Making the Rounds

Posted on 17 May 2021 @ 8:25am by Odin & Lieutenant Callisi Veera

2,606 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Home

The Odin AI--which was the best way to describe her, even if it wasn't completely accurate--wanted to get to know this ship, and these people, and this place. She had gotten what she wanted, even if she didn't really know how it had happened...even if she should have known how it happened. But oh well. She wasn't going to worry about that.

Instead, she was venturing around the ship and meeting people. She just so happened to spot...

"Lieutenant Veera!" Odin exclaimed, seemingly bounding down the corridor toward where she spotted the back of a very familiar pair of ears.

Callisi paused, turning to the new voice. Odin. A voice she was introduced to abruptly, though was still getting used to it. A god, perhaps, from another universe. Followed them home like a curious puppy who didn't realize the door only swung one way.

Or, she was curious, and could depart anytime. Questions for never, it would seem. "Odin." the rabbitess gave a nod. "You seem to be adjusting well."

"It's not that hard," the AI-ish said with a laugh. "It's just the next big adventure." She tilted her head. "Are you happy to be in your home universe and timeline again?"

The rabbitess tilted her head to one side, then the other, "It is a relief, and I as far as being back in my own home time and space I am... is pleased, the right word?" she offered. "I mean, I feel no different, other than the knowledge that I'm back where I should be. It does lift a burden or sorts, but I feel no different than I did last week. I'm certain the others appreciate the gift more visibly, but to me, Ts'usu is just as far away now as it was before. The difference now is, in theory, I can visit Ts'usu eventually."

She paused, "I'm no less grateful, despite not being able to directly take full advantage of your gift. It is, as you said, the next adventure." she paused again. "So, why did you tether yourself to the ship so? Certainly this limits you greatly..."

Odin smiled sheepishly. "It wasn't on purpose," she admitted. She was a god of sorts--whichever deity was in charge of seemingly totally open and talking much but "saying" little. "It's an odd byproduct of moving the ship."

Callisi gave a nod, "Well then I welcome you on this travel with us, and I'm sorry you had to leave your home to come to ours. I'll make certain we're good hosts." she offered. Having known her when she was alive made interacting with her as some form of projection slightly easier, but the transition from 'Living thing' to 'mechanical simulacrum' didn't sit well with Callisi. And the ease of it happening sat with her even less so.

"Thank you, Lieutenant Veera," the AI-ish said easily. "The captain has...well, sort of welcomed me. She hasn't had much choice, as I don't know how to separate myself from the ship and no one else does either. So everyone here is a bit stuck with me for a while, but I hope to be a good guest! I really want to get to know everyone."

"I hope that you can return to your home as easily as you returned us to ours once our adventures are over. Though until then, you have all the makings of a good guest. My people are not... normally fond of constructed intellects, but having met you when you were more flesh than photon, I can appreciate your predicament a bit more. You're not a construct, but more of a prisoner."

Odin laughed and shook her head. "Honestly, this is the most freedom I've felt in millennia. Too much freedom can be its own prison."

"Freedom in abundance is a prison for the mind." Callisi gave a nod, "A though that seems universal. Though, I'm relieved that you're not in some distress or some form of prisoner." she offered.

"I am quite happy to be where I am," Odin declared with a smile. That expression faded after a moment. "I've been alone for a long time now. I like that this ship has so many people."

"Well... you are alone no longer." Callisi declared.

The AI's smile broadened. "Quite! So far, it's lovely." She paused and looked down the corridor. "Were you on you way somewhere?"

"I'm always on my way somewhere. You can join me if you wish." Callisi answered, a bit of Ts'usugi misdirection thrown in for good measure. "Presently I'm heading to the Operations Primary office, to run a few reports on our most recent missions and then produce backups that I store off the central computer. A trick back home that ... well the actual phrase doesn't translate well. Closest it gets is to "Save the fields for when the farm burns"."

Odin tilted her head, her eyes looking up and around at nothing in an emulation of a "thoughtful expression." "So if something damages the central computer, you will have the backups available--even if no issue is anticipated now?"

