Alrighty, just a quick one, cheers for all who have been reviewing recently. I've answered a fair few questions below but I can't get them all or I'd have an entire chapter dedicated to it. So if I didn't answer your question im sorry, but I do appreciate them!
This chapter has also been written in a new way, let me know what you think, please!
RR
Brandonack96 : You are going to find out regarding the Batarians in the next few chapters, mostly from Ava's side story which will develop and cause a huge headache for the Citadel. Geth I haven't got any plans for yet, but the Quarians do have a small role to play.
Jmsdragn: You are 100% correct, thanks for the correction
Raziel Tepes: You have hit on something with your comment there, why do we accept deaths in training but have a massive out cry over deaths in combat? Surely it should be the other way round correct? Just an observation though.
Jotunsquid: I need to go back and clarify, the ringworld is above the north pole and is more like a 'halo' on the earth. Cheers for asking the question.
The Prie Cronos: Thanks, I stayed safe!
Ralmon: I hope I fix the POV for you this chapter. I've tried writing it in a completely different way from my other chapters. As for the dishes, this was a case of still need to eat, but got caught with their pants down. Its on a mining station, not a military station where people would be prepared and know what to do in such circumstances. How the air didn't escape is because the hanar ship is cutting through from an airlock on their side after latching onto the mining station.
Myllinu: Yes, the whole 'maybe this is what is going on' is what I want the guys in the story to be thinking, and getting wrong.
Zippy Saboteur, You're about to find out a bit more of Ava's journeys.
Kira-117 Cheers for your continuous thorough reviews. I am working on my humans and this chapter away from them is letting me think some more. Thanks for that. As for where are the other ships? This will be developed further, as will why haven't we tried to colonise other solar systems using a means of travel slower than FTL. I don't just want to give all the answers. As for letting some advanced tech go, it could have many advantages too, some of which will come to play.
SurplusTime: I knew someone would get it! I was debating about making the class teacher have a metal arm but thought that would give it away too much. As for being out in the sticks, I manage a bunch of guys that fix kit that is out in the sticks.
Guest: Andromeda does not exists in my eyes. The more I think of the game, the more stupid I realise the game is.
/.../
Tevos' awaits for the door to close behind the Fleet Commander before voicing her thoughts, and with the room secure from prying ears, she says, "I will be attending this visit."
The fleet Commander does not like the idea one single little bit, he knows that if anything happens down on the planet below, he will be powerless to help, even with his fleet in orbit. He does not know if he outguns the locals, so he can not use force to get his people back, and if Matriarch Benezzia attends - which is most likely - then he can not speak with the locals so he can't use diplomacy to get them back. The most he could do is wait for the reinforcements the Citadel is sending to his location.
Tevos watches the internal conflict within the Turian Fleet Commander carefully before adding, "History has shown the first invite to an alien world tends to show off what that species thinks is important. Your species showed a great military parade, the Salarian's showed a plethora of mathematic equations our ambassadors had no hope of understanding and the Hanar showed their profound understanding of Prothean technology. No doubt you can see how those visits foreshadowed what input into the galaxy said species had."
The Turian breathes out heavily as he moves to a window and looks out of it, the planet below him is way too blue for his liking. "If you go and get killed, the Hierarchy will not forgive me like your own species would. I will be taking a great risk allowing you to go down there."
Tevos can fully understand the Turians resistance, failure is not looked upon kindly within the Hierarchy, and if she is 'lost' under his watch, then the news would go far and wide, meaning the Fleet Commander would probably never see the day of light again for bringing the supposedly impervious Turian navy into disrepute. Unfortunately, Tevos also knows the repercussions would not just hit the Fleet Commander, it would affect his entire family, anyone who shares his blood would feel some of the Higherarchy's frankly unforgiving wrath. Taking a second to gather her thoughts and arguments, Tevos then says, "It is a risk you accepted when you were commissioned as a Fleet Commander within the Turian Imperial Navy. Yes, I may not be a part of your Hierarchy, and can not formally order you to let me go, but I am the Asari Councillor in the depth of First Contact. The reward far outweighs the risk in this instance."
"Yes." Quirinus muses, more to himself than to Tevos, "You are the Asari Councillor. I will not prevent your attendance; however, I will raise a formal complaint. Your actions are not just risking myself, but the lives of my men." This complaint will get far in the Hierarchy, whose Populus is easily motivated by nationalism, and the idea the Asari are putting Turian lives in unneeded risk will rile more than a few.
