[UF][FanFic] Future Imperfect: Trust

[Captain Violet, Spectrum]

Greetings, gang...

Found this one lying around gathering dust in an archive directory
last night, and was pleasantly surprised, since I thought I'd lost
it. Enjoy...

---cut here---

Captain Nadia Davion crouched behind a large bush and wondered
what the hells she was doing here. She was non-combat personnel, an
engineer for Poseidon's sake... and here she was in a hostile area
with a weapon in her hand and armor on her body. What was wrong with
this picture?
She looked westward. The sun was about half an hour from
setting, and the air was already starting to cool, thicken, and
acquire that familiar sweet smell. It would rain tonight. What a
surprise. She got to her feet and started making her way toward the
stone ridge jutting out of the rock-strewn highland. It looked like a
decent enough place to set up her shelter for the night...
She heard a sound behind her, a click of metal on metal, and
began to turn. Before she could, something hit her like a hammer in
the middle of her back, knocking the wind out of her and almost
throwing her face-first to the ground. She twisted, using the
momentum and raising her weapon, remembering: [Three seconds. People
take three seconds to die... ]
She sighted and fired, and her time was up as she plowed
shoulder-first into the ground. The missile spat by her own weapon
flew and slammed into the high dirt bank next to her target's head,
spraying the left side of his face with dirt and paint.
He dropped his weapon and reached up toward his left eye,
crying out and lurching forward, falling to his knees. Nadia turned
over and sat up, feeling the sting in her back start to turn to a dull
ache, and saw that all had not gone as planned.
"Admiral? Are you okay?"
"No," replied Admiral Ben "Gryphon" Hutchins, not lowering his
hands from his face. "I think your pellet threw a sharp piece of
slate or something from that dirt bank into my eye... feels like
there's some bleeding."
"Oh, hells." She got to her feet and walked over to him,
pulling his hands away from his face. "Let me see."
He was right; a sharp chunk of rock had been thrown out of the
dirt bank by the impact of her paintball, and it had cut across the
cornea and lacerated a bit of skin around the eye. With the paint and
dirt and such, it was hard to tell just how bad the damage was.
"Hold on, let me get my medical kit," said Nadia, and pulled
the small white oblong out of one of the thigh pockets of her armor.
"This will hurt."
"I know," Gryphon replied.
As carefully as she could, Nadia washed out his eye, noting
as she did that he hardly winced. "It's not all that bad," she mused,
half to herself, as she worked. "Facial injuries tend to bleed a
lot." She packed it with gauze and taped it, then said, "How does it
feel?"
"Familiar," Gryphon replied. "I've lost this eye before." He
chuckled. "Good shot; if I'd been a micron slower dodging you'd've
plunked me right between 'em."
"I'm so sorry about that... you really should be wearing
goggles."
"I was, but they were catching glare on the sun." He
shrugged. "Don't worry about it." He looked at his chron. "Guess we
should get back... " He started to get to his feet, gasped slightly
as he put weight on his right foot, and nearly fell again.
"What's wrong?"
"I fell off a ledge earlier today," he replied. "Broke my
leg, and the damned thing's taking its own sweet time to set."
"You're really having a bad day, aren't you?"
"Not one of my best, no. Managed to lose my pack, too."
"It's going to rain. We should camp." He glanced at her with
his one good eye, and she grinned and said, "I'm not going anyplace,
I'm dead."
"Yeah... sounded like a pretty solid hit, too. You okay? In
my rush to screw up in as many ways as possible today, I forgot to
bleed the overpressure off the new gas canister."
"I think it'll be a little stiff, but I'm okay."
"All right... let's set up over there, where you were gonna
camp. And remind me, the next time I organize a paintball survival
exercise on Le Mond, not to."

Eyrie Productions, Unlimited
in association with
Smaltime Writers, International
presents

UNDOCUMENTED FEATURES FUTURE IMPERFECT

TRUST

starring

Benjamin D. Hutchins
Nadia Davion

by
Martin Rose
and
Benjamin D. Hutchins

Filmed on location on Le Mond
No special effects to speak of
Tent provided by Coleman Outdoor Equipment, Inc.
(A Subsidiary of Omni Consumer Products Corporation)

