Kipp, Kai, Cam, and Bodi joined the others in the briefing room, which completed the original Gel-Squad and added many new faces. Russell returned from his quick visit with Polly and crossed paths with D1 while returning to the briefing room. "Look, it's the rest of our friends," Bodi, exasperated, he quickly rushed over to hug Tommy, who grunted as Bodi thrust himself into the arms of his cousin, burring his muzzle deep into his chest.
Kipp approached his father with arms crossed and a deep frown engraved on his face. "Father. Secondary caregiver." He greeted Maxion and Russell respectfully. He was still salty about the argument, which led to his staying on the derelict starship Destiny.
"Kipp. Look, when this is over. Maxion and I want you to come home so we can talk to you. In private." Kipp already knew what this was about. But that would not change his mind about the feud. The only problem was that Russell believed that formday parties were pointless, and Kipp was the one who was acting immaturely when he tried to force the occasion. He'd put Russell through hell when he couldn't find where Kipp had vanished for the first few hours he ran off, so Russell believed that Kipp was the one who needed to apologize. The point was— they were both hardheaded.
The greetings were similar to a family reunion; everyone took turns saying hello to somebody, Tommy once again apologized to Cam much more sincerely this time. Cal talked to Kai and asked for parenting advice. That was quite a surprise, but it made sense when considering Kai had been raising Bodi as a brother, father, and best friend for years and likely had a great deal of experience with children. But what confused Kai was the sudden urge to learn about parenthood. Once the introductory stage was completed, everyone wanted to dissipate and return to their lives. Oh, right— so far, in the eyes of everyone here, this 'meeting' seemed to be a coincidence; Kipp had to drop the reason for his seemingly random arrival. "Wait... I've made a troubling discovery... our planet is dying." Perhaps there would've been a better way to say it, but that brought the room to a halt, and the crowd flurried back in.
Kipp informed the entire group of everything, leaving nothing out. A heavy silence fell over the room as Kipp shared the dire news with the group. The revelation of their planet's impending demise sent shockwaves through the room. Russell's expression darkened as he absorbed the gravity of Kipp's words, his mind racing about what this could mean for their people and future. Kieran kills all those people, and now he's killing the planet. Great. Cam and Kai weren't as surprised as the others because they knew about this already. Cam's hand reached out to hold onto Kai's in solidarity. Tommy's jaw clenched as he processed the news, his mind already working on potential solutions. Cal's ears drooped with concern, a deep frown marring his expression.
The room erupted into a barrage of questions and discussions as everyone tried to grasp the magnitude of the situation, all directed toward Kipp, even Tommy— the leader, who was trying to probe for information. Maxion got in between the crowd circling. His arms spread out to shield Kipp from the pressure. "Hey, chill out. He doesn't know anything about this. He came up here to get help from us, not the other way around. Stop asking endless questions." His eyes darted around the room, searching for a response from someone that would he at least half-logical. The questions ceased at that point.
Kipp took a deep breath, his resolve firm as he addressed the group. "We need to find a solution, and we need to find it fast. Our planet may be dying, but our people are not powerless. We have... limited resources, but we have vast knowledge and determination on our side. We can come together, pool our expertise, and explore every possible avenue for salvation."
Russell nodded in agreement; Kipp's brief speech made him sound quite... heroic. He wanted to join the DP before deciding to take on engineering full-time— shame, he would've made a perfect superhero. "Maybe... we should go?" Bodi suddenly suggested, and he raised his voice so that the other conversations were mute compared to his volume. That quieted the room. Tommy faced his cousin with concern etched on his face. "Bode... this is our home— we can't just leave it," Tommy explained slowly. "Sure we can, Tommy! Kai and I did, and we turned out just fine."
"But there's no other place to go, Bodi. You can't seriously believe there's enough room for all of us on this station. That's crazy." Russell persisted, adding to Tommy's comments and dismissing Bodi's observations, talking to him like he was an extrusion. Bodi's eye twitched as the vitalum in his body boiled over. It was just like how Kai treated him back on their sailor, like an idiot. It was infuriating because now it was on a larger scale, "Look... please don't shut me down. Hear me out."
Kipp moved closer, "Yes, listen to him. After looking at this drive more... I'm not sure I'll be able to get it working— and we're wasting time debating it. We have less than one year to save everyone. And I don't think anything on this storage device will help us figure it out any faster. So everyone shut up and listen to my friend." They complied, "Go ahead, Bode," Kipp permitted, turning the floor over to Bodi. It was nice to be seen finally; Bodi sighed and spoke, "The Trinity is a few weeks out at maximum speed. Maybe we can ask them for an evacuation?"
"And then what? We settle on another station or some prison camp?" Russell said, narrowing his eyes at Bodi. Cal was confused by that, "What makes you think we'll end up in a prison camp?"
"Those lizards on our doorstep. Let's not act like they haven't been watching us the entire time. Waiting to sink their fangs into our freedom, to retake control of us, like property. I agree with Bodi. I think we should leave, but we don't need any help from the Patrol; people already see us as vagrants and refugees. We're simple folk to them. I hate it." Russell stuck his tongue out briefly in disgust.
"Let's not rule out patrol assistance just yet. We've been through enough, and they keep offering to help us... we should just... talk to them." Tommy suggested. "You know?" Maxion cut in, rubbing his chin, "My mom has this hangar with a bunch of super yachts. Maybe we can find something big enough to support the entire population? Or we can 'borrow' a few and build a convoy?" Everyone looked at Maxion, mostly with confused gazes; it stunned them, well— everyone except Russell who already knew. Maxion did not come off as a 'rich boy.' "Max, you don't have to talk to your mother... if it's too painful." Russell lowered his tone to avoid embarrassment. "No. It's alright. This goes beyond our stupid feud. I'm trying to help our people."
