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May 15, 2578
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Karga'te had a little used apartment in one of the pillars. Well, apartment ... technically it was the head quarters of the city guards, but few really cared to be official about it. With a telepathic supervisor, there was no need for a physical meeting place. So, these headquarters had degenerated into a hangout place for who ever needed to have some rest and even that purpose was being neglected a lot, for some reason. Ti'chai-di was its most frequent resident now, since it was one of the few places in the city where she could sleep peacefully or have wounds treated.
The hunter arrived long before the others, grabbed some food and withdraw. Sarah, unable to take a cue, repeatedly tried to contact him with her inexperienced telepathy, but he was not in the mood for her. Instead, he sought out the "throne room" of the chimera sisters.
By honored hunter standards, the place was an affront. Messy, slimy, disorganized and what few skulls present were used as tables. There were channels carved in the floor to deal with the excess slime and grooves in the wall for Ti'chai-di's imperfect wax. He'd taken a lot of effort arranging it for the sisters, then told himself it was just so he could put them somewhere if he didn't feel like having them around. That never had happened.
Grumbling, he went to the bed — as far as the sticky hides could be called that — and dropped down face first and stayed that way until his breath ran out. This lasted twenty times longer than it should. Twenty times during which he was forced to think.
He could have left any time. Eight years and he hadn't even thought of it. Eight years without any desire to rampage against anyone, Kirindi least of all. Eight years alive when he could have been dead, and life with Kirindi admittedly was better than anything he'd lived before. No humiliation, total control over everything he did and friendly company, even if friendliness wasn't always what he wanted.
"Fuck it, Meidache was right about me being born bad blood." Karga'te didn't like to be left alone with his thoughts.
"~ But bad blood means a different thing for you, ~" said Kirindi gently. He turned over, just in time to see her peek in the door. She slipped in, closed it and hopped onto the bed, sitting cross legged aside of him. Karga'te sat up as well. She was here to talk, not for herself and she was probably was right that he did need it. Dammit.
He breathed out and said it.
"Why are you loyal to me? I didn't choose to be your father."
"I chose you cause I knew you'd like me."
"Did you know I'd betray you, back when you chose to save me?"
"I don't foresee," she said and tilted her head. "Cannot feel the future. It's doesn't exist yet. Can only expect on what I know now."
"Right."
"I don't understand what you feel now. Why do you want me to be angry with you?" She looked genuinely surprised. "Makes no sense, why? I don't feel you wanting chaos between us."
"I've done something very much like today before. Well, not exactly like today. I got away without a scratch, that's why I stayed stupid enough to repeat it."
"So?"
Karga'te growled in frustration. "I betrayed you, I should have to earn your trust back. At the very least you could lash out against me and rub it into my face what exactly I did wrong."
"Alright."
She climbed on his shoulders and leaned forward, looking into his face upside down. Lightly, she flicked a claw against his upper mandibles.
"Now I did."
He sighed.
"What do you really want? Saying some crap about loyalty and staying with me doesn't count. That's just your instinct."
She opened her mouth, but closed it again.
"Dammit, I'm trying to make up for what I did. Work along."
"But instinct is part of me. I want the hive together and happy. All of us."
"What about those Enigma people, who harmed your sister?"
"I want them to stop."
"Do you want revenge?"
"No. Just stopping."
"I want revenge for a lot of things, can you feel it?"
"I can be angry and go after people, but once the anger is gone, I ... no."
"How about remorse? Regret?"
"I know you have them, but to me they don't mean anything," she said softly.
"Then I guess I am not enough hardmeat to be free of those things." Karga'te raised his arm and looked at the wound, which was already knitting back together. Kirindi looked along with him but far deeper, sending him an image of how his arm and then his whole body looked from the inside.
"But soon enough." She stepped off his shoulder and sat at his side. "What do I want ... no doubt. I don't like your doubt, it confuses. Is that like hate and regret, you can't stop doing it? I want that to be gone."
He shook his head and rattled thrice, but didn't give her a telepathic answer. "This is retarded. Can't even be simple about bloody emotional crap," he muttered.