Copyright (c) 1997 Eyrie Productions, Unlimited

The rain was spattering noisily against the roof of their
force-tent, dimly illuminated by a field lamp and cold. Gryphon was
stretched out at the far end of the tent (as stretched out as he could
be in a small force-tent, anyway), with his leg splinted on struts
from Nadia's pack frame, trying to read a book with image amplifiers
and one eye and not having much success. Nadia was sitting
cross-legged by the flap, looking out at the rain through the small
square window.
Gryphon gave up and put the book aside, looking at Nadia. She
had taken off the heavy plastic armor plates that went with her field
suit, and was just wearing the loose t-shirt and fatigue trousers that
went underneath, and had her arms crossed over her chest. He felt
curiously giddy for a moment, reminding him of centuries past, and
smiled a private smile. [Gods,] he said to himself, [but she's
beautiful.]
Nadia continued to gaze out the window, legs crossed, arms
folded. She rubbed her hands on her arms, trying not to breath loudly
-- otherwise, the shiver would be audible. Her back was killing her
-- the muscles bruised by the paint pellet had started to spasm -- but
she felt it was better not to mention it. Gryphon felt he should
probably say something, to make some kind of companionable
conversation, but he couldn't think of anything to say, so he sat back
against the tent wall and looked up at the ceiling, watching the rain
batter it. Suddenly, he realized he'd heard something odd, and turned
his head to look at Nadia again.
"Nadia, you're shivering," he said, holding up the corner of
the blanket and beckoning. "Come here."
[Damn, he noticed.] "It's nothing." She continued to look
out the window.
"Exposure isn't 'nothing', it's a serious problem. Come over
here before you freeze..." [What's the matter with her?]
She stood, or, rather, sat her ground. "I'll be fine. At
least I haven't broken anything yet, unlike other people here." Her
speech joked, but her voice's tone failed to follow through.
Gryphon's voice became sterner as he said, "Nadia, I can hear
it in your voice, just listening's making me cold. You took the Field
Survival course, you know how serious this can be -- what's the
matter?"
She turned her head to look back at him, trying not to appear
unwilling to alter the position of her lower back. What had once been
a very mild pricking sensation had become a harsh stab whenever she
moved it. She said nothing, but her eyes conveyed something that
Gryphon recognized, but hadn't seen in a while -- he couldn't quite
place it. "I'll be fine," she droned.
Gryphon felt a sinking sensation. Of all the emotions he
could read in people's eyes -- and he could read quite a few -- he was
80% sure he'd just seen his least favorite. A sense of frustration
and almost indignation overtook him, and he sighed.
"Nadia," he said at length in a quiet tone, "what are you
thinking?" He spoke not in a "What's wrong with you?" kind of tone,
but as a serious inquiry into what she was thinking. A vaguely
wounded expression painted his face grey in the weak orange light.
Her gaze turned back toward the window. "That you might
actually mean some of the things you've said," she replied evenly, not
daring to look him in the eye as she did so.
He looked confused. "Beg pardon?" He shuffled through his
mental Rolodex, searching for "Things I've Said to and/or About
Nadia", while waiting for a response to match parameters with.
Nadia closed her eyes and sighed with frustration. He was
being about as adept with subtle clues as ever, and she couldn't bring
herself to give voice to her fear. It seemed so... cruel. "Maybe if
you'd found Jamie instead," she mumbled, not really aware she'd said
it loud enough for him to hear.
"Hnnh??" he replied. "What's Jamie got to do with this??? I
find it my duty to inform you that you're confusing the hell out of
me."
She ground her teeth, rubbing her arms and making an audible
shiver. He definitely wasn't making anything easy for her. To top it
off, she actually enjoyed their working relationship, and was certain
that what he was going to make her say would destroy it.
Unfortunately, as she found to be the case far too often, her
frustration got the better of her.
"I'm afraid of you," she said through her teeth. "Okay?"
Gryphon blink-blinked and said in the merest of whispers,
"What?"
"I'm afraid of you," she repeated, a little louder and
obviously unhappy about needing to elaborate at all. "I'm afraid that
it'll just be the two of us, all cold and alone, and then we'll be all
warm and happy and together, and by oh-six-hundred tomorrow I find
Lieutenant Commander Finney adding my name to that list she likes to
talk about so much! Is--"
In the process of her rant, her head had snapped back to face
him. The look of incredible hurt in his eye froze her voice in
place, and she abruptly found herself wishing she could take back
every word.
Gryphon focused his line of sight on the field lamp. His eyes
stung, one considerably more than the other (causing his left hand to
mire convulsively in the fabric of the blanket), and he heard himself
say, "Oh, of course. How silly of me to forget." There was only the
tiniest hitch in his voice as he spoke, and then he fell silent, his
breathing a bit too forcefully regular.
Nadia closed her eyes, dropping her head into her hands, still
being careful about moving the small of her back. [Damn, damn, damn!
Hanson TOLD you your temper would be the death of you!]
"How silly of me to forget," he continued, "that as the male
of the species, I am completely lacking in self-control and decorum,
that I care nothing for the feelings of others, and that it is
imperative that I carve as many notches as I possibly can, regardless
of the circumstances of the other party involved. If you'll pardon
me, I think I'll just slip outside and be struck by lightning." (This
was, of course, unworkable, since he couldn't get outside.)
"Don't sermonize me, damn you," she retorted, her anger once
again taking the helm, though only mildly tempered by reason to sate
her conscience. "Don't tell me I don't trust anything male! I trust
Hanson without question, and I trust Hammer with my life! It's--"
Suddenly, without warning, her reason mugged her anger and made her
think about what she'd just said. [You trust Hammer. Hammer trusts
Gryphon. What should this tell you?] "--it's--" She wished for the
lightning strike Gryphon'd asked for only a moment ago to find her and
get this over with.
Gryphon, meanwhile, had thrown the blanket aside and was
managing a stilted half-crawl toward the flap. "Right. Excuse me,
you're in the way."
She didn't move. She didn't seem to have even heard him.
"It's _me_ you don't trust, yes, I understand that now. And I
wasn't sermonizing you, I was reminding myself of my place, since I
seemed to have forgotten it. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll remove
myself from your tent. Use the blanket so you don't freeze."
She remained unmoving.
"Nadia?" He couldn't see her face, and so had no idea what
was going through her head, and wondered if she was gearing up to turn
around and hit him, or just spacing, or what. Only one thing was
certain in his mind... he was the guest here, and he was not welcome.
Therefore, he should leave.
"Sit down," she said softly. Now puzzled, he sat. "Get in
that blanket." She stared blankly at some point low on the tent flap.
With some difficulty, Gryphon obeyed, restoring (as it were) the
status quo with some minor confusion.
Nadia pushed herself up with her arms, sucking in a sharp
breath at the stabbing discomfort in her lower back. Grimacing, she
pushed herself backward once. Then twice. And a third time. And
again. She glanced backward only a moment, making certain to avoid
eye contact. Then, she continued pushing herself backward, until she
was directly beside him.
Gryphon remained silent. He didn't quite know what to do, or
say, and so didn't bother chancing anything.
"Give me a piece of that blanket. It's freezing out here."
She was visibly shivering now, having lost all will to maintain a
tough front.
Still puzzled, Gryphon enfolded the blanket around her as well
as himself, then, after a moment at a loss, folded his right arm
uncomfortably across his chest rather than do the obvious (and unwise)
thing with it. However, Nadia preempted, and rather thoroughly
surprised, him by nudging up against him, looping an arm around his
back.
"You're not the only insensitive bastard in this tent, you
know," she said, finally meeting his eyes and trying to hint at a
smile.
Gryphon smiled, but his expression was tinged with a number of
things, primary among which was concern. "Back still hurting?" he
