Fix: Arc, (Concluded)
Jan. 20th, 2010 08:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalThe end, at last.
They slipped her out the back of the conference centre where the hearings were taking place, into a car that whisked her to small aerospace port on the edge of the capitol, where an atmospheric passenger flyer flew her back to Brushtail Domain. There was another car waiting to her back to her home in the Northeast Sector, a little round tower house halfway up a rocky hillside, off the main speederways, off the feeder routes, until all you had was a gravel covered track hard to find, under a cover of old growth trees.
It was land that no one else would want, unless for farming, too rough to flatten for industry. So it had been given to the survivors of the Arc, who weren’t really wanted either. They had made it their own though, over two thousand of them, the rest scattered through Vulpine space and elsewhere. The ones that had survived that is.
She trudged up the steep gravel driveway to her house, pausing halfway up to sit down on a boulder and tap out a cigarette from the pack she habitually kept in the pocket of her bolero. She snapped off the tip and let the self-lighting element heat up the tobacco. Then she took a long draw and blew the smoke out of her nostrils, leaning back on the boulder to look up at the stars coming out in the early evening sky, feeling every one of her seventy-three years.
Smoking was a very human vice, and even they didn’t really practice it that often. Among vulpine it was nearly unheard of. Never mind having to get your lungs cleaned out every two years or so to prevent cancer, it also killed a vulpine’s delicate sense of smell. Whitepelt had long since given up trying to explain to others how she needed to kill it, to keep from being overwhelmed by the smells and sensations of a green, living world. A world she hadn’t been born in, had never been comfortable in.
She stubbed out the cigarette on the side of the boulder and finished her climb back up to her house. She’d just reached the verandah when the lights of a skimmer started to climb up the driveway, humming almost silently to stop in front of her house. Whitepelt looked at in suspicion, hoping it wasn’t some idiot reporter wanting to talk to her, then starting wishing it was a reporter when her son Artineth climbed out of the skimmer. He was still dressed in his marine fatigues, having apparently driven here straight from his base, over two hundred kilometers away.
“It’s late, Artie,” she said, leaning against the verandah’s railing. “Shouldn’t you be home with your family?”
“Meribeth is watching the cubs. She agreed I should come straight here. Sis probably will as well when the newscasts finally catch up with her on Avela,” he said. His ears and tail were quivering from the effort to keep them still, hiding a wave of righteous anger no doubt.
Well, she didn’t have to listen to that. “I’m sorry you came all this way then for nothing,” she said. “Your mum is all right, boy. No need to dash over now after staying away for fifteen years.”
“I didn’t stay away, you pulled yourself down into a hole!”
“Doesn't matter. You have a family now. A good life. No need to have your crazy old mother hanging about.”
“You're not crazy, Mum. But...” He paced back and forth in front of her, tail swishing in agitation. “You never told me any of that!”
“Yes I did,” she said.
“You told me and Sis, and I quote, “You father and I were raised on a Dominion space station. We got off with the help of a couple members of the Resistance and settled here after the war.” I think you may have left just one or two details out!”
“I told you the bits that mattered. The rest wasn't exactly something you could bring up in polite conversation.”
“So you decided to wait until you were on a live, planet-wide newscast to do it?”
“I didn't have much choice in that. They supeonaed me after all.”
“Dammit Mum! I grew up thinking my mother had to be the bloody weirdest vixen on Vulpine Prime!”
“Better thinking she was weird than knowing she was a murderer,” she said mildly.
“You didn't kill all those vulpine, the Dominion did.”
“I led them to their fates, knowing that it was all part of Society Shaper's plan.”
“You couldn't have possibly have known what they were going to do.”
“Whether or not I did, I betrayed them nonetheless.”
Artineth cocked his head. “Is that why you pushed Sis and I away? Because you were afraid you were going to hurt us too?”
“Not exactly.” She started to tap out another cigarette nervously, until an irritated look from her son made her push it back into its pack. “I know I wasn't a good mother to you two. I was strange, I didn't know how to raise a child properly. But I knew the sooner you and your sister left home, the better the chances you had to make a life for yourselves, among normal vulpine. Vulpine that didn't have as much blood on their hands as I did.”
“Oh, Mum. You did all right.” Artineth came closer and finally gave her a hug. She hugged him back carefully. Yet another skill she'd learned, afterward. "You know you've got grandchildren who'd like to see you, right?”
“You think so?” she asked.
“I know so. I can even take you down to see them tomorrow. My CO has given me two days leave.”
“All right, I'd like that.” She let go of him and asked, “Would you like to come inside and have some tea first?”
He blinked in surprise. “Since when did you have any idea how to make tea?”
