039: Take What You Can – Eight
Within the Thalatte military, slave soldiers had no input as to where they were deployed. So it was that, as soon as Engineer First Class Khari was deemed fit to return to duty, her prosthetic attached and healthy skin grown over her limb and burn wounds, she was redeployed to some other theatre of war across the space the Thalatte were trying to conqueror.
Doctor Marinos knew this was going to happen. In fact, being separated from the scant few friendships she'd managed to forge while under Thalatte subjugation was the one thing she could guarantee on with any degree of certainty, but losing Khari stung more than she expected it to.
But due to the constant state of conflict that the Thalatte kept themselves in, crossing paths with her friends was just as inevitable as losing them.
There was the taciturn ship pilot vel-Ahllan, who'd been responsible for getting the Doctor into and out of dangerous war zones for years. The incredibly skilled yet incredibly reckless mech pilot Killzar had been on her operating table more times than the Doctor could count. And though Marinos was thrilled to see the both of them whenever deployments had them in the same area, it was different from how she could feel herself lighting up when Khari returned to her.
Despite how seriously she took her medical studies back on her homeworld, she'd still had enough free time to pursue romance between exams, so she knew what it felt like when she was catching feelings.
And the feelings she was developing for Khari were more intense than any of the flings she'd thrown herself into back home.
But given their situation, Marinos had no idea how to broach the subject with the other woman, let alone act on her feelings, so she kept it to herself.
Or, at least, she thought she had.
This particular deployment brought her to the same forward deployment base where Killzar and Khari both were stationed, the former the least injured Marinos had seen her in years. As she dressed her wounds, Marinos couldn't have guessed that the next words out of Killzar's mouth were going to be what they ended up being.
"Your heart seeks hers, does it not?"
Marinos froze, her breath catching in her throat as her eyes immediately darted to the far end of the triage room, Khari and her team installing gear to make it a more permanent medbay. When she glanced back at Killzar, the woman's gaze was nothing but sympathetic.
Marinos let out a quiet, bitter laugh. "I thought I was so slick too."
Killzar shrugged, a movement as slight as the smile she wore. "My observations are born from fondness, not our master's controlling tendencies. I doubt they'd even recognize the weight behind the glances the two of you level on one another when the other's eyes are elsewhere."
"When the other-" Marinos repeated in confusion, her gaze once again swinging to the other side of the room. Her heart stumbled over itself when she saw Khari had her eyes on her too.
The other woman blinked like she'd be caught doing something that she shouldn't have, her expressing melting into a small, wry smile before she turned back to the task at hand.
A sigh escaped Marinos before she could do anything about it.
Glancing back at Killzar, she quietly asked, "Would you think less of me if I said I thought it was a one sided thing?"
"Hardly," Killzar replied fondly, "Open communication isn't something readily available to the likes of us."
"Ain't that a fact."
"But still, opportunities are as water, finding their way through whatever crevices they come across."
And opportunities did arrive, few and far between as they were. A posting here, an injury there, and over years Marinos and Khari made their feelings towards one another as known as they could. They never had the chance to do more than trade a few words while Marinos was patching Khari up, or indulge in a lingering touch as they happened to pass by one another while headed off to whatever their next assignment ended up being, as the surveillance of the Thalatte made it impossible to risk anything more.
Until they just so happened to survive the vessel they were assigned to being blown out of the sky.
It was a troop transport ship bringing in personnel to populate the newest expanse into Meleten space. Somehow there had been an intelligence leak, and a fleet of Meleten ships had been waiting to pounce as the Thalatte forces came out of subspace. It was only thanks to a Thalatte fighter craft crashing into the cockpit of their vessel and forcing it to make a crash landing on the planet they were supposed to be bringing troops to that saved the ship from being completely destroyed, but even still, the landing had been brutal enough to kill more than half the people aboard when it finally skidded to a halt in a marshy jungle on the Meleten colony world of Biowulf.
After stabilizing who they could of the medical team, Marinos' commanding officer had taken everyone not debilitatingly injured to comb through the rest of the ship for survivors. They ended up rendezvousing with the engineering team working their way through to prevent further damage from befalling the ship, and if it wasn't for the Thalatte officers barking orders the entire time, Marinos would have wailed in relief when she saw Khari, battered and bleeding but very much alive. Her own eyes bright with tears of relief, it was all Khari could do to give Marinos a nod of acknowledgement.
If the Thalatte military was anything, it was disciplined, and so they had the ship secured and the survivors wrangled up in short order. There was no way the brutalized ship would be able to get off the ground again, but it would work as a shelter until proper help managed to arrived. Tending to the wounded and the damage kept Marinos and Khari from sharing more than glances, but knowing the other was alive was enough to sustain them in the mean time.