Tevos suppresses a wince, she does not like to hear that her actions are putting others at risk. "It is a risk you agreed to..."
The Councillor is interrupted by the ship's internal speakers. "Fleet Commander to the bridge."
With a raised mandible the Turian turns on the spot and walks the short distance to the bridge, Tevos in tow. "Sitrep." He demands the moment he is on the deck.
The ships captain replies to him, "A new vessel has made an appearance. Just arrived on a vector of 634,240,009." Tevos quickly glances at a secondary screen, with the mentioned vector in mind the new ship is not facing the Turian fleet.
"Show me," Quirinus says as he turns to the view screen, and shortly a large vessel is on the viewscreen, the ship is vastly different from typical human design - instead of being sleek looking and predatory, the vessel looks like an absolute bruiser. Instead of the impossible black's the Turians have come to typically associate with human vessels, the ship is almost a shiny gunmetal colour, which accentuates the sharp angles of the ship. Tevos looks on with a little concern, while the other vessels that have decloaked have been obvious warships, they were rather small and did not really look dangerous, this vessel, however, is different. If anything, Tevos thinks to her self, it looks like this ship is something that is meant to be seen, something that is meant to deter actions. As they watch the mega vessel, 6 stealth ships momentarily decloak next to it before recloaking, their stealth technology making them invisible. Swallowing a little Tevos asks, "How large is it?"
"5 km," Someone on the bridge replies, "It has just appeared from nowhere, and it is not registering on Ladar."
Tevos clenches her fists a little, she does not like how much this species seems to favour stealth technology, it makes her think that they could be very secretive and will keep to themselves, or worse yet, be deceitful. She also hates how this species seem to have built a ship bigger than the Destiny Ascension, but she pushes this to the back of her mind, she can not fill her mind with jealousy or fear right now in case it causes any prejudice against them. After a moment for the bridge crew to observe the vessel, Tevos turns her head to hear Quirinus say, "Senior crew members in the briefing room, 5 minutes."
Tevos follows the senior crew members in and stays to the corner of the room, she wishes to hear what is about to be discussed, in case she needs to add any input. Quirinus begins after ensuring all who are supposed to be in attendance is actually present. "I'm sure by now you have all heard of the latest development," He begins, and sure enough all the Turians flare their mandibles or verbally acknowledge the comment. "Then I wish to make it known I've come to the conclusion that this species has capabilities outside of what we are equipped to deal with. We know they have numerous stealth vessels, and now mega vessels well beyond dreadnought classification. We know they have plasma technology, and other advanced technologies reported from the rescued members of the Avian. Captain Remus has informed me of paintings that show battles of all manners. We are not dealing with rookies here but a species that finds an old friend in battle."
The Turian pauses for a second to look at Tevos before going on, saying, "Now, against my wishes, Councillor Tevos is going to be taking a ground party to their world. If anything happens, there will be no rescue party. We will withdraw to RV with the citadel fleet. Make no mistake, we are in thresher maw territory here, we do not know how numerous they are, how grown up they are or how hungry they are, and as you all should know from training, you do not stay in such territory. Prepare your people for a fighting withdraw."
The Fleet Commander takes another moment before turning once more to face Tevos, where he then says, "I can not protect your ground party, nor will I order anyone to partake in your visit."
Tevos gives the Turian a long slow blink before telling him, "I respect your reasoning, but as we discussed, I can not turn this opportunity down."
"Then your shuttle will leave in five hours."
/.../
5 hours later
Tevos finds herself sitting in a window chair of an unarmed shuttlecraft, she placed herself there specifically so she could view the planet as they come to land. The last five hours have been rather hectic if she was honest, people were given immune system jabs of all kinds to help boost their immune response incase the unknowns have anything nasty in their system, omni-tools were outfitted with specialist recording equipment and software from the medicine world so they could scan the biology of the planet below. Matriarch Benezzia has given the lucky 12 going planetside a few phrases in Prothean to learn, simple things such as 'sorry', 'hello' and 'thank-you'. Tevos herself has given a lesson on basic etiquette, so as to help reduce instances from misunderstanding, and lessons what to look for in this new species - behavioural and cultural. Emergency communication devices have been hidden in the kit of the intrepid 12, clothes of all sorts have been packed, some salvaged from the Avian for the Asari crew, and any sensitive equipment on the shuttlecraft has been stipped so as to reduce the damage a captured shuttle could do - even the navigation systems were wiped clean to prevent the aliens finding their homeworlds.
