Flavour Of The Week

Posted on Thu Oct 18th, 2018 @ 1:57am by

3,332 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: S1:3: Myriad Problems
Location: The insessor
Timeline: MD 61-3.00

"Oh, hello there. Don't mind me, just looking for something."

The voice that spoke was very...airy, bright. The sort of careless tone of voice only the very well off could affect with any sort of reliability. And the figure who spoke it seemed the sort would be assumed to be well off. Tall by the standards of most humanoids, willowy thin though voluminous robes in a dazzling pallet of blues and metallic silvers did hide the bulk of their body, he stood in the doorway to the chamber.

Their dark blue skin was highlighted with zebra-like stripes of pale lavender, framing a pair of eyes best described as luminous white. His ears were long, dropping down from his head to hang from the back of his smooth head like flat pair of braids. He strode past the computer behind held up in the air, and stood over the wreckage of the decking that had been brought along with it.

"Huum..." they said, before leaning down and picking up a length of pipe, giving it a few deft swings like he was trying out a racket for a game. He then turned, and walked directly to Ari and held out the pipe. "Hello, I'm sorry to interrupt your...very...important work, I'm sure. But would you say this was more of a length suitable to crack open a particularly robust skull, or more for the dissociation of kneecaps from cartilage? I'm in the market for something to send a message, and you did come with it so you must surely know what use to put it to."

Arivek looked up at the creature with a look of pure disgust. "Excuse me?" he asked, wishing this...thing would just go away.

"IS. GOOD? YES?" the alien said in loud, expertly annunciated Federation standard. He made a chopping motion with the pipe. "WHACKY WHACKY? Huum...Well Abborax must be desperate if he's collecting such docile and dimwitted creatures."

He carelessly threw the pipe over his shoulder, where it clanged off the computer core before landing on the floor.

"But I've been in the market for a lackey for some time now, a good minion. My name is Protectorate Bar'soon'fo'da'gree'nars, Third of my Title, holder of the lightning throne, guardian of the sacred skulls of Antiok and ruler of the world of Shishimi and all its celestial companions," he held out a four-fingered hand towards Ari. "You may call me 'Your Liege'. 'Your Highness' was my mother, and we do not discuss her desiccated bones."

"Please go somewhere else and annoy...literally anyone but me," Arivek said, turning his attention back to the console he was working on.

"Alas, I cannot," the alien said, and sat on the floor in a pile of his own robes as he rested his head in his hands. "You cannot begin to understand the lengths I would go to escape this place. I mean did I really do something so wrong that my lecherous, treacherous, deceitful brothers and sisters had to ferment rebellion against me? ME? I'll have you know I was loved by the people! Why on the summer solstice festival days I would throw bread from the palace windows for them! I even brought working sewage treatment to the fourth quarter, ending the Great Deprivation my uncle enacted a millennia ago. Were they thankful?"

Silence reigned for a small time, before the desposed striped royal coughed into his hand.

"They were not," he said in a poor imitation of Ari's voice. "I'm so greatful you agree with me! It shows you to be a sentient of some good statue and...and..."

There was a noise like glass hitting the floor, but it didn't end. It got louder and louder, echoing from the door way.

"Oh no! They found me!" Bar'soon'fo'da'gree'nar's said, the stripes on his face placing a bright violet as he stood up, turning to grip Ari's shoulder. "You're a barbarian sort, look you're working with your hands. Now stand between me and those who come to do me-US, do us harm! Quickly now minion!"

The sound was getting louder....and louder...and louder...

"I cannot experience pain, thus I am not afraid of whatever is coming," Arivek said, shrugging the man off as he turned back to his workstation. As the noises approached, his headbeat began to quicken, sometimes automatic responses did not change when you lost flesh and blood. But Arivek betrayed none of those feelings externally.

"Excellent! Oh, how you remind me of my loyal bodyguard Fibion! He too couldn't experiance-...No, wait, Fibion was my pet cavern vole. Oh, how that little extremophile loved to roll around in raging fires-AH!" Bar'soon'fo'da'gree'nar screeched as the source of the noise came into view.

