Chapter 7 – The Worry
It was early, too early for having been off-world late last night watching a mass Satedan brawl.
Seeal shook out her newly dried hair, the bathroom's air still full of the residual steam from her lovely hot early morning shower. In her opinion, the Elite's mattresses were her favourite inventions in the entire galaxy, but the powerful hot water showers were a close second place. Not only did the heavy pressure massage your back and shoulders as you showered, but the heat of the water was magnificent.
She reached over the large sink and wiped a small hand towel across the steamed mirror. As soon as a path was cleared, it started to mist up again, so she wiped it once more. Perhaps she had messed with the humidity controls a little too much to keep the bathroom warm. She leant across to the small control panel set by the mirror and within seconds of returning the settings to 'standard' she heard the purr of ventilation fans turning up above her.
She drew in a deep breath of the still warm air and contemplated her hair. She had dried it with her head upside down under the hot air machine, and the front of her hair was standing up somewhat. She smoothed it down, the still misty air helping add some weight. She frowned at the result. It would have to do – she had a big project meeting in an hour and, before that, an impromptu meeting over first meal.
When she had arrived back in the Facility late last night, she had found several messages waiting from her. Two were from Oneakka, who had clearly returned from his mission. The first was to tell her he was back and demanded, in his usual blunt manner, for an update of the database work. Then in his second message he had suggested they meet for first meal this morning to go through whatever she had found. She had sent a response, uncaring if the late night message might wake him, confirming that she would meet him and she sent him her latest research. She knew he would read it all before their meeting as well, so she had re-read it all again last night, so as to remind herself of all the details. Not much had been significant really, but she continued to follow some routes that had potential, in her opinion.
The last message had been from Madesh reporting that he and the others had returned to the Sythus without Tyoosi spotting Toj's missing shirt or extra bruised eye. He also reminded her of her promise to return to Oneakka's training schedule, but since Oneakka was now back, she guessed the training would return to usual demanding levels anyway.
She gave up convincing her hair to do what she wanted, and set about securing the long ends up behind her head. It resulted in a somewhat tangled mass of hair, but it kept it all out of her way. Hair controlled, she regarded her naked reflection. There were still moments when she almost didn't recognise her new far healthier reflection. The regular good food provided by the Facility's canteens and the ongoing regular intense exercise routines had changed her appearance. She had gone from the gaunt lines that had defined her features for as long as she remembered, to this new softer face. Add to that the ever growing muscle mass that Oneakka's exercise routines were helping to build further, and she was probably the strongest and healthiest she had ever been in her life.
As she nearly always did, she turned slightly and lifted her left arm to reveal the dark tattoo on her left side. It had healed long ago and was simply part of her now, but she still looked at its reflection each time. It summarised so much of what her life had become and what she'd gone through. No one else had seen it, other than Oneakka who had been the one to design and tattoo it onto her side. The dark Wraith markings that that inspired the Elite given tattoo had been woven into new elegant twists of black ink, which all gathered up several inches along her ribs to form the artistic shape of a raven looking out from behind her left breast.
She ran her fingers over the ink, but it just felt like her own skin now.
She frowned at the frowning face in the mirror, which only frowned further. She relaxed her newer fleshed features. She was definitely looking older too – her youth was past her, not that she thought about it with any nostalgia. There was nothing but bad memories back there. Yet, she could see that her body and face were now the strong full shape of a grown woman.
Maturity brought responsibilities though and she turned from the mirror and consulted the time. It wouldn't do to keep the Elite male waiting; he'd only whinge about it.
She headed out of the bathroom, the door opening to reveal her small, and far cooler, quarters attached to her luxurious bathroom. The quarters were very small - just one narrow room and the bathroom - but it was her home now and provided all she needed. She had a bed with a delicious Elite mattress across from the bathroom's door, a set of drawers that held her growing collection of clothing in the far left corner, and a small table and a chair in the near left corner by the bathroom door. A wall screen provided her access to the Facility's standard database and information, and to the right a narrow space led to the only entrance in and out of the quarters.
She pulled on fresh underwear and considered her ever increasing selection of colourful tops in one drawer. She decided on one of the newest, a bright green top that did not have too low of a neckline. She pulled it on and then slid into her favourite black trousers and boots.
