"Pref on Refuge, dont want to go out without a functional ship any time soon."

He texts back and sends another a few seconds later, "Oh, and add 'Cubit' to the list of things I have no idea what they are." If there is an emote for sarcasm that will be added.

Grab lunch on way
Address 50UP-110-COMP
will explain Cubit
congrats u got TWO CUBITS clearance now
with more power more responsibility

The texts come back in Battles' rapid-fire style.  He's referring to the 50th floor of the Upperdecks 110 Block, Computer department.

And lunch?  By his guesstimate it's about 7 PM.

To Kendall it was always weird how they still defaulted to the 12 hour clock and such since we are in space and earths rotation cycles shouldn't matter anymore, anyway he heads where Battles instructed, grabbing something healthy to eat on the way, whatever food place he happens to run into is fine.

It's a good thing he can keep himself cool or he would be a pile of sweat after that space hopping.

The best thing he finds along the way is an honest-to-god chicken wing stand.  But it's definitely not the healthiest:  for that he finds a travel-thermos of pho, deliciously flavored with fake beef and shirataki noodles.

By the time he gets there he is sweating, the pho is still pretty hot and it's hard to walk and sip soup, but at least it isn't something fried.  He has to make his way past some scary-looking guards, NOT Ilmorijo, instead serious-looking men and women with melee weapons and bulletproof vests.

He's apparently expected.  They push him into a white warren of offices and labs, heavily air-conditioned, with servers buzzing in the background.  110-COMP is a white room with an airlock, a single computer, and Battles sitting inside playing Minesweeper.

"Good to see you, Kendal,"  The sidereal says to him, "Welcome to the Low Technology Quarantine Lab, LOWTEQ.  We use this to process any data taken from Abyssal ships.  If anything goes wrong, the computer melts, and- uh, we melt with it.  No CORENET connection, of course."

"A pleasure as always." He nods to Battles, glancing behind himself at those pushy guards, personal space people.

"I got to admit, I got pulled into this, or rather I did't know better and now I'm doing stuff really outside of my area of expertise." He pulls out everything he found in the broken ship, "Like all this techy stuff, I went to real lengths to prove or disprove madmans ramblings." He continues.

"Then I'll spare you CUBIT,"  Battles tells him, taking the disk. "If this isn't your cup of tea have you considered delegation?  Don't you have any techies in your office?"  He asks, working it into the computer, "But you're a politician; that means tending to the health of your community.  Is he a part of your constituency?"

After handing over the disk he crosses his arms, "I have politicians, accountants and secretaries in my office." He states, "I did this one thing because I deliberately didn't want to bother anyone, but yet here I am."

He smirks at the latter part, "Well, yes. He did say he voted for me, but putting that aside..." He sighs, "The implication of a possible corrupted lunar in his story is what bothers me and makes me not be too vocal about this really. I want to check the sources before making anything out of it, also letting possible false news spread would cause more trouble, so yeah."

"Really this isn't my wheelhouse either.  Operational security and discovering issues like this is more of Secrets' job."  He plugs it in, "If this doesn't cause the computer to melt completely, I'll get her on it and free you up.  And yeah, don't say a peep about it to anyone else.  How's that sound?"

He starts hooking up the disk into the computer.

"One problem about being a politician, and why I never stepped into it, is because you're always going to be asked to deal with things like this.  So I guess your job will be learning where problems have to go.  Though getting shoved into this stuff is great training for when things really go off the tracks..." He presses the boot button and the screen flashes green, flashes red, and then turns off.

"... Hm.  Well, it didn't melt the computer, that's good... I think this is a Juno problem for now."

"Yeah, that sounds good to me." He replies with a sigh of relief.

Kendall does know how to make excel sheets and troubleshoot a PC, but anything beyond that he merrily leaves for others to deal with.

"Mhm, I guess guess you're right on that as well. I don't know how much you know about my quirks but I rarely delegate anything to anyone I don't know personally, I have been called a perfectionist and such, heck, I don't even know know you or Secrets, so this... feels awkward." He sits down, still arms crossed. "I do trust all the Sidereals, Solars and Infernals as what they are and what they stand for, but asking for help from people I don't know feels wrong. Maybe I should expand my contact list as soon as I'm able to."
He doesn't want to give the impression that Battles was his last resort and he was doing this reluctantly, instead he was one of the few people he could trust this information with and was happy to do so.

"If you want to be a perfectionist at everything you do- that's great, then start doing; if you can't or won't, then technically 0 is still perfect."  Battles tells him, "Why don't you take the rest of the day off. Go off and meet some Exalts you normally haven't.  I've got a list,"  He says, "You may actually have a decent time talking to Kyle, he's an Eclipse like you.  Or I can send you to another Sidereal.  Go ahead and make some contacts.  Be more comfortable with it.  Because honestly, the Living can't afford for you to have delegation hangups if you can't tackle every problem you hit."

He strokes his chin, "Oh yeah, it just occurred to me, maybe a new set of responsibilities and talents requires some getting used to." He facepalms, "This is basic stuff, how did I miss this? Oh well, no use whining about it, better to do something about it." He says with new enthusiasm.

"You'd be surprised.  It happens a lot," The sidereal tinkers at his machine, "Better, faster, stronger is easy to figure out, but it takes a lot of mental training to realize that you can change your own paradigm.  Take Lucifer, for instance.  He knows damn well what his strengths are but let me tell you, he's a very different exalt from when he started.  It took him a while to branch out.  And I certainly didn't think I'd end up being the new Exalt trainer.

So, flexibility?  It's something I try to drill into every new exalt I see.  One way or another, at any rate... but I think in your case you should start by doing a grand tour of Exalts."

