driftfleet | open

Who: Krolia + You
Broadcast: Yes
Action: Yes Marsiva, SS Twin Roses
When: First 48 hours of arrival

MARSIVA - Hospitality Deck: Arrival Video

[ Waking up in a foreign place was extremely unpleasant. Krolia had assumed she was still in the hospital, by her son's side after their fierce battle-- she soon discovered she was wrong. She wasn't alone: There is a human male, with a metal arm (That wasn't Shiro, unfortunately), but she hadn't approached him quite yet. She awoke with a start, immediately going for her luxite blade only to find she had been disarmed, her clothing clean and repaired from previous encounters. She turns her attention to the camera. ]

I'm not used to this sort of hospitality while being imprisoned. [ A beat. ] Your attempt to placate me is noted, but I will not cooperate.

[ That is to say, she will not cooperate depending on what they are asking of her. If it had to do with her son? She will do everything to make sure he was safe. ]

MARSIVA - Hospitality Deck: B o r e d

[ Twenty-four vargas and she was steadily working through all of her meditation efforts. She has attempted training, exploring (as much as she could), and is doing her best to not pace a hole through the floor. Nothing was easing her mind of the situation. She was trapped on a ship in deep space with no idea where in deep space she was. Krolia was disciplined! She could handle being trapped, she could handle being housed in a single area, but the silence from her captors was having her start to question their intentions. ]

SS TWIN ROSES-- Bridge

[ It felt like blinking. One moment she was looking at kicking over a bed on the Hospitality deck for fun, the next she was on the bridge of an entirely new ship. Her stomach twisted, immediately dropping in a defensive stance when she finally had her wits about her. After a moment, she has the sound mind to realize that going on the defensive early on may not be the best.

She relaxes her stance, hands quickly put into a resting position behind her back. She would play their game, so let them try and catch her off guard. ]

I apologize for the sudden entrance. [ Not that she could help it. She moves to pull confetti out of her hair. ] Krolia, reporting for duty.

Fleet Wide Network-- Video

Good evening.

[ She sits with her hands folded, looking into the camera with a stern expression. Her eyes narrow slightly, but she appears relaxed in her new cabin. She has questions but-- she would let people come to her. ]

I am curious about what the point of our arrival. What goal is in mind and what information is anyone willing to share?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

To the moon, yes. Further than that? No.

[But it's probably clear that the idea interests him; their current situation can't entirely override the sense of awe Bucky has at actually being among the stars. Even so, he does force himself to turn his focus away from the windows and toward their exploration of this strangely sterile environment, keeping pace at his companion's side.]

But that makes me assume that space travel is normal to you?

Earth's moon?

[ Not far at all then. She nods in response to his question. ]

Where I am from, humans have started explore further across their star system. They managed to travel to the moon Kerberos that circles the dwarf moon Pluto. System X-9-Y was largely untouched by the Galra Empire as it was considered a primitive planet with no resources that would benefit them.

I've traveled across galaxies that you can't begin to imagine.

Yes.

[If nothing else, she's gained a rapt audience for whatever she might tell of space. It's only too bad that they're not finding nearly as many answers about where they are now, because everything about this Marsiva seems so sterile and untouched.]

That's— amazing. Space travel is still in the realm of science fiction to me.

[He pauses for a moment, because it's a weird question to ask and Bucky doesn't have the skill with words to keep it from sounding blunt.]

This is really weird to ask, but is that what you are? From this Galra Empire?

One day it won't be. Earth, however, was like an untouched paradise. I wish I never left.

[ Ah regrets. A story for another day. ]

I am Galra, but not from the Empire. I work for an intelligence organization based in subterfuge and sabotage, the Blade of Marmora. We were attempting to stop the Empire from the inside and free those enslaved.

[ And many have sacrificed themselves for the cause. Knowledge or death, after all. ]

Maybe you'll get back someday, if not to the place then to the feeling.

