Voidbreaker II Hang Bay* Space 40 ABY
Zig fidgeted with her fingers, twirling a hydrospanner that wasn’t actually there. While she was no longer Captain, she did have a role as ‘First Mate’ and her engineering responsibilities. But she also had been able to make a few connections thanks to Marick and Wyn’s mutual networks.
So while she wasn’t exactly in the drivers seat, she still had some decent say. So she’d cleared it with the Captain and a few others. Plus, wasn’t the Voidbreaker II, on paper, supposed to be about diplomacy.
She had met Vez Hirundo through some mutual comms. But it taken her some time to work up the courage to invite her aboard the Voidbreaker. And, of course, she did the only way she knew how.
Sparring! Smooth, Zig, smooth.
She waited in the hangar bay and watched as a shuttle docked with the Minstrel-class yacht. She shifted from foot to foot.
Vez ambled down the egress ramp, wishing that the damn thing had a fog machine or something, anything that would make the awkward waddle down the slop a little more regal.
MiniDuke whirred at her heels, rolling down behind her as his shiny black head swiveled back and forth, taking the hangar bag in.
The pair made it down the ramp, Vez already nursing a feeling of pride that she hadn’t lit a cigarra on board the Arconan vessel yet.
“I take it you’re Zig?”
Zig smoothed out her uniform, a familiar purple-blue jumpsuit that matched her braided hair and displayed the Voidbreaker emblem over left chest pocket. Her utility belt was fastened and set with a few other doo-dads and nick-nacks. She had left the “scanner” eyepiece off because at first she thought it cool, but then realized it was probably silly for someone meeting her for the first time.
When she met eyes and looked the Mirilan up and down, she hoped that her composure held. Probably the one thing going for her was the image of Zuza smiling in the back of her head as a reminder of her happy, healthy relationship. However, she imagined even Zuza would have been a bit googly-eyed at Vez’s shaved on one side plus the wavy comb over. And the eyeliner, of course. Totally unfair.
Focus, dolt
“Hello yes, this is Zig,” she grinned and waved somewhat awkwardly. “Welcome aboard the Voidbreaker II. I trust your shuttle over was..smooth?”
“Oh, this old thing?” Vez grinned, glancing back and up over one shoulder at the Sunburst. The Star Courier was customized out the proverbial ass with weapons systems, slicing gear, and a kriffing cloaking device and was probably illegal in as many systems as not. But nobody likes a show off and Turel had asked her to ‘at least try to be likable.’ So the Mirialan settled for “She gets me where I’m going.”
She stuck out one hand, eyes taking in the taller woman. “Vez Hirundo. Pleasure to meet you.”
“Pleasure to meet you as well. Are you cool if I start with a tour of the facilities…” She trailed off as she studied her ship more closely and her eyes widened. “Wait…is that the Infiltrator edition!?”
Black-painted lips spread into a wide grin. “I have poor impulse control and a valuable skillset.”
“My kinda girl,” Zig nodded appreciatively. “All I have to write home about is Kaylee,” the Zygerrian gestured towards the bright red Flare-S Swoop with a custom paint job sitting off to the side. “I’d say I’d get my own ship but, well, ‘free’ room and board here,” she gestured towards the Voidbreaker II.
“Anyway. Hangar, obviously.”
She made a beckoning gesture and started to walk towards the main lift that would traverse the ships different decks. “We’ll be looking at Decks 05 and 04, but the others are boring stuff engineering, and the crew lodgings, unless you want to observe some of the shenanigans of a bunch of Shistavanen all living in adjacent quarters…”
“Also, allergies, by chance?” she added quickly as she stepped onto the lift.
“No allergies but I will take a pass on Shistavanen bunk funk. What do you use this ship for?”
“That’s an excellent question,” Zig bought herself some time to formulate the complex answer. The lift doors closed and they moved, smoothly upward. “Primarily, we’re a diplomatic extension of House Qel-Droma, with intel operations and…creative strategies around avoiding conflict. But really, we’ve become a catch-all for the various talents that gravitate towards her. ” She patted the ships hull to indicate she meant the Voidbreaker II as the ‘her’.
