Epilogue - Sleepy

Corporal Sleepy dashed out of the dust of the building, his squad gathering beside him within moments. They quickly danced together to come to a consensus of what they had found, and it was quite damming indeed. Nodding in agreement with his brothers and sisters of Rodentia corps, he signaled that he would go and give the official report.

And then a city block would be destroyed.

Dashing through the streets with deliberate purpose, the young Rodentia passed impossible sight after sight. Some of the sights set his front teeth on edge; that such a thing could have ever existed was – it was – the humans knew better than to allow such things to happen! Atlas Protocol was no excuse! Such sloppy craftsmanship was --

Not his fault, and not his purview, he reminded himself.

Most of the buildings were centuries old, which was not an excuse for the state of disrepair and abuse that they had gone through before the planet had been jerked out from under them. The fact that any of them remained standing at all was a testament not to Jurassian building codes, ability, or ingenuity, but sheer statistics.

If ten thousand buildings existed, and ninety percent fell, then a thousand would remain. But, Sleepy believed, they would all have to come down sooner rather than later. Their foundations, their insides … the fact that some of them were occupied was frightful! But the refugees had no place else to go.

And it was the refugees that were the other impossible sight. The colorful-faced-ones. The Predators of the Song-Singers who were now the victims that the Rodentia corps was struggling to find and save before their city killed them. Or the rogue Singers did, the ones who did not accept the call for ‘measured justice,’ of allowing the humans to arbitrate what guilt one of the colorful-faced-ones deserved for the long persecution of the Singers.

Dead were found daily, colorful ones murdered by spears.

But yet they gathered. Often the colorful ones would gather outside the places where the Song-Singer dissidents would gather and they would shout "Choose us! We submit to the quota! Four for every ten, we choose to be the four so that the six may be our families! We are the four!"

Sleepy passed by two such groups on his journey, although he did not hear any of the singers around them. It was strange, but once these groups appeared anywhere that the dissidents gathered, the gathering would soon disperse, despite having ready access to exactly the sort of targets they claimed to want.

Sleepy soon reached his destination; marked by the presence of the giant human in a combat exoskeleton. Nathan was surrounded by nonhumans – earth origin uplifts, Jurassian representatives, and Aurealians being trained in various aspects of governance. This was their world now, after all, and it would be well for them to take control of it sooner or later. Even Sleepy thought that, and he was well aware that he was just a Rodentia.

Dashing into position, corporal sleepy indicated to Sergeant Pleasant Scent that he had a message for the occupant of the exoskeleton. Rather than signaling for Sleepy to begin, however, the injured veteran of the legendary Theta Squad pressed a button on his harness, and a second later the human itself turned his attention towards Sleepy.

"Oh? Another report?" Nathan asked, curiosity in his voice. "I would try to communicate with you directly, but it’s a bit hard to dance in this thing. Is it okay if Pleasant Scent here translates for me, while I do my best to interpret your report? Or is it important enough to go through the Official Method, to reduce the chance of miscommunication?"

Sleepy considered for a moment. He hadn’t expected to give his report directly to Captain Nathan Sawyer , but the opportunity to do so was exhilarating. And he didn’t have much to report, nothing vital. Technically it could even wait until the recon team that he was leaving was back on the Theseus, it was simply easier to file the report at the end of one inspection and before the beginning of the next. For the Rodentia, this was much easier than remembering it all to the end.

"I will dance for you, log dance for later and make sure understand," Sleepy suggested.

"That’s exactly what I was hoping for, corporal. I find that the more of you little clever guys I see dancing – of different Rodentia dancing for me – the faster it is that I’m beginning to learn your language. I’ll summarize what I understand at the end, if you or the Sergeant here feels that there needs to be any correction to my understanding, you can work that out between yourselves quickly, and then Pleasant Scent will correct me. Of all of you, he’s the one I’m able to understand the best at the moment."

"Is because work together the most," Pleasant scent danced, only slightly impeded by the injury which had removed him from active duty following his daring rescue of at least eight-hundred kips. "Familiarity."

"Yes, there is that," Nathan agreed. "Why don’t we start with your name, soldier?"

