Star City Aftermath

[Xenoqueen]

Well, I couldn't just leave Gavin where he was at the end of the massacre, and Gayle/Cacopheny wanted some RP goodness of her own after having to miss out, so we're playing around a little bit over email.

I thought people might be interested in reading along with my half of what goes on. I seem to recall that dear Gavin had some fans among the Nexus back in the day, so if any of you are still around, perhaps this will interest you. :)

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Things gradually started to fade back in, though it was hard to tell at first. Gavin's mind was an aching bedlam throwing so many images at him that he didn't know what was real and what was recent memory stuck on instant replay, or which were his own and which were coming from outside. He could still see her, the invading queen, and he could still see the device in her hands that she could have pulled straight out of old nightmares. He still saw himself rushing headlong, leaping over the algae pools and across the resined walls, both his voices screaming defiance as he tore into her with his claws even as he heard the distant, muffled, sickening explosion, even as they started tumbling towards the empty vacuum of space.

Something pricked high on his arm, above the transition to his cyborware, and that felt real. There was a sizzling sound and a spat curse, and those sounded real, too.

"Treated needles, I said treated needles!" someone exclaimed close by, as Gavin tried to open his eyes. "This is Minister Vance; he bleeds the same way those xenos do! And get me more alkali!"

There was a flurry of activity around him, he discovered, prying open his eyelids. It was indistinct at first, until his implants started to focus. He smelled blood and sterilizers and all the unpleasant odors that told him he was in one of the emergency medical bivouacs that had been set up around the city to handle the never-ending injuries of those fighting the invading xenodragons. It wasn't the first time he'd been on one of these cots inside of a tented dome, aware of his hive rushing his way from all over the station, if they weren't already milling defensively outside the hastily-erected barriers. It was, however, the first time he'd felt so weak and could smell so much of his own acrid blood.

The elevator shaft. Tumbling down the shaft, caught in the suction of outer space, trapped in melee with an enemy queen and resigned to die. That was why the end felt so near -- and it would have arrived if not for those who had dove into the fray and torn both his selves away at the last minute.

The medic leaning over him, ordering others around, looked too young for the rank on his security gear. The only thing old about the dusky-skinned humanoid was the strain and exhaustion around his eyes. "Brenner," Gavin tried to say, picking out his nametag, then louder when the first was just a croak. "Brenner. How's my city?"

Medical Staff Sergeant Brenner glanced down at him without pausing in affixing a new, Gavin-proof needle to an IV line. The fluid in the bag it was attached to wasn't a normal red blood, but had the slight iridescence of a magicked universal donor. "City's still hanging in there, Commander. Mighty glad you are too, sir. Both of you, sir."

Gavin followed the other half of his thoughts, as Brenner affixed the new IV high in his arm, and found Gavess not far away at all. His alter-self was curled on the floor nearby, atop an acidproof tarp. Hekoto had gotten herself inside the bivouac and the little drone was flitting around him, spreading resin over his wounds while the bigger black xeno lay there as weakly as Gavin himself. Good girl, he thought at her, and she creeled back at him with concern and affection.

He sagged back into the cot as Brenner tended to him, calling for all kinds of specialized tools and compounds, but was surprisingly uncurious about the extent of his injuries. The enemy queen was out of his city. His city was still standing. Everything after that was secondary.

His hive enveloped his thoughts, their minds never away from his, though he sensed that several had yet to physically arrive at the bivouac. Only his royal guard, Retejoss, was not en route, commanded as he had been to guard their vacu-locked home with Kalaia inside -- and the praetorian was fretting desperately that the one time he'd been away from Gavin, his queen had been faced with the greatest threat of his hive-bonded life... and survived it only due to the intervention of others.

Gavin's body felt at a disconnect as Brenner and his team cycled around the Minister, applying stitches or grafts or spells or God knew what else, so he focused on reconnecting his mind again. It had been a long time since he'd lashed out with such raw power and things felt strained. His hive helped him, cradled him, anxious about his instability and slow to come out of the frantic terror brought on by his near-loss. Richyluc was near, watchful and wary, as were Rudess and Jugiss, the trembling of the former's usual stolidness saying everything while the latter gnashed her broken-glass thoughts in frustration. Renoss wasn't too far now, bowling things and people over in his desperation to arrive, with Elenass struggling to keep up with him; Qess and Ytoss finally took down an enemy drone disoriented by the loss of its queen and started Gavin's way; Makoss and Ujuboen hurried silently through shadows to join him; Vluhlenda was arriving now and so were Igess and Nonryph because--

"Let me in."

--they were with Keren.

"Officer Tenat--" The protest was unsteady, its voicer clearly nervous.

"I said. Let. Me. In."

"He better let her in," Gavin remarked softly. Brenner arched a brow but kept working.

"I'm not allowed," Nervous continued. "He's not stabilized, the doctors--"

The protests ended with a soft squeak, followed by the flapping of the tent door and Keren's heavy tread. Gavin felt Vluhlenda slip in behind her; like Hekoto, the small entrance did not halt him.

"Told you," Gavin murmured, making to lift a hand and found he was short a hand to lift. His leftside cyborware ended at the forearm now, a mangled wreck of dangling wires and half-detached parts that twitched when he tried to move. Dazed as he was, Gavin took this in stride, and Gavess churred a weak greeting instead.

Brenner glanced back, noted the many bars Keren's shoulders bore nowadays, and did not protest. One didn't get that rank by causing trouble, not even someone with close ties to the Minister.

Keren got around to where she could look at him without being the way of the medics, with Vluhlenda shadowing her. "Forgive me for saying so, sir, but you look like hell."

That practiced blend of mockery and diffidence caused a flash of silvered grin. Did it say something about him that his best officers weren't shy about speaking freely, with or without permission? "Should see the other guy... girl... queen," he answered, though he thought maybe his voice wasn't carrying too far. "She's been spaced. Serves her right, fffff... fucking with my city."

Vluhlenda hissed, stalking around the ring of busy medics to the head of Gavin's cot, where the warrior then settled, pressing his domed snout lightly to the crown of the man's head.

"She's gone," Gavin assured him, eyes closed peaceably at the contact. "Nothing now but cleanup."

"And a very long, very boring convalescence," Keren stated firmly. "Where you have plenty of time to explain to me just what convinced you that dirty talk like that was something that oughta be coming out of your mouth. Sir."

"The queen," Gavin answered, piecing the images back together in his mind. His hive watched closely and with great agitation as he reconstructed the enemy and what she had said, what she had done. The man was unaware of how he tensed, himself, digging his remaining fingers into the cot as over on his tarp, Gavess shared it in and began to move restlessly, hissing through his teeth.

"Oi, that was a joke, not a request for you to freak out on me," Keren cut in quickly.

Making nervous little noises, Hekoto cuddled up to the black xenomorph's shoulder and nuzzled at his neck. Simultaneously, Vluhlenda curled the long fingers of one hand over Gavin's scowling brow. After a moment, both human-queen and alter-self relaxed.

Brenner was left hovering with a heavy dose of tranquilizer in one hand, clearly debating whether to still administer it. Finally he put the syringe back down, but left it loaded and in easy reach.

Keren hmphed at him. "That's better. If you're going to start stirring yourself up again, sir, I might have to leave, and I don't want that."

Gavin opened his eyes as if from a dream, which wasn't a completely wrong comparison, and Vluhlenda removed his hand. The man's gaze drifted back to Keren and though it was no less glazed from exhaustion, it was a little quizzical, too. The part of him that was human was very aware that those human-bits got stranger and stranger as time wore on, and though it had ceased to bother him, there were still times when he was surprised that Keren still hung around, shared bond with Igess or no shared bond with Igess. A private little part of him kept waiting for the day when she'd finally decide he'd embraced his queen-self too closely and bonded one xenomorph too many, and demand that private dragoner suite he'd offered to procure for her more than once. For some reason, it still hadn't happened yet.

But he was too exhausted and injured and mind-muddled to be introspective for long, flashing more silver fang and letting his own little bit of drollness off its leash again. "Yes, dear."

"That's right, act like I'm the nagging fishwife," she replied dryly. "Long's it keeps you from pumping out any more of that sizzly blood of yours, you can do whatever the hell you want to. And I'll keep from punching you, this time. Since you're hurt, and all."

Igess tried to bubble something in his head about Keren really really never ever ever going anywhere, really, but it was only so much background noise, nothing he hadn't gotten from the warrior before.

"Lucky me, all the abuse and none of the benefits," he sighed, an irresistible (in his state of mind, or lack thereof) but most definitely facetious jibe. Even so, a couple of the medics looked a little like they were wondering if they needed to plug their ears or something. Not Brenner, though. He kept working away like Gavin's life depended on it.

…right.

Perhaps helped along by all the old taunts, a little bit of strain seemed to be going out of Keren. She'd entered the tent with her hands clasped behind her, but now took on her far more usual stance instead, crossing her arms over her chest. "Now, sir, don't go scaring the kiddies," she chided him patronizingly. "Wouldn't want them getting the wrong idea. Or sticking needles where they don't belong, for that matter."

His existing hand flopped up off his cot for a moment, the closest he could get to a flippant wave of dismissal. "Already woke up getting jabbed with the wrong kind. Went sizz and everything."

Another young medic, Brenner's age but lacking the Staff Sergeant's aged-around-the-eyes look, went distinctly pale.

"Want me to feed him to your hive, sir?" Brenner asked blandly, while wrapping specially-treated bandages around finished areas.

"No need…probably only give them indigestion."

"Hell, that weren't even a particularly scary comment," Keren pointed out, eyeing the medic that clearly was somehow to blame for non-acid-proof tools being present in a medical tent in which Gavin, infamously xeno-touched, was the only patient "The part about feeding was much scarier. Especially after how hard we worked to convince them that people weren't for eating."

Before the poor young fellow could start stammering apologies or messing up his work or just fleeing the tent in shame and humiliation, Keren let him off the hook by focusing on Brenner and changing the subject. "How's he doing, then? I assume he's gonna live, or you'd have kicked me out by now."

"Or I just knew that kicking you out would take more time than the commander could afford," Brenner responded, a smirk briefly tweaking his mouth. Keren was as infamous for her attitude as Gavin was for his hive. "But as bad as he looks, it's his other half that took the brunt of the damage." He motioned at Gavess, now thoroughly coated with Hekoto's brand of bandaging and with the drone herself playing pillow to the black xeno's weary head. "And," Brenner went on, "we're lucky in that there's one more thing the commander has in common with the xenotypes: he's notoriously hard to kill."

"Good thing, too," Keren muttered.

"Which reminds me," Gavin murmured, apropos of nothing, as things faded a little once again. "Medals. Officer Neisan Mei'Rhakarndi. He needs a medal. And the other one, if I can find out who he was…. Don't think she'd want one, though. Called me a ninny."

"I'll make a note of it, sir," Keren answered with a little cough. "We'll have to track down these other folks for you, but I'll make sure somebody does."

"Very good," Gavin softly approved, gazing up at the tented ceiling with mental eyes turned inward. "Officer Neisan…and another of the yautjas, but not a local, I think. Ah, Rhakarndi would know. Had her along today. And the third was the other-other queen. Snowy-marked, some kind of mutant. A medal's pitiful thanks, but…."

A mournful sound went through the hivemind, quietly echoed in Hekoto's and Vluhlenda's throats and even, to the keen ear, in those of the hive milling around the bivouac. The regret that they had not been where Gavin needed them would never fade. The sound came as Gavin looked towards Keren for a moment, expression faintly rueful. "I'm not that notorious. Those three get the credit today."

"You're gonna hafta get some, sir," she warned. "People've been talking about how all xeno-critters are evil ever since this started. We gotta let out that you had a hand in stopping this queen, even if we don't say you did it single-handed."

Gavin closed his eyes with a little sound that wasn't exactly amused, but went along with his tired regret. He spoke as if there was no one else around to hear but Keren, as Brenner knew how to be part of the scenery and had let most of his assistants retreat, now that all he was doing was touch-up.

"You misunderstand. We'll need a dozen, two dozen medals for the ones that stopped her. Those three…stopped me."

"From making a splatter of yourself on the walls?" Keren guessed sourly. It was hardly a difficult deduction to make. "Tell me the story later, sir. You look about ready to pass out again, and you don't gotta get worked up. I'll hunt down names. I'm sure the hive'll be able to help, until you wake up again and can be more specific."

"A long, boring convalescence," Gavin recalled aloud, even though he knew such things were rarely granted to people in positions like his. The enemy queen was dead, but things were far from over. Nevertheless…sometimes it was nice to pretend otherwise, only for a moment. "There's benefits to having you around after all."

"You'd better believe it," she agreed, a tone in her voice suggesting a wolfish grin. "You rest up, sir. We'll get you moved home soon as it's safe to. I'll be back in a couple of hours," she said then, directed at Brenner. "I'm gonna see what kind of mess he left to clean up."

"It's a doozy," Gavin warned, already starting to drift. The hive approved of the idea of resting and that was a lot of encouraging minds that he really had no reason to countermand. He didn't want to, either. Both his bodies were exhausted.

"We'll see you then, sir," Brenner was agreeing. "He'll be here when you get back."

Yes…yes, he would be. Something for which Gavin was plenty grateful. Willingness to die didn't mean wanting to die, after all.

[Cacopheny]

