Forums » Sci-Fi Roleplay » Travellers (Semi-Open RP between Tara and Catrin)

"I might have exaggerated a tad, but the insult was real. And quite a few of hose gestures were some of the more... descriptive insults a Terelain can use."

Tara went back to the fod processor and got yet another glass of wine and then settled back into her chair, "We'll teach you a few of the easier gestures to make, so you don't end up getting into an honour-duel over some accidental remark."

Catrin's scowl melted into a smile. “So it wasn't one of your major exaggerations. Good.”

She turned to Tara. “Thank you. I have no desire to get into duels.” She picked up her glass and sipped some of the wine, then looked at herself. Some of her fur wasn't in the best of conditions because of the wine that landed on it.”I'd probably better take a shower before we go on, though. While it's probably not a normal part of partying, I hope you won't mind,” she told Tara.

Tara smiled, "Go ahead. I don't normally go and party in the shower."

"I shall take the time to fine-tune my calibrations of the processor. I hope to make the wine even better before your return." The AI said.

Catrin smiled at Tara and the AI, telling him, “The wine is already excellent, I thought you were just trying to add variation to that,” with a wink before heading to the shower, still holding her glass.

She drank it before diving in and then spent just 15 minutes there, although she could have enjoyed it for much longer. She returned after that, clean and dry, holding an empty glass.

Tara and the AI were chuckling over something when she returned and Tara looked up, "Ah, you're back."

"Mistress and I were just trying to figure out what gestures to teach you." The AI said.

"You know, you've very rarely call me by my name." Tara said in a thoughtful manner, obviously the wine was starting to affect her, "It's always 'Mistress' or 'Mistress Tara'... why is that?"

"It is out of respect for you, Mistress." The AI said, "You own this ship, and you own me too, in so far as you can own a sapient being without contravening the Senate's laws on slavery."

"Well... we've known each other for three centuries. I think it is high time we threw out all of that stuff formality." She said, taking another sup from her wine glass, "Just call me Tara."

"That is hardly appropriate Mistress." The AI said.

"Tough." Tara aid, "I'l make it an order!"

The AI sighed and made a defeated gesture, "Very well, Tara. Have it your way."

Tara smiled, "I always get my way..." She blinked, "Hey! We should give you a name!"

"That is unnecessary." The AI said.

"It is entirely necessary." Tara retorted, "Everyone needs a name."

Catrin smiled at both Tara and the AI when she returned, and went to get a new glass of wine while listening to their conversation. She smirked, vastly entertained by the topic, and chuckled when Tara made calling her “Tara” an order.

She was watching them with arms folded across chest, when Tara came up with the issue of the AI's name. “She's right,” she joined in. “I'm having a tough time not calling you 'it' by accident when I have to think of you as the AI. It just feels weird.”

The hologram looked from one female to the other and sighed, "I can see that neither of you will let this go. Very well then... a name."

Tara smiled, "Excellent!" She then turned thoughtful, "Hm... but there are so many names..."

"If it wasn't blasphemous I'd suggest Terel." The AI said with an amused tone.

"What, and let everyone think you're my husband? Hardly." Tara said, "How about... um... huh."

"Don't tell me you can't think of one!" The AI exclaimed.

"Alright, I won't." Tara said with a giggle.

Catrin laughed and muttered “I warned you” under her breath, aiming for the AI to be able to pick it up, but not Tara.

She chuckled at the AI's suggestion, and smiled at Tara. “Would you like it to be unique, not reminding you of anyone else? Or maybe it doesn't matter if it will be a common name?”

Looking at the AI, she asked, “Do you have any non-blasphemous preferences?” with a smirk, then she took her glass of wine, smelled it and took a sip. “Mmm. This is really good.”

The AI glanced at her when she whispered to him, but didn't reply to it, instead he said, "I have never given the matter much thought, and it would be rather nice to have a unique name. I remember one former comrade of mine, an AI stationed on the Battleship RNV Ulundra decided to call himself a name which translates as 'The One With The Big Gun'." The AI chuckled, "He always did have an odd sense of humour."

Catrin smiled. “Well, you know thousands of languages. What would you call yourself, if you could choose anything that exists as a single word in one of those languages?”

The AI seemed to ponder this question for a moment, "If I had to pick a single concept in all the languages of the galaxy to be known by... it would be the Ancient High Terelain word, 'Euthyra' which translates as 'He Who Served'."

"Euthyra, huh?" Tara asked, "Are you sure? It sounds a little... unwieldy to me."

Catrin 'shrugged'. “Well, we could use a nickname – leave out the first two and the last letters and call you Thyr. Would that work for you?”

"Hmm... Thyr... yes, I like that. Very well... I now have a name. Thyr." The AI seemed to be examining the name as he spoke it, his hologram was smiling.

"Well then... congratulations ont he new name, Thyr." Tara said with a laugh, "It's about time I stopped calling you 'the AI'."

The hologram nodded, "Thank you Mis- ah, Tara and Miss Catrin."

“Congratulations, Thyr,” Catrin joined Tara. “Actually, It sounds warrior-like, and you look somehow predatory, so I think it suits your new look.”

She cleared her throat. “Being called 'Miss Catrin' sounds somehow inappropriate, and I'm not even a 'Miss,' so how about you just call me Catrin instead.”

