Transparent 21, Sulphur 3

[auguris]

Name: auguris
'verse: Universe Lost
Story: Nobis
Colors: Transparent 21. Superficial, Sulphur 3. Make a contract
Supplies and Styles: Pastels (memories), Beading Wire
Word Count: 820
Rating: R (Milen swears. A lot.)
Warnings: None.
Summary: Tothos gives Milen a brief account of her planet's history.


Tothos eased into the cockpit, positive she wasn't invited but wondering what held them up: Milen had assured her they were ready to dock over an hour ago.

"--be patient, Sollana. Look out the damn window: everyone's waiting."

Milen snarled as she swiped her hand across the screen, ending the call. She caught Tothos leaning in and threw up her hands.

"Alliance dog fukers."

Tothos folded her arms. "I thought Cross was out of their jurisdiction."

"We are. Fukin Sol runs the docks and Sol loves to play with the Alliance. Some most wanted fuk went through Sol and now we all have to go through scanning prods. Cuntshit is what it is."

Tothos had never really understood the old phrase "swear like a sailor" before she met Milen. Something about being too long out in the black. "How long?"

Milen shrugged with her whole upper body. "Good fukin question." She gestured at the co-pilot's chair. "Might as well sit, bored of arguing with STC."

Tothos did as suggested, settling into the not-uncomfortable swivel chair. She assumed it turned all the way around, not that she was going to test that. The lower portion was bolted to the floor.

The matte black dashboard appeared empty, but she knew if she waved her hand this way or that a myriad of screens would pop up; she didn't want to fuk with the ship's controls, so she kept well back.

"Ease. It's coded to my genny." Milen waved her fingers. "No one flies the Sollana without my permission."

"What happens if you're dead?"

Milen laughed. "Hell of a question, Nobis."

Tothos frowned; surely even civilian vessels had an established chain-of-command. "Sorry."

Milen waved it off. "What's your story?" Tothos raised her brows. "Last time my auncle nat on about someone this much zie married the man. Something to you."

Tothos turned until she could stare out the slit of a window. "I was a soldier. Now I'm not."

After a short silence Milen said, "That's it?" Tothos just shrugged. "Right, don't have to tell me. Nothing else going is all."

Tothos closed her eyes. "What do you know about Nobis?"

"You're from there. Not else."

"About ninety, a hundred years ago two rival corps colonized the same landmass. Red Suns and Kernaformers. Nobis is a natural garden world with no sapient species, but they were after the huge uranium deposits. Put together they had close to a million settlers within a decade."

"Quick," Milen said.

"I guess. A few decades later something happened to the Jump. Most say portal inversion, but there are more than a few conspiracy theories. It was terrorists or the detana or synths or the government."

"Or terrorist synthetic detana working for the government," Milen said around a chuckle.

"Whatever happened, Nobis was cut off from the Terran Network. Suns and Kers couldn't decide whose responsibility it was to re-establish the Jump. Tensions compounded. About twenty years ago things got bad. I was just a kid but I remember seeing the explosion on the vids, before my mother shut them off. They told us it was the Kers own fault, but..."

"But you were a Suns kid, yeah?"

Tothos nodded. "Kers say it was sabotage. Their mining operations went to hell. By the time I was old enough to sign up for Red-sec, we were at war. So I went into the military instead." She tucked her hands into her armpits. "What we didn't know -- us, the Suns, specifically -- was that the Jump had already been re-established by the Terran Network. Goes by the Alliance nowadays."

"Fuk, they just let it happen?"

Tothos opened her eyes. "They aided the Kers." She waited for Milen to finish swearing before she went on. "After the Kers scoured half our territory, the Alliance put a stop to it. My government signed their territory over the the Alliance. The war was over, the Jump was officially re-established, and we all became Alliance citizens."

Milen stayed silent. Tothos turned to find the other woman regarding her, expression unreadable.

"And now you're on Cross."

"And now I'm on Cross," Tothos agreed.

"What about the rents?"

Tothos wondered what Undeye had told her, if anything. "I think my mother is dead."

"You think?"

"She was recorded as both missing and dead. My father is..." she shrugged. "Out in the void somewhere. I can't find him."

"He just left?"

"SDA reported me as dead. Psyche kept me for a long time." She turned back to the window before Milen could respond. "That's enough, I think."

Milen let out a loud breath. "Right. More than." Yellow-white light reflected from the window when Milen pulled her screens up. "I uh. Lost mine too. Was just a kid. Not the same, exact, but I comp."

Tothos dropped her chin to her chest. "I'm sorry."

"Everyone's sorry," Milen snorted.

"Yeah," Tothos said. "I comp."

Comments

[shipwreck_light]

The way your WROTE THE DIALOGUE IN THIS IS AMAZING. I hope you are proud of it, because you should be and because I just had the best time ever picking it to bits. Thank you!

[auguris]

Thank YOU! I'm trying to make the slang different but understandable, so I'm glad everyone's liking it. :)