Chapter 5: Lost and stranded

[Morty]

"Ah, this must be it." said Gepka, walking up to wide, semi-circular window that opened out onto a view of the vast emptiness of space. "Or, is it an aquarium? I really can't tell!" he added lightly, rapping his chitinous claws against the glass. He made a full circle while emitting high-pitched clicking noises, taking in the view of the bridge. "Oh! There's someone here." he exclaimed, catching sight of Tal'Set sitting in one of the chairs near one of the interface stations. "I didn't see you there, you were standing so still. How do you do!"

((I'm assuming Tal'Set is still at the bridge?? XD If not.. oops. Also, is his blood warmer or colder than a human being's, do you think? That question goes for all the other characters too. XD
PS a reminder: Gepka causes radio interference so only telephone call will get through. > ))

"Tha-a-ank you." said Kiruza with embarassment, accepting the proffered chest plate. Really, that should have been the first thing she had checked. Of course there would be a spare! She disengaged her mangled device from her thorax and clicked the new one into place. "There, much better." she said, enjoying the crisp new monotone of the robotic voice. She threaded a hose from the sink through a small hole in the side of her chest plate, and the device started filling with water, allowing her to breath without wetting her gills once again. She while the tank was filling up she turned back toward her two attendees. "It seems that everything is under control again, thank goodness. Thank you for your help in bringing this patient to me, Keilumtol. Oh! Miss, I never asked you your name." exclaimed the Shis, suddenly remembering the ant girl.
"It's Setiri." said the young Iki-kithwari absently, supporting herself on the edge of a cryogenic pod with one hand while the other one clutched her forehead. "Are the hallucinations over?" she asked, her fuschia eyes not looking up from the floor of the ward.
"Yes, it seems that whatever has been causing these hallucinations has been dealt with." said Kiruza, relieved. "Now, please stay here, Setiri, while I go tend to one of the crew members. Do not exert yourself. Your species is more badly affected than most by extended cryogenic sleep. Do you understand?" asked the Shis, noticing the girl's vacant expression. The Iki-kithwari nodded dully. "Sorry, I'm just tired, is all." she said, lowering her hand. Kiruza nodded, then bundled up her surgical supplies and headed off in search of Lance.

((Alternatively, Lance could just make his way to the medical bay (he was shot, right?) and I could rewrite the latter half of my post. XD))

[Awesomoman]

Lance stayed back while Lee and Gepka talked, not because he had just threatened the creature a second ago, but because his wound was bleeding again. While they were in front they couldn't see the pain as he kept pressure. Finally when the made it out of that cursed floor he split from them and headed off towards the medical wing. Fortune was at last with him as he ran into Kiruza in the hall. "It would seem I am in need of some medical attention."

[Morty]

Before she had gotten a few feet down the hall, Lance rounded the corner, looking somewhat worse for wear. She greeted the marine with a wave of her hand and slithered up to him, checking to see where he might be hurt. "Yes, please come back to the medical bay, it will be better if I minister to you in a sterile environment." she said, ushering him into the room. Setiri hurriedly moved out of the way, dragging her IV stand with her, instead curling up in one of the vacated pods.
"Now, where were you shot? It would help if you took your armor off." said the Shis, laying out her instruments on a counter. With automatic motions she simultaneously draped a disposable sheet over the slab in the middle of the room and turned on all the necessary equipment, lights blinking to life above the operation room. Taking out a pair of magnetic tweezers, she motioned for the marine to sit.

[Zetherus]

Tal'set was taking a power nap in the chair during the end of the chaos until a bug like creature walked up to him and said "How do you do?" the sniper jerked himself awake and looked at the creature while his mask hid his irritated expression. "Wait, What? What do you want?" he asked quickly. He stood up and stretched both his arms out then brought his right hand to the back of his neck. He began rubbing the back of his neck as he shifted his view back the insectoid. "Uh what are you? I don't remember seeing your kind before; where the hell are the others?" He asked again until he started looking around aimlessly before he went off topic wondering about the other crew.

MEANWHILE...
Keil reactivated his armor then stood up nodding irritatingly at Kiruza. "Yes of course, anything for a friendly member of this crew!" he said as he activated his wrist computer and started locating Ariaka and her former location. The warrior found her location but something was wrong about the coordinates, the android was all over the place! "What in the dark inferno?" he said then he looked at Kiruza, "Did I miss something? The captains location is the entire vessel itself!"

[Morty]

Gepka recoiled a bit at the large alien's sudden movement, but soon went back to clicking happily. "That is exactly what we were wondering! This ship seems to be abandoned." he said, bobbing on his stalk-like legs. "What do these consoles say? Maybe there is something about the crew on them." he suggested, fiddling with one of the monitors. He prodded it with one gnarled finger. "Turn on?" The screen flickered to life with a soft ting! "Did it work?" he asked his fellow crew, curling his hands. For all he knew, he may have just activated the self destruct countdown.

"Really?" asked Setiri listlessly, not really paying attention. "Maybe she's an android." She giggled as the medicine in her arm took effect.

