#nr.15

(These are not my pictures, i found them on pinterest and across the internet, the credits belong to the original owners)

Packing Gown Coruscant

Padmé wore a structured dress with a beaded center panel while packing for her involuntary trip to Naboo to escape the ongoing threats against her life. She would be accompanied by Anakin Skywalker.

(Via Wookieepedia)

We are set to arrive on Fendaar in two cycles. As we are currently stuck on the SIIR Noxos, I have concluded that the passages of time that I am free of duties would be best spent continuing to observe the human. The human, on the other hand, seemed to have different plans in that matter, as it took me an unusually long amount of time to locate her.

As I eventually found her, she seemed to be working on one of the control panels in the main control room, so I may excuse her absence with duties she had to attend to. As she saw me, although, she seemed rather…excited (this is obviously mere speculation, as the study of the Terran so far has provided far too little evidence to prove such theories)?

As she rolled out from under the control board and sighted me, her face once again split into a wide opening revealing her horrifying amount of teeth.

"Hey! Dude!", she said, raising to her full height and stepping towards me, still baring her teeth, although I did not recoil, as I did not want to seem impolite. She raised her arms, each pointing into a different direction, away from their connection to the human's body.

"Human Quinn. How are you?"

"Me? I‘m fine, the whole 'wandering around in space' thing just made me throw up, I honestly don‘t know why they insisted on keeping me there for two whole days."

The ends of her fingers, studded with claw-like (rather short and rounded instead of sharp, perhaps they were not meant to function as claws at all, or perhaps the beings on Terra were far different from what I knew, and therefore a shape like this was far more useful to hunt) protuberances, scraped over the back of the connection between her head and her upper body. If I interpreted her facial expression correctly, she seemed to be thinking.

"Maybe I got a light concussion too, I’m not entirely sure. But it's improbable, because I’m fine now."

I decided to focus on one piece of information at a time. "Well, this "throwing up" can certainly not be a healthy nor normal process, otherwise, it would not seem so violently painful and involuntary, would it?"

"Well it‘s not…unnatural, it‘s just something that can happen. And about health, it‘s not unhealthy, it usually helps us to get rid of stuff that is bad for our bodies!", she eludicated, moving one of her arms in a rather random manner.

"The scientists have concluded that this fluid is highly acidic. If this 'stuff' is so harmful to you, wouldn‘t it just dissolve in this fluid before being able to cause any further harm?"

Quinn seemed to think about that. 

"Well, just because it gets dissolved, doesn‘t mean it‘s gone, you know? It's still in our bodies, and we have to get rid of it somehow. And if it needs to be fast, we throw up. Honestly, I‘d definitely explain this further to you, but Biology‘s never really been my strongest subject, ya know what I mean?"

I did not, in fact, know what she meant, but I decided against questioning her further.

After a pause the Terran spoke up again: "So, this planet we're landing on..." "Fendaar.", I clarified. "Right. So, this planet that we‘re going to, it‘s a desert, right?" "That is correct." "So, is it a sand, an ice or, I guess you could also count rock desert? 'Cuz on my planet, we‘ve got all of those types."

"Fendaar‘s ecosystem is mostly made up out of sandlike landscapes with rather scarce vegetation and biodiversity. Most of the planets in system 36-54 have rather extreme temperature ranges, and Fendaar is no exception.", I eludicated.

"Alright, cool.", she spoke, rolling back under the underside of the control panel she had been working on previously. She seemed to be sitting, or rather lying, on a piece of metal with four small wheels attached to it, allowing her to move it around.

"Your planet.", I initiated. 

"Yeah?", she responded, while continuing her work on the wiring.

"Am I assuming correctly that your planet has a far bigger biodiversity?"

"Oh, yeah.", there was a small spring in her voice, as if she had let out air in the middle of speaking. "Big biodiversity. We‘ve got deserts and rainforests, coral reefs and permafrost - although perhaps not for that long anymore - mountain ranges and all that stuff."

"Interesting.", I supplied, for lack of a better response. If Terra had such differences in temperature and landscapes, it was a logical conclusion that the humans had evolved to survive under such circumstances.

"Yeah."

It was unusually quiet for some time. That was, until Quinn rolled out from the underside of the control panels.

"Alright, I‘m done." She took a deep breath before opening her mouth once again. Then, all of a sudden, the muscles of her face started contracting as if she was plagued by an invisible pain. Her eyes squeezed shut and she let out horrifying noise, holding an arm angled in front of her nose and mouth. The noise itself was not particularly loud or long, but I recoiled either way, as a measure of safety. I could not be certain if this gesture was meant to harm me, after all.

Quinn‘s arm sank down again as her other hand rubbed at her nose. She huffed, a sound far less threatening than the one she had produced a moment ago. One of the hair patches above her visual organs raised itself, prompting the question to arise if human hair was controlled by muscles or if it had a mind of its own, although this was a question that could be further investigated later. One of the corners of her mouth raised, revealing the seemingly sharpest teeth in her mouth.

"I guess dust is an inter-galactic thing, huh?"

I did not respond. Her face muscles contracted, causing the skin above her visual organs to crease.

"Hey, you okay? You‘re looking a little spooked over there."

"Human, I do not wish to cause you discomfort, but, if I may ask, what was the purpose of the noise you just uttered?"

She did not respond for a moment, blinking with both of her eyes as she stared at me. It was quite unsettling, considering her previous explanation, that most humans preferred not being stared at. 

"I…sneezed?" The creases in the skin above her eyes deepened.

My front pliers uttered another rattling sound. "What is this 'sneezing'? What purpose does it serve?" I admit, I was quite curious. Terrans seemed much more complex than I had previously assumed.

