Date point: 1y 4m BV
Dear Journal,
I’m really good at making friends
That was sarcasm back there
In case you didn’t pick up on it.
“I need you to think very carefully,” my eyes bored into her, demanding attention, “On what you’re about to do; because if you make the wrong choice it will affect future events in ways you cannot possibly comprehend.”
Her gaze flicked to my hand, then back to mine, eyes wide.
A pause, but her weight shifted slightly forwards, tensing.
“Don’t,” I pleaded, a promise in my eyes. Nevertheless I steeled myself, preparing.
She breathed, time balanced on a knife’s edge.
And went for it, hand darting forwards, sealing her fate.
“Check?” she finished, placing her bishop exactly where I didn’t want it.
“And mate,” I growled, tipping my king, a movement I’d become all too accustomed to. She heaved a sigh of relief, before bursting into nervous laughter.
“I knew you were bluffing,” she wheezed, “You had nothing, and I saw you had nothing, but still you made me wonder if there was some crazy move I just wasn’t noticing.”
“And you were that close to buying it too.”
She scoffed, “Yeah right, I just had to be sure. Couldn’t have you winning an exchange.”
I glared in response. She took her sweet time before containing herself, though her smile was widening. “You ready?”
“No.” I mumbled.
“Come again?” how could that smile keep getting wider? Much more and the Cheshire cat would be resigning due to professional shame.
My response regressed to the point of becoming mostly grunts which she, unfortunately, took for consent.
“GIT REKT SKRUB!” Holy fuck, any louder and she’d fall off her seat. I winced at the high pitched squeak of a yell, rubbing my eyes for an excuse to stop looking at her smug face.
It’s your fault she even knows that.
Thanks, the reminders are really fucking helpful.
I aim to please.
Shoving the voice into my mental dumpster I looked for a subject to distract me from my most recent defeat at the hands of an oversized rat. Usually there wasn’t one – hence the reason for the chess game in the first place – but thoughts of our destination and all that had happened there provided me with a blessed escape.
“You don’t have any weapons do you?”
Her laughter died immediately at the unexpected question. “Weapons?”
“Well, you see, once upon a time one of our respective ancestors realized it was easier to defend themselves if they bashed their enemies in the head with a stick instead of their fists. Some time passed, one thing led to another, and the first atomic bomb was developed.”
She’d tried to interrupt me before I’d finished “Once upon a time,” but watching her frustration was enough incentive for me to continue. By the time I had finished all traces of mirth had been replaced with a glowering pout.
“Thanks,” she snapped once I was done, “Oh how I’d be lost without your ceaseless explanations. Aside from that thing at the end I obviously wasn’t asking what a weapon was. Why would I need any if the creatures out here break as easy as you say?”
Be very careful with your answer.
Thanks, like I need reminding. I did take my time before responding though.
“Because though I neither desire, nor foresee it happening, the day may come when you’re fighting for your life against an impossible number of enemies. If that day does come, you’ll be thankful that you have something other than your fists with which to defend yourself.” My tone and words were enough to impress on her that I was serious. Now it was her turn to be quiet while she thought.
“I trained with quite a few as a Custos,” she said when she finally replied, “I could make them if we were in Sordit, but out here I don’t think it’ll be possible.”
I smiled, “Where there’s a will . . . and a nanofactory doesn’t hurt either.”
She still looked doubtful, “I saw you working with that thing, and I don’t think it’s precise enough to do what I need.” She gestured at the box monster of a chess set I had created, “I’m going to need something a bit more elegant if I want anything I throw to fly straight.”
“Okay, that was like half an hour of minimalist effort. Given more time and exploration of the truly exceptional UI, you can make anything to whatever degree of elegance you require.”
Her expression still showed disbelief, but she followed me as we stumbled through the various gravity shifts across the ship. After explaining the first few basic controls I quickly learned how precise she meant. I mean, she was making spears here. Not that hard, it’s a pointy triangle at the end of a stick. Yeah, not quite. We both learned some new things about the nanofactory though, so I suppose the three days she spent toiling over her designs weren’t a complete waste.
