Difference between revisions of "Tours and Science"

Latest revision as of 23:36, 17 April 2012

Leucohyle has returned to the Cro na Mthar, as promised, with Omicron the security bot apparently on high alert for food-related hijinks and Iota the conveyance bot dragging a small wheeled crate behind it. The crate is filled with some rather interesting relics; hard-covered books, a few rolled-up poster-size sheets of paper, and even a small polycarbonate 'transparent body' model. She peers down the hall, still looking moderately out of her element.

What Leu will see is a crew of many and varied races of all different shapes and sizes. Some take not of her and oogle at her and her bots and some are /far/ too busy being either heading to the mess hall or the recreation center to bother with some odd human person not in uniform. Stepping from the levimodule is Vessa, papers in hand and seems on her way to the mess hall, the crew knowing from experience that she is not paying attention and likely to run into any of them if /they/ don't pay attention, and thus they move. Soon there is a small pathway opening around Leu, rather similar to the parting of the seas.

Leucohyle comes out of her instinctive 'small animal in a bright light' freeze when the crowds finally part with a tiny, nigh-inaudible sigh of relief. "M-Miss-Vessa," she pipes, raising a pale hand in a wobbly hail. "I er, well. I've brought the educational-materials for your transgendered friend."

Those near enough to hear around Leu give her an odd look at the transgendered friend bit then eye Vessa, who either doesn't notice the looks or doesn't care. Looking up she smiles to Leu and tucks her papers away, "Wonderful, I think he is still sleeping off all of that alcohol he consumed last night. Would you like a tour of the ship? We can put the materials in either the med bay or my office if you like."

Leucohyle returns the odd looks from passing crewmembers with tiny squints of rabbitlike disapproval along with an affronted little 'pip' or two. Padding closer to Vessa, with Omicron the Security 'bot keeping a stalwart patrol radius and Iota obligingly toting a wheeled crate of educational materials. The two humans (and howevermany robots) appear to have just encountered each other in the hall. "Er, c-certainly, whatever's most convenient, of of course."

Vessa blinks at the looks going around and nods to Leu, "Alright, we can go from the top down. It was my intention that the design be straight forward but with a ship this large it is never easy to do that." she leads the way to the levimodule and selects deck 4

Leucohyle follows along obligingly behind Vessa, her hands clasped at approximately chest level, not entirely unlike some manner of small animal on its hind legs. The attending robots stay close; at one point one of the walnut-sized Observationals scuttles out from a pocket in her jacket and points its lensed underbelly at the surroundings. "Ah. This is is a rather large ship, yes? I'd I'd mistaken it for a station."

The levimodule ride is very short and soon the doors open onto the bridge, "It is a very large ship. I will have a station at some point but for now we have a planet that will need exploring and colonizing. I am planning to have a tour of the known planets first though, so that people have first hand knowledge about them. Here and in the other universe. Mostly because I plan to expand business to hauling so that the Empire can continue to be funded." Vessa smiles proudly at the bridge. "This ship can handle a lot. We have a fighter squadron that will be docked in the docking bay soon enough too."

"Oh... fighter squadrons... I see." Leu continues moving very very carefully. "Er, what would you need er, a fighter squadron for? Do you do you anticipate any intercultural hostilities?"

Vessa shrugs, "Precautionary. The whole point to me of arming this ship is to make certain we can get away from an altercation but say we are attacked by pirates and they have us tied up, or our electronics get knocked out so the weapons would be sketchy at best, with shields questionable if we didn't have another form or potential protection then it is possible that the ship could be taken, unlikely with the size destroyed as they would also try and take the ship, generally anyway. I want to be certain that I give the people here every opportunity for safety as I can."

Leucohyle blinks a few times, and looks at Vessa just about as blankly as Vessa looks at her when she's prattling on about equations and quantum entanglement and the molecular weight of cobalt. "Oh," she says, somewhat distantly. "Well I I suppose that you'd want to have something like that. I er suppose well that's significantly out of my ken, yes? I er think the closest I've I've come to any sort of military -anything- was when I was visiting with Minister Razorback. That's a lovely station they had, and the Confederacy's cooperation with regards to the er Rift Drive was very valuable."

"We each have our skills. I am rather protective of my people and my friends so tends to be my main focus." Vessa says thoughtfully and then nods, "Oh Minister Razorback has been great. I cannot wait to see the stations and more of the OC worlds. Shall we head to the next deck below? When we get to engineering you can have a look at the rift drive we have there."

"Erwell... all, all right," Leu says, her little fluting voice carrying tinges of awkwardness. Not much for tourism, it seems. "You rather don't anticipate anyone just trying to er, to come and take the ship, do you? Does that happen frequently?"

Vessa indicates the security officers posted around the bridge as well as the crew who are moving about. "The bridge is always secured but I am going to try and have locks installed on this level soon. There is too great a risk for me to feel comfortable that is true. I think I might well speed that process up now that you mention it." Vessa holds the door for Leu then selects deck 3 once both are inside. "There is security all throughout the ship. Particularly in specific sections."

