“Alright boys, girls, and general pains in my ass,” Lilea announced as she came to a stop in front of the group, hands clasped behind her back and eyes narrowed as she swept her gaze over them. “Our dear Capsuleer has informed me that we’re going to be arriving at a new, and thus unknown, station in the next few hours. Depending on what the station is like and how they feel about visitors, we’re all getting leave. Please refrain from causing anything more than the usual ruckus, try not offend unknown species, and if you get your asses locked in jail, you can cool your heels there until our Capsuleer is ready to depart.”
Idein smirked and glanced to the side, meeting Shaltach’s gaze as he murmured, “Being specifically called out now?”
“Pretty sure that was directed at you,” Shaltach hissed back at him in exasperation.
Tobias, standing at Idein’s other side, snickered and added, “Or at both of you.”
“Children,” Lilea barked in annoyance, giving all of them a flat, unamused look. “No one is exempt from this, so keep that in mind and at least try to think before you act. Let’s not create another diplomatic incident, please.”
Idein swallowed the comment he wanted to make — Lilea would absolutely not approve, and he really didn’t want to be confined to ship when everyone else got leave — and added his voice to the chorus of “Understood!” that his companions gave voice to.
Lilea gave them all a final once-over, then nodded sharply and said, “Alright then, dismissed. There’s some preliminary information available via Aura, if anyone wants to look it over, but nothing very detailed, yet. Aura will inform you if we’re allowed station-side when we dock.”
“Well, this should be interesting,” Shaltach murmured as the group broke up and started to drift back to their usual haunts around the ship. “Bets on there being draconics around?”
Tobias snorted and shook his head as he keyed open one of the rec-rooms and walked in. “I’m not taking a sucker’s bet,” he declared as he threw himself down on a couch and sprawled out, arms behind his head and one leg hooked over the arm of the couch while the other dangled over the side. “Every place we’ve been to in this weird galaxy has some species classified as ‘draconic’, no matter how weird or unusual they look. One of these days, I might even understand what the hell the logic is.”
“Unlikely. I honestly think it’s arbitrary,” Idein said as he tapped a finger against the holo-table in the center of the room. “Aura, display information on the station we’re closing in on.”
“Understood, displaying information,” came Aura’s voice from the table, as the AI turned the display on and a handful of documents sprang to life in the air above it. “Current data is incomplete, but evidence points towards a friendly society that has no problems with outsiders visiting.”
Idein hummed and scanned the first document, then flicked it to Shaltach and pulled up the next.
It looked like the station was called ‘Mwari Station’ — odd name, but at least it was pronounceable — and it was both a residence and a resort destination.
(Odds they were going to get shore leave were pretty good in that case.)
(Nice.)
“Oooh, Idein, look. There’s a second station nearby that specializes in dragon bonding,” Shaltach announced brightly, flashing him a sharp smile.
“Oh no, no you two don’t,” Tobias said frantically as he sat up and leaned forward, jabbing a finger at them. “Captain said no ruckus—”
“Captain said not to cause more than the usual ruckus,” Shaltach fired back. “Wanting to see a bonding event isn’t anything more than the usual, and might even be less than usual!” she said triumphantly.
Idein huffed a laugh and pulled up a copy of whatever Shaltach was reading, scanning through the short brief on the Refugium. “Rare and endangered bonding species, huh…?” he murmured, drumming his fingers absently against the edge of the holo-table. “That does sound interesting.”
“Ruckus is bringing back some unknown and unusual species!” Tobias protested. “Aura, please talk some sense into these two!”
“Capsuleer Karjan has declared that ‘whatever happens, it’s their responsibility,’” Aura replied seconds later.
“That’s as good as permission from him,” Idein said with a smirk at Tobias. “Besides, who said anything about bonding? We’re just going to go take a look, promise.”
Tobias eyed him skeptically, then huffed a sigh and flopped back on the couch and draped an arm over his eyes. “Don’t come complaining to me when this all backfires on you, I’ll just tell you ‘I told you so’.”
