RVA: The Red Vixen at Sea, Conclusion
Nov. 18th, 2016 09:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalThe sun was falling into the sea when rescue finally arrived. Rolas remained face down in the sand, exhausted from his ordeal, the remains of the ardalian’s tentacle hanging from his spine like an obscene second tail. Melanie left him briefly to grab the first aid kit and walk up the stairs for the fifth bloody time to check on the wazagan. It was still shuddering and otherwise unresponsive, though it had stopped crying and muttering to herself. Melanie gave it a shot of a universal anti-shock medication, and the poor creature finally fell into an exhausted sleep.
While she was tending to it, Melanie tried not to glance at the three bodies on the ground. Twenty eight, she counted, adding them to the total she’d given Rolas a few days ago. These I did all on my own, she thought sadly. Can’t blame my old crew for them this time.
When she got back down she found a pair of questing tentacles blindly scurrying up and down the beach, obviously looking for their lost prey. Having retrieved the safety scissors when she’d helped the wazagan, Mel simply stepped out of their way and cut the tips off. The wounded ends retreated rapidly, and they were left alone after that.
She was just considering the wisdom of trying to find that spring again for some fresh water, when she heard the crack of a distant sonic boom in the sky. Looking up, Melanie saw the bright flashing lights of an emergency rescue drone circling the island. Spotting the two figures on the beach, it dropped down in the front of them, landing quietly on its reactionless thrusters. The ovoid shape unfolded itself, hull panels shifting and pulling back, revealing four manipulator arms and a sensor platform atop the now vaguely humanoid shaped body.
“Lady Melanie, Lord Rolas?” its operator, likely a trained medtech and remote pilot sitting back in Greeholme’s hospital, said though the drone’s speakers. “We’re glad we found you. Have you suffered any serious injuries?”
“Rolas is the worst off,” Melanie told them immediately. “He suffered a severe concussion resulting in memory loss when he was swept out to sea in that storm.” She blinked, checking dates in her head. Had it only been three days ago, really? “He’s recovered, but there’s an ardalian somewhere in the bay on the western side of the island, and it tried to connect a tentacle to his spine, which I cut him free of but I haven’t dared try to remove.” As she spoke, part of the drone detached itself from the main body, unfolding into a small platform. It lifted Rolas’ body onto the platform with its padded waldoes, and began a detailed physical examination. “I’ve got a nasty scrape on my right bicep, and I also managed dislocate the shoulder of the same arm, though I popped it back into place. We’re both suffering from dehydration and hunger, though Rolas is worse off. One of the ardalian’s other victims, a wazagan, survived being removed from the ardalian’s control, though it’s in severe shock. Also,” she added somewhat breathlessly, “I’m seven weeks pregnant with twins.”
“Did she say pregnant?” she heard a barely audible voice exclaim over the speakers. It sounded like Salli.
“Understood, Lady Melanie,” the drone said. “Lord Rolas appears stable, but I’m going to restrain him to keep his spine from shifting. This tentacle appears to have embedded thorns into his spinal cord, and I don’t want them digging any deeper. While I’m doing that, please take this bottle and drink all its contents.” A panel opened up in the drone’s belly, and she retrieved a plastic liter-sized bottle of liquid. It was colored piss yellow, tasted like lemon flavored window washing fluid, and probably contained plenty of healthy minerals and electrolytes. She dutifully gulped it down as the drone secured Rolas, then pasted sensor pads onto his skin over his mumbled protests.
“I’m still monitoring him, but I want to check on the wazagan,” the drone operator told her. Another panel opened up, and she took out a light headset from it, slipping it on as the drone floated up the stairs. “Please use this to keep in contact with us.”
“Thank you,” she told it. Melanie cleared her throat, “Hello?”
“Hello, Melanie,” she heard Salli speak over the com, “What was that about being pregnant?”
“I’m about seven weeks along,” Melanie repeated, then added. “Rolas knows.” She prudently ignored his muttered, Now I do.
“Congratulations. Mother will be incredibly pleased.”
“Thank you. I rather guessed she would be. So when did you figure out that we’d been lost at sea?”
