Valiant: Tales From The Drift

[Tails #11: A Butterfly With Broken Wings]

Log Date: 11/6/12763

Data Sources: Jazel Jaskolka; Lysanne Arrignis

Event Log: Lysanne Arrignis

Dandelion Drift: Conference Room

11:21pm SGT

“…a couple of broken ribs, and a wristbone fracture. He was fine aside from that; the hospital in Synon kept him for a couple of days before discharging him.” I explain quietly. “He’s been on bed rest for the last four days. They told me he’d have to take it easy for a month, but if he kept on his pills, he should be back to full functionality after that.”

“This is the second time in three months that he’s been hospitalized with serious injuries.” Nazka observes from one of the two windows that’s currently up on the big screen in the conference room. One narrow finger pushes up the rimless glasses resting on his narrow nose. “Your coworker seems to have an unusual propensity for attracting trouble.”

“Yeah, he’s good at that.” I say, scratching the side of my head. “It wasn’t his fault this time, though.”

“He claims that this… mayor from Vissengard has been tracking the Drift from system to system?” Tenji says, clearly confused by what I’d relayed so far. “And that this mayor is actually a sorcerer with a cane sword that steals souls and has… a gang of elves at his disposal.”

I take a deep breath. “Yeah, that’s what he said.”

“You sound as if you doubt the veracity of these claims.” Nazka says, steepling his fingers together.

“I do think somebody attacked him.” I say quickly. “I’m just… not sure about who it was. I met the mayor of the Helios Settlement on Vissengard; he didn’t really strike me as a villainous sort. I mean, he was a politician, but I didn’t really get the stalker sorcerer vibe from him. He seemed like the kind of guy that would raise the fees on parking tickets, not the sort of guy that would steal souls.”

“Dandelion, what do you think of these claims?” Tenji asks, turning her attention to Dandy, who’s sitting across the conference table from me. “I assume you don’t know much about magic yourself, as you’re a Cyber, but what about the claim that this person has been able to track the Drift from system to system?”

Dandy shakes her head. “I don’t see how it would be possible. Only CURSE is privy to the Drift’s assignment schedule; outside parties do not have access to it. Someone within CURSE, or on the ship itself, would have to be leaking that information. I can’t speak for CURSE, but as far as the vessel goes, I would notice any unauthorized inbound or outbound communications. The morphox does not have the requisite technological savvy to attempt something like that, and I keep tabs on all the others. If this individual is in fact tracking us from system to system, their intel is not coming from the ship itself.”

“I find it highly unlikely that there is a mole within CURSE that has a vested interest in leaking the assignment schedule of an ecological arkship.” Nazka says coldly. “If we did have a mole within CURSE, they would be interested in leaking far more important data.”

“I don’t think she’s implying that we have a mole, Nazka.” Tenji says. “She’s a Cyber; she was simply identifying potential explanations.”

“But yeah, that’s the reason we’re going to arrive to the HQ later than expected.” I say, leaning an arm on the conference table. “It’s not because we’re dragging our feet; it’s because we had to wait for Jazel to get out of the hospital.”

“We appreciate the advance notice.” Tenji says. “You’ve been educating the morphox on the issues, as we asked?”

“As much as we can.” I say. “She’s very… willful. We’ve been able to get her to watch the Challenger anime; she’ll sit still for that. She’s never seen cartoons before… or even holos or television, for that matter, so they fascinate her.”

“A rather hefty bill from midway through the previous month was also brought to my attention.” Nazka says, flicking a finger over the screen on his desk. “It seems you put a considerable sum on your department’s credit line and filed it under ‘clothing expenses’. I would like to know more about that.”

“We went shopping for clothes for the morphox, so she could fit in with other people a little bit more.” I explain. “She’d been living out in the woods up until that point, so…”

“She was in desperate need of an actual wardrobe.” Dandy says flatly. “We are still educating her on the concept of laundry, changing clothes, taking a shower every day, and daily hygiene. If you would rather be the ones to educate her on these concepts, we will cease our efforts in that department.”

