Inter Species (Gumdrop x hal)

[PrincessGumdrop]

 

Name: Jula

Species: Icearian

Planet if origin: LeTara

Species description: Icearian's are a cold race. Which makes them perfect for space travel, and they mastered it a very long time ago. Icearian's tend to be the first in a new galaxy and the first to help out in a battle. Though they are a very cold race in temperature, they are very warm hearted and want to help where they can. The cloaks on their backs aren't just for show they also can be used to fly around their ships and on planets. They are known around the galaxies however, very few have actually seen them due to their ability to be intangible.

 

Character description: Jula works as a communication officer on his ship and he is very loyal to his shipmates. He has an over warm heart and is known as "melted" among his species. He tends to show himself off to other species simply because he wishes to be accepted among them and finds if he lets his species become known others are more likely to all them in and let them help when they offer it.

 

 

"Captain, I've managed to establish a radio transmission with the unidentified star ship" Jula said, holding the communicator to his ear. "They are requesting for us to start transferring information about their species to our ship, in case..." he trailed off, knowing his captain knew what he was going to say next. His captain looked over to him and nodded "Alright, permission granted, tell them that we are going to keep trying." Jula nodded and stood up another communications officer taking his place just in case, he headed towards another room so that he could start taking down information that couldn't be transferred via the ships interlink, thanks to the interference that was coming from the impending super nova that had managed to trap the star ship in question. When he got to the room he sat down in front of a computer. "Hello?" he called, "This is the Starship Lexington, calling alien vessel, we are ready to receive any information that you can give us about your species, as requested" he sighed slightly, he hated this part of the job. The not knowing if he was going to be taking down information that was going to be the last communication some of these people would ever get out. He looked at the screen, where an image of the ship was displayed. He was currently working on getting an image of the other crew. He always like having a face to the voice.

 

Jula pulled his cloak like wings a bit closer around him and hunkered down for a long session of grinding "Hello, alien vessel?" he called, "Do you read? If you can read me, please respond. I'm trying to gain video access, if you could please attempt to do the same on your end." he repeated. With that he moved to another computer and worked over there for a moment trying to work on the picture. He looked over to the screen after a little while and smiled, the image was starting to come through, but not very clearly. He moved a couple more nobs and pressed a few more buttons before giving up, this was going to be the best picture that he would get. "Well, hello." he said, smiling softly. "I'm Jula. Communications officer on the Starship Lexington."

[hal7283]

 

Name: Selka

Species: Botnai

Planet if origin: Zerkon V

Species description: Botnai is a relatively new comer to the galactic scene. But do not let the pretty appearance of the Botnai fool you. The planet known as Zerkon V is a hostile place, with sand storms raging almost constantly, and a corrosive atmosphere which can kill any fragile creatures in seconds.It was a miracle life occurred on this planet at all, and the Botnai stood at the top of its food chain.

 

The Botnai can use their tentacle like vines to reach deep under the sand dunes for underground water. This also helped to keep them in place during the storms. Sensory organs all over their body allow them to detect preys miles away. Their tentacles can be soft to squeeze in any small opening, and hard enough to slice a steel door in half, and they use them to easily catch and dismember their prey. The only real threat they have were each other, and the strong healing ability they had made a fight between two Botais extremely time consuming. But such fights are common nevertheless.

 

The Botnai had little that resembled a society, and would have little chance to join the space fairing races of the galaxy if not for a space ship crashing into the atmosphere. The species of the crashed ship is unknown, but what is known is that the alien taught the Botnai the ways of science and technology before finally died due to inability to cope with the harsh environment. He inspired the Botnai to look up to the stars, and in the decades followed the alien's death the Botnais reverse engineered the alien's ship and set sail to the stars, expanding to the rest of the Zerkon system, and beyond. The Botnai are now dispersed across the galaxy, with their physical strength they are gradually building up a reputation as freelancer who can survive the toughest jobs: from deep space explorers to mercenaries. But their numbers are few, thus not everyone in the universe knows their existence yet.

 

Character description: Selka is a young Botnai, who's among the first generation of Botnais to be born in space. Like many of his kin in space he worked as a freelancer, living with other species and doing odd jobs here and there. Working on different planets, ships and stations. Selka is playful, curious, and mostly friendly. But like all Botnai, he is extremely proud of his prowess, and eager to use it, anywhere, anytime against anyone.

 

 

"WARNING critical engine failure..WARNING critical engine failure.. WARNING..."the cold voice of the ship computer echoed in the bridge, which was in total chaos. Sparks, flares and smokes were everywhere. A few crew members were down on the ground while the others were trying some emergency repairs, without much success.

