Ssriskiss (The Hub)

[Swix]

A small ship flew out of the atmosphere in Blackstars skies, it's squashed teardrop shape allowing the gas the planet had to slide over it's sleek hull of unknown metal. The ship slid down towards the ground at an angle, it's usually dark hull glowing with the speed and force of entry from void into an atmosphere. It looked like it was being controlled pretty well, until one thing was clear. The vessel was headed on a collision course for one of the buildings in the city of Dojopolis. At what could only have been the last second however the craft pulled up to narrowly avoid skimming the rooftops, screeching in protest at the sudden course adjustment and deceleration. Amazingly, the craft came to a complete, controlled stop just before it hit a particularly large tree on the the outskirts of the Wilds with the hull leaving barely an imprint. The pilot of this craft was either a prodigy, completely insane or both. After resting in the area it had landed for a few seconds, the craft powered it's engines down, opened a hatch and lowered a small ramp onto the ground. It was followed instantly by a wiry orange creature with a large pair of goggles over the top half of it's head, wearing pale blue clothing that clashed horribly with the small creatures skin. This almost humanoid being was small, his height being only four feet, so from his initial looks you'd think he wasn't that heavy. This idea would soon be ripped from your head when the alien stumbled onto the ground, dropped to his hands and knees and promptly vomited a sickly pink ooze as he sank several inches.

"I told you you should have let me handle the landing" came a voice from inside the ship that was clearly female, yet somehow sounded completely inorganic. Nor was it talking to the being outside, but another one inside "he can't handle motion like that very well, and we need him to help us with this"

"Huh" a male voice replied in answer to the females "I didn't think people got spacesick anymore. But come on Erayna, you have to admit that was fun!"

"Rranntak, a game of catch with a Kiezyn is more fun than what you two just did" the female voice replied, an agitated tone coming through "I was about ready to leave and get Nrenth to send out a rescue party for you, and I doubt the natives would appreciate you destroying their dwellings on this sort of mission... Excuse me for a few seconds, I want to visit a friend"

The voice left a conspicuous silence in it's wake, though this didn't last for long as a pair of clawed feet followed the ramp down to come to rest next to the incapacitated orange alien. This creature was reptilian, and had a shell on his back with downward curving spikes on each section. His eyes were yellow and slitted, and looked about the world he'd just landed in with mild concern. He had a pair of very large, pointed ears, antennae above his eyes that were bent in the middle and conspicuously large, raised scales on his forehead. He also had a tail, held out and up through the 'robe' of dyed animal skin that covered the lower half of his body. Even though his kind could reach the stars they'd never mastered the art of clothing. His tail had three pairs of spikes that got smaller as they got further away from the main body, and the tail ended in a large club. The reptilian had no lips, but a pair of small fangs protruded outwards and his nostrils were long slits. He held out a hand to pat the vomiting alien on the back reassuringly, showing he had a thumb-claw instead of a thumb, and well highlighting the size difference between the two. This Rranntak was 6 feet tall, yet he didn't sink into the ground as his smaller colleague had.
_____________________________________________________________
Erayna, or EAI001 sent a message to the AI aboard the CSS, the space station she'd ended up at when she first came to visit this dimension. The Consortiums prototype AI could still use the protoship if she wanted, but they'd decided that she should be a part of this particular mission due to her previous involvement. "Jack" the message said "it's Erayna. Do you remember me? I need to speak to you"

((This is going to be the first RP that will allow Blackstarians the chance to visit not only the Hub but the planets of the Consortium races, if you so wish that is. It's a little experiment, and if you feel like it you can even play as a character from one of the other races that can be found in the Genetic Repository post here. Obviously the familiar characters from the Consortium story in my sig are off limits, as is the Muzvus rebel leader Vazu and the Muzvus Empress Zuuvrua, due to their having some... history.

I also stopped that there for a reason, feel free to go and ask them what they're doing there .

EDIT: Forgot to add Eraynas bit in. And before anyone asks, no I can't do super techy stuff. I just though it'd be fitting for the Consortium to have an AI ))

[Coolpikaaa]

On the CSS, Jack was no longer as lonely as the last time. A small crew, led by Pika-bot had been dispatched and had begun extensive repairs on the station.

Jack recieved the message with a glee that didn't just come from being fixed up. The other AI DID come back. He felt happy he had a friend that was just like him.

