The Galactic War: Rogue Element ~The Beginning

[Terenia]

<<No,>> Aya murmurs. She looks around the bridge, somewhat at a loss. <<Now what? You've worked with Andalites before. Are we just setting ourselves up for disaster here?>>


Efaen blinks her main eyes slowly as she turns to look at Claxter. <I have never been to Earth,> she says. <I have seen a limited number of holograms pertaining to the planet, but I know very little about it, beyond the fact that it is the Yeerk Empire's main target, at the moment.>

She shifts her weight from hoof to hoof uncomfortably. I have absolutely no idea how to converse with other Andalites, she realizes, not sure whether this is a bad thing or not. It certainly makes her feel awkward, but she is determined to try. It won't do to be the receiving end of scorn from the rebels and the Andalites both.

<You...you said before that you knew me from before,> Efaen says hesitantly. <Tell me, why is it you considered me a friend?>


Keslin notes Myitt's arrival, and he shoots her a grim smile before returning his focus to the holoscreens in front of him.

<<Never thought we'd be working on an Andalite ship, eh?>> Chris murmurs, trying for his usual light-heartedness, though his emotions are still roiling with grief.

<<No,>> Keslin responds. <<It is an altogether unexpected experience. Not necessarily one I relish. I would be much more comfortable on my own ships, among my own people. But we must make do.>>

<<We need to find a doctor for Tess, man,>> Chris says after another couple of moments of silence. <<From everything Sam's told us, giving birth to two is dangerous. We need someone who knows what they're doing.>>

Keslin does not respond for a long moment, Chris' mouth set into a thin line as he concentrates on the holoscreen in front of him. He does not allow his host to see his concerns. That they will not be able to find a doctor in time, that the Andalites will not have any effective means of delivering human children. That, even if the delivery is successful, the Andalites will view the resulting children as unnecessary burdens to their mission.

<<I know,>> the Yeerk responds simply, swallowing the sudden lump in his throat.

[Chad32]

<I had little reason not to consider you a friend. We got along, to an extent. You had loyalty to your family and people. Hating all Yeerks doesn't really effect how you deal with Andalites, so even though it was wrong, it didn't interfere with socializing with certain circles. It was only with regards to the rebels that it caused problems.> Claxter wondered if what aya said could be true. If joining the rebels was only so she could destroy them. He wondered if Terenia could not have seen if she had made such a plan. Maybe she just didn't go through Efaen's memories when Efaen let her back in. He didn't like the idea of actually asking Terenia about it, and doubted it would help anyway. What happened happened. Terenia was to blame for enough things without putting more on her.

<Put another way, hatred of Yeerks is pretty standard for people in the military, especially any Andalites unfortunate enough to be infested and forced to serve Yeerks. Ostracizing a fellow Andalite because the worst thing you can say about them is that they hate all Yeerks isn't very reasonable. So I was friendly towards you, and hoped that given enough time under Prince Ossanlin, you would improve in that area.>

<Of course now we hold no loyalty to our former government. We're both rebels now, and I still want us to be friends.>

[Estelore]

<This way, Niko. The bulk of the ship's computer's activity will be devoted to recalculating our current position and finding our original trajectory again, but we can temporarily repurpose one of the secondary consoles to give us a partial map of the galaxy. As long as we can narrow the projection down to a specific quadrant or arm, it should not cause enough processing demand to slow the others' progress with navigation. Once we have at least one or two of your locations reasonably identified, then we can share that information with the others and determine if it is worth a side trip.>

She paused for a moment, calculating, then addressed Niko privately.

<<Are any of your people here capable of providing medical care to the one of you who is pregnant? I do not think any of our crew is qualified to do much in that regard, and I do not know what kind of staff will still be available at the Tyrennian. If there are no doctors among you, then a side trip may be necessary simply to get help for her. Ossanlin has to prioritize getting us back on track, but I am sure this weighs on his mind, as well.>>

[KitsuneMarie]

Illim walks with Myitt, breaking away from her towards Niko when he spots him. "Heard my name?" he calls with a friendly smile--although the expression doesn't quite reach his guarded eyes. He looks towards Enorryma and gives a nod. "Illim Seven-One-Three and Daniel Feldstein. Reporting for duty." His grin at this point is downright jaunty.


