Author's Note:
Let me say thank you to all of you who've reviewed this. I really appreciate your words and they help keep me going. You also help me see what my writing look like through other's eyes, which is vital to any author. Please keep them coming, both short and long, and questions are fine too.
bythewayr asked whether my comment about ``the loss of their [Arume] men'' in chapter 1 was my invention or canon, so I figure that others of you may also wonder this. Thanks for asking. While my comment on having to make things up might hint that I did, the loss of Arume men actually has some backing. They are definitely an all-female race now, but they started off with both sexes. This was stated in the ``Chronicle'' on the BeStack official Japanese Blue Drop site. The following events are listed happening some indeterminate time before the anime:
* Abnormal decrease of male birthrate on the aliens' home planet.
* Union/symbiosis with nanomachines
* They become an exclusively female race
There's also mention of this in Blue Drop: Tenshi no Bokura manga, volume 2, chapter 11: Razael talks of male Arume in the distant past. I'll refrain from saying more about this here to avoid spoilers, though I'm sure there will be some manga (and of course anime) spoilers in the story itself as it develops.
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Blue Drop: Angel's Home: Chapter 3
A Friend
A polite knock on Mari'il's door preceded its sliding open. She looked up, surprised, as few of her recent visitors bothered with such niceties. Standing in the door was a lady Mari'il had never seen before. Her dark flowing hair echoed the gentle smile on her face. Instead of a Fleet uniform or lab coat, she wore a tan skirt and a cream, turtle-neck, sweater whose soft style seemed to match the expression on her face. ``May I come in?'' she asked.
Mari'il stammered agreement and gestured to one of the chairs in the room. As the newcomer entered and sat down as invited, Mari'il thought that she was one of the rare Arume with dark hair, like Ekaril. Normally their nanomachines broke down the natural coloring, effectively bleaching their hair.
``Pardon my interruption. Please allow me to introduce myself,'' she began. ``My name is Ariel, and I'm on the staff here at Fleet Medical. I just recently found out about you and would like to learn what I can from you.''
A look of panic and rejection crossed Mari'il's face as she remembered the tests that Zephrael had already put her through.
``I'm sorry,'' said Ariel, noticing this pain, ``I didn't mean to imply doing anything to you that you wouldn't wish done, or to bring up bad memories.''
Mari'il looked at her quizzically, then Mari silently asked Ekaril, [[ Is she someone you knew before? ]]
[[ No, this is my first time seeing her too. What do you think of her? ]]
[[ I don't know, but I'm getting a good feeling about her somehow. ]]
``What I would like to do,'' continued Ariel, ``with your permission of course, is to spend some time together, just talking, so we can learn from you and your people. Unlike some here,'' A flash of unpleasant memory crossed her face. ``I don't feel that Forime have nothing to teach us just because they lack technical advancement.'' She smiled. ``Actually, I think you probably know much we've lost and have discovered other things we never have. I want to respect your privacy, but if there's anything you're willing to share, I would appreciate learning. Also, if there's anything I can tell do to help make your life here easier, I would like to.''
Mari'il nodded in agreement.
``Anyway, I don't want to take too much of your time now, since I stopped by unannounced. If you don't mind I'd like to come back later and talk with you some more. Would tomorrow afternoon be all right with you?''
``Sure,'' Mari'il agreed quietly, saddened that she probably lacked the power to say no as she had so little control over her life now. Then she dared. ``Um, would you mind coming and joining me for dinner instead? I... I... eating by myself gets lonely.''
``Of course,'' replied Ariel with a kind smile. ``I would love to join you. If it's all right with you, we could go out to dinner. I can come by and pick you up. Is there anything special you'd like?''
``Thank you,'' replied a surprised Mari'il. It had been too long since someone had shown her simple politeness this way, and she'd rarely been out of her room since returning to Arume. ``So far stuff has just been brought to me here. Anywhere will be fine.''
``You're welcome,'' said Ariel. ``I'll come by and pick you up after work if that's all right with you. Also, would you mind if I looked at the public parts of the files on you? I wanted to ask you, as I really don't want you to feel I'm prying into your private affairs.''
[[ How do you think we should answer, ]] Mari asked silently.
Ekaril thought there was nothing to be gained by saying no.
``Sure. Go ahead,'' replied Mari'il. ``And thank you for asking.''
