[She blinks and seems surprised by the question. Strange; it's not one she would've predicted. That said in a moment the startled look has slipped from her features, sublimated into whatever great thing moves behind them. She draws her first card.]
We are informed. It's difficult to explain, but we feel it at the appropriate time and junction. Then we use the Station's systems to parse the information. It comes from somewhere deeper, but we aren't close enough to name its source for certain.
[There's something...uncomfortable in it, something about the lack of data that disturbs her. But that's the way it is; it's the way it always has been; if she wished to know an answer to such a question, it would require more of her than she can give if her place here is to be maintained.]
We know that it is part of us. [She shakes her head and places the first card face up, then draws another.] But whether host or symbiote or something beyond, we can't say for certain. We realize this is unsettling, just as we know there is a possibility for...
[A hesitation. Cathaway frowns; she draws a second card and makes a small course correction.]
[ Unsettling is a word for it. He watches her, eyes narrowing, and settles his hand palm down over the cards she's drawn, to stop her from placing another. ]
People fighting on the same side shouldn't have to hide from each other in the shadows. [ Fact. ] And there's always another alternative.
[ If it's necessary. He believes that in the same way he believes Ilde can be better. ]
[It's sentiment she's heard before. A thought she's had, a consideration of the Prince's too. Cathaway gives his hand on the deck of cards a flat look, her mouth thinning, and then she raises her eyes back to him.]
If you have a better strategy, we aren't against pursuing it. We are not a commander, we are a guiding hand. This is merely what we know and understand.
[ He doesn't have a better strategy yet. He doesn't even know yet if this is the wrong one. That's the trouble with not knowing who you're working for. All he knows is he doesn't like it.
He holds her gaze and lets his hand falls away from the deck. ]
We'll be available to you for the duration of your time on the Station, but the next time you leave here it will be in the name of real service. Avera 9 was merely an outing organized by The Prince and us for your benefit; when you go to do proper work, we will have to stay here.
[There is a hum from her, a crawling sensation across the link between them. It is an unpleasant reality - though traveling with them might mean superior numbers, better mission results simply due to hers and the Prince's experience, the consensus can't deny the danger of it. As they are the only ones capable of operating the Station at this time, of overseeing the hatch of new hosts, to accompany them would be a ludicrous risk - utterly unjustifiable.]
We hope it won't be for many cycles yet, but can guarantee nothing. However, it's unlikely you'll be wholly alone wherever you go. If it's a difficult situation, it may come to pass that there are other agents on the ground with you.
[There, a small barrier in him. She feels it like a gauzy cloth stretched between them, all the light of him coming through the weft of it but a layer of remove nonetheless.]
We believe so. This is, after all, Station number seventy-two.
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no subject
We are informed. It's difficult to explain, but we feel it at the appropriate time and junction. Then we use the Station's systems to parse the information. It comes from somewhere deeper, but we aren't close enough to name its source for certain.
[There's something...uncomfortable in it, something about the lack of data that disturbs her. But that's the way it is; it's the way it always has been; if she wished to know an answer to such a question, it would require more of her than she can give if her place here is to be maintained.]
no subject
You really don't know where your orders come down from?
[ From who? ]
no subject
[A hesitation. Cathaway frowns; she draws a second card and makes a small course correction.]
To be misguided. But we see no alternative.
no subject
People fighting on the same side shouldn't have to hide from each other in the shadows. [ Fact. ] And there's always another alternative.
[ If it's necessary. He believes that in the same way he believes Ilde can be better. ]
no subject
If you have a better strategy, we aren't against pursuing it. We are not a commander, we are a guiding hand. This is merely what we know and understand.
no subject
He holds her gaze and lets his hand falls away from the deck. ]
How long will we have you both here to guide us?
no subject
[There is a hum from her, a crawling sensation across the link between them. It is an unpleasant reality - though traveling with them might mean superior numbers, better mission results simply due to hers and the Prince's experience, the consensus can't deny the danger of it. As they are the only ones capable of operating the Station at this time, of overseeing the hatch of new hosts, to accompany them would be a ludicrous risk - utterly unjustifiable.]
We hope it won't be for many cycles yet, but can guarantee nothing. However, it's unlikely you'll be wholly alone wherever you go. If it's a difficult situation, it may come to pass that there are other agents on the ground with you.
no subject
Other agents, from other Stations? [ Has she been to other Stations? ]
no subject
We believe so. This is, after all, Station number seventy-two.