“Now, one of the perks to a custom-order yacht is of course the pool deck,” she grinned.
The doors opened to reveal a rectangular, full-sized swimming pool that stretched out from durasteel hull plating separating the machinery used to power it and the reservoir of water used to keep it filled. There was a gradual, diagonal slop in the floor transitions from a three-foot deep “shallow end” to a proper ten-foot “deep end”.
Just enough to dive or jump in without hitting your head.
The tile plating surrounding the pool itself is sanded down and matted to allow for decent footing/grip, with rivets carved in to help route excess water towards the appropriate drains. At the head of the pool was a circular hot tub that can fit a small group of crew members shoulder to shoulder.
“And yes, the filters were custom made by myself and the engineering team to specifically tackle the challenge of our fur-covered crew members. No one gets left out here.”
She gestured towards the changing rooms, which offered non-binary signage as her double meaning.
Zig waited for the Mirilan to take it in before continuing.
“Taking me straight to the hot tub?” Vez asked, smirking. “You do know how to make a girl feel welcome.”
Zig might have flushed at that a few months ago. A lot had happened since then for her self confidence and image. She blamed Zuza.
Instead, she simply replied with a fanged grin. “Heh, give me more credit than taking the easy route. Everyone knows you gotta work up a sweat first.”
She padded back over to the lift and pressed the button for the next level.
Well, the Arconans do live up to their reputation,“ the Mirialan thought, grinning smugly to herself. Still, she had to admit she was a bit envious. The Starburst only had basic plumbing.
“Anyway, so Deck 04 is where most of the crew spends time.”
She let the doors open and the two stepped out.
“Mess hall, armory, med bay of course…” She pointed out all the facilities as they walked, waving at a few crew members who all saluted her…despite the fact that she was no longer captain.
“You can see the lap pool and gym past that way, but here is where a lot of us enjoy spending time.”
She showed Vez into the Training Dojo. If she was a fan of holovids, she might have taken notice to where the Inspiration came from. It was very eastern expanse- minimalist white paneling with wood dividers.
There were all the essentials. Two training mat areas, dummies, training equipment, some unique looking droids.
“I’ve been trying to program some of the droids we’ve had here to fight like members of the Children of Mortis. It’s not much, but they do make for more organic punching bags. But…well, here we are!” She smiled and tried to not come off as too awkward, like she was showing a cute girl her “room” for the first time. At least the dojo didn’t have her old pin up posters in it…
Customized droids? This is more interesting than I expected a dojo to be. “Huh. How’d you get the loader to move like an ascendant? Tweaked servos?”
“Well. I wouldn’t say move like one, but it can take a beating and keep functioning. Just had to franken-doo-dad some parts from an assassin droid to modify the servos and reinforce the hull plating. ”
“I also made some training weapons to mimic actual weapons of different kinds. Pretty much just refined wood with some capacitors that are like toned-down electro-staff fuel cells for ‘stun’ damage”.
“Yeah, I’ve got my own kiddie weapon.” Vez rummaged around in her jacket, eventually producing a lightsaber hilt. “I haven’t put my eye out yet but they still won’t let me have a real one.”
“Isn’t that the worst? I could probably craft it together with my eyes closed, no fancy ‘space magic’ needed.”
She pulled out her shiny beskar dagger. “Used to be impressed by these. Then an Ascendents saber did this.”
Zig grabbed a helmet off to the side. It was clearly Mandalorian in design, but had Zygerrian ear molds protruding from it.
It also has a gnarly looking gouge in it. Like a lightsaber had cut into it.
“Saved my bacon, at least” she head-booped the helmet and placed it down.
Vez whistled. “That must have been quite a hit. You don’t see beskar deform for just anything.”
“That’s what has it all shook, isn’t it?” She shook her head.
“Well, anyway, the best way I know how to get you to work up a sweat is with some good old fashion sparring. You still game?”
“I could share some drinks, let you give your opinion on what you call the bubbly sugar drink, argue, and then have a regular donnybrook. But I think a regular ‘tilly should work, yeh?”
