Her place

Dustin paced in front of the quarantine booth, thoughts whirring in his head. While several of his lovers had arrived at the breakfast table with messed hair and the signs of shared showers in cramped quarters that morning, they had also all arrived with opinions on Defia, and so he hadn’t questioned things. He’d more or less expected their answers - Meli and Bleu not wanting to lose their research specimen, Trea’k and Emely wanting to be caring with the Fractal woman, and Rye and Naera largely undecided - albeit for different reasons.

The issue he had was that he wasn’t entirely sure what to do with the decision he’d made. Sending a message to EarthGov to explain that he would be keeping Defia on board had been the easy part. The hard part was working out how and where she fit into things; he’d not told her yet of his decision, but she’d been nothing if not eager to help take the fight to the rest of her kind. Should he take her on as a full crew member? Her memories were patchy, but where she did still have knowledge it would be incredibly useful based on the few fragments he’d already gone over with Trea’k.

Alternatively, he could keep her locked up here in quarantine for study. Or there was the third option; Rye said she could make up some kind of anti-nanite collar that’d paralyze the woman if she tried anything suspicious, and then they could let her roam mostly freely as a civilian aboard the ship. Any other options were just different variants of those three - nicer quarters, more or less room to roam and so on.

Pausing at the end of his pacing, he nodded to himself. Trea’k had said to trust his gut, and so with only a slight amount of trepidation he flicked the lock on the quarantine and stepped in.

Inside, Defia was sitting cross-legged on her bed, reading something on the tablet he’d given her. “Can’t you just scan all the data on that automatically?” Dustin asked as he sat on the stool nearby, staring at the Fractal. Defia gave what he thought might be a shrug. “Statement. Optical processing tests via scanning of printed material allows for enhanced acuity when transcribing non-electric data streams. Explanation. I am practicing reading your language so that I might read things that are not on screens.”

Dustin nodded to himself. “That makes sense. So, about your status on board.” Defia raised one hand. “Statement. I accept that the prime unit will be transferring me to a research facility. Addendum: I am not capable of regret, but my processes indicate logical instability around this matter. A suboptimal outcome is consistently being calculated as what I believe you would call ‘preferred’.” Dustin blinked, then asked. “Why do you think I’ll be transferring you, Defia?”

The Fractal woman tilted her head to the side and gave one of her overly-spiky smiles. “Because it is the optimal choice for extracting maximum data from my being. Statement. I will assist in whatever way I can against the cluster.” Dustin shook his head at that. “I’ve spoken with all the senior crew - and my government for that matter” he began, trying to work out how to phrase things so there would be no doubts. “And we’ve all either not raised any concerns or agreed that keeping you on board the ship would be the best option right now.” Defia tilted her head to the opposite side, one of her eyes lagging behind before she said “Query. Please explain reasoning for suboptimal choice?”

Dustin counted his reasons off on his fingers. “First; if you were hostile, it could compromise a research station and they’re more valuable than my ship right now. Second, any information we got would be delayed by communications which could potentially be cut to weaken my mission. And thirdly - it doesn’t feel right to me, freeing you from imprisonment on that moon only to lock you up on some research base in the back end of nowhere.”

Defia blinked weirdly, one eye closing and opening at a time before replying. “Statement. I do not have feelings. Prime unit’s reasoning is flawed. Statement. I will comply with prime unit’s directives despite flawed reasoning.” Dustin nodded then, before moving on. “So, that is what’s happening with regards to you leaving the ship - the bigger question is what to do with you now that we are keeping you on board. I’ve been giving that a lot of thought, and I’ve decided to give you a choice.”

The fractal woman froze, her entire body becoming eerily still. “Statement. Awaiting parameters.” Her voice echoed in the quiet of the room, and Dustin did his best to deal with the weirdness of the situation. “Option one; we’ll transfer you to better quarters. You will have increased access to information, and we’ll hold regular meetings where you can help with our planning actions against our mutual enemy. You will be confined to those quarters however.” He took a breath before continuing. “Option two; Rye has developed a… well, she calls it a shock collar, but it’s closer to a limited range EMP generator belt. You wear it, and it’ll prevent you from accessing certain areas of the ship, but beyond that you’ll be recruited as an official member of my crew, with your own quarters and relative freedom of movement.”

The pitch-black form in front of him hesitated for a moment; head tilting from one side to the other, then Defia spoke once more. “Statement. Freedom of movement and official status preferred. Addendum. I will provide unit designation Rye full parameters for my composition subunits to facilitate secure development of her control device. Rationale. I wish to be trustworthy to the crew. Statement. I have been studying the star charts provided, and have a potential lead for you to follow.” At that, the Fractal dropped back into that uncanny stillness.

Three hours and some last minute adjustments later, Rye secured the final part of her generator belt around Defia’s midriff. The faint whine of electronics powering on filled the air, then the engineer looked at the Fractal with concern in her eyes. “It doesn’t hurt ya right now, yea? I’m pretty sure of my calculations, but ya do happen to be the weirdest tech I’ve ever worked with.” Defia opened and shut her eyes a couple of times and nodded. “Statement. No significant injury modifiers noticed. Request. Please demonstrate the failsafe in activation.”

Rye winced and nodded. “Going the whole way with the making us feel safe bit are ya? Ok then.” The bunny girl paused, then tapped her tablet. “Toggling this room to be unsafe… now.” There was a beep from the belt, and a voice not dissimilar to Sola’s came from a tiny speaker in it’s core. “Unsafe area entered. Please leave immediately.” A countdown pipped, three, two, one… Then a pulse rippled up Defia’s form, her legs softening and she stumbled to one side. “Unsafe area entered. Final chance to leave before shutdown applied.” Rye tapped the screen again, and the belt beeped, the light on the top returning to a pale green.

“Statement. That was a condition-status I have not experienced before. Conclusion. Your device is a success. Addendum. I can feel the additional functionality from it’s electromagnetic radiation. Statement. I appreciate your not testing the device on the incapacitate or lethal settings. I do not wish to die.” Defia’s voice was somehow warmer, and a little fuzzy around the edges - as if not all of her was fully back to normal from the temporary disarray Rye’s device had caused. The bunny girl shrugged. “No worries. Right, let’s get going - Dusty said he wanted us all in the observation deck for a meeting as soon as you were all set up with the belt.”

A short journey later, the door to the observation deck swung open and Defia scanned the occupants. Prime Unit, designate Dustin, observing a star chart. Additional units - senior crew confirmed. Unit designate Naera, gaze still indicating irrational hostility due to cluster attack on her homeworld after unit Defia’s separation. The Fractal woman crossed the room swiftly, before taking one of the two unoccupied seats at the table the others were gathered around, settling in between Trea’k and another insect woman she identified as the ship’s head of security.

“Unit designate Defia reporting as ordered, captain.” She said, attempting to modulate her vocal tones to indicate keenness. Dustin nodded, then pressed his fingers together. “Alright. As we decided, Defia is joining us as our chief advisor on all matters concerning the Fractals. Following a discussion with her earlier, I believe she has information that’ll help us plot our next steps. Defia, if you would.”

The Fractal woman stood a little warily; she attempted to make herself look small to avoid startling Naera. “Statement. Scanning star charts provided to me to update my chronometer, I have identified a seed world that I believe to be within second phase seedling. Traveling to this world should enable tracking of the cluster if the seedling facilities can be successfully infiltrated.” She pointed at the location on the map, then sat back down, looking expectantly at the assembled crew. Meli raised a hand, gesturing at the map where Defia had indicated. “This system is uncharted as far as weave routes go, but well within our range. But I have to ask - what exactly is a seed world?”