28. “That makes no sense. Their faces are unique as well.”
"I don’t understand the point. You have spent hours playing this game with Joncassonova?" Horthus questioned, taping his finger at one of the intersections to indicate his move. A small holographic bead appeared where he indicated.
"He requests to be called ‘Jon,’ not ‘Joncassonova,’ Cassonova is his ‘family name.’ It makes no sense, but he says that many humans have more than one name, but the number of names that they have does not equate to their importance in society," Seefius answered. "He also dislikes being called ‘Human,’ he says it is impersonal, like if he were to call us ‘Jurassian.’"
"That is strange. Humans are strange. I hate them for their strangeness," he admitted. They were alone together, post coital. She had been fertile. As had he, to his surprise, it had been so long since he’d last attempted anything of the sort. Likely nothing would come of it, but it was still fun to try, and he could always use another potential heir. They had both indicated to their subordinates – he had everyone and she had many that he had gifted her immediately after things had calmed down – that they were not to be disturbed during their rest cycle for less than a human emergency or action from the incoming swarm that could not be handled by the Named Ones in charge of the situation already .
That did not mean that they would not be disturbed. But it did mean that if they were disturbed for a poor reason, some poor Nameless was going to pay for it with their life. The disaster of the cloning facilities being destroyed was still resounding through the system, but the initial response from the Named ones in the system was less damaging to Horthus personally than he had feared it would be.
He had suffered a great loss, but not as great a humiliation as if his opponent had been a ‘Jurassian.’ And his last moment warning to his generals, to withdraw from the drones before they detonated? Joncassonova had given him full credit for that to the point of denying outright that he had issued Horthus any sort of warning. The damage to his forces had his generals not pulled back when they did would have been catastrophic. It was being seen as a prescience, a proof of his right to rule. And it was a gift from Joncassonova.
There was still damage, but not nearly so severe as the humans had suffered. The Horthians had found no survivors. The humans had destroyed themselves rather than allowing themselves to be taken, something which earned them respect even as it frustrated their would-be captors. The small victory was not one worth the loss of the cloning facilities, but it had taken out some of the sting of losing them.
"I believe I have insight into them. It would help to think of it as this; all of their nameless have names instead of faces. If you treat their names as simply part of the memory of their face in your head, then things become simpler. Once you think of it along those terms, they are in many ways similar to us. Different, but less confounding," Seefius explained, indicating where she wished her white pebble to go for her turn of the simple game. "At the same time, their common names, such as ‘captain,’ or ‘lieutenant’ are their true indications of rank. Those are the humans who we would think of as Named Ones, even though they all have names."
"That makes no sense. Their faces are unique as well."
"That is somewhat true and yet not so," she answered. "Many of their siblings, especially those who shared a zygote, are so similar in appearance that even their family mistakes them for each other. Or so Jon claims. He has been speaking very much about humans to anyone who would listen."
"He speaks poison against me," Horthus lamented as he took his turn, capturing a small group of white stones. The rules were not so difficult that he was having trouble with the game, although he was lagging behind Seefius. He knew her intelligence, however, and was not insulted that she was winning. "He has tricked me and I am a fool for letting him give me Sensoli. I must find a way to kill him soon, or I am doomed, but I cannot kill him because everyone will want to know why. If I say that he is a threat after I accepted his surrender, then I lose everything."
"He has tricked you, but I am not certain it is to your disadvantage," Seefius answered. "You may be able to use him to enhance your influence. Already many of the named ones in orbit have been asking to speak with him. Upon the authority you gave me I interfered as much as I could until I could speak with you, but they wish to have a ‘human’s advice’ on how to win this invasion. We are greatly outnumbered, and the only comparable battle on record is the battle of the Elizabeth. Everyone knows that humans are formidable, nobody will shame you for seeking one’s advice."
"So I allow the human to fight my battles for me? What does that serve except to -"
"You take the questions and consult with Jon, but control who he speaks with and only give out the answers you wish your subordinates to hear. That is how you use him to your advantage," she answered.
He mulled her advice. He could find no particular fault in it. They exchanged several turns in the simple game the human was teaching his people, and he was annoyed when he realized he was going to lose. Not by so much as to be embarrassing, but enough.
"It is your game," he admitted.
"Yes, but we should continue to the end so that you learn. The human will want to play ‘igo’ with you as well, when you speak with him."