said quietly.
"A little," she replied, hoping he'd believe it. She'd just
finished putting him through enough -- no reason to worry him unduly.
Shrugging, Gryphon put his own arm in a more comfortable
location as well, settling back a bit as he put his arm behind her.
The moment he touched her, she stiffened, almost digging into his side
with her fingernails and making a rather unpleasant reverse hissing
sound with her teeth.
"Owowowowowowowownottherenottherenotthere," she managed in a
strained growl.
"That's your version of 'a little'?" he asked. "Lean
forward." His voice had become very businesslike.
Not in the mindset to argue, she did her best to comply.
"Okay, so it hurts like hell. I'm woman enough to admit it," she said
in a long groan.
"Don't talk," Gryphon replied in that same businesslike tone,
and pushed the back of her shirt up to her neck, folding it into the
collar to hold it. He tsked as he saw the bruise, a darker, purplish
blotch under her chocolate-brown skin, in the middle of her back, and
grabbed the field lamp, setting it on his knee to work by. "Talking
makes things move around."
Her apprehension began assaulting her anew at the realization
that there was a bit of a draft on her back. "What--" she began.
"Shh," Gryphon said, and dragged the tips of his fingers
lightly down her back, taking in a good deal of information about its
condition as he did so. Another of the things he had learned from
Takanaka, and one of the more useful. "This will only hurt for a
second or two," he continued, and without further ado pressed rather
sharply down with his thumbs, on either side of her spine. For a
moment, the pain spiked, and then it washed away, replaced by a
feeling of spreading warmth.
"YIGK--K--kaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh," Nadia first yelped, then
sighed, relaxing herself.
"Nerve clusters, in case you're interested," Gryphon said
conversationally as his hands began to deftly rub and stroke her
injured back, putting things back where they belonged and quieting the
disorder of the muscles. "They keep the skin bruise from hurting you
while I'm working on the muscles underneath."
Nadia took long, deep breaths, grateful for the slow, soothing
movement of Gryphon's incredibly skilled hands.
"Aaaaaahhhhhhhmmmmmmmmm" was the best she could muster for
conversation at the moment, as she wedged her forearms between her
legs and her chin, propping herself up.
Gryphon settled into a rhythmic pattern of firm stroking, and
said at length (to the tune of half an hour), "Feel better?"
Technically, he had learned about anatomy and musculature in
order to better know how to cut people apart, but he immensely enjoyed
misapplying arts of death, and besides, Takanaka had said with a wink,
a man has to know how to take care of himself. It struck Gryphon
briefly that, although they were supposed to be a completely different
species, Mondan musculature (at least in this area) appeared to be
identical to that of Earthpeople; then he filed that thought for later
rumination, perhaps with Selar, and simply enjoyed his patient's
enjoyment.
"Does it show?" she replied, her face wearing an incredibly
content smile. "Don't s'pose you could teach Hanson this sometime."
He had to work to hear her, as her voice was only a step or two above
a conversational sigh at the moment -- another of the signs of
complete relaxation.
"Probably," he replied, running his hands firmly down from her
shoulders once (almost as a signature), then settled her shirt back
where it belonged and gently leaned her back against him, her head
falling onto his chest. He rearranged the blanket, and continued,
"It's fairly simple, really. You need to have a comprehensive
knowledge of the musculature, but the actual touch is fairly easy to
master." He chuckled.
"What's funny?"
"Half an hour ago you were afraid to talk to me, and just now
... well, a back massage is one of The Prototypical Moves, and you're
not batting an eye." He put his arms around her shoulders and hugged
her gently. "It's refreshing."
She sighed sadly. "Yeah... I have to apologize for that."
"No you don't... thinking back, I realize now that you were
perfectly justified. I forget sometimes that my outlook on life is
unusual." He shrugged. "You and Hanson are more traditional than
that. I respect that."
She nodded slowly. "I should have known you would. After
all, someone who could have people like Hammer and Dr. Sqirl sticking
up for him... must be worth trusting."
"Hmn?"
Nadia brought a hand up to tug the blanket a little closer to
her chin. "Hmn. I know I've never been too sanguine about going
toe-to-toe with Eiko..."
"I beg your pardon?? Eiko 'I Can Bend Cars With a Spoon'
Rose? THAT Eiko? Eiko 'My Left Pinky Contains the Energies of a
Thousand Exploding Galaxies' Rose?"
She turned her head slightly, bringing Gryphon into view in
the corner of one eye. "It was Eiko 'I Twist Battle Fortresses Into
Pretzels In My Free Time' Magami, at the time. And I'll assume that
means no one told you a lot about that incident. Seeing as how you
were busy dying and all."
"I'd say that was a fairly safe bet. I assume this was at
I-triple-S 43, back in... what was it... '19?"
"Mmm... '07, unless I miss my guess. But you got the place
right, all right."
"I lose track," he said. "It was such a long cold period.
Yeah, I guess by '19 I was training with Takanaka, on New Japan...
there are only a few dates that stick out with any prominence.
Besides the end. What happened?"
She settled back against him, looking at some indeterminate
point in front of herself. "From what Hammer and Dani told me, Slappi
pretty much put her life on the line to stop Eiko from finishing the
job the Kilrathi'd apparently started."
Gryphon digested for a moment, then said, "Don't suppose you
have any details? I'm curious, now. I mean, I knew she was fond of
me, but I had no idea she'd risk mortal danger for me."
Nadia took a slow breath. "Hhhhhhokay... here's what I
remember, from the dual account. The details are mostly Hammer's --
Dani spoke mostly in emotions and reactions."
[What a surprise,] Gryphon said to himself.
"Hammer had his arms full of you and was hoping to sneak you
into a sickbay before the rest of his group caught up with him. He
was hoping Dani and Korren would slow Eiko enough to keep her from
catching up in time. That didn't work out. Slappi went out to try a
last-minute stall, but she managed to push the wrong buttons on Eiko,
and just got carried back into the room you and Hammer were in. When
Eiko spotted you, you could almost see her eyes turning red, but the
minute she'd taken one step, Slappi was in front of her, with her
bumbershoot jammed under Eiko's chin."
Gryphon snickered slightly at the word.
"Well, Dani didn't think it was funny. She was chewing her
nails off."
"Oh, I'm sorry. It's not the situation, it's the vocabulary
... that word's so... Hammer. Please, go on... "
"Anyway... Slappi and Eiko had words, and no friendly ones.
But it was obvious that Slappi would only let her pass over her
decaying corpse. They still aren't sure just why Eiko backed down...
Hammer's best guess was that she didn't want to kill the good Doctor.
She just vented her frustration into a wall and left at top speed."
Nadia smiled. "The real kick is, when Hammer and Slappi talked about
it, Slappi was talking like she knew she'd've won."
Gryphon was silent for a long moment, not realizing that he'd
unconsciously tightened his arms a little around Nadia's shoulders.
Thinking back on that period in his life wasn't something he liked to
do, and to know now that he had come so close to losing it all, when
he couldn't even do anything about it... it made him feel cold.
Nadia put her hands on his arms, crossing her own arms over
them. "Something wrong?"
"Mm? Oh, I'm sorry... I hadn't realized." His arms
slackened. "I just felt a little chill. I never knew how close I
came to losing everything there... I mean, I know I died and all, but
... " He stopped, then said after a moment, "Slappi faced down Eiko.
Wow."
She nodded. "When I think about what I would have done, in
her position... that's the last thing I could ever see myself doing,
knowing what I know about her." She shrugged. "Maybe she didn't
know. Actually, I know she didn't -- Hammer said as much."
Gryphon chuckled. "Oh, no... she knew all right."
He didn't see her incredulous look. "Not possible. She would
have set the land speed record for retreating 600-year-olds if she
did."
"Not Slappi. If Eiko'd pushed her, I guarantee you she'd've
stuck in right to the breaking point -- and when the dust cleared I
guarantee you Eiko would have been the one who was on the floor."
