Note: So here is the third chapter in a week! Since I didn't get time to post any chapters over Christmas and New Year, I thought I should push out these three together as they cover all of 'Day 7' in the story.
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DAY 7 – Discussions
Chapter 11 - Sharing
Winter had arrived on Athos in the mere week that Teyla had been away in Atlantis.
The ground had been ice hard as she'd walked up from the Portal on her return from the Facility, all the surrounding fields coated in a light layer of snow. Though these sharp winter months could be tough for those still living in the forest camps, Teyla still enjoyed the majestic beauty of her homeworld at this time of year.
As she'd walked up through Tjaru, the market stalls had already been packed away, and a larger than normal flock of songbirds had been nipping up the handfuls of grain that traders left out for them during these hard months. High above, the sky had been clear and cold, but there had been the distant suggestion of thick heavy clouds on the horizon. Teyla suspected there would be a heavy snowfall tonight.
She didn't believe that John had seen Athos in the thick of winter before, so she had started formulating a list of outdoor winter activities for him when his next visit was arranged. There were the nearby low hills where the snow gathered thickly and her people slid down the soft slopes on hide-covered sledges. There were the outdoor sporting competitions, snow sculpture displays, and it was always lovely to simply walk along the edges of the snow-coated fields. She would need to remind him to pack warm clothes for his stay.
When his visit did occur, she had also paved the way for his first visit to the Training Facility. John and Colonel Carter had both agreed that John could be fitted with an Elite personal beacon, and therefore its insertion would need to be undertaken at the Facility itself. So today, after visiting Oneakka, she had met with Edfu to discuss the arrangements for John's visit. The Healing Bay had already agreed to install the beacon, with the only requirement being that John had to remain in the Facility for a night after the procedure, as occasionally some people's bodies rejected the tiny implant. Fortunately, agreement was already been in place in the marriage contract that John could visit the Facility with her, and that, as she had in visiting Atlantis, John would be allowed to take only one of his people with him on the Facility visit.
Teyla was immensely grateful that John and his people had agreed to the implant, and once he had the beacon, she knew she would feel a little more comfortable. With that Elite tech, his position would be detectable anywhere in the Alliance, and, even outside the border, the frequency would be easy to trace. Colonel Carter's only stipulation had been that Atlantis receive details of the metal components that made up the beacon and that they could know the frequency used to track it. The agreement made and the way prepared in the Facility, she just had to wait now until he could visit.
Crunching up the faintly icy road to the Governing Complex, she let her mind turn, as she was doing regularly, over her well-recalled memories of her last days with John in Atlantis. As much as she enjoyed being back in the Alliance, she had been missing him greatly. So, the time it took to reach the Complex and the walk through the Complex's many hallways seemed to pass in moments, and she found herself at her quarters in no time at all. A little surprised at how distracted she had been, she entered her space and started pulling off her thick coat. Commotion from the next room told her that Ketra was in her quarters, which meant that Father and Zabetha were in official meetings.
Moving into her bedroom, Teyla saw Ketra bundle her way in through the open adjoining doorway from John's side of the quarters. Looking sleepy and a little disorientated, Ketra had clearly been asleep in there for some reason, and Teyla suspected she knew where.
"Have you been sleeping on John's bed?" Teyla asked bemusedly of her pet as she slid her hands over the dragon's warm face and down over her thick muscular shoulders. "You know you are not supposed to sleep on furniture," Teyla added, but she could not help herself from smiling at Ketra's wiggling rubbing up against her legs, always so pleased to see her. It had only been that Teyla had been sitting in the Healing Bay with Oneakka that had stopped her from taking Ketra with her, but she knew Ketra was well looked after here.
Moving to John's open door, Teyla peered into the dark room beyond. The light from her bedroom cast the mostly empty room with enough illumination for the disarray of the bed to be clear. Ketra had clearly been sleeping in here.
