SITN5

Disclaimer: still not mine, but at least he lusts after redheads. Nice to know I got that part right!

Author's notes: I am using a lot of Ancestor's Breath, which Keith wrote himself, for my interpretation of Tyr. As soon as they release the first season on DVD I will be able to catch up. Oh glorious day!

The door to sickbay opened, and another blonde Nietzchean woman stood waiting. She had the same pale blue eyes as Callisto, and similar bone structure. "So Regina, I hear you blocked a bottle with your head. I want you to sit here and let me examine you. Do not bother to tell me you are fine. I will determine your status myself."

"Yes Diane." Regina sat where she was bid. She knew better than to argue with the ship's physician when she had that look. Diane had a lousy bedside manner, but she was hell on wheels when it came to healing.

"What is your name?" Diane said while checking Regina's pupils.

"Regina Puccavi." She said, rolling her eyes.

"I suggest you take this seriously, young lady. Where were you born?" Diane asked after she chided her.

"Seward Colony, on Undine," Regina answered, this time without any emotion.

Tyr narrowed his eyes slightly, but made no other outward reaction. Undine had fallen to the Magog over ten years ago. It was one of the heaviest gravity planets settled by humans, five times Earth gravity. That would explain why she was much heavier than she had looked. Humans engineered to survive in those conditions were much denser. No wonder Callisto had not been as concerned about the head trauma. She really did have a thick skull. Now how did she get from Undine to Boadicca?

"Where are you?" Diane moved the medical scanner over Regina.

"In sickbay, on the free trader Boadicca," Regina said, straining her eyes to see the sensor readings without moving her head.

"Are you experiencing any nausea, blurred vision, or memory loss?" Diane asked as she deliberately moved the scanner further out of Regina's peripheral vision.

"I was nauseated, but that has passed for the most part. My vision seems fine, but I have some memory loss. That too is improving. I can remember leaving the dance floor and going to the secondary bar in the back of the club. I was with someone…" Regina's brow wrinkled in thought.

"Hmph, I can guess why." Diane was hard line Nietzchean about some things.

The ship's physician did not approve of the contraceptive implant Regina had installed on her majority. Sex was for procreation, not recreation. She had gone so far as to log a formal objection with Callisto over the procedure, and refuse to have it done in her sickbay. Regina never knew what Caal had said to the doctor, but she performed the implant after all. Aside from the occasional comment about wasting her breeding years during her checkups, Diane had said nothing about it again.

"I saw that. Did the male begin the fight?" Tyr asked softly.

All three women turned to him in surprise. For a large male he could be very unobtrusive when he chose. They had been so caught up in the familiar dynamics of their relationships; they had largely forgotten he was there.

"No, it was another male." Regina put a hand to her forehead. It was all starting to come back to her, exactly like the morning after the first time she had been old enough to go drinking with the crew. It was somewhat hazy and blurred, and then it began to swim back into focus. "We had gotten drinks and turned to find a table. There was a big Nietzchean male in our path. Not you." Regina pointed to Tyr, and then went back to rubbing her temples. In an odd way it seemed to help.

"I saw no other Nietzchean males in the bar. He had to have been in the back before I arrived, or he came in through the door we exited. It was the only door I could not see from where I sat." Tyr watched Regina closely. She seemed discomfited by something.

Regina looked at Callisto with a mixture of defiance and guilt. "He was Sabran, I think, yeah Sabra… no mistaking those features, or the attitude, come to think of it. He was an ass. More insulting than the Hus, I mean Elsbett ever was. He thought I should just go with him and be thankful that a Nietzchean desired a mere kludge. He wasn't taking no for an answer, and his suggestions were getting cruder by the second. As soon as he started pulling me toward the exit, I kicked him in the groin and punched him in the face. I felt his nose go. If he doesn't have it set quickly, the nanobots will heal it crooked. Maybe it will improve his looks." She smiled at that thought, pleased with her self.

Tyr found himself smiling in response to that wicked little grin. He could tell she was thinking about her enemy suffering permanent disfigurement.

"So, what happened next?" Callisto said grimly.

"He had friends." Regina shrugged eloquently, as if it summed up the rest. "It was just starting to get interesting when I got hit by the bottle."

"There were two men moving in on your position when I intervened. I propose they were going to carry you off. I doubt you would have found that fun." Tyr pointed out, although he was secretly amused by her narrative. He suspected Regina felt the same exhilaration he did while in battle.

"True enough. Thank you again for your assistance." Regina replied.

"So what's the verdict Diane?" Callisto leaned over Diane's shoulder to read the scanner.

"Well, she passed the old A and O test, but there is still some damage. Even bots need time to effect repairs. Between the head and that stab wound to her inner thigh it looks like someone was trying to kill our little chimera." Diane huffed and glared at Callisto. She hated to have someone leaning over her while she worked.

