Talk About Timing...

[cityship]

While chaos was going on in the city, a level below the Living Areas, the rest of the ship was functioning normally. Stacy, apparently oblivious to goings on in the city, likely do to her malfunctioning sensors there, carried on with ship business.

||Pod Release Protocols Initating,|| Stacy's familiar voice sounded out to the upper levels, though no one was there to hear her. They were all downstairs, fighting for their lives against giant cockroaches.

In the Pod Caverns, there were the sounds of: Pop. Pop pop pop. Poppuhpoppoppop. KASCHUNKhiiiiiiiissssss.

The usual condensation and mist sprayed out from cracks in the pods, they ripped open and the people inside slid out onto the floors, covered in slime. One of them, due to his mechanical nature, slid out covered in a sort of oil mixture, in a smaller body than he'd once had.

Pop. Poppop. KASCHUNKhiiiiiissss.

There was no one already freed from the ship to greet them, only Stacy herself, and the empty silence of a ship caught in the middle of a crisis.

Comments

[cityship]

||So that you will be provided clothing.||

That was what he wanted, wasn't it?

[bluerose-knight.livejournal.com]

Clothing was indeed what he wanted, but there was nothing resembling clothing inside. But, knight were supposed to be brave beyond measure, and so he stepped forward.

Whatever he was expecting, it certainly wasn't what happened.

Lets hope that Stacey doesn't understand trollish, as most of the words Sparhawk is saying are decidedly uncomplimentary.

[cityship]

Whether Stacy understood Trollish or not, Sparhawk was being badtouched dressed by the clingy, rather grabby tendrils dangling from the ceiling. When they set him down, his face and hair would be clean of the remaining stasis fluid, and the strangely soft and oddly throbbing jumpsuit would be working on cleaning up the rest of it.

[bluerose-knight.livejournal.com]

"I think I preferred being naked," is Sparhawk's extremely dry response once he had exhausted his repertoire of curses.

Experimentally, he pokes the jumpsuit with one finger, before looking up at the ceiling.

"So what now?"

[cityship]

||Would you like to meet your fellow podmates?|| Stacy asked. Meeting other people in the same situation always seemed to calm down the podlings. They tended to shout much less.

[bluerose-knight.livejournal.com]

Sparhawk's expression flickered through a range of emotions including, shock, rage, interest and settled for perplexed.

"I thought that you said my companions were not on the crew roster?" and he does his best to mimic her tone.

Although its slowly dawning on him that perhaps...

"Stacey, do the other podmates have legs?"

Considering that Sparhawk's only other experience with alien life forms included ones with no legs, its an apt question.

[cityship]

||Your previously mentioned companions are not on the active crew roster,|| Stacy agreed. ||However, there are other podlings who are on the active crew roster. They all possess legs, to a certain extent.||

Toxin was an slightly odd case, but he did have legs. Pat's legs, but still.

[bluerose-knight.livejournal.com]

Others? Sparhawk could start rhyming off a whole list of the others he knows, but then he'd be here for the rest of whatever might pass for day here.

"Then lead the way neighrbour, if it pleases you."

[cityship]

The pustules at Sparhawk's feet lit up again.

||Please follow the lights.||

[bluerose-knight.livejournal.com]

"What are these made of?" Sparhawk asks idlely as he follows the trail, poking one of the lights with his foot to indicate what he's on about. "Khalad would have this taken apart by now to see how it works."

[cityship]

||Information classified. Do not attempt to damage the ship.||

The pustules lead Sparhawk to what looked like a large tube with a door in the side. Opening the door would reveal that it was a tube, apparently completely hollow.

||Please step inside. The Hub will take you where you want to go.||

[bluerose-knight.livejournal.com]

Sparhawk eyes the tube.

"You didn't have to bring me all this way to try and kill me," he notes mildly. "You could have just asked those tentacles to do it."

He doesn't think that Stacey wants to kill him, otherwise he'd be more on his guard, but he's interested in how she responds. Consider this his version of Ulath's "Dead-mouse-concealed-in-hand" trick.

[cityship]

||I do not intend to kill you.|| Stacy says, something almost reproachful in her toneless voice. ||The Hub is perfectly safe at this time.||

[bluerose-knight.livejournal.com]

Perhaps its not the best idea to try and tease the voice in your head. Especially when you don't know what she's capable of.

"That's reassuring to know," he replies, almost gently to her, before stepping forward into the tube. Never let it be said that a knight quailed before the unknown.

[cityship]

He may as well have been stepping onto solid ground. The air held him up without so much as a quiver.

There was a jolt though, and Sparhawk started rising through the Hub, up toward where the rest of the crew was congregating.