astraeus Wandering Whispers of Astraeus' Stars

[Serala]

Going to kick off the new quotes thread for the Astraeus with one from our Vulcan doctor, @Solok. I just love me some dry, Vulcan humor 😂

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Snow: You did a great job, Doctor Solok. At least now her body is starting to slowly accept the new piece of it. Though we’ll need to keep her on round the clock supervision. I'd say with a few more treatments of Cervaline that she will be okay to begin physical therapy next week. Fingers crossed things continue to improve.

The Vulcan glanced from the CMO’s face to her hands, but did not see anything unusual about the placement of her fingers.

 

 

[Elizabeth Snow]

Humor is always a great thing in a sim and @Serala definitely killed it with this one. 🤣 

 

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Kelv: I’m Tellarite, engineering is part of my culture, try and keep up. ::She wiggled her nose slightly:: People aren’t much different than starships. Doctors ::She gestured to Snow:: fix and patch up their components. The epidermis is just a person’s hull. Heart, lungs, brain. Warp core, environmental controls, and computer. ::She extended a finger each time and tapped it with her index finger of the opposite hand as she counted:: A person’s mental state is just their programming, their software. And if the hardware gets damaged enough, sooner or later you’re going to get some corrupted software. Let it go too long and that can cause problems with the hardware. That’s why I became a counselor. People need someone to keep them stable and running efficiently mentally, as much as they need a doctor to keep their body in top shape. 

Snow: I guess that’s a unique way of seeing a person. 

Isa: I should say so. Starships can be replaced. People can’t. But I get your point. :: smirking :: Just don’t ask me to lubricate your joints.

 

 

[Mei'konda]

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Solok: A masterful cut, Doctor. Although I am puzzled as to why you opted to make the incision by hand. Would not a computer-operated scalpel have been more reliably precise?

Elizabeth looked at Solok and smiled. Sure she could have used the computer to do it for her, but some things she just liked doing herself. 

Snow: Thanks. I could have, but I guess I’m a little old fashioned sometimes and prefer to do things myself once in a while. 

Solok nodded.

Solok: I understand. I am of a similar opinion, when I must treat my slug.

It showed just how Vulcan he really was, that he was the only one in the room – or in the tales that were told of this moment, later on – who did not understand why what he had said could be construed as unusual or humorous in any way.

Elizabeth smiled and heard a slight chuckle come from Stenner. She had to say she has never heard that one before. 

Snow: Slug?

They were interrupted – mercifully, perhaps – by Stenner.

 

More Vulcan humor, during a wonderful medical scene being written by @Solok and @Elizabeth Snow as they replace our chief Nurse's spine, during a post-mission surgery!

[Toryn Raga]

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Mei reached out to offer her one of his fuzzy hands. Lowering his voice, he continued.

 

Mei’konda: And you’ll coome through just fine. By the way. If you liike the false fur, the real thiing is much better.

@Mei'konda Do you want to be hugged by your Chief Nurse once she can walk again? Because this is how you get a hug from your Chief Nurse who's obsessed with plushies designed in your honor/image. 

[Serala]

I loved seeing 101 and 000 step up to defend this young local. Great stuff @Mason G! Also, the idea of a purple football was supposed to be a serious thought, but it still gave me a chuckle.
 

101 took a step forward, trying not to scowl, but 000 lacked the courage of their partner and remained a little further back— though still within reach.

101: Leave her alone. She’s just a little girl.

Levinson: Response

T'Prana: Response

McKnight / Kiax: Responses

The second guard squinted at 101, probably trying to decide if it was worth the trouble to punt them like a little purple football, but after a moment he let it go. His shoulders relaxed slightly with the decision, but his expression remained sour.

Guard 2: Perhaps not— after a while, they all look the same… but don’t think you can convince me that she can be trusted.

101 stood firm, unimpressed by the response. With a concerned expression, 000 leaned in to Jurong to speak to her.

000: ::softly, to Ka’ala:: Are you okay?

[+ Lansa Cheveyo-Arma]

I just about died laughing reading this. XD

From Esa's sim "Standoffish":

Nodding, Esa turned back to the guards.

Kiax: So. We’re going in, with Ms Ka’ala here. And you’re going to let us.

Guard 1: And what makes you so sure of that, spotty?

Esa glared at the obviously racist man. Yes, she had spots. All Trill did; and you could be damn sure that all Trill were of better moral stock than him. Though Esa was certainly not above retaliating with the name calling.

Kiax: Because, you feckless oaf – you’re going to come in with us.

[Toryn Raga]

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The Caitian nodded thoughtfully in return.

 

Mei’konda: Yes, the installation of additional structural integrity field and inertial dampener generators was a hiigh priority while I supervised the Astraeus refit when I was a Lieutenant Commander. Her spaceframe may be agiing, but the math added up in our simulations. She handles quantum slipstream well enough, so high conventional warp should be achievable. One little step at a time.

 

He paused for a moment, allowing a slight smile to cross his muzzle.

 

Mei’konda: And, perhaaps, I have a little extra motivation. The Constitution has a maximum speed of somewhere between warp fourteen and warp fifteen on our new warp scale. I thiink we can do a little better.

 

This made me crack up a little. As I also write on the Conny I couldn't help but smirk a little bit in pride and amusement. A tale of two Galaxy classes. :D Did you know we also have removeable Warp nacelles on the Conny to? Just ask @Jalana!

[Serala]

So, for context, the Astraeus is conducting warp tests to test out a new maximum emergency threshold and we're engaging in some risky behavior. This piece of @Mason G's latest sim in that arc just had me crackin' up, so I thought I would share it with everyone.

