A Place to Call Home, Part 1

Posted on Thu Nov 14th, 2024 @ 12:26pm by Teevs Dosivi

Mission: MISSION 0 - History Speaks
Location: Niea IV - Jekasp
Timeline: Federation Year 2382
2058 words - 4.1 OF Standard Post Measure

Teevs put his hands on his hips as he stared up at the cargo ship parked in front of him and Saphse. "What do you think of this one?" he asked. The vessel was certainly the most used of the options, as evidenced by some wear on the exterior and a small list of repairs to make on the console in front of it. The small ship was like an elongated trapezoid, meant for a very small crew, and it was a light grey color. The engineer in him was hopeful because it seemed like a great project ship, but he also didn't want to make life hard for them. Straining their brand new union wasn't on his checklist.

Saphse raised an eyebrow as she took in the state of the ship, her expression somewhat dubious. There were a couple of ships to look at today, and Teevs chose this one as the first one? Perhaps getting the worst one out of the way was a good idea. "I'm not sure," she replied, her voice betraying a touch of doubt. "It seems a bit... worn down, don't you think?" The talk of owning a small ship primarily came from the rumors of another war with the Kavai. While the two never really talked much about the politics behind it, they both agreed that they didn't want to raise their children in a time of war. Of course, since Teevs had been drafted for the Bedia War, he could still be called to fight, but Saphse really hoped it wouldn't happen.

"Maybe a little, but these repairs are easy," Teevs responded, gesturing to the console in front of them displaying information about the ship. He had skimmed the list when they walked over, and per sale regulations, they were required to list out what was wrong with used vessels. "It's actually only a couple of years old, so it's not too out of date, and they discounted the price to account for the repairs."

"Hmm..." Saphse took a moment to review the items on the console as well, her green eyes skimming over each item. There were about two dozen things, and while she wasn't as mechanically inclined as Teevs was, she knew some of them would be easy to repair. The warp cores not functioning properly though concerned her. "The warp issue here concerns me the most out of this list."

Teevs nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I would like to take a look at that before we even consider buying it to see just how much needs to go into it, but the other stuff is really simple."

There was a pause as Saphse considered his words. Then, she nodded. "Alright, fair point. I suppose we can take a look inside, see what kind of condition it's in." With that, she gave him a small smirk, and jerked her head towards the cargo ship, a silent invitation to lead the way. "You're the engineering specialist, so after you!"

Accepting the invitation with a grin, Teevs approached the aft door of the ship, a ramp descending in front of them. When they first entered, they were met with a large and vacant space, presumably for storage. Subtle marks in the floor panels hinted to compartments, and with a grunt he lifted one of them to reveal the ship's warp cells. "Oh, fascinating, I've never seen a ship with four cells before," he commented, intrigued by the design as he squatted down to get a closer look.

"Four cells?" Saphse turned her attention from the large empty space to the hole in the floor. Kneeling next to him, she looked inside the access point, raising a brow curiously. "Isn't that a bit excessive for a cargo ship, especially one of this size?"

"Perhaps," Teevs answered, admiring the setup for a few more second before sliding the floor panel back into place. "I recall something about being able to independently control the ship's thrust chambers. For cargo hauling, which is what this used to be for, it can make sense if you're retrieving from asteroid fields." Continuing toward the front of the shift, his senses tingled at the noticeable shift in atmosphere when they exited the cargo hold. There was some kind of atmospheric pressure front at the threshold between the two rooms. Lonians had the ability to detect subtle changes in atmosphere, so to him it felt like he hit a wall. "Did you feel that, too?" He asked Saphse.

Saphse followed a few steps behind him as he continued further into the ship, pausing when he suddenly stopped and spoke to her. She gave a small nod in response to his question, her expression slightly confused. "Yeah, I think so. It sort of felt like... a wall, or a divide in the air." She looked back to him, "what do you think it was?"

"My first guess is some type of atmospheric control between the forward and aft sections, but I'd have to check out the command center to know for sure," Teevs answered thoughtfully. They were now in what was clearly a communal space for the crew to have meals and converse. A few chairs lined the walls, and one of the floor panels had been lifted up to show its second purpose as a table. On either side of them were doors, and opening one revealed that they were living quarters, about six in all.

Shrugging at his explanation, Saphse turned her attention to the communal space they entered. Pressing one of the buttons, she poked her head inside one of the bedrooms, finding it to be quite rudimentary. A bed, a dresser, and a small room for a bathroom. Shutting the door, Saphse turned and counted the rooms. "Only six rooms?" she noted softly with a small frown, turning back around to face Teevs. "If we plan on raising a family on this thing, that doesn't seem like enough."