Nazka narrows his eyes. “…noted. I will defer to your expertise in that area, then.”

“We’re glad to hear that things are working out for you, and that you’re safe.” Tenji says, leaning back in her chair. “I’m still not sure what to think of this supposed sorcerer. Your friend is sure that it was the same person that attacked him on both occasions?”

“He swears up and down it was Grimes, the mayor from Vissengard.” I say, tapping my fingers on the table. “Jazel doesn’t have any reason to lie, at least not about something like this. I don’t know why the mayor would be after him — it’s true that he and Jazel didn’t get along, but I didn’t think it was to the point of attempted kidnapping.”

“We’ll see if we can have the intelligence department look into it.” Tenji says, reaching up to adjust her glasses. “But he should be safe for now, since you all are headed to the CURSE HQ next. Even if this individual and his gang follows you there, it’d be suicide to attempt a kidnapping on an orbital fortress full of CURSE operatives and Peacekeepers.”

“In the meantime, as a precaution going forward, I would advise that you do not let Mr. Jaskolka go planetside without supervision.” Nazka says. “You should keep him in sight at all times when you are off the ship, and he should always be attended. Kidnappings are much easier crimes when the target is unattended.”

“We’ll keep it in mind.” I say, glancing at Dandy, then back at the screen. “Anything else you have for us?”

“That should be all. We look forward to seeing you here soon. Stay safe and take care, Preservers.” Tenji says, reaching forward to turn off her screen. Nazka does the same soon after, and as the wall screen goes dark, the lights in the room brighten a little.

“Well, I guess we can’t let Jazel wander off on his own anymore.” I sigh, rubbing my face. “This is going to put a kink in any assignments that require us to be multiple places at once.”

“I doubt he will take well to constant accompaniment whenever we have to go planetside.” Dandy adds. “He seems to value his space.”

“Yeah. At least we don’t have to worry about that for a while.” I say, standing up. “Next stop is the CURSE HQ, and who knows how long we’ll be staying there, what with CURSE being so interested in Kayenta.”

“Our presence there will probably come with the opportunity for a full maintenance and diagnostic cycle on the Drift.” Dandy says, moving to the door of the conference room. “But these are matters you can reflect on later. It’s nearly midnight on the ship’s day-night cycle, and you should be in bed.” With that, the door of the conference room spirals open, and she politely gestures to the hall beyond.

“Would already be in bed, if it weren’t for the fact that the administration always wants to conference at the worst times.” I say, tucking my hands in my pockets as I make my way to the doorway. “Wonder what time it is over at the HQ.”

“It is a little past afternoon at the CURSE HQ, by my calculation.”

“Ah. That explains a lot.” Covering a yawn, I step out into the hall, giving an idle wave over my shoulder. “See you in the morning, Dandy.”

“You too, Ms. Arrignis. Sleep well.”

Event Log: Jazel Jaskolka

Dandelion Drift: Jazel’s Room

11/7/12763 10:22pm SGT

Goal for today: get out of bed and reach the biosphere.

I stare at that line. I’d written it earlier this morning, once I’d fully woken up. At the time, it hadn’t seemed unreasonable; it felt like a good goal to set, considering I’d spent most of the last week laid up in bed.

But now — after it had taken me an hour to struggle through a shower and into my clothes — I was feeling winded and exhausted, and the day had barely started.

Everything was harder now. Part of it was due to the cast that my arm was in, but most of it was due to the broken ribs I had. You didn’t realize how much movement your ribs were involved in until you couldn’t sleep on your side, or roll over in bed, or turn while you were sitting, or even breathe, without feeling some sort of pain. I’d learned a lot of things over the past few days about how my body worked, and most of them involved pain to some extent.

Still, I’d gotten tired of lying in bed day and night. It was something that you think you’d like, until you actually got it. After the first two days, you realize that even when you’re able to read or watch holos or play games to your heart’s content, you miss being able to move around. To get around, see and interact with different things.

