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// Interlude: Introductions 
// Story: Dead Space: Deep Space Terror 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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Chrysalis, despite the fact that she had absolutely no idea where she was and had no idea why her body wasn't responding to her orders, was well aware of the fact that she had seen... something... staring at her from a doorway, before she had tried to move and fell out of whatever she had been resting on, resulting in the pain she was feeling at the moment. She had been foiled many times over her long life, more so than what the ponies of Ponyville and Canterlot knew about, though those paled in comparison to the few number of times where she utterly embarrassed herself, such as what happened a few moments ago. If she had any control over her body she would have charged at the mysterious creature that was staring at her and would have knocked it out cold, so she could plan her next move in regards to gaining the power to dominate all of Equestria.

Of course those thoughts went out the window the moment the creature, who had to be female based on the voice that Chrysalis heard, called out two names, indicating that she wasn't alone... though at the same time she decided that it was best if she kept silent, as she had no idea if these creatures would be hostile towards her, or friendly like those ponies.

"Ms. Daniels, was she in that cot a few minutes ago?" another voice asked, though Chrysalis quickly determined that the voice was definitely male and sounded like he was in charge of whatever was going on... in wherever she was.

"No Hammond, she was not in that cot when I checked my room," the first voice, the female she had earlier, replied, though her tone suggested that she and this 'Hammond' didn't get along very well, which told Chrysalis that they likely clashed their heads on whatever they were talking about, "As far as I can tell she must have teleported aboard the Kellion the instant we activated the Shockpoint Drive... even if such a thing is normally impossible."

"What are we going to do about her?" a third voice asked, though while this one was male Chrysalis detected that he might actually be worried about her, despite the fact that neither one of them knew each other.

"Well, we can easily stretch our existing food and oxygen supplies to support another person," the lady said, though at the same time Chrysalis knew she had to have done all the math in her head, which just made her think about Twilight Sparkle all over again, "and we're fortunate that there's another cot in this room, otherwise we would have to figure out where to move her before we arrived at the Ishimura."

"You know, its rude to talk about someone like they aren't present," Chrysalis said, though she chose this moment to talk and could have sworn she heard the sound of the trio turning to face her, but because of how her body wasn't responding to her orders she had no idea how to look up at whoever was in front of her, "I'd look at the three of you if I could, but this body of mine is being stubborn all of a sudden."

A few moments passed before Chrysalis felt something touch her front legs and her sides, before she was gently raised into a sitting position of some kind that felt completely foreign to her, while at the same time giving her the opportunity to see whatever was in front of her. As she opened her eyes, however, she found some strange bipedal creatures, two who appeared to be male and another that appeared to be female by their facial features, that happened to be staring at her. As Chrysalis' eyes focused she was able to tell what the strange creatures were wearing, as one of the males seemed to be wearing what she could only describe some sort of military suit, the second male was wearing another sort of suit that was different from the first male's suit, and the female was dressed in what she had to assume was some sort of casual clothing... and that they all had surprised looks on their faces.

Chrysalis then glanced down at her own body and had to resist the urge to gasp in surprise, as her body appeared to be a mix of her old changeling body and the strange bodies of the bipedal creatures that were staring at her, as her hindlegs ended in hooves while having the legs of the trio of strangers. Her front legs had been transformed into the strange appendages that the creatures in front of her possessed, though at the same time her hooves had changed into the strange five smaller appendages as well. Her chest area had likely been changed as well, as she had the same mounds that the female had on her chest, and she could tell that her face had been modified, as she couldn't see her muzzle and assumed it had followed suit. About the only things that seemed the same, save for her hooves, were the fact that her ears, tail, and horn seemed to be the only things to remain from her previous form.

She was absolutely shocked by the fact that her body had transformed in such a way, and she had to assume that Discord was at fault for her body appearing in this manner, but she tried to keep a neutral expression on her face as she faced the strange bipedal creatures that were staring at her.

"Now that you are sitting in a more comfortable position, its time you started talking," the military man said, though at the same time he knelt in from of Chrysalis, which told her that he wanted to look her in the eyes and not stare down at her while they talked, "Who in the world are you? And how did you manage to get aboard our ship while we were in the middle of hyperspace?"

"Chrysalis... that's my name," Chrysalis replied, to which she mentally grinned, as her voice sounded the same despite the fact that her body was now messed up beyond repair, "and I would have to hazard a guess that I'm now a changeling whose body is mixed with... whatever you three are supposed to be."

