Civilization
"Okay." Chris was standing in the exam room of the ship with Buc and Poallo. He had flatly refused to leave his sister's side and no one wanted to push him. The others had gone back to work on fixing the craft's damage and getting them away from where the battle had been fought. The enemy would likely be looking for whatever had destroyed three of their number, and if they came in force, the damaged escort had little chance. "I have the same information that Alice did. Only that T'leth was a battle zone many years ago as humans tell time and apparently, the damage from the battle was enough to render the entire area lifeless." He frowned. "There are, unfortunately, many such zones in the oceans of this planet. Some even predate the wars that I have been reading up on in my spare time."
He wore a purpose built armored, gill equipped suit that Buc had fabricated for him. It let him breathe and survive the crushing depths. She had helped him into it after shooing everyone else from the exam room, sealing it and draining all the water so that he could change in peace. She was taking his safety very seriously after what had happened to Alice. Shame of hurting a noncombatant unintentionally aside, none of them wanted that Viper any angrier with them than she was even without her insanely powerful ship which had to be stalking them as well. The energy scars still lingered on the exam room floor.
"We do not know much of the wars ourselves." Poallo admitted. "Many records were lost. It is believed that was intentional. That the survivors did not want any of their descendants to discover the truth. All we know of T'Leth was that it was a haven. We did not start out looking for it, but now? It seems our only chance."
"And these attacks have pushed you beyond the point of desperation. So, you are trying anything at all, even provoking Matron Alley." Chris mused and Poallo nodded. "That was utterly insane. If not for Alice's desperate pleas, you would all be dead right now." Poallo looked at him and Chris shook his head. "Yes, those three strange vessels took us by surprise, but you saw how well they fared."
"True." Poallo admitted. "We have caused an incident with powerful beings who might have been allies. I take responsibility for what my team has done but that is for later. Such is for people of a higher pay grade than me to deal with. Right now? I need to get away from three squadrons of enemy who are tracking us somehow. To keep us safe as well as you and your sister." He waved at a hologram of the ocean that appeared in front of him. "The problem is that we are being hunted. Those raiders were one thing, but there are three more squadrons of them converging on us. I assume the Hammerhead will not help?"
"No." Chris didn't bother trying to dissemble. "The only reason they did what they did was because I was aboard as a noncombatant and they wanted to rescue me. As I am now on detached duty aboard your ship at the Matron's orders… That puts me squarely in the line of fire with you. They won't like it, but they too obey orders."
"You could have left." Buc said slowly. "But you wouldn't leave your sister while she lives."
"If the stasis field fails, she dies." Chris said with a glower. "But yes, until then she makes a good hostage." They really didn't have a counter to that. It was true, much as both disliked it. "I do not know what the Matron may know of T'Leth. She keeps a lot of secrets, most of which no one sane wants to know about. So, let us focus on what we know. You are being hunted. You have to flee. That is really your only option, true?"
"Yes, but if they are tracking us, which apparently they are since they fired on us without getting close enough for us to detect, fleeing will do nothing but drain our fuel reserves and leave us open to further attacks from beyond our passive sensor range." Poallo replied, still eyeing the holo.
"They are probably tracking the sonar pinger attached to the Tasoth." Chris said offhand and both the Gill Woman and Aquatoid stared at him. He shrugged. "My life is on the line too."
"Sonar… Wait! The dolphin guards! One of the dolphins tagged him with something when he went EVA, didn't they?" Poallo wasn't sure if awe or rage was appropriate, so he settled for understanding. Chris nodded. "And we never noticed…" He broke off and groaned! "...because it is not constantly transmitting." Chris nodded again. "Boomer! Exam room! Now!" He called out, knowing that the crew were listening.
The Tasoth grumbled but he did enter the room, only to freeze the captain started glowing with psi power. "Captain! I-"
"Shut up and don't move." The captain said with a growl worthy of a Deep One. "Buc?" The medic swept a scanner over the suddenly still Tasoth who stared at his leg as a part of it started to flash blue around a tiny point that gleamed metal. "Your wonderful, unauthorized EVA painted a target on us, Boomer."
