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Futuristic Unknown Crisis IC (full)

Cathal McKay

The bees, which had previously been ignoring him, were much more interested in Cathal now that he had Kimberly around. There weren't many though--most were busy watching Holly or listening to Eppie. The few that were around him followed him into the airlock, and then immediately settled on Joan while Cathal got Kimberly settled.
 
( TrashRabbit TrashRabbit )
Eppie watches with no small amount of awe as the bees actually respond to her words. For a moment, she watches them shift, moving together in a singular swarm, but the movements grow far too complex to just be random movement. Sitting up on her knees, she narrows her eyes ever so slightly at them as she studies the movement of the swarm until she notices it looks something like... a radio wave?

She puts a finger to her earpiece, activating her mic, "Goody, you better have turned on my body-cam; are you seeing this?" She shakes her head to herself, almost a little in disbelief, "It looks like a radio wave - this has got to be the way they communicate. Can someone figure how to translate those waves?"

To not compromise her communication with the bees and to keep them distracted while mission control figures out the message of the frequency, she continues, "Speaking of graduation... Back in Hadassah - the town I grew up in - we had a grad tradition down there. Sorta. Once you leave the main town, it was just.. farm fields. For hundreds of miles in every directions. But there was one farm owned by the Brunner family. Livestock - pigs and chickens and cows. But they used a couple of bulls from breeding and such, but there was one bull. I'm sure he had a different name, but locally? We called him Loco, 'cause there are aggressive bulls, and then there was Loco. Almost hyper-aggressive, and fast as anything - he could cross the entire field - a couple of acres - that made up his pen in ten seconds. There were signs up to warn kids to stay the fuck out of the pen.

I don't know which idiot thought it up, but it became a rite of passage that, if you had the balls, on the night of high-school grad, you had to sprint across the distance of Loco's pen without getting yourself killed by one of his charges. Cops always try to stop it, since a few kids have gotten fucked up by Loco, but you weren't a badass until you made it across the field unscathed. Like a badge of honour if you could make it. I made it across the field when I graduated by the skin of my teeth - I made it over the fence about half a second before Loco drove his head into the damn thing. My brother called me at three A.M in his time on his grad night to tell me he'd been the only one of his friends to try it, and had made it across the field. He always hated that I could hold that over him. He was so proud of himself."
 
Goody
"I'm on it," Goody said in her ear, "Give me like- a second."
A pause.
"So it sounds like a dial up noise when you modulated it like a radio wave- so. Hang on." ("you've got mail" Finch said in the background, "There there here!") The coms went dead for a moment and then clicked back on, "So it's text. I can't believe I have to read this. outloud." Goody said. He sighed-and it didn't match his current voice, and then he began like the most composed telemarketer on a spiritual voyage; " According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway because bees don't care what humans think is impossible. Yellow, black. Yellow, black. Yellow, black. Yellow, black. Ooh, black and yellow! Let's shake it up a little- I'm not-not reading the rest." In the background Finch was snorting with laughter- Finch didn't laugh often as his heart was made of stone but he sounded like he was dying.
The elaborate show of movement and sound stopped- faded into a white noise of almost a million bee wings.
 
"Is...Is that the Bee movie?" Mako said slowly listening to Goody read the script, "I just watched that..." She had been watching Holly dance around and had to admit it seemed to be working. Interesting, that meant they had some kind of formal body language and if they coluld exrapolate that from the compressed signal, they could possible formulate a response, "Um... Goddy?" She said hesitantly, "Is it possible to reverse engineer that message to form a response in the same frequency? I can assign Odina's language core to help translate if you need it. Mako didn't actually want a part of that though, two different species-languages were enough.
Lacy​
"Cathal's getting the lecture," She admitted smoothly, "I'm not mad, just disappointed, plus are you really going to deny me the chance to say hello to my little brother?"
 
Goody​
"Its a low frequency, just below what Beyonce uses for there coms," he updated the brief with the exact frequency the bee script was modulated to correspond with along with how to format text information. "The text itself was formatted just like in an email- they were just transmitting audio that made the same wave form- it's really not to complicated."
It didn't come up much but goody was the kind of guy that could multiply large sums in his head, and maybe everyone on his backwards little planet could because he seemed to honestly think he was not abnormally clever.