She had a good grasp on how the UI worked after the first day, so I supposed I wasn’t required to be there for the other two, but honestly, what else was I going to do? Besides, finding out the UI could literally take measurements you made with your hands was a neat trick I would have missed had I been absent.
The end result of my diversionary conversation tactic was that by the time we were in communication range of the Cat. 10 med station where I’d first met Dick, Eallva had a spear model she described as “Passible for a first attempt.” She’d also made designs for throwing darts and those weird sharp edged rings I’d had fun dodging in my last Challenge match. Thankfully both of those had taken all of five minutes to model before she’d declared them satisfactory.
She’d managed to pry herself away from the designing her murdersticks for the call to our destination.
“Really this is just going to be a docking request; you didn’t have to come all the way up here to witness it.”
She smiled, “I want to see this supposed ‘friend’ of yours. Mainly if they’re wholly intact or not.”
“Okay, I may have exaggerated on the whole ‘friend’ part.”
“You? Exaggerate?”
I nodded emphatically, “I know, right? Hard to accept, but this guy’s more of an acquaintance than anything. We never had enough opportunity to bond. I mean, we tried, believing me, but then there was this ship full of ant-lizard terrorists, then I joined the army, and . . . yeah, stuff got in the way.”
“You’re terrible at storytelling.”
“By choice. Keeping your history vague is the only way to avoid scaring off those currently closest to you.”
“Oh that’s encouraging.”
Though in your case definitely true
I shrugged, “Put ‘Motivational speaker’ on my list of things I shouldn’t try.”
To my surprise she exited the cockpit, only to return some moments later with a data pad, silently tapping away.
“Wait, you don’t actually have –” She looked up, eyes wide, the picture of innocence. I would have demanded to see the pad had the com lights not gone off that moment. Stowing my questions to later forget about them I accepted the call. The next few seconds were a mix of rushed confusion as I hurriedly lowered the volume to avoid permanent damage to my ears from the yelling that filled the cabin.
“Why can’t you just leave me alone!?” Dicks face filled the view screen, “No, never mind that, leave, go away, you can’t dock here, permission denied!”
“Just an acquaintance?” Eallva piped cheerily from behind me. I ignored her.
“Wait, Dick, hold on, let me explain.”
“No! Go back to whatever pit of death you crawled out of and leave me be! If you come any closer I’ll open fire!”
“Okay Dick, I’m not the brightest cookie but I distinctly remember that that station doesn’t have weapons. It was a key point in the whole bio-weapon drama we experienced together.” Dicks reply was cut off by a voice off-camera.
“What are you doing in my office? I got a notification that a ship was approaching.”
“It’s fine, I dealt with it,” Dick snapped.
“Since when do you deal with station ops? You relegated all operational powers – ”
“I know!”
“Well then stop using my workstation, now who is it that you’d personally –” a face not unlike a blue giraffes – excepting it was white and had something about the eyes that hinted at utter competency – entered the view screen, pushing Dick aside and out of sight. His eyes narrowed, inspecting me, before lighting up with what I could only describe as childlike joy.
“Triv, that’s not . . .”
Dick’s voice came from off screen now, “Yes, it is, now if you’d let me handle it maybe he’d go away.”
“Go away?” White-giraffe sounded aghast, “Why ever would we want that.”
“Why? He nearly killed me last time he was here!”
“But he didn’t. And if he’s willing to let me have another look at that immune system of his then I’m perfectly willing to –”
“Risk my life!?”
White-giraffe paused, and I could almost feel his desire to answer in the affirmative, but even I could see that wouldn’t help matters, so after that moment he continued in a conciliatory tone, “Your discomfort. Go hide in your office if it makes you feel better.”
“Those,” Dick nearly roared, “Were the exact words you told me last time, and guess where he went – per your readily provided instructions – the moment he boarded the station?” The rhetorical question hung in the air long enough that I felt it time for me to re-enter the conversation.