Frowning down at Ketra, Teyla knew she should tell off her pet, but she couldn't quite seem to make herself do it. Ketra, though at her full adult height now, was still filling out and she was a large creature. The mattress no doubt was far more comfortable for her than sleeping on the floor, and Teyla couldn't help understanding Ketra's decision. Maybe another solution was required; perhaps some form of specially built raised box for Ketra with a mattress of her own, or, maybe, she even needed her own room.
Drawing the adjoining door closed, but not all the way, Teyla headed back into her living room, noticing that a red light was flashing on her wall screen – she had messages waiting for her here.
She triggered the screen awake and a long list of messages appeared that had been sent to her specifically on Athos. The latest was from Halling confirming the slot he had given her to sit with Oneakka tomorrow. She smiled as she typed a very quick confirmation back to him. She had spent over an hour at Oneakka's side this morning and it had pleased her so much to see that he was already looking a little better. He was still heavily medicated and unable to move that much in his bed, but he had been able to hold a conversation and had asked her a surprising number of questions about Atlantis.
She was looking forward to continuing her tale of Atlantis tomorrow, though not so much her return to her shared duties in attending the Military Council as Elite representative. Jobrill had been covering the seat far longer than normal, with Nalla remaining on Lead duty on the docked Sythus while it was repaired, so it was Teyla's time again now. Nalla would take the next part of the rota once Si was free to take over as Lead Elite on the Sythus. It was less than thrilling work for Teyla, but it was vital and she was honoured to help represent her fellow Elite on the Council.
The response sent to Halling, she returned to the list of messages, the top now being one from Father. She opened it with a smile. As expected, he started by explaining that he and Zabetha were in legal focused meetings this evening. He then added that he had been in contact with Colonel Carter today and that the dates for John's visit to Athos had finally been organised. He would be staying for three days, arriving here in only three days time.
Joy burst up through her chest as she quickly pulled up the Governing Complex's diary system to see that, already, John's visit had been recorded. Which meant it would only be two more full days without seeing him. Then he would be spending his first official long stay with her here.
Which meant she could now organise John's stay in the Facility. She would need to contact Colonel Carter early tomorrow and see if a further day could be added to John's stay for the Facility visit, but she suspected the efficient female City Lead would already have it in mind following their previous conversations on the matter.
Turning back to Father's message, Teyla was about to type him a response, only to see that there was a further paragraph to his message in which he provided an attached text link message received from Atlantis. It was from John! He had sent her a letter when Father had spoken with Colonel Carter.
He had done this previously when Teyla had not been on Athos when Atlantis had dialled into the Portal, but he had not done so in awhile. Those previous messages had, of course, been about political matters and were usually a question for the Elite. Now though, now they were lovers once again, his message held a new burst of excitement for her.
Over the last month, the translations of written messages from Atlantis had improved greatly in clarity as Alliance and Atlantis language specialists had been improving the understanding of the different languages. So, the Complex's own translator would have already seen the letter to ensure the translation was clear, and John's own superiors would no doubt have read the message as well, which meant that this wasn't going to be a love letter. Still, she moved eagerly closer to the screen as the letter appeared.
"Dear Honoured Wife," it began. She grinned at his use of her title, which, although official and as it should be in such a letter, she could still hear John's amused playfulness in the opening.
"Pleased to hear the date has been set for me to visit Athos. Looking forward to seeing Ketra and for us to discuss trading," he wrote.
She chuckled at the innuendo that he had managed to conceal within a statement seemingly about the ongoing trade negotiations between Atlantis and the Elite.
"And to also get the opportunity to check out the wedding gift," he added. Again, to anyone reading it, such a comment could refer to any of the official gifts they had received following their Political Marriage, but only the two of them knew he referred to her large new bed in the next room.
"In other news," he added in the final paragraph, "I was promoted today. Kind of a surprise, but I will take it. A lot of people thought I would not even make Captain, and now I am a Lieutenant Colonel."
She leaned even closer to the screen as she reread his last sentence, pride filling her chest with warmth and delight. He more than deserved a promotion and she was so pleased that his people had acknowledged him. She was not entirely sure where the rank of 'Captain' was in relation to his new rank, or if this new promotion would change his duties in Atlantis, but soon enough she'd be able to ask him in person. She could hardly wait.
