Trudge

Posted on 19 Jul 2021 @ 2:39pm by Lieutenant Callisi Veera & Commander Kristiana Petrova

2,245 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Home
Location: Kenya, foot of a mountain slope

With Gavin Layne having divvied out responsibilities and the group moving forward through nature, Kristiana found herself on point. She had the messer, after all, that functioned as machete for their trek through rough terrain, where overgrown rarely used paths needed de-branching for the group to continue.

The going was slow, the temperatures high, humidity as well, making for an uncomfortable, muggy experience. Kristiana's tank top was almost drenched with sweat, from the heat as well as the physical exertion and the pressing weight of her backpack with supplies and survival equipment. Comfortable this was not.

As she was leading the way, carving where needed, she noticed someone close behind her. "Oh hey Callisi," she ventured. "How're you holding up? This can't be comfortable weather for someone covered in fur," she added with a glance of concern.

If there was a picture of "Someone Enjoying Their Time", Callisi wasn't it. She looked hot, and was probably on her second water bottle at this point. Her ears were absolutely soaked, though not with sweat. Simply soaked with icy water, possibly from her first bottle. "It isn't. Planet Kenya is not an ideal place for a Daughter of Ts'usu." she remarked, shaking her head as she did so. A soft smirk graced her features at the sight of her friend. The current temperature might have been near the upper range of what a human would call 'comfortable', Callisi was not a human, nor was she comfortable. "I've been better. Seven days, they said? Couldn't we just have opted for prison time?"

"Planet Kenya?" Kris chuckled. "Kenya is a country on Earth, one of a hundred and ninety ish, I don't quite remember. It's on the continent of Africa, where Humanity first evolved," she mused, now pausing a moment to take a better look at her Ts'usugi friend. "You doing ok? Like, for real? It'll be cooler in the evening through the night."

"One hundred and ninety. Feels like that right about now." Callisi commented in an exaggeration. Truth be told, she looked miserable but she was taking the time around a friend to openly gripe. "We.." she paused to sip some water. "We don't deal with the heat as well as humanity does, but this? For real..." she paused to use Kris' expression, "This isn't what I'd call comfortable, but this isn't the worst I've been through."

"Well, just try to preserve your energy, don't exert yourself too much - " like me " - and you'll be fine, I'm sure," she reached over the petpet Callisi's shoulder. "Been thinking 'bout something. How'd you feel about a bit more responsibility on the Odin? You've got a good head on your shoulder, seem to work well under pressure and have an even, balanced view on things. I was gonna recommend you for two-ex-oh, if that's something you'd be up for."

Callisi didn't seem to mind the contact. In truth, Ts'usugi were starved for touch by the standards of other races. "I'll be cautious of my activities during the day." she assured, though Kris' next comment, her next question, instantly had her attention. As soon as the question left her mouth, Callisi had an answer. "I accept." a pause, "And... thank you."

No child of Ts'usu turns down a promotion. Especially one consumed by pride as much as Callisi.

"But, we can handle that once we get off planet Kenya." though she was corrected previously, the notion was amusing to the rabbitess, who offered a soft smile at the mention of the 'planet's' name.

Kris chuckled softly as well. "Alright, I'll suggest it to the captain, but I'm sure it'll be no problem," she mused. That said she chopped another branch out of the way, opening the view to a majestic flat plain, off in the distance. They could see shapes moving on it, tall shapes with spindly legs and enormous, long necks. "Wow ... " Kris ventured in almost hushed tone.

Callisi looked along with Kris in a bit of wonder at the prospect of life in its native wild environs. "And thus, the Emperor made the moons unto our home, populated with the life of a world each. They, he said, belong to us, and we, in turn, belong to Ts'usu." she said, softly. A line from scripture, or a passage from a children's story.

"If you brought someone from the Sciences division down, they'd discuss for days the series of decisions life had to take to make something with a neck that big. They'd get around to enjoying the view." she smirked, "Fortunately, I can enjoy the view right away. What a magnificent sight."

"Giraffes," Kris explained, in almost quiet reverence. "Never seen a real one before. Just on photos and drawings. Herbivores, gentle giants - up to five and a half meters tall to reach high vegetation," she mused. "Beautiful."

"Never seen anything like that before. Twenty sorties, across a dozen worlds." her lapine companion commented. "Earth has some unique creatures, that much is sure." then she gave Kris a smirk, "Humans, for instance. Nothing like them in all of space."

"Oh God I should hope not," Kris gave Callisi a look, shaking her head a bit before moving on further up the trail.

Callisi followed, making sure to cast a glance to make sure her cadet was alright every now and then. "Every species thinks they're unique in the universe. If we were to meet our exact duplicates, I don't know what would happen then." a pause, "Maybe that's why almost every race out there that believes in such, has monsters that can look like themselves." she pondered. "Though, that's a discussion that can wait for cooler temperatures."

"Recognizing the monster within. Or an expression thereof, at least. There's nothing scarier than exploring the depths of depravity you know you're capable of," Kris mused. "It's a common trope of horror across the universe, I found."

"It's a fantastic genre, truth be told. Expanding on the concept of having to look at yourself in the mirror, or something. I rather enjoy horror movies. Predicting the jump is one of my favorite parts, though..." she grew quiet, "But, there's a film series I'm not fond of at all. The Terminator. Absolutely hate it." she even went so far as to shake her head at her level of unlike. "I've seen dozens of Earth horror films, Ts'usugi horror films... oh those are ear chilling. Even some Dalacari horror films, but those are culture heavy, and... disturbing sometimes." she took a breath, "But no. I get that it's a cult classic, and some people swear by it, but I'll never watch another minute of that movie ever again."

