Redemption (Rated T) - A Pirate/Fleet RP

[Kat]

Kat perked up. "Are we rounding up two Lerayes this time?" she asked, scratching her head. "This really is nuts." Turning to Huntress, she added, "The only spot higher than mine is yours, and I'm content with mine, anyway. But shinies are pretty..."

She cleared her throat. "Shinies aside, what now?"

[Kengplant]

"I'd say we use another magical homing kitty but that would probably just lead us back to him." Keng jerked a finger at the current Leraye. "So, Fraze, I guess you're leading the way. As for him..." Keng threw her thumb at the green haired nurse again, "I'm not entirely sure I want him meeting himself. It could be trouble. One is enough of a headache, I don't need them scheming together. Though I don't really think we can leave him here unguarded. We could throw him into a cell I suppose. Thoughts Captain?"

[Cyborg]

" Well if I may, I have a suggestion. Not putting him in a cell. He will teleport out, and then we will once again have two Lerayes loose in the Spacefleet. I say we split into two groups, one patrol one half of the HQ, the other patrol the other half. It would make finding the other Leraye easier." Cyborg suggested.

[Huntress]

Hunty knew well that she should've been acting diplomatically, but she was still a pirate with only a very thin layer of quickly acquired and patched-on restraint. So she didn't even try to hide her irritation as Keng lectured her.

"See, this is what we've come to," she said gruffly to everyone in general. "Pirates. Only in name, anyway. Playing by everyone's code except our own."

"Their turf, their rules," Bloody Mary pointed out, ears flattening. A more accurate reply would've been 'technically we're all criminals, so the diplomacy is our only protection' but he wasn't about to say that out loud.

Hunty cooled off nevertheless. "True. Fine then, Leraye... you actually make a valid point. Still, if you remember, you joined our crew back on those days. As such, the crew-specific Pirate Code paragraphs extend to you in any and all questions. Yes, we backstabbed the ninjas... and a bunch of other people if memory serves." She paused, trying to remember whether the Fleet had anything to hold against her in this question. Maybe they really should cut back on backstabbing. Not good for diplomacy. "But that's a completely different thing than backstabbing your crew. A pirate is never to betray their crew, no matter what they otherwise do. Cyborg here did that... ask him what his sentence was."

Only then did she remember about the wound she'd gotten earlier, and bent her back a little. The pain was gone. Right... all things considered, she hadn't been stabbed yet.

This was getting really confusing.

"As of right now," she said, "you're at the Spacefleet's mercy, and therefore none of my business. Yet. But remember, you're not off the hook and we'll talk when the time and opportunity comes. Right now we got more pressing matters, in which you might come in handy. By the way, the trick is to keep the knees together. ...And the legs. And the feet firmly to the ground, or you'll end up breaking a heel, really, is this your first time undercover?"

She'd probably have added something, but Fraze's loud "what?!" came as a distraction. Hunty shot a scowl at him. Experience had shown that this one word never meant good news, and she wasn't sure how much more bad news she'd be able to take this day before going very, uh, undiplomatic.

In a minute, though, Fraze told her, "I've just been informed--somehow didn't figure it out myself--that it is highly likely the other Leraye is with your ninja friend...Ah! There's your little monkey, still around the civilian section."

Hunty grinned. This counted as good news. "I owe you one. Actually you should be interested in the monkey more than I am, it's not my HQ at stake here." Come to think of it, the Weewoo would probably have been able to capture the monkey and take away the gem all on its own. Talk about high-tech.

She fell into thoughts, trying to work her brain around the situations. There were three people out there she was interested in finding, and all matters were pressing. When Kat asked what they'd do next, she really couldn't tell. But the others seemed to be in favor of finding Leraye.

"I'm not entirely sure I want him meeting himself," Keng said. "It could be trouble. One is enough of a headache, I don't need them scheming together. Though I don't really think we can leave him here unguarded. We could throw him into a cell I suppose. Thoughts Captain?"

" Well if I may, I have a suggestion. Not putting him in a cell. He will teleport out, and then we will once again have two Lerayes loose in the Spacefleet," Cyborg said.

Hunty raised an eyebrow. "He won't be teleporting anywhere without the gem. But I'd feel better if I knew for a fact that he won't be causing any more trouble... might be better to keep him under our eyes. It took us long enough to track him down, I don't want to take any more risks. If the two were to meet, we'll be right there, so they won't be able to do any sneaky plotting," she nodded at Leraye, "and should you or your temporal counterpart try anything funny anyway, mark my word I'll shoot first and deal with all the diplomatic crud later. Time to go find that other Leraye, and Speck, with any luck. And move it, people, hup-hup-hup, time is of the essence because the demon-gang is closing in."

