"Captain? Captain Sha? Captain, I know you're awake... Please sir we need your attention at the helm." The Arah'tee male dangled above the Khokalm captain. The captain who slept on their stomach, roused themselves from their heated sand bed and sat upright, looking up at the Arah'tee crew member. "It takes either a brave or stupid man to hang above my spikes Narthen... What did the Terrans do now?" The past few days have been hell. First a Terran made a horrific Combat Sim, then some terrans thought... "You know what would be funny?" Dressed up as the creatures from the simulation and terrified a good chunk of the crew. Thankfully, no one was injured...physically. A dozen or so would be needing a few sessions with a great therapist. As a sort of timeout for being naughty, Sha had ordered a 3 day lockdown and mandatory health check-up through everyone's Holo's.

"I would have walked normally sir, but your floor is littered with Terran trinkets." True enough the captain had developed a fondness for Terran goods. Foods, toys, media, recreationals. It seemed that everything the Terrans made was meant for one to simply zone out for large periods of time. This was especially helpful for Captain Sha's approach to piloting, Which was not at all. I.U. Joinee transport was one of the safest jobs, simply stick the ship on auto-pilot and enjoy a greatly extended vacation. He also got to know quite a few of the residents both in person and mentally through the HMC, a favored hobby for an empath like himself.

"...I guess I could do with a bit of cleaning." Looking at the minefield of plastic bricks, puzzle pieces and dice. "Well, whatever... What's so important that you needed to haul ass over here and wake me up?" Standing and swiping off some stubborn sand off before putting on his formal chestplate. Navigating their way to the door while Narthen safely pitter-pattered across the ceiling. Sha took extra care to sweep a path with his feet, lest he falls for the classic blunder. Stepping on a Lego.

"...Is it just me or does this hallway get longer every time?" Sha did his best to keep up with the Arah'tee on the ceiling, but there was only so much he could do on his stout legs. "I'm sorry captain, but it's just you... maybe one less pineapple bun before bed?" barely hiding his chuckle at the jab. "You try stopping at just one... So what's the big deal?... did someone pee in the float pools...again?" "Thankfully, no. We've detected a faint distress beacon." Narthen dropping to the floor to continue explaining why the Captain had to Captain things, for once. "It's intermittent, which indicates the beacon itself may be damaged, the main issue is that... we're using the same course we made on the way to Terra." Sha now seeing the issue hurriedly hobbled to the helm with the rest of the piloting crew. "So, why didn't we catch that on the way to Earth, right?" "Yes... And Terra still sounds cooler."

"Kiss my shiny shell it does! Back to the main issue, you think it's Boryal?"

"It's a possibility... Though it highly unlikely, even with their numbers that they'd attack a ship this size."

"Unless, It's a Queen cruiser... shit." They were rare, but still a viable threat. A Queen cruiser could easily match his fleet and then some with how much a single egg clutch bears... From the last recorded encounters, they were slow moving behemoths decked to the 9's with stolen weaponry from other races. Known for piracy and a to the victor goes the spoils attitude, they were NOT to be engaged unless absolutely necessary. A Queen cruiser finding it's way here was an extremely unlikely event... then again, because of their hunger for technology, if one got their hands onto a FTL core... they could be following us to make a quick grab at the new race and their tech.

Sha: "...Fuck it! ...Change course for the beacon... Send an alert with details to all passengers with details about why and the possible danger. I want a Far-sling scout team, Accommodations will be made for those that volunteer for the job. Those who want no part in this are free to board Carrier classes and continue on the main route. If it's fine will meet back up, re-dock and continue as normal. 1 week after the separation, if no one gets word from us, they continue on their own to the destination. Equip all viable ships with Warp-Gears set to a timed lock."

Narthen: "Yes sir."

"Narthen... send some edibles to a person named, Finlay Roberts."

"Ye- what? why? ... Also who?"

"Send some recreational edibles to Finlay Roberts. I'll be damned before I start this endeavor sober and they have a lovely mindscape. A Terran I met in the HMC during the early days of this trip."

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Lonov paced the around the dead ship, trying to get used to their new body. It wasn't too bad, after the hours of shedding most of their fur, growing deep dark purple scales, extreme growing/shrinking pains in places, reconfiguration of internal organs, purging said internal organs in whichever way it decided it wanted to be purged... thank goodness she stayed on the ground for that ordeal. OH! Having a gender again was also pretty neat, even if it was a cloacal system. As far as she could tell, she was a lesser Vyynt. well... a thrice genetically recombined and synthetically designed chimera made to look like a Vyynt.