 

"Someone shut that fucking alarm off!!" the captain of the ship roared. His giant fist smashed at the captain seat, "How's the transmission with that ship doing?!"

 

"It's not going through captain, the super nova is interfering with...ah!!" the small figure sitting in front of the communication console was interrupted by a sudden explosion in front of him. He was blown all the way across the bridge.

 

"Damn it!" the captain cursed. Then suddenly the door to the bridge was opened and a large figure squeezed through the small door, his tentacles spread out.

 

"Hey captain, what's going on? The alarms are really annoying." the large figure said in a casual tone, he looked around the mess and said: "Damn! What's with all the smoke and flames?"

 

"Can't you see we're fucking busy you idiot! The ship is fucking trapped by a fucking super nova and is about to explode in any moment! A ship is close by but we can't even send the last message out! The consoles on the bridge is fried so get to the communications array and contact them manually!"

 

"Alright alright...man....I've just taken a nap for a few hours and all hell broke lose...can't a Botnai get some rest" he said before squeezing out the bridge again.

 

The Botnai's name is Selka, and has only recently joined this group of freelancers. Although born in space and have been in the business for quite some time, Selka could never really understand the practice of sending a "last message" including information on ship's crew and cargo before it was destroyed. Perhaps it's for insurance purposes? Or were the people so desperate to leave a mark after they die? Either way the best they can achieve with that message is to become a number or a side note on some obscure file, and get forgotten quick. The universe is too big to give a damn about the lives of one ship.

 

Soon Selka arrived at the communications array near the top of the ship. It's fried quite badly as well. Selka tried to do some repairs and the lights miraculously went up.

 

"Good! I guess that sleep study program of communications hardware actually worked! Um..ah...Hello, this is the crew of the freelancer ship Dagger III, do you copy?" As the communication became more stable the screen in front of him flickered, and the image from the other ship became visible.

 

"Hello there!" Selka said with a excited tone as he saw the figure in front of him. He has heard of the species he saw: the Icearian. He had heard they were among the first space fairing races, and was known for both their brain and their muscles. But even with the hood covering a large part of the Icearian's face he could tell the Icearian is beautiful. Then he remembered he had work to do "This is Selka of the ship Dagger III. I'm trying to send out data to your ship? Is it coming through?"

[PrincessGumdrop]

"Freelancer?" Jula repeated, tilting his head a bit, looking at the clearer picture on the monitor. He had never seen a creature like on the screen before. He was a bit interested in the looks of the thing, was it male or female, did this species even have gender? "Oh! Um, yes. Freelancer ship Dagger III you are coming in loud and clear. All data is coming through." he said, as he checked the status. "Slowly, but it is coming through." he said, looking back up to the crewman or woman. "My captain wants to communicate that we are still trying to pull your ship from the super nova." he said, going straight to work. "Must be new in these parts." he said, glancing to the picture "I've never seen a species like yours." he explained, "Not to mention most around these parts know to stay away from a star like that." he chuckled, trying to make the situation a bit lighter than it was.

 

Jula eyed Selka a bit, quite a pretty species. It would be a shame to lose the other species to a super nova. He moved as effectively as possible to get as many of the files as he could. He stopped mid pushing of a button "Oh great." he frowned, "Hey, is your communications officer still alive?" he asked, looking to the screen. "I'm going to need someone that understands languages pretty well. Your language makes little to no sense, and our computers are having one hell of a time translating-" he stopped as he heard the code red sirens going off in his own ship. "Qeder!" He hissed when he heard the ship requesting that all personal get to their posts.

 

He glanced over to another screen that was blinking for him. "One moment, Selka of the freelancer ship." he said and turned his attention to the screen.

 

"Jula. Get to the transporters, their ship and ours can't take this much longer, we're going to beam as many of them on board and then get the hell out of here." his ship's captain said.

 

Jula frowned but nodded "You hear that Selka?" he said, looking over to the other screen. "Looks like we are about to meet in person" Jula moved back over, "Do you think your people can handle it?" he asked.

[hal7283]

(Just to clarify I intended the Dagger III to be a mixed race ship, with crews from various different species. Selka is the only Botnai on board.)

 

While Selka was working on transferring the data,punching the keyboard with his tentacles, somehow he was also in the mood of chatting in this life-threatening situation: "Data coming through? Good! Well, you're right I am new to this part of space. I've just joined this ship a few weeks ago. The last time I checked our ship was carrying some cargo and was attacked by raiders. We were able to fight them off but got damaged pretty badly. Then I went to take a nap and the next thing you know, we're getting pulled by that star! Talk about bad luck!" Selka talked casually about the whole thing like it's something that's happening on a remote planet.