"You came back! There are so many things I want to tell you! How are you? How was your trip? What did you see?"

-coolpikaaa

[Cirrial]

501 sits at a wooden desk, etched and faded over the years. He looks out through the window at Kazumaru's lab, just across the road, puzzlingly quiet.

The shack he now sits in was the front for Station Zero, during its glory. Before the near end of the world sent it whirling to destruction, the shack had housed an elevator heading deep underground. Now, the shaft was full of dirt and debris, leading nowhere.

The shack had been repurposed. A few construction robots, isolated from the station during the sudden storm of wind, fire and lightning, had gladly obeyed 501's requests for a temporary base of operations.

On the outside, it is still an abandoned shack. On the inside, in defiance of expectations, it is a small Maratix laboratory, with some complicated-looking machines taking up very little room.

The wooden desk was too undamaged to just throw away, and now 501 sits at it, a blue computerised film stretched over most of its surface, jabbing away in total concentration. A spidery construction drone stares at the moving images curiously, more interested by the show of motion than through any comprehending of its markings.

"Hrm. Begin. 501's log, 35-02-unknown year. Satellites still functional from yesterday. Unidentified extraterrestrial ship detected, passed over building in Dojopolis. Did not respond to encrypted Maratix or Alliance signals and did not match profiles for known ships. Could not trace landing position."

He taps at the smart-paper on the desk, waving the spider robot away. "Aside." The smart-paper flickers and changes to a different colour, a yellowy-orange. "I think the lab across the street's kind of dead. I couldn't find anything on the Artifact, despite trekking across the entire city and back. Perhaps I should have stopped and asked someone. Oh well. Return." The surface shimmers back to blue.

"Unknown as to intentions. Treating unknown craft and inhabitants as a threat until proven otherwise. Attached are satellite readings. Some ambiguity possible. Attempting personal investigation. Transmit." 501 leans back in his chair as the display on the desk turns into a little graphic of a circle getting bigger and smaller repeatedly. With a ding, the smart-paper fades to black. It now looks like normal paper. Normal carbon paper, at least.

He spins his chair to face the wall opposite the window, where an even larger sheet of smart-paper holds the names and faces of almost every Dojodian he'd come across worth keeping notes on. After a lengthy, thoughtful pause, he gestures at the wall. This display now too fades to black.

---

He leaps out of his chair, grabbing more than a few items of Maratix technology on his way out the door. Not going out unprepared this time, Blackstar! That's just what you'd like me to do, isn't it? ...I'm far too paranoid sometimes. He grabs two ion pistols, one for each holster either side of him, and carefully examines his hands as if seeing them for the first time.

He wanders along the dusty road to Psychotopia, before deciding it to be wiser to instead walk away from the city. No, no, I'm not battling through the crowd of crazies again today. I'll start somewhere else first.

He returns to the shack, and bursts out of the doorway clutching a small blue disk. He throws it to the ground, where it expands into a platform large enough to stand on. He jumps onto it, and waist-high railings rise up. 501 leans forward, hands clutching at floating controls that seem to have spontaneously manifested from the air. "Onward, contraption!" He laughs excitedly as the device suddenly launches into full thrust, flying with speed inches off the ground, zooming towards the outskirts of the Wilds.

It is far more likely that the E-Maginian and T'Laran will see 501 before he ever sees them, thanks to the massive plume of dust the transport device seems to be generating in its wake.

[Swix]

Erayna felt quite pleased with herself, she was so far the only AI in the Consortium and so hearing back from Jack eased the loneliness of being the 'first and only' in her galaxy.

"I'm fine, Jack" she sent back in reply, opening a private com channel between the little transport and the CSS "the trip wasn't exactly boring, we got attacked by the Muzvus again shortly after we got back. I didn't think anyone could panic so much, least of all Leinnrrad! You should have seen him fussing about my protoship, I didn't think I'd ever be let get off it. But here I am" Erayna paused for the briefest of milliseconds before continuing "Oh, and I got to watch planetrise on L'Shal, it's a moon that orbits a gas giant. You should have seen it, only time in a thousand years the other moons and the giant rise in unison. It was beautiful. I want to visit Lieren next, they say they have spectacular aurora"

"That reminds me Jack, there are going to be more than just this transport coming through the Portal near you once they've gotten the beacon set up down here. The Consortium want to show the inhabitants here that they're welcome there. Something to do with the politicians. Just wanted to warn you"

"How are you? Our sensors showed lifeforms on your station, is it being repaired? What is it you want to tell me, I can't wait to hear it"
_____________________________________________________________

Due to his extra large ears, the E-Maginian Rranntak heard 501s device before he saw the large plume of dust trailing behind the contraption that was heading straight for them. The male E-Maginian took his hands off the T'Larans back, as his colleague finally managed to pull himself together, pulling himself up to his full four feet of height... 3'10 if you don't count that which he lost by sinking into the ground.