"Hmmm, Yeah. That sounds good to me. Can I leave this thing here and wait for Juno to call me back before taking it further? I think the prisoner can wait in his cell for a bit." He says, starting to look through the list if he actually gets one.

"Yeah, absolutely you can.  I'll keep messing with it for a few more hours and confer with her.  You're free to do what you need to do."  Battles gives him a respectful nod, "List should be coming... now."

He's given the following names:
SMOKER - HUMAN, PRE-EXODITE [CONTACT POINT: LUCIFER]
KYLE WESTON - SOLAR ECLIPSE, PRE-EXODITE
RED QUEEN - INFERNAL SLAYER, PRE-EXODITE
SERENITY - SIDEREAL, PRE-EXODITE
JUNO - SIDEREAL, PRE-EXODITE
JOURNEYS - SIDEREAL, PRE-EXODITE
ILARI LIEVO - LUNAR CHANGING MOON, EXODITE
SHUN XIAO - INFERNAL SCOURGE, EXODITE
JULIUS CAESAR - LUNAR FULL MOON, EXODITE
WILLIAM MORGAN - DRAGON-BLOODED EARTH, PRE-EXODITE
SUMITHA CHANDRAGUPTA - DRAGON-BLOODED FIRE, EXODITE
LUZ BORREA - DRAGON-BLOODED WATER, PRE-EXODITE
MORRIGAN - DRAGON-BLOODED WOOD, PRE-EXODITE
GRUNT HOCKENBERRY - DRAGON-BLOODED AIR, EXODITE
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:36, Sat 04 Jan 2020.

Kendall is truly thankful, getting into contact with people is a pain without shared contacts.

"Thanks, it's good to get to know more people of this caliber. I'd hate to be a bother, but being helpless is even worse." He says to Battles before giving him a respectful nod and leaving.

He goes somewhere they serve good coffee to look at the contact list and relax as he starts from the top. "Hey, Kendall Raines here. As I'm quite new to this Exalting thing Battles was helping me getting into contact with new people, so if you have time and interest we could have an unofficial meeting of sorts. So nothing fancy, just me getting to now poeple." Says the message.

He indeed starts from the top and waits for a reply before moving to send a message to the next person as he drinks coffee. Not everyone is as fast to reply as Battles is so he takes his time.
Let's see what we find.

"Hey, no problem, man.  Warfare is all about communication and logistics in the end."

There's a few good coffee spots around the place.  He has no trouble leaving and getting to one.  This particular place, the Forbidden Stripe, gives away a cookie with every cup.

Smoker calls half a cup later.

"Mr. Raines,"  He says in between a puff of smoke, "Let me just ask you, are you calling for me, or are you calling for Lucifer?"

"Ah, it's definitely you I was trying to contact, I have chatted with Lucifer before, but I don't think I have met you in person?" He answers.

"To my understanding you are still one of the major players on this ship, so I figured i'd say hello."

"No, you haven't."  Smoker says calmly, "Gotta say I'm not what you might call the chatting type.  I'm the kind of person that if you give me a problem, you better not be venting, you better be asking me to fix it."

He exhales, "But I'm not unsympathetic, kid.  Feeling a bit over your head?  Got any questions for me?"

Kendall already likes this person.

Not wanting to keep Smoker from his duties with idle chit chat he goes straight to the point, "Well, I had Battles help with my current dilemma, so no imminent problems, just wanted to start establishing myself among the other influential people on board so if I am in a pinch I know there is people to rely on... or at least skip the introductions at that point." He replies, matching the level of calmness in his voice to his.

"I was about to ask about stuff you don't want or care to be bothered about, but you answered that at least partially already." He says, "Anyway, Lucifer and Bluefox have told great things about you, so I look forward to working with you."

"Networking's good,"  He remarks somewhat blandly, "And I never fully answered your first question.  Never ever ask me about what I did on Earth, got it?  I know you Eclipse types can be super persuasive but trust me when I say you don't wanna know.  It's best for everyone you don't know, ok?  Even your sister doesn't bother me about it."

He doesn't sound threatening, but resolute.

"So who's next on your list."

He looks at his list.
"I got this list from Battles and i started on top, you were first, then there are Kyle Weston and Red Queen Before rest of the sidereals."
He replies, giving a straightforward answer.

"Kyle's a good kid if a bit too quiet nowadays.  I worry about the Red Queen,"  Smoker admits, "Were you ever a fan of Jess Maraud's stuff?  Red Queen used to be her rival in the music business, but since she's gone she's not done a single concert.  I haven't been able to really talk to her myself.  She might talk to you.  Not saying talk to her first but if you do I want you to give me a call afterwards."

"Never had a chance to go to either of their concerts I'm afraid." He admits, he liked their stuff but not enough to take a day off for, "Maybe I'll call her first just to see what's up, as long as she picks up that is. After that I'll check on Kyle as well and yeah I'll give you a call if Red Queen picks up."

"I'm not sure if you should tell her that or not- that you've never really been a fan.  Might be a blow to the ego.  Good luck with that," Smoker exhales into the speaker, "I've got my hands full with one earth-shattering pre-exodite, you know what I mean?  And if you want more unwarranted advice?  Get a handler."

"Well, I do have her stuff on my playlist, just... whatever, I'll keep that in mind." The idea of getting on the bad side of a renowned infernal is not on the to-do list.

"That kind of advice is very welcome, I already have a secretary though and being a bit oblivious here I don't know the difference?" He admits, his first idea of a handler is about a dog handler and hopefully that is not what Smoker meant.