trans_9 | Shore Leave Part 3: The Return Of Stacy

Arha moved back into the Observation Deck in a thoughtful manner, but one that was, for the most part, rested. Her small bag of new belongings was draped leisurely over a shoulder as she lounged in one of the meaty chairs. She had been reluctant to leave behind the ocean and its little crab army, but she had wished it (and the crabs and the oct-o-poozes) well.

He'd stuck around by the entrance for a while, soaking up the sunlight while he still had a chance, but as more people arrived and they were closer to actually leaving, Axl figured it was probably about time to actually go inside and be ready to roll. One last glance over his shoulder and he finally entered the Observation Deck, dropping his bag next to a chair and flopping down to take a seat.

And what do you know, there was a face he definitely remembered in the chair across from him. Even if he hadn't committed all the faces from the Rogue Squadron briefing to memory anyway, the speech she'd made at the end still would've made her stand out.

Well, no time like the present to get to know people. He brushed his bangs out of his eyes. "Um. Arha, right?"

"I am Arha, yes. And you are Axl, one of our new members," she said with a flash of a grin. Arha had made it a point to memorize the roster from face to name, but had not met individually with all members. "I did not have much of a chance for meeting people in our last gathering, I apologize."

"Hey, you've already got my name right before I introduced myself, I'd say you're doing fine." He grinned back. "And it was kind of a lot of people to meet, anyway." He was used to smaller units back in the Hunters, but there was something really encouraging about how huge Rogue Squadron was.

"Still, I would have liked to take more time to meet my Rogues," Arha said, her smile rueful. "You are all my family and one should be close to such."

"It feels good to have somewhere to jump into where I know I'm wanted," Axl admitted. He was used to the idea of the people you fought with being your family -- pretty much every close relationship he'd ever had in his life was based on that principle. But he'd had to work hard to earn every one of those, and while he knew he was going to have to prove himself here again, it was a nice change to have someone be so welcoming about it from the start, before he'd even done anything.

"This is a frightening place to be on one's own," Arha said gravely, but the smile that broke across her face was warm and sunny as always. "Such is how I felt when I became a pilot. Being wanted and needed are very important things. Such you will be in this unit. I will always protect my own."

He wasn't really used to being on his own, as much as he hated to admit it (even just to himself). Alone for a few hours as part of a mission or something, sure, but there was always somebody else a transmission away in case he needed cover fire or just somebody to complain at.

So Arha's warmth was welcome, even if it was almost confusing. Axl just wasn't used to people trusting that fast.

"I won't let you down." He meant every word of that.

"Nor will I let you down," Arha said in a deadly serious voice. Within it was the battle-hardened warrior, the Fremen, the Jed-Eye, and the Bene Gesserit, who would keep her people safe up to and including her own death. She would be careful about it, taking risks she deemed necessary to take, and would follow tycho and Wedge's orders, but she would give everything she had to see her fellow squadmates safe.

"It's a deal." His tone wasn't as serious as hers -- serious just wasn't how he rolled, most of the time -- but this time the grin he gave her wasn't his usual carefree one. It was the one that meant business, the one that was the last thing all too many Mavericks saw before their demise. The one that said anyone messes with me -- or us, I know how to mess with them right back.

Edited 2010-06-20 21:24 (UTC)

"Good," she said, all smiles again. "What are you looking forward to most as part of Rogue Squadron?" For Arha, it was all about the flying and the work they would be doing as a strike team. These thing she was good at doing and enjoyed best.

"Learning to fly sounds like it's gonna be pretty awesome. I've used some ground-based stuff back home, but nothing as fast as those X-Wings. Most of the mechs I used with the Hunters are pretty powerful, but they're slower than I am on my own, and the mobility was just awful." Speed had always been Axl's thing. For all that he knew his way around practically every firearm his world had bothered to invent, he knew he traded off a lot of power to be as fast as he was, and he wouldn't have it any other way.

