Celia pumps the arm away from Valai up into the air with gusto.
"Alright-ey! We're off, yeah?!"
The Mechanic took the ship in as close as possible. Due to the massive size of the Terran craft, they were able to dock within the remains of the craft. Once they had landed, the Mechanic gave them instructions on working the 'airlock' so that they may step out and explore the wreckage. Everyone stepped out and made their separate ways. Boodka and Entaro, Booker and the Mechanic, and Celia and Valai all split off in their way. Keth followed Valai as he was instructed.
The craft appeared to have similar design choices as the Kethan's works. However, this one felt a bit colder and uninviting. There were no lights running through the metals. The colors were all off-putting irons and silvers. Celia and Valai made their way around. However, they found that almost any door they came to, was impossible to traverse. Keth explained that the ship lacked energy to open the doors and without some means to cut or blow through them, exploration would prove difficult.
Almost heartbroken, Celia voiced her disappointment in not being able to search about. That is when she noticed a faint blue glow coming from a hole in a ruined wall.
"Ah!What's... what's that?!" the gnome piped up, stopped mid-complaint by the vision. She carefully waved a gloved arm in the direction of the hole, as if she expected an evil space jellyfish to try to take it as bait.
Celia's arm found nothing. After a few extra wags, she stepped over and looked into the room. Inside she could see various large vats glowing bright blue. Some of the vats were empty, some filled with liquid, and two of them had some kind of creature floating within. The liquid was murky enough that she couldn't make out the figures within, even up close.
"What have you foun -- Oh, for the sake of Sivanah's seventh veil!"
Valai recoils, an expression of disgust on her face. "What are these, pickling jars?"
"I dinnae have any idea!" Celia admits, eyes wide and completely engaged as she moves over to place her hands against the side of one. Only the helmet of her spacesuit prevents her from smooshing her face up against the glass.
"Are ya' alive, then...?" she asks to no one in particular, watching for movement for a few seconds.
"Keth, d'ya know what these thingies are?"
"They appear to be stasis chambers of some sort. The creatures within are in a state of suspended animation and do not age in this state. Somehow, it seems that the creatures are acting as a power source to the chambers, thus how they are still active."
"They are powering their own cages?" Valai asks, distaste in her voice. "Keth, can you determine exactly what manner of beings are inside these... stasis chambers?"
"I cannot. Initial scans are unable to determine on a visual basis and the technology is incompatible with mine making me unable to determine through other means. Apologies."
Valai sighs, and briefly scratches behind an ear. "In that case, would you kindly contact the Mechanic, if you can do so without endangering yourself? His ancestors -- or distant cousins -- built this craft, so he might have a useful insight."
"Can I pull 'em out safely, like?"Celia asks, rolling up immobile sleeves.
"Or maybe break the tanks?"
Valai grabs Celia by the shoulder and tries to pull her back from the stasis chambers.
"First we let the Mechanic look, then we will consider it. With our luck, there's a hungry owlbear in one of these, or a pissed-off Drow with a longsword."
"I would advise against destroying the chambers. Incorrectly disabling the chamber may lead to the death of the creature within," Keth warns as he makes his way out.
He returns a few minutes later with the Mechanic in tow. The Mechanic inspects the chambers and eventually comes to a conclusion.
"I can probably open them, but I can't do so here. I have all my tools on the ship and I would need to bring the chambers onboard. Luckily, I'm able to do that without a problem. The chambers detach from their base for easy transport. Up to you. Do we leave them be or try to get them open?"
"Provided you have a room with doors that can be locked from the outside on the ship in which to open these chambers," Valai says, sighing, "and we deal with them one by one... I suppose it would be unethical to just leave them to await the end of time, the destruction of this vessel, or less kindly people to find them."
Celie waited with Valai, albeit impatiently.
"I still doubt the Terrans had any desire to keep pets like that.... I mean, I woulnae. Unless they were my friends, and the drow was really, really upset at somethin' I thoug' worth the being angry at."
She blinked.
"Okay, now I wanna meet who is inside even more!"
---
"Mr. Mechanic, I wouldnae leave someone out 'ere, even if they were, oh, say, hypothetically a hungry owlbear and a pissed off drow with a longsword."
"Taking them back to the ship is a good idea for another reason," Valai adds, the thought only just occurring to her. "They might need medical care and food after having been locked in those stasis chambers for who knows how long."
