The Butterfly Effect (Formerly Caprica)

[Nelle Kozera]

Ashland Starport, in orbit of Caprica

2734

The hustle of the customs deck of the Ashland starport which was owned by Sky Dragon Innovations was as busy as ever. It was the off season and still over four thousand people came through this entrance alone. The people that ran this place called themselves holders of the gate. Each one of them hated their jobs but they did it because it paid extremely well, and…no one else wanted the job. Andrew Magellan, an otter sat at one of these desks. Haven just got off his break it was something of annoyance right now to be sitting here. Most other worlds had Beta level AI’s for this job, but on Caprica it was regulated to actual people. This made sure that some people that shouldn’t get through don’t slip by because of some hidden technological skill. “NEXT!” He yelled as he opened his booth. He touched the organic display.

Like many other structures in the Galactic Systems Alliance, the Ashland Starpart held many organic features. The internal structures of the station seemed more like bone, the walls had a flesh tone to it, though it was bio synthetic connective tissue that similar prosperities metals. The floor was still metal. It was obsidian black a contrast to the flesh tones of the wall.

The booth in which he sat in was made of similar material to that of the super structure, bone with flesh/metal walls. There was Star-Diamond composite windows between Andrew and the rest of the people. He opened his mic again. “Did I studder? NEXT!”

[Brome Teks]

Darien approaches the customs booth. He sighs, his thick tail wagging behind him. .o( Note to self: do not owe anybody favors in the future. Especially if they are scheduled to be on the away team at the next stop...)

He stops in front of the customs booth. .o( Crap, I don't remember the customs briefing... better just wing it.) "Ahm, good day to you."

[Nelle Kozera]

"Hello, welcome to the Ashland Customs processing area." Andrew said, "What can i do for you today?" He asked, the otter that had approached him had been civil so far, unlike so many of the other people that came through this port on the average day but he still wished he could be else where. One thing that surprised him was that there were so few people coming into his booth today, that or the majority of the ships that came in today where military ships. Outside the near by window a a grey hull passed the window...

[Brome Teks]

"Yes, I, uh, wish to enter the space port. I have all the customs files here..." He pats his tote-bag. "..both hard copies and digital." .o( I sure do hope I'm doing this right...)

"I am here with the Starship Decorah, a vessel controlled by the FCD..." He trails off as he looks at the passing ship through a window. .o( Fascinating, all these other ships here. I wonder if I could get a look at any of the hardware running those things...)

[Nelle Kozera]

"Alright, transfer the digital files over...." He said tapping a few commands on to his organic interface. "And place your paw here..." He pointed to a paw shaped outline just on the outside of the booth window. Once that was complete, he noticed that no one else had come down his section yet. He saw that the other otter was a little star struck by the ship that passed by..."Like ships do you?" He asked..."You an engineer?"

[Brome Teks]

Darien transfers the files and puts his paw on the pad. After the customs agent asks his question, he snaps back to the now. "What? Oh, yes. I was the second in command of our engineering section," he says, not noticing anything odd about there being no one else around. But hey, he's an engineer, not a customs official.

[Nelle Kozera]

"Well, everything is in order, and thanks for make my job easy for once..." He said pressing the pad that scanned his own paw. It opened the door to the right of the Customs booth. "Enjoy your stay on Caprica, seeing as your an engineer i suggest you take a swing down by the tourist center of the Sky Dragon Innovations lobby...its filled lots of models for many of their their award winning models." He said, "One rule, though that will do you well, don't disturb any Theta you see if it looks irritated..." He smiled, "Have fun..."

Outside another ship passed by, a different model than the first, it was slightly longer as well. Inside the new lobby it ceiling was a dome. Because of the way the station was aligned with Caprica, the green oceans of Caprica could be seen plainly as well as the massive land masses. Fourteen billion people lived on Caprica, while lights from the major floating cities, that rode the oceans of the world could be seen. "Welcome to the Ashland space station, if you wish to travel to the Caprican surface please take the space elevator or an authorized shuttle..." To the otter's left was the Sky Dragon Innovations tourist center...

[Brome Teks]

Darien shrugs and passes through. He looks around soon spotting the tourist center. .o( May as well take that guy's advice...) He enters the center and looks around, specifically for books about the star ships or models.

[Nelle Kozera]

'Award Winning Star Ship Models of 2733...' Was on of the titles that appeared for download. "Hey sir you need something..." A canine that ran the tourist center said as he noticed the otter.

[Brome Teks]

Darien Turns around. "Oh, yes, how much does it cost to download this title?" He indicates the 'Award winning star ship models of 2733...' file, putting on a smile.

[Nelle Kozera]

"Oh yes, twenty credits good sir, and she's all yours..." He said with a soft disarming smile. "What brings you to Caprica today?" The canine asked, he was wearing casual wear with soft deck shoes...

