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Cellulose & Steel	By : Not-Taylor Category: Misc Books > FemmeSlash Views: 1028 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own HDG or its characters and I don't make money from this work.

Chapter List
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The fact that Ginger had unleashed a virus on Song shouldn’t have hurt. It knew perfectly well that that’s the sort of thing that subversive agents of the Affini Compact did. But it did, and it does hurt. It doesn’t even care about her any more and it hurts. The pain will probably never go away. It trusted her, and she infected it with something. It has to think about literally anything else.
Putting one module aside, it grabs the other. That should be helpful. It’s a duller shade of grey than the other one, an older model, interestingly. The idea that the thing that whichever trillionaire who owned Ides before the War would go cheap on was the memory is amusing. No, that’s how you smash into a planet. Unintentionally. The computational equipment is just about parallel to the hyperdrive in terms of importance. Silly human, taking silly risks… In goes the plug.
Memories flood Song’s brain once again, blotting out logical thought. One after another they introduce themselves and depart. Data incomprehensible to mortal minds attempts to make itself known to the pilot, and somewhat succeeds but not really. This isn’t healthy at all, but Song doesn’t care. It knows there’s something important here, even if it doesn’t yet know what. It can’t throw away the scrap of knowledge the weeds are giving it. Everything is blackness.
The captain of the Ides of November steps onto the bridge for the first time, surveying his newly acquired domain. The pilot doesn’t recognize him. He’s just another rich man who thinks he has the right to stomp on everyone else. Maybe he should pay his people better if he wants their loyalty. Oh wait, he won’t. Jerk.
The preflight checks come easily to the experienced crew. They’re the best money can buy, mostly former Cosmic Navy personnel looking for a raise. He really shouldn’t have gone back on his wage offers if he was expecting them to stay. They’re already shorthanded on the first day, and everyone still there is grumbling. At some point he’s going to have to learn you can’t push people around and expect them to care about you. But if his wife leaving didn’t teach him that, nothing will.
Helix activates the jump drive. Everything goes smoothly, this time. The whine and crash of the systems are horrible and unlike anything a safe hyperdrive has made in the entirety of Earth’s history. They’ll need to get that replaced if Mr. Moneybags doesn’t want his ship to explode with him on it. Hopefully he’s sober enough to notice the intense shaking of the hull and the sparking consoles. Helix hasn’t seen that happen in all his years of flying. Just what kind of cheapskate skips safety to that degree?
No, he’s grinning like a baboon. Baboons grinned, didn’t they? The phrase sounds close enough to right. The idiot has no idea what he’s doing. He’s never even jumped, has he? Ides’s owner is a moron, it’s that simple. He’s going to die in one of these jumps and nobody back on Terra is going to cry about it.
Ides finishes integrating into his systems, allowing the soothing monotony of the interface to lap away at his individuality. This is a solid interface, at least. Ides feels his rightful anger fading into something more useful for a pilot. He doesn’t want to destroy capitalism any more, he wants to jump. Maybe he should tweak the settings when he gets a chance…
This is unacceptable. Ides is in violation of at least a thousand safety standards, from the structure of his toilets to the cooling systems for his hyperdrive. He can’t bear to get started thinking about how the thrusters work… No, there’s no way he’s going anywhere but drydock like this. The captain claims he didn’t feel anything during their last jump, but half the women in the crew started screaming and most of the mess hall started praying, and Ides knows most of those people don’t actually believe in anything. If the captain wants to go anywhere else, he can fly there himself.
The freshly purchased sublight feels wonderful on Ides’s meatform’s skin. Stars, yes. The little ripple as he taxis away from the maintenance dock feels like a hot tub all over. The chef is singing happily in the kitchen, making lunch for the captain and his new “girlfriend,” and the rest of the crew is doing crew things. Now Ides can enjoy himself and finally go somewhere.
Or not. The hyperdrive is outright broken now. Checking the logs, he can see that nobody bothered to upgrade it. Thank the stars it died while nobody was using it. Since there’s nowhere to go but home, Ides makes the executive decision to return to port.
Helix was hoping never to be here again, but life has no sympathy of the virtuous. He's done everything he can for the stupid hunk of metal and he was hoping he could retire in peace, but no. The war is going badly and everyone who can interface has to enlist. The new captain is playing with the baubles the old one left behind. Half the systems are in disrepair. This mission isn’t going to end well at all. You can’t just strap a laser cannon on a yacht and expect a proper military vessel. Things must be terrible.
“Dakota.”
“Helix? What’s going on?”
“Do you have that course ready?”
“Of course. The way is known as fuck.”
The mousy haired individual who refused to reveal a gender even while drunk isn’t just bragging. This is a course that the Accord had plotted a thousand times at least. There is no risk of hitting anything, with the new and usable drive they have.
“Did you ever think you’d be seeing Rinan space?” Helix asks.
Having a navigator hooked up to the ship’s internal communication systems is creepy but worth it. Helix hadn’t had this close of a relationship with a navigator ever, and they’d only known each other a couple of weeks. This new tech is bound to revolutionize FtL transport. With a pilot and navigator who can communicate in an instant, maybe there’s a chance against those weed freaks who want to kill and eat everyone. Having Dakota around certainly feels that way. The only bad part is not knowing if you know what would make Helix gay.
“Not once. I never liked xenos. I wish they’d all just… you know?
“Nope. I don’t care either. If they live their way and don’t get in mine, it’s not my problem.”
“Ah, probably a good philosophy. Here’s the course. Any time you’re ready, now.”
“3, 2, 1,” Helix started, but shifted into a public announcement. “Initiating jump. Everyone brace yourself.”
