trans_9 | Morning Exercise (open)

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Morning Exercise (open)

Anwei was jumping around the Hub - literally. With firm strokes of her arms and legs, she leaped from tentacle-base to tentacle-base, circling the vast room. Her hair fluttered wildly around her head in the anti-grav field, and she was sweating a little with the exertion.

She'd kept up a running commentary to Stacy about what she was doing in the back of her throat – the same way she used to talk to Horanckk. When Stacy suggested she try the Sensoriums for exercise, though, she demurred. The idea of rooms that could take things out of her mind and make them real made her shiver.

After three complete circuits of the Hub, she came to a halt and consulted her omnicom, which had been filming the whole time. Carefully, she marked the tunnels that were never entered by passers-by, the tentacles that hung limp rather than undulating. Someday, maybe soon, she would want to see if she could get into those unused tunnels, and see what might be in there. But for now, she rolled up her denim shirt and tied it to a tentacle with some blue string (making extra certain that all the pockets were sealed), marked out a large triangle on the wall with that same string, and began something that looked like dancing.

It was not dancing. It was drill for free-fall unarmed combat. Her arms and legs moved in long coordinated scything motions, her fingers grabbing and clawing at imaginary opponents (she was not grabbing with her toes because of the binding material of her plantsuit). In her ears she remembered her drill instructor bellowing as it criticized every falter and hesitation. She deliberately did not think of her first dance instructor and his tiny, cutting whip.

When she drifted out into the flow of traffic, she used her tie-line to move back against the wall and start again. It would be pretty obvious to anyone watching that she was doing some sort of structured exercise.

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He took a few moments to recover from shock. He was pretty sure he had never seen someone quite so agile outside of video games. Maybe she was from a video game in someone's reality.

Finally he realized that he had been asked a question. "O-oh, l-laptop, it c-came with me, th-though there's a g-good chance s-someone c-could make another, o-or f-find a datapad f-from the ship."

He patted his laptop fondly, and from behind it, Alice, a black rat, poked her head out to see who it was that Alex was talking to.

Anwei was stronger than a human woman her size, but not by much. However, practicing how to maneuver in zero-gee with the lights off does tend to make one nimble.

"They saved your laptop for you? That must be some machine," Anwei said. "I'm planning on looking for one - or probably a couple so that I can swap parts - down in the City."

She saw the motion of Alice's head and immediately came to the wrong conclusion. "Is that your child?" she asked, pointing to the rat.

Alex tried to hold back laughter, and failed. Miserably. "A-Alice? N-no, sh-she's m-my pet. F-friend too. W-we're not the same s-species." He loved Alice, deeply, but she was not his child.

He picked her up carefully and lifted her onto his shoulder, gently kissing her head. "Sh-she's still precious t-to me."

Anwei gave an elaborate zero-gee curtsy. "I apologize if I offended you. Children of my species are rather, er, small and hairy." And dangerous, but she saw no need to mention that."

"Hello, Alice," she smiled. "I'm Anwei Ayles. And your humanoid friend is...?"

"Alex." He smiled back and offered a rather scarred hand. "N-no offense t-taken, I know how d-different the p-people on the sh-ship c-can be." For someone not human, she looked very human.

Anwei didn't even notice the scars; she certainly had enough of her own here and there, and she was used to mercenaries who were slathered with the marks of their battles.

The name did catch her attention. "Excuse me, but are you the Alex I was discussing chocolate and AI motivation with earlier? On the internal ship channel?"

Alex nodded, "O-one in the s-same. O-on my way to e-engineering, p-probably t-to work o-on some of th-those AIs, actually." He looked up into the rest of the hub with a smile and raised an eyebrow, "C-code monkeys i-in my world a-aren't usually s-so athletic."

"Well, it's a small ship after all. Mind if I trail along? I need to get to Engineering anyway, and if you could show me the way I'd appreciate it."

She snorted amusement. "I can hardly be a code monkey. Maybe a code mammal? And it pays be athletic when there's always the chance that a bunch of enemy soldiers will pop out a bulkhead and come in after you. Besides, living in low gravity weakens your bones. You have to exercise or you end up too weak for regular gravity."

"Small?" He echoed incredulously. "S-sure, I g-guess." She was military though. He had never trusted military. "N-never had strong b-bones, low g-gravity or n-not."

A bit of a harder edge reached into his voice. "B-bulkheads? A-army then?"

"Sorry, it's an Earth song. 'It's a Small World After All.' I guess it's just surprising that the crewbase is so small that I meet someone face to face right after talking to them online."

