come_sailaway | I Was Looking for a Breath of Life

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I Was Looking for a Breath of Life

Who: Valdis and Open!
What: New Arrival tries to cope with being dropped into a new place after a massive bloodbath
When: November
Where: All over
Warnings: Headaches, grumpiness, will warn if it gets worse than that.

1) Arrival: Her head screamed at her, sharp pain cutting into her vision with every breath. Eyes closed tightly, Valdis does her best to breathe. The heavy death in the air, filled with lingering desperation and trauma tightened her chest. Of all the times to fall into a new world, it would be just after a massacre. With her head in her hands, her black hair hiding her face, she leaned against the railing of the walkway, trying to drown out the pain. This was definitely where it all happened. The pain was worse here.
"Haven't felt this bad since the last war," she muttered. "How many people died?"

2) Revelations: Valdis worked her way through the ship, avoiding her cabin as much as possible, seeking to memorize the layout of the ship and maximize her ability to move quickly should it be necessary. The Void is silent, a fact she should be grateful for, and in some ways, very much is. But now the silence is simply silence, and the feeling that the dead are around every corner sits in her gut. She can’t see them, except maybe flitting out of the corner of her eyes from time to time, but she can sense that they aren’t alone. Footsteps sounded from behind her, she’d been so focused on the dead that she hadn’t paid attention to the living. She turns around, hand on the hilt of the rather impressive sword hanging on her hip.

"Hello?"

3)Buffet: Without the ability to draw on the dead, Valdis must find something to soothe the very human feeling of hunger. She’d known the feeling from home, before her memories had begun to return, but now she found it highly annoying.

“What’s the best thing here?”

Second Week of November and Onwards

4) Library: Valdis has finally taken Erin's advice and found the black binder in the library. She is not thrilled with what she's reading and the tension is visible in her usually elegant jawline and the glowing red in her eyes. Fear isn't found anywhere in her demeanor or soul, but rather a thoughtful, yet tense, aura radiates from where she sits. She's so focused that almost anyone not touched by death could approach without her noticing. If they are touched by death, she may react poorly, so tread carefully.

5) Hurikane: She can't get drunk, but she sure is trying her best with pure vodka and whatever else she can find that's strong. She's not even really trying to taste it, just downing it as fast as the invisible bartender can deliver, and exhausting her healing abilities as she goes. It's still not enough to even give her a buzz though. Disappointing.

6)Wildcard round: Your turn!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I arrived after that massacre a few weeks ago, so similar time frame I suppose.

[Who really cares about time when they have eternity? Unless the captain gets bored of them or their 'batteries' run out. Even if they are able to find a new home like Pratt suggested, was there really a point?

She downs another shot. Shakes her head, quickly counts the glasses, sighs and doesn't order another. It's clearly not going to work and it doesn't even taste good.]

At least the headache is gone now.

[Ari winces just a little at the mention of the massacre.]

Yes. I was about a week earlier. [That's all she has to say about it, and she swiftly latches on to the change in topic.]

I don't rightly know how you're still standing after all that, but you're going to have a wretched headache tomorrow. [A brief pause, as Ari tilts her head.] Not that I'm judging. People get by how they can.

I'm Lieutenant Ari Tayrey, with the TS Prosperity. [There, she's remembered her manners. She sticks out a hand by way of greeting.]

[Ari's comment about her drinking sends her into laughter. She's not crazy, or drunk, just sad and feeling a little overwhelmed. Her life had been turned upside down immediately before being copied and stolen away to this hellship, so it's been turned upside down twice in a very short period of time. Any normal person would dive into the drink too.]

Nah. If it was going to touch me, it would have by now. [Said very sadly]

I'm Valdis, and I have a fancy title too, or so I remember at least, but titles aren't worth much here. [a slightly pause] Military service aside, what do you do on your ship?

