[Fallen Shrine]Button Up, Folks!

[Glein]

Cate sighed as she sunk into the back seat, knees pressed up against the smaller bag that took up the space in front of her, elbows banging against her suitcase and the door. Meanwhile, Ferrol was having the time of his life, bouncing back and forth between the various areas, occasionally checking the front seats via crawling on the roof. Though, the Aasimar swore that the robot was trying to get itself into a position where an errant bump on the road could cause it to fall into one of the twin’s laps- or other places. Cate had her suspicions, especially ever since she learned of Ferrol’s betrayal.

As the skyscrapers started to give way to lower, squatter buildings, Cate broke the silence that permeated the car throughout most of the trip: “Anything I need to know about the ship’s captain? Any specific subjects to avoid? Anything she expects me to know about the ship beforehand? Things like that.” They were nearing the space-port, and Cate begrudgingly admitted that she was starting to feel nervous.

Kahbull was a pretty normal space port city in the UNS all things considered. The Ethertek vehicles around the decidedly *old school* Jeep however, made it stand out all the more. Thankfully it wasn't a gasoline or diesel drinker, using a dihydrogen oxide electric cell, AKA, put in water, to get energy. So it was as clean running as anything else on the road. It just looked strange, since it didn't match the vehicle designs around it.

Niobe sat in the front at the wheel, while Noele was in the back lounging like the cat she was and sneaking in a nap. "Be careful 'bout the subject of soldiers and some government from where she's from, oh, and just cause she looks like a twintail Kitsune, doesn't mean she is. Trust me, she most definitely is not one. As for what you should expect out of the ship... So long as you're willing to learn as we go, then you'll be fine. According to the Cap'n, not even she's sure about half the systems, though that could be either due to not being a tech head like we are, or that this ship is so far from her culture's norm that even she can't be sure of things. The big thing, it's mostly digital systems, but has some... weird extra from her home. I mean, we can't find a room that needs to drop the temp to the kind of degrees we think quantum needs, but apparently some of it is in fact quantum." She said, shifting lanes to get to the off-ramp they needed to turn towards the spaceport proper.

“Quantum? A brand..? Anyways, got it- no military, no government, no spiritual stuff- fine with all that. But hey, as long as I can interface with it, I ought to be good. That being said, the shield DOES have a radio wave frequency phasor implemented into it, right? I may have to tweak the algorithm a bit to make it more ‘random’, but…”

“…We have a force field shield, right?”

After driving for another twenty minutes, the town finally gave way to a large terminal; it wasn’t extravagant, by any means, but the building was functional, providing a hub for logistics of launching ships into space. The area where the ships themselves were at was just squares of concrete of varying sizes; in the distance, large hangars provided rudimentary protection from the environment, while longer strips carved through the concrete pads, as some ships relied on a runway to gather enough speed to exit the planet’s atmosphere.

Upon reaching the space port, Cate struggled to lean forward between the driver’s seat where Niobe sat, straining to look past the approaching fence. “So, which ship is-'' At that moment, a bump in the road fulfilled Ferrol’s dream, causing him to fall off the ceiling- straight towards Cate and her now-open shirt, her having unbuttoned her shirt due to the rising heat. As the lecherous robot plummeted to paradise, Cate’s hand rose, and she slapped her robot to the side, snapping at him: “Not he- er, now!” The robot’s path was rocketed away from Cate, and towards Noele.

Cate continued on: “Anyways, which ship is it?”

Niobe chuckled, hearing Cate trying to guess things. "Since we haven't launched yet, no clue. But, owing to what me and Noele have seen thus far? I don't think so." She said, pulling to a stop at the gate to the landing pads. As a bored looking security guard stepped out of the box, the nekomata flashed him a nice smile. "MV Fallen Shrine." She said, offering a badge for him to check.

Taking it, the guard sighed, walked back into his box, and compared it to the roster he had. Soon a buzz and the gates began to open as he walked back out. "Have a nice day." They said, before handing the badge back and walking back inside, to fight to stay awake once they'd left.

Putting the badge back into her jacket, Niobe nodded and drove through, following the designated drive path through the pads. "Not even sure you'll have a way to sync up to some of the systems. I mean, didn't quantum computer technology get ditched in favor of Ethertek?" She said, ending with a question to the Aasimar. Soon though they turned off the drive path to come onto a pad, where a ship that was... definitely alien compared to the rest of the space port's occupants. "Aaand that's our ship." She said, the dull gray hull pockmarked with evidence of space travel. Driving to the rear of it, she pulled to a stop, and turned off the engine. Stepping out of the jeep, she walked to the back seat, and knocked her fist against Noele's head, getting a grumpy cry of displeasure out of the other nekomata. "Yeah yeah, bitch all you like sis, we're here."

Cate did a double take: “Wait, you’re serious? It's actually quantum technology?” Cate rubbed her eyes. “Surely not. Too much work for too little gain- there’s no way anyone would pursue that line of reasoning. It must all be some sort of advanced digital stuff, claiming it’s quantum speed or whatever. But anyways, as long as there’s a standard electron interface, I should be good to add some ethertek stuff, and then I can sync stuff up- may take a bit for me to get a working code for digital that can work with the ethertek Phasors- I have some software packages on me that could help speed up the process…” At that, Cate tapped her head. “Even then, if this code really is from another country, they probably won't run off of Oracle or Seer language….”

The Aasimar stopped short upon seeing the ship. “Oh.” Well… at least it didn’t have any holes in it? But Cate was definitely expecting… a sleeker design? Like, she didn’t know, a really cool, sleek, and angular ship? This was… Definitely not a looker. But the young girl realized that she hadn’t spoken in a moment- she hurriedly attempted to patch the gap: “Er, it doesn’t look as bad as you w-were making me imagine it to be!” She shifted her feet as the vehicle started to slow down, muttering, “Now, where’d that rust-for-wires robot of mine g…” Oh. Oh.

The damn robot had nestled himself on top of Noele’s chest! Cheek’s reddening, Cate almost rushed out of the car, zipping and then hovering near Niobe as she practically danced on her feet, her mouth opening and closing as she debated whether or not to try and stay silent to avoid the blowback, or start screaming at Ferrol. Finally, as Noele rapped her fist on the other Nekomata’s head, Cate made her decision, and grabbed Ferrol off of his nest, snaking the robot back to her as quickly as possible, before Niobe woke up fully. The little spiderbot protested, but a quick shake and glare from Cate quickly calmed the robot down.

Niobe didn't even comment about the presence of Ferrol on Noele's chest. Noele was more complaining about having had her forehead rapped upon by a trio of knuckles applying firmly and in rapid succession against it. "What the hell, Niobe?!" she griped, pulling herself into a seating position and glare at her twin, only to notice the ship. "Oh. We're here." She said simply, before pulling herself out of the jeep and stretching.

"According to our Cap'n, her nation runs on Q-Tech. But there's plenty of true digital sections. And while the exterior is in good shape... You'll rethink that when you see the interior." Niobe said, walking up the ramp to the ship's hold, where the emptiness of it was readily apparent, the last of the cargo having been hauled out between when the twins got hired on and them bringing in Cate.

