Friends in odd places
Liriel should have been afraid.
She had no idea where she was, how she had gotten here, or why she was lying on a metal deck. But she wasn't afraid. Odd. She felt comforted, safe even. Even odder. She was surrounded by figures out of nightmare and she wasn't afraid of them or of why she didn't remember where she had come from. Insanely odd. She tried to remember.
Liriel remembered her best friend telling her that Liriel had to sleep. She trusted her friend, so she hadn't resisted. She had gone to sleep. Every so often, she would wake and others would talk to her, but she wanted Ariana, not anyone else. She missed Ariana dreadfully, but everyone had been upset with Ariana. She didn't understand why and truth be told, she didn't care. Ariana was her friend, her best friend. All the talk about law and order or truth and consequences had flown past Liriel's head. She didn't care about such things. Her friend had been sad, and she had tried to help. She slept a lot and-
Her memory blanked after that.
She was trying to figure out why her memory had gaps in it when a very familiar sound came to her ears. Someone was crying.
Liriel raised her head and looked about. No one paid her any mid. Everyone attention was on the white garbed woman who lay suspended in mid-air, held in in what was obviously gentle energy in front of a huge green form. The woman was crying. Liriel's heart went out to her. This wasn't Ariana, but Liriel was a kind soul for the most part. She didn't like hurting people. Until or unless they harmed her friends or looked like they were going to. At which point, the claws came out.
"Oracle, it is not your fault." A sort of familiar voice spoke up from nearby. Liriel turned her head to see a blue form hovering in mid-air. A Sentient. But that didn't frighten Liriel either. Why not? Sentients were monsters. Um, wait. All of the others in the area besides the white garbed woman were Sentients. What the hell was going on? Liriel did not move as the blue one spoke again. "You have repeatedly stated that you are not a goddess, Janet. Whatever has gone wrong, we can fix."
"But… You were leaving." Janet said weakly, tears streaming down her face. Liriel burned to go to her, to comfort her. She couldn't move and even that didn't frighten her! "You got out of it. Stay away! Go… Go home. Leave us!"
"Janet." The huge green Sentient chided her gently. "You know better. None of us are heartless. Hell, even Hunhow isn't heartless. Just vengeance crazed. Superintelligence, my ass." She muttered sourly.
"Could have fooled me." A smaller green Sentient said with an audible shudder. More than one of the others moved close to her. Comforting her?
"Janet." The much larger green one spoke again. "We are coming. We will help. This is partly our responsibility. I didn't even think about Tanah and Falcon. I was a bit distracted."
"I didn't mean to, Mother." A small orange form spoke up from right beside Liriel and she looked up to see a small Sentient hovering right beside her. "Tanah certainly didn't mean this to happen."
"Falcon, hush." The one called 'Mother' said firmly. "You are not a goddess any more than Janet is. Even Sentients make mistakes."
"I tried!" Janet begged as the other held her. "They won't hear me now. Nikis is asleep and none of them will listen to me now!"
Liriel fought whatever was holding her and it cracked for a moment. She was no Tenno, but she knew a few tricks. With the crack in place, she dug mental claws into the binding and unraveled it like a kitten with a ball of yarn. She gave a soft cry and everyone turned to look at her. Even Janet looked shocked as the Kavat slowly rose and stepped to the crying woman. Somehow, she as stepping up to the woman so that she could nuzzle the woman's hand. She looked down and she was standing on orange energy. She looked back at the small orange form and it seemed to blink. Or wink? Hard to say. She nuzzled the woman's limp hand and then put her head underneath it.
The woman named Janet stared at the Kavat and then her hand moved almost as if it had a will of its own. She rubbed Liriel's head and the Kavat started to purr. This wasn't Ariana, but she was in distress just as Ariana had been so many times. Liriel missed Ariana terribly, but in the end, she was a Kavat. A fairly simple creature all things considered. Smart and well trained but true to her basic nature. She really missed being petted. Being catered to. Being served.
Dogs had owners.
Cats had staff!
"Where did you come from?" Janet asked as her fingers slowly moved. She wasn't the expert petter that Ariana had been, but she was gentle when she needed to be and firm when Liriel moved her head to get the fingers in the right places. Liriel's purr sounded loud in the room. Janet stared at her as Liriel moved closer and closer. Then she stepped up onto the crying woman.
Ordinarily, the Kavat would have kneaded the surface underneath her to ensure it was soft enough, but Ariana' s skin had been so hard that it had been impossible to knead. So, Liriel had stopped doing that for the most part unless she wanted to make a point. Or several of them. She simply curled up and lay down on the white garbed woman's stomach. The woman stopped petting her for a moment, and Liriel pushed against her hand.
"You are Liriel. Ariana's Kavat." Janet said weakly. Liriel nodded, still pushing the woman's hand. Janet sighed and started petting her again. "How did you get here?"
Liriel didn't answer. She only talked to her friends and she didn't know this woman. She didn't know the bio-mechanical forms around her. She knew what they were, but not why she was here or how she had gotten here. Right now though? Her neck itched, so she moved her head so that Janet's hand petted there. It wasn't hard enough so Liriel pushed into the pets, trying to get Janet to rub harder or even better, scratch.