"I hope things all quiet in the Alliance and that Oneakka is well," he concluded, the translation remaining a little stilted for John's casual speech, but she could still hear his voice as she read them. "See you in a couple of days. From Honoured Husband, Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard."
She laughed happily at him referring to himself as 'Honoured Husband' and then read his new rank several times through, committing it to memory so that she could tell Father and others accurately.
Then she reread the entire letter through again, more than once, before she had to admit that she was behaving like a youthful girl. With one last scan of his new rank, she finally closed his letter. She then called up a new text link message to send to Edfu to provisionally book John in for the beacon fitting. Once it was confirmed with Colonel Carter tomorrow, Teyla would then send a message to her fellow Elite, informing them that John would be staying in the Facility for a day and a night.
That stay would not only allow the implant fitting, but would also provide the opportunity for many of her fellow Elite to meet John. Though he knew her colleagues of the Sythus rather well now, there were considerably more Elite and it was important to her that John start meeting more of them. For, should a day come that something happened to her, it was important that John was established as trustworthy by more than just the Sythus' crew.
Her message to Edfu sent, she glanced through the last list of her text links, but none of them required any action. She turned off the screen and turned to consider her quarters and the two days until John would arrive; while purposefully ignoring the fact that Ketra had almost her entire body slumped on one of Teyla's sofas. Ketra's back legs and tail were still on the floor, which presumably provided the dragon with the belief that she was not technically all on the piece of furniture and thus breaking the rules. Teyla was definitely going to have to sort out a proper sleeping place for Ketra.
But, returning her mind to John, she headed towards the entrance to her bedroom and considered the wedding gift that was the bed. The bedding was old and comfortable and in no way unsightly, but Teyla decided that she would purchase some new sheets and covers in some pleasing colours for when he was to visit.
Then they would have new bedding for their new shared bed, for their new start together.
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Waking up was always painful now.
It wasn't because of the physical pain of his wound, or the overwhelming dull weight of the medication, it was losing the vividness of the recalled memories of seeing his family.
He couldn't remember their faces like he had before.
When he was awake, it was like looking for details through foggy glass. But when he was asleep, which was far too frequently, it all came back.
In his dreams, Oneakka could feel the Ugun sun on his face again, smell the fresh grass of the training field, and hear little Pema singing.
Before, he'd never have been able to remember the tune or the words of that old rhyme that Pema had used to sing over and over, but now the song played all through his dreams and he woke with the words turning through his mind.
Old memories drawn up from the depths of his consciousness.
That was all it had been.
The dead didn't talk to you.
It had just been remembered moments and feelings from his infancy all mixed together into a narrative by his dying brain. That was all it had been.
Memories.
Why his mind had done that was a mystery to him, but he could understand that those vivid details of his family were buried somewhere in his brain. Maybe his mind had done it to help him keep fighting. Maybe it happened to everyone nearing the moment of death. According to Halling, his heart had stopped. He'd been near death before, but he'd never technically been dead before. It hadn't been for long, but maybe that was why.
Maybe synapses firing wildly, old trauma resurfacing.
He hadn't even known he could remember their faces so well. Recall the gentle weight of Father's hand on his shoulder, Pema's old rhyme...
All of it replayed in his dreams, but even those images were still somehow pale versions of what he'd experienced. Like a recording that had been cut up and then jumbled back together out of sequence and context.
The sight of his older brothers tumbling together across the field, his sisters' laughter, and Pema's song. The sound of Father's hammer striking the anvil.
Recalled sensations that were so old it was understandable that they still felt so strong.
Mother's smile.
A smile shouldn't have a sensation, but it did. Even awake he could faintly feel the sensation of it. It was probably because as a babe he'd have been in her arms so much, his entire universe his Mother's face and love. They were just strong formative memories.
A hallucination of broken memories his brain had made up for him.
He just wished he could forget.
Because each time he slept and relived what he could, when he started waking up, it felt like Mother dying again.
Each time he woke, he lost his family all over again.
It was excruciating.
Why couldn't he have just stayed in the field with them?
Never leave them again?
No! He didn't surrender to things like that. It was just that this was always the worst point: when he became aware of the dream and started waking up. He just needed to wake up properly.
He pushed hard to get away from the images and pain now, away from the haunting rhyme and the soft sensations of his family. As the dream started loosening its hold, he could feel his sense of self growing stronger as he started waking up, as he slowly separated himself from them.
They weren't real; it had just been a hallucination.
But his heart seemed to break apart as he struggled now to surface, back into the purity of only physical pain.
He opened his eyes to the dim light of the Healing Bay, the quiet of the room like a soft splash of relief. He blinked his eyes quickly, washing away any hint of tears in them, because he didn't know if anyone was watching him.
Except it was dark, with only a lone light shining from his far side. In the distance, he could hear the gentle patter of Bay staff walking down the corridors, a series of bleeps from another room, and in here there was a rather annoying buzzing from somewhere up beyond the head of his bed. One of his monitors. He remembered the sound had started earlier today. It was probably just a power cable slightly loose, because if the monitor had stopped working someone would have fixed it already.
Any other day, he would simply reach up himself and sort out the problem. Now though, just the thought of moving his body like that made him sweat. All he could move with any freedom that wouldn't trigger pain were his arms and his head. That said, his head and neck were hurting right now. He had his head rolled hard to his left and something in the side of his neck was really complaining.
Moving slowly, he got his head moving a little and realised that there was no one sat in the usual chair to his left.
The low lighting meant it was late - maybe very late – so he must have slept all through the evening. He'd had a lot of visitors today. The morning had been a sea of faces, then Emmagan, Halling. Madesh had been here and then Pampata had briefly visited. He wasn't sure he could remember anyone after that. He was sleeping so much that it all started to merge together.
He got his head moving, but the pain in the side of his neck wasn't going away, so he pushed his shoulder down and away from his ear to try and stretch out the complaining muscle. It helped ease the neck pain, but it turned out his left shoulder was really tight and the muscles threatened to spasm sharply. All this damn lying around did him no good at all.
He rolled his head round to the right to try and stretch a little further, only for Seeal to come into view sat on his right. She was sat almost slumped back in her chair, clearly having been there awhile, one of her knees up against the side of his bed and a large computer pad balanced up against her thigh. A low lamp was on beside him and it cast her as the brightest spot in the room.
Whisperer.
Since waking from his near death, each time he saw Halling or Seeal anew, he felt the greatest rush of gratitude and relief to see them. In the midst of his hallucination, their voices had kept him rooted and had called him back from the edge of death. If a tiny part of him regretted returning from there, the majority of him was deeply grateful to them for helping him back from that edge.
Seeal noticed him looking at her and smiled.
"Ahh, you're awake," she said as she leaned to one side and set her usual large portable cup on the side table. "You need anything?" She asked as she lowered her knee and sat up straighter in her chair so he could see her easier. "Water? A bucket to throw up in?"
"No," he replied with a frown at her; he'd never asked for a bucket. He was probably on some sort of drug to deal with any nausea anyway, in fact he vaguely remembered that was part of his medication plan.
"Pillows comfy?" She asked next.
He took a second to process her question and then assess the pillows under his head. His left shoulder and now part of his upper back were tight and uncomfortable, but that wasn't because of the pillows. Meiyo had suggested that he try and lay on his sides a little bit tomorrow, and clearly his body needed to start moving around some more.
"Pillows are fine," he reported.
"Anything else you need?" She asked next, seeming to be exceptionally helpful this evening.
He frowned at her. "What happened?" He asked.
She frowned in return. "What happened when?" She asked, but her expression had turned guarded, like she suspected he knew something. Had she started a riot again while he was asleep?
"You're being nice," he told her, "so you did something."
He felt like his mouth wasn't forming the words quite right, but it had sounded okay. He suspected he'd been given his latest dose of pain killers via the line in his arm while he had been asleep, because his brain felt a little slow and his lower belly was a distant thick discomfort rather than actual pain. It hadn't helped his shoulder, but presumably that had been because of how he'd been sleeping. If he could just stretch properly, it would be fine, but he was nervous to move too much and pull at his wound.