And then an opportunity arrived that neither of them could have ever predicted.
"Marinos, Khari, a word." Came the clipped tones of Captain Nas Ari Zegy Zakeyzei three days after the crash, calling the pair of them over from where they'd been waiting in line for breakfast in the makeshift mess hall they'd cobbled together in one of the surviving conference rooms. The pair of them didn't dare to look at one another as they approached the officer.
"Damn rescue seems to be taking longer than it should," the Captain told them without preamble, "The Chief Engineer tells me the distress signal is in working order, transmitting as it should, but lending it a hand won't go amiss, eh? Skip to the head of the line and tuck in as quick as you can, I want the pair of you off up that hillock nearby to have a signal booster rigged up before nightfall. Between your engineering and survival skills, the pair of you shouldn't have issue. We'll have gear for you at the aft exit. Chop chop now."
They saluted smartly and did as they were told, stone faced as they made quick work of their meal. It was only once they were in the hall, away from prying eyes, that they risked shooting each other a heated look.
As the Captain had said, the equipment they'd need was waiting for them, and they were loaded up and heading out into the jungle in minutes. Eyes and ears peeled for movement from enemies or their own forces alike, they made it to a copse of trees next to the minuscule cliff that fronted their destination before promptly throwing themselves at one another.
It was easily the least elegant kiss of either of their lives - teeth clacking, balance thrown by the gear they carried, slick with sweat from the humid walk - but none of that mattered in the face of finally having each other to themselves. Still fully clothed, shoved up against the cliff face, knees pressed up between thighs, they'd risked chasing each other's pleasure while muffling their cries with heated kisses. Years of deprivation had them crashing over the edge of release with embarrassing swiftness, and still entangled they allowed themselves a moment's reprieve.
"I love you," Marinos had been the first to speak afterwards, a hand on Khari's jaw while her other arm was looped around her waist, "Like in an 'I'm in love with you romantically' kind of way, not just a 'thanks for that, I've been pent up for way too long' kind of way."
Pressed chest to chest still, Khari's hands on her shoulder and neck, Marinos felt Khari's breathless laugh as if it was bubbling out from her own lungs.
"I'm in love with you romantically too," Khari told her, speaking the words into another kiss as she ran her nails through the short hair at Marinos' nape, "But I've also never been more turned on by another person in my entire life, so do with that what you will."
That got a laugh out of Marinos, and if it wasn't for the bombs strapped to their faces, she would have been happy to stay tangled up with the woman in her arms until the jungle rose up to claim them.
Instead, they completed their objective in time to be back before sunset, and that was including a brief detour while they indulged in one another once more.
They didn't know that a rescue force would have them off world by the next evening, but they knew they weren't likely to get a moment alone for a long, long time. They took advantage of what they could.
In the service hallway of the Bakiz Institute, Rhea and Malakh were motionless as they listened to the steps headed in their direction from further up the hall, their vision obscured as it was by Rhea's camouflaging cape. As such, and despite the helmets they wore, Rhea couldn't help how her eyes centred on the woman in her arms.
As if sensing her gaze, pressed body to body, helmet to helmet as they were, Rhea watched as the collar to the Hand's spacesuit shifted as Malakh swallowed thickly.
MALAKH: Now I'm the one who can feel what you're thinking.
The steps were closer now, paces away. The lack of a bomb threat had Rhea reckless.
RHEA: And what are you going to do about that?
The leg that slipped between her thighs had her biting back a gasp, though she knew Malakh had felt it with her entire body. As the steps passed them by without pause, it was all Rhea could do to not act on the desire that was coiling seductively in her gut.
MALAKH: Behave, we still have to get out of this place.
RHEA: Don't worry, I'll play nice…
She lifted her own knee, the shudder she felt in response more than worth the risk.
RHEA: For now.
Clawed hands twitched against her, a warning as much as a promise. Want had her delirious, but she willed it away, turning her attention to the task at hand. The steps were growing fainter and fainter, until the sound of another door opening and closing cut them off.
The pair of them lingered in their embrace for a few seconds longer than was necessary, Rhea disengaging the optical illusion on her cape and stepping out of the alcove.
"A handy trick." The Hand said after a moment, her voice pitched low enough to have Rhea seriously considering throwing away the entire script, but the professionalism drilled into her for decades won out in the end.
But that didn't mean she wasn't willing to have a little fun with it.
"I assure you," Bathory's voice came out all smooth seduction, "There's more to me than meets the eye."
The telling twitch of Malakh's tail was the only thing that gave her away as she turned without another word to continue down the corridor.
And the only reason Rhea caught it was because she was drinking the other woman in so intensely.