Hearing the airlock on the shuttle seal shut shortly followed by a split second of zero gravity as the shuttle left the Fleet Commanders Dreadnought, Tevos' can feel a flutter in her stomach, a flutter of nerves. She did not for one second believe the Humans were like the Yahg, but she could not get the idea out of her head, she puts it down to nerves. After a few minutes, the shuttlecrafts pilot, Captain Corvinus, speaks over the intercom, announcing that they have RV'd with a human vessel that will guide them down to the planet. Standing from her chair Tevos makes her way to the front of the shuttle and looks out the forward window, there she sees a small craft, dark grey in colour and triangular in shape guiding them. Looking down to the shuttle's controls, Tevos notices that like most other human things, this vessel does not register on Ladar, and it makes her wonder why the Humans favour stealth so much.
As they descend to the planet Tevos quickly gets the impression that the ride down is also going to be a small tour in its own, first they approach the station they were temporarily held on, only to then venture above the planets north pole and above the ringworld, where glowing defences of all kinds could be seen on the construct - no doubt to take it would demand a fleet in its own. The orbital world, which worries Tevos a little, looks nothing like a Prothean construct; instead, it is of its own design, and the habitat area on the inside looks almost like a strip of earth has been taken from the planet and transplanted onto the construct, there are oceans and forests, cities and towns. Next, the shuttle takes a voyage to a small, but dangerous-looking Satelite, it is almost 25 meters wide by 25 meters long, but one could not miss the glowing cannon on it, the thing looks ready to fire on a seconds notice and in truth the platform intimidates Tevos. What she does not know is she is looking at one of Ultron's many platforms. Tevos understands the message, why she is being shown this satellite, it tells her the world is defended, and its cannons are primed. After going unusually slow past the defence installation, the human vessel guides them to yet another installation, this time the construct is a doughnut in shape, and the human vessel passes right through the centre.
Tevos's vessel follows and the moment they pass through the centre of the doughnut the communication console flares into life as signals of all sorts bombard the ship, signals her shuttle does not know how to translate or understand. It puzzles Tevos why they can only now detect the human signals, but she supposes that some human tech must be blocking them from reaching outer space. "Councillor, you may want to see this," She hears the Corvinus call to her.
Tevos turns her attention to the Avians ex-captain, and he points to a console, "Traces of heavy isotopes in the atmosphere. Evidence of a nuclear event, maybe a few hundred years old."
Tevos slowly blinks, for some reason she is only a little surprised by this announcement, but it saddens her, she had hoped for a peaceful species, but her hope is fading the more she sees. Returning to her seat Tevos begins to look out her window, and is intrigued as the shuttle flies over some great metropolis, but the lack of apparent sky cars perplexes her, how does this society move from one location to another? Do they walk everywhere, or are they like the Batarians, where only the most senior ranks of government are allowed to own and use sky cars - but even then you can see some sky cars buzzing around when you fly over a Batarian city - but this city has none that she can see. What she is happy to see, however, is more than a few large green area's, it is always a nice change to see a city with plant life these days she thinks. Soon, the city is long behind them, and Tevos is looking down at a wide-open space in front of a quaint old looking building, two stories in height by maybe 50 meters long, it is decorated at numerous points with pots of vividly coloured flowers. The old building is made from what appears like slate rock and is positioned on top of a hill which overlooks a vast open area. In the far distance, snow-peaked mountains can be seen, but before the great mountains, there is an enormous green forest that is occasionally crisscrossed by an almost baby blue in colour river. Immediately in front of the building, there are maybe two dozen people gathered, and a wide red carpet that leads out up to a hundred meters is laid in front of the front door. The shuttle lands just past the carpet as Corvinus feared that had they landed on the carpet, the static that has inevitably built up on the shuttle's hull would inevitably ignite the carpet.
With the shuttle landed safely, Tevos stands from her chair and makes her way to the back door of the shuttle with the rest of the craft's occupants, here she waits for a few moments with the rest of the crew. Before disembarking the shuttle, the craft must run through a few processes; first, the hull must lose its static charge, this only takes a second at best, but the shuttle must also equalise its internal pressure with the external atmospheric pressure, this must be done slowly for the crew's comfort.
