Furry-Within

Arashi was just about to settle to sleep, the commander just leaving. When he heard it through his half sleep. His ears twitched in Annoyance. Someone was playing a strange instrument? His eyes opened slowly as he let the cool melody sooth him over. Those lightning blue eyes checked everyone around. And they too seemed to be relaxing to the music. The previous Strain of  Arriving into a new ship dissipated. He looked her over from where he was sitting.
  ohhh... Bonita Momasita.ooooh what i wouldn't do for 45 minutes of just her.
Arashi looked about mumbling softly "she's a civ....People like us don't mix"
huh, speak for yourself...
   He rolled his eyes staring At the ceiling a moment. That song made him feel something, unable to put a finger on it. Its been a while since he felt something. Perhaps it was the song. He looked her over again from where he was. The Person next to her getting up to use the bathroom. A little smile played on his lips as he got up sliding into the seat next to her. His arms coming up as his hands rested on the back of his head. Simply listening.

The engineers were screaming again, they'd thought he was gone or asleep apparently, they should know better, but this was important. As Chief Engineer if something goes wrong, he's the one that has to fix it, and if he can't or doesn't fix it, the ship doesn't move. However he knew he was on a time limit as he had to get to the briefing room for the new captain to tell them about the mission. He coughed as he tightened a valve and it shot steam at his face. It made him infuriated, these new ships "top of the line" they called them, "cutting edge technology" yes, lots of edges were cut. The Alliance had a tendency to cut corners on things since these ships were huge, had to be released rather quickly, and that means they don't have time to perfect every individual part on board. However this meant more work for the wolf who was now coughing and sweating while also lodged in the tiny crawl space inside the engine.

"Sir! the Captain's set to give the briefing in less than an hour, can't you just give one of us a rundown for it?" the junior engineer yelling at him was rather proud of himself, and rightly so, he was damn close to a genius when he got a wrench in his hand, but he didn't follow orders very well if only given verbally. He sighed, wrenching himself back out of the engine handing off the mutlti-tool to the nearest person, and worked on his Omni-tool, smacking it after a moment. "Gorram son of a Vorcha! come on!" he'd never been fond of the things, they seemed to break down and glitch a lot more than they were meant to, but he'd been issued a new one when assigned to the Aegis, along with the PMD, so he'd not had time to augment it to actually work properly yet. When the damned thing finally worked properly he sent a memo of basic repairs to be done for now to the Junior engineer. "Mathis . . . when I was assigned to this ship, it became my wife, my lover and my baby . . . if she's got so much as a SCRATCH" the Junior sighed and said "you'll throw me out of the airlock sir, I know" and moved out of the way so he could go.

He moved out into the main lobby of the Engineering deck, watching the ebb and flow of people, it was a sea all it's own of people he knew almost no one here, but there was a kind of peaceful chaos to it all, listening vaguely to what people said, hearing them talk to each other about measurements of this, levels of that,  it was comforting. He took a towel from one of the techs that followed him around everywhere. It was ocassionally annoying they were always there, waiting and watching, sometimes when he was in a bad mood he thought of them as a fan club and it usually cheered him up again. He wiped himself off with the towel, still smelling thickly of the chemicals from the engine's innards.

He was dry when he got into the Lift, the Purple Jacket standing next to him nodded, and he did as well before recognizing the mans face from the Dossier he'd been shown before they had officially shipped him to the boat. "Oh wait, you're Bishop aren't you? Sorry it took so long, we've got the Hot Swap set up, there's a pair of techs doing final checks on all the locks to make sure it stays in place. But to be honest, some of the parts they put in these boats aren't even Quarian quality . . . it's amazing how many little things they pass up for these big boats. But she's Star Worthy Sir, as Chief Engineer you have my word." He let out a long breath, waiting eagerly for the lift ride to be over, he had questions for their Captain.

She didnt feel the need to lift her eyes from her guitar as she played. Simply letting her fingers strum over the chords, letting her fingers lead the way. She still couldnt stick words in the empty space. She couldn't put her finger on the words, they should have been coming to her by now, but it makes them all the more meaningful when they came on their own. She wasnt going to force the words from the depth of her creative mind, she would let them come on their own, despite her impatience.

There was a part in the song that picked up, but she couldnt bring herself to make it a happy part. Though the song was calm, it sounded almost.. sad. She took in a breath and continued to play, deciding where to end the song, and then play it over again, her eyes tilting up for a moment as the person next to her decided to get up to use the restroom. She gave a light smile and apologized. "Heh.." She would say before starting again only to hesitate when a very tall, black panther replaced the person who was originally sitting there. She strummed the chords slowly, he was in uniform. When she picked up the chords again she opened her mouth, a group of words came to mind when she looked back to her blue guitar.

