Baby, You're Rich
Two Legionnaires, plus a deepening mystery involving old foes and old friends alike. Cham/Vi. Begun for Green Earth's Crack Pairings Contest/Challenge. Begins between S1 & S2, ends several years after the end of S2. Cautiously rated 'T' for violence, language, implied m/f, m/m, f/f eventually. If that bothers you, please don't read. Comments and/or constructive criticism welcome. I don't own any DC characters and situations and blah blah blah. )
3007
Grystaad - Capital is Aalt City in the Seire Province. Populace has been suppressed and isolated by the ruling military Junta for over a century. Unaffiliated with the United Planets. Rarely accepts visitors or foreign aid. Reliable contemporary information regarding its inhabitants is scarce. - Galaxy-Planet dot com, 2999 amended posting.
My ears were probably still ringing, but with the air rushing by so fast, I couldn't hear much of anything. Lucky me. Saturn Girl was team leader, but she'd been knocked out in the explosion and couldn't thought-cast. Star Boy had taken her back to the main transport, so the two of us would have to complete this errand ourselves.
At this speed, there was nothing on either side of us but streaks of blue and green. I was trying to concentrate on the ground that was coming closer with each passing minute and the grip of the teammate behind me. Shrinking Violet was cursing in her native tongue at her ruined flight ring. It was spewing out almost as much smoke as the shuttle getting smaller and smaller below us. About one-and-a-half-minutes ago, somebody planetside had shot its back end off.
I morphed my head briefly back to its customary form and glanced over my shoulder. "You'd be in big trouble right now if I understood Imskian!"
"Yeah, yeah. You prep school kids are such fragile flowers. Just keep your eyes where -and how- they belong," she snapped.
Yes, Ma'am. What with you being a whole year older than me, or whatever. I returned completely to the form I was using. A local insect sort of like an Earth dragonfly. I had a ridge just behind my no-neck. It was cartilage, maybe three or four centimeters long, running perpendicular to my carcass. All of the native "buzzers" had it, but this was the largest species at about fifteen centimeters. Violet -–at about the same size- had her hands clamped to the ridge so tightly that if I'd closed my three red eyes, I probably would have seen flashing pain stars straight out of old cartoons. But we were still fifty meters above the ground, at least, and there was nothing else connecting us. So I didn't close them. My eyes in this form had thick, transparent secondary lids as proof against anything that the pollen-rich air could have flung at me, even at such a rapid clip. The lids were coated with a clear, oily substance to repel anything that could have hindered sight. Unfortunately, almost all of the rest of me had the same protection. The collar was the only portion that wasn't too slippery for her to keep contact with.
Finally, I slowed and touched down on top of a small building. A hollowed-out slope, really, made of the same earth and grass that we'd flown over. Something that would have been easy to overlook without the co-ordinates we had. At the slope's base was a road with beat-up dark gray paving. It wandered off in two different directions. The surrounding kilometers of grassland were dotted all over with purple and red flowers. The only real giveaway of its purpose from up top were black-coated energy panels; they were straight, rather than curved like the roof. The green grass surrounding them was only slightly less vivid than either of our uniforms.
Violet let go of my collar and vaulted over my head, even before my wings could even come to a full stop. She landed next to the largest of the panels. I was back to my regular form by then, but I stayed at reduced size. She put a finger to her lips and motioned me to wait. I just nodded, breathing deeply while I waited for my heart to slow down again. She ducked into the gap between the panel's connector cable and the hole that let it travel through the roof. Using the cable to guide her, she disappeared.
She had to do the last part on her own. The objective of our trip was down inside the sod structure, and I only would have gotten in her way. So I waited for ten minutes that felt like infinity. At least the grass kept me hidden and the humming of the panels as they drew on the sun above us drowned out any sounds from my pacing.
Through the grass blades, slivers of orange sun with shots of pink rested against a clear blue sky. The breeze was refreshing after the frantic speed of our escape. Under different circumstances, this would have been a pleasant visit. Well, apart from the areas that showed tripped mines, complete with torn-up prairie and the remains of unlucky travelers. Also the cityscapes in the distance, devastated in the aftermath of a year-long revolution; those didn't exactly cry out, "Welcome, Tourists!"
At last she came back, looking the same apart from some dirt on her gloves and shoes. That was a relief. I would have hated having a teammate die on my first day. She had rooted through the little power station and come back with a scratched, dirty black metal box; now held awkwardly over her head. A box maybe the size of a child's data pad, but with a round plex-window and a thin coil of black metal soldiered to its upper corners, forming a loop. You could see some kind of parchment through the window, pale gray with age. She lowered the box down into the grass.
