This Is Just The Beginnings (Leviathan)

"This Is Just the Beginnings" is the seventh episode of the third season of Leviathan: Distant Stars and the thirtieth episode in total.

## Summary

### Looking for the lab

Ary is still looking for the lab on a map of thread space. Xe'anna carries *Tiny Best Boy* Conrad, who is in a slight coma after his latest verticality episode, to the Copulation Cube. Theea *randomly* checks on him. Back on the bridge, she detects more ships on sensors. Rachel explores her new connections to Tsarin and their crew. Her understanding of Tsarin's whale-like language is empathic, limited to mood. Rachel finds it meditative.

### Hungry stowaways

Kika finds no fuel gauge but does feel a deep pit of hunger from Tsarin, which makes her realize she is not herself hungry. Ary will look for a suitable nebula after she finds the lab. Kika, who thinks Ary needs to take a moment and also eat, finds less meat-o-stik'ko in the kitchen than she expected. After checking Oxana's calendar to make sure they haven't been asleep for a long time, she finds that there are more life signs on the Bat'leth than expected: seven, and then eight, wherea Kika is only aware of five. Kika figures out from Oxana's description: smaller than herself; simple; unintelligent, that the hungry stowaways are actually slurpees. As evidenced by the undigested wrappers they leave behind, it turns out that Conrad unintentionally trained them to single out, and dispose of, meat-o-stik'ko as organic trash.

### Basic needs

Ary herself only finds this to say about Kika's kind attention: *that is a flavor*. Kika, who is also worried about Tsarin, a pup that needs food to grow, insists that Ary get some sleep. At any rate, they'll have to jump to find a source of tritium for Tsarin.

Kika, trying to assuage Ary's worries about Conrad's health by evoking college, drug time and hormones, gets Ary to reckon that *Humans are strange* and to wonder how they have survived. It doesn't help that Kika's own opinion of humans sprang from hanging out with spirates, Theea and the Bat'leth's crew.

Xe'anna sees Theea coming down the ladder of the Cube to help Ary on the bridge. Theea is clearly embarrassed. Xe'anna says nothing.

The slurpee crisis reaches its apex when Theea realizes how thoroughly they have ravaged her stash of piña-colada-flavored meat-o-stik'kos. Xe'anna to keep just one of the three slurpees on board, for random ship cleaning.

Meanwhile, Tsarin's *sensory sensors* have found no trace of tritium in the gas giant they are orbiting. The best tritium source in the system is another gas giant, but it comes with caveats. First, they risk being detected by the Raze on the way, before they can hide behind it. Then, in the planet's atmosphere, they will have to face Nideria blooms. A mere nuisance to the Raze ships, a swarm of these tritium-loving aliens could trap and overwhelm the comparatively smaller Tsarin.

Ary lets out a very deep and long sigh when she finally has a map to the lab. They can go, but Ary is reminded that Tsarin needs refueling.

### Evading the Raze

The crew discusses two strategies to reach the tritium-rich planet while avoiding confrontation with the three Raze ships currently in the system, which are one scout and two slightly larger than Tsarin frigate-class ships: distract or disappear. After some back-and-forth, Theea convinces the GM that they can send the Cuthra farther out and make it look like the signal Tsarin bounces back to the Razes' sensor comes from that place rather than the real one. According to Theea, all Xe'anna needs to do for them to successfully slip past the Raze, is to fly on a path parallel to Tsarin's:

> *Simple enough*.
>
>

If something goes wrong, they'll have both ships' guns and the Cuthra's superior maneuvrability.

Kika won't let Xe'anna go alone on that mission.

Ary will move Tsarin once the Cuthra is in place. Theea creates the program that mimics the signal and improve it by using Tsarin's Burst EMC Generator to create a signal that confuses things.

On the Cuthra, Kika, who squeezes into the tight cockpit by perching on her shoulders, dashes Xe'anna's hopes of having a quiet time. Kika however helps Xe'anna on her less than perfect piloting (a 6) *by turning the parking brake off* (she rolls a 13). Xe'anna struggles with the controls, which Theea changed for her own convenience. Kika puts her arms around Xe'anna to help. With a better roll (a 9), Xe'anna manages

> *a little bit of a stuttering start, not elegant, nor graceful, nor necessarily direct, like a car lurching a few times*.
>
>

To Theea, who is not sure she is OK, Xe'anna lists the reasons for her halting start: the changes in the controls, Kika on her shoulders, and the moment she had. But in the end: *Everything is fine*.
Meanwhile, Kika savors her time on the Cuthra because

> *I never get to go on a spaceship*.
>
>

When Xe'anna reminds her that

> *You live on a spaceship.*
>
>

Kika explains the difference:

> *Yes, but this one is tinier*.
>
>

Theea connects the Cuthra's computer to Tsarin's, and her program is telling her which direction the signal is coming from. Theea sees the two drones most likely to pick up their signal and communicates to Xe'anna the path she needs to follow to foil them. Xe'anna gets the Cuthra to the right place but also discharges fuel: *that is not subtle*. Kika reckons that

> *We did a good job of hiding their signal but we made a signal*.
>
>

Xe'anna puts Kika on her lap. She immediately puts her hand on the wheel, and so does Xe'anna, who still won't teach Kika how to pilot.

