Since my drowsiness wasn’t going away, Kaoren took over story reading duty for the night, and I sat with Sen and fell asleep and now of course it’s the middle of the night and I’ve just woken up.
Wednesday, September 10
The Plains of Telezon
Really enjoyed today, even though we didn’t find what we were looking for.
It started out well, too, with Rye asking questions over breakfast – some of which I suspect Ys was feeding him over the interface. They both get up really early and read the news feeds – which sure isn’t something I ever did at ten – and there’d been a big story about Mesiath, which led into a nice little discussion about the handful of settlements on Muina.
Sen, after insisting I do her hair, briefly appeared in one of her pretty new sun dresses, but re-emerged later accompanied by Ys and Rye, all three in the standard-issue clothes that all the Nurans have. I should have thought of that – the teachers would let me know if there was any open hostility, but I’m sure Ys and Rye are doing their best to keep a low profile about the unexpected privileges of their new life. The Kolaren clothes work as a kind of school uniform, I guess.
I’d bought Kolaren hats for all of us, and sunburn cream, and presented Kaoren with his during the kids' bath time. He’d tried it on agreeably, but said that the Setari uniform was being reviewed for out-of-Ena work. And this morning, when all the squads met up before the mission, Maze gave us a new suit configuration, one designed for warm-weather travel rather than fighting in the Ena. The black nanogoop obligingly reformed into light cream and grey cloth, tight-fitting only around our feet, chest and forearms (to support suit weapons), with wide hoods we could pull up to keep off the sun. The cloth is a layered loose weave designed to breathe, and the overall effect is similar to the formal robes Tarens wear to weddings.
I knew the nanosuits could simulate different textures, but I wish they’d told me earlier that the nanoliquid can change colour – not to mention I wish I’d thought of a hood when I was in the desert turning into a lobster. The Kolarens have started using the nanoliquid uniform when they’re based at Pandora, and seeing all three worlds' Setari in cream and grey made me wonder if they would think of themselves as Muinan Setari, or whether they would have preferred a way to set each other apart.
I had a ton of trouble paying attention to the mission briefing because it had occurred to me to picture the Setari all in a different coloured uniforms, and perhaps flying giant mechanical lions. The possibilities of anime costume transformations opened up to me, and it was only through an Act of Sheer and Implacable Willpower that I didn’t drop shrieking to the ground in the middle of the briefing because the mental image of Maze pirouetting gracefully and ending up in a Sailor Moon outfit was just…
So, anyway, it’s lucky the mission was non-complicated – we were simply to go to one of the platform towns and cast about in a large spiral trying to path find marbles, Cruzatch, other platforms, etc. There’s a limit to the distance which Telekinesis and Levitation talents can haul about their entire squads, so if there’s no result within their range out of any of the towns they’re going to have to do the same exercise using shuttles and just cast further and further.
Muina is, I think, a little bigger than Earth, with the land and water more mixed together, and there’s just no way even a dozen squads would be able to effectively scan more than the tiniest part of it. But the platform towns give us a starting point, and it will handily combine with useful survey work, and – mainly – there’s no better suggestions.
Since the areas around the platforms are relatively safe areas most squads are going single with a Nuran or two to keep them company. First and Fourth are going paired each time, plus Inisar, because they’re taking me with them. Maze is back on duty (though Zee was monitoring him for strain) and only Mara was left behind.
Our first assignment was at a place the old maps call Telezon. A rare town not planted on a lake, it was surrounded by golden grassy plains crossed by a winding, twisting river in the centre of the largest land-mass.
The grass had recently set seed in plumes of purple and white which scattered like dandelions puffs whenever the wind took a punch. And all of it was completely seething with small birds and massive dragonflies, as we discovered when we set down for the first time and ten million grass-gold birds took off in a storm of wings to give a Midas touch to the sky.
We couldn’t fly about constantly – we went out on a long curve from the village, then set down to walk along by the river so our wings could recover – with some extra recovery time needed for the collective heart attack given by Huge Bird Mass. After that we flew some more and walked some more and found birds and bugs and three different kinds of probably-native predators – including a gold lynx-sized cat which sprang vertically out of the grass to snatch a bird out of the air – but no Evil Lairs.
It was a full-day assignment – we brought lunch with us and left at that time zone’s sunset, reaching Pandora early afternoon. All I had to do was listen in case I heard the Ddura in any other direction than the town, which I didn’t, so the day was pretty much a tourist trip to me.
Mara was on the patio playing handball with the kids when we all trooped in, sweaty and slightly sunburnt despite our best efforts. We were the second group back and as we headed to our rooms for showers Mara told the kids to help her and the support staff bring out dinner, and I was pleased and relieved when they reacted positively – not as servants, but as accepted members of an extended and very unusual family. Kaoren and I had a cold shower together, and then a hot one, and then we all watched a second sunset.
None of the squads found any malachite marbles, but the day did wonders for my morale. I was, in my usual self-absorbed way, mildly suspicious that this series of light assignments was the result of a few "Stray’s mental health" reports recommending a break after the Cruzatch attack, but I overheard Maze say to Zee that he wanted to rotate more of the squads who’ve been working the rotations on Tare through, and gave myself a mental kick up the ass for overlooking a hundred or so other people who could use a day in the sun.
Thursday, September 11
Family Outing
Today started out with a near-argument with Kaoren, who’d made an appointment for me to go to medical to have my bandages checked. I’m not supposed to get them wet for long periods after a cosmetic treatment, so yesterday’s long shower and the idea of a swimming trip had been worrying him. I told him I didn’t think it was necessary, and he paused, then said: "It isn’t a request, Cassandra."
He meant, of course, that it was one of those times when his job and our personal life were in conflict – he has to be bossy about my health, and I knew that but I still snapped "Fine," and stomped off with a complete lack of grace, and then hated myself and sent him a "Sorry, not your fault," text.
He texted back, "Improbably sweet. J"
Tarens have immensely complex emoticons and I’m less surprised that their smiley face is much the same as our smiley face than I am that Kaoren would use one. He made me laugh, anyway. Next time I consider having a hissy fit because I’ve been sent to medical for the thousandth time in the last ten months, I’m going to remind myself that for the Setari, medical has been a constant through their entire lives. Years and years of scans, bruises, strains, and broken bones. That’s part of what being Setari is: a necessary part of honing yourself into a weapon. All that even before they start fighting monsters.