"Your ring still works," she whispered, before I could say anything. "Get back to your normal state and take hold of the coil. Don't worry. It's strong, but we can't just toss it on the ground from this height and risk losing it again."
"But you-"
"- will be holding the other side of the loop. Fly us down to the ground."
Once we were down, it took her only seconds to resume full size. She carefully looped the coil through her belt, since our carrying case had gone down kilometers away with the shuttle. "We walk in the direction of the sun, right?"
I used my ring to bring up our map. The grass was shin-deep. It rustled in the breeze. "Yup. They said it would be safe, so I guess-"
She looked startled all of a sudden, pointing down the road as a dozen or so figures in a cluster of blue and gray moved towards us. "Or else we..." She trailed off. The marchers were armed, but not wearing any one uniform.
"What should we- ?" I began, but Violet motioned me to be silent.
The local in front had pale blue skin, which meant that we were looking at a female. There was a mass of feelers on her head, where a lot of humanoids would have had hair. She glided along on a half-dozen tentacles, so she wasn't much older than Violet. The dominant species on Grystaad began life with multiple tentacles, which increased in size but decreased in number as they matured. By the time our new friends reached adulthood, the tentacles would be completely replaced by more humanoid-looking arms and legs. It had been in the briefing.
Just as I was going to try and bring up somebody on my ring, a familiar voice popped into my head.
Calm down, Chameleon Boy. There won't be any trouble. Violet and I broke into the same grin.
Saturn Girl! You're all right!
Is everyone safe? Violet wanted to know.
We're fine. Those soldiers are part of the forces that overthrew the Junta. They're friendly. They'll bring you back into Aalt City. We'll meet you there.
The squad had stopped five meters in front of us, and the leader crossed one arm-tentacle over her high forehead down and diagonally, in a local variation of a salute. Her three brown eyes, so dark that they were almost black, looked us over.
"Legionnaires?" A low voice with a growl, kind of like Timber Wolf, but a little halting, as if she were uneasy with Interlac. The now-deposed rulers of the planet had cultivated isolationism to the point of declaring a single planet-wide language of their own making; severely punishing anyone they caught communicating in other tongues. That had been in the briefing, too.
"Yes." Violet nodded, reached carefully for the box at her waist and held it out to the squad leader. "We've recovered what your leaders requested, despite some interference upon arrival."
The girl's face took on a broad grin, showing small white teeth. The soldiers around her began talking excitedly to one another in their own language, until she let out a sharp whistle. "Calm yourselves! And speak so that our Legion friends can understand you!" The voices immediately resumed, in whispers this time. I couldn't help smiling. The mass of feelers all waving back and forth was like a louder echo of the surrounding land. "Delse!" She motioned to the gray-skinned male next to her. He took the box from Violet and tucked it carefully into a bag he had strapped to his waist. The other soldiers immediately surrounded him, looking both protective and awed.
"Legionnaires," the girl was motioning down the road. "I am Zir Derbai. Please walk with me and stay close. We were blessed to find no landmines on our approach, so we will retrace our steps back for safety. Exactly." The last bit was directed to the other soldiers, all of whom nodded. "Not one motion off the paving, no matter how tired you grow. If you see your brother or sister about to stumble, you pull them back. Is that clear?" More nods. We fell in next to her, the rest of the group behind us.
"Can't Legionnaires fly?" It was another girl, calling from the back.
"Yes." Violet looked over her shoulder and smiled. "But today we're walking with you." This led to another excited volley of whispers. Derbai sighed and shook her head. "My apologies, Shrinking Violet. They agitate so easily and then become forgetful of the simplest but most important things. Most of them haven't been in the field very long."
"Oh, that's all right." Violet pointed at me. "Neither has he."
"I'll deal with you later," I mumbled, before turning to look at Delse. He was staring like he wanted to say something. For a few minutes there was no sound but our shoes as we walked, the locals as they glided, and the low speaking of Violet and Derbai in front of us.
Another male behind us nudged the small of Delse's back with his half-dozen narrow arm-tentacles. "Delse, you lost the draw! You have to do it! Ask him!"
Another round of whispers. I looked at my new traveling companion, who seemed to be about the same age as Derbai. His blue eyes flickered back and forth for a few beats, as if he were considering making a dash into the booby-trapped grasslands instead of talking to me.
"What draw?" I tried to look encouraging. Were we going to be talking astrological signs? Or maybe somebody was going to try and sell me holiday cards to raise credits for their roto-sled trip into the mountains next year.
