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The scene is a large conference room on board the Keant, the supposedly missing station from the migration. It is parked on the further edges of the system previously explored by Newt. To most people it'd be the TH2Q4Y system mentioned in the news. Chairs are set up, along with a large screen. There is a man near the front who seems to be in charge of the briefing process.
Into the room comes a small woman with dark hair and equally dark eyes. She makes her way along toward a chair near the front of the room. From a bag at her side she takes a datapad which she fiddles with for now.
Newt comes inside, suited up as per normal. He stops for a moment, looking up at the screen, smiles slightly and moves onto a seat at the front and sits, letting his legs swing a bit as he looks around once more.
Dement, being the over-attentive academic as ever, is already sat at the front. He's watching the man at a slight angle to the way he's facing, as if he were attempting to be sly. Perhaps that's just his posture.
"This." The man begins, as he clicks a button and the screen changes to a planet, "Is what we have designated TH2Q4Y-4 for now. More specifically, it is the fourth planet of the star system. Notable for it's rather cold climate in areas. This station is the staging area for observing and managing what is currently happening there." another pause, "The oddities in the star system have caused time to flow faster the closer to the center of the system we go. This is also interesting for the young human species that is settled there."
Sara begins typing away on her datapad, eyes looking between it and the screen. "Um...time is flowing faster there? Are we sure that this time flow hasn't affected here also then?" she asks curiously. "And I do hope this means we're not going down to that planet."
Kallyn is towards the back, her arms crossed and her fedora canted down to hide her eyes from view. She has her medical satchel with her, and listens to the briefing wordlessly for the time being.
Newt raises his eyebrows, looking up. "Do we know how come?"
Dement leans over to Sara with a light grin, "Time is relative, Sara. Just by being near a heavy gravity source your cognitive experience will shorten. Alternatively, if you spent all of your time in FTL travel, you'd live a great deal longer than everyone else."
"We do not know the specific reasons." the man at the front of the room providing the lecture admits. "That being said, even here on the Keant we are being influenced by this. By the time you return to the Svajone, it will only be several minutes from the time you left."
Sara nods at the man lecturing and blinks when Dee leans in to speak to her. She leans slightly to get a better look at him, a sly smile coming to her lips, "Perhaps we should test this out sometime?" she asks, "And we can add in there the old addage about time flying and fun?"
Newt whoas, slumping back into his seat, "That's pretty fast."
"That's quite a difference," Kallyn chimes in, just loudly enough to be heard and no louder, "Do we have any documentation on medical effects from this... what's the word, 'anomoly'? Aging would be the most obvious. But I'm more worried about other effects of what's causing the time change, rather than effects of the change itself."
"To the best of our knowledge, it is harmless outside of the aging. Keep in mind several months, if not years, can go by for locations closer to the center, so you will return almost as soon as you arrived." the man briefing everyone explains. "One of the major objectives of our study on the planet itself is to study the emerging human culture on the planet."
"What?" Dement blinks back at Sara with a confused expression, "Flying fun? I don't think I've heard that one."
Sara giggles at Dee's reply, "Maybe we'll have to have dinner sometime and discuss it," she says with a little smile. Her attention returns to the man at the front of the room, "Wait..the time will have been a few minutes on the Svajone, or for us?" Sara asks. She frowns at this and types on her datapad again, "Never mind...this is why I'm not a physicist.." she grumbles.
The room is set up rather simply with chairs set before a screen. Seems this is a meeting of some sort as people are gathered in said seats. Sara and Dee sit toward the front with Newt somewhere near by and Kallyn standing near the back with her medical bag.
The Aukami cants her head upwards some now, adjusting her hat to reveal eyes tinged a yellowish shade. "'Study the emerging human culture'... from afar, I hope," Kallyn remarks, a light frown tugging at the corners of her lips.
Arizhel enters quietly -- at least as quietly as she can with the boots clicking off of the deckplates. The Terran is seemingly reluctant to interrupt the proceedings by insinuating herself at the table, since she lingers at the back of the room near the doorway, hands clasped behind her.
