Narii

The starport's concourse was alive with a comfortable hum — a dozen languages vocalized in the broad open space, steam hissing from food carts, and the low thrum air processors working feverishly to keep the atmospheric composition comfortable for as many species as possible. Narii wove through the press of travelers, her tail plume bobbing slightly behind her, at eye level with most species hips or thighs. Her pale lavender plumage caught the soft amber light filtering down from the holo-signs above, and her copper-orange accents flashed as she adjusted the strap of her carry bag.

She wasn’t in a hurry. The plethora of exotic smells and colors made her feathers fluff in quiet satisfaction. She paused beside a kiosk selling used navigational sensors, talons tapping absently against the decking as she skimmed the inventory list... until a faint tone drifted from somewhere nearby, causing her upper ears to perk straight up and rotate toward the source.

Her head turned sharply, four ears angling outward to catch the noise. That sound again—steady, rising pitch. She followed it, weaving between taller beings until she found the source: a stranger holding a datapadd, its display flickering with irregular data.

“Wait, hold up!” she chirped, stepping closer and rising onto her toes for a better view. “That sound! Is that a grav wave sonification? It’s nearly perfect resonance for a neutron star. Unless…” Her ears flattened slightly, embarrassed but fascinated. “Unless your padd’s just… making that sound. Which would be less fun, but still interesting!”

Her tail flicked once, amused and eager, eyes bright with the thrill of discovery - of a gravity wave or perhaps an interesting person.

The shuttle touched down harder than Narii would ever admit in her mission log. The landing struts groaned and sank unevenly into the brittle soil. Outside, the world was quiet; thin air, dusty surface, amber sky. Her sensors still read interference, the same strange anomaly that had drawn her here, but the shuttle’s starboard engine was hissing angrily and the engine computer was warning about a coolant system failure.

Narii sighed, leaning against the control console as her ruffled lavender feathers slowly settled down. “So much for a clean approach,” she murmured, tail flicking about, agitated. “All right. Diagnostics, then improvisation.”

The hatch groaned open to an acrid burnt metallic scent, and she hopped down, datapad in hand, talons crunching into the crusty dry regolith, sounding too sharp in the tenuous atmosphere. Away from the smoking engine, the air smelled rusty and dry. She crouched beside the port intake, scanning the heat sinks for cracks, when something metallic glinted on the horizon.

Her quartet of ears pricked forward, angling toward the movement. Someone was out there. A silhouette against the glare, heading her way by the look of it.

She straightened, brushing the dust from her downy chest feathers and shading her eyes with one wing. “Oh, that’s convenient,” she called to no one in particular, voice bright with hope and irony. “Either I’ve got company… or scavengers already found me.”

There was an anti-material rifle and a monofiliment sword in the shuttle locker if she needed them... "Let's assume the friendly option first," she told herself despite rising nerves.