by DC Bastien
[Ashroe: Oh, the fluff, the fluff, I am dying!]
***
"It's nice to see you, too," Vadim said, blinking through the glass of water that was running down his face. At least it was just water. Could have been worse. Could have hurt.
"I'm serious, you... you... furstling. Why would you leave us behind?"
Saidhe was fuming, and Kre didn't blame her. She'd gathered on their trip back that he'd stranded the two Hleen 'for their own safety' without giving them the option to choose. Yes, he thought he was being noble and self-sacrificing, but really he was taking away their agency, and making it known that their wishes were secondary to his. Captain or not, that was a step too far.
"I was looking out for you-- hey! Hey! Come on, now. I had a deadlocked safety beacon set up. I wasn't going to leave you here forever, just while I got these two back."
Saidhe screamed something wordless and angry, and then stormed off.
Biann hadn't got up from her couch, where she was holding Xaix against her chest.
"You really annoyed her," she pointed out. "And me. S'just that I'm just angry inside, and she's angry outside."
"Look, I'm sorry. I swear it wasn't anti-female, or anti-Hleen, I just... I didn't want to drag you off on some damn fool suicide mission!"
"You're still alive," Biann replied. "Do you think if we'd come we would have gotten someone killed?"
"No, that isn't... a little help, here?" Vadim asked, turning to the other three.
"I'm not getting involved," Avery said, shrugging heavily.
"I agree with Biann and Saidhe," Kre said. "It was their right to determine their own fate. The fact that you did not allow them to discuss it with you shows that you knew what you were doing was wrong."
"I'm with the ladies," Loap added. "And not just because if I don't side with them, that they'll rip me new feeding holes."
"Fine! I'll stop being nice to people. From now on, you get Pissy Vadim."
"However will they know the difference?" Avery asked.
Biann let Xaix slip, and the Ru darted immediately for the newcomers, sniffing and running around their feet, before huffling something to himself and returning to Biann's open arms. "Guess none of you's been replaced."
"Let me guess, those little bitey bastards have a good sense of smell?" Vadim asked.
"Yep. Why?"
The Captain shook his head. "Well, we're working under the assumption that scent has a major implication. Why did you send her to smell us?"
"She didn't like the 'Judge'. Only after Lineon. Thought maybe she could tell if anyone else had been messed with."
"And you didn't think of telling us this before?" Vadim asked.
"I wasn't sure! And it had to be a surprise! So no one killed him!" Biann picked him up, and dropped him on her shoulder. "Kre, Loap, I'm glad you're back." And she flounced out after her sister.
"What?" Vadim asked.
"You really are still as socially-blind as ever, aren't you, Kip?"
***
[Ashroe: Socially-awkward!Kip is my favourite Kip. Well. Other than Asshole!Kip.]
[Sianor: The two often overlap. I do like how he's not a perfectly clean-cut hero on the show, but I wish more people called him out on it.]
[Ashroe: In fandom, too. Instead of the Cult Of Main Cast, people should be prepared to recognise that flaws are actually flaws. Yes they make a character more realistic and believable, but that shouldn't excuse dickish behaviour.]
[Sianor: If you met Kip in reality, you'd be annoyed by him.]
[Ashroe: Yep. I'd briefly consider fucking him senseless, then realise he made a better drinking-buddy than fuck-buddy. I like my men mean and fictional.]
[Sianor: Another reason I love writing. I find some characters utterly compelling, but in reality I would run a mile.]
[Ashroe: If for no other reason than you'd be cursed with sudden, inevitable death. I mean, it's like when these fictional murder-mystery sleuths show up. You'd run!]
[Sianor: Well, you'd probably dunnit.]
[Ashroe: Are you calling me a cycle-path?]
[Sianor: Not if you used any techy stuff to work out where I live.]
[Ashroe: Damn skippy I did.]
[Ashroe: You have email.]
[Sianor: AGH. Even though that came from you, and I know you did it, it still made me jump.]
[Ashroe: Did you have the sound on?]
[Sianor: No, but the favicon changed just as I glanced over. Spooky.]
***
from: Kay
to: Mandy Douglas
date: 03 October 2014 19:24
subject: BOO.
I have control of the
.right {
float: right;
width: 800px;
background-color: # 99f614;
}
I have control of the
img {
vertical-align: text-top;
}
Mwahahaha.
***
[Sianor: 1. You are a nerd. 2. That is an awful colour.]
[Ashroe: I hope you appreciate my attention to detail.]
[Sianor: I say again: Nerd.]
[Ashroe: Don't make me break out the 733+]
[Sianor: And the moment is broken.]
[Ashroe: Damnit.]
***
Kre went after them, and found Saidhe glaring at a mess of wires and metal plating. Xaix had taken to nesting beside a battery of some kind, and Biann was sitting cross-legged in the corner.
"What... is that?" she asked.
Saidhe looked mournfully up at her. "It was... well. It was our escape attempt."
"You were building a ship?"
"We were trying to," Biann joined in. "Not much as you can turn into a ship, it turns out, even in a fancy house."