And right behind Arizhel comes Kani, down on all fours, to nearly bump into the back of Rish's legs. S'what happens when you're busy having a looksee around an unfamiliar ship. Instead she tries to worm her way between the La Terran's legs so she can plonk herself down to sit.
"Ideally from afar." the man up front says. "And that is why we are here today." and with this the screen zooms to an area of the planet, about 60 degrees south. "One of the tribes found is having trouble with a long period of particularly harsh weather, and we want to see what level of covert assistance it will take for this group to survive."
"Time will go, uh, don't worry." Dement says with a nod at Sara's words, his yellow eyes dropping forward again so he can frown in a manner that looks like he's understanding everything being said.
Sara leans over her lap, perhaps trying to get a better look at the screen, "Do we know what stage of development these people are at? And what kind of repercussions might help from us have for them?" she asks curiously.
Kallyn nods, apparently satisfied with the the man's emphasis on /covert/ assistance. Her eyes fade back to their usual steel grey glow and she simply turns her attention to Sara to add, "To answer your previous question - we will only really be gone for a little bit, but it will feel longer to us. Does that help?"
They're in a conference room on the Keant having a briefing. Kallyn and Rish are standing in the back, Sara and Dement and Newt are seated in the front.
The Terran blinks and looks down at her feet as Aikani plunks herself down. "Comfy?" Rish asks quietly in Hekayan, giving a low chuckle. "Thank you for agreeing to come with us, by the by." She then turns her attention back to the man at the front of the room, curious.
"We suspect they have discovered primitive tool making by this point, but they have not done much else. Keep in mind our knowledge is sparse since we can only gather data on an annual basis at best." it is explained up front.
Newt pipes up, "How quickly do you reckon they'll catch up?"
"Oh! You speak Hekayan! That's so cooooool." Kani giggles, giving a kittenish grin up to Rish, one ear flicking, "Your accent isn't bad at all!" Speaking in Terran, the kit is, though her accent's a little on the atrocious side. Switch! "I should say thank you for agreeing to chaperone me. This gives me a great opportunity to learn more about the human psyche and if being in accelerated time, even if it's only for a little, will have any effect on mental stability."
"Have you not send electronic surveillance equipment?" Dement asks after a moment.
"The signal would be subject to the same time problems, wouldn't it?" Kallyn asks of Dement with a blink, falling silent after that.
Arizhel purses her lips, and finally speaks up. "Any electronic equipment we used would have to be very unobtrusive," she observes. "Surveillance would have to be done from a distance. Otherwise they may find it, and that rather defeats the purpose of our aid being kept covert." She shrugs. "We'd still only be able to gather data annually, in any case, for the reason just stated." She looks down at Aikani then and nods, offering a smile. "I do. And it's not a problem at all. The arrangement works out well on both sides.
"That was our first instinct. Unfortunately the time altering influences make it so that we can't go through all the readings in a timely manner, and the truth is we hardly know how much of that information is useful." The man says, then he looks at Kallyn, "The Aukami's got it." he declares. as for Newt, "Our estimates are several months, but we are working to find a better solution." a pause, "Are there any major questions about objectives and methods?" he asks. "We will begin boarding the shuttle as soon as possible, while we continue to ask these questions this tribe is very well dying in droves."
Sara turns around to get a look at Kallyn, "Thank you," she replies brightly. "That does help. Although...at least with some kind of video we'd have a better view of what's happening, even if the time around it is all wacky to us." She stands, "I don't think you answered the question of what kind of effect it might have on them for us to interfer in such a manner," she adds, "But perhaps you can explain in the way down?"
"Yup! And i'm pretty good with Outverser medicine too if the doctor lady needs any assistance." Kani offers with a kittenish grin, all this mumbo jumbo about electronics and how the time field affects it just going in one ear and out the other. Totally not her forte.
Newt gets off his seat, looks around and back. "Lets go, then."
"I know graduate New Berlin electronic engineers could throw out something a lot more subtle than any live being." Dement murmurs lightly, "Not like this chunky Hiververse equipment. Honestly, a few good workers could make this whole team obsolete - uh - not that I don't want to check it out." he sniffs.
