160: Timaeus and Critias – Seven
Her day hadn't exactly been strenuous, but V'tala couldn't help the sigh of relief that escaped her when she settled into her warm bath. The ambient heat helped to soothe the persistent pain that had been plaguing her all day, her psychic system tight as a drum after it had to be all but regrown after being subjected to the psychic blowback of the tear.
A hand brushed along the side of her arm, gliding over her shoulder before coming to rest at the back of her neck, gently massaging against the taut muscles at the base of her skull. V'tala was powerless to stop the moan that escaped her.
She felt Pryseia's quiet laugh reverberate through her own lungs, her back pressed up against the other woman's chest as they laid together in the tub.
"Harder?" Pryseia asked, barely above a whisper, and V'tala could only nod in response.
Pryseia increased the pressure as she continued to massage V'tala's neck, bringing up her other hand to join it, and V'tala felt like she was unspooling beneath her hands.
Like so much of her life since awakening in the Pelekys, this was a first. Her first massage, administered by the woman she loved. With the heat and the pressure, the humidity of the bath water fogging the air, she could barely differentiate between Pryseia's flesh hand and her mechanical one, the both of them easing the knots in her neck before making their way slowly down her shoulders. She could honestly say she had never felt so at ease as she did in this moment.
"You aren't going to be lingering much longer in the waking world, are you?" She felt the question almost more than she heard it, Pryseia's quiet voice echoing through her.
"Not if you keep that up." V'tala sighed, though she did nothing to stop the other woman's ministrations.
This was new for them. Normally once their clothes came off, they couldn't keep their hands off each other in a very different way, lust having them gasping against one another almost before their final articles of clothing could hit the ground. But V'tala had been so exhausted by the pain she'd been in all day that she didn't even register that the both of them were completely naked until Pryseia had sat herself in the bath she'd drawn for them, holding out a hand to steady V'tala as she climbed inside.
And this was nice. Just to sit here like this, resting against Pryseia's chest, bracketed by Pryseia's thighs, her beloved's hands turning her muscles into putty, skin to skin. It was intimate without being sexual, a form of closeness V'tala didn't know she was allowed to have.
"I love you." V'tala murmured, pressing herself more firmly against Pryseia, and the next breath the other woman drew in rattled with the strength of her emotions.
"I love you too," came out of Pryseia, rough and broken as she pressed a lingering kiss to V'tala's hair, "When you and Elytra were struck by the force of that psychic onslaught, I feared the worst. Should anything happen to you, I don't know what I would do with myself."
A shudder worked its way through V'tala's lungs as she remembered the feeling of Pryseia falling limp against her, her own lungs no longer drawing in air, her heart no longer beating. It had been for less than two minutes yet it had felt like an eternity, and she never wanted to experience anything like it ever again. She ran her hands up Pryseia's legs beside her, the muscles twitching under her touch, Pryseia's chest rising against her back as she drew breath. "Holding your lifeless body in my arms was the worst thing that's ever happened to me." V'tala said after a moment, sounding just as broken as Pryseia had.
"Worse than being a dregil?" Pryseia asked in a way that made it clear that she highly doubted that.
V'tala pulled away from her, just so she could sit and turn enough to look her in the eye as she said, "Yes. I survived being a dregil. I don't know that I would survive losing you."
Pryseia's hand was on her cheek a moment later, her mismatched eyes darting between V'tala's own. "I promise you," she swore, the thumb brushing across V'tala's cheek sending droplets of water splashing down into the bath below, "My days of recklessly throwing myself into danger are done. I'll not be the cause of so much anguish to you - to any of you - as to be constantly on the hunt for my own death. When Death inevitably does comes to claim us, we go together, or not at all."
"I can live with that." V'tala said, leaning in to capture Pryseia's lips in a kiss.
It was a slow and languid thing, the binding of a vow as much as it was the seeking of pleasure in one another. V'tala pressed herself more firmly against Pryseia, one hand resting on her shoulder while the other fisted in her hair, tilting her head so she could deepen the kiss. Pryseia opened herself eagerly to V'tala's advances, sighing as she settled deeper into the tub.
Pressed chest to chest like this, V'tala couldn't tell the difference between her own heartbeat and Pryseia's, the other woman's arms looped around her waist, pinning V'tala against her. If it wasn't for the exhaustion creeping up her spine, V'tala would have happily spent hours like this, kissing Pryseia like they had no other obligation other than breathing the same air.
V'tala had to pull away when a yawn crawled its way up her throat, tucking herself into Pryseia's shoulder with a huff of frustration.
"You are in the midst of recovery." The smile was unmistakable in Pryseia's voice as she carded a hand through V'tala's damp hair, responding to her unvoiced complaint.
"Recovery is inconvenient." V'tala grumbled against Pryseia's throat before drawing her teeth across her pulse point, eliciting a gasp out of the other woman, "I'd rather be inside you."
That got a surprised laugh out of Pryseia, who bent to kiss her head once more before saying, "A sentiment I share your fervour in, but I can feel how stiffly you hold yourself. The activities we would prefer to take part in would not be as pleasurable for you as I would like them to be."
