random_nanorimo_stuff | Other Trails Chapter 13

"So why can't we just fly to Earth in you?" Shade leaned on the front bar of her stanchion and looked out through the view screen at the massive ship that was flying alongside them.

"I don't have a trip drive, doofus," he replied grumpily.

"Be nice," she said absently. "I don't know a lot about traveling the star trails yet."

"You know more than I do," said Joel from where he was resting in the plush round seat at the back of the cabin. "I thought that take-off was going to make my stomach fall out through my back."

"Vertigo, heh." Starfighter put up the next article that Mist asked for, then grouched softly. "I don't see why it's so important for me to have the high energy fuel. I've done fine without it this long. And if the space cops wanted me to have it they should have brought it along."

"They seem to have thought that you already had it, or something." Shade watched smaller vessels scoot around the nose of the Cruiser.

"No. They're just saving time, and getting brownie points with the Warlady by fueling up at her station." He made an angry static sound like a sigh. "I'm going to be too pitted drunk to do anything."

"What are you going to need to do?" asked Shade absently. "The space cops are taking you into their hold after you fuel up and Mist and I say goodbye to the Nothing Yet crew."

"It's my job to keep an eye on you guys!"

"I can do that," said Joel, frowning and scratching his bandaged chest. "It's my job too now."

"NOT helping, furball."

"Well excuse me, rustbucket."

"I'll rust you, you..."

"Lalalala." Shade put her hands over her ears.

Both men fell silent and stared at her, though Starfighter's stare was felt instead of seen.

Then Joel rumbled laughter and reached into the pocket on the side of his seat for his book.

"Yuk it up, furball." Starfighter called up the two reference articles Mist asked for, and the glyph comparison chart.

"What's that?" Shade slipped out of her stanchion and went over to look at the bundle of plant fiber and string that Joel was opening.

"It's an old story from back before the Big Nuke." He looked up as he always did to meet her eyes as he answered. "About a place called London and a time called Christmas."

"A chanting for the World Weaver's gift?" She blinked at the translated form of the last word.

"Is that what it means?" Joel glanced at the book, which was written in odd glyphs that looked like long curling worm trails. "In the story it's a time when He was a baby, and when people ate pudding and goose and dressing."

"That sounds like how my friend Angelina described Gift Day." Shade tilted her head to try and figure out the script on the thick pages, then looked down at the spine of the book, which showed the folded backs of the page bundles and the coloured string that had been used to bind them together and into the thicker pages that were at each end of all the bundles.

"It does, huh?" He looked at her thoughtfully, then went to the front of the book. "Want me to read you the story?"

"Yes, please." She nodded and put a knee on the seat so that she could see better. "Do you want to listen too, Starfighter?"

"Not really," he said grumpily. "Hit me anyway."

"Make up your mind. I thought you wanted me to stop hitting you."

"Har har. You're not as funny as you think you are."

Shade just chuckled and then looked at Joel, who smiled at her and turned his attention to the strange marks on the pages.

"I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book," he read, "To raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with ..."

* * *

"So that dumb kid's treating you guys right?" Angelina tipped up her mug and drank deeply, then grimaced and set the drinking vessel down so quickly that it banged against the small table set upon a large corner table that the three were sitting at. "Heather, what'd you do with my choccydrink?"

"I've nae idea what ye'r talkin' 'boot." The Taloran woman smiled and sipped at the mug in her hand.

"Well I ordered that, and you ordered beer. This is beer. So give me back my drink."

"Och! As though I'd stoop sae low as tae doon a wean's drink like choccy?" said Heather scornfully, pushing her friend's hand away. "Nae red-blooded Taloran lass'd be caught drinkin' the likes 'o that!"

"You are, though," said Shade, sniffing.

Heather paused and gave the black-furred girl a mild stink eye as her ivory cheeks bloomed pink. "Ye daft wee rotter."

Angelina just laughed and retrieved her drink, then sipped appreciatively. "You tell her, Shade."

"Is there a problem?" The waitress stopped and looked at them quizzically.

"No, I don't think so," said Shade. "But Heather wants choccydrink that isn't for babies."

"Oh." The waitress chuckled. "Rum or whiskey?"

"What?" Heather stared.

"Do you want rum or whiskey in choccydrink?" the blue woman quirked a brow.

"Och, whiskey o' course, but I didnae realize..."

"Some other spacers do it all the time." The waitress chuckled again as she turned to go to the bar.

"So I'll have this." Shade grabbed the rejected beer and had a long drink, then sighed. "Mmmm. It's good."

"You didn't answer my question, Shade." Angelina poked her. "How's that jerk treating you and your sister?"

"He's taking care of us." Shade shrugged, then pushed Heather's drink toward her after it was set on the table. "Though he's gruff with Joel. But I think that's just a normal guy thing."

