EliteCommander

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Senjen struggled to understand what Sepharim was saying. From the start, he was a lot less familiar with matters of disease than either of his companions here, and this one was strange even on top of that. He could tell that Sepharim was probably trying to explain it in simple terms for the uninitiated...namely himself, but he wondered if that did not just end up confusing him more.

“Okay, so...wait.” Senjen tried to collect together in his mind what he knew about organic bodies. . “Your code...that is, um, organics’ ‘code’ is DNA. That’s what gives your body the instructions to do everything it does, if I’m remembering. But, unlike machine code, DNA doesn’t change in a person’s life, right? It gets mixed around when you reproduce. If the holophage is changing the body of the hose, then does that mean it is editing DNA? Is that possible?”

Senjen took a look at Ruk for a moment. He could not see the Sthrirad and his body could not really interact with it, but he at least had some knowledge of what it did. “The Sthrirad changing your DNA was just...evolution, if it happened over many generations. This holophage sounds completely different, I think.”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Senjen attention was distracted for a moment when the drone activated and floated itself out of the room. He was pretty sure that one was just a cleaning drone and did not have much actual AI of its own. “You know, we might need to tweak that thing’s settings. We need it to decontaminate anything coming into the ship, not make the whole place spotless. It better not mess with my plants at any point…” He grumbled.

In any case, Seraphim had taken notice of them now. Senjen supposed it would be a good time to figure out what sort of AI she was, and where exactly she might lie on the sapience spectrum. He was looking as her strangely ornate frame, trying to figure out what model it was while they spoke. “Right, um, the Holophage…” Senjen started to speak, but as he actually started to think about what Seraphim was saying, it dawned on him how strange it really was. “Hold on, what exactly do you mean? When you say it doesn’t match, do you just mean that it’s a new disease, or an entire new type of disease?”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Senjen could not help but to agree, though he tried to be optimistic about the situation as best as he could. “I do wish I knew more about why FGC picked them in particular. At the very least, I guess it is in the FGC’s interest for this mission to go well, so...they probably believe that Major’s team will be a benefit. I think the one you might want to keep a respectful distance from is Omega. Apparently he experienced some trauma at some point and has some...issues. HOPE, the QV, seems to be able to calm him. Those two also seem like a duo.”

After a moment, Senjen cast his gaze over to the corner where Ruk’s suit had been tucked away. He looked it over, though there wasn’t really much for him to gain in doing so. To his eyes, it was...a suit. It looked like it would do its job to protect her, but he would have to inspect it in detail to see if there was anything wrong with it. “Your suit? It...well it looks functional. I obviously don’t have much need of an environment suit, so I don’t really know much about them. I probably know more about gel suits, honestly. As long as it can protect you from the virus, though, that’s what’s important. Whatever this holophage is, the last thing I would want would be for you to catch it. And maybe the markings will help you look the part as a medical researcher when we’re down on the planet?” He suggested, though after a few seconds, he chuckled. “Or, well...I guess it’s not really a ‘part’, is it? You literally are a doctor, and you’re researching the virus. We won’t necessarily have permission to do it, but, you know...details.”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Senjen pushed lightly off of the ceiling, allowing himself to rotate around slowly and grab on securely to the floor. He was pretty sure non-climber species tended to feel more comfortable with their surroundings in a “natural” orientation. He knew there was probably no way to make this whole trip “comfortable” for her, with how long it was going to be in a crowded space, but the little things could add up. At least she was not going to have to spend it all trapped inside a suit. QV might be comfortable with it, but that was about as far from nature as a Chekeri could be.

“Unfortunately, I don’t know too much, beyond some quick introductions.” Senjen replied with a tone reminiscent of a sigh. “I know the FGC hired them, in a manner of speaking. It’s more of a ‘we help them, they help us’ sort of arrangement. For their background, I mostly just know they’re meant to be good at their job, and we have to trust the judgment of FGC.”