Teevs gave Saphse a cheesy little smirk after his initial surprise at her words waned. "Just how many children do you plan on having with me?" He asked playfully. It was obvious in his tone that he was hinting toward all the action he would get with her.

His grin was met with an eyeroll. Were all n'pelaren like this? The mere mention of sex seemed to turn them all into inappropriate children. "Enough to keep you busy," Saphse played back. Coming up to him, she put her hands on his chest and gave him a shrug. "In all seriousness, I think three or four would be nice."

Wrapping his arms around her waist, Teevs hummed and gave her a kiss. "Can't wait," he said lovingly. Looking around at the space, he tried to imagine their family here. "It could probably work. And we don't have to be here forever, just until the political tensions here settle down." They had agreed early on to raise their family away from the planet for a while, at least until the rumors of another war settled down. Teevs' experience in the military meant that he knew the buzzwords to be cautious of.

Saphse couldn't help but chuckle at his reply. As she pulled back from the kiss, she playfully bit his lower lip. "Of course you can't wait for sex," she teased. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she thought for a moment while looking around the space, also trying to imagine them with several kids running around. "I still want to keep our options open. We have a couple more ships to see today."

The bite at his lower lip tested his self control. Saphse knew that Teevs melted from such a simple action. For a brief moment, his hands on her waist pushed her slightly into him, but he remembered that this wasn't their ship just yet and it would be wildly inappropriate to anything do more than kissing. "Of course, there's two others that we will see today," he said, focusing on her words instead of her presence against his body. "But this actually looks better on the inside, which is a plus."

As Saphse felt his hands on her waist pull her slightly closer, her eyes flickered with a hint of a challenge, watching his restraint. She could tell from the way he froze that her little trick had worked, and a smug little smirk tugged at the corners of her lips. "Does it now?" she asked, her voice a teasing whisper as she looked up at him. "But we haven't seen the command section yet. Who knows what secrets that might hold..."

Ohhhhh, she was messing with him now. With a smirk, Teevs swooped down and scooped her up, carrying her bridal-style in his arms. "Well, let's go find out then," he said. Just ahead of them was the command section, consisting of a handful of consoles with chairs, including a pilot and copilot section at the front. It was clearly meant for four people to operate, but it would be simple enough to reroute controls to two consoles.

Saphse let out a small squeal of surprise as he scooped her up in his arms, wrapping her arms around his neck to balance herself. Her heart skipped a beat at the sudden display of strength, but her surprise quickly gave way to amusement. "Hey!" she protested, though a smile tugged at the corners of her lips. "I thought we were supposed to be walking!"

Teevs gave her a chuckle as he set her down. "I went for the efficient option," he joked, before turning his attention to the consoles. Entering in a few commands, he read some of the information about the ship. "Fascinating... the ship only needs three cells to operate, and the fourth is a redundancy. That's smart. And that change in pressure we felt, that was actually part of the warp field."

Once Teevs put her down, Saphse huffed in mock annoyance while smoothing out her dress. Following his gaze to the consoles, she nodded along as he read through the information. "Redundancy? That is smart." She echoed thoughtfully. "Wait, the warp field was responsible for that pressure we felt? That seems like a strange design, to have it cut through the ship like that."

"I'm not sure it's intentional," Teevs countered, reading the logs. "The largest issue with this ship is the warp stability, so that may have something to do with it. I see something here about energy conservation in the warp cells by shrinking the field." Pulling up a diagram, he continued to read the information. "Each thruster can be controlled independently, which..." Teevs let out a whistle as he read the numbers. "It means this ship can make some very tight turns. The warp field also seems to outline the ship's design instead of creating a bubble. This is a custom job for sure, I'd love to know how the previous owner did it." While he spoke, he pointed out an image of the ship with a puffy outline around it.

"No kidding," Saphse responded. She didn't know much about ship design, but even to her, this one seemed a bit different from most vessels she'd seen before. "So, what do you think?" she asked, moving closer to lean into his side as she watched him tinker around with the consoles. "Is this our new home?"

"I do like this one." Looking over at her, Teevs leaned in, but instead of delivering another kiss, he said, "I promised a tour of two more ships, though, so we should see those before making a decision." He was close enough that his lips just barely brushed hers, and with a devilish grin of his own, he pulled away to head back out of the ship.

Saphse couldn't help but let out a small scoff of disbelief as he pulled away, leaving her standing there a little breathless and feeling a little cheated. She watched him go for a few seconds, before breaking out in a grin of her own, knowing exactly what he was doing. "Tease," she muttered under her breath, though her tone was more amused than annoyed. With a shake of her head, she quickly hurried after him out of the ship.

One ship tour down, two more to go.