[color=00AEFF]”Just have him stream it to my wristpad, I’ll make due without it for a few minutes.”[/color] She told the captain, unclipping the device from its mounting. The wireless connection would keep the translation going, except the device would be speaking from Kerchak’s hands instead of wherever she was standing. [color=00AEFF]”Kerchak. We can’t let you into the ship at the moment, but I have a way of showing you some medical procedures. We have devices we call ‘cameras’ that record what they see and hear just like eyes and ears do, and store it to be viewed later.”[/color] She explained as she set up the remote viewing and handed the device to the birdman, [color=00AEFF]”If you tap the display once, it stops or resumes the recording. By sliding your finger along this blue bar down here, you can move it back and forth if you want to see a part of it again. Just don’t use your claws, try a knuckle.”[/color] She demonstrated the basic media player controls to the bird. The touch screen was one of the heavy-duty, graphene-based industrial ones that could handle being hit with a hammer and was designed to work with gloves on, so she wasn’t too worried about Kerchak damaging it or it not registering his fingers. [color=00AEFF]”Here it is. Looks like… Okay, I admit I have no clue what they’re doing, I’m an engineer, not a doctor.”[/color]

Kareet’s offer was frankly better than anything Vigdis hoped they’d get. [color=00AEFF]”I don’t think anyone will object to that agreement. Just a warning, there are over 5000 years of history, over which we venerated around 2000 gods and more civilizations past and present than I can recall to cover.”[/color] She cautioned the Seeker, who would need a lot of paper or invent computers [i]fast[/i]. [color=00AEFF]”I’m just not sure how much of the knowledge we have with us.”[/color] Maybe Ixtaro could help her in that department, she though she remembered Ixtaro saying something about medieval history at some point? Or was she misremembering?

There was clear animosity between Nellara and Silbermine. It was radiating off them like heat from a boiler. Vigdis had many flaws, not being one for solving interpersonal conflicts among them, but she considered herself a damn good engineer and knew that when a machine was misbehaving, sometimes it needed one good whack to shock it into compliance. And a proverbial cold shower could do the same to nip a heated situation in the bud, simply create a situation so awkward it breaks the flow of the argument. [color=00AEFF]”I'm sorry that our life or death emergency that already took the lives of several people is getting in the way of your political disputes.”[/color] Vigdis' voice was dripping with sarcasm which she desperately hoped the locals could understand. For now she refrained from referencing their intent to leave though. She didn’t want to be this close to Silbermine when that was revealed. His next words were a shocker though. [color=00AEFF]”The [i]what[/i] is approaching, [i]who[/i] brought us together and [i]WHAT[/i] are you looking for?”[/color] Vigdis’ tone and facial expression must’ve conveyed absolute disbelief at the last part, even through the mask. It was also the only thing stopping her from laughing at the thought of a centaur nobleman talking to her with the stammer of a high school nerd addressed by a girl. [color=00AEFF]”Champions? I hope that’s the translator failing or that word having a different meaning to you than to us. We’ve already outlined our conditions for sharing knowledge, and you’re welcome to that agreement, but we’re not here to fight, especially not on someone else’s behalf.”[/color] She also didn’t say anything about the impression he’s giving not making many people care all that much about his house, if he was a representative of what they were like.