P:AE Group 2, Team Z83

Coral looks at the floating robot, then her eyes widen like a cat who just found a fat mouse eating food straight from their food bowl. Before she realizes what she's doing, she's up on the table with her nose up to the robot in intense curiosity and wonder. When she does finally realize what she's doing, she blushes and gets off the table. "Sorry..."

Appearance: Natural

The actress let out a small shriek as Coral jumped up and nearly upset the teapot. Ruby merely took on a deadpan expression. "Have you never seen a maraca-bot before?"

Lakaida took a moment to calm herself as Coral stepped down. "Heh, hoo. I guess you were shut in. I also dabble in robotics, sometimes. I built Ruby's chassis from a Spark Industries kit, with a few upgrades of my own. I didn't growpram her though, of course; you need a licencse to do that sort of thing.And a licencse for the A.I. itself, but that part's easier."

Appearance: Natural

A small smirk came to the changeling's face as she listened to the newcomer's question. She had already had this argument many times with much tougher customers. "Oh, I'll undoubtedly act as an assitant to somebody when I'm not busy. But I'm not that great of a roboticist. I am in fact here mainly to sing, dance, and act. Sure, we're building a civilization here; morale and entertainment is just as important as food and shelter. Sure, you could search for musical or performing talent among those already working hard designing weather-crafting protocols, drawing up blueprints for cities, and studying the local flora and fauna. We're going to be here a very long time - and, even if I myself don't perform once, someone would still have to teach those talents. And then they would become about three times busier, having to rehearse and perform in plays and concerts or shooting films or sitting in a recording booth on top of everything else they do. Overworking a mind like that leads to shoddy workmanship. That sounds like a good way to spell disaster in a fledgling colony, especially of this scale; wouldn't you agree?" She paused her tirade long enough to sip at her tea and give the unicorn a chance to reply.

Though tired, the other occupants of the cafeteria mustered some fairly vigorous clapping at Lakaida's performance, and one pony behind the food counter even shouted out "Woo! You rock, Batmare!"

Almost to prove her point, it did seem that the room was just a little more animated and awake after her brief appearance as Moon Wane, and some tables were still talking excitedly, sometimes glancing over at your table.

Appearance: Natural

Lakaida looked around at the excitement she caused. This was what she lived for. "See that, Ruby? Totally worth the spike," she exclaimed, trying hard not to show the effort she had made.

"Indeed. Now no more! You're supposed to be taking things easy."

Lakaida sighed in agreement. "I... didn't take well to the cryostasis, and I had to be woken up several times. So I'm having a harder time recovering than normal. Luckily though, I am not immediately critical; I can take the time to get up right."

"And you're quite right that I may not be critical right away. But sooner or later I will be; quite likely sooner than you'd think."

Appearance: Natural

Lakaida shrugged. "Dumb luck, really. There was a minor malfunction in my pod several years into the trip; I was woken up while the repair 'bots fixed. Ordinarily that would've been the end of it... except I immediately started throwing up uncontrollably. It was too late to turn around, so the doctor was woken up. He decided I would need both medication to dull the effect, and to be woken up again several more times to let my body flush out the cryofluid. I've done better each time, but this last one was still rather difficult."

After listening to the exchange, Flairvoyant decided to speak up. "Lakaida has a valid point. Civilization does need a mix of the arts and scholarly pursuits instead of just military and manual labor. I mean, isn't the unity of such thoughts and variance in pony abilities one of the things learned from Hearth's Warming Eve? While an actress is certainly not the first pony that should be recruited for a voyage like this, some sort of entertainer should be a non zero number. And Lakaida sounds like the right kind of choice for this since she's not a freeloader. She's capable of acting as an assistant or apprentice when she's not performing. The bigger issue would be her health problems, though that's probably not table conversation."

"Hi Gearick. Flair and Lakaida already know me, but I'm Coral Wrench." She awkwardly offers a hoof, still unsure of why landlubbers have such a tradition. "I'm in charge of designing to colony itself, though not the entire thing. Only for a small portion of it, better, more experienced engineers have that duty. And, yes, I am kind of a shut-in. I've heard of such AI's, but I've never actually seen one up-close before! It's amazing! I personally don't really see why the colony needs entertainers, but then again I'm just an engineer fresh from college. Some ponies probably do need professional entertainers, though I'm not one of them."

Appearance: Natural

The actress nodded sagasciously as Ruby refilled her teacup. "Flairvoyant and Gearick... those are nice sounding names. And trust me, Coral, you'll come to appreciate it before too long. Say..." She drifted momentarily as she stared out a convenient window.

"You don't suppose there's not already someone down there, do you? On the planet, I mean."

"Oh, quite likely; but that's not what I meant. This planet is supposed to be pretty similar to our own, right? Well, what happened on our planet?" She waved a hoof around to gesture at the surroundings. "We did. Cheesy alien films and myths aside, who's to say something similar didn't happen here?"

Coral just shrugs. "If there's plant life, there's probably going to be animal life, both on land and underwater. What we can't be sure of, though, is whether or not there is intelligent life, at least until we get there."

Appearance: Natural

The changeling shrugged. "I suppose we'll find out, won't we. What do you suppose those red spots are? They look kind of... ominous..." she says as she looks at the planet surface through the viewport.

"Well, I'm probably needed to help decide on landing locations, so I guess I can catch you ponies on the surface?" Coral starts walking away, to where she thinks she remembers they were going to meet to discuss such things.

((I know I'm ready for some sort of skip, or another prompt of such sort.))

Ruby zooms off to find the doctor, quickly returning to say that she's awake, and ready to see Lakaida now.  

-----

The other three of you return to your room, where Gearick logs onto one of the computer terminals.  Initial scans of planet show that it indeed could support Earth life, sporting a breathable atmosphere only slightly different to that of home, large bodies of salt water, some freshwater lakes and rivers.  No complex animal life has been detected yet: making it unlikely that any bacteria or viruses have evolved to be able to harm any of the colonists.  Most of the biomass of Planet seems to be composed of plant or fungal life.  

There are also reports of the ship's status: which is for the most part as Sunny Sky implied: safe and uninteresting.  There had been some issues with some of the crew and colonist files, but no damage to any other files or systems.  Sensors picked up occasional magical anomalies following takeoff and during flight, but nothing apparently harmful.  The official reports write them off as local spacial anomalies.

Flairvoyant and Coral report in, and soon are contacted via video call by a dark blue pegasus crewmember.  He looks to his side, presumably at a nearby screen.  "Flairvoyant and... Coral Wrench?  Sure, we've got something for you to do!  We need to start charting Planet's surface, and look for viable colony sites.  You think you could get a closer look for us?  Not too close mind you: this is a purely aerial mission, barring any change in plans.  There's a light 'craft waiting for you in Hangar Z.  You can bring your other teammates if you want: but they're not required to go."

-----

Lakaida pays a quick visit to the infirmary, where Doctor Salve checked up on her.  

"Glad to see you got something to eat: as well as becoming reaquanted with your feet!"
"Everything looks good, as far as I can tell: do let me know if you are still feeling unwell."
"You should be fine, long as there's nowhere else we'll be flyin'." the zebra joked.

Coral cheerily makes her way to the aircraft, having done many aerial practice surveys during college. She was much more comfortable in a 3D environment (such as under the water or in the air) than she was on land, so it wasn't long before she got herself thoroughly trained in how to fly one of these things, the best one can be fresh out of college.

Preemptive rolls: