Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings (The Messenger Archive Book 1)
Page 17
"If my father would agree to it," the Sianar said, her eyes catching the faintest hint of her mane, out of her peripheral vision. "Would you like to join me in preparing the plant-feast, for those who do not eat meat?"
"Sure thing! You know I love making salads."
"I wish I understood your race's preoccupation with eating the ground."
"It isn't the ground, it just grows out of it!"
"I suppose."
"Anyway, your species is the icky one. Blood? Why would anyone want to eat something that used to breathe?"
A hint of sharp incisors. "It is a much more efficient means of fuelling a body, provided there are sufficient herbivores to devour."
Biann put her hands on her hips. "Put those fangs away, you beast. I know you wouldn't eat me. Not unless I'd already died in a crash and you had no alternative."
"I would feel remorse as I ingested you, though. Is that sufficient?"
"...I guess. But maybe you should write a nice poem about me, if you do have to eat me."
"I swear that if I am ever forced to consume your flesh, Biann, or that of any of your friends, or kin, I shall compose a fitting eulogy and remember them forever more as a giver of life. Will that suffice?"
The Hleen shuddered. "I guess so. Remember to make it touching."
"It will move all who hear it to weep."
***
from: Mandy Douglas
to: Kay
date: 18 September 2014 14:09
subject:
Hey you. I hope the work-thing is going OK. Don't kill anyone. If you do kill anyone, don't get caught.
~ Mandy
Don't mistake my kindness for weakness
----------------
from: Kay
to: Mandy Douglas
date: 18 September 2014 19:21
subject: re:
Fear not, little padawan, no one is dead. Well. No one who wasn't dead before. I mean. Other than natural causes.
I read what you wrote.
Sent from my comms-device.
----------------
from: Mandy Douglas
to: Kay
date: 18 September 2014 14:35
subject: re: re:
So is this when you make me paranoid back?
~ Mandy
Don't mistake my kindness for weakness
----------------
from: Kay
to: Mandy Douglas
date: 18 September 2014 19:41
subject: re: re: re:
Heh. Maybe. Now you've got me wondering. You know I am a sucker for plot twists that come about afterwards. And red herrings. And... well everything, really.
Sent from my comms-device.
----------------
from: Mandy Douglas
to: Kay
date: 18 September 2014 14:58
subject: re: re: re: re:
Feel free to dick with my head in return when you're back on your laptop. How was today?
~ Mandy
Don't mistake my kindness for weakness
----------------
from: Kay
to: Mandy Douglas
date: 18 September 2014 20:03
subject: re: re: re: re: re:
Dull as hell. I don't know why they insist on these meetings. Death by powerpoint. Have you ever sat through a powerpoint in a typeface so small that you'd need the Hubble telescope to read it? And where they READ every last slide, point by point? Ugh. Just give me the bloody powerpoint and I'll stay at home and keep my pyjamas on.
Sent from my comms-device.
----------------
from: Mandy Douglas
to: Kay
date: 18 September 2014 15:11
subject: re: re: re: re: re: re:
Sounds fun :( Not.
Are they sexy pyjamas, or are they flannel ones? Are they see-through and silky, or covered in cartoon dinosaurs?
~ Mandy
Don't mistake my kindness for weakness
----------------
from: Kay
to: Mandy Douglas
date: 18 September 2014 20:20
subject: re: re: re: re: re: re: re:
WHERE DID YOU INSTALL THE SPY CAM IN MY HOTEL ROOM?
Okay, no. I sleep pretty much like Ithon does. I don't go in for complicated clothing.
Was that a come-on? Should I ask you what you're wearing?
Sent from my comms-device.
----------------
from: Mandy Douglas
to: Kay
date: 18 September 2014 15:30
subject: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re:
I'm wearing a band t. And some comfy pants.
~ Mandy
Don't mistake my kindness for weakness
----------------
from: Kay
to: Mandy Douglas
date: 18 September 2014 20:49
subject: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re:
Sexy. You sure know how to show a girl a good time...