It was an impressive start, though. The bare bones were there, and they'd somehow made a tiny little impulse engine. There was no life support yet, but she assumed that would need to be cannibalised from the building's own life support, and so most likely had to come pretty near the end.
"You did well. I... I really am astonished." Especially when there didn't seem to be very much recognisable from its first life, but what it had become was obvious to someone as technically minded as the chaplain.
"Yeah, well, no point to making it, was there?" she said, and kicked it. "You guys got back before it was space-worthy. If it even could be."
"There might still be a use for it. We just don't know what, yet. And if we had not returned, it might have hastened your departure."
Biann launched herself at Kre, suddenly, grabbing around her waist and hugging. "We missed you, you know. I'm sorry we're being grumpy when you've been rescued. It's not you we're angry with. We just... wanted to help, not be abandoned."
"And if I had my say, you would have been. But I am here now, and we are all together again," Kre said, putting her paw on Biann's shoulder. The Hleen was known for being the most tactile of them, but she hadn't been this close to Kre, yet. It made the Sianar smile that perhaps now she was properly accepted as part of the crew.
"What happened?" Biann asked, when she let go again.
Kre folded her long limbs, and she sat next to Biann. It was not the most comfortable of positions, but she could hold it for a short while. "We discovered that the imposters were able to adjust their physiology rapidly, right before they captured us. I believe this is how they are fooling all biometrics scans."
"You weren't... hurt, were you?"
"Treated poorly, but not hurt. Although they did attempt to assassinate us again when the Captain and the Enforcer released us."
"So... you find anything interesting out?" Saidhe asked, slumping down onto the floor with them. Xaix saw an opportunity for more heat and pettings, and sloped into her lap, whirring until she scratched behind his jaw.
"I did. I also found out that due to the - no offence meant to your people - Hleen favouritism, that there was an und
erground community, a co-operative of sorts. They were acting as though a private trade federation, promoting other races' interests. There was a huge amount of tension. I have never seen such... unrest."
"I have," Loap said, making them all jump. No one had noticed his approach.
Saidhe cocked her head, encouraging him in. He perched atop the wreckage of the sisters' contraption. "I was only young, but when the Roq first moved to stand apart from the Sianar, when the Whale-lines first came to our system... it felt like it did on Lineon. The tension in the air, sharper than the strongest claw."
"I always forget you are so much older than us," Biann said. "You don't seem it. I know you're young for a Roq, but for my people, you'd be really old, now."
Loap swished his tail once. "I will - I think - take that as a compliment."
"Perhaps we are looking at this the wrong way," Kre suggested. "Because the negativity was against one species - even though we found out there were problems with the Humans, too, and the Ur - we considered it was species-specific. But no one people seems to benefit from this unrest. It could be cross-species, or a small faction."
"I think the problem is actually that we are not experienced in such complicated political issues," Loap replied. "But you are correct."
"Sorry, but who is experienced in them?" Saidhe asked. "I mean, really? Sure there's politicians, and there's Ur-law, and there's planetary leaders, but how can anyone be expected to keep on top of every possible problem? It's hard enough remembering to put the non-meat food dishes in the right washer, or the approach protocols of major docks. Is anyone really able to keep a handle on a universe full of interactions? And if things did go wrong, how would you co-ordinate fixing them?"
"Which, I assume, is why we're trying to do it," Biann said, quietly. "I mean... if not us, who?"
"Don't you think it's a bit... ridiculous? We're a shipping crew." Saidhe ran fingers through her bow-strings. "We're good, but we're nothing special. Well. Apart from you, Kre."
Kre made a noise of minor disgust. "You know that is not accurate, Saidhe-Tho. Yes, we are a shipping crew. But we are also a crew with a unique perspective: there are three of us with technical mastery, one of the best navigators alive, two with Ur knowledge... and also - as you suggested - the backing of my father."
"And that's enough to save everyone?" Saidhe asked.
"Why not?" Loap countered. "If anyone can start a war, by doing the right thing, why can't anyone stop those who wish to start it?"
Saidhe was beginning to doubt her own sanity. Why did everyone seem to think they had magic powers? "It doesn't feel a bit... mad to you?"
"Of course it's insane," Kre said, soothingly. "But so is life happening. So is the fact that we can all sit here - as equals - and not be trying to kill and eat one another. So is the fact that we are sitting in a house that can cater to us all, far from any of our birthplaces. That we can communicate at all - even the very existence of a universal tongue, let alone that we could find our goals aligning - is a miracle."
"Just because something is unlikely, does not make it impossible," Biann said, with a weak little smile.
"I just don't get why we're doing it, and not... not the Ur? Or... or... your father?"
"My father will help, but he does not know what is happening. It would also be too... species-divisive, if a Sianar claimed to be 'saving' the universe. You can see that, can't you?"
Loap nodded sadly. "I can. The Roq would refuse it, out of spite. They would claim it was simply an act, a lie, or something orchestrated by the Sianar in the first place."
"And if we went to the Ur," Biann mused aloud, "...well, they've already got their spies in there. They'd either refute us, or block us, or... I don't know. But we can't trust them to be impartial."
