"I gather the others didn't stuck around?" Elytra asked, glancing at the open entrance of the half disassembled mess hall despite knowing that no one else was about to walk through the door.
"With their freedom restored, the others were keen to return to the homes long lost to them," Pryseia confirmed, "As for us, we had something that yet bound us to the stars."
"Storlayacas," Elytra breathed, looking at Rhea and Nevara, "You took a turn in the cockpit."
Nevara just nodded, but Rhea crossed her arms thoughtfully, looking to Elytra, "An experience I'm not going to be forgetting any time soon. This bond, does it feel similar to your own empathic abilities?"
That caught Elytra slightly off guard. "Yes, close enough that I didn't notice it until it was pointed out. How did you know?"
"Medical records of the types of psychic energies given off by the assorted races of the galaxy," Rhea explained with a shrug, "It wasn't a 1-to-1 match, but the readings I got off that thing were similar enough to koleopteran wavelengths that I felt save assuming. Very different readings in comparison to zymeth telepathy or usgaisjan telekinesis. Whatever's in those mechs, they have psionic capabilities."
"Do the Odazaen have them, or is this something unique to the Storlayacas?" Elytra couldn't help but ask.
"No, this is a Storlayacas special," Malakh said, "Both types of mech are controlled via neural linking - rather than physical controls, you're moving the machine with your mind as if it was your own body - but Odazaen don't have this deep a psychic link with their pilots."
"But why?"
Pryseia gave vent to a little laugh that made it clear she had the exact same question. "Would that we could ask the Hyttan themselves, but what they've left behind has thus far been unwilling to give up their secrets."
"Once we were all linked up, feeling the same compulsion, we did some poking around in whatever systems we could access in Zaanlaa to try and find out more," Malakh told her, "It wasn't very fruitful in the information department, but it did result in the creation of Viatrix."
"She's Hyttan tech?" Burst out of Elytra before she could stop the words, her gaze sharply cutting to the display emitting Viatrix's floral avatar.
"Not precisely," the AI replied, sounding amused, "If I were to use biology as an analogy, I'm a genetic descendant of the Hyttan, but not Hyttan myself."
Psychic machines, an artificial intelligence descended from potentially the most technologically advanced race in the galaxy, to say nothing of the tale of escape she'd just been told, all of it had Elytra's mind reeling. Despite this, she had to fight back the yawn that was trying to creep up her jaw, the excitement of the day catching up with her.
Rhea caught it, however, and she stood from the table, pointing at Elytra and Pryseia both.
"We can get into more detail about all this business with the Storlayacas later, but for now I want you two in bed. It could have been worse, but the regiment the baithaizans had you both on wasn't great for your health."
Malakh stood as well, nodding for Elytra to follow her, and when she stood to follow the deorviran, exhaustion struck her like a wave so powerfully that she was momentarily light headed.
Nevara caught her by the elbow, responding to her thanks with a nod before she left the room without another word.
Elytra followed after Malakh after that, getting a better look at the interior of the ship as they went.
The halls were narrow, allowing maybe two people to walk abreast, all gunmetal panels and utilitarian design. After the stark white nothing of the baithaizan facility she'd spent the past however many weeks in, even the military grade lack of frivolity of a Thalatte ship was a welcome change.
One thing that was certainly not military regulation was the half-constructed look of the place. Panels removed and propped up against a wall, or just gone entirely. Exposed beams in the ceiling and open access ports on the ground that they had to skirt around, wires hanging from places like bundles of moss.
"Yeah, sorry about the mess," Malakh said as they turned a corner and entered a space that looked like some kind of workshop, "It's a little hard to do a retrofit in a timely manner with little in the way of crew or supplies."
"Did the Thalatte leave more than monitoring devices?" Elytra asked.
That got a disbelieving little laugh out of Malakh. "Shockingly no. The Pelekys is bare bones as far as Thalatte vessels go. Usually they have a problem with being over-designed - it happens when the bulk of your engineering team is made up of people who got to where they are because of who they knew, not because of their actual technical skills. If I had to guess, it was a very small team that came up with the design, and they kept tight control over everything that went into the building of this ship. This means whatever time we would have had to waste getting systems streamlined means we can instead spend on installing after-market upgrades to really make this ship our own."
Elytra frowned as she looked over at the other woman, who was currently starting up some type of machine that she couldn't even begin to guess the purpose for. "Why go through the effort? You're free now, why not return to your homes?"
