A dutiful, ace soldier from Mars faces a dilemma. She can accept an offer from an infuriating gen-eng man from Venus, grab her loyal cat + dig up her inner rebel and maybe become the first human to explore the Galaxy. OR she can keep flying security...
Time Stamp: 31st of the 3rd month, year 2696 CE, 21:13.2 (a split second later)
Location Stamp: Space cruiseliner Solar Wind, home port Mars, owned by the Stellar Cruises Inc., in orbit around planet Jupiter, Solar System, Milky Way Galaxy
***
A knot, consisting in equal measure of angst and tentacles dashed into the infirmary. He skidded on the puddle of disinfectant left by the droid who cleaned up my bodily fluids. Mikado didn't have reflexes to speak of and they wouldn't have helped him, anyway. Zan'Zar or Var'Rar's—impossible to tell at the speed of the collision—crashed into the devious scientist.
They went down together. Mikado, with his slight build, was buried under the wriggling indigo mass.
Losing my villain like that proved both frustrating and fun. I finished my earlier tirade, over the scuffle on the floor. "I'll tell Martian authorities on you, Mikado!"
The threat had all the gravitas of a kindergartner's tattling, but it made me feel better. So much better that my neck twisted far enough to see which cha'na swept Mikado off his feet. The assailant was tall and dark, no argument, but if he was actually handsome... I withheld my opinion. Zan'Zar—or absolutely anyone in the verse—would know better than I.
Zan'Zar was at hand. He loomed in the doorway, watching his suitor scramble back to his feet, leaving a flattened academician on the floor.
As soon as Var'Rar resumed vertical position, Zan'Zar clicked his beak. "You can't go fifteen Earth minutes without hurting a human, can you? Dis-taste-full!"
"I only slipped because you pushed me." Var'Rar wrapped his tentacle around Mikado's waist and pulled him upright like a stuffed doll. "ThYour preciousuman staff is perfectly fine. See?" "Mikado's crisp coat was splattered with purple and likely stunk of disinfectant, but otherwise he seemed undamaged. Perhaps, he was tougher than I gave him credit for.
"You needed that push," Zan'Zar argued. "The lagoons of Rakra would have run dry before you stepped inside to apologize!"
"Oh, please! The humans were talking. I didn't want to disturb them with your... with our business." Var'Rar flicked slime from the breast of Mikado's coat. He likely thought he was the very soul of discretion, but Mikado rocked on his feet, sucked his breath in and edged away from the cha'na. I almost gave him a thumbs up for that maneuver.
"Hmm." Zan'Zar's voice sim outdid itself on that utterance. It dripped venom. It questioned Var'Rar's ancestry, intellectual capacity and intentions for years to come.
But Var'Rar used the same tech. His fine! sounded as snappy as it should sound. He grabbed the sides of his head with six curling tentacles. "Fine! You're right, and I'm wrong, like always. Let's just get it over with."
"Miss Gorelko, I apologize for your injuries, and for my earlier comments." Var'Rar said his piece in one breath, then stiffened as much as you could expect from a mollusk. He worked up enough slime to gain a pleasant luster in the infirmary's light. "All of them. I'm new to the Sol Annex. Plus, the last year was... it was...."
He left the year undescribed after a sideways look at Zan'Zar. Also, a wise maneuver.
I met Var'Rar's gaze as soon as it swiveled back to me. Suffering flickering in their inky depths drained my anger. Love was an affliction I'd never caught, and by the look of it, it got them good. That was punishment enough.
"We're cool, Friend," I said.
"Well, that's a start," Zan'Zar judged.
Var'Rar inched out of the infirmary while he was winning, his beak tightly sealed.
Zan'Zar took his place by my side and produced a heaping bunch of flowers. With so many tentacles in sight, I didn't even notice he was holding something behind his back. "Old tradition, right?" he asked.
"Oh, my stars! You didn't have to... Is there a single petal left in the hydroponics bay?"
I looked desperately at Mikado for a counter to this ingress of flora.
He chose the simplest solution by grabbing the flowers from Zan'Zar's tentacles. "Thank you for the flowers. They are lovely."
His face looked ridiculous framed by red and blue blooms, while his brows furrowed as he calculated his next move.
"Bucket," he announced a split second later. "One bucket filled with up to four liters of potable water. A weak solution of acetic acid, perhaps, twenty-five milliliters of glucose to preserve, to preserve..."
Zan'Zar talked over Mikado's head. "I'm really sorry about what happened, Miss Vera. I'll get through Var'Rar's thick skull that compassion is the strongest current, if I have to borrow a sonic drill!"
Mikado wrestled the greenery into a huge glass bicker. "No time like now," he noticed mildly, adding a mysterious solution to it drip by drip. "Miss Gorelko needs treatment as soon as possible."
Before I could signal Zan'Zar for help, he bowed out, leaving me alone with my nemesis. A floral arrangement was all that stood between Mikado and me.
"Confess, Doctor," I said. "Confessions are good for the soul. What in the name of stars are you up to?"
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