Pride Rekindled: Chapter 9
Wisdom teeth are healing nicely so updates should be back to normal pretty soon. Quirks of Change is the next scheduled update and will feature Kyoka Jirou, while Dragon's Progeny will update on Sunday as usual.
As for Pride Rekindled, like I said, I have some big plans for this fic and would like to see them through so expect to see it more in the future provided that I don't get too distracted with other stuff.
That's all, please enjoy!
~~~
Even as slow as she was moving, it didn’t take long for Papri to reach the area designated for her test. Guided by her scouter, the Saiyan moved through the halls of the Vistri, ignoring the numerous eyes that followed her as she went, until she came upon her destination. An automatic door much larger than any she had seen on the ship yet, with an encrypted keypad just off to the side.
It was unlocked, as was made apparent as the Saiyan moved towards the keypad and the door simply slid open to allow her entry.
Inside was what was clearly a training room, a massive open space with walls that glowed with energy shielding, making them much more durable than the metal would allow. A large console meant for adjusting the settings of the room sat in a corner, similarly shielded to the walls. The entire space was larger than most capital ship’s command decks, at least three thousand square feet with more than enough room for multiple bouts to take place at the same time.
Despite its size however, it was almost completely empty, with only one person inside and facing away from Papri as he did one-handed push-ups in the center of the room. It was clear to the Saiyan that the exercise was effortless, just a way to waste time while he waited for something. Likely her.
Deciding to make herself known, Papri kicked the floor just hard enough for the tip of her boot to make an audible noise that could be heard over the whirring of the ship’s engines.
The man’s head turned around slightly, and the Saiyan caught a hint of bright blue moments before he suddenly threw himself upwards with a single arm. The throw sent him straight back to his feet, flipping him around to face her as he pushed a lock of pure white hair out of his eyes.
It was as the man turned to face her, revealing a sharp, angular face and bright blue eyes alongside his white hair, that Papri recognized the man’s race. He was a Brench-seijin. A rather common race that had a habit of producing oddly strong warriors once every blue moon. Curious about how strong the one in front of her was, she brought her hand to her scouter in preparation to scan him, but was stopped as he put up a cautioning hand.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” He said, his tone amused yet somewhat warning, “That thing doesn’t look like it's rated high enough to scan me without shorting. Would hate for you to have to visit tech support only a few days after you got here.”
Her eyes widening, Papri immediately removed her hand from her scouter at his words before she messed it up. Her scouter was admittedly worse than her old one
to her old one in that it was rated for around seventy thousand, and if he was saying that she might short it out just by attempting to scan him while at rest… He was strong.
The thought of fighting him sent Papri’s blood racing in her veins, but she knew that she had more foes on this ship than friends. With that thought in mind, instead of asking him for a spar then and there she asked a different question, “Are you the one who’s going to be testing me?”
The man nodded as he walked up to her, “That’s right. My name’s Sadri and I’ll be the one overseeing your testing today.” He held a hand out for her to take, which she did so hesitantly. His grip was firm as he shook her hand with a smile, “I've been looking forward to meeting the Saiyan who's been getting Orishi all bent out of shape. We could use more people to rock the boat around here, it's been super boring here recently.”
Papri tilted her head, a bit surprised at his words, “Really? Most people I’ve met won’t stop talking about how much they want to kill me or even eat me. I don’t think I’ve had a nice conversation since I got here.”
Moving to the console in the center of the room, Sadri leaned over it, looking at the interface intently, “Yeah, well, most people around here were pretty happy to hear that the Saiyans were all but wiped out. You may not have had that many members, but your race was pretty damn destructive back in the day thanks to that transformation of yours. It makes sense that some people might hold a bit of a grudge.”
Papri’s tail tightened around her waist at the reminder of her nearly-extinct people, even as she scoffed, “They’re stupid. Conquering planets is in our blood and the PTO knew that. It was our job to devastate the civilizations that they pointed us to, just like everyone else. The only difference between us and the rest of the forces was that we actually had enough strength to see the missions through with minimal losses so they sent us out more often.”
“As long as there was a moon on the planet, right?” Sadri said rhetorically. He pressed a button on the console, the beep extremely loud in the silent room, “From what I remember, the Saiyans weren’t actually all that strong by themselves. Your elite warriors had power levels of what? Eight thousand? Ten max? Not really that impressive compared to the stronger members of the organization.”
