A tall, lanky man, hairless and clutching a blanket tightly around his shoulders, scurried to the side of the corridor leading into the mess hall, nearly staggering due to poor balance and an unfamiliar environment. He glared suspiciously at the woman exiting the mess hall, the on he had privately dubbed the 'dental dominatrix' as she paused for a moment and smirked slightly at him before going on her way down to the engine room to get some work done. The man waited nervously for her to be out of sight before moving quickly into the mess hall at a near-run.

The four Solaris crew members remaining in the mess hall watched the young man's frantic movements with amusement. Nes, who had been getting herself some food, glanced up at the newcomer and handed him a bowl of the protein mixture, who took it with a muttered thanks and a quick glance behind himself before joining Thorn, Shiva and Tangerine at the table. Nes slipped in next to him, now grinning. "Just so you know Briareus, Maiar doesn't exactly go around pulling teeth for the hell of it. She saves those pliers for the bugs."

Briareus, formerly Ray, made a sour face and said nothing immediately, digging into his meal. It wasn't so bad after a little while, he reflected. Bit like eggs really. "Frickin' scary anyhow," he muttered, swallowing a mouthful. You'd think people who named themselves after Tolkien characters would be less scary and more…not scary." Good one Ray, he thought sarcastically, still not used to the new name everyone insisted on calling him. He pointed his spoon at Shiva. "See, if you'd done that I woulda had a little more warning. Wouldn't have liked you much, but I would've been less surprised." Shiva smirked a little at that, and took a sip of water from his cup.

Tangerine looked slightly perturbed at this. "That's not fair though. All that name actually means is that she's strong." She paused for a second, thinking, before breaking into a sly grin. "Besides, I think Sauron was a Maiar too."

Briareus snorted in laughter. "Well then, that settles it," He declared. Nes looked a bit confused at the dialogue, looking between Briareus and the girl in an attempt to glean the meaning of their words somehow. Thorn caught this, and explained, "Set of fantasy novels written in the mid twentieth century. Very popular. Inspiration of geeks everywhere," he finished with a smirk, which barely twitched when Tangerine delivered a sharp jab to his upper arm. He turned to her, smirk still firmly in place. "Still don't get which you named yourself after a piece of fruit though."

Tangerine sneered slightly at this. "Didn't. It's a song title by this band called Moist. I was listening to it when I was coming up with a screen name." The sneer faded as she chanted softly, the lyrics burned into her memory:

"Tangerine, the bullet made you

Justifies the one who saves you

Laid him here, and love to see him waste away

Tangerinin' like a rocket

Crack the cock into the socket

Only if you want to see him waste awaaay…"

Nes watched this display, smiling gently. "Tan, you have engine room duty with Maiar, right?" The girl looked sharply at Nes. "What? What happened to watch duty? I'm good at that! Maiar doesn't let me touch anything in there anyhow."

"Maybe if you actually watched for potentials instead of…other people, Worm wouldn't have had you pulled from it then." Nes got up, ushering Tangerine from the room, who was quickly beginning to sulk at the mention of her lost privilege.

Briareus watched then leave, confused. "Other…?"

Thorn snorted. "She had all the screens focused on Chuck Norris. Kept sendin' him spooky messages we only usually send potentials. Worm's banned Chuck Norris jokes from the ship. Not sure what the punishment is though- its usually watch duty, but the kid's the only one who likes it. Nes told me she'd taken care of it though." The woman never did mention what Tangerine had said- or done- to merit sufficient blackmail material, but as long as it kept the girl at bay he didn't really care much. Briareus watched him for a moment before something clicked in his mind. "You were a Micheal Myers fan, weren't you? Those Hallowe'en movies?" Thorn blinked, then beamed. "Damn, I thought I had everyone believing I was a huge anarchist or something. Eh, whatever. Pretty good though, kid," He slapped the younger man's shoulder before getting up. "Gotta get back to work though. Still have half the maintenance list to get through."

After the man had left, the two remaining continued to eat in silence for a few moments.

The silence was broken as Shiva cleared his throat slightly, causing Briareus to look up from his bowl. "Nes mentioned you knew the Captain's sister," he stated, a flicker of guilt tightening his voice to a small degree. Briareus didn't notice. "Yeah- we were friends in the Matrix. She…she was something else." He finished lamely, not wanting to mention what a wreck she had been in the weeks before disappearing, apparently into thin air. Only now, after what he'd recently gone through, could he begin to really appreciate the danger she must have realized, at least to some extent, that she had been in.

"She's really OK? Nes said you guys saw the ship she's on in Zion." Shiva sighed at this.

"We got assigned to our ships at the same time, I only talked with her for a bit. Didn't even make the connection between her and this sister the Captain suddenly has 'till you started asking after her."

"Hn." Briareus looked down to see that he had finished eating, Standing, he stretched and

suddenly looked hopeful. "Hey, do you think Nes has time for training now?"

"Well she is the operator. Don't think there's any missions, so you should be OK."

"Sweet. I feel like sparring. Want in?"

Shiva thought a moment. He had a few free hours, and Briareus badly needed the training. "Sure." They started down the corridor towards the broadcast room. "You're awfully eager to be training lately. Most of the new recruits are a bit freaked out by it, don't take to it so well." Shiva said conversationally. "You sure you don't just have a thing for Nes?" Briareus blinked, finding something very interesting high up on the metal corridor wall. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Suuure."

"Shut up!"

When they got to the broadcast room, however, Nes was absorbed in a conversation over her headset with an unknown caller. She saw them enter and focused her attention on Shiva. "Get the captain down here. Right now." All gentle laughter was now banished from her expression. She looked at Briareus. "Get the others, but don't freak them out. I don't know how much of a situation we got yet."

As the two men fled from the room to comply, she turned back to her screens, worry creasing her face and breaking her mask of calm that she had worn for the two newest recruits. She had lied for their sake so they would not panic, but the other would know that she would only call everyone down for a something major- sleep was too precious a commodity here for her to wake people up off shift. That was the captain's job, she thought wryly. However, the brief flash of humour dissipated as the details of what the speaker from the Logos came through on her screen. "Oh, shit," she breathed.