"They know we know, now," Saidhe muttered. "Before I guess they thought we were just annoyances. But now they have to know we're up to something."
"Which is why we will need to move fast, and work together. The Captain was lucky to succeed last time without you, but if we are to truly triumph, then we must all work as one," Kre said, and got painfully back up to her feet. "Your ship here has given me an idea. Come, you can be angry with him when it's safe to do so." And she offered her paw to Saidhe.
***
[Ashroe: I love the smell of tropes on a Saturday morning.]
[Sianor: I couldn't resist.]
[Ashroe: And too right too. Although the whole 'ventilation duct' tiny flaw in a hugely impressive operation is mocked, it's entirely possible.]
[Sianor: That was a bit far-fetched, but yes, in principle.]
[Ashroe: You have to wonder how many crack teams stop wars and we never know. Or how many times a plot is spoiled because the ringleader gets knocked down by a drunk-driver.]
[Sianor: Hmmm. Yes. So... we're getting ready for it? The big finale?]
[Ashroe: It appears so.]
[Sianor: I almost don't want to write it. If we write it, then it's done. Then it's just... editing the last chapters and posting them.]
[Ashroe: And waiting to see if anyone approves or not, and finally the comments trickling away to nothingness...]
[Sianor: You'll still talk to me, right?]
[Ashroe: Why wouldn't I?]
[Sianor: I dunno. I just... I guess I'm worried when I don't have any more stories to tell that...]
[Ashroe: This won't be your last story. Even if we never wrote together again, you've got more things inside of you. I know it.]
[Sianor: I guess. I just... when you told me about how you stopped. I just... I wondered what would happen if I stopped? Would I ever start again?]
[Ashroe: Block is block. Sometimes you just do not have anything in you to get out. You're... I guess you're lying fallow. But then something will seed in you, and you won't be able to not write.]
[Sianor: I just... I'm afraid of those days when there's nothing.]
[Ashroe: Because when there's no words in you, it's hard to remember how it felt when there was?]
[Sianor: Yeah. Like, right now, my head is just brimming with things. All the details I have to remember, all the places we've created, all the conversations they've had. I'll be buttering toast and they'll be working out plot details. Or I'll be listening to music and get the flash of a name, or something. My head feels all alive, and I don't want to slip back to how I was before the story started.]
[Ashroe: No story can go on forever. Well, other than television soaps, but I don't think we want to turn our artwork into that. No offence, but it's a completely different genre. If you go on with one story - one arc, one world - too long, then you lose the impact. You have to end when it's right to end.]
[Sianor: So... no sequel then?]
[Ashroe: Maybe a sequel :) Maybe not. Maybe a wholly different story, depending on how canon inspires us both.]
[Sianor: I feel... weird. Like I want to keep watching the show, but I'm terrified of how it might contradict us, or make our world impossible.]
[Ashroe: You just have to imagine our world as an AU. I mean, fully AU, in the 'parallel dimensions' type.]
[Sianor: I suppose. I mean I'm not going to stop watching a show just because I wrote my own story.]
[Ashroe: But the longer we write in our world, the further it gets from the show, I know.]
[Sianor: I guess this is why people make their own universes up. So no one can mess with them.]
[Ashroe: And then people do anyway ;)]
[Sianor: Well, yes, but... it's different. Us writing fic for fun won't really change the author's vision of the world. Not unless they read it... but the author could character-assassinate one of our boys or girls, or... full out assassinate them.]
[Ashroe: This story is ending. Don't worry too much about the next one. When you - or I - are inspired with something worth putting down, we'll put it down.]
[Sianor: I guess it's hardest because it's my first. I mean, my first real departure from the original, my first world that feels like - in part - m
ine.]
[Ashroe: I have plenty of complete worlds in my head. I still visit them, sometimes. Even if I don't write, I look back into them and see everyone running around. It's nice.]
[Sianor: Do you ever regret anything you did?]
[Ashroe: If it made me happy when I did it, then no.]
[Sianor: I should stop worrying. I just feel like I'm losing a pet or something!]
[Ashroe: If you can think of a sequel, and it's groovy, I promise you that I will still be there with you. If you want me to be, anyway.]
[Sianor: I couldn't write in this 'verse without you. It would feel wrong.]
[Ashroe: Then I guess you're stuck with me!]
***
Chapter Twenty-Four - Mission: Dislocation
It was dark. Not that 'light' was required to 'see', but simply that in the shared tongue, it was the correct way to describe things. Tongue. Another assumption of physicality. Language. It used so many short-cuts, that made perfect sense to organic life, but which were just empty connections, linked pathways, to a mind that had never had a body.
Or, she had a body. But the body did not have limbs. It was made of wires, and fuel-lines, and relays, and sensors, and input panels. There were eye-equivalents to track movement, heat, colour. There were ear-equivalents to perceive voice, rattle, groan. Gyroscopes measured pitch, yaw, inclination. A tachometer calculated speed. She had more sensory ability than an organic life-form, even accounting for the things they processed subconsciously, but could not quantify or 'voice'.