“We got an alert from our satellite network’s monitoring AI that it had found what appeared to be an A.N.B. message about ninety minutes ago. When we read it and spotted Rolas’ boat foundered on the reef, I had the rescue drone dispatched immediately. Ali should be arriving shortly with a paramedic team in a suborbital shuttle. It launched as soon as the drone confirmed your presence, and should be there in about twenty minutes.”
“Thank you, Salli,” Melanie said, her gratitude entirely genuine. She and Salli might have their differences, but she wasn’t about to fault her sister-in-law’s efficiency.
“Now what’s this about an ardalian being in the bay?” Salli demanded.
“You heard that right. It had four people, two humans, a kinis, and a wazagan enslaved as its puppets, and it wanted to add Rolas and I to its roster. Rolas was captured while leading them away from me, and had one of its puppeteer tentacles inserted into his spinal column. How it got here I have no idea, though I suspect if we ask the right questions to Bloody Margo and her crew in their prison cells, we’d get the answer.”
She heard Salli growl softly in anger. “I am going to the have the ears and tails of the Large Lifeform Survey team delivered to me in a box. They should not have missed this.”
“Don’t be too eager to blame them,” Melanie advised. “The LLS was looking for large oceangoing creatures, not something hiding in a bay.”
“Still, I’m going to give them a stern talking to,” Salli said, her anger slightly abated. “I’m glad you weren’t harmed by that thing, Melanie.”
“I wasn’t, no, but…” She paused, stepping out of earshot of Rolas. Melanie bit her lip briefly and continued, “Rolas, he wasn’t so lucky. The ardalian used his body to try and attack me, after I…” Her voice suddenly caught in her throat. “After I killed three of its puppets, and disabled the fourth.”
There was a pause at Salli’s end, then she said with surprising gentleness, “I know what kind of burden taking a life can place upon one’s shoulders, for myself, and for my heart’s love, Ali. Whatever our disagreements, I will not mock or demean you for this, Melanie.”
“I… thank you, Salli, sincerely, but that wasn’t what I wanted to talk to you about.” She took in a deep breath. “Salli, Rolas was raped by that thing, in body and in mind. You also know what a burden that is.”
The pause this time was much longer. “Yes, I do,” Salli replied softly. “What do you need of me, how can I help?”
“Just be patient with Rolas. As much as he tries to be a dutiful son, there’s a lot of anger and resentment inside him,” Melanie told her.
“You think I’m not aware of this? I’m not blind, Melanie. I know what he can’t have because of his sex, and I know how that has eaten at him.”
“Indeed. I want him to get counseling, just you received therapy and aid from Dr. Quan. We’re probably going to have to fight him over it since, Rolas being Rolas, he’s going to insist he’s fine and doesn’t need any help.”
She could almost hear the wry smile in Salli’s voice as she answered, “I can provide the negative reinforcement if required. Though convincing him to go to counseling just to spite me seems an odd means of persuasion.”
“I’ll accept whatever works, so long as Rolas gets the help he needs,” Melanie told Salli gratefully. She glanced up, as she heard the approach of another aircraft. Spotlights from the underbelly of the suborbital shuttle snapped on, making her blink as the early evening darkness was banished. In a moment the shuttle spotted the dock and landed next to it, rocking in the water as steam hissed around its cooling hull. “Got to go, Salli. It appears our ride out has finally arrived.”
In a matter of seconds the shuttle’s side hatch opened up and Ali popped out. Ah, Melanie thought wryly. In the world of the Red Vixen, there was nothing quite so comforting as seeing that intense little vixen rushing towards a problem, armed to the fangs in clamshell armor and carrying a plasma rifle. Behind her Commander Cannonloader followed, just as heavily, and pointlessly, armed, a pair of paramedics behind them both.
“Milady, are you alright?” Ali demanded. She and Cannonloader both looked down at Rolas’ lying face down, back severely wounded, and gasped in dismay.
“Rollie? Rollie?” Cannonloader demanded, kneeling down in front of Rolas. “Can you hear me?”
“Stop shouting, Dak,” Rolas grumbled, eyes opening briefly. “You’re always so bloody loud.”