"You have experience with 41st century medical tech?" Kallyn asks of Aikani with a light smile, "It's all I have with me, easier to carry." She nods to the others, no more questions coming to mind as she detaches herself from the wall, "As he says, let's go. Faster we get out of here, sooner we can get our work done."
"Quite," Rish replies, nodding. She sniffs and inspects her suit idly. "I suspect I ought to change into something more comfortable on the shuttle. There's no sense in ruining a perfectly good suit, after all." The Terran then smiles and offers her hand to Aikani. "Shall we, then? The shuttle should be ready."
Volidana hms with a nod to saara's question but it is to Newt she speaks with a smile "Just look old times with the VES
"We aren't aware, entirely." the man admits to Sara.
"Yep, I do! They taught me how to use it at the Comorro station hospital cause Dr. Wright and Dr. Hall implimented a ton of it there." Kani confirms to Kallyn before she gets up, giving a little stretch before shifting to stand on her back legs only, little paw placed in Rish's hand, "Yep! Ready!"
The ship begins it descent onto the planet with Newt at the helm. All's as smooth as a finely crafted babies bottom at the beginning but once well into the atmosphere the wind picks up, buffeting the ship in a manner diplomatically described as disagreeable. Newt zones out further from the outside world as he tries to keep the descent of the ship in some sort of control as it gets slammed ever harder. The angle of descent changes as he gets closer and whilst initially its all good, there is a final gust that causes the ship to take out some rather nice looking shrubbery, scrape across the ground and then finally come to a halt.
And oof sound leaves Sara as the ship lands and the seat restraints pull across her chest. Silently she unbuckles and prepares to head out, one hand holds up her bag as the other works at retrieving something from within.
with only one arm to brace herself, Volidana does a nice little slide across the seat, but is nonetheless smiling "Nice one, newt" she calls to diminutive Ungstiri pilot
Arizhel braces herself against the seat with one hand, the other one going reflexively out in front of the Lyiri sitting next to her at the final crash-and-skid. "That was a rather... ah... interesting technique," she murmurs quietly, then looks aside to Aikani. "Are you alright?" she asks in Hekayan.
Once the ship is landed Newt just sinks back into the seat and lets out a nice, destressing sigh. "Wow." No respons to Dana as yet. Still lost in his little world.
Aikani's kitten reflexes have her arms wrapping around Rish's arm as it goes out to help brace her for the impact, the kit a bit dazed for a few moments after, "Ohhh." She murmurs, nodding after a moment, "Yeah, i'm alright Miss. Velasquez. Thanks. That was a bit rough, wasn't it?"
There's something unusually calm about Kallyn as the ship fights the weather and skids on the ground. No reaction to hang onto anything, no bracing, no flash of the eyes or even a concerned look on her face. This means that even with the seat harness she does a little bit of ragdolling, and once they're stopped she frowns a little and rubs at her restraints. A sigh leaves the Aukami's lips and she simply shakes her head. "I need therapy," she decides out loud as she unbuckles and checks to make sure her bag is still shut.
The outside, is, well, moderately noisy, mostly with wind as there are relatively few windbreaks in all the snow.
Dement topples backwards as the ship 'lands' and crashes out of the smaller divider he'd gone to get changed in. He rolls about on the floor, a pair of thick lined beige trousers around his ankles and the customary heart boxers protecting his jibblies. "Gah!" he manages, crawling back out of view.
Volidana :peers out the window "looks worse than the Centauran homeworld"
Sara moves to get a look outside also, dark eyes narrowing. It's the crashing Dement that gets her attention and she moves to help him, crouching down to offer a hand to the engineer. "You should be more careful," she offers unhelpfully.
Newt unbuckles himself and gets up off his seat, "Everyone ok? Sorry about tha-" He spots Dement. "Nice boxers."
"Quite alright," Rish replies to Aikani, chuckling quietly. "We can't have you getting hurt on our little expedition here, now can we?" The Terran unfastens her restraints, and proceeds to start putting on the rest of her cold-weather gear. Dement's boxers draw a raised eyebrow and a lopsided grin. "I can't help but agree."
"Didn't you hear the announcement that we were going to land?" Kallyn asks of Dement, ignoring his state of amusing undress with another shake of her head as she rises and heads over Newt's way, "How's the ship? Will we have any trouble leaving the planet?"