As the atmospheric pressure equalises Tevos moves to the back of those waiting to get off, taking her place in the order of people to disembark. First, Corvinus will depart the shuttle with Benezzia, then a Salarian and Turian will disembark, then an Asari and Salarian. Tevos will be one of the last to leave the craft, still in an attempt to hide her importance - she knows this could come back to bite her in future negotiations, but she hopes with how this species favours stealth, that they will understand the need to hide her status.
Seeing the light above the shuttles rear door turn from a blue hue to a red colour, Tevos awaits for the expected, and soon she can hear Corvinus say, "Atmospheric pressures matched. Opening shuttle doors now." It does not take long for the shuttle to react, and the doors slowly begin to lower from their locked close positions, and as they creep open, some sounds begin to fill the air. It does not take long for the Asari to figure out that the sounds belong to what must be stringed instruments, due to the similarities with not only Asari stringed instruments but also Turian and Quarian instruments. If one is familiar with music from the various species, which Tevos is, one can find similarities and familiar tones in set types of music. For example, music with aggressive undertones can often be found to have harsh sounds, for example, sharp drums being played at high speed, and traditional military music can be found to have a slow but steady rhythm, something troops can march to. Fortunately, Tevos can not hear a tune that would be suitable for a Turian military parade, or in a hate film produced by Krogan Terror Cells, instead, the tune filling her ears is more of a soft melody, and it reminds her of a tune which plays on an Asari discovery program that she watched as a young maiden which showcases the new worlds intrepid explorers have found in their journeys. It is fitting, she thinks, that it will be to a similar tune that she takes her firsts steps onto this new world.
Leaving the shuttle, Tevos follows Corvinius and Benezzia as they lead the group of 12 up the red carpet, and as they walk the small distance, Tevos can see the brass and string band that are playing, they are positioned under an overhang on a balcony on the first floor of the building, which hid them from sight as they come to land. Tevos also takes a few other mental notes, the temperature is not hot, but nor is it warm, its at just the right temperature, and the air smells pleasantly clean, with a small tinge of local flora life, it is as if it has just been produced in the nearby forests and not yet had the chance to be polluted. She has been to some industrialised planets where the industry has made the air pungent to the nose no matter where you go, so it is nice to see that this has not happened to this world - yet. As Corvinus reaches the building, he is met by a human who is not overly tall in height, maybe 5 foot 10, 5 foot 11. As Benezzia and Corvinus come to a standstill the band that was playing are turned down so that they do not drown out any conversations, and a few words are exchanged between Benezzia and the human, but Tevos can not hear what is said, so she focuses on the facial expressions. The human seems for the lack of better words merry, Benezzia is hiding her genuine emotions behind what Tevos has come to learn is her false smile, and Captain Corvinus is looking a little lost in all honesty, but he is being reciprocal to the human - a good sign.
Behind the lead human Tevos can see a few other humans, some she recognises some she does not, one she does remember encountering previously has bright green hair, and is watching her group with careful eyes. After going over a few other human faces, Tevos quickly comes to the conclusion that these are the soldiers that rescued her from the Avian, but instead of being in armour they are in civilian dress, but what concerns her a little is their size. Compared to the lead human, they are tall, and all of them look very athletic, not bulky, but physically fit. Eventually, Tevos is forced to look away from the soldiers and to Benezzia who is approaching her with the lead human. Arriving at Tevos's location Benezzia speaks to the human, exchanging a few words before telling Tevos, "This is the human leader, President Dallas."
The human says a few words before holding his hand out while smiling and Tevos gives it a small shake, knowing from other interactions that this is a greeting to humans. Once the handshake comes to an end, the Turian to her side also has his hand shaken, before the President moves onto some others, allowing Tevos to go back to her previous observations. Looking back to the building Tevos can see what looks like a man working on what could possibly be a camera system, which does not surprise her, she suspects this species will want the event documented as would her own - maybe the humans would provide some footage for the Citadel's archives if she requests it.
With the lead human now acquainted with his guests, he invites them inside, and Tevos follows with the rest of her group into the building. Getting inside the building, Tevos is surprised to find its interior looks modern, unlike the buildings outside, for some reason she anticipated and half wanted to find something old and antique looking, something that would match the exterior of the building. She does not have long to dwell on this thought, however, as she is directed into a small room that has a large circular table in the centre of the room, and at the far end of the room is some large glass windows that allows the rooms occupants a good view onto the mountains in the distance.
