As the night wore on and the crew members of the Monroe became increasingly inebriated from the strong liquor they were consuming, Valanx was the only one who remained sober, never taking part in drinking due to his inability to handle alcohol in any capacity. He had found this out some years ago, before he had joined the Marauders. He and a few other friends from the IEF decided to go out for drinks one night. Valanx had no memory of what happened that night, but he did remember having the worst hangover the next morning, and his friends had mentioned that he had passed out after two shots of whiskey. For this reason, he refused to take part in any sort of drinking ever again. As a result, Valanx was the only crew member of the Monroe to be completely sober. This also meant that his luck had improved dramatically as the rest of the crew became too drunk to properly understand what they were doing. As a result, Valanx was also the only crew member that was still wearing all his own clothes, having enough money to not need to resort to throwing his clothes into the pot. He listened as the other members of the crew talked about what they would do if they had one day with no rules. It was times like this that Valanx remembered that all of his crew mates were criminals. Out of everyone on the ship, Valanx was the only one who was truly free - the only one who had joined the IEF willingly, despite the dangers galactic exploration held. From what he could gather, even the girl, Rendyl, wasn't free. She seemed to be tangled up in some sort of black market dealings that the Committee were in on, though whether she was involved in this by choice or not, Valanx was not sure. All the same, it was sobering to remember that all the members of his crew were here to pay for crimes they had committed in the past. He chose not to answer Ray's question. It would seem unwise to possibly remind the others that he wasn't here to serve time like the others were. Instead, he continued to play the game, betting a bit more confidently now that everyone else was totally plastered.

”Stop waving your cards around, dimwit. Beating you ain't fun when you make it too easy.” She berated the pilot, taking care to speak slowly so she wouldn’t trip over her tongue. Astrid had success in the game early on, but as the night dragged on and her vow to stay sober broke, the ability to count cards left her. Perhaps it was her resigned stoicism that made her harder to read and therefore allowed her to retain at least some clothing. That, or it could’ve been dumb luck.

”And for real? Blasting a song about how... ‘nothing in the world is free’, or however it goes... while we’re sitting pretty in a ship most can only dream of? While drinking this dis- dis-gust-ing stuff?” she pointed a finger at the nearest bottle as if she was accusing it of committing some horrible crime. “Some of us even got a false conviction in that gift basket, all for free. Hy-po-cri-sy, much?”

The doctor’s state had Astrid laughing under the table, figuratively speaking. ”Awww, that’s so nice of you. I knew there was a reason I was going out of my way not to piss you off. But… wouldn’t we only be free for the day with no rules? Why dangle hope in front of us like that, only for the pricks in charge to snatch it away? Again. I’d have a sol- solution for that. I’d build a ship. A little one. Just a remass tank, really. A bit of fuel, a gyro and a remote control package. Wait, am I forgetting something. Ah, it hardly matters. The point is, it’d all be strapped to a big engine. One of the old chemical rockets, because fuck your regulations, those things were fun, that’s why!” she paused for a moment, looking like a dog that got its bone taken away before her brain recovered from the booze-induced stall and picked up where her rambling left off. “And I’d let it slingshot around a nearby star or two and slam into the Spire at relativistic speed. That’d solve quite a few problems.”

Luirae giggled at Astrid’s comment about avoiding pissing her off, inwardly thinking that the other woman should have told the Rats that. They might have lived long if she had which caused a new fit of giggles to erupt from her before it instantly died at her next statement. She hadn’t thought of that but with those pricks, anything was possible and it is most likely they would just put everything back as it was. This caused her to pout, leaning back in her chair with a loud annoyed groan before mumbling,”I didn’t fink about dat.” She listened carefully to Astrid’s solution nodding at certain points before pushing up from her seated position in shock, practically sending the chair flying as it knocked over, her body leaning over the table. Rae was close, ignoring personal boundaries a bit as she asked in a fearful voice,”Ne, aren’t dare citizens on the Spire? You wouldn’t hurt ‘em to get at those assholes, right? Cause I’d have to stop....why are you in my face?

She looked confused and slide off the table, shoving the pot back into the middle and looking around as if a bit lost.”Hey, who stole my chair? I was using that. Oh, nevermind, I found it!” she stated proudly, bending over to snag the chair back into place, skillfully managing not to fall onto her face while retrieving it from the ground. Rae plopped back into the chair happily before tossing back another drink, snagging her cards and tilting her head as she looked at them. ”Pssssst! Is dis a good hand?” she said rather loudly, obviously meaning to whisper but failing miserably as she flashed her cards to Aamra.”If it is then don’t tell de others. They’ll be jealous.”

Yasaliah looked down at Luirae as she sat back into the chair, shaking her head. She pointed her cards at her. "You've got to be the dumbest drunk I've ever seen in my life, Rae." Josk's light purple face was now bright pink in the cheeks, the Satasi equivalent of becoming rosy.

"And you can't kill the Committee. Or the Council. Or the Spire. Especially not with your dumb plan, Astrid." The Satasi had downed a lot of alcohol and wasn't planning on stopping. She paused and tipped another bottle down her throat.

"I mean it's not your fault you're dumb, Astrid. Most humans are dumb. Most people are dumb, period. Dumbies everywhere." She raised her hand and cast an arc across the room, gesturing the dumbies across the universe. "What's it...sheep? Sheep? Yeah, that's it. Sheep. They're like sheep. They just follow the leader. Not me. They won't get me." She rambled on, ignoring the fact that Yasaliah was, in fact, got.