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Serala: I agree with Lansa, but this is only a test. We have the power available at the moment, and if it becomes necessary, we can always redistribute and drop our speed. But my recommendation is to push things and see just what we can manage under duress.

Mei’konda: A test liike this should take into account as many variables as possible. If all of you agree that this is viaable, then I agree. Any other concerns?

Raga: Another thing to consider is that our new emergency warp capability is also heavily reliant on both the Astraeus’ impressive sensor suite and the deflector. If either or both of those are not working at full capacity, or offline entirely would we even be able to use the higher warp speed without colliding into something that kills us?

While programming their update to the navigational systems, 101 had successfully kept their partner’s mind off of the whole “what if this fails and we crash into a space rock and explode across the cosmos like some kind of sad, messed-up space roadkill” possibility. Briefly and halfheartedly, they cursed Toryn for voicing the concept aloud where 000 could hear it.

Of course, the thought wormed its way into 000’s head and put them through about fifty different horrified facial expressions— likely one for each terrible death that they imagined could befall a crew zipping through space at the insane speed of warp thirteen point three.

101: There is a predictive feature to our navigational program,
000: u-um…
101: …which should buy us a few moments in the event of a sensor failure to slow down…

Mei inclined his head toward the two Bynars, probably just in time for him to see 000 with a look like they were sitting on a rollercoaster just before its big drop.

 

Now I'm hoping we don't turn into space roadkill. Thanks, @Mason G 😂

[Serala]

Okay, @Mason G's next one was equally as good, though not necessary for the comedy - though there is a bit here as well. Just very well written and great insight into the Bynar mind.

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The thought of moving straight up to 13.5 from 13.3 instead of first making a pit stop at 13.4 was harrowing, to say the least, especially if each increase was more and more difficult to make.

The Bynars listened closely to the other voices on the bridge, but were too focused on their station to feel particularly comfortable speaking. Like the Astraeus, every living being’s brain only had so many resources to go around— attention was finite, and it took more and more of their concentration to keep up with the navigation as the speed of the ship grew higher and higher.

The communication of paired Bynars’ brains was very much like a dance— a dance which 101 usually lead and 000 usually followed.

Through a complex web of interactions aided by their synaptic processors and memory buffers, they worked together to achieve something greater than the sum of their parts. They were a carefully balanced team that had worked and grown into each other for 26 years, knit so closely together that even their brains seemed to be two halves of one whole, but in truth, they were no longer a perfect match for each other. It was the result of the terrifying ordeal of being alive and gaining life experience that they processed in different ways, because no two things could ever be truly identical. As far as Bynars went, they were an oddball pair that hadn’t been truly in sync for the past eight years— not since 000 had become “damaged goods” and their dance was thrown terribly out of balance.

In every dance, there was the risk of stepping on each other’s toes. There was the risk of one partner going up for the leap and the spin in front of the audience, and the other partner failing to catch them in front of the horrified crowd.

All it took was one second of hesitation for the dance to fall out of sync. 000 heard the hull of the ship groan in response to the strain of the speed, and in a moment of involuntary panic, tripped through a calculation. Their brain missed the pass of a number to 101, and the entire chain of calculations fell apart.

000: Wait— wait!
101: We’ve lost it,
000: stop!

Mei'konda: Response

Serala / Cheveyo-Arma / Peters / Raga: Responses

The ship fell out of the accelerated warp and back down to a speed that was easier to manage. The Bynars weren’t sure if they’d managed to hit warp 13.5 or not, but they’d been asked to say something as soon as they became uncertain of their ability to calculate geographic changes fast enough for the ship’s speed… and so they had.

000 pressed their face into their hands, thoroughly embarrassed.

101: ::quietly:: We were doing great, what happened?
000: I’m so sorry, Captain, that was… that was my fault. I couldn’t keep up.
101: Zero…
000: It was. I’m sorry, I— I was really scared. I flubbed some numbers.

101 seemed unsure of what to say, but didn’t look away from their partner.

 

 

[Mei'konda]

Good ol' @Valin Dermont. Not just humorous, as he almost always is, but this time, he shares a wonderful anecdote with @Noa T'Nessa Levinson about why his beloved coffee is so, well. Beloved.

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Levinson: Perhaps I should clarify myself, though. Chocolate is intoxicating to Vulcans, but my hybrid biochemistry makes me practically immune to it. ::Shrugging:: As I said, I like the taste. ::Beat:: Why do you like coffee, if you do not mind me asking? And how do you drink it?

He cocked an eyebrow. Why did he like coffee? Of all the things he had been planning for today, this conversation had not been part of it. And how does one describe something so much more than "liking" something.

Dermont: Couple o' sugars, shot o' tobasco. Err...alright...um. Imagine if ya would, a group o' soldiers. Ya know, ancient Earth soldiers. Swords and the like. And they are bein' attacked by an endless onslaught o' enemies. They are being pushed back step by step ta the edge of a cliff. And one by one they fall over the side, but they keep fightin'. Then...just as they were almost all gone, they received reinforcements. A calvary line pushes through and joins 'em on the cliffside! Hurrah! ::Dermont waggles his fingers, doing "jazz hands":: It reinspires the soldiers and everyone fights harder! Fer a bit. But they all know unless another cavalry charge comes again soon, that they're all goin' over the cliff.

He signs a bit and looks at his thermos.

Dermont: Well, every mornin' I wake up, my soldiers are already on the edge o' that cliff. They need those reinforcements as soon as they can. And then fresh troops every couple o' hours. If not, ::snaps a finger and then waves the hand as if into the wind.:: over the cliff. That...and I really, really like the taste.

Levinson: That's fair. I don't judge.