"Need breast bot to hold your jaw closed?" Niobe asked, grinning as she looked back at Cate.

Cate turned to face Niobe, her face now pink instead of red as she started to process the information of what she just said- but then came the stinger. Said aasimar’s jaw opened again, before she remembered what Niobe said, and closed it with an audible clop, a furious blush on her face as she muttered a sullen “No.” Her glare was then riveted to Ferrol, who practically cowered in her suitcase as Cate’s look promised a gloomy future.

Finally shaking her head, Cate herself made her way to the ramp, asking: “Am I the last one you guys had on the agenda, or will we have more helping hands?”

Noele stretched, and walked by the pair. "Near as we can tell, you're the last one we're getting for a while. Soap's worried 'bout sitting 'round too long racking up fees." She said, seemingly un bothered by the whole commentary about Ferrol's antics. Walking up the ramp, she headed to one of the ladders and began to climb up.

Niobe chuckled. "Dunno why you're so embarrassed by him. It's kind of cute how he tries so hard." She replied, but shrugged as she followed her sister into the ship, but not up the ladder, rather heading for the hatch that was flush with the hold. "Com'on, lemme give ya the tour."

Cate scowled as she muttered to Niobe: “Dunno how you can find getting gr- er, touched, so endearing… lecherous is what I’d call it…” Cate shook her head, as she followed the duo through the hatch, craning her head curiously as she looked around the interior of the ship. She could already spot a place near the terminal where she could try and hook up an Etherwire port; Hopefully, she had a couple of scripts ready…

Noele walked through the hatch on the inside section of the hold on the second deck. Niobe snorted. "At least it's more direct of an action than being eyeballed from afar by people too scared to try and do anything. And besides, he's not trying to do anything like rape or such right?" She said, following Cate up into the hold. "This, as you can guess, is the hold. It's sizable for a ship this size, easily taking up... I'd say shy of half the ship? The remaining half is split between the armaments and the crew spaces," She said.

"It's empty now since the cargo she brought's been off-loaded, and since no one on the other end of the trip is expecting us or has a job for us that way, we'll be flying light." She explained, smiling.

Cate shook her head, muttering to herself, a few bits actually being coherent, such as: Damn prostitute… just like the temple.. After a moment of stewing, Ferrol finally climbed out of his bag and up-tapped Cate’s chin, chattering and beeping all the while. “Wha-? Oh, right. Work. A-anyways.” Cate hurriedly moved off, heading to the nearest terminal and moving her hands around, fingers lightly brushing around the surface. “Well, you’re not wrong about different cultures- I’ve seen a couple of similar inlet plugs like this, but it’s just slightly different. Not many, though- which is honestly a bit weird?” Cate shrugged. “Eh. Maybe all nations before being inducted into the UNS seem like that- we’ll just have to get the ship to get compat with most major UNS stuff.”

She took her hands off of the console, turning to face the twins. “Not touching the insides, not until the captain at the very least gives me the go ahead. Speaking of…” Cate began looking around. “Where is this mysterious and exotic captain of your- er, ours, I should say.” Ferrol, now assured of having at least temporarily abated Catelynn’s wrath, began scuttling around the ship, much like a cockroach, as his scanner began going along the walls.

Cate seemed to let this go on for a bit, until she suddenly blinked, and called out to Ferrol: “Hey, hold it! I don’t even recognize the potential function of that bit! Go- er, actually, come back here.” Maybe she should stick with her original assertion that she should wait until she was on the team before scanning the guts of the ship. The young woman sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck.

Noele nodded. "I mean, at least it's familiar enough to work out what's supposed to be what." She replied, letting the new tech head looked over things. "She's probably on the bridge plotting out the ship's course." Noele thought on the question. "It'll be a long haul though. Apparently traveling halfway across the star cluster." She explained. "According to the captain, we do lose artificial gravity during 'drops' as she calls them. No clue if true or why. Then again, this thing is already kind of a cobbled together mess." She continued, sighing.

"Oh, and if you know some folks able to supply parts in a hurry and for relatively cheap, you can probably get the captain to okay on picking them up for ya." Noele finished, watching as Ferrol poked at a wire bundle and get a jolt for his curiosity. "Hope he ain't crispy from that!" Noele quipped, laughing as Ferrol recovered.

A new pair of footsteps could be heard heading back their way, before a young man entered. He was about to ask one of the twins a question, before the bot then Cate in all her generously proportioned curvature, caused the merc to do a subdued double double-take. "Hey Noelle, did you happen to get the machining done on that tritium sight set I left with you? I was hoping to have it back on my rifle before we left port," came the man's question finally after a brief adjustment.

He had spoken with a lit cigarette of foreign make between his lips, the wrap black with a gold band, the smoke a somehow fluorescent red. Giving a quick run through of his hand to straighten his hair, before taking the cig out between two fingers to speak less casually as he cleared his throat. "Drake by the way, welcome aboard, could say I'm a security agent for the crew," he introduced himself politely, hoping his initial surprise hadn't given the wrong impression.

Cate jumped a bit as she heard a deeper voice, and turned from her concerned look at her drone to face the newcomer to the hold. Though, her face took on a bit of a bemused look as she beheld the blindly bright shirt he was wearing. Cate turned away for a bit and rubbed her eyes, wiping away a tear, before she turned back to face the man- Drake, apparently. She raised an eyebrow at the man, before tentatively asking: “...What even is that… thing?” She shook her head, berating herself internally, before she tried again.

“E-er, I mean, hello, uh, Drake. M’name’s Catel- er, Cate.” She grasped wildly for something to say, until she finally came up with: “So.. you’re security? That shirt certainly, uh…” She stared at the shirt for a moment, thinking of something to say, before her face turned beet red as a thought occurred to her: Wait, oh crap, no, don’t say that, don’t stare, he’ll have the wrong idea! “It, uh, would do a good job at scaring and blinding boarders?” Wait, no, that’s also not what she- Damn it all. Maybe stop trying to be witty about him, and move on to herself. The aasimar tugged on her open collar nervously, as she finally continued: “Ahm- I’m supposed to be the one that’s gonna deal with all of the computers and stuff. Coding. Spoofing. Electronic Warfare. Optimizing powerflow and logic gates. That kind of stuff.” …What else to say? OH.

“And, er, nice to meet yo- er, a pleasu- no, uh, I’m looking forward to working with you?” Cate cringed on the last bit, internally chiding herself: Idiot! ‘Looking forward to working with you?’ He probably just wants to get paid and not deal with us.

Noele snorted. "Still working on it. It's admittedly been on the back burner while we try to get this whole mess of a ship functioning for the trip. And figuring out what we ain't got a clue on." She replied to Drake, then turned her head at Cate's response. "Oh, that's just one of his shirts. Call's 'em a 'hawaiian'. No clue what that means, just that it's definitely eye-catching." She explained.

"As for what he does, well, I'll let him explain better." She said, grinning. Turning her gaze to Drake, she winked. "She's our new tech head. Computer work is her biz. Also, don't hesitate to compliment her. She loves it." Noele said, a teasing look on her face.