This must be why certain animals hate zoos. I think to myself as I use my legs pull and maneuver myself towards the edge of my bed. On the list of things that had become hard to do, sitting up from a reclined state was one of them, in large part because it put pressure on your ribcage, and anything along those lines was painful when you had broken ribs. If I wanted to get out of bed, that usually meant I had to maneuver myself to the edge of the bed while still lying down, roll over to get my knees on the ground, and slowly lift myself up from there.

You don’t truly appreciate your body until something as simple as getting out of bed turns into a three-minute struggle, where it would usually take ten seconds at the most.

Once I’m up, I start towards the door of my room. This part isn’t quite as hard. So long as I walk slowly and don’t make any sudden turning movements, the pain in my side stays to a minimum. Running, jogging, anything that would require a lot of upper-body movement is completely off-limits. For the time being, I’ve been reduced to a walking stride at most.

Outside in the hall, I start walking, doing my best to get into the rhythm of it once again. After six days spent laid up, something as simple as a long walk will tire you out surprisingly fast. It’s not that it’s especially strenuous - it’s just that my body isn’t used to it, after six days of quiescence. By the time I reach the access deck for the biosphere, I have to go straight to leaning on the railing, panting slightly.

But I’d made it, which was what mattered.

“Alright.” I say, taking a deep breath and pushing off the railing. The doctor had said that light exercise after a period of bed rest would be critical to healing properly. “Let’s do one lap around the biosphere.”

I start walking, slowing my roll whenever my stride gets too fast and my side starts twinging. Aside from that, I feel like I’m making good progress until I’m about a quarter of the way around the biosphere, and my nose twitches. A bit of dust or pollen escaped from the biosphere, perhaps; I slow down, stopping in place so I can sneeze.

I immediately regret it.

Sharp pain shoots through the side with the broken ribs; the second I’m done sneezing, I go straight to gasping for breath, clutching my side. “Maugrimm have mercy!” I wheeze as the pain ricochets through the rest of my torso. My legs give out beneath me, and I crumple to the ground, falling on my back as I gasp for breath. My eyes are tearing up from the pain; it’s making me dizzy, and all I can do is lie there, staring up at the distant outer shell of the biosphere. As my vision starts to steady, I try to slow my breathing on account of how much it’s making my side hurt.

After a few minutes of just lying there, letting the pain slowly fade, my agonized solitude is broken by the sound of bare feet over the floor. Seconds later, I can pick out Kayenta standing over me in a hoodie and cargo shorts, one of her silver ears flicking idly.

“Why are you lying on the floor?” she asks.

“I sneezed.” I reply weakly.

She tilts her head to one side. “You lie on the floor when you sneeze?”

“No, I…” I have to pause to catch my breath, raising a hand to point at my side. “Broken ribs. I think… I think when you sneeze, all the muscles in your body contract, which compresses the injury site, which isn’t supposed to be compressed, and it really hurts.” I pause for another long breath, reaching up to wipe my eyes. “I’ll be fine, I just… I need a moment.”

Her august eyes rove over me, soaking in my words but probably not understanding them. “Okay.” she says, staring down at me. After a moment, she asks “Can you get up now?”

I blink away more pain tears as I motion weakly with one hand. “Alright, so… what I meant is… I’ll probably be here ten or twenty minutes while I wait for my side to stop feeling like someone’s shoving a dagger into it.”

She raises an eyebrow. “You’re going to lie on the cold, hard floor for twenty minutes.”

“Sure as hell… can’t get up on my own yet.” I pant, planting my hand on my face to block out some of the bright lights.

“If you need to lie down for twenty minutes, you should lie down somewhere soft.” she says, taking her hands out of the pockets of her hoodie and crouching down next to me. She starts to slide her arms underneath my knees and shoulders, but when she starts to lift me up, I feel my back start to curve, pressure building on my broken ribs, and the pain ramps back up again.

“Gah— ah! Nononononono!” I gasp, gripping her shoulder as I try to straighten out my torso in her arms. “Put me down! That hurts!”

Kayenta lowers me back to the floor, her black brows furrowed. “That hurts?”

“Yes.” I wheeze, letting go of her shoulder and gripping my side instead. “Carrying me like that curves my torso, which compresses my ribs, which are broken. You probably need like, a stretcher or something to get me around in this state.”