Leucohyle crinkles her nose. "Terribly uncivilised," she pipes, nudging at the faux-marble flooring in the levimodule with the toe of her boot. "Well this is pretty," she muses, reading the plaques as they go by. "So er, 'Guardian,' that's an unfamiliar title, it's it's not the Captain, as well I'm seeing designations for both. What does it designate, exactly? Contextually and er linguistically, I I would hypothesize that it's related to to safety and or security?"

Kethren strolls in from the crew quarters, stretching, then stops when he sees the tour group and blinks a few times. "Oh, hey boss, evening Leu."

Vessa grins at the uncivilised comment and nods at the question, "I asked my people what title they wanted me to go by as we are no longer really a business and not yet an Empire it is something that would need to carry over once we settle and colonize. They voted for Guardian so my official designation is Guardian Vessa Harden of Danu Chroi. It somewhat encapsulates what my job truly is. To guard my people's health, happiness, and safety. I have not yet, but am in the process of, hired a Captain for the ship." she gives Keth a nod of greeting, "Hey Keth, just showing Leu around, she brought some materials for Conner to check out."

Leucohyle cants her head to Kethren as he arrives, and offers a wobbly wave. "H-hello, Mister-Kethren. How, how are you this evening? Er Miss-Vessa is giving me a er tour of the vessel... rather insisted... er." She clears her throat. "Y-yes, I I have some materials with regards to natural sequential hermaphrodism, XY sex-determination and and intersexuality. F-father appears to be on a bit of a 'sabbatical' at-the-moment," my, those Sivadian speech patterns are terribly good at inserting air quotes without the gesture, "So so well Mister Conner will have p-plenty of time to deliberate, etcetera."

Conner was just walking out of the hall with all the crew quarters in it when she heard her name mentioned. She looks a little nervous being out on her own, walking with a bit of a slouch. She moves towards Vessa, "Did you say something about someone showing me something?" She then hears Leu speaking and blinks at all of the sciency talk, "Bwuh?"

Kethren nods at Leu briefly "Oh, things're going well enough. Should have the designs for the apartment complex done soon. If the boss there doesn't change her mind about what she wants in it again, anyway. Finding the tour interesting?" he then regards Conner for a moment "Doing alright today? Hope the hangover wasn't too aweful."

Zu comes out of his own room at the sound of some familiar voices, and appears to be doing better than he was, still bandaged, but not holding his wing like it's killing him to move it. To the crowd gathered he notes as Conner blinks at the scientific talk "Seems techno-babble is still something she isn't fluent with."

Vessa grins at Leu's assessment of her invitation and nods to Conner, "Leu brought you some sciencey stuff about your going from guy to girl and what you can do about it." she eyes Zu and nods at what she sees then smirks, "Hell man, I am not fluent with techno-babble. Shi..er stuff is right over my head."

"W-well that's all right, I've got pictures," Leu replies to the allegations of excessive technobabble, as serious as the universe is deep. Iota, the beach-ball sized conveyance bot, scuttles forward, dragging the little wheeled crate of actual hard-covered books, rolls of poster paper, and a small transparent 'model of the human body'. With a quick glance around, the little scientist catches sight of the Conference Room, and gestures in that direction. "W-would we be allowed to er, make use of the conference-room, perhaps?"

Conner nods to Kethren, "Yeah.. I found out I can't drink as much as I used to. Luckily I was in my room so I just passed out on the bed. Only woke up about an hour ago.." She scratches the back of her head, drawing attention to her very messy hair, "But I'm fine for the most part. A bit of a headache is all." She nods at Vessa and gives a bit of a smile, "Ah, that I understand.." She then looks to Leu, then blinks at the crate of books, "W-wow. That's a lot of reading.." And oh look, it's batman! "Hey Batman..Yeah, where I come from that kinda talk isn't your everyday conversation.."

Zu shrugs a bit and flaps his way onto Conner's shoulder, though he appears to be trying to do it rather gingerly, to reply "Good morning, then. I take it you dipped into the liquor supply at the party after I'd left?" To Vessa he replies "Does anybody? Only kind I even vaguely understand is the kind that has to do with explosives."

Kethren nods to Conner "Oh, good. Thought the hangover would be a lot worse, as much as you were drinking." he then smirks a bit "I'll grant you that this particular techno-babble's not exactly in my field of expertise, but it's not /that/ hard to understand. Does nobody study science anymore?"

Vessa nods to Leu and leads the way into the conference room, the lights coming on as the door opens, "Of course, this will give a bit of privacy as well as giving you a holo projector to use. I will have the mess hall crew send up some food and drink for everyone as well." Once inside she moves to her usual chair and waves everyone else in, the door closing automatically after the last person inside.