"Humans. We're humans," the lady said, causing Chrysalis to turn her eyes towards the female for a few seconds, though at the same time the lady gestured to herself before waving her front leg at her companions, "My name is Kendra Daniels, and these are my coworkers Zach Hammond and Isaac Clarke. I'm the Computer Specialist for the USG Kellion, while Hammond is the Chief of Security and Isaac is our Engineering and Ship Systems Specialist..."

"Coworkers is a nice way of putting it," the military man, Hammond, commented, causing Kendra to turn towards him for a few seconds, though at the same time Chrysalis' eyes followed suit, "You were inserted into our team because of persistent recommendations from the higher-ups in the CEC... and, more to the point, we barely know each other."

"That doesn't change the fact that, for this mission anyway, we're coworkers," Kendra countered, though Chrysalis at least agreed with the lady, but she didn't say anything because she wanted them to forget about the questions they wanted to ask her, though that was dashed as Kendra turned back towards her, "You said that you are a changeling, but you never explained what sort of creature that's supposed to be."

"That's because, on my home planet, we weren't in the habit of revealing our secrets to potential threats," Chrysalis replied, though at the same time a hit of anger appeared in her voice, as she remembered what happened when Thorax claimed control of her changelings, "not until Thorax ruined that anyway..."

"Thorax?" Hammond inquired, though while he was used to people hiding information from him, as that was part of what he went through thanks to Kendra's insertion into this mission, he was sure that Chrysalis was hiding something.

This time around Chrysalis said nothing, as she didn't want to bring up the changeling that had ruined everything and forced her into hiding, before she had made the move to invade Princess Twilight's castle and enter the crystal mirror, which brought her to wherever she was at the moment. Her silence seemed to irritate Hammond a little bit, meaning that he didn't like it when someone was keeping secrets or vital information to themselves, but at the same time she didn't care what he wanted from her. She barely knew the man and clearly didn't trust him, just as he clearly didn't trust her, but right now she was liking Kendra more than Hammond... and she had no idea what to make of Isaac, as he had remained silent since he first spoke up, but that also meant that she wasn't annoyed with the man just yet.

She carefully studied the three 'humans' that were standing around her and waited for one of them to talk, as she had to assume that her presence on the Kellion, whatever that was, could have derailed whatever mission they were on... yet their expressions told her otherwise.

"Okay then, we know your name and species," Hammond said, though Chrysalis could tell that he was a tad bit annoyed that she wasn't willing to share anything about her species with them, "but none of that explains how you managed to get aboard the Kellion after we activated the Shockpoint Drive."

"Honestly, I have no idea what the Kellion is or what this Shockpoint Drive you keep mentioning is," Chrysalis replied, though at the same time she figured that telling them the truth about how she got here, maybe bits and pieces of it instead of the whole story, would make them leave her alone, "All I did was enter a magical portal, in the middle of a library, and I somehow ended up on that cot, so I have no idea what you are talking about."

Had Chrysalis known that none of the three humans knew what magic was, and had though about that before opening her mouth, she would have been able to bypass the terrible conversation about how magic worked and if she had access to any spells. Since they wouldn't leave her alone about it, and insisted she showed them something, she simply sighed and called upon a small fraction of her energy reserves, to which she levitated one of the boxes off the ground for a few seconds before setting it back down. Hammond called her telekinesis spell a 'mind-controlled kinesis tool', to which Kendra told him that he might as well call it telekinesis, while at the same time Isaac seemed interested in what Chrysalis was able to do.

Since she had to explain the nature of her home world, and the types of magic that existed throughout Equus, she gave the three of them a short explanation of the various tribes and the magic they all possessed, while at the same time saying nothing about her own species.

"So let me get this straight," Hammond said, though at the moment he was sitting on a chair and had something called a hand pressed against his face, something that Chrysalis had learned while they were exchanging information, "you come from a world that's populated by magical ponies?"

"That's correct," Chrysalis replied, though at the same time she noticed that Kendra was leaning against one of the walls around her and Isaac happened to be standing near the doorway the three of them had used to enter the room they were all standing in.

"And, as you told us earlier, you entered a magical portal of some kind and appeared in that cot," Hammond continued, though Chrysalis could determine that he was just making sure that he understood everything that she had told the three of them.

"That's my best guess," Chrysalis stated, though while it was the truth it appeared that Hammond was either not buying her story or he was having a hard time believing her, just like she found it hard to imagine creatures like these humans were capable of doing everything that they told her about... and they had only given her a brief rundown on what their species had done in the more recent years.