Oh kark, she was serious about that? “I’m always down for a drink, sure.”
“Alrighty then,” she grinned and gestures for the Mirilan to follow. “Let’s see if anyone else is over at the ‘mess and the bar.”
She lead the way, fingers tapping idly at her hip.
Archian was checking the pulse and biological status of the newest egg in his collection. His quarter became a hatching chamber, builded up with hanging nests under the metal ceiling. The moisture inside made his fur stick together, and there was no other way than standing inside only in his underwear. Good that Tajga is not her He was embarrassed.
The movement inside of the egg was stable, and Archian shifted his focus on the wooden crate in the corner, next to the entrance door. The sound of a high pitch squeaking creature was coming from inside of there. “Alright, alright - time for feeding.” And Red picked up diced raw meat from the table, and started to throw it inside of the creature’s small house piece by piece.
When Shistavanen was holding the last piece, his sensitive nose told him that Zig was nearby - but not alone. Curiosity overwhelmed him, and had a feeling that it could end with a fight in the dojo… but more importantly with high quality booze at the after party.
He took trousers in his paw, put them on, and without bothering himself went out from the chamber without shirt, showing off his circular scar at the fury chest.
Zig saw Archian approaching and must have anticipated something like this happening.
“Yo, Red,” she said, seemingly unperturbed. “We have a guest touring the facilities and was going to have a drink with us. Want to join us or are you…ah, busy?
Archian looked at Zig and nodded, straight after closing one of his eyes and yawning and said. “Sure, I need a break from babysitting, it’s still two to three weeks before the hatching date”.
While following the Zig, Red turned to Mirilan “Welcome” and made a small bow. “Are you high or low percentage type of person? Either way you need to try my newest distilled brew”. He smiled.
“Oh, I drink it all,” Vez said, mirroring the bow. “Vez Hirundo, visiting from Odan-Urr. Whatcha hatching?”
“Another hatchling?” Zig groaned. “We’re going to have to build a farm or a zoo or something on Selen at this rate,” she grumbled.
She grabbed three mugs and set them around a table she grabbed for them. It wasn’t too busy, and Zig still had the benefit of former Captain/now-First Mate giving her a kind of agency and seniority. The crew all nodded or smiled at her as she passed.
“Alright, let’s try this brew of yours.”
“Would it be possible?” Red turned enthusiastically into Zig’s direction.
“Oohh there is nothing to worry about. I am nesting only a Luggabeast.” He looked at Vez. “I was always curious how their heads look like - ha ha!” Archian took out a green bottle out from his trousers, and opened it with one of his claws. “Apart of that probably tonight there will be newborn Gizka” Shistavanen stopped for a second with thought, and said “I should probably grab some electric cables for it … but anyway. Here is booze”. The sea-like liquid started to pour into the first of the mugs. “Especially made from fermented Balmgrass. It can taste a little but salty, but it is really good for sore throat”.
He finished pouring all three mugs, with his as the last one.
He took a mug in his paw, and looked with permission at Zig.
“Capta…eee…First Mate?” He got even more red under the fur than he was already.
“To…new friends, and the future, yes,” Zig said as she bravely took a sip.
“Mm…very um, earthy…” She made a slight face at the strength of the liquor.
Pants hooch. Ok. I understand why I was selected for this particular mission now. “To new friends, the future, and chewed up power cables!” She tossed the mug back.
Zig blinked a few times. She then narrowed her eyes and finished her mug, similarly, making eye contact with Vez as she did.
Mama didn’t raise no quitter
“To the poor, poor, power cables…” she sighed.
“Oh, that is potent. Good for the sinuses, too.”
Zig nodded along and exhaled. “I’d like to say that this isn’t the standard operating procedure for guests, but that wouldn’t be the truth,” she commented to Vez.
Archian took a swing from his mug. Without any reaction or effect at his faced - he showed his canine teeth. “I’m glad it tastes alright. It took me almost a year to make it.” And he blinked to both of them.
“Fancy another one?” Archian started to feel like he found someone who really appreciated his art of distillation.