Nadia's face shifted easily to utter disbelief. "You, to use
the vernacular, have GOT to be shitting me."
She felt, rather than saw, him shake his head. "Nope. Slappi
Sqirl has more willpower than ten Eikos have physical strength. If
she cares about something enough, she'll go to, and through, the wall
for it. Would you like an example?"
Nadia settled herself a little deeper into his chest,
tempering her look of disbelief with a hint of mischief. "Teww me a
stowy, Unca Gwyphon," she squeaked.
Gryphon looked quizzical and muttered something about beating
Hammer senseless before composing himself and beginning, "Well, you
know she used to be an actress, right?" Nadia nodded. "When she was
just a kid -- no more than forty -- she decided she wanted to do an
action film, you know, take a break from comedy. Well, of course,
nobody though she could do it. In those days, Mitar -- Salusia's
Hollywood, basically -- was still pretty sexist, and nobody thought
this cute little sqirl could possibly make it in an action film, of
all things. There were some scathing articles in the papers, you
know, stuff like that... got her royally ticked off. She dropped out
of sight for about five years, and everyone assumed she'd been scared
out of the business by the press's backlash." He paused, chuckling to
himself.
"Well. She popped up five years or so later, went down to the
studio where she'd brought up the idea at the first place and demanded
to be let in. The studio president figured she'd snapped or
something, and decided to have Security throw her out. Have you ever
seen a Salusian security guard?"
Nadia lowered an eyebrow. "Like double-sized gorillas,
right?"
"Bigger, even. Well, by the time they were finished, Slappi
Sqirl, all four and a half feet and, oh, nine stone of her, had put
five of them in traction."
He grinned. "Needless to say, she got the part."
Nadia's reply consisted solely of an appreciative whistle.
"The actual fight isn't the important bit, though... it was
that, to do what she wanted to do, she'd spent five years in the
badlands of Vindar learning Kiliari -- that's an ancient Vindari
martial art, kind of like kickboxing, by the by -- without a break.
Just to prove everybody wrong. That's the kind of determination
Slappi has, and it comes out when she's challenged, or when something
she really cares about is threatened. Eiko, powerful though she is,
has all the finesse of a runaway train -- she would never have known
what to do against someone who knew what she was doing, knew what she
was up against, and wasn't afraid of it. And Slappi has _no_ fear."
He paused, introspective, and then said, "But I had no idea _I_ was
one of the things she cared that much about. I mean, yeah, we were
friends, she took me in and all... I always figured that was more to
thumb her nose at The System again than because she really believed in
me, though. Hmmm..." A sudden thought struck, and saddened, him. "I
wonder if she's even still alive..."
Nadia thought on the last point for a moment. "I seem to
recall a paper she wrote showing up in a cyberscience journal a few
months back... so she may well be. As for being able to take on Eiko
... I don't quite share your confidence. I mean, I've studied various
forms of martial arts, including Kiliari. I've also seen something
that I'm afraid you've missed out on -- Hammer and Eiko fighting. And
I don't think I've seen anything that could counter the way they work.
I mean, Eiko may be slightly lacking in finesse, but I don't think
'runaway train' is quite the right analogy. 'Force of Nature' is more
like it. She's learned to use her strength in the strangest ways --
it's almost like seeing something out of an old superhero comic in
real life. I've seen her take down entire rows of combat Buma without
laying a finger on them. How do you fight an earthquake, hurricane
and avalanche rolled into a five-foot-five package?"
"You said Slappi had her umbrella in Eiko's face?" said
Gryphon without missing a beat.
"Y... yeah, but I don't think--"
With a completely straight face and voice, he said, "It's a
rifle disruptor."
Nadia was totally at a loss for five seconds, and then laughed
until her ribs hurt.
"If Eiko'd even thought about making a move," Gryphon
continued, "Slappi would have blown her into next week... with a good
heavy stun setting, of course. Whatever else she is, she isn't a
killer. So you see, it really wasn't as up in the air as all that.
Slappi, you see, is ALSO the embodiment of that old adage: 'Age and
treachery will always overcome youth and skill.' Slappi, above all
else, _always_ has an angle."
He paused in reflection, and then said quietly, "Maybe if we
ever get out of this tent I'll give her a call... and thank her for
what I never knew she did for me."
Nadia's laughter had subsided to chuckling, which now turned
tense, eventually metamorphing into an "ow ow ow ow ow" sound.
"Bloody hell," Gryphon muttered. "Me and my sense of the
dramatic... messed everything up again, didn't I?"
"ow ow ow ow back ow pain hurt ow ow ow help ow," she replied.
"That's what I thought. Lean forward, let's see if I can't do
it right this time." He leaned her forward, folded the back of her
shirt out of his way again, and ran his fingers down again, tsking.
"Yep. Hang on, if you recall this hurts for a second." So saying, he
did that thing with his thumbs again, causing the same spike-and-wash
in the pain as before.
This time, Nadia didn't so much as make a peep, but dutifully
relaxed as the relief spread through her.
"Now let me see," Gryphon muttered, half to himself, as he
began to work things back into their rightful positions again.
"What'd I miss... what'd I miss... aaaaaah, there 'tis. You...
belong... _there_." Nadia felt something pop, and then the damaged
area felt infinitely better, even than it had the first time. She
expressed her gratitude with a sigh so long, Gryphon wondered whether
her lung capacity had been surgically enhanced.
"There. Sorry about that... turns out one of the lumbar
vertebrae was out of alignment, too. I'm gonna have to rework the
armor we use on these trips... it really should protect better than
_that_." He fell silent as he settled back into the rhythm, following
up his specific fix with a general treatment like the last one.
Seconds meandered past.
"Y'ought'a patent this," Nadia sighed contentedly. "Op'n a
shop... y'd make a killing. Acupractic's got nothin' on this."
"Actually, it is acupractic, of a sort... I don't have my
needles with me, and besides, the puncture treatments make everyone
nervous."
Nadia considered asking why none of the usual acupracs could
produce results like this, and immediately remembered. None of _them_
have been practicing for a half-century or so. Duh.
Gryphon shrugged at her lack of response and continued what he
was doing, letting his mind wander. After all, his hands knew what
they were doing, they'd done this a godzillion times before.
Nadia turned her head slightly to one side. "Mind a really,
intensely personal question, Gryphon?"
"Not at all," he replied absently, working on her shoulders.
"I'm just curious, mind you, but... who got the first one of
these from you?"
His hands stopped. She blinked. Uh-oh. Bad question.
"Um... if you don't want to tell me, that's..."
"Hm?" he said. "Oh, I'm sorry. I was just... thinking." He
started his hands back in motion again and said, "Just caught me off
guard for a second. Who did I do this to, the first time, that was
the question?" She nodded. "Well..." His voice took on a faraway
tone Nadia thought she recognized. It was the same kind of tone she
got when talking about Mond, or Hanson. The tone of someone
describing something dear.
"It was on New Japan, a long time ago. I had come out of the
badlands in '30, walked into the bright lights of MegaTokyo looking
for somebody my master claimed was the last descendent of an ancient
warrior house. He'd given me her clan swords and a couple of leads,
and sent me hunting. I was a master, myself, by that point, or he
wouldn't've let me leave." He paused. "Took me a month, but I
finally did find her... and when I did, she was hardly what I'd
expected."
"It's not often that anything is," she said with a smile.
"No, that's true... but still, when you're expecting a
Japanese warrior princess, and what you find is a cynical,
club-rocking biker... well, it's a bit of a surprise. No, Priss
Asagiri was _not_ what I expected at all."
"Mmmmmmmyeah, I can see that," she mumbled appreciatively.
"So, you found her... what were you s'posed to do, once you did?"
"Teach her," he responded. "I was a master by then, remember?
Takanaka told me to train her, and then give her her birthright." He
chuckled. "I don't think old Henzo realized that she might not _want_
to be taught. Or maybe he did, and thought it would be funny, I
dunno. He was a strange duck. Anyway, Miss Asagiri was _not_ the
most receptive of audiences. She didn't believe me when I told her
what I was, or what I was there for, or who she really was... thought
I was just another wacko. At least she didn't recognize me. So, I
had to work slowly. Carefully. She had some interesting hobbies, as
it turned out."
Nadia raised an eyebrow, though Gryphon couldn't see it. "How
interesting?"
"Very, on a metropolitan scale, at least. Ever heard of the
Knight Sabers?"
Her eyes widened. "Uh... yeah, now that you mention it," she
severely understated.
"She was one of them. The blue one, with the red racing
stripes."
"Oooooooooo... kaaaaaaaayyyyy."
"I dunno if that made my job easier, or harder. I finally
ended up getting into the group myself, after demonstrating my
abilities to their leader. Priss was a bit irritated at that, but a
month of combat in the urban jungle will make allies out of just about
anybody. Eventually, she believed me, and I started teaching her.
She turned out to be a good student, after I got past all the cynical
shell on the outside. One day after practice, she complained that she
was sore... and so... well, she got the first one of these I gave."
As he spoke, he concentrated on her neck, his touch becoming...
almost sensual, but not quite, and in a way that didn't feel
threatening.
Nadia closed her eyes, enjoying the sensation. She would
definitely have to have him teach Hanson some of this. "You got
pretty close to her, didn't you?"
"You could say so, yes," he replied softly. "That massage
ended... rather differently than this one will. It was right out of
the blue, too... I had no idea... well, then, I wouldn't've, would
I? I was cold, back then. Still smarting from what happened in 2288.
I think I'd've crashed altogether back then, if she hadn't... hadn't
shown me what love was, again. If I'm here today because of anyone,
it's her."
She shivered slightly. "Brrr... time to close up back there,
unless you can get your hands to cover a lot more area."
"H'm? Oh, sorry, yeah, of course." She couldn't help
noticing that he 'signed' his work the same way, before rearranging
them the way they had been before, snug and warm.
Nadia settled contentedly into her new position. "So...
whatever became of her?"
Gryphon put his arms around her again, and held her to him as
if he were drowning. "She died," he said in a voice that sounded just
a trifle _too_ even. "Largo killed her."
Nadia's eyes nearly fell from her head as she reached up,
wrapping her arms around his. "Poseidon... I... Gryph, I'm
sorry..." she attempted hollowly.
"It's okay... I just... I hadn't thought of it in a while.
And the last time I thought of it I was on too many endorphins to
really feel it. Most of it's good, really. We were very much in
love, at the time, and we were very happy. Those swords you might
have seen me wearing at formal functions are hers... she gave them to
me just before she... she died." He sighed. "Those were strange
days."
She nodded, soothing his arms gently. "Strange days, indeed."
"It's strange, really. All that time ago, and I can still get
into moods where it hurts. I take that as a good sign... it means
I'm still human."
Nadia sighed. "You make me feel privileged."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Spending all that time with all that gloom hanging over you
... while Hanson and I were having what we still consider to be some
of the best times of our lives." She shook her head. "If I had to go
without people I could trust -- even if only to watch each others'
backs -- I don't know where I'd be now."
"Well, it wasn't _all_ dark and horrible. I had some good
times... with Priss, and Reika, after her... in Olympus, when I was
just an ordinary cop... the time I spent in the other dimension was
good, mostly because it was alien territory, and no one knew me. It's
interesting to go from being a legend to being nobody. Interesting,
and rather refreshing... although I unwittingly built myself
something of a legend even there." He sighed. "Even in the darkest
parts there was some light. I had friends... they were just hard to
find, and harder to reach." He sighed. "If nothing else, it
certainly wasn't dull."
"Can't argue with that assessment."
Gryphon sighed. "Yeah... there were some good days, but...
I don't know what it is, but no matter how well things were going, I
never felt... complete. I didn't feel whole until Kei and I were
back together." She felt him shrug. "Guess it's just the way I'm
wired."
Nadia made a sort of snorting laugh. "Hmh. Been a while
since I've heard _that_ line."
"Beg pardon?"
Nadia shook her head slightly. The statement has been
completely off the cuff -- she wasn't even aware she'd voiced it.
"Oh, I'm sorry," she faltered, suddenly finding herself needing to
explain herself yet again. "I just haven't heard that particular
phrase since..." Her voice trailed off.
Gryphon held her a little more firmly. "I seem to have
blundered into a minefield," he said softly. "Forget I asked if it
bothers you."
She set her gaze firmly forward. "No... this'll come up
sooner or later. Poseidon knows I've been trying to bury it long
enough. It's been a long time... a long, long time." She paused.
"Ironic. The best times of my life were during the Times of Chaos,
and the worst were during the Golden Age..."
Gryphon got the distinct feeling he should have Just Kept His
Stupid Mouth Shut.
She took a breath. "You remember the WDF's first contact with
this planet, right?"
"Only what I've read. I was on vacation at the time...
SDF-17 crashed in a metropolitan area after taking drive damage in a
skirmish with Kilrathi battleforces, right?"
"'A metropolitan area'?" Nadia tsked. "Remind me to have a
chat with your historians. That _had_ happened to be our premiere
cultural and technological center. At that point, as a world, we were
just beginning to develop industry, and manned flight was fast
becoming a reality."
"Mm-hmm. I remember reading about it. Sounded like a
fascinating place... I was always rather upset that the FC was
botched so badly."
"Well, you can blame the cats, I suppose. You can probably
imagine how surprised the people were, and I was one of them. Believe
it or don't."
"No kidding." Of course, having reviewed her personnel record
before taking her onto his team, he had noticed the close timing
between her enlistment and the FC date on Le Mond... but hadn't
given it much thought. There will always be pioneers, after all.
"Well, I had a good friend at that time... a boy named Jean.
He was the living embodiment of fascination with techology, especially
flying. We were both just kids, of course... I was no more than, I
think, 14 years Standard or so. Where most of the people we heard
thought this huge thing from the sky was a harbinger of doom or
somesuch at first, he was immediately fascinated by the thing. Before
the fortress had even tried to establish contact with our government,
the two of us were already at the site, looking the thing over. Jean
couldn't understand how it was supposed to fly without wings. Me, I
couldn't understand what we were doing so close to the damned thing."
Gryphon chuckled, but inside, he was going, "Uh oh." He had a
sinking suspicion he knew where this was leading, but kept quiet; she
sounded as if she needed to say it. "Mm-hmm," he said. "A sentiment
I would have probably shared, given the circumstances."
She smiled. "So, what's a girl to do... we wandered around
the thing for a couple hours, Jean only getting more intrigued, I only
getting more nervous. Then, he spotted an opening. Of course, you
_know_ what his first thought was."
Gryphon ventured, "'We should get out of here, it could be
dangerous, let's contact the authorities?'"
"No," Nadia replied calmly, "that was me. Of course, that had
_been_ me for the past two hours, too."
"Oh, of course. How silly of me. Jean's response was more
along the lines of, 'Hey, let's go spelunking in this vast alien
monster which just fell out of the sky'?"
She smiled wryly. "I see you haven't forgotten your childhood
yet. He went in without so much as a second thought -- well, what
else could I do? I didn't want to leave him alone... and,
embarrassing as it is now, I didn't want to be _left_ alone, either.
So it was the two of us, and Jean's bicycle, inside this great huge
thing from Poseidon Knows Where. 'Don't worry,' he says, 'I
remembered to pack a lunch for both of us.' Too bad he didn't know
we'd be spending a couple _days_ meandering around the thing. I
must've sounded like a broken record to him: 'Can we go now?' 'Can we