It looked like a tumbleweed made of crystal. As big around as Ari was tall, it rolled in from the corridor and steamed towards the pair. Pink and violet light danced within it's made branching segments, all of it twirling and spiralling inwards to a solid barbed core.

Then without input the large sphere came to a stop a meter from Ari, the light shifting from pinks and violets to blues and reds.

"We have found him," the crystal tumbler said in a voice made of wind chimes. "Princess Never-Was is in here."

The procession that had seemingly followed the ball entered in shortly thereafter. The trio were humanoid and clearly not Myriad. Two looked similar, with pale white skin with flattened noses, the irises of their eyes horizontally slit's as opposed to a circle. One was male, the other female if the usual gender signifiers were accurate, and both wore a matching garment that could only be a uniform jumpsuit.

The male one reached up and gingerly stroked a hand along the short, backswept horns that roses from the temples and range to the back of his skull. The females were more elaborate, with small holes drilled into them.

"I was a KING! A KING!" the cowering royal said from behind Ari.

"A king deposed by his family and his people," the female said, eyeing Ari. "Look, whatever he's promised you in return for standing in the way, he can't deliver on it. He can barely delivered fried snapper root."

"Let us not be hasty scaring our new colleague," the fourth member of the group said, stepping around the horned pair. He was tall, broad-shouldered with two pairs of arms sprouting from a muscled torso. His head was smooth, save for a single braid of hair that fell down his back. He wore an armour of a sort, black glass panels reflecting back perfect mirror images.

"Hello friend," the four armed alien said, placing one of his smaller lower arms on his chest. "My name is Ullar, these two are the siblings Detus and Kella. My spherical friend, there is...huum, best referred to as Riser. It is the shortest of his many names."

He extended the other smaller lower arm out towards Ari.

"You have met our cook, who has shirked the duty of feeding us tonight," Ullar said with a frown of parental disapproval. "It is not as we all agreed Bar'soon. We all work together, to get through this together. It is part of the family contract, yes?"

"I am heir to the lightning throne!" Bar'soon shot back. "And I have cooked for the last several deca'kils! Would it render any of you inert if you tried it for once?!"

"Theoretical warp physicist," Riser the crystal tumbleweed said.

"Test pilot," Kella the horned female said, her eyes narrowing to a glare.

"Medical officer," Detus said.

"And I am but a lowly hired guard," the four-armed Ullar said with a bow of his smooth head. He looked up and eyed Ari. "If you are a cook, I would not say it loudly. He would most likely never stop begging."

"He's right, I would not," Bar'soon said, an arm suddenly around Ari's wais.t "If you are a cook I can make it worth your while to take the lowly task-OW!"

One of Riser's crystal branches has lashed out, slapping at Bar'soon's royal hand.

"Clause 456 of the familial contract: we do not paw fellow sentients," the wind chime singing informed.

Arivek hesitated for a moment, honestly unsure of what to make of the bunch that joined him in the room. While they were certainly entertaining, they were also a hindrance to Ari's work. But he took the extended hand and shook it, gently.

"You look familiar," he said to the four-armed alien, before looking around at the entire group. "It is a pleasure to meet all of you," he said, before turning his eyes back to the four-armed alien. "What is this family-contract of which you speak?"

"Its an Atn custom," Kella said, gesturing to Riser. "Long-winded familial contracts to bind sentients to a common cause."

"I specifically formulated our familial contract to be as simplistic as possible," Riser said, somehow the tone and shade of colouring taking on an affronted look. "Ours only has seven thousand lines of obligation."

"They generally have three times that, so we're told," Detus said, stepping past the others. His horns were not as ornamentally drilled as his sisters, nor were they as curved or elaborate. He held out a four-fingered hand towards Ari. "In our culture, it is a sign of greeting and friendship to clasp hands, as a sign of solidarity and fellowship."

"And given we are all 'guests' of the Myriad here, we could use all the solidarity we can muster," Kella said, her eyes narrowing to glare at the still hiding king. She jerked a hand over her shoulder, thumbing it at the computer core. "That your escape pod? Its how Abborax caught us when the Myriad came to visit our world. Took a pot shot at the Suma that crippled the fusion drive. The Suma is...was...our first interstellar space craft. It was dumb luck me and the sibling here were in the mission lander running tests or we'd be as dead as the rest of them."