[Zetherus]

"Hey don't touch that. I don't even know what the hell this monitor does." he cursed as he walked up and shoved Gepka off of the console. He looked at the screen and didn't notice anything threatening to his sensors so he shutoff the monitor and turned to the insectoid after doing so. "This is the ship's main control override, I think, and you don't want to touch this!" The sniper sighed then continued, "That over there is the information board, not this, alright and forgive my rude manner but I really don't know what this monitor does nor wants to find out!" he repeated then offered his hand to help the creature up from his sudden assault.

[Nohiki]

"Attention: Please do not mess with the ship's life support system. It is not healthy." Ariaka announced from megaphones in the ship's halls, hoping everyone will stop pressing random buttons, "Correcting for any screw up is remarkably difficult while generating full virtual reality. Thank you." was the standard local output to the bridge, while in the med bay, she only said: "Correct and correct."

[Kauria]

As soon as the targets appeared, Rucha felt the familiar sensation of instinct taking over, and her mind relaxed as her body moved to remember. She shifted into a more comfortable position, and, scarcely moving, fired five holes into the stationary target. Her gaze traveled to the moving target, and she tracked its movement with the pistol.
Rucha shot once. It tore though the upper left-hand corner. Shoulder, she thought. The second shot was to the right corner. Shoulder. Third shot, bottom right. Leg. Fourth. Leg.
Final shot, dead center.
Heart, she thought, a satisfied smile of achievement appearing unbidden on her face, another part of the routine.

[Nohiki]

"Looks solid." Ariaka said, loading next parts of the simulation, "OK, your eye is now fixed. I am curious myself to see how that will affect anything." she said, resetting the targets and preparing the hand to hand combat ground.

[Kauria]

Having her vision restored was a little disorienting at first. Everything looked so small, the details distracting on the left side of her vision. Rucha was tempted to squinch the offending eye shut, but she could recall a distant unpleasantness associated with the action. Fine, then, she thought, trying to ignore her improved sight. She lifted the pistol again and fired. The shot went wide. Rucha shifted her position and tried a second time, clipping the edge of the target. She sighed and lifted her free hand to a few inches from her face, momentarily blocking what she saw through her left eye. No sooner had her hand dropped than she had fired two more rounds into the target. Better, but probably cheating. The Ceretai exhaled slowly, looked down at the ground, bounced on her toes, and resumed her position, her arm locking into a place dictated by habit. She squeezed the trigger and hit the target a few inches from center.
Rucha gave another sigh, this time of relief, and repeated the process, more quickly, with the moving target.
"We're . . . gonna need to work on that," she said, holstering her pistol with a flourish.

[Morty]

"I'm sorry!" Gepka yowled, limping away from the Anero'nolmi's outstretched hand in alarm. "This ship is not very accommodating to people who don't see certain light frequencies!" The Kri-Yakap sniffed, feeling his spindly limbs for bruises. The tangle of legs this created, as each appendage gently prodded the one adjacent to it, was probably quite disturbing to the other, less manually endowed extraterrestrials. The bristles on his limbs flattened automatically when a hand hovered above them, sealing off the minuscule sound sensors below. "Ack.. I feel... dizzy.. Is there a medical personnel aboard this ship?" he said faintly, gripping the backs of several chairs for support. "Never mind.. I'm good. I think." he wheezed righting himself and creeping about the room, looking for something non-hazardous to inspect with his echolocation.

[Nohiki]

"Or leave the glasses at home when we go butcher people." Ariaka said in a dry sarcastic tone. "We'll work on that later, let's spar." the android said, moving to the combat ground. "I've always wondered what you can do without guns. Those claws look nasty!" she said, assuming a fight position. "You did equip yourself with something for melee, right?"

[Awesomoman]

Lance took no time sitting down, He pulled his helmet off with ease, but getting the rest of his armor off was another story. His power armor was connected to him directly, removing it would take sometime. Without even a word, gears began turning and the armor began to unbolt itself. It took about three minutes before it finally detached around his arm and chest. "That looks worse than I thought it would be."

[Zetherus]

Keil got a solid lock on Ariaka's location and started heading to the virtual reality sector quietly. As he entered through the door moments later, he saw the strange pods thinking they were cryo capsules until he walked up to the one Rucha was in and ran a critical scan over it. He soon found out that the life form was awake and experiencing strong mental control of the machine. The warrior smiled realizing that this was a virtual reality pod. Keilumtol walked to the nearest unused pod and opened it to see that the space was too small for him to enter. He thought for a second until he remembered his neural implants, so he brought his right hand up to his chest and grabbed his connector cable from the small compartment built in his armor and plugged it into the machine. He felt the connection so he got comfertable and kneeled on his left knee and locked his armor so he wouldn't fall over. A second later he entered but a connection to the android's session blocked him from entering making him send a request to enter Ariaka's session.

[Kauria]

"Um . . . " Rucha twisted, looking helplessly at the pair of pistols by her side.
Off to the side, a rack of weaponry shimmered into view. Quickly, her gray hand skimmed over the array, and she snatched up the first handgrip that would fit her palm comfortably. "Yes. Yes, I did." She spun on her toes, uncertain but unafraid.