"It's okay that you're bad at this," Kirindi said with a little laughter. "It's okay."
"It's not to me."
"If we ever meet your family again, they can join the new family and you'll use telepathy and you'll see everyone is bad at it."
"I suppose you're right. So now what?"
"Now I make new dolls," she said happily, "... and you could make new peace with Sarah."
Karga'te groaned. Luckily Kirindi didn't care to understand regret about having offered to do something for her.
· · · · · · ·
In the gloom of Enigma II she had never noticed. Her hair was still blond, but was no longer translucent. Instead the core was black with a layer of blond over it. Odygos looked along as she peered at a snapped strand. It became boring after a second, but Sarah kept lingering on it and playing with thoughts about something called transhumanism. Really, she already knew she was not human anymore. Why keep thinking about the same thing over and over?
How about exploring the city? She apologized, whatever that was supposed to mean, by letting him feel she was too tired. Ah, so she was thinking about it because it would be less boring than not thinking at all, when she could not move? How about a game then?
Sarah could not play the chaos games he sometimes entertained Ti'chai-di with. She didn't understand the rules and it made her head hurt. And there she apologized again.
Well, if improving Sarah's mental state was not optional, on to a secondary task : housekeeping. Sarah was lying down on this large leather thing called a bench, right under some trivial decoration, a tyrannosaur skull. How tacky. Other than that though, Odygos was content with the new location. The rough rock that made up the walls would be perfect for a nice, thick wax to keep up the humidity and warmth. There were windows that face the sun if it was low, which would help the warmth. He would begin building as soon as he had dealt with the smaller parts of housekeeping, namely the wardrobe. This room just happened to be where the yautja had dropped his armor.
Karga'te was part of the hive and should survive, so until Mother could complete his transformation and give him a true, thick hide he would need better protection than these pathetic metal sheet. It seemed silly to wear this type of armor, left his upper legs, upper arms and stomach exposed while covering his head where his echo location ought to be now.
He took off the soles of the boots, bled on some annoying parts that wouldn't part and weren't supposed to part until now. Then he carefully started secreting the special wax that would eventually harden to the resistance of metal, yet with a greater flexibility.
WHAM, Karga'te's awareness barged in and metaphorically hollered, Here I am, pay attention! His body followed a moment later when he kicked the door open.
"What is that thing doing with my armor?" he snarled.
"He is improving it for you," Sarah said a little sharper than necessary, pushing up from her bench. "It's not his fault he does not understand the concept of property."
"I did not ask for that! Raise it better."
"There is nothing to raise! He isn't my pet, he is a member of our hive!"
Odygos continued working undisturbed, it as apparent to him that Karga'te was fully aware of the purpose and use of the armor improvements, he just liked being nitpicky. A little like Eliath. Karga'te was was deliberately using the word 'thing' because he knew it would vex Sarah. That was not tactful. However, Sarah's unrestrained telepathic afterthrow was not tactful either, even if it was involuntary.
You are the one who should know your place, you idiot. I'm the messenger and you're the ward. How annoying it must be for the complex minds, to have so much opinions to accidentally leak.
"Today, I nearly killed Kirindi. This is the worst time you could be pissing me off."
Odygos made a mental note to discover what the best time was, then told Sarah Karga'te had realized her opinion. An Oh crap moment followed, but for some reason she did not think this was suitable for apologizing. Another mental note he made, find out this mysterious rhythm to apologizing.
"Oh, so you do feel bad about it? Well, you were merely subject to a variant of reaction formation and you've overcome it. You should be proud of that, at least, I know people who haven't been able to handle hive rejection properly."
"Reaction formation? Call it what you want. I have my reasons for mistrusting living weapons."
"You're one of those yourself now," Sarah said too monotonously. She crossed her arms and looked out of the window, uneasy with Karga'te's demanding telepathic attention.
Odygos was amused how quickly the theme had stopping being about what he was doing with Karga'te's armor. This was a good time to invent laughter. His throat didn't work for that, but he was certain he could simulate it.
"Oh, I get it. You're spiteful because your best friend Jonah didn't and that bastard alien did," Karga'te said with a cynical chuckle. "That's why you're so noxious. Is there a name fancy name for that too, I wonder?"
