Memento Mori, Chapter 29
Jul. 30th, 2012 12:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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memento_mori_11 Day broke to more of that increasingly-familiar flat grey drizzle. Presently jobless, Blink tucked herself away in the corner of her room, and peered out through the small windows at the sullen landscape, sighing dispiritedly to herself. Rae had told her it was supposed to be summer. Her chilly homeworld with its distant sun meant she was hardly an expert on the subject, but wasn’t summer meant to involve sunshine and warm, dry weather? Not perpetual rain, misting softly down over the landscape in gently billowing curtains, light enough that it easily gusted in through open doorways and beneath overhanging canopies. Even the ocean seemed strangely muted and unenthusiastic, the roar of the waves muffled and the horizon hidden behind its cloudy veil.
Most of the danata had elected to stay indoors, rather than risk a needless soaking. Her little hosts seemed not to mind such close quarters, but it left Blink feeling oddly cramped, almost claustrophobic – stifled by the crowded rooms where she could now barely move without bumping into or squashing someone. With not even a breeze to stir her hair, it felt like the dozens of extra bodies had sucked all the air from the room.
Was this how her uncles felt? she wondered, leaning close to her window. She herself had never minded being enclosed, crawling around quite happily in broken engines and through tight gaps, but she also knew the massive warbirds in her extended family hated nothing more than being confined to a small room, unable to see the sky. They were creatures of wide open spaces, of towers and plains, where there were no tight walls and low ceilings to pinch their wings. Even Skydash, with all that grounder coding in her harmonic, got twitchy in small rooms.
Maybe that’s your body’s way of telling you you’re not meant to fly. No real flier would be so happy to be burrowing around in the dirt, her pessimism sniped – she hastily sat on the voice before she could get too lost in the thought.
You just need some fresh air, she reassured herself, getting onto her knees and crawling to the doorway, carefully nudging it open with the back of her hand. All these little bodies breathing the same air, making it warm and full of carbon dioxide. Some cool air and oxygen will make you feel better. Hang the rain.
“Blink?” Wears Blossom looked up from her gaggle of infants and perked her head, antennae waving. “Are you well?”
Blink hesitated in the doorway; the fine drizzle felt indescribably good on her tight, dehydrated skin. “I-... yes, I’m fine, I just-... I need some air. I’ll only be outside.” She forced a smile. “Would you shout when you need me?”
“Of course.” The brown head perked over the other way. “You do not mind getting wet?”
“I’ll be all right. My clothes can just get dry again when I come back in.”
Blink crawled out into a chilly damp that felt nowhere near as good as it had looked from her window, and yet still infinitely better than the stuffy indoors. She turned her face up into the mist and inhaled deeply, luxuriating in the feel of the chilly air pouring down into her half-starved lungs.
Next to the colony’s vegetable garden there grew a cluster of squat umbrella palms; the enormous, flat leaves tiled together above each short, fat trunk to form a roof every bit as good as the one on the main colony. Blink crawled underneath the biggest one, and onto the damp carpet of symbiotic mossy undergrowth beneath. The playful breeze misted the occasional drizzle underneath, but not strongly enough to make her any wetter than she already was.
Until now, she’d never really taken much notice of simple things like this, and it struck her as strange how something so simple could be so good. The muted rush of the waves, the rustle of wind in the leaves and the soothing hiss of the rain on the vegetation blended together into a white noise that seemed to dissolve every last care out of her body, even – for a few brief minutes – letting her forget the monster laying in wait for her in the valley.
I bet Skydash would like it here. In her mind’s eye, Blink watched her friend’s graceful silhouette swoop down through the clouds, threading pure white contrails through the mist and skimming her wingtips through the waves. Rain softened the thunder of her flight turbines. ...what I’d give to be up there with her.
A rustle from the colony attracted her attention. Blink watched as Duskwing emerged from the doorway, baulked at the rain, briefly disappeared, then re-emerged holding a giant heart-shaped leaf over her head as an umbrella. She scampered over the sodden grass with the hunched posture of someone who really, really doesn’t want to get wet.
Blink watched her approach, and internalised a sigh of resignation. “Wears Blossom wants me to go back?”
The naiad ducked under the leaves and gave her wings a flutter, to shake off the droplets that clung like tiny round crystals to her fur. “No. I thought you may like some company.”
“Oh!” This time, Blink found a genuine smile for her. “Thank you. I’d appreciate it.”
Duskwing smiled that abstract little danata smile and clicked her beak. “Have you decided what you are going to do now?” she wondered, sitting on the moss beside Blink and trying to mimic the way the bigger female crossed her legs, but her extra joints and protruding abdomen made it difficult.
“I don’t know yet.” Blink shook her head, sadly. “I’ve been thinking about it, but all I can really come up with is knowing I’m going to have to go away, somewhere. Away from Kust.” She huffed a terse sigh. “Maybe I could head north, up the coast, or something. There’ll be other cities; I’m sure there’s other cognates living there I could join up with, too.”