“That’s the Rollie I remember,” Cannonloader said, obviously relieved. He glanced briefly up at Melanie, shrugged, and then leaned further down, cupping Rolas’ face in his paws and planting a deep kiss on his muzzle. To Melanie’s quiet delight, after a moment’s frozen surprise, Rolas relaxed into the kiss, even gripping one of Cannonloader’s paws. When they finally broke apart, the Patrol officer said, “I missed that.”
“So did I,” Rolas admitted. Rather belatedly, he looked up at Melanie, ears burning red. “Er…”
“I don’t mind sharing you, dear, just a little at least,” she said with a smile. Melanie dearly hoped Ali had the mission recorder built into her armor and rifle running. She’d want a playback of that kiss for later.
“Dak…” Rolas began to say. Then he stopped, ran his tongue over his lips where Dak had kissed him, then went on. “I’m sorry, for a lot of things.”
“Nothing to be sorry about, Rollie,” the Patrol officer reassured him.
Her husband’s forehead creased in irritation. “For once in your life would you please shut up? I wanted to tell you that I’m sorry I cut myself off from you after you and Jen refused my proposal. I was angry, and upset, and… Well, I was mostly an ass.”
“Nonsense. You have a very fine ass, Rollie,” Cannonloader said with a grin, “I shant have you making negative comparisons about yourself to it.”
Oh yes, Melanie definitely wanted to pull Cannonloader aside for a private chat at the first opportunity.
The paramedic who had followed after the drone returned, following the unit back down as it carried the wazagan in its padded waldos. Ali looked at it, cocking her head as if in recognition.
“Someone you know?” Melanie asked.
“I think… Oh, Mother Goddess! Fahdah?” When the nearly catatonic wazagan failed to respond, Ali switched to its native language, a skill Melanie had only seen her display rarely with the Scarlet Claw’s own wazagan crewfolk. "Fahda? Hal ha'athihi entee?"
The wazagan blinked in surprise, coming up out of its stupor and focusing on her. "Ali-kat? Ha qudd jun'nunt. Fa-entee mutawafia! Fa'alun ana fee jaheem, Fa-entee laa tastahequee an takunee huna, yaa Ali!" it replied in obvious dismay.
"Laa ya Fahda, bull ana a'aysha was entee aydunn. Nahnu huna le inquathek,” Ali told it earnestly.
It shook its head, eyes almost pleading now. "Eth'habee min huna! Hu'naka wahush! Qudd iktashafat Ma'argo ka'in Al-Ardalian! Wa hiya taqtull a'adah'ihaa lahu in lam yaqumoo bi awaa'mirihaa!"
“Shh, shh.” Ali spoke something reassuring, and turned back to Melanie and Cannonloader. “Bloody Margo was using the ardalian as punishment for her crew that got out of line, condemning them to serve as its puppets. Fahdah was one of them.”
“Mother Goddess bless,” Cannonloader said, looking horrified.
Ali worried her lip between her fangs, briefly. “Commander Cannonloader, Lady Melanie, I know Fahdah was one of Bloody Margo’s crew, but she wasn’t like most of them, and she protected me from some of the ones that tried to... “ her voice caught briefly, “...when I was Margo’s slave. She’s a pirate, but… she wasn’t as bad as she could have been.” The plea of Please give her a chance, like I was, was obvious in her voice.
“Give her a chance, Dak,” Rolas spoke up unexpectedly. “I’ve met a pirate or two like that.“ He looked up at Melanie, and smiled.
When she reached down to grip his paw, he held it tight.
* * *
Three days later Rolas had recovered sufficiently from the surgery to remove the ardalian’s nerve thorns from his spine that he was up to seeing visitors. Melanie stood up from her chair beside Rolas’ float bed as Cannonloader and Salli entered, the red furred Patrol officer smiling broadly, her sister-in-law looking more subdued.
“You’re looking better, Rollie,” she said.
“Feh! I have to lay in this thing any longer I’m going to get spacesick,” Rolas grumbled somewhat perfunctorily, as he hung in mid-air.
“You can’t put any pressure on your back until you’ve healed more,” Melanie told him. “Listen to your doctors or you’ll end up in here even longer.”