She checked her hair once more in the reflection of the wall screen as she triggered it alive to see if she had any more messages. Only a few group ones for the Project meeting later. She scanned them quickly, but they were just a discussion around how the project group would present their latest findings and experiments to the Elite. She wasn't worried; the project had at least another year, if not more, to run before it created a real live working new computer system with its very own unique computer coding. The Elite would be prepared to wait for something that important, but the other project members were concerned to present matters correctly at the regular review.
Satisfied she was timing things well, she gathered up her thin jacket, laying it over her arm, stacking her main computer tablet - altered with extra security features to prevent her from altering its coding - and two small pads on top. Ready to go, she checked her hair once more and again made sure the neckline of her top wasn't too low.
With that, she triggered open her door out of her quarters and stepped out into the corridor outside. Only, she pulled up short, as a very familiar looking goat was sat across the wide corridor looking up at her expectantly.
Seeal's mouth dropped open and, for a bizarre moment, she actually looked around her to check that she wasn't somehow back on the Sythus. No, she was still in the Facility.
"What are you doing here?" She asked the goat, which was now standing up and moving towards her as it had done so often on the Sythus. Seeal frowned at the wobbling gait of the creature, its belly protruding out both sides.
"Are you pregnant?" She asked the goat next, which was stupid because the animal wasn't about to answer her. Instead it just snuffled at the free hand Seeal instinctively held out to greet it. The warm fluffy hair of the goat was as familiar as the innocent pleasure it seemed to show.
"I don't know how you got here," Seeal informed the goat as she turned back to make sure her quarters door had closed, "but I don't have time to find out where you came from. You're just going to have to come with me for first meal."
The goat brushed its nose against her trouser pockets, but Seeal brushed it away. "There's no food in there. I'll see what I can find in the canteen." She led the way forward. "I hope you can keep up, because he'll grumble if I'm late."
Looking back, Seeal was pleased to see the goat was following, though slightly slower than it had used to do, but it was moving well enough. The canteen she was headed to wasn't that far away, so Seeal maintained a reasonable pace all the way there, glancing at the uppermost pad on her arm which displayed the latest report she'd sent Oneakka. She was vaguely aware of a few surprised and confused looks from people she passed in the corridors – presumably none of them had seen the goat before either. Seeal ignored them and soon enough arrived at the large open doorway to the canteen that was her and Oneakka's preferred meeting place.
The second she entered, she looked off towards their usual table, set in the most strategically placed spot in the large room, and, sure enough, there he was. He was sat in his usual seat, his back to the wall, shoulders wide, bare pale arms, and all his attention was focused on the pad in his hand. Presumably he was also listening to Massa who was sat across from him.
Seeal squashed the little flash of disappointment to see he wasn't alone. She preferred it when it was just the two of them. That said, she didn't mind Massa and his adopted baby Aki' presence. Before Oneakka had started staying in the Facility, she hadn't interacted with Massa much. He'd seemed stern and watchful, though polite enough. However, it had now become clear that Massa and Oneakka were old friends and clearly enjoyed spending time together. Well, Massa seemed to outwardly show that enjoyment more, as he seemed to take great delight in teasing Oneakka about anything. She hadn't seen anyone else tease Oneakka before like Massa did, no one else would probably dare, but he didn't seem to mind it. Well, most of the time.
Today, Massa was clearly doing the talking while also feeding little Aki set up on a high seat beside him. Oneakka's attention was focused on the pad in his left hand, while there was a large piece of bread held in his right hand that he appeared to have forgotten about it.
As Seeal headed across the large table-filled canteen, she glanced down and saw that the goat had kept up with her and was still following along behind. Happy her pregnant animal sidekick was still with her, Seeal assessed Oneakka as she approached. He appeared intact from his mission, having all his limbs still and no signs of any bandages. His hair had grown slightly, just fractionally longer at the front so that it was now slightly falling forward to touch his forehead.
She saw the second he noted her approach and looked up and round towards her, which brought a pale bruise into view over his left eyebrow. So, not entirely injury free after all.
