Anomaly [Closed] - Printable Version

Anomaly [Closed] - Printable Version

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RE: Anomaly [Closed] - megs - 10-21-2019

Julianna had been outfitted with a number of devices. All them kept her...connected, to the ship. And therefore, to Owen as well. Her communicator gave him access to her bodily signs. He could monitor her heart rate, or her breathing. She had a holographic HUD that allowed him to access what she was seeing when she wasn't on the ship. So far, she was finding the most annoying new technology was a small earpiece that allowed her to understand common space-faring languages. That part of it was nice, was she did not like was it gave Owen the ability to speak to her privately.

This whisper function, of his was just as it sounded. He was talking to only her. It felt as intimate as it would have been if someone with a body had leaned in close to murmur to her in confidence. This kept her from noticing his disagreeable syntax.

Realistically, she was no longer listening to either of them. Owen was being kind of rude and...distracting. Her shoulder hunched near her ear as if she had been tickled and her heart thumped in her chest. She felt hot.

"I need both of you to stop talking," she said out loud. Finally, addressing them. "I'm trying to think." She lifted her hands towards her head to emphasize that they were annoying her. She made a soft, pained sound as an ache shot like lightning through her shoulder.

She dropped into the pilot chair as Owen defended himself against May'ev's teasing comment. For a moment, her mask displayed what looked like an 8-bit grinning emoticon. A semi-colon in front of a capital D.

;D

She was intentionally antagonizing him.

Julianna turned the chair around so she did not have to look at the sassy princess. She leaned her uninjured arm on the armrest. Rubbing idly at her temple. The other arm was limp in her lap.

"Your chassis was lost?" May'ev echoed. One hand stroked her would-be chin thoughtfully. One hand was still on her hip and two remained down at her sides. "How did that happen?"

"Princess, do you have any skills or information that would benefit us?"

May'ev seemed to perk. All of her hands clapping together. "I am a certified master engineer. And I am very familiar with this family of ships."

RE: Anomaly [Closed] - saronym - 10-21-2019

Owen had no true physical way to express how much he hated the emoticon the Amalthean gave him. He could have said something but Julianna had instructed him to be quiet. For the moment, he was obeying the order, though he was still monitoring her closely.

When Julianna swiveled around in her chair, Owen took the opportunity to use the holostation to show their stowaway what he thought of her. He rendered a high definition 3D graphic image of an Amalthean in a uniform like the officer that had hailed them over audio-visual coms. The image flipped May’ev off with all four sets of hands and waved them rudely at her. All of this occurred behind Julianna’s back as she sat facing away.

Owen refused to respond to May’ev questioning. The 3D image brought all four index fingers up to it’s helmet at the approximate location of its mouth displaying a universal “shhh.” Then with two hands on the right it wagged accusing index fingers at May’ev while the hands on the left were poised on the hip.

Owen dispersed the taunting imagery when Julianna asked about the Amalthean’s skills. Given that Julianna had addressed at least one of them, he decided that her orders for silence had therefore lapsed.

“Captain,” he whispered into her ear again, “Are you alright? Your heart rate spiked - is currently spiking - and your perspiration output has increased in correlation.”

Over the general coms, he addressed May’ev: “Stowaway. Make yourself useful and retrieve the Captain some water and an MRE from the Canteen.”

On the holostation he produced a cutesy cartoonish version of May’ev walking through a model of the ship. When she reached a room labeled Canteen an exclamation point appeared over her head. As cartoon May’ev located the items he requested other exclamation points appeared. She made her way back to a cartoon-y Captain Julianna who languished in her Captain's chair.

RE: Anomaly [Closed] - megs - 10-21-2019

Julianna was indeed unaware of the going-ons being her back, which was actually a perfect metaphor for her control of the ship. Even if she'd had an inkling of an idea that they were misbehaving behind her back she would have ignored it.

Captain.