"That's right! Mister Zeig would be really upset if that happened, I think."Aikani replies to Rish, just before she spots Dement. She tries to hold it in, but she just can't help but giggle furiously at poor Dement and his boxers.
"The shuttle should be more careful!" grumbles Dement, giving Sara a light dismissive push away as he moves back into the divider. From behind his protective cover he replies to Newt. "Nice flying." he shuts up at that, making sure he's fully dressed before he makes any further ventures into the cabin, let alone the outside weather.
Newt looks back at his console, tapping away at it, "Uhh... I reckon we'll be cool taking off."
Sara takes a few steps back at the push and frowns, "Oh...okay," she says softly before moving back to look out, "Shall we go out then?" she asks after a moment.
Arizhel finishes with her gear, and seems puzzled as to where to put her sword. Finally, she ends up strapping it across her back, rather than at her waist. A look is angled down at Aikani, and a nod offered. "I'd rather avoid that if we can. Just be careful and stay close. We don't know what we're going to find." She then turns to Sara. "I'm ready," she replies, nodding. "Shall we?" The Terran pulls on her gloves and moves toward the airlock.
Aikani isn't wearing any winter gear, but she's also from a planet that's probably a lot colder than this... all year around. In fact, this'll be a bit of a nice relief from how warm she finds Comorro, "Okay, I will." The kit promises... but she /is/ young and full of beans.
"I'm ready when you all are," the Aukami reports lightly as she checks over her winter gear. She's slightly bulkier than she should be, but that's probably because she kept her leather jacket on under her winter coat. No harm in extra layers! She heads for the airlock herself, pulling out a scanner and absently scanning those around her as she can to make sure they're not warping into mutant time monsters or something.
Volidana looks a bit out of comfort in the heavy clothing but nonetheless moves to the shuttle doors
Newt heads to the airlock in his usual attire, "I'm set."
The good news is that there's no mutant creatures or anything of the sort, the not so good news being the weather is rather unpleasant, with the wind and snow.
Sara opens waits as the airlock opens and then peeks out, letting others go before her to check that there is no immediate danger.
Kallyn steps outside, peering around with a reddish tinge of annoyance at the level of coldness. "Mm," something catches her attention and she tromps a little bit westwards to eye some vegetation. "I'm no expert," she informs the others, "But I'd say the tribe we're supposed to be monitoring is a little bit that way." She points west.
Dement follows the group, hesitantly. He's donned a blue snow jacket, hood up (with a fuzzy white trim). He's got thick boots on, which almost dwarf his knees in their height, and a black leather belt with a few pouches. Why, he looks like he's come straight from a rebel base on some ice planet, "I thought it was cold.. on the inside.." he murmurs, as the wind pecks at his face.
Newt walks out nicely encased in greenness of varied flavours, except for the face which is still visible. Once off the ramp he steps onto the ground, helpfully cleared by his landing and waits for the rest. "This is neat."
Volidana pulls her hood tight about her as she follows newt into the snow
"Fair enough," Rish replies with a slight shrug. "We'll be able to find our way back to the ship if it turns out they aren't, and strike out in another direction." The Terran is nicely bundled up, her snow gear pale grey and white. She looks down at Aikani. "Ready?"
Aikani can't help but take a moment to frolic around and roll about in the snow, the kit not wandering far.. for now. It's about when she's buried herself in a snowdrift that she pays attention to the fact that she's been asked a question. Fwoof! Her head pops up with a shower of snow and she looks at Rish, giving a nod before she starts wriggling her way out of the snow pile.
The current environment shows a low lying area covered with snow. Most of the native life at the moment are particularly hardy plants, with a few small mammals using them and the snow as windbreaks.
Sara follows along, trying to keep to the middle of the group. "Do we know if this tribe speaks any recognizable language?" she asks of nobody in particular, perhaps she should have asked this sooner...
"Come on, let's get this over with," Kallyn says, waving people westward, "If I wanted to be cold I'd spend more time in autopsy." Her own snow gear's white. It would make her hard to see if her fiery red hair wasn't flapping free out of the hood. Looks a little weird to have knee-length hair flowing out of her hood like that.
