9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Bazium

Taking to heart Ari’s warning about the conversation being lengthy, Bazium gathered food, drink, and a few other items he thought might be important. He took a little extra time to prepare a carafe of tea so Ari could enjoy the drink she’d discarded in defense of Rossimun.

With everything close at hand, he settled them both in their nest-bed. One side of the nest was against a wall, so he rested his back against the wall and arranged Ari between his splayed legs. She was silent through the whole process but finally let out a long sigh as she relaxed against him.

“I’m not sure where to start,” she admitted.

“May I speak?” he asked. “I would like to share some insights Rain gave me.”

Ari tilted her head to look up at him, eyebrows lifted in interest. “When were you talking to Rain?”

“I had a request for Hesarium, and they were together. My request led to a conversation and a revelation I’m not comfortable with.”

“You’ve got me curious, go on.” She lowered her head back down against his chest.

“I’ve been neglecting you,” he started, and she interrupted him.

“You’ve been busy keeping us safe and trying to rescue more humans,” she said. “It’s important work. More important than keeping me entertained like a child.”

Her words sounded so bitter, Bazium would’ve sounded a startled rattle if his backplates weren’t pressed against the wall.

“You’re not a child. You’re a strong, intelligent, beautiful adult,” he countered.

“You forgot useless,” she added.

“No, you’re far from useless, Brave,” he responded, deliberately using the old nickname. “I’m the one who’s been stupid. To explain, I’m going to tell you a story about my first assignment in the Talin military.”

“Uh, sure,” she agreed. “But you’re not stupid.”

“Let me finish and then you can decide,” he said. “Before I was leading an Advance Squad, I served on a Standing Squad. They are the ones who occupy an area that’s been captured but is under threat of attack by opposing forces. We’d been deployed twice, and both assignments had been quiet, allowing our Standing Squad Leader to refine our training. It was obvious from those two missions that one of our members was slow to learn. There were rumors his family bribed his instructors into allowing him to pass and join the military. Most of our fellow squad members resented him, and one said his incompetence would get us killed.”

“Do you think that was true?” she asked. “That his family paid money to get him through school?”

“Highly unlikely,” Bazium answered. “Our military academies pride themselves on providing only the most fit Talins to serve in our empire’s military. If anyone was caught taking a bribe, they risked their reputation, their family, and even their clan. It would need to be a massive bribe, and his family wasn’t known for their wealth.”

“Do you think he traded other things to pass?” Ari asked. “Like trading sex or favors for good grades?”

“Also unlikely for the same reason,” Bazium said. “Far more likely was that he worked harder than anyone else to pass with the lowest scores acceptable.”

“I’ve known people like that,” Ari murmured. “They’re so determined, they make it through with caffeine and grit.”

“I’m not sure what either of those are, but yes, I think you understand. Even though he tried very hard, I was also worried his lack of innate skill would compromise our squad, so I spoke to our leader. What she said to me changed my view of both being a soldier and leading them.”

“I’m so invested now,” Ari said, shifting her body so she could look up at him. “What did she say?”

“The Talin Empire doesn’t have incompetent soldiers, only commanders who don’t know how to utilize them,” he said, quoting her directly. “Then she gave me a task. I was to figure out what Galinnie was good at and report back with how best to employ him.”

“That sounds shady as hell,” Ari responded with disgruntled huff. “You go to the person in charge and point out that someone isn’t good at their job and the answer is to tell you to figure out what they're good at and make it useful? What if his special skill was macramé? How’s that going to help you in a combat situation?”

“What’s macramé?”

Ari laughed. “It's an Old Earth thing. You’d knot twine in specific patterns as decoration or to hold stuff, like pots. It can be fun to do and has some practical uses, but nothing that makes someone say ‘this will save humanity!’”

It was so good to hear a real laugh come out of Ari that Bazium sounded a rumble of amusement. “I can promise you the only knots Galinnie made were by accident.”

She made an impatient sound. “I’m dying to know what you figured out about Galinnie.”

“That he shouldn’t be in a Standing Squad.”

Furrowing her brows, Ari frowned at him. “That’s not really a revelation.”

“But it was,” Bazium argued. “I discovered he should be in a Drone Squad. His hand eye coordination was horrible until you put him in front of a display. Something about being allowed to be perfectly still with his body and only make small hand movements and voice commands allowed him to center his skills to exemplary levels. When I looked back at his performance reviews in training, I noticed the same thing.”

“Then why wasn’t he assigned to a Drone Squad to begin with?” Ari asked, sounding outraged on behalf of a soldier she’d never met.

Bazium sounded a puzzled rumble. “I can only guess, but I believe it was because his overall scores were always low or mediocre and everyone assumed his high scores were a fluke. No one bothered to systematically test him, and he never advocated for himself, so he was placed with the first opening. Then he bounced around until he was assigned to our group.”

“What did your leader do when you told her this?” Ari asked.

“She advocated for him until he was assigned a provisional spot on a Drone Squad.”

She gave a little cheer. “And everyone lived happily ever after! Right?”

“I believe so, yes. The last I heard, he was a team leader within a Drone Squad with the highest marks ever achieved to date.” He sounded a rumble of amusement.

“What’s so funny?” Ari demanded.

“The report on him I read had a caveat warning that he was not to touch anything but drone controls or risk damage to delicate systems and parts.”

Ari giggled. “Cute story, but I don’t see how that applies to anything going on here.”