Might as well have the other half, too. Since I don't have anywhere else to post it, really X3

~~~~~

It'd been a long few weeks, waging war against xenodragons all over the gods-damned station. Keren was so ready for a vacation. Even Nekeress was worn down and her sniping at her bond and the grown burster-xenos currently trailing along with them was half-hearted, at best.

The fact that even Nonryph was sniping back at her-- with teeth, as much as unfocused, wordless thoughts-- said that the bursters were just as tired.

The bursters were restless today, edgy on top of exhausted, but then, they didn't get the privilege of being with Gavin today, getting only second-best in the people-part of the hive, so it wasn't really much of a surprise. Gavin was off with Gavess-- who still made her a little uncomfortable-- killing things, anyway, so Nonryph wouldn't have been having much fun with him. Nonryph was along this time mostly for support and survey, since he wasn't a lot of use in a fight, the big baby. Igess was a good foot-soldier, though, and given the both of them came as a pair-- and she could actually efficiently communicate with both of them, despite lacking access to that Royals-forsaken hive mind of the Minister's-- it just made sense to have Nonryph along.

Keren Tenat rode on Nekeress's back as they patrolled, this time. Sometimes she'd walk, or drive on one of the little two-wheeled speeders she liked when she couldn't have her old mech, or even catch a ride on Igess for a little while. It had been quiet in her part of the station for the past hour, and as exhausted and bored as she was-- and as dependent on the other xenos for their warnings as she'd become, apparently-- she was drifting a little. Not asleep, but certainly distracted. Sometimes she still caught flashes of what Gavin was up to, and just then she got images of stalking and new additions to the hive.

:Great,: Nekeress grumbled at the mental image of the fuchsia creature the Minister had apparently picked up. :We're a gods-cursed rainbow.: Tenat, used to such comments, ignored her. At least Nekeress included herself in the "we", now, after years of being tied to that hive, even if she wasn't "queen" exactly. At least she was the biggest.

It was a good thing she was on Nekeress this time, it seemed, because, the next thing she picked up, not too much later, was enough to send her reeling, and send Igess and Nonryph screeching and swarming up around Nekeress, who stopped short and growled. Something, someone, had delivered Gavin the kind of mental blow Tenat remembered getting once or twice, herself, before Gavin had gotten the training to keep his mind where it belonged. It was enough to leave her head ringing and her heart quailing with the kind of fear Gavin and his hive were feeling. It had been a long time since she'd gotten that strong a feeling from the hivemind, through Igess and Nonryph, and it took her a moment to disentangle herself from it.

"It's okay," she told Nekeress roughly. "I'm okay."

:No you're not,: Nekeress snarked. :And it's his fault!:

Swatting at her neck, Tenat got her attention down on the burster xenodragons huddling under Nekeress's shadow. "You. Stop that," she told them, still trying to get herself back under control. Unsurprisingly, they ignored her, though Igess did stretch up towards her, and Nekeress, much more surprisingly, crouched down so she could hug the beast's head reassuringly. "We'll find him. C'mon."

That seemed to be enough to snap them out of it a little, and Nekeress spread her wings, ready to take off as soon as she knew which way to go. Igess, shaking the stupor off a little, at least, started running-- towards his queen, Nonryph and Nekeress close behind.

Of course, by the time they reached him, it was way too late to do anything. He'd shaken off the fear, gone into some kind of berserk rage-- that had been crazy; for once, Tenat was trying to keep some kind of channel open, and that had been... yeah, crazy-- and then passed out, which only freaked out Igess and Nonryph even more. The trail led to a medivac, one of many set up all around the station for emergency healings and surgeries, mostly for fellow security officers. Several of the hive were already there-- not, from the looks of it, Retejoss, who was holed up with Kalaia, guarding her. But several of the others: she caught Jugiss's eye-blinding blue and Ruchyluc's glow, but she really wasn't paying them a lot of attention. Nekeress bowled them out of the way, snarling warningly, so Tenat could hop down.

Rudess caught her as she almost fell, and she patted the big beast's forelimb gratefully before pushing her way, several of the other xenos on her heels, towards the magical and plastic-fabric barrier keeping them out.

There was a low-level security medic standing by the "entrance" to the tented, magicked dome, looking decidedly nervous. At the sight of Tenat, with or without her entourage she imagined, he paled and swallowed. She probably looked as scary as they did, with her face hard and her several bars of rank on each shoulder. In the years since first being hired, she'd risen a lot higher than "rookie", xenos or no xenos.

"Let me in," she ordered. Loudly.

"Officer Tenat--"

"I said. Let. Me. In."

"I'm not allowed, he's not stabilized, the doctors--"

Unwilling to listen to any more, Tenat grabbed him by the front of the shirt, picked him up, and set him aside. The small door kept out most of the xenos in her wake, but little Vluhlenda managed to duck in behind her, at least. This tent held only the Minister, his black xeno alter-ego on one of the acid-proof tarps that'd been made for just such occasions, and several doctors-- plus Hekoto, who had apparently taken on Gavess's treatment, herself, spreading resin over his wounds.

And there were plenty of doctors in there, all swarming around the hospital cot Gavin lay on. From the discarded mess of plastic and metal, they'd forgotten, at first, about his acidic blood. Tenat recognized Brenner as one of the doctors, and returned his glance with an expressionless nod, and leaned around to get a look at the Minister, her hands clasped behind her and Vluhlenda looking over her shoulder.

She kind of wished she hadn't. He was bleeding sluggishly all over the damned place, half his left arm was gone and twitching with wires, and and he looked... dazed. When had been the last time she'd seen him anything but collected? Probably the last time he'd hooked himself more xenos, actually, which had been ages ago, it felt like.

:Not anymore,: Nekeress said sourly, eying the snake-like bursters who accompanied the hive that was already there. :Since he picked himself up a couple more.:

Gavin tried to lift a hand-- his missing one-- but it didn't do more than lift an inch or two and twitch there before dropping back down, but hey, at least he was looking at her and recognized her. Gavess churred a greeting, instead.

"Forgive me for saying so, sir, but you look like hell," Tenat told him, with a practiced levening of mockery to her diffidence. They were friends, after all, and polite to her boss she might be, she still took that license now and then.

Somehow or another, the man grinned. It was brief, and shiny-- sometime over the course of his little issue with Gavess, he'd gotten silver teeth-- and he said, hoarse and soft and definitely dazed-sounding, "Should see the other guy... girl... queen. She's been spaced. Serves her right, fff... fucking with my city."

Tenat stared. Halfway between shocked and amused, she wanted to comment on the rarity of Gavin Vance cussing, but Vluhlenda got in the way, hissing and stalking stalking around to the head of his bed-- making at least one of the doc's visibly nervous-- to rest his domed head against the Minister's slightly less domed one. Gavin closed his eyes. "She's gone. Nothing now but clean-up."

"And a very long, very boring convalescence," Tenat agreed. Firmly. Because after this, the Minister was spending a lot of time far, far away from anything that could cut him to ribbons again. "Where you have plenty of time to explain to me just what convinced you that dirty talk like that was something that oughta be coming out of your mouth. Sir." There, she got her dig in. Joking a little was, she imagined, the best way to keep anyone from freaking out. Because it was certainly possible that someone would be freaking out here, including her.

"The queen," Gavin answered, tensing up almost immediately. Even Gavess, across the tent-room from them, shifted and hissed through his teeth.

"Oi, that was a joke, not a request for you to freak out on me," Tenat said quickly, as Hekoto, making worried little noises, cuddled up to Gavess and Vluhlenda petted Gavin's forehead-- and Brenner held up a syringe, obviously debating using it. It was probably a sedative of some sort.

Gavin relaxed on his own, at least, and Tenat made a hmphing noise. "That's better. If you're going to start stirring yourself up again, sir, I might have to leave, and I don't want that."

The look he have her once he opened his eyes again and found her with them was... questioning, at least briefly, until he gathered up enough wit to give her his favorite little bit of drollness: "Yes, dear." Tenat didn't have the faintest idea what he was supposedly asking in that moment, of course--

--until Igess helpfully filled her in, of course. Stupid beast, thinking nobody needed any private thoughts. Tenat shot him a little arrow of annoyance, even though she knew the neuter warrior shared that train of thought as much out of his own fear as anything of Gavin's. But she also tend him the solid sense that she wasn't going anywhere, even if her Minister and friend got weirder by the day, seemed like. Who would remind him he was still at least partly human, if not her? Not Kalaia, since she loved the weird and freaky probably more than the human. Besides, if she gave up on him, and took that private dragoner suite he'd offered, Kalaia would be heartbroken.

Let Igess share that, if he was so hells-bent focused on sharing.

"That's right, act like I'm the nagging fishwife," she replied dryly. "Long's it keeps you from pumping out any more of that sizzly blood of yours, you can do whatever the hell you want to. And I'll keep from punching you, this time. Since you're hurt, and all." Not that she ever punched him hard. Even if she'd wanted to, those metal arms could hurt.

"Lucky me, all the abuse and none of the benefits," he sighed, a jibe she'd heard before, too, in his rare more relaxed moments, but one that didn't got old. Especially since it made other people look at them sidelong, including a couple of the doctors who were less distractable than good old Brenner. Since neither of them were particularly interested in sex, it amused Tenat to no end that so many people-- whether or not they were joking around-- thought they were having sex with each other. Most of the force didn't believe it, of course, but anyone outside, who didn't know the two of them, at least thought of it once or twice.

As much as she respected and, yes, loved the prissy xeno-minded bastard, it wasn't that way.

Relaxing enough-- if he was joking with her, he wasn't dying, and he did seem to be losing less blood now, thanks to Brenner and his assistants-- to unclasp her hands and fold her arms across her chest, Tenat said patronizingly, "Now, sir, don't go scaring the kiddies. Wouldn't want them getting the wrong idea. Or sticking needles where they don't belong, for that matter." Startling people with sharp instruments was, admittedly, usually a bad idea. Especially when they were busy saving your life.

She was so going to get this story. Once thinking about it didn't start him hemorrhaging, again.

He flopped his hand at her-- his, er, remaining hand-- in the best dismissive wave he could manage at the moment. "Already woke up getting jabbed with the wrong kind. Went sizz and everything."

To Tenat's amusement, one of the younger medics paused in his work and went distinctly pale, and she rolled her eyes. Brenner was even less impressed. "Want me to feed him to your hive, sir?" he asked blandly, working on wrapping up some of the stitched-up areas with the specially-treated bandages they used on xenos and, well, Gavin.

"No need... probably only give them indigestion," was the Minister's response. Only it was hard to keep up thinking of him as the Minister when he was so... laid-back and floppy-looking, talking almost like he was twenty instead of almost more than twice that. And bleeding, though that was definitely less than it was. He was definitely just Gavin at the moment.

"Hell, that weren't even a particularly scary comment," Tenat pointed out, eying the kid. Brenner wasn't much older, but he took things so much more in stride. Was he new, or something? "The part about feeding was much scarier. Especially after how hard we worked to convince them that people weren't for eating." Okay, now she was just being mean, and it probably wasn't a good idea to be mean to the people stitching up her boss-buddy. Nekeress was seriously rubbing off on her. Ugh.

"How's he doing, then?" she asked, changing the subject, and focusing on Brenner. "I assume he's gonna live, or you'd have kicked me out by now."

"Or I just knew that kicking him out would take more time than the commander could afford," Brenner responded, making Tenat scowl at him until she caught the smirk on his face, and she rolled her eyes. "But as bad as he looks, it's his other half that took the brunt of the damage." Royals curse it, but she hated when people referred to Gavess as that. The thing, for all he was relatively civilized for a xeno, was still a xeno, and not half of anything, thank you very much.

Still, she did glance where Brenner gestured, at Gavess, who was all but coated entirely in Hekoto's "bandaging", his head resting on the probably-uncomfortable pillow that was the little yellow drone. "And," Brenner continued, "we're lucky in that there's one more thing the commander has in common with the xenotypes: he's notoriously hard to kill."

"Good thing, too," Tenat muttered, trying to imagine what life would be like in the house if anything actually came of the Minister's stupid heroics, this time. Then she stopped, because it was too depressing to think about.

"Which reminds me," Gavin murmured, out of nowhere. "Medals. Officer Neisan Mei'Rhakarndi. He needs a medal. And the other one, if I can find out who he was.... Don't think she'd want one, though. Called me a ninny."

If he had said it any other way than dreamy and exhausted-sounding, Tenat probably would've laughed. The very thought of someone calling Gavin a ninny was definitely laughable-- but it wasn't quite as funny when Gavin himself didn't seem to notice the humor. Tenat coughed a little and said, "I'll make a note of it, sir. We'll have to track down these other folks for you, but I'll make sure somebody does."

"Very good," Gavin approved quietly, looking up at the roof of the tent as he thought it over. "Officer Neisan... and another of the yautjas, but not a local, I think. Ah, Rhakarndi would know. Had her along today. And the third was the other-other queen. Snowy-marked, some kind of mutant. A medal's pitiful thanks, but...."

An eerie sound went up from the hive, outside and inside, very faint, but Tenat could hear it. Igess and Nonryph were radiating regret, too, which she assumed was what the rest were "talking" about. She forced herself not to shift uncomfortably. Even when she didn't understand the alien minds that had swallowed up Gavin's, she understood that: she hadn't exactly been there when he'd needed help, either. No matter that she still didn't know what actually happened, she could still wish she had been there to help.

"I'm not that notorious," Gavin was saying, and she realized he was looking at her, expression as rueful as it could get when he was that tired and pained and whatever-else. "Those three get the credit today."

"You're gonna hafta get some, sir," Tenat warned him. "People've been talking about how all xeno-critters are evil ever since this started. We gotta let out that you had a hand in stopping this queen, even if we don't say you did it single-handed." Because even if some foreign xeno-queen helped, too, it was still a bunch of other yautjadragons who would be remembered, unless they had a local who they would remember be part of the heroics. Tenat might not've been that smart, but she wasn't dumb, either.

Gavin shut his eyes again, and the rest of the medics backed off. The worst of his wounds were stitched or grafted or magically healed shut, and all Brenner, senior here and most trusted of them for dealing with sensitive talk, had left to do was finish wrapping things and cleaning blood away.

"You misunderstand," Gavin continued in the semi-privacy. "We'll need a dozen, two dozen medals for the ones who stopped her. Those three... stopped me."

"From making a splatter of yourself on the walls?" Tenat guessed sourly, wishing again she'd been there, and not stuck on stupid, boring patrol duty. Weren't all those bars of rank good for anything? "Tell me the story later, sir. You look about ready to pass out again, and you don't gotta get worked up. I'll hunt down names. I'm sure the hive'll be able to help, until you wake up again and can be more specific."

"A long, boring convalescence," Gavin recalled, a thing Tenat was planning to enforce, even if she had to throw people out of the house bodily. Even if she had to care of all his paperwork herself. Ugh. She'd been living and working with him long enough that she could do everything but authorize-- and she could forge his signature, but not his eye scans or thumb print, sadly.

As if aware of her thoughts, Gavin added, "There's benefits to having you around, after all."

Grinning wolfishly at him, Tenat said, "You'd better believe it. You rest up, sir. We'll get you moved home soon's it's safe to." To Brenner, she added, "I'll be back in a couple hours. I'm gonna see what kind of a mess he left to clean up."

"It's a doozy," Gavin warned, his voice already fading and, from the looks of him, already getting ready to drift off. Good.

"We'll see you then, sir," Brenner told her. "He'll be here when you get back."

He'd sure as hell better be, she thought as she turned and headed out. She wasn't in the mood to track him down again-- it'd be a long time before she let him out alone again, she imagined. Igess and Nonryph-- and probably the rest of them, too, for all none of them said anything to her-- agreed wholeheartedly.

"He'll still be here when you get back, too," Tenat told them, climbing up onto Nekeress's back again, with help from the acid-proof harness. "You're coming with me. I might need backup to get the authority I need, and you won't do him any good when he's asleep." She mostly meant Igess and Nonryph, since they were the only ones who actively listened to her, but any and all of the others were invited, too.

:I'm all the backup you need,: Nekeress snorted, and started off, letting Igess lead the way to where he knew his queen had been injured, and letting anyone else who cared to fall in behind.

[Xenoqueen]

((For the fans, another scene.))



Compared to day after day of living out of the fortified Ministry buildings, hunting down invader after invader with his hive and security teams and allies sent along from the forces of the Abstract Destiny, taking a deeply personal offense against the infestation and handing off the deskwork to underlings, it almost felt to Gavin like he was in that medivac tent for an eternity. He was not cut off from the outside world, as his people knew better than to think Minister Vance would be content to assume blissful ignorance of what was going on with his city, but that didn't change the fact that he could do nothing about it. He and Gavess slept a lot, more than they had in weeks it seemed, and when they were awake all they could do was share in the minds of their hive and follow the goings-on of the outside world that way. The enemy queen and her praetorians were dead, her eggs flushed out into space, but plenty of her minions still remained to be purged and they were not accepting this fate quietly.

His hive did not roam far from him except when Vluhlenda impressed upon a few the wisdom of following Keren around so that she had more than Igess and Nonryph for backup—as if Nekeress didn't count, being an aberration in their minds for shunning a queen of any kind, despite her 'allied' state with them. Otherwise they were jealous guardians of the medivac, slaughtering any enemy xenodragon that, crazed from the death of its queen, drew too near to the fortified camp.

Keren returned in one of his waking moments, obviously being kept very busy by things. She had identified all the people Gavin had sought and more—she had practically assumed all his usual responsibilities, in fact. Despite her shoulder-bars, she really wasn't ranked enough to be doing all that, but the usual chains of command were all shot to hell (his Assistant Chiefs were dead, missing, or suffering mental breakdowns) and in a time of emergency like this, no one really cared who took charge just as long as someone did.

Brenner and the other medics kept tending to him, accelerating his healing as much as safely possible, and yet not as much as they could have. Certainly it was a semi-believable story that all the best "quick-heal" mages and such were occupied on the front lines, but Gavin suspected the Staff Sergeant was in on a conspiracy to make sure the Minister got that long, boring convalescence. For now, though, Gavin was still willing to pretend and go along with it.

It could have been weeks before he could safely be moved, but it ended up being much sooner than that. Gavin had collapsed in the Life Support areas; with the Hatching Deck above them an airless no-man's land, the next deck in line was that of Housing. That meant the bivouac he was in was on the same level as his home, and his hive was all too willing to clear an evacuation route once Keren communicated that Gavin could be taken back to their actual hive-territory. The medical teams didn't object to him being moved, either, as a vacu-locked home was far more secure than a magitech-barricaded tent.

As a result, it was only 28 hours later that he found himself being relocated under the protection of a literal convoy of xenodragons. Captain Satena-mekoze had been left no longer able to decline promotions due to all the deaths in ranks above her and was now Inspector Mekoze, and she was driving the transport with Gavin in the passenger seat of the cabin and Gavess on the flatbed that hovered behind. The eight bonds of her hive mingled with the thirteen of Gavin's that were present and mobile, and nothing short of a battalion of praetorians were going to stop his homecoming.

Though it had only been little over a day since…everything, the medics had gotten him back into pretty good shape. He had so many bandages wrapped around his person that he looked like some kind of undead under the simple security greys that had replaced his torn-to-hell combat armor, his left arm was a nub ending in a metal cap until a technician could be spared to attach one of Gavin's backups, and parts of him had turned lovely shades of bruise, but he could move on his own if he was slow and careful about it so that he didn't tear any stitches or grafts, and Brenner had put him on some really fantastic painkillers that brought the agony down to levels he could cope with.

That meant he was sitting up on his own in the transport-seat, eyes closed and staying still and putting his trust on the xeno-squadron around him, when Keren caught up with the escort. He opened his eyes as the woman's dedicated companions of the last 28 hours—Igess, Nonryph, and intelligent Richyluc—reappeared and practically swarmed the vehicle, having not 'seen' him for too long even though his mental presence was constant. Keren rode up behind on Nekeress, for whom Satena's xenodragons moved apart.

"How's that shiny new bar on your arm, Satty?" Keren called by way of greeting.

The sotiel shot a sour blue glare up at her. It was Keren's fault that Satena had finally no longer been able to escape promotion, due to how busy the woman had been yesterday, and "her fault" was exactly the wording his former-Captain had used when telling him about it, too. Despite very different species, the two were surprisingly alike and perfect examples of what Gavin meant when he thought of disrespectful yet immensely capable subordinates. Satena had never been much respectful of Keren's higher rank before, and now the two were on par.

::With all due respect, it chafes like a bitch,:: Satena rejoined as she drove along, her small size no impediment to working the controls. ::When I say 'with all due respect' I of course mean 'kiss my shiny red ass'.::

"You're welcome, then," Keren answered with a grin. Satena rolled her eyes, but without malice. Oh, plenty of real and true irritation at being boosted up the ranks, sure, and it was Satena's nature to complain loudly and in abundance, but Gavin knew she'd still fulfill the duties of an Inspector just as well as she had those of a Captain. She and Keren would just needle each other about it forever, that was all.

Keren's attention turned on him then. "Hello, sir, how you feeling?"

"I'm pretty sure Brenner put me on something I helped pass legislation against," he replied. "A repeal may be in order."

::Sir, if you start tripping and singing that song again I am throwing you out and you are walking. Limping. Sir,:: Satena informed him.

Maybe he just liked knowing his subordinates had the spunk and sass to speak their minds. Yes-men were useless, never told you what you needed to hear. At least smartasses did that, along with everything else they threw at you.

"'That song'?" Keren repeated blankly, though she had to know. He didn't know how she could have missed it, echoing through every xenomorphic mind on the station as it had. "Never mind, I don't want to know. As long as you're not screaming, working, or trying to get yourself killed again, I don't care what you do."

His hive did, though. And Satena's. Gavin was very aware of a dozen-or-so minds warily turned towards his. "I was joking," he told them. Several of the more sentient ones still seemed doubtful, though. Striding along at the driver's side of the transport, Satena's queen-bond, Zexenophit, shook her crowned head with what was obviously tolerant amusement.

"We’ve only got a couple streets to go," Keren was telling Satena in the meanwhile. "I didn't get much notice that this was happening now…but Retejoss should have everything ready, anyway."

…Gavin had trouble imagining what Retejoss could possibly be doing. The praetorian was the largest of his hive and completely restricted to the dragon-scale side of the suite. Maybe he was just bounding around in a tizzy while Kalaia did the actual work.

::I am not in a tizzy!:: came the immediate protest, followed by a: ::Well, maybe. But I'm totally allowed to, my queen, I've been the worst royal guardian I could possibly be and I'll never--::

"So that's a yes on Kalaia doing all the work," he thought/murmured back.

::…it's not my fault I can't reach your rooms, is it?::

"I'd half-figured they'd have moved your things out of your rooms by now," Keren snorted from above. "Well, I'm sure Kalaia's glad for something to do, at least. She was pretty pissed at me when I got home hours after everything went down, since she couldn't get out, and Retejoss apparently wasn't doing anything more than whining about being useless, not being useful and letting them out or explaining, or anything."

::I had my orders!:: Retejoss protested miserably. ::Protect the homestead! Oh, my queen, I would have flown to your side at an instant—how could you command me, your guardian, born to the duty above all the others, to stay here? The hive is nothing without its heart and you—oh my queen, COME HOME!::

"Can this thing go any faster?" Gavin asked of Satena, wincing at the inward 'noise'. "Retejoss is tizzy-ing again."

::He can wait thirty seconds, that's your place right up there.::

::My queeeeeeeeeen!::

"Stay put, I'm coming!" Between the questionably-legal painkillers and his overall exhaustion, it came out more petulant than commanding.

Nekeress suddenly bounded ahead and Gavin caught echoes through the hivemind. When things got especially chaotic among the hive's thoughts, they sometimes leaked to Keren through Igess -- and if the woman got bothered enough, the brown warrior was all too happy to relay her thoughts back to all involved. Gavin overheard her now, not quite directly, but through awareness of what Retejoss was hearing.

::If you do not shut the hell up, and leave 'your queen' the hell alone while he's recovering, so help me Royals, I will thrash you. Nekeress will help.::

Oh dear, Gavin hoped not. He would feel that as much as Retejoss would, and what good would that do? But the praetorian's thoughts trailed off with a pitiful little ::eeeeee...::, subsiding into a wordless babble of worry and apology, and that empathic murmuring was a vast improvement over telepathic wailing. At least Retejoss was the only one of the xenos gifted with true words that was inclined to actually use them in such abundance.

Nekeress was looming in front of the dragon-sized door of their home as Satena pulled up those thirty-odd seconds later. In his mind's eye, Gavin could see his praetorian on the other side, prancing his feet like a nervous dog or eager child, desperate for the metal panels to be unsealed, thrashing or no thrashing.

::Well here you are, sir,:: Satena announced, drifting transport and flatbed to a halt. ::Have fun being an invalid.::

"Oh, he will," Keren answered for him, now on the ground by the human-level keypad to the door, and donning a grin that looked more predatory than anything. "We'll take good care of him, won't we, sir?"

She punched the keypad and the doors hummed open, revealing Retejoss just as Gavin had foreseen, as well as Kalaia and her two ojee, whom he had not. By virtue of a far greater stride, Retejoss was out the door first, skittering anxiously around the even-larger Nekeress with all his bioluminescence feverishly aglow. The muttly praetorian wound up with a giant paw on either side of the transport, poking his muzzle down at the man before Gavin could even fiddle one-handedly with his seat belt. Retejoss at least seemed to be taking Keren's threat to heart, his little mental squeal of before carried over into the quietest whine something of his size could manage, but reining back any real telepathic raving.

Gavin regarded the praetorian with a glazedly mellow look, then with a careful reach, accommodating of his stitches and such, gave Retejoss's furry nose a pat. "See, here now," he assured the beast. "Still here."

"Not there for long, you aren't," Keren interjected quickly, moving to the passenger-side door as Retejoss pulled back, but only a little. "We're getting you inside, and fed, and resting. You walking, sir? Or shall I get you a ride?"

"I don't need a ride ten feet to my own door, just don't—don't rush me," he replied tiredly, getting his seatbelt undone at last and palming the control that slid his door open. With the transport parked and its hover-field off, sliding his feet out of the footwell to the ground was little more than a turn to the side, and standing just had to be taken very carefully while Retejoss hovered overhead and Keren herself was even nearer to assist.

"Wouldn't dream of it, sir," she assured him, letting him take an offered hand to help him get up.

Gavess, too, stirred from the flatbed, Satena's bonds making way once again as Gavin's swooped in. Rudess crawled up on one side and Qess placed himself at the other, the pair supporting the black xeno with hands and shoulders as he limped his way into the house.