[Rider]

[glow=red,2,300]"mark my word I'll shoot first and deal with all the diplomatic crud later."

"There is no need to threaten, Captain," Leraye said, though he looked about as threatened as a lion before a yippy little dog. "I will come peacefully."

Meanwhile, Leraye's other self was making no such promises.

Naturally, he could not do anything to make the ninja suspicious. She was his only ally in this labrynth.

... Unless she was only pretending to be his ally, and was really leading him right to security. Leraye couldn't remember where their nearest office was.

It didn't pay to make assumptions in any case.

"Miss, miss!" he hissed to the ninja. Her voice seemed familiar somehow, but he couldn't place it. "Miss!"

The bike was anxious. He could feel it. There was no telling when it would react again.

Maybe if he could absorb the bike, he could fix the time-warp.

There would be scientists in the lab with the bike. Probably as few as possible, as it was a dangerous object. Scientists usually aren't fighters, not that Leraye intended to muscle his way in, but it was an option.

"To narrow down the search, miss, I work with data pertaining to a magical Bike - the very motorcycle that may have caused this temporal anomaly. if you know where the labs are, my other self may be speaking with the scientists to fix the problem. I shall lead you there." [/glow]

[Omni]

"Same one you heard of. At least I'm fairly sure, the name isn't that common. We've had quite a bit of trouble with him in the past."

It wasn't much longer before the pirates had left, chasing after some purple kitten. "Leraye…" Fesserfa muttered. "Leraye… Where have I heard that name…" She walked over to one of the terminals and brought up some planetside writings. "I think it was from some older records."

A 'search' later, she looked through the results which, thankfully, were limited.

"A strange man named Leraye came today, with a gift: a large jewel, with the most beautiful shine and amazing power."

There were other, similar entries. There were entries that suggested that the jewel's powers helped bring 'an age of prosperity.' Fesserfa selected an entry that led to a journal; the biggest one she noticed.

"Contentions are beginning to build. Everyone seems to want the jewel, and diplomatic attempts to obtain it aren't going well. I'd love to help, but Nelly is waiting for my visit, and it's a long journey to Flouterra. I'll do what I can when I return."

…

"I do not believe it… I have returned to my homeland only to find it empty. There are no bodies, although there is much damage, and blood. Many, many things have been left behind - there are stables with saddles and bridles, but no horses. 'Tis almost as if there was a curse that caused everyone to vanish suddenly.

"I will take as many of my possessions as I can and leave. I only hope the curse doesn't take me as well.

"Perhaps Nelly will let me stay with her until I have property of my own."

"Okay…" Brian had been reading over her shoulder. "What happened?"

Fesserfa skimmed through other entries. "There was a war over the jewel… but everything ends before it says what happened."

"Weeeeeird. They weren't all killed: no bodies. …Do you think it's something the gem did, like a backfire when using it, or did someone do this on purpose?"

"I don't know. But if that jewel has power and Leraye brought it…"

[Huntress]

Bloody Mary was half-sitting, half-hanging on Hunty's shoulder as usual, glad to have someone else in charge of things and worrying about them, when he realized that the captain was looking at him. He turned his head to meet her glance.

"Justice." Hunty didn't even whisper it. It was more like a breath of quiet voice together with mouthing the word. The meepit only understood it because they'd been talking about it earlier. He frowned, then raised an eyebrow in question.

She nodded.

Bloody Mary made a grimace, then sunk off her shoulder into the cluster of meepits around Hunty's feet that had loyally followed her around like a small blinking carpet, feeling somewhat ignored and redundant by this point. Now they perked their ears as Bloody Mary and Justice stuck their noses together.

A moment later, a meepit was climbing up Hunty's clothes again while the blinking carpet was looking bored and redundant again. Their ears were still perked, though. Somewhere in the middle was a female meepit who had just heard three words that would prove to be difficult to follow.

Get the book.

She had to admit that it was smart to do it right now while the entire Fleet was distracted with the time warp and the two Lerayes, but it would still be tricky, because she had to use the Realms.