 

"And no, our communications officer didn't make it. Poor little thing. And just so you know neither do I have any idea about the language they use on the message, you may need to ask the captain regarding that."

 

Then when Selka heard they were about to get transported, he quickly patched to through his captain, who agreed immediately. "Alright, I'll send you more precise coordinates of our crew so you can pin-point us!" Selka said while sending the life signal data from internal sensors to the other ship, one Lizardian, that would be the captain; one Felian the medic; two Bogman the crew members; and one Botnai, Selka; and another life sign in the cargo bay? That' odd....must be a malfunction of the sensors.

 

"Ready when you are!" Selka said to the flickering screen. Selka wondered is the other ship a mixed race one like this, or is it a Icearian only ship. And if so, are all Icerians as beautiful as the one on the screen?

[PrincessGumdrop]

(That's fine. Still early in the game)

 

Jula chuckled when Selka explained the time they had been having "Well, sounds like this area alright." he said and nodded when Selka told him that the communications officer was gone. "Well, hopefully I can figure it out." he explained, sighing. Jula looked over to the monitor when he was sent the coordinates. "Oh! you have Bogmen..." he said, and sent a few schematics to another officer to get the rooms ready. "They might be able to help. What's this fifth and sixth life sign?" he asked.

 

He recognized the other life signs, and was making quick work of the schematics for each room. "I'm assuming one of them is you... but the other?" he asked, he winced when a siren blared again, "Never mind, we'll ask later! Be prepared for transport!" he shouted over the blaring siren. And soon enough every life sign was pulled from the ship and placed in the transporter room as Jula raced down there on his wings.

 

In fact his ship was only Icearian, as though they loved to help different species, they didn't like having them on the ship. Icearians liked things very cold on their ship so most species didn't much like staying with Icearians anyway. And in true Icearian fashion their ship was freezing. There was icicles on the transporter and any other surface that might have a ledge or two for them to form. The doctor was waiting for each species, trying to handle them with care and give them what they needed to survive on the ship.

 

First that was handled was the Lizardian, making sure he had plenty of heat packs and warm clothing before he was very quickly shuffled off to the room they had managed to create for him. Two of the guards saluted the other and explained there captain would be with him momentarily as soon as the ship was past the range of the super nova. Next they handled Bogmen, not really needing to deal with the Felian as the fur would keep it warm. By the time they settled with the Bogmen, Jula was there and dropped from midair in front of Selka.

 

For a brief moment all could see his face and it was clear that he was different from the other Icearians. His face was softer and paler than the others, he wrapped his wings around him close and gave a brief smile to Selka "We didn't have time to ask about you and the other life form. My apologies for the chill." he said, as the ship jolted forward because of the blast of the supernova. Jula fell forward and right into Selka's arms, "Sorry." he murmured, standing back up, "looks like we aren't out of the hot yet."

[hal7283]

Everything turned blank for a second before Selka could see again. He and the crew of Dagger III were now in the transporter room of Lexington, and immediately Selka felt the freezing cold. He looked around curiously at the interior of the room and saw icicles everywhere. "Wow, I guess they don't call themselves Icearians for nothing." Selka thought to himself.

 

Selka watched the Icearians of the ship tending to his fellow crew, the captain being a Lizardian looked like he was about to hibernate in any second. Selka on the other hand didn't mind the cold, since the home world of the Botnais was largely a dessert planet, temperature could get hellishly low during night time, and hellishly hot when the sun was up. This made whatever life form on that planet capable of withstanding the worst climates. In fact the Botnais can even survive extensive time in the vacuum of space, bombarded by radiation and poisonous particles and still manage to swim back to the ship unharmed. Though Selka imagine the first Botnai who found out about this was probably not pleased with that space walk.

 

The Icearians looked after the other crew members, but seemed hesitant to come close to Selka. Probably because he looked at east and need no immediate assistance, but more likely due to the fact that they knew little if nothing about the Botnai, and the fact that Selka is absolutely huge, even with most of his tentacles retracted he's still large, even dwarfed the muscular Lizardian captain who looked like he could swallow you whole. And Selka keep staring at their face didn't help, as he was trying to see if all Icearians looked as good as Jula, sadly they weren't.

 

Then the door of the transporter room slid open, and a figure flew in. He landed in front of Selka. Selka lowered his head and looked at the face under the hood. He smiled happily: "Finally! Nice to meet you in person, Jula! Oh I'm fine with the temperature, it feels like a spring night." Then the ship shook fiercely and Jula fell into his arm tentacles.

 

"Watch out there." Selka smiled, silently thanking the super nova for that assist. He then noticed there's a box on the ground. "Hey! That's the cargo we were transferring! You beamed it here?"

