“HI!”

Omega jolted awake with her head ringing a little bit and no clear idea as to why.

She tasted something welcoming and her nose was full of the smell of pink. There was also a faint chiming of joy. A shake of her head and she realized they were somewhere else.

Or actually craning her head back they were further along in the whole massive enclosed space then they had been when she passed out.

Gliding alone with their entourage in a clear bubble. Either by momentum or some other mechanism towards a gap between three sharp white spikes. The forms of each unwove into braids and intricate weaves like they were half grown and half carved in a purest white ivory.

The crowds behind them were growing thick, churning into huge vast clouds and shoals of people sweeping through and over each other. Like the vastest overwhelming sky full of birds that she had seen once as a child in her first life and imagined she dreamed til one day in the University.

There she learned the half forgotten dream that had seemed like utter childish fantasy in later lives was real.

The birds came to Terra once every three-and-a-half centuries, they descended from the sky and spread their wings and song filled the air like the chorus of the soul made audible.

They nested in profusion and overwhelmed every predator and people local to Terra with their eggs.

She did not hold onto the memory of months afterwards where apparently people were literally tripping over the eggs in their bedrooms.

She didn't remember all the amazing or awful dishes that were made out of the abundance in every nation of Terra. Or any of the other little drudgeries or facts or annoyances of that magical time as a child when the sky came alive.

But she had the wondrous dream of a child with a sky full of life.

And now she had a new memory to rhyme with it and root it deeper into her soul.

These people filled the space in clouds and flocks so thick they moved more like a living vapor and at the edges seemed an utterly solid prismatic shimmer of undulating fluid.

They streamed in a choreography around and behind her procession with a coordination that was amazing.

It was a dance that filled the sky.

It was made of individual choreographies that nestled into ever larger and larger patterns.

And there was actual audible music!

Muffled by the bubble and Foreign and alien yes. But she could appreciate how it was similar to what Pylo had been directly translating before.

Quarti was awake, and poking her hand out of the bubble-

Quarti was sticking her hand out of the bubble!?

“QUARTI! What are you doing?!”

That drew one of the souls nestled in its crystal to slightly more wakefulness and a softly murmured thought of exaltation for the dream empress.

Omega found herself flinching into a scowl at that. The souls were not supposed to be that awake yet, she must have overfed them when she was binging on everything cultural before.

The prophet who she refused to think in such flowery and creepily obsessive language turned to her and pulled the hand back into the bubble and licked the palm before flashing that sharp toothed grin of hers.

“Howda Bluebelle-o-my heart skankoriffic. Wot’sthe limpetletin dogmati doin on yon vuffletugfan?”

Omega was momentarily distracted, one of the allusions coming on a lot clearer than before.

“Wot’sthe I mean what is going on?! You just stuck your hand out into hard vacuum!”

Quarti laughed and ‘dunked’ her head OUT of the bubble giving a ripple in the membrane before rolling back in.

“Nain’t!”

Omega was already tackling the prophet to check her eyes for damage. But it was actually not all that bad at all. There was a whiff of something wet and slightly sweet, with a sharp tang.

No damage to the capillaries, no signs of bruising. What the?

Quarti continued laughing and inanely babbling.

“Didjjohn wake up smelling pink big welcomeness? Is bubble all cozy beamish for yon be us! Otherwise ether-wid git down ya gongliblier! Ahm fain agn delicate lady of cleanest virtues”

Quarti of course licked her eye then. Which was gross and STUNG!

“Quarti! Euygh! Don’t Do that! And no I don’t care if you made sure it would be clean and perfectly safe! I don’t want your TONGUE ON MY EYE!”

And then the prophetess leaped in that graceful way she had managed ever since they first entered free fall so long ago.

Hooking her foot on part of the cushion for the controller plinth for the walker. Sweeping nearly her entire body OUT of the bubble. With a muffled whooping laughter sounding through the membrane finally catching up to Omega’s ear and slowly penetrating the fog and confusion of not having her whole suite of expertise on hand.

“Wait... The bubble should not have let you through at all.”

Quarti finished her little sweeping arc slipping into the bubble from the opposite side and ‘below’ catching herself with her hands to arrest the momentum.