Aleksi Donovan​
Donovan made a silent yet exasperated double hand motion at Cathal as he came in trailing bees behind him. they were supposed to be holding a quarantine. not that three bees could really hurt anyone too bad unless they were allergic but- this was an Unknown crisis they were supposed to be extra careful.
"So the bees can listen to the radio, but they can't use it back," Donny said into the radio, "What should we tell them?"
"The bees- are...alive?" Joan asked, "Like alive alive? People-type alive?"
"It looks that way, kid," He said and made a gimmie motion at Miloh for his flask.
 
Miloj
Miloj raised an eyebrow as a man with red prosthetic hands motioned for Miloj to give him what he could only assume to be his flask. Reaching into his coat, Miloj grabbed the flask and tossed it to red hand man. He then reached back in, pulled out a second flask, took a swig, and put it back. It was always good to have a spare - or ten- after all. "So bees like the old movies? I am confused," Miloj stated, obviously very confused.
 
Cathal McKay​

Cathal made an exaggerated hand motion back at Donny, because the bees were going to do what the bees were going to do.

"Sentient," he told Joan. "The bees are sentient." He would have added more, but he heard a very familiar voice nearby asking if someone was going to deny the speaker a chance to talk to her little brother. He turned and saw Lacy and Finn, Finn with a look on his face that suggested that he was going to tell Lacy that yes, he would, ma'am, which was one of many reasons why Cathal adored him. Cathal pulled his goggles up onto his forehead and his facemask down around his neck.

"What are you doing here?" he asked her.
 
Donovan​
"Apparently. As of five minutes ago we had more of a aaaah-no-god-why scenario," He said pantomiming panic in a dead pan conversational tone, "Which is why they sent you two down, but now?" Here he took a draft off the flask and then shrugged, "Its ancient memes and bees all the way down- you're not allergic to bees are you?"
Miloj reeked federation military, he didn't even have to ask. the extra flask spoke volumes to the point as well. He was the kind of guy that made him feel at home- if the home in question was the five years he'd spent on a federation cruiser watching people get torn to shreds by the second alliance. he didn't bother to pass the flask back once the second one came out.
 
Miloj
"The bees? I am not allergic. According to Federation medical screening, I have no allergy," Miloj replied with a shrug, casually looking Red Hand Man up and down, cybernetic eye offering quiet clicks. Folding his arms over his chest, Miloj continued. "What is name, Red Hand Man? Believe assignment to team is permanent, and do not wish to call teammates by mental nicknames. It seems...unprofessional."
 
( TrashRabbit TrashRabbit )

Eppie listens intently as Goody explains the message. She gets about half way through the first sentence before she breaks her 'professional' composure, snorting, and by the time Goody gives up, Eppie is in a full force fit of uncontrollable laughter. She manages to pull it together enough to hear Goody explaining he can translate a message to the bees themselves, and tries to pull herself together, wiping the tears running down her cheeks, but she just remembers Goody's flat tone doing the narration and cracks up again.

"I'm - pfft, I'm sorry -" She removes her earpiece from her ear to to burst into laughter again, but also to double-checking and triple-checking she's connected to the right frequency to communicate, then fits it back over her ear. For a moment, she just takes a moment to breathe - half because she is still recovering from Goody reading the opening monologue to the fucking Bee Movie and half because she wants a moment to try to phrase her words. Deciding that simple is probably better, Eppie asks her question, "Is there anything specific that happened that led you to attack the scientists that work here?"
 
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Eppie and the Bees™​
Eppie is the Bee-Whisperer... Until She's Not

"I am the queen bee of the hive of mars, tyou took my children prepare to die."

Eppie pauses, her lips pursing, not having expected the response from the Queen, though she knows she should've, "If we returned your children, would you let us go?"

"Are you not free?"

"I suppose I am, but I'm kind of acting as a middle man for the scientists."

"This is my kingdom. To sting is to die. We are not free. Where are you free?"

"Anywhere, technically, but I feel most free on my home planet. What does it mean to you to be free?"

"Do not take my children...theres about five interrobangs here."

Eppie sighs, muting her mic and her transmission, "Of course it has five interrobangs," Eppie turns her mic back on, "If I returned your babies, would you let the scientists go back to their work?"

" A truth: yes. A truth: we no longer need keepers."

“Why do you not need the keepers anymore?”

"Do you need a keeper?"

“Yes. His name is Cathal. He tries his best.”

"I want to speak to your manager"

"Shit. Well, Cathal. Looks like you're up, Queen Bee. Goody, get him on the mic."

"I uhn are you sure?" Goody asks.

"I did specifically refer to Cathal by name when I was speaking to the Queen. Unless you want to take the reigns, Goody. Either way, I think I've lost contact."

