Broken Sun- A Sci-fi Adventure (Closed, Started!)

[Azkar Almsivi]

Cui continued to run her fingers and the comb through her hair. Although she was gradually losing focus on her role of social butterfly. She'd noticed roughly 2 minutes into her shower session with Emerson, Cui had decided to play a fool just in case.
With a calm, absent minded voice Cui responded to Nikolai's worries of aggressive males "Concerning rape fears. I could easily neutralize anyone on this ship except for the two armed security guards and the ARC unit using unarmed combat or makeshift weapons. One mustn't forget that the ship is mostly manned by civvies or military types with little to know live combat experience."
Cui wasn't making eye contact, she seemed to be slowly looking around the entire room, as if not looking at anything in particular on purpose.
Cui began to run her hands behind her head, pulling her hair into a long smooth ponytail, tying it up and fixing up a parted fringe.

"So, does it look like the doctor is keeping up his training? Would be good to know whether or not I could use that against him. Or you know, just know if he looks good underneath his clothes. Either explanation works."
"Oh well, he is pretty..." the cyborg's sentence slowly trailed off as she stood up, staring at the security camera, she walked to the right then the left quickly. Then jumped near Nikolai and swung an arm quickly over his head, brushing his hair, all while staring at the camera.

"It's not auto focusing anymore..." Cui's attention and demeanor had changed, she finally appeared to have her work face on. A few moments later Natasha walked in, she stripped down to her gym gear, changed her shoes and started working out after greeting them.
"So, what were you guys talking about?"
Cui continued to look at the camera for a little while longer, rattling off the basics. "Nikolai wants to know what Emerson packing under his coat, he thinks I need to be worried about getting raped by one of the civies or rent'a'soldiers onboard and most importantly, I'm fairly sure someone has been manually controlling the security system. Since just after I got examined by the doctor."

Cui turned around and sat back down. "Natasha, if you don't mind me asking, did you get someone else to stop what they were doing a few minutes ago to go look over the cockpit while you came here?" her voice was cheery and light again, as she pulled her tank top up a little. "I really should have told the doctor just to wait, that was my last bra and now I need to dry the damn thing out..." Cui gave a little embarrassed laugh and pat the back of her head.

Either there was a pervert on the ship, the captain had cabin fever, or the ARC unit was acting outside the parameters of a social experiment yet again. Cui decided she was going to rig up a rivet gun when she got back to the drone control room as a precaution. Even the black ops of most militarily powerful nations had nothing on the antics of most of the corporations these days. Better safe than sorry.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

"Nikolai wants to know what Emerson packing under his coat, he thinks I need to be worried about getting raped by one of the civies or rent'a'soldiers onboard and most importantly, I'm fairly sure someone has been manually controlling the security system. Since just after I got examined by the doctor."

Natasha raised an eyebrow, not breaking the rhythm of her workout.

"Huh, those are some interesting topics of discussion."

"Natasha, if you don't mind me asking, did you get someone else to stop what they were doing a few minutes ago to go look over the cockpit while you came here?"

"Now that you mention it, I did." Natasha replied, now grunting a little along with her words as the flywheel whirred in time with her strokes. "I asked ARK to watch the systems while I took a bre-oh..."

The pace of her workout slowed, as Natasha cottoned on. She wasn't sure if the idea of being spied on by a robot was more or less creepy than being spied on by another human. In any case, she was still more inclined to let ARK get on with doing its own thing than go tinkering with equipment she didn't understand, although she knew that opinion would likely not be shared by many others on the crew.

"I really should have told the doctor just to wait, that was my last bra and now I need to dry the damn thing out..."

"Hmm..." Natasha considered, unbuckling the foot-straps that had been holding her in place on the machine, having worked up a healthy sweat and taken her mind off flying for a now at least, and floated upwards again. She gave a cursory glance towards Cui's chest, before looking down at her own.

'Close enough.'