Newt follows along for a bit but then stops, frowning. "Uh. I'm gonna catch up and stuff. I think looking over the ship might be a good idea. Just in case." he shouts over the wind.
"I should be able to figure something out," Dement replies to Sara in a muffled tone. He's raised a bandana around his face so he's not too frostbitten by the wind.
Arizhel offers a shrug Sara's way, though it's nearly lost in the depths of her heavy jacket. "I don't think we have any way of knowing," she replies. "Though somehow I doubt it. The planet is rather... isolated." A faint smile quirks her lips up on one side as she watches Aikani, her expression amused. "Rather like home, isn't it?" With that, she follows after Kallyn.
Volidana is having dificulty keeping herself from shivering despite being well dressed as she tramps after kallyn and the rest
"It is! I haven't gone home in /so/ long now. I miss it." Kani tells Arizhel as she pads back over to the La Terran, a bit of a shakeoff had along the way, "Was there snow where you came from?"
Sara frowns at this and shakes her head, "I'm sure I can figure it out, Dement," she replies to the engineer. "I just wondered if there was a known place that might be good to start was all." She too trudges on, body wrapped in a black coat with white trim. It somewhat matches the rest of her, dark hair, dark eyes, dark clothing and her tiny pale face peeking out.
Soon enough, the group can find the tribe of humans. Their numbers are down to about eighty visible, covered in the patchwork furs of local mammals. They're trying to hide behind makeshift windbreaks similarly made of furs, shrubbery, and in a couple spots human corpses, and seem to be doing a bad job of it. As for how they look? The short answer is 'not good', as they're physically thinning out.
"There is," Rish replies to Kani, nodding. Again, the gesture's nearly lost inside her jacket. "In some places, anyway." Shielding her eyes from the wind, she squints and peers over at the natives and their plight. "Alright... So. We're supposed to help covertly... ideas?" she asks, turning to the others.
"Yeah... ok." Dement murmurs, falling quiet as the trek through the weather.
Aikani gives a nod at this, the kit falling quiet as they get closer to the natives. Her ears pull back lightly, the kit looking up to Arizhel. The silence would seem to indicate she's got no ideas to share.
Sara tries to keep herself out of view of the natives, eyes looking down at the snow thoughtfully, "What is it that humans need to survive? Shelter, food, clothing...Perhaps if we found a source of food and somehow led them to it?" she asks.
"Uh." Dement manages lowly, "Perhaps you should stay back for the moment, just in case they mistake you for a source of food or clothing." the little engineer taps Aikani on the shoulder as he talks.
Arizhel is crouched down in the snow herself at this point, keeping a lower profile. She looks aside to Sara. "Right now it seems like shelter is the most important," she replies. "They're freezing to death." Thoughtful, the Terran sinks even lower down into the snow at Dement's words. A sigh, then. "We may *have* to show ourselves if we want to save them."
Aikani's flesh ripples beneath her fur at the unexpected touch, an ear swivelling back to pay mind to Dement before the rest of her follows, "Oh.. maybe you're right Mister. My fur's just about perfect for weather like this." She murmurs back to him, scootching back just a little before she looks back towards the grouping of natives.
Sara shakes her head, "I don't know...it's hard to say if they'll freeze to death before they starve to death," she replies to Rish. Perhaps food first?" her nose wrinkles as she takes note of the small camp the tribe has made.
"Welll..." Rish says, again peering up over the snowdrift she's lurking behind. "They've *got* food. And plenty of it. I just don't think they'll like the idea." She wrinkles her nose. "Desperate times..." A shrug follows, as if to say: what can you do?
"Yes," Dement says tautly, "...but I think perhaps a face they'd perceive as one of their own might be best to introduce us. I still freak out a little when I meet an alien species I have never seen before... It's /weird/." he looks across to Rish with a frown, "Endo-cannibalism has connections to mass insanity, I hope you realise?"
Sara's frown deepens, "Are you sure we want to introduce them to that?" she asks. "Perhaps it'd be better if we offered them fire?"