“It has direct application. I’ve been treating you like Galinnie. As if you have no value outside of a burden.” He could feel her little body tense against his.

“That’s exactly what I am, a burden. Now that we’re here on Talarian, there’s nothing I can do to help.” She tried to lighten her tone. “But at least I’m not going around breaking things by accident.”

He wanted to sound a negative rattle but stopped himself in time. No more negative or irritated rattles around Ari! “You’re absolutely incorrect.”

Her body didn’t relax. “Are you saying I’m breaking things?”

“I meant you’re incorrect that there’s nothing you can do to help,” he explained. “Rain helped me to understand that I was underutilizing you both to your detriment and my own. I’ve pushed myself hard because I wanted to make a place here safe for humans. My focus has been so narrow, I’ve hurt the human most precious to me.”

“You’re doing good things here,” Ari argued. “Important and necessary work. You don’t need to worry about me anymore. I’m on medication now and feeling much better already. We can keep going as we were. I’ll be fine now.”

Bazium sounded a soothing rumble, drawing her tight against him. “You don’t realize that if you’re not happy, then nothing here is important. I’m ready to burn this place down for even one smile from you.”

She jerked in his arms. “Baz, that seems a bit extreme, don’t you think?”

“Not at all,” he answered with absolute conviction. “You’re the only reason I’m alive right now. Without you, I see no reason to continue doing anything, including breathing.”

“Now who needs medication?” she mumbled before speaking up. “What’s your grand solution? Vacations to some far-off space station or colony?”

“If you’d like, I can arrange something like that,” he agreed. “But that wasn’t my first thought. I’ve already begun the process of distributing my duties to other members of my family.”

“Wait, what?” she asked, straining against his arms so she could look at him. “I thought you said you legally separated from your family.”

“From my original family, yes. Now I have a new family: Hesarium, Norrium, Tarrian, Danisal, Kasium.”

“I’m so confused,” Ari admitted.

“I’ve formed a new family with the Lineage Committee’s blessings. We are now the Lee Family within the Clan Tomok.”

Ari’s jaw dropped. “You took my last name?”

“We needed a new one, and yours is a nice one. Besides, I like the idea of bearing your family name, it makes me feel like I belong to you in a formal way,” he answered, enjoying the way her expression went from flustered to pleased.

Blinking, Ari sniffed back tears but was also smiling broadly. “Everyone’s okay with you just changing your name like this?”

“It’s common for individuals to start a new family name when they’ve achieved something remarkable,” Bazium explained. “No one was surprised when I submitted the petition and several remarked at the exotic nature of the name I chose. There’s none like it.”

“Thank you for my name,” Ari whispered. “I’ve lost so much, it’s nice to know this gets to stay.”

“There’s more,” Bazium said, reaching over to pick up the bag he’d dropped along with the food and drink. Rummaging around in the bag he drew out the gift he’d carefully wrapped in silver foil. “This is the other thing I’ve done to correct the balance between us.”

Lips pursed, Ari accepted the gift and stared at the foil. Then she tried to find a seam to open the foil without tearing it.

“It’s heat sealed,” he murmured after he realized what she was doing. He felt a strange combination of impatience and reluctance. He both wanted her to rip open the gift and be delighted by it, but also wanted this moment of anticipation to last.

No wonder humans liked to give gifts to each other. This was a joyful sensation!

Ari rubbed the foil with one of her fingers. “This is really pretty. It seems like a shame to rip it open.”

“There is plenty more,” he assured her. “Treat it as you would treat a gift when you were growing up on Old Earth.”

Without any further prompting, Ari ripped it open with childlike glee to reveal an Identification Cube. Puzzled, she held it up and looked from it to him. “Um, thanks?”

Sounding a rumble of amusement, he picked his up from the floor next to the nest and handed it to her. “Compare the serial numbers. What do you see?”

After looking back and forth a few times, Ari’s eyes went wide. “They match. They’re duplicates. I didn’t think you guys made duplicate Idents.”

“We don’t normally, but in this case, it was fitting. That is your Ident. When you use it to interact with other Talins, they will assume they’re dealing with me. You can listen in on meetings, read any report you like, submit forms, make requests, and check in on the status of any of our projects. We’ll need to talk about dividing duties between the two of us, but that should be easy. As long as the work doesn’t require you to be physically present or respond via holo, you can do anything you like.”

“You…you want me to help you run this mess?” she asked, dropping his Ident into the bedding and clutching hers to her chest.

“I think it’s a need, not a want,” Bazium admitted. “You’re a brilliant leader. I’m sorry I didn’t realize it sooner. Tarrian and Norrium shared details they learned from Liz and Aubrey about how you arranged for the humans in your group to flee Old Earth. It's an accomplishment I didn’t truly comprehend until recently.”

Her brows furrowed. “I didn’t do it alone.”

“And you won’t be doing this alone,” he agreed. “I need the same kind of steadfast leadership skills you displayed first on Old Earth and then later on the mining colony. Please agree to help me!” He sounded a dramatic rumble she hadn’t heard before.

“What was that sound?”

“I was trying to sound desolate, but it’s hard because I’m so very happy,” he admitted, pleased when she giggled.

Smiling, she leaned in close. “If you really need me, I’d love to.”

“You’ve just saved the lives of several tedious officials and my sanity!”

With the Ident still tucked tight against her chest, she put her lips next to his. “And I think you’ve saved me again.”

“It’s only fair,” he answered. “Because you're the reason I live and breathe.”

He pressed forward and she parted her lips for a kiss.