Chapter 3

A smell of food wafted into the sleeping quarters.

Gluss and Merc were already up. Gluss was preparing breakfast and Merc was sitting in his usual spot. he was sharpening his knives on a scrap of metal.

The foul smell of plant life roused Dewblade and Senka long before the others managed to smell it. Senka angrily walked into the kitchen, her tail lashed around in rage. 

"I just wish I could either wake up to the smell of animal flesh, or NOT wake up to the smell of charred leaves and plant life!"

Dewblade laughed as he came in and said to Senka, "I also find it displeasing, but I spent my life around humans, I know they require these 'charred leaves' for their health. Asking them not to eat those, is like asking you and me not to eat mammals."

Senka glared at him as the others drowsily entered the cafeteria, and growled under her breath, "My quarrel is not with you, Shanaron."

"I also wish i could wake up to the smells and sights of my home planet." Said Geranno as he sleepily walked through the hole in the door.

"Hey, consider yourself lucky theres food at all." said gluss, hurrying around the kitchen space.

"Dewblade, I'd like to talk with you on how we might be able to get some of the weapons working." Said merc, gesturing to another seat at the table.

Dewblade did the respectful hand gesture of his race, putting his hand over his heart and sliding it through the air sideways, and sat next to the Mercenary. 

"The weapons work, they just aren't very good compared to more recent weapons," Dewblade teased. When

Merc didn't respond he continued, "Last night I couldn't sleep so I began working on this..."

He pulled something out of his pocket that looked like a purple knife made out of stone. 

He handed it to the mercenary and explained, "It looks like an ordinary antique, hand-crafted chaos iron knife. You know, chaos iron, weird purple stone with almost no value. I've been studying it's uses. When in contact with water, slowly begins to melt, when in fire, freezes. But, when in contact with both at the same time, releases toxic fumes, effective in as little as ten seconds, or as much as a year, depending on how balanced the fire and water are."

Merc nodded, turning it over in his hands.

"You think one might be able to make some sort of toxic grenade with one of these?" he asked.

"That was my intention. It will be risky testing it out, but I thought we could speak to Sierra about coming up with an antitoxin so I could work on it. Although now I assume you want in on it too. I also considered making some sort of gun out of it. Like with old guns, they fire using chemical reactions that produce sparks. Why not use that to our advantage and create similar guns that fire Chaos iron with chemical reactions, with the creation sparks and water, the purple bullet penetrates the skin just enough to start the clock on your permanent destruction."

Dewblade smiled and his tail waved leisurely as he explained the mechanics of his idea.

"it does sound interesting" said merc. "Maybe you fire A burning chaos iron bullet. Once it mixes with the water in the body, it starts to release the gas. not to mention, assassinations would be made easier if there was a melting bullet..." he trailed off. "I mean, not that we'd want to promote that sort of thing or anything." he finished quickly.

Gluss started serving bowls of a broth-like substance. The minashtans had chunks of meat floating in it, while the rest had Carrots or other vegetables.

Dewblade thanked him and turned back to Merc, "You have it all wrong. WATER melts it, fire freezes it, it can't exist, but it does. But, if we can make it minuscule in size and very sharp, it is possible that it would go into the body without being felt. Thus, the victim won't know that they're dying until they have a single minute to live, largely because it gives you no knowledge of its existence, even with a thorough physical and mental exam. So even if there is an antidote, they won't know they need it, until it's too late."

He began to eat his breakfast while eagerly awaiting Merc's response.

Merc nodded, still flipping the knife over in his hands. "I Don't know we'd want this technology in the hands of either the IPK or the Rebels though. The IPK don't normally kill, Seeing as how the P Stands for Peace.

Not to mention, if they had it, the rebels would find a way to get some. They always do. And they don't care about lives. Ours or theirs."

Merc handed the knife back. "I might think about it some more, but you do whatever you want with the stuff."

Merc pulled something out of one of the pockets of his coat. "Here's some Power crystals for the blasters, and new batteries for the BlazeBlades." He put them on the table.

"Thanks," Dewblade replied, "And yeah, IPK are peaceful and very advanced in technology, while the rebels are ruthless and, frankly, not too bright about their weapons."