"I must ask whether this means the little... things... are likely to become self-aware somehow and take over control of these suits," Valai asks as she carefully starts to push one of the chambers back to the Kethan ship. "Or worse, colonize the suits' wearers. I really do not trust the source of these suits, useful as they are."
"That's a win-win, I'm a-thinkin'." Celia decides, examining her sleeves.
"Just start pushing a chamber, Celia," Valai says. "Please."
They moved the vats slowly onto the ship. Everyone reunited and expressed that they also had problems moving about the ship. Without power, it was a futile effort. Once everyone was onboard, Boodka and Entaro assisted the Mechanic to move the vats to the lower deck. The Mechanic began to work. His actions were surprisingly silent, at least when heard from the deck above. All that was heard was the hum of the ship.
"Celia," Valai says after a half-hour of silence. "William. Keth. Come."
The Elf rises from where she had been sitting, and picks up her quarterstaff. "Let us go see how the Mechanic is getting on."
If any other Kethans are nearby, she beckons them over. "Just as a precaution," she says, "I should like you to close and lock all exits to the lower decks behind us. Open them only for a knock of two, followed by a knock of three. Agreed?"
They went down to the lower deck and found the hold where the Mechanic had made a makeshift workshop. Inside, the Mechanic was having a rest. The vats were still in the same state.
"Ah, hello there. It seems curiosity got the best of you. Well, it may not appear as such, but I've made a great deal of progress. I've managed to reverse engineer- er, determine how the technology works. Soon, I'll be placing the command to end the stasis. In just a few hours, we shall meet who lies within."
"And my request that you should do so in a secured room...?" Valai asks. "Preferably, from outside a secured room?"
"Forget that, then," Valai says, as she rolls her eyes at the ceiling.
The Elf grips her quarterstaff more firmly. "I shall keep you company for the duration."
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Meanwhile, Celia attempts to armwrestle with Boodka.
The Mechanic actives a node on each of the stasis chambers. Hours go by without a change. Eventually, the liquid for one of the chambers drains away, revealing a humanoid robot within. The chamber's glass recedes, releasing the denizen within.
"What," Valai says, as she grips her quarterstaff firmly with one hand and lowers the other in case she needs it for spellcasting, "is this? Did someone wish to store an iron golem of some sort? Is there an amulet to control it in there as well?"
"It's name is LK-X85 if you must know" the being steps forward, stumbling over the lip of the stasis chamber onto the floor "I appear to not have recuperated fully from my stasis, forgive my clumsiness..." he flops around the floor, his muscles flexing as hard as they can, but the movements are uncoordinated and spasmodic
"Thank you" he trembles slightly letting microscopic nanites flush over him, his circuitry begins to glow in neon lines through his sinuous frame"As you so astutely noticed I am in fact an android. Forgive my rudeness but I must reboot for a moment" he powers down briefly, the glow stopping, then the lights flicker back into a cool green as he opens his eyes he looks much more in control of things "Sorry about that. So what would you have me do sir?" he says with bright eyes and an expectant and almost adoring look
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"I am an android, personal assistant and liason to those of import. My manufacturer has given me a wide array of skills and tools to handle any job required by his clients. Lucian ltd. creates nothing but the best in synthetic assistants. Having been created on the planet Kaliban my first initials indicate both the company and the point of origin" he pauses and looks at those around "As a model x85 I am the latest generation in a long line of high end assistants. Servicing clients from diplomats to high risk clients. My directives are flexible and I can easily convert functions as necessary"
"Is it... Are you alive, or a golem?" Valai asks, fascination and something not unlike revulsion warring with each other in her eyes as she looks LK-X85 up and down.
The android turns his gaze to the slight elf"Little miss, I am me. A golem is simple thing without near the complexity. I am a creature cut of a wholly different cloth. As to being alive, I am told I am not, that is something for the likes of you to debate, I do however think and in that capacity I am just as alive as you
Valai stiffens with indignation. She stops short of straining for extra height, but her voice is even colder than usual. "You will address me as Valai, if you address me at all. Not by a diminutive title."
"Aha!"
The Mechanic rushed over to the second chamber. The fluid within was draining as well. No android was within, instead there was a man. This man was just as unsual as an android though. Somehow both a man and a serpent, this man's skin is covered with the occasional patch of scales. He also has a long, green tail and a massive pair of arms.
"Hmm... this is a first," claims the Mechanic.
"A... lizardman?" Valai asks, dubiously.