Pulling her arms out from beneath me, she looks around. “I don’t have a stretcher. I’ll just drag you instead.” Standing up, she moves down towards my feet, grabs one of my ankles, and starts walking. The initial tug hurts my side, but after that it isn’t too bad, aside from the fact that I’m being dragged along the floor back the way I came. My shirt starts rolling up beneath me, and I have to grab it and hold the hem down on both sides to keep it from getting all scrunched up.

“Where are you taking me?” I wheeze. There’s some part of me that says I should probably protest getting dragged around like this, but I’m too worn out by pain to resist it.

“The big room with the couches and the scrying windows.” she answers without looking around. I can barely see her past those nine silver tails swaying behind her. “We can put you on one of the couches there, and you can rest.”

“The common room?” I say, squinting at her. “And I don’t need to sleep, I just woke up two hours ago.”

“You’re so weak that sneezing incapacitates you. You need to rest.” she says. There’s a certain finality to it that doesn’t invite argument. Even if I did, I doubt she’d listen to me — at the moment she can pretty much do what she wants with me, since I’ve got all the mobility and strength of a butterfly with broken wings.

Not much is said on the way up to the common room, mostly because I can’t really think of much of anything to say. Being dragged around by the ankle like this would be somewhat humiliating if I wasn’t focusing on the pain in my side, which spikes every time I get dragged over a threshold. At some point we pass Milor at an intersection of halls; he’s got his coffee cup in hand, and is looking pretty scruffy, since he hasn’t shaved since Charisto. Kayenta walks by him without a word, and I glare at him as I slide past him, daring him to make a smarmy remark. He waits until we’re about a dozen feet past him, then clears his throat and summons his best baritone impression of a nature documentary voiceover. “And here, we see the vixen in her native environment, dragging a prospective mate back to her den. Despite his injured state, it seems he is still a viable sire for her offspring—”

“Shut up, Milor, shut up!” I shout back at him, as loud as I can without taxing my ribs. His only response is to grin, take a sip from his coffee, and keep walking. I quietly seethe the rest of the way to the common room.

Upon arriving, Kayenta drags me across the carpet to the main couch, dropping my leg and moving around behind me. She slides her arms under mine and lifts me up; I wince, but it doesn’t hurt as much as the attempted bridal carry. “You remind me of a long, stretchy cat.” Kayenta says, draping me lengthwise across the couch as I use my hands and legs to help maneuver myself into place.

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” I pant lightly, catching my breath as I just lie there, staring up at the ceiling.

“Neither.” Kayenta says, reaching under me to lift my head and shoulders up. Before I realize what’s happening, she’s slipped onto the end of the couch, lowering my head back down to rest in her lap. “You are limp and soft. Like a long, stretchy cat.”

“Oh.” I don’t know what to say to that, nor what to do now that I’m lying here on the couch with my head in her lap. This is unexpectedly intimate; it’s the sort of thing that couples do, except I’m not sure that Kayenta realizes that.

“You’re comfortable, right?” she asks, reaching down to snag the lever on the side of the couch, and pull it back so it kicks out the footrest and reclines the section of the couch that she’s sitting on.

“Uh. Yeah.” I reply hesitantly.

“Good. You can rest now.” she says, closing her eyes as she leans back on the reclined portion of the couch. She rests a hand on my chest; my breath hitches, unsure of how to react to that. Her eyes stay closed, though, and she doesn’t do anything more than that, so I close my eyes and try to relax.

But as I’d told Kayenta earlier, I had woken up two hours ago, and my mind wasn’t anywhere near ready to go back to sleep again.

And so my mind roves here and there, jumping from topic to topic to topic. Lingering on the feeling of Kayenta’s thigh beneath my head, the stitched pockets of her cargo shorts pressing into my hair. The weight of her hand resting on my chest, how I could feel the tips of each of her fingers through my shirt — little points of warmth, and the big spot of warmth where her palm rested on my chest. The way her splayed tails idly flicked and twitched beneath and between us, one of them brushing against my arm, almost tickling.

