Space Opera: Is that a blaster in your pocket or are you...oh, it IS a blaster...
 

"Artemis, we're about to jump." Metal curves slid out from the overlaid circle on the wall, a lightly pulsating orb showing through. "Artemis?" The metal curves slid back in, only allowing a sliver of the light to shine through. As the light intensified the metal moved aside slowly, the luminesence scanning the room's contents. As it passed over the various tools, discarded inventions, gadgets, cot, desk, unconcious Slee, papers...
The metal slid bakc and now the light changed, projecting instead of glowing. A perfect sphere emerged above the sleeping inventor. Machines are physically incapable of sighing but the sphere gave it the best shot possible. After a few seconds of manipulating the gravity generators the room's lighter contents began to hover over their resting places, then returned with the reintroduction of the artificial force, some of them noisier than others.
The orange tint, Artemis's natural indication of rest, quickly went purple as his arms flailed through JEN's default state. The orb waited as patiently as a holographic representation of a supercomputer could wait.
"I didn't know I programmed a sighing command."
"You didn't, that's my evolutionary adaptation." The orb pulsed with every word. Artemis had programmed the ability for each distinct user to have a different holographic JEN, but he never got around to changing his personal unit. "We are about to jump."
"I coulda slept through it."
"I have the coordinates locked in, travel time should be less than an hour. Should I alert the others?"
"Yes, of course. But if they're sleeping let them lie."
The orb nodded as well as a sphere could and promptly disappeared. Artemis looked around his room/lab and sighed. He had spent a good chunk of time making his mess personal.

Raine sighed as she looked over her workbench, rubbing her head in thought as she stared at a messwork of hundreds of tiny parts. The small etherasteel box nearby lay open, exposing the layers of durafoam that the parts used to lie in. The label on the top-right indicated that the contents was a "DI-Dynamic Weapons Systems Personal Defense Unit" which, in Raine's terms, was a "Make your own lazer pistol kit." She had just gotten around to working on this one after she lost her previous sidearm on Lorima V.

The lights were dim, besides the gentle low glow of Raine's luminescent skin, and her left eyepiece's dull aqua technical readout text. She reached for a barrel-aperture optic, and gently inserted it into the Pistol's casing, which was being held in place above the workbench by a repulsorfield third-hand device.

Just as Raine had finished setting the new lens, A glowing, holographic mouth appeared on the corner of her workbench, nearly tripling the amount of ambient light in the room, and nearly blinding Raine's sensitive eyes. She squinted at the hologram in frustration,

"Yes JEN? Can't you see I'm working? Could have killed me if I was further into this project." The Gloaming stated dryly.

"Ah. Yes..." the JEN hologram replied, feigning caring, "Well, I believe you should know that we are about to jump."

"Jump? Now?" Raine sighed, looking at her workbench, "Give me a few minutes to pack up. Some of this stuff is fragile, or worse, volatile..."

"Very well then." JEN said, flickering out of existance.

Raine let out another sigh, and began carefully replacing her new weapon's parts into their container.

Robert put his datapad down on his bedside table and looked up as one of JEN's many interfaces popped out of the wall of his rather spartan quarters. A heartbeat later, the holographic interface flickered into existence. The orb waited a moment for Robert to acknowledge its' presence, then spoke. "We'll be jumping in a few minutes sir."

Robert nodded. "Thanks for the heads-up. What's the travel time?"

"Less than an hour sir," JEN cocked its sphere sideways, adopting an almost quizzical expression. "Perhaps you would like to know the current meterological conditions at our destination sir? Or the best restaurant? If so, I will answer your queries. If not, am I free to continue my rounds?"

Robert waved a hand, chuckling at JEN's response. "Go on about your business. Just try not to shake the ship apart around me when we jump."

JEN nodded, and then moved on, the holographic representation fading away. Robert stretched and silently thanked Artemis for giving the crew the ability to customize their own JEN interface. Robert had changed one or two things, but overall he had left the original 'personality' of the JEN unit intact. It was insolent and insulting, but it was usually pretty good company. Robert stretched and retrieved his datapad from the bedside table. As he did, his hand brushed over the grip of his blaster pistol, which he kept near him at all times. Ignoring it for the moment, he retrieved the datapad, found his place, and resumed reading.