"Monster within, indeed."

"Terminator, that's the one with the future AI sending back a machine t - ... Oh. Oh, yeah, I can see why you'd hate that one in particular," Kris mused. "Say, what do you think of Lawe?" She asked, nodding her head in Captain Lawe's direction as if to emphasize who she meant.

"They strike me as capable, confident, not too egotistical or proud. Pride will come later in the assignment, but they seem to have a fair grasp of their responsibility. They carry the bulk of the weight on their own shoulders, but they know the value of delegation. A vital skill to have, and to have picked it up so soon. Back home, it would be a sign of work in the civil sector. Possibly a county clerk or a understudy of a local magistrate. Which, I assume, is not the case here." she offered with a smirk.

Kristiana actually laughed out loud at Callisi's response, but in a friendly way, out of sheer amusement. She then leaned in to whisper "And me over here just thinking he's a gorgeous slab of man," she winked. "Too bad he's not staying."

Callisi gave her friend a smirk, "Well, he's not a Son of Ts'usu, so I'm certain I wouldn't know what to be looking at." she said, before looking back, "Though, whatever I'm not knowing what to look for..." she returned the wink. It looked odd when Callisi did it, since it just looked like a regular blink, but slower. "I'm certain, between the two of us, we could impress upon him the importance of staying around."

Kris coughed. "Yeah, no. Bad idea," she whispered. "Lest this monkey brain decides it wants to climb that tree. No, better he goes and has his own career somewhere far away. Besides, we have a good captain already."

That was a reference that Callisi didn't get, but she could follow the logic train enough. She gave a nod, and a soft smile. "We have a very good captain. So far, I've only disagreed with their decisions twice, but it's the decisions of the captain, and therefore decisions I'll abide by." she was silent for a moment. "Kat."

"Mmm," Kris turned more serious. "What would you have done with Kat? Destroyed her? Send her back out to drift in space, deactivated? Deactivated her and studied the tech?" There was no accusation in her voice, just curiosity.

"It would be deactivated, potentially destroyed to keep it from coming into the possession of anyone else. If we couldn't destroy it, lock it away in the coldest storage until we could drop it into a star." she paused, "But, that's not the way of the Federation."

"No, it's not," Kris said, quietly. "Part of me agrees with you, though. We know next to nothing about her, only what she told us. I've spoken with her, she seems almost frighteningly intelligent, in some ways. It doesn't rhyme for me that someone, an AI with that capacity for logic and thought, can be so humble in ambitions. Human history is full of smart people with ambition fucking things up for everyone else."

"The same is true for our people. Ambition, and the doom it brings. Though in our history, we did build a Constructed Intellect. In the end, it started a mining operation on our homeworld without our knowledge, refused to cease operations, and the ensuing conflict against our own device cost too many their lives."

"I don't trust it. All the information we have on it, was provided by it." she pointed out, "And it has no reason to be honest with us, aside from the stipulations in its core programming which, again, we have to accept are true because it says so."

"Kat has not the means to start mining operations or anything on that scale," Kris replied. "She does have access to weapons, including some that could cause serious harm to the ship, but then, so do the other pilots. Yet, you trust them not to."

"It has WHAT?!" it was odd to see Callisi lose her cool. It was rare to hear her raise her voice. This was the rarest of moments, where both occurred. It spoiled the moment of the various animals of Kenya, who were immediately aware of the presence of the troop of officers and cadets.

At her exclamation some birds nearby scattered. Kris merely quirked a brow, though. "She operates a fighter. Fighters have weapons. This is not a new concept. Theoretically she could override safeties and arm microtorpedoes while docked, launch them into fighterbay bulkheads. That'd cause serious damage. Might not destroy Odin, but mission kill the ship for sure."

A pause, a breath, a single closed eye. "I ... I apologize for my outburst. It was uncalled for, and ruined the moment." Kris' calm explanation about how the AI could go rogue, incapacitate the ship, and return to the stars meant that either the decision to arm the AI was well thought out, or acted upon hastily without consulting the others in command.

"This is a decision that was made by the captain. It will be respected as such." the tone of the discussion went from casual to something closer to professional quickly. Callisi figured she'd stepped over a line, especially with her outburst. A foolish loss of composure. "I'm sorry, I scared away the birds."

"You sure did," Kris spoke with a sense of amusement. "But don't worry about it," she smiled. "Captain made the choice. It's our job to trust her decisions, even if we don't fully agree with her," Beat "Within reason, of course. We're also duty bound to make sure the Captain's decisions follow the spirit of what the Federation stands for. Which, in this case, I think they do. Regardless of my own personal feelings."

"We were sent out here to help inspire these cadets, and reaffirm the tenets of the Federation within ourselves. I imagine this is part of the latter." a moment of silence, before she shook her head again, "I don't like it. I especially don't like that it's armed. BUT.. the captain has made a decision, and I'll abide by it."

"You've given me a lot to think about. More then I'd rather have, truth be told, but I'd rather find out from you then from it. For that, thank you."

"Self reflection is scary, isn't it," Kris chuckled softly, reaching over to rest a hand on Callisi's shoulder for a moment. "I'm sorry."

Callisi turned to glance over at Kris, and gave a nod, "I'll forgive you someday." she said with a ghost of a smile. The smile softened a bit, "As for self-reflection, there's a reason I avoid mirrors. I don't like what's waiting for me."

 

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