Chapter 578: Stock Car Race (1/2)
Brentili'ik watched as the Tri-Vee showed the parade again, focusing on certain Telkan in the parade. Various Marines that had performed heroic actions, ones that had overcome losing almost everyone, ones coming home to families that had somehow remained intact through the Enslavement Period and the War Years. Twice she saw a big human shown, in context with her husband and a handful of other Telkan that had rescued a bunch of Precursor Era Mantid from some kind of techno-slavery beneath a planet's surface.
She checked her datalink on the human, since the Telkan interest stories kept glossing over him. She remembered him from video messages that Vuxten had sent her during the year he had been gone, a lot of them during the transit between worlds.
Lance Corporal Cathal Julius Casey, signed up on Rigel. Home of Record appended to Blathmin Township, Bhaile-Prime, Tabula-929 System. She stared at the date of birth and checked again. Without temporal adjustment he was over nine hundred years old, adjusting for temporal compression he was over a thousand years old. Recently demoted for unauthorized use of power armor, but she couldn't get anything more from it, not even with her Planetary Director credentials. Her husband was listed as a known associate, along with a female Terran named Peel. She checked and saw the Terran female had been killed by the Great Die Off but had somehow been brought back to life by Lady Keena, who was listed as a Class-X Nanite Necromancer.
She turned off the record search and went back to watching the Tri-Vee, which had switched the discussion of the fact that the Telkan people were putting together another Marine Division to go with nearly twenty ships being commissioned.
Synthal'la came up, crouched down, and laid her head on Brentili'ik's legs. Brentili'ik reached out and gently stroked her head before looking down at her.
”What's wrong?” Brentili'ik asked.
Synthal'la looked up. ”vuxten sad”
Brentili'ik frowned then checked her datalink. She knew he'd gone out for a quick run but she hadn't seen him yet.
It had been almost two hours since he'd left to go on his run before breakfast.
She checked her link and saw he was in their bedroom.
”I'll go check on him,” Brentili'ik said.
Synthal'la nodded and moved to the side, following Brentili'ik as she went over to the stairs, climbed up to the second floor, and moved through the hallways.
Vuxten didn't move.
When she reached the bedroom she pushed open the door and slipped in quietly, Synthal'la right behind her.
Vuxten was standing in front of the wardrobe, nude, the doors open and held in his hands. He was just frozen in place, staring at the contents of the wardrobe, which was all his clothing that he had left behind.
Brentili'ik noted that there were several pair of pants and several shirts tossed on the bed. His exercise uniform (shirt, shorts, sweat pants, zip-up hooded sweater) was folded and sitting on a chair. His exercise shoes were beside the chair, his boots next to him on the floor.
There was a printed out paper jumpsuit on the floor, crumpled and torn, resting on the floor at the bottom of the wall, next to the waste paper basket that sat next to the night stand.
She watched him for a long moment.
He was just staring at the clothing.
The room was dim, just lit by the light coming in through the curtain over the window.
”Husband?” Brentili'ik asked, moving slowly forward.
”vuxten?” Synthal'la asked softly.
”I'm here,” he said, his voice strange, almost disconnected.
”Are you all right, Vux?” Brentili'ik asked.
Vuxten just stared in the closet. ”I don't have anything to wear,” he said simply.
Brentili'ik slowly moved up next to him, looking in the closet. There were multiple pairs of pants, shirts, long sleeves torso coverings, even hats and gloves.
”Okay,” Brentili'ik said gently.
”None of it fits,” he said. ”None of it's mine,” he blinked, slowly, and kept staring. ”I don't know who's clothing this is.”
”It's yours,” Brentili'ik said gently. ”I'm going to touch you.”
”I can't find my uniform,” Vuxten said, still staring in the closet.
”It's being cleaned,” Brentili'ik said, reaching out and putting her hand on his shoulder. ”Synthie is going to touch you.”
Vuxten didn't answer, just kept staring inside the wardrobe. Brentili'ik motioned and Synthal'la moved up and hugged Vuxten from behind.
”I can't find my uniform,” Vuxten said softly. To Brentili'ik he sounded confused, like he didn't understand why his uniform wasn't in the wardrobe even after she had told him she had sent it out to be cleaned.
”Honey, you're home,” Brentili'ik said, rubbing his shoulder.
”home” Synthal'la said, nuzzling the back of his neck.
Vuxten suddenly shuddered, looking around. He looked at Brentili'ik and gave a smile that seemed to Brentili'ik like it was half forced. ”Sorry, zoned out for moment,” he said.
Brentili'ik nodded, leaning forward and rubbing the side of her muzzle against his, feeling his whiskers brush against her fur. ”It's all right, Vuxten. It's all right.”
”None of the clothes fit. I've put on some weight,” Vuxten said slowly. He patted Synthal'la's hands. ”You can let me go, Synthie.”
”home now” Synthal'la said, letting go. She hugged him, licking around his eyes for a moment. ”home now”
”Yeah, I'm home now,” Vuxten said, closing his eyes.
”We can use the clothing forge downstairs, run out off some clothing,” Brentili'ik said.