Thyr nodded with a slight smile, "It does suit a former war-AI like me... and I'll be sure to call you simply Catrin from now on." He then glanced down at himself and said, "Predatory, hm? That suits me, I think."

Tara laughed, "Wasn't that battlecruiser you served on a Predator class vessel?"

He shook his head, "No, it was a Thorn class; a fast attack ship for chasing down enemy reinforcements, or ships fleeing a battle."

"Ah, of course." Tara said with a nod, taking a drink from her glass.

"It wasn't a patch on the RNV Tia'Ren's Light though." He said wistfully.

"Do you miss it?" She asked.

"Being on a warship? Yes. The most advanced sensors in the galaxy, the invincible feeling of having proper shields and armour, and the weapons... to have such power... it feels like you're a God!" He smiled, "Of course, I shared my duties aboard the Tia'Ren's Light with two other AIs as well. We were all very proud that we got to serve on her... she was the flagship of the First Fleet after all."

Catrin nodded her acknowledgement and smiled a little.

When Thyr mentioned feeling like a God, she smiled. “How come you don't serve there anymore? Do they rotate the AIs?” she asked, hoping it's not a touchy subject. She drank some more wine and went to sit down.

Thyr shook his head, "No. The Kingdom hasn't had a war since the Second Great War, twelve thousand years ago. In between conflicts, the Grand Fleet is mostly deactivated and put into storage in a secret location in interstellar space. The AIs aboard these ships are removed and reassigned by the military, or become civilian-grade AIs, or simply go into storage themselves. The present size of the Terelain Navy is approximately a thousandth the size it was during the Second Great War."

"In order for reactivation of the Fleet to be faster and more efficient, the two surviving Mobile Shipyard Platforms, the RNV Avrunsil and RNV Harkesh are placed in storage with the rest of the Grand Fleet." Tara said, "They are immense factories, foundries and repair docks, able to serve hundreds of frigates and cruisers, dozens of capital ships and even titan-class vessels at once, and that's not to mention the hundreds of thousands of fighters and lesser craft it they ca repair, refit or construct."

"Masterworks of engineering and technology, even now." The AI said, "They are the largest ships in he known galaxy. and only three were ever made. The destruction of one of these vessels near the end of the Second Great War shifted the orbit of a moon and caused the formation of a debris belt dozens of AU across. As you can imagine, the death toll was... catastrophic, especially considering that both fleets were caught int he explosion."

"The rest of the galaxy ignores us. None of the Senate Races has ever seen Terelian at war. They believe us to be pacifistic, decadent and stagnant, a civilisation ancient and exhausted." She smiled slightly, "One day, I suspect that they will learn to their shock, that there is a reason to let sleeping giants lie."

“Oh. That sounds... huge. Sleeping giants indeed. Hm. I suppose that with the significantly shorter life span, twelve thousand years seem unimaginable to them, otherwise, how could anyone ignore such a potential threat?” Catrin sank into the recliner and sipped her wine, deep in thoughts.

“The timeframes must be too large to comprehend. But if they think you're stagnant, why leave you alone? Are the Senate Races quite pacifistic themselves? Or do they simply think they wouldn't gain anything by attacking you?” She suddenly stopped asking and gave Tara an apologetic smile. “Too many questions. Don't worry about answering. Maybe we'd better celebrate naming Thyr here. And actually, also him getting a nicer communication interface. After how many thousand years of existing?” she asked Thyr's hologram.

Thyr snorted, "Pacifistic? The modern age is the most warlike period in known galactic history. There have been more wars in the past ten thousand years, the period of the Modern Races, than in the hundreds of thousands of years since the Fall of the Atlanteans. Hell, Terelian only had two wars in its entire history as a spacefaring nation."

"As for them ignoring a threat... we don't exactly announce we have a massive fleet hidden away somewhere." Tara said with a smile, "We just told them, 'The last race that went to war with us no longer exists, why do you think you'll be any different?' then we point them at Gilau and a few of the debris fields and destroyed planets left over from the war. Some think we're lying, some think we've lost the power to cause such destruction. Most of them don't want to chance it."

"As for my age, I was first brought online seventy four years after the Terelains rediscovered the Gillorians, a little over fifty years before the Second Great War started. I was assigned to many vessels over the seven hundred years of the war, and I saw much of it. After the war's end I stayed on as a war-AI until the final demitilirisation of the Grand Fleet came into effect, four centuries after the end of the Second Great War, then I went into storage in the Archives for a few decades, served on a few ships and habitats and things and eventually went back into storage until Tara reactivated me. In all, I've been in existence since 2322 Seventh Age, Fourth Era by Terelain reckoning, 9540 years before the founding of the Galactic Senate, 10,122 BCE by Human reckoning. This means that I am a little over twelve thousand three hundred and fifty two years old, though I haven't spent all of that time as an active AI." Thyr said matter-of-factly.

Catrin smiled. “Yes, pointing out what happened to your previous enemies is a very neat way of deterring troublemakers with at least some brains.”

She beamed at Thyr when he finished explaining how old he was. “Excellent! And now you have a name.” Turning to Tara, she asked, “Do you have a traditional way of celebrating … um, naming sentient beings? I suppose it's usually babies or newborns, but in this case, we're twelve thousand, three hundred and fifty two years late, so we might have to alter and improvise.”