After a long journey, Leeta has finally landed on the mysterious island of Tarsus. Currently the crew is engaged in unloading boxes of supplies from the ship, while a few unfamiliar looking Technopriests observe.

Tahir pops abovedeck, wincing in the sunlight, and stares in awe at the tower on the island.

Leeta is very alert and looking around, with an eager anticipation of getting off the Morning Star. She's been waiting a long time to see Tarsus and her curiosity burns inside. She follows behind Tahir like a larger Savanite shadow, eager for her first peek.

Cautiously, Tahir heads down the ramp of the airship and shakily steps on solid ground, he staggers back a few steps and bumps into Leeta's legs. "I g-guess it shall take me a few days to get my land legs back!" the little human chuckles.

She catches his shoulders as he slips back and helps him stand. Stepping onto the ground herself also presents her with the now strange feeling of solidity beneath her paws. Her tail curls happily behind her and she nods. Looking around, she gives another glance at the new Technopriests, the boxes behind unloaded, and feels a building desire to just run in even this limited open area.

One Technopriest in particular approaches Leeta and Tahir, a raccoon that's only a little taller than Tahir, and wearing bright green robes. "Greetings! Greetings!" he says with a grin. "I'm Brother Mainspring. We've already got your counterpart settled in, it's my job to see to you now. Odd… the other clone didn't have a slave? Ahh… no matter. Follow me!"

Leeta adjusts the strap of her mandolin case against her shoulder, and follows Tahir and the Brother Mainspring.

Tahir winces a bit at the word 'clone', but nods his head and follows. "So, are you and your friends the keepers of this place?" he asks, looking around.

The small human's Savanite shadow is also looking around alot, showing a lot more interest in things than slaves usually let themselves do.

"Of course!" the raccoon grins. "Me and my brethren have the proud honor of being the caretakers of Tarsus. We keep her mysteries in good order." Brother Mainspring glances back at Leeta and makes eye contact for a moment, he frowns and looks ahead again.

A flash of yellow zips past while an older slave chases after it. One of the two cubs seems to have gotten loose and Naoko is hot on his heels. She supposedly had to do that with old Master Nartak many a time.

Leeta's eyes widen as the Rath'ani stares at her, and she quickly drops her head to a more respectful angle. Naoko and the cub rushing by cause a grin that she has a hard time hiding.

The human nods. "The tower… is it alright? It looks as though we came in the middle of construction." the human gestures to one of the large girders jutting out of the side of the tower.

"We found it like this." the Technopriest answers, motioning towards a doorway that leads into the strange tower. "It may not look like much from the outside, but I assure you that it is quite sound on the inside."

The Savanite doesn't look up at the tower again, instead focusing on the back of Tahir's head and following close behind him.

Tahir makes a quiet noise as an answer and follows after the Technopriest. He glances over his shoulder at Leeta and smiles for a moment.

Leeta returns the smile, her ears wiggling forward. She glances ahead at the door, still curious and wanting to see everything, and still trying to hide it.

The inside of the tower is like a whole other world. Bits of rusted metal sit in crates, parts of who knows what, while other devices, ranging from tiny things that could easily fit in the Savanite's palm to one huge machine that looks bigger than Nartak's old house sit on various levels of the tower. A great spiral staircase winds upwards, and what looked to be open space above has been boarded closed from the inside. Other passageways leading to who knows where head off in all directions.

The raccoon walks away from the staircase and heads instead to a doorway that bears some resemblance to those used for Tahir's room. The Technopriest presses his hand against a metal panel in the wall, causing a strange rumbling noise to start up from behind the doorway. "It will be just a moment… this is the fastest way up though."

The Savanite's hands splay open in surprise. The metal, the machines, it feels almost like one of Tahir's stories. She looks around, blinking, then remembers to bow her head and wait behind Tahir. As carefully as she can, she watches Brother Mainspring in the delay.

Tahir looks like the proverbial kid in a candy store, he looks around wide-eyed at all the machines. "Do these all work?" he asks the raccoon.

Leeta is just as interested in the answer, raising her head a little.

"Sadly, only a small percentage of them are currently operable." Brother Mainspring replies. "Many of the machines here have missing parts, or have broken down with age… or their original purpose has been forgotten through the ages." He looks sheepish for a moment.