Vez side-eyed the Zygerrian. She didn’t want to turn this into a drinking contest unnecessarily but it was a bit more squarely in her comfort zone than diplomacy via punching.
“Sure, one more would be great, Red. Oh. Right. Vez, this is Archian. He is the ships ‘Junior Officer’s but that’s mostly because payroll requires us to put something…”
She shook her head. “I don’t miss the paperwork, honeslty. But, Archi- my hope was to help bridge our friendship with Clan Odan Urr and someone said it would be a good idea for Vez and I to meet up.”
“Paperwork is paperwork, and titles should stay there. I am more of a ship farmer and booze provider! Ha ha ha!” Archian replied smoothly. The drink relaxed him a bit. His eyes focused on both Zig and Vez. “All Clans are always welcome. And how often we meet, the more we can learn, and prepare for common enemies. But…” He raised a bottle and pointed at it. “Now it’s time to cherish life”.
Mune entered, or, what one would have to assume was Mune. Only a pair of largish vulpine ears peaked from above the book that walked in. At the traveling book’s side walked Carr, talk8ng animatedly. Ears up, gray eyes bright, hands waving as he talked about the latest gizmo.
Mune heard none of it of course. That did not stop Carr though. He yammered on at high volume.
Mune narrowly missed walking into objects a few times before finally lowering the book. They noticed the trio and smiled. Carr’s attention followed a moment later and their muzzle broke into a huge grin.
“Zig!!!” Carr greeted loudly.
“…of course Carr would show up,” Zig grumbled under her breath but then quickly perked up. “Heya kiddo!”
Mune nudged the younger Shista, “Go ask her,” they prompted.
Carr grumbled, “No. I’ll text her later or something…” They batted Mune’s nudging away.
The Arcanist was not to be deterred however, “Why procrastinate when she is right there? Now go ask.”
“Would you just leave it…”
“Hey Zig, Carr has been filling out applications to get into some Tech courses. He needs a couple of solid referrals, though.” Mune explained, ignoring a flailing Carr’s protests. Mune dropped a hand on his head and rubbled the head fur there, tussling his ears some. “There, see, easy?”
“O M G… You are more annoying than I am!” Carr exclaimed loudly.
“And?” Mune grinned toothily.
“What kind of courses?” Vez asked, quirking an eyebrow.
“Vez has a hook-up with the Headmaster..mistress?” she quirked a slight smile at Vez, curious. Then she flitted her eyes back to Carr. “A referral, you say. And what exactly would I be referring? ‘Knows more than he should. Breaks through single-pass encryption for fun instead of wondering why it was locked in the first place…’” she gestured vaguely with her free hand.
Carr opened his muzzle to speak then snapped it back shut again. He had the grace to look abashed. Mune just chuckled softly, tail wagging lazily behind, as if they were enjoying how uncomfortable their brother was.
“Go ahead Carr,” Mune said, a lot more encouraging than teasing this time around.
“Advanced computer sciences mainly… though they have some awesome courses on mechanical engineering as well that looked super cool… I guess.” Carr explained, his ears splayed. “Also… I do wonder about the single-pass encryption… I wonder why if someone wanted something kept secret, they did not use something better to keep it secret.”
“It could be a red herring or a honey pot. If something ever seems too easy…I always approach it with caution. Not something they teach you in school, but you get caught a few times and you learn. There’s more to slicing and systems than breaking through a wall like the Fruit-Juice commercial,” she drawled.
“But those classes all sound neat and fancy. I don’t really know the text book answer for a lot, but you can’t read about how to fix a coupler with a non-standard component until you actually pull one out of a scrap pile yourself.”
“Ha, ha, ha - I love a new blood with fresh attitude!” Red chuckled. “ You will be great one day!” And he patted small Shista at his shoulder, and reached for fourth mug.
After quick top up he said “For the next generation!” Archian lifted his mug up in the air looking around with the widest small he could make.
Zig blinked a few times but then raised her glass as well. Before Carr could ask, or reach for a cup, she quickly preempted him with a curt, “-No.”