"You can borrow one of mine." she offered, as she reached into her bag and took out an energy bar, munching on it enthusiastically. "Anyway, how did you guys get round to having a conversation about unwanted advances, while simultaneously speculating on our good doctor's ab-definition? Any inter-crew relations I should know about?"

Her tone was a little mischievous. Natasha didn't usually get involved in gossip, something she was usually glad for. However, today found her feeling curious. She found herself looking at Cui, though taking care not to oggle too obviously. While Natasha was partially augmented herself, she'd never seen anyone with such extensive cybernetics. She couldn't quite make up her mind what she thought of it, but for now looking at her was, interesting...

 

[Mr.Ivebeenframed]

" Now, unless there is anything else..."

"It's not that Emerson is concerned about your mental health, its everybody else that is." Yukino said, determined to make some headway. "I'm sorry, its just that everyone else thought that I should talk to you considering your concerns back on Haros station." Yukino said, taking a step back and re-approaching David. "It's going to be rough for the both of us, especially if what you fear for is right. We just have to be really focused..." Yukino said, crossing her arms and thinking about the task ahead.

 

[Diablo1099_v1legacy]

Crew Quarters: David, Yukino

"It's going to be rough for the both of us, especially if what you fear for is right. We just have to be really focused..."

"For the 3rd and Final time, I do NOT fear Aliens!" David insisted when Yukino didn't even suggest he was afraid of Aliens, getting rather confrontational about that one tibit.
"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing and I will give this mission my full un-adulterated focus." He then said, ironically while playing his Space Invaders game, rather poorly I might add.
"Gah, this last one is always a pain in my ass..."

 

[IFS]

Emerson was heading towards the living quarters when he heard his name, drifting closer he heard the unmistakable yelling of West. This ship isn't exactly the largest space to live in, I'm sure almost everyone can hear him when he goes off on his tirades. It seemed that Lee was attempting to confront West about his obsessive and obnoxious paranoia with what they might encounter, without much luck from the sound of it.

He rounded the corner and looked into the room, frowning deeply at West "How did someone like you ever get sent into space? Nevermind sent on a mission like this?" he said, speaking harshly and with some annoyance but not raising his voice "I have never met a fellow astronaut who was as childish and obnoxious as you."

He paused, letting his words sink in "Yelling your concerns is disruptive to everyone on the ship including yourself, and as Officer Lee just pointed out we all need to be focused for this," he continued "Now as the ships doctor I am happy to discuss your personal concerns with you in private if you like, but there is no reason to broadcast your thoughts to the entire ship."

He turned to Lee, his voice quickly becoming less annoyed in tone "Lee have you seen Yifie by any chance?"

 

[Diablo1099_v1legacy]

Crew Quarters: David, Yukino, Emerson

"I have never met a fellow astronaut who was as childish and obnoxious as you."

"..."
Instead of answering and just digging himself deeper, David merely glared at Emerson for making this mess in the first place by telling everyone that he was Afraid of Aliens.
"...I'll pass. Because there aren't any "Personal Concerns" I need to discuss. Now can you please just drop it? You already have the entire ship thinking I'm a coward..." He answered before returning to his game, clearly annoyed with the doctor for this entire situation.

 

[Mr.Ivebeenframed]

"Lee have you seen Yifie by any chance?"

"No I haven't, sorry. The last time I saw her she was waiting in line for the shower, which reminds me.... excuse me, doctor I'm going to take a shower." Yukino left the room and headed to the lavatory. To her relief, she grabbed an open one. Yukino entered the lavatory and showered. She didn't take long as she usually wanted to be as quick as possible when she took showers. She found it that it wasn't good when other people were waiting on the shower.

She left the shower room a few minutes later. With Yukino cleaned, she drifted out of the room but something caught her eye as Yukino left, coming from the cockpit. She went to the cockpit to see the android piloting the ship.

"Hm... well isn't this a pleasant surprise." Yukino said as the android piloted the ship. She was dubious of his skill at the moment. "Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

But before the android could respond, Yukino looked out at the cockpit and saw a bright light.

