Chapter 41: Find It!
I was completely in love with the look. I was sure that as I wore it, I would notice things that annoyed me or that I wanted to be changed, but for right now, it was perfect.
I took the design over to the machine that specialized in the fabric that I wanted it made out of and inserted it into the scanner. A control panel lit up and a bunch of lines, squiggles, and dashes appeared on it. With a sigh, I opened my mouth.
"Jun Li, how do I program this thing for English?" I asked with a sigh. I might need to make it a new rule that nothing entered this ship unless it was preprogrammed for English or that Ethawainian one that was similar enough to what I knew that I could use it.
There was silence for a second and I didn’t know if Jun Li was simply ignoring me or was in the middle of something and ignoring me. I was about to open my mouth and ask him again when he cut across the speaker in the room.
"Done," he said. "It is now programmed for English," he continued like it was nothing to completely reprogram a language onto a device.
"Thanks for that!" I yelled to him as I went back over to the touch screen and started to choose the fabric and accessories that I wanted.
"Please remove clothing and prepare to be scanned," said the machine in a feminine voice.
It took me a few seconds before I realized what it had actually said. "Scanning."
I shook my head, not understanding what was going on, but still standing as still as I could so that it could get my proper measurements. This was going to be my main machine to create all of my outfits, so it needed to get the sizing right.
"Clothing detected. Please remove clothing and prepare to be scanned."
Taking a deep breath, I took off my clothes, leaving on only my bra and underwear. At least I knew that I was the only one on the ship. And even if Jun Li was looking, it was not like he was actually going to care what I looked like without my clothes.
"Scanning," said the machine for a second time and I could feel the cold air of the room start to creep over my skin. As goosebumps started to cover my skin, I called out for Jun Li again. "Hey, Jun Li? Can you increase the temperature in this room?" I asked, my teeth starting to chatter. It was a lot colder than I originally expected.
"Increasing temperature in the clothing room," came a robotic voice that sounded like Jun Li, but not like him at the same time. I figure that he had enough on his plate that maybe this was a subprogram that handled the non-important stuff, like room temperatures.
"Thanks!" I said as the room began to warm up.
"Of course, Mei Xing," said the robotic voice.
"Clothing detected. Please remove clothing and prepare to be scanned."
Grumbling under my breath that this all better be worth it, I remove my remaining two articles of clothing before standing straight in front of the machine.
"Scanning," came the voice for a third time. "Scanning complete. Thank you."
Happy that that was now over, I quickly got redressed. Looking at the control screen, I saw a picture of myself in the actual dress that I had designed. With a smile, I pressed enter and left the room, impatiently waiting for the finished product.
---
"I received a message from Tha’juen," said Ye’tab as he entered the bridge. Vraev’ox and Cruz’uts turned their heads to look at him.
"And?" demanded Vraev’ox.
"And apparently, the Sisalik are looking for a very particular L-Series ship that they believe has one of the pets on board. According to Tha’juen, there is a high probability that the technology that we are also looking for is on that ship as the captain does not always conform to rules and regulations."
"Understood. Do they have any idea where the ship might be?" asked Vraev’ox as he flicked on his wrist unit to change coordinates.
"They were on their way to Y Galaxy according to Tha’juen as there was no sign of the ship in Z Galaxy," continued Ye’tab.
"Alright. Imputing new coordinates now. Starting hyper-drive now."
The three males braced for the hyperjump. It would take them at least five times to make it from their current location in C Galaxy to Y Galaxy.
"We shall follow the Sisalik ship in stealth mode. They would be our best chance at finding this L-Ship," said Vraev’ox. The other two males remained quiet, not bothering to waste their energy in agreeing with something that made the most sense.
"Do you think the ship is a freed one? Since it has its own pet," asked Cruz’uts as he looked at Ye’tab.
"There is no information one way or another," admitted the other male as he quickly typed something into his unit. "I assume that Tha’juen will continue to keep us updated as he finds things out."
"Understood," said Vraev’ox with a sigh. He was pleased that they now had a definitive route to take, even if it was halfway across the universe.
------
"It’s a lower sentient life form!" yelled the captain of the Sisalik ship from the command deck. He was so sick of getting messages every day from the Grand Council demanding to know his progress in finding one of those...things... from the protected planet.
Tha’juen watched as the male paced back and forth across the bridge, swearing and grumbling under his breath.
"How am I to find something that we don’t have the coordinates to?!? They seem to think that they know where the planet is, so why don’t they send me the coordinates?!?"
"Sir, I’ve done a thorough search of all of our systems," said the officer in charge of communications. "There are no coordinates anywhere."
"I am well aware of that! Do you really think that I would spend all this time and energy looking for L11042 if we had the fucking coordinates?!?!"
"Sorry, Sir."
"I don’t want ’sorry’, I want the battleship! Find it!"