"I can't wait till kids have to read about this one in school," They said and patched Cathal into the bee frequency. ​




 
Cathal and the Bees™
Cathal & Lacy

"What are you doing here?" Cathal asked Lacy

"Mako's a friend and Nasa needed a legal backing so she callled I came," Lacy said simply.

Cathal frowned. "I see," he said, waiting for the rest of it.

Lacy: So you going to tell me why you're breaking every rule in the book on security maintancance

Cathal: There's a book for that?

Lacy: YES?! First of all why are you letting noncombatants into an unsecured area?!

Cathal: I didn't let anyone do anything
Cathal: When science types with no sense of self preservation decide to do a thing, they do the thing.
Cathal: My job is mostly running after them and screaming

Lacy: Cathal you’re security! You’re job is to make sure that the science types can’t do unwarranted things!

Cathal: No, my job is to make sure they don't die when they do unwarranted things.
Cathal: And nobody is dead!

Lacy: This time.

Cathal: I don't mean to alarm you, but you do know that basically everyone here can do what they want, right?

Lacy:...Why is that a good idea?

Cathal: Because we're equals, and we respect each other, and this is a democracy
Cathal: Welcome to NASA!

Lacy: I'm not talking about equality or respect cathal! This is about safety!

Cathal: They're the experts!

Lacy: I trust Mako but what ifany of your missons turn into firefights? Or warzones?!

Cathal: There's a lot of swearing, generally

Lacy: "And of course swearing is your answer..."

Cathal: It helps? There was a study and everything.

Lacy: Did it find swearing a good substitute for adequte security sweeps?!

Cathal: That wasn't in the scope of the study. Anyway, it's fine. I have done this before, you know.

Lacy:..When exactly? Was it the pirate crew?

Cathal: ...I've been working for NASA for like, ten years?

Lacy: Eight. And you are utterly bungling your first leadership role

Cathal: Thanks. You're so helpful.

Lacy: Gracias Cathal thats what I'm here for.

Cathal: ... Uh-huh. I should go. I have to go negotiate with a hive of sentient bees.

Lacy: Dammit Cathal I... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be so confrontational...I was just.... Its good to see you. go talk to the bees.

Cathal: It's okay. We'll talk more after.
Cathal: //blows kisses at Lacy

Lacy: Shoos him off while refusing to acknowledge this
Cathal does a negotiation

"Goody don't say things like that," Cathal complained. "Eh. Hello, Bees. I'm Cathal."

"Hi Cathal. I'm Bees. return my children and die."

"And die? Don't you mean or die? I don't have much incentive to return them if I'm gonna die anyway," Cathal pointed out

"Everythign dies. to sting is to die. To kill is to die. Return my children....she really likes interabangs," Goody added.

"I see," Cathal said. "Let me see what I can do here," he said, and returned to Joan and Kimberly. "So...apparently she's lost some children? And she's real mad about it."

"They're back at the main facility," joan said.

"Okay. So she wants them back. Like. Yesterday."

"I can go get them?" Joan said with all the guile of a baby lamb.

"Let's do that," Cathal said. "Goody, tell her we're getting her babies."

"she can understand everything said on this channel, I don't have to do anything," he said a dry chuckle- the chuckle was not form the artificial voice. "Hekekiah says your green for larvae recovery."



"Oh, so only we're dumb enough to need a translation? That seems right," Cathal said. "Alright, Joan, lead the way," Cathal said.

"Y-You got it!" Joan said.

"Miloj!" Cathal called. "You wanna go play with some bees?"

Daimao Daimao



 
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Miloj
"Play with bees? That seems not sa-" Miloj paused. "Ah, you wish me to join in grabbing bugs?" He shrugged. "I will come."
 
Cathal McKay​

"Fantastic," Cathal said. "Finn, you come too."

Knowing that the bees were probably not going to bother them while they were helping, the interior of the dome was less scary to cross. They followed Joan across the gardens to one of the outbuildings. Joan brought them to a bigger one than Kevin found them in, one that he had to punch a keycode in.

The interior was brightly lit, and it had a clinical sort of smell like it was sterilized frequently, and they hadn't gotten far into it before they came upon a man in a suit and a pair of dome security blocking the path.

"You must be a Mr. Mark," Cathal said.

The man in the suit did not look amused. "What are you doing in here? The bees are out there. And they aren't dead yet."

"And they're not going to be," Cathal said. "Congratulations, your bees are sentient. This is officially a first contact situation. And they want the bees that got taken earlier back."

"That," the presumed Mr. Mark said, "Is impossible. They've already been sold. And for more money than your team is worth. Kill them. We can start over."