Justice spent a couple minutes laying out the plan, step by step, then she sighed, remembered very carefully how exactly the portal-business worked, tried it out a couple times in her head to make sure it sounded right, and then disappeared into a small blossom of darkness.

***

The Meepit Realms.

She'd nearly forgotten what it was like to be there, and the memories she did have were somewhat hazy, considering that the rabies, when adapted successfully, give a meepit a whole new view on the world, but Justice wasn't the undisputed brainpower of the small anarchist gang for nothing.

At this point, she had the element of surprise. Rabid meepits weren't just a rare sight in the Realms; they never went there. It was just impossible that any of them would be seen there, so the nearest meepits may have spotted her, but their brains took a while to actually believe what they saw. And by the time they did, she'd already be-

-Spacefleet kitchen. Big cupboard. Bag of-

-gone.

Justice rematerialized in the cupboard which, thankfully, wasn't at once opened by a random fleeter just for the sake of comedic irony. She knew that she had maybe five, ten seconds before a mob of angry meepits would fill the cupboard. So she didn't waste any time jumping into the flour sack.

The meepit that flashed through the Realms next was white, and since she no longer had the easy giveaway sign of dark blue fur, she got through without any trouble. She knew that she was being pursued, but she also knew that it'd now take them a while to track her down via portals.

And now she was in the library. Section IV, row 25-b. Check. Second shelf from bottom - she jumped up, leaving small white spots behind - towards the middle - some of the books on the shelf got a touch of white on their backs - look for a black bound notebook about two centimeters thick. Here we go. Spiral design on the front - she pulled it out - yep, that's the one.

Justice cast a quick glance over the row, and as there were no other books on the shelf that would've matched the description even remotely, decided that her work was done. She disappeared with the notebook.

This time the Realms were an angry mass of colorful little critters, all seething and squeaking so fast that it sounded like a big hangar full of rattlesnakes. The word about a white meepit was already out, but white meepits are ten a penny and Justice wasn't the only one teleporting into the Realms at that particular moment, so they couldn't tell the difference at once. She won time again, pinpointed the next location, and was off.

Her new location was small, dark, and quiet. In fact, it had only barely enough room for her and the notebook. Justice wasn't entirely sure what this place was. She only knew that it was somewhere in the engine of Keng's spaceship, in a compartment that was just small enough to have no more room for new meepit-portals now that she was in it. There'd be incoming meepits soon enough, but - and this was the important bit - they'd only be able to teleport into the other side of a nice thick steel wall. This gave her quite a bit of time.

She sat down on the notebook and began to lick the flour off. If she was to teleport back to the medical ward as a white meepit, they'd be able to connect it with any surveillance camera footage the library might now have on her. This still meant that she'd have to take one last trip through the Realms in her dark blue fur, but now she knew where to get back to and therefore wouldn't have to spend more than a second. That was quite enough.

There was already angry squeaking and scratching outside. She didn't mind. She finished the cleaning and then wiped as much flour off the notebook as she could, because she was polite like that. Then she edged over to one wall to lift the cover of the notebook.

There was no title page. The notes just... started, and seemed to go on for pages and pages, in small neat handwriting. The meepit skimread through them, trying to find any connection with Merpo to make sure this was the book in question.

Five minutes later, she was staring blankly at the page. This was Merpo's, alright. She'd found the name on the printed 'if found, please return to' label on the inside of the back cover, but even if it hadn't been there, she couldn't have thought of anyone else even remotely insane enough to conduct a research - and such a thorough research - on this.

She looked down at the page at hand again, at this one word that defined it all.

The Underdeep.

***

About half a minute later, a dark blue meepit, now without the notebook, teleported into the cluster of blinking eyes and blue fur around Hunty's feet again. The rest of the gang covered the blossom of darkness, but they all knew that they wouldn't be able to cover the ones that would be pouring into the entire medical ward within the matter of seconds.

[Rider]

[glow=red,2,300]((Dashes indicate Meepit speech, which is a combo of paw gestures, subtle eye movements and facial expressions and squeaks, though it is surprisingly not dependant on the squeaks.))

When it came to Meepits of all colors, genders, shapes, sizes and walks of life, Ventratta thought he was a pretty open-minded Meepit. More so than his grandfather, who had last held his position, had been.

But rabid Meepits were unsettling. They were nice people and all. Bloody Mary was a fun guy to shoot the breeze with. But on a personal level, they were far too human. On a non-personal level, they were dangerous. All it took was one bite to turn a perfectly good, rational Meepit into a lawless madman. He had heard tales of Meepits dying from rabies in the streets, tales of them eating their own dead, tales of them cracking one day and killing thier own families.

