Memory transcription subject: Maeve, Temporary Resident of Venlil Prime.
Date [standardized human time]: Sept 12th, 2136. Middle of 4th Claw.
The walk with Ulmic was… pleasant, and blissfully short. Valek trailed behind as I walked with the big Gojid on one side and Alvi on the other with her tail around my wrist. I couldn’t see him, but I could feel Valek staring daggers at the back of Ulmic’s head. Ulmic, for his part, did a wonderful job of keeping me distracted with conversation; for once on this trip, I could almost forget the crowds of Venlil giving us a klick-wide berth.
Almost.
Once we reached safety in the lobby of Setting Sun, Valek noticeably relaxed before trudging to the elevator to our room as Ulmic offered to take us to the park one of the days we were still here.
“I appreciate the offer, but I think we will be staying in ‘till we leave. If I’m honest, I’d rather not be in Dawn Creek anymore, even by the morning if I can help it. I’ll miss you, Ulmic, but I’ll try to keep in touch.”
Ulmic pulled his head to one side and his ears went flat; a signal I didn’t understand, but did not seem positive. “Yeah… I do wish you had a better time here; I love this city, but I can’t fault you after what happened. Hey, if you’re gonna be holed up, you should try Flowerbird’s Delight or Nana’s Anuana’s they’re two of my favorites when I’m stuck in the office, and they both deliver.”
After exchanging our thank yous and goodbyes, Alvi and I met Valek at the elevator. The familiar slide of the bedroom door was like music to my ears as I quickly tore my veil off my head and breathed a sigh of relief; I wasn’t the only one, as Alvi went right to the bed and curled up in the center of the bowl.
“The Talk?” I turned around to see Valek pacing in front of the window, his tail thrashing in a hundred different emotions I couldn't understand. “He’s who you met at the Forum, isn’t he?”
“Yeah…” I chuckled incredulously, taken aback by his question, “He was a bit of an ass at first but-”
Valek wheeled around, facing me with both eyes, “What were you thinking? He’s an Exterminator! You could have gotten killed! You left us and went right up to an exterminator to-to, what? Make friends?!”
His tone caught me off guard, and I stuttered my response, “I-I didn’t know he was an exterminator then, I just-”
“I TOLD you they were exterminators! I thought you would understand but-”
Like hell I was going to take this; I didn’t even start it, he came to me! What was Valek on?! “Well maybe if SOMEONE had-”
No. Stop it. You know exactly where this will go. You don’t mean what you’re saying, and you know he doesn’t either. You’re both tired, and scared. Breathe. Let it pass.
I tore my sight from him, closed my eyes, and took a long breath. In through the nose, out through the mouth, and again.
“I know you’re angry… and scared… so am I. But these aren’t your words, they’re your hurt. Breathe, and come back to me, please?”
Valek’s tail was still thrashing and twitching, as his ears flipped from flat against his head to facing me, erratic and panicked, “They found us! W-We left the street, we gave them space, we tried to hide and they still found us!” His voice started to choke and stutter over his building phlegm, “I… I can’t stop them! I can’t stop this! They’re everywhere, and I can’t-” before his words failed entirely and he fell on his rump, hugging his tail against his chest as his ears pressed against the back of his head.
“I brought you here! I thought it was safe! My people, my planet, everyone is trying to - to… I can’t protect you from this. From Us. Why-”
I sat down across from him, and pulled his head to rest under my chin. I ran my fingers through the wool down his back as his arms wrapped up and around mine, desperately gripping and kneading fistfulls of linen as he cried into my chest.
---
Memory transcription subject: Maeve, Temporary Resident of Venlil Prime.
Date [standardized human time]: Sept 15th, 2136. End of 2nd Claw.
“And that’s another 11, so another three woolgrass for me!” Alvi whistled with satisfaction as she collected the yellow wooden pieces from the board.
“Ya know, that’s the third time in a row you’ve rolled an 11. I’m starting to think you’re taking advantage of my illiteracy.” I fidgeted with my paltry piles across from Alvi’s heaps before reaching for the 7-sided dice. “You sure you read the rules right? There’s another, like, 4 tiles in the box?”
“Oh yeah, it's an easy game to pick up.” She answered, pulling the faded pamphlet from the tabletop to her seat.
