Valorum turned around in his chair slightly at the sound of Dhanyl's tinny, synthesized voice, appearing unsurprised.

"Ah. Excellent initiative, brother."

(A thought occurs to Dhanyl; if he comes from a race of black-clad androids with orange glowing parts who live on black-clad ships with orange glowing parts, then this might not be the first time Valorum had to take notice of a hitherto camouflaged crew-member.)

" ah nothing in particular"

With the entrance of liam, Mantovani felt a sense of relief. 'finally he's here' he thought to himself whilst turning his attention away from a cube he was examining. It did not take him long to realise what he appeared to be doing. the colour drained out of his face and he dropped the small bronzed cube back into the box at his feet.

Snapping upright from the hunched position he held prior, mantovani calmed himself with few steady breaths. He turned to face Liam, a friendly smile worn on his face.

"may i introduce myself. my name is Mantovani-HB7-Laboran. I am an IT technician aboard this ship."

Mantovani gave a polite bow. Manners are very important for first impressions, not to mention he had to make up for any ideas interpreted from his rummaging.

"i must apologise for being in your room whilst you were away and rooting through your possessions. I was waiting for your return and was enamoured by the great variety and craftsmanship of your devices.

 as for the reason i am here, i would like to request your assistance with a project I'm planning."

 “Ah, hello,” said Liam, “I’m Liam, Liam Kantari, nice to meet you.” He saw Mantovani bow and gave an awkward one back. “Uh, it’s okay, just don’t touch anything that’s powered on at the moment. And what about this project? I am interested, though I don’t know whether I can help very much or not.” He pointed to the crate of worms, “If it involves me doing anything, I can’t really do much until Laudmas gets here...But! If it’s just taking stuff, just take anything from that box.” He pointed to a box next to his table that was full of metal pieces. “It’s full of stuff just waiting to be used. Nuts, bolts, more bolts, metal plates, you name it!”

Rolak, having entered the room with Laudmas, is leaning against the far wall and absently spinning an unlit cigarette between his fingers.

For his part, Valorum presses a button on the captain's chair, causing the bridge's main console to project a holographic display of what parts of the ruins were mapped out; the entrance with the disabled turrets, the long elevator shaft, the main hall, and the several small side-rooms that were searched. Adjusting the map with his controls and highlighting as necessary, Valorum explained.

"The ground team approached the surfaced portion of the Endless structure and managed to unlock the front-door and disengage a secondary energy shield. Beyond that was an entrance hall, lined with disabled automated defences which pointed inward towards a lift. Going down that lift, the ground team entered this main hall and split up."

"However, the whole ruin had apparently been made into a sanctum by the indigenous worms, which cut our expedition short, as seen in our unfortunately incomplete map. We did encounter a reactivated guardian of the ruins and managed to disable it, and Brother Laudmas and Dhanyl also managed to find a live specimen of said worms and great store of data-drives respectively, all of which is now aboard the Saviour. In summary, all members of the ground team returned unharmed, and we have a great many objects to probe for answers."

The door to sleeping quarters room 02 opened with a short hiss. Mantovani stepped into the room still examining his small sculpture. the room was long, holding 4 bunk beds which were all bolted to the long wall section opposite to where Mantovani had entered.  At the far end of the room a group of deck hands, engineers and a cook sat in a circle around a crate playing cards. They were yelling and laughing at each other; telling stories, complaining about work and drinking alcohol.

they were having fun and enjoying eachothers company...loudly.

too loudly.

Mantovani exhaled and approached his locker, neatly patterned with gold and green patterns, patterns made by a member of the greatest species of course. They were irregular and a little misshapen, ' an effect caused by the clash between the horatio and pilgrim designs' was Mantovani's main excuse. He calmly opened his locker and took out a pair of silvery earbuds, before placing the statuette on a metal shelf next to his bunk, which was already burgeoning with trinkets and small photo sized pieces of artwork. the statuette wasnt finished yet but he needed to rest, he could feel sleepiness biting at the sides of his consciousness.

The group playing cards nearby started murmering to eachother following Mantovani's entrance.

A lumeris stood up and shouted to him.

"Hey hort, wanna play a game of cards before you tick out?"

Mantovani put on a weak smile and facedd the lumeris.