“Yes, dear,” Rolas sighed. He turned his attention to his sister. “What news do you have about our ardie problem, Salli?”
“Ms. Fahdah has sufficiently recovered her senses that she can speak without us having to use a translator,” Salli told them. “She confirmed what she told Alinadar, that Bloody Margo somehow nabbed a larval ardalian while visiting the ardie homeworld and set it in that bay to serve as negative reinforcement should one of her crew get the idea of disobeying orders. The survey department dropped a modified sonobuoy into the bay to chat with it using the normal mode of ardie communication.”
Cannonloader took up the thread of the report. “Near as we can determine, given it’s been sitting in that bay since adolescence, none of its own kind to talk to, and no visits even from Bloody Margo for two years before the pair of you showed up, it’s utterly mad, even by ardie standards.”
“Well, I’m sure it’ll appreciate being taken back to Ardala then,” Salli said.
Melanie raised an eyebrow. “That’s an expensive proposition. You’ll have to build a small shuttle port on the island just to land a ship large enough to take it aboard.”
Salli glared at her. “After what that thing did my brother, I want it off my planet. Expense is not a consideration. I’ll take it from my personal purse if need be.” She smiled a little ironically. “Besides, I have to get Rolas’ boat out of there too.”
“My boat isn’t important,” Rolas said, taking Melanie’s paw in his own and giving it a squeeze.
“It’s yours, Rolas,” Salli said. “I know how you love it. If it’s at all salvageable we’ll have it raised and repaired.”
“I… thank you, Salli.” Rolas blinked rapidly, eyes tearing up. “Sorry,” he muttered. “It’s all the drugs…” He shook his head, seeming to catch himself. “Dak, I’m sorry, but I need to speak to Salli and Melanie privately for a moment.”
“Of course, Rollie.” Dak reached over and rubbed Rolas’ ears briefly before leaving the room. An old expression of fondness, if Melanie was any judge, at least going by long suffering eyeroll her husband gave the Patrol officer.
She shut the door quietly behind him. “All right, Rolas. What’s on your mind?”
He glanced at her briefly, saying, “This is mostly for Salli’s benefit. But I think you deserve to hear it as well, given the conversation we had, um, before the storm hit Windskimmer.”
“I’m listening, Rolas,” Salli assured him. Melanie nodded in agreement.
Rolas cleared his throat. “Salli, this isn’t easy for me to say, especially after everything you have gone through in your life, but… for the longest time, I hated you.”
Salli seemed to become very, very still. It reminded Melanie uncomfortably of how the noblevixen had acted before beginning her counseling sessions with Dr. Quan, when she still feared expressing any emotion, having been taught the dangers of it by her late, unlamented ex-husband. “Why?” she said softly.
“I hated you for being a vixen, for being the Heir, for being Greenholme’s governor, for getting so much attention after suffering under…” His voice cracked. “I’m sorry. I didn’t understand what kind of pain you endured. When that ardie took control of me, I lost all control of my body. It used me to attack Melanie, and when it did I couldn’t stop it, couldn't even scream. I was so utterly helpless.” Despite all the drugs that had to be running through his system, Rolas began to shake. “I didn’t understand, Salli. You have to believe me, Salli, I didn’t.”
“Rolas,” Salli began, taking one his paws in her own, while Melanie took the other, “my pain was my own. I never wanted anything like it to be inflicted upon you for the sake of mere enlightenment. I never wanted you to feel lessened because of me. There is nothing to forgive.”
He nodded, rubbing the back of his palm across his eyes. “Thank you, Salli.”
She smiled. “Though if you truly wish to make amends, convince Melanie to name one of her cubs after me.”
“Sorry, Ali had first dibs,” Melanie told her cheerfully. “Maybe next time.”
“I certainly can’t argue with that. Speaking of which, I need to start tugging tails to arrange for the removal of that ardie. I’ll leave you two for now.” Salli bowed to them both and left the room, closing the door behind her.
Rolas let his head fall back. “Melanie, next time I have the bright idea of taking you on a sailing trip, please feel free to stun me until I get over it.’
“Rolas, I’d like to go sailing with you again,” she reassured him.
He looked at her curiously. “You would?”
