Log:SPACETEAM 2: The Re-Spacening!, Scene 6

SPACETEAM 2: The Re-Spacening! 2017/06/24 Rick Griffin Indira Quiet 6

Ambassador Querkha continues to exert that influence - exude that aura of calm and peace - as it advances upon the central group. Indira can quite acutely detect the Asrani "psychic" effects being propagated by Querkha, though she may not be feeling the effects quite so directly as Breach, Commander Vaksoh, and/or Griffin are feeling it at the moment. Quiet may only passingly sense the effect, she seems to be somehow excluded entirely.

Commander Vaksoh seems to be hit the hardest. His ominous glare and the booming, aggressive resonation coming from his barrel chest is dying away very quickly while his eyes take on something of an unfocused look. Griffin can feel the tension in Vaksoh's body start to evaporate, his strength waning until he's swaying gently against Griffin's grip. Bark-like biological armor begins to recede into the Commander's flesh, bulk starting to fade away from under his clothing as he "deflates" toward his original size. A distant grunt escapes him while he sways over toward one of the nearer bench seats.

Breach is similarly affected, his posture losing cohesion as he starts to sway unsteadily. More or less in tandem, Breach and Commander Vaksoh collapse backward onto benches on opposite sides of the briefing room. The Undead Soldier seems to keep enough wits about himself, however, to hook his arms over the back of the bench and let the gellid surface of the bench itself keep him from falling free. A discontented, disoriented gurgle gets subvocalized onto the Division Zero comms before Breach sags sideways, opposite the direction that Vaksoh sags over on his own bench.

Querkha approaches Indira and offers her its hands, fingers intricately knit into a gesture that seems indicative of apology and offering peace. It offers a pained smile and continues to offer its hands to Indira while one ambassador addresses the other.

"Many pardons, Ambassador, for the Commander's unpleasantness. He has been under considerable stress of late, in part because of his losses against the Kroexdan. I also apologize for the hostility shown to your quelhazan."

Well at least someone's apologizing. That's a start, right?

Indira finds herself able to relax now that Vaksoh has been sedated. Unfortunately, so has Breach and others. She looks over at Rick with a look of concern for just a moment. What he must think of her people. Of her.

She looks back to Querkha and gently grasps its hands in accepted forgiveness, her fingers weaved lightly with its. "That is why this war must be stopped with as few losses as possible. There must be peace again, Ambassador Querkha. Not vengeance."

Quiet is, by her very nature, easily ignored. When she wishes to be. She is not a diplomat, for obvious reasons, and so continues with her reconaissance and electronic intel gathering. All she need to is keep her helm up often enough to seem to be paying attention, and her movements on the controls as inconspicuous as possible.

"I very much agree, Ambassador," replies Querkha in low tones, "The problem is that the Kroexdan are no longer what they were originally. Loss of life is inevitable in sealing this conflict, but we would prefer that such loss be placed upon the enemy. A voracious, insidious, invasive enemy."

Ambassador Querkha keeps its fingers interlaced with Indira as it speaks. Technically, Indira understands, the other ambassador is pleading with Indira for help. Help that Querkha is convinced can only be provided by Indira and her aides. She may not get a better opportunity to plumb the minds of her people for the truths that they seek to keep hidden.

Quiet is blessedly still ignored. She is free to mash buttons and poke displays and generally do whatever she can to access the computer's memory systems. The Merc Without a Mouth is pretty sure that, at the very least, she's digging steadily deeper into the briefing room's computer network. You see, the display keeps changing colors and text, which is a sure sign of delving deeper into file folders, right?

[GM to Indira] Neither Breach nor Vaksoh is technically asleep. You can still feel their conscious minds, but their aggressions are somehow suppressed. Along with that suppression, there is some sort of autonomous effect similar to the paralysis one's body normally undergoes while in REM sleep. Breach's brain opens to you easily, allowing you to feel just how pleased with himself he is at the moment. He doesn't seem to have even remotely considered that something like this wouldn't be the result of answering a distress beacon at this hour. Distantly, Breach is also sorry that Indira had to see a brawl like this.

[GM to Indira] Commander Vaksoh's brain also begins to reveal its secrets to you. Vaksoh's memories are full of leading Asrani troops and adventurers against waves of Kroexdan. Indira will immediately recognize the symptoms that the Kroexdan are displaying; she has, herself, has run afoul of the fungal infection that was clearly used as the basis for the Shi'Krox'Zan Rebellion's terrible weapon. She can't quite drag the actual facts out of his brain yet, but she can see why Vaksoh is both so upset and so confused. The Kroexdan appear to be Shi'Krox

Oooh. Pretty colors! Admittedly, for all Quiet knows, she's set the entire vessel to self-destruct... but she would HOPE that a significantly advanced race wouldn't make it that easy. Unsure whether or what colors or symbols are important, she records everything. Once she becomes utterly lost as to whether the display changed further, or Ambassador Indira's hand-holding looks about to part, she will sidestep unobtrusively away from the console to circle back around towards her teammates. The slumbering ones.