[The sorrow in Valdis' voice tugs at Ari's own emotions, but she doesn't let it pull her too deep. It won't do any good for either of them if they spiral into despair together, and that's far too easily done. Ari knows it. She has to be stronger than that.]

Valdis. Tell me your title? They've as much value as we care to put on them. I worked hard for mine, I don't care if it doesn't signify much to anyone else. That's what he can't take, you know? The lunatic calling himself captain. Who you are and what matters to you, that's yours. [It might not be the most inspirational little speech, but it's very much in earnest.] Until we escape this place, get back to our homes, we've got to hold on to what we can.

[She laughs drily, shaking her head.] And you're asking what I did shipside, outside my duty? Not a lot. I'm second astrogator, so I worked second shift, twelve hours of twenty-four. I miss it. [That's true enough. It's hard to fill the days.]

[Valdis isn't sure how much want she even has for the title she remembers. She hasn't been that creature in so long she doesn't even remember how it felt, or what it was like, and with the Void seemingly asleep or out of reach, that power she vaguely recalls can't manifest. Everyone here, including herself, is safer without that monster.]

I was once a queen. [She replies, still avoiding the official titles.] The Queen of a very small kingdom, a very long time ago...so long I barely remember it.

[Way to make it sound like a fairytale instead of what it really was, perhaps the drink is getting to her after all, or at least her fears and sorrows are easier to wallow in.]

An Astrogator? On a Starship then? Is that like a navigator? Someone who plots courses through territory?

[Ari's eyes widen. She's familiar with the idea of royalty conceptually, but if exists at all any longer, it's on isolated colonies with very particular belief systems. Beyond that, it's something from the distant past. She's not sure how to take this, what to do. Bow? Engage her in a debate on why shareholder voting systems are preferable?

It occurs to her, though, that not remembering has to be code for not wanting to talk about it. Valdis is older than Ari, but she's hardly elderly, and being a queen isn't something you easily forget. She won't press it, and so she just nods.] If that's what important, that's what you keep with you.

The translation into Company Standard might be imperfect, but yes, on a starship. Navigators are for water? Astrogators are for the stars. I keep the charts, plot the courses, and do the fancy flying. [She refrains, barely, from launching into a litany of complaints about what a nightmare this ship is in that respect - no chart room, and false stars.]

Alright, I have to ask you. Why doesn't the drink affect you? Is it genetic engineering?

[The awe and confusion going through Ari's eyes shouldn't be so amusing, but Valdis can guess she's worried about how to greet royalty and, well, that's just hilarious considering what she is.
Dronningen av Hundene, she almost starts laughing again, but Ari continues politely, so she doesn't]

Sounds very complicated, and quite incredible that your kind have reached the stars in such a manner. Most humans only dream of such things.

[Because humans are gifted such an ability. It's so frustrating.]

No, not genetic engineering. I have unique healing powers. Back home, I was immortal. Could even recover from being killed. Here? Not sure that rule still applies. But the healing seems to still be at play.

[Ari doesn't seem the type to believe in such things, but Valdis is opened to being surprised.]

Edited (coding issue) 2022-11-12 20:48 (UTC)

[Your kind and humans like that make Ari wonder if despite her looks, Valdis is something else. Alien. More alien than all the Earthers, and what she says next seems to confirm it. It only serves to make her more curious.]

I'm sure you could've been a spacer, with the right training. [Maybe not an astrogator, because dealing with L-space is its own kind of tricky and you have to start it at the right age, but a spacer for sure.] I think any civilization has the potential to reach the stars. Some just get there quicker than others.

[That Valdis said powers, and not magic, makes all the difference to Ari, because now she's analysing it, looking for the logic to make it work instead of just dismissing the other woman as lost to superstition.] It might be that you can do naturally what will take my people a lot of work in a genelab. We've increased lifespan, dealt with a lot of diseases, but telomerase only stretches so far. [Ari's not sure how old her great-grandmother is now. 120? 140? She fought in the war, but she could have been Ari's age then, or decades older. She's white-haired and wrinkled, but physically and mentally sound, still running the Company.]

