Naina stared at the every-shifting symbols and glanced at her wrist at times. She scratched the tip of her ear and seemed to be deep in thought. A few people walked past her without so much of a glance.
Slowly, a large figure that didn't so much resemble a humanoid, rather it looked like someone had draped a worn cloak over a squid that's made of futuristic robot parts. It has two bright blue glowing eyes that look like 3D displays. Transparent, ethereal tentacle-like extensions flicker around it and seem to phase in and out of existence. What seems to be like red and blue lights are scattered along its head and tentacles, except the transparent ones. It stands around three meters -- or 9 feet and 10 inches -- tall. It positively towers over the diminutive elf in front of it.
"Elf," it says in a voice that sounds more like a mechanized low hum, almost a rumble, than an actual voice.
Naina spins quickly around, jumping backwards when she sees the newcomer. Her eyes flashing wide and her mouth opening. She closes her mouth, opens it again, and then closes. No sound comes out, and she blinks wildly, staring at the thing in front of her.
"Glaxxian!" she manages to almost whisper after a few agonizing seconds of awkward silence.
"Correct. Elf," the Glaxxian says gently. "I have not seen your kind in these parts of the world," it says and it sounds more like a question than a statement.
Naina nodded cautiously at the creature. "No, you wouldn't. We aren't normally very exploratory people. I'm the sole exception in our whole family," she said and smiled lightly at the memory of leaving home, and -- literally -- everyone and their mothers disapproving.
"Quenstar," the Glaxxian said, again with it sounding like a question, but not quite. It moved slightly, and the cloak shifted on its head enough to reveal another set of different flickering tentacles. They looked more like they consisted of pure energy than anything made of any matter, now that Naina saw them more clearly.
"Yes," Naina said, nodding. "I'm a long way from home," she said and grinned.
"I offer my sorrows to your future," the Glaxxian said in a voice that sounded different from before. Its eyes flickered darker momentarily, and it seemed like it blinked, if that was possible.
"Tell me, Elf," it said in its normal voice -- if anything it did could be called normal. "What are you doing here?"
Naina shook her head and smiled at it. "I've been researching sub-space bubbles and tunnels for the last... uh... ten or so years," she said. "I've always been curious about the world, and once I graduated from the academy, I set out on a research trip to the outer reaches to study the phenomenon. I'm just getting back to Empire space and bringing back data that I hope is useful for scientists in the future," she continued, happily talking about her favorite subject.
The Glaxxian made a sound that could be called an approving grunt, if you were so inclined. "Knowledge is good," it said. "Would you let me access your data?" it asked. "I am curious about where your kind has reached," it said.
"Oh, sure!" Naina said enthusiastically. "Quera, can you compile the research data into a transfer packet and give them access to it?" she said, and offered her hand towards the Glaxxian, while tapping on her wrist. Her wrist device displayed several lines of codes.
The Glaxxian looked at the codes and made another almost-grunt. "Thank you," it said. It was quiet for a couple of seconds, then turned towards Naina. "You are close, Elf," it said, and almost sounded... happy, or excited.
Without saying anything else, it turned around, and walk-- no, floated away, disappearing around a corner before Naina could even react to what just happened.
"Close?" she said quietly. "Close to what?" Then she turned around and faced the information screen again, grimacing internally at the task still ahead. But instead of eternally changing, swirling weird symbols that she had gotten used to seeing, the information panel was filled with intelligible words in her own, native language.
She gasped, astonished, and slapped her hand on her mouth, then scratched her left ear tip. "How is this possible?" she muttered under her breath. Then she heard a voice in her head, not like aloud, but suddenly words just arrived into her head. As a thank you. I noticed you had problems with The Speak. Then the voice went quiet.
"Thank you!" Naina almost squealed internally, but could not be sure if the Glaxxian had heard it or not. She quickly searched through the panel and noted down locations on her pad.
"Floor H-20, Ship Market. Floor A-11, Habitats. Floor A-78, Organic Sustenance, " she muttered while typing down the notes. "Floor... C... 428, Comm Hub," she added and closed her wrist device, smiled, and started walking toward the elevators.
ns 18.68.41.167da2