Tahir nods and goes back to ogling at the devices. A few moments later the doorway in front of the group opens… into a small empty room?

Leeta catches a few more surruptous glances at the mechanisms, then looks blankly at the bare room when the door opens. She lowers her head again and waits, shifting the mandolin against her back. Her tailtip twitches.

Brother mainspring grins and cheerily steps into the new room. "You do know what an elevator is, don't you?"

"Does it work?" Tahir asks, following behind. "they had some in the temple, but they were broken down most of the time."

The Savanite slips in, making sure her tail is clear of the door.

The Technopriest presses a button with an odd symbol on it and the doors close behind Leeta, narrowly missing her tail. "Oh yes, we're quite proud of the condition of the lift. Now then, you'll be staying on the third level… we've tried to find you a room that doesn't smell too much like oil."

The Savanite's ears pick up a soft "mew" from directly behind her.

Leeta waits, wondering what is going to happen. Hearing the noise, she gives a quick glance to see if the others have noticed, then puts a hand down to calm the cub she suspects is behind her.

The hand brushes up against a furry little head, and then Leeta feels something get a good firm grip of her tail as the 'room' begins to move upwards. Tahir seems equally startled and throws his hands against the wall. "Gracious, it's more bumpy than I remember."

Her own tail bristles out as Leeta feels the shuddering beneath her feet. Tahir doesn't seem worried, so she isn't… much. She distracts herself by rubbing the head of the cub, brushing the hair back.

"Hello… " The Technopriest peeks at Leeta, or actually… at a small furry head peeking out from behind Leeta. "Seems we have a stowaway." He studies the cub for a few moments before smiling. "Well, you'll have to catch the next ride down I suppose."

Tahir chuckles, then looks up at a row of lights above the closed doorway.

Leeta nods, taking the small hand and leading the young Savanite out from behind her. She crouches down and scoops up the little cheetah, he's heavy, but not too heavy. Holding onto him with both arms she steadies herself by leaning against the wall. Her eyes can't help but follow Tahir's, and she ends up watching the numbers as well.

With another stomach turning lurch, the elevator stops and the doors open again. The Technopriest chuckles and hops out. "Come along, I'll show you to your room."

Patting the back of the cub to keep him calm, Leeta waits to follow Tahir. She looks curiously through the doors. She was expecting things to change, but it's still strange to see it.

The human rubs a hand through his hair, almost tripping on a large hunk of machinery that lies in his path as he follows behind the Technopriest. His eyes dart around as the grin on his face gets wider and wider. "Ohh… a field generator, never thought I'd see one of those again here, much less trip on one. And OH… look there, a flightpack!" He continues babbling on, pointing out bits of pieces of things that mean nothing to Leeta's ears.

The cub squirms a bit.

Leeta grins, trying to see all the things Tahir is pointing out, and keep a good hold on the cub. She also has to watch her step. She turns now and then, to let the little cheetah see something that might interest him, and tries to get him to stop wriggling.

Her hands twitch with all the things she wants to ask Tahir about, but she can't, even if they weren't full of Savanite cub.

The Technopriest pauses at a hallway that looks almost like the mouth of a cave from the lack of light. He grasps his wrench shaped staff and gives a portion of the wall a good hard *WHACK*, moments later the familiar buzz of florescent lights can be heard and the 'cave' begins to brighten. "There we go… sometimes it just needs a little nudge, come along now!" He scurries down the hallway, causing Tahir to have to double his step.

Leeta squeezes the cub, adjusting him and her mandolin and starting to pant just a little bit as she follows behind the human and Rath'ani.

Down the hallway a little ways and they're there. Brother Mainspring opens a door (this one has a knob, instead of that 'cycling' that Leeta had grown accustomed to in the Temple). "Here you go, will you need instructions how to go up and down or do you think you can manage?"

"I think I can manage." Tahir answers, walking into the room and looking around. "Although it might be useful for me to get my hands on one of your wrenches in case I want to turn the lights off again."