"You're Durlan," another girl remarked. This one looked really young, her "arms" clocking in at maybe a dozen tentacles each. "So you can be anything you want, can't you?"
Oh, here we go. This has only happened 20,000 times since I first left the home world nine years ago. Let's get it over with.
"Can you turn into Delse here?" Another male. This one had light brown eyes and silvery feelers. Delse gave me an apologetic look. The two centermost feelers over his forehead made a hissing noise that I pegged as embarrassment rather than anger.
"Sure." I smiled, feeling bad for him. I had some familiarity with letting my mouth post payments that my credits couldn't actually back up. "If he doesn't mind my touching his forehead." Actually, that wasn't strictly necessary, but I'd get a better image. I'd pick up interior, not just surface.
"No. I mean- Yeah. It's okay." He leaned his head closer as we continued along the road.
I stretched my antennae out an extra few centimeters while I looked at him, letting them lightly tap his skin just once. Then I retracted them back to their normal length. There was the familiar sense of reading something new in its entirety, of storing it away, dissolution, then solidity. I could look into Delse's eyes and see his/my own transformed face in them.
There was a flurry of exclamations and amazed looks, before Derbai turned around and silenced her squad with one glare. I resumed my regular appearance as Violet backed up in the group long enough to give me an exasperated look.
"Violet, it's okay. He was just curious. I don't think it means my Dad has to put him through college or anything."
She sighed. "Just try and stay focused, Chameleon. Don't make me sorry that I voted you in."
.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.
"Soooo..." It was a couple of hours later. We had long since collected the remains of the damaged shuttle and loaded them back onto the main ship. "Are all missions going to be that entertaining, or just the ones I go on with you? Those people all treated us like we were holo stars or something."
White Trip and Saturn Girl were piloting us back home while we talked with Star Boy. He was forwarding information to H.Q. for some kind of follow-up.
"Just remember, Chameleon," Violet said, "The mission's not over until your report is filed."
"Totally looking forward to it." Dear SciPol, it all began when I turned into a giant dragonfly because my mission partner thought it would make me hard to shoot at. Or maybe she just always wanted costume jewelery that talks...
"Hey, nobody likes filling out reports," Star Boy was smiling. "Except for maybe Cosmic Boy. Anyway, look at it this way: You two did an amazing thing today."
"We all did," Violet said.
"Okay. We all did. That was Grystaad's original Charter and Constitution that you two retrieved. The new government wanted it back before they'd vote to join the U.P., and why shouldn't they have it? The Junta looted pretty much everything else of value before they fled the planet. It'll be years, maybe decades, before anyone can find what they hid; much less return it."
"It didn't look like much," I said.
"Don't underestimate the value of symbols." Star Boy looked thoughtful. "Sometimes they hold a lot more than you think they do."
"Maybe it just seems like one goodwill gesture" added Violet. "But now we've got something to build real relations on."
"Sooo... it's kind of like seed money, huh?"
"Pretty much, yeah." She grinned.
"Okay then." I sighed and rubbed at the back of my neck. I could have sworn that I still felt the pressure from her fingers there. "Any sign of whoever greeted us with the laser bouquet when we entered Grystaad space in the first place?"
"Working on it." Star Boy had a field unit perched on one knee and was reading some kind of police feed. "There's a handful of loyalists to the old order still there. It might be a while before they're all found. But that isn't the worst thing left over from Grystaad's former rulers at this point. The worst would be all those damn landmines they left everywhere."
"That'll be a fun project for the new government." Violet sighed and shook her head.
I remembered how protective Derbai had been of her squad on the road. "Just how many of those things are there?"
"No one knows." Orange was nearby at the diagnostic unit, looking over a few chunks of the ruined shuttle.
"At least not yet." Purple added, reading from the opposite side and writing something down. "Star Boy, come and look at this." He put the pad down and went to join her.
Violet looked at me. "Sorry about your neck, by the way."
"Don't worry about it. The ache in my feet is distracting me."
She smirked. "You did pretty good for a first mission, Kid."
"Thanks, Commander."
She sighed. "I think I liked you better as a bug."
End Ch. 1
("Baby, You're Rich," is a song by American treasure Percy Mayfield (1920-1984). Find it on the cd Poet of the Blues. Lyrics posted to my LJ. Grystaad and its people are just something I made up. Say it "grist-odd." Derbai is "dur-bye" and "Delse" rhymes with "else," just in case you wanted to know. Thanks for reading.)