On his feet again, Gavin took a moment to address Satena. "Thanks for the ride, Capt—er. Inspector."

::No problem,:: she answered, flicking a lazy salute at him, which was followed by a sidelong look at Keren. ::Just heal up as fast as you can, sir. I want my real boss back.::

"Don't kid yourself, he woulda promoted you, too," she fired back lightly, ducking under the only whole arm Gavin had right now and pulling it over her shoulders to help support him. "I'll see you back at the Ministry later. Try not to kill anyone until I've had some sleep, okay?"

Keren wasn't the only one with a wicked grin; Satena displayed one of her own now, her teeth-plates very white in her red face as she fired up the hover-fields and the transport lifted off the street again. ::Nobody I don't have clearance to, anyway. Still a lot of cleaning up to do and you're not the only one with a territorial queen on hand.:: She jerked her head at Zexenophit, who had a toothy grin of her own on. ::At least I know you'll treat him better than you do me—hell, few more years and you'll be common-law!::

"Won't that be delightful," the woman muttered.

::Now go on,:: Satena finished, before another sortie of friendly mockery could begin, waving them towards the door. Most of Gavin's xenos were inside now, but for Retejoss still looming overhead, and Nekeress was still guarding the door. ::You're blocking the road.::

"I'm goin', I'm goin'," Keren replied lightly and went, carefully taking Gavin with her.

As Satena drove off, her hive going with her, Kalaia at last emerged from the house on her dainty insectoid feet. She waved to and was waved back at by the sotiel, then took up a position at Gavin's other side. She couldn't reach any higher than his waist but still put her arm around it without a word, so small her support was really more emotional than physical. Retejoss followed behind them with his head held very low, as if to catch them all on his snout should Gavin stumble backwards. (Hopefully it wouldn't come to that—the praetorian had a significant horn on the end of his nose.)

Gavin tried to pat at Kalaia's hair in greeting but was foiled by the lack of two complete arms. He wondered if a tech would have been dragged away from wherever if both his arms had been crushed, or if he would have been left just twitching around with a couple of nubs. That would have been intolerable.

"Hey, kid," he greeted her instead, knowing fully well both she and her sister were over twice his age, alternate-verse species of human that they were.

"Hello, Gavin," she replied, her voice typically light. Not even her mutations—her legs and tails and one mangled hand—could completely ruin her air of youth and innocence. "Did you have fun out there?"

Keren snorted a bit as they stepped through the doors, but it was Gavin that answered. "God, hope not. If that's fun, I never want to have fun again. Not even for the painkillers."

"Did Doctor Brenner dope you up?" Kalaia asked with a little giggle. "And you like it?"

"He even said he was going to repeal the ban on the stuff Brenner gave him," Keren agreed slyly.

"That part was the joke," Gavin pointed out idly, though it didn't change the fact that he was seriously doped on something. "He knows he's fired if he touched something illegal. But…still doesn't change the fact that whatever it is…this stuff…yow."

It was kind of nice to be in the house again, see it was still standing, and that the only resin encrusting it in parts was familiar and supposed to be there. (Not that Nekeress put up with a lot of Retejoss trying to build—the dragon-half of the suite had been hers long before he'd come along and eventually grown too large to squeeze into the hive-chambers the others had made in tearing down and rebuilding the unused human rooms.) Rudess, Qess, and most of the drones were escorting Gavess upstairs to the enclosed safety of those chambers. The rest of the warriors were still downstairs waiting for the humans, as was Makoss. The green-grey drone stood quietly in a corner, impressing its calm on the still much-bewildered minds of the three new burstlings winding tightly around its feet in a knot of black, teal, red, and fuchsia.

Kalaia spotted them and reacted predictably, pulling away from him with a delighted coo. "Ooooh! Babies! Keren didn't say you were bringing home new ones!"

"Probably hoped someone would squish them while I was unconscious," he answered, only half in jest, following her with his eyes and putting his thoughts over the burstlings' as well. He could feel them, at least, flickering nervously and still adapting to his mind in place of their mother's. It helped that they'd been in a mind-blasted stupor when she'd died and had latched to him, instinctively, when they'd woken and found her absent.

"I was not!" Keren protested, though also watching her sister.

The burstlings stilled a little at his mental touch and became aware of Kalaia's approach. The pink one promptly dropped flat on the floor and appeared to think itself invisible by just lying there. The teal froze in Makoss's shadow, thoughts bristling like a hissing cat, while the dark red stood on its tail like a snake from a basket, alertly attentive.

Kalaia, never able to resist examining any kind of beast, dropped to her kind of crouch only a foot or two away and held her good hand across the remaining distance. "I won't hurt you. Promise."

Gavin had no fear that any of the "babies" would try to hurt her, either, not with him sternly impressing the idea that such a thing Was Not Allowed, but he'd never forced any of his bonds to submit to the attention the girl would happily lavish on any of them given the opportunity, either. Having little idea of the kind of personality each possessed yet, he watched and waited for their reactions about as curiously as Kalaia herself.

The pink one didn't twitch, its thoughts cycling a litany that Gavin could have translated as hiding hiding hiding over and over. He got the idea that dumb luck, more than its skills at camouflage, had kept it alive until its neon-bright carapace had caught his eye. The hiss didn't leave the teal one's thoughts, either, though it -- she -- pulled back behind Makoss's foot silently, peering out from behind that shelter.

The red male, by contrast, neither recoiled nor advanced. His attentiveness was neither aggressive nor afraid, just watching Kalaia as much as Gavin was watching him. It was a little…arrogant, even. Like he was actually daring Kalaia to close the rest of the distance, herself!

"That's, ah…that's Shinrass," Gavin told her. "And the teal one is Koraess…and the last one is Talaiss. We're still…figuring each other out. First time I had to go in trying to free them from that other queen, and all…but I think they'll fit in soon enough."

"Growing up will probably help, then they won't feel so small and helpless-ish," Kalaia suggested wisely, looking between the two who hadn't fled. It ended up being the more terrified of the two that she reached for. "It's okay. You don't have to be scared. Your brother isn't scared at all, look at him—oh!"

She had put a finger on Talaiss's carapace to immediate effect. Realizing its cover was blown, it released a squeal and bolted with surprising speed. In its panic, it bounced off one of Kalaia's feet before reorienting and flashing off again. It was Renoss that squawked then, turning his head completely upside-down to consider the burstling wrapped like an anklet around his leg.

"I'm sorry," Kalaia apologized unhappily, and looked at Shinrass with a sigh, though the red hadn't flinched or moved an inch during his sibling's panicked display. "I suppose you won't let me touch you, either…."

Actually, Gavin got the impression that Shinrass was waiting for exactly that, not out of any want to be petted, but instead to see if Kalaia had the guts for it, eyelessly staring her down as he was. How strange. Gavin wasn't sure if he should share this revelation or not….

No, better not. If Kalaia wanted a xeno to pet and befriend, she was better off sticking to Igess and Nonryph. Or bonding one on her own. (Blame that idea on the dope. It wasn't something he'd ever suggest out loud, either, not even while doped. Keren would kill him anyway.)

"Kalaia, you can win them over later," Keren said with a sigh of her own. "We oughta get the Minister here to bed, before I drop him."

Still lurking behind them, Retejoss whined unhappily at this suggested possibility. Gavin glanced back at him tiredly, reminding the praetorian with a thought that Keren wouldn't really. Retejoss quieted, but his faceplates still glowed brightly with worry.

"I'm not really going to drop him. Stop fussing. Jesus. Is that a xeno or a mother hen?" That last bit of exasperation was directed at Gavin himself.

With one last wistful look at Shinrass, Kalaia got up and returned to the other humans, looking glum. As devoid of words of reassurance as Gavin was, Keren just got them walking again towards his room. "Maybe once you're settled," she said to him instead, "you can give us your side of the story."

Retejoss was left behind as they diverted into the human-sized corridors where he couldn't follow. Gavin heard him drop his bulk to the floor outside with a sigh, his nose poking through the doorway, the most forlorn and guilty guard-dog ever.

A happier set of sounds greeted them as they turned into Gavin's room: first a sleepy chirrup as Talek, tucked in his pet-bed, pulled his head out from under his wing, and then a delighted trill at seeing his master finally returned.

"If you like," Gavin said in response to Keren, then added with a humorless little smirk: "Though you probably won't."

"We both already know the basics, so you won't be scaring anybody," she assured him, "but details will be nice."

"And you were heroic," Kalaia added, subdued but still participating as the sisters got him turned around at the side of his bed, while the ojee looked in from outside. "That has to count for something. You saved the station."

"Did I?" he asked, a rhetoric question said with the tone that he didn't believe that himself, his eyes turned inwards as he carefully sat down on the edge of the bed. Talek hopped off his high perch and glided to the bed with a soft fwump of a landing, hopping across the blankets. Gavin rubbed at the firelizard's knobby eye-ridges with a finger, earning more trilling.

The man went through his memories again, replaying those frenzied few minutes that had felt like hours. "So temporary insanity is 'heroic' now…. What constitutes 'the basics'?"

"I tend to think all heroics are temporary insanity, sir," Tenat commented with a wry smile, pulling the chair from his desk over to sit down, herself, while Kalaia climbed up onto the foot of the bed. "And 'the basics' means I know you and Gavess broke the hivemind hold for you and a bunch of others, and knocked the queen out to space. And apparently were kind of loud doing it." She grinned a bit at the last.

Gavin did not return it. The haze of the painkillers remained, but the fuzzy kind of good humor they had brought along was fading. "I broke nothing," he answered dully, his eyes on Talek. "She lost control when the others attacked her…. I don't know what other details I have. I went berserk, she set off the bomb, and only one of us was saved from getting spaced. What's there to add?"

It seemed Keren hadn't been expecting that kind of reply: her brows went up and Kalaia's went down. "Uh, well. That she would've gotten away to Atu if you hadn't been there, for one. That you would've gone down protecting the station with your last, xeno-toothed breath, which, while kind of stupid for your own skin, was still pretty damn admirable…. There some kinda problem, here, sir…?"

"I—I don't know." Gavin put his hand to his head, pinching his brow, eyes shut. The images were clear in his head, except 'clear' was a misnomer, because everything at the time had mostly been a blur of fear and fury. "You asked for my side of the story…and I guess you sounded like you thought I had something amazing to say."

"Amazing would be a bit much to expect," Keren pointed out reasonably, "since I do already know basically what happened. Details would've been nice. Last thing I expected was like you thought you'd done something wrong, though."

One of Kalaia's tails was furry, discounting the barb at its end, and she curled it up over his knee in offered comfort as Gavin sighed. He lowered his hand and opened his eyes again, though he was still looking inwards rather than out. "What details do I have? That the queen was able to command me and forced me to bow to her? That when the others attacked and her grip loosened, she threatened me with the choice of letting her escape or sacrificing the station?"

He hung his head, hissing in frustration through a chromed snarl. Words poured out when they otherwise might not have—blame it again on the dope. "I've seen everything this station has to throw at guys like me. Wasn't the first time I've been the weaker party, wasn't even the first time I'd seen that exact type of bomb. But when she let go of me and her voice was in the hivemind and the detonator was in her hands and she was threatening my city…. All I can see is her pressing that button because I panicked and thought I could tear it out of her hands, first."

"You had to do something, sir," Keren answered with maddening calm. "And it isn't like the station's not here anymore. There's just some damage to a deck or two—if that was the only bomb she had, she did a shit job at threatening—uh, your city. And if it wasn't the only bomb she had, then you stopped her from setting off the others." She shrugged. "Seems like you did just fine, to me. But if you want to beat yourself up, not like I can do much about it. Saves me the job of abusing you for a while, right?"

"You don't get it," Gavin growled, unlike himself. Unlike his human self. Out of sight and hearing, Gavess seethed the same. "I didn't make a choice, I didn't take a risk. Everything in my head once she was out of it was terror and rage, and instead of letting her go and tracking her down later, I go insane and the next thing I know I'm being torn off of her by two yautja and a mutant xeno-queen before I'm sucked out into space! Ow!"

He'd gotten too worked up, caught up in himself, and tried to gesture with the hand left to him. Something reopened a stitch, sizzled briefly, sent up the acrid smell of acid-burnt cloth, and he winced, pressing his palm to his side and hissing again.

"Hells," Tenat grumbled. "The last thing we're supposed to be doing is working you up. I think you're being too hard on yourself, but what do I know, I guess?" She pushed herself to her feet. "You need to lie down, before you pop more stitches."

A very strange and unpleasant thought darted through Gavin's mind: for a moment, he was so angry at Keren's dismissive attitude that he wanted to bite at her, just like one of his more aggressive bonds…say, Jugiss. He kept his head down, clenching his teeth, and waited for the urge to pass. Keren was acting the same as she ever did. It was he who was all screwed up on drugs and stress.

"In a minute," he muttered at her.

It must be nice, he thought in the same moment, to never lose control.

An ungenerous idea. He reined that one back, too. Gavin Vance needed to never be put on powerful narcotics ever again.

It was a very tense minute. Eventually Gavin came back out of himself enough to realize Kalaia was petting his knee with her tail, and her malformed hand was on his prematurely abbreviated shoulder. The little girl-who-wasn't (as she was some half a century his elder, even though she called him 'uncle') was so quiet in comparison to her sister right now. Something about her little touches of comfort helped rearrange all the agitation he felt inside and he half turned towards her as if he had something to say or ask—except then he stopped, because he didn't know what it was.

::Would somebody give him a hug already?:: Retejoss's pitiful 'whisper' came from down the hall. ::I can't reach.::

Gavin started at this, looking vaguely in the praetorian's direction, though Kalaia was already responding. "I'd be glad to," she said aloud, scooting over on the bed. A little noise of surprise escaped the man as she wrapped both arms and tails around him—carefully, so she didn't hurt him, but not in the least bit hesitant. "It's okay," she added warmly. "We love you no matter what."

For a moment he was just stunned and quiet, thanks to that private and stupid little part of him that kept waiting for the sisters to up and leave. Then he closed his eyes and sagged a little, embarrassed, but not without gratitude. Her words didn't exactly align with the thoughts stumbling around in head, but that didn't mean they weren't nice to hear. "Thanks…."

Shaking her head, Keren stepped forward and put a hand on his shoulder; in contrast to her sister, that was about as physically affectionate as she ever got. "If we haven't given up on you yet, we're not gonna, unless you do something stupid like kick us out. C'mon, I'll get you something to drink and some more of those pain meds, how's that?"

Maybe that stupid little part of him wasn't as private as he thought. That was an even more embarrassing notion and he couldn't quite look at either of them, but at least it wasn't because he was grappling for control of himself.

"Only if you're doping me unconscious," he decided, rubbing his forehead again. He didn't like being out of control of himself, but trying to stand the pain he knew he'd feel if he went cold turkey wasn't an appealing idea, either. Better to go overboard, then, until he was more healed.

"We'll see what the instructions Brenner left say," Keren replied, somewhat dubiously.

Releasing him, Kalaia slid off the bed. "I can help with that part. If you don't mind me sitting in here with you while you fall asleep, that is." She gave him an earnest look, smiling. "You don't mind, do you?"

"I'll take anything right now…and I'm sure I trust you more than those pills," Gavin answered, carefully scooting Talek out of the way so he could turn and ease himself down on his bed properly. Kalaia scooped the firelizard up for a moment to assist. Repositioned, he offered the girl a reluctant smile as she put Talek on his lap and his little pet curled up comfortably. "Brain's on overdrive and I don't quite like where it keeps going."

"The pills aren't too bad," Kalaia assured him, patting his knee. "But I'm better."

Keren stepped out of the room with a laugh and Gavin's smile was more relaxed this time. "No doubt of that." He really couldn't imagine Kalaia doing anything to make the din in his head worse, not even by accident.

[Dray]

(( Soooo, any new updates with this? ))

[Xenoqueen]

((Plenty. XD))

Predictably, it didn't take long for Gavin to grow tired of his "very long, very boring convalescence". The more he healed, the less he had to be drugged or soothed by Kalaia's little magics, and the less he was drugged or magically soothed, the more restless he got. This was far from an ordinary period of recovery—his city was a mess, an entire deck exposed to the vacuum of space, and the infestation was a long way from cleared out even with the queen dead. The one Assistant Chief he had left was still a useless mess, and his two remaining Deputy Chiefs (having finally popped back out of the chaotic woodworks) were struggling and failing to keep up with everything, even with Keren assisting in every way possible and in line to upgrade from Inspector to Deputy Chief, herself. Medical conspiracy or no conspiracy, this was no time for Gavin to be resting on his laurels. It wasn't just Security, but all the Ministries that were strained and struggling.

The good news for him was he didn't have to get out to the fortified Ministry buildings, or any other outpost, to get re-involved in things. His sensory implants were still tuned to security frequencies; all he had to do was turn them on and he was back in touch. Keren could scowl all she wanted, but she couldn't stop him without eviscerating his implants from his skull, and people were glad to hear his voice again. Gradually his hive grew willing to venture out in his stead again, allowing him that outlet as well, though now he only sent a number of them in a single pack at a time, and kept them in support of security teams he was getting A/V feed from. He'd learned not to spread himself too thin, at least.

At home, Shinrass, Koraess, and Talaiss were integrated to the hive. The arrogant red Shinrass was determined to be a warrior, alternating clandestinely watching his surroundings like a hawk with establishing his dominance among the hierarchy, snapping at the others with claws or thoughts even though he was still a child. The other two, by contrast, were drones. Koraess lurked in dark corners, mind thrumming and pervading her surroundings in attempt to intimidate, rather than hide. The actual hiding, or at least attempted hiding, went to little Talaiss, who darted from hidey-hole to hidey-hole in a bright fuchsia streak and never seemed to understand why it kept getting noticed. Despite their great differences in personality, they all adapted to Gavin's mind with ease and didn't even hold a grudge for the admittedly violent ways he had initially severed their connections to their mother and first queen. The trio fell in place as if they'd been bonded to him from the start, which was a relief.

Beyond that, everything was bad news.

It was now a week after the death of the xenodragon queen, and Star City had hardly made any progress at getting back to normal. Over three million people were homeless, stranded on Atu in the city of Driolo, and it was still not safe for them to return. The planet itself was hardly any safer, as the seasonal monsoons of Driolo had struck at the same time and several had drowned, while even more were unaccounted for. In the station itself, people were still dying, security and repair teams alike, and more and more old corpses were being found as ground was slowly reclaimed. It had also become obvious that the explosion on the hatching deck had been sufficient to knock the station out of its orbit and a massive effort to re-stabilize it before it listed too far was still being rallied.

And as if that weren't enough, a political storm was brewing on the horizon. It hadn't broken yet, but it was gathering, and Gavin did not like what was blowing in on those first suggestive winds. Both among the evacuees and those still on the station, people were understandably afraid and outraged—but rather than do something constructive with themselves, they were trying to place blame, and much of it was trying to land on Gavin's own shoulders.

Brenner's drugs and Kalaia's spells would have sent him back to the haze where such things didn't bother him, but Gavin could not permit himself to not care in that way. This was his city, his station, his responsibility. Even if he still couldn't do much, he couldn't ignore what was happening, and the week that had passed had been more than enough to put him back to his old grim, brooding self.

At least he had his left arm back. One helpful citizen-turned-militia, a master cyborware installer left out of a job as the invasion had shut down his shop, had been escorted to Gavin's home for the task. The serpentine fellow, a naga called Dhumavarna, had been impressively nonchalant about all the xenodragons swarming around and had attached the Minister's new arm with quick efficiency.

That meant when the message arrived, Gavin had two hands to turn the envelope over in as he sat at the kitchen table, ignoring the sandwich on a plate in front of him in favor of the quaint, unexpected bit of correspondence. It had been delivered by military courier and was addressed with only his name, written in a hand that seemed familiar but that he struggled to place. Handwritten missives weren't common on the station, not with so many kinds of magitech that could be used instead, but he still was not looking forward to finding out what the bad news was this time.

"Who's it from?" came a shy little query from the doorway. Kalaia was peeking in around the frame. The poor girl was almost always bored now, even with Gavin and his hive home, as none of them were very good company now that he was off most of the drugs.

"I'm not sure I want to know," he answered, though he knew he had to. With a soft series of clicks, he shifted a small blade from one finger and slit the envelope open.

The folded paper inside was pressed fine and carefully crafted, but had a soft texture and was slightly uneven in color across its surface, which was to say it looked handmade. There was only a single sheet and the tight, neat scrawl across it only filled perhaps two-thirds of the page. The first two words set at the top were simply, "Dear Gavin." From there his gaze skipped immediately to the signature at the bottom, where he discovered why he'd thought he recognized the hand.

"It's…from the previous Minister of Dragon Affairs," he revealed with a slow, disbelieving kind of surprise.

The old Minister, Siche Four, had retired and departed the station several years ago, overwhelmed by the way her duties had grown exponentially more complex as the station had opened itself to the universe at large. It was hard to say they had been friends, as she had become the standoffish and short-tempered sort where he was cool and controlled, but they had at least been allies, deeply familiar with each other's methods, and equally devoted to their city.

Even so, there had been absolutely no contact between them since her retirement to a place called Nidus Corona, despite the fact that their working history extended all the way back to the days when they had not been Ministers, but rebels against a thousand-year dynasty. That she should be writing him now was…extremely unexpected.

Kalaia slipped into the room, visibly curious but saying nothing. A gleam of opalescent white followed in at her heels, however, and Charity asked, "Siche Four? I wasn't aware you two had been in contact."

"We haven't been," he answered before falling silent, now reading everything that spanned between his name and Siche's.

Dear Gavin,

It's been absolutely ages since last we spoke, and then I must admit that it was only in terms of business. I was not at my best, then, so I'd like to apologize if I came across as snappish, or worse. As you know, when push came to shove at the station, I decided to resign from the Ministry; the Nexus was always a little more than I could handle diplomatically. You know, when we were fighting the war for independence, to throw off the yoke of the thousand year reign, somehow I hadn't realized that earning our freedom would leave us quite so open and vulnerable to the rest of the universe. I liked it—and I still do—but overseeing the changes we were finally able to make was not the vantage point from which I had hoped to see us moving through the future.

I apologize, also, for beating around the bush, but news has just reached me of the disaster on the Station. I'm not certain how much of it I can believe to be true: the gossip is conflicting and the damage sounds horrendous. Is the entire Hatching Deck destroyed? In any case, I have heard many things regarding your current situation. You're a hero to be lauded, is the one that I would rather take to heart. There are some less kind rumors that have been worrying me, and in fact that is why I'm writing this letter to you, now.

Gavin, I know that I haven't always spoken well of your bonds, or of their species in general, but I know you personally, and I am firmly committed to believing that there is nothing that you would not do to keep any…well, unlawful, for lack of a better word, tendencies under control. You love the city as much as I do; I know how heart-breaking it can be when the city doesn't seem to return it.

When it comes right down to it, what I mean to say is that you are welcome here at the Nidus, as my guest, as are all of your bonds. I know that you do not abide well to vacations, but you need not be worried about that: there is always work to be done here, and any help that you wished to offer would certainly be received with joyful open arms. If of course you are ready for a visit, I am available to return to the station to catch up, for old time's sake.

Take care of yourself, and remember that should you look behind any rock or down any corridor, you will find a friend.

~Siche Four

As he read, his expression shifted slowly from wary uncertainty to quiet amazement, almost humbled awe. If he hadn't recognized the handwriting, if the letter had been something mechanically printed or beamed to the screen of a holo-computer, he would have scornfully dismissed it as a very badly-done fake. The tone did not match the Siche he had known…but the script proved the unbelievable was true.

He folded the letter back up with a slowness that was almost akin to meditation, as he absorbed what he had just read, his eyes down on the paper but not looking at it, precisely. "Well, it's not bad news," he remembered to remark aloud, as Kalaia still hovered in the kitchen. Much of the letter struck him keenly, too personally to share, but he could tell her about the final offer. "Siche has heard about what's happened here, and invites me to vacation at Nidus Corona."

"Nidus…Nidus Corona," Kalaia mused, frowning in thought. "Isn't that on—"

"Avengaea?" Charity offered.

"Yes, that!" the girl agreed excitedly. "Oh, Uncle Gavin, you should go!"

"It's a new planet, actually," Gavin corrected distractedly, running two fingers up and down a crease of the folded letter. "I don't even think it has a name yet, though several nidii have been founded there…Corona was the first." He supposed Siche had gone there to keep working and putting her skills to use, albeit in a smaller environment. Perhaps a more appreciative one, as well, if her words were any suggestion. The nidii were very new and he recalled seeing colonization pamphlets for them before.

He was also remembering a time when Siche had been like her tone in the letter. Before the Ministries, before all the stress and work, there had been a time when she had been more open and friendly. Retirement, it suggested, had done her a lot of good.

"But—no." He started to put the letter aside, then reconsidered and folded it into his shirt pocket. "This is no time to take a vacation, not even a working one."

Kalaia stared at him like he'd lost his overcrowded mind. "But, Gavin—it's got to be better than listening to people be mean about you all the time. And definitely better than being stuck in the suite all the time!"

He'd have to write something back to Siche. He couldn't go vacationing and it was insane to invite her to visit with the station the mess that it was, but he'd have to respond with something. It was one thing for Keren, Kalaia, and all his officers to keep standing behind him…but to hear from someone he hadn't spoken to in years, to receive that kind of support from someone he didn't expect it from…that hit a lot more movingly. Maybe when things were settled….

"Kid, if I left the station while it's in this state, people would only get meaner," he answered as he thought. "They can throw all the blame they want, but I'm not budging."

"Maybe later, then," Kalaia sighed.

Gavin came out of his thoughts a little, first regarding her disappointed expression a little blankly, but then with faint amusement. He carefully pushed himself from his seat and stood, offering a wry little smile. "I haven't had a vacation since before I joined the rebellion that freed this station the first time—so don't worry about me, I don't even know what I'm missing."

With that he left the kitchen, almost forgetting to take his plate and untouched sandwich with him, and headed for his office. He'd probably done more than enough on the hivemind and security channels for today…might as well get to drafting a response.