"Angels always get the best lines
Fear not must have worked back in biblical times"

What a content group of words. Her voice was husky but smooth, like the blues she sang day to day. She took in a breath before continuing, inserting a phrase she heard from her Grand-mother years ago.

"But we're full of the facts it's the cross on our backs
When we pray are we just closing our eyes"

She continued to play, not sure what words came next. A soft smile on her lips as she let the chords marinate in her mind. She lifted her eyes again to look at the man who had started to relax beside her. Her ears would twitch some as she kept playing those repetitive chords, contradicting the happiness that they sound like. She didnt say anything to the dauntingly tall panther, but let him be and simply continued to play.

The feline evaded her initial question, dodging it as easily as she exited the shuttle and threaded through the throng of crewmembers. Alina slowed her gait and waited for the vixen to catch up, while clutching her case to her chest like a metallic clipboard. It was about the same dimensions only thicker.

Alina wouldn't have to worry about her luggage or experiments; they were clearly labeled with her name and their destination on the outside. She silently reminded herself to lock up her research in the lab before the ship departed, lest any accidents occur during flight.

The vixen walking next to her reminded the feline of herself. Perhaps that was why most scientists she knew were lean, they were so wrapped up in their work they forgot the basics food, sleep, and the like. She shrugged allowing her to speak, or ramble on, whatever the disoriented vixen was doing. They reached the lift and the doors opened.
She paused at the entrance to the lift, and then stepped through the portal. She turned extending a paw to the vixen that followed her. "Name's Alina." She replied offering a name for the face that accompanied it. Alina waited for her paw to slip into her own before giving a shake. Clear and concise she spoke again, though this time as instructing the lift of her destination. "Computer, Deck 5" The journey itself would not take that long, only a matter of seconds. When the doors opened once more she sniffed the air. Stepping out into the hall, sumptuous aromas reached out and teased her nostrils, tantalizing scents danced in the air, almost bewitching the feline to savor their bounty. As if hypnotized she walked, first through the large entryway then towards the table near the back wall laden with food.

"That's good to hear chief. I hope you didn't get the boards oily or anything. I'd rather not have to vacuum out the bridge area this run." Vacuuming, or venting, was the standard method of putting out fires in any space smaller than a four-craft bay. It was ironic, really... there were almost no areas on starcraft that were as large as a bay that size because it would take so much gas volume to fill such a space, and yet they also vented those to put out fires from the simple expedient of being so close to the ports. "That reminds me, you might want to put a priority on checking safety suit O² supplies and the emergency pods. We'll be running fire drills aboard very soon after we deport."

When the lift reached the deuce, Bishop slipped out with another quick nod and headed down the corridor to his bunk. Regular crew had shared bunk space down the sides of a pair of corridors, with the head in the row between. Officers each had private quarters at the far end, where they enjoyed a small personal head as a privilege of rank. Saluting was not required under most circumstances while aboard (it just got in the way of getting the work done in limited space), but he still received polite nods of acknowledgment and a little space to move past as some of the crew who'd just come aboard did their best not to stare at him. When he finally reached officer country, he slipped into his little compartment and fell on the bunk for a few minutes of rack time before the officer's meeting.

Mikkaddo gave the man a fellow nod as he left the lift, waiting in it still to get to the same level as the briefing room and moved into it silently, he saw two others already there, one who had a guitar and he gave a nod to each of them, taking a seat in the position he'd been shown in the pre-assignment briefing  at the base. He liked the music being played by the person with the guitar, but decided to stay silent about it, the two of them were strange to see out of post. But then again, he spent most of his time Chief Engineer or not, in the Engineering bay checking on things or fixing things that were broken.

He leaned back in his chair working on his Omni-Tool, and cursing under his breath at it every time it would malfunction. The sound of his voice for it being hard to understand, only certain words coming out clear as his frustration fluxuated. "son of a Vorcha . . ." and kept working more and more. "Gorraming moorchu . . . damn shivmore tech" He then seemed to read something on it. "Ok good . . . well, all that's left is to see about fixing this damned thing . . . new models of everything because it's a new boat" he sighed.

