Tarrg let loose a low whistle. 'Nalana had really pulled out all of the stops for this project of hers. But the question of wether it would work ran through his mind. He was curious, he couldn't help it.
'Nalana, too, wanted to know if all her work would result in success or failure. She wanted to test the machine. Another person was nearby, but could she ask her friend she had known for nearly all of her life to put his life at risk to satisfy her curiosity? She wouldn't find out unless she tried.
"So, uhmm, do you want to... try the machine out... to see if it works?" She asked.
"Might as well," the grendel answered.
'Nalana openned the portal to the left tube for the grendel and attached all the necessary sensors to him and then resealed the tube. She openned and got into the right chamber and sealed herself in. She feverently hoped that she and her friend would come out of this experiment unscathed as she attached the set of sensors in her chamber to herself. Slightly shivering in fear, her voice quivered as she commanded the computer.
"Computer, set mode 'travel'." A whirring and a 'confrimed' chirp answered.
"Computer, set direction 'backwards'." Another compliant chirp.
"Begin power up and commence countdown." A dull throbbing sound that grew in intensity accompanied the affirmative chirp.
The throbbing made Tarrg nervous, but he tried his best not to show his discomfort. 'Nalana was nervous enough, she didn't need to deal with his fear as well as her own.
Suddenly, the throbbing stopped. Tarrg felt a strange tingling sensation run through his entire being. He also felt like he was seeing out of someone else's eyes. He couldn't make sense of anything that he was seeing or any of the associated sensations.
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Tarrg was a female, a female with bronze skin warm to the touch, relaxed black hair down to his knees and sparkling brown eyes. He was a being called a "human", a woman, to be specific. His name was Ana D'Nalaia, of the S.S. HyperDayrael. He was head of the spaceship's engineering crew and had a talent with building and science.
He was walking down the corridor, on his way to his shift in engineering, smiling and chatting at people along the way. Taarg had no control, he was stuck in this form as an observer while the real Ana moved about and did what she did.
Strange looking creatures, these humans, he thought. Everything about them was strange. Most of them had copious amounts of fur on the scalp and nearly none on the rest of the body! Their backside was similar to that of an ettin! He mentally shuddered at that, preferring the fluffy tail of a norn, like his mate Terr'an. They had no fangs or claws to speak of when compared to a grendel. How did these beings manage to defend themselves?
Ana finally reached the engineering chambers. Taarg watched every panel stroke she made and didn't understand a thing. He couldn't read the language it was in. She was at those panels for hours, Tarrg was getting sick of looking at them. She finally got up after he had gotten through singing "100 cans of hootch on the wall", four times.
She went to her quarters and into the shower, a scalding hot one at that. He was mentally wincing in pain. After that, she went to sleep, leaving Tarrg alone to ponder.
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