The turbulence onboard has not been kind to the pregnant Tess. Fortunately, she has managed to peel away from the congregated crew and into the farthest back area of the ship before loosing the meager contents of her stomach onto the polished floor. Bending over, her palms rest heavily on her knees, her pink-dyed hair hanging around her face as she stands, open-mouthed, panting. She brings an arm up to wipe the back of her hand along her lips. God... how am I going to do this? she thinks as her stomach roils, not at all helped by the movement of her children. I can't give birth in space... with no doctor around, no Sam, no one to help me. For the first time, the fear really starts to infect her--now that her worries over Keslin and Chris are gone, it's all that's left, the singular worry to preoccupy her.

[Estelore]

<Tactical Officer Enorryma-Almoress-Ingrell,> she raised her stalk eyes toward Daniel in acknowledgement, her mental voice as dry as uncooked rice. <Niko is attempting to plot possible other Rebel locations; he says you may be able to help. This console accepts key input and gives image and thought-speech output, so you will find it usable if I am needed elsewhere.>

She stepped clear of the console to give him room to pass. <Thank you for your work, gentlemen.>

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Ossanlin closes out the data view after giving it a quick run-through.  Undoubtedly it would be very useful in the right hands.  He watches as Keslin's work reprograms the Mirage's Z-Space route.  He raises his eyebrows a bit.  Normally a recalculation like this would take close to half an hour at best, but the Yeerk's work seems to have accomplished a fair job in just several minutes instead.  Of all the Andalites Ossanlin knows, only Enorryma would be able to approach such a level.  <...Impressive...>

Ossanlin commands the Mirage into forward movement again and recalculates their time of arrival.  Apparently the detour and disturbance has somehow shaved half an hour off of the remaining trip time...that data would be incredibly useful if it could explain this, and how it has happened.  The configuration of Z-Space still seems the same despite the disturbance, but the Mirage is simply further along than it should be.  Very intriguing indeed.

<After recalculation, it appears that we are now a mere thirty minutes from rendezvousing with the Mirage.  Once aboard, we'll carry all of the Yeerk supplies to the Dome.  If anyone is interested in looking, I have enabled the holo-table in the common to display a simplified version of the Tyrennian's layout.>  Ossanlin suits actions to words as he uses his bridge console to enable the holo-table.

[Myitt]

Niko nods politely. "I'll do my best to find a reasonable trajectory," he murmurs, his attention already on the screens.

He doesn't favor Enorryma with a glance when she mentions Tess' health condition.

"I don't think anyone here, among the rebellion, can do much more than patch up a wound," Niko says worriedly. He is about to add more when Illim joins them.

"Thank god, Illim," he sighs in English, swiveling the screen to him. "I can get our rendezvous points into the system, it's not too different from our own interface...except I think I can think at it...but I need your help. Yours and Daniel's. I mean, well. Look." He gesticulates at the hovering square of stars, triangulated on one of the three rendezvous points he and Yarin had committed to memory.


While waiting for Esarvit's reply, Myitt slowly steps up to Ossanlin's side, watching Keslin work.

"Pretty good, isn't he?" she intones with a sad smile. She sighs heavily. "Half an hour, that should give us time to plot a course." She looks over and up at her friend. "I do hope our doctor is still alive. Surely fate wouldn't be that cruel, would it?"


<<The Andalites I worked with,>> Lanath says quietly, scanning the room and stepping into control, <<were philologists and academics. These are warriors, and forty years of war with my people have shaped their ideologies.>>

He clears Aya's throat and catches Joanne's eye, frowning.

<<Another one,>> he tells Aya. <<Another turelek. I know her face.>>

[Ember Nickel]

<<I am Esarvit-Alosian-Ingirat,>> he says stiffly, main eyes locked in on his interlocutor--interlocutors?--and stalk eyes roving as if Z-Space will start acting up again. There's no sign of that, of course, but the atmosphere remains tense. <<And you are...?>>

It's a thought rather than something built up from a more abstract language, of course. In the back of his mind, he's trying to remember whether Galard would distinguish between singular or plural in that case.

