World Tree MUSH

    Orbit above New Targanine,
    "We're just waiting for our expert to arrive, and some other interested parties to join us." that's the captain of the Artemis, which currently has a hologram of... something... hovering in the center of the large table in its conference room.

    "Understood. Captain. Remaining. In. Standby. Mode." comes an androgynous voice, speaking in a stilted tone.

    Just about then, another hologram appears, a white-haired elf girl sitting inside the table for a moment, before it adjusts and actually appears sitting in one fo the chairs. "I'm here, whee's the AI?" asks Justina brusquely.

    Anyone else arriving is escorted from the docking bay to the conference room by one of the crew on duty.

    Hah hah hahhh so Morrigan doesn't know a lot about AI other than the fact that she has a shinki, and in general Mary Contrary will 'do the thing' when asked. But here she is. The half-elf Warlock arrives in the conference room, dressed for doom and gloom in her black cultist robes as usual and promptly plops in the seat next to the one Justina holograms into, with Mary Contrary perched on her shoulder.
    "Oh boy AI. This must be like meeting a distant sibling for you or something, Mary."
    "I'm an only child." The Maryceles shinki replies befuddled.
    "Anyway hi, Justina~."

    Belle is here, having just wandered in. She's helped Justina out once in a while, but really doesn't know much about what's going on. At least she's familiar with the concept of AI, even if she's... not exactly the most well-read of her friends. Living in the late 90s helps!

    "I mean, the AI of the last place I wandered in on got... weird," she mutters, remembering the Warden.

     Damian, ever his curious self, has joined this ragtag band of misfits on the random whim of 'hey space stations are kind of cool'. Yeah, go figure. It's not all new faces though, as he floats along behind Morrigan and Belle, not bothering to take a seat and instead just... drifting through the air aimlessly.

"AIs and stuff, like the movies with the aliens? Neat. I got a robot nanny, her name is Tentadora and she's pretty cool. Maybe I should give her a call." he rambles his thoughts aloud, 'laying' back as if he were on an invisible hammock. After a few moments of glancing at Morrigan though, he suddenly 'sits' upright and says, "Ah! I just remembered where I saw you! It was uh... the cows thing, yeah? You had the cool car."

    "Ah, here they are. Ladies... uh, gentleman?" the Captain looks a bit confused at Damian, but shrugs it off. "This is C4R3-TKR."

    The AI hologram pipes up. "I have been. Programmed to respond. To various synonyms. Caretaker. Overseer. Moderbjörn. Use one of these. If it is easier." the hologram finally starts to look like something, a spindly robotic torso suspended from the ceiling, a single flashlight-like optic, six spindly arms tapping at various control panels.

    Justina looks over at Morrigan, and the faintest ghost of a smile plays across the holographic elf's lips... or does it, might be a glitch in the projection. "So, tell me why you attacked us on the surface." she asks the projection.

    "Oh hi, Belle, keeping those kelpies in check?" The Warlock asks the younger girl while settling in. And then...
    For a moment. For a long moment Morrigan is all smiles.
    Until Damian mentions the cows thing.
    For a moment longer she's still all smiles until suddenly she's not. Gripping the Son of Satan by the shoulders and staring at him with her eldritch green glowing eyes.
    "There was... No... Cow level..." Is all she says in a hushed whisper before she releases him and returns to her seat, as calm as she had been a moment before.
    She's all smiles again, especially for Justina now.
    "Wait this AI attacked you?" It only dawns on her as an after-thought.

    Belle shrugs, "Doing as best I can!" She pulls up a chair so she can watch all this, making a variety of faces that should make it clear she's trying to refrain from making a snarky nickname or something. She succeeds, and settles on waiting for more answers while boredly looking at the jackal she doesn't know anything about.

    Fortunately, cryptids and the like are nothing new to her, so the blatant show of magic isn't a big deal, just mildly curious.

     Damian seems to have all but forgotten Morrigan as the AI speaks up, scratching his chin and tilting his head to one side. "You don't look very caretakerish. Tenta's definitely got you beat there. I bet you can't even make a decent lunch-"

Suddenly he's grabbed and stared at, his own charcoal eyes wide with shock and perhaps a little fear at this aggressive assertion. "Uh... y-yeah, you got it, boss." he murmurs as he's let go, edging away from Morrigan a little. This brings him a little closer to Belle though, and he meets her gaze with a small grin. "Hi! I'm Damian, son of Satan, prince of Hell, yadda yadda. Nice to meetcha."