“Yes, in about seven months, after I pop these cubs out. Preferably on an ocean on Foxen Prime, where we can eat the fish if we get shipwrecked again.”
“It’s a deal,” he agreed.
“One thing though.” She grinned. “Next time I tie you to the mast, make sure we’re safely docked first.”
“Agreed,” he said, just before she kissed him.
While she was tending to it, Melanie tried not to glance at the three bodies on the ground. Twenty eight, she counted, adding them to the total she’d given Rolas a few days ago. These I did all on my own, she thought sadly. Can’t blame my old crew for them this time.
When she got back down she found a pair of questing tentacles blindly scurrying up and down the beach, obviously looking for their lost prey. Having retrieved the safety scissors when she’d helped the wazagan, Mel simply stepped out of their way and cut the tips off. The wounded ends retreated rapidly, and they were left alone after that.
She was just considering the wisdom of trying to find that spring again for some fresh water, when she heard the crack of a distant sonic boom in the sky. Looking up, Melanie saw the bright flashing lights of an emergency rescue drone circling the island. Spotting the two figures on the beach, it dropped down in the front of them, landing quietly on its reactionless thrusters. The ovoid shape unfolded itself, hull panels shifting and pulling back, revealing four manipulator arms and a sensor platform atop the now vaguely humanoid shaped body.
“Lady Melanie, Lord Rolas?” its operator, likely a trained medtech and remote pilot sitting back in Greeholme’s hospital, said though the drone’s speakers. “We’re glad we found you. Have you suffered any serious injuries?”
“Rolas is the worst off,” Melanie told them immediately. “He suffered a severe concussion resulting in memory loss when he was swept out to sea in that storm.” She blinked, checking dates in her head. Had it only been three days ago, really? “He’s recovered, but there’s an ardalian somewhere in the bay on the western side of the island, and it tried to connect a tentacle to his spine, which I cut him free of but I haven’t dared try to remove.” As she spoke, part of the drone detached itself from the main body, unfolding into a small platform. It lifted Rolas’ body onto the platform with its padded waldoes, and began a detailed physical examination. “I’ve got a nasty scrape on my right bicep, and I also managed dislocate the shoulder of the same arm, though I popped it back into place. We’re both suffering from dehydration and hunger, though Rolas is worse off. One of the ardalian’s other victims, a wazagan, survived being removed from the ardalian’s control, though it’s in severe shock. Also,” she added somewhat breathlessly, “I’m seven weeks pregnant with twins.”
“Did she say pregnant?” she heard a barely audible voice exclaim over the speakers. It sounded like Salli.
“Understood, Lady Melanie,” the drone said. “Lord Rolas appears stable, but I’m going to restrain him to keep his spine from shifting. This tentacle appears to have embedded thorns into his spinal cord, and I don’t want them digging any deeper. While I’m doing that, please take this bottle and drink all its contents.” A panel opened up in the drone’s belly, and she retrieved a plastic liter-sized bottle of liquid. It was colored piss yellow, tasted like lemon flavored window washing fluid, and probably contained plenty of healthy minerals and electrolytes. She dutifully gulped it down as the drone secured Rolas, then pasted sensor pads onto his skin over his mumbled protests.
“I’m still monitoring him, but I want to check on the wazagan,” the drone operator told her. Another panel opened up, and she took out a light headset from it, slipping it on as the drone floated up the stairs. “Please use this to keep in contact with us.”
“Thank you,” she told it. Melanie cleared her throat, “Hello?”
“Hello, Melanie,” she heard Salli speak over the com, “What was that about being pregnant?”
“I’m about seven weeks along,” Melanie repeated, then added. “Rolas knows.” She prudently ignored his muttered, Now I do.
“Congratulations. Mother will be incredibly pleased.”
“Thank you. I rather guessed she would be. So when did you figure out that we’d been lost at sea?”
“We got an alert from our satellite network’s monitoring AI that it had found what appeared to be an A.N.B. message about ninety minutes ago. When we read it and spotted Rolas’ boat foundered on the reef, I had the rescue drone dispatched immediately. Ali should be arriving shortly with a paramedic team in a suborbital shuttle. It launched as soon as the drone confirmed your presence, and should be there in about twenty minutes.”
