Ka'hagool clacked his mandibles together in a tired manner as he walked over to the marine-life-filled washing station and dunked his head into it, ignoring how it always was gross to him. Some of the animals in there came up to his face and thinking it was more bio-waste started to try and eat his face. Only cleaning off some dirty and small amounts of dust in the process. Even though he's an Alinoke from the fauna-covered areas, he can still hold his breath underwater for long periods. While under he decided to do a basic animal maintenance check, so he started to count the number of them within this tank. If the population is growing out of control it can cause issues for the whole ecosystem of the ship.
Counting 39 females, and 18 males, which was too high for a ship of this size. So he started to click his mandibles slightly to make an interesting sound that these fishes love. And these animals being small, with one swift movement of his jaws, he was able to catch a great deal of these small fish that filled this washing station. 10 of them wiggled around in his jaws, sharp teeth spearing them in place as their deep blue insides leaked into the water. He pulled his head out the water and started to walk out of the lab and into the control room where Zahan'Vandal was, calling and notifying the Queen about what they had spoken about previously.
The tails of the animals flapped outside of his mouth, and using his long tongue, within his mouth he slid it over each one, counting how many and then going back over to find out how big their eye was to assess the gender. When finished he threw up his head and all 10 fish slid down his gullet. He fixed his head and kept walking.
"9 females and 1 male. I'm still going to have to fix that." He chirped, clicking his madness and jaws in a disappointed manner. Zahan'Vandal normally takes care of the washing tank population. And he wasn't too happy about doing it. The free snack was nice but he just hates all the animals in that washing station. Gives him the creeps.
Walking his way through the halls he made his way to the front of the ship and opened the sliding doors using the censor beside it. They slid open with a huff of steam and the inner machines working and stepped inside, his compound eyes landing on the projection of the queen he serves and Zahan'Vandal who's currently saluting her.
Her head's straight up in the air, her neck fully extended, her antenna pointing to the ceiling. Without missing a beat he walks up next to her and does the same, a slight buzzing-like hum emanates from their necks.
The Queen clicks in the affirmative, "At ease. Zahan'Vandal and Ka'hagool. Speak of the reasons you called this meeting with me." She clicked and then started right at them.
Stopping as soon as commanded, Zahan'Vandal spoke up, "My Queen, I have three things that I need to report to you. One related to the haul of animals we have caught for the next year." She clacked, her head held high and her voice loud and clear. Ka'hagools antenna flickered. Her antenna flicked and turned slightly in his direction. "And the other two relate more to the planet and its most populous inhabitants."
The Queen stared at the two of them, her shiny vibrant purple armor reflected the light of the screen perfectly, and her mandibles, twice the size of an average female, clicked together as she thought. Her four antennae, larger than that of a male and the top two twice as vibrant pulsated with the most illuminating blue Ka'hagool has ever seen in the past months. This vibrant color spreads down her neck, just like a male. She opened her mouth to speak, turning her head to the side to think, the long thin antenna running down the length of her neck flick as she speaks, the dangling decorations that dangle from each antenna to the other jingle and sing their own song, in tune with her movements.
"I see, continue your report." Her voice commanded, her sharp-clawed hand extended to the screen.
Zahan'Vandal clonked in the affirmative and started. "We were able to collect a great deal of the black and white mammals this time around. 10 males and 15 females. With Ka'hagool at the front of this project, we can search for a way to minimize the number of times we need to head down to Soil and get more of these animals."
He winced at the awful name but the Queen chipped in approval at this. "And what are the other two topics you need to talk about."
Zahan'Vandal took a step back and looked at Ka'hagool who took his place in front of the screen, projecting off of the dashboard. It's been a while since he was able to see her face this close once more, he cleared his vocal cords and spoke, "I am the one in charge of all the animals and natural functions on this ship as you already know." She stared, unmoving, his antenna shifted with worry. "And I have one suggestion and another unexpected report for you."
She lifted her head slightly at the mention of something unexpected. "Oh? Continue."
"The first topic is related to the name of this new planet. It has, well, today come to my attention that the name of this place is called Soil. And with all due respect, I know you had nothing to do with naming the place, the high council of Queens did." His tail started to flick with anxiety, swishing side to side with the sporadic beating of his heart. " And with careful thought and planning. I thought of a better name for this planet."
The vibrant blues of her body shifted and fluttered, and the antenna on her head twitched at this new name suggestion. It was clear to both him and Zahan'Vandal that she too didn't like the chosen name. His anxiety-ridden tail movements have calmed and he continued, a calm steadiness to his clicking patterns.
"Me and the rest of my team back on home base all know that the poor inhabitants of that planet aren't at the intelligence of us Anoklids and those in the Federation. Seeing how if they were when we entered the planet the first time around. They would have greeted us with open arms. Instead, they didn't even notice." Zahan'Vandal and the Queen nodded along, Zahan'Vandal knowing more than the Queen who's only heard second-hand information. He chippered out a hard laugh and continued, "So they obviously couldn't name their home planet, and with us being the only sentient creatures to ever set foot on that place, we should try to get it a name worthy of both of us and others in the Federation if they ever plan to visit."
