Ohio

14 - Empress Consort Darragh

Stop! The love you save may be your own!

Darling, take it slow

Or someday you'll be all alone.

You'd better stop the love you save may be your own!

Darling, look both ways before you cross me

You're headed for a danger zone.

-- The Jackson Five (The Love You Save)

=/\=

Otra, while most of the rest of the department was busying themselves with the training expeditions, had mainly been spending time in the cafeteria. She would occasionally see Boris or Deirdre, but aside from those brief encounters, kept her head low.

She had been investigating temporal alternatives, as that was her job. She had a kind of different vision, whereby she was able to sense, and then see, timeline changes. She could navigate through time, too, and was often able to spot when a divergence had occurred – even, sometimes, before the computers had. She was a rare find, and Carmen was determined to keep her happy.

Her needs were few. She had a modest home, and several friends. She was, mainly, not looking for love. As a human-Witannen hybrid, there were few like her. She didn't always feel as if she belonged to either side, although she was warmly welcomed by both.

She set up camp in the cafeteria, and had been drinking mug after mug of green tea. Now, the contents of the mug had gone cold, so the chavecoi on top of her head had apparently felt it was safe enough to investigate. One of them dipped down into the mug, and invaded her peripheral vision, "Get out," she said, a little annoyed, batting it back gently. It returned, "C'mon, you're not gonna like that," she said. The flower-like appendage dipped itself into the mug and the level of liquid went down slightly. This apparently alarmed the chavecoi, which briefly turned a very dark purple and shot straight up. The others waved away from it.

"See, I told you, you wouldn't like it. But did you listen? Noooo."

Two silver Calafan women came over, "Do they listen when you talk to them?" asked the bald one.

"Oh, huh, no. They can't really hear. I find myself talking to them like some people talk to their PADDs."

"Can we sit with you?" asked the one with hair. They both had heavy Lafa V accents, which made them sound Irish.

"Oh, of course. I'm just pondering. And I can ponder later," Otra said.

They introduced themselves, "I'm Yilta," said the one with hair, "And this is Yiria. Our names mean," she pointed to herself, "Student of Travel and Student of Service. And you?"

"Uh, Otra means, huh, let me check," she consulted a PADD, "It's a little animal on Dawitan, kind of like a chipmunk. So, maybe, it's mouse?"

"Thank you. Not everyone likes to play that game, but we do it all the time," Yiria said, "It's a tradition with our kind."

"I'm afraid we don't have that," Otra admitted.

"We are here," Yilta said, "because we know that there is trouble. Everyone has gotten word. It's disturbing to think that there is someone inside who is against us."

"True," Otra agreed.

"Everyone is investigating," said Yiria, "You think you're cleared, and then you're not. I would love to be able to trust everyone. I despise deceptions."

Otra drank from the cold mug and made a face. "Ugh. No wonder the chavecoi didn't want this. It's ice cold. Anyone want anything while I'm up?"

They said no, so she went to the dispenser. While there, she was hit with one of her visions. She could tell that there would need to be a meeting with at least one of the teams once they'd returned.