"I…" The Tasoth started, but the captain had no patience left.
"Shut up!" The Aquatoid snarled. "I should jettison you with the rest of the garbage! Your insubordination nearly got us all killed and has definitely caused a diplomatic incident with an incredibly powerful psi. I should let you explain to her why you did what you did!"
"He disabled two sensor clusters." Chris spoke up and everyone looked at him. He shrugged. "That allowed you to get further away than you should have been able to normally. Good tactics, but disobeying orders in battle is a never a good idea for any soldier. Most of the ones I know have a short way of dealing with such in combat." That was dry enough that Boomer actually winced. "What will you do with it?"
"Get it off!" Boomer snapped, holding his leg out wide as if contemplating chopping it off. Buc reached for her gear, but Chris made a noise and everyone looked at him again.
"My people are tracking me right now, so they do not need that." Chris tilted his head in query. "Do you have decoys?"
"What are 'decoys'?" Poallo asked, confused but Boomer spoke up.
"Decoys were devices intended to mimic the signature of vessels. Used as diversions, countermeasures or to open the way for ambushes." The weapon specialist said slowly, then looked from Chris to the thing on his leg. "We have none at the moment, but I can make something quickly. Put this… thing on that and send it off?" He inquired and Chris nodded.
"If they are tracking something else, it won't help." Chris warned. "But if they are tracking that, at the very least it will buy you time."
"Right." Poallo fought for calm and managed it after a bit of effort. "Buc, remove it." Boomer held totally still while Buc pulled a cutter form her gear and took one of his scales off with a clean slice. The tracker was embedded in the scale and Poallo picked it up as Boomer retreated a step. "Boomer, come with me. We are going to build this 'decoy' thing and while we do that, we are going to discuss discipline again."
"Yes, sir." Boomer all but wilted at the rage that was not quite surfacing in the Aquatoid Commander's tone.
They left the exam room together and Chris turned to the table that held the stasis field. Buc scanned him and he growled at her, but his heart wasn't in it.
"I do not like your nitrogen readings." Buc was quiet, but firm. "Do you have any discomfort?"
"Physically? No." Chris replied. "Emotionally? Spiritually? I am very angry. Furious."
"You have every right to that." Buc replied as she walked to her station and started working on something. "We kidnapped you, hurt your sister. We may have killed her and for what?" She slumped a bit. "You cannot believe me, but I am sorry. I lost all of my kin in the initial human attack. Other groups have offered to take me into their families… but…" She trailed off as Chris nodded.
"But you feel such would be a betrayal." Chris was reflective as he stared at the stasis field. "I have talked with people about my own grief and anger over what happened to us. I have lost family too, but only a few and never all at once. I am very angry with you, but…"
"You have every right to be angry." Buc slumped at her station. "I am with myself too. I tried. I tried to help her! I didn't know what to do! I don't know if I hurt her worse than she was hurting! I could tell she felt pain when the ship was hit and… I tried."
"The Matron was talking to her at the time, trying to help her too. You tried to help her." Chris heaved a long sigh. "She didn't blame you. She was always so curious. So polite even when hurting. She wanted to learn. To understand things. To try and make things better. We were not made for that, but we all understood her desire to be more than we are."
"If I can save her, I will. No matter the cost." Buc promised and Chris spun to stare at her.
"Do not say things like that." Chris said firmly enough that Buc straightened. "This is bad, no question. A diplomatic incident at best and another war at worst, but for now, we are all alive. You live."
"I wake up sometimes and I do not want to." Buc admitted. "I see my family in my dreams, screaming, dying. Begging me for aid that I am helpless to give. It is ridiculous. They died instantly when our farm was hit, I know that, but…"
"But the dreams come anyway." Chris said very quietly and Buc stared at him. "I know. I have such dreams myself. I was in a mind link with my brother when he flew, fought and nearly died. I was in another with a brother when he died. Others have flown since him, but all… All of them but him bond to the ships they connect to and cannot be removed without dying. If we take too much damage, even if our craft is not destroyed, we die. Or just become brain dead." Buc's face turned horrified and he nodded. "Alice's link was fragile since she was not directly connected. It wasn't anything you did. The damage your ship took didn't help, but she was dead or trapped in the ship forever the moment she linked."