Sarah didn't erupt with rage, but she did sink into a particularly bitter state of mind and contemplated to on how to give him a good lecture about his own attitude. Odygos reminded her to be patient. For now, the yautja was only on his own side, so would the chimera sisters be, and they needed him to be accepting of the fact he was part of the hive.
Sarah held up her hands in a gesture that somehow was supposed to be peaceful. Weird. "Please, I'm not trying to start a fight." Odygos liked that she took his advice. Alright, let's try laughter.
"Karga'te, listen. We are at the doorstep of a unique event. Noasyvé will replace the Queen Mother and restore order to the galaxy. But first, we need to conquer that one enemy. Enigma II's Utara likely is a surviving segment of an intelligent computer virus, the one that once wiped the colonies and caused humans to forget about the xenomorph and the invasion to earth. Utara is trying to grow a new body and needs Ti'chai-di to be the womb. If she escapes — Odygos, are you laughing? This is not funny."
Success! Mental note : these seems to be good and bad times for laughing too. Sarah didn't catch on that his reason for laughing was something else, or maybe he had laughed the wrong way.
"Did I just hear a hiccuping xenomorph?" Jake said as he stepped into the room.
"How the heck does an entire species forget about something like the kainde amedha anyway?" Karga'te muttered.
"The Big Deletion occurred some centuries ago, collapsing most of mankind's colonies. No more evidence. Yet from the scraps of civilization, humans reemerged and become powerful again. That's why this market is freaking out. Humans just won't die out," Jake said. "So, about the hiccuping, Odygos said five seconds ago it was supposed to be laughter but —"
"Can we get back on topic, please?" Sarah said.
"Yes, the topic, that was about how dumb I was, right? You must be an expert on stupidity, Sarah," Karga'te said.
"Hear who's talking. You, a yautja, lived here eight years in a human-made atmosphere. It never crossed your mind that hey, maybe I should have choked to death some time between then and now? Yes, I do think I am a little bit entitled to be the educator here."
"For your information, I've seen freakier things come to pass than me adapting to this atmosphere. Hell, my wounds healing as quickly as they did is exactly like those freaky things."
"You are not of the Ash Generation, if that's what you mean." At least not to her knowledge, Odygos reminded her.
"I was talking about someone with Cursed Eyes developing sight, fire burning on nothing but air and hundred armed goddesses rampaging through temples."
Sarah had nothing on that. Cursed Eyes might just be some illness, fire already used oxygen but generally needed a source, but goddesses? Ooh, stumped humans were tickly. Odygos wasn't allowed to tell her anything — Mother said something about respect for personal memories being necessary to get voluntary drones — so he just opted to say that he wasn't lying. Sarah insisted that if that was true, he must be misinterpreting something radically. Figuring out what that was might take a while.
"Speaking of the supernatural, I want to know why I am here. Your queen must have hinted you something."
"Could you be clearer?"
"Let's just say they are certain events in the past that make it insanely coincidental and ironic that I find myself in this position."
"Well, you were elected from a limited number of rogue entities. I suppose there might be some spite involved to the Matriarch of the Hunters, considering —"
"The Matriarch of the Hunters? We don't have a single ruler. The male hunters fall under the matriarchy on the home planet, which consists of thousands of factions."
"Oh, they do have a single Matriarch. She's something like Syvé, she has extended awareness, a court and certain powers. She is technically weaker than our Mother, but all her people have individuality. Her court can continue acting on a plan even if their matriarch is hindered. Syvé's hive on the other hand is weak when she herself is weak, that's why she needs us independent members. That's roughly all I know, I'm sure Syvé will expand once she is completely free. Now my turn. What dramatic irony?"
"None of your business."
"Now I think of it, why did you run off with the egg, instead of handing it over to your leader?"
"I did hand it over. I just took it back when the bargain turned out to be a hoax. Anyway, that Matriarch I am guessing is Paya, does that make Syvé the Black Warrior?"
"I suppose you could see it that way, but I wouldn't try to seek too much parallels between the gods and reality."
