PrincessColumbia

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  Bahamut's Children - If Gold Could Rust15 years ago, a civil war seemed imminent and ready to tear the isnd nation of Hatchling's Rest apart. The rape of one of the cn leaders of the most powerful metallic dragon cn could have cascaded into full-scale conflict...if the two most powerful cns, normally at each other's throats, hadn't joined together to seek justice...on the very night the child of that rape emerged from his shell.

  Now, unbeknownst to all the dragons of the isnds, that same hatchling will take his first steps toward independence...and encounter a creature whose very existence is considered a pestilence on the isnds; a human.

  Diane’s heart was in her throat as she exited the car in front of the mess hall. While the promenade wasn’t that far from the mess, she was discovering that the inch of lift her boots normally gave her wasn’t actually preparation for the three-inch heels she was wearing and couldn’t walk as far with the subtly different stride needed for the different footwear. Gonna need to get higher heels in boots to work those muscles if I need to break these shoes out on a regur basis, she took in the sight of the building she’d just arrived at.

  It wasn’t huge, just a squat round building with a dome-like roof that sat about twenty feet from the Ops building. The sidewalk she was standing on circled the building to allow access to all the doors, and spreading out from there was some greenbelt that had ‘outside’ tables interspersed throughout, patio umbrels lending to the effect of simuting an ‘outside’ that didn’t technically exist on a station. About three quarters of the building was surrounded by water, part of the massive ke that functioned as a good portion of the station’s oxygen recmation and protein sources for food. As a result, most of the windows of the building were on the water sides, the parts mostly accessible from the street being the kitchens. The crew had to walk around the building to get to the “front,” which was all well and good but left her feeling like she was parading her current appearance to the entire station.

  She idly gnced up at the massive pylons that supported the shielding of the dome that made up the “top half” of the sphere that was the main body of her station, not actually looking at the micro-star composed of atom-sized antimatter collisions that provided light and heat to the living space. I suppose it’s almost like being on a pnet inside a hab dome, she thought idly. There were almost never any breezes, and the biome would never have a cloudy day. The “precipitation” needed by the pnts in the living space being provided by water-jet nozzles powerful enough to cut an industrial steel ingot in half. The big ones that required city block-sized grav lifts to move. Of course, by the time the water being jetted from them dispersed and fell to the deck, it was merely a gentle rain.

  Diane turned her attention back to the mess hall and couldn’t seem to make herself start toward it. It was one thing, she decided, to see oneself in the mirror in a store surrounded by friendly people and acknowledge that she might, perhaps, with the right clothing and presentation and nobody she wanted to not disappoint horribly badly being there, recognize that the reflection was, on bance, a good one. It was another entirely to be trying to face going into the unfamiliar and (frankly) scary world of a...date and not feel like the station was going to fall apart around them from her trembling shaking the pce to pieces.

  Amusingly enough, she was pulled out of her anxiety by the sound of teenage girls bickering.

  “...Norma said I could invite who I wanted, so I’m inviting both of you.”

  “I’ve had to py arm candy for this sorta thing before, most of the time it’s ‘plus one,’ not ‘plus whoever you can invite.’ Besides, I don’t think the commander wants a former sve at her new table.”

  “Oh, that’s dar’og shit and you know it, Kymie!” snapped the familiar voice of Sani, “The Commander doesn’t care if you used to be a sve, and I’d scream challenge at anyone who tried to cim her that did have a problem with it! If anyone should be sitting this one out it’s me! I’m just some nobody from Mortan, and Aunt Leki’s already gonna be there. It isn’t like she won’t have plenty of Morvucks at the table, I’m just an extra.”

  Diane smiled, “As sweet as it is that each of you three are arguing the other two are somehow ‘better’ than yourselves, I think I’m the one who gets to decide who sits at my table.”

  The three girls abruptly stopped, noticing her as more than background to their conversation for the first time. Then, in a move that almost made the entire process of getting ready for this...date worth it, all three did a double-take at almost the exact same time.

  Cynthy recovered first, at least enough to be able to form words, “C...Commander! We...I didn’t recognize you out of...er, in that...uh...”

  Sani’s face was a solid red blush as she stared almost unfocussed at Diane, eyes flickering up and down her form, “...wow...”