"She saved us." Buc was stunned. "She knew it would kill her or enslave her and she did it anyway." Chris nodded, silent. "I… I am sorry." She bowed her head. "After so long fighting, I had forgotten what idealism was. What optimism was." She gave herself a shake and turned back to her console. "I have full scans of what happened to her. I will do what I can. Find something to fix this! Even if it costs me everything, I have to help her!"
"Live for yourself." Chris muttered but she did not reply. "Buc, she would not want you to throw your life away for her."
"It is my job!" Buc snapped and then she jerked. "I am sorry. I didn't mean that!"
"Yes, you did." Chris wasn't arguing. He wasn't judgmental. He was quiet, but also sure. "You see, I know a lot of people who feel their job is to place themselves, their wits and their weapons between those who cannot fight and those who wish them ill." Buc turned and stared at him and Chris smiled at her, but it was melancholy. "I feel the same way. When I am healed, I will take my own place in a ship. To defend those who cannot defend themselves."
"Forever?" Buc asked, stunned.
"Well, until I die anyway. We haven't figured out how long we live when connected." Chris admitted with a shrug. Buc stared at him and then looked away. "Um… what?" Chris asked, confused.
"Among my kind, that motion, rolling the shoulders that way means something very different from what you probably meant." Buc said very carefully. Chris stared at her through his faceplate and then swallowed hard.
"Did I give offense?" Chris asked. Buc shook her head. "Oh. That kind of gesture." He made a face. "I um… well… The only people I have ever been around have been my family and…" Buc stared at him, horrified again and he started to shrug, but then stopped and shook his head. "Well. Not going there."
"Your bodies were damaged?" Buc asked, confused.
"No. We were in what the healers call homeostatic stasis." Buc stared at him, her already large eyes going even bigger at that. "We didn't age at all from when we were changed into these forms. So, we were all kid bodies with adult minds." Buc's mouth dropped open at that.
"How many-" She broke off and groaned. "Never mind, I am an enemy. You cannot tell me how many of you there are. But that is evil."
"Yeah." Chris slumped a bit. "We all want to fly because for so long we were trained to do that, but we were always trapped on the ground. Constrained by Advent and its rules. Chained to learning of how to fly and kill."
"You were freed, it seems." Buc offered and Chris smiled, but then he paused.
"I hope a smile is not a challenge or invitation to eat me among your people." Chris was rewarded by a clear laugh from the Gill Woman.
"No." Buc smiled back at him, her jagged teeth hidden, clearly not hostile. "Not like that. If you were waving a weapon or threatening me that would be different, but a smile like that with teeth covered? No."
"Good. We have had enough miscommunications already." Chris relaxed a little and then he grunted and bent over in pain. Buc was at his side before he could even stand up. "I am all right!"
"I will be the judge of that, thank you very much!" Buc scanned him and then she scanned him again. "What the hell?" She demanded as her scanner beeped.
"What?" Chris asked, confusion warring with concern. Then he grunted again. "Ow."
"Don't move." Buc said and then she played a scanner over his abdomen. "Ah, what is this? I don't know your physiology. Can you contact your… Matron was it?" She asked and Chris nodded. "Ask her what fluid buildup here means." She waved at his very lower abdomen where his legs met his torso and he slumped. "Please?"
"I know what it means." Chris said in a monotone.
"Well, I don't. How do I treat this?" Buc demanded.
"You can't." Chris was still talking in monotone.
"If I do not treat this, you will harm yourself. The fluid build up is making that extensible… um…" She broke off as Chris looked away. "Uh… I studied a little mammal biology. Please tell me that is not what I think it is." Chris would not meet her eyes. "Really?"
"My body is weird." Chris said with a grunt. "I am not really… Uh… human and I am… not… in control of that part of my anatomy. Ow!"
"Lie down. Now." Buc commanded and Chris managed to lie down carefully. She growled to herself as she started scanning again. "Damn it! I knew you had that. I knew what that part of your body was for! Why didn't I think about that when I designed that armor?"
