driftfleet | A Rose by any other name...!

Suddenly, the SS Three Twins and the SS Windrose begin to move on their own... slowly, calmly, they drift to into the same direction, away from the other ships of the fleet. Slowly, they move until they side by side.

Over the two ships' intercom, an old song begins to play. And that is all the warning there is before the engines engage -- full speed ahead.

Like a pair of rockets, the ships torpedo forward. As they move, they start circling around each other, like a synchronized dance. They move with incredible grace and skill, far more masterfully than the average pilot augment. Except, each time that they pass each other, they clearly get closer to one another.

And closer...

And closer...

No matter what buttons the crews press, no matter how much they might panic, nothing is going to stop the inevitable. On the final pass, it becomes clear there's not enough room between them to avoid a collision. Any impact alarms on the bridge are blaring at full blast. Any other ships watching will not have time to attempt any sort of interception.

CRASH!!

As if to shield spectators' eyes from the horrors of ships colliding in space, there's a blinding light upon impact -- and once it gradually fades, the results can be clearly seen by all: There is no wreckage. Nothing is broken. But where there were once two ships... now there's only one.

One ship that is looks completely new, but yet is reminiscent of both the SS Three Twins and the SS Windrose.

-----------

On the bridge, the crews of the SS Three Twins and the SS Windrose arrive, along with the usual pop! of Atroma confetti and ridiculous jingle music upon a successful shuffle. Sitting in the captain's chair is a round cake, just large enough for everyone to have one slice. There's a single candle, and the following message scribbled on top in yellow icing:

"Congratulations - SS Twin Roses!
Happy Fusion!"

... What, did you think you were going to die? Sorry about that.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah, that either means we have three on comms or three on lab depending on whether or not Kurt's augment switch went through already and no one on security or engineering which means we'll have no shields and no guns if we get attacked.

Huh. Sort of leaves us as a bit of a sitting duck again. Well, if anyone wants to switch-up I'd be happy to contribute.

Probably something to talk about once we're a little more acclimated to this place and each other. [She could maybe see herself switching to engineering.]

Speaking of which, I don't think I'm acquainted with any of your shipmates! Give me a rundown!

Kurt. He's from my world—a mutant like me. We were on a team together. He's the blue one with a tail. Teleporter. He's the one either on comms or lab depending on if it went through. Makie is quiet. [She almost says good with a sword, but she's not sure if she wants that to be common knowledge.] She's on tactical. We speak Japanese to each other a lot. Castle is maintenance and he's a writer back home. Khadgar is new to the ship. Seems to be a magic user. He can also teleport and he's on comms.

I'll see if I can make something edible and we can all have a pow-wow over dinner. I'm pretty sure we'll all be holding hands and singing "Kumbaya" by the end of the night!

[He doesn't really, but it never hurts to be optimistic!]

Starting to sound like torture now. [She smiles at him.] Okay, let's start with the kitchen, see how it's holding up. See if all the food I've been stocking up on has gone to waste.

[Following her lead.]

It'll be interesting to see what happened to Wolfe and Anders' garden. They re-purposed one of the rooms for that, and we'd gotten some decent produce out of it.

We had one in the cargo bay. Vision set it up. At least I think he did. It was important to him. I met him when he was floating up there, taking care of it. It hung from the ceiling to maximize space.