She turned, looking at the computer core.

"Though...I'm not seeing any reaction control systems or egress hatches..." she muttered. "Some sort of reactionless drive? EM sail?"

"Do we really need to pester new friend with questions?" Ullar said., putting all four fists on his hips. "Was not so long ago I found the two of you, and fact new friend is not trying to brain me with length of piping is showing better signs of stability than you."

"I'm not apologising for the shooting thing," Kella huffed, stepping towards the computer core with that curious gaze of hers.

"Was chemically assisted slug thrower," Ullar said with a grin, revealing broad flat teeth. "Tickled."

"How about we stay away from the large structure, eh?" Arivek said, taking a step between Kella and the Computer core. "How long have each of you been guests of the Myriad?"

"Experimental test pilot," Kella said over her shoulder. "I promise I won't break your ship pod thing. For fields sake, engineer's are the same on any planet."

"We've been here six months," the other horned humanoid said, the one called Detus who sheepishly pulled his unshaken hand back. "Riser's been here the longest, next to Bar'soon and Ullar."

"It has been an unregulated period of time," Riser said, his spherical pod folding in on itself to make a smaller glowing ball. "Enough time that I have budded twice for sustenance."

"I was guarding a caravan across the Sarshim Barsin," Ullar said. "Then there was a flash of light in the sky and, here I am on this sky boat."

"Starship," Kella said tartly. "It's not a boat, it's not floating, it's flying through space. Look, blue person, Ullar isn't exactly reading the technical manuals if you get my meaning."

"My sister means to say that Ullar's people aren't spacefaring yet," Detus interjected, before looking at the still cowering Bar'soon. "And yet he was smart enough to tell his Royal Pain in The Ass that they didn't need a king. Pre-warp yes, but full of wisdom."

"I will have your head mounted on the wall for saying that!" Bar'soon said, standing up behind Ari. "As soon as I return to my people-"

"Ones who kicked you out."

"-I will invent new pains for you all to experience!"

"Well I still remember the first meal you made for us, so I'd call that a threat with something to back it up," Kella grunted. She looked at Ari with narrowing eyes. "You look like the sort of person more used to working with manuals and tech spec's. Designer? Engineer?"

"Engineer," Arivek said, still keeping himself between Kella and the Computer Core. "Chief Engineer of the starship I'm from."

"Fancy," Kella said in a voice that suggested she thought it was anything but. "And yet, here you are. I mean I'd be taking the death of my crew a little more on the nose than you, but different folk right? I mean me and the sibling got lucky, but...what? You were in the room with that thing when Abborax grabbed you?"

"Kella..." her brother said, walking up beside her. "Don't be rude. And insensitive. Or...you, really."

"No, I want to know," she sniffed and nodded at him. "You're wearing a uniform. That suggests an organised group. Organised groups with advanced tech tend towards ranks and standing. I'm an Officer in the Concordia Defense Force. I'm sure this blue fellow is the same, and he's being polite. So answering a polite question shouldn't be a problem. What. Happened. To. Your. Ship."

"They're fine," Arivek said, walking back to the console and pressing a few controls. "I came here of my own free will. My crew just wouldn't be able to see my potential as the Myriad can."

"The Myriad are monsters!"

Her words were loud and hid the sudden two step's she'd taken to get within grab range of Ari to spin him around. A fire blazed in her eyes, and from up close the pair of horns that rose and slopped along her skin could be seen to be scared and mottled with melt lines.

"I was the pilot of the Suma, my peoples first warp-capable starship," her fingers curled into Ari's lapels. "It was boundless luck and good fortune that myself and my brother were in a sealed off and pressurized area of the ship. When this...monster starship came out of nowhere it took only a single shot to obliterate the Suma. The only reason Abborax kept us around is that we're 'unique'! But I guess we don't have your potential!"

She looked over her shoulder.

"Detus, grab that pipe Bar'soon was playing with."

