The helper-bots finished packing away our gear, but before the team was ready to get into the shuttle Dryden wanted everyone to activate their disguises.
What had once been a team of various, colorful aliens was replaced by a clan of homogeneous ape-people dressed in robes and various wrappings to help protect our heads and faces—still a rather colorful bunch, although much more muted compared to before.
Eve’s containnt cell had been secured at the front inside the shuttle, and when she saw the team enter she started growling again, but after a curious look my way she realized who I was despite the disguise and her face lted back to pleasant neutrality.
Everyone locked into their seats, and I took a spot right next to Eve’s cell, and Kinn grabbed the open seat next to .
It was weird how I could recognize Kinn beside ; he still looked quite similar to how he was normally, just with his features altered to look a little more ape-like—plus his skin and fur matched the tones of his normal visage.
He leaned over to in his seat and pulled away the face wrapping he wore, “So what’s the deal with Alpha-03? I heard she was getting violent or sothing.”
I turned to look at Kinn and fixed him with a flat glare, “She prefers to be called Eve; Alpha-03 is like a weapon’s designation rather than a na.”
Kinn smiled apologetically, “Oh, sorry. So what happened?”
I sighed and shook my head, “No idea, she’s been totally ssed up since she was stranded in void space during the last mission.”
Kinn nodded along, “I can imagine. I had a buddy from my old squad who said he was exposed to the void without proper shielding, said it fucked him up for years with nightmarish ntal trauma.”
I nodded too, but I didn’t say anything else—didn’t want to tell him our team had been exposed to the raw void as well and I knew what he was talking about from first-hand experience, and yet what Eve was dealing with was totally different.
Crisson in his new gojen form stood at the back of the shuttle as the doors closed behind him, “Alright people, we’re going to touch down planet-side in just a few monts; we’re to land in the Gokotta Valley and take so ti to get our bearings before we head to the central settlent.” He swept his gaze through the shuttle, “From this point on we’re to keep our disguises active and start using the translators for all communications. With all our diligence, we should be able to blend in with the gojens easily.” He confird, then sat down and secured himself beside Dryden.
There was a little rumbling, a subtle vibration, and then it solidified as we floated up in the hanger bay and swept out into space. I watched it all from the viewport beside , and I could see Eve was interested in the view as well, craning her head to see around .
I leaned back in my seat, “Can you see it sweet-thing?” I asked.
Eve trilled cutely and smiled brightly, either at the view or just for the fact I spoke gently to her.
We didn’t get to enjoy the view for long as the ship rocketed around the planet at ridiculous speeds, and in no ti at all we touched down in the dark, sandy valley.
“Alright, we’re clear on Congoren.” Giamma announced on the overhead speaker—once again, high-command was doubling up our soldiers and pilots to keep our teams as small and efficient as possible.
Crisson held up a fist, “Hold a mont.” He said, then gestured for the two agents to check our surroundings first to make sure we were safe before the rest of the team disembarked.
I hadn’t spoken to the agents much, but from all the briefs we attended together I knew one was nad Yendern, while the other was Endynna. Yendern was another yelvum, a male, so his gojen disguise had pale yellow skin with bright red fur. Endynna was another one of those weirdly generic mammalian aliens who looked mostly human with just a few evolutionary alterations, her skin purple with intricate blue marks all over her body like elongated leopard spots, but her gojen form was lacking those little details and instead she was just pale purple with blue-black fur.
The agents made quick sweeps of the area and returned to give us the all-clear.
The rest of the soldiers got up to disembark, but Dryden moved to stop from joining them.
“We have two options what we can do with Alpha-03 now; the ship has full cloaking capabilities, so we could safely leave her here—” He started.
I shook my head quickly, “Absolutely out of the question.”
Dryden glowered at , “Or, we bring her containnt unit along, keep it disguised so we can bring her with us in a cart.” He smirked then, “Obviously it would be your responsibility to manage and pull the cart.”
I crossed my arms and stared the man down, “Obviously that’s fine with , no way I was about to leave Eve here.” I waved towards him vaguely, “Besides, how the hell were you going to assess how she’s cooperating if she’s not traveling with us?”
Dryden shook his head slowly, “I’m not even going to bother evaluating her until I’m sure you’re following along with mission protocols and paraters.” He pointed a finger at , “You want the Predazoan clear of her cage you’ll make sure you follow your orders without so much as a squeak of protest.”
I sighed but bit down a nasty retort, “Yes sir.” I said flatly.
He smiled then, and even with his gojen disguise it held its usual nastiness, then left with the rest of the team.