go now?' 'Can we go now?' But he'd never seen enough. Of course, we
_had_ tried to leave when we were hungry again and we'd already
finished the lunches, but the hole we'd entered by was closed up by
then."
Gryphon nodded. "Hmm," he said thoughtfully. "Yeah...
automatic repair. And you never ran into anyone? Must have been down
in D or E sections, the old wilderzones... "
"Well, all I know is, I'd never been so scared in my life, and
I never have been since. I have no idea how long we were in there,
riding around, looking for a way out but having no idea what it would
_look_ like. You tend to lose track of time when you can't see the
sunrise and sunset. I remember we were resting by a crossroads when
we heard a strange whisper of a noise coming toward us. We tried to
get a fix on it, but we didn't see it, and it kept coming closer.
Then, Jean gets the bright idea that it might be coming from the other
way, and he all but leaped out into the middle of the other corridor,
while I just poked my head around. That didn't last, of course, since
I had to jump out and push him out of the way before the thing
flattened him." She shook her head. "Crazy kid..."
Gryphon couldn't mistake that tone. It all but dripped, to
his empathic nature, with a deep and abiding ache that he couldn't
quite bring himself to look at strongly enough to pin it down. He
considered several courses of action, but abandoned them all to the
safer path of simply remaining where and how he was, his ears open.
"And then the weirdest thing happened... it jumped over us.
It made sort of a cross between a zap and a snap, and jumped over us.
It turned around and came back to where we were, just lying there,
wrapped around each other, too scared to move. It was the strangest
thing we'd ever seen -- a pyramid shape, like a wedge with rounded
edges and corners, on a sort of squat, floating pedestal, and all in
shining, royal purple."
Gryphon chuckled. "Of course. Who else would be out in the
hinterdecks? Well, I might have, in my motorcycle-freak phase, but I
was on vacation."
Nadia smiled. "Hammer was a lot older-looking back then. I
remember him getting out of the thing, trying to talk to us... we
didn't understand Standard. He eventually got us to follow him to
civilized territory. It wasn't for a couple years that we realized
that 'ki taa' wasn't in Standard."
Gryphon broke briefly, then cleared his throat and intoned,
"Greetings, starfighter! You have been recruited by the Star League
to defend the Frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada!"
Nadia chuckled. "You're following me so far, right?"
"Think so."
"Good. Because to understand... you have to realize how long
I'd known Jean. We entered the WDF together. Hammer introduced us to
Noriko, who, in turn, got us posted on the Righteous Indignation.
While all that had been going on, Jean's fascination with machines was
rubbing off on me pretty heavily. When I started, I couldn't tell a
screwdriver from a pile-driver. But he helped me through it, and...
well, you know what became of me."
"Indeed I do... indeed I do." Other than that slow and
half-absent, thoughtful statement, Gryphon made no response.
She nodded. "Too bad that it didn't work out so well for Us."
She sighed, a deep and lamenting sigh. Gryphon knew better than to
respond into it. "We both got involved in tech stuff -- I specialized
in fold mechanics, he went into veritechnology. But... somehow, it
took over our lives. It was slow. Painfully slow. I didn't realize
we even had a problem until thirty-five years into our tour of duty.
We couldn't even talk to each other without talking shop." She
gripped Ben's arms. "When we went down... we went down hard."
Gryphon half-turned Nadia gently, so he could look down into
her eyes, and said quietly, "It's never pretty, is it...?"
She closed her eyes, squeezing water from them. "I said
things... that day... that I swore I'd never say to anyone, ever
again. For some people, fifty years can be a time to learn how to
love. We learned how to hurt. And we did rather well." Her voice
had that forced evenness Ben found far too familiar. She started to
say something more, but her stuttering breath refused to form words.
Gryphon whispered, quoting, "'You say that it's love that you
need... it's war that you got.'" He put his arm more firmly around
her shoulders and held her firmly, trying to be as There as possible.
"I'm sorry I got you started down this topic, Nadia."
She drew a long, controlled breath. "Don't... don't be. It
wasn't your fault. You couldn't have known... In the times when I
knew we had trouble, whenever I asked him something about himself, the
answer was the same: 'Guess it's just the way I'm wired.' Sea gods,
how I came to loathe that phrase. As if he had no control over
himself." She snorted. "Like I should talk. I could see the same
things in myself, but didn't do a damned thing to change..." She took
another deep breath, wiping moisture from one eye. "I never did
apologize."
Gryphon used his thumb to gently wipe the water away from her
other cheek and said, "Well... maybe it's not my place to say this,
but... " He trailed off, regretting he'd even started to say it. It
_wasn't_ his place.
Nadia looked up into his gaze, ready to hear what he had to
say.
Gryphon hesitated. This was made harder by the fact that, for
a while, Gryphon was fairly sure he'd KNOWN Jean... a small and wiry
fellow, he had turned up as chief tech to Eight-Ball in 2050 or so,
just about at the right time. He'd seemed obsessed with
Veritechnology, immersed in his work, and just ever so slightly
intense. He'd always rather made Gryphon uneasy.
"Um, well... in my experience... it's never too... too late
to say you're sorry."
He could feel her hand quaking as it tightened on his arm.
For a moment, a tear seemed to begin to form. With an effort, these
things stopped, leaving he and she in silence for several minutes.
Gryphon simply held her firmly for as long as necessary, throwing
fatigue away. That kind of thing is for people with less important
things to do.
Nadia remained silent as those dark times haunted her memory.
Hammer had never asked her about these things when they were reunited
at UP. Of course, he probably didn't have to. After all, Noriko was
getting the third degree from both of them as they tried to use her to
manipulate each other -- she probably ran up incredible long-distance
bills calling him, just trying to cope with the pressure. [Damn.
Someone ELSE you can't apologize to. Somehow, "oh, well, nothing for
it" doesn't help a whole lot...]
Gryphon couldn't think of any way to break the silence that
wouldn't set him up for doing something even more hurtful by accident,
and so he simply remained silent. [Perhaps,] he berated himself
mentally, [she can't apologize to him because something's...
happened. You stupid jerk!]
Gryphon looked down at Nadia's face, his eyes deeply troubled,
and he said in the barest of rasping whispers, "Or... or _is_ it?"
Her gaze dropped as she rested her chin on his arm. Her
quiet, droning reply was made while her mouth seemingly chewed on the
sleeve of his battered old flannel shirt.
"Jean transferred to the Wayward Son after we broke up. From
the records, he went into Valkyrie repair, upgrading and development.
As of Sonset, he's listed as... Missing Presumed Dead." Her face was
a mask of control.
Gryphon hated himself for asking, and even more for what he
knew he had to do now... but it was necessary. He'd seen this
before, he'd _done_ this before, for decades. [When vessel approaches
bursting point,] he said to himself, mocking the dry, technical tone
he wrote manuals in, [relieve pressure.] He put a fingertip under her
chin and levered her face up so that she was looking straight at him
(providing she didn't avert her eyes).
"Nadia," he said in a quiet and steady voice. "Remember this.
I love you. I will never laugh at you, or use anything I know as a
weapon to hurt you." He took a deep breath, steeled himself inside,
and said, "Let go."
It was a tangible effort for her to lower her guard from this
particular memory. She tensed, still reluctant to release it to
anyone. It was too private, too personal, or so she'd always told
herself. But his quiet words had ever so gently stolen the fight from
her, and she succumbed, crumpling onto him. Her tears did not flood
from her eyes, and were accompanied by no wail of anguish for the
centuries they'd been held there. They came slowly and silently,
without theatrics or scene-stealing -- but they came.
Gryphon held her, murmured half-syllables in no particular
language, and stroked her raven hair. His own face could not be
described as dry. Presently, quietly, he began to sing.

