Re: [WP] Beacons (Story Thread Only)
Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2018 6:22 am
Well, at least Bastobar Wavecrest won't find any reason to complain on my behalf..., Alex thought, giving a sidelong glance on the peacefully resting Teidar to his right side. Idly he noticed that she had tied her hair together with several straps - makes sense, the longest of her tresses reaching even below her hips would be a nightmare to untangle if they'd be free floating in the water.
Even asleep she didn't let go of his right hand, much the opposite, he cannot remember when she pulled herself closer to him, but at some moment she must have done so, since he got keenly aware of her skin against his.
He remembered the last time he was in that close contact to Fireblade. He surmised to have seen some of her memories and nightmares - and there were lots of them.
Were she human, a psych would diagnose her with enough PTSD enough for five soldiers he thought with a pang of sorrow. And having been told that she is a danger even to their own males must have done wonders for her self-assuredness.
Just as his thoughts turned a darker path, Fireblade's eyelids began to flutter and she woke up with a content yawn.
'Did I ... fall asleep?', came her incredulous thought.
'You did. I didn't find it in my heart to disturb you. You looked that peaceful, in mind and body.'
'Never tell a Teidar she's peaceful.', she mock-chided him, then smiled. 'But... thanks. I never even realized myself how much I needed that.'
'You and me both. And... it looks like the novelty of me being on board is slowly wearing off. No one seemed to spare us a second glance.', Alex related his observation.
'Don't be so sure. I think it was me being here warding off any overly curious Pasets. No one would risk crossing a ticked off Teidar, even other Teidar would hestitate to do so. Had you been here with, say, a Soroin and not having an encounter, most of them would be much bolder.'
Alex groaned. 'Please don't remind me. As a disciplinary measure I had to clean up the water filters.'
Fireblade made a valiant effort to suppress her laughter, but still failed. 'Ew. No need to relate me the details!'
'So, no encounters in the bath then. And...', here he allowed himself some of his earlier thoughts to bleed through, '... you deserve so much more than a quick fling.'
Fireblade's ears went dark blue. 'You tease! Don't send such things if you don't intend to follow through with it!', then her thoughts turned somewhat more serious. 'What's the matter?'
'Uh...', he hestitated, '... that reminded me - Beryl got the front seat of my escapades with Talon.'
A quick askance look of Fireblade prompted him to explain the idiom 'front seat'. Sanzai, I come to love it. Saves me lengthy explanations.
'So you mean you sent to her and relayed the emotions you picked up from Talon, too?', she asked, with a note of incredulity in her thoughts.
'She told me so, yes.'
'Enzin....', Fireblade started haltingly, '...she wasn't on the bridge, but the datacenter of the ship is still maybe 250 to 300 of your meters away from the baths.'
'Is... that a problem? You're starting to worry me.'
Fireblade vigorously shook her head. 'No! Not a problem.... But... you know that the range of an ordinary Loroi is about one hundred meters? Three hundred is quite above average, but not overly so.'
'What is yours, if I may ask? Or is that classified information?'
'It is. Not just mine, but the capabilities of every Teidar. Though chances are that you might get clearance if you ever need to plan out ground operations as well.'
Alex could feel some subtext in her sending. He wasn't sure, but he got the feeling that Loroi males were perhaps weaker telepaths, and the caretaker's concerns wasn't her doing them physical harm, but overwhelming them with her own sanzai. He felt a sensation of hope coming from her, to actually have the chance of experiencing a male where she could let go of her fears.
'But... Be lucky of your Lotai. Just think, else you would have given everyone in your range a free show.'
'I'm not sure if it would have made matters any worse', Alex sent, thinking about another matter.
'What do you mean?'
'I promised to explain Stillstorm's remark about 'continuing the earlier discussion' to Tempo. This might not be easy.'
'What is this about?'
'Remember that I told you that I said to her I'd intend to go through with her own mating encounter rather than officially denying it? In the same instance where she ordered me to report to Wavecrest for latrine duty, she told me that she was about to come back on my acceptance to the mating encounter. As she got it in her head that this might be the easy way for her to link herself in to my sanzai - and my Lotai. But, shortly thereafter, she said she was just having me on, as a payback for me not denying the encounter. But, on the bridge, she said she'd come back to it...'
Fireblade was silent for a moment, but he felt her thoughts racing.
'That she broached the subject to you tells me that she at least entertained that thought and considered it a viable option. And, she still does. Else she would have considered the matter settled once and for all. So I wouldn't be too surprised if she indeed comes back to you to hold you to your promise.'
Alex groaned.
'There is that single rule in human military - no fraternization amongst the ranks. Sure, it is the most overlooked rule, especially if it concerns mixed crews on a longterm mission, but the line is drawn on hooking up with the someone above or below you in the chain of command. Even if I'm just in an advisory position now, this is very much crossing that line.'
'I think I understand. Given how strongly you bond to your females - or them to you - it could turn into a conflict of interest? And, as long as you weren't part of Stillstorm's staff, it was still tolerated, but questionable, and her putting you to task changed that. Perhaps you should tell her this, and how the situation had changed.', Fireblade mused.