Blinkblinkblink. Behind the flickering greenish lenses of her holo-spectacles, Leucohyle's eyes are wide with confusion. "-I- study Science. Granted not biology but but I have gathered some proximital information f-from Father and the labs after all..." She trails off, blinking some more at Conner. "Erwell, that's wh-why I brought printed media, I I wasn't certain if you would be discomfited by a a holographic-multimedia-presentation. I I could not find any evidence that such technology was available so far in the past, after-all..." Then, absolutely mid-sentence, she switches gears. "Are you sufficiently-hydrated, Mister-Connor? I'm I'm afraid I do not carry any quick-detox, on account of well I do not indulge in recreational-intoxicants." Sniff. Then, without further ado, she darts into the conference room after Vessa, robot entourage scuttling after.

Conner blinks as Zu takes up residence on her shoulder again, but doesn't comment on it, "Ah, yeah. Good morning. And I got right plastered, though I took it back to the room that I was given and drank there. Didn't, um.. Didn't wanna get drunk around a bunch of people I didn't know.. like.. this." She looks down at herself and frowns, then looks over to Kethren and nods, wincing a bit, "It's not /that/ bad. I've had worse." She nods a bit more, "I kinda got it, just took a bit for my brain to process it." She then looks to Leu, "Holographic multimedia? No, we didn't have that kinda stuff but it sounds damn cool. That like a holodeck program or something?" She shrugs at Leu's question, "I dunno. I drank a little water from the sink, but that's all I've had.." She shrugs slightly, trying not to displace Zu on his perch. She moves over to a chair and sits down, slumping and slouching a bit in the chair.

Zu isn't bothered much by the shifting and replies to Conner "Yes, I can imagine. Too many spirits in your system and they tend to possess you, so I hear." He shrugs a bit himself and replies "Not that I can say much either. I was at least a little high off my pain meds."

Kethren nods to Lue "Of course, I meant in no way to imply that you didn't study science. It was more a rhetorical complaint regarding everyone else's disinterest in the nature of everything." He then takes a seat in one of the chairs nearest Vessa.

Everyone has just entered the conference room, Vessa standing near a chair, Kethren sitting in one of the ones nearest, Conner in another chair with a Zu using her shoulder as a perch, and Leu having just darted inside and I presume standing nearby a chair where she can control the holo projector. Quirking an eyebrow she sighs, "Can we keep the substance abuse talk to a minimum? We do have a guest." she nods to Leu, "The room is yours." and goes about placing an order for dinner and drinks for everyone present.

"Oh..." Leu pipes, pale brow furrowing and her thin lips pressing together. "Erwell I I didn't bring anything that, er, complex because you'd seemed very er apprehensive and and well I didn't want to -frighten- you, you you see... wh=what do you mean, drank a little water from the sink? Myword that's not going to to do you any good Miss Vessa or Mister Kethren would you kindly bring a bottle of water I've got some electolytic-infusion tablets I I mean it won't do having him try to -learn- whilst being all -dehydrated- and uncomfortable..." Continuing to murmur to herself, she starts spreading out the rolls of paper on the table, which are absolutely covered with anatomical sketches of humans, B'hiri, insects, some plants, fish, and frogs. There is also a very large chart which delineates human sex-determination theories, starting with Aristotle of Earth Greece and proceeding through testis-determining factor studies in 1990 to 30th century gender-reassignment therapies. There are also several transparent body models: a human, a fish, a frog, and a B'hiri.

Conner smirks at Zu, "I bet you were, after the ass kicking you got the other night." She leans forward as everything is spread out, looking at all of the diagrams and see-through stuff and theories, "Wow. That's a lot of stuff." She looks at the B'hiri and blechs, "Ugh, that's one ugly-ass bug." She shakes her head and sits back, quickly realizing there's waaaaay too much to take in immediately, "So what's all this supposed to do to help?" Newt comes in after everyone else. It looks like he was rushing, "Hey hi. Am I late? Sorry!"

Zu grumbles something incoherent at the ass kicking comment, but doesn't say anything more, merely looking at the diagrams and explaining to Conner "Well I can tell you why the B'hiri is there." He indicates the giant spider. "They are both male and female at the same time. Switch personalities."

Kethren nods to Lue "Of course." and gets up to leave the room momentarily, hurrying back with a bottle of water that he sets down on the table before taking his seat again. "And there you are."

"They they switch -genders-, n-not just personalities, Mister-Zu," Leu pipes in return, taking the bottle from Kethren, opening it, pulling a small packet out of a belt holster, and adding a tablet to the bottle. She closes the bottle and shakes it back and forth gently. "And and I'm not ready to present sequential hermaphroditism yet Mister-Connor needs to have an understanding of XY sex-determination systems first..." Trailing off as Newt arrives, she tilts her head in puzzlement. "Late? Er, late for what? I I mean I was just going to explain some modern sciences to Mister-Connor I'm I'm er not teaching an entire class here I mean really... this isn't like it's a er required meeting or anything important I I mean honestly Father should be presenting this information but he's on 'sabbatical' and there won't be any finding him right now..."