[Xenoqueen]

A few mornings later, Gavin suddenly became aware that something was grasping for his attention. The day began normally enough—sitting at the kitchen table with Shinrass curled imperiously around his shoulders, feeding the remains of his breakfast to the burster and wondering what would have to be done to deal with the looters that had added themselves to Star City's list of problems. Then, like a psionic version of the dog hearing His Master's Voice, he paused and cocked his head at what he first took to be some kind of low sound, muted by distance and the walls of the house. A single low thrum, as if for a moment someone had blasted a bass beat inside one of the neighboring suites, or the reverberations of a distant explosion were reaching him.

When it happened again, several moments later, he was paying attention enough to realize it wasn't a sound, but something on the fringes of his psionic awareness. He reached for it, cautiously, and the tone echoed even stronger as he and it discovered one another.

Gavin didn't realize he was standing until he heard the scrape of his chair as he pushed it back and Shinrass hissed a protest at his moving. The man had a brief sense of déjà vu back to the day when Qess and Jugiss had begun to fight and he had blindly leapt up from this same table to intervene, but there was no sense of danger or aggression in the other mind. It was just…lost.

"Gavin?"

The Tenat sisters stared at him in surprise—Keren over her coffee and tablet-screen of paperwork, Kalaia over a piece of nearly-dropped toast.

"Someone's—someone's out there," he answered, exploring the thoughts that made no attempt to recoil from his investigation

Not an it, a she. Not just lost, but wounded, too. Her unhappy little mind begged wordlessly for aid, explaining everything. Somewhere not far from his house there was a newborn xenodragon struggling to find a hive after being born into a world where her queen-mother was no longer present.

It gave Gavin no joy to think another poor civilian or security officer was now dead due to the embrace of a facehugger, but faulting the reproductive methods of the species was far from his mind with a child of the race so calling for his help. Gavin wasn't the only thing resembling a xenoqueen on the station, but his hive was the largest, and this newborn was so desperate not to be alone that she had sensed and been drawn to their collective thoughts.

"She's hurt, alone," he added, already turning. "We're going to get her."

He picked Shinrass off his shoulders as he moved, heading for the front door, and handed the burster off to Makoss as the drone came to meet him. Retejoss and the warriors abandoned their own bloody meals and prepared to follow.

"Royals take it, not without me, you don't," Keren growled abandoning her coffee and grabbing her boots, hopping awkwardly to follow and put them on at the same time.

Caught up with the new thoughts weaving their way into his, Gavin might not have waited for Keren at all if not for the door slowing him down. He punched the commands to open the dragon-sized door into the keypad beside it and had to wait for it to slide apart before he could go anywhere. Gavess, progressing through his healing even faster than his human self, appeared at Gavin's side and leaned down, allowing the man to mount up bareback. By the time he was securely settled on his longer set of legs, the doors were open and Keren was either ready or she wasn't.

Watch the house, he commanded the drones without words; even Nonryph, who tried to tail after Igess as the warriors swarmed outside. Then he was moving, following the call of that weak-but-strong little mind, Retejoss and the rest in instinctive formation around him, scattering along the walls and ceiling.

Keren managed to keep up after all, carried on Nekeress's golden back. Gavin was aware of her but mostly unconcerned. The streets were eerily empty in this area, thanks to his hive's patrols, and the little mind he followed was not far. A good part of her exhaustion was from travelling from far around the ring of the Housing Deck. Though she was not aware of the layout of things as Gavin was, he was pretty sure she'd been wounded slipping through a security cordon worked to keep this area clear in her attempt to reach him. Now that he was coming to her, she was hiding and collecting her strength again. It wouldn't take long at all to locate her and withdraw back to the house with their new addition. The only thing Keren gained by coming along was that she could be irritated sooner, once she realized what Gavin already knew.

It was about two miles out that Gavin drew his swarm to a halt alongside a ruined hulk of a home, decimated by some battle it had sidelined, as were its neighbors. He could see the splatter-rimmed holes made by sprays of acid blood, the fragmenting craters made by heavy munitions, and the burn-marks of energy weapons and flamethrowers. His hive was aware of the little mind now, too, and they watched curiously as Gavin dismounted and picked his way towards a slanted metal heap that might've once been a draconic door, his attention on the shadows beneath it.

Here we are, he called. Here I am. You're safe now.

There was a stirring. A far larger stirring than he expected. Was she already molted to the size and form of the warriors with him? But that didn't fit, the sense of time in her thoughts was too short. She was a newborn, so what—

"Oh," he breathed, finally seeing.

The chestburster that slithered out into the open was no mere serpent. She was a wyrm, her rusty-carapaced head rising clear to the level of his waist as she reared her front half off the ground, and her body had to be nearly a foot in diameter before it tapered into her thick, fat tail. From head to tailtip, he was pretty sure she was longer than even he was tall.

"Well." He blinked, feeling surprised and human again. "You're a big girl."

Unexpectedly, there came an outraged shriek from behind him. Gavin wheeled around and saw flashing black and gold and the gleam of bared claws and teeth. His reaction was instinctive, uncaring that it was Nekeress and not an outside enemy that lunged for the gigantic burster behind him.

Retejoss was in front of him immediately, none of his usual gregarious cheer in attendance as the praetorian caught Nekeress's charge on his shoulders and her claws bit deep. They all felt his pain and it was easy for Gavin's grudging tolerance of the warrior to slide into cold anger at her audacity. He'd never much liked her anyway, this golden intruder that kept trying to establish dominance where she had none. His warriors shrieked in outrage, but for the moment he held them back.

He thrashed at her with his mind, the same kind of stunning psionic blow he'd been putting xenos down with all month. ::STAND DOWN!::

Nekeress staggered under the assault, backwinging clumsily off of Retejoss and stumbling away into a far wall. The warrior was still growling, though, and he could almost hear the angry background mutter of her thoughts, considering how sharp his own mind had grown. He didn't care enough to actually eavesdrop, however, even though such a thing was well within his ability now.

"Sir, I'm so sorry," Keren called from her perch on Nekeress's back, sounding stunned and angry, herself. "I didn't expect her to—to do that."

"If that's how she's going to be, now, I'm going to insist on you taking that private suite," Gavin growled, himself, staring coldly as the xenodragon's domed face before looking up at his bodyguard. "Retejoss?"

::Ow?:: he offered, stretching his four small wings carefully, getting a sense of his injuries. ::I'll be fine, my queen.::

Gavin patted his leg before turning back to the new one. She had lowered herself to the ground, prepared to retreat and possessed of a healthy wariness of Nekeress's charge, but not mindlessly afraid. He noted that she had a few shallow wounds that looked to him like grazed gunfire, her blood already neutralized and clotting over the injuries. Painful, he was sure, but not life-threatening. She picked herself up again and pressed her head into the hand he held out to her, churring with relief. Her coloration was rather striking, really: a metallic dusting of copper and rusty red-browns accented by black.

And her name was as massive as her form, the thoughts he assembled christening her with more syllables than any other member of the hive: Jagannathass.

Someone carry her, he told his entourage, as he climbed onto Gavess's back again. After a few moments of consensus, Qess strode forward and leaned down to nudge heads with the newborn before gathering her into his arms and following after Gavin as he turned back in the direction of home.

Those who came in his wake gave Nekeress a wide, scornful berth as they passed her by—even Igess seemed to feel betrayed by the attack its clutch-sister had attempted.

Whether it was because they did not want to follow along in that wave of resentment, or simply because they were going to be late to work, Keren and Nekeress did not join them. Gavin was not precisely bothered by this. His temper could be very xenomorphic nowadays and his hive weren't the only ones that could do without seeing Nekeress's brazenly impudent self for a while. Snapping and jostling for the dominance she didn't have was one thing, but outright attacking one of his own was inexcusable.

Maybe even unforgivable.

[Xenoqueen]

He felt more on the human side of things, again, by the time they'd re-traversed the two miles to home and he was opening the door to let everyone back inside. The drones swarmed around them immediately to greet and investigate this newcomer, and he was aware of the three proper-sized burstlings navigating through everyone's feet as well. Jagannathass accepted this flurry of activity with complete composure, returning the curious nuzzles from those who offered them and merely cocking her head at those who snapped and hissed—which was to say, Shinrass.

"Inside, you monsters, inside," he clucked, herding them along to close the doors again, and trying to see through the milling kaleidoscope of colorful carapaces for that certain someone who would probably be all too happy to help Jagannathass with her hurts. "Kalaia?"

"Coming!" she called back, and a moment later he got a bubble of thought from Nonryph that basically boiled down to, I'm helping!

It didn't take too long for the little drone's blue and tan to join the mix, weaving his way through the swarm with all the ease of a choreographed dancer. He had his arms curled together and Kalaia was balanced in the seat they made for her, with her arms and tails wrapped around his neck to hold on.

Gavin silently shooed the others enough to make some room, though they were too intrigued by Jagannathass to depart entirely. At a thought from him, the giant burster reared up under his hand again as he gave Kalaia a little smile, softly amused in expectation of her reaction. "Think you can spare a healing spell for the newbie?"

Kalaia was staring, her eyes wide and fascinated. "Can I? Of course I can!" She gave Nonryph's arm a pat and the drone set her down carefully. Once she was balanced on her own four feet again, she extended her good hand to the burster. "If she'll let me and won't be scared. I don't hurt anybody, promise," she assured the newborn directly. "Besides, I bet you could eat me in two bites."

Gavin prudently did not mention that, as he'd gleaned from her thoughts, Jagannathass had already killed in self-defense. Some other entity, human-sized if not actually human, had come across her too suddenly to be avoided and too closely to be fled from. She hadn't started the fight, but she had assuredly ended it.

The giant burstling considered Kalaia's hand and touched his thoughts in query. He did not tell her what to do, but assured her that Kalaia was safe. Jagannathass weighed this information before sliding her bulk forward and rising on her tail so her head was level with the girl's as she cocked it thoughtfully. Finally, she bent her head over to press her domed forehead, as big as a basketball but smooth as glass, into Kalaia's palm—not in search of petting, but simply in greeting.

"Her name's as big as she is: Jagannathass," Gavin informed his 'young niece'. "She got shot at going past security trying to get here."

"Jagannathass," Kalaia tested the name, after giving the burster a couple pats and a delighted smile. "It's pretty. And gunshot wounds are easy ones. It's the flamethrowers and plasma guns that are a pain. There's one."

She'd shuffled around Jagannathass some, investigating, and now placed her hand over a graze on the newborn's long back. With the murmur of a few words in a language unknown to him, Kalaia's hand glowed and the wound underneath it began to seal.

Jagannathass squeaked—if you could call such a low sound from such a large creature a 'squeak'—and tried to twist her upper half around to watch, but Gavin gently stilled her with a soft chuckle at what went by in her thoughts.

"No, no," Kalaia warned amiably as well. "Don't move too much, it'll mess it up."

As Kalaia moved on to another hurt, Jagannathaass settled for a kind of deep churring and a few flicks at the end of her thick tail.

"That feels good, apparently—though it kind of tickles," Gavin relayed, then added sincerely, for once glad of her fondness for his beasts, "Thank you, Kalaia."

"Oh, I'm just glad to help out," she answered lightly enough, though something at her tone hinted she wasn't feeling all sunshine and rainbows. "And glad someone isn't afraid of me or wants to eat me!" she added to Jagannathass, much more playfully.

The burster merely cocked her head again, though in rather amusing fashion: tilting it straight backwards as if she could keep track of what Kalaia was doing through the top of her head. She couldn't really know how abnormally big she was, so he didn't think her mellow confidence came from her size—it was just her personality, like Ytoss was curious and Renoss was mischievous. She'd get on well with Rudess and Makoss, he expected.

To Kalaia, who was giggling at giving Jagannathass another pat, he said, "She's probably just as glad she's not being attacked anymore. I'd say that gives you a plus in her book."

The girl's amusement gave way with a sigh. "That's not likely to stop any time soon…. If people are afraid of xenos now, what will they think of one as big as she is?"

"Nothing good, I'm sure," he answered plainly enough, his own small smile fading, too. Jagannathass turned her head back towards him, thoughts concerned by the shift of his mood, and he rubbed along her jaw soothingly. He felt no shame or regret for answering her plea to be found. "All we can do is press on the same way we have been."

"We'll be alright," Kalaia answered. "They have you and Keren to look after them, and neither of you are going to let some silly people hurt any of them."

"Well said," he agreed, though Keren's name made him think of Nekeress again, wondering if her attack would prove to be an isolated incident or not. Well, no sense dwelling on it—the solution was simple, if the problem persisted. He focused on Jagannathass instead. "Now then, since Kalaia's fixed you all up, let's find you something to eat." Since it seemed to be within her inclinations anyway, he added, "Say 'thank you'."

Of course, the burster didn't actually understand him until his thoughts explained the words, but then she perked up and acknowledged the idea that food sounded good. Gavin started for the kitchen, shooing the still-milling swarm out of his way, while Jagannathass lagged behind for a moment with another of those contemplative head-tilts.

Before following after him, the newborn scooted forward and—bonk!—nudged Kalaia's forehead with her own, the xenomorph take on a thank-you. Then she fell in behind her new hive-queen, eager to partake of her first meal.




((Three new sessions for you! Whee!))

[Dray]

(( Thanks for posting these! ^_^ I've really been enjoying reading them! ))

[Xenoqueen]

((Glad you're enjoying! And look, another! XD))

Over the next week, there was no sign of improvement in…anything, really. Jagannathass integrated into the hive as smoothly as her three small siblings, but such was the only boon granted to Gavin's life.

He was completely healed by now but continued to work from home, through his implants and holo-computer. His hive he now kept close to home, for they had started to come under attack by would-be lynchers. The angry protestors that had set up camp in the Ministry halls with their hateful signs and slogans apparently weren't enough for the frightened people of Star City; now some fanatical subgroup was actually attacking the xenodragon citizens of the station. Inspector Satena-mekoze's group had also come under harassment, and her queen Zexenophit couldn't even leave the hive-community of the sotiel and her kin. No one had yet proved brazen enough to picket in front of any local xenodragon's home, not even his, not even as the political furor against Gavin grew greater and greater, and he hoped no one would. He knew that in the mind of the angry and afraid, it would not help his case if his xenodragons lashed out at harassers, not even in self-defense, and Security had more important things to do than set up a protective cordon around his house.

And who knew, it might not be long before he was even permitted on the station at all, Minister or no Minister. The biggest bane of his existence right now had a name: Bill 47X.

As the exiled public in Driolo were slowly allowed to return under the conditions of strict curfews and heavy fines for disobeying them, some of the protesters had actually gotten themselves organized and productive in a manner that did not help him at all, and now the bill was gaining rapid momentum and support. In a nutshell, Bill 47X would reclassify xenodragons from creatures allowed citizenship under careful monitoring and laws of behavior, to entities labeled "unanimously hostile" and completely exiled from station space.

Even if Gavin himself managed to classify under the Article of the bill dealing with "the regulation of xenomorphic hybrids", he knew none of his hive would be exempt—not even the Destiny-engineered D-Strain. (Another example of the hate: the white D-Strain queen, Tsiasaniess, was similarly confined from public view after numerous failed attempts to set herself forward as an example of a completely trustworthy xenodragon—but all it took was for people to see her extravagant crest to start up accusatory predictions of a second infestation.)

If Bill 47X passed into law, not even the people who still trusted and respected Minister Gavin Vance would be able to keep him on the station. He would be forced to retire and into exile from the city he had done so much for, the only city he had ever known.

On the domestic front (if you could call it that), Keren and Nekeress had yet to come home. He knew what they were up to, of course, living out of the fortified Ministry buildings again and tackling the same problems and responsibilities as he, but they no longer returned to the overcrowded suite at the end of their shift. Gavin made no attempt to contact them and talk things over, as the problem was obvious and could not be addressed simply by discussion: if Nekeress could not co-exist peacefully in hive space, she was not welcome. Gavin did not want to have to cast her out as he had Netahiln years ago, but his name alone was on the house deed (the legal repercussions of adding Keren's to it when she had moved in would have been far too sticky) and he had the right to force her out to maintain the safety and sanity of everyone involved.

By not returning, he assumed the day he had always been waiting for was approaching: the day when he would have to help the Tenat sisters move into a neighboring suite where they could have their own, private, resin-free space that Nekeress could lay all the claim to that she wanted. He would not cut ties with them, of course, not with Igess and not with how long they had known each other and been so closely involved, but he was convinced that giving everyone their own space was the safest, wisest, most logical course—especially when the four chestbursters at last entered their cocoons.

It was a blessing that Nekeress was not around to defend "her" space in the dragon-sized part of the suite, for Gavin's hive completely took it over. As he watched his drones swarm and work while the burstlings grew ever more sore and lethargic, he realized something he hadn't before with a dumb kind of surprise that it had taken him so long to think of it: in the battles to reclaim the station from its invaders, they had encountered chestbursters and they had encountered full-grown drones and warriors. They had not found any sign of draconic-bodied hatchlings like the kind Nekeress had been before growing.

The bursters could not cocoon inside the rooms the hive already owned because there would be no space for their adult bodies. They were going to grow, and grow, and grow, and molt into fully-fledged xenodragons like Nekeress herself. And Jagannathass, she wouldn't just be a titanic version of Qess, she would be a behemoth.

It was probably strange to say, but Gavin felt a little silly that it had taken so long for this to occur to him. Not that it would have changed his adoptions, but still, he could have been planning for this. Ah well.

The drones tended to the cocoons as they swelled and grew ever larger, muddy flashes of red and pink and teal visible in ever greater quantities through the murky translucency of the resin. When he slept, Gavin dreamed strange dreams of transformation and becoming, ones in which he wasn't just an observer. A few times he caught glances of a small, elegant creature walking with the hive he knew, and was somehow unsurprised when he recognized the cyborware gleam of its arms and knew he glimpsed his own reflection. Sometimes when he woke, he wondered if his imagination was merely inspired by what was happening to his newest bonds, or if precognition could be added to his list of psionic abilities.

Well, if his DNA was still continuing to change like that, he'd find out eventually, wouldn't he? And if Bill 47X didn't pass and kick him off the station, he'd have to invest in expanding the suite so his hive had room to move. Even though it was a multi-dragoner suite, three full-size and one juggernaut of a dragon needed a lot more elbow-room than it offered.

It was about a week after Jagannathass's adoption that the smaller three finished their molt and broke free. The giantess herself continued to hibernate, her colossal cocoon filling more and more of the main front room with every passing day. But as if the second hatchings of the first three were what they had been waiting for, that was the day Keren decided to return. Gavin knew she would not long after she made the decision because Igess wouldn't shut up about it. It was still wary of Nekeress, but more inclined to give her a second chance than the rest, and absolutely desperate to see Keren again.

Hoping for the best but preparing for the worst, Gavin made sure to be down in the remade dragon-rooms when they arrived. Koraess and Talaiss, as drones themselves, had joined in the maintenance of Jagannathass's slowly-swelling cocoon, and were much more efficient about it with how much larger they were than the others. Their thoughts were keener and sharper now, too, as were Shinrass's—another thing to add, along with their new size and renovations, that left him wary of how Nekeress would respond. He had no grudge with Keren—just her golden bond.

Call it being territorial, if you like.

Shinrass stepped up behind him (over him, really), as the dragon-sized door beeped with the input of an unlock code. The red warrior's dominance had proved to be more than just a newborn's ego; he had ascended to the top of the warrior's hierarchy and would probably be joined there by Jagannathass when her molting completed. Similarly, Koraess had claimed the highest station among the drones, but size wasn't everything. Poor Talaiss, no less jittery as a dragon than a snake, had assumed no dominance at all and jumped when anyone so much as hissed at her—even tiny Vluhlenda, whom she could have smashed with a single hand if she'd cared to.

The doors slid open to reveal the wayward pair, Keren strapped to Nekeress's riding harness. The drones kept working; Retejoss, Gavess, and the warriors pretended at acting natural. They were all present, slinking around corners and across the walls and between newly-resined ridges, but Gavin had leashed them enough for forbid any first aggressive moves on their part. He did not want to give Nekeress any more reason to lash out again than he had to, but was ready to blast her senseless if forced.

It was Igess that slid forward with a shy little creel when the doors had finished parting.

The golden warrior turned her head toward him for a period of time that almost felt like forever but was probably only a heartbeat or two, then ducked her head to bump him affectionately. Gavin felt Igess's happy relief and shared in it a little, but wasn't letting his guard down just yet.

Nekeress stepped all the way in, the door shutting behind her, and crouched so that Keren could dismount. Then she did something she almost never did: she shared her thoughts with the whole of them, and not just her bonded. Her mental tone was tense but tried at humor. ::Damn, you guys. I disappear for a week, and the whole place goes to pot.::

There was a slight pause across the hive, both in the diligent work of the drones and the pretended casual meanderings of the rest, as they absorbed the unfamiliar touch of her thoughts. Gavin considered hive and hiveless in equal measure as they did.

::So, you can speak without claws and teeth after all,:: Shinrass observed, allowing hive-thought to reform into the words his mature mind had made available to him and his siblings.

Nekeress bared her teeth. Whether it was a grin or snarl was anyone's guess and Keren eyed Shinrass warily, a hand on her bond's leg. ::I could say the same thing to you, Shinrass. Weren't you a bit lacking in words, yourself, last time I saw you?::

He rolled his shoulders in a nonchalant shrug. If Nekeress's sweet tone was meant to be a sarcastic jibe, it did not bite. Shinrass's own mindvoice was powerful but not directly mocking—for the moment he was only stating things as they saw it. If the golden outsider took umbrage, it was in her interpretation. ::In words, yes, but my mind is the same; now you could say I am bilingual, able to condense the flow of the hivemind into the limited words you prefer.::

Nekeress bristled, but Keren cut in, looking between the two xenodragons. "Now, calm down. Just cuz some of us talk differently doesn't mean we're more limited."

Gavin wondered if Keren was aware of the irony of her words. Nekeress accused the wordless members of his hive of being limited—in intelligence, particularly—all the time.

Rather than retort, the golden warrior gave herself a shake and gave Igess another nudge before straightening up. ::Well, if I've passed muster that I'm not going to go berserk, we can all get back to whatever we were doing and stop pretending we're all friendly and happy. I obviously have some work to do, and Tenat has human-sized people to see, or so I hear.::

As she strode off into the other rooms of the dragon-side, Gavin and Keren glanced at each other simultaneously. Keren merely shrugged.

"That went better than I feared," Gavin said on his part, looking up at Jagannathass's cocoon and relieved the giant xeno had not been targeted a second time. "I suppose the week away did her good." Which confirmed his thoughts that the warrior needed her own space for the sake of her—and everyone's—mental health.

"Actually, sir, she's been sulking something fierce," Keren answered with a little grin. "Maybe she's just making an effort to behave. I know she knows how, in that messy head of hers. So did I miss anything important? Aside from, you know, those guys growing up and getting all talky?" She jerked a thumb up at Shinrass.

"Nothing at all," Gavin replied. "The political front is the only thing that's changed and you've been out there in the middle of it, so I know I don't have to tell you how that's going." He shook his head with sad disbelief. "To think I may be exiled from the city I helped free by a piece of legislation."

"It might not pass, sir," Keren tried to assure him. "Just because it's popular right now doesn't mean it'll pass through the next election cycle, much less get the votes it needs higher-up."

"Well you know how I work: hope for the best and prepare for the worst, and unless more sensible people start raising their voices soon, I'd best be prepared," he answered with a humorless smile. "But that's enough about that damn bill. Welcome back."

She smiled, though more genuinely than he had. "Good to be back. Is there a couch around here that's not covered in xeno-crap?" she asked, looking around wryly.

"Human rooms," he replied, jerking a thumb their way, and unintentionally pointing out the little face that peeked out from the hall as well.

"Can I come out now?" Kalaia asked.

Now Gavin's little smile was more heartfelt as well, glancing back at her. "Would you believe we got worked up all for a small debate on linguistics?"

"Of course," Kalaia said lightly. "Things like that happen all the time." She picked her way out from her hiding place, and tossed her arms around Keren's waist once she got there, hugging her tight. "We missed you!"

"Did you, now?" her sister asked, putting her hands on Kalaia's head and shoulders.

"Yes!"

Gavin watched this display amusedly, but others were not content with merely watching. With a sudden squeal, Igess leapt across the room and practically slid into the sisters on his belly so that he could butt his head into the hugging. A moment later, Nonryph was upon them as well, doing a much better job at getting his arms in the mix due to his smaller size and build.

"Okay, okay, I believe you, you missed me," Keren laughed, hugging Kalaia close and leaning on the two xenobeasts. It had to be one of the most endearingly ridiculous sights Gavin had ever seen in the house, and it was nice to see a bit of a happy moment when everything else was stressed and miserable.

He didn't expect that Kalaia would stick her arm out of the huddle and beckon to him, and blinked at the gesture a little blankly. He caught on to the invitation a moment later, when Igess and Nonryph creeled at him, too, and though appreciative of the gesture, waved it off with a little smile and shake of the head. It was one thing when he got ambushed with a hug—walking into a cuddlefest like that was completely another.

Apparently that was unacceptable. "Somebody's got a stick up their ass," Keren said with a smirk. Gavin began to frown. If he was comfortable over here— "Anybody wanna go get it out for him?"

Gavin didn't know what that meant, but two other someones apparently did. Gavin's frown became wide-eyed surprise as, squealing in unison, Igess and Nonryph pulled out of the hug and bounded at him as unexpectedly as they'd pounced the sisters.

Except when it came to their queen, they really did pounce!

Gavin got one half-step backwards in, in attempt to escape, only to bounce off of Shinrass's foreleg for the red warrior hadn't moved an inch this whole time and Gavin had half-forgotten he was there. That delayed him enough—one moment he was watching the two xenos leap forward, the next he was on his back on the resin-covered floor, spitting surprised noises of protest, with Nonryph crouched on top of him and Igess astride them both on all fours, neck stretched down to nuzzle at the side of his face that Nonryph didn't already have covered.

"Oh no!" he heard Kalaia giggle, and Keren was laughing.

