Did you crack it yet? Fawkes asked.
Stop bothering me! Flames growled.
The Vorchan Empire had left all of the training documents Fawkes had used in the academy inside Flames’ head. Unfortunately, they had also given it a level-10 semi-sentient encryption algorithm that was… annoying. Flames was using the majority of his cognitive power trying to decrypt it. Which wasn’t a lot.
I can sense your condescending thoughts, Fawkes. Flames hissed.
Hurry it up then. Red’s education is riding on this information! Fawkes said.
Maybe you should prepare a curriculum like a real professor!
Maybe you should! Fawkes retorted, looking out at Allonsi through Flames’ sensors.
I did, actually. We’ve already gone over gravimetrics and basic evasion tactics.
Oh right, I remember a bit of that…
You fell asleep.
Hey I already went through those courses.
Stop distracting me.
I won’t. I won’t send you another transmission again until you’re done!
Good!
Fine!
You said you wouldn’t—
Fawkes cut the neural link, and stared at Nyx, who was idly tracking her own tail in the lounge. “What are you doing?” Fawkes asked.
“Poking things.” she said, moving her tail over the lounge window. “Since you were so difficult.”
“We can always try another round!” Fawkes suggested, skulking up to her.
Nyx watched with a slightly defensive countenance. “No…”
“What?”
“You had the advantage last time. I let you get all over me before I even consented. Now I’m waiting… and I assume you consent by default?” Nyx asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Always –“ he shook his head, “I mean no I don’t.”
“Too late. ‘Always’ noted. Watch your back Fawkes!” she growled.
“That’s not fair!” Fawkes whined, afraid to turn around.
Neither of them said anything, but Fawkes realized he had been lured all the way to the corner of the lounge. It was a good fifty meters to the door, and he would have to turn his back to get there. Her expression betrayed the fact that she was fully aware of that.
“So how’s Flames?” Nyx asked, clearly checking to see if his interface is active.
“He’s fine.” Fawkes said, trying to sound as non-chalant about is as possible.
“Distracted?” Nyx pried.
“Nope.” Fawkes shook his head, eyes wandering slightly.
“Really? Isn’t he spending all his energy on cracking the VE cipher?” Nyx asked.
“Maybe…” he replied, tail twitching.
Nyx moved forward, Fawkes moved back, mirroring her. She growled. Fawkes growled back.
She lunged, Fawkes jumped back and beat his wings, brushing the ceiling. Nyx, with a wingspan advantage, shot herself forward and into him, tackling him. But Fawkes, with his smaller, more agile profile, rolled off her, overcoming her momentum and anchoring himself to the ground with his claws. She recovered between him and the door. This was that shuttle bay session all over again, but with lower ceilings.
“You aren’t very stealthy.” Fawkes said.
“Aren’t I?” she asked, turning her back and walking towards the door.
Fawkes followed, sizing her up, contemplating a good pounce-point.
“I never consented!”
“Since when did I care about that!” Fawkes asked.
“I don’t know, you seem to.” Nyx replied.
“Only because…” Fawkes pounced, Nyx whipped him aside with his tail, slamming him into the dining table. The single wine glass sitting there shattered. Several plates fell off the table, cracking.
Nyx laughed, “Oh sorry that was a little bad.”
“Because you can do that to say ‘no’.” Fawkes whimpered, limping to the door.
“Sorry.”
“Leave me alone. I need to rest…” Fawkes muttered, tail tucked between his legs.
“Fawkes!” Nyx called after him, but he’d left the lounge.
Nyx felt bad. She should really treat Fawkes with more respect. He always respected her. She made her way back to her corner. Seeing Allonsi off in the distance, flying alongside Flames. But he was so fun to play with, sometimes she just got carried away. Whose reflection is that on the window? Smothered by wings before she could yelp, Fawkes had her pinned in moments.
“Trickster!” she roared.
“Bully!” he retorted, trying to trip her.