“Uh, huh. What’s these say?” - “That’s a 6.” - “So I get the…” - “Deeproot; orange pieces.” Alvi picked up a purple bushel piece and idly brought it to her teeth, but I laid my hand on her wrist to stop it. Her eyes flashed with recognition, then shame, as she pulled a pistachio from her shoulder pack. She had already finished the rest of her Crystal Cuties yesterday, and it was only by the grace of Flowerbird’s Delight’s nut mixes that her pistachios were still around.
Looking across the tiled pieces, I saw the orange hexagon had a rail line on it. “Ok, well it’s not nothing; so that’s one for the rail, and one for it being lightspeed?” - “It would be, but you never built the lightspeed.” - “Sonuva…” I collected the gnarled orange piece as Alvi’s snack rattled around her mouth.
Looking up and over my shoulder, all I could see of Valek was his tail hanging limply over the edge of the warren bed. He hadn't left the bed for anything but the bathroom ever since I laid him in it three days ago. It tore me up to see him like this; Alvi and I were taking care of him, making sure he ate, but this wasn’t something we could fix. All we could do was give him time to heal.
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The door chimed before it slid open, the sudden woosh making Alvi drop several pieces and sending them clattering from the table to the floor. Ulmic filled the doorway with a worried look on his face.
“Ulmic! Hi! Uh, what’s up?”
His snout scanned the room, scattered with strewn blankets and disorganized luggage, I saw his blocky bear-like nose pull and curl as he met my eye, “It’s almost 3rd claw, are you guys ready?”
My hazy memory sparked and fizzled, “Ready…?”
His shoulders fell as he looked at me; even through the language barrier, I knew ‘Hopeless Sympathy’ when I saw it. “C’mon, let’s get you guys cleaned up; even the park has some standards.”
Recognition shot through me, and I leapt to my feet, “Oh my god, I’m so sorry. We-”
He waved his hands placatingly, “It’s fine, it’s fine. I knew you guys were having a hard time, but… Protector… Any way I can help?”
I started throwing laundry into my bag as Alvi packed up the foregone conclusion of a game. “No, you’re helping plenty; thank you for changing your plans for us!”
Ulmic walked up to the Warren bed, his nose curling again as he looked inside. He reached down and took Valek’s hands by the wrists and pulled him to sit on the lip of the bed. Valek’s ears bobbed lifelessly as he hunched there, barely present as he stared wall-eyed at nothing.
“I was happy to; I wanted to show you more of this great city and hopefully help you leave on a good note. When is your shuttle coming?” He walked over to the covered window, twisting the mirrored blinds slightly to soak the room in daylight and prompting Valek to turn his sight away from the sudden brightness.
Alvi slid the game back into its drawer as she spoke, then started collecting discarded take-out. “Should be just after 4th claw. It’s the first one Sam could get us on this short notice.”
“Good… Good… We can, uh…” He started wandering around the room, throwing anything cloth and not recognizably Federation my direction while I bundled what was ours into my bag. “We have the time, so we can wait a little longer for Valek to take a bath.” Having tossed everything to me he could hope to assume was ours, Ulmic walked back to the door, “I’ll be at the lobby bar downstairs, just past the front desk.” And he stepped through the open door.
I turned around, twisting a shirt in my hands, “Hey, Ulmic?” He stopped the door with a heavy hand, meeting my eye with his, “Thank you… for trying.”
His ears twisted in the same way Valek would when he was happy, before he let the door close and was gone. I looked around at the disaster of a hotel room, feeling my heart tear when I saw Valek just… trying to exist. I moved and stooped down in front of him, running my hands over his tear-crusted snout and through the wool behind his ear, the smallest smile pulling at the corner of my mouth as he barely leaned into my touch.
“I’m going to give him a bath, can you finish packing up, Alvi?” She gave an affirmative beep as she collected what was left of our minimal possessions, and my good hand held Valek’s jaw so I could look him in the eye, “C’mon big guy, I’ve only got the one arm to carry you; can you stand and walk for me? Please?”
He gave no indication that he heard me before he slid off the bed and took a readying breath as he made his first step toward the washroom. I collected his brush and joined him inside, closing the door behind me as I did. Ulmic was right, Valek was a mess; fur pointing every direction and clearly dingy and discolored in the washroom’s hard light, his muzzle especially was crusted with gunk from his eyes and mouth. I collected our shampoos and detanglers amid the thundering warm water of the quickly filling tub, then quickly undressed myself. Valek’s ears moved slightly, like they tried to move forward through molasses, and I failed to suppress a giggle, “Oh! We order some xeno-banana-strone and not even a twitch outta you, but I drop my knickers and that gets your attention?”