Conner reaches up and gently pats Zu on the back, "Just ribbin' ya, man. Don't take it personally." She then looks back to the pictures, "So they're smart bugs? Oh hell, is this some Starship Troopers shit?" She groans and rubs at her head a bit, "The book was great and the first movie was good, but oh god the sequels were /terrible/!" She then peers at Newt as the unfamiliar guy walks in, "Wha? Late for what?" She blinks and shakes her head a bit, letting Leu explain. Hearing 'XY sex-determinism' she perks up, "Hey! I know that bit. Guys have XY chromosomes and girls have XX chromosomes. See? I'm not an idiot."

Zu smirks a bit at that and replies to Leu "Right. I knew what I meant just came out wrong." Looking back to Conner he notes "The fun part will be figuring out what exactly it is that you have. I admit I myself am a bit curious."

Newt uhs, looking around, slightly sheepish now, "Nothing." He grabs a chair and plonks down in it. Legs set to swing mode, gentle level.

Kethren settles back in his chair, attentively listening to the material being presented.

Leucohyle shakes her head a bit and just moves the B'hiri model to an unoccupied chair for the time being. "R-regardless," she pipes, "You're right, Mister-Conner, in your year nineteen hundred and oh-five, the chromosomal XY sex-determination system was discovered." She gestures at the appropriate point on the time line. "Now, in your nineteen ninety, a team of earth scientists discovered a region of the Y chromosome that is is necessary for the male sex determination, which was named SRY, or Sex-determining Region of the Y chromosome. SRY, with the collaboration of the SOX9 gene, or sometimes -just- the SOX9 gene, can cause the development of what would be ovarian tissues into testes. It has -also- been discovered that an additional gene, FOXL2, comes into play to prevent -adult- human ovarian cells from in fact turning into cells found in testes." Drawing a pencil out from behind her ear, she starts scribbling a variety of complex equations along the margins of the chart. "So there are are all of these genetics and whatnot working together to determine whether you are born and continue to be a a specimen of a particular gender. N-now I'm not going to hypothesize what causes rift-related transgenderism... well perhaps it's simply transfers of matter and I I mean people have been known to inhabit other bodies or or no body at all upon rifting but well that's not what -you- need to know, Mister-Connor, apologies." The tablet has fully dissolved in the bottle of water, leaving it mildly fizzy and smelling of fresh lemons. She passes it over. "Here you sip from that it'll make you feel better... now where's that model..."

Conner scratches the side of her nose, "You mean whether I have XX or XY?" Talking to the bat on her shoulder, of course. She then quietens down as Leu begins talking, listening and doing her best to follow along, "Okay, so X and Y chromosomes determine whether you're a boy or a girl. And it's more complicated under the hood than I thought." She takes the drink offered by Leu, "Thanks.." A sip is taken, then another longer draw as she finds it at least moderately tasty. Now time for more listening. She casts a look over to the kid, wondering why he's here, then shrugs and looks back to Leu.

Zu is completely lost in a world of genetic technobabble, only really uderstanding the basics. He doesn't have much to add at this point and merely waits.

Newt just blinks at Leuc and, uhh... looks around the room and at everyone else, keeping well and truly out of that convo.

Kethren pulls out his PDA and starts taking some notes on the off-chance it'll be useful down the line.

"R-right, now now this is all garnered from knowledge bases that I I found from -your- time frame specifically, I I wanted you to see that genetic gender-determination isn't well, something to be er frightened of or anything like that, and and well I've got some more with regards to er Earth plants and animals that also undergo transgender alterations, here..." Leu continues prattling away, sometimes stumbling over words as her brain produces them more quickly than her larynx can process them. "N-now in nature, you've got sequential hermaphroditism, wh-which is called dichogamy in botany. It it occurs and has occurred in many Earth fish, gastropods and plants. Basically an an individual is born one sex and changes sex at some point in their life either f-from male to female or or female to male depending upon age, genetic diversity, and gender-distributions in in a given population." She starts laying out models of fish and there's a frog and they're all covered in little diagrams. "Er. Would would it be all right if if I put the B'hiri model back on the table? Or or do you find it too distracting and and or discomfiting."

Conner isn't much better off than Zu is, though she is able to follow the basics, "Yeah, like in Jurassic Park where the dinosaurs that were all girls turned into boys because of frog DNA, right?" Ah, movie references. She shrugs at mention of the B'hiri model, "You can put it up there. Doesn't bother me. I was just saying it was ugly as sin is all."

Zu is almost to the point of looking around to see if he can find headphones to protect from all this sciency talk, but he manages to hold off, at least for now remaining attentive for the presentation.

Newt just stays right out of it, legs in full swing mode now. The fingers of the hands, they begin to play with themselves. Oh look. A steeple.

Kethren raises an eyebrow at those attending with no apparent interest in the presentation, but carries on taking notes.