"I mean...what? Astrid?" She stopped herself mid-sentence and perked up, as if she just noticed something. She looked wide-eyed over at the human woman. "False conviction? Come on. You can be honest around us. We won't judge you! Not me. Come on, what'd you do? Did you, uh, blow somebody up? I bet you blew somebody up." She leaned toward Astrid, putting her elbows on the tabe and resting her chin in her palms. As the Satasi became more drunk, she began to radiate pheremones. Like losing control of a bodily function, suddenly the semi-nude Satasi began to emit scents that might make an unprepared individual hot and bothered. She wasn't even aware she was doing it. As a Satasi grows older, they begin to develop further control of their natural abilities. But young and undisciplined, the pilot could no longer keep it under control now that she could barely see straight.

”There were once good people on this ship, too, weren’t there? Take Anderson, for example. I mean, I only ever spent about five hours in total in the same room as he, but he didn’t seem bad. And now he’s gone, while the pirate, the actual pirate, and the terrorist are still here.” she pointed at Yas and Dev, ”So the bastards clearly don’t care about other people, then why should I? If they want me to be a criminal, might as well...”

”Aye, I noticed.” the engineer deadpanned, or the next best thing given her state, at Josk’s ‘Dumbies everywhere.’ comment, while looking straight at her. As she spoke, she found herself pulling away from the pilot, first just to keep her cards hidden, then to stay away from the pink, breathing booze barrel. Normally, she would’ve realized why she suddenly disliked the pilot less than she did twenty seconds ago, but at that point her brain hadn’t been firing on all cylinders for a few hours. ”We tried to blow someone up in self defense after they attacked us…” Astrid raised an authoritative finger, ”...and we got blown up in the process.” she downed another glass, ”Damn Warden-class missile destroyers with their Swarmer launchers, lining every edge of the ship like fucking chickenpox.” the engineer grumbled. ”But the worst thing we’ve done was dodging import tax, but that’s not something you get a death sentence like this for.” she gestured around them to make a point that the ship itself was the death sentence.

”How much do you actually know... about spaceflight, Josk?” Astrid inquired, suddenly curious what Yas found wrong with her plan on the theoretical level, ignoring the seven different ways it was fucked up in the morality area, ”Do you know how... this... all works, or do you just slam your head on the controls and the magic sorta happens by itself? Is it… just me or is… is the Satasi witch doing her thing again?” she looked around the room, visibly confused. ”This is the reason the old cap always wore an EVA suit for meetings with Satasi. Because they have no honor, no respect… no beer.”

The night progressed, Rendyl let up little by little, seeing these people not as cutthroats or murderers, but like the game they were playing, people that were making the best of the life they were dealt. It was an interesting notion to Rendyl, who had her life given to her by wealth and love. She never experienced hardship, fear, hunger, or loneliness in her life back on earth, and it was such a jarring transition to be playing cards with this crew. What surprised and intrigued her the most were the stories they were sharing, and what they've experienced.

The game kept going, she lost and gained her earring twice, eventually demanding to try a shot from the bottle of alcohol she saw the captain drinking from earlier, waving off any warnings. She downed it, followed by a hefty series of coughs to no one's surprise, and she tried to keep playing her hand through it. Half an hour later, while winning a pot with a set of three 9s, she requested another shot. This time she knew what to expect and handled the liquid with a bit more dignity. the booze already affecting her movement and vision.

When the Captain asked his question, Rendyl listened to the answers from her spot on the table, her head resting on her arms in a daze. she tuned them out after a little while and closed her eyes, thinking back to her home...

Complete freedom? Wonder if that means talking...I wanna talk so bad, even just for a day. Being able to chat with these people like a normal person maybe I wouldn't be a misfit among misfits then...

She felt a strong desire and sadness accompany her thought, but unbeknownst to her, everyone in the room would've 'heard' this, a gentle sweep of words unspoken but echoing between their ears. They'd experience a sensation of wanting to talk more, of an irrational sadness of being unable to speak.

Rendyl's eyes were still closed, her head tilted to one side as though she were asleep, but she smiled lightly.

At least Tony is nice to me. I like him the most...

"You've got to be the dumbest drunk I've ever seen in my life, Rae." Luirae slowly turned her attention from Aamra and full on death glared at the Satasi. She slammed her cards down, a serious expression etched on her face before she spoke in a serious tone which lost most of its threatening potential due to her slurring,”I am not dumb, it’s called carefree ‘n’ as least I can control my bodily functions. No ones need your flirty crap floatin round.” It was after that that she pulled the large jacket up over her face, her fuzzy mind saying that would help when in reality, little could be done about that sort of thing unless they did as Astrid’s old cap had. Rae could already feel her annoyance at Josk fading slightly which caused a hidden pout on her face to form.

It was about the time that she was debating on leaving the room that she heard an unfamiliar voice echoing in her ears. Her hand instantly letting go of the jacket bunched over her face, plopping it back into place as she glanced around the room in confusion before the words said clicked into place. The orange irises locking onto Rendyl, a cheshire grin forming on her face.”You seems to be speaking just fine, sweetie. I am a little hurt you like Tony most but I don’t blame ya. He is a nice guy, from what I’ve seen plus I is not anyone’s fav. I’ll tell you doe that a misfit is a misfit so you can belong here. Don’t try so hard.”