"What the... " Rranntak said, as his eyes took in the strange contraption as it came barrelling towards them "what is that? Erayna, is that native?" The E-Maginian asked the ships AI, who answered "No" as abruptly as she could. She was monitoring and checking her sensors using the standard package Jack had sent her last, but this thing wasn't mentioned in it. Besides, she didn't want to be disturbed whilst in the middle of a transmission to her friend.

"You're up" Rranntak said cheerfuully to the T'Laran, who was also staring at the rapidly approaching 501 "I've got a beacon to set up. Excuse me" the reptilian creature walked back into the ship as the T'Laran straightened himself out and awaited 501s appearance. Inside the transport could be heard several metallic bangs and in one case, swearing in an exotic language.

[GBE]

"What do you mean by-passing potential enemy force?! We have no real enemies."

"This species have designated themselves the Muzvus. They are an highly aggressive race with a superior empire to own"

"We need no empire, our planet sustains us. Why are they a potential enemy?"

"They make war with all, give no quarter and have no known allies."

"Potential enemy you say. Well, we'll make contact with them after we have dealt our other concerns."

An hour later...

Now approaching the battered and bruised Hub, a strange looking white ship de-cloaks. It looks very much like an asteroid, not of a set shape, large and bulky. Standing at red-alert with its weapons and shields now fully raised, "Open a channel with the station."

"Channel open."

"This is Ambassador Thum of the Utopians. We wish open diplomatic relations. Please respond"

[Swix]

Nrenth, the Tezcan in charge of the station that was known as the Hub to all species, but Ssriskiss to her particular one, hadn't had a good day today. But then, she reflected, it hadn't been a bad one either. Apart from Teesn and the major politicians insistence that they send a second expedition to the planet on the other side of the swirling blue mass Leinnrrad, the E-Maginians top engineer had created and now could not close, it had been fairly uneventful. She had been expecting some fireworks to go off if the inhabitants decided they wanted to take a look around her station, but she hadn't been expecting what showed up on her sensors to be a Utopian ship. It wasn't entirely unusual, this was a neutral area to all bar those at war with the Consortium, but turning up with your weapons and shields up wasn't exactly a good way to make an impression.

Nrenth opened her own channel, allowing the image of the female serpent to show up on the Utopians viewscreen, if they had one and wanted to use it that is.

"This is Nrenth, operator of the Hub" Nrenth sent back "please power down your weapons and shields. We have suffered several attacks from the Muzvus and our security forces are jumpy. I would not want an Ambassador taken down in a misunderstanding on my watch"

The Utopians ship was hardly the only one there, all around the gigantic station were ships of all sizes, colour and design, including a few of the massive city-ships the Tiermutians had taken to inhabiting. There were warships, transports, merchant vessels and tiny shuttlecraft ferrying the aliens from the station to their ships and back, even in some cases, ship to ship. The space around the Hub could only be described as crowded, and it was only the traffic plan of the Hub that those who visited had to adhere to that prevented collisions.

((I guess this means the Hub is open for anyone who wishes to randomly appear there

EDIT and note to self: Tezca: plural, Tezcan: singular))

[Cirrial]

501 spies the craft and the two sophonts nearby. The device speeds up, the cloud of dust flying high into the sky, and begins to gradually, gradually slow down. A rate of deceleration which, although calculated to stop within good distance of the craft, seems barely noticeable.

Before colliding into the craft, as it might seem based on the device's speed, it halts, and 501, propelled mostly by inertia, leaps out, tumbling through the air, landing on the ground on both feet and one hand. He slowly rises, brushes himself off of dust, and acts completely nonchalant, as if this sort of action were normal activity. Oh five that was so well pulled off I have to do that again sometime I can't believe I actually did that- Focus, 501! Investigation is the top priority. Although that entrance was pretty fancy.

He strolls over to the T'Laran, casually wondering why the ground beneath him appears to be slowly swallowing him.