Carr blinked, then rolled his eyes some. He hadn’t the foggiest what to make of Archian. Mune smirked, though they, too, did not reach for a cup. The smaller Shista waited until they drank before asking gingerly, “So… you’ll write a referral for me then?”
“Yeahsure,” she shrugged.
Mune mouthed a silent thank you to Zig. Carr’s eyes lit up, “Thank you so very, very much! You’re the best!”
The younger Shista scurried off to whatever he was up to now, leaving Mune standing and shaking their head. “Well then,” Mune eyed Vez, “Apologies, my name is Mune, the other was Carr, my younger brother.”
“Vez,” she said throwing back the second cup. “My pleasure.”
Zig felt a bit warm and fuzzy, but managed to hide a small burp behind her balled fist and turning her head to the side
“Well, I shall leave you three to it then.” Mune grinned toothily, “I have work to get back to. Currently looking into a particularly interesting vision.”
They padded off in the direction of their brother, already opening the book again to continue reading. The cover looked to be written in something that was not Basic. Within moments, Mune was gone from the Mess Hall.
“Well then, now that we’re properly set up, wanna check out the sparring ring?” she asked Vez but also acknowledged Archian. She then glanced at Carr. “I know it’s not computers but it wouldn’t hurt for you to learn some basic one-two punches, kiddo.”
She rose slowly and stretched with one arm across her chest.
Oh kark, she was serious about that, Vez thought. It’s not that she couldn’t hold her own in a fight, but sparring was so distressingly fair that she was afraid she’d just embarrass herself. She looked Zig over—not for the first time—and reassured herself that the Zygerrian was just a little slip of a thing.
“Sure but I couldn’t help but notice that it looks a little… flammable.”
Carr was on his way back with a carbonated beverage in a bottle in his paw. Mune had left. The younger Shistavanen blinked at the comment. “But a turbo-laser is so much more effective,” he countered. “Just slice in, aim and fire.”
He did not seem about to leave though and rather seemed set on following them to the training hall.
“Flammable? Hah, please. That’s only happened….once…” she glanced sideways. “Twice…” She made a dismissive gesture with a hand.
Carr followed them into the training hall.
The entry into the locker room and showers were to the group’s immediate right. Facing forward, an impressive lap pool spanned from one side of the space to the other, accounting for the scent of chlorine. With the number of furred folks that crewed the ship, the filters had to be impressive in and of themselves, yet they ran in nearly complete silence.
Beyond the pool, gym equipment could be seen. It was not these that interested them, however. To their left is the dojo.
Along the walls were an array of weapon racks interspersed with stationary training dummies. The floor is dominated by a well-maintained sparring mat, covering nearly 90% of the dojo’s space.
Carr found himself a piece of wall to lean against, out of the way.
Shistavanen decided to follow the other three of the group, and enjoy the oncoming “spectacle”.
He was also fascinated, and enormously glad that he met someone from the next generation of his own race. He was impressed with this intelligent youngster, and made a promise to himself to keep a close eye on him.
He came inside of the training hall, and sitted down close by to Carr.
“What are you drinking?” He asked awkwardly. Also he got a thought… At some point he will need to find a right mate for Tajga…
“So, uh… I guess I’d better make sure everything’s set to stun, huh?”
MiniDuke bleeped a reply in his unusually accented binary.
Vez rolled her eyes. “No, Duke, you can’t ‘just kill her a little bit.’”
Zig’s sand-yellow eyes seemed to brighten at the droids challenge.
“I don’t need my ‘mits,” she gestured towards a pair of Shockboxing gloves hanging off to the side, “to disassemble a rusty BT-1,” she grinned to show her pointed canines as she wiggled her fingers. “Love the grit though bud,” she nodded towards the assassin droid.
A compartment opened in the droid’s chassis, the pilot light from the flamethrower on his mounted Sonn-Blas projectile launch visibly flickering.
“I’m gonna need you to take 10% off there, bud,” Vez cut in. She glanced back over to Zig. “Maybe don’t taunt the rolling war crime. I don’t think I’d slept in three days when I wrote his behavioral inhibitors and I keep forgetting to fix them.”