It made the walker flail its legs in little spinning whorls but managed to keep Aleph serenely undisturbed where she floated asleep.

“Yosh wosh toldjin jia?”

Omega blinked a few times putting it straight in her head with only her own knowledge. She wished she had decided to fit more souls in her little satchel but there had been sparse volunteers.

But no, that was how she used to do things.

Right.

“There’s an atmosphere out there.”

Quarti bobbed her head and grinned like a feral monster from a fairytale.

“Aye-ja”

She sniffed the air, there was a scent to it that was different from home. Different from the old habitat cans they had started with.

Earthy, pungent, animal and sweet with a strange tang to it.

“And the air is breathable?”

Quarti shrugged.

“Didnay know wot yet. Don’t sting, Don’t fiddlewith the tingles, taste strange, not certain of wholesomeness. Rankly some is.”

Omega frowned, getting a grasp on it.

“And what about getting sick?”

That got Quarti to still.

“Oh.”

The sound of her voice was a bit wrong somehow even in so small a word.

“I Forgot about that.”

The utter clarity and lack of even one of the archaic brogues or the musical lilt of a story teller in her diction caught Omega completely off guard.

It made Quarti sound entirely different.

“What do you mean you forgot about that?”

Quarti looked around in quick sharp motions before shouting.

“Aleph! Wake up! Suits! Contamination Protocol!”

The words were precise, curt and exactly how Omega remembered they were drilled as a cursory exam prior to acceptance onto the mission.

Aleph had practically slept through it and Omega knew the procedures well enough to train her protege at the time even without a skillshare.

It woke up Aleph like a shot of electricity to the spine and she was over and donning one of the suits with practiced ease even before she was probably fully aware of what was going on.

Omega was only a short few blinks behind her.

Quarti followed soon after.

All the commotion drew Squidie’s attention outside and then from the way she gestured seemed to draw Pylo’s direct attention away from whatever she was talking about to the fluffy frogs.

“What the? Why is everyone panicking? We-” there was not a stutter, just a glance and then a brief shudder from Quarti, And then the siren and the words were smoothly flowing in another pattern.

“Oh for the love of- Quarti! You are not going to give everyone here a terrible disease because you popped your head out of the bubble! Stop panicking!”

The low keening breathy whining was more an animal noise from Quarti then any words. But apparently it was good enough for the alien omniglot.

“I ~asked~ nothing in the local air should even inconvenience you. Especially not in the bubble... Wait why were you poking out of the bubble?!”

Higher pitched keening with a tilting whine. Something almost syllabic.

“Stupid bubble wrap. But no nothing dangerous you won’t get sick from the air here.”

Squidgie slowly wiggled into the bubble to speak.

“Actually ma’am According to El-sie there could have very well been something dangerous, proper procedure is called for-”

The clerk blinked and then considered the suits they were wearing with the symbolic imitation of a bit lip and then a grimace.

“However anything particularly dangerous by most standards would go through those suits like rancid tissues.”

That brought a huff of irritation from Pylo who spoke again.

“But I ~asked~ and nothing here even specializes in horribilomorbus tissues. Let alone the specific lineage of Terrans. But if you are really that worried I could give you all an extra strong tag for the duration but that would take a while.”

Elsie swung into view and their voice chimed in over the translation box wedged in one side of the bubble.

“I believe that would be a poor choice of action, Shipmistress Pylo.”

Which prompted a shrug from the siren and then she was looking over all three of them. Quarti seeming to get herself back under control and Aleph slowly easing out of panicked training.

“Well since you are all awake now. I can introduce you properly, We are about to approach the grand feast of welcoming. I’ve had several discussions with the food preparers and the Chief Hospilitar will be seeing to you personally as well so you should be able to partake perfectly fine.”

Aleph blinked a few times. Still apparently getting herself collected after the jolt to full alert.

“Wait?! We can eat the alien food?”

Pylo nodded and flashed a warm smile.

“Yes! Well, a small fraction of it, but it should be more than enough. It would be very insulting of the People to serve my guests only food they could not partake in. So necessary arrangements are already in motion.”

Omega rolled the souls available to her around in her share and grimaced a bit.

She definitely had not packed enough expertise for handling this particular challenge.