Miana sat, legs swinging about, on a stool down in the labs. Considering the time, many left to be with their mates for the rest of the day.

Ta'ka had been kind enough to speak slower when they interacted and even set up a small space for Miana to take her naps. A water bowel for Beanie sat nearby.

"You're going to stay?" The place emptied out for lunch.

She snorted, obviously displeased.

"Like I'm about to go out there with all that chaos. Besides, Kwei-ke is in a meeting, so I'll sit with you until she gets out." She sat with her tablet in hand, looking at data charts.

"Can I ask…"

It might be too personal…

Somethings Yautja seemed hesitant to talk about, though Abba never shied away. If he knew, he did his best to explain.

"Sei-i. By all means, ask anything you want."

"Why only one mating season?" Ta'ka gave her a bored side glance. "Oomans have it once a month, but you guys have it once a year…"

Ta'ka set aside her tablet, eyes suddenly focused on Miana.

"Once a month?!"

"Sei-i… sei-i… we have… uh…"

"High fertility?" She offered kindly, prompting Miana to continue.

"Once a month, sei-i. You have it once a year…"

Ta'ka snorted, "three a year. One with all the hormones and two without. It doesn't get much attention, though. Only once a year do male and female fertility align and that's usually the one with the crazy hormones."

Oh… that was interesting.

Ta'ka pulled up a few documents, sending them to Miana gauntlet so she could read them over later.

"Kwei-ke!" At the sight of her exhausted mate, Ta'ka jumped up. "Oomans are h'ulij-bpe! They have a mating season once a month!" She grabbed her tablet, running off before Miana could correct her statement.

Kwei-ke merely nodded, clearly much too tired to really pay close attention.

Left alone, Miana began to glance around the room. Finding all sorts of jars and charts scattered about. Just begging to be investigated.

She left her tablet in her room, but she didn't want to leave during a time where fights would be breaking out in the hallways still. She'd just have to jot down what she didn't understand and come back to it later.

A lot of what she found didn't make sense. Mostly half-written sentences or abbreviations galore.

Thankfully, she came across a small server login that she could access. They left the login credentials right on the board.

Okay, the server wasn't small by any means. It had hundreds- no thousands of complied articles for not only biology but geology, chemistry, physics, psychology, and astronomy. If it had an ounce of science involved, it took a few filter options to find it.

Miana quickly glanced around, not finding a piece of paper or anything to jot all of this down. Their gauntlets didn't have reminders or notepad features. They were storage devices and control modules. She couldn't even open the documents Ta'ka gave her until she moved them to her tablet.

The tablet she currently had in hand wouldn't help. She just couldn't take it.

At a curious click, followed by a welcoming bark provided by Beanie, Miana snapped her head up.

"What are you doing? Lex is looking everywhere for you." Night clicked curiously at her.

"Uh… just looking at articles. Why is she looking for me?"

"Abba said you might not have eaten yet. Most have vacated the cafeteria, but you didn't show up." Right on cue, her stomach growled to remind her of the time.

"Oh right… Do you have paper?"

"We don't use paper. We don't have a need." She groaned at the thought, already knowing that. "You can use your gauntlet."

"It doesn't have a notepad feature…" Night shook his head at her and quickly tapped on a few buttons. Her gauntlet showed a little keypad.

"Type what you need."

Mouth gaping wide open, Miana quickly typed in the passcodes and server name before following the Blooded out.

"I had no idea!" She opened another file, pressing random letters to watch them appear on screen. "I'm an idiot."

Night trilled, guiding her to the cafeteria where Lex, Scar, and Abba waited.

"Got lost in the labs?" Lex teased her, sliding an extra tray her way.

"Maybe…" Miana took her seat next to Lex and Night took his next to Scar.

"No mate, Night?" At the mention, the male stiffened.

"Oh… it's Nikki, right?"

"Nikki?" Miana perked up at the name.

"You haven't met them yet, but Nikki and Lu are sisters and are also on the ship. Nikki mated with Night last year I believe." Lex smirked at Night's sudden tense form. "She came on through before you got here. Said she'd be waiting in your room."

Night's eyes widened before growled low and left the group to check out his room.

"She didn't…" Scar trilled at Lex. "You lied."

"A little. She did come through here though…" Lex shrugged. "Thought I'd help her out."

After lunch, they parted ways, Lex and Scar heading for the kehrite to practice.

Miana eagerly raced back to their room, Abba and Beanie hanging back. Though Beanie tried to keep up with her, his limp wouldn't allow it.

