in their lives, I swear. Eventually, the uh, Empire figured out that it was addictive, and they made it contraband. Sapttus and I didn't know what to do. We hid, like we had been for a while. Kept our secret safe. But it was getting harder and harder. And it was getting dangerous, too. Bad things happened to people the Visser caught with the stuff."

"Then, well... one day, there was this big commotion while we were leaving the Pool. The Andalite Bandits were attacking, or something, and everyone was going crazy. In all the madness, one of us... maybe both of us, I dunno... had an idea. We snagged a barrel of confiscated oatmeal, stashed it on a Bug Fighter, and high-tailed it out of there. We were lucky to make it here alive. Not like we were headed here, it was.. an accident, really. But it seems to be working out so far."

Jasper shifted, and tapped his spoon on the counter like a nervous tic. "I uh, guess that's it, really. That's.. pretty much our story."

[KitsuneMarie]

Illim nods in agreement with Terenia and is about to turn away from the hatch when Salem says something interesting:  "No, not a nothlit. Not anymore. I'm fully human." The comment's implications are stunning, even though he he's already heard similar suggestions earlier in the day. Still, he cannot help but feel he should contact Serid immediately.

Salem's comment is seemingly unprompted, which indicates that Efaen must have been speaking to the trader privately. But what could have prompted her inferred question? What about him had signified to her that he had once been able to morph?

Illim remains still in the doorway, happy to eavesdrop for as long as they're willing to talk. It seems there is more to this businessman than he had imagined.


Serid raises an eyebrow, his back stiffening in mixed indignation at being found out and pride that his true species is recognized. "What prompts you to suggest such a thing?" he asks Zorish, ignoring the Yeerk's own questions. He glances to Ossanlin for his reaction.

[Terenia]

<<I sure as hell hope this works,>> Terenia says, getting down on her knees and opening the panel that leads to the internal computer systems. <<I don't think Corliss will be too happy if I break his ship.>> She inspects the area beneath the computer blankly for a moment, searching for a memory of Mike's that will make sense of the jumble. <<Right, okay,>> she takes a deep breath and pushes some of the wiring aside carefully. Grunting, she shifts forward, not used to the larger, male body she is inhabiting. "I think I got it..." she murmurs out loud, taking the thin wire from the container Salem had given her and feeding it into the main power source. "Okay, here goes," she mutters, twisting the opposite end of the canister and waiting, hoping she hasn't just been tricked into blowing the whole ship to smithereens.



Efaen straightens her spine further, standing so severely straight that it looks painful, acknowledging his bow with a slight dip of her tail and stalk eyes. <<I am Warrior Efaen-Purinial-Loreth,>> she says, keeping her thought-speak private. <<The Electorate has allowed select females to enter the service. I am an estreen, and was recruited for my superior morphing capabilities.>> She inspects Salem's features curiously, her expression never changing. <<I suppose I should not be surprised that yet another human has acquired Andalite technology, yet this is technology I have never witnessed. How did you come about obtaining it?>>


Zorish laughs lightly. "If you were human you would be trying to put as much distance between you and that tail blade as possible," he says, glancing at Ossanlin. "Instead you are following him around like some sort of lackey. I don't think I have seen you step more than a few feet away from him." She gives him a small smirk, sensing that she is correct. "Besides, no true, free human sits that straight or speaks in such an infuriating manner."