Then everything around the light bent into something resembling tendrils that reached for their ship or rather her. It shifted the color of the stars around it into wild hues and tones that Yukino couldn't describe. She could barely breath. The horizon shifted and her peripheral view shriveled into some sort of focused view of the light. A tunnel vision into the shifting orb which began to consume her entire view with colors. The light lasted only for a few seconds and when it disappeared, Yukino lost consciousness. Without gravity, her body simply slumped in its suspended state and she drifted forwards into the window. A thud, she hit her head on the console.

To the android, the light was looked nothing more than a flash in the distance, a blink in a sea of sparkling lights and darkness. It came from the Kuiper Cliff but as soon as Yukino lost consciousness, a blip came on the screen. The ship was past Pluto now with the comms relay behind them but still within contact. The blip comes from a little off the path and in the belt itself among the rocks floating around.

 

[DarkRawen]

Nikolai watched as the female pilot of the ship entered the gym and started training as well. She asked what they had been talking about, and suddenly the two were talking, Nikolai not having said a word. However, suddenly he had heard enough, and raised his voice.

"Wait wait wait," he said. "Firstly, I did not say rape." He looked at Cui, with an sincere look in his eyes. "Really. I did not mean rape, not at all. Simply... aggressive advances, sexual harassment at most." He then glanced at Miss Kaminov. "And I knew something was off with that robot, you guys saying it's spying on us just proves my point. Also, as far as I know, there's not relationships going on at all, I just asked a question out of curiosity. Now, if you excuse me, ladies."

He sat up, and stretched, preparing himself for more training. Before Kaminov entered, he had kinda forgotten that he was supposed to do that now, since he had been busy with... well, talking.

"I'll be over there," he pointed at a random piece of equipment, "And you'll be free to discuss whatever you want to discuss. I'm not particularly fond of... well, this kind of talk. Whatever this is." He said it while smiling, but he clearly meant what he said. "Also, if I do some working out, perhaps Elliot will finally get off my back."

With that, he floated over to where he had pointed, strapped himself down so he could actually use it, and started exercising, concentrating on that so that he could avoid being in the middle of whatever odd discussing the women were attempting.

 

[Azkar Almsivi]

Cui rested her cheeks in her palms as Natasha replied to her. Natasha made an offer to alleviate Cui's current washing crises. Cui checked out Natasha's bust as she herself was checked out, she wasn't sure how decent the fit would be. The news that it was the ARC unit mucking about with the cameras was actually good considering what the other potential sources could have been. Corporate espionage and sabotage were common and had a funny habit of being met with assassinations and destruction of property, didn't stop the egotistical monopolies from trying though.

"Anyway, how did you guys get round to having a conversation about unwanted advances, while simultaneously speculating on our good doctor's ab-definition? Any inter-crew relations I should know about?" Cui made her way over to Natasha as she was asked and reached her hands up her top, trying to get a look at the tag on it. As Nikolai was talking about sexual harassment, Cui was sexually harassing someone.
"Nikolai wants to drill Emmerson for uranium and bragging rights. Beyond that... Well the captain and the engineer are still hiding away, maybe they're consummating some super secret romance." as usual Cui's comment was laced with grace and modesty, she gave a little snigger, but it was stopped as she frowned at the number on Natasha's bra.
"Thanks to you I'm the smallest one on the ship! What did I ever do to you?~" Cui whined sarcastically as she reached her arms through Natasha's top and hugged her tight, holding onto the floor with her feet and waving her around slowly. Cui soon stopped and let her go though as Nikolai was still blustering on.

"Really. I did not mean rape, not at all. Simply... aggressive advances, sexual harassment at most." Nikolai was looking at Natasha as he spoke, probably trying to defend a social image of some sort. Something Cui rarely did with her slightly eccentric personality. Cui cuddled Natasha from behind, rubbing her cheek affectionately against hers. As she did this her voice rang out cheerily. "I appreciate the concern honey, but judging by everybody's profiles... well, parts of mine were blacked out for a reason."