"Who's Joel?" Angelina frowned.

"He's a guy from Earth. The space cops and planet cops are going there to stop the Aryan League jerks from trying to kill all his people," said Shade. "Right now they're thinking of moving them to another world, but they're not sure how well that'll work."

"Why not?"

"They're descended from the people who survived the worst of the radiation," explained the dark-furred girl quietly. "And they still tend to live in what they call the hot spots. The enforcers aren't sure that they'd be able to survive long term on a clean and un-irradiated world. Besides, there are other people on Earth that the Aryans are trying to wipe out too. The corps people I've talked to say that they wouldn't have intervened except that there is at least one space faring vessel on the planet, and someone came off the planet in another native space faring vessel to ask for help. So now it's an interplanetary incident and the space cops and planet cops have to do something."

"Sounds like the best bet is to round up all the white guys and ship them." Angelina frowned more as she absently stirred her drink.

"Maybe. But the corps wants to try talking to them first." Shade mirrored her friend's expression. "I'm told the cops always try to play fair and not convict someone for something all his neighbours do."

"Hmmph. They didn't play that nice with the forbidden." Angelina scowled and drank.

"But they did with Pohle's people," said Shade. "I read about that."

"Aye, an' those lads were e'n more 'o a blight than the furbidden." Heather scowled as she thought of the sect of zealot assassins that her husband had been born to. "Karc's folk wanted ainly ta eat, those daft packhaulers jes' sliced 'n diced indiscriminately." A snort. "As if any mortal had the power 'o sendin' folk ta Heaven."

"But you married one of them." Shade peeked at the cloaked woman over her mug.

"Aye, arter I beat that rot outta 'im."

Angelina cracked up softly and shook her head. "I'm not sure trying to copy the Warlady's combat kiss maneuver counts as beating someone."

"Leaves less bruises." Heather dimpled at her and then had a long drink.

"Bleah." Shade rubbed her mouth at the thought of sticking it to someone else's, then washed away the thought with beer, only to nearly spittake the beverage as Angelina sat up with a squawk of outrage and horror. "What? What is it?"

"The enforcers went to the ship looking for you, and they found Karc!" The blonde jumped to her feet, ready to run to the Nothing Yet and engage in the battle that her giant husband had forever forsworn.

Heather and Shade were on their feet and moving to go after her- to stop her or help her, they didn't know- but then Angelina's communicator trilled softly.

"Karc's ring?" She pulled the little flat device out of her pocket so that she could see the screen, and then stopped so quickly that Shade nearly knocked her down and had to catch her. "What? My fire soup recipe? Karc, what do you want fire soup for now? Didn't the IGP just find you?"

Shade watched the text fill the screen, but didn't try to read it. Instead she supported Angelina as the human woman sagged with a sigh as though she'd gone flat like a balloon. "What is it?"

"It was a JD guy who was looking for you. When he saw Karc he hauled out his weapon, but Karc surrendered. And then the JD smelled Karc's chili." Angelina sighed shakily. "He says they're going to make some soup and he wants the recipe."

"So they're not going to arrest him or hurt him?" Shade hugged her friend and looked at Heather, whose grey-green eyes were still narrowed with protective anger.

"Cops don't have cooking class with people they're going to arrest." Angelina gave a little whimper and covered her face with her hands. "If you guys hadn't been here with that Cruiser that JD would never have found him."

"I'm sorry." Shade's chin trembled.

"No. No, it's alright. If this guy hadn't found him someone else might have eventually, and anyone other than a JD might have panicked and shot first." Angelina leaned back against the younger woman's reassuring warmth.

"'N that'd 'o triggered the Rage." Heather sighed too and shook her head, but then grinned and turned back to their table. "Sae we've time tae finish oor drinks!"

* * *

"The captain offered the big guy a job aboard the General Roddy, but he said he already had a job aboard the little boat." The happy young shifter sitting across from Shade, Mist, and Joel in the mess paused to examine his meal, then beamed with approval over the simple meatplant salad sandwich and had a bite. The bite was chewed neatly and swallowed, and the youngster continued. "Cap's been looking for a fire soup recipe. There aren't a lot of JD rations in circulation, because there aren't a lot of JDs out in inter space in this galaxy."

"This ship is from the other galaxy, I thought?" Joel stopped watching streaks of light go past the view screen on the wall to lift his eyebrows at the youngster.

"Yes, originally. But it's been stationed here for years, and the Cap was born in this galaxy," said the boy. Shade hadn't been able to catch a look at his name tag yet, and the garrulous youngster seemed to have forgotten that though he knew their names that there had been no introductions made. "The Roddy's been here since the Big Rescue."

"Since the convertors took all those people from Earth?" Shade perked with interest, as did Mist, who rested on the seat beside her sister with a huge honey milkshake in her hands.