“I can’t help it's laundry day, be thankful it’s the only day I usually make you suffer through me in it. And yes, they’re a relic from my people’s homeworld, so they have value.”, the mercenary grumbled before offering a hand to shake to their newest member. “Try not to let them bug you too much, they’re preferentially playful and teasing to everyone they can get away with. They’re good women to know though, and very reliable.” Drake came across as easy going to most probably, or laid back, but mostly it was just him trying to live as stress free as possible.

This woman was not helping as her tugging of an already open shirt was bringing the hems further and further into the danger zone. Anymore, and the young man was going to start seeing what they were tightly dragging across for traction. Leaning in a little bit, said quietly, “You might not want to pull on that much more, you’re about to start headlighting people.”

Cate was nodding along to the conversation, lip quirked up in a smile as she heard the name of the shirt, ‘Hawaiian.’ A small smirk-smile that was instantly demolished by Noele’s next response. The indignant woman turned to face Noele, and spluttered in an angry: “Why you-”

…Maybe Noele had Drake to thank for saving her life, as Drake’s outstretched hand distracted Cate enough to stop considering smacking the errant catgirl. As the aasimar shook the mercenary’s hand, and although she leaned slightly back when he leaned in, she relaxed a bit as she heard his words. “Yes, I know, they’re insufferable.” Shaking her head ruefully, she tugged on her shirt nervously.

And then she leaned back even more as he leaned yet even further in. And then he said it. It took a moment for Cate to register it, but as soon as it did, she jerked away from him, face beet red, stammering and spluttering, before a single word rose out of the jumble in a high pitched screech, her fist trying to smack down the man’s head:

“PEEEEEEEEERVEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRT!!”

Suddenly a crackle of the intercom happened. "Who the actual fuck is screaming down in the hold? I can hear you all the way the fuck up here!" Came a very pissed off voice.

Noele just tilted her head, stuck out her tongue slightly and cutely put her hands in little fists against the top of her head, with a little 'blem' sound to go with it, before she jogged over to the intercom control.

"It's fine Cap'n. Just the new tech head meeting Drake and nearly stripping herself in her nervousness!" Noele replied, getting an exasperated sigh out of the person on the other end of the intercom.

"I swear, if I don't skin you cats, someone else will." Was the reply, before the intercom clicked off.

"Woo! Off the hook!" Noele cheered out before scampering her way out of the hold to head to the engine room, leaving Drake to give Cate the tour now. Intentionally leaving her to suffer? Maybe. Getting an absolute laugh out of it? Definitely.

“Wowwww… Okay. Try to be nice and warn a girl and she shouts you out as a perv… thanks. I’ll just let you nip tease everyone next time,” Drake said with the most irritated deadpan look possible as he deftly backstepped the swings. Yep so far, off on the right foot... totally… no, not really. “Well if I’m being tossed as a tour guide, let's get on with it, before you use some other rude thing to call me,” he grumbled before gesturing to follow him.

Cate muttered darkly: “Bet you’d love to see that, wouldn’t you?” Scowling, and still beet red, she hurriedly tried to rebutton her shirt back up. “Ugh, now, er, before you decide to visually grope me again…” Her face reddened as she struggled to get the last button on, and she muttered to herself as she attempted to wrangle her shirt to an advantageous position to finish the last button: “I swear, it fit me last month..”

Meanwhile, during Cate’s struggles, Ferrol scampered up the nearest console to Drake, and chirped insistently to get his attention- upon gaining it, Ferrol made a fairly serious bow, before reaching a leg inside its innards and presenting a code written on scratch paper, beeping conspiratorially to the man.

Cate gave a pained sigh of relief as she finally buttoned up the last button, though she grimaced as it practically dug into her. She looked up to face Drake, and noticed Ferrol, shoulders sagging, before raising them up in defiance again. “I see Ferrol has decided to introduce himself to you. …Shouldn’t be surprised, likes tend to attract each other…” She muttered, before walking to Drake, sighing, “Let’s get this over wi-” Ping. She blinked, then looked down as she felt a shift in her chest. A button was gone. Oh no.

“Oh, son of a fucking whore!” Drake grunted as the missing button somehow hit him in the temple hard enough to daze. There was a searing sharp strike of pain, that was most definitely more than just some simple bruise, as something warm could be felt running down the side of his brow. “If you’re this dangerous with your damn wardrobe malfunctions, you are not getting a gun anytime soon! Also fuck off with the likes attract bullshit, I’m not the one flashing her tits like my mother on a weekend,” he growled, the sudden injury pushing him over the edge of being polite anymore as a hand moved to his temple to staunch the bleeding from running into his eye.

As he grumbled off towards the medbay with the Aasimar in tow, he spoke to himself under his breath. Something about smelling iron now along with every other metal under the sun down here. “Like I don’t get brained enough by the twins as it is.”, he grumbled a bit more audibly before calling out “Hey doc, got a first aid kit handy?” as they approached the medbay.

Hearing the mild commotion, Theo stood from his desk, adjusting his glasses as the two crew entered his office. Seeing the bloody temple of the resident hired gun, Theo chuckled to himself while looking at his compatriot. “It’s always woman problems with you isn’t it Drake?” As his rhetorical question made contact, the good doctor motioned to the medical station,”sit down and we will see how badly they hurt you this time.” he chuckled to himself before turning around to find an aid bag. Before too long he returns from the cabinets, prepping a tray for medical response, turning his light on and gently bringing the light across Drake’s eyes looking for any lasting damage.”Follow the light with your eyes please. Do you feel light headed, dizzy?” Theo started with his regular process for head injuries, putting his pen light back in his pocket, before dabbing at the wound with a gauze pad, allowing more of the wound to be revealed. With a whistle Theo looked back to the young man chuckling once more. “Jot this down as being the first time you'll need stitches from a woman's breasts that wasn't a parent or boyfriend.”

As Cate followed Drake to the medbay, she scowled at his words. “It’s not MY fault that the buttons decided to give. …And wait. Your mother does this… on weekends?” Cate stopped in the middle of the hallway for a moment, staring slackjawed at Drake, before muttering, more to herself: “Temple bastard.” She then resumed following Drake into the medbay. Upon entering the rather grey medical center she stared at the various medical devices in the room, shuddering slightly at the slightly dystopian spikey apparatus.

Cate leaned against the doorway, smirking slightly as the doctor- ‘doc’ as Drake called him- vindicated Cate’s original assumption. Pervert. As she sat there smiling to herself, she spoke to the doctor, not even stammering as she usually did when introducing herself to complete strangers. “Hello- m’name’s Cate. Supposed to be the tech here- specifically, more on software.” At that, Cate shrugged, showing the first sign of uncertainty as she progressed: “So, uh, anyways, what should I call you, doc- er, doctor?”

“Doc you got a real mean streak don’t ya. In this line of work, all the women I know are the ones who like being troubles. I’m just glad a certain deer mod I know isn’t here. Between her likely duking it out with the cap, and her losing her bambi kibbles over these stitches, it would be one hell of a nightmare.” Drake began as his wound was being cleaned up, already figuring on likely needing the stitches before they were announced.