The Queen nodded and leaned back in her chair, the small glimmers of metal dancing above her as the lights of the screen hit the metal bindings of the books above, pages of paper held together with a string on each page, tied around a metal loop. Hanging from the ceiling in the grand library that's directly above the Queen's throne room. "I see. So what's the name you suggest."
"By using the same way we named our planet, I came up with naming it Solnidic. Seeing how close the planet is to the star they orbit." His thicker upper antenna fluttered with flicking lights as the pride he felt pulsed over his body.
She went silent and thought about it for a while, she waved her claw. "I will send a soldier off to bring this up to the High Council of Queen."
A quick jitter of excitement escaped his armored face, making a hollow clonking sound. Unprofessional yes, but he couldn't care less at this moment. His goal of getting the horrible name changed to something worthwhile was quickly underway. Though he was upset that Zahan'Vandal backed him up in a corner to report their new pets to the queen. Hoping nothing bad happened, he spoke.
"The last thing that I have for you this meeting is also related to, what seems to be, the leading species of this planet, Solnidic. It seems we picked up the species that inhabit that planet the most. A bipedal mammal that seems to be quite intelligent." The Queen quickly goes to speak when he cuts in and keeps talking, "They're very well behaved and from what I saw by studying them they prove not dangerous to us. Seeing how they're half our size and the most they could do to hurt us is a little annoying in the sound department for they make a lot of noise when communicating with one another and-"
The Queen raised her voice, shutting Ka'hagool up and forcing attention back on her. "Ka'hagool! Calm yourself, you're breaking protocol." She groaned as her mandibles aggressively clanged against each other. A sharp sound of metal on metal reverberated as she did so, her armor being that hard. "So we have an unexpected animal on board. So what? You and you're team just had another thing to test on and play with. I don't see why this was a big deal."
He clicked in agreement. "I just thought that you would like to be notified before we touch down."
"Thank you for being considerate Ka'hagool. If that is all you are dismissed." Her voice was clearly exhausted.
They both went back into the salute position to show that they, indeed, had nothing else to add. With that, the projection turned off and they were alone in the room once more. Ka'hagool let out a stressed squealing sound as he exhaled. Zahan'Vandal just moved closer to the dashboard, reached her long arm over the chair, grabbed something, and started to walk towards the wall. In her hands was this large, roughly cut glowing blue crystal. A metal ball in the center of this object, the entire crystal is dripping wet. When she reached the wall she input some code into the control panel and from the wall, covered in plant growth. A section covered in plants stemmed and raised from the wall, coming out to them. It then split apart like a door and opened up to a storage area with just a wall and containers filled with water that hold these crystals. Each container is labeled in their language. She took this crystal and gently placed it into its hole labeled "Queen Communication". The container was filled with water, which when the whole crystal was placed inside, allowed the crystal access to keep it alive and healthy. When finished she closed it back up and walked over to Ka'Hagool who was looking at her waiting to finish up.
She clicked her next words, "See. It was okay, she didn't care one bit."
He honked, tapping his tail on the ground. "Fine, I guess you're right." He said in a soft clacking sound. He walked over to the nest of bed plants on the ceiling and floor, grabbed the plants on the walls, and started to climb up to the soft nest of growing plants on the ceiling. "I don't know what to do about those animals though." He complained as he started to latch onto the bedding plants with his middle appendages, feet, tail, and claws, and started to settle down in the more compact sleeping pose.
She clicked in agreement, getting down on the nest on the floor and getting ready to sleep. "We can figure out what to do tomorrow okay?" She said, her head tiled up to Ka'hagool who tiled his neck downwards to look at her. The lights of the ship were starting to dim to simulate night on their planet.
He chirped and cooed once he noticed where she was sleeping. "Huh- why're you down there?"
"You know I don't like it up there. It's too much of a hassle to climb." Her voice tired as she laid her head back down.
"But the plants down there aren't as soft."
"I-" She hesitated, "true."
"And the ones are up here are longer like the ones we have at home."
She was silent before looking up at him. The room around them was now dark except for the glowing blue lights of the water systems around them, the soft glow of the control panel, the bright lights of the twinkling galaxies and nebulas outside the window of space, and the bright glowing blue of his antennas. She saw the bright lights glowing off his armor and stood up, her face up stretched to be closer to his. She chirped as she spoke, her voice slightly losing its serious tone, but it was always a part of her voice.
"Just like home?"
He let go of the plants and with his now free claws, reached down and grabbed her shoulders, his face now aligned with her. He bumped his face onto hers and clicked. "Yup. Just like home." A chuckle escaped his face and he got right back to bed. Zahan'Vandal sighed, her tail slightly wagging as she relented and climbed up to bed with him. Slowly falling asleep as they drifted off back home, the stars as their companions during these long 3 days.
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