"Uhmmm." Kani murmurs, looking to and fro between the adults, "I'm not very good at tracking things yet, but I could maybe try and find some animal to herd their way? And uh... maybe wound it a bit so it's not too hard for them to catch?" Her ears flick at this.
A couple of the locals are looking around, eventually they do notice something's a short distance away, near where the group is. A couple of the better off members take a couple rocks in hand each, heading in that direction.
Arizhel starts to make a reply to either Dement or Sara -- it's impossible to tell which, since she simply falls quiet, freezing in place as she notes that some of the natives are headed their way. "...Um. Guys," she says, nodding toward them. "Incoming."
"Oh crap." Dement mutters, "I think 'observe from afar' is going to be pretty hard if they're looking back." he pulls himself up to, well, his maximum height before stepping forward hesitantly, he holds his hands forward, open out to the settlers.
Aikani's initial reaction is to flatten herself to the ground, ears pulling back to press tightly against her skull. Then she starts backing up a bit... however this action lasts about a minute before she bolts to go hide in the snow. She doesn't want to be dinner and a garment!
Sara freezes in place, blinking at the in coming natives and then she too starts to back up slowly, "Um..okay, what should we do now?" and as Dement approaches them she starts speaking to the natives trying several different languages to see which one they might respond to.
As Sara tries to communicate, the duo of natives look at each other, then look at Sara somewhat oddly. As for responding, they don't seem to know what to do quite yet, rocks still being held in their hands.
Kallyn lets out a sigh, shaking her head at the situation. The Aukami digs in her bag for a pair of shades to hide her glowing eyes, and then stuffs her hands in her pockets. Rather than venturing out a bunch of languages, as she doesn't /actively/ know more than two, she maneuvers to stay about halfway between Dement and Sara - a nice waypoint from which she can either assist the man or flee for her life, whichever feels more appropriate - and instead tries to listen to the natives if/when they speak.
"Hello." Dement offers, with a timid smile, he drops his posture down, in a subservient gesture of good will, "Anybody got anything we could offer them?" he queries back to the group.
Shuffleshuffle. What looks like a pile of snow shifts around a bit, and after a few moments two triangular ears emerge, angled towards Dement and the settlers. Cautiously a snout pops up, heterochromatic eyes contrasting the white snow and making her easier to spot, "Uhm." She forwards towards Dement in Terran, "I have a bit of candy in my pocket..."
Sara frowns as it seems the languages so far aren't working. "Okay.." she mutters softly and then goes for older languages, starting with Latin using as many greeting type phrases as she can remember. At Dee's request she begins digging in her bag, perhaps looking for something that might be helpful to the natives, or at least might not cause them to decide to begin throwing those rocks.
Slowly, from a far, the green mass that is Newt is on the approach. Every now and then, as a gust of wind hits he croches down and waits it out a bit before getting up again and trudging on. By his side, in his hand, is his faithful companion: stick. It supports him throughout the ordeal and has, thus far, proven very loyal.
The duo look at each other again as Sara keeps trying to speak at them. <They know the sage language.> one says to each other. Well, to the untrained ear it sounds more like a bunch of random sounds vaguely organized. Though the other says, <Watch out> indicating Aikani, preparing to toss one of the rocks at her.
"Let's try food," Kallyn suggests lightly, "It's a harsh winter, I'm sure they're starving. I brought some with me in case we got stuck here. It's not much but it's something..." She digs through her bag in search of the rations, still trying to listen for signs of the natives' language. When they speak, she twitches in recognition of a few syllables, and then looks up. <No!> she holds a hand out, <No throw. Me give food. No cat hurt.> Yeah, it's pretty mucked up, but it kind of gets the point across as she dangles the synthmeat from her bag at the pair.
"Please..." Dement moves to one side, placing himself between the agitated man with his rock and the Lyiri, "It's friendly. It's alright."
That Lyiri's ears pull back again and she sinks back down, worry clear in her eyes, "They--... They don't wanna eat me, do they?" Aikani squirms around a bit, one paw digging into her pockets to seek out that candy she mentioned.
A smile lights on the Later's lips when they start speaking and she tries again, <We'll help you find food. The Lyiri won't harm you, I promise.> she gets out, gesturing for them to put the rocks down. She turns her head to look back at Aikani, "Right? No trouble from you?" she asks in Terran of the Lyiri kit. She shakes her head in answer to the question of them wanting to eat her.