  Kymberlynn was beet red, as well, though the expression on her face betrayed an entirely different reason than Sani’s, “Oh...it’s one of...those types of dinner.”

  Sani seemed to be paying no attention to her friends anymore. Still staring at Diane, she just uttered, “...wow...” again.

  Cynthy turned to Kymberlynn, “What does that mean?”

  The former sve looked at Diane’s dress and shoes, then down at herself and her friend’s clothes, then back up to Diane, “We’re very underdressed. Like, ‘cultural gaff’ levels of underdressed.”

  They were, indeed, very underdressed in comparison to Diane. She was ‘dressed to the nines’ in her minidress and heels and freshly done hair and makeup, the three of them were wearing casual pants, shoes, shirts (or a tunic in Sani’s case), and the near omnipresent jackets most of the station staff and crew wore.

  “...wow...” came from Sani again.

  Diane’s heart clenched. Something that was becoming apparent from the former sves, especially those who’d been born into svery, was they had an almost pathological desire to please others and a neurotic need to “fit in” in any way they could. The doctors volunteered that it was likely due to a life lived without agency and the knowledge that punishments could fall at any time, even when they had done nothing wrong. It was, apparently, not too different from survivors of chronic abuse.

  She stepped closer to Kymberlynn, amused that the additional inches provided by her heels made her tower over the shortest member of the trio even more than normal. Putting a hand on the girl’s shoulder, she said, “I will strip down and walk in there in my underwear if it will make you feel more comfortable about joining me at the commander’s table.”

  Diane ignored Sani’s renewed blush and subsequent, “...wow!” Cynthy reached around Kymberlynn and flicked Sani in the ear, prompting the Morvuck teen to flinch and finally look away from Diane and gre at Cynthy with a disgruntled, “Ow!” as she cpped a hand to her ear.

  This time Kymberlynn blushed for a reason more simir to Sani’s, “No, I wouldn’t ask you...no...”

  “Listen,” said Diane as she gave the girl’s shoulder a gentle shake, “I hate this sort of thing.” All three girls looked at her in surprise, “But sometimes it’s gotta be done. Sometimes you gotta dress up and put on airs and pretend you like someone you hate and ugh at jokes that aren’t funny because that’s how you people. But,” she smiled widely, “If I’m the commander of this station, then I get to say what happens aboard it and what is or is not ‘that’ kind of dinner. If you like, I can have Katrina send up something from the fabs that will let you blend in more with...” she gestured to herself, “This, but if you’re fine in your regur clothes, then by all means, wear ‘em.”

  The ex-sve smiled wanly and said, “...c-can I get a dress, please? I’d feel...”

  Diane recognized the haunted look and realized for the first time that what Tiffany had done to her may not have been what Diane thought of as truly abusive but must have had the same effect on teenaged Dyn. I’m going to have to unpack that ter, she thought. “Katrina,” she called out.

  The hologram rezzed in next to her, “Yeah, boss?”

  Diane smiled at the avatar, “Do you have the girl’s measurements on file?”

  “Yup, including heuristic guesses of the best styles, colors, and cuts they might like most.” The smile Katrina gave her was almost impish, but Diane had come to learn that Katrina liked showing up the silly organics that lived aboard her station, even in just a friendly game of one-upmanship.

  “Can I guess that you’re already in the process of fabricating the dresses as we speak?”

  “I can give you pretty good odds on that, yes.”

  Diane chuckled and turned back to Kymberlynn, “All three of you are invited, and if Caitlynn doesn’t want any of you there, then she can walk. It’s my station, after all.”