"I can be nice," Seeal objected. "And I didn't do anything; don't be so rude."
He was a little surprised at the come back, but he was far more comfortable with the straightforward banter than any pitiful looks. He was already far too aware of how ridiculously weak and awful he felt. He didn't really want her to see him like this, but, at the same time, her company kind of helped. She was one of his whisperers after all.
"Can't tell me what to do," he replied.
"I just did," she returned quickly and rather smugly. "And considering that you were impaled by a Hive ship and can barely lift your own head, I think I'm the one with the upper hand right now."
"It wasn't a whole Hive ship," he corrected her.
"So your answer is a 'no' to needing anything?" She repeated her former question.
He could do with the tight, nearly spasming muscle in his left shoulder to settle down.
Actually there was something Raven could do to help.
"One of the monitors is buzzing," he gestured with his head up beyond the end of his bed. Her dark eyes shifted to the monitors immediately. "I think a power cable's loose," he explained, but she was already rising up out of her chair, putting her pad aside. "It's getting irritating," he added as she moved around the side table and disappeared from view.
"Easy enough," she replied as a series of noises sounded behind his head. She would be pushing power cables in tighter.
"Don't unplug any," he advised. "They'll rush in thinking I've died."
There was a faint snigger and a sound that was clearly her hand hitting the side of a monitor. He was about to tell her to be careful, but the buzzing had stopped.
He let out a relieved sigh, the returned quiet almost blissful.
"You're welcome," Seeal told him pointedly as she moved back into view.
"Thank you," he told her gratefully.
She paused and made a show of looking surprised at him thanking her, before she collected up her pad again and settled back into her chair.
She looked at him.
He looked back.
A strange sort of silence fell.
If she wanted him to make conversation, she was going to wait a long time. He could ask a question or answer things, but anything more than that was far too much effort for him right now. He was feeling pretty useless and vulnerable, and a teeny bit self-conscious about that fact. He couldn't even sort out a monitor's power cable without help.
He glanced away from her as he carefully rolled his left shoulder to try to prevent the cramping spasm that was still threatening.
"So," Seeal started talking again, "I hear you had a hundred visitors today."
"Not a hundred," he called her obvious exaggeration.
"How could you tell, you're floating on a high of medication," she noted.
"Definitely not floating," he corrected. It was actually more like feeling stuck in a thick sticky fog, where everything felt a bit difficult, and his body felt heavy and desperately uncomfortable.
He closed his eyes for a fraction, willing his shoulder to relax.
A tapping noise started up into the silence, and, with it, a faint vibration through the bed-frame. He glanced at Raven to see that she was idly tapping her fingers against the side of his bed.
She noticed him looking at her hand and her fingers froze. "Sorry," she apologised and pulled her hand back onto her lap.
He made his slightly foggy mind focus on her a little more closely. She looked uncomfortable.
Probably bored at having to sit at his bedside every evening.
A strange sense of embarrassment shifted through him. He was grateful for her being around, for being one of his whisperers, but that didn't necessarily mean she wanted to be here.
Maybe she felt obligated or something.
He really didn't like that thought.
"You don't have to be here," he told her.
Her eyes snapped to his, her expression freezing in a surprised frown. "You don't want me here?" She asked.
"If you don't want to be here, you don't have to be here," he tried to explain logically, which took far more effort than normal.
Her dark eyebrows rose up her forehead. "If I didn't want to be here, I wouldn't be here, Oneakka," she stated firmly. She was pronouncing his name correctly now, not that he had ever expected people to get the emphasis right on the sounds of his name. But, she had picked up on the right pronunciation when they'd been talking about the tapestry.
From his people.
The memories abruptly threatened to tear up through his chest from nowhere. Suddenly he rather wished she didn't know how to say his name correctly – pronounced just like his family and his people had done.
"Unless," Seeal cut into his wayward emotional response, "you're trying to say that you don't want me here?" She asked.