Josk closed her eyes and nodded, basically completely ignoring Luirae. "Magic is a good word for it. I'm a fucking...wizard." When Astrid called the Satasi a witch, she pointed at the human and increased her nodding speed. "Witch is much better."

"And, here's the thing about your super dumb dumb plan for dumb, stupid idiots, Astrid." Josk rambled.

"Two words: Shields. One word, actually. And also, I bet you would miss. Two words, actually; shields and guns. It would just shatter against the shields if your dumb chemical rocket didn't get shot out of the air by something. Or if it didn't miss. Cause you would miss, for sure. So there you go, Astird."

Josk licked her lips, noticing her mispronunciation of her shipmates name. "Astird? Asturd. Ass-turd. That's not funny. Did you get bullied in school, Astrid? You look like someone who got bullied." Somehow, maybe it was just the air in the room, this crude comment could easily be interpeted as a pick-up line.

Luirae was right, as most of the younger members of her species, Yassaliah was having a hard time keeping her flirty crap restrained within the strands of her hair. Not that the pilot even noticed anything was wrong. She was only getting more drunk.

It was moments like these... These small moments of bickering, the teasing, the angry curses that the translator system refused to translate. Was Raymond drunk? Extremely, but the scene laid out before him was one of the few that he truly enjoyed. It was definitely interesting to see everyone climb out of their shell in a way--well, except for Josk, who always acted like this. Raymond had never seen the Doctor like this, and he felt guilty for the feelings he got at the sight of her in his jacket (which he planned on winning back, by the way).

The crew bickered and trailed off from his question, which he didn't blame them. He took a long, slow puff of the cigar in between his lips, and let the crew member before him make his move. "I'd find some shitty job on the country side of Earth... I'd work my ass off until I had enough credits to find an antique store, and buy myself an old Human Automobile." He knew the crew wasn't listening, and with his quiet tone he doubted they even cared. He looked at his pile of "winnings" and at his hand again. "I'd work night and day on that piece of shit, and when I finally get it to work, I'd buy myself some beer, drive for hours until I couldn't any longer." He tossed in a couple coins, and tossed his watch into the pot. "I'll sit in the bed of the old rusting piece of junk, and I'd drink, looking up at the night sky, and all of those stars, knowing I'd never have to travel to them again..."

There was a lot he would do if he wasn't a prisoner on the ship. Like his modest Pilot stated, they could be dealing with a lot worse. The Marauders worked hard to get to this point, though. When Raymond became Captain, he was still treated like an animal, having to follow very strict rules and guidelines. He even had to fight some of his crewmates that tried to take control from him.

The truth was, he loved the Monroe. He loved his crew, and despite being forced to be here, he was glad that he got to meet these crazy people--

A voice rang through his head, which made him stop in his tracks, and look up, the smoke from the cigar filling his eyes. He was about to say something until the drunk words of Rae beat him to it, and very casually. There was so much going on in the room, from Josk's pheromones, to the smell of booze, and smoke, and now he was hearing voices in his head? Well, it wouldn't be the first.

"Are we just going to ignore the fact that..." He looked at Rendyl, knowing he was going to sound crazy for even bringing this up. "Was... Was that you?"

Rendyl blinked up at the crystal lady with her head still resting on her arms. the alcohol was strong her her bloodstream, and it took her several seconds of puzzling out that Rae was ACTUALLY talking to her, and not anyone else. At first she genuinely dismissed it, thinking a coincidence. Rae was just being nice, and who knew, maybe aliens could read minds. She waved at the doctor and nodded drunkenly, and kept listening to their conversation. Up until the Captain spoke up. She stared back at him, and finally something in her booze-addled mind it clicked. Yes she did think about all that Rae mentioned, she did like Tony best. But why would Rae say what she said about misfits for any other reason than that...Rendyl spoke.

She sat up and looked around the table for other reactions for a few seconds, and when no more were forthcoming, looked at Raymond then at Rae. She closed her eyes and tried to remember what she did to speak through her mind, though this was difficult enough with all the distractions around the table, not to mention the alcohol. Resting her head in her hands, what she did manage to remember was a sense of ease. Not forcing her thoughts out, like shooting them through a cannon. But rather she had let them be carried by a mental wind, powered merely by emotion.

The small woman attempted this now, imagining herself on a grassy field surrounded by gentle breezes and an array of multi-colored flowers. She imagined herself looking around, seeing the crew standing nearby, and she spoke to them from where she stood Can you hear me? And how clearly? Not that I think static is a thing. The emotion she felt was a mix of worry, excitement, and hopefulness.

For the crew's part, they would indeed feel the words in their head again, associated with the same emotions and somewhat more firm than before. They may have a bit of difficulty separating what emotions were their own though...

”No, most people aren’t stupid enough to alienate the top ten students. But even if that were the case, at least I went to school.” she shot back at Josk in the most friendly tone anyone’s ever heard her speak, and even with a smile, ”And point defenses cannot target it if it goes fast enough, hence the gravity assists. Shields…?” she shrugged with her hands, ”Acceptable variable, we won’t know unless someone tries. Or someone gets their hands on the Spire specs and bothers to do the math. Not me, I have stuff to do. And I’ll have you know I was quite good at navigation. At least better than I was at coding, those… those were dark times of my education.”