At the circular table in the centre of the room there are 15 chairs, 12 Tevos assumes is for herself and her fellow intrepid explorers, one she also believes is for this Presidential figure, but the last two she is uncertain of. It does not take long however for the 2 other chairs to be filled, the first empty chair is filled by the green-haired human, and the second is filled by someone she is unfamiliar with, but someone she is sure will be introduced in good time. To the President's immediate right sits Benezzia, which makes sense to Tevos, as she is the only one who can hold a conversation with this species, and to his left sits the green-haired woman. On the table in front of everyone but the humans, is a single black slate of glass, 16cm long, by 7 cm wide, by 1 cm deep, its purpose is lost on herself.
The President begins to speak to Benezzia once everyone is seated, and Tevos guesses that the two are struggling to really communicate effectively. Tevos reckons this because of a few mannerisms displayed by the human, his speech slows down more than a few times, he repeats a few phrases and tries different singular words every now and then if it looks like Benezzia is grappling for understanding. After a few minutes of back and forth, Benezzia eventually turns to look at the rest of her group, and announces, "The President is grateful that we accepted their offer to come to their world and is excited to show us what wildlife their homeworld has to offer. To the Presidents left, the one with green hair, is Captain Shepard, whose team is providing security for ourselves, and to her left is our tour guide, Doctor Marlee." Tevos turns her eyes to look at Doctor Marlee, and can't help but notice how different looking he is to the other two humans in the room. First of all, his skin colour is more than a few degrees darker, and the skin around his eyes make his eyes appear to have a different shape, his hair is shorter too, but it also seems to have a different texture. With this in mind, it comes to Tevos that this species is likely to be genetically diverse, and from other discovered species, namely the Quarians, volus and the Turians, species with major genetic diversity typically has numerous different cultures, each one as unique and varied as the last. This type of cultural diversity while fantastic to discover can make integrating the species into a collective of others difficult, as a basic set of rules which may apply to one culture may not apply to others. An excellent example of this is with the Quarians before the morning war, in one culture the judiciary system worked in a court of law with Quarians observing the evidence and making a decision on the type and severity of the punishment, yet in another, it worked off a very unique point system which almost allowed you to get away with crimes if your 'points' was above a certain amount - A computer would calculate this. Accommodating for these different types of systems Tevos can remember reading was a difficult task for the ambassadors at the time.
After the Doctor waved a hand and said a single word, Benezzia went back to consulting with the President, this time however she speaks for a considerably longer time before turning to once more say, "The main events list for ourselves is tonight we relax in this hotel, tomorrow at sunrise we leave in a 'motor car' for a safari, where we return to this location in the evening, then the day after we will be taking a tour of the ocean's wildlife. First, however, we have a few briefs for our safety."
The first brief Tevos receives familiarise's her with the black slate of glass on the desk in front of her, and it turns out that this little piece of glass is this species equivalent of an omni-tool. It is a computer, phone, scanner and camera all in one, and after a quick lesson Tevos can use the device to take a picture, record a video, call security and others in the away team. Tevos is sure that the device is capable of so much more, but without understanding the human language, she would never be able to operate the device to its full potential. After this brief, the green-haired woman gives an essential summary on security affairs, which boils down to not attacking the President, not leaving the hotel without an escort, and not using any weapons they may or may not have with them. If there is an incident, the human's team will 'deal with it', whatever that means, and her own people are to 'get their heads down' and keep out of danger.
Finally, the Doctor gives them the final brief of the day, which gives Tevos a glimpse into what to expect in the next day or so. The man drew their attention to one of the windows which looks out over the surrounding scenery and just like magic the window turned into a type of TV. The TV plays a video which showcases a few animals, and the Doctor would occasionally stop the video in order to talk about some animals, mostly it was to say to avoid, and not touch or approach them. Really, Tevos thinks that what the Doctor is talking about must be basic stuff to most humans, but it still interests her anyway, mostly because it is showcasing some of the animals they are going to be shown.
