Spires high, Shadows low

The ready room was busy, and not for the first time Dustin was glad that the designers of Sola had overcompensated when creating the ambassadorial quarters. Officially, this was a meeting of the senior staff so that Meli and Emely could brief them all on their destination and what they’d need to do to win over the Moa’thif. Unofficially, the ladies were also gathered to give their verdicts on the three women sitting nervously opposite him. Well, Aricia at least was nervous - Yaerwen looked confident, and with Defia it was sometimes hard to tell.

Yril’k was sitting with Trea’k, the pair softly chatting in their native tongue as Naera finished setting plates of snacks tactically around the table; Dustin was pretty sure his security chief’s presence would be unneeded given the brief rundown he’d had on the different species in this part of space, but had wanted everyone there just to be safe.

Glancing around at the gathered women and her husband, Meli tapped her cup gently to draw their attention. “Alright, everyone. We’ve a bit to get through - the situation isn’t as clearcut here as I’d have hoped.” Emely set her own drink down and handed the Velca a tablet, before sitting back attentively despite having already gone through all the material they’d be covering once already, while Dustin leaned forward. He’d not yet been made aware of any issues with their plans, so was concerned by the look on his wife’s face.

“We’re heading to the Moa’thif homeworld, thanks to the good word that Yaerwen’s people put in for us. We’d originally planned for this to be a flying stop - share some architectural knowledge with them, review some of their designs and give them our opinion to get in their good graces, and then head on to the Uil’l.” The assembled group nodded; the plan was fairly straightforward, and in the case of Dustin and Sammie had lead to them brushing up on their knowledge of different terrestrial architectural styles over the past few days just to be safe.

Meli sighed and tapped on the tablet, the holo projector in the centre of the table shifting to show a world covered in what looked at first glance like glass sculptures. “Thif, their homeworld. It’s a strange place, the atmosphere is highly acidic and toxic to most of us. Even Bleu would struggle without an environmental suit; Defia’s about the only one that could stand on the surface unaided. Gravity is marginally higher than that of Earth, and the spin is faster - a day-night cycle is about eighteen hours.” She paused, adjusting the holo to zoom in on one of the sculptures. “Moa’thif architecture is largely fluid in design; they cultivate their buildings in a way not too dissimilar to termites or coral.”

Dustin leaned forward. “So, hostile planet, funky buildings. I’m not seeing why our original plan wouldn’t work, love?”

Another tap on the tablet zoomed in on the base of one of the twisting structures. “So, the issue is this. Something is killing off their spires. They can’t figure it out, and any attempts at scanning they have made have drawn a blank. The entire society is in uproar - the micro-organisms they use to build with have been adapted to live on a range of planets, and the variety on their homeworld is the most robust strand they have in the galaxy. If that strand dies off, if there’s a plague or something affecting them, it could cripple the entire Moa’thif way of life - not to mention their position under the Tho’uun throne. The only way they’ll even consider allowing us to meet with them is if we agree to try and help.”

Sammie’s eyes narrowed at that point. “So, we’re screwed then? No offense Meli, but I dunno if you and bubbles are exactly cut out for veterinary work on a colony of cyanide-loving plankton. Should we just adjust course and skip to the Uil’l straight away?”

Meli shook her head. “No. There’s one good reason why I think we should investigate for them - Emely picked up a transmission from the planet to one of their colonies that wasn’t encrypted, let me play it for you all…” She tapped her tablet again, and the speakers crackled into life.

“…can’t see anything down there. These parts-places of the spire-home have been unoccupied since before the Tho’uun arrived-conquered; dunno why they thought-believed we’d find something, but it’s just shadows. Did find-locate more of the dead building-nesters though - dry as dust-ash and twice as dead. Can’t understand-reason why. Though I did find some weird-unexplainable markings I didn’t recognize-know in one of the side rooms. Sent them over-across to the academy of ancient history to see-enquire if they could figure-understand them out. What? Yea, ok, I’ll send-transmit them over if you want to nerd out about archaeology…” Meli stopped the playback at that point, adding “the rest of the call was just personal business between two friends. But as to the image - they did send that over. And that’s why I think we want to take a look.”

She tapped her tablet again, and the holo changed to a grainy picture of a wall etched with writing. It didn’t take Defia’s hiss of recognition for the bulk of the crew to realize why Meli thought this a problem worth their time; the script was clearly Fractal in origin. All eyes turned to the single set of red ones at the table. Defia tilted her head to one side. “Statement. Writing translation ‘Sector cleansed, do not deploy additional resources’. Hypothesis. Fractal origin for destruction of native biostructural lifeforms.”

The assembled group fell silent at the rogue Fractal’s words. Eventually, Yril’k raised one chitin covered hand. “Do we’k have permission to deploy’k armed crew’k to the planet?”

Emely shook her head. “Not unless we find something. I’ve convinced them to let Dustin and Sammie carry weapons as ‘cultural’ artifacts - the Durathisian’s propaganda about humans being all warmongering helped there oddly enough. Besides that, it’ll be down to you and Defia’s inbuilt capabilities…” seeing Dustin’s expression, the Feliax woman gave a shrug. “Sorry, Sir. I did my best, but they’re already in a state of panic down there and half the news is making out that your species is gearing up to invade the rest of the galaxy. I had to argue to get the party size up to the four of you.”