  Kymberlynn pulled Diane into a hug, and like the st time the girl had hugged her, it was every feeling the girl had poured into a fierce embrace.

  ~~~

  “Don’t you know a girl is supposed to be fashionably te to her date?” Norma’s voice interrupted.

  The fabs had made the girl’s dresses and matching shoes with their usual speed and a bot delivered them with fast enough that Diane was sure that Katrina had started on them as soon as Diane had said she wanted the three at her table. The bot hung around long enough for the girls to change in the mess hall’s bathrooms and then zipped off with their regur clothes to deliver them to the habs. The dresses wouldn’t be mistaken for a tailored item like Diane’s minidress, but they looked nice and were appropriate for three girls who might grow out of them, either by physical growth or changing style preference.

  As for the mess hall...if Diane hadn’t known there was only one mess hall and that Norma had authorized a refit, she’d have thought she’d gone into the wrong building. Gone was the utilitarian off-white wall paneling, the cafeteria style tables with bench seats, and the drab and generic wall art. The walls now had polished cquer wood paneling (or pseudo-wood, given their avaible resources she doubted the real thing were readily avaible for a random remodel) that simultaneously absorbed a good deal of the light streaming in through the bay windows and cast a muted, reflective sheen back into the dining area. And it didn’t seem appropriate to just call it a ‘mess’ anymore, with all the tables having been repced with the far more intimate circur variety with free-standing chairs, all of which matched the wall décor.

  Functioning as a centerpiece for the room, to the point that it seemed the walking paths were intended to either lead you to or by it, was the new Commander’s Table. Taking pride of pce right in the middle of the expansive bay windows along the waterfront side of the building was a raised ptform, only about six inches or so, but very noticeable from how it caused the almost double-sized oval table to stand above the rest. It was a combination bck and wood paneling surface, and like the wall paneling was a smooth, almost mirror shine. Surrounding it were chairs simir to those throughout the rest of the dining area, save two, which had higher backs than the rest.

  Laying it on a bit thick, aren’t we Norma? Diane thought when she had processed all the changes that had been made.

  Diane and the three girls had taken up seats at the table, not ordering food (not that anyone had approached them about it, the entire staff of the building knew what the upgrade was for, after all, and weren’t about to ruin the “big boss’” dinner date) and had been talking about random stuff for nearly twenty minutes before Norma arrived with Russe. Diane was sitting in what she presumed was her seat (one of the tall-back chairs) with Sani next to her, Kymberlynn in the seat next to Sani, and Cynthy on the end of their little string of party-ready girls. She turned to see Norma wearing a flowing dress that hugged her frame but had several yers that made it almost look like she was wearing a flower with her head, neck, and shoulders emerging from the base of the petals. It was in light pastels and a veritable rainbow of blue, purple, and yellow and looked absolutely gorgeous on her. Russe was wearing a navy-blue suit which looked plenty smart. It was also close enough in cut and tailoring to the kind worn by the embassy goons they’d met on Mortan that she was fairly sure of her theory that he had done some cndestine work for the T.I.A. at some point.

  Diane stood to greet her friends, “Someone made sure I didn’t have anything else to do.”

  Norma took Diane by her elbows (she was far too short to reach the taller woman’s shoulders, especially with the heels) and looked her up and down with an eye that was not 100% respectful, “Damn, girl! You clean up good!” She then leaned in and gave Diane a hug, which was gratefully returned.

  After a moment’s sisterly hug, Norma stepped aside so Russe could hug Diane as well. “I gotta admit, I didn’t think I’d ever see you in a dress, you look good, boss dy!”

  They were just breaking from the hug when Leki and Koar approached the table. “You can thank us for that, she was just gonna show up in her usual suit.” The two Morvucks were dressed in smart uniforms, clearly of the ‘dress’ variety; as in they had pants pressed with creases so sharp they might cut you if you got too close, combat boots polished to a reflective shine, pin white tunics that were so perfectly undered they almost glowed, and Mortan military jackets that had an array of medals and ribbons on both their pels.

  Diane gred at them without heat, “Oh, you can wear pants but I can’t?”

  Leki just smirked as Koar snickered, “Of course not, dumbass. We have enough rizz we don’t need to get dolled up to get the chicks.”

  Diane put a hand on her hip and gave the smaller Morvuck a skeptical look, “‘Rizz’? ‘Get the chicks’?”