With the final brief over a worker from the hotel enters the briefing room and Tevos is guided through the hotel and to a door, which opens upon presenting her slate of glass to a sensor on the wall next to the door. When the door opens it reveals to Tevos her hotel room for her duration on Earth, and taking a few steps inside Tevos looks around with intrigue, wondering what sort of quality has been prepared for herself. In her first few steps inside her room, she is mildly impressed, the accommodation is spacious, immaculately clean, fully equipped and leaves a warm cosy feeling in her gut - if she were provided with this accommodation on a visit to any citadel connected world she would be happy with it. What impresses her the most, however, is how the main feature of the room is a large glass window that looks out over the scenery surrounding the hotel. With her room explored Tevos leaves it to find Benezzia, which isn't a hard task as her entire party have been situated on the same floor, and Benezzia is in the first room.
Entering Benezzia's room Tevos eyes are immediately attracted to the window of the room, or rather the lack of window, instead of a window to admire the local surroundings Benezzia seems to have some sort of entertainment device, which is playing what Tevos assumes is a local news channel. "You do not have a window?" Tevos asks Benezzia.
"I do," The other Matriarch responds before approaching the entertainment device and tapping on its side, which causes the display to instantly fade and be replaced with a translucent glass window. Tapping on the glass again at the same location causes the entertainment device to return, still on the news channel. At the moment the TV is muted, and the hosts seem to be talking about some sort of industry factory if the occasional videos that are playing are at all related to the story. Tevos turns her head from the TV and to Benezzia, asking, "So, what is in the itinerary for the rest of the evening?"
"We have an evening meal in two hours time, but till then we are free to explore this hotel, it is supposed to have numerous attractions for us to explore."
Tevos widens her eyelids a little, "We just ate a large meal before leaving. Have you been told of what attractions are for us to find?"
Benezzia blinks her eyes slowly in agreement, she too ate a large meal before coming down to the planet, and she wished the humans had told them to expect a meal, but she can understand why the fact may have got missed, they must be running around with their heads on fire right now. "Yes, I believe I will be forcing it down too. As for attractions, I have been told of a 'holo-suite', a gym, a spa, a garden, a swimming pool, bar, and a games lobby."
"Holo-suite seems like it could be interesting..." Tevos begins to reply but turns her head as she sees a large red headline flash on the news program, and is not at all surprised when she sees footage of her shuttle landing and shortly after her away party disembarking the shuttle to meet the President. "I would imagine that banner says breaking news," Tevos says.
"Hmm," Benezzia agrees, "I am hoping for them to show us some of the population's reactions. Even if we can't understand what they are saying, we may be able to judge their reactions from their actions and behaviours alone."
Tevos continues to watch the program with Benezzia for a short time before they realise that what they are hoping to see may not come on the news program, and that they are better off exploring what other things this hotel has to offer.
/.../
/.../
Hanar Vortex
Ava finds herself sat in the corner of the room she is confined to, knowing that whatever the aliens have planned for her, she has no escape. After helping the still unconscious alien the best she could, she explored every single inch of the room, looking for anything which could be of use in her situation, but this cell is truely thorough, she couldn't even get her fingers in any gaps to try and pry the doors open. Hearing the alien begin to stir a little, Ava looks up, but the alien has only rolled over, and is still not awake, so she goes back into her own thoughts. Thankfully Ava thinks, she only charged her cells up 36 days ago, which means she will probably have another 94 days till she will need to recharge. With power-saving measures active Ava quickly calculates that she could last 112 days, but this would mean reducing her core temperature to 293 kelvin, something which could give her away as being synthetic. She could also reduces motor functions, that would provide her with a maximum of 2 additional days, and she could reduce her processing power, but that would effectively reduce her intelligence as her thinking prowess would be reduced, although it would give her an additional 6 days. With a half defeated sigh Ava realises that she will only be able to extend her battery life by two days, she does not wish to give away that she is a synthetic and she wants all her thinking prowess right now if not more, otherwise she fears she will never see Human space again, and those she is supposed to care for on the mining station.
Seeing some movement in her peripheral vision, Ava looks to the injured alien and sees it is starting to move some more, which in Ava's mind is neither a good thing nor a bad thing. It could be good because she can learn about the alien, but bad because whatever this thing is, it could ultimately attack her. It is another 10 minutes till the alien actually stirs into a conscious state, and upon seeing her, the alien immediately scurries back into the far corner of the room on all its fours, where it then stares at Ava. Ava watches the alien closely, carefully scrutinising it with her eyes that dimly glow purple to tell a human she is a synthetic. Ava can see the alien's chest rising and lowering rapidly as the alien takes hurried breaths, and Ava notices its eyes are quickly glancing around the room, probably searching for something it can use. If this were a Human, Ava would be sure it is petrified, which tells Ava it is likely to act erratically.
