Rose looked over at Obett and asked,"If you don't mind, how old are you?" Obett shrugged,"I'm thirty years old, if that translated correctly. Why do you ask?" Rose said,"To engage you in inter-personal conversation, learn data and to keep you busy while my contact checks on arrivals of Erhlutian ships." He looked surprised. "I didn't scan any communication from any of you while you've been here!" Captain Tkarro said,"We have our ways, mysterious as they might be." Obett blinked in surprise. "Impressive. In any event, I'm thirty." Rose asked,"Do you have a girl-friend?" Obett looked very uncomfortable. "This is a more probing interrogation than I am comfortable with." Rose nodded,"As I thought. Note the use of ingrained military terms. You never had any regular family life did you?" Obett looked shocked. "Are you some kind of MIND-READING machine life, Commander Cyclops?" Snowflake snorted," 'COMMANDER CYCLOPS'!" Then laughed loudly. Commander Rose gave a dire look at Snowflake, who chocked off her laughter. She then said,"Not at all. My species is derived from battle robots with Natural Intelligence. Our entire experience was culled from military terminology until we developed family groups. I suspect you were NOT a 'good soldier'. The more you were ordered, the more you rebelled?" Obett cringed. "For not telepathic, you scare me! That's uncannily accurate!" Rose said,"Your outfit gives it away. If you aren't some kind of nobleman, then you are dressed like a pimp. The overly coiffed hair says,'I AM OVERLY VAIN!' Very few women would find that attractive." River King said,"If you look like a clown and just shake your hips at some woman and go 'Hey,baby' at them, they WILL laugh at you!" Obett stood stunned and worked his mouth like a fish. Snowflake tried hard not to laugh and failed. She giggled. Obett said,"I've never been so thoroughly insulted in my life!" Rose said plainly,"If I wished to insult you, I WOULD have! I was pointing out areas where you could use improvement. From the description of your life, I surmised you had no mother or father telling how to pick out your clothes to look casual and attractive to other people. If one of us weren't going to tell you... WHO would?" He looked bothered. He shrugged and crossed his arms in front of himself and scuffed the deck with one foot. Snowflake said, "You're so used to being 'mighty', my mother thought you needed ...'some correction' that didn't come from an insulting enemy. That IS what friends and family are for!" Obett said in a small voice of chagrin,"OH." Rose said in alarm,"The Erhlutian battleship,'Sekmet' just emerged from Hyperspace and is requesting docking privileges from the Tapponok! Their ETA is about SIX HOURS!" Dokka Tkarro turned all business,"What do you know of it?" Obett said,"It's a rebuild. Rebuilt on an Altha-Krommium hulk, blown to crap by enemies at the end of the last great war. It's thought someone had a hand in the extinction of the Altha-Krommiums when they were so weak after the last Great War. It DOES have some intact artifacts on board. I don't know which, though. I can scan it with the Altha-Krommium artifact scout-ship I own. It sensors are better than anyone's in system. However..." Rose said,"... you do NOT have security clearance to access what it finds out if they are CLASSIFIED, right?" He nodded. Dokka asked,"Options?" Tall White Lady's voice came over the intercom,"Rose can access Altha-Krommium systems. She might be able to glean something from the ancient Scout-ship systems. If Obett is willing to let someone use his ship?" Obett said,"I thought she was scanning me." Dokka asked,"Are you willing to help us?" Obett shrugged. "I guess. Nothing else better to do than maybe buy some new clothes and get a haircut!" They mostly laughed and grinned at him. --To be continued!--