[GM to Indira] Commander Vaksoh's brain also begins to reveal its secrets to you. Vaksoh's memories are full of leading Asrani troops and adventurers against waves of Kroexdan. Indira will immediately recognize the symptoms that the Kroexdan are displaying; she has, herself, has run afoul of the fungal infection that was clearly used as the basis for the Shi'Krox'Zan Rebellion's terrible weapon. She can't quite drag the actual facts out of his brain yet, but she can see why Vaksoh is both so upset and so confused. The Kroexdan appear to be Shi'Krox'Zan and Asrani suffering severe fungal infections that have warped their bodies and also caused some kind of techno-organic fungal growth to cascade irregularly across the host bodies. From how they move, Indira may surmise that the bodies aren't so much being operated by their own brains as by the infection and its hold over the host bodies' nervous systems. Each Kroexdan has a jerky, eerie quality to its movement that suggests they're unaccustomed to moving like a roughly humanoid alien does.

Indira tries to focus more on the thoughts of her people to get the full Truth as Querkha pleads with her. She realizes by his gesture just how critical this is. And that if there were any hope of peace, they'd have to be the ones to try and disseminate the vaccine. Perhaps when they're deployed, they can learn more.

She tries to dive deeper, having gleamed some accounts of the situation from Vaksoh, but not everything. Not yet.

"The hostile invasion must end," she agrees quietly. What she doesn't yet agree on is the how.

"But Ambassador Querkha...I cannot order my people to do this. I must ask if they are willing. They are not my soldiers. They are...my friends," she smiles softly. The hesitation may seem to the humans a bit insincere. But the words were carefully chosen and embraced. "And trusted allies. Let me speak with them on this."

Quiet acquires as much information as she can before stepping away from the console. She circles around to where Breach is awkwardly sagging on one of the gooey, semi-rigid benches. He offers a gurgling, confused sound at Quiet's approach, but doesn't really seem to manage anything appreciable other than that.

"Your quel'hazan is strong, Ambassador. Much stronger than I would have anticipated you could have ever found on a world like Uhrrth," comments Querkha. It slowly disengages its fingers from Indira's as it casts a speculative glance around the room. For a moment, its gaze lingers suspiciously upon Quiet. The moment passes and Querkha looks back at Indira with a gentle, apologetic-yet-pleading smile.

"Please take your time, Ambassador. I will give you and your aides privacy to confer amongst yourselves. The Commander will remain... Placated for some time yet. Somehow I suspect the same cannot be said of your Quel'hazan or either of your other aides."

Indira may implicitly understand that "placated" is not the correct verb, but it is the most fitting English alternative.

Indira smiles gently out of politeness and bows her head in acknowledgement of the compliment of Rick. "He is very strong. They all are. Uhrrth is a world of surprising things beyond expectation." Her fingers unlace from Querkha's as she tries to keep its attention on her and not Quiet, given the circumstances. "Yes, some privacy to speak. It was late on their world. They may need some rest to prepare if they agree. Are there any guest quarters available to us to talk in private?"

Quiet may have seen Breach this way before. Too much R&R of one type or another. Maybe she hasn't. Either way, she helps both of the boys up to their feet, if just enough that she can help drag them to somewhere more private if not comfortable. A dip of her helm is given to Indira, to let her know she has things well in hand. So to speak.

"Of course, of course. I will have the dignitary's suite prepared immediately."

Querkha seems excited by the prospect of Indira and her SPACETEAM agreeing to assist. It claps its hands once before it resumes its peaceful posture, exuding neurochemical calm throughout the room.

Breach grunts solidly during the interruption of concentration, his arm flexing just enough to secure himself against Quiet's side as she helps him and Griffin to their feet. He lurches once or twice when Querkha resumes his calming effect on the area. The Undead Soldier's head lolls awkwardly on his neck and shoulders while Indira and Querkha discuss the situation.

"Until the suite is prepared, I believe you will find it most beneficial to use this briefing room for your discussions. You are, I trust, apprehending my meaning?"

[GM to Indira] Indira suspects that Querkha is fully aware of what she and Quiet are up to at the moment. He may whole-heartedly approve of this method of getting at the truth of the situation.

[GM to Indira] But he cannot officially sanction, acknowledge, or condone such actions.

Indira gazes at Querkha for a moment as she studies its features. Suddenly, she smiles warmly. Beyond just smiling for appearances, as she's often known for. It's a genuine smile.

"Why...yes, yes, of course." She bows her head again. "Thank you, Ambassador Querkha." Whatever could've just transpired there?

Quiet's helm tilts. Well, that makes the dragging easier. Shorter, definitely. She turns from heading for the exit to the nearest horizontal surface. Oh, look: floor. The boys are set down with the help of gravity.

Griffin watches in peaceful surprise as Vaksoh 'deflates' before his very eyes. He smirks, thinking he doesn't look nearly so daunting without that bio-armor, but he thinks Rick could have taken him if he really wanted. 'Rick is one scrappy ginger...' He thinks to himself appreciatively as he let's go of Vaksoh, feeling more and more passive by the second.

If Griffin was surprised at Vaksoh's quick turn around then he's downright flabbergasted by Ambassador Querkha's apology, he's just too calm to exactly express that right now. Even then, he still has to double take, then look for Rick to be sure he heard what he thought he heard. He's having a hard time remembering. He keeps figuring it's all good no matter what happens and then the though passes. Well mostly all of them, one or two manage ot get through. 'I wouldn't have thought the Golden would be allowed to apologize to we unwashed apes...' he thinks snidely to himself, though he doesn't share this thought by subvocalization. He just smirks knowingly and takes up a position opposite Querkha.

He takes Quiet's hand when its offered and stands to his feet. He lets out a solid rumble as he subvocalizes on their comms, <<"Ok... who hit me with the Mahayana Whammy? They could sell that back on Earth... Yoga would be over."