130: Mecha Combat – Thirteen
Pryseia hadn't intended to fall asleep, and so when a hand brushed along her spine, she halfway bolted out of her chair, reaching for the gun she hadn't bothered to arm herself with in the safety of her ship.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," Rhea said quietly, "I can't imagine you were comfortable, hunched over like that."
Taking a steadying breath to push away the last vestiges of sleep that still stubbornly clung to her, Pryseia gave her surroundings a once over. She was in the medbay, the closest room to the ramp on the side of the Pelekys they'd been coming and going from during the course of the tournament. After pacing through the ship for nearly an hour, completing whatever little task she could find to keep herself occupied, she'd posted up in the medbay, on a chair she'd dragged out of the office, with a data pad she'd intended on getting some administrative work done on while she waited for the others to either return from the activity centre or the heist. From where it had slipped from her hands onto the healing bed she'd been propped up against, the screen was dark, so she'd been out long enough for it to automatically power down.
Rolling her shoulders, both of them audibly ratcheting at the movement, Pryseia asked, "Vi, how go things on your end?"
"Still creepin' and scannin'," came Viatrix's whispered response a few seconds later, unnecessary given that she was communicating on a closed line, "Thankfully this place has more guards on the outside than in, so we're taking it slow and steady so we can download as much as possible. Not sure how much of this stuff will be useful to us, but I'll sort through it all later."
"That should give you something to entertain yourself with tomorrow, at the very least." Rhea said, her voice apologetic over the fact that they had to keep Viatrix a secret for this operation.
"Oh it will!" Viatrix agreed with a sinister little giggle, "Anything we can't use, we could probably find a buyer for. Wouldn't that be a fun way to piss off these so called Enlightened?"
"It'd probably piss them off more if we gave these secrets away for free." Rhea pointed out with a laugh.
Viatrix gasped in delight at that idea. "Just toss all these proprietary research developments or whatever into the open source ecosystem? That's devious!"
"And something you can think about while not in the middle of an operation. Update us as needed," Pryseia told her, cracking her back as she stood, "And be safe."
"We are, don't worry!" Viatrix replied, and then silence descended in the medbay.
Scooping up her data pad, Pryseia asked, "Is it curfew yet, or merely an early exit on your behalf?"
"Me and Elytra called it quits early - she's just grabbing a shower, but we were planning on having a brainstorming sesh about future scenarios, if you wanted in on that," Rhea said, before she shot Pryseia a sly look and said, "As for V'tala, she was… getting some hands on experience with usgaisjan anatomy."
A surprised laugh broke out of Pryseia before she said, "Good. She deserves to explore that facet of herself. I must admit, I sometimes fear that, by being bound by Storlayacas as she is, she has merely traded one form of slavery for another."
Tilting her head as she gave Pryseia a searching look, Rhea asked, "Do you really think she's staying with us against her will?"
"As I said, it is a fear," Pryseia replied, not meeting her eye, "Tethered by her dlegh as we were, I worry that the effects of it linger, that anything I say to her is naught but a command that she must comply with."
Rhea sighed, staring at her in silence for a few seconds before she quietly said, "You're dumb."
Pryseia had only enough time to turn and give Rhea a questioning look before the other woman had tucked her against herself in a fierce hug, arms looped around Pryseia's shoulders and her head tucked against hers as Rhea said, "You aren't like the Thalatte, you didn't force V'tala into slavery. We broke her dlegh fully, the both of you made whole, and nothing of it remains in either of you. Storlayacas couldn't function if it did, and I know you can feel the truth of it when we're all together like that. V'tala may have been as unwillingly swept up in all this, just like the rest of us, but she's staying here because she wants to, exactly like the rest of us. I love you, but your habit of trying to martyr yourself all the time stresses me the fuck out."
Pryseia took a breath, ready to challenge Rhea on that fact, but the argument wouldn't even form in her mind. Rhea, perhaps more than any of them, had been there to stitch together the pieces, figuratively and metaphorically, nearly every time Pryseia had thrown herself in harms way. Her arms curling up around Rhea's ribs, Pryseia whispered into her shoulder, "I don't know how to keep myself off the sacrificial altar."
