AN: Well here is Chapter three. A lot of Characters are going to be introduced within the next couple of Chapters so please bear with me. This chapter actuall has the most since you meet four more of the seven besides Taranee and Raico. Anyway, Thank you to all my reviewers for this story and please enjoy chapter three.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"A samurai once asked Zen Master Hakuin where he would go after he died.
Hakuin answered 'How am I supposed to know?
'How do you know? You're a Zen master!' exclaimed the samurai.
'Yes, but not a dead one,' Hakuin answered."
Zen Proverb
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"It is about time you showed up," a voice rang out as the two women enter the darkened bridge. Above them one could see the stars and they provided only a minute amount of light to the bridge.
"Why are all the lights off," Taranee asks calmly to Raico.
"Must be so that we can introduce ourselves one at a time," Raico responds, "the captain has a certain eccentricity."
"Oh okay," Taranee gulps. She wanted to meet this captain but now her stage fright was starting to well up in her head.
"You'll be fine," Raico says calmly with a soft grin.
"Guess I'll start," the captain's voice says as the lights around him come on.
He was tall, though not as tall as Raico and had wild dark brown hair. Taranee couldn't see his eyes as they were covered by a red blindfold that had a symbol similar to a tattoo that the young Guardian had seen on someone back on Earth. He wore the same kind of suit though his was an ashen color that had a long white sleeveless coat over it and if Taranee didn't know any better she would have thought an older Caleb was standing in front of her. "Welcome to the Solar Wave. I'm your captain. During this introduction process I'd like for you all to give your name, your home world, your likes and dislikes, as well as your hopes or your dream of what you wish to be in the future."
Why should we have to reveal so much information, besides I was plucked from my home? My dreams are pretty much over. Taranee thought to herself before hearing kind of a childish voice speak up.
"Could you maybe demonstrate for us," the voice said, "that's a lot to remember."
"Of course," the captain responds, "My name is Jasique, but you can call me Jase for short. My home world is Raichiani and is located in the Andromeda Galaxy. I like a lot of things and it would take me too long to answer. The same goes for my dislikes. As for my hopes and dreams, well I don't like to disclose that information."
Great so all we learned was his name and where he is from, Taranee thinks to herself as the light shines on a small girl next to the captain.
"Guess it's my turn huh," the little girl who didn't appear to be much older than five says with a giggle. She had short red hair and stunning orange eyes. Unlike the captain she wore more of an armor-like suit and a visor was around her neck. "Well my name is Solar Wave, but you can call me S.W for short. I'm the ships Avatar so I guess my home world would be Usiago as that's where my main body was built. I like the color red and ice cream. I hate eating vegetables and being pelted by energy blasts. I guess my dream and my hopes would be to be the known as the best ship in the universe and that everyone on board makes it home safely."
So this girl is the ship itself, Taranee continues her mental analysis of everyone introducing themselves. I wonder how many places she's been too then.
"Now it's time for you seven to introduce yourselves." The captain says with a grin. "We'll start to my left."
The lights then shinned on a boy that was about Taranee's height. His hair was short and wild and a nice platinum blonde. His skin on the other hand was a light lime green color and appeared to be rough and scaly. He had on a dark emerald green suit underneath a pair of light tan pants with a whole cut in them for his long reptile-like tail.
"Why do I have to be the next," he says with a slight hiss in his voice, "this is much too troublesome." Jase said nothing at this comment but waited patiently. "Fine, the names Raps Shuin. My home world is none of your business as are my likes and dislikes. I guess for where dreams and hopes are concerned. I wouldn't mind being crowned royalty."
This guy kind of gives me the creeps, Taranee mentally says as she looks him over while his gentle reptilian eyes move themselves back up to looking at the stars. He reminded the fire maiden a little of Cedric, but Taranee couldn't just judge him on appearances.
"Yay, it's my turn now," a girl that looked to be the combination of an ant and a human says with a joyful grin. Her skin was a dark reddish brown color and her hair was a nice shade of black. Two antenna stick out of the black sea of hair and dance around happily has a large smile spread across her very human shaped face. Her dark brown suit showed off her athletic build but had room for her thorax to stick out form her tail bone. She only had four legs, two for walking and two to use as arms, but she was definitely a sight to behold, and could probably give Hay Lin a run for her money on happy.
"That it is insect," Raps hisses in annoyance, "now hurry up."
"You're just jealous," the girl says sticking out her tongue only to almost get hit by an uppercut from Raps' tail. "Okay then, my name is Easi Roun. I'm a proud soldier of her majesties royal army on the planet Cyiana. I like anything sweet, especially honey. Oh now I'm hungry. I guess I don't like people who are mean to others. My biggest dream would have to be that I served my queen well." She said the last sentence a little sadly as if she were making it up but no one seemed to notice except Taranee who quickly made a mental not of it as the lights turned on around Raico.