Ava continues to watch the alien from her position in the far corner of the room, and every now and then she would slowly raise a hand to scratch her nose, or brush her hair from her face, the acts were not required, the hair in her face does not hinder any of her functions nor the 'itchy nose', but the actions make her seem more organic. All of a sudden, there is a loud clunk that reverberates around the ship, and Ava can hear some loud and heavy footsteps making their way towards her cell. Standing from her position on the floor, Ava moves to the back wall of the room and looks to the rooms single door, anticipating the aliens who captured her. Ava notes that the blue alien has joined her, positioning herself also on the back wall of the room, albeit it as far away as possible from herself, and it occurs to Ava that the blue alien must have made the decision that the approaching aliens are more dangerous than herself.
It is not long till the door opens, and a massive alien walks through, in its hands, it carries a tremendous looking weapon that moves continuously from pointing at Ava, to pointing at the blue alien. The alien, Ava thinks, looks like half a mix between a bat and a toad, but if she had to give them a name, she would definitely settle with toad face, for some reason it just feels right to her. The alien barks something at her, but Ava can not comprehend it, the language is lost to her; however, the blue alien seems to have a look of recognition, but it does not move. The large alien barks the same few words again, and Ava's auditory receptors note the alien's speech has a decrease of half an octave, probably in response to having to repeat itself. Toadface turns its huge weapon to the blue alien and says something again before reaching out and grabbing her by the arm, where it then tosses her towards the door where another toad face grabs her by the shoulder and frogmarches her somewhere. Ava suspects that she is next.
Sure enough, Ava finds a huge reptilian-like claw grabbing her shoulder, and she is marched through the ship and through the airlock she used to initially enter the vessel, and looking around in the harsh sunlight, Ava concludes she must be in a dock of some kind, she can see numerous other aliens, some of a species she has never seen before, and many different type of craft that have all landed on this world. With a rough push forward Ava walks behind another toad face which is guiding the blue alien. In front of the blue alien is one of the slim green aliens that had come to talk to her on Sevastopol, it appears to herself that this is the lead alien.
The group begin to walk up the docks, and as they walk Ava can see numerous eyes turn to herself, it would seem, at least to Ava, like she has dragged a lot of attention to her small group, and she suspects it is because maybe she is an alien they have never seen before. As she walks, she also notices a few things of interest; notably, more than a handful of people, of various species, are either completely naked, or mostly naked, and these naked people do not seem to hold eye contact at all; instead, they seem to favour to look to the floor. In addition to the naked people, it would also seem like people are intimidated by the Toad faces because where ever they go, people part for them. After walking almost 300 meters up the dock, Ava's small group arrive at a tall building that is maybe 400 meters in height, but before walking through the buildings front door, the lead alien of Ava's group is stopped by two 5 foot tall aliens that have four eyes, the aliens are armed with what looks like assault rifles if Ava had to guess. The four-eyed aliens, now to be known as Four Eyes to Ava, bark some words to the lead alien, and after some commotion between the lead alien and the Toad Faces, the Toad Faces hand over their weapons.
With another thrust on her shoulder from behind Ava begins to follow the Toad-face in front of her into the building, and soon they come to a stop at a desk where there is a que of around 16 people. In the que, some people look to be like herself and the blue alien, that being held captive by others. At the desk, three four eyed aliens are working, where they seem to be looking over the captured aliens before giving their captors directions. The group wait for almost a minute in the queue before yet another four-eyed alien approaches the lead alien of Ava's group, the alien is dressed well, or so Ava thinks. The two aliens begin exchanging words, with their eyes often jumping to view Ava before going back to discussions and eventually the four-eyed alien gestures to a door on the far side of the room and the lead alien begins to walk, in step with the four eyes. Ava feels yet another shove on her shoulder to get her walking and soon the group go through the door the four eyed alien gestured to, and Ava finds herself in an elevator, which if she had to guess, is about to go to the very top floor.
/.../
Cheers all. If you liked the new style of writing let me know and I'll do more like this over multiple POV's and a quick-moving story.