Vitae Memorandum

24-Treasure Hunting

After enjoying a quick lunch and a break, the eight of them prepared to return to the facility. They still needed the opportunity to review the spoils of their efforts.

Thanrie had been going over her own evaluation of how things had worked out. Having Rhyde and Yuxzn handy had been very useful at managing the risk of this whole project. Rather than just press recklessly against their foes, they had played it safe. She took into account that Mhyl's enhanced senses made her exceptionally dependable for providing first warning of any problems, a resource they would need to make better use of in the future. All five senses were possibly useful, although 'taste' might have some very situational uses. Touch.. that's probably how Chyurae did his thing, or part of it at least.

Thanrie turned to Mhyl. "So, how did lunch taste?" It was a curious matter, how elves enhanced taste might change the way foods tasted. Mhyl thought about it herself for a moment. "Scientifically, tasting food is mostly the smell of the food, with taste-buds getting very specific signals in small areas. So, the aroma of food is probably stronger for me, but everything still fits to scale there. However, I guess strong tastes would have more of an impact, so like I probably can't have very spicy foods." Mhyl thought that was a shame, she had enjoyed some of the stronger spices in certain cultures back on Earth.

Lwyn considered the conversation, deep in thought. She still didn't know where she stood in matters like smell and taste. If her's was too strong, was her food then actually much more bland then she thought it was for the humans she's worked with? If her's was more human-like, had she been overpowering Mhyl with strong flavours without knowing it. If she was really middle-of-the-road, she might have even been doing both, depending on exactly how different everything was.

Qheria took the context back to their current situation. "On matters of smell, we need to be careful. We don't know if the smoke has vented completely yet. Mhyl, if you start feeling dizzy or tired, let us know right away, okay?" Qheria then shifted to Izhaethyx. "Rhyde, what's our plan for making sure we can take care of everything here safely?" "Well, I've been considering that only half of us have any chance of completely understanding what the stuff here could actually be good for. The other half would only get in the way, so we're going to be responsible for making sure you four can do your research safely. We'll be watching for any further threats in the area, as well as anything that could potentially cause a problem. If you four notice any potential risks during your investigation that we should also watch for, please let us know."

It means the guys would be focused on safety while the girls handled the research. Rhyde's statement also gave Qheria the impression she was to hold responsibility over their research at this point, but that safety would mostly be taken care of for her. It was a load off her mind, considering their current progress. Yuxzn coordinated a defensive plan for their guard-portion of activities, while the four girls discussed their own plans.

"So, how are we going to do this?" "Planning away from everything is going to be harder because we don't know what we're working with. We need to cover most of the plans while present. However, keep in mind each of our strengths, both Celesi-physical abilities, like Lwyn's nimbleness and Mhyl's keen senses, as well as our Terran-knowledge." Lwyn sought after the answers Qheria provided. Mhyl then got technical on them. "We also need to make sure we don't rush to expectations. The lights here were a great example of how things can be still unexpected, I'm pretty sure this place is water powered, but it doesn't seem to run on electricity. Some kind of neon filament or something. If something looks familiar, we still need to be careful and look for where that familiarity ends." It was some really good advice.

Qheria turned back to Rhyde, reporting that they were ready to go. Once all eight of them were ready, they set off back to the facility. The guys all went first, following whatever plan Yuxzn had set for them. Then, the girls set into action. The main entrance had a lot of stuff just waiting there, having made use of the large doors, but most of it appeared too big to be worth investigating. They would have no way to bring it home. Thanrie was momentarily hopeful that there might be like a car or something, but then realized how that might be too soon for Qheria. Smaller things would be better.