"Well this was unexpected," Raico says with a giggle, "most of you have already met me, but just in case you forgot my name is Raico Shuiton. I come from the planet Tein in the Milky Way Galaxy; oh that's such an Earth term. Anyway I guess my likes are studying the various diseases of the universe in hopes to find cures for them. There are actually not a lot of things that I don't like, but the biggest one are the human renderings of my people as short and super thin. My dreams are to be a great medical technician someday."
Her race is the race that everyone who raves about alien abductions is about, Taranee mentally notes with surprise before blocking her eyes from the sudden introduction of light. About five minutes passed of Taranee just standing there.
"Come on," a voice says to the fire maiden's right, "we don't have all day."
"I think she is frightened," another one says calmly.
"Hey you're holding everybody up," Easi says with a grin. "There are a bunch of smells in this room that I still gotta put faces to."
Taranee then felt a gentle hand on her shoulder. "You can do it." Raico says calmly with her usual grin. That was enough for Taranee. She was a Guardian and was brought here and now these people wanted to know who she was. Why should she tell them anything? She couldn't do it despite what Raico said. She was just too afraid, and within moments she flees the bridge and runs back down the hall to her room.
"What was that about," S.W says calmly.
"That girl is a coward," one of the voices in the shadows says, "being frightened by a little bit of light."
"Humans call it stage fright," Raico says placing her hands on her hips, "and it is a serious affliction on her world. Please continue with the introductions, I'll go and get her."
"Don't strain yourself Raico," Easi says as she rushes out the door, "I'm hungry anyway so we'll pick up a snack and be back before you know it."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Taranee was curled up on her bed and trying desperately to calm down. She had a hard enough time talking in front of people in public speaking class. How was she able to tell all that personal stuff to complete strangers? Strangers that weren't even her own species.
"Hello are you in here," Taranee heard Easi's kind and friendly voice filter in.
"Ye...Yes," Taranee says quickly sitting up in her bed. "Are you here to take me back to the bridge?"
"Yeah," Easi says handing Taranee what looked to be a yellow pear with spots of orange all over it. "But not if you don't want to."
"I actually don't," Taranee says as Easi takes a big bite out of what looked like a purple orange. She could see her mouth chewing in a different way than one should chew. "I just want to sit here and think things over. So much has happened so quickly."
Easi swallows her bite before speaking, "Do you want to talk about it."
"I don't know if you would understand," Taranee says calmly, "it's just I'm used to meeting people on a more personal level. Like when I met Raico."
"Well we could do that now," Easi says after she swallows another bite, "if that's okay."
"Yeah," Taranee says, "my name is Taranee Cook. I'm from Earth."
"It's nice to meet you Taranee," Easi says as her antenna twitch a little.
"What are you doing," Taranee asks noticing the gesture.
"Memorizing what you smell like," Easi says, "my people know each other by smell and not really by sight."
"So you are like an ant," Taranee says calmly.
"What are ants," Easi says with a curious look on her face.
"They are little bugs on my world that can build elaborate underground colonies," Taranee says noticing she is confusing the girl even more, "very very small versions of you."
"How small," Easi asks quickly.
"Small enough," Taranee responds to the question as she removes her glasses and points at the end of the frame. "That one can fit easily right there."
"Wow," Easi says with a hint of desire in her voice, "what I would give to be small."
"Why is that," Taranee asks placing her glasses back on her face.
"I...I want to be small so I don't have to be a soldier," Easi says, "I like working with my hands and sculpting but because I was born larger than a lot of my sisters I had to be a soldier."
"I think now you can be whatever you want Easi," Taranee says placing a hand on the ant-like woman's smooth shoulder. "You aren't in your home anymore."
"That's true I guess," Easi says rubbing the back of her head. "So, are you feeling better now?"
"A little," Taranee says calmly.
"Do you want to try again," Easi says with a smile. "Me and Raico will be there with you, and though he doesn't look it that lizard will probably back you up too."
"Okay," Taranee says with a nod as the two girls leave the room only to bump into Raico and Raps.
"You two took too long," Raps says with a tired sigh, "introduction time is over. Everyone is calling it a night."
"That's not important though," Raico says turning to Taranee, "how are you feeling? Do you need a glass of water?"
"No," Taranee says, "I'm fine now. Maybe the four of us could do something though. You know to get to know each other."
"Like I'd be caught in a room with that infantile insect," Raps says waving his hand dismissively at Easi.
"I am not infantile," Easi says in an annoyed tone, "what's infantile?" This statement causes both Taranee and Raico to laugh while Raps sighs in anguish.
"Looks like she made some friends," a girl with long golden blond hair and piercing green eyes says with a grin. She wore a ruby colored jacket that was open in a way that most of her chest showed but still kept her modesty while her legs were covered by tight denim pants.
"Why don't we prove how much of a coward she really is in that training exercise tomorrow?" A man with long black hair says as he looks at the group of four through white eyes. He wore and open vest that revealed his bare metallic colored skin, while his lower body was covered by a pair of baggy black shorts.
"I like the sound of that," the girl says as she smiles wide showing long canine teeth.