One of the monitors in the cockpit flickered for a moment before showing the feed coming from the medbay. Teron stared at Nox through it before his gaze flickered over to the strange sight of the bat pony hiding underneath the medical bed while he processed what Nox had just said. Eventually, after another moment he spoke up.
"When you say sapient-"
Nox's monotone voice crackled over Teron's as he stood nearly motionless in the medbay. "When I say sapient, I do not mean she is merely smart. She has shown signs of self-awareness, recognizing a physical feature on herself when she saw them elsewhere. They have also made use of the bowl in an unusual way while simultaneously displaying signs of familiarity with bowls. It is nothing truly full proof, but the chances are far more likely than not with it, too much so to put it as coincidence. I trust you remember the decision you are required to make as captain?"
Teron took a breath as he put a hand on his head, a headache starting to form while he thought about the implications of what Nox was saying. "Sorry, I just had to make sure, and I do. Frankly, I think you already know what I'm going to do. We just cannot afford the time to search for wherever her homeworld might be right now, and we don't even know how those slavers got her."
He slumped a bit more into his hand as he began to think more and more about it. "And with The Rebellion going on at the moment, the few Federation bases that haven't been abandoned or destroyed wouldn't be able to do it either, much less without being caught. Nor would the original plan work out, it's too high profile now and would have to be taken to places where the rebels almost certainly have eyes on top of being too large a detour for us to reasonably take in the first place. Fuck."
"Fuck indeed. But what will we choose to do instead?"
Teron looked back up to the monitor as he took his head out of his hand. "The only thing we can. We take her with us to the Federation Base alongside our information. I'm not about to abandon a new sapient to the Rebels just because the situation is not ideal. And in the interest of solving our lack of information about her before some complication comes up from your blind treatment, you have my permission to direct some of our scrap into upgrading our sensors and medbay as necessary in order for them to actually work on her. Having to delay using it to put more power safely into our shields is far from ideal but we'll live with a delay. She might not. And it's not like it's something that wasn't planned to be upgraded at some point."
At his words, Nox looks towards the pad their holding before beginning to interface with it. "Affirmative Captain, I will begin drawing up plans on how to improve the general usage of both and of finding a way to detect her. But now that this matter has been resolved, I would like to request permission to perform an experimental procedure on her. Of course, this would be once a proper scan on her has been performed on her and done in order to expediently solve the problem of communication."
Teron's face twists into confusion for a moment at the mention of an experimental procedure before he realizes what Nox meant and it hardens. "You can't be serious. You know what my thoughts on that barbaric procedure were back when it was introduced by Dr. Edenburg and that was before he joined the Rebels and started aiding in their efforts to 'civilize' the 'lesser' races. You even agreed with me back then! You can't be serious."
Nox merely stayed impassive while he responded. "I would not suggest it if I were not serious. And as I recall, I only mostly agreed with you, disagreeing only in extreme cases where such a thing might be necessary. I would constitute this situation as one of them. If we do not solve the communication problem in a timely manner, the odds they pass away due to their lack of basic knowledge is high unless we wish to lock her down into specific areas until we reach the Federation Base. Something that would cost us even more valuable resources when we already aren't in the best position."
Nox then gestured towards the bat pony, who promptly flinched as they did so. "And while we are engaged in combat, a simple shot hitting the wrong place could make those efforts null and void before we can save her and such a thing could even imperil us too. By doing this, we are able to raise her chances of survival exponentially and would likely improve the quality of her time here, even despite some of the complications involved with it. Complications that with a few personal modifications to the flawed design I would be capable of mostly alleviating."
Teron stared at the monitor before he sighed, hard. "I hate the fact you're making a good point."
"As do I Captain. That does not stop this from being something that it is best we do if we wish for her to have the best odds of living for the duration of her stay with us while not breaking any Federation laws or procedures."
"I'm pretty sure performing experimental procedures on a newly discovered sapient species is still breaking something there."
"It is technically, even if not explicitly stated." Nox admits. "But we were given leeway to push them somewhat while on this mission. It is time to use that leeway. Do I have permission to perform the experimental procedure once it is possible to do so safely?"
"I can't believe I'm actually approving this but yes, you have permission to perform it."
"Affirmative Captain. I will then begin working with Veran in improving the functionality of our sensors and discovering how to make them work on the bat pony as soon as I am confident in my preliminary designs. And once that is done and we have a moment of peace, I will begin the experimental procedure."
Teron nods as he begins preparing the communication system in the cockpit once more. "You do that Nox, I trust you to organize that properly. I'll get back to negotiating with the refueling station so we don't run out of fuel. I'll let you both know once that's done and then we'll begin the process to jump to the next sector."
I slowly crept back out once the terrifying metal thing had left after it had finished making whatever those strange noises were to what seemed to be thin air. They sounded so similar to the noises my wardens made, but different somehow? I shuddered a bit as I thought about them before shaking my head while my stomach growled. The paste might not have been very appetizing, I still didn't feel particularly too great, and instead of my wardens I now was with that metal thing with no idea where home was. None of that changed the fact I was still very hungry.
But at least it seemed better, I think at least? It didn't try to do anything to me other than put down the bowls of food and water and show me some strange picture of the stars before showing me my cutie mark of all things before it went away. I was still trapped, but I was no longer bound. And even when I thought I had messed up and gotten myself in trouble with it, it hadn't done anything but stand there. Nothing was truly good but... it was better. And that was something.
Not much happened for a long while after I finished eating what I could, other than the occasional mechanical sounds that came out of nowhere that sent me back under the bed out of instinct before I could stop myself. I occasionally tried to push against whatever it was that my new bindings were, but no matter what I tried they simply stretched with me and began to pull hard until I relented and went back. I couldn't even reach anything else within the room where I was placed, it pulled me back too quickly before beginning to hurt for me to do so.
It was probably for the best though, as much as I wanted to move around and stretch about after being bound for so long, the last thing I wanted to do was to make that metal thing angry at me, it could probably do far worse to me than whatever my wardens had done before if it had taken me from them somehow. Maybe it even had an even stronger shocking spell metal thing it could use on me-
I shook my head before that line of thought could continue as I took a deep breath. 'Come on Star Dancer, they haven't done that to you just yet. They're nicer. Just try not to bother them and figure out whatever it is they want from you and do it and maybe they'll let you go. Just don't frustrate them by hiding whenever you see them and it might just be okay. You can do this.'
With that thought and not much else to do I climbed back on top of the medical bed and laid down on it staring at the doorway. The metal thing was still terrifying but I wouldn't let my fear mess up whatever it was that was happening now. I still jumped at the random sounds but I managed to control myself, a step in the right direction.
I couldn't tell just how much time had passed where I had just been staring at that strange magic door they had left through when my eyes began to grow tired. I struggled in vain to stay awake, but eventually, my eyes fell closed as a fitful sleep took me.