"There aren't enough slips, chips, and clips in the whole of the Ts'usu empire to make a complete one to one backup of this ship's computer system. I back up my personal files, personal settings, logs, reports and findings. I relieve stress by making personal logs about my feelings and observations on various members of the crew, and keeping them offsite. I delete them off the main system, so they only exist in one place." Callisi pointed out. "Though, if there's something in particular you'd want to keep safe, I can add it to my offsite rotation." a pause, "Or I can at least try."

"Fascinating," Odin said. "I'm curious how you achieved this while you were...displaced, as it were. Where off-site could you put them, and have you somehow lost any by returning here?" Her pale brows knit with a show of concern.

"In my quarters I have a bookshelf. One of those books is false, and is instead a makeshift safe of sorts. There's a section covered in a thin layer of heavy metal to block scans, and it is in that hollow that I store my offsite backups." a pause, "Though since they never actually leave the ship, 'offsite' may be an inappropriate term for them."

Odin grinned and clapped her hands together. "A false book! What fun. I always thought such little hideaways in stories were so intriguing."

"My people live and breath by what we don't say, and considering it's considered rude to ask for an explanation depending on whom you're speaking with, conversation very much becomes the listening game. Fortunately..." and Callisi just motioned up to her lengthy ears.

That make the AI-ish giggle. "So I can see," she said, but then she looked curious again. "You really can't ask anyone to explain anything, though?"

"Yes and no. If I miss your intention, it's a slight on you for not being clear, but if I bring it up to you it's a slight on me for being rude. So I would have to find a way to ask you to clarify, and absolve you of all accountability." She explained, "Which is a delicate dance."

"It sounds like it..." Odin's pale brows knit thoughtfully. "Is everything in your culture so...complicated?"

"It only sounds complicated from the outside. Like holidays." Callisi countered with a smirk, "Humanity has a holiday, Christmas, that is celebrated in a manner that has nothing to do with its origin. A morbidly obese man from the frozen north breaks into everyone's house and leaves presents while accepting their offerings." she offered as an example.

"Everyone's society seems complicated from without. Learning about it and how we all can work together is the key to understanding it within." she paused, then smirked, "But yes, it's very complicated. There's a reason I welcomed my term of service in the Navy, and kept renewing. The intricacy and complexities of the court irked me. Say what you can, not what you want. Speak directly, but don't be direct." she shook her head, "It never sat well with me. Especially after my accident."

And like that, the tone of the conversation shifted.

Odin wasn't exactly well-versed in 'reading the room,' as the saying would go, since she'd never had to be. She wasn't totally inept, but fell somewhere between the two. "The one that..." She gestured vaguely at her own face to indicate she was asking without saying.

Callisi gave a nod. "Ts'usugi culture is odd when it comes to something deviating. Do you notice it, or ignore it? Do you mention it, or just make due? In my case, the eyepatch was immediately noticed, but politely disregarded, which only brought more attention to it." she shook her head. "Nevermind the actual prosthetic. I could have had a replica made, but it would have stood out. I opted for something obviously fake. It wouldn't have mattered either way."

Another pause, "Apologies. I didn't intend to dominate the conversation."

"Oh, don't worry about that," Odin laughed. "I find everyone on this ship to be immensely fascinating, but humans are humans... It's the non-humans who are more interesting to me. I know nothing of your people, and am eager to know more."

"I thank you." she paused, to let that sink in. "Traditionally, we limit questions to three. Three is an ominous number to us, but also it places weight on the questions asked. It keeps from being bombarded with pointless questions, since a limit means the questions have thought and meaning to them. You can learn more about the questioner then you provide, which is something the elder Ts'usugi enjoy." she shook her head. "So traditionally I should limit you to three questions, but I've never been one to fully adhere to tradition. Ask any question you want, within reason. I'll answer as best I can." she offered.

Odin considered this for a moment. "How did you come to be in Starfleet?" It wasn't exactly a question about the other woman's people, but it was still something she was curious about.

"An ally of my people, a race known as the Dalacari, designed a way to cross the gulf of space between Federation controlled space and our space. A... bridge of sorts. I couldn't explain it if I had to. When I heard of new postings and new opportunities I took the chance, especially when it came to be known that the Federation was more... accepting... of differences."