Nodding before she can stop herself, Leeta makes an extra effort to keep her head properly inclined, and hopes Brother Mainspring didn't notice. A smile creeps across her muzzle at Tahir's question, and she halts before following him into the room. She pats the back of the cub and gives a significant glance at both the human and Rath'ani, her ears flicking in a confused way.

Tahir crooks his head sideways at Leeta, he coughs and seats himself on the bed. "Where will my slave be staying?" he asks.

The raccoon rubs his chin. "I'd heard that you preferred to stay together. I'll see about getting a cot in here for your slave, and a screen for privacy." He points to a door off to the side. "Anyroad, there's the privy, breakfast is at eight, lunch at one, and dinner is at six. I'll give you the grand tour later."

Leeta's tail bobs happily behind her, one less worry. She momentarily considers showing the cub the toilet, he'd probably find it fascinating as well. The grand tour also sounds interesting, but her main thought is what to do with the stowaway she's picked up; She looks at Brother Mainspring, and adjusts her hold on the little cheetah.

The Rath'ani Technopriest doesn't seem to notice the cub anymore as he moves toward the doorway. "Well, that's about it. Anything else I can do for you?"

"As a matter of fact." Tahir says. "Do you have any news from Rephidim? We've been ship-borne for over two months now. Has the war in Babel ended yet?"

Brother Mainspring shakes his head. "No. Although we got the strangest bit of news from the Naga Empire yesterday. Apparently the Emperor-Potentate has gone insane. There's rumors that Savanites in the Empire are being set free and given citizenship there. I think the whole thing is a joke myself, the Empire is the last place I'd expect something like that to happen."

The Savanite just blinks. She feels a distant dizzyness coming on, and her one thought is {Jezebel?} The cub slipping from her arms drags her awareness back. She catches him quickly, still blinking, and looks towards Tahir.

Tahir's eyes are equally as wide as Leeta's. "Where did you hear this from?"

"Oh, we had a supply ship come by yesterday from the Savan." the raccoon replies, fingering his chitin wrench. "Not much detail, as this seems to have happened less than a week ago, it could be just a silly rumor, or a plot from the Empire, or something different. There has been an increase in slaver ships leaving the Empire though… apparently slave owners are getting scared and selling off their stock."

Leeta has more questions than spots, and no way to ask them. She keeps looking between Tahir and Brother Mainspring. {What does this mean? Will I be sold? Is it… what I think it is?} She can only hope her friend asks them for her.

"Anything else?" the Technopriest asks.

Tahir shakes his head. "Er… no. I'll just start getting unpacked. I'll head back down and annoy someone if I need anything more. thank you."

The red-maned Savanite bows her head, and waits. She rubs at the cubs back, as much for her own benefit as his.

The Rath'ani nods and ducks out the door, it closes slowly… long enough for one to notice that the lights outside have gone out again. A loud *WHACK* echoes through the hallway and they quickly pop back on again.

Leeta puts down the cub, then pushes against the door to make sure it is closed and he has no where to go. Her signs flash almost too quickly to read. "Free? Tahir, what's going to happen? The Nagas?"

The cub giggles and climbs up in a chair, peeking over the rim at Leeta.

The human just shakes his head. "I'm not sure. The Empire isn't part of Rephidim, so their laws won't have any effect on us. I wonder what in blazes made this happen?"

"Do you think it's my sister? The Savanite Empire… it's supposed to be now. Won't this effect everyone? Will anyone trust their slaves?" She sings, shaking her head, not sure what to think, only staring.

"Could all those mages have… " Leeta's signs just trail off.

"I don't know, Leeta." Tahir says. "We'll only be able to tell by what we see. The Emperor might have gone crazy, or this might be a plot to affect the slave market, or it could be the mages. We'll only know by what we see."

The Savanite cub hops down from his chair and sneaks into the privy. He peers at his reflection in the mirror and wiggles his ears.

"Free," her hands slowly form the sign. Leeta looks at it, "It's going to cause problems Tahir. Not ones as bad as a Savanite rebellion… but who knows what people will do, or do to their slaves."

Leeta comes up behind the cub, and wiggles her hands behind his ears in the mirror.

Tahir nods. "Can you think of a way the Savanites will be free and have it *NOT* cause trouble?"