He raises both arms to the skies. "Zweo aaai tuku tuku zweaa kreet! Kerw kerw nikiniki zooon! ...Kerw. Reek reet reen. No, no, you're not likely to understand that. ...You, you aren't just natives I've never come across before, right?"

The vaguely-avian robot tilts his head. "Can you understand the language I'm speaking right now? It's the most widely used language of this world."

He holds his hands behind his back and tilts his head in the opposite direction, a little confused. "Of course, if you can't understand what I'm saying, you won't have a clue what I'm asking you, and therefore this entire exchange would be meaningless. ...I'm not well-versed in the art of first contact. Quite frankly, it was amazing I ever managed to survive discovery of this world."

He takes a few steps back, kneels on the ground, and traces an image into the ground with a sharp talon. The image crudely depicts the insignia of Maratix, a pair of concentric incomplete rings, with three triangles at the top-right and two circles in the middle. The smaller of these two circles overlaps the other.

"I am CAM-501 of the Maratix... err, that's it. Just Maratix. A semi-independent entity, political, corporate and military, which is a subset of the Floating Arm Alliance. The Floating Arm Alliance is a, well, alliance of several sapient species of the Floating Arm, my home galaxy. I'm one of many, many high-ranking officials of Maratix, and whereas I may lack the expertise to initiate first contact, I possess the authority to do so. Well, to a limited degree. ...I'm rambling on and on and I haven't even established if you speak Blackstar Common yet. I'm not very good at this." He stands back up.

"Did you get this, or do I need to try another language? ...No, that question doesn't make any sense either. You know what, I think I'm going to just stand back and see if you understood or not based on your reaction. Apologies to sound so condescending."

He stands back and takes care not to trample his sketch in the dirt.

[Coolpikaaa]

Jack listened intently to the other AI. She had really been around the universe, looking at all those things....

Jack wondered if he could travel some day too.

"An alliance! That sounds fun!"

The AI for the space station paused there, reading through the cameras at the new working crew. He was actually going to work 100% again!

"Yup, a new crew and all! I am becoming more and more fixed up as we speak. As for things in my neck of the woods...." Jack continued on, telling the alien AI everything that happened on the Dojo since she left. Most of his stories came with stunning images taken from way up on the station, looking down.

"So, are you staying long?"

-coolpikaaa

[Zerrer]

((Notes on Ashael's newest equipment here: http://www.blackstardojo.org/viewtopic.php?t=2264#50880))

Ashael was tinkering with her various inventions when she got an alert from Paladin, her computer system. She leaped over her table and checked it. There was something descending from the sky going right towards Dojopolis!
~Time to test Templar~ She thought, and 'blinked' into the small ship.
Within a few seconds, she was flying.

The spacecraft was gliding in the sky, and only took a few nudges of telekinetic power to move it or turn it. She was a purple streak in the sky, flying towards Dojopolis. She got there just in time to see a small robot stepping away from a marking in the ground. Unknowingly, she turned the ship downwards. She blinked the ship to a direct stop on the grass. Then she blinked again, teleporting herself out of the ship. Templar stopped glowing purple when Ashael left. She was wearing light blue and had her long purple hair in a french braid. On her left wrist was a large bracer.

"Erm, Hello? Who here forgot how to drive?" She said, her aura swirling around her like an irritated swarm of bees.

[Swix]

The T'Laran was uncomfortably aware of the fact that the ground here wasn't dense enough to hold his weight until it had compacted enough, and if he hadn't would probably have winced at the robot throwing up his arms and speaking in that strange language at the start. Throughout the whole exchange with 501 kept politely silent, with his wiry arms clasped in front of his small body. He grew increasingly bemused at the long string of sentences the robot made, and if his goggles weren't only allowing the smallest pinprick of light into his eyes, 501 might have seen just how bemused he was.

The orange alien, once he was sure 501 had stopped speaking, replied with a mouth that was nothing more than a slit near the bottom of his head. "We speak 'Blackstar' Common" he said, with an extremely thick accent brought on by his kinds fairly recent join of the galactic community back home "CAM-501 of Maratix. I am Ambassador N'Lel of the Consortium, which is an alliance of many species in our own galaxy. I have been authorised to come to initiate contact with this world, it's inhabitants, offer our friendship and a trip to our Hub station if they are curious"

"It is..." The T'Laran paused, searching for the right word "good to meet you, CAM-501 of Maratix, of the Floating Arm Alliance" The T'Laran held up a hand with the three outermost fingers spread, whilst the thumb and forefinger remained locked together.