"I need to think. Don't bother me." Karga'te spun around, pushed past Jake and vanished.
Sarah almost said he had had so much time to think already and this was no place to end a conversation, but Jake broadly waved his arms in an off-cutting motion. She swallowed her words and kept her thoughts quiet.
The rest of the evening, Odygos spent by having chaotic mental games with Shadhahvar and Ti'chai-di in tandem. He experienced a headache for the first time ever and so Sarah could explains a little bit better about apologies for declining games. Odygos decided that sapience was the best game ever.
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Karga'te had little experience with putting up mental walls. After having realized Kirindi and later Ti'chai-di would never mock him or think of something as humiliating, he hadn't bothered to learn. His sole edge over Sarah, who had spent months engaging in highly aware communication just to pick up on the slightest bit of awareness of her queen, was that telepathy was casual to him. He realized very quickly that Sarah was a little too specialized in focus to be able to process the overall telepathic landscapes. All he had to do was make a lot of mental noise whenever she focused on him and she never noticed there were secret thoughts flying around. That kept her busy till she finally fell asleep.
As this happened, both the physical and mental space become quieter than he had experienced in a long time. Even Shadhahvar was unusually peaceful. Strange, he had expected it to be busier, even with Sarah asleep. Instead, it just appeared wider.
Sarah cuddled up in a stack of furs, Odygos curled around her. A quick mental brush told him she was having visions with her queen, but he had no interest in meeting that one yet.
Kirindi had claimed Eliath in a similar way, back in her own room. Her mind too was having visions as Sarah did, though Eliath was sharply aware of the here and now. Nice guard dog, Karga'te poked.
Where was the big sister?
Ti'chai-di no longer needed to be Kirindi's comfort pillow and she could not truly sleep. She loved Kirindi, but did not love sitting still for long times, so she gladly left that to Eliath.
Karga'te found her in the bath, which meant the floor was flooded. Sitting down at the edge of the bath, he quietly addressed her. With Jake and Sarah he could simply speak English or his own language, they'd get the gist telepathically without much of his effort, but to have any sort of complex conversation with Ti'chai-di, he needed to put in a lot of effort.
This hardmeat queen, Syvé would have galaxy wide psychic control, however the heck that worked. He didn't doubt she could do things Sarah's limited rationality could not imagine. If we worked for this creature, she might do him favors in return. He needed just one concerning something he had abandoned years ago. But if this was true ...
Nra'tex-ne wouldn't be happy with his methods, if he indeed was still alive. Karga'te didn't care. Nra'tex-ne could go his own way after this was all over. The past where brother and brother hunted together he had already put behind him, but at the very least he wanted his him to be safe. As difficult as it was to face, that sentiment counted for his inlaws too.
"~ What do you think, Ti'chai-di? ~"
Thinking was not something she often paused to do. After a long time of wondering, she told Karga'te that if the Mother could alter even Karga'te, then perhaps she could alter her too so that her children would no longer die. To Karga'te story, she had not particular to say, or so it appeared at first. The images she showed him of her dying offspring were a response to something similar he recalled. Malformed hybrid fetuses, carelessly dropped on the ground and the mercy of death to them. Two had survived. It had something in common, however distantly.
"~ I swore to protect those children and I threw that oath away. I guess today I did it again. ~"
She met his memories as if they were her own children, even if she could not grasp the more complex things surrounding it. All she knew was lost children and the need to keep family together. That she had perfect sympathy for.
Curious all of the sudden, Karga'te asked her, "Could you forgive me? For what I have done?"
Yes, she said, but she could take it back any time. It didn't matter that she didn't fully understand, this was good enough. He grinned in his yautja way, mandibles clattering. Perhaps the sister's lack of wrath was a nice counterbalance to Tex's most likely reaction upon learning certain things.
· · · · · · ·
"I want payment," Karga'te said the next morning.
Sarah looked up from her breakfast, baffled. "But ... how can you ask payment for ..."
For being inside a loving and unique family and getting superpowers, you selfish jerk.
Karga'te let a deep rumble escape his throat. "I'm sure being loud and open with your thoughts was handy on Enigma, but here you should learn to be discrete."
