trans_9 | Meet-n-Greet

Another kid on the ship, the Chief notes. Definitely a good bit older than the little ones and far from the youngest member of the crew, but a kid.

"My name is Master Chief Petty Officer SPARTAN-117," he replies, "Though "Chief" is quicker. Welcome aboard, Katara. I'm one of the two Lieutenant Commanders on this ship."

He's not harsh or short at all, but he has a certain lack of warmth and a sense of formality. The Chief's not a very expressive guy, or (despite trying) very good at being reassuring.

"What have you been told?" he asks. It will help him figure out what to say. He knows the usual unhelpful, vague spiel Stacy likes to give, but he doesn't know what Katara may or may not have picked up from other crewmates.

"That's a mouthful," Katara commented. "I think I'll take you up on that Chief offer. So there's military designations on the ship? Well, I'm not too surprised. With these many people, you'd have to be pretty organized."

Watching him, Katara immediately likened him to Master Paku. Definitely a hard egg, and not all too forthright with the emotions. Well, that was fine now that Katara was used to it. If he was a Lieutenant Commander, it wasn't as if he could go around giving everyone happy pep talks anyway.

"Well," She said, furrowing her brow, "I know a little about the Omnicons. I know we're in space on a spaceship, although I've never seen one to save my life. I know that Stacy is our mother, but we have other AI (I don't really know what that means) that aren't as nice. I know that you have a city, and some kind of simulation that can make us see what we want."

Katara paused. "Now, if you'd elaborate on some of those terms, it would really help! You guys are definitely years and years over what my world is capable of!"

"We're approaching two hundred crewmen," he says. Certainly a lot of people. "It's a little rough but we've been managing. If we're going to get anything done we need structure, not a mess of people milling around." And oh boy is he bent on getting out of here. People need him at home. A Spartan's work is never done.

"A lot of the things on this ship are pretty advanced even by my standards. And they're omnicoms," he corrects lightly. "Easy letter confusion. There's also the comm rings for communication but the omnicoms are good for putting up things you need many people to notice. And yes, there are some other AI units on board, it stands for artificial intelligence. They're a like people, only their minds are programmed into computers. I'm only familiar with one myself: Cortana. She's a good friend of mine," he explains.

"There's a city here but it's empty. There are buildings stolen from lots of worlds, and we've found a police precinct there that we've been using. It should be safe now that Stacy's sterilized it but I wouldn't recommend exploring too much of it, especially not alone."

"The sensoriums make things out of solid light, for the most part. They can trick your senses and you can get hurt, but nothing in there is real once you tell it to stop."

It's kind of a lot of information at once, Katara. The Chief's been here a while and it's sort of become second nature to him. Which, if he pauses to think about it, is kind of creepy.

Two hundred. That was a lot of people, probably more than were in her own village! To imagine they were all here, to serve this purpose that Stacy was talking about without having a choice in the matter. "I can understand that. I mean, its not like you can probably get everyone to listen to you either. But I'm a little confused. What kind of people does Stacy pick out, if you have this many? Is it random, or does she look for people who are pretty strong?"

Katara laughed a little. "Oh, I think I'm starting to get used to everything being more advanced and more complicated than I could possibly imagine. It;s my brother that's going to have a hard time with all of this. He believes in science, but he's never seen anything like this in our world. He's still trying to wrap his mind around us traveling through space. I don't think he'll be accepting of AI that can talk back to him. He was scared enough with the talking molerat!"

Omnicoms, check, comm system check. She'd have to look those up pretty soon. The city was something she was a little curious about though. "Its empty? Why? And if these buildings were stolen, how did it happen? Waht kind of places are they?"

She knew she was asking a lot of questions, but every time she had some answered, new ones just sprang up. The sensoriums brought a new crop of questions, but right now she'd settle for him answering the ones about the city. She'd find out about the sensoriums personally.

"We've found that we have a surprisingly large number of soldiers, cops, navy personnel, super heroes... things of that nature. Most of the crew members are durable people, adventurers, or if neither of those they have some highly specialized skills. Can't be by accident." Stacy appears to have a giant, vague, ineffable plan. Heavy on the vague. The Chief's just glad that so far, it seems that they have a competent bunch of people here. Even if getting them all to do anything is like herding cats. Cats that might just be on fire.

"About what are you used to as far as technology?"
He has to ask, he knows some people on this ship haven't even reached muskets as far as weapons go.

"The city's always been uninhabited, though there have been some nasty aliens living down there that caught us by surprise. Stacy sterlized it after that. We're not sure how it happened. It seems partial to temples and holy buildings, but there's a good assortment of things. It's a huge place."

"Yeah, I saw that myself," Katara saids. "Before today I didn't know what a spaceship was, that it could be alive, or that there were such things as witches and that they could make things appear out of nowhere. I can only imagine what kind of people Stacy is taking aboard this ship if it pulled me and my brother and witches from other worlds."

Katara paused, then made a nervous face. "But saying that allowed made me just realize exactly how strong this enemy we're fighting must be. Now I'm a little concerned. As far as technology goes, the fire nation has made the greater strides as far as weaponry. Most of their arsenal is iron made. That's why the other nations have to rely so much on their surrondings and their bending."