Papri scowled at his words, crossing her arms angrily. Before she could refute his words however, another loud beep sounded out throughout the room. She flinched slightly as the floor beside the console suddenly opened with a hiss, a platform rising upwards on a mechanical lift until it was level with the rest of the room.
The platform itself looked like a plot of land meant for planting crops. Dark purple soil shifted slightly as the lift stopped moving, completely bereft of any plants or other organic matter. Beside the soil were several small containers with dispensers on the sides.
As the platform settled, Sadri shook his head turning away from the console, “Well, anyway, that’s neither here nor there. I don’t hold your race any ill will myself. Like you said, you were just doing your jobs like the rest of us. Not your fault you guys come built in with a power up that you can’t turn off.”
As Papri gave the man a befuddled look at how he could go from insulting her race to practically sympathizing with them, Sadri brought a hand up to his scouter and gave her a once-over.
He made an impressed noise at the reading he got back, “Fourteen thousand, huh? Not bad. Not bad at all.” As Papri was left even more confused at the acknowledgment of her strength, he turned towards the plot of land, making his way to the dispensers and hovering a hand over one in particular, “Let’s see… I’d say six should do the trick.” He mused aloud, pressing the buttons on the top.
He held a hand underneath the dispenser and six, tiny, green seeds dropped into his hand, which he then tossed towards the soil nearby. Almost immediately, they began to sink downwards as some unseen mechanism went to work, shifting the soil around and burying the seeds deeply underneath it. A second later, the soil stopped moving, laying completely still once more. Only for a moment though, as almost immediately even more movement came from below the surface of the dirt.
Papri watched curiously as the soil rumbled and cracked, as if something were pushing its way from underneath it. Mere moments later, it became clear that that was exactly what it was, as the first of several grey , clawed arms broke through the surface of the dirt. Papri watched with slight disgust as several bulbous-headed creatures rose from the ground, standing on stubby grey legs as they shook off the residual dirt that was caked to their twitching bodies.
Saibamen? No. Saibamen were green, weren’t they? Papri gave the creatures a wary look, before activating her scouter and scanning them. Her eyes widened at what she saw.
Each of the creatures’ power levels were well over the average soldiers’. Three thousand, three and a half, four… These guys were at least three or four times as strong as any Saibamen that she had ever heard of! What in the world were they?
“They’re Jinkouman.” Sadri says, causing her to look away from the twitching creatures, “They're born from the same seeds, but require extremely nutrient-rich soil. Their power levels are perfect to test your abilities.”
Papri immediately got what the man was saying, and she liked what she was hearing. “You want me to fight these guys as my test.” She said more than asked.
Sadri nodded, “That's right. By the time it’s all said and done, we should have more than enough data to properly rank you among the rest of the Vistri’s crew.”
“And I can do whatever I want to these things?” Papri asked, eying the creatures as her excitement began to build.
“Anything short of actually damaging the ship, sure.” Sadri nodded, making his way to the door, “I’ll be keeping an eye on you from the observation room next door. This entire room is shielded against ki and impacts. It’s rated so high in fact, I doubt even I’d be able to make a dent in the energy scrubbers.”
This sounded too good to be true. “What about my collar?” She asked, reaching up to the offending object warily, “Won’t it activate the moment I power up?”
Sadri shook his head, “Nope. This is one of the few rooms on the ship that deactivates all collars the moment you enter. Can’t really train if you can’t power up, can you?” He gave her a crooked grin, “You’re free to go as nuts as you want so long as you keep it in here. Have fun.”
The words were like music to her ears. Papri hadn’t had an actual chance to fight since she had gotten stuck on this ship, and here she was, getting permission to use as much power as she wanted.
As the door closed behind him, Papri turned to face the creatures, taking a deep breath and bringing her arms to her sides as she gave them her full attention,
The Jinkouman tilted their heads, twitching with erratic energy as they stared at her like she was some sort of prey. She was going to have to disappoint them in that regard, because she was the furthest thing from prey. The average Saiyan might have seen them as a challenge, but all Papri saw was a set of three-foot-tall punching bags. Perfect for venting her anger.
“HAAAAAAAA!” The Saiyan yelled as she began to unleash her power, letting the boiling rage underneath her skin come to the surface as it had been wanting to do for nearly a week. Her aura spiked around her, her hair rising upwards with the force of her ki as her scouter beeped on her face alongside her rising power. Her fingers clenched into angry fists as she screamed, and her tail tightened around her waist as she powered up, the room practically shaking with the force of her ki.
The Jinkouman flinched backwards, weariness all over their faces as shockwaves of energy pulsed outwards from her body. Clearly they hadn't expected someone as small as her to have this much energy.