"No," he replied, focusing intently back on her, letting the emotions settle down and away again. "I'm not saying I don't want you here," he added, only to pause and replay the words to check they had made sense. They had. "I'm saying you don't have to be here," he tried to clarify for her.
"Well, I am here," she stated with a firm finality. "Any more questions?" She challenged.
He had to sort of smile at that response. Raven certainly hadn't changed while he'd been near death. That felt good at least.
She was still looking at him expectantly.
One question did come instantly to mind.
"Has the goat had her young yet?" He asked.
Seeal's challenging expression transformed instantly into a smile.
It was a pretty smile.
"No, not yet," she reported with feeling. "But it's going to be any day now, maybe tomorrow. She's huge," she emphasised the description as she lifted her computer pad, tapped the screen quickly and then turned the pad so that he could see a picture of the goat.
Seeal was right, the poor goat's belly was massive.
"I've got the animal specialist staying in the Hydroponics Bay and monitoring her constantly," Seeal added as she turned the pad back round, tapped on it again, and then held up another picture for him. This one was the ghostly image of a scan, showing the crushed up ball of the baby goats all crammed together inside their mother's belly.
"This is the scan from this morning," Seeal explained and reached round the pad to shift the image along to the next, which showed one of the Hydroponics Bay Gardeners sitting holding the goat while the animal specialist was holding a scanner to the goat's belly. The goat did not look impressed with the specialist and his tech.
"The animal specialist asked me again if she has a name," Seeal noted as she lowered the pad, "So I really think we should name her." She'd brought this up before. "I'm still voting for Belka."
"A Belkan goat named Belka – very original," he muttered sarcastically.
"Do you have any better ideas?" She challenged. "What's the Ugun word for 'goat'?"
"I'm saying it when I say 'goat', you just hear it in your own language," he reminded her.
"Good point," Raven replied and paused, as if in thought.
His shoulder was tightening up again. Stupid lying down all the time.
"So I think we should go with Belka," Seeal concluded.
"Fine," he agreed with a sigh. Belka was actually a nice name.
"Good, because I've been using it with her already, training her to understand the name," Seeal smiled. She really hadn't changed at all. "The hard part will be coming up with names for all her young when they arrive," she added thoughtfully.
"Belkie?" Oneakka suggested on impulse.
She laughed.
It was a sudden and nice sound.
He wasn't certain, because his brain was still fogged up with medication, but he didn't think he'd made her honestly laugh like that before.
"Belko?" She suggested in return.
"Belku," he followed the game.
She considered another version. "Belly?" But she shook her head like she didn't actually like the name.
"Could work," he considered.
"I'll do some research, come up with some nice names," she decided as she shifted herself abruptly sideways and then back again in her chair, possibly because she was tucking one of her legs up under her. Getting comfortable.
She set the pad aside and looked back at him. "It's actually nice to be able to have a proper conversation with you again."
It almost seemed a compliment.
"You don't seem all that grumpy and difficult to me," she added.
He frowned at that and what she implied. "Halling said that?" He asked. Had Halling gone and told Seeal his stupid 'Cuddly Bears of Moor' theory? Oneakka didn't need to be compared to a small fluffy and friendly semi-domesticated creature.
"Not just Halling," Seeal supplied with a smile that said she was clearly enjoying the moment. "Everyone has been saying it. Apparently you're going to get difficult, grumpy, sullen, and argumentative."
He wanted to argue the point, but there was some truth in it. He healed faster than people accepted and sometimes you had to push yourself to get better faster.
"I keep asking them how that description is in any way different to what you're normally like," Seeal added with a pleased grin.
"Because those descriptions are nothing like you," he returned.
"I don't get sullen," she objected.
"Please," he muttered as he shifted his left shoulder, the muscles starting to properly cramp now.
"I'll give you 'argumentative' and 'difficult' at times," she admitted.
He glanced back at her. "I really wish you wouldn't," he bantered back.
There was the faintest of smiles around her pointed glare.