I’d touched Kayenta before, usually in the context of her wrestling me down and trying to suck a chunk of soul out of me, but this was different. Calmer. It felt like I had a sense of her physical presence, something I could be aware of and focused on, since I wasn’t worried about her trying to feed on me. Instead of focusing on her unusual strength, her teeth, or her aggressive posture, I could focus on other things. The near-silent sound of her breathing, the lazy flicking of her tails, how warm she was.

Pleasant things that I wasn’t accustomed to.

At some point most of the pain in my side has faded away, or I simply haven’t been thinking about it as much, preoccupied with soaking in the sensation of being in contact with Kayenta. It does draw my thoughts away from her; I touch a hand to my side, thinking back to Hallow’s Eve, and how I’d gotten these injuries in the first place. I’d replayed that night over and over again in my head, had recounted most of it to Lysanne. All except for one part.

“You’re not resting.”

Kayenta’s voice startles me. I open my eyes to find her looking at me, looking vaguely exasperated. “How did you know?” I ask. I’d had my eyes closed and everything. I was lying still; I’d gotten good at that over the last week.

“Your heart. I can feel its beat beneath my hand.” she says, tapping a couple of her fingers on my chest. “It hasn’t slowed down, even though your eyes were closed.”

Oh. So that’s why she had her hand on my chest. “I’m trying.” I reply.

“If your eyes are closed and you are comfortable, but you cannot sleep, it’s usually because you are thinking about something.” she says, leaning the reclined portion of the couch up a little bit. “What are you thinking about?”

I don’t answer right away, debating whether or not to tell her. It’s not like she’d have any vested stake in it; it’s not knowledge she would be able to act on, and it would be unlikely to change the way she saw me. “My sister. She was there on the night that Grimes attacked me.”

“You have a sister?” Kayenta says, her fingers pausing.

“Yeah.” I answer. “She’s younger than me by about three years. We don’t really get along.”

“A little sister…” Kayenta muses. “Has she lived many lives, like you?”

“I don’t know. Even if she did, I wouldn’t let you get your hands on her.” I warn her. “Your pact is with me.”

Her hand strays from my chest, creeping up my neck and bumping up against the underside of my jaw. “You and your sister don’t get along, but you would still defend her from me?”

“I’m her older brother. It’s what my mother would expect.” I answer as her knuckles roam the underside of my jaw. “Family takes care of each other, even if they don’t like each other.”

Kayenta’s thumb comes up over my chin, tracing over my lips. “Even if I could, I’m not sure I would. I’ve grown to like the way you taste.”

I feel my ears heat up. I’ve got no response for that; I don’t know how to respond. Normally I’d avert my eyes, but I can feel her august gaze on me, and I don’t want to look away from it. Her eyes are warm, just like the rest of her.

“Why was your sister there?” Kayenta asks. “Why does she not travel with us?”

That does cause me to break our gaze as I look back to the ceiling, thinking of that night. “I don’t know. She wasn’t supposed to be there. Last I heard from our mother, she was on Coreolis, taking a break from college so she could save up more to complete her degree. Coreolis is nowhere near Charisto, though, and I can’t think of a reason why she’d be on Charisto. But I’m not even worried about that; what bothers me is that something was different about her. She didn’t seem human. Something possessed her halfway through the fight; you could hear her talking, but you could hear an echo behind it, like someone else was speaking through her.”

Kayenta’s hand moves up from my lips to shepherd some hair around from my eyes, tucking it behind my ear. “It sounds like your sister serves a dark master. A demon, perhaps, or one of the old gods.”

“That’s the thing, though. Jayta forswore the coven.” I say, confused. “She became disillusioned with magic when she was a teenager, and decided she wanted to be a scientist instead. I don’t see how she could end up mixed up in something like that when she’d tried so hard to disavow it.”

“When was the last time you saw her?” Kayenta asks, her hand roaming back down to rest on my chest once more.

I have to stop and think about that. “…three years? Maybe four? It’s been a while.”

