I stayed with Fourth Squad, watching Ruuel not reacting to the way the leader of the greysuits, Islen Duffen, made it clear she wasn’t interested in hearing the observations of Setari Sight talents. I guess it’s true they don’t have any formal archaeological or historical training, but Place Sight is a powerful tool, even factoring in the amount of time it’s been since anything except animals and Ionoth were here to leave traces of self behind.
If Ruuel cared, he didn’t show it. Ferus thought it was funny, and Auron doesn’t seem to let much get under his skin. Halla and Eyse were briefly annoyed, then decided to look on the light side. Sonn was fuming, but Ruuel sent her to do a patrol of the outside of the building with Halla, and she’d cooled off by the time she came back. I did school work, and read books, and thought about the enormity of cataloguing an entire city. Even the initial recording of sites, while looking for any kind of writing, will take months. The entire planet will take centuries. Archaeologist is definitely going to be a booming career choice – KOTIS didn’t have any on staff until Pandora was founded and Islen Duffen is a brand new recruit, who will ultimately be coordinating an ever-increasing horde of minions if the reclamation of Muina goes to plan.
Fortunately, once the immediate area is a little clearer, fewer Setari will be devoted to babysitting. And, no matter what Islen Duffen’s opinion of the value of their observations, Fourth Squad’s more likely to be able to detect and analyse strange Muinan installations than any of the greysuits.
And Ruuel has some vestige of a sense of humour and I’m liking him more than ever. Damn.
Friday, April 4
Chipping away at the whitestone mountain
Today was First Squad’s turn to baby-sit greysuits, while Fourth Squad continued the wider area patrol. Our survey site was chosen because the buildings in this part of the city are large and suggest importance, and the Setari are systematically going to each one, doing a circuit of the exterior, and then looking inside. The greysuits aren’t very keen on the Setari going inside, so they’re only allowed to do more than look from the door if they’re dealing with Ionoth.
I guess there were bones everywhere, but it was only when we went into some rooms which had been partially closed off that it was really brought home to me that this must have been one of the places where everyone abruptly dropped dead. Where, most likely, the Ddura had killed everyone. It was a lot harder to think of it as a big, lonely energy-dog after seeing so many grey and dusty skeletons lying where the people who lived here had fallen.
Yesterday First Squad were thoroughly tired by afternoon, and this time Fourth Squad were starting to look worn by lunchtime. They didn’t do that much fighting compared to clearing the spaces, but wandering around constantly combat alert, and using Place Sight when they thought it appropriate, gets pretty draining after hour upon hour. Setari missions are usually two to three Earth hours, not all-day assignments. They stayed typical Fourth Squad, practically talking in abbreviations while on duty, but I think part of the strain was the place itself, by the history and the deaths of more than memory monsters. When we finished our second patrol loop they were more subdued than businesslike.
Fortunately they’re growing a little less formal back on ship, and I ended up sharing a dinner table with Lohn and Mara, Mori Eyse, and the two junior-most greysuits, Katha and Dase, who were very interested in Earth’s early civilisations. We moved to the common room afterwards and I tried not to feel too pressured when my attempts to dredge up memories of archaeological expeditions and discoveries on Earth attracted a larger and larger audience. I talked about Macchu Piccu and the discovery of Tutankamen’s tomb and even Islen Duffen was interested, though she acted tremendously disapproving and asked lots of Devil’s Advocate-type questions. It’s so strange to be the only person who knows any of this stuff, and to have my rambling memories treated as important. I wish I’d paid a lot more attention in all my classes.
No-one stayed up too late, though, which was good for me since I had been walking all over the city as well. It’s a little hard to tell how much I’m effected by enhancing, but I know I am now, though I wasn’t dropping with exhaustion today the way I had been after all that tree-uprooting. Time to go to sleep now, and to try not to think too much about Ruuel asleep two pods over.
Saturday, April 5
Dase
It took me half the day to figure out that Dase (Dase Canlan, one of the junior archaeologists) was trying to flirt with me. Flirt seriously, I mean, not the teasing-flirting that Nils from Second Squad seems to do almost unconsciously. Dase and Katha had asked Islen Duffen if they could explain to me some of what they were doing and rather to my surprise she agreed, so I had some lessons on field archaeology. I do wonder where Taren archaeologists usually do their archaeology – there can’t be that much left of the early days of Tare’s settlement that doesn’t have mega-buildings sitting on it.
Before I twigged, I was just enjoying having some people to chat to who were willing to be not on duty every second of the day. It was only when we went in for lunch that Dase switched more to asking about my family and how I felt about the things I was doing on Tare that it filtered through to me that he was smiling at me a lot. He wasn’t pushy or sitting too close or anything; it was just that kind of vibe.
Looking back, it’s funny how disconcerted I felt. It’s not as if I’ve never dated. And Dase isn’t some damp mouth-breather. Not so fantastically fit as any of the Setari, unsurprisingly, but with this cute, flopping-into-his-eyes fringe. Twenty-two or three, possibly, which still seems too adult to me, but I guess isn’t so much older than me. He’d probably score a 7 on the Orlando Bloom-meter, and is a pretty nice guy. A bit earnest.
It’s not easy to decide how to react to a guy when you know people are watching. But the main hurdle was that Orlando Bloom would score about a 7 on my Kaoren Ruuel-meter. And Ruuel was sitting at the next table. Fortunately facing the opposite direction, though I held no hope that he wasn’t sparing a fraction of his attention to the "psychological aspects". I am part of the Setari’s duties.
I dealt with Dase by asking Katha a lot of questions, always keeping the conversation group-focused, acting completely oblivious to any kind of undertone. Hell, for all I know he was just being friendly and I was reading way too much into everything. But I did spend the rest of the day trying to work out how I would feel if I wasn’t so fixated on Ruuel.
That wasn’t easy, and I had an annoying internal argument about whether or not I should try and get to know Dase better, because it was silly to push a perfectly nice guy away in favour of a one-sided crush. But that’s how it is. The thing with Ruuel will either fade or it won’t, but right now there’s only one person I want flirting with me.
For all that the mind boggles at the idea of Ruuel flirting.
Sunday, April 6