She paused, seemingly to think of an answer. "Well, it‘s like…if something is bothering us at or in out nose, like dust, for example, it‘s kind of the natural response to that. To keep things out of our bodies that don‘t belong there."

"Human bodies seem to require a lot of defense mechanisms.", I commented.

She raised and lowered the connection of her arms to her upper body, baring her teeth once again while raising herself to her full height, using one of her arms as support.

"Y’know, it’s surprisingly hard to explain something you’re so used to to someone who’s never heard of it. I guess I still have to work on the whole 'awareness that I‘m around aliens' thing. S‘ kind of surreal."

She patted off her clothing, as if to remove non-existent filth once again. I had noticed the past few cycles that most of her clothing seemed to consist of several, usually differently-coloured, pieces of fabric. 

Her clothes usually covered her body from the connection between her arms and torso to the connection between her legs and, presumably, her feet. Her feet were usually also covered, although I could not determine the purpose it was supposed to serve in the environment we are currently in, although the theory that the conditions on Earth are vastly different compared to the ones on the SIIR Noxos is gaining more probability, based on the Terran's narrations.

The human seemed to evaluate a question she wanted to ask (this is, of course, a mere speculation based on previous observations: her face muscles were contracted to form a crease over her visual organs, which could so far most likely be interpreted as confusion, thoughtfulness or discomfort; her head was both slightly raised and tilted to one side at the same time, a gesture that was most likely supposed to convey an ongoing thought process).

Although, before she could utter a noise, V-7 informed us of a request from the Vitrichl to gather for a matter of importance.

The purpose of his summoning was to divide the crew into several smaller groups that were to be assigned with different tasks to fulfill once we sucessfully landed on Fendaar.

I was grouped with the Terran, which was unsurprising, as well as Tkzt, a member of the species that is widely known across the galaxies as Ctzas (it is to note that the Ctzas have not evolved any form of written language and communicate exclusively through clicking and chittering sounds. The written forms of, for example, names of this species, are written by other species to produce approximately the same sound as the Ctzas make when recited verbally).

Tkzt, as a member of the unit controlling supply chains and keeping a list of the stock of the SIIR Noxos, would make a helpful addition in our task of seeking out the nearest settlement in order to stock up on supplies.

After all matters of importance were settled, the crew dissipated, continuing their respective tasks. The Terran was ordered to stay and to assist the Vitrichl in another matter, which is the reason I did not cross paths with the human again for the rest of this cycle.

The birds chirped and winds blew softly through the trees.  Nova slowly climbed over a fallen log before jamming his hands back into his pockets.  They’ve been tracking through the forest for five days now.  

He was tired, annoyed and hot.  And not in the mood for a week long trip in the forest.  

“Hey Nova, slow down would you” Gale said.

Nova glanced over his shoulder at his brothers, but did not slow down.  He just clenched one hand into a fist, the other refusing to move without sending bolts of pain up his arm and into his shoulder.  

They should have been, no, he should have been move careful.  He broke at least four bones in the hand, sprained the wrist and got a hole stabbed through it.  Gale took care of it wound, but they needed a proper doctor to look at it, but there was no way they would leave this place before the week was over.   

That just means that he had to hold on for two more days.

“Dammit, Nova” Max snapped from behind “It’s not a race you know” 

Nova stopped and turned to the other two, giving them a flat look.  “I just want to get to the camp and get this over this” he said.

Gale studied his brother for a moment.  “How’s your hand feeling?” 

“Like I tried to punch through a wall and then a tiger bit me” Nova growled, turned and started walking again.  

“That was not our fault and you know that” Gale said unsympathetic.

Nova flipped his brother off, not turning around.  He could hear the other two grumbling behind him, but ignored it.  If they were anyone else, he would have left them behind.  

They might be right.  He was jumpy and grumpy and not good company at all.  Although his brothers should be use to it by now.  

***

Rai growled under his breath, when the other lightning user just stopped moving.  

“What are you doing?” he snapped and walking over to Curio “You cannot just stop in the middle of the street”

“If I knew it was a street, I wouldn’t have” Curio muttered “So what’s your point?”

Rai pulled a face, grabbed Curio’s arm and pulled him forward.  “You are so damn annoying, you know that right?”

“Don’t care”

“Shut up” Rai snapped “I don’t need you commenting on everything I say”

“Then don’t say stupid things”

“Screw you, Lightning boy” Rai growled under his breath and heard Curio snort.  

The two walked in silence after that.  Curio stumbled over the uneven ground, struggling to keep up with Rai’s pace.  

“Look, this place is not really a good area” Rai said after a while “Things are going to get messy if you let anyone here know who you really are, because some of the people here really don’t like Lightning Speed”

For a moment he glanced at Curio, suppressing a shudder.  Those sightless eyes were going to haunt his memories for a very long time.  The cuts and bruises looked even worse now than before.  He couldn’t believe that Vero did this to the young man.

“Why did you allowed him to do it?” Rai asked, stopping Curio from going any further.

“You think I allowed this to happen?” Curio snapped and winched as the headache that never really went away, flared up again.  He took a deep breath and shook his head.  “He caught me of guard” he said “I was already tired, exhausted from running and fighting, so it did not take much for him take me by surprise” 

Rai glanced at him for a moment before sighing and shook his head.  “You should have been more careful, man” he said “Like hell, you know what things are like out here and you just walked around, running on fumes?”

Curio did not say anything, just pressed his hand against his chest.  

“Come on it’s up the stairs now” he said.

They moved slowly up the stairs, Curio stumbling a few times.  By the time they reached the second floor, Curio was exhausted, trembling slightly.

Rai took the young lightning user’s wrist and placed his hand on the railing.  “Stay here” he said “And don’t antagonise anyone, keep your mouth shut”

Curio nodded slightly.  

***’

Vereesa: What’s our exit strategy?

Sylvanas: Our what?