I turned to Eve then, and I could see she was glaring after Dryden, but at least she wasn’t growling now—getting better at behaving already I hoped.
“Don’t worry Evie, I’ll still be with you the entire ti. I know it sucks you’re trapped in the containnt unit, but I promise I’ll be with you as much as I can, and I’ll talk with you or just sit with you, whatever you need from , okay sweet-thing?” I said, keeping my voice light and gentle sa as I used when she was in her child-form back on Earth.
In response, Eve trilled a happy giggle, musical and alluring—then suddenly another black tendril from her leathery cocoon shot out, further securing her in the cell.
I quirked up an eyebrow, “Are you growing in there or sothing, or were you just excited to see ?”
Eve’s giggle lowered a couple octaves so it sounded more like a purr, and then she batted her eyelashes at , looking like she was trying to be coy and coquettish.
I smiled then, and I realized my Eve was definitely in there sowhere, “You little weirdo, you’re still in there, I just know it.” I laughed and shook my head, “That, or you’re just an incorrigible flirt on an instinctual level.”
Eve seed amused by what I said then as her giggling lightened back up—excited like a kid all over again.
I waved her off quickly, “Well settle down for now, sweet-thing, I’ve gotta get the disguise for your cell figured out so I can get you out of here.”
Eve nodded as though she understood what I was saying, but when I turned and started walking away she whined after —as though sad I was leaving.
I just sighed, “Don’t worry Evie, I’ll be back before you know it.” I said, then turned and left her there while she whined the whole ti.
***
The team got all our gear out and loaded it up into the four carts The Judicator created for us, and thanks to our planetary intelligence they’d fit into the normal gojen nomad style. They weren’t simple wooden carts like you’d find on dieval Earth, instead they were decorated and customized to fit in as an important part of the clan, with a dark wooden base and wheels and a light stone tray/bowl to carry the goods. Half had two wheels while the others had four wheels, the smaller ones had a central pole with a clan banner and cloth that draped on either side, while the larger carts looked like they had fancy housing protecting the supplies, with several streams of colored cloth that frad it all.
Eve’s disguise made the containnt cell look like a large, red wooden statue of an angelic ape-like being holding her hands together in prayer, with her head bowed respectfully with elegant wings framing her. Hilarious my Outsider god was to be disguised as so religious idol statue. The disguise worked basically the sa way ours did with the projected illusion over a subtle intrinsic field to give it a mostly solid physical form that would only hold up to low impact interactions, and while I knew Eve would be able to see through the illusion as though she was looking through a two-way mirror, she’d have to be quiet so she didn’t blow our cover.
Dryden briefly considered putting her cell back in dark-mode, but I insisted she would behave for us and prove she was cooperating—anything to get her out of the cell sooner.
It was kind of funny Dryden sneered at like he thought I was being punished for having to pull Eve’s cart, but since I had my enhanced strength it took almost no effort at all to move—the idiot probably forgot about that.
Once our clan was ready to leave the dark, rocky valley, they activated our shuttle’s cloaking system to render it completely invisible, and then we continued on through the alien sands.
The scenery on the planet was strange indeed; the sand was all black and white, so from a distance it looked kind of grey, but once you got closer it looked like it was a mix of salt and pepper. The sun in the grey-blue sky was massive and blindingly white, but thankfully we all had heavy, simplistic shaded goggles for our disguises. As far as the eye could see along the horizon there was just sand with the occasional rocky plateau—either grey, black, white, or so swirling combination of the three.
Kinn sidled up beside as we trudged through the sand, “This shit’s going to be brutal.” He complained.
I had to admit I wasn’t overly fond of the dry heat and blistering sun, but thanks to the jumpsuits we wore under our disguises, our temperatures were more easily regulated.
“At least we’ll only need to travel for a day until we reach the central settlent.” I reasoned.
Kinn snorted at that, “Yeah, but rember, a day on Congoren is 42 hours long.”
Fuck, I forgot about that.
I nodded along, “You’re right, this shit’s brutal.” I confird, and he just laughed.
For gojen culture, you were supposed to follow along with certain traditions while traveling in a clan; the most important people and goods were to remain upfront, while the least important people and supplies or the newest mbers of the clan remained in the back.
It wasn’t lost on Dryden told to hang back at the end of the line.
Clans were also supposed to travel in single file lines, sothing about trusting the person before you all the way to the clan leader up at the front. The gojens were big on respect and showing and guarding that respect, and a lot of it had to do with age, both for the individual person and for the age of the clan.