The cramp was definitely clenching up into a spasm, so he tried to arch his back a little to try and-
It had been a mistake. The movement pulled sharply through his wound.
The room disappeared behind the shocking blaze of pain and he swore he actually blacked out for a second.
Squeezing his eyes and teeth tightly, he worked to simply breathe, to force his lungs to draw in a deep breath and then let it out in a long slow out breath. Years of relaxation training kicked in and he focused everything he had on just his breathing.
With each breath he focused on a different part of his body, willing it to relax through the pain. First his legs, then his shoulders, his arms, his chest, and, gradually, enough of him started to settle. He dropped his head back against the pillows and forced himself to open his clenched fists, and finally the pain eased down, slowly sliding away behind the thick fog of the numbing medication once more.
Awareness of the room around him returned and he let out another long breath as he opened his eyes. He realised he could feel Seeal's hand on his chest and the further warmth of her forearm lying over his upper arm.
He looked round towards her with a flush of embarrassment. She was sat right up against his bedside, her arm indeed lying over him with her hand on his upper chest.
She gave him a grim smile and patted his chest with her hand. "At least you weren't killed," she offered supportively.
He grimaced his answer, worrying a little now about Meiyo's plan for him to change position on the bed tomorrow.
Seeal patted his chest reassuringly again. "You need the Healers?" She asked.
"No," he shook his head. His body felt exhausted but the pain had stayed behind the wall of medication and his shoulder had finally stopped seizing up.
"Okay," Seeal nodded and lifted her hand, her arm sliding off his as she sat back into her chair.
He really hated this being so weak and helpless; being so damaged that people he knew respected him looked at him with pity and concern. He really didn't like Raven seeing him this way, but she didn't seem to be looking at him with any obvious pity right now.
"I told you not to go onto that Hive," she said instead.
He let out an exhausted amused breath. She wasn't going to let go of that any time soon it seemed.
"It was a successful mission," he pointed out.
"You almost died!" She argued instantly, though he kind of sensed that maybe she was being argumentative to keep the usual banter going and help distract him from the whole full body pain spasm.
"I've been nearly killed hundreds of times," he dismissed her point.
"Really?" She scoffed. "Hundreds? You've been at death's door at least two hundred times?"
"Probably," he shrugged faintly, but only using his right shoulder and only lifting it a mere inch or so. "I haven't kept score."
She narrowed her eyes doubtfully at him. "Alright, so, besides your facial injury," she gestured towards the right side of his face.
Only Raven would talk so directly about his scars. Some might think she was being unfeeling, but he found it refreshing. People usually tiptoed around talking about his face, and even his closest friends never mentioned it. He always assumed it was because of the circumstances of his injury, or maybe because the scars were so disfiguring. Or, alternatively, maybe it was because they were just too used to the scars now. He'd carried them for almost two decades.
So long.
To everyone else, maybe the scars were just normal and they never thought about the circumstances anymore.
And maybe he'd stopped thinking about it too every time he looked in the mirror. Except, he couldn't accept that what had happened to his people, what he'd gone through in that burning base, should ever settle vaguely into 'normal' and ever be forgotten.
"And this last time," Seeal's question continued, cutting through the relived horror.
He focused intently back on her, letting his whisperer call him back to the conversation.
"...being impaled by a Hive ship-" she repeated her former description.
"It wasn't a whole Hive ship," he corrected her again.
"When have you been this injured before?" She finished her question.
He paused and honestly considered his answer, letting it help him focus on anything other than his people.
He had no idea how many injuries he'd suffered in his working career or from his years as a Recruit, though Meiyo could probably tell him. There were certainly plenty to choose from, but the main contenders...
"When I was perhaps thirteen yearly cycles, we were practicing climbing skills," he told her, "up a high steep-sided valley. I lost my footing and started falling, my rope sheared off against glass-sharp rocks further up and I tumbled down the valley wall and dropped the last part straight to the valley floor."
Raven winced in sympathy.
"I broke my right leg, three ribs, and part of my left forearm," he told her. "I wasn't able to walk properly for about two months after that."
