Page 136 of Sway's Peace
“We aren’t,” Loyalty agreed. “We prefer to keep to the old ways. We only advance ourselves as much as we need to in order to keep ourselves safe. As it happens, we once had a similar agreement that Grace’s people had with the Coalition. We weren’t a protectorate, as we were offered full membership – I believe out of fear. We started claiming the bodies of anyone who came to our planet and then using them to leave to find the Coalition leaders to demand they stop invading our home. But in apology, they gave us a security detail. When we learned how to use it, we just took it over and now operate it ourselves. We are no longer protected by the Coalition, but we still buy our defenses from them.”
“Why aren’t we allowed to stay?” Grace asked. “I’d like to see your home.”
“And I’d love to show it to you,” he smiled. “But all visitors must be approved before arriving. But don’t worry. I’ll get youpermission once I’ve settled down. And you have my comm signature, so you can contact me whenever you like.”
Grace smiled, excited. Another new adventure for her. With their permission granted, Loyalty left to go bring his belongings down to the landing shuttle. They had a couple marks until they’d be in range of the planet to launch it, so there was no need to say goodbye yet.
After he left, Alred’s light form appeared with a little shower of sparkles – he’d started to do that recently as the females seemed to enjoy the theatrics. Meanwhile, Sway was still getting used to him having a face.
“Interesting fellow,” Alred remarked. Grace, who hadn’t noticed him appear, jumped in fright at the sound of his voice. Alred chuckled, turning back to look at her. “Sorry.”
Grace beamed at him. “It’s okay. I was just really focused. I’m not supposed to include you in the list of crew members, right?”
“Correct. My existence is a total secret. And if they try to scan the ship or the AI operating it, I’ll just retreat to my core until they’re done, so don’t worry about them finding me. Much stronger and more thorough scans than theirs have tried and failed.”
“What’s interesting about Loyalty?” Sway asked, returning back to Alred’s earlier comment.
“His species. His body, it’s his blood? But it’s powering the ratchi body he claimed?”
“His body are the fluids inside the ratchi body. Which would include the blood and CSF and lymphatics and maybe the synovial fluid too. I don’t really know how deep it goes.”
Grace shot him a surprised look. He frowned.
“What?”
“You… know a lot more about biology than I expected,” she said. “I thought you were a helmsmale. That’s just subspace math.”
“I was the assistant to a mad scientist before that,” Sway chuckled. “I know about subspace calculations because the Master liked experimenting with exposing people to subspace unshielded to see what happened. But I would say my expertise is much more biological.”
“Yes, he’s quite good at taking people apart,” Alred said with a smirk. “Not quite so good at putting them back together. Hence why he was never our medical officer.”
“I could put people back together,” Sway protested. “I kept a lot of them alive. I just did it the old-fashioned way. The Master didn’t use a mediscanner, so I never learned that. But if you need something removed surgically, I could probably help better than Goldie.”
“Let’snotput that to the test,” Alred said, covering his heart – like there was some chance Sway would be able to cut into his light form.
Grace was making a face, like she wasn’t sure if she should laugh or not. But she didn’t seem uncomfortable.
Since she was a crew member now, everyone was a lot more relaxed around her. Which meant she got to see their true faces. The ones they didn’t show the rest of the universe. Aside from Tanin – who showed everyone the same face, regardless – they all kept their background and history hidden from others. Theyweren’t really ashamed, but, well, Grace’s initial reaction when she found out he was from Rik-Vane wasn’t exactly unexpected.
“Anyway,” Sway focused once again on Alred. “Loyalty’s true body is kind of like your core. You claim this ship as your body, but it’s more like a suit around your real body. His ‘blood’ is his body, and the ratchi body is just the suit he wears around it.”
“Can we not refer to people as suits?” Grace grimaced, though her hands were still moving deftly through the forms, filling out their information. She was using all of their aliases, not their true names, as those definitely would not be allowed close to such a tightly protected planet.
“It is true though,” Alred said, walking over to stand between their chairs. A thoughtful expression on his face.
It was strange. Sway was so accustomed to Alred being just a blank, featureless form to look at, that being able to read his expressions seemed almost too easy.
“What are you thinking?” He asked.
Alred didn’t respond right away. It took a moment for him to gather whatever inscrutable thoughts were going around in his head.
“I think I would like to ask him for a favor. Actually, Grace, my dear. Wouldyouask him for a favor in my stead? I feel he would be more inclined to agree if you asked. I would, of course, owe you greatly for it.”
Grace looked up, frowning. “A favor?”
“Yes. I cannot ask it. He doesn’t know I exist. I would be in your debt though.”
“Er, sure. What do you need?”