“Dick, don’t worry, it won’t be like last time.”
I got the impression White-giraffe was half-heartedly body blocking the Corti doctor from the view screen, because after a scuffle Dick only managed to get half his face into view, though believe me, it was more than enough to convey his general emotional state.
“Oh really? Then what, pray tell, are you here for?”
“I just need another one of those disease suppressant doohickeys you gave me the first time I came by. And a full scrub of the ship I’m in. Don’t worry about the cargo ship trailing me, no one’s been on it yet, it’s just slaved to this ship’s navigation.”
“Why do you need another Frontline implant?” Dick and White-giraffe asked almost simultaneously, though Dick was the only one to continue after a brief glare battle, “It should far outlast you. Even your skeleton should have rotted away before it becomes ineffective.”
“It’s not for me, I need it for a friend.”
I couldn’t see but I wouldn’t be surprised if White-giraffe soiled himself in excitement at the same time Dick joined him in fear, “Another human?” Once again they nearly echoed each other, although their respective tones were about as polar opposite as it gets.
“Not exactly. It’ll be easier for me to explain when I’m aboard,” hitherto I’d been indirectly addressing both of them, but now I looked at White-giraffe, “I’m cleared, right? It wouldn’t be hard at all for me to sit through a few scans while my friend was taken care of, and I’m sure they wouldn’t object either,” Eallva started making sounds behind me that suggested she might indeed object, but I managed to mute my end fast enough to avoid the need to address them.
Muted I could still hear their side, “Of course,” White-giraffe definitely was holding Dick back now as I saw what little of the Corti’s face abruptly disappear followed by what sounded like something light hitting the floor, “Docking bay one. Full quarantine?”
I nodded.
“Excellent. I’ll prep sergury.”
“Wait, surgery?” The channel cut before I realized I’d been muted.
Sucks to have your worries go unaddressed doesn’t it?
You know, the sass isn’t helping.
I’m sorry, did you want what I think or just what you wanted to hear.
I’d settle for hearing nothing.
You’re not hearing anything, I’m in your head you moron.
“Selvim, you there?”
I looked up so see Eallva’s tail waving in front of my face. She was behind me. Damn that thing was long. Coming out of my internal conference call I sighed, “Yeah, sorry, what’s wrong.”
“Um, what exactly did you just say I wouldn’t object to? Because even without knowing exactly what it is I feel like I might object to it.”
“Oh the scans, no don’t worry, you won’t even know they’re happening. They probably don’t even make the cool laser grid sweep that you’d expect. Just some background noise and it’s done, no hassle.”
She still looked skeptical, “I’m holding you to that, but I still feel like I’m going to end up disappointed.”
“You’d be surprised how many times a woman’s said that to me.”
“Was that supposed to fill me with confidence?”
I shrugged, “Honestly it was more for my own entertainment than anything.”
“Well hopefully you have fun while I suffer through whatever ordeal you’ve gotten me into.”
“Oh,” I said with a smile, “I always do.”
Eallva
This was the first station she’d been in, and it didn’t disappoint. Virtually everything she saw made absolutely no sense, from the lights whose only purpose it seemed was to be lit or not lit, to the walls covered in what seemed to be randomly placed boxes and panels filled with more lights. The room demanded more attention but it was impossible to focus with all the beings around her, each just as incomprehensibly odd as Selvim, if not more so.
Tall was a description that fit nearly all of them. Some towered above her to the point she questioned how they didn’t hit the ceiling, their necks stretching beyond reason. Aside from their height the number and configuration of limbs also startle her, from bipedal creatures to hexipedal ones, and then some who had no legs at all but moved like an ani grub across the floor.
Their biologies were so diverse that she did not immediately notice the extreme similarity between what they were wearing. White fabric, fit to each species respective anatomies, covered them from head to toe – well, if they had toes. Not a one went without, and she was about to ask Selvim but saw he was currently having a hushed discussion with one the beings with the absurdly long necks.