Senjen pushed himself over a bit closer, stopping himself against the wall next to Ruk as if casually leaning against it. “Individually, Major is the one in charge of them: the one holding them together, it seems. I got the sense of him being...professional, I guess? I don’t really understand what he is, exactly. He said he’s synthetic now, whatever that means. The next two...ah, what were their names? Bodach and...Dairmuid. They’re from Earth, and they seem like a duo. I’d expect them to never be too far apart. Rex was polite, formal. But, well…” He started speaking a bit more softly. “Some AI kind of disturb me. The ones that aren’t really...people. Again, it might just be that he was being polite, but it can be hard to tell.”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

It did not take more than a few hours into their journey before Senjen was back moving around the ship. After the others got settled in and while they were making their way into orbit, he had been lingering around in the cargo hold. They weren’t carrying much beyond their own supplies at the moment, but it was one of the only places that no one else had decided to take up in.

Once they were out of orbit and had started the jump into interstellar space, Senjen went pretty much straight for his quarters, where Ruknar would be staying. He floated in from the hall and found a spot on the ceiling to grab with one foot to anchor himself in place. He knew nearly every little protrusion in the cavern-like walls of the ship that he could grab to control his movement in zero-G, so he could move around quickly without so much as looking.

“Hey Ruk.” Senjen said, a bit softly. “Settling in alright? I know it’s not much, but out of all the places on the ship, I figured this was where you would be the most comfortable.” He said, with a quick glance around his half of the space. There was a dense, if not somewhat haphazard, arrangement of all sorts of decorative plants that he took care of. They were all genetically modified to be suited for space travel, so they were hardier than most natural flora. Flowering vines, grasses, shrubs; he had assembled an assortment with no particular theme or organization aside from “looking pretty”.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Senjen was practically running through the ship’s halls after he got Light’s message, though he slowed down before reaching the cargo hold so he could walk in more calmly. Ruk was the last one they were waiting on, along with this last AI she was in charge of shepherding around. Senjen got a good look at both once he made it to the hold. Seraphim was...unusually fancy. Given the nature of their mission, he had been expecting something more plain and unassuming. He supposed they were not planning on Seraphim being seen at all, but he also did not think they should plan on everything going right.

Ruk looked more how Senjen had been expecting. He felt like it was overkill to actually wear the suit to the ship, but nevertheless, he was glad she had it. In an ideal world, she would be armored and protected from any sort of threat, but if they had to choose, the disease was probably going to be more of a threat than anything else. QV suits served as environment suits on their own, so hopefully none of them would be at risk.

“Hey, Ruk, good to see you.” Senjen greeted her first and foremost, but he did not ignore Seraphim. “But um...yeah, you need a tour? It’s not that large of a ship, so it shouldn’t take long. I’ll help you both get settled in. You can take my quarters while we’re on route, Ruk. I don’t really need the space, so I can do without for a while.”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Senjen tilted his head towards his friend. “Light, we’re going to all be stuck in here together for days while we’re en route. I think we’re going to have to get used to each other. At least a little.”

Senjen had been about ready to move on himself before Major introduced two more additions. He had not noticed them either, as he had honestly not been expected how large Major’s team was. How many was this up to now? Seven, including Major. Things in the ship were going to be a bit crowded on the way to their destination.

Halo of Pearlescent Eddies was an interesting one. She was a QV, enhanced. Her physiology made it easy to see the extent of her improvements, perhaps the most impressive of which was the power supply. It was rather large and attached by an array of cables to her back. Honestly, he felt that it looked like overkill for the implants he could see, which begged the question of what, exactly, it was meant to power.

The QV woman was a mystery, which would give Senjen something to be curious about, but the sudden outburst of the last droid was more off-putting. It was like he panicked for a moment, and though they were able to calm him quickly, it was still hard not to feel nervous about it. He was the most heavily-armed member of their team, and apparently the one who was prone to fits of panic. Senjen was not even sure what it was around them that could have even triggered him, if Major was being honest about what happened. That, he supposed, was not a guarantee.