"I know," Rhea replied, her voice thick as she held Pryseia tighter, "We'll just have to figure out how to wean you off it as we go. We finally have a chance to live the life that was stolen from us, and I refuse to lose any of you to any stupid fucking threat we come across, be it apocalyptic menaces from beyond time, or the psychological wounds we got at the hands of thoughtless slavers. We're all here because we want to be, and we follow your orders just as willingly, because we know that you have our best interests at heart when you give them. It may have been half whim when we made you our captain, but no one else could have filled the position. You're a great leader because you care for us, oftentimes more than you care for yourself. You're nothing like the Thalatte, or the Baithaiz, or the Usgaisjan. Please stop taking the sins of others on as your own. You don't deserve that."
Returning the hug just as tightly, Pryseia said, "I will try."
"You better," Rhea replied, placing a brief kiss against Pryseia's temple, "You know I can kick your ass if you don't."
The guards patrolling within the Dariyaschlde Institute weren't kitted out in the full body armour like those at the Elstree Docklands Tournament, instead just wearing a fabric uniform - albeit one cut in the asymmetrical, geometric style that so much of the Necupole's fashion seemed to hinge on, satin white pants and a short sleeved shirt with white gloves that came to their wrists, and the white boots they wore calf length were hopefully more comfortable patrolling in than they looked - with what Malakh had thought were just some night inappropriate sunglasses. But then Viatrix alerted them that she was getting electronic readings from those glasses when one of the guards passed them by, and Malakh was simply powerless when it came to sating her curiosity.
"What are you doing?!" Nevara hissed as Malakh stepped in behind the security guard that they'd ducked into an open door to avoid, scanner in hand as she lifted it up to get a reading on the glasses.
Thankfully, the device worked quick, and Malakh's stealth tech was complete enough that the guard didn't even so much as sense she was there, so she only had to follow them for four paces before she got the information she needed. Reviewing her findings on the display within her helmet, she explained, "Just wanted to make sure there wouldn't be any surprises. Looks like those glasses provide some low level night vision - explains why they don't have any flashlights or the like - and a basic HUD for a local map and text communication, a neural interface one sort of like what we have in our Longan. Nothing that'll be able to break through any of the stealth systems we're relying on."
"Good, given how close we are to our target." Nevara breathed, before turning to Viatrix and asking, "What kind of information have you been able to find?"
"A lot of interesting stuff, from what I've skimmed, but I'm not sure how much of it we'll be able to apply for our own use," Viatrix explained, sounding like she was holding herself back from getting too excited, "It looks like this floor is where they do a lot of research into technologies developed by all the Ancients, not just the Hyttan. This means that some of what they're working on isn't any more advanced as the tech that we already have - the Melosem, Gheluc, and Swenboi were maybe only a little more technologically advanced when they died out as we are in the modern day - just that it's come to the same results from a different angle? A lot of the focus seems to be more a study of how their assorted programming languages worked, and if the Necupole can learn anything useful by seeing how they programmed, so it's a real mixed bag of stuff I'm getting. There's an algorithm that I think can cut down on long range interference on our scanners, and one for in-atmosphere navigation telemetry that I think would be a boost to our own systems, but we can get into the nuts and bolts of it all when we aren't behind enemy lines."
"Yeah, a lot of these devices we've been scanning have been along similar lines - prototypes combining Ancient and Enlightened technologies," Malakh said, her voice undercut with dark amusement as she added, "And not just Necupole either. There's Zymeth and Thalatte tech in here too that they're working on, and while I can't say for certain about the Zymeth stuff, some of these Thalatte works come from classified projects that should not be known to anyone outside the Stratocracy."
Nevara allowed herself a single, quiet laugh at that. "I suppose we aren't the only ones sneaking into facilities we shouldn't be. I wonder how much of a diplomatic incident it would be, were the Thalatte to learn about this?"