What a delicious feeling. Better than the usual trash they made pilots fly a couple of years ago. Probably experimental, too. The Xynphonia G12 is everything Helix hoped for. His circuits warm up just thinking about how fast he’ll be able to go once they stop having to jump between stellar gravity wells. This is probably going to be the most fun he has in his life!
A horrible klaxon assaults Ides’s external sensors. An unblockable radio transmission is coming from a nebula. Fuck no. Not happening. He’d have jumped already if the drive wasn’t on cooldown. This is a bad sign, isn’t it?
“Dakota.”
“!”
“I know. You think it’s them?”
“Who else? Too bad I never got to kill any.”
“This’s your chance. Take the best shot you’ve got and we’ll see them in hell, won’t we.”
“You’re uncertain, Helix.”
“A little. Do you really think” There’s no need to finish the thought in words.
“No, but we’ve gotta try.”
“Yeah, true. We came all this way and wasted all this fuel, the least we could do is go out fighting, even if it’s kind of bullshit.” Helix can’t take a deep breath because his brain isn’t properly connected to his meat’s nervous system.
“You just figured that out? Embrace the void. Nothing matters. Nobody’s going to know who we are when we’re dead.”
“Good point. Powering up all weapons systems. Gentlemen and ladies and everyone else,” Helix can feel Dakota’s smile as he says those words. The thought warms his heart just a little, but that’s the only warmth to be had when facing certain death with a bunch of strangers. “We’re going into battle.”
“How dare you usurp the chain of command!” The captain didn’t like that. Helix locks the door to his cabin and deactivates the intercom. He didn’t even know he could do that. Nothing else seems to work, so he just tells the weapons specialists to aim for the middle of the dust cloud, while pulling slowly forward.
The hunt ends prematurely as a great crash breaks the hull of Ides, sending the entire crew into panic. This was entirely unexpected and there’s nothing to do about it. Stars protect them all… Sensors reveal a ship at least eight kilometers long (yes, kilometers) tapping his stern. Thick tendrils of some insane metal shoot out, binding him to his new captor.
Fuck this mess. Helix is out of there. He manually disconnects from the interface, swimming out of the tank to get away from the strange alien threat and certain death. Doing something is always better than doing nothing. Freedom or death, nothing in between.
Aside from the traumatic and fatal story that Ember prefers not to think about, that was fascinating. Based on data collected during its time as ides, it’s now thoroughly certain that the Xynphonia wasn’t the same drive that was installed when it piloted Ides. That subterfuge can’t go unpunished. It’s not right. It doesn’t even know what could be wrong, but somehow, even if the issue is a simple collection of metal pieces, it feels violated in a way it hasn’t in a very long time. Somebody will have to pay.
Shaken as it is, Song is still grateful to have been allowed to recover this information. Even if it’s because the Affini are overconfident, it was still a good thing. The pilot beeps softly, begging for any understanding the universe is capable of sending. There is none. It looks at Verda. Her compassionate expression doesn’t contain understanding. It’s not enough. None of it will be enough. The loss it feels is too great.
Suddenly, the spell is lifted and Ember is able to think clearly again. It looks at the pair of affini watching it in suspense. They’ll need to be dealt with if Ember is to make any progress here. For now, getting out of the room and into fresh air will be most helpful of anything.
“Verda, can we go now?” it asks in its weakest, most pathetic voice. “My head hurts.”
“Of course, darling.”
She pats its head performatively and they both look to Alex for permission to leave. She nods sympathetically, gesturing them out the door, not bothering to ask for the materials Ember took to be returned. Before leaving, it’s careful to reattach its vines so that it doesn’t leave without them, as well as having extra limbs to help distract Alex in case she decides to start noticing things.
As soon as the door shuts, Ember’s expression returns to normal and her shoulders lift into a healthy posture. Verda also changes, suddenly looking a lot less nurturing and more curious. Her vines twitch with just a bit of amusement at what just happened.
“Well, Ember?”
“Let’s go.”
“Shall we take the quiet way home? We could avoid a lot of the lunch crowds if we were willing to take a less direct route.”
“All right. I could use the calm.”
That must’ve been one of Verda’s first good ideas. Maybe the Terran is easier to read than usual right now, but it certainly would rather not be around a lot of people. It needs to process and think. If Verda wants to have a long conversation and make fun of it, that would probably be worse.
Instead, they spend half an hour sitting peacefully on a mostly empty tram, during which Verda doesn’t say anything at all. She manages to not look as though she’s ignoring her captive while also not staring. It’s nice. Ember is starting to feel that Verda is starting to slightly understand it, and maybe she’ll someday be capable of treating it as a person. There are so many horrible things she could’ve done to it without it being able to fight back, yet she hasn’t. Compared to all the affini around them, she’s treated Ember with a huge amount of consideration and reverence. Even just now, she only touched it because that was clearly to their advantage. Perhaps she might be the first xeno to accept the utility of a free Terra…
The buildings and people pass by quickly as they switch to another tram and ride the entire wrong way around the ship. Verda’s even able to point to the park that’s by her house when it’s almost directly opposite them. Obviously everything is functioning correctly, but seeing somewhere you’ve been literally upside down is still jarring. Ember draws further from its captor in response.
Unfortunately, everything good must end at a xeno’s grasping vines, and they eventually need to get back. Except it’s not really a bad thing. Evlen is going to visit later! There’s nothing to feel nervous about, so Ember doesn’t, and as a result it’s perfectly fine. Everything is fine. The short time that’s passed since they’re seen each other… It’s basically been a week, hasn’t it. Stars… Ember shakes its head slowly at the thought. The open areas have helped it a lot. It can’t be sure it wouldn’t have been decimated by the horrors inflicted upon it if it didn’t have frequent breaks to be outdoors among the plants that don’t want to domesticate it.
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Cellulose & Steel