"In every heart there is a room
A sanctuary safe and strong
To heal the wounds from lovers past
Until a new one comes along

I spoke to you in cautious tones
You answered me with no pretense
And now I feel I asked too much
My silence is my self-defense

And every time you've held a rose
It seems you only felt the thorns
And so it goes, and so it goes
And so will this soon, I suppose

But if my questions made you leave
Then that would be my worst mistake
So I will share this room with you
And you can have this heart to break

And this is why my eyes are closed
It's just as well for all I've seen
And so it goes, and so it goes
And you're the only one who knows

Tonight I choose to be with you
That's if the choice is mine to make
But you can make decisions too
And you can have this heart to break

And so it goes, and so it goes
And you're the only one who knows... "

He allowed himself to trail off, and hoped that the message of
those modified lyrics had gotten through. It was his own, rather
oblique and dramatic, but no less heartfelt, way of apologizing for
inadvertently causing her all this pain.
He could only hope she would accept it.
Gryphon waited for Nadia's silent shivering to still, then
gently touched her shoulder and said, "Nadia."
She looked up at him, her violet eyes shimmering visibly in
the dim light.
"Tell me about your better days. Tell me how someone managed
to enjoy the period when the rest of the galaxy went straight to
hell."
The question, as she found to be so often the case with
Gryphon's questions, took her by surprise. Her mouth fumbled slowly,
trying to form words as her relentless mind slowly swept the so-called
Times of Chaos into the forefront of her recollection. Her grip
tightened for a moment around his arm as the thoughts vied for
priority, almost with a will of their own, but driven by the need to
answer the question -- one thing she absolutely couldn't stand was
unanswered questions.
"Wll--" she tried to open. She stopped and cleared her
throat. "Well," she began again, "I suppose the answer to that would
have to lie in the company I kept during the time."
[Good,] he said to himself. [For once this is going in the
right direction.] Gryphon nodded, not feeling any need to speak.
"Not the least of which, of course, would have to be the man
who we, unwisely, I'm sure, chose as our guide." She smiled. "I'll
never really know just what made Hammer the way he is, but whatever it
was, I don't know whether to kiss it or blast it to ashes. No matter
how far down he seemed to be, there was always something in him that
sought out whatever was funny in what was going on, and took advantage
of it. The ship, for instance. After the mutiny, the Righteous
Indignation was almost completely devoid of crew, except for the four
of us. So Hammer writes some CIs to perform all the machine-driven
tasks. Basing their personalities on _The A Team_, of all things."
She shook her head slowly. "Even when I was bored out of my skull, I
could think of better things to do than watch THAT show." She sniffed
through her nose. "Worst bit was, they played off of us rather well.
Especially when Murdock started doing cartoon 'bonk' sound effects
whenever Dani hit someone with a Nerf brick."
Gryphon sighed. He'd never watched an episode of A-Team, and
it was a goal of his never to find the need. "That's Hammer for you,"
he said with a half-smile in his voice.
"And he was just the start. He may have been our
duly-appointed leader, but he'd never say he was in control. Because
he wasn't." She smiled faintly. Gryphon noticed that the smile on
her tear-streaked face made for a peculiarly beautiful image.
"If anyone was even close to directing us, it would have to be
Danilia. I'll never understand how she managed to hold onto her
wide-eyed innocence for so many years. She was like a child who came
into maturity by accident... and had all the best of both. She never
assumed the worst from anyone." She cocked her head slightly in Ben's
direction. "Including you, I should point out."
Gryphon chuckled. "I was always a big hit with children.
Which is oddly amusing considering who 'my' great crime was against."
"True." She sighed. "Still, no one warned me that she was
known as the Nerf Queen back on the Wayward Son. Adding a Nerf
_dispenser_ at her bridge station was the oddest installation task
I've ever had, to be sure."
"Now you know why my office is prepared for such
eventualities. I don't happen to enjoy having things thrown at my
head... bit of gun-shyness from spending a large number of years
ducking, is my guess."
Nadia chuckled. "Sounds logical. And speaking of logical,
pairing Dani with Tom definitely wasn't. Just about everything she
was, he wasn't. Of course, I could probably give seminars on _that_
subject." She chuckled again, as her mind prodded her with a rather
amusing anecdote. "If there was ever a true Straight Man born in the
Galaxy, she found him. She was wild, emotional, unpredictable... he
was calm, controlled... and also unpredictable." She shrugged. "I
never figured that out. They were so unalike... and so like-minded,
it was almost spooky watching them talk to each other. Like, when
she's working on the fighters. She's just puttering away, bubbly and
happy, and he's working on something else nearby... and then he gets
up, picks up a tool, and hands it to her just as she asks for it. I
asked him if he was psionic; he said he wasn't. I'm not convinced,
but whatever the reason, they made an excellent stand-up comedy act,
and just letting the two of them loose, he with his axe and she with
her drums -- she almost looks comical sitting behind a full drum set
-- just let them improvise, and you'd swear they'd rehearsed for a
month."
Gryphon wondered briefly what bizarre twist it was that made
the smallest women the best drummers, then shrugged it off as Another
Unanswerable Question.
"And then there was Dund. The funniest man who never spoke.
He and Dani had some sort of advanced big-brother-little-sister
relationship that beats most of the families I've known in my life.
She would just climb up onto him, or he'd pick her up with one hand,
she was so tiny and he so huge. If I didn't know better -- and I
didn't at first -- I could have sworn they were flirting. But Tom..."
She struck a pose with one finger raised, really getting into her
narration, Gryphon noticed with no small relief. "Ah, Tom was part of
it. It's almost like the three of them had known each other since
infancy -- every quirk, every nuance, every little facial twitch --
they could look at each other and tell what the others had for
breakfast the day before, just about. And yes, before you say
anything, they DID brush their teeth."
Gryphon would have protested his innocence, but what use would
it have been?
"Of course, they were all born on different PLANETS, so the
obvious hypothesis is right out. All you can do is watch them go at
it, and laugh."
"Laugh, or just scratch your head."
"You only scratch your head if you don't know sign language."
Trust me, she signed to demonstrate, they put the Three Stooges to
shame.
Oh, but of course, there was never any doubt of that, he
replied.
She stifled a laugh. "So, you take this assortment of what
can only be called nuts, add a forty-foot-tall Autobot deejay and a
girl whose idea of relaxation is juggling astrofighters, and you
get..." She blinked, her smile fading into a look of mock confusion.
"...you know, I have no idea what you get."
Gryphon chuckled and signed, You get a wildly successful
television series, four movies, and ten Sega games.
That produced the effect Gryphon had despaired of ever seeing
only minutes before; Nadia broke completely. Gryphon just sat back
and enjoyed it.
[Well, I had hoped to get her talking about Hanson, but hey,
this is just as good,] he said to himself.
It was several minutes before she was able to continue
speaking, and even then with a giggling overtone. "And that was just
Hammer's group. Once they managed to get the four of _us_ out of our
emotional pits, that ship was a flying madhouse. The strangest thing
was seeing Korren and the Skipper playing the Good Cop/Smartass Cop
routine. I really doubt they'd intended it, but that's how it came