And a rabid Meepit entering the Realms was a major security issue. Like most major security issues in a town with a spit-and-prayers military and without a police force, it required an angry mob.

Darkness bloomed around everyone's ankles. Like a CDC inspector's worst nightmare, a flood of Meepits tumbled into the Spacefleet.

Ventratta scurried down to ground-level. He called his top officers, Nalia and Offsephious and tried to calm the crowd.

- Calm down, there has not been a major breach of security. The problem is being taken care of. You're sure it was this Meepitess? There was a book, you say? There is no need to be alarmed. There was a shiny metal ship involved?

Rider listened to the argument intently. She could understand Ventratta the clearest, but the others she could definitely hear.

- Please, ladies and gentlemen, go home. The problem will be resolved. Miss, calm yourself. Please, go home.

When the crowd was gone, Nalia pulled a very large frying pan out of hammerspace and muttered something about giving that Meepitess a taste of real justice. Offsephious had to step in and say something about the limits of their jurisdiction.

- Do you know what the penalty is for a mentally unstable rabid Meepit entering the Realms? Euthanization. And all rabid Meepits are seen as mentally unstable. Anyone a shade darker than Nalia here. You know who would have had to be the one to put you down if you had been caught? My men.

A small cough.

- Or women, thank you Nalia.

- Rabid rat has got no buisness in...

- Thank you Nalia. Look, I don't know you that well, but you seem like a nice girl. But if you can't respect our boundries, I will not hesitate to...

He was even hesitating to say the words.

The Fleeters were still in the room. Rider hesitated to call her Captain out on this in front of them. She shot several pointy, stabby looks in her direction, though. [/glow]

[Jina]

Anester was still grinning. Stealing the gem had been fun. Now the only problem was to get back to Tabloid Town so she could sell her newfound gem without being caught. And she'd managed to sneak up, right?

"Hey, you!"

[glow=green,2,300]-------[/glow]

Jina twisted around to see the commotion. Someone was getting tackled by a couple of gu- wait, wasn't that the monkey again? Deciding this might turn out to be interesting, she followed as the monkey was carried away.

[Fraze]

"I owe you one. Actually you should be interested in the monkey more than I am, it's not my HQ at stake here."
"Point. But you're here with us for now, so the fate of the HQ affects everyone. Anyway, it's..." he paused to get oriented--which involved overlaying a map of the HQ on his vision. It showed up in wireframe, much like a it would in a video game. "...This should be the shortest way to the other Leraye. Down a corridor off from the 102-143 labs." The last sentence was added for Keng's benefit--he was wondering if she would pick up that this was quite near to the Bike.
He began walking, assuming the crowd would follow. As he did, he sent a message to Amneiger, Ethan, Bacon, and Security in general. "There's a monkey with one of the Lerayes' gems. It's a bit off the civilian section, in the eastern corridor. I'll patch through the live security footage of it. We're going to get the other Leraye now, can anyone try to get the monkey?"

After some walking, he became aware of a small commotion. Coming from--where? He looked around, but couldn't see the source of the disturbance.
Then he looked down. The dark blue cloud hovering around Hunty's ankles seemed to be agitated. Upon further inspection, there was another cloud of similar height, this one multicolored. If Hunty's group of meepits seemed agitated, this group was furious. Add in a few torches and pitchforks, maybe an angry rallying cry, and the image of a miniature Angry Mob would be complete.
He held back the urge to ask, "Are these your friends?" He wasn't sure what the entire answer would be, but knew that, at least, the first part would be "No."
Anyway, it seemed the walking had just paused for now, so he stopped walking. "Uhm, anyone care to explain what's happening?"