Vessa steps back into the conference room and behind her comes people carrying treys of food, enough for more then those sitting here as it happens and is set up baffet like on a counter to the side. "Food for everyone, drink too and no alcohol. What did I miss and aren't B'hiri giant spiders?"

"Oh -yes-, I I was going to reference that er, film for you to to see if it would er. Be an entertaining sort of example yes. Yes precisely. There were all female dinosaurs in the er, in the film, and then due to the splicing of the 'rana temporia' frog, which has been known to exhibit protogyny, or female to to male self-alteration, they ended up with a reproducible population and regrettably some people were eaten by dinosaurs. Which is of course not to to say that any of us are in danger of being eaten by dinosaurs, well er Father does have the the capacity to engineer pseudodinosaurs and I assure you no one's been eaten by them." Wow, Leu sure can talk. Just on and on and on, and she picks up the little models and pulls little levers and presumably male fish bits turn into female fish bits, and vice versa, and the scary spider thing goes from scary spider male to scary spider female. "So you, Mister-Conner happen to be at present not only in a time when post-birth genetic engineering is possible, we also have access to to technology from what is to be considered -our- future." She nods at Vessa. "Yes, the B'hiri, arachnoid sapients from the ice planet B'hira, as shown in smaller proportions in this model, also exhibit sequential hermaphroditism. And and it's really quite ordinary for them." She makes a little gesture with the model again.

Conner nods, laughing, "That was an awesome movie. Loved the part where the T-Rex ate the lawyer." Then her eyes get wide, "Your dad can /MAKE/ dinosaurs? Can he make mini-dinosaurs? Like, a brontosaurus the size of a dog or something?" Side-tracked by awesome. Then she mentions genetic engineering, "Wait wait, you mean I can be genetically modified to be a guy again?"

Zu smirks a bit and looks back to Conner to reply "I already mentioned that option and you said no. That's what a sex change is. What else would it be?"

Newt makes a face for a moment and then gets distracted by Vessa bringing in food. "Cool. What sorta food?"

Kethren nods to Vessa "Welcome back, boss. Fascinating stuff, this." he then gets up to secure a plate of assorted foodstuffs, and a large glass of mystery juice.

The food is assorted from veggies of all types to meats of every variety and fruits too of course. juices, coffees, teas, and milk products are also found here. Vessa grabs some coffee and a plate of food and sits down smiling to Keth and Newt, "There should be something for everyone here, it is left over from the party last night, I am going to be sending Mira a huge thank you for all this. Er mini dinosaurs?" she blinks, "Uh interesting." everyone is presumably looking at Leu's sex-change toys and her fascinating lecture.

Leucohyle beams a wobbly little smile at Conner. "You absolutely -can-. I I mean so could I, but well really I rather like being female, I I find the concept of external genetalia to be a bit, well, inconvenient, but absolutely, you could have whatever genetic changes you needed, precisely tailored to your genotype and individual existing genetic state and desired genetic state. No surgeries necessary. We have -fortieth century- genetic techology at at our disposal, we can clone everything from missing cells and and organs to well an entire replacement -body-. Miss-Vessa had therapies for her health, mnemonic backup, Mister-Kethren had his faulty optical organs and nerves replaced, I I mean -I- wasn't born of er, two biological parents at all, Mister-Conner, Father created me in the laboratory as his genetic offspring. Two hundred forty six days, three hours, fifty-seven minutes and forty one two three seconds ago, to to be precise. But er I mean I can make as much testament to Father's brilliance as I like but in the end the determinance is yours. But you are not without options, Mister-Conner, not here in Hiverspace. We've a lot of very excellent Science here. So er, do you do you have any questions? I'm afraid we'd have to to leave the particulars to Father, I I mean primarily I work in robotics but I did grow up in the Biotechnology lab, after all..."

Conner stands up, moving over towards the food and grabbing a plate. She picks up a few things, trying to find things that look familiarish. At Zu's question she begins to answer, "Well.." then she gestures for him to lean his head in closer and, presuming he does, whispers what she knows about 20th century sexual reassignment surgery. Which isn't much, but it sounds incredibly nightmarish and brutal. She grabs a couple of other things, "You want me to grab anything for you, Batman?" She's listening to Leu as she speaks and gets a big grin, "Oh wow! That would be awesome! So I could even decide what I look like?"

Zu chuckles a bit at that and replies "Well I can honestly say it's no surgical procedure." After just a bit more chuckling he adds "Careful not to go overboard with the genetic operations though. I hear they're as addictive as tattoos." It's not bery clear if he's joking or not, really.

Newt gets up and begins to look the food over, putting selected snacks on his plate, "There was a party last night?"

Kethren nods at Newt "Indeed there was. Celebrating this ship and assorted other shtick. Vessa can explain it better. I was there more from a sense of obligation than anything." and then sits back in his chair, to better enjoy the evening's meal.

Aina comes a tromping into the room, having smelled the food. She looks half asleep, hair a bit of a mess, but she's already glued to her PDA. Does she ever put that thing down? Briefly she glances up, blinks, then gives a slight wave before heading over toward the food. That's all she wants right now, fooooooood.