“At least I’m not walking around flashing my tits at everyone, then calling them out on my own shitty dime store clothing.”, Drake bit back with a growl, “I just met you and you’re already the most condescending, judgemental woman I know. You don’t know me, so stop pretending you do.”

The doctor looked at his new Female companion adjusting his glasses once more.” Ah…yes, I'm sure you were hired for your skills with ’tech’ as you say and nothing more… Doctor Theodore Tibault, But you may call me Theo.” He quickly turned his attention back to Drake, pressing the Gauze harder against his temple. “ If you start squirming and upping your blood pressure, it will not be able to close properly. So sit down and kindly…be quiet so I can stitch up your mishaps.” Lifting Drake's hand to apply pressure to the wound as he prepared gloves and his suture kit, humming to himself, before turning back around. “ You have two choices, I can sew you up…or I can cauterize your wound. I’ll leave that to you.”

As Doc started working further on Drake's head, a certain feline-inclined person stepped past, a basket of clothes in her hands. "Hey Doc! How you like our Ethertek wiz? She's a hell of a looker, but her brain is scarier than her bra size!" Niobe called out as she passed by, sniggering as she did, awaiting to hear how Cate reacted while running for her and her sister's quarters.

Cate blinked upon hearing Theo’s remark, before her face turned into a scowl. “Well, Drake, in any case…” Cate opened her bag and began rummaging through it, muttering to herself, as she finally pulled out a bottle called Acetaminophen. “Take this before Sketer Dunklestein here decides to play torturer and decides whether or not he likes you as either burnt or zipped. No, it’s not poison- it’s a painkiller. N-(4-Hydroxyphenyl)acetamide; should help with inflammation and pain.” She threw the bottle at Drake, lips twisted in a look of disdain as she justified: “Don’t want to make a bad impression on the captain on the first day. And yes, I can, considering that this is… Hm. One, two, three, FOUR instances, within ten minutes of each other, two of which you said yourself, of you clarifying that you’re a damn pervert!”

She humphed, and looked away. “...Take two pills now, and two more within four hours. Don’t ask how I know, pharmacy.” She blinked upon hearing Niobe, and she scowled. “Listen here, you little-!” She tried to move around the doorframe. Unfortunately, she got caught in it- don’t ask how. Her chest hurt after that, though.

The Doctor’s eyes narrowed as he caught the bottle prior to it hitting the merc, looking over its construction and ingredient list. Making a small noise from his mouth as his lips pursed in thought, before his eyes fell back to their new tech specialist. Turning around quietly he leaned into the cabinet grabbing another similar bottle, looking back to the clumsy woman. waiting , again without saying a word, shaking the bottle as it rattles. ”Ah, I see you firmly understand anti inflammatories, My job here is done. I can finally retire to a life of stiff drinks and foreign beaches…” he sighed for a moment, taking his gloves off and setting a fresh pair on the young woman's head.” Since I am clearly outmatched and wasting my time, I believe I'll leave the patient in your…capable…hands…doctor.” as he spoke, he walked out waving a hand to Drake. “You all are the reason I drink.” His words fell quiet, as he made his way to the bridge. Without a word he entered, headed straight to his station grabbing from his bag, his frosted glass bottle, popping open the cork, taking three large gulps from the bottle itself, quite uncharacteristically. Sitting into his station the Doctor sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose, tossing his glasses on the terminal his boots now rested against.” They are your problem Sophia.”

Soap looked at Theo entering the bridge and quirked an eyebrow. "The actual... Who the hell pissed you off? Drake? The Twins?" She asked, pausing her work on the computer built into the captain's chair, which was filled with a star map of the sector and the route they were taking. She would have asked what was going on, but considering that the last time she'd seen him *this* pissed, she had tried to tell him how to do his job involving her, only to be very pointedly reminded that he not only knew how to fix her stupid mistake, it was a snapped elbow, but also knew more about how to fix her physical body than most genemods themselves did because he helped design them.

Watching as the doc proceeded to walk out, Drake knew he was on his own now, welp life expectancy just dropped a measure. With a sigh, the merc grabbed the tools for a cauterization, as he might as well as the easiest option. Slipping his Hawaiian shirt off, the young man wadded the thin fabric shirt, before stuffing it into his jaw to bite down on. Reaching up and turning the mirror that was attached to the wall on a manipulating arm mount, brought it up to be able to see his own forehead. Finding the torch pen from its triage kit, began to do his best to pinch the wound closed before switching the pen on. As he began to work on himself, his jaw tightened as he groaned into the fabric, muffling it quietly through all the colorful fabric.

Cate stood slack-jawed, yet again, as the doctor stormed out of the medical bay. It was only after a moment that Cate managed to get out a hoarse: “I-I was only a pharmacist!” She was left only to stare at an empty hallway. Shoulders sagging, she blinked upon hearing a rustling noise. She turned around, and saw Drake with his shirt off. That, which instantly caused her face to turn beet red. Though her thoughts- and gaze- were immediately interrupted by noticing him using a torch pen. She blinked, frowning, before she finally started stammering out: “W-wait, there’s no need to do that, I know how to sew b-”

Her shoulders sagged as he continued the deed, causing her to slump down on the chair, put her elbow on the table, and practically facepalm into the awaiting hand. She gritted her teeth as she heard the distinct sound of searing flesh, staying there for a moment, before finally standing back up, looking back at Drake- nodon’tnoticethathewasshirtless- and finally made the decision: I-I guess we all have to make sacrifices, I guess. Cate’s face became an even deeper shade of red as she unbuttoned her shirt and shrugged out of it, sticking it underneath the closest sink she could find, and wet it, before sheepishly turning back around to present it to Drake.

She gave a quiet: “I-...uh.. You may want to wash that, and, uh, not with your own saliva.” …That Hawaiian shirt was expensive, wasn’t it? It was probably ripped. He said it was a relic. Her hands shook as she pointedly looked everywhere but Drake.

As the pair in the med bay worked, a voice could be heard coming through the doorway. "My fucking problem. My fucking problem?! The actual fuck did these idiots do!?" The voice growled, the volume raising as the owner of it approached. Soon Soap stood in the doorway. "Alright what the actual... Okay, first off, you." Soap was about to yell at them but paused upon seeing the state they were in. And so proceeded to point first at Cate. "Put on a fucking shirt. I don't need orbital bodies like those fucking up the ship's gravity because they're loose." She stated, then turned her finger to Drake. "You need to not wait until all your fucking clothes are dirty to do your laundry. I'm tired of seeing you ended up shirtless for whatever gods damned reason. That job you said would be easy while we've been here shouldn't have caused you to loose it. Now where was I? Oh right." She berated Drake before resuming her train of thoughts.

"Now, what the actual fuck did you two do to piss off Doc? Because the last time I saw him this pissed I spent an extra three weeks with a fucked up elbow." She demanded, putting fists onto her hips, twin tails swaying behind her.