"Also, if I do some working out, perhaps Elliot will finally get off my back." Cui snorted and half laughing added "Maybe if you work out even more than that he might climb back on it."

Cui wandered around aimlessly a little looking around the room. "Say... what's the ETA on our arrival? This mission is looking more and more... perplexing every moment. I wonder if two rent-a-soldiers with side arms is going to be enough..." Cui let herself float against the roof. "Maybe I'm just trying to think of an excuse to let me weld some metal strips onto a space suit though." Cui giggled enthusiastically "We're not in anyone's space anymore either, maybe I should try and arm the drones..."

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

It was quite the rapid transition, Natasha going from being the one providing the innuendo and sly looks, to being on the receiving end of a barrage of the same from Cui in one fell swoop. Was the other woman flirting outrageously, or did she simply have no understanding of the point where friendly contact fringed on foreplay? Cui was certainly an unusual specimen, and not for the first time Natasha was left unsure as to whether she was excited or just a little creeped out. Her eyebrows were in danger of disappearing into even her closely cropped hairline as the hands started exploring her top, and had to fight to stop herself from giggling as she was 'picked up' (or what passed for such in zero-gravity).

["Whoa there!"] she exclaimed in Russian, though her ton was not discouraging. "You sure you want to do that, I'm all hot and sweaty here?" she said, mentally cursing herself immediately afterwards for how wrong she'd just made it sound.

That was when Cui started rubbing her face on her. What was even happening here?! Were Natasha's pheromones particularly strong today or something?! Did Cui have augments to tell her when other women were... in season?!

"Maybe if you work out even more than that he might climb back on it."

"Now that's a thought..." Natasha added, deciding to join in with the teasing. "Are you sure he wasn't trying to give you a signal with all that business about working out? He might have had a very specific, a very... hard, regimen in mind, if you know what I mean."

Natasha winked, before cackling at Nikolai and gently prising Cui's fingers from around her belly (thought that just ended with them holding hands, and for some reason Natasha wasn't letting go.

"Now," she continued, "Let's go and see about finding that spare bra, before you decide to whip this one right off me."

As she led Cui across the central corridor to her cabin, Natasha's usually sharp eyes were too distracted to see anything unusual over in the cockpit. When they got into her cabin, Natasha closed the door behind them, and went to rummage in her foot locker.

"If you don't mind me asking..." she piped up, her back to Cui. "How do you feel about inter-crew relations? Myself," she continued without waiting for an answer. "I believe that when one individual gets too attached to another individual, that's bound to screw with how everyone operates as a unit. However, if emotional intimacy isn't part of the equation, and everyone involved is on the same page about that, then I see no problem with it. In fact, it can even be a good thing.

It remind me of my tenure with the Air Force." She went on, only half-aware that she was rambling. "They say that pilots often mirror the character of the machines they fly. Going by that logic, the fast jet pilots like my squadron, were always running a little hot, if you catch my drift. Let's just say that our down-time didn't involve so much resting as our CO's would have liked. Look, point is, it's an exciting thing we do, and that tends to make people excitable. From my experience, it actually makes us better at our jobs when we have an outlet to blow off steam, provided that what it's about, and no feelings are getting involved."

It occurred to Natasha at that moment, that a lack of an outlet might be exactly what was making David so twitchy. Now there was a though she might have to put a pin in for later...

"I mean, where physicality is concerned, I'm not too picky." Natasha continued, pulling out another black sports bra from her trunk, basically identical to the one she was currently wearing. There was no call for any fancy lingerie on this mission, after all. "Man, woman, we're all people right? We all have the bits and pieces we need to have a good time with each-other. Well..." she said awkwardly, as she turned around to examine Cui's prosthetics again, hoping she wasn't about to dive headlong into a whole ocean of discomfort. "At least, I'm assuming we all do...

Anyway!" she changed tack, walking over to Cui and handing her the bra. "Here you go."