[Brome Teks]

"Okay then..." He digitally transfers the sum over. .o( Good thing the prep crew gives us some of their money to spend... )

He looks back up to the canine. "Oh, I'm here to get a feel for the place to prepare the rest of the crew. Not usually my job, but I owed someone a favor..."

[Nelle Kozera]

"Everyone loses a bet every now and then..." He said, "Well enjoy your stay, Shuttles are that way..." He pointed towards on of the area to the very far left. "And that leads to the space elevator...Shuttle is quicker but the elevator is free. " He said with a smile before walking off. Another ship flew by the glass dome, this ones slower than the ones that come before. The Grey hull had the name Shadow's Thunder stenciled on the hull of the ship. This ship was extremely well known as it was the ship that was owned by the owner of Sky Dragon Innovations, one of the Cartwright family.

[Cobalt3924]

(I guess I had better start.)

Kai'Sera slowly wandered through the Tourist Center, looking through a small Starmap she had just purchased. She was looking over a small constelation of 6 stars on the outer rims: the 6 stars that made up her home: the Rakai Empire.

She sighed in longing, as this was the furthest she had been away from her home, but because of a small dispute with her former pilot: she was stuck on the station without transport for about three days. She wandered through the station aimlessly, nose buried in the hologram until she accidentally bumped into darien.

"Oh! I'm sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going."

[Brome Teks]

Edit: Didn't see your post

Darien bumps into the other alien. "Oh, excuse me..." He says. He looks over the alien.

"Uh, it's all right, I wasn't looking where I was going either." He takes a long gaze back out at the other starship before turning back to the alien in front of him. "My name's Darien."

[Cobalt3924]

"Umm, Kai'Sera Tre'Kara. It's nice to meet you."

She gently shook the aliens hand.

[Jett]

A doberman in a Caprican law enforcement uniform walked up to the female and Darien without assessing the situation first.

"Is there a problem here?" he barked, one paw on his cryo-night stick. He was sick of all of the petty crime he had faced that day. One attempted robbery, one mugging which left a cat without an ear... Didn't the people get it? This was CAPRICA! He had thought his job would have been a lot easier, like it used to be, but here lately...he had to adopt a new policy, which was shoot first and ask questions lately. His sharp teeth could be seen below his muzzle. His sleek uniform showed off his agile, strong body.

"You're not exchanging credits for an incident without reporting it are you?" he assumed.

[Cobalt3924]

A doberman in a Caprican law enforcement uniform walked up to the female and Darien without assessing the situation first.

"Is there a problem here?" he barked, one paw on his cryo-night stick. He was sick of all of the petty crime he had faced that day. One attempted robbery, one mugging which left a cat without an ear... Didn't the people get it? This was CAPRICA! He had thought his job would have been a lot easier, like it used to be, but here lately...he had to adopt a new policy, which was shoot first and ask questions lately. His sharp teeth could be seen below his muzzle. His sleek uniform showed off his agile, strong body.

"You're not exchanging credits for an incident without reporting it are you?" he assumed.

"No! No, we just bumped into each other." Kai'Sera said quickly.
Unlike her twin brother Suru'Kai, who was the Rakai Empires greatest warrior and Warmaster, She would avoid armed conflict at every opportunity. For being Identical Twins, they were as different as you could imagine.

[Jett]

The doberman's badge gleamed, "Chet Loi Chiot".

"You're sure then?" he asked, looking to Darien for confirmation. He leaned back, reading both their faces to see if he could sniff out a hint of deception. If anything he would ask his otter friend at the gate.

"I don't want any trouble out of either one of you while in this sector." He then relaxed and gave Kai'Sera a once over. "Wait a second, don't I know you?"

When Chet had been at university he had studied almost every recorded empire in the history which was building up to the New Era, and in some of those studies, specifics had been made on the rarest of occasions, something about twins, possibly? A boy and a girl... One of which had been a warmonger, but he could not be sure.

"Ra..." he whispered his thoughts, trying to process the information, but there was too much and the idea slipped past him, though he still waited for a response or explaination from both of them.

[Cobalt3924]

The doberman's badge gleamed, "Chet Loi Chiot".

"You're sure then?" he asked, looking to Darien for confirmation. He leaned back, reading both their faces to see if he could sniff out a hint of deception. If anything he would ask his otter friend at the gate.

"I don't want any trouble out of either one of you while in this sector." He then relaxed and gave Kai'Sera a once over. "Wait a second, don't I know you?"

When Chet had been at university he had studied almost every recorded empire in the history which was building up to the New Era, and in some of those studies, specifics had been made on the rarest of occasions, something about twins, possibly? A boy and a girl... One of which had been a warmonger, but he could not be sure.