He heard their footsteps clicking on the resin as he pawed at the domed faces pressing both sides of his own, comfortable with this kind of affection although he would have appreciated more warning. When the sisters arrived, they managed to shoo the xenos back enough that they weren't standing over him anymore.

"Well, that did it, alright," Keren chuckled. "Sorry, sir, I didn't quite mean to suggest they knock you down...."

Gavin levered himself up to a seated position, running a hand over his head to smooth his hair back in place. "Hail to the queen," he remarked, and chuffed amusedly as Igess and Nonryph now bumped either side of him with their heads. He dedicated a hand to each one and they thrummed happily at the petting.

"He'll love on them, but not us," Keren observed, a comment Gavin didn't know what to do with. His hive was, well…him and his, while the Tenat sisters were…themselves. He couldn't imagine 'loving on them' at all.

He knew what to do with the hand she offered, though, and accepted the aid in standing again.

"That's why you have to surprise him with the loving on," Kalaia answered while he was rising, and that was all the warning he got. Once he was stable on his feet he found himself pounced again, though thankfully not knocked over, as the younger sister threw herself around his waist.

This was all really not how he had expected this homecoming to go.

"Yes, well," he began, only to have nothing to follow it with. He cleared his throat softly and self-consciously, and stroked her hair instead.

"Come on, let's stop embarrassing the Minister," Keren said after a moment, one hand on Igess. "I'm exhausted. And starving. And looking forward to being home for a while, thank the gods."

Gavin could do without further embarrassment, that was for sure…but he didn't share much of the relief he heard in Keren's voice. Something about this reunion bothered him…and he was still waiting for it to go wrong.


((Tru fax, this scene was SUPPOSED to go a lot worse, but I misread some of Gayle's off-scene cues. XD But since this was too cute a scene to scrap, chaos reigns NEXT time!))

[StarFyre]

((*camps out, waiting for more*))

[Xenoqueen]

The not-hive and the hiveless had returned. The hive was prepared to tolerate this because their queen asked it of them. Though they all would have preferred that the others had not returned at all—except for Igess and Nonryph, who were strange—the presence of the outsiders had been tolerated before and could be again, provided they did not antagonize the hive.

The not-hive, the elder of the two not-hive “humans”, was easier to endure. She was a warrior in the other hive their queen commanded, the one that obeyed their queen’s orders but did not share her thoughts. Though the not-hive warrior, Keren, often confused their queen, he trusted her and so the hive was inclined to outwardly ignore her, like they did the little not-hive akin to a drone, Kalaia, that flitted about the rooms that were too small for them to build in.

It was the one the not-hive was bound to, the hiveless Nekeress, that they and their queen did not trust: the parasite that connected size with strength and words with intelligence, and thought they were cowed when she snapped and jostled them aside and they did not lash back, when the truth was their queen, in her compassion, did not want to incite the rage and grief of the not-hive warrior by permitting them to retaliate as the hiveless one so deserved. Needed. The hiveless was undisciplined, her not-hive warrior-bond a poor substitute for a queen.

While Keren and Nekeress had been gone, their queen had at last given them permission to expand. They needed it now, the space for larger hivemates, and they disdained the untouched state of the rooms the hiveless had dwelled in alone, repressing or ignoring or simply lacking the proper instinct to build and fortify. Their queen bade them to leave untouched the room that the hiveless slept in, and the one directly outside it. The rest he gave to them, to grow into and house her hive.

They were not pleased when their queen learned that the hiveless was returning, though he had spared Nekeress’s rooms, for he was courteous, in prediction of that possibility. They gathered to wait for her, the hiveless, half expecting violence at the sight of their expansion and the cocoon of Jagannathass, who had already been attacked once. Then they were foolish: because the hiveless did not attack and actually addressed them with the limited words she clung to, for once, and left the room peaceably, they turned their attention away from her and did not give much thought to what she had said when she dismissed herself.

Afterwards, the two not-hives retired to their rooms in the small corridors of their queen’s territory and the hive had their queen to themselves. He retired to her own chamber, but her mind remained with them, sharing in Jagannathass’s dreams of becoming. The drones remained with Jagannathass so as to tend her should her dreaming express the need, and the warriors dispersed as they wished.

It was Retejoss and Shinrass who discovered the hive’s mistake. Departing the large entrance-chamber where Jagannathass slept, they went into the new rooms of their territory to assume watch at the new border between what was theirs and what had been granted to the hiveless parasite. There was where they realized, too late, that Nekeress was encroaching and had been this whole time, and somehow they had not heard. For a moment they were shocked at her greedy audacity, at the thick crack-snapping as she tore into their resin and cast the fragments into an ever-growing heap across the floor, that she had the gall to try and take back what she did not need beyond the two rooms their queen had left for her.

Then they were enraged by her transgressions and the two that had found her shrieked, wordless thoughts outcrying how dare you!

The parasite dropped from her attack on the wall, slowly and tiredly turning towards them with a snarl. Shinrass spread his wings as much as the space allowed, hissing back at her and stalking several paces forward. Retejoss was the praetorian but his task was defense of the queen; Shinrass was the highest of the warriors now, the caste that defended their territory, and the vanguard of their outrage. Their minds were all with him though their bodies lingered behind, a number of them rising to their feet and starting from their resting-places to join him.

Nekeress was slightly bigger than he, but a foot of height was a pittance when they were such large creatures already. Shinrass did not even fear her greater age or experience—she was a pathetic, hiveless parasite.

His thoughts could have told her in a moment everything she did wrong, every why it was wrong, encompassed every nuance of her effrontery and their rage and their queen’s betrayed generosity, but the parasite spoke in words. Shinrass whittled their thoughts back into the only form she could understand, wanting to punish her with tooth and claw but holding back for the sake of their queen.

::This place is no longer yours,:: he told her, putting coldness in place of hot rage. ::Go back to the rooms our queen left you.::

::Excuse me?:: she scoffed, opening her wings as well. ::This place has been mine for longer than you can imagine, puppy. Just because you’re all big and bad now doesn’t mean you get to leave your shit everywhere.::

::You were tolerated before, because there was no need to limit you,:: Shinrass answered for them, not rising to her pitiful attempt to bait him. He was of the hive and his memories extended past his birth, now. For the sake of their queen, they attempted to be…diplomatic. ::This space has been given back to us and you have been left with your sleeping-chamber and the one beside it. You need no more space than that, while we require the rest. Will you remove yourself, or must we remove you?::

::You and your gods-damned little xeno-club!:: Nekeress screamed, mind and throat alike, as Qess and Jugiss slid into the room behind him and Retejoss. ::Go ahead! Remove me if you can!::

::Pathetic parasite,:: Shinrass remarked, one last cold comment of his own made as his voice shrieked back and they answered her challenge with the wrath of the hive. He threw himself at her, and unlike she, he was not alone.

Their queen came awake, dazed by the becoming-dreams and yet equally aware…and completely unsurprised. He did not approve of Shinrass’s lunge, joined by Retejoss and Qess and Jugiss (who hated the parasite most), but he knew they would not kill and seemed resigned, having expected this from the start.

Nekeress was hardly a pushover, clearly exhausted and yet fighting with determination and rage of her own; her ability to fight was about the only thing she kept in common with her species. Nevertheless, she was outnumbered, and for every set of wounds she tore into one of them, they returned the favor four-fold, but still she would not back down and return to her rooms.

Igess was racing in, the not-hive warrior clinging to its back, alight with heat and palpable rage. It was caught and torn between its two allegiances and squalled in dismay as the other xenodragons fought and fought back, and as its not-hive bond threw a stream of fire through a gap in the melee with a cry of, “BACK OFF!”

But they could not let Nekeress gain any ground. She could not have this space. They were trying to herd her, drive her back through the archway to her rooms, and she would not go.

Their queen was as awake as he was aware with them, now. They could feel her mind gathering as he prepared himself, slowly approaching with her other self, sometimes called Gavess, at her side.

Enough, he said, a quiet word but a powerful command, backed up by the whole of her mind.

The hive obeyed by loyalty alone, but against Nekeress the thought was a blast and the hive timed themselves with it. Qess and Jugiss leapt away, while Shinrass and Retejoss pulled back their claws and threw their shoulders into the hiveless instead, to force her back in concert with their queen.

Nekeress crumpled, though not immediately, perhaps clinging to consciousness by sheer hate alone. Still, she staggered as the two shoved her away, stumbled over her own feet and the bloody-slippery coils of resin and shards of debris, landing in an awkward heap on the other side of the room, not through the doorway, but near it.

Keren flew across the room on her fire-wings and crouched by her bond as the parasite lay there, panting weakly. None of the hive went after her, not even Jugiss, who sorely would have liked to. Shinrass and Retejoss sat back towards the middle of the room, one of them coldly impassive, the other unhappy but staying the course. Arriving with her escort and standing silently just inside the other doorway, their queen sent Qess and Jugiss out of the room, back to the gathering of drones to be tended. In their place he called in Ujuboen and Richyluc and sent one to each of the fighters now standing sentry in the room they would still not give up.

He called in a third, as well: Nonryph skulked warily up behind the blazing Keren, trilling cautiously for permission to approach. He was not as fond of Nekeress as Igess was, but he was the only drone willing to approach her at all—and probably the only one who had a chance of being accepted nearer.

::If you think,:: Nekeress growled weakly, a thought only Nonryph could hear directly but that the rest heard through him, ::I’m going to let anyone—cover me in that—Royals-forsaken shit--::

“Nekeress, shut up,” the not-hive snapped angrily. “Nonryph, she didn’t mean it, she’s just addled. Come on over. Just be careful about it.”

The drone slid around the flare of Keren’s wings and—because he was so small and she was so big—crawled carefully onto the length of Nekeress’s body to spread his resin and seal her wounds. As he moved, Keren snapped something private at her bond, then turned around and faced the rest of them. “Someone wanna explain just what the hellshappened here? Last I checked, nobody wanted to do any fighting.”

The hive conferred with their queen, and again it was Shinrass who spoke. Though their queen knew what had happened as perfectly as if he had been present, he wanted them to speak for themselves, at least to start.

::We were slow to realize she was tearing down our constructions,:: he answered levelly, stretching out a leg for Ujuboen to tend. ::We told her to stop, that this space is ours now, and to go back to her rooms. She would not leave, and challenged us to remove her instead. We obliged.::

“Nekeress?”

::You know me,:: the hiveless answered the prodding irritably, with a trace of bitter humor. ::Someone growls at me first, I growl right back. You don’t get me to do something by hitting me with a blast of fury right off the bad. I think I did pretty damn well, not jumping at them right then.::

“You would’ve done better to control your fucking temper,” Keren snapped at her bond, then turned on the rest of them. “Since when is it a problem to be cleaning up the resin the hive leaves behind? If that was a problem, maybe somebodyshould’ve told us, before misunderstandings happened.”

“I forgot,” their queen sighed, aware how trite an answer that was, but having no other. He still stood by the door with Gavess, pinching her brow, her mind very full. “I expected the fight to break out over Jagannathass and forgot about the rest of the rooms. I’m sorry, I share fault here. They needed the space and I told them to take it, leaving the last two rooms for Nekeress.”

The not-hive warrior sighed, heavily and tiredly, focused back on her bond. “Can you do that, then? Keep from tearing down the shit they leave up?”

Whatever the hiveless answered, it was private. After a few moments, Nekeress turned her head and pressed her snout into Nonryph. Although his task was only mostly complete, the biggest injuries sealed but with others still leaking, she nosed him off of her and he all but fell—not for any of herdoing, but for a moment’s fearful surprise when he thought she might just snap him up in one bite after all. Nekeress did nothing of the sort, thankfully, merely levering herself to her feet and silently limping off into the rooms she was allowed to call hers.

As a whole, the hive was appeased for now, barring independent thoughts like Igess’s worry or Jugiss’s unabated dislike. They were discontent that the space had to be shared at all, but if it had to be, and the hiveless would behave from now on, then this arrangement could be endured. Besides, this had only convinced their queen all the more that the hive needed a space all its own, just as the not-hive needed a space all their own.

Before he turned away to return to her room, he gave Keren a tired and solemn look, but held back on speaking further. The night had finally taken the miserable turn he’d expected and he’d had enough for now.

[Cacopheny]

((most of the other posts, my side wouldn't have added much, but this one has so much where Nekeress said stuff and thought stuff and did stuff that illuminates things, I had to post, too XD plus, I'm proud of finally giving her a personality beyond "rawr I keel you!" ^^ -- Gail))

Cleaning up resin was an oddly soothing chore. Sure, there was a lot of grumbling about the mess, and the effort, and the annoyance, but it was a familiar sort of chore. One that meant, as always, she was home. Of course, it had never been this bad, before. There hadn't been dragon-sized cocoons before, after all, though, so she didn't exactly hold it against them. There wasn't room to build things like this anywhere else in the suite.

But leaving them there, cluttering things up, mute testaments to the encroachment of that gods-damned hive into everything normal and hers, wasn't about to happen. They'd never cared before when she cleaned up, and it wasn't like they were using them anymore, so it was time to tear them down and get back to normal.

Not that things would really be normal. There were three more xenodragons in the suite now, and soon to be one more, who probably counted for three together. Nekeress had known her days of ascendancy in her own home were over, her sole point of pride that kept her going these days, from the moment she'd seen that giant mutant of a burster. It had been a mistake to attack-- futile, too, and she knew that, had known that-- but she hadn't been thinking very clearly, at the time. The three burstlings had been bad enough, especially when she hadn't been sure how big they'd be in the end, but Jagannathass-- what a pretentious mind-full that name was!-- was just beyond the pale, and she'd gone a little wild.

Sure, she regretted it, like she regretted anything that had gone badly, or anything that caused Tenat grief, or anything that resulted in her being kicked out of her own home. Not that that had happened before. But still. She regretted it enough that she was going to try to live with the beasts, while they played in their little hive and flaunted their belonging and "bilingual"-ness, but that didn't mean she was happy about it. Home was home, and it was something she hadn't realized she'd miss so much, but the hive was still a bunch of arrogant, mindless monsters. Even the "bilingual" ones.

So the mindless effort of cleaning up resin, which usually annoyed the hell out of her, was unexpectedly relaxing, especially once Tenat went to bed and she didn't have those thoughts pulling at her. The exhaustedly sleeping mind of her bond was soothing, too, though it hadn't quite dragged Nekeress into wanting to sleep yet, not even as tired as she was. She needed to work off the last of her tension, first.

Maybe it was the tiredness, or maybe it was the repetitive motions, or maybe it was Tenat being asleep, but she didn't even notice when Retejoss and Shinrass came into the room she was working on, right beside hers. She didn't notice until they shrieked in fury, anyway: that was pretty hard to miss. Especially when it came with a mental shriek, too, just as wordless. Nekeress was slower than usual-- probably all those same things which made her miss their approach-- and she dropped to all fours heavily with a snarl of her own. What the hell was their problem now?

Shinrass advanced on her, wings spread. Did the puffed up infant really think he was going to attack her? She had training and experience, not to mention height and weight, and though it wasn't quite as much as she was used to with other xeno-type creatures, she'd been fighting the big boys lately, and she knew what she was doing.

Not that fighting was probably a good idea, she just didn't usually think about things like that when a fight was in the offing.

:This place is no longer yours,: he told her coldly. :Go back to the rooms our queen left for you.:

Excuse me?: she snorted at him, mantling her own wings in weary, frustrated anger. Rooms she'd been "left"? :This place has been mine for longer than you can imagine, puppy. Just because you're all big and bad now doesn't mean you get to leave your shit everywhere.:

:You were tolerated before, because there was no need to limit you,: Shinrass told her, cutting more than he probably knew, and stirring up that famous temper she had. :This space has been given back to us and you have been left with your sleeping-chamber and the one beside it. You need no more space than that, while we require the rest. Will you remove yourself, or must we remove you?:

Tolerated. Of course she was tolerated. Everyone that wasn't part of their precious little hive was merely tolerated-- even Tenat was just tolerated, left to have things, not let to choose them, or even consulted! They'd probably want to "limit" Tenat too, now that they were so many and so smart! As if either of them needed "limiting" when they weren't the ones who kept growing and adding more!

It was too much for her temper, especially already strained as it was. :You and your gods-damned little xeno-club!: she roared back at him, mind and throat both. :Go ahead! Remove me if you can!: Maybe a good fight was what they all needed.

Somewhere else in the suite, Tenat was waking up in a panic, herself, as Igess scrambled up off where it'd half-smashed her bed, caught in a too-small room where he'd wriggled to catch up on missed other-bond-time.

:Pathetic parasite,: was all Shinrass had to say, as he and Retejoss-- who she had at least thought she'd gotten along all right with, despite their little tiff over Jagannathass; guess their fucking hive trumped that, too-- and Quess and Jugiss, who had slithered in during the argument, all launched themselves at her. Nekeress didn't care. She'd take them all, if she had to, to defend her territory, the only thing she had, besides Tenat. She was tired, but she didn't care about that, either. They deserved every claw-mark she could put on them.

Tenat was scrambling towards them all, clinging to Igess-- Nekeress didn't even want to know what that one was thinking, whether it was coming to hurt or help or just bring their mutual bond; Igess she did actually like, not just thought she got along with-- all aflame and still sleep-muddled, but coming to defend her bond. She burst into the room in the midst of shrieks and acid splatters and Nekeress not willing to admit she was hopelessly outmatched, taking four claw-lashes to every one or two she managed to dole out.

"BACK OFF!" Tenat bellowed, and though she didn't have much psi to throw behind it, she did have magic. She threw her fire lance into the middle of them all, trying and failing to break up the fight without actually hurting any of them. Since Gavin apparently wasn't going to do anything, her own thoughts were growling.

Except Gavin was doing something. It just took him a minute or two longer, apparently. :Enough,: was the word he used this time, but it still just about knocked her out, on top of everything else. Only the certainty that the other xenodragons would take advantage of her momentary lapse-- and probably gut her; obviously they hated her, and would probably be glad of the chance-- kept her clinging to consciousness, fighting back the fuzziness that tried to turn her senses into nothing.

There was still a moment where she lost track of what was going on, as she struggled not to just collapse then and there, and when she pulled herself back from the mental brink of blankness, she had sprawled out on the floor, as if she'd been shoved and hadn't managed to keep her footing. She scrambled to get her feet under her and her senses sharpened, but everything still felt fuzzy.

Then Tenat was there, apparently having ducked around the others and at least made a show of trying to ward them off. Nekeress had soothing hands on her, on the few places she wasn't bleeding, and fire from her bond's wings crackling hot just out of reach. "Hey, hey, it's okay, calm down. They aren't gonna get you, calm down."

:Coulda fooled me,: Nekeress panted weakly. She didn't even want to take stock of how many bleeding wounds she had, now. It would probably depress her. She also didn't want to check out beyond the little circle of herself and her bond, to see where everyone was. That would probably depress her more.

It was harder to ignore Nonryph's approach, since he did it trilling nervously, probably for permission to start spitting that crispy goo all over her. That goo that had started this whole mess, and which was probably going to get Tenat kicked out, now. :If you think,: she sent crankily to anyone close enough to hear-- which probably wasn't very many of them, since her range wasn't exactly what it could have been at that momemt, :I'm going to let anyone-- cover me in that-- Royals-forsaken shit--:

"Nekeress, shut up," Tenat told her. She sounded angry. "Nonryph, she didn't mean it, she's just addled. Come on over. Just be careful about it."

:Is that worry I hear?: Nekeress asked snidely. :I'm not that bad off....:

"You're bad enough," Tenat shot back, then stood up, still standing close. "Someone wanna explain just what the hells happened here? Last I checked, nobody wanted to do any fighting." Since she wasn't actually addressing her, Nekeress didn't answer, just tried to hold still, grudgingly, and ignore Nonryph's disapproval and nerves, and Igess's radiating of distress. Well, at least it wasn't all out to kill her, like the rest. That was something, she supposed, even if it was cold comfort.

It took a moment, but then Shinrass explained. Apparently he wasn't going to be rude and angry now, not with his stupid queen present, not when someone might scold him for it. :We were slow to realize she was tearing down our constructions,: he answered levelly, letting Ujuboen close up a nasty gash in his leg Nekeress had left on him. :We told her to stop, that this space is ours now, and to go back to her rooms. She would not leave, and challenged us to remove her instead. We obliged.:

"Nekeress?" Tenat prodded, apparently wanting both sides.

:You know me,: she replied openly again, irritably but with a trace of bitter humor, shifting a leg and wincing at the feel of that stupid, fucking resin on it. She was going to be coated with the stuff, by the time Nonryph was done. So maybe she was pretty torn up.... :Someone growls at me first, I growl right back. You don't get me to do something by hitting me with a blast of fury right off the bat. I think I did pretty damn well, not jumping at them right then.:

"You would've done better to control your fucking temper," Tenat countered, but her anger wasn't just at Nekeress. She was angry at the whole hive, the situation, and even the precious, all-wonderful hive-queen of theirs. "Since when is it a problem to be cleaning up the resin the hive leaves behind? If that was a problem, maybe somebody should've told us, before misunderstandings happened." Nekeress couldn't tell where she was looking, but she could guess.

"I forgot," was the answer from the person she had been looking at, who at least was being sort-of reasonable, this time. Probably because it was his set who started it, this time, and probably only because Nekeress had been neutralized. "I expected the fight to break out over Jagannathass and forgot about the rest of the rooms. I'm sorry, I share fault here. They needed the space and I told them to take it, leaving the last two rooms for Nekeress."

That got Tenat to calm down a little. She heaved a heavy, irritated, and still pretty tired sigh. "Can you do that, then?" she asked. "Keep from tearing down the shit they leave up?"

:Even if I wanted to walk through it to get to my rooms,: Nekeress spat, back, though privately this time, :what's the point when we're merely tolerated? Everywhere I go, they're going to be wishing I was gone. Wishing they were tearing me to pieces. This time, they almost did.: Nonryph had the worst of it coated over, now, and she didn't want the feel of anyone hive-minded on her just then. At least she retained the courtesy to nose him off, since she didn't want to get bit or clawed or mobbed again, before she got up, aching in every muscle and most of her nerves. She couldn't help but notice how he practically fell over himself in his eagerness to be gone. It just drove home everything else she said. Tenat noticed it, too. :Think about that for a while, Tenat. Think about who even Igess would choose, if it came between you and me, and the rest of them.:

Tenat didn't answer that, she just glowered. It wasn't something she'd want to think about, Nekeress was sure. She limped off into the rooms that had been "designated" as hers, and hoped to hell the rest of them just left her alone.

[Xenoqueen]

Keren left the house for work before Gavin was even up, and he was no late riser, not even with the soothingly surreal becoming-dreams to hold his thoughts. Either she was mad at him or she didn’t want to hear what had to be said, or a combination of the two, but that couldn’t change anything. He wanted to give her the respect of talking to her, but if she wouldn’t sit down with him face-to-face like an adult, he’d go ahead with his decision on his own. Even if she already guessed at what he intended, he wanted to give her the chance to hear it straight from him before he put it into action, but he couldn’t force her to listen to him.

Well, correction, he was a psionic and therefore easily could, but it would feel to him like some kind of attack if he did it that way. He didn’t want to come across as if he was angry and trying to attack her, or Nekeress, or even Kalaia. The sisters were his friends and he did not want to severe those friendships, which was exactly what he foresaw living forcedly under the same roof like this would eventually do. The benefits of sharing the same living space no longer outweighed the stress and strain. Twice already had things snapped into violence. A third time would not be the charm.

But he did not spend the day dwelling on it. The domestic life of Gavin Vance was a separate thing from the duties of the Minister of Security, and there were plenty of people on the other end of his implant-tapped security channels that needed his guidance and instruction. If his hands hadn’t been made of the advanced metalloids that they were, his calluses would have been extreme for the hours dedicated to his holo-computer.

His hive was busy as well, re-ingesting the shattered resin in the “border room” and repairing the damage Nekeress had done. The xenodragon herself was invalid in her room, Igess and Nonryph taking her place as Keren’s escorts at work, but his hive did not antagonize her nor even pay that much more attention to her being near than they usually did. That hardly meant they accepted her presence, though. This was just a temporary appeasement, a moment’s calm before whatever else might go wrong next. They needed a space they were not forced to share.

But Nekeress was all alone in there, with Keren gone, and the hive working on the “border” reporting that Kalaia had passed through to visit her sister’s bond only once. Though certain Nekeress liked him as little as he liked her, he didn’t have to like her to feel sympathy for her. While it was true that she had challenged his hive rather than take the opening they’d given to depart peacefully, it was equally true that he had forgotten to tell anyone outside his mind of the transfer of room-claims. She deserved half the thrashing she had gotten, but not all of it, so he couldn’t justify ignoring her and leaving her to herself all day.

Forbidding any accompaniment, he passed through the dragon-sized rooms to the one at the far end, where Nekeress was a gold-black mountain on her acidproof bedding, radiating pain and sour thoughts that were only half-conscious. Gavin could have delved them to find if she was awake or not, since she had no eyes to go by, but had no desire to actually do so. Instead he remained at the giant doorway, hands in his pockets, regarding her and her seeping wounds with no pleasure.

“Nekeress?”

It took a few slow, groggy moments before she answered. ::Whatever it is,:: she muttered, ::I didn’t do it.::

“That would be an accomplishment if you had, dead as you’ve been all day,” he answered evenly, unsurprised by her tone. “I’m only checking to see if you need anything.”

::Unless you can convince your industrious little army, out there, to stop adding insult to injury until I'm not actually, you know, right here listening to them, no, probably not.::

Well it wasn’t a polite request in the slightest, but if it was bothering her that much, Gavin wasn’t the sort to leave an irritant in place just because someone he didn’t like hadn’t asked nicely. A man in his position didn’t have the luxury of petty behavior.

He put his thoughts out to his hive. They weren’t too pleased to be stopped with things half-done, but at least the room was still theirs. Gavin waited, listening as the busy flurry of claw-ticks on resin and the crunching and hissing of recycling and remaking faded out, and the drones who had been working there went to rejoin those tending to Jagannathass. Now only Shinrass was in that room, though doing nothing more than quietly recuperating, himself.