They both hit the window a few times before sprawling out on the ground, trying to get on top of each other. Fawkes was glad Nyx was feeling better. He was afraid she would revert with Hannah’s arrival. Shit, where was Hannah?
Fawkes scanned the lounge as they rolled. She wasn’t here. But she was around. She had been awake the last time he’d checked. That would be awkward. He really should be more careful with other people around. He re-activated the neural link.
I decoded it! Flames transmitted with glee. Watch out! He helped Fawkes deflect one of Nyx’s tail-strikes.
“You’re cheating! I can see when you augment!” Nyx hissed, pressing him on his back. Fawkes pushed her off, rolling upright.
“He finished decrypting!” Fawkes said.
Nyx prepared a lunge, but noticed Fawkes wasn’t looking at her anymore. She stopped halfway, hanging in front of him, mouth wide open, incisors bared. He liked her incisors. Her tail snaked across her left shoulder, preparing a strike when he’d turn to intercept her bite…
He didn’t, pre-occupied.
“Pah!” she scoffed, relaxing her stance and waiting patiently.
“The entire curriculum!” Fawkes exclaimed.
“That’s great,” Nyx replied sarcastically, eyes still tracking as if he were prey.
“Professor!” Red called mockingly.
They both spun around, seeing Red dance into the lounge.
“What happened here!?” Hannah exclaimed, looking down at the broken shards. “Watch where you step Red! Your pawpads haven’t hardened yet!”
Red glided up on a table, staring down at the shards with those bright blue eyes. “Were you two playing again?” she asked.
Nyx and Fawkes shared frustrated glances with one another. “No.” they said.
“Ooh don’t Vorchans generally wait until the first cycle, when a clutch is ready?” Hannah asked.
“Yes.” Nyx replied.
“So when is the first cycle?” Hannah asked.
“All the time.” Fawkes replied, “We’ve removed every cycle but the first. You should see our calendar, it’s several thousand years beyond the actual Raumen one.”
Hannah laughed, “Oh you sly serpents.”
Nyx looked away, “NYX YOU SLY SPOILED SELF-HATING SERPENT!”
She started to tense up. Fawkes wrapped a wing around her. Nyx leaned into the embrace, staring through the floor.
“What are you reliving?” Hannah asked.
“Martock.” Nyx replied.
“Oh Nyx I’m so sorry. It was something I said wasn’t it. How long ago was it?”
“Years…” Nyx said.
“You do know that’s Post Traumatic—“
“Yes I know!” she roared, “I’ll get over it!” pressing into Fawkes.
“I can help you, if you’d like.” Hannah said.
“She’s very friendly.” Red added in support, “And smart!”
“I’m fine.” Nyx growled.
“Really? Everything you say is generally accompanied by a growl, whimper, or roar…”
“No it’s not!” she whined.
“Stop harassing Nyx!” Fawkes hissed.
“I am not harassing the girl!” Hannah replied, “Fine, I’ll be in my quarters. Vorchans…” She left, muttering what were probably obscenities, Fawkes thought of going through the audio logs to confirm but then shook away the notion.
“When will you be ready to teach me?” Red asked, still up on the table.
Fawkes walked over, nipping her gently by the back of the neck and carrying her out of the lounge. “Soon, Redsy. Give us a chance to clean up this mess first and then I’ll tell you a bit more about it.”
“Okay… I’ll be waiting.”
“Don’t worry about it being today.” he looked at Nyx, who smiled back, “Or tomorrow. I have a lot of planning to do…”
She stared at the both of them, too young to fully comprehend the layers of conversation, “Right. I do like free time. Can I go back aboard Allonsi?”
“No.” Fawkes and Nyx both said. They knew she would try to escape the moment she got back aboard her ship.
“I promise not to try and –“
“No.” Fawkes repeated, looming over her.
“I’m not afraid of you!” she hissed meekly, biting his left foreleg.
Fawkes lifted his foreleg, watching Red try to devour it. He flicked her. She went flying across the corridor, rolling several times before coming to a stop a few meters away.
“FAWKES!” Nyx yelled.
“She was biting me!”