Dustin sighed and shook his head. “It’s fine, kitten. Seriously, my big worry is if there’s something major going on down there - if it’s just one or two Fractal drones doing some tinkering we can probably handle it between the four of us, but if there’s a sizable **** then we’ll be in deep trouble.” Taking a moment to think, he turned to the rest of the crew. “Alright. We’ve got another what, two days until we reach our destination? Can we all take some time to think about what our options are here? And Defia - can you give us all as much information as you can on how the Fractals might approach a task like killing off the construction organisms?”

The women nodded in response to his order; as they all did so Yril’k stood briskly. “Captain, if I may’k depart? I would’k like to prepare my teams’k for the eventuality’k that we run into’k trouble and need them’k to **** entry’k into the spires to aid’k us. Landing’k on this world’k and fighting in it’s atmosphere’k will be challenging.” Dustin nodded, and the Vex’ess warrior strode out the door.

The instant she’d left, the mood shifted. The tension of knowing they were flying towards a potential Fractal infestation lingered - but there were other currents at work. Defia paused and glanced up, one hand still hovering over a tablet where she was downloading information on her analysis of possible Fractal tactics for the others to review. Aricia’s wings shifted uneasily, and Yaerwen set down her drink and glanced towards Meli with an unreadable expression.

Dustin’s wife sighed and set her own tablet down with a click. “Husband, do you feel we should postpone the other matter in the light of this new development?” She asked, to grimaces from several of the ladies present.

Shaking his head, Dustin glanced around the room. “No, love. First of all, we’ve got two days - it won’t take us that long to prepare that we can’t afford to spare a few minutes. And second - it’s important that the Fractals and the Durathisians never take away our enjoyment of life. If they do that, they’ve half won anyway. How do we want to do this?”

Meli straightened up. “I’ve asked all the ladies present to give their thoughts - if we go around everyone, and then you have your say, Husband?”

As soon as Dustin nodded, Emely’s arm rocketed up. “Me first!” Meli inclined her head in the fox girl’s direction, all eyes rounding on the redhead. “Ok, so, obviously I think Sir should take them all…” she began, then bit her lip. “Aricia’s surprisingly observant, Yaerwen is far more tender than she lets on and Defia reminds me of me in how she’s trying to find her way. Even leaving aside my feelings about Sir getting more women, I’d still vote for all three on those grounds.”

Rye snorted. “You’d vote for Dustin to let a pumpkin into our bed if Naera carved tits and a vagina into it first Emmz, be honest. But as far as the newbies go… Defia’s got my vote, that should go without saying. We’ve been working on her… issues, for a while now and I want to get hands on with testing out the fixes. Yaerwen’s fun to spar with, and I’d quite like to teach her Rabythian wrestling so I’m ok with her too. Aricia… you’re a complete airhead, but I’ve got no reasons not to let ya in.”

As the Rabyth woman finished speaking, Bleu and Naera both opened their mouths at the same time. After a moment’s pause, the medic waved for the chef to go first. Taking a deep breath, Naera gestured to the butterfly woman. “Aricia’s fine. She helped me take pictures of the menu for the galley, and we had fun discussing the origins of all the recipes. I’d like to spend more time with her, but that’s true for everyone I guess.” She paused, gaze flickering between the others. “Yaerwen… you are way to obsessed with athletics for me, but that’s not a reason to say no. And then, Defia.”

The Fractal’s eyes snapped to the Caenii. Out of everyone there, she was the one most likely to say no to Defia joining… “You try. You try more than basically anyone here, bar maybe Dustin. And you genuinely can’t cook at all. I… I’d like to spend more time with you, and help you learn to cook properly.”

Defia stared open mouthed for a moment, then bowed her head. “Thank you, Naera. Statement. Regardless of the ultimate decision regarding your relationship, I would like to learn to cook with you too.”

Bleu sighed at that point. “I don’t have any objections to any of the three, for what it’s worth. No strong feelings either way - if they join us I’ll get to know them better, if they don’t I won’t.”

Heads turned to Sammie and Trea’k. The counselor paused halfway through eating one of Naera’s snacks. “Professionally, Defia and Aricia are both in a position where I have no objections. Personally, they are all delightful individuals and I would like to spend more time with them.”

Sammie gave a shrug. “Defia, your smile still creeps me out - I like girls, but when you grin it reminds me of a bunch of toxic yuri manga I read in my teens. Not your fault though, so I’m not voting against - just… don’t smile at me in bed ok? As to the others, Yaerwen’s a blast even if her opinions on grav-ball are just plain wrong, and Aricia’s a sweetheart. My vote for all of them I guess?”

That just left two. Meli turned to her husband. “My vote is to allow them all in at whatever pace you would like, husband. Defia is fascinating, Aricia is sweet and Yaerwen is surprisingly soft behind her sporty exterior. What do you say?”

Dustin sighed and stood. Turning, he surveyed the room. “I’m sure you will all tell me I get the final say - I know Emely will. But really, this is a relationship between all of us - I’m not going to say no if you all vote to let them in. Besides…” he paused, turning to the three hopeful looking women. “I had a lovely time on our dates. We’re not going to be running to bed right away; I’d still like to take our time in that regard, and to be honest we might not get the chance or be in the mood for a while with this upcoming mess on the Moa’thif homeworld. But… you’re in.”