Duskwing looked disappointed, rocking back a little onto her heavy tail. “You do not want to stay? Is it my people that have offended you?”
“Goodness, no. I’m very grateful for your hospitality.” The fessine, chuckled, tiredly. “I just can’t expect Travels Far to let me stay here indefinitely. Even if I can help out around the colony, I’m big and I eat too much, and it’s not fair to expect you to try and support me.” She snorted. “That’s not to mention, my being here could ultimately lead Tevak to your home. I dread to think what he’ll do to you if he finds out you helped me.”
“We have not been visited by warmbloods in my entire lifetime, I do not think they know where we live.” Duskwing clicked, thoughtfully. “You could go back to your friends in the Library. They are all nice. Will they not look after you?”
Blink shook her head, resisting the urge to correct her. “Tevak won’t sit back and pretend he doesn’t know I’m there. He thinks I belong to him, he’ll already be blazing angry that I’m gone. As soon as he spots me, he’ll come after me, and woe betide anyone that gets in his way.” She sighed, quietly, and studied her bruised wrists, stroking her thumb across the damaged flesh. Fear of the giant – and what he’d do to her when he got hold of her – bubbled nauseatingly in her stomach. “If I stay in Kust, he’s never going to leave me alone. He’s going to chase me until he catches me, or I hand myself over, or he’ll force my hand by threatening my friends – and I can’t put my friends at risk. If he could do this to me? Something he claimed to want and value? He’ll probably kill anyone in his way.”
“Tevak was the one who was maltreating you?” Duskwing asked, and at the nod she got in reply carried on; “If he was not there, you would be able to go home?”
“Are you trying to get rid of me, Dusk?” Blink asked, with a tired little smile.
“No?” Duskwing perked her head, seemingly not entirely comprehending. “That is to say, I would like for you to be able to go home,” she clarified, antennae waving. “But not because I want you to go away. I want you to be back with your own family. Your friends!”
As if to illustrate the fact, she held all four small hands out in front of her, palms down, fingers spread. The back of each hand had the same distinct blotchy pattern, albeit underdeveloped and grey, that Blink recognised seeing on the hands of other adult workers in the colony. Perhaps it was a genetic thing, handed down from Travels Far – an instant visual indicator of whose family an imago belonged to?
“I have lived my whole life here with my mother and sisters,” the naiad explained, quietly, flexing her fingers. “And although I am not yet mature, I do not think I ever will live anywhere else. I cannot even begin to imagine what it must be like, to be forcibly removed from my family. It frightens me simply to think of it.”
Blink stroked her small shoulder, gratefully. “My family are a very long way away,” she explained, feeling... strangely hollow. “On the other side of the galaxy, I think. I’ve been away from home for a very long time already.” She bit her lip, to maintain control over her emotions, and shook her head. “I’ve not seen-... not spoken to them in a long time. They don’t know where I am and I don’t know how to tell them.”
Duskwing looked dismayed at the concept. “How will you get home?”
“I don’t know if I can. The planet is quarantined, remember?” Blink spread her hands, helplessly. “Even if it wasn’t, if I can’t get into the Institute and get a message out, my plans are foiled before I even start.”
Duskwing perked her head, curiously. “What is the Institute?”
Blink gestured an arm out towards the ocean. “It’s the big building on the headland south from here, with the glass front and the fence. You must have seen it...?”
“Oh, the glass building?” Duskwing gave a dismissive little click. “Why do you want to go there? It is empty. Sterile. Full of machines that we cannot use. There is nothing worth going there for.”
It felt like someone had jabbed something sharp into her ribs. Blink physically startled, turning and shooting a stare Duskwing’s way. “What-... You’ve been in there?” she demanded.
The danata bobbed her antennae in agreement. “Once. We do not go any more because it is a long way away, and there is nothing there we can use-”
Blink had to resist the urge to shake her small friend. Didn’t she see how important this was?! “But you’ve been inside? How? How is that possible?”
Duskwing looked back, leaning away from her, startled by the unexpected aggression in Blink’s voice. “I just flew over the fence?”
“But it’s electrified. A-and the forcefield-! How in blazes-...” In the back of her mind, Blink heard Halli’s voice as she’d explained about the system – and goodness, it seemed an eternity ago. You can throw little things through it, but anything person sized gets rebuffed. It stood to reason that the tiny danata were small enough to slip through with no effort whatsoever.
An idea that left her breathless seized her. “Oh my goodn-... Could you help me get in?”
“What? I am not sure if-” Duskwing started, uneasily.
“Please, Dusk. You’re my last-... skeida, you’re my only chance.” Blink clutched her fingers into her hair, agitated. “Getting into that glass building might be the single most important thing we can do for the whole of the galaxy, right now. They have the computers, I have the immunity. We could cure heff forever..!”
