Personal Log Gwenn, Lauryna JC3C
ISS Gyfjon KKV-04, Sector 18
18-16-2102 

We’re patrolling the border of Insectoid space, and I am completely and utterly bored. If not for Izzy to keep me company, I’m pretty sure I’d go nuts….

 Isabel Ibanez stretched and yawned, and looked over from the bedside table to the bed itself.

 Lauryna was laying on her stomach, lost in thought. Projected in front of her were a series of alien symbols – not just Lauryna’s usual alien alphabet, but symbols that were alien even to her.

Izzy got up, cracked her back, and leapt the gap, alighting on the bed.  She walked confidently up to the gold tunic of her friend, and carefully pulled herself up onto Lauryna’s back.

She was starting to get used to this. Starting to get used to walking down the back of someone as if walking down a sidewalk. Lauryna was, all things considered, relatively short; still, she stretched out imposingly in front of Izzy, more a hill than a person.

But Izzy didn’t see the hill. She saw the person. She was starting to get used to this.

She wasn’t sure whether she was glad of it or not.

She reached Lauryna’s shoulder, and brushed some thick red vines away from her view. She could recognize the Archavian that Lauryna was reading, even read most of it. But the other language was something completely new.

 “So, Red, what’cha doin’?”

 Izzy realized her mistake the moment Lauryna flinched. She had startled the young junior crewmate, and while that was no great sin, it wasn’t necessarily prudent when the crewmate in question was 126 feet tall.

 Izzy fell from her perch on Lauryna’s shoulder to the bed below, and the Titan gasped in shock, dropping her pocket computer. “Izzy! Oh, gorram, I’m sorry! Are you okay?”

 Izzy chuckled, staring up at Lauryna. “That’ll teach me to scare you. I’m fine. What’s up?”

 Lauryna sighed. “I’m studying Drazari. That’s how bored I am, Izzy. I’m studying. Freaking. Drazari.”

 “What’s Drazari? Other than a language?”

 “They’re small…well, smallish creatures. Kinda nasty, from what I hear. They look like tupps crossed with kerpters.”

Izzy sighed, leaning up against Lauryna’s left forearm, which Lauryna was also leaning on. “Do I even have to…?”

Lauryna gave a half-smirk. “Kerpters are mammalic, but they have wings.”

“Okay, kinda like bats,” Izzy said with a shudder. “My dad used to take them out with tennis racquets.”

Lauryna gave Izzy a wider smirk, and Izzy said. “It’s a sport. Anyhow, and tupps?”

“Tupps are rodentic, small creatures, probably about your size.”

“Aha. So like mice.” Izzy frowned. “Um…it hasn’t come up…do you guys have cats?”

“Cats?” Lauryna asked, poking at the holodisplay.

“They’re…well, there are big ones, like lions, but….”

“Oh! I know those animals, we touched on them in Comparative Convergent Evolution at the academy. Yeah, we have shaars, they’re a lot like them.”

Izzy shuddered. “There…there aren’t any on the ship, are there?”

Lauryna laughed. “Shaars cause too much trouble. They have a tendency to wander away from their rooms, get into, say, the executive officer’s cabin.”

Izzy blew a raspberry. “How many times can I say I’m sorry for that? Sheesh, you’d think Commander Tam would let it go already.”

Lauryna looked down at Izzy, and shook her head. “Iz, just….”

“Oh, Red, you know I’m sorry,” she said, and for a half-second, Izzy was completely serious. “I really didn’t mean to get you into trouble.”

“’Sokay,” Lauryna said, with a warm smile. “You got yourself in a lot more trouble than me.” Idly, she tousled Izzy’s hair; Izzy responded by spluttering.

“Damn it, you know how hard it is to keep my hair together with you messing it up all the time?” Izzy complained. “Dang it, Lauryna, it might just be easier living with a shaar.”

Lauryna chuckled. “You wouldn’t want to live with a shaar. They’d have you cornered in two seconds.”

“Oh, really?” Izzy huffed. “I don’t think so, Crewmate Gwenn. I’ve got moves, you know.”

“I bet I could catch you within five minutes,” Lauryna chuckled.

