Vanguard Word Update

3744 words.

****

“S-Samiha?” he said. “What are you doing here?”

“Surprised?” she asked. “didn’t think I’d come back, did you? I almost thought the same when that idiot Captain demanded my stuff be examined in a lab, but I’m not going anywhere. So I’ll ask again, do you think that this is funny? Humiliating me, forcing me to be dressed down in front of my clan’s Kith? In front of aliens?”

“Look, I didn’t know it was medicine…”

“You knew about the inspection, though, right?” she said, cutting him off. “You poked your flat face into my business, and then had me singled out in front of everyone. You had it all planned out, just like you did back in the firing range with those stupid plastic guns.”

“If you hadn’t been such a bitch at the time, maybe I would have helped you!” he shot back. “If you can’t handle a bit of payback, maybe you should just leave.”

“You are such a child,” she snarled. “you expect instant respect, and what do you do? You bully me, you drive me and Tilu apart. The one person I know on this fucking station, and she spends more time with you humans than me!”

“W-We didn’t make Tilu do anything,” Ryan defended. “We just wanted to know you and her better, you’re the one who’s putting yourself at a distance, not us. Look,” he added, raising his hands in deference. “I didn’t mean for things to get this far between us. Why don’t we just start over, hit the reset button?”

“Oh, no! We’re way beyond that, monkey,” she growled, taking a step forward and brandishing the nails on one of her hands as though she was flexing them. “No, we’re settling this, right here.”

“Now?” he asked, exasperated. “We can’t just fight it out Samiha, or else-”

“Or else what?” she demanded, taking another step forward on her long legs. “You going to go cry to your superiors again? How a pussy like you became a Kith, and kept your rank even after you betrayed your people, I’ll never understand.”

“Betrayed?”

“Shut up,” Samiha snapped. “We’re done talking, ready yourself.”

“Samiha, I’m not going to fight you.”

“Easier for me, then.”

She turned into a rusty blur as she took off in a run, closing the ten or so meters between them in seconds. Despite his protests, Ryan’s training kicked in, and he raised his arms in preparation, watching as the hand she’d presented earlier swiped at him from the left, aiming for his neck. He ducked beneath the blow, feeling the wind wash over his scalp as her arm sliced through the air. He delivered a swift jab to her exposed ribs, feeling iron-hard abdominal muscles push back against his fist. She was a lot more developed than he thought, the blow fazing the alien, but also causing a pulse of pain to travel up Ryan’s arm.

Samiha wheeled on him, her fist shooting out and aiming for his chest, Ryan batting her hand away at the last second. Her fists were the size of small boulders, and they just kept coming, Ryan’s wrists stinging as she kept him on the defensive.

“Samiha, stop!” he shouted, almost toppling over as he stepped out of the arch of an upward swing. “If someone sees us fighting, we’re both out of the program!”

“I don’t care!”

Samiha had the strength to rip his arms off if she got a hold on him, but Ryan used her mass to his advantage, her long swipes making her stumble when they didn’t connect, seizing the opportunities to kick or punch her back. Muscles as hard as stone met his knuckles each time, and he began to wonder if Samiha even felt anything, she was packing a lot of strength behind that brownish coat of feathers. Running or shouting might be his only options to get out of this, it was either that or risk getting decapitated by the alien.

She struck out at him, driving a fist towards his face, but Ryan sidestepped the blow, reaching up to smash the side of her beak. This time her reaction was stronger, her face twisting to the side as his knuckles met the hard plating of her snout. It felt a little bit like bone, with just the subtlest of gives, like rubber, but whatever damage he’d inflicted on Samiha, it went double for Ryan, his hand numbing with pain as he drew back, groaning through gritted teeth.

As she blinked her amber eyes, Ryan went for her knee, bringing his boot down on her digitigrade leg. He’d expected her to drop, but instead all she did was let out a pained trill. His human limitations were just that, limitations, his attacks nothing more than insect bites to the brawny alien.

Samiha reached out and seized the front of his fatigues, Ryan unable to dart out of the way in time. He pried at her long fingers, but too late, she clenched her free hand into a fist, and used it to deck him across the chin.

Stars filled his vision as her strike sent him toppling to the ground, Samiha releasing her hold to let him fall. Just like that, he was out of the fight, landing hard on his ass, bracing himself on an elbow before he cracked his head on the pavement. He was pretty sure he blacked out for a moment or two, the world swaying as though he could feel the spin of the torus.