"I'd be happy to exercise with you if that would help - or, apologies if this is offensive, is it a medical condition?" The coldness that flickered over his face with his next words was a little startling, and she paused to think before answering.

"Mercenary, actually. I served with the Vizsnunishne Mercenaries for, wow, I think I'm due my eighteen-year pin now? But I wonder if I'll ever get it.

"Being a mercenary isn't all running around and shooting the lowest bidder - half the time we're hired just to be there as a deterrant. The last big assignment I worked on before I went to Earth - and from there to here - was a planetary evacuation. The government hired the Vizsnunishne to protect the departing ships from pirates, because we had a better reputation than the local galactic enforcers."

She shrugged a little helplessly. "I cut paychecks. I work databases. Minimum profile combat drops maybe once a year. But - I'll understand if you think it's creepy or wrong. A lot of people think I'm creepy."

It was his first time hearing that mentioned on this ship. There was a rather limited crewbase, even if he had actually spoke to an even more limited number. He sighed a breath of relief at the story though. He still wasn't a fan of her choice in jobs, but he ranked mercenaries quite a bit higher than army men. "N-no. I-I mean, I d-don't like i-it, b-but it's b-better than b-being owned b-by the g-government."

He paused briefly before explaining, "A b-bit. I h-have... an u-unusual diet, a-and I n-never ate p-properly. I'm t-trying ta ch-change that now."

"Owned by the government is pretty accurate really," she said wryly, remembering blank-eyed soldiers with the marks of their death-oaths carved into their foreheads. "At least for the Ninth Empire."

"Oh, I know about that, really. My species is carnivorous until we hit puberty, and then we're omnivorous. And we shed our baby teeth at puberty. So here you are, all your teeth have just fallen out, and people are offering you things like - well, the equivalent of apples, or bananas, and insisting it's food. And you're insisting right back that no, that's not food, food is meat and that's not meat!" She rubbed her stomach with one hand. "Painful. But hopefully there's a good medical team here, right? You can get supplements and such?"

He laughed a bit at the idea of trying to figure out supplements. He imagined them looking like clear capsules to other people. It was an odd mental image. "I-I know a b-bit of wh-what you mean," he said, thinking of his father forcing him to eat some terrible two day old unrefrigerated pizza, and him trying to explain that the pizza was not the sort of food he needed.

"W-well, w-we have a g-good medical t-team, b-but supplements," he laughed a bit again, "I c-can't imagine any s-supplements for me. M-my d-doctor's tryin' th-though."

"Good for your doctor. If I find the Vizsnunishne medical database and get it ported over, it should have a humans entry - there were a few humans in the Fleet. There might be something that could be adapted for you - artificial coral maybe? I'll send you a note if and when it is done, and you can pass it along to your doctor."

The database was meant to save life, and even in this strange place, that was something worth passing on. It was probably the most important thing she had to offer.

He tilted his head a bit. "I-I doubt i-it'll have m-much for me, b-but, artificial c-coral?"

So far, he hadn't met anyone else on the ship that fed off of emotions, as shadows or otherwise. Maybe if some other race ate in a similar manner, then something could be adapted. "W-were there a l-lot of r-races where y-you are from?"

"Sure, artificial coral is pretty standard for peoples who lose bone mass. You put it into the bloodstream, you see, and it finds the weakened spots in the bones and fills them in with coral material, which blends right in. Doctors use it for repairing fractures and replacing lost or diseased bones as well."

"Where I was from?" She looked thoughtful for a moment. "On my home planet, no. I only saw members of my own species, except on video broadcasts. But once I - left," her expression was joy tinged with sadness, "once I was away, there were every sort of race. Liquid people, plasma based, sentient vibration patterns, species that had translated themselves from body type to body type until even they didn't remember where they started, races that had becomes machine intelligences and vice versa - it's a great, no, a grand universe. And a wonderful one, a lot of the time...."

He kept that one in mind. He'd need to ask Sam if he had ever heard of the treatment before. If he could use it, he imagined that it would help a lot.

"Th-that is a lot," he mused. Liquid people... His stomach flipped as he thought of Duuv and forced his mind to keep moving past that. "I-it sounds... i-incredible. D-did y-you ever m-meet a r-race that lived o-off of o-other people's e-emotions?" If she did, and these databases contained information on them, then maybe just maybe Sam would be able to make a supplement for him. Maybe even a substitute.

Anwei frowned. "That actually sounds almost familiar. You know, I can't remember the species name, but there was a couple on board the second ship I served on. Their names were Bitte and Chem, and they were married - their husbands weren't on the Fleet, they stayed home - and Bitte and Chem had to maintain this sort of copy of their spouses' emotions. An emotion print. It kept their connection to their spouses alive, and they needed that connection or they died.