"I will not come within one hundred kilometers with him! Not when he has antimatter in his chassis!" Horthus reminded her.
"I was reluctant as well, but he is happy to spend his time in any of our tactical rooms and synchronize with anyone who wishes to spend time with him. That is how I learned to play. He was discussing the aftermath of the human aggression with your generals and challenging them to this game at the same time."
"Who was he playing? Did they do well against him?" Horthus inquired, curious. It would be most satisfying to beat a human at a human game, for the importance they place upon them.
"He was playing them all, Exalted one, at the same time. And he won every game until I challenged him three times."
Horthus felt his tail tighten. "At the same time as the generals?"
"Yes. I would not have won at all otherwise."
Horthus allowed himself to feel a healthy degree of caution. It was better to be aware of a potential enemy’s superiority than to believe you were the one who was superior and have your tail yanked off while you were not looking. "Is this typical for humans?"
"He says that few humans play the game, but among those who do he is within the top of the ninety-fifty percentile. He was very magnanimous with the generals and assured them that they were playing well for players just learning the game, and he particularly praised my skill as impressive. He assured us repeatedly that such displays are common when an experienced master is teaching several new players the game at the same time."
Experience. Yes, that could explain it. That is why any Named One who knew what they were doing kept their Nameless at their same tasks for all their lives, or at least until they’d shown competency beyond their station, as Seefius had repeatedly. "Let us play another game."
"Yes, I think that will be a good idea. We have time for another two before they will come to rouse us from our ‘rest period,’" she reminded him.
"Yes, but I am thinking only one more game," he said, and he brushed her shoulder suggestively. "I should have Named you ten years ago."
"You should have," she agreed, "But I do not mind. The truth is that it was rather exhilarating, never knowing whether today was the day when either my duty would result in death, or I would finally earn my name. It was something of a game between us even, was it not? But now that it is past … I have dreamed of a Name for so long. And to be taken as your mate, even just once, even if nothing comes -"
"It will not be just once," he assured her. "Not unless you demand otherwise. You are Named, you can refuse."
"And perhaps I will, just because I can," she teased, and he smiled. "But then again, why would I refuse the most powerful mate available to me?"
And for a moment, it was as though the world was not under threat of ending.
~~~~~~~~
"This jar is filled with medicine, for putting on cuts like the one on your face," Kathy said, but what the translation program sang was "medicine is medicine jar face cuts medicine."
The song was unintelligible, but the human’s act of dipping her finger into the jar and putting it on her own face – along the path where Yellow’s face was burning – she understood. She took the jar and tried the salve on the cut the Other had given her, which was burning much more today than it had when she had gone to sleep. The relief was instantaneous, and she understood that the human was indeed trying to help her.
Which made her feel a little worse for trying to shoot her. Fortunately the weapon had not gone off, although its failure had been concerning in its own way.
"Simon, how is it coming on the translator updates? The kids are all looking at me like I’m suggesting they bathe in sewage half the time when I’m trying to help," Kathy said to the empty air.
"I’ll push you the latest update. I figured out how to update the syntax to mix and match between the scientific songs I ripped from the facility’s networks to the speech-to-Aurealian programs that we’ve been using for diplomatic purposes," came a disembodied voice. Both voices were deeper than Aurealian voices, clear and distinct, and meaningless to those who heard them. "Okay, try again."
"Hello young ones, my name is Katherine. I am one of the humans who has been working to make you safe. Are you well? Did you sleep well? Have you eaten enough? Do any of you have any injuries aside from the cuts that we can see on your bodies?" Katherine tried. As she spoke, the partially super-sonic sound of Aurealian singing came from a nearby location.
It was the voice of the teacher, but also not.
"Is that you?" Yellow asked nervously.
"Yes! I am trying, with the help of this spacecraft, to make myself understood. Can you understand me?"
"We understand the music that is coming from over there," Purple Dots indicated to the nearby speaker.
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"Yes. We humans have very different languages from your people, just as we have different bodies. Our ears are not nearly as sensitive as yours and much of the sound that you hear is not heard by us at all. And your voice is mostly in the range that we cannot hear, unfortunately, which makes it difficult to speak with you without the help of technology."
"It is very sad that you cannot hear our music," Yellow said, her voice solemn.
"I cannot hear it as you hear it, but with the help of technology I can still enjoy it. We just need to move it into tones which can be heard by the human ear," Katherine explained. "Athena, enact program ‘play it in G minor.’ There. Now try singing me something."