Vuxten nodded, holding Synthal'la's hand as Brentili'ik took the other one.
”What are we doing today?” Vuxten asked.
”I called in, took the rest of the day off unless it's a major emergency,” Brentili'ik said. ”I figured that afterwards we can take the podlings to the park.”
”park is pretty” Synthal'la said. ”like the trees and bushes”
Vuxten smiled as they walked down the stairs together. He looked around at the mansion around him. It was lavish, with lots of hardwood, expensive stone, artwork, carpeting, and rugs.
”When did this get finished?” Vuxten asked.
”About six months ago. Lots of people felt it wasn't appropriate for the Planetary Director to live in on-post officer's housing,” Brentili'ik said.
”Why not?” Vuxten asked.
”They just felt it sent a bad message,” Brentili'ik said. ”Polls said that the Telkan people thought I should live somewhere more appropriate for the Planetary Director of Telkan-1 and Telkan-2.”
”Huh,” Vuxten said. They stopped in front of the nanoforge.
Brentili'ik watched as he punched in a bunch of commands, running through the context menus quickly. The nanoforge scanned him as he slowly turned in a circle with his arms straight out, then went back to punching in the commands.
The PLEASE WAIT flashed and Brentili'ik took one of Vuxten's hands while Synthal'la took the other.
”Remember when we wore paper clothing and ate unflavored nutripaste?” Vuxten asked. Brentili'ik noticed how his voice suddenly seemed far away, like he was commenting about a barely remembered Tri-Vid show that someone else had watched.
”Yes,” Brentili'ik said, looking at Vuxten curiously.
”Remember how you, Synthie, Ilma, and I would all sit around the apartment naked because we didn't want to risk tearing or staining our paper clothing?” Vuxten asked.
Brentili'ik didn't point out that most broodcarriers didn't wear clothing on their soft silky fur. ”Yes,” she said.
The under shirt printed first. It steamed slightly as it slid from the nanoforge on a hanger, the automatic arm grabbing the hanger and putting it on a rod.
Vuxten was silent as it printed out an overshirt with long sleeves and a collar, then a pair of modesty shorts, then a pair of pants. It followed it with over the hock socks then a pair of shoes.
Brentili'ik waited for him to get dressed but he just stared at the nanoforge for a long moment. He looked at the clothing, then at the nanoforge and rapidly punched in a handful of keypresses. It flashed red for a second but a quick set of keypunches and it started humming along.
Brentili'ik frowned as it seemed to take longer than it had for anything else.
Her datalink clinked.
”Madame Director,” her Chief of Intelligence Operations said, his voice tight. ”Are you near the downstairs nanoforge used for minor clothing?”
”Yes,” she blinked the answer, unwilling to speak as Vuxten stood there, silently, watching the nanoforge. She could feel the anticipation on him.
”Someone just overrode the lockouts and is printing a gun belt and magac pistol,” he said.
”Vuxten?” Brentili'ik said. She reached out and touched her husband's shoulder again. ”Vuxten?”
He jerked slightly, turning and looking at her. ”Huh?”
”Are you printing out a magac pistol?” she asked gently.
He blinked a few times, looking slightly confused. He looked at the nanoforge and then back at her. ”Oh. Um. I guess so. I'll stop it.”
He reached out and brought up the ”Cancel and Recycle” icon and tapped it. ”Sorry,” he said. ”Was thinking about something and wasn't really thinking.”
”Are you all right, Madame Director?” her Intelligence Chief asked.
Brentili'ik hit the ”I'm Fine” autocomplete answer and closed the linkage.
”Let us help you get dressed,” Brentili'ik said gently.
Vuxten just nodded and Brentili'ik had Synthal'la help her get him dressed.
”Let's take the podlings to the park,” Brentilli'ik suggested.
”That sounds good,” Vuxten said.
Brentili'ik tried to put what happened, or rather, what didn't happen, what seemed to be missing, out of her head as Vuxten, Synthal'la and Ilmata'at put the podlings in their little outfits then rode to the park in the armored limo, guards with them the whole way.
She noted how every time he saw one of the unobtrusive guards, with their mirrorshades and ear pieces and datalinks and professional suits, a muscle twitched along his muzzle.
Playing with the broodcarriers and the podlings he seemed normal to her.
While they sat and ate ice cream and watched the Rigellian ducks in the big pond, she accessed her datalink, finding a file and downloading it to her implant.
Advice for Spouses of Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Sufferers
She played with the podlings as they ran around the grass, sat with Vuxten and the broodcarriers as the podlings played in the playground. Laughed with Vuxten as they ate lunch from the stands in the concessions area of the park, then watched the podlings swim.
The sun was going down when Brentili'ik, Ilmata'at, Synthal'la, and Vuxten chivvied the podlings back toward the limo. She noted how Vuxten seemed fine, smiling and laughing the whole time.
She smiled and held Vuxten's hand while they walked back to the limo and watched him get suddenly silent in the vehicle, reaching out to hold both of the broodcarrier's hands as the vehicle quickly swept back to the mansion.