*We will proceed this way*, Xe'anna says, and adds: *also now I know where your hands are*.

Theea, who has seen both results of the Cuthra's maneuver, gives Xe'anna a step by step tutorial to collect the signal they need. In so doing, she substitutes for the program there was no time to install on the Cuthra. Theea, who doesn't get a bonus on this roll from Tsarin, doesn't do well. Kika, who *speaks Theea*, assists by serving as a conduit between her friend and the boss she cares about so much: she successfully offsets Theea's inability to clearly explain things. Theea ends her tutorial with:

> *I'm going to need you to, and this is a really difficult one, press the* Record *button*.
>
>

Xe'anna manages to execute the steps.

The next step, replicating the signal, is all on Theea. Not exactly exuding confidence, Rachel is sitting by the guns, waiting for something wrong to happen. Ary wonders: *Are we still alive?* To Theea's *I hope you're both ready to be amazed*, Rachel answers *Really ready, yep*, while bringing up the targeting sensors. Theea performs well enough to be confident that the replicated signal signal will confuse the Raze long enough for Tsarin to dart through the system. Theea is secretly relieved: she wasn't sure it would work. From the Cuthra, Xe'anna and Kika *see Tsarin peel out from behind the system and dart as fast as they can across the open gap*, leaving bioluminescent sparks behind.

Theea can now safely boast that: *I'm really good at the system things*. Rachel concurs:

> *I believed in you the whole time, that wasn't sarcasm*.
>
>

Ary concludes the sequence:

> *We're alive, everything is fine*.
>
>

With Tsarin safely around the gas giant, the next challenge is to enter its atmosphere to feed the ship. Xe'anna brings the Cuthra back to Tsarin, denies Kika the *one more spin* she requests, but does show her how to pilot, glossing over the fact that she is too short to reach the pedals.

Theea's coding and hacking abilities have impressed Ary by getting them to the planet largely unnoticed.

### Keeping the Nideria at bay

The next step for Theea is to figure out how to get past the Nideria. These jellyfish- or plankton-like life forms that don't require a lot of nutrients just move around at random, hoping to bump into something. The issue is not to sneak past them, but rather to navigate them on the way to and back from the tritium-rich lower atmosphere, as their Cuthra-sized blooms expand and contract; and avoid being trapped if they unexpectedly congregate into a swarm.

Theea's plan to find an area with fewer Nideria and punch a hole through that will require quick and precise piloting of Tsarin. Ary, who hasn't *done the sleeping* since they exited thread space, defers to Xe'anna for this task. Xe'anna closes her eyes, focuses on the whale sounds, and connects to Tsarin again. Lauren explains that, in her mind, the Andartans think they are trapped in their form, that they have more personality and want to be giants:

> *Becoming the size of a spaceship is right*.
>
>

Xe'anna adds:

> *Especially because the ship in question has guns now*.
>
>

Xe'anna feels Ary, *this note within the orchestra*, and becomes more acutely aware of Tsarin's motion within space. Xe'anna, who is pretty singularly focused on the task at first, can multitask, but will be less effective at anything else. Theea tries, and fails, to take advantage of Xe'anna's distraction to get an extra ration of meat-o-stik'kos.

Kika brings Ary, who can't fall asleep, one of her smoothies. Ary tastes it: *it is a flavor*. She then pushes it to Theea, and takes up on Rachel's offer: *Mine is not a flavor* instead, because *that sounds better*. The two go to the stores on the Bat'leth. Seeing how tired Ary is, Rachel proceeds to try and get her to to go to sleep.

### Feeding Tsarin

Xe'anna pilots Tsarin through a patch relatively free of Nideria Th'eanna has pointed to her. Tsarin is slower than the Bat'leth and feels like an Andartan battleship to Xe'anna. As they dive into the second layer of the atmosphere, Tsarin recognizes her environment and starts feeding:

> *There is like a sigh, like when you finally eat after waiting a long time, or chugging a glass of water when super thirsty.*
>
>

There is a tremor as the back section of Tsarin opens up in a now familiar process. They gently drift through this layer of the atmosphere, refueling.