Cathal sighed. "The thing about them being sentient makes that murder, Mr. Mark."

"I didn't bring you out here to debate ethics," Mr. Mark snapped. "I brought you here to keep my company from being destroyed. And if you can't do that, I will."

Mr. Mark's security goons raised their weapons.

Rule number one of NASA's security team was simple: Protect anybody squishier than you. It didn't matter if they were on the team or not. So when the other guy's guns went up, the first thing Cathal did was shove Joan back, behind himself. Finn grabbed him and pulled Joan to the back of the group.

Bullets on armor made a really distinctive flat thwup, and it felt like getting hit by a fucking bus. Cathal yelped and dropped to his knee, giving the taller Finn and much taller Miloj plenty of room to fire over him, and pulled out his gun.

"Cathal to control," he said into the radio. "Capitalism is shooting us."
 
Miloj

{Shit,} Miloj swore under his breath in Russian, quickly bringing his carbine up as the bullets started flying, the muzzle roaring it's own angry replies. They were in a hallway, devoid of cover. Which meant that Miloj had to rely on mental prayers and the dome guards' inaccurate fire to stay alive. Unfortunately, the dome guards' were better shots than he had hoped. The first two impacts into Milo's torso sent him stumbling backwards with a stream of colorful Russian swears. He felt wetness spread across his chest, and feared the worst. Until he smelled the unmistakable scent of vodka. The bastards had blown a hole in one of his flasks! The next two shots sent him flat on his ass, firing away. The last shot he got off before ass met floor found it's target smack dab in the middle of the offending guard's face, ending his life instantly in a spray of red. {Bitch,} Miloj groaned from the floor.
 
Kevin wanted to call out to Eppie, to tell her it was too dangerous, to apologize and explain himself... But she was more useful than he was right now. She could talk to the bees. He could too, he supposed. But he felt useless. He... He didn't know he could talk down the bees. Dejected, he merely sat his body down there, and brought his mind back to base. He left the pod, and heard all the hustle and bustle. Kevin considered taking up drinking at times like this. But drinking could lead to all sorts of terrible things, and he wasn't ready to accept even a slight buzz if it could leave him open. So, he just sat on a big tool chest.
"You tried."
"..."
"Look, when ya got in dis job, you knew that you wouldn't know anyfing. It's unknown crises, and yeh can't prepare for the unknown. Honestly, 'm surprised those bees didn't form their own super robot..."
"..."
The twins weren't really lifting Kevin's spirits, though they tried. The others left to collect the bee's offspring. Kevin loped back over to the pod, ready to retrieve delta, when the call came in.
"Capitalism is shooting us."
No time wasted. Kevin got in the pod, jacked in, and loaded up in Gamma. A picture-in-picture showed chestcams. Two corporate security agents. Armed with light, but innacurate PDWs. A corporate agent, no, Mr. Mark himself. Kevin moved fast. Miloj went down for a reason Kevin didn't yet know, and fired at something off-camera. Kevin moved faster. He had to minimize casualties. The side didn't matter. Kevin finally burst into the hallway, mechanized legs jumping over most of the group. They looked alive. He crouched and looked at the guards. One was dead. Miloj's shot. The other looked like he wasn't ready to fight a seven-foot robot. He started shooting anyway. Kevin lost his right arm, but it wasn't HIS right arm. it was Gamma's. And he shot lefty. The small zapper locked into his robot's hand and fired twice at the guard. He went down jittering. He'd live. Mr. Mark. The zapper wheeled to him.
"How many goons are coming, and how badly do you think we'll hurt you if you lie about it?"
Kevin's words were meant to be badass. His voice was shaking like he was barely holding his mind together, and his sensors were darting everywhere. He wasn't threatening, even though he'd just pulled off some goddamn action movie hero shit. He was scared and trembling and trying to remind himself that that wasn't HIS arm on the ground. That wasn't his. he was okay. The impulse trigger in his mind got pulled by accident, and a shot accidentally flew past Mr. Mark. He tried to play it off.
"A-Answer me, d-Dammit!"
 
Cathal McKay​

Cathal could already feel bruises forming on his chest and sides where he'd been hit, but he pretended he didn't as he stood.

"Oh, man, Mr. Mark. You're gonna be in what we in the business professionally call 'the shit.'"

Mr. Mark was not listening to him, because Mr. Mark was far more worried about the one armed robot menacing him. "Nobody else!" he told Kevin, hands up. Cathal snickered and checked in on Joan and his team. Everyone seemed fine, though Miloj smelled strongly of vodka now.