Malakh gave vent to another little laugh, her entire tail violently flicking once. "We were under Thalatte control for decades. The restrictions around zoastasis aside, any homes we may have had left have moved on without us."
"I'm sorry."
The smile Malakh shot her way when she turned around was small but sincere. "A slight that doesn't require forgiveness. Nostalgia is a painting in a gallery - nice to look at from time to time, but unwieldy to carry. I came to terms with living in the present a long time ago. But in the vein of living in the present, what kind of bedding do you want? This thing can have it printed and delivered to your room in minutes."
Malakh hadn't been lying, as less than an hour later, Elytra was comfortably settled in one of the empty officers rooms (not a trace of blood in sight, thankfully), a mattress of perfect density beneath her, with enough cushions and blankets to actually make sleep comfortable. After having spent so much time sleeping on the bare slab that the baithaizans gave her for a bed, the absolutely reasonable amount of bedding Malakh had fabricated for her felt like the epitome of luxury.
The deorviran had also shown her how to use the auto-tailor, so now she had a handful of outfits to mix and match from, infinitely more stylish and colourful than the odd white clothing the baithaizans had provided ("I want to dissect that fabric when you're done with it," Malakh had said, eyeing up her seamless clothing, "See how they managed to pull off self-sealing material like that."), and Elytra was more than happy to donate the offending articles to the pursuit of scientific discovery. It would at least be more useful than the incineration she wanted to treat the clothing to, at the very least.
As for the room she'd been given, it had its own temperature control, on top of adjustable lighting, so she'd set it to be slightly colder than she normally liked it, dimming and tinting the lights until it was as close to a moonlit night back home as she could make it. Nestled comfortably deep within her warn blankets, she fell into proper, restful sleep quicker than she would have guessed, and her dreams were filled with scenarios of escape, as if to try and cement the fact that she was free from captivity.
When Elytra awoke, nearly a full day later, she felt as far from well rested as she ever had in her life. If anything, she felt hungover, yet somehow worse.
She'd hoped, after quite literally stumbling out of bed and staggering into the en suite bathroom (mercifully, unlike Baithaizan design, Thalatte bathrooms had a toilet that was separate from its shower), that she'd feel better after moving around for a bit, but all her ablutions did were make her feel clean.
Fear that there was something wrong with her had her carefully making her way to to the medbay, one hand against the wall with how lightheaded she felt.
When Elytra entered the room, it was to the unexpected sound of music. Something upbeat and alien, and from where she was kneeling before an open panel, tools in hand, Rhea was enthusiastically singing along.
She stopped the instant she realized that another person was in the room with her, standing sharply to attention while her expression snapped into one of professional neutrality. Clearly Thalatte training ingrained to the point of instinct, because her posture immediately relaxed, and she shot Elytra an embarrassed grin.
"Glad to see you up and about," Rhea said, placing her tools aside and waving a hand to lower the volume of her music enough to easily talk over it, "I didn't want to wake you because your body clearly needed the rest."
"I don't know that it helped," Elytra admitted, shocking herself with how rough her voice sounded, "I feel worse than when I went to bed."
Rhea motioned her over to one of the healing slabs that had mended Pryseia's injuries the day before, and Elytra hopped up to sit on it while Rhea left for the room at the back of the medbay, emerging a moment later with a data pad in hand, and her Longan Unit on the side of her face.
"The appetite suppressants they were feeding you, on top of suppressing your appetite," Rhea explained as lights blinked to life across her Unit as she scanned Elytra, "Were also masking what the lack of proper nutrition was doing to your body. You've technically been in this state for a while, only you've been prevented from feeling it."
"Joy compounds." Was Elytra's sarcastic reply at that little revelation.
Rhea laughed at that. "Come on, it'd almost dinner time as is, and you need the food. I can even make you a fun flavoured supplement smoothie!"
The others were in the mess hall when Elytra and Rhea arrived, Nevara and Malakh working away in the kitchen area while Pryseia loudly complained from her seat, her face pressed against the table.
"It doesn't require overmuch energy to take a knife to vegetables!"
"There's two of us already in here, we don't need a third!" Malakh called over her shoulder without looking back.
When Pryseia heard them enter, she shifted enough to glare at Rhea, saying, "I won't even attempt to seek permission from you to assist with preparations. You're as likely to banish me from the room altogether!"
She looked about as bad as Elytra felt.