Duskwing looked torn. “But matica does not like us to get involved. It puts the whole colony at risk, and it is not fair on my sisters.” After a beat, she added; “She will think I am just trying to cause trouble again.”
“But if I can’t get in, I’ll die here. I’ll crumble away into the dirt without ever telling my family what happened to me.” Blink blurted the words out before she considered what she was saying, and immediately felt guilty for using Duskwing’s words against her – but these were desperate times! “You won’t have to do anything else. Just unlock the door for me. ...please?”
Duskwing cringed down, reluctantly. “I will talk with matica. Maybe she will not mind if it does not lead warmbloods to our home...”
* * * * *
The rank, unsettling smell of smoke that stirred Rae out of a fitful sleep – kettu, don’t tell me he’s gone and set light to the place already...! – turned out to just be Tevak smoking a foul hand-rolled cigar of noxious herbs in the breakfast room. He bared his teeth in an unfriendly smile when Rae stumbled bleary-eyed through the door, looking for the fire.
“Sorry. Wakeya up, did I?” their trespasser wondered, in a voice that didn’t sound remotely apologetic.
Rae grunted something uninterpretable, and slipped into the chair next to Aspazija, who was twiddling a glass between her fingers, looking... quiet. Hollow. He tried to put an arm around her, but she cringed away underneath it so he took it back, quietly simmering inside about what Tevak might have done – could the giant brute not be near anyone without damaging them in some way? Aspazija at least she seemed comfortable enough to stay beside him, which reassured him.
On her left, Halli sat glaring into her breakfast, halfway towards being an aggressive bristlecone, obviously concentrating on eating in an effort not to fly at Tevak. The giant watched both women with quite an unashamedly lascivious glint in his dark eyes.
“I hear yer makin’ good progress at findin’ my little runaway bedwarmer,” Tevak offered, at last turning his attention onto Rae, exhaling a long streamer of sour blue smoke in his direction. “Found out how she snuck out of prison, at least.”
Rae wafted his hand in front of his face, and rubbed his eyes in an effort to wake up a little. “If by that you mean, we worked out she probably fell in the river and drowned, then sure, we’re makin’ good progress,” he griped, sourly.
Tevak fixed him on an unfriendly stare. “You better hope she ain’t, scrawny. Remember what I told yer would happen if you ain’t found her?”
Rae curled his lip. “Don’t worry. If she drowned, we’ll make sure you get the body to gloat over.”
Tevak flicked hot ash at him. “You watch yer mouth, you useless string of cold water. You guys yank my tail enough an’ I might burn the place down anyways.”
Halli shot him a glare, hair bristling out angrily. “You let her drown, and you’d still punish us?”
“Sure, why not? If not for you bunch of weaklings coddling her, she’d be all cosy and tucked up with us in the Station, right?” Tevak arched a dismissive shoulder, and smirked. “You guys were what put the need to run away in her, panderin’ to those unnatural desires of hers.”
“You’re the one that mistreated her! You think she’s going to want to stay with you when you treated her like that?!”
“That wee box of matches is gettin’ closer and closer, girl. Mebbe you want me to set light to the place, hmm?” He flicked out his over-long purple tongue, and licked his lips. “You guys don’ have to go to such extreme measures to come live with us. We might not have all the luxuries you got here – yet – but I always got room for a couple more girls in my harem. Even you, Tiny.” He pointed his cigarette at Halli, dropping ash all over the tabletop. “Breg likes ‘em better when they fight back a little.”
Rae hastily moved to intercept, before Halli could get over her outraged splutters. “Come on, Hal. We still haven’t found Bee yet.” He bundled the hissing puffball out of the door before she could physically attack Tevak. “Save it for when she’s safe, all right?”
The giant’s laughter followed them out into the corridor.
Halli waited until she was just outside before assaulting the wall, hurling her rage at its vine-covered surface. The coating of leaves absorbed a little of the violence, which only seemed to incense her further.
Rae startled away, alarmed. “Whoa-! Steady, Hal...”
“Don’t you ‘steady’ me, you patronising [bastard]!” The frustrated zaar rounded on him, instead; Rae leaped out of the way, only narrowly avoiding a punch. “I’m not some helpless little scrap of fessine that needs your sagacious cage and guidance!”
“Ow, ow! All right, lay off-!” Rae backed out of reach, hands raised in a placatory gesture. “Skeida, beat the wall all you like, don’t let me get in your way-! Just don’t get on my case when you’re too bashed up to be any use rescuing Bee.”