Ariel rose to leave, telling Mari'il. ``I'll see you this evening, then. Hopefully we can find somewhere you'll enjoy eating.'' She paused in the door and turned back to Mari'il with a smile. ``And thank you for talking to me.''
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The door closed behind Ariel, and Mari'il just sat staring at it for a while. [[ Mari dear, ]] Ekaril asked silently, [[ do you think that she's just being polite to get us to drop our guard? ]]
[[ It doesn't seem that way to me. But of course I also can't tell for sure. Zephrael and her assistants just treat us like an object and never tried this kind of subterfuge to get anything from us—though I do wonder were some of our things might have disappeared to. Ariel's actually treating us like a person here, even an equal. I hope she's sincere. ]]
[[ That would be nice. So, together with you, I will hope. ]]
Mari smiled inwardly. [[ Then there's another reason I want to think good of her, but I didn't want to bring it up before. ]]
[[ Oh? What's that? ]] asked Ekaril
[[ Her hairstyle reminds me of yours. And I would never want anything bad associated with that. I really hope she's nice. ]]
Mari'il laughed out loud for the first time in a while, as the two enjoyed this simple observation and memory.
ooo OOO ooo
That evening brought another polite knock on Mari'il's door, and once again it opened to reveal Ariel standing there. ``Come on in,'' invited Mari'il.
They headed out to take Ariel's skimmer to a restaurant. ``You don't need to be so formal and always walk,'' Ariel commented.
``I'm sorry. I have to,'' answered Mari'il, chagrined. ``I can't float like Arume can.''
``No. I'm the one who should be sorry,'' replied a contrite Ariel. ``I didn't mean to criticize, I was trying to make you feel comfortable and forgot for a moment that you have a Forime body. ...I guess saying `you're a Forime' isn't quite right either.''
``Don't worry. You're being kind to me, not critical.''
``I also need to apologize for only talking to `Mari' earlier,'' continued Ariel. ``Until I'd read your files, I had no idea that there are actually two of you to talk to. I didn't mean to exclude you, Ekaril. I'm sure you learned a lot on Forime and I'd appreciate your insight as well as Mari's.''
``That's all right. You didn't know then and were still polite. Thank you for talking to both of us now.''
The two got into Ariel's skimmer and she had it take them to Sabrael's, a small restaurant that she knew in the middle of town. ``Will this be all right with you?'' asked Ariel as they headed out. ``Since you said you didn't have any preference for dinner, I figured we could go here. I've always enjoyed it and hoped you might also.''
Mari'il agreed it sounded interesting, so they got out and Ariel sent her skimmer off to park itself and await her summons to come take them back. They headed inside where Sabrael greeted Ariel as a long-familiar customer and friend. Ariel introduced her to her new friend, Mari'il. Sabrael happily greeted Mari'il, welcoming her to the restaurant, and chatted pleasantly with them as she showed them to a table for two in the back of the restaurant. It was out of the way and had a nice view of the city out the window.
``This seems a perfect table for chatting like this,'' commented Mari'il. ``Did you call ahead and ask for it?''
``No. Sabrael just seems to be able to tell things like that without saying. I don't know how she does it, but I'm not going to argue.''
Mari'il laughed, agreeing with her.
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Mari'il and Ariel both enjoyed the dinner of grilled fish and vegetables. The sauce was familiar to Ekaril, but not Mari, though they both enjoyed it. While they ate, Ariel asked Mari'il if there was anything she'd like to know.
``Well, how about telling me about yourself?'' was her reply.
``Where should I start? Well, my primary training was in genetics, but since then I've been studying our dropping population. I've come to believe that there's more to it than just bio-genetics.''
``Do you mean that the mission to Forime, and all that effort, was in vain?'' asked Mari'il.
``No. I don't think that. Though I do think that the benefits may not come from the direction some folks were expecting.''
Mari'il cocked her eyebrow quizzically at Ariel.
``I think that Forime have much more to offer us than just a field of genetic diversity to harvest. I hope we can learn from their—or should I say your—culture and science as well.''
``You can say it either way.'' Mari'il laughed as she became more at ease with Ariel. ``It does get complicated. In some way's we're still working out how to be a mix of Mari, Ekaril and Mari'il. Don't worry about how to talk to us, we're all here.'' She smiled. ``And I know you're never trying to exclude any of us.''