Vessa makes a face at Kethren, "Gee thanks Keth yeesh. Yes there was a party last night Newt, it was on the calendar but maybe it was put somewhere where not everyone could see it. Hello Aina, help yourself." is added with an amused grin. "You look a smidge busy there." she takes a few more bites of food before mentioning, "So Conner, tell me what do you plan to do work wise? What did you do before this all happened?"

Leucohyle continues beaming as apparently the presentation is well-received by its target audience. "W-well as soon as Father returns from his sabbatical you can make an appointment and and he can discuss whatever options you'd you'd like," she pipes, and starts tidying up all of the printouts and graphs and clear plastic models that show gender changes in various species, packing everything neatly away in the little wheeled crate that Iota is presently harnessed to. She just blinks at Zu, obviously unable to discern whether or not he's joking. "I'm afraid I do not see the correlation between self-improvement upon the genetic level and subcutaneous injected body art."

Conner spots Aina and, hoping she hasn't been seen, tries to sneak back to her table without being seen by the giant green woman. After all, she'd pissed her off last night and who's to say she isn't still ticked at her. She drops back into her seat and picks up a sliver of meat, sniffing it before taking a bit. She chews it a moment before speaking, "Ugh, I've never really liked tattoos." She chews on another piece of meat before responding to Vessa's question, "Well, I went to school for computer science and programming. But I never graduated. And after school I did mostly crummy jobs like waiting tables and tech support." She shrugs, "So.. I don't have a clue what I can do here. I can't imagine programming is anything like it used to be. You probably have quantum computers and shit by now. Or even more advanced." She looks back to Leu, looking hopeful, "So when do you think that'll be? Soon?"

Aina waves to Vessa again and lets out a little grunt in response. The food is pilled onto a plate, PDA shoved back into a pocket. Once the food has been hunted and gathered she heads to the table, and drops into an empty seat with nobody around her. There's a moment of pause before she shoves a chunk of fruit into her mouth, where her gaze flicks to Conner, then she just ignores the girl and goes about eating while listening to everyone.

Zu smirks a bit to Conner and replies "You could always work for my little...division of Danu we'll call it. I'm sure I could find a way to get some good use out of you." He gives a bit of a smile, though his natural demeanor just makes it look a little bit shifty. Back to Leu he adds "Just a joke, really. Telling her not to try getting super soldier genetics."

Kethren has a few bites of his food and smirks at Vessa "Sorry, boss. We can get into the boring details later if you like, but for now, suffice to say that parties aren't really my thing." he then turns and nods to Aina "Evening"

Vessa eyes Zu in a, "I am not amused," sort of way and says to Conner, "We can likely help you get up to speed here if you like. And give you a chance to learn what you want to do. If you have any questions about Danu then feel free to ask, as well as if you wish to join Danu let me know."

Leucohyle finishes packing up the visual aids; only then does she notice that there's food. After making a very careful visual inspection of the table to make sure that there are no food flinging Opodian programmes lurking about, she makes her careful approach. "Er, I'll I'll have an appointment made as as soon as he returns, Mister-Connor. He does er, particularly enjoy interesting cases such as transgender rifting, genetic abnormalities, incomplete biotechnologic alterations, and other such involuntary physical changes. And then fixing them." Pause. "Hello-Miss-Aina." Pause number two. Wince. "Er sorry. Aina. No miss. Sorry."

Aina glances at Kethren and offers a wave before shoving more food into her mouth. Seems like she's not gonna talk for a bit today. She does pause long enough to wipe off her hands and try to straighten her hair, at least tucking it behind her horns so it's not in her face. Then it's back to more food and listening. Though when Leu addresses her she looks up again and smirks faintly while murmuring, "S'ok, Leu. Use whatever's comfortable for ya." Back to the food.

Newt's shoulders slump, "Aw. I missed it. That sucks."

Conner reaches up and pokes Zu in the stomach, "Him. I told you, I don't care what I look like, I'm still a guy." She taps the side of her head, "In here, at least." She looks back and forth between Zu and Vessa, "So what's this Danu thing anyway?" She purses her lips at Vessa's offer, "Well, I'd really like to get back into the computer thing again. It's what I always wanted to do." She gives Leu a smile, "That sounds great. I hope I can meet with him soon." She reaches up to scratch the back of her neck and is reminded of something, "Could someone take a look at this, by the way? There's something on the back of my neck that feels weird, but I can't really get a good look at it.."

Zu gets a look on his face for a split second as if he doesn't know what he's being scolded by Vessa for before a dawning of rememberance appears on his face and he goes stony faced once more all in the span of a second or so. He rubs his face a bit as if he has a headache and then looks back to Conner to add "Assuming of course you'd like to go with Danu at all, that is. I'd love to see you stay. My little division is security. A bit boring at times, but making sure Vessa doesn't get hurt is worth it." At the mention of something on the back of the girl's neck the Tupai both looks with his eyes and lets some bat sonar loose just in case it's hard to see.