"Pushy much?" Janet asked with a soft laugh, her tears slowly and stopping as the Kavat's purrs worked their magic.
"She is a Kavat, Oracle." The small orange form said with a matching laugh. "Are they ever anything else?" Liriel gave a derisive sniff at that, even though it was true. She had her pride, Liriel did.
"Thank you." Janet said weakly as she finally started to scratch and Liriel's purrs became thunderous. "I… Oh..." She gave a deep sigh and fell asleep.
Liriel jerked as the white form beneath her vanished. She mrrowled in fear and shock as she fell, but something caught her and set her on all four feet on the metal deck.
"Well done." The huge green form was looking at Liriel and she shrank back. Not that she could go anywhere. "I do not know how you got here, but that was well done, calming her. Now, where did you come from, you pretty thing?" Liriel ignored the compliment, looked at the huge Sentient, looked around once and then curled up on the floor. She pointedly ignored them all as she started to clean her fur. A laugh came from the big one as stunned noises came from the others. "Well, I have been told, it seems."
She wasn't angry. Indeed, she seemed amused. Liriel was still not afraid. She should have been. But she wasn't.
"We will not harm you." The big one promised. Liriel looked at the green Sentient. That had sounded speculative. "Marlena, you dealt with Maroo's Kavats, do you remember what they ate?" At that, Liriel's ears perked up. She wasn't hungry. Not really. But she wasn't going to turn down food either. Then again, could she trust these beings?
"All I know were the treats and we don't have any of the materials to make any of those here." A silver green Sentient moved into Liriel's view. It shimmered in her sight and suddenly something looked almost human except for the helmet that covered her head and face all the way down to her mouth stood to the floor in front of the reclining Kavat. She stepped forward, hand coming down. "May I pet you?" She asked politely. More than one of the others made inquiring sounded and the silver woman snickered. "Hey, I like to keep my fingers unclawed and unbitten."
Liriel had to smile at that. She pushed her head up to the woman's fingers and… Oh my god! This Marlena woman or whatever she was knew how to do it right! Liriel was turning into putty. This wasn't good. Here she was, surrounded by Sentients and she was going gooey. She didn't care. The wonderful feelings from the pets and gentle scratches became almost her entire world. She could and did listen, but no more as she arched and stretched, trying to get the feelings to go everywhere. More than one being made noises of amusement as Marlena catered to Liriel's every whim.
"She calmed Oracle Janet." The blue one said quietly as Liriel purred. "That is good. Mother, what can we do? If the Corpus do find Tanah's lab, that will lead them to the facility on Mars. They will find out everything. Brianna, the Empress, Avalon, everything. They will try to take it all and fail. Avalon in particular will not fall. They will self destruct first. Whatever the Corpus cannot take, they will destroy."
"The Tenno will not interfere." The small orange form floated close. "The revelations of what Ballas did rocked their society to its core. Most of them have withdrawn to contemplate this. The First will do what they can to stem outbreaks and some Tenno will assist them, but the Grineer will take advantage. This is not good. Could Tanah do something?"
"Tanah is out of our reach. He is out of Hunhow's. Best of all, he is occupied." The one called Mother said heavily. "That is good. He is too powerful to have running around loose."
"I am sorry, Mother." The orange one said weakly.
"Falcon, hush." The big green one, the small green one and the blue one all chorused that. The big one continued. "The past is past and it will remain as it is! You are going nowhere and no-when, bud! You still have much to learn."
"Yes, Mother." The orange one said so quickly that Liriel had to bite back a laugh. This situation was odd, but Liriel didn't seem to be in danger and she adored this Marlena woman's pets. Now, if only Ariana were here, Liriel's world would be complete.
"The Corpus teams will find the remnants of Tanah's lab. They will determine what it is and they will figure out how to activate some of it." The big green form said sadly. "Maybe we should turn around."
Mother. A scathing voice from nowhere had Liriel jumping. Marlena petted her again and the Kavat relaxed slowly. You know as well as I do that you cannot pass by buds in danger.
"True, Adiinah, but I don't know what we can do." Mother admitted. "If we show ourselves, the Tenno, Grineer and Corpus will fight. None of us want to fight. Hunhow's people… We cannot fight them." She sounded so sad that Liriel raised her head despite the pets. Whatever was wrong was bad. This had never been covered in Liriel's training, so she fell back to instinct. Whoever these odd Sentients were, if they were evil, she was doomed. She didn't think she was doomed. These beings had a hierarchy and they had been kind to that human. Utterly atypical for Sentients, so...
What is wrong? The Kavat asked in her non-verbal way and everyone stared at her. I shouldn't talk to strangers, but you seem kind. Kind, sad and worried about something. My partner is gone and I don't know if I will ever see her again. I am Liriel.
"Hello Liriel. I am called 'Mother' by these." The huge Sentient said formally. "This is Natah,..." The blue one flashed. "Falcon,..." The orange one flashed. "...and the one catering to your whims is Marlena." That was in a joking tone. Liriel smiled wide at the one petting her.