Raze'el sits alone at the time... on the bridge, behind the navigational panels.

Although not a pilot -- at least, not that anyone can tell -- the crew's known for some time that he likes to spend hours on end at times on the bridge during the crew's normal resting and sleeping periods, just observing the many panels and readouts, and occasionally accessing the ship's computer library. His eyes stare blankly ahead as numbers upon numbers scroll by, flickering over the dull starmap displayed, when JEN appears out of an interface to his right, the orb orange to represent important information.

We are preparing to jump.

Raze'el's face remains emotionless as he faces it, but he then shuts his eyes and nods, once. "I know."

He turns back away as JEN looks on, curious as it always is with Raze'el's particular behavior. Silent, brooding... never seeming to speak unless it's important...

Very well.

The orb then disappears, leaving Raze'el alone to himself.

Where he sits with his arms crossed, still staring at those useless numbers scrolling by.

"Jim?" A tiny little voice called out. "SpooMeOOWW Jim?" it called out to Jim as he lay on his bed in his t-shirt and briefs. "Meroww u if u don't get up!" it said again. Jim rolled over. A lions roar filled the room, and suddenly Jim was pounced upon by his personal AI unit, a tiny brown cat with a red lion's mane, and wings.

"Wha? Huh?" Jim sat up. "The JEN lady says WE're gonna JUMP!" the Ai unit known as Jam jumped up and down his head. "Oh. Is it really that neccessary to wake me up for it?" Jim asked as he stared into his AI's eyes. "Nah. I was JUST bored!" It chirped. "JUST bored, eh?" "TOTALLY!"
It hovered above his head and began to fly about the room, making airplane noises.

Jim's room was in itself a weapons cache, with a bed. Along the walls were assorted weaponry and armor, from your standard bullet guns to photon burst fire arms. On the floor next to his bed was his shield negating cannon, and on a shelf near the door was his collection of antique katanas and various unpowered weapons. As for the beamsabers, he had yet to get any in his grasp.

In his closet was a large collection of white t-shirts and energy cushioned pants (simple armor) as well as a reliance armored jacket he had ripped off the smouldering corpse of a Reliance hunter and painted dark blue. It was light, yet capable of stopping minor ballistics before they pierced his flesh.

Jam perched itself on Jim's arm. "Wanna play SPEED?" the cat pulled out a deck of cards. "Eh, sure."

<This is what I get for buying a custom AI off the black market.>

Jam was a personal portable AI Jim had gotten his hands on during an attempt to steal a newly created AI construct that could foretell future events using a variable cruncher. It, had other ideas at the time and stole one of it's creator's space ships. They had however managed to get their hands on it's b#$trd brother AI, whose only great ability was to still function despite a great portion of it's code being flawed.

It managed to put itself into Jim's personal holo-vid, then projected around itself the image and holo-body of a flying cat. Since it wouldn't go away, even after repeated attempts to ditch it, Jim made use of it as his personal aide. It did the job poorly, but nowadays Jim enjoyed it's familiar face in the midst of strangers, seperated from his family. It also made a nice pet, besides the fact it would wake him up in the odd hours of the sleep cycle and scream obscure sentences in a backwards english. That and it could possibly go rampant and kill everyone, as JEN was the only AI that didn't.

Fortunately most computer gurus tell him not to worry, as only Intelligent and efficient AI's go rampant. And considering Jam would freeze up if it ever had to comprehend the word "pickles" The universe was quite safe from Jam's rampancy.

Jam dealt the cards. "Mow MOW MAui!"

"Yeah, sure. Whatever."