Idein exchanged amused looks with Shaltach, knowing that their friend was very likely to follow along just to ‘keep an eye’ on them; Tobias would never let them get into trouble on their own if he could help it, even if he insisted on reminding them how foolish they were at every turn.
(Tobias did have a point, but the chance to see a rare species hatch was too tempting to resist.)
(This was going to be fun.)
Idein stepped off the shuttle, gaze roaming over the bay as he took everything in; there were more species moving about than he’d ever seen before, in more variety than he’d ever expected, even after years of moving between planets and stations in this new galaxy.
It was honestly fascinating, and made him wonder how many other species were out there—
He grunted as a sharp elbow jabbed into his side, and shot a glower at Tobias who just gave him a flat look in response.
“Staring is often rude,” Tobias hissed in exasperation.
“I’m not staring,” Idein hissed back, then yelped when someone shoved him from behind, making him stumble a few steps forward. “Rude!”
“So is standing in the way,” Shaltach told him haughtily, stalking past him and towards one of the doors out of the bay where the majority of other people seemed to be heading. “Come on, let’s see when the next shuttle to the Refugium leaves and get ourselves a seat. Unless you don’t want to come…?”
Idein scowled at her back and strode after her, knowing that she would absolutely leave him behind if he didn't; she’d done it before, back when they were first getting to know each other, and she’d ended up having an honest to nova adventure without him, complete with rescuing a local princess and escaping slaver-hounds by the skin of her teeth.
(He wasn’t about to give her another chance to hold something over his head.)
(Shaltach found the best adventures.)
(He was honestly jealous of the ability.)
Tobias heaved a sigh and stretched his legs to catch up, falling into step with Idein as he did. “Why don’t we just go look around Mwari Station?” he suggested as they walked. “You saw the info packet that Aura sent out, there’s plenty to do here. Bars, night clubs, places to gamble, places to explore, almost anything you could want is available here.”
“Except for the chance to see a bonding,” Shaltach answered, casting a smirk over her shoulder as she did. “Come on, aren’t you even the tiniest bit interested in the idea? Just think about it, this is one of those common threads that seem to, heh, bond all these disparate people together.”
“You are terrible,” Tobias told her with a scowl. “That was terrible, you are terrible, and you should be ashamed.”
She snickered at his offense, then sobered up just in time to give her best smile to the kiosk worker. “Hello there! We’d like to travel to the Refugium, please.”
The being looked between them then back down at the screen in front of it, tapping a few buttons then gesturing towards the screen in front of Shaltach. “Next shuttle leaving for the Refugium will depart shortly. Please pay and then follow the directions on your receipt to the correct bay.”
Shaltach quickly sorted the payment out and then stepped away from the kiosk, looking between the little printout and the signs hanging up. “This way, it looks like,” she announced after a moment, before leading them through the area to where another shuttle was waiting, passengers slowly boarding as they were checked in.
They got in line and settled in, waiting quietly through the short flight from Mwari Station to the Refugium where they disembarked and wandered after the other passengers, taking in the variety of people moving around.
“Talk about being glad to have translators in our heads,” Idein murmured to the others as he eyed a handful of what he was fairly certain were some form of draconic species as they stepped off a larger ship and quickly moved through one of the doors ahead of them. “These places make the Empires look tame.” It was one thing to grow up knowing there were three other major languages out in the greater galaxy, but a place like this shot that out of the water immediately.
(Why was their galaxy so barren of intelligent life and this one so packed with it?)
(Had humanity’s arrival through the EVE Gate short-circuited whatever was needed to evolve such things?)
(An interesting idea…)
“It’s like something out of a novel, isn’t it?” Tobias asked in amusement, then nudged Idein’s side and tipped his head towards Shaltach, who was already walking out of the hanger. “Come on, before she finds trouble.”
Idein laughed and hurried his steps, catching up with Shaltach at the visitor center where she was talking with one of the employees.