The cap caught Astrid’s attention by suddenly answering his own question after watching them bicker drunkenly. She didn’t know what he thought about them at that moment, but she would feel confident betting it wasn’t flattering. She didn’t envy his situation at all. He wasn’t just a part of a crew of idiots - he was supposed to lead a crew of idiots. As much as she - under normal conditions - disliked the Satasi, even a sober, clear-minded Astrid would have to agree with the pilot’s assessment of the universe. Dumbies everywhere, indeed.

”Oh, joy, another sorec- soc- witch, damn it, that can mess with brains. Because we needed more of those around.” Astrid groaned before brightening up as an idea passed through the alcohol haze and into her mind, ”But that means she can work for her meals without dragging Tony or a datapad around for communication all the time. Frees her hands up for a broom or… whatever she can do. Five by five, and indeed no static.” Astrid tried to accompany the last sentence with a hand gesture showing five fingers, but her motor controls utterly failed her, resulting in something that could at best be considered a weird wave.

"Hey, I went to school." Josk said defensively.

"...the school of cool." She concluded smugly, leaning back in her chair.

"But the real thing is, there will always be more. Always more Spire bastards. You'd just give them an extra day of rememberance." The Satasi pilot glanced over at the captain, talking about his quaint, unambitious dreams.

"Aww. That's cute." She smiled warmly if condescendingly over at her captain. "You know-" She hesitated as Raymond spoke. Josk thought for a moment before shaking nodding wisely. "Oh. I just assumed that was one of the many, many voices in my head. You all heard that? That's fun. Guess you can talk after all, little weirdo. She grinned over at Rendel and leaned forward again, resting her elbows on the table.

"Can you read minds? Tell me what everyone else is thinking." She joked, but also genuinely curious. Her eyes were a little glazed over and it was becoming hard to focus, but this was fun.

Can you hear me? And how clearly? Not that I think static is a thing.

Those words echoed in her mind as clear as if the other woman had spoken using her vocal cords but what Rae hadn’t been prepare for was the rush of emotions that joined in with the words. The first time Rendyl used this power, it had been like a screeching in her ears and a pain she could not defend from as they had stood in the cargo bay. The second time, it had been seamless, a perfect execution of the power she had just learned was in her possession from the startled way she was reacting. She must have thought Rae could read minds from the interaction in the cargo bay and now at the table but once a fellow human confirmed what she was doing it was a different story. Now that Rendyl was aware, actually trying to use it instead of it being a natural flow....emotions she felt were attached to her words. Rae could feel it all as if she was experiencing them herself, that worry tangled in with an excited hopefulness and it was making knots in her gut. She had hard times with her own emotions without adding someone else’s to the mix. Happiness, Confidence, Annoyance, Flirty, Worried, Excited, Hopeful. That was way too many things to feel. How did others handle it? Normally, she would shove her emotions aside but they were hard to ignore in this state. Sure, some were her own but between Josk and Rendyl...they were adding in mixes that were not appreciated and truly overwhelming.

She didn’t want to discourage Rendyl from speaking though. It would make Tony’s life easier if she could communicate on her own and build relationships without the man’s presence always needed or waiting until the crew learned sign language. ”We can hear you, clear is day. she answered softly with a light smile before standing up shakily from her chair. ”Dis has been fun but Imma go to bed. Not feelin right. Night.” Luirae waved, slowly making her way out of the kitchen/dining area. The world was spinning a bit and her balance was far from graceful as she stumbled from the room but she managed. She had been smart enough to lean against the wall as she moved down the hall, not trusting herself to not fall if she continued to her room. She found herself giggling at the absurdity of this evening and couldn’t bring herself to care what tomorrow held. It had been fun, she hadn’t lied about that. It might be nice to do again some time.

If the crew had been more aware about what was happening at this moment, this would have been a very strong clue as to why the Committee wanted the Ulnar's cargo. There were very rare cases in the known galaxy where species of any kind could talk telepathically. The only one Raymond could think of was a rather ancient race that just seemed to appear itself to the Committee. From what Ray heard about them, they could read your thoughts and emotions, and use a voice from someone most dear to you to help negate hostility... They scared the Committee, to say the least, and the race keeps to itself, and almost never interacts with any other race unless they have to. Raymond always thought it was because they were very aware of their abilities, that if they showed the galaxy what they could truly do, they would be killed to extinction.

The Captain of the Marauders would relate his crew to that race, but knew that there were far different circumstances. The Crew of the Monroe were talented, they had their abilities and Raymond did his best to utilize them, but at the same time they were marked for death. For some of them, that's what they expected. They weren't suited to live a "Normal" life. It was the people like Rae, Tony, and now even Tango that he felt bad for. They were willing to jump aboard... So as Josk would do her signature flirting/insulting,Astrid bantered with the crew, Rae did her best to keep her newfound emotions in check, and the rest of them idled by, Raymond couldn't help but feel pity for Rendyl; the new Outcast that would only seem to fit in on a ship like this.