“Is that a challenge?”

Lauryna looked down at Izzy, and switched off the holoprojector. “And if it is?”

Izzy grinned. “If I avoid you for five minutes, you have to go one entire day – Titan day – without hugging me or squeezing me or calling me George.”

“…George?”

“It’s from a cartoon.”

“I…okay, not worth the questions. All right, one day without manhandling you in any way. But if I catch you, you have to watch Last Night on Garsdana.”

“Oh, God, is that the twelve hour long love story you’ve been threatening to make me watch?”

“Come on, it’s so sweet! There’s this girl who grew up in the Garsdanan countryside, and she….”

“Gah! Don’t make it worse by describing the plot! All right, fine. You get five minutes, you catch me, I’ll watch your stupid romance.”

“It isn’t stupid! She’s torn between her best friend and a pilot….”

Lauryna stopped, and smiled. “All right,” she said, poking at her pad for a moment. “Five minutes. Starting…now.”

Izzy’s eyes went wide as she realized what a terrible position she was in. Swallowing hard, she jumped up on to Lauryna’s arm and traversed it in long, bounding steps, making it onto her back just ahead of Lauryna’s grasping right hand.

She picked up speed running downhill toward the small of Lauryna’s back, and though it was a long jump even at her size, she decided to try to jump for the table. She rushed up the hillock, and pushed off from Laryna’s behind, and immediately realized she was going to land just short.

Lauryna had rolled off the bed the other way; Izzy landed hard against the table’s side, and dropped, winded to the floor. The seven-story fall stung, but she wasn’t injured. She saw Lauryna’s bare feet rushing around the bottom of the bed, and though she didn’t want to move, she forced herself up and under the bed.

She sat down and tried to catch her breath, only to feel something just behind her. She turned, and scurried away from Lauryna’s probing hand. At its base, a mop of red hair and a grin giggled. “At this rate, I’ll have you in under a minute!”

“No way!” Izzy said, turning on her heel and running for the other side of the bed.

Suddenly, the ground began to quake, and suddenly, light appeared; Lauryna had released the maglocks on the bed and was tipping it upward, causing Izzy’s exit to close, close, close…she couldn’t get to it fast enough. The bed slammed down perpendicular to the floor, and Izzy leaped up and pushed off it, changing direction for the small restroom that abutted their quarters.

“You honestly think that’ll work?” Lauryna chuckled, stepping lazily in front of Izzy. Izzy saw the two feet dropping in front of her, and surprised Lauryna by jumping for the bottom cuff of her service breeches, and climbing around to the back of them, and then up.

Lauryna gasped in surprise, and tried to contort herself to grap the tiny mountaineer; she ended up twisting in just the perfect way to lose her balance, and fall sideways, turning herself to make sure she didn’t inadvertently crush her friend.

Izzy leapt free, and laughed uproariously. “I’ve got practice dodging giants, Red! You forget that?”

Lauryna rubbed her hip, and suddenly spun herself on it, now making it Izzy’s turn to gasp in surprise. The torso of Lauryna spun around, and Izzy was suddenly being scooped up by a giant’s palm.

“No chance, Ibanez!” Laurnya said triumphantly, as she began to get to a sitting position. Izzy growled, and dove, trying to catch the cuff of Lauryna’s sleeve to make an escape. She misjudged slightly, however, and instead fell into the sleeve, falling almost to the elbow.

“I’ve got you, Izzy! There’s no way out!”

“Like hell!” Izzy said, going for broke. She pulled herself along Laryna’s upper arm, aiming for the daylight at Lauryna’s collar. She was almost there….

The effort Lauryna had put in to catching Izzy had caused her to work up just a bit of a sweat. Nothing awful, mind you, but enough that as Izzy went to plant her foot at Lauryna’s shoulder, she instead found herself hydroplaning past her goal, down Lauryna’s sternum and into a sudden, abrupt, halt.

It took the tiny human a moment or two to figure out where she was that she was being held firmly on all sides; when she did…well, when she did, she wasn’t sure she was glad she’d figured it out.