Hey I had a thought. Before you ask, it didn't hurt. It's just that the show airs next week, and we're going to pretty soon be AU.
Sent from my comms-device.
----------------
from: Mandy Douglas
to: Kay
date: 18 September 2014 15:59
subject: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re:
Shit, you're right. What are we doing to do? Archive some of it so the submission date and the first readers know we wrote in hiatus?
~ Mandy
Don't mistake my kindness for weakness
----------------
from: Kay
to: Mandy Douglas
date: 18 September 2014 21:12
subject: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re:
I think we should, or it will look really weird. I mean, if anyone even reads it, or cares. I just... don't like canon contradicting me, I guess. I've been editing as we go along so it should all be fine to publish. I'm a bit OCD like that.
Sent from my comms-device.
----------------
from: Mandy Douglas
to: Kay
date: 18 September 2014 16:21
subject: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re:
Do you want me to start putting it up because you're not on your laptop? Gives me something to do til you're back. Say the first three chapters today, and then a chapter a day from tomorrow? We've got enough of a buffer to keep going for a while.
And what are you talking about? People will read it - you wrote it! Or over half of it!
~ Mandy
Don't mistake my kindness for weakness
----------------
from: Kay
to: Mandy Douglas
date: 18 September 2014 21:37
subject: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re:
Sounds great to me. If you could do some artwork to post with it that would be mucho coolo.
Bah, I think your impression of me is higher than reality. Which is flattering, but - well. I get feedback here and there, but not War and Peace.
Sent from my comms-device.
----------------
from: Mandy Douglas
to: Kay
date: 18 September 2014 16:40
subject: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re
: re: re: re: re: re:
I'd write you feedback if I wasn't co-authoring ;)
OK, I will get right on it, chief.
~ Mandy
Don't mistake my kindness for weakness
----------------
from: Kay
to: Mandy Douglas
date: 18 September 2014 21:46
subject: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re:
The team want me to go to the bar tonight. Just what I want: spending my social time with people I already see more than I want to. The alcohol's just there so no one murders anyone... or maybe so we do. That would make the necessary budget cuts if one or more of us was brutally murdered.
I'd rather be on my phone in this crummy hotel room talking to you. You're miles better than Pete and his obsession with post-it-notes.
Sent from my comms-device.
----------------
from: Mandy Douglas
to: Kay
date: 18 September 2014 17:00
subject: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re:
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Have a drink or ten for me then. If you want to send me emails under the table I won't tell x
~ Mandy
Don't mistake my kindness for weakness
----------------
from: Kay
to: Mandy Douglas
date: 18 September 2014 22:11
subject: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re:
Young lady, that is an obscene waste of a post-it-note. If Pete ever saw what you doodled he would need therapy for years.
Don't ever change. Send me more.
xxx
Sent from my comms-device.
----------------
***
Chapter Sixteen - Mission: Decoration
"You certain about this?" Kre asked, doing the final pre-flight checks on the little hopper.
"The Captain and the Enforcer are both too 'hot' to travel back to Lineon. And we know that Hleen are under intense scrutiny. It must be you and I who go."
"You not worried how it will appear, a Sianar and a Roq together?"
"I'm not. Whatever people think, it won't be right. And if our people are ever to advance beyond the petty fighting, then one day one of your folk and one of mine will have to walk out together without worrying what other people say."
"You are right, my friend. Very well. Let us go."
Kre finished the checks, and ducked back out to where the rest of the crew were hovering, nervously. "We are ready to leave," she told them.
"Still not happy with you going, you know. It don't feel right."
"Captain, you know you are too high profile to be found by Ur-Enforcers. It has to be me and Loap. We will do our best to capture one of the perpetrators, or at least question one and seek more identifying features. I have repurposed my usual equipment to assist me in this, and I believe that my updated stunner will render any sentient species powerless for a brief period, by analysing and overloading their central nervous system."
"Remember to be careful," Avery said, sliding a stray lick of hair behind his ear.
"We will."