While they spoke, another conversation was going on at the other table. Actually, more of an argument.

Senka and Geranno were arguing on the effectiveness of blades against Standard issue IPK Armor. Geranno claimed that the new nanofibers were stronger than ever, but senka really believed that a blade could cut through them, if sharp enough.

"You're right, the new armor is stunning and very efficient, but a proper blade could indeed hurt you. Your 'nanofibers' are trouble for the weakest of blades, but you know nothing about weapons, and therefore, cannot realize that that armor can't stop this."

Senka pulled a small chunk of metal out of her robe pocket and added, " Primitive as Minashtans seem, we've created the next best thing in weapon technology."

She pressed a button on the device and a tiny needle poked out. Then she rolled one of her paws along the side of it and it grew into a giant lightweight blade.

Geranno shook his head. "As impressive as that is, the nanofibers of these suits are made of a strong metal. they have machines that weave the metal in and out, like chainmail, but with fewer, smaller, openings. Its like a metal shirt. Not to mention its more comfortable, because of how miniscule the fibers are. They bend, unlike the normal, bulky, suits."

Senka growled and replied angrily, "True, they are an improvement, but everyone has seen it before, Blazeblades, even the most primitive, CAN cut through solid, thick metal, with enough work. Not to mention, The metal on the armor isn't very thick, and weapon technology is greatly improving, for all races."

"Well they aren't worn all the time, sometimes a suit is much better than the new armor, but its better than nothing when you are in a fight." Said Geranno. "They are supposed to wear it when off duty. My point is that it is completely impervious to sharp things"

Geranno had finished his Broth, and gluss walked back into the mess hall after delivering the captain some food. "You know, we might want to get this hole in the door fixed." Said gluss. "Or the hole in the wall" Said Geranno. "Currently, the hole in the airlock worries me more than the hole in the door."

Senka sighed and said, "I am more than capable of such menial labor, but only if Germo admits that a sharp object could penetrate his 'nanofibers'." 

Geranno gave her a sharp glare."Ok, first, My name is Geranno. Second, They can't."

"So sorry. Fix your own cursed walls," Senka said as she left for another part of the ship.

Geranno just shook his head. He then pulled out his laptop and started typing on it.

Eclipse left the table he was at and sat next to Sierra, who was at the far side of the room, glumly picking at her food.

"Sorry you haven't gotten to do much so far," He said.

Sierra gave him a quizzical look and replied, "I'm not going to sit here hoping someone gets maimed. I'm here IN CASE that happens. What about you? You got a chance to apply your knowledge and completely blew it."

He let out a small sigh and said, "You are completely right. I lied, I spend hours studying for that exact situation alone, my nerves just got the better of me. I should have told them something useful. I have read the books 'Fight Scene', 'Space Battle', 'Guide To Defending A Spaceship', and 'Grim Situations', just a few weeks before boarding for the occasion. And oh my great stars, 'Grim Situations' was one of the best I've ever read. There was even a situation on encountering something that could be an inanimate object, and how to make sure that it is or isn't."

Sierra rolled her eyes and continued to pick at her food as he continued to ramble on and on about the various books he'd read before.

"Were going to dock at this nearby spaceport and see if we can't get some supplies." Said the captain over the intercom. "And someone to fix our ship up a bit."

Geranno sighed and closed the laptop. He Took the top off, and it turned into a holopad. 

The ship shuddered a bit as they came near. The captain Spoke again. "I'm gonna turn off the gravity rig for a moment, i need to recalibrate it to match the Spaceport's." there was a slight feeling of weightlessness all over the ship, but everyone soon had their feet on the ground again.

They landed in another hangar. This time, it was considerably smaller. "Alright, i'm gonna let the mechanics work the ship. They are required to fix IPK ships for no cost." Everyone soon stepped off the ship. The captain was first.

"Ain't you a cutie." Jed turned to the head mechanic, who had addressed him. 

She was covered in oil and soot, and all other sorts of grime. In one hand was a blowtorch, and the other had a sort of wrench. She had black hair, which was covered up by a loose hat.

"What's The damage, Captain?" She asked.