    "Apologies. Automated subroutines detected combat in my designated protection area. My cognitive functions did not come online in time to stop automatic launch of combat drones." it says. "Recovered logs show you've been in orbit since just after this world was consumed by a plasma storm. Why would that be...?" asks Justina, before looking over at Morrigan. "An Andarian shuttle went down on this world, and put out a distress call. The Klon'gans arrived shortly before the Centrian fleet did and we engaged in a skirmish planetside. Then this AI activated and dropped drone vehicles in the middle of the melee. she explains.

    "Again. Apologies. My core program determined the Seed was in danger. I have also detected the approach of a derelict ship. Designation: Dobrev."

    So that happened.
    "And I missed it? Damn." Morrigan mutters while settling in to listen. "What's this Seed then?" She does ask, mildly interested about what an AI could want to protect even when automated.

    "Seed?" Belle echoes, now getting curious despite her general malaise about this stuff. "Okay wait a sec, when you say you've detected a new ship, do you mean recently, or just, you know... on its way."

    She looks at Justina to see if she can provide some insight into this, because this sounds like the sort of thing that will lead to a mysterious ship exploration.

     Damian's eyes glaze over partway through the explanations, staring off into the middle distance until Morrigan asks her question. He waggles his fingers all spooky-like, staying out of arm's reach as he warbles, "The deeeemon seeeeed~"

He does seem curious about the ship though, going quiet and awaiting further word on that.

    "The Seed of a new Mind. The Creator sent out thousands to land on and grow on uninhabited worlds." explains the AI. "Unfortunately. This world did have organic life on it. This was unexpected, the travel times were miscalculated. The Seed was meant to arrive before an organic civilisation rose, or colonized the world."

    "Well, you destroyed this colony. Luckily we managed to evacuate most of the colonists before the plasma storm overtook the world but we still lost hundreds." retorts Justina.

    The AI somehow manages to look crestfallen... but then turns attention to Belle. "It is a vessel I have been expecting for the past three hundred cycles. But something is wrong. It is not responding to hails and has deviated from its course. I believe something has overtaken the ship and has redirect it to another planet in a nearby system."

    "Plasma storm." Morrigan repeats. Because that sounds like something that could destroy a colony, yep. "Well it sounds like something is clearly wrong and let me guess- you're going to ask us to explore a spooky ghost space ship next." The Warlock mutters.
    While Mary makes 'spooky ghost' wavey motions with her hands.

    Yeah, there it is. Belle frowns, not really up for making a call on WHY the ship isn't responding... she doesn't know enough about this world to guess! Also it's so wild it could be anything from a lonely yeti to space zombies. "Guess this is what happens when you rely on automation too much."

    She looks at Caretaker. "No offense. Single point of failure and all. What's on this ship? Is it dangerous?"

     "Just like in the movies." Damian nods, eyes closed and chin thoroughly rubbed as if he's some kind of expert on this sort of thing. "Sounds like a fun time. As long as whatever's on that ship burns, it shouldn't be too bad. Ooh, I don't think I've had a chance to test my fire on ghosts yet, come to think of it."

    Caretaker turns to look at Belle. "Unknown. I am not provided with enough information on the contents of the Dobrev to speculate. All I know is it is vital to the Mind's growth." it replies.

    "We'll go." states Justina firmly.

    "Thank you. I can disengage my core matrix from this platform, and transfer some of my smaller combat drones to one of your ships to assist in this endeavour."

    Morrigan tips back in her seat and purses her lips thoughtfully. "So a spooky ghost ship, with no idea what's on it, and why it's shown up now of all times. Great, I guess-- we're going." Morrigan says trailing clean off.
    She looks to Belle and Damian. Then to Justina.
    ... "I guess we're going?"

    "Nice to meet you," Belle is saying to Damian. "Belle, a Spirit Chaser. We handle weird anomalies on my world, such as people like you who pop up and cause trouble." She shrugs, "Don't worry, we only get involved when the 'cause trouble' part happens. Nothing personal."

    She frowns at what the AI says. "Looks like we will have to check it out. I should get better gear if I'm going to be tromping around on spaceships this much."

     Damian gives Belle a simple shrug. "Eh, fair enough. Better than some organizations I know of, including back home." he says, tail swaying idly behind him as he turns his attention back to the matter at hand. "So we're doing this, huh? Cool, cool. Maybe we'll find some cool ghost loot, like with the c-"

He quickly glances toward Morrigan.

"Eh, never mind. I got Tentadora on speed dial in case anything serious comes up, so we'll be fine. Probably."