Since we were going to be from a younger clan, that ant we wouldn’t be able to just automatically garner respect from those around us, and since this was a primitive planet without any computer systems to hack into, there was no way we could fake being an older clan. Older clans were usually much larger anyways, so with our limited number it would be expected we’d be a young clan trying to establish ourselves, and thankfully being so young no one would really question who we were or where we ca from.
The gojens were friendly and intermingled with each other constantly, but they were also strangely private about the details of each individual clan, so we wouldn’t need to worry about having strict backstories between us, like making so of our people married couples or whatever. The main thing we’d need to focus on was bartering with other people and amassing wealth and connections to build our respect amongst the natives.
Hopefully once our clan na was more well-known we’d be allowed into the temple to see their new Predazoan god.
So far, it was projected the mission would only take a cycle to complete—according to high-command and their simulations.
Of course I wasn’t about to hold my breath the Lord Generals had it all planned perfectly to follow with their projections, knowing they’d never account for everything that could go wrong and how we needed to adapt, but since I needed to behave and follow protocols to pass this stupid redial training, I wasn’t about to say or do anything that put even an inch outside my official role on the mission team.
“How are you doing sweet-thing?” I asked Eve, but since I had the translator active now my words ca out in the weirdly garbled gojen language.
Eve trilled angrily in response, and I assud it was because she couldn’t understand or the gojen language.
I sighed and pulled the little collar away from my neck so I could speak normally, “Evie, it’s , we’re using translators now, okay? I just wanted to make sure you’re doing alright.” I said in standard Imperial Common.
Eve settled down her angry trilling and seed to grumble into compliance, and then with one final pleasant trill, she said what all she needed to say to —whatever it was.
I sighed again and decided to just drop it.
“I’ll tell you what, from all the stories and rumors I’ve heard on this detail, I wasn’t expecting the two of you to be like this at all.” Kinn said, gesturing up towards the disguised red statue, “You seem to have an interesting dynamic to say the least.”
Kinn was probably just trying to be friendly, but I didn’t like how nosy he was about Eve.
“Like I told you before, things have been weird since she ca back from void space.” I insisted.
Kinn nodded along, “Right, but from the reports I read, Alph—I an Eve’s supposed to be able to talk and everything right? What’s up with all the noises she’s making instead of regular communication?”
I really didn’t have an answer for him—had no idea myself honestly. All I could think was sohow all that ti in the void fucked with Eve’s brain, and I just had to wonder if it was permanent—and pray it wasn’t.
“Dude, I really don’t know, none of it makes sense.” I sighed and shook my head slowly, “I love her beyond all reason, and yet truthfully I’ll never be able to understand her and what she is—beyond mortal comprehension and all that shit.”
Kinn cocked his head to the side, and while I couldn’t see his expression since he was so wrapped up, I wondered what kind of face he was making, “And it’s true, you and the Predazoan asset are in a romantic relationship?”
I turned a glare towards Kinn he wouldn’t be able to see, “Yeah, what of it?” I almost snapped.
Kinn held his hands up peacefully, “I don’t an to cause any offence, just curious how it’s going to work if she can’t talk anymore.”
I relaxed my readied anger with a deep, long sigh, “That’s just sothing we’ll have to figure out together I guess…” I admitted.
Kinn and I fell into silence then as we trudged along in the sand under the hot sun, following along in our clan line. As we traveled I let my mind wander, thinking about where Eve and I ca from and all it took to get where we were today—all the doubt, the fights, the fear, and then finally complete acceptance and a dozen cycles of pure bliss, only to be interrupted by the Lord Generals and their new thods of containnt.
I was beyond frustrated with this weird regression Eve was going through, but I still felt deep within my heart I loved her more than life itself; it didn’t matter if Eve couldn’t talk, she was my soulmate, and I would do anything to take care of her, even if she never recovered.
You hear about those stories back on Earth, an injured or disabled person who’s spouse takes care of them for years, doting on them all the while because they love them so much—a privilege to take care of them, rather than a burden. Of course you hear about the opposite, people abandoning their spouse when they hear the terminal news, no desire to live as a caregiver or anything.
I wasn’t sure if it was exactly the sa thing, but I made a decision there in that desert; I didn’t care what happened back in the void, didn’t care what happened to Eve or how long she would be afflicted with this devolution, I would take care of her—sa as I did those years ago back on Earth when she was just a cute little squid alien in a terrarium.
It didn’t matter what changes Eve or I went through, nothing would actually change between us, and there was nothing in this universe that would stop from spending forever with my Evie.
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