The cub mews and covers up his ears. He sticks his tongue out at Leeta's reflection and grins.

She shakes her head, looking back at Tahir. "No, I can't. It just seems so… I knew something was going to happen. I guess this is it. Hopefully it won't touch us much here." Leeta looks back in the mirror long enough to stick her tongue out at the cub.

"Rhys will make something out of it, you can be sure." She adds.

"Now now." Tahir says. "Both of us don't care much for Rhys, but he's competing with us so he's trying to keep up an intimidating front. We don't know what Rhys will do."

The cub MEWS and ducks down, do that only his eyes and ears poke out in view of the mirror.

"I know, but he'll use it someway." Leeta turns around to face Tahir directly, but drapes her tail over the cub. "He'll say maybe I'm going to rebel, or he'll suggest maybe you should sell me, or sell all the Temple slaves. He might say buy all the Nagai slaves, it's… It's something your watchers will expect you to have an opinion on, and you need to have the right one before Rhys does."

The cub makes a growling noise and pounces Leeta's tail!

Leeta startles, standing straight upright.

The candidate nods. "But I'd rather get the facts before I form an opinion. the Technopriest said it could all be just a rumor."

Calming down, the Savanite reaches back and pets the successful hunter. Her tail struggles to keep him occupied. "Yes," she answers Tahir, "that's probably a good answer too. If anything, say that… owning me gives you some insight."

Growling (as well as a cub CAN growl), the little Savanite tries to walk around Leeta to show her his prize… not an easy task since his prey doesn't seem to stretch out in front of Leeta as far as he wants.

"But of course!" Tahir says with a grin. "Since it has."

"The Nagas might just be selling off a bunch of diseased slaves. It could be as simple as that." Leeta's expression as the cub pulls on her tail is a strange combination of pain and happiness. She smiles at the little cheetah and tries to get him to not hold on quite so tightly.

She returns Tahir's grin, ears wiggling.

The Savanite cub seems to get the message and lets go of Leeta's tail, opting instead for a game of hide and seek behind Leeta's legs.

The human nods. "Unfortunately we might not find out for several weeks, or however long they plan to keep us here. When I have access to Temple resources I can probably hunt down the truth a bit better."

Leeta peek-a-boos at the cub hiding behind her, pretending to lose him, and looking at Tahir during that break. The contrast between the two is so strange, they are only a year or two apart in age, but their behaviour so different. "Oh, I wanted to ask in the hallway, but I couldn't. You recognized so much, can you fix those machines if the Technopriests can't? What do they do, what's a field generator jetpack for?"

"A field generator is part of a spaceship, and I'd need a spaceship to make it work properly." Tahir says, chuckling. "And the jetpack was a device used on the fliers' planet for non flying visitors. I could repair a lot of the things if I had the right tools, and if I could scavenge parts off of other things."

She peeks around her opposite leg, 'hiding' from the cub before asking Tahir, "Is that what we're going to be doing here? It sounds like fun. Will they let me help?"

The cub squeals and runs around in front of Leeta, peeking around behind her – he's quite sure of his new hiding place now.

Leeta puts her finger on the cubs muzzle, shushing him. "They grow out of it."

"To be honest, Leeta." Tahir says. "I've not the foggiest notion of what I'm doing here. Although if I have the opportunity to make some use out of myself, then I'll eagerly go after the machines here."

The cub imitates Leeta's 'shush' gesture and then runs back into the privy to make faces at himself in the mirror again.

She grins at the little cheetah again, watching him with the mirror. "He'd probably stay in there for hours if we showed him how to flush the toilet." Leeta stops signing for a moment, her tail bumping against her legs. "Maybe you should ask. I guess they're going to want to see leadership or something, it's good to look busy."

The Savanite winks, "Slave trick."

"I'll remember that." Tahir says.

Leeta looks at the cub, then for someplace to put down her mandolin and bag. She gives another quick glance around the room, at the walls. "I didn't get a chance to see what I got out of Rhys' room, I think I can take a look now."

The cub is starting to look a bit sleepy, and watches Leeta's reflection in the mirror with half lidded eyes.

As for the rest of the room, the door is closed and the walls are bare, except for a few oil stains here and there.