The gun twirled like a pinwheel as slender fingers dexterously manipulated it about themselves, the barrel glinting in the garrish lighting of the simple, almost spartan, quarters. The clean steel walls only served to accentuate the glare of the bright white lights, which seemed to bathe the entire room in a kind of 'hospital clean'. The mess--crumpled clothes and weapons, some of which highly volatile--remained, much like the stench of disease about a hospital, but the light and lack of decor covered it all in a painfully pure white.

Killik, in truth, merely liked the light, and the effect it had upon the ambience of his room made little difference to him, as did the appearance of his room at all--a fact that was apparent in the disshelved state of his personal effects.

He was quite relaxed at the moment, playing with his laser pistol, set on low, for the safety of the crew--and his room, as that he had quite the hair trigger. In fact, when the holographic orb that represented JEN appeared, the electron field that formed up her visual interface was momentarily scattered as a beam of low powered protons shot through the center.

"I do wish you would learn to control yourself, Killik," the ship's AI said with a slight tone of annoyance hidden behind its voice, which Killik had altered to make more feminine. It had been the only altercation he had made.

"Aww... did Jenny-Wenny's wittle hologram get a boobsie woobsie?" the pirate asked with a wry grin across his face as the gun twisted around once more at her words, before being slid into its holster, hanging from the side of his hammock.

Another digitized sigh emanated from the speaker systems set in Killik's walls. It was a new protocol which JEN was getting quite a good amount of use out of. "You shouldn't insult the 'person' who controls your living environment..." the AI said, even though it had no real intent of hurting him, and Killik knew this as he flashed a grin at one of the optical receptacles.

"Aww, come-on, babe. You know I'm just playing with you."

Yet another digitized sigh. One might assume she had developed that protocol specifically to deal with the infuriating space pirate. "Be that as it may, I did not come here to amuse you. We will be entering a jump soon. Please secure your posessions... particularily those detonaters."

"Worried I'll hurt myself with my toys? That's sweet."

"Hardly. I merely do not wish to have my bulkheads destroyed by your incompetence."

Killik chuckled again. "Alright, alright. I'll pick them up."

The orb blinked out of existence, and Killik began to pick up the small bombs that had been tossed carelessly onto his floor. They had plenty of safety precautions built in, but if it made the computer feel more comfortable, he'd put them someplace safe.

As Adam walked leisurely down the narrow corridors of the ship, he heard the incredibly muffled noises of a cat through the padded walls to his right. The fact that it's voice was projecting through that much steel and insulation was enough to make Adam roll his eyes. "Junk AI." He thought to himself.

Hearing the noise prompted him to bring his right hand up to feel the contours of the collision pads on the wall. It was probably plasti-foam, standard issue padding on most ships. It had an excellent tendency to react gently even as hundreds or thousands of pounds of force struck it, a must-have in any spacecraft. Who would want their ship to get hit by a particle weapon, only to have half the crew launch themselves into solid alloy walls at 200kph?

Adam let go of the padding and continued walking down the corridor. His quarters were at the end of the dormitory section of the ship. He turned right as he came to an intersection of corridors and again at the next left. Another ten seconds at a slow pace and he reached the door to his quarters. There was only one other door in this particular alcove, and it led to Robert Conway's quarters, situated five meters further down the hall on the opposite side.

The doors opened silently as Adam stepped in front of them and entered his quarters. They were as generic as when he first set foot in them. One single human-sized bed, a dresser nearby for clothing and personal belongings, a small restroom containing a human toilet and sink, and a desk shoved up in the corner.

Adam nearly let out an audible shout as he made eye contact with the man sitting in his desk chair, which had been turned to face the doorway. Wearing a sharp Earth business suit, the man appeared to be in his early forties. His short, dark brown hair was styled neatly to complement the image of a businessman he so obviously strived for. A calm, measured smile dominated the man's face as he watched Adam stop in his tracks from surprise.

Shaking off the startle, Adam shook his head in a mixture of embarrassment and disappointment. “Hello JEN, what can I do for you?” He started.

“We’ll be jumping soon. I am in the process of alerting the others.” The man maintained a pleasant expression as he spoke. A moderately deep voice you would expect from the projected image, one you could easily trust.