A little to the left? Liriel begged and the hand moved. She sighed in relief as an itch faded.
"Well, we see how to bribe you." The one called Falcon said with a laugh. Liriel gave another derisive sniff even if it too was true.
"I don't see what we can do." Natah said slowly. "The Clergy have done everything they can to stymie the research into the oddity that was discovered in the depths of Jupiter. They can slow it, but not stop it. The researchers are reasonably sure it is Sentient tech, so they will be careful in recovering it, but they will recover it. When they do, they will find it deactivated. Dormant. Easy to reverse engineer."
"And then they will use the enthrallment center tech to perfect their brainwashing." Mother said heavily. "Even human in the system will fall to them. First the other Corpus, then the rest. The Tenno might be able to stop them, but they are fragmented. They would listen to Nikis but he is asleep."
"He needs it." Natah said heavily. "He needs it so badly. The rest of the Tenno are busy squabbling about me."
"Karl's Shadow and the First are not." Falcon offered. "They are trying to keep a lid on things. They cannot much longer."
"And when the Grineer discover that humanity is uniting again, they will ignite a system wide pogrom. Another war and Hunhow will take advantage." Mother heaved an all too human sigh. "I don't see what we can do."
Stop them from recovering the tech. Liriel offered and everyone looked at her. How hard would that be?
"Uh… very." Mother said weakly. "It is buried deep in a gas giant. Jupiter is not the most heavily defended Corpus holding, but it is very well defended. Tenno can get in and out fairly easily. Anyone else? No."
Can such tech be destroyed? Liriel asked.
"Yes, but not easily." Marlena slumped bit and her pets faltered. Liriel pushed against her and Marlena sighed. "Pushy."
I am what I am. Liriel replied. You have said the Tenno are busy. I have heard of other groups who operate in the system. None of the Syndicates can assist in such?
"They would likely try, but not against a Corpus held gas giant, no." Mother mused. "We can get to the facility fairly easily using Adiinah's transporter system if we get close enough. Then we could destroy it, but Adiinah is not a warship. She would have to get very close and she will not survive a close engagement with a heavily defended planetary system. And no, Adiinah, you will not sacrifice yourself. We need you to get home." That was firm.
Yes, Mother. This time, the disembodied voice was subdued. I could make some dumb drones and arm them with just about anything. We can fire them from well outside any conceivable Corpus weapon range and some would get through. She offered.
"We may have to resort to that, but if we use weapons of mass destruction inside a gad giant..." The massive green being broke off and Liriel shuddered. "No, I don't want to make a new star in the Origin system. There are innocents in those Corpus facilities. That is an absolute last resort and not to be even mentioned again unless we have no other choices. We must still have choices." That was firm.
You do. Liriel said quietly. Suddenly, everyone was staring at her and she curled up tighter. Marlena scratched her chin and she relaxed a little. I don't know how I got here or why. But there are other alternatives. I sleep a lot since Ariana left. I miss her. Sadness tightened her voice and suddenly, she was picked up. She didn't struggle as Marlena held her close, petting her, soothing her.
"Ariana broke a lot of rules, Liriel." Natah said sadly. "I am hardly one to judge another on such things, but she is also out of reach and she will remain that way."
She is my friend! The Kavat tried to snarl that, but Marlena was petting her again and her anger faded. I… I love her.
"Your friend made a hell of a mess." Natah wasn't angry. She was sad. "That said, she also did marvelous things. What was done to her was a kind and just punishment. We have to go on, Liriel. She wouldn't want you to pine away. You know this."
I do. The Kavat admitted. But it is hard.
"Yes. Losing ones we love is the single hardest thing about love." Mother swept close and something touched Liriel. It wasn't physical, but it smoothed her fur as it it had been. "Be at peace, fierce hunter. You are not alone." She was so gentle, so kind. The Kavat's heart went out to the huge green form.
I shouldn't trust you, but I do. Liriel said softly. I know of a group who can help you. Beings who, while aligned with the Tenno, are not Tenno.
"The Orokin marines don't have the manpower to assault Jupiter and-" Natah started, but broke off as Liriel hissed. "What?"
Why does everyone always default to open violence? Liriel asked, her tone both sour and sad. There are other ways to be violent. I don't always agree with them, but they do exist. You don't need an assault force. You need a specialized team who can get in, blow the place and get out.
"The Tenno won't help. They are busy." Falcon said weakly, but Natah sudden made a soft noise of incredulity. "Natah?"
"I forgot all about them." Natah said weakly. "They could, couldn't they?"
They could, if they actually existed. Liriel smirked as only a Kavat could as Natah sputtered. All of the Sentients were staring from Natah to the Kavat and back.
"Is now a good time for jokes?" Marlena asked after a moment.
"Actually, yes." Natah was softly laughing. "Most will take it as a joke. It isn't. They are good, but very few know that they exist. I forgot all about them." She repeated.
And that is just the way the Feline Corps likes it.