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(Immediately ASP - 2401) Waiting for someone to blink (voices part 3) pg-13
#1
Waiting for someone to blink
 
 
               Shavi was sitting in the last anterior cargo bay on the Jetyl. She was supposed to be preparing to leave for an engineering conference on her first ship: ‘the Amarie’ an assault class cruiser she had legally commandeered after the incident with her uncle aboard the Jetyl.  Shavi was kicking her legs like a pre-teen off the edge of the deck and casually checking the extranets.  She had a message from the Klingon High Command, the office of the Klingon Civilian Service.  She opened the message and downloaded her ‘Captain’s Rite Certificate’ she now had the authority to travel through Klingon and joint sectors for the purposes of trade, transport, and salvage.  Shortly after she received another message from the Klingon Defense Force she had been accepted as a ‘Combat and Facility Support Contractor.’  

               She now had the right to act in the name of the Klingon Defense Force while under direct contract to a particular house.  She gave a mirthful squeal as both authorizations had come through on her personal datapad.  She was going to surprise Jade, Pauc, and Toi with a trip to Drozana Station as a kind of vacation after losing Maru.  Maru wasn’t entirely gone, of course, but Jade wasn’t in sync with Natyl yet.  The Trill embassy on the station said it always took longer for a person who hadn’t been prepared for the implantation, so it was a waiting game. After the investigation started on the death of Ambassador Hux, no ships could leave the station, so Shavi stared out into the expanse of space, squinting now and again as the wormhole would open or close.  More than anything, Shavi was bored, and she was biding her time until the Federation gave up.  Shavi was far too accomplished at her skill to have slipped up enough to leave evidence behind. When the symbiote was implanted in a new host, it might take years before the specifics of the trauma that killed the host would be clear on what the new host would be able to recall that last night.  

               Shavi twisted the murder weapon between her fingers spinning it around her hand with the training years of abuse and vicious study drilled into her.  It was second nature to her, making the blade appear in her hands and then disappear with seemingly effortless skill.  Behind her, Huzo sat silently, staring at his protege, knowing that few people could have gotten in and out of the rooms as cleanly as he had seen Shavi do.  

              Huzo huffed to get her attention, and Shavi smiled, looking back at her friend and mentor.

“Do you think it was too much?” Shavi asked as the blade vanished in her open hand.   Huzo huffed again as his deep voice resonated in the emptiness of the bay.

              “Do you?”  Huzo touched Shavi’s shoulder as she brushed her cheek against the scale of his hand. “The more problems you solve with your knives, little bird…” He huffed again and leaned against the railing overlooking the lower decks of the bay.

“He hurt Jade on purpose, Hugh; he wanted to hurt Natyl.  I didn’t kill him simply because I didn’t like him; there are over three hundred years of bad blood between these two, I checked, and the only people his death hurts are the Federation, and I can’t think how what I did does anything but remove a mindless cog in that machine.  I won’t apologize for it” 

              “Jade didn’t ask you to do this, Maru didn’t ask you to do this, and I didn’t ask you to do this. You’re an amazing falcon, but not the best warg.” Huzo smiled and ran a goliath sized claw through her hair as delicately as a feather. “You didn’t ask anyone if it was a good idea, and you made a lot of people very worried, including a few up here.” Huzo huffed again and pushed against her cheek a little watching her stew with the chiding.

“A bureaucrat is dead, and Natyl is safe. I don’t feel bad about that.”  She pouted lightly. “I’m sorry I worried you, Hugh.” She smiled and looked up at him; she curled up against him and sunk her head in his massive torso under his arm, as his warm scaled muscles surrounded her in a deceptively gentle embrace.

                Huzo huffed and chuckled as his massive jaws brushed against the top of her head, petting her gently with his chin. “Maru found me in a Dilithium mine. I was going through an environment suit a week, but I pulled in four times anyone else’s quota, so they put up with me. I had eaten most of a Remen that touched my rations, and my slavers knew shock collars, and anything but the most direct disruptor fire wouldn’t keep me in check.” Shavi was breathing contentedly, reveling in the deep thrum of his voice as it shook his chest and neck. “Before I was a slave, I was a farmer, I had a purpose, and I had a family.  When you take that away, everything you think is beneath you, ends up being far above your head, and you forget what peace feels like.” Huzo looked down into Shavi’s eyes.  
               