"no thank you, im a little too tired for card games"

"what! Mr master race is too tired for poker?"

"yes"

the lumeris was taken aback by the statement, he expected more snide combacks from him. Looking to the other members of the group, he eventually shrugged.

"suite yourself..."

Mantovani slipped the buds into his ears and crawled into his bunk to catch some sleep before he worked his next shift. The buds neutralized the sound of the rabble. 

silence, perfect.

Mantovani let himself fall asleep.

"I'm hardly thrilled at the prospect myself, Sister."

Valorum spoke up from his chair, his voice level, but stern and informative; like an instructor patiently reminding his student.

"However, we are a scientific mission. It is our duty to explore and probe the mysteries in our path, and these worms are a part of the larger puzzle that is Tanye II. To ignore such an opportunity is no less than anathema to this mission."

Then he turned to Dhanyl and Laudmas and points with an authoritative finger, his voice lowering into a register suited for a solemn promise;

"Having said that, I made my case on the shuttle; take every precaution you can with all of our artefacts. The worm poses obvious dangers, but there could also be ancient, complex viruses in those drives, and the guardian could reawaken and become violent if mistreated. Remember; no matter what becomes a danger, if my crew is threatened, I will personally take responsibility and destroy it. Is that understood?"

Dhanyl wasn't too familiar with these 'safety measures' the captain spoke off, seeing that this was his first time serving on a vessel not under triumvirate command, and it had to be said that Sophons weren't the most careful race, what with blowing their own moon up and all that.

Of course, he couldn't let that show. It'd be embarrassing, to say the least. After all, it seemed to be quite a big deal.  He'd simply have to look up some of these measures later and try to do his best.

"Yes sir, I'll even wash my hands after operating of any of the biological samples. Speaking of which, I'm sure they'll hardly grow fast enough to make their size a reasonable concern. We'll be done with them before they reach the size of a Sinturian Wandlorf."

Valorum's gaze lingers on Dhanyl for a moment, as if he is trying to read the Sophon through his suit, before he nods:

"So shall it be; you are charged with the containment and research of our gathered artefacts. Work with diligence."

The Vodyani returns his gaze to the rest of the assembled crew, propping his glaive up beside his seat and lacing his fingers together in front of him.

"From that matter, there is little else to report. The worms reaction to our intrusion was...destructive, so it is likely the ruins are mere rubble now. Suffice it to say that we will not be returning to Tanye II any time soon, but we have what we need. Now it is just a matter of learning what we can from those artefacts and being proactive aboard the Saviour in the meantime."

Turning his head slightly to adjust his field of vision, the captain asks:

"Sister Skeler? A probe was dispatched to Tanye I's moon, yes?"

A sweet melody filled the air. the tingling of metal instruments like the smell of roses on a spring morning. however such things are relative, and as much as roses smell nice to us , to a fly the stench of a heap of dung is a far more appealing thing. Mantovani was experiencing something similar to this, although in the opposite direction.

the song was meant to be a soothing alternative to the harsh, violent screeching of beeping alarm clock. But as it turns out everything sounds terrible and annoying as an alarm. Mantovani tore out his earbuds and threw them across the room, distancing himself rather literally from the sound. he rubbed his eyes which were still groggy with sleep. pulling himself out of his bunk he approached his mirror and washed his face with fabric pads soaked in all kinds of sanitizing chemicals.

rows of poorly made pictures and similar pieces of artwork glared at him from the shelf adjacent to his bed; he returned the glare albeit with tired eyes. his hand reached up to the statuette he was working on earlier and snatched it from the shelf. with a yawn he walked over to the earbuds and pressed a symbol on the side, turning off the persistent music. he checked to see if he had the 'sculpting' gloves in this pocket, which they were. finally a retrieved a vial of dust from his locker and headed for his workstation.

He arrived a few minutes later and immediately put all the gathered items on his stool. without wasting a second he also turned to 'his' coffee machine and pressed the botton for tea. returning to his stool he moved the items to his desk and activated his computer before sitting down ; the holographic display all to familiar and boring. the coffee machine let out at ping and Mantovani leaned back to retrieved his tea.

"*sigh* i hate routine check ups" 

He set to work on the statuette and read through the files. breaking frequently to take sips of tea or to scroll or swipe across on the screen.