Neither had she, honestly. She remembered the doctor saying that her power level had increased drastically from what it had been before, and she could definitely tell. Her energy filled her veins and muscles to the point of bursting as she finished powering up, allowing her aura to fade back into her body, and she let out a tense sigh before looking down at her gloved hands.
She felt good. Her ki hummed underneath her skin, filling her with a manic energy that begged her to fight. To kill whatever stood in front of her with extreme prejudice.
“Oh, this is going to be amazing.” She practically purred, turning her burning orange eyes onto her targets. No, her prey. One of them in particular looked especially scared, and it was that one that she set her sights on as she gave a predatory grin. It flinched at her gaze and that only caused her smile to widen, “You’re first.”
With a bloodlusted cry, Papri shot forward, easily moving faster than she ever had before in her life. She crossed the several meters between her in a single instant, a fist already cocked back as she reached the scared Jinkouman, which she then shot forward with as much force as she could possibly muster straight into the creature’s face.
It gave a strangled cry as its head snapped to the side and it flew backwards, a clear indent in its face from her knuckles as it slammed into the wall behind the pack. It stayed where it had landed for a moment, suspended above the ground, before it slowly slumped down to the floor, unconscious or dead as its head hung limply, blue blood leaking from its broken skull.
Her eyes wide with bloodlust, Papri turned her attention to the next nearest one, punching out with another fist aimed directly at its torso. This one was much more ready than its brother however, and actually managed to block her attack with two of its hands. It skidded backwards from the force of her punch, and Papri immediately followed after it so that it wouldn’t have a chance to recover and was upon it in an instant.
She threw her fists forward in a flurry of blows, slamming them into the Jinkouman’s guard as hard and as fast as she could. It brought its own arms up to defend but only succeeded in fending off a few of her blows before she broke through its feeble guard and into its body below. Her knuckles slammed into it like thunderclaps, every blow eliciting another noise of agony that only served to heighten her already rampant bloodlust.
With a feral grin, she brought a knee up into its chest, sending it up into the air, before slamming her interlocked fists onto its back as hard as she could. It slammed into the floor with a squeal of pain, before she reared a leg back and prepared to kick it in the skull as hard as she possibly could.
Before she could do so however, two more of the creatures apparently decided that they weren’t content to sit around and lunged at her from the sides, catching her attention and forcing her to stop her attack before it could be completed.
She jumped away from the one she was wailing on to defend against them. She ducked under a swipe of one of their claws and blocked a kick from another with her forearm. She then grabbed the foot of the one who had kicked at her and twisted around, using it as a makeshift weapon to bat the other one away from her, throwing its friend after it as well.
She wasn’t given a moment of respite however, and she stumbled forward as the rest of the Jinkouman pounced on the opportunity that presented itself, lunging forward to engage her as well. Papri growled as she was set upon by the creatures, dodging their punches and claws while at the same time trying to fight back against their assault.
Unused to fighting so many opponents at once, Papri was slowly being overwhelmed by the tiny creatures. She kept up for a little while, blocking and dodging razor-sharp claws as the three of them fought their way across the grounds of the training room, but she wasn’t able to keep it up forever.
Blocking one’s kick with her forearm, Papri was caught off-guard and wasn’t quite able to move her head out of the way in time as the other Jinkouman brought its claws to bear, slicing a clean gash across her cheek. She grunted, feeling blood immediately began to trail its way down her face, and turned a snarl in the cackling creature’s direction as she gave it her full attention above all of the others. That was a mistake.
Back on Grinn, Papri had become more than used to being an apex predator. By the time her the populous had been exterminated, the only thing that could harm her was the Krakir and their claws. They were solitary hunters however, rarely coming in numbers larger than two or three. That meant she was woefully unpracticed in fighting pack creatures such as Jinkouman or the lesser Saibamen.
When she turned her attention to the one that had managed to score a lucky hit on her, the Jinkouman who had been waiting in the wings made their moves. They lunged forward, latching onto her body at various points intending to bring her to the ground where she would be easy prey.
Not wanting this to happen, Papri lifted herself up, shaking them off of her. Or at least she tried to. She stumbled as one of the creatures grabbed onto her legs, causing her to trip back to the ground where they began to pile on her again, this time using their claws to hold her down to the floor.
They scratched and clawed at her back and sides, trying to find some sort of leverage with which they could use to get through her armor. It was only luck that her cloak got in the way, preventing their claws from finding any purchase with which they could use to disembowel her, but Papri still wasn’t able to get up. She was completely stuck underneath the four of them.
