Though she was still reeling from the revelation that she'd spent more than 80 years in suspended animation as a captive of the baithaizans, Elytra's appetite came roaring back to life once she smelled whatever it was that Rhea was cooking up in the ship's partially dismantled mess hall.
"This was a military vessel before we liberated it, and thus is lacking in regards to comfort." Pryseia had explained, "We are still in the process of making it our own."
Introductions had come next, while the tantalizing smell of foreign spices filled the half disassembled space ("Don't worry," Rhea had assured, "Everything I'm using is compatible with your biology. Trust me, I'm a doctor!").
"Nevara Yrebreta kon’Terte vel-Ahllan." The pilot had given her with a formal bow. A woman of few words, once the introduction was out of the way, she went off to help Rhea with preparing the meal. She was just as tall as Rhea, but with a much slimmer build. She was nearly half the width of Elytra herself.
Next was the ship's engineer, the one responsible for getting their engine ready for the jump to subspace. "Malakh’kharismaewer, though that's a bit difficult for most aliens, so Malakh is acceptable." She said by way of introduction. Like Rhea, she was similar to Pryseia in body shape, tail included, though she was hornless. Of the parts of her peaking out from the protective overalls she was wearing, Elytra could see that Malakh was covered in short, white streaked orange fur, with additional stripes of red throughout, the same colour as the short mane she had. She also had a pair of triangular, highly mobile ears, which pinned backwards as her eyes darted between Elytra and Pryseia.
Or rather, what they were wearing.
"The seamlessness is a technical marvel, I'll give them that," she said as she motioned to the white uniforms the two of them still had on, "But those are the most hideous outfits I've ever had the misfortune of being subjected to!"
"There were days I did contemplate stepping onto the field in the nude." Pryseia admitted.
"Well, you'll be happy to know this ship was outfitted with an auto-tailor," Malakh had then directed at Elytra, "If it doesn't have any koleopteran fashion in there, we can pop out of subspace and link up to the network to download some."
Clothing was the last thing on Elytra's mind at the moment, but she was grateful for the thought. Honestly, she was just grateful to be around anyone who treated her like a person, after her time in baithaizan custody.
The last member of the crew ended up being something Elytra had no experience with: a fully sentient AI.
"The kernel of my inception was an off-the-shelf copy of a Virtual Intelligence - Autonomous Tactics, Reconnaissance, Infiltration, and eXtraction program, but since I've come into my own, I have decided to go by Viatrix. A human name for a human-created program seemed fitting." Said the voice Elytra had first heard in the hangar bay. Technically within the entirety of the ship's digital infrastructure, Viatrix was manifesting herself in the mess hall as a holographic image that resembled a flower, gently undulating through rainbow hues.
"That basically makes us cousins." Rhea had said fondly as she and Nevara brought plates over to those gathered at the one table that hadn't been disassembled, and Elytra was shocked to feel the sincerity of that statement shining as brightly as sunlight through leaves.
With actual, proper food before her, some of the worry that had been plaguing Elytra faded away. And by the time she and the others finished the meal, she felt a little more in control of her faculties.
"Thus with that put to rest," Pryseia had said once the dishes were all cleared away, "It's time for details to be filled in. You want to know why I insisted on having you escape alongside me?"
Leaning forward in her seat, Elytra could only nod.
Pryseia sat back in her chair, all the casual confidence Elytra had seen from her in the baithaizan arena. "The short answer is Storlayacas. Those mechs, Hyttan make, like an Odazaen while at the same time very much not. The ease with which you commanded that machine? An Odazaen obeys anyone just as readily. But these Storlayacas have particular demands when it comes to who they relinquish control over to, and that one would only cede control to you."
"Me?!" Elytra repeated, "Why?"
Malakh shrugged. "Not something we've been able to figure out with what we've been able to actually access of the Storlayacas' systems. Hyttan programming is densely complex, to the point where none of the modern races have been able to crack it. And there are whole universities dedicate to nothing but that goal! Some bits of code have been teased out over the years, and rudimentary backwards engineering has been managed thusly. In fact, Viatrix herself was born through such tinkering."
"An inadvertent consequence of trying to track the signal of other Storlayacas units," the AI in question said, "But I take some comfort in that. After all, accidental pregnancies are not uncommon among organics who engage in sexual activities for pleasure as well as for procreation."
"That- why even track others!?" Elytra asked, even more confused.
Pryseia leaned forward towards her, asking, "Can't you feel it? A strange pull ever since you first looked through your Storlayacas' eyes? Did you not hear the calling of its name?"
"Lianshae…" came unbidden from Elytra's mouth. The thrum of power she felt at even voicing the word she had heard aloud struck her with the same sense of profundity again. She remembered the need to find Pryseia, the mech responding with as much urgency as she felt coursing through her veins. That connection, that pull, she hadn't given it more thought, because for koleopterans, empathic bonds like that were commonplace.
But now that she was giving it proper attention, feeling the borders of her connection to Pryseia, Elytra realized that it didn't feel like a bond between friends. It felt more like the bond she'd shared with her siblings.
And she was startled to realize she felt that same connection to the other women in the room too, organic and digital alike.
"Somehow we all seem to be connected to these things," Nevara said quietly, "And none of us know why."
Elytra sat back in her chair, at a loss for words. How was she supposed to process the fact that a piece of ancient alien technology, had what? Chosen her? She could freely admit to herself that she wasn't the most well-versed in anything Hyttan related, but she'd never heard of anything like this before.
"The Storlayacas we have, Zaanlaa, it only accepted Pryseia as its pilot," Rhea went on, "But it did something to the rest of us when we sat in its cockpit. Like it recognized us as the pilots of others like it? And it instilled that compulsion in all of us, to find its… siblings, for lack of a better word."
"And before you ask, it doesn't seem to give this compulsion to just anyone who sits in its seat," Malakh cut in, clearly seeing the question in Elytra's eyes, "There was a massive tryout to find a pilot for that thing, and none of the others who tried were looped into this connection."
Elytra glanced between the aliens gathered around her. Concern and confusion were emotions she could feel leeching off of them all over this whole situation, but there wasn't even the smallest speck of subterfuge anywhere to be felt.
"I have a feeling that this requires a more in-depth explanation." She said after a moment.
"A bit more context would no doubt be beneficial," Pryseia agreed, gently tapping Nevara with the back of her hand, "Perhaps you could provide, as this whole situation did begin with you?"
Nevara gave vent to a soundless laugh, but she nodded. Turning to Elytra, she said, "It all began with an excavation."