Behind him, Rranntak emerged from the transport vessel carrying something that was nearly as tall as he was, but not quite so wide, and consisted of several metallic looking rods all folded up. It didn't seem nearly as complicated to have caused all the fuss he'd been making inside, but he was mumbling something in Common about the 'damn health and safety inspectors' forcing him to dismantle 'his baby'. The jab at his driving wasn't lost on the E-Maginians ears, and he called back to Ashael in a semi-annoyed, but mostly cheerful tone "Whaddya mean 'forgot how to drive'? I was in control the whole time!" His aptitude for Common was much more advanced than his colleagues, though not his attitude towards other aliens.

The T'Laran jerked the hand he'd just held up in greeting behind to indicate the reptilian wearily "That's Rranntak" he said "he's the technician they had to send along with us. And responsible for the, uh, earlier stunt" The T'Larans stomach still hadn't quite forgotten what it was like to be battered around inside the transport.

((Note that Consortium Common is pretty much identical to Blackstar Common, which is why N'Lel is a bit bemused .

There's a reason for this, but it's one of those 'to be decided' ones ))
_____________________________________________________________
Erayna couldn't believe it, this place was so amazingly full of activity, even that which surrounded the Hub or the home planets didn't come close. After having a good look at the pictures, she filed them away to keep for later.

"That's great news" Erayna sent back genuinely warmly at hearing her friends station was going to be fully operational soon "I'm not sure how long I'll be staying, they'll need someone to coordinate the landings from down here at first. There are gaps wide enough for the transports to come through but they said to be sure not to damage anything. Once I've got it mapped out though... Well, we'll see"

"Hey, I know! You can come back to the Hub with me and I can take you to see Lieren and L'Shal and all the others... If your crew can survive a little while without you and you want to, that is. I'd really like it if you did"

[Cirrial]

501 nods in interest. Without realising it, his tone has become a lot more neutral and diplomatic, almost slightly robotic. It had been so long since he'd dealt with matters that were actually important to anyone back home, other than himself and a select few personnel in Maratix. It is as if a switch in his mind toggles from "frivolous eccentricity" to "formal business".

"Earlier stunt, eh? That would explain the... unusual trajectory the sensors picked up. It is good to meet you also, Ambassador N'Lel of the Consortium. Unfortunately, I am authorised to initiate contact on behalf of Maratix, but not the Alliance as a whole, and as such, I will not be visiting the Hub as an emissary until a formal contact has been initiated between the Floating Arm Alliance and Consortium. This is complicated due to... political reasons."

Such as Maratix concealing Blackstar's existence until we've decided what to do about it. And me losing contact with Maratix for the past few months.

"If I knowingly boarded this Hub that you speak of, as a Maratix diplomat, I'd be declaring Maratix to take precedence over the Alliance. That's already a matter for increasingly hostile debate in my home universe, and I don't want to be the straw that breaks the desert-mammal's back, per se."

They'd go insane if they heard we were poking around Blackstar for months without telling anyone. If I set a single digit on that station, and word gets out, who knows what could happen?

"Of course, if I remain in this world and talk to representatives such as yourself, well, this world is currently considered neutral territory."

Or it might be reclassified as Maratix territory in Floating Arm records, but no-one needs to know that, and either way this is my safest option. Argh, of all times, why today? Why couldn't you have arrived when Station Zero was still functional?!

501 stands still, his left hand behind him, the other clenched in a fist, held about where the chest would be on a normal keynain. All there is on 501's body is a continuous cyan cylinder of energy from shoulders to hips.
From his back, fractal wing blades stretch out, more as a gesture than for any practical reason.

[Coolpikaaa]

"That shouldn't..." Jack paused scanning over the various crewmembers milling about. "...shouldn't be a problem."

"How do we do this?"