As was annoyingly always the case, she felt that stupid flutter in her middle when locking eyes with him after having been apart. The whole handsome rugged hero thing never seemed to fade from the oaf of a stubborn Elite; it really wasn't fair. Still, she was pretty sure she kept the soft silly feelings well hidden.
She stopped a few feet from the table and her first words, without thinking, were, "the goat is here," she announced.
Okay, so made she overcompensated for the stupid soft feelings sometimes, but it was far better than gushing over seeing the man alive.
The goat, for her part, kept on walking towards Oneakka and he reached out a hand to greet it. "Well spotted," he responded sarcastically. He wasn't surprised at all at the goat's presence.
"You brought her here," Seeal concluded the obvious, which she should have realised.
"She's pregnant," Oneakka supplied by way of simple explanation.
"Yes, that's obvious," Seeal returned.
"Only recently," he argued though for some reason. The goat sat down by Oneakka's side, shifting her enlarged belly around with apparent ease.
"And how did that happen?" Seeal demanded, unsure why she was pushing the matter.
"You don't know how that happens?" Oneakka replied, one eyebrow lifting above his strangely blue eyes.
She rolled her eyes at the sexual reference. "I know how that happens," she responded, "I mean has she been pregnant the whole time on the Sythus or is this a new development?"
"Apparently she's been pregnant the entire time," Oneakka answered directly this time.
He was dressed in one of his under armour shirts; the shape the same as his moulded body armour, but presumably more comfortable when in the Facility. It meant his long pale muscular arms were still on display, one hand resting almost protectively on the goat's shoulder as it sat by him. Seeal had never met anyone with as pale a complexion as Oneakka, but it was, annoyingly, not unattractive. He kind of reminded her of sun warmed snow.
She looked away sharply and focused on moving around the table behind Massa and Aki to head to her usual seat on the other side of Oneakka.
"Good morning, Seeal," Massa smiled up at her as she passed by him. He held a spoon filled with something bright and orange in one hand, which he offered to baby Aki.
"Good morning, Honoured Elite," she returned politely to Massa as she reached her seat and set her tablet and pads down on the surface. As she did, she glanced at Oneakka's two pads lying on the table by his tray. He was looking through scan data again. She'd noticed that he had been working on something recently, something that made him frown each time he worked on whatever it was. Today's data looked like it was stellar scan readings.
Oneakka's pale strong hand came into view and he picked up the pads and turned them over into a stack. She met his gaze directly as she sat down beside him, letting him know she wasn't embarrassed about having taken an interest in whatever he happened to leave lying on the table for all to see. If the data were truly secret, he wouldn't be reading it in here anyway.
She slid her gaze to his new bruise, assessing the damage. She could make out a series of tiny small scratches in and around the bruise, but they were healed up almost completely. He'd either been hit by something or he'd hit his head against something with jagged edges. She wondered which had been the case.
"What happened to your forehead?" She asked directly as she turned in her seat, hanging her light jacket over the back of her chair. She didn't really need the thing, as the Facility wasn't cold to her, but she preferred to have the option to be warmer.
"A Wraith," he supplied simply as he looked away.
"I'm assuming it's not going to be hurting anyone else?" She asked, while belatedly realising that she hadn't selected any food on the way to the table; she would get something in the Project room where there was usually fruit available for long meetings.
"No, it won't," he confirmed.
"Good."
And like that, he was back and they were once again sat alongside each other at their usual table. She realised that she hadn't technically said hello to him, but it was too late now.
"You are looking well this morning, Seeal," Massa put in from across the table, smiling in that bright amused way he did when he was sat with her and Oneakka. "That's a new top you're wearing, isn't it?"
"Yes, it is," she confirmed, a little thrown for a moment by the compliment.
"It is a flattering colour on you. Doesn't she look nice, Oneakka?" Massa asked.
Oneakka muttered something indistinct as he leant away to pay more attention to the goat on his other side. Seeal didn't bother to roll her eyes at that - getting a compliment out of Oneakka required a minimum of saving an entire crew of a spaceship from immediate death, and, even then, he usually offered a simple nod. She didn't need his approval anyway.
"Thank you," she replied to Massa, glancing away to meet the little baby eyes of Aki, who was smiling at her. She smiled back, amused to watch as Massa cleaned orange goop from around Aki' little beaming face.
