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Evelyn Began her walk back from the observation deck, towards the Station's control center just as the dancing lights appeared. At the moment, the Gynoid had cut herself off from the system; as Saratar's computer felt odd. It still had a large amount of Drathonian coding and programming, and had a horrible personality, Unlike Her home, the Hymn. She sighed, missing the ship's computer and hoping the new one would be good enough to fill the quantum hole in her memory data. Her boots lightly tapped the metallic flooring, hips swaying lightly as she prowled down the corridor, getting ready for another shift. She found it odd that she, a computerized gynoid, was set to shifts, but it did not matter. It made her feel human. And that was the point of an ASIAN, yes? to be as human as possible.


****

"That long, Eh?" Kai chuckled at Cibo's somewhat drunken slurrings of combat prowess, before answering her other questions, somewhat leery. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to talk about it, but it appeared that she already knew anyway. "Ah. That. No, I did not bring it back, that was Hendlow and Mortego who brought him. You have any clue what it is? It was quite helpful during the battle before it almost died." Kai took a sip of his drink, Hot chocolate if the smell and presence of steam was any indication.

Cibo popped the last bit of her sandwich in her mouth, finishing it off before she carefully replied, "Sir, with all due respect, I suspect you and the other members of your group may be first contact. Then again, I'm not high on the totem poll as you are aware, so this may not be the case." By now she reeked of alcohol, but she still wasn't stupefied yet. Cibo was well aware of the implications in what she said, and said so on purpose. It was rather simple really; Terrans and those Things may have met before, but High Command may have hidden it. Would the Lieutenant get her hints? "Still, It's..." she paused for a moment to think through the cloud in her head, "...too polite. It's a real freak that way. I kept on expecting it to rant on about it's superiority and stuff. Like a Drathonian. Sure looks kinda like one." Cibo stopped talking, and was about to take another sip from the drink before her mind swung around. She put the drink back down on the counter before pushing it away. She spoke, sounding a little vulnerable, "I'm a little scared, you know? And I don't know if Evelyn knows...I asked her, and she hasn't replied. And she's been so down lately too. I can't cheer her up, and I'm starting to feel it too. I guess that's why I'm talking to you so much. I'm sorry if I worried you, sir." If Cibo were sober, and watching herself from the third person, she would be thoroughly horrified to see that she was confiding with a stranger. And one that outranked her nonetheless!

****

The black and bony figure was sitting upright with a hand on each knee. After the woman spoke, the skeleton moved, resting an elbow on a knee, chin in hand. His head cocked to the side slightly as the skull helmet's synthetic feathers fanned back and down, resembling how Terrans would sometimes wear their long hair. The feathers slowly rose and fell; he was thinking. "Did not think? That is not good." Yotruyan replied. "That implies that your military personnel are..." the lower 'jaw' of the helmet worked a little, almost chewing in thought before stopping, "...frail in comparison. Fighting the 'Reds', even with your help, will be harder than I thought." By now, the imprisoned Inquisitor stood up, and walked forward, towards the bars. This person was shorter than most Drathonians, but was still quite a sight; he easily towered over Sehene, who herself was only a few inches over five feet. He was easily over seven and a half feet tall, and though the bars separated them, the other guards started to become agitated. He reached into his right wrist, and tore the skin open, revealing a small bracelet; a hologram appeared, depicting an alien firearm with several parts highlighted in red. "Do you remember the weapon I used? Where is it? Someone is playing with it, and it may become...exceedingly hazardous at this rate. Will you check on it Se-hee-ne?" Yotruyan spoke, reading her name tag.

****

Not too far away, about a short walk on Saratar Station, a group of engineers and gunsmiths were gathered in an armory, and a rather fleshy rifle was laid down on a table. Several cameras were fixed up, and the overall atmosphere felt like an alien autopsy from the 1950's or 60's. "Alright, first incision, I will attempt to remove the forward side plate from the flesh body." The scalpel moved down, and touched against the flesh, but before it could cut, the rifle screamed high and loud. It started to flex like a giant worm, and it's gun barrel had opened up into a large, horrific maw. "Oh god my arm!" Blood spurted as the rifle creature worked it's toothy jaw, tearing away at the man's flesh. Men leaped forward and separated the two before fleeing.
"Get out of the room! Lock it down, lock it down!" The half dozen people piled out, the armory door locked down. A med-pack was procured to heal up the bleeding forearm. Another person started to ask,
"Now what?"

