Prologue Day One #7
Lights began to flash and an alarm started going off, loudly.
The frequency jolted Reyna. Was that the intruder alarm going off?
How was it possible the alarm had triggered while they were in the middle of Coalition space?
The piercing shrills of monotone emergency echoing down the hall and throughout the ship thumped in Reyna's veins.
She began to run, turning into the Mess Hall just as Borran came barreling out of his kitchen.
"In there," was all he said as she ran up to him.
"What is it?" Reyna questioned, looking toward the kitchen door. Then she heard what sounded like something... angry.
"That."
Reyna studied Borran's face. He was rigid.
His massive Brontari frame was locked in place, his jaw set, his six-fingered hands pressed flat against his apron.
She'd seen this posture once before, years ago, when a supply shipment had arrived with the wrong flour and Borran had stood in the cargo bay for a full minute before saying one word to the delivery crew.
The word had been "No."
Right now, Borran's face held something far worse than wrong flour.
Borran's face held the expression of a man whose redemption Gula Cakes, the first batch after an entire day of bread suffering and Vryx violations, had just been destroyed by something that was currently screaming and speaking in his kitchen.
Why wasn't her Voxlink translating for her?
Reyna walked toward the kitchen door, Borran right behind her, along with who she clocked as Torvax, Maren, Tavi, Orion, and Kess having just arrived in the Mess Hall themselves. She peered through the door's tiny window into the kitchen itself, and saw something beyond strange.
"Is that a head under your mixing bowl, Borran?"
Reyna asked the question and then paused, realizing she'd just uttered a sentence she'd never expected to say in her life. She looked over her shoulder at Borran, who only nodded. Reyna turned her gaze back through the window.
Seated up against the main counter was… something. Slouched and not entirely moving yet, Reyna thought for a moment maybe it was dead.
Then the mixing bowl began to make sounds. Yells and an exasperated voice and noises that Reyna only caught here and there.
"What—cake—where—" were only some of the words that came through her Voxlink. As if there was someone under the bowl speaking...
"An alien language..." Reyna said quietly.
She opened the kitchen door slowly, pushing gently on its surface so it would swing inward, providing a barrier between her and whatever could possibly be in that mixing bowl.
You know, just in case.
She made it through the door, Borran still on her heels, with everyone else pushing in behind her as well. Apparently they were all going to investigate this strange arrival.
Maren was near the prep counter, up on her tiptoes, trying to catch a good angle for viewing. Tavi had climbed up beside her, his mosaic markings catching the kitchen lights. His expression matched everyone in the room, something caught somewhere between scientific fascination and absolute delight.
Reyna moved closer. "Be careful, Captain," Maren said.
And that was when the mixing bowl leaned to one side exposing hair. A mixture between light brown and blonde, shoulder length, and slick with batter. It shook back and forth several times. Everyone, including Reyna herself, froze.
A head appeared from under the bowl as it fell to the ground with a clang, completely covered in the Gula Cake batter.
As the creature shook its head, Reyna could confirm it was a humanoid creature of some sort.
Two arms, two legs, one head. Whoever or whatever this was though still hadn't seen her and the crew standing around her, but Reyna could understand why, given how much batter was all over the being's face.
Reyna continued to watch as the creature stood from where they sat, brushing off batter from their attire.
She took in their denim pants, some sort of base layer top with markings across the front that appeared to be writing, though neither Reyna nor her Voxlink could make sense of it, an outer garment of multiple colors in a checkered pattern, and what looked like a coat similar to Reyna's Captain's jacket, but in a striking color that Reyna had never seen before.
The creature continued removing the batter from their arms, shoulders, and finally their face, which was when that last bad thing happened to Captain Reyna Solas on her very bad day.
The creature finally noticed Reyna and her crew members when the batter was removed from around their eyes. They froze, staring at Reyna.
Reyna took a moment to examine this creature. Something about them was... striking. Yet Reyna wasn't scared.
Reyna tracked their eyes as they moved from face to face of her crew behind her. When their gaze returned to Reyna, the creature uttered the most blood-curdling scream Reyna had heard in a long, long while.
And then the creature fell to the floor in a heap.
Reyna walked closer to the being and looked down at them, realizing they had... fallen asleep? Obviously they were scared but, what kind of creature fell asleep in the middle of an introduction?
She straightened up, closed her eyes, and sighed.
"Well, shit."