“A lot can happen in four years. Many things can change.” she says, her fingers drumming gently on my chest again. “She fought to protect you that night, yes?”

“Yeah. She did.”

“Even though you and her don’t get along.”

“Mhmm.”

“Just the same that you would fight for her.”

“Well, yeah.”

“Then dark master or not, she is still your sister.” Kayenta concludes.

“Yeah, it just… bothers me.” I say, shifting a little on the couch. “I don’t know what’s happened to her. I don’t know if she’s different than she was since the last time I saw her. I just wish I knew these things. Wish I knew what was going on with her, wish I knew what to expect.”

“Perhaps your mother will know?”

“Maybe. I dunno.” I sigh. “I thought about calling her and asking her, but if she doesn’t know what’s going on with Jayta, hearing that she showed up on Charisto and that she seemed to be under the control of some dark entity would only make her worried. I can’t think of a good way to bring it up without tipping her off.”

“I think you should speak with your sister first, instead of asking your mother.” Kayenta says, her fingers still drumming out that gentle beat on my chest. “Find out straight from her.”

“Yeah. Maybe I’ll try to do that sometime.” I say, before glancing at her. “What about you? Do you have any family? Anyone with you on Vissengard?”

“Not on Vissengard, no.” she says, idly scraping her nail over the fabric of my shirt. “My parents are Maelstrom and Radiance, the Rantecevang gods of storm, shadow, and sun. They visit me in my dreams from time to time.”

I stare at her. “Your parents are… deities.”

“Yes.” she says easily, her august eyes flicking to me. “Is something the matter with that?”

“No… no. That’s fine.” I say slowly, unsure of whether to believe her or not. “…are they good parents?”

“They are.” she says. “Maybe you can meet them one day.”

“Oh.” is all I can say to that. Meeting gods. That would sure be something. “Yeah, I guess that would be nice.”

“You don’t sound excited about it.”

“Should I be?”

“Most people are excited to meet gods.”

“I think most people would be scared to meet gods.”

“Why is that?” she asks, tilting her head at me. “Do you fear your gods?”

“I don’t have any gods.” I answer. “Though the goddess that created Aurescurans eventually tried to wipe them out. So I guess it makes sense for Aurescurans to be scared of gods. We don’t exactly have a good track record with the one that created us.”

“Your goddess created you, then tried to destroy you?” Kayenta asks, looking perplexed. “Did your people do something to make her angry?”

“We tried to find a way to rise up and join her in her celestial realm.” I explain. “She didn’t like that.”

Kayenta frowns at that. “You should tell me more about it sometime. But for now, you should rest. You were weak before, and you’re even weaker now. If you get any weaker, your enemies will kill you just by looking at you.”

I stare at her, parsing through that. “Are you… razzing on me?”

She smiles. “Sleep.” she says, tapping a finger to the tip of my nose, then returning her hand to my chest, her fingers tapping out that regular cadence. I want to protest, but I do feel inexplicably drowsy; flicking my gaze down, I can see little blue circles rippling across my chest every time she taps a finger against it. Looking back up at her, I open my mouth to say something, but it turns into a yawn, and I can’t help closing my eyes.

Guess it’s time for a nap.

Event Log: Lysanne Arrignis

Dandelion Drift: Bridge

12:18pm SGT

The door of the bridge is open when I step through into it.

Dandy’s sitting at one of the consoles, with feeds from the Drift’s security cameras up on the bridge’s forward window. The largest of them is currently the feed from the common room, where it looks like both Jazel and Kayenta are taking a nap, Kayenta stretched out on the reclining portion of the couch, and Jazel with his head in her lap as he lies lengthwise across the couch. This is the first time I’d seen them like this, so it was a little surprising — while they tended to gravitate around each other, I didn’t know they’d gotten to this point, where they’d take a nap together. Judging by the way Kayenta had her hand resting on Jazel’s chest, she was the one that had taken the lead there.

Moving across the bridge, I can see that Dandy’s got her attention fixed on that screen, watching the two of them. One of her hands is raised, resting on her chest as if mimicking what Kayenta’s doing with Jazel; tilting my head at this, I come over to stand behind her shoulder. “How long have they been like that?” I ask.