"Is there a wastebasket or disposal in here? I had to take everything from the your bin. I mixed the papers up too well." She opens bag, taking out the garbage.

Tahir hops out of bed and gives the room a quick search. He drags out a small crate that was perhaps being used as a stool and flips it upside down. "there, this will do for a wastebin in a pinch."

Leeta smiles, and unfolds a piece of paper. After checking that it is one of Tahir's, she crumples it loudly, then makes a production of throwing it into the crate – for the cub's benefit.

The cub's eyes widen at this. He grabs some papers from the privy and runs over to throw them in the bin as well, a long trail of paper stretches out behind him.

"No," she signs, moving to intercept the cub and stop him before the paper trail becomes too long. Shaking her head at him, she gets frees the little cheetah from it, and tries to shove as much of the tissue back in the privy-area. Leeta sets the cub down beside the crate, and bats at the crumpled ball inside it.

Meanwhile, Tahir had erupted into fits of laughter as he watches Leeta and the cub.

The Savanite kitten watches Leeta for a moment and then batbatbats at the paper ball himself.

Leeta's ears are down in embarrassment, "I thought it would work better than that." Once the cub seems distracted for a moment, she looks through the other pieces of paper she collected, tossing anything she recognizes into the crate and handing the rest to Tahir. "Let me know if you didn't write any of these, and if you find anything."

Luckily, Leeta's become familiar enough with Tahir's writing and it's not too hard to tell which papers are his; also the ones that belong to Rhys are very obvious because they all consist of drawings. One picture is of a flower, another looks like a scribble of a landscape, another is a picture of an Eeee in Bridge robes with the letter 'N' in the bottom corner of the paper, there are also several formless scribbles that look like they could have been the start of drawings but never actually got off the ground.

"Pictures," she looks at Tahir, not really sure what to make of them. "Do you remember him drawing?"

A crumpled piece of paper bonks Leeta in the back of the head, followed by a sheepish 'Mew'. Tahir bursts into more laughter. He catches himself a few moments later, "I'm not sure. He always had a tendency to keep to himself, he could have been an opera singer for all I knew about him off duty."

Leeta picks up the paper ball and lobs it back at the cub, a hopefully easy to catch target. She looks at the drawings again, maybe they aren't full of evil plots and Moffat-like machinations. "Tahir… do you think that despite how well he's doing, and all the people he talks to, that Rhys might be as lonely as you were and not really have any friends at all?"

"I… never really thought about it." the Human answers, twiddling his fingers. "He seems to have lots of friends from what I've seen, and every attempt I've made to have a gentle conversation with him has turned into more of a head butting session."

"You're the Astromancer candidates. You can't be friends because one of you has to lose and neither of you want to. Everyone else knows what you are… and that's a clone-thing that they made and their future master. Maybe he doesn't have any, or he left them behind." Leeta folds up the piece of paper, and looks at the cub.

Tahir nods, folding his arms across his chest and leaning against a bedpost. "As always Leeta, you're right. Although what can I do for him?"

The cub climbs into the improvised wastebin and tries to burrow under the papers.

"I don't know… I could ask Naoko to leave the little guy alone with Rhys a few times." She watches the cub burrowing through the papers. "At least he won't treat him like an Astromancer. Anything else we try to do he probably won't trust."

"You'll have to ask Naoko about that, I'd wager." Tahir says, ducking as a piece of paper goes flying in his direction.

Leeta nods, "I will. I probably should take him back now, she'll be worried. I just push the buttons on the elevator and it goes up and down right? Is there anything else I need to do?"

The human hops out of bed once more and grabs one of the scrap pieces of paper. He snatches a pencil and scribbles down a couple of odd looking symbols and then hands the sheet to Leeta. "Here you go. Push the one on the bottom to go to the bottom floor, and the one on the top to come back here."

She takes the paper and looks it over. Smiling she signs, "I'll remember. I'll be back soon, and won't touch anything on the way there. Once I'm back you can tell me how you're going to fix everything, or I'll play for you, or something. This place is kind of bare." She looks around at the oil stained walls, then picks up the cub. With her arms full, she can only wave with her tail, which she does as she heads out on her mission to take the stowaway home.