Arivek crossed his arms. "I'm a good judge of character. I'm not sure what happened to you, but Abborax is trustworthy." Even while he said it, Ari knew he didn't believe what he was saying. But he refused to admit he was wrong in this situation.

"Abborax murdered at least-AT LEAST twelve of my people for no other reason than to make us gracious," Kella said as Detus gave her the pipe somewhat reluctantly. She yanked it free of his grasp and stalked towards the computer core, pointing the pipe at Ari. "Detus, he comes close jump him."

Detus looked at Ari with trepidation in his eyes.

"Don't you dare," Arivek said. "Don't blame me for what happened to you and your people."

Kella got to the core, raised the pipe in a fairly good batter's stance...and then glowed red. She didn't move, nor even seem to be breathing as she just stood there mid-swing as the air around her slowly grew redder. Around the boundary of the effect, small flashes of red light appeared, like fireflies striking a bug zapper.

And then a slow, rhythmic clapping came from the door: Abborax had returned.

This time he was not wearing the Proxie he had met the Travellers crew in. This one was of the same height and build, but like Kella and Detus sported a pair of long spiralling horns of brilliant ivory. The robes seemed the same, and he walked closer to the gathering with a smile on his face.

"What's that human saying? The gangs all here," his voice had a slight huskiness to it now, and his amber eyes glanced at the stilled Kella and then at Ari. "What progress have you made?"

"Abborax-!" Detus began, his face pale.

"In. A. Moment," Abborax said sternly, eyes flashing as he returned his gaze to Ari and smiled. "I apologize for their interruptions, but I did ask a question. Progress?"

"It's almost complete," Arivek said, his voice lowering to just above a whisper. "I just need to complete the download." He was looking down at the floor, unable to bring himself to look at Abborax in the eyes.

Abborax smiled, reached out and gently curled a finger under Ari's chin, lifting it up to look him in the eye.

"Then you should complete the task I set you," he said conversationally, before turning around to look over the frozen form of Kella. He tapped s fingertip against his chin and then reached out into the glow of red light surrounding the ship pilot. Almost the moment he touched the light a high ear piercing sound filled the air, and got only worse as he pushed his fingers in deeper until they gently curled around Kella's pipe-wielding hand.

Then Abborax simply pulled the pipe free of her hand.

It came out in slow motion, and when he held it out and away from it glowed a molten red colour in his hands. Kella's own hands were splayed open and still, but were clearly horrifically damaged. Bones could be seen to be broken, the skin was red from burns and almost fluid like in texture. The Myriad turned to the pale, white face of Detus.

"You know the effects of an unregulated transition from an abeyance field, forcing an item to move at luminal speeds through striated time frames. She was down to 400:1 when I wretched the pipe from her hand, meaning that pipe left her hands at escape velocity," Abborax smiled. "I've kept you two around because it amuses me to see you spark off each other. The cowardly doctor, the war hero...though I'd hardly call it a war with only a million deaths on either side. I've presided over larger skirmishes. Now be a good doctor-"

He clicked his fingers, and the red light surrounding Kella vanished. The hollow, sucking sound as she tried to scream through the agony as she collapsed to the floor did little to cover the roasted meat smell. Abborax turned to Ari.

"The High Executor is waiting for us, and we will soon be at their court," Abborax's amber eyes drifted to the crumpled form of Kella and then rose to Ari. "My patience is not infinity Ari. Chop chop, as the humans say."

Arivek's stomach rolled over at the sight of the woman's hands as the smell made him gag. He tried his best to remain composed but he wasn't doing a very good job.

He walked over to the console and began the download sequence. "It should only take a few seconds," he said, his voice sounding weak with nausea. And he was right, only a few moments passed before the device dinged that the download was complete. Pulling it from the connection, Arivek handed it to Abborax, trying to avoid eye contact with any of the others.

"I'm glad to hear it," Abborax's smile became frozen as the lights in the proxies eyes faded to nothing. It stood there, still holding the pipe in both hands, that demon grin plastered on thin lips.

Leaving Ari to stand amid his choices.

 

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