[Regret is something with which Bucky is very familiar; he doesn't push for details that aren't offered freely. Some wounds simply bleed too freely and run too deep.]

Sounds like a pretty noble cause. Any entity that exists to enslave others can't be something that should enjoy a long existence.

[It's something with which he has experience as well, though it is probably much different than hers. Still, some things are sadly univeral, and it seems that the less desirable sides of human (or, he supposes, Galra) nature happen to be among those things.]

I'm sure you are right.

[ Which is true. In her time spent with her son, she's finally felt like she's at home, once more. Krolia will do everything in her power to make sure war would not separate them again. ]

The Empire has been around for 10,000 years. It's been a long and arduous journey, but we are finally on the cusp of victory.

[ Or death. Depends on what was to come for them. ]

Tell me about your Earth.

I hope so.

[He does, sincerely. Inner peace is something he's pretty sure is out of his grasp, but it is something he wishes for others.]

I hope that you and your organization are able to achieve it. I really do.

[Not that anything can be done from here, but still.]

I don't know what you'd want to know, but I can try. It's strewn with its own wars and disagreements of course, but nothing on the scale of what you describe. Technology has advanced over the last century, mostly communications, transportation, medical. And weapons.

Thank you.

Weapons are always evolving, unfortunately. It is the once constant I've found between all space-faring races. All built out of the fear of the unknown or for oppression. I'm not surprised.

[ She pauses, trying to think of the right questions to ask him. ]

What would you consider a major turning point in your history?

There is always a need for something better, or stronger, or faster, or more deadly. [Bucky knows it well; it had comprised all of his training, after all.] And there are always people to convince others of that need.

[It takes him a moment to answer. Bucky's seen most of a century himself, in bits and pieces as he was brought out of cryo. But he's not sure any of what he's seen — or what he's done — should be flaunted as a great point in history.]

The invention of the internal combustion engine, and of the first telegraph. Transportation and communications; those led the way for rapid progress thereafter.

Fascinating. Combustion engines are rather archaic, but I can see the usefulness of such things. We utilize the energy source of living planets.

[ She stops outside the door to the medical ward, taking a moment to inspect the ceiling. No ventilation in the hall -- or obvious drop ceilings where she could easily slip away from the hospitality deck. ]

What do you think they're hiding?

There have been experiments with fuel cells I believe, and solar energy is becoming a thing. But the period known as our industrial revolution is where things really started to speed up, in terms of development. [Living planets though, that's fascinating.] I couldn't begin to imagine how you harness such a thing. It must've taken decades to develop.

[There seems to be precious little that they can get into; no ventilation, no ceiling tiles, no way to crawl about the inner workings of things. And there must be inner workings; there must be a crew.]

My instincts want to tell me that it's an experimental facility, but it doesn't seem that— cold, for lack of a better word. It's sterile, but it's missing something. Why have we seen no one but each other?

We've refined it exponentially through deca-phoebs of research. Most of the known universe utilized quintessence as well.

[ She wonders what she could find if she searched the medical ward -- but it seems the standard fare. Machines to help heal, medicine that may be used if someone were to fall deathly ill. ]

Correct. It's suspicious though. Despite the fact this is clearly a quarantine period for us, why keep us trapped in one room and make it very clear you cannot leave? There must be something beyond the doors in the Hospital Deck they are deliberately hiding.

I doubt we'll uncover the truth while we are here, however.

Sounds like I have a lot to learn about the universe.

[There's amusement in his tone at least. How not? He's on a space ship in the middle of who-knows-where, talking to someone who's decidedly not human. Some amusement is surely justified.]

Agreed. It's too convenient, while at the same time being much too boring. I would assume in addition to quarantine, it's a chance for behavioral observation.

[That they're being watched? He has no doubt.]

I unfortunately agree with you. That'd be much too simple and at that point, why keep us here at all?

[Quarantine could be achieved while unconscious after all.]

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