"Just because I'm not up for anything more vigorous than this doesn't mean I can't get you off," V'tala said, bracing a hand against Pryseia's ribs so she could lean up enough to catch her eye, "Aren't you aroused?"
"Perhaps I would be if you weren't trembling with fatigue against me," Pryseia said softly, her smile achingly fond as she brought her own arm up to brace against V'tala's shoulder and take some of the strain for her, "I want you whole and rested for what I want to do to you."
V'tala stared her down, trying to see if Pryseia was putting up a front to ease her mind, but her love was serene beneath her, eyes bright and soft as a contented smile graced her features. Below her palm, V'tala could feel the slow and steady rhythm of Pryseia's heart, nowhere close to the thrumming pace she expected to feel while on top of her like this.
Leaning back down to rest against Pryseia's shoulder again, V'tala whispered against her skin, "I'm still new to all this, it seems. I didn't realize that nakedness and sex don't always have to go hand in hand."
The scoff that burst out of Pryseia was far from elegant as she said, "I've brought others and been brought to orgasm while fully clothed enough times to know the truth of that statement. In my youthful fumblings, anywhere one could get a few minutes of privacy was good enough to expedite an arrival, with or without layers."
The laugh V'tala breathed out sent water droplets scattering across Pryseia's chest. "Oh? What was your quickest, then?"
Pryseia groaned, her head tipping back against the rim of the tub, and V'tala felt the shoulder she was leaning against heat with a blush of embarrassment.
"I snuck off to the restroom with a classmate betwixt classes in high school, on more than one occasion. Neither of us were romantically interested in one another, but we were both so desperately aroused at all hours that we'd had a standing agreement to aid each other in our times of need. We had it down to a science - locked away in a single stall, a few flicks of the wrist was all it took to have the both of us tumbling over the edge. She and I kept that arrangement for nearly a year, until our class breaks fell out of alignment."
"You had each other off in minutes?" V'tala's laugh was warm against Pryseia's neck, "I'm glad you last longer for me."
Pryseia tried to sound annoyed, but it was spoiled by her smile as she said, "It was the destination rather than the journey I found the most gratification from in my early explorations of myself. With you, I want to linger on the scenic route for as long as possible. Which is why I am more than alright in waiting for you to recover your stamina enough to be able to make the trip with me."
That last part was delivered quietly against the top of V'tala's head, as she'd pressed herself against Pryseia's shoulder to try and muffle another yawn.
"Come now, we've soaked long enough," Pryseia's voice was soft as she leaned her head against V'tala's, "Let us cleanse ourselves and retire. We know not what surprises await us on the morrow."
Pryseia drained the tub and helped V'tala to stand, and it was with the utmost care that she batted away V'tala's hands and washed her under the shower herself. Her hands were firm and insistent as she eased more knots from V'tala's muscles, a far cry from the ardour with which her hands usually explored her body. It was so unexpectedly gentle that V'tala found herself choked with tears, and Pryseia held her through it, washing and rinsing her hair for her before just standing with her there under the spray, stroking a hand through V'tala's hair while her beloved clung to her and sobbed into her shoulder.
By the time they dried off and crawled into bed, V'tala felt wrung out enough from everything that she wouldn't have been surprised if she slept for a week straight.
Her head tucked beneath Pryseia's chin, her palm over her heart and their legs tangled together, the warm scent of Pryseia's skin filling her lungs, V'tala found that she didn't much mind if that ended up coming to pass. It was to the sensation of Pryseia's hand pressing against the small of her back to draw her in closer that V'tala finally fell asleep.
The mood in the cargo hold the next day was nowhere near as sombre than it had been the day before, the Storlayacas watching on in bemusement as their organic partners ran through their daily exercises. Elytra and V'tala were on a lighter routine than the others, mostly stretches to limber them back up, and while Elytra was taking the change in her routing in stride, V'tala was less than pleased.
"I feel like I'm going to lose all the progress I've been making." She said from where she was stretching out on a mat, eyeing up the weightlifting equipment like she was plotting ways to sneak in a set or two while the others were distracted.
From where she was sparring against Nevara, Rhea levelled a glare her way. "You try doing too much too fast, and you're gonna be fucked for weeks instead of days. I'll sick Enaruli on you if you pull any funny business!"
They all felt Enaruli's presence surge at that, something like the afterimage of a bright light momentarily falling in between V'tala and the equipment she was eyeing up so covetously.
Heaving out a sigh, V'tala grumbled, "Message received, loud and clear," before she bent back to her stretching. Enaruli's smugness was palpable, the mirth of the other Storlayacas warming the cargo hold like sunlight.
Their daily check in with Adyt had good news - the Gorgon had successfully completed their mission in disabling a Thalatte slaver ship that had been buzzing around the Apiarius border, freeing those who had been captured before they'd been carted off to Thalatte space proper. They would be headed back to the Quanvengier within the hour to repair and resupply themselves, the slaver ship in tow as a prize, the surviving thalatte crew sent off in a shuttle pointed back towards their home system while the non-Thalatte soldiers were divested of their bombs and brought deeper into Apiarius space to find passage back to their homes. A much better outcome than their last mission had netted them, the sting of the Dolabra still fresh in their minds.