Kethren has a few more bites of his meal, and lacking anything to contribue, pulls up the holo-tudor mansion again and idly pokes features in and out of existence.

Leucohyle seems to be all social-ed out after that grand presentation, and carefully picks herself out some food and drink, meandering over to a spot at the big table and settling down. She looks over at Connor's question and visibly shies away. "Ohhh I'm-not-a-doctor," she pipes, shrinking a little bit in the seat

Aina is still eating, a little slower at the moment. When Conner mentions something on the back of her neck, she has to bite back a nasty comment. Rather than be rude, she stands and moves toward the girl, "I can look at it...Does it hurt?" Yup, she's trying to be nice after that outburts at the party.

Vessa relaxes at Zu's words a bit and smiles, "Danu Chroi is my organization. This ship is the flagship and we are on our way to becoming an Empire. That will take a while still of course but we are still on track. Zu is specifically in charge of the bodyguard division of security. The head of security is Megumi. We are not really a business, we are more then that, we do do jobs however. In fact we do some for Leu to provide her with materials to make robots. I don't mind you doing computers if you like." she then quirks an eyebrow at Keth, "And what is this I keep hearing that I am always changing my mind on your plans?" nodding to Aina she says, "Have her take a look, she has mad medic skills."

Zu frowns as he sees a pannel like object on the back of Conner's neck and notes to Vessa "I think this may be more Leu's dapartment. This is no biological problem. At least not one I've ever heard of, let alone seen before. Real hard to see but my sonar picked it up a little better. Got a little rectangular peice with a little bit of a seam around it."

Kethren chuckles at Vessa "Not changing so much as adding things incessently. When I started these it was going to be a modest building that had room for about fifteen apartments. Now it's closer to room for three hundred."

Conner nods at bit at Vessa, "Well, you people are the only people I know here and you've all been helping me a lot.. so if there's any way I can repay you then I suppose I should do it. So I can help out and stuff if you'll have me, though I don't know how much help I'll be." She reaches up and takes her hair in her hands, pulling it aside so that her neck can be better seen and turning towards Aina, "Y-yeah, if you could look? It doesn't hurt, just feels weird to the touch." She turns her back so that Aina can look if she wants.

Leucohyle scoots her seat over a bit so that she's completely out of line-of-sight of whatever may or may not be happening with Conner over there. Mmm. Carrot stick. This is the most interesting carrot stick in the history of carrot sticks. Not even the robots are looking in that direction.

Aina glances briefly at Vessa then at Zu before stepping up behind Conner. She waits for the hair to be pulled away, then leans down rather close, "Huh...And you didn't have this before you rifted?" A hand lifts, put she pauses before touching the object, "Uhh...It ok if I touch it? I'll be careful. And I just trimmed my nails."

Zu frowns a bit at the piece of equipment one more time before flying off to Vessa's shoulder and giving her a whisper in the ear, looking back at the girl's neck a bit worried.

Vessa shrugs to Keth, "I just want things to be right for you lot." she smiles then nods to Connor, "Don't worry, I will make sure you have time and materials to learn and catch up if you want to go to computers. Lets have you go ahead and start and if at any time you are not happy with us then you can of course leave with no problems. This also means that any medical things that need to be done will be covered by us though it should be able to be taken care of here, Aina is an expert in many fields in fact," As Zu lands on her shoulder and whispers in her ear she nods and whispers back.

Conner shakes her head a bit, "No, I didn't have anything weird on the back of my neck. Not that I'd ever noticed, at least, and I noticed this pretty easily when I, erm.. took a shower." She actually blushes a bit at that. "But yeah, you can touch it. It doesn't hurt or anything. Just feels weird." She directs her eyes to Vessa, though doesn't turn her head since she's trying to let Aina look her over, "That sounds.. good. Thanks."

"Er, s-sorry to interrupt, but it's er, it's getting late and I I should get back to the labs. I'll call when Father gets back?" Leu pipes up from her end of the table, still trying not to look at whatever's going on. "C-could someone er, kindly get me back to the er, surface?"

Kethren nods to Vessa "Oh, I know. If I didn't think you had our best interests in mind, I'd have left the org some time ago. Mostly it's just been venting to maintain sanity in the face of some of the more drastic changes you wanted. No matter though, we'll get them built one of these days." and nods to Conner "You could do a lot worse than working for Vessa there. Not many employers are as considerate." and then gets up at Leu's words. "Sure, I don't mind."

Zu nods in return to Vessa and replies with one more whisper before looking back to Conner as the Tupai notes to Aina "I've never heard of a rift giving a person implants. Rendering them without a body, yes, but never just randomly modifying things here and there."