'Not good. That could make her think I am making things up to get out of this mess. She has granted me a great deal of trust as she put me into this role - I don't want to squander it. And her reasoning makes sense, in a crazy way.', Alex mused. 'But... for something different. How's your training coming along? I heard Razorthorn calling you 'barely adequate', but make no mistake, that's high praise coming from her.', Fireblade sent with an upbeat vibe in her thoughts.
'More complicated than it is supposed to be, I think...', Alex started.
'How come?'
'Tempo told me that hurting a male is a punishable offense?', at Fireblade's nod, he continued, 'And training accidents can happen. I made it clear to Razorthorn that I don't wish to be treated any different than her other recruits - and that I'd sign a waiver to absolve her from any ramifications were something to happen to me while training. She said something to the effect that while she might not fear court martial, she would hereself have to live with having let a male come to harm. And that is not even the worst.'
'I have an idea where this is going. But go on.', Fireblade prompted.
'Every single time without failure there is one recruit offering to carry my gear, for example. Or in combat exercises. They're either hestitant to hit me, or they consciously jump into the line of fire, or push me out of harm's way.'
'I get it. How do your people manage it?', Fireblade sent curiously.
'On the grander scale, women in the armed forces are a fairly recent thing. And... we had about the same problems, other way round, come to think of this. It took a long, long time for us men to actually trust our women to do the job as good as we do. And their favourite line was that men are the pansies here... no one would be able to stand the pains of childbirth.'
Alex felt her body hitching, she was trying to suppress a laugh.
'This was a good one.', then her thought trail off in shock, as she lifted Alex's hand to her eye level and looked at his fingers. 'Enzin! Is that normal with humans?'
Startled, Alex followed her line of sight. Sure enough, the skin on his fingertips got wrinkled. 'The skin pruning up? It actually is. No worries, it'll pass as soon as we dry up. And it's a signal that it's about time we get out of the water.'
'True. Actually, I feel refrshed enough for you to have another lesson in mental defense if you agree... and I'd like to see if you might have other talents. Say, in about eighteen hundred solons in my quarters?'
'It's a date.', Alex agreed jokingly.
---//---
'Come in.', Tempo sent. The door opened, revealing Brightshield. 'You said this is too important to discuss via sanzai. The last time you did that was when you revealed these 'Natan files' to me. Please don't tell me this isn't another bombshell you are about to drop on me.'
'I'm afraid it is. Maybe even more so', Brightshield started, 'On uploading the files into the Tempest's systems, it installed its triggers again, and one other did fire, decrypting yet another set of these files.'
Tempo racked her brain. What would have.... Then it dawned on her. 'The contaminant alert, I guess.'
'Yes. The trigger had been oddly specific. Human DNA, haploid chromosome set. As with gametes. And not to be triggered together with the first set of files.'
'Hmmm....', Tempo mused, '...whoever did this wanted to not to reveal everything at once, and only if we get hold of a human's seed for whatever reason. What could be....'
'See for yourself.', Brightshield prompted, placing her tablet onto the console and lighting up its display. 'I'm no Listel, but these files were specifically made to understand by laymen, I think.'
Tempo browsed through the files, quickly first, then slower as realization dawned on her.
'Mizol Losat Lomileilar', she sent formally, 'swear to me by all that you deem sacred that no human, especially not Captain Jardin ever learns of this. Never until you hear otherwise. Delete any and all traces of this on Tempest's systems. No one, especially not Tozet Beryl, should ever learn of this, too. Hide this in your deepest, darkest corner of your mind, never to let it see the light of the day. Is that clear?'
'Very clear, I swear, but why?'
'Because this is as destructive as an antimatter planet killer. It could either unite our two species as one, but most likely it would destroy the human species at a whole. Captain Jardin did say that to human men we'd be about everything they'd wish in a female - their own women's saving grace is that we cannot bear their children. But if this comes out....'
Realization dawned in Brightshield, her eyes went wide as she looked over Tempo's shoulder, reading the files with renewed interest.
For these described a procedure to genetically edit human gametes to make the biochemistry compatible to the Loroi one. To create a viable fetus. Nothing in the files led them to believe that someone actually tried that, but this was to believe, a Loroi could, theoretically, bear a child from a human.
Which would shunt human women completely aside. And Tempo was sure they wouldn't take it lightly.
Mad science, Tempo mused as Brightshield left. Another idiom Enzin came up with. Experiments which are questionable, morally deranged, hazardous, groundbreaking, outlandish or all of that rolled into one. Like his idea of torpedoes with 'micro jumpdrives' launching from a planetary gravity well into the enemy's formation. If this here ever goes public, hatemongers would rise on both sides, clamoring for 'genetic purity' and such, advocating the segregation of our two people. This must not happen - humans have so much to give to use to squander this unique chance. And what about the children? Would they be envied, revered or reviled when they can trace back their heritage to a human? What would their place in Loroi, or human society?
Tempo shook her head, feeling a headache building up, the moment it knocked on her door. Of course, he promised me an explanation on what Stillstorm's comment meant., realizing that there is just one person on the whole ship who needs to knock rather than use sanzai to announce his presence.