One of the duo looks at the synthmeat Kallyn offers, sniffing it a bit. Soon enough he takes it and takes a bite, seeming more confused than anything, spitting it out. As for the one looking at Aikani. <The beast is dangerous.> he explains, before trying to run around Dement and after her, not quite at an angle for rock throwing yet.
<She not beast!> Kallyn replies, standing her ground but keeping a hand extended at the natives. "I can deflect the stone's path if he throws it, but I can't guarantee I won't scare them," she informs the group, eyes staying on the native and his rock.
"<The beast is dangerous?>" Dement repeats back to the rock bearing man before moving with him, merely keeping himself between the two. "Stop now." he says quickly and flatly, "This will not end well for you if you choose to attack us. You need our help. Look at your people." a hand is thrown out at the rest of the men, in an attempt to divert the course of attention.
Trudge, trudge, trudge, stop. Newt stops for a bit as he spots the party, with a couple of shapes too many. He ducks down trudgingly behind some shrubbery.
There's a moment where it seems Aikani is going to reply to Sara as she looks up and over, paw grasping some hard candies of varying flavours. Then she notices the primitive fellow trying to get past Dee and towards her with that rock, and despite what Red's taught her, she bolts again, scared. She's still a kid, after all, "Nonono, stay away! I don't wanna be eateeen!"
Oh right, those hard candies get dropped in the snow on the way outta Dodge.
"He doesn't want to eat you. He thinks you're going to harm him," Sara tries to explain to the fleeing Aikani. She turns back to the natives and shakes her head, <Not a beast. She's here to help also. But if you don't put that rock down..I'll...I'll call on the gods to knock some sense into you.> she huffs with this last part.
The one more inclined to talk looks about, <We'll show you the sage speaker then, he knows of these things.>
As for the other, there's a bit more of a rush, but it stops at the hard candies. He picks them up, sniffing at them, and finally popping one in his mouth, wrapper and all. <Look! If we chase them, they provide food!> he concludes. <We'll go back and organize a hunting party!> Seeming vaguely hopeful.
"'Call on the gods'? Are you serious? If anyone's 'calling on the gods' here it's me," Kallyn remarks Sara's way with a brief smirk of amusement. She then sighs at the rock hunter. <No. You keep chase us, I hurt in you face. You nice with we, we help. Yes?> She looks to the other one. "Someone else talk to the reasonable one, I'm giving myself a headache trying to work out their syntax..."
Dement falters to one side, "Stop, yo-" the quicker man gets around him and he curses, "Their phrase structure seems categorical, verb phase follows noun, with an odd deformation into tree pattern." he replies to Kallyn, "The head word is said last, if that helps, as though they were reading standard backwards."
Good thing Kani's a snow kitty, or else she might be slipping and sliding all over the place, though Sara's words distract her and she slips to trip on a stone hidden a bit by snow, "Ooof. Ow.." She gets up after a moment to shake herself off, "If I was planning on hurting them, I would have melted their brains already!" Slight exaggeration on the brain melting, but the point stands. Cautiously she scoots up towards Dement while keeping an eye on the primatives.
Newt stays where he is, getting his breath back, stick at his side and observing from behind the shrubbery in a crouching position.
"I'm trying to tell them that, little one," Sara replies to Kani. She shakes her head and mentally facepalms at the comment about hunting parties, <No. We will help you and you don't have to hunt us.> she tries to tell the one with all the ideas about hunting the small Lyiri. <Please, perhaps your sage will be able to sort this out.> she replies to the one doing all the talking.
<We'll figure out how to get the food from the beast!> the one hunting proclaims. As for the 'reasonable' one, <Let us go.>
<Leave she alone,> Kallyn sort of growls at the hunting primitive, keeping her attention on him even as she moves to follow and see the sage.
Dement falls silent, miming the hunter with a slight frown.
Aikani sneaks up behind Dement, wide eyes kept on the hunter people even as she squishes up against the back of his legs.
Sara simply nods and follows along, a warning look given to the hunter.