"You don't need a mind reader to know what everyone's thinking, Josk. We're all thinking that you have such a beautiful way with words." Ray teased right back after her comment about his plans. With every glance she gave he could practically sense the pheromones her body was producing. God help whoever fell into that trap, even if it was unintentional. He was going to ask another question to Rendyl before Rae had delcared that she was leaving.

Ray immediately stood, a wave of dizziness hitting himself as well, but nonetheless trying to help her to the door. Ray decided it was best if he just sat down, seeing how the Doctor had managed to make it by herself. "Fuck..." It all hit him at once. The nicotine buzz from the cigar and the alcohol attacking his liver had officially spread through his whole body. "Tango... escort Rendyl to an open bedroom... Valanx, Tony, we need to figure out who the hell she is. We might be in real trouble if we keep turning a blind eye." Ray once again stood, his hands on the table, and looking over at the mystery woman they had just picked up.

As he made eye contact, she would see a man that was scared. Scared for the safety of his crew, and her especially, despite his actions earlier that day. There was a subtle statement that Raymond would not hand her over to the Committee. Until the crew found her family, or a good place for her, she was doomed to be a part of the Marauders. If there was anything she could decipher from the Captain's tired and intoxicated eyes, it would be the phrase "I'm sorry."

-----------------------

"Good morning, Captain."

Raymond felt a sharp pain on his side. He shot up with so many feelings and emotions that it almost made him throw up. A crippling headache smashed into his temples, his throat and mouth were dry and reeked of cigar smoke. His stomach churned, his vision entered in and out of focus, but then suddenly, his senses somewhat cleared up. The Captain looked down to see that a metal arm had injected him with a shot, and retreated back into the wall next to his bed. "I'm sorry, Captain, but I was told to wake you up that way."

"What? By who?"

"By you, sir, last night. You said after eight hours of sleep I should give you a shot. I injected you with a number of helpful fast-acting concoctions that should help treat you with... hanging over." Tango's robotic voice obviously didn't know much about drinking and its effects. Despite the dull pain that was now on his rib cage, he was grateful he set that up. He wasn't 100 percent, but Raymond was sure that he would have spent a very long time with his head in the toilet. "You have a number of things to do today. The Admiral also sent you a message saying to contact her as soon as possible."

Ray rubbed his face in his palms, and sighed. "Thanks, Tango. Hey, if you have any more of that stuff, make sure to tell the crew to use it."

"Yes, Captain."

Raymond stood, ignoring the small pain in his head, and the slight dizziness as he stumbled to his bathroom to take a shower, hopeful that that would help with recovery. He had to meet up with Rendyl, Tony, and Valanx so they can get more questions. "Josk, Astrid." Ray tapped his ear to open his open comms after taking his shower. Hopefully the two would start to be coming to, or at least hear him. Last night was a little crazy. "Are we still on course for the fuel depot? Will we have enough fuel to get there?"

As Ray looked around his room, he had to stop and think where he put his... Wait, did Luirae win his jacket in a game of poker last night??

”And I can only assume you weren’t paying attention.” She shot back at Yas. ”And if you start poking around in here, your room’s air con will mysteriously stop working.” she stated semi-seriously at the thought of Rendyl reading her mind, tapping her forehead to indicate what she meant.

As the doctor stood up to leave, Astrid thought to check the time. ”As fun as this was, I better get going too before the witch’s sorcery makes me do something worth spacing myself over. Tango, keep the ship from exploding while I’m ince- incape- in… you know what I mean.” the engineer growled as she collected her winnings, unsure of whether she’s actually gained anything or not, and shambled away. Her unsteady gait wouldn’t look out of place in a zombie flick. She was such a lightweight

---

---

The awakening was almost as unpleasant as waking up after her capture, only then it was ‘just’ the psychological distress of her situation. But right now, her head seemed to hate her and her throat, drier than the Atacama desert, seemed to disapprove of her actions the previous night. Cracking her eye open, she found a thermos on her nightstand with a note ‘For morning’ propped up against it. How her drunken self managed to fit two languages into that note was beyond hungover, and likely even sober Astrid’s ability to understand. She took a large gulp without sparing it a thought and spat it out immediately after as the thermos turned out to contain rum. Drunk Astrid was such an asshole.

As she grabbed her earpiece and started pulling herself together, testing the limits of how quickly she could move her head without it trying to turn itself inside out, her mind began to wander. So far her isolationist mindset was working - she coped with Anderson’s death much better than most. But Humans were still pack animals. She’d only been on the Monroe for a month, and while the scars of her last ship were still fresh, she wondered how long it would take before it would drive her insane. Even if she spent a good chunk of it - at least as far as she recalled - trading semi serious insults with Josk, she had to admit, despite currently feeling like shit, that last night was fun. Except she couldn’t find her gloves. And shirt.

Ten minutes and some witch's concoction administered by Tango later, she was on her feet and cleaning up the remaining damage. Starting with breakfast was probably a good idea, but Astrid wasn’t at all sure she could keep any food down. As she was still quite irritable from the effects of the previous night, the ship got many unflattering and usually undeserved names whenever a difficulty presented itself. It was shortly after one such difficulty was encountered, just as Astrid was swearing to rearrange the teeth of the person who thought positioning the door panel power supply cable in a way that she had to take out the door motor to get to it was a good idea with a two inch wrench, when the cap made his inquiry.

