037: Take What You Can – Six
Life not directly under the eye of their thalatte captors wasn't very different from what it was normally. There were still monitoring devices aplenty, and everyone within the long term care ward knew that if anything they did was too suspicious, the thalatte that were doubtlessly watching them remotely would have the bombs in their Longan Units going off without a modicum of hesitation.
But without their commanding officers breathing down their necks, those working and recovering in the medbay could get up to some ludicrously wild behaviour, like having polite conversations about anything else beyond their duties, tell each other jokes or stories, or admit how they were really feeling about the situation they'd been forced into.
"I hate it here so much," Khari had said quietly one day while Marinos was checking over the progress on her burns, "Not here here, but the military, you know? Being a slave to the Thalatte, fighting their stupid battles for them, building tools to aid in the subjugation of my own people. That's not what I went to space for."
"What did you go to space for?" Marinos asked. She was pressed up against Khari's cot, one hand braced against the side of it as she leaned over with one of her medical scanners. Khari surreptitiously placed her hand over the human's. Casual touch was another thing they'd been getting away with while not under direct oversight.
Khari sighed, staring off into the middle distance as she lost herself in recollection. "To lose myself? Grew up on a colony world along the border of Deorviran space, Emerl. We were constantly being attacked by Thalatte forces, to the point where everyone I grew up with was dead or orphaned by the time I hit my first decade. While those who were old enough went off joining up with whenever Deorviran military unit that would take them, us youngsters banded together in loose packs and would cause whatever trouble we could for the Thalatte. We did alright for cubs with no formal training, but as you'd expect, casualties were high. Idealism wasn't enough to fuel us, especially with the losses we were taking, so we made a plan to get out of there. Steal a shuttle and try to make it to the homeworld. We never made it out of the system."
"What happened?" Marinos asked, turning her hand so she could properly hold Khari's.
The deorviran shot her a sad smile as she said, "Thalatte blockade. They disabled the shuttle and then swarmed it, guns blazing. Half of us were killed, while the survivors were drafted into the military. We'd shown promise for getting that far, after all, even as cubs. Hit my age of majority a few years into my servitude. Been a slave longer than I've been free."
"Fuck," Marinos whispered, heart breaking for the other woman, "I'm sorry."
"I appreciate the sympathy," Khari said, giving her hand a squeeze, "So what about you? How'd you end up working for the enemy?"
"Pride, mostly," Marinos said, unable to suppress a mirthless snort of laughter, "I was the youngest of four daughters, and I always felt like I had to prove myself. One sister was a polyglot, for human and alien languages alike, so she ended up getting a prestigious diplomatic job. Another became a pilot for one of the colonizing firms, so she was part of the teams that were out there finding new worlds for us to settle. And the last started up her own transport company, at first just bring goods too and from the different locations on our homeworld, but then she got contracts with colonies in other systems. I wanted to do something to stand out from the rest of them, something just as prestigious, and I ended up getting into the medical field. And I was good at it. Not just human biology, but xenobiology as well. I was so good that I got a posting on one of our trade stations right out of medical school. And I mean 'right out' quite literally! Had my bags packed and ready to go before my graduation ceremony was even begun, and within the hour of it being over, I was on a ship to my new job. Only it was pounced on by Thalatte forces the moment we came out of subspace - they'd already destroyed the station - and they had us in shackles before the engines even had a chance to cool down. And I've been stuck here ever since."
"We've gotta get out of here," Khari barely moved her mouth as she whispered this, "We never got the chance to do anything with our lives!"
"Believe me, I've been looking for a way out. Well, beside the obvious answer." Marinos whispered back, before drawing her thumb across her throat and making a squelching noise of exsanguination. That got a laugh out of Khari.
"Tell you what, if I find a way, I'll do whatever in my power to get you out with me." Khari told her quietly, squeezing her hand once more.
"Same goes for me," Marinos replied, squeezing back, "We need to ditch this place and go absolutely buck wild! Being stuck working for these fuckers until we die is not how I wanna go!"
"Of course, it took us longer than either of us would have liked to get out of there," Rhea told Elytra, "Not until the whole Storlayacas situation. And believe me, we were looking for ways out the entire time!"
Elytra couldn't help the sigh that escaped her. "As grateful I am to know you, I wish you'd gotten the chance to be free sooner than just a few months ago."
Rhea shrugged, lightly bumping her shoulder against her own. "It is what it is. Besides, all that extra time with the Thalatte just gave us more skills to thrive with now that we're out. They're never going to be able to get us back under their control. No one will. And not to be a Debbie Downer, but I'll die before I become anyone's slave ever again. I just wanna live more than that, so rest assured that I am going to do everything in my power to keep on living the life we're creating for ourselves here and now."