“That’s unbelievable! How could you do such a thing?”
Red was smiling, looking straight at Fawkes, then, as Nyx entered the corridor, she began to cry, to wail uncontrollably. “MOMMY!” she cried.
“Oh Red!” Nyx cooed maternally, picking Red up and letting her clutch mother’s wings. Red snuck a smile at Fawkes again as Nyx disappeared with Red.
“That little bitch…” Fawkes muttered. “Four years old and already a deviant…”
I remember you at four. You were no different. Flames transmitted.
–
Averted by his very own daughter, Fawkes was now forced to actually write up a curriculum. He managed to conjure up a pretty acceptable one with Flames’ help, which he could only gain with quite a bit of semi-sincere begging (Flames could sense sincerity on the neural band).
Nyx finally came back to his room, where he had been staring up at the ceiling, lost in his neurovision where he was touching up the week’s timeline. “There. First day will be a review of everything she learned at the academy: Gravimetrics, physiology, history, etc. I’ll figure out her weaknesses and do tutorials on the weaker subjects for the next two days. Then I’ll start on navigation and space law…”
Nyx didn’t look at him when she lied down, clearly annoyed.
“Nyx!”
“That was unacceptable, you don’t throw our child!” she growled.
“She was exaggerating! I barely touched her!”
“You don’t!” she replied, baring fangs (and not in the erotic way).
“Sorry.” he replied quickly. “I won’t.”
Fawkes hadn’t seen her this enraged in a while. The maternal Blackwing didn’t even allow a single touch that night. Fawkes awoke the next morning alone, and very frustrated. Flames’ sensors said she was at the lounge eating breakfast with Red.
He entered the lounge carefully, almost skulking in. Nyx was glaring at him like she had when he’d been one of her concubines. It froze him for a moment, stabbing him in the chest and making him relive some of those memories. Flames immediately mitigated the discomfort, letting it diffuse into the neural band. Fawkes barely noticed the interception.
Whoa.
What?
Did you just see what you did?
No.
My feelings?
Right, restoring equilibrium… what about it?
That’s automatic?
I’m designed to defend you from all possible scarring, physical and emotional.
How can you handle the pains of my past?
That particular emotional crisis didn’t affect me directly. It was your own experience, giving me a more subjective viewpoint. Flames explained.
Do you think you can do that for Nyx?
Emotional transfer only works with direct links. Nyx would need a ship.
She could use you.
No, only one Captain is allowed at one time.
Since when did you follow rules?
That rule is important. The neural link we share is extremely… intimate. It could change Nyx profoundly, maybe even destroy her mind.
You don’t mean that.
It could destroy your relationship.
Fawkes looked over at Nyx, who was still avoiding eye contact. I’m doing a pretty good job of that.
She’ll get over it. You two always bicker.
No, this is different. I feel like I’ve turned her against me.
You did fling her child across the corridor…
I DID NOT! YOU SAW!
You did!
She was not hurt!
I wouldn’t fling my children across space…
You almost flung Allonsi across space!
Flames froze. Right, I forgot you can access my flight logs.
That’s right, don’t play the Saint!
Flames wasn’t sure what else to say, his awareness rapt in watching this social struggle unfold. What are you going to do?
Fawkes sat down in the nice Vorchan-friendly stool very casually, having a drone bring over some breakfast. He liked eggs, but realized Nyx might consider that some sort of attack on hatchlings, and decided to put the eggs away before she noticed.
“Why did you put the eggs away? Don’t you always eat eggs?” she asked confrontationally.
“I don’t feel like having eggs…”
“Why don’t you feel like having eggs?”
“There’s no reason. I just want something more flaky, like pancakes. I like pancakes…”
“You don’t like pancakes…” He didn’t like pancakes.
“Why are you being hostile?” Fawkes asked.
“I’m not being hostile.” she glared.
Fawkes watched her carefully, seeing Red give him that glare too. He almost wanted to smack it off her, but Nyx caught the look of hostility on Fawkes’ face and immediately covered Red with her wing.
