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>>222433
You're the Undermind, my psychic connection to the rest of my species. Some of what I get from you is conscious, some subconscious. Some's from other scellor who are alive, and some of it's from psychic patterns who're between bodies. It's always a bit of a mess. You get stray shots of random thought, talk to old patterns who've been out of body too long and forgotten stuff. There's different, um. Layers. Like an ocean, I think. We can attune to each other to hear the same stuff, but every scellor has their own sort of default "frequency" that they listen to.
I can't imagine what it's like for aliens. I've tried. Left with only one way of thinking, one perspective on everything. Able to misunderstand each other, to misunderstand themselves. Having to question themselves all the time. Nothing but darkness and silence in their heads.
Brrr. Scary.
>>222436
>How long can the ship function without that part?
Technically, so long as the main engine at the back of the ship is working, we don't need any of the blocks - not for sublight, anyway. Of course, readout says the main's borked. Still, one block could keep the ship going, even let us putter around... slowly.
Three blocks still working, now. That's barely enough to accelerate into FTL and get to safe port before anyone dies of old age. Those two that're in autoshutdown, though, maybe we can fix 'em.
The reason we have so many zeffin' engines is so we can jam ourselves into asteroids and pull out again, and to make our crappy ftl system worth using. And taking care of them all is my job.
>What enemies are most likely to be operating in the area of space you're in?
This particular area? Not many, assuming we're still where we were last I remember. The Culio Cloud. There's always been rumours of some big hit out here, but it's basically a puff o' dust. Shouldn't be anything bigger than a few hundred km across, definitely no solar system with proper planets. Lots of asteroids. Pretty dangerous for most ships, but we have heavy shields and armour. And no-one could have followed us, not with the cloak.
It's a mystery is what it is.
>Are bras one of the things you've evolved beyond the need for?
Being a scellor and a praal besides, my skin is a little more tough and firm than a lot of other humanoids, so that's a bit of support. If push shoves I can heft the load with TK for a while. The only time I wear something is when I spar with Kole for exercise. Unless the fibers in the bodysock count, when I'm in a suit.
>You breathe through those dangly tube things, right?
Those are my ears. And yes.
>Does the Ruby Gaze have a full load of psykonium, or something else that someone might be stealing?
Rrgh, no. The last time we found psykonium was two years ago, and it was some ore mixed in with a comet. We don't have anything else, either, we just dropped off a big load of asteroid scrapings a week ago.
Unless... well, there's us. The crew. We do have traces of psykonium in our bodies. Some of the more unsavoury space pirates, they...
... I really, really hope that's not it.
>Did your 'tailfucking' epithet imply that's not a safe practice?
Look, sometimes, some things are not healthy to go sticking into other things. No matter how good it feels.
Uh. So I've heard.
>How have your shitty arms been doing for the last few years? They certainly haven't been much help for the last few minutes.
They're not much help playing video games either, I tell you that. Fucking analogue sticks on everything.
>>222443
My ears? My orel? What?
>>222448
All profits are managed by the government. We are all fed, sheltered, treated for health troubles and, for sentients, clothed, from the government's pocket. Sentients also get to keep a stipend based on a fraction of their earnings, and freely trade with other species. I guess it's sort of like communism for the drones, and capitalism for us?
Economics isn't my bag. I personally have plenty of money (in various forms of storage, friendly to the interstellar community). But what I really need is psykonium. I do wanna live past thirty, here. I just... haven't gotten much, yet.
...
>>222467
I shouldn't have said anything, should I? Although... hmm.
>>222502
That's my orel! It works like a radar dish for my psychic powers. Gives me more accuracy with 'em than if I were another species. It's pretty flexible. Like having a little tail on my head.
>>222508
The Maalia Belt? Well, including us, there's only three spacefaring species native. But since so many others come here for the psykonium, I'd never know what I might run across. Krantikes, thorr worms, routenites, humans, the Law, cybolds, truut-ruut, ruut-truut, space doobies, the Spiders, leficars, faazlings, Defined Ones, even a condraak that one time on Nos. I've seen 'em. There's always another kind of stranger that might come in the door.
>>222575
The first two, maybe. I don't know. Not the third one. I know what psykonium feels like.
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