out."
"Who?"
"Who, who?"
"Who, Skipper, who, who? Who! Who! A-one, a-two, a-three
... CRUNCH! A-three." He paused, realizing he'd slid first into a
Generic Owl Impression, and then into the old Tootsie-Roll ad. "Oh,
pardon. I slipped into Old TV Commercial mode."
Nadia snarfed. "Sorry. Old rabbits die hard, as Bucky-- I
mean, Captain O'Hare used to say. 'Skipper' was our nickname for
Noriko, ever since she'd had to assume command on the first day of our
mission, due to the fact that our illustrious Captain was still
intoxicated beyond the ability to speak coherently. Sort of our way
of saying 'We Know Who Wears The Pants On This Ship'."
"Heh heh. I don't suppose Hammer let it rest a moment before
making the obvious connection and dubbing somebody, anybody, 'Little
Buddy'."
She blinked, looking rather surprised. The stunned expression
slowly grew into a truly nasty grin. "Well, what do you know about
that."
Gryphon shrugged. "Call me psychic."
She shook her head, still grinning. "I wondered about that,
but never made the connection... that sneaky bastard." She chuckled.
"Beg pardon? The Great Kresskin can't do detail work."
"Little Buddy... that's what he called... Hanson."
Everything from her waist up was shaking with quiet laughter.
Gryphon laughed as well, then said, "Ah, Hanson. The great
enigma. You know, I gave him the same request I gave you when I first
hired you, and he still hasn't come to see me? I don't believe we've
ever actually met, to this day. I don't think he trusts me." [Yo,
you came VERY close to saying 'either' there, boy. Don't bring THAT
up again,] he admonished himself.
Nadia's gaze turned to consider him. She studied him for a
moment, then smiled and turned away, apparently satisfied with what
she'd found. "I believe it. Mostly because, if you _had_ met him,
you couldn't say that."
"Oh?"
Her eyes were brimming again, but this time, it wasn't tears
that filled them. It was something else entirely, and Gryphon was
warmed as he recognized it. "Hanson... may be the most trusting soul
I've ever known," she began in a quiet voice. "When he meets you, he
trusts you immediately. Have you ever met someone who instantly
assumes you're trustworthy?"
Gryphon considered, then said, "Not for a very long time, no.
The last person I met like that... well, it's not important."
She nodded. "People who can do that are hard to find. People
who've been burned because of it, but keep it up anyway, even more so.
When I met him, it was because of an assignment -- the fold engines
were being upgraded in a way that had only been theoretical up to that
point, and the theory was his, so he was there to supervise. The
moment I shook hands with him, I could tell I'd found something...
damn near unique. And it didn't take long for me to discover I was
right. You know how I said he assumed you to be trustworthy? I
wasn't kidding. He'll tell you his deepest personal secrets, if you
ask him." She closed her eyes, leaning her head back. "You would not
beLIEVE how shocked I was when I asked him if he's ever been burned
for trusting someone, and he told me... _how_ _many_ _times_." Her
emphasis underscored how incredible it still seemed to her. "So, I
asked him, why does he still trust people like that?" She opened her
eyes, leveling a deadly serious gaze at Gryphon. "You know what he
said?"
Gryphon shrugged.
"He looked me straight in the eye, and said: 'Why shouldn't
I?'" She shook her head. "I didn't know what to say. But I did know
one thing." Her head turned to one side as she hugged Gryphon's arm
to herself, the violet jewels that were her eyes focused on infinity.
"I knew... I would never break his trust in me."
He patted her shoulder and said softly, "I try never to abuse
trust myself. It's one of the few virtues I have left."
Nadia sighed, her exhaled breath filled with memories of happy
times... and love. She smiled, returning her gaze to Gryphon. "So,
since he's so trusting... and he knows it can be a weakness... I try
to protect him. So he doesn't tend to do much of anything without me
nearby." She winked. "I've trained him well."
Gryphon sighed. "Be that as it may, I know I'd feel better if
the guy would _talk_ to me..."
She grinned. "Don't worry too much about it. I can put in an
Imperial Decree for such an appointment... Admiral."
Gryphon congratulated himself, inwardly, for his performance
in pulling her out of the pit he'd accidentally pushed her into, and
smiled, hugging her. "You're a marvel, Captain Davion."
She shrugged, returning the embrace. "What can I say? It's
what I do."
Gryphon chuckled again. "By the way," he said, "what _things_
am I supposed to have said?"
Nadia lowered an eyebrow, her face growing a mischievous smirk
-- another nuance she'd unwittingly picked up. "Before I tell you,"
she all but sang sultrily, "I suppose I should ask you one little
question."
"Mm?"
"Just _how_ long has Jamie known you?"
Gryphon considered. "Mm... thirty... almost forty years
now. Why?"
Her face, unseen by him, shifted into an "uh-HUH, I get it
now, joke's on me" expression. "Ah." Doing her best impression of a
Saturday Night Live character that predated her by far too many years,
she completed her thought: "Never mind."
"What? No no... that isn't allowed."
"Sure it is," she shrugged. "I know when I'm on the wrong end
of a practical joke in poor taste."
"Beg pardon?"
She sighed. [He's playing Mr. Clueless again,] she grumbled
silently. "Just try not to think about it," she said, hoping he would
do so. "I know I will. Won't. Whatever."
Gryphon looked completely mystified, but settled back a little
and said wearily, "Whatever."
Nadia relaxed against him, resolving silently to
"accidentally" beam Lt. Cmdr. Finney into hard vacuum sometime in the
near future.
Gryphon sighed, shifting slightly and making a small contented
noise. "You see? This isn't so bad. Warm, vaguely comfortable, even
a bit companionable. Man, at least this one, does not live by boink
alone." He squeezed her gently, again. "Thanks for trusting me."
She smiled. "I'd say the pleasure's all mine, but I know that
can't be true."
He laughed softly and then gently kissed the top of her head.
"I don't know about you, but I'm wiped out... Good night, Nadia."
She nodded. "Go ahead... I'm not quite dead enough to drop
off yet. Sleep well." She lifted her almost negligible weight from
him and moved over slightly, allowing him to lie on his back beside
her as they continued to share their solitary blanket.
Gryphon appeared almost asleep when he roused slightly and
said, "Oh, Nadia?"
"Hm?" she hm'ed, disturbed from her nightly pondering of the
significance of the small, blue jewel she wore about her neck. She
was holding it in her hand, and it glowed a soft blue under her touch.
"If you ever want your back rubbed again, I do hope you call
me," he said, and then closed his eyes and drifted away.
She smiled, returning her attention to Blue Water, turning it
over and over in her fingers as she replayed a chance conversation
with Kei, right after she and Gryphon had pulled an all-nighter
cracking the Battlestar warp-drive problem, in her head.
['He's in love with you, you know,' Kei said, in the same
offhand tone Nadia herself might use to say to Hanson, 'We're out of
bread, you know.']
['Uh... beg pardon?']
['I said he's in love with you. He's like a high-school kid
who's been assigned you for a lab partner. It's really pretty
funny.']
['Um... ' The feeling of hot blood suffusing her cheeks,
thankfully all but invisible against her chocolate skin.]
['Oh, don't worry about it. I know I won't. Y'see, Ben's
like a well. He can give everybody everything he has, when it comes
to love... hell, he loves just about everybody he knows.']
Nadia swam up from the reverie and shook her head slowly at
her own blindness. The truest evidence had already been thrown in her
face, but she'd ignored it. Of course she should have trusted him.
Kei does.
Smiling, Nadia Davion lay back, released the last vestiges of
her guard, went to sleep, and dreamed of home.

IT'S OVER... GO HOME

--
"I have proven the difference between us. You just suck." - Ken, SPF2T
gry...@world.std.com -><- gry...@gweep.net <*> gry...@jurai.net