Touching base with the pirates revealed nothing either untoward or enlightening, which was better news than it could have been. The recordings of both the final moments of the Hyttan and the visions the Storlayacas had provided had been disseminated amongst the assorted local crews, and were en route to their forces further afield. While grateful to learn the truth of what it was they were guarding, the pirates were as horrified as the crew of the Pelekys had been to learn the cause of the scar on the face of the galaxy. From what Spiracle told them, it sounded like the pirate's collective resolve had been only further galvanized by these revelations, now that they knew the cost of what drew them there, and the cost should they fail in the duty given to them by the ghost of a people who died to give them a fighting chance.
Peeking into the engine room revealed more good news, as the installation progress on Viatrix's main console showed it at eighty percent.
"If this keeps on pace," Malakh said, tapping a claw against the console, "Then we should have Viatrix back with us before the end of the day."
She forced her grin into something hopeful, but Elytra didn't need full access to her empathic abilities to feel the worry that emanated from her, because it was the exact same worry that was bubbling up in herself - in the rest of them: Once she was back online, would Viatrix still be the same?
"Just in case things go tits up like the last time, I'll pass out W.Y.R.M. units so we have a stopgap if slash when life support goes offline," Rhea told them, gesturing at Elytra and V'tala, "They're small, wearable devices that provide a pocket of breathable air, in cases where the atmosphere is vented from a ship, or some kind of airborne toxin or contagion is added to the mix. They don't last a long time, but I'm hoping that if the systems on the ship do shut down again, it'll only be as long as the last time Viatrix got an upgrade, which wasn't that long at all. I figure that will be more comfortable than sitting around in our armour all day."
Designed as emergency devices as they were, running Elytra and V'tala through a tutorial on how to use them only took as long as showing them how to clip the W.Y.R.M. units to their collars, and where the button to activate the device was located. With that safety measure in place, everyone tried to find something to do to pass the time.
Malakh ended up back in the cargo hold, delving deeper into the workings of the rudimentary device designed to punch holes through dimensions. Pryseia joined her under the excuse of running maintenance on their mech sims, but she spent more time conversing with the Storlayacas than she did making sure the sims were all in working order.
Nevara and V'tala ended up on the bridge. While the actual flight systems of the Pelekys were offline, Nevara, intimately familiar with how Thalatte ships were built, brought up a flight debugging program that was essentially a sim in and of itself, a default installation to allow new pilots to go through the motions of running a ship through its paced without actually flying the ship anywhere, and for engineers to test systems before the ship had a chance to leave dry dock. A light enough activity that it wouldn't strain V'tala physically, Nevara ran her through increasingly complicated manoeuvers, offering up advice and encouragement as V'tala met every challenge with her customary stoic focus.
Elytra, meanwhile, had joined Rhea in the rec room, the pair of them trying to come up with some kind of script to share everything they'd learned over the course of the last several days. They hit their stride, bouncing ideas off one another, fingers flying across data pads as they jotted down notes, the hours melting away as they lost themselves to their creative endeavours.
It wasn't until the power unexpectedly cut off that they realized how much time had passed.
In the glow coming off the screens of their data pads, the pair of them locked eyes, and Rhea looked as wary as Elytra felt.
"That's gotta be the installation done." Rhea breathed, and nodding in response to that, Elytra shoved herself up from the table she'd been half tucked under.
The both of them sped from the room, hastily pulling on their Longan and activating the flashlight function on them, their own beams of light intersecting those coming from Nevara and V'tala's Longan as they made their way from the bridge. The four of them shared a silent look as they passed through the kitchen, lunch left half prepared on the counter.
Light was coming from inside the engine room as they approached it, the beam from Pryseia's Longan landing on them while Malakh's remained fixed on Viatrix's blank console.
"I don't remember how long it took before," Malakh's voice had an edge to it as the others approached, high strung with anxiety, and Rhea was at her side in an instant, her hand a grounding weight against Malakh's back, "Things were a little hectic with those two Etas baring down on us."
"I didn't have that long of a wait," Nevara said, her mandibles flickering uneasily, "Just long enough for an edge of panic to cre-"
With a resounding shudder, the engine kicked back online, lights and systems booting up a moment later. Six sets of eyes locked onto the screen of Viatrix's console, and even with her dampening necklace, Elytra could feel the worry boiling over in each of them as the clock ticked on and the screen continued to remain blank.
The concern was so overwhelming at first that Elytra almost missed the sensation blooming at the edge of her awareness. Like the first rays of dawn peeking over the horizon, easy enough to miss if ones attention was elsewhere, a presence was rising within the Pelekys. Elytra caught it like a reflection of light dancing across water, and her startled gasp had the others turning to her.
"It's Viatrix," she breathed, staring at the blank console before them, "I can feel her."