That done, he gave Nekeress a glance, briefly thinking he could tell her everything there was to say to Keren as well, but obviously the xenodragon just wanted to be left alone, so he turned to leave without a word, himself.

He hadn’t gotten too far before Nekeress’s thoughts reached out to him. It wasn’t in thanks, of course not, but it was surprising enough that she’d address him again at all. He stopped to listen, but did not turn around. ::Bet it never occurred to any of that mess of yours that it’s not my fault you collect more of them than my bond does, did it?::

::Oh, they have plenty to say about your ‘warrior-bond’ being a ‘poor substitute for a queen’,:: he thought back, since that let him kept the level tone of “voice” that wouldn’t have carried across the big room. It kept his words an observation, rather than an accusation, though he wouldn’t be surprised if she took it as such, anyway. ::But it’s not for a lack of numbers that you’re considered ‘hiveless’. A hive could still be two—if it acted as a hive::

::Oh, okay, because she's not some mental giant and I'm not some mindless yes-dragon like yours are, I'm somehow less of a xenodragon?:: Nekeress replied sourly. Of course. ::Right. That makes me feel much better about their opinions. I bet if they didn't have their precious little hive, they wouldn't be much different from me.::

Gavin pinched his brow—a tired gesture a lot more common to him lately than it had even been before—trying to think that over. Nekeress was preoccupied by the hive’s opinion of her? Since when?

::If they didn’t have the hive they have now, they would seek and make another, because that’s their nature,:: he replied as reasonably as he could manage, trying not to feel like he was explaining something simple to a small child. ::I know it’s not yours, but to them, you’re plenty of a ‘dragon’ but nothing ‘xeno’.:: He glanced backwards and found that the golden warrior was already staring at him in her eyeless fashion. Where they really having this conversation? ::It’s hard enough for them to tolerate your individuality without you throwing it at them like it makes you the superior creature. Be different all you want, Nekeress, but don’t throw criticism and expect you won’t be criticized in return::

::Little late for that, now, isn’t it?:: she countered grumpily. She was baring her teeth at him, sensing his look at her, but the expression was less intimidating than it could have been—he could clearly see, even from here, that a couple of her teeth had been knocked right out of their sockets. The flaw was so unexpected and out of place for the sleek visage of a xenodragon that he couldn’t even laugh, only blink at the oddity.

::It might come as something of a shock to you people,:: she went on, sheathing her gapped snarl and putting her head down, ::but I am trying, here. How the hell is anything I try going to do any good, if all they want to do is throw anger at me, even when I’m trying to keep mine to myself?::

Was it really Nekeress saying these things? Her mind still seethed with all her trademark anger and bitterness, but the words were far outside her usual curses and snide remarks—the only thing Gavin ever heard out of her, when he heard anything at all. He wondered what it was, when it had been, that she’d finally started to grow up.

::Well, you see the right of that, at least. We’re all a bit too set in our ways by now, and the strain we cause each other is only escalating,:: he told her, finding he could tell her this thing directly after all. She wouldn’t have to wait and hear it through Keren. ::That’s why, if that anti-xeno bill doesn’t kick us all off the station in the coming weeks, I’m going to move out and take my hive with me.::

The xenodragon’s head came back up so sharply that even from here, he could hear the resin sealant over several of her wounds crack apart. She flinched and held very still, apparently hurting, but that didn’t stop her growling, ::You know Tenat will never agree to that. You’re family. Even if your stupid hive doesn’t think so, she does.::

::My parents and two sisters don’t stop being my family just because we all live in different places,:: he countered reasonably, but tiredly. He’d made his decision; this was the best course for everyone involved. ::Nor do I need any permission to leave. My name is the only one on the deed of ownership for the suite, and if we aren’t exiled, I will move to another suite on the deck and ownership of this one will transfer to Keren, Kalaia, and you.::

::What a great family you make,:: she spat at him. Was it the reaction he knew Keren would have that she channeled, or something else? ::Making decisions without even thinking to talk to anyone about them. Maybe being a queen has gone to your head. Too used to people bowing down and letting you do whatever you want.:: Gavin regarded her impassively as her sendings started to go fuzzy. ::Either go away or make yourself useful. I’m kind of bleeding, here.::

He sent a thought to two, determining one would obey if commanded, while the other was far less resentful of the notion, as long as Nekeress kept playing nice. He summoned her alone and she raced to respond.

There were all kinds of things he could have said to Nekeress. Not to appease her, not to explain himself, not to convince her he was right—but just because they were there to be said. How he had never asked to be cross-bonded to Keren, how he was still growing less human, that he was accepting of the change, how he wanted a space where he didn’t have to force a balance between hive and not-hive, and where he didn’t have to think that next time it wouldn’t be one of his bonds, but he that lashed out from the strain.

What he said was, ::You’re correct, and that’s why I’ll be the one leaving.::

And here was Richyluc, her glowing patches and orbs all dim but for the one at the end of her tail. As she stepped towards the injured Nekeress, her tail seemed to trail streamers of light on the verge of solidifying. At the edge of the bed, the xeno-mutt reached back and plucked one of these free, folding its magic into something new to cover Nekeress’s wounds with and asking, ::If I may…?::

::Yeah,:: Nekeress answered simply, shifting with a little wince. Then she added, ::Just—don’t act like I’m going to eat you, or anything. I’m not.:: She was quiet briefly, then twitched a wing and spoke again. ::Xenos taste awful, anyway.::

Richyluc climbed carefully onto the bed beside her in order to reach better, though she was much bigger than Nonryph and so didn’t need to actually climb on Nekeress. Her bioluminescent faceplates pulsed briefly as she turned her head in the direction of the warrior’s, and Gavin could read she was admittedly a little nervous about the proximity, but she was shy and nervous about lots of things, anyway. She’d been the lowest-ranked of the bunch before Talaiss had joined.

::I’m—only here to help, anyway,:: Richyluc at last managed, placing the bright magic-patch over a wound. After a tiny flare of light as it affixed in place, it subsided to a far fainter glow, not that either of the xenos could see it. ::It’s not fair to attack a drone that’s only trying to help, right?::

Gavin turned away again and left them to it, pretty certain that, for once, Nekeress could be trusted with something other than looking after Keren—which was to say, not lashing out at his Richyluc. Apparently he wasn’t the only one in the house going through some changes.

A shame they hadn’t come along sooner.

[Xenoqueen]

Before getting back to work, Gavin leaned back in his desk chair and reflected on his conversation with Nekeress. It had been surprising in many ways: that she had a preoccupation of some kind with his hive other than being outnumbered; that something had changed somewhere in her and she had mentioned trying to get along with his hive, before he’d told her it was too late for that; that she hadn’t been pleased by the thought of him leaving and taking the hive with him, allowing her to claim all of the dragon-side half of the suite for herself, without having to share it with anyone that hated, shunned, or ignored her.

He knew the xenodragon would tell Keren everything at some point before her bond returned home. What he didn’t know was how that would change the conversation they still needed to have. He knew she would be angry—Keren had a lot of that emotion in common with her bond albeit in different ways—but would that anger burn out before she got home, or burn brighter given those hours to be fed and grow?

Well, he’d find out soon enough. With that, he parceled up all those thoughts and set them aside as he sat forward with his holo-computer again and got back to the duties of being the Minister of Security.

He got back into his work so well, in fact, that Igess had to break him out of the trance. His home office had been enlarged so that most of the burster-types could crawl in and keep him company, though the big ones could only visit one at a time and had to be mindful of their long tails and skulk in on all fours. Not long after sending him a reserved little we’re home though, Igess slipped its way through down the hall and into the room, half-laying down behind his chair and half-coiling around the desk, positioned such that it could put its head up on the surface, cutting off several projected-light displays that the blind creature couldn’t even see.

Though it wasn’t the only member of the hive with reservations about moving, its were the strongest and the only ones tied primarily to unhappiness at having to split from the Tenats. It understood Gavin’s need and reasoning, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t going to be unhappy. Gavin did not begrudge the poor beast its feelings, though it was somewhat of a nuisance that now he was stuck at his desk until it moved, or unless Gavin felt like climbing over either desk or xenodragon itself to escape.

He rubbed Igess’s snout with sympathy and fond exasperation. Now how was he supposed to step out and—oh, nevermind. Here was Keren stepping into the office, herself. He regarded her through the glow of his remaining screens for a moment, before dismissing them with his free hand.

“Well. How shall this conversation go, then?” he asked, certain a dozen things had to be going through her head and inviting her to start with any number of them.

He was not surprised by the glare she leveled silently on him for a moment, hands on her hips—so, things were going to go the angry route. “Probably with me being frustrated,” she grumbled. “There’s no way you could’ve, I don’t know, talked it over with us before you just up and decided what was best for everybody? Since that’s what friends do?”

“All the talking in the world couldn’t change what goes on in my head and gets worse every day, Keren,” he answered gently. He understood that she was hurt and angry, even if that private-stupid part of him could never wrap his head around why the Tenats were so attached to him. He was fond of them as well, in his way, but wouldn’t have felt the need to try and cling to them if they were the ones that wanted to move out. It was what he’d expected, after all, before changing his mind and deciding he had to move, instead of waiting on them. That part of his was all human, though. It had been there since he had been very small.

“There’s a lot of bad feelings building up in the air around here,” he went on, “and if I’m not choking on them, I’m sharing in them. Without a space of our own, the next one to snap may very well be me. I already came too close once, maybe twice. I can’t keep risking that.”

“Sir,” she replied with clear frustration, “that still doesn’t change the fact that we’re people. We deserve to be talked with, not told what’s happening. Even if we wound up at the same decision you did—and for all you know, we might’ve—it would’ve been our decision, all of us, not yours, one we all shared in. Royals bless it, sir, you’re a public official! You were a spy! Have you forgotten everything you knew about people?”

Gavin sighed, a little frustrated himself, and spread his hands helplessly. “It wasn’t even something I was completely convinced I had to do until last night, and what happened to Nekeress. You hardly seemed like you didn’t expect I’d bring up the topic of separate housing again, something we’ve done to death over the years, each time I’ve brought it up—you certainly left awfully early, this morning. Except now there is a danger instead of a nuisance, and you know how I work—I make decisions when they have to be made.”

Elbows propped on his desk, the folded his hands back together and considered Keren over the top of them as he asked a question of his own. “If this is the angle you want to attack me from, shouldn’t a friend understand when another has to do what’s best for himself and the nineteen others he’s bonded to?”

Keren held up a finger at him, growling. “No one is attacking anyone, and you have no fucking right to guilt trip me for making a point you don’t want to address-- because you aren’t addressing it. You’re changing the subject and trying to blame me. I never even said it was a bad decision. I never once said you shouldn’t look out for that fucking hive. I just want you to consider human feelings in all this. Making decisions for people is wrong, and if you want to lose friends, that’s the way to do it—to exclude us, like what we think doesn’t matter. Your hive may like it, but gods dammit, you are still part human in there, and you have to deal with humans, so you had better start remembering what it’s like to give a damn how we interact!”

His level stare was probably not the reaction Keren was trying to get from him, but allowing his frustration to grow and swell into anger at being the focus of such a tirade would be to give in to his xenomorph temper, which was exactly part of what he was trying to defeat by moving out.

“The next time you want to make a point, state it plainly instead of couching it in sarcasm—it’s a very human thing to misunderstand the point of a conversation when one thinks he is being attacked, too,” he replied instead, allowing at least a little outlet for the irritation. “You’re angry because I skipped over getting your opinion—but I maintain that my sanity is my jurisdiction. I’m not trying to alienate you, Keren. I’m trying to get myself where I don’t have to.”

“I wasn’t being sarcastic, sir,” Tenat answered shortly, crossing her arms over her chest. “You were just ignoring that I had a point to make, because you didn’t care. Just like you are now. Your sanity is all yours to worry about. But this is a household. And you coulda, you know, waited until I got home, or called me, or sought me out, or cornered me tomorrow before I left, and said you were thinking of leaving, and explained yourself then, instead of saying, fait accompli, you’re leaving, without thinking anyone might have a problem with that—and not caring, obviously.”

She sighed heavily before continuing. “Whatever you’re doing, sir, it’s not the right way to do it, whether the decision is the right one or not—whether you mean to or not, you’re going to alienate people if you don’t talk things over.” She spread her arms in exasperation. “I mean, this is coming from me, I’m as straight-forward as a brick wall, and even I know not to go over your head with something like that.”

And here was the gesture again: the closed eyes and pinch of his brow, the mind behind it full to bursting with a million things. Igess, who had been doing a remarkable job of keeping itself anxiously invisible while words and tempers flew back and forth between its two bonds, warbled at him in concern.

“My sanity trumps the household, because if I lose it, there will be no household,” he answered flatly as Igess grew restless. Keren was complaining about feelings when he was trying to stay sane? What kind of priorities were those? “If alienating you keeps you safe, so be it. I will not apologize for that. The hive is too much of me, Keren, and the angrier they get, the angrier I get. I cannot stop what I am becoming, but God help me, I will not lose control of myself again because of it.”

‘Again’, because the first time had been with the invading queen. Even if that was a blur of rage to him now, he knew what he had done in it: not caused her to set off the bombs, but psionically exploded her remaining accompaniment of drones. He’d been angry for his own reasons, then, not the hive’s, but the end result was the same: Gavin’s anger was a deadly thing. It had already urged him once to put his teeth in Keren’s throat (God help him if that hadn’t been the dope breaking down his self-control), and with how much he disliked Nekeress, it was all too easy to imagine himself snapping and lashing out without restraint if she somehow managed to provoke him again.

He often didn’t understand Keren and her sister, and the connection they felt with him, but he would not let himself turn into a danger towards them.

“We’re scaring the kids,” she commented, moving to Igess’s shoulder and petting it. He didn’t see her do this, since he was still focusing on that massive fullness inside his mind, but knew it through the xenodragon itself, who whined and wished the tension would break.

Keren was quiet a moment, into which Gavin did not interject, before speaking again. “Sir, even if you are dangerous—which I’m not thinkin’ is that much of a problem, since we were yelling at each other a minute ago, and here I am, just fine. Even if you were, that doesn’t have anything to do with you not talking to me. I didn’t know you think you’re dangerous. All I knew was you were gonna leave. You need to explain these things before you go all marytr-ish and make these big, life-changing decisions for all of us. It’s not that hard a concept. Seriously. I doubt talking will turn you into a slavering xeno-beast.” She shook her head and gave Igess’s head a hug, earning another whine. “Can you just say you’re sorry for hurting my feelings, already, so we can move on to the important shit?”

Gavin had to hold back a knee-jerk reaction that Keren wasn’t taking him seriously, that she was so focused on her Goddamn feelings that she was apparently not listening to him telling her he was trying not to lose his self-control. The bulk of the hive was seething inside his skull, angry at how selfish she was being, yelling at him me me me think about me and accusing him of not caring. The part of him that knew Keren and that this was as bullheaded as she always was did its best to remind him otherwise, but there was a plain old human part of him that was frustrated, too, wishing she could show a little Goddamn sympathy. Did she think he was making this all up?

::No, I will not apologize, because right now I’m not in a place where I would mean it,:: he sent her, head still low and brow still pinched, because sending to her was also showing her. How everything in his mind broiled, his and hive alike, and even Gavin Vance’s remarkable self-control was slowly corroding in it all. He came under attack at work and he—or aspects of himself—came under attack at home, and unless he got somewhere where at least one of those assaults could be negated, he did not know how much longer he could hold on.

And to Gavin Vance, to whom self-control was paramount, the fact that Keren kept brushing it off when he said as much—not just here, but even as far back as right after the attack by the queen, when she hadn’t seemed to acknowledge his concerns and regrets as valid—was really not helping or making him feel apologetic at all.

“Gavin,” Keren said, sounding weary in place of angry, now. “It’s not that I’m not taking you seriously. It’s that I trust you. I always have, and I always will, even when you’re pissed at me. When it counts, I believe you’ll managed not to snap. There’s been a few times when you could’ve, and you didn’t, and I trust in that.”

Well, how very nice of her. That made her the only one. But at least she wasn’t yelling anymore, and at least she wasn’t ignoring what he was saying, the same way she was accusing him of doing. Somehow this had turned into one big Charlie Foxtrot when it was precisely what he had wanted to avoid, and he struggled to reassert a measure of calm in place of telling her where she was wrong again.

“Is this one of those moments where Retejoss would say you need a hug? Because if it is, Kalaia’s not here to give you one, and I’m all you’ve got.”

Don’t get mad because she’s trying to joke, he told himself. She’s gotten most of her sense back and is trying to diffuse you now. How Goddamn ironic is that?

It was several moments of such thoughts later before he sat up again, attempting to steady himself with a deep breath. He wasn’t calm inside, but he thought he had control again.

“No. Thank you. What I need is to start this conversation over,” he answered, managing not to do it through clenched silver teeth. “I was prepared to explain my reasoning for my decision, even though—” –you didn’t hang around this morning to hear it, was how the thought finished, but that was just giving in to taking a snipe at her again, and that was not self-control.

Keren figured it out, anyway, smiling wryly. “Even though I didn’t want to talk this morning.”

Well at least she admitted that, too. Gavin closed his eyes, gave himself another moment, and tried again. “I was prepared for you to be upset. I was not prepared for you to come in here yelling that you had a right to be in on the decision-making. To have an opinion on it, certainly, but you cannot control where I choose to go.

“Now before we get stuck in another round of flinging accusations, because that’s an endless loop my mental state does not need—can I explain myself in the rational fashion I originally intended?”

“I kind of thought you already did, rational or not,” Keren pointed out. “I got a pretty good picture a few minutes ago, there. Unless there’s more that doesn’t have to do with the fear-of-hurting-us thing, or the too-many-angry-minds-in-one-place thing? Cuz really, I’d think that’s more than enough.”

Gavin regarded her with puzzled frustration for a moment. So he had ‘more than enough’ in terms of reasons, and she claimed to be taking him seriously. If he acknowledged that she had a right to an opinion on his choice, and understood his decision upset them…was she continuing to complain just on principle?

But he was sick of arguing. “And I’m tired, Keren,” he added instead. “We’re all tired, even Igess. We’re tired of sullen, resentful tolerance. We want our own space where we can stop feeling this way. I’m not saying I want to go halfway around the station and never see you or your sister again, but I want, need space that doesn’t have to be shared.”

“All you ever had to do was say that, sir,” she replied, sounding faintly sad. “You never said anything. Every time housing came up, it was because you couldn’t understand why we stayed, not that you were having an issue. I didn’t know.”

“That’s because it wasn’t an issue before, at least not one I couldn’t handle. But it is in part, now, with how things have escalated ever since that damn fight with the queen, in my head and in the hive alike,” he sighed back. He spread his hands again. “So there it is. That’s everything I wanted to say, if not the manner I wanted to say it in.”

“It wasn’t quite the manner I’d wanted to say my piece in, either,” Keren admitted ruefully. “I expected to get past that part in a minute or two, get to the part where I tried to convince you to change your mind—think we’ll skip that part—and then get to the part where it’s really kind of stupid of you to move out of a multidragoner suite when, uh, the people you leave behind aren’t exactly multidragoner.” She scratched the back of her head a little awkwardly. “We’re just gonna rattle around in here like coins in a beggar’s jar, and we’d just have to sell the place in the end, anyway, so….”

Gavin sat back in his chair again, relaxing now that all the sour feelings seemed to have been vented on both their parts. Igess felt more at peace, too, at least as far as it could be with its bonds discussing separate housing. Something like a smile finally tugged a corner of his mouth. “Well I couldn’t force you out,” he said, although legally he had every right to. Morally, he could never do such a thing. “Me making a sudden decision like this is enough of an upheaval without me demanding you be the ones to leave, on top of it.”

He’d assumed they would sell it in the end, actually. That way they’d have the funds to find a new place to fit them perfectly, with just the right amount of space for the three of them, and the ojee…and occasionally a visitor or three. Of course, since he owned the suite right now, that basically boiled down to a very large cash gift to the Tenats—or just making sure the family was taken care of with the father-figure (or uncle-figure, as it were) stepping out.

“Of course this still all hinges on whether we become exiles or not in the next few weeks,” he remarked, “but however it is we get separate spaces, I don’t want it to be any more…harrowing than it already is. Maybe we can even find two completely new places that neighbor each other.”

That put a hopeful look on Keren’s face. “That’d be…pretty good, actually. Then Kalaia could come over when she got her monster-cravings, and Igess could go between…those’re my biggest worries: how Kalaia’s gonna take it, and what to do about this big lug.” She thumped Igess’s shoulder and he gape-grinned at her.

“The ‘big lug’ is a big boy,” Gavin assured her, scratching the hip that abutted his desk-chair. “It understands, and as long as it still gets to see us both, it’ll adapt. I suspect the same resilience of Kalaia…she often goes and surprises me when I forget she’s not as young as she looks.” That wasn’t to say she didn’t act her apparent age plenty of the time, but when things really got tough…that was when she got surprising.

Or he could be totally wrong and he’d have to have another take on this conversation with her, instead, with less anger and more tears. But the girl had bounced back from several awful things over the years…a little bit of breathing room in the form of separate houses was nothing, right?

“You just haven’t seen her when she’s really been crossed,” Keren answered dryly. “Back on Tanazira, she had a couple pretty impressive tantrums when whatever mage she was with at the time got lazy and stopped lettin’ her come see her family or hang out in the jungle. She’s just been mostly happy, here, I think. Best not to tempt fate. The closer we wind up being, the better, long’s you don’t mind, sir.”

“All I need is privacy. Not total isolation. Just a safehouse, not a stronghold that’s all spikes and barbed wire and ‘beware of xeno’ signs,” he answered with a peaceable expression and a closer approximation of a smile. “I think I just demonstrated pretty well how frayed and in need of a place to do some mental repairs I am—but I can say this and mean it now: I’m sorry.”

Looking amused, Keren reached over to give his knee a little punch, since sitting down, she couldn't reach much else. “You can make it up to me by you being the one to break it to Kalaia. Then we can put this shit behind us and just get lookin' around.”

Gavin started to remind her that with all the momentum Bill 47X was gaining, there was plenty of possibility that any plans they made would go awry and be for naught, but changed his mind before saying a word. There was also the chance that the bill would fail, and in that case, any progress made on finding new real estate among the ruins of the station wouldn’t hurt.

“Fair enough,” he said instead. Probably more than fair, actually. He could have talked to Kalaia already—for all he and Keren had the tendency to treat her as the child she resembled, she was a century-plus-old adult—but obviously hadn’t. Chalk it up to being preoccupied with Keren’s reaction…or more accurately, burying himself in his work in place of being preoccupied.

Keren looked preoccupied, herself, for a moment, then shook her head and came out of it. “Don’t suppose you know how much longer we have until that big one comes out, do you?” she asked, jerking her thumb in the direction of the living room, wherein hung Jagannathass’s cocoon.

Gavin thought it over. While all four burstlings had gone into their cocoons at the same time, Shinrass and the other two had emerged three days later while the titanic warrior continued to gestate. So…compare their burstling sizes, do a little multiplication, subtract the days already spent growing…touch her mind and the hive’s, gauge her with less human senses of awareness….

“Within a week from today,” he decided. “No longer than that.”

“I’m just a bit worried about having her and Nekeress in the same place, is all. Even if Nekeress is done being stupid about it, it’ll still unnerve her and, well, I don’t know if your girl is gonna hold a grudge….” She shrugged apologetically. “It’s not like we can’t afford a move now, and another move later, if we do get kicked out.”

“Jagannathass doesn’t start things, she finishes them,” Gavin answered a little meditatively, thinking of the kills she’d made her first day alive, then blinked and came out of himself. “Ah, that wasn’t supposed to sound like a threat. I mean, unless you think Nekeress being ‘unnerved’ will turn into another attack from her, we’ll be fine. Jagannathass won’t be looking for revenge.”

“Nek might be dumb, but she’s not that stupid,” Keren snorted. “If that thing keeps growing for another week, she’ll be big enough to stomp Nekeress. No, I’m more thinking unnerved as in, not coming home, or hiding in her room, and making very barbed comments in my head all the time to try and make it seem like she’s not scared or upset. She might take it out on one of the littler ones,” —for a moment, Gavin glanced at her in wary displeasure—“but I think she’s gotten that out of her system, too.” She sighed, scratching her head. Igess butted her elbow, apparently wanting the scratch, himself. She complied, and added, “She was really gonna try, coming back here. To not cause trouble.”

“I know, she about said as much, herself,” Gavin nodded. He still didn’t like the golden warrior and nobody beyond Igess really wanted to get along with her, but he acknowledged that Nekeress had meant to try. Unfortunately, she’d finally decided to try when it was too late to make a difference. He kept that to himself, though. Saying it out loud wouldn’t help anything. “I trust having a space of her own, when we get to that point, will soothe her just as much as me and mine.”

"We'll see," Keren said dubiously. "She might be so used to having the little ones underfoot that she'll start bugging me to adopt." She rolled her eyes and pushed herself to her feet. "Well. I'm gonna start dinner, and you can go find my sister. Any requests?"

“Whatever’s easy,” he replied. That and ‘whatever you feel like’ and variations on the same were about the only responses he ever had to that question. He patted at Igess’s hip again, and the big xenodragon got itself into a crouch so it crawl clear enough that Gavin could finally push his chair out from his desk and stand.

“Well, you know I’ll do that,” she answered. Like Gavin himself, Keren was an indifferent-bachelor kind of cook. She gave Igess a pat as well before stepping out to see what remained of what were now rather rationed supplies.

With her departed, he looked to Igess. Following me to Kalaia?

The xenodragon’s churring was agreeable enough, its melancholy tempered by the reestablished peace between its bonds. Gavin had thought it would want to come along, and didn’t mind. Anger he could weather, but in case of tears, it would be good to have someone “cuddly” nearby.

[Cacopheny]

Here, have more Nekeress-POV stuff ^^ She's fun to write XD