Aina nods slightly as she continues to peer at the spot on Conner's neck, "Hmm...Alright...If something hurts, let me know, ok?" The lifted hand moves closer, a finger extended, and she very carefully touches the spot, "Don't know that anyone's gotten one of these from rifting, either..." She glances at Leu briefly and flashes a quick smile, "Aww...See ya, Leu. Take care."

Conner lifts her free hand, the one not holding hair, to wave at Leu, "Have a good one. Let me know when my appointment with your dad is, kay?" She tenses a bit as she feels Aina's finger touch the spot, but it doesn't hurt so she relaxes, "Wait, implant? What's it look like? I couldn't get a good look at it in the mirror.."

Vessa stands as Leu gets ready to go, giving Keth a grateful look from both his words and his offer, "Thank you for coming for both the party and your help with this information Leu. You are of course welcome anytime on board. I will be by to visit as soon as I can." she looks surprised at the implant thing, "Wow, that is not something I have heard of either." she nods to Zu to show she heard and agrees with him then whispers back.

Zu nods once more to Vessa and replies out loud this time "Yeees. I'll look into it. Any threat to you is a threat to the entire organization after all. I don't think it's much but beefing up security would be best all the same." With that he takes off, albeit gingerly, and flies out of the room.

Aina purses her lips as she peers at the spot, then lifts her hand again, "Yeah, it looks like a port implant. But it doesn't seem to wanna open..." She pauses, considering, then lightly prods around the device, "Can you relax and hold still, Conner? I'm gonna push in it a bit harder. If nothing happens, we should get you in for a scan as soon as possible." Briefly she glances at Zu and Vessa, a brow arching at all the whispering. Once she thinks Conner is relaxed, she does indeed press a bit harder on the 'port' to see if anything happens.

Kethren comes back in without a scientist in tow, and sits back down in his chair. "Well, she made it to the surface in one piece. Kinda up to her now."

Conner nods slightly and does her best to relax and not move, "I'm ready.. And what's a port implant?" She closes her eyes as Aina pushes on the spot, expecting pain or something. But there is none, just a firm pressure and then a soft, barely audible click. The 'skin' that Aina was pressing on slides up to reveal a small group of data ports (4 in total) and what appears to be the head of a cable of some kind. She jerks slightly when she feels/hears the click and the movement of the 'skin', "What happened? I felt something."

Vessa stands as Zu leaves and smiles to Keth as he returns, "Thanks for taking her down Keth." she moves over so that she can watch the process without being in the way, "Dude. Awesome, mine doesn't do that."

Aina blinks and quickly pulls her hand back when things start to move, "Woah...Woah! Vessa, look at this. She's got ports, and a cable! Holy shit..." She leans a bit closer now, eyes wide, "Did you see the way it opened? How..." She pauses and straightens for a moment, then leans down again, "Conner...When you rifted, do you remember wakeing up in a building or out in the open? This is major...You've got four ports and a retractable cable back here. You can jack into stuff. Not that you're going to! No way. I want to study this before we even think of jacking you into anything. Scans are definetally in order..." Yup, she's gone all tech nerd.

Conner blinks and brings a hand up to the back of her neck to try and touch, then jerks it away when she feels the non-skin stuff, "Holy shit.. How did that get there?" She turns towards Aina for a second, then remembers Aina is looking and so turns back so her neck is to Aina, "Um, I was in my room, on my computer, and then there was a flash and I felt like I was falling, and then Vessa caught me by that other ship. The smaller one whose name I can't remember."

Kethren nods to Vessa "Course. Surely you've noticed I like to be useful, and there wasn't a lot that I could do here. Don't know the first thing about medicine or implants."

Vessa moves closer just as interested and nods as Aina speaks, "Ah wow, so this isn't the norm? Damn. Conner make sure you listen to Aina kay? She will take care of you and she is very knowledgeable about cybernetics." she notes to Aina, "I wonder how it would be possible for her er him to have an implant from a rift though. I wonder if it isn't similar to riftwalkers, multiple bodies?" she grins at Keht, "All I know is what I learned from getting an implant."

Aina blinks and reaches up to stop Conner from touching anything, "We'll figure it out..." She pauses, listening, and nods, "Well, we'll have to get a lot of scans...I'll get ahold of Leu, and have her talk to her dad, maybe he's heard of someone rifting in with ports. Lots of scans need to be done...Full body." She pauses and places a hand on Conner's shoulder and gives a light squeeze, "No freaking out though, ok? I just want to see how it's wired in and how far it goes."

Conner nods, a bit scared, "I'm not going to die, am I?" She bites her lips, really wishing that she could see the thing. Then, given that none of the ports have been activated or the cord extracted, the skin slides back down from where it had retracted and covers the implant's access again with another barely audible click. She again jerks, "What happened that time? I felt something else."

Vessa pats Conner's other shoulder and gives Aina's shoulder a friendly gentle bump with her own. "I have to head out, some work left to do. Welcome to the Danu family Conner, have a good evening all of you. Conner the room you were given last night is now yours. Don't worry, you aren't going to die. Good night all three of you." and with that she waves to each and heads out.