"The X-Wings are very fast, but not faster than the A-Wings," Arha said with a nod. "You will enjoy flying with us. They handle very well and are not clumsy. I feel as if I am part of it when I fly and it is a good feeling." She smiled once more, remembering. "I had never flown before I got into the cockpit of an X-Wing, but I took to it intuitively and through great amounts of mechanical study. In my universe, machines are not something wonderful, especially intelligent ones as they tried to wipe humanity out. But I am Jed-Eye, now, and must adapt to a universe where such things are common. I leave behind my preconceptions and embrace those of my new home. It has been enlightening."

Oh, he liked the sound of those A-Wings. Even faster than the X-Wings? Maybe he could learn how to fly those on the side or something.

When she mentioned what machines had done in her own world, though, his smile dropped, replaced by a more thoughtful look. "Did all of them try and wipe humanity out? None of them disagreeing, or doing anything different? That's...really weird to me. We can't all agree on anything where I'm from." The closest he'd ever seen to a total consensus among reploids was the revolt by the newgen series, and even that itself wasn't unanimous because Axl himself hadn't gone along with it.

"They all did," Arha said with a nod. "The war was barely won and humans did away with all artificial intelligence. They were replaced by breeding humans in a way that they replaced machines and the edict that no machine could be made that replicates the human mind has stayed in place for thousands of years now. We still use machines, but they do not think, at least such it is at the point in time that I come from."

"That...sucks." It was kind of a lame way to sum it up, but Axl had never claimed to be particularly articulate.

"Humans in your world get points for fighting for their own lives instead of expecting other machines to do it for them, though." His tone wasn't quite strong enough to qualify as bitter, but there was a hint of disapproval there. Axl didn't particularly have a grudge against the humans in his world, but he also wasn't really inclined to ignore the disparity between the races, either.

"In your home, they do not, then?" Arha asked, her expression curious. "It is sad to think that one would not contribute to one's own defense. Such a thing should be instinctive."

"Most of them just wait for the Hunters to do everything." Axl shrugged. "X says we can fight better than they can anyway and I shouldn't hold it against them. And, I mean, I don't really hold it against them most of the time, but you'd think they could at least treat the people keeping them alive a little better. I dunno, I...didn't really know that many humans, until I got here." Generalizations were just that -- generalizations -- but he didn't have a lot of experience with anything else to work from.

"It can be difficult for people to treat others with respect if they do not see you as anything but tools for survival," Arha said thoughtfully. "That you are fully functioning with minds of your own seems to be something that they do not see, yes?" She folded her hands loosely in her lap. Her Mothers-Within, the Bene Gesserit ones especially, were loud with outcry. Arha silenced them. This was not their own home and the universe this one came from was different.

"You will be treated as family in this place," Arha said, despite the uproar in her mind. "After all, your universe is one we are fighting for as well as every other being on this ship. We are all a strange sort of family, adopted and cobbled together as survivors."

"At least surviving's something I'm already good at," he joked. It was kind of a relief, even if he wasn't the type to say so upfront -- so far most of the people he'd talked to had been pretty cool about what he was; granted, they weren't coming at it with the same kind of baggage that anyone in his world would, but it sounded like Arha at least had even more reason to distrust a machine.

But she was right. They were all in this together, strange a group as they might be. They couldn't really afford to hold onto old prejudice.

"I am, as well, good at surviving," Arha said, smiling. "I was near ten years in the deep desert, for the most part, alone. After such a thing, it no long matters where I am, so long as I have my new family with me. I am most grateful to Rogue Squadron and to my Jed-Eye for welcoming me. So, I welcome all those that join us."

"Ten years alone in the desert?" Axl asked, impressed.

That was something to write home about.

"I am Fremen and was trained in desert survival from the time I was small," Arha said, thinking back to those quiet years spent with Kalim in the simulated desert with the young and dying Shai-Hulud. "There is much to survive upon if one knows where to look. But, I had my moments where I found myself near death. The point is that despite such slim odds, I survived, and was hardened by my home planet. I have seen war, fought and killed for my people, and I have been a healer as well. It was necessary and it has brought me to where I am today, in this moment."

Bad things that were necessary to bring you to where you were now.

Something close to a wince crossed Axl's face for a split-second, before he smothered it. "Yeah, I can understand that."

Shore Leave Part 3: The Return Of Stacy

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