 

 

(I was thinking maybe the ship was attacked because of the cargo, but I haven't figure out what exactly was in it yet...I just thought we can add some plot device in)

[PrincessGumdrop]

((I figured that the cargo was the life sign...maybe that was just me though XD but that does sound great as a plot device))

 

"A spring night?" he asked, "I take it you live in a cold environment normally then." he said, as he moved away from the other a bit, nodding a thanks to Selka. "Hmm?" he looked over to the cargo and shrugged "It might have come through, we had that last life sign that was a bit shaky. That might be why, because it wasn't a life form." he said, not really knowing much about how the transporters work. "Would you like to be shown to your cabin?" he asked, turning a bit from the other, "We'll probably be a bit busy getting out of here, and they will want you out of the way." he explained and motioned him to follow him.

 

Jula started to walk towards the exit, hurrying down the corridor as the lights starting to blink over and over again giving a purple shine to the place, what with the ice and the red lights. He hurried his walk, "What are your people...you were the only one on your ship with your life signs." he said, "And you definitely don't look like the other's either." Jula said as he started to float a bit in the air to better keep his balance, this caused his cloak to unfold into his wings and he stopped every once in a while to look back at the other. This showed off his face.

 

Jula's face was as shown before softer and paler than the other's. Though his pale face had a slightly blue tint to it. His eyes were a very dark blue and his hair so dark that it looked black. It also showed a bit more what was underneath, a tight blue form fitting outfit that left nothing to the imagination. "Does your species need anything special?" he asked, nodding to a fellow Icearian that couldn't be seen by anyone else's eye. "We try to accommodate the best we can." he said, shrugging a bit, "Though we can't promise much." he said, chuckling a bit, "most of our things need to thaw out a bit, and that could take a while." he shook his head, "What does your species eat?" he asked.

[hal7283]

Selka moved in the tight corridors of the ship. Well technically the corridors wasn't tight, it was Selka who was too large and filled up almost the entire space. Nevertheless he moved quite smoothly as he subtract and extend his tentacles to move along like a giant octopus of some sort.

 

"Well, the planet where our species: the Botnai came from, was quite an interesting place! It gets burning hot in daylight and freezing cold at night, and it only gets worse during summer and winter. So this temperature is quite soothing for me. I do appreciate warmer weather though." Selka looked at the agile figure leading the way, his beautiful face was pale with a slight blue tint, which reminded Selka the color of a winter sky he saw when he visited their home planet: Zerkon V many years ago. And when Jula spread his cloak as wings Selka could see the slim body curves under the tight skin suit. "Wow, those are some nice waist lines!" Selka thought to himself.

 

When being asked about his diet Selka smiled and said: "We Botnai can eat pretty much anything organic. You can't get picky when you live in a planet which wants to kill you constantly. A bit frosty is fine too, since I enjoy the texture of frozen meat. Speaking of frozen, what about you guys? What do the Icearians eat? Don't tell me you guys can survive with ice cubes only. Even a Botnai can't do that!"

[PrincessGumdrop]

Jula looked back and tilted his head, "I see, well, you can change the temperature in the cabin. Can't say it will be too terribly warmer, I don't think are ship can manage getting higher than freezing." he laughed and set down next to one of the quarters. He pressed a button and stepped in "Lights up" he said and let his eyes adjust to the lights that slowly came up. "This is it." he said, motioning around to a practically iced over room. "Give it some time and it's not all that bad, at least that's what I hear from other people." he said. The bed had no blankets on it, just a cot. "Blankets are in the replicator." he said, and nodding over to a microwave without a door looking thing. "Most of the things are in there to keep them from freezing." he explained.

 

"Oh, good. Then we don't need to place any thing special into the replicator." he said, "most of the food in there is of many different species, so just kind of look through it." he said, "You've used one before right?" he asked.

 

When the other mentioned or rather asked what they might eat he snickered, "nothing like that. We don't eat frozen food. Though, we do love eating cold things." he said, "we eat things like... um..." he said, trying to think of how to describe what they ate. "Chilarn and Ichr...and Frigih." he said, naming a few of his favorite meals. "It's like..." he frowned, he really wasn't sure what to compare the food to. "Oh! I'm sure you've seen your captain eat his food." he said, and decided to compare it to that. "Chilarn is a cold stew made from frilian bugs from my home planet. They kind of look like the giant flies of the Lizardian world. Ichr is a... I guess you could consider it to be a frozen meat. It's I think human's call it lamb." he explained, "They take the lamb and kill it by flash freezing it, then you take a photon gun and shoot it and serve." he explained. "Frigih is a drink. Like liquor." he said, "I don't know what I can compare it too, we had a species not too long ago that said it was like their blood wine, but not as strong."