With that realization, came a mix of shame and even more anger. She couldn’t believe that she had gotten caught off guard by these weak, mindless creatures! She was a Saiyan! A member of the greatest warrior race to ever exist! Fighting was in her blood, and she had been taken down by four beasts without a brain cell to spare between them!
It was utterly humiliating, and did nothing but add to the boiling rage that had been consuming her for the past several days. Her pride burned at the idea that she might actually lose her life to these JInkouman, these lab-grown creatures who had been born literally minutes ago.
No! After everything that she had gone through, she was not going to be defeated by these weaklings! She was not! Not before she had her revenge on the man who had nearly exterminated the Saiyan race! She would destroy these creatures and get even stronger! Stronger than King Vegeta had been, stronger than Orishi! Stronger than Cooler and Frieza! She would surpass them all!
Even more energy welled up inside of her as her anger and resolve grew, the feeling eerily reminiscent of what she had felt on Grinn before she fought Buri. It filled her, welling up inside of her alongside her own ki before bursting forth like an erupting volcano.
“AAARGH! THAT’S ENOUGH!” Papri screamed as her rage exploded, ki bursting out of her pores and slamming into the disgusting creatures mobbing her. They flew back and away from her with cries of surprise, but she immediately turned and grabbed one of them before they could fly too far, clutching onto its stumpy little leg and pulling it back towards her.
Its dull eyes barely comprehend what was going on as, with a shout of rage, the Saiyan reared back and slammed a ki-infused fist into its torso. Her arm tore through its tiny body in an instant, impaling the Jinkouman up to her shoulder as it let out a disgusting squeal of pain. It clutched at the limb in apparent disbelief, completely stunned that something it had thought of as exhausted prey was able to do something like this.
With a grunt, she ripped her arm out of it and tossed it up into the air, a bubble of glowing ki already forming in her palm. Taking aim, she shot it upwards at the creature, blowing it to smithereens and snuffing its life out before it could utter so much as a noise of pain.
The other Jinkouman were taken back by their comrade’s sudden death, and Papri capitalized on that surprise. She shot towards another one, appearing behind it in a blur of movement, one arm raised high in the air.
“!” It gave a screech of surprise, turning to look at her, and the Saiyan swiped her hand downwards, slicing its head clean from its shoulders with a spray of bright blue blood. As it slumped down to the floor, she turned her attention to the one beside it and kicked it hard enough to pulverize its insides, killing it as it flew away from her towards the far wall.
Huffing in disgust that she had let these things almost get the better of her, the Saiyan turned to the remaining two Jinkouman, staring them down with an almost predatory gaze as they stared back at her in horror. She ran her tongue across her teeth, before spitting a fat glob of blood on the floor from the reopened injury she had received from Dessa, and giving them an anticipatory grin.
“Well?” She asked, raising her arms out in challenge, “Are you going to keep fighting me? Or are you just going to lay down and accept your fate like the rest of this trash?”
Her words had the intended effect on the creatures, enraging them as their feeble brains caught the insult. They looked at one another as if they were communicating something, before stepping close together in preparation for something. Papri raised an eyebrow as they bent down, closing their eyes, before grinning as bright white auras began to form around them as they gathered every bit of their ki. Papri’s scouter beeped, showing that their power levels were rising to their utmost limits, settling on the higher end of four thousand, just barely missing five.
“There we go!” She grinned, her own aura springing to life around her with the barest of will. It was just as large as theirs was despite the lack of effort she had put into forming it, “Good to see that even despite how much stronger you are than Saibamen, you are just as brave and stupid as they are! Make your last pathetic whimper of life a good one, alright?”
Angry veins pulsed on their heads at her words, and with twin screeches, they thrust their hands forward, sending two beams of yellow ki from their palms racing towards her. The beams mingled together in mid-air, becoming much larger as their energy joined and expanded far beyond what either of them were capable of alone. Papri grinned, practically feeling the difference in energy that they were capable of producing in comparison to her, and held her own hand out, bracing her wrist with the other hand as she gathered her ki between her fingers.
She eyed the beam approaching her, screaming across the length of the training room as she gathered her own ki. Sparks gathered in her palm, before coalescing into a glowing ball of purple that filled her hand and then some. She kept it there, waiting for the precise moment right before the Jinkouman’s attack was about to reach her and then, she let loose.