Whatever they were talking about, it involved her, as the Long-neck – what else was she supposed to call it before she knew its proper name – continued to shoot her glances throughout. A much shorter, bipedal being quickly joined them in their talk, while several groups passed her and entered the ship carrying equipment whose purpose she’d never be able to guess.
Whatever Selvim and his compatriots had been discussing, they finished at an audible growl from the human, the other two looking somewhat worried by the sound. The short one – who she now noticed had a head that seemed almost too large for its body – turned and approached her. “This way,” he – she thought it was a he, but for all she knew its species might not even have a “he” – said. His voice sounded dry and annoyed to her, although what he could be irritated about she hadn’t the slightest. Probably Selvim, that was usually a safe assumption.
“Sit,” Big-head gestured to a bed raised above her head. The gravity was precisely as Selvim said it would be, and now she was actually thankful that she could function in it. Otherwise her jumping up to the bed would have been a far less simplistic affair, most likely including bodily injury to herself or others. Considering what Selvim had said about how easily these tall, thin creatures broke, it’d probably be the latter. Either way not ideal for her first time on a station.
She looked to see him with some facial expression she felt was surprised. Why she felt that she didn’t know, but she didn’t question it. Often questioning things out here only made her more confused. Regardless of what his expression had meant, he huffed and walked to a panel of button-lights and began working. Or just pressing buttons for the fun of it, for all she knew.
She quickly revised her previous statement as an odd sensation passed over her body. It felt as though she’d just come from a bath but without the water, or the cold, or really any of the unpleasant experiences that a bath entailed. Her teeth were the strangest part, as each suddenly felt smoother than she could ever remember them being. After this, Big-head continued punching away at his control panel, not even acknowledging that he had done something that had somehow left her feeling cleaner than she had ever been.
Selvim had said the operation would take only a moments worth of pain, but so far there was no pain and it was taking far longer than a few moments. She allowed several more to pass before clearing her throat, gaining Big-head’s attention. When she finally caught it he looked up, now thoroughly annoyed, if his glare was anything to judge by. Gods, hopefully the other beings out here had a better bedside manner than this one.
“What?” He snapped.
“How long is this going to take?”
“As long as I see fit.”
His brusque manner was starting to get on her nerves, “Then you should be intimately familiar with how long it should take and be able to give me an answer somewhat more informative than that.”
“How long this takes depends on how long you continue to distract me,” He shot back, “So at the moment the answer to your question is quickly and steadily increasing.”
Okay, she didn’t volunteer to be patronized by this big-headed freak, “Uh huh, and how long’ll it take if I do this?” She quickly hopped off the bed. Something made a satisfying warning beep from Big-head’s console. Real anger showed in his eyes as he looked up.
“Exponentially, since you ask,” he growled, “And if you want that implant you’re going to have to cooperate.”
“Is that so?”
I’m not gonna lie, it’s pretty great to be wanted, and White-giraffe made me feel like I was the most valuable thing in the universe. I wouldn’t have been entirely surprised if he’d gotten down on three of his knees and put a small box in my face. But then he’d have had to have unglued his face from the console so I guess a proposal was out of the picture. Still, I couldn’t help but feel something in the way of friendship to him. I mean, he’s the reason Eallva was getting outfitted in the other lab; the least I could be is friendly.
“So how’ve you been lately?”
I guess that wasn’t the right thing to say, because his head shot up from the console so fast I was scared he’d gotten a case of the reverse head-banging disease. The gaze he affixed upon me was nothing short of flabbergasted. He sputtered for a while, choking on something before his tongue started working again, “Excuse me?”
“You, yourself, how’ve you been?”
“Um, what do you mean?”
Yeah, I definitely fucked up somewhere at the part where I opened my mouth. But stopping now would’ve only made it worse, so I decided to continue. ‘Cause, you know, that was bound to make things better. “What do you mean ‘what do you mean’? How’ve you been, what’ve you been up to? Anything new?”
