Corruption

War Preparations

Earlier
Nelson sat on his bed, his blindfold helping him keep his tears in. Miranda sat in there beside him. She rubbed his back comfortingly. "Nelson.." she said, "I can't imagine how hard that must have been.. to find out.." she herself seemed sad too, though he wasn't sure why. Maybe she felt bad for him, but she sounded fairly upset herself. He'd just realized Anora probably had a kid with someone else. Sure, he hadn't let her finish her sentence, but it sounded like nothing but excuses. Like a cheater being caught. It was hard enough realizing it, but it would have been too much for him to stand there and listen to her make up reasons for why it happened.
"I hate this.." Miranda muttered. "Hmm?" Nelson asked. "I.." she started, "I hate seeing you hurt like this. I wish.. I don't know." "I'll get over it," he said. "I know you probably feel bad for showing me the video," Nelson said, "It sucked, but it showed me that I wasn't really even important to them. As much as it hurts." "Nelson... it's okay if you want to be mad at me.." she said quietly. "No," Nelson said, putting a hand on her shoulder, "I'm not mad at you. It's okay." Without that video, he would have still be trying to get back down to Earth. What if he would have walked in on something?
"It's not even all bad," he said, "I have you here. You're the best thing that's happened to me since finding all that out." He could tell she wiped her eyes, but with his blindfold on, he couldn't tell if she was crying or if she just had something in her eyes. "You're too kind," she said quietly. She gave him a long warm hug. "Your chocolate is beside you in the bed," she reminded him. "If you need me, I'll be here." "There is something.." Nelson said. Miranda raised an eyebrow. "What do you need?" "I want to eat these chocolates.. but I wanna eat them with you," he said, a small, shy smile on his face. He decided since he had a crush on her, and she seemed to like him, he wanted to act on it. Not only that, but being around Miranda made him feel so much better. He wanted to spend as much time with her as she didn't mind to.
"Sure," She said. "When is this going to be?" "In a few days," he said. "A few days?" She asked curiously. "I want to wait until my eyes rest from using that second mutation stage or whatever. You have a pretty smile and I want to see it when you see how good chocolate tastes." He sensed her smile. He could feel it. She was really growing on him. He remembered during one of their talks she had never actually tasted chocolate, even though her mom apparently really liked it. "You're really sweet," she said shyly. "Okay. Just let me know when you're ready. Get some good rest." "You too,"
Nelson said. "I can't wait to see you again." "I feel the same," she said quietly.
         Just as he expected, a couple of days later his eyes had healed up, which he knew to be the case because they stopped being sore, indicating his eyes had healed back to normal. He was quite thankful for his increased regeneration. He took the holographic device Miranda gave him to contact her out. A holographic image of her popped up after a moment of fiddling with it as he tried remembering how she told him to use it. It wasn't dissimilar to FaceTime. He smiled when he saw her. She was laying in her bed; it looked as if she had just woken up. "Were you sleeping?" He asked her. "I was just relaxing," she said with a small smile. "I see your eyes are healed up now." Nelson nodded. "I wouldn't mind sharing some of this chocolate with you, if you want." She smiled a bit brighter. "Why don't you come over to my room? Do you remember the way? It's a lot more comfortable in here." He nodded. "I'm pretty sure I remember."
        He made his way over to her room, mostly remembering but also feeling like he just luckily made the correct turn. It was something of a maze in the mothership, and the hallways didn't have any differentiating features, they all looked like plain gray metal. He pressed his hand against the door, and much to his pleasure it lifted up. He smiled childishly. He felt cool opening doors like that. "Hey there," He said, "I was in the neighborhood and figured I'd stop by." Miranda giggled cutely. "You're so silly," she said, greeting him with a hug before they sat down on her bed. "So you've really never had any chocolate in 706 years?" He asked her. "Nope," She said. "It always reminded me of my mom since it was her favorite. But the more I think about it, the chocolate they had in medieval times was nothing like this chocolate here. It was just discovered in the Americas not too long before she first tried some. But I'm still curious." "You know we could get chocolate with zero percent sugar if you want the original taste," he said, "But from what I hear it's not too good." "I think this'll be good for right now." He opened the bag and took out a Hershey's Candy bar, breaking it in half and giving it to her. She sniffed it curiously. He smiled amusedly at her. "It smells good," she said. "I know right," Nelson said, "I kinda wish there was a cologne that smelled like chocolate a bit. I would wear the fuck out of that shit." Miranda smiled amusedly. "Oh really?" She asked, sticking her tongue out and licking it first. Nelson chuckled at her. "Why don't you just put it in your mouth?" He asked curiously, "You know, and take a bite?" "Yeah I guess you're right," she agreed with a shrug, and took a bite of his chocolate. After a brief moment of tasting it, her eyes lit up. "This is even better than I thought it would be!" She said, quickly taking another bite. Nelson began eating his half too. "I told you you would like it," he said, "And there's that smile too." She blushed, still enjoying a piece of his chocolate.