-coolpikaaa

[Swix]

"Rrrrm" said N'Lel, his voice making an odd, rumbling echo sound inside his throat due to the strength it took just for him to be able to breathe. It also caused him to sink a few more centimetres, after having finally stopped when his 'standing' height had reached 3'9. The T'Laran tried his best not to stare at 501s oddly cylindrical torso, or more specifically the blue forcefield inside it 'The E-Maginians are going to love this guy' N'Lel thought absently. He could deal with the metal bird robot thing 501 had going for him (after all, his people had a tendency to dint spaceship floors, and he'd met the AI Erayna who'd taken on the form of someone made out of Tezcan, Tiermutian and Reniilian bodyparts) but the forcefield was... mesmerising. However, there were other more important things to do now. N'Let tore eyes that could see more in the dark than in the light away from it, they had been resting there for just a few seconds, and straightened himself up. The orange alien brushed his pale blue clothing down out of habit.

"That is... unfortunate" N'Lel told 501 "but you are still welcome as a guest... You'd need to speak to a representative of each of our species, and that can be difficult. There are eight species, but the only other one who could get here in good time would be the Tezcan Teesn, I will send a message through to him. The Consortium was Teesns idea. Would that be... satisfactory?"

Rranntak, after much fussing, had finally gotten the multiple 'rods' set up in an area somewhere between his transport and Ashaels own ship. The beacon now looked like a long metallic pole stuck in the ground, but supported by many of the other rods that surrounded it, folding outwards like the skeleton of a tent. The bottommost cylinders that attached the supports to each other sank into the ground with a strange squelching noise, causing it to stick firmly into the ground. The E-Maginian stepped back, pulled what appeared to be a small touchpad from the folds of his 'robe' and pressed it, causing the beacon to hum with power and shortly afterwards, the AI Erayna appeared as a miniature hologram on the screen. She had no legs, instead she 'rested' on a long, serpentine tail. She also had a single pair of arms and a pair of wings that were an exact copy of the Tiermutians. Her head too was like a Tiermutians, including the shoulder length hair growing out of her holographic head. Her skin on the other hand was similar to a Reniilians, but it had been coloured lightly purple. Her eyes were Reniilian too, pupilless and dark red.

'Calculating... Transmitting coordinates now' Erayna said mechanically, then her demeanour suddenly changed as though she was calculating landing sites, using the datalink between the ship and the pad to project herself out here (because she was young and wanted to show off), and still talking with Jack, Erayna loved what she could do. The voice however, issued from the ship. Erayna could only see 501 and Ashael with the sensors, the pad had neither them nor voice. 'Hey, cool, it's that robot creature Jack told me about, and the glowing woman with the teleporting ship' Came the voice from inside the transport.
_____________________________________________________________
Erayna considered Jacks question, a little troubled. She'd been upgraded so she didn't a constant link to what had been her core anymore, and she could move ship to ship if she wanted. But would he be able to use the same tech she had been given to see and travel to the places she wanted to show him?

"Can you move from the station into something else? I should be able to persuade Nrenth to send a remote ship through for you, after that you can follow me and you can see the Homeworlds and the star systems for yourself.

You're a native here after all, and the invite was for everyone"

[Zerrer]

"I call it blinking." Ashael called to the ship. The fact that it was talking didn't seem to phase her at all. "Teleport makes it sound like it has a much longer range then it does."

[Cirrial]

501 pauses, lowering his hand from his implied chest, and keeps his wings open. The individual bladed segments, metal imposters of feather and bone, shimmer slightly in a faint breeze. He takes a few steps closer, inadvertently scratching out his earlier detailing on the ground. His formal tone seems to collapse entirely.

"Oh, a guest, sure, there's loads of standard forms and procedures that exist for that very purpose! ...Probably should have remembered that." His wings fold back up in a complicated synchronised motion, each blade tucking under another, compacting and sliding over one another, before telescoping away into the semi-spherical, almost back-pack looking device suspended on his back.

"Ah, you have no idea how much I'd love to visit a place other than this one for any amount of time! I've been stranded here for months, to tell you the truth. Yes, I'm technically a Maratix diplomat here, but mostly by default. I wouldn't want to trouble your leaders, but I would like access to anything portal-based. I could just ask someone if it'd be okay then."

He pauses and reconsiders. "No, actually, I think it's best I do things the right way. I'll stay here. I'll wait for Teesn." No, wait, did he just say Teesn founded the Consortium? Okay. Don't screw this up, 501. Don't screw this up. Don't jeopardise this opportunity.

He looks to the ship and raises his voice, completely managing to miss the pad and its representation of Erayna altogether. "I have a name, you know!" He hesitates and looks back to N'Lel. "Sorry for the, uh, sudden volume. Who is that?"