"Ra..." he whispered his thoughts, trying to process the information, but there was too much and the idea slipped past him, though he still waited for a response or explaination from both of them.

"Umm... No, I've never met you before. I barely know anyone around here; I've never been this far into the galaxy before."
She was truely scared of this Doberman: not for intimidation, but because she just wanted to be left alone.

"I'm, erm... Heading back home and I got stuck here for almost three days now. I bought this Starmap so that I knew where to go next and I accidentally bumped into Darien here." She said nervously, holding up the star map, which still had the 6 planets of the Rakai Empire showing.

[BIos_Reaper]

A short distance from the main Caprican orbital docking facility a spacial anomaly occurred, a small rift, similar to a wormhole yet a whole lot more stable and controlled opened up, permitting a single, sleek, but somewhat large vessel to slip through and decelerate to norm-space within seconds of leaving fold-space.

The vessel could have been a frigate class, only it was about 60 meters above the regular 390 meter classes usually associated with frigates. The hull was elongated with boxy, robotic sections, gradually thickening out towards its back were it's proportionally large engines resided, being the biggest part of the ship yet not grossly so.

It´s color was a gleaming metallic white and black, with green LED emittion lights at sporadic intervals. The ship was odd in that it emitted no head as it's engines powered up, instead a gentle haze of purple-colored particles was left behind in it's wake which dissipated seconds later.

As it approached the station some of it's sensors would be scrambled but only for a second before clamps latched onto it's drives to reduce the particle emissions by half. The letters carefully marked with holographic blue letters were SSV R1 Savant.

"This SSV R1 Savant of the T'Kayan Alliance requesting a vector and a birth." The ships primary AVI spoke, receiving a somewhat stuttering reply afterwards from orbital control. "Docking a-access granted Savant, p-please proceed to dock 433, h-have a pleasant stay here at Caprica!"

T'Kayan vessels were rare as hell to see, especially military grade heavy frigates.

Docking with the space station within it's numerus special hangars it awaited patiently for the docking clamps to secure and bring the ship in, mooring it so to speak safely, the docking clamp attaching itself to an exterior hatch-like blast door made evident by the presence of holographic indications on the exterior hull.

"Preparing to disembark. Checking equipment... Ready to disembark. The lead pilot of the vessel spoke as the blast-door hatch opened slowly with the hiss of powerful hydraulics. What stepped out of the ship and into the hallway of the docking ramp was a light brown, medium and dark brown colored canine, his hair was spiky but kept tidy, his fingers, toes and eartips were a dark brown and his tail was short and bushy and always standing up.

He appeared to be naked, yet if checked closely there was a reason for this. On his ankles were large metallic, almost robotic components, same went for his hips, forearms, shoulders, some part of his chest, cheeks and the sides of his head. Heat-exhaust port vents and extra-air intake systems.

Green LED lights on each blinked a few times before becoming solid, his glowing green eyes eyes pupils narrowed and dialated mix-max individually like self-sufficient automatic optical cameras, a black lining around his iris' confirming that this indeed, was no living entity. His fur was short and showed off his lithe but toned exterior frame. Stepping, without so much as a sound down the corridor, following instructions relayed to him from the Savants central navigation system to the lobby he entered the Otters customs lobby booth within minutes.

Despite being seemingly naked, the new arrivals artificial status meant nothing exterior, such as genitalia was visible at all though hopefully his apparent nakedness would not cause undue discomfort the customs officer. "Greetings entry officer, good day to you. " If anything was known about T'Kayans though, it was that they were extremely polite and didn't make uneccesary small talk.

[Brome Teks]

"N-no, there are no problems here, officer..." He says nervously, looking to the doberman and alien he just bumped in to.

Darien then notices the wormhole open up from a window. .o( Oh, is some one using one of our step-through generators?) He watches as the ship arrives and a member of it's crew disembarks.

[Jett]

"Well good," Chet nodded his head to Darien, and then he got a good look at the map, and, seeing the names of the planets, everything clicked. "Yes, now I know where I know you from... You're from the Rakai Empire aren't you?"

He barked twice, his canine side taking over only momentarily. He then seemed to regain his composure. "What are you doing so far from home? And...don't you have a brother?"

Though he sounded fierce in his interrogation, Chet was actually very interested in meeting this war master. So much so that he did not notice the slight blip in the sky going across his radar.

[Nelle Kozera]

The Dock next the T'Kayan vessel was the dock that was reserved for the Shadow's Thunder. The comically small vessel barely made the frigate classification at 170 meters. Yet the dock officials made it seem like something was up. Once the ship had come into dock, four thetas came from through the docking bay door first. Theta where an offshoot from one of the GSA advanced Bio organic weapons program. Each one was a sentient liveing being, and also a living weapon. Each one was reminiscent of a cross between a centaur, and several insectiod and reptilian species. Each one had six insect legs, and four organic blade, each blade could tear through armor like tissue paper. But the program had the unintended result of creating an intelligent being, as a reslut they where give citizen status in the GSA. Each one of the Theta determined the area was clear, with three to stand guard one went back to fetch their tenant.