"Yes, it would seem so," the AI-ish agreed happily. "There's so many different sorts of people on this ship! This one little spot was so...very different from everything in that universe. The Alliance of Worlds was disparate pieces rather than a mingling of anything."

"It's very welcoming, very understanding, very lax. I can ask all the questions I want, and answers are just usually given to me. No contests, no quips. I dare say it's a matter of their society I enjoy. I'm just, well, worried. Worried about how it's going to change me, and if I ever make it home, if all the loose manners and welcoming expectations will somehow make home seem... distant. Cold. Alien."

She paused, "I'd be a tourist in my own neighborhood. A visitor to my own home."

That brought a small, thought frown to Odin's face. "I don't even know I can imagine what that's like. I've never really had a home, so I'm a guest everywhere."

"Then let's focus on where guests are most welcome." the cyclopean rabbitess offered. "Let me tell you about a wonderful planet out there: Dalacar. Guests are offered every courtesy, every luxury." she started. "It's one of the safest places I've ever seen. I mean, sure there's crime, but the crime rate is so preposterously low it's almost zero, and there's no repeat offenders."

"I think you'd like them. The Dalacari. And Dalacar." Callisi mentioned. "They're insatiably curious, universally hospitable, and clever. Dangerously clever." she described the oldest allies of her people as casually as one would describe a sibling. Possible anything to avoid discussing the world she called home.

"How is it possible that they have so little crime when they welcome so many?" the AI asked.

"Internally, they use social reform and material access to solve most factors that lead to crime. Externally, autonomous drones outnumber native Dalacari six to one." Callisi said with a smirk.

Odin's dual-colored eyes widened--perhaps a smidge more than most other species were naturally capable of. "And what are those drones authorized to do with the citizens?"

"Oh, all manner of things. Fetch their drink, collect their trash, get their slippers, cook their meals, drive them anywhere they ask." Callisi rattled off. After a moment, "They're for external security, and the ground drones are only ever armed with stun weapons. Rogue Dalacari are persuaded to turn themselves in, gently."

"Dalacari prize life highest among all other virtues. Even their criminal element respect that, since when someone hurts a Dalacari, both forms feel it."

The AI considered this. "Are they empathic? Do they actually feel it? Or is that metaphorical? ...symbolic. One of those."

Callisi considered the question, "I'm not entirely certain. They're... unique. They come in pairs, but each pair is one entire entity. One mind, if you would, but two bodies. They don't enjoy being separated for too long, for too far, so they're like a pair of rubber bands. If you have rubber bands. Otherwise it's hard to describe." she paused, "They're... something of an empathic race, I imagine. Never really read into it. Though I do know that their pain is shared. If one stubs their toe, both of them feel it. If one cuts themselves, the other winces too. They don't both bleed, mind you, it's all sensation. Not actual wound generation."

"I do know that the worst thing that can happen to one is if one of their forms dies, and leaves the other form behind. It's... terrible." Callisi shook her head.

"But it's only in their own pairs?" Odin asked, fascinated. "Not that if one dies, the whole race is affected?"

That broke the flood gates, and Callisi burst into giggles. "Oh. Oh heavens no. No no no... yes only among their own pairs. Oh that was, I'm so sorry." she composed herself. "Yes, only among their own pairs. I apologize, just a curious thought. No, Dalacari are bound in pairs, but the entire species isn't connected."

Odin laughed easily. "For the best, I'd think. The entire species being connected that much sounded..." She scrunched up her face slightly. "Messy."

Callisi gave a nod, recovering from the shared giggle-fit. "Oh it would be. But no, just in pairs, and from birth. The more religious of them would say they're born with their soulmate, with a soul too big for one body. The more scientifically minded figured it all out generations ago. No mystery there." she shook her head, "But no, they're a wondrous people. I hope you get the chance to meet them. They're unlike anything this universe has ever seen."

"Maybe only in this universe," Odin said thoughtfully. "I'd never heard of them where I started. Then again, I never did know quite everything about everything."

"To know everything is a curse." the resident rabbitess offered in return, "We may ever make it out that way to see them. We'll see what we can discover together." she offered with a soft smile.

Odin grinned. "Sounds good to me! I look forward to learning all I can."

 

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