"You got back here late last night," Oneakka asked from her right.
She tensed instantly and looked at him sharply. "Did you speak to Madesh?" She demanded.
Oneakka had been lifting his previously forgotten piece of bread to his mouth, but now froze, his full absolute attention swinging back on her. "Why?" He asked, clearly not having known anything before she had over-reacted to his question.
"No reason," she attempted to dismiss the subject. "Did you get the report I sent you?"
"Yes, I've read it," he answered, his bread once again forgotten. "What happened last night?" He pushed. Of course he would.
"We visited a Satedan moon," she supplied an honest answer.
He lowered his bread. "We?" He asked, which wasn't quite the question she had expected him to focus on.
"My usual group from the Sythus," she supplied. "Did you read all the report on the database research?" She asked him.
"What was on the Satedan moon?" Oneakka asked though, blatantly ignoring her attempt to redirect the conversation.
She met his very blue eyes, but it felt slightly difficult to maintain eye contact this morning because she was feeling slightly guilty about ruining the music festival last night. It hadn't been her fault, but then the brawl wouldn't have happened if she hadn't been there, so did that make her responsible?
"We went to a music festival," she informed him.
"As part of your continuing mission to listen to every piece of music ever produced in the Alliance?" He asked, his stubborn interest shifting to teasing in the blink of an eye.
"Exactly," she agreed. "Now the report-"
"What happened at the music festival?"
"Music," she sighed. "Can we get to work? I have a meeting to go to soon."
"Ah, the latest project review meeting," Massa entered into the conversation.
"Yes," she confirmed. "Everyone's very nervous about it."
"It'll pass review," Oneakka dismissed the issue. "What happened at the festival?"
Seeal sighed heavily and lowered her pad. She looked at Massa as her only possible source of support. "Has he always been this difficult?"
"Yes," Massa confirmed her suspicion instantly. "But he was far more boisterous when he was younger."
"Boisterous?" Seeal repeated the surprising word, shocked at the description of Oneakka.
"I could tell you stories," Massa's dark eyes glittered.
"Like what?" Seeal asked, the prospect appealing.
Massa leant forward and pointed up to the centre of his head. "He used to have a mohawk."
Seeal almost dropped her jaw open at the sudden supply of such juicy information on the younger Oneakka. "Really?"
"Massa," Oneakka warned his friend.
"That seems very playful for you," she teased Oneakka, looking from the bright eyed Massa to him.
"I was young," he answered.
"Even when he first arrived here he was twice the height of any of the other children his age," Massa added.
"Typical," Seeal smiled, "always standing out in the crowd."
Oneakka glanced at her at that, almost as if he rather liked that interpretation.
"And the Mohawk stayed for many years," Massa commented.
"Don't you have to take Aki to the Infant Dayroom?" Oneakka asked him.
"True enough," Massa agreed with a smile. "What time is Halling expected to arrive today?" He asked as he set his large dark hands on the table top and started to stand up.
"Jobrill said she should reach the Sythus after mid meal," Oneakka answered him. "Halling said he'd come straight here after the handover."
Massa nodded as he picked up little Aki. "Good. And let me know when you find out what happened to Seeal at the music festival," he added as he smiled at her. "It sounds interesting."
"I'll find out," Oneakka promised as if there was no doubt.
Seeal glared at Oneakka. "It's not fair that you always get your way," she complained, which sounded annoyingly childish to her the second the words were out of her mouth.
Massa, about to move away, paused and leant forward across the table towards her.
"Maybe you should ask him what 'Oneakka' means in Ugun," Massa suggested.
"Massa!" Oneakka snapped angrily. The reaction was so sudden and angry, that Seeal almost jumped in her chair.
Massa just grinned though and walked away, clearly very pleased with Oneakka's dramatic reaction.
Oneakka glared hard at Massa as he left, watching as the other male turned and headed away across the canteen.
Seeal waited patiently, her interest beyond piqued.
Oneakka kept his profile to her, and, presumably only once Massa had left the canteen, he finally picked up his pad again and tapped it awake. "We should discuss the report."