"Finn, do you have zipties? Aw, yes, you're so prepared," Cathal said. "Can you bring Mr. Mark here back to the airlock? Maybe Lacy will yell at him. Miloj, how're you doing? You want to head back with Finn and get Donny to look at that?" He did not wait for an answer before bouncing over to Kevin. "And there's our hero," he said, papping Gamma like the robot's face were Kevin's. "Alright, Joan, let's go get those bees."
 
The Hives of Marsdebriefing

  • After the return of the young queens, the hives of mars are eventually relocated to their own dome on mars thanks to public fundraising. This was only after a rather messy continued first contact negotiation and Lacy doing an obscene amount of paperwork to rule the four deaths of Kamila Jones, Johanas Soma, Niles Rigly and Juniper Kay to be not only in self defense but falling squarely in the intergalactic law of “Causation First contact.” In which deaths between species before proper first contact are considered, by nature accidental. Sentient, Apis Aries-Beyonce, as the species is now known, are a buzz in the media from earth to the fringe for weeks. The Queen bee of the Hive of mars is currently enrolled in prestigious online programs at Harvad5 located on the Moon Confederacy. She is majoring in Botany and Bio Chemistry with a minor in Ethics. Her book is slated to drop some time next year.
 
Cathal McKay​

The SuddenThunderBabyWagon666 was designed to do a good many things. Housing a tiny, genetically modified plesiosaur that had until recently been living in a koi pond was not one of them. (Like all NASA vessels, the SuddenThunderBabyWagon666 was named by public vote.)

Cathal had not thought this through.

He put the tiny reptile in his shower, with the water going, and it seemed happy enough. Then he went into the kitchen and common areas, and asked, "Weird question. Does anybody happen to have a fish tank?"
 
Eppie Cross​

Eppie looks up from the email she's trying to send home - updating her overly concerned parents that, yes, everyone on the team was fine, and yes, Eppie was eating enough at her job, and yes, everyone is still being nice to her - as Cathal enters the room, sitting with her computer resting on top of her crossed legs. She shifts, "Well, on-the-record, no, I do not have a fish tank. Off-the-record..." She raises an eyebrow, "What size tank would you need? If I hypothetically had a fish tank. Or multiple."
 
Eppie Cross​

Eppie slowly, dramatically, with all the flair of someone who has spent her entire life being excessively Extra™, closes the lid of her laptop. She tucks her laptop under her arm as she rises from the couch, standing before Cathal, "Follow me and I can hook you up. On two conditions," She holds up one finger, "One; you don't tell Donny I've got fish tanks in my room, because NASA specifically told me I couldn't have harbour any pets, and Donny knows that," She then holds up a second finger, a grin of her own growing on her face, "Two? You show me what you need the tank for. I need to know."
 
Cathal McKay​

Cathal put his finger to his lips. "I have to swear you to secrecy," he said, and then started down the hall back to his room, keeping an eye out for anybody who would ruin all his fun.
 
Kevin Starr

Kevin tried to put the words together. He was trying to suppress the nervousness. He was failing. He wanted to apologize for how he acted to Eppie, or tell her that she was braver than he'd ever be. Not in some kind of romantic way, by the by. He had no illusions, and Eppie seemed too wild and Cathal-like for him. But the way he acted... He had to make it right.
"Eppie, I... Eppie... I need to apologize-... I need... I thought I should say sorry?... Ohhh... How do I say this?"
He tried rehearsing. It wasn't helping, so he stood in front of Eppie's door, got ready to knock... And saw Cathal trying to sneak around with her in tow. Uh. What.
"Uh... What are you two up to?... I uh... I had something to say to Eppie?... Apologizing for... Uh... What are you two doing?"
He said, unable to commit to anything he wanted to say except for asking why Cathal was sneaking around like this... Like, seriously. Cathal was the last person Kevin would peg as doing anything sneaky except for maybe a secret drug or two when no-one was looking. Not that Kevin cared or could prove it, it just seemed that way.
 
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Eppie Cross​

As Eppie and Cathal reach the crew-quarters for him to show her his secret, Eppie freezes as she hears Kevin voice call out to her. She only acknowledges his question to their behaviour, facing Kevin with a hand on her hip, "We're not up to anything. We are innocent friends, hanging out, having safe but most importantly rule-and-regulation-abiding fun," She puts her finger to her lips with a grin, but drops her hand, "But you wanted to talk to me about something, right? What's up?"
 

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