“I don’t know what you want.”
Okay whose fault was this? Because I can’t honestly tell if I’m just that bad at making friends or this guy’s just the worst small-talker in existence. I decided I was going to operate under the assumption of the latter because I couldn’t do anything if it was the former. So that meant I had to just help him along and be as friendly as possible.
“I don’t want anything, I was just asking how you were doing!” If I sounded a little frustrated then it was in a friendly way.
Was that what that was?
At my raised voice (albeit still friendly, mind) he began making nervous glances at the door. “Uh . . . um, well?”
“Good, I’m glad!” I stated enthusiastically. I waited, wide-eyed for his response. He seemed to interpret my desires and stuttered a response.
“H – How – How’ve you been?”
“I’ve been good, thank you!” I nearly shouted, overcome with friendship. The feelings didn’t appear mutual, despite my best efforts. We stared at each other in deafening silence for several minutes before he managed a weak response.
“M – may I go back to scanning?”
“You may!” My voice boomed, broadcasting goodwill to all nearby. White-giraffe flinched away from the brilliance of my affability, feverishly punching away at his console. I looked at the fruits of my labor, disappointed. I’d tried, but I couldn’t seem to pull this guy out of his shell. If anything he’d gone further into it. Well, he couldn’t have failed to notice how amicable I’d been. If nothing else he’d hopefully remember that. Humans needed to get rid of this reputation of being blood-crazed maniacs.
Eallva
“Give it to me!” Someone was howling in rage. It wasn’t her, that wasn’t her voice, but someone was furious.
“Your inferior mind would probably get confused on how to work the button!” Big-head flung at her, eyes burning. Oh, it was her voice that was yelling. Huh.
This wasn’t like her, she never really had much of a temper. Just something about this smug little creature rubbed her fur the wrong way. It was odd, really. She’d only been this angry a few times. Most often, when she’d had to fight, she’d been more frightened than angry. But in both instances, despite whatever dominant emotion was flooding her psyche at the time, there was always some small, calm center to it all; a cold, calculating, analytical center untouched by fear or hatred, steering the whirlwind of animal emotions threatening to drown her.
Right now that calm little center was telling her she was being irrational, and should get back on the bed and hopefully the loathsome thing would still help her, but she opted to ignore it.
Maybe “steer” her wasn’t the right word, then. Perhaps more like “advise”. Had it been a race around the laboratory, she felt confident she’d have had him within the first few jumps. But the moment they’d started yelling Big-head had done something with his console. She hadn’t thought about it until she slammed into another one of those invisible walls several seconds later, separating her from the rest of the room.
Then what was she supposed to do? After charging at him and failing, smashing headlong into an invisible barrier, she would just go back and sit down? Nuh-uh, her blood was up, she needed to at least give some showing for herself. So that’s where they were now, yelling insults at each other from across the room.
“Lower this barrier and I’ll show you what ‘inferior’ means.”
“No need, you’re providing an excellent object lesson as is.”
“Yeah? Well . . .” she didn’t have anything. Her mind was currently prompting her to respond with “You’re dumb.” Rather than provide this abomination with ammunition for further remarks she opted to remain silent, angrily glaring at him from behind the barrier.
For lack of a better thing to do she kicked it. As expected it had no effect aside from eliciting a scoffing huff from Big-head. Ceasing what she assumed was a futile effort; she looked back on her side of the room. For the first time since being in the company of the irascible creature, she smiled.
After our conversation I’d decided silence was my best bet, and after a time White seemed to regain most of his composure. Once his breathing had slowed to a semblance of normalcy I felt it safe enough to open my mouth again.
“So how much longer is this going to take?”
White glanced again to me, then back to the door, though this time in question.
“Until Dr. Triv is finished scanning and installing the implant in your friend. Although to be perfectly honest I would have thought he’d be done by now.”
“Dr. Triv eh? That’s the Corti, right?” I didn’t sound worried, because obviously, I had nothing to worry about.