Katara looked thoughtful about the mention of holy places. If it had that, it was likely that it had the Northern Water temple. Maybe even Twi and La! Well, they were earth bound gods, so probably not. But she could hope.

Witches, huh? The Chief's not sure if he's met one. She might be talking about one of the other new arrivals, or other crewmates he's not entirely familiar with. There are so many of them.

"We think we have some idea of what we're up against, and whatever they are they're a powerful enemy," he says, remembering the ominous signs they'd found on the dead planet. "Where I'm from spaceflight is commonplace and we've long since started using better metals than iron," he says to give Katara some kind of frame of reference. "But a lot of this is beyond me." At least, the "living ship" thing. It reminds him strongly of the Flood, but it's... not the same.

"What," he asks after a small pause, "is bending?"

It sounds like something significant if it's used as a weapon, but that doesn't give him any clues as to what the term means.

"I see." So that was another person who came from a time where space travel was possible. She was going to have to get Sokka used to the idea: he was very resistant when it came to things like that. "I have a brother who will be very interested in how the whole space travel thing works."

Katara smiled. If she was going to mention bending to people, she had better be prepared not only to explain it but to demonstrate it too. She'd have to find the bathrooms on the ship. "Bending is the ability to have a specific element move to your will. For me, my element is water, and so I can make water whips, create ice and ice projectiles, surf on the water, use steam, you name it. If it has to do with water, I can use it."

Too bad there wasn't much of it on the ship.

"Send him to the media labs, or the engineering crew if they aren't busy," the Chief advises.

He listens to the explanation, nodding. "That sounds like a useful ability. Unfortunately, as you've probably noticed, we're a little short on accessible water here." He considers that. "There might be some standing pools in the city but nobody's paid them much attention because they're not potable."

Media labs? Engineering crew? Yup, those definitely sounded like Sokka jobs. But it would be good to get his mind off of the kidnapping. If it weren't so many friendly people, Katara was sure she would have been freaking out too.

Katara sighed. "So I've heard. Luckily for me, I'm used to carrying the water in a pouch. I had a lot of practice when we were traveling in the desert...not that I'd really want to relive that experience."

"If you usually carry it with you, you might find it in the Weapons and Possessions lockers," he suggests. Ah yes, the lockers that aren't actually lockers! The giant disorganized warehouse o' stuff!

"It's a giant mess in there, but Stacy seems to move things to the front when the people they belong to wake up."

Katara gave the man a friendly smile. Really, this place was different, but it seemed like all of the crew were trying to make do with the best they could. It reminded her a lot of the Old Masters, when they marched together, all old men of different nations, to free Ba Sing Se.

"Just another thing to get used to, I guess," Katara said. "I wonder if everyone Stacy picked has some secret power. Do these pod pops happen often?"

"They were erratic at first, but they've gotten regular lately," the Chief replies. "Standing theory is that she's got specific reasons for everyone she wakes up, and no one knows how many are in stasis. Could be millions."

"We just don't know what those reasons are."

And believe him, he's been trying very hard to come up with plausible ones for the likes of some of them.

Katara took that in. There was much she had to think about before she started to really formulate ideas: for one, after a few days shed have to talk to Sokka and ask him what he thought of everything. His opinion, despite how much she made fun, was very important to her.

"I didn't think you did," Katara said,m "But it helps you're at least trying. There's a lot to take in when we first come here to this place. I just hope I can assist in finding those reasons. I think I like the people here. JI don't want them getting hurt."

"Neither do I," the Chief agrees firmly. He's adopted this crew, and whether that decision was wrong or right (still something his sense of duty and his pragmatism still argue about) he's not going back on it.

"My advice would be that once you know what team you're on, track them down and get to know them as soon as you can. If and when we go on other missions, you'll be with them and you'll be relying on them. It's a good idea to figure them out before you have to do that."

Katara was glad of that. If he was so important in keeping things under control on Stacy, she was sure she could go to him in case something underhanded was going on. Besides, he seemed to have a voice of authority that showed he was committed to helping the people aboard.

"Wait, we have teams? Well, I guess that makes sense, but where would you go or who would you talk to to find out which team you were on anyway?"

"Stacy should tell you eventually, it should be soon. If you're team leader, find your group. If you're not, try to get ahold of your leader and keep your eyes on the omnicoms to see if there's a meeting being pulled together," says the Chief.

He plans on starting group training soon, things have just been hectic lately what with the Yeerk trial and all.

"I'll do that," Katara said. So, that was easy enough. She doubted anyone would make her leader considering she'd just been popped though. That wouldn't make much sense. She WOULD have to check her omnicon though, and possibly set up a journal if only to keep in contact with everyone else on Stacy.

Katara gave him a bow. "Thank you for your information. I'm sure it'll help me take care of certain things on Stacy. I'm sure you get a lot of people asking you questions when you first get here after all."

"No problem," he replies, nodding. "Just doing what I can. Someone has to answer questions, and it's better to do it than assume someone else will."

Otherwise, things never get done. And if you want something done right, you do it yourself.

"Good luck," he adds.

Meet-n-Greet

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