“HELL CANNON!’ She shouted the name of her attack as she released her hold on her own energy just the ki was about to crash into her. Immediately, a purple beam escaped her hand with enough force to move her backwards. It slammed into the Jinkouman’s shared ki and didn’t waver in the slightest as it began to push the nameless attack back towards them just as fast as it had approached her moments before.
Papri’s grin widened to the point of looking manic at the look of terror that appeared on their faces. She felt an incredible glee as the ki approached the terrified creatures, and couldn’t help the laugh that escaped her mouth as she added even more ki to her attack, the color of her ki deepening to a deep amethyst as it approached the Jinkouman, “DIE TRASH!”
Twin screeches rang out and were immediately silenced as her ki overwhelmed the Jinkouman. It slammed into them both and erupted into a massive plume of smoke and blue mist as it blew up the both of them on contact, the energy that they themselves were outputting working against them as it went out of control and erupted.
The shields of the room flared brightly as her attack continued forward and crashed into them and the Saiyan immediately cut the flow of ki into her attack, not wanting to accidentally overwhelm them and cause them to overload, even though she had a feeling that she wasn’t even capable of that.
The Saiyan slowly lowered her hand, her fingers still twitching with residual energy as she waited for the smoke her attack had left to clear completely. As it did, she grinned happily as she was met with a pair of twin scorch marks where the Jinkouman had once been standing, the creatures having been reduced to cinders by her attack.
Her ki settling, Papri looked around at the devastation she had wrought, taking in the numerous corpses left in the wake of her battle. She felt a great amount of glee that she had so thoroughly defeated these disgusting creatures, only for her lips to turn downwards as one of them twitched with life.
It was the first one she had attacked. It was groaning and trying to rise from its place slumped against the wall. Apparently she hadn't hit it hard enough to kill it instantly.
Deciding to rectify this, the Saiyan raised a hand and prepared to erase it from existence just like its brethren. Before she could however, a bright blue beam of ki shot just over her left shoulder piercing through the Jinkouman’s head and putting it out of its misery before she had a chance to.
Lowering her hand, Papri turned around to find Sadri pointing at the Jinkouman, his finger smoking slightly from his ki beam. He gave her a cheeky grin as he lowered his head , before looking around at the room and whistling lowly.
“Damn.” He said, sounding slightly impressed, “I knew that you Saiyans could be brutal, but this is something else. You really don't hold back, do you?”
Papri just shrugged, unsure of what to say, and he chuckled, stepping around the decapitated head of one of the Jinkouman, “I was about to call the whole thing off when you went down like you did, but I'm glad I didn't. That was some show you put on. I didn't even think you had that much energy in you.”
“Neither did I.” Papri said, bringing a hand up to rub her cheek. She looked down at the blood that streaks her glove and clenched her fist angrily, “I just got so pissed at myself for letting those things get the drop on me that I saw red. Next thing I knew, I was back on my feet and feeling stronger than ever with one of them impaled on my fist.”
Sadri raised any eyebrow, “Huh. I've heard of getting bloodlusted, but you Saiyans really take it to the next level, don't you?”
Papri just shrugged, not really sure what to say. Now that she wasn't fighting anymore, she felt oddly drained, like all of the fight filling her earlier had dissapeared in one fell swoop. It was weird, especially for someone who had spent her entire life wired and ready for combat at a moment's notice.
She didn't like it.
As she thought to herself, Sadri looked her over, taking in the cut on her cheek and the scuffs in her armor from where the Jinkouman had tried to claw her sides to pieces. His gaze moved higher and he frowned lightly as he took in the fresh electrical burns lining her neck from her collar.
“Come on.” Papri looked up at the man as he gestured with a hand towards the entrance of the room, “Let’s go see Rima and get you some med-packs for that cut and maybe those burns on your neck. Then I’ll submit the results of your test to the proper channels.”
Papri nodded, following after the man as he turned to leave. As they made their way towards the door though, she couldn't help but ask something that had been on her mind for a while, “Hey, so what was this test for, anyway? Nobody told me why I was doing it, they just told me I had to take it.”
“It’s a standard test that all of us had to take when we first arrived. It's meant to help assign your role on the ship and whether you'll remain a slave or become part of the actual crew.” Sadri explained, “People with power levels and combat skills above a certain threshold automatically make the cut and get their collars taken off the moment they prove themselves trustworthy. Othersise, you're stuck with it until you hit that threshold.”
Papri looked over at him, almost afraid to ask, “And? Am I strong enough to get mine taken off?”