“Well there are several Corti on this station, but yes he’s the one with whom you’ve primarily interacted.”
Okay, maybe I was a little worried. Still I nodded, trying to maintain my smile, “Ah, great. You don’t think he’d, like, start anything do you?”
“Start something?” he thought a moment, “No, I don’t think he would, at least not intentionally,” despite his words I saw some of the trepidation I was feeling mirror itself on his face, “He can be difficult to work with at times, and his ego never helps anything, but he’s almost always professional. Except when . . .” he glanced at me, stopping mid exception.
I didn’t feel any better, and judging by his expression, neither was he. Still I forced a laugh, “Yeah, I’m sure you’re right. I was just thinking, her being an uncontacted species and all, not really used to Corti in general or Dick in particular; she might take something the wrong way. But I’m sure everything’s fine.” White grunted in agreement, scowling.
Seconds passed with only the gentle sounds of whirring equipment and soft beeps from his console.
The next moment I was on my feet, moving quickly towards the door at the same time as White abandoned whatever he was doing and started off at a pace just short of flail-gallop. To his credit he seemed a bit more graceful. Exiting just behind him I followed as he moved across the station’s atrium, headed for a door nearly opposite the room we’d occupied.
The muffled sound of shattering something came from behind the door of our destination, instantly galvanizing White and me into our respective sprints. I was the first to reach the door and the first to involuntarily gasp.
The room was like someone had taken the first and ninth circle from Dante’s Inferno and smashed them into the same room. The half of the room with the entrance contained Dick, an unsettling sight to begin with, but made infinitely worse by the expression of uncontrollable rage contorting his face into a visage so grotesque it made goblin sharks feel beautiful. Accompanying the sight I could already tell would haunt my nightmares for years to come, Dick was shouting words so forcefully spittle flew from his mouth. I didn’t even know Corti had spit, as I’d never seen one show enough emotion to warrant its use.
Despite containing the horrifying and irate Corti, Dick’s side couldn’t hold a candle to the far half of the room. I could only imagine that it had once been similar to the general lab I had occupied a few minutes ago. I had to imagine it because there wasn’t much left intact to help with the visualization. Every display, every console, and somehow even the medical scanner were destroyed to the barest limits of recognition.
Bouncing amidst the wreckage – a glint of manic joy upon her face – was the creature I had said would remain perfectly docile and under control while on the station. Eallva, reborn in the fires of havoc to be its harbinger, watched as her every act of wanton destruction brought Dick to ever increasing levels of loathing. Despite my shock at the sight, I couldn’t help but feel some grudging curiosity as to how she managed to knock over the medical scanner, which up until this point I thought had been built into the floor.
I hadn’t realized I’d been standing there open mouthed until White gasped behind me. Snapped from my reverie, I only needed several seconds more to gather my thoughts before I started shouting.
Children cover your ears.
Eallva
“And this, is this important?” She yelled as a shower of sparks flew from her last victim, assaulting her ears with a strange fizzing.
“You will never leave this station alive!” Big-head roared. Well he was trying his best but he really couldn’t manage a true roar.
That calm center she’d been thinking about had stopped giving her input and now simply watched the unfolding action with tired resignation. As for the rest of her it was overjoyed to be back in what it deemed as “control” of the situation, and so worked to remain as such.
“You’re going to have to lower that barrier to kill me, so why not go ahead. You didn’t need this thing right here did you?” another screen exploded as she kicked it.
“If you destroy one more thing I will personally eject this room from the station into the vacuum of space and laugh at the video of your violent death!” He screamed. Okay, that actually was a rather vivid description, and brought to mind the reason for life and death lesson number one, but if she stopped now she’d be admitting defeat.
“I don’t know,” she tried her best to sound unconcerned, “I feel like in order to see me in here while you’re somewhere else, there needs to be at least one thing in this room that’s not broken,” She kicked a console with a satisfying crack, “And last time I looked,” another console went down in sparks, “That wasn’t the case,” She’d run out of whole things to break; time to give the wreckage a second go-over.