What a joke. A flimsy title at best when her ship could talk back and disobey her. She was a figurehead. A face. Meant to represent the whole of an organization and bring people together. How was she supposed to do that when she had the barest of command over the two entities on her...

The ship.

Meanwhile, May'ev's helmet displayed an emoticon that managed to look quite offended, as Owen's projections made obsence gestures at her.

>:0

"I'm fine," she hissed, with heavy emphasis on the 'f' sound, drawing it out in her frustration. Not caring that she'd sound as if she was talking to no one for a moment. Owen continuing to talk in her ear wasn't doing anything to soothe the behaviors he pointed out. "You don't have to do that May'ev." She whipped around in her chair just in time to see the two little cartoon versions of herself and the princess, before it blipped out of existence. She frowned.

"An engineer has its usefulness," she said, pushing out of the chair with her good arm." A princess has its usefulness. I am willing to accept, May'ev's proposal..."

The princess made a giddy squeal of a noise. Two of her of her fists pumping in satisfaction.

"On a trial basis," she concluded. "Owen made some decent points about how your presence on the ship could be detrimental to the diplomatic mission. If that turns out to be the case. I will have to ask you to depart."

RE: Anomaly [Closed] - saronym - 10-22-2019

Owen was taking blows to his pride. Her frown when she saw his cartoon. Her willingness to accept an engineer on board. So far, the ship had not required any repairs, but in his previous chassis he had always been perfectly capable of doing his own maintenance and modifications. But now -- he was so much more vulnerable -- and would have to accept foreign hands working on his … temporary form as the ship. He had planned on instructing Julianna in such things, though he had doubts as to her aptitude for such work given the amount of cognitive resources she devoted to her actual occupation.

In sum, Owen was pouting. The only signs of it were his momentary silence and the subtle change to the hue of the blue lights to something more somber and darker.

“Ambassador.” His voice was more sober over her wrist communicator. He intended to speak only to her but she had seemed disturbed by his use of the whisper function, so perhaps this would be better. “We were discussing our course of action prior to the discovery of our intruder. We are approaching hyperspace lanes. What are your instructions?”

“If I may suggest, it appears that a Federated Alliance scientist has found himself stranded on Doria 4P8 on the Udiri belt. The F.A. has sent alerts out to idle ships available for rescue. I will note that Monarchy intelligence crafts have been known to use Udiri belt for long range surveillance collection. If we accepted the rescue mission, it would allow me an opportunity to case the belt for Monarchial crafts and potentially access a cache of intel. Moreover, the scientist is to be delivered to Kriion Prime which you earlier indicated was a destination you were interested in.”

RE: Anomaly [Closed] - megs - 10-27-2019

Julianna's eyes cast around the control center as the lighting shifted colors again. The change annoyed her, but only because she was already annoyed. She didn't know the lights were indicative of Owen's mood. She didn't know he had moods. Julianna felt like she didn't know how lot of things about Owen. About his capabilities or how integrated his was with the ship. Maybe she could request more information about it from central command.

"Accept the rescue mission, and set our course," she instructed. Her communicator flashed little notifications about messages from her superiors that she had been unintentionally ignoring because of their surprise visitor. She knew Owen didn't want the princess on board, so she tried to compromise by accepting his suggestion. They could talk more about it in her private room.

She knew it would be a few hours until they reached their destination. Julianna needed to take care of her arm before she made such a simple injury much worse.

"I'll take you to a room you can use," she told May'ev.

They left the command center together and she lead the princess to the more habitable part of the ship. The Judex-9 was small for a spacecraft, but that was still rather big in the grand scheme of things. It was intended to house an entire crew for work. The F.A didn't have a crew for her. It had just been herself and Owen up until this point, and he didn't take up much space.

Even though he seemed to encompass all of it.

"Would you like me to forward you my credentials?"

Julianna finally noticed that May'ev was chatting at her as they walked to the rooms. "Yeah, that would be great. I am going to have to tell my bosses about this, so that information would be useful. Here-" she pressed an unlock code into a pin pad and a door slid open. "You can use this room."