 

Jula moved about the room and wrapped his cloak around him tighter. "I hope the cot is big enough," he said, sitting down on it, "you are much...bigger" he said, his eyes tracing the outlines of the other's body "than the others. We might need to get you another one so you can lay comfortably."

[hal7283]

"Wow! The Icearian diet sounds quite nice! The replicator in our own ship had a really limited menu, I think I'm going to enjoy my stay here!" Selka said joyfully as he looked around the room, extending his many tentacles to touch and check everything from the floor to the ceiling, partly due to curiosity of being on board a alien vessel, but also due to his instinct as a fighter to know his surroundings and learn the in and out of the environment, just in case things go bad.

 

When Jula talked about the bed Selka said smiling: "It's alright, we Botnais don't really need a bed. Check this out!." Selka spread his tentacles like thr roots of a big tree until it almost filled the whole room, then several tentacles swelled in size and became flattened, looking like the petals of a giant flower, and they closed to wrap Selka's upper body into a bud. Then he opened up the bud to show his face: "Quite a neat trick isn't it? We sleep like this to keep taps on the surroundings while protecting ourselves from harsh weathers." Then he subtracted his tentacles and returned to normal.

 

Then Selka felt the ship engine's vibration through his tentacles on the floor, judging from the force of that vibration the engine must be running on full thrust. “Hmm....Feels like we're getting out of the super nova...."

[PrincessGumdrop]

Jula eye's went wide as the other moved out his tentacles as he felt about the cabin. Jula stepped back a bit trying hard not to get in the way. He was a bit stunned by the was the alien moved about. "Oh. Well, I supposed that is a good thing, isn't it." he said as he watched the other, backing up even more in the process until he was backed up against a wall He smiled as the other turned into what looked like a giant flower. "Yeah, pretty cool. Guess the plants aren't the only thing trying to eat everything on your home planet." he said and chuckled.

 

He glanced out the tiny window when Selk mentioned the super nova. He nodded "Yeah, if we don't reach the first moon, we'll probably have to take stations and phase the ship." he frowned, it took a lot of out them to phase the ship. He hated doing it, mainly it was because it got him teased a lot, he wasn't as strong as the other's were, so phasing out other objects was hard for him. He could make the object semi transparent, but not fully, not enough to let things pass through them. Even he could only make himself fully transparent, but nothing would go through him. It usually took him and another Icearian to do it, where as normally that Icearian could do it themselves.

 

He watched the explosion move a bit faster towards the ship as he moved to sit back down on the bed again. "So, what are you doing all the way out here? Is your home planet far?" he asked.

[hal7283]

"Take station and phase the ship? What do you mean? Does your ship have a phase shift system? Like you can shift out of this plain for a while! That's so cool! Or it's your species that can do that? That's even cooler!" Selka said excitedly as he moved closer to Jula and sat down beside the bed. He shrugged his shoulders and said: "Sorry for my ignorance about your species and your technology. As i said before I'm new to these parts. Not long ago we Botnais were still stuck on the ground of our home world Zerkon V, and now we are dispersed throughout the universe! It simply wasn't in our nature to stick together and form a galactic empire or whatever. We prefer travels, discoveries, adventures! It was actually quite a miracle that my parents found each other and gave birth to me given how spread out we were, and like all Botnais parents should they let me go out on my on to discover the world once I became adult. I've been a freelancer ever since! Working on different planets, stations, and ships, but never stuck with a particular group. Then I joined the Dagger III since the captain had a reputation of taking on hard jobs that nobody else wants. We've had a few runs together and it was fun, then the captain took on this job to transfer the cargo to this remote research station, and you know the rest. What about you guys? What brought your ship to this part of space?"

[PrincessGumdrop]

Jula blinked when the other seemed to not understand what he met, "It's okay. I guess I'm just used to meeting species that know rumors of us, is all." he explained, "As for what I mean, we do it. Not the ship. And I wouldn't say it's a shifting out of the plain rather than just changing the ships molecular structure." he said. "I'm not very good at it myself, but the others are. I basically can just make myself disappear, well, translucent. It's kind of fun actually, you can see not phased things inside of me." he laughed.

 

He listened to a bit about the Botnais and nodded. "Sounds lonely." he said, "But I suppose we are very similar. We are of a race that likes the cold of space, so naturally we joined the stars and travel around the galaxies. As for what brought us out here, we heard of a planet that was in danger of the super nova, so we offered help in the relocation process. We had just finished when we got your distress signal. I believe the Luvarians will be a bit upset with us when they realize we ditched their science bay on their planet in favor of saving your ships lives. Not to mention we ended up picking up your cargo."