At this point, Natasha was more aware than ever that they were alone, in a bedroom, both in far less clothing than they had seen each-other in before this point. It was not in Natasha's nature to be shy, but she felt she should probably at least give Cui the chance to make another move before she propositioned anything. Was she even sure at this point that she wanted to proposition anything?

'What the hell! First time for everything right?'

 

[Diablo1099_v1legacy]

Cockpit: David, Yukino, ARK

After getting his fix of 8-bit slaughter, David put away his tablet and began to wander about the ship, just making sure there wasn't any hidden insurrection or something like that, that was always one of the things he heard about space missions: They were boring.
Recalling the time on the Tablet, he began making his way towards the cockpit, just to ask "Are we there yet?"
As the door opened, he asked "Hey, Russia with love (Natasha), How's our ETA doi-"
He paused as he saw both ARK and Yukino in the room instead, though in Yukino's case, she was passed out and floating.
"...What th-, Oi! Yu!" He exclaimed, mostly out of confusion then anything else as he pulled Yukino down and began checking her vitals (Read: Gently nudging and shaking her.)

After failing to get a response, he then got on the ship's Intercom and sent out to the entire ship.

"-Man, so many freaking buttons-oh, it's on? *Ahem* David West talking, I need a doctor in the Cockpit, Yukino is unconsciousness, I think she might have bashed her head on something in Zero-G, Repeat, one of your Doctor types get your ass up here!...Thank you...Gah, where is the off button?...Is this it-"

As he waited for one of them to show up, He asked the Android "Okay, How and When?" as he began trying to make sure the unconsciousness woman didn't bump into anything else.

 

[IFS]

"-Man, so many freaking buttons-oh, it's on? *Ahem* David West talking, I need a doctor in the Cockpit, Yukino is unconsciousness, I think she might have bashed her head on something in Zero-G, Repeat, one of your Doctor types get your ass up here!...Thank you...Gah, where is the off button?...Is this it-"

An expression of concern flashed across Emerson's face, quickly replaced with one of focus as he moved quickly towards the cockpit to see what had happened. Unconscious doesn't say much, could be any number of things, need to know how it happened.

He arrived to see West holding her steady, keeping her from bumping into anything. The Android was also there though it had yet to comment on what had happened.

"How did she fall unconscious?" he asked, his voice serious "And don't move her too much, if its a spinal injury we need to keep her still."

He placed his own hands on her shoulders, holding her steady. If it was a spinal injury or the like there was a board, not unlike those used by lifeguards, back in the medical office. If not then he would still like to strap her down, if it was a seizure then she could injure herself if she had another.

 

[Generic NPC 22]

S.S. Juliet - Cockpit

While the crew was scurrying about the cockpit of the Spacecraft, its Android pilot maintained its silence despite the queries that were being aimed towards the Unit.

"Okay, How and When?" Security Officer West asked only to receive no response from ARK despite the unit's knowledge of what had occurred only moments ago.

"How did she fall unconscious?" Came Doctor Emerson's query and once again there was no response forthcoming from the Android Pilot.

Instead of answering the questions that were being directed towards the Unit, ARK had overridden the ship's autopilot and was manually maneuvering the ship towards the radar blip that had appeared after the pulse of light, not only did the Unit change course, it increased the ship's velocity as if the Android had somehow developed a sense of impatience.

As ARK piloted the ship towards the unknown sensor signature, it remotely accessed the communications array and sent a message via the last of the communications relays.

S.S. Juliet has breached Way Point Alpha...
Unknown Object located on sensors...
Setting Intercept with Unknown Object...

 

[Azkar Almsivi]

Before Cui could put much thought into it she was being tugged along by Natasha, Cui only got a glimpse into the cockpit before she was in Natasha's bunk room but she knew she'd seen the ARC unit at the helm and someone else in a weird posture.
Cui began to speculate just what might be going on as Natasha seemed to be propositioning her for casual sex. She had to work out if something was actually afoot or not as recent events were beginning to occupy her mind and she really wasn't in any kind of mood at the moment.