Dandy jumps in her chair, startled. She snaps her hand away from her chest, twisting around and seeing me. “O-oh! Ms. Arrignis! I had not noticed you coming in.”

“You left the door open.” I say, tucking my hands in my pockets without taking my eyes off the screen. “Keeping an eye on them?”

“Yes. It seems Jazel incapacitated himself with a sneeze while he was trying to do a lap around the access deck.” Dandy explains, looking back to the screen. “Kayenta found him at that point, and dragged him back to the common room to rest.”

“He… incapacitated himself with a sneeze.” I repeat slowly.

“Yes, it’s actually quite common for those that have suffered torso injuries.” Dandy explains. “A sneeze contracts most of the muscles in the torso, which usually produces a squeezing effect on the injury site. Pelvic and rib injuries are typically most aggravated by sneezes, but hiccups can have a similar, albeit lesser effect.”

“I see.” I say, moving over to the adjacent console and flopping down into its seat. “Well, at least he’s recovered enough to get up and about. Hopefully he’ll be mostly functional by the time we reach the CURSE HQ.” Planting my elbows on the armrests and leaning back in the plush chair, I wind a lock of my hair around one finger, trying to think of a delicate way to broach the way Dandy had been imitating Kayenta’s hand on Jazel’s chest. “Do you envy them?”

Dandy looks at me. “Envy is a complex emotion that usually consumes a lot of a Cyber’s emotional processor. I am not envious of them.”

I glance back to the feed from the common room. “Have you ever wanted someone to touch you the way she touches him?” I ask.

“It would be a be a unique experience.” Dandy says. I notice way she folds her hands primly in her lap, as if becoming guarded and more reserved. “Tactile interaction with another individual is something I’ve not had the opportunity or reason to engage in.”

Letting go of the lock of hair, I curl my fingers and let my head rest against them. “Is it something you’d actually want, though? Is it something that interests you?”

Dandy’s blue eyes dart to me. “It is a secondary interest, Ms. Arrignis. My duties as the Drift’s adjutant come first and foremost. It is not something I really have the time to pursue.”

I study her a bit, thinking of how to respond to that. It’s a mixed signal statement; a yes and a no, all wrapped up in the same answer. Admitting she’s interested in it, then immediately claiming she has no time for it. “And if you had the time for it?” I ask.

“Theoretically speaking, it would be an experience I would be interested in pursuing at least once, if I did in fact have the time for it.” Dandy answers, her tone still carefully neutral. “May I inquire as to your curiosity on the topic?”

I smile a little. “I’m just trying to learn more about you. You’re part of our group, and I want to treat you like it. That means getting to know more about you, the things you’re interested in, the things you like doing.”

It doesn’t appear she knows to know how to respond to this. “Oh. I appreciate the gesture then, Ms. Arrignis. You needn’t trouble yourself, though. My interest in tactile interaction is merely a passing curiosity, one among the many I’ve had.”

“Really?” I ask. “What are some of the others?”

“Well, there’s many things I would like to try that I’ve never had the chance to try.” she says. “Due in part to the fact that until recently, I had been bound to the Drift and obligated to remain aboard it. Too many things to list, really.”

“You don’t have to list all of them.” I say, folding one leg over the other. “Just name a few; that should be enough.”

Dandy takes a moment to think as she considers that. “Spaceball. I’ve never played spaceball before. Skinnydipping. I’ve always wanted to, but my frame is too dense. I’d just sink right to the bottom of a given body of water.”

I giggle a little. “Skinnydipping? You? Color me surprised, Dandy. You’re usually so reserved.”

“Yes.” Dandy says, a faint, electric-blue blush rising to her face. “Skinnydipping, at night. Underneath a full moon. I’ve seen people do it in holos. It seems… romantic.”

I dial back my amusement some, because I don’t want to scare her off by embarrassing her. “It does. If you could do it, would you do it alone, or with someone else?”

“I could do it alone.” she shrugs. “I could also do it with another person, if they wanted to. I think it would have to be someone I know, though.”