[Myitt]

Myitt nods at Esarvit across the short distance.

"My name is Myitt One-Nine-Five, and this is Tara," she says, gesturing to her human form. "I've been a pilot for many years, and an engineer for many more. Please, let me know if we can help."

[Ember Nickel]

That's patently unlikely, Esarvit thinks, followed shortly by though on this form we need all the help we can get.

With a formal nod, he says, <<Thank you, I appreciate the offer. At the moment we seem to be making good progress; it sounds as if our arrival is imminent.>> He gestures towards Ossanlin with the flat of his blade.

[Terenia]

Efaen considers Claxter's words as she watches the activity on the bridge from the doorway. Finally, she nods slowly.

<Perhaps I judged you rashly, Claxter,> she admits. <I apologize. My experiences with your people have not been pleasant, and I presumed that the Andalites here would treat me similarly. Whether they all will or not remains to be seen, but I am glad that you, at least, seem able to give me a chance.>

Her main eyes twitch into the smallest of smiles, but she continues looking away from him.


Keslin glances back at Ossanlin when his voice reverberates through his mind. He isn't about to leave his station, especially not when he is gaining confidence.

"Aya, Lanath," he says, raising his voice a little to be heard. "Please commit that layout to memory. I'll need to go over it later."


Regaining his footing from the turbulance, Dom's eyes fall on Tess, in the corner, looking like she is in pain. His eyebrows furrow and he crosses the room to her. "Tess," he breathes. "Are you alright? Do I need to get Chris?"

[Chad32]

<Oh good. A shortcut. We only had to almost die to take it.> Claxter said. <The T.O. was right about needing a lot of concentration when in Z-Space.>

<It's quite all right Efaen. I'm happy you opened up to me a bit.> She was still watching the bridge, and he felt perhaps he should not try to do too much at one time. As crowded as the bridge was, he decided to go back to the commons area. Tess looked worse for wear, and there was...something on the floor that she was leaning over. He went into the medical room for something to clean it up, and found something like a mop that would do the job.

<Do you think you need some medicine, Tess? Perhaps we can find something to reduce your stress.> He said when he approached, and started cleaning the mess.

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Ossanlin glances at Myitt.  <<He is impressive.  Only Enorryma could rival his understanding of Z-Space.  It would've taken me thirty minutes to perform that calculation and correction.>>

He uses his stalk eyes to look back into the common.  <<I won't lie to you, Myitt...my understanding of human anatomy is limited.  I don't have any human specialist onboard the Tyrennain.  She has a state of the art med-bay, but it's not stocked for human usage.  We could synthesize human blood and tissue, and modify our own medications to interact properly with human physiology, but it will take time.  Andalites often have difficulties birthing...it's very awkward...my understanding is that human birthing is altogether much easier.  Is there some reason you feel that her birthing will by atypical?>>

[KitsuneMarie]

Illim's eyes remain on Niko as he speaks, and then he nods, turning his gaze on the interface. "That's it, isn't it?" he says; it is Daniel speaking now, although it is almost impossible to tell--at least when they are being serious. "One of the spots we set up? Is it detecting any activity in the area?" His brow furrows. "Can it even do that?"


Tess lifts her head to give Dom a weak smile. "I--" she begins, and then straightens more fully when she hears Claxter's own concerned though-speech. "I'm fine, really," she sighs. "Just all that turbulence. I couldn't quite hold it together. Here, let me clean this up." She looks down at the mess she has made on the floor, but despite her offer, she doesn't seem to know what to do. Suddenly she laughs, the sound both exhausted and uncertain. "Where are the paper towels?" When she looks up at Dom again, her forehead is wrinkled and she looks to be on the verge of tears despite her smile.

[Chad32]

<You do not need to help clean. You should attempt to get some rest, assuming we won't be having more turbulence.> Claxter said. He did not know what a paper towel was. Towels were made of cloth, and there probably wasn't any paper on the ship. He found a device that would remove the odor, after he finished getting rid of the spill.