****

A horrifying screech and scream emanating from down the hall was heard very clearly from the brig. Yotruyan slowly looked away and towards the brig exit before turning his head back to Sehene. "Please?"

Evelyn soon reached the control center, sitting back in the chair that was assigned to her when on duty. She plugged directly into the system using a cable clverly hidden by her hair and ear. With the influx of requests sent to her console came two notable things; the ever annoying presence of Saratar base's AI, and an encrypted message from Cibo Malinowski, telling Evelyn everything about that creature she had already known. She sent a response to Cibo, Asking about possibly setting up a meeting with the creature to learn more about it, from the horse's mouth, or so the old Terran term went.

"Set up a time when I and the other commanders on base can come and meet the creature, please, Cibo.

Said the short message.

*****

"Well..." Kai began "I think everyone is a bit down after the incident at Ovid. Hell, the only reason I and my squad are alive is because we weren't there. Still, There's a lot of things Terrans have been keep from other Terrans, not to mention other races. If we have seen them before, I can't tell you what may have happened, but i hope it went well. I know I'm still wary of a creature such as that, but he was a lot of help." Kai paused to take a bit of a drink before continuing, but was interrupted before he could even speak. "Umm, I think your communicator is going off" He muttered politely, as Cibo seemed to not be noticing it just yet, probably due to the state of light drunkenness she was in.

*****

Green squadron was the last squadron out of the hangars, and the first to come in, having intercepted their targets close to the base. As soon as they landed, A small salvage vessel launched from the Base's vast hangar bay, heading out to recover the wreckages of five scimitars destroyed or heavily damaged in the battle, as well as the scraps of the 50 or so destroyed Drathonian ships. It was nice of the drathonians to give the Terrans time between battles enough to do this, but it was still a tiring ordeal for the crews of the ships on watch.

Emma Wriggled in her place on Arcadia's lap, thankful for the dual-joystick controls as opposed to the classic single-stick some older ships still used, which would have made the arrangement highly uncomfortable. "Sorry if I'm squishing you, Arcadia" the girl apologized, blushing a bit in her embarrassment at having been 'shot down'. While she was lucky in that her ship would only take a short time to repair, it was still an embarassment for such a supposedly good pilot to go extra-vehicular.

By now, Cibo was looking pathetically sad, but with a large 'cute' factor to boot. "You're probably right. And I'm guessing I'm looking rather silly, half drunk and all, huh?" she replied. Before she could say anything more, she gave in to her PDA's demands. It had a message on it. Evelyn had finally responded, but it was rather...unenthusiastic. "Oh how embarrassing..." she moaned. Did this mean she got all worked up for nothing? Did this mean that she was being paranoid again? Did this mean she was going to be demoted? Again? She felt the claws of depression and sorrow perversely stroking her heart, slowly reaching around it to...Another notice came up after that. Something most interesting. Cibo quickly popped a pill in her mouth, and stood up for a few seconds. At first she was a bit tipsy, but her balance soon returned. Cibo suddenly appeared proud and vigorous. Perhaps this is a chance to redeem myself for the little...outburst. "Excuse me. Something has come up. Please have a nice day Lieutenant." Something was up indeed. The alien rifle, biting someone? How strange.

****

By now, Wightman had sat down, and was just starting to eat his bowl of soup, looking at people with a friendly expression and confidence The woman a few seats down from him was younger, but still quite pretty. He couldn't get a good at her face, or her name tag for that matter, but he did get a good look at the Lieutenant next to her. Kai, was it? He must be quite a deft one. The woman was clearly upset, but still perhaps emotionally sticking to him. He sure knew how to work 'em. Before he could get a better look at the woman, she spoke. Why the hell does she sound familiar? The woman got up and left without so much as a backwards glance. He still couldn't get a good look at either her tag or face, and her bust was only ok. Oh well, there's plenty more here anyways. Several minutes later, just as he finished his bowl, he received a message. "Oh s**t!" he toppled over a chair as he started running.