“Thank you, Salli,” Melanie said, her gratitude entirely genuine. She and Salli might have their differences, but she wasn’t about to fault her sister-in-law’s efficiency.
“Now what’s this about an ardalian being in the bay?” Salli demanded.
“You heard that right. It had four people, two humans, a kinis, and a wazagan enslaved as its puppets, and it wanted to add Rolas and I to its roster. Rolas was captured while leading them away from me, and had one of its puppeteer tentacles inserted into his spinal column. How it got here I have no idea, though I suspect if we ask the right questions to Bloody Margo and her crew in their prison cells, we’d get the answer.”
She heard Salli growl softly in anger. “I am going to the have the ears and tails of the Large Lifeform Survey team delivered to me in a box. They should not have missed this.”
“Don’t be too eager to blame them,” Melanie advised. “The LLS was looking for large oceangoing creatures, not something hiding in a bay.”
“Still, I’m going to give them a stern talking to,” Salli said, her anger slightly abated. “I’m glad you weren’t harmed by that thing, Melanie.”
“I wasn’t, no, but…” She paused, stepping out of earshot of Rolas. Melanie bit her lip briefly and continued, “Rolas, he wasn’t so lucky. The ardalian used his body to try and attack me, after I…” Her voice suddenly caught in her throat. “After I killed three of its puppets, and disabled the fourth.”
There was a pause at Salli’s end, then she said with surprising gentleness, “I know what kind of burden taking a life can place upon one’s shoulders, for myself, and for my heart’s love, Ali. Whatever our disagreements, I will not mock or demean you for this, Melanie.”
“I… thank you, Salli, sincerely, but that wasn’t what I wanted to talk to you about.” She took in a deep breath. “Salli, Rolas was raped by that thing, in body and in mind. You also know what a burden that is.”
The pause this time was much longer. “Yes, I do,” Salli replied softly. “What do you need of me, how can I help?”
“Just be patient with Rolas. As much as he tries to be a dutiful son, there’s a lot of anger and resentment inside him,” Melanie told her.
“You think I’m not aware of this? I’m not blind, Melanie. I know what he can’t have because of his sex, and I know how that has eaten at him.”
“Indeed. I want him to get counseling, just you received therapy and aid from Dr. Quan. We’re probably going to have to fight him over it since, Rolas being Rolas, he’s going to insist he’s fine and doesn’t need any help.”
She could almost hear the wry smile in Salli’s voice as she answered, “I can provide the negative reinforcement if required. Though convincing him to go to counseling just to spite me seems an odd means of persuasion.”
“I’ll accept whatever works, so long as Rolas gets the help he needs,” Melanie told Salli gratefully. She glanced up, as she heard the approach of another aircraft. Spotlights from the underbelly of the suborbital shuttle snapped on, making her blink as the early evening darkness was banished. In a moment the shuttle spotted the dock and landed next to it, rocking in the water as steam hissed around its cooling hull. “Got to go, Salli. It appears our ride out has finally arrived.”
In a matter of seconds the shuttle’s side hatch opened up and Ali popped out. Ah, Melanie thought wryly. In the world of the Red Vixen, there was nothing quite so comforting as seeing that intense little vixen rushing towards a problem, armed to the fangs in clamshell armor and carrying a plasma rifle. Behind her Commander Cannonloader followed, just as heavily, and pointlessly, armed, a pair of paramedics behind them both.
“Milady, are you alright?” Ali demanded. She and Cannonloader both looked down at Rolas’ lying face down, back severely wounded, and gasped in dismay.
“Rollie? Rollie?” Cannonloader demanded, kneeling down in front of Rolas. “Can you hear me?”
“Stop shouting, Dak,” Rolas grumbled, eyes opening briefly. “You’re always so bloody loud.”
“That’s the Rollie I remember,” Cannonloader said, obviously relieved. He glanced briefly up at Melanie, shrugged, and then leaned further down, cupping Rolas’ face in his paws and planting a deep kiss on his muzzle. To Melanie’s quiet delight, after a moment’s frozen surprise, Rolas relaxed into the kiss, even gripping one of Cannonloader’s paws. When they finally broke apart, the Patrol officer said, “I missed that.”