--------

Merpo was in his lab. There were no windows, no one was around to see him. He was dressed much differently now: simple, practical, and drab--long pants, closed-toed shoes, and a long sleeve shirt. The most eccentric thing about his look was the lab coat, once white but now stained from too many lab spills. His hair was black flecked with gray, and thinning. His expression was different, as well. Where once the manic grin had been forcefully stamped on his face, there was now an intense, thoughtful expression as he bent over some small piece of electronics.
All the power in his moderately-sized mansion came from wind. Most of the people on this forsaken planet didn't even know what electricity was, much less how to use it. There was a machine in the corner. A shaft rose straight up from it, through the ceiling of the lab into the wall of the main story of the house. It continued on up, rising straight out of the roof. At the end of this shaft was a wind turbine, spinning slowly in the breeze. This was one of four turbines sticking out of the roof, each one supplying power to a different part of the house. All of the machines hummed loudly, so they were all located here, in the lab. The hum would be an incessant nuisance elsewhere in the house, but here it simply seemed to belong, in its own droning, hypnotic way. It filtered out all unnecessary thoughts, allowing him to focus completely on conducting his research.
Merpo had built all four wind generators with his own hands and money, with little more than a saw, a socket wrench, and a soldering iron he had smuggled from Spacefleet. Many had called him mad, but none had ever called him stupid.

In fact, many called him a genius. He had spent the last twenty years recompiling the data it had taken him six months to gather while he was still in Spacefleet. He was able to recall only 4.22% of it from memory, by his own estimation--but considering the amount of raw data involved, this was still an impressive feat. After two decades, he had nearly 46% of it back. If things went well, though, all the studies he did back in Spacefleet would be in his possession once again, very soon.
He was perhaps mad--mad with purpose and a certain kind of greed--but he knew better than to place all his hopes in this. He continued his research even today. In case this didn't pan out, he would still continue research on the Underdeep.

When he first came to this planet to work and study, it didn't take him long to hear about this place. The Underdeep. It had quickly fascinated him. After a few weeks, he found a way to transport things there from the lab. When he was still in Spacefleet, he had gathered data on it by transporting small probes there--first stationary drones, later ones he could control by remote. These studies showed the possibility for the Underdeep to be a source of incredible amounts of energy--easily enough to power his entire home planet of fifteen billion inhabitants, and still have plenty to spare for this backwater world and its Spacefleet.
Of course, the higher-ups found out about it. They were afraid, said that the Underdeep was a bad place, and that no research on it should ever be done. He had done this in his spare time, while doing whatever they wanted of him when he was on the clock. But the higher-ups got scared, they wanted him out.

One beaker. One beaker he checked out and forgot to return, this was the only thing they could hold against him. That wasn't even for his Underdeep research, it was just for a side-side project to amuse him. Somehow, the top brass had managed to inflate this to theft of valuable and sensitive Spacefleet equipment, and had him sent to the surface. Just days before he was ready to tap the energy in the Underdeep.

He made his fortune through patents, "inventing" things and selling them off. Things that were something even less than commonplace at home, things that were downright boring. Like trading beads with the Indians. He needed the money--even simple things like insulated wire became outrageously expensive when they had to be made by hand from a metal smith. Oh, but he dreamed of the day he could tell Spacefleet that he could sell them all the energy they could possibly want, forever. But he wouldn't. They could beg all they wanted, he would never tell them how to access the energy wells of the Underdeep. No, he would use this new energy source to power a shuttle off the planet--and no one would touch him, because they would still be hoping to get this new power supply.





His daughter was four and a half when he left home. She would just have turned twenty-five. If he got the notebook now, he could see her in a matter of months, maybe even weeks. If he didn't, it might take another twenty years or more. The part of him that was still sane, still parental, wanted to weep--from joy or agony, he wasn't sure.

[Rider]

[glow=red,2,300]"Uhm, anyone care to explain what's happening?"

"No blasted idea." Rider said. And she was only half-lying.

Meanwhile, the Meepit rioters hadn't gone completely. They were re-grouping in a supply closet. Re-grouping and re-arming.

No one was entirely sure what was going on. They just sort of assumed that everyone else knew. That was the main problem with angry mobs. Mob mentality. They were a chicken running around with its head cut off. A very spiky, squeaky, angry chicken.

- The head of the rabid Meepits!

- The head of any who stand in our way!

- The head of that piece of lettuce two shelves above me!

- CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGE!

With some effort and climbing, the Meepits opened the closet door... and had no idea where they were.

- Stay together, Meepits! We'll find them!

And so a very angry Meepit horde was loose on Spacefleet. just in case there weren't enough wrenches in the works.[/glow]

[Huntress]

"Uhm, anyone care to explain what's happening?"

"You'll have to ask the meepits," Hunty said, looking down at the fuzzy blue carpet around her feet, "and you'd be surprised how reluctant they can get in anything pertaining meepitstuff. Which is why I don't usually ask. Same result, less trouble."