The pre-flight checks seemed to be going alright. Most everything went smooth, and the few problems were quickly fixed. He just needed the go-ahead from engineering to test some of the systems connecting the thrusters. He'd been told that those needed to be inspected and made sure they were in working order before he could do anything with them, like on his last ship. This usually left him plenty of time to find extra checks to make, quick or otherwise. He had nearly finished when he recieved the go-ahead, and started the checks. 'New ship.. big ship.. must have some kick to it..' He ran through the checks, but then something was off. He couldn't place it until he checked over the screens and noticed the engines starting to warm up. They weren't supposed to do that yet. He had to make some quick adjustments to shut them back down again, if he was lucky, no one would have noticed and he could do a quick check to figure out what went wrong before anyone even knew something happened. Otherwise he might have alerted someone in engineering and would have to explain that he hadn't started the engines intentionally, which would be -so- much fun.

Mikkaddo leaned forward suddenly in his char, touching the earpiece and looking down to the table below him. "What do you mean they started . . . the thrusters aren't meant to be started for the deportation test and launch for another 2 hours . . . who the hell started the engines? why would he start them NOW . . . you think it was an error? then what the hell is he doing in that post? if he can't do his own job they shouldn't let him interfere with ours . . . there's no damage . . . you're certain." He paused for a moment sighing and said. "Did the launch sequence get interrupted, because if it does the cycles it will take to reroute the power so the error doesn't interfere with the next launch sequence will . . . it's all been fixed . . . there's definitely nothing that will go wrong . . . Mathis? really . . . well, tell him I'm thoroughly impressed. I'll reward him for it myself later yes . . . thank you"

He put his hand down and leaned back again his hand to his forehead. Item number 151 on today's glitch list alone, he hated being assigned to a new ship. He checked his PMD and sighed again. He was impressed by the vastness of the ship itself, and the power of the Turian tech, but there were so many little things wrong, so many little things that needed to be adjusted or changed completely. He hoped the Captain and the rest of the critical crew would come in soon so the briefing could get under way and he could get back to where he belonged, not on some bridge watching the black, but in the engine room, watching the magnificent Core at work, or tuning the bits and pieces, watching his own ocean, the ocean of men and women at work. That was the real magick. For all the power there was in the technology that kept the boat flying, it was the people making her fly that were the real power. He checked his PMD again, he was starting to get impatient, especially given that the Roster he'd seen had given plenty of different needs for each member's quarters, but that one name kept popping up in his mind. Whoever she was, she was Classified, and that made him worried.

there were plenty of rumors in Engineering about her, everyone had seen the Roster, as everyone had to be on the same page so that the quarters could be kept at proper levels. The one word that came up the most often was about the only word that he was praying it wouldn't be. "Spectre." The word itself gave him a shudder. They didn't follow the laws of the ships, they didn't even follow Alliance law. hell they didn't actually even follow Citadel Law. They were above it, they answered to the Council directly, or so they say . . . but all he knew was the last ship he was assigned to, after the Spectre showed up, people started dying. The Spectre wouldn't justify their deaths to anyone, the only thing she would say was she "did what had to be done." It made him nervous.

About two seconds after his eye closed, Bishop's tablet blipped once, twice, three times... and stopped before he could raise it to his eyes. The first was a notification from the shipboard warning systems that the engine was being brought online out of sequence. The second was a warning from the docks systems that they had not been cleared for departure, and that the ship was still docked and would tear apart the superstructure if she moved more than a couple of feet, etc. The last was a system nominal "all clear" which said the incident had been addressed and that the ship had returned to its pre-departure status. Sighing loudly, he tapped the tablet to flag the log of the incident for later review and closed his eye again.

Her words played in his head for a long time. even when she did not sing them. His eyes looked long into nothingness for a very long moment. His arms crossing over themselves as he contemplated her lyrics. That is until a rude voice broke his thought.
    Oh So now you wanna become moody and Zen like. You know there is no room for us. That we exist only to slaughter and kill. War is that hell, We and a few others have that stench of death. It will fallow us into our graves.
   The panther blinked and spoke softly, His voice quiet. But the bass in it made himself known. That he was speaking to Astara, Even without looking at her.
"Angels always get the best lines..." He repeated her lyrics without really singing it. As if tasting it on his lips. Those lips curled a moment into a Lopsided smile.
    "Thats an interesting instrument you have there? "*his head turned slightly. A little mischievous twinkle playing in his eyes. "I've never seen anything like it? Whats it called miss"? It was obvious that he was hoping for a name.

She began to relax in this moment of her own calm. A soft smile playing on her lips as she had ended a chord, her ear twitched to hear a low tone. She lifted her eyes up from the guitar, it had become rather outdated about a hundred years ago, but hers had sentimental value and she vowed to never give it up. Her smile went from being calm to being proud. The sound of a guitar could soothe any soul, depending on the chords. She stopped her playing resting one hand over the sound hole and placing the other in her lap. Her ear flicked a little and she took in a breath letting it out softly.