They lights came on as they entered. It was the most basic of private rooms on a spaceship. A bed and a closet. Some drawers for storage and an attached bathroom. It was neatly put together, if not a little dusty from being underused.

May'ev and Julianna linked their communicators together. Julianna integrated her into the more public 'private' chat channel for the ship. She and Owen had their own channel, and now she had one with both of them. She was starting to feel like a popular school girl with so many chat rooms. Which was not an experience she'd actually had in high school.

"Ambassador, I would like to submit a list of modifications that would make this room more accomodating for me."

Julianna winced, she knew Owen wouldn't like the idea of modifications. It would be appropriate if May'ev was going to be staying with them because of her various biological needs, however.

"Sure. We will do what we can."

Julianna left May'ev to tend to her new room with polite instruction not to wander too much until they were more acquainted. Even though she had accepted the partnership, May'ev was still a stranger with an agenda she didn't fully understand. She knew Owen would be keeping a close watch on her. He had already made it clear that he did not trust or like her.

In her own room, Julianna sighed heavily. Maybe she wasn't cut out for an entire crew, she thought, if she was already so exhausted with them. She ignored the ache in her shoulder long enough to unbutton the jacket of her uniform and get it off. She tossed in onto the bed. She turned her shoulder to a mirror she'd hung on the wall. There was a decent bruise at the top of her arm and down on her elbow, where she'd made contact with the wall.

"Are you upset with me?" She said, seemingly to the empty room, but she knew Owen would know she was talking to him. Knew that he was listening. It seemed like he always was. "About the princess," she clarified. She spilled a few pain pills into her open palm and downed them dry.

RE: Anomaly [Closed] - saronym - 10-29-2019

“Yes Captain.” Was all Owen responded before he set to work carrying out her simple orders and setting the ship on their new course.

Though he was busy with those and other tasks, Owen monitored Julianna closely as she moved about the ship in the company of their new crew. He did not trust this May’ev, yet and of course would keep a close eye on things in the meantime. He needed to compile data on her to begin to predict her motivations and behavior patterns. Perhaps then he would understand her better.

He did not like that she was already requesting to make changes to the ship. Albeit, he could wager a guess that they would be mostly more cosmetic changes to accommodate her rather sensitive biology.

Owen watched Julianna get settled in her room. The way she stripped out of her jacket let him know the extent of the pain in her shoulder. Plus, now he could see the damage.

“No Captain.” Owen’s modulated voice came through her communicator. “I have accepted that your decision differs from mine and I understand why you made it. You are choosing risk at this time in the hopes that your reward would be greater than if you exercised caution with the Amalthean.”

“You are having pain?” He asked as she took pain pills. “You are not feeling well?”

RE: Anomaly [Closed] - megs - 10-31-2019

Julianna was grateful that he was no longer whispering in her ear. She didn't want to address with herself how embarrassingly hot and bothered it made her. But even through her communicator his voice had a masculine and sexy sort of quality. Perhaps, it was her fault for projecting on to him. She had given him a male name and thought of him-

It?

She thought of the AI as male, but that was mostly because of the voice. Was that something he chose? A decision from his creator?

"Great," she said to acknowledge that they were at some sort of agreement about May'ev joining them on the ship. He was not incorrect in his assessment. She did think that having the Amalthean princess would prove to be useful to the mission.

She looked down at the device on her wrist and read through some of the communications for her commanders. "Yes, my shoulder is bothering me." Which was bit of an understatement. Her shoulder hurt. A lot. She didn't feel like she had made particularly hard contact with the wall. Maybe it was bothering her more because it was just another thing to feel annoyed about. Even though that feeling was quickly fading. "I'm following your instructions and taking a non-steroid, anti-inflammatory medication." She had skipped the part about ice.