Seeal wasn't going to go for that. "So, what does Onea-"
"No," he interrupted her firmly, glaring at her now.
"No?" She purposefully misinterpreted him. "That would be a good name for you; you're always stubborn and difficult."
He narrowed his eyes at her. "Says the woman who won't tell me what happened at a music festival."
"It's not important; unlike your name."
"I'm not going to tell you," he stated definitively, giving her his best stubborn look.
"Why not?" She pushed.
"Because it's private," he answered. It was actually a good answer, but she had other options.
"There's bound to be translations of the Ugun language in the Alliance database," she considered out loud.
"None of them include name translations," he informed her.
She narrowed her eyes at him, trying to tell whether he was bluffing or not. "I don't believe you," she tested.
"If you want to waste hours of your time going through the database for nothing, that's your business."
She studied him, trying to work out if it was worth some of her time to see if he was right. He looked pretty confident in his statement.
"Why are you still running the credit channel checks?" He asked, indicating the report.
She sighed heavily. "Do we have to have this discussion every single time?"
"You keep making the argument that it could lead to something useful, but it's been weeks and you've found nothing," he countered.
She was aware that already there was a more relaxed feel in the air between them; now it was just the two of them.
"There's only nothing until I find something," she argued with a smile.
He shook his head at her logic, but a faint smile crossed his face before he turned back to the pad's screen. "Why didn't Robiah reply about the shipping intell?"
"There was something about a delay in supply information," she answered as she returned her attention to the data again.
"Delay?" Oneakka asked.
She looked round, surprised at the concern in his voice. "I think it's something to do with the border issues."
One brown eyebrow lifted. "What do you know about any border issues?"
"I read the recent news in the links," she answered. "I assumed he was referring to the reprisal attacks from the Wraith along the border from the Nest System."
"Maybe," he answered, but she could tell he wasn't convinced.
"Something else going on?" She asked, wondering if it had anything to do with his little side project that he wasn't sharing with her.
"Hopefully not," he answered distractedly. "There's not much more on the former Councillor's history you were searching."
"No," Seeal frowned. "Hardly any dirt; makes you wonder why Toshka had a file on the woman if there wasn't anything useful there."
"Apparently one only finds something useful by obsessively searching for it," Oneakka repeated her own argument.
"I'm not obsessive," Seeal objected.
"How many pieces of music have you collected in the last few weeks?" He challenged, looking round again, his sharp intense stare back on her.
"That's different," she disagreed. "My interest in music is a hobby."
"Hobby is just another term for an obsession."
"You have more books and scrolls in your Sythus quarters than are in some libraries," she pointed out.
"I never said I wasn't obsessive," he answered, surprising her, as did his smile. "There's nothing new here," he concluded of the report, the stunning smile disappearing instantly as he turned back to the pad.
"But some possible avenues," Seeal pointed out the positive, but he was right, there had been little progress in the last few days.
Oneakka dropped his pad to the table and sat back in his chair with what sounded like a frustrated sigh.
There was definitely something up with him and she guessed it was this extra unknown project of his. Whatever it was, it had been stewing in him for weeks now, but she didn't have enough clues to work out what it might be about yet. Clearly something involving stellar scans, or was that just his normal Elite work?
She studied his slightly stressed looking profile and realised that she really wanted to say something to make him feel better. She'd kept asking what he was working on, but he always avoided answering her. She guessed it was something top secret, or, perhaps, something personal.
"What happened in the music festival?" He asked into the quiet pause, unsurprisingly not letting the matter drop.
She let out a heavy breath. "I inadvertently started a mass brawl," she confessed.
He clearly hadn't expected that answer, but then the whole event had been a surprise for her too. "How?" he asked, bemused.
"They're Satedans, it doesn't take much."
He angled his head in agreement. "True."
"It was the festival's own security that were to blame."
"Sure," Oneakka uttered doubtfully.
She glared at him. "It wasn't my fault."
"Your life mantra," he replied with a heavy dose of teasing and, annoyingly, knowing her well now.
She pulled a face at his comment. "I did the right thing. I pointed out a wanted criminal to security and they decided to rush the band on the stage-"
"Why the band?"
"I think Nessus was perhaps acting as their manager or something," she shrugged off the small detail.
