Egg-static News

Posted on Wed Jul 31st, 2019 @ 9:22pm by Lieutenant Commander Shadi Zatra & The Narrator

1,821 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: S1:4: A Murder Of Crows
Location: Guest Quarters | USS Traveller Deck 2
Timeline: MD63 20.15PM

Technically Shadi had met the various refugees picked up from Abborax's vessel, but she'd be starved to remember their names. After her whirlwind romance with Mazarian, the noble dragon whose species name she couldn't pronounce, Shadi only had eyes and dedicated neurons for him.

What's more is that she had laid an egg forged from his noble essence. She had tried to tell him at the banquet, but that rotten space ghost Arivek had spoiled her news. That she had fled the banquet in humiliation was a black mark on her relationship that defending the ship had kept her from addressing.

Shadi hoped to make up for that now. Egg clutched against her chest, wrapped in a ceremonial burlap satchel, Shadi approached the father of her spawn and perhaps the love of her life.

The Travellers guest quarters all contained a communal common’s area where an ambassadorial delegation might congregate to relax after a day of talks and discussions. It was here where Shadi found Mazarian, his serpentine form curled around a stool so he might rest his weight upon it. Bar’soom was there in spirit, and surrounded by the same. He had apparently opted to go through the battle as wasted as he possibly could get before the replicators safety governors kicked in.

Kella, the horned Chadrian pilot, was nowhere to be seen.

"Mazarian..." Shadi had jumped into savage battle without hesitation, but in this moment she felt apprehension like no other. "I apologizzze for being so busy. Duty callsss. And... can we talk alone? I have something to tell you."

Mazarian reached to a plate of fruit that sat on a table beside him. From it took a small knife that he had been using to dissect a nectarine with, an act both scientific and culinary from its missing segments. He then expertly brought his arm back, and then flicked it forward with a well-practised aim. Without emitting a sound the knife embedded itself into Bar'soon's sleeping form. The striped blue and white alien didn't even stir.

"If my chemistry lessons were of any effect in my youth, he has consumed enough of the ship's spirits to remain unconscious for a great deal of time. I have seen him do similar feats of daring whilst we were in the care of Abborax, and feel it safe to say on a philosophical level that we were the only sentient beings in the room currently," Mazarian informed Shadi with a rueful smile. "If you want we could remove his head. I would find it a curious scientific experiment to see which grew back faster, the body from the head or the head form the body. Though I feel the former would win out, given the head is mostly empty."

Shadi gave a hissing cackle of delight. "Oh, Mazarian! You always knew how to sweet talk a lady. I hope our child has your silver tongue." She looked down to the egg clutched at her breast and presented it to Mazarian for closer inspection. "I laid it not long after... well, you know."

Very carefully, the amber and red diamondback patterned hands took the bundle of cloth, pulling aside the rough fabric of the burlap to reveal the pale egg. Mazarian's ophidian gaze looked upon it, the gold iris's flicking up to look at Shadi with clear delight there.

"Where are the others?" he asked quietly.

Shadi shook her head. "There was only the one. It... dislocated my pelvis. Saurian eggs are much sssmaller, as I read in the brochure."

"I apologise, but for my people there are usually more to a clutch than one. I myself was the eighteenth brother of my siblings," he explained, uncoiling himself from the stool but never once rocking or cradling the egg improperly. "We do not view children the same way other warm-blooded mammals do. The death of a child, of an egg, is tragic but not compared to that of an adult. We prize the experience of age, not the potential of the young...and yet, singular..."

He released a hissing, sibilant rasp over the egg, his hood drooping back against his neck for a moment.

"This one will bring choices to the skies of my people, choices the Grand Duchess has been putting off for centuries. A pairing between the shores of our world, and your galaxy...it will force their hand. It will mean our people will have to act against the Myriad," Mazarian said, looking at her. "You have done a great thing for the people of this cluster. You have born to them salvation."

Were Shadi warm-blooded, her cheeks would be flushed and blushing. "Oh, Mazarian!" She scrunched her shoulders together and swayed merrily on her feet. "If you like that one, we could... always try for another." Her tongue flicked out seductively. "I would be honored to bring you to completion once again, and to bring even more sssalvation to your people!"

"As much as I would find gratification in that, I think perhaps we must first see to the safety of this little one, there is much to plan," Mazarian said, still transfixed by it. "Once we have escaped the Reka, we must petition your captain to take us to my homeworld. The People will want to know of this, and to know of your arrival. You do not understand what this means."

