MGiS 6 - Proportional Response - Chapter 5

Chapter 5 There are a number of ceremonies that appear odd at a glance, but have a deeper, intrinsic meaning at their core. The Horizon Patr

Chapter 5

There are a number of ceremonies that appear odd at a glance, but have a deeper, intrinsic meaning at their core.

The Horizon Patrol is one such ceremony amongst the Hegemony military that Terran’s of the U.S. Navy will be able to appreciate.
To fully understand this ceremony, one must understand how the Wake-Ripple engine works. At its most basic function, the engine creates a ripple in the subspace foam, allowing a ship to ‘dip’ out of our reality and into subspace. There, the rules that govern travel such as the restrictions imposed by the speed of light are no longer in effect. Observing a ship entering into one of these subspace ripples is akin to observations of objects captured at the edge of the event horizon of a black hole and devoured.

Even amongst the Hegemony, the event horizon is a point of no return should you fall prey to it. Not even the Wake-Ripple drives can escape if you cross the event horizon before engaging them.

So, in essence, if a ship is declared to be on Horizon Patrol they are lost at sea. Often with all hands.

And thus it is a ceremony to honor those ships who never returned from subspace, remembering their names and the lives lost aboard, so their sacrifice will never be forgotten.

~Jonah Michaels, Terran Adept, a report sent back to Terra-Sol-3: Ceremonies, Holidays, and Respect.

Rubbing one finger in his ear furiously in an effort to get the ringing to stop, Desmond allowed his girls to guide him out of Medical and leave the grumbling Doc Hestia to her work.

“I didn’t think she’d react that badly,” Desmond grunted, giving his head a shake and flexing his jaw several times to force his ears to pop.

“Then you convinced yourself of a lie, Des,” Chloe chastised him gently. “Doc Hestia cares about the crew, she just has an odd way of showing it.”

“Doctors tend to be odd in general,” Audra advised quietly. “I knew more than a few that believed in some very strange practices. Like sunning certain parts of your anatomy for health and wellness, or were just enamored with certain types of supplements…”

“I’m betting those weren’t military doctors, right?” Sasha said, glancing over her shoulder with a smirk. “I knew a few cranks like that back when I ran with my foster sisters. It was impossible to tell the gifted apart from the cranks, at least at the level that we could afford.”

“Well, we know Hestia at least has the captain’s approval. No way she’d be allowed to continue with her weird color focus if it actually hurt people,” Lila added.

“It’s not weird,” protested Raegan from the back of the group. “It’s actually really smart. Certain foods are nutrient dense and, while the chemical nutrients can’t always be linked to colors, it is a lot easier on a tired soldier to tell them ‘eat more green and brown’ than ‘eat more cruciferous vegetables and legumes.’ ”

Lila turned a startled look on Raegan and Desmond heard his Uth’ra mate snort in amusement.

“What? Surprised I know a big word like that?” Raegan prodded, false annoyance dripping from her tone.

“Not at all. I know that you can handle big words just fine. I just didn’t expect a woman who was tricked into eating primitive art supplies to be so thoughtful,” Lila replied sweetly and Raegan groaned while the other girls—save Audra, who tilted her head sweetly in confusion—burst into laughter.

“I swear to the Void and Stars, you lot are never going to let me live that down,” Raegan grumbled in annoyance.

“Only because you are such a good sport about it. And didn’t Chief spend extra time fussing over you to make sure that the wax was out of your teeth?” Sasha giggled, her tail twitching in amusement.

“I am so lost…” Audra mumbled as the other girls all giggled.

“Oh, just a prank from a few months ago,” Desmond said, not wanting to get into the specifics of it and make Raegan feel even worse. “Shit… it’s been what? Four months now since I graduated? Five? Time really has been flying by.”

“All depends on how you look at it. Four months out of a ten year term is just over three percent of the way there,” Audra replied with a small shrug and a smile. “But you’ve gotten a lot done in that time.”

“Doesn’t always feel like It,” Desmond said while suppressing a yawn. “But I’m happy, so the time doesn’t drag.”

“Then we are doing our jobs well, Little Boss!” Raegan proclaimed with pride, triggering another cascade of laughter. “Serious question, though. Now that you have the formula for your own supplements—still annoyed that we missed that lesson and you were at higher risk because of it by the way—what’s the plan? I can probably whip together the mixes by hand if we need to, but Mia said the Armory could do it?”

“Yeah, I just haven’t decided if I want to have them stored as tablets like Mia does, or maybe as a gas-inhaler.”

“From a mechanical standpoint, it’d be easier if you do tablets,” Sasha suggested as their group navigated out of the Medical wing and into the central corridor of the Fist of Defiance known as the Spine. “Pressurized gas units are more vulnerable to damage, but you could probably carry more in the same amount of space. Tablets are a lot easier to dispense and would only take some brief adjustments to your helmet to add in a selector to swap between the normal nutrient biscuits and mana-infused ones. You’d have less in the way of emergency supplies, but won’t lose any space.”

“What about attaching it to the backup atmosphere cartridge?” Audra suggested thoughtfully. “Those are normally mounted on the back or hip in an armored position. How often do we actually use them? Also, I’m not talking about replacing it completely, just dividing or extending the storage space there for the supplement gas.”

“Possible, but would require more intense work,” Sasha answered with a shrug, her blue-and-black-striped tail flicking back and forth animatedly. “The tablets just require an additional reservoir to be mounted along the jaw and a selector switch. Doing gas would require a rebuild of the atmo unit and more intense programming to ensure it gives out metered doses. Not impossible, just more finicky.”

As the girls discussed the pros and cons of the different mechanical approaches, Desmond was studying the ship as they passed through it. He knew his girls would come up with the best choice given how intelligent each of them was, despite the teasing they gave each other.

It’s been over two years since I was back on Earth, Desmond thought, nodding in acknowledgement to one a small group of the female marines he recognized as they passed, getting bright smiles and waves from them. Over a year since I spent more than a few hours planetside. I don’t count the interiors of Rifts, because they are more of a war-zone crossed with a dungeon than somewhere I could relax. I wonder if and when we are going to get more than just shore leave?

Lila was waving her arms animatedly about as she talked about a type of candy she remembered from her birth-world that would have been perfect for the supplements. It sounded something like a combination of PEZ and Shock-Tarts to Desmond, and he almost wished they had something like that here.

The small things are really all that I miss from back home, Desmond thought with a roll of his eyes. Treats, some types of food, beer, that sort of thing. I wonder how that dog that I met the night I got kidnapped by the government is doing…

He’d only encountered the stray dog for a minute, maybe two, on his way back from the bar that night, but something about the friendly demeanor of the dog when he’d fed it stuck with him.

I really should look into what guidelines there are for pets, if any, Desmond thought with a snort. I can only imagine what sort of hell might be raised by having some kind of pet with me too. Captain Skytreader is already really understanding of my shit, I don’t want to make things any harder than I need to for her.

“What do you think, Des?” Chloe asked, the ubiquitous hand on his shoulder giving a gentle squeeze and drawing him back out of his thoughts.

“I honestly don’t know,” Desmond replied with a shrug, blinking away his thoughts and glancing around to see that his girls were all staring at him with small smiles, even Audra.

“Were you even listening?” Lila asked accusingly, one thin eyebrow raised questioningly. The fact she was walking backwards effortlessly while doing this and not tripping only served as a reminder of the graceful Va’Aelfa’s skills.

“I was, but you all raised good points,” Desmond said with a shrug.

“I don’t think you were,” Raegan teased. “Were you staring at Audra’s butt? I have to admit, it’s toning up nicely!”

Audra let out a squeak of surprise at Raegan’s words, her red skin darkening to a rich ruby as she blushed, though a shy smile crossed her lips as she darted a glance at Desmond.

“It’s definitely nice,” Desmond agreed with an easy smile, making Audra blush even harder at the compliment. “But I wasn’t staring at it. Audra deserves far more respect than that.”

“It’s possible to stare respectfully,” Lila said with a laugh. “I know I did it for months myself. A side effect of the military’s insistence on the communal showers!”

“So you are saying that you are now staring disrespectfully?” Raegan fired back at Lila, clearly hoping to get even for the earlier comments in regard to the Crayon Incident.

“Naw, now I’m just staring appreciatively. Desmond works hard to keep himself in shape, and it would be a crime not to appreciate that!” Lila said with a broad, sparkling grin that was matched by the shimmer of the sparkling motes on her skin.

“Back to the topic at hand,” Sasha interjected. “Chief, did you have a preference for which system to use? I’ll have to start making modifications today if we are going to have it ready in time for the next Rift rotation.”

“Go for the tablets for now,” Desmond said after a moment of thought. “We are all getting tired out from the extra work we are doing. Plus, I can use that to figure out more along the lines of what I need to bring with me and plan. The gas cylinder is nice and inhalers are good for a quick replenishment, but I’ll just keep bringing the two emergency ones I normally have.”

“Mark the gas system down as a future improvement,” Chloe ordered when Desmond was done speaking. “It’s still good to have, and I’d be surprised if they don’t already have it built into the general atmosphere units for adept suits. Maybe something we can pick up on the next shore leave or place an order for, to save you the effort.”

“Sounds good, Chloe,” Sasha said with a bob of her head, deferring to the horned woman’s position as the leader of the guards.

Desmond rolled his eyes but didn’t protest the addendum to his choice. It made complete sense and he’d been getting better about letting Chloe do her job as the leader of his guards as well as his first mate.

It’s not like she’s doing it to countermand you, Desmond reminded himself with a slow breath. She’s got a good point to it, and it’s not like we don’t have the funds to afford the extra parts. Especially once the Fist puts back in.

They’d suppressed four Rifts in the six weeks since the Fist of Defiance had departed short an adept, as Windracer had been transferred out. Not that the adepts of the Fist had suppressed four. Arsenal had handled four, with two of those being solo runs because the other teams were still recovering.

And of the four, three of them we got the Rift Core, so bounty on top of the regular loot, Desmond thought with a grim smile. If only Chloe had known what kind of money would be coming in back when she took that loan out to cover her brother’s procedures. She wouldn’t have worried at all.

Even split six ways, Desmond fully expected to be getting a rich payout from the Rift bounties. Some of it would go back into resupplying the ammunition that they couldn’t make and buying supplies, with a single large outlay to bring Audra’s armor up to par with the rest of the girls. But they still had plenty of funds coming in that the Nagat woman was already hard at work researching investment opportunities as they waited to hear back from the Irongrip on Desmond’s proposal to help fund research into artificial limbs like the one Sasha had designed for herself.

The group continued to chat back and forth about inconsequential things while they stopped at the Armory long enough for Sasha to pull Desmond’s helmet from the storage locker and have the Radfords run off a few parts using the nano-forge. They were able to jump the queue since they were small parts and Sasha entered the request as ‘needed repairs,’ so it only took a matter of minutes before the girls were in motion once more.

“Des,” Chloe asked as they trooped through the quiet corridors towards their bunks. It was in that middle time between shifts when the corridors were mostly empty, and so no one was around to overhear them.

“What is it, Precious?” Desmond asked, glancing up over his shoulder at Chloe as the Taari-Uth’ra woman walked nearly on top of him.

“Have you given more thought to the last slot on the team?”

Chloe’s question brought the playful banter between Lila, Sasha, and Raegan to a halt. The trio had been arguing over plans for the next tabletop night and how to handle the next job they’d been hired for in Gloomtreader, but when Chloe asked her question, they went silent.

“A little,” Desmond admitted with a shrug as they turned down the corridor that led to the adept bunks. “Mostly been focusing on getting Audra settled in.”

“I do appreciate that,” Audra said quietly, her scales making a rhythmic rustling noise against the decking that was audible even with the clunk of their boots. “I’m sorry it’s taking me so long to pin down my weapon choices.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Desmond said to reassure her. “You take the time you need to figure it out. You don’t have the advantage of the extra training the others all had with different loadouts, or the VR rigs to test different weapon sets.”

“Better to take your time and be sure,” opined Chloe as well, smiling down at the smaller serpentine woman. “Besides, there are going to be extra options that aren’t in the Armory when we get back to a station.”

“Why do you ask about the last slot, Chloe?” Desmond inquired, wanting to drag the conversation back on to what had started the digression while he could. “Everything okay?”

They had reached their quarters at that point, so Lila and Sasha went in first as the point members to clear the way before signalling that it was okay to follow. Desmond felt it was unnecessary given that they were on a military ship, but he hadn’t had the heart to tell his girls to stop with how proud they were of looking after him.

Chloe didn’t answer his question at first, waiting until they were all inside and instead focusing on their more relaxed tasks. Once Desmond was settled into the recessed conversation pit and tucked into her side, with Sasha seated on the floor in front of him and rapidly disassembling his helmet so he could play with her ears, she continued.

“As annoying as it was having Faye force her way into the team—no don’t apologize for that Audra, it wasn’t your fault or choice—it was nice to have the extra hand on suppression runs. We’ve been doing fine up till now, but that conversation with Mia got me thinking about it again, and I’m worried that we are taking too much time,” Chloe admitted at last, gently brushing her fingers through Desmond’s hair as he mirrored the motion with Sasha’s short mess of spiked hair.

“We are only down one from the maximum squad size, though,” Raegan asked curiously, flopping down on Desmond’s other side and slinging her arms onto the back of the couch, letting her left arm land on the outside of Chloe’s.

This resulted in Desmond ending up with his head basically sandwiched between a massive set of breasts on his left, and a slightly-smaller but still massive set on his right. While the pressure was pleasant, it did muffle his hearing a bit.

“Maximum squad size of six, sure. But I’ve been thinking about that a lot. Why would there be so much variance of three to six guards? That’s a pretty broad range for someone who’s actively deployed, and can you name any of the other adepts that are at less than a full squad?”

Chloe’s question got Desmond thinking as he turned over the different adepts they had met. Raegan didn’t spend as long thinking about the question, starting to reel off answers as soon as she thought of them.

“The instructors back on the Valor’s Bid, the Medical adepts, the Transport adepts—”

“All roles that don’t actually work in Rifts, unless there is a major issue,” Chloe insisted.

“There are Transport and Medical adepts that suppress Rifts, though,” Audra interjected from her spot on the other side of Chloe.

The large Nagat woman had a data-tablet in her hands and another on her lap for notes, having dove back into her research as soon as they got back to the squad’s suite.

All she needs is a little pair of glasses perched on her nose, maybe a pencil in her topknot, and she’d have the secretary look down, Desmond thought with a grin. He completely disregarded the forty-plus feet of serpentine tail, scales, and red skin in that summary. All he saw was an attractive woman doing research.

“There are, but they are the exception rather than the rule,” Chloe continued. “I’m not saying that we need to rush, but we might need to be careful about dragging our heels too much.”

Chloe went silent, chewing on her bottom lip thoughtfully for several long moments. It was a mark of how much the other girls respected her that no one spoke up as Chloe took the time she needed to formulate her next question.

“Des, is there anyone on the ship right now that you would consider tapping for the sixth slot? We’ve been building good rapport with the marines and crew of the Fist, but if there aren’t any that catch your eye, then we might need to ask for a crew listing from the other ships in the Seventh Border Fleet.”

“Elle has always been nice and polite to us,” Desmond suggested, mentioning the cute jaguar-patterned Latsu they knew.

“She’s also the security chief for the Fist, and I think she’s more than halfway through her commission,” Sasha said, not looking up as her multi-tool buzzed and undid the magnetic bolts along the jawline of the helmet. “She’d be great to have, but it’d be a lot to ask her.”

“What about one of the Radfords?” Lila suggested, the lithe Va’Aelfa having started doing some rather interesting calisthenics against the wall between two of the rooms for support. “I can’t deny having a Latsu would open up a lot of options too.”

“Naw, Little Boss said before that he wouldn’t want to break up the triplets. Right?” Raegan addressed the last part of her statement to Desmond, as if realizing that she was speaking for him.

But Desmond just nodded, the gesture inadvertently causing him to rub his face along both Raegan and Chloe’s breasts that were currently sandwiching his head. Both girls shifted to give him a bit more space, but didn’t stop pressing into him otherwise.

“Raegan is right,” Desmond said now that he could hear better. “If it wasn’t for the maximum squad size limit, I’d offer all three of the Radford’s a spot.”

“Why is there a maximum of six guards again?” Audra asked tentatively, clearly hesitant to reveal a gap in her knowledge but trusting them.

“It’s related to the Rift’s reactions to non-adepts entering them,” Desmond answered, tickling the tip of one of Sasha’s ears while he talked and making it flick. “Normal folk speed the destabilization of a Rift by entering it. Inversely, an adept has a stabilizing effect inside the Rift, slowing its eventual decay. We were taught that the six guard limit was instated because that was the maximum that an adept would be able to counterbalance easily.”

“But some are able to do more?” Audra asked curiously.

It was Chloe who answered her though, as Sasha had turned quickly and playfully bit his hand for continuing to tickle her feline ears.

“Some are. I’m sure Desmond could support a far larger squad if needed, but at a certain point you end up with too many people and folks getting in the way. Most all of the Rifts tend to be constrained spaces, with walls or barriers hemming you in on all sides. We’ve only been in one that was open enough that a large group would be effective.”

“Some Rifts can be cut through, like that jungle Rift we went on just after you joined,” Desmond added on, using his other hand to gently rub the base of Sasha’s pointed feline ears to soothe her and get the Hyreh-Taari woman to release her bite from his hand. “But the vast majority are tight confines.”

“So a small squad of well equipped and specialized folk is better than just using the maximum number of bodies. Makes sense,” Audra said thoughtfully, tapping the top of her data tablet to her chin. “So we need someone who can act in a supporting role to the dynamics the squad already has.”

“And most importantly: doesn’t clash with the dynamics of our group,” Sasha said, having just released Desmond’s hand to lean into the ear-scratches. “Faye aside, we’ve always been told that it’s next to impossible to remove someone from the squad once they join.”

“Des,” Chloe asked gently and he looked up at his horned lover, meeting her green eyes with his. “What about Bell? She’s worked with us before and hasn’t caused problems?”

Desmond’s thoughts turned to the Gaur woman immediately and he turned it over in his head. Belladonna ‘Bell’ Razorwing was someone he considered a friend and an ally on the ship, a member of the ship’s security detail and a sergeant under Elle Powell. They’d hung out regularly, and Bell had been there to help them when they’d had a brief rough encounter with what they later discovered to be a cultist saboteur on board a space station months previous.

“I think Bell would do well,” Desmond admitted slowly as he turned it over in his mind. “But I don’t know. She’s been a bit distant since the whole thing with Faye. Also, how would this affect her enlistment time? Does she have family that are waiting for her to get done with her tour?”

“Can’t hurt to ask her, right?” Chloe insisted gently, going back to finger-combing Desmond’s hair slowly.

The more he thought about it, the more that Desmond agreed with Chloe’s suggestion. What was the harm in asking to learn more?