  “Sani brings her friends to the workshop a lot, we get to talkin’,” she hitched a thumb at Leki, “And using dank memes and expired lingo has a way of totally harshing El-tee’s vibe, like zero chill.”

  For her part, Leki just rolled her eyes.

  They settled into the chairs around the table, Diane being subtly insistent that Sani sit next to her so the girls wouldn’t wind up accidentally excluded and made to feel awkward. Kymberlynn was already slightly fidgety, clearly not sure how to behave if she wasn’t (as she had said earlier) ‘pying arm candy’ in such a crowd and Sani was growing more and more sullen, as though expecting being asked to leave. She seemed to light up when Diane made it clear she wanted the youngest Morvuck to stay by her side.

  Conversation had resumed and had moved into the pleasant hum of people who knew each other but didn’t necessarily see each other every day. It was calming and served as a good distraction as the mess hall filled for the dinner crowd and the light from the microstar was dimmed according to the schedule of the original seed probe’s pnet of origin. Had the distraction not been there or had some kind steward informed her that her date had arrived, she might have done something rash. As it was, Leki, Kaor, and Russe were saved the indignity of having to tackle a fleeing Diane when Caitlynn almost seemed to appear behind her as she was turned to her conversation with Sani.

  “Well, well, well...look at how nicely you clean up, princess!” came the almost purring voice from behind her. Sani was in the enviable position of having a front row seat to Diane going from rexed and casual to beet red and nervous in the blink of an eye.

  Diane almost unched from her seat in her haste to stand, managing to catch the chair before it fell backward and found herself with a sudden case of the clutzies as it cttered quite loudly in the room in her attempts to set it right without looking at it. “Captain Caitlynn! I mean, Caitlynn Captain Madi! Uhm...I’m going to shut up now.” She turned her attention to righting her chair, very aware that her face was still bright red.

  A few traitorous chuckles came from certain members of her dinner party that she was going to get revenge on ter as she finally settled the chair on all four of its feet as Caitlynn’s hands wrapped themselves over the top of Diane’s. She made a squeaking noise that was singurly undignified as she finally turned to look her guest in the eyes...and forgot to breathe.

  Captain Caitlynn Madi (Russe had supplied the woman’s st name during the earlier conversation) was still dressed every inch the space-rogue...but as though said rogue were there to steal the pns for a battle station during a premier ga. Concerns that Diane may have overdressed (so to speak, the dress was hardly ‘over’ very much) were proven unfounded as her dinner guest was wearing a tuxedo. A gorgeous maroon tuxedo that very much hugged curves that were only hinted at in her day-wear ensemble she’d been in when Diane met her. Diane might have checked the woman’s footwear, but she couldn’t seem to bring herself to look down from Caitlynn’s face. Said face might have appeared cherubic in the anachronistic helmet, but now appeared to be dashingly full and cherry-cheeked. Her bright smile couldn’t outshine her eyes, though it certainly tried. And said eyes were an interesting, variegated coloration, the irises alternating between blue and hazel in a ck of pattern that could only be found in nature, and the blended coloration was captivating to Diane. The perfectly coifed hair, cut short and styled in a more masculine side-part, seemed to be the icing on a cake that Diane found herself very much wanting to take a bite out of.

  They stood in silence for a moment before Caitlynn said, “Breathe, princess.”

  Diane hadn’t been noticing that her vision was ringed with bck until she took a gasping breath.

  A few chuckles cut through Diane’s hyperfocus on her fellow pyer and she blinked distractedly before saying, “Oh, I’m sorry, I should introduce you around the table!” she turned slightly, hesitantly freeing up a hand to gesture as she spoke, “Everyone, this is Captain Caitlynn Madi of Sappho’s Voyage.” She indicated Norma next, “This is Mayor Norma Grice, she’s been in charge of the residents of the station for longer than I’ve held ownership and probably knows more about the promenade than anyone else,” Norma stood and shook hands with Caitlynn. “This is Mister Russe ‘no-st-name,’ though he’s from Earth so I can’t imagine that’s at all accurate,” she winked at him as he smirked and reached out to shake hands after Norma, “He’s a general tech, handyman, and solid helmsman who seems to know far too much to keep out of trouble.”

  Russe, grinned cheekily, “I don’t go looking for trouble, honest!” Caitlynn chuckled at this as she shook his hand.

  “This is Lieutenant Leki T’noni and Sergeant Koar Hirijem, they’re the operators of the first independent business here aboard the station and have been friends since my first visit to Mortan a few months ago.”