Xe'anna lets her mind drift into the sensors. It's like being underwater: there is nothing to be seen inside the storm of a gas giant. There is massive amounts of energy bouncing around, there is radiation changing and fluctuating. With nothing around, there is a sense of calm that is relaxing and satisfying. To Xe'anna, *it's very beautiful*.

Theea, who has kept an eye on the sensors, notices Nideria gathering in the region directly above. The trade-off is: either they exit right here, where the Nideria may make it harder; or they pop up somewhere else, where the Raze may be more likely to spot them: nothing can currently see them from outside, and they can't see anything either.

After several hours, Tsarin eventually wraps up the fin on their back, in a process akin to folding a napkin, thus protecting the very soft squishy membrane through which they feed.

In the meantime, Ary has fallen asleep and Rachel has returned to the bridge. She suggests that they shoot through the Nideria in the way, rather than wait, nobody knows how long, until their purposeless floating drives them away.

Xe'anna, more zen than she's ever been, agrees to push off the Nideria with what Rachel calls *a little flak.* After making sure that Xe'anna is ready to take them them away from the blast fast enough so that it doesn't catch up with them, Rachel shoots in the vicinity of the Nideria. There are pops where the bursts of the flak cannon hit and ignite small portions of the atmosphere. There is not enough oxidizers to cause a chain reaction, but the Nideria still dart away from them, creating *some of a hole*.

Xe'anna doesn't pilot out as fast as on the way in, and a couple of blooms graze against Tsarin's hull. There is a crackle over the exterior, and the crew feel Tsarin's pain. Theea's fingers uncurl, then curl up really, really tight. Xe'anna winces and actually says, quietly, *Sorry*. Tsarin emerges from the gas giant, largely unscathed. Rachel instinctively starts healing the minor damage Tsarin suffered. Ary's pain, in contrast, is more psychological than physical.

### A growing threat

Theea finds that the Raze have not moved much. With Ary still asleep, Kika opines that Xe'anna should be piloting, because Theea *is actually doing work*. Xe'anna is confused, so Kika adds that

> *Xe'anna always does work;* *Theea never does work*,
>
>

and she, Kika,

> *works about half the time*.
>
>

Theea does not agree with Kika. The GM mentions *the Theea average: only A's and F's*. Theea now detects four ships sticking around: three are scouts, one is much larger. Xe'anna realizes Tsarin has been back-tracing the steps the Raze took to Gennus Landing. To continue their journey to the lab, they need to go to a sector familiar to Ary on the way.
As Rachel goes check on Ary, she meets Kika in the cargo bay. Kika drops a big roll of plastic tubing and tries to get Rachel to share her enthusiasm:

> *I got to fly a ship today!*
>
>

and

> *You can, I got to do it.*
>
>

for the first time. Kika is convinced that modifications that allow Treeko to fly will allow her son Tylo to go to pilot school, join ICA as their first Treeko, get all the fancy equipment and

> *he's the first one that's ever gonna do it; that's what he told me*.
>
>

Rachel politely changes the subject, gets Kika to explain what she is going to do with the fourth turbine. Rachel can't help, because

> *I'm not a fixer, I'm a doer.*
>
>

Kika says:

> *You're missing out: we're gonna use the soldering iron.*
>
>

It's Kika who doesn't want Rachel's help now:

> *No. You made it clear. One day, you'll come help.*
>
>

And thus, Rachel follows Kika toward the Bat'leth. Their paths split when Kika uses a Kika-size hole to go to Engineering. Rachel finds Ary still asleep on her bed. She leaves and sits nearby, pretending not to be waiting for Ary to wake up. Then she goes to the canteen, to watch *the least ridiculous thing they have to watch*. Oxana turns off what she was watching: *Queer Eyes for the Space Guy*. Rachel is fine with Oxana's justification:

> *I get lonely sometimes, it's strange*.
>
>

Oxana can't help Rachel find how long Ary needs to sleep, Rachel has to check with Tsarin on her own.

After Rachel pledges to help Oxana acquire a new body after they get out of this alive, Oxana shows her a list of shows they have downloaded. Rachel picks *Tritium Days of Our Lives* and makes sure nobody is coming. When Rachel interrupts her watching to check up on Tsarin, she sees Ary's tendrils *randomly color-wave as she's dreaming, like a communication signal*. Rachel finds out she can control her own tattoo, and uses telekinesis to make cool designs in her mohawk and move the glow into her irises.

Meanwhile, Kika, with a 15, successfully begins repairs on the engine despite tipping over the box with her tools.

### On to the lab

After six hours or so, Theea reports that a new cruiser-size Raze ship has arrived. She suggests they leave. With Xe'anna still very focused, she tries and fails to extract G300 from her.