 

Jula shook his head, "They'll be livid, but at least they are alive. Our captain will work something out with them so our ship will still stay in their favor. I'm sure your captain will-" he trailed off as he saw the ship around him starting to disappear around them. "Oh!" he said and got up, moving to the com-station in the room. "Hailing ships Captain. This is Jula. Are we-"

he was cut off again.

 

"Jula! Hold position where ever you are. The ship is being phased, do your part to help if you can."

 

"Yes captain!" he said and moved over to the wall. "Hold on to something, you'll phase with the ship." he said and touched the wall, doing his best to help the others, though it was clear he was weaker than the others as he seemed to be placing much effort into what he was doing, disappearing with the ship, leaving them in what looked like to be nothing but space, yet the air was still breathable and soon the nova was thrashing through the phased out ship. It was hot as Hades, but didn't seem to do much damage to the actual ship once it was back into view. However, Jula was laying on the ground sweating in a pool of water, the ice around his area having completely melted.

[hal7283]

"Lonely? I've never thought of it this way..." Selka tilted his head slightly and continued: " We Botnais aren't exactly social animals, at least not among our own kind cause we likes to fight among ourselves a lot. But Your species! Wow! I could only imagine what could have gave your species such extraordinary gift! You must tell me more about you guys, like what's...."

 

Selka was interrupted by his surrounding suddenly began to vanish. He thought to himself: "It must be the "phasing" Jula talked about!" As Jula instructed Selka spread the tentacles of his lower body up to hold himself in position, and soon everything including himself began to look transparent, and for a while all he could see was the vacuum of space. Being "phased" by the Icearians gave him a strange sensation, kind of feels like diving into cold water and the cold was sinking through every pore of one's surface.

 

Then the ship flew out of the blast radius and the ship turned back to normal, Selka was about to share his excitement with Jula but saw him on the ground sweating. "Jula!! Are you alright?!" Selka hurriedly move beside Jula and held him up wit hhis hand tentacles, the room has warmed up quite a bit and all the ice has melted. Selka thought to himself"Must be the heat from the blast..Jula said he wasn't really good at phasing so he must have taken a lot of heat..."

 

Selka immediately spread out his tentacles around the room, almost covering every surface and absorbing all the heat, meanwhile several of his tentacles wrapped around Jula and began to absorb the heat rapidly. Soon the whole room became freezing cold again.

[PrincessGumdrop]

Jula gave a groan as his name was called, only to fidget as the grabbed him with his tentacles. Soon he was feeling very cold as the other cleared out the heat in the room. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes looking at himself wrapped in tentacles. He jumped and tried to move away from the tentacles not realizing that they were Selka's. "No! Don't!" he screamed and started to push away the tentacles.

 

He finally realized that they weren't trying to harm him, but were taking away from the heat that was trying to fill his body. "o-oh." he said, looking at Selka and looking back down to the tentacles. "How...what?" he questioned, touching the tentacles trying to figure out how they did what they just did. "Now that, is pretty cool." he said, "You can suck the heat out of things...I assume you can do that with the cold too?" he asked, being a bit more liberal with his touches to the tentacles, "Where does the heat go?" he asked, his hands following the tentacles up and towards where they attached to Selka's body.

[hal7283]

"Glad to see thay you're OK." Selka smiled in relief when Jula awaken, "I was only guessing that you fainted because of the heat. Since I knew little obout yout physiology, it could've been for a totally different reason. Luckily my gamble paid off."

 

When Jula began touching his tentacles Selka was quite surprised, since he had juat panicked about them moments ago. It's not rare that his tentacles came in contact with others, sometimes they even go right through them, but it's usually Selka who was initiating the touching rather than the other way around. "Well, most lifeforms have their mechanism to ajust body temperature, like reduce circulation to the limbs in cold weather in order to protect the vital organs. We Botnais are the same, only that we can control this process consciously, thus taking or transferring heat of an object. In this case I stored a lot of the heat in the belly, and the rest...."

 

Selka showed Juka a tentacle that's gradually turning yellow, then brown, and fianlly crumbled into ashes. A new one soon grew from the same spot. "Don't worry, there're still plenty of bio-mass inside me to regenerate. And....Umm....you do realize thst it's a part of my body you're caressing right?"

[PrincessGumdrop]

Jula nodded, "Yeah, I probably do that more than others. I can't handle phasing as well as they can. Thanks for the help though, I owe you one." he smiled. He continued to touch the tentacles and trail along them as the other talked "Wow. That's pretty cool that you can control it. I wish I could at times. It would make phasing a lot easier." he stared at the tentacle that seemed to die right before him and looked a bit sad, which is why he figured the other told him that it was okay, that he regenerated it.