"And Bitte died, and the doctors had to create a new emotion print, one that included the husbands and Bitte. And Chem was still alive when I transferred off the ship, so it must have worked...I'm sorry, that's the first thing that comes to me off the top of my mind. They didn't live off of emotions, but they needed it. The records of that treatment should be in the database - if I have it."

It was something at least! He held his laptop a bit closer to his chest as Alice made her way up onto his shoulder. "I-it's n-not the same, b-but, i-it's something." He gestured in the direction of the department and took a few steps in the direction. "I-if you c-could s-send those ta Doctor Henderson, i-if you have th-them. I-it's something!"

Anwei paused for a delicate instant; she hadn't missed the way that Alex's voice shook when she mentioned emotion-sensitive people. She hoped this wasn't some revenge he was looking for, on some specific alien or alien species who had wronged him.

"As soon as I have the information on the datastores translated and cleared with Stacy, your doctor will get everything I know. After all, my medical information is on there as well. And if for some reason Stacy won't let me port over the whole database, I should be able to pull out at least that case in cleartext." Anwei hoped that the ship didn't lock down that hard.

"And the sooner I get into Engineering, the sooner I get started on it. Hmm, if you don't mind, you know the personnel there - who would have the most free time? It might be faster to set up a specific appointment. Kaylee already gave me her name - but if she's very busy..."

Alex frowned when he noticed the shadow of concern. "I-I'm n-not too familiar w-with too m-many other m-members, b-but... c-can I ask, f-first, wh-what's worrying you?"

He wasn't sure if he could help set her up either, but it really depended on what she needed. He could probably at least find her a corner until Kaylee was free.

Edited 2011-01-16 07:46 (UTC)

He was perceptive, that was for sure. She wished that she was as facile at reading other species' facial expression; she had thought learning to express emotions with her hands was a great shortcut.

"I designed the Vizsnusnshne medical database - which doesn't mean that I wrote everything in it, I'm not a doctor. But I spent a year interviewing doctors, and three years setting up the backend structure, and I've spent a sizable portion of my time since in maintaining and updating it.

"It's a miracle really, when some soldier comes in, a species that no one on the ship has seen before, and the database knows at once what's wrong and can explain it clearly enough that even non-medical people can understand. The database saves lives, that's why I wrote it.

"But of course, because it knows what can harm or kill other species, it could be backwards engineered as a weapon. So when you asked about species who absorbed emotions, I hope that doesn't mean that a species like that has done you harm, and you're out for revenge?" She cocked her head. "Of course, if there's someone preying on the crew and you need more information to stop them, that's another matter."

Alex wasn't quite that skilled, but his own shortcut helped greatly in that regard.

He smiled with a sigh of relief, glad that it's misuse was her only concern. "N-no. I-I'm the o-one who d-does the absorbing. I-I'm n-not big on the whole r-revenge thing. I c-can see all th-the n-negative feelings th-that causes, a-and, h-honestly, I'd rather live in a w-world where I'd starve."

A medical database like that would probably be fantastic for the ship. He couldn't imagine that all the doctors knew all the species. "M-maybe y-you c-could even w-work on e-expanding it."

"So you absorb emotions, huh? If we were back on the Fleet I'd probably ask you a lot of pushy questions so I could set you up with one of our doctors, and get your condition written up for the database." Best to leave it there; as she recalled a lot of humans had high privacy expectations - a lot higher than she was used to, certainly.

"I'm sure that Stacy has a huge medical database." Because otherwise she'd unpod someone with a lethal disease or contagious insanity, and that would be that. "The Vizsnunishne database has as one of its condition of use that it can be given away, but not sold. Stacy might think her medical information is proprietary - well, even if she does think that, I can still add my information to hers. If she lets me."

One pushy question finally broke loose. "So - can you absorb emotions from anyone? Can you absorb them from Stacy?"

"I i-imagine the sh-ship'll a-appreciate the e-extra info," he said with a smile. Alex seemed more than happy to oblige her question, however prodding it might have seemed. "I've n-never tried f-from an AI, b-but with the ship's s-size... I w-would h-have a hard time s-seeing a s-shadow. I-I'm n-not really sure, s-since I d-don't k-know how shadows are m-made." That would be something to look into though. He wondered, if an AI that can feel emotions would produce shadows.

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Hope this is OK

A-OK!

Re: A-OK!

Don't worry, he'll warm up to her again. >_<

Re: Don't worry, he'll warm up to her again. >_<

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If this isn't okay, lemme know? He sees negative emotions as shadows

Fine with me

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