Xe'anna sees the ship, or rather knows that it's here and that the fleet is gathering: *We have to go*. They wake up Ary, who feels better, *more alive*, and is ready to go.

The crew don't know when the Raze will leave, but they do know that this is the solar system from which the scout ship at Gennus Landing left to their sector. As they can think of nothing to stall the fleet, Ary suggests that they go back home and return later, hopefully with a weapon. Xe'anna concurs, Rachel doesn't. She suggests they might send a signal home but, the lack of relays between the two systems means the message would take longer to go through in normal space than they will in thread space.

Xe'anna remarks that

> *this is just the beginnings.*
>
>

Ary heads to the helm and begins the journey to the lab.

## Notes

1. ↑ *NftE*: Thanks for the title, Lizzie.
2. ↑ Incidentally, Dan was not present on that episode.
3. ↑ Which, it turns out, Oxana has not updated since Xe'anna got the Bat'leth.
4. ↑ The Egg in the Cube not included.
5. ↑ Xe'anna takes offense at Rachel's disparaging remark that meat-o-stik'ko is indeed trash. *NftE*: whodathunk meat-o-stik'ko would become such a common occurrence that I'd come to know how to spell it by heart? Also: I appreciate that Lauren did use the opportunity Dan gave her to throw this slurpee wrench into the ship's works.
6. ↑ *NftE*: Writing this several weeks later, I don't really remember this scene. Lizzie and Sarah convey their characters' inability to express their strong feelings in such a powerful, lasting way that the small unremarkable line in my notes I am transcribing here still manages to move me a lot.
7. ↑ That is, Lauren gets Sarah's pseudo-science, lets her bullshit her way through this because it's vaguely scientific enough, and jokingly rephrases it as: *We're gonna bounce some tachyon beams off this deflector array*.
A few minutes later, Lauren translates that idea into a list of steps and Sarah is excited about this complicated thing she started.
8. ↑ Still, Lizzie knocked wood ... in the shape of a tiny coffin.
9. ↑ A word she can't say without chuckling.
10. ↑ She helps by, among other things, *arranging the mirror*.
11. ↑ Possibly the moment with Hexie, at the end of season 1, as Xe'anna further says: *No feelings in space;* Lauren adds: *In space, no one can hear you feel;* and @bpphantom, in chat, translates that into: *Sp'eelings. Nobody has... sp'eelings*.
12. ↑ She rolled an 8. Even re-rolling a 1 (as a *Diplomat*) didn't help.
Lauren's pro tip: *Teaching is hard*.
13. ↑ Kika's first roll didn't go well, as shown by this *die-logue*: *Do well ... You tried*. Fortunately, the re-roll yielded a 15.
14. ↑ Lauren asked, and got, her own payoff: *I want the full experience here*.
15. ↑ Xe'anna knows *it's the button with the red dot on it*.
16. ↑ Barely, probably, with just a 10. Said Lauren: *That will do. Make the not dying happen*.
17. ↑ With a 14, including the +2 bonus provided by Tsarin.
18. ↑ But only after the GM hints that it may have consequences.
19. ↑ *NftE*: Here I'll briefly mention the aside about sunfish and how *Nature just rolled luck on that*.
20. ↑ Who feels up to it, because if Conrad did it, it can't be that hard.
21. ↑ Lauren proceeded to describe Xe'anna's experience in details, summing it up with: *Your senses occupy a space that is well beyond your physical form*.
22. ↑ Sarah agrees that in Xe'anna's state it is probably a very smart move for her to say no to Theea.
23. ↑ *NftE*: Lauren described it again, I didn't catch it in my notes.
24. ↑ Because the crew let her sleep after Tsarin's databases revealed how much sleep Pramissans actually need.
25. ↑ Kika is also *really close to retirement*, which she should not say because, like getting married or wearing a red shirt, it seems to draw bad luck.
26. ↑ The Treeko are not a spacefaring species. Their near-blindness is not what limits them, because there are technologies that could allow them to fly. There are indeed a handful of Treeko on ships.
27. ↑ Except the GM doesn't agree with this career plan.
28. ↑ Which reminds Claudia of that time Kika was caught a bug in a similar hole on Tsarin. Claudia has a moment when Lauren recounts the story, and how Kika actually killed the bug.
29. ↑ It turns out that Ary needs to sleep for 12 hours straight, but not often.
30. ↑ Oxana agrees to not tell anyone. She won't, Lauren clarified, *until it's fun for her* (that is, Oxana and Lauren). Indeed, when they have to leave and Rachel asks Oxana to *Turn it off!,* the volume goes up briefly and Oxana "apologizes": Sorry, you said *off*, not *up*.
31. ↑ *NftE*: I have merged two versions of the arrival of the new ships.