Drake ignored the captain at first, more focused on sealing his wound that he had to do his best to steadily seal with the pen. Once it was done, he sat the thermal pen down with a shaky hand, the pain excruciating right now. After a moment, the man finally spit his shirt out of his mouth before standing up, “It’s fine, not like I was fucking planning on getting shot in the forehead today. Talk to her, I just came here to get patched, instead he got pissed off from her offering me pills. So I’m in a lot of pain right now, and I’m not even done self-treating myself. So excuse me while I go spray and hemostat this grill that used to be my forehead.. Ma’am.”

The merc without saying anything else, slipped past the captain, before heading to his quarters to grab a few items from his own first aid kit. All while pulling a crumpled cigarette pack of “dusk-lights” and lighting a pitiful state of a cigarette up, as the pack had been near the pocket he’s had to bite down on his shirt. The original had been lost on the impact of the button, but at least he kept the pack handy, and that it had stims laced into it to dull the searing burning sensation. The faint wisp of steam and burned flesh, was only marginally replaced by the smoke and smell of his cig as he took his exit.

Cate blinked, and whipped her head towards the newest offending contender, mouth open, ready to defend her integrity, before she closed it with an audible clop. It didn’t work for her twice before. Why should it work now? She sighed, and began putting her shirt back on, muttering as she did so: “Yes, I will change. No, I’m not just a pair of boobs. Yes, I’m aware I made the doctor mad- was trying to let Drake know I wasn’t trying to poison him for being a- just letting him know what I was giving him.”

The aasimar shifted awkwardly, shivering slightly as she began wringing the hem of her shirt, before quietly asking, “I can only guess you’re the captain? …Uhm, I’m the one who was, er, recommended to be the software specialist? I know Ethertek, Lava, F-, F*, Koala, Anaconda…Sheets… Uh, MATPRO, and a couple of the higher tier, military grade ones- Oracle, Seer, Diviner, and the like. I can, erm, give you the rest of the resume if you’d like, but, if you’re willing to let me stay, I would like to put my stuff in my cabin before figuring out where all the connections and wires are.”

Soap nodded. "Yeah, I'm the captain of this ship." She said, and listened to the entire list. "I'm gonna be honest, I ain't a tech head. I scout, I get a grounding, and I figure out how to stay alive. The twins said they knew someone who could do amazing work on computer systems and electrical components. If they brought you, I'm gonna take their word for it. I don't exactly got a lot of choice." She explained. "Simply put, sooner you can start, and begin figuring out what you need, what you know, and what you don't know, when it comes to this ship, the better. And if you try and blow smoke up my ass, I will kick you out the airlock." She explained.

"I'm not gonna hold you to any kind of hard standard. Don't cause trouble or damage the ship. What you do in your cabin is your own, so long as it doesn't risk the ship. I may run this as a democracy, but I still hold the final say unless you can give me very valid reasons I can understand. Understood?" Soap stated, crossing her arms.

Cate nodded. “Perfectly.”

"Good. Now you get to apologize to the Doc and Drake. Since it seems like you've been the center of the trouble the last half hour. I've got to finish plotting our course." She said, sighing and pinching her nose before heading back to the elevator lift to go back up to the bridge.

Cate blinked as Soap left the room. “I, uh, guess I’ll find my cabin then.” Standing up, she made her way out of the medbay and back to the hold, grabbing her stuff, where Ferrol was simply chilling, munching on a stray copper wire that was apparently disconnected from the rest of the ship. Cate blinked upon seeing the robot, a remark coming to her mouth, before she shook it away, deciding that right now, she’s had enough. “C’mon Ferrol. Time to get to the cabin.” Cate grabbed her suitcase, bag, and satchel tenderly keeping them away from her sopping shirt, and made her way back to the quarters, looking at each of the doors, brow furrowed, before she finally decided upon the door closest to the hold, and across the hall from the medbay.

Empty. Thank the gods. Stumbling into the room and closing the door, Cate quickly threw off her wet shirt and now wet bra, and almost practically threw her luggage on the ground, before collapsing on the bed with a thud, groaning to herself. After a moment of just lying there, the aasimar muttered to herself: “And this is why I don’t like working with people.” She proceeded to sit up in her bed, and gestured to Ferrol to come to her. She sighed as he hesitantly approached her, and ultimately said, “I’m not going to do anything to you.”

Ferrol, thankfully, knew that Cate was as good as her word, and scuttled happily onto her lap, and Cate flipped him over, peeled off his underbelly, and began idly tweaking the circuitry inside him, though he stopped moving his legs when Cate started speaking. “Ferrol? You’re gonna be really busy for the next couple of days, alright? I’m gonna start syncing all of the code to be able to work from my room, but I’ll need to figure out where to place Ethertek cabling, as it looks like there isn’t any.

At Ferrol’s beeping and chittering, Cate sighed and waved. “Oh, nothing. Just like I said, don’t like working with people.” A few more chirps and whirs, and Cate shrugged. “I don’t care- just as long as you don’t get thrown out of the airlock and you help me get this coding logistics done, you can play with Niole and Niobe however much you want. At Ferrol’s rather happy beeping, Cate smiled, before fixing his underbelly back on and putting him on the floor, standing up herself and stretching, looking around the room, before commenting to her robot: “I guess it’s time to start moving in. Let’s go.”

While the aassimar and her robot companion settled into their cabin, there was a knock on the door. "You decent Cate?" Came the voice of Niobe, sounding somewhat apologetic.

Cate almost bolted into the roof as she heard Niobe’s voice, and then hurriedly began pulling out various bits and bobs from her suitcase, before finding the first bra she could find, and hurriedly trying to put it on. “Y-yeah, just give me a second!” she called out, grunting as she tried to wrap the damn thing around her chest. She groaned as her hands slipped from the straps, the underwear refusing to quite fit on her, causing her to mutter, perhaps the third time that day: “I swear, it fit me last month!”

After a moment of struggling, Ferrol tapped Cate’s shoulder, and revealed a piece of string, causing the girl to flush. “I’m not that… Oh, fine!” Cate reluctantly- and finally- accepted that she would have to refit her outfits. Another moment later, and Cate was wincing with the now-expanded bra, muttering to herself as she struggled to fit in a t-shirt that now only looked like a tight crop-top on her, something that caused Cate to internally despair. But she persevered, and finally deemed herself ready enough to see Niobe.

She paused at the closed door, and took a deep breath. Please, don’t let Drake or Theo be out there. Her hand stayed on the keypad, before sighing, and pressing the key to open the door. As the door opened, Cate tried to act and look casual, leaning against the interior door frame again, and asked, “Uh, what’s up?” Act casual, act calm…

Niobe smiled as Cate appeared, alone as she stood there. "Not much, just wanted to check in on you, and also to apologize for me and Noele kind of throwing you into the deep end without a life raft or rope." She said, offering a hand. "And I think you haven't gotten that tour yet." She added, giving a sheepish laugh.