"And I will assist you in doing so in any way I can." Elytra swore.
Rhea smiled at her, a small but sincere thing. "I know you will. And trust that I'll do the same for you. But for now I could use your help in a little brainstorming. I've got this idea for a narrative beat, but I'm not sure how to work it into what we've got going on so far."
"Of course," Elytra returned the smile, "Tell me what you've got so far?"
Music begins, the slow and stead rhythm of a prelude. The promise of a symphony yet to come.
A medium sized room, the far wall a series of windows bracketed by elaborately carved pillars. Scenes of battle crawling up their entire length. Ancient battle. Swords. Spears. Faceless soldiers in resplendent armour.
Beyond the filigreed ironwork of the windows, an expanse of stars. The misty haze of a nebula. Shades of red paint the left half of the nebula, while the right was awash in blue.
Two figures seated at a small table.
On the left, all the feline grace of a trained killer, sits the Hand.
On the right, radiating the cool elegance of nobility, sits the Queen.
Before them on the table, a board filled with pieces. An archaic game of skill. The Hand reaches out, moves a piece forward to stand shoulder to shoulder betwixt two others.
"I see our entourage has grown."
The Queen moves one of her side pieces several squares up the board. A dangerous move.
"Indeed it has. You have misgivings?"
A lateral move and the Hand takes the Queen's piece.
"The Program is one thing. Something we can control. It's motives matter not when the kill switch is in your hands." At the mention of this, the Queen touches the pendant hanging from her neck as the Hand continues, "But these newcomers… what are they really after?"
Another of the Queen's side pieces is moved up the board. A dangerous break in her defensive line.
"The same thing as we are: vengeance. Disparate though our origins are, distant though our targets may be, they tread the same path as you and I."
Another of the Queen's pieces taken by the Hand. The assassin has the monarch outnumbered.
"Be that as it may, I question their loyalty to your cause. To you. What is to stop them, when they have what they seek from us, from turning that power on those they feel they no longer need?"
Another risky move by the Queen. Her front line lies fragmented. A reckless gambit.
"They have been bound to us through more than just revenge. Something far stronger. Tell me, what are your thoughts on the great machine in my possession?"
The Hand flinches over the board, her shock evident in the uneasy flick of her tail. After a moment, she moves a piece forward to relieve the Queen of another piece.
"A powerhouse, to be sure. The armies of your enemies, great though they may be, are nothing in the face of it."
The Queen moves a piece straight up the middle, directly for the highest concentration of the Hand's pieces. A sacrifice, but for what?
"One of our newcomers has such a machine of their own."
A violent flick of the Hand's tail. Distracted, she takes the Queen's sacrifice without a second thought.
"I did not think there was another like it."
A clear path between the Queen's most versatile piece, and the Hand's most valuable. The move brings victory to the Queen.
"Oh there is more to that machine, my friend, so much more. A power as ancient and dangerous as our own desires. It is calling out, seeking others of its kind. And it has its sights set on you."
The Hand frowned, a glance down at the board making it clear that the Queen had been several steps ahead of her for the entire game. A lesson, then, in how the Queen was treating those who had just so recently come under her banner. She looked up, wary.
"What do you mean by that?"
Reaching into her jacket, the Queen pulls out a data pad, handing it across the miniature battlefield. On screen is another machine, sister to the one she had fled her home in, bloody but unbowed.
"It is more that the mechs the machinists of the modern age can replicate. Greater still than the mighty Odazaen pulled from the ruins of races long passed. It speaks to me, its will singular, and I obey it as you obey me. So to does the machine in our allies possession command them. We are but pieces on the board, but the last players left them scattered. We will need to pick them all up before the game can begin anew, and I have found our next piece. Alas, it has been knocked into a corner only your nimble hand may reach."
The Hand flicked through images - details about security systems common the galaxy over, employee schedules in Galactic Standard rather than local time, a weather warning that could have been applicable to a hundred planets over. Seemingly generic details, but with the way the Hand's eyebrow rose, there had to be something in there the audience count' divine.
"What would you have me do?"
The Queen leaned back, crossing one leg over the other as she steepled her hands, one flesh and one machine.
"We will make landfall in a day's time, and shall be meeting our new allies on site. The acquisition of another great machine is our goal, a goal shared by this trio. Their designs on this piece matter not, for as I said, it will answer only to you. But they don't need to know that just yet. Our number shall be split, you to one side, and I to another. I will have you accompany their leader, the Chancellor, to retrieve this machine. I wish for her to see its might first hand."
The Hand sat forward, a knife eager for a hand to fill.
"And what of you? You expect me to leave you unguarded?"