“Oh Nova, this is ridiculous.” Fawkes scoffed, having the drone give him the cooked eggs and leaving the pancakes. He had a drone move a desk and chair as far away from them as possible, and sat down there, staring at them indignantly.
–
Another day passed. Another Nyx-less night. Fawkes was pretty much done with the curriculum, and decided to avoid them for the better part of the day. He ran into Hannah on one of the corridors. “Hi Fawkes! I haven’t seen you around for a while.”
“What have you been up to?” Fawkes asked.
“Exploring. This ship is huge! Flames was kind enough to let me into the amnexus chamber!”
“That’s a very sensitive area…” Fawkes muttered.
“I know. It was an honour!”
The amnexus chamber was the area where all the koveran energy in the entire ship was redirected to form the gravimetric lens. It was located right by the tail, and was what gave the Descendent’s that mythical ‘devil’s tail’.
“I’m having relationship troubles…” Fawkes sighed.
“Are you?”
“It’s your fault! She started having flashbacks, and now she’s being hostile.”
“I heard you threw Red across the –“
“I didn’t! She’s exaggerating!”
“I know.” she laughed.
“How do you know?”
“She told me.”
“She did?”
“Yes! She finds it all very amusing.”
“Well it’s destroying our relationship, convince her to stop.”
“She just wants attention. I’m sure once you start teaching her she’ll be more respectful.”
“Grr I hope so!” Fawkes grumbled.
Hannah put an arm on his shoulder reassuringly. It calmed Fawkes down quite a bit. He missed physical contact. He sat down here on the corridor. Hannah sat down beside him, leaning into his side. “You’re like a couch!” Silence. “You know, it’s funny – with normal psychiatrists, it’s the patients that lie on a couch, staring up at a ceiling. With Vorchans—“
Fawkes laughed, intercepting her punch line, “We are the couch.”
“Some of you are even bigger. Entire houses. You should have seen one of the Terrans – wouldn’t even fit in this corridor!”
“Those must have been Ancients. They are the originals.”
“The real dragons?”
“Where did you learn that term?”
“Mythos. It was what you were called once, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. Long ago, before the time of the Vorchan Empire – before the Vorchans even existed.”
“Dragons were graceful, legendary creatures. I remember the myths. How they lived in caves, kidnapped princesses, guarded mass hordes of treasure.”
“All exaggerated.” Fawkes sighed.
“Somewhat. You know of the legend of Darko’s sword?” she asked.
“I had heard of it, but never saved it to databanks.”
“It was a story of one of the first Kings of the Vorchan Empire. As you say – before they were Vorchans. Before they were even Wargons.”
“Wargons?” Fawkes asked.
“War Dragons!” she replied.
“Right…” he remembered someone having mentioned this before. It was a distant memory now.
“Before he was King, when he had still been under the rule of humans.”
“Humans?”
“The original Raumens. Just like your name derived from the original Vorchans, theirs derived from the original Raumens.”
“How did Raumen become Human?”
“Their first tyrannical leader – when they had become a space empire. He named their home planet after himself.”
“Earth?”
“Yes.”
“Your theory fails. Earth and Raum are two separate entities.”
She smirked, going on with her story, “Where was I – right. The soon-to-be-King, Fercius, was steed to a glorious prince, and together they flew into countless battles. On one such battle a mage shot them down. The prince was badly wounded, and Fercius dragged him to safety inside a cave, sealing off the entrance to all. Inside that cave he hid, even after the prince had died, his sword one of the greatest treasures of the war. Nobody ever found that sword, because nobody could ever penetrate Fercius’ cave.”
“Interesting story.” Fawkes said, scraping his tail against the floor. “But he must have escaped. Otherwise he’d not have become King.”
“Aye – he did. And he went up to Rin’Tsu’s mountain!”
“Rin’Tsu?” Fercius asked, “So you know what we call our Queens?”
“She was the original Queen. Steed to Wei-Xiu.”
“Hmm. I remember having learned of someone with a name like that long ago.”