Cate blinked, and almost slipped off of the doorway as she tried to move forward towards the hand. She stumbled for a bit, before rubbing the back of her neck, and reaching to shake Niobe’s hand. She paused before grasping it, looking a bit worried, mouth opened as if she were about to remark on something. The moment was worried as Ferrol quite literally crawled over Cate’s shoulder and to the edge of her hand, grabbed Niobe’s hand with his front digits, and forcibly brought them to clasp Cate’s hand, giving indignant chirps to Cate all the while.

The robot’s reprimands caused Cate’s cheeks to redden, and she muttered: “Fine, fine. I won’t leave you to explore the ship all by yourself…” Shaking her head, she looked Niobe in the eye and said, “Well then, I guess it’s lead on.”

Niobe nodded with a smile. "The big features of the lowest deck are obviously the hold and the medical bay. Pretty sure the cabins on this deck are meant for rank and file crew. There's places for toiletry use and showering closest to the prow on either side with crew quarters" She explained, gesturing to the hatches around them. "Got the elevator there, set in the center. It runs all three decks and in an emergency there's ladders and stairs running the decks too. In addition, there's life support and main engineering down here. On top of that, there's a storage closet for cleaning supplies and the computer room, which is a bunch of servers but no sign of any hyper cooled systems for quantum." She continued, before walking up the stairs to the next deck up.

Cate nodded along as she looked around the hallway, though her brow furrowed at Niobe’s statement. “What do you mean, ‘you’re pretty sure it's for rank and file?’ What, the captain lives in a captain’s cabin?” Cate shook her head, before looking around the hallway. “Is there an airlock, aside from the main hold?”

"Actually yes, the Captain does have her own quarters. It's up on deck 3, across from the briefing room, and right by the bridge." Niobe said, smiling. "As for why we assume rank and file... Well, there's 4 bunks in each of the rooms and they're just enough room to turn around in and not much else. Pretty standard navy practice for space management. There is an airlock on the port side on deck 2." She said, explaining her logic.

"Deck two has the upper part of the hold, individual engine access, weapons control alongside emergency controls for the point defense turrets at them, galley with pantry and kitchen, officer's quarters, access to the ship's main armaments with the missile tubes, and of course access up and down to the deck above and below." She explained as they reached it, waving at Noele as she was busy properly welding a damaged pipe into properly working order instead of its old slap job of a weld the captain had made.

"Galley also serves as a common room. They've holovids using more of that Q-Tech they use, so I don't think the ship had anything originally." She said, as they entered said galley, which did have a hatch at its far end with all sorts of warning labels and such, including a big ol' stenciled wording that had clearly been put over a fresh coat of paint. "I don't read their language, but I'm told that translates to 'Missile Tubes'. Learning Hassan Trade is gonna be one heck of a challenge, but we'll have plenty of time to learn it owing to the distance of the trip. I mean, it's a few months out after all."

Cate followed along with Niobe’s explanation, though she did feel a slight shudder, though one of relief, that so far, she had enjoyed emptiness and quiet in her room… for now. Though, the ship was going to fill up soon, Cate supposed. Maybe she better get used to sleeping with three others… Shaking her head as she entered the Galley with the nekomata, Cate gave a glance at the far-end hatch, before nodding to herself. At the very least, if it was plural, she would find something else to cross-reference that for Hassan… A thought made Cate stop in her tracks.

“Wait, a few months? …That’s pretty far out, even considering the slowest engines. Pretty sure I could get to one of the UNS’ core worlds in a month, tops, from here, and the planet is pretty close to the outer systems…” Cate scratched her nose. “How even did we manage to get into contact, let alone find slipstream- hyperlan- oh, whatever the standard is now!” Scowling, she quickly lost the expression as it returned to her original thoughtfulness. “And Q-tech… Quantum, I guess you’re saying… I’ll believe it when I see it, I suppose.” Cate raised her hand. “It has to be something other than quantum- it’s practically impossible for the qubits to operate at anything over 10 Kelvin. The power and efficiency loss otherwise is just.. It’s just…” Cate struggled for words to express just how much she understood that Q-tech was inefficient. Eventually, however, the Aasimar gave up.

Cate shook her head. “ANYWAYS. I guess it’s useful for the missile targeting system, as well as nav. Fancy screen, though…” Cate squinted. “No Ethertek receptors. Didn’t see any in the hold, in the medbay, nor in here. Guess that’s to be expected- not integrated into the UNS and all- but will have to start wiring in the prisms and whatnot.”

"Yeah, 28 weeks out from this system, going at this ship's FTL speed." Niobe said, walking over to the project and tapping it, bringing up a display that was similar enough to projection magicks. "Lemme see..." she said, tapping at the projection to bring up a map of known space. "There we go. We're here," She said, pointing to the blinking point that brought up the name of the Alorosi system in Hassan, "Aaaaand we're traveling here I think." She said, scrolling further and further down until reaching a nebula and tapping a little flag marker, which brought up the name Sanctuary, also in Hassan. "If I'm remembering her directions correctly."

“Huh. Near the nebula. I remember the buzz going on for a couple of exo-planet channels, saying that the nebula effectively scrambled transmissions due to the debris and whatnot, and that there’s a chance that other societies may be in there. But right outside it?” Cate scrunched up her delicate nose. “Feels like we should’ve noticed them sooner. Then again, maybe we just skipped being next to the nebula, and jumped straight to in the nebula.” Cate stared at the screen thoughtfully, before nodding her head. “Anyways! Galley. Where’s the food located at? I can see where the oven’s at!” Wait. She was terrible at cooking. She always ordered takeout. …So, if she was expected to cook… Crap. She didn’t want to give everyone food poisoning.

Sweating for a moment, Cate hurriedly continued on: “And, uh, after that, I guess we should see what’s upstairs?”

"Sure. I imagine you'll be hella busy up on the bridge getting things worked out. As for the food, it's stored there." She said, pointing to the door behind the counter for the kitchen area. "Cold storage is connected to the pantry." She said, before turning to the galley's hatch leading to the hallway. Niobe showed Cate the officer quarters, one of which was distinct in having only one bed, the other two with two beds but still, much more room than the cabins below. "Me and Niobe claimed the one farthest from the starboard engine, since it's closest to engineering, for the sake of getting there faster. Oh, laundry is downstairs, one of the cabins was converted into it." Niobe said as she walked.

The single room looked to have been occupied by the doc, and the other officer room by Drake, since the third had both Niobe and Noele's things scattered all over it. "Sorry, it was first come first serve." She said, upon seeing Cate's face fall a bit at the fact she'd claimed such a small room. "I'm sure we could make it more livable for one if you'd like?"

Cate hurriedly shook her head. “N-no, nothing like that! …I, er, may make some adjustments to my own bunk room, but hopefully nothing too much.” Twirling her necklace around, she admitted to the other: “May try to convert the lower bunk into a computer desk area- I WAS thinking about making the other bunk full of CPU and towers and whatnot, but..” Cate was interrupted by Ferrol’s rampant beeping. First he jumped on Cate’s boobs and practically shook a claw in front of her face, before turning around to face Niobe, and rapidly chittered to her. If one could understand morse code, they would know that Ferrol was just emphasizing how bad of an idea that was, and basically imploring Niobe to get the CPU towers installed in the bridge.

