>>5600793Inevitably the scrawled depiction of your little orange protegee appears in your vision all too happy to begin sketching out the exciting exchange of fire she just witnessed.
“Birds were pretty, Dal! Pretty go BOOM!” Peedee gushes as she begins to manifest her personal rendition of the long range counterbattery interception.
“Peedee’s birds made lotsa smaller FASTER birds. Went WHOOSH an’ BOOM an’ caught the bad birds! But most bad birds got past.” She seems downcast for a brief moment before giggling wheezily.
“Kekeheh… but then Peedee threw even MORE birds! They go boom soon!” She finishes her drawing with a flourish and nods in proud satisfaction.
“Good work, little guy.” You sigh, eyes closed and rubbing the bridge of your nose to stave off a headache. “You can just use your normal avatar if you like, no need to keep up the pretence anymore.”
“Um… ‘kay. If Dal doesn’t mind anymore.” She replies quietly, her form quickly morphing into her usual wraithlike appearance.
The incongruence of seeing her like this on your ship proper instead of inside the strange liminal space of the ships systems is jarring to say the least, but the little tyke has the grace to appear slightly abashed. FoZ was right… she was already here in your mind all along.
You turn to the engineer, preparing to deliver the verdict of his experiment only to find him staring silently, the unnatural blue glint once more in his eyes. His unblinking gaze staring directly at Peedee’s hovering form.
“Fascinating,” he breathes, “my hearing was indeed not mistaken earlier.”
Before you can even begin to process this turn of events your thoughts are interrupted by a shout from above.
“STATUS CHANGE!” Eyes-of-Night’s translated alto voice calls out for attention, the harsh edge of her native screech underpinning the cry.
“New TFA contacts, Light Cruiser class, bearing 017 mark 9 and 351 mark 23 , range 300 light seconds.” You hear her continue.
What will you do?
>No time to solve the current mystery, you need to take charge of the situation immediately. <span class="mu-b">By the Book recommends this action.</span>>Working out what’s happening with FoZ takes priority. You need to know what insight prompted his request and work out how he can see Peedee. <span class="mu-r">May alert Guard.</span>>You suspect FoZ may know what’s going on here, but you fear acknowledging it will alert the Guardian AI. Return to the bridge with FoZ so that you can keep an eye on the situation, while leaving your XO to handle the details. Maybe you can guess or ask for hints. (Write in.) <span class="mu-r">May still alert Guard depending on your subtlety.</span>>Something else. Write in. 