[A sudden thought occurs to Ari, and she laughs again, mirthlessly.] I'm told we all recover from being killed these days. You're likely alright there, still. Are you saying you're unique on this ship, or among your people too?

[Her words are no slip. Even in her depression and desire to not feel, Valdis' mind is clear and she's still a shrewd individual.]

It's certainly natural for my species. I am...pleased that humans have come so far from the bickering, warring, uncaring creatures from my time. Not to say our homes are or were once the same place.

[The next question catches her off guard, that's hard to do Ari! She actually looks away and raises her hand for another shot of vodka. It's too late to deflect now.]

Perhaps not to this ship, but among my kind? Yes. But there were only seven of us, so I suppose that's not incredibly hard.

[Five now. Locking the Hounds in Purgatory had killed two of them. She could still remember the feeling of their deaths, and how much power she had gained from them.]

What about you? Any special talents?

[Time to change the subject if she can.]

[Now there's a strange assumption - that because Ari's people have reached the stars, there must be no more bickering? She doesn't want to think about how many intercolonial wars there would be if not for the Tradelines settling disputes before they got out of hand. It also speaks to a very cynical view of humanity, one that Ari's not quite comfortable with from someone completely alien. There was far more to them than only that. Still, Ari can play the diplomat if she has to.]

I'm sure we're from very different sectors. [It's a safe assumption. Even on Tirva that they had left behind, there were only humans.]

[Seven needs some interpretation. Seven members of her family? Seven queens? Ari doesn't suspect 'seven of her kind' because a band that small wouldn't need a queen, and if Valdis were one of the very last of a dying people, she'd surely have mentioned that. She's about to ask, when Valdis abruptly changes the subject. Another time, then. She'll remember.]

Special talents? Flying a starship's about as special as I get. The usual military training - repairs and weapons and contract negotiation, all of that. I've never really had time for much else.

[Valdis has low standards when it comes to humanity. She's seen the worst and best of them, and she's cynical.]

More likely different universes, or very different time periods.

[What Valdis gets out of Ari's explanation is that the girl is smart, hardworking, skilled and a workaholic. Different times.]

Contract negotiation? In what manner?

[Ex-assassin and ex-lawyer has some ideas about them. There's also supernatural contracts people make with Demons, but she doubts that's the kind Ari is talking about.]

You're not the first to say that. Different universes. It's not impossible, but I don't think it's more likely than a simple separation by space. If our homeworlds were in different galaxies, we'd know just as little of one another.

[Ari shrugs.] I'd try to learn more about the possibilities, if I could, but the library here is useless. [Nothing but storybooks, when what she needed were advanced texts on theoretical physics. Another frustration.]

[It's interesting to her that of everything she's listed, it's the contracts Valdis is interested in, but she thinks she can guess why.] For trade, mostly. The Tradelines is a military organisation [or it calls itself one - its detractors might say paramilitary at best] but that's not all we do. The name gives it away. Defending the colonies and keeping peace is our first duty, but we facilitate trade, too. Keep the trade routes open, clear and safe, and do some business of our own. So there are trade deals, contracts with independent colonies or colony-owning companies, the occasional diplomatic arrangement, and internal matters - employment contracts and such. Only a captain can sign off on most of it, but I'm authorised to initiate proceedings, and to negotiate.

Sounds delicate. Similar discussions take place back on my world, but between governments and politicians, not militaries. Though militaries do occasionally become involved if talks break down. Luckily that's only happened twice on a world-wide level.

[Valdis isn't certain either way is better. Civilians tend to get quite petty, but the military is limited by affinity for escalation. At least in her very long experience. She smiles recalling the idea of Galaxies.]

Admittedly my world is rather self-centered. The humans once thought themselves the center of the universe. Science has since shown otherwise, but there are still some who think themselves superior.

