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Throughout the ship, people would hear the familiar voice of Stacy in their heads.

||Pod Release Protocols Initating||

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

There was condensation and mist spraying out from cracks in the pods, as the people inside slid out onto the floors, covered in slime.

Pop. Poppop. KASCHUNKhiiiiiissss.

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.........What the hell? Nathan was on the ground again, and staring down at the material. It's clean, but does it... does it have pulse like that?

....All over even? Well, not too bad in one area. But he wasn't going to say anything about that out loud.

"And where's the lockers?"

Another lighted path led back out of the room and around to another doorway along the wall of the cylindrical structure.

||This way, please.||

Lacaille was fiddling with the material a bit, tugging and picking at it to test its ductility and durability and pressing on the pulsing veins to see if the suit would react. As she did, she followed the lit path almost without paying attention to it. "I wonder if this is symbiotic..."

||The suit absorbs skin secretions and dirt as a food source, while keeping your skin clean in the process.||

Convenient, no?

The door at the end of their path would open up to what would appear to be an empty tube that goes up and down for what seemed to be miles.

||Please step inside.||

"I could have lived without that explanation." Nathan warily replied as he walked over to step into the tube.

Nathan would immediately shoot upward very swiftly in the tube by some unknown force, though not uncomfortably so.

||Please step inside, Andromeda Lacaille Adair.||

A lift system? Maybe there were some mechanical aspects to this place after all...

Lacaille stepped into the tube, ready to be similarly whisked away.

And so she was. The tube went up for a good while, though eventually they would be let out through a door similar to the one they entered into, out into the the living area.

Yet another lighted path would lead them through the halls to another door, this time to a room filled with random things, obviously different people's personal possessions.

||Is there any other assistance you require?||

The room alone was bigger than anything Lacaille had ever seen, and the amount of stuff in it was almost dizzying. Tempting as it was to just dive in and start digging... "How is all of this sorted?"

||The possessions of those recently released from podsleep are moved closer to the front. You may search through these to find your belongings, though be warned that taking possessions that are not yours except in emergency situations is against the rules, and may result in Violations.||

"No stealing, fine." Nathan remarked as he went to fetch his wallet and other belongings. The lift had been odd, but nothing he wasn't familiar with. He'd still prefer flying there himself if he could.

Hmm, no sign of his cell though. Which means no way to contact home.

A cursory sift through the front of the room revealed nothing at first, and Lacaille was ready to assume that nothing of hers had been brought along, when...

"Haro," came a computerized monotone.

A little purple ball, maybe half a foot in height, came rolling out from behind a box and over to Lacaille. Grinning, she picked it up, and its eyes flashed at her. "Haro! Oh, it's good to see a familiar face."

"Haro." Two circles on its top popped open and flapped, not unlike wings.

"What the hell is that?"

"It's called a Haro." Lacaille let it down, and it bounced a few times against the floor before stabilizing and turning to blink up at him. "It's a pet robot that's popular where I'm from. It has a very simple AI and a basic vocabulary, and it can fly in zero or low-gravity. This little guy has a few modifications to make it more useful."

"Does it do windows too?" Nathan joked a little, even as he continued to stare at it.

"Windows? I don't-- oh! 2007, right... Some models have a computer interface, but not this one. It can store data, but I don't know if there's anything compatible with it around here," she added ruefully.

"Hello! Hello!" the Haro chirped up at him, bouncing a little in place.

"Actually I meant actual windows, it was a joke... Never mind." He waved his hand, and glanced through his wallet to make sure things were still there. Like photos of his wife, his sons, and especially his brother, Peter.

Nathan was focused on the picture so he missed hearing the happy robot's chirping at him.

Lacaille gathered the little robot back up to her, tucked it under one arm, and peered curiously at the picture her 'podmate' was looking at. "Oh, is that a relative?"

"My brother, Peter," He nodded, and remarked in a quieter and more reflective tone.

"Oh."

A slightly awkward pause.

"I guess you're... pretty emotionally attached to your family?" Weird though Lacaille's upbringing had been, she did have a vague sort of realization that it wasn't how things normally went.

Emotionally attached would be putting it mildly.
No really. Mildly There is touching. A lot.

"Of course... you're not?"

That was an interesting question. Where to begin?

"I don't think I have what the average person would call a family. I mean, it seems like it from what you've said and what I've learned--which I guess isn't too much, since I'm not really into anthropology or sociology or anything." She wasn't avoiding the topic, just rambling, as usual. "Everyone on the Messier--that's the ship I live on--well, lived, I guess--raised us."

She paused, trying to gather her thoughts. "They're more like... colleagues, teachers, students, that sort of thing. I'm not sure if that really comes under the definition of 'family'. I mean, we like each other well enough, but it's not... familial?"

"No, sounds more like a school or a military institution."

"Military? You know, I'd never thought about it that way..."

Lacaille looked thoughtful for just a moment, then half-shrugged, her usual smile soon returning to her face. "It worked, anyway, and that's what matters, right? Anyhow," she added, abruptly changing the subject, "I'm going to go see what the rest of this place has. Want to come with?"

"Yeah, have some experience with it. Used to serve myself."

Nathan shrugged, "Why not? My calendar's suddenly empty.

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