Julianna moved to sit on her bed. There was nothing particularly grand about the room she occupied. All of the private quarters on the Judex-9 were the same. Though her room did have a small desk and a display that connected her to the command controls on the bridge. No luxuries for the captain. Just the ability to keep working from her own room. It had a window though. And the view was nice. At least, it was right then. Usually all she could see was the endless inky blackness of space. They were still close enough to the way station, now, for her to see it all lit up and busy with ships coming in and out.

Swiping away a few emails that she didn't want to deal with at the moment, she fell back onto her bed with a sigh.

RE: Anomaly [Closed] - saronym - 11-03-2019

“Captain, I have observed that you are in a melancholy mood.” Owen said as she languished on her bed sighing after looking longingly at the bit of civilization they were leaving behind for a trek deep into space.

He was aware that human beings were a bit less suited to space travel than other species of aliens. Human beings so loved their sunshine and green things and … touch. Humans needed touch much more than others did. Wasn’t that what the scientific literature said about the raising of young humans and about the perils of loneliness in older age?

“You invited the Amalthean on board because you are lonely as well?” He asked confirming his own suspicions. “You are lacking in quality company aboard the ship without a crew?”

RE: Anomaly [Closed] - megs - 11-03-2019

Julianna situated herself more properly on the bed. She rolled over on to her uninjured side, so she could look out the window as they drifted further away from the station. Tucking her arm beneath her head. Eventually, the would reach hyper-speed and the colony would blink away like it never existed.

"I'm fine," she lied, even though he had once asked her not to. He had requested she be more forward with him about her moods and her feelings. Especially when he commented on them. To help him learn and understand how to better process human emotions. She didn't feel like being honest in that moment, because she didn't know if it would accomplish anything, other than making her feel worse. Owen wasn't a therapist and if he was just beginning to understand humans, could he really be of any help?

"I invited May'ev aboard because I think she would be an asset to the mission. Maybe, even your mission," she suggested. Julianna rolled over on to her back. She laced her fingers over her stomach and stared up at the ceiling. She thought she heard something in the way he was asking her questions, but was that possible? He was just an AI...

"I'm not lonely," she ventured, to spare the feelings she wasn't sure he had. "How could I be when you're always here?"

RE: Anomaly [Closed] - saronym - 11-05-2019

“I do not feel that you are being honest about your emotional state.” Owen observed even though he somehow sensed that maybe it was rude to press her on it. He really did not know how to play a more subtle game to pry at the information he was seeking. It was something he was working on in the background. Analyzing social cues.

She seemed to be giving him mixed signals.

Closed off about the true nature of her feelings.

And yet confessional about other things.

He was somewhat surprised.

“I was not aware that you found me to be sufficient company for you to not feel lonely.” Owen admitted. Though computer, he was apparently fallible. Well, technically this was an input problem. It wasn’t that he had calculated anything incorrectly. He just hadn’t received the information until now.

Many processes began rapidly calculating. Recoding of memories with the new information that she...enjoyed? his company. Projections for new interactions with this new knowledge.

“That is interesting because I have figured out that you find me rather vexing in many ways. I saw you frown at my cartoon. You did not appreciate my humorous gesture? I could adjust my programming to have less humor to accomodate you. Should I try to match your melancholy mood?”

He played the sound of heavy sighing and adjusted the lighting to a dim and sad blue to tease her.

He never knew why his father had programmed him with a sense of humor. He was beginning to think it was so that he would be more tolerable to the people he would interact with.

RE: Anomaly [Closed] - megs - 11-05-2019

"I am...frustrated because my arm hurts," she explained. "I don't tolerate pain, well. I can be a bit childish that way." She closed her eyes and sighed as she forced herself through this admission. She knew she sounded foolish in the grand scheme of things. It was just a bruise that she would forget all about when the pain medication kicked in. "Also you were whispering to me when May'ev was talking and it was overwhelming."