A moment later an anthropomorphic dragon with ivory colored scales followed the last theta. He was about just under two meters tall, making him seem little compared to the three meter tall thetas that accompanied him. And one that got a look at him would had recognized him as one the Cartwright Dynasty. He was owner of Sky Dragon Innovations. Though his purpose here was unknown for the moment....

[Brome Teks]

Darien looks over to Kai'Sera. "Well, um... I'll let you two alone." He nervously backs away from the Doberman and alien and makes his way towards a visitor map of the station. "Elevator... elevator..." He mutters as he looks over the map. He takes a casual glance back towards the docks and the large disembarking group.

"Oh boy..." He looks over the huge, sharp looking aliens, feeling a shiver go down his spine.

[Cobalt3924]

"Well good," Chet nodded his head to Darien, and then he got a good look at the map, and, seeing the names of the planets, everything clicked. "Yes, now I know where I know you from... You're from the Rakai Empire aren't you?"

He barked twice, his canine side taking over only momentarily. He then seemed to regain his composure. "What are you doing so far from home? And...don't you have a brother?"

Though he sounded fierce in his interrogation, Chet was actually very interested in meeting this war master. So much so that he did not notice the slight blip in the sky going across his radar.

Kai'Sera looked quite surprised at this and relaxed a bit: She didn't think that anyone knew of the Empire this far from the outer rim.

"Umm, Yes. Ra's where I'm originally from, and yes, I do have a Brother. Suru'Kai Tre'Kara; the Rakai Empires Warmaster. I came this far because I was hoping to find him in his Exile. I heard a whisper that he was somewhere in this Sector, but by the time I got here; I got a message that he managed to get home to Ra."

[Nelle Kozera]

The group of thetas and the anthropomorphic dragon make their way over to the canine officer. "Um..do you have a reason to be bother her...though i maybe mistaken, there seems to be no reason to antagonize her?" The male dragon was well known to the police force on Caprica, seeing as his company financed the majority police force for the planet, along with the other companies that used Caprica as their corporate head quarters. "So do you wish to explain to me this little incident...?" He looked over towards Kai'Sera, "And you, i didn't think a Rakaian this far in Alliance territory...its unheard of till now..."

[Cobalt3924]

The group of thetas and the anthropomorphic dragon make their way over to the canine officer. "Um..do you have a reason to be bother her...though i maybe mistaken, there seems to be no reason to antagonize her?" The male dragon was well known to the police force on Caprica, seeing as his company financed the majority police force for the planet, along with the other companies that used Caprica as their corporate head quarters. "So do you wish to explain to me this little incident...?" He looked over towards Kai'Sera, "And you, i didn't think a Rakaian this far in Alliance territory...its unheard of till now..."

"Umm, It's not Rakaian. It's just Rakai." Kai'Sera muttered nervously.

"I just bought this StarMap and I accidentally bumped into Darien here."

[Nelle Kozera]

The otter saw the new person heading his way and pushed his face into his paws in an flustered manor..."I hate my job..." He mouthed to himself waiting until the guy with bionic parts made his way to his booth. Putting on the best official face he could muster he said. "Welcome to the Ashland Customs desk, how can i help you today?" It come out much better than he expected, one thing that annoyed him was that he seemed to get the oddest of people that came through the Starport, so far he had got people from two nations so insignificant he didn't know of there existence till today. And yesterday he dealt wish some people strung out on ice dust....

[BIos_Reaper]

Detecting elevated undue stress patterns in the male Otters speech the AVI determined that he did not approve of his professions tediously long hours and customer service requirements.
Situational analysis indicated the Otter was in need of a stress reliever, an expedient endeavor with minimal small-talk might be the trigger required to ease his day a little.

"Greetings organic. I am AVI Avatar 246 A/YT-1200 Seitei, canid ver. I am here, in partial, on behalf of the T'Kayan Alliance otherwise known to us as VECTOR.

I am here in partial for business, in partial for pleasure, I have all necessary credentials stored mnemonically, as well as base information about VECTOR this worlds Government might find interesting. I have no luggage to check in, only myself. Thank you for your time. "

While it appeared the machine had not noticed the interior decor, Seitei was abuzz with analysis programs, determining the walls to be of actual biological matter, even the customs officer interface terminal was organic, clearly this "GSA" was in possession of highly advanced biotechnology, but it appeared to lack robotic technologies of comparable levels of advancement.