"Thanks." She said with a bright smile. "Its a uuh, guitar" She would say tapping the top of the guitar hearing the echo from the soundhole. "A hollow percussion instrument. Kind of outdated, but well, mine has sentimental value and still plays...rather well." A little pink came across her cheeks, only coming from her pride, barely anyone called her miss. A soft chuckle passed through her lips and she gave a light nod.

"My name is Astara, Astara Niche. You can call me Star if you would like, for short that is." She passed her hand over her guitar hoping for a hand shake, her slender fingers simply dangling over the neck of the guitar. "I am on my way to meet a band that plays music like mine. Obviously some one still finds my music valuable." She said with a soft chuckle, waiting for his name as well. Her sea green-blue eyes hiding behind her eye lids with every blink. "And you are..?" She said with a light tilt of her head to the right side.

*That lopsided smile grew across his lips* "A guitar eh, I'll have to remember that*his ear flicked a little as he leaned slightly to his right to better look at her* "Oh well you know what they say? The best things come with age. Like a fine wine, Your guitar has character. I can tell it has seen many fine shows, and I hope many more to come."
Oh oh, Nice Arashi... Now tell her how you'd like to strum her strings. Hmmm what I wouldn't give to put my face between her breast and lick her all over.
    *The large panther looked away a moment, it was indeed hard not to stare at her cleavage. So instead he focused on her eyes. Admiring there color.*
"Star eh, The name Suites you rather well." His gaze fallowed her hand movements. Looking at her hand for a long long moment, before he took it in his own. his grip was firm but none to crushing. "Yeah? Are you the lead Vocalist or something"?.

"You should." She retorted with a chuckle.  and looked back to him when he mentioned the guitar again. "Oh, yeah. I would have to agree with you on that." She said with a little more brightness than her previous statements. She had no idea what was going on in his head but found nothing off when he turned away and back again. She simply just smiled, that very light pink blush not leaving her cheeks. Such wishes of good luck were nice especially from strangers. Her eyes twinkled some as he looked into them, a tinge of that same blush coming back to her cheeks.

She would take his hand in hers and gently shake it just gently up and down. His hand was warm, and though he held a tough exterior the handshake wasnt as such. It was firm, but not.... She shifted her eyes back and forth a moment before lingering the handshake longer than she wanted to. She nervously brought it back and replied. She sat back and grabbed her guitar case and put her guitar away, snapping it together.

"Thank you for your well wishes and compliments. They are definitely and ego boost." She said with a wink and let out a kind of giggle. "Oh, no no no. At least I dont believe so. I have never met my band mates before. They are paying my way there and are going to give me a shot at what ever position it is they had open. They thought it was a unique instrument I played and desired to have it in their shows. So I accepted. I am just praying for this trips smooth sailing." She sighed some and leaned back in her chair not sure if she could fall asleep again. "Perhaps a rest before the end eh?" She asked and lie her head on the head rest getting comfortable herself.

Being on the last shuttle to the shuttle bay, she was rather excited. She let out a long sigh and threaded her fingers putting them on her abdomen. She couldnt wait to land, meaning she was getting so much closer...

*A soft little sigh escaped his lips, checking His PMD*
  "yeah not to much longer now, About half an hour we should be docking soon"
*A little frown played on his lips, Something here wasn't adding up? A Single civilian? His eye's scanned the sea of faces suit's and Staff.  Something was going on, and he didn't like how it felt. *
  "Yeah? Well Your band mates seem to have some sense in them" * a soft chuckle escaped his lips* "They have good taste, I'm sure you will do very well. "
There Arashi..you see it? The steward At 9 o clock.
     *His fingers Tightened on the chair rest his hands where on. Gritting his teeth, But otherwise he seemed relax and content. *
"Catch some rest while you can, Maybe I'll be lucky enough to hear you play Again Miss Astara.."

There would be several curses strung under his breath as he noted that the flag went up. 'Great' He thought, 'now I'm probably gonna be blamed for faulty connections.. Oh well, at least now I can run the request through engineering instead of fixing it myself' He let out a sigh as he punched in his request on the comm board, asking for several minor changes he had done for temporary fixes to be fixed up for permenant use so that there wouldn't be another problem. Damned new ships, and they're trying to combine tech, he should have known something would go wrong. But oh well, time to work on the final pre-flight tests so he could get to that meeting he'd been informed of before take-off. Luckily the final tests didn't require him to run around the board, he could just sit in the pilot's seat to check the steering and balance controls.