Shadi blinked her large eyes in wonder, realizing that she knew next to nothing about Mazarian's people or their world. The Saurians of N'Ragolar were likely a mystery to Mazarian as well. "Well, before Abboraxxx betrayed usss, Captain Remas said I could go away with you. Maybe he will make good on his promissse." And she could find out what her arrival meant.

"Tell me of your homeworld,' Mazarian asked. "I would be intrigued to know if it holds a candle to the ancient citadels and cities of my own. Maybe our people are not so dissimilar."

"Oh, Sauria..." The thought nearly brought a tear to Shadi's eye -- if only she had ducts with which to shed them. All four hearts pounded in her chest at the thought that Mazarian wished to know more. "We call it N'Ragolar now, after my people who conquered it. They were Nameless for eons, the exiles who soon overtook the surface while the merchants and scientists took to extraplanetary colonies. For centuries, we lived as rich barbarians in the abandoned capital cities. Ritual cannibalism fell out of practice, but our people were still divided by brood--until we met the Federation. They required peace and unity in order for us to join them, and so we laid down our armsss to welcome the smart ones back to the homeworld. The Ragolar have struggled to be more than the warriorsss of old, often becoming laborers in distilleries or other menial work. I joined Starfleet to become the greatest engineer of our people!" Her talons were held aloft in ecstasy, but soon dropped. "Alas, I keep the ship clean and running while that traitor Arivek gets all the credit. Still... it's been a long battle to come from the bleached plains of Sauria to this tasty ship... where I met you."

"I have not been home for many years to the sandstone halls of Casstaul. It is my peoples ancestral home, a moon orbiting the gas giant Resshixs. On Casstaul we portray ourselves as simple people, with simple technology. The exact idea of the good and loyal vassals of the Myriad. But within the clouds of Resshixs float the cloud cities of my people, ancient machines made by our ancestors. We did into the stars like so many, we instead invested in our home world's recourses. So when the Myriad came to us it was a simple task to hide away how much we were their equal, and not their slaves. We sought to learn more of their empire, its size and strength. So some of my people's sons and daughters, like myself, took service with the Myriad," Mazarian hissed happily to himself, rasping out a laugh. "When I return, you will have to meet my mother the Arch Duchess. She will have to listen to what we say to her. We will make her listen, you and I."

Shadi was taken aback. "Arch Duchess? Does that mean you are a Duke? And that our egg is...royalty?" There were few opportunities that Shadi let slip by where she failed to boast of the Ragolar brood, but her heritage was of a bygone age that most Federation peoples did not recognize, let alone her own species. "Praise to the Blood Goddess that I am found worthy of such honor." Immediately she knelt before him. "On my personal honor and by the Warrior Code of N'Ragolar, I swear to bring you to completion in war and in bed from this day forth. Let me be starved to famine if I do not."

"My love, do not dream of palace life for us. I am fourteenth in line for the office, and it is not a task I would find much pleasure in. But as a member of the Duchesses household, our progeny would want for nothing. And if they brought about the true freedom of my people and all peoples of Messier 4, then they would be far more important than any ruler," Mazarian explained soothingly. "But first we must return to your colony and make our repairs. The voyage to my homeworld will be arduous if not outright perilous if we are not prepared accordingly."

"Not many people know thisss," Shadi said in all seriousness, "but I descend from noble warrior stock. By the Blood Goddess and the might of Ragolar, we will reach your homeworld and do all the things!" She was nearly breathless with anticipation of the noble quest.

"I hope you are right. I do not have the ear of your captain, nor I think his full trust," Mazarian cautioned. "It is not a fault in his nature, not after all that has happened to him. But you must be my advocate to your commander Shadi, he must understand the importance of what an alliance between my people and your Federation could mean. For you, for your galaxy...for our child."

Shadi hissed with laughter. "Do not fear, my tasty mate. Captain Remas practically made me the ambassador to... to..." She paused a moment and scratched at her chin with her talon. "What are your people called again?"

“Castalli, People Of The Castes,” Mazarrian sibilantly whispered. “And when we visit my home, I will show you wonders the likes of which you have never seen.”

"Yes!" Shadi's standard excitement turned to a fever pitch. "Shadi Zatra, Federation Amabassador to the Castalli and Holy Mother of Dragons!" She cupped Mazarian's face. "You have become my song. Let us go sing it to Captain Remas together."

 

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