Moon 514 || Blaze and the White Griffon

35 || Part 1: 3 Hours

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Last revision: 3/6/2013

“Have you heard the news?”  Her voice was slightly incredulous, an emotion she had not intended to so carelessly reveal.

Toka suppressed his instinct to be annoyed by her interruption.  Everyone who worked with him was well aware of how frustrated he became over trivial interruptions – this was an unacceptable oversight.  “Our new captain agreed to board an enormous spaceship controlled by a species of aliens we know very little about other than their ability to control our minds …”  Toka said this as if it was a questionable response – as if Aria could have been referring to something else.

“Yes,” she responded with waning confidence.  Somehow, Toka frequently managed to leave her feeling foolish – perhaps nothing more than a nuisance to be tolerated – and she was nearly regretting her decision to speak with him.  Still, she couldn’t help but to satiate her curiosity.  “Are you going to take over the ship while he is gone?”  She estimated that her question was probably expected but she also knew that Toka would never offer this information to her until it was painfully inconvenient – and she didn’t want to be surprised.

“Of course …”  His long pause was clearly deliberate as he refused to stop pushing and repositioning the holographic image of some bacteria that was imprisoning his attention.   “… not,” he finished.  Another long pause followed.  His clear lack of desire to divulge any information was grating upon Aria.  On the one hand, that was the answer she was hoping to hear.  On the other hand, her insatiable curiosity demanded that she know why.  Then again, this may be a delicate situation, she considered. 

Subtly releasing an amount of pheromones that she knew would attract Toka’s subconscious attention and carefully adjusting her tone of voice to better obtain his focus, Aria was careful not to betray her attempt to manipulate her unpredictable master.  Then she tossed him a follow up question: “Why not?  This could be your golden opportunity.  He is becoming unstable … that couldn’t have escaped your notice?” she offered – the last comment was more of a statement than a question but she had to intone her voice carefully to encourage any appreciable response.

“Of course,” he offered somewhat distractedly.  But this time, he sat back in his chair and allowed his eyes to loiter over his elegant creation.  The exercise made Aria feel uncomfortable but she was somewhat used to it and it was an outward manifestation that her ploy was working – he would speak to her now – so she offered an alluring, yet inquisitive expression as further encouragement to tell her more. 

Toka was quite proud of his handiwork: in his eyes, Aria was the epitome of beauty and there was nothing left to improve upon her physical features.  As a child, she had been diseased, disfigured, and crippled.  Now, thanks to Toka’s brilliant work, Aria struggled not to feel annoyed by the many heads she turned.  And while Toka frequently reveled in this, the pinnacle of his achievements, he was more than unhappy with her personality – it was astoundingly resilient in resisting genetic manipulation and sadly, he found her quite annoying.  But his hopes remained high so he continued with their conversation.

“Regrettably, Blaze does seem to be growing unpredictable – perhaps even erratic – or perhaps unstable as you suggested.  I warned Dr. Boyd of this last month."

"You spoke to Dr. Boyd?" Aria interrupted, incredulous.  She instantly regretted cutting off Toka's train of thought but was pleasantly surprised by his response - he smiled mischievously.

"Not directly.  But of course, I have always maintained connections."

As these words crossed Toka's lips, Aria found herself both surprised and disturbed.  It seemed Toka always had something up his sleeve but to be able to keep indirect contact with his avowed enemy for so many years seemed nothing less than prodigious - especially considering that he had kept this secret from Aria, his work companion who spent most of every day right by his side.