"No, honey, I want you here so we can get some real food into you." The human said as she guided Elytra into a seat next to Pryseia, while she herself went to the kitchen area, "You have a flavour preference for your smoothie?"
"Grace me with something unexpected." Pryseia said as she sat back, and back again still until she was halfway slid out of her chair.
"How about you, Elytra?" Rhea asked.
"Aoiberry, if you have it."
Rhea then busied herself with a device off to the side of the kitchen, glancing at the data pad she carried as she punched things into the screen before her. A few minutes later she joined the two of them at the table, placing clear glasses containing thick beverages in front of them. Pryseia's was a delicate green, while Elytra's was palest blue.
The floral taste of aoiberries filled Elytra's mouth at the first sip, achingly reminding her of her childhood. The flavour did wonders at masking the clearly medicinal aspect of the smoothie.
The first sip of her own beverage had Pryseia recoiling as if she'd been slapped, and she looked far more alert than she had before.
"I don't believe I've the knowledge of what could be flavouring this concoction." She said after a moment.
"It's derived from a plant on my world known as mint," Rhea explained, her eyes twinkling with mirth as she watched Pryseia's reaction, "It's traditionally used in desserts, as the sharp taste pairs well with sugar."
"What does it taste like?" Elytra asked.
"Strident." Was Pryseia's reply as she passed her glass over. Elytra did the same with her own, pleased to see that other races shared the same practise.
Elytra understood Pryseia's reaction once she got a taste of her drink. Strident indeed, a sharp, herbal flavour that somehow managed, regardless of temperature, to taste cold.
"That… is unique." Elytra said after a moment, "I don't dislike it."
"And this was aoiberry, you said?" Pryseia asked as they swapped drinks back, "Is it used in the flavouring of teas?"
"Yeah, probably the most common tea flavour where I grew up. Though, to be fair, it was a common flavouring for a lot of things back home. They were endemic on my world."
Curiosity over the flavours had Rhea back at the beverage dispensing device, making tasters to go around ("Hey, she needs the nutrients in that!" She'd jokingly snapped at Nevara as the other woman had reached for the smoothie Pryseia offered to her, playfully slapping her hand away). Aoiberry was the overall favourite, while mint's strong taste proved to be divisive. Pryseia and Rhea were fans, while Nevara and herself could accept it in sparing use, and Malakh couldn't get close enough to smell it, let alone taste it.
"Oh I don't want any of that at all!" She'd recoiled when Rhea held out a small cup of mint tea to her, ears pressed back and teeth barred.
Rhea smirked as she downed the entire drink without even flinching, saying, "I'll be sure to keep it out of the bedroom, then."
Elytra must have looked confused upon catching the strange innuendo laced in the human's words, because as Nevara set a plate of food down in front of her, she motioned towards Rhea, Malakh, and Pryseia and said, "Their races engage in sexual intercourse for pleasure in addition to procreation."
"You say that like we've been banging it out on every surface in the ship!" Rhea gasped with mock indignation, arms thrown wide as she took a seat, "I don't know what its like on your worlds, but among my people, if you've got roommates, you keep the hanky panky behind closed doors!"
"A genuine inquiry, but would there be anywhere on the ship you would engage in such activities beyond your quarters?" Pryseia asked with all the curiosity of a scholar delving into a research subject.
Rhea shot Malakh a look, but the deorviran was staring off into the middle distance, very obviously mentally going over the interior of the Pelekys and finding it wanting, if her expression of growing horror was anything to go by.
"Oof, yeah, the state of this place is kind of a hazard at the moment," Rhea said, her thoughts clearly following the same route to disaster, "And honestly, military doctrine still has me fucked up, because sometimes I catch myself freaking out about going against regulations by just sitting next to you like this."
"I know how you feel." Malakh agreed, and then very deliberately reached out to hold Rhea's hand where she had it resting on the table. Rhea repositioned their hands so she could lace their fingers together, her eyes softening as she smiled down at the other woman.
Elytra could feel the warmth of their love for one another like sunlight through trees.
On the wall closest to where they sat, a display activated, and Viatrix's avatar popped up, the rainbow hues of the flower undulating in a way that conveyed amusement.
"This is a sweet and touching display, but now that Elytra is awake and recuperating," the AI said, "I believe it's time to continue on with the most important part of the tale we left unfinished yesterday."
"And what would that be?" Nevara asked, her tone of one who already knew what answer to expect.
The swirl of colour in Viatrix's avatar somehow grew smug as she said, "Why, my birth, of course."