Kre flicked her tail at Biann, who was standing a bit further away, petting Xaix. Then she ducked under the low, Human-height ceiling, resealed the airlock behind, and pushed into the cockpit. It was - as Avery had promised - big enough for three, but they would have to be very friendly with one another. Loap was sitting in the co-pilot seat, ready.
"Please strap in," she asked, and throttled the engine up, making the hopper purr. When the pitch was just right, she unclamped the landing legs and powered away.
Piloting was not her first skill, but Loap was by far the better navigator of the two of them, and she could fly such a small craft under normal circumstances. It handled much more responsively than Messenger, but it lacked the sheer power.
"It is an interesting vessel," Loap said, not looking up from his panel.
"How so?"
"I believe it has been designed specifically to be untraceable. It is small enough to not need registration, and yet the components have come from various manufacturers."
"Are you implying that the Enforcer was making a craft that would evade Ur-monitoring?" Kre asked, pressing her sharp upper canines into her lower lip.
"Looks like it. Everything's either top line, or just below, and there's no two parts with similar batch numbers. I expect that a life of catching criminals makes you wary."
Kre paused a long moment, measuring her words. Trying them out in her head, before she let them hit her rough, pink tongue. "Do you think it is suspicious?"
"Having a vessel which cannot be traced?"
"That, plus this... escape place. Why would you make such a well-hidden home unless you had something to hide, or hide from?"
"Perhaps." Another pause, but this time because Loap was checking for the closest recorded Whale migration path. It was just under half of their fuel tank away - deliberately so - they would have to wait for a lift, rather than fly slowly along the path. If they did keep looking, then they wouldn't have the juice to get back.
It had taken Kre a while to get used to the way the Captain's crew operated, but when she learned that speech patterns followed work patterns, and the rhythm of navigation or calculation, she had fallen into the strange ways, and found the silences between words to be a calm place for self-composure and reflection.
Eventually, necessity gave way to speech again, and Loap continued. "But we already have a home, aboard the ship. For now, the Messenger is the only refuge I require. I suppose that - if you had to - you could go back to your father?"
Kre let out a sharp breath. "If I had to. It would be... awkward, to say the least, but he would welcome me back."
"Why are you suspicious of the Enforcer?"
"He is... unknown. To me. He knew who I was, but he did not tell me why. He knew my past, but he chose not to mention it. I feel... uncomfortable about this."
"Perhaps he thought he was doing you a kindness? Or perhaps he feared you would run further astray if you knew you had been found?" Loap suggested. "Did you consider asking him?"
"I did not."
"I strongly suspect he would tell you the truth. Although he and the Captain have crossed words in the past, I know that they respect one another greatly. And if the Captain trusts him, then I do too."
They arrived at the outer edge of the Whale-line, and Kre killed the forward motion, switching simply to reserve lighting, heating and oxygen. It could be a long waiting game, but it was better than risking taking an infected ship out again. She also had to hope that whichever Whale came along would not want to smash right through them, but until she worked out how - other than speed - to identify the murderous ones, it would be difficult to know until it was almost too late.
"I could smell him on the Captain."
"So could I."
Kre did not know much about Human socialisation. Well, she knew more than many Sianar, but not enough to understand the complexities of their shouting, and their camaraderie, or their closeness.
"You are wondering if that means that they were... compromised?" Loap suggested.
"It is possible."
"If they were, why would they interrogate the Judge?"
"...it could take time to work into a system. Or they could have been infected when the 'Judge' expired. I am not sure."
"You know anything that could make a Human body dissipate in such a way?"
"No. But that does not mean it does not exist. I also do not know how a non-Human could trick readouts into believing it was actually a Human. I only hope that my stunner will still work."
"Your point is valid." Loap flicked at the chair-release, sending it tumbling backwards. He stretched out languidly, and close
d his eyes. It was unusual to see a Roq relax in such a way in company. Kre noticed.
"But the Captain... knows him. Avery," Loap added, as if it wasn't clear enough. "It is a tale none of us know, and none of us thought to ask him. Although..."