  Leki simply stood and briefly grasped Caitlynn’s hand with a single shake. Koar grinned broadly, “Good to meet’cha,” she said as she gave a much more enthusiastic human-style handshake, “We were wondering when our favorite commander was finally going to let someone catch her.”

  “We’ll see...” responded Caitlynn as she gently (but very obviously) hip-checked Diane, “I don’t consider them ‘caught’ until I have at least one trophy from the hunt.”

  That remark brought a grin to Leki’s face and got Kaor chuckling. “Well just let us know if you need help with an ambush, she’s slippery and skittish.”

  Diane cleared her throat and found herself wondering if it was possible for a Morvuck heart to fail if too much blood was in her cheeks. “Moving on! Here we have Cynthy Rodre. She’s not part of the rank structure since she’s underage, but she’s the best comms officer we’ve got, and I couldn’t imagine Ops without her.”

  The teen stood sheepishly and shook Caitlynn’s hand with a blush of her own, “...thank you, ma’am.”

  Diane moved on from there, “Kymberlynn was a leader among her age group while being held captive by the Branwell Consortium and once freed her first thought was concern about the girls she’d taken under her care and is performing above expectations in school. We’re quite proud to have her on the station.”

  Caitlynn’s smile grew noticeably warmer as Kymberlynn stood and curtsied before taking the offered hand to shake it.

  “And finally, we have Sani, another daughter of Mortan and niece to Leki. She’s helping me learn about all the things I missed out on by not growing up among other Morvucks.”

  Sani blushed nearly as brightly as Diane as she hesitantly grasped Caitlynn’s hand, “I’m not that special, really!”

  Diane gently nudged Sani’s shoulder with her knuckles, “What did I tell you about that? You’re plenty special!”

  Heedless of environment or propriety, Sani punched Diane in the arm, to which she snorted in ughter and punched the teen right back. “Ow!” Sani ughed, “You still punch like a runaway starcruiser, ya overgrown chicken!”

  “And you punch like you’re trying to tickle me,” Diane grinned.

  “Girls,” Norma admonished, though a chuckle could be heard underlining her words, “Perhaps we could have dinner before you two get into a wrestling match?”

  Both Diane and Sani blushed bright red again and the dinner party moved to sit down again. Caitlynn surprised Diane by grabbing her chair and pulling it away from the table, and it took her an uncomfortably long time to figure out that she was having her seat held out for her. “Oh...uh, thank you,” she muttered as she sat, Caitlynn gently maneuvering the chair under her. Once Diane was seated, Caitlynn took her own seat.

  Leki smiled almost predatorily at Caitlynn, “So, since Diane is cking the appropriate direct blood retions for the usual rituals, it falls to us to ask the question; what are your intentions for our friend?”

  As Norma giggled and Russe almost did a spit take with his water, Koar hissed out, “You weren’t supposed to ask her that, dummy!” This was accompanied by what sounded suspiciously like a boot thumping into a shin.

  Leki barely twitched at what had to be a fairly substantial kick. She turned almost casually to Koar, “You remember what the captain said; it’s our duty as fellow daughters of Mortan to make sure The First Found Daughter is appropriately taken through the rituals of courtship.”

  Diane blinked, “The capta…you told Rokyo about this?!”

  Koar gave Leki an exasperated shove, “Can’t take you anywhere, I swear!” To Diane, she said, “Yeah, el-tee had Cynthy patch our quarters into the comms rey on our ship so we could make the long-range FTL call without interrupting your station’s operations.”

  Diane turned a heat-less gre to Cynthy, who just held up her hands in surrender, “I didn’t know what it was for, it’s just my job to connect the reys!”

  Caitlynn chuckled, “It almost sounds like you’re upset that someone told on you to your mother.”

  As much as Diane had come to respect Rokyo and care what the woman had to think, she was quite sadly still motherless, and certainly couldn’t pretend a computer program was any sort of stand in. Her response was just a light blush and an inability to look at anything but the surface of the table about halfway across.

  “Oh, not yet,” Leki said, this time clearly with a degree of humor in her voice, “They haven’t performed any of the required steps to adopt Diane into Rokyo’s house. They just have long distance calls where Diane reaches out to an older woman for advice that includes everything from personal hygiene to the best approach to dealing with governments seeking to establish ties to the station.”

  Diane’s face grew bright red at the rather btant highlighting of the type of retionship that had developed between herself and her first ever point of contact on Mortan.

  Koar groaned and banged her head lightly on the table as Norma leaned her chin on her palm, elbow on the table and smug grin on her face, “Oh, yeah, nothing mom-like about Rokyo whatsoever for you, huh Diane?”

  PrincessColumbia