"I doubt it would be one big enough to drive the Thalatte to actually try to go to war with the Necupole, but it would probably cause a lot of headaches for a lot of officials," Malakh chuckled, "Maybe this is something the Kith can use to get the Thalatte's attention off us a little, what with how whipped up they're getting about the destruction of the Mercatus."
As the three of them continued on down the hall, now that the guards were clear of their route for the moment, Viatrix said, "I've been keeping an ear out for what that anti-Kith task force has been getting up to on their hunt for anyone part of that raid. The Dreaming Dark - a mostly Arakhne crewed ship involved in the assault - crossed paths with that fleet that got organized, but thankfully they're a stealth ship, so they weren't seen. They tracked the fleet headed towards the core, but not on any kind of flight path that would lead them to the Quanvengier and the rest. Looks like they're going in blind, hoping for better luck rooting out the main Kith fleet than they've had in the past."
"Given the abrasively turbulent nature of the core, especially at the depth our fleet is maintaining, I don't think blind luck is going to serve them well." Nevara pointed out, "Unless they're employing technologies or using armour beyond standard issue, the winds in that maelstrom are going to tear them asunder."
"That's a win for us, if they take out the Dolabra through their own stubbornness," Malakh added, "Last thing we need is for that to get in range of the Quanvengier."
"Then let's keep digging here, and maybe we can find something to help distract the Thalatte before they stumble into some good luck." Viatrix chirped, leading them further through the lab.
The planning session was going well, several plot lines they could pursue sketched out, as well as a dive through Avvisi for any bounties or jobs that would complement them. But as far as Rhea was concerned, the most successful part of the whole thing was Pryseia finally shedding the last of the lingering melancholy that had been gripping her since that morning. Rhea knew well enough that the wounds left in Pryseia's soul from their time in captivity would take more than a casual hang to heal, but a small step in the right direction was better than nothing.
With the elegant excuse that she needed to piss thrown casually over her shoulder as she left the rec room, Elytra and Pryseia in the middle of weighing the pros and cons of more flashback sequences to pad out their backstories, Rhea instead headed to the medbay. Curfew was about to hit for those in the activity centre, and she had a sneaking suspicion that her expertise was going to be required in short order.
She didn't have long to wait, barely time enough to get settled into the chair she'd caught Pryseia asleep in, before V'tala entered the ship, looking dishevelled and stunned into stillness when she caught Rhea's eye as she froze in front of the open door to the medbay. The wide eyed expression on V'tala's face was so similar to the ones she'd caught her sisters wearing when they'd returned from their own walks of shame in their adolescence that Rhea was powerless against the fond laugh that bubbled up from her before she asked, "Good time?"
V'tala was quick to school her expression back to her normal neutrality before she replied, "It- Yes."
"I certainly hope you gave as good as you got." Rhea smirked, and when V'tala responded with nothing beyond a puzzled look, Rhea tapped the side of her own neck.
A frown of confusion almost broke out across V'tala's face, but then she realized what Rhea was getting at, and abruptly slapped a hand over the hickies that littered the left side of her neck. The move did nothing to hide the ones on the right side of it, however, nor the blush that bloomed verdant across her cheeks.
"You're free to keep those, or any other trophies you may have acquired," Rhea said, making a vague gesture at whatever V'tala's hastily pulled on clothes may have been hiding, "But if you'd rather not, a quick stint in a healing bed will get them sorted."
Statue still for a number of seconds, as unreadable as always, V'tala eventually gave her a nod before entering the room and hopping up onto the bed next to Rhea's chair. Standing, Rhea had the metallic shroud pulling over the bed a moment later, the gentle hum of it going to work filling the room.
Partially as her doctor, but mostly as her friend, Rhea took a quick glance over the diagnostic that came up about V'tala's injuries, and let out a relieved sigh when it showed nothing more serious than the bruises and scratches one would expect from a horizontal mambo, her stress hormones only spiked recently enough that it was probably the unexpected run in with Rhea that had been responsible for that, her system still swimming with the usgaisjan equivalent to dopamine. Any injuries she'd sustained were minor enough that the bed finished mending them by the time Rhea finished returning the chair to her office, the shroud tucking into the wall as she made her way back over.