His dingy snout quickly flushed as his tail wrapped around his legs, eyes flashing between me and whatever else they could land on. My mouth cracked in a smile as I leaned down to kiss him, letting our lips linger for a moment longer than needed.
I pulled away and continued getting ready, quickly impressed at the effectiveness of Venlillian tubs as the waterline filled past what I needed. I shut off the water and the washroom was suddenly quiet save for the dripping of the fill faucet as I pulled Valek to the tub and helped him in, watching his wool float and flow to blur his silhouette. I stepped into the tub behind him and laid my legs on either side as he turned his head slightly to keep me in his rear periphery.
Once I had found a way to fit myself around him comfortably, I drew our first dollop of shampoo and started to work it into his wool. Valek’s ears laid flat against his head and I watched his chest heave with breaths before starting to shudder with broken sobs. My hands stopped their work, moving to his back in a poor attempt to comfort him.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry… I-I’m sorry I can’t- I… I’m-”
I wrapped my arm around his chest and pulled him against me, his hands quickly finding my arm to hold it like a lifeboat as his emotions flooded him again. I told him it was ok, that he would get through this. I held him tight with a fervent fear of the yawning pit I knew he was so desperately trying to crawl from.
A breath of cold air blew over us as the door to the bathroom slid open for Alvi, her body screaming her worry and confusion at the scene before her. I saw her gulp, trying to enter and stopping short of the fine slatted floor, before she collected herself and stepped over the threshold in feigned confidence. I could hear her try to inject humor into her voice, but the tremble under her words told me she was just as worried as I was.
“Maeve, you silly thing, you were supposed to clean him up; not let him get you filthy, too.”
I barked a tearstained laugh, before talking through my sniffing nose, “Yeah, well… I was sharing a bed with him, so I figured I needed a bath too. Speaking of which…” I shot my hand around Valek’s side, grabbing Alvi’s wrist as she reached down to retrieve a brush from the tub’s edge. Tugging hard, I pulled her into the tub along with us with a surprised bleat before she hit the water, the giant splash falling through the slatted floor to another drain.
She righted herself quickly, sitting at the far end of the tub on her rump as she sputtered water from her mouth, “Good to know you're a sore loser, Maeve.”
“Oh, come off it; if Valek needed a bath, you know the both of us did, too. And, since you’re already a mess, how about you get his front while I work on the back?”
Alvi played an angry face but her ears were happy at our banter as she suds’d up a brush. She shifted closer to Valek in front of me then started to work the foaming brush through the wool on his chest, while I weaved my fingers through the wool on his crown and neck. Valek was more present now, his ears twisting between Alvi and I as he watched us work; only a minute of this before Alvi spoke,
“Hey Maeve, I think you missed a spot… right… here.” Looking over Valek’s frothing crown I saw Alvi pull his snout to her, pressing hers against his for a long moment. We continued to shower Valek with affection under the pretense of thorough cleaning, though he wasn’t receptive to start with; but it wasn’t long before his head would tilt for better access, or he would lean into Alvi’s brush.
It took over an hour and two tub re-fills before we were giving our final rinses and combing. Alvi stepped out of the bath, sopping wet over the slatted floor, and started to help Valek out too; I drained the bath a final time while rinsing the soap from myself with the showerhead.
Alvi was giving him some final brushes now that he was out of the water when he laid his hand on the brush to pause her work. I was just turning off the water when he spoke, so soft and quiet that the walls of the hard bathroom still swallowed his words, “Th-Thank you… I… Y-You didn’t-”
Alvi pushed her snout against his as she set the brush on the counter beside them. She held his face, rubbing her thumbs under his fresh-cleaned eyes as he squinted back tears. “The night will swallow my star, before I let you go through this alone. Maeve and I will be right there beside you, as we make it through this together.”
Stepping out of the tub, I ran the fingers of my good hand through the wool of his mane, and he turned slightly to see me behind him. “Neither of us are going anywhere, and we will be here to pick you up when you can’t stand alone.”
I gently nudged them toward the drying stall on the other end of the bathroom, “Go on, you two get dried up and I’ll get dressed; I just hope Ulmic is still waiting for us...”