“Ah, well, right now we’re just waiting on Ruknar to get here. I think she’ll have that AI, and we’ll be able to get going. Make yourselves comfortable. This is a Tindrel ship, fortunately, so I don’t think any of you will have difficulty navigating it. The halls are plenty wide for everyone.” Senjen said.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

These others might have been even stranger than the first two droids. Rex used a frame that lacked many similarities with the bodies of any of the known intelligent species. That, in itself, was not something unusual to Senjen. Back on Orostro, Utaysi usually took direct control of specialized machinery and vehicles when needed. The thing about their usual bodies, and those of other intelligent species, was that they were versatile. The reason organic evolution tended to converge on certain features with intelligent species was that it allowed them to perform decently in nearly any situation. Rex here was much more specialized, with a wider gap between its strengths and weaknesses. They were a team, so they probably had practice using each other’s strengths and covering each other’s weaknesses. If Senjen needed to work with them, he just hoped he would be able to mesh well with them.

The last one, Tantō, was...quiet, though that did not stop her from showing off. He was not sure if that was enough to go off of to take a guess on the kind of person she was, but it probably meant she wasn’t completely stoic. If all else failed, she did seem like the type that would be easy to get along with by leaving her alone.

Senjen tried not to allow himself to get too distracted with his thoughts and guesswork. He took a look down at Rex. “Ah, right. You’ll have to forgive us; we have quite a few more occupants in the ship now than we usually do, and on short notice. We do have space, but we might have to do some improvising on quarters. We cleared out enough of our stuff in the quarters to make room for four, but we should probably make sure the organics have their spots there. You know how they need their ‘personal space’. If you go through the hall on the right there, straight to the end, that is the storage room. Plenty of space there to pick out a corner for your things.”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Senjen had not known beforehand how many of this group were going to be artificial. In truth, he felt a bit wary about that fact. He never knew what to expect out of non-Utaysi artificial intelligence. None of them were made in the same way Utaysi were, and despite what some people might think, their minds were completely different. He really did not know if they could truly feel emotion, or were programmed to mimic it. That answer might be different depending on the AI, he supposed. Maybe some of them could really be considered sapient? He just knew that he had met AI before that looked familiar on the outside, but there was no life behind their eyes. It was unnerving, and hopefully this group would be different.

For first impressions, this group was certainly “different”, in some sense. The translation software he used could handle most known languages, and these two were supposedly speaking one of those languages, but the translator still struggled. While he was trying to parse through what they were saying, Senjen nodded along and gave a slight chuckle when it seemed like one of them was trying to be funny. By the time he had to speak up himself, he was at least mostly sure he knew what they were saying.

“Eh, can I answer both? I am Utaysi, but no matter what I was, I don’t think I could pass up a fine tail like this.” Senjen said, whipping his tail against the floor just loud enough to give it a slight echo in the room.

Senjen gave a long, scrutinizing look at Major. Much like Light, he also was not completely certain on what exactly he was. “I can tell with the others, but just for future reference, are you someone who does or doesn’t have to worry about a virus?”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“The inhibitor probably isn’t even necessary, but I guess any extra protection against outside meddling makes for some peace of mind. No, it’s more the act of trying to take something from Myrmidon that’s bothering me. I just...really need to avoid getting caught, you know? Or failing that, getting identified. If I am caught, I need to make sure they can’t get any sort of read on the serial number to know it was me, specifically.” Senjen answered, with a slight shrug. “Or like I said: don’t get caught at all.”

Light did not have to wait too much longer for their guests. An ominous group of hooded figures on a stormy evening would have been terrifying on any other day, and it was still at least a little intimidating here, but the fact that they were expecting visitors made Senjen a little less on-edge than Light seemed to be. In any case, they confirmed their identity, and the Human gave them what passed for an introduction. “Major” was a bit of a bizarre name, and probably not actually a name at all.

“Hmph, yeah, the Myrmidon.” Senjen said in a matter-of-fact tone, returning the handshake. “Make yourself at home. You’re going to have to get as comfortable as you can ‘till we get there.” He waited until they closed up the ship. “What do you know about the job?"