For several seconds, Halli simply glared back at him, shoulders heaving with effort and blood dribbling in a steady stream from the tips of her mutated fingers. Finally, the pain sank through the clouding layers of fury and frustration, and she deflated from her angry ball, her bristle slicking back down. She covered her face with her good hand, slumping back against the wall and holding the injured one to her chest. “I don’t know if I’m angrier about what he’s doing to us, or that he’s made me angry at her,” she admitted, with a groan of mixed pain and resignation. “How are we ever supposed to make this decision, Rae? Doesn’t matter what we choose, because it’ll be a terrible result for someone. Either we hand her over, to goodness knows what kind of torture, or he burns our home down and everyone suffers.”
“If someone else finds her before we do, it’s out of our hands anyway,” Rae pointed out, gloomy. “I doubt they’ll share our hesitation in handing Blink over.”
They stood together in silence for a few minutes, neither really knowing what to say to each other, any more. Rae found it particularly frustrating that the zaar was right – it was increasingly difficult not to be angry with Blink. If only she’d just... played along, and waited to be rescued, or something-! But then, who was to say that the rescue mission wouldn’t have had the same result? Tevak inviting himself into their home, and threatening to burn it down if they didn’t give her back? And who could blame the little fessine for not wanting to play the waiting game – especially not when it would involve being an unwilling sex toy.
At last, Rae cast a look around himself, to check they were alone, then lowered his voice to a barely audible murmur and said; “Would it be really bad taste if I suggested we try and kill him?”
Halli slid a glance his way, not really sure if she thought the words were hyperbole. “...what?”
Rae forced a tense smile. “Granted, the closest I’ve got to killing anyone is in a computer game,” he admitted, “but it’s the only way out of this mess I can think of that doesn’t involve one of his two choices.”
“I’ve never killed anything bigger than an animal, before.” Halli actually looked horrified by the idea. “I don’t know if I could. Not even someone as vile as him.”
“Well, me either. But Tevak is the only one so obsessed about keeping Blink. If we remove him, maybe the others will leave us alone?”
“Oh, that’ll work well. They won’t even think of coming after us for retribution.”
“So we engineer an accident. A spear trap, like those big ones you set for game, and get him to walk through it, somehow. They couldn’t pin that on anyone, just his blind-headed clumsiness-”
“...Rae?”
Halli’s voice jogged him out of his plotting. “What?”
“We need to start taking our own advice.” She forced a smile. “Let’s find Blink first. We can think about everything else once we know she’s sa-... ah, still alive.”
* * * * *
...It turned out to not be the most ideal time to go ask the matica for a favour. Like all fertile females, the big danata laid a single large egg approximately every month, and it just so happened, rather inconveniently, that she’d laid early this morning. It was evidently a draining business – Travels Far had retired to her personal chambers to rest, away from the public eye, and her personal medic was not particularly inclined to permit her to entertain visitors just yet. The three strazae guarding the door were only too happy to enforce the doctor’s instructions, and looked almost as though they’d quite happily use a little physical violence to get the point across to the stubborn Duskwing, who did not seem in the mood to take “no” for an answer.
Eventually, the comparative commotion outside her doors drew the tired matica herself out, to see what all the fuss was about. Blink had forgotten how intimidating the giant arthropoid was, up close, with those sharp claws and heavy beak; her smooth skin and joints made it look unnervingly like she too had once been a machine.
“What is going on here,” she demanded; the translator rendered her tone of voice as a statement, not a question, so it seemed to be more of a take your problems elsewhere than any real desire to know what was going on.
The instant the strazae were distracted, Duskwing slipped past them and bowed steeply to her mother. “Blink requests our help getting into the glass building on the south headland.”
The matica gave Duskwing a very long, serious, silent glare; the naiad cringed and tried to make herself look smaller, trembling her wings.
“Precisely what input on this venture have you had, little one?” Travels Far wondered, at last. “I gave permission for Blink to stay so she may recover from her injuries and ill treatment, not so she may become a vessel for you to indulge your own daydreams.”
“It was mostly my fault, Matica,” Blink offered, quietly. “Duskwing asked what my plans were, and we just happened to end up talking about it.”
Travels Far’s critical gaze swivelled to concentrate on her, instead. “And why do you wish to involve us in something that may be detrimental to our safety?”
“First-... uh, first of all, I’m fairly sure it won’t be detrimental.” Blink held her gaze, bravely. “All I’m asking is that they try and help me gain access to the building. It’s so important that I get in there, ma’am... I don’t think I could ever understate it. Please.” She clasped her hands together, awkwardly. “Once I’m in, I can be out of your lives forever – and I’ll take my dangers away with me.”
Travels Far tilted her head. “How does this involve my daughters? Why can you not achieve it yourself?” At least the overt hostility had gone from her voice.
“It’s all locked up too tightly. When the last scientist left, they took whatever it was that allowed Institute access with them. Myself, my friends, we can’t work out a way through all the layers of security. Your daughters are the only ones who can get in. I think they’re small enough that the security field doesn’t recognise them as a threat.”