”Not so loud, pleasethankyou.” she whined at the captain as she turned the volume of her earpiece WAY down, ”We’re at... 31% capacity.” she confirmed via a datapad linked to the ship’s OS to act as a terminal, ”Worst comes to worst we can skirt the atmosphere of any gas giant to resupply a small amount. Helium isn’t as good a propellant as Xenon, but it would do, it's just less power efficient. Rest of the crew still standing?”

Luirae groaned in displeasure, instantly regretting waking from the land of dreams. The ball she had curled herself in last night tightened as she was hit with a splitting headache wreaked havoc on her senses and her stomach churned unpleasantly even though she hadn’t moved all that much. She took a deep shaky breath, her throat feeling constricted and dry as she worked on slowly uncurling herself from her fetal position only the have her legs awkwardly dangle off the edge of the bed. Rae bravely cracked an eye open, its wavering vision noticing that her drunk self had been too lazy to properly position herself in bed and had instead flopped sideways onto it. She didn’t even want to think about the poor plants that had been knocked over in her path instead of taking the indicated walkways she had carefully provided. Why did humans ever do this to themselves?! It wasn’t even all that pleasant of a flavor and if this was the result then never again.

She weakly pushed herself in a sitting position before she froze. A hand instantly flying to hold her mouth as she darted to the bathroom rather ungracefully before emptying the contents of her stomach into the porcelain bowl which unfortunately was more like pure acid since she did not have anything to eat the night before. Now her poor throat really felt sore and she was hugging a toilet for dear life. Why had she let this be done to herself? Rae shakily stood, hitting the handle as she did and moving back to the bedroom. She knew she needed to take care of the knocked over items but she couldn’t bring herself to do so now. Her head was screaming at her and she couldn’t focus at all. She grabbed an outfit for the day, figuring a relaxing shower could be the first part of her day, taking something to counter the hangover would be next, probably some tea after since she wasn’t in a hurry to put much in her stomach, and the com to the other crew members would be ignored till then because if she had to hear any loud noises, it would be destroyed and damn whatever or whoever was making it.

She grabbed what she thought would be the bottom of her nightgown to yank it off, only to stop in her tracks. The material wasn’t right and now that she thought about it, she didn’t have long sleeved night gowns. Rae let go of what she was wearing, looking down for the first time and blinking in confusion. A jacket, not just any jacket but the Captain’s jacket. One she had honestly barely seen him without. Rae felt puzzled for a moment, trying to figure out how in the name of the stars above she had gotten it when parts of last night came crashing back. Her face heated up, a blush appearing as she covered her face with her hands in humiliation. The way she had acted and the way she had spoken. How was she gonna be able to look anyone in the eyes!? At least she hadn’t flirted or done anything too outlandish but it still....that was such horrid behavior for her kind.

Luirae ran her hands down her face and looked up to the ceiling, trying her best to just push it aside. She would just take it one step at a time. She turned her attention back to the outfit she wore and touched the jacket softly, a gentle smile on her face. She felt a bit of triumph over winning this and was actually tempted to keep it but she wasn’t that selfish. She would have to return it. If she hadn’t thought it would hurt her head more, she might have shook her head to clear her thoughts but instead she zipped off the item, folding it carefully before hopping into the shower that awaited her.

Once she was dressed for the day, jacket in tow, she set out for the med bay to do something about the dreadful hangover that would not cease on making her morning a miserable one. She was about half way there when he path was blocked by a certain android she happened to be quite fond of. ”Hello Tango.” she greeted weakly, her voice scratchy. “Hello Doctor Driani.” the robotic voice replied. “I was on my way to your quarters. I am to give this to all of the crew members, per Captain’s orders.” Luirae’s eyes lit up at the shot in the bots hand and stepped closer so it could be administered. She was pretty sure what it was and was more than willing to take it. ”Tango, you are an angel.” was her statement at the instant relief of the serum. It didn’t fix everything but it definitely was a hell of a lot better than before.

That said and done, she pulled the com out of her pocket, tucking it into her ear and turning it on to be instantly met with Astrid’s voice. ”Worst comes to worst we can skirt the atmosphere of any gas giant to resupply a small amount. Helium isn’t as good a propellant as Xenon, but it would do, it's just less power efficient. Rest of the crew still standing?”She tapped the com replying with,”I cannot speak for the others but I appear to still be standing. I’ll be making tea if anyone wishes to join.”

Rendyl was giddy in her seat. It felt so seamless what she just did. She actually communicated all on her own! And what's more she didn't seem to hurt anyone in the process, which was all the more reason to celebrate. The thin girl raised up her shot glass with the widest grim on her face, never realizing it was empty, and did a little jig in her chair. As the comments of mind reading and being a sorcerer cane up, she giggled silently, shoulders moving slightly with an expression of laughter on her face. She shook her head, waving a hand in front of her, almost blushing at the possibility.

This was the first time in her life she's felt this ability wasn't a burden, and as she looked around at the drunken crew with a wide grin, she made a promise to herself nothing was going to bring her down from this victory if she could help it.

A new start with a new group of friends...

I still have family back home. The thought invaded her reverie, and she settled into her chair, still smiling like a dope But I can't just force these people to take me home after they protected me. I owe them, and I want to repay it!