[Not to mention the strange conspiracies humans come up with]

It's natural to put your own people at the center of the map if you're the one drawing it. Your homeworld wasn't spacefaring? My people have had starships for centuries, and we still haven't encountered any inhabited planets. I hadn't met anyone who wasn't human before I arrived here.

[Ari has adapted to that part remarkably quickly. Her people had always known that by probability, they couldn't be the only sentient beings in the universe. There had to be others, just far away.]

I guess some things are the same. If we're stepping in for peacekeeping, it's because talks between colonies have broken down and someone resorted to violence. I wish it didn't happen, but there are always going to be people willing to violate the rights of others, and sometimes the only thing they'll listen to is the threat of having every ship of the lines turn up on their doorstep if they don't back off.

[Normal perhaps, but humans really should consider that they aren't the most important creatures in the universe. Even if the Creator favored them above all others.]

Who watches the watchers?

[Corruption always showed up sooner or later. Absolute power and all that. There's always someone above someone else. Always someone willing to toe the line. Always someone willing to kill to get ahead. She doubts Ari's "Tradelines" is immune.]

[It's a very good question, and one that throws Ari off-balance somewhat, because she knows she doesn't have a good answer. It's supposed to regulate itself. Nobody should advance to become a Tradeline captain who doesn't have the right temperament for it, and if they change after attaining that position, they should fail because nobody would agree to be part of their crew. It works, to some degree, but every Tradeliner's heard stories about the odd bad captain, or groups of spacers who arrive downstation and throw their weight around too much, harass the locals, ruin whatever good reputation the organisation might have had.

Ari's view on this is that she can't do anything about it. If she has her own ship someday, she can run it how she likes, but no Tradeliner from another ship is going to listen to her now. None of that, however, is an answer to give an outsider.]

We have a code to abide by. We're never the ones to initiate aggression, and we're bound to respond when one of our insured colonies needs our help. Breaking code has serious consequences. [It does. heavy fines, expulsion from the Tradelines, even death if the crime was bad enough. Bending code beyond all recognition, however, some people occasionally seemed to get away with.] The Tradelines are decentralised, so you're never going to get one person building up too much power.

[It seems her question has thrown Ari off ever so slightly. She takes another shot of vodka, covering the fact she's noticed it takes the girl time to answer.

The answer isn't surprising, but it's rather naïve and only a matter of time before it gets toppled.]

So you're mercenaries.

[Colonies pay certain captains to protect them and negotiate on their behalf, which could potentially pit them against other captains on behalf of other colonies. She's sure Ari may take offense at her summation, but it's the only word from her own time that first the situation.]

[It's offensive, but only mildly. Nothing she hasn't heard before. Mercenary space traders was the usual accusation.]

No. We're military.

[It all came down to definitions, really. ]

If we were mercenaries, we'd be picking our battles. Instead, whenever a Tradeline-insured colony's in trouble, all the nearest starships come to its aid, even if it'd be more convenient to fly on and ignore it. That's our first duty. Before profit.

[Valdis still isn't seeing the difference.]

Freelance military. You defend the colonies who pay you to do so. What about the colonies who don't pay you? Do you defend them too? If not, isn't that 'picking your battles'?

[The possible alternative is Mafia, but Ari is a little too noble for that.]

[Ari's trying to understand, but it's not making sense to her.]

We don't have contract with colonies that don't pay us. Some of them are isolationist and don't want us in their local systems at all, so we respect that. We're not going to barge in where we're not wanted.

Expecting us to defend uninsured companies would be like expecting the planetary militia on Siduri to defend Lorentzen Delta. Different colonies. Why would they?

[Yes, in the hands of a group without the very strict ethical codes of the Tradelines, it's a setup that could eventually devolve into a protection racket. Unlikely while all their commanders undergo the same training as young idealist Ari here, though.]

In my world, different nations ally with each other and support each other though conflicts that may arise. They also offer aid to countries not in their alliance.