An indulgent smile. A false eye flickering into combat mode.
"You forget yourself. I am far from helpless."
Hand to heart. A bow of repentance.
"Of course, my Queen. Forgive me."
A hand of metal brushing away the statement.
"A slight that doesn't require forgiveness. You speak from a place of loyalty, I know this. As for your concern, I shall be accompanied by the one among them chosen by the machines we seek. Her compulsions are the same as mine. She will see no harm comes to me. As for our own goal, there are other trinkets in that repository that will further our ends. A task divided is a task completed that much sooner. I have no desire to tarry in the lands of those who assume age has anything to do with superiority."
"Of course. I am ready to leave on your command."
The Queen stood, her Hand rising without hesitation an instant later.
"Then let us depart. Our destiny awaits."
Falling into step, the two strode from the room, music and light both fading in their wake.
As the lights came back on in the rec room, Pryseia turned to the others, asking, "Thoughts?"
Rhea's smirk was knowing as she said, "So the Hand and the Chancellor are going to be spending some time together, huh?"
Pryseia volleyed her own smirk right back, replying, "As if I would be so cruel as to separate the two of you, through fiction or otherwise."
Malakh rolled her eyes, smacking Pryseia with her tail, though her grin was one of embarrassment.
"As for the video itself, I thought it was fantastic," Elytra said, motioning over to the human, "And it also ties in with something Rhea and I were working on this afternoon!"
"Ideas for story lines in the future and all that," Rhea carried on, "Elytra was looking into popular trends with Kith broadcasts, and found that romance is a popular genre."
Flickering with amusement from her display, Viatrix gave a devious little chuckle, "How convenient for us to have a pair of lovebirds already built into the crew! The two of you won't even need to act all that much!"
Nevara shrugged, all nonchalance, though Elytra could feel the amusement coming off her like a crisp autumn breeze, "If anything, it will save us from having to edit around the longing stares you two will no doubt be aiming at one another."
"Shut. Up." Malakh's reply was muffled as she hid her face in her hands, slumping in her seat, though it did little to hide the grin lighting up her features.
"Alright, alright, teasing aside," Rhea said fondly as she leaned forward to activate the data screen on their beverage table, "I'd like to run through the details of the plan one more time out of character before we get into things tomorrow. We'll be in character for the actual thing, but since this is going to be a recorded mission, rather than a live broadcast, we'll have a little wiggle room when it comes to being in or out of character for the edit later. We'll each have a camera, so we're going to be pretty spoiled for choice when it comes to the amount of footage we're going to have, especially since those are basically going to be running automatically while we get down to business."
"Indeed," Pryseia said as she leaned forward herself, "It would be safest to assume that nothing will go to plan when we actually get to the heist itself, but our plan will be the scaffolding we can build upon when we begin our mission. On that note, our endeavour begins with the acquisition of a delivery vehicle."
Later that night, her mind abuzz with plans and scenarios, Elytra tossed and turned in her bed, trying to will herself to sleep. Their mission wasn't set to begin until the evening the next day, after the tourists had departed and there would be little beyond the security guards in the Bakiz Institute, but she couldn't bring herself to settle down.
Not wanting to waste more time rotating aimlessly under the covers, Elytra left her room to seek out something to soothe her thoughts. An evening tea would probably go a long way towards that, so she headed off towards their mess hall.
She was surprised to find that she wasn't along.
"Oh, Pryseia. You couldn't sleep either?" She asked when she spotted the deupazing seated at the table, data pad in one hand, a mug of something steaming in the other. Aside from the plain white garb they'd been forced to wear in the arena on Iromay, this was the most dressed down she'd seen the other woman: a sleeveless shirt, shorts, and a pair of slippers. With so little on, the white scaring that littered the left side of her body was on striking display.
"A mind too restless is the enemy of rest," Pryseia replied, raising her mug in salute, "My blithe attitude in regards to our plan folding out as we desire notwithstanding, I find myself dwelling on the details of it."
"You aren't alone in that," Elytra said as she busied herself with the beverage dispenser, putting in the recipe for the most soothing tea she could think of, "I led a pretty boring life back home, so this is going to be the first proper crime I get up to. And in a museum filled with security systems from the most technologically advanced race in the galaxy? I won't lie and say I'm not worried about making a disaster of things."
Pryseia laughed a little at that. "If it's an comfort to you, I was as much of a wreck before my own first mission while under Thalatte control. And despite my misgivings, the mission was a success. This will be different, because all of us will be undertaking the task willingly and wholeheartedly. Now come, sit and sip with me. Let us banish our worries over a warm beverage. And know that by the evening next, we will have yet another Storlayacas in our hold."