``I think I can see why you'd be interested in me then,'' Mari'il continued. ``On the other hand, I'm not sure how much we can help. Mari doesn't remember anything that happened when she was young. In fact, all of her memories are after Ekaril's arrival on earth. But if there's anything either of us know that can help you—and all Arume—we'd be glad to.''
``Thank you,'' said Ariel. ``I really appreciate that: both the reassurance and your offer of help, even if limited. Still, I want to make sure I'm paying attention to all of you. Anyway, you were asking about me...'' And she continued from there, the conversation ranging over various topics, from more about Ariel, to the happenings on Arume since Ekaril left, to Mari'il and her past. True to her word, Ariel was more interested in Mari'il as a person than any ``scientific curiosities.'' She also seemed quite comfortable talking with Mari and Ekaril as individuals and as equals, as well as to the combined front of Mari'il they presented.
Ariel and Mari'il finished their dinner and sat back to enjoy sipping the last of their drinks. ``Thank you,'' said Mari'il. ``It's been long enough we'd almost forgotten what it's like to share a meal like this.'' She looked up at Ariel, past her soft smile and into her deep blue eyes, framed by her long flowing locks of raven hair. And as she looked, she saw something of the kindness, the gentleness, the caring which were Ariel, so she finished, ``...to enjoy a meal like this with a friend.''
``Thank you, Mari'il,'' said Ariel, her smile now filling her whole face. ``I'm glad you enjoyed it. I certainly did.'' She drained the last of her drink. ``I hope you'd like to do this again. ...I would.''
``Yes, Ariel,'' she answered. ``I... We would also like that.'' Mari and Ekaril found themselves a little surprised at their answer, but in fullest agreement on this sentiment.
ooo OOO ooo
A few days later, Ariel came to Mari'il's room once more. After Mari'il invited her in, and she sat down opposite Mari'il in the chair offered her, Ariel began, ``I've been looking into things for you and wanted to tell you what I found so far. There are actually at least two types of diseases that mimic your lack of nanomachines. The two classes amount to either a deficiency of nanomachines or a problem controlling and communicating with them. There are several causes, some treatable and some not. Thankfully these diseases are almost never contagious, so people don't need to worry about being infected by you when we go out. Of course, your reason for these symptoms is because you weren't born with the nanomachines, so of course you can't be infectious. If you're interested, I can send you the articles on them.''
Mari'il nodded that she was and hoped she would be able to understand at least the basics of the articles.
``It also seems these nanomachines are more central to being Arume than I first thought. In addition to enabling us to reproduce without males and giving us enough personal gravity control to float off the ground, it seems that they do a lot more for us. For example, we wouldn't live nearly as long without them.''
``Ah,'' said Mari'il, ``So that's the reason Forime seemed to have such short lives. And thank you for the articles, I only know the basics about nanomachines that we all learned in school.'' She paused and laughed. ``Well, except for Mari, as they somehow didn't teach that on Earth.''
Ariel joined in her laughter. ``Thankfully there's someone here willing to teach her.'' She then continued telling more details of her research on these diseases and the nanomachines.
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In addition to just looking at nanomachine-related diseases, Ariel had looked into ``natural nanomachines.'' It turned out that Mari'il had a wider variety of symbiotic bacteria in her body than the average Arume. Ariel supposed that this likely applied to other Forime as well, as Arume nanomachines had taken over the functions of some of these microbes. They continued discussing how these microbes compared with the nanomachines, soon reaching the limits of both Ariel's and Mari'il's current knowledge of the field.
Ariel wanted to continue looking into these differences, as it seemed that even the remaining microbes were somewhat different. Ariel wondered if this difference in symbiotic microbes between Arume and Forime might be another factor in the declining Arume population. Perhaps something in the microbes they'd lost had affected the viability of children, or maybe their fertility. Mari'il also thought this sounded like a fruitful field of inquiry and wanted to help, though she wasn't sure what she could contribute beyond her example as a functioning Forime body.
[[ Maybe this can also help yo... our people, ]] commented Mari.
[[ Oh Mari! ]] Ekaril was as touched by Mari's identifying with Arume as by her desire to help them.
Ariel departed with a polite farewell and a promise to return with the results of her further investigations, leaving Mari'il to ponder what she'd been told and what she might do to help.