****

"No. If you do that, it will self destruct. By now, it has most likely leeched enough energy to cause significant damage. Again. I, and only I should handle it. Keep in mind the weapon system uses my flesh as key." the Ottyo spoke tonelessly. The man with the bloodied clothing walked over to the other Terrans, and even called a few guards over. One of them procured rather sturdy looking manacles for his arms, legs, and even tail. Accursed Drathonians.

Moments later, the armed guards had him before the armory door. A screeching, sucking sound could be heard from the other side. "We'll trust you enough to let you handle this on your own, but you know what will happen if you betray that trust."
"Of course." Yotruyan crouched down and was getting ready to sprint. They had extended the chain on his legs slightly, just enough for him to dash in, and swap out it's capacitor. The tan colored hand reached for the panel, and entered in a code to unlock it. The door opened. A giant armored leech leaped out, and bit down hard on Yotruyan's arm. He quickly sprinted inside and turned the corner, holding the squirming MC-R in the doorway. As a guard raised his laser weapon to fire, another person leaped forward.
"No you fool! The super capacitor inside will blow!" As the wriggling, snapping abomination was held in the doorway, Yotruyan laboriously typed in the lockdown code with his restrained tail's tip. The door slammed shut, and the red lights came back on. "&%@. We can't open the door without typing in the code again from the same side it was entered in. Who was the last Intel to speak with it? Call that person over! We need to keep this quiet!"

Inside, Yotruyan was quite happy. He broke the MC-R open over his knee, and ejected the charged capacitor, replacing it with a half empty one. The leech turned into a worm, and the worm turned into a rifle, which in turn became a long metal pod. He simply stuck it by the doorway. Yotruyan was more entertained when recovering from his wounds then when in the cell; at least there he was learning how to speak, and write their language. But here, here he had all their weapons to toy with. The Ottyo Inquisitor picked up an unlocked PDA one of he scientists had left behind.

"I got him on camera! The audio's damaged, but they're still working in there!" The scientist's PDA showed the skeletal figure toying around with a PDA. A moment later, Sehene received an invitation. Apparently, the person had remembered the symbols of her name, and entered them into the PDA to search for her. A live audio chat was waiting for her. The moment she would accept, they would all hear him. He spoke a little faster than he had before, and less carefully,
"It is I. Will you request a Shipmaster or other high ranking, yet disposable individual? To be safe. I do not wish for a loss to be...strategically felt. I wish to initiate the diplomatic pleasantries." The camera followed the Ottyo inside, who started to rummage around, and found a spool of wire, as well as grenades. "I am bored of being interrogated, or otherwise sitting in my cell and listening to Beethoven or Mozart. I am authorized by the powers that govern me to speak for them." The viewers gasped in horror as he rigged the grenades to blow if the door was forcibly opened in any way. He even laid his temperamental weapon beside it.

Yotruyan literally purred with glee as he sat down on a stool before a work bench. Using the tools, he easily freed himself. And the device off to the side. Was that a replicator? Judging by the random parts strewn about it, it was. Instruction manual, instruction manual...there! Easy. "I apologize for my rudeness, but if you are unsatisfied with my behavior enough to terminate me, I will arrange for another to meet you if you wish. Frankly my dear Sehene, I don't give a damn about myself. Not after what the Red Ones have done. I want to have revenge, but more importantly, I would like to be happy again."

Outside, the scientists were taking notes again, in awe of how rapidly he had acclimated to the Terran environment. "Amazing! These creatures must be highly intelligent, and look how nimble it's fingers are!"
"I heard that, Scientist! Person, I am a person!" He lashed out. The replicator before the figure started to work itself up, and soon gave out a large, thick sheet of metal. He then broke a Sugar open, removing the trigger group, and numerous small parts. From under the Armory Master's counter, he pulled out several metal shaping devices. The black claws ran over the machines. Any fool watching would be able to tell that the fake feathers on the helmet were moving with glee. A minute or two passed, and the machines whirred to life, and begun to shape the metal.