“I’ll read over the specifics, thanks. Will I be needed on the bridge?” Adam asked.

“My piloting subroutines should suffice for the jump travel, but I cannot accurately predict what will be waiting on the other side. If you wish, I will prompt Artemis to make an executive decision.” JEN said.

“Please do. Is the link to non-encrypted data from the bridge still available on my portal?” Adam finished up, walking right up to JEN.

“Yes.” JEN said, and the image projection of the man fizzled back into its origin, the portal interface and console resting on Adam’s work desk. It was the one item in the room Adam had installed after he arrived. After bargaining with Artemis for a while, he agreed to let Adam install a more advanced data array into his quarters, allowing him to access all non-encrypted ship information at any time. It also helped to supplement his inserts, since the interface had a wireless data transfer. Other parts of the ship were not as user-friendly, JEN would have to actively create a temporary stream for his inserts otherwise.

Adam sat down at the desk and started viewing the details of the jump, its coordinates, ETA, and risk factors. He readied the safety belts on the chair for when the time came to make the jump. Thanks to JEN, the ship had top-notch autopilot. All the other ships Adam had been on used manual pilots with less powerful computers acting as aides. So far, no autopilot he’d ever heard of could rule out the instincts and prowess of a real pilot.

"Always when I'm sleeping."
 

Julice's head hung as she snoozed in the armory, which was more or less two desks for work, the chair that Julice was sleeping in, and enough space to move around these objects with the rest of the space being taken up by lockers, the interior of those lockers filled with areas where various weapons were stored. Across the desk Julice laid at were various cleaning products and oil, as well as integrity checkers and the whole nine yards for weapon maintenance. After finishing the last gun, Julice was so exhausted after putting it away in its designated locker that she simply collapsed into the chair and passed out, swearing to herself that she'd alter her work ethics someday. Then the noise woke her up.
"Goddamn it, what now?"
Julice reached into her pocket and pulled out her NetBand, a device given to her on her last birthday. I was sort of a hacking device that connected to networks and carried a small hard drive that held various programs, but these days, it was more or less used by the AI to talk to the estranged daughter of the Clarentino mafia family.
"There is going to be a jump soon."
Julice slowly rose and began storing away the maintenance supplies, then stretched, arching her back. "I guess I'll go sleep in my real bed, then. I should be ready to roll in five minutes tops."

Alex was lying in bed, dream-shifting. Every now and then hair would grow longer, skin would change color, body would change shape, and other things would shift. At the moment he was a furry, feline/humanoid creature. Though you couldn't tell since he was covered in clothes.

The entire room was covered in clothes. Alex had the largest wardrobe anyone on the ship would ever see. Since he couldn't shift clothing, Alex had to collect as much clothing as possible. Some of them were stolen from the other crew members.

Since Alex was asleep, JEN didn't bother him, so the shifter would sleep through the jump.

(( Awww but JEN bothers everybody. :( ))

~Bridge~

At some point in Raze'el's stupor a random symbol flashed onto the screen... just a nonsensical pattern of shapes and colors. Recognizing it, he pressed a button and cleared it off the screen, hardly amused at Jam's incessant pestering. Ever since Jam had found out about Raze'el's bridge watching habit, he'd made a point of bothering him every once in a while... which he learned to just deal with.

A glance at a monitor saw that JEN was about to awake the shapeshifter, whom he knew would be sleeping. Pressing another button, he interrupted JEN's alert sequence. "Jen, leave him alone."

"He needs to be made aware."

"No it doesn't. Let the shape-shifter be."

He could feel the AI sighing, if not hear it. "Very well."

As JEN disengaged and moved on to the last crew member, Raze'el sat back in his seat and took a breath. He knew the AI couldn't understand why he chose to call Alex an "it", he just knew that Alex didn't exactly have a preset gender, and so lacking a better pronoun he'd just settled on "it".

Though he'd rather not say that to his face.

Sitting back further, he crossed his arms again and stared off into space, watching the stars scrolling by on the viewscreen.