“I’ve got two war crimes right here!” Zig grinned as she flexed each of her biceps and wiggled her eyebrows. Then she flexed her fingers as she adjusted the grips on her crushgaunts. She removed her uniform top to reveal a halter sports top and stretched slightly.
“Maybe Duke would get along with Guilty Spark. He has a tendency to talk about something called a ‘Halo ring’ that we need to reclaim and activate…” she gestured at the Ascendent Drone that lay deactivated on the side, ‘sleeping’. AI, am-i-rite?“
The droid derived from CoM tech’s photo receptor flickered on for a moment, as if peeking, and then went dark again.
Shrugging, she moved onto the mat and took up a stance, lightly bouncing her toes with her fists up slightly.
She glanced towards the other side of the training room and noticed a brightly colored ID9 Seeker droid. “Oi’ scooter, find something else to record you creep. And I don’t mean the changing rooms you miscreant.”
The little droid twittered annoyedly and then skittered off.
Ashla e Bogan. It took Vez a moment to recover from the flex, the halter, the stretch. She giggled, involuntarily.
“Yeah, droids.” Kark.
“So, um, what are you going to do to me?” Kark!
“I mean, what are we doing to each other?” KARK
Zig just winked, and then darted forward and threw an exploratory jab-cross-elbow towards the Mirilan’s midsection.
Vez made a thoroughly uncomplimentary grunt as the other woman’s fist made contact with her belly, though she managed to brace against the blow well enough at the last second to avoid being taken down entirely. She turned back with the blow, doubling over slightly. Oh, that’s how it’s gonna be, huh?
Vez twitched, activating the magnetic blaster and hoping her bent-over posture hid her blaster’s flight towards her hand. She popped back up, swinging her arm out and firing wildly, blue stun rings flying everywhere
Zigrah'sahe, true to her unfortunate birth name because her mother had to be trolling when choosing it for her, zigged and zagged as she weaved through the volley of bright blue circles.
Bad touch, bad touch… she thought to herself while out loud she said: “Bringing a gun to a fist fight, hot.”
She felt lighter without her beskar on, despite all the training she’d done in it. So she found herself able to throw her weight backward, head under heels, hands out, to land a back handspring as she avoided the last of the stun rings.
She landed like a gymnast, struck a pose and then settled to say: “Woah.”
Then, she grabbed her throwing razor from her hip and whipped it at Vez as she mouthed a “woosh” noise.
Vez bit her black-painted lip, too fixated on the lithe and graceful assembly perfectly proportioned limbs and washboard abs bouncing around in front of her to pay much attention to the blade she ducked around. She finally sighed at the familiar tingle in the back of her head, sidestepping the razor’s return flight to Zig’s hand.
“Pretend I said something clever,” she said, dropping her blaster and igniting her training saber. The Mirialan charged into melee like a big gay idiot.
“At least now all I need to do to get you ‘up’ is throw something sharp at you,” Zig grinned, and after catching the return razor, slid out her shiny Beskad blade. Gripping it with two hands, and bending her knees.
“I’ll be honest, this might be the first time I’m excited by two sticks touching,” she added as she met the training blade.
The training sabers dulled but still equally dangerous blade hissed against the beskar blade, but Zig managed to deftly sidestep and retract the sword. Vez, unfortunately, was still pushing against the blade-lock and overcommitted and stumbled past the Zygerrian.
As she passed her, Zig couldn’t help but admire the backside view of the Mirilan.
Focus, dummy she scolded herself.
Vez leaned in hard, pushing her weight into the blade only to find herself completely unbalanced once Zig stopped pushing back. She stumbled forward, arms wheeling, barely managing to deactivate her lightsaber before it carved through something important. The Mirialan careened forth, nearly screeching out at her blastromech to move–but she slammed into it before she could. Vez flew over the droid, crumbling in an upside-down heap on the other side of it.
“…Vez?” Zig asked, wincing. “You…you good?”
The Zygerrian fidgeted a bit and lowered her guard. “Welp…I think that’s enough for today, but, it was worth it getting to show off the ship. Eh?”
No immediate answer.
“Let’s check out the pool and sauna area instead…”