She was popped out of her inner monologue when the captain spoke her name. Tango? Oh, computer lady. She was about to slide of out her chair when she locked eyes with the captain, and something slammed into her chest, making her wince in pain, though sitting, it looked like she was wincing from the light. The sorrow and fear mixing into a potent cocktail in her mind, sending a fresh wave of dizziness through her.

what was that? she blinked, opening her eyes to see the captain still looking at her. C-can he send his emotions too?! But she discarded this quickly. He would have tried sooner without a doubt. But then the only other possibility is she had the ability to experience the emotions of others?

She slide out of her chair and looked around, still holding her little shotglass without realizing it. This new tidbit was too much to think about right now for the drink-addled Rendyl. But her brain wouldn't let it go as she listened to Tango's directions to her new quarters, quickly falling into the half lifted sheets and falling asleep almost instantly, Tango's electronic voice ringing in her ears about catching a cold...

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Rendyl was awake before Tango could administer anything to her. She had fallen asleep halfway out of the covers and through the night of tossing and turning ended up falling onto the cold floor, where she slept a few more hours until her body shivered her awake. She sat up on the floor, rubbing her eyes and looking around tiredly. Her head hurt, but she was shocked out of her tiredness at seeing the room. a few panicked seconds pass before the events of yesterday came back to her, and she calmed.

"Good morning Rendyl." Tango said, causing her to jump in surprise. "You slept on the bed for four hours, seventeen minutes, and fifty-eight seconds before falling to the floor, which you did not stir. I did not detect any discomfort at that time, and you slept for two hours,twenty-three minutes, and nine seconds."

Rendyl raised an eyebrow at the computer lady's voice, seeming to come from everywhere. She shrugged and started to climb back onto the edge of the bed to get her bearings,only then realizing she had kicked off her pants last night and that's why her legs felt so cold. She was about to stand when Tango spoke once more, giving her pause "The captain has ordered me to tell the crew to take an injection this morning. It will clear your head." Seemed like the computer didn't think Rendyl would understand the technical aspect of getting drunk.

But the girl shrugged and lifted an arm. She was too tired and fuzzy to be afraid of the needle presented, and as it punctured her skin and injected the contents into her body, she instantly started to feel the effects, her body shuddering in surprise at how quick it was. She leapt off the bed once the needle was out, bouncing a few times to flush it through her body further. Excitement rushed with the sensation, thinking about what the new day held.

All day with a new group of people, what will I get to do? Work with the doctor and Tony to see what my abilities could do? MAybe spend time with the captain learning about the ship!

She headed for the door with these thoughts, and was trying to open it when Tango chimed in "Pants would be advisable, Rendyl."

The girl looked down...and blushed hard before turning around to find the offending article of clothing.

__________________________________________________________________________

Tango spoke to the captain once there was a lull in comms "Captain, Rendyl is awake and accepted the injection without trouble. She is getting dressed now."

The sound waves never made it to the pilot's disabled comms unit. She had ended up in the cockpit, and even though she technically had her own room she always felt more comfortable at the pilot's seat. Sitting comfortable in the pilot's chair, Yasaliah had her head tilted to the side, her eyes were closed and her mouth was hanging wide open. Loud snoring filled the entire bridge. Yasaliah was still in her underwear, not bothing to change. Her clothes were...somewhere. Maybe one of the crew members had them, maybe they were still on that gambling table- the Satasi couldn't care less.

Tango, on the captain's orders, and seeing that she was not responding to anything coming into her comms, activated a neural arm. With robotic precision, the metal arm injected the shot directly into her left thigh. A moment passed, as not even the sharp pain of serum being injected directly into her blood veins could wake up the pilot from her slumber. After a moment, her eyes fluttered open and she immediately had to stifle a dry heave, ending up in a coughing fit.

"Fleestad!" She spluttered, falling to the cold floor. Propping her upper body on her elbow she glared daggers at the robot as her head swam in nasuea and her stomach churned. "Fucking piece of shit robot asshole, fuck off you fucking fuck!" Her hostile vulgarity didn't hurt the robots feelings and only made her throat more hoarse. God, she was thirsty!

"What the Ghllght was that!?" Expanding and deflating rapidly like an angry balloon, Yasaliah's pink face flushed blue as it blood rushed to her face, both from rage and embarassment, as if she had been outplayed by the ship's AI.

"It is time to wake up, Pilot Josk."

"You could have just fucking asked me to wake up!"

"I attempted to wake you up 18 times before the injection started." Tango responded factually.

"Yeah- well- fuck you!" She flipped off the passive neural arm that slowly receeded into the ship's hull.

"The Captain has asked you to to evaluate if the Monroe is still on course to the fuel depot, and if there is enough fuel available to arrive safely."

The pilot grumbled, and began scanning the ship's various HUD's and screens with her blearly blue eyes. Tapping a few buttons, she brought up the corresponding menu. They would just about make it. They would be cutting it close though, that fight with the Ulnar hadn't done anything for the ship. Cutting it too close for comfort, but they would make it aslong as they didn't take any detours.

She tapped her ear, only to find the communicator was missing. Swearing once again, she got on all fours and began fumbling around for the small piece. No hangover, she thought to herself. The shot had spared her of it, but such a thing was unnatural! That wasn't right!

"I can relay a message to the Captain for you." Tango offered.

"Eat shit and die,"Yasaliah responded, her upper half vanishing beneath the console. Eventually, her fingers found the damn thing and she placed it into her ear after turning it on. It had been a long moment since Raymond had asked his question.

