Chapter 23 - You Ask Some Questions, and Then Get Asked Questions.

You pull your helmet off and look at Zoraida, and the floating holograms around her. Knowing where you're going seems prudent, at the very least.

"Well, I'm kind of curious about Aulus." You start, and she nods. "From what I've read, it's not favored by the Empire, right?" 

"Neither favored by them, nor do they like the Empire very much."

"So it's a Human colony?" You venture

"Mostly...." She draws out the word. She rocks back and forth as she teases the word out.

"Mostly?" You tuck your helmet under your arm. She's crossed one leg over the other, lifting enough for her ass to be just slightly visible.

"Yeah, you see it started OUT as a human colony, and that's what you'll read on the net, but there was a little... muss up with the original scouting." She rests her hands on her knee and presses her breasts together. She's showing off.

"How so." You ask automatically, your eyes on Zoraida as she shimmies and shakes.

"Well there was an entire civilization living in vaults and bunkers underground." She shrugs. "The original species of the planet. Apparently they had fucked the world up proper and resigned to live beneath the surface as a consequence. In exchange for giving the Colonists easy access to geothermal power and mineral veins, the locals get certain... perks."

"Perks?"

"Being down there so long, food became scarce... the only thing edible were these..... worms." She closes her eyes as she recalls the information, from some reserve. The locals called them blood worms and well.... they don't really eat the flesh of the things."

"They drink blood?" You're jaw drops. "That's disgusting."

"Hey! When you eat a steak, it's dripping with blood and juices." She points at you and wags her finger. "They just don't want the steak with their juices." She offers diplomatically. 

"Blasphemy." You shake your head. Still, that begged the question. "Do they drink the blood of 'people'?"

"It's considered a rare offering of true friendship to share the blood you have with another. Mostly because it's literally starving yourself to feed another." She blinks. "To them it is. Sorry," She taps her head. "Reading off a first person interview. Kinda creepy, kinda sexy. Wait. No. It's a porno, he ends up fucking the interviewer." She laughs and you can see a glimmer of something in her eyes.

"But the point stands, they CAN do it, but its a source to drinker sort of choice. TAKING blood from another person is tried as a crime equal to rape and attempted murder, combined."

"Moral Hemovores, not bad. So they stay underground?"

"Nope, they've undergone gene therapy, and they look like odd humans. Longer ears, slitted eyes, and well, claws."

"Claws?" You roll your shoulders.

"They've got no fingernails like you do, instead their fingers end in these soft little pads." She brings a hand up to her face and pinches in front of it. But there's a little slit in the pad, like, well," She winks, and you blush. "Like a cat's claws, you pervert." She laughs and the lights around her dance. "Well when they get mad, or when they get to fighting, out pop the claws." She spreads her fingers out and curls them, cattily. "Rawr."

"Sounds like something to be wary of. So these Locals,"

"Vedari" Zoraida chimes in the with the name of the species. She leans further back, and you watch her with a smile.

"These Vedari, They live with the Aulus colonists, peacefully? Despite the politics?"

"Because of it, actually." Zoraida sighs. "They fucked their colony with a nuclear war; they're 'fourth party' peace talks are the reason why the war has gone as cold as it has. The Navy's of all three factions even had the bright idea of training and commissioning officers from the Vedari for their ships so that any attack on a ship with a Vedari on it is an attack on the Vedari themselves."

"So the Fleet's have stalemated themselves politically?" You rub your chin, the surface of the gloves sufficient to sooth a slight itch. 

"Yup. Lots of people DON'T want a war to break out and they're doing everything the can to keep it from happening." Zoraida closes one eye as she recite more political data.

"Huh. So what's stopping these people from working together to just, make a new government?" You ask.

"Pride." She shrugs. "It's less they don't want to kill each other, it's more they don't want to die, themselves." She admits. "Genuinely speaking, the peace talks tend to end up like a celebrity roast, with the hosting nation's leader as the guest of honor."

"You have access to all this data?"

"You looked up recent news, I dug into history and .... some confidential data that I keep in here." She taps at her ribs.

"You store data in your chest?"

"What? I've got room!" She grabs one of her large tits and squeezes, her fingers almost disappearing into the golden flesh and her face blushing as your jaw drops. "Close your mouth and go chat up the damn Assessment machine." She sighs and starts to play with herself. "Go on!" She points with one of her dainty, slipper sheathed soles. You turn and go to select the interpersonal test.

>Interpersonal Test

[Memory and Knowledge Exam; Taken = True]
[Probability Awareness Test; Taken = True]

As in the Memory and Knowledge Exam, you will be presented with several questions. Please answer them as honestly as you can to match your disposition.

Oh, come ON, a literal personality test? SHIT. You were expecting some kind of chat with an AI or, wait. It determined you'd taken the Game test? You look over your shoulder to see Zoraida on a bench, playing with herself, the floating holograms of the Assistant AI's running over her body and causing fits of giggles and gasps. DAMN. It asked about the Game test, so maybe they put in some kind of input to skip part of the test? Or maybe they read you will you were playing the game?

There's a whole gambit of questions that demand a 'rated' agree/disagree response. Still, what kind of person ARE you? Impatient? Calm? Passionate, certainly.....

What kind of Man is Sol? What kind of Man does he want to be? Or do you just answer C for all the questions?