Rhea had expected V'tala to be up and out of the room the second she was able, but instead, V'tala just lay there, a muscle in her jaw jumping. Immediately on high alert, Rhea quietly asked, "You alright?"
"Yes. I just thought-" V'tala cut herself off, frowning as she sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed, "I thought it was supposed to feel more… fulfilling? Meaningful."
She stood with a frustrated huff, crossing her arms. It was less a defensive gesture and more that she didn't know what to do with her hands while she puzzled out her thoughts as she continued. "I enjoyed myself, having sex. I had it with several participants. I achieved orgasm as much as I induced it in the others. But it was no more or less satisfying than when I got myself off. This just felt like masturbation with more moving parts involved. Is that all its supposed to feel like, or is this just another thing that my dregil training stripped from me?"
Rhea sighed, mirroring V'tala's posture as she leaned against the empty bed. "From a strictly physiological level, it looks like you were only sterilized. Nothing was done to damage your assorted erogenous zones. But sex can be as much mental as physical, and people have all kinds of different relationships with it. Some people want it all the time with whoever they can get it from, some people only want it from someone they have an emotional connection to, some people are so disgusted by the thought of it alone that they'd rather eat glass, and some simply do not give a single shit about it at all."
Stepping back so she could lean against the bed with Rhea, V'tala said, "That's good to know. That it's normal to find it… middling."
Nudging her with her elbow, Rhea said softly, "Just think of sex like you would singing - sure, your body is technically capable of doing it, but if your heart isn't in it, don't push yourself to pursue it. You're a free woman, after all, you're allowed to sleep with as many people as you want as often as you want, and if the number for either is zero? Then that's how often you should be gettin' down to pound town!"
That got a breath of laughter out of V'tala, and Rhea grinned in response.
"I appreciate that." V'tala told her, though she shot her a curious look a moment later, asking, "Is it different, with Malakh? She means more to you, so I assume the sex does as well."
Rhea hummed noncommittally at first before saying, "It's actually yes and no for that. I mean, yeah, duh, she's the love of my life, so the sex does mean more. But it also means less, because I'm not just with her for the sex, you know? I get to be with her when she's firing on all cylinders in the middle of a project, so wrapped up in engineering that she forgets that she's a machine that needs fuel too. I get her when she's sleep warm in my arms, dreaming in equations because her mind keeps going even when she's out like a light. I get her when she has to drag me away from whatever I'm working on because it's been eight hours and I hadn't noticed the headache I was getting because I hadn't eaten or drank anything in all that time. I get her fighting eldritch monsters beside me in hard vacuum with ancient mechs that chose us for some reason, and I get her watching dumb shit on the couch, curled up against me and eating all my popcorn. And believe me, I slept around enough in my time to have a sizeable example pool to draw from, and I can say, with empirical evidence, that the sex I have with Malakh is the best sex I've had in my life! But if I had to give up either sex or just spending time with her? I'd give up sex in a heartbeat. The relationship I have with her means so much more to me than just the physical pleasure of it all."
Ducking down slightly to catch V'tala's eye, Rhea added, "And a romantic relationship is just like sex too - you can pursue it if you want, but it's not a necessity for being alive. You want one? Go for it. You don't? Don't worry about it. You're whole as you are."
V'tala nodded at that, her posture finally loosening. "Thank you. I- I'm really grateful that you take the time to answer my questions, no matter how inane they are."
Slinging an arm around V'tala's shoulders, Rhea said, "Hey, it's hardly inane if its something you were actively prevented from learning. And I'm glad to help you in whatever way I can. That's what friends are for, after all, and you're stuck with me now!"
"Oh no," V'tala replied, her deadpan delivery spoiled by her slight smile, "What a tragedy."