"How could you know my body would react like this?" Chris grunted again. "I certainly didn't! The Matron warned me it might happen at embarrassing times, but this is ridiculous."
"Yes, it is." Buc admitted. "But it is also a physiological response to stimuli both from your brain and from the environment. I never thought mammal studies would be worth anything. Silly me." She laid both of her clawed hands on his abdomen and he gasped as power flared. "There. Better?"
"Yes. That was not normal psi power." Chris said very carefully as she retracted her hands.
"Yes, it was." Buc replied, rising and moving back to her console. "You can get up."
"No, it wasn't." Chris rose gingerly, but nothing hurt now. She did not turn from her console.
"If it wasn't normal psionic powers, any member of the fleet would be duty bound to end me on sight." Buc said and Chris went still. "Anyone who presents such powers is a danger to our entire collective peoples."
"Why?" Chris asked.
"Because Molecular Control that is how the Old Masters controlled us." Buc bowed her head. "The implants gave them longer reach, but the power to alter our physiology at will was what kept us slaves." When she turned to face him, her scaley face held desolation. "I… I am an abomination."
"No." Chris said very softly. "You are a victim. A survivor. Psi powers have been known to mutate in times of great stress. Yours are different enough that I was mistaken. It was psi." He offered. "The sudden lack of pain made me giddy." Buc eyed him, but then she returned to her work. "What are you doing?"
"I am redesigning the suit to avoid that problem in the future." Buc replied. "I think it is the inner membrane that is causing it and if I can alter it in that part of the suit a bit, it won't… um… slide."
"That would be good." Chris moved to stand by her and then spoke every softly. "You are not an abomination no matter what you might you think of yourself."
"You do not know me." Buc did not turn. "I... I need to get this done."
"And I need to sit down for a bit." Chris moved to the table where Alice lay in stasis and sat beside it. He began a basic meditation and Buc worked. Both of them ignored every other implication of what had just happened. This was neither the time nor the place.
"Decoy is ready for launch." Poallo said as he entered the room, only to pause as he saw Chris sitting. "Chris, are you well?"
"As well as can be expected." Chris said as he finished his meditation. "Minor problems only and Buc is working on fixing them." Poallo looked at Buc who nodded but did not turn from her work. "Where are you planning to go?"
"Those raider craft are not very long ranged." Poallo said after a moment. "If there is a base out there, the fleet might stumble onto it by accident. I am duty bound to search."
"I can help with that." Chris allowed. "I have been perusing my archives for anything in this vicinity and I have records from the war that mentioned T'Leth. What would we be looking for?"
"A base would have separate hangars for each craft and facilities for refueling and repair…" Poallo stilled when Chris did. "What?"
"Three hangars. Repair facilities. I might just know where that might be." Chris said softly and Poallo stared at him before nodding.
"Show me." Poallo moved to a console on the far wall from where Buc was working and Chris moved to his side. A holographic map of the ocean floor appeared and Poallo turned to Chris who nodded and pointed at a section of it.
"During that war, XCOM had a base in this area that was listed as attacked and overrun. Somewhere in this sector. Built into the seabed and hidden." Chris frowned but then nodded. "It wasn't listed as destroyed. Just overrun."
"So it might still exist." Poallo frowned. "We will search carefully." Chris opened his mouth and Poallo shook his head. "No. I have already caused a diplomatic incident with your Matron. The last thing I want to do is take you into combat intentionally."
"What are you going to do? Drop me off in the pod?" Chris stilled as Poallo nodded. "Um… If it is an XCOM base, I can probably get you in past any defenses or doors that are still powered." That was quick enough that Poallo stared at him. "I would rather not go back in that, if it is all the same to you."
"You Matron is already furious with me and mine." Poallo said reasonably. "She has cause. I am not going to give her more."
"I will talk to her." Chris promised.
"You are not going! You are a noncombatant!" Poallo snarled but was Buc chuckling?
"And which of us would immediately send any guards or automated sensors into alert status if seen?"
"You are not going!"
"We will see."
"Gah! Kids!"