~~~~~

Nekeress tried to get up for work in the morning, really she did. It didn't work very well, as a couple of the half-closed wounds she hadn't let Nonryph-- stupid, cowardly, traitor Nonryph who had left her back the instant she touched him, as if he hated her as much as the rest, and thought she was going to eat him, or something-- hadn't let Nonryph close for her broke open again, leaking more blood than she really had left to lose on the floor of her room. A couple of the ones he had sealed even cracked, probably because he'd been so scared of her and reluctant to be there at all that he hadn't done a good job.

Then she couldn't get more than a few bites of breakfast down before it came back up again. That was the most embarrassing part. She could have borne being laid up for a day or two with legitimate injuries, but what xenodragon couldn't eat just because of a few measly cuts? That fucking hive was probably laughing at her, as Nonryph, at Tenat's insistence, came into her space to remove it all for her, since she couldn't stand to look at it and Tenat didn't want her to try removing it herself.

Then Tenat told her very firmly to stay home, on her way out the door to get to work early-- probably avoiding a confrontation with Gavin, knowing her; Gavin was the only person she ever avoided confrontation with-- and she didn't have the stubbornness, for once, to do more than make a token argument. Maybe if she slept all day she'd wake up and she'd feel better. Maybe when she woke up the hive would have all been sucked out an airlock, leaving her in peace. Maybe stupid Nonryph would think she was harmless, at least for a while. Whatever.

At least Igess let her give it a grateful little nose-bump, shaky and limp though the bump was, when it consented to her silent request go with Tenat to keep her company and keep her safe. Nekeress didn't trust the station not to do harm to her very xeno-positive, very vocal bond without the protection of a very large, very fast golden beast behind her. Nonryph went with them. Coward.

Then she spent the day drifting in and out of restless sleep, with a collection of nasty dreams and the next-room-over sense of a whole horde of watchful, resentful, resin-making hive-xenos to keep her company. Kalaia stopped in once, but she didn't stay long, tugged away by her stupid ojee. It was a relief to be alone. Kalaia fussed too much. At least when Tenat fussed-- and she did, sending a mind-touch now and then to check in with her-- she didn't get all... girly about it.

Fully expecting Kalaia to be the only visitor until her bond came home, Nekeress wasn't really listening when Gavin Vance himself came to call. She was dozing, halfway into dreams of being so bound up with resin she couldn't move, and his voice took her by surprise, though she was slower to actually wake than she might have been otherwise, struggling up out of the fogginess that was probably about the consistency of resin, itself.

"Nekeress?" she heard, distant enough to be from her doorway rather than her bedside.

:Whatever it is, I didn't do it,: she muttered groggily. What else would he be here for, if not to scold her for something?

"That would be an accomplishment if you had, dead as you've been all day," he answered, irritatingly. As if she needed to be reminded. "I'm only checking to see if you need anything."

Needed anything? Ha. :Unless you can convince your industrious little army, out there, to stop adding insult to injury until I'm not actually, you know, right here listening to them, no, probably not.: What could he do for her, anyway? The thought of food made her want to puke again, he was no healer and the only drone willing to come by wasn't in the suite, and he wasn't about to force his hive to like her, since he didn't like her, either. She didn't need a whole lot else, at this point, except mental peace and quiet, which she wasn't getting, and doubted she would get.

To her complete surprise, he actually did it. There was a moment of silence, then a flurry of motion as the drones all skuttled out-- reluctantly, maybe, but they did. Only big, bulky Shinrass remained, probably to keep an eye on her, but she could ignore him if he didn't make too much noise. She lifted her head and twisted it a little to regard Gavin more clearly, despite the crack of resin on a wound that made, confused and a little suspicious, but he had already turned to leave.

This was so weird. It felt like she was still dreaming, between the brief conversation, the renewed silence, and the lingering fuzziness of her brain. Part of her actually wanted to say thanks. The rest of her laughed that part down, though.

Instead, she sent after him before he got out of her pitifully-limited range-- hopefully that would come back soon-- thinking about the hive's disdain for her and her independence, :Bet it never occurred to any of that mess of yours that it's not my fault you collect more of them than my bond does, did it?:

:Oh, they have plenty to say about your 'warrior-bond' being a 'poor substitute for a queen',: he thought back, :But it's not for a lack of numbers that you're considered 'hiveless'. A hive could still be two-- if it acted as a hive:

:Oh, okay, because she's not some mental giant and I'm not some mindless yes-dragon like yours are, I'm somehow less of a xenodragon?: Nekeress replied sourly. So it wasn't even the numbers, it was something about her-- and the insult to Tenat was, of course, not something she would stand for. Well, if she felt like standing at the moment. :Right. That makes me feel much better about their opinions. I bet if they didn't have their precious little hive, they wouldn't be much different from me.:

His answer was maddeningly patient, as if he were trying to dumb himself down for her. Bastard. :If they didn't have the hive they have now, they would seek and make another, because that's their nature. I know it's not yours, but to them, you're plenty of a 'dragon' but nothing 'xeno'.: He actually looked back at her, and she bared her teeth a little at him. She was missing a couple, after that fight. If he was weirded out by this, it was nothing to how she was feeling. Trying to get along wasn't her nature, either, but she was still doing it, and if Gavin was the only one who could even talk with her without burying her in hate, well, she'd have to give it a shot. :It's hard enough for them to tolerate your individuality without you throwing it at them like it makes you the superior creature. Be different all you want, Nekeress, but don't throw criticism and expect you won't be criticized in return:

:Little late for that, now, isn't it?: she counted grumpily-- not that she thought she really could manage it; there was too much anger in her, and she knew it. Anger and bitterness, ever since she realized what she didn't have and would never have-- whether through choice, nature, or luck-- that they flaunted with every little thing they did. How could she not throw her way in their faces, and still keep her pride? After all these years, even remembering back that stupid, adolescent Netahiln and how she picked at her and manipulated her until she blew up, she knew herself well enough. She put her head back down, too tired to hold it up any longer. :It might come as something of a shock to you people, but I am trying, here. How the hell is anything I try going to do any good, if all they want to do is throw anger at me, even when I'm trying to keep mine to myself?:

:Well, you see the right of that, at least,: he answered, sounding resigned, and almost as tired as Tenat did, these days. :We're all a bit too set in our ways by now, and the strain we cause each other is only escalating.: Nekeress couldn't fathom what he might be getting at, if he was saying there was nothing to be done. :That's why, if that anti-xeno bill doesn't kick us all off the station in the coming weeks, I'm going to move out and take my hive with me.:

Nekeress's head came back up so sharply, several of her resin-sealed wounds reopened with a series of noisy cracks. She flinched and held very still, feeling more seepage but unable to do a thing about it without making it worse. Gods damn it.... :You know Tenat will never agree to that,: she growled, trying to shove the pain back and somehow not make this worse. Where was stupid Nonryph when she needed him? It made it hard to think, when she was bleeding again. :You're family. Even if your stupid hive doesn't think so, she does.:

:My parents and two sisters don't stop being my family just because we all live in different places,: he countered, obviously having made up his mind. :Nor do I need any permission to leave. My name is the only one on the deed of ownership for the suite, and if we aren't exiled, I will move to another suite on the deck and ownership of this one will transfer to Keren, Kalaia, and you.:

Well, that certainly didn't fit Nekeress's idea of family, but then, she was as much xeno as the rest, even if they didn't think so, and to her mind, family should stick together, if they were to remain connected. What rankled most, though, was that apparently he'd made this decision and hadn't even thought to consult anyone.

:What a great family you make,: she spat, though her sarcasm was tempered by the distress and pain of her neck and shoulders, and she wasn't even thinking a whole lot about what she said. :Making decisions without even thinking to talk to anyone about them. Maybe being a queen has gone to your head. Too used to people bowing down and letting you do whatever you want. -- either go away or make yourself useful. I'm kind of bleeding, here.: The last thought was more distressed than angry, and she was getting fuzzy again, she could tell. It had taken a lot of effort to talk even this long.

:You're correct,: was all he said, which was an answer Nekeress hadn't really expected, and one she was sure Tenat would love even less. :And that's why I'll be the one leaving.:

She hissed irritably, but was saved from having to come up with an answer that wasn't even more rude than the last one by one of the glowy ones with weird names showing up. Richyluc. :If I may...?: she asked politely, hovering at the edge of her bed-shelf, her tail alive with that magic of hers. Nekeress couldn't see it, but she could sense it.