Far away, a certain alien worm found this hilarious, which he made sure was noticed. Jake and Shadhahvar, one on each end of the table, could not help but burst into laughter when
"I won't serve her out of a sense of honor or some misplaced idea of family loyalty. I live, but she brought me in danger in the first place. It was her hive that I was dying in, wasn't it? I owe her nothing, especially not Kirindi or Ti'chai-di."
"Fine. What kind of payment?"
"Kirindi, you want to serve her," Karga'te said. "Tell Sarah why."
She tilted her head and smiled. "Cause I like this hive and I think it will be a happy one."
"All I will tell you is that what I want is something similar to that and it is nothing that would harm Syvé's plans. And no, I am not giving you or anyone in this room any details. What I said I should be enough."
"You said very little, fine, if what you claim is true, then Syvé will likely indulge you. She is capable of certain kindness even when it does not directly serve her plans."
Karga'te and Kirindi exchanged a glance, then the yautja walked off.
"Thank you," Kirindi then said.
Anudjan called later that morning, asking for another meeting. Karga'te caught Shadhahvar at a computer, failing miserably at hiding how much fun she had with answering.
"Yeah, Sarah and Karga'te are doing a speed course in being annoying siblings. Yesterday, they've been through flailing toddlers making a fuss over stolen toys and they're now reaching the end of screeching preteens. Witnessing the teenage you just don't understand me phase here. I'd say they're going to need to at least reach their thirties or forties before being they'll remember you people exist."
"Tell them that I'm now working for the goddess of death and they can arrange for Sarah to go back to her little underworld."
Shadhahvar turned around sheepishly. "I wasn't trying to make you sound bad, really."
Karga'te rolled his eyes. "Sure." He was about to walk off when he noticed something off. Shadhahvar still was not quite that chaos anymore.
The moment he telepathically reached out, curious, she said, "Jake wants to go home."
He couldn't see her face as it was hidden by her hair, she looked down at the touchboard. For what little he ventured into her mind, nothing complex he found and only a very simple sadness. Karga'te had not been paying attention to Jake, but Shadhahvar had known him for years. For all her stupidity, she apparently had noticed something.
"I don't know much about the human world," Karga'te said. "If he wants to live as a hunted outcast, maybe that suits him. But if the creature we're working for has the powers I suspect she has, she could help him at least in some way to find a save place to live. Maybe bring home there."
"Huh? I don't get it."
"I'm saying that if you two can make yourselves useful to our little death goddess, give it a try."
Now looking up, she smiled. "Oh, you'd like us to stay. I thought you didn't."
Karga'te shrugged and walked off again, but mentally and physically.
· · · · · · ·
Twenty two hours later and another talk with Sarah, the Auton had reached a decision. They would be ready, should Syvé call for help.
Sarah returned to her spacecraft with a well plotted story about mutant dinosaurs, chaos theory and a few complimentary injuries to accentuate the roaming the wilderness cyborg-deprived to get back to my ship part.
Y-921 was to escort Sarah there. While his memory was gone, he was assigned to the subject of handling xenomorph-auton interactions due to his personality. He had judged right (it seemed) once, perhaps it would help.
Who were not to escort her were Kirindi and Odygos, but they went along nevertheless, at least as far as it was safe. They had a last meeting in the shadow of a rock formation, far out of sight of the ship's area scanners and Kirindi being Kirindi, hugs were involved. Sarah wasn't used to extensive affection, but it was difficult letting go today.
Once free, she said to Kirindi, "Hold on to this for me, will you?" In her hands she laid an old toothbrush.
Kirindi nodded and said, "Off course. I'll give it back to you soon."
Odygos being Odygos, he didn't understand what her hesitation to go to work about about. He understood missing, he had missed her and would do so again, but that was because it was his task to protect her. Her task did not involve him, did it?
Sarah laid a hand on Odygos' forehead and hunched down before him.
"It's got a lot to do fears," Sarah said. "... but you wouldn't know them."
He did not understand the need for a word of farewell, since he had never truly needed words, but he said goodbye anyway.
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