She shot a glance at Bloody Mary, who was once again poker-faced. The meepit didn't at that point know whether Justice had actually succeeded or not, but asking her now wouldn't have made a difference, and as long as he knew nothing, he could stay looking perfectly innocent.

"It's a political thing, so to say," he still said. "Remember what I said about rabid meepits and the Realm? Well, I wasn't kidding." Something flashed in his eyes. "But that's our business."

"It might soon be everyone's business," Hunty pointed out. "I know you guys. One can't get rid of angry meepits that easily." She made a thoughtful grimace. "And I'm pretty darn sure that your diplomatic immunity is getting very stretched at this."

"Har-har." Bloody Mary didn't sound too concerned. "Unlike you and your," he waved his paw around, "pseudo-politicianizing, we don't have diplomatic immunity to start with. Or politicial power, for that matter. We're simpler. And more straightforward. And pointier."

Hunty sighed. "I know. Don't tempt me."

[Goosh]

"Um, Goosh? What exactly happened while you were away from us?"

Goosh frowned. "I think you mean what will happen. Or perhaps not, what with timelines and all that." He held up his hand, the dark wound still painfully swollen. "I got bitten by a spider, though I'm thinking it wasn't a good spider, if those exist. What with the horns and--"

there is power here; seize it

"--all, I'm thinking it was a demon spider. Which is not so good." The Yurble was talking rapidly, trying to keep himself alert and awake and ignoring that raspy voice he had thought he had heard. "I suppose our best course of action is to find some sort of antidote to the bite and then stop me from getting bitten. Oh, and then we have to save Buckbeak. And your kids, Zylaa, something's gotta be done about your kids!"

use the girl. take her power. it is yours by right.

His hand twitched. Shrugging it off, he continued down the hallway.

[Zylaa]

"I think you mean what will happen. Or perhaps not, what with timelines and all that."

"Stupid time warp, messing up grammar tenses," Zylaa muttered. She realized, then, that was the least of her worries, as Goosh held up his hand, with an ominous-looking, swollen puncture mark.

"I got bitten by a spider, though I'm thinking it wasn't a good spider, if those exist. What with the horns and--"

"I'm sure good spiders do exist, we can't stereotype the poor arachnids," Zylaa began when Goosh broke off. Then she registered Goosh's expression, which had gone from slightly muddled and sickened to stark terror in the span of two seconds.

"--all, I'm thinking it was a demon spider. Which is not so good. I suppose our best course of action is to find some sort of antidote to the bite and then stop me from getting bitten. Oh, and then we have to save Buckbeak. And your kids, Zylaa, something's gotta be done about your kids!"

Zylaa tried to digest this speech for a few seconds, noting that Goosh's hand twitched, which could mean anything, really. Of course, it would mean something bad, since this whole exchange had "Foreboding" written all over it.

"Buckbeak had it easy," Zylaa said, latching on to the one part of sentence she understood. "He just waited around for Harry and Hermione to time-warp and come save him." She caught up with Goosh, watching him closely. "And I don't have any children, you know. At least, I don't think I do. I'm pretty sure I would remember if I did." She considered this for a moment.

As they continued walking towards the closest infirmary, Zylaa realized that at this rate, Goosh would probably fall over from exhaustion by the time they got there. She had an idea.

Fishing inside her coat for her spoon, she got it out and with a sweeping wave, summoned the weasels. All 300 popped out of midair, some landing on Goosh's head, some on hers, but most on the floor, staring up at the spoon.

"Goosh, if it's okay with you, why don't we have the weasels carry you to the infirmary? They'll probably get you there faster, and you look like you could use a lie-down."

[Omni]

"There's a monkey with one of the Lerayes' gems. It's a bit off the civilian section, in the eastern corridor. I'll patch through the live security footage of it. We're going to get the other Leraye now, can anyone try to get the monkey?"

YES! Ethan thought to himself. Finally, he had something else to do, and it sounded like something more important, too. Still, he couldn't just leave these people alone…

Thankfully, he didn't have to think about that for long, as somebody who he recognized as a Spacefleet ambassador/negotiator/etc. walked into the room; someone who would be better at this that him.

He ran up and immediately started with "So glad you're here! You see, most of the people here-"

"Easy, Marine," this new person told him, "I've been sent to handle the situation. Now you can go and do whatever you marines do."

"Thank you." Calling Siber, he ran out of the cafeteria and headed for the civilian section. "This is Ethan. I'm heading for the civilian section right now. Ready to receive the security feed.