“—down in the subterranean biome? Okay, thank you!” Shaltach grinned at Idein and Tobias as they approached. “So we just have to go over this way and take the lift down to the subterranean biome and from there we can find the current clutch.” She stepped out of line and began to lead the way, an extra bit of excitement in her step as she explained, “Apparently this is a species called ‘Myrmex’, they’re insectoid with three castes, queen, warrior and drone and can speak telepathically.”
“Insectoid with castes?” Tobias repeated warily. “You realize that means they’re social, right? And that if you end up with one, you’re going to probably end up with several. How big even are they?”
“Depends on the caste,” Shaltach said cheerfully as they stepped into a lift and she pressed the button for the subterranean biome. “Queens are the biggest of course, maxing out at twenty feet at the shoulder, followed by warriors at ten feet and then drones at five feet.”
Idein considered that, tipping his head back to stare up at the high ceiling of the lift; drones would be shorter than all three of them by about a foot, but warriors would stand taller than them and queens would absolutely dwarf them. Certainly a tricky problem in the enclosed space of a space ship, even one as large as the Gentheir.
“Twenty feet?!” Tobias sputtered, then took a deep breath and reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose. “Shaltach, no. Even a warrior would be cramped aboard the ship, and that’s warrior, singular. Enough of them and there wouldn’t be any space for us!”
“Good thing Capsuleer Lajira has been working on plans for a new ship design then, isn’t it?” Shaltach asked with a pleased grin.
Tobias groaned. “For transportation, not as a replacement for the Gentheir!” he shot back as the lift came to a stop and the door opened up onto the subterranean biome. He blinked, murmured a soft “huh,” and stepped off into the dimly lit tunnels. “They really went all out, didn’t they?”
“They really did,” Idein agreed as he ran the tips of his fingers over the packed dirt walls, then rubbed the grit between thumb and fingers. “It’s fascinating. I wonder what the other biomes look like.”
“We can certainly take a look later,” Shaltach agreed as they wended their way through the tunnels, her gaze scanning the shadows out of habit as they moved. “But for now…” she paused to nod at the people standing near the entrance to a cavern and said, “just here to take a look, we won’t make a ruckus, promise.”
Tobias rolled his eyes and nodded to the… guards? Probably guards… and stepped past them with Shaltach and Idein. “No ruckus, huh?” he murmured as they scanned the large cavern, eyes straining against the darkness to see—
Eggs. Tons and tons of eggs, clustered together and tended to by creatures the likes of which Idein had never seen before; based on Shaltach’s brief explanation, the two moving about were probably drones, the one curled up near the eggs was probably a warrior and… that was definitely a queen at the very back.
(The reality of their sizes was… incredible.)
There were other people — other beings — in the cavern as well, milling about and interacting with both the Myrmex and the eggs; there didn’t seem to be anything preventing them from getting closer, either, which was as good as an invitation in Idein’s mind.
“Come on, let’s see what these guys are like close up,” Idein said as he headed towards an area with fewer beings.
Tobias sighed but followed. “If these eggs start hatching—”
“What are the chances of that?” Shaltach asked in amusement, stepping close enough to Tobias to nudge him with her shoulder. “That on the day, no, the hour we decide to take a peek, the clutch decides to hatch and we get mistaken for candidates?”
“Well, now that you said it aloud, one hundred percent,” Tobias said with a deep, long-suffering sigh as he stared up at the dark ceiling as if praying for patience.
Shaltach wrinkled her nose at him. “My luck isn’t that bad!”
“Not to validate Tobias or anything, but it sort of is,” Idein spoke up, smirking at Shaltach when she glowered at him. He wriggled his fingers at her cheerfully and added, “The Sansha mess? The adventure with the princess? The time we were trapped inside a glacier and couldn’t get out?”
She scowled and declared, “Exceptions,” before turning away and moving closer to the eggs.
Idein and Tobias shared an amused look and followed.
(Whatever happened, this would certainly be something to tell the rest when they returned to the Gentheir.)
(Especially if they got to see the hatching too.)
(He might be hoping that Shaltach’s luck held true…)
(Just this once.)
(Just maybe.)