Sure, Equus had trains, blimps, chariots, and a few airships, but she had never heard of a vehicle that was capable of leaving one planet behind and allowing the passengers to travel to a whole new world, and, according to what the three humans said, there were other types of spaceships that she didn't know about. Isaac, seeing that she was having a hard time understanding what they were saying, walked over to Chrysalis and helped her into a standing position, before he gently carried her out of the room they were in and brought her to an area he called the cockpit. It was there that Hammond introduced her to Corporal Johnston, the co-pilot for the USG Kellion, and Corporal Chen, the pilot for the ship she happened to be in... to which Chrysalis discovered that the two pilots were surprised that they had another passenger, but they seemed more open minded than what she expected them to be.

After being introduced to the pilots, however, Chrysalis took a moment to stare at the area that surrounded them, where she discovered that the Kellion was moving through some sort of ethereal haze, where she spotted what she assumed were blue rings that occasionally passed around the ship. To Chrysalis it almost looked like they were traversing a tunnel of some kind, where Isaac explained that they were heading through hyperspace and that they would be doing that for the next week... until they reached Aegis VII, where the USG Ishimura was located. Chrysalis had no words for what she was seeing, because the only thing that even remotely looked like this, in Equus anyway, was the teleportation spell that someone could learn from one of the number of spellbooks that existed in her old world.

"So this is what you meant by hyperspace," Chrysalis commented, though at the same time Isaac helped her over to one of the seats that allowed her a decent view of what was going on around them, "So, how long will it take us to reach this... USG Ishimura?"

"Well, the Ishimura is located on the fringes of our territory," Hammond said, though as he spoke he recalled every bit of information that he had on this mission, or at least the bits of information that he was told before their departure, "and we only activated the Shockpoint Drive a few hours ago, so it will take us about a week of traveling through hyperspace before we reach Aegis VII and the Ishimura. Once we arrive my team and I will diagnose and repair whatever is causing the communications blackout on the ship, though it might take some time, as the Ishimura is a large ship."

"Not to mention that it is one of the largest and oldest of the planet cracker ships that the CEC made," Isaac stated, to which Chrysalis watched as the other four humans nodded their heads in agreement, though this was the first time she heard of such a ship, before Isaac turned towards her, "Basically a planet cracker ship uses gravity tethers to lift a chunk of a planet into the air, where it is deposited inside the ship and the contents are studied. Once the studies are done the real mining begins, where the precious metals are pulled from whatever planet the ship happens to be stationed at... its a very lucrative business."

Chrysalis was a little surprised to hear that the ship they were heading towards was capable of tearing massive chunks out of whatever planet the CEC, whoever they were, wanted to mine for additional resources, and she could only speculate as to what might happen if something went wrong during a 'planet crack'. Even hearing what the Ishimura could do made her think of not allowing any of these humans to find her home world, as she was sure that they would rejoice at the spoils that rested beneath Equus' surface. Sure, she wanted to have her revenge on those that had wronged her, but this would take the fun out of it, so she decided to say nothing about her home planet.

"When we arrive at the Ishimura, and have settled down, you should be able to use whatever spell you used earlier and head back home," Hammond said, though at the same time Chrysalis turned back towards the military man for a few seconds, as it appeared that he had forgotten what she had told him earlier, "until then, you might as well use the other cot in Kendra's room."

"And we ought to give her some better clothing than the rags she wearing," Kendra added, though if she was annoyed with Hammond forcing Chrysalis into her room she didn't show it, while at the same time Chrysalis looked down at the clothing that had been put on her thanks to Discord's cursed mirror, "Isaac, we should have a spare RIG or two in the storage room... do you think we can modify one of them for Chrysalis to wear?"

"It might take a day or two to modify the boots to fit over her hooves, as well as modify the helmet to account for her horn, but we should be able to make it work," Isaac replied, surprising Chrysalis by the fact that it wouldn't take longer to make those types of changes to the type of suit he was wearing, as that was what she suspected Kendra had meant, "and don't worry, I'll come up with something to protect your tail as well."

Chrysalis honestly had no idea why they were willing to transform one of their spare suits into something she could wear, as she intended on heading someplace quiet when they reached the Ishimura so she could attempt to head back to Equus. Sure, she may not know the exact spell Discord had used on the mirror, but she had to assume that it was simple to recreate, yet, at the same time, something in the back of her mind told her that leaving Isaac and the others was going to be harder than what she thought... and she only hoped that she could prove herself wrong in seven days.