"What stab wound?" Callisto asked as she looked Regina over more closely. The dark blue of her jumpsuit, coupled with the way Tyr had carried her, had totally hidden the injury.

"The one that's two centimeters from her femoral artery," Diane replied calmly.

"Why didn't you tell me you had been stabbed?" Callisto growled, this was starting to sound like a personal attack instead of a barroom brawl.

"It must have been a boot blade. I remember the Sabran's friend kicking me. I felt the impact, but I was so pissed off that I did not really notice. There were three of them, and one of me. I was really too busy to care beyond thinking 'Hey, that bastard just kicked me! Well, that left him open.' I hit him, and kept on fighting. When I woke up, I knew it was throbbing, but I really thought it was a deep bruise. To be honest, I was more worried about the head." Regina shrugged.

"There was only one of you? What happened to the male you were drinking with?" Tyr asked pointedly. He understood how injuries could be missed in the heat of battle. If it wasn't something that hindered his fighting ability, he tended not to notice it until afterwards either.

"The wimp bailed on me as soon as the Sabran showed. That's funny, I didn't remember it until now, but he just faded away. Hmph, he's not getting a second chance." Regina glowered.

"You would have preferred it had he stayed and fought?" Tyr probed, trying to get a better idea of Regina's thoughts. Beka would not have expected anything from a male she picked up.

"If he wanted to get laid, he damn well should have stayed and fought." Regina said firmly. "I expressed my interest, but he had yet to prove himself. I think we can safely say he was unworthy of me, even for a night, after that little non-display."

Tyr arched his brow. That had to be the most interesting mix of human and Nietzchean attitudes he had ever heard. Except for the part about getting laid, Regina had sounded very like an unattached Nietzchean female evaluating a male who had not measured up upon closer examination. He glanced over at Callisto and Diane to see what they thought of it. They both looked pleased, leading Tyr to believe they had been indoctrinating her to their way of thinking. He had noted the doctor's disapproval of Regina's sexual proclivities and thought it a bit odd. Casual sex was de rigueur for humans, in his experience. Why would Diane expect Regina to be any different? Unless…To test his theory Tyr asked, "Were you considering him as a prospective mate?"

"Hell no, I don't know anything about him. He could have very undesirable DNA or a lousy personality. I was just looking to let off a little steam." Regina grinned, thinking about the pressure valve analogy she had used in the bar. "I have a little dilemma. You see, my body has needs, and it pushes me to mate. I wish to mate eventually, but I am very picky. So I appease my body while looking for a male who displays well enough to convince me to keep him. I have been raised to have very high standards."

"Yes, however often you may have lowered them for sex, at least you've never mated any of them." Diane glowered.

"Must we have that argument again? I like sex for sex's sake. There's no need to have children until I find a male whose DNA and personality are worth propagating. If ever I find him, which is beginning to seem unlikely." Regina made a rude noise.

"I think we have spoiled you, raising you among us. Human males come in a very poor second, they can't help it. Their DNA is largely inferior; you would be breeding beneath yourself. Maybe we could set up a portable DNA scanner for you to take around. You could test them in the field, and save time." Diane suggested helpfully.

Callisto bit back a laugh, not certain if her old friend was kidding or not. It would be a novel approach to the problem. Unlike her, Regina could give birth, passing on her genes. However, she had shown no interest in doing so. Every male that she became involved with didn't last. There was always something wrong with them. Granted, they had been human, so there always was. Too bad she wasn't truly the daughter she had raised her as, there were several Jaguar men with good DNA that she knew Regina found attractive. One of them would have surely won her favor by now, probably Machi.

Regina looked at Diane with her head cocked, as if she were truly considering it. "Do you think you could make it small enough to carry around conveniently? I am not hauling around an entire med bay just so you can have acceptable grandchildren posthaste. Besides, you'll just spoil them and give them back to me. I am in no rush to give you the opportunity to get even with me for all the things I did to you as a small child."

"It's not your childhood you owe me for, it's your adolescence. How many times did I patch you up after some stunt or fight?" Diane retaliated.

"Since I don't know, let's just say lots. I know I got into fights every time the ship docked in Nietzchean space." Regina said with a wince.

"Yes you were. I think you gave as well as you got, if not better." The pride was clear in Diane's voice.

"It's good to be from a high grav planet. Those bastards never knew a girl could hit so hard. It didn't hurt that Ice started teaching me how to fight as soon as I was well enough to pester her for lessons. The Magog were not getting a second chance to eat me, or a first one at my new family. Luckily, the basic attacks work the same, without regard for species." Regina looked grim for a moment, obviously reliving the past.

Tyr saw that look and knew she also had been helpless in the hands of the Magog. He wondered if she still had nightmares. He had them sometimes. In the beginning they had been about going down with Harper in the Magog Worldship. Lately they were of him fulfilling the promise he had made to Harper, and killing him before the larva still inside him could hatch.