         After she swallowed she thanked him. "You can have more of you want to," he told her. She smiled a cute smile. "I would like that." They are pretty much the entire bag, talking and laughing most of the time when they weren't eating. They even sort of flirted a little bit, though it was obvious she didn't really know how to flirt. But he still thought she was cute. "I keep getting hair in my chocolate," she said, slightly annoyed. "I was thinking of cutting my hair short. "That's crazy," Nelson said. "It's so long and pretty and wavy. Why not tie it in a pony tail?" She blushed a little as she awkwardly attempted tying her hair behind her back. "Aren't you glad you finally got to taste some?" He said to her. She nodded contently. "Are there any other kinds of chocolate beside the regular and white? So far I like the dark chocolate the best but I don't know if there's other kinds." "Not unless they just invented it," he told her, "Also, you have a little something... right there," He pointed to where she had some white chocolate left over on her lips. He felt a sudden desire to kiss her, but he wasn't bold enough. She covered her mouth with her hand nervously. "No need to be embarrassed," Nelson told her, "I was kinda hoping I could use that nifty machine you have here to change my clothes again. You could just use my clothes as a napkin."  She nodded shyly and grabbed a piece of his clothing from his lower abdomen and went down to wipe it off. Just before she started, the door opened, and Mari came in.
      "I have some news regarding... um.." he stopped mid sentence. Miranda looked up, surprised. She hadn't had a chance to wipe the white chocolate off of her mouth yet. "Is uhm, this a Uh.. this a bad time?" Mari asked awkwardly. "I was just tasting some of his chocolate," she said innocently, "What was it you needed?" Mari just stood there, his mouth hanging halfway open. He blinked all four eyes slowly. "I'll.. um.. I..." he suddenly turned his head to the left, as if someone had called his name, though Nelson hadn't heard anything. "You call my name?" Mari called out. "Yeah I'll go Uh.. make sure he's alright," Mari quickly said before power walking away. Miranda raised a curious eyebrow. "I wonder what got into him," she said, a hint of confusion in her voice. She wiped the chocolate off on his shirt and he went into the machine after she programmed it to give him new clothes and clean him on the atomic level.
          He stretched, feeling refreshed. It changed him into a white T-shirt and grey sweatpants, with socks on. He was surprised at the clothing selection. She smiled a shy smile at him. "What's up?" He asked her. "I got those clothes," she said, "Thinking they'd look good on you." "They don't?" He asked. "No," She said, "They look quite a bit better than I expected.." she seemed to have more to say, but was too shy to say it. "But um, anyways, I enjoyed spending time with you." "I always like spending time with you," he told her with a smile. "We should go see what my Dad wanted," she said thoughtfully. "Before he started acting weird."
           They left in search of Mari. He usually followed Miranda, but she walked beside him this time. Her hand occasionally brushed against his, though she didn't say anything. She did sort of smile nervously to herself though. They found Mari in one of the hallways, alone, staring through a part of the ship made of transparent metal - so they could see outside the ship without using windows. He seemed very deep in thought. He noticed them approaching, and he eyed Nelson with a strange look in his eyes. He didn't speak to him though. "Dad?" Miranda asked curiously, "You wanted something?" "Yeah," he said, "The Martians are approaching this star system. They should be here in a little under a month." "It takes them that long?" Nelson asked. "They aren't nearby," Mari said. "They're on the other side of the galaxy, from what I heard last. Point is, I want you to set them up. Lure them to Earth in a trap, and once they're caught, go back in, and capture them. Apparently they're going to make their move soon." "Why to Earth?" Miranda asked. "Because they already know we're here in this area of the star system," Mari explained, "They probably don't expect a trap though, they already consider all Urzuhg to be idiots. So we'll use that against them and have them walk right into this nifty device." Mari pulled out a black metal rod from somewhere behind him with his third arm. "This is what is called smart lighting," he said, "Hide it relative to where you put the trap, and it will detect how many Martians come to investigate the area. Then it will release a wave of lightning that will specifically target them, and kill all of them except one. All you need to do is go back and get it's unconscious body before it wakes up so we can get probe it's brain for information." "Damn that's a pretty solid plan," Nelson said thoughtfully. "I thought only the ones with CW thought ahead like that." Mari frowned, crossing his arms. "I'm the Military Commander of my entire species," he said, "I have an excuse. Don't compare me to those nerds." "Sheesh," Nelson said, "Sorry man. My bad." "Just go set them up will you," he said dismissively, tossing the black rod at them. Miranda caught it. "She should know how to use it." Miranda was about to ask him something but he was already walking away.
I don't really get that guy, Nelson thought. Miranda sighed. "I guess it's about time," she muttered. "Hmm?" He asked. "To start this war," Miranda said quietly. She didn't seem to interested in a war though. "I'm assuming he's wanting me to show you how to use this, and get a feel for our technology," she said, "Although I didn't get to ask because he hardly ever listens to me." "Maybe he's having an off day," Nelson offered. "Yea," she sighed, "Everyday for 302 years. Let's go get this over with."