"Ouch!" She winced dramatically again. "Okay, that one can go on the list."
"And there was the time I challenged one of the most vicious Elite to a fight," he continued thoughtfully.
"What like a sparring session?" She asked.
"No, a proper challenge, in a corridor in a different facility we trained in."
"How old were you?"
"I think about eleven yearly cycles old," he estimated through his medication fog.
"Eleven?!" She spluttered. "You challenged an Elite warrior to a fight when you were eleven and he or she took the challenge?"
"He tried to ignore me at first, but I was taller than most my age, so I had more of a punch," Oneakka recalled with nostalgic warmth.
"You punched him to get him to fight you?" Seeal correctly interpreted.
"I was a little headstrong when I was younger," he explained.
"Younger?! You just went onto a Hive ship that was full of deadly radiation, was literally falling apart from the inside out, and was about to come under fire from the Military Fleet!" Seeal pointed out.
"That's just being brave," he replied only to realise that it had sounded very boastful, or perhaps even flirtatious, but it was probably just the medication fog.
She rolled her eyes dramatically and made a scoffing noise. "No, that's being stupid," she replied, but she didn't sound like she actually believed that. "So you punched this Elite warrior and I assume he retaliated at the arrogant little upstart Recruit who thought he could best him?"
"Oh, I knew I had no chance at winning," Oneakka told her.
She shifted back in her chair a little, looking like she was definitely getting more comfortable. "Were you testing him or yourself?"
"Both," he admitted.
"How long did you last?" She asked with a faint smile.
"Not long," he admitted. "I woke up in the Healing Bay about three days later and still can't remember most of the fight."
She chuckled. "I had a somewhat similar experience outside a pit fight venue on a little planet called Nimbo," she started.
"I know Nimbo," he told her as he settled his head a little further into the pillows.
"Really? It's well outside the Alliance borders."
"Nimbo traded a lot with my people, I found a lot of Ugun goods there," he explained, but that was only half of the truth. In reality, he'd been on a number of training missions to Nimbo. Nimbo was a standard location for Recruits to observe crowds, studying Human behaviours and adaptations to Wraith cullings. Some Recruits were even caught up in a culling, so there had always been the nervous expectation of that happening during a mission.
Once an Elite, his visits to Nimbo had mostly been to collect Ugun items, which he'd been doing since the day he had woken up an orphan.
Which, he realised, meant that it was possible that he could have been on Nimbo at the same time as Seeal when he'd been younger, could even have walked past her for all he knew.
He'd actually seen part of a pit fight there once. He'd been chasing a Wraith worshipper through a busy town, and the man had tried to lose him down in the crowded space of a pit fight audience. Oneakka couldn't remember much about the fighters, except that they had been male and the two in the pit had looked relieved at the sudden distraction of a fight outside the pit.
Seeal though nodded at his simple explanation, looking a little nostalgic herself now. "Nimbo is small, but they trade enough for several planets and the towns there were always ridiculously overcrowded, even after cullings."
He nodded his agreement. "It's still the same there now," he informed her. He'd last been there a few months ago seeking out intel on The Traitor's movements beyond the border. He recalled seeing some scrawny children at the edges of the busy streets.
"Were you living on Nimbo?" He asked.
"For awhile," she nodded.
"Living on the street?"
"On and off," she confirmed.
He reached up carefully and pushed one of his pillows further under his right cheek so he could rest his head facing towards her.
"It was normal for us street kids to head through the Portal to different planets regularly to keep ahead of city gangs or the local equivalent of Enforcement," she explained.
He wished he'd given some currency to those children on Nimbo, or, probably better, had bought them some food.
"We'd always end up back on Nimbo at some point though," Seeal continued her tale, "but it was only when I starting pit fighting that I was there regularly."
Which reminded him that she'd started telling him a particular story before they'd gotten distracted about Nimbo.
"What happened outside that pit fight venue then?" He reminded her.
"Well," she took a deep breath, "we were never supposed to fight each other outside the pits, but this other fighter challenged me in the middle of the street...
00000
TBC