Travels Far remained silent for a moment, thinking, before inclining her head, at last. “I agree that your plan does not seem harmful,” she accepted. “It pleases me that you will take any risk to the colony away with you when you go. I will permit a small group to accompany you.”
“Thank you, ma’am...” Blink bowed her head, but only half out of grateful respect – knowing that Travels Far was simply being logical about the situation didn’t lessen her sense that the matica was glad to see the back of her.
148213 ♥ 200000
Most of the danata had elected to stay indoors, rather than risk a needless soaking. Her little hosts seemed not to mind such close quarters, but it left Blink feeling oddly cramped, almost claustrophobic – stifled by the crowded rooms where she could now barely move without bumping into or squashing someone. With not even a breeze to stir her hair, it felt like the dozens of extra bodies had sucked all the air from the room.
Was this how her uncles felt? she wondered, leaning close to her window. She herself had never minded being enclosed, crawling around quite happily in broken engines and through tight gaps, but she also knew the massive warbirds in her extended family hated nothing more than being confined to a small room, unable to see the sky. They were creatures of wide open spaces, of towers and plains, where there were no tight walls and low ceilings to pinch their wings. Even Skydash, with all that grounder coding in her harmonic, got twitchy in small rooms.
Maybe that’s your body’s way of telling you you’re not meant to fly. No real flier would be so happy to be burrowing around in the dirt, her pessimism sniped – she hastily sat on the voice before she could get too lost in the thought.
You just need some fresh air, she reassured herself, getting onto her knees and crawling to the doorway, carefully nudging it open with the back of her hand. All these little bodies breathing the same air, making it warm and full of carbon dioxide. Some cool air and oxygen will make you feel better. Hang the rain.
“Blink?” Wears Blossom looked up from her gaggle of infants and perked her head, antennae waving. “Are you well?”
Blink hesitated in the doorway; the fine drizzle felt indescribably good on her tight, dehydrated skin. “I-... yes, I’m fine, I just-... I need some air. I’ll only be outside.” She forced a smile. “Would you shout when you need me?”
“Of course.” The brown head perked over the other way. “You do not mind getting wet?”
“I’ll be all right. My clothes can just get dry again when I come back in.”
Blink crawled out into a chilly damp that felt nowhere near as good as it had looked from her window, and yet still infinitely better than the stuffy indoors. She turned her face up into the mist and inhaled deeply, luxuriating in the feel of the chilly air pouring down into her half-starved lungs.
Next to the colony’s vegetable garden there grew a cluster of squat umbrella palms; the enormous, flat leaves tiled together above each short, fat trunk to form a roof every bit as good as the one on the main colony. Blink crawled underneath the biggest one, and onto the damp carpet of symbiotic mossy undergrowth beneath. The playful breeze misted the occasional drizzle underneath, but not strongly enough to make her any wetter than she already was.
Until now, she’d never really taken much notice of simple things like this, and it struck her as strange how something so simple could be so good. The muted rush of the waves, the rustle of wind in the leaves and the soothing hiss of the rain on the vegetation blended together into a white noise that seemed to dissolve every last care out of her body, even – for a few brief minutes – letting her forget the monster laying in wait for her in the valley.
I bet Skydash would like it here. In her mind’s eye, Blink watched her friend’s graceful silhouette swoop down through the clouds, threading pure white contrails through the mist and skimming her wingtips through the waves. Rain softened the thunder of her flight turbines. ...what I’d give to be up there with her.
A rustle from the colony attracted her attention. Blink watched as Duskwing emerged from the doorway, baulked at the rain, briefly disappeared, then re-emerged holding a giant heart-shaped leaf over her head as an umbrella. She scampered over the sodden grass with the hunched posture of someone who really, really doesn’t want to get wet.
Blink watched her approach, and internalised a sigh of resignation. “Wears Blossom wants me to go back?”
The naiad ducked under the leaves and gave her wings a flutter, to shake off the droplets that clung like tiny round crystals to her fur. “No. I thought you may like some company.”
“Oh!” This time, Blink found a genuine smile for her. “Thank you. I’d appreciate it.”
Duskwing smiled that abstract little danata smile and clicked her beak. “Have you decided what you are going to do now?” she wondered, sitting on the moss beside Blink and trying to mimic the way the bigger female crossed her legs, but her extra joints and protruding abdomen made it difficult.
“I don’t know yet.” Blink shook her head, sadly. “I’ve been thinking about it, but all I can really come up with is knowing I’m going to have to go away, somewhere. Away from Kust.” She huffed a terse sigh. “Maybe I could head north, up the coast, or something. There’ll be other cities; I’m sure there’s other cognates living there I could join up with, too.”
Duskwing looked disappointed, rocking back a little onto her heavy tail. “You do not want to stay? Is it my people that have offended you?”
