138: Vestigial Pursuit – Five
The desolate world they took the shuttle down to conduct their test on was monotone and borderline featureless. A grey expanse stretched out all around them, the few larger impact craters wider than they were deep, everything across the surface just grey on grey on grey. The atmosphere above them was a suggestion more than functional, and so the inky blackness of the void enveloped them from horizon to horizon, the distant white sun brightening the coloured aspects of their Kith armour into sharp relief.
The gravity on this world was much less than Elytra had been expecting, and so when she'd taken her first step off the shuttle, she'd accidentally flung herself several ship lengths away.
"Is this what it's like for you all the time!?" She squawked as Rhea bounded over to catch her from stumbling, the woman moving with an enviable ease.
"Kinda," the opaque face plate of Bathory's armour prevented Elytra from seeing Rhea's expression, but she could hear the smile in her voice as she said, "I've had a lot of practice dealing with lighter gravities than I was born under, so adjusting is second nature to me at this point."
Last to leave the shuttle, Nevara added, "The Thalatte train their armed forces to be able to operate under any conditions, different gravities included. However, it's much easier to operate under a lesser gravity than it is a greater. On a world such as Terra, I would not be able to stand upright. When I went there as a child, we all had to wear special devices that would encapsulate us each in a gravimetric field that would mitigate the crushing pressures of that alien world."
"Such technology would be easy enough to integrate into our suits, would it not?" Pryseia asked, turning to Malakh, "We've yet to find ourselves on a world with a greater gravity than we are used to, but that does not mean that such a destination doesn't exist in our future. I would rather take the time now to be over-prepared than under when the occasion arises."
"That's probably something we could find on the Quanvengier," Malakh pointed out, "We've gotta restock some time in the near future as is, so we may as well make a shopping day of it there."
"Would that tech work to make it easier to move on a world with lower gravity as well?" V'tala asked, treading so very carefully as they all walked over to where Rhea had caught Elytra, "This isn't... ideal."
Completely unaffected by the gravity in the slightest, Viatrix's Hyttan drone swung around to face them all, saying, "It definitely would, but speaking of training, it looks like someone's posted some gravity chambers on the Quanvengier's market database. They're Zymeth ones, looks like they were models built for physiotherapy rather than Thalatte ones for combat training - basically just a stall with a walking pad in it so a person could exercise a leg injury without having to worry about the the injured limb supporting the weight of the rest of their body, or taking a potentially more injurious tumble while they're trying to heal. Even with everything else we've got on our shopping list, we've got the budget for some."
"If we've the budget for two, would you be able to purchase a pair?" Pryseia asked, "Adding something of the sort to our daily exercises would behoove us all, I am sure."
"Yoooooouuuuu... got it!" Viatrix chirped, "Payment just cleared - they'll be ready for installation by the time we get there!"
"You're the best, Vi," Rhea said, a laugh bubbling out of her as she said, "Way less embarrassing than my idea of a pair of kid leashes to keep these two from rocketing off without meaning to."
"If you leash me, I'm lying down on the ground," was V'tala's deadpan reply, "Like in those videos you were showing us of those pets from your world."
Cackling at that, Rhea said, "Yeah, you've definitely got disgruntled cat energy. Elytra, on the other hand, is a sweet angel baby who would be purring up a storm while being cradled in my arms!"
"Wow, in front of your wife?" Elytra shot back, barely able to contain her own laughter as she gestured at Malakh, and that set Rhea off even more.
Shaking her head fondly at that, Malakh muttered, "And this is who the Thalatte are sending assassins after? That's a bad look for them."
"They've only themselves to blame," Nevara replied, "If they left people alone instead of enslaving and conquering at every turn, they'd have fewer enemies out there."
"And ain't that a fucking fact," Rhea huffed, "Well, not really anything we can do about all that shit. This test, however…"
"Something we can actually be productive about." Malakh agreed, detaching the scanner from the holster panel on her leg and turning so that the others could see the back end of it as she ran through the functions, "Like I was saying yesterday, it's got a tuner now, so we'll be able to narrow down what kind of tech we search for. And that Omega detector has its own frequency, so that'll help narrow things down even further. For now though..."
A scroll wheel and a second screen had been added to this updated model, and Malakh started the device, switching to the hologram map to make it easier for everyone to see. The topography of their surroundings was rendered out in simplistic detail, no blips currently on sensor. Malakh then scrolled through several options, before arriving at 'vehicle', and two small blips appeared, one directly on top of them, and one far, far above.
"Oh, that's me!" Viatrix said, swaying side to side, and the blip closest to them followed her movements.
"And the Pelekys up top," Rhea said, letting out a low whistle, "That's impressive range, what with it being in orbit and all."
"That's actually something I wanted to test out. A double test, actually," Malakh said as she turned to Viatrix, "Would you be able to move the ship further away? We can see the range on the scanner, but also see the range on your drone. We never got around to testing that after our vacation."