“So did I,” Rolas admitted. Rather belatedly, he looked up at Melanie, ears burning red. “Er…”
“I don’t mind sharing you, dear, just a little at least,” she said with a smile. Melanie dearly hoped Ali had the mission recorder built into her armor and rifle running. She’d want a playback of that kiss for later.
“Dak…” Rolas began to say. Then he stopped, ran his tongue over his lips where Dak had kissed him, then went on. “I’m sorry, for a lot of things.”
“Nothing to be sorry about, Rollie,” the Patrol officer reassured him.
Her husband’s forehead creased in irritation. “For once in your life would you please shut up? I wanted to tell you that I’m sorry I cut myself off from you after you and Jen refused my proposal. I was angry, and upset, and… Well, I was mostly an ass.”
“Nonsense. You have a very fine ass, Rollie,” Cannonloader said with a grin, “I shant have you making negative comparisons about yourself to it.”
Oh yes, Melanie definitely wanted to pull Cannonloader aside for a private chat at the first opportunity.
The paramedic who had followed after the drone returned, following the unit back down as it carried the wazagan in its padded waldos. Ali looked at it, cocking her head as if in recognition.
“Someone you know?” Melanie asked.
“I think… Oh, Mother Goddess! Fahdah?” When the nearly catatonic wazagan failed to respond, Ali switched to its native language, a skill Melanie had only seen her display rarely with the Scarlet Claw’s own wazagan crewfolk. "Fahda? Hal ha'athihi entee?"
The wazagan blinked in surprise, coming up out of its stupor and focusing on her. "Ali-kat? Ha qudd jun'nunt. Fa-entee mutawafia! Fa'alun ana fee jaheem, Fa-entee laa tastahequee an takunee huna, yaa Ali!" it replied in obvious dismay.
"Laa ya Fahda, bull ana a'aysha was entee aydunn. Nahnu huna le inquathek,” Ali told it earnestly.
It shook its head, eyes almost pleading now. "Eth'habee min huna! Hu'naka wahush! Qudd iktashafat Ma'argo ka'in Al-Ardalian! Wa hiya taqtull a'adah'ihaa lahu in lam yaqumoo bi awaa'mirihaa!"
“Shh, shh.” Ali spoke something reassuring, and turned back to Melanie and Cannonloader. “Bloody Margo was using the ardalian as punishment for her crew that got out of line, condemning them to serve as its puppets. Fahdah was one of them.”
“Mother Goddess bless,” Cannonloader said, looking horrified.
Ali worried her lip between her fangs, briefly. “Commander Cannonloader, Lady Melanie, I know Fahdah was one of Bloody Margo’s crew, but she wasn’t like most of them, and she protected me from some of the ones that tried to... “ her voice caught briefly, “...when I was Margo’s slave. She’s a pirate, but… she wasn’t as bad as she could have been.” The plea of Please give her a chance, like I was, was obvious in her voice.
“Give her a chance, Dak,” Rolas spoke up unexpectedly. “I’ve met a pirate or two like that.“ He looked up at Melanie, and smiled.
When she reached down to grip his paw, he held it tight.
* * *
Three days later Rolas had recovered sufficiently from the surgery to remove the ardalian’s nerve thorns from his spine that he was up to seeing visitors. Melanie stood up from her chair beside Rolas’ float bed as Cannonloader and Salli entered, the red furred Patrol officer smiling broadly, her sister-in-law looking more subdued.
“You’re looking better, Rollie,” she said.
“Feh! I have to lay in this thing any longer I’m going to get spacesick,” Rolas grumbled somewhat perfunctorily, as he hung in mid-air.
“You can’t put any pressure on your back until you’ve healed more,” Melanie told him. “Listen to your doctors or you’ll end up in here even longer.”
“Yes, dear,” Rolas sighed. He turned his attention to his sister. “What news do you have about our ardie problem, Salli?”
“Ms. Fahdah has sufficiently recovered her senses that she can speak without us having to use a translator,” Salli told them. “She confirmed what she told Alinadar, that Bloody Margo somehow nabbed a larval ardalian while visiting the ardie homeworld and set it in that bay to serve as negative reinforcement should one of her crew get the idea of disobeying orders. The survey department dropped a modified sonobuoy into the bay to chat with it using the normal mode of ardie communication.”