              “You and I are very similar; I am a monster that looks like a monster.” She was about to object, but he put his massive index finger to her smooth lips. “You are a monster that looks like a dream, a delightful, passionate, motivated, and genuinely caring… monster.” He embraced her again.  “I would happily kill every man or woman who had ever hurt you and turned my little bird into a killer.  But I wouldn’t do it alone, and you are certainly not alone.” He huffed with pride. 
              “You’re a beast in combat pet, but when you show this side,” He smiled and pet her head against his chest.   “I am happy to have my falcon curled up where I know she can’t get into more trouble, even if it’s more fun sometimes.”  He huffed and closed his eyes embracing her a little more firmly, before releasing her. 

                She looked up and nodded her understanding speaking with light shame in her voice. “No more crazy assassinations okay?” She spoke just above a whisper. “not, without a good reason and permission at least.” She grinned.

                He huffed and chuckled turning towards the corridor again. “Keep your head low pet, the Federation couldn’t find their marks with a map and a guide, I think you’re safe for now. Just, don’t invite disaster when you don’t need it.”

***
 
                Jada dreamt in cycles.  Some might refer to it as lucid dreaming, but with training, discipline and focus, dreams often became real.  The other side of the coin was when her dreams bore no reference on reality at all and as she fitfully tousled in her furs the world couldn’t know where her awareness lied.

               During her talks with Pauc and her confiding in Toi’ she had come to realize her relationship with Natyl was complicated at best and catastrophic at worst.  A weaker mind would have collapsed by now, given in to the superior motivations of the symbiote. At hour 76 of what some people said was the average time of concern she felt the same or she wanted to seem like she did.

           She had noticed that she didn’t hate her body as much anymore… the Tholian silk robe Shavi gave her two years ago always draped her shoulders when she was in her private space, but now it lay folded neatly next to her furs, Jada watched each curve of her body as it disappeared into another, something she hated about herself in adolescence.  Her arms disappeared behind her ample breasts and smooth patterned skin, anthropologists theorized that the patterning was a social distinction and a defense mechanism, it allows many proto-trill to gather together without revealing their numbers, without breaking up shadow.  Over time as their hair was less populous the patterning served a social function and by the law of natural selection, the unique markings remained. 
 
              She admired her body for perhaps the first time since she had officially gained her freedom from Lysiv.  It wasn’t a voluntary separation of course, Maru organized a cascade of bad business opportunities to come in front of the Baron, his lazy and often drunken perception had already lost six cases of Latinum, and after a few not so flattering holo-recordings of him bad-mouthing his sister and business associates came to the house leader’s awareness Maru convinced Lysiv to part with Jada.  
                At first Lysiv was adamant that Jada was irreplaceable.  
               Maru simply inferred that her way of life would be far harder to recover from if this information got out.
             
              None of this was something Jada had been involved in personally, but she remembered it perfectly as though it was her hand kissing Lysiv, she could still smell the house leaders attempted influence over her, and how it took decades of Vulcan training to avoid it, Jada was released but her personal torturer Thari would not let her go.  Maru wasn’t a fighter and the obstinate Andorian was clever to that fact.
  
               The night before Maru and his company were scheduled to leave they slept in one of the villas overlooking Keldon’s ridge, a massive collection of waterfalls that artificially encouraged a rainforest type environment in the surrounding valleys.  
              Thari was convinced Jada didn’t genuinely want to leave, and no mindless merchant was going to cheat his Tabadi out of her prize. 
              Jada remembered eating with Toi’lynn the Trill doctor that accompanied Maru wherever he went, but today Jada recalled exactly what happened eighteen years ago.  Thari crept through the largesse of Maru’s camp when everyone seemed to be sleeping and crept his way into the largest of the pavilions as cloaked security drones monitored his actions. Thari revealed a dancer’s knife, he could have laid the blame on Jada and convinced the party Jada was a killer and she should be dealt with harshly. 
 