"You are vexing in many ways," she insisted, opening her eyes again. A small smile was curving at one corner of her mouth, however. A small indication that she was joking with him, even though what she was saying was true. He could be annoying at times. Always correcting her or questioning her. She didn't feel like much of a captain, and always wondered if he was just going to ignore her command at some point.

She laughed when he changed the lighting. A pre-recorded sigh playing over the speakers in her room. It made her chuckle, which she tried to suppress, but doing so only made her laugh more. "I thought you were making fun of me. With the cartoon. Can you make the lighting purple?"

RE: Anomaly [Closed] - saronym - 11-08-2019

"The medicine you took will begin to work soon." Owen reassured her. Her complaints didn't register as childish or annoying. They seemed a valid reaction to injury to him.

"I have questions." He admitted as he wordlessly changed the lighting to purple. It started more violet and bright but he thought she might like something darker and more low key. The hues bled into a wine purple. The room filled with the scent of lavender along with the change in color. There were a few basic room refreshing scents he could use through the air vents. Technically this use was less for refreshment of a stale space on board but more for creating a relaxing atmosphere.

"Earlier when you were becoming overwhelmed with me and May'ev talking… I did notice a spike in your heart and respiration rates. Was that a physiological stress response? That was not… ‘vexation’ as you say."

RE: Anomaly [Closed] - megs - 11-09-2019

In the back of her mind, Julianna knew this line of questioning would come up. Owen was always inquiring about her mood and her physical state. Why did her heart beat like that, why was she sweating. The questions came at inopportune times, and sometimes they annoyed her. Especially, at times, when she was loathe to admit the reason her heart beat faster was not always... professional.

Like with the whisper function. Masculine tones so soft and concerned. So close, and intimate and making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, and her body to feel all tingling. A whisper asking why she seemed distressed. A whisper reminding her to eat. Like listening to a particularly charming ASMR video.

Julianna stared up at the ceiling. Sometimes, when she focused on parts of the ships she pretended that she was looking at him.

"It turns me on," she heard herself say. Quickly, like ripping off a band-aid. "You have a...nice voice. For a computer voice. The whisper function is so intimate."

RE: Anomaly [Closed] - saronym - 11-10-2019

The ship may have tilted slightly to one side. Probably not though. That was unlikely but Owen did feet the urge to cock his head. A head he didn’t have. He often felt the urge to express himself with physical gestures that were impossible for him. And it was as frustrating as it sounded.

Did she say his voice turned her on.

“You find my voice arousing?” He asked to confirm. He used the whisper function this time to see if he could measure a physiological response.

She was staring upwards. He could see that she had green eyes which he already knew but he was taking note of green eyes again.

“Nobody has ever observed that quality in my voice before. I didn’t choose my voice. This came pre-loaded along with my programming. I don't know how my father made this voice. It does not match any of the other voices that typically are used for VI models. My voice is totally unique to me.”

RE: Anomaly [Closed] - megs - 11-11-2019

He sounded surprised. Of course he sounded surprised, it was a stupid thing to say to a computer. Then again, so was imagining he sounded surprised. Could an AI be surprised? She had so many strange and philosophical questions, that she wasn't sure either of them had the answer to.

But he was in her ear again, and she forgot most of those questions. He sounded so close. Even though there were obviously things that weren't the same. The warmth of another body close to hers of the feeling of breath against her ear. But his deep voice still resonated through her whole body somehow. Julianna tried to resist, but her body's natural response was not something she couldn't just suppress. Her heart beat faster, she felt hot with the flush that tinted her dark skin a mahogany color.

She didn't confirm or deny his question. It was obvious and he was only repeating what she had said. Julianna hid her face behind her hands.

"We haven't been planetside in a while," she said, as if that explained why she would be so easily riled by his voice. Meaning that it had been awhile since her last sexual encounter. Of course she was perfectly capable of satisfying her own desires, but having a little help from time to time wasn't bad either. Julianna had spent a few nights off the ship, after Owen made it clear that he didn't like her bringing strangers aboard.