"You got it," Viatrix chirped, "I'll keep tabs on distances for you."
The range on the scanner ended up being enough to search an entire planet, larger than the one they were currently standing on, which would be a boon when it came to their eventual hunt for technologies to integrate into the ship.
The range on Viatrix's Hyttan drone, on the other hand, ended up being much farther.
"Okay, I think I'm about to reach the limits of my signal," Viatrix said, her voice coming out distant with the Pelekys nearly fifteen minutes away at FTL speed, "I'll swing the ship back around for you once I fully lose it."
V'tala caught the drone when the connection finally broke, the Pelekys pulling back into orbit not long after, having hopped through subspace to cut down on time.
Back in the ship after running through the rest of their tests, Nevara charting a course to the core and the Quanvengier, Malakh was excitedly going over their findings, her grin irrepressible as she paced the length of the bridge.
"The range on just the handheld model is VERY impressive," her eyes were darting as she went over the details on their experiments her Longan was displaying for her, "Extrapolating up for a ship sized scanner, we'll probably be able to scan an entire stellar system, and then use the handheld one to narrow things down on the ground. But Vi, your range?! You can project yourself a lot farther than I would have imagined."
Her avatar popping up in the corner of the main view screen, twirling in delight, she said, "It's honestly a huge relief for me, because now I know I can either stay in contact or join you in a drone from a lot farther from the ship than a normal AI could. An advantage in a combat application, sure, but I'm way more stoked about the fact that I can keep an eye on you all from a longer ways away! The messes you all get into without me around? I worry!"
"I do apologize for that," Pryseia said, shooting her a sad smile, "But due to the nature of both our careers, as well as the destiny handed to us by the Storlayacas, I fear there will be further trials in our future."
"Well, so long as I get to face them by your sides, it's not all bad." Viatrix told them all, "Certainly beats being stuck as some basic bitch VI, that's for sure!"
Leaning back at her usual gunner station, Elytra grinned, "I'd take this over being a courier driver any day. The pay's a lot better, and I actually like my coworkers."
Breathing out a laugh through her nose, V'tala said, "If you prefer risking your life on the regular over carting deliveries around, I can't imagine it was a very fulfilling career."
"Working the service industry really isn't worth it." Elytra replied, eyes staring off in the distance, lost in memories of horror over what customers were like, "At least in this line of work, if someone wants to cause me problems on purpose, I won't get in trouble for shooting them."
Deep in the core as the Quanvengier was, getting to it was a lot trickier. Closer to the heart of the galaxy, the abrasive maelstrom of debris and energies was more than many ships could withstand. Thankfully, with the self healing abilities of the Pelekys' Hyttan armour, the journey in wasn't as life threatening as it could be.
It was also much louder than a trip through empty void, the material whipping through the core hammering against the hull of the ship like torrential rain. For some it was white noise they could fall asleep to, while for others it was an annoyance that they couldn't shunt from their notice long enough to allow sleep to pull them under. So it was that Rhea and Elytra found themselves in the mess hall in the middle of the night, steaming mugs of herbal tea in hand, and gossip on their lips.
"So," Rhea began, voice pitched low like she didn't want any unsuspecting bystanders to hear, "Professional opinion, with your empathic abilities and all that, how is everyone faring after Pryseia's whole near death experience?"
Blowing out a sigh, Elytra told her, "Better, especially since she's up and showing no ill effects from her whole ordeal. I talked with Vi about it, she was rattled, of course. She thinks and reasons like an adult, but she's really just a kid, she hasn't faced hardships quite like the rest of us have, so she doesn't have the experience to work through it all on her own. And since the only real way to get that experience is to go through more hardships, it's experience that I honestly hope she doesn't get. I'd much rather help her talk out her feelings than have her become jaded by suffering. As for everyone else... It's funny - you, Malakh, Nevara, and Pryseia herself all went through similar emotional journeys through the whole thing. Panicked, worried, relieved, but all of it couched with a need to be productive, like the work would be able to get you through the mire of what your were feeling."
"Makes sense," Rhea replied, her laugh humourless, "The way conditions were under the Thalatte, emotions weren't really something that we were allowed to express. Do the job, or face punishment. Compartmentalization was a way of life. What about you, though? How are you doing after everything?"
Rhea reached a hand out across the table to her, and Elytra took it, grateful for the contact. "When her heart stopped beating, I couldn't think. I haven't blanked out like that since I watched my family get vaporized. I keep reaching out to make sure I can feel her, and that's definitely helped to ease my mind. The dreams of it are dropping in frequency, thankfully. I'm tired of reliving that."
"And there's not really anything I can give you that could shut them off for you," Rhea said, giving her hand a sympathetic squeeze, "Even comatose people still dream."
"Ugh, pretty sure I even dreamed in stasis," Elytra huffed, taking a sip of her tea, "Don't remember any of the details, but it felt like my mind had been running the entire time. Speaking of minds that are running - since yours is loud as fuck - what do you actually want to ask about V'tala?"