"In the meanwhile, I will be crafting myself something to pass the time if you do not mind too much. It seems you lack something in this armory you see. But do not worry, I mean no harm, so long as you return the intent." The Ottyo worked with a gusto and zeal that even made the scientists, gunsmiths and engineers outside jealous. It was obvious what was taking form before him. "In general, we like to talk pleasantries in our society, and when deprived, we become a little abnormal. So please pardon my mess." It is all too possible they will kill me as soon as I let my guard down. Best I prepare for that as well...At least I will have comfort of the void. Screw the Principality.

****

Cibo was standing there, witness to the whole thing unfold and progress over 10 measly minutes. Ten! The door was rigged, so even if she hacked it, the whole thing would explode. Damned Lizard. "Alright, we'll have it your way." The Intelligence Agent sent a message to Evelyn.

"If you had been obeying proper protocols and flying intelligently, you wouldn't have been that close," Pilot Langdon retorted. "As for the shields... well, sometimes I don't even know. Last time, I didn't have a shield for more than ten minutes because some fool failed to engage the generator's lock, so..." She let that settle, briefly reminiscing on the anger that had filled her mind at the time.

She took a deep breath to release it all again. "But I think you might be right; that or they're getting stronger stuff. Either way, it's bad news. Let's see if we can get an engineer to come run some tests, maybe trade them out." She headed for the exit of the hangar, eager to get a cup of coffee and someone more experienced than herself in the maintenance of Scimitars. Something simple compared to combat.

Steven let out a sigh of relief as his fighter touched down in the hangar. After taking off his helmet he slumped back in his seat and just sat there for a few moments. ”That was just a little too close for my liking,” Steven said to himself. Then after a few more moments he pushed the canopy up and away from the cockpit and climbed out. Standing on the wing he surveyed the damage on his scimitar with a look of disdain. From a cursory glance it looked that many parts and panels on the fighter would need to be replaced. ”Sigh. I don't have time for this. I will let the engineers get this one.”
”Hey Captain, ready to go grab some coffee?” Green Two asked as Steven was climbing down from the fighter.
”What'd you say? Didn't hear you.” Steven asked.
”I said do you want to go grab a quick cup of coffee?” Green Two said again.
”Oh. Sure.”
”Hey Sir, are you feeling all right? You look a little flushed? You got a fever or something?”
”Huh? No, I am fine, it is just a slight cold,” Steven started to say but paused to let out a cough. ”Don't worry about it. Now let's go get some coffee.”
”If you say so, Sir.”
With that the two pilots started towards the mess for some coffee as the other pilots of Green Squadron were making their way out of their own fighters.

"It wasn't my flying that was the problem, it was that you let the enemy get too close to me" Emma countered, following her elder wingmate off to wherever she was going. She noticed Captain Kerning looking a bit off, and tugged Arcadia's sleeve, to get her attention "Hey, Arc, I think we should go check up on the Captain, he seems in a bad way, yannow?"

****

Evelyn's booted footsteps could be heard clomping down the hallway behind the group of spooks and labcoats. One by one, most of them looked and fell silent as the Avatar of the Battle Hymn Of The Republic made her entrance, rather calmly, still looking mildly worried. She looked at Sehene's datapad, getting a recording of the transmission off the device, before stopping at the door. She knocked gingerly on the metal door, a surprisingly loud metallic thud resonating from the contact between the door and her metal bones under the thin lays of skin at her knuckles. She plugged her ear jack into the wall, and projected her voice into the room, but no one on the outside would hear it.

"Hello, Unique one. I heard some of my soldiers found you all but dead on Perennia. It seems you have made quite a recovery. I must ask, however, why you are running amok in a portion of this station which is off limits even to the majority of Terrans, Outsider as you are."

On the outside, Evelyn softly spoke. "I have taken charge of the situation. Please, give me room, I do not wish harm upon any of you."