She shrugged. “I'm learning, son. I'm learning.”
The End
They slipped her out the back of the conference centre where the hearings were taking place, into a car that whisked her to small aerospace port on the edge of the capitol, where an atmospheric passenger flyer flew her back to Brushtail Domain. There was another car waiting to her back to her home in the Northeast Sector, a little round tower house halfway up a rocky hillside, off the main speederways, off the feeder routes, until all you had was a gravel covered track hard to find, under a cover of old growth trees.
It was land that no one else would want, unless for farming, too rough to flatten for industry. So it had been given to the survivors of the Arc, who weren’t really wanted either. They had made it their own though, over two thousand of them, the rest scattered through Vulpine space and elsewhere. The ones that had survived that is.
She trudged up the steep gravel driveway to her house, pausing halfway up to sit down on a boulder and tap out a cigarette from the pack she habitually kept in the pocket of her bolero. She snapped off the tip and let the self-lighting element heat up the tobacco. Then she took a long draw and blew the smoke out of her nostrils, leaning back on the boulder to look up at the stars coming out in the early evening sky, feeling every one of her seventy-three years.
Smoking was a very human vice, and even they didn’t really practice it that often. Among vulpine it was nearly unheard of. Never mind having to get your lungs cleaned out every two years or so to prevent cancer, it also killed a vulpine’s delicate sense of smell. Whitepelt had long since given up trying to explain to others how she needed to kill it, to keep from being overwhelmed by the smells and sensations of a green, living world. A world she hadn’t been born in, had never been comfortable in.
She stubbed out the cigarette on the side of the boulder and finished her climb back up to her house. She’d just reached the verandah when the lights of a skimmer started to climb up the driveway, humming almost silently to stop in front of her house. Whitepelt looked at in suspicion, hoping it wasn’t some idiot reporter wanting to talk to her, then starting wishing it was a reporter when her son Artineth climbed out of the skimmer. He was still dressed in his marine fatigues, having apparently driven here straight from his base, over two hundred kilometers away.
“It’s late, Artie,” she said, leaning against the verandah’s railing. “Shouldn’t you be home with your family?”
“Meribeth is watching the cubs. She agreed I should come straight here. Sis probably will as well when the newscasts finally catch up with her on Avela,” he said. His ears and tail were quivering from the effort to keep them still, hiding a wave of righteous anger no doubt.
Well, she didn’t have to listen to that. “I’m sorry you came all this way then for nothing,” she said. “Your mum is all right, boy. No need to dash over now after staying away for fifteen years.”
“I didn’t stay away, you pulled yourself down into a hole!”
“Doesn't matter. You have a family now. A good life. No need to have your crazy old mother hanging about.”
“You're not crazy, Mum. But...” He paced back and forth in front of her, tail swishing in agitation. “You never told me any of that!”
“Yes I did,” she said.
“You told me and Sis, and I quote, “You father and I were raised on a Dominion space station. We got off with the help of a couple members of the Resistance and settled here after the war.” I think you may have left just one or two details out!”
“I told you the bits that mattered. The rest wasn't exactly something you could bring up in polite conversation.”
“So you decided to wait until you were on a live, planet-wide newscast to do it?”
“I didn't have much choice in that. They supeonaed me after all.”
“Dammit Mum! I grew up thinking my mother had to be the bloody weirdest vixen on Vulpine Prime!”
“Better thinking she was weird than knowing she was a murderer,” she said mildly.
“You didn't kill all those vulpine, the Dominion did.”
“I led them to their fates, knowing that it was all part of Society Shaper's plan.”
“You couldn't have possibly have known what they were going to do.”
“Whether or not I did, I betrayed them nonetheless.”
Artineth cocked his head. “Is that why you pushed Sis and I away? Because you were afraid you were going to hurt us too?”
“Not exactly.” She started to tap out another cigarette nervously, until an irritated look from her son made her push it back into its pack. “I know I wasn't a good mother to you two. I was strange, I didn't know how to raise a child properly. But I knew the sooner you and your sister left home, the better the chances you had to make a life for yourselves, among normal vulpine. Vulpine that didn't have as much blood on their hands as I did.”
“Oh, Mum. You did all right.” Artineth came closer and finally gave her a hug. She hugged him back carefully. Yet another skill she'd learned, afterward. "You know you've got grandchildren who'd like to see you, right?”
“You think so?” she asked.
“I know so. I can even take you down to see them tomorrow. My CO has given me two days leave.”
“All right, I'd like that.” She let go of him and asked, “Would you like to come inside and have some tea first?”
He blinked in surprise. “Since when did you have any idea how to make tea?”
She shrugged. “I'm learning, son. I'm learning.”
The End