             Thari made it to the pavilion tent finding Maru dozing at a desk with a dozen datapads strewn about.  Thari rose the weapon and noticed a shimmer in the air as though he was passing through some kind of holography field.  He stood in the middle of a deceptively larger room with Maru sitting against a series of cushions while two massive Gorn were in the middle of dinner.  They turned and looked back at the barely twenty-year-old would-be assassin and laughed, while a Klingon and Nausican Guard came up on him from behind dropping him effortlessly to the ground.
             Maru stood from his cushion and dropped a slip of Latinum on the table for the larger of the two Gorn. “You win… I was expecting at least a trained assassin, not this hapless boy.”
                He motioned for the guards to drag the boy to his feet as they clapped the back of the Andorians head and hauled him from the dust of the tent.  He approached being about a meter from his would-be killer, the Klingon gave Maru the knife as he inspected it and then the boy in front of him.
“Cylanite… if I didn’t have a doctor literally in the other room I would think you could have been very successful with this…” he nodded to the Nausican as his heavy fist knocked the wind out of the boy dropping him back to his knees wheezing and struggling to stay awake.
                “…. You… you… don’t want her… we have… better…” Thari gasped. As the Klingon cuffed him again aggressively.
                He crouched to be at the same level of the boy as the Gorn stood, one was 275 cm, his head was nearly scraping the ceiling, the other merely 260 but they had an appetite for violence and a fierce devotion to their charge.  Thari swallowed deep beginning to breathe again.
“I’ve lived almost 400 years; did you know that?” Maru smiled and put the knife on a nearby side table. “Andorians… I figured you all hid inside Federation space, and I would have never assumed they were as stupid as you proved you are today.” He lifted the boy’s chin.  “I would ask Jada what she would like to do to you, but I already know her answer.” He squeezed the boy’s jaw tightly as a look of pure hatred came to Maru’s face.  “You tortured her into thinking the world outside was worse than the hell she lived in here.” Maru lifted the knife again squeezing the delicate grip of the weapon and bringing it to the boy’s throat.  “She doesn’t know that you’re here and more so she will never know how close you came to losing your life at this moment.” He dropped the knife and lifted the boy’s chin again to glare deeply into his eyes. “Let her go.” He growled. “Maybe I’ll start an international incident of ionizing this entire estate from orbit. Maybe I’ll make an exception, just… this… once…”
               Maru stood again and returned to his cushioned spot at his table as Thraak the smaller of the Gorn lifted the hapless boy from his knees to well over a meter off the ground. “Make him recognizable, barely, and drop him off in front of the Tabadi’s front step, but don’t kill him.  I want him to suffer the same pain as Jada’s entire life in one night and live to regret this pathetic attempt.” Maru went back to eating as the knife laden maw of the huge Gorn smiled wider and hissed at the boy carrying him outside the holography field, though the screams of panic could still be heard faintly behind it.
               Jada gasped loudly as a memory that was not her own just assaulted her mind as though it had always been there. She found herself squeezing one of her impact wrenches tight enough that she had cut through the delicate flesh of her palm, as the cool crimson pooled over her hand and down her arms, onto her naked thighs, and eventually to the floor below her.  She was terrified, beside herself and shaken, but she was elated as well, Maru was there… she was bonding with him!  She only now noticed the blood and quickly moved to wash it off, she was caught between wanting to shout in pure exhilaration or shudder back in her furs at the sheer potency of her memories of Natyl, above all she felt genuine love, a genuine delight that they were this close.  So many of her fears vanished in moments, she wanted to tell the world!
                She ran towards the door and was just about to activate the console when she realized she was still naked!  Laughing out loud wasn’t something anyone has ever heard from her without a drink in her hand, but the melody of her voice and the sheer bliss flooding her body right now could have charmed a Vulcan off his feet.  She quickly wrapped her hand in a work rag and dressed in her robe, not that it left much to the imagination but some element of modesty was impressed on her by a calmer demeanor than she was capable of right now.
                Her glaze of overwhelming zeal resumed as she dashed from the bay and bounded down the corridor towards Shavi’s quarters.  She passed Pauc’ in the halls running straight past him as her mind was still so consumed, then she stopped and bounded back to grab him by the arm and urgently pull him into a kiss and then tugged him to follow her as she ran as quickly towards deck eleven.
 
               
 
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