Cannonloader took up the thread of the report. “Near as we can determine, given it’s been sitting in that bay since adolescence, none of its own kind to talk to, and no visits even from Bloody Margo for two years before the pair of you showed up, it’s utterly mad, even by ardie standards.”
“Well, I’m sure it’ll appreciate being taken back to Ardala then,” Salli said.
Melanie raised an eyebrow. “That’s an expensive proposition. You’ll have to build a small shuttle port on the island just to land a ship large enough to take it aboard.”
Salli glared at her. “After what that thing did my brother, I want it off my planet. Expense is not a consideration. I’ll take it from my personal purse if need be.” She smiled a little ironically. “Besides, I have to get Rolas’ boat out of there too.”
“My boat isn’t important,” Rolas said, taking Melanie’s paw in his own and giving it a squeeze.
“It’s yours, Rolas,” Salli said. “I know how you love it. If it’s at all salvageable we’ll have it raised and repaired.”
“I… thank you, Salli.” Rolas blinked rapidly, eyes tearing up. “Sorry,” he muttered. “It’s all the drugs…” He shook his head, seeming to catch himself. “Dak, I’m sorry, but I need to speak to Salli and Melanie privately for a moment.”
“Of course, Rollie.” Dak reached over and rubbed Rolas’ ears briefly before leaving the room. An old expression of fondness, if Melanie was any judge, at least going by long suffering eyeroll her husband gave the Patrol officer.
She shut the door quietly behind him. “All right, Rolas. What’s on your mind?”
He glanced at her briefly, saying, “This is mostly for Salli’s benefit. But I think you deserve to hear it as well, given the conversation we had, um, before the storm hit Windskimmer.”
“I’m listening, Rolas,” Salli assured him. Melanie nodded in agreement.
Rolas cleared his throat. “Salli, this isn’t easy for me to say, especially after everything you have gone through in your life, but… for the longest time, I hated you.”
Salli seemed to become very, very still. It reminded Melanie uncomfortably of how the noblevixen had acted before beginning her counseling sessions with Dr. Quan, when she still feared expressing any emotion, having been taught the dangers of it by her late, unlamented ex-husband. “Why?” she said softly.
“I hated you for being a vixen, for being the Heir, for being Greenholme’s governor, for getting so much attention after suffering under…” His voice cracked. “I’m sorry. I didn’t understand what kind of pain you endured. When that ardie took control of me, I lost all control of my body. It used me to attack Melanie, and when it did I couldn’t stop it, couldn't even scream. I was so utterly helpless.” Despite all the drugs that had to be running through his system, Rolas began to shake. “I didn’t understand, Salli. You have to believe me, Salli, I didn’t.”
“Rolas,” Salli began, taking one his paws in her own, while Melanie took the other, “my pain was my own. I never wanted anything like it to be inflicted upon you for the sake of mere enlightenment. I never wanted you to feel lessened because of me. There is nothing to forgive.”
He nodded, rubbing the back of his palm across his eyes. “Thank you, Salli.”
She smiled. “Though if you truly wish to make amends, convince Melanie to name one of her cubs after me.”
“Sorry, Ali had first dibs,” Melanie told her cheerfully. “Maybe next time.”
“I certainly can’t argue with that. Speaking of which, I need to start tugging tails to arrange for the removal of that ardie. I’ll leave you two for now.” Salli bowed to them both and left the room, closing the door behind her.
Rolas let his head fall back. “Melanie, next time I have the bright idea of taking you on a sailing trip, please feel free to stun me until I get over it.’
“Rolas, I’d like to go sailing with you again,” she reassured him.
He looked at her curiously. “You would?”
“Yes, in about seven months, after I pop these cubs out. Preferably on an ocean on Foxen Prime, where we can eat the fish if we get shipwrecked again.”
“It’s a deal,” he agreed.
“One thing though.” She grinned. “Next time I tie you to the mast, make sure we’re safely docked first.”
“Agreed,” he said, just before she kissed him.