"Nessus, the infamous war criminal the Satedans announced they captured this morning?"
"Yes," she confirmed.
"Did you know him?" He asked with a frown.
"No," she confirmed for him, "but Creass was part of the group that 'removed' him from the criminal ranks."
"So how did pointing out a wanted criminal cause a mass brawl?" He asked, sounding like he was honestly interested in how it had come about.
"Nessus was stood in the wings of the stage and Satedan security rushed the band while they were playing, and the rest was their fault."
"The rest?" He prompted.
Seeal returned her full attention to her report. "Some looting and...some fires." She looked quickly back to him. "I didn't start them."
He shook his head, but appeared more amused than anything, which was good.
"I should call you 'Trouble' rather than 'Raven'," he muttered as he picked up another pad from the table. "Did you and Madesh keep to the training programme the last few days?" He asked.
"You ask that like you haven't already checked we were in the usual gym together for long enough to have done the training programme," she guessed.
"You could have been sitting and talking the whole time," he countered.
"Me, maybe, but not Madesh," she replied.
He conceded that point to her as well with a vague shrug. "Did you keep to the programme?" He asked as he tapped his pad's screen, calling up those lists of stellar scans again.
"Yes," she confirmed heavily. "Mostly," she added though.
Blue eyes turned back to her, looking at her from the corners of his eyes. This side of his profile was untouched by scars or ink, and the expanse of pale skin only made his unusual blue eyes seem more piercing.
"There may have been some talking that slowed us down," she admitted.
"Talking about visiting music festivals."
"And other places," she amended.
"It's important to keep to the training programme," he insisted more seriously now. He had been pretty insistent about the training. It was almost as if he was expecting trouble.
"I can hold my own in a fight," she stated, again not for the first time.
"You need to be proficient in all forms of weaponry."
"I don't see how likely it is that I find myself cornered by a Wraith and all I have is a javelin."
"How about a long pointed stick?"
"When is that likely to happen?" She pushed.
"It's happened to me," he answered, slightly smugly.
"You're an Elite warrior."
"You're living with Elite warriors. We must always be prepared for an attack."
"The Elite life mantra," Seeal muttered as she turned to pick up her jacket. "Well, as thrilling as catching up has been, I have to leave for the project meeting."
"Training this evening will be the same time as before," Oneakka stated as she stood up.
"Of course it will," she replied as she gathered up her tablet and pads. "Are you going to take the goat back to wherever it's living?"
"Didn't you find her in the Hydroponics Bay?" Oneakka asked, looking up from his data list.
"No, she was waiting for me outside my quarters, like she used to do on the Sythus," Seeal reported as she moved around the table to leave. "I have no idea how she knew I was here, let alone found my quarters." The goat was dozing, sat slumped against Oneakka's chair.
"Probably your smell," Oneakka supplied, which, though no doubt accurate, had a clear teasing tone to it.
Seeal paused. "Are you implying I smell?" She knew she didn't; she'd just showered.
"All creatures smell," Oneakka returned his focus to his pad, slipping into that intense focus of his. As soon as she was out of sight he would no doubt forget her. "Some more than others," he added though.
Seeal glared at him, but he was focused on the pad.
She resisted the urge to sniff at herself to make sure she didn't stink.
"Maybe I should get good at throwing a javelin," she muttered.
As she predicted, his eyes lifted up to her as she moved away, having heard her.
She smiled overly sweetly to him over her shoulder and then continued on her way to the canteen's exit. She shifted her tablet and pads around in her arm, and turned her mind towards the fast approaching meeting. She was prepared, but she had to focus her mind now on what was required of her to report to the review panel.
As she reached the exit out of the canteen, she paused and glanced back towards Oneakka, now sat alone at the usual table. Well, apart from the goat.
Even from the distance across the room, Seeal could see that the darker mood had settled over Oneakka again. He hadn't moved and all his attention was on the pad in his hand still, but she could tell. It was in his posture, the furrow to his half-inked and half-bruised brow, and the squashing of his upper lip. Something was really worrying at him.
Well, if he wasn't going to share then she couldn't help.
She turned and left, wishing that she didn't want to know so badly.
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TBC