Unleash the Podlings!

[cityship]

||Pod Release Protocols Initiating,|| Stacy announced to the denizens of the upper levels. Down the the Pod Caverns, familiar sounds made themselves known:

Pop. Pop pop pop. Poppuhpoppoppop. KASCHUNKhiiiiiiiissssss.

Mist sprayed from the cracks in the pods before the new crew members were summarily ejected from warm, comfortable stasis to their new chilly, damp reality. They'd either meet each other in the Caverns or in the upper levels, where the previously popped crew would also be waiting for them, if Stacy had anything to say about it.

This time, there were two pods spitting mechanical beings out of a more oily mixture, and one podling who was significantly smaller than most of the others.

Pop. Poppop. KASCHUNKhiiiiiissss.

Comments

[cityship]

||There is no Aya on the active crew register|| Stacy said again, but in an almost gentle, maternal way.

[neomite.livejournal.com]

“Aya?”

Eve wondered out loud, the automation of the voices answer, refusing to settle in. Aya had to be there, she just had too. Shaking her head, eyes askance, placed her palms over her ears, trying to replace, the fruitfully un-replaceable voice, among other noises with the sound of her own heartbeat.

[cityship]

||There is no Aya on the active crew register.|| A large tentacle emerged from the wall and wrapped comfortingly around her shoulders.

[neomite.livejournal.com]

At the point of contact, Eve tensed, her small form turning rigidly still as she hung onto her last breath with startled tenacity.

…

Allowing the peace and silence to calm the host, her mitochondria tried once again to probe into the organic ship around her, to test it’s response by creating short bursts of heat. Nothing.

Eve began to ease a little, examining the tentacle, before host and mitochondria came to the conclusion; almost in unison, that whatever the fleshy room was, that it didn’t want to hurt her. She hoped the voice was of the same benevolent nature. The next question, the first real analytical question formed in her mind.

“What do you want?”

[cityship]

||Information classified.||

The tentacle stayed relaxed in Eve's hands, allowing her to examine it all she liked.

[neomite.livejournal.com]

She blinked numbly recalling doctor Bowman saying it to doctor Hunter. That meant that she wasn’t allowed to know. She bit her lip-hard, but decided not to chase up the issue and make Stacy mad.

So instead she focused on the tentacle, poking and prodding it to learn more about it, before and lightly tugging it from the wall it was attached to in attempt to see if it was a separate entity or not.

[cityship]

The tentacle recoiled immediately upon being tugged, returning to the wall where it came from. It was definitely attached.

||Would you like to meet your crew mates?|| Stacy asked.

[neomite.livejournal.com]

Eve blinked bewilderedly, wondering where and why it had gone. Had she tugged too hard? Was Stacy mad?

Resigning back into her ‘safe corner’, she shook her head in the ‘no’ once more.