[Valdis can talk Ari in circles all day, she's even beginning to see which buttons she can push, but in this instance, she's genuinely interested.]

An unallied militia paid to protect certain groups but not others, are considered mercenary bands. Mercenaries may have a code, they may have a leader and call themselves certain names, but they are still unallied with any government authority or protection.

[The fact that the different Vessels aren't even allied with each other lends credence to the definition. However, she will allow one thing, which is perhaps the most important point of it all.]

Perhaps the only difference between your Tradelines and mercenaries are the fact that you also try to keep the peace. Mercenaries thrive in war.

[That can't be the only difference. Valdis has hit upon a difficult subject here. Ari's intelligent, analytical by nature, and that's an asset on the Tradelines so long as you don't turn it towards finding fault with the law and custom of the organisation itself. She was told in training that she just didn't have the seniority to criticise certain things, that it was arrogant to think she knew better than people who had been doing this far longer than her - and Ari wanted to achieve her ambitions so badly, she went along with it all.

She's not bad at immediate analysis to defend the Tradelines, though.]

Nations. Your homeworld must have had a lot of internal conflict for all these alliances and offers of aid to occur. Civil war on the colony worlds of my sector is rare.

And then governments. The Tradelines aren't allied with any particular government, no. That's what a planetary militia is for. Internal matters. Imagine the alternative! Siduri has a dispute with Lorentzen Delta, and before you know it there's a little Siduri fleet at war with a little Lorentzen fleet, and not only would you have a much greater casualty rate on those two worlds, anyone further out towards the frontier than them would have their supply lines cut, because no independent civvy trader is going to ship goods through a warzone to get to them. That could mean starvation, or even atmospheric failure, out on a frontier world. Catastrophic loss of life.

Under our system, those worlds are both insured, so they get Tradeline mediation. A panel of senior captains investigating the dispute and deciding where fault lies - according to code and citizens' essential rights, not their own whims - while their ships make sure there are no further hostilities and that the lines of trade and travel stay open, for both other Tradeline ships and the independents.

[Ari's calm and measured about all this, doing her best to convince Valdis.] Mercenaries are much less organised than we are, without our structure and our code. Security companies are mercenary; there are plenty of those around, and they operate where it's profitable for them. [If the sticking point is government backing, though, the Tradelines won't ever qualify. Governments out in Ari's sector range from direct democracy to shareholder vote to appointed council, but one characteristic they share is that they're all very small.]

It's not a civil war. Think of each nation like it's own planet. The world they are on its own solar system.

[She does listen to Ari's entire explanation. The girl is passionate, no doubt, but there's something heartbreaking about it. From what Ari describes, her timeline is somewhere between Star Wars and Star Trek. And even Starfleet battled corruption. The Jedi had a pretty strong code too, but they became too proud, too blind to the flaws. Yet, those are both fiction. This is Ari's reality.]

I can see you believe strongly in your code and I sincerely hope you are correct about the Tradelines. But I've seen many empires rise and fall and many systems die upon their own morals. At some point, you will be faced with a choice you may not like.

[She doesn't dismiss what Valdis is saying. It might not be poetic language, not from someone immortal.]

Nothing lasts forever, but that's no reason not to try to preserve what we value. I'm not responsible for the important decisions right now, but when I make captain, I might be - and sometimes there's no perfect decision, just a heap of competing priorities that you have to use your best judgement with. Difficult choices. If it comes to it, making those choices will be my duty. [As will living with the consequences. Ari's come a long way from the girl who sobbed the first time she got her virtual crew killed in a command simulation, and was told without sympathy to go right back, try again, and do better. She thinks she understands what Valdis means, at any rate.

A moment later, she asks:]

How many nations are there on your homeworld?

How very human of you.

[She sounds tired again, and raises her hand for yet another shot of vodka as if it is actually going to work this time.]

There are currently one hundred and ninety-five countries. That's subject to change though.

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Please debate with her sometime Ari!

She will when she knows her better! All the debates :D

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