Samiha cast him into her shadow as she loomed over him, her body blocking the light from the nearest lamppost. As he looked up at her, he noticed her expression change, her fury shifting into one of shock, and then hesitance. She relaxed her fists, her eyes tracking a stream of blood as he leaned to the side and spat out the bile forming behind his teeth.

“Corporal?” she asked, her voice fading in from a bit of white noise blaring through his skull. “Are you…?”

“Alright?” he finished for her. It hurt to talk, and his voice sounded funny to his ears. “No, no I’m really not. Think you broke my jaw.”

“I…” Her words caught in her throat, her reflective eyes drooping. Was that guilt he could see? It was a stark change from when she’d been ready to kill him a second ago, wasn’t she going to finish it? Why was she just standing there?

Perhaps it only now occurred to her what she’d done, she’d attacked her superior, that was grounds for a court martial, on top of whatever punishment the Balokarids had for infighting.

But rather than reprimand her, Ryan just chuckled. Granted, laughing made his face hurt, but he just couldn’t help it for some reason. “You hit pretty hard,” he added, clutching his mouth with a hand.

“W-What?” Samiha asked. “How are… how can you be laughing at a time like this?”

“Cause I realise… I think I deserved that.”

Samiha cocked her head, probably wondering why he wasn’t wailing for help from his human cohorts. She bristled as he shifted, planting a knee on the ground to rise to his feet. “Help me up?” he asked.

Blinking, she grabbed him by the arm, only letting go after he swayed on the spot for a few seconds. “You need to go to the infirmary,” Samiha muttered. “Come on.”

“No, hold on,” Ryan said, backing away when Samiha began to lead him off. “There’s a hospital on the next wedge, saw it on my way in back on our first day.”

“What’s wrong with the one in the base?” she asked, a bewildered expression on her face.

“They’ll ask too many questions. Come on, it’s upsin.”

“B-But you’re injured! You are in no state to travel!”

“You hit my face, not my legs. I can walk,” he assured. “Come with me, will you? Feel like I might pass out any second.”

“But…!” she trailed off as he turned around, the alien appearing by his side and laying a hand on his shoulder. “I could have killed you just now, aren’t you going to report me?”

“As I said, someone finds out we’ve been tussling, we’re both in the shit. Rather not deal with that just now, yeah?”

“I… Yeah, I… guess so,” she sighed, no doubt confused by his carefree reaction to being floored.

***

Samiha walked him out of the quadrant, the pair only stopping when the watchmen at the gate waved them over. Ryan kept as much behind Samiha’s bulk as he could, the dim lighting of the station’s night cycle helping to keep his battered face concealed. The guard asked for their names to be logged down, and told them to be back before the day cycle. He waved the pair on, none the wiser about Ryan’s injured jaw.

“I thought that would be harder,” Samiha muttered. “On Balokar we could only leave militarized areas during certain times of orbit.”

“Orbit?”

“Days,” she explained.

“Probably because you were on a planet with room to spare,” Ryan said. “Here on the torus, there’s not exactly a ton of space, the quadrant is cramped, people need to be able to move around.”

“You think your base is small? Try being nearly twice your size, see how cramped you feel then.”

He followed the glowing signs towards the closest hospital in the wedge neighboring the base, crossing through the line of buildings that formed a strip between the two streets running the torus’ length. Few people were out and about this late into the night, and the people that were out turned to stare at the towering alien by his side, the humans stepping out of the way of her loping strides. Balokarids might be walking about in the base, but the people out on the rest of the station had probably only seen glimpses of them.

A few minutes of walking brought them to the far side of the wedge, where dozens of storefronts and other commercial buildings made an unbroken line across the base of the wall. Each facade was painted a different colour, the textures mocking wood, brick, or coloured metal, all of it providing a healthy change of scenery compared to the bleak, functional monotony in the military quadrant.

They stopped in front of a whitewashed building at Ryan’s behest, the glowing medical cross above the revolving doors made from strips of halogen, the light setting a few notches brighter than its neighboring buildings, helping to mark its importance.

Ryan led the way inside, the lobby dominated by a greeting desk, the clerk behind it typing away at a terminal. To the left and right were a couple rows of seats, arranged in a typical waiting area, and only a handful of them were occupied, the men and women watching on with wild eyes as he and Samiha moved to the receptionist.

“Welcome, do you- Ohmy!” the woman nearly jumped out of her seat as she glanced up at Samiha, the alien’s feathery hair almost scraping the ceiling. “D-Do you have an appointment?” she continued, keeping her eyes fixed on the screen as she adjusted her spectacles.

“No,” Ryan answered, clutching at his face as he winced. It hurt to talk, Samiha had really got him good.

