~*~*~
Carl
Ever since I came out of my 'coma' I had been told that the Skinnie's had joined us but I hadn't met all that many of them, there was one on the transport to the Valley Forge but he hadn't been very talkative. I've never really understood what happened on the day that I had dropped into my mind mashing coma. I've had a lot of time to try and place, to try and sort everything out and in place but things evaded me still.
As far as I can place it I was trying to stun the bug when T'Phai entered, bent on destroying the crawler himself, which I think is fair enough, seeing as he was the one with the bug on his neck for the year or whatever it is. He distracted Rico and Dizzy and the bug got me in a situation there was no way out of. When I had blown the bug up my already exhausted mind was ready to faint and that's what happened.
"Can I speak to you?"
A voice grasped my attention from my own recess; I was seated in the corner of a canteen that was filled with many people. I looked up to the alien, who was already looking at me, with a flash his black eyes drew me back to the finding of the control bug on his neck.
"I realise that I am not a person you would want to speak with but I would like to apologise."
The voice was no longer altered by the talk box I had been used too, the talk box that had been our way of communicating previously, yet the Human words didn't entirely dull the alien effects to his voice. I motioned that he should sit opposite me and he did so, folding his hands into his lap. "What are you sorry for?" I queried rhetorically and I wasn't going to give him the time to answer. "I don't know what happened, no fault can be placed on my behalf, maybe when I learn what happened then I could."
He blinked in what was clearly a bemused way and he looked at me for a while, when we'd met before there was mutual loathing because of the bug but now we were very much the same. "I think we should be reintroduced, it's a Human way of restarting things, I'm Carl Jenkins, I guess you must have known that already because you came looking for me, Colonel."
A look glazed over his black eyes that I recognised as pain, "No, I am no longer a colonel; SICON decided that my race would have to earn the ranks we had already gained on Tophet." He told me, his voice was calm despite the levels of bitterness I was detecting from him; he was a credit to his kind with his great strength of character. "Private T'Phai."
"That's a very big demotion,"
His mouth twitched into his kind's version of a smile, he appreciated the observation. I suppose that was because he had never been accepted as demoted, merely as one of the aliens that most of the troopers initially still wanted to grease. "It was, I am almost glad; Humans do not allow Colonel's to fight."
There was no doubting his own abilities in the field; I had been filled in on his helping the Roughnecks to free the others of his kind and his shaky introduction to the others. I was touched by the fact that they were willing to be so cruel to him on my behalf in a funny way - it meant that they really did like me! Dizzy had told me what Brutto had said, 'nice of Ibanez to ask about Jenkins. Hey the kid was a freak but he was ours freak. At least he was Human.'
"Not very often no, you'd have asked to be demoted anyway?"
"I am unsure,"
"Yeah, I can tell,"
He looked at me, his head cocked to one side, he'd only ever met one other psychic and that was his new room mate who he'd only met for a few moments. "Rico is approaching, he's been looking for me all morning, or at least he says that he has."
"I meant to thank you, for saving Tophet; if you had not freed me then I would not have been able to help the Roughnecks to free the others." He thanked me in his soft tones, it was very easy to see him as commanding though; it was the quieter ones that are undoubtedly the best commanders, Razak was a quieter person off duty too. "You are a hero on Tophet."
He stood, bowing his upper half to me before leaving. I think I can see now why my mind had told me to read his mind that day, the reason I had ignored the fatigue to do so. A hero? I rather liked the sound of that.
~*~*~
Carl
Ever since I came out of my 'coma' I had been told that the Skinnie's had joined us but I hadn't met all that many of them, there was one on the transport to the Valley Forge but he hadn't been very talkative. I've never really understood what happened on the day that I had dropped into my mind mashing coma. I've had a lot of time to try and place, to try and sort everything out and in place but things evaded me still.
As far as I can place it I was trying to stun the bug when T'Phai entered, bent on destroying the crawler himself, which I think is fair enough, seeing as he was the one with the bug on his neck for the year or whatever it is. He distracted Rico and Dizzy and the bug got me in a situation there was no way out of. When I had blown the bug up my already exhausted mind was ready to faint and that's what happened.
"Can I speak to you?"
A voice grasped my attention from my own recess; I was seated in the corner of a canteen that was filled with many people. I looked up to the alien, who was already looking at me, with a flash his black eyes drew me back to the finding of the control bug on his neck.
"I realise that I am not a person you would want to speak with but I would like to apologise."
The voice was no longer altered by the talk box I had been used too, the talk box that had been our way of communicating previously, yet the Human words didn't entirely dull the alien effects to his voice. I motioned that he should sit opposite me and he did so, folding his hands into his lap. "What are you sorry for?" I queried rhetorically and I wasn't going to give him the time to answer. "I don't know what happened, no fault can be placed on my behalf, maybe when I learn what happened then I could."
He blinked in what was clearly a bemused way and he looked at me for a while, when we'd met before there was mutual loathing because of the bug but now we were very much the same. "I think we should be reintroduced, it's a Human way of restarting things, I'm Carl Jenkins, I guess you must have known that already because you came looking for me, Colonel."
A look glazed over his black eyes that I recognised as pain, "No, I am no longer a colonel; SICON decided that my race would have to earn the ranks we had already gained on Tophet." He told me, his voice was calm despite the levels of bitterness I was detecting from him; he was a credit to his kind with his great strength of character. "Private T'Phai."
"That's a very big demotion,"
His mouth twitched into his kind's version of a smile, he appreciated the observation. I suppose that was because he had never been accepted as demoted, merely as one of the aliens that most of the troopers initially still wanted to grease. "It was, I am almost glad; Humans do not allow Colonel's to fight."
There was no doubting his own abilities in the field; I had been filled in on his helping the Roughnecks to free the others of his kind and his shaky introduction to the others. I was touched by the fact that they were willing to be so cruel to him on my behalf in a funny way - it meant that they really did like me! Dizzy had told me what Brutto had said, 'nice of Ibanez to ask about Jenkins. Hey the kid was a freak but he was ours freak. At least he was Human.'
"Not very often no, you'd have asked to be demoted anyway?"
"I am unsure,"
"Yeah, I can tell,"
He looked at me, his head cocked to one side, he'd only ever met one other psychic and that was his new room mate who he'd only met for a few moments. "Rico is approaching, he's been looking for me all morning, or at least he says that he has."
"I meant to thank you, for saving Tophet; if you had not freed me then I would not have been able to help the Roughnecks to free the others." He thanked me in his soft tones, it was very easy to see him as commanding though; it was the quieter ones that are undoubtedly the best commanders, Razak was a quieter person off duty too. "You are a hero on Tophet."
He stood, bowing his upper half to me before leaving. I think I can see now why my mind had told me to read his mind that day, the reason I had ignored the fatigue to do so. A hero? I rather liked the sound of that.
~*~*~