A shocked, guilty laugh escaped Rhea before she could catch it, and she gave Elytra a wry grin before saying, "I truly do want to know how she's feeling after all that - she was literally holding Pryseia in her arms when her heart stopped beating, and her expression when that happened is going to haunt me for the rest of my days - but I also wanted a second opinion on another matter regarding her."
Letting out another sigh, Elytra said, "If you thought the four of you were experts at compartmentalization? She's on a whole other level. When there was something to occupy her time, she didn't feel anything at all, only allowing herself to process her emotions once she was tucked away in her room. She's... well, she's got a lot she's coming to terms with. And I think some of that pertains to your second opinion."
"She's developing less than platonic feelings for Pryseia, isn't she?" Rhea asked quietly.
Elytra gave her a sad smile. "It certainly does feel like it. She hasn't had much opportunity to experience her emotions, what with her dlegh having her be little more than a puppet for most of her life, and she's actually come to me a couple times when she'd needed clarification on what she was feeling, but with this? It feels so fragile, I don't want to say anything out of pocket that would make her shy away from exploring what she's experiencing. Especially since-"
Elytra cut herself off, worrying her lip like she was saying too much, but Rhea just patted her hand and said, "Since Pryseia's feelings are drifting along a similar path."
Laughing quietly into her cup, Elytra said, "They really are. You said something the other day that was a good analogy for them - they're cut from the same cloth. I think they'd be really good for each other, but I don't want to do anything to interfere. I have the feeling that if we tried to play matchmaker between them, they'd question the veracity of their emotions towards one another, and that kind of uncertainty is something that neither of them deserve."
"I agree with you on that front," Rhea told her, "They're both the self sacrificing types, so I could see them getting together out of obligation for the sake of us, rather than going for it because it's what they actually want. That would fuck them over in the long run for sure."
"So we'll just stand aside and let them figure it out for themselves, however long that takes," Elytra said with a squeeze of Rhea's hand, "After everything they've been through over the course of their lives, they deserve happiness that hasn't been meddled with."
"I'll drink to that," Rhea agreed, clinking her mug against Elytra's, "We'll just have to ensure they live long enough to come to that realization on their own."
Finishing her tea off with a quiet laugh, Elytra said, "Oh that'll be easy, it's not like we have assassins and government powers on our asses, or some kind of eldritch horror in our future. Staying alive will be no trouble at all!"
The Quanvengier's dry docks were set up to begin repairs on ships the moment they were dematted inside, given the brutality of the journey it took to get their. And given that the Pelekys was going to be free of damage once it was out of the whipping winds of the core, the self repair protocol wildly efficient as it was, they'd radioed ahead to have Glare meet them in the dry dock they'd be assigned to, because there was a lot they were going to have to explain.
Standing at the end of the walkway as the starboard personnel ramp opened up, dressed in a double breasted jacket of cream silk, Glare had both sets of arms crossed as they said, "Your summons sounded quite dire, though given the state of your hull, I'm at a loss as to what the problem could be. It's pristine."
Nodding to acknowledge that, Pryseia said, "It's more a matter of legality, I suppose, in regards to Kith law that had us call on you so. We've… a matter that we must discuss."
Barking out a laugh as they walked up the ramp, Glare shot her a skeptical look, saying, "Given what I know of your character, I find myself doubtful that you and yours would have done something against our code. So please, what is actually going on?"
"A matter that would be better explained with a demonstration." Pryseia told them, motioning for them to follow her into the ship.
Glare just let out a rattling hum and fell into step next to her.
"As you know, the Hyttan mechs we have are not standard Odazaen," Pryseia began as she led them through the halls, "Larger, more powerful, capable of joining together into an even more formidably form, they are unique among the creations of the Hyttan."
"You say that with the certainty of someone who knows that to be an undeniable fact." Glare said, just shy of an accusation, and Pryseia could only shrug helplessly at that.
"We've learned much over the course of our journeys, and I fear we need your guidance."
It wasn't long before they arrived at the demat zones in the armoury, and an instant later they were in the Pelekys' cargo hold, Glare coming up short at the sight of the six Storlayacas at rest in their berths.
Another rattling hum sounded from deep within them before Glare whispered, "The footage doesn't do justice to how big these things actually are."
Leading Glare over to the access walkway, Pryseia called out, "This is Glare-off-the-sea-at-a-summer-sunset, our patron within the Kith ranks. And this is Zaanlaa, Lianshae, Castore, Yarula, Malra, and Enaruli, and together they form Storlayacas."
Glare turned to Pryseia, mouth opening to ask a question, but it never got the chance to launch from their tongue as the overwhelming presence of the Storlayacas drove the air from their lungs, the polite welcome of the Hyttan mechs filling the cargo hold like a fog bank.
"That… is not something any Odazaen can do." Glare breathed, awe and fear colouring their voice.
"It isn't," Pryseia agreed, "And there are more secrets about them that I must share with you."