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Sleepy quickly danced his name, and even through the helmet of the exoskeleton he could sense the human grimace.

"Sorry soldier, the way your kind introduces yourself runs the concepts so fast it’s hard for me to interpret them. I got the concepts ‘sleepy,’ ‘comfortable’ ‘belly scratch.’ I’m not sure exactly how to put them into human language. Would it be okay if I call you ‘sleepy,’ or is that an unacceptable way of shortening your name?"

Sleepy considered for just a moment, then danced excitedly in acceptance. He had just received a nickname from a human! He couldn’t wait to tell his sisters on board the Theseus.

"Okay, okay, slow down," Nathan muttered, amused. "I’m glad that it was acceptable. Katherine tells me that I’m putting too much stress on myself in talking to you guys. Not that I shouldn’t be doing it, but that you guys are so excited by the prospect of teaching me that I shouldn’t be so worried about getting it wrong. Alright then, Corporal Sleepy, please begin your report."

Popping up onto his back legs to maximize his ability to be understood, Sleepy began to dance.

"West south west district is [untranslatable]. Deep damage in foundation of all buildings, surviving buildings unsuitable for long term habitation short term habitation or standing anywhere nearby recommend immediate evacuation of entire district relocation of all colorful-faced ones in"

"Slow down a little bit if you would please, Sleepy. And what does this mean?" Nathan asked, doing a poor copy of the word that he couldn’t translate. Both Sleepy and Pleasant Scent answered him and he cursed, which was in fact the best definition of the movement. "So the whole district is fucked?"

"Yes sir all seventeen square miles built on cracked foundation bad crack recommend demolition soon as possible after evacuation," Sleepy agreed.

"Is there any chance of repairing the foundation just enough to make it safe for short term habitation?" Nathan asked. "It doesn’t have to last centuries. We’re not planning anything for this city beyond five years earth-standard."

Sleepy considered for a minute, then danced in negation. "Foundation too unstable fix foundation buildings fall demolition only safe option not safe for color faced refugees living there now buildings fall any minute."

"I understand. Thank you for your appraisal, sleepy, and please relay your thanks to the rest of your squad as well when you rejoin them. You’re all moving south on the grid-square of the city, correct?"

"Sir yes sir," Sleepy agreed.

Nathan nodded. "If you find any buildings that are habitable, please pass along word immediately. We need a place to pack the refugees in that won’t collapse on them. Short-term habitability is the key thing we’re looking for, not long term. This entire city is probably going to need to be smashed to the ground and rebuilt, but we need somewhere to put the residents in the mean time. Was that understood clearly, Corporal Sleepy? Please repeat back to me what I said. Paraphrase your understanding, if you would."

"Colorful-faced-ones need houses that won’t fall and break them so find houses that won’t fall in next five minutes next ten years okay just not five minutes," Sleepy summarized.

"Yeah, that’s close enough," Nathan agreed. "Report your best estimate of a minimum time until a structure becomes unstable to the point of collapse for any building where that estimate is greater than six months. We’ll be following up all of these preliminary inspections with more detailed and exhaustive ones, so don’t worry about putting refugees in harms way. Everything will be at minimum triple checked by different squads before we mark anything as safe for any duration. Just use your best judgment."

"Understand. Mark sturdy structures for other squads look more close at, look fast at all structures today find unsturdy structures."

"Yes, exactly," Nathan agreed.

"We Rodentia Corps. We good at this. No worries, we make sure no colored-faced-ones die in building collapse in any building we say is safe."

"The interim planetary and system governments appreciates your efforts, and that of all of your corps, soldier. You are Rodentia Corps. Useful everywhere."

"Useful Everywhere," Sleepy agreed. And he left, racing back in the direction he knew to take to join up with the rest of his squad.

Because they had five more districts that they were scheduled to examine the foundations of. He had known it was important before hand, but now he had talked to Captain Nathan Sawyer personally, and he was filled with his own personal role in events.

They would find every building that was unstable, and any building that could be used in the short term would be labeled as such. Because that was what was needed of the Corps. That was the way that they could serve, that they could be useful. They liked being useful. That is why their motto was "Utilis Ubique." Useful everywhere.

And they were very, very useful.

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