"Yup. He was one of the vessels that served then. The only JD ship that had been in the vicinity when the call went out."

"Why didn't he ever get sent home?" Joel frowned and looked around the comfortably decorated mess.

"He was needed. So his first crew stayed and started the IGP here."

"Rupert." Shade read suddenly.

"Huh? Yes, ma'am?" He looked at her quizzically.

"I was reading your name tag." She shrugged. "So the JDs on this ship started the enforcer corps here?"

"Oh. Yup. And they populated the JD world here in this galaxy. Some of them had their families brought afterward." Private Rupert grinned, his skin a clear blue that told how happy and relaxed he was.

"Whoa... We're coming out of trip space, aren't we?" Shade put a hand to her belly as Mist squinted and did the same.

"Yup. This our last stop before we make the jump to the Milky Way. Do you want to see the stars?" Rupert gestured to the screen on the wall.

Mist glanced over and then stared. [So many stars!]

"This is what the sky over Earth looks like on a clear night," said Joel, frowning thoughtfully at the screen.

"It's so bright." Shade's eyes were as wide as her sister's. "And you can almost see more stars in between the clear ones."

"You guys think this is bright." Rupert looked at the view with a proud grin. "You should see what a night on a world in the galactic core is like. I was born there, and the first time I found myself out here I felt like the empty spaces were going to eat me."

"Bet you hate the border, then." Joel looked at him with a slight grin.

"Nah. I'm used to it now. I've even been on a mission into the Between."

[Have seen star dragon nest?] asked Mist.

"No." Rupert turned slightly green with sadness. "Not yet." He brightened hopefully. "But they're going to be there for a long time. I'm only sixteen. I've got over eighty standard years to get out there."

Joel rumbled a chuckle and finished his sandwich, then looked at Mist as she poked him gently.

[We can have some London story now?] asked the white girl, grinning appealingly.

"Oh. Yeah, I want to hear that too," said Shade. "If you don't mind reading it again when Starfighter wakes up."

"I don't mind." Joel took out the book under Rupert's amazed and wondering gaze, then opened it to the place where he'd been reading last and started to introduce his audience to the jolly spirit of Christmas present.

* * *

"Hey, this is soft." Shade paused in brushing her mane to reach over and touch the fur on Joel's back.

He grunted and shrugged a little, his attention fixed on a file on Mist's computer pad as that young lady enjoyed the use of infinite holo screen windows on which to follow her data trails.

Shade ran her fingers through the luxuriant, slightly curly covering, then frowned as she hit a snag. "You need to be brushed."

"Yeah, probably. I can't handle the brush very well yet," said Joel absently. Then he flinched and winced a bit as the tangle in question was attacked.

"I'm being as careful as I can," said Shade, her cheek fur fluffing slightly with dismay as she realized just how snarled his fur was.

"It's alright. I was just surprised." He looked over his shoulder. "Here, stop for a minute."

"Alright." Shade did so, and then backed away from his chair as he set the computer pad down and got up.

"Okay." He flopped down onto the carpeted floor on his face. "Now try."

"Alright!" She grinned and couched beside him, then set to work, curious fingers feeling the muscles under the fur, and here and there a rough place on his skin where an old scar hid itself away.

"What the rust is this?" asked Starfighter groggily from where he was parked to one side of the big stateroom.

Joel lifted his head as though with an effort to give the tricolour shuttle a somnolent look. "I think it's a plot to make me into her willing slave for life." He blinked and lowered his face again with a deep sigh. "And I think it's working."

"You guys never polished me!"

"Polish?" asked Shade, glancing up from her work. "You mean you want to be brushed? But you don't even have real fur on your avatar. And we're usually inside your cabin where we can't reach your skin."

"I'll... help... scrub you down... once my shoulder's hrrrmmmmm... better." Joel sighed again and seemed very close to sleep. He also seemed to be melting slightly and becoming one with the rug without actually changing his form or doing any such thing.

Starfighter laughed, the sound surprised and amused. "Dude, you're worse than a people cat getting scritched. At least most of them try to maintain a little dignity."

"Dignity... Get back to you on that," came Joel's quiet and peaceful reply.

"I was wrong. You're not a furball, you're a walking carpet!"

"Jealous? M'warm 'n furry."

"Yeuch. You're rusted. Besides, I can be warm and furry too. And I can purr."

Mist shook her head. [Starfighter, we love you. Shut up.]

"What she said." Shade chuckled absently as she continued her careful work.

"I don't get any respect." He made a little hicoughing sound and grumbled. "Not surprising. Drunk off my booster rockets... Uh... Sleep now. Nini!"

Shade and Mist looked at one another across the stateroom, and then both shook their heads.

[Men the same no matter what they look like,] said Mist, looking highly amused.

"Yup." Shade chuckled again and resumed brushing.