Cui raised a single eyebrow and calmly interjected "Are you implying to treat me as an overglorified sentient sex toy one would have to not be 'picky'?" she figured finding something to be mildly offended at would be the most efficient and least damning way to cut the current conversation short for later. Cui reached out and took the bra, looking at it. Then at Natasha. Apparently her current loose clothing was giving her chest outward delusions of grandeur.
Cui's expression softened and she began to speak "Look, I think I'd rather get to know you a little better befor-"

"-Man, so many freaking buttons-oh, it's on? *Ahem* David West talking, I need a doctor in the Cockpit, Yukino is unconsciousness, I think she might have bashed her head on something in Zero-G, Repeat, one of your Doctor types get your ass up here!...Thank you...Gah, where is the off button?...Is this it-"

Cui dropped the article of clothing she was holding and let it float freely as she took off, opening the door and making her way swiftly to the cockpit. There was now 2 conscious people, 1 unconscious and the ARC unit within. Cui pushed Emerson and West out of her way and quickly leaned over ARC and began fooling around. Cui had no way of knowing what actually happened and was leaning toward the assumption that the ARC unit was up to something. She pulled up various screens, scanning them quickly the communications log and the data about the course change made her hands froze.

Cui's voice was cold as she withdrew quickly and looked at the two she'd just barged past, however her voice was deadly serious, which her crew members would find extremely odd. "The ARC unit is communicating with someone outside of the ship and is ignoring a potentially wounded crew member, it is also acting on it's own without orders and altering the ship's course." Cui's eyes were locked on the thing at the helm and her body was tense.
"West, this thing isn't following the directives and laws it should be. Take it into custody immediately until we can incapacitate it and data mine it for answers.

Cui wasn't one to care about being ignored, however Yukino's potentially life threatening state being ignored by the ARC unit, even if it was innocent and just feeding information to some capitalist wanker was borderline enraging.
Cui reached forward once more, pulling out a long cord from the base of her neck and hard transferring the logs onto her own drives. She then reached a hand towards the controls to kill the engines.
"I think ceasing all operations until the captain says otherwise is the only course of action this thing has left us with."

 

[Mr.Ivebeenframed]

In Yukino's unconscious state, she drifted in her own mind. At first it was of early memories of Japan. She was a small girl with her eyes to the stars, counting the suns in the vast distance but also looking for her father in space. Something seemed off to Yukino mostly because she wasn't that small girl. She was in looking at herself watching the night sky. Time had halted inside her dream and only she could move. Yukino walked on the cool grass as she made her way to herself. When she reached her small self, she looked upwards to the sky only to see it. She saw it again in place of the Earth's native moon. No longer was the calm, white moon in the sky but instead the warping, shifting mass of what she had seen earlier was devouring the sky. Its shifting resembled tendrils swaying the sky, bending time and reality as it surged forward organically. A tendril shifted towards Yukino. She couldn't scream but she wanted to. Yukino slowly put a hand to her face, reaching for her mouth but she only felt a fleshy knot. Then she awoke.

She awoke to Cui, Emerson and David in the cockpit. Yukino knew the ARK was there but she couldn't see it. That's where she last remembered being before falling unconscious, right? Yukino's eyes drifted around the room, making sure that she was truly there. Somehow, it felt like a dream. She felt everything was part of a dream. Everything seemed slow but then she remembered that she was in space. Then she remembered it. Yukino's heart raced with apprehension. No... this isn't it...I need to wake up... just wake up one more time...

Yukino's usually serious expression had dulled from her awake. A new expression replaced, something akin to fear merging with anxiety. Was it apprehension?

"Cui..." Yukino finally swallowed the knot in her throat and spoke. It felt reliving. "Bring me to my bunk... please."


-----------------------------------------------------------------

The ship drifted towards the unknown object. The blip grew larger, revealing something metallic in the distance as the Juliet approached the object. It was still some distance away but it could easily be covered by jetpack or drone. It was surrounded by floating space rocks roughly the size of tennis balls but not too thick that it was unreachable. The ship's computer automatically began scanning the small object.