“That’s okay!” the woman replied, as though she was worried there might be a problem. “What kind of symptoms are you experiencing?”

“He was hit,” Samiha explained, the woman still not looking up as she started tapping the keys. “but not by me!” the alien quickly added. “He got hurt by… by…”

“By the pavement,” Ryan said, rolling his eyes at Samiha. “Fell off a bike, hit my face.”

“Perfect!” the receptionist said, too unnerved by Samiha’s presence to absorb his blatant lie. “A doctor will see you shortly, please have a seat.”

Ryan swore he heard the woman sigh in relief as they turned away, Ryan taking a seat, the nearest patient shuffling off when the alien joined him. Samiha turned around, squeezing herself into the chair beside him. He watched as she flattened her tail with a hand, pressing down on it from above as she planted her rump onto the cushion, Ryan batting the appendage away as the sheaths fanned apart and brushed against his neck.

“Don’t touch my tail!” she snapped as she lowered herself.

“Then get it out of my face,” he complained.

She soon succeeded in shoving her tail through the gap in the backrest, turning away from him as she leaned to one side, the armrests too close together to hold the width of her knees. She tucked up her legs as close to herself as she could, posing like the world’s most uncomfortable model, the curve of her hip made all the more obvious to Ryan at this angle.

He crossed his arms, and the two fell into a kind of uneasy silence, the receptionists keyboard the only other sound apart from the occasional cough from one of the other people waiting. It soon became too much for Ryan, and he glanced over at the alien.

“Why’d you stop?” he asked, Samiha’s beak angling over her shoulder at him, the eye on this side of her face dilating. “You dropped me in one hit, could have finished the job then and there. What changed your mind?”

“You did,” she answered, her gaze falling to the floor. “I knew you humans were smaller and weaker than us, but when I watched you fall, only then did it really… sink in, you know? I didn’t know my own strength. I’m… sorry.”

“I’m sorry too,” he said. “I shouldn’t have set you up with that inspection, could have gone about it any other way and it would have been better, for both of us.”

“I told you once that I thought your Navy was undisciplined,” she muttered, looking him in the eye again. “but I came looking for a fight tonight, cornering you when nobody else was around. I was so… angry, that’s no excuse for my behaviour, I know, but the way things have gone these past few weeks…”

“I didn’t want to hold a grudge with you, but I just…” He trailed off, trying to organize his thoughts into words. “After that botched run in the sim, I was so frustrated with you, especially after you called me out and said I only cared about the score.”

“Struck a nerve, did I?”

“Yeah, a little.”

“I won’t deny that my intentions weren’t born from spite,” she continued. “And that seeing you so upset didn’t make me feel satisfied in some way. Stupid. Maybe I’m the one who’s a child.”

“Think we both went a little out of our minds there,” he said. “How about we call a truce? I got you singled out in front of a bunch of humans, you punch me in the face. Call that even?”

“Doesn’t sound all that even to me,” she muttered. “As in, you’re the only of us who needs to be in the infirmary.”

“Yeah, maybe one more thing on my part and we can call us square,” he suggested. “Joking,” he added, when Samiha opened her beak in surprise. “So we’re weaker than you, huh? I got a few hits in, you didn’t feel any of them?”

“The one to my beak was… surprising, I’ll give you that,” she said. “There’s a lot more muscle behind those arms than I first thought. Are you-”

She was interrupted as two men dressed in white coats stepped into the lobby through a side door, one of them coming up to the pair. This must be the doctor. Like the receptionist, the man was clearly unnerved about Samiha’s presence, directing his gaze mostly towards Ryan.

“This way, please. Let’s get you cleaned up.”

The doctor brought them into his office, Ryan taking a seat behind a wooden desk, the doctor running a handheld scanner over Ryan face while Samiha took a seat in the patient chair, (struggling into it like before). “Fracture on the lower jaw,” the doctor concluded, transferring the scans results to a datapad. “Says here you fell off a bike? Quite the tumble.”

“Got anything for the pain?” Ryan groaned, ignoring the implication.

“I’ve got some tablets, but you’d have a hard time swallowing with that break, let’s get that fixed up first. Lie down.”

“Is it serious?” Samiha asked, watching as Ryan lifted his legs onto the patient table. It was the doctor who answered.

“Bone fractures are one of the most common injuries we see in humans,” he explained. “They can take weeks or months to fully heal, depending on the severity of the fracture. For your friend here, I’d say a month of rest would suffice.”

“A month?” Samiha said. “Is that… long?”