…The little gremlin may have his flaws, but never let anyone say he didn’t try to take care of Cate.

"Sorry, don't speak Binary." Niobe replied, reaching over and patting the little guy. "But I don't recommend you rigging up a dozen Ethertek servers in such a small space if you're also in it. The server racks in the comp room looked to have plenty of room, I'm sure we can fit them in there." She said, shrugging.

Cate’s face reddened, and she looked slightly angry- specifically at Ferrol- before she broke down and sighed, mummering: “Fine. I guess working on the bridge might be the best place, considering it’ll probably be targeted the most…” Shrugging her shoulders fatalistically, the aasimar peered at the doors on the end of the hallway- specifically the ones hugging the same wall as the galley. “Four more rooms in here- what’re they for?”

Meanwhile, Ferrol had just stared at Niobe in what only could be classified as chagrin, if one could identify robotic indicators, before just giving a bemused, and somewhat relieved, long whir. Almost as if he was sighing himself. But a quick shake of his entire body, and the robot had cheered himself back up again, jumping onto Niobe’s shoulder, before dodging Cate’s hand and planting himself on top of Niobe’s own cleavage, not caring about any clothing that may obstruct such access.

Niobe just smiled and looked over. "Magazine access for maintenance on the point defense systems, and backup control stations to operate them." She said, gesturing to the more of a small access hatch for the magazines then the larger door for the controls. "All in all, it's a decent ship, if just not as well maintained as it could be." Niobe replied, patting the robot on her breasts as though it were the most normal thing in the world.

Cate’s eye twitched, before she shook her head, and looked around the area. “I suppose so. Just that in order to maintain it, we need money. To get money, we need to do contracts. To do contracts without dying, we need a well maintained ship…” Cate’s lip twitched, before she jerked a thumb at the general direction of the missiles. “How do the missiles lock on to their target? Manual via ship targeting, EM signal, heat signal, IR, radar…?”

Niobe shrugged apologetically. "Dunno. Not like we could really test or do proper checks on the pad without causing all kinds of chaos with the local port authority. From what we can get, they've got built in guidance systems, but seem to need an initial lock from the ship. Oh, and they're vertically launched." She said, wishing she could give Cate more details.

“Huh? You mean they don’t say it on the targeting systems? Should be easy, just… flip them on, right? No need to actually shoot anything. Who made the missiles?” Cate furrowed her brow, as she turned around and began heading over to the missile bay, throwing over her shoulder, “If it’s made by Arial or Cynder, most likely thermal. If Nyctis made it, I can bet it’s their ELMO missile. …Wonder if they ever did get rid of its tendency to enter stage 2 early…” Cate jabbered on, completely unaware that maybe it wasn’t actually firing the missiles that was the problem.

Niobe shrugged. "I mean, it's not like they're outright labeled. So your guess is as good as mine." She said, watching Cate open the hatch to the missile bay, and the six missiles sitting in their vertical mounting systems, with the catwalks allowing for persons to walk around for maintenance. The missile bore no immediately identifiable markings of manufacture, though there were what looked like a bunch of warning labels and alerts on them.

Cate approached the missiles, and gave the first one she saw a thorough lookover. The warning signs attracted her attention, though it also quickly made her lose hope of discerning exactly who made the missile, and what… They were written in a language the aasimar didn’t know. …Which was honestly surprising, given how she tried to memorize as many UNS languages as possible.

Oh. Right. New nation. New language. Damn it all. …She could flip on the switch to the targeting computers… see what method the computer showcased when it was locking on… Ferrol’s insistent chattering broke her out of her reverie, and as she turned to view the droid, she caught sight of him shaking his body in a very, very dramatic no.

Then, once Ferrol realized he finally had Cate’s attention, began rapidfire chittering away, the conclusion which led Cate to flush, and mutter, somewhat sulkily: “I COULD disable the port’s spoofing and chaff system…” Some more furious robot-speak. “I could fake an energy burst from another ship… what? Why do you want me to… He’s already mad a-” Her mouth clamped shut as she finally realized what Ferrol was really implying, leading her to shuffle her feet, and murmur: “I guess I’m in enough trouble as it is…”

Kicking the floorboard, she lifted her head to face Niobe, and with a somewhat shamefaced demeanor, quickly asked: “So, uh, I guess we have another deck level to check?”

"Yeah, that'll be the bridge deck, with the captain's quarters and the ship's briefing room up there." Niobe replied, nodding as she turned back to the hatch and stepped through, once more in the galley. "As for Drake, I'm sure he'll be ready to talk to you soon enough. He doesn't seem the type to hold grudges." She said, smiling as she continued through the galley to head for the passages up.

Cate gave a grimace upon hearing Niobe’s attempted reassurance. Typically, being angry at someone for nearly killing them was a very reasonable thing. Still, she answered Niobe, trying to sound somewhat positive: “Guess I’ll have to talk to him, then.” Ferrol’s rapidfire chattering let her know, instantly, that she did not, in fact, sound convincing.

Grimacing, she changed the subject. “What systems are on the bridge itself? Aside from the obvious piloting, navigation, and the like. Are there redundant systems for things like engineering, reactor power, and ventilation stuff? Don’t think the ship has electronic warfare, given how old it is…” Note, she would have to add that.

"You can technically run the entire ship from the bridge, but it's not easy." Niobe explained, smiling. "So while each of the major stations have their own controls in the respective spaces, there's a duplicate on the bridge should it be needed." She said, clarifying. "I think it does, but I'm not an EW gal, so you'd have to eyeball it yourself. Only thing it doesn't really have a redundancy for is medical and food. But there is a coffee pot set up." She finished.

As they entered the bridge itself, the hodgepodge nature of the entire assemblage was continued to be made clear, as most of the computer displays had obviously been replaced, as a few that looked fitting for the ship itself with how naturally they fit in were monochromatic curved displays, almost like they were old cathode ray monitors. But most of the replaced ones were thin full-color displays. A few of the controller boards had been replaced as well, trading out hefty physical analog control units like keyboards and dials with flat touchscreen control units.

The consoles formed crescent moons two thick with a gap in the perfect center of the inner set for someone to walk though, the outer set having what looked obviously like a pilot’s station. There was a Captain's chair near the hatchway to the bridge, back turned to it. It wasn't elevated or anything of the sort, sitting on an equal plane as the rest of the consoles. In it was the Captain, tapping away at her chair's arm-mounted display, sighing as each new entry delayed the computer for several moments as though waiting for it to finish calculating the needed information.

In addition to the Captain, the doctor was there, relaxing in one of the console chairs, the booze still sitting on the console top with a glass nearby.

As Cate entered the elevator and listened to Niobe’s overall explanation of the bridge, she raised an eyebrow upon hearing of the coffee machine. “Well, I guess coffee qualifies as a stimulant? …Shut up Ferrol, I know it was bad.” Shaking her head, Cate spoke again, this time to Niobe: “I’m more concerned with EW countermeasures- bridge is kinda exposed here..”