A command had their cameras following obediently after them as they continued on to their destination, their thoughts drifting to what they'd do once the mission was over.
Thankfully the bulk of the items they needed for the Avvisi list were in the same wing of the museum, so while the other two continued to power through getting the closer ones, Pryseia slipped off to get the ones further out.
Her every sense keyed into her surroundings, Pryseia strutted confidently through to the next wing. Queen Kaizoku wouldn't skulk through the shadows, so she made sure to get footage of that while she remained on high alert.
And thankfully so, because she'd had only an instant to react upon entering the next wing, as there were a handful of guards standing together in a loose circle near one of the centre exhibits. Instinct and training had Pryseia tucked down behind a display before she consciously registered that they were there.
Crouched on the ground, barely daring to breath, she strained her hearing to try and listen if they were coming over to investigate. Listening in to conversation would be useless, as the guards here were all zymeth, and they communicated almost exclusively through telepathy.
When a full minute passed with no sound of footsteps approaching, Pryseia dared to peek around the display she'd hidden behind. Still in the same spot, the guards were gesturing amongst themselves as if they were in a heated discussion. They were telepathically, no doubt, and even without the psychic masking she had activated, there was no way she would have been able to listen in on the conversation.
Ducking back into her hiding spot, Pryseia brought up an overlay of the area, trying to see just where the artifacts she needed were in relation to the gathering of guards. A quick search revealed that three were far enough away that she could get them without being noticed. The last, however, was right by where the guards were all stood.
Something had to go wrong at some point.
PRYSEIA: I've hit a bit of a snag in my situation. Some guards appear to be socializing next to one of the artifacts I seek.
NEVARA: Do you need us to set off the distraction?
PRYSEIA: Not as of yet. I will be able to retrieve the other items without issue, and should the fates permit, the guards will disperse by the time I have need of the space they occupy. If not, then the distraction will need to disperse them instead.
ELYTRA: Alright. Let us know if you need an extra set of hands over there!
PRYSEIA: Be assured that I will.
Keeping a careful eye on the guards, Pryseia made her way over to her first target, furthest from where the guards had gathered. Their line of sight was broken by some larger statues, stolen from the Baithaiz by the looks of them, and so she had no trouble disabling the alarms and removing the item from its case without being spotted.
She returned to her first hiding spot, as close to the entrance of the wing as she could get, placing the aged tome she'd liberated carefully on the ground. The protective foam dispenser was too loud to use this close to living ears to not be noticed, so she'd have to be gentle bringing it back to the others.
Twice more she crept below the notice of the zymeth security guards, a Fuglaz scroll and a fragment from a Fiskaz tapestry joining the tome. All that remained was the Arakhne audio playback device, and the guards who were lounging near it.
Pryseia gave it another minute, but the guards didn't seem to be inclined to move on from their conversation. Frowning to herself, she scooped up the items she had retrieved and stealthily made her way back to the others. Queen Kaizoku's bravado would have to be recorded another day.
She made it back to their transport cart just as Nevara was returning with the last of her items. Together, they adhered their pieces to the rest piled on the cart as Elytra asked, "Did they end up leaving?"
"Alas no," Pryseia admitted, "The last artifact remains out of my grasp."
"We've gotten the bulk of what was on the list, we could just cut our losses." Nevara suggested, but Pryseia was shaking her head before the other woman even finished her sentence.
"This is to be our premier, I would rather a total success than a partial one."
"So what's the plan, then?" Elytra asked, looking between the other two.
"The use of the distraction may very well be necessary, but I would prefer not to set it off prematurely. We'll stick to the plan, setting it off once we get Malakh's signal. The two of you will take the cart and what we have to the rooftop access now, and I will return to the other wing to await my opportunity. Either the guards will have gone, or I will have to wait for them to be driven from this place. I will join the two of you once I have the item we seek."
"The idea doesn't thrill me, but I will follow your lead." Nevara told her.
Throwing them a salute, Pryseia made her way back to the other wing.
The other two watched her leave, only moving once she was lost to sight.
"Come," Nevara said, "We'd better get a move on."
Nodding, Elytra grabbed their hovering cart by the handle, pulling it out of the alcove they'd hidden it in. She kept a careful eye on Nevara, waiting for the other woman to scan the room for any possible complications, before receiving the go-ahead and falling in behind her.
Thankfully the cart was quieter than a whisper, the artifacts protected and locked in place by the foam that bound them to the platform. Through wings, through halls, they made their way to an emergency stairwell that would give them access to the roof.
While Elytra turned around to keep an eye on the room they left, to make sure that no one came sneaking up behind them, Nevara went to unlock the door before them.
She only made it a pace before the door opened on its own, the zymeth guard making their rounds as caught off guard by their presences as they were the guard's.