“Goodness, no. I’m very grateful for your hospitality.” The fessine, chuckled, tiredly. “I just can’t expect Travels Far to let me stay here indefinitely. Even if I can help out around the colony, I’m big and I eat too much, and it’s not fair to expect you to try and support me.” She snorted. “That’s not to mention, my being here could ultimately lead Tevak to your home. I dread to think what he’ll do to you if he finds out you helped me.”
“We have not been visited by warmbloods in my entire lifetime, I do not think they know where we live.” Duskwing clicked, thoughtfully. “You could go back to your friends in the Library. They are all nice. Will they not look after you?”
Blink shook her head, resisting the urge to correct her. “Tevak won’t sit back and pretend he doesn’t know I’m there. He thinks I belong to him, he’ll already be blazing angry that I’m gone. As soon as he spots me, he’ll come after me, and woe betide anyone that gets in his way.” She sighed, quietly, and studied her bruised wrists, stroking her thumb across the damaged flesh. Fear of the giant – and what he’d do to her when he got hold of her – bubbled nauseatingly in her stomach. “If I stay in Kust, he’s never going to leave me alone. He’s going to chase me until he catches me, or I hand myself over, or he’ll force my hand by threatening my friends – and I can’t put my friends at risk. If he could do this to me? Something he claimed to want and value? He’ll probably kill anyone in his way.”
“Tevak was the one who was maltreating you?” Duskwing asked, and at the nod she got in reply carried on; “If he was not there, you would be able to go home?”
“Are you trying to get rid of me, Dusk?” Blink asked, with a tired little smile.
“No?” Duskwing perked her head, seemingly not entirely comprehending. “That is to say, I would like for you to be able to go home,” she clarified, antennae waving. “But not because I want you to go away. I want you to be back with your own family. Your friends!”
As if to illustrate the fact, she held all four small hands out in front of her, palms down, fingers spread. The back of each hand had the same distinct blotchy pattern, albeit underdeveloped and grey, that Blink recognised seeing on the hands of other adult workers in the colony. Perhaps it was a genetic thing, handed down from Travels Far – an instant visual indicator of whose family an imago belonged to?
“I have lived my whole life here with my mother and sisters,” the naiad explained, quietly, flexing her fingers. “And although I am not yet mature, I do not think I ever will live anywhere else. I cannot even begin to imagine what it must be like, to be forcibly removed from my family. It frightens me simply to think of it.”
Blink stroked her small shoulder, gratefully. “My family are a very long way away,” she explained, feeling... strangely hollow. “On the other side of the galaxy, I think. I’ve been away from home for a very long time already.” She bit her lip, to maintain control over her emotions, and shook her head. “I’ve not seen-... not spoken to them in a long time. They don’t know where I am and I don’t know how to tell them.”
Duskwing looked dismayed at the concept. “How will you get home?”
“I don’t know if I can. The planet is quarantined, remember?” Blink spread her hands, helplessly. “Even if it wasn’t, if I can’t get into the Institute and get a message out, my plans are foiled before I even start.”
Duskwing perked her head, curiously. “What is the Institute?”
Blink gestured an arm out towards the ocean. “It’s the big building on the headland south from here, with the glass front and the fence. You must have seen it...?”
“Oh, the glass building?” Duskwing gave a dismissive little click. “Why do you want to go there? It is empty. Sterile. Full of machines that we cannot use. There is nothing worth going there for.”
It felt like someone had jabbed something sharp into her ribs. Blink physically startled, turning and shooting a stare Duskwing’s way. “What-... You’ve been in there?” she demanded.
The danata bobbed her antennae in agreement. “Once. We do not go any more because it is a long way away, and there is nothing there we can use-”
Blink had to resist the urge to shake her small friend. Didn’t she see how important this was?! “But you’ve been inside? How? How is that possible?”
Duskwing looked back, leaning away from her, startled by the unexpected aggression in Blink’s voice. “I just flew over the fence?”
“But it’s electrified. A-and the forcefield-! How in blazes-...” In the back of her mind, Blink heard Halli’s voice as she’d explained about the system – and goodness, it seemed an eternity ago. You can throw little things through it, but anything person sized gets rebuffed. It stood to reason that the tiny danata were small enough to slip through with no effort whatsoever.
An idea that left her breathless seized her. “Oh my goodn-... Could you help me get in?”
“What? I am not sure if-” Duskwing started, uneasily.
“Please, Dusk. You’re my last-... skeida, you’re my only chance.” Blink clutched her fingers into her hair, agitated. “Getting into that glass building might be the single most important thing we can do for the whole of the galaxy, right now. They have the computers, I have the immunity. We could cure heff forever..!”
Duskwing looked torn. “But matica does not like us to get involved. It puts the whole colony at risk, and it is not fair on my sisters.” After a beat, she added; “She will think I am just trying to cause trouble again.”