 

[Azkar Almsivi]

"Cui..." The agitated PLA officer heard a familiar voice coming from behind her, causing her to pause.
"Bring me to my bunk... please." Cui pulled her hand back, withdrawing from the control panel and turning around, she grabbed West by the collar, staring coldly into his eyes, she looked at his holster, then back at him, then tilted her head toward the synthetic in at the helm.
"Make sure there are no more unexpected surprises. Get the captain and pilot back in here and don't let that thing out of your sight." She knelt down next to Yukino, but pointed a thin skeletal finger at a portion of one of the control panels as she did so. She was pointing at a display for long range communications.
"If that lights up again..."
Cui knew she'd probably be ignored, she wasn't able to assert her authority because half of her military resume was blacked out. She wasn't able to pull rank, but hopefully her change from promiscuous airhead to alert and dead serious would emphasize her concern.

Cui carefully hoisted Yukino up, wrapping the woman's arms around her neck and her own around Yukino's waist and bottom. It wasn't the best way to be carrying her but her subconscious loathing of floating around made her do it that way. Cui marched out of the room with Yukino, taking her to her bed. When they got there, Cui laid her down gently. However her expression was still cold. She stared down into Yukino's eyes as her hands methodically prodded and gently explored the woman's neck, shoulders and face.

Cui wasn't an expert but she was fairly sure she hadn't been physically assaulted. The Chinese woman sighed, planting herself down, facing away from the lying down Yukino. She turned her head toward the other woman, her voice calm now, yet not back to it's carefree tone she usually had.
"Do you remember what happened?"

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

"Are you implying to treat me as an overglorified sentient sex toy one would have to not be 'picky'?"

"Erm..." Natasha scratched the back of her head, wrong-footed. "That wasn't what I meant, sorry if it came out wr-"

"Look, I think I'd rather get to know you a little better befor-"

Natasha had just enough time to raise an eyebrow. 'She talks like I was the one doing all the groping just now...'

The matter became irrelevant, however, one David's fumbled message rang out across the ship. Pausing just long enough to snatch her bra out of the air and throw it towards the back of the room, before racing towards the cockpit. When she reached the bulkhead, it was getting really rather crowded inside.

["Son of a *****!"]

"Get the captain and pilot back in here and don't let that thing out of your sight."

"Way ahead of you Cui." Natasha announced, pushing her way towards the pilot seat. "ARC, relinquish control of the helm, now!"

Immediately, Natasha set about looking up the integrity of the ship on the internal and external sensors.

"Nothing's been damaged." She said, once more slipping into her ice-cool fighter pilot's voice. "Calling up Camera Footage, Black-Box Audio Recording, Radiation Monitoring from past 30 minutes. Whatever happened in here, some kind of sensor will have picked up something. Wait... [oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me!]"

Natasha rounded on ARC, angry now. "ARC, I gave you a express order to do nothing except monitor and inform me if anything were to arise. Would you like to tell me why the fuck we've changed course, when we were following our ideal flight path before? Tell me what you're steering us towards, before I start taking out my aggression and rudimentary knowledge of robotics on your hardware!"

Natasha was forced to pause her tirade as the blip on the sensors sounded, and the other object drew nearer.

"Is that... what I think it is?"

 

[DarkRawen]

"I appreciate the concern honey, but judging by everybody's profiles... well, parts of mine were blacked out for a reason."

"Ah, sorry, I just---"

Wait what?

Hoping to ignore that, as well as how close the two women were getting to each other -it wasn't as much as that it was uncomfortable as just odd to look at- he kept training. Cui chuckled at his comment about Emerson, although not because she thought what he said was funny. Rather because she thought of an amusing thing to say herself.

"Maybe if you work out even more than that he might climb back on it."