She grabbed her tablet, downloading the articles she had been given and logging into the server in the background.

Abba set to work on other things to keep him busy while she played around. Beanie sitting at his feet, hoping for a new bone to chew on. The arbitrator gladly obliged.

"Hey, Abba…" He purred in response, one hand on Beanie's head, the other inspecting one of his skulls. "When can we leave?"

The questions initially shocked him. He figured she'd rather stay here, being close to Lex.

"Not until next week."

"Oh, okay." He didn't turn to address her, but he didn't have to, to hear her disappointment.

"Why?" This time, he stopped, turning to see her heading back to the living room.

"Oh, they just have more requests. That's all." She waved her tablet above her head, a list on it.

Abba quietly held in his laughter, returning to the skull. He would never guess she'd be so eager to run out and collect small things for the researchers. But, they paid her well enough for all she brought back to them.

He figured it wouldn't hurt, especially since the council would be sending him back out again to find more bad bloods. That, and he began to itch to hunt again.

If he wasn't mating this season, he'd rather be off the mothership and on a planet collecting his trophies.

He needed some supplies and they wouldn't be available until next week. He could have paid extra for quicker delivery, but the mating season always jacked up prices and he didn't want to spend anything he didn't have to.

Abba ventured back out, planning to head to the kehrite while others should be heading back to their rooms. Miana remained firmly in her spot, mumbling to herself as she made notes on her gauntlet while reading.

He headed out.

As he figured, Miana didn't move from her spot. Much too invested in the articles she kept coming across. However, her stomach growled loud and brought her out from her research earlier than he anticipated.

Miana stood, popping her aching joints, and looked for Abba. He hadn't returned.

She figured she'd be fine out in the hallways. The loud bangs of bodies slamming into wall or floors always made her flinch, but she'd move past it all the same.

Beanie stuck close to her and she kept one hand on him at all times. They made it to the cafeteria with little incident. Very few people loitered about the space and Buffy Jeff gave her the freshest food they had. Apparently, Lex was a good friend of his and he noticed them hanging around a lot.

Celtic sat towards the back, Jag right across from him. He noticed her walking and waited for her to finish paying for her food before he waved her over. Jag greeted her with a nod of his head.

She sat next to him, listening as they resumed their conversation about fighting over mates.

"If you two are so into the whole fighting to get her horny thing, why are you in here early?" Her half-hearted comment made them stop. "What?" They merely stared at her.

"Because they can't take losing, Miana." Molten plopped down beside her. He took the time to greet Beanie too. "Never see you in here."

"I come in later." She smiled at him, picking at her food.

"Ah, that's what Lex… does…" He stopped, putting his food back on his plate as he leaned back a bit. Then he began laughing, "looks like Scar and Lex won't be coming in."

Miana used his shoulder as leverage to look.

Scar currently piled high a tray of food before paying and heading back out.

"Elder K'ash I'm sure will show up to embarrass them." Miana frowned at Molten and he explained, "Elder K'ash views Lex like one of his own. Yesterday, Scar got a bit handsy while they were in the kehrite and the elder saw it and came in."

Celtic banged his fist on the table, head snapping back as he roared in laughter.

Miana ducked down a bit at the noise but otherwise smiled in amusement with them.

Kwei-ke caught sight of her from across the room and quickly made her way over, explaining to Molten the issue.

"She says you need to help with Ta'ka. You… told her something?" Miana shrugged, unsure but followed her out. Before she took a step, Molten tugged her back and handed her her tray, "don't forget you're food."

"Thanks." She smiled at him, waving bye to the others and followed Kwei-ke to the labs several floors below.

"Ta'ka is fascinated by this ooman mating once a month. Please tell her that's not how it works." Kwei-ke spoke a bit slower at Miana's insistence. "She thinks its chaos on Earth…"

Miana laughed. It was true, but not for those reasons.

They passed by the kehrite and she noticed a familiar, lone Yautja in the room. Except, Abba wasn't alone. A female stood off to the side, clearly liking what she saw as he went through simulation after simulation.

"Problem?" Kwei-ke frowned as Miana slowed down to survey the scene.

"H'ko… I might want to sleep in the labs tonight." The female laughed, waving her forward.

"Sei-i. We'll get you some blankets."

.

.

.

A shorter one than usual. Been doing about 7-9 pages for a lot of these.

Miana is that type of player that'd rather be doing side quests than the main storyline XD