A servant race of a servant race to the now mentally degraded Hunnith, If Lonov remembered her history right, and she usually did. Her people once had relations with the Hunnith, which made half breed offspring or the Greater Vyynt. Thanks to her peoples ability to breed with anything after shifting into that species, which carried onto their children. After a few more centuries of... Relations, lesser Vynnt came about. Their grand wings had merged with their arms. Tremendous fiery breath, reduced to highly flammable oily saliva that could be spit at a distance and lit by the spark gland in the roof of her mouth. She had a generous amount of the saliva going by the size of her oil sacs, that was a fun thing to learn about. Honk!Spit!FWOOSH! Instant forest fire... Gonna leave that out of the official report.

Her face was flatter than she would have liked but... the teeth were sharp and the tongue was long, probably evolved that way to aim their spit better, maybe? But the species has long been extinct or breeded out too thin to be recognizable a few dozen thousand years ago. So no one would question it It's also part of her Legend she had been in stasis after a large war sent her ship spiraling out into unknown space. after a critical failure in that system she woke up and managed to somewhat repair the beacon... her getting on board the I.U ship would just be because of lucky timing. For now though, she'd be having some extended naps in the faulty stasis chamber and eating some truly ancient rations... hurray. Wedging their way though a door. Tail and hips were a bit too much, may have try and adjust that her own way... the hallway had enough room for some light cardio... hopefully.

================================================================================

Xiao Lu: "For here am I sitting in a tin can, Far above the world-

Finlay: "-Planet Earth is blue, And there's nothing I can do."

Lu and Finlay: "Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles, I'm feeling very still~"

Berthold: "Would you both please, SHUT UP!"

Finlay: "If a man can't sing in the shower, where's he supposed to sing?"

Xiao Lu: "Yeah C'mon! Let us have our fun!"

Berthold: "Maybe some people don't want to be serenaded while they're washing their ass! Radio is fine, but this is a little too weird for me..."

Finlay: "Ahhh, whatever!... Pass me the shampoo?" Sticking their hand out from the curtained stall hoping for either of them to pass the bottle, only to be greeted by a much heavier bottle placed into his hand "Woa- Shit!" Barely managing to stop himself from tipping over.

Hatti: "Sorry! ...I have a lot of hair to wash."

Finlay: "It's alright... Try anything once, I guess."

Things were still a little awkward between Hatti and Finlay after she left a hoof-print on his junk, and after learning that there was in fact no zombie pandemic happening and just a bunch of jokesters, she got mad. Then learned that Finlay had no intention of scaring her, and was just cleaning up after a nosebleed. The window for a proper apology had already passed, so things were... weird. Better to pretend everything was normal and hope he would do the same.

Hada: "...Why does it smell like bacon in here?"

Nyeith: *Crunch* "..... Shower Snack?"

Hada: "N-yeah, actually I'll take a piece."

Berthold: "Think Katherine's done with breakfast?"

Nyeith: "...She'd be making more bacon by now..."

Hada: "Nyieth! Really?"

Nyeith: "I couldn't help it! I get peckish..."

Finlay: "...Hatti... Why won't the suds stop?" He had been lathering this entire time, and now his entire body was coated with suds from the U'Quanth Shampoo.

Hatti: "What do you mean? Did you read the bottle?"

Finlay: "Yeah, One full pump per use! I look like the Creature from the Foam Lagoon, what's going on?"

Hatti: "...Oh... you should have used maybe a quarter of that, to adjust for size and how much hair you're actually washing... sorry."

Finlay: "...You, uh... You guys go ahead and start breakfast without me... I'm gonna be here a while."

Understanding that they took their jollies while they could. He withstood the laughs and stayed to keep washing the suds out while they all shut their water off, toweled off and went to the mess hall. At least he'll smell like mint and... cinnamon? odd combo, but alright.

Hatti: "Sorry... again, I didn't mean to... You know."

Finlay: "Turn me into a living bathbomb?"

Hatti: "That and before, with your...yeah."

Finlay: "You're still on that? It's cool, we're cool. You're forgiven. Nothing popped."

Hatti: "THEY CAN POP!?"

Finlay: "...Look, I'm not gonna explain how my bits work. Especially while I'm naked in a stall. Look it up on the Net... but we're good. We gotta work on your timing for these kinds of conversations." turning up the water pressure hoping to simply blast the shampoo out of his hair. "Go and have breakfast! I'll be out soon...ish."

Hatti: "Okay, good to know we're good?" Finally leaving Finlay to wallow in his cleanliness.

Spec: "Finlay?"

Finlay: "Oh, God dammit... what now?"

Spec: "2 packages have arrived for you. One is the Iron tablet prescription I ordered for you... The other we can, probably just... Leave it alone. I say we leave it alone."

"What's the other package?"

"...An edible arrangement of sorts.."

"Hey, that's nice! We can share with everybody."

"Uh... Special edibles."

"Oh, Well one couldn't hurt."