 

However, when the other mentioned that he was caressing part of the other man's body he blinked and stepped back, not realizing how close he had gotten to the other not to mention that he really had been caressing this man. He pulled his hands away "Sorry, sorry! I was...I was curious. I should have asked. Frita, I'm sorry." he said, look a bit embarrassed by it all. "Guess I just lost my head is all. Thanks again though...for freezing me up again."

[hal7283]

"It's ok, and I actually kind of liked being touched by others..."Selka scratched his face with this tip of his hand tentacles and said shyly: " Not many people have the bravery to com close to me, not to mention touching me. And when it was I who touch the others..." Selka's expression turned a bit sad : "It usually doesn't end well.."

 

But his expression soon turned back to normal, and said: " You look alright now, but you should go to the medical bay and get checked just to make sure. And also...it's really nice of you to keep me company, but shouldn't you report back to your captain or something?"

[PrincessGumdrop]

Jula gave a soft smile and touched the man's hand tentacles, "Well, perhaps we can work on changing that." he said, letting the others hand go. "You're a bit intimidating, but I get the feeling you have no intention of harming me." he chuckled.

 

He nodded when the other mentioned the medical bay. "Yeah, I probably should be reporting back to the captain and then working on those translations." he said, frowning. He wasn't planning on going to the medical bay. He knew a crowd would be there, wanting to see him and tease him about having to go. He shook his head to get the thoughts out of his head. "Anyway. I'm sure I'll see you around. I'm in the room a few doors down to the right. Just pop in whenever." he said, shrugging before he gave the other a small wave and quickly headed out of the man's room.

 

Jula was quick to report to his captain, nodding when he was asked if he was okay. "A member of the crew off of the ship helped me. I'm fine. I'll be working on decrypting and translating some of the files that we transferred onto our ship. They are in a language that our ship is not familiar with. It will have to be done by hand." he explained and moved toward one of the terminals to take what looked like a frozen piece of ice with computer parts in it out. He tucked it into an unseen pocket and flew out of the hanger headed to his office where he could focus.

[hal7283]

After Jula left Selka went to the replicator and got a glass of water. He thought for a second then asked the ship computer: "Computer, where is the Lizardian captain?"

 

"He is on the deck 3, the their room on the left."

 

"Alright. Thankyou computer." Selka finished the glass of water and squeezed out of his room. He squeezed into the transporter and went to deck 3. He found the Lizardian captain's room without trouble. He pressed the button on the communicator next to the door : " Hey captain, it's me, Selka. May I come in?"

 

The door opened in front of him and he saw the Lizardian captain has wrapped himself in layers after layers of sheets and clothing, holding a cup of steaming hot drink. Beside him were the rest of his old crew.

 

"Oh..Selka, you're here. I was wondering when you'll show up." the captain said has he saw Selka squeezing through the small door.

 

"Sorry, sorry. I was talking to one of the crew of this ship....So...how are you holding up captain? You look like a mess."

 

"I've...I've seen worse." The captain said as he looked around the room. "Let's have a moment of silence for those who didn't made it."

 

The room fell silent as all of them lowered their head and said their farewell. Before they could settle down and manage a more formal ceremony this little gesture have to do. It's a bit cruel but that's the harsh reality of space.

 

After that one of the crewman asked: "So...captain..what are we going to do next?"

 

The Felian said: "We've lost the ship...it's impossible for us to continue the job now. We should ask the Icearian to drop us off at the closest station."

 

The captain thought for a second, then he asked Selka: "If I remember correctly, the cargo we were transporting was also beamed on board right?"

 

"Yes captain. It was,"

 

"If we give up the job right now our reputation as freelancers would be ruined, and there'll be no chance for us to come back from this big lose. But if I can convince the Icearians to give us a lift to the research station and finish the job, at least we'll have the payment from this job....I'll talk to the Icearains later, you guys can go off and have some rest."

 

The crew members dispersed and Selka thought about what to do next, and decided to go back home and take a nap.

[PrincessGumdrop]

While Jula was busy translating documents; others of the Icearian crew were busy taking the cargo that had been beamed aboard to the cargo bay. "Frita...this is too damn heavy. What on LeTara is in this thing?" the Icearian grumbled as he helped his fellow crew mate carry the crate.

 

"I don't know, I think something living...I've felt movement..." the other stated, looking down at the crate, worried it was going to tear open at any moment.