“But if I can’t get in, I’ll die here. I’ll crumble away into the dirt without ever telling my family what happened to me.” Blink blurted the words out before she considered what she was saying, and immediately felt guilty for using Duskwing’s words against her – but these were desperate times! “You won’t have to do anything else. Just unlock the door for me. ...please?”
Duskwing cringed down, reluctantly. “I will talk with matica. Maybe she will not mind if it does not lead warmbloods to our home...”
The rank, unsettling smell of smoke that stirred Rae out of a fitful sleep – kettu, don’t tell me he’s gone and set light to the place already...! – turned out to just be Tevak smoking a foul hand-rolled cigar of noxious herbs in the breakfast room. He bared his teeth in an unfriendly smile when Rae stumbled bleary-eyed through the door, looking for the fire.
“Sorry. Wakeya up, did I?” their trespasser wondered, in a voice that didn’t sound remotely apologetic.
Rae grunted something uninterpretable, and slipped into the chair next to Aspazija, who was twiddling a glass between her fingers, looking... quiet. Hollow. He tried to put an arm around her, but she cringed away underneath it so he took it back, quietly simmering inside about what Tevak might have done – could the giant brute not be near anyone without damaging them in some way? Aspazija at least she seemed comfortable enough to stay beside him, which reassured him.
On her left, Halli sat glaring into her breakfast, halfway towards being an aggressive bristlecone, obviously concentrating on eating in an effort not to fly at Tevak. The giant watched both women with quite an unashamedly lascivious glint in his dark eyes.
“I hear yer makin’ good progress at findin’ my little runaway bedwarmer,” Tevak offered, at last turning his attention onto Rae, exhaling a long streamer of sour blue smoke in his direction. “Found out how she snuck out of prison, at least.”
Rae wafted his hand in front of his face, and rubbed his eyes in an effort to wake up a little. “If by that you mean, we worked out she probably fell in the river and drowned, then sure, we’re makin’ good progress,” he griped, sourly.
Tevak fixed him on an unfriendly stare. “You better hope she ain’t, scrawny. Remember what I told yer would happen if you ain’t found her?”
Rae curled his lip. “Don’t worry. If she drowned, we’ll make sure you get the body to gloat over.”
Tevak flicked hot ash at him. “You watch yer mouth, you useless string of cold water. You guys yank my tail enough an’ I might burn the place down anyways.”
Halli shot him a glare, hair bristling out angrily. “You let her drown, and you’d still punish us?”
“Sure, why not? If not for you bunch of weaklings coddling her, she’d be all cosy and tucked up with us in the Station, right?” Tevak arched a dismissive shoulder, and smirked. “You guys were what put the need to run away in her, panderin’ to those unnatural desires of hers.”
“You’re the one that mistreated her! You think she’s going to want to stay with you when you treated her like that?!”
“That wee box of matches is gettin’ closer and closer, girl. Mebbe you want me to set light to the place, hmm?” He flicked out his over-long purple tongue, and licked his lips. “You guys don’ have to go to such extreme measures to come live with us. We might not have all the luxuries you got here – yet – but I always got room for a couple more girls in my harem. Even you, Tiny.” He pointed his cigarette at Halli, dropping ash all over the tabletop. “Breg likes ‘em better when they fight back a little.”
Rae hastily moved to intercept, before Halli could get over her outraged splutters. “Come on, Hal. We still haven’t found Bee yet.” He bundled the hissing puffball out of the door before she could physically attack Tevak. “Save it for when she’s safe, all right?”
The giant’s laughter followed them out into the corridor.
Halli waited until she was just outside before assaulting the wall, hurling her rage at its vine-covered surface. The coating of leaves absorbed a little of the violence, which only seemed to incense her further.
Rae startled away, alarmed. “Whoa-! Steady, Hal...”
“Don’t you ‘steady’ me, you patronising [bastard]!” The frustrated zaar rounded on him, instead; Rae leaped out of the way, only narrowly avoiding a punch. “I’m not some helpless little scrap of fessine that needs your sagacious cage and guidance!”
“Ow, ow! All right, lay off-!” Rae backed out of reach, hands raised in a placatory gesture. “Skeida, beat the wall all you like, don’t let me get in your way-! Just don’t get on my case when you’re too bashed up to be any use rescuing Bee.”
For several seconds, Halli simply glared back at him, shoulders heaving with effort and blood dribbling in a steady stream from the tips of her mutated fingers. Finally, the pain sank through the clouding layers of fury and frustration, and she deflated from her angry ball, her bristle slicking back down. She covered her face with her good hand, slumping back against the wall and holding the injured one to her chest. “I don’t know if I’m angrier about what he’s doing to us, or that he’s made me angry at her,” she admitted, with a groan of mixed pain and resignation. “How are we ever supposed to make this decision, Rae? Doesn’t matter what we choose, because it’ll be a terrible result for someone. Either we hand her over, to goodness knows what kind of torture, or he burns our home down and everyone suffers.”