"What shall we sing? Would you like to know about how stars died to give life to life and everything that exists today?" Purple Dots asked/sang.
To their surprise, her music was repeated by the nearby speaker, except much deeper.
"That is how low sound must be for you to hear it?" Yellow asked, and again she was repeated.
"Athena, end playback, return to most recent translation program," Katherine said. She smiled at the kips, but then forced her face into a calm neutral when she saw how they reacted.
"I’m sorry, I didn’t understand the meaning of what you sang to me, but I heard the sounds lowered down into frequencies which I can hear and enjoy, and it was very pleasing to my ear. We humans enjoy listening to Aurealian music that way, actually. It is one of the many reasons why we like your species. But I don’t understand your language, so if you said anything important you’ll have to repeat it now that the computer is translating again."
"Purple Dots asked if you would like to know about the death of stars, and I asked why your ears are so deaf," Yellow repeated, and Katherine laughed.
"I already know quite a bit about the life cycles of stars. Is that something that the two of you are interested in? It is not on the list of restricted information, so I’d be happy to share the human perspective on it with you if you’d like."
"We are interested in everything," Yellow explained. "But the Teacher will only answer questions about certain things. She talks very much about stars and fusion and chemistry and the building blocks of life, but very little about much else. She never once talked about the Others until the dancers arrived."
"I never thought that the Others were our friends, but I was foolish and argued that they were because they fed us and kept the water flowing," Purple Dots admitted shamefully. "I will not lie and say otherwise now."
"That is very mature, Purple Dots, was it? But it’s okay to change your mind after receiving new information. You couldn’t have known what the Jurassians – that is the word the humans are using for the Others – were doing to you. They have done many terrible things to your people, and you are just children. You only know what you have been taught, and hearing your lesson plans I am actually very interested to know what you know. Would you tell me more about the things that your teacher liked to sing about?"
"Those are the only songs that we know," Yellow admitted sadly. "I am sorry I tried to shoot you. You walk upright like an other and it scared me, but you are very nice now that you make sense."
"I forgive you. That weapon won’t work while it’s on board the Theseus, the power source has been disabled remotely due to anti-boarding protocols. I was never in any real danger. But I understand why my appearance might frighten you, and I accept your apology for your reaction. We humans really do want to be friends with you Aurealians."
The truth was that Katherine had been greatly disturbed when the young Aurealian had casually picked up the weapon, pointed it at her, and pushed the firing button, all within the space of a second as she was approaching. She had known that the kip had the weapon, and she had known that it was disabled while on board. She knew that she had never been in any real danger. But she was still shaken, badly.
"You are very different from them now that I actually have looked at you," Yellow confessed. "It is just the way that you stand and walk that is similar. And you have no tail or claws."
"I do have fingernails," Katherine pointed out.
"Oh, yes you do. Would you like us to sing about the stars and the making of the stuff of life, now?" Yellow asked.
"I would like that very much," Katherine answered.
And she listened in silence as they described advanced scientific concepts at the level of a doctorate candidate.
~~~~~~~
"I am authorized to give you all the purple heart," Nathan told the rats in the infirmary. "It is one of the oldest medals awarded and signifies that you have been injured in battle as a result of performing your duty. It is the least of the awards that you and your squads and your entire corps deserve for your actions yesterday, but it is where we can start. I am submitting recommendations for honors above and beyond the call of service for all of you, and several of your members in particular. The ones who did not make it back will be afforded the maximum posthumous honors that we can afford to give them for their selfless sacrifices that they gave willingly to save your precious Song Singers. And I don’t know if you’ve heard, but you saved a lot of them. The total is a number so large that the Rodentia mind has trouble understanding it, so I will say that for every member of the Rodentia corps on the ship, almost one hundred of the Song Singers have been saved. For every Rodentia that was injured gave his or her life, more than ten thousand were saved. Many, many, many, many saved by you useful little guys."
Pleasant Scent wanted to dance for joy, but he could not. He was hurt, and the medicine that the Theseus’s automated hospital program kept him immobile. He heard the words of Nathan, and he saw the dancing translation as Athena tried to make him understood to those who could not understand humans. But Pleasant Scent understood well enough. He knew, roughly, how many dancers his group had saved, and he now knew that all of the groups had saved maybe as many.