"Hah," he said, and kept going, although he waited until he wasn't struggling too much before speaking. "I sincerely doubt that." As they kept doing whatever they were doing -flirting or joking around, he honestly didn't know which- Nikolai thought about what they might find again, and about what he had figured out so far with his experiments. Not a whole lot, honestly, but it was rather interesting that most of the plants apart from the Nikolaia had started to grow differently, unguided. The fact that the Nikolaia was reacting like this, differently than it was supposed to, made him curious about the mutation that had occured during the crossbreeding.

I should write the details down in my rapport. And---

"-Man, so many freaking buttons-oh, it's on? *Ahem* David West talking, I need a doctor in the Cockpit, Yukino is unconsciousness, I think she might have bashed her head on something in Zero-G, Repeat, one of your Doctor types get your ass up here!...Thank you...Gah, where is the off button?...Is this it-"

Doctor types?

Was he supposed to be one of the ones he was talking about? Regardless, Nikolai put the weights back the way they had been and unstrapped himself from the machine, before leaving. He was moving slower than the others because of being tired, and by the time he got there, pretty much everyone else was there as well. Apparantly, the robot had done... something. They were headed in the wrong direction, judging from what the pilot said, and the robot, who had been driving, had done it on purpose.

I knew it.

He didn't doubt that the female security officer was out cold because of that too, and felt a strong desire to destroy that piece of junk. Just find a blunt object, and hit it with it. However, his attention was drawn towards the sensors, and he tilted his head, curious about what they had found.

What is it picking up?

"Is that... what I think it is?"

"Depends... what do you think it is? We should check, right? How far is it away?" Nikolai simply forgot to be angry and careful. Certainly, this would be worth the extra stop. "Robot, what did you steer us towards?"

 

[Diablo1099_v1legacy]

Cockpit: Da Crew

"How did she fall unconscious?"

"I dunno, I just found her like this. though I think she might have whacked off the walls once or twice before I showed up." David answered as Emerson too reign of Yukino's body, He was trained to inflict pain, not ease it.
As he did that, Cui came in and began fussing over the robot

"The ARC unit is communicating with someone outside of the ship and is ignoring a potentially wounded crew member, it is also acting on it's own without orders and altering the ship's course. West, this thing isn't following the directives and laws it should be. Take it into custody immediately until we can incapacitate it and data mine it for answers."

"...Of course the robot would have to turn out to be Skynet..." He sighed as he pulled his weapon, a rouge robot with control over the ships systems was a threat that didn't have to be explained to him.
As he began looking for the "Off" button (Robots had those, right?), Yukino finally began to stir

"Cui...Bring me to my bunk... please."

"Heh, knew you were made of sterner stuf-Whoa!" He was about to say to his partner before Cui grabbed him.

"Make sure there are no more unexpected surprises. Get the captain and pilot back in here and don't let that thing out of your sight."

"Alright, 10-4, Now where is that damn off button" He asked outloud as Cui left with Yukino in hand.
As he was unable to find it, he realized he would most likely have to restrain her or something so he began pulling the robot out of the Pilots seat right as Natasha gave the unit an order to GTFO.
As he was pulling the machine out of the Cockpit, he heard this exchange between her and Nikolai.

"Is that... what I think it is?"
"Depends... what do you think it is?

"What? What am I missing? What? Keep me in the loop guys!" He said somewhat panicked as he had no idea what was going on.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

"Depends... what do you think it is? We should check, right? How far is it away?"

"We should be intercepting in under ten minutes at our current velocity, and I can accelerate that." Natasha responded, though not touching the throttle yet, instead focussing on scanning the object.

"The super-structure is not a match for the Elijah." she concluded after a pause. "What it is, I can't say for sure until we get closer."

"Robot, what did you steer us towards?"

"More to the point..." Natasha interjected, swivelling her chair around and looking directly into the robot's 'face'. "ARC's been sitting dormant in a box on Haros Station pretty much since he was built, and now he gets a day out, he knows exactly where to find this thing all the way out on the Kuiper Cliff, obscured by space debris. How does that happen?" She looked up at Nikolai and David.

"I think there's something else to this mission that Haros Station kept from us, and I think ARC was brought on board for more than just to observe us."