"And if she says no, we'll steal it!" Kipp smiled brightly, his tail moving vigorously; everyone in the room completely agreed; there was a slight commotion as everyone nodded along and kicked up side conversations about being okay with stealing the ship. "No, we are not going to steal it. We're not criminals. We'll ask for it. And if she says no, then we call the Patrol." Tommy huffed; he rolled his eyes. Fools surrounded him.
"And if the patrol says no... then we steal it?" Kipp continued he had a bizarre fixation with trying to steal things. The half of him that lived in the woods was really showing today. "No, Kipp, stop being a bum." Russell shut him down again, "They won't say no. They want us to get back into the Patrol." Tommy answered, perhaps he was biased because of the logo on his jacket, but he did have the pride that made him resist the DP's help last time. Now, with this new information, he was starting to feel differently. "Also, how do we get to this hangar?" Tommy continued.
"With a ship," Kipp scoffed as if the answer was obvious. "But you said the Destiny wouldn't fly?" Kai sounded. "And the Falcon was scrapped a month ago. It doesn't have enough range to get that far even if it could fly." Maxion chimed in after. He knew the coordinates for the family dockyard, and it was a long way from Omoeocoon, "I know, but we won't be going in the Falcon or a fake DP ship... we'll be going in our new shuttlecraft."
"Here we go." Russell rolled his eyes; he couldn't help but grin at Kipp's persistence on this matter. This time now made it six instances where he'd suggested building a vessel. "Think about it. Since we got up here, we've needed a way to move around space, something fast, sleek, and of traditional Omeocoon design. It's time we built it," Russell laughed, "Well, Kipp, unfortunately, we don't have time to design and build a ship from scratch. We'd be better off calling the Patrol at that point."
Kipp crossed the room, "I knew you were going to say that, Dad. You're pessimistic; fortunately, that's not a trait we share. I gave us a head start..." Kipp tapped on the display panel in the room, and sure enough, the piano black surface illuminated to show a diagram of a compact but very purpose-built, elegant design. Since scrapping the scout ship Falcon in the battle to retrieve Kai, Bodi, and the other 40 survivors, they lacked a vessel capable of traversing the harshness of space. The shuttle's length was 24.36 meters, width 16.26 meters, and it had a decent height of 6.31 meters.
The craft contained two sections: a primary section with a control room, which functioned as a bridge, with three command stations: one pilot, an engineer, and a tactical officer. The aft compartment featured a weapons locker and medical bed, which was retractable to save on space— and intended more for stabilizing a patient rather than performing complex procedures. Based directly from Cam's backpack, there was even a synthesizer for making equipment on the fly, this was all placed in a wardroom, the most extensive section, which had a table so it could serve as a meeting area for the staff.
There were two compact rooms onboard for crew quarters, which employed a bunk bed system because they were finding now that more Omeocoons enjoyed sleeping in solid form for the sake of dreaming. Dreams gave them a break from the real world. There was a total of six sleeping spaces. This looked like more than a head start; everyone often wondered what Kipp was doing on that little tablet when he was in his own world, and now they were finally finding out. The entire room's population gathered to observe the design. All of them were intrigued again by Kipp's ability to outdo himself.
"Behold the Eclecus! A 22nd-century, ultra-responsive, warp-powered hot rod. And the salvation of Omeocoon. It's designed with a cyronite alloy hull, ultra-aerodynamic contours, high-efficiency warp drive system, para metallic hull plating, an adaptive shielding system— based on that tech we got off those guys who were spying on us."
D1 motorized to the panel to get a good look at the ship and grunted mechanically. "Basic design elements are... adequate." That was high praise coming from her. "I like it. I bet it handles like a dream." Kai rubbed his hands together like a fly preparing to eat off an unsuspecting victim's plate. "It's impressive. But how long would it take to build?" Tommy asked. He tapped the display, and the vessel continued showing off from different angles.
"We could use stuff from the Destiny. It might be totaled, but I'm sure some useful resources are still available. Computer cores and weapons systems?" Cal suggested, he was a builder so he thought a little like Kipp, that made Kipp excited, that was precisely what he was about to propose. "We'd also need to synthesize some materials, but if we have enough power, we could get it running within a month."
"I will design the computer systems. A new artificial intelligence will need to be programmed. It will help improve efficiency in chart plotting. I will contact Howard and see if he wishes to assist me." D1 channeled. Russell scoffed, "You mean you'll order Howard to assist you, or he'll have to deal with me, he works here. He doesn't have a choice."
"Oh, anti-gravity thrusters would speed up response times," Kai raised his hand; he was in the rear, so he had to try to be seen from behind Cal, who was taller than everyone else.
Russell observed the craft closely himself and was impressed, but he would not inflate his son's ego with external comments, "If we used a pulse phase weapon system, we could take on a ship twice our size without breaking a sweat," Russell said, placing a hand on his son's shoulder. That made Kipp feel seen. It was nice to include his father in the project. "So we're gonna do it?" Bodi asked, energized about the ship; the pretty, sleek, and angular design was quite enough to attract his attention.
"Not yet; it's a concept— we should ask the people. And see if they support this. We've been promising for the longest time that we'll bring them home. Now we're asking them to give up their planet and live in space for god knows how long." Tommy looked toward D1, "Assemble the population for an address."