As the liquid drains away from the interior of the stasis chamber, a truly bizarre form is revealed, just as odd in its own way as the metallic creature that stepped out of the first chamber. It appears to be some sort of cross between a human man and a giant serpent, with the addition of something…inexplicable. It is quite tall and slender, with two arms and two legs, and a human-looking head and face – all fairly normal, though the facial features are quite sharp and the head is devoid of hair, covered only in skin. Except its skin is a strange patchwork of sun-bronzed human skin and what appear to be hard scales, reddish-orange in color, with black mottling scattered about. As peculiar as all this is, the most unusual visible feature of this being is his arms - they are very long, and hugely muscled, with enormous hands - too large for his body by far. And a quick glance at the hands shows they are rather different from each other – one has but 4 fingers, and the other 6 or possibly 7.
As the door of the stasis chamber slides open, the thing slowly opens his eyes, revealing orbs of a dappled yellowish-green with black pupils and no whites. He stares blankly for a moment, then blinks, and when he opens his eyes this time the pupils run vertically, like a serpent’s, then return to their more human appearance with another blink. Abruptly, his eyes widen greatly, as if in surprise, and he takes a sudden, deep breath before coughing violently and stumbling forward out of the stasis chamber. His hands cast about blindly for a moment and then connect with the edge of one of the Mechanic’s work tables, which he uses to recover his balance, his head hanging down and his breath coming in ragged gasps.
As he pauses to recover, one can see that he is clearly a man of war, though a strange one, and one dripping with the liquids of the stasis chamber. Across his back he wears a truly massive sword, next to an equally giant bow and quiver of arrows. A huge, battered flail hangs on his right hip, and a brace of daggers on his left. He wears a simple chain shirt over a worn black leather tunic, and faded brown leather pants and boots. This mundane clothing looks peculiar indeed next to the long, slender tail, bright green in color, that snakes out from behind him.
His breathing quiets and he stands still for a moment, appearing to return to himself. Still holding to the table for stability, he raises his head and looks around, then speaks. ”Uwerr hem I? Uwatt iz diz plaize?” he says, in a language that sounds vaguely like Taldan. ”Uhu har u peeble?”
Valai seizes William by a horn and pulls him close for a moment.
"Get the Gnome and the others," she whispers in their shared language, then shoves the hairy animal away. William tears off at a dead run.
To the new arrival, the Elf speaks cautiously: "This is a vessel travelling between worlds. We are travelers, en-route to Golarion. We found you, sealed in a... containment tube of some sort. Do you remember how you came to be inside of it?"
Celia may be surprised to suddenly hear loud bleating and the clatter of hooves. William comes running up to her as if planning to headbutt her, comes to a precarious halt, then bites her sleeve and pulls on it.
The snake-man-thing stands upright, fully recovered now, towering over Valai by nearly a foot, his eyes flicking from her to the android, then watching the goat run out of the chamber. His attention returns to Valai, and his eyes appear to widen once again in surprise, and he says ”Wut har yew? Yew luhk like un eluf wud luhk, buht the elufs haf bin gawn foor thowzinds uf yares.”
Turning his eyes to LK-X85, he says ”And yew, arrmirred whun? Wut mannir uf creechur har yew?”
Finally, he looks back at the stasis chamber he emerged from and says ”I do naht no how I kaym to be thear, mine memuhree is clowdy. I hoap it wyll return.”
Valai's face becomes a match for LK-X85's for its lack of expression, but her eyes blaze.
"I am an Elf," she says, her voice frosty. "On Golarion, we are far from extinct, I assure you."
She relents slightly. "You may be from rather farther afield than I had thought. Now. Who and what are you?"
The bleats of William goat seem a bit desperate, quickly removing Celia's smirk from her face. Her arm wrestling victory is short-lived as she and the others rush below deck to see the two new members on board the ship.
"WHOOOO! I be ALL THAT IS GNO-,"Celia starts to cheer, before William's entry, causing her to turn away from Boodka (who may or may not have let her win).
"Oh, oh... William! What's...? Did Valai fall in a well, like?"
the gnome reacts to the goat chewing on her arm the way any gnome spending a long amount of time in space would. She gnaws on the goat in return before using her gnomish magic to communicate.
"Yes! She sends me!" William replies in fluent Goat. "You come! Big stink! You come now! I eat your sleeve!"
William reacts with affront to being bitten; he leaps behind Celia, rises on his hindlegs and headbutts her in the caboose. This is not a proper attack, more the sort of thing a goat might do to knock over an unsuspecting milkmaid -- or, of course, to motivate a Gnome to start walking.