:Yeah,: she answered uncomfortably, shifting a little and wincing. :Just,: she added, even more uncomfortably, thinking of stupid Nonryph, :don't act like I'm going to eat you, or anything. I'm not.: One wing twitched a little, and she added once more, :Xenos taste awful, anyway.:

The glowy drone climbed up onto her shelf and paused there, as if thinking it over. Nekeress turned her head away and set it down again, despite the movement making things worse. At least someone was here to patch her up, so it didn't even matter. :I'm-- only here to help, anyway,: Richyluc at last managed, setting a piece of her magic over a wound. It fixed itself into place with a little flare of heat. At least it wasn't resin. :It's not fair to attack a drone that's only trying to help, right?:

:Fair isn't exactly my thing, if you hadn't noticed by now,: Nekeress snorted weakly, half-joking, half-bitter, as she sensed Gavin stalking off. Tenat wasn't going to be happy. Oh, not at all. :But I'm still not going to. So no freaking out if I twitch. Hurts a gal's feelings, and all. Promise?:

It took Richyluc a moment to realize she wasn't going to bite her, after that comment, and she held very still up there by her back-- but then she finally moved again and went back to work. :Okay. I mean-- I promise.:

:Good,: Nekeress answered in a mental mumble, clinging to consciousness after all this time awake and talking and feeling only because she wasn't alone. Only once Richyluc left-- without thanks, because that wasn't Nekeress's style, but with a wordless rumble and a tap on the rump with her tail-tip-- did she finally give in and go to sleep. At least until the next time Tenat checked in. They had a lot to talk about.

[Cacopheny]

Aaaand some Keren-POV to round it out.

~~~~~

Tenat hadn't gotten a lot of work done that day. First, because she kept checking on Nekeress; second, because her brain wouldn't shut off about what was probably going to happen next; third, because Igess kept getting bored and she had to entertain him. Plus, all the work she had that day was paperwork, and it wasn't exactly riveting.

Then, in the afternoon, because of Nekeress told her when she checked in again.

At least she had a few hours to think about it. She'd been strongly tempted to run home immediately and shout at him for being an idiot-- an arrogant idiot, at that; she did share a little in her bond's irritation that he hadn't even consulted her, his supposed friend, before deciding what was best for all of them-- or plead with him to change his mind, she and Nekeress would make it work somehow. To think of Kalaia and how upset she'd be to be stuck in a house without a hive to at least watch, and try to win over, even if she continually failed. But she didn't. At least she could try to get work done. Not that she had, but she did try, and in the meantime got her temper under control again.

There was no avoiding the confrontation again, that night-shift, not when she already knew the outcome, and apparently he'd go through with it will-she, nil-she, damn him and his high-handed "for the best" decisions. So the time stuck at work, mostly spent pacing her little office or staring at her computer screens blankly, meant at least she had time to come to grips with that, rather than running blindly on emotion as, like Nekeress, she was wont to do. In the end, he was her boss, no matter what else he was, and so she couldn't exactly yell at him, and she was too proud to beg him to reconsider. Even if he wasn't her boss, if he was determined to leave, regardless of how she felt, well, it wasn't like she could tie him up and make him stay. He'd already proved he didn't really care what her thoughts on the subject were, if he'd told Nekeress about it like it was a done deal.

It gave her time to make a couple decisions of her own, too.

She came home precisely on time, quiet enough that Igess was anxious and unhappy the whole way, even as he carried her along. He had to have known what Gavin had been planning. Did that make him unhappy, too? She couldn't tell. It was all just one big morass of emotion, with him, and with her own emotions already a mess, she couldn't tell what emotion went with what action in his head. What would happen to him, with none of them together anymore? Would they have to share him back and forth, as they did in the days before he grew explosively into his bigger adult form? Nonryph would probably be happy enough without her, as much as she hated to admit it-- but what about Igess? Would he, like Nekeress suggested, slowly forget about her as he chose his hive over their admittedly less impressive bond? The thought actually hurt. She liked Igess, dammit, and Nonryph, too.

And she didn't want to think about Kalaia, how she would handle it. She'd been through more than enough, already, without throwing this upheaval onto it, too. Besides, Kalaia was so damn excited about meeting Jagannathass when she could actually talk, as if she already assumed they would be friends.

Nor did she want to think too hard about her worries for Gavin. She had been losing him bit by bit for years, now, ever since Gavess joined the hive, and she couldn't help but think this was the last severing of himself from humanity, and without her and Kalaia around to drag him back to the real world, he'd just... disappear into the hive, and never come out again. And then where would he be? Where would she be?

Nekeress just told her she ought to learn to let go, but Tenat wasn't in the mood to listen to Nekeress at the moment.

She hopped down off Igess's back as soon as the doors closed behind her, Igess, and Nonryph, and went looking for him. Thankfully, Igess helpfully led her right to him. He was in his office, unsurprisingly, and when Tenat got there, Igess had already curled himself around the desk and blocked him in, for her. What a helpful creature.

He was petting Igess's nose when he spotted her following the xeno in, and he eyed her a moment before dismissing all his computer screens. "Well," he said, maddeningly calm, and sounding like he thought he ought to be the one needing sympathy right now. "How shall this conversation go, then?"

For a moment, she just glared at him a little, hands on her hips and wanting to shout at him, but knowing it wouldn't get her anywhere. At least she had that on her bond. "Probably with me being frustrated," she grumbled at him helplessly. "There's no way you could've, I don't know, talked it over with us before you just up and decided what was best for everybody? Since that's what friends do?" Might as well tackle the smallest issue, first-- though she supposed it was probably a symptom of the whole mess. He either didn't realize that other people might think differently from him, or he just discounted it, which-- well, wasn't what a friend ought to do. If he didn't consider himself a friend anymore, well, this whole conversation would be moot, because nothing else would matter.

"All the talking in the world couldn't change what goes on in my head and gets worse every day, Keren," he answered gently, proving that he had missed the point entirely. Yes, she disagreed with his decision-- in some ways; obviously he had a point about tension in the house-- but more, she didn't like this attitude he was taking, that interaction didn't matter. "There's a lot of bad feelings building up in the air around here, and if I'm not choking on them, I'm sharing in them. Without a space of our own, the next one to snap may very well be me. I already came too close once, maybe twice. I can't keep risking that."

"Sir," Tenat replied with frustrated patience, almost as if she were talking to someone a lot less intelligent than the Minister of gods-damned Security, "that still doesn't change the fact that we're people. We deserve to be talked with, not told what's happening. Even if we wound up at the same decision you did-- and for all you know, we might've-- it would've been our decision, all of us, not yours, one we all shared in. Royals bless it, sir, you're a public official! You were a spy! Have you forgotten everything you knew about people?"

Gavin sighed, still looking so damn put-upon, and spread his hands as if there were nothing he could do. "It wasn’t even something I was completely convinced I had to do until last night, and what happened to Nekeress. You hardly seemed like you didn't expect I'd bring up the topic of separate housing again, something we've done to death over the years, each time I've brought it up-- you certainly left awfully early, this morning. Except now there is a danger instead of a nuisance, and you know how I work-- I make decisions when they have to be made."

Elbows propped on his desk, the folded his hands back together and considered Keren over the top of them as he asked a question of his own. "If this is the angle you want to attack me from, shouldn't a friend understand when another has to do what's best for himself and the nineteen others he's bonded to?"

Furious at him all over again for what looked to her like a fucking dirty trick, Tenat held up a finger at him and growled, "No one is attacking anyone, and you have no fucking right to guilt trip me for making a point you don't want to address-- because you aren't addressing it. You're changing the subject and trying to blame me. I never even said it was a bad decision. I never once said you shouldn't look out for that fucking hive. I just want you to consider human feelings in all this. Making decisions for people is wrong, and if you want to lose friends, that's the way to do it-- to exclude us, like what we think doesn't matter. Your hive may like it, but gods dammit, you are still part human in there, and you have to deal with humans, so you had better start remembering what it's like to give a damn how we interact!"

"The next time you want to make a point," he said, glaring at her, back, "state it plainly instead of couching it in sarcasm-- it's a very human thing to misunderstand the point of a conversation when one thinks he is being attacked, too. You're angry because I skipped over getting your opinion-- but I maintain that my sanity is my jurisdiction. I'm not trying to alienate you, Keren. I'm trying to get myself where I don't have to."

"I wasn't being sarcastic, sir," Tenat answered shortly, crossing her arms over her chest. As far as she was concerned, that "sir" was the first time she'd really been sarcastic, at all. "You were just ignoring that I had a point to make, because you didn't care. Just like you are now. Your sanity is all yours to worry about. But this is a household. And you coulda, you know, waited until I got home, or called me, or sought me out, or cornered me tomorrow before I left, and said you were thinking of leaving, and explained yourself then, instead of saying, fait acompli, you're leaving, without thinking anyone might have a problem with that-- and not caring, obviously."

She heaved a heavy sigh, no longer really angry since he was just being dense and not trying to insult her by leaving her out, and said, "Whatever you're doing, sir, it's not the right way to do it, whether the decision is the right one or not-- whether you mean to or not, you're going to alienate people if you don't talk things over." She spread her arms in exasperation, as if with a gesture she could make him understand. "I mean, this is coming from me, I'm as straight-forward as a brick wall, and even I know not to go over your head with something like that."

And she'd thought this was going to be the easy part of the conversation. The part where he'd realize he'd been an ass, and would apologize with that rueful smile he got, and they could move on to actual business. But no, he had to think it was okay to just decide things, and expect no one would care that they hadn't gotten to at least talk it over. It wasn't like the decision even had to be made yet. Nekeress was no threat to anyone, and probably wouldn't have been for a few more days, at least. There had been plenty of time to at least try to talk it out.

There was that familiar expression of impatience, putting his fingers to his brow and shutting his eyes. "My sanity trumps the household, because if I lose it, there will be no household. If alienating you keeps you safe, so be it. I will not apologize for that. The hive is too much of me, Keren, and the angrier they get, the angrier I get. I cannot stop what I am becoming, but God help me, I will not lose control of myself again because of it."

Igess warbled with concern, coiled up as tightly as he could between the two of them, as if he expected them to be launching at each other's throats at any minute. Tenat couldn't be angry with him looking so pathetic, so she just grinned wryly and moved to crouch beside his shoulder, petting it. "We're scaring the kids," she commented, trying to soothe him with a touch and forcing the last of her own temper down, for his sake.

After a moment of calming the beast in both of them, she actually answered: "Sir, even if you are dangerous-- which I'm not thinkin' is that much a problem, since we were yelling at each other a minute ago, and here I am, just fine. Even if you were, that doesn't have anything to do with you not talking to me. I didn't know you think you're dangerous. All I knew was you were gonna leave. You need to explain these things before you go all marytr-ish and make these big, life-changing decisions for all of us. It's not that hard a concept. Seriously. I doubt talking will turn you into a slavering xeno-beast." She shook her head, and gave Igess's big, stupid head a hug. "Can you just say you're sorry for hurting my feelings, already, so we can move on to the important shit?"

Rather than answer with words, he threw the power of his fucking hive at her. :No, I will not apologize, because right now I'm not in a place where I would mean it,: he sent, with a whole seething mass of xenodragons behind it, and a lot more anger than she'd wanted to be feeling from him. It definitely gave her a jolt, enough of one to send a half-asleep Nekeress, on the other side of the house, into a twitching almost-flail in an attempt to get up and come to her rescue.

Putting her own hand to her head, the one not still on Igess, Tenat sent back at her, :Lay down before you break something open. Again.: She subsided reluctantly, since Tenat wasn't actually hurt-- though now she was going to have a headache, she was sure-- she didn't do more than listen in more closely.

"Gavin," she began wearily, now that she at least knew what his problem was. It was in there with everything else, and even though she wasn't the genius at wordless communication that he was, she could at least sift things around, after all this time. "It's not that I'm not taking you seriously. It's that I trust you. I always have, and I always will, even when you're pissed at me. When it counts, I believe you'll manage not to snap. There's been a few times when you could've, and you didn't, and I trust in that."

It didn't mean she wouldn't give him his space. But by the gods, he needed to calm the hell down and stop thinking she was attacking him, so they could at least discuss it. This wasn't his usual, reasonable self, and she wanted him at least sort of back where he could be that again. He couldn't be that if he was angry with her. Since her last halfway-attempt at a joke had fallen flat, she gave it one last try: "Is this one of those moments where Retejoss would say you need a hug? Because if it is, Kalaia's not here to give you one, and I'm all you've got."

She would've hugged him if anyone had suggested it-- though it probably would've been awkward, and she imagined he would've hated it-- but after a moment of sitting very still and trying to get himself back under control, while she stroked Igess and waited, he finally said, "No. Thank you. What I need is to start this conversation over. I was prepared to explain my reasoning for my decision, even though--" He broke off, and she could guess what he was going to say there, so she smiled ironically.

"Even though I didn't want to talk this morning," she filled in while he looked for words.

"I was prepared for you to be upset," he continued. "I was not prepared for you to come in here yelling that you had a right to be in on the decision-making. To have an opinion on it, certainly, but you cannot control where I choose to go." Rather than trying to explain that she hadn't started off by yelling, and had only built up to yelling when he couldn't see how he'd been an asshole about the whole thing-- nor even trying to tell him she never wanted,/u] to control what he did, just talk it out with him before he got all final about it all-- Tenat bit her tongue hard and let him continue. Gods, it was hard not arguing. "Now before we get stuck in another round of flinging accusations, because that's an endless loop my mental state does not need-- can I explain myself in the rational fashion I originally intended?"

"I kind of thought you already did, rational or not," Tenat pointed out. "I got a pretty good picture a few minutes ago, there. Unless there's more that doesn't have to do with the fear-of-hurting-us thing, or the too-many-angry-minds-in-one-place thing? Cuz really, I'd think that's more than enough." And he really ought to have told her about that first, before starting with the "I'm leaving" thing, because she would have understood just fine, then, if he'd wanted to leave.

Even if leaving, itself, was kind of stupid. But she'd get to that when he was ready.

He eyed her, as if expecting something different, or still annoyed, though she couldn't have said why. It wasn't like she was arguing with him. If he'd just said all this first, told them he was unhappy, before up and deciding to leave all on his own, it would've been one thing-- she didn't really disagree with the decision, now that she knew what actually was behind it besides just Nekeress being a pill, it was how he'd come to it all on his own, neglecting to include anyone else in even thinking about it.

But since he hadn't gotten that, before, during all the shouting, he obviously wasn't going to get it now. What did that say about their friendship? About what he thought of them? Maybe Nekeress was right, the hive trumped all, and he just plain didn't care about how anybody else felt enough to include them.

"And I'm tired, Keren," he added to the list of things, once he was done mulling over... whatever. "We're all tired, even Igess. We're tired of sullen, resentful tolerance. We want our own space where we can stop feeling this way. I'm not saying I want to go halfway around the station and never see you or your sister again, but I want, need space that doesn't have to be shared."

"All you ever had to do was say that, sir," Tenat pointed out, a little sadly. "You never said anything. Every time housing came up, it was because you couldn't understand why we stayed, not that you were having an issue. I didn't know."

"That's because it wasn't an issue before, at least not one I couldn't handle. But it is in part, now, with how things have escalated ever since that damn fight with the queen, in my head and in the hive alike," he sighed back. He spread his hands again. "So there it is. That's everything I wanted to say, if not the manner I wanted to say it in."

"It wasn't quite the manner I'd wanted to say my piece in, either," Tenat admitted ruefully-- probably the closest he'd get to an apology on her part, since she'd never gotten one from him. At least he wasn't saying he'd resented them for months or years, or anything-- just a couple weeks. That was better than nothing. "I expected to get past that part in a minute or two, get to the part where I tried to convince you to change your mind-- think we'll skip that part--" she added in, so he wouldn't think she was going to argue with him again. "--and then get to the part where it's really kind of stupid of you to move out of a multidragoner suite when, uh, the people you leave behind aren't exactly multidragoner." She scratched the back of her head a little awkwardly. "We're just gonna rattle around in here like coins in a beggar's jar, and we'd just have to sell the place in the end, anyway, so...."

Well, something was going right. He almost smiled. "Well I couldn't force you out," he said, although he technically could have. It was nice to hear it didn't cross his mind, though. "Me making a sudden decision like this is enough of an upheaval without me demanding you be the ones to leave, on top of it." Tenat didn't mention that if they'd have this conversation before he made the decision, they could have come to an arrangement together, without him even thinking about demanding anything of anyone... things were going better now. She wanted them to stay that way, especially since Igess seemed more comfortable, too, stretched out between them, one side pressing to Gavin's legs and the other to Tenat's, who finally went from crouching at his side to sitting down.

"Of course," he continued, "this still all hinges on whether we become exiles or not in the next few weeks... but however it is we get separate spaces, I don't want it to be any more... harrowing than it already is. Maybe we can even find two completely new places that neighbor each other."

Tenat couldn't help but look hopeful. "That'd be... pretty good, actually. Then Kalaia could come over when she got her monster-cravings, and Igess could go between... those're my biggest worries." Not counting her worry about him, but if they lived next door, she could always know he was still... well, sane. "How Kalaia's gonna take it, and what to do about this big lug." She thumped Igess's shoulder, since she couldn't quite reach his rump, and he gape-grinned at her.

"The 'big lug' is a big boy," Gavin assured her, scratching the hip that leaned up against his desk-chair. "It understands, and as long as it still gets to see us both, it'll adapt. I suspect the same resilience of Kalaia... she often goes and surprises me when I forget she's not as young as she looks."

"You just haven't seen her when she's really been crossed," Tenat answered dryly. "Back on Tanazira, she had a couple pretty impressive tantrums when whatever mage she was with at the time got lazy and stopped lettin' her come see her family or hang out in the jungle. She's just been mostly happy, here, I think." And, well, the things she hadn't been happy about hadn't really been tantrum-type things. Slamming doors and crying at Netahiln wouldn't have done any good, and Kalaia knew it. "Best not to tempt fate. The closer we wind up being, the better, long's you don't mind, sir."

"All I need is privacy. Not total isolation. Just a safehouse, not a stronghold that's all spikes and barbed wire and 'beware of xeno' signs," he answered with a peaceable expression and a closer approximation of a smile. "I think I just demonstrated pretty well how frayed and in need of a place to do some mental repairs I am-- but I can say this and mean it now: I'm sorry."

It took effort not to snicker at the mental picture he created, though Tenat managed not to, since he was adding serious stuff after it. She definitely looked amused, though. Oh, well. At least he was smiling, too. She reached over to give his-- well, his knee a little punch, since sitting down, she couldn't reach much else. "You can make it up to me by you being the one to break it to Kalaia. Then we can put this shit behind us and just get lookin' around." Not that anything could really happen until Nekeress was healed up or, if they were all moving, Jagannathass finished her growth spurt. But the longer they had to look, the better. Between the two of them, they could even afford three different mortgages, if they had to, for a week or two.

"Fair enough," he answered mildly. Tenat was already trying to think of places that wouldn't take too much fixing up, and would have room in one that wasn't mirrored in the other. She'd have to look at recent reports when she got in to work tomorrow. Even if the bill passed, it wouldn't be up for a vote for a few weeks, at least-- and once Jagannathass broke out of her hibernation, well, life would be interesting. Tenat didn't want to have to deal with keeping her and Nekeress separate for any longer than they had to, especially not if the bigger girl was the kind who held a grudge.

She shook her head. "Don't suppose you know how much longer we have until that big one comes out, do you?" she asked, jerking her thumb in the direction of the massive cocoon in the living room.

It took him a long moment of thought before he came up with, "Within a week from today. No longer than that."

Sooner than she'd have liked, but longer than she'd hoped. "I'm just a bit worried about having her and Nekeress in the same place, is all. Even if Nekeress is done being stupid about it, it'll still unnerve her and, well, I don't know if your girl is gonna hold a grudge...." She shrugged, a little apologetically, but really, you never knew. The rest of his hive certainly had. "It's not like we can't afford a move now, and another move later, if we do get kicked out." But she was hoping to hell they didn't. She didn't want to leave another home.

"Jagannathass doesn't start things, she finishes them," Gavin answered which made her frown up at him. That sounded rather like a-- "Ah," he stopped, blinking. "That wasn't supposed to sound like a threat. I mean, unless you think Nekeress being 'unnerved' will turn into another attack from her, we'll be fine. Jagannathass won't be looking for revenge."

"Nek' might be dumb, but she's not that stupid," Tenat snorted. "If that thing keeps growing for another week, she'll be big enough to stomp Nekeress. No, I'm more thinking unnerved as in, not coming home, or hiding in her room, and making very barbed comments in my head all the time to try and make it seem like she's not scared or upset. She might take it out on one of the littler ones, but I think she's gotten that out of her system, too." She sighed, scratching her head. Igess butted her elbow, apparently wanting the scratch, himself. She complied, and added to Gavin, "She was really gonna try, coming back here. To not cause trouble."

"I know, she about said as much, herself," Gavin nodded. "I trust having a space of her own, when we get to that point, will soothe her just as much as me and mine."

"We'll see," Tenat said dubiously. "She might be so used to having the little ones underfoot that she'll start bugging me to adopt." She rolled her eyes, and finally pushed herself to her feet. "Well. I'm gonna start dinner, and you can go find my sister. Any requests?"

Very much not to her surprise-- since that was what he usually answered, that or some variation on the theme-- he answered only, "Whatever's easy," and patted Igess on the hip until the big monster shifted and climbed up to a crouch, so he could finally get up from his desk.

"Well, you know I'll do that," Tenat answered lightly. She was an indifferent cook, really, only knowing the kinds of "bachelor" things until she'd moved to Star City and had to look after Kalaia. Even then, it wasn't until the infestation that she really started to stretch her knowledge-- since it was a lot harder to order take-out or home delivery, these days. She added a pat to Igess, herself, and headed out to see if she could put together something edible, herself.

[Unyko]

Wow, I disappear for a little while and this fun happens? What all did I miss out on?! (I'm a little sad to have missed out on whatever it was that had all those xenos in an uproar... though I really don't mind reading the aftermath! Gavin and the lot of them were always favorites. <3!)