"Some of you will be immobile for a while, and I am sorry for that. I know how hard that is for your species and can only say that it is being done to prevent further injury. Some of you will be retired from active duty due to your injuries, and I am sorry for that as well, but we will not ask you, we will not allow you to sacrifice your health more than you have already done. As soon as the mission of the Theseus is complete, we will return you to your families with just compensation for your brave acts and your sacrifice. It should be enough for you and your families to live comfortable for three generations of your people.
"The last piece of news I have for you is the outcome for the Song Singers that you saved. We will be officially designating them as refugees and will be returning them to the nearest port where we believe that they will be accepted. This is a known Aurealian colony one hundred some light years away. This was always the plan for any Aurealian kips that the Theseus managed to rescue during it’s mission in the Horthus system. Unfortunately, they are going through the food and resources we had set aside for them faster than we predicted, so they are being sent ahead of us prior to the completion of our mission.
"As you know, the Theseus is a modular ship with multiple Aurora drives. Katherine will be taking one of those drives and, hopefully, easing the process for the kips. Once the Song Singers are safe with their kind, she will be returning to he mission. I realize that this means that some of you will not be able to say goodbye to the Singers which you helped save, and for that I can only apologize. Perhaps someday you can be reunited with them, but that is not a promise I can make at the moment either. All I can promise is that they will be safe, which is for what you gave your all yesterday. Utilis Ubique, gentle rodents. You will always be useful."
Nathan felt like an impostor as he saluted the injured Rodentia, with hundreds of others listening from behind him. The only ones that were not present were those with the ‘song singers,’ who were handling the transition much better than could be expected. The Rodentia corps were saluting their injured members with their traditional salute, standing on their hind legs, forelegs crossed over their heart. Nathan copied them at the end of his salute.
"And now, a moment of stillness for those who didn’t make it back," he said. And then he was very careful not to move for a minimum of sixty seconds. When the time had passed, he relaxed slightly. "They will be remembered, and they will be honored. That is all for now, Rodentia corps."
There was a rush of movement behind him as hundreds of Rodentia began conversing among themselves, or else rushing to spend time with the Song Songers before it was too late. Some few of them would be allowed to go with the Aurealian habitation pod on its journey, but most would not.
Nathan may feel like an impostor. He had felt like an impostor when he had written and obsessively practiced his speech, working with Athena and Lewis to get the translator hologram to work as well as possible. He felt like an impostor giving the speech and he felt like an impostor afterwards.
He felt like an impostor wearing a captains uniform of the UEOSC Unified Force. He hadn’t been surprised to find it laid out for him perfectly when he’d woken this morning. Katherine, likely, but it had been the Old Man who had gotten it made for him. Because the old man never did anything without thinking thirty steps ahead.
Which made it impossible for someone like Nathan, who flew by the seat of his pants, to ever compete or keep up.
Suddenly from behind, a large head forced its way between his thighs and lifted him onto strong shoulders. Nathan nearly fell, were it not for quick reactions and practice.
"What the hell, Tony, this isn’t time to play around, this is a-"
"I know. And that is why I’m taking you away," Tony said firmly, his voice coming out from the collar next to Nathan’s crotch. "The Rodentia had a hard day yesterday. One which they will dance about for centuries in celebration, but for today they need their commanding officer to get out of the way so that they can let their true emotions show without worrying about the Captain of the Theseus seeing them."
Nathan relaxed, realizing that Tony was right, and allowed himself to be abducted. "I really fucked up yesterday, Tony."
"Jon fucked up. It was a failure of the continuity of leadership, which was his responsibility to put in place, not yours. All your self-pity is doing is preventing you from focusing on the task at hand."
"I’m not looking for another person to tell me that I did everything I could, Tony. I’m looking to confide in my friend."
"Sorry. But being captain changes things, even between us, Nathan. It saddens me, but the fact remains that the situation may arise where you are expected to order me to my death, and I am expected to obey. I remain your friend, Nathan . But you are my captain. And that is a burden that neither of us can simply pick up or set down. Not while we are on mission. But as your friend, I will tell you as many times as I must to let it go . You couldn’t have done anything differently yesterday to affect the outcome, not given the information that you had at the time."
Nathan was silent as they passed through the narrow halls of the Theseus’s warren habitation complex, riding the tiger. "Why do you have to be so fucking smart, Tony? Man, I wish my best friend was another damn idiot that I could just shoot the bullshit with."
They both chuckled with laughter as they left behind the somber occasion.