“For a pair of soldiers? Most likely. But we have ways of speeding up the recovery process.”

He produced a strip of cloth from a cabinet, about as long and thick as a scarf, what looked like blue strips of metal crisscrossing though the white material. He encouraged Ryan to lay all the way back, then draped the material over his face, blocking his vision, a tiny amount of light filtering through the fabric.

“How’d you know we’re soldiers?” Ryan asked, his voice a little muffled.

“Aside from your Navy fatigues? Everyone know the Balokarids are never outside the military quadrant. Well, except for that blue one I saw at the docks this morning, but she was with Navy officers, so again, kind of a giveaway.”

“What did you put on his face?” Samiha asked, Ryan imaging she was pointing at his prone form.

“That’s called a bio-bandage,” the doctor explained. “The fabric is filled with a healing protein that encourages any broken bones it comes into contact with to repair, it’s much faster than just letting it heal on its own.”

“But, how can it do that if it just sits on his face?”

“That’s where the needles come into play. They’re built into the metal lining, see the blue strips? When I power up the process from my tablet here, I can enter where exactly the fracture is and deliver the bio-material to where it needs to go.”

“Does it hurt?”

“Not at all,” the doctor replied. He seemed a lot more chipper with Samiha than most civvies, maybe because she was taking an interest in the medicine. “it’s just a prick.”

Ryan felt a sting on his chin, and the sensation of something long and sharp slipped through a cut in his skin. “Ouch,” he moaned into the bandage.

“Try not to move, please,” the doctor suggested.

The process went on for maybe ten minutes, and then the doctor lifted the bandage off, Ryan blinking as his eyes adjusted to the influx of light. He went to rub at his chin, but the doctor stopped him, thrusting an ice pack into his hand.

“Keep that on for at least the next hour, and when you feel able, take these.” He handed over a bottle of pain killers, Ryan thanking the man as he pocketed them in his jumpsuit.

“That’s it?” Samiha asked, twisting in her seat. “I floor you and you’re all better in a few minutes?”

“Humans have learned to conquer cancer with a bit of gene therapy,” the doctor answered. “A bit of broken bone is a very minor incident. What happened to the bike story by the way?” the doctor asked, smirking when the two couldn’t think of a reply. “Relax, doctor-patient confidentiality is my specialty. Of course, there is the matter of the bill before I let you go.”

“How much?” Samiha asked, Ryan giving her an odd look.

“You have money, Samiha?”

“Well, I think so, but I’m not sure how to use it. The Kith hasn’t told us how since we haven’t had to use any yet. Maybe I should call her…”

“I got it,” Ryan said, producing a card from his pocket, the doctor taking it and swiping it below a reader on his desk, Samiha watching the ritual curiously as the money was transferred over. After the two thanked him, the doctor showed them out, and a minute later they were back on the torus.

“So… what happens now?” Samiha asked, the artificial breeze making her feathers dance, the stalks rolling in small waves.

“Back to base, I guess,” he said, glancing up at her.

“And after that?” she pressed, and it was obvious to Ryan she was talking about their fight. It seemed like she didn’t want to mention it out loud, as though that might somehow make it worse.

“Suppose I’ll just tell everyone… I fell over,” he replied, Samiha giving him an exasperated look down her beak. “But not from a bike, need to think of a better lie.”

“You… You won’t tell the truth?” she asked, her feathers puffing up in what might be confusion.

“Nah, I was being a shitty squad lead, I deserved that. Besides, said we had a truce, didn’t we?”

“That’s it? I just had to clock you to get you to stop?” Ryan nodded, grinning when Samiha shook her head in awe. “You humans have a strange way of making agreements.”

“We could do it the more traditional way, if you want,” Ryan said, Samiha waiting for him to elaborate. “We could go hang out somewhere, get away from the base for a while, get to know each other.”

“And hit the reset button, that’s what you said before, right?”

“Yeah. Fist fights not included this time round, mind you.”

“I’ll do my best,” Samiha said with a chuckle. It was the first time he’d heard her do that, he thought she’d be too stuck up to give so much as a chortle, but he found that he liked the sound. “Fine. When exactly?”

“How about tomorrow, just before the night cycle? Plenty of places to go then.”

“Okay,” Samiha said. “Meet you at the gate?”

“Sounds good.”

He couldn’t shake the feeling that he was asking Samiha out on a date, rather than just trying to find some time to make up. As they walked back to the base, he wondered how Samiha interpreted his proposal, her body language was just too alien for him to understand. She hadn’t turned him down, so he supposed it was so far, so good.