Farewell to the butterfly

The war had progressed well by the time the second ship arrived in the system. Rye’s tireless work at retrieving artifacts had lead to a growing stack of Fractal plates in varying degrees of repair in the back of one of the shuttles; Dustin had agreed to leave them with the uplift team in orbit for pickup by a Velca research ship to take the plates back to be studied properly. Everyone had been surprised by Rye’s agreement to that - they all thought the engineer would have jumped at the chance to study Fractal tech up close, but she just shrugged when Dustin asked her.

“They’re cool, Dusty, but ya don’t have half the things I’d need to fully tinker with them safely on board, and I don’t want to be responsible for one of them turning the medical nanites into grey goo that eats a hole in the hull.” She’d explained, adding “it’s better for the science nerds to go over them - I’ll find out if there’s anything good in there regardless, on account of us getting priority database updates on any new tech for the mission.”

With that matter dealt with, Dustin had returned his attentions to the war. The Lievira rebels had crushed three more temple-states with ease, causing the remainder of the southern forces to finally unite in order to try and stop them - to no avail. With the resources of five states now backing the rebel war machine, the blast furnaces ran day and night. Cannons were being produced in deployable numbers, the advent of animal-drawn artillery turning battles from well-fought victories into crushing ones. Walls built to withstand archery and the occasional peasant uprising were no match for heavy cannon bombardment, and it seemed likely the rest of the south would fall before the winter set in.

The situation north of the mountain pass worried Dustin somewhat more; most of the spies they had identified of late had come from the north, and it was also where the majority of the coastal temple states were located. A sizable naval invasion could have caused problems for their revolution even with their advancement of the Lieviran tech into the late medieval; as such, Dustin had Sola monitoring the seas for any signs of large fleet deployments.

As far as her scans had gone to date though, the northern temples appeared to be content to spend the winter preparing to try and reopen the mountain pass rather than planning on any last minute naval attempts to reclaim the south before the frost set in. The ongoing war had - according to the rebel’s spies - finally got the northern temples to the negotiating table amongst themselves, but it would most likely not be until late spring before they presented a united front. Rumours of their finally managing to replicate blast furnaces worried Dustin somewhat - but Meli assured him that she and the others were keeping their new friends at least one step ahead of the followers of the Fractals.

Yril’k’s recovery was also going well - well enough in fact that Bleu had allowed the warrior woman to make a call via video link to the Lievira fighters that had joined her for the battle. The injured butterfly warrior had spoken at length with the Vex’ess woman before returning to her own recuperation in seemingly better spirits - Dustin had flagged both of the Lievira pair as skilled fighters and quick thinkers, and had ensured they were both in training for officer positions as his team began to wind up their role on the planet.

With the new ship arriving from Earth and joining Sola in orbit, two more tasks approached. First, introducing the ‘children of the stars’ who would take over after Dustin and the others left to continue their main mission - this was less of a challenge than he’d been expecting. The rebel high command were ecstatic when they learned that children of the stars would be watching over them and making regular visits to help them reach the heavens themselves; the newcomers were welcomed and a suitable site for more regular shuttle landings constructed. It’d still be at least a generation or two before the Lievira were ready for true uplift, but the process had started.

The harder than expected task, however, came on the final day for Dustin and the others on the planet. Naera and Aricia spent the entire morning loading the shuttle with things - foodstuffs and seeds Naera had accumulated, alongside those belongings Aricia wanted to take with her. News of her leaving for the stars had leaked out beyond just the military council, and more than one Lievira, young and old alike, made their way to press token gifts on the woman. Extracting her from her goodbyes with her estranged friends and the people from the village she had grown up in took the better part of the rest of the day.

While the butterfly woman might have been ready to leave and felt she had no more connections to her homeworld, the inhabitants of her home - or at least, those that had lived in the same area as her - clearly had other ideas. Aricia’s eyes glistened as she listened to elders telling tales of her parents, or craftspeople she’d barely interacted with discussing this or that aspect of her childhood. Dustin drifted to her shoulder about halfway through the long line of people come to say their goodbyes and whispered in her ear. “Are you still sure you want to leave?” Her answering nod and hand grabbing his sleeve were fierce, and he opted to stop worrying about whether they were doing the right thing or not by taking her along.

As the last of the well-wishers departed. Aricia turned to him. “Their words mean a lot, but I’m still… I need the help that the many limbed one can provide, and I want to visit the stars.” She said the words softly, her eyes still wet with tears as she moved past him towards the shuttle. “I am ready to fly into the vastness beyond the sky now.”

Dustin nodded, but glanced past her at Rye. The chief engineer had a thoughtful look on her face, so he opted to let the Lievira woman make her own way to the shuttle and instead walked across to speak with the bunny girl. “When you get that expression, love, you usually are either plotting something or have had a plot come to fruition. What are you up to this time?” he asked.

Rye did her best to look innocent as she pulled a handheld holo-recorder from her pocket. “Tweaked the audio input to wide range. I know we agreed we wouldn’t use holo-tech on the planet, but I figured if I kept it hidden it’d be fine. Don’t ya get mad with me Dusty, it’s for a good cause. I spoke with Treacle and Emmz, and they both agreed that Aricia might need a memory of the people back home - so I recorded all the stories they just told her. Gonna give it to Treacle and let her decide when to let Aricia hear it, our resident lovebug’s the expert ya kno?”

Dustin waited until Rye had secured the recorder back in her overalls before pulling her in for a hug. “That was fantastic thinking from the three of you. I should have thought of it myself, love.” He said, stroking her hair as the Rabyth woman nuzzled her face into his neck. “Ya should have, but it’s all good Dusty. It’s what we’re here for. Speaking of things ya should have thought of tho, that reminds me that I need to put something in your head…” She pulled free of his grasp and fixed him with a rather firm stare. “Our pairing. We got some stuff to do. Ya need to make time for it - a day or so worth of time. I know bubbles has already got to ya, and it’s obvious to all of us that Treacle’s gonna monopolize you as soon as ya get back up there with Meli, but I’m callin’ dibs after that, understand?”

The flight back to the ship was one of different emotions for the shuttlecraft’s occupants. Emely and Meli sat in high spirits, discussing the progress they’d made and the remaining things they needed to hand over to the uplift team before Sola departed the system. The assorted junior officers were slouched in relief at a mission concluded, the immediate risk of the war that still raged beneath them now someone else’s problem. Aricia sat wide-eyed and staring as the blue of the sky turned to the black star-speckled void of space in what looked like awe. As they broke atmosphere, Dustin sat watching the distant silvery dot of the Solar Ascent grow closer with a mix of satisfaction that their objectives had been met ,and apprehension at how Trea’k would react to seeing him after hearing Meli’s news fighting for space in his head.

How the insect woman reacted, it turned out, was to squeal excitedly and lift the Velca scientist in the air, before throwing Dustin a smoky glance that made the blood rush to his crotch. “I will be taking your wife to discuss her situation, as both her lover and as the ships counsellor, my mate. Then I will return for you. I recommend you hydrate fully and clear your schedule for the next day or so in the meantime. We will be busy for a while.”