"We've been hit on the starboard engine, Were Missing a chunk out of one of the doors, and theres a hole in one of the walls of the airlock." He said. "Any other problems are ones i don't know of."

The mechanic nodded. "Alright, crew. Lets fix it up!" She led the group of mechanics behind her onto the ship.

"Havin' fun, cutie?" Senka mocked as she caught up with him.

The captain rolled his eyes at this.

Eclipse tried to hide his grin as he walked by with Dewblade and Gluss. Sierra tried to hide behind Geranno as other people passed by.

The captain led them down a few halls and into a Large market area, bustling with people.

"Welcome to the Merchant's Square" He said. "We can split up, but meet back here at about 8'oclock."

Merc walked past them and slid down a railing into the crowd.

As the captain walked off, surprisingly secretively, Eclipse followed at a safe distance. The captain soon vanished into a tent-like shop and Eclipse sat right outside, listening to everything.

"What're you doing?" Dewblade asked as he passed by.

Eclipse got an idea and replied, "I'm trying to find out why the captain's trying to sneak around, and what he's hiding. Do you think you could listen in with your keen hearing and tell me what's going on?"

Dewblade nodded and got closer to the tent.

"The Erasers don't work." He Heard Jed say. "They just smudge."

"What do you expect?" Said a different voice. "The new technology doesn't Work with the old. We ran out of

oil to make erasers a few thousand years ago."

There was a moment of silence before jed spoke up again. "we ran out of trees before then, and you still have paper."

Dewblade had heard enough. "They are talking about paper and erasers."

Eclipse's eyebrows knitted in confusion, "But why? You and I both know that the captain is completely serious about almost everything, as far as we've seen, so wouldn't be talking to someone about something he wasn't interested in. And if he had the money to spare on paper, wouldn't he have better weapons for the ship, or be able to hire a mechanic?" 

Dewblade shrugged. He heard footsteps as the captain started walking from the tent.

Dewblade pushed Eclipse out of the way and the human took off running, then Jed turned to see the Minashtan by the tent.

As they discussed what had occured, the other crew members were off on other errands. Gluss was gathering food, Mr. Merc was having the space equivalent of a bar fight, Senka was browsing a weapons store, And Sierra and Geranno were just walking around.

Geranno looked at his holopad, his features putting on a quizzical look. "The encryption of this station's security is the highest i've Seen. They made their own file types, and have lots of different Security codes."

Sierra just looked at him, looking a bit confused at what he just said. 

"They also have places where you can buy things," Sierra suggested.

"Come on, let's go to that shop over there," Sierra said as she pointed to a stand various electronic things

she couldn't name, in an attempt to meet somewhere in the middle with their interests.

"Cylon decoders?" asked Geranno, looking up from his holopad. "You know i speak Cylon, right?"

"Maybe they have Minashtan decoders, so we can know when Sierra's insulting us in her native language," Sierra joked.

Geranno laughed a little. "I'd hope its not anything too bad."

"Well, I do remember sometime, Senka called Dewblade a...Shanaron, I think it was," Sierra said.

"Yeah, i don't know what that meant." Geranno glanced at the time on his holopad. "Its 7:55. We might want to start heading back to the ship. its in hangar... 45-L, i belive."

"I'm a nurse, not a magician," Was her only reply.

"Obviously, otherwise we'd be there already." Geranno said, retracting the holopad and putting it in his pocket. "Lets go."

When they got there, The ship was all fixed up and ready to fly.

Jed was the first one in. "Heya, Hottie." Said the mechanic. She flipped up her welding mask To address him face to face. "Everythings fixed. And we installed new door controls. You can open and close any of the doors on the ship from the cockpit."

The rest of the crew started coming in as jed was walking out of the mess hall.

"By the way, mind if i ask you a favor?" Asked the mechanic. 

Jed turned to her. "Huh?"

"Can i get a ride over to Station Beta-5? I'm needed over there in a day or less." Said the mechanic.

"Um, sure, but i don't have any place to put you." Said jed.

"Thats awright, I'll sleep on the floor." she replied. "Let me pack up my things and i'll be back in a little while." She slipped through the crowd that just entered.

"Someone's got a lover." Said merc in a sing-song voice.

Jed rolled his eyes and started walking back to the cockpit.