“Hmm… let’s see, your power level topped out at a little over twenty-two thousand back there during your little tantrum while you were being dogpiled.” He mused aloud, causing her to shoot her head towards him in shock, “It’d normally be impressive for a Saiyan, but since you’re classified as a Mutant, it becomes a lot less so. Your results might be different.”
There was that word again. “Mutant?” Papri asked, “I’ve heard that word before. When I first got out of the pod. What does it mean?”
Sadri turned to look at her in surprise, “Really? Nobody’s told you yet?”
Papri frowned, “Everyone I talk to either wants to kill me because I’m a Saiyan or just flat-out ignores me. I can’t exactly just walk up to some random person in the canteen and just ask.” Not unless she wanted to get into another fight at least.
“Eh, give them some time and they’ll eventually warm up to you. They warmed up to Dessa, after all.” Even as she shot him a confused look, Sadri didn’t explain what he meant by that, instead making a thinking face, “As for what a Mutant is… the way it was explained to me was, ‘an anomalously strong member of a specific race with altered physical traits.’ Basically, you’re much stronger than an average Saiyan and have different features too. Like your eyes, or your tail.”
Papri looked down at her black tail which was curled tightly around her waist. She had wondered about that and her eyes when she was a child, knowing from her limited time on Vegeta that Saiyans usually had brown tails regardless of hair color as well as black eyes instead of orange, but she hadn’t found anything about it on her database and as such, hadn’t really given it much thought beyond that.
“The entire Cold family are Mutants and so is Orishi.” Sadri continued, causing Papri’s eyes to widen, “That’s why they’re so strong, though clearly Lord Cooler and his brother got a little more than most. Those two could probably wipe out the galaxy if they actually went at it for long enough from what I hear.”
She was… like Orishi? Like Frieza? Papri looked down at her hands, clenching her fists tightly, not sure how to take the information. Even though the greater part of her was elated that she could likely become stronger than any Saiyan who had ever lived, maybe even strong enough to even defeat Frieza for what he had done to her race, the knowledge that she owed her potential to something that made them alike didn’t sit right with her.
Still, if it made her more powerful, Papri wasn’t going to reject this part of herself. She wouldn’t be a real Saiyan if she did. She’d accept it and use it to become even stronger. For her parents. For all of those that Frieza had killed.
Sadri was oblivious to her resolution, having continued speaking as she thought to herself, “...-said that like, point-two or three percent of all sentient beings are Mutants because of something that happened in their ancestry? I don’t really get it myself. Rima can tell you more when we get to her.” Sadri said, shrugging his shoulders before a hesitant look came over his face, “ But-uh… let me do the talking when we get there, alright? She hates being bothered unless it's an emergency.”
“This isn’t an emergency.” Papri commented as she followed behind the man, leaving the training room and the bloody corpses inhabiting it behind. Was someone going to have to clean that up?
Sadri gave her a grin, “True. But I like messing with her and I know how bored she gets in there. Even for a Visurii, spending weeks straight doing nothing but checking vitals and writing paperwork is mind-numbing. She doesn’t even have a holopad to watch movies on. Says it's too ‘distracting’. Pfft, right. Like she can’t do a thousand things at once on a bad day. I don’t know how much processing power that body of hers has, but it’s at least ten times better than the Vistri’s onboard AI.”
Papri had no idea what a holo-pad was, but before she could ask, Sadri’s words registered in her mind, and with them, an idea began to form. A solution to the problem that Buri had caused. The loss of her closest companion for over a decade.
She didn’t have any of the materials needed to even bring Bot back online, but Visurii were biomechanical beings. Basically AI inhabiting a body that was made of more wires and metal than it was actual meat and flesh. Since that was the case, perhaps Rima had the supplies she didn’t and could help her. And maybe she could help Papri find a more permanent place for Bot’s own AI to take up residence while she was at it. Something more durable than a scouter, or possibly even a body of his own.
It was a long shot, but at the very least she might be able to point Papri in the direction of some supplies that she could use if she didn’t have them herself.
“Something wrong?” Sadri broke her out of her thoughts and Papri looked up to find him staring at her curiously. She stared at him for a moment, debating on letting him into her thoughts, but ultimately decided not to. She had just met the man and though he seemed friendly, that could easily be a facade. There was no reason for him to know.
“...No. It’s nothing.” Papri said curtly, causing him to blink. She picked up the pace slightly, somewhat recognizing this part of the ship, at least enough to find the way to the Med Bay from here, “Lets go. I’ve got my own questions for Rima.”