The 'sage' mentioned doesn't look much older or better off than the rest of them, the only claim he has is a position near the windbreak that's high enough to let him crouch and still be protected. As approached, the duo break off. The man himself actually manages to speak Terran slightly well. "You are the visitors." he points out. He points to a large piece of stone. "We need food, yes, but you want to see this stone."
Kallyn blinks as the sage speaks, peering at him a moment. "We do?" she asks, "Um... why?" She digs through her bag and pulls out a small scanner, trying to see if she can't get some readings of the natives and the sage without causing a ruckus.
Dement follows, keeping a sympathetic hand free for Aikani should the LYIRI feel the need.
Not only does she feel the need for her own comfort, there's the distinct possibility that if she's holding someone's hand, the prmitives will lay off trying to chase her. Her paw is soft and a bit squishy and the pads are cold from being pressed against the snowy ground, "Uhm... Uhm, it's really uh.. cool you can understand them, Mister."
Sara blinks as the sage speaks their own language, "What is it?" she asks of the sage, not drawing too much closer to it yet, at least not for the moment.
Newt watches everyone move off and, a little while later, begins to follow. Still trying to keep out of sight he slinks from shrubbery to shrubbery.
"The verbal lore says this will be useful." the man says. "Supposedly those who came before you gave us something with pictures of sounds on it and said someone'd be coming for it."
As Kallyn scans the tribe, her eyes narrow and then look away from the device entirely shifting slowly into a somewhat vivid yellowish orange shade. "Wh-what...?" she whispers, shaking her head a little and wearing a thoroughly confused frown. The phrase 'weirded out' is probably best to describe her current state as she looks to the others in her group. She reaches for the closest person - Dement, as it so happens - and moves in close. "No future," she hisses, jaw working as she tries to articulate, "They... I feel this... blankness, f-from them..."
"What does that mean?" Dement asks with a slightly annoyed expression, "It's just a rock."
Aikani is too worried about those hunter people to pay much mind to the rock, her ears swivelling to and fro as she keeps a lookout for them.
Sara peers at the rock, "Others? Before us?" she asks as she moves closer to the rock and reaches out to touch it. "What others?" Her head turns toward Kallyn, "What do you mean?"
"They talk like you." the man explains. "We try to have someone to speak back." as he goes to pull on the stone slab from the windbreak. What's said on it is reasonably obvious to anyone that can read Terran: "Delivered 5/18/2652. Return to carbon date." Then below that a smaller entry: "Dig for protection."
"I don't know," Kallyn shakes her head, voice still soft, "I don't... It's-it's like..." She shakes her head again, starting to back away from the tribe, "It's like they're not there... No future... not even death, just nothing. I don't understand what I'm feeling..."
"Perhaps an effect of the time lapse." Dement says unsurely and after a moment he frowns. The engineer glances across at the stone.
"Uhm." Kani fronts towards Kallyn after her look about seems to have shown her no one out to get her, yet, "If you feel a bit funny in the head, maybe I should have a look at you..."
Sara frowns at this and holds out her hand to take the stone, "Dig for protection?" she asks, "What's that supposed to mean?"
Newt finally gets up from behind a shrubbery and moves closer to the group, curiosity having overtaken caution and, well, noone has gotten eaten /yet/.
The man shrugs as this 'dig for protection' is explained. He shrugs, digging into the snow a bit. Naturally there's just more snow. Then he digs a bit more, starting to fit part of himself in. "Less windy." he observes, seeming to find this observation the most important part of 'digging for protection.'
Kallyn looks at Aikani for a moment, eyes canting downwards and the color fading a bit. "Yeah," she agrees, handing the scanner over to the Lyiri, "Maybe I'm just losing my mind... Wouldn't be the first time." She sits in the snow to make it easier for the kit to look her over.
"Uh." Dement manages, watching the village wise man with a frown, "Sure."
Newt asks, having gotten close enough, "Did we bring any digging stuff?"
"Oh, I don't need the scanner for this." Kani tells Kally, the kit scootching over and laying her paws on the Aukami's knees, "I'm going to do it psionically. My brother and I are prodigies with psionic healing, so you don't have to worry, okay?"