She felt two fingers grasp her ankles, and lift them from the cleavage of Lauryna, up and out through the Junior Crewmate’s collar, Lauryna dropped Izzy into her hand, and looked down on her, blushing a red to match her hair.

“Um,” Lauryna said. “Well. Um. I guess….I win?”

Izzy sighed. “Yeah,” she said. She didn’t say much more.

Lauryna’s communicator buzzed. “Bridge to Crewmate Gwenn,” intoned the serious voice of Lemm Tam.

Lauryna set Izzy on the table and grabbed the commlink. “Gwenn here.”

“Crewmate, please report to the bridge conference room in fifteen minutes.”

“Aye, ma’am. On my way,” Lauryna said. She carefully tipped the bed back into place and sat on it, pulling her boots on.

“I…you know, if you really don’t want to watch that…I mean….”

Izzy was still nonplussed, but she shook her head. “Nah. I…a bet’s a bet. I lost fair and square.”

“Well, if you want to take a nap during it, I won’t hold it against you,” Lauryna said, rising.

“Red, do you always let people off the hook when you bet with them? I’ll bet with you more often if you do.”

Lauryna chuckled. “All right. We’ll watch it day after tomorrow. Try not to get into trouble while I’m gone.”

“Do I ever?” Izzy asked with a grin.

Lauryna shook her head, then got up. She paused at the door.

“Iz…if it bothers you when I, you know, mess with your hair…I mean, really bothers you…I wouldn’t do it if it did.”

“I know, Red. If friends can’t annoy each other occasionally…well, then they aren’t friends.”

Lauryna gave Izzy a smile. “Fair enough,” Lauryna said. “Now, you want to make the bed while I’m gone?”

“I’ll get on that,” Izzy said.

“Good,” Lauryna chuckled, as she opened the door and headed for the Gyfjon’s bridge.

*  *  *

“Permission to enter the Bridge.”

“Granted, Ms. Gwenn,” said Jax Tornen, who was currently sitting in the captain’s chair. “Head on in to the conference room, the Captain should be along in a minute or two.”

“Thank you, sir,” Lauryna said. This was about the only time she’d ever refer to Jax as “sir” – he’d been her mentor when she first came aboard, and he was one of the people on the ship she considered a good friend. But you always showed the person in the captain’s chair formal respect.

Lauryna entered the small conference room and grabbed a seat at the far end of the table. She’d been in here precisely twice during her time on the Gyfjon, but she’d seen enough to know the drill. Captain Bass would be at the head of the table, with Commander Tam on his left and Senior Crewmate Dermish at his right. Most likely Senior Crewmate Tarrgh, the security chief, would be there as well, as would the chief science officer, Senior Crewmate Dayun Pir.

The door opened, and Lauryna rose as the next two officers entered. She didn’t have to for Crewmate Pir, but the other officer…well, Lauryna was smart enough to salute her boss.

“At ease, Ms. Gwenn,” Senior Crewmate Falesial Gausi said, with a curt nod.

“Aye, sir,” Lauryna said. She was a little concerned; Falesial Gausi was the senior xenolinguistic officer on the ship – indeed, the only other xenolingusitic officer on the ship. As such, he was her direct supervisor. She began to be a bit concerned that she herself might be the subject of the meeting.

Those fears were almost immediately allayed, however, when the door opened, and the remainder of the group entered, led by Captain Bass. Lauryna snapped to attention again, as did everyone else. She was surprised to see Jax with the Captain; she idly wondered if Engine-Fixer was in command right now, then pushed the thought aside.

“Please, be seated,” Aerti Bass said, slipping into his own seat. “Ms. Gwenn, thanks for coming up. You too, Dayun. Lemmer, would you like to do the honors?”

Lemm Tam nodded, and tapped a few buttons on the table. “As you all may or may not know, we’ve seen an uptick in insectoid smuggling in recent weeks.”

“More fallout over that incident on Archavia?” Jono Dermish asked.

“Well, we know they aren’t happy,” the captain said. “Commander?”

“Whatever the reason,” Lemm said, “this is obviously a serious concern. It’s not just banned tech they’re trying to move. Intel suggests they may be trying to move biological materials.”