 

The first Icearian looked back and then down to the crate, "maybe... I don't know. You think we should tell the captain?" he asked. The other one nodded, and set the crate down once they got to a good space. "Come on, let's go. It's starting to give me the creeps." Quickly both of them ran off to tell the captain, not noticing the small leakage at the bottom of the crate that must have happened during the transfer of the cargo from one ship to the other.

 

Jula closed his eyes after about 3 or 4 hours of translating, he had only gotten through maybe 10 of the documents and all it seemed like they were were the ships logs. Perhaps the Lizardian captain would be his best bet. This wasn't the Lizardian tongue though, he had learned that a long time ago and it was much easier to translate than this. He got up, taking one of the documents with him and quickly verified the Lizardian's whereabouts before heading off. He knocked on the door "Captain?" he called, "I hate to bother you, but I'm having a bit of trouble with some of your ships documents. This is Jula, communications officer of this ship. May I come in?" he asked.

[hal7283]

Selka was about to leave the Lixardian captain's room as he opened the door and almost bump into Jula: "Oh! Ah, sorry! I mean Umm, Hey! Jula! What a surprise! We were just discussing something." Selka moved sideways to reveal Jula to the rest of them in the room : "Hey, guys, this is the Icearian I've talked about. His name is Jula. He's the one who communicated with me on the ship and beamed us aboard! This reminds me...I remember Jula you said you had trouble with translating our file when we were communicating right?" Selka looked at Jula for his confirmation, and he looked at the captain : "What language did we use in the transmission Cap?"

 

"Having problem translating? Hmm....I bought that ship from a Zertanian and when the ship was damaged it must have reset the transmission language to Zertanian" The lizardian captain touched his chin and thought for a second, then he asked: "Selka, I remember you know some Zertanian right?"

 

"Yeah. I spent some time among them a few years ago." Selka replied.

 

"Then help him with the translation would you? And...Jula was it? Would you mind tell your captain that I'd like to discuss some important matters with him tomorrow?"

[PrincessGumdrop]

Jula stepped back and half disappeared when the other came out of the door. "Oh! Hi." he said and came back into view. He smiled at the other crew and gave a small wave to the men. "Yes, I was." he said, looking over to the captain "I have a sample..." he stopped when the other said it was Zertanian. He tsked his tongue and sighed. "I'll be at this all night." he mumbled and was ready to leave. Zertanian was not an easy language to pick up and he knew few knew the language. He would be working hard through the night just to figure out half of the transmission.

 

However it seemed that Selka new some. "Really? You do?" he asked, looking happier than he had before "Oh that's great, would you mind?" he asked. He looked over to the other captain "Yes captain." he said, "I'll let him know as soon as possible." he said, nodding and turned around to go get started on the files and relay the message.

 

"Are you coming Selka?" he asked, "I'm sure with your help it won't take nearly as long." he smiled before starting to glide off down the corridor and heading to his office. Once he got there he placed the tablet down and put a communicator ear piece into his ear, "Captain?" he called and waited for a response "Yes, Captain. I apologize, but the Lizardian captain said that he had something that he needed to discuss with you tomorrow. Yes, no, I understand Captain, but he said it was important." he said, "Yes Captain. Yes Captain." he said and nodded to himself, "Yes, Captain, I'll let him know. Jula out." he said and took the ear piece out.

 

"Thanks again, Selka." he said. "I really would have been here all night."

[hal7283]

Selka was pleasantly surprised by the turn of events, since he was about to go back to his room and spend the rest of the day sleeping, he can now spend time with this beautiful Icearian. Selka followed Jula to his office and managed to squeeze in.

 

"Alright then, shall we begin? Most of the files should be data of the crew and some ship logs, so it shouldn't take too long." Selka said as he leaned closer to Jula in order to look at the screen. While he put his eyes on the information in front of him, almost every other sensory organs of Selka is geared towards Jula, as what were used to track preys miles away were focused on the one right next to him, Selka could smell every scent, feel every twitch and bump of Jula's organs. Everything was new to Selka and he simply enjoyed feeling Jula beside him.

[PrincessGumdrop]

Jula nodded and moved through the screen, to get to the part that he left off. He looked back to Selka "So, this is where I got lost. It's something about a person on the ship, but I'm not really sure who it's talking about and whether they are leaving or going. Or perhaps that they were doing something on it." he said, highlighting the portion that he was attempting to translate.

 

He looked at the tablet and then towards the screen in front of him. He pressed a few buttons and pointed towards a bigger screen. "There" he said, the words floating in the air that he was trying to translate. "That will probably be a bit more comfortable. "If you work on those, I'll work on the next section to see if I can get at least some of the words. If that's okay with you," he asked.