Chapter 546: = 4th & 10 (2/2)

”I'm sorry, sir,” Casey said slowly.

”Oh, the story doesn't end there, Lance Corporal,” Vuxten said. He shook his head. ”Something weird happened, probably has to do with the Purple People Eaters, but a fleet from another dimension arrived during an emergency transit jump.”

Vuxten looked at Casey. ”The Telkan Task Force was sent back to Telkan and my wife, the Planetary Director, met with them.”

Casey frowned for a second. ”Your sister-in-law is with that fleet, from a dimension where she wasn't killed in some cell.”

Vuxten nodded. ”Yes. So was another one. And a third. And my mother-in-law. And my little brother, who a Lanaktallan Corporate Executive ran over with a car when I was still a podling.”

Vuxten clenched his fists for a moment. ”The Overseers were cruel just for cruelty's sake so often. I have to set that aside, put it aside, and fight alongside them, help save the innocent people of their species that suffered just as much as me, as my family, as my people.”

Vuxten looked up. ”I am full of confusion, of remembered horror and sick gratitude that my family is partially restored,” he tapped his cybereye. ”Do you know what the majority of the dimensional refugees have in common?”

”What?” Casey asked.

”With one exception, I'm the one who is dead. That exception, I'm known as 'the Undying Vuxten, First Among the Second Biological Disciples of the Digital Omnimessiah, Brother in Wrath to Enraged Phillip,” Vuxten looked back down. ”Enraged Phillip, also known as Daxin, also known as Osiris. A man I fought next to on Telkan.”

Vuxten looked back up. ”Do you get what I'm saying.”

Casey grinned. ”That I need to quit my whining and get down off the cross because someone else needs the wood to build a fire to keep the wolves away.”

Vuxten laughed and shook his head. ”No. God, I'm terrible at this. The book's advice sucks.”

”Empathize and show your troop you can understand their problem,” Casey quoted.

Vuxten grinned. ”We're in the middle of a war against dimensional invaders who manipulate time while fighting against a hundred million year old civilization while fighting against mechanical horrors from beyond the stars, and we're supposed to tell one another we understand what each other is going through,” Vuxten laughed, then took a drink and shook his head as he lowered the bottle. ”By the Digital Omnimessiah, man, look at us.”

Casey raised an eyebrow. Vuxten noted it was the one over the patch. ”What, sir?”

”My sister-in-law is back from the dead, thanks to dimensional fuckery, your girlfriend, who you've dated since before my grandmother was born, is back from the dead thanks to what is apparently a wandering necromancer with nothing better to do, and we're sitting here thinking 'By the Digital Omnimessiah's glittering ballsack, how can I help him when the situation is that fucked up?' about one another,” Vuxten laughed.

Casey grinned, shook his head, then laughed. ”So you figured if you were that mixed up about it all, you'd get some advice before telling me to make sure I didn't go absolutely ice cream crazy.”

Vuxten nodded. ”That's about it.”

”When do they get back?” Casey asked.

”Tomorrow at roughly nineteen hundred local. There will be a couple days debriefing, then you'll be able to see her,” Vuxten said. He tossed the empty into the trash and grabbed another, popping the top. ”Think you can handle that wait?”

Casey shrugged. ”I think so.” He drained the beer.

”You know what you're going to do about your um... hm... how you're...” Vuxten kind of drew it out. He handed the big human another narcobrew.

”Religious issues?” Casey asked with a smile, accepting the beer and popping the top.

”Yeah, those,” Vuxten said.

Casey sighed. ”I have to watch out for sophistry,” he admitted. ”The Gods can be tricky, can tempt a mortal into missteps, tempt them into foolishness, and I can lose my place in Heaven, as a simple explanation.”

Vuxten shrugged. ”I'm not going to judge.”

”I've searched my clan's honor code. I've consulted writings, including the expanded writings of the prophets. I've prayed. I've sweated. I've begged for an answer that I can understand. I've pleaded for the wisdom to know whether or not this is a trick, a cosmic joke on not just me, but Peel, and everyone who knows this,” Casey admitted.

Vuxten nodded.

”But it's more than that,” Casey suddenly said. Vuxten frowned slightly, noticing that Casey looked suddenly worried.

”What is it?”

”How is Peel going to react to it all? You've met her. She's stubborn, intelligent, emotional, everything I love about a woman wrapped in one passionate package. How's she going to react when we meet? I know she's considered my religious beliefs, how I might feel, and what does that mean for us?” Casey asked. ”How does she feel? What is it like for her to have someone use basically magic, and yes, I know it's nanites, but it might as well be magic, to bring her back from being killed twice, once by her boyfriend? I'm trying to figure out how she feels so I can brace myself if she chooses to reject me. I'm trying to figure out what's going on in her head, and I keep getting the same damn answer and it makes me a terrible person.”

”What's the answer?” Vuxten asked.

”The last thing I saw go through her head was a bullet,” Casey said. ”How in the name of Tyr's stolen beard do I explain: 'Oh, yeah, I'm the one that shot you in the face.' if she remembers that? The worst part? The absolute worst part? Part of me is terrified that she's got a big bald spot on the back of her head and is royally pissed about it and then she's going to realize she has it because I shot her in the face.”

Vuxten held still for a second. His whiskers twitched, then his cybereye clicked twice.

Casey's mouth twitched.

Vuxten snickered.

Casey laughed.

The human and the Telkan laughed for a few minutes before they both straightened up and took a drink of their beers.

”Things are just all fucked up, aren't they, Lance Corporal?” Vuxten asked.

”Malevolent universe, god laughs at us, blah blah blah, sir,” Casey said. He gave a big hitching sigh. ”I feel better now, sir.”

Vuxten nodded.

”Don't get up, rest that knee,” Casey said, starting to stand up.

”Casey,” Vuxten said.

Casey paused, caught between standing up and sitting down, then stood all the way up. ”Sir?”

”A question,” Vuxten said.

”Go ahead, sir.”

”Today, in the gym, I saw you working out. How? How do you lift that much?” Vuxten asked. ”You said you're OG human, no gene mods, no cybernetics. How can you lift that much in that high gravity?”

Casey was silent a long moment. Vuxten noticed the shadows seemed to thicken and gather around the human, his empty eye socket filled with amber fire that leaked through the eye patch.

”There are some things, sir, you do not want to know,” Casey said. ”By your leave, sir.”

”Carry on, Lance Corporal,” Vuxten said.

He watched Casey leave and sat for a long time, tapping one finger against the side of the bottle. After a long moment, he turned and went back to his self-test.

Casey was right. The book said that Vuxten should know everything possible.

But sometimes there were things that you just didn't want to know.