“And once you’re dead and frozen,” Big-head continued as if she hadn’t spoken, “I’ll have them retrieve your lifeless corpse and . . .”
“Holy fucking shit Eallva, what the fuck?” Now that was a true roar. And not at all who she had wanted to hear it coming from.
Selvim stood in the door, eyes wide in shock as they followed the glowing trails left by the sparks coming from nearly every object on her side of the room. Reality and rationality reasserted themselves with dizzying ferocity, leaving coldhearted regret and not a little panic in their wake.
Selvim waited for her response, and she looked once again to her calm center for the answer. Unhelpfully it gave the mental equivalent of a shake of its head and a shrug. Still she needed to say something, if only to get it over with. She thought a bit before something presented itself. The moment she said it she knew she still wasn’t thinking straight.
“Uh . . . there was a bug?”
Several hours later
“. . .”
“. . .”
“. . .”
“. . . I mean, at least we got it.”
“. . .”
“. . .”
“. . .”
“. . . So that was nice.”
“. . .”
“Because, all things considered, it probably could have gone a lot worse.”
“. . .”
“. . . But, you know, it didn’t.”
“. . .”
“. . .”
“. . .”
“. . . Which is nice.”
“. . .”
“. . .”
I’m not saying she doesn’t deserve the silent treatment, but don’t you think there’s a more mature way of dealing with this?
. . .
Okay now you’re just being stubborn, you realize I’m in your head, right? You can’t give me the silent treatment.
. . .
Dearest me I’m trapped inside a child.
You’re me, right? So that makes you a child too.
Did you notice the part where I referred to myself in the first person? Look back at that and then tell me again I’m you.
Well then, what would you have me do? I’d threatened to take her back to her planet, but that brings up the whole sticky mess of why she’s here in the first place. And I’m not exactly the pillar of morality when it comes down to it, so what authority do I have?
It’s your ship, isn’t it?
Yeah, which I stole. Or are you talking about the cargo ship following us, which I also stole?
Your words not mine.
Although since you mention it, I suppose that’d work. Probably stop anything like this from happening again, too.
Up to you, although I’d say you should just keep her away from Corti; or implying that she is in any way an inferior being.
The first part’s easy, but how oh how will I ever manage the second.
Knowing you, it’s nigh impossible.
You know, I’ve almost stopped completely hating you.
You’re a doll.
“So where we headed now?”
I held out a little longer before giving up and responding, “To find some old friends.”
“In order to . . . ?”
“Apologize for the time I destroyed their medical bay, and by medical bay I mean their entire life and livelihood. Well, it just so happens that I did destroy their med bay, but in light of recent events I don’t think ‘destroyed’ is the right word. ‘Scuffed’ would be a better way of putting it, and my actions weren’t malicious.”
“Did I mention that I’m sorry?”
“Several times.”
“What else do you want me to say?”
Calming breaths. I just had to take calming breaths. “Try saying it a couple hundred more times along with lifting our lifelong ban from that station, then return all my funds left over from my time in the army, followed by my promise to send any additional funds I may come across their way, and then finally restoring what I can only assume was the beginning of a lifelong friendship with White!” Well at least I had started out calm.
“Who was White?” she replied quietly.
“The really long necked and primarily white skinned being behind me.”
“Wait, do you know his name?”
“Not exactly.”
“You don’t know his name but think you were developing a lifelong friendship with him?”
“I don’t know, maybe! The point is that was the first time you were on a station and you fucked it up about as much as you could.”
She gave me a tired look, “Any other painfully obvious facts you want to point out?”
“How about the fact that until I say otherwise you’re not getting off this ship except at places where the closest being aside from myself is several lightyears away?”
“I’d say that’s pretty obvious,” She sighed dejectedly.
“Great,” I said forcefully, “That’s settled then.” Honestly I’d been expecting an argument.
Another long minute passed in silence.
“So . . . chess? Or . . .”
“Might as well.”