“Humans?” Lauryna gasped, then caught herself. But while Gausi shot her a look that clearly said know your place, Lemm gave Lauryna a slight nod.

“Good question, Ms. Gwenn. No, we don’t think so. But given history, we can’t rule that out. Nor – and I apologize, Doctor – can we rule out other horrific possibilities.”

“You need not apologize, Commander,” the Dunnermac physician said. “If the insectoids are trying to move our roe, or humans, or the pelts of the Avartle – any of them are horrible to contemplate. But it is important we do not flinch from the truth. How else can we stop them?”

“Well said, Dr. Geen,” the captain said. “Now, a few days ago, we intercepted an insectoid signal that we believe is related to the smugglers. Mr. Tornen has managed to decrypt it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear to conform to any known insectoid communications protocol.”

“I maintain that it is gibberish,” Crewmate Gausi said.

“Fala, we’ve been over this,” Dayun said. “Semantic analysis by you and by Decanus Tae shows that this is communicating information.”

“Highly unlikely. If it is communicating information, it isn’t comprehensible to us,” Gausi sniffed.

“Ms. Gwenn, you did your senior thesis on insectoid communication, right?”

Lauryna took just a half-second to realize the captain had directed that question to her. “Uh…aye, sir, I did. Do we have audio of the signal?”

“Lemmer?”

Lemm punched a key, and a series of squeals and static filled the room. It was grating, and Tarrgh grimaced. Lauryna wanted to, but instead, she cocked her head slightly to the side, and closed her eyes. After a few moments, she said, “Well, it isn’t a standard insectoid broadcast, that’s for sure.”

“I told you,” Gausi said.

“Due respect, sir,” Lauryna said, not opening her eyes. “But there is a pattern to it. It’s not a numbers station.”

“What?” Gausi barked.

“A numbers station,” Lauryna said. Then, seeing blank stares on the faces around her, she said, “It’s a human means of covert communication using short-wave radio. It….”

“Humans? Why are we discussing animals?” Gausi groused.

“Crewmate Gausi, why are you short-circuiting discussion in this briefing room?”

Gausi turned to the captain, who was leaning back in his chair. “To complete Ms. Gwenn’s explanation, a numbers station is what it sounds like – a short-wave broadcast of numbers. It’s used with a codebook – basically, it’s only useful if you know what code the numbers correspond to.”

“That’s similar to communications used by the Jotnar Navy during the early conflicts with the Drazari,” Jax said.

“Exactly,” Lauryna said, growing more animated. “If it was a Jotnar Cipher, we’d be out of luck. But we wouldn’t see evidence of semantic information – a numbers code is essentially random. Senior Crewmate Pir, what was the Rhombil-Dva on the semantic content? I’d bet somewhere around eight or nine.”

“Eight-point-four,” Dayun said.

“That’s about the average semantic level of a one-way broadcast, right?” asked Jax.

“It is,” Lauryna said.

“All right,” Aerti said, clapping his hands together. “Right now, this is the only lead we have to go on. Crewmate Gausi, I want you to bring Ms. Gwenn on to your investigation. Give her everything you’ve got so far. Maybe she can see something you haven’t.”

“Sir, this is a waste of….”

“Crewmate Gausi, that’s an order,” Bass said, his tone not wavering. Lauryna looked between her direct supervisor and the captain; it was clear this was not their first discussion on the subject.

Aerti then looked over at the security chief. “LurTarrgh, I want you to continue to try to analyze possible corridors they could be working. Mr. Tornen, keep up the cryptographic study. Dayun? I want you and Doctor Geen to talk over ways we could safeguard this cargo in the event it turns out to be…well, one of the things we all hope it isn’t.”

“Aye, sir,” Dayun and Geoff said, simultaneously.

“We’ll meet back here tomorrow at this time, but if you come across anything, anything at all, let me know immediately. Dismissed.”

The group got up, though Lauryna was dragging her feet. The look Crewmate Gausi shot her made her stomach erupt in butterflies; she was caught between her captain and her direct supervisor on this one. That probably wasn’t a safe place to be.