“If someone else finds her before we do, it’s out of our hands anyway,” Rae pointed out, gloomy. “I doubt they’ll share our hesitation in handing Blink over.”
They stood together in silence for a few minutes, neither really knowing what to say to each other, any more. Rae found it particularly frustrating that the zaar was right – it was increasingly difficult not to be angry with Blink. If only she’d just... played along, and waited to be rescued, or something-! But then, who was to say that the rescue mission wouldn’t have had the same result? Tevak inviting himself into their home, and threatening to burn it down if they didn’t give her back? And who could blame the little fessine for not wanting to play the waiting game – especially not when it would involve being an unwilling sex toy.
At last, Rae cast a look around himself, to check they were alone, then lowered his voice to a barely audible murmur and said; “Would it be really bad taste if I suggested we try and kill him?”
Halli slid a glance his way, not really sure if she thought the words were hyperbole. “...what?”
Rae forced a tense smile. “Granted, the closest I’ve got to killing anyone is in a computer game,” he admitted, “but it’s the only way out of this mess I can think of that doesn’t involve one of his two choices.”
“I’ve never killed anything bigger than an animal, before.” Halli actually looked horrified by the idea. “I don’t know if I could. Not even someone as vile as him.”
“Well, me either. But Tevak is the only one so obsessed about keeping Blink. If we remove him, maybe the others will leave us alone?”
“Oh, that’ll work well. They won’t even think of coming after us for retribution.”
“So we engineer an accident. A spear trap, like those big ones you set for game, and get him to walk through it, somehow. They couldn’t pin that on anyone, just his blind-headed clumsiness-”
“...Rae?”
Halli’s voice jogged him out of his plotting. “What?”
“We need to start taking our own advice.” She forced a smile. “Let’s find Blink first. We can think about everything else once we know she’s sa-... ah, still alive.”
...It turned out to not be the most ideal time to go ask the matica for a favour. Like all fertile females, the big danata laid a single large egg approximately every month, and it just so happened, rather inconveniently, that she’d laid early this morning. It was evidently a draining business – Travels Far had retired to her personal chambers to rest, away from the public eye, and her personal medic was not particularly inclined to permit her to entertain visitors just yet. The three strazae guarding the door were only too happy to enforce the doctor’s instructions, and looked almost as though they’d quite happily use a little physical violence to get the point across to the stubborn Duskwing, who did not seem in the mood to take “no” for an answer.
Eventually, the comparative commotion outside her doors drew the tired matica herself out, to see what all the fuss was about. Blink had forgotten how intimidating the giant arthropoid was, up close, with those sharp claws and heavy beak; her smooth skin and joints made it look unnervingly like she too had once been a machine.
“What is going on here,” she demanded; the translator rendered her tone of voice as a statement, not a question, so it seemed to be more of a take your problems elsewhere than any real desire to know what was going on.
The instant the strazae were distracted, Duskwing slipped past them and bowed steeply to her mother. “Blink requests our help getting into the glass building on the south headland.”
The matica gave Duskwing a very long, serious, silent glare; the naiad cringed and tried to make herself look smaller, trembling her wings.
“Precisely what input on this venture have you had, little one?” Travels Far wondered, at last. “I gave permission for Blink to stay so she may recover from her injuries and ill treatment, not so she may become a vessel for you to indulge your own daydreams.”
“It was mostly my fault, Matica,” Blink offered, quietly. “Duskwing asked what my plans were, and we just happened to end up talking about it.”
Travels Far’s critical gaze swivelled to concentrate on her, instead. “And why do you wish to involve us in something that may be detrimental to our safety?”
“First-... uh, first of all, I’m fairly sure it won’t be detrimental.” Blink held her gaze, bravely. “All I’m asking is that they try and help me gain access to the building. It’s so important that I get in there, ma’am... I don’t think I could ever understate it. Please.” She clasped her hands together, awkwardly. “Once I’m in, I can be out of your lives forever – and I’ll take my dangers away with me.”
Travels Far tilted her head. “How does this involve my daughters? Why can you not achieve it yourself?” At least the overt hostility had gone from her voice.
“It’s all locked up too tightly. When the last scientist left, they took whatever it was that allowed Institute access with them. Myself, my friends, we can’t work out a way through all the layers of security. Your daughters are the only ones who can get in. I think they’re small enough that the security field doesn’t recognise them as a threat.”
Travels Far remained silent for a moment, thinking, before inclining her head, at last. “I agree that your plan does not seem harmful,” she accepted. “It pleases me that you will take any risk to the colony away with you when you go. I will permit a small group to accompany you.”
“Thank you, ma’am...” Blink bowed her head, but only half out of grateful respect – knowing that Travels Far was simply being logical about the situation didn’t lessen her sense that the matica was glad to see the back of her.