Culture shock (Indeela and Ellie)

Indeela was bored. Their single large eyelid lazily flicked up and down as they stared at the remnants of the long since consumed last serving of protogrub-gruel© with a distant longing.

"Bored and hungry. I wonder if there is any worse combination in the universe. Oh come now, Indeela that's a little bit melodramatic..."

Indeela stopped mid-sentence, suddenly realising that they had begun talking to themselves in order to replace the empty silence that filled their ship. Normally Hexy was filled with low rumbling and humming noises, distant beeps and groans... Sadly such reassuring representations of time passing were instead replaced by an eerie lack of sound. Almost everything had been shut down so the warp shunt drive could properly recharge with background energy from the nearby Time Rift... Not for the first time, Indeela wished that they had been brave enough to park a little closer. At this distance, it was taking forever.

The only active hardware installed across the entire ship was the cloaking device and, unlike every other system installed on the floating heap of junk that Indeela called home, that was relatively new and so generated little to no noise at all. That nice young Terreptil had installed it for Indeela back on Phandor IV after they had solved the case of the sentient soap killer. Oh, for happier, more exciting times...

Indeela's thoughts were rudely interrupted by a deep, echoing growl emerging from their stomach. While they were happy to hear a noise that was less indicative of a loss of sanity then their own voice, Indeela was less than pleased with the resulting hunger pangs.

"This is all your fault!"

Indeela glared down at their still fizzing and sparking shimmer. It had worked for a time... In fact, Indeela had been somewhat relying on it working. They'd made a few friends, had managed to impress some potential employees and were looking for a nice hotel to stay in... It was all set up to be a rather fun little holiday. A distant time and place where they could soak up alien culture while waiting for their ship to recharge. Then the damnable thing had malfunctioned while Indeela had been in the middle of their ritual triple check of the engines.

"And I don't even have a manual!"

With a rather limp and pathetic grunt, Indeela attempted to throw the shimmer across the room. It got as far as half way before clanging on the ground.

"... Enough is enough!"

Indeela sat up from their seat in the ship's control room and marched towards the cargo compartments with a new determination. They'd seen that there was a river nearby, some of the local humans had referred to it as the 'Thames' or something... and logically, where there was a river...

"Fish!"

Indeela jumped up and down excitedly as they pulled out a fishing rod from the collection of junk surrounding them. It was the only sensible thing to do. Or at least, Indeela had convinced themselves that it was. At this point it was this or stay here and go mad. They could only hope that the box of bait they had with them would be appropriate...

The ship's door opened with a slow and ponderous hiss. If anyone had been there, they would have seen the interior of the ship seemingly appear out of thing air, and Indeela's large eye poke out, carefully surveying the nearby area. With a quiet little giggle to themselves, Indeela shuffled out and onto the cold ground before turning back and closing the door behind them. It was a nice, clear night and Indeela momentarily admired the earth's moon beginning to emerge as night began. It was a lovely sight, but they couldn't afford to sit around watching. Now was the time for action!

And so Indeela slowly wound their way around and towards the edge of the Thames, stopping every now and then with baited breath to slowly lean around the corner and check for anybody watching. Not that they didn't have a plan if someone DID catch them. They'd pretend to be... what had those humans from before referred to again? Oh yes. A 'young raver' in a costume. Yes, in the dark and with enough insistence, Indeela was certain that they could convince any confused locals. Relatively certain, anyway. At this point, they honestly couldn't care less.

Indeela sat down at a nearby bench, rubbing two of their six hands together with glee, as another two set about throwing out their fishing rod. The remaining arms wiggled with excitement as Indeela sat and stared out at the water with a fierce intensity.

"... I wonder how earth fish taste fresh..."