*  *  *

Engine-Fixer returned to main engineering, rather relieved to be back. She would certainly always take command when Captain-of-the-ship asked her to, but she much preferred working down here. Engineering was about physics, and even when things went very wrong, she very much enjoyed that they went wrong according to predictable physical laws. Yes, in engineering, there was order.

“Hiya, Engine-Fixer!”

Most of the time.

If Avartle sighed, Engine-Fixer would’ve sighed. Instead, she simply reacted to the signs on her goggles, and signed back, “Ah, human-female. Such a surprise. We are busy, you know.”

“I know that,” Izzy said. “Do you think I was raised by wolves?”

Against her better judgment, Engine-Fixer said, “The last word – there is no sign for it.”

“Wolves. They’re a wild animal. A carnivore. Pack hunters. It’s…never mind.”

Engine-Fixer paid Izzy no mind, until she realized that the signing on her goggles had stopped. This was unusual.

“Human-female, I suspect I will be unhappy with the result of this query, but is there a reason you stopped speaking?”

Izzy sighed, looking out at the vast engine room. “I get kinda tired of having to explain what things are, that’s all.”

“It is reasonable. You ask us to explain things all the time.”

“Yeah, but…well, yeah. I suppose. It’s…sorry. I know I’m bothering you.”

Engine-Fixer turned toward the tiny animal, and cocked her head. “Human-female, I am not an expert in reading your species’ emotions, but you are upset, are you not?”

“It’s silly,” Izzy said. “It’s just…if you guys explain warp drive to me, it’s something any one of you can explain, and you all know what you’re talking about. If I mention ice cream, I have to talk my way through it until someone figures out that I’m talking about frozen mek. If I talk about football, people look at me with blank stares, and try to change the subject to Talbet, or whatever it’s called.”

She sighed. “There’s nobody to talk about home with, Engine-Fixer. And that gets to me now and then, I suppose.”

Engine-Fixer twitched her tail. “You know I am the only one of The People on this ship, human-female.”

“You are, aren’t you?” Izzy said. “I’m sorry, I’m…that was thoughtless.”

“No,” Engine-Fixer signed. “I still was born in Space-Controlled-by-the-People-From-Archavia. I can sign with my family and friends on Home-of-the-People, and First-Colony-of-the-People, and Eighth-Colony-of-the-People. Your friend…I heard about him.”

“Yeah,” Izzy said. “Can’t say that’s helped my mood.”

“Your other friend? Human-Male-belonging-to-Senior-Imperator?”

“Meh, I don’t really know him that well. He seems nice enough, but I saw him for a couple days, then I heard Imperator Tam got shot…I figure he needs some space after that.”

“And junior-linguist?”

“Huh? Oh, you mean Lauryna? I….”

Izzy shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t want to make her feel bad. She didn’t mean for me to end up stuck here. And she’s been doing everything she can to help me. She’s…she’s the best friend I’ve had, Engine-Fixer. I don’t want to hurt her.”

Engine-Fixer’s tail swished in the air twice. “Human-female…I am busy now. But if you wish, during times when I am not at my station…you may discuss this with me.”

Izzy looked up at the giant, six-limbed lemur-like creature, and smiled. “Thanks,” Izzy said. “And I am sorry to bother you. By the way, your matrix in nacelle two is at 94 percent, I’d have someone look at it if I were you.”

Engine-Fixer glanced up at the screen, and nodded. She had seen it immediately, and would have already dispatched someone to work on it if not for the interruption. Still, it was unusual even for senior staff to notice such a thing.

“You are correct, human-female. I had better look at it.”

“Yup,” Izzy said, leaping gracefully from terminal to chair to floor. “I’ll see you later – and I’ll try not to bug you too much.”

“You will…what does ‘insect you’ mean?”

Izzy sighed, but Engine-Fixer twitched her tail up three quick times. “I kid you, human-female. We have the idiom in our language as well.”

Izzy laughed out loud. “I deserved that,” she said.

“Yes,” Engine-Fixer said. “Climb well, human-female.”

“You too, Engine-Fixer,” Izzy said, heading for the wall. She was glad she’d come down here. She wasn’t happy, exactly. But she felt a lot better.