"We should make it to the fuel depot, Captain, but with not much fuel left to spare." She answered, clambering back into her seat and rubbing her face.

"Feel free to delete Tango off the face of the universe at any time. Fucker just injected drugs into me for no good reason." Josk complained, shooting a glare at the ceiling. Her rivalry with the AI was longstanding and public, but it was usually more subtle than loudly complaining to everyone on comms.

At some point in the evening, Tony had removed himself from the table and retired to one of the couches in the room. The couch faced away from the group, and it hid him quite well from the rest of the crew as they continued to shout and play strip poker. By now, he was shoeless and shirtless - and for a time, he had almost been pantless, but he extricated himself from the game with more skill than one would expect from a man as drunk as he. His head swam in a fog of too much whiskey and whatever else had been circulating the table. The room felt like it was spinning in circles, and Tony was suddenly viscerally aware of the fact that they were in a metal can hurtling through space - it was, to say the least, disorienting. And so he stared up at the ceiling, hoping that either his body would purge itself, or he'd drift off into some sort of a fitful slumber.

Tony grew closer and closer to sleep, but he was rudely and suddenly awaken by a voice echoing inside of his head. That alone was startling enough that he pitched forward slightly - not enough to come into the crew's line of sight but enough that he almost fell from the couch. Of course, he couldn't place the voice at first. It wasn't until he heard it mention him that the pieces began to fall into place. When Rae spoke, he managed to finally understand that Ren had spoken - or perhaps "speak" wasn't quite the word for it. How wonderful it was that she'd found a way to communicate, and yet Tony couldn't help but feel the faintest twinge of sadness as he finally forced himself to sit up and face the rest of the room. He heard Ray from across the room address him, but it took some time for Tony to fully process the captain's words. Still, he nodded and slowly dragged himself to his feet before crossing back towards the table. The intensity of the situation hadn't yet hit him, for instead of attempting to formulate some sort of plan, he simply waved a hand back at the room and shuffled down the hallway towards his quarters.

---

In his younger days, Tony had been blessed with an almost unnatural ability to recover from the effects of drinking faster than his compatriots. Even now, he still recovered more quickly than one would have expected from his dulled behavior the night before. For the past ten minutes, he'd simply stared up at the ceiling, his body feeling too fatigued to move. He still wore his pants from the night before, but his footwear and shirt remained missing in action. His mouth was dry as hell, and he could taste the cigars from the night before in the back of his mouth. A light pang of hunger gripped his stomach, but it was followed by a gentle wave of nausea.

"Tango..." he grumbled, noting the robotic arm that had begun to reach towards him. The pain of the injection itself was enough to almost force up his dinner from the night before, but after a minute, he slowly removed himself from his bed and rubbed at his eyes. And then he remembered. He remembered Rendyl "speaking", remembered Ray asking him to investigate. Tony pushed himself off of the bed and shuffled off to brush his teeth and shower.

By the time he'd dressed again, he felt more at ease, but the hunger pangs were growing in intensity. The crew also seemed to be waking for the day and checking in over their respective comms. At Astrid's comment, he also tapped on his comms.

"Still standing," he remarked, pinching the bridge of his nose with his free hand. "Might have to take you up on the offer of tea." He paused, looking over at the books in his room. "Ray - if I recall correctly, we have a feq questions to answer?" He considered picking up a few tomes, but in all honesty, he didn't even know where to begin. Perhaps once they'd done some narrowing down, he'd be able to find some appropriate readings. As he moved out of his room and down the hallway, Tony began to fall into more of a natural stride than his earlier shuffle. "But first, that tea."

Rae quickly changed course from the med bay to the kitchen, desperately wanting something that might settle her stomach and relax her. Tea had never failed her before and while this wasn’t nausea from sickness, she was hoping the concept was the same. If it didn’t work, well...at least she could enjoy something she liked in the morning on a normal day. She set to work right away, grabbing a simple kettle and filling it with water before clicking on the stove to get the water boiling. She was debating on which tea to make once the water was ready when a voice spoke up over the com again.

"Might have to take you up on the offer of tea."

”I will prepare a cup for you then.” she replied before digging into the cabinet and pulling out two cups as well as some sugar, honey and milk since she didn’t actually know how Tony took his tea. Now that the human was joining her, one of her combination teas or other out of the box type might not be the best so she went with black tea, figuring it might be the safest choice. She would ask Tony what he preferred in the future so she knew what to prepare next time. Once the kettle squealed, she pulled it off and carefully placed the tea bags in so could soak into the water.

At this point, it would only be a waiting game so she plopped down into one of the kitchen chairs, rather ungracefully for her and placed her head on the table, letting her long hair become a curtain around her. She hadn’t bothered trying to get it out of her way today and probably wouldn’t bother. Heck, she would still be in her pajamas if it wasn’t for.....nevermind, scratch that since she hadn’t actually worn pajamas. Rae lightly hit her head against the table, blushing softly at the stupidity of her actions last night, most of which she didn’t fully remember. She needed to get it together. They had to refill fuel, let some of the crew members that were switching assignments off the ship and bring on any recruits that were ordered to their ship. This meant assessing the new teammates and all the regulations the community forced them to do. It was going to be a long day.