Chapter 30 - You Wake Up After One Hell of a Nap

You snap awake.

Apparently the sight of Other Space had been so entrancing, you'd fallen right asleep. What time was it?

"Rise and shine, Sleepyhead." Zoraida. "We're almost at the end of the jump tunnel." You'd been asleep for hours? Why hadn't she woken you? Maybe you'd needed it. Well, no use worrying now.

"Any way we can see what we're jumping into?" You ask.

"Nope." She chuckles. "Usually fleets send scouts ahead or use long range sensors. We don't have the time or the fuel for that kind of procedure."

"Lovely." You sigh and settle into your Captain's chair, and try and put on a good captain's Face. You look down at your armor and hope it looks, not intimidating but professional? Or that it doesn't send the wrong message. "Well." You say as the computer starts making noises. Gyros's on-screen cartoon starts holding up number placards, starting at '9'.

"Any last words of advice?" You ask Zoriada as you watch Gyros flip the card to 8, then 7, then to 6. 

"Don't fuck up?" Zoraida jokes after a beat as 4 and 3 are shown on the small icon's cards then tossed aside.

"Thanks." You grouse and watch as the waves of Other Space rip back to reveal reality once again.

Your sensors come alive as they start reading normal vacuum and orbiting bodies. They register a star and its planet. You see readings for asteroids, and oh wow that is a big ship.

"Incoming Transmission." Zoraida announces, putting it on audio.

"Attention incoming vessel," A polite but authoritative voice announces, "This is the Aulus System Patrol Vessel, Bruzador. Please match our heading and open channels for communication." There's an odd echo in her voice, and you register that might be your ship translating for her. 

The 'Patrol Vessel' had to be over six hundred meters long. The massive engines at the back let it glide through the black with ease, and the massive turreted guns along the ray like 'wings' gave the aquatic looking vessel a serrated look. You bank your ship so you start cruising alongside the massive 'patrol craft' and turn your head to Zoraida.

"Any idea which of the Local Three this lady works for?" You see Anagyros's icon point to notices up and around the screen. Your ship doesn't recognize this class of vessel, but it is bearing a reactor signature that falls in line with what ships from Aulus are reported to emit. 

"Nope. Usually they announce that, maybe something happened?" She wonders.

"Well, Hail them back. Audio and Visual." You add. No sense being rude about it.

An image unfolds on the screen and your taken aback by how 'human' this clearly alien woman is. Though the bridge of her nose is a smooth slope rather than an inward curve, and her eyes are wider and almost feline in with their pupils, her plump looking lips are upturned in a coy smile and her tight black uniform hugs some very abundant curves. Her face has smooth white skin without flaw or mar, and her widening smile shows off a row of serrated, almost shark-like teeth. Her head is smooth, not shaved, but truly hairless, and she wears a soft looking black beret atop her smooth dome, and long pointed ears are arced back, one touching the lower rim of the beret.

Her posture is professional but as she gets a look at you, she seems to recline in an otherwise uncomfortably looking seat. 

"Well well, Captain Eclipse." She addresses you by name. "Your reputation precedes you." Oh good, someone else who knows who you are, that isn't you. "My name is Captain Alisa Nuvair. It's a pleasure to welcome you to my Birth System." She offers cordially, and pauses to let her declaration become a conversation.

"The pleasure is mine," You start, "To be welcomed by such a cordial Captain," You look to the side, out the view port, to see the Bruzador cruising beside your Golden Dancer. "In command of such a top of the line vessel. I'm not familiar with that sort of Hull Design," You admit. Hopefully being Captain of a new ship is a good thing.

She smiles, "Yes. Bruzador is but the second in a line of new capital scale vessels produced by my people. The Surfa-" she coughs, "I mean, our Neighbors have been valued allies and cherished shipmates, but we now have officers enough that we feel we can add vessels of our own make to those patrolling and protecting the worlds of our Birth System."

You feel the emphasis on those words and wonder if your translator is trying too hard, or downplaying the gravity Captain Nuvair is putting into her speech.

"It's a fine thing that you stand to protect your worlds, no matter the vessel or flag it bears," You speak, "But that you've ships of your own, no matter the size, I can understand the pride in that." You add, and Captain Nuvair beams back. 

"It's good that you can understand that," She sighs, "Some of our allies- Ah." She turns her head and her ears twitch out, as another woman perhaps less curved, but no less elegant nor less professionally attired leans in to speak to the Captain in a low whisper. "Right, my apologizes, Captain. We're sure you have business to attend to, at the moment the system is in a state of Open Trade. There are no Security Alerts, and all Four of the Naval Fleets are in a peaceful footing. There are no war games scheduled so the whole system is open to travel." She reads off these sentences with professional clarity, but you can see her eyes darting back and forth, her slit pupils dilating as she runs long with her words, before contracting where she pauses.  "We have a data packet with updates on local traffic, as well as public data on contraband, missing persons, wanted persons, lost persons located and requesting assistance, as well as the access codes to the local wireless news network." She rings off that last announcement with strained professionalism.  "We can transmit the data packet with your permission to receive." She adds.

"Do you have any questions or concerns that require our assistance?" She asks with a smile.

Wow that was one hell of a nap, but here you are! What do you ask? Do you ask for help finding your friends? Or do you have something else to ask her?