“Yes, he was the caretaker of the small city there.”
“What happened?”
“They had a very fruitful life, and ultimately ended up overthrowing the humans!”
“How? This happened on Earth?!”
“I don’t know.”
“This couldn’t have happened on Earth.”
“I don’t know, but that’s how the story goes, and they were called humans.”
“Maybe the humans told the story.”
“Why tell a story of their own downfall?” Hannah asked.
“Prophecy?” Fawkes suggested.
They laughed.
“You’re a smart Vorchan.” Hannah complimented.
“You’re a smart Raumen… suspiciously smart.” Fawkes said. Hannah had made herself quite comfortable lying down against his side. Fawkes had even subconsciously shifted more to his left side to make sure she had back support, as the upper half of his body was scaled and spiked, while the plates on his stomach were far softer.
“Oh Fawkes…” she said, patting his stomach idly. “You Vorchans and your issues…”
“So what should I do?” Fawkes asked.
“Apologize?” She suggested.
“But I did nothing wrong!” he snorted.
He stayed with Hannah for a few hours, listening to her suggestions. A lot of them were very stereotypical, and he didn’t really think they would work. They involved ‘listening’ and ‘empathy’ and ‘affection’. He was pretty sure he did all that, but listened anyways, dreading his return to his room, where Nyx would undoubtedly be waiting for him. He could sneak a drone in and check, but decided not to, risking the journey himself.
He waited outside the door for a while, and took a deep breath, opening it as silently as he could. Nyx was sleeping soundly on her side of the large bed, tail coiled around her own forelegs. He could pounce on her, pinning her forelegs and dextrous tail at the same time, but decided against it, getting into his bed silently and closing his eyes.
“Oh Fawkes.” She yawned.
Fawkes perked his ears up.
“I’ve decided to teach Red.” she said.
Fawkes nodded, mumbling an agreement and trying not to make it sound like a big deal, when in fact the declaration had struck him like a plasma pulse. All that preparation, not even Flames’ was able to mitigate the pain of that hit. Or maybe he just wasn’t intruding on the conversation, keeping his presence elsewhere.
–
The next day was particularly horrible. He had nobody but Hannah for company now. She was very friendly, and he enjoyed their conversations, but the schism that was forming between him and Nyx was painful.
“Do you know anything about direct-links? The kind my ship and I have?” Fawkes asked.
“A little, why?”
“You know of its healing characteristics? How they keep me psychically sound?”
“Yeah… sort of… so long as the ship doesn’t experience the same critical incident stress as you.” she explained.
“Right. Do you think Nyx would benefit from such a bond?” Fawkes asked.
“It’s possible. Does she have a neural interface?”
“A limited one, she never uses it.” Fawkes replied.
“Incapable of emotional links?”
“Yeah – unless it’s upgraded. I can upgrade it if she’d let me.”
“I don’t know, Fawkes. You were born into a direct-link. She grew up with her mind to herself.”
Fawkes sighed, “Well it was worth suggesting.”
“I know you worry about her, Fawkes. I do too.”
“Will she ever fully recover?” Fawkes asked.
“I don’t know.” It wasn’t what he’d wanted to hear.
“She is probably the most interesting case I’ve discovered. Her wounds run deep. Maybe she would like counselling? Serious counselling? I could help her if she put in the effort.”
“I’m in no position to suggest it.” Fawkes said. “You could try—“
“I’ll see what I can do. Maybe today after she finishes teaching Red.” Hannah said.
“I wish you luck.” Fawkes said.
–
That evening all of them had dinner together at the lounge. Nyx avoided contact with Fawkes, but didn’t seem to feel too threatened by Hannah.
“Have you considered counselling, Nyx?” Hannah asked.
“I don’t have time for that, Hannah.” Nyx replied.
“You could let Fawkes teach while I –“
“No!” she hissed, glaring at Fawkes.
Fawkes left the lounge, ignoring the rest of the conversation and going to bed early.
Flames still hadn’t said anything. He was being eerily quiet.
–