“Of course. It’d be a little awkward to skinnydip with a stranger.” I agree. “Probably not Milor. He’d probably be making remarks the whole time.”

“Yes. Milor would be an undesirable skinnydipping partner.” Dandy agrees.

“Probably wouldn’t be Jazel, either.” I say, striking out another. “You probably wouldn’t be bothered, but I can imagine him awkward the entire time. He’d probably find an interesting rock to stare at and keep staring at it.”

Dandy has to sit and process that for a bit. “He would find a rock to look at in order to avoid looking at me?” she says eventually. “I think that’s what you’re implying, but I’m not sure.”

I smile a little. “That’s exactly what I’m implying. I don’t think skinnydipping would be Jazel’s speed. He wouldn’t know what to do when presented with other people in the buff, but I’ve got a feeling his first instinct would be to retreat and find his clothes.”

“That does sound like Jazel.” Dandy concurs. “Kayenta probably wouldn’t mind skinnydipping. She seems to have no problem getting into the pond in the biosphere.”

“Yeah, but would you want to skinnydip with her?” I say, scratching at my jaw. “I guess that wouldn’t be too bad. She’d probably be reasonable. Better than the boys, at least.”

“I think I’d still keep an eye on her. I don’t fully trust her, since there’s still much we do not know about her.” Dandy points out. “I wouldn’t be able to fully relax around her.”

“Good point.” I say, musing on that for a moment before going on. “And what about me?”

“You?” Dandy repeats. “With regards to skinnydipping?”

“That’s what we’re talking about, right?”

Dandy goes to answer, hesitating a moment. “…yes, I would. I would go skinnydipping with you.”

I don’t know what I was expecting, asking that question. The conversation grinds to an unexpected halt as I realized I didn’t have a response ready for that. “…you trust me enough for that?” I ask after a moment, the words tumbling out clumsily.

Dandy immediately turns a little more defensive. “Well, I trust you a little bit. Enough, yes. For something like that.”

It’s an odd, stilted answer, one that seems to have some baggage packed away behind it. I can only guess what that baggage is — perhaps she’s thinking about the jailbreak, and maybe that’s the reason she only trusts me ‘a little bit’. “Oh. Well. I hadn’t been expecting that.”

“Did you think I would say no?” she says, her digital blue eyes on me.

I open my mouth, struggling with the words, since I’m not sure what to say. “Yeah? I didn’t know you trusted me enough for that.”

She’s quiet for a bit. “Well, I do.” she says eventually. “What about you? Would you go with me?”

“Me?” I say, feeling my face heat up a little as I sit up in my chair a little more. I hadn’t expected her to turn the tables on me like this. “Uh… yeah. I… would go skinnydipping with you.” I look away after I say the words, suddenly feeling very bashful.

Dandy doesn’t say anything to that, but out of the corner of my eye, I can see her looking away as well, faintly colored with an electric-blue blush. Awkward silence persists on the bridge for a couple moments.

“Well, uh.” I say after a moment, sliding my phone out of my pocket and checking the time. “It’s lunchtime. Think I’m gonna run down to the kitchen and throw something together before I get back to taking care of the dailies.” I stand up with that, slipping my phone back into my pocket.

“Yes. Of course.” Dandy says quickly, reaching up to comb some of her long, glossy red hair behind one ear. “Would you like me to track Milor down and conscript him into assisting with the chores?”

“If you could.” I say, sidling towards the bridge’s door. “See you around sometime?”

“Yes. Probably tonight, around dinner.” Dandy agrees, returning her attention to the console before her. “Take care, Ms. Arrignis.”

As I reach the doorway of the bridge, I look over my shoulder, and consider saying something else to Dandy before I leave. But watching her at the console, so focused, the blue lights reflecting off her scarlet hair, I couldn’t bring myself to disturb her. I wasn’t quite sure what had just happened in that conversation we’d had, and I needed some time to think about it. And if I felt that way, Dandy probably felt the same.

Stepping through the doorway, I head back down the hall, eager to spend some time in the silence of my own mind while I took care of the dailies.