Upon the door opening and Niobe leading Cate to the bridge, Cate immediately stopped and tried to back out of the immediate entranceway, even despite her robotic companion’s insistent chattering. “So, uh, looks like the captain is busy, don’t want to interrupt her- the, uh, doctor also has the same idea…”

Nope. Nope. Cate really did not want to face the potentially angry man- she had already dealt with both men’s initial outburst, and had no desire to subject herself to more. Ferrol crawled onto Cate’s globes, using them as a platform as he insistently beeped and chattered at her, each time with her almost petulantly murmuring to him things such as: “Nope.” “Already had enough today.” “No.” “I can do it other days.” “It’s too soon.” “It’s not a good idea..”


“I advise Ms. Cate, if you are going to mumble things to yourself that something was a bad idea, do so in a place where the people you are referring to are not in earshot?” The doctor turned in his chair another tumbler in his hand. His eyebrow raised, curious as to why the young woman was such a nervous wreck.” Tell me…Doctor, how is your patient? Did he pull through?” Grabbing the bottle from the terminal, Theo poured himself another drink, adding the strong brown liquid to the additional glass.” Captain, this one's for you I believe.” he chuckled, his irritation seeming to wither. “ Ms. Cate, sit down before you continue with your duties.”

Soap merely turned an ear towards the pair coming into the bridge, and continued focusing on the programming of their path in FTL. "I'd take the Doc's advice. At least, if you don't want to make him irate enough to take it out on all of us. I like keeping my bits where they belong, thank you very much." She said, trying to liven up the mood just a touch.

Cate turned red upon hearing the doctor mention her talk with Ferrol, and she gave him a piercing glare, almost as if she was trying to tell him, See what I mean? Ferrol’s reply caused Cate to scowl, though she was interrupted by the doctor again. His question caused her to flush. “He, uh, decided to stitch it up by himself.” There was an awkward moment of silence with her, before she hurriedly continued on: “I, uh, tried to help, but, well, y’see.. He, uh.. Kinda didn’t want it…?”

She belatedly realized he was telling her to sit. And that Soap was also suggesting the same thing. …More like implying and threatening? Maybe begging? …Was she joking? That must be it, right? In any case, Cate did so, and sat on the front of the seat, fidgeting with her hands, while Ferrol sat on her shoulder and repeated the same sequence over and over again to her.

Theo sat up as the older seat creaked slightly, swirling the brown liquor in his tumbler, smirking slightly. “ I understand you wish to help, but do understand, there is a time and a place for providing your input, miss. I greatly dislike newcomers coming into my med bay and proceeding to throw a wrench in the sanitized sanctity of this room. I had far too many do so during the war and I'd like my freedom and peace, so do come to me for anything but if you wish to assist. Ask, first.. If you would be so kind. Otherwise, welcome to the fallen shrine, if you'd give me a medical report of any allergies, issues, previous injuries or surgeries i’d be grateful. Otherwise. Welcome to our misguided little ship here..” he smirked again taking another sip exhaling softly.

Soap nodded. "Indeed. I don't expect you to do miracles, Cate, right? But understand we're gonna be underfunded and undersupplied to keep everything fully functional all the time. So be ready to make what we got stretch like absolute hell when possible. Especially with the occasional travel times between stops." She said, giving a wane smile. "And before you ask, no, it's not because we're running from the law. Yet. We just aren't going to always have the funds to get everything we need when we need it."

Cate shuffled her legs, slightly discomfited, repressing the urge to try and explain that she was trying to make up, well, almost killing Drake. She nodded faintly towards Theo, smiling a bit in relief as he extended his welcome. And yes, she was going to ask him the next time she needed anything medical related. As Ferrol clambered from her shoulder onto the ground, moving around oddly, almost like a dog sniffing the area, Cate turned to face Soap as she began explaining the situation.

Nodding, lips twerked, Cate idly remarked: “Yeah, I noticed that the ship was, uhm, well, weird. It’s almost all featureless, right up until you get to sections where the panels are removed, then you can see allll the wiring, and, well… some of them might be corroded?” Cate smiled, wiping a bead of sweat off of her forehead. “I’m not the wire-god like the twins are, but it’ll be a nice thought experiment to try and get all of this to work with UNS standards. That being said, I do think I can streamline some bits of code to rely less on some… faulty… systems. Would give any safety committee a heart attack, but… making what we got stretch like absolute hell.”

And at the captain’s last comment, her face got more serious, as she idly rubbed her locket with a thumb. “As for running from the law… I’m used to that. But hopefully we can stay away from that… especially in the shape this ship is right now.” Grimacing, Cate continued: “I mean, if worst comes to worst, I can probably…” Cate went silent for a moment, thinking, before resuming: “First off, try to erase any records of us from local databases. Also put a virus that mentions any real time update to the system of any mention of our ids. As for us being chased.. Well, I suppose I can always try reprogramming their coords to head to a different system, if we’re trying to bail the system…” Cate rubbed a chin, thinking of the different ways she could throw people off their track.

Soap winced. "Okay, let's not start preparing plans to screw around with local lawenoff. If it comes up, we'll figure it out, but preplanning such things is not something I want to be planning for beforehand. I'm just letting you know that our situation is not for outstanding warrants or such." She said, raising a couple of hands in a placating fashion, before a beep from her chair forcing her to refocus. "Oh good, finally got our route back to Sanctuary worked out." She said, nodding. "And this is gonna be a purely 'red' costing run, since ain't got shit to take back with us beyond more bodies." She said, smirking a bit.

Cate shrugged fatalistically. “When the twins warned me that the ship was beat up, I was already expecting to not see profits for a bit. Hopefully, you can get a few lucrative deals to pay for stuff, but I’m fine for… uhm, a ‘lack of a paycheck’ for a couple of runs, as long as I get all the stuff for surviving. As well as the ability from time to time to apply my own fixes to the ship- mainly Ethertek stuff, though I suppose some sort of manual or something on this quantum tech would also be helpful. And maybe some junk throwaway computer based on it to just play around on and figure out how to get nitty gritty with qubits on it.” Cate suddenly raised a hand, flapping it back and forth. “N-nothing too extravagant, mind you! J-just basically stuff that’ll improve my own efficiency in computers and whatnot.”

Cate would admit, she was curious as to what this ‘Sanctuary’ was, but in the end, the Aasimar knew that she would find out eventually. Hells, she probably would find out a lot in this Sanctuary. New nation. New technology. New…. well, everything. They didn’t call it an adventure for nothing.. Blinking, Cate pulled herself from musings, and snapped her fingers at Ferrol. Who responded with an indigent chirp, before Cate hooked a thumb up to her shoulder. The robot eventually did climb up, but he definitely complained the entire time, letting his displeasure at being snapped at like a dog very well known, going so far to the point where Cate exhaled a: “Fine, fine, I won’t do that again, but c’mon. Think it’s time we started poking around the software.”

Watching the interaction quietly, Theo smirked, finishing his glass before putting it away in his bag, the chair swiveling back toward the communications panel. ”In the event of the latter occurring, please do your best to not injure yourself too much. I'd hate to have to sew more of the crew than I have to, it can be rather expensive, so you are aware Miss Cate.”