The Captain's Heart CH 102

Gralgiran heard the readiness of his hunter in the shifting suit material as they prepare for whatever happened next. The offensive array

Gralgiran heard the readiness of his hunter in the shifting suit material as they prepare for whatever happened next.

The offensive array had them well covered, so any act of aggression would have consequences. They would act if he ordered it, or if the situation forced them, but he was not here for violence, and he had the sense this wasn’t a response to them specifically, but to any intrusion.

The Earther had found refuge in this wreck. Had kept himself isolated from everyone. It spoke of someone living with fear. With that in mind, the array felt more like a reasonable precaution than the act of someone aiming to destroy anything he saw.

The heads up still said the atmosphere was breathable, so he carefully raised his hands to grasp his helmet, unlock it and removed it.

When he spoke, he did so in Earther.

“I am Gralgiran sel Helrarvnir, Heart to Jeremy Bradshaw. If it is easier for you, you can use Growler as my name. It is what Earthers have named me.”

The silence stretched. “Yeah, well, who sent you?”

“You gave the Spreading Branch the coordinates where I’d find you. They gave them to me.”

“Fuck. They got them too.”

“No, they are still hidden.”

The snort distorted the audio. “Oh yeah, sure. I’m going to believe you a, was given a human name, cat. How about I let you leave and you tell your human overlords not to bother me?”

“Earthers—”

“Humans! We’re fucking called Humans! You’d think that after they took over, they could at least have broken you of that fucking bad habit.”

“No one had conquered anyone.”

A door, other side of the room. The message was from Zorfiel. My pack can rush it, three are certain to make it. We can find and take the Earther down.

“Oh sure. That’s exactly what they’d tell you to say.”

Not today. He wouldn’t send anyone to their death unless it was the only option.

“I’m here for Jeremy, my Heart. I’m here because after months of work, just thinking about me sends him into paranoid panic. I’m here because you’ve hinted to Tommy the Ea—Human that you had information on the technology that hurt him. Please, I need your help. I’m on the same ship as him, and it feels like we’re on different planets. I need to have him back in my life.”

The silence stretched so long Gralgiran closed his eyes. If you intended for me and Jer to happen. If you aren’t just messing with us. Now would be a good time to Meddle, Gezbiliam. Imploring her was probably a bad idea, but she’d started this. Not just when she’d brought the two of them together, but all the way at the start when she separated the Hearts.

Movement. Came a second before a hand grabbed the end of the door at the back and pulled, moving the door into the wall. The Earther who stepped out was male, fit, wearing overalls that had seen better days. He held a gun, but pointed it at the floor. His hair and beard were black mixed in with gray. He read wariness off him, but that was it. He couldn’t trust that the cues he’d learned to interpret from Jeremy carried across his entire species

Older, the gray in the fur indicates that in male Earthers. The weapon isn’t part of any files we have on their combat capabilities. I can’t give you a threat assessment on him other than he is already pointing too many weapons at us.

Gralgiran nodded to the array. If the male had stepped out of hiding, it had to be a sign of progress.

“Oh, right. Sorry about that.” He took a remote from a pocket, then the array was back in the ceiling. He raised the gun. “But before you get any idea. I’m a very good shot. So you all stay where you are. Good. Now, how about you all take those helmets off so I can be sure he isn’t your hunting cat? Trust me, you can’t put anything past the human military anymore.”

With a few flicks of ears, Gralgiran instructed his hunters to comply.

“Not exactly smart for the lot of you to show up in here without weapons.”

“I didn’t come seeking a confrontation. Only your help. How may I address you?”

He seemed surprised by the question, then unsure. “Bob,” he finally said. “My name’s Bob.”

Another far too short name. And he couldn’t address him while adding to it to feel more at ease.

“I am—”

“Gralgr—” he broke into a fit of painful sounding coughing. “How the fuck do you people manage to say that?”

“Differently built voice box,” he answered. “It’s why the Ea—Humans on Einstein station called me Growler. To your ears, our speech is like growling of animals.”

“Oh, it’s way more than that, which makes them think of you as animals.” The Earther straightened. “You said Jeremy’s getting better?”

“Haven’t you been following the Spreading Branch’s broadcasts about him?”

“Propaganda’s propaganda even when it comes from the side you want to win. So I don’t exactly trust everything they say.”

“Yes. He’s improving. But we don’t know if he can overcome what’s been done to him.”

“If you’re hoping I’ll tell you he can heal from that, fuck if I know. It’s not like I know if I’ve gotten over it myself.”

“You were tortured like he was?”

“Oh, they didn’t call it that. Didn’t call it anything. But I was a good little soldier. It’s not like I asked what the machine did when they told me to sit in it. Wasn’t the first time I’d had to do stuff like that. Didn’t think it’d be the last.”

“What—”

“Oh, no you don’t.” The gun was up again. “I’m not telling you anything. Your overlords can go fuck themselves.”

Not entirely sane.

Or not entirely in control of his mind. In a similar way that sometime, the programming that had been put into Jeremy’s mind took over.

“How did you end up here?” he asked, aiming to defuse the situation. “We didn’t know there was a ship here.”

“You and everyone else. When the fighting started, I ducked. That’s how I ended up here.”

“You were attacked?”

He laughed. “We attacked them. Well, the others went to war. I…. I couldn’t make sense of anything, so I put my head between my legs and pretty much kissed my ass goodbye. Was surprised as fuck to still be alive when the quiet returned. We tried to maneuver the ship, but I know sensor. Lenny was a cook, Isabel a mechanic, and Fred could make you laugh like no one else could, but she couldn’t pilot this thing either.”

“There are others here?”

He narrowed his eyes. “What’s your interest in them?” he frown at the gun he pointed at him, but didn’t lower it.

“Do they need help?”

He snorted. “They’re way beyond help. The crash wasn’t particularly fast, but this piece of shit had momentum. Fred got stuck behind bending beams and we couldn’t pull her out. I fucking wasn’t going to stay there and watch her get crushed. Lenny blew his brains out a year into us being here. Isabel…no idea where she went, only that she’s not on this wreck anymore.”

“Do you need help?”

“Nah. I’m good. I get good reception out here, especially with the band compressor and whatever else Isa left me before she went away.”

“Can you help Jeremy?”

“I…don’t know.”

“Can you try? This is where they did it to you. Did the machine survive the crash?”

“Better question you should ask is if it survived Lenny. He was not a fan of it, considering what it put us through.”

“He destroyed it.” He’d hoped…

“Yeah. Took a plasm-cutter to the thing and didn’t stop until it was all slag. Fortunately for you. It’s not like there was only one of those cursed things. Come on.” He raised the gun. “Just him. Don’t the rest of you get any funny idea.”

“You stay,” he told his hunters.

“Alpha,” Zorfiel said, in Earther. “I have to protest. We don’t know what or who else is here.”

“I trust him.” In ear-code, he said. Deactivate weapons. “So you rest. I doubt we’ll be long.”

She still wasn’t happy, but nodded.

He followed the Earther through more cramped corridors; the air growing more stale as they moved away from the room. Before he grew worried, and the indicator was still blue, the Earther shouldered a door open.

“This is where they did it to me. Lenny’s was in a different medical bay. Don’t know why I didn’t tell him about this one. No, I know. Didn’t trust the bastard. For all I knew, he was a plant, so I wasn’t telling him anything.”

He narrowed his eyes. “You’re not here because they sent you, are you?”

“I’m only here because of Jeremy.” The machines were spread over the floor. They resembled what Jeremy had been in, only in that they were attached to seats. Five of them, although he had no way to know if the damage they’re endured made them useless to him.

The Earther relaxed. “He’s lucky,” he whispered. “He found someone.”

“Unless you’ve given up the hunt, you can find your Heart too.”

“I know where my heart is.” He tapped his chest. “It’s right where it belongs.”

Gralgiran kept himself from explaining. Unless the Earther had studied Kelsirian history, he wouldn’t know what he meant.

“Can I right one?”

“Hey, it’s your mind you’re putting at risk touching those things. But if you’re considering sitting in one, tell me and I’ll kill you first. It’s a lot less painful than going through that.”

He chose the least damaged one, then looked it over, trying to make sense of what he saw, but it would be for his experts to disassemble and tell him how it worked, and how they could help Jeremy.

But he needed to arrange it so they could come here and take it. With the way the Earther’s mind wavered, he might shoot them even after agreeing to let them study it.

His ears folded back just from contemplating having to use so short a name. He steeled himself and faced the Earther.

“Tell me, Bob. How would you feel about getting off this wreck?”

Outline section 

Gral will remove his helmet and respond in English. This throws the human off guard for a moment, but only a moment. Responding in his actual voice rather than a translator, the human needs some sort of proof that they are who they say they are and that the radio hasn’t been compromised. Not the he expects the human government to resort to deception, but as far as he knows things have degraded so far down there humans have enslaved the entire federation and kelsirians are just shock troops.

This is a paranoia deep enough that it does look like they are going to have to test how much of these defenses are bluster and how much is a real threat. And then Gral puts his metaphorical heart on the line for the sake of his Heart, and puts it out there that Jeremy might be getting better, but he still can’t be near Gral without suffering acute panic attacks. So please, if he has anything that might help...

...and that is when the drones stand down, the doors open, and the human stands out. He’s male, slightly muscled, greying, and with an unkempt beard. He says his name is Bob [detail to remember, Bob was a sensor operator withing the military], and asks what does Gral need.

Addition 

Nothing Added

So, the big change that would have been in the previous chapter's outline is that instead of a station being attacked, this was a military ship on which experiments were run on the soldiers. having decided that, things progressed further than what was in the outline here.

the fact there were other people at one time was an addition that just made sense to me. if Bob hadn't escaped an attack, it made more sense that multiple people would have survived the fighting the errupted. them dying was, basically, because the story needed Bob to be on his own.