Mivon say Siniun Nunviv say Fi Nahe say Roraemey Naf - An Unusual Orbit

[Lael Rosek-Skyfire]

This was a very creative b-plot on the part of our Engineering and Medical team. Chief Engineer Harkrow really did an amazing job at developing the creature and its interactions with the teams and its environment. It was such a fun read.

((Sickbay, Deck 4, USS Montreal))

::So far, Roraemey considered, this was shaping up to be a very bad orbit. Or, at least, an extremely confusing, unlikely, and frightening one. The entire period had been a string of new and strange experiences, each more bizarre than the last; she was almost certain that, should she actually manage to find the nahe nefile again and return alive, almost none in the fi would believe her tale.::

((FLASHBACK: Space, In Orbit of Karakka))

::She had been away from the nahe nefile, the nest-ship, for more than eight orbits, searching the asteroids for the materials her fi needed: lasif sevo, the frozen rock that they split into the gasses that fed the nahe and melted for moisture; lasif viamali, the red-black oxide that would smelt to make hull metal and would radiate roy nisifaor when exposed to the roy vunisifaor of a nearby star; rua vilayi, the heavy ore that seemed to produce its own roy nisifaor for a thousand orbits. This, at least, was perfectly natural. She was Roraemey Naf, after all, the far-flyer of her fi. But when she’d returned to the place in the asteroid field where the nahe nefile had been hidden, it was not there; instead, a massive blocky ship had hung in the space between the rocks, radiating roy nisifaor into the void. A rosivuh rur ship.::

::Roraemey had heard stories of the rosivuh rur, the life-eaters, almost since the day she’d been shed from her mother’s hip. Massive beasts from the bottoms of the great gravity wells, they could not fly the void themselves, but rose to space in great ships that could cross the gulfs between the stars faster than any Suyuyan nahe nefile ever had. The rosivuh rur could not sustain themselves on roy, neither roy nisifaor, the light-that-is-food that sustained the Suyuy, nor roy vunisifaor, the light that aided sight but brought no sustenance. Instead, they consumed the flesh of the living, of plants and other beasts, and the stories said that their ships glowed with roy nisifaor in order to lure careless Suyuy into their waiting maws.::

::She had fled from the ship, stretching her body wide to catch the pressure of the star’s roy and sail away from the pocket in the asteroid field, but just as she’d accelerated to a wider orbit another rosivuh rur ship had appeared as if from thin vacuum directly in her path, and she felt the star’s roy slacken almost to nothing as a shimmering barrier of roy vunisifaor appeared around the ship. For a moment, she’d panicked, nearly throwing herself into the barrier, but only for a moment. The life of any Roraemey Naf was bound to be one with dangers and challenges; she would simply have to enter the ship of the rosivuh rur, find the machine creating the barrier, and disable it.::

::It had taken her only a little time to find a place in the hull of the ship where she could press her body between the hull plates and slide through. Once inside, though, she found herself disoriented. The rosivuh rur had brought their gravity well with them, somehow, and she felt the weight of it constantly pulling her to one side as she stuck to a surface. The atmosphere was warm and oppressively thick, as well, making every sound loud enough to sting her fronds, though there were at least enough of the right gasses in the air that she could allow her skin to respire. Moving as fast as she dared, avoiding the loud, lumbering beasts she could hear well beyond her ability to see, she explored the ship. Most of what she saw was mysterious to her: winding corridors connecting to other smaller corridors, a wide space that held nothing but a deep pool of liquid lasif sevo, a room with several soft-surfaced platforms and a wide variety of biological devices that somehow reminded her of the nest of Fulli Ie on the nahe nefile.::

::Eventually, though, she found what she was looking for: a machine, pulsing with roy vunisifaor in time with the barrier that surrounded the ship. Carefully, she wrapped herself around it, probing to feel how it might be disabled, but then a blast of roy overwhelmed her senses, blinding and stunning her, her body wracked with pain and convulsing with the energy that pulsed through it.::

::When she regained her senses, she found she was no longer alone. There, just beyond the end of the passageway, were two of the rosivuh rur. They were still, though they made soft noises at each other, and their massive bodies glowed with roy nisifaor. It was no wonder they could not take it in; they were already suffused with it. She stared at the pair, waiting for them to make a move either toward or away from her, and when a third crashed down between the other two with a deafening thud, she shouted a nusay at them and fled, blind and still in great pain, down the corridor away from them. In her flight, she briefly alighted on something warm and soft, and she found the sensation of it intensely comforting before she realized that she’d alighted on one of the beasts themselves and continued her panicked dash. Seeking something, anything familiar, she made for the medical room she’d seen before.::

((END FLASHBACK))

::But when she’d arrived, she’d only found herself deeper in the same trouble she’d hoped to escape, as a smaller roy barrier had sprung up around her, trapping her. Another pair of the rosivuh rur were there, outside the barrier, one drawn up to full height and another in a more relaxed position, close to the downward surface. As she watched them, more of the beasts entered, moving slowly. They seemed to be observing her in return, though their fronds seemed strange and lifeless, either hanging limp or bundled together or pressed flat against their strange upward appendages. Frustrated and scared, she made the loudest, most grating noises she could manage at them, hoping to frighten or at least startle them.::

::It seemed to have little effect, though after a moment she began to hear sounds coming from the creatures. One of them, the one close to the ground, slowly reached an appendage toward her. The motion seemed… gentle. Perhaps even kind? Above, the other beasts roared at each other, but this one only reached out toward her. Then, the creature… spoke?::

Bailey: ::Whispers to the creature:: I understand you. I know how you feel.

::The words meant nothing she could understand, but the tone, the cadence… that was speech. Gingerly, she tried to reproduce the creature’s gesture toward her, extending a frond in the direction of the low rosivuh rur. The large one moved toward her, though, and directed a roar at her that made her flinch.::

Harkrow: My name is Lieutenant Jacob Harkrow, of the Federation Starship Montreal. Can you understand me?

::Although, now that she’d heard speech from the one creature, she could just recognize some of the same patterns in the roaring. What that also speech? Did the rosivuh rur roar at each other to communicate?::

Roraemey: Yufa nasero re? Vunsivuar viyufa namu re? (You can speak? You use spoken language?)

::Or, at least, that was what she’d intended to say, but she’d gotten her fronds so worked into knots that she’d mostly said gibberish. The second sentence had come out something closer to “place which is to this one a place similar what is”. Total nonsense, but the rosivuh rur responded to it. The low creature reached out toward her again.::

Sotak: ::reading from her attempt at understanding the language:: “Yufa identity?” “place of my being?” Apologies, I just tried a different pattern and I believe that the sound that reads as “yufa” could be translated to “person”, but the creature does not know that concept, so it could be the term to refer to the individual in a species.

Bailey: I think the creature understands more than it can tell us.

Harkrow: Oh, I think that’s an understatement.

Sotak: Indeed, it is can be interpreted in more usual terms as “What is your identity?” or “Who are you?” as is more casual. As to the second question, it not-so-literally translates to “Where am I?” ::raising a considering eyebrow:: It is rather obviously confused.

Bailey: It’s scared. It wonders why it was being caged.

Harkrow: Only natural. Any thoughts on how to continue?

Sotak: I suggest you continue trying to communicate. It is the only way I can create a complete language matrix.

Bailey: It doesn’t want to communicate with words.

Harkrow: ::Looking over at Bailey:: Do you have another suggestion, Ensign?

::The stream of nonsensical speech between the rosivuh rur paused after the large one addressed the low one. Then the low one extended a pair of appendages to grasp a pair of long assemblies of refined rua, and used them to push itself away from the surface. Or tried to, struggled to push upward against the unnatural gravity.::

::The gravity. A flash of insight struck Roraemay; this creature, like her, did not live in a gravity well like the one the ship carried. The assemblies she grasped, and the ones attached to her other appendages, were intended to hold her up like the other rosivuh rur, but they weren’t doing what they were supposed to. If she could show the creature she understood it…::

Harkrow: Hold on, it’s doing something. Ensign, you might-

Sotak: Response

::Roraemay slithered forward, wrapping herself around the lower appendages of the rosivuh rur. The sensation was unusual to say the very least, but also somehow comforting. Though, admittedly, the fact that the creature was feeding her a continuous source of roy nisifaor might have had something to do with that. She settled herself around the creature, feeling how the limbs might move, how they might function.::

Bailey: ::Face pressed to the ground:: Don’t come any closer. ::As if talking to the creature:: I’m going to try and stand back up now.

Harkrow: Just… be careful. And if it hurts you, hollar.

Sotak: Response

::The creature began pushing itself upright again, and Roraemay let it show her how it wanted to move, using the strength of her own body to enhance that of the creature, pushing up its core and out along the other limbs. The feeling was familiar, almost like piloting the nahe nefile, guiding him even as he told her how he wanted to go. Balancing the rosivuh rur against gravity just like she balanced the nahe on the curve of the roy funvi iroy. As they rose, she hummed to the creature, just as she hummed to the heart of the nahe to keep him calm when the space storms were at their strongest.::

Bailey: It think it’s used to a symbiotic relationship.

Harkrow: Let’s hope so.

Sotak: Response

::Roraemey felt the roy nisifaor from the creature’s body intensify slightly as it moved, in a way that suggested it was testing how it could move. It seemed to approve, for it set the assemblies it had picked up aside, relying on Roraemey to hold it up. Roraemey hummed her encouragement.::

::It felt oddly freeing to have the creature as almost a second exoskeleton around her body. She didn’t feel off balance or stiff, able, for the first time since needing them, to put her crutches down and stand with the life forms assistance. Sheila had a wide smile on her face as she felt the creature humming as well as breathing against her back.::

Bailey: I have an idea for an attempt at communication but I suggest that one of you go grab Solok so he can be present and observe.

Harkrow:...sure, I’ll do that, and Ensign Sotak can stay here and keep an eye on the translator. ::He looked at Sotak.:: And on Ensign Bailey.

Sotak: Response  

::Roraemey felt the creature draw in a breath, as though preparing to speak, but what came out was...::

Bailey: O mio babbino caro (O my dear papa)

::This… this was as big a shock as the speech had been. These creatures understood not just linguistics, but harmonics as well. They weren’t just beasts, not even smart beasts, they were… Suyuy. Non-Suyuy Suyuy, somehow. She matched her pitch and tone to the creature, and then, still not sure if they would understand, she introduced herself.::

Roraemey: Mivon say Siniun Nunviv say Fi Nahe say Roraemey Naf isi erili luh. (I am named Far-Flyer from the Ship Family from the Eighth Child from the Root.)

::And then, because her fear still wasn’t entirely gone, she added a petition.::

Roraemey: Rev felim ruvinir vusivuh lun luh. (I humbly ask you not to eat me.)

Harkrow: ::glancing at Sotak:: You get any of that?

Sotak/Solok/Bailey: Response

TAG/TBC

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Mivon say Siniun Nunviv say Fi Nahe